IN THE NEWS....in both Canada and the United States.

FIRST...Another day, another mass school shooting.  This time in South Florida.   I have a novel idea ...ban guns!

SECOND...President Donald Trump yesterday stated that it would be up to Congress to consider the issue of infrastructure renewal.  He made clear though his personal ambivalence with his following statement:  'if they allocate money to it...that's fine...if they decide not to do that...that's fine too'.  As many of you know, I never took seriously Trump's promise to pump multi federal dollars into Infrastructure.  The cold hard fact is ...the United States of America is dead broke.

THIRD...Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau and his Justice Minister who is of native blood, have vowed to reform the Justice System in the wake of a Jury verdict which found a farmer not guilty of murdering a young native indian.  Why not just dispense with the Jury System and deem the defendant guilty whenever the 'victim' is from a minority community.

FOURTH...Ontario's Conservative Party finds itself in a Leadership Race mere months from a general election.  Despite the fact that the Party has a massive lead over its opponents, there is a paucity of candidates...only 3 and none particularly stellar.  This could be the result of 14+ years of Liberal / Progressive rule which has literally destroyed the province's economy...once the engine of the country, Ontario is now a have-not province relying upon the generosity of its sister provinces to pay its bills.  I believe the winner will be Ms Caroline Mulroney, daughter of one of Canada's Prime Ministers, with that being her only claim to the brass ring.  As with our current Prime Minister, nice hair and nice teeth are more important than experience and earning your stripes.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'

WHERE HAVE ALL THE TORIES GONE ...

LONG TIME PASSING ?

I AM THE FIRST TO BEMOAN THE FACT THAT THERE ARE LESS AND LESS SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES IN THE CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENTS AROUND THE WORLD AND EACH YEAR IT SEEMS THOSE OF US THAT REMAIN, ARE PAID LESS AND LESS ATTENTION TOO.

THEN I GOT TO THINKING...

THERE IS ALSO LESS AND LESS FISCAL CONSERVATIVES AS WELL.  WHAT WE HAVE ENDED UP WITH ARE VARIOUS SHADES OF LIBERALISM (aka PROGRESSIVES).   

In Canada, we had a Prime Minister in the 1950s who was fond of saying that the only protection a Conservative had "was under the game laws". 

I am not sure that even that applies any more!

Let me be clear, when I say Fiscal Conservative I am defining those who favour the smallest government possible, and one that pays its own way without going into debt.

Over the course of the last 50 years, governments of all stripes have added greatly to its Growth while Debt & Deficits have become the norm. Why the United States Debt exceeds its annual GDP while Japan is in even worst shape with its Debt totaling 250% of its GDP.

We are heading for a reckoning ....it may not happen today or even tomorrow but you can rest assured it is coming.

In this vain, a few days ago, US Senator Rand Paul made an impassioned plea for common sense in the debate to pass a 2 year budget extension for the Federal Government.  Estimates suggest that this Budget will add at least an additional $3 Trillion Dollars to the already $21 Trillion Dollar Debt.  If those sums do not appear scary it is only because of its enormity.

Back in 2009 in Senator Paul's own words he said, 'a $Trillion Dollars, stacked in $100 Dollar Bills, would extend 789 miles into the sky'.  Today, multiply that by 21 Trillion Dollars....realizing that this number continues to grow exponentially.  

Senator Paul's plea did not change the debate ...the budget was approved by all sides, but it also did not go unnoticed. 

Here is some of what he had to say:

SEN. RAND PAUL: When the Democrats are in power, Republicans appear to be the conservative party. But when Republicans are in power, it seems there is no conservative party.

You see, opposition seems to bring people together, and they know what they're not for. But then they get in power and they decide, we're just going to spend that money too. We're going to send that money to our friends this time.

The hypocrisy hangs in the air and chokes anyone with a sense of decency or intellectual honesty.

The right cries out, 'Our military is hollowed out!' Even though military spending more than doubled since 2001.

The left is no better. Democrats don't oppose military money as long as they can get some for themselves... for their pet causes.

The dirty little secret is that, by and large, both parties don't care about the debt.

The spending bill is 700 pages, and there will be no amendments.

The debate, although it's somewhat inside baseball that we're having here, is over me having a 15-minute debate. And they say, 'Woe is me! If you get one, everybody will want an amendment.'

Well, that would be called debate.

That would be called an open process.

That would be called concern for your country, enough to take a few minutes.

And they're like, 'But it's Thursday, and we like to be on vacation on Fridays.'

And so they clamor. We've been sitting around all day. It's not like we've had 100 amendments today, we're all worn out and can't do one more. We're going to have zero amendments. Zero, goose egg, no amendments.

It's a binary choice. They love that word, it's a binary choice.

Take it or leave it. You know what? I'm going to leave it. I didn't come up here for this. I didn't leave my family throughout the week and travel up here to be a part of something that is so much inertia, and so much status quo, that they're not leading the country. They're just following along, and it's a big ball rolling down a hill grabbing up your dollars as the boulder rolls down the hill, it gets bigger and bigger, it's going to crush us.

But nobody has the guts to stand up and say no.

Over the past 40 years, only four times have we actually done 12 individual department of government appropriations bills. You've heard of like the Appropriation Committee? This is where the spending is. You have the Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce, Health and Human services.

We're supposed to pass each individual bill, and what would happen when we pass the bills, they would go through committee and each committee would look and see, well, this spending seems to be working. We're getting a great result, and we want some more next year. And this spending appears to be, have been put in a closet and lit on fire, and so next year we're not giving that person who put the $10 million in the closet and lit it on fire, we're not going to give them any money.

Guess what? That doesn't happen. So people keep putting your money in a closet and lighting it on fire.

God Bless Rand Paul.  It is just too damn bad that those like him are so few these days.

As I see it...

'K.D. Galagher'