Ronald Reagan on July 4th

Recent events have made me miss President Ronald Reagan more than ever. So I extend my wishes for a Happy July 4th by quoting a speech that Reagan penned in his own hand (with thanks to Newsmax.com.) . Note in particular the legend of the angelic Founder:

What July Fourth Means to Me, by Ronald Reagan (1981)

For one who was born and grew up in the small towns of the Midwest, there is a special kind of nostalgia about the Fourth of July.

I remember it as a day almost as long-anticipated as Christmas. This was helped along by the appearance in store windows of all kinds of fireworks and colorful posters advertising them with vivid pictures.

No later than the third of July – sometimes earlier – Dad would bring home what he felt he could afford to see go up in smoke and flame. We'd count and recount the number of firecrackers, display pieces and other things and go to bed determined to be up with the sun so as to offer the first, thunderous notice of the Fourth of July.

I'm afraid we didn't give too much thought to the meaning of the day. And, yes, there were tragic accidents to mar it, resulting from careless handling of the fireworks. I'm sure we're better off today with fireworks largely handled by professionals. Yet there was a thrill never to be forgotten in seeing a tin can blown 30 feet in the air by a giant "cracker" – giant meaning it was about 4 inches long. But enough of nostalgia.

Somewhere in our growing up we began to be aware of the meaning of days and with that awareness came the birth of patriotism. July Fourth is the birthday of our nation. I believed as a boy, and believe even more today, that it is the birthday of the greatest nation on earth.
There is a legend about the day of our nation's birth in the little hall in Philadelphia, a day on which debate had raged for hours. The men gathered there were honorable men hard-pressed by a king who had flouted the very laws they were willing to obey. Even so, to sign the Declaration of Independence was such an irretrievable act that the walls resounded with the words "treason, the gallows, the headsman's axe," and the issue remained in doubt.

The legend says that at that point a man rose and spoke. He is described as not a young man, but one who had to summon all his energy for an impassioned plea. He cited the grievances that had brought them to this moment and finally, his voice falling, he said, "They may turn every tree into a gallows, every hole into a grave, and yet the words of that parchment can never die. To the mechanic in the workshop, they will speak hope; to the slave in the mines, freedom. Sign that parchment. Sign if the next moment the noose is around your neck, for that parchment will be the textbook of freedom, the Bible of the rights of man forever."

He fell back exhausted. The 56 delegates, swept up by his eloquence, rushed forward and signed that document destined to be as immortal as a work of man can be. When they turned to thank him for his timely oratory, he was not to be found, nor could any be found who knew who he was or how he had come in or gone out through the locked and guarded doors.

Well, that is the legend. But we do know for certain that 56 men, a little band so unique we have never seen their like since, had pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. Some gave their lives in the war that followed, most gave their fortunes, and all preserved their sacred honor.

What manner of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists, 11 were merchants and tradesmen, and nine were farmers. They were soft-spoken men of means and education; they were not an unwashed rabble. They had achieved security but valued freedom more. Their stories have not been told nearly enough.

John Hart was driven from the side of his desperately ill wife. For more than a year he lived in the forest and in caves before he returned to find his wife dead, his children vanished, his property destroyed. He died of exhaustion and a broken heart.

Carter Braxton of Virginia lost all his ships, sold his home to pay his debts, and died in rags. And so it was with Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Rutledge, Morris, Livingston and Middleton. Nelson personally urged Washington to fire on his home and destroy it when it became the headquarters for General Cornwallis. Nelson died bankrupt.

But they sired a nation that grew from sea to shining sea. Five million farms, quiet villages, cities that never sleep, 3 million square miles of forest, field, mountain and desert, 227 million people with a pedigree that includes the bloodlines of all the world. In recent years, however, I've come to think of that day as more than just the birthday of a nation.

It also commemorates the only true philosophical revolution in all history.

Oh, there have been revolutions before and since ours. But those revolutions simply exchanged one set of rules for another. Ours was a revolution that changed the very concept of government.

Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights; that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people, with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people.

We sometimes forget that great truth, and we never should.

Happy Fourth of July. Ronald Reagan President of the United States

How blessed we are as a country, despite everything. Happy Independence Day.

Trey's Pulling In The $

Secretary of State Trey Grayson told the Metropolitan Republican Women's Club last night that fundraising for his exploratory committee is going strong.

Although Grayson will not reveal the exact number of his second quarter contributions until Monday, Grayson did say that he has received donations from approximately 1,000 individuals, mostly Kentuckians, in the range of $5 to the the statutory maximum.

Sen. Jim Bunning, meanwhile, has done little in the way of fundraising and his second quarter filing will no doubt reflect that. Look for Bunning to announce that he will not seek reelection within the week.

Grayson took questions, most of which focused on health care reform. He demonstrated a real mastery of the subject -- particularly for someone who has not worked in the field -- and a hunger to learn all he can.

He argued that it is not enough for Republicans to oppose the Kennedy-Dodd monstrosity now flailing around Congress; we must propose creative solutions that will control cost and improve quality without rationing.

To that end, he pointed to the medical specialties of dental and eye care as two areas with the most competition (because consumers can and do shop around). In both specialties, quality has improved due to innovations like LASIK surgery and competition has driven the cost of these new procedures steadily downward. The same is true in the dental field for braces, sealants and implants. (Of course, the same argument applies with equal force to the field of cosmetic surgery, but Grayson was to much of a gentleman to go there. )

This is exactly the sort of creative thinking that Republicans need. We must identify success stories and figure out how to replicate them.

Can Him

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has clarified that he is not only an adulterer, but a creep. How else to explain his latest confession that (1) his South American girl friend is his "soul mate" and (2) that the has "crossed the line" with other women, but never had sex with them?

It's too much information from someone who no longer has a future in the Republican Party. Save it for Oprah.

The best thing that has happened to Sanford lately is that Michael Jackson's mysterious and untimely death pushed Sanford off the pages. Yet rather than take that gift, Sanford's need for attention compelled him to disclose even more embarrassing details.

Dude, you are not the only guy who believes in low taxes and limited government. Go away.

Save Us From Canada-care

Many of us know Canadians who have chosen to come to the U.S. for health procedures. And no wonder. Canwest News Service notes that a report from the a group of organizations including Canadian Medical Association, found:

• nine hour average waits to be seen in an Emergency Room;
• 24 hour waits to be admitted to the hospital; and
• “For cancer patients, the study found that the median wait time for radiation therapy was almost seven weeks, exceeding the benchmark of four weeks.” (Emphasis added.)

If seven weeks was the median wait time for radiation therapy, that means half the cancer patients had to wait even longer than seven weeks. These are people who are fighting for their lives. This is not a system that we want to import here.

Exempt School Construction From Prevailing Wage

Dilapidated schools in Kentucky may get funds for repair and new construction from the Special Session, now that the House has passed H.B. 2, which would provide $1.3 billion for education facilities.

The Kentucky Opportunity Coalition is correct to demand that school construction be exempted from the prevailing wage. Whatever amount of money is ultimately appropriated to school facilities, repeal of the prevailing wage will allow that amount to go ten percent further.

In a press release today, the Coalition chair Kristin Webb Hill noted

The Kentucky Legislative Research Commission (LRC) has reported that the wage portion of prevailing wage projects is more than 20% higher than if area market-based wages were utilized. That translates into an estimated 10% of total project costs that are underutilized due to the prevailing wage requirement.

"If we are going to make the commitment, let's maximize our investment dollar," Hill added. "Instead of potentially directing nearly $130 million toward artificially inflated wages, let's invest that money in the next generation of Kentucky's minds.

I don't see an extra $130 million laying around for politicians in Frankfort to squander. Let's do right by those Kentucky children who are forced to attend schools so run down that they should be condemned and repeal the prevailing wage. That will ensure that whatever money Frankfort can dedicate to school construction does not get wasted.

Thayer Asks Beshear to Add Prevailing Wage to Special Session Call

Sen. Damon Thayer (R-Georgetown) has requested Gov. Steve Beshear to add repeal of the prevailing wage (as applied to schools) to the list of topics called for in the upcoming Special Session.

Thayer's press release notes that as a first priority, we must "dedicate ourselves to maximizing every dollar we invest in Kentucky’s future." The prevailing wage, according to Thayer, is one area in which Kentuckians are not getting the maximum possible return on their taxes spent:

According to a report by the Legislative Research Commission, Kentucky’s prevailing wage laws artificially inflate school construction labor costs by 21 percent. That means that 21 cents of those dollars are directed at inflated wages as opposed to going toward investments in larger schools, enhanced technology, more energy efficient facilities and an overall better environment for Kentucky’s children to learn in.

In 2004, KDE estimated that between 1999 and 2004, the prevailing wage law artificially increased the cost of school construction by more than $480 million. To put this in perspective, the total resource requirements in 2005 to meet the reported “needs assessment” of Category 4 and 5 schools, schools in the worst physical shape, was just under $500 million. Had the dollars that were directed toward inflated prevailing wages during that period been invested in our schools –nearly every child in Kentucky would have been attending an adequate school.

This is why I filed legislation to repeal “prevailing wage” during the 2009 Session and it is my intent to do so again.

Kentucky has too many children attending schools that are no more than hovels. There is no extra money to give to education this year, so at the very least, let's make sure that what little we can spend goes as far as possible.

Thayer is to be congratulated for this sensible requesst to stop padding the cost of school construction. Again, this is not a proposal to spend more -- just to spend more wisely. Beshear should add it to the Special Session call.

Dems Try to Railroad Sotomayor Hearings

The networks reported last night that the the Senate judiciary hearings on the confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor are scheduled to start July 13. But what ABC, at least, neglected to note is that Democrats set the date without even the courtesy of running the schedule by their Republican counterparts. (Classy!)

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell noted that the scheduling move diminishes bipartisan collegiality and threatens the confirmation process itself, by making the hearings less informative: According to McConnell, Democrats'

decision to rush Judge Sotomayor’s confirmation hearing is puzzling. It risks resulting in a less-informed hearing, and it breaks with years of tradition in which bipartisan agreements were reached and honored over the scheduling of hearings for Supreme Court nominees. And it damages the cordiality and good will the Senate relies on to do its business. These kinds of partisan maneuvers have always come with consequences.”

McConnell also contrasted the Democrats' rush to confirm Sotomayor with the Democrats' careful, studied, meticulous review of the records of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.

Justice Sotomayor has been prolific: Yet Democrats propose to allow senators only 48 days to review Judge Sotomayor’s 3,625 cases. At that pace, Senators would need to analyze 76 Sotomayor cases per day. Note that Democrats, in contrast, took the leisurely pace of reviewing just six cases per day for the Roberts hearings.

What is it about Sotomayor's record that Democrats are trying to hide? If she's this fabulous nominee of which they claim to be so proud, then why not use her confirmation hearings to showcase her "Latina wisdom" and her "empathy"? It could be a love-fest for identity politics; it's shocking that the Democrats wouldn't want to savor every minute -- rather than cutting it short.

Sotomayor Stumbles

Literally. Judge Sonia Sotomayor broke her ankle this morning at LaGuardia Airport, according to Breitbart. She was heading to Washington for meetings with U.S. Senators regarding her nomination to the Supreme Court.

Sotomayor stopped at the White House before going to get an x-ray. (To find out just when the President plans to tank our health care system?)

Sotomayor will continue her senatorial courtesy calls on crutches, thereby demonstrating that by virture of her life experience, this "wise Latina woman" can "empathize" with at least one white male: Tiny Tim.

We wish the judge a speedy recovery, as ankle injuries are no fun.