by Robert M. Traxler
Our friends in the media condemn the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for only cutting .02% of the budget in the first three weeks. It doesn’t matter that it is such an insignificant percentage. However, if we think it over for a minute, this is after three weeks or approximately one-65th of the President’s four-year term, so if we do the math, the total after the four years of President Donald Trump’s term it will be 1.38%, or darn near enough to balance the federal budget.
The old saying attributed to Benjamin Franklin of “watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves” is true. If we do not purchase a coffee at Starbucks per day, it adds up to with tax and tips to in excess of $2,200 a year. True, the six plus dollars itself is not significant, but over a year’s time it is equal to the average American’s monthly house payment, or over four times the monthly car payment.
Interestingly enough, quite unexpectedly I bumped into a good example of the online media being a progressive shill. I asked Google to “multiply 55 billion times 65” and it came up with articles that condemn Elon Musk and DOGE? The request said nothing of political interest other than the 55 billion number.
So then I asked ChatGPT the same question and got a number, not a progressive lecture. ChatGPT is my go-to site for more and more information, not progressive political commentary.
According to progressives, we have a constitutional right to free speech, but not to incorrect speech or hurtful speech. Even today, what is hurtful or incorrect speech is in the eyes of the progressives in government, censorship pure and simple. Twitter (X) and other media like the Washington Post and the New York Times, CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS, MSNBC, CNBC in coordination with our government get to decide.
The classic example is the claim that the Hunter Biden laptop was a Russian plant, Russian disinformation. This false claim proven “true” by the Federal Bureau of Investigation forensic experts in sworn testimony in federal court and is even today touted as a lie, incorrect speech and hurtful speech by members of our media. People who said it was a truth and not Russian disinformation were banned from the media for years.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation cited the Robert Hunter Biden laptop, knowing it was true and factual, as Russian false information in an affidavit for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) warrant, to go extra-constitutional in investigating President Trump.
And the media questions why the FBI leadership needs to be purged? No one was fired, reprimanded or even demoted over the slam-dunk felony crime of perjury in the affidavit for the federal warrant.
If we do not agree with the Constitution, amend the Constitution and do not try to go around it; abortion and birthright citizenship, free speech, not hate or hurtful speech are items that come to mind. The advocates for abortion can put a Constitutional amendment on the midterm ballot and win, with over 70% of the voters wanting abortion to be legal at the federal level and not a states’ rights issue.
Amend the Constitution to ban birthright citizenship, which was granted in the Fourteenth Amendment and adopted in 1868 to ensure citizenship for formerly enslaved Americans has outlived its intent by 157 years and the majority of Americans would vote for it to be repealed. Making hate speech and false speech unconstitutional could be placed on the ballot, but in my opinion will not become a Constitutional amendment, as we as a nation place a high value on free speech.
I believe that banning “hateful and incorrect speech” is too prophylactic in nature, too broad and capricious a concept ever to pass a national vote, but I could be wrong. My opinion.
