Senate Democrats AWOL on Budget

US Senate Democrats, who serve (skip) on the Senate Budget committee, have coordinated with the Democrat leader Harry Ried (D-Nevada) to take NO action on a budget mark-up for the last 3 years.   No action, no budget no show.   This image from Hot Air http://hotair.com  and C-SPAN clip say it all.

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/04/19/picture-of-the-day-democrats-not-at-work

US Senator Sessions (R-Alabama) indicates that he'd actually mark up a budget and get it passed, if the voters give the Republicans the opportunity to do their job.

(c) Jasper Welch, Four Corners Media, www.jasperwelch.org

A Reasonable Approach to Fiscal Sanity

In a recent speech on the floor of the US Senate, Minority Leader Mitch McConnel (R-Kentucky) makes the case for fiscal disipline, and lays out the arguments (as made by the tea party) for cutting spending and getting the US Federal budget under fiscal control.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/03/31/sen_mcconnell_tea_party_has_had_overwhelmingly_positive_impact.html

Pretty plan English on what we need our elected official in Washington to do.

Health Care Bill a New Low

Health Care Bill an Historic Low for Public Policy in US

The leader of the Democrats in the Senate, Harry Reid is up against former president James Madison.  The Founding Fathers purposely designed government to be responsive to the people (for the people, by the people and of the people).  So when the liberal elite in Congress thought that had a mandate, and threw bipartisanship and GOP involvement out the window, they decided to go “all in with their leader” on health care legislation.   Now the wheels are about to come off, as the unwieldy Senate bill is simply a lousy bill, which lacks public support and confidence.     

Here is Rich Lowry’s take, from National Review Online:

It's astonishing that with 60 votes in the Senate and an 81-vote majority in the House, Democrats have still managed to push the health bill to the point of failure. When significant headwinds developed in August, the prudent play was obvious - scale the bill back, pick off a few Republicans, and settle for three-fourths or less of a loaf. They couldn't bring themselves to do it, preferring to work with duct tape and baling wire to try to hold together an unwieldy bill that isn't paid for and doesn't reduce costs as advertised.

Reid's struggle getting to 60 makes some liberals fear for their country. They lament that America has become "ungovernable." In other words, it isn't putty in their grasping little hands. Unfortunately for them, the founders created a balky system resistant to precipitate change. It is designed to frustrate ideologically drunken (and perhaps temporary) majorities insistent on passing sweeping, unpopular legislation. Reid's difficulty is exactly the way James Madison would have wanted it.

If the health-care bill is necessary and wise, it will withstand a temporary defeat. Democrats could campaign on it around the country next year. They could rebuild public support, turning around the polls. They could enhance their majority in the House and the Senate, bringing more Democrats to Washington determined to pass it. That's how you usually pass historic legislation in a system naturally inclined to the status quo.

But Reid knows long-term persuasion isn't an option. As his approval rating sags below 40 percent back in Nevada, even he might not be returning to Washington after 2010. Every day, every hour matters in the now-or-never calculus of Democrats who already feel their moment slipping agonizingly away.

Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review. 

In a recent Detroit News Opinion piece http://detnews.com , Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell lays out the Democrat ‘cram it down the throats’ approach like this: 

Many Americans are just as frustrated with the process as they are with the substance of this debate. In January, the president outlined a path to reform that would involve "not negotiating behind closed doors, but bringing all parties together, and broadcasting those negotiations on C-SPAN ..." Yet that particular pledge seems almost quaint after weeks of closed-door negotiations and a flurry of back-room deals by Democrats aimed at pushing their bill through by Christmas.

Throughout this debate, Republicans have pushed for common sense reforms that would lower costs without raising taxes, premiums, or increasing the federal debt. After all, reform should alleviate existing problems, not spread them. That's the message Americans have been sending all year. Democrats either haven't been listening, or they didn't think people would notice if they took the debate in a different direction. Whatever the reason, a growing number of Americans are demanding that we stop this bill, start over, and get it right. The bill we have simply can't be fixed.

Faced with a bill that does none of the things they said it would, the White House is left with nothing but an empty call for senators to "make history." Americans have a different message for wavering Democrats: Passing this bill would be an historic mistake.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is the U.S. Senate Republican leader.

So we hear that US Senator Ben Nelson, D-Nebraska, is the 60^th vote for a controversial health care bill, that Americans oppose 2 to 1 in recent polling.   Why is there lack of support by the Amercian people?   The legislative process was not open, despite Democrat promises to the contrary.   The health care bill is simply too complex, too costly to taxpayers, too much like socialized medicine that the American people do not support.   

Now the US Senate votes on health care legislation depend on whether the Democrats Senators show up, are able to vote (US Senator Byrd’s health issues may preclude him from voting) and if they’ll keep their individual deals with the Democrat Leader Reid (such as Nelson, and other wavering Senators).  Meanwhile the Republicans are simple not supporting a bill the American people are opposed to by a 2 to 1 margin.  A Christmas gift?   No bill and a chance for the American people to get what they are wishing for:  That is true health care that works, is affordable, is responsible and honors the doctor & patient relationship.   And maybe even a bill that is truly bipartisan, rather that dictated by one party rule.

© 2009, Jasper Welch, Four Corners Media, www.jasperwelch.org  

Legislative Process Light is Creating Heat on Healthcare

Legislative Process Light is Creating Heat on Healthcare

As the Health Care bill goes through the legislative process in the US Senate, some very interesting discussions, drama and defining moments have occurred.     And things have not gone exactly as the Democrats or Chairman Max Baucus (D-Montana) had planned.  [Remember the President’s demand that the Congress have Health Care bill to his desk before the August recess?   The subsequent town halls back in the states and Congress districts caused even more reality of citizen concern that the Congress was move way to fast on nationalizing 1/6 of the US economy].   In fact, the debate has become more multifarious by the day, which is the way of the US Senate and the American system of government is designed to work.    Despite the desire of the Democrat leadership, you cannot just cram through a massive Health Care bill without due process.   This is a republic (at least at this point), not an oligarchy as the Washington elite has hoped for during the attempted Health Care legislative end run around the American people.

Here are excerpts on a recent excellent article, written by Mark Hemmingway in the National Review Online (www.nationalreview.com) from the September 29^th post:

Baucus & Dems are hiding the true cost of Healthcare legislation:

The actual cost of the Baucus bill is $1.7 trillion over ten years, but Democrats prefer to say it will cost $900 billion over the next ten years — this is true, but only because the main spending provisions don’t kick in until 2013. The Democrats also aren’t advertising that the $838 billion in new taxes and fees in the legislation begin being collected next year.  Mark Hemingway, NRO, 9.29.09

Even the Congressional Budget Office (the only watchdog at the table, that is somewhat neutral in the process) is doubting how much (more) the bill will cost the US taxpayers:

And then, it will be hard to tell how much the legislation costs; the Senate Finance Committee doesn’t work with the actual legislative language. They work in “conceptual” language or what they call “plain English.” Senator Baucus himself admits, “This probably sounds a little crazy to some people that we are voting on something before we have seen legislative language.” It doesn’t just sound crazy; the CBO says that it is (crazy). Without the actual legislative language, any CBO review of the bill “does not constitute a comprehensive cost estimate” and makes it impossible to get an accurate sense of the cost. When CBO said they would need two weeks to do another formal cost estimate of the amended bill, Baucus balked.  Mark Hemingway, NRO, 9.29.09

The Chairman (Baucus) and Congressional Democrats don’t want the public, the press, the healthcare professionals, the medical industry or their colleagues to see the bill over time (just 72 hours in the light of day), because that is too messy, too transparent and will introduce too much accountability.  Instead the Democrat led US Senate Finance committee is attempting an efficiency approach.   Why take time to get Health Care right, when you can just slide socialized medicine through?   Or maybe not.

It's not just the CBO who won't get a chance to look over the bill. Senate Democrats voted down an amendment by Sen. Jim Bunning (R., Kent.) that would have required that, after mark-up, the final language be made available to the public for 72 hours on the Internet. Senator Baucus says he’s against putting the bill online because that, too, would take two weeks.    Mark Hemingway, NRO, 9.29.09

Finally, according to a new Rasmussen poll regarding private insurance and the public option  http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/october_2009/fear_of_losing_private_health_insurance_trumps_public_option   the American people indicates that 63% of the respondents favor keeping their private insurance versus the Democrats “public option” offering.     So why are the Congressional Democrats so focused on the public option?     Simply put, they are dedicated to a socialized approach to medical care in the United States and the political Democrat elite have decided that our system of private insurance and choice of medical providers is second rate.   This in spite of the overwhelming evidence that socialized medicine (when tried in other countries) has resulted in a government run system that rations care, reduces quality and limits choices in medical providers.   

With the Congressional majority dedicated overhauling medical care, health insurance and health care in the United States in the socialized image of Europe or Canada, now is the time to contact your Congressman or Senator.    Or even run for Congress yourself.   Most members of Congress have better health care coverage and options that the rest of the taxpayers.   What is wrong with that picture? 

© 2009, Jasper Welch, Four Corners Media, www.jasperwelch.org

Obama Doubles Down on US Debt

Doubling Down on Government Debt

What does a $3.6 Trillion dollar budget buy?  Well first you have to pay for it with increased taxes, increased debt and less charitable giving.  For what?  More government programs, oversight and overreaching from Washington, DC.  President Obama is determined to double down on Government debt.   In fact, at this rate, his budget proposals over the next 5 years will double the US Government debt, that took 200 years to accumulate.

From the www.weeklystandard.com  “Well, it's about time. The Beltway is waking up to the realities of President Obama's budget plan, which taxes, spends, and borrows as far as the eye can see. The president's vast new commitments in the areas of health care, energy, and education have already spooked small-government Republicans and the foreign investors who help finance America's public debt. Now even some Democrats are beginning to realize that the president's fiscal policies are unsustainable in the long--and maybe medium--run. What took them so long?”   Lead paragraph: A Big, Fat Failure Obama's budget makes a bad situation worse. by Matthew Continetti

 US Senator Judd Greg (R-New Hampshire)  is leading the loyal opposition as the US Senate is debating the FY2010 US Federal budget. http://budget.senate.gov/republican/

Here are the comments of Senator Greg (ranking Republican on the US Senate budget committee) regarding the proposed Obama FY2010 budget on March 28, 2009:

“But what concerns many of us are his proposals in the budget he recently sent to the Congress that dramatically grow the size and cost of government and move it to the left. It is our opinion that this plan spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much.”

Senator Greg continues:  “In the next five years, President Obama’s budget will double the national debt, in the next ten years it will triple the national debt.  To say this another way, if you take all the debt of our country run up by all of our presidents from George Washington through George W. Bush, the total debt over all those 200 plus years since we started as a nation, it is President Obama’s plan to double that debt in just the first five years that he is in office. He is also planning to spend more on the government as a percentage of our economy than at any time since World War II.

“His budget assumes the deficit will average $1 trillion dollars every year for the next ten years and will add well over $9 trillion dollars in new debts to our children’s backs.

 He also is proposing the largest tax increase in history, much of it aimed at taxing small business people who have been, over the years, the best job creators in our economy. And further, he is proposing a massive new national sales tax on your electric bill, so that every time you turn on a light switch in your house you will be hit with a new tax, and it averages over $3,000 per household.”     US Senator Judd Greg, R-New Hampshire

President Obama and his Democrat supporters in Congress are preparing to double down on spending and government programs, thereby doubling the US debt. Now is the time to write or call your Congressman.   And tell you friends that the overspending is out of control at the Federal level.

© 2009, Jasper Welch, Four Corners Media   www.jasperwelch.org

Saving Money the Congressional Way

Saving Money the Congressional Way

As the US Senate wraps up work on their version of the “pork laden” Federal stimulus bill, a group of moderate (aka “big spending”) Republicans and conservative (aka “we spend less than liberals”) Democrats met to recommend cuts on the package.   So what does saving money look like in Congress?

US government proposed spending in Federal Stimulus that was partially cut:

• $3.5 billion for energy-efficient federal buildings (original bill $7 billion)

• $75 million from Smithsonian (original bill $150 million)

• $200 million from Environmental Protection Agency Superfund (original bill $800 million)

• $100 million from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (original bill $427 million)

• $100 million from law enforcement wireless (original bill $200 million)

• $300 million from federal fleet of hybrid vehicles (original bill $600 million)

• $100 million from FBI construction (original bill $400 million)

Source:  www.americanthinker.com   The Mighty Porkulus Oinks Along 2.09.09

For a complete PDF of the Nelson/Collins Stimulus recommendation (that still recommends spending more money than the US house version), go to the Senate Conservative Fund http://senateconservatives.com   and click on the Nelson-Collins Stimulus Summary.   The amounts of pork spending under the guise of creating jobs and jumpstarting the US economy will overwhelm the average common sense US taxpayer.    Or I forgot, less and less Americans actually will pay taxes under the Obama tax plans, so I guess government spending and the resulting taxes don’t impact the average American.   We save the tax increases for the rich!

Most Americans just don’t spend money at all, if they are trying to cut costs and save money.   As for jumpstarting the economy, a focus on tax cuts for small business, reductions in capital gains tax rates for investors and some actual infrastructure projects would go much farther that the “Porkulus Bill” in term of turning the US economy around.      Instead the Democrats in Congress and the new Democrat President are attempting to spend, then borrow, and then increase taxes on the “rich” to pay for their financial boondoggle.  

For more on a conservative free market approach and to see a financial reality check, click through the CATO Institute   www.cato.org/fiscalreality    While the legacy media, main stream Democrats, the left coast and east coast elite are pushing the financially irresponsible Federal Stimulus package, the rest of America is wondering what are these Congressional big spenders are thinking?      It is simple: The majority of the Congress and the President think that big government and massive spending is the answer.     However a majority of Americans do not support the Democrat Federal stimulus package.   Popular support is down at 37% approval, according the Rasmussen Reports    www.rasmussenreports.com      What will the US taxpayers say to their US Congressmen and US Senators when they get home to defend the Porkulus Package?      Time will tell.

© Jasper Welch, Four Corners Media, www.jasperwelch.org  

First Spend, Then Borrow, Then Tax

First Spend, Then Borrow, Then Tax

While the rest of the country is working hard to cut costs, reduce budgets and live within our means, the politicos in Washington are rushing to spend money they don’t have.   The “pork-ulus” (stimulus) Federal spending bill has risen by the billions by the day.  The Democrat majority in the House passed the so-call Federal economic stimulus bill without any support from Republican members.  Now the $819B Democrat bill has swelled to over $920B based on US Senate amendments to increase spending and tax cuts.

According to the Wall Street Journal  http://online.wsj.com  “Twenty moderate senators -- from both parties -- are pushing a plan to bring the total package's cost down to about $800 billion, and put more emphasis on tax cuts. Led by Sens. Susan Collins (R., Maine) and Ben Nelson (D., Neb.), the group has been combing over the bill for spending programs deemed unlikely to provide immediate benefit to the economy.”

The WSJ indicated that the House has issues with the Federal stimulus: “Separately, a caucus of fiscally conservative House Democrats, known as the Blue Dogs, urged party leaders to embrace a "redoubled effort to streamline the stimulus and recovery package." In the House, 11 Democrats voted against the $819 billion package, nine of them Blue Dogs. Several other Blue Dogs voted for the package, but with reservations.”

According to FOX news, www.foxnews.com the public opinion is mounting against the stimulus bill, and the US Senate is feeling the political heat.   "This idea that the public is not excited about this package ... is really having an effect on Capitol Hill," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told FOX News, adding that most of the Senate suffers from a "herd mentality" and is swayed by public opinion. "There's nothing inevitable about this," said Phil Kerpen, director of policy at Americans for Prosperity. "The American economy is enormously resilient and it's always recovered in the past."            

In an interview with Greta Van Susteren from Fox News Channel, Senator Lindsay Graham R-South Carolina was blunt in his criticism, “Senator Graham: Yes, I think the process (stinks) -- can you imagine trying to do -- can you imagine a group of people taking a trillion dollars from the next generation of Americans, borrowing money from children and grandchildren, and doing it in a week? If it looks like we're making it up, we are. There are 16 senators off in a corner trying to save $100 billion. God bless them, but that's not the way you get bipartisanship. Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill set down and found a way to go forward with Social Security.           

On Fox News, Senator Graham continued, “I like President Obama. (But on this bill) He's been AWOL…he's writing op-ed pieces trying to scare people to vote for this bill. He's had lunch with us, he's had cocktails with us, he's talked to us on the phone, but he's never done the hard work of getting Republicans and Democrats in a room and telling the left: This is not going to be a free-spending bill. You're not going to be able to spend a trillion dollars that doesn't create jobs. And he needs to tell Republicans: You need to do more than just cut taxes. The president has not led. He has tried to campaign. The campaign is over. We've got to govern. Roll up your sleeves. There are at least 15 Republicans who want to do more than cut taxes, understand we need to stimulate the economy, but nobody is going to agree to this process. This is not the way to govern this nation and obligate future generations to trillions of dollars of spending.”   Interview with Greta Van Susteren, Thurs Feb 5, 2009

Americans for Prosperity has launched a petition on the Web site called http://nostimulus.com to oppose what it calls the "big-government pork-barrel spending bill." The conservative Cato Institute www.cato.org also recently took out a group of ads with a statement, signed by 200 economists, saying they "do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance."  www.cato.org/special/stimulus09/cato_stimulus.pdf

The total US Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is approximately $14 Trillion dollars.   The proposed Federal stimulus bill plus interest (to borrow the money) is approaching 10% of the US GDP.    Or to put the spending and tax cut binge in perspective:  The US Senate package is about the size of the total GDP (economy) of Australia, and with the interest tacked on it will approach the total GDP of Canada.  In FY 2007, the cost of the US government was $2.7 Trillion dollars.   Clearly the amounts of money (from taxes, US Government borrowing or from the devaluation of US dollar due to inflation) that the US taxpayer is expected to come up with is staggering.  

Leadership on fiscal policy would be for the US Senate to vote down the pork filled “so called stimulus package” and start over with a more reasonable bill.   Or the President could veto the measure.   Unfortunately, the Democrat leadership in the US Senate is determined to pass the bloated bill, at the expense of the US taxpayer for decades to come. Maybe it is time for the US taxpayers to throw out the big spenders (Dems and GOP) in Washington, and vote for a return of limited government that lives within it’s means and respects the taxpayers hard earned monies.   

© 2009, Jasper Welch, Four Corners Media, www.jasperwelch.org

Mystery Dinner Theatre in Chicago

Mystery Dinner Theatre in Chicago

Reveal and conceal. That is the way mystery dinner theatre is played. Usually four (4) couples, over a multiple course meal, play out a group of characters in a script about a murder mystery. One of the dinner guests is the “who did it” person, but no one knows as the script unfolds. In addition to each player has a character (with a script), with each dinner round having a script in which the player conceals and reveals certain parts of the murder mystery plot. Sounds like what is going on in Chicago now?  With the recent arrest of the Governor of the state of Illinois and his attempt to sell the appointment of the US Senate seat left vacant by President Elect Obama, a real mystery dinner theatre in being played out in the media.

Politico highlights high-ranking Obama Team members and their Chicago ties.
www.politico.com/news/stories/1208/16508.html   This will help you on the characters and the script that is being played out in the media.

For example, what was the role of President Elect Obama’s new chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, a Chicago pol himself? To shed some ‘revealing light’ on that, we look to a Politico report that quotes the outspoken Democrat Governor of Pennsylvania,

Obama has said that nobody on his staff had a role in any wrongdoing. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said that the Obama transition team is “making it a four or five or six-day story” because they have not been frank about discussions. 

“Did Rahm Emanuel, who took Rod Blagojevich's seat in Congress, have contact with Rod Blagojevich? Of course he did,” Rendell said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “They may have thought he was the craziest S.O.B. in the world. But you still have to have contact with him.”

Let’s see. Another word for “not being frank” is to conceal. So we can see how Mystery Dinner Theatre works in Chicago in their world of politics. And despite the history and reputation of corrupt Chicago politics, Team Obama and the Democrats are doing their best to cast the Governor of Illinois as a crazy man that no one really knows or talks to. Hmmm! So the attempt is to reveal the crazy side of Guv Blago in order to conceal the conservations that Team Obama obviously had with him regarding Obama’s US Senate seat vacancy.

If you’d like some more detail what is being revealed (by non-Obama sources) and what is being concealed (by Team Obama), would should click on the former presidential Hillary Clinton supporters site www.hillaryis44.org This web site, that is run by ardent Hillary supporters has some of the best inside info regarding Obama. Clearly it is written from an anti-Obama viewpoint, but if you look past the bias, it have some very compelling information on the Governor Blago corruption and Team Obama links.

In Mystery Dinner Theatre, there are 4 or 5 rounds played out over the evening meal by (role) players. Each round has surprises, including changes in circumstances and relationships between players (based on the script). So we see the same thing in Chicago politics when Guv Blago goes from the Illinios Governor about to appoint the next US Senator from Illinois to a person non grata with a looming criminal complaint. From the Wall Street Journal www.wsj.com

Still, there was an intriguing bit of backpedaling by an Obama aide. On Nov. 23, ABC's Jake Tapper reports, senior adviser David Axelrod, in an interview on Chicago's WFLD-TV, said of the president-elect: I know he's talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them.
Last night Alexrod released the following statement: I was mistaken when I told an interviewer last month that the President-elect has spoken directly to Governor Blagojevich about the Senate vacancy. They did not then or at any time discuss the subject. One of these statements is false, but which one? The intuitive, if cynical, answer is yesterday's. It is imperative now for Obama to remain unsullied by the scandal, whereas 2½ weeks ago there was no reason for Axelrod not to tell the truth. Wall Street Journal, 12.12.08

So we watch the Chicago mystery dinner theatre play out, with Team Obama cast members scrambling to reveal and conceal their purposes, what they said and what they knew. With the Legacy press caught between trying to shield the President Elect form media scrutiny and really wanting to report a juicy story of Governor intrigue, pay to play politics and Presidential politics, the outcome of this real mystery will be interesting to watch.

Final Electoral College Predictions

The Final Electoral College Predictions

Today is the day.    The Legacy Media has moved from a watchdog role in public affairs and elections to an Obama advocacy role.    The Legacy Media has waived off serious questions about the Democrat candidate, and according to the predictors of the US Electoral College, Senator Obama is poised to become President-Elect Obama.  Does the Republican candidate John McCain have a chance to win?  According the pundits, pollsters and Legacy Media it is over.   The left leaning Legacy Media, in their advocacy role, is heading to Grant Park in Chicago for the coronation event for their new leader, Barack Obama.   How far to the left will America go politically?   That will be the big question.   It will remained unanswered until the American people realize that Change We Can Believe In is more of the same liberal tax and spend approach to government.   Is a Harry Truman upset in the works?  It will depend on Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania.   However, the odds for a McCain victory are slim at this point.  The pollsters will be left with their final prediction, as the American voters will decide the final outcome.

The Electoral College predictions range from a close Obama victory to a landslide victory.   The overall vote totals ranges from the margin of error (+/- 3%) to a 10% margin for Obama over McCain.  Here is the line up of web sites and their 2008 predictions:

www.zogby.com     Obama=311, McCain=174, Toss-Up=53

www.humanevents.com  Obama=291, McCain=247

www.rove.com   Obama=338, McCain=200

www.realclearpolitics.com   Obama=338, McCain=200

www.electoral-vote.com   Obama=353, McCain=174, Toss=11

www.fivethirtyeight.com   Obama=346.5, McCain=191.5

From the polling research on Election 2008, the Democrat candidate Barack Obama is predicted to win all of the Blue states from 2004 and he is poised to compete in a number of Red states such as Virginia, Colorado, Ohio, Florida, Nevada and North Carolina.

         On the US Senate side of the political races, it is likely that the Republicans may loose six to eight seats to the Democrats.    Now we have 49 Dems, 49 GOP and 2 Independents as members in the US Senate.   At the end of the Election 2008, it is likely to be 56 Dems, 42 GOP and 2 Independents.     However the 2 Independents (Sanders and Lieberman) usually vote with the Democrats.       However, if the GOP does even worse in the US Senate, and Republicans loose their ability to filibuster the Democrat majority, there will be no boundaries for a liberal, left leaning Congress and likely Democrat President. 

© 2008, Jasper Welch, Four Corners Media, www.jasperwelch.org