The Most Fiscally Irresponsible Government in U.S. History

By Mortimer Zuckerman

There is an instinctive conclusion among the American public that President Obama's stimulus package has failed to create a sustained recovery. Unemployment has increased, not declined; consumers have retrenched; housing starts have crashed along with mortgage applications; and there is a fear that a double-dip recession may very well be in the pipeline. The public perception, reflected in Pew Research/National Journal polls, is that the measures to combat the Great Recession have mostly helped large banks and financial institutions, and that's a view common to Republicans (75 percent) and Democrats (73 percent). Only one third of either political leaning thinks government policies have done a great deal or a fair amount for the poor.

There is another instinctive conclusion among the American people. It is that the national deficit, and the debts we have accumulated, are of critical political importance. On the national debt, the money the government has spent without the tax revenues to pay for it has produced mind-numbing numbers so large as to be disconnected from reality. Zeros from here to infinity. The sums are hard to describe; it is hard to describe an elephant, but you know one when you see one. The public knows that, shuffle the numbers as you may, the level of debt is unsustainable.

Who could be surprised since millions of voters have discovered that for themselves? As one realizes the morning after the night before, there is an unavoidable penalty for excess. It is unnerving to wake up and learn that you have a mortgage on your home that exceeds the value of the property. Or, and too often both, you have a credit card line that you cannot repay and the issuer has you on the rack for ever bigger compound interest on the debt. The lesson has been well and truly learned that debt catches up with you. Millions understand that they are just going to have to find a way to live within their means—and then still eke out some savings to pay down debt. And there are well over 14 million Americans without a paying job, so the level of discontent is very high. Just how are they going to regain control of their lives?

In a usnews.com post on July 26, Jodie Allen of the Pew Research Center reported that in recent weeks more academic and market economists have been urging the government to defer budget cuts and tax increases and instead provide additional stimulus to a still-fragile economy, some by continuing the Bush tax cuts. But among the public there has been a suggestive shift of opinion the other way, reflecting worries about debt. "Deficit and government spending" has jumped from 10th or 11th place as a priority for the federal government to one that is second only to job creation and economic growth. The drift of opinion is manifest in other recent polls. For instance, a CBS poll conducted July 9-12 assessed the most important problem facing the country as the economy and jobs (38 percent), with concern about the budget deficit and national debt way down at 5 percent. Yet CNN (July 16-21) has 47 percent preoccupied first with the economy, and 13 percent with the federal deficit. In a recent Time magazine poll, two thirds of the respondents say they oppose a second government stimulus program and more than half say the country would have been better off without the first one.

People see the stimulus, fashioned and passed by Congress in such a hurry, as a metaphor for wasted money. They are highly critical about the lack of discipline among our political leaders. The question that naturally arises is how to forestall a long-term economic decline.

The Fed has lowered rates dramatically to keep the economy ticking and maybe continue the painfully slow recovery, but at the receiving end there is no feeling of relief at all. People know that the stimulus is about to stop stimulating. They know that money is petering out. They know that states are preparing to cut $200 billion to balance their budgets. They realize that the Great Recession has wiped out huge amounts of wealth and that, unlike other recessions, this will not be followed by the kind of economic boom when people who had sat on their money during the lean years unleash pent-up demand for all sorts of goods and services.

There is no sign of that happening this time around. Households and businesses have kept their hands in their pockets. And so while many think that the only way to revive the economy and to inject more money into it is through governmental spending, the general feeling is that we can't afford that right now. The government will be writing more IOUs on top of those we already can't afford. Why plan a second stimulus if the first stimulus couldn't prevent high unemployment?

Of course, the question remains whether public sentiment coincides with sound economics. The challenge we face as a country is how to get growing vigorously again while achieving fiscal sustainability. We are learning from the Europeans what happens when the risks that came with excessive debt become realities. There seems to be an emerging consensus that if there is to be any additional stimulus, it must be explicitly linked to credible fiscal restraint down the road. This would include a commitment to binding legislation that would change the algebra so that both programs and budget procedures get us on a benign trajectory.

There are two warning signs of a budget crisis: rising debt and the loss of confidence that the government will deal with it. This administration is on the verge of fulfilling both conditions. In fairness, there is no majority coalition in Congress for deficit reduction today. It is also true that the growth of public debt has been driven by a dramatic diminution of tax receipts due to the recession, the extra spending to avoid sinking into a self-perpetuating depression, and all those billions we invested to save the financial sectors from their sins. Voters see the politicians most vociferous about reining in the federal budget as those who are out of power and want to use it against the majority party. Too many politicians claim they are all for balanced budgets—but only by reducing the other party's priorities. Republicans want to reduce social spending. Democrats want to reduce military spending. It is Washington as usual.

Amid the clamor and counterpromises, the historic record is worth keeping in mind. We paid for World War II through growth. The national debt, as a percentage of gross domestic product, fell sharply through the postwar presidencies of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson (despite the Vietnam War) and continued edging down through most of Nixon's, rising a little with Ford's. We marked time in the stagflation of the Carter years, and then the debt percentage increased dramatically during the Reagan-Bush presidencies. It shot up again to the present dangerous levels under George W. Bush and Obama. The only good years were Clinton's.

An old saying that can apply to the deficit is called the "rule of holes" and goes as follows: "When you're in one, stop digging." But Washington politics remains the barrier. Government programs seem to live on forever. The budget becomes a perpetual-motion machine for higher spending. New programs for new needs get piled on top of old programs for old needs.

Then there are the retirees. Their numbers and their health costs will keep on rising. There were 35 million Americans over 65 in 2000 and the number of retirees is expected to double by 2030. The impending retirement of millions of baby boomers, with their claims on federal retirement programs, comes at a time when both parties seem to be willing to worsen tomorrow's problems to win more of today's votes. The result is that the federal budget is drifting into a future of huge deficits or unprecedented tax increases, or both.

Federal spending is moving toward a higher plateau—from roughly 18 percent of the GDP to almost 25 percent by 2030. We don't know how we are going to pay for this. We don't know how the economy would fare with much higher taxes. We have seen the clouds gathering for years but haven't invested in an umbrella by adjusting federal retirement programs or taking other steps to reduce entitlements. One response would have been to begin gradually phasing in eligibility ages and tying benefits more to income. No doubt we have to think about raising the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare, perhaps by one month for each two-month increase in average life expectancy. We will have to think of ways to reduce the cost-of-living increases on Social Security benefits for wealthy seniors by slowly increasing their Medicare premiums and leaving everybody else's untouched. We may have to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire, certainly for households earning more than $250,000 (and more for the super-rich) given the concentration of wealth in the top 1 percent of the population. It is entirely appropriate that they begin to make a greater contribution to our longer-term fiscal health.

The United States simply seems to lack a system that can fund the government that the people say they want. We are good at crises, but we do not seem to be good at tackling chronic problems. If we wait until a crisis happens, it will be too late. It is simply not possible to close the gap entirely with the tax increases on the rich that Democratic liberals so desperately believe in. Nor can we close the gap with spending cuts, as the Republicans would like. The liberals will have to concede that benefits and spending ought to be reduced. Conservatives will have to concede the need for higher taxes.

Hope may lie in a new bipartisan panel headed by Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, two unique, wise, and centrist political leaders whose characters raise some degree of confidence that they might be able to come forth with productive programs. As former President Clinton said of them, they "are free enough to disregard the polls but smart enough to take them into account."

But let's not forget, current budgetary trends are capable of destroying the country. As Bowles pointed out, according to a Washington Post report, we can't just grow our way out of this. We can't just tax our way out of this. We have to do what governors do—cut spending or increase revenues in some combination that will begin to pull us back from the cliff.

Obama must know that if he doesn't address this, he will be the president who drove us toward a debt crisis. And so too must Congress, for both have now participated in the most fiscally irresponsible government in American history.SOURCE: US News and World Report

District 14 Candidates Pledge to introduce law change to allow citizen petitions. Candidates Dismayed with Board of Election Ruling

The District 14 Republican Legislative Ticket has issued a statement in reaction to the Board of Election decision not to allow petitions, signed by over 30,000 county citizens and voters to put to a vote the recall of Bill #13-10, commonly known as the Ambulance Fee Bill. This is a violation of the spirit of the State Constitution and more fundamentally of democracy. Citizens and citizens groups should be provided every opportunity to recall legislation they disagree with. This right is enshrined in the State Constitution Article 16, Section 1. Minor technicalities in the election law should not stand in the way of the citizen’s right to vote on an issue when they, in good faith, have collected the signatures required to place an issue on the ballot.

If elected in November we pledge to present legislation at the state level to change the Election Law Article of the Maryland Code, Sec. 6-203 which mandates signature duplication on petitions. We will also encourage local legislation to allow legitimate petitions from citizens to be put on the ballot. The rejected petitions would have put the issue of recalling the Ambulance Fee bill before the voters this November. In a democracy we need to err on the side of putting issues before the voters so that the citizens can decide matters using the ballot box. This is a fundamental right of the People.

The Democratic Party leadership has, over the years, passed laws and instituted fees against the peoples will and hid behind technicalities, so they won't have to face the citizens at the polls. They have the majority in Annapolis to change the election law if they wanted to, but they didn’t. It’s time for a change, for new voices. We say, “Let the people Vote!"

Republican State Senate Candidate, District 14
Eric Cary, www.ericcary.com

Republican State Delegate Candidates, District 14
Patricia Fenati, www.patriciafenati.org

Henry Kahwaty, www.HenryforMaryland.com
Maria Peña-Faustino, Maria4House@gmail.com

Adult Smoking Ranges From 13% to 31% Across U.S. States

PRINCETON, NJ -- Roughly one in five adult Americans smokes, according to Gallup-Healthways Well Being Index data from 2009. At the state level, the percentage of adult smokers ranges from 13% in Utah to 31% in Kentucky and West Virginia. There is a strong regional aspect to smoking. All 11 states where a quarter or more of the population smokes -- the "well-above average" group -- are in the South or Midwest. All but one of the 11 states (including the District of Columbia) where fewer than 20% of adults smoke -- the "below average" and "well-below average" groups -- are in the East or West, the exception being Minnesota. Utah and California have particularly low rates, at 13% and 16%, respectively.

In seven states, between 23% and 24% of the adult residents smoke, making these "above average" in smoking rates, though not well-above average. The remaining 22 states fall close to the 21% national average smoking rate. Maryland is at 19% who smoke. SOURCE: Gallup

New Speed Cameras Installed in Montgomery County

ROCKVILLE - Montgomery County Police Department is adding 25 additional speed camera enforcement locations throughout the county. Enforcement at all but one of the locations will be conducted utilizing six mobile Safe Speed vans, and portable camera units. The enforcement in the 12200 block of New Hampshire Avenue will be conducted by two new fixed pole units. Each of the following new locations, which will be enforced in both directions, will have signs notifying motorists that they are approaching an automated speed enforcement area.

To see all the current Speed Monitoring System locations, please refer to the Montgomery County Police website Safe Speed page at www.montgomerycountymd.gov/police for a list and interactive map. Deployment at these new locations will begin August 30, 2010. The deployment will be rotated among these additional sites periodically.

LINK: INTERACTIVE MAP OF SPEED CAM LOCATIONS

The following Speed Monitoring Systems are new locations in Montgomery County and list the school zones that are covered:

2300 Block of Gold Mine Road
11800 Block of Claridge Road - St. Catherine Laboure Elementary School
11900 Block of Claridge Road - St. Catherine Laboure Elementary School
9000 Block of Georgia Ave.
9100 Block of Georgia Ave.
1800 Block of Randolph Road - JFK High School
1900 Block of Randolph Road - JFK High School
18100 Block of Mateny Road - Great Seneca Creek Elementary
9100 Block of Cedar Lane - Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart
21400 Block of Laytonsville Road - Laytonsville Elementary School
12200 Block of New Hampshire Ave. - White Oaks Middle School
5600 Block of Massachusetts Ave. - Church of the Little Flower School
5700 Block of Massachusetts Ave. - Church of the Little Flower School
13500 Block of Arctic Ave.
18700 Block of Quail Valley Blvd.
1400 Block of Dennis Ave. - Sligo Middle School
1700 Block of Dennis Ave. - Sligo Middle School
16100 Block of Crabbs Branch Way
7800 Block of East Village Ave.
1000 Block of Quince Orchard Road
6300 Block of Wisconsin Ave.
3400 Block of Gateshead Manor Road
3000 Block of Hewitt Ave.
11200 Block of Connecticut Ave. - Rockview Elementary School
11100 Block of Connecticut Ave. - Rockview Elementary School SOURCE: FOX DC

POLITICS OF ATTACK: Ali and King talk about sex

Ride On Bus, Van Involved in Accident

Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Jerry Weast To Retire

Montgomery County schools superintendent Jerry Weast says he's retiring next year. Weast sent a memo to school board members Tuesday announcing his plans to step down when his current contract expires on June 30, 2011. Weast has been the county's superintendent since 1999. He said in his resignation memo that he believes the county's educational reforms are "deeply rooted" enough to ensure progress for years to come. A spokesman for the school system declined to comment about Weast's future plans, saying Weast would reveal them during a noon news conference in Rockville, Md. SOURCE: FOX DC

District 39 Delegate Candidate Pettit Announces Fundraiser Event with Scott, Sauerbrey

GAITHERSBURG, MD, August 23, 2010- District 39 Delegate candidate Jim Pettit announced today that Maryland GOP Chair Audrey Scott and Ambassador Ellen Sauerbrey will attend an August 26 fundraising event at the home of Gaithersburg City Councilman Henry Marraffa.

“I am very proud to have Audrey Scott and Ellen Sauerbrey here at the same time and the same place,” said Pettit. “These individuals have a stellar record in public service and are outstanding political and business leaders, and now they are helping others continue their legacy.” Ellen Sauerbrey, a two-time GOP nominee for Governor, went on to serve as U.S. Representative to the United Nations Commission on Women with the rank of Ambassador, then becoming U.S. Assistant Secretary of State. Sauerbrey is now the co-chair of Maryland Business for Responsive Government with former Governor Marvin Mandel, and is Campaign Chair for Andy Harris for Congress. She served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 1978 to 1994.

Audrey Scott is the Chair of the Maryland Republican Party. Scott served in the Ehrlich Administration as Secretary of Planning, and as an elected official in Prince George's County - serving on the county council and as Mayor of Bowie. A three-term Mayor, she was President of the Maryland Municipal League.

“We are long overdue in improving Maryland’s business climate,” said Gaithersburg City Councilman Henry Marraffa. “Montgomery County has been under one-party monopoly rule for too long and it’s time for some new ideas among our elected officials. The alternative is continued job loss, a shrinking tax base and reduced services for the foreseeable future.”

Marraffa, the only elected official in Montgomery County who is a Republican, has represented Gaithersburg on the city council since 1995. Pettit is running to bring fiscal responsibility to Annapolis and improve Montgomery County’s employment base. Republicans last held district 39 seats in 1999.

Email from homeless person in Montgomery County

Fellow Citizens,

My last communication with you was dated August 9, 2010 by snail mail.  In case some of these snail mail missed some of you,  I have attached a copy of the letter that was sent out by U.S. Mail.  It briefly explained my misfortune at the hands of the Montgomery County Government.  I want to thank each and everyone of you who have called me to express their concern with my issue. I am very appreciative and want to commend those that have taken the time to call me even though they are not in my district.   It also seems that I was not very clear about what happened to me and how I have come close to being out in the street with my now 14 year old daughter.  I am a Single Mother Resident in Montgomery County since 1992.Up until 2006 I had faith in my government and like and idiot trusted that they would act in the best interest of its citizens, I being one of them.  What a foolish naive idiot I was. 

  On around July 2006, Steve Hayes, a Montgomery County Department of Public Works employee out of the Department of Real Estate left message at my office at 8413 Ramsey Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 communicating that they were looking for temporary space  house the Ride on, MTA ticketing office, Information center,  as well as a Lounge for Metro employees while the Paul Sarbanes Regional Transportation Center was undergoing construction.   

As a result of the contact by Steve Hayes,a meeting was set up for Hayes to look at the space.  According to Mr. Hayes he communicated that the space and location of the building would meet their needs.  He further infomed me that they were considering the building at 1110 Bonifant Street, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910.  On about August 13, 2006, Steve Hayes accompanied by another Montgomery County Department of Public Works employee by the name of Shri Gondhalekar made the first of many visits to my office.   

After several other visits over the course of a month by the authorities representing the Washington Metropolitan Metropolitan Transportation Authority(WMATA), Maryland Transportation Authority(MTA/MARC), The Ride on Bus Service, on September 14, 2006, Steve Hayes called me and informed me that my space at 8413 Ramsey Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland had been selected from the competition because of the visibility from the street and the ability to be able to construct a handicap ramp access for the pubic accomodation portion of their requirements, and that the lease would be forthcoming no later than October 1, 2006.   

Relying on Steve Hayes who was representing the Montgomery County office of Real Estate, I gave notice to my tenant who I had been leasing space to as well as taking any advertisement I had for the lease of the property off the market.  In addition, relying on Montgomery County promise through Steve Hayes to provide me with a lease by October 1, 2006, I informed my landlord of the impending sublease agreement with the Montgomery County.    A week after the I was informed of the agreement to sublease my space, Mr. Hayes informed that the County Attorney Office  needed a copy of my lease to assure themselves that I was able to sublease to per my lease agreement with my landlord.   

During the visit to get my lease, I ask Mr. Hayes about the status of the lease, in which he answered that it was with the Montgomery County Legal Department.  After a month of not receiving the lease, I called Steve Hayes to ask him about the Lease on October 15, 2006 to which he assured me that it was forthcoming.  October 31, 2006 came and passed without incident and no doubt to say without a lease from Montgomery County.     

I continued of course to follow up with Mr. Hayes and asked him for a name in the legal department to which he informed me that everything was being handled through the department of Real Estate.  Around November 15, 2006 I again called Steve Hayes, to which he informed me that it would be ready in about 2 weeks as Shri Gondhalekar was anxious to start working on the space to meet code.  In addition in November 2006, Shri Gondhalekar and the Staff Designer for CDCI, Inc. Wilmar Hernandez(a third party contractor) visited my office to take measurements and drawings of the space in order to facilitate the renovation that Montgomery County had planned for the space.  During the visit, Mr. Gondhalekar informed me that the bathroom space upstairs was going to be converted into a handicap accessible bathroom and that an additional bathroom was going to be installed in the downstaris ares which was going to be transformed into a lounge for WMATA bus drivers. In November, 2006 When I pressed further, I was informed by Mr. Hayes that his Boss Cynthia Brenneman, the Director of the Department of Real Estate had taken him off all other projects so that he would be able to get the lease to me immediately.  Mr. Gondhalekar also assured me that Ms. Brenneman had instructed Mr. Hayes to make sure I was given a copy of the lease immediately.  As you can guess November and December came and went and I was still given the same run around.  In January 2007, Shri Gondhalekar called me to request a copy of the plat for 8413 Ramsey Avenue, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910.  Mr. Gondhalekar informed me that he needed the plat to be able to submit with the drawing that had been done by their contractor CDCI, Inc. for the space they were leasing from me.  I of course went to the courthouse and secured and paid for a copy of the plat and gave it to him.  In February 2007, I had still not received a lease from Montgomery County even after many unsuccessful attempts to find out the status.  Keep in mind that due to their promises I had let go of all my tenants  that had been subleasing from me which resulted in 5 months of loss of income which helped me to pay rent for the space in the building that they wanted.   

The first week in March after no response from Montgomery County Department of Real Estate, I wrote to County Executive Ike Leggett to inform of the destruction of my business by the Promises of the Department of Real Estate, The Department of Public Works and and the County Attorneys Office.  After 30 days in which I received no response from the County Executive, I again wrote to the Executive, demanding a response before starting litigation, to which I finally got a response on April, 19, 2007 from Al Rosdieh per the instrucion of the County Executve Ike Leggett.  Mr. Roshdieh, then Acting Director of Montgomery County Department of Public Works and Transportation, wrote me to say that a lease was not forthcoming because I had gotten in trouble with my lease.  Mr. Rosdieh apologized for not informing me earlier on their decison to go back on their promise and intent.  You are just now finding out after string me on since September that you all of a sudden discover that you will not be leasing from me?  or did you find out that you could interfere with a busienss relationship and contract for the space and force me out.  Everyone with even the smallest level of intelligence knew their intent and the game that was being played.  I blame myself for not knowing that my goverment could be this distructive to another human being.  It might have been more humane for them to just put a bullet in my head and take the space.  I think about the pain, humiliation, and financial distruction that I have endured for the past four years at the hands of my government; the Montgomery County Government, The office of the County Executive, and the Office of the County Attorney, and the Montgomery County Circuit Court.  If I took the cowards out like they did, I would be teaching my child that when a bully meets you in the play ground, you should not fight back.  When someone pulls a gun on you, you are suppose to give up and let them take your life without fighting back.  I would be teaching my child that at the first sign of failure, you are suppose to give up without trying.  

You may ask the question why were they going through all these if they had no intention of renting from me?  Well the answer is that they wanted the space but they did not want to rent the space from me.  They wanted to rent the space from the two white men who were my landlord.  They had no intention of trusting this African American Woman, who happens to be a single mother, who had mortgage her house to be able to get acquire the space in order to start her real estate brokerage firm which was in infancy at the time that I ran into the Montgomery County Government. They had been saying all along that they were not going to rent the space, but time has made a liar out of them.  They are now leasing the space from the same two gentlemen that I mentioned above.  The question a thinking person would ask would be to find out when they signed the lease and who they used for the drawings of the plan for the space.  This would further proof that we dealing with a very dishonest goverment.  I would even venture that the MAFIA organizaiton is more humane to people whose business they are interested in robbing and destroying.  

If they wanted to do the right thing, they could have bought out my lease and taken over the entire space, they could have shared the space with me which was the original intent through Mr. Hayes and Mr. Gondhalekar. Their sole intent was to get me in trouble financially so that I would be thrown out and they would take over the space free and clear without any obligations to me.  They forget that eventhough they are the government, it does not give them license to bankrupt and operate in a deceptive fashion to destroy and business and discriminate against the business owner.  I thought these are things that happen in dictatorships, not in the United States of America, not in psuedo liberal Montgomery County.    

As of today, I have not heard from any one on the Montgomery Council, or the County Executive's office.  I have not even heard from those who supposedly represent me on the Montgomery County Council.  None of my correspondence has been answered; no expresssion of sympathy extended.  But this year, this same shameless people are back on the campaign trail hunting for votes so that they can come back into office and continue to abuse the citizens of this County.  They act as though we have no choices.  Many of you have express the fact that you feel that you do not have a chance in Montgomery County to win this year.  I say take heart, there are more of me who do not know how to fight big government or how to express the wrong that their government has done to them.  These are the people that will give you the margin you need to win.  The vote of the invisible constituent that have no voice and feel that their needs are not represented will be the one that will give you the edge in getting your message out.  

Renee Okon
240.893.2687    

Child pulled from MCPS excels from homeschooling

Getting accepted at a top-notch Ivy League college like Harvard or Yale is a dream of many students. When siblings Anna, now a senior, and Jacob Pritt, a sophomore, were both accepted at Harvard, it was cause for great celebration at their alma mater, the School of Mom and Dad. Christine and Mark Pritt took responsibility for their children's education when Anna was in fourth grade and Jacob was in second, and they still homeschool their other four children who range in age from 11 to 17.

Christine Pritt said she made the decision to homeschool her children after Jacob finished first grade. Because of Anna's experience in kindergarten at Walkersville Elementary School, Pritt said she knew a lot of class time was spent learning the alphabet and other basic building blocks. Because Jacob could read before he entered kindergarten, she decided to homeschool him that year so he wouldn't be bored. But that year of homeschooling just put him that much farther ahead of his peers in first grade, she said. Both children were enrolled in the gifted and talented program at North Frederick Elementary School.

"And his teachers were excellent -- this decision had nothing to do with the quality of teachers," Pritt said. "But the system has little flexibility, and the large class size prevented any individual attention to the children."

As Jacob prepared to enter second grade, his teachers were willing to bump his math instruction up by a grade level, but the principal at that time wouldn't allow it.

"That was the straw that broke the camel's back," Pritt said.

Christine Colburn pulled her daughter, Calle, out of Montgomery County Public Schools when she finished second grade. Colburn said her last straw was being called into the school because Calle was "fidgeting" at her desk. Colburn discovered that Calle was finishing her work much more quickly than her classmates, and then was expected to sit quietly at her desk until 30 other students caught up. SOURCE: WTOP

Murphy and Jenkins Hold First Townhall on Illegal Immigration; Announce Details For Next Event

Frederick, MD – This past evening, Brian Murphy, Republican Candidate for Governor of Maryland, Mike Ryman, Candidate for Lt Governor, and Maryland law enforcement stalwart, Frederick Sheriff Chuck Jenkins, held their first townhall on illegal immigration. This past evening’s event, open to the public and attended by approximately 100 concerned citizens and several members of the media, was held at Frederick's American Legion Post #11.

After the Pledge of Allegiance, Mike Ryman, Murphy's pick for Lt Governor, began the evening by discussing the Murphy/Ryman Administration's intent to root out waste, fraud and abuse. Next, Sheriff Jenkins spoke about Program 287(g), the pressing problems of illegal immigration in Maryland, and his support for Murphy's candidacy. Murphy rounded out the evening by thanking Ryman for his vision and willingness to serve, and commended Jenkins for his leadership in addressing this pressing problem. Murphy also reaffirmed his commitment to balance the budget, without raising taxes, and his commitment to work with Sheriff Jenkins to bring about Program 287(g) state-wide.

Sheriff Jenkins has thrown his support behind Brian Murphy over Murphy's primary opponent, Bob Ehrlich, because of Murphy’s firm commitment to work with Sheriff Jenkins in implementing Program 287(g) statewide. Murphy has been in the forefront of the Governor's race in acknowledging the size of the illegal immigration problem in Maryland, and for proposing specific solutions to address it.