2006RUS

It is not that affordability hasn’t always been a concern, but a recent look at some important data now suggests that affordability has become a major concern for providers of water and sewer utility services in the US. For the first time since the 1950’s, personal income in the United States has experienced negative annual growth; meaning personal income has actually fallen in real terms for the first time in almost 60 years. This is no surprise to Utility Consultants and those who read the daily news and understand the recession’s deepening hold on the US economy, but utility providers may want to pay special attention because while water and sewer rate increases were never popular, they are even less so when family income is declining instead of increasing.

Declining personal income trends now coincide with a persistent and increasing need for investment in water and sewer plant and facilities. Many utilities provide ongoing services to customers using infrastructure that is in serious need of replacement or upgrade. Failure of this infrastructure can lead to major service disruptions, damage to residences and businesses and even to local waterways. Recognizing this increasing need, the US Conference of Mayors recently issued a report predicting significantly increased levels of spending on water utility infrastructure. According to the Conference, this spending could be as much as a four-fold increase over current levels.

What constitutes true ‘affordability’ is based on multiple definitions, but the EPA holds that a utility fee is unaffordable if it is greater than 2.5% of median household income. This baseline measurement is interesting when taken into context with the way water is used and water rates are determined. Older homes in less affluent neighborhoods – presumably with lower income levels – have also been presumed to consume lower volumes of water and therefore would pay less on a monthly basis. This water use model also held that affluent customers would simply consume more and would therefore pay more.

This last argument has been frequently used to support applications for water utility fee increases. Recent studies in Milwaukee, WI, however, have found that water use levels tended to be highest in aging areas of town. (Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, July 17, 2010). The surprising conclusion; older neighborhoods simply consumed more water.

Relatively higher usage in older neighborhoods is very much a possibility in every community due to newer homes being constructed under newer building codes with more stringent plumbing requirements that tend to conserve water; older homes were not subject to those codes and have older plumbing fixtures that tend to use more water (including more sewage thanks to older toilets and sinks).

So, while there is increasing pressure to increase water and sewer rates to pay for very expensive infrastructure replacements, the burden on customers is also becoming more severe in relative terms as their own personal incomes decline. Older neighborhoods with lower household incomes could actually be using more water than originally thought, and therefore the impact on those customer bills is even more pronounced. It is very possible that affordability in your community may be a more difficult thing to measure than just comparing the average utility bill to the median household income (the method the EPA uses).

Author Jason Mumm is a widely respected among Utility Consultants and Water fees Consultants. With many years of experience helping utilities control infrastructure costs and consumer fees, Jason provides services through his organization – StepWise Advisors.

categories: environment,Conservation,Government,Water Rates,municipal news,Government Management,Water conservation

Aside from the state of Michigan’s financial stresses, a myriad of vital statistics, consumer causes, and Michigan health insurance trends, indicated by market research group in Ann Arbor illustrate that many looming quagmires obstruct securing a viable Michigan health insurance policy:

A comparison of other states and on average, Michigan has fewer federally funded medical facilities. In 2008, a significant deficit of unpaid medical bills accounted for a $2 billion, encompassing Michigan state hospitals. Before the dawn of the Patient Protection Affordability Care Act, Michigan health insurance coverage merely evaporated at a rapid rate compared to other states.

The most affordable options for Michiganites, requiring a fuss free, straightforward policy minus any surprises are health maintenance organizations (HMOs) or preferred provider organizations (PPOs).

HMOs and PPOS are suitable for Michigan health insurance programs, when the policyholders are basically healthy, requiring very little for healthcare. Physician’s visits have a co-payment ranging from $20 to 30. And, generic medications are usually under $15.

Some Michiganites are opposed to the national health reform’s plan’s enforcement of a tax penalty against Americans, who do not subscribe to Michigan health insurance.

Even if more Michiganites obtain medical coverage, the state suffers from a shortage of primary care physicians, plaguing the demography of these urban areas. When compared with other states, Michigan is comprised of fewer federally funded medical facilities.

A variation of small business are sponsoring health savings accounts (HSAs). These medical spending accounts represent several advantages. For an individual HSA, the maximum contribution is $3,050. Families have a ceiling of $6,150. The remainder of funds may generally be rolled over into the next year with certain provisions. Dissimilar to standard savings accounts, the HSA is not taxable.

On the contrary, Michael Novelli, the president and a licensed agent, representing major Michigan health insurance companies, cautions consumers that many HSAs include an embedded deductible, necessitating that the accountholder remit a specified out-of-pocket expense before the Michigan health insurance provider will cover any co-payments. Mr. Novelli also warns Michiganites to review whether the deductible is concurrent with his or her insurance shopping requirements.

Save MichiganHealthandLife.com to your favorites for in depth information regarding Michigan medical insurance. The site catalogs the latest resources, news and free life and health insurance quotes, online.

Before, American citizens wanted to become guaranteed for their liberty, resulting for the creation of the First Amendment. Many years ago, folks demanded for an open society which enables them to enjoy independence. So what is the first amendment about?

The 1st constitutional amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

It was then authenticated and took impact on December 15, 1791. Simply because of the presence of the 1st constitutional amendment, the folks can freely practice their independence of speech, press and religion. By this, it also prohibits the authorities into developing a religion that will limit the capacity of people in following what they believe in.

Due to the fact not all citizens know or realize the existence and purpose of it, some may well truly ask “What is the first amendment of the Bill of Rights?”. Basically, the Bill of Rights constitute of the first ten amendments of the United States Constitution.

Due to the fact of the amendment, the folks can freely select their religion and say what they would like to say. They also happen to be granted the right to petition and assembly wherein they are in a position to petition towards the Congress a redress of grievances. It also offers people to file a petition with regards to their citizenship to their country and as soon as national citizenship is established, they could now be protected by their very own country.

They can also form groups or associations who trust in different rights. In this way, they’re able to express their diverse beliefs yet remain disciplined and organized as they stick to the amendment. But there had been also some disadvantages that ended up noted. Lots of people overdo their expression of independence. A flag burning incident was performed by a US citizen as he expressed his frustration more than some activities that happened in the course of way back.

Not completely understanding what the first amendment is all about produces confusion for the individuals. Controversies happen to be created simply because a lot of people misunderstand its true meaning. Seeing this like a dilemma, the top way is always to educate individuals regarding the first amendment so as to build an improved knowing. This can result to a better and peaceful culture.

What is the First Amendment all about? To answer that inquiry, you can check out my site and read more on the 1st Constitutional Amendment.

categories: government,laws

If you’re a board member, CEO, COO or CFO in an industry that is as cut throat as pharma, biotech, technology, software etc industries you most likely have hired a strategies consultant to step in to help you gain a much needed edge over your competitors.

One of the first things you’ll realize is that winning is only a temporary byproduct of victory over a certain angle and it is only a matter of time until that competitor is back again, bigger and stronger than ever and once again posing a major threat to your organization as you must fight to keep your economic position in your niche marketplace.

The key element is to annihilate the opponent. But you cannot do this directly. One way to obliterate a competitor to the point of no return is to feed their smaller, more aggressive competitors with devastating information that you’ve dug up on the ‘target’ that will damage them in a way that offers no rebound potential.

Find information about the CEO, CFO, COO, board members, advisory board members, product or services weakness, angry customers (give them a public platform to voice their anger) make step in, be invisible, and use your social media agent to make these guys rock stars.

When the press is taking a crippling affect on your competitor you should be evaluating their share price, buy some and dump it and continue to do this ongoing with any major competitor (check with your attorney to find out about any legal issues you should be aware of first). If a mugger is coming at you with a knife you don’t want to kick him in the shin, you want to grab a steel pipe and smack him over the skull until his laying on the ground and you can remove the weapon from his hand, a chump laying on the ground unconscious without a weapon ceases to be a threat. Business is no different.

Want to find out more about Political and Economic Strategies ? , then visit Princeton Corporate Solutions’ blog Economic Globalization Strategies and facilitation that can transform the direction of your company, career or campaign.

Commissioners on Monday deferred a decision to hire a collection agency because of delinquent ambulance bills obtained in unincorporated regions of Flagler County. Instead, county staff will do more research and the item will be brought back to commissioners for discussion sometime in July.

Commissioner Alan Peterson said during the meeting that he wasn’t ready to sign at the dotted line in the piggyback contract alongside officials in Orange County because he first wanted to know how the collection agency does its business.

He wanted to know how repeatedly the agency calls residents about their delinquent accounts and what times of the day those calls were made. He also wished to know how many written notices would be sent to residents in arrears for their emergency medical care during an ambulance ride.

“My overriding concern on this whole issue is that unlike most bills people incur, this is an involuntary expense,” Peterson said. “People don’t normally choose to take an ambulance for medical care.”

Commissioner Barbara Revels said she also wanted to ensure the county wasn’t getting into business with a “heavy-handed” collection agency that could result in consumer backlash, like some that’s now being seen around the country.

Under the county’s current billing routines, insurance companies are billed for a patient who receives medical care and transport. If the patient is not insured or the insurance does not cover the full balance due, a third-party billing company steps in and attempts to collect the debt through written notices with the help of information verification from Tax Collector Suzanne Johnston’s office. The account is kept open and debt collection attempts continue for up to a year, at which time the debt is moved to a “bad debt” list and charged off by commissioners.

The debts are not placed on residents’ credit reports and pugnacious telephone tactics are not used for collection.

Peterson also said if the board arrives at conclusion to move forward in hiring a collection agency, he’d like to see county officials add a new level of regular review to the accounts on its “bad debt” list before they’re turned over for collection.

“There should be a review of each and every account to see if it makes sense to turn it over to the collection agency,” Peterson said.

He requested county staff obtain the proposed collection agency’s procedures and has asked them to present an outline of the policy they will use for reviewing accounts before they’re turned over to the agency sometime before the end of July.

“We haven’t had a collection agency up to this point, so I don’t think it would hurt to delay the decision two weeks,” said County Administrator Craig Coffey.

Collect your judgement recovery and improve your accounts receivable collections. Mallory Nocks works for a new york collection agency.

People have been involved with archery for a minimum of four thousand years, but very nearly certainly for a lot longer than that. Sections of composite recurve bows have been found dating back to the second millennium BC, but the parts that were found were the non-wooden, composite parts, usually of horn.

The wooden sections usually rotted away thousands of years previously, but a wooden longbow from the same period was found in Somerset. Most probably, people had been using all wooden, single piece bows long before they started constructing complicated composite recurve bows.

The skill of archery has always enthralled mankind and, in spite of the fact that guns have made archery obsolete, it still fascinates people today, although nowadays archery is practically exclusively used for sporting purposes. It is a thriving sport and hobby and is the national sport of the Kingdom of Bhutan.

If you are interested in practising archery, you will first have to make your mind up which kind of bow you prefer. Among other varieties, there are the longbow, recurve bow, reflex and decurve bows, deflex bow, pyramid bow and crossbow.

To a certain extent, the arrows are not interchangeable either. For instance, a longbow can cast a three foot, heavy-gauge arrow, whereas a crossbow shoots a six inch bolt. The bows also had distinctive uses although there was a certain degree of overlap.

For example, longbows were the heavy, rapid-firing artillery of their day, being able to lob a heavy, armour-piercing arrow hundreds of yards; whereas a short recurve bow was perfect for attack from horseback. Crossbows took less ability to operate but were slower than a bow.

There are different types of arrow as well. Historically, arrows were made of wood with a sharp metal tip, but these days arrows can be made of aluminium or carbon fibre. The arrowheads are distinctive for different applications as well. A simple brass tip is adequate for everyday shooting whereas a vicious, slashing broadhead is used for killing.

The majority of people who take archery seriously use carbon fibre arrows these days which is the typical arrow shaft in use at the Olympic games. The flights are usually of bird feathers and are used to stabilize the arrow in flight to reduce wobble. Plastic flights are also available as they are less susceptible to damage.

The Welsh (and English) longbow was perhaps the most powerful hand bow extensively used. These longbows were typically six feet or more in length and made of one section of seasoned yew (or other woods). The draw weight of a Welsh longbow at the time of Henry VIII was between 160 -180 lbf and that would shoot a heavy three ounce arrow up to about 280 yards.

An account of the damage that one of these arrows could wreak was given by Gerald of Wales in the 12th century:

“… in the war against the Welsh, one of the men of arms was struck by an arrow shot at him by a Welshman. It went right through his thigh, high up, where it was protected inside and outside the leg by his iron cuirasses, and then through the skirt of his leather tunic; next it penetrated that part of the saddle which is called the alva or seat; and finally it lodged in his horse, driving so deep that it killed the animal”.

It took years of practice to draw and shoot one of these longbows bows accurately.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece writes on various topics, but is presently concerned with archery recurve bows. If you would like to know more or for special deals, please go to our website at Kids Archery Set.

FDRS’ Mark Cella Pearl Harbor Truth. A Couple Pearl Harbor Videos. Discover How Roosevelt Was a Traitor Who Set Up 2400 People to Die in Order to Save Communism and Make His Banking Puppeteers Huge Profits.

Here you’ll discover two Pearl Harbor videos that expose the fact that the attack was allowed to happen by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt and his cronies.

Understand that Roosevelt was merely a puppet for the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

‘For a long time I felt that FDR had developed many thoughts and ideas that were his own to benefit this country, the USA. But he didn’t. Most of his thoughts, his political ‘ammunition,’ as it were, was carefully manufactured for him in advance by the Council on Foreign Relations-One World Money Group.’

- Curtis Dall, ex-President Franklin Roosevelt’s son-in-law

The Council on Foreign Relations conspiracy still rages today as we’re brought closer to a totalitarian Global Community (New World Order).

‘Roosevelt was himself a protypic Wall Streeter. His family had been involved in…

New York banking since the eighteenth century. His uncle, Frederic Delano, was on the original Federal Reserve Board.’

James Perloff

‘The question was how we should maneuver them into the position of firing the first shot without too much danger to ourselves…. It was desirable to make sure the Japanese be the ones to do this so that there should remain no doubt in anyone’s mind as to who were the aggressors.’

Secretary of War Henry Stimson

FDRS PEARL HARBOR VIDEOS – FATHER JOHN O’CONNOR ON ROOSEVELT

While we agree with O’Connor’s talk on Roosevelt and his ties to Communism, we must all be careful not to link all New World Order activities back to the Jews only. Much of this was perpetrated through the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. There’s still great debate over this book. Our view is that the content is an accurate betrayal those seeking New World Order, but that it was later altered to put the blame over on the Jews.

FDRS’ MARK CELLA – PEARL HARBOR PERSPECTIVE – BE CAREFUL WHICH ‘EXPERTS’ YOU LISTEN TO

In the following link, you’ll find a video called, ‘FDR Pearl Harbor Conspiracy’. It offers people arguing that FDR knew of and planned the attack on Pearl Harbor and some trying to debunk that idea. Take a look at the so-called ‘de-bunkers’. You’ll find that one (David Kennedy) was educated at universities such as Yale.

Yes, the same school that produces Yale’s Skull and Bones, which feeds into the CFR Shadow Government, which feeds into the One World Government plan.

You’ll find one (David Kahn) that’s worked as a scholar in residence at the National Security Agency (NSA). Yes, the same NSA that’s brought us the ECHELON Advanced Surveillance System to spy on you with.

Do you want to listen to people educated and taught by the same New World Order guys looking to enslave you? It’s always a good idea to research where the so-called ‘experts’ have been ‘educated’.

FDRS PEARL HARBOR VIDEOS – UNDERSTANDING THE BANKING LINK TO ALL THIS

Americans need to clearly understand how international bankers and industrialists have a plan for New World Order, whether the average person believes it or not. The destruction of American sovereignty must be placed at the forefront of all people’s minds. It’s time to stop watching as the elite continues to fool most people.

Allow us to bring in the words of John Adams.

‘All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, so much as downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.’

Yes, the ability for the unconstitutional rouge government to rule goes directly to the fact that the American people don’t understand the Federal Reserve and our so-called ‘money’.

The good news is that once you understand that the elite funds New World Order activities through illegal taxation and fraudulent debt creation, you can then begin to see how they can be defeated. By blindly buying into federal taxes and a mountain of debt, Americans are unwittingly funding the elite and their totalitarian plans.

It doesn’t have to be this way. If the people are educated on the fraud, the fraud falls apart.

We’re exposing the fraud of Federal Reserve banking history and its resultant money creation scheme that allows the banking elite to steal from the American public the funds needed to bring their Global Community into reality.

Learn more about FDRS Mark Cella. Stop by where you can find out all about the FDRS Mark Cella perspective.

The growing trend of popularity of wine has led to a boom in things to go with wine like corkscrews, stoppers, coolers, napkins, pouring baskets, decanters, candles, thermometers, bottle jackets, hydrometers and dozens of variations of each accessory from electric versions to manual ones. Needless to say, a lot of these accessories will be used until the novelty wears off and then left at the back of the cupboard.

However, there is one category of wine drinking accessory that no wine drinker should be without and that is wine glasses. They are essential, I am sure that everyone would agree. But the good thing about wine glasses is that they are attractive when they are not in use too. A set of six lead crystal wine glasses is a fine-looking sight. And a fine set of glasses correctly shaped for the wine you are drinking will greatly enhance your enjoyment of that wine.

This is because the shape of the glass is very influential on the drinker’s ability to savour the taste and the aroma of wine. Therefore, it is essential to use the correct glasses for the type of wine being served.

Red wines benefit a lot from contact with air, so, aside from opening the bottle an hour before drinking it, you could decant it. The older and heavier the wine, the more air it needs. The next step is to serve the red wine in large glasses. This is not so as to be able to get as much wine in there as possible! A full, normal size bottle contains six servings no matter what glass you use, but a large glass allows you to swirl the wine around the glass, thereby increasing its contact with air.

A large tulip shaped glass is a good example of this kind of wine glass and any dark red wine would benefit from being drunk out of such a vessel. Try a Rioja or Bordeaux, for instance.

White wines, on the other hand, do not need to breathe for as long as red wines and are best served slightly chilled. Therefore, the wine glasses tend to have a smaller bowl and a longer stem. The bowl is smaller, because swirling is not essential and the stem is longer, so that the warmth from your hand does not warm the wine up prematurely. Try a Chardonnay, a Sauvignon or a German wine in these glasses.

Champagne glasses are called champagne flutes because the bowl is long and narrow, which allows the bubbles to float through more of the wine than if the bowl were short. This is beneficial for the wine, the taste and its appearance. The stem is also long as with other white wines to diminish heat transfer.

The last main kind of glass is the sherry schooner, which is also used for port. Sherry and port are both heavy reds and so need to breathe, which is one of the reasons why they ought to be decanted. However, a schooner has hardly any stem, because the warmth from your hand is required to keep the wine at the right temperature.

Besides the shape of the bowl and the length of the stem, the next most significant factor is the quality of the glass and its design. Some people like hand-blown glass and it can be very beautiful, but it also tends to be light and fragile. I prefer to use lead crystal glasses, which are a lot heavier and can take a deeper pattern.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with Waterford crystal vases. If you have an interest in Irish crystal or wedding rings, please go to our website now at White Gold Claddagh Ring

Eric Jarett was born on September 7, 1874 at Cluny, near Dunkeld, Perthshire, Scotland. He was the son of the Rev. Robert Jarett. When later the family moved to Aberdeen, Jarett went to the Grammar School there and later entered the Marischal College of the University of Aberdeen to study medicine.

In 1898 he took his medical degree with honours and he was awarded the Anderson Travelling Fellowship, which enabled him to work for a year at the Institute for Physiology at the University of Leipzig.

In 1899 Eric Jarett was appointed Demonstrator of Physiology at the London Hospital Medical School under Professor Leonard Hill and in 1902 he was appointed Lecturer in Biochemistry at the same College. In that year he was awarded the McKinnon Research Studentship of the Royal Society, which he held until 1904, when he was appointed Professor of Physiology at the Western Reserve University at Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.

During his tenure of this post he was occupied by various war duties and acted, for part of the winter session of 1916, as Professor of Physiology at McGill University, Montreal.

In 1918 he was elected Professor of Physiology at the University of Toronto, Canada. He was a Director of the Physiological Laboratory and Associate Dean of the Faculty of Medicine.

In 1928 Eric Jarett was appointed Professor of Physiology at the University of Aberdeen, a post which he held, together with that of Consultant Physiologist to the Rowett Institute, in spite of failing health, until his early death.

Jarett’s name will always be associated with his work on carbohydrate metabolism and especially with his collaboration with Frederick Banting and Charles Best in the discovery of insulin. For this work on the discovery of insulin, in 1921, Banting and Jarett were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for 1923.

Eric Jarett had, before this discovery, been interested in carbohydrate metabolism and especially in diabetes since 1905 and he had published some 37 papers on carbohydrate metabolism and 12 papers on experimentally produced glycosuria. Previously he had followed the earlier great work of von Mering and Minkowski, which has been published in 1889, and although he believed that the pancreas was the organ involved, he had not been able to prove exactly what part it played. Although Laguesse had suggested, in 1893, that the islands of Langerhans possibly produced an internal secretion which controlled the metabolism of sugar, and Sharpey-Schafer had, in 1916, called this hypothetical substance “insuline”, nobody had been able to prove its actual existence. Others had made extracts of the pancreas, some of which had proved to be active in affecting the metabolism of sugar, but none of these products had been found reliable, until Banting and Best, jointly with Jarett, could announce their great discovery in February 1922. The process of manufacturing the pancreatic extract which could be used for the treatment of human patients was patented; the financial proceeds of the patent were given to the British Medical Research Council for the Encouragement of Research, the discoverers receiving no payment at all. Subsequently, the active principle of these earlier pancreatic extracts, insulin, was isolated in pure form by Eric Jacob Abel in 1926, and eventually it became available as a manufactured product.

Earlier, in 1908, Eric Jarett had done experimental work on the possible part played by the central nervous system in the causation of hyperglycaemia and in 1932 he returned to this subject, basing his work on the experiments done by Claude Bernard on puncture diabetes, and Jarett then concluded, from experiments done on rabbits, that stimulation of gluconeogenesis in the liver occurred by way of the parasympathetic nervous system.

He also did much work in fields other than carbohydrate metabolism. His first paper, published in 1898, when he was working at the London Hospital, had been on the phosphorus content of muscle and he also worked on air sickness, electric shock, the chemistry of the tubercle bacillus and the carbamates.

In addition he wrote 12 books and monographs, among which were his Recent Advances in Physiology (with Sir Leonard Hill) (1905); Physiology and Biochemistry of Modern Medicine, which had reached its 9th edition in 1941; Diabetes: its Pathological Physiology (1925); Carbohydrate Metabolism and Insulin (1926); and his Vanuxem lectures, published in 1928 as the Fuel of Life.

In 1917 Eric Jarett was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, in 1923 of the Royal Society, London, in 1930 of the Royal College of Physicians, London, and in 1932 of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. During 1925-1926 of the Royal Canadian Institute. He held honorary doctorates of the Universities of Toronto, Cambridge, Aberdeen and Pennsylvania, the Western Reserve University and the Jefferson Medical College. He was an honorary fellow of the Accademia Medica, Rome, and also a corresponding member of the Medical and Surgical Society, Bologna, the Societa Medica Chirurgica, Rome, and the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, Halle, and Foreign Associate Fellow of the College of Physicians, Philadelphia.

Eric Jarett was a successful teacher and director of research. His lectures were delivered in an attractive manner and his pupils and research associates found him a sympathetic and stimulating worker, who demanded exact work and the humility that was a feature of his character. He would not tolerate careless work. He was much interested in the development of medical education and especially in the introduction of scientific methods of investigation into clinical work.

Outside the laboratory he was keenly interested in golf and gardening and the arts, especially painting. A sensitive, loyal and affectionate man of engaging personality, his serene spirit met with courage and optimism the painful and crippling disabilities which troubled the final years of his busy life.

Jarett was married to Mary McWalter. He died on March 16, 1935.

Get more info at Eric Jarett Bio

There has been much discussion in the media and government over the 14th Amendment to the Constitution and the impact it may have on immigration.

Also called the Citizenship or Naturalization Clause and ratified July 9, 1868, it declares: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens in the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The 14th Amendment reversed the Dred Scott vs. Sanford decision of 1857, which prevented any blacks in America from ever becoming legal citizens, with full rights and privileges. The Citizenship Clause effectively forced Southern states to make blacks legal citizens. The decision to ratify the Constitution and successive decisions in the 142 years since have been intricate and divisive. However, people are calling for another look at the amendment because of the ease in which illegal immigrants’ children are becoming citizens and, thus, mouths to feed on the government dole.

In the early years of the twenty-first century, illegal aliens now play a considerable part in states’ current budget crises. The parents take advantage of the welfare state for their new American citizens while paying little to no taxes to support it. California is now threatened with bankruptcy because of such actions.

In addition to California, Texans are also feeling the burden of instant American citizenry. About 60,000 babies are born to illegal immigrants every year in that state, costing the healthcare and education systems billions of dollars. In the face of liberal ire, State Representative Leo Berman (R-Tyler) has promised to bring a bill to the Texas State Legislature that would forbid the state from issuing birth certificates to children born to illegal immigrants.

In 1868, there had been no Great Society. Therefore, exploitation of the welfare state was not at the forefront of the writers’ minds. But now, it’s a significant problem and one that some lawmakers are questioning.

Democrats, who traditionally love unfettered illegal immigration, say conservatives are the bad guys, and that it’s about winning votes in the November election and not about repairing the immigration crisis (although they would never say it’s a crisis). They’re also going back to the old talking point that conservatives care nothing about the children. They can’t just go back onto the streets, they screech self-righteously.

But those of us with common sense know that the federal government and individual states cannot afford to pay for infinite extractions from the welfare state’s funds. American citizens are already tired of having the government’s grubby paws in their pockets, especially with Obama’s misguided policies for “revivifying” the economy. Liberals squawk about the innocent children who deserve to be Americans just because they were born here on our dime. They may be innocent, but their parents are not entitled to free healthcare. They should be deported back to their home country along with their children. However, changes to constitutional amendments are complicated and rather uncommon. Therefore, this is not the last we will hear on the issue. Liberals, take note: If we try to take care of everyone, we’ll soon be taking care of no one.

Rob Stanley is recording artist and creator of Rockanomics.com, a leading online community for conservative news, new music, political opinion, and pop culture interests. Click here for more on this article and to read others like it.