You may have recently seen an ad for USAservice.org featuring President Obama.

Sounds nice, right?  The President calling on people to serve their local communities, to shoulder the burdens of others, to take ownership in well-being of their fellow citizens.  Who could be against that?  Well, the President is. 

Daniel Indivigilio explains the new plan for Forbes magazine in an article out today.

Although President Barack Obama hopes to help the poor by providing government-regulated health care, his plan to pay for it might actually cause those same people harm.

In his preliminary budget, Obama says he plans to pay for his health care reform by increasing the burden on those he considers "rich," families earning more than $250,000. In particular, taxpayers would only be able to take itemized deductions against a 28% tax rate, instead of the actual rate they paid, which in 2011 could be as high as 39.6%. That means they'd still be paying nearly a 12% tax on items they were supposedly allowed to deduct.

But the rich aren't the only ones who could lose under this plan, critics say. Those who benefit from the wealthy's deductible charitable contributions could also feel the pain, as the rich cut back on giving. …

The budget request could not come at a worse time for nonprofits. According to Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy, in the second half of 2008, nonprofits have been in the worst fundraising climate for U.S. charities in more than decade. Gifts of $1 million or more fell by 33% in the second half of 2008, compared to the same period in 2007.

Budgets reflect our priorities and we do this particularly in how we write the tax code.  Legislators understand that creating tax breaks for certain activities will increase the amount of people who desire to take part in those activities.  With that said, why would we want to reduce the number of people who are willing to give large sums of money to charity?

Some liberals are arguing on the typical basis of class warfare.  "They're rich.  They don't need tax breaks to give away money.  The rich shouldn't use charitable contributions to avoid paying taxes anyway."

I don't care why people give money to charities, non-profits, and faith-based organizations.  I just care that they do it.  Right here, in my own community, we have organizations that have become pillars of the community, organizations like the Durham Rescue Mission.  As the economy becomes more strained and more folks lose jobs and even places to live, their needs are not decreasing.  They are increasing.  When their needs aren't met, the needs of those seeking help aren't met.

Now is not the time to discourage generosity.  Now is the time to encourage all of us to take responsibility for our own communities.  By increasing reliance on government to address these problems, the President robs us of the opportunity of caring about our neighbors and engaging in service to those around us in need.  In times of economic distress, we need to set these things as priorities, not find ways to discourage charity in pursuit of the expansion of government power.

Chris Hayes, in a blog post yesterday over at Red Clay Citizen, opined that Republicans have a messaging issue on taxes explaining why voters in a January Civitas Poll said they trusted Democrats over Republicans to hold down taxes.
 
First, let me just say that if you aren't aware of the work Civitas is doing on behalf of the conservative movement, you need to familiarize yourself right away.  The folks over there are good, hardworking people who wake up everyday dedicated to the conservative movement in North Carolina. 
 
That being said, Chris and I disagree on this issue.  Republicans don't have a messaging problem on taxes.  We have a credibility problem. 
 
 As Chris well knows, the majority of voters in North Carolina don't know which party controls the General Assembly, much less which individual legislators are proposing new tax options. 
 
If we have any messaging problems when it comes to taxes, it is that we lean on tax cuts as a message too often without explaining how tax cuts will help solve the problems we are facing and how they will provide relief to the average worker and family.
 
Fair or unfair, people take their cues for state politics from what happens on the national stage.  On the national stage, we just came through en election cycle where we were blamed for runaway spending that has put our country in a dire economic situation.  Voters are smart enough to know that when spending increases at an astronomical rate, tax raises are always sure to follow.  That damages our credibility.
 
We also allowed our opponent in the presidential race campaign on a platform of lower taxes for 95% of Americans.  Somehow, we ended up on the wrong side of the tax argument in the most visible election for voters.  That damages our credibility.
 
An encouraging sign has been found in the "stimulus" debate.  Republicans have done a reasonably good job of arguing for more jobs and less debt.  That is the kind of thing we want our party to be known for.
 
When you lose the trust of people, there is only one way to get it back.  Do what you say you will do. 
 
All the new messaging and rebranding in the world is no substitute for right action and standing up for grassroots conservatives.  That is what we must do to earn back the trust of the people of North Carolina and I believe we are on the right track once again.
 
I would welcome your thoughts below.
 
How can N.C. Republicans gain back the trust of voters on taxes and the other pressing issues of our time?

Over at Dome, Sen. Hagan has become the latest Democrat to feign outrage at the bloated salaries of Wall Street executives receiving bailout funds.

Now I can't imagine that Kay Hagan is honestly confused about why CEOs are making large amounts of money. She was formerly a VP of North Carolina National Bank, right? After all, Senator Hagan is worth somewhere between $4 and $40 million herself. (Speaking of more money than most of us will make in a lifetime.) This makes her the 13th wealthiest member of the U.S. Senate.

This isn't to say that those Wall Street CEOs are worth a dime. Limiting their salary to $400,000 isn't nearly a punitive enough measure as these people have driven their companies into the ground and driven our economy to the brink of collapse. Even after all that, they have the indecency to come grovelling for taxpayer money as if we should be on the hook for their mistakes. However, it is their employers who should be reducing their salary to 0, not hypocritical Washington politicians looking to feign outrage, preen with populism, and look like men and women of the people. Spare me your righteous indignation, Senator Hypocrisy. Leave that to the people who are actually hurting these days.

Meanwhile, Senator Burr makes TMZ for (gasp!) driving his own car, a 1974 VW Thing. Now that's the kind of conservative thrift I am looking for in a Senator from North Carolina!

North Carolina, we have a problem. If it weren't bad enough to see North Carolinian's hard-earned taxpayer monies diverted to Detroit, or Omaha, or political financiers pockets in every state but our own; we have also had to endure the agony of watching our own elected, Republican representatives supporting such nonsense.

We are fortunate that in the latest round of trillion dollar bailout plans, at least the Republicans have managed to unite in opposition to this thievery scheme. I still wonder, however, was that opposition out of principle, or mere partisanship?

Representative Virginia Foxx is our brightest light in terms of opposing these unethical and reprehensible billionaire bailouts, she opposed them when such opposition was unpopular, and she still opposes this socialism today. Bravo Rep Foxx!

But Senator Burr has only opposed these bailouts when it was politically expedient and necessary for him to do so; and when the bailouts he supported went horribly wrong, he sought only to justify why his failed decision was the right one to make.

We have a lot of work to do folks. If we want to reverse North Carolina's plunge into the blue, and indeed resurge into Republican domination, then we must hold our elected Republican office-holders accountable to the very conservative principles which they claim to hold dear.

If we fail to do so, I can assure you, that we will see nothing but blue blue blue long into the future of this state. But if we DO manage to hold our Republican representatives accountable, and we DO manage to force them to stand on principle, then we have genuine hope of once again painting the state red from every precinct, county, and district.

In this round of editorial submission requests, we are asking readers to provide a couple of three paragraphs regarding the recent "stimulus" bill and the after effects that it will have on the foundational principles of free-market capitalism.

As an indicator of how far Capitalism as an ideal has regressed, just remember the 2007 outrage from Boeing over European government subsidies to support the development of the A380 superliner jet. This climate of taxpayer backed bailouts and political paybacks makes that sort of protest sound like my 9 month old son's fading faint cry as he falls asleep in his crib.

Pluses will be given for content as it relates to North Carolina. As always, please post your submissions to the appropriate forum found here: http://redsurgence.org/submissions.

So President Obama is outraged that Wall Street executives received bonuses last year. Don't get me wrong. I am all for populism, but what exactly is his outrage accomplishing?

President Obama made $4.5 million in 2007 as stated on his last released tax return, mostly from sales of his two books. That was substantially more than the millions of Americans facing unemployment or potentially losing their jobs. I don't see the President turning down any of that money.

Hypocritical outrage is not accomplishing what we need. Telling poor people to hate rich people does not make poor people rich. Telling poor people to hate rich people doesn't create jobs. It's a distraction. It is aimed at distracting us from what the President is actually trying to do with the so-called "stimulus" package. He's not as interested in creating long-term, quality jobs as he is in rewarding special interest groups who helped get him elected, like ACORN.

President Obama, we had an election last November. As you have so eloquently put it, you won. But now, the time for campaign rhetoric is over. This is a time for governing. It is time to put childish things away. Class envy and division are among those.

In the last few days, I have picked up on an argument among conservatives about whether we should be supporting out new President and wishing him success or dreaming of his failure and plotting his defeat. I have a simple answer to the question of whether I hope for success or dream of failure.

I don’t care.

Now, please don’t take my answer as apathy. I care about many things. I care about America and about the future of North Carolina. I care about our children receiving an education that provides them with the skills they need in an ever-changing global economy. I care about the prosperity of families who are trying to buy their first home, put their kids through college, or just pay the bills at the end of the month. I care about the thousands upon thousands of our neighbors who have lost their jobs in a difficult economy. I care about preserving our Constitution as the foundational document of this great country. I care about our nation living up to the true meaning of our creeds and I care about fulfilling the promise of equality, justice, and opportunity for all. I care about protecting human life, both for the unborn and those born into despondency, disease, and despair. I care if our elected officials choose to serve the people or serve themselves with the spoils of office. I care about our troops overseas spending each day making sure that the air I breathe is still free and I care about those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to give us hope that we may see the end of tyranny in our lifetimes. I care very much about protecting the American values of ingenuity, self-reliance, and perpetual optimism even in the face of great difficulty.

I don't care if President Obama suceeeds. I care if these values succeed. If President Obama wants to be a part of that, then he is welcome to join our cause. In every action that he takes to support our common values, he can expect the support of conservatives. In every action he takes to oppose our conservative values, he can expect a fight. I won’t hope for failure and setbacks for our country out of an entirely cynical desire for the President’s defeat. I won’t oppose America just to oppose President Obama. That’s what many Democrats and liberals did for eight years to President Bush. It was unpatriotic, undignified, and un-American to do so then and it will be no better for us to do it now. As conservatives, we are better than that. We can be better than that. We can oppose President Obama on ideas and policies without wishing ill and misfortune on the man and by extension the country. We can sink to the depths liberals sank to during the last eight years or we can rise to the occasion to cast a conservative vision for our future. We can protect our values by living up to them.

It comes as no surprise that President Barack Obama has couched his language in Orwellian doublespeak. He says that we must "volunteer" for a mandatory government program. This evokes, to my mind, the fact that the Chinese national anthem is called, "The March Of The Volunteers."

On the surface of it, Obama's rhetoric that we "must learn to do for ourselves because the government can't do it for us" sounds like a well principled statement. However, beyond the veil of doublespeak we discover the plans to grow welfare, and to grow and extend unemployment, and to grow state-sponsored education.

Obama has pledged to go beyond the red vs blue paradigm that plagues our nation, all the while pushing policy so far to the left that Congressional Democrats are trying to put on the brakes.

Remember that this is the same man who, in the Senate, styled himself as the champion of personal rights and privacy to the extent that he promised to filibuster the unconstitutional FISA Amendment, all the while behind the scenes he was helping to build the coalition to ensure it's passage -- and of course his "yes" vote is recorded for all of history to examine.

This self-styled "change" candidate has perhaps the most establishment-centric voting record in the US Senates long and storied history.

So beware the gilded tongue! Much as the novel "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell describes for us a world where the concept of doublespeak rules the day, a kind of political speech where everything said actually means the direct opposite of the surface English, we have before us today a President who - more than any other President in the history of the United States - has demonstrated his commitment to stating the opposite of what he means every time.

Beware America, beware! Most of our population still believes that he means what he says, and no mountains of evidence to the contrary will convince them. President Obama is trying to build a society of dreams and hope much like former Presidents have build an economy purely of dreams and of hope.

The hope-based economy is in the process of one of the worst crash and burns in the history of planet Earth, and the hope-based society will surely follow.

Thank you for signing up to be a part of this new grassroots movement known as REdSURGENCE. After making great strides in North Carolina politics this past election cycle, Republicans quickly saw those gains quashed in the steamroller known as the Obama campaign. Our goal, is to feed conservative energy back into the North Carolina political process and take back this state for the GOP. North State Republicans are well conditioned to facing the reality of institutionalized Democrat power every two years, be it through tradition, misguidance or misinformation. We see the solution as simple: convert conservative Democrat votes by effectively expressing the values of conservatism. A mere 5% change in votes last election would have kept this state red for McCain, taken charge of the Governorship, kept Elizabeth Dole in Washington DC and chipped away at the balance of power in the Legislature.

REdSURGENCE was designed to be a haven for anyone seeking to change the way business is done in Raleigh or Washington. The "News Room" carries various linkage from relevant sources and topics; the "Conservative Reading Room" is a growing embrace of the conservative blogging community throughout the state; and for the literary challenged, Redsurgence Radio is a page of various streaming podcasts, providing another sensory experience. Check out the forums to sound off or send us a message if you have any ideas that might be helpful in better attaining our goal.

As REdSURGENCE gets off the ground, we'll be looking for front page contributors, moderators and as many readers as possible; we'd like to open up that search officially today. From time to time, we will be offering up the REdSURGENCE homepage for our regular readers to submit a blog or editorial on a predefined topic. The first topic in that series will be "Inaugural Thinking". With any inauguration of a new leader, the spirit of "change" is pervasive, regardless of the self-promotion brought on by campaigns. The spirit of "change" and "hope" can be born again in this state for the GOP and it will be your charge to reflect that in your submission. Be sure to register for the site and post your submission in the forum here: http://redsurgence.org/submissions/inauguralthinking.

Thank you for being part of this movement and welcome to REdSURGENCE...

Welcome to REdSURGENCE. This will soon become the go-to place for Republican politics in North Carolina.