Happy Birthday, Senator Buckley

On behalf of myself, the officers, and members of the NYS Conservative Party I would like to extend a very Happy 100th Birthday to former Senator, senior member of the Reagan Administration and Federal Jurist, Jim Buckley.

I was a teenager when I received an invitation to attend a speech by then Senator Jim Buckley at the Edmund Seergy Republican Club in Brooklyn. It was 1976 and the Senator was running for re-election. Of course, we were all campaigning for him back in the days when handing out literature was the standard.

The GOP Club which could hold two hundred people within its walls was so overcrowded that people were spilling onto the street. I did not get in, but was able to shake Jim Buckley’s hand and listen as best I could.

The hold the Buckley family, and in particular Jim and his brother Bill Buckley, had on the conservative movement in New York and the nation during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s could best be described as seminal. The family founded Young Americans for Freedom at their home in Sharon, CT. YAF in turn created the American Conservative Union and the annual Conservative Political Action Conferences. Jim and Bill Buckley were regularly in attendance. As a young man I had the honor of serving as a National Board Member of Young Americans for Freedom and considered speaking with Jim and Bill a highlight of my involvement.

Jim and Bill were key to Ronald Reagan’s 1976 effort to become the Presidential nominee and just as important in 1980 when he was elected President. Jim went on to serve in several senior Reagan Administration positions and for many years as a federal Court of Appeals Judge for the District of Columbia.

Currently, Jim Buckley has not been honored by the Federal government through the naming of a park, building or other federal installation. That could change. Senator Buckley was the sponsor of the legislation creating Gateway National Recreation Area in the New York City region. United States Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska, a onetime legal intern for Judge Buckley, and Republican Conservative Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis of Staten Island/Brooklyn have sponsored legislation to name the Staten Island portion of the national park after Senator Buckley. We will be strongly advocating for its passage.
Read my full press release here on Senator Buckley.

New Taxes to Pay for Biden Budget

It is a mainstay of the conservative movement that elections have consequences. Here is one: out of touch, left-wing manipulated President Biden has submitted a bloated federal budget that depends on tax increases to assist in covering its ballooning costs. Speaker McCarthy, Ways and Means Chairman Jason Scott, and the GOP House Majority have declared new taxes a non-starter. The end result will be that we win and Biden loses. Elections have consequences.