Tomorrow night, President Obama will be giving his State of the Union address. In it, he will doubtless take the opportunity to throw some barbs at the Do Nothing Congress™ he has become so fond of demonizing. He will push his "We Can't Wait™" schtick, trying to sell the idea that Congress or that pesky Constitution are holding him back from the fundamental change he so desperately wants, in a vain attempt to justify his unconstitutional power grab.
Interestingly enough, tomorrow is also another major milestone for America. It marks the one thousandth day since the democrat-led Senate last passed a budget.
So who is more do-nothing - the House republicans who have passed nearly thirty jobs bills since they took power a year ago, or the Senate democrats who refuse to bring a single one of them to the floor for a vote in an effort to carry water for President Obama's Do Nothing Congress™ campaign push?
When the president talks about the obstructionist Congress, he's not just whistling Dixie. But in true democratic fashion, he is projecting the inactivity for which his own party is responsible onto House Republicans, while his lapdog press happily echo it for all it's worth. He has to run against a Do Nothing Congress™, because the other option is to run on his record, and we all know that's a non-starter. And if you don't have a Do Nothing Congress™, why, good ol' Harry Reid is there to make sure you do!
It will be interesting to see how his 'free markets are evil' meme goes over, considering polls like this. According to that, it certainly doesn't seem like pushing a top-down, government managed economy is going to be a big seller in November. But when you live in a bubble and refuse to give credence to such polls, the most unexpected things happen.
There's another benefit to Senate dems refusing to pass a budget. One can't help but come to the conclusion that passing a budget that calls for, say, $1.6 trillion in deficit spending would raise a hue and cry and put the excessive federal spending of this administration in the spotlight, as happened with President Obama's (I use the term loosely) "budget". Passing contentious continuing resolutions instead keeps the spending blurred and harder to keep track of - and offers the additional bonus of a handy bludgeon to go after republicans to make them seem stingy and mean for saying no to the out-of-control spending. Think about it. When are you more responsible with your money - when you are trying to keep to a budget or when you just spend as the need (or desire) arises? It's a no brainer. Well, except in Washington.
Delusional lefties whine that republicans have kept them from passing a budget with filibusters and other dirty tricks since Obama took office. Well, as far as the past year goes, that's a stretch considering the House actually passed a budget, the Ryan Plan, which the Senate refused to even acknowledge and a second, President Obama's, that the Senate voted down unanimously - but at least it got a vote. But what about the other two years of the Obama administration - one of which featured a democratic House majority and Senate super majority, and the other with just plain old democratic majorities in both houses? How is it that they were able to pass Obamacare - arguably the most unpopular piece of legislation to be signed into law in recent memory - but they couldn't pass a budget?
One thousand days of irresponsibility at the hands of Democrats in Washington. Here's hoping we only have 287 more to go before REAL change comes to town.
The budget debate high drama last week was a real eye opener. The resulting compromise - a smashing success all the way around when one considers how it seems absolutely no one is happy with it - not only temporarily postponed a potential economic disaster, it also drew a line in the sand. The democrats made it perfectly clear that they are willing to send the country over the fiscal cliff in order to protect and fund Planned Parenthood. The republicans managed to get a small concession in the banning of abortion funding for the Washington D.C. area only - something Reid et al bemoaned, even though they have enforced the ban in the past - without republican pressure.
Planned Parenthood claims no federal dollars are spent on abortions. In that they don't send a bill to Washington for each abortion, okay, yes, the money isn't going straight to abortions; but in that they use the money they receive from taxpayers to pay doctor's and nurse's salaries and the electric bill that powers the suction machine, it certainly is. Consider, for a moment, smoking in restaurants. At first, regulations required a seperate seating area for smokers. Eventually is became evident that even though the smokers were being quarantined, their smoke was not. In fact, it was permeating every inch, as smoke is wont to do. And so smoking in restaurants was banned entirely. The federal funding of Planned Parenthood is like the smoke - it may not be directly used for abortions, but it is ending up that way in the long run by permeating every inch of the organization's day to day expenses. Let's not forget that federal funding of abortions is barred, according to the Hyde Amendment. No matter how "compassionate" it might be (it certainly isn't for the baby in question), banned is banned, period. Not one thin dime of taxpayer money should go to any enterprise that performs non-emergency abortions on demand.
The fact is, Planned Parenthood is a private enterprise. It makes a profit each year, and may even be expanding in the near future. As such, our federal government has no business subsidizing them for anything, let alone abortions. Perhaps PP should consider tapping their celebrity friends to assist them in a fundraising drive every year. Hopefully some of them will donate not just their fame to the cause but actually put their money where their mouths are for a change. In fact, online donations to PP since the budget battle have increased a whopping 500%. See? They don't need federal funding - just whip up some hysteria and voila! it's payday!
Unfortunately, the furor with which this issue has been met by the left is, as usual these days, over the top to the point of cartoonish. Republicans are coming to "kill women" according to Rep. Louise Slaughter. The GOP is out to keep women from health care services, apparently out of nothing more than sheer spite and ideology. You would think there were no other clinics or health care facilities in the US other than PP, wouldn't you? It's almost as if, were PP to shut down tomorrow, there would no longer be any abortions available anywhere and Roe v. Wade would somehow, in a miraculously simultanious event, be reversed.
The hysteria has to stop. The fact that we are giving more than $350 million a year to a private - and profitable - entity is reason enough to end the gravy train. That it might, even indirectly, pay for abortions with taxpayer funds makes defunding even more imperative. $350 million a year won't make a big dent in our debt, but when you add it in with other cuts and, most importantly, entitlement reform, it makes a tidy sum. Much like environmentalists are always urging us to "do your part", no matter how small, a whole bunch of littles add up to a lot.
The issue isn't access to abortions or women's health care - there are plenty of outlets for both with or without Planned Parenthood. The issue is money. Simply put, we don't have any. And yet democrats keep insisting we continue to fund PP, a private organization, even when it means forty cents of every dollar we give them is borrowed. It's time Planned Parenthood (and other crony corporations) was weaned from the public teat.
Defunding Planned Parenthood may not happen this year, but there's always 2012 and the potential of not just a Senate flip, but the White House, too. Good things come to those who wait.
The teacher's unions in Wisconsin are protesting Governor Scott Walker's proposed stripping of their collective bargaining rights. This is due to the contract running out - it's the state's prerogative to not renew it, and it would basically turn Wisconsin into a right to work state overnight. There is also a proposal in the budget that would require union members to contribute to their own pensions and health care plans like the rest of us. Educators have gone so far as to do an illegal "sick-out" two days in a row. Numerous districts have had to close schools for two days running because more than 40% of their teachers called in sick in protest. Thousands of children are having their education neglected by their own teachers so that those teachers can go demand more special treatment at taxpayer's expense (and claim it's for the kids!).
There were also students in attendance, many brought to the festivities by their teachers. Let's hope they got their permission slips signed first! This so-called "solidarity" is bogus because many of the students don't know why they are there or what they are protesting. Being teenagers, they just jumped at the chance to play hooky and hang out with their friends at a rally:
Fox News commentator Mary Katherine Hamm put it best when host Stuart Varney asked if this behavior was causing public opinion to shift against unions:
"I think it is, and I don't think it helps unions to be skipping their jobs and coming out and getting paid to protest to get more taxpayer money while being paid taxpayer money. I don't think that works for them. It's not a great argument."
Using their students as human shields isn't such a great idea, either. HotAir's Ed Morrissey sums the issue up nicely:
Most of the students marching with their teachers had no idea of the finer points of Governor Scott Walker’s proposal to bring teacher pension contributions in line with the private sector, a position the union called “slavery” just a couple of months before conceding the point. Nor do they understand the budget gap that Walker faces, or the nuances of economic policy, tax burdens, and growth policies. All they know is what their teachers told them — and that speaks to political indoctrination conducted in public schools by activist teachers, and the inability of parents and communities to weed out inappropriate politicking in classrooms.
Why are parents and communities unable to weed out these politically motivated teachers? Because unions make it nearly impossible to fire a tenured teacher, and our democratic leaders block any legislation that might tie the hands of their union cronies fundraisers. And what do we get for it? We spend more than 5% of GDP yearly on education, and in return we enjoy a global ranking of "average". Out of 34 countries, the U.S. ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science and a seriously disheartening 25th in math.
To add to the chaos, Wisconsin state senate democrats snuck out the back door, boarded a chartered bus and are currently holed up in a Best Western in Illinois. Seriously, I kid you not. I sure hope they aren't using their state credit cards for this little...junket. Cowards. Meanwhile, back in Madison, the grownups republicans were unable to make a quorum to vote on the budget due to a complete lack of democrats and so were forced to go home.
This is what one might call a "government shutdown". You may have heard that term recently, because congressional democrats for some reason have been saying it's allegedly what republicans are planning on doing. Please note that the only party either talking about or doing it is the one on the left side of the aisle. Not only do they refuse to make the hard decisions, they refuse to allow anyone else to, either. The democrats who fled to Illinois have announced their solidarity with the unions over the greater good of the state and have, with their dereliction and defection, effectively gone on strike and should be held accountable for their actions.
Our esteemed President has also weighed in on the subject - three guesses on which side he's taking! The DNC also apparently has a horse in this race, because they are organizing their little guts out in the Madison community these days. Twittering twit Michael Moore has also piped up, of course, likening Wisconsin to the New Cairo, and called Gov. Walker "Mini-Mubarak". There are plenty of "Recall Walker" signs to support Moore's idea, but it's highly doubtful Walker will resign over this, so hopefully they aren't getting their hopes up too high. Fascinating how they are all working together, no? Obama, unions, and the DNC all in lockstep arm in arm - how cozy....
No doubt there will be more protests tomorrow, and the democratic delegation in exile doesn't seem too keen on growing backbones and coming back and dealing with the $3+ billion budget gap their state elected them to deal with any time soon. How in the world are we supposed to get out of the looming fiscal ruin we are facing not just in individual states but nationally if no one is willing to make the cuts?
We are all going to get hit by austerity measures eventually - on both federal and state levels in most cases, and that has to include our heretofore untouchable union members. To paraphrase President Obama, "they are our neighbors, they are our friends" - so maybe they should chip in and help shoulder the burden instead of hold us hostage, dontcha think? You know, as neighbors and friends? Obama says that this is an attack on the unions. You bet! Public sector unions have become too powerful and too expensive. Other states are watching this closely to see if they, too, can bust the unions and save themselves. Bottom line, unions should not have the ability to shut down a government and hold it hostage until their demands are met. That is what the mess in Wisconsin really boils down to.
In order to work in a public position in Wisconsin you are required to join a union. Once you join that union, you are required to pay dues to said union - they are automatically garnished from members wages. And yet they call being asked to kick in for their own pensions to take some of the burden off the taxpayer "slavery". Breaking the collective bargaining agreement will break the union stranglehold, allowing members to opt out if they so choose. Considering how membership is already slipping nationally, no doubt the unions are really sweating this prospect. It might mean losing untold numbers of members, which, of course, means fewer dues. This translates into smaller donations to democrat fundraisers. Unacceptable, in other words.
What originally started out as a small protest by teachers has blown up into a near revolt by the public unions and their democrat supporters. They should proceed carefully, however because this could really backfire in a big way. Disapproval of unions is on the rise, and these demonstrations and shutdowns could well be a tipping point, and not in their favor.
Taking hostages is always a tricky proposition. It's also usually a sign of desperation - something Walker and the GOP senators should keep in mind as the pressure is applied to them. Time for a counter protest!
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Senator Judd Gregg totally tore into Obama's Budget Director Peter Orszag today. It was great. I watched it three times and give it two enthusiastic thumbs up! I wish that more of our representatives would start calling the administration out on this garbage. Kudos to you, Sen. Gregg!
Orszag was trying to argue that it was perfectly fine to take the TARP money the banks have repaid and 'redirect' it to pay for the small business incentives Obama touted today. Sounds great, right? Small business really needs the help, for sure. But what the administration is doing is against the law. Yes, help is desperately needed in the small business sector, but there are other ways to do it.
The law, according to Sen. Gregg, who read it out loud to Mr. Orszag, clearly states that all monies recouped from TARP banks should be used to pay off the public debt and for no other purpose.
Unfortunately, the Obama administration sees this money as their own personal slush fund.
This Presidential Piggy Bank has become their go-to fund for all of their little schemes - most of them involving reelection smoke and mirrors, such as this latest small business salve.
This administration has an odd habit of giving with one hand and slapping us silly with the other. The hijinx going on with the TARP funds is a perfect example of that. With one hand, they are giving small businesses TARP funded incentives, and with the other they are slapping them down with threats of excessive taxation for health care, cap and trade, and the revocation of the Bush tax cuts, among other things. The increased taxation and regulation will do far more harm than the offered incentives could possibly make up for.
The level of ham-fisted deceit is just mind blowing. They are attempting to cloak themselves in populism, of all things -giving the impression of helping out the little guy (with a dash of fat cat banker hating to illustrate the victimhood, of course), when all the while they really have the little guy by the throat, slowly squeezing the life out of him. It's like a 1930's B movie film noir shakedown.
Which means this newest show of elitist largesse will have the same result as all the rest of their strong-arm, tax and spend tactics - businesses will hunker down even further, refuse to risk hiring and wait for the wave of redistributive taxation recede.
God willing, that wave will break in November.
BTW - Am I the only one who thinks the term "Obama budget" is an oxymoron?
Our government is spending us into the poor house. Not just you and me, but our children and grandchildren. Once again we are being fed the Keynesian line that we have to spend our way out of this recession. Well, the democrats have been in power and spending like it's Monopoly money since 2007, with the amounts really racheting up once Obama took office and they truly had free rein.
Last year VP Joe Biden tried to sell us on spending money to keep us from going bankrupt. My nine year old, upon hearing Biden's theory said, "That's silly! Everyone knows you can't spend more money if you run out of money! He's crazy!" That's my little sunshiny ray of hope for the future! Too bad our government can't grasp something a nine year old sees as basic common sense.
This is now the longest recession since the Great Depression, which I find rather telling. It is widely accepted now that FDR's New Deal - massive government spending and intrusion into the free markets - crippled the recovery in the 1930's. Unfortunately, our current administration is using the New Deal as their road map through our present crisis (and oh so cleverly called it the 'New New Deal'), which is most likely why this recession is dragging on into it's third year, when most recessions last 8-12 months.
That is the problem with Progressive revisionist history. Their habit of changing history to suit their political ends sets us all up for disaster. If you don't learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it. Unfortunately, we are in for a harsh lesson if our government continues on this path - something they seem determined to the point of obsession with continuing.
President Obama offered his budget for 2011 today. Apparently his talk about discretionary spending freezes next year was just more hot air, because his 2010 budget was for $3.6 trillion, and his 2011 budget is for $3.8 trillion. How did he manage to put in a spending freeze and yet still increase the budget by $200 billion (while simultaniously bragging about cutting $20 billion, to boot)? What's even more mind-boggling is that people are actually going to buy that line he's selling. Another amazing thing is the short turnaround on this broken promise. Usually a few months pass between the lie being sold and the reality coming to light. This one only took a week. The only thing transparent about this administration these days is it's dishonesty and spin.
Apparently, there is $100 billion in jobs stimulus in there somewhere - a nice little trick. They wanted to create a whole new stimulus package, but, when the idea went over like a lead balloon with the public, they just snuck it in, as is becoming standard operating procedure with this administration. Unfortunately, we need job growth now, not some time in 2011. Interesting timing on that one, too. Congressional dems need to have something to bring to voters by this summer or they risk losing reelection - this plan wouldn't help them. Which means that the 2011 job plan is solely to assure that The One can get reelected. Every rat dem for themselves, eh? I guess Congressional dems are betting it all on the stimulus bill creating jobs over the summer. Good luck with that!
This budget, like most everything else this tax and spend administration has passed so far, is bloated and ridiculously expensive, with the added bonus that it will add $1.6 trillion to our already out of control deficit. Oh, goody. What are we up to now? About $600,000 per household?
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty wrote an op-ed today in Politico. I encourage you to read it. It certainly starts out with a bang:
The U.S. attorney general recently announced that the Justice Department is beefing up its efforts to fight financial fraud such as Ponzi schemes. Good. The agency should start by reviewing the spending habits of the federal government, which is running the largest Ponzi scheme our country has ever seen.
He's absolutely right - this is a gigantic Ponzi scheme. Except instead of taking the money of investors who volunteered their money in hopes of getting rich quick, our money is being taken from us against our will, and it isn't just our money - it is generational theft. As yet unborn children and grandchildren will be paying for this for decades, if not longer. If Bernie Madoff deserved to go to jail for stealing $50 billion, what should be the sentence for $1.3 trillion? This budget will cause us to have a deficit that exceeds our GDP by October 2011.
That is sheer insanity.
At this point, I am at a loss as to how to get them to rethink their ways. We protest, they ignore. We call in, they shut off the phones. We send letters and emails and get form letters in return, reassuring us that our "representatives" will do what they feel is best, no matter what the majority of Americans want. All we can do is continue to protest, call and write, and, of course, VOTE.
But just voting in 2010 is not enough. We need a Six Year Plan. The House is up for reelection every two years, but the Senate only reelects one third of their body every two years. It would take three election cycles to clean house, and that is exactly what we need to do - clean house. We need to keep our eyes on the prize - we need to keep our memories sharp and vote out any incumbents who have voted to rob us and our posterity of our hard earned money. Not just this year, but until every last one of those lying, corrupt thieves are gone.
A revolution was fought in this country because of taxation without representation. If our elected officials in Washington refuse to listen to the will of the majority of the people and insist on implimenting an unpopular agenda, they are no longer representatives.
We went to war in 1776 over a penny tax imposed upon us by a tone deaf monarch and his arrogant, overreaching government who refused to hear the concerns of those being taxed. Adding insult to injury, the tax money was to be spent back in England, so the taxpayers saw no direct benefit from the increase. We are now being subjected to trillions in taxes, passed in bills that we are not allowed to read by "representatives" who are only interested in their own political gain and are doling out the money from their giant slush fund to donors and cronies. Our tone deaf, arrogant government, when faced with the fears of the people, belittle, demonize and dismiss.
Thomas Jefferson had it right - When the people fear their government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.
Our public servants have lost their fear. It's time to remind them who is the boss. We fired the warning shot with Scott Brown's election. They have decided to double down and try to fool us again on the campaign trail with more false promises and spin.
They will not reform, so they must be removed.
It's time to remind them that this is a government of the People, by the People and FOR the People.
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