States Resisting ObamaCare

I don't know if you remember what I posted on July 29th, but I wrote a bill to be introduced in the next Legislative session. It's called the Alabama Health Care Freedom Act of 2010. It's an amendment to the Alabama Constitution that would protect people (including medical care providers) from being forced into purchasing health insurance or joining a health care plan, and would preclude their being fined if they refused to so cooperate.

Note that it doesn't impact voluntary participation in any plan, it just says people can't be FORCED to participate.
http://politicsalabama.blogspot.com/2009/07/alabama-health-care-freedom-act-of-2010.html

I love being ahead of the trend. This kind of thing is apparently spreading, with lawmakers in more than a dozen states pursuing something similar.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/us/29states.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

In more than a dozen statehouses across the country, a small but growing group of lawmakers is pressing for state constitutional amendments that would outlaw a crucial element of the health care plans under discussion in Washington: the requirement that nearly everyone buy insurance or pay a penalty.

Approval of the measures, the lawmakers suggest, would set off a legal battle over the rights of states versus the reach of federal power — an issue that is, for some, central to the current health care debate but also one that has tentacles stretching into many other matters, including education and drug policy.

I have not yet found a sponsor for this bill... so come on guys, do me proud. Let's find a Legislator willing to introduce the bill next year!


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Just A Quick Notice

Just so you'll know, I will try to post one or two entries today... but no promises. Today is my birthday, and I turn *mumble,mumble* years old today.

Regardless of what I do or do not post, I will be back tomorrow just like normal.


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He’s President, Not Chairman Of School Board

You know, I thought Obama ran to be President of the United States. If memory serves, he won that office, too. So why is he suddenly sounding like he’d rather be the Chairman of every State and local School Board in the country?
http://www.eduinreview.com/blog/2009/03/obama-proposes-longer-school-days-extended-school-year/

This week President Obama proposed that American school children extend their time in class, either by lengthening the school day, or spending less time on summer vacation.

“We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land at the end of each day,” Obama said. He continued to say “That calendar may have once made sense, but today, it puts us at a competitive disadvantage. Our children spend over a month less in school than children in South Korea. That is no way to prepare them for a 21st century economy.”

The last time I checked, each state sets their own school year schedule, not the President of the United States. I am not aware of any Constitutional argument that would give the President and/or Congress any authority whatsoever to do what he is suggesting. Does the President realize how inappropriate it is for him to suggest otherwise?

As a stand-alone suggestion, it’s probably neutral at best. If the kids aren’t LEARNING, sticking them in the classroom for longer periods of time won’t change things much. We have to improve the QUALITY of the education, not the quantity. So his suggestion isn’t going to magically fix any problems in our educational system… and may actually make things worse.

But back to his arogant assumption of power that doesn’t belong to him… each state in this nation is a sovereign entity and has the right and responsibility to govern itself as it sees fit. I guess this doesn’t matter to PresBo… I mean, he owns car companies and controls banks. Why shouldn’t he exercise control over states as well?

UPDATE: Here's an analysis of the economic costs of PresBo's proposal. "Critics say the president's call for a longer academic calendar and a shorter summer vacation will bring on a host of unintended consequences -- including increased costs for school systems, major cuts to the nation's hotel and tourism industries, and a serious blow to summer camp operators."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/28/obamas-extended-school-year-dire-economic-effects-critics-claim/

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Charisma Alone Is A Recipe For Failure

The one thing Obama has going for him is his charisma. Personally, I think he is dramatically overexposing himself in order to push his ObamaCare agenda… how dramatic and moving can the President’s 15th major address on health care actually be? The power of the Presidency is diluted when it is used too often, and PresBo likes the sound of his own voice so much that he’s overdoing it.

Charisma alone won’t make him a success, and so far he’s made some major rookie mistakes. How can a former member of Congress think letting them draft bills with little or no guidance from the President would be even remotely a good idea? He’s in danger of blowing his entire Presidency, here, and he’s doing it all himself.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/216210

Obama seems to think he'll get credit for the breathtaking scope of his ambition. But unless he sees results, it will have the opposite effect—diluting his clout, exhausting his allies, and emboldening his enemies.

That may be starting to happen. Health-care legislation is still weeks, if not months, from passage, and the bill as it stands could well be a windfall for the very insurance and drug companies it was supposed to rein in. Climate-change legislation (a.k.a. cap-and-trade) is almost certainly dead for this year, which means that American negotiators will go empty-handed to the Copenhagen summit in December —pushing the goal of limiting carbon emissions even farther into the distance. In the spring Obama privately told the big banks that he was going to change the way they do business. It was going to be his way or the highway. But the complex legislation he wants to submit to Congress has little chance of passage this year. Doing Letterman again won't help. It may boost the host's ratings, Mr. President, but probably not your own.

One of my major pet peeves is that though he CLAIMS he wants to “look forward,” in reality he looks back and blames everything on Bush. News flash, PresBo, the election is over and Bush hasn’t been President for the past nine months or so. It’s time to stop trying to blame others, step up to the plate, and pretend you’re an adult and responsible for your own actions.

There is only so much political mileage that can still be had by his reminding the world that he is not George W. Bush. It was the winning theme of the 2008 campaign, but that race ended nearly a year ago. The ex-president is now more ex than ever, yet the current president, who vowed to look forward, is still reaching back to Bush as bogeyman.

He did it again in that U.N. speech. The delegates wanted to know what the president was going to do about Israel and the Palestinian territories. He answered by telling them what his predecessor had failed to do. This was effective for his first month or two. Now it is starting to sound more like an excuse than an explanation.

Winning the Presidency isn’t an accomplishment in and of itself… what matters is what he DOES with it. And so far… he’s not doing so hot. He ignores public opinion to push liberal agenda items, demonizes those who honestly disagree with his policies, and can’t even recognize a tax that is clearly labeled as such. He wants to push government into everything, from running our health care to government-owned automobile companies.

Somebody please tell me again WHY we should be glad he won last year? Because I sincerely HOPE this isn't the CHANGE we're really in for.

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Poll: Support For ObamaCare Hits New Low

The Democrats are telling you the public is behind them, and public opinion is turning back after the losses they suffered in August. This simply isn’t true. A recent Rasmussen poll shows that opposition to ObamaCare has risen to 56%... that’s a new high for opposition to the plans.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/september_2009/health_care_reform

Just 41% of voters nationwide now favor the health care reform proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s down two points from a week ago and the lowest level of support yet measured.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 56% are opposed to the plan.

The bottom line is that public support for ObamaCare is not there. Senior citizens oppose it 59%-33%. And although 75% of Democrats favor the bill, 79% of Republicans and 72% of independents are opposed to it.

As to what we expect of it, 55% think the quality of healthcare will get worse if the plan passes, and 54% say costs will rise.

This just doesn’t sound like a public mandate to me, you know?

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Watch For National Sales Tax

One of the ideas for “revenue enhancement” that I’ve been hearing occasional rumbles about recently, is what’s known as a value added tax… or VAT. Basically, that’s a sales tax… though a VAT is supposed to avoid the cascade effect that we enjoy under a normal sales tax. The idea has been that a national VAT could bring in lots of revenue to pay for PresBo’s massive spending increases.

And now we hear a little more about it. John Podesto was President Clinton’s Chief of Staff, and he now says a national VAT is more possible now than it ever was before. He says that the higher the deficits get, the more sense such a tax makes.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aGxdXdfWrZ7o

John Podesta compared the nation’s current budget crisis to the situation former President Bill Clinton faced in 1993 and said some form of a value-added tax is “more plausible today than it ever has been.”

“There’s going to have to be revenue in this budget,” said Podesta, Clinton’s former chief of staff and co-chairman of President Barack Obama’s transition team, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing today.

A so-called consumption tax would “create a balance” with European and Japanese economies and “could potentially have a substantial effect on competitiveness,” said Podesta. Value- added taxes in Europe and Japan encourage savings by taxing consumption.

Podesta said such a tax may be regressive, but can be balanced by exempting some products and using “the money to support low-wage workers.”

For a definition of a VAT, visit the following site. Note: Wikipedia is not always the most reliable source, so check elsewhere on the web.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value_added_tax

In my humble opinion, such a tax would be an incredibly bad idea. First, there’s Obama’s signature promise, his solemn word, that he wouldn’t raise taxes on 95% of Americans. He breaks that pledge at his own political peril. Second, such a tax would impact all of us directly, and would negatively impact economic growth. If PresBo is looking for an idea to cripple US economic growth for decades to come, this is the one. Of course, he’s already well down that path with his ObamaCare, bailout packages, “stimulus” spending, and government takeovers of the private sector. So it shouldn’t surprise anybody if PresBo does, eventually, endorse a proposal like this.

It won’t be this year, though… he has to know that the backlash in 2010 would knock his party WELL out of power. NOBODY likes sales taxes, and they’d respond by voting Democrats out of power. So PresBo won’t support anything like this until after the midterm elections.

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Birther Tenacity: Obama’s Own Fault

People have been asking for a while why the Birthers (those who believe Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States) continue to persist. Most on the left paint them as crazy whackos and conspiracy theorists.

On some levels the charge of conspiracy theorist is true… but that doesn’t make them crazy.

What makes them persist are the contradictions that keep popping up. For example: relatives who claim he was born in Kenya, and different sources citing different hospitals where Obama was born.

Now, there’s a new one. It seems that the DNC signed TWO versions of Obama’s candidacy certification… one claiming he met the Constitutional qualifications for office and one without that statement. You guessed it, they actually filed (in all states but Hawaii) the one WITHOUT the statement. For comparison, the GOP’s filings ALL asserted McCain met Constitutional requirements to hold office.
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/15127

The Obama camp had been using the defense that the DNC had properly vetted and certified Obama’s eligibility for months. Judge after judge had used that claim and the fact that Obama’s COLB (Certification of Live Birth) had been “Snoped – FactChecked – blogged and twittered” as “legal proof” that Obama was eligible for office, despite the very real fact that Obama has never released any authenticated proof on the subject.

Then we find out that the DNC did NOT certify Obama as eligible under Article II – Section I of the Constitution, in 49 of 50 states. The DNC had only filed such certification in the state of Hawaii, Obama’s alleged birth place. The other 49 states received a Certification of Nomination which did NOT certify Obama as constitutionally eligible for office.

Come on, guys. How can you complain that people don’t believe you when you do such stupid things? Each time you show some indication that the Birthers have a point, you fuel speculation.

Why on EARTH would a supposedly major political party NOT include the “constitutionally qualified” language on their candidate certification? This just proves to the Birthers that even the DNC doesn’t believe Obama is a natural-born citizen.
So stop complaining about the Birthers… you brought ALL this on yourself.

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News Roundup - 9-26-2009

Okay, it’s been a hectic weekend so far, so I won’t be offering much commentary today. Instead, I’ll offer a short selection of news articles that you should read.

Watch for the stock market to correct downwards in the future. Yes, we are in a bubble created by our government’s policies… printing money and holding interest rates artificially low. Eventually they have to stop, and that’s when the bubble will burst.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/defff18e-aa07-11de-a3ce-00144feabdc0.html?catid=68&SID=google

if you haven’t heard about the new (sort of) Iran situation, better do some reading. They’ve had a secret nuclear site in operation for years, and Obama just made that public. Then he gave them the “you are being very naughty, and if you don’t stop I’ll have to wag my finger at you… energetically!” speech.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27599.html
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27579.html
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/appease_does_apocalypse_for_weak_9HzomoUqSd9gZJINIwtJlL

Remember the much lauded Baucus bill, the “bipartisan” solution that will inspire everybody to support ObamaCare? Well, turns out it isn’t much more than a first draft that WILL be changed by liberals who don’t like it. Go figure.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/25/AR2009092503868.html?hpid=topnews

And though the Democrats are presenting a united front in public, behind closed doors they’re not QUITE so tight. The liberals don’t like the same plan as the more conservative Democrats. Again… go figure.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/26/us/politics/26memo.html?_r=2&ref=politics


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Poll: 90% Think News Media Helped Elect Obama

This is an interesting poll. Apparently, 90% of us think the mainstream media did more than just report on the last Presidential election… we think they actively helped Obama get elected.
http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-23-2009/0005099743&EDATE=

Poll results found 83.6% saw national news media organizations as very or somewhat biased while just 14.1% viewed them as somewhat unbiased or not at all biased. Some, 2.4%, were unsure.

A large majority, 89.3%, suggested the national media played a very or somewhat strong role in helping to elect President Obama. Just 10.0% suggested the national media played little or no role. Further, 69.9% agreed the national news media are intent on promoting the Obama presidency while 26.5% disagreed. Some, 3.6% were unsure.

Over half of Americans surveyed, 56.4%, said they agreed that the news media are promoting President Obama's healthcare reform without objective criticism. Another 39.3% disagreed and 4.3% were unsure. Further, a majority, 57.6% of those surveyed agreed that the news media appear to be coordinating efforts to diminish the record of former Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin. One third, 34.6%, disagreed and 7.9% were unsure.

"It is sad," suggested Jerry C. Lindsley, director of the Sacred Heart University Polling Institute, "when we find that only 55.9% say they expect the media to tell them the truth today." He added, "This perception of bias will eventually catch up with the news media outlets -- we found 45.9% have permanently stopped watching a news media organization, print or electronic, because of perceived bias."

There is a lot more data captured there, and it makes good reading.

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Global Warming: My Dog Ate The Data

As you probably know by now, I do not subscribe to the rather ludicrous and baseless theory that human activity is the primary determinant of planetary temperature, ahead of such inconsequential things as, say, the sun. I also recognize that the planet has actually been COOLING slightly… a phenomenon that Warmers hem and haw over before trying to dismiss or ignore it.

But I’m open to proof. If I can be shown evidence that proves my opinion wrong, I am quite capable of changing my opinion… I’ve done it before on other issues.

Which brings us to the measuring of global temperatures. The effort to sample global temperatures began in the early 80’s, with temperature sensing stations positioned around the world. Since every station is not positioned in similar locations, the data has to be “normalized” before being added to the temperature record. And it seems now that, after “normalizing” the data, they discarded (that means threw away) the original, raw data.
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTBiMTRlMDQxNzEyMmRhZjU3ZmYzODI5MGY4ZWI5OWM=


When a fellow scientist in 2005 requested the raw data to replicate the work, the two scientists who compiled it refused to turn it over.

“We have 25 years or so invested in the work. Why should I make the data available to you, when your aim is to try and find something wrong with it?”

Make sure you understand that statement. The whole purpose of the scientific method is to detect and eliminate mistakes… but here are scientists refusing to release their base data because it might be proven faulty. This is a breathtaking position for a scientist to take as regards his own research.

Over the years they have released some data to Warmers, but have refused to release anything to those who might not be quite so brain-dead. Their latest story is to claim that the original, raw data was destroyed years ago.

Since the 1980s, we have merged the data we have received into existing series or begun new ones, so it is impossible to say if all stations within a particular country or if all of an individual record should be freely available. Data storage availability in the 1980s meant that we were not able to keep the multiple sources for some sites, only the station series after adjustment for homogeneity issues. We, therefore, do not hold the original raw data but only the value-added (i.e., quality controlled and homogenized) data.

So, for those who want to claim that global warming is real, you now have one major hurdle to overcome… the data literally does not exist. You cannot prove a point based upon temperature data that has been changed from the original values UNLESS you have the original data and can show how and why it was changed.

At this moment, the entire record of global temperatures is 100% worthless, because nobody can prove that some or all of the data wasn’t simply made up to “prove” a political point!

Where were these "scientists" trained... Kinder-Kare?

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HHS: Stop Criticizing Or Be Charged With A Crime!

This is about as flagrant a violation of First Amendment free speech rights as I have ever seen.

Okay, here’s the story. Humana has been sending out mailings talking about proposed funding cuts to the Medicare Advantage program… seniors on the Advantage program get more and better care, though it does cost Medicare more money. These programs have been targeted with deep spending cuts, especially in the recently released Baucus bill.

So Humana’s mailings are warning seniors on the Advantage program that these funding cuts will reduce the quality of care they receive. This is a claim, by the way, that was confirmed by the CBO analysis of the bill.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/54515

The health care bill currently under review in the Senate Finance Committee reportedly would cut payments to Medicare Advantage by more than $100 billion over 10 years. According to CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf, in testimony on Tuesday, those cuts and other changes "would reduce the extra benefits that would be made available to beneficiaries through Medicare Advantage plans."

So the claim is true… or at least it’s confirmed by an independent CBO analysis.

Senator Max Baucus, the architect of the bill being thus criticized, did not like what Humana had to say. He complained to Health and Human Services about it. And then the HHS threatened Humana with legal action for spreading "misleading and confusing" information about the ObamaCare bill.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/22/AR2009092201849.html

Humana, of course, backed down, because they have far too much to lose. But they never should have been threatened in the first place… isn’t dissenting speech PRECISELY the speech most deserving protection under our Constitution? That the Federal Government should act in this manner and violate the US Constitution just to advance a White House agenda item should be a warning to EVERYBODY in this nation. If they’ll do it to Humana, then nobody’s right to free speech will be respected.

Now, I’m no huge fan of the Republicans… they’ve acted more like Democrats-Lite than like the fiscally conservative champions of small government they’d all like us to believe they are. But in this case they are acting correctly.

The GOP has threatened to block the Senate approval of the HHS nominee unless the gag order is lifted and the free speech rights of Humana are respected. They also correctly note that this action flies in the face of previous HHS decisions that the government has no basis in law to forbid health insurance companies from informing their customers of legislation and encouraging them to express their opinions to lawmakers.
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/54534

HHS “had previously noted that there was no legal authority to justify prohibiting a health plan ‘from informing its members of proposed legislation and exhorting them to express their opinions’ about it,” the letter stated.

In fact, HHS had said that shutting down this type of communication “would violate basic freedom of speech and other constitutional rights of the Medicare beneficiary as a citizen,” the letter stated.

However, the Obama administration reversed that decision, the letter added.

“Your department has done this by imposing an industry-wide gag order without apparent justification or basis in law, contradicting your past public guidance and the plain language and spirit of the First Amendment, among the most sacred tenets of our democracy,” McConnell and his Republican colleagues wrote.

“America’s seniors and the health plans that serve them deserve to have their free speech rights respected. Their rights should not be subject to the whims of any administration, and the health plans that serve them should not be threatened with punishment if they speak out on a matter of public concern simply because the administration disagrees with their position,” they added.

The Obama Administration is headed straight down the road of tyranny… using the power of government to squash dissenting speech is a favorite tactic of tyrants, and we should not tolerate this behavior in our government. Not, that is, if we still cherish the concepts of freedom and liberty. I do… do you?

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NEA Funding Should Be Pulled

One thing I’ve said for years is that government-funding for “the arts” is a bad idea and should be stopped. I have many reasons for this position, but the newest Obama scandal has actually provided me with yet ANOTHER reason to support my position.

Basically what happened is that NEA held a conference call, hosted by a White House advisor, and encouraged artists receiving taxpayer dollars to help sell Obama’s agenda items. They were urged to use their taxpayer funded art to push the President’s agenda.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27456.html

[Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement Buffy] Wicks later told the NEA artists listening in that “we’re going to come at you with some specific asks here.”

[Director of Communications for the NEA Yosi] Sergant followed by explaining he “would encourage you to pick something, whether it’s health care, education, the environment, you know, there’s four key areas that the corporation has identified as the areas of service.”

“My ask would be to apply artistic, you know, your artistic creative community’s utilities and bring them to the table,” Sergant said. “This is a chance for us to partner with the White House and the Corporation for National and Community Service along [with] the arts community in immediately affecting some change in our communities.”

So a government official with the NEA and a White House Deputy Director got together to politicize art for their boss’ benefit. Doesn’t this strike you as being just a LITTLE BIT wrong?

Just one of the many reasons why our government should not be giving taxpayer dollars to artists… some of that art is used to express a political view, which can be manipulated and capitalized upon by the politicians in power.

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Poll: Majority Angry At Obama Policies

A new Rasmussen telephone poll of likely voters has shown that 66% of voters are angry about at least one Obama policy, including 36% who are very angry.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/september_2009/59_say_americans_angrier_now_than_under_bush

Additional findings:

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of U.S. voters believe that the current level of political anger in the country is higher than it was when George W. Bush was president.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 22% think the level of political anger is lower now, while 16% rate it as about the same.

Despite frequent Republican complaints about the vitriol leveled at President Bush, 69% of GOP voters say the level of anger is higher now, a view shared by 53% of Democrats and 56% of voters not affiliated with either party.

In another poll, opposition to ObamaCare rises to a new high of 56%.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/september_2009/health_care_reform

Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters nationwide now oppose the health care reform proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s the highest level of opposition yet measured and includes 44% who are Strongly Opposed.

Just 43% now favor the proposal, including 24% who Strongly Favor it.

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Baucus Bill Will Ration Health Care

I know that many have been screaming about death panels and health care rationing, and liberals have been saying that it’s all hogwash. But the bill being proposed by Baucus as a “bipartisan” bill would result in health care rationing for seniors.

Baucus proposes a scheme to “control costs” by reducing payments to the doctors who are in the top 10% of national annual Medicare costs per patient. If a doctor is in that top 10%, then he will lose five percent of his or her own total Medicare reimbursements.

Doctors will try to hold costs down so they’re not in that 10%, and spending on medical will trend downwards over time… and that means that necessary tests and treatments will be ignored because they would “costs too much.”
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=110710

As Burke Balch, director of the National Right to Life's Center for Medical Ethics, says: "This (part of the Baucus bill) means that all doctors treating older people will constantly be driven to try to order the least-expensive tests and treatments for fear they will be caught in that top 10 percent. Note that this feature operates independently of any considerations of quality, efficiency or waste. If you authorize enough treatment for your patients , however necessary and appropriate it may be, you are in danger of being one of the 1 in 10 doctors who will be penalized each year."

Here’s an example of how this provision would work to deprive seniors of needed medical treatment.

To bring Balch back into the conversation concerning the actual effects of the 10 percent health penalty on real-life patients, as well as doctors, he points out that this penalty for Medicare doctors "creates a moving target."

"By definition," Balch said, "there will always be a top 10 percent, no matter how far down the total amount of money spent on Medicare is driven." Say that 2015, the top 10 percent is anything over $10,000 per patient. In 2016, most doctors will scramble to hold down the treatments they authorize to avoid breaking that limit."

But the real possibility, as a result, is that the total annual amount of that limit will drop. So next year, doctors will try to avoid being in the penalty box for anything they authorize over $9,500. Burke Balch adds:

"As the process repeats, the next year might be anything over $9,000. The year after that anything over $8,000, and so on. It's a game of musical chairs, in which there is always one chair less than the number of players. No matter how fast the contestants run, someone will always be the loser when the music stops."

But Medicare doctors will not be the only losers. As the doctors struggle to keep abreast of the continually falling limit of the money they can authorize for their contingent of patients, consider what those patients will lose in the quality of their treatment.

So the Baucus bill has the equivalent of death panels and health care rationing… they just use that “top 10%” with financial penalties to force doctors to do the rationing. This doesn’t make things any better.

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Democrats Trying For Repeat Of Housing Disaster

One of the causes of our housing crisis was the CRA… the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. Essentially, it required banks to provide home loans to those who couldn’t afford it. Now the Democrats in Congress want to STRENGTHEN the CRA, making it apply to credit unions and other non-bank institutions. This will just make the current situation even worse, and result in future housing crises.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Democrats-on-path-to-repeat-housing-disaster-8275069-60060902.html

The policy ended in a lot of people losing their homes. Now, Johnson's bill would ensure more of that by applying CRA's lending requirements not just to banks but to non-bank institutions like credit unions, insurance companies, and mortgage lenders. It would also make CRA explicitly race-based by, in Johnson's words, "requiring CRA exams to explicitly consider lending and services to minorities in addition to low- and moderate-income communities."

Denying that CRA, Fannie and other institutions played any role in setting the stage for disaster, they're proposing more of what helped get us into trouble in the first place. It's no way to fix the problem.

Government passed a law and pushed activities that resulted in people getting home loans who couldn’t afford them… and that’s at the root of what caused the housing meltdown. And we can’t fix the problem caused by one law by making it stronger or passing another law. The thing to do is recognize that these kinds of efforts have real-life consequences and REPEAL the CRA.


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Pelosi: Math-Challenged On ObamaCare Bill

If you will recall, the “Blue Dog Democrats” got some concessions during committee meetings in order to get their support… specifically, the Waxman bill that came out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Nancy Pelosi has decided to renege on the deal and move the bill back towards the left.
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/59839-pelosi-nixes-deal-with-blue-dogs-on-healthcare

Speaker Pelosi is backing away from a deal she cut with centrists to advance health reform, said a source familiar with talks.

Pelosi’s decision to move away from the agreement that was made with a group of Blue Dogs to get the bill out of committee would steer the healthcare legislation back to the left as she prepares for a floor vote.

Pelosi is planning to include a government-run public option in the House version of the healthcare bill. She wants to model it on Medicare, with providers getting reimbursed on a scale pegged to Medicare rates.

For the life of me I can’t decide if this is a good or bad development.


On the one hand, it’s bad because the government “option” is probably the worst provision in the plan… as well as being the part that has the least public support.

On the other hand, it’s good for a couple of reasons. This move shows the world that the Democrats are going to keep pushing a radical-liberal agenda even when the majority of Americans don’t want it. It also highlights the fact the Pelosi must have failed basic mathematics, because she’s not exhibiting basic addition skills.

You see, the liberal-Democrats cannot pass this bill alone. They need a number of votes from either Republicans or the “Blue Dogs” in order to pass the bill. Making a deal with the Blue Dogs and then backing out on it isn’t going to endear herself to them, and it is unclear how many of them will vote in favor of the legislation. Doing this will make it HARDER for her to get the bill out of the House, not easier.

So I’m not sure if Pelosi’s decision is a good one for the Country or a bad one. Certainly I’d prefer if she bowed to public opinion and withdrew the legislation completely, but that’s not going to happen this time around.

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US House Votes: No Private Student Loans

Commentators and politically active citizens have been mentioning the current trend in DC to grow government and shrink the private sector. Liberal politicians are quick to deny this, but it’s happening just the same.

The newest manifestation of this “anti-private-sector” mindset has to do with student loans. The House recently APPROVED a bill that would ban private lenders from giving student loans to college students. If the bill is signed into law, the ability to give student loans will rest solely with the government.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jVuDCHzaPCyO_KpNM1MuwzSfNLJgD9AP7VQG0

The House has voted in favor of the biggest overhaul of college aid programs since their creation in the 1960s — a bill to oust private lenders from the student loan business and put the government in charge.

This is one of the stupidest actions I can possibly imagine our government taking. But they use the same old logic that is failing with the ObamaCare bill… eliminating private loans and having the government be the exclusive provider will somehow SAVE TAXPAYER DOLLARS!

And what benefit would our students see? None.

As consumers, college students probably wouldn't notice much difference in their loans, which they would get through their schools. Broadly speaking, the bill doesn't do much to make loans cheaper or help pay them off.

So this is how our President and Congress respect our long history of freedom, individuality, and free markets… by taking over yet another part of the private sector.

Thanks a heap, PresBo.

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Proof Obama Lied About Tax Increase

I blogged yesterday about Obama being unable to recognize a tax when he saw one.
http://politicsalabama.blogspot.com/2009/09/obama-and-tax-increase-that-wasnt.html

To recap, PresBo was asked when "the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don't [buy insurance]. . . . How is that not a tax?" He responded by denying it was a tax and trying to make it sound reasonable.

Now it turns out that even the ObamaCare bill itself calls this a tax!
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27384.html

Page 29, sentence one of the bill introduced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont) says: “The consequence for not maintaining insurance would be an excise tax.”

And the rest of the bill is clear that the Finance Committee does, in fact, consider it a tax: “The excise tax would be assessed through the tax code and applied as an additional amount of Federal tax owed.”

It's clear that PresBo is saying whatever he thinks is most likely to win support for his bill, REGARDLESS of what is actually IN the bill. If what he says is true, that's a bonus... but it doesn't appear to matter one way or the other if it's true or not. In this case, he was denying that the bill would tax people, when the bill itself admits it!!!!!

Either this President is willfully lying to the American people about his plans and the content of legislation, or he is so hopelessly out of touch with what is actually happening that we can't trust anything he says about the ObamaCare bill. Either way, we lose if we depend on the man for the "straight dope" about legislation.

Update: Even the AP sees that Obama was wrong when he claimed it wasn't a tax.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090922/ap_on_go_co/us_health_insurance_tax_fact_check

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Obama And The Tax Increase That Wasn't...

Remember PresBo's promise that he would not increase taxes on the vast majority of Americans? That was his promise to everyone... but when faced with an obvious tax he wants to levy, he can't even seem to recognize it.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204488304574425294029138738.html

Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Mr. Obama was asked by host George Stephanopoulos about the "individual mandate." Under Max Baucus's Senate bill that Mr. Obama supports, everyone would be required to buy health insurance or else pay a penalty as high as $3,800 a year. Mr. Stephanopoulos posed the obvious question about this kind of coercion when "the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don't [buy insurance]. . . . How is that not a tax?"

"Well, hold on a second, George," Mr. Obama replied. "Here's what's happening. You and I are both paying $900, on average—our families—in higher premiums because of uncompensated care. Now what I've said is that if you can't afford health insurance, you certainly shouldn't be punished for that. That's just piling on. If, on the other hand, we're giving tax credits, we've set up an exchange, you are now part of a big pool, we've driven down the costs, we've done everything we can and you actually can afford health insurance, but you've just decided, you know what, I want to take my chances. And then you get hit by a bus and you and I have to pay for the emergency room care, that's . . ."

"That may be," Mr. Stephanopoulos responded, "but it's still a tax increase." (In fact, uncompensated care accounts for about only 2.2% of national health spending today, but that's another subject.)

Mr. Obama: "No. That's not true, George. The—for us to say that you've got to take a responsibility to get health insurance is absolutely not a tax increase.

Somehow he wants to either force people to spend money how he thinks they should or fine them and STILL claim that this isn't an increase on taxes.

For me, this is all sounding a bit familiar. After all, doesn't it depend on what the meaning of "is" is?

Update: Even the AP sees that Obama was wrong when he claimed it wasn't a tax.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090922/ap_on_go_co/us_health_insurance_tax_fact_check

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How Does Europe View President Obama?

Remember during the election, when most European nations favored Obama as our next (now current) President? They were caught up in the “Change” rhetoric and loved the very idea. But now, at a time when many Americans are having second and third thoughts about our new President and his Congress, what do the Europeans think about it?

It seems that some think he may be in way over his head.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/6210152/President-Barack-Obama-is-beginning-to-look-out-of-his-depth.html

The man who has run nothing more demanding than the Harvard Law Review is beginning to look out of his depth in the world's top job. His credibility is seeping away, and it will require concrete achievements rather than more soaring oratory to recover it.

That’s all well and good, but did they offer any specific criticisms? They certainly did.

Regimes in Moscow, Pyongyang and Tehran simply pocket his concessions and carry on as before. The picture emerging from the White House is a disturbing one, of timidity, clumsiness and short-term calculation. Some say he is the weakest president since Jimmy Carter.

The grizzled veterans of the Democratic leadership in Congress have found Mr Obama and his team of bright young advisers a pushover. That has gravely weakened his flagship domestic campaign, for health-care reform, which fails to address the greatest weakness of the American system: its inflated costs. His free trade credentials are increasingly tarnished too. His latest blunder is imposing tariffs on tyre imports from China, in the hope of gaining a little more union support for health care. But at a time when America's leadership in global economic matters has never been more vital, that is a dreadful move, hugely undermining its ability to stop other countries engaging in a ruinous spiral of protectionism.

That’s how our hopey-changey President is being perceived overseas… growing ineffectuality.

Personally, I think there is a lot of truth contained in this piece. I don’t agree with everything, but PresBo DOES appear to be more about show and style than he is about substance. I’m not impressed with his leadership abilities, nor about the direction in which he wants to lead us. He’s making mistakes… and many of them are mistakes that should never have been made.

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Baucus ObamaCare Plan: “Nothing New Here”

Last week the big hullabaloo was about Senator Max Baucus’ “bipartisan” health care plan. The fact that no Republican had endorsed it doesn’t seem to matter to him.

In fact, House Minority leader Boehner said this weekend that the ObamaCare health plan “is dead.”
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/54273

But Baucus is still pushing his “bipartisan” bill as the best chance for ObamaCare. A recent analysis by the Heritage Foundation concluded that the bill was more similar than different to other liberal efforts.
http://www.heritage.org/Press/FactSheet/fs0037.cfm

Seven Fatal Flaws

Middle Class Tax Hike: The Baucus bill would impose a new sales tax on drugs and medical devices and a new federal excise tax on insurance plans that exceed $8,000 for an individual and $21,000 for a family. These taxes will ultimately be passed down to the consumer, putting many middle class families on the receiving end of a tax hike.

An Individual Mandate: In 2013, almost everyone would be required to purchase health insurance that complies with new federal standards. Those making more than three times the poverty level would face a tax penalty of $950 (maxing out at $3,800 per family) and $750 (maxing out at $1,500 per family) for those below 300 percent poverty. This penalty could apply to individuals with incomes as low as $10,831 a year.

No Privacy: In order to enforce the tax penalty provisions, the government would be forced to collect detailed health insurance information on Americans, reducing patient privacy and adding significant administrative costs to employers and insurers.

A Pay-or-Play Employer Mandate: Employers with more than 50 employees that don't offer health coverage would have to pay a penalty for each employee who qualifies for new federal subsidizes under the bill. Inevitably, low-income workers will be hurt the most as employers would simply downsize or cut wages.

A Thinly Disguised Public Option: The Baucus bill invites indefinite federal control of a "co-op" by providing an unnecessary $6 billion in federal funding for startup loans and grants and it gives broad latitude to the HHS Secretary to regulate co-ops and promote them. The co-op created in this bill is literally an acronym for a new government-run health plan.

Medicaid Expansion: Under the Baucus bill, millions of Americans would end up on Medicaid. The current Medicaid program is unsustainable and poorly serves the needy and indigent now. Taxpayers will pick up the new costs of Medicaid, and states will have little flexibility for real reform.

Medicare: The Baucus bill establishes value-based purchasing, requiring compliance with government guidelines on the delivery of medical services. Hospitals and physicians who don't comply would get lower Medicare payments. This approach could bias or compromise doctors' decisions and contradict U.S. law on the federal interference in the practice of medicine.

So that’s the scoop on the Baucus bill… nothing for most of us to get excited about.

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Alabama Unemployment Rises to 10.4%

Alabama's unemployment rate rose to a 25 year high in August, reaching 10.4% in that month.
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009909190375

Alabama's jobless rate rose to 10.4 percent in August, matching a high last hit 25 years ago, and economic forecasters said the state's economy won't improve much anytime soon.

And our economy is unlikely to improve in the near future.

The Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama said Alabama's economy will continue to weaken in the third quarter this year, although the pace shouldn't be as rapid as the past nine months.

I'm not an economist, but I have studied enough to have a BASIC understanding of how things work. And a "recovery" without private-sector jobs being created is no recovery at all. Real growth and prosperity won't occur until we start seeing jobs created.


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Acorn Follow-up In California

The last video released in the ongoing Acorn expose’ showed a staffer in California not only helping the pimp and prostitute to set up their underage brothel, but also claiming she’d killed her former husband… after laying the groundwork for a self-defense case.

The San Bernardino Police are in the process of investigating the possible crime, and their preliminary investigation shows no evidence that the murder claimed by the Acorn worker ever occurred.
http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/16/police-report-san-bernardino-county-investigating-alleged-homicide/

Many liberals are using this as an excuse to paint the entire undercover investigation as bogus… and the woman has come forward to claim she knew they were bogus and was “playing with them.”
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_webtape16v2.406d524.html?plckFindCommentKey=CommentKey:9ca89ec5-7ab2-454c-bdc2-2197e13f7f79

ACORN employee Tresa Kaelke is shown meeting with them, telling them that she once was an escort and got away with killing her husband.

But Kaelke insisted Tuesday she made up her story for shock value.

"They were clearly playing with me," she said in a written statement released by ACORN, "I decided to shock them as much as they were shocking me."

My own personal opinion is that it’s a nice attempt to CYA. Unless, of course, you believe that the best way to deal with people trying to catch you on video providing illegal help is to provide that help and admit to numerous crimes that you didn’t commit. Sure… Public Relations 101.

But if this is true, and Acorn truly believes they have not done anything wrong, why have they fired at least four people? And why have they essentially closed down to “new intakes” while they establish reforms?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,550941,00.html

And the White House has weighed in on the controversy, with White House Spokesman Gibbs saying that the behavior witnessed on the tapes is “unacceptable.”
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/09/white-house-calls-acorn-employees-behavior-unacceptable.html

It doesn’t really matter what excuse or explanation that Acorn gives at this point, the images captured were too stark and graphic to be explained away. They’ve already lost their census gig and are in serious danger of losing all access to HUD funding… at the very least. Congressman are calling for an IRS audit and Congressional hearings to review all Acorn activity. They can (and should!) defend themselves as best they can, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are defending criminal actions (conspiracy to defraud the US government) taken by their own employees.

And here’s another thing to consider… what ELSE did the filmmaker discover before he went public with his findings? Be on the lookout for further releases…

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9-12 Attendance Estimate: Scientifically calculated

I found another estimate of attendance at the 9-12 march on Washington, written by Zac Moilanen of Indiana University. This one looks at pictures and attendance from previous events to set the standard for measurements, then applies those standards to the 9-12 march. And the attendance figure he arrives at?

He estimates that 1,782,760 people participated in the 9-12 march on DC. You read that correctly, 1.7 million people.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/19743935/The-Real-Number-of-Protesters-Zac-Moilanen

In conclusion, this number surprised me. I knew there were a lot of people, but researching this, looking at the map and actually crunching the numbers, it makes sense. I’m sure not all of these marchers stayed at the Capitol, the fields surrounding it, or even the mall. But that’s not what we have aerial footage of. Because of this time-lapse street cam, it’s easy to see that in the course of around two hours almost two million people marched up Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol Building.

It’s important to note that he didn’t just pop out a guess, he “crunched the numbers.” He used Google Earth to measure the areas, then took crowd size from previous events to determine how many people fit in the areas that were filled by those events. To be precise, he used Obama’s inauguration, the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and the Promise Keeper’s Rally as benchmarks to set the standard.

Once he had the numbers, he applied them to the crowds gathered on 9-12. He included in his calculations the time-lapse video that showed the marchers moving from Freedom Square to the capitol.

It’s a good read, and he treats the matter as just number-crunching… it’s not a political issue. But when he’s finished with the numbers, he has 1.7 million gathered in DC to protest a government that has grown too large and intrusive.

Nice work, people.

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Eye-Witness Report of 9-12 March

Ladies and gentlemen, a friend of mine attended the 9-12 march in Washington and agreed to write a report on the trip. The following is a bit longer than I normally make my posts, but it is a very interesting read. I give you… Donna Dawson, local Tea Party organizer.


When I arrived in DC on Tuesday evening I had no idea how much my life would be impacted by this trip. I had a fixed idea of what I personally wanted to see and accomplish while I visited. Wednesday, after a late breakfast in the old Post Office food court, we visited FreedomWorks to meet Brendan and Melissa. We were greeted warmly and promptly put to work sorting volunteer t-shirts, making signs and a few other small tasks. Debbie even briefly "dog sat" for Melissa's service dog. We received a tour of the facility and left feeling very good about being able to volunteer for what we hoped would be a wild success.Wednesday evening we attended a small protest on the steps of the Cannon House Office Building. We were protesting the upcoming speech Obama was giving to the Joint Congress on the Health Care Issue.

My sign read, I'm Debt Free, are U? We are on a youtube that Jackie from the Monterey California Tea Party made. Who would have thought a few short years ago I would even know a thing about youtube or a true protest of my Government. I have always been politically interested and active to a point, but never to the point of being ready to give up everything to protest, and to save our Republic, but I am there. It's is empowering.We dropped by Rep. Nelson's office to offer our support of his unfortunate outburst during the President's address. Even though he has been no great defender of the constitution, we thought he should not be censored. The press was in the hall waiting for the ambush.I thought I could have ended the trip after meeting the Honorable Congressman Ron Paul, but am I glad I stayed for the march.


Congressman Paul greeted us with enthusiasm and even apologized for keeping us waiting, he was doing a radio talk show when we arrived. He reiterated the only reason he is in Washington and his role as a Congressman, to uphold the Constitution of the United States. I know he has done his job well, he has never voted for anything unconstitutional no matter the pressure he was under or how unpopular his stand was to both Congress and the American people. His example is what inspired me to join Campaign for Liberty and the Tea Party movement. His knowledge of what our Government and monetary system are supposed to be, what it has become and what is yet to come is proving his predictions to be correct and I am proud to see he will soon be getting the respect due a true Statesman and defender of the Constitution.

He looked us in the eyes and told us it is our job to uphold the Constitution. I was proud to know I have done all I can to uphold this Duty according to our Bill of Rights. As he signed my copy of his "End the Fed" book, my thought was I will have to do all I can to see that the Fed is ended.We left the House office building and went to a liberty forum Freedomworks was hosting. Several speakers were there and my Libertarian leanings, being what they are, had me satisfied with only one speaker, Jim DeMint. Even then I wonder how true he has been to the constitution. Just to be absolutely clear, I give no credit to party politics and particularly when I see the Constitution has been used or abused to suit their own party line or career. It was good to see so many Americans coming to ask questions and demand their voices be heard. It did not appear to be a Republican love fest and I am grateful for that.

The same day we visited Representative Mike Rogers office, we were never introduced to his aides and were frankly uncomfortable in his office. One of the Tea Party girls had been to one of his town halls where he told them if they did not like the way he votes on the issues, don't vote for him. I was not impressed and felt more like we were an imposition on his day. I left feeling pretty much the same way I have always felt about Representative Rogers.Next we hotfooted over to the Conservative press conference hosted by freedom works. Dick Armey, Jim DeMint, Price, Boehner and Pence were the speakers. Again, if they had been upholding the Republican party properly by insisting on limited govt., fiscal responsibility, sound foreign policy, etc. we would not be in the shape we find ourselves currently.

I listened with a grain of salt, but if this leads the thousand people or so who were there to return home and keep hammering the people to wake up, I'll listen, and later hold them to their promises.Next, was Senator Jeff Sessions. His staff was so polite, as we were waiting, Senator Sessions was on C-Span addressing his opposition to Cass Sunstein's appointment. A proud moment for me, as have all of Senator Sessions oppositions to the new Fascist regime. I've had my differences with Senator Sessions, but must confess lately he has been doing right by his constituents and even though I feel he needs to be more constitutional, he is the best we have and is doing right by Alabama. I have even thought he would make a good president, but I'll have to reserve that opinion and take a wait and see attitude. His Legislative assistants introduced themselves, ushered us into Senator Sessions office, sat and talked with us, asking our opinions with true interest. They even share my thoughts on the economic situation, the devaluation of the dollar leading to inflation, a backdoor tax on us all, the intent of the NWO for a one world currency, the state of American Sovereignty, at least that was my impression.Senator Session's arrived and made us feel welcome by asking what we hoped to accomplish through the Tea Party movement. He really welcomed our ideas, I don't think he was putting on an act, he made us feel our opinions were important, and even invited us to be his "watch dogs". I will take him up on that and get him the dirt on the Czars up for appointment. I hope I don't disappoint.

Senator Sessions received an A from all of us. He will have to be held accountable for keeping his word, and I hope he does not disappoint.After all of this, we hotfooted to meet the Tea Party Express bus. Took lots of pictures and waited to see the bus come in. The bus was already there, we missed the entrance, but had fun with the group waiting for Fox news to interview Dick Armey. We were tired, but happy to be there.Friday morning we met Debbie's Representative Florida, Jeff Miller (R) at the Capitol Building. He was nice and Debbie seems pleased with his performance as her Representative. He gave us passes to tour the Capitol Building and to sit in on the 111th Congress as a guest. That was awesome, I will not be able to do that as I don't believe I can be quite when I hear what is going on, but that will be great for the rest of our group. That rocks. Sitting in the theater listening to the introduction to the tour I was angered, saddened and incredulous at what our children and visitors to America are being taught about our Nation's Capitol. The first thing stated is that our form of Government is a Representative Democracy, it is not!!! It is a Republic!!! When Benjamin Franklin was asked what type of Government they had established through our Constitution he replied, "a Republic if you can keep it". Here lies the problem, we haven't kept it, we have voted in people that are so far from our founders intent, they do not seem to know what a Republic is supposed to be, we have not held them responsible for destroying our Constitution and now we have to turn things around. Continuing on in theater, it was pretty much all PC, about how slaves built the capitol and how every other group has had to overcome through civil rights and the different and unconstitutional departments of the Federal Government that have fought to overcome our differences and mandate society.

We were told to stay with our tour guides unless we wanted the Capitol police to arrest us, and were snapped at to stay in line, stay with our group, remove your wet things, get in line, oh did I already mention that. We all finally had enough of that and had our tour leader take us to exit. At least I know one thing we have to take care of immediately. Friday night had us sign painting with other patriots in the hotel. We had a lot of fun meeting people from every state with the same mindset and I loved the messages on the signs. Saturday morning and the march. Despite having seen only a handful of an army of Ron Paul supporters, I was swept away with the sheer number of Tea Party Patriots waiting for us at Freedom Plaza. We sang, we chanted, we could not even get with our state to march down Pennsylvania Avenue. We were united in our opposition to big Govt. intervention into all of our lives. We don't need health care reform, printed money, attachment to the UN, racism or fascism. We are tired of the socialist society we have become while we are too busy earning a living to pay attention to the what the left hand does. We have failed to uphold our American way of life in the name of a PC world. All of that melted away as we marched side by side, holding up our signs and singing and chanting. When we got to the Capitol there were already people there spilling out onto the mall in every direction. There were people as far as the eye can see in all directions. By divine providence, Debbie and I found Greg to give him his press pass, we even saw Eric and Becky. As I stood as close to the foot of the Capitol and the stage as I could get and looked down Pennsylvania Ave at all the people still marching down the mall, I realized that at some point they would not be able to march any further.

Before the day was over the park service had to open the Lincoln memorial. I saw tears in many eyes that day. There was a couple with three very small children, the entire family were wearing "end the fed" t-shirts. I took many pictures and have posted them on FB. I am editing and trying to get all of the video on youtube and FB. I was blessed and honored to be able to represent Snowdoun and Montgomery on that historic march with the Tea Party Patriots, Republicans, Democrats, Constitutionalists, Libertarians, Independents, children, all races and all other sorts of Patriots. That was a day I'll never forget. I urge every one to wake up, pick up your banner, stand with a Patriot and defend your home, defend your jobs, defend your way of life. Do not let fear and the need for security to stifle your love and fight for liberty.

It is my hope that each of us carry on with our duty to uphold the Constitution from all enemies, both foreign and domestic.

For Liberty,
Donna Dawson

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White House Admits Cap & Trade = 15% Income Tax Increase

Before he became President, Obama freely admitted that part of how Cap & Trade works is to massively raise the cost of energy production to encourage less use of energy. After he was elected, however, that part of the plan was played down and mostly denied. Now, thanks to a FOIA request, we have a few more details.

According to a Treasury Department analysis of the Cap & Trade legislation, American households would face the equivalent of a 15% increase in their income tax if the Cap & Tax bill passes.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/15/taking_liberties/entry5314040.shtml

The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent.

A previously unreleased analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Treasury says the total in new taxes would be between $100 billion to $200 billion a year. At the upper end of the administration's estimate, the cost per American household would be an extra $1,761 a year.

Just keep this in mind as the Senate begins deliberation on the Cap & Trade bill.


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Baucus Unveils “Bipartisan” Health Plan

Senator Max Baucus, the Democrat in charge of the Senate Finance Committee, has released what he calls a “bipartisan” health care bill. The bill would cost $856 billion over 10 years, and would use health care “co-ops” instead of the full fledged “public option” supported by the radical-liberals in Congress.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/16/AR2009091601151.html?hpid=topnews

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus unveiled an $856 billion health-care reform plan Wednesday that would require nearly all Americans to carry health insurance while barring insurance companies from discriminating against people based on their health status or denying coverage because of preexisting conditions.

The plan does not call for a government-run insurance option, as advocated by President Obama and most Democrats, but would set up a system of nonprofit consumer-owned cooperatives to compete with private insurers -- a provision intended to appeal to Republicans who have railed against the "public option" in recent weeks.

You can read the bill here.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/americas_healthy_future_act_of_2009_091609.pdf

So what has Baucus managed to produce here? Is it an effective bill that can win the support of those on both sides of the aisle? No, it is literally a bill that nobody likes. At all.


Though Baucus claims the bill is bipartisan, he hasn’t gotten a single Republican to endorse the bill… not even the ones on the Committee who helped DRAFT it.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/healthcare/la-na-healthcare-congress16-2009sep16,0,7857187.story

The Democrats don’t like it, mostly because it lacks the public option… though some do complain about it “costing families too much.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125303845553412855.html#mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_news

Essentially, Baucus labored long and hard to come up with a “compromise” bill that has absolutely no chance of passing. The liberals won’t support it because it doesn’t contain the coveted “public option,” and the Republicans won’t support it because it doesn’t implement any of the many private-sector reforms that would be highly effective and wouldn’t cost the federal government a dime.

So this much ballyhooed plan will likely die a rather quick death, championed by the more liberal members of Baucus’ own party.

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Acorn In California

So far, the undercover filmmakers have hit Acorn offices in Baltimore, Washington DC, and New York… leading to Congressional action to remove their federal funding. So, what’s next?

First, and this is important… Acorn does not have a legal right to operate in Maryland. I guess that’s a big “oops” for the Baltimore office, eh?
http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/15/exclusive-acorn-illegally-operating-in-maryland/

But the next stop in this particular parade was in San Bernadino, California. I’ll make you watch the video to get the whole story, but an Acorn worker admits she laid the groundwork for a self-defense case before shooting her husband dead. After sending them to talk with someone else outside the office, she says she’ll threaten them with death to keep them quiet about the conversations… she has no problem with killing people, because she killed her husband. And it gets better.

So far only part I of this video has been released. I will update when the rest of it is released.
http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/15/acorn-prostitution-scandal-california-here-we-come/

Video link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s8w9GEpSzw&feature=player_embedded





And to date, the only criminal investigation we have heard mentioned is against the undercover filmmakers who recorded all this stuff. Come on, guys… go after the REAL criminals! ACORN!!!!!!


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Why Won’t Mainstream Media Cover Acorn Story?

Have you noticed that most of the coverage of the Acorn scandal that we see is either on FoxNews or on the internet? The mainstream media don’t want to cover this at all… which really makes no sense. The story has all the elements that SHOULD make this an extremely newsworthy story. It’s got sex, sleaze, attempts to defraud the government by a publicly funded organization, underage sex slaves, you name it. But they just will NOT cover the story.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/09/14/dan-gainor-acorn-media-ignore/

Only almost no one is covering it.

This is the news media in the era of Van Jones and President Obama. The major outlets cover what they want and create the themes they want. When they find something inconvenient, they let it pass. They didn’t like the Van Jones story, so they ignored it. The network news media liked the financial entity known as Fannie Mae, so they ignored that scandalous organization for years. ACORN is getting the same treatment.

But it isn’t working any more. The ACORN fiasco has now impacted three offices – Baltimore, Washington and New York – with laugh-out-loud videos reminiscent of the hookers and pimps from the 1970s “Starsky and Hutch” show. Huggy Bear returns! Four employees have been fired, with more likely to come. And the controversy was so laughably bad that the Census Bureau cut off all ties to the group known formally as the "Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now." -- They called it the “tipping point” to shed themselves of ACORN. More nuts for someone else, I guess.

And yet. And yet it’s still been ignored by the network news. Nothing on ABC, CBS or NBC. The only thing any one of the three broadcast networks has done appeared in a blog post by ABC’s Jake Tapper. It's hardly worth noting except to show that the networks know about what’s going on. They just don’t care to report it. Only FOX News has bothered to report on the controversy.

That pretty much confirms what we’ve known for a while… the media ignores stories that disagree with their political mindset. And what excuse do they give? One of the biggest political scandals this year and they claim they didn’t know about it.
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/15/acorn-watch-charlie-gibson-and-the-ostrich-media/

While listening to Don Wade and Roma this morning on WLS AM Chicago, they had [ABC News Anchor] Charlie Gibson on as their usual Tuesday morning guest. Don asked Charlie, why, after the senate last night voted to halt funding to ACORN and after three of those video tapes of ACORN employees helping the pimp and prostitute set up shop, there was no mention of it anywhere on the network news. Charlie gave out a most uncomfortable laugh and said that that was the first he heard of it!

That’s a popular tactic, just say you didn’t know about it. It’s what White House spokesman Gibbs did in reference to the 9-12 March on DC… the morning of the event he said he didn’t know anything about it.

Okay, anybody who believes that, raise your hands.

UPDATE: The Acorn videos may well be, according to this newscaster, entrapment.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mark-finkelstein/2009/09/15/norah-odonnell-acorn-video-might-be-viewed-entrapment


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Support For ObamaCare Falls

Remember Obama’s famous speech on health care last week? Pundits were quick to note that Democrats in Congress were given “new enthusiasm” after the speech, not to mention the spike in public support for ObamaCare in the polls. According to Rasmussen, that is over now, and support for ObamaCare has fallen to pre-speech levels.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/september_2009/health_care_reform

Following President Obama’s speech to Congress last week, support for his health care reform plan increased steadily to a peak of 51% yesterday. However, the bounce appears to be over. The latest daily tracking shows that support has fallen all the way back to pre-speech levels.

Forty-five percent (45%) of all voters nationwide now favor the plan while 52% are opposed. A week ago, 44% supported the proposal and 53% were opposed. (see day-by-day numbers).

The latest figures show that 23% Strongly Favor the plan and 41% are Strongly Opposed.

There are several theories as to why the drop has occurred, ranging from the 9-12 march on DC to the fact that most of the original increase in support was in the Democrat’s camp in the first place. I won’t pretend to be the recipient of some earth-shattering revelation, I just think that the more people find out about this plan, the less they like it. PresBo talks a good game, and that’s good for a temporary effect, but it doesn’t fundamentally change opinions and knowledge.

The ObamaCare plans in Congress are bad plans that will make matters MUCH worse than they are today. That’s my opinion, backed up by analysis of the bills… my own and others'.

The rise in support after his speech was predictable, as was this drop after a few days. PresBo’s speech didn’t really change anything… no legislation was affected, nor were any substantive policy issues (public option, necessary or not?) decided. It’s clear from the new polling data that nothing has changed, and people STILL hate ObamaCare!

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Senate Axes Acorn Funding

There is a LOT of new news on the Acorn situation. First, the US Senate has decided to bar HUD from giving Acorn any further funding.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9ANCH580&show_article=1&catnum=0

The vote on this was 83-7… I’d like the names of those seven.

To show you how out-of-touch Acorn officials are, in spite of all the recent revelations, at least one Acorn office is applying for more government money.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/ACORN-wants-another-6-million-despite-scandals-59241457.html

Lawmakers in DC, mostly Republicans, are calling for Congressional hearings and IRS audits of Acorn offices because of the recent scandals.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/14/lawmakers-continue-probes-acorn/

And what is Acorn’s reaction? Well, besides denying everything, they’ve decided they will sue the people who made the videos, as well as Fox News and Brietbart.com.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27139.html


People, what these workers at Acorn did was not only illegal, it was immoral. They offered advice on how to lie to government agencies… that’s fraud. They were basically actively assisting a pimp to form a prostitution ring staffed by UNDERAGE girls from El Salvador. Children, people, CHILDREN. Anybody who could offer help with that has the morals of a rabid dog. Acorn should be treated like that same rabid dog and put down. All that needs to happen is that ALL Acorn affiliates be denied their life-blood… federal funds.

The Senate has taken a first step along that road, now let’s see if the House follows suit.

Behavior like this should NEVER be tolerated… ESPECIALLY by our government!

UPDATE: The House GOP has introduced legislation to remove ALL federal funding for Acorn.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/House-GOP-to-call-for-total-cutoff-of-federal-funds-to-ACORN-59326682.html

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Economic False Dawn

I have said on numerous occasions that, despite the current predictions coming from the MSM and the White House, our economy isn’t on the verge of recovering. I have several reasons for saying this, including the high unemployment rate and the fact that the problems that caused the recession haven’t been corrected.

If you haven’t heard of Vox Day, I recommend reading what he writes. He’s very good, and quite intelligent. The piece he wrote today, for example, makes the case that our current rebound is just the “false dawn that precedes the darkness.”
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=109679

Contrary to the belief of mainstream economists, economics is not a giant confidence game in which the government can fool enough people into feeling sufficient consumer confidence to generate a self-fulfilling prophecy of economic growth. Even as the composite leading indicators and GDP numbers turn positive, real measures of economic activity are pointing in precisely the opposite direction. International shipping has begun to slump again. After a three-month rise spurred by an aggressive stimulus program, steel prices have begun to fall once more in the world's largest steel-using country, China. Nearly 40 percent of the stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange are the worthless stocks of four zombie corporations being propped up by the federal government, BAC, C, FNM and FRE. Total U.S. loans and leases are down 4.6 percent for the year, an initial sign that the inevitable deleveraging process has begun. The percentage of failed bank deposits in 2009 are rapidly approaching three times the percentage of failed bank deposits in 1931, and the FDIC has been forced to request a $500 billion credit line from the U.S. Treasury to stave off looming bankruptcy.

The map is not the land. The statistics are not the economy. This is not a recovery; this is the false dawn that precedes the darkness.

I urge you to read the rest, as it is quite enlightening. Vox points out ways that the government has been taking actions specifically targeted to artificially inflate the GDP numbers without causing actual economic growth.

Due to the way GDP is measured, there are a variety of ways that GDP can increase and perceived economic growth can show up in the statistics without an improvement in the labor market. As I explained in a previous column, imports count against GDP, so if Americans stopped buying imported Mercedes and Nintendos for some reason, this would be reported as incredible economic growth and a vast increase in societal wealth. The reality, of course, is that a complete cessation of import buying would indicate that something has gone seriously wrong with the American economy and the American consumer's ability to purchase goods and services. Another way is for the government to borrow and spend money, a third way is for the Federal Reserve to increase the money supply, and a fourth way is for the government to provide incentives for Americans to make purchases with consumer loans.

Sound familiar? Imports are down, and our government is doing all of the other three things that Vox lists. These inflate the GDP numbers to sound impressive, but the reality is that unemployment is high and getting higher. Real growth can’t occur without new jobs being created… unless you somehow believe that our economy can grow robustly WITHOUT increasing the number of workers in the marketplace.

Be prepared. Months ago, several noted economists predicted this could likely be a double-dip recession… which means we’d have a period of recovery before experiencing a deeper plunge. There are signs that this is still a strong possibility.

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9-12 March: Two Million People?

According to a British news source, up to two million people attended the 9-12 rally in Washington DC on Saturday. This squares with the report of a friend of mine who attended the march. I hope to have her write up a report so that it can be published here.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1213056/Up-million-march-US-Capitol-protest-Obamas-spending-tea-party-demonstration.html

Personally, from what I've seen of the long-shot video footage, I'm leaning more towards the "more than a million" figures, myself. But as I've posted the video for you to see, you're perfectly capable of forming your own opinion.


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More About Acorn

Remember the undercover video made in a Boston Acorn office that showed Acorn workers helping a pimp and a prostitute set up an underage prostitution ring… and advising them how to lie to the government? Acorn said that was an isolated incident… but then the video from DC was released, showing Acorn workers in DC doing the same thing. Ooops.

So Acorn blasted the video-maker, saying the video was doctored, and released a list of offices where they FAILED to get Acorn workers to do this. On that list was New York.

You’re intelligent, you know what comes next. Yes, the undercover filmmaker releases another video, this one from New York.
http://biggovernment.com/2009/09/14/acorn-video-prostitution-scandal-in-new-york-ny/

Video links are here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrpRGZq7Z-U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue_2_dhh1zo








Acorn is now facing a possible investigation by HUD on the housing grants they have been receiving.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/12/census-victory-conservatives-target-hud-funds-acorn/

And perversely, though Acorn workers were shown conspiring to defraud the Federal government, so far the only possible criminal charges being discussed by authorities is against the people who went undercover to make the video! Crazy!!!!
http://wbal.com/apps/news/templates/story.aspx?articleid=35357&zoneid=2


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Unemployment To Remain Unacceptably High For Years

As any decent economist will tell you, a jobless recover from an economic slump isn’t a true recovery. Because unless the private sector begins expanding and hiring people to help them do it, private-sector growth is extremely limited.

With that in mind, we discover that the President’s chief economic advisor is saying that the unemployment rate will likely stay “unacceptably high” for years to come.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27052.html

The president’s chief economic adviser warned Friday that the nation’s unemployment rate could stay “unacceptably high” for years to come — a situation that would seriously complicate Barack Obama’s ability to convince Americans that he’s beating back the recession.

“The level of unemployment is unacceptably high,” National Economic Council Director Larry Summers said Friday. “And will, by all forecasts, remain unacceptably high for a number of years.”

So we’re going to have problems with job growth in the coming years, eh? I wonder if this could have anything to do with it?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125268390913603465.html

As the recession and bailout have pushed this year's federal budget deficit to an unheard-of $1.6 trillion, an unpleasant reality has dawned: Taxes are going up. The only questions are when, how much, and for whom?

The answers depend on the shifting sands of wealth politics and the scope of health-care revision. "But everybody thinks that by 2011 tax rates will be higher, at least for those with higher incomes," says Thomas Ochsenschlager, a tax official at the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

This certainty turns traditional tax-planning logic upside-down. Taxpayers have long been advised to defer taxes as long as possible, especially by making contributions to tax-sheltered IRAs and 401(k)s or holding assets for years in order to postpone realizing gains.

Now taxpayers should reconsider this rule.

Increased taxes are such a certainty that tax preparers are starting to develop strategies to help you survive them. And we all know that increased taxes slow economic growth, and since many of the proposed taxes would impact that sector of our economy that creates the most jobs (small business owners)… that means job creation will take an even bigger hit.

Tax increases are coming, and our unemployment rate is going to remain high for years. It’s amazing that the supposedly intelligent people in DC can’t put these two together worth a darn.

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9-12 March Attendance Figures

If you're reading this to find out how many attended, I can't give you a concrete figure. We will run down the different estimates, though.

First, though, I'd like you to watch this time-lapse video of the gathering and then the march, so you can make your own estimates. The video shows a three-hour stretch of time in about 40 seconds, and starts as the people first started to gather before marching. You make your own judgment on crowd size.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sjvc6baor8&feature=player_embedded






But here are the estimates.

At the bottom end, we have Davis Shuster saying there were 50,000 attendees.
http://twitter.com/DavidShuster/status/3942120853

Matt Welch, of Reason.com, says that attendance was "a healthy six figures" present.
http://reason.com/blog/show/136041.html

There was a report of 2 million credited to ABC, but ABC says they never said it.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/protest-crowd-size-estimate-falsely-attributed-abc-news/story?id=8558055

ABC News did quote unidentified "city officials" to provide a 60,000 - 75,000 estimate.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/09/marching-down-pennsylvania-avenue.html

By any measure, though, the New York Times says the crowd was far larger than anybody expected.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/us/politics/13protestweb.html?_r=2

"But the magnitude of the rally took the authorities by surprise, with throngs of people streaming from the White House to Capitol Hill for more than three hours."

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Acorn: Consequences

As all adults have learned at some point in their lives (such being part of becoming an adult), actions have consequences. And we all are responsible for the consequences of our own actions. So Acorn has recently learned.

As I’ve written in two blog posts, Acorn was subjected to some undercover filmmakers who posed as a pimp and a prostitute, and Acorn workers happily helped them with advice on how to lie to HUD and the IRS. Among the helpful suggestions was advice to claim underage Salvadoran children as dependents on tax forms.

Lovely.

But as I said earlier, actions have consequences. As a direct result of these two videos, the US Census Bureau has decided to terminate Acorn’s participation in the 2010 census. On the other hand, they’re still in line for HUD money… for now.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/12/census-victory-conservatives-target-hud-funds-acorn/

"Over the last several months, through ongoing communication with our regional offices, it is clear that ACORN's affiliation with the 2010 Census promotion has caused sufficient concern in the general public, has indeed become a distraction from our mission, and may even become a discouragement to public cooperation, negatively impacting 2010 Census efforts," read a letter from Census Director Robert M. Groves to the president of ACORN.

"Unfortunately, we no longer have confidence that our national partnership agreement is being effectively managed through your many local offices. For the reasons stated, we therefore have decided to terminate the partnership," the letter said.

ACORN responded Saturday by blaming FOX News and conservatives for fueling the controversy.

This is welcome news to the majority who were disgusted by the actions of the Acorn workers, though we want more. Specifically, we want ALL government funding for Acorn to be terminated immediately… if not sooner.

I mean, really, ask yourself… should the United States Government be funding an organization who counsels criminals on how best to lie to the United States Government? Clearly, the answer to that question is and should be: NO!

HUD… your move.

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