Posts Tagged ‘Congress’

Several weeks ago, while waiting for my lovely wife, I was listening to talk radio. I am always good for that. Anyway… up came the subject of compromise.

Compromise – it’s a word we’ve all heard our whole adult lives. The secret to a good marriage is compromise… politicians should be willing to compromise… we should all be willing to give and take – compromise… the world would be a better place if we could all just compromise; all ideally valid points, ideally. And all wrong in reality.

Compromise is nothing more than giving away something. Give me your wallet! No? Okay, let’s compromise; just give me your cash; okay, just the credit cards. That’s fair; I’ll buy you lunch. Still no? Okay, I’ll shoot you. Again, let’s compromise; I’ll just shoot you in the toe – how about the little toe? Either way, you’re losing money or blood.

Consider our lawmakers. We all have principals, and we all have ideas that we feel represent the best interest for our state and America. Conservatives have certain ideas (or at least they did): limited government, lower taxes, strong military, etc. If we compromise our fiscal principals in a “Compassionate Conservative” way, we have giving away our livelihoods. If we compromise our advocacy for the unborn simply because the best choice happens to be pro-choice, we compromised our morals. And if we weaken our military to gain popularity in the world, we compromised our sovereignty and freedom. Compromise is what brought us the McCain-Kennedy Education Bill, aka No Child Left Behind, the McCain-Feingold  Elections Ethics Bill; how has that worked for curbing the money problem in politics. Compromise brought us Medicare Part B, the auto industry bailout, and countless other boondoggles at Americans’ expense.

Why must we compromise to select or elect the lesser of two unfit candidates? The national Republican Party has been losing popularity, because it’s been losing its soul compromising on the issues and moving slowly to the left. Whereas we conservatives have been firmly planted on the right, unwilling to compromise, unwilling to give up on our values, our principles, and our foundation.

I agree with Elbert Hubbard, “It is the weak man who urges compromise – never the strong man.”

Here are a few thoughts after considering the so called health care summit…

Clearly, President Barack Hussein Obama has major ego issues. Arrogance looks as bad on him as it does on anyone else.

Republicans can stop being timid about “philosophical differences” they have with the president. Those differences are the reason we voted for them.

President Barack Hussein Obama dismisses the deeply held concerns of tens of millions of American citizens as “talking points.”

The Republicans get points for having the chutzpa to attend what everyone knew was theater directed by the enemy.

“That’s what elections are for” seems to be understood by the president as Carte blanche to bypass the legislative process. Note to the president…You are not the king!

The real problem is not  in fact health care. We enjoy the best health care in the world. The actual problem is one of delivery, it’s too expensive. Too expensive can only mean one thing…inefficiency!

Health care delivery is inefficient because there is a third party involved in the health care transaction, insurance companies. They are now the customer.

Customers make the demands, customers are catered to and served as opposed to patients who read old magazines and wait…and wait…and wait…

The reason health care is complicated has little to do with medicine, doctors or patients. It has everything to do with a third party having no medical incentive whatsoever.

The most telling and disturbing moment of the “summit” came when the President was in fact and in point incorrect about the costs of his plan. He countered with the justification that insurance would be “better” under his plan. By dismissing objective fact with the subjective notion of better insurance he clearly exposed the ultimate problem with all Liberal and Progressive ideology. They don’t believe in personal liberty, not if it conflicts with what economist and author Thomas Sowell refers to as the “Vision of the Anointed.”

They plan to see their vision become policy, even if they have to make back room deals, treat the people of different states unequally and/or subvert the legislative process to accomplish it.

Please feel free to comment and let us know what you observed.

Thanks for reading!

My wife is a multi-talented woman with charms that still captivate me after twenty-six years of marriage. But of all my bride’s enchantments none is more irresistible than her white chocolate chip cookies. In fact, I have a confession to make. If she bakes them I will eat.

You can safely infer two things from the above: First, the goodies are indeed good! Second, my resolute resistance is, well, pretty much irresolute. Don’t laugh…you couldn’t resist either! But if we fail to resist baked goodies with frightening regularity, what about governmental goodies?

Our system of Representative government was established to safeguard our political, economic and personal freedom. That’s the way it was designed to function. But now we send men and women to Congress to “get our fair share of the pie.” Completely understandable given the existence of such a “pie” but that’s just the problem.

It Should Not Exist!

“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” – Alexis de Tocqueville.

Do you and I have the courage to follow truth to logical conclusions? Certainly the politicians don’t. And we can’t really blame them for doing what we ask them to do, that is, getting our “fair share” of pork and entitlements. Such waste of money is absolutely shocking! (In someone else’s state.) The real issue is the pie. If it’s there we will eat it.

The stated goals of many governmental initiatives are good and desirable, at least to someone. But these goals must be philanthropic rather than governmental or they degenerate into political tools. The existence of the pie changes everything including motives and behavior. The pie causes us to lose sight of the long term best in favor of the short term good. The pie makes us believe we really can have something for nothing.

The conclusions are inescapable. The Federal government must stop all programs not specifically mandated (enumerated) by the Constitution. Yes, that means social security too. See what I mean about courage? The only alternative is slavery and tyranny just as de Tocqueville (and so many others) predicted.

Let’s have the courage to at least start the conversation and conduct it in civility.

Thanks for reading.

Congressional Democrats have passed so called Health Care Reform legislation and Progressives and Liberals are hailing it as a great victory. Well, the existence of a victor presupposes the existence of the vanquished. Such an immense success surely warrants investigation; so let’s explore the nature of this victory, the victor and the vanquished.

WHO

Political leftists of all stripes are, undoubtedly, the winners in this social and political battle. The legislation has been voted on and, even if by the strictest of party lines, has passed. House and Senate versions must be reconciled, no easy task to be sure, but Democrats are confident and still riding high on the wings of their “victory.”

So…who are the vanquished? It is the American people who have been defeated. Period! An over-whelming majority of the American public is “uneasy” about further government involvement in their health care with a solid majority out and out opposing more government involvement. Democrats have succeeded in overcoming the obvious will of the American people who they are supposed to represent. That brings us to another victim in this struggle: Representative government. But it is in actuality more of a transformation rather than a defeat. We now see operating “special interest” representative government. The will of the governed no longer matters, at least not to the Liberals.

WHAT

The object of victory is legislation which brings the USA by leaps and bounds towards a more thoroughly socialized health care system. Progressives and liberal Democrats move us by design in the direction of European style health care. This comparison makes them nervous for obvious reasons. Where ever socialized health care has been implemented it has proven disastrous. The idea is not new and untried and there’s no need to take my word for it. Please feel free to consult Mao, Lenin or Hitler for verification.

I am compelled to point out just where in the entire world those who are sick and suffering desire to come for treatment…the United States of America! We enjoy the most advanced level of medical care in the world. This is the same care over which the Democrats now claim “victory.”

WHEN

“To the victor go the spoils” the old adage tells and we would expect this political battle to be no different: only it is different. For the so called victors in this struggle do not plan to claim their spoils until after the next presidential elections. Curious! What possible motive could they have for delaying implementation if what they have won is so grand?

In summary I wish to draw attention to the modus operandi of Social Progressives in our nation over the past several decades. Like a malignancy socialistic ideas have lurked, sustained by the healthy host of a free capitalistic society. And like a cancer leftist ideas have attacked the host. If unable to infect the heart the disease takes hold where ever possible and grows. Just as an undetected cancer destroys the life of the host, and thus its own life, so the destruction caused by Progressive ideas has begun. We see it clearly manifested in atrocious public schools, in propagandizing universities and in social programs which have produced nothing but a systematic enslavement of the poor and disadvantaged.

While the Left celebrates we might well ask just how many more of these “victories” our nation can withstand!

I haven’t commented on the “Climategate” investigation because I’ve been waiting to see how far it would go. And, unfortunately it seems to be going about as far as Obama’s birth certificate investigation.

Here’s the latest from the White House Press Secretary:

“In the order of several thousand scientists have come to the conclusion that climate change is happening… I don’t think that any of that is, quite frankly among most people, in dispute.”

Here’s the problem I see with this whole thing; we (meaning those pushing 40 and younger) have been force fed this malarkey for 30 years or more. We all remember pictures of the Statue of Liberty obscured by scaffolding; we all remember Ying and Yang, Ping and Pong, or whatever those panda’s names were; we’ve heard about the ozone hole; we’ve all done crafts in 3rd grade about that particular species of lizard that’s now extinct because of deforestation; we’ve all been forced to read Walden, participate in recycling activities, or take part in some 10th grade fuel experiment; we’ve all watched The Day After Tomorrow, and had it explained to us three ways to Sunday how global warming can cause the next ice age. The environmental movement, with the aid of Congress, Hollywood, the NEA, Greenpeace, The Sierra Club, and many others have propagated information to the point where now it is settled science.

Disagree? Is Roe v. Wade settled law?

The WSJ can publish another 3,000 or 50,000 emails detailing how science has been manipulated, misconstrued, or even made up, and it’s not going to change one thing; Obama will still go to Copenhagen, the UN will pass it’s climate change initiative, and Congress will pass cap and trade, and other legislation will follow. These organizations seized long ago on an opportunity to rob us of our money and our freedom, and it’s going to take a lot more than an email scandal to turn the tides.

Yesterday, Watchdog.com broke the story about numerous bogus claims on the federal site Recovery.com, 30 new or saved jobs in Arizona’s 15th district; 25 jobs saved or created in Connecticut’s 42nd district, and the list can go on.

Today, Watchdog.com has more information.

According to data retrieved from Recovery.gov, nearly $6.4 billion was used to “create or save” just under 30,000 jobs in these [440] phantom congressional districts–almost $225,000 per job. The web site operates on an $84 million budget and is tasked with monitoring the distribution of the $787 billion stimulus package passed by Congress–which, for the record, counts 435 members–in early 2009.

To see a list of the 440 bogus districts, click here.

The site’s monitors, however, are not too savvy about America’s political or geographic landscape. More than $2 million was given to the 99th District of North Dakota, a state which has only one congressional district. In order to qualify for 99 districts, North Dakota would have to have a population of about 60 million people, almost 24 million more people than California…

South Carolina’s 7th took the cake, garnering more than $27 million in stimulus funds, despite being eliminated in 1930. And Virginia’s 12th District may have been written off at the start of the Civil War, but it must carry some sentimental value in Old Dominion–it received more than $2 million, according to recovery.gov…

The stimulus helped to create 35 congressional districts in Washington D.C. and the four American territories, all of which have no congressional districts. These areas received $5 of the $6.4 billion distributed to the non-existent districts…

Vice President Joe Biden admitted that the administration’s statistics were flawed after an Associated Press study revealed several instances of exaggerated and outright false job creation. The vice president acknowledged that “further updates and corrections are going to be needed.”

Either, the editors of Recovery.com think we’re all morons, or they are incredibly lazy. I’m thinking it’s probably both; there has apparently been no attempt to proof the site, at all.

Duane Lester, at All American Blogger, asks a good question. Given all this, do you want to depend on the government for a health recovery(.com)?

Nicholas Ballasy over at CNSNews has posted a great article quoting Daniel Akaka saying he’s not aware of the Constitution giving Congress the right to include the individual mandate. Go ahead pick up your jaw; now, before you assume the pride of the Aloha state has flipped his liberal lid, Akaka also says the lack of such authority doesn’t matter. But, then again what Constitutional authority or lack thereof has ever really mattered to these folks anyway?

Regardless, it’s a good piece revealing the state of mind of those supporting ObamaCare and the individual mandate.

When CNSNews.com asked whether the Constitution gives Congress the authority to make Americans buy health insurance, Sen. Akaka said: “I’m not aware of that; let me put it that way. But what we’re trying to do is to provide for people who have needs, and that’s where the accessibility comes in, and one of the goals that we’re trying to present here is to make it accessible.”

Oh, so it’s about accessibility. Using that defense, Congress should make everyone who is eligible by a car, so those who can’t (or won’t) drive, can ride the bus. I know, it doesn’t make sense to me either

When asked if there was a specific part of the Constitution that gives Congress the authority to make people buy health insurance, Akaka said: “Not in particular with health insurance. It’s not covered in that respect. But in ways to help citizens in our country to live a good life, let me say it that way, is what we’re trying to do, and in this case, we’re trying to help them with their health.”.

Wait, what, so it’s about health then. Okay, so everyone should be forced to buy a gym membership, so those who don’t want to work out, can go sit in the sauna at the Y. Again, doesn’t make sense to me either.

“It’s an idea of making it possible for people and this is what it’s all about,” he said. “I don’t look upon that as a penalty but as a way of getting help with health insurance.”

Um, uh, hmmm, what?

In 1994, when Congress was considering a universal health care plan proposed by then-President Clinton that included a mandate that all individuals purchase health insurance, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) studied the issue and discovered that the federal government had never in the history of the United States mandated that individuals purchase any good or service.

“A mandate requiring all individuals to purchase health insurance would be an unprecedented form of federal action,” said the CBO. “The government has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States.”

In an analysis published this July, the CBO said that an attempt to justify a mandate that people buy health insurance by using the Commerce Clause—which gives Congress the power to regulate commerce “among the several states”—raises a “novel issue.”

Not a “novel issue,” a Constitutional issue.

See the whole interview here.

Townhall.com is reporting that Obama has ordered a full review of all the intelligence related to the Nidal Hasan, and is specifically asking the question if that information was properly disseminated and thoroughly checked out.

Obama also ordered the preservation of the intelligence. Members of Congress, particularly Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, have called for a full examination of what agencies knew about Hasan’s contacts with a radical imam and others of concern to the U.S., and what they did with the information.

Hmmm, I can’t help think this a “CYA” response to questions Hoekstra raised about Hasan’s finances. This guy was making close to $90k/year, and he was living in a $300/mo apartment on Ramen Noodles and Beenie Weenies (beef of course). Where was the money going?

The FBI confirmed this week that the U.S. government knew about 10 to 20 e-mails between Hasan and a radical imam beginning in December 2008.

It think it pretty obvious if it was properly disseminated, the answer to the last question above is, No!

FoxNews.com is reporting that a Senate panel investing the increasing threat of domestic terrorism, not from “ring-wing extremists,” but from homegrown jihadists, warned of a Fort Hood type scenario years ago.

More than a year before the massacre at Fort Hood, a Senate panel conducting an extensive investigation into the threat of homegrown terrorism warned that “radicalization” had spread beyond Afghanistan training camps to the United States and that lone wolves fueled by Internet propaganda would present a growing threat.The Senate committee report warned that the Internet was serving as a “virtual terrorist training camp,” and cited that as a contributing factor in the United States becoming more and more susceptible to homegrown extremists.

Though the report said that the lack of a “sympathetic audience” and presence of an integrated Muslim community historically has made homegrown terrorism less likely in the United States, it cited recent homegrown plots — like a foiled plot against Fort Dix, N.J. — as an “early warning” that the trend is reversing.

The “sympathetic audience” is now the political establishment and the mainstream media. More and more information is being released about the events leading up to the Fort Hood shootings, and the some of the media is suggesting the Major Hasan just snapped, still asking if this was preplanned, still trading carefully on the “terror” word.

“Radicalization is no longer confined to training camps in Afghanistan or other locations far from our shores; it is also occurring right here in the United States,” the report stated.

Mike Baker, a former CIA covert operations officer, said Hasan — particularly as a member of the U.S. military — would have made an “attractive candidate” for radicals overseas. If he was influenced by such elements, Baker said, Hasan would be more than just an “unhinged fellow” accused of going on a shooting rampage.

If so, the attack certainly did not follow the Sept. 11 model, where hijackers were recruited from overseas in the Middle East. As the 2008 report detailed, “the violent Islamist threat to the homeland has evolved and expanded.”

Imagine that, the enemy is changing tactics, and somehow we can’t. Jihadists can apparently only be Middle Easterners who hijack planes or blow up things in the war zone; they can’t be American, they can’t act alone, they have to fit the mold, otherwise we’re just stereotyping. Here’s a thought, read the evidence!

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, told Fox News that it appears the “red flags” surrounding Hasan should have prompted an investigation.

“Certainly it’s worrisome if red flags were ignored, if behavior issues were not targeted for further review,” Collins said Tuesday. “This is something we have to have a no-holds-barred investigation of.”

“Everybody says this is going to create a lot of jobs. We feel strongly that it’s going to be in the three to four million range.”

Those were Christina Romer’s (Obama’s top economic advisor) words nine months ago in a February press conference, touting the $789 billion White House stimulus package. So where do we stand now? According to the Labor Department’s number this morning, that “the three to four million range” is actually how many jobs eliminated.

But these numbers are based strictly on unemployment claims, and are a little misleading. There millions of Americans who’s unemployment compensation has, and millions more who have settled for a part-time job.  So, in reality, the number of jobs eliminated is more like 14.5 million jobs gone or 17.5 percent.

How’s the $789 million working for you?