by Bill O'Connell on April 5, 2012
It the last few days we have heard President Obama ranting about the Supreme Court. This is not anything new. You may also recall his unprecedented calling out of the Supreme Court as the justices sat in front of him during his State of the Union speech attacking them over the Citizens United v FEC case.
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by Bill O'Connell on February 20, 2012
Congress passed yet another extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits. The Republicans did it to take the political issue off the table for the election. Tim Bishop and the Democrats passed it because they think it is good governing.
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by Bill O'Connell on February 13, 2012
President Barack Obama has a new budget. So it’s time to suspend reality and listen and nod your head and pine for four more years.
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by Bill O'Connell on January 8, 2012
In the presidential debate on January, 7, in New Hampshire, ABC’s panel pressed hard to have the candidates say whether they believed states had a right to make contraceptives illegal and whether there was a Constitutional right to privacy. Romney, sidestepped it like a skilled matador, Ron Paul fumbled it.
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by Bill O'Connell on December 14, 2011
Congressman Tim Bishop held an online town hall meeting to hear questions from constituents and give his answers. Perhaps he thought this a safer forum than a live town hall meeting. Last year’s meeting in Setauket did not go well and was soon viral on You Tube.
I will comment on three of the topics from that meeting: the payroll tax cut, regulations, and manufacturing jobs.
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by Bill O'Connell on November 10, 2011
photo by cliff1066
Just because Democrats are statically stuck on stupid, why do they think everyone else is? What I am referring to is static analysis of changes to the tax code. Democrats always want to have any potential changes statically scored. In other words if Democrats raise rates 10%, naturally, the government will get 10% more revenue. If on the other hand you cut tax rates 10%, a very bad thing, tax revenues will fall 10%. The problem is that they have been proved wrong every time. In other words, Democrats believe that if they raise tax rates you will be too stupid to change your behavior in response.
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by Bill O'Connell on September 22, 2011
Photo by No Nein
President Obama has a plan to pivot toward jobs, after nearly three years on office. After spending boatloads of our money on a stimulus program that failed, according to his own standard of capping unemployment at 8%, he wants to spend more. He claims that he is also cutting spending, but when you drill down into the details, it is a myth.
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by Bill O'Connell on September 21, 2011
Photo by Mike Licht, nationscapital.com
Often overlooked in the class warfare that President Obama is unleashing on America so that he can continue spending, is how business is being strangled by regulations. Every time the government fails to protect our rights and freedoms because it is too busy trying to micromanage our lives, and as a result some calamity descends upon us, the answer is always more regulations. Nowadays, that will typically mean thousands of pages of new laws that turn into tens of thousands of pages of new regulations and those who never met a payroll wonder why we are stuck at 9% unemployment.
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by Bill O'Connell on September 9, 2011
Photo by Violentz
Most presidents view an address to a joint session of Congress for serious non-partisan purposes. Outside the annual State of the Union address they are rare. President Bush only did it once, in the aftermath of 9/11, and while jobs are very important to the country at this time, it is no place for a lecture (saying pass this bill seventeen times) from the most inexperienced president in our history.
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by Bill O'Connell on August 29, 2011
photo by Kevin Dooley
One of the main reasons the current economic problem is so hard to solve and the battle lines are so starkly drawn is that there is strong disagreement on what the problem is and likewise the solutions. The mantra from the left is that the problem is Bush’s fault, there was too much deregulation under Bush, although no one points to any particular regulation repealed under Bush that caused the crisis, and that we don’t tax enough. Those on the right have a different view.
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