Whether you call it an iceberg or a torpedo, ObamaCare just struck something or vice versa and it doesn’t look good. The ship is taking on water and you can hear the orchestra tuning up as they rearrange the deck chairs.
Republican senator
In baseball they call it a brush back pitch, a high hard one. It lets the batter know that they don’t own home plate, and if they try to get too comfortable there they may be inviting a little “chin music.” Jim Bunning, Republican Senator from Kentucky and a Hall of Fame baseball pitcher with a perfect game on his resume, just gave the Democrats a brush back and they don’t like it one bit.
Out of Control Spending
You would have to be Rip Van Winkle not to know that spending is out of control and America is speeding toward bankruptcy. President Obama and Nancy Pelosi have tried to hoodwink the country by implementing what is called “Paygo” short for Pay As You Go. The idea is that you cannot spend money without first funding it either through cutting spending somewhere else or raising taxes. The last element is the real reason Democrats support it, so that they would be “forced” to raise taxes. Here is how the Wall Street Journal described Paygo back in June.
The truth is that paygo is the kind of budget gimmick that gives gimmickry a bad name. As Mr. Obama knows but won’t tell voters, paygo only applies to new or expanded entitlement programs, not to existing programs such as Medicare, this year growing at a 9.2% annual rate. Nor does paygo apply to discretionary spending, set to hit $1.4 trillion in fiscal 2010, or 40% of the budget.
The Democrats passed Paygo to appear fiscally responsible. Jim Bunning merely called them on it. He is not opposed to spending the money. He has the courage, though, to stand up and say, Mr. President we’re broke, and we are accountable to the American people to be good stewards of the money they give us to run this government.
“If we can’t find $10 billion to pay for something that we all support, we will never pay for anything on the floor of this U.S. Senate,” he said. – Jim Bunning, Floor of the U.S. Senate, 3/1/2010
Immediately was heard much wailing an gnashing of teeth, that the lone Republican, had the temerity to challenge the “flexibility” of the Democrats to apply their rules willy nilly to tighten their grip on their power while trying to appear like the kindly nannies they really are. Rules are passed to much fanfare in front of the cameras and then ignored with a scoff or a sneer, when they really mean something.
Gimmicks Instead of Guts
Democrats have proved incapable of controlling their spending. With the mad push of profligacy that came with winning the Presidency and both houses of Congress with large margins, they now find themselves unable to dial it back without an intervention or a rehabilitation program. So they pass Paygo, and ignore it; convene a debt reduction commission and name Andy Stern of the SEIU union to it. If that is not a clue to what’s coming I don’t know what is. What does a labor union president know about reducing debt? All they know how to do is take someone else’s money and put it in their own pockets, so you can bet their solution to the debt problem is taxing you to the eyeballs.
Rather than the scorn that is being heaped upon him, Senator Bunning deserves our thanks. Find the money first, then spend it. Enough of the IOUs. We cannot afford this liberal spending binge.
Stand strong, Senator, the Tea Party Patriots hear you and help is on the way.
Republicans: Don't Fall Into This Trap
Republicans lose elections when they act counter to what people expect of them. When President Clinton was undergoing impeachment, too many Republicans focused on what happened in the Oval office, leading Democrats to tut tut, “Republicans are just a bunch of prudes.” In France, where taking a mistress and siring a brood is a way of life, were baffled at the commotion over here. The argument should have focused on women’s rights and how Clinton, by his lying, was denying Paula Jones her day in court on a legitimate claim of sexual harassment. If that was the gravamen of the discussion, the Republicans would have one on either the impeachment claim or by discrediting the left wing of the women’s movement by starkly painting them as choosing abortion as the sine qua non of their existence, rather than supporting the rights of a solitary woman against a powerful man. Alas, the Democrats successfully dragged the fight into the mud, smearing everyone in the process. When it was all done, you couldn’t tell a muddy Clinton, from a spattered Ken Starr, from a slime covered Republican Congressman.
Take the High Road
Today there was a news release from the Republican National Committee trying to make hay out of President Obama taking his wife to a Broadway play on the eve of GM filing bankruptcy, the state of the economy, etc., etc. PLEASE! Let the man take his wife to a play. Barack Obama will have the Secret Service following him for the rest of his life. It costs money to protect him. What do we expect our President to do, stay home and bowl for the rest of his term? The man still has very high approval ratings. Trying to make these kinds of points is counterproductive and will probably raise his numbers and the Republicans negative numbers at the same time. Instead of asking why he was doing that, ask him how he liked the play.
With the confirmation hearings approaching for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the Republicans have to be on guard for the same things. Get off the “she’s a racist” bandwagon. You’re playing right into the Democrats hands. They are the party of class warfare and nothing would please them more than ad hominem attacks on a Puerto Rican woman.
Treat it just like any job interview. Is she qualified to do the job? Don’t bring up any questions about race, sex, age, disabilities, or anything else you couldn’t ask on a job interview. Instead of saying she is a racist for saying a Latina woman would arrive at better decisions than a white man, ask her to explain her thinking behind the statement and then follow it up with a line of questions about judicial activism. On the Ricci case, ask her what would be the remedy that would pass muster in her court. How many blacks would have to pass the test to allow the promotions to go through? How many Hispanics? How many Asians? Ask her if a white male wanted to sue the National Basketball Association because whites are disproportionally represented in the NBA, what would she rule?
Set the Table
Judge Sotomayor probably has the votes to make it to the Supreme Court. At the same time most Americans are opposed to judicial activism. If the Republicans stay on message and take this as an opportunity to point to another instance of this Administration taking away more and more of our liberties, they can head to the production studios and start making the commercials for 2010. If they accept the left’s invitation to step into the mud pit, then when it is all over all anyone will see is the mud dripping from every participant. Just say no. No ad hominem attacks. No inflated claims on small points. Just a steady, consistent focus on whether on not Judge Sotomayor is an activist judge. Here is the speech that we should hear from any Republican senator when the nomination comes up for a vote:
“Judge Sotomayor has a great American story. It is a story that all Americans should admire. She seems like a truly warm and caring individual, which are qualities than anyone should embrace. However, in her judicial philosophy she doesn’t seem to be able to separate her personal feelings from the law. Her passion would make her a wonderful legislator, but a judge does not make the rules. Like an umpire in a baseball game, the judge calls balls and strikes, safe and out. The umpire doesn’t directly influence the outcome for one team or the other, neither the underdog nor the favorite. Justice should be blind. Judge Sotomayor doesn’t believe that. Therefore, regretfully, I will be voting against her.”
