Fighting to Preserve Liberty in America
President Barack Obama released his budget blueprint on the same day the White House says it expects the budget deficit for the current fiscal year ending in October to hit $1.65 trillion. His budget calls for spending cuts of $1 trillion spread out over ten years. Click to read more
Tim Bishop has one reason that he consistently gives for sending him back to Congress and that is that his opponent, Randy Altschuler, started a company and Bishop claims it outsourced jobs overseas.
In a New York Post article yesterday, Raymond J. Keating informs us that the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, where he serves as chief economist, just released their Small Business Scorecard for the 111thCongress. The scorecard rates members of Congress on a wide range of votes (27 in the Senate and 22 in the House) that cover such things as workplace regulation, ObamaCare, government spending, tax policies, energy legislation, and bailouts. Overall, he tells us the New York delegation scored just 11 percent on the scorecard, the sixth worst of the fifty states. The two members of the delegation that scored well are Peter King, and John Lee. On the other hand Tim Bishop failed to vote even once with small business on big issues. A big fat zero.
Can liberty be saved? Is there a chance that we can rescue our country from the federal juggernaut that wants to reach down into the deepest recesses of your life and take control? They spend your money with reckless abandon and say, “What Me Worry?” Those in power would have indulged in the trappings of office, sated on money and power, and be long gone with their spoils while the crumpled bill lies on the floor for you and your children and your children’s children to pick up and pay.
They have invited many to the party, to eat, drink, and be merry with promises of “middle class” tax cuts that are the greatest April Fools joke of all time. Don’t worry we’ll get the rich to pay for it all. You know, those evil fat cats on Wall Street. But the Republicans on Wall Street have long be replaced by Democrats. That’s right, Gordon Gecko is a Democrat. 60% of Wall Street contributions went to Democrats vs. Republicans. How long will the top 2% of earners keep shouldering the burden before they slow down, stop, or emigrate. Who will pick up the pieces then? Who will support the drunken revelers that Obama piled on the public dole?
AIG Outrage
All of the outrage by Congressional and Administration leadership over the AIG bonuses is the epitome of hubris. AIG contributed $104,000 to each Barack Obama and Christopher Dodd, during the recent election cycle. Do you remember the brouhaha over language in the stimulus bill that had a loophole that allowed the AIG bonuses to be paid? Dodd said he didn’t include the loophole. Later he said he did include it but at the insistence of the Obama administration. Now is it just me or does anyone else see a quid pro quo here? Then they come out red-faced professing that the bonuses are an outrage. Senator Schumer, who is threatening to unconstitutionally tax the bonuses into oblivion, took $112,000 in contributions from AIG.
Lessons from Hugo Chavez?
More recently President Obama effectively fired the CEO of General Motors and now speaks of bankruptcy. I, among many others, said they should have filed for bankruptcy long before taxpayers bailed them out. So now after we have sunk taxpayer money into GM and Chrysler, Obama steps in and effectively runs the company on “our behalf” as owners of 80% of the company and now says bankruptcy is a good idea! When will the amateur hour come to an end? But watch carefully, because Obama will assiduously avoid offending the auto workers union, despite the fact that the union contracts put US auto makers at a $2000 per car disadvantage against the competition. GM (Government Motors) will now be forced to make cars that satisfy Obama’s left wing supporters but that Americans don’t want to buy. It will be interesting to see how the government forces us to buy them.
What Do the Europeans Think?
For years we have been told by the left that we must listen to what the Europeans are saying. They say we have to consider foreign laws in weighing Supreme Court cases. They decried Bush’s policies as alienating our European friends. So what do the Europeans think of Obama now?
The president of the European Union on Wednesday ripped the Obama administration’s economic policies, calling its deficit spending and bank bailouts “a road to hell.” — Washington Post, March 25
A Very Dangerous Path
In March of 1933 Adolf Hitler, proclaiming a national emergency of a potential communist revolution asked the German legislature, the Reichstag, to grant him emergency powers to deal with the situation. Such a proposal required two-thirds approval by that body. The final vote was 441 in favor, 84 opposed. From that point on, Hitler was dictator.
Rahm Emmanuel likes to say, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” President Obama is taking the current financial crisis to ram through a massive power grab. The legislation is being rammed through with such force and urgency that no one has a chance to read it. What ticking time bomb could be tucked in those pages that get voted on and passed without scrutiny? Just look at the AIG fiasco for the answer. No one seemed to know or admit it was in there. If we allow this to continue, we may find some other provision included in the dead of night that will destroy our country forever.
Be on your guard.
“Because each day we wait to begin the work of turning our economy around, more people lose their jobs, their savings and their homes. And if nothing is done, this recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse” — Barack Obama, Op-ed piece in Washington Post, Feb. 5, 2009
Each day we wait…The most massive increase in government spending in the history of the Republic was passed on Friday night by the Senate, making it ready for President Obama’s signature. Even Senator Sherrod Brown, had a private plane take him from his mother’s wake to cast the deciding vote on Friday night.
No Time to Read the Bill
Despite the enormity of this deficit spending increase that will saddle our children and our children’s children with a huge debt burden, and despite promises from President Obama concerning transparency and time to adequately review legislation, no one had the time to read this bill before it was passed. You don’t believe me? Do the math. In 48 hours there are 2,880 minutes. The stimulus bill is over 1,100 pages long. So if you did nothing else for the 48 hours, you didn’t sleep, you didn’t eat, you didn’t go to the lavatory, you would have about 2 1/2 minutes to read and comprehend each page in the bill.
As President Obama said in the Post, we have no choice, this is URGENT! So naturally, President Obama was standing with pen ready as soon as the Senate passed the bill. It was raced up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House to the waiting Chief Executive, or not.
Pretty urgent, huh? “Each day we wait to begin the work of turning our economy around, more people lose their jobs.” So I guess the crisis has passed? I guess losing more jobs no longer matters?
Do you think it might have been prudent to give the members of Congress and the American people the extra four days to review the bill before signing it? Of course it would be prudent, but the more we examine this the more it becomes clear that this is not about stimulus. It is about rushing through a bevy of liberal spending programs under the guise of an emergency precisely so that it would not receive the scrutiny it deserves, because if it did, most Americans would be outraged.
The reason for delaying the signing for four days, is to get the most political mileage out of the signing. Signing it on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, the Monday holiday, would simply not have the news coverage for President Obama to bask in.
American’s Interest or Self Interest
So despite all the rhetoric, the American people get a massive debt burden, the Democrats in Congress get all the spending goodies that have been stored in the closet waiting for the right crisis opportunity, and President Obama gets just the right amount of limelight. Is that the change you were hoping for?
