A few days after I penned support for John Boehner, we are learning that his bill is a watered down piece of crap. One which will only get worse when the Senate gets a hold of it.
Disappointing.
The good news is tea party Repubs are having none of it, at least not so far. Maybe they need to announce that the house passed Cut, Cap, and Balance - and that the Senate is free to take it up. After they should then get in their cars and go home.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/07/25/transcript-boehners-speech-on-debt-talks/
I don’t always agree with establishment Republicans. For the record I am registered with no party affiliation. Not that this ever results in me voting Democrat. But it does grant me the illusion of being an independent thinker. My problem is that in my mind a party should never come before the best interests of a community, state, or country.
But that’s not what I want to speak about.
My point is while I won’t follow Republicans just because they have an “R” after their name, I want to give credit to one for whom it is due. Speaker of the House John Boehner has done very well to resist the urge to make any sort of deal with President Obama on the debt ceiling. While I appreciate this could change tomorrow, he has remained steadfast to date. I acknowledge this may be a result of fate, misfortune, or just dumb luck. But the fact is the man is holding his ground. Better yet, he and the Republicans look like they are going to win the day on this particular debate. And let me explain what I mean by win.
Do I think they get a balanced budget amendment? No.
Do I think they get real substantive cuts? Alas, no.
But I think they will get cuts with no new taxes and damage the president’s political image significantly. In fact, they already have. Remember, Obama started out demanding a “clean” raise in the debt ceiling with no strings. He then became a false prophet for deficit reduction, provided it was tied to tax increases. Now that has failed and he appears ready to sign off on whatever ends up on his desk (provided it ends up dressed in a bipartisan package). Along the way the Republicans remained relatively consistent. Even the reported deal that fell through relied on broadening the tax base (read: making people who don’t pay any taxes pay a little) and rejiggering the tax code as much as any real raise.
This will mean something moving forward. This is but one of the battles to be waged between the house the president, though an important one. No-one should have gone into this with a do-or-die mindset. Yes our guys should fight for as much as possible. But WE should not throw up our hands if we don’t get every single thing we are after here. This is not how the left got us in this pickle – they did it incrementally. And they did not despair at every fight. Rather they kept chipping away. We need to have the same mindset. This may take a while.
Let’s fight for every victory, but not lose sight of the big picture: defeating this president, reclaiming the senate, and then making real progress towards restoring our republic.
To this end, Speaker Boehner is doing well.
I’m not sure, but I’m pretty sure this administration and the Democratic party sucks. In under three years they have managed to take the nation to the very brink of disaster. Their policies and programs have resulted in economic malaise unlike anything seen in America over the past 40 years.
The stakes could not be higher, and it is not hyperbole to suggest we may not survive another four years of this guy. The health care thing alone will do us in. Add to that the outrageous spending and endless regulations coming out of this government and we are in deep doo-doo.
Our goal over the next 15 months is the defeat of this president, retention of the House, and the return of the Senate to Republicans, preferably conservatives.
We will be blogging to advance this cause. To those who are open-minded, we look forward to a good conversation.
To the rest of you, only your defeat will suffice.
My vote for Hero of the Day goes to Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s Attorney General. Within five minutes of President Obama signing the Health Care bill into law; Cuccinelli filed suit in federal court challenging the law as unconstitutional. Here is a good synopsis of Virginia’s argument, as reported in yesterday’s Washington Post.
“Within five minutes of President Obama signing the bill at a White House ceremony this morning, state solicitor general E. Duncan Getchell Jr. and Deputy Attorney General for Civil Litigation Wesley G. “Wes” Russell Jr. headed to the elevators of their sixth-floor office in Richmond and strolled outside, where they were greeted by television cameras, for the short walk to Richmond’s federal courthouse.
The suit argues that the legislation’s mandate that individuals purchase health insurance exceeds the federal government’s power to regulate interstate commerce under the U.S. Constitution. And it asserts that Virginia has standing to sue over the issue because of a new state law that prohibits the mandate in the state. “The collision between the state and federal schemes also creates an immediate, actual controversy involving antagonistic assertions of right,” Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli writes in the suit.
“The status of being a citizen or resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia is not a channel of interstate commerce; nor a person or thing in interstate commerce; nor is it an activity arising out of or connected with a commercial transaction. Instead, the status arises from an absence of commerce, not from some sort of economic endeavor, and it is not even a non-economic activity affecting interstate commerce. It is entirely passive,” the suit reads. “While the United States Supreme Court has not adopted a categorical rule against aggregating the effects of any non-economic activity in order to find Commerce Clause authority, thus far in our history, it has never been held that the Commerce Clause, even when aided by the Necessary and Proper Clause, can be used to require citizens to buy goods or services.”"
As happens with most anyone who challenges this president, Cuccinelli’s charactor is being assaulted, today by The Washington Post, who subtly assert that Cuccinelli is no more than a tea partier with a powerful office. Interesting assertion, as up to 37 other states, some controlled by Democrats, are preparing to challenge the law on similar grounds.
Virginia and other states who will challenge this law have it right. The federal government is exceeding its authority in seeking to mandate the people buy a goods or services. For his efforts, we applaud Ken Cuccinelli.
Here is the list of names for those most responsible for this nightmare bill.
Please work to defeat these people come November.
My friends, elections have consequences.
I suspect that there are a lot of so-called independent and moderate voters tonight asking themselves what in the hell is happening to this country. They wonder how a run-away Congress is able to unilaterally ram something so unappealing as this health care bill down our throats. They bemoan the lack of balance in government and cringe at the specter of what lies ahead. They complain that this is not what they signed up for.
And then there are those who actually support this new law. But I’m not speaking to those folks. I have enough on my plate without having to deal with imbicilic stupidity.
But for those who voted for this president and this Congress, and who now wonder how it came to this, let me provide some clarity.
You damned fools; it is your fault. What did you think would happen if you elected this man? Many, including me, told you how it would be. We pointed out how all signs pointed to a democratic-socialist as president. We told you he would be a tax-and-spend ideologue the likes of which we have never seen. But did you listen? No. Rather, you closed your eyes and voted for two words.
Hope & Change.
Empty words really. And maybe that was the genius of it. Give the people two empty words and let them project anything they wanted onto them. You who elected this man created a myth. The man you voted for did not, does not, and will never exist. Every bit of evidence we had at the time belied a president just like the one we got now; one who thinks the government knows best and should be omnipresent in our lives. We told you so. But instead of considering the facts, you CHOSE not to see what was before you.
This president is an unmitigated disaster. This Congress is an unmitigated disaster. This new law is an unmitigated disaster. And I believe this will become even more clear as time goes by. Don’t believe me now? Don’t worry, you will.
That being said, there is still hope. If after observing the manner in which this president and Congress have behaved on this bill and other actions, if you have reached the conclusion that government is exceeding the scope of its authority, if you believe they are not representing your priorities, AND if you feel you have sufficiently removed your head from your rectal cavity; prepare yourself – we have work to do.
The mid-term elections this November is our opportunity to retard the advance of this socialistic government and to place some well needed checks and balances back in government. Barack Obama isn’t going anywhere until 2012. We must work to defeat the democrats in the House and Senate so we have a more balanced government until then.
I will be posting a list of every House member who voted for this P.O.S. bill in the coming days. We must then begin the work of getting every one of them fired.
It is said that in a democracy, the people get the government they deserve.
I hope you are enjoying it. I sure the hell am not.