Saturday, July 16, 2011

"First we're going to reach out to everybody we know who's already a voter."

"Second, we're going to expand the electorate and make sure we get more people involved in the process..." - TampaBay.com

"And third we're going to make sure that people who are voters and people we are reaching out to to expand the electorate become volunteers."

In 2008, Obama created the largest grass-roots operation Florida had ever seen....It culminated with tens of thousands of volunteers and 600 paid staffers spread across the state mobilizing voters and delivering Florida to Obama by a 236,000-vote margin.

But that was nothing. This time the campaign starts the buildup with a team that has been on the ground for two years and now has 16 months to build a vast network of neighbors talking to neighbors and friends talking to friends about ensuring Obama's re-election. Similar networks are being constructed in other swing states....

The organizing is well under way across the state, though not always visible. About a dozen paid staffers are spread across four campaign offices in Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville and Tallahassee, and two more are expected to open soon. Last Saturday hundreds of volunteers statewide gathered to hold phone banks, collect commitment cards and go door to door to register voters by mail....

Picture a giant multilevel marketing operation — volunteers recruiting more volunteers to recruit still more — mixed with lots of groovy self-empowerment sentiment and the latest social media innovations. That's pretty much the Obama grass roots model.

Paid operatives act like customer service representatives, helping volunteers set and accomplish specific goals and decide for themselves what works best in their city, neighborhood or street.

"The best ideas come from you," Narechania, the Tampa Bay field director, told volunteers in St. Petersburg. On the wall behind him was a hand-drawn sign: "Respect. Empower. Include. Win!"

In a new report, Democrat-friendly Goldman Sachs dropped an economic bomb on President Obama’s chances for reelection . . ."

Panic at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue - theothermccain.com

Panic at the White House? Gloomy Goldman Sachs sees high unemployment, possible recession - Reuters

Goldman Sachs doesn’t have to tell you things are bad. I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. Unemployment is at 9.2 percent (11.4 percent if the official labor force hadn’t collapsed since 2008 and 16.2 percent if you include discouraged and underemployed workers.) Moreover, the economy grew at just 1.9 percent in the first quarter of this year and may have grown less than 2 percent in the second. Wages and income are going nowhere fast.

When will the White House signal a change of economic direction? Will cutting tax rates and regulation ever make it on the agenda? That may be the only way Obama can win another term. And time is running short.

RNC: Obama’s Top 10 Spending Dodges

The President Has Talked Tough On The Deficit Before, But His Past Actions And Broken Promises Give Plenty Of Reason To Be Skeptical Of His Current Spending Rhetoric

1. OBAMA SAID HE WOULD CUT THE DEFICIT IN HALF 
BUT IT WILL END UP DOUBLE WHAT HE AIMED FOR

What Obama Said …

Zogby: Obama's Election Chances Dwindling


Pollster John Zogby updates our weekly Obama Report Card with a grade on the president's performance. Zogby uses his polling, expert analysis and interaction with major players to come up with a grade and some comments that capture how he sees the president's week ending. - US News

FLASHBACK: WINS 2008 ELECTION WITH 53%... via Drudge

Generic Republican opens up 8-point lead on Obama - Conn Carroll/Washington Examiner
Oh my: Generic Republican 47, Obama 39 - HotAir
Gallup prefaced the results of their recent Obama vs. Generic Republican poll results thus: "A genericRepublican presidential candidate has a slight but notstatistically meaningful edge over Barack Obama, 44% to 39%, inregistered voters' preferences for the 2012 presidential election. - Real Clear Politics
A generic Republican candidate earns the highest level of support yet against President Obama in a hypothetical 2012 election matchup. - Rasmussen

Great discussion: On Voting For Women … And Sarah Palin

On Voting For Women … And Palin - No Quarter

From time to time, we'd like to introduce the bloggers you see in our sidebar. No Quarter is one of the best of the PUMA blogs (Hillary supporters who came to support John McCain and Sarah Palin on principle over party), one of the best examples that there is hope for common ground based on principles we share. Always interesting, great discussions - one to add to your own blog lists.

Regular readers know that the writers under Larry Johnson’s No Quarter banner are a diverse group, from a variety of backgrounds, who came together in passionate support of Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential election — and NEVER joined the “Hope and Change” bandwagon. Discussing whether or not women vote for a candidate simply because she is a woman.

◼ And here's Redstate's Ben Howe on Palin, after watching 'The Undefeated.'

Mark Steyn: No bargaining with Barack Obluffer

All the charade does is confirm to prudent analysts around the world that the depraved ruling class of the United States cannot self-correct, and, indeed, has no desire to. - Mark Steyn in The OC Register

...For the Most Gifted Orator in Human History, the president these days speaks largely in clichés, most of which he doesn't seem to be quite on top of. "Eric, don't call my bluff," he sternly reprimanded the GOP's Eric Cantor. Usually, if you're bluffing, the trick is not to announce it upfront. But, in fact, in his threat to have Granny eating dog food by Labor Day, Obama was calling his own bluff. The giant bluff against the future that is government spending....

Meanwhile, the World's Greatest Orator bemoans the "intransigence" of Republicans. OK, what's your plan? Give us one actual program you're willing to cut, right now. Oh, don't worry, says Barack Obluffer. To demonstrate how serious he is, he's offered to put on the table for fiscal year 2012 spending cuts of (stand well back now) $2 billion. That would be a lot in, say, Iceland or even Australia. Once upon a time it would have been a lot even in Washington. But today $2 billion is what the Brokest Nation in History borrows every 10 hours. In other words, in less time than he spends sitting across the table negotiating his $2 billion cut, he's already borrowed it all back. A negotiation with Obama is literally not worth the time....

Harry Reid falsely claims failure to reach deal means "no schools for our children"

Continuing to ratchet up his rhetoric, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid falsely claimed on Thursday that a failure to raise the debt limit could mean "no schools for our children." - Philip Klein/Washington Examiner

But in reality, federal funding only pays for 8.5 percent of the cost of the nation's elementary and secondary schools, according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education (for 2006 to 2007). Federal and local funding comprised the remaining 91 percent and change.

Energized by debt fight, a battered Gingrich pushes on

If there is any set of circumstances in which Gingrich could regain at least some momentum, it's the debt-limit fight currently going on in Washington. It's on everyone's mind at the town hall. "We're at a point now where I'm hard-line," says Charles, from Charleston. "No increase in the debt limit, period. If you took a show of hands, it's likely nearly everyone would agree with him. - Byron York/Washington Examiner

There are a zillion reasons Gingrich almost certainly won't win the Republican nomination. But there are also reasons people here take him seriously. They remember him as the man who engineered the historic Republican victories of 1994, and in him they see a House leader going toe-to-toe with a Democratic president. That's what they want to see again, and it's enough to keep Gingrich going, at least for a while.

Enviro-grants and loans blow billions on foreign and domestic scams

WASHINGTON TIMES EDITORIAL: Obama stimulates Jakarta

President Obama now claims there’s only $2 billion he can cut out of this year’s $3.6 trillion in federal outlays. He’s not looking very hard. The administration’s trillion-dollar “stimulus” spending spree spread millions in U.S. taxpayer dollars around places like the president’s boyhood home, Indonesia. Money that stayed within the country often wound up in the hands of debt-riddled, fly-by-night firms. This week, the White House continued to stonewall attempts to get to the bottom of where our money has been going.

On Friday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee delivered a subpoena to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) ordering the disclosure of documents related to the $535 million loan guarantee the Department of Energy gave to Solyndra Inc. This firm has been dear to Democratic luminaries, from Energy Secretary Stephen Chu to the president himself. “The true engine of economic growth will always be companies like Solyndra,” Mr. Obama said during a May 2010 visit.

The loan was meant to prop up a plant that would produce solar panels, ensuring the country would become more “green.” Instead, Securities and Exchange Commission filings show Solyndra’s books are nothing but red. The outfit lost $518,694,000 between 2007 and 2010 despite the massive infusion of public cash and private venture capital. OMB refused to disclose any documents that would shed light on why the government approved loans to this particular company.

The firm’s private investors include major donors to the Democratic Party, as do other recipients of the $11 billion Department of Energy slush fund used to dole out cash to so-called “clean technologies.” Absent these massive subsidies, the solar power industry would be about as large as the sundial manufacturing industry. Nonetheless, the Obama administration is desperate to paint intermittent energy sources as “the future.” It has no qualms about pouring billions in other people’s money into any product bearing the “green” label, even if that means handing over sacks of cash to foreigners.
Read the rest.

KRAUTHAMMER:"You have a completely compliant, pliant, supine press accepting every leak out of the White House. Tell me, we have been told, I’ve heard it again and again that the President’s prepared to do, to make cuts in entitlements. Name me one." Must Watch

Give me a number. Explain to me what’s in it.... - Newsbusters
After claiming on PBS's "Inside Washington" that we now have a "completely compliant, pliant, supine press accepting every leak out of the White House," he silenced the entire panel by asking them to name one specific cut to entitlements the President has proposed (video follows with transcript and commentary)...

“It’s like we are leaders from two different planets who don’t understand each other,”

Boehner: ‘“We have to make tough decisions to save our country, so Get Ready’ National Review Online

TRANSCRIPT: Press Conference by the President

whitehouse.gov, July 15, 2011

THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. As you know, yesterday we had another meeting with the congressional leaders. We’re not having one today, so I thought it would be useful to give you guys an update on where we are.

All the congressional leaders have reiterated the desire to make sure that the United States does not default on our obligations, and that the full faith and credit of the United States is preserved. That is a good thing. I think we should not even be this close to a deadline on this issue; this should have been taken care of earlier. But it is encouraging that everybody believes that this is something that has to be addressed.

OBAMA: 80% Of Americans Want Higher Taxes



OBAMA: 80% OF AMERICANS WANT HIGHER TAXES - The Hill
Palin: 'Obama lies' via Drudge
BOEHNER: HE HAS NO PLAN... - Reuters
Republicans in the House rallied Friday behind an effort to cut spending, cap spending in future years and pass a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution.

“We asked the president to lead, we asked him to put forward a plan, not a speech — a real plan — and he hasn’t. We will,” Speaker John Boehner said (R-Ohio) before Obama’s press conference.

The plan would authorize a $2.4 trillion increase in the debt ceiling after Congress passes a balanced-budget amendment.
Obama: 80% Of American People Want Higher Taxes As Part Of Deal – Reality: 55% Oppose It, Only 34% In Favor… - weasel zippers
Rasmussen: 55% Oppose Tax Hike In Debt Ceiling Deal

"The federal government has no right to tell me or any other citizen what type of light bulb to use at home," Burgess said. "It is our right to choose."


Saving the incandescent bulb: GOP light bulb amendment likely to pass Friday after earlier defeat - The Hill
◼ UPDATE: House turns off light bulb standards by voice vote - Politico

The House on Friday morning moved to block federal light bulb efficiency standards without even a roll call vote.

An amendment from Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) defunding the Energy Department's standards for traditional incandescent light bulbs to be 30 percent more energy efficient starting next year was approved rather anticlimactically by voice vote.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

“I don’t trust this President."



“I don’t trust this President. . . . He doesn’t know how to make those cuts. He’s never had to do this before. He’s always just been one to spend other people’s money even if that money is just borrowed money or printed out of thin air. He’s never had to exercise real executive authority like that.”

Sarah Palin is right! - - Robert Stacy McCain

KRAUTHAMMER: Call His Bluff

Republicans are being totally outmaneuvered on the debt ceiling. It’s time to act. - National Review Online

President Obama is demanding a big, long-term budget deal. He won’t sign anything less, he warns, asking, “If not now, when?”

How about last December, when he ignored his own debt commission’s recommendations? How about February, when he presented a budget that increases debt by $10 trillion over the next decade? How about April, when he sought a debt-ceiling increase with zero debt reduction attached?

All of a sudden he’s a born-again budget balancer prepared to bravely take on his own party by making deep cuts in entitlements. Really? Name one. He’s been saying forever that he’s prepared to discuss, engage, converse about entitlement cuts. But never once has he publicly proposed a single structural change to any entitlement.
Hasn’t the White House leaked that he’s prepared to raise the Medicare age or change the cost-of-living calculation?

Anonymous talk is cheap. Leaks are designed to manipulate. Offers are floated and disappear.

Say it, Mr. President. Give us one single structural change in entitlements. In public.
Read the whole thing

Republicans dismiss Social Security warning from ‘scarer-in-chief’

More than 50 House Republicans are urging President Obama to commit to making payments to military personnel, Social Security and Medicare recipients and interest on the national debt if Congress does not act to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by Aug. 2. - The Hill
...“We ask that you make an immediate, clear and unequivocal public commitment that your administration will continue to make all interest payments on time, as well as ensuring the pay of our military personnel, and making Social Security and Medicare payments in full,” reads a letter signed by 57 GOP lawmakers that was released on Thursday...

Republicans suggested the administration should first stop payments to implement the 2012 healthcare law and remaining funds from Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) if the debt ceiling isn’t raised...

Grassley, Issa slam Holder again: Are you skewing Fast and Furious witnesses?


Attorney General Eric Holder is being asked to respond to allegations that he allowed witnesses to be prepped for congressional hearings into Operation Fast and Furious. - Daily Caller
House oversight committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, grilled Holder about the new developments in a Monday letter.

Issa and Grassley asked Holder why the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has provided potential witnesses with access to a shared digital hard drive containing documents, details and information about the now-defunct Operation Fast and Furious. The shared drive is “replete with pertinent investigative documents” and official ATF emails, Issa and Grassley said....

In the letter, the two legislators also write that the shared drive likely contains documents and information that they have not yet had access to. Issa and Grassley worry about what kind of effects this information could have on the impartiality of potential witnesses.

“This practice harms not only our investigation, but also the independent investigation that you instructed the Inspector General to conduct,” the letter reads....
Did Operation Fast and Furious have a Tampa twin, Operation Castaway - Daily Caller

Sen. Rand Paul calls on Obama to apologize for Social Security scare tactics, 13 Senate freshman Republicans sign a letter to Obama

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., called on President Obama to apologize for scaring seniors into thinking that the government would have to stop sending Social Security checks if a deal isn't reached to raise the debt limit by August 2. - Philip Klein/Washington Examiner
Paul called Obama's approach “emotionalism” and "calculated political football." To suggest that the government wouldn't be able to send Social Security checks would be "objectively false," he said....

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.,...led an effort to have 13 Senate freshman Republicans sign a letter to Obama, which criticizes him for being late to the debt-reduction discussion...
◼ Read the Senate GOP Freshman Letter to Obama - here

THE OBAMA WATCH: Where's Taiwan?

Where's Taiwan? - Peter Hannaford for The American Spectator, 7.11.11

You're forgiven if you've forgetten what and where it is. After all, it's been out of the headlines for a long time. It's that island about 100 miles off the shore of China. It's the one the Obama State Department would just as soon see float out to sea, so that it would stop putting in those pesky requests for defensive arms that U.S. law calls for.

It's been 32 years since Congress passed and then-President Carter signed the Taiwan Relations Act. It calls for us to sell sufficient arms to help Taiwan (formally known as the Republic of China) deter a potential attack from Communist China. Despite China's occasional reiteration that it retains the "right" to invade Taiwan if the island were to declare its independence, it has never been under the control of the Communist government.

We have made the sales from time to time. Each time we have done so, Beijing goes into what China-watchers call Gong-banging Mode. They thunder that we are interfering in "internal" Chinese business; that we are destabilizing our relationship with them; that the world will end tomorrow we if don't withdraw the sale. And so on. After awhile the gong-banging stops; the cancelled China-U.S. meetings are rescheduled and life goes on.

Ron Paul: Conviction

Pelosi Says She’s ‘Almost Too Busy’ to Continue Listening to Debt Talks

“I myself am almost too busy to continue listening to some of the things that are going on in that room,” said Pelosi.... The only thing I hope he doesn’t ask us to do is go to Camp David. That goes beyond the pale. Driving down the street for these meetings is one thing... - CNS news

"I think the president has been used to getting his way, Greta, in Washington, D.C.Remember, one party controlled all levers of power during the entire of the presidency for President Obama. This is new for him. Now he's finally getting some of the first pushback, and he's not used to it."




Michele Bachmann (R-MN) told Greta Van Susteren on Fox News last night that President Barack Obama was showing his petulant side in the debt crisis talks. - The Hill

Debt is a weapon used to demand more taxes

Empire of Debt, It’s a feature, not a bug. - John Hayward/Human Events
The same politicians who spent $1.7 trillion more than they collected, in just this year alone, say the problem is that private citizens are not paying enough. Democrats will not even begin to discuss minimal fiscal restraint unless they get a tax hike... and they claim the urgency of this tax increase is irresistible because of the huge national debt they have created... we have reached the madness of a moment when the national debt is used as an argument against spending reductions, or growth-oriented tax and regulatory policies. The insane problem becomes a weapon against rational solutions. The Empire of Debt will grow without limit, until it falls, and takes you with it.

Ron Paul: Raising Debt Limit Is ‘Capitulating’ to Obama

Ron Paul: 'It's Going to End Very Badly'! - Newsmax

Mitch McConnell, leader of the Senate Republicans, has proposed giving President Barack Obama the power to unilaterally raise the debt ceiling because the consequences of failing to raise it are too great.

Asked if that constitutes capitulating or is a good idea, Paul responds: “We are capitulating. I think it’s terrible. It should be Congress’ responsibility” and Congress should not give “this authority to the president to raise the debt limit....

The solution to the debt crisis, he adds, “to cut spending, an across-the-board cut. Pretend it’s not much of a problem and keep raising the debt limit and keep spending and keep running up the debt, eventually it’s going to end very badly, and that is with a dollar crisis. I’m afraid we’re going to end up with that instead of coming to our senses and cutting back, because politically it’s so difficult.”

The federal government, he adds, is already “destroying the value of the dollar.”

Paul says President Obama’s warning that seniors on Social Security could suffer if the debt ceiling is not raised by August 2 is merely a “scare tactic. I think what Social Security has on hand can last quite a while. They’re not going to stop sending the checks out. The cash is there to take care of a good many months.”

This week’s horse race on the road to the White House

Erick Erickson's take on where things stand right now - Redstate
Bachmann is down this week, but only slightly.... Herman Cain has bottomed out, but still can’t find momentum to get in the air again....Newt Gingrich’s campaign is over.... Jon Huntsman is like the Duke of York, neither up nor down.... McCotter has no long term viability as a Presidential candidate... There is now a growing sense that Palin might run... Ron Paul gets a bump up this week in the horserace.... Pawlenty is back up for the first time in weeks, his chances at the top slot are fading while his chances for Veep are growing... I think Perry runs.... Mitt Romney is the front runner and continues holding steady.... The only relevant question regarding Rick Santorum is whether he drops out before or after Newt Gingrich. He’s done.

On August 3, the very day Obama says he may decide not to send out social security checks, Obama gladly will be pocketing checks from campaign donors

Huge Obama birthday fundraiser day after debt ceiling deadline - Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

Obama hits Chicago for 50th birthday fund-raisers at the Aragon - $35,800 per couple... - Chicago Sun-Times
For $10,000, a person gets a souvenir photo with Obama at a reception and preferred seating at the concert. For $1,000 a person gets seated in a "premium section" with a "hosted bar." A general admission ticket is $200.
GOP Debt Ceiling Ace in the Hole: Obama’s Birthday Bash - whitehousedossier.com
he president is planning an extravagant fundraising bash Aug. 3 at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, including a birthday concert teeming with celebrities and – for couples contributing $35,800 – a private dinner with the president. All this just one day after the government is scheduled to run out of cash!

Rasmussen: Voters oppose tax hikes in debt-ceiling deal 55/34

Quinnipiac’s poll of 2,311 registered voters indicated that they want to see tax increases included in any deal to raise the debt ceiling. Rasmussen polled 1,000 likely voters and found the exact opposite, with 55% opposed to any new taxes in a debt-ceiling increase deal - HotAir
Quinnipiac’s poll - quinnipiac.edu
President Is Best Of The Worst On Economy, U.S. Voters Tell Quinnipiac University National Poll; Voters Blame Bush Over Obama 2-1 For Financial Mess
55% Oppose Tax Hike In Debt Ceiling Deal - Rasmussen

Over the last several days the White House has been walking back the savings on the Biden number. Thursday it was $2 trillion, Monday it was $1.7-1.8 trillion, Tuesday it was $1.6-1.7-1.8 trillion. This morning our staff met with White House folks and the wrap up from that meeting said that the WH is now at $1.5 trillion.

The backup to the backup - Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post
Given those figures, Eric (Cantor) pointed out that wherever we are — it’s a long way from the $2.4 trillion needed to meet House GOP goals of dollar for dollar so he suggested a possible short-term goal in order to avoid default. He then said to the President that since we can only reach so much in savings and you (President) keep moving the goalposts, I will move off my position of only doing one vote in order to avoid default.

The President then got heated. He said he was willing to explain and defend his position. Said he could get well above the numbers the GOP is talking about with revenue increases. Said he wouldn’t be afraid to veto and he will take that message and defend it to the American people. Said if we default it will be a tax increase on every American. Said it is his responsibility is to the American people. Said, I have reached the point where I say enough. Would Ronald Reagan be sitting here like this? I’ve reached my limit. This may bring my presidency down, but I will not yield on this.

Then stormed out of the room and said we’ll see you tomorrow.
The myth of Obama’s great temperament - Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post
Obama paints himself in heroic terms, decries his opponents as operating in bad faith, finds details inconvenient ( House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) characterizes the presidency slipperiness as “Jell-o”) and seems to have qualms about saying one thing in public (he’s offering entitlement cuts) and another in private (where are they?). “Facts” are used as an instrument (the tax hikes are only about millionaires and corporate jets) for getting his way.
Reid: Kick Cantor out - yahoo via Drudge

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton Agrees to Republican Budget Proposal, End Shutdown

The governor says he has "serious reservations" about the GOP plan, but Minnesota’s government shutdown must end. - myfoxtwincities.com
"If this gets resolved and gets Minnesota back to work in the next few days, then it doesn't matter what people say about me,” Dayton said.

Obama has trapped himself in an ideological oxymoron. He wants us to believe, wants himself to believe, that government is the solution when we all know that government is the problem.

America the Broken - Roger L Simon at Pajamas Media

Someone finally has to cut this Gordian knot. We are living at a time when we need a man or woman in the presidency of true courage and what we have is a smug coward — the worst possible combination. Nothing of significance is likely to happen.

We are already in full presidential campaign mode and America will remain broken — and with it the world — until 2012. Those of us who want genuine change are going to have to buckle up and accept this. Also, we are going to have to keep our eyes closely glued to the 2012 ball.

Social Security Actuary Responds

Freed from the normal administrative rules process — public notice, public comment, public review — that governs every other federal commission in existence... Without the possibility of judicial review.

Last month, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius touted IPAB as a “key part” of Obamacare.
...The 15-member panel of government-appointed bureaucrats was slipped into Section 3403 of the Obamacare law against the objection of more than 100 House members on both sides of the aisle. IPAB’s experts would wield unprecedented authority over Medicare spending — and in time, over an expanding jurisdiction of private health care payment rates — behind closed doors....

The president himself crusaded for giving the board even more regulatory “tools” to usurp congressional power over health care allocations....

House Democrat, Allyson Schwartz of Pennsylvania, is one of seven Democratic IPAB repeal co-sponsors and is scheduled to testify Wednesday at a second House hearing blasting the board. And former Democratic House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt channeled the tea party in a recent op-ed when he decried IPAB as “an unelected and unaccountable group whose sole charge is to reduce Medicare spending based on an arbitrary target growth rate.”

Thanks to sober bipartisan criticism (Where are all the cheerleaders for bipartisanship when you need them?), Sebelius and company are now downplaying IPAB as a harmless “backstop mechanism” with limited powers to do anything at all to control costs. At a House hearing Tuesday, Sebelius tried to paint the board as just another run-of-the-mill dog-and-pony panel that would be “irrelevant” if Congress so chooses

Jerry Brown's Hypocrisy on Compensation Packages

SACRAMENTO, CA – California Republican Party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro issued the following statement concerning Gov. Brown's letter to California State University trustees asking them to reconsider plans to give the new president of San Diego State a salary that would be $100,000 higher than his predecessor's:

"Governor Brown has reached the height of hypocrisy in his scolding of the CSU Board of Trustees, especially since he had no trouble giving his new Social Services Director a $1.25 million dollar contract despite overwhelming support for spending cuts and budget reform. If anyone has set an unaffordable pattern for public service compensation, it's Jerry Brown."

###

Obama sits back, refusing to present any significant cuts. He’s serious about three things: making the Republicans out to be the bad guys, doing nothing to upset his base and insisting on tax hikes.

Does Obama want a debt deal? - Jennifer Rubin/Washington Post
“Today was the most tense meeting of the week. In fact, the president ended the meeting by abruptly leaving the room. During the meeting, the speaker challenged the president to offer real spending cuts. He said the gimmicks and accounting tricks that Washington has used for decades are not applicable here.” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has had enough. “When White House officials attempted to justify budgetary gimmicks, the speaker said pointedly ‘We’re not doing that anymore.’”

At some point you wonder what is the point of keeping the talks from public scrutiny. The pathetically passive media is not demanding particulars from the White House. So, Obama sits back, refusing to present any significant cuts.

Palin Points to Late-Summer Presidential Decision

"You know, August and September, you do have to start laying out a plan if you are to be one to throw your hat in the ring, so that's basically the time frame," Palin told Sean Hannity during an appearance Wednesday night on Fox News. - Real Clear Politics

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

OBAMA WALKS OUT OF DEBT TALKS- Demands His Tax Hikes



Cantor: Obama Stormed Out Of Debt Meeting After Becoming “Agitated” - Politico
President Barack Obama abruptly walked out of a debt-limit meeting with congressional leaders Wednesday, throwing into serious doubt the already shaky debt limit negotiations, according to GOP sources.

“He shoved back and said ‘I’ll see you tomorrow’ and walked out,” House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told reporters in the Capitol after the meeting.

When Cantor said the two sides were too far apart to get a deal that could pass the House by the Treasury Department’s Aug. 2 deadline — and that he would consider moving a short-term debt-limit increase alongside smaller spending cuts — Obama began to lecture him.

“Eric, don’t call my bluff,” the president said, warning Cantor that he would take his case “to the American people.” He told Cantor that no other president — not Ronald Reagan, the president said — would put up with the treatment he was getting from the House majority leader.

Michele Bachmann — Rise of a True Believer


The three-term lawmaker — who has been called the "gold standard" of grassroots conservatism — says Washington is a "corrupt paradigm of government, whereby votes continually are bought rather than representatives voting the will of their constituents. That's the voice that's been missing at the table in Washington, D.C. — the people's voice. - Newsmax cover story

Darrell Issa seeks DNC records of White House meeting

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa now has the Democratic National Committee in his sights as he probes what he has called “potentially illegal fundraising activities within the White House.” - Politico
The California Republican sent a letter Wednesday to DNC Executive Director Patrick Gaspard demanding all DNC records, including invitation lists and RSVPs, relating to a policy discussion President Barack Obama held with business leaders in the White House’s Blue Room on March 7. The session was organized by the DNC and all the guests were donors to Obama’s 2008 campaign.

Issa’s letter also seeks records of any other DNC events that took place or were planned in “any room of the White House, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, the New Executive Office Building, or any other federal property on or off the White House grounds.” He also wants records regarding the use of the White House for a video Obama made for a raffle his campaign is running that seeks donations in exchange for a chance to win dinner with Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Boehner: Dealing With the White House 'Has Been Like Dealing With Jell-o'

“By Saturday, they’d spent the previous day and a half just going backwards” on reforming entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. - ABC
In a meeting with a small group of reporters in his Capitol Hill office this morning, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, criticized President Obama and White House officials for their lack of resolve in negotiations.

“Dealing with them the last couple months has been like dealing with Jell-o,” Boehner said. “Some days it’s firmer than others. Sometimes it’s like they’ve left it out over night.”

...he believes the public supports the GOP line in the sand. “The American people want us to hang tough,” he said. White House officials “know they’re not winning.”

Redistricting - Blue Lake Grange - Tomorrow, 6PM

There is a meeting at the Grange Hall in Blue Lake tomorrow (Thursday) at 6 p.m. regarding the proposal to put Blue Lake in the Arcata district with Mark Lovelace as the supervisor. The Fieldbrook, Glendale and surrounding areas are distinct from Arcata, since they are a more rural area. Hope you and all your friends can attend. - Tea Party Patriots.

(more redistricting meetings - schedule here)

U.S.’s AAA Debt Rating Placed on Review for Possible Downgrade by Moody’s

Moody’s Investors Service... cited the “rising possibility” that the debt limit won’t be raised on a timely basis - Bloomberg

Pessimism deepens as economic concerns rise: Reuters/Ipsos poll

The number of Americans who believe the country is on the wrong track rose to 63 percent this month, up from 60 percent in June, with stubbornly high unemployment and prolonged gridlock in Washington dashing hopes of a swift economic recovery.

But voters do not appear to be holding President Barack Obama responsible for the problems so far.
- Reuters

Obama: Your “unneeded money” belongs to the government

...The income is no longer mine to dispose of as I wish, it is the government’s first and it is the government that decides what I am allowed to keep. This point of view necessarily entails a fundamental denial of individual liberty, of which property rights are a cornerstone, and turns the freeborn citizen into a creature of the State... - Sister Toldjah
(I)t’s not just revealing of the President’s boneheadedness in economics; it’s also a probably unintentional reminder of his true politics, which are deeply rooted in New York and Chicago’s Socialist communities. This is another “spread the wealth” moment that shows Obama is much more concerned with redistribution than with wealth-creation and that government is the proper vehicle for arranging that redistribution. It fits like a glove with the Progressive notion that boards of government experts are better able to decide how an individual will run his life than is the individual himself, and that includes how to dispose of his own money. And as one’s money is one’s property, it strikes at the very idea of property rights.
Obama: Unneeded Income Belongs to the Government - John Steele Gordon/Commentary Magazine

Want to see a real political shift in this country? Let’s make it illegal for anything to be withheld from an employee’s paycheck – that means taxes, employee contributions to health benefits, even union dues.

GOP Candidates: Sharpening the Knife - Dock David Treece/Big Government

Washington gets $200 billion a month, Social Security costs $50 billion a month, and Obama is threatening to starve Grandma?

Because Obama is playing the demogogue, that's why. Pure and simple. He is trying to scare seniors into making panicked calls to their congressmen begging them to do whatever Obama and the Democrats want in order to keep the checks coming. - Mark Tapscott/Washington Examiner

Operation Fast and Furious: Designed to Promote Gun Control

"Internal ATF emails seem to suggest that ATF agents were counseled to highlight a link between criminals and certain semi-automatic weapons in order to bolster a case for a rule like the one the DOJ announced [Monday]." - Townhall
Document drop: ICE faces heat over Tampa gunwalking allegations - Michelle Malkin

Reaction to McConnell's Plan: it’s not kabuki, it’s harakiri

Heritage Action on McConnell Contingency Plan - heritageaction.com
There is no question that the Obama administration is fundamentally unserious about the types of reforms our country needs, but to date Republicans in Congress have been expressing their intent to use the debt ceiling as a means to secure systemic reforms that could save our country from fiscal collapse. The plan that we are reading reports about today is a serious walk back from that position and would seemingly trade the leverage needed to achieve reforms in return for political gains.

If Republicans in Congress believe they cannot strike a real deal with President Obama, they should begin making serious plans to live under the confines of a de facto balanced budget come August 2.
McConnell’s proposal: it’s not kabuki, it’s harakiri - neoneocon
Debt-Limit Harakiri - Mitch McConnell isn't selling out Republicans. - Wall St. Journal
Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said yesterday he's concluded that no deal to raise the debt ceiling in return for serious spending restraint is possible with President Obama, and who can blame him? We've never thought the debt ceiling was the best leverage for a showdown over the entitlement state, and now it looks like Mr. Obama is trying to use it as a way to blame the GOP for the lousy economy.

This may have been the President's strategy all along: Take the debt-limit talks behind closed doors, make major spending cuts seem possible in the early days, but then hammer Republicans publicly as the deadline nears for refusing to raise taxes on business and "the rich."

This would explain the President's newly discovered fondness for press conferences, which he has rarely held but now rolls out before negotiating sessions. It would also explain why Mr. Obama's tax demands have escalated as the August 2 deadline nears. Yesterday he played the Grandma Card, telling CBS that seniors may not get their August retirement checks
How Bad Is McConnell’s Debt Plan? So Bad Even Harry Reid Is Praising It… - Politico, but way of weaselzippers
Obama Two Weeks Ago: I Won’t Engage In “Scare Tactics” — Obama Yesterday: Grandma Might Not Get Her Social Security Check Without A Debt Deal… - weaselzippers
McConnell’s plan confuses the chattering class - Jennifer Rubin/Washington Post
The concept isn’t that hard to understand. 1. McConnell had enough of the phony White House talks. The White House offered a paltry $2 billion in actual, immediate cuts. 2. McConnell gave a speech to make clear that wasn’t enough and that the debt limit would be raised only with real cuts and without tax hikes. 3. McConnell could sit back and wait for default. 4. But he comes up with a mechanism to force Obama to put up cuts, send them to Congress and face “default” if the president’s cuts don't get through. 5. In the process he makes 34 Democratic senators vote over and over again on cuts. (The sound you hear in the background is the conga line at the Senate Republican Committee headquarters.

McConnell's Plan: Let’s give Obama the power to raise the debt ceiling himself

The Big Blink? McConnell Proposes Giving Obama Authority To Raise Debt Limit Alone - TPMDC
The plan is designed to give President Obama the power to raise the debt limit on his own through the end of his first term, but to force Democrats to take a series of votes on the debt limit in the months leading up to the election. This would stave off the threat of defaulting on national obligations, but keep the charged issues of debt and spending at the center of political debate for months.
House Speaker John Boehner Says Debt Limit Increase is Obama's Problem to Fix - ABC News
McConnell announces fallback plan: Let’s give Obama the power to raise the debt ceiling himself - HotAir
McConnell Proposes Alternative Debt Ceiling Deal
At first blush, this plan has some attractive elements and some serious drawbacks:

Positives - (1) It forces Democrats, especially the president, to wear this mess. Not once, but three times. (2) It (supposedly) includes over $2.5 Trillion in spending reductions. (3) It does not raise taxes. (4) And it prevents a cataclysmic default.

Negatives - (1) As far as I can tell, there are no enforcement mechanisms to hold the president to his end of the bargain on spending cuts at each step of this process. If he sets forth woefully inadequate cuts (think Obamacare-style smoke & mirrors, or devastating defense cuts), or if he simply refuses to meet the "required" dollar amounts, I don't see how Republicans can force a correction or scuttle the deal.* Once the initial legislation authorizing Obama to send these requests is passed, the die is cast. That is deeply worrisome. (2) Desperately-needed entitlement reform is off the table, meaning that huge elephant will remain in the room for the forseeable future (although one could argue this will be the case as long as Obama is president anyway). (3) Finally, on a superficial level, this strikes me as an exercise in too-cute-by-halfery. Republicans are constructing a scenario which allows them to vote no on something that they tacitly understand will come to fruition anyway. From a purely political standpoint, it makes some sense, but it's also not especially serious, given the gravity of the problem we face.

Gingrich to GOP: Push Obama to last-minute deadline

Gingrich suggested that the new McConnell plan -- which Gingrich earlier called "an irresponsible surrender to big government, big deficits, and continued overspending" -- is a tactical blunder in a fight that should go to the very last moment. - Byron York/Washington Examiner
...he cited the government shutdowns of 1995 and 1996 as examples of battles in which Republicans refused the back down and -- despite declarations of disaster by many in the press and some Republicans -- eventually prevailed. "I have no idea what [McConnell's] motivation is," Gingrich said. "I do know from my experience that we got to four balanced budgets, we got to welfare reform, we got to the first tax cut in 16 years because we weren't prepared to back off. Clinton eventually came to the realization he could only function as president working with us, because we'd never back off."

The second major negative economic drag Obama has imposed on the economy is his absentee landlord approach to being President. He is passive aggressive and has done little to stimulate, shape or guide the debate on the Federal budget on the Hill. Much as he did with health care, he is sitting on the sidelines carping and complaining but is not doing much to advance a clear policy position.

Obama Tanks the Economy - Larry Johnson at No Quarter
Taken as a whole, the vision of Barack Obama is an economic nightmare for the average American. We are probably a month away from the Federal Government finally admitting that we are in the middle of a double dip recession. Until then it is imperative that the public demand that Obama pull his head out of the deluded academic clouds that shroud his vision and that he get in touch with what the average American actually is experiencing. But don’t get your hopes too high.

Co. Of Humboldt: Redistricting MEETING TOMORROW

http://co.humboldt.ca.us/election/docs/public%20hearing%20schedule%202011.pdf

July 14, 2011; 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.; Mad River Grange, 110 Hatchery Road, Blue Lake

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Allen West: Obama Is A “Rigid Ideologue” Leading By “Intimidation And Scare Tactics”

Sarah Palin Evokes Strong Emotions Among Republicans Her 25% strongly favorable rating is the highest of any candidate tested

Gallup
Palin's 25% strongly favorable rating is the highest of any candidate tested in the latest two-week average, from June 27-July 10, one percentage point ahead of Cain's 24% and five points ahead of Bachmann's 20%.

Rest assured: Official Treasury Reports: Coffers Full Enough to Cover Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Veterans, Federal Salaries and Interest—Without Borrowing a Dime

President Barack Obama told CBS News today that there may not be enough money in the U.S. Treasury to cover Social Security checks after Aug. 3 if Congress does not agree to lift the legal limit on the federal debt and allow his administration to borrow more money. - cnsnews.com
(A)ccording to the Daily Treasury Statements published by the U.S. Treasury Department, the ongoing flow of federal tax revenue since the Treasury declared that it had hit the debt limit on May 16 has been more than sufficient to cover the combined costs of federal spending on interest payments, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Veterans Affairs department and federal workers wages and insurance benefits (including wages and insurance benefits for military personnel).

CFRW: Republican Women need to step up and encourage and praise our leaders for their position.


As you are all aware, the battle of the budget, the debt limit and sometimes I think the kitchen sink is going on in Washington. The Republicans in Congress have a very difficult job because the media is not on their side and does not report what is going on thoroughly or accurately. So far, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell are holding the line. They also need to know that we expect they will truly hold the line.

It is at times like this that Republican Women need to step up and encourage and praise our leaders for their position. For that reason, I am including the contact information for leaders in the House and the Senate. They need to know we are behind them in this fight.
John Boehner........(202) 225-6205.....Fax (202) 225-0704
Eric Cantor........... (202) 225-2815............(202) 225-0011
Paul Ryan.............(202) 225-3031...........(202) 225-3393

Mitch McConnell.. (202) 224-2541.............(202) 224-2499
Jon Kyl............... (202) 224-4521.............(202) 224-2207
It would also be helpful if letters to the editor could be written or calls to liberal talk shows made. The level of ignorance in the general population is appalling.

Thanks for all your work.

Edelweiss Geary
Legislative Issues Chair
Northern Division - CFRW
www.cfrwnd.org



Vadum: Obama Administration Gave ACORN More Than $500,000 This Year

Vadum: Obama Administration Gave ACORN More Than $500,000 This Year - theothermccain.com


Obama’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) gave ACORN another $461,086 in January. The funds were earmarked for ACORN Housing Corp. in January under HUD’s Self-help Homeownership Opportunity Program (SHOP), according to the government website USAspending.gov.

In order words, the Obama administration gave fraud-ridden ACORN nearly a half million dollars to be used on housing development.

The administration isn’t even trying to conceal the fact that it gave this money to ACORN.

USAspending.gov identifies the recipient as “ACORN Housing Corporation Inc.” even though that nonprofit entity filed papers last year legally changing its name to Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA).

The website also provides the address of record for ACORN Housing as 1024 Elysian Fields Avenue, New Orleans, Louisiana.

That’s the renovated funeral home that until recently served as headquarters for ACORN’s 370-plus shady affiliates.

This means the Obama administration has given at least $540,905 in taxpayer money to ACORN this calendar year alone.


BREAKING: It Turns Out Obama Gave ACORN $541K This Year, Not $80K - Matthew Vadum at Big Government
The group is gearing up right now to make sure President Obama, who worked for ACORN as an employee and as its lawyer, gets reelected in 2012. Its state chapters have adopted assumed names and remain active. Project Vote, ACORN’s vote manufacturing factory, continues to operate unmolested in ACORN’s Washington, D.C. office.

“[A]fter years of discussions and months of negotiations, I have little question that as long as this president is in the Oval Office, a real solution is unattainable”



“I was one of those who had hoped we could do something big for the country. But in my view the president has presented us with three choices: smoke and mirrors, tax hikes or default. Republicans choose none of the above. I hoped to do good — but I refuse to do harm.” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) - HotAir

"Every aspect of life in America today is worse than it was when [President Obama] took over. Unemployment higher. Interest rates. The only thing that has gone down in America over the last two years is the value of your home. This president has mismanaged this economy. He has been incompetent in his management of this economy"



The Florida senator pulls no punches. - John Hayward /Human Events

Issa, who has subpoena power, is upping the ante by asking that the White House cough up internal documents relating to how the president is running his reelection effort, and whether the White House is being used

In what could be considered the committee’s sharpest probe to date of the White House, Issa sent a letter to Obama’s top lawyer Monday evening asking for a slew of documents relating to what the California Republican termed as “an array of potentially illegal fundraising behavior.” - Politico
Issa singled out a White House meeting in March between Obama, Democratic National Committee officials and members of the business community — who were all Obama donors. The meeting was organized by the DNC.
W.H.: DNC event 'not a fundraiser' - Politico

Co. Of Humboldt: Redistricting MEETING TOMORROW

http://co.humboldt.ca.us/election/docs/public%20hearing%20schedule%202011.pdf

July 13, 2011, 6:00 – 8:00p.m., Agricultural Center, 5630 South Broadway, Eureka

Monday, July 11, 2011

Humboldt County redistricting hearings start Tuesday Wednesday

Humboldt County's local redistricting committee starts its public hearings Wednesday, kicking off discussion of supervisorial boundary changes at the Agricultural Center in Eureka. A box published in Monday's Times-Standard erroneously said the first meeting would begin today. Also, since that publication, two new hearings have been added in Rio Dell on July 25 and Fieldbrook on July 29.

Public hearings on local redistricting:
Tuesday Wednesday
Agricultural Center
5630 South Broadway in Eureka
6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Thursday
Mad River Grange Hall
110 Hatchery Road in Blue Lake
6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
July 25
Rio Dell City Hall,
675 Wildwood, Rio Dell
6 p.m. to 8 p.m
July 26
Scotia Volunteer Fire Station
145 Main St., Scotia
6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
July 27
Redwood Acres Fairgrounds
3750 Harris Street, Eureka
6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
July 28
Arcata City Hall
736 F Street, Arcata
6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
July 29
Fieldbrook Elementary School
4070 Fieldbrook Road, Fieldbrook
6 p.m. to 8 p.m
To comment on local redistricting:
Comments can be e-mailed: redistricting@co.humboldt.ca.us or mailed to Attn: Redistricting Committee, Humboldt County Elections, 3033 H Street, Rm 20, Eureka, California 95501
To see maps, worksheets and updated meeting schedules, visit http://co.humboldt.ca.us/election/content/content.asp?pg=redistricting.htm

"I remember in the last month of her life, she wasn't thinking about how to get well, she wasn't thinking about coming to terms with her own mortality, she was thinking about whether or not insurance was going to cover the medical bills and whether our family would be bankrupt as a consequence," Obama said in September 2007

Fresh doubt cast on Obama's health care story - Byron York/Washington Examiner
..."Ann's compensation for her job in Jakarta had included health insurance, which covered most of the costs of her medical treatment," (author, former New York Times reporter Janny) Scott writes. "Once she was back in Hawaii, the hospital billed her insurance company directly, leaving Ann to pay only the deductible and any uncovered expenses, which, she said, came to several hundred dollars a month."

Scott writes that Dunham, who wanted to be compensated for those costs as well as for her living expenses, "filed a separate claim under her employer's disability insurance policy." It was that claim, with the insurance company CIGNA, that was denied in August 1995 because, CIGNA investigators said, Dunham's condition was known before she was covered by the policy...

...the story Obama told, Scott writes, was "abbreviated" -- the abbreviation was to leave out the fact that Ann Dunham had health insurance that paid for her treatment. "Though he often suggested that she was denied health coverage because of a pre-existing condition," Scott writes, "it appears from her correspondence that she was only denied disability coverage."

That's a different story altogether. One the president never told.
A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother [Hardcover] at Amazon

Obama: "The LAST THING We Want to Do Is Raise Taxes During a Recession"



Barack Obama: “The LAST THING We Want to Do Is Raise Taxes During a Recession” (2009 Video) - Gateway Pundit
In an August 5, 2009, interview on NBC News, Obama said that:“The last thing you want to do is raise taxes in the middle of a recession, because that would just suck up, take more demand out of the economy and put businesses in a further hole.”
Obama vs. Obama - Not long ago, Obama warned that raising taxes in a struggling economy is "the last thing you want to do." - Weekly Standard
Obama in 2009: The Last Thing You Want is to Raise Taxes in the Middle of a Recession - Michelle Malkin
Reminder: ◼ 2006 Obama considered raising the debt ceiling to be a failure of leadership. - National Review

Wall St. Journal: Let’s not forget Obama’s already-imposed new taxes

The Wall Street Journal can barely believe that Barack Obama made $1 trillion in new taxes the cost to Republicans for raising the debt ceiling and making cuts in federal spending. Obama keeps saying that he has cut taxes, but the Journal reminds people that Obama has raised taxes, too — and in key ways that impact capital. The ObamaCare bill will raise taxes in a number of unpleasant ways, all in support of vast new federal spending and regulatory adventurism - HotAir
Taxes Upon Taxes Upon . . .Obama wants $1 trillion in taxes on top of what he's already signed. - Wall St. Journal
How dare Republicans not agree to break their campaign promises and raise taxes when the jobless rate is 9.2% and President Obama's economic recovery is in jeopardy?

We think Mr. Boehner is making the sensible choice. No one wants to reform the tax code more than we do, but passing a $1 trillion tax increase first on the promise of tax reform later is a political trap. If the President were really sincere about reform and a willingness to keep the top tax rate at or below 35%, he'd negotiate that at the same time he does a debt deal. Mr. Boehner will have a hard enough time getting any debt-limit increase through the House, much less one that raises tax rates.

Keep in mind that Mr. Obama has already signed the largest tax increase since 1993. While everyone focuses on the Bush tax rates that expire after 2012, other tax increases are already set to hit the economy thanks to the 2010 Affordable Care Act. As a refresher, here's a non-exhaustive list of ObamaCare's tax increases...

(AP) Obama's trillion-dollar tax hike would hit low- and middle-income families

SPIN METER: Obama, Dems skirt issue on tax hikes... Call it eliminating an unfair break, or removing an unjust loophole, or even "taking a balanced approach." Just don't call it raising taxes. - Erica Werner/AP Boston.com via Drudge
As they work toward a must-do deal with Republicans on paring trillions from the deficit in order to raise the nation's debt limit, President Barack Obama and Democrats are saying almost anything to avoid the politically toxic pronouncement that they want to increase taxes.

Republicans, for their part, are just as quick to declare elimination of the most rarefied corporate benefit a job-killing tax hike on the American people....

Proposals under consideration include raising taxes on small business owners and potentially low- and middle-income families. You won't hear about that from Obama. Instead the president focuses on the very rich, and speaks euphemistically. Here are a few of the phrases the president has used of late to talk about what amounts to raising taxes for some:

-- "What we need to do is to have a balanced approach where everything is on the table."

--"We need to take on spending in the tax code."

--"The tax cuts I'm proposing we get rid of are tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires; tax breaks for oil companies and hedge fund managers and corporate jet owners."

--"You can't reduce the deficit to the levels that it needs to be reduced without having some revenue in the mix."

And here's how Republicans respond:

--"Tax hikes on families and job creators would only make things worse." -- House Speaker John Boehner.

--"The focus for us is to make sure that we are not increasing taxes on individuals who are the job creators, and like it or not, the job creators are those who can be successful in a small business context." -- House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

--"Democrats seem to think the solution to our debt crisis is to ask taxpayers and struggling businesses to reward their economic stewardship with even more money to spend as they please." -- Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Hurry, hurry, hurry: Obama: 'We need to' work out debt deal in 10 days

Obama: 'We need to' work out debt deal in 10 days - JIm Kuhnhenn/Washington Examiner
Obama: Time to "eat our peas" and pass debt deal - CBS

"We might as well do it now," he said. "Pull off the band aid. Eat our peas."

President Bluffs With Abysmal Hand - Strata-sphere
OK, call his bluff – because the polls are damn clear on this. The people want cuts not tax increases. The Obama administration has wasted nearly $5 trillion dollars in additional debt since coming into office – without any positive economic results. DC can no longer be trusted with our money and it needs to be shrunk back down to size.

They are addicted to big taxes, big spending and big government, and none of it- NONE. OF. IT. - has a darn thing to do with what’s best for the public and the economy. All of it- ALL. OF. IT. - has to do with funneling money into Democrat Party coffers.

O'Bummer: The Tax Scam Faileth - John Ranson/Townhall
...And it's sitting like a wet blanket over our economy. And Daley's right. Democrat leaders can't solve it. They couldn't solve it when they ran the tax scam in Chicago and they can't solve it now....

Bachmann Grabs the Lead in Iowa


Bachmann received support from 25 percent of likely Iowa caucus goers in the poll, while Romney is backed by 21 percent. - reddogreport (image source)
Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann has surpassed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney in a recent Iowa poll that was conducted by TheIowaRepublican.com. With Bachmann now leading in Iowa, Romney has fallen to second place, but he is still well ahead of third place finisher Tim Pawlenty, who has overtaken Herman Cain - The Iowa Republican



Fast and Furious: What did the Attorney General know and when did he know it?



All the President’s Fast & Furious Men - Ed Driscoll for Pajamas
Mexico Wants A Crack At The Gun Walker Brain Trust John Hayward/Human Events
Fox News reports today that Mexican lawmakers want the U.S. government officials behind the “Gun Walker” scandal extradited to Mexico, where they can face judgment in Mexican courts for the hundreds of people killed by the guns our Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives pushed across the border....
Statement by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer
Federal Operation Fast and Furious placed Arizonans at risk

CA Rep. Tom McClintock Tells the Country Why Obama is so Dangerous



President Obama’s deliberate flouting of one of the US Constitution’s most important provisions - Trevor Loudon

Sunday, July 10, 2011

“The people of America are desperate for positive change, and deserving of positive change, to get us off of this wrong track”


Sarah Palin: "I Can Win" - Newsweek Cover Story

For many Americans, this is absurd and humiliating: The richest country in the history of the world is teetering on bankruptcy because our government can’t stop itself from spending, like a loathsome celebrity blaming bad behavior on some dubious new addiction.

No surprise, then, that more than 60 percent of Americans believe Congress should not raise the federal debt ceiling, according to a recent CBS News poll. This does not mean they want to see America default, of course. Rather, it indicates a strong popular will to see our government stop its ruinous spending. - Arthur C. Brooks at The Weekly Standard
In the coming weeks and months, as the debt ceiling debate rages and new budget battles arise, we will hear more and more class-warfare rhetoric about corporate jets, miserly rich people, and the need for higher taxes. Free-enterprise advocates must be ready to make a three-part case. First, it is bad economics to tax our way out of the hole our government has dug for us. Second and more important, it betrays a lack of national moral fiber to say, in effect, “We are too weak to control our spending.” Third and most important of all, it is not “fair” in any traditional American understanding of the word to tax our way out of a spending problem.
Arthur C. Brooks is president of the American Enterprise Institute and author of The Battle: How the Fight Between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America’s Future. At Amazon At conservativebookclub.com

John Boehner: Tax Hikes Will Hurt Job Creation


E-BULLETIN: SUNDAY, JULY 10 - johnboehner.house.gov

We have three major problems in America: government spends too much; our country is in a debt crisis; and our economy still isn’t creating enough jobs.

House Republicans recently unveiled our Plan for America’s Job Creators to encourage private-sector job growth, as well as a budget, The Path to Prosperity, that takes on Washington’s out-of-control spending and addresses our nation’s growing debt. Neither plan includes tax hikes because we understand that increasing taxes on job creators will only hurt job growth even more.

Now we are facing tough negotiations for an agreement on our debt limit. And unfortunately, despite good-faith efforts to find common ground, the White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes.

House Republicans have been very clear that tax hikes will not included in any agreement. The American People do not want higher taxes and the new GOP majority will stand with the people.

Sincerely,
John Boehner


Growing Private-Sector Jobs In America Can Only Be Done Without Tax Hikes
CONTACT JOHN BOEHNER:
Office of the Speaker
H-232 The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-0600
Fax: (202) 225-5117

◼ E-MAIL via webform: http://www.speaker.gov/Contact/
◼ FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/OfficeofSpeakerBoehner
◼ TWITTER: http://www.twitter.com/SpeakerBoehner

The Rose Garden collapse: The White House dished out the spin that suddenly the Tea Party crowd had nixed a deal. In reality, the White House had upped the ante on taxes.

Boehner walks away from $1 trillion in tax increases; Update: WH “upped the ante on taxes,” backed off entitlement reform - HotAir
...Tellingly, the White House rushed to assure people that the grand compromise wasn’t dead yet... The rapid response at the White House shows the weakness of Obama’s position...
The Rose Garden collapse - Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post
...The White House dished out the spin that suddenly the Tea Party crowd had nixed a deal. In reality, the White House had upped the ante on taxes. A Republican House aide told me that the White House “started to backpedal on entitlement reforms too.” He explained, “They [the White House] had started to go back on some of the Medicare and Medicaid reforms they had previously said they were ok with.” In other words, either the White House never intended to present a viable grand bargain, or, if Obama did, the left got to him....

Unfortunately for the administration, both the Republicans in Congress and the country at large aren’t buying this formula. They know the problem is out-of-control spending. The know that hiking taxes while the job market deteriorates is ludicrous. Now all that remains is for Republicans to craft a deal that adheres to those principles.

Reaction To Saturday Negotiations:

Saturday Night at Negotiations: White House Takes a Walk on Leadership - Kathryn Jean Lopez/National Review Online
John Boehner’s update on talks with the White House, provided by his office after the Speaker had a phone conversation with the president tonight: “Despite good-faith efforts to find common ground, the White House will not pursue a bigger debt reduction agreement without tax hikes. I believe the best approach may be to focus on producing a smaller measure, based on the cuts identified in the Biden-led negotiations, that still meets our call for spending reforms and cuts greater than the amount of any debt limit increase.”

Behind the scenes, according to those close to the negotiations, Boehner has been pushing the president for the better part of the year for a dramatic deal — one that would include entitlement and other reforms. That the White House would even discuss such a thing, of course, sent the Left wild when it hit the news this week...

How about this? Small deal for now and new president — with a House and maybe even Senate that will work with him — in 2012.
Boehner abandons efforts to reach comprehensive debt-reduction deal - Washington Post
Ironically, it was Boehner who cajoled Obama into pushing for the big deal. His Saturday night announcement capped a whirlwind courtship between the two men, beginning with a casual round of golf at Andrews Air Force Base on June 18.

A series of secret meetings followed, culminating in a decision to push for a landmark debt-reduction deal. Both leaders believed that divided government — with Republicans in charge of the House and Democrats holding the Senate and the presidency — might provide an opportunity to demonstrate that bipartisan cooperation was still possible on a grand scale.

A deal to slice more than $4 trillion in borrowing over 10 years would be, by far, the largest debt-reduction package in at least two decades. The plan would have struck at all the major drivers of government spending, from Social Security and Medicare to the Pentagon.
Is Obama getting ready to snooker Boehner on taxes? - Reuters
The media accounts of the tax reform deal being cooked up by President Obama and House Speaker Boehner aren’t all that clear. But it is looking like a big tax increase
Boehner's Obama Gamble - A tax increase now for the promise of tax reform later won't fly. - Wall St. Journal
President Obama wants Congress to raise the $14.3 trillion national debt limit, which means he needs House Republican votes. Yet Mr. Obama and the Washington chorus are insisting that in return for doing him the favor of voting to raise that limit, Republicans must also do him another favor by raising taxes.
Boehner walks away from $1 trillion in tax increases; Update: WH “upped the ante on taxes,” backed off entitlement reform - HotAir
Tellingly, the White House rushed to assure people that the grand compromise wasn’t dead yet... The rapid response at the White House shows the weakness of Obama’s position.

"We are taking away a choice that continues to let people waste their own money."

Light motif - Mark Steyn/National Review Online
I wonder if Secretary Chu has any idea how stupid this argument sounds from an administration that has wasted more of other people’s money than anybody else on the planet. Secretary Chu and his colleagues took a trillion dollars of “stimulus” and, for all the stimulating it did, might as well have given it in large bills to Charlie Sheen to snort coke off his hookers’ bellies with.