I Have A Plan

The president asked that if others had a plan for the budget , to let him know. I have a plan.

1. Cut business taxes to 12%. Businesses do not pay taxes, they pass them on. Tax is a cost of doing business. They are either passed on to customers in the form of higher prices or lower quality, passed on to employees in the form of layoffs, lower salaries or higher production rates, or taken from stockholders in the form of lower dividends. We have the second highest corporate tax rate in the Western world. It needs to drop like a stone.
2. Allow health care insurers to sell across state lines. Let them treat the entire nation as one large “group”. Require that they cover pre-existing conditions and catastrophic illness. Continue Medicaid to cover needs based people. Eliminate employer based health insurance. By using the nation as a group, prices will be lower than stopping sales at the state line. Employers will be able to pay their cost of insurance directly to the employees. They will also save the cost of administration of insurance, allowing prices to fall, salaries to increase or dividends to raise.
3. Drill here, drill now! Expand current forms of energy production. Just the announcement will panic OPEC and force them to keep prices at least as low as they are now. They will hope we go slow and continue to import from them for several years. Have research into alternative sources of energy proceed, but don’t invent “green” jobs. Let the market determine the rate of growth.
4. Keep the Bush tax cuts in place until passage of the FairTax. In addition to it’s other advantages, the Fair Tax will solve the funding issue for Social Security and Medicare.
5. Did I mention, no more bailouts!! No more federal interference with business.
6. Have all departments of the federal government audited by Clark Howard and Herman Cain.
7. Eliminate all programs that are not authorized by the Constitution of the United States of America.

Whose Mess Is This?

A graphic demonstration of how much of this mess was created during the Bush administration and how much Obama gets credit for, from the Washington Post:

In case someone tries to tell you that the 2009 budget is really George Bush’s budget, remind them of the following:

• the $787 billion stimulus package was all Obama’s idea.  Not only was it his idea, but it passed with ZERO Republican votes in the house and only three in the Senate. 
• another $410 billion was added to the 2009 budget just last month, with only 16 Republican votes (out of 245 yeas) in the House and eight (of 62) in the Senate. 
• Bush only used the first half of TARP funding last year, leaving the second $350 billion for Obama – in case it was needed.  (How many minutes did it take Obama to ask for and get it?)

Together those three chunks of spending add up to over $1.5 trillion, out of the expected $1.8 trillion deficit.  And those future projections?  Do you really believe those, with health care, cap and trade, and everything else they are throwing at us?

Whose budget is it again? 

It belongs to Obama and his Democratic cohorts, those paragons of virtue who have made a conscious decision to keep $100,000 of Bernie Madoff’s campaign donations. 

And the media don’t even report it.

Best Idea I’ve Heard In A Long Time

Members of Congress should be compelled to 
wear uniforms like NASCAR drivers, so we can 
identify their corporate sponsor(s).

Change We Can Believe In?

I wonder how many of the 52% who voted for Obama are waking up to the fact that the Change they voted for isn’t the Change they are getting. And I wonder why any of them are surprised, given that the only experience he ever bragged about having was that of running a campaign? All the recent townhalls and interviews and prime-time press conferences show a man who is still under the delusion that running a presidency is the same thing as running a campaign. The big difference now is people can judge his words by his actions, and according to Zogby’s latest poll, he’s having a much harder time fooling them. One can only hope this is just the beginning of America waking up and taking stock of what they actually got in President Obama.

Look Into Your Economic Future

For those who remember Peter Schiff, the man who called this recession back in 2006, here is a prognostication of what lies ahead.  Very scary.

If he’s right again, be prepared.  We will be living in very interesting times, and our grandkids will tell stories about the Depression we endured.

What’s So Funny?

Bloggers and commentators are all abuzz this morning about the President’s 60 minutes interview last night. Mr. Obama just couldn’t stop smiling and giggling as he talked about the Dire Economic Crisis our country faces. It was so odd that Steve Kroft (the interviewer) actually asked him, “Are you punch drunk?”

My question for you is, Why is he laughing? Is it as Obama says, just a little “gallows humor”? Or is it nervous laughter – the President realizing how absolutely in over his head he is, as some have postulated? Or, could it be he is laughing in glee at the prospect of a destroyed economy that will give him the “crisis” he needs to implement all of his Socialist plans? What do you think? And are we yet over the delusion that this man is some kind of “Great Orator” who knows just how to connect with the American people? Because I’m pretty sure there are very few people who find these massive bailouts very funny.

Ending American Financial Dominance

In his recent comments article in the Canadian National Post, Terence Corcoran asks if this is the end of America .  He opens with the following assessment:

Helicopter Ben Bernanke’s Federal Reserve is dropping trillions of fresh paper dollars on the world economy, the President of the United States is cracking jokes on late night comedy shows, his energy minister is threatening a trade war over carbon emissions, his treasury secretary is dithering over a banking reform program amid rising concerns over his competence and a monumentally dysfunctional U.S. Congress is launching another public jihad against corporations and bankers.

As an aghast world — from China to Chicago and Chihuahua — watches, the circus-like U.S. political system seems to be declining into near chaos. Through it all, stock and financial markets are paralyzed. The more the policy regime does, the worse the outlook gets. The multi-ringed spectacle raises a disturbing question in many minds: Is this the end of America?

Multi-ringed spectacle?  As in Dante’s rings of Hell?  Corcoran has little optimism regarding what is happening and ends with this:

Reform of health care, environmental policy, education, energy, banking, regulation — every nook and cranny of the U.S. economy has been put on alert for major change. Expansion of government spending, plunging the U.S. into unprecedented deficits, is without parallel. In economic policy, through regulation and control of energy output, financial services and monetary expansion, the U.S. government has embarked on a fundamental reshaping of America. It is designed, in short, to bring on the end of America. (emphasis added)

Obama seems intent on destroying the foundations of our economy, or in the words of one banker, ““It’s like a McCarthy witch-hunt…This is the most profoundly anti- American thing I’ve ever seen.”

Perhaps the most anti-American thing of all is the shredding of the Constitution and the incitement of class envy emanating from all levels of government in Washington.  What a disgusting display of power when our elected officials pass legislation to RETROACTIVELY enact confiscatory tax rates against specific individuals.  And no, it doesn’t matter that the AIG bonuses were ill-advised and over-sized.  The power of the federal government should never be used retroactively, especially when it appears they are assuaging the outrage before it is directed at them for their demonstrable lack of intelligent oversight.  Can there be a more dangerous precedent?

Now Obama wants to expand bonus oversight to all banks, Wall Street, hedge funds, etc.

For every action there is an equal reaction, and some of the country’s best money minds are already moving to private industry or foreign banking systems.

“There are three big industries where the US has global leadership: financial services, media and technology. Introducing this 90 per cent tax is like taking one of those industries out the back and shooting it,” said a top Wall Street executive.

Who did Wall Street support last November? 

Obama. 

I wonder how that’s working for them, as they watch either the intentional or incompetent destruction of our financial systems.

How To Build A Winning Team

Ever since my brother was very young, he has been a huge baseball fan. Huge. As in never miss a game, memorize the stats of every player, and spend your every waking moment thinking about it, Huge. Growing up in Seattle this also meant he was a huge Mariner’s fan. And those two things – being a big baseball fan emotionally invested in your team and being a Mariner’s fan – were not the best combination. In fact, I’d say being a Mariner’s fan in the 1980’s was an awful lot like being a Conservative during the 2008 election cycle. You knew from the start that the team you were rooting for wasn’t very good and had almost zero chance of winning, but you rooted for them anyway, out of pure loyalty. The Mariner’s losing streak was so consistent and so long that in many people’s minds “Mariners” became synonomous with “Losers”. But then something happened.

The Mariners started to win.

And not only did they start winning, but they became a winning team. The kind of team that can beat the Yankees in a Division playoff. The kind of team that sets a record for the most wins in one season.

Now to a casual observer (me) this was just pure dumb luck, or a team finally getting their due after years of losing. But my brother, the closest thing to an expert on Mariner’s Baseball you will ever find, knew better. And the true reason for the Mariner’s “sudden” switch from a losing team to a winning team had everything to do with the players. But unlike the bigger winning teams with their bigger winners budgets, the Mariner’s couldn’t just go out and find winning players to put on their team – they had to cultivate their own. They had to find players who were just starting out, guys who were young but showed a lot of promise, and they had to invest in them. It’s a plan that takes a lot of time and a kind of long vision and an eye for the bigger picture. Many people probably complained that the team owner and the coach were wasting valuable resources on no-namers who wouldn’t be taking the team to the world series within a season. But thanks to that investment, thanks to that eye on the bigger picture, the Mariners produced some of the most impressive names baseball has seen in the last 10-15 years – guys like Edgar Martinez, Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez, and Randy Johnson.

Conservatives need to take a page from the Mariners playbook.

Before the votes from 2008 were even counted, people were already talking about who to run in 2012. Names like Palin and Jindal quickly floated to the top as All Stars emerging to lead the Conservatives to a new era of winning the likes of which we haven’t seen since Reagan. And while I agree that both Palin and Jindal have a lot to contribute and may in fact be the All Stars of the Conservative team, it takes more than one or two players to produce a winning season. What we need is an entire bench-full of strong players.

We need to look beyond the White House and see the potential for growth that exists all over the country, at every level. Sometimes this may mean looking beyond our own elected officials and instead turning our focus to parts of the country where Republicans may not have held a seat in a very long time. Remember the Mariners – Just because we haven’t won before, doesn’t mean the game isn’t winnable. It’s hard to justify donating money to a campaign during hard economic times, and even more so when the election won’t directly affect you or your family. But consider the impact that your donation could have if we were able to elect Republicans in what many consider to be “solidly blue” parts of the country.

One such opportunity exists in the person of Jim Tedisco who is running for congress in NY’s 20th Congressional District, an area that stretches across the Adirondacks, the Catskills, and through the Hudson Valley. The seat is currently empty and there is a special election to fill it on March 31st. Having gone to college in that area, I can attest to the fact that it is not a generally “red” part of the state. That Tedisco is running so strongly in the polls is a testament both to him and to the fact that people are rather unhappy with the Democrats these days. This is a moment of opportunity that we may not see again for a long long time. Let’s not waste it. If you can even spare just a few dollars, please consider making a contribution TODAY- think about the impact one more republican might make in congress right now.

And while we continue to keep an eye on The President and his Socialist  Democrat-led Congress, let’s also commit to building up our own team.  Look for every opportunity to support Conservative Republicans at every level of government – from city council to party leadership, to Congress, and yes, even the White House.  The good news about being less than 100 days into Dear Leader’s presidency is that this is the perfect time to cultivate new players with a lot of potential and build up a team that can take us from the frustrating failures of 2008 to a strong season in 2012.  Let’s not let the moment go to waste.

An Inconvenient Award

Al Gore received the first Roger Revelle Award yesterday, for leaders whose outstanding contributions “advance or promote research in ocean, climate, and earth sciences.” 

 John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel and big global warming skeptic, prepared a video for the occasion.  It can be found at Coleman’s Corner.   (It’s more than worth following the link to see the Goracle once again held up to the light of day.)

To celebrate the 100^th birthday of the late Dr. Roger Revelle, the oceanography institute he once directed is today presenting an award in his name to his most famous disciple – Al Gore.  And, while this charlatan should never seriously be considered for any scientific tribute, the specific intent of this one makes Gore a particularly unworthy maiden recipient, and he knows it.   American Thinker

What could make Al Gore so undeserving of an award in honor of his mentor? 

Revelle recanted his belief in CO2 as a source of global warming and publicly apologized for sending so many people in the wrong direction several years before he died. 

Of course, that didn’t matter to Gore, who promptly declared Revelle senile.  He later went to great efforts to discredit Revelle, to claim he had been coerced, and even to file a defamation lawsuit against another scientist who co-authored an article denouncing CO2 as a cause of AGW with Revelle.

Enjoy your ill-deserved award, Mr. Gore, and may it continue to snow and sleet on days your followers hold rallies.

We’re Off to See the Wizard and Expose His Sorry A . . . hem

I am a big fan of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.

I am a fan of Patrick Henry (he of “Give me liberty or give me death” fame).

I am also a big fan of Glenn Beck.

While Ms. Rand and Mr. Henry can do little more than spin in their graves at the moment, Glenn Beck is, fortunately, alive and well and taking action.

Shall we join him?

He is spearheading a campaign he calls “We Surround Them.”  The premise is this:

Do you watch the direction that America is being taken in and feel powerless to stop it?
Do you believe that your voice isn’t loud enough to be heard above the noise anymore?
Do you read the headlines everyday and feel an empty pit in your stomach…as if you’re completely alone?
If so, then you’ve fallen for the Wizard of Oz lie. While the voices you hear in the distance may sound intimidating, as if they surround us from all sides—the reality is very different. Once you pull the curtain away you realize that there are only a few people pressing the buttons, and their voices are weak. The truth is that they don’t surround us at all.

We surround them.

 

Mr. Beck sites nine principles and 12 values, and says if you agree with at least seven of the principles, then you have something in common with him, and he invites you to join him in making your voice heard.  The principles are:

The Nine Principles

1. America is good.
2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

The values are:

12 Values

• Honesty
• Reverence
• Hope
• Thrift
• Humility
• Charity
• Sincerity
• Moderation
• Hard Work
• Courage
• Personal Responsibility
• Friendship

 

If you want to join in the We Surround Them movement, send a digital photo of yourself to: wesurroundthem@foxnews.com .  Also, make sure you check out Glenn’s website (which I’ve linked above in boldface type) to see if there is a viewing party in your area for the We Surround Them kickoff show on March 13.

It’s time to join together and kick a little wizard a . . . hem.