South Carolina's new governor has some positive words for Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. She also says the Tea Parties are alive and well. Oh, and Mr. President, she suggests you give the states free rein on handling Medicaid costs. All in all, a great clip.
February 28, 2011
February 27, 2011
Advice for conservatives from...Tolkien?
If you are conservative and you've read the likes of Hayek, Friedman and Paine, you probably think there aren't many other writings from which to draw ideas or inspiration. You'd be wrong. Here's some practical advice for conservatives anyone from Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien. True, it's not Adam Smith on the Invisible Hand, but it still resonates.
Sunday Blog Mentions
There are a number of blogs out there that I read regularly that deserve a mention and I haven't done so in the recent past. Please check them out, there's some great writing going on.
Annoy The Left gets it right. Great blog, and he even got mentioned on The Other McCain's blog. That's big time. He doesn't post as often as he used to but you can also find him on twitter from his page.
Mean Ol' Meany blogs on everything from politics to 'Teh Google' to cute girls. Oddly enough, it's his political rants that most inspire me. [NOTE: occasional not so mild language use.]
Secularstupidest is media rich with videos from a conservative perspective. I keep meaning to see if my Al Gore music video is worthy of posting there.
I mentioned KingShamus yesterday in my blog round up but he deserves another mention.
Joetote's blog has some interesting posts about faith and the Middle East this month. Worth reading.
Conservative Perspective is a blog I started looking at relatively recently. He even has a soft spot for us Canadians (just not our style of government - I have to agree with that).
There are others but I've got a busy day and limited time to post unfortunately, so that will have to do for now.
Labels:
annoytheleft,
blog list,
blogroll,
blogs,
joetote,
King Shamus,
Mean Ol Meany,
secularstupidest.com
February 26, 2011
Civil Discourse for Thee, But Not for Me.
And some Democrat double take to go with the Obama double take. Let's see...Bush = Hitler, Christie = Gaddafi , Walker = Mubarak, Conservatives can STFU and violence is okay if it supports Hamas (or the SEIU). But conservatives are the crazed radicals? Conservatives are the ones not using civil discourse? Civil discourse for thee but not for me indeed.
We all know Democrats are full of double standards and hypocrisy. But while they get away with it less and less, it doesn't stop them from trying.
Obama Double Take
President Obama won't defend the Defense of Marriage Act, which is still the law of the land because, as Newsmax notes,
Obama Attorney General Eric Holder said on Wednesday that the administration will not defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act in the courts, which has banned recognition of same-sex marriage for 15 years. President Clinton signed the act into law in 1996.
Yet, President Obama will push forward with his health care law that has been deemed unconstitutional by more than one judge because (USA Today),
"We don't believe this kind of judicial activism will be upheld, and we are confident that the (law) will ultimately be declared constitutional by the courts," Stephanie Cutter, deputy senior adviser to President Obama, wrote on the White House blog.
Is anyone else doing an Obama double take over this?
Obama says Kadhafi must 'leave now': WHouse
Well finally. Via Breitbart: Obama says Kadhafi must 'leave now': WHouse.
Here's the problem with this epiphany for President Obama;
"The president stated that when a leader's only means of staying in power is to use mass violence against his own people, he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what is right for his country by leaving now," it said.
It's still behind the curve. Kadhafi has apparently already killed hundreds of Libyans and needs to stand trial in Libya. Step down? Yes. Leave? No.
Saturday Blog Roundup
Saturday Blog Roundup - some great reading elsewhere worth checking out.
William Teach who blogs at Pirates Cove and Right Wing News has a great post on President Erkel's demand for Republicans to compromise and make green light bulbs. It's ironic - the President who gutted NASA wants more investment in innovation and technology. The President who wants to invest in education
Dan Cirucci has some language advice for lawyers that's worth bloggers any writers taking note.
The Right Sphere has some updates on the Wisconsin fake doctors' notes for protesters scandal and it's a slam dunk.
My calls for more Tea Party action, visible action while ignored, are at least making sense to someone. Gateway Pundit has some news on some recent heroic Tea Party efforts.
An Ol' Broad urges the GOP leadership to not get soft on the unions in Wisconsin and/or their own states. If she can be tough, so can you.
The Goomba News Network has a rundown of an Al Jazeera interview with British Prime Minister Cameron in which he aims for Great Britain to achieve the lowest tax rate in the G7. Hey, somebody gets it.
Weasel Zippers is left head-scratching over MSNBC's Laurence O'Donnell's comments on racism, Obama and Union Bosses. Weasel Zippers is not alone.
King Shamus opines that Huckabee isn't running. He's content with that result. I'm content with his entire post.
Protein Wisdom outs a possible conservative writing at Reuters.Oops. Other than that,“Why a U.S. government shutdown is worth it” is a great extract of a sound opinion.
The Liberal Lie, The Conservative Truth is more of a mouthful blog title than even my own. But it has some constructive criticism for Obama on Libya.
Anne at Backyard Conservatives got her cows wrong, but still makes the right point about Cheeseheads.
And for those of you who care, here's the entire Charlie Sheen bombastic rant. Clearly, the man is angry.
February 25, 2011
Blog Announcement
Nonsensible Shoes has been around for over two years, without real significant gains in readership. In order to facilitate growth, Nonsensible Shoes will be migrated to a new URL in the coming months. I've recently purchased a domain and have begun working on some of the other things necessary to be able to migrate the blog. It won't be happening overnight, in fact I expect it will take a couple of months to get everything in place, but I thought I'd give my regular readers a bit of a heads up because eventually the RSS feed will change as will the URL.
When it's time for the move, I'm hoping you'll join me. In the mean time, blogging will continue here as usual.
More details to follow, so stay tuned.
February 24, 2011
Conservatives are getting gamed - again.
Conservatives are getting gamed. Democrats are once again proving that strategically, they are outsmarting us because we are busy focusing on the fine print instead of the big picture. It doesn't mean Democrats, liberals, progressives, unions and special interests are right. It doesn't even mean that they are necessarily being effective. What it does mean is that they are playing the game to win in 2012, while conservatives are focused on doing what we think is right for the economy and for America, right now. Conservatives often forget that doing what is right for America requires political victory too. Democrats know that to enact their agenda, they have to score political gains and that is what we are witnessing them attempting to do in Wisconsin and elsewhere. Why conservatives and even those in the Republican party can't see the bigger picture is astounding.
Labels:
#TCOT,
#teaparty,
2012,
Conservatives are getting gamed,
Obamacare,
Scott Walker,
strategy,
Tea Party,
Wisconsin
February 22, 2011
Joe Bastardi Quits AccuWeather
Global Warming skeptic Joe Bastardi is leaving his job at AccuWeather after 32 years. Is that important? Perhaps. What is important for skeptics to note is that his accuracy made him a target for the Kool Aid crowd and his departure will be no different.
With that in mind, the announcement has already attracted some disparaging comments. One in particular caught mt attention - a brief comment that he was/is a meteorologist and not a climate scientist. That distinction caused me to ask an obvious question.
February 20, 2011
Rachel Maddow, Just Wrong or a Liar?
From Newsbusters, Rachel Maddow Exposed for Lying About Wisconsin Having Budget Surplus.
To sum up, from Rachel;
I’m here to report that there is nothing wrong in the state of Wisconsin. Wisconsin is fine. Wisconsin is great, actually. Despite what you may have heard about Wisconsin’s finances, Wisconsin is on track to have a budget surplus this year.
And from the left-leaning Politifact;
Our conclusion: Maddow and the others are wrong.
There is, indeed, a projected deficit that required attention, and Walker and GOP lawmakers did not create it. [...]
The confusion, it appears, stems from a section in [Director of the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau Robert] Lang’s memo that -- read on its own -- does project a $121 million surplus in the state’s general fund as of June 30, 2011.
But the remainder of the routine memo -- consider it the fine print -- outlines $258 million in unpaid bills or expected shortfalls in programs such as Medicaid services for the needy ($174 million alone), the public defender’s office and corrections. Additionally, the state owes Minnesota $58.7 million under a discontinued tax reciprocity deal.
The result, by our math and Lang’s, is the $137 million shortfall.
So is she lying or just wrong? I'm sure she'll be clarifying any moment now. Not reading the fine print is an honest mistake (albeit shoddy journalism) that can be corrected easily by issuing an apology and/or correction. Lying in journalism, would be bad....Clarifying any moment now.
NOTE: I did not get to this story early, I'm just piling on.
I'm a blogging idiot.
I've got to figure out a way to do this blogging thing better. Yesterday I posted on the MacIver Institute video about phony doctors' notes being handed out like candy at the Madison Wisconsin protests before it went viral. When I added the video to a post it had only been viewed 304 times. I looked at the video this morning on Youtube and it has over 55,000 hits. Now it's on Hot Air, Right Wing News, and Michelle Malkin's site (all great sites by the way).
Getting there first doesn't matter. Recognizing an important story doesn't matter (although I did schedule my post to go out 2 hours later than I finished it, so I didn't fully recognize the importance). What matters is getting people to listen. Clearly I'm a blogging idiot or I would have been a better help in spreading this news story. In the end, the important thing is the story got out. Meanwhile, I have to learn to blog smarter.
Bible Quote
Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Better it is to be of humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.
– Proverbs 16: 18-19.
– Proverbs 16: 18-19.
February 19, 2011
Wisconsin protests and fake doctors notes
An interesting video from the MacIver Institute on phony sick notes for Wisconsin protesters. It's not clear if the doctors were real doctors or not, but the doctors' notes clearly are.
As the video description states;
As the video description states;
[Madison, WI] As tens of thousands of public employees skipped work this week to attend protest rallies outside the Wisconsin State Capitol, many wondered if they would face any disciplinary action for unexcused absences.Unions are always ethical. Now what about those students?
On Saturday, a group of men and women in lab coats purporting to be doctors were handing out medical excuse notes, without examining the 'patients.'
A blog post you MUST read!
This is a must read blog entry from M.J. Perry at Carpe Diem: Entitlement Nation: What Does Government Do? Mostly Cut Checks to Beneficiaries, $2.3T in 2010
Not only do you need to read it, you need to show it to everyone from your neighbor to Michael Moore.
Curing the common cold
I have a wicked cold that I picked up a few days ago. While this post is mostly off topic, I can't really think about much else today unfortunately. I had thought I might make the whole winter this year without getting one but no such luck. A few years ago (okay, more like 18 or 19) I discovered a way that seems to work wonders in getting rid of a cold very quickly. The problem is that it isn't very practical.
The logic is simple and based on the common sense idea that lots of liquids will help fight a cold. I figured that more liquid would work even better. What I did was take a 12 ounce glass of apple juice and I drank it. Then, for the next eight hours I refilled it with water and drank the 12 ounces every ten minutes. It worked. I tried it the day I started feeling the symptoms of the cold and the next day the cold was apparently gone and the symptoms never reappeared. I've tried it again since with the same results. My guess is that it flushes out the viruses, or much of them, somehow.
Now the down sides. First of all, every time I've tried it my kidneys felt sore the next day - it's a lot of work for them. I'm not a doctor so I don't know but I suspect it's a bit hard on them and not a good idea to try too often. Damaging one's kidneys is not worth the cure if that is the side effect of doing it. But that leads to the other down side - you can't try it very often because you end up spending the whole day in the washroom. It's not practical to use on a work day or if you have company over or are going out. It's truly a home remedy.
My guess is that the volume of water flowing through the system flushes out a lot of the virus but again, I'm not a doctor and I have no scientific proof that this works, just anecdotal evidence. I'd be curious to hear what others think and if anyone else has found anything else that works with a cold.
As an aside, I'm sure there's some sort of obvious way to link flushing the system to politics but being sick, I haven't got the energy today to work on that. Feel free to comment on that too, maybe it'll inspire a post for tomorrow...
February 18, 2011
Hey Wisconsin Students: Not your fight
A bill that is being hotly protested in Wisconsin is also a bill that is not being hotly debated as Democrats have fled the state rather than debate the bill. What's really lacking in these protests is some common sense from some of the protesters - the students. Teacher's unions of course you would expect them to say that the Governor is going to ruin the state - he's going to change their state of ease and comfort. But students, this is not your fight.
Labels:
105 Democrats,
collective bargaining,
Egypt,
not your fight,
protests,
students,
unions,
Wisconsin
Troubled Sunday Coming in Iran?
According a report from PBS Tehran Bureau, the opposition leader from the last election and subsequent uprising, Mousavi, has called for demonstrations on Sunday. What makes it even more of a concern is the conflict within the Revolutionary Guard:
12:00 p.m./Feb 18 As we described on the eve of the 25 Bahman demonstrations, there was a report that Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, the Revolutionary Guard commander, had expressed his doubt that Guard enlisted men would be willing to use violence against marchers. The Telegraph reports that reluctance of that sort is now being voiced at much higher ranks:Senior officers in Iran's Revolutionary Guards have written a letter to their commanding officer demanding assurances that they will not be required to open fire on anti-government demonstrators.
Following the recent violence that occurred during anti-government protests in Egypt, the officers argue that it is against the principles of Shi'ite Islamic law to use violence against their own people.
In a suggestion of a major split within the Islamic Republic's ruling hierarchy over its handling of anti-government protests, the letter has been circulated widely throughout the ranks of the Revolutionary Guards, the body responsible for defending religious system.
The letter, a copy of which has been seen by the Daily Telegraph, is addressed to Major Gen Jafar [...] It calls on [him] to issue guidance to both the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij paramilitary militia to use restraint when handling anti-government protests.
While trouble flares across the Middle East and North Africa in the wake of events in Egypt, Yemen and Tunisia, the biggest questions remaining are (1) how Egypt turns out and (1A) what happens in Iran.
February 17, 2011
Outfoxing Obama on Spending Cuts
Since the President has decided to use tricks like a five year freeze on increases in non-defense discretionary spending as a way to talk about saving hundreds of billions of dollars over the next five years, the Republicans are in a tricky situation trying to initiate real cuts that the Democrats will brand as draconian by comparison. But there is a way Republicans can accomplish bigger cuts using the same sort of tricks that Democrats do. While it is political as opposed to practical, a successful role back of this progressivist agenda will require political solutions as well as practical solutions and if there is a way to accomplish both, then why not.
The solution to creating bigger numbers in the cut back dollar war is to use President Obama's so called cuts as the baseline and then any cuts the Republicans want to accomplish beyond that would be added to that number. For example, if Obama's budget is to save $400 billion, then by cancelling the high speed rail costs that the President wants to spend, would bring the total savings up to $453 billion. This is the sort of accounting trick the Democrats use all the time to get their talking points out there. This way the Republican cut back numbers would end up looking very large indeed. That ends up looking impressive to those who are only marginally paying attention but and may help voters who want seriousness in spending cuts. Meanwhile, it does not take away from the fact that real spending cuts will be included in the numbers. Those of us truly concerned about government spending cuts, the accounting trick will be transparent but if real cuts are included it won't matter.
It may make negotiating with Democrats more difficult because they will go ballistic on the seemingly even more draconian numbers. On the other hand, it makes it hard for the President to argue against the plan in its entirety because there will be his 'cuts' included in it. He will be forced to say that some of it makes sense or else be exposed to Republicans countering that many of the cuts seemed fine when he proposed them . In the end that may make negotiation easier. In fact, it may lend itself to a more open discussion on entitlement spending for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
February 16, 2011
Obama keeping enemies closer. Way closer.
Sign. |
President Obama is once again planning on throwing Israel under the bus. From Turtle Bay:
The U.S. informed Arab governments Tuesday that it will support a U.N. Security Council statement reaffirming that the 15-nation body "does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity," a move aimed at avoiding the prospect of having to veto a stronger Palestinian resolution calling the settlements illegal.
But the Palestinians rejected the American offer following a meeting late Wednesday of Arab representatives and said it is planning to press for a vote on its resolution Friday, according officials familiar with the issue. The decision to reject the American offer raised the prospects that the Obama administration may cast its first ever veto in the U.N. Security Council.
Still, the U.S. offer signaled a renewed willingness to seek a way out of the current impasse, even if it requires breaking with its key ally and joining others in the council in sending a strong message to Israel to stop its construction of new settlements. The Palestinian delegation, along with the council's Arab member Lebanon, have asked the council's president this evening to schedule a meeting on Friday. But it remained unclear whether the Palestinian move today is simply a negotiating tactic aimed at extracting a better deal from the United States.
Nothing I can add by way of adjectives would sufficiently describe how scummy this move is, so I'll leave it at that. Let me point out however, for those who don't get it, this goes beyond a matter of convenience in trying to appease Israel's enemies. This is not a Neville Chamberlain moment. This is nothing short of a betrayal of an ally. As a comparison, think of the U.S. condemning France during World War II to appease Germany. The only real difference is that Israelis aren't quite so weak-kneed as the French.
Obama's a military backer now?
Obama + Military = Tight. |
President Obama is playing hardball on budget cuts with the Republicans in Congress, threatening to veto anything that jeopardizes defense budgets. It's unclear where that sudden concern about national defense arose from a President who seems to be okay with a porous border and has never been big on military spending (as opposed to social programs).
From Politico today;
President Barack Obama signaled his openness to larger deficit-reduction talks with Congress on Tuesday but drew a sharp line at the immediate spending cuts proposed by the House, even suggesting that Republicans were jeopardizing the Pentagon’s ability to “meet vital military requirements.”
The thinly veiled veto threat was delivered in a formal statement of administration policy just hours after debate opened in the House on the Republican plan.
February 15, 2011
Temperature Check: Massachusetts, Still Crazy Liberal
Deval Patrick - crazy bad idea. |
Scott Brown, semi-Republican Senator from Massachusetts created a glimmer of hope for conservatives that even in a very liberal state, common fiscal sense might be starting to take hold. But after a recent temperature check, Massachusetts is still crazy liberal, or at least Governor Patrick is. You may have already suspected that but as confirmation, there's a news story about a new Massachusetts mileage tax.
February 13, 2011
Al Gore's comeback???
My "homage" to Al Gore. This was a tough video to make but a lot of fun. I know I always advocate reasoned debate, and the avoidance of name calling. This isn't name calling it's just poking a little fun, and a bit of fun once in a while is okay, right? Please watch and share the Al Gore Comeback video while you can, in case it disappears.
Al Gore "inventor" of the Internet, purveyor of global warming climate change hysteria, sees the gravy train ending. What's next for Al?
February 12, 2011
Trump Conservatives versus Ron Paul Conservatives
Donald Trump made a surprise speech at the 2011 CPAC conference, coming out in a sense, as a conservative. The response was boisterous, on both sides as you can see:
Now Trump provoked some of the outburst by claiming Ron Paul could not get elected. Donald Trump calls it as he sees it and in this case it was no different. Vigorous internal debate is the sign of a healthy political party. Democrats who are so often lock step in their opinions (health care, outside of the CYA votes, is a great example), don't display that healthy sense of thoughtful process. It indicates a lack of robust critical thinking on issues and is flagrantly on display when talking points hit the mainstream media with the same level of individual thought as grains of rice.
Reagan's 11th commandment, "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican" deserves some thought here. Vigorous debate is good, and as an American it is certainly your right to boo. It is certainly Donald Trump's right to call Ron Paul unelectable. That doesn't make any of it smart. What has the clip accomplished? It's offered the mainstream media ammunition against Paul as unelectable and against Trump as mean-spirited. While Trump prefaced the comment with the point that he thinks Paul is a good guy, that will be selectively edited out should Trump manage to become a serious contender.
There's also consideration to be given to Donald Trump's gutsiness and saying it like it is. But Trump could be setting himself up to be Barry Goldwatered. Barry Goldwater was soundly defeated in 1964 in a defeat that was precipitated by criticisms from liberal Republicans. Those liberal Republican elites still exist today and they are certainly at odds with the conservative Republican electorate of today. No matter who the candidate might be for the GOP they are most certainly not going to be a liberal Republican (neither Paul nor Trump would not fit their ideal). The nominee will face attacks from those more liberal elites within the GOP and then within the mainstream media.
It's worth noting that Reagan was less adherent to that 11th commandment during and after the North Carolina primary in 1976 when he finally was able to mount a credible challenge to Gerald Ford for the GOP nomination. It's also worth noting that society is not as civil as it was back in 1976. It would seem we are faced with a choice. We can change with the times or we can try to change the times.
I don't have a resolution to that quandary. I suspect the answer or is an individual one we must each answer for ourselves. So what is the take away from the contentious CPAC speech? The only conclusion that I can draw at this time is that I buried the headline: Donald Trump is a conservative.
February 11, 2011
On Mubarak's Departure
On Mubarak's departure I'm in a wait and see frame of mind. In case you missed it, President Mubarak has resigned today as President of Egypt. One one side you've got the possibility of a Muslim Brotherhood, anti-American leaning nation as an outcome and on the other side you've got the possibility of a peaceful transition to a democracy in the Middle East with an unchanged peace treaty with Israel. The former outcome would be a disaster and the latter fantastic. Neither outcome is by any means assured.
Labels:
America,
Carter,
Egypt,
Iran,
Israel,
Mubarak's departure,
Muslim Brotherhood,
Obama,
outcome,
Reagan
Friday Musical Interlude - The Dog Days Are Over
Florence and the Machine - Dog Days Are Over. A quite memorable tune.
This post serves as a shameless plug for my other blog, Song Versus Song which is focused on music. If you like all sorts of music, please check it out.
Enjoy.
This post serves as a shameless plug for my other blog, Song Versus Song which is focused on music. If you like all sorts of music, please check it out.
Enjoy.
February 9, 2011
My recession is over
Soon to be unemployed. |
NOTE: This post is personal and entirely anecdotal and personal in nature.
Back in late November I got let go from a company I'd worked at for five and half years. I wasn't overly worried - I got an excellent severance package and support from friends both local and over the web. Not only did I have time to find work, I had a number of leads to work with. Consequently I didn't have to work too hard to find new employment.
February 8, 2011
AOL and Huffington train wreck
Train wreck |
Does this train wreck make any sense? AOL is buying The Huffington Post in an effort to do what? Rebuild it's online empire, which has faltered over the last decade?
As Business Management noted last spring,
Last year AOL finally parted company with Time Warner after one of the most disastrous mergers in business history. Since buying Time Warner for $160 billion in 2001, AOL has hemorrhaged cash and market share after a string of bad decisions stemming from faulty predictions about the direction of web growth.
So AOL is betting on The Huffington Post to overcome a decade of decline? It's not going to happen. While The Huffington Post is a heavy hitter as blogs go, it's no media empire. The business model for AOL isn't the same as HuffPo either. Despite that, Bloomberg reports;
AOL Inc.’s deal to purchase the Huffington Post is more than a bet on the website’s financial prospects. It’s a wager on the ability of co-founder Arianna Huffington to build an online media empire, analysts say.
Under the $315 million acquisition agreement, Huffington, 60, will join AOL and become president and editor-in-chief of a newly formed media group. In the position, she’ll oversee all of New York-based AOL’s content, from the TechCrunch blog to the Patch local news sites to new content initiatives.
While the goal is to help AOL become a more powerful force in online advertising, there’s a risk in putting Huffington in charge of editorial, said Rob Enderle, a San Jose, California- based technology consultant. Her political views, often critical of corporations and Republicans, may be polarizing, he said.
Brent Bozell analyzed it the following way,
"They must be in such dire straits that they’ve been blinded by the millions and think an acquisition of The Huffington Post is worth sacrificing credibility and objectivity,” Bozell said. "AOL News is fooling only itself in thinking there is no journalistic conflict in merging with a hate-filled, vicious, radically left-wing rag.”
It goes beyond Bozell's comments however. AOL has a poor track record at mergers and acquisitions. In fact ever since it lost it's near monopoly on the Internet in the early days it has done far more faltering than anything else. This will not help AOL and it is far more likely to be yet another nail in the corporate coffin.
February 5, 2011
Egypt: What would Carter do?
You have to wonder if President Obama is reading the Jimmy Carter playbook on Iran in dealing with Egypt. Some eerie similarities exist and if President Obama isn't running the Carter playbook then he apparently is one of those condemned to repeat history. On the other hand, it's quite possible that the Obama administration actually has helped foster the unrest and is seeking to reap what it has sewn.
Labels:
Ayman Nour,
Carter,
Egypt,
Hossam el-Hamalawy,
Obama,
Obama = Carter
Obama to Russia; 'Let me tell you about British security'
From the Telegraph, WikiLeaks is reporting that the U.S. is apparently giving the Russians, as part of an arms control deal President Obama is expected to sign next week, information about Britain's nuclear capabilities;
Chaos on Obama's Watch
Forget the 3 a.m. phone call, calls are coming into the White House on an hourly basis. The Middle East could be on the verge of a melt-down and the White House looks like a deer caught in the headlights. What did the White House know about a possible flare up of political unrest in the region and when did it know it? That's the question that needs to be asked. Either the white House has been caught unaware or else it has simply been flat-footed on a coming up with a thoughtful and reasoned response to the situation. Being cautious is good, but appearing to be without any direction is not only ineffectual it will ultimately prove to be dangerous for U.S. interests as the chaos on Obama's watch looks as though it could easily spiral out of control.
February 3, 2011
Senate repeals some Obamacare. Not a win.
Politico has reported,
The Senate voted Wednesday for the first time to repeal a piece of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, rolling back a new tax reporting requirement that’s been universally panned by business owners.
The amendment to repeal the 1099 reporting requirement passed 81-17 with broad bipartisan support.
The provision was one that Obama identified in his State of the Union speech as something that Democrats were willing to change.
The Senate voted several times last year on repealing the requirement, but all the attempts failed amid partisan bickering over how to pay for it. Republicans made an attempt to repeal the provision by taking money from the health reform law’s prevention and wellness fund. Democrats tried to repeal it without paying for it.
The provision would have required business owners to file 1099 tax documents on all cumulative purchases from a single vendor that total more than $600 in a year.
This is good news for business owners because the onerous tracking task is gone. The question though is now that it's going to be repealed (as it seems further passage has bi-partisan support), where is the $17 billion in revenue this was expected to generate to help pay for Obamacare going to come from? The answer is nowhere. It's going to add to the net debt that this health care program will fuel. More debt is not a win.
And with Obamacare not yet dead, it means that there is no guarantee that future enacting of this requirement is still possible. No, likely. That is because the end game for liberals is state funded single payer health care. As a result of that goal, any burden that can be put in place that generates revenue for government and frustrates business adds fuel to the fire of those wishing to do away with insurance companies and simply switch to a simple health tax. The game will be let's get rid of this burdensome tax and just go with a simple health care system. So, this 1099 burden is not gone for good, just for now. Some liberals are thinking long term for their single payer game. It's a second reason the repeal of this section of Obamacare is not a win.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)