Elbert Guill0ry: Proud Republican

Here is an excellent video by Louisianna State Senator Elbert Guillory

Dem's Not Proud to be Americans

Gallup has a new poll showing that Republicans are far more proud of America and Democrats are.

That goes a long way to explain why the Democratic party has spent the past 70 years deconstructing our Constitution...

via Drudge.com

GOP To Cave On Gun Control

It appears that the Party Of Stupid's Elite leadership is prepared to cave on gun control.  From a couple of reports, they will allow a national data base that will record all gun sales and ownership to be created.  This give the government quite literally a list of everyone who buys and sells guns across the country.

[The] Republican Majority Leader is leading the charge to cut a deal with President Obama.
The following are just some of the threats to innocent school children and our God-given 2nd Amendment liberties that Republicans are about to shove down our throats:
1.The NRA is cutting backroom deals to centralize gun owner data collection into the Obama/Holder massive government data base.
A centralized system is less costly to fight and far more lucrative for the NRA to appear to be “fixing“.
Like all establishment political lobbies the key to their job security is assisting in making problems they end up being called upon to “fix“.
2. Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor is leading the charge to give Obama and Holder what they want in exchange for appearing to be “fixing” the problem of innocent children being butchered in our public and private schools.
3. Newly appointed Republican Judiciary Chairman, Bob Goodlatte R-VA 6th District, is providing political cover for the sneaky back room gun control deals and gun grabbing sell outs that his political masters - – John Boehner and Eric Cantor – - are cutting with Obama and his corrupt Attorney General, Eric Holder.

Political insiders have confirmed to me, that Goodlatte earned his brand new chairmanship by ignoring the constitutional demands and grievances of every Republican Unit Chairman in his own 6th district.

Eric Cantor and  Paul Ryan are the ones leading the charge on this one.  What makes this so onerous is that for the 1st time, the government will know WHO is buying and selling.  That's the first step towards confiscation.  For the 1st time, an American government will have the ability, if it so decides to take away firearms from lawful citizens.  That's the slippery slope.

This also calls into play the rumours that the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, was planning to pass laws without a majority of his GOP caucus.  The GOP ain't called the Party of Stupid for nothing.  Then there's this;

You might think that with Republicans in control of the US House of Representatives there would be no way ANY gun control legislation could reach the floor.

But sadly we are already beginning to see so-called “conservative champions” folding to pressure from the anti-gun media to sell-out gun owners.

Former Vice Presidential candidate, Congressman Paul Ryan, has stated that he would support legislation that bans private sales at gun shows.

In the House, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, along with the help of Rep. Scott Rigell (VA), Patrick Meehan (PA) and others, have stated openly that they will work together with anti-gun Democrats from Maryland and New York to tighten restrictions on private firearms sales and expand background checks.

Possibly even more upsetting has been Senator Tom Coburn’s willingness to work alongside anti-gunner Chuck Schumer (NY) to propose “bi-partisan” anti-gun legislation in the Senate.
Make no mistake, so-called “expansion” of background checks is little more than a blatant attempt by anti-gunners to register all firearms and gun owners in America.

That is why Representatives Steve Stockman (TX-36) and Paul Broun (GA-10) have drafted a letter to Speaker Boehner and the Republican leadership urging them to require the support of the majority of Republican members in the House before bringing any anti-gun bills to the floor.

This so-called “Hastert Rule” would mean that 117 Republicans would have to support a particular bill before it had any chance of getting a floor vote, not just the support of the anti-gun elitist in leadership.

If the Republican elite leadership really wanted to to destroy the party and go the way of the Whigs...this is surely it.  They were winning the hearts and minds of America, which has been hardening its position on defense of the 2nd Amendment.  By caving into Liberals & Democrats demands to do something "for the cheeldren"...will be the rock upon which the party crashes.

There can be no compromise upon America's right to defend ourselves against the tyranny of government.  The 2nd Amendment is the rock upon which that right stands.  To force any crack into is to lead to the loss of that right and therefore, NO COMPROMISE may be allowed.  None, nein, nyet, ni...NO COMPROMISE.

This issue could lead to taking back the US Senate...by forcing the Senators in red states, who are up for reelection to take stands that are against their consituents desires...it cost Dem's Congress in 1994...and will in 2014, but only if the Party of Stupid isn't struck by Stupid!  Don't listen to just me.  There are people all over the country that this will enrage.

Such political ploys would be unnecessary if the GOP weren’t filled with such weasels. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of these reports, but I have followed Cantor and Ryan for a while now on firearms freedoms and gun rights, and it doesn’t surprise me in the least.

It’s fascinating that the GOP leadership would be willing to sacrifice their careers on the altar of political correctness. And it will cost them their careers. I don’t know how else to say it other than to keep repeating myself. The gun owners who recently waited in lines for three or more hours to pay exorbitant prices for guns were not repeat buyers (long time gun owners like me already had most of the firearms we wanted and so we are purchasing ammunition now). They were first time buyers.

I’ve watched them at the ranges. I have overheard their conversations, I have watched them at the gun stores and gun shows. I have heard their relatively ignorant questions (not ignorant because they’re stupid, but because they’re in the process of learning). They are not us. We already have guns. These are new gun owners. The polls they are trotting out to show the number of gun owners decreasing are all lies.

I don’t know whether the questions aren’t being honestly answered or what other source there could be for the error. But the polls are in error. Don’t believe them. And as for older gun owners like me, and even the newer gun owners like I have monitored for the past half year, we have made it clear with our voices and wallets. No new gun laws. None. Period. Not one more inch. Not one.

I've been saying for a while that it's time to either get rid of the leadership of the GOP in Congress.  They've gone along to get along for so long, they don't know how to do anything else.  They've sold their principles for invitations to be on the "A" list for party invitations inside the beltway...forgetting that the Republican Party used to have ideas...ideas like small government...staunch support of America's right to defend itself from government tyranny...balancing the budget...

Principles are important...until you throw them out the window.  When you do that, you can forget why you were sent to Congress.  The GOP leadership has forgotten what they stand for.  It's time to either get rid of them, or get rid of the party they putatively represent and find new leaders who WILL stand for their principles.

GOP Tax Proposals...

As a "grass roots" type (blogger w/a very small readership)  I think that it's time for us Tea Party types to propose some new taxes...as well as support an end to ALL loopholes and subsidies.  Here are a few ideas:

1. End the Hollywood Tax Exemptions
2. End all subsidies (ethanol, agricultural, "green", whatever).  The federal government shouldn't be supporting any business sector for any reason.  If they can't make a business plan that works, then they should fail.
3. Place severe limits on tax-exempt organizations to hoard funds. Congress should require them to spend at least 10 percent of their endowment each year, or better yet, eliminate NGO's tax exempt status that aren't religious based groups.
4. Place sharp limits on the charitable deductions. Allow no more than a $50 million lifetime limit; better yet, place a $1 million to $5 million annual limit.
5. Limiting the pay of nonprofit leaders (including university presidents and foundation heads) to no more than the pay of a member of Congress or a Supreme Court justice.
6. Cap the mortgage interest deduction so houses worth more than $250,000 are ineligible.  OR limit the deduction amount to $250,000, and anything above that would be taxed.
7. End deductibility of state and local property and income taxes.
8. Eliminate all loopholes in the current income tas structure by passing a flat income tax...with the only exemption being poverty...
9. AND, and a 50% surtax on all former federal employees (no matter what agency/government branch they worked for). [ht instapundit]

By passing these tax proposals, it would literally put a stick in the eye of Democrats everywhere. Those hardest hit would be in those high spending blue states.  They would no longer get the benefit of being refunded by the Federal Gov't their state and local taxes.  That would have the added benefit of giving the Fed Gov't a "bonus" in the form of about $40-50 billion per anum in "extra" taxes.

Furthermore, most of these taxes would end many of the subsidies upon which the Democratic party depends.  By forcing people in blus states to pay more in taxes (by eliminating that deduction for state/local taxes) it would in effect, put  a large crush on those states to spend less...as thier taxes bases wouldn't have less money to spend...

As a conservative leanding individual, I have opposed subsidies to any business.  Basically, I'm fundamentally opposed to government supports of business.  Either a company can survive on it's own merits...or it will fail, leaving room for others to step in with better plans.  I  also oppose subisdies for agriculture.  Why in G-d's name are we paying/forcing farmers to either NOT grow food, or to turn food into fuel.  That makes no sense at all.

By passing a "flat income tax", and eliminating all the current loopholes of the warped, cracking system, the GOP can show just how hypocritical Democrats and the Democratic party is.

In closing, with the "fiscal cliff" looming, the GOP leadership, if they don't sell out the country by submitting stupidly, has the opportunity to literally turn the entire equation around and place the Democrats in the position of trying to cover their asses...

Hollywood...Are They ALL Liberals? No!

Here's a list of 30 people who work/ed in the entertainment "industry". Some of the names surprised me:
1. Stephen Baldwin
2. Jessica Simpson
3. Britney Spears
4. Tony Danza
5. Clint Eastwood
6. Sarah Michelle Gellar
7. Mel Gibson
  8. Kelsey Grammer
9. Drew Carey
10. Matthew McConaughey
11. Freddie Prinze Jr.
12. Heather Locklear
13. Arnold Schwarzenegger
14. 50 Cent 15. Bruce Willis
16. Adam Sandler
17. Sylvester Stallone
18. Vince Vaughn
19. Tom Selleck
20. Alex Trebek
21. Angie Harmon
22. Elisabeth Hasselbeck
23. Joan Rivers
24. Donald Trump
25. Chuck Norris
26. Ted Nugent
27. Marie Osmond
28. Gary Sinise
29. Shannen Doherty
30. Alice Cooper

Like I said some names here are surprising, some aren't...

Hat tip to the blogFather

And So It Begins...

Over the next few months we can expect all of the MSM to palinize Paul Ryan as a horrible racist and mysoginist.  It's started yesterday and you can expect it to build into a crescendo over the next month.

It's Not My Fault, I didn't Do It: Or...it's all Bush's fault dammit

via Ed Driscoll:

The President says, “most people would acknowledge that I’ve tried real hard”.
—The same President that for nearly four years has blamed his own trackless failures and protracted ineffectiveness on his predecessor, President Bush, when for his first two years in office his party had majorities and control of both the House and the Senate as well as the White House.
When that started to wear thin, he blamed a “particularly harsh Winter”.
When it wasn’t the snow anymore, he then blamed the Arab Spring, the uprisings in Egypt and the shortages of oil from Libya to Europe.

Then we were led to believe that his economic recovery plans of hundreds of billions in deficit spending could not withstand the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Tsunami in Japan, floods in the mid-west, and finally an earthquake and a tropical storm both within a week.

The President tells us that the villains are mother nature, big oil, wall street, corporations, the bankers, the insurance industry, the coal miners, the millionaires and billionaires, congress, global warming, and the Texas wild fires.

How are we are going to get back on track with an administration whose policies work contrary to an expanding private sector from which all of our prosperity comes —the creators of real sustaining jobs within organizations that have essential private risk taking and recourse to keep them going concerns with recurring and regular payrolls.
Dump this creed of redistributive wealth by government ration including a Secretary of Agriculture who sees his primary job as increasing participants in the SNAP Food Stamp program that now number 46 million Americans and is now spending $20 million in an advertising campaign seeking even more participants.

Dump this administration that believes in the folly of telling Americans that the collective will well provide for their individual healthcare.

Dump this administration that sees the federal government on a street corner handing out a $1,000 a second and thinks the line will someday get shorter, instead of bringing restraints on federal appropriations that are clearly unsustainable with a public debt nearing $16 trillion, that is now more than GDP, and 40 cents of every dollar spent by government today is borrowed.

There shall be consequences to this President’s legacy of multiple trillions of deficit spending —more than any other administration of government in the history of the world.
How easy it is to govern when you just spend, spend, spend, spend, spend without restraint, instead of rising to the occasion, taking responsibility and making hard decisions like the rest of us outside of Washington are having to do during these hard times —and we’re told, “I’ve tried real hard”.

At what ?

Just last week at a high school in Durham, New Hampshire this President told an audience of high school students,

“You can decide that instead of restricting access to birth control or defunding Planned Parenthood, we should make sure that in this country, women control their own health care choices. That’s up to you”.

—equating the failure of public funding of contraceptive birth controls and abortions the same as restricting access to the same.

Again, this is a President who chooses the venue of a high school to say all this.
This is the same President who rewards Sandra Fluke and her outspoken college behavior at Georgetown University with a telephone call from the White House last March.

At every opportunity this President repeatedly tells our young people at commencement how our Constitution is a “fundamentally flawed document” as he seeks to disassociate our young from the founding fathers of our republic and inculcates a huge false sense of entitlement in our young with his own revisionist account of American history.
Just what message is this to our young people from the President of the United States, and just what business does he have in doing this at all ?

This, together with seeking more and more on food stamps shows us that what you’ve tried so real hard at is to further the demoralization and debasement of American society.
I conclude the “fundamental change” of this collectivist President is a willful and deliberate attempt to separate our young people from their own parents, grandparents and any religious instruction, disassociate them from America’s founding and its noble history, and to undermine and destroy our American culture altogether with this spineless rhetoric of impotence and mendacity.

It is this depravity, degeneracy, and decadence of a secular creed that simply must be defeated.

This man, due to the victim blanket of the Progressive Liberal Left, has never, ever had to take responsibility for any damn thing in his life.  He has gone to great lengths to deny his culpability for what we are undergoing.  What ever happened to the Democratic Party of Harry "The Buck Stops Here" Truman?

Ryan Open To VP; DOES NOT RULE OUT DRAFT

Congressman Paul Ryan in the video below says he's open to selection as VP...but far more importantly, doesn't rule out having the GOP convention draft him as the presidential candidate of the Republican Party. 



While it hasn't been done in recent memory, it was the norm when there was no front runner. There would be vote after vote...when, often suddenly, a "dark horse" candidate would be proposed...and would win! This is the first good news I've heard on the GOP primary-candidate front in quite some time. I'm personally disappointed in pretty much all the candidates this time around. None of them seem to have the character necessary to make the very difficult choices that will have to be made in order to keep our country fiscally solvent.

I mean seriously, does ANYONE think Barack Obama will cut spending to the levels necessary to keep the country from going bankrupt? How about Mitt Romney?   Romney is the choice opponent of the Obama campaign, that alone is enough to want somone else.  Newt Gingrich?   Newt has enough baggage to sink him in the general.  Rick Santorum?   Rick is a "big government" Republican...and that makes him very much part of the problem, and certainly not part of the solution.  I won't even mention Ron Paul, who's supporters are mostly first class lunatics.

So, here's hoping that the Republican party goes into it's convention without a clear leader in the delegate count...so that the convention will have to choose someone else.

The Billion Dollar Campaign: Obama's Hypocrisy In Action

While I'm not a supporter of the RNC, I believe that and the big government GOP elites are part of the problem, they CAN come up with a good video now and again.

Ronald Reagan On Being A Republican

What the tea party needs to do is read the history of the 1840's and 1850's.  The Whig party leadership got to the point where they believed they knew better than their base how to run not just their party, but the country.  Eventually, the political base of the party became disenchanted  with their leadership and began to flee the party.

By the early 1850's, the Whigs disintigrated as a coherent political force.  From those ashes rose the Republican Party...fast forward to 2010...

The GOP leadership made unrealistic promises to conservatives that if they were given control of Congress, they would reduce spending, repeal ObamaCare and roll back the regulatory brick walls that Democrats had raised against investment and business expansion.  Following the election, Congressional Republicans deliver "reductions in 'future spending'"...and nothing else.

The base, the Tea Party movement has been casting around for a leader...but instead found hundreds and thousands...because "all politics is local"...it's time for conservatives to realize that the GOP is both moribund and morally bankrupt.  They will do none of those things that are planks to the party, except to enrich themselves and their cronies...just as Democrats are doing.  The party Establishment will do everything in it's power to maintain their hold on the party...so...we must toss them out like dirty water...

...and start fresh.  The Tea Party has been played for a fool by the Estalishment of the GOP.  Republican "leaders' will pay lipservice to the ideals that the GOP stands for, but will continue to "go along to get along".

If we can complete the process started 2 years ago, in 2014, The Tea Party can present an entire slate of candidates who are uncorrupted by the current Republican Party Establishment, and in fact, shunt the GOP aside, and take it's place to make the very difficult decisions that are necessary to place this country back on a sound fiscal stance.

Ron Paul Won't Rule Out 3rd Party Run

Texas Congressman Ron Paul won't rule out third party run. If he does so, he will ensure an Obama second term...which would be disasterous for the country.

President Obama Is Doomed....BUT,

There's a terrific article in Forbes today by John Tamny.  His premise is that Mr. Obama will be a one term president, but only if the GOP candidates can figure out why.  He argues that having a soft dollar will doom Obama because he's not done anything to defend the currency.  Mr. Tamny make many valid assertions, at leas in my opinion.  BUT, yes, that horrible word, Mr. Tamny doesn't take into account the following, which I added to the comments:

The One Big Thing you miss is presuming the GOP candidates are smart enough to catch on. After all, the leadership of the GOP in congress promised real spending cuts...and delivered "cuts in future spending." As if that means anything (since no Congress can restrict what a future Congress can do...without a Constitutional amendment.).

 

That being said, the media anointed "front runner," Mitt Romney is Obama "Light"...see RomneyCare, the blueprint for ObamaCare (not that I object of Massachusetts having a state mandated health care system...that's covered by the 10th Amendment). Rick Perry is faltering, and I don't really think that he has what it takes to puts things back on track. Herman Cain, has a clue, but I'm not certain he has the political experience to get things done either.

 

Soooo...never under estimate the ability of the GOP to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The real problem with the GOP currently is that it's current leadership, has "gone along to get along" for so long, that they just don't know anything else. They've compromised (i.e. sold out to) with the Democratic Party on every item that's been passed through Congress over the past 50 years. I don't think they have what it takes to...right the vessel of state.

 

Congress if they really wanted to could pass a genuine austerity budget, and derail the Obama attempt at growing government by fiat and through the regulatory agencies (EPA, alphabet soup offices) by simply NOT FUNDING THEM...they can't pass new growth chocking regulation if they have no funds.

 

The GOP needs to pass a budget, a real budget and send it to the Senate and watch the Democratically controlled Senate, choke on it. 23 Democratic Senators are up for reelection...let them explain to their constituents WHY THEY VOTED AGAINST A BUDGET THAT WOULD MOVE THE COUNTRY FORWARD...unfortunately, Mr. Boehner doesn't have the courage, or character to do this...and the country will continue to suffer because both parties are playing politics.

If we could actually get the GOP in Congress to actually deliver on what they promised BEFORE the election of 2010, when the country gave them a majority  in the House of Representatives, and near parity in the Senate. 

• Vote to repeal ObamaCare...and send it to the Democratically controlled Senate so they can choke on it.
• Vote on a budget that either cuts funding altogether, or severely reduces funding on the alphabet soup regulatory agencies...as well as those useless cabinet level departments that simply waste money and provide employment to bureaucrats...and send it to the Democratically controlled Senate so those 23 Dem Senators would have to explain to their constituents WHY THEY VOTED AGAINST reducing the size and scope of government.
• Live up to the promises you gave in 2010...
• Pass a balanced budget amendment and send it to the states.
• Really screw the Senate and pass and send to the States an amendment repealing the 17th Amendment (direct election of Senators, instead of them being selected by the various state legislatures, and immediately remove a huge crutch of federalism)

If they GOP would do this...the Democrats would be painted into a corner they can't get out of...just looking at the meltdown in Europe and pounding home the simple lesson that what is happening there will happen here within 5 years if we don't do something NOW...would give us super majority in both houses of Congress as well as a president with a mandate to commit America to real change...change that would guarantee a return to prosperity for at least 20 years.

  

GOP: How Not To Choose A Candidate....

Over on PajamasMedia there's a terrific post by Adam Graham on how the GOP SHOULDN'T chooes their candidate for the presidency of the US in 2012.  Here are the first few paragraphs.  Undecided

and loosely committed conservative voters face a tough decision on whom to support in 2012. How should they make their decisions? Pundits and activists offer plenty of advice for voters, but several factors are not worth considering:


Electability
While we should consider a candidate’s experience, record, and ability to communicate with voters, for many pundits and party leaders, this isn’t what electability means. It’s an alias for conventional wisdom.

Pundits and politicians make false assumptions like: a conservative can’t win the election. Also, “bird in the bush” theories propose that if the party jettisons social conservatives, then a large pool of voters would embrace the Republican Party. No proof is ever offered that this large pool of voters exists anywhere but in the minds of pundits. In the case of the abortion issue, the actual evidence suggests Republicans enjoy a large advantage because of their position on the issue.

Voters are far more concerned about the condition of the country than the factors “electability” experts trumpet. Republicans should nominate a candidate who will put their best foot forward in representing the party. Unsubstantiated electability claims should be dismissed.

Identity Politics
There are good reasons to back Herman Cain. One bad reason is often cited by activists: in nominating Herman Cain, the GOP would neutralize the race card and gain a significant portion of the black vote. Andrew Breitbart doubled down and called for a ticket of Herman Cain and freshman Congressman Allen West (R-FL)
It is doubtful this tactic will provide lasting gains. Black conservatives are attacked as race traitors. Justice Clarence Thomas was once forced to withdraw from a school event in a predominantly black district due to threats of a protest. The GOP in recent years had a black House Caucus chairman, a black RNC chairman, and elected two black congressmen from the former Confederacy.
In addition, the party has nominated several blacks for the U.S. Senate, governorships, and seats in the House. It has done little good in advancing the GOP cause in the African American community. This is clearly not enough to win over the black vote.
Those who advocate a Cain candidacy on racial grounds are right that the GOP needs to increase its share of the black vote. However, they’re trying to take a shortcut. The Democrats dominate the black vote because they’ve politically organized in the black community. Republicans must do the same. It will take time, money, and effort to reach out. There is no easy way to victory.
Similarly, nominating a female candidate will not give the GOP any edge among women. To the contrary, women rate Sarah Palin more unfavorably than men.
The GOP should nominate the best candidate regardless of race or gender. Basing nominations on identity politics thinking it will gain brownie points has been proven to be baseless.

Forget Veep Madness
In addition to Breitbart’s Cain-West dynamic duo, N.M. Guariglia has called for Congressman West to spice up a Mitt Romney candidacy. In light of the 2008 campaign, these calls for West and other rising politicos, such as Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) or Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI), to be placed in the veep spot seem ill-advised at best.
While Sarah Palin’s addition to the ticket brought excitement to an uninspiring McCain campaign, it has done great harm to Sarah Palin’s brand. Had Palin not been tapped, she likely would have served out her first term as governor of Alaska and won a second. If she were running for president right now under those circumstances, she would be seen as a dark horse candidate in the midst of a gradual process of introducing herself to America. She would be talking to local media in early primary states, any national interviews would be on a cordial basis, and tea party conservatives would be warming to her campaign.
Instead, if Palin runs, it’ll be as a battle-scarred, media wars veteran driven from office by Democrats who abused the ethics process to financially ruin her. Palin’s problems began during the campaign because she was not in charge of what interviews she gave or how she was presented to the American people.
While Palin energized the campaign, she overpowered rather than complimented the McCain candidacy. The lesson is clear: If the Republicans nominate a candidate in need of a veep who will energize the party, they have chosen the wrong person.
Rather than taking the chance of sacrificing promising leaders as the vice presidential candidate for a lackluster principal, conservatives should support a strong nominee and hope for a veep who is conservative, credible, and relatively quiet.

READ THE WHOLE DAMN THING.  If you know someone in  a "leadership" position within the party, please, please, PLEASE force them (at gunpoint if necessary) to read this!

Hat Tip Instapundit

Boehner Sells Out (again...)

Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-OH) has indicated that he will raise the debt ceiling.  In doing so, he will be flying in the face of what he promised last year, substantive, substantial cuts in the both the federal budget, but the huge deficit as well.  Bloomberg is reporting that,

House Speaker John Boehner said “it’s clear” the U.S. must raise its debt limit, responding to President Barack Obama’s efforts to secure backing to extend the government’s borrowing authority.


“At some point it’s clear to me that we have to increase the debt ceiling,” Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said yesterday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “And as we do, we’re going to do it in a way that addresses America’s long-term fiscal challenges.”

Yet again, proving that the GOP leadership in Congress are "going along to get along."  They, the GOP leadership are part of the problem and not part of the solution. This goes along with the betrayal when we were promised that there would $100 billion dollars cuts immediately...what we got was $38 billion, and that was hailed a a huge cut...until you consider that this years deficit tops $1,700,000,000,000.00...  That comes to less than .38% cut.  Nothing, not even a drop in the bucket.

Now, we're being told that we must permit this spendthrift president to continue taking the country down the road to financial ruin, and the GOP will just help him along. 

We've been told that if the Chinese, who hold huge amounts of US Treasury bonds were to reduce their holdings, that would be catastrophic to the US economy.  Guess what...the Chinese have, for the 5th straight month, reduced  their holdings of US Treasury bonds.

China, the biggest buyer of U.S. securities, trimmed its holdings for a fifth straight month.  The Treasury Department said Monday that China cut its holdings by $9.2 billion to $1.14 trillion.

Instead of cutting the deficit, we're gettinng Kabuki Theatre...just going along to get along.  Mr. Boehner, you were given a majority in the House of Representatives to substantially cut spending.  Paul Ryan (R-WI) has given you a plan to do so...so dammit, start working on real substantive cuts NOW!  We can't afford not to.

Mr. Boehner, if you don't follow up your words of last year, next year will so the GOP thrown out of office in records numbers.  Just as the Democrats were turned out wholesale.

GOP Debate Focus Group

Here's a short video of the Luntz focus group after the GOP South Carolina debate...interesting take on Herman Cain.

The Great 2011 Debate

By

J P Bender



So the first 2012 presidential GOP debate is now history – and nobody other than the Fox News Network were dupes to cover this charade. It is a darn shame that the Republican Party has lost its way and given us such a sorry lot to select from in the 2012 primary. As for me…it is “Boot Newt”, “Dump Trump” and “Make Hominy out of Romney”. Most of the rest are lightweights and just more of the same. I might be able to support someone like Gov. Daniels, of Indiana, if he had someone like Sen. John Thune on the ticket as VP. Oh for an independent candidate who has the qualities and character of Ronald Reagan or Harry Truman? God knows our country needs someone like that to lead us out of the mess the clowns in both parties have gotten us into.

SOTU: The Tea Party Response

By

Michelle Bachman

Congresswoman

Minnesota 6th District

Good evening, my name is Congresswoman Michele Bachmann from Minnesota's 6th District.
Two years ago, when Barack Obama became our President, unemployment was 7.8 percent and our national debt stood at what seemed like a staggering $10.6 trillion dollars.

We wondered whether the President would cut spending, reduce the deficit and implement real job-creating policies.

Unfortunately, the President's strategy for recovery was to spend a trillion dollars on a failed stimulus program, fueled by borrowed money.

The White House promised us that all the spending would keep unemployment under 8 percent.

Not only did that plan fail to deliver, but within three months the national jobless rate spiked to 9.4 percent. And sadly, it hasn't been lower for 20 straight months. While the government grew, we lost more than 2 million jobs.

Let me show you a chart.

Here are unemployment rates over the past ten years. In October 2001, our....national unemployment rate was at 5.3 percent. In 2008 it was at 6.6 percent. But, just eight months after President Obama promised lower unemployment, that rate spiked to a staggering 10.1 percent.
Today, unemployment is at 9.4 percent with about 400,000 new claims every week.

After the $700 billion bailout, the trillion-dollar stimulus, and the $410 billion spending bill with over 9,000 earmarks, many of you implored Washington to please stop spending money we don't have.

But, instead of cutting, we saw an unprecedented explosion of government spending and debt, unlike anything we have seen in the history of our country.

Deficits were unacceptably high under President Bush, but they exploded under President Obama's direction, growing the national debt by an astounding $3.1 trillion-dollars.

What did we buy?

Instead of a leaner, smarter government, we bought a bureaucracy that tells us which light bulbs to buy, and which will put 16,500 IRS agents in charge of policing President Obama's healthcare bill.

ObamaCare mandates and penalties will force many job creators to stop offering health insurance altogether, unless yours is one of the more-than-222 privileged companies or unions that has received a government waiver.


In the end, unless we fully repeal ObamaCare, a nation that currently enjoys the world's best healthcare may be forced to rely on government-run coverage that will have a devastating impact on our national debt for generations to come.

For two years President Obama made promises just like the ones we heard him make tonight. Yet still we have high unemployment, devalued housing prices and the cost of gasoline is skyrocketing.

Here are a few suggestions for fixing our economy:

The President could stop the EPA from imposing a job-destroying cap-and-trade system.

The President could support a Balanced Budget Amendment.

The President could agree to an energy policy that increases American energy production and reduces our dependence on foreign oil.

The President could also turn back some of the 132 regulations put in place in the last two years, many of which will cost our economy $100 million or more.

And, the President should repeal ObamaCare and support free market solutions like medical malpractice reform and allow all Americans to buy any healthcare policy they like anywhere in the United States.

We need to start making things again in this country, and we can do that by reducing the tax and regulatory burdens on job creators.

America will have the highest corporate tax rate in the world. Look no further to see why jobs are moving overseas.

But, thanks to you, there's reason to hope that real spending cuts are coming. Last November you went to the polls and voted out big-spending politicians and you put in their place men and women with a commitment to follow the Constitution and cut the size of government.

I believe that we are in the early days of a history-making turn.

Please know how important your calls, visits and letters are to the maintenance of our liberties. Because of you, Congress responded and we are starting to undo the damage that's been done.

We believe in lower taxes, a limited view of government and the exceptionalism of America. And I believe America is the indispensible nation.

Just the creation of this nation was a miracle. Who's to say that we can't see a miracle again?

The perilous battle that was fought in the Pacific, at Iwo Jima, was a battle against all odds, and yet the image of the young G.I.s in the incursion against the Japanese immortalizes their victory. These six young men raising the flag came to symbolize all of America coming together to beat back a totalitarian aggressor.

Our current debt crisis we face today is different, but we still need all of us to pull together. We can do this.
And that's the hope we hold tonight as Americans. We will push forward to reclaim the greatness of our country and to proclaim the liberty upon which we were founded.

And we will do so because we the people will never give up on this great nation.

God bless you, and God bless America.
_______________________


Via LA Times

Back from the dead...

GOP 8 Who Voted Against Emark Ban In US Senate

Here are the GOP 8 who voted against banning earmarks in the US Senate: 

Sens. Thad Cochran (Miss.), Susan Collins (Maine), James Inhofe (Okla.), Dick Lugar (Ind.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Richard Shelby (Ala.) voted against an amendment to food-safety legislation that would have enacted a two-year ban on the spending items. Retiring Sen. George Voinovich (Ohio) and defeated Sen. Bob Bennett (Utah) also voted against it.

Two can't be held accountable for those votes.  But six can be.  I suspect that they will be defeated by Tea Party movement candidates who will rightly point to this vote as to why they are unfit to serve in the US Senate.  The attempt to ban earmarks for the entire Senate failed by a vote of 39-56.  

Mrs. Murkowski of Alaska lost her GOP primary and seems to be winning the write in vote...and is still considered to be a Republican?  She, having flouted the will of her party's voters in the primary, should be tossed out of the GOP in the Senate.  She should lose her seniority and have to start all over again...

Susan Collins of Maine, Thad Cochran (Miss.) and  Richard Shelby (Ala.) aren't up for reelection until 2014...I guess she hopes  that her state doesn't have a long memory.   James Inhofe (Okla.) and Dick Lugar (Ind.) are up for reelection in 2012, of course, there's Murkowski who, if she wins this time around will be back up for reelection 2016, which time I hope the state of Alaska kicks her corrupt ass out of office.