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POPS Advance To The Rear!
(Well, in fairness, even if the president did declare back in 2008 this war was a vital national security interest, and he did signal last spring he was on board with counterinsurgency, and even if he did appoint Gen. Stanley McChrystal to get the job done in May, the general’s recommendations only arrived in August, and the president didn’t look at them until, what, late September, and he’s been really busy this whole time letting Congress bollix his health-care initiative, throwing Eastern Europe under the bus and flying to Copenhagen, that kind of thing, so he’s only been able to squeeze in seven high-level national security meetings, or is it eight? Is it so unreasonable to ask for new options on top of the new options that he asked for on top of the new options that McChrystal gave him? Meanwhile, China’s ass wants kissing and then we’re into the holidays … ) OK, I get that the political piece is vitally important, and for Eikenberry, up to his armpits in scheming
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POPSThe Ruling Elite Not having government run health care gives these people even more reason to get re-elected. Leave no incumbent in office.
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POPSJim DeMint Proposes Term Limits For Congress Rarely, he gets voted out--and Senator DeMint points out that 90% of all incumbents who seek re-election, win re-election. Tom Coburn offers greater detail on why incumbents win re-election 90% of the time: The power of incumbency has created an almost insurmountable advantage for Washington politicians. Incumbency allows politicians to raise millions of dollars in campaign funds in exchange for earmarks. Incumbency gives Congress the power to raise money for itself " Congress just approved itself an increase of nearly $250 million from the U.S. Treasury that members will spend to promote themselves. Senator Coburn also points out that with redistricting (except for the unlucky Representative who gets drawn out of the House if his State loses one or more seats), a Representative, having good connections with his State legislature, can "choose his voters." The effect of this amendment would be very simple. Senators would be limited to two terms or fifteen years ....
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POPSObamaCare: A Bad Deal for Young Adults Massachusetts benefits from another type of subsidy that props up its regime of mandates and price controls: large subsidies from the federal government. In contrast, the United States as a whole has no external party it can exploit to subsidize a nationwide Massachusetts-style health care overhaul"unless Congress finances that overhaul through additional deficit spending, which is really just another way of taxing the young to subsidize the old. by Aaron Yelowitz Aaron Yelowitz is an associate professor of economics at the University of Kentucky and an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. This paper is based on a lecture delivered to the Undergraduate Economics Society at the University of Kentucky on October 1, 2009.
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POPSShut Up or We'll Shut You Down No longer able to sit idly by while the President and his chief minion in the House amateurishly try to revamp one-sixth of the U.S. economy, the health insurance industry released a study they commissioned that analyzes the costs of the Obama-Pelosi plan. The results are quite sobering. The study shows that "between 2010 and 2019 the cumulative increases in the cost of a typical family policy under this reform proposal will be approximately $20,700 more than it would be under the current system." (Emphasis mine.)
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POPSObama and The Democrats Want You to Know They Had a Good Week During his campaign, in effect, Mr Obama promised to be the constraint: to oversee Congress and guide it with a moderating hand. That was the difference he promised to make. There were always going to be limits to what he could do, but his failure so far even to try has been total. He has let nearly every agenda be set by the Democrats’ left-leaning congressional leadership. This comes in a country in which 40 per cent of voters call themselves conservatives, 36 per cent moderates and 20 per cent liberals. Voters are confused and concerned about the policies coming forward " above all by their mounting cost " but he has made little effort to explain or reassure, let alone influence. He has chosen to act as cheerleader for whatever congressional Democrats cook up. On healthcare, Mr Obama stood aside during months of chaotic haggling in Congress. By the summer, unsurprisingly, voters opposed to reform outnumbered voters in favour " again, above all, expressing worries . . .
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POPSFrom both sides of his mouth!!!!! This latest move by the administration follows a pattern replicated countless times by Obama since assuming the presidency in January: denounce the lawless behavior of his Oval Office predecessor while continuing, even expanding, the reach of unaccountable security agencies that subvert constitutional guarantees barring "unreasonable searches and seizures."
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POPS Washington and the Jobs Market The larger measure of joblessness that includes marginal and part-time workers jumped 0.5% to 17.5%. And the average hours worked in a week stayed the same at 33.0, which means that millions of Americans working part-time will have to become full-time before employers start hiring new workers. If Democrats really want to create jobs and save themselves from a debacle in 2010, their best policy option is to stop creating so much investment uncertainty and additional barriers to business hiring. Stop trying to raise business costs by making it easier to unionize via "card check." Stop trying to raise energy costs with a cap-and-tax bill. Stop adding to the deficit and future tax burden with a 12% increase in domestic spending for 2010. Above all, stop trying to ram through Congress on a partisan vote a health-care bill that imposes a 5.4-percentage-point income tax "surcharge" on anyone making more than $500,000 a year......
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POPSReport: 237 Millionaires in Congress Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) gained about $9.2 million. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) gained about $3 million, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) had an estimated $2.6 million gain, and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) gained about $2.8 million.
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POPSCoerciveCare Bill Passes House 220-215, Sat Night Mandatory health care insurance reform bill passes House. Socialist Security 2.0. Never mind that half the population opposed this. And the "public option" is not optional--it is now mandated that you must buy health insurance. How is it that the Federal government can force you to buy something? Private property rights are trampled, the government thinks it can tell you to buy something or face jail and/or tax penalties. This also then means every American's private and personal health information will be put into a data-base system, the end of privacy. Your health care, and body, will belong to the Collectivist Society now and the Government , which will no doubt link this to your National ID Card (REAL ID and PASS ID system) --increasing the Electronic Leash on "free" Americans.
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POPSGOP prefers teabagging over governing Oh, this is just too freakin' funny! Priceless, really. :-D I love the comments, too! Especially the one from "Dorn 76" - November 6, 2009 1:49 PM "The day HCR finally comes up for a vote we'll just tell these idiots some teabaggers and Fox News cameras are outside making a ruckus."
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POPSReport: 237 millionaires in Congress
Senators’ estimated median reportable worth sunk to about $1.79 million from $2.27 million in 2007. The House’s median income was significantly lower and also sank, bottoming out at $622,254 from $724,258 in 2007. But CRP’s analysis suggests that some lawmakers did well for themselves between 2007 and 2008, even as many Americans lost jobs and saw their savings and their home values plummet. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) gained about $9.2 million. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) gained about $3 million, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) had an estimated $2.6 million gain, and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) gained about $2.8 million. Some lawmakers have profited from investments in companies that have received federal bailouts; dozens of lawmakers are invested in Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. Vice President Joe Biden has often tagged himself as an original blue collar man. The CRP backs him up, putting his net worth at just $27,000.
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POPSEnumerated Powers Act: Interview with Walter E. Williams who has introduced it every Congress since 1995, it does not allow them to get away with the Commerce Clause and the General Welfare Clause. They have to specifically point in the Constitution where they get the authority. And as a matter of fact the reason the Enumerated Powers Act’s maximum number of co-sponsors in the House has been 31, or it could be a bit higher than that (and it has never had a co-sponsor in the Senate until this year) is that the Congressmen can read the writing on the wall. If Congress were forced to obey the United States Constitution, then I would say that two-thirds to three-quarters of all the spending Congress does would be found to be unconstitutional. ALL RIGHT MAGAZINE: You’re probably right about that. Article 1, Section 8 has a very short list of things government is able to do according to the word of the law. WALTER E. WILLIAMS: That’s right, and if you read the Founders’ statements, they say that Congress can only do those things....
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POPSWill The Left Do a Kamikazi on Obamacare? Mob-O-Care is still the big banana. The Democrats can still carry it over the top and then take their losses in elections to come with the faith that no Republican Congress will dare to infuriate all the Victim Groups of the Left by repealing free medical care for forty percent of the population. Or whatever they settle on. Remember that the actual dollar figures have never been believable, and Medicare and Social Security are operating as accounting fictions even now. So this has all been media drivel from top to bottom. All they have to do is pass a shell of a bill, set up the bureaucracies, and expand them in future Democrat-dominated Congresses.
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POPS Uncle Sam’s Collections Continue Their Steep Drop It is ironic to say the least that Congress and the Obama administration are glorifying the idea of a “public option” that would ultimately lead to government-run health care while Treasury receipts continue to shrink. If the private health insurance market disappears, so will its taxes. To name just one example, Aetna’s recorded income tax expense on its financial statements for 2005-2008 (including state and local taxes) averaged roughly $900 million per year. Put the company’s health insurance segment out of business, and a large portion of those taxes would stop coming in, digging the country’s and various states’ debt holes that much deeper. The establishment press has paid very little attention to fiscal 2009’s drop of 19.5% in receipts from economic activity, so I expect similar treatment of October’s continuation of the trend. It would appear that they don’t want any unsettling news getting in the way of the statist agenda.
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POPSMark Levin (Rally Video)It’s On and IT’S MASSIVE– “Kill the Bill Rally” In DC! … As a crowd of protesters shouted “kill the bill,” House Republicans on Thursday rallied opposition against the Democrats’ health care legislation, decrying the bill on the steps of Congress in a last-ditch bid to derail or at least delay the legislation heading toward a possible vote Saturday. Thousands of protesters arrived by bus for the rally, which the GOP is calling an emergency “House Call.” The event drew the conservative “tea party” activists but unlike past rallies was officially sanctioned by House Republicans. Republicans want those who attend to track down their elected representatives in Congress and put pressure on them to think twice about voting for the more than $1 trillion health care overhaul pushed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “They’re going to listen,” said Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., who originally called for the rally. “The biggest voice in the United States is your voice.”
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