Entitlements

Anti-Americanism - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Entitlements - Ethics - GOP - Government - Immigration/Immigrants - Liberals - Progressives - Republicans - Senate - Tennessee - Warner Todd Huston

Senator Corker: 11 Million ‘Citizens’ Are ‘in the Shadows’ Today

June 26, 2013 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

During further debate of the Senate’s immigration bill on the floor of the Senate in the late afternoon of June 25, Tennessee’s Republican Senator, Bob Corker, claimed that 11 million “citizens” are “in the shadows today” and proclaimed himself “thrilled” to vote for the amnesty bill under discussion.

The Senator is a big supporter of the current amnesty bill and spoke in its favor saying, “We have the opportunity to immediately affect, in a positive way, 11 million citizens who are in the shadows today–in many ways already a part of our society–and can come out and be even more productive for the United States of America. I am thrilled to have that opportunity…”

According to this statement, in Corker’s estimation the 11 million illegal immigrants being talked about in the current debate in the Senate are already “citizens.”

Senator Corker has also been critical of conservative news coverage of the immigration debate saying that reports have been misleading.
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Senator Corker: 11 Million ‘Citizens’ Are ‘in the Shadows’ Today”

Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - Farming - Liberals - President - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

One American Farm Bureau Federation Official’s Trouble With English

June 22, 2013 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Everyone is talking about the bloated, money-wasting farm bill that failed to pass the House last week. But Dale Moore, one interested party, is all about the discussion being the “penultimate”… something or the other.

Moore is the executive director of public policy at the American Farm Bureau and one must hope he got to that exalted position because he knows farming because he certainly doesn’t seem to know anything about the English language.

In a report in the D.C.-based newspaper The Hill, Moore made to add his oh-so-important contribution to the discussion of the failed farm bill.

Moore was talking to the paper about whether or not the GOP can make another stab at passing the bill. Amusingly, the newspaper quoted this dunce verbatim:

“There’s the penultimate question, and candidly I’m not sure” of the answer, Moore said.

What? “Penultimate”?

Mr. Moore, do you even know what the word “penultimate” means? It means “second to last.” But here Moore uses it like it is the word “ultimate.”

Moron.

Dale Moore is typical of the hapless know-nothings we have in D.C. But Mr. Moore’s ill-educated attempt to sound important aside, this whole debate is proof of exactly what is wrong with the fetid swamp we call Washington DC.

A bill goes down in flames? The people stand against it? Votes are impossible to come by? No worries, just figure out how to “salvage” it and pass it anyway in a different form and when no one is watching. No bad idea ever dies in D.C. It just gets passed under a different name.

This monstrosity parading as a farm bill should not just be retooled. It should be thrown in the trash and not revisited.
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One American Farm Bureau Federation Official’s Trouble With English”

Anti-Americanism - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Entitlements - Ethics - GOP - Government - Immigration/Immigrants - Journalism - Marco Rubio - Mexico - Republicans - Warner Todd Huston

National Review Hammers the ‘Gang of Eight’ Immigration Team

June 20, 2013 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a new editorial, the folks at National Review came out strongly against the immigration plan being sponsored by the so-called “gang of eight” Senators, a group that includes Florida Senator Marco Rubio, calling the bill “Rubio’s Folly.”

NR urges Senator Rubio to vote against the bill he has helped craft, disparaging the proposed legislation as, “an amnesty-first, enforcement-maybe program drawn up mainly to reflect the priorities of 11 million citizens of other countries rather than the concerns of more than 300 million citizens of the United States.”

NR goes on to point out that many of the bill’s “security triggers” are little else but “paper tigers” that are undermined before they even fairly begin. For instance, the requirement that prospective new citizens must have a “clean criminal record” is undermined by the fact that they can actually have two misdemeanors and up to two convictions for drunk driving yet still qualify.
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National Review Hammers the ‘Gang of Eight’ Immigration Team”

Barack Obama - Budget - Chicago - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - Government - Illinois - Liberals - Michael Madigan - Pat Quinn - President - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Welfare

Illinois Tops Nation in Growth of Food Stamp Recipients

June 2, 2013 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

President Obama’s home state of Illinois has gained a new distinction: it tops the nation in the growth of the number of its citizens on food stamps.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 15.7 percent of the Land of Lincoln’s population are now enrolled in the food stamp program.

As Joe Schoffstall points out: “The USDA’s latest data shows 2,023,635 Illinoisans were enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in February 2013. In February of 2012, 1,831,898 people took part in the program. That’s an increase of 10.5 percent in just one year.”

Schoffstall further notes that, “Illinois was the only state to see a double-digit increase of the number of residents enrolled in the SNAP program from the same time period last year.”

This should come as no surprise. Illinois consistently ranks in with the bottom worst states in nearly every metric used to measure a successful state.
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Illinois Tops Nation in Growth of Food Stamp Recipients”

Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Entitlements - Ethics - Government - Health - IRS - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - NPR - Obamacare - President - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Propaganda: NPR Incorrectly Claims IRS Has Nothing to do With Obamacare

May 28, 2013 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

During the May 22 broadcast of National Public Radio’s “Talk of the Nation,” host Neil Conan repeatedly contradicted a guest by claiming that the IRS has nothing at all to do with Obamacare. NPR’s Conan is, of course, completely incorrect. The IRS is up to it’s Tea Party harassing neck in Obamacare.

The guest Conan contradicted was Kellyanne Conway, a Republican strategist and pollster. Conway was on to discuss the various scandals in which Obama is mired and close to the end of her segment she questioned how the American people can trust the IRS to implement Obamacare.

Conan initially pressed her on the claim saying that she must have “misspoken.”

“And I think you may have misspoken earlier, Kellyanne Conway, about the IRS and its role in health care,” the host claimed. “It is responsible for collecting the fine if somebody does not get healthcare, it’s not responsible whether somebody gets healthcare or not.”
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Propaganda: NPR Incorrectly Claims IRS Has Nothing to do With Obamacare”

Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - DREAM Act - Entitlements - Ethics - Immigration/Immigrants - Liberals - President - Progressives - Regulation - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

The Gang of Eight Immigration Bill, Explained in One Infographic

May 4, 2013 by

Kelsey Harris The Heritage Foundation

Senators return to Washington next week to debate the Gang of Eight’s comprehensive immigration bill. Heritage President Jim DeMint has said the bill is “unfair, it costs too much, and it’s going to make the problem worse.” We’ve put together an infographic that explains some of the major problems with a “comprehensive” approach to immigration reform.

Andrew Breitbart - Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Money - Pigford - President - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Andrew Was Right: National Review’s Pigford Editorial

May 1, 2013 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

On April 29, one of conservatism’s leading journals, National Review, published a lead editorial on the Pigford scandal not only noting at the outset that Andrew Breitbart was right all along, but that the scandal deserves more attention nationally.

As it wraps up, the NR piece arrives at the logical conclusion that Obama’s expansion of Pigford payouts “resembles in organization and aim a criminal conspiracy of breathtaking proportions, and one in which the federal government was first complicit and then ultimately responsible.”

Just so. But along the way, NR gives readers some delicious outrage over the monumental waste, lies, and abuse of authority that Andrew saw since day one.

NR expresses hope that in the wake of the recent New York Times examination of the criminal actions that is Pigford, maybe more eyes will be brought to the scandal and notes that the truth of Pigford is “worse than was previously thought.”
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Andrew Was Right: National Review’s Pigford Editorial”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - NPR - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Welfare

NPR’s ‘Talk of the Nation’ Promotes Food Stamps

April 29, 2013 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

National Public Radio recently aired a radio program focused on federal food stamps, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). NPR presented the assistance program as seemingly costless–in fact, said it was an economic boon to states–and also acted as both an advocate and salesman for SNAP.

Additionally, NPR couldn’t seem figure out why the program had grown so tremendously even though “the economy has kind of started to improve.” Naturally, the taxpayer funded radio show did not note the millions of Americans that have simply given up looking for work in this second great depression.

The program also faulted Republicans saying they wanted to eliminate food stamps and cause poor people to go hungry

On its April 25 broadcast, National Public Radio’s Talk of the Nation, hosted by Neal Conan, featured a program titled, “Signing Up For Food Stamps: The Choice And The Stigma.” The program was essentially a giant advertisement for people to get on food stamps.
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NPR’s ‘Talk of the Nation’ Promotes Food Stamps”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Lobbyists - President - Progressives - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

The Corruption of Big Spending Democrats

April 20, 2013 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Buried in a recent Politico story is a line that reveals the utter corruption of “money in politics.” But not that of money spent electioneering, but that spent by government from the assumed bottomless pockets of the American taxpayer. It is a corruption that has destroyed the Constitution, laid waste the rule of law, perverted our system, and crushed the American way of life and it must end.

The Politico segment in question is from an April 17 piece talking about the failure of the anti-Second Amendment Democrats of getting their gun-banning bills passed in the Senate. It is a quote from a gun-ban advocacy group decrying that “bribery” doesn’t work in politics like it used to.

“Bribery isn’t what it once was,” said an official with one of the major gun-control groups. “The government has no money. Once upon a time you would throw somebody a post office or a research facility in times like this. Frankly, there’s not a lot of leverage.”

It is a revealing quote.
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The Corruption of Big Spending Democrats”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Entitlements - Ethics - Liberals - President - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Tax Day: Destruction, Yes, Creative, Not Even Close

April 15, 2013 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the concepts of capitalism is that it is “creative destruction,” in that companies will rise and fall as the need for them ebb and flow and that as some fall new ones will rise and this will keep the economy humming along nicely. But government quashes this cycle with oppressive taxes and what better day than Tax Day to remind us all of how this president is doing a lot of destroying but NO creating.

So, as Americans waste $168 billion annually to try and satisfy the Internal Revenue Service, here are a few charts and a video from Heritage Foundation to show how bad it has gotten. Just a reminder on Tax Day…

Obama 2013 Tax Increase Twice as Large as Looming Sequestration.

13 Obama Tax Hikes on the Middle Class in 2013

Where Did Your Tax Dollar Go?

And now a word from the House Republican Conference…

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Tax Day: Destruction, Yes, Creative, Not Even Close”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Constitution - Crony Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - Freedom - Jobs - Liberals - Liberty - Policy - President - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Welfare

Obama’s ‘Poverty Plagued’ America

April 12, 2013 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a stinging indictment of President Obama’s tenure in the White House, at The Daily Beast Stuart Stevens slams President Obama for the devastating “new normal” that his failed economic polices have brought to the country. Stevens also blames the Old Media complex for ignoring the pain inflicted on America by those same failed policies.

Stevens begins his April 9 piece relating the sort of economic facts that the rest of the media conveniently ignore. He points out that even as the administration claims that unemployment is only around 8 percent, so many people have dropped out of the work force that the unemployment stat is but a hollow representation of the true unemployment rate.

He also points out that 16 million Americans have been added to Obama’s food stamp rolls since 2008, “a 46 percent increase and greater than the population of Ohio,” Stevens says. “More than 50 million Americans now live in poverty. That’s one in six Americans, and one in five American children.”

This, Stevens says sharply, is the worst since LBJ was president and it was so bad then that the Texan launched a “war on poverty” to try and cure it.
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Obama’s ‘Poverty Plagued’ America”

Barack Obama - Budget - Children - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Entitlements - Ethics - Freedom - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Liberty - Money - Nanny State - President - Progressives - Regulation - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

VIDEO: What Can Washington Politicians Learn From America’s Moms?

April 2, 2013 by

Bankrupting America asks American mothers what Washington D.C. could do better. Their answers are so filled with common sense, that one wonders how Washington could be so stupid.

Listen to your mothers, Washington!

http://BankruptingAmerica.org

Britain - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Entitlements - Ethics - Liberals - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Welfare

New Gov’t Testing Proves Britain Has at LEAST 900,000 Liars

April 1, 2013 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This story from Britain is hilarious on several levels. It really shows the worst of government waste, helps prove how pernicious government welfare programs are, not to mention that people can’t be trusted.

So, after the British government decided to institute a test to prove that disability applicants really have medical problems that would lead them to need the benefit, 900,000 Brits mysteriously stopped applying for their free government checks.

The new requirements force applicants to have actual, real, medical excuses to apply for the “sickness benefits” and went into force at the end of March. As soon as they had to actually prove they had real medical problems, some 900,000 Brits that were sponging off the system suddenly found they weren’t as sick as they thought… or pretended.
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New Gov’t Testing Proves Britain Has at LEAST 900,000 Liars”

Americans For Prosperity - Budget - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - President - Progressives - Senate - Warner Todd Huston

Washington’s Spending Problem

February 14, 2013 by 1 Comment

Over the past four years, President Obama and Congress have racked up huge spending bills. From the failed stimulus to the President’ new health care law to runaway spending on entitlement programs, Washington has blown through every dollar taxpayers have sent plus trillions more.

Families all over America are tightening their belts.

It’s time Washington did too.

Thankfully, this year Congress is already poised to cut $85 billion from the federal budget. It’s not enough, but it’s a good start. Let’s make sure Congress doesn’t go back on its word and try to undo the much-needed spending cuts.

Join Americans for Prosperity in sending a message to Washington: it’s long past time to get runaway government spending under control.

SIGN TODAY

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Entitlements - Ethics - Government - Liberals - President - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Food Stamps Recipients Increased 11,133 Per Day In Obama’s First Term

January 23, 2013 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One way to mark the legacy of a presidency is to tally statistics and at least one stat is not very flattering for this president: Americans on food stamps have grown by 11,133 every day during his first term.

In 2009, when Obama took office, recipients of SNAP, the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program, stood at 31,939,110 but by the end of his first term the latest tally numbered 47,525,329.

That is a growth of 11,133 per day between January of 2009 and October of 2012.

The Congressional Budget office reports that SNAP enrollment increased 70 percent during that period with the food stamp budget growing by $2.7 billion over fiscal year 2011.
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Food Stamps Recipients Increased 11,133 Per Day In Obama’s First Term”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - President - Regulation - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Cost of Obama’s 2012 Regulations: $236 Billion

January 18, 2013 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Despite Obama’s promise to cut unnecessary regulations, his administration issued $236.7 billion in new regulations in 2012.

According to a report by the American Action Forum, headed by former Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, the direct costs of the regulations force America’s businesses to waste 87 million man-hours to fill out regulatory paperwork.

Adding Obama’s 2012 regulatory costs to that of the rest of his first term adds up to a total of $518 billion in new costs forced onto an already anemic economic recovery.

This onslaught of new regulations comes even after Obama was celebrated for claiming he was going to be the regulation-cutting president.

Indeed, in 2011, Obama released a plan claiming he would cut regulations and reduce the burden on the business sector. Not long after, Obama operative Cass Sunstein praised Obama claiming that his plan would work “to eliminate unjustified regulatory costs and to reduce burdens.” Sunstein went on to say that Obama had done more to cut regulations than any president in recent history.

Sunstein was given one Pinocchio for his misleading claims and for good reason as Obama’s small cuts have been dwarfed by the increases.

American Action Forum says that the costs of regulations have “added tremendous costs to the economy” and finds that the year 2012 tops every year in the past twelve in “terms of final rule cost.”
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Cost of Obama’s 2012 Regulations: $236 Billion”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Liberals - New York - New York City - Progressives - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Welfare

New York: Welfare $$ Used at Strip Clubs, Liquor Stores

January 9, 2013 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It seems as though some New Yorkers on the dole are giving the taxpayers the pole with a new report detailing how welfare recipients are using their state debit cards at strip clubs, X-rated video shops, and liquor stores.

Records of 200 million Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) transactions from January 2011 to July 2012 reveal that the cards were used to withdraw cash at such establishments as “Hank’s Saloon in Brooklyn; the Blue Door Video porn shop in the East Village; The Anchor, a sleek SoHo lounge; the Patriot Saloon in TriBeCa; and Drinks Galore, a liquor distributor in The Bronx.”

As with most states, New York’s food stamp program prevents use of the assistance at liquor stores and cannot be used to purchase liquor, tobacco, and lottery tickets. But there are no such restrictions on the debit cards which can be used at any ATM.

The state legislature has a few bills in the works to correct this oversight, but currently there are no restrictions on where the cash assistance can be spent.
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New York: Welfare $$ Used at Strip Clubs, Liquor Stores”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Government - Liberals - Michigan - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

85,000 Mich. Food Assistance Card Holders Left Without Funds

January 6, 2013 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Michigan officials reported that “human error” was the cause of 85,000 recipients of state food assistance finding no money deposited to their state-issued debit cards on Friday.

Michigan’s Department of Technology, Management & Budget spent all day Friday attempting to correct the “error” and get the state aid credited to the Bridge Card debit cards but could not say for sure when all 85,000 recipients would have access to their allotments.

By late morning, some 40,000 cards had been credited and officials hoped to fill all cards by day’s end, Friday.

“It’s 85,000 card holders and their family members. The average card holder services about four to five folks in their family, roughly about $500 on average, about $540 gets put on to that card each month for them,” spokesman Kurt Weiss told WWJ Newsradio 950

The problem occurred for about one-tenth of the 1.8 million Michiganders on the State’s Bridge Cards.

“Grocers and retailers across the state who are servicing these customers are put in a bad situation because they are, you know, having to turn folks away and that’s certainly not the position we want to put those retailers in and we certainly issued our apologies to those folks as well,” Weiss told WWJ News.
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85,000 Mich. Food Assistance Card Holders Left Without Funds”

Budget - Business - Chuck Busch - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - Government - Liberals - President - Progressives - Taxes

Fiscal Cliff Fallacies

December 16, 2012 by

-By Chuck Busch

The “fiscal cliff” negotiations, although they are hugely consequential, are an over-dramatization of a self-imposed crisis narrowly focused on federal revenue policies. The country wouldn’t have to endure these theatrics in the middle of the holiday season during a lame duck session of congress, if our national leaders had made the hard decisions months ago to curb government spending which is the real crisis. The resumption of the Clinton era tax rate increases was known in well in advance and now, as the protections are about to expire, at least one party is doing what it can to preserve the Bush tax rate cuts.

To heighten the political theater, the whole episode is being portrayed as a cataclysmic event as though an immediate precipitous national financial collapse will occur on New Years Day if there is no resolution of the spending and tax issues. Certainly the country will continue its path of decline, but this occurrence will simply be one more step, not off a “cliff”, but down a very slippery slope to the rocky shore of a runaway inflation, massive unemployment, massive federal debt, and national insecurity where the economy will be continually pounded by fierce waves of unfunded spending, a devalued currency, a popular entitlement mentality, and an expansion of government control.
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Fiscal Cliff Fallacies”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Entitlements - GOP - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Nanny State - President - Progressives - Republicans - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston - Weekly Standard

Weekly Standard’s Kristol Throws Up Hands, GOP Should ‘Acquiesce’ to Obama

December 12, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

William Kristol, Editor of the Weekly Standard, seems to have decided that retreat is the way forward for the Republican Party. In a new editorial that approaches a meltdown, the Fox commentator and consummate Washington insider essentially advised the GOP to just throw in the towel on these fiscal cliff talks and more or less accept Obama’s terms.

In the piece, a dour Kristol detailed all the shock and depression that Republican insiders feel after losing an election they’d all thought was in the bag for team Romney and then went on to complain that the GOP’s legislative scene isn’t any better than its failed electoral scheme.

Even the fact that the Republicans still control the House is cold comfort for Kristol.

Worst of all, Kristol grouses, the GOP has no “proposal for averting the fiscal cliff.”

So, what to do, what to do? Maybe just “acquiesce” to Obama and be done with it?
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Weekly Standard’s Kristol Throws Up Hands, GOP Should ‘Acquiesce’ to Obama”

Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - GOP - House of Representatives - John Boehner - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Nanny State - Newspapers - President - Progressives - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

The Hill: No GOP Opposition to Speaker Boehner’s Turnabout on Tax Hikes

December 8, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a myopic report on the GOP’s half of the Fiscal Cliff debate, The Hill claimed there was no opposition to Republican House Speaker John Boehner’s sudden caving in to President Obama’s demand that tax hikes accompany any solutions to the budget mess.

The Hill reported on December 4 that the GOP was “moving reluctantly toward a debt deal that would increase revenues” and that Speaker Boehner had offered some $800 billion in new taxes in his most recent fiscal cliff proposal.

How could Boehner achieve this flip flopping away from the Party’s until-now stated principles? The Hill says it’s because there aren’t any Republicans opposing the tax hikes.

The lack of immediate backlash within the conference is a key early sign for Boehner, who has made intraparty unity a priority as he seeks the strongest possible hand in negotiations over the “fiscal cliff” with President Obama.

Of course, there could be a reason for this that The Hill doesn’t mention. Boehner is purging all conservatives from his power structure.
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The Hill: No GOP Opposition to Speaker Boehner’s Turnabout on Tax Hikes”

Americans for Tax Reform - Barack Obama - Budget - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Entitlements - Ethics - GOP - Grover Norquist - House of Representatives - John Boehner - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Policy - President - Progressives - Regulation - Republicans - Senate - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Norquist: Obama’s Failed Fiscal Cliff Ideas Like a ‘Seinfeld Episode Where No Learning Takes Place’

December 5, 2012 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Grover Norquist worries that Obama is like a bad episode of Seinfeld and might prove unable to learn from his past mistakes pushing us over the fiscal cliff whether we like it or not.

This is what Norquist, chief of Americans for Tax Reform — evangelist for the no-tax pledge that so many Republicans have signed — said in an intimate conversation today during which he laid out some ideas on how to push this debate back in our direction.

In a call with only a few conservative bloggers, Norquist laid out the problems we are facing and then went into some of the specifics, the ins and outs of negotiations, and laid out one idea that could help better inform Americans on just what the heck is going on in this debate.

The first thing of interest the ATR chief said was that we should avoid a grand budget bargain that settles everything at once. Instead, Norquist argued to continue the process of having repeated continuing resolutions. Over the last several years, instead of having a full budget passed by Congress, the House has been making do with short-term budgets called continuing resolutions (CR). These CRs fund the government for months or even weeks instead of a full fiscal year.

For his part, Norquist felt that we’ve gotten far better deals and advanced the spending cut/tax cut ball much further with the CRs than we ever could with a single, year-long budget. He also noted that the GOP had a huge amount of power by having control over the debt ceiling and would be stupid to allow the president to take that from them as he’s proposed doing.
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Norquist: Obama’s Failed Fiscal Cliff Ideas Like a ‘Seinfeld Episode Where No Learning Takes Place’”

Associated Press - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - President - Progressives - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

AP’s False Claim That ‘Some’ Democrats Open to Entitlement Cuts

December 4, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a November 28 article, the Associated Press tried to give cover to Democrats by insisting that they are somehow divided over cuts in entitlements to help solve the “fiscal cliff” problem. But the truth is, Democrats are united against these cuts, not divided.

In its piece headlined, “It’s Not Just Taxes: Benefit Cuts Divide Democrats,” the AP attempted to demonstrate a “division” that doesn’t exist by citing two Democrats that meekly offered to consider cuts to entitlements.

It’s not just about taxes. There’s another big obstacle to overcome as Congress and President Barack Obama work to skirt the fiscal cliff: deep divisions among Senate Democrats over whether to consider cuts to popular benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

This is flat out absurd. There are no deep divisions among Democrats over cuts to these programs. In fact, just the opposite.

This tall tale goes on to present the weak claims of “considering” cuts to these programs uttered by Senator Max Baucus (D, Montana) and Kent Conrad (D, N.D.). But one, Conrad, is retiring and the other has no support from his fellows — especially Democrat leadership — for the idea.
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AP’s False Claim That ‘Some’ Democrats Open to Entitlement Cuts”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Jobs - John Boehner - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Nanny State - President - Progressives - Republicans - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Obama’s Insulting Fiscal Cliff Proposal Lauded as ‘Strategic Move’

December 3, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

“Insulting.” That is what conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer termed Obama’s “plan” to prevent the federal government from falling over the fiscal cliff. But to the Old Media establishment, Obama’s insulting plan lacking in specifics was a brilliant “strategic move” that will force Republicans to “offer a counter proposal,” despite the fact that, going back to Paul Ryan’s Road Map, the GOP is the only side offering many specifics in this debate thus far.

Before Election Day, President Obama made vague comments about implementing 2.5 dollars in cuts for every dollar of spending increases, but he never really clarified what that meant in real terms, never saying exactly what he would cut. But at least before the election he gave lip service to cuts. This week, though, now that he is safely re-elected, he sent Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to the GOP leadership to offer a plan that had no specifics, no cuts, and huge spending hikes.

Even more idiotic, Obama wants another stimulus of $50 billion!
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Obama’s Insulting Fiscal Cliff Proposal Lauded as ‘Strategic Move’”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - GOP - Government - Jobs - Keynesian - Liberals - Nanny State - President - Progressives - Republicans - Senate - Stimulus - Taxes - Utah - Warner Todd Huston

Sen. Orrin Hatch: Obama Fiscal Proposal ‘Classic Bait and Switch’

December 1, 2012 by

Senator Orrin Hatch (R, Utah) delivered the GOP weekly address and it was a damn good one.

He pulled no punches and laid it out straight that Obama lied when he ran for re-election and perpetrated a “classic bait and switch” maneuver.

Transcript:

“Hi. I’m Senator Orrin Hatch from the great state of Utah.

“The holiday season is upon us: a time when families come together to celebrate and reflect on another year gone by—and another one set to begin.

“But this holiday season is different: as the clock ticks down towards the New Year, nearly every single American is facing the real prospect of what’s called the Fiscal Cliff.

“If we don’t act by the end of the year, 28 million more families and individuals will be forced to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax, 21 times as many farmers and ranchers will be hit with the death tax, and the average middle-class family would see their taxes go up by at least $2,000.

“Economic leaders have told us that if we don’t act, our nation will fall into another painful recession—pushing unemployment back up over 9 percent, threatening our children’s ability to get a good paying job, and putting seniors’ retirements at risk.

“The President has said he wants a so-called balanced approach to solve this crisis. But what he proposed this week was a classic bait and switch on the American people—a tax increase double the size of what he campaigned on, billions of dollars in new stimulus spending and an unlimited, unchecked authority to borrow from the Chinese. Maybe I missed it but I don’t recall him asking for any of that during the presidential campaign. These ideas are so radical that they have already been rejected on a bipartisan basis by Congress.

“Fresh off his reelection, the President has an obligation to first steer us away from the fiscal cliff, and second, to tackle our $16-plus trillion debt, that is driven by our runaway entitlement programs, so our country doesn’t reach this dangerous crossroads ever again.

“But we’ve seen an utter lack of leadership from President Obama, and his allies on the left have shown little—very little—to no willingness to tackle real, structural entitlement reform. There is no manner of tax hike that can save Medicare or Medicaid—these programs can only be fixed with real reforms that go to the heart of how they work.

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Sen. Orrin Hatch: Obama Fiscal Proposal ‘Classic Bait and Switch’”

Associated Press - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Government - Journalism - Media - Nanny State - Progressives - Regulation - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Stupidity: Govt. Says Unemployment Compensation CREATES Jobs!

December 1, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is why no one in government lives in the real world. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said this week that extending unemployment creates jobs Good lord, if these idiots truly believe this garbage, we need to nuke Washington D.C.!

The AP is reporting that the CBO is saying that extending unemployment for another year will “add 300,000 jobs to the economy.”

Naturally, the left-wing idiots we call Democrats think this is all great.
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Stupidity: Govt. Says Unemployment Compensation CREATES Jobs!”

Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - John Boehner - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Nanny State - Newspapers - Policy - President - Progressives - Republicans - Stimulus - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

The Hill: It’s The Spending, Stupid

December 1, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a very business-like manner The Hill published a report that ought to warm the hearts of all fiscally responsible Republicans and, perhaps, give hope that GOP Speaker John Boehner will hold to his pledges on taxes during theses fiscal cliff talks with the White House.

On November 28 The Hill reported that Speaker Boehner (R, OH) quickly shot down the tax balloon floated by Representative Tom Cole (R, OK) who recently proposed that the House go with Obama’s idea of passing an immediate extension of the current tax rates for the middle class.

As The Hill further notes, Boehner and the rest of the GOP House leadership are sticking with their own pledge to make sure any fiscal cliff solutions are tied to spending cuts.
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The Hill: It’s The Spending, Stupid”

Associated Press - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Entitlements - Ethics - Government - Health - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Medicaid - Medicare - Nanny State - Obamacare - President - Progressives - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

AP Touts ‘Non-Partisan’ Study Saying Obamacare Great for States

November 29, 2012 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press has done it again, pushing on readers a “study” by purported “nonpartisan” organizations that aren’t nonpartisan at all. This one claiming that Obamacare is a “good deal for states.”

The AP notes that this “report” by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation and the Urban Institute says that Obamacare is good for the states because it picks up the largest amount of healthcare costs through its Medicaid expansion.

Expanding Medicaid to cover about 20 million more low-income people will cost over $1 trillion nationally from 2013 to 2022, said the joint report from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Urban Institute. But the analysis found that states will pay just $76 billion of that, a combined share of roughly 7 percent. The feds will pay the other $952 billion.

But what of these two groups? Are they really “nonpartisan”?
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AP Touts ‘Non-Partisan’ Study Saying Obamacare Great for States”