-By Warner Todd Huston
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D, CA) lied outright in a recent hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee as she advocated for her anti-Constitutional gun-ban bill when she said that it is “legal to hunt humans” with large capacity ammunition magazines.
This is why Feinstein and all like her are clowns…
These anti-American, anti-Constitutionalists are little else but ignorant fear merchants.
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Sen. Dianne Feinstein Lies in Senate Gun-Ban Hearing”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Rand Paul excited conservatives, libertarians, and even some liberals with his filibuster performance on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday. It was some 13 hours of a discussion on Obama’s desire to use drones to kill Americans here at home. Unfortunately, there were seven Republicans Senators that decided it was a better idea to eat dinner with the odious Obama instead of assisting Rand Paul. Worse, two Republicans actually denounced Paul’s efforts. All these Senators need to be gotten rid of.
Rand Paul used the debate about the nomination of John Brennan as his “in” to begin his filibuster. Obama offered the nomination of Brennan as his next CIA chief and Paul used his turn to speak about Brennan as a launching pad to force Obama and the CIA to agree not to kill Americans with domestic drone strikes without trail, warrant, or arrest.
The excitement from rank and file GOPers hungry for some kind of victory was tremendous. Unfortunately, two foolish GOP Senators actually denounced Rand Paul for his successful and exciting effort.
The bobbsey twins, John McCain (Ariz) and his lapdog Lindsay Graham (So. Car.) actually attacked Paul for his filibuster. John McLame, for instance, called Paul “ridiculous.”
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These GOP Senators Went to Dinner with Obama Instead of Supporting Rand Paul”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Old NBC News hand Tom Brokaw made an appearance on MSNBC’s The Cycle on March 4 and criticized President Obama for campaigning too much instead of governing. Brokaw also castigated Obama for refusing to negotiate with Republicans over the budget impasse and the sequester cuts.
Extremely liberal panel member, Touré, asked Brokaw if the budget impasse was because the GOP is “refusing” to work with Obama because they are “incented” [sic] not to work with him.
Brokaw replied that he didn’t think that Republicans were flat out refusing to work with the President but are negotiating with an eye to the 2014 midterm elections and don’t want to give away too much. Brokaw went on to lament that Obama is doing little else but demonizing the GOP instead of looking for ways to work with them.
Transcript
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Tom Brokaw: Obama Spends Too Much Time Campaigning”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The wide ranging gun ban bill introduced by Senator Diane Feinstein (D, CA) could be voted out of committee and passed on to the full Senate as early as Thursday.
A schedule posted for the upcoming February 28 executive business meeting shows the Senate Judiciary Committee intends to discuss Feinstein’s and three other gun control bills, though the eight Republican members of the committee have the option to push the meeting off for another week.
The Feinstein bill bans up to 160 specifically named firearms but might have an uphill battle in the Senate as even some Democrat Senators have said it goes too far by banning too many firearms.
Less than a month ago Senate Democrat majority leader Harry Reid (D, NV) shied from supporting Feinstein’s bill directly, though he praised her “enthusiasm” for her gun banning bill.
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Assault Weapons Ban Could Get Senate Committee Vote Thursday”
-By Warner Todd Huston
This year the Violence Against Women Act is getting some stronger penalties for stalking, assault, and other crimes. With all these new provisions, one wonders that if this law were around 15 years ago, how it would have hit good old Congressman Bill Foster, a man who is guilty of abusing his wife?
The law, called The Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (S47), would most certainly have sent Foster to jail for a long time. You see the Illinois Democrat has a chequered history of violence against women.
Some of the additions to S47 include,
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Would New Federal Stalking Laws Have Snared Rep. Bill Foster?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Americans for Prosperity has launched a new project for Americans to track their congressmen. The new website is part of an interactive version of AFP’s congressional key vote scorecard, which includes AFP key votes from the past three congresses.
Eighteen House members and one senator rated an A+ conservative rating while twenty-one reps. and one senator rated an F.
The new scorecard can be seen at afpscorecard.org. (A printable version can be seen HERE).
“The AFP Scorecard is an easy way for our activists, the media, and the general public to keep an eye on Washington. Now that the Scorecard is available on an interactive website it will be even easier to keep an eye on Congress,” said AFP Director of Policy James Valvo.
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AFP Congressional Scorecard Released”
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.
-By Warner Todd Huston
I had a few minutes to speak privately to Illinois Congressman Peter Roskam (R, 6th District) about the upcoming State of the Union speech that the President will give tonight and as far as Roskam is concerned the speech tonight will be nothing but a “highly charged and very, very political” speech that won’t contain many actual solutions.
Roskam, the Chief Deputy Whip of the House, said that he hopes that the President will offer ways to grow private sector jobs and a plan to “live within our means,” but he was not sanguine that he will.
“I think the President is going to lapse right into inauguration speech 2.0 and it’s all going to be highly political, and a lot of wedge issues that are not designed to try and get any kind of concessions or solutions on any of these things,” Roskam told me.
“The irony is, he’s got a real opportunity here if he wanted to lead and try and grow the economy but I think he’s just going to follow the old play book.”
Roskam also noted that the President’s Party is also not trying too hard to offer solutions.
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Congressman Roskam Previews Obama’s State of the Union Speech”
-By Warner Todd Huston
A top assistant to Daniel Coronell, Univision’s vice president of news, took to Facebook to attack Senator Marco Rubio (R, FL) after Rubio spokesman Alex Burgos announced that the Senator was going to give the Republican reply to Obama’s upcoming State of the Union Address.
After Burgos announced that Senator Rubio would give the first bi-lingual GOP response top Univision Angelica Artiles called Rubio a “loser.”
“Oh. wow, the loser is going to speak after our President,” Artiles posted to Facebook on Wednesday, February 6. “Anything to get publicity. Ask him to do us a favor and stay home that night,” she poked.
According to Miami Herald blogger Marc Caputo, this anti-Rubio sentiment is the “prevailing political feeling among Univision’s higher ups at its Doral headquarters.”
The Univision employee went on post after post calling Republicans names–like mojoncitos [or “little turds”], riffraff, and losers–and attacking anyone with whom she doesn’t agree.
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Univision Staffer Calls Marco Rubio a ‘Loser’”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Geraldo Rivera recently announced on his radio show that he was considering a run as a Republican for the Senate from the state of New Jersey. But as is Geraldo’s wont, he’s already criticizing the very party whose blessing he seeks.
On Jan. 31, Rivera told his radio audience that he is “truly contemplating” a run for Senate and he wants to represent the Republican Party. But only a day later, on Fox News’ “Studio B With Shepard Smith,” he was heard criticizing the GOP as a “party of scolds” and saying it had better go back to being “the party of inclusion.”
Rivera said that the Republican Party had “drifted away from the party of business, the party of free enterprise,” and into a “party of scolds.” He went on to say the GOP has become, “The party of no, you can’t have an abortion. No, if you’re gay you can’t be married. No, if you’re an immigrant you can’t possibly think you are going to get on line to become a citizen of the United States.”
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Warming to Senate Bid, Geraldo Slams GOP”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh has announced he’s forming a super PAC to fight Karl Rove’s RINO incumbent protection PAC.
I’m filing the paperwork to form a super PAC to support freedom-loving conservative alternatives to @karlrove on FOX
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) February 5, 2013
-By Warner Todd Huston
In December, ABC’s World News saw no news at all in the historic appointment of African American Tim Scott to the Senate in South Carolina. No mention was made of it during the broadcast.
Only a month later, though, the same program suddenly hailed African American William “Mo” Cowan’s appointment to the Senate as history making.
When Republican Tim Scott was appointed to fill retiring Senator Jim DeMint’s Senate seat he became the first African American from South Carolina to be sent to the Senate since 1881. Further, when he took his seat he was the only black Senator from either party in Washington D.C. But despite all these notable historic facts, ABC’s World News never mentioned Scott’s appointment.
However, this month when the Governor of Massachusetts appointed African American, Democrat Mo Cowan to finish out John Kerry’s term, ABC suddenly found it to be a moment worthy of coverage.
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ABC Ignores Tim Scott’s Senate Appointment in Dec., By Jan. Hails Mo Cowan’s as ‘History’”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera announced on his radio show that he is “truly contemplating” a Republican run for the Senate in New Jersey.
“I mention this only briefly, fasten your seatbelt,” Rivera said on his Thursday’s broadcast. “I mentioned this only briefly to my wife … but I am and I’ve been in touch with some people in the Republican Party in New Jersey. I am truly contemplating running for Senate against Frank Lautenberg or Cory Booker.”
New Jersey Senator, Democrat Frank Lautenberg, 89, comes up for re-election in the coming 2014 midterms but has yet to say if he’ll run again.
During his show, Geraldo spoke to his Fox News commitments.
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Report: Geraldo Rivera Exploring a New Jersey Senate Bid?”
-By Earner Todd Huston
Karl Rove has declared war on conservatives. With his new Super PAC, he is targeting not Democrats, he is not trying to raise money for good candidates, no he is raising money to defeat conservatives who might have the temerity to make a run for office in 2014.
Karl Rove has identified the enemy… and he is us!
It should be remembered that everything Rove did in the late presidential election misfired terribly. He spent millions of those gullible enough to donate to his efforts, then he went on Fox News and insisted Romney would win despite the evidence mounting by the minute on election night that we were trounced.
Rove is not part of the solution. He is part of the hide-bound, country club Republican, RINO, problem.
The Senate Conservative Fund has issued a statement which perfectly encapsulates what our message to this loser should be.
The Senate Conservatives Fund issued the following statement today regarding news that American Crossroads has formed a new super PAC comically named the “Conservative Victory Project” to oppose conservative candidates in GOP primary elections. The new super PAC is supported by Karl Rove and will be run by Steven Law, the former Chief of Staff to U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
“The Conservative Defeat Project is yet another example of the Republican establishment’s hostility toward its conservative base,” said SCF Executive Director Matt Hoskins. “Rather than listening to the grassroots and working to advance their principles, the establishment has chosen to declare war on its party’s most loyal supporters. If they keep this up, the Republican Party will remain in the wilderness for decades to come.”
Click HERE to read the rest.
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Hey, Karl Rove: Take a Hike Loser”
-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”
-By Warner Todd Huston
In the aftermath of the murders at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newton, Connecticut, Gallup has found that the number of Americans open to greater restrictions on guns has taken an upswing going from 25 percent in support of tighter restrictions to 38 percent. Despite this, Americans are not keen on ending their Second Amendment rights. Despite this, Gallup also found that Americans are not keen on ending their Second Amendment rights.
Each year Gallup conducts its Mood of the Nation survey which contains one question on gun control asking if respondents are satisfied or dissatisfied with the nation’s laws or policies on guns. If the respondent answers in the affirmative, a follow up question is asked. The respondent is asked if laws are too strict, not strict enough, or should remain the same.
After nearly ten years showing little change in the national mood on gun laws, Gallup found a 13 point rise in those wanting harsher restrictions with 38 percent of respondents saying they are dissatisfied and want stricter gun laws. Only five percent said they were dissatisfied but want fewer restrictions.
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Americans Dissatisfied With Current Gun Laws But Still Supportive of Second Amendment”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Originally posted at TheOtherMCain.com.
In his latest piece at The Fix Blog, Washington Post reporter Chris Cillizza focused on the apparent waning power of the Republican Party among the center right coalition. Cillizza makes some good points, of course, but I do have at least one warning to our side over the points Cillizza makes.
Cillizza’s focus is on the recent departure from the Senate of South Carolina’s Jim DeMint who abruptly left a high profile political career to take the top spot leading the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Cillizza doesn’t mention it, but DeMint wasn’t just any old faceless senator. He had made himself an important voice in conservative circles even going so far as to become a major national player in elections whereby candidates would make a pilgrimage to his offices to seek his endorsement.
So, when DeMint left the power of the Senate behind, it was a big shock to conservatives who had hoped he’d continue to be a major conservative voice inside Washington.
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WaPost Says Political Party Power Dying for GOP, But What Does it Mean?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
President Obama will deliver the first State of the Union address for his second term on February 12 this year.
As is the custom, the President was invited to give the address by the Speaker of the House of Representatives. In his letter, Speaker John Boehner (R, OH) noted the “immense challenges” we face as a nation.
“Our nation continues to face immense challenges, and the American people expect us to work together in the new year to find meaningful solutions,” Boehner wrote. “This will require a willingness to seek common ground as well as presidential leadership. For that reason, the Congress and the Nation would welcome to an opportunity to hear your plan and specific solutions for addressing America’s great challenges. Therefore it is my privilege to invite you to speak before a Joint Session of Congress on February 12, 2013 in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol Building.”
Few expect Obama to use his upcoming State of the Union speech to offer any conciliatory gestures in order to work with the Republicans per Speaker Boehner. It is more likely that Obama will use his speech to outlay another series of demands to enlarge government and, since Sandy Hook, initiate new efforts to ban guns.
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In Lincoln’s Shadow: Obama’s Up Coming State of the Union Speech”
-By Warner Todd Huston
After a vote on January 8, Illinois is set to join only two other states, New Mexico and Washington, to allow illegal immigrants to apply for state drivers licenses. A third state, Utah, allows illegals to drive on temporary permits.
The 65-46 vote where 11 Republicans, some in leadership positions, joined Democrats to extend legal licenses came after a long, heated debate (SB 957).
Conservative activist William J. Kelly criticized the law.
“This kind of legislation has spurred a serious fraud problem in New Mexico and other states where it has been enacted,” Kelly wrote in the State Journal-Register. “Papers have been forged, auto repair shops have been regularly listed as places of residence, and more illegal driver’s licenses schemes have caused headaches for law enforcement as foreigners from other countries come to the state to fraudulently receive a U.S. driver’s license.”
Indeed, New Mexico’s Governor has been fighting to repeal her state’s licenses for illegals law.
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Illinois Passes Drivers Licenses for Illegal Immigrants”
-By Warner Todd Huston
One of the lines that many progressives and TV talking heads are reiterating is that no one really wants to take away Americans’ guns. Senator Dianne Feinstein apparently missed that directive. She admitted as far back as 1995 that she does, indeed, wish to take everyone’s guns away from them.
In a 1995 broadcast of CBS’ 60 Minutes, Feinstein made the obvious admission saying she would love to have instituted an “outright ban” on all guns.
Feinstein was the driving force to the failed and now lapsed, 1994 “assault weapons” ban and it was upon her success at getting the law passed that she made her admission.
“If I could’ve gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them — Mr. and Mrs. America turn ’em all in — I would have done it. I could not do that. The votes weren’t here.”
This is not the way many lefties are trying to sell their latest attempts at gun banning, of course. Led by President Obama, the late tactic is to claim that no one really wants to take away guns and that any claim to the opposite is just “fearmongering.”
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Reminder: Sen. Feinstein Said She Wants All Guns Banned”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Senate Comm Center passes on to me the committee assignments for the upcoming session. This just for your information.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Thursday, U.S. Senate Republicans announced committee assignments for the 113th Congress. These assignments are pending ratification by the Conference and the Senate. Members of each committee will meet to elect their Ranking Members.
Appropriations
Armed Services
Senate Republican Committee Assignments For The 113th Congress Announced”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Imagine you are working for a company that is going bankrupt, but everyone you work with and your bosses are getting pay raises. Seem absurd? Not if you work for the failing federal government because President Obama has happily decreed that Vice President Biden, members of Congress and most federal workers are getting raises for 2013.
As the U.S. government is losing its luster on the bond market and as the fiscal cliff looms, President Obama issued an executive order to give everyone raises.
Obama has generously bestowed a $6,379 per year raise on Sheriff Joe, he’s given members of the House a $900 increase, and he’s doled out a .5 percent pay increase to federal workers. (See a full listing of pay raises for Congressional offices at The Weekly Standard)
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What Fiscal Cliff? VP Biden, Gov’t Workers Getting Raises”
-By Warner Todd Huston
For all the abuse the Old Media establishment has dished out to the National Rifle Association this month, polls show that the NRA is still more popular than the media.
Gallup released a poll this month stating that the NRA stands at 54 percent approval.
Fifty-four percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the National Rifle Association, while 38% have an unfavorable opinion. The public’s ratings of the NRA have fluctuated since first measured by Gallup in 1993 — from a low of 42% favorable in 1995 to a high of 60% in 2005.
On the other hand, the same polling firm shows that the media is distrusted at 60 percent! Approval rates for the media are below 30 percent.
And Congress? Their approval rate was last measured by Gallup at 21 percent.
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NRA Still More Popular Than Media”
-By Warner Todd Huston
On Sunday Senator Chuck Schumer tried to pass off the 1994 assault weapons ban bill that was canceled eight years ago as the reason that today’s violent crime rates have been down.
In a discussion about gun control with Senator Chuck Schumer (D, NY) and Lindsey Graham (R, SC), David Gregory of NBC’s Meet The Press correctly pointed out that past gun banning laws like the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban didn’t work and that is a challenge to Schumer’s anti-gun position. Schumer answered to Gregory with a nice twist of logic saying,
“Well, the amount of gun violence since we passed the assault weapons ban and the Brady law is down considerably,” Schumer said.
This is a twist of logic. Firstly the assault weapons ban has been off the books now for eight years so it is a big stretch to say it factors into what is happening today. Further, since the Assault weapons ban lapsed every state but one (Illinois) has passed some sort of concealed carry law meaning that there are more guns “on the street” in as much as more law abiding citizens are allowed to carry their firearms everywhere they go.
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Sen. Schumer Says Long Dead Assault Weapons Ban Responsible for Current Falling Crime Stats”
-By Warner Todd Huston
On Monday, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley announced that she was appointing U.S. Congressman Tim Scott to the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Jim DeMint. When he is sworn in on January 3, Scott will be the lone African American of either party in the Senate but this historic news didn’t seem to interest ABC or CBS as neither mentioned the news that night.
Unsurprisingly, both ABC and CBS had segments on gun control during their respective Monday, December 17 broadcasts. But not a word about Senator to be Tim Scott was uttered.
One would think that the “diversity” of this story alone would be of interest to the big networks. After all, we have a female Governor who is the daughter of Sikh immigrants appointing the only African American to the Senate. We also have a Senate seat that is famed for having once been occupied by Strom Thurmond, a one-time Dixiecrat, segregationist turned repentant Republican. And we have the first black Senator from a southern state since Blanche Bruce of Mississippi in 1881. This is almost “diversity” overload.
Perhaps one mitigating factor for the old networks is that all of this “diversity” was wrought by Republicans?
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Appointment of Only African American Senator Unmentioned by ABC, CBS”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Withchunt: The Chicago Sun-Times once again revels in its partisanship by demanding the public release of the medical records of Senator Mark Kirk while ignoring the records of Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr.
For the Times, Phil Kadner is all upset that the U.S. government should be expected to pay for the medical bills and recovery costs for Illinois Senator Mark Kirk, a Republican who suffered a stroke last year and has since been making a steady recovery.
But the same left-wing Old Media hack isn’t calling for the records of Democrat Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., who claims he has “bi-polar” disorder and was out of the public eye for most of the year before finally resigning in disgrace just ahead of a federal investigation into his theft of campaign funds.
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Sun Times Demands Sen. Kirk’s Med Records, Ignores Jesse Jackson. Jr.’s”
-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’”
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.
Sen. Orrin Hatch: Obama Fiscal Proposal ‘Classic Bait and Switch’”
-By Warner Todd Huston
For his final Campaign Stops editorial November 18, New York Times columnist Thomas B, Edsall asked the seminal question left arising from the results of the re-election of Barack Obama: Is Rush Limbaugh’s Country Gone?
Beginning his piece with a quote from Limbaugh’s show where the most listened-to talker in the nation expressed his fear that “we’ve lost the country” to Obama and his followers, Edsall noted that Limbaugh’s worries “echoed a Republican theme” that was voiced before Obama’s re-election.
Barack Obama has unleashed a coalition of Americans “who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it — that that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them” — as Mitt Romney put it in his notorious commentary on the 47 percent.
Edsall goes on to agree with Limbaugh that our country has drifted decidedly in favor of big government, nanny-state ideals and away from freedom and liberty — though he doesn’t say it that way, to be sure.
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New York Times: Celebrating the End of ‘Rush Limbaugh’s Country’”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Fact: Millions of Republican voters did not come out to unseat Barack Obama.
Explanation: The Republican brand has been damaged beyond repair.
Solution: Is Herman Cain Right? Do we need to replace the GOP with a new party?
The Republican brand has been destroyed beyond repair. This is all something we really can blame on the Bush family in general and George W. Bush in particular. Not only do independents and moderates not trust anyone that has the millstone “Republican” hung around his neck, but even too many Republican voters themselves can no longer bring themselves to vote for members of their own party.
George W. Bush is the biggest culprit for this. His big spending and liberal governing style (No Child Left Behind, drugs for seniors, trillion dollar deficits) told Republican voters that there was no difference between Republicans and Democrats.
Now, substantively, yes there are important differences between the parties. But the perception that Bush left with his odious “compassionate conservatism ” — which was just an excuse for big government liberalism — told Republican voters that the Democrats are the party of big government while Republicans are the party for a tiny bit less big government. This is not enough of a difference to entice a vote.
If the GOP could not get out enough voters to unseat Barack Obama, the most socialist-leaning, most anti-American president in American history, then the GOP brand has been damaged beyond repair.
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The Name ‘Republican’ Is Damaged Beyond Repair”