Economy

Budget - Cook County - Cook County Board - Dan Patlak - GOP - Government - Illinois - Property Taxes - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Cook County Board Of Review Progress Report‏

March 4, 2011 by

From the office of Dan Patlak, Cook County Board of Review…

It has been two months since my swearing in on December 6th and I thought it would be appropriate to reach out to give you a progress report.

Following our victory in November, our first order of business was to assemble a staff that would have as its main focus, serving the needs of the residents of the 1st Board of Review District as well as all residents of Cook County. We have assembled a team capable of serving resident needs by bringing on board individuals with a variety of backgrounds, experience and education. Among our new hires is a former Township Assessor and Board of Review analyst, a certified residential appraiser, two law school graduates, a former County Commissioner, three MBA’s with strong business backgrounds and a CPA. We also have several individuals with strong technology backgrounds. Among our group, we have individuals who are fluent in Spanish, French, German, Greek, Polish, Hindi, Punjabi and Arabic to support the diverse needs of our taxpayer population.

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Cook County Board Of Review Progress Report‏”

Abortion - Children - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Planned Parenthood - Texas - Warner Todd Huston

Texas Abortion Centers Killing Teen’s Babies Without Informing Parents

March 3, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Texas has a parental notification law for abortions. Underage teens are not supposed to be allowed to have the procedure until her parents are made aware of the crisis. Unfortunately, it has been discovered that many abortion mills in Texas are breaking the law and killing the babies of under aged girls without informing parents.

But there are more violations than just that. A three-month-long investigation by a pro-life group has also found that medical records are routinely and illegally destroyed and hazardous medical waste is commonly disposed of illegally.

LifeNews.com reports that Operation Rescue has announced that it has identified several abortion clinics that have violated regulations imposed by the Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
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Texas Abortion Centers Killing Teen’s Babies Without Informing Parents”

Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Jobs - Liberals - Peter Roskam - President - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Roskam Urges Democrats to Join in Spending Cuts While Majority of Dems Vote Against Pelosi on Cuts

March 2, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Significantly 104 House Democrats voted in favor of the GOP led temporary budget plan that is now on its way to the Senate. This majority of House Dems voted against former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D, Calif.) who voted against the cuts. Even Dem. Number two man Steny Hoyer (D, Maryland.) voted in favor of the GOP’s continuing Resolution budget plan.

The remaining moderate Democrats that were not swept from Congress in the 2010 midterms are worried that Pelosi is marginalizing herself by catering to the far left and not trying to appeal to the centrist voters that fled for the GOP.

On Tuesday I spoke to House Majority Chief Deputy Whip Congressman Peter Roskam (R, Illinois) and he said that this vote was an important first step toward a more fiscally responsible budget. It was also important for the legitimacy of the GOP led House, too. “Imagine how the media would be spinning this if we didn’t take this step toward cuts,” he said.
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Roskam Urges Democrats to Join in Spending Cuts While Majority of Dems Vote Against Pelosi on Cuts”

Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - GOP - Government - Liberals - President - Republicans - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

We’ve Got to Stop Spending Money We Don’t Have

March 2, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is the video that was shown to the Republican Senators at their weekly caucus luncheon on Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2011.

The video highlights the president’s unsustainable fiscal path and how his ideas on the budget adds to our national debt and at the same time failing to address the serious fiscal problems facing the country.

Senate Republicans realize that we must stop the wild spending of money we do not have if we want to put the country back on the path to fiscal health so that we can create the jobs we sorely need.

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We’ve Got to Stop Spending Money We Don’t Have”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Civil Rights - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Ethics - Free Speech - Freedom - GOP - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Planned Parenthood - Policy - President - Public Employees Unions - Republicans - Rights - RNC - Scott Walker - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Wisconsin

Left-Wing Group Takes Down Conservative Website — Petty Little Children Affecting Nothing

March 1, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The left-wing Internet-based group calling itself “Anonymous” briefly took down the website of the conservative activist group Americans For Prosperity on Sunday, Feb. 27. Yet all the sturm und drang signifying… what? Me thinks that “Anonymous” is reading too many comic books.

Amusingly, with the Denial of Service (DNS) attack “Anonymous” imagines themselves striking a blow for the oppressed, or something. “Anonymous hears the voice of the downtrodden American people,” they sonorously tell us on their website. The amusing thing to me is that they imagine the oppressed are government employee union members. Only, here is the thing… people that work for the government are on average the best paid people in America. They have the best benefits, the earliest retirement ages, and the cheapest healthcare in the entire country — cheapest to them anyway, not to us the taxpayers. It is a fact that government employees are the new elites in America today. It is also a fact that they live high on the hog off the backs of the working poor.

So who the heck do these fools in “Anonymous” think they are come to the aid of?
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Left-Wing Group Takes Down Conservative Website — Petty Little Children Affecting Nothing”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - Scott Walker - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Unions - Warner Todd Huston - Wisconsin

Government Employee Unions Undemocratic, Unfair, Unsustainable

March 1, 2011 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

A lot has been said about the thuggish behavior of these teachers in Wisconsin and other union toughs across the country who have been caught on tape calling people Hitler and dictators, and attacking peaceful Tea Partiers. The behavior of union supporters has been ignorant to say the least. But as we’ve focused on the behavior of these ignoramuses, we’ve also neglected to explain just why their unions are illicit in the first place.

To start with we should remind everyone that government employees have not always been allowed to unionize. Collective bargaining for pubic employees only started in 1958 after New York Mayor Robert Wagner signed what came to be called “the Little Wagner Act” allowing city workers to unionize. In fact, collective bargaining itself was only legalized even in the private sector in 1935 when Wagner’s own father, New York Senator Robert Wagner, sponsored the National Labor Relations Act, or the Wagner Act. Nationally, collective bargaining for government employees began in 1962 when President John Kennedy signed Executive Order 10988 allowing federal employees to unionize and gain collective bargaining.
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Government Employee Unions Undemocratic, Unfair, Unsustainable”

Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Liberals - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Beer Tab Economics: How We All Lose With The Tax Code

February 27, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ten friends decided that they would pay for their bar tab the way they pay their taxes. The first $100 beer tab was paid like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing
The fifth would pay $1
The sixth would pay $3
The seventh would pay $7
The eighth would pay $12
The ninth would pay $18
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59

It seemed fair and equitable and they paid the bar tab like this for weeks.

Then one day, since they were such good customers, the bar owner happily announced that he’d reduce their bar tab by $20 to only $80

So the bar tab was paid like this:
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Beer Tab Economics: How We All Lose With The Tax Code”

Afghanistan - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Guantanamo Bay - Liberals - Nanny State - Policy - President - Stimulus - Taxes - Terrorism - Transparency - Warner Todd Huston

Most Lawless President Ever: Hiding Lobbyist Meetings, Refusing to Prosecute Laws, Ignoring Duties

February 25, 2011 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

In 2008 Obama ran for president claiming that he wanted to make Washington more transparent than ever. Obama ran as the law-and-order man, he ran as the anti-lobbyist man, and he ran as the man for all the people, the great centrist that would finally work for the people. He ran saying that Bush was a lawless president and that he, Obama, would shut down the illicit Guantanamo facility and immediately end all the “illegal wars” that Bush was prosecuting.

As president we’ve seen that he’s lied with all those claims.

One of Obama’s main bogeymen has been lobbyists. He claimed that he’d purge them from Washington. But the truth was a far different thing once he fairly became president. In fact, as soon as he became president Obama began to waive the rules that were supposed to keep lobbyists out of his administration.
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Most Lawless President Ever: Hiding Lobbyist Meetings, Refusing to Prosecute Laws, Ignoring Duties”

Aaron Schock - Adam Kinzinger - Budget - Congress - Conservatives - Democrats/Leftists - Earmarks - GOP - Government - House of Representatives - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Liberals - Regulation - Republicans - Taxes - The Heritage Foundation - Warner Todd Huston

How Did Ill. Representatives Vote on Cost Cutting (HR1)?

February 25, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week, the House of Representatives passed HR 1. This bill was the 2011 continuing appropriations act, the bill that makes provisions to fund the federal government. It also contained $61 billion in cuts.

There were 21 different cost cutting measures in the bill. So, how did our Illinois Representatives vote on HR 1? How many of the amendments did our reps vote “yes” for?

Republicans
Walsh (R, 8th): 100%
Manzullo (R, 16th): 95%
Roskam (R, 6th): 81%
Johnson (R, 15th): 76%
Shimkus (R, 19th): 67%
Hultgren (R, 14th): 62%
Schilling (R, 17th): 57%
Schock (R, 18th): 57%
Dold (R, 10th): 38%
Kinzinger (R, 11th): 38%
Biggert (R, 13th): 25%

Congratulations to Joe Walsh for being a 100% man! Manzullo and Roskam are not too shabby, either. Sadly a few of our newest Reps are in Democrat territory with their weak support of the most number of cost cutting measures. I mean, 38 percent for Kinzinger?? That is horrible. Is Adam Kinzinger a big government guy after all his claims on the campaign trail? Left-winger Biggert’s Democrat-styled votes are no surprise. One is continually surprised she is still pretending to be a Republican.
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How Did Ill. Representatives Vote on Cost Cutting (HR1)?”

AFSCME - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Elections - Ethics - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Public Employees Unions - Regulation - Security/Safety - SEIU - Taxes - Teachers Unions - The Law - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Hate is What Unions Sell

February 24, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

This situation in Wisconsin has brought out the truth about unions: they peddle hate. Unions are exactly what Democrats try to claim the Tea Party is, a hate-filled, uncivil, mob of name callers. Unionistas use hateful and violent rhetoric, they call everyone that opposes them Hitler and they lie about their ultimate goals.

Many of you out there may be saying that we shouldn’t hold the obscene actions of a few bad Wisconsin teachers against the whole of uniondom. But we don’t have to restrict ourselves to Wisconsin to see this sort of hateful, violence themed rhetoric.

Yesterday, for instance, Massachusetts Democrat Representative Michael Capuana told a union crowd that sometimes the protesters have to “get a little bloody” on the streets to prove their fealty to the unions.
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Hate is What Unions Sell”

Budget - Business - Canada - Capitalism - CATO Institute - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Financial Reform - Liberals - President - Regulation - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

What Did Reagan Do and How Have Other Nations Solved Their Fiscal Problems?

February 23, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation at CATO has made a few videos that help us understand how we have fixed some of our fiscal troubles in the past. In part two they also looked at a few foreign countries. Now, I have to admit that I am not much interested in what other nations do about anything. They aren’t America. Still, in part two below the folks at the CATO Institute have pointed out a few things that are instructive, if not a tad wonky.

These videos are worth taking a look at.

Spending Restraint, Part I: Lessons from Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton

Spending Restraint, Part II: Lessons from Canada, Ireland, Slovakia, and New Zealand

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What Did Reagan Do and How Have Other Nations Solved Their Fiscal Problems?”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Ethics - Government - Liberals - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Getting Rich Off the Taxpayers: School Administrators Double Dipping Pensions

February 19, 2011 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

It must be nice to work for the government. Sadly it’s the most lucrative way to make a living in American history. To “win life’s lottery” all you have to do is get a job with the government — whether the federal or state government — at practically any level and voila, welcome to easy street. Here we have yet another case of the milking of the taxpayer by our “public servants,” this time it’s school superintendents that jump from state to state in order to double or triple their pension takings.

The Chicago Trib revealed the newest way for “public servants” to rip off the public by reporting that it has become common practice for school superintendents to “retire” from a school district in one state only to migrate to another state and take the same job in order to earn another lucrative pension. Some of these guys are making upwards to $500,000 a year off the backs of the taxpayers.

When questions over their greed are put to them these “public servants” demur from being characterized as fatcat, double dippers. They say that they are acting entirely within the law. They claim that there isn’t a single thing wrong with what they are doing. Well, maybe legally. Morally is another question.
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Getting Rich Off the Taxpayers: School Administrators Double Dipping Pensions”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Now THERE’S Chutzpah: Obama Claims He hasn’t Raised Taxes?

February 8, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

John Kartch over at Americans for Tax Reform found President Obama’s claim that he hasn’t raised taxes a bit, shall we say, quixotic. At one point in the interview with Obama conducted by Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly and shown on Sunday, Obama stated bald faced that he didn’t do so. The truth seems to be a different animal, however.

Employing his best preacher’s alliterative mode by repeating it twice, Obama told O’Reilly, “I didn’t raise taxes once. I lowered taxes over the last two years. I lowered taxes for the last two years.”

But did he hold the line on taxes? Kartch shows that Obama’s claim does not hold water. In fact, “just sixteen days into his presidency,” Kartch reminds us, Obama raised taxes on tobacco by 156 percent! Then came Obamacare, little else but a defacto tax hike in at least a dozen areas.

And then there is the smoke and mirrors:
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Now THERE’S Chutzpah: Obama Claims He hasn’t Raised Taxes?”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Cap and Trade - Capitalism - Climate Change - Coal - Democrats/Leftists - Energy - Environment - EPA - Free Trade - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Nuclear Power - Oil - President - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

First Obamacare Waivers Now EPA Rules Waivers

February 3, 2011 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Obama Administration is quickly becoming the most corrupt administration in American history. Recently we reported about the mounting number of waivers that Obama is giving his union pals and union supporters so that they can get away from having to suffer under his Obamacare law and now the president’s jobs-killing greenhouse gas rules levied upon the nation using his fiat EPA powers are also being set aside for his best buddies. Naturally, all those getting these big waivers were big donors to Obama’s campaign.

At this point we are up to over 700 Obamacare waivers given to his union pals and other campaign donors and now the EPA has announced the first waiver for the new greenhouse gas rules that really haven’t even been implemented exactly yet.

Timothy Carney reports that General Electric has been the lucky, lucky recipient of a waiver for Obama’s EPA rules. Yes, very lucky, indeed.
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First Obamacare Waivers Now EPA Rules Waivers”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - GOP - Government - Liberals - Mitch McConnell - Nanny State - Regulation - Republicans - Senate - Taxes - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston - Washington D.C.

Senate’s Repeal Healthcare Vote Failure Further Makes Lie to Term ‘Conservative Democrat’

February 2, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Newly minted West Virginia Senator, Democrat Joe Manchin, ran for office denigrating Obama’s take over of our national healthcare system with his Obamacare law. Tonight he and other so-called “conservative Democrats” in the Senate got a chance to prove that they were, indeed, as conservative as they claimed to be by voting to repeal Obamacare. Not one of them made that vote, however.

In a vote strictly down party lines, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R, KY) repeal measure lost in a 51 to 47 vote. It needed a 60 vote super majority to pass.

McConnell did not likely expect his measure to pass, to be sure. His aim was meant at the very least to put everyone in the Senate on record as to where they stood on Obamacare. This isn’t the last word on the debate, either, as Republican Senator John Cornyn (Texas) vowed that this fight was not nearly over.

Within minutes after the vote, on the GOP’s Senate Twitter feed, Cornyn talked of the battle to come. “These are the first steps in a long road that will culminate in 2012 where we will continue to expose the flaws in this bill,” he said.
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Senate’s Repeal Healthcare Vote Failure Further Makes Lie to Term ‘Conservative Democrat’”

Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Health - Liberals - Massachusetts - Mitt Romney - President - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Romney: Nope, I’m NOT Apologizing for Romneycare!

February 2, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

After all these years in politics, Mitt Romney has finally found something he isn’t going to flip flop on — so far, anyway. Romney recently started a tour to kick off the release of his latest book and when asked if he was sorry he ever signed his name on the Massachusetts healthcare law derided as Romneycare, he ignored the advice from every GOP thinker out there and refused to distance himself from the calamitous law. It’s no apology from Mitt for Romneycare, then.

On his ABC News blog, George Stephanopoulos (every time I hear his name I think Snuffleupagus. I just can’t help it) reported that Romney is standing firm that Romneycare was a good idea at the time. Imagine that. Right when the bulk of the American people are appalled at Obamacare and Romney is about to launch a second attempt to take the White House, Mitt doubles down on Romneycare.
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Romney: Nope, I’m NOT Apologizing for Romneycare!”

Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - Government - Health - Liberals - Mitch McConnell - President - Republicans - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Senate Republicans Call for Vote on a Repeal of Obamacare for Wednesday

February 2, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) announced on Tuesday that he intends to bring to the floor a vote to repeal Obamacare on Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid certainly does not want this vote to occur but even so it is highly doubtful that McConnell can get the 60 votes needed to sustain a repeal. The Democrats still out number Republicans 53 to 47.

But a repeal is not all that McConnell wants with this vote. At the very least the Republican leader wants to put the entire senate on record giving the voters a clear accounting of which senators support Obamacare and which do not. McConnell hopes to put centrist Democrats on record as to where they stand.
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Senate Republicans Call for Vote on a Repeal of Obamacare for Wednesday”

Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Ethics - Government - Health - Liberals - President - Regulation - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Gives Obamacare Waivers to 28 Unions, His BIG Donors

February 1, 2011 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

More on the waivers for Obamacare. A look at the president’s waiver list reveals he’s given waivers to 28 food workers union locals so that they can get out from under the oppressive, budget busting requirements in his take over of our nation’s medical system. Curiously enough, the PAC for those unions gave Obama $673,309 to his 2008 election campaign. Quid pro quo? Is there any doubt? Just a coincidence, right?

The list shows that Obama administration issued one-year waivers to 28 chapters of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW). These waivers exempt the union insurance plans from being forced to obey rules that prevent the plans from limiting what they will pay for employee’s healthcare coverage.

The UFCW was a vocal supporter of Obamacare and was part of a large coalition of unions pushing the bill early in 2010.

The UFCW was also a big, big supporter of candidate Obama in 2008 and Democrats generally.
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Obama Gives Obamacare Waivers to 28 Unions, His BIG Donors”

Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - GOP - Government - Health - Liberals - President - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Remember: Obamacare is Great… Well Unless You Are a Union, Then You Don’t Have to Suffer Under it

January 31, 2011 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you’ll recall, Big Labor was one of the biggest cheerleaders for Obamacare. Big Labor was insistent that Obama’s take over of our nation’s healthcare was the best thing since sliced bread, to be sure. But once Obamacare got passed into law, we’ve learned that dozens of unions have sought exemptions to get out from under the destructive dictates of the law and they have been given that pass by their pal in the White House. Republicans are vowing to probe these cynical exemptions.

The waivers the Obama administration bestowed upon his biggest donors and friends allows the insurance plans of unions and various Obama-friendly corporations to get out from under the annual limits on what they spend on their employee’s medical coverage. Obamacare bans annual limits, but 222 unions and corporations and other Obama buddies are now exempt from this ban.

Apparently, while they all clamored for the rest of us to suffer under Obamacare, they’ve decided that they shouldn’t have to. And who is the biggest beneficiary of these waivers? Unions, of course.
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Remember: Obamacare is Great… Well Unless You Are a Union, Then You Don’t Have to Suffer Under it”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - CATO Institute - Democrats/Leftists - Family - Government - Liberals - President - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

CATO Responds to Obama’s State of the Union 2011

January 26, 2011 by 1 Comment

Cato experts Gene Healy, Ben Friedman, Michael F. Cannon, Dan Mitchell, Sallie James, John Samples, Justin Logan, Jagadeesh Gokhale, Neal McCluskey, and David Rittgers deconstruct the president’s speech and correct some of his errors—including the “American family” metaphor, calls for more federal education spending, zero-sum thinking in trade and globalization policy, ObamaCare fixes, TSA pat down jokes, soaking the rich, and much more. I’d like to encourage you to share these incisive analyses with your friends, colleagues, and readers.

For more, here is CATO’s blog coverage of the SOTU speech.

Abortion - Budget - Children - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Government - House of Representatives - Liberals - Planned Parenthood - President - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Planned Parenthood Funding A Defacto Abortion Tax on America

January 26, 2011 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

With the anniversary of Roe v. Wade it is the perfect time to highlight the fact that the millions upon millions of federal tax dollars that have gone to fund the abortion mill organization Planned Parenthood is a defacto abortion tax levied on the American taxpayers.

In 2008 alone, Planned Parenthood received nearly $350 million in federal funding. By Planned Parenthood’s own reckoning, this funding went to eliminate babies for more than 324,000 women that year.

The organization DefundPlannedParenthood.org reports that Planned Parenthood has received some $3.9 billion in federal funds since 1987. Pro-life supporters should go to www. DefundPlannedParenthood.org and add their voice to eliminating federal funding for abortions.
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Planned Parenthood Funding A Defacto Abortion Tax on America”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Coal - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Energy - Gays - GOP - Government - Jobs - Liberals - Nuclear Power - Oil - President - Regulation - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Jaw, Jaw and Bromides: Obama’s State of His Next Campaign for President Address

January 26, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I sat through President Obama’s 2011 State of the Union Address last night. During the event I live Tweeted the whole thing (You can read that all at http://twitter.com/#!/warnerthuston) and ended up with an empty feeling and a headache. Obama’s address was long on calls for spending, filled with bromides, and weighted with jaw, jaw but pretty short on substance. In fact, it seemed like his 12 new spending ideas and his patriotic vagaries was simply his first step onto the 2012 campaign trail as opposed to a serious address to the nation.

Obama fittingly began his address citing John Boehner, the new Speaker of the House, and memorializing the wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. He then said that we had a “robust” debate in our politics and averred that it was one thing for the parties to sit together that night but it depended on what they all do “tomorrow” and he used that point to plead for moving forward with more bi-partisanship.

Tellingly, even as Obama has paid lip service to bipartisanship for three years, when he became president neither he nor his party made any moves to implement any bipartisanship. In fact, when Democrat Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House she never met with any Republicans on anything. This whole claim or bipartisanship is simply a farce on Obama’s part and Obama continued that farce in the SOTU speech.
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Jaw, Jaw and Bromides: Obama’s State of His Next Campaign for President Address”

Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Liberals - President - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Shameful Behavior: U.S. Senate Continues Spending Money in Secret

January 25, 2011 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently for at least ten years our U.S. Senators have been creating operating rules that allow them to get out of doing one of their most important jobs: actually voting on legislation. As it happens ninety three percent of the approved measures that have come out of the Senate never got a roll call vote.

This means that the massive spending that the Senate has approved for the last ten years has simply sailed through the so-called most deliberative body in the world without all that annoying deliberating stuff being forced on our busy, busy Senators.

In the Washington Examiner Tina Korbe highlights the Senate’s use of the “unanimous consent” rule that allows bills to flow quickly through the Senate by dispensing with Senators having to actually sit down and hit the “yea” or “nay” button before a bill is passed on to the reconciliation phase of the lawmaking process.
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Shameful Behavior: U.S. Senate Continues Spending Money in Secret”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Government - Jobs - Liberals - President - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

One of Obama’s Biggest Donors Now His ‘Economics Adviser’

January 25, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week President Obama appointed the CEO of General Electric, Jeffery Immelt, to head up his Economic Advisory Board. This is, as Freedomworks’ Tabitha Hale wrote, “an obvious rent seeking arrangement between Big Government and Big Business.”

This could not have been a more clear product of a crony corporatist relationship, and it is one that has no place in government that professes to value the free market. So now, we fight it.

Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks sums it up well:

“It’s time to break up the unethical romance between government and big business. For too long, corporate elites have lobbied to profit from the size and growth of government at the expense of hard-working Americans. We’re here to let President Obama and Jeffrey Immelt know that the days of easy money through backroom deals are over.”

Let’s have a small reminder of who and/what Jeffery Immelt is, shall we?

Now, some of you out there may be confused about my post, here. “Aren’t you a conservative,” you might ask? “Aren’t you usually FOR the business community?”
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One of Obama’s Biggest Donors Now His ‘Economics Adviser’”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - China - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - George W. Bush - Liberals - President - Warner Todd Huston

Obama Allows Anti-American Song to be Played at State Dinner for China

January 23, 2011 by 5 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Epoch Times has a stunner of a story for January 22. Unbeknownst to most Americans, China insulted the United States right in front of Obama and the world by having its nationalist pianist, Lang Lang, play a Chinese propaganda song that called Americans “jackals” during the Chinese sponsored concert during the recent state dinner in Washington D.C. Chinese nationalists have been hailing this stick in the eye of the U.S. since it occurred at the state dinner on January 19.

There is little doubt that Obama knew this was going to happen, but that he had no problem with it fits neatly with his world apology tour, his three years of apologizing for the United States in foreign lands, his bowing and scraping (literally) before kings and tyrants the world over, and his constant need to punish this country.

The song was titled “My Homeland” and is famous for appearing in the Chinese propaganda movie Battle on Shangganling Mountain, a film about the Korean War. In the song, American troops are called “jackals” that are “greeted” by Chinese “hunting rifles.”
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Obama Allows Anti-American Song to be Played at State Dinner for China”

Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - GOP - Government - Health - House of Representatives - Liberals - Nanny State - President - Republicans - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) Delivers Weekly GOP Address On Repealing Obamacare

January 22, 2011 by 1 Comment

“Thanks To The Vote In The House Of Representatives, We Are Now One Step Closer To Victory In The Fight For A Health Care Policy That Puts Americans First – Not Washington. Our Job Won’t Be Done Until We Repeal And Replace This Bad Law.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Vice Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference John Barrasso (R-Wyoming) released the following weekly Republican address. The address is available in both audio and video format and is embargoed until 6:00 a.m. ET, Saturday, January 22, 2011.


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Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) Delivers Weekly GOP Address On Repealing Obamacare”

Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Judges - Law - Liberals - Supreme Court - Warner Todd Huston

Our Out Of Control Courts: Bankruptcy Courts Now Deciding Cases on Feelings?

January 18, 2011 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

One of the issues that many conservatives have focused on is our out of control court system and the constant judicial overreach that occurs therein. Here we have yet another case of a court insinuating itself into an area in which it previously never had purview and if this decision stands it will open our courts to a flood of court shopping that will turn our legal system further down the wrong road.

At least since the forced busing case of 1971 and the Roe v Wade abortion case, conservatives have been complaining about judges taking undue powers unto themselves. For decades these power mad judges have been expanding their reach to control our lives until even our state and federal legislatures have seemed to give up their rightful role as lawmakers. Once again we have a judge that has reached beyond his proper role.

The case in question is Marshall v. Marshall and, yes, once again Anna Nicole Smith is going before the U.S. Supreme Court — and from beyond the grave at that. The reason a Smith matter is again before the SCOTUS four years after her death is because one of her cases was decided by a federal bankruptcy court in California on reasons that had nothing at all to do with technical bankruptcy rules. The case before the SCOTUS would determine if the bankruptcy court acted properly.
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Our Out Of Control Courts: Bankruptcy Courts Now Deciding Cases on Feelings?”

Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Government - Liberals - President - Social Security - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Video: Saving Social Security with Personal Retirement Accounts

January 12, 2011 by

A new mini-documentary By Dan Mitchell of the CATO Institute explaining why personal accounts are the only way of dealing with Social Security’s huge, long-run, unfunded liability while also giving workers a chance to enjoy a safer and more secure retirement.

The take away: You’ll have to live to over 100-years-old to make your contributions into Social Security worthwhile!

Budget - Chicago - Cook County - Cook County Board - Dan Patlak - Government - Illinois - Illinois State Government - Law - Property Rights - Property Taxes - Regulation - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Board of Review Opens Six Townships for Appeal

January 10, 2011 by

From the Office of Commissioner Dan Patlak…

CHICAGO— The Cook County Board of Review has announced dates for filing assessment appeal complaints for property owners in Barrington, Berwyn, Bremen, Calumet, Lakeview, and Evanston Townships. The filing dates for property assessment appeals begin on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 and will end on Thursday, February 10, 2011.

Property owners may appeal their assessments to the Board if they believe that their assessment is too high. A lawyer is not required to file an appeal on behalf of a residential property owner.

Anyone interested in receiving an assessment appeal complaint form can call the Cook County Board of Review at 312-603-5542. Appeal complaint forms can also be picked up in person at the Board, 118 N. Clark in Chicago or printed from our website at www.CookCountyBoardofReview.com.
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Board of Review Opens Six Townships for Appeal”