It was the ol’ bait-and-switch on the health care bill. According to White House Senior Advisor David Axelrod, it is likely that the amendment to the health care bill that restricts federal funding for abortions and caused just enough Democrats to vote for it in order for the bill to passed will be stripped out by President Obama.
First, Nancy Pelosi tried to ram through health care legislation on November 7… a Saturday when the public wasn’t really paying attention (and what happened to giving us at least 36 hours to read the 2000 pages?). The House met in intense debates all day, but they could not get the measure passed until an amendment written by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) prevented federal subsidies from going toward private plans that offer abortion overage. This swayed enough moderate Democrats to pass the bill 220-215 in the dead of the night.
However, President Obama does not support the amendment, stating it changes the “status quo,” and may intervene to delete the legislation that got the bill passed. No, according to Axelrod, “He’s going to work with Senate and the House to try and ensure that at the end of the day, the status quo is not changed … there are discussions ongoing to how to adjust it accordingly.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell insists that Americans do not want their tax dollars funding abortions and the legislation will likely be held up in the Senate. “This will be on the floor for quite a long time. I think it ought to be on the floor at least as long as it’s been in Harry Reid’s office.”
So… in order to finagle this bill through the House, the abortion amendment gets tacked on that gets just enough Democrats to barely pass it, and then the administration comes along and rips out the thing that actually got it passed? How shady is that? Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and Axelrod should go in together on a used car dealership. Their sales skills would be better suited for that profession.
Former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee appeared before a large crowd in Edmond, Oklahoma, last night at Best of Books, the latest stop for his book tour promoting his new tome, A Simple Christmas. It seems to be a recent trend that those in political media are writing heart warming Christmas tales. A Simple Christmas has been released during the same season as Glenn Beck’s children’s version of The Christmas Sweater, an adaptation of his adult novel from a year ago.
Huckabee’s book is a collection of twelve Christmas tales from throughout his life, beginning as a child up to his time as a presidential candidate. In a day and age in which Christmas has become inundated with commercialism, he has billed his memories as heart warming stories that celebrate the holiday spirit. Huckabee believes that it’s possible to make the Christmas season simple again instead of becoming lost in the frustrating chaos our times have made it.
Glenn Beck’s The Christmas Sweater, on the other hand, is a novel about a boy named Eddie who wanted a bike for Christmas but instead receives from his mother a hand-made sweater that he absolutely does not like. He insults her and she later dies in a car accident. Now adapted as a children’s book for the 2009 season, the rest of the story tells how Eddie deals with his bitterness and anger while staying with his grandparents.
Both books by the political media hosts are based on Christian principles, Huckabee probably more prominently so as a former pastor. Each have other books that deal with hot political issues and views expressing their conservative viewpoints, but the Christmas books show a different side of the men and gives us a glimpse of their souls away from the camera.
Toward the end of his signing in Edmond, Governor Huckabee spent a few minutes fielding questions from reporters about the current health bill which just passed the House and is on its way to the Senate. He stated the plan is, “an unmitigated disaster,” and when asked if he believed the states could afford the plan, he expressed that they could not. He maintained his stance that America has a health crisis and not a health care crisis. It was a brief moment that snapped the crowd back to real world politics in what had otherwise been a heart-warming night full of promise for the upcoming holiday season.
Leaders of the world will meet next month at a global conference in Copenhagen to sign a treaty concerning the controversial climate change issue. Developing countries around the world are accusing the United States of not doing enough to prevent greenhouse gases from being emitted and are seeking a world tax to be placed upon America for its usage. In many eyes of those countries this tax would be a type of reparation for the United States growing rich while using “cheap fuel.”
U.S. Lawmakers have already come under heavy scrutiny for the energy bill that narrowly passed the House in June, a measure that would raise energy rates. Said Jim Imhofe (R-OK), “This is not an energy bill. This is a cap-and-trade bill. This is a huge tax increase.”
With the world now in a cooling trend, people are becoming skeptical about the global warming coverage of recent years that has now been renamed “climate change.” Opponents of the theory, including many scientists, have urged for years that the temperatures of the planets work in a cyclical nature and have more to do with the sun and oceanic thermal venting than emissions produced by humans. Some data even suggests that to prevent a one degree warming of the planet via carbon dioxide emissions we’d have to stop all current emissions for more than 30 years.
With this sort of controversy over the validity of the issue, trying to pass legislation on the matter is becoming harder for lawmakers. Putting it into the hands of world powers becomes increasingly uneasy.
Wording in the current draft of the Framework Convention on Climate Change sets up a world government entity that, “will be ruled by the [Conference of the Parties] with the support of a new subsidiary body on adaptation, and of an Executive Board responsible for the management of the new funds and the related facilitative processes and bodies.”
This is worrisome wording for those that are concerned about the country’s sovereignty and fear that interests of the United States will come under the control of other world powers. While that may be the long-term controversy, the short-term issue remains a monetary one.
Stated Ben Lieberman, senior policy analyst for energy and environment of the Heritage Foundation, “The developing world especially wants hundreds of billions of dollars per year. The developed world is offering up tens of billions. So there’s a big gap that hasn’t been narrowed there in terms of being able to come up with an agreement in Copenhagen.”
The people have spoken and they’re saying they’ve already had it with the policies of the new administration in Washington. Here’s how it played out this Tuesday:
New Jersey Gov: Chris Christie (R) 49%, Jon Corzine (D) 45%
New York Dis. 23: Bill Owens (D) 49%, Doug Hoffman (C) 46%
Virginia Gov: Bob McDonnell (R) 59%, Creigh Deeds (D) 41%
With the majority of the country against the public option in the current health care bill, rising unemployment, proposed cap-and-trade legislation that even President Obama has admitted would cause energy rates to skyrocket, waffling on troop deployments in Afghanistan, the upcoming controversial climate change treaty in Copenhagen that would tax American pockets to give money to other countries, and a combination of “Net neutrality” and the proposed Cybersecurity Act that would place the Internet under government control, Democrat nominees for various offices around the country have taken a big hit.
Both Obama and Vice President Joe Biden did what they enjoy best and campaigned hard for their party in New Jersey and New York in recent days, but it wasn’t enough to sway voters from voting conservative. Many in New York District 23 believed former Republican nominee Dierdre Scozzafava was too liberal, prompting Doug Hoffman to join the race. He garnered considerable backing from national conservatives such as Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty and effectively knock Scozzafava out of the race over the weekend. With Scozzafava out, Hoffman gained additional GOP support. However, since she only put her campaign in suspension, she still showed up on the ticket and collected six percent of the vote, which was just enough to take away from Hoffman and give the decision to Owens although combined it would have defeated the Democrat nominee.
In the closest race, Republican Chris Christie, who had been just slightly ahead in the New Jersey gubernatorial polls for weeks, narrowly beat out Democrat nominee Jon Corzine. This is a bitter defeat for Democrats since New Jersey is a notorious stronghold for the party. Many believe this is a strong reflection of how voters are feeling about the current administration in Washington. I recall the exact opposite happening in Maryland when incumbent Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich, who was even endorsed by the liberal Washington Post, was ousted in favor of ill-liked Martin O’Malley, a former Baltimore mayor who had once spent more money on a new motto for Baltimore than he had on education. However, voters had grown increasingly angry at the Bush administration and GOP candidates felt the backlash.
The Virginia governor race wasn’t even close, with Bob McDonnell winning by a landslide 19 points. In a state that Barack Obama carried by nearly seven points in 2008, voters unquestionably swung back to the right. Analysts are now saying that Republicans should look at how McDonnell ran his campaign and mimic it for the 2010 elections. The Lt. Governor and Attorney General positions were also won by Republican candidates.
In an unsurprising race, former Lt. Governor of California John Garamendi won that state’s District 10 house seat, but while the votes were still being tallied, Nancy Pelosi and her typical arrogance urged Garamendi to fly to Washington D.C. to be sworn in on Thursday.
These wins for conservative candidates follow special elections victories earlier in October. In Oklahoma, Todd Russ won a State House seat that hadn’t been held by the GOP since 1965. In Tennessee, Pat Marsh picked up a State House seat that had never been controlled by Republicans and gave the GOP their first opportunity to pick the Tennessee Speaker of the House in 40 years.
In New Jersey, the race for governor is neck-and-neck between Republican Chris Christie and Democrat Jon Corzine. The Virginia gubernatorial race has seen Bob McDonnell take a commanding lead over Creigh Deeds. And in New York, Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava has dropped out after falling behind Democrat Bill Owens and Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman. All three could help define a new political landscape after surprising special election outcomes in Oklahoma and Tennessee just weeks ago.
In what could be a big loss for Democrats, polling on Friday showed Chris Christie leading by a slim margin in New Jersey, 41 percent favoring him opposed to Jon Corzine’s 39. The numbers are well within the margin of error and the race could break either way. The White House has stepped heavily into the race to give Corzine support, with President Barack Obama appearing in television and radio ads for the Democratic candidate as well as traveling to New Jersey to stump for him there. Democrats hope that Obama’s presence will result in increased voter turnout.
The president has distanced himself, however, from the gubernatorial race in Virginia where Republican Bob McDonnell has opened up an 11 point lead over Democrat Creigh Deeds. Virginia voted for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 when it weighed in favor of Obama last November. According to Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, “The fact of the matter is that Obama won Virginia comfortably. And the Democrat is now well behind in Virginia. Obviously that’s not a good sign for Obama.”
In probably the most compelling race, Republican Dierdre Scozzafava put her campaign for New York’s 23rd Congressional District on suspension after falling behind both Democrat Bill Owens and upstart Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman. Hoffman’s campaign has intrigued the nation, having received support from former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, and now House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) after Scozzafava’s drop out. A registered Republican, Hoffman jumped into the race because he believed Scozzafava, a pro-choice candidate who also supported the embattled ACORN organization among other controversial issues not associated with Republicans, didn’t represent the “ideals and values” of the party.
If these three races break conservative, it could paint a very different landscape for the political races of 2010. Already, special elections earlier in October have swung the way of Republicans. In Oklahoma, Todd Russ won a State House seat that hadn’t been held by the GOP since 1965. In Tennessee, Pat Marsh picked up a State House seat that had never been controlled by Republicans and gave the GOP their first opportunity to pick the Tennessee Speaker of the House in 40 years.
Try as he might, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Democrats that support him are getting nowhere fast with their insistence of a public option in the current health care legislation. All 40 Republican members of the Senate are against the public option meaning all 60 Democrats would have to approve it, but a number of moderate Democrats oppose it. Independent Senator Joe Lieberman has also announced that he would help the Republican filibuster.
Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, one of the Democrats on the fence, stated, “The question is, is this enough flexibility for states to account for their own circumstances? And the answer to that is perhaps. But I’d like to wait to see what’s in the language.”
Lieberman was more definitive. “I think such a government-run health insurance company will be bad for our country and really will hurt taxpayers.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is busy working on another proposed health care bill that also includes a public option, and she plans to make a formal announcement about it Thursday morning. Where Pelosi’s bill differs in Reid’s is in the requirement of government-run insurance. In her re-named “consumer option,” Pelosi will require universal sign-ups and the establishment of a new government-run insurance option for millions. Reid’s bill allows for states to opt-out of a modified version of the government insurance.
Additional pressure for moderate Democrats comes from the 5 million member MoveOn.org, which has publically stated that those Democrats who do not support the public option will not receive support from MoveOn.
Update: Eight more American soldiers died in bomb blasts today in Southern Afghanistan. Additional troops were injured and one Afghan civilian died in what was described as “multiple, complex bomb strikes.” The October death toll in Afghanistan has reached 55.
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President Obama plans to pull out of Iraq by August 2010. He continues to be undecided about troop deployments in Afghanistan. However, casualties have steadily mounted in recent days.
In Baghdad, Iraq, 155 died from twin suicide bombings over the weekend, including up to two dozen children that had been trapped in a bus leaving a day care facility. Many believe this was an attack directed at the Shiite government in light of proposed election law that is supposed to aid the country in moving forward with January’s election.
On the deadliest day for Americans in four years in Afghanistan, chopper crashes littered the landscape on Monday. The first was escaping a fire fight with insurgents and 10 Americans were killed. The second was a collision of two helicopters in which four American soldiers were killed and another two were wounded. The previous day two other Americans were killed in firefights.
Later on Monday, President Obama reiterated in a speech at a Naval Air Station in Jacksonville that he will not “rush the solemn decision” to send more troops into Afghanistan. “I won’t risk [American] lives unless it is absolutely necessary.”
Critics of Obama’s wait-and-see approach say the time for him to make a decision is emminent.
“It’s been more than two months since the recommendation went to the president,” said Senate Republican Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ). “And Gen. McChrystal is talking about a 12-month time frame. So clearly time is of the essence here.”
Even the United Nations envoy to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, urged NATO defense ministers on Friday to send more troops to the country and help stabilize the region. Nation nations, however, are still awaiting a decision from the United States by President Obama.
On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission passed a set of regulations that would prevent Internet service providers such as AT&T and Cox Cable from intentionally blocking Internet traffic. Coined “net neutrality,” supporters are encouraged that the new set of rules will ensure service companies will not be able to manipulate the choice of the common Internet surfer, also known as “traffic discrimination.” Also included is increased transparency on how carriers manage their networks and technologies (read: government playing Big Brother).
Critics, however, believe that net neutrality is another government power grab and that the new regulations will be an intrusion upon Internet customers since people can already surf the web to their heart’s content.
“Regulation kills innovation,” Senator John McCain stated. “Let’s not kill the Internet. An open and unfettered Internet may be the real stimulus during these difficult economic times, and it comes without a $787 billion price tag that is passed along to taxpayers at a significant cost for future generations.”
Government interference is also a concern. Said Tom Tauke, senior vice president for Public Policy at Verizon Communications, “When you’re trying to make the network flow, you can’t have lawyers looking over engineers’ shoulders telling them what they can and can’t do.”
This comes in addition to the proposed Cybersecurity Act which would give the government their own set of standards for private sector security and would license “cybersecurity professionals” who would oversee the new measures. Under this Act the president would also be given the power to declare “a cybersecurity emergency” and utilize “amorphous powers” to do as he wished, such as turn it off.
Samuel Adams: Always a good decision. You’ve heard the phrase before, but only in relation to a beer commercial (a great beer, I may add). Few remember that Samuel Adams was one of our great founding fathers. Son of a merchant and brewer and cousin to President John Adams, Samuel was a renowned politician in his own right. As a member of the Massachusetts Assembly, he was the first to propose a continental congress of which he was later a member. He was a passionate advocate of independence and was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
I bring this up now because of a quote that was used on Glenn Beck’s show last night in which Adams was speaking out against tyranny. However, my focus is on one sentence in particular of that quote: “The religion and public liberty of a people are intimately connected; their interest are interwoven, they cannot subsist separately; and therefore they rise and fall together.”
What is Adams talking about? He is talking about church and state and how they cannot be separated. The state of America is a mess right now and it comes on the heels of banning prayer and religious recognition in public places. People have actually been arrested for praying! Even children songs about Jesus are now being replaced with lyrics praising Barack Obama, while Obama himself snubbed this year’s National Prayer Day.
In the meantime, we have kids beating each other to death with railroad ties in Chicago, and greed has put a stranglehold on our economy.
Our founding fathers, while they did have their religious differences, believed they were being guided by a higher power to establish the United States of America:
James Madison: “It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it a finger of that Almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution.”
Alexander Hamilton: “For my own part, I sincerely esteem it a system, which without the finger of God, never could have been suggested and agreed upon by such a diversity of interest.”
Benjamin Franklin: “All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor. To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity.”
Charles Pinckney: “When the great work was done and published, I was struck with amazement. Nothing less than the superintending Hand of Providence, that so miraculously carried us through the war … could have brought it about so complete, upon the whole.”
George Washington: “No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the affairs of men, more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.”
God is included in our Declaration of Independence. God is included in our Constitution. The founding fathers knew we needed to keep our religion included in our state affairs to keep our country strong and prevent tyranny from reigning. Here is the full Samuel Adams quote:
“Is it not high time for the people of this country explicitly to declare, whether they will be freemen or slaves? It is an important question which ought to be decided. It concerns us more than anything in this life. The salvation of our souls is interested in the event. For wherever tyranny is establish’d, immorality of every kind comes in like a torrent. It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail. The religion and public liberty of a people are intimately connected; their interest are interwoven, they cannot subsist separately; and therefore they rise and fall together. For this reason, it is always observable, that those who are combined to destroy the people’s liberties, practice every art to poison their morals. How greatly then does it concern us, at all events, to put a stop to the progress of tyranny.”
Congressional Democrats are exploring the possibility of extending a number of benefits and credits that would total nearly $200 billion, but these costs would come in addition to the current $787 billion stimulus package. This proposal would include unemployment and health benefits, extending a tax credit for first-time homebuyers, and creating a new credit for employers who add jobs. Also under consideration is a Republican proposal that would allow companies operating in the red to receive tax refunds from the previous five years instead of the two currently allowed by law.
The costs add up quickly. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, extending unemployment benefits through next year would cost about $100 billion. Economists estimate that if the homebuyer tax credit were to be extended to summer 2010, the costs would add up to the tune of about $16.7 billion. An employer tax credit proposal that had been removed from the stimulus plan was calculated to cost $19.5 billion. Unknown is what an extended tax refund would look like or how much it would cost to extend subsidies for laid-off employees who are having to utilize the very expensive COBRA health plan, but the current program that runs until the end of 2009 costs about $25 billion. Toss into the mix that President Obama would like to spend an additional $13 to $14 billion on $250 payments to Social Security recipients, and the proposals could quickly add up to nearly $200 billion.
