The story is well known by now: Scott Walker and the Republicans in the state legislature in Wisconsin introduced a bill which would strip public employees from some of their collective bargaining rights in an attempt to help bring the state deficit under control. Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Republicans won last November and took over in part because of this issue.
The budget bill was introduced and debated in the state House but when it became clear that the Democrats were going to lose the debate they fled the state and refused to come back–denying the duly elected representatives of the state to right to do what the people sent them there to do. Barack Obama once famously said that elections have consequences, and as we have all seen on a federal level, he is right.
But when the Wisconsin Democrats did not like the consequences of this election they cowardly ran away rather than doing the people’s business. The Democrats are trying to claim that striping the collective bargaining rights of public employees is undemocratic, while at the same time trying to make the point that refusing to participate in the democratic process is democratic.
Barack Obama also has repeatedly told the American people that we must sacrifice in these times in order to turn this economy around, but the Democrats largest special interest group–the unions–apparently feel as if they are above the sacrifices that the president has called for. (I guess they feel we must sacrifice for them.)
Scott Walker tried to convince the Democrats to act like men and come back to the state to take up the state’s business, but they hid like scared little children. So today the Republicans took action. While spending bills in Wisconsin require a 20 vote majority to pass, all other bills require only a simple majority, so today the Wisconsin Republicans separated the spending portion of the bill from the collective bargaining portion of the bill and voted to strip public employees of some of their collective bargaining rights.
This is certainly a drastic measure and will definitely have repercussions, but perhaps this will bring the Democrats in the state back to the table where they can negotiate something that is more suitable to all.
Senate rejects two budget bills over spending cuts
Today the Senate voted on two budget bills which would have reduced spending in Washington–both failed. The first bill was the House version of the budget bill which included over $60 billion in spending cuts–just over half of the $100 billion House Republicans promised us in the first place–and then shortly thereafter the Senate also rejected a bill put forth by the Democrats which included a mere $5 billion in cuts.
Democrat Ben Nelson stated that the House bill contained “too much hate” and because of this he could not vote for it. By labeling spending cuts in a time of economic turmoil a “hate” bill he is showing us that he–and I fear too many in Washington–simply are not serious about confronting the looming deficit crunch. The fact is that nobody wants to make the tough decisions and I feel as if they are not willing to do what is best for the country–even if it means they may lose re-election–they shouldn’t have run for office in the first place. And when I make this comment I mean both Republicans and Democrats because the Republicans promised to introduce $100 billion in savings but once it came to make good on that promise they let us down.
The state of Maine petitioned the Health and Human Services Department for a waiver from Obamacare, siting the worry that the implementation of the healthcare reform law would lead to a destabilization of the healthcare market in the state and would force one of Maine’s healthcare provides to leave the state. And today the state of Maine was granted this waiver.
Maine was the first state to be granted this waiver, but may not be the last as Kentucky, Nevada and New Hampshire have also applied for waivers. What does this tell us about Obamacare when over 1,000 organizations have been granted waivers and now states are also being granted waivers?
I think that this tells us this was a poorly crafted bill which wasn’t properly studied and was voted on before anyone in the Congress had the chance to read what they were voting for. Nancy Pelosi told us that the Congress had to pass the bill in order to find out what was in it and those words certainly seem prophetic now.
Kathleen Sebelius admits the administration is double counting on Obamacare to hide the impact on the federal deficit
Kathleen Sebelius admitted during testimony last week that the Obama regime is double counting $500 billion in Medicare cuts, and one can easily assume that this is being done in order to hide the true costs of Obamacare in a blatant attempt to bolster the claim that the healthcare reform law would not add to the deficit. It is these numbers which the CBC used when it came to the conclusion that the Obamacare law would not add to the deficit, and the numbers were purposely misleading.
When pressed by John Shimkus–Republican from Illinois–Kathleen Sebilius had no choice but to admit the deception:
There is an issue here on the budget, because your own actuary has said, you can’t double-count,” said Shimkus.
“Your own actuary says you can’t do both. So, my simple question — I have 27 seconds left — what’s the $500 billion in cuts for? Preserving Medicare or funding the health care law? Which is it?”
When Sebelius did not give a direct answer, Shimkus tried again: “Are you using it (the $500 billion) to save Medicare or are you using it to fund health care reform? Which one?”
“Both,” Sebelius replied.
“So you’re double counting
When confronted on this issue–under pressure–she could not come up with a viable answer and had to admit the truth; even when told that the funds could not be counted for both Medicare savings and healthcare funding the only answer she could come up with was that the funds were being used for both.
This is a startling admission that the Obama regime did not give the CBC the actual numbers when they studied the issue of healthcare reform before the vote was taken. In other words, the Obama regime was fudging the numbers to hide the true budget impact that Obamacare carried.
Is any more proof needed to prove that Obamacare needs to be repealed as soon as possible? The Obama regime was engaged in the purposeful deception of the American people and of the CBC.
Have you heard of “Project Gunrunner?” If you watch the mainstream media you probably have not. “Operation Gunrunner” was a program run by the ATF in which they sold hundreds of guns to known Mexican criminals and gang members so they could track the weapons back to the gangs. In other words, “Project Gunrunner” was a sting operation.
Last year these guns started showing up at crime scenes–naturally that is what happens when you purposely sell guns to criminals–but then last December the sting went horribly wrong. One of the guns was sold to a criminal who then turned around and killed Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
Barack Obama will resume military tribunals at GITMO
The Obama regime announced earlier today that they would resume trying the detainees held at GITMO in military tribunals on the much maligned base. This is a clear reversal of one of Barack Obama’s biggest campaign promises and one that should draw the ire of all those voters who felt that Barack Obama would make good on his promise to restore the standing of America in the world by shutting down GITMO.
During the campaign Barack Obama called GITMO a “recruiting tool” for al Qaeda which was making the world a more dangerous place. He promised to bring the detainees at GITMO to the United States, give them rights under the constitution, and try them in civilian courts–treating these terrorists as simple criminals instead of enemies of the United States. He said this would show the world that we are better than the terrorists because we would be providing them with the same rights as American citizens even in light of the fact that the terrorists were trying to destroy America and the rights we stood for; they would gain rights under the very same constitution they were trying to destroy.
At the end of January I wrote a post about 733 multi-million dollar companies and unions were granted healthcare waivers so that they would not be required to meet the minimum coverage requirements as outlined in the healthcare reform law. It has been about five weeks since I wrote that post so, as you can imagine, that number has grown even higher. According to this story the number of organizations which have received healthcare reform waivers now tops 1,000. Roughly three hundred companies since my last post have asked for and received a waiver from Obamacare.
The Obama regime’s defense on this is rather interesting. They claim that these waivers are being granted in order to give these companies and unions more time to implement the law without disrupting the healthcare plans these organizations already have in place. (That’s right, these organizations already have healthcare benefits, the government just doesn’t think they are good enough.
Disrupting plans that people already have? Hmm, interesting. Here is what Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had to say when asked about the healthcare waivers: Read more…
Videos: The Noise live from Kingston, New Hampshire
I have decided to take a couple of days off from political blogging in order to give myself a much needed break, anyone who blogs daily will understand how time consuming this can be and understand that once in awhile a break is needed.
Some of my readers know that my son Andy (or should I call him Shaggy?) is a guitarist in a metal/grunge/hard rock band called The Noise. Last night Sanborn High School held a fundraiser and several bands played–including The Noise. Equipped with Tim’s–my younger son–smartphone, which is capable of recording high def videos, I recorded the show. I have decided to post four of the videos I recorded for your listening and viewing pleasure.
The first song that I decided to include is a political song called “What are We Fighting For” which Dan (singer/guitarist) wrote for his friend who is serving in Iraq–this song was dedicated to all of our heroes who are currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Next up, in order, is a brand new song called “Six Foot Fame,” “Chains,” and “My Way.”
Enjoy.
Either tomorrow or Monday I will post the other four songs that The Noise played on Friday.
Two American airmen were killed in Germany earlier this week, and despite the reports that a radicalized Muslim–Arid Uka–was shouting allahu Akbar during the attack the media refused to acknowledge the fact that this could be a terrorist attack. Instead the media focused on the fact that Uka and the two airmen were involved in an argument before the shooting.
In what can only be seen as a blow to the propaganda arm of the Obama regime, the German investigators are now admitting that this shooting may indeed have been a terrorist attack. This of course doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone outside of the mainstream media in America. However, the media–and the Obama regime–are still unwilling to admit the true gravity of this situation as the mantra is that Arid Uka was a “lone wolf.”
America's Watchtower 