You would have thought that after passing the stimulus bill without reading it, and witnessing the fact that the stimulus bill has been a total failure, that the House would take the time to actually read what they are voting on from now on. You would be wrong.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that the government flushed upwards of $3 trillion down the toilet in the stimulus bill without being at least a little responsible and finding out where that money was going, the House of Representatives just repeated that same mistake when they voted on the climate changes legislation without reading what was in the bill. Another $1 trillion down the drain without a care in the world by our elected officials.
But why should they care; they aren’t spending their own money. The government does not produce anything, they do not manufacture anything. Therefor the government does not make any money. But they have to get money, so they take money. They take money from you and I, and they love to spend it.
This is so damned irresponsible, I just can’t put it into words. As hard of a time as I would have accepting this bill with this type of wasteful spending on a “theory” that we are hurting the planet, at least I could accept it easier if these politicians took the time to read what they are voting on.
We elect these people to represent us and they cannot even take the time to read what they are voting on to make sure it represents our best interests? We need to vote all of these irresponsible clowns out of office — the sooner the better.
All I ask of them is to read a bill before they vote on it. Is that too much to ask?
Today the Supreme Court made an historic ruling. Finally we as Americans have reached the point in this country where merit over race can become the deciding factor when hiring employees. No longer is color an issue, we can now be a color blind society.
The Supreme Court today ruled in favor of the New Haven firefighters who were denied promotions simply because of their color. The Supreme Court has said that these men were discriminated against, and they were. The problem with this decision according to the left is the fact that most of the firefighters who were suing were white– one was Spanish.
Here is an excerpt from the majority opinion:
Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer’s reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions,” wrote Justice Anthony M. Kennedy
The court ruled that these men were denied a promotion because of their race and that is exactly what happened. When it was learned that only two Spanish people and no black people passed the test instead of handing out the promotions to the firefighters who deserved them the fire department decided not to hand out any promotions. Being white, and Spanish, cost these firefighters the promotions that they had worked so hard to get.
Today justice was done. A man or woman should receive promotions based solely on hard work, productivity, and merit. The best candidate for a job should be the candidate that gets the job, race should never play a factor. And today America took a step in that direction.
But according to the left some racism is okay. It is okay to deny certain groups promotions if the group is not a preferred group of the left. That is what happened in this case.
Certainly President Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, believes that some racism is good. She is the judge who decided that the New Haven firefighters did not deserve the promotions that they were qualified for because they were the wrong color.
This decision from the Supreme Court, besides ending racial discrimination in the workplace, has to be a black eye for Sonia Sotomayor who agrees with racial discrimination in some cases, and who already has 60% of her decisions overturned by the Supreme Court.
The Obama administration had a pretty good idea that the Supreme Court was going to overturn Sonia Sotomayor yet again but they were hoping that the decision wouldn’t come down until after her confirmation hearings to avoid this embarrassment, but that was not to be.
This has to be considered as an embarrassment to the president. The fact that his nominee to the Supreme Court has already been overturned more than 50% of the time shows us that she just doesn’t understand the constitution and for the latest example of this to come so close to her confirmation hearings has to have the president throwing up in his mouth a little bit. You would think the president would have nominated a candidate that understood the job description but that is not the case and her high rate of Supreme Court reversals offer us all the proof that we need.
Two things were accomplished with this ruling today; racial discrimination of ANY kind was ruled unconstitutional, and Sonia Sotomayor was shown to be unfit for the promotion that she is up for.
On a side note: I am getting tired of the way the media is portraying this as the Supreme Court siding with the white firefighters, not all of the firefighters in this case were white. This is an attempt to diminish the ruling today. The Supreme Court did not rule with the white firefighters, they ruled against discrimination and that should be applauded.
Eight Republicans Who Sold America Out
There are eight Republicans who have sold America out and their names need to be made public. Calls and emails need to be sent by every single American who reads this post. We need to voice our displeasure with these eight sellouts. If you are a constituent you need to not only vote against these Republicans in 2010, you to actively campaign for another candidate. We can not sit idly by and let these people get away with what they have done.
Who are these Republicans who have so decimated our country and what did they do?
Here are their names:
Chris Smith (NJ)
David Reichert (WA)
Frank Lobiondo (NJ)
Mark Steven Kirk (IL)
Mary Bono-Mack (CA)
Mike Castle (DE)
Leo Nance (NJ)
John McHugh (NY)
What was their crime? These are the eight Republicans who voted in favor of the cap and tax legislation. Even as 44 conservative to moderate Democrats broke ranks with the president and voted against the bill these eight Republicans secured this disastrous legislation its passage.
These eight Republicans just voted for the largest tax increase in the history of the world, a tax that will hurt every single American and drive up our energy prices and they need to pay with their political lives. These Republicans need to be targeted in the primary and removed from office, they are no longer fit to call themselves conservatives, (if they ever did). Without their support this bill would have been defeated. If they had held true as they did on the stimulus fiasco this bill would not have passed and we wouldn’t be on the verge of passing huge tax increases and industry harming policies.
Three of them are from New Jersey, one from New York, no surprises there. No surprise with California either. Then there was one Republican from Obama’s adopted home state as well as Joe Biden’s state, perhaps the fix was in for those two states.
These eight Republicans just approved one of President Obama’s most radical agenda items and we can not let them get away with this, we have to make them pay for their crime during the 2010 election.
Unions Could Be Exempted From Healthcare Benefits Tax
One of the plans that is being considered to pay for healthcare reform is taxing the healthcare benefits of those who already pay for their own insurance– an idea proposed by John McCain and ridiculed by then candidate Obama during the campaign.
Because of the huge issue that candidate Obama made over McCain’s plan to tax healthcare benefits I find this to be one of the biggest flip-flops in presidential history if the government goes through with it.
Under this proposal people who provide healthcare for their families through their employers will be punished by a tax on their benefits to pay for those who do not provide for their own families.
Needless to say unions are against the idea of taxing the healthcare benefits that they won in negotiations with employers and they voiced their opposition loudly. They have been heard and the current plan in the senate would exempt union members from paying the tax that the non-union employees will still have to pay.
It would shield the 12.4 percent of American workers who belong to unions from being taxed while exposing some other middle-income workers to the levy
If you are a non-union employee and you have the same healthcare plan as a union member you will be forced to pay for another family’s insurance while the union member is exempt. This is outrageous. Talk about placating a special interest.
I can’t think of any other aspect of the individual income tax that treats benefits of different people differently because of who they work for,” said Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington research group that often criticizes Democrats’ economic proposals. Edwards said the carve-out “smacks of political favoritism”
“Political favoritism” is exactly what this would be. This can not be allowed to happen. Nobody should have to pay for other people’s insurance but then to add salt to the wound certain employees would be exempted from paying the tax just because the company they work for is unionized.
Why is being a non-union employee a black mark? Why are unionized employees who make the same as non-unionized employees not going to be subject to the same screw job? Union or non-union, people of the same classes are going to be treated differently under this plan. Union employees will receive preferential treatment. This has to be stopped.
Originally we were told that only the heathcare benefits of rich people were going to be taxed, but now we find out that what be more important in the eyes of the government is whether or not you are a union employee. Suddenly middle class Americans may have to pay this tax also, but not all middle class Americans just those who do not belong to a union.
The more that we hear about healthcare reform the worse it gets.
New Hampshire’s Budget Awaits Court Battle
The New Hampshire budget that was recently passed on the backs, or should I say wallets, of the taxpayers may be in a little trouble. In order for the governor to balance the budget he has attempted to steal $110 million from a program run by the Joint Underwriting Association that provides cut-rate malpractice insurance for doctors.
There is one little problem with the governor’s sly little plan. The JUA is in the midst of a lawsuit and the money can not be touched until the lawsuit is settled. The Joint Underwriting Association is not part of the executive branch of the state government; it is a separate entity and as such Governor Lynch may never get his greedily little paws on this $110 million.
Mine, mine, mine, all mine
That is more than a little problem for the governor, who was relying on stealing $65 million from the agency to balace last year’s bloated, irresponsible budget that ends on Tuesday as well as using another $45 million to balance next year’s budget.
As the court battle rages on, New Hampshire is left with a $100 million hole in the budget and no way to pay for it. The one thing that I was willing to say about John Lynch that was positive was that he is a smart man and a great business man. I now have to question his wisdom in trying to balance a budget with money that was unavailable. He doesn’t sound like such a smart man now.
Governor Lynch made himself a millionaire in business, but he runs the state as if he has never run a business before. Watching the way he has bankrupt the state I have to wonder how he ever made it in the business world. Maybe that is why he got out and joined politics in the first place.
When John Boehner was asked why he tried to filibuster the cap and trade bill by reading portions of the 300 pages of the bill which were added right before the vote he replied thusly:
“Hey, people deserve to know what’s in this pile of shit.”
Finally a politician who tells the American people exactly what this bill is full of. Here is what one Democrat had to say about John Boehner’s attempt to read the bill in front of the house before members voted on it:
What do you expect from a guy who thinks global warming is caused by cow manure?
That was supposed to be a joke, an attempt to make fun of John Boehner but I have one question. Even if John Boehner did believe cow manure caused global warming would that be any more ridiculous than believing any of the other “causes” that we are constantly being told cause global warming– including man? One more question I just thought of, would that be any more ridiculous than believing global warming was occurring in the first place?
While talking about Republicans who oppose the climate change bill this is what Rep. Anthony Weiner had to say:
Ahmadinejad, the Saudi Kingdom — they want exactly what my Republican friends are advocating,
Did he just compare Republicans who are opposed to the climate change bill to these two repressive regimes? It certainly seems so. He was trying to say that because America is dependent on foreign oil that Republicans who oppose climate change are playing into Iran and Saudi Arabia’s hands. But to use that wording was incredibly insulting.
Can’t one make the same arguments for Democrats who refuse to drill for oil in this country? I think so.
There are many, many reasons to oppose this climate change legislation; it is the largest tax increase in history, it promotes government intrusion into people lives and into private businesses, the list goes on. As a matter of fact one could say that to be in favor of such intrusive and controlling legislation is to be acting like a dictator of a third world country.
US House Passes Cap and Trade Legislation
Cross posted on Grizzly Groundswell
Today the House of Representatives passed the Climate Change bill by a vote of 219-212. Forty Democrats voted against the bill but eight Republicans broke ranks and voted for this disaster.
This is what I was afraid of. We needed the Blue Dog Democrats to hold firm and it looks like they did, but we also needed Republicans to hold firm and they failed to do so. They have let us down. I have not yet found the roll call vote to see which Republicans sold us down the river but once we find out who they were we must make sure that we vote them out of office.
If Republicans held true on this bill as they did on the stimulus bill this legislation would have been defeated. Is it any wonder why conservative voters have had enough of the Republicans in the government?
The president has called this bill “historic legislation” and he is correct. It isn’t often that the congress votes in favor of the largest tax increase in the history of the world but today that is exactly what they did. Even President Obama and other Democrats have admitted that this legislation means higher energy costs for ALL Americans. Add another $1 trillion plus to the budget that has already bankrupted the country.
Evidently the House did not learn from the disaster that was the stimulus bill for, just like the stimulus bill, nobody read this bill before they voted on it. As a matter of fact Nancy Pelosi had the only copy of the legislation and members who wanted to read it were told they would have to leave the chamber to do so.
Now it is on to the senate where the rumors are that this bill faces tough opposition. I hope that is true but I don’t buy it, this bill is on the fast track to the president’s desk before the American people can find out what is actually in it. And with the likes of the usual suspect; Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, and John McCain, it looks to me like the Democrats will have the votes.
Climate change legislation is basically a done deal now and we are all facing a major tax increase that is in direct contrast to Obama’s promise that 95% of Americans will receive a tax break while he is president and we have eight Republicans to thank for it.
We can only hope that over the July 4th recess enough Americans voice their disapproval to their senators to sway the Senate to kill this bill. We did it on the immigration reform bill two years ago and we have to try to do it again.
Update: The eight Republicans were, Chris Smith (NJ), David Reichert (WA), Frank Lobiondo (NJ), Mark Steven Kirk (IL), Bono-Mack (CA), Castle (DE), Leo Nance (NJ), John McHugh (NY).
There has been an ongoing and ever expanding ethics investigation into alleged violations committed by Charlie Rangel. As this investigation nears the one year mark the probe will expand yet again, as the ethics committee wants to look into Charlie Rangel’s Caribbean trips.
The newest problem for Charlie Rangel may be that he, and four other Democrats, have violated House gift rules by taking these trips.
The more the ethics committee investigates Charlie Rangel the worse it looks for him. The committee finds more and more possible problems. It would seem to me that Charlie Rangel should resign as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee if not from the house altogether. But that is not going to happen so he should at least remove himself as chairman of the House committee until this investigation is over.
At least that would give the American people the impression that no more improprieties are being committed.
Climate Change Vote Could Come Tomorrow
The vote on the climate change bill could come tomorrow and according to this story the Democrats feel that they are within 12 votes of passage.
Let’s hope that this is as close as this legislation gets to passage. Conservatives and Blue Dog Democrats need to hold firm and not give in to the pressure that is being applied to them by Nancy Pelosi.
The bill needs 218 votes to pass and according to the article that I linked to above Nancy Pelosi is hoping to get 230 votes so that the Blue Dogs will be able to vote against it and save their jobs in the 2010 election.
It looks like this is going to be a close vote and let’s hope that the conservative Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats hold true and are not swayed by either threats or promises.
The best chance that we have to stop this bill is in the House of Representatives, if it makes it to the senate we are all screwed. There is still time to make your voice heard. Call and email your representatives immediately and voice your displeasure. Let them know that you will not sit idly by in 2010 if they vote for the largest tax increase in history.
