Archive → December, 2010
OPEC wants $100 per barrel
Members of OPEC are trying to force the market to a target price of $100 per barrel, according to the latest media reports. With the current price of oil at $94.74, thanks primarily to a weak US dollar under President Barak Obama, they are already most of the way to their goal.
Only Saudi Arabia – the largest exporter of oil – is breaking from the pack. They would prefer to see prices retreat to $75 a barrel, a drop that would restore the price at the pump to around $2.50 per gallon, give or take a little. A rise to $100 per barrel would push US gas prices close to $3.25 per gallon for regular unleaded.
Tis the season to be greedy, if you’re OPEC, it seems. Maybe OPEC execs need to spend more time enjoying a massage therapy program online, rather than thinking up ways to artificially prop up prices and ruin the world economy. Again.
GOP to open House session with… gasp… Constitution reading
The new GOP-controlled House of Representatives is certainly planning to start off on the right foot. Word out of Washington is that when the new Congress is sworn in and takes power, the first order of business will be to read into the record the founding document of this country: the U.S. Constitution.
That is both a Ron Paul wet dream come true, and a much-needed change of attitude in Washington, which for far too many years has imposed its will without regard tot he Constitution at all. Among the other reforms the GOP is planning to bring as they establish the new rules of the road for this Congress is that each bill brought before the House must cite the Constitutional grounds for its proposal.
Now, if congressmen and congresswomen actually live up to these principles, it could make for a refreshingly freedom-based makeover of the Federal government… at least in the House of Representatives. Many people have argued the US government hasn’t lived by the Constitution for decades now. If this goes beyond symbolism into the substance of conducting House business day-by-day, it’s a much-needed reform. It’d be like handing a bunch of long stem roses to the American people.
However, there is a huge potential backfire risk. If they promise all this, but once House business gets rolling they return to government as usual, then their tenure in control of the US House could be short-tern indeed.
Lame Duck Congress goes down spending
Well, clearly their massive losses in the November midterms taught Dems nothing. With the lowest Congressional Approval ratings in modern polling, the Nancy Pelosi Lame Duck Session is determined to pass as much of the liberal agenda American reject in November as possible before the GOP takes the reigns.
That includes overturning Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell over the objections of the Pentagon, attempting to disguise another stimulus spending bill as a tax cut, and tagging onto that a record number of controversial earmark measures that were the sort of thing that swung moderates against them.
Sometimes politics like this is so petty, I’d rather just blog about iPhone, iPad, iPod and Amazon’s Kindle than have to slog through this nonsense. It’s a lot more enjoyable that watch an entire party play The Biggest Sore Loser.
LeMieux understands spending problem
When he was appointed by former Florida governor Charlie Crist to fill out the term of U.S. Senator Mel Martinez on the condition he not run for that seat permanently, George LeMieux was a newcomer to Washington. Now that he’s leaving, he is showing he learned the problems in Washington quickly.
LeMieux points out that in the last year alone, government has added $1.3 trillion to the US deficit that now stands at $14 trillion. With the advent of ObamaCare, that could grow to $26 trillion by 2020, an unsustainable level of debt. LeMieux suggests nixing ObamaCare as an important first step to curing the problem. That’d pay for a ton of security cameras.
He is considering challenging Democrat Bill Nelson in 2012; if he stays true to those types of fiscal conservative priorities, he would appear to be an intriguing choice for the GOP.
Rogers the wrong choice for Appropriations
The GOP surged back into commanding control of Congress in November due to voters upset with earmarks, but now House Speaker-designate John Boehner has made an appointment to the key Appropriations Committee, which controls House tax policy, that has many conservatives and Tea Party types up in arms … and justifiably so.
Veteran House member Hal Rogers, a Republican from Kentucky, has a long and sullied history of indulging in earmarks, is apparently Boehner’s choice for the Appropriations chair. Really? A guy who loves earmarks, in charge of House tax policy? Really? I mean, never mind the personal insults like that Rogers could really use some diet pills that actually work; this is about whether he’s on board with the agenda the American people voted the GOP back in power to achieve. What a poor call.
Time for Steele to step down
He will announce his decision Monday evening, but the time has come for RNC Chairman Michael Steele to step down. Steele worked with establishment Republicans and against the energized Tea Party base in the past election cycle, which may have led directly to the GOP’s failure to take over the Senate.
Worse is his free-spending approach to RNC funds; the financial carelessness with which he’s managed the office has proven he’s not the right person to continue in the position. While he doesn’t need any steel buildings to house wealth he’s made from the position – after all, let’s not exaggerate things – he has spent loads of money on the 2012 Republican National Convention compared to what was spent at the same point on the 2008 convention.
While Steele hasn’t completely disqualified himself from future leadership positions, he’s messed this one up badly and needs some time away. Hopefully, he takes it now, rather than having it forced upon him.
Netanyahu draws line at Jerusalem
For over forty years, US policy for working toward peace in the Middle East has revolved around one policy: Israel must surrender land to achieve peace with their Palestinian neighbors. It’s a philosophy that’s still espoused today by US President Barack Obama.
Trouble is, no matter how often Israel complies with such proposals, the results remain the same: the PLO continues its acts of terrorism and demands more, more, more. In the latest round of negotiations, Obama’s Administration is pushing Netanyahu’s to surrender parts, or all, of Jerusalem.
But finally, an Israeli leader is willing to say, “Enough’s enough.”
While some previous leaders were willing to surrender the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, when it comes to Jerusalem, Netanyahu has said that’s a step too far. He’s not one wearing political lingerie of a weak homeland security policy; Netanyahu knows that there must be limits on how much land one surrenders before it becomes “too much.”
Would Obama surrender the East Coast, including Washington DC, to Canada to “achieve peace” if Canada were bombing US sites and cities regularly?
On second thought, bad example. Obama would likely just surrender the entire country.
Solutions are few
Solutions are few… and tend to be expensive… for those dealing with issues like opiate detox. Drug use is a huge problem in this country and yet there’s a lot of silence surrounding what it takes to help bring those caught up in it to a point of recovery.
Some folks would like ObamaCare to cover the bill, but really, it’s better when there’s a cost associated with recovery that the patient has to bear in part; it teaches them that there’s a cost to their poor decisions.
My father struggled with alcohol abuse until I was about 13. So I know how troubling situations like this can be.
So-called “tax cut” bill is Stimulus III
The GOP needs to learn that not everything labeled a tax cut is a good thing, especially when proposed by a Democrat. That’s the moral of the story with President Obama’s flirtation with the GOP by offering a two-year extension of the so-called “Bush Tax Cuts.”
Set to expire on January 1, 2011, letting the cuts expire amounts to a huge tax increase on an already hurting economy. Obama knows keeping them going is big on the GOP wish list, so he’s offering the two-year extension in exchange for what amounts to a third Stimulus Bill.
And unfortunately, the GOP that took power in the house has no say in it; the current lame-duck Congress is still in power. It’s the kind of move that could make Obama look good and the GOP look bad, because they ran on an agenda that sets them against the very sort of spending bill this Stimulus Tax Cut bill represents. It’s stuffed to the gills with earmarks.
Of course, all the life insurance quotes in the world won’t turn a dime into a diamond; the best thing the GOP could do is call Obama’s bluff, reject the bill and call for an up-and-down vote on extending the tax cuts. As a lame duck Congress, what do they have to lose?
