Category → Congress
As national debt hits $14 trillion, ObamaCare repeal looms
Get this: the national debt, run up to these levels largely under President Obama’s watch, is about to hit the $14 trillion mark. And people wonder why the U.S. Dollar is floundering? Amidst this fiscal disaster, too many folks are being critical of House Republicans’ plan to pass a repeal of ObamaCare, the massive overhaul of the US health system widely considered to be a job-killer and an economy-killer, as well as a budget tsunami.
So we’re already in debt up to our eyeballs and folks want to say the GOP has a bad idea by wanting to put the skids on to an entirely new realm of Federal spending (and the resulting increased taxation that will spin out from it?)
Seriously, what is the national media smoking? And can you find it on medical computer carts under ObamaCare?
Shuler for Speaker?
Former Washington Redskins QB Heath Shuler, a North Carolina Democrat, has announced he’ll run for the Speakership of the House of Representatives against Nancy Pelosi after the November elections. He may have been speaking presumptuously.
While Shuler needs less eye wrinkle cream than Pelosi, he must have a hard time reading the newspapers; the chances of the Dems retaining control of the House of Representatives is dim at best. And he’s not necessarily a shoe-in for re-election in his own district just yet.
While anyone would be an improvement over Pelosi, chances are the next Speaker will come from the GOP side of the House.
WP endorses … Sanu Patel-Zellinger in MN 40B
Forget the DFL label (not to mention the phentermine reviews) … long-term incumbent Ann Lenczewski’s time has come. Her history of tax hikes and her powerful position in the Minnesota House make her a threat if Dayton wins; her wild, out-of-control budgets might actually pass without Pawlenty as the gatekeeper.
And finally, in Sanu Patel-Zellinger, House District 40B finally has a worthy challenger; she’s made the rounds throughout the district several times and is winning the lawn-sign battle against Ann, though it’s close.
Patel-Zellinger is a smart conservative with a great back-story that will remind some folks of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. She’s the daughter of immigrants and her values spring from bedrock conservatism, not mere GOP service and loyalty. She deserves a shot to represent Bloomington in Saint Paul. Who knows? If she wins, she might even be a great gubernatorial candidate for the GOP in about eight or 12 years.
Therefore, WonderfulPessimist.com gladly endorses Sanu Patel-Zellinger for Minnesota House District 40B.
WP endorses … no one in Minnesota Third
Minnesota has a GOP member as an incumbent in Minnesota’s Third Congressional District; the successor to Jim Ramstad, Erik Paulson is a carbon copy of the long-term GOP veteran. Although a Republican, Paulson remains as mum as possible on his actual stances, preferring to communicate in “values”-speak rather than positions on issues.
If that were not reason enough for concern, the ultra-liberal StarTribune just endorsed Paulson over his DFL opponent, Jim Meffert. That’s what George Will once termed, “Strange New Respect” from the left. That makes me really nervous about Paulson.
Of course, Paulson could calm these concerns by actually outing himself as either more conservative or more liberal, but at every opportunity to define himself, he changes the subject. Considering he’s collaborated more with folks like DFL first-district rep Tim Walz than he has with sixth-district rep Michele Bachmann, we just can’t support Paulson’s brand of undercover politics. Let him sleep in dog beds until he gains the courage to take bold stands … or, really, any stands at all; that’s what real leadership is about.
That being said, DFLer Jim Meffert is a greenhorn and too leftist for our tastes.
Therefore, in Minnesota’s third congressional district, WonderfulPessimist.com endorses … absolutely no one.
WP endorses … Michele Bachman for MN Sixth District
While both candidates in Minnesota’s sixth U.S. congressional district could benefit from some deep wrinkle cream, it was a no-brainer for us to endorse Michele Bachmann for re-election to a third term.
While Democrat Tarryl Clark is a more legitimate challenger than Bachmann has faced since rising to office, Clark crossed an ethics line in our book when she used a Bachmann ad tagline, “I’m Michele Bachmann and I approve this message” as a pseudo-endorsement of one of Clark’s own anti-Bachmann commercials. It was intentionally misleading and unfair.
Clark has a lot to learn before being ready to unseat Bachmann; meanwhile, Bachmann has been one of Minnesota’s most influential members of Congress on the national stage. She deserves a third term to continue her work. That’s why WonderfulPessimist.com endorses Michele Bachmann for Minnesota’s sixth U.S. Congressional District.
Pelosi may try to pass health care without a vote
Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, currently unable to round up enough Democratic votes to pass the health care reform bill on to the next step of the legislative process, has indicated she may try to pass the measure without a vote.
The procedure, which strangely is performed without the aid of convex mirrors, is nevertheless a procedural trick called a “self-executing rule” or “deem and pass.”
The upshot is that Pelosi would package a popular set of fixes to the Senate bill – a vote only on those changes – and then “deem” the whole package to be passed by the House. While the procedure has been used in the past, it has never been utilized on such a major, economy-shifting piece of legislation.
Of course, even those popular fixes would not be guaranteed to receive passage into law, as the whole mess can still be messed with in other processes both before and after final passage by President Obama, who has staked so much of his presidency on this thing that at the moment, he’d sign a bill approving the cloning of Adolph Hitler if it meant passing something called “health care reform.”
Most. Corrupt. Congress. Ever.
Dems agree to seat Brown early
Massachusetts US Senator-elect Scott Brown was scheduled to be seated on Thursday, February 11, but will now be sworn in about a week early, on Thursday, February 4. Brown demanded his official seating in the US Senate take place sooner when he learned some Dems in the Senate were trying to schedule key votes prior to his taking office. Brown, a Republican, is the 41st GOP vote and ends the Dems’ filibuster-proof majority in the Senate – at least until some rogue RINO breaks ranks.
While this means Dems no longer have unfettered access to the MMF drawer, it by no means diminishes their substantial majority and ability to pass just about anything they want to pass, considering they are nine votes over a 50-50 split even with Sen. Brown sworn in.
Of course, look for Sen. Harry Reid to blame anything and everything that doesn’t work out on Sen. Brown and the GOP from here on out, because, of course, anything short of a “we don’t have to play fair” majority is, for Reid, “a stranglehold on power by the GOP.”
Whatever.
Pelolsi promises health care reform no matter what
Regardless of today’s special election in Massachusetts that could take away the Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, the nation will see some kind of health care reform, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The power-drunk Dem diva said, “Let’s remove all doubt, we will have healthcare one way or another. Certainly the dynamic would change depending on what happens in Massachusetts. Just the question about how we would proceed. But it doesn’t mean we won’t have a health care bill.”
Never mind that most Americans would rather hear William Shatner discuss acne home remedies than hear another presentation on ObamaCare; we’re gonna get it shoved down our throats no matter what, apparently. After all, 59 votes is still a vast majority.
Brown up on Coakley
Today, Massachusetts will hold an election to fill the vacant Senate seat once filled by the late Teddy Kennedy, and it appears that a Republican may have a chance to not only win the seat in liberal Massachusetts, but could go on to take away the Dems’ filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. That could help stop the ObamaCare plan that looks to imperil the nation’s budget, as well as its quality of care.
According to RealClearPolitics, Brown currently leads Democrat Coakley by nine points. In liberal Massachusetts. Wow. Of course, it helps that Brown is talking issues while Coakley is mumbling something about handing out Nordic Track promotion codes or some such nonsense.
Levity aside, a nine-point lead could be enough to put Brown beyond the margin of error; all eyes will be on Massachusetts over the next 24 hours or so.
Sen. Schumer brags up health bill pork
Senior Democratic New York Senator Charles Schumer isn’t shy about the pork that’s in the new health care bill passed by the Senate this week; in fact, he’s bragging up the pork. “Every state got something,” Schumer said, according to a recent Bloomberg.com article.
Less concerned with New York jobs than with maintaining a Dem majority, Sen. Schumer has also been quotes in other reports as saying that any state that didn’t get something in the ObamaCare bill “didn’t have a very effective Senator.”
By which he means Republicans, who stood by principal for the first time in maybe a decade or so and refused to play ball with the majority. That’s why the vote was only 60-40.
Support for health care reform hits low
According to the latest poll by Rasmussen, support for the President’s health care reform proposal is now at an all-time low, dipping to only 41 percent in favor with 56 percent opposed. Or, as Algore would call it, “a unanimous, broad-based coalition of support over which debate is now over.”
Of course, the self-proclaimed inventor of the Internet notwithstanding, it’s pretty amazing that with a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and a clear majority in the House, as well as the White House, the Democrats are too afraid of poll numbers to do anything stronger than verbal support of acne treatment to full citizens. Or something like that…
