Deficit out of control

President Barack Obama may look like a fellow more concerned about adult acne treatment than budget deficits… and he’s sure acting like it, too.

One year ago, in April 2009, the US had a budget deficit of around $20.9 billion; one year later, with the economy fully his administration’s responsibility after a year full of government auto rebates, bailouts of just about everyone but student loan recipients, and the passage of government-controlled health care, and we’re already at $82.69 billion in budget shortfalls … in April, of all months, when the government is typically flush with money from income tax collection.

That’s over four times the budget deficit of a year ago, and one hell of a lot of money. And government-controlled health care won’t even kick in for another four years or so, barring the idiotic measure doesn’t get overturned after Congress and this administration get overturned by voters.

The brinksmanship of the Obama administration has gone about as far as it can go, if it’s ever to swing back around, and word out of Capitol Hill is that Pelosi, Reid and company are readying one final round of new government takeover legislation and tax hikes before Tea Party activists and others toss them all out on their shiny keisters.

That can’t come too soon. We’re barely to the edge of summer and already I can’t wait for November.

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…

How sweet it might be…

His eventual opponent isn’t even chosen yet, but Nevada Democrat and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is already running weak enough to lose to either of them, according to recent polls. Both Republicans considering runs against Reid, a list that includes Danny Tarkanian and Sue Lowden, were shown to be polling significantly higher than the Democrat incumbant.

Of course, Nevada is typically GOP territory and Reid has been a business gifts-getting, major ass for the better part of his current six year term, so it ought not be surprising. Tark would best Reid 49-39, while Lowden would get the job done with a closer shave at 45-40.

Tarkanian seems the best bet to overcome any Reid resurgence. Get it done, Nevada GOP! Make it so.

Specter switch isn’t much of one

After amassing a measly 40-percent conservative voting record and voting with the Republicans just over half the time, it came as a surprise to no one – except perhaps partner-in-RINO John McCain – when Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter flipped from GOP to the Democratic Party this week.

In an incoherent speech that rambled on about the GOP moving “too far to the right” (actually, it’s been suffering a severe leftward drift toward Specter’s side), about the only thing Specter didn’t blame the GOP for was plotting the spread of mesothelioma – and apparently only because his speech writer needed more time.

Considering his voting record, Specter’s switch matters only on paper; as long as Franken prevails in his election fraud victory, the Dems will have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate for the next couple years. Which is great, when you think about it; no longer can anything Barack does be blamed on Republicans going forward.

This is the Dem majority’s mess, like it or not.

The good news is, Specter was facing a primary challenge from a real conservative in the Pennsylvania GOP, who now should sail to the nomination. And there’s no guarantee the Dems will nominate Specter. Even if they do, let them have him. He’s 79 and shouldn’t be running for a sixth term anyway.

While we’re at it, let’s show the rest of the RINOs in the Senate the door, too; it may bury the GOP in the short term, but it could very well save the party’s conservative soul.

Dems vow revenge if Coleman succeeds

If Norm Coleman succeeds in proving election fraud (which is pretty darn obvious in this race) in his re-election bid against SNL candidate Al Franken, the Democrats in Washington are so drunk with power that they have vowed to never give Senator Coleman a moments rest; they will hound him with ethics probes for the entire six years, or until they lose their majority, whichever comes first.

While otherwise acting like mold killer, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who bears a distinct resemblance to the hindquarters of his party’s animal symbol, is proving that even in overwhelming victory, the Dems are sore losers.

Minnesota is growing, but House delegation may shrink

The Land of 10,000 Lakes make soon have a solution to lake pressure. According to new estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau, Minnesota is growing, but not fast enough. Since the 2000 census, in fact, the state is believed to have gained just over 300,000 new residents, moving from 4.9 million to 5.2 million.

If the trend continues unabated into the 2010 census, that could mean the loss of one U.S. House seat from the Minnesota delegation; currently, Minnesota boasts eight U.S. Representatives, but that number could retreat back to seven in the next census. Although Minnesota’s population base is growing, it is not growing fast enough to keep pace with the highest-growth states, such as California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Arizona and North Carolina, all of which have grown by 1 million or more.

Louisiana and North Dakota were named as the only states to shrink since 2000; North Dakota’s losses are minor, but Louisiana’s losses numbered nearly 60,000, most of the population shift attributable to the migration following Hurricane Katrina.

Time will tell if Minnesota’s growth is too slow to keep their current Congressional delegation; in the meantime, we need to call back all our snowbirds from their Las Vegas hotel before the counting begins in earnest.

Pelosi Congress taking it easy…

When campaigning last fall for a shift of control to the Democrats in the U.S. Congress, Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi promised a Dem-controlled House would be, “a hard-working body putting in five-day weeks.” According to several Web site reports surfacing this weekend, even that simple campaign promise has been broken by the 11-percent-approval-rating Pelosi-led Congress.

An anonymous House of Representatives staffer recently revealed to NewsMax.com, among others:

“We sometimes have days with just one hour of votes from 3 to 4 p.m. on renaming post offices before calling it a day,” the staffer told NewsMax.

“No votes are scheduled on Fridays this month. And Pelosi hopes to close the House down for the year on Nov. 16.

“Pelosi made a big deal of saying she would make the House work five-day weeks. You can see how long that lasted.”

One has to wonder, with the Dems in control, how long it will be before the days of $6,000 cordless phone battery purchases return with a vengeance.