Obama’s Budget Fail

I’ve allowed Obama’s coming fiscal year budget to digest, and it’s still giving me indigestion.  I am sympathetic to the need to increase spending in some areas to promote job growth, but there is no effort to try and cut costs in other non-essential programs or to hold off on spending areas that do need improvement but not instantly.  I am tired of his sorry excuse repeated over and over by progressives that if it wasn’t for President Bush, we wouldn’t have to build on this deficit.  I know he got dealt a shitty hand.  But it didn’t force him to fold when he got his party’s nomination.  Since when do two wrongs make a right?  What I think, is that he’s happy to deal with the problem because it allows him to pass more spending and promote some of his socialist views under the cover of recovering the economy.  I don’t think it’s some sinister plot to destroy America…but he has made no qualms about hiding that he believes government can cure-all that ails us. Someone in this country, needs to make the tough decisions and get us back on track fiscally before our dollar has no value or our debt to foreign nation’s leads to something catastrophic.

More Amusement

Score one for Joe Public

A story our website failed to cover extensively was the backroom deals that took place in the Senate to get Obamacare passed. One of the big recipients was Ben Nelson a formerly popular Governor from Nebraska. In return for his vote his state received ‘the cornhusker kickback’, which among other things gave the state a permanent exemption from the state share of Medicaid expansion for Nebraska, meaning federal taxpayers have to kick in an additional $45 million in the first decade. Maybe America is beginning to wake up, the very constituents that benefited from this deal booed and heckled Nelson out of a Pizza Hut. Now he trails by 31 points in a hypothetical match-up with Nebraska’s current governor for the 2012 elections. I commend the citizens of Nebraska for holding their representatives accountable.

While the heat was on Nelson and negotiations were being made, Nelson ran this video to help persuade his fellow constituents.
We found out this week, that it’s not a Ben Nelson campaign ad. You probably can’t make out the disclaimer, but the ad was paid for by the Nebraska Democratic Party. So, not only did Nelson get bought off with Medicaid funding from the federal treasury, it now appears he got TV ads from the NDP. The DNC and Organizing for America have been asking supporters of “real” health care reform for funds and to the tune of about 500,000 dollars that support went to Nelson. The same Nelson that helped kill the public option, medicare buy-in, and insisted on harsh anti abortion language. Funny, that at this very time in Martha Coakley was running some horrendous ads in Massachusetts. Think this money could have been better spent?

Quick Hits – Vol. XXII

A few times per week, around noon time Every so often, we will post a few op-ed pieces from newspapers, mainstream websites, or elsewhere from the blogosphere: 

State of the Union Recap: Part II

 

{ED. NOTE: Click here for SOTU Recap, Part I or here for the Republican Response}

  

State of the Union Recap Part II

 

In last year’s unofficial State of the Union, Obama outlined a lofty left-winged agenda composed of three tiers; Education reform, Healthcare reform, and Climate change.  Only a few months after telling Americans that he would transform our country, he actually set out to do so.  Well, things haven’t gone so well thus far.  Most thought the Health Bill was dead in the Senate, and the Climate Bill may be an even bigger bee’s nest that the Senate has steered completely clear from. 

Healthcare: Nevertheless, about 45 minutes into President Obama’s speech, he pivoted back to Healthcare and more specifically “health insurance reform.” 

State of the Union: GOP Response

{ED. NOTE: Click here for SOTU recap, Part I or here for SOTU recap, Part II}

Newly inaugurated Virginia governor Bob McDonnell gave the Republican response to the State of the Union. Of course we caught a few of the ole Republican talking points, “Top-down, one-size-fits-all decision-making should not replace the personal choices of free people in a free market” “No government program can ever replace the actions of caring Americans freely choosing to help one another.”

State of the Union Recap: Part I

State of the Union Address

{ED. NOTE: Click here for SOTU Recap, Part II or here to the Rebublican Response}

In an effort to review all parts of the State of the Union, we have split the address into three parts – conveniently it works, since there are 3 Conservative Bros.  In Part I, I will focus on the beginning of the speech that covered most of the jobs bill, economy, and personal financial issues. MacGregor will cover the second part of the speech that included topics such as Health Care Insurance Reform, Campaign Financing, Defense, Budgeting, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and much Republican baiting.  Finally, Timmy will recap the Republican Response by Gov. Bob McDonnell and look forward. 

In general, I found Obama’s first State of the Union address to be very unbalanced, without a centralized message.  He was very condescending in most parts, some light-hearted jabs, others, hooks to the jaw. There was minimal to no outreach towards Republicans or apologies for boxing them out of the process in the first year, but many times blame was thrown at the feet of Republicans.  It showed the lack of leadership by the man claiming the Republicans were showing no leadership that rather than focus on the failures of his record majority, although it was mentioned, he threw most of the blame at the minority party who had no say in his health bills or most of the 2009 Congressional happenings.

He took some of populist angst towards the economy and made it his own, but also stuck a foot in the sand on some liberal policies that he wants to see passed right away. While many, including myself, expected him to come to the center in this speech like Clinton before him, I found generally he was still looking to pass unpopular policies in the cover of the “for the people” banner.  The same policies that have led to defeats in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Some contradictions, some mea culpas, some off the cuff laughs and a LOT of ego. 

Political Amusement

A bunch of gems over the past week for our general amusement.  First, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Penn.) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) appeared together on a Philly radio station last week for our entertainment. During the town hall meetings last year Specter left with a few gems of video clips. He’s back at it again telling Bachmann to act like a lady. Where is his mind? 1952…

This past weekend White House press secretary Robert Gibbs appeared on “Fox News Sunday”, he defended the decision to read alleged bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab his Miranda rights after just 50 minutes of interrogation. He claimed that valuable information was gathered by the experienced investigators. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and not argue the whole Miranda rights issue here. All I want to do is point out that the Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair was not even made aware of the decision.

Institution Falling from Grace

 

Recent discussion on Ben Bernanke’s confirmation for his second term has brought the institution under the microscope.  The “Will of the People”, which has recently been tossed aside is in uproar again over Ben Bernanke’s second term, US Congressman have expressed that they will not confirm Mr. Bernanke for a second term, which has caused the Administration to show public support for Bernanke and their accompanying agenda.

Racism, Radical Islam and Pat Buchanan

Pat Buchanan has a long list of political accolades.  As a former adviser to multiple Republican Presidents he has years of experience on Television as well as Radio.  Currently a regular on MSNBC and syndicated columnist, Buchanan is as experienced politically as anyone and is an influential voice in today’s body politic.  I often read his columns on townhall.com with an appreciation for his experience and willingness to say what he believes.  Unfortunately today I wanted to highlight two of his recent columns as I believe his logic and tone do nothing to advance the debate on two touchy subjects.   Until we can get clearer thinking regarding Race and Radical Islam, our collective relations with both will continue to be hampered.

Special Interests Now Rule Washington?

Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling reversing the McCain-Feingold federal campaign-finance law is a victory for special interest groups and a bigger win for free speech in the United States. The 5-4 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission will stop the government from regulating political speech of corporations.

President Obama quickly responded with a statement claiming, “It is a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies and the other powerful interests that marshal their power every day in Washington to drown out the voices of everyday Americans” Mr. President, we already felt that way, except you can add unions and bureaucracies to that list. On the eve of Obamacare dying, it also amused me that he says “I am instructing my Administration to get to work immediately with Congress on this issue.”