Archive for August, 2009

So Bush was vilified by the left every time he went golfing.  Will the same happen to The One?

This from the Politico blog which is covering the moment-by-moment movements of Obama:

Obama is back in Phoenix, sooner than expected, and while no explanation has been offered to the press, rumors of a golf game have been circulating.

I’ve been in Montana for a couple days, and for some reason I was surprised by the landscape.  Apparently, a more accurate visual representation of the state is “Legends of the Fall” and not “A River Runs Through It.”  I’ve never seen “Legends”, and I expected all mountains and pine trees. Instead, as I was landing in Billings, I realized it was a larger version of Snowflake, AZ.  It’s a prairie-like landscape with a smattering of trees.  This has been the most of what I’ve seen.  It’s still a beautiful state with very friendly people.

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As an information-junkie – particularly access to my cell phone, blackberry and laptop wireless card, it is amazing how useless I feel if I lose service.  When it happened the first time in some remote portion of Montana I had a panic attack.  I know, it was absurd, and it only lasted a few moments, and then I was like “how pathetic is that?”  I know, it is.

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I was in Chicago a couple days ago and had dinner with an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi.  One of the funniest and nicest guys I’ve ever met.  We ate at Shallots Bistro in Skokie and it was incredibly good food.  I had been pining for White Castle earlier in the day, and I didn’t get a chance to stop at one, so someone ordered Kobe beef sliders at the Bistro.  It’s the best Kosher food I’ve ever had.

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Speaking of food, I was in New York earlier in the week and had some really awesome roasted, cinnamon-coated peanuts I bought from a street vendor.  It’s the small things in life.

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School starts for the kids this week.  I’m not ready, because summer shouldn’t be ending so quickly, but I’m pretty sure that my wife is ready – particularly with my travel schedule lately.  I used to get so nervous the first day of school when I was in elementary school.  But I was never more nervous than going to the first day of school my freshman year of high school.  I had just spent the previous three years being home-schooled and I was really, really unsure how it was going to go.

I don’t have any memory of that first day of high school, other than knowing the day started with me being nervous, so it must have gone just fine.  And that’s the point – we make a big deal out of the first day of school, as we should, but in the end, unless it turns out to be a bad experience, we forget it.  And that’s the way it should be.

President Obama and his family are visiting the Grand Canyon on Sunday.  It just so happens that this weekend is one of the few that the Park Service waives entrance fees.

Coincidence?  I’m not so sure. This from the story in the Arizona Republic today:

Asked about the Obamas’ visit on a fee-free weekend, Eaker said it is sheer coincidence, then chuckled at a suggestion that the president’s family might be scrimping on its budget.

If you were planning a trip this Sunday, you might want to reconsider.  Having done advance work for a couple Presidential trips, I know how disruptive a visit from the Chief can be wherever he goes.

One thing I’ve noticed about Obama.  He doesn’t appear to care who he inconveniences when he wants to use the trappings of power to do something.  President’s Clinton and Bush both visited the Grand Canyon on non-weekends.  Maybe they didn’t consider when they were going, but then again, neither of them were as self-centered as the current President.  I mean, you didn’t ever have Clinton or Bush literally making the claim that they were “the One.”

Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee shows how concerned she is about her constituents discussion of health care in this clip.  You could not make this stuff up. 

I don’t know how many times I will say this in the next four years – but can you imagine that being a Republican member of Congress?  It would be running non-stop on CNN and making national nightly news for three nights straight.  But I digress…

 It is said that when Walter Cronkite returned from a trip to Vietnam and reported that the war was unwinnable, President Lyndon Johnson said, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost America.”

Conservative holdouts in the Arizona Legislature, who oppose the budget deal because of the sales tax referral, may be in the same position.  The editorial page of the Wall Street Journal has for years been the conscience of fiscal conservatism and the leader in reducing taxes.  They have editorialized that the deal is a good one, particularly to retain and attract business to the state by reducing business and personal income tax and property tax reform.  They reason that those are easy trades for referring the sales tax to the ballot.

The operative paragraph reads:

Republicans control both houses of the Arizona legislature, and as we went to press the main obstacle to passing the reform was the Arizona Senate’s antitax conservatives. They oppose the higher sales tax. These Republicans should look to one of the triumphs of the Reagan Presidency, the 1986 tax reform, which broadened the tax base but substantially lowered tax rates and thus sustained the 1980s expansion.

When you’ve lost the WSJ editorial page, you’ve lost your leverage. 

Arizona’s Budget Breakthrough

An alternative to California’s tax and spend model.

Perhaps states are starting to learn the right fiscal lessons from the red-ink blowouts in high-tax California and New York. Today, the legislature in Arizona will vote on a tax reform designed to entice more employers and high-income taxpayers to the state. Sponsored by Republican Governor Jan Brewer, the plan would cut state property taxes, the corporate tax and personal income taxes, in exchange for a temporary rise in the sales tax.

Most economic studies agree that states have more jobs and higher income growth when they tax consumption rather than savings, investment and business profits. This explains why most of the nine states with no income tax at all—such as Texas, Florida and Tennessee—have been economic high-flyers in recent decades.

Ms. Brewer’s proposal reflects this economic logic. Effective January 1, 2011, her plan would reduce the state’s corporate income tax rate to 4.86% from 6.97%, which would be one of the largest business tax cuts in the nation in recent years. The proposal also cuts all personal income tax rates by 6.6%, thus lowering the top marginal rate to 4.24% from 4.54%. A hated statewide tax on commercial and residential property would also be abolished.

Arizona has been hit especially hard by the housing slump, and its budget woes were compounded thanks to former Governor Janet Napolitano’s spending spree before she joined the Obama cabinet. On her watch the budget grew by more than 50% in five years—to $10.2 billion from $6.5 billion in 2004. The state now has a $1 billion budget gap, and to close it the legislature will also vote on a one percentage point increase in the sales tax to 6.6% in 2010 and 2011; in the third year the sales tax would fall to 6.1%, and in the fourth year would revert to its current 5.6% rate.

We’d rather see the legislature cut more spending than raise the sales tax, but on the other hand the sales tax would only take effect if it is approved on the November ballot. The political class is giving voters a say in the matter. The sales tax increase also has the advantage of a built-in expiration date, while the tax cuts are permanent.

Democratic opponents are calling this a tax giveaway to big business. But lawmakers needn’t apologize for trying to retain Arizona’s status as a business-friendly state—particularly when jobs are so scarce. Small employers also benefit from the lower property tax rates and the personal income tax reductions. Lower tax payments will enable them to reinvest more in their enterprises.

The opponents should consult a new study of state business taxes by former U.S. Treasury economist Robert Carroll for the Tax Foundation. He examined 50 states and found that states with lower corporate tax rates have higher wage gains and more productivity over time. This tax cut sounds like a high-return investment.

Republicans control both houses of the Arizona legislature, and as we went to press the main obstacle to passing the reform was the Arizona Senate’s antitax conservatives. They oppose the higher sales tax. These Republicans should look to one of the triumphs of the Reagan Presidency, the 1986 tax reform, which broadened the tax base but substantially lowered tax rates and thus sustained the 1980s expansion.

Arizona has the chance to be the anti-California, closing the budget deficit by growing the economy, not by raising taxes. We hope legislators don’t blow it, because the U.S. desperately needs an alternative to the tax, spend and tax again philosophy of Sacramento and Albany.

This was sent to me by a friend. It was obviously a blog post somewhere, but I can’t find the link to give proper credit.  It’s clearly worth passing on.  The following is from whatever blog he found it.

After the beer summit, President Obama, Sergeant Crowley, and Professor Gates all walked out of the White House together.

Well sort of together. A picture says a thousand words, doesn’t it:

The way powerful people treat those who have less power than they do said volumes about them. In this case, this picture tells us that the president simply can’t be bothered to help his infirm friend down the stairs and instead leaves that task to the very police officer he belittled in front of the entire nation. This question is just begging to be asked: who’s acting stupidly now?

I think this photo constitutes another major Obama blunder.

As some  commentators point out, this picture becomes a metaphor for ObamaCare. The elderly are left in the back, with only the kindness of the Crowleys of the world, the stand up guys, to depend on. The government has other priorities.

That’s why I think this image will have genuine resonance. It captures something that older Americans in particular can relate to. The President presses ahead with a program that will tell them to take painkillers instead of getting that artificial hip.

The Arizona Legislature and Governor Brewer are trying to solve the budget crisis.  It would have been “easy” if the legislature had just done what the Governor wanted – raise sales taxes.  But a funny thing happened on the way to a budget deal.  38 legislators had signed the “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” sponsored by Americans for Tax Reform, a pledge that has been around for more than two decades and signed by literally thousands of state and federal candidates and office holders in that time span.

You see, ATR’s chief Grover Norquist deemed a referral of a sales tax as breaking the pledge.  So legislators were very reticent to refer the tax without figuring out a way to do it within the confines of the pledge.  They eventually found a way to do it and get ATR’s blessing – by coupling it with tax relief on family and business income.

This is why “special interests” have a role in public policy.  ATR’s pledge means something, because if you break it, there could be consequences.  And if you don’t take it, you may never be elected.  And in this case, the “special interest” was taxpayers.  So as a taxpayer, I want to thank ATR for getting us a better budget deal.

(photo by Ralph Freso, Tribune)

Today was a big day in the health care debate. There were hundreds of rallies/protests across the country as people voiced their opposition to a government takeover of health care.

In the Phoenix area, 1,000 people showed up outside Democrat Congressman Harry Mitchell’s office in the morning, and then nearly 1,000 showed up at a town hall held by Congressman John Shadegg.

The East Valley Tribune covered both events.

(photo by Ralph Freso, Tribune)

Reports from the Shadegg town hall were that it was a very civil discussion.  And there wasn’t a big ACORN or Union presence.  Conclusion?  The reason you are seeing videos of major conflict at town halls across the country, is because the unions and ACORN are sowing discord to try to discredit those Americans who truly want to be heard.  When the union thugs aren’t around to intimidate people, tempers stay in check.

I’m not saying that there aren’t some loud and rowdy protesters from the right, but the only times there have been violence is when ACORN and/or unions are in the mix. 

It’s more than a coincidence.

When Chicago operatives are running the White House they do things that are likely illegal.

These are the kinds of things that make people very nervous about the Obama administration.

The White House launched a coordinated effort Tuesday to combat what it calls a “viral whisper campaign” to torpedo health care reform.

Its playbook: the same one Barack Obama’s campaign used in 2008 to shoot down rumors and questions about his citizenship, faith and patriotism.

The new offensive started early Tuesday morning when the White House posted a video response to a hodgepodge of clips on the Drudge Report that portrayed President Obama as favoring the elimination of private insurance. On the White House blog, Obama’s director of new media, Macon Phillips, asked supporters to send in leads for debunking chain e-mails or anything else that “seems fishy.”

So now the Obama administration wants us to tattle on each other for being critical of his plans for a government takeover of health care.  And they think we’re crazy?

The folks at Reason and Patients First teamed up to find those people who email and blog things that seem “fishy.”  I’m waiting for a knock at my door.