Archive for November, 2009

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) cobbled together a tenuous 60-vote block of all Democrats to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed with his healthcare bill late Saturday evening. While he tried to appear triumphant with this accomplishment, it was a short victory lap as many Democrat Senators immediately began to enumerate the various concerns they have with the bill and making it clear that their vote to end debate is very much up in the air.

Patrick O’Connor with Politico is one of the most conscientious reporters on the Hill and his report (along with Carrie Budoff Brown) on the challenges that remain for Reid is one of the best summaries out there.

The bottom line, as articulate by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), is this, “the battle has just begun.”

And certainly it has. With Obama’s poll numbers under 50% and with support for government-run healthcare barely breaking 40%, this is far from over.

There is a reason that this tax on cosmetic surgery (included in Reid’s Senate healthcare bill) was not in the House healthcare bill.

Any questions?

This gem could only come from Congress. Rep. Emanual Cleaver (D-MO) has introduced a resolution that will solve the world’s problems (and one that I have tried to implement in every office I have ever worked in, to no avail).

It’s a simple resolution, really. Stop your whining. Well, it’s Congress, so it is introduced in more flowery language:

From time to time, we all experience anxiety, frustration, stress, and regret. And often, we respond to these feelings with a criticism or a complaint. Regrettably, complaining keeps people stuck on current problems, inhibiting them from thinking constructively to find solutions. Research has also shown that complaining can be harmful to one’s emotional and physical health; relationships; and can limit professional career success.

Translation: don’t waste your time complaining about our healthcare bill, we’re going to pass it no matter what. Obama told us to.

In Obama’s fantasy world of make believe, he thinks that just by saying so, it is so.

Case in point. At Recovery.gov the White House lists 30 jobs saved or created in Arizona’s 15^th Congressional District by spending $761,000. Uh, small problem. Arizona only has eight Congressional Districts.

As John Shadegg asks, “Is this the same federal government Democrats want to entrust with our healthcare?”

I think the answer is obvious.

We owe so much to the men and women who serve and have served in our Armed Forces, so it’s sad that Veteran’s Day is one of those “optional” holidays that has become less and less important in the United States.

If it were up to me, it would rank right up there with Independence Day, since it is because of our veterans that we are able to celebrate Independence Day each year.

So take the time to thank a veteran or someone active in the Armed Services, we certainly don’t thank them enough.

“General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” – Ronald Reagan

Today marks the 20^th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. I remember standing in the living room of a friend of mine in Indiana in shock with what was happening. The first thing I thought of was Reagan’s speech at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987, in which he said:

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

To think that only two years and five months later the wall came down. That’s power. That’s influence. That’s leadership.

OK. So Congressman Mitchell hasn’t actually announced he is retiring, but his yes vote on the House Democrat bill to advance government run health care will ensure that he is not in Congress in 2011 because he is either going to announce retirement, or face a major backlash for this vote.

Mitchell represents a seat that has a Republican registration advantage of double digits over Democrat registration. In fact, there are more registered Independents than Democrats.

By voting yes, Mitchell voted to cut Medicare by more than $500 billion, voted to increase taxes by more than $700 billion, voted to require every American to buy government-forced insurance, voted to created more than 150 new government bureaucracies, voted to created a new government board that will instruct doctors on what procedures and tests they can use on patients, voted to exempt health care companies governed by ERISA from damages from lawsuits if their denial of care leads to injury or death and voted to create a government insurance program that will drive private care out of the market place.

The impact of this bill on the economy will be severe. Why in the world does Harry Mitchell think it is a good idea to pass punitive tax increases on average Americans, and create government run insurance that will kill jobs in the private sector one day after we learn that national unemployment is at 10.2 percent?

Mitchell is out of touch with his constituency, and come January 2011, he’ll be out of office.

November 3, 2009 will go down as the day that began the end of the Democrat stranglehold on Washington, D.C. If the huge win by McDonnell in the Virginia Governors race, and the solid win by Christie in the New Jersey Governor’s race say anything, it’s that Obama’s focus on a government takeover of health care, at the expense of doing anything of actual benefit to create jobs, will cost the Democrats the majority in the U.S. House.

Watch for the jobs report that comes out on November 6. It is likely to show unemployment at a full 10 percent. This will put the nail in the coffin of Obama’s claims that a stimulus bill was needed to keep unemployment below eight percent, and send the Democrats into the 2010 elections sucking wind.

And yet they still don’t get it. Speaker Pelosi is going to force a vote on a government takeover of healthcare on the House floor this weekend, and the arms she breaks to get to 218 votes will be dozens of House Democrats that will not be back in 2011. It’s clear that she is willing to lose seats to pass government run healthcare, but the risk she runs is that she will lose the majority.

And they think they have it all figured out…

There has been a lot of buzz about the NY-23 Congressional special election to fill the vacancy left by John McHugh becoming Secretary of the Army.

Initially, GOP party leaders hand-picked a moderate/liberal State legislator who was pro gay marriage, pro choice, anti-gun, etc. This caused some fervor among rank-and-file Republicans and support for the Conservative (there is a Conservative Party in New York with a ballot line) candidate. A number of national Republicans bucked the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee by endorsing the Conservative over the Republican. Sarah Palin, Tim Pawlenty, Dick Armey and others rejected the Republican. Even Republican members of Congress bucked their leadership. Arizona’s own John Shadegg was an early endorser and contributor to the Conservative candidate Doug Hoffman.

The Republican candidate, Dede Scozzaffa, pulled a shocker and suspended her campaign, leaving Hoffman to go head-to-head with the Democrat.

The Hill wrote a story about Hoffman’s candidacy potentially being a concern to less-than-conservative incumbents who may face primaries from the right in the upcoming election. I was quoted at the end of the story:

“Now is the time for Republicans to realize that returning to our principles of smaller government, lower taxes, traditional values and more freedom is not only the right thing to do, it will pay huge dividends at the ballot box,” added Sean Noble, a GOP consultant in Arizona. “If party leaders had half a brain they’d jump out in front of this mob and call it a parade.”

In a bizarre twist, the Republican candidate who dropped out, turned around and endorsed the Democrat over the Conservative candidate. This creates a big problem for the GOP leadership, who had put tons of money into the race defending her and hitting the Democrat. For those who endorsed Hoffman, it’s sweet vindication that they did the right thing.