Reid gets favors for his state but other states face burdens from Baucus plan

Whatever’s in America's Healthy Future Act 2009 won’t be official until 24 hours before the bill is made public. Main Street will get 24 hours to read what will probably be a bill of at least 1,000 pages—the same goes for Congressmen who aren’t on the Finance Committee headed by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.). Voters shouldn’t bother asking their representatives about it—Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius has a gag order in place. But Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) apparently knows a few things about the bill Max Baucus (D-Mont.) is formulating.

Reid complained about the impact on Medicaid in Nevada. The New York Times said, “Now Mr. Baucus has modified the bill to spare Nevada and three other states, and Mr. Reid, who faces a potentially difficult race for re-election next year, is taking credit for getting a “major increase” in federal money for his state.”

Nothing like the Senate Majority Leader putting party above country, is there?

Click to read more ...

Tea party poll shows great divide between ‘Political Class’ and ‘Mainstream’

A new Rasmussen poll said 51 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the tea parties held nationwide last week, including 32% who say their view of the events is very favorable. The poll said 33 percent view the tea parties unfavorably and 15 percent weren’t sure. But when respondents were categorized by class, the figures were more startling. Rasmussen said, “While half the nation has a favorable opinion of last Wednesday’s events, the nation’s Political Class has a much dimmer view—just 13% of the political elite offered even a somewhat favorable assessment while 81% said the opposite. Among the Political Class, not a single survey respondent said they had a very favorable opinion of the events while 60% shared a very unfavorable assessment.” There is in fact a wide gap between the Political Class and Mainstream on a number of issues.
 
Rasmussen says Mainstream and Political Class respondents are established for polling purposes by answering a set of questions—who the respondent trusts more (the people or political leaders), whether the federal government is a special interest group, and whether government and big business work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors. A score is assigned for each answer. The Political Class falls in a range of scores of -2 or less while Mainstream respondents are defined by agreeing with mainstream view on at least 2 of 3 questions and not agreeing with the political class on any questions.

Some leftwing extremist celebs, presumably Political Class types, called tea party goers “racist” and a few like one comedian on MSNBC had a field day making adolescent jokes about the term ‘teabagging.’

Click to read more ...

Tax experts show who really pays as union president asks ‘rich’ to pay more

by Kay B. Day

Class warfare is in full swing in The Big Apple.

Organized labor and groups like ACORN gathered supporters in lower Manhattan Thursday to protest New York spending cuts and to ask for “fair tax reform.” WCBS TV said approximately 50,000 people showed up; we have no way of verifying that number. Protestors want what they call "fair tax reform"—increasing state taxes for New Yorkers making $250,000 or more, the same economic class the Obama administration is targeting. In a rather stunning illustration of the entitlement mentality proponents of collectivism embrace, United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten advised, "For those of you who prosper during boom time, we ask them pay a little bit more. Pay a little more so New York can avoid cutting the services that our most vulnerable need." “Vulnerable” is the new politically savvy buzz word in our era of “change.”

So who really funds all those federal programs both political parties love to nurture? Tax experts have done us a favor.

I was in New York for a conference and shot this photo from the Empire State Building. I couldn't wait to return to the wide open spaces and manners in the South.

Click to read more ...

U.N. hopes for an Obama win; it's the ‘spread the wealth’ thing

A Washington Post story published Sunday declared, ‘At the U.N., many hope for an Obama win.’ I assume they are filled with hope for change like so many others who support Sen. Barack Obama. But jaded soul that I am, I also know money talks and the U.N. loves money. One bill Obama managed to sponsor is S. 2433: The Global Poverty Act. If Democrats win all the spoils at the ballot box in November, the act will more than likely get the legs it hasn’t found yet. That act will commit no less than 7 percent of a country’s gross domestic product to the UN for the purpose of reducing by one-half the number of people worldwide who live on less than $1 a day with a target date for completion by 2015. James Pethokoukis wrote at US News and World Report: “What this bill would do, in short, is commit the United States to the U.N. declared goal that industrialized countries should spend 0.7 percent a year of their gross domestic product on foreign aid. Over the next decade or so, that would work out to around $850 billion.”

Click to read more ...

Community Reinvestment Act helped cause US economic meltdown

The US Congress is squabbling about how to deal with the economic mess and both parties have pointed the blame finger at each other. Truth is, we’re all to blame in a sense because we the people did nothing, and our Congress did nothing even when it could. So much for the “change” Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) promised almost two years ago when her party assumed control of Congress.  No one’s mentioned the Community Reinvestment Act passed in 1977 under a Democratic Congress led by a Democratic president.

This act required depository institutions to “meet the credit needs of the communities in which they operate, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, consistent with safe and sound banking operations.” Each institution’s record would be “taken into account in considering an institution's application for deposit facilities, including mergers and acquisitions.” Those quotes are from the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. Even as Congress takes up the current economic problem, we taxpayers do not have enough information about the causes or the solutions. I still want to know why a government sponsored entity promoted mortgages for a specific faith.

Click to read more ...

Biden says paying more taxes is ‘patriotic’, but he missed a basic budget tool

I’ve heard some strange remarks come out of Joe Biden’s mouth, like when he told the guy in the wheelchair to stand up and be recognized at an event. But Biden’s latest verbal wonder claims that paying taxes is the patriotic thing for wealthy Americans to do. Democratic strategist Bill Burton put it another way yesterday during a TV interview—“We’re making the right folks pay.” Here’s the problem, guys. You claim those who make $250,000 a year are wealthy. I don’t make that much, but I’m here to tell you if I did I surely wouldn’t consider myself wealthy. Comfortable, but not wealthy. What Biden and his tax-loving Democratic brethren are missing is a basic office tool.

Click to read more ...