February 19-21, 2010
Feb 19 04:40 Rubio Wows Conservatives With CPAC Speech Feb 19 12:02 Bachmann Live-Blogging Feb 19 16:35 Congratulations Ed!!! Feb 20 07:37 The Veto Will Be Sustained Feb 21 05:31 Democrats to America: Shut Up & Do As You're Told Feb 21 07:00 Thank God For Saturday's Unexpected Guest Feb 21 16:52 Health Care: The Democrats' Death Wish Or Holy Grail?
Prior Months: Jan
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009
Rubio Wows Conservatives With CPAC Speech
If glowing reviews were votes or campaign contributions, Marco Rubio would swamp his GOP primary challenger and be so flush with money that he'd swamp his Democratic opponent. Though I was impressed with his entire speech, this part of Mr. Rubio's speech was especially powerful to me:
There has never been a nation like the United States.That's incredibly empowering to hear. One line especially jumps out: "...Poor people with a better idea and a strong work ethic can put rich people out of business..." In a global context, we're one of the few nations in the world where that's possible. Many nations have systems that make it all but impossible for people of a certain social status to escape.
It begins with the principles of our founding documents. Principles that recognize that our rights come from God, not from government. That we are all equal in the eyes of our creator and, therefore, every human life at every stage of life is sacred.
These principles embody a commitment to individual liberty and have made Americans the freest people ever. They make possible our free enterprise economy, which has made us the most prosperous people ever.
The result is an America that is the only place in the world where it doesn't matter who your parents are or whether you were born into the right family or the right part of society. You can be anything you're willing to work hard to be.
The result is the only economy where poor people with a better idea and a strong work ethic can put rich people out of business in the competition of the marketplace.
The result is the most reliable defender of freedom ever. Simply put, there is nothing like it in the world. And even today, with the problems that we face, which country would you rather be? Who would we trade places with?
After his speech, Ed Morrissey taped a brief Q & A session with Mr. Rubio . The statement he made during this interview that most caught my attention was his saying that he wouldn't have had a campaign if not for bloggers. He said that, had this race happened before blogs, the MSM would've commented that Rubio had a bright future, then returned its attention to the popular sitting governor.
Mr. Rubio said that politicians can't play games with bloggers because they do their own research, factchecking media reports and politicians' quotes. He's right. That's exactly what we do.
It's been said that Rubio is the "first TEA Party candidate." I agree with that statement but I'd go a step further. I'll be the first to say that Mr. Rubio is the first blog savvy TEA Party candidate and that he'll be the first blog savvy TEA Party senator.
Follow this link to read Marco Rubio's presentation at CPAC. You'll be glad you did.
Posted Friday, February 19, 2010 4:45 AM
Comment 1 by eric z. at 19-Feb-10 06:20 AM
Rubio for President? Step to the back of the theater, Timmy.
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 19-Feb-10 11:37 AM
You obviously didn't see TPaw's speech this morning. WOW!!! Today's superstar by a healthy margin. That's amazing considering the fact that Mike Pence followed him & Eric Cantor preceded him.
Bachmann Live-Blogging
11:50-- Michele enters to Tom Jones singing She's a Lady. Michele starts by saying "Thank You Arlen Specter." A triumphal entry if ever there was one.
11:51-- Michele talks about the "majority-in-waiting." Massive applause.
11:52-- Michele mentions that she's the "proud representative" where the GWB billboard stands.
11:55-- Scott Hennen put something together in North Dakota where the people talked & the politicians were the listeners.
11:56-- Michele's talking about how health care changed North Dakota's electoral landscape. "Bye-Bye Byron."
11:58-- Michele talking about Charles Krauthammer's column " Decline is a Choice ." Emphasizing the fact that we don't have to accept decline, that policies & politicians matter.
12:04-- CBO Director Elmendorf warns that economy is on an unsustainable path.
12:05-- "People can indulge in fantasy football but people can't indulge in fantasy economics. It just doesn't work out."
12:06-- Now talking about the forgotten man & the FDR years. FDR "turned a manageable recession into the Great Depression."
12:07-- Founding Fathers "gave us our mission statement", citing that our rights can't be taken away by the government because that isn't where we get our rights.
12:11- "The world never knew the concept" that what I produce belongs to me.
12:12-- Quoting Levi Preston: "We always governed ourselves & we always intended to." Now reminding the audience that "Decline is a choice."
12:15-- Joseph Warren chose greatness instead of decline.
12:16-- Every generation has had to choose between greatness and decline. "Act worthy of yourselves."
Posted Friday, February 19, 2010 1:40 PM
No comments.
Congratulations Ed!!!
This morning at CPAC, Ed Morrissey was given the Blogger of the Year Award, something that Ed's deserved many times over. Giving the introduction for Ed's award was none other than RUSH LIMBAUGH!!! Check this introduction out:
I've said often that the blogging talent in Minnesota is as good as anywhere in the nation. I stand enthusiastically and unabashedly by that statement. In fact, today, I'm prouder than ever of that fact.
While the first blog I ever read was Powerline, Captains Quarters quickly became my favorite, mostly because of Ed's great research and analytical skills. I've never said this in public before but I will now. Many of the things I've incorporated into my blogging are the result of studying Ed's blogging style.
When Ed was still at Captains Quarters, I loved reading Ed's long posts because I simply couldn't find that type of depth of pertinent information anywhere in the Washington Post or the NY Times or on the network news. Frankly, I learned more about DC and the world in half an hour reading Captains Quarters than I got from the newspapers and the network news. In fact, it wasn't even close.
I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about Ed's brand of conservatism in this post. To be blunt, the Republican Party, both in Minnesota and nationally, would be alot better off if there were more Ed Morrissey conservatives. There's nothing reactionary or knee-jerk about Ed's conservatism. Ed's brand of conservatism features healthy doses of libertarianism, deep thought conservatism and common sense.
Congratulations, Ed. I can't think of anyone more deserving. I can't think of anyone more decent. You give blogging a good reputation.
Posted Friday, February 19, 2010 4:35 PM
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The Veto Will Be Sustained
Following Gov. Pawlenty's veto of the GAMC bill, the question everyone is asking is whether his veto will be sustained or whether it'll be overridden. After talking with House Minority Whip Dan Severson on the matter, I can confidently say that the GAMC veto will be sustained.
This morning, I see that PIM is reporting that Minority Leader Kurt Zellers has confirmed that there won't be any GOP defectors :
But almost immediately after Pawlenty's decision to veto the legislation was announced, House Minority Leader Kurt Zellers issued a statement promising Republican unanimity in backing the governor's decision. In essence, Zellers' explanation for the seeming about face by GOP legislators is that the Democrats failed to play by the rules. Republicans expected the House bill to proceed to conference committee where it could continue to be tweaked. But instead the Senate opted to immediately pass the House version of the bill and send it to the governor's desk.Predictably, the DFL leadership is whining about the likelihood of the veto being sustained:
"The senate short-circuited the process," Zellers said on Friday morning. "There should have been a conference committee. It should have been worked on. It shouldn't have gone right straight on through."
House Majority Leader Tony Sertich also invoked fear of reprisals from the GOP leadership and party activists as an explanation for the unwillingness of legislators to cross Pawlenty. "It comes down to a choice of who are you standing with?" Sertich stated. "Are you standing with the governor and your state party bosses from St. Paul? Or are you standing with the people back home and your hospital back home?"Actually, Mr. Sertich is off by a country mile. It isn't a matter of whether people are standing with the party bosses. It's a matter of whether GOP House members are willing to fund a program badly in need of reform, especially before getting the state budget problems solved.
This session has illustrated that the DFL puts a higher priority on spending money than on getting Minnesota's budget problems solved. I offer as proof the DFL's monstrous bonding bill and their GAMC bill. There's no justification for spending more than $1,000,000,000 on a glorified version of the failed federal stimulus package. After all, that's what the DFL's bonding bill is.
Though the DFL calls it their "jobs bill", the truth is that, while there are some worthwhile projects, like building new chemistry labs on college campuses, most of the stuff in this year's bonding bill is either pork or it's spending money that we can't afford. It's money that, if it's spent, will lower Minnesota's bond rating. Needlessly adding additional interest payments is fiscally reckless behavior.
Jim Abeler sums things up nicely with this statement:
Abeler also takes issue with Sertich's characterization of Republican motives in vowing not to support the GAMC legislation if it comes up again.I think Rep. Abeler is onto something. This is legislation meant for producing DFL lit pieces. It isn't meant to produce sensible legislation.
"Statements like this do nothing to produce a positive working environment," Abeler says. "They produce postcards for campaigns and that's the worst kind of government."
I'd also argue that, especially this year, people are putting a higher priority on getting our financial affairs in order than they're putting on spending money, regardless of the program.
Posted Saturday, February 20, 2010 7:37 AM
No comments.
Democrats to America: Shut Up & Do As You're Told
The American people have repeatedly and passionately told Democrats that they don't want the Democrats' health care legislation. In fact, most of the people prefer Congress doing nothing over implementing the Democrats' health care legislation. Now comes word that President Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Speaker Pelosi and Harry Reid plan on jamming their health care bill through despite the vehement objections of the American people :
The legislation the White House will post on its website is expected to reflect common ground negotiated over the past several weeks by House and Senate Democratic leaders.At some point, the American people will express their anger over the insistence of President Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Speaker Pelosi and Harry Reid to impose a radical agenda at the polls. When they do, they'll deliver the message that Democrats aren't welcome to control the levers of power for a very, very long time.
Those agreements are likely to be combined as a privileged budget reconciliation bill, which only needs a simple 51-vote majority to pass the 100-member Senate instead of the 60-vote supermajority that has become routine in the Senate and gives Republicans power to block the healthcare bill. "I believe that's the path we are going to take," a senior congressional Democratic aide said.
If the Democrats' radical health care legislation passes, every Republican running in 2010 should promise that they'll repeal the entire bill ASAP. Republicans shouldn't shy from this fight. If I was the House and Senate GOP's consultant on this, I'd tell them that they should have the doctors leading the fight daily.
People like Tom Price, Michael Burgess, Phil Gingrey, John Fleming, Tom Coburn and John Barrasso should be writing op-eds daily going into the Feb. 25 presidential photo op at Blair House. Paul Ryan and Mike Pence should be doing the same. Everyone should be granting interviews on radio talk shows, whether it's on Hannity and Hewitt or whether it's on local radio talk shows.
The message is simple: The Democrats' health care legislation:
- raises taxes,
- imposes fines on people who don't buy government-approved health insurance,
- does nothing to lower actual health care costs and
- imposes huge unfunded mandates on states through Medicaid expansion.
During the next month, people should be stopping at the offices of their senators and representatives and expressing their frustration with Congress , especially including their representative, for ignoring the will of the American people . Be polite in communicating your frustration but tell them that you don't need your taxes raised and you don't need to be told what insurance policies you can or can't buy.
Since the start of this Congress, President Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Speaker Pelosi and Harry Reid have essentially told the American people to sit down, shut up and take their medicine . This November, the American people will go to their polling stations and tell President Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Speaker Pelosi and Harry Reid to shut up and go away.
The wide-spread rejection of the Democrats' agenda will be felt throughout the political world for years to come.
Posted Sunday, February 21, 2010 5:37 AM
No comments.
Thank God For Saturday's Unexpected Guest
During Saturday's SD-15 convention, several gubernatorial candidates spoke, including Tom Emmer, Phil Herwig and Bill Haas. We heard from John Pederson, who will replace Tarryl Clark in next year's State Senate and from my adopted state representative Steve Gottwalt.
The convention was smoothly running along when a buzz started a little after noon. Before the delegates turned around, Convention chair Jim Knoblach stepped to the microphone and announced that we had a special guest who wanted to speak and that special guest was our congresslady, Michele Bachmann.
Just like her speech at CPAC, she asked how it felt to be "the majority-in-waiting." The roar of the crowd quickly answered that question. Michele had her assistants hand out a sheet with a ton of graphs and charts on it. (Rumor has it that King was smiling from ear to ear when he saw that big a collection of charts, graphs and statistics all in a one-page factsheet.)
Michele's chart showed the fallacy of President Obama's constant whining that he inherited the massive deficits from President Bush. She quickly said that President Bush spent too much but that President Obama's spending habits make President Bush look like a miser comparatively.
President Bush's last submitted budget called for $3,100,000,000,000. The FY2010 budget calls for $3,830,000,000,000. That's before factoring in the $862,000,000,000 failed stimulus bill or the $410,000,000,000 omnibus spending bill that were passed in February, 2009.
Michele noted that the charts showing the deficits 'dropping' to $750,000,000,000 in 2013 won't happen because the numbers are based on accepting as fact OMB's rosy scenario projections. OMB's projections for economic growth and job creation simply aren't credible.
Michele then talked about why the Democrats keep pushing health care when the American people want Congress to address the economy. Michele said that this is a high priority item for the Democrats' union special interest allies.
SIDENOTE: The Democrats' inability to say no to the radical requests of their political allies will hurt them bigtime this November. That's what happens when political parties don't have a spine. That's what happened in 2006.
Michele also talked about spending time weekly in her district and all the travel that requires. Tarryl Clark's and Maureen Reed's cheapshots ring hollow when confronted with verifiable facts but then, that's nothing unexpected. Michele said that it's been an honor to speak at special events in Ohio, California and North Dakota, in addition to giving the best speech at CPAC this weekend.
After her presentation, Michele took questions from the delegates. I was fortunate to ask the second question. I said that "President Obama made a big deal out of 'freezing the budget'" before noting that it's essentially a gimmick. I then asked if what we really need is to cut spending and get the federal budget under control.
Not surprisingly, Michele's face lit up with that question. She quickly said that that's exactly the question we should be asking of all our elected federal officials. Michele then explained that federal discrectionary spending had more than doubled since President Obama's inauguration.
Michele said that, if Republicans retake the majority in the House and Senate, getting the budget under control should be Job One with the budget committees. She said that other committees should get to work with creating jobs, which drew another enthustic response from the delegates.
Michele will campaign hard in Central Minnesota this cycle. Tarryl better get used to fighting for every vote in St. Cloud because Michele will fight for every vote in the Greater St. Cloud Area.
After Michele's speech, I briefly stepped out of the auditorium for a snack. (Darlene Thompson is such a great baker!!!) While out there, people were seen signing up to volunteer for Michele's campaign, whether it was walking in parades, doing voter ID, doorknocking, writing LTEs, putting up signs in their yards or phone-banking. It was a clear sign that Michele's got a fired up army of volunteers who will work hard to get her re-elected.
It's important that I express a final thought about Michele before closing out this post. Michele has that 'it factor' that most candidates only dream about. She's also proven, at least to people who look objectively at this, that she's got tons of gravitas and a command of a wide range of issues.
Most importantly, Michele is a great listener who doesn't shy away from directly answering supposedly tough questions. That's so polar opposite of Tarryl, who is great at saying what she thinks people want to hear.
The choice is clear. This November, I'm confident that the voters in Minnesota's Sixth District will send Michele back to DC to fight for fiscal sanity and a return to the principles of the Constitution.
Posted Sunday, February 21, 2010 7:00 AM
Comment 1 by eric z. at 21-Feb-10 01:07 PM
Such an impressive record of doing things for the district, in DC, right? Speeches to favorable crowds is not the job. Being effective and not a divisive factor in DC is the job.
Nice speech, if you say so.
Bad job.
And discounting Maureen Reid is a mistake.
You presume too much.
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 21-Feb-10 04:22 PM
First, I'm disappointed in you, Eric, for not admitting that it's close to impossible for a legislator in this big a minority to get her legislation passed. I'm further disappointed that you don't note that alot of great policies are contained in those speeches, starting with returning to government living within its constitutional framework. That, in turn, leads to spending less money, which is what the vast majority of people in Minnesota & the United States thinks is important.
If Maureen Reed gets the endorsement, it'll be a bigger upset than Ashwin Madia beating Terri Bonoff in the 2008 DFL CD-3 endorsing convention.
Comment 2 by George Hayduke at 21-Feb-10 05:48 PM
"command of a wide range of issues"
Are you serious? Is that why fact-checkers of all political persuasions have found Bachmann to be somewhere between "loose with the truth" and "pathological liar?"
Response 2.1 by Gary Gross at 21-Feb-10 06:01 PM
Mr. Hayduke, Saying that "fact-sheckers of all political persuasions" find that Michele's statements border on pathological lies simply isn't verifiable fact. The next time you make such baseless accusations, you'll be banned from commenting.
Health Care: The Democrats' Death Wish Or Holy Grail?
Over the past year, we've seen hundreds of thousands of people reject the Democrats' health care legislation. In August, we saw citizens attending townhall meetings schooling Democrat politicians on the contents of the House and Senate bills. We've seen TEA parties throughout the summer telling government to keep their hands off America's health care.
Still, Democrats persist in pushing their ideological goal of controlling, then taking over, America's health care system. Yuval Levin and James Capretta's Weekly Standard article outlines the different arguments why Obamacare must be defeated. Here's a great summary of their arguments against Obamacare:
With their plans to press ahead now clear, the Democrats have given Republicans little choice but to restate the full indictment of Obamacare at the summit and beyond. They might start with the Democratic push to cut Medicare Advantage benefits, forcing millions of seniors out of the coverage they enjoy today as early as this fall. They could follow that up by highlighting the deal to exempt union workers' health plans from the "Cadillac tax" through 2017, which is said to be crucial to House liberal support. This giveaway is worth $60 billion over a decade to the Democrats' big labor benefactors and will be rightly viewed as outrageous by the vast majority of Americans who are not in union plans. Of course, there's also the job-killing employer mandate, the regressive requirement to buy insurance, the regulations that will drive up premiums for the insured, and on and on. There is certainly no shortage of material to make the case-and contrast it with the conservative health agenda.These are the policies that I've highlighted throughout the summer, fall and early winter. I've said that the employer mandates would kill job growth and economic growth because entrepreneurs won't hire additional employees because the health care expenses are too high. They're better off having their workers work more overtime than hiring additional people.
The Democrats are foolish if they think that rounding up the required votes is their only challenge. Bob Cuccinelli, Virginia's newly minted Attorney General, wrote about Virginia passing a law that would command state residents to ignore all federal mandates, both in the Democrats' health care legislation and in other bills, in this op-ed :
It reminds me of an exchange between a reporter and one of the several Democratic committee chairmen in the House that are addressing the health care bill: The reporter asked the chairman "where in the Constitution does it say the federal government can mandate citizens to buy health insurance?"Cuccinelli will have lots of support, with 12 other states questioning whether the federal government's health care legislation isn't a violation of the Tenth Amendment. That's before talking about the constitutionally suspect carve-out for the unions on Cadillac plans. That's before talking about the special tax treatment that Blue Cross in Nebraska and Michigan are getting.
The chairman snapped back: "Where does it say we can't?!"
Sadly, like many of his cohorts, this chairman was blissfully unaware that if the Constitution doesn't say the federal government can do something, then it can't do it. And nowhere in the Constitution is the federal government given the authority to mandate citizens to purchase anything.
The bigger-government approach to the healthcare issue is clear cause to reexamine some fundamentals of how our government should operate. Our system of government is a republic. Before the Revolution, the sovereign was England. Following the Revolution, the power of the sovereign devolved to the people of the states, as explicitly noted in both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution itself.
By the time the Democrats' legislation's constitutionality is decided, Democrats will be in the minority and President Obama will be headed for being a one-term wonder. President Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Speaker Pelosi and Harry Reid will have led the Democratic Party into a political wilderness that they won't soon escape. It's one thing when voters disagree with a political party's policies. It's worse when voters think that a political party has become corrupt. What's worst is when voters know that a political party essentially tells them to sit down, shut up and mind their own business .
Things are so bad for Democrats with regards to health care that Charlie Cook has written that health care will be President Obama's Iraq :
Cook: I sort of reject the notion that there is a communications problem with President Obama. I think it's just fundamental, total miscalculations from the very, very beginning. Of proportions comparable to President George W. Bush's decision to go into Iraq.That isn't the only thing Cook said that's worth reading. Here's something else worth pondering:
Cook: Well when a Democratic Senate candidates loses Barney Frank's district and loses Massachusetts, I think it raises a legitimate question of what is safe, not what's in danger, but what is safe.After Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts, Michael Barone wrote that there was a 31 point swing from President Obama's 26 point win in 2008 to Sen. Brown's 5 point win in January's special election. Mr. Barone then said that only 103 Democratic seats would be safe if this pattern would be applied nationwide.
First, I'm not suggesting that this pattern is applicable nationwide. I'm, at minimum, skeptical of that being the case. Still, I find it more than curious when a Charlie Cook, certainly someone who still sees things through the Left's perspective, says that he's considering the possibility that it's more a case of what's safe rather than what's in play.
I found this interesting, too:
Cook: I've spent the last couple of days talking to some of the brightest Democrats in the party that are not in the White House. And it's very hard to come up with a scenario where Democrats don't lose the House. It's very hard. Are the seats there right this second? No. But we're on a trajectory on the House turning over....I agree that we don't know that there's 40+ Democratic House seats that will flip this November. That said, with the TEA Party movement gaining steam with every Democratic attempt to shove their radical, big-spending agenda down our throats, the chances are people in every section of the United States will reject the Democrats' candidates.
The DCCC and the DSCC will undoubtedly brag about their candidates being better funded. There's no arguing that they're right about that. That said, there's no question that that isn't helping them this year. There are eight Senate seats that the Democrats are either trailing or trailing badly in in which they have more CoH than their GOP opponent. CoH doesn't help if the candidate doesn't have an appealing message.
The Democrats might get their radical legislation passed but I'm not certain of that. If it's passed with the individual mandates and with the special treatment for the unions, I'm pretty certain that those provisions will be struck down by the Supreme Court. Once those things are struck down, the bill will be fairly gutted.
The bad news for Democrats is that, by using reconciliation, those provisions sunset after 10 years. The worst news for Democrats is that, by using reconciliation, it'll only take 51 votes and a Republican president's signature to eliminate the departments created by the Democrats' health care bill.
Posted Sunday, February 21, 2010 4:59 PM
Comment 1 by J. Ewing at 21-Feb-10 07:46 PM
I'm not certain, at this point, that there would be 51 Senate Democrats willing to tie their re-election to an anchor like being part of this scurvy process would be. But I think Republicans should encourage it.
