February 23, 2010
Feb 23 00:00 Rep. van Hollen Gets Defensive Feb 23 01:28 DFL Passes Annual Stimulus Bill Feb 23 02:02 GREAT NEWS!!! Feb 23 09:59 Compromise, Obama Style Feb 23 12:26 Crist Watch
Prior Months: Jan
Prior Years: 2006 2007 2008 2009
Rep. van Hollen Gets Defensive
During Rep. Chris van Hollen's appearance on Meet the Press, Rep. Chris van Hollen gave some pretty defensive answers about what this congress has accomplished. Here's what he said:
REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): David, let's just flash back for a moment. The first nine months of the Obama administration, one of the most productive periods in recent legislative history, according to all independent outside observers, we passed an expansive children's health care, paid for; we provided the opportunity for women to have their day in court on equal pay; we gave the FDA authority to protect our kids from tobacco use; we passed a very important public lands protection bill. We passed a credit card billholders bill of rights. We passed a whole lot of things. Then we came to the healthcare debate. Senator DeMint famously said, "We're going to use this to break the president. It's going to be his Waterloo." Just last week we had seven Republican senators, who had their names on a bill to create a deficit reduction commission, vote against it for purely partisan reasons. There's been a calculation by the Republican leadership that getting nothing done, to try and prevent the majority from working its will, as it did for the first nine months, is to their political advantage. And there's no other explanation for that vote we saw.It's embarrassing that Rep. van Hollen would list passing credit card holders bill of rights legislation. It's more embarrassing to hear him say that they passed public lands protection legislation. How many people listed any of those things in their top 25 priorities? Did anyone?
These aren't accomplishments. They're wasting time while the economy was shrinking and shedding jobs. Each of these bills wasted time in committee hearings, too. What's the Democrats' justification for wasting their time on these initiatives instead of working on legislation that would actually create jobs?
It seems to me that bragging that, under the Democrats' leadership, the American people got such high priority legislation like a credit cardholder's bill of rights passed is admitting that the Democrats' agenda was filled with failing to get anything important done that improves the lives of real people.
Frankly, this is proof that Pelosi's Democrats didn't pay attention to the American people's priorities. It's proof that Pelosi's Democrats paid more attention to ramming their ideological agenda down America's throats while people were losing their jobs and their health insurance.
This November, the American people should give congressional Democrats a failing grade in their performance review. They should take Pelosi's speaker gavel and give it to John Boehner. The American people should then thank the Democrats for not passing more legislation that would do more harm than good.
Posted Tuesday, February 23, 2010 12:05 AM
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DFL Passes Annual Stimulus Bill
As expected, the DFL majorities in the House and Senate passed their annual stimulus bill , aka the bonding bill:
Ignoring Gov. Tim Pawlenty's promised veto, the Minnesota House and Senate passed a $1 billion bonding bill late Monday that ended a day of heightened confrontation between the Republican governor and DFL legislators.Besides not negotiating with the GOP, other things that the DFL didn't do was put together a plan that will build a 21st Century economy. The bonding bill is nothing more than a bandaid for the Minnesota economy, which is struggling.
Pawlenty's preemptive strike, coming in a terse letter Monday that promised to reject the bonding plan, again sizzled tensions between the governor and the DFL legislative majorities less than three weeks into the session.
"The people of Minnesota expect us to spend their tax dollars frugally and wisely. This bill does neither," wrote Pawlenty. "You chose not to negotiate with us at all."
The DFL's plan, such as it exists, is to use the tax code to pick winners and losers based on the DFL's ideology rather than on creating a business-friendly environment. Since the DFL has proven time and again that they aren't interested in building a private sector-oriented economy, Minnesotans are left with only one choice if they want an economy that's making them prosperous.
That's by electing Republican majorities in the House and Senate. They're the only people who've shown an interest in building a prosperous economy.
Predictably, Speaker Kelliher whined about Gov. Pawlenty's veto promise:
House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, DFL-Minneapolis, who chided Pawlenty for issuing his veto threat from a hotel room in Washington, said the veto would scuttle flood-control projects that GOP legislators want.It apparently hasn't dawned on Speaker Kelliher that Gov. Pawlenty understands that the bill contains some important things in it. It's just the tons of pork that he's objecting to:
American Indian Resource Center for $6.6 million dollars. $5.7 million dollars for Red Lake School when we can't get a penny for a school that is falling apart in Wells. $1.2 million dollars to the Perpich Center for the Arts. Near $40 million for trails. $4 million dollars for a volleyball center in Rochester. Millions for sculpture gardens and nature centers. $16 million for the Ordway Performing Arts Center. $17 million for Orchestra Hall.I'm betting that Gov. Pawlenty also doesn't like what the DFL's annual stimulus bill will do to Minnesota's bond rating.
The DFL obviously isn't interested in or capable of setting good priorities or saying no to their special interest allies. That isn't responsible governance. They're nothing more than their special interest allies' puppet, dancing at their every whim.
The Senate GOP issued this statement on the DFL's passing their annual stimulus bill:
MINNESOTA SENATE REPUBLICANSI'd love hearing the DFL justify why they didn't put a higher priority on fixing our prisons than on fixing up the Ordway or Orchestra Hall or building trails. That's unforgiveable. It's also proof that the DFL's priorities are way out of whack.
KEY REPUBLICANS RAIL AGAINST DFL BONDING BILL'S LACK OF FOCUS AND BLOATED DOLLAR AMOUNT
(St. Paul) - Late Monday night, the Senate approved a Capital Investment Bill which came in at nearly $1 billion dollars. Senate Republicans labeled the bill a fatally flawed process by the rejection of several common-sense amendments. They also questioned the timing of passing a massive borrowing bill before even beginning to reconcile the budget deficit.
"We have to address this borrow-and-spend mentality. The desire to pile on additional debt by making decisions behind closed doors simply cannot continue," said Senator Geoff Michel (R-Edina). "Bonding bills are supposed to do more than bring home the bacon for the majority party's districts."
The bill now heads to Gov. Pawlenty's desk where it will be met with what he calls the "taxpayer protection pen," for his official veto.
"You would think a bonding bill of nearly $1 billion dollars would spell out some priorities," said Senator Michel. "Putting cultural centers ahead of public safety needs demonstrates that the majority party is out-of-touch with middle-class Minnesota families."
"It is imperative that the legislature stand for public safety and ensure that sexual predators are dealt with in the appropriate fashion," said Senator Claire Robling (R-Jordan). "Passing this Bonding Bill without some money for the Moose Lake Correctional Facility is an absolute disservice to Minnesota families."
Senate Republicans insisted that the conference committee report did not reflect core public safety and infrastructure needs. Attempts to adopt amendments have been soundly rejected by the majority party. These amendments included:
"A reasonable and rational belt tightening for public art expenditures has previously won bi-partisan support," said Senator Chris Gerlach (R-Apple Valley). "Unfortunately, this has been rejected by the DFL majority."
- An urgent request for funding for a new fence at the state prison at Oak Park Heights, Minnesota's only level 5 maximum security facility, where violent state and federal inmates are housed.
- Full funding for Moose Lake sex offender treatment center to accommodate the state's growing sex offender population that has been the result of longer sentencing guidelines set for sex offenders by the 2005 Legislature.
- A report on jobs actually created or retained by the spending.
- A limitation of no more than $100,000 for the currently unlimited "percent for art program" which is funding for public art in government buildings.
Posted Tuesday, February 23, 2010 1:28 AM
Comment 1 by Walter Scott Hudson at 23-Feb-10 01:47 AM
Their priorities aren't just "out of whack." They're non-existent. This was demonstrated in a comment by Senator Terri Bonoff, in a response to a letter of mine taking issue with her vote, which portrayed a shamelessly negligent attitude toward governance. "The consensus of my colleagues was to present the bill as recommended and allow the Governor to line item veto," she wrote to me. In other words, they have left the task of legislating to the executive, only to complain when he rejects their unfinished work.
http://fightinwordsusa.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/how-legislative-sausage-is-made/
GREAT NEWS!!!
Monday morning, I received an email announcing that State Sen. Pat Pariseau was retiring after serving SD-36. This evening, I found out that the opening caused by Sen. Pariseau created an opening that Dave Thompson will fill . Here's Dave's statement announcing his candidacy:
Dave says, "I have spent my entire adult life engaged in the public policy debate. I am looking forward to being able to express my views and vote on behalf of the constituents of Senate District 36. Just like the federal government, Minnesota needs to return to limited government, and focus on a business friendly environment. Good jobs can only be provided by healthy businesses.I've been impressed with Dave Thompson for a long time. I supported Dave's candidacy when he ran for state party chair because he's a great conservative, a great communicator and a very bright man. SD-36 is fortunate to have a man of Dave's quality step in to take Sen. Pariseau's place. Their string of great representation in the district will apparently continue.
I am honored to have the endorsement of Senator Pat Pariseau. Her faithful work on behalf of her constituents and all Minnesotans provides a good example to all elected officials."
I wish Dave nothing but the best. I'm confident that he'll do a great job in the legislature. In fact, I can't wait to watch him debate some of the mind-numbed DFL senators. That's the type of thing I'd pay admission to see.
When I interviewed Dave last winter, one thing that I admired about him was his passion for consistently making the most powerful arguments on the most important issues confronting Minnesotans.
Posted Tuesday, February 23, 2010 2:02 AM
Comment 1 by J. Ewing at 23-Feb-10 06:22 AM
Hear! Hear! I think it's great. I was concerned that such a late start would disadvantage anyone entering the race, but Dave starts out with some instant name recognition, fundraising ability, a cadre of supporters and a known reputation on the issues. With a bit o' luck, Dave can argue from the majority side next year.
Comment 2 by W. Norton at 23-Feb-10 10:08 AM
Your article missed an important part of the Senate district 36 race. There already is a conservative candidate running. Theresa Stokes was taking on Pariseau as an incumbent. Dave is a late joiner. Now that Pariseau is quitting, he's willing to run. Theresa at least deserves a mention when talking about the upcoming race.
Response 2.1 by Gary Gross at 23-Feb-10 10:33 AM
I wasn't aware that there was another candidate in the race for Sen. Pariseau's seat. Thanks for pointing that out.
Comment 3 by W. Norton at 23-Feb-10 10:25 PM
Latest update: A third person, Bob Erickson, is now in the race for senate 36.
Compromise, Obama Style
Many words will be spoken about President Obama's health care legislation. Robert Gibbs undoubtedly will argue that it represents real compromise. It isn't. Charles Krauthammer explained why last night:
KRAUTHAMMER: The plan that the President unveiled today is really a travesty masquerading as an outreach to the Republicans. First of all, it has nothing about tort reform, which is an important element. We know why because Howard Dean has said that the Democrats don't want to anger the trial lawyers and tort reform has been estimated by the Massachusetts Medical Society that doctors who practice defensive medicine, a quarter of all tests, procedures and referrals...The editors at the Wall Street Journal have weighed in on President Obama's unwillingness to compromise , too:
BAIER: The President says that he's willing to talk about tort reform.
KRAUTHAMMER: If you have a 2,600 page bill and you have nothing in it on tort reform, you're not serious about it. Secondly, from the start, there's nothing in it that nationalizes the market and purchasing across state lines. What the President does here is he tries to reconcile House and Senate differences but he does it by throwing more money at every difference. For example, the Nebraska Kickback, which is a federal giveaway on Medicaid for only Nebraska, every state now has it.
A mere three days before President Obama's supposedly bipartisan health-care summit, the White House yesterday released a new blueprint that Democrats say they will ram through Congress with or without Republican support. So after election defeats in Virginia, New Jersey and even Massachusetts, and amid overwhelming public opposition, Democrats have decided to give the voters what they don't want anyway.President Obama, just like he always does, talks bipartisanship without being bipartisan. He talks about fiscal discipline without exercising fiscal restraint. More people distrust President Obama each day. They've seen his saying one thing, then doing the opposite too often. To say that his routine is wearing thin is understatement.
Ah, the glory of "progressive" governance and democratic consent.
"The President's Proposal," as the 11-page White House document is headlined, is in one sense a notable achievement: It manages to take the worst of both the House and Senate bills and combine them into something more destructive. It includes more taxes, more subsidies and even less cost control than the Senate bill. And it purports to fix the special-interest favors in the Senate bill not by eliminating them-but by expanding them to everyone.
The bill's one new inspiration is a powerful federal board that would regulate premiums in the individual insurance market. In all 50 states, insurers are already required to justify premium increases to insurance commissioners, who generally have the power to give a regulatory go-ahead, or not. But their primary concern is actuarial soundness and capital standards, making sure that companies have enough cash to pay claims.
Recently, President Obama has complained about the 39 percent increase in insurance premiums in California. What he hasn't mentioned is that California approved that hike. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why he omits that important detail.
Another important detail that President Obama omits is that it isn't necessary to create a "new Health Insurance Rate Authority to review and rein in unreasonable rate increases" because, as the WSJ reports, all 50 states have insurance commissioners who do that already.
The only purpose for a federal Health Insurance Rate Authority is to strip away the state's authority and give that authority to the federal government, thereby putting oversight responsibility one step further away from the people it purportedly wants to help. The Founding Fathers' belief was that government closest to the people is the best form of governance because it's most accountable to the people it governs.
President Obama apparently believes that the Founding Fathers were wrong in believing that.
The Dallas Morning News' William Murchison weighed in on President Obama's 'my-way-or-the-highway' compromise in this column :
The health care charade has gone on for a year. Polls suggest most Americans don't want the measures now on offer. Republican leaders want to start the whole thing over again. The president says no, because he's got his own plan and a date with the TV audience Thursday to explain why nothing his Republican guests will propose, unless it's really small, deserves incorporation into the grand scheme that "We're All Going to Buy Into Right Now. DO YOU HEAR ME, AMERICA?!!!!"This isn't about compromise. It's about President Obama's Chicago thug-style politicking. There's nothing about President Obama's style that suggests that he's a public servant. There's ample proof to suggest that President Obama is most interested in implementing his radical leftist agenda despite what the governed think.
The Founding Fathers told us there would be days like this; they just hoped there wouldn't be many such, with Congress entertaining the enactment of undigested proposals better suited to the goal of forging legislative majorities than that of actually making life better. But there we are. The thoughtless arrogance of the whole health "reform" enterprise makes the head spin.
That stands the Preamble of the Constitution on its head:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.Then again, this isn't surprising. Progressives don't put a high priority on heeding the Constitution's principles because they often get in the way of their agenda.
If President Obama and his Democratic allies aren't willing to listen to the American people while they're writing legislation, which they apparently haven't, then it's time to make them pay attenion the first Tuesday this November. Until then, it's time that John Q. Public to repeatedly and persistently visit their senators' and their congressmen's offices to voice their displeasure with them ignoring the will of the people.
As always, be polite during these visit. Don't unload a laundery list of complaints. It's better to state your complaint in concise terms. That's the only way to clearly communicate the message.
It's time to stop this trainwreck legislation in its tracks. We can't afford more new spending, especially with the deficit likely to jump higher this year than last year's record.
Posted Tuesday, February 23, 2010 10:07 AM
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Crist Watch
Based on Gov. Crist's failing poll numbers and the fact that key staffers are leaving Crist's campaign , I'm betting that it's just a matte of time before Gov. Crist's campaign implodes. Here's the latest news from the Crist campaign:
In the latest sign of turbulence for Charlie Crist's wounded U.S. Senate bid, key staffers are starting to leave the campaign.There's no denying that the Crist ship is sinking. The only question left unanswered is whether he'll finish all the nationally-televised debates. Most likely, he will in the hopes that Rubio makes a major mistake but that's a desperate Hail Mary strategy.
Political director Pablo Diaz, one of the first two staff members hired for the Senate campaign, is departing at the end of the month for "a new opportunity." Sean Doughtie, a well-regarded new media consultant who had worked with Crist for years, stopped working for the campaign at the end of January.
"The campaign was going in a different direction," said Doughtie.
Meanwhile, a poll released Monday pointed to Crist's dire position six months before the Republican primary: Rubio was leading Crist by 18 percentage points, 54 percent to 36 percent, among likely Republican primary voters, according to a Feb. 18 Rasmussen Reports poll with a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
There's little doubt that Gov. Crist will go increasingly negative:
"Now that he's up in the polls, there will be more scrutiny and that's great," a cheerful Crist said Monday on MSNBC's Morning Joe, where he suggested that he's more conservative than Rubio. "If you want to really see somebody's character, give them power. Well, both the speaker and I have had power. While the speaker was there, he wanted to increase taxes $9 billion," Crist said, referring to Rubio's support of a plan to raise sales taxes and eliminate property taxes.I expected Gov. Crist to go negative but I didn't expect that it would happen this soon. This, to me, is verification that Gov. Crist's campaign is falling apart at an accelerating pace. It won't be long before Gov. Crist's political career is finished.
Crist, who neglected to mention that he supported a similar tax swap proposal, also noted that he vetoed more than $450 million in legislative spending initiatives passed while Rubio was speaker. "It takes leadership to do what's right every single day and not just talk about it on the campaign trail the past six months and forget what your record was for two years," the governor said, signaling the line of attack Floridians may be seeing on TV airwaves before long.
Rubio spokesman Alex Burgos said the campaign is bracing for a barrage of negative attacks from Crist. "Charlie Crist has lost his credibility with Republican voters and his lead in the polls," Burgos said. "The one thing Charlie Crist has left is to use the millions he does have to smear Marco Rubio with negative and dishonest attacks, a last-gasp strategy that was on full display this morning."
Because Gov. Crist's campaign will likely implode, it isn't likely that Florida Democrats would want him as their gubernatorial candidate. At this point, he's damaged goods. I'm bettign that even the Democrats aren't that desperate.
It's sad that Gov. Crist's campaign has unraveled this badly this fast. It's an unprecedented implosion in terms of politics, though the Philadelphia Phillies' collapse in 1964 might rival it in sports.
Posted Tuesday, February 23, 2010 12:30 PM
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