May 12-16, 2019
May 12 00:32 CNN's Jeffrey Toobin erupts May 12 12:42 The Democrats' demagoguery May 13 01:42 Which direction will Minnesota's Democrats take? May 13 16:25 The booming Trump economy May 14 10:31 Byron York's stellar reporting May 14 11:14 DFL's insane budget battle May 15 08:24 Gowdy: Brennan, Comey in trouble May 15 16:49 DOJ's investigation should worry Strzok, Comey, others May 16 00:17 The DFL is the biggest roadblock to passing a sane Minnesota budget
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CNN's Jeffrey Toobin erupts
It's clear that CNN's Jeffrey Toobin can't take being humiliated any longer. Toobin's ongoing humiliation triggered this eruption :
Our constitutional system never contemplated a President like Donald Trump. The Framers anticipated friction among the three branches of government, which has been a constant throughout our history, but the Trump White House has now established a complete blockade against the legislative branch, thwarting any meaningful oversight. The system, it appears, may simply be incapable of responding to this kind of challenge.
The President has been candid about his plans for responding to investigations from the House of Representatives, which has been controlled by the Democrats since January. 'We're fighting all the subpoenas,' Trump said, last month, and the pace of his defiant actions has since quickened. The President and his Administration have defied congressional inquiries about security clearances, access to the full Mueller report, the President's bank records, his tax returns, and the continuing investigation of his campaign's ties to Russia.
First, let's talk about Congress's request for "access to the full Mueller report." The minute this fight reaches the Supreme Court, it will be unanimously defeated. Congress isn't entitled to information that's been put off-limits by : Congress. Let's not stop there, though. Let's talk about why grand jury testimony shouldn't be public information.
In a grand jury investigation, the accuser isn't allowed to be cross-examined by the defense attorney. Further, the witnesses are questioned only by prosecutors. What part of that procedure sounds like the accused person's due process rights were followed? If a person's due process rights are violated, then that testimony should be off-limits with only a few exceptions.
Next, let's talk about Toobin's supposed "meaningful oversight." President Trump has been in office for 27-28 months. Why does the House Ways & Means Committee need 6 years of President Trump's tax returns? Congressional oversight isn't meant for private citizens. It's meant for legislative purposes. Let's throw that intellectually feeble argument into the garbage where it belongs. This is the Democrats' attempt to harass President Trump. This doesn't have anything to do with providing with proper oversight.
Finally, congressional oversight is about finding out new facts about government operations. Why would any person with a functioning brain think that a bunch of publicity-seeking politicians will find anything that 50 FBI agents and 20 trained attorneys couldn't find?
So, after nearly two and a half centuries, Trump will create a new constitutional norm - in which the executive can defy the legislature without consequence. The only likely remedy, therefore, will lie with the voters, next year.
Actually, Obama did that. Actually, Obama and Holder did that. When AG Holder sent guns to south-of-the-border drug cartels without having a plan in place to track them, he was showing he wasn't ready for a heavyweight job like Attorney General. When he refused to cooperate with a legitimate oversight investigation, he showed that he was a corrupt AG who wasn't ready for primetime. When he and other Democrats acted like refusing to actively participate in a legitimate investigation, they blazed a path that'd never been blazed before.
Any trash-talking from lightweights like Toobin might confuse some but not all. The truth is that he isn't a convincing spinmeister or history re-writer. That's why he's employed by CNN. That's why he's a Democrat.
Posted Sunday, May 12, 2019 12:32 AM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 12-May-19 07:25 AM
It continues to amaze me that the MSM has completely forgotten the acts for the previous administration. Obama and his minions were far worse at disregarding congress and doing whatever the hell they wanted, and they got away with it.
The Democrats' demagoguery
When it comes to demagoguery, Democrats are utterly shameless. They don't tell the truth much, either. If you're looking for integrity, you won't find much of that in the Democrat Party. Alfredo Ortiz's article lays out the details nicely.
Ortiz wrote "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last week that 'the evidence shows that most of the economic gains continue to benefit those already well-off.' House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer claimed, 'wages aren't growing fast enough to allow millions of workers to keep pace and feel that real economic security is within reach.' And Sen. Cory Booker broadly asserted that 'Americans are struggling.'"
Then he wrote "Start with unemployment rates, which are at or near record lows for Hispanic, black, female, and young workers. The unemployment rate for Americans without a high-school education, supposedly a group that's been shafted in today's economy, is hovering near a record low. The rate for those with disabilities has fallen by more than 20 percent over the last year to a mere 6.3 percent -- the lowest level on record."
These Democrats pretend that the economy isn't helping anyone outside the top 1% but these Democrats know that they're lying. Democrats know that they don't stand a chance in 2020 if people think that they're doing well. That's what's leading to the Democrats talking like we're living in 'soup line America', a mythical place where nobody's getting a fair shake and where evil corporations get all the benefits of the tax cuts.
Then look at wages. While average wages have been growing at about 3.2 percent for several months now, they've been increasing even faster for middle-class production and nonsupervisory workers. Last year, wage growth was 6.5 percent for the 10th percentile of workers with the lowest incomes -- about double the overall average. Contrast this wage growth to the paltry 2 percent average under President Obama.
It's at points like this that I like to highlight the fact that consumer is near an all-time high. The reason I like highlighting that is because people aren't confident if they're worried that they're about to get laid off or if they think that they won't get a raise anytime soon. In other words, people are feeling the effects of the tax cuts and they aren't worried about getting laid off anytime soon.
This is what President Trump is fighting against:
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Let's be honest. This economy is helping lots of people in every sector of the economy. Blue collar workers are experiencing the fastest wage gains of anyone. More small businesses are getting created. Income earned outside the US is flooding back in.
Finally, Democrats are establishing an impossible benchmark. They're finding a person here or there that isn't doing well. Since when did any economy literally help everyone ? Further, I'd ask how President Obama's handling of the economy compare with President Trump's. Job growth was ok but economic growth and wage growth were pathetic.
Posted Sunday, May 12, 2019 12:42 PM
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Which direction will Minnesota's Democrats take?
We're finally in the last part of the Legislature's regular session. Apparently, we're steaming towards the biennial stalemate otherwise known as the budget special session. Unlike other years, this isn't just about budget numbers. This time, it's about the direction of the state of Minnesota, both economically and politically. It's about whether Minnesotans side with the DFL and financial unsustainability or with the MNGOP and financial stability.
The DFL, led by Gov. Walz, has picked historic tax increases (again) and unsustainable spending. If Walz and the DFL get their way, the state will spend $83,000,000,000 for all revenues spending this biennium, with $51,000,000,000 in general revenue spending. Special thanks go to Harold Hamilton and the Minnesota Watchdog for highlighting the fact that "As recently as 2001, the state spent $37 billion in that biennium. This biennium will see all funds spending of $83 billion."
That's far beyond ridiculous. That's irresponsible in the extreme on the part of the DFL. Mr. Hamilton highlights this important fact:
Capital is Mobile - And it Will Flee.
When taxes are too high, taxpayers will flee to lower taxed jurisdictions. This is especially true for higher net worth taxpayers, who generally have the resources and sophistication to engage in careful tax planning. High tax states are falling into a fiscal death spiral as they raise taxes to cover more and more spending while at the same time fewer and fewer taxpayers remain to shoulder the burden.
Isn't it interesting that Gov. Walz's Department of Revenue did their tax incident report, which showed that the lowest income people will get hit hardest by Gov. Walz's and the DFL's $12,000,000,000 tax increase over the next 4 years? That's just starting the bad news. Hamilton continues:
Every reputable organization that analyzes tax burdens ranks Minnesota among the least tax-friendly states in the nation. With respect to overall tax burden, Minnesota is in the top 5 of every reputable ranking, including being the dubious distinction of #1 overall in Kiplinger's rankings.
No matter the metric, Minnesota punishes its taxpayers. Kiplinger's also ranked Minnesota as the least friendly state in the nation for retiree income. For example, it's one of the few states in the nation to tax Social Security income. Add to that high estate taxes, and retirees have little reason to live here, other than the magnificent weather. The North Star state also has a nasty reputation for punitive taxes on the working poor through high regressive taxes.
Here's the latest on negotiations :
Just before 7 p.m., the Democrats and Republicans met with the Governor. The meeting lasted about an hour and a half. Two major budget sticking points concern Gov. Walz's proposed 20-cent gas tax and the already in place 2% medical provider tax, which sets aside money for low-income Minnesotans for health care.
Gov. Walz said they made a budget offer last Wednesday, even cutting $400 million in spending and revenue over the next two years, but he says Republicans won't meet them in the middle. The Governor is confident a compromise will happen soon, but he says his patience is being tested.
"It doesn't matter if there's a big story in southern Minnesota telling us that our transportation's at a tipping point and every single county commissioner and city manager and civil engineer was interviewed for it and said, 'Yeah, we got to do something or this can be catastrophic,' and yet we're still hearing no," Gov. Walz said. "So yeah, my frustration level is growing."
First, there's virtually no support for the gas tax increase. I mean, less than 20% of Minnesotans support a gas tax increase. Further, we learned this week that revenue collection for April was almost $500,000,000 over expectations, meaning we'd have a surplus for this biennium of over $1,500,000,000. If you add into that the fact that there's over $2,500,000,000 in Minnesota's Rainy Day Fund, there's really no reason for any tax increases.
It's time for Gov. Walz and the DFL to fold their tent and return to Realityville. God only knows where they're at right now. I'm betting the DFL is inhabiting another solar system.
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Posted Monday, May 13, 2019 1:42 AM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 13-May-19 07:30 PM
Cutting $400 million over 2 years out of a $12 billion over 4 years tax increase when there no need to even raise taxes is a huge slap in the face to those of us who actually pay the taxes.
The booming Trump economy
For the past month, Democrats have talked the Trump/GOP economy down, saying that it's only helping the richest 1%. That's been debunked thoroughly but now we have proof thanks to Brian Bakst's article on Minnesota's oversized surplus.
In his article, Mr. Bakst reports "Minnesota tax collections soared well past expectations for April, according to a tally released Friday. The Department of Minnesota Management and Budget reported revenue that was $489 million above what had been projected to come in. The excess is 17 percent above expectations for the month . April is when most income tax payments are made, so this update is more pivotal than others."
This is vitally important for several reasons. First, it's proof that President Trump's policies are working. Exceeding expectations by 17% in the biggest collection month of the year is a big deal. Next, it's a death blow to Gov. Walz's and the DFL's tax increases. With the economy growing in spite of Gov. Dayton's and the DFL's policies, it's safe to say that we don't need another $12,000,000,000 in tax increases.
We're already running a $1,000,000,000+ surplus. Minnesota's Rainy Day Fund has $2,500,000,000 in it. With the economy roaring, why should Minnesota plan on a downturn or recession? That's as stupid as moving to Hawaii and bringing your winter parka from Minnesota.
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The question for Gov. Walz and the DFL now is whether they want to spend Minnesota into oblivion or whether they're willing to act like adults for a change. At this point, I'm not sure whether the DFL's special interests will win out or whether the people of Minnesota will win out.
What I'm certain of, though, is that the GOP is consistently aligning with the people of Minnesota. That's a stark contrast with Gov. Walz and the DFL.
Posted Monday, May 13, 2019 4:25 PM
Comment 1 by Chad Q at 13-May-19 05:37 PM
More tax revenue just means the socialists have more of our money to spend once the GOP caves on the big tax increases.
Response 1.1 by Gary Gross at 13-May-19 10:46 PM
Actually, I'm impressed with the Republicans' steadfast opposition to raising any tax increases. That fight is over. Period.
Comment 2 by Chad Q at 14-May-19 05:42 PM
Once a special session is called and then the government is shutdown, the MSM will make it all the GOP's fault and they'll cave like they have in the past. Simple as that. I really hope they don't but I'm not holding my breath. The DFL has already framed this as the GOP is against health care, kids, and seniors.
Gazelka said this morning it isn't the increased spending but the tax increases that gets him. We'll if you have increased spending, you're going to have to pay for it. I'm against double digit spending and tax increases!
Response 2.1 by Gary Gross at 15-May-19 07:57 AM
With the MSM's credibility in the shitter, I'm not even slightly worried about them.
Byron York's stellar reporting
It isn't a secret that Democrats hate President Trump to the point of developing Trump Derangement Syndrome, aka TDS. Byron York's reporting, like in this article , has highlighted so many facts that the Democrats don't want out.
For instance, York reports "The warrant application made a three-point argument. Point 1 was that Russia was trying to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Point 2 was that Page had a history of involvement with Russia and Russians. Point 3 was that Page was a Russian agent conspiring with powerful Russian officials to influence the election. Point 1 was true. Point 2 was true. Point 3 was not, and that is when the application went off the rails."
Comey would've known that Point 3 wasn't true if he'd taken the time to verify the Steele Dossier before using it in his FISA warrant. At the heart of this fiasco (and other fiascos) is Mr. Comey. All trails seemingly lead back to him. His sloppiness has been mortifying.
Now that he's left office, Rod Rosenstein is speaking out against Comey:
"Now, the former director is a partisan pundit, selling books and earning speaking fees while speculating about the strength of my character and the fate of my immortal soul," Rosenstein said. "That is disappointing. Speculating about souls is not a job for police and prosecutors. Generally, we base our opinions on eyewitness testimony."
Rosenstein continued:
"The clearest mistake was the director's decision to hold a press conference about an open case, reveal his recommendation and discuss details about the investigation, without the consent of the prosecutors and the attorney general," Rosenstein said. "Then, he chose to send a letter to the Congress on the eve of the election stating that one of the candidates was under criminal investigation, expecting it to be released immediately to the public."
What's amazing is that Comey is totally vulnerable but seemingly unaware of his multiple vulnerabilities. If he were a water container, he'd be called a sieve. If he was a type of cheese, he'd be known as Swiss cheese.
If he was a defendant in a criminal trial, the odds are that he'd quickly be called a convict.
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Posted Tuesday, May 14, 2019 10:31 AM
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DFL's insane budget battle
Tim Walz and the DFL continue insisting upon a budget that's best described as insane, stupid or counterproductive. The DFL's goal, apparently, is to make Minnesota uncompetitive with other states. We're already the highest-taxed state according to Kiplinger's. That isn't good enough for Tim Walz and the DFL, though. They're pushing a $12,000,000,000 tax increase over the next 4 years.
What's worse is that it hits the lowest incomes the hardest. That isn't just my opinion. That's the official summary of Gov. Walz's Department of Revenue's Tax Incidence Report! The latest word is that Walz and the DFL have 'offered' a 16-cent-a-gallon gas tax instead of a 20-cent-a-gallon gas tax. WOW! How generous. Walz and the DFL have also offered to trim $300,000,000 of spending from a $51,000,000,000 biennial budget.
If Walz and the DFL want to run on that in 2020, bring it on. That'll be as popular as a Packer fanatic at a Vikings game. Good luck with that.
Thanks to the DFL, we'll soon have 4 of the last 5 budget sessions ending with either a government shutdown or a contentious special session. In other words, the DFL has made governing dysfunctional again. No wonder why wealth keeps fleeing the state.
The first 6 seconds of this video of the Republicans' press availability last night shows how determined the DFL is to overtax Minnesotans:
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For instance, the budget surplus from the November forecast is over $1,000,000,000. Additionally, the year-to-date additional surplus is $573,000,000, which is 3.1% above forecast, including $489,000,000 in unexpected revenues in April, 2019. That's before factoring in $2,523,000,000 in Minnesota's Rainy Day Fund. That's a record amount in the Rainy Day Fund, BTW.
What's obscene about that is that that's money stolen from Minnesotans who would otherwise use that money to create jobs. Instead, the DFL has confiscated that wealth to protect government. That's how not to govern.
Republicans should stand their ground. Period. This isn't just a budget fight. It's a fight to restore sanity to the budget. At no point has the DFL offered reforms to fix the problems that've been identified by various OLA audit reports.
In summary, the DFL is gaining the reputation of spending recklessly and ignoring existing problems. Let's see them run on that in 2020.
Posted Tuesday, May 14, 2019 11:14 AM
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Gowdy: Brennan, Comey in trouble
When it comes to legal matters, Trey Gowdy doesn't mince words. He's one of the most honest people to have recently served in Congress. If he says that someone is in legal jeopardy, bet on that person to start hiring attorneys. This afternoon, Mr. Gowdy stated that former CIA Director John Brennan was in hotter legal hot water than former FBI Director Jim Comey . It isn't a secret that Jim Comey is in trouble. That's what's behind his constant blabfests on CNN and on speaking tours.
What's known is that the FBI didn't attempt to verify the Steele Dossier until after the election, which is well after Jim Comey attested to the FISA Court that it had been verified and that Christopher Steele was a trustworthy informant. Those aren't accurate statements, which means, I suspect, that he'll be one of the first people dragged before U.S. Attorney John Durham's grand jury to get squeezed by Mr. Durham into turning state's evidence against Brennan and other bad actors from the Obama administration. (Jim Clapper and Loretta Lynch pop to mind. Imagine that.)
"That's a pretty easy thing to sort out, who insisted that the dossier or the unverified material from Chris Steele be included," he said. "But : sometimes when you have two people, I can tell from you having been in the courtroom, sometimes when people are blaming each other, they are both right. It's both of them. And I think it's interesting Brennan and Comey right now, the only thing they seem to share is a hatred for Donald Trump. It's going to be interesting if they begin to turn on one another. I've seen the document. I'm not going to describe it any more than that, Comey's got a better argument than Brennan based on what I have seen."
I wouldn't want to be either of those gentlemen at this point. Yes, I use the term gentlemen loosely in that sentence. If I wasn't such a gentleman, I'd probably call Comey, Clapper and Brennan losers. But I digress.
Even Rod Rosenstein is upset with Comey:
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Here's why Mr. Rosenstein is upset:
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Posted Wednesday, May 15, 2019 8:24 AM
No comments.
DOJ's investigation should worry Strzok, Comey, others
John Solomon's article on Christopher Steele's dossier asks the question of who knew what and when:
Multiple sources confirm to me that the recipient of the State Department email was Special Agent Stephen Laycock, then the FBI's section chief for Eurasian counterintelligence and now one of the bureau's top executives as the assistant director for intelligence under Director Christopher Wray. The email to Laycock from Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec arrived eight days before the FBI swore to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that it had no derogatory information on Steele and used his anti-Trump dossier to secure a secret surveillance warrant to investigate Trump's possible ties to Moscow.
Officials tell me that Laycock immediately forwarded the information he received about Steele on Oct. 13, 2016, to the FBI team leading the Trump-Russia investigation, headed by then-fellow Special Agent Peter Strzok. Laycock was the normal point of contact for Kavalec on Eurasian counterintelligence matters, and he simply acted as a conduit to get the information to his colleagues supervising the Russia probe, the officials added.
This information on Steele was known well before Jim Comey signed off on the first FISA warrant application against Carter Page.
At the time, Comey "swore to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that it had no derogatory information on Steele and used his anti-Trump dossier to secure a secret surveillance warrant to investigate Trump's possible ties to Moscow." That's a lie. John Solomon's reporting, including the email from Kathleen Kavalec to Stephen Laycock, shows that the FBI knew that Steele wasn't reliable. Comey testified the opposite. He testified that Steele was totally reliable. That testimony is discredited, to put it nicely.
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If Solomon's reporting is accurate, and thus far, it has been, Comey's in big trouble. Lying on a FISA warrant application is bad enough. Lying on a FISA warrant application to spy on a presidential campaign is a total no-no. What's most frightening is that, if they can do this to the president of the United States, they can do this to anyone.
Kevin Brock, the former FBI assistant director for intelligence, said the State Department's email in October 2016 ordinarily should have triggered the FBI to reevaluate Steele as a source. " This is quite important ," Brock said. "Under normal circumstances, when you get information about the conduct of your source that gives rise to questions about their reliability or truthfulness, you usually go back and reevaluate their dependability and credibility."
This isn't unravelling the way Adam Schiff, Elijah Cummings or Jerry Nadler hoped it would. They didn't think that Barr would go on the offensive. They thought wrong. Finding out if the Obama administration cut corners to help Hillary get elected is the right thing to do. Now, Nadler, Cummings and Schiff are put in the position of defending the indefensible. They deserve that fate.
Posted Wednesday, May 15, 2019 4:49 PM
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The DFL is the biggest roadblock to passing a sane Minnesota budget
Based on Briana Bierschbach's article , there's 4 things hanging up a budget agreement. Here are the 4 items:
1) Provider tax
2) Gas tax
3) Other tax increases
4) Spending
What it really comes down to is the DFL wants to spend Minnesota into oblivion. We're already running a surplus because we're taxed too much. That expected surplus is already being revised upward. There's a ton of money flowing into Minnesota's coffers. Tim Walz and the DFL want to raise taxes even higher and spend money at an unsustainable rate.
Gazelka, R-Nisswa, said there are several pots of money that already exist in the state to spend more on education and public safety, including the state's $1 billion budget surplus, as well as the more than $2 billion in state budget reserves, which were recently fed even more when revenue collections came in nearly $500 million higher than expected last month. "We can get to places of compromise that still do not need any tax increases to work," Gazelka said.
Republicans need to say no to the DFL's tax increases and spending increases, starting with the HCAF tax increase. (HCAF = the Health Care Access Fund.) HCAF funds some subsidized health insurance programs but it frequently gets raided, too. A loyal reader of LFR contacted me and told me that monies have been shifted out of HCAF and into the general fund, where it can be used for who knows what.
Further, I read a recent commentary that says that 77% of the money in HCAF gets moved into the general fund as a sort of "slush fund" to pay off the DFL's special interest allies. In other words, they could cut the HCAF tax substantially and still have enough money to fund the programs they currently want to fund. That's before we talk about the gas tax increase, which is obscene, and the other tax increases. Let's put it this way:
- we're already running a surplus
- revenues are coming in faster than predicted
- Minnesota's Rainy Day Fund has $2,523,000,000 in it, the largest in state history
- Despite all this, the DFL wants to increase taxes by another $12,000,000,000 over the next 4 years.
What types of drugs are the DFL using? Perhaps the DFL has gotten ahold of the newly legalized magic mushrooms and are using them. This isn't insane. It's galaxies beyond insane.
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Posted Thursday, May 16, 2019 12:17 AM
Comment 1 by Rex newman at 16-May-19 01:37 PM
Two questions for the DFL: 1. When did you last propose cutting a tax, even a little? 2. How fat does the surplus and/or budget reserve have to get for you not propose still more tax increases? Not cut - just leave them as is?
Comment 2 by Chad Q at 16-May-19 07:06 PM
The answers to your questions are:
1. Never
2. There will never be enough money in over taxation or their slush fund to not raise taxes.
