Political What?

Stories for context:

Fox News a Republican Outlet?

Leftie Bloggers part of ‘the fringe’?

This is awesome right? These are only two stories of many that I have read since the President took office and his administration or someone close to it have complained about something in the media. It’s become more and more clear to me that all they can do when someone comes up with an opposing viewpoint is whine.

Fox News

Isn’t this really pot meet kettle? As Fox News has been considered more ‘Republican focused’ the more MSNBC and pretty much every other news outlet has gone the other way. Now, I can see this being the result of these networks trying to tell the story that Fox News isn’t, right? Here is the problem with that argument, they already did that beforehand and there seems to be an imbalence here.

To write these things and feel comfortable about my facts I read and watch multiple things and as much (if not more) opposing viewpoints than something I relate to. Here is the deal: There are things on Fox News that I simply NEVER hear on other news outlets. I keep asking myself why that is? I’m not talking about the crazy conspiracy stuff, I”m talking real news, real analysis of bills that are ready to be voted on. Stuff that if the right minded person heard they’d think “why the hell is that even in the bill, or why the hell are we even considering that”?

Perhaps it’s just me. Although I’m not the first person to think it.

Bite the Hand That Feeds

Now, the current Administration is getting into attacking new media that is basically ON THEIR SIDE?? Give me a break. Dear President Obama, this is one of the major reasons you were elected. You said (paraphrasing) “Get into their face”. The internet did (and still does) that for you in a BIG way. If you lose them I think you might lose the war against the opposition.

Now you might ask why the hell am I giving advice on the subject? I enjoy equal coverage in the press. I enjoy being able to not only easily find Conservative views, but Liberal ones as well. As long as what people have to say is logical, I’ll read it and provide my feedback.

Getting back to the way the Administration handles these things: It seems that they’ve gone into total defensive mode. As I explained numerous times before, if you provide a good answer to a question or argument people will understand and you might be able to sway opinion.

As these fights go on and on (healthcare, the wars, economic policy) all that I seem to hear is the same rhetoric, no REAL answers to valid questions and no attempt to convince anyone. Just whining. Whining about something other people said. It seems now we’ve ended up at stamping your feet up and down and squealing.

If you haven’t heard about the recent ACORN problems, I suggest you check out www.biggovernment.com.

Basically, two people posing as a pimp and prostitute went into SEVERAL ACORN offices and were offered help on tax evasion, human trafficing, avoiding criminal charges, and one worker even admitted to murder?!

Now, most people would probably say “Oh my god! How did this organization get so big?”. This is an organization that gets large amounts of federal funds, Barack Obama worked with them in the past and used them heavily as more or less his ‘ground troops’ in the election. Normally I stay away from making accusations about organizations like this because I didn’t have all the facts and I could only assume that they do SOME good. However, after seeing the results of these videos in MULTIPLE locations how can you NOT believe that that’s just the way this organization operates?

Obviously Fox News covered the heck out of it, and you didn’t hear much of a peep over this from the other major networks UNTIL the government took steps to defund ACORN. This just shows how partisan the media has become. In a local newspaper I saw this as a headline for a story: ”

ACORN’s fall latest win for conservative activists

Really? Shouldn’t an organization with this broad a reach, getting public money and ending up with CONSISTENT advice on illegal and questionable actions (e.g., prostitution, child prostitution, human trafficking) be EVERYONE’S problem? Not just a ‘conservative’ issue? That’s what bothers me the most about it. Did these folks go after it because it was associated with Obama and the liberal community? I’d say 100% yes. Should that deaden anything about what was found? Absolutely not.

However, if you don’t pay attention to Fox News or other conservative outlets, suddenly it’s not a story? Nice work.

The anti-obamacare crowd is pretty loud now, from my point of view. I believe now that they didn’t get a chance to pass this before the recess and the town halls started, that it will not pass in its current form. If Obama or the current congress wants health insurance/health care reform, they’ll have to start over. Now, because I’m such a nice guy and I’ve been paying attention to this for awhile, I’m going to give the Democrats some pointers. Based on my assessment of the situation, here is what you can do to help yourselves.

Address the Concerns

I have health insurance provided through my employer. I get excellent care from my doctors. I’ve never really had a serious complaint. I can see the doctor I want, my insurance pays for a CRAZY amount of it. I get quick access to specialists. Based on studies I’ve read and polls I’ve seen, many other people feel the same way. Will this make my care better? Worse? Will it stay the same? Nobody can answer this with any certainty. Or at least not well enough to my liking. I know Obama says “If you like your current plan you can keep it” however drafts in the House bill point differently. Plus the simple math of the tax an employer will pay for not offering care would seem to be less than offering private insurance. That means I don’t get to keep my care.

People have questions. All you are doing is speaking in slogans. “Our current system costs too much”, “our system doesn’t work”, and “we can’t keep the status quo”. Answer the questions, address the concerns, and be prepared that we might not like all the answers. Trust us to make an informed decision. Our current system is not perfect, and neither will anything you create. The sooner you get over it the sooner we as people get over it.

Stop Fighting the People and Back Up Your Plan with Facts

This fight has become more about fighting back protesters, discouraging dissent, calling people un-American and discrediting REAL Americans more than it is about health care.

The hypocrisy right now is just nuts to me. It’s like the Left suddenly forgot about the Bush Social Security tour of 2005. Labor Unions and the AARP spent money to bus people to these events and create the ‘opposition’. The press didn’t get upset then. To be honest this is the first I’ve ever complained about it.

Let’s all be honest with each other here: It’s the RIGHT of every American to protest, swarm, attend, speak, and be heard at these events. It doesn’t matter if you have an organization doing it, someone paying someone else to show up (as long as they share the same view anyway). I mean come on here, the people who praise Barack Obama for being a Community Organizer by trade are complaining about… the community organizing?? That deserves a WTF. For the Left to say they never organized to purposefully drown out opposition OR make the opposition louder than it really is, is just nuts. They need to get off their horse.

Now I do agree that we all need to be respectful, and not yell, talk over each other and the like. However, it seems from what I’ve seen that when these folks are presented with the tough questions they just crumble and can’t answer without the canned statement from the president (stated above) or some politician type talk.

Tell me what page of the bill prevents this from happening, tell me what page helps me, tell me what page answers my question, tell me what page makes sure I won’t get rationed care. The fact is right now most of these people can’t. I mean the same questions come up at EVERY town hall, so how do you NOT have this prepared? If you show us facts, we can tell you how’d we like the bill to read or if you should tweak something, etc. Right now we are more confused if anything. We have questions and nobody has definitive answers. How in any moral or right fashion could you have passed any ‘reform’ before the recess? The reactions all over the country prove it.

We can’t have healthy, meaningful debate on the subject when there is nothing definitive to debate.

Stop fighting the confused mob of people who want answers and just provide them with answers. Stop creating “misinformation email addresses” to “report” people. Stop sending out the Left sided political action organizations, stop sicking the union thugs on people. You only prove my points. If you just answer the questions, and can provide facts it won’t matter how loud people yell or how many swarm a town hall.

If You want a Public Option, Don’t Backdoor It

Am I the only person here who understands that if the government wants a public option, the only way it will REALLY work is if we are all in it? Insurance 101 people. You need the people who don’t use it paying in to create a profit and pay for the other people who use it. If only the poor, elderly (who need more care) are in it, it will NEVER work (e.g., medcaid, medicare). Rationing care will result from a simple money standpoint. There won’t be enough for everyone.

All I ask is that you be honest with us. I understand that based on who is in office I might not be able to fight it, however I’d SURE like to understand it and not be fooled. This opposition will only get worse the more you fight the people rather than just deal with the fact that some of us (maybe even most of us) may not like what you want to do. Government by the people FOR the people. Remember that.

Pardon me in advance if this one seems a little rambling, and perhaps a little broad. There have been a multitude of things happening that bother the living hell out of me.

Health Care Reform

I like my health insurance. I pays for what I need it to. Yes, the costs keep going up, but the money I pay is miniscule compared to what the insurance actually pays for per year. Now, on the left side we hear “You won’t be forced into a government takeover” or “you can keep your current play”. How can you say that for sure? There is no final legislation. I can’t find one person who can point to the bill and say “here is where it says this won’t happen”. I have however seen places in the bill where it COULD happen. You are not doing a good job defending this. Holding up a poor person, an unemployed person, or a child does not make your case. Sorry. If those people get care because I’m paying for it but my care ends up worse, how is that right?

Stop telling me that it will save $X billion over 10 years. There is no way this will happen. What if unemployment continues? Tax revenue will go down more. What was a surplus is suddenly a deficit. If we do have a public option, and tax revenue goes down again are we going to ration care? Or are we going to spend our way into another recession/depression? That’s fuzzy math at best, wishful thinking at its worst.

Basically, there are tons of questions that need answering with great detail and fact. Who is willing to do it? Nobody that I can find.

Opposition Hurts

More and more you are seeing YouTube videos of folks getting upset at their elected official about what’s going on in Washington. I’ve been watching some more ‘liberal leaning’ programs (yes, my own fault) to see what they say about it. Most of them basically amount to bashing these folks for yelling, voicing their opinion and just being there. You know what? Most of these conversations are civil except for when the senator or representative says something political. It’s like they are afraid of the facts.

Could some be paid? Sure, but so are some liberal folks at conservative functions. Double standards work everywhere. You think the insurance/health/pharma companies own the GOP? Great. Unions, environmental lobbies, and “human rights” orgs own the Democrat Party.

Also, stop the war over news networks. Mr. President and staff, when you bash Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, etc. it only gives them ratings. People want to see what these guys are saying that is bad enough to piss you guys off to mention them by name. These types of tactics are above the office in my opinion. Your facts should be enough to outweigh anything these folks say, right? If it’s the best move for the country, I should be able to see that or at least come to some middle ground.

They are even going after the Drudge Report for a video they put up of Obama talking about health care. Have you seen the video? They put up a longer one of one of the clips, and guess what? It says the same thing. Even if the quotes are chopped, what other meaning could some of them have?

Now the left is pissed about the Obama “joker” cartoon. Great, you did it to George W. Bush. Where was the outrage then? Oh yeah, perhaps you need to pick your battles a little more?

Demonstrate that change you offered when you were in campaign mode. Show us the transparency. Show us new government. I’ll admit that I’d like to see many things change in our government too. To be honest I was excited to see some of the things you were planning. Instead it’s just turned into same old politics, paying face time and talking points to things you should not be concerned with and instead of changing the way our government works, you have just made it worse.

Does this lady have any clue?

The talk is starting, the calls are out there and are getting louder: We need a second stimulus package.

All of those people calling for that must be joking, or just plain ignorant. The first stimulus plan was rammed through congress without giving people time to review it, and before the folks who voted on it even had a chance to read/debate it themselves. The Obama Administration has spent the months since it was passed saying that we all just need to wait until it has time to work. We’ve spent only $55 billion of the money. The total was around $750 billion right? Does anyone remember what has been promised of ‘saving or creating’ in terms of jobs? 600,000. How many jobs were lost last month when unemployment hit 9.6%? 467,000.

So even IF we spent all $750 billion right now, what would it do? Nothing, maybe reduce unemployment by a percent for awhile. If you go to recovery.gov and look at the impact section it breaks down where the money goes, obviously it lists the largest $288B in Tax Relief. HOWEVER: There is an asterisk near that, here is the fine print:

* Tax Relief – includes $15 B for Infrastructure and Science, $61 B for Protecting the Vulnerable, $25 B for Education and Training and $22 B for Energy, so total funds are $126 B for Infrastructure and Science, $142 B for Protecting the Vulnerable, $78 B for Education and Training, and $65 B for Energy.

What of that goes to me as an individual? None. Also if you look at that list it is the same catergories that are ALSO listed on that page as getting other parts of stimulus money.

What am I getting at? I’ve said it numerous times. I know how to spend my money better than the government does. We didn’t cut taxes enough to be of notice. We didn’t give benefits for companies to hire people. We didn’t spend anything quickly enough to stop what was happening. We didn’t help the American people. The simple fact that people are asking for more stimulus ALREADY shows that politicians don’t know how to deal with the economy.

VP Biden recently said “we misread how bad the economy was.” Then Obama came back and said “I would actually — rather than say misread, we had incomplete information.” Either way it’s full of crap. Either way they took $750B and spent it WITHOUT having all the information OR not reading the situation correctly. how do they get a pass on this? Why is this country NOT in uproar. They are talking about spending more money before the first part is even done!

So, lets say for a second they decide a second stimulus is a good idea. If it does anything less than a tax holiday, gives me money to pay my mortgage or somehow provides me with disposable income OR provides some kind of benefit for companies to hire people, can they please just sit on their hands and tape their mouths shut? We don’t have the money for a second stimulus, any benefit we get from it will have to be paid back and just end up hurting us in the long run.

Wait, I must be crazy right? A conservative is glad that Al Franken finally won the US Senate race for MN?

I’m not crazy. I’m thrilled. A 60 vote majority isn’t good for the future of the country, however it’s good for the fact that now they (Democrats) have to own up to everything they do. Things can be passed without GOP help. Yes I know, getting things passed in the senate along party lines is usually difficult. It might actually be more difficult in the near future. Some people are up for re-election, and right around that time we are going to be learning about our defects AND how much the stimulus bill failed. The people will clean house (hopefully).

So what does this mean? Well, either the Democrats can band together with the president they wanted elected and pass versions of his policies or they can look like the current GOP where everyone stands for something different and basically have no direction. Something tells me that the latter will happen. You have some Senate Democrats already criticizing the climate bill and health care. If the former happens, we will pass tons of legislation this year that will likely drive up our deficit, fix nothing in the short term, make our economic problems worse and raise the taxes of people who actually pay them.

This is also the opportunity for the ACTUAL conservatives to stand for something. Pick principles and stick to them. No compromise, no more taxes. In fact, lets CUT taxes. Give people back some of their money and see if they can spend it better than someone I don’t even know!

This was a little more emotional/not fact based than my usual fare, but I was just thinking about it yesterday and just thought “you know, this isn’t as bad as it could be”.

On the fact based side (since I can’t go without something):

We are approaching potential dangerous territory here. The government is divided into three branches to keep so they all keep each other in check. The fact that potentially (yes, again the Senate is NOT a rubber stamp) the president could pass ANYTHING. Or that the Senate might always get it’s way is very scary to me. Yes, this would also scare me if the conservatives had a super majority. That’s just not the way things are supposed to work. We are supposed to have debate, the people are supposed to be given a chance to examine what’s going on and voice our opinions. This is something we haven’t seen yet in this administration (e.g., stimulus bill, climate bill). Note that also breaks a major campaign promise of Obama’s.

Time will tell.

I keep trying to keep current on the blog here, I know I have some people that enjoy what I write and I like to keep all of you happy. I was wondering what keeps me from writing more often, and the #1 reason that came to me was simple; there is just too much to write about.

So, with that said, I’d like to cover this a bit. As soon as Obama hit office, you had people all over his administration saying “A good crisis is a terrible thing to waste”. Well we have no shortage of those these days, and here is what we are getting for it:
- Stimulus
- The omnibus bill
- TARP
- Health Care Reform
- Climate Change Bill (Cap and Tax)
- Immigration
- GM Bailouts

The list could go on and on if I wanted to nitpick. Now to some (uneducated) liberal people I know this is great! This is all the change they voted for regardless of how we get to it, but just think about it for a second. Even Obama has said in relation to health care reform that “It needs to happen this year”. Now, why? Do you really want to know? Are you prepared for it?

The more they do at once, the less you and I understand, the less time the media has to investigate, the less time our elected representatives have to examine the bill themselves. While all of that is critical to understand there is one big one: the money it will cost to do these things, the eventual tax hike, and mainly the deficit that will result.

All of these things add up to a really big, and honestly brilliant political strategy by Team Obama. By the time the REAL deficit numbers come out, the REAL tax hikes show up (and probably for EVERYONE, not just the rich), all of this will be law and even if we change the landscape of congress with the 2010 elections we won’t be able to change. Do you think we will be able to kill healthcare once it’s enacted? Impossible.

Government programs generally create a built-in constituency. A group of folks who will never remove themselves from the government take and always vote into office those who promise to keep the status quo or increase the benefit. That’s the dangerous part.

So, what can we do? I know people who are calling representatives, writing letters and even some Obama voters who once they became educated on what’s really going on (not just the propoganda machine) get really frightened. The best part is some people who called their house rep recently on the climate bill that was passed were literally told “I don’t have time to read it, examine it but I’m voting for it”.

They will do everything they can before the midterm elections and people really understand the TRUE cost of all of this and what it will do to everyones lives. As I said before it’s brilliant political strategy, and potentially very damaging to the future of the country.

We can no longer afford to spend as if deficits don’t matter and waste is not our problem,

This is what President Obama said today in reference to his $3.4 trillion federal budget proposal which included, ready for this? A whopping $17 billion in cuts.

When does this get to the point where people realize this is entirely symbolic? We can’t preach fiscal responsibility (or anyone in the government for that matter) while we spend $1 billion a day for the stimulus package, give more money to car companies, and bailout more banks and companies?

This just boggles my mind, the best part is everyone just swoons over it saying he’s being responsible and doing the right thing. You know what the right thing is here? Cut taxes, cut government programs, stop giving out tons of free money. Even with stimulus spending, we have cities in this country that are considering charging for police and fire calls in addition to the normal taxes we already pay. Some of these cities are in states where they have state income tax. What do I pay taxes for if the fundamental parts of my government are not even paid for?

When it comes down to it, our government needs to start behaving like everyone else in this country, spend less, save more and live within your means. I still fail to understand how this inverse relationship between how the people have to operate and how the government operates. At some point all of this debt will have to be paid back. How will we pay it? Taxing the rich is not the answer regardless of how much you all think it is. Even if we tax the rich 70-80 percent we won’t pay back all the debt and in the meantime there will be less ‘rich’ people to tax because they have less money to spend, less money to invest, and less money to give to charity. Then who do you think will be taxed next?

The last thing I’ll say is in terms of HOW we are taxed. When most people think taxes they think income taxes. Well, when that well has run dry in terms of tax hikes you will see the entire country run like New York in terms of taxes on everything raised. Soda, food, clothes, general sales tax, higher state income taxes, gas, etc. The list is endless. We all know they will never cut welfare, or other social programs as this is how they are elected.

At some point, we have to understand that the government has to work off the same principles as everyone else fiscally. Money out can’t be more than money in for long periods of time. It seems we are setup for this for many years to come. It’s hard to save for my retirement when it won’t be worth anything 40 years from now.

As everyone probably already knows, Chrysler went into bankruptcy recently.

Now, obviously the largest of these problems is the fact that we gave them billions of taxpayer dollars and what most people thought would happen, did. What I was getting at in conversations relating to this was that the government should not be a lender of last resort to companies in this country.

If a company is in such bad financial shape that their lenders will not re-negotiate their contract and they cannot find new sources of capital, why were we (as taxpayers) put on the hook for the company? People would say, “we have to save jobs!” Well, jobs are now going to be lost anyway, except now it’s just more expensive.

Now, during this the President called out ‘speculating’ lenders for not being willing to take less on the dollar for their outstanding debt. Why are we in the business of privatizing success and socializing failure? There are people behind these hedge funds, employees. I wonder if when I loan someone money, then they can’t pay me back if the government will come in and say “you have to take 40% of what you were owed”. Now, some might say this is part of bankruptcy and re-negotiating contracts however this was all done to prevent bankruptcy. It’s these companies and funds right to ask for the proper value of their loans. The President should not be calling them out in public. All this does is further create the policy of bashing Wall Street. Which is not healthy for any administration to do.

On top of this, the UAW will control 55% of Chrysler’s stock? How is this even close to a smart idea? What you now have is the most stubborn negotiating body (the UAW) as majority shareholder. The UAW is one of the reasons these companies are in trouble, it’s not the greatest reason but it’s one of them. The Obama Administration coming out of this with the UAW holding so much stock as a solution I believe only goes to show how much in love they are with the union. This also sets up a dangerous precedent to the other car makers should their situation turn similar to Chrysler’s.

If the company had declared bankruptcy months ago, they may have gone Chapter 7. However, is that any worse than having the UAW holding 55% of the company it’s supposed to negotiate with over wages and benefits?