Never Waste a Crisis - Next Up: Health Care

By: Kelli Krauss

“Rule one: Never allow a crisis to go to waste. They are opportunities to do big things.” These are the words of Barack Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel. It appears that the President, his administration and a willing Democratic Congress are using Emanuel's rule to push through their agenda, without questions, at the expense of the American people.

After Barack Obama became President, he quickly worked to pass his stimulus bill, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. He claimed that "A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe and guarantee a longer recession, a less robust recovery, and a more uncertain future," He pushed for such fast action that neither he nor Congress had time to actually read the bill, or maybe they didn't care to, that spent $787 billion dollars. The White House estimates that the government will create a record $1.8 trillion budget deficit this year which is more than four times last year's all-time high.

Since the passage of the stimulus bill, our economy has continued to decline and our unemployment rate is now at 9.4 percent, a 25 year high. Under Obama's plan, the unemployment rate was supposed to peak at 8 percent. The answer President Obama has come up with now is to spend more money even faster, though he admitted in an interview, "Well, we are out of money now. We are operating in deep deficits, not caused by any decisions we've made on health care so far."

Then came the announcement that Supreme Court Justice David Souter will retire in October. Once again, it must be a crisis because President Obama has set a deadline for a vote on nominee Sonia Sotamayor by the start of the Senate's five-week recess in August, and Senator Leahy has obeyed. Leahy announced the confirmation hearings will begin on July 13.

Apparently Senator Leahy made the announcement of the confirmation hearings before letting the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee know the date had been set. The Republicans had urged for the hearings to be set for September since there are ten times as many cases to review than Justice Roberts had. Hearings in September would allow plenty of time for Sotomayor to prepare to take over in early October.

Senator Jeff Sessions has now asked Sotomayor to provide more detail on her questionnaire because some of her answers were incomplete. "The least we can expect is complete and full answers," commented Senator Sessions and six other Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee agreed and joined Sessions in his written request to Sotomayor. The Democrats are following the rule, hold the hearings quickly, while answers are incomplete and no one has time to comb through her records because it's a crisis and, "they are opportunities to do big things."

So now to health care. President Obama is now making the rounds and campaigning (the thing he does best) on fast passage of a health care bill. He said, "We can't afford to put this off," in a meeting with Senate Democrats. "This window between now and the August recess I think is going to be the make-or-break period. This is the time where we've got to get this running."

Once again, we find ourselves with our President lecturing us on the need for fast action. Are we to move so fast again that there will be no time to actually read the bill? What happened to the promised 5 days of bills being out on the internet for the public to browse before being signed? Obama has said that rising health care costs are unsustainable for families, businesses and governments and wants immediate congressional action on a health care bill so it can be passed by the end of the year.

With the current administration, we can expect everything to be a crisis. Immediate action to a crisis with this administration and the Democrats in Congress, enables them to pass legislation or Supreme Court nominees, without any real debate or questions. This just shows that in the arena of ideas and solutions, the Obama administration and the Democrats have none.

So I leave you with Rahm Emanuel's words again, “Rule one: Never allow a crisis to go to waste. They are opportunities to do big things.” When will the American people wake up and pull the blanket of wool, that Obama and the Democrats have so intricately weaved, off of their eyes?

Toddlers for Congress: Would we notice a difference?

By Lisa Farrar Wellman
(photo from http://www.visitingdc.com/)

Last night we put our two-year-old to bed and I decided to update myself on current events. After a quick scan of our national news, a realization came to me. Our Congress (all of them, not just the libs) and many others in our government greatly resemble a room full of toddlers.

Think about it.

Toddler Trait: They lie to get out of trouble.

When a toddler can’t look you in the eye, don’t believe a word he’s saying. Nancy Pelosi doesn’t want to admit she knew about waterboarding. The winds have changed. It’s not politically correct anymore so she’s lying about what she knew and when. (This particular scenario is quite common in Washington. They expect us to trust them with what is now unlimited power and our grandchildren’s money, but they can’t remember where they were or who they talked to or if they knew anything about anything… ever).

Toddler Trait: They smile a lot and hope we don’t notice what they’re really doing.

When our daughter is up to something she shouldn’t be, she smiles and hugs us and tries to distract us from the fact that she’s shoved a toy into the toilet. Day after day our leaders hold press conferences on Capitol Hill. They grin wildly and shake hands and the president signs bills into law. Lots of hip, hip hooraying, yet when you get down to it, the smiles are there to cover up reality. Our lawmakers pass bills they do not read. They hobnob with lobbyists and accept donations to their campaign funds from the shadiest of the shady. They do not do what we sent them to Washington to do.

Toddler Trait: They’re expensive.

Toddlers go through clothes at a pace that boggles the mind. They’re picky eaters and they are sick many times each year. They’re expensive little boogers, but they’re also darn cute so they make up for it. Wish I could say the same about Congress members. Their pork spending gives us all the swine flu. We suffer because they can’t live within a budget. Pet projects trump common sense time and again. And it doesn’t matter, right? What they don’t have, they’ll just borrow, or we can always print more money.

Toddler Trait: Rules don’t apply to them.

Toddlers don’t want to share or eat their vegetables. Bedtime means nothing to them. Congress is the same way. They have a different set of rules to live by. Who else gets to vote every year for his/her own pay raise? Did any of Obama’s cabinet nominees actually pay their taxes? No wonder they don’t mind taxes. The rules don’t apply to them. They feast on a special Congress-only retirement plan while the rest of us make the Sign of the Cross over our Social Security checks and hope for the best. They work approximately 15 minutes a week and get to call themselves representatives of the American people. They don’t represent me, my beliefs, or my work ethic, I can tell you that.

Now that I think about it, there really are only two differences between toddlers and our government leaders. If something smells, you check a toddler’s pants. For Congress members, check their pocketbook. The other difference is that toddlers grow out of this stage.

Discourse in (Dis) Honesty

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2009
Discourse in (Dis) Honesty
By JoyFull

I am pretty sure most parents teach their children to tell the truth. We should expect no less from our Commander in Chief. Especially one who had the audacity to hope we would believe him--or enough of us anyway.

The discussion of late has been Obama's first 100 days in office and his approval rating. I was able to glean the following from Politifacts.com and put in my own words. So let me just put it out here this way: if your child or spouse had been caught lying at least 7 times in the last 3 months, would you, or could you, conceive of a possible total disregard for, um, let's see, integrity?! Call me a "right wing extremist", but I do expect a certain amount of honesty from the President and also from his administration.

Why not put it in Obama's own interpretation: "transparency." That brings me to the (dis)honest "five days of public comment before a bill lands on my desk." Not only was the public denied the opportunity to review the stimulus bill and subsequent bills. Our elected officials did not even get the chance to read it before it was ushered into a quick vote. I doubt Obama even read it before he signed it even though it sat on his desk for days. We all know that old sordid story, so let's move on to another (dis)honesty. How about "no lobbyists" appointees until they have been out of the lobbying business for 2 years. Why, in front of the whole nation, he signed an Executive Order stating that. Loopholes and waivers, however, have allowed the assignment or nominations of no fewer than 4 and most assuredly more recent lobbyists...one lobbyist for Goldman Sachs appointed as chief of staff to Geithner himself. No conflict of interest there!!??

Two other promises that haven't even seen the light of day, BUT would have been great for stimulating the economy, were penalty-free withdrawals from 401(k)s up to $10,000, and no income tax for seniors making less than $50,000. They didn't even make it in the stimulus package, but even worse, they are not even up for any legislation. We must have "misinterpreted" his intentions.

Another, what I consider atrocious (dis)honesty is the broken promise of school choice. Not only is it not on the table, the Obama Administration is eliminating the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program after the 2009-2010 year!! Why?? I mean really!! It allows low income children and parents a choice of schools that will make them more competitive and educated. It has been a success. Obama said he would be the "education president". Oh really? Tell that to those children who are thriving under the Scholarship program now, but will have it stripped away in a year. By the way, where are Obama's girls going to school? They, of course, do have a choice. How (dis)honest is this? Notice, I use (dis) because Obama is doing exactly that with his broken promises.

Who among us can forget the promise of making it impossible for Congress to get Pork into the stimulus package? Another "misunderstanding" I suppose?

Listen, my point is, if my husband had said so many out and out lies in so many days, there would be talk of divorce, and my children, if guilty of the above, would be in counseling.

So when Obama says he is not going to be using his prize trophy Arlen Spector as "political padding," I suppose we are to believe that also.

These are but a few examples of (dis)honesties. There has been no shortage of broken promises in the first 100 days of Obama's Presidency. There will be much more to be disclosed soon enough, I am sure, but I am ready to send a certain someone for counseling myself. If Obama is not being truthful to us, then he is not truthful to himself and for that reason alone, I feel kind of sorry for him. It will be the common American who will be suffering for his broken promises. We must continue to call him on his (dis) honest promises and hold his feet to the fire. Don't give up or give up hope, we, collectively have much honest work to be done.

Joyfull

Birth Control Will Save Our Economy!

Just when you think you have heard the most ridiculous thing you can hear come out of Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, she goes and gives you something else to shake your head at. Careful, after you read this you won't just be shaking your head, but banging it against a hard surface.

The Speaker is defending a move to add birth control funding to the new economic stimulus package. Pelosi claims that "contraception will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government." According to Drudge,

The revelation came during an exchange Sunday morning on ABC's THIS WEEK.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Hundreds of millions of dollars to expand family planning
services. How is that stimulus?

PELOSI: Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost.
The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for
children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states
meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned,
the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal
government.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So no apologies for that?

PELOSI: No apologies. No. we have to deal with the consequences of the
downturn in our economy.

If Republicans do not take a stand against this pork-filled bill, what will they take a stand against? President Obama is set to meet tomorrow morning with the entire Republican caucus to discuss the same stimulus bill. How the bill looks after this meeting, will demonstrate President Obama's true level of reaching across the aisle.

If the bill still looks as it does now, we will have at least a few more years of hearing Pelosi's ludicrous explanations..........................and more than a few head banging headaches.