January 2009 – Page 2

Observations on District 38B town hall meeting

First off, I actually took my camera but decided there really wasn’t much worth photographing.

Earlier this afternoon I was over in the thriving metropolis of Pittsville (the locals will get it) to attend a town hall meeting put on by my erstwhile but Democratic Delegates to the Maryland General Assembly at the village’s fire hall.

I was a little bit disappointed in the turnout, though. There were only 10 people there besides the Delegates and one assistant who took note of the proceedings. Only nine of them were of voting age, the other one may be the first to vote in a Republican majority in the General Assembly. I heard she was one year old; this means she’d come of age in 2026 and it may take that long to sufficiently chink the armor of liberalism (and 66 Delegates/22 Senators) present from Baltimore City and Prince George’s/ Montgomery counties.

But to their credit, both Delegates Norm Conway and Jim Mathias took this as a “listening opportunity” and a chance to “gain insight from other avenues” as this weekend was the second of four they’ll return to the district and hold these meetings. Continue reading “Observations on District 38B town hall meeting”

Tax reform even Geithner couldn’t screw up

Despite the fact Treasury Secretary designate Timothy Geithner managed to mess up his taxes over several years to the tune of underpaying $34,000 – even though his employer gave him instructions on how to deal with the issue and reimbursed him for the taxes paid – it appears he’ll be confirmed nonetheless; that is if the overwhelming vote to bring him out of committee is any indication.

But this post isn’t intended to bring up that old news; after all, don’t we all mess up on our taxes to the tune of many months’ salary for those of us who don’t work in the elite financial world? On the contrary, I think it’s a perfect time to discuss a subject I’ve waxed eloquent on a number of times before.

Little noticed among the hundreds of bills introduced in the House of Representatives is yet another attempt to implement the FairTax. For the fourth Congress in a row, H.R. 25 is sponsored by Georgia Rep. John Linder and will likely again never see the light of day, buried in committee. (Maybe he needs a new bill number since 25 isn’t cutting it.) The only problem I see with it is H.R. 25 doesn’t repeal the Sixteenth Amendment. (However, there is an aptly-numbered resolution in this Congress which does call for repeal.)

This would be perfect for someone like Tim Geithner, who claimed to simply use TurboTax to do his returns. (Listen, I used that program last year and will do so again – there’s no way I was $34,000 off! My refund wasn’t even a tenth of that.)

Some may argue that a recession is a poor time to enact a tax which is based on consumption, but I heartily disagree.

Now is the perfect time for the FairTax because we’d have a worst-case scenario for revenue generation. As economic conditions improve – as they surely would if those of us who are working no longer have to deal with the IRS backup withholding out of our check, meaning more money in our pockets to spend – the government could start gaining the funds to pay for other important items like an enhanced military and backstopping entitlements (at least until they’re sunsetted; hey if I’m going to dream I’m dreaming big!)

The problem with the Obama Administration’s favored solution to our economic woes is that they determine where the money goes and how it’s spent. (Not to mention they’re essentially creating the cash from whole cloth and adding trillions to our budget deficit. Didn’t the Democrats complain about the GOP presidents’ huge deficits? Why yes they did, just read a few of Final Frontier’s comments and somewhere she’ll make mention of that very point!)

Instead of bailing out every bank and automaker who has run into trouble because they couldn’t say no, why not truly stimulate the economy by allowing the public (read: the market) to determine where they spend their own money? I know, they may do something stupid like put it in the bank or invest the money in tax-free municipal bonds instead of buying the latest made-in-China electronic gadgets, but to each his or her own, right?

The more I think about the situation with taxation in our state and our nation, the more I think a consumption tax makes sense. I realize Maryland went to increase their sales tax and didn’t draw the revenue they expected, but that was because of competition from adjoining states. If every state has to collect a particular percentage federal tax, it may level the playing field to some extent. (I’d still go to Delaware for big-ticket items but perhaps that threshold would increase.)

So while I’m probably beating my head against the wall expecting some sort of sane action out of this edition of Congress, hope does spring eternal and perhaps Linder’s idea may finally get some traction.

Disappointed and disillusioned

And I thought it was the Democrats who allowed incompetence to rise to the top. Apparently the GOP really wants to follow in those shoes; that is if this report by Reid Wilson from The Hill’s Briefing Room blog is to be believed. (In a related story, they’re predicting a multi-ballot race, which I’ve suspected would be the case all along with several contenders.)

This compilation of those who have announced publicly who they’ll support for the Chairmanship of the Republican Party shows that the incumbent Mike Duncan has the plurality among those who’ve expressed a preference. Granted, there’s only about half of the 168 who vote that have gone public, but one has to wonder why some would continue with a leader who’s already lost one national election.

Perhaps it’s because we’re very close to the situation and there’s a favorite son candidate representing Maryland, but the buzz around Michael Steele based on his debate performance and name recognition doesn’t seem to be permeating all that many of those who actually make the decision next week.

It’s somewhat akin to the situation conservatives found themselves in for the 2008 Presidential primaries. There are several good candidates who will probably split the vote and allow the status quo to win. John McCain was the “establishment” GOP candidate in the 2008 election and Mike Duncan represents the establishment to me.

There’s no better proof of this than noticing that, despite the state having its own favorite son candidate in Ken Blackwell, two of Ohio’s representatives are in the Duncan camp. And this is something else I feel I need to comment on.

Bob Bennett was in charge of the Ohio Republican Party while I served as a Central Commitee member there. While the setup is somewhat different in the Buckeye State, the fact is Ohio Republicans have seen their onetime grasp of each statewide office loosened and ripped away because the state party brass relied too much on their own judgment. They didn’t trust the will of the GOP base enough to select the best candidates – well, that should tell readers in a nutshell why Duncan is the wrong man for the job.

Ken Blackwell has never been the darling of the establishment Republicans in Ohio, who seem to think that candidates have to be wishy-washy moderates to have a chance to win statewide. Unfortunately, the last wishy-washy moderate to win statewide from the GOP side was the reviled Governor Bob Taft, who raised taxes and became embroiled in the Coingate scandal. Once Blackwell finally had the opportunity to run for governor (Bennett and the Ohio GOP talked Blackwell out of running in 1998 in favor of avoiding a primary against their annointed Taft) the party had been damaged beyond repair and Blackwell became the scapegoat, getting less than 40% of the vote.

Personally, I think Steele would be a good national GOP chair but Blackwell would be a better one. One thing whoever wins the nod needs to make priority one is encouraging some of the deadwood to get out of the way and bring aboard new leadership at the state level.

The old guard is what gave the Republican Party both Bushes, Bob Dole, and John McCain. While many of them came in with Ronald Reagan, they squandered much of the Reagan legacy on candidates who failed to ignite the conservative base – or when one was selected, like Sarah Palin, they turned the long knives on her.

We’ve tried it their way for the last 20 years and with the exception of the Contract with America, the GOP record hasn’t exactly been stellar when compared with the stated party principles. Selecting the wrong guy to run the party may accelerate the rush toward the exits for conservative rank-and-file party members and voters.

Is energy a priority?

My friend Jane Van Ryan at API played interviewer in this video shot a few days ago. I’ll share the video first, then my thoughts.

First of all, she looked a little chilly – then again, standing out in the street for whatever time it took to get three minutes of usable footage would tend to be a bit frosty. Since I’ve never done one of these on-street interviews I have no idea.

More importantly, the group Jane represents wanted to make their thoughts known about continuing oil exploration and its associated job creation to the incoming Obama Administration.

Certainly I’m not an expert in the oil business. Before I started communicating to Jane on an occasional basis, I never really thought about all the steps involved in getting something from a mile or more underground in some instances through the entire refining and transport process to the gas pump where I stand and fill my car’s gas tank. If nothing else, I have learned a little bit about the business side of things there thanks to her.

But Jane also serves to put a face on the human side of the equation. There are a whole lot of people who depend on the oil industry for their livelihood, and in truth with oil prices beginning to bottom out her industry may be in for some fairly difficult times. That’s not to say many people will be shedding tears for those in the oil business since all they hear about is the huge profits oil companies made in 2008.

On the other hand, with oil prices so low at the moment, the onetime plan to collect a windfall profits tax on oil when prices were over $80 a barrel isn’t going to happen – unless the Obama Administration does something to drive prices up to that level, such as restoring the offshore drilling ban. Remember, there are some BHO supporters who thought that $4 a gallon gasoline was a good floor price, so I’m sure they shake their head disapprovingly at gas going for $1.75 per gallon. (Either that or they think this is a great time to increase the federal gasoline tax.) Continue reading “Is energy a priority?”

Call me negative, but…

I’m hearing a lot of people (even from my side) who say “give Barack Obama a chance…”

Sorry, I can’t. There’s just too much non-negotiable stuff he campaigned on. I decided to look back all the way to the summer of 2007 and refresh my memory on what Barack Obama promised to do.

Continue reading “Call me negative, but…”

Reflections

By the time you read this, Barack Hussein Obama should be sworn in as our nation’s 44th President.

It’s interesting to think back eight years about the last time we made a transition such as this one and recall some of the differences.

The last time we did this, I don’t recall the fawning coverage of every move George W. Bush made. Perhaps I look at this through the lens of partisanship, but there were a lot of people in the “selected not elected” crowd who got the headlines.

Because of the Florida vote controversy, President Bush had a much shorter transition period. But I don’t believe any of his Cabinet picks had the baggage associated with three of Obama’s: Bill Richardson, Timothy Geithner, and Hillary Clinton. Nor does this account for the shenanigans associated with filling Obama’s vacated Senate seat. President Bush had the natural advantage of already having a successor in place when he left the Governorship of Texas to assume the Presidency.

Much was made in the early weeks of George W. Bush’s term about the “new tone” of non-partisanship, and the truce of sorts even held through the tragedy of 9/11 – who could forget the assembled Congress singing “God Bless America”?

While it’s the hope of all of us that President Obama doesn’t have to face such an attack on any day during his term, the question remains about how much he’ll work with the Republicans – unlike Bush, Obama has more of a solid majority of his party in both houses of Congress.

The way I look at it, those inside the Beltway and who cover that beat in the media are quickly abandoning the “new tone” for that same old song. Generally over the last several decades Democrats have thoroughly been in power and for them it’s back to the normalcy they’ve craved over the last 14 years.

I find it very interesting that even before the man has taken the Oath of Office, we already have a proposal to repeal the 22nd Amendment. This didn’t come up in the 110th Congress, but had in the previous three.

Our nation went through a lot over the last eight years, most pointedly a Long War against Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. While President Clinton touted the “peace dividend” that he inherited from his two Republican predecessors (who subdued the Soviet Union and helped to free several Eastern European nations from its orbit), President Obama (and likely his successors) will still be faced with this threat from the forces of radical Islam.

That’s not to say that President Bush stood idly by and did nothing; he instead chose to take the fight to them. Initially he had the support of our nation, but much like Vietnam the Fourth Estate led the effort to siphon off public support and eventually whittled it away enough to make even successes look like failures.

So now we have President Obama. I didn’t vote for the guy, but then again I’ve never voted for a Democrat for President and he certainly gave me no reason to switch over. (On the other hand, the Republican gave me plenty of reasons to stay home, but I held my nose and voted for him anyway.)

For the sake of our national security, I wish him the best of luck.

But for the sake of our Republic, my fervent hope is that he gets little of his agenda accomplished and that America wises up and returns to its onetime distrust of an ever-expanding, more intrusive government.

In short, let’s hope Barack Obama is a flash in the pan, one-term President, remembered only for trying but failing to make America into a socialist paradise. May the history books someday peg the beginning of his term as another Great Awakening, one that restores the vision Ronald Reagan had of America as a shining city on a hill and beacon of freedom.

Tough words from the inside

Unfortunately, since I live in District 38B, I’m probably not going to have a Delegate who speaks in this vein for at least another two years. (Once in awhile, Delegate Jim Mathias is taxpayer-friendly but I don’t really see him as a budget cutter.)

This is part of a Legislative Update that Delegate Rick Impallaria of District 7 put out:

The General Assembly seems to have a strange calm over it that I have not seen in past years — it is like being in the eye of a hurricane. From talking to many of my colleagues, no one seems to have the courage to say what needs to be said.

I hear that “we all have to work together to meet a common goal” and “these are tough times” and “the citizens of Maryland must be prepared to tighten their belts”. From my perspective this is pure B*S*. In straight-talk English this means “We, the government, the controlling party, are going to do exactly as we please. We will continue to spend your money recklessly. We are going to continue to impose more government regulations to take away your freedoms because we the government know what’s best for you.”

“Tighten up your belts” means “Open up your wallets because we the government know how best to spend the dollars you earn and how best to provide for your family’s health and welfare.”

During these tough budget times the State of Maryland has found more than $70 million to buy undevelopable swampland along the shores of the Bay. They are remapping Anne Arundel and Talbot Counties to confiscate more private property by calling it “wetlands delineation”. They are pushing for more global warming regulations which they claim “could produce” between 100,000 and 300,000 jobs. I guess these salaries will be paid by the companies that will be put out of business by the overregulation.

If you thought it was tough to make a buck in the building trades, they now want to implement violations and fines on building permit holders who have projects under construction. The violations will be based on changes in the law made after construction has begun — retroactive penalties. All this is to be carried out by departments who already say they don’t have the manpower to enforce the laws already on the books.

If this sounds like insanity, it is. Welcome to the opening of the 2009 Maryland General Assembly.

I’ve lived in this state a little over four years now, and I’ve never been able to figure out why they don’t try to compete better with their neighbor to the east, Delaware. Continue reading “Tough words from the inside”

Ten Questions for – Dr. Jim Pelura, Chair of the Maryland Republican Party

As I like to do on about a monthly basis, here is another installment of what I call Ten Questions.

Back in December of 2006, Jim Pelura and I came into our positions at the Maryland GOP together – I was sworn in as a Central Committee member and he was elected at that convention as Chair of the Maryland GOP. Admittedly, I voted for his opponent but obviously he didn’t hold that against me when he agreed to do the interview.

monoblogue: Let’s go back to the beginning. The 2006 elections have just concluded and Republicans were shut out in statewide races, including the relatively popular Governor Ehrlich losing a reelection bid. Nationally the GOP faced the prospect of being in the minority for the first time in 12 years. So what motivated you to run for the Chair position you now hold, and how many people thought you were completely crazy?

Pelura: Why did I run?

I had been concerned for some time that the MDGOP was out of touch with the grassroots and the traditional Republican philosophy of small government, low taxes, fiscal responsibility and faith in the individual. I was concerned that the liberal agenda of the Governor and majority of the General Assembly would have no voice of opposition among the Republican rank and file. I was not ready or willing to give up on Maryland that easily.

As for the second part of your question………not as many as one would think, although a friend said that he was going to give me a few sessions with a psychiatrist for Christmas that year!

monoblogue: Oh, there were and still are plenty of voices of opposition to liberal policies here in the Free State. But you found yourself inheriting a Maryland GOP which was in dire financial straits and had to make some unpopular financial decisions. Were you surprised at the extent of the problem when you came onboard? And do you think that the Maryland Republican Party will be able to compete financially in 2010?

Pelura: If you remember, at the December meeting where I was elected, the outgoing Chairman announced that I was being left about $300,000.00. We all knew that fundraising would be difficult due to the recent elections and that money in the bank would be needed to “get over the hump”.

As we soon learned, that $300,000.00 was actually about $20,000.00 and there were about $60,000.00 in bills to be paid. Needless to say, I was surprised.

But, by making significant cuts in expenditures and taking out a line of credit, we survived.

Fundraising is still a concern, however, but there are significant “bright spots”.

The line of credit is nearly paid off, small donations are way up from in the past (in terms of the “health” of the Party, I would rather have 10,000 $1.00 donations than one check for $10,000), and many of the “big” donors are showing interest in giving to the MDGOP once again.

The Maryland Republican Party will be ready for 2010, both financially and in terms of good and credible candidates for elected office. Continue reading “Ten Questions for – Dr. Jim Pelura, Chair of the Maryland Republican Party”

A real recovery?

Last week, Rep. Scott Garrett from New Jersey and 33 co-sponsors (including Maryland’s Roscoe Bartlett) introduced a bill which probably will get nowhere in the Democrats’ scramble to target tax relief to those who don’t pay income taxes and create make-work jobs for their union benefactors building bike paths and “green” buildings.

H.R. 470 instead takes the proven formula of stimulating the economy by cutting taxes for everyone and assisting small business. It makes the 2003 Bush tax cuts permanent, lowers rates for all taxpyers (the current 10% to 35% rates would slip to the 9.5% to 33.25% range, which is a proportionate 5% drop in rates from low to high), repeals the alternative minimum tax entirely, and cuts corporate income tax rates from 35 percent to 25 percent. And that’s just for starters.

The proposal also increases the child tax credit from $1,000 to $5,000 and makes it permanent, allows those over 70 to maintain their retirement accounts without withdrawing the money, increases the allowable deduction for educational expenses and student loans, and allows tax-free IRA withdrawals to those who otherwise would be penalized – but only for this year.

Finally, the proposal mandates an across-the-board 1% cut in discretionary spending.

While I’ve never been crazy about the way our federal government has somewhat arbitrarily selected the several different tax rates or targets certain actions for deductions as opposed to other actions, lowering each of the tax rates proportionally would be a good thing. If we’re to be saddled with the tax code we have for the foreseeable future, certainly these provisions make a lot more sense than growing government through deficit spending to put money back into the economy.

And while this plan makes more financial sense than anything the Democrats have come up with, we already have enough instances where the money one is forced to give to the federal government as an interest-free loan comes back in the form of a “tax refund.”

Personally I’d prefer a more permanent version of H.R. 143 (which Bartlett also co-sponsors), a bill which would suspend part 2 of the TARP funding and instead give taxpayers a break by temporarily halting backup withholding. But in either case, I don’t anticipate the bills ever getting anywhere close to a floor vote.

Instead, taxpayers will be bending over and grabbing the ankles sometime in the future as the bills we incur today come due tomorrow. Writing in the Washington Times on Thursday, Richard Rahn postulated on the shape of things to come (h/t NetRightNation.) Maybe it won’t be as gloomy as Rahn sees it, but there will be a lot of forthcoming pain if we abandon the ideals of capitalism and supply-side economics which served us well until federal interference became too great.

Not everyone’s anticipating the One

According to a Pew Research poll released last week, about 2/3 of Americans plan to watch all or part of Barack Obama’s inauguration on Tuesday.

But the numbers certainly reflect a partisan and racial divide, with Obama voters naturally in a celebratory mood and willing to watch the festivities, while McCain voters are pretty much split.

Because of the chilly weather and difficulties getting in and out of our nation’s capital, perhaps the best vantage point for anyone wishing to watch our 44th President be sworn in may be sitting at home, plopped in front of your television set with your own choice of beverage in hand. Some may be drinking an adult beverage to celebrate while others drink to forget.

There’s a group which hasn’t quite gotten into the euphoric mood the media wants to portray Americans as having; instead they’re questioning the wisdom of Barack Obama’s Cabinet vetting process:

Yes, it’s my old friends at Our Country Deserves Better, who think we do deserve better than the field nominated thus far. Notes Sal Russo of OCDB:

“It’s ideological suicide for conservatives to sit back silent while Obama pushes for untold hundreds of billions in new spending and bailouts. If conservatives and Republicans can’t find within them the ideological conviction to oppose this fleecing of the taxpayers, then what is it that we stand for?”

Damn, that’s a good question. But Russo’s not finished asking:

“Some people have said we shouldn’t speak up now for our beliefs, but instead hold off for now. To these individuals I ask when do they propose we begin to stand up for our principles? Will waiting a month or year to fight for our beliefs somehow advance the cause of conservatism? Will it help America for us to sit back and let Obama push his agenda forward unopposed?

It seems to me that being silent and acquiescent now further empowers Obama, and further entrenches this notion that big government liberalism is somehow acceptable. It’s the antithesis of our individual liberty and freedom, and it requires men and women of good conscience to step forward, take action and oppose it vigorously.”

With Obama having an extended honeymoon thanks to the media and voters who really aren’t considering the long-term effects on their wallets when they clamor for something, anything, to be done about the economic situation we’re in, it will be easy for much of the socialist agenda Obama seeks to be adopted through a compliant Congress with a docile GOP following right along like a lost puppy.

There’s not a lot of us at the moment who stand vigilant because the events of the last 12 months have worn us down. (Can you believe that it has been over a year since Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses, yet we’re still days away from the swearing-in ceremony?) But fight on we must, in the name of limited government, capitalism, and freedom.

So this little ad is a nice reminder that there’s still people who don’t believe everything the One would have you think about his “centrist” ideas.

A lesson in dominoes falling

This morning we learned that struggling retailer Circuit City has thrown in the towel, the latest in a series of chain stores to do so. In a few weeks, Americans will have another reminder of how economic times are as they drive by yet another shuttered storefront.

At the same time, President Bush leaves office with the catcalls of the liberals and the media (but I repeat myself) following him out the door and back to Texas. Frequent liberal critic “Final Frontier” delivered one scathing criticism of GWB on a previous post of mine, part of which I’ll reprise here:

I never said Bush acted like a”true conservative,” I said he simply went out and did whatever he wanted to do (or probably more correctly Dick Cheney), which turned out to be a disaster…

(snip)

…GWB and his republican pals DID spend their political capital by spending like drunken sailors, abandoning any sort of value system … and focusing on Iraq when they should have been focusing on Afghanistan and New Orleans. GWB and his circle of pals paid no attention to the growing fiscal crisis (and the Dems are equally guilty on that one), did not seriously go after bin Laden, did nothing in Darfur, did nothing in New Orleans, did nothing as international opinion of the U.S sank…

The diatribe goes on from there, and I left out the parts of her response concerning gay marriage for the purpose of this post. I do want to rebut Final Frontier in part by noting that Bush’s legacy will be one of fighting the Long War, and success isn’t measured there in what we did but what we did not have to do – that is to say, we haven’t had a 9/11 part 2 thus far.

Fairly or unfairly, anything negative which happens during a President’s term generally serves as another reason to blame him – given the media prism in our society today, it’s especially true when a Republican is president, not so much when a Democrat holds office. However, the comment FF makes does distribute blame equally between the Bush Administration and the Democrats for the economic woes we are facing – a surprising concession on her part.

But I’m choosing to look at this on a larger level, and to bring Circuit City into the picture. First off, I’m sorry to see them close because I liked them much better than Best Buy. Continue reading “A lesson in dominoes falling”

Town Hall meetings scheduled

Oddly enough, I probably received this notice because I’m on the Relay For Life mailing list after participating last year – it came with a laundry list of budget priorities the American Cancer Society seeks here in Maryland. But it had a useful nugget of political information on it that I’ve seen nowhere else.

To get input from the public in anticipation of the upcoming 426th Session of the Maryland General Assembly, Del. James Mathias and Del. Norman Conway will hold town meetings scheduled for:

Saturday, Jan. 17 – Pocomoke Fire House, 10 to 11:30 a.m., Snow Hill Library, 2:30 to 4 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 24 – Pittsville Fire House, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Ocean Pines Library, 2:30 to 4 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 31 – Ocean City Library, 4 to 5:30 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 7 – Salisbury, Wicomico Public Library, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

It’ll be quite interesting to see just how they interact with the residents back in the district and respond to their concerns, particularly when the state is staring down the barrel of a billion-dollar plus budget deficit. Remember, Maryland is quite unique among states in that the Governor sets the budget and the General Assembly can only cut from it before approval. This means Delegates Conway and Mathias will have to keep their knives sharpened, and perhaps the meetings will be sounding boards to determine which sacrifices the public will stomach.

Needless to say, I might just have to stop by one with notebook in hand.

And I might have to ask Norm Conway whether he’s possibly learned the lesson that raising taxes is counterproductive to increasing revenue – Jim Mathias may have already figured it out because he voted against those tax issues in the 2007 Special Session, to his credit.

Speaking of giving credit to Democrats, I’ll give Congressman Kratovil props for going against the vast majority of his party and not voting to ramrod through Barney Frank’s TARP Reform bill (H.R. 384). The resolution in question would essentially limit debate to two hours and not allow for amendments. Still, the resolution passed so that bill is now on the fast track to approval.

I think there’s much better ways to use that money than what Barney Frank has in mind for it, such as not borrowing it to begin with.

In the meantime, let’s see if Frank Kratovil can maintain at least the 5% (1 vote of 22 so far) of the time he goes against the remainder of the Democrats, or if this vote is an outlier.