More thoughts on the TEA Party

Editor’s note: I actually did this article as an adjunct to my Red County site to link to my TEA Party post yesterday because pictorial posts don’t always transfer well there. But I liked expressing my thoughts on Saturday so much I decided to bring it back here and kind of switch things around for a change.

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While I have a pictorial post on my home website, monoblogue, I thought it may work out better on Red County to skip the pictures since the transition often omits my captioning text. So this post is more on my thoughts a couple days removed from the proceedings.

The attendance for our party wasn’t as large as it was in April, but I would argue that’s due to two reasons. The obvious answer is having a TEA Party on a national holiday as opposed to a day of mourning for your money. That also segues into the second reason – on April 15th most of us are good and mad at the IRS but by July citizens are resigned to having that large chunk taken out of their paycheck (if they’re still fortunate enough to collect one) and politics – at least here in Maryland – isn’t quite as sore of a subject. The talk isn’t about what the General Assembly tried to do to us now because their session ended in early April.

Moreover, I’m not sure that there wasn’t a perception – spread gleefully by the Leftmedia – that most of the attendees would be some fringe element. Part of me would like to see more involvement from local Republican elected officials – of the county’s elected Republicans I only saw two others there, a husband and wife – but then again given the anti-GOP sentiment of a few speakers who equated the two political parties as peas in a pod their lack of attendance could be an advantage later on. Better to shed light than heat in the spirit of the moment.

The only difficulty with their efforts lies in a electoral law which is stacked in favor of the two major parties in Maryland. It’s exceedingly difficult for people outside that realm to crack the ballot and then they don’t have the party apparatus behind them. It creates a lack of money and volunteers which generally spells defeat.

On the whole, I happen to believe that most of these people would naturally fall into the Republican sphere but the problem is that national Republicans have squandered that goodwill by coming into home districts talking the conservative talk but far too often voting with the centrists and liberals in their state capitals and in Washington, D.C. Some locally argue that our former Republican Congressman, Wayne Gilchrest, would have won the seat had State Senator Andy Harris not defeated him in a vicious primary. But given his moderate-to-liberal record on many issues would he have been an improvement over Frank Kratovil? Maybe a little, but not nearly as much as Harris would have been and the GOP brand would be tarnished even more in the eyes of local concerned citizens.

As I see it, Republicans at all levels need to learn from the TEA Party movement and embrace it. All those who took time out of their holiday to gather at the Government Office Building in downtown Salisbury as well as over 1,500 other locales are doing is begging for a new Contract With America or similar document. I’m happy to push for one too, but it will take those already in office to assist in its enactment.

And while I’m at it, I’d also like to express my congratulations to the Wicomico County East Side Chamber of Commerce for putting on a nice event in Willards Saturday. Kudos go to these fine folks:

Next time you're in these local businesses, you should thank them for a job well done. Perhaps next year it can all be privately funded and allow the towns of Willards and Pittsville to spend funds on essential services.

Hopefully the third annual event next year will be bigger, better, and have double the number of sponsors!

Salisbury’s July 4th TEA Party in pictures and text

I’ll put up a long post warning before I begin…I started out with over 20 pictures and distilled it down to 16 photos. If you have the capability (I notice this doesn’t work with Firefox, more’s the pity) the captions help tell the story. Hold your mouse over the picture.

Not having a wide-angle lens, I couldn't get the full lawn of the Government Office Building in one shot. This is looking toward the Wicomico County Courthouse.

Standing in the same spot, I turned and looked toward Division Street. This was taken just before 10 a.m. and the crowd hadn't peaked yet.

There weren’t as many people at the July 4th rendition of the TEA Party as there were on April 15th despite the fact that the weather was nicer. Obviously that was countered by the fact that many had made holiday plans; however the anger and frustration was just as evident based on what many of the speakers noted in their remarks.

The Minuteman was back in full regalia, although he stayed much drier this time around. If you don't know, the flag is a 'Don't Tread On Me' flag.

This gentleman was one of the first speakers and most noteworthy among his remarks was a call to “get the statists out of office and put in those who love liberty.” He exhorted us to “get in the faces of our elected officials” and concluded that “when the people fear the government, that is tyranny (but) when the government fears the people it is liberty.” He was circulating a petition to sign and deliver personally to the front door of elected officials. (That covered the “get in their face” part.)

Mike Brewington was among a number other speakers who came up for a particular cause, his being the National Rifle Association.

Local NRA organizer and spokesman Mike Brewington derided Maryland's pitiful Second Amendment record.

Others let their signs do the talking.

At least for one day the majority wasn't so silent.

This sign has gotten plenty of play in the local media and blogosphere. So, where is that birth certificate anyway?

I think the answer is 1,000,000,000,001. That's a LOT of zeroes.

I'd love to have someone from the left argue with this one. What rights are you restoring? Photo courtesy of Sheila Fields, my thanks to her!

And this sign holder is correct. We are the government, not just the governed. The problem is the best and brightest who were supposed to represent us have devolved into the greediest and most corrupt.

Even the kids got into the act, although I can personally vouch that the sign on the left was created last Wednesday by someone really special. They're definitely tailored to Delmarva.

Our protest even spilled over as some went down to the corner of Division Street and Business Route 50 to express their viewpoint.

These concerned citizens strolled down the street to the corner to make their case for capitalism and smaller government. Photo courtesy of Sheila Fields.

Now here’s something I don’t understand, and perhaps it’s the reputation garnered by the protests on the left. You had 200 or so law-abiding citizens, so was there any need for this guy to keep an eye on us?

Isn't the idea of police work to go where the criminals are? Maybe he needs to check out a different part of town then.

Events like this don’t come together from thin air. Chris Lewis, who helped put together the original April 15th TEA Party, is now mulling a run for Congress. Looks like he has a ready-made volunteer force if he uses it wisely. Here he speaks to close the proceedings.

Chris Lewis was the final speaker. At the moment he's thinking of attempting to take Frank Kratovil's job - honestly he's more qualified to be a representative of the people than Frank is. Maybe it's a time for the return of the citizen legislator the Founding Fathers envisioned.

Also adopting the event as their own was the local Americans for Prosperity chapter. Their co-chair Julie Brewington was there early getting things underway, and had her own message for our Congressman.

The Americans for Prosperity organization had plenty of information available for those who wished to follow up their attendance with other concrete action.

AFP local co-chair Julie Brewington in front of their tent. I'm all for her sentiment because I wouldn't have hired Frank in the first place!

The gathering lasted three hours, and there were probably 20 to 30 speakers all told. Some were brief, and some seemed to go on for 15 or 20 minutes. None of them were professional politicians, and I was the only elected official to speak – part of my pitch was to hold our legislators accountable and the other part to let those there know that the GOP has a school board opening (as do the Democrats.)

As a group, it’s a pretty safe bet that we hold certain truths to be self-evident. The final picture is what it’s all about, and I’m pleased to see AFP making these available at the event.

The Constitution. It doesn't look living to me!

Probably the next big TEA Party-style gathering is a national one slated for the weekend of September 11th in Washington, D.C. While I don’t know this for a fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if there weren’t a bus chartered from Salisbury to ferry interested participants to the event – at least the September 12th gathering.

If I go I’ll be sure to have pictures!

Sunday evening reading

When former Salisbury blogger Bill Duvall had the Duvafiles blog (which closed after the 2008 election) he had a regular Sunday feature called “Sunday Evening Reading” that simply linked to interesting items he found over the previous few days. While I may or may not do this every week, I thought with the amount of reading I do for this website it would be a good idea to allocate the title and tradition, so here goes.

The editors of the Center for Individual Freedom recently opined on how to redefine conservative governance, particularly at a time when the country is moving away from it. Wait, let me take that back: the GOVERNMENT is moving away from it. The organization also points out the skewed poll which claimed Americans are foursquare behind healthcare reform.

Speaking of that sore subject (pun intended), a recent editorial in the Washington Examiner asks a logical question: why not fix Medicare first?

And then we have other pieces on government run amok. One of my favorite bloggers, Hans Bader, dug deep into new Obama Administration regulations which will more risky loans to low-income borrowers. Look for this bailout, oh, about 2017.

One postmortem to the cap-and-trade energy tax that passed could be filed under the category, “Dude, where’s my bill?” David Freddoso at the Washington Examiner explains.

I’ll take it easy on you all this week and actually wrap up with some pop culture. On the American Thinker website, I found Rick Moran wasn’t quite as fawning about the late Michael Jackson as most. But he has nothing on Tim Patterson at Gunpowder Chronicle, who termed the deceased King of Pop a “pervert.”

(Just as an aside, isn’t it amazing how celebrity deaths seem to come in threes? In the space of a week we lost Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson. Then in aside #2, the death of pitchman Billy Mays just went and screwed my theory up.)

Hopefully this is not a bad start and beats reading the continual bickering between local bloggers.

Kratovil (and Castle) make your utility bills skyrocket in time for the Fourth of July

While I was away this evening Frank Kratovil and Mike Castle made it almost a Delmarva sweep voting in favor of H.R. 2454, the Waxman-Markey “cap and trade” energy tax. Only a brave Democrat in VA-2, Glenn Nye, kept it from being three-for-three in the anti-American vote department.

I’m curious to know what was promised to the two of them to get them to vote for a bill that, according to Bill Wilson of the group Americans for Limited Government, would “increase the prices of oil, gasoline, coal, and natural gas across the board, and thereby ‘incentivize’ alternatives like solar, wind, and hybrid vehicles. It won’t work, because the alternatives are inefficient, have a lower yields, and are more expensive.”

Perhaps the devil is in the details, such as the 300-page amendment tucked into the bill early this morning. In any case, I breathlessly await the poor excuses that both of these Congressmen will have when they drag their tails back to their district over the Fourth of July weekend. I know I have hard questions for them.

Panic in Detroit

And in a lot of other places too; that is if the Waxman-Markey “cap and trade” bill (H.R. 2454 – fair warning: the bill is a 1,092 page .pdf file) gets through the House and on to the Senate.

Here’s just some of the reaction. Let me start with the Americans for Limited Government group:

Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today strongly urged Congress to reject legislation “that will deliberately increase the costs of gasoline, oil, and coal at a time when the American people can ill afford it.”

“While the American people are dealing with a brutal recession, soaring unemployment, and about to be hit with massive inflation, Congress in the Waxman-Markey bill is proposing to make energy more expensive to service a radical environmentalist agenda,” said Wilson.

“It is up to the Congress to stop this legislation dead on its tracks, before it causes an economic train wreck that will take decades to overcome,” Wilson added.

(snip)

“This bill was rejected last year, and should again be rejected this year, because it’s an economy-killer.  It will cost jobs, it will cost progress, and it will cost prosperity.  That is the price,” Wilson said.

Wilson says that what makes the bill even worse is that the science behind cap-and-trade is contrived and misleading.  “The whole premise of global ‘warming’ is based upon flawed computer models that predict climate change, and are not based on actual observable data that can be confirmed.”

Wilson pointed to a study from APS Physics, “Climate Sensitivity Revisited”. “The Monckton study proves beyond any doubt that the UN International Panel on Climate Change’s computer models that ‘predict’ climate change greatly overstate the impact of carbon emissions.  In other words, ‘man-made’ climate change is not real, and yet Congress is ready to reorganize the entire energy sector around the idea.” (Emphasis mine.)

Joining in the chorus was another pro-freedom group, Americans for Prosperity. AFP Policy Director Phil Kerpen:

The Pelosi/Reid/Obama team has been unable to pass cap-and-trade thus far for one simple reason: it’s an enormous tax.  The country is struggling to cope with the current recession but the politicians in power don’t seem to care how this bill will affect your family.

President Obama famously said during the campaign “under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”  But he also pledged not to raise taxes “even one dime” on middle class Americans.  Well it looks like he may be poised to break that promise.

We must band together and speak out with one voice in opposition to this egregious tax hike that will have virtually no beneficial impact on the environment.  In fact, the EPA has even admitted that cap-and-trade could increase carbon emissions, as jobs flee the country and the painful regulations this bill will impose.

It’s time to kill this tax-hiking, job-killing, freedom-stifling legislation once and for all and your representative’s vote will be crucial on this bill.

The e-mail urges us to call our Congressman, which in our case is Frank Kratovil.

One voice I pay attention to on energy issues is that of my friend Jane Van Ryan at the American Petroleum Institute. She passed along this letter that API president Jack Gerard sent to each member of Congress while she weighs in on the Energy Tomorrow blog.

I’m not going to lie to you and say I read the entire bill – heck, most Congressmen haven’t either. But the part which worries me the most is buried fairly deep, as most sinister provisions of a measure are. Section 702 states:

SEC. 702. ECONOMY-WIDE REDUCTION GOALS.

`The goals of the Safe Climate Act are to reduce steadily the quantity of United States greenhouse gas emissions such that–

  • `(1) in 2012, the quantity of United States greenhouse gas emissions does not exceed 97 percent of the quantity of United States greenhouse gas emissions in 2005;
  • `(2) in 2020, the quantity of United States greenhouse gas emissions does not exceed 80 percent of the quantity of United States greenhouse gas emissions in 2005;
  • `(3) in 2030, the quantity of United States greenhouse gas emissions does not exceed 58 percent of the quantity of United States greenhouse gas emissions in 2005; and
  • `(4) in 2050, the quantity of United States greenhouse gas emissions does not exceed 17 percent of the quantity of United States greenhouse gas emissions in 2005.

To illustrate this better, I need to use an indicator made available by the federal government. (The key pages of this 439 page .pdf are pages 47 and 51.) If you assume, as I do, that greenhouse gas production is roughly equivalent to energy usage (since our sources haven’t changed significantly in the last few decades – we’re still burning fossil fuels for the most part) then in 2005 each person used 340 million BTU of energy. This is a number which has remained remarkably constant over several decades and actually peaked way back in 1978-79.

To achieve the Waxman-Markey numbers on a per-person basis, though, we’d have to retreat to 330 million BTU of energy per person in just two years. Okay, maybe that’s doable, although the last time we came in under that amount was 1987 (under that evil anti-environmental President Reagan).

But in one decade we would have to retreat to 272 million BTU per person to meet the 2020 mandates. Folks, we haven’t seen that level of energy usage since the early 1960’s. And I don’t know about you, but my lifestyle isn’t conducive to that of an era when the Beatles were the “in” thing musically and many of us weren’t born yet. It gets even worse as restrictions become tougher, bringing our per-person usage back to pre-1949 levels by 2030. (The EIA statistics only date back to 1949.)

If you look at page 47, that chart breaks down where energy usage comes from. Just about 7% of our BTUs come from “renewable” sources and the vast majority of those are hydroelectric (think of dams) and biomass (generally burning garbage). Less than 1% comes from the environmentally favored solar, wind, and geothermal power sources.

And it’s this paucity of renewable energy sources that scares me most. The government can work until doomsday building “clean” sources but they would come nowhere near meeting demand. Naturally, they would need jillions of our tax dollars to do so and that’s where the cap-and-trade “energy tax” comes in.

In a nutshell, this artificially-created market creates a “commodity” out of carbon, where those who use it “excessively” can purchase credits from those who have them available, although all these credits originally eminate from the federal government.

Maryland is one of several states who already have a somewhat similar scam ongoing called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. While there is supposedly a small benefit for all of us through the Maryland Strategic Energy Investment Fund (the fund where Maryland’s RGGI auction proceeds are supposed to go) it looks more like a handy means of income redistribution based on target households. Certainly the miniscule savings we may receive is going to be overshadowed by the higher prices we pay for consumer goods once businesses pass on their increased energy costs under Waxman-Markey.

Just to be clear, if someone wants to put up a windmill in their back yard or slap a solar panel on their roof to “save the planet”, be my guest. But don’t expect me to willingly pay higher taxes and increased utility bills just to make some do-gooder politicians feel better and think they’re making a dent in so-called global warming. Until you blot out the sun, you’re barking up the wrong tree when it comes to climate change.

Update, Thursday 10 a.m. : Paul Blumenthal, writing for the Sunlight Foundation Blog, points out that the 1,000-page plus version of the bill I cited from the GPO was mysteriously fertilized overnight and is now significantly larger.

Another budget-busting feature I found was that any jobs created by the bill had to pay the so-called “prevailing wage” in compliance with the Davis-Bacon Act. Look for Section 338.

Update 2, Thursday 2 p.m. : Once again this is a featured national post on the Red County site. They even kept my title this time.

Progress made

This is a heads-up…boy July 4th is coming quickly.

Those of you who have been reading this site regularly for the last year or so – or those of you who may have stumbled across because of a mention someplace else – may recall that last year I embarked on the monoblogue Accountability Project. In my original rendition, each of the 188 members of our General Assembly was ranked and graded on votes they took over the 2007 and 2008 sessions, including the Special Session in 2007. Obviously this year I add the votes for 2009.

Last year I missed my self-imposed deadline of having the Accountability Project done on July 4th; instead I was a couple days behind. The good news is that I finished the hard part this weekend, compiling a total of 65 votes by the General Assembly (33 in the House of Delegates, 32 in the Maryland Senate) and retallying the term totals to reflect 2009’s votes. So I only need to do the writeup for the page this week and it should go as scheduled on July 4th at noon – just after the Salisbury Tea Party wraps up.

On the whole, I was quite disappointed with the session this year. A lot of those who had really good records slipped a little bit while I didn’t get many pleasant surprises on the Democratic side. There were no “perfect” members of the General Assembly – the best had all but two votes “correct”.

On July 4th I’ll reveal who they were.

Observations for prosperity

Last night I attended what I believe is the third meeting of the local chapter of Americans for Prosperity. (As I often ask, who are the Americans against prosperity?) This post isn’t meant to be a blow-by-blow account as I try to do with Wicomico County Republican Club meetings but a few highlights from last night’s gathering combined with my thoughts on the organization.

While local residents Joe Collins and Julie Brewington are the pair who have done much of the work putting this together, we also were graced by the presence of state AFP head Dave Schwartz, who noted that the Lower Shore chapter is the “biggest early chapter” in the state – that is, in terms of the number attending at this stage of development. In fact, there’s already a possibility Worcester County may split off from the Lower Shore group because of the interest there in their own club.

A key item Schwartz touched on while addressing the club was the Obamacare plan. It’s part of a “buffet” of AFP pet issues nationally that also included “card check” and Obama’a cap and trade proposal, but in this case AFP has already put up a patient advocacy website called Patients United Now.

That’s not to say they’re ignoring state issues either. Schwartz brought up the legislation authorizing speed cameras statewide (SB 277) and Collins once again mentioned an issue which helped him get involved, tax assessments. He passed out a handout explaining the concept of “constant yield”, which generally explains why tax rates get lower each year. On the other hand, he also noted that assessments continue to rise, leaving little to no benefit to taxpayers.

As for speed cameras, despite the fact a bid to take the proposed law to referendum failed, Schwartz pointed out the law can only take effect within each county after a public hearing and authorizing legislation on a local level. Thus, we can fight the idea this fall when the law takes effect. (Okay, Wicomico County Council, where do you stand on the issue?)

That makes for a nice segue into a comment I made midstream (since I got to the meeting a little late) where I asked about a legislative agenda. As I couched it, one criticism of the GOP – and by extension conservative groups – is that they can be tagged as the “party of no” if they don’t put up an alternative to ever-expanding government that addresses legitimate concerns.

Apparently the national AFP will soon be doing this for healthcare, but I’m wondering if this isn’t a job which can and should done at the state level. In terms of coordination on a statewide legislative program, one group I’d suggest AFP works with would be the Maryland Public Policy Institute. Meanwhile, a group our size can easily study the issues on a county level – after all, our protests worked to trim a proposed tax increase in Somerset County, but one can rightfully ask what needs to be made a priority and what is budgetary fat.

In return, one criticism I was asked about was why the local Republican party hasn’t shown a lot of interest in the club and some of its issues. It so happens I may have been the lightning rod because I was the lone GOP elected official there (based on my Central Committee post) but this was a legitimate question.

I can’t speak for everyone else on the Central Committee or our other Republican elected officials, but perhaps there aren’t the numbers yet to goad our party establishment into action. There were about 40 people in the room from the four Lower Shore counties, but there were three of what could be called “opinion leaders” – the local blogosphere was well represented with G.A. Harrison (Delmarva Dealings) and Joe Albero (Salisbury News) there as well. Most likely each will have their own take on the event, along with anyone who contributes to AFP’s own state blog (Subprime Maryland).

However, given the reluctance of the Tea Party movement (which helped spawn interest in AFP locally) and the Republican Party establishment to embrace each other despite what seemingly would be common cause, it may be a little bit of wishful thinking forseeing a host of local politicians to join the ranks – particularly when they often end up on opposite sides of issues.

I’ll close with one example of this. There was a brief mention of term limits – I think it was part of an offhand comment I made as a matter of fact. As it is the goal of practically every politician to be re-elected as often as possible, a group which advocates what to some is an artificial limit on the will of the people would certainly be at loggerheads with someone who enjoys holding office and wants to stay there for decades.

Thus, there may not be much hope that we become a classical political movement because most of us have no desire to be inside the system. Needless to say, fixing the system from without makes it a more difficult task. But it’s not an impossible one.

A conservative run

Normally I don’t talk a whole lot about the Eastern Shore of Virginia but I saw an article in the Daily Times Sunday which jogged my memory.

In it, writer Ceri Larson Danes talks about a conservative Republican candidate for Virginia’s 100th District House seat trying to unseat a three-term Democrat. What jogged my memory was the name Melody Scalley – I just wasn’t sure why I remembered it. Then it hit me – she’s an occasional reader of my website and we’ve written back and forth on a couple occasions. She happens to be one of my Facebook friends.

There are several items here which may make her bid a race worth watching. It’s noted in Danes’ article (a shortened version ran in Sunday’s Daily Times; the online version goes into more depth) that Scalley is the first woman in memory to make it to the general election ballot in the district. More importantly, though, while I know nothing about the political philosophy of incumbent Lynwood Lewis it’s almost a certainty that Melody’s more conservative than he is – after all, he is a Democrat. Perhaps he’s more conservative than most Democrats but since Lewis hasn’t junked the party affiliation I’m led to presume he’s centrist at best.

Scalley is also unique in that she’s had a bully pulpit to work with as a radio host, doing a local conservative talk show called “Politics on the Edge” once a week. Whether that show can continue with her as a candidate is a legitimate question given current campaign finance laws – fortunately there aren’t equal time restrictions yet. But would WESR be forced to consider the airtime an in-kind contribution? In my case, I needed to declare this website as an in-kind contribution to myself when I ran for Central Committee in 2006. And three hours once a week until November is a large chunk of airtime.

The bigger question, though, is just how far right Lewis is going to have to run in order to counter Scalley’s philosophy. In 2008 President Obama carried Virginia’s Eastern Shore, winning smaller Northampton County by enough of a margin to outpoll John McCain’s narrow win in Accomack County. The two counties also combined to oust incumbent Republican Congressman Thelma Drake as Democratic opponent Glenn Nye carried the Shore.

But 2009 has a completely different political landscape as the economy hasn’t improved despite President Obama’s promise it would. Perhaps a fresh political face and some hard work may combine with a solid, limited-government philosophy to carry the day along the largely rural Eastern Shore of Virginia.

Speaking of solid, limited-government philosophies, it’s also worthy to note that something I carried on monoblogue a couple weeks back was officially announced on May 29 (I meant to place the item in my last “Odds and ends” post but it goes well here too). I didn’t get the e-mail about Jim Rutledge until it was forwarded to me from the Bartkoviches last week; regardless he’s in and the website is working so I’m glad to see someone touting the conservative banner. Let’s see if that plays in a so-called blue state amongst the brainwashed masses on the other side of the bay (and a number of them here too.)

Rutledge is also our speaker at the upcoming Wicomico County Republican Club meeting next Monday evening, so it’s an opportunity to get to know him better, right here in Salisbury.

Odds and ends no. 20

It’s been a little over a month since my last installment but that e-mail box keeps being stuffed with interesting tidbits which merit a paragraph or two, so we’ll start the week off with those and see where they take us.

A lot of people have made the case that the Republican Party needs to move to the center politically. I don’t happen to agree with them as I think the GOP principles truly inhabit the political center and what’s ran the party into trouble was abandoning those principles – regardless, Patriot Post editor Mark Alexander harkens back to a very successful Republican in his most recent essay, one well worth reading.

While Alexander dosen’t mince too many words in his piece, he has nothing on writer Andrew Breitbart, who throws down the gauntlet against Democrats in an op-ed featured recently in the Washington Times. The opening sentences say it all:

The Democratic Party’s attitude to elections is admirable: Win. And recent history has shown it will do anything to do so.

When, if not now, will Republicans develop such a fighting spirit?

I like the attitude because I have little tolerance for a number of left-wing views (or stealing elections). I’ll host this forum for discussion but we all know in the end I’m right and I’ll be proven so sooner or later.

Speaking of electoral fraud, the people at NetRightNation sent this video on ACORN to 17,000 bloggers. Guess I’m number 17,001 – but the point remains: why is this group getting federal money?

There are folks who do appreciate what’s going on in the halls of Congress, even if the measures they support may not have much of a chance of passage. For example, a group called the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (as they claim, “a non-profit, non-partisan policy institute dedicated exclusively to promoting pluralism, defending democratic values, and fighting the ideologies that drive terrorism”) was pleased about a bipartisan bill attempting to restore missile defense cuts unwisely proposed by the Obama Admistration in the wake of saber rattling by North Korea and electoral unrest in Iran. I happen to agree so the group gets a few pixels.

Perhaps a more successful outcome awaits a bill to audit the Federal Reserve. The conservative watchdog group Americans for Limited Government was pleased about the bill getting to 222 co-sponsors, but wanted more action:

Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today called upon Congressman Ron Paul (TX-CD14) to circulate a discharge petition for HR 1207 at the end of the month if the House Financial Services Committee does not put the legislation on the floor.

“Barney Frank must allow this to come up for a vote. Of the 71 members of the House Financial Services Committee, 36 are cosponsors of the Fed Audit bill, including 7 Democrats, and 35 are not,” Wilson said. “That’s a majority.”

A discharge petition would allow the bill to come directly to the House floor, bypassing the normal committee assignment. Wilson added that not bringing the bill forward would, “thwart the express will of the American people.” My question is what the Fed has to hide? No one else in government is doing much better at managing the economy.

They just like to shift the blame, as this cartoon by William Warren points out.

A cartoon by William Warren. Didn't Obama say unemployment wouldn't exceed 8 percent?

Another neat little group doth protest loudly about nationalized health care. You know it’s coming.

They called the plan the “largest middle-class tax hike ever,” during the last campaign.  They said they were against it, they said it would hurt hard working Americans.  Now, President Barack Obama and his allies in Congress, like Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid, are looking to a new payroll tax on your health care benefits, taking hundreds or thousands of dollars out of your pocket each and every year to pay for their Health Care “fix”.

Americans for Job Security has created a Health Insurance Tax Calculator so you can see just how much more you would owe to the federal government each year. Check out the calculator and forward it along to your friends and co-workers.

AJS also has a petition at the site…of course, I’m not sure what good it will do since big government isn’t generally known for listening to what the people want. Why do you think I like small government? It will grow their mailing list but what’s the harm in that?

Sort of lost in the news swamp is the impact Big Labor is having on our economy, particularly with “card check” legislation being debated. Obviously unions are all for the passage of the measure, but last month writer Isaac MacMillen pointed out what the Service Employees International Union seems to be best known for: corruption. Meanwhile, the Center for Individual Freedom points out that unions aren’t big on merit raises, but one Congressman is trying to change that:

(California Congressman Tom) McClintock is introducing legislation appropriately entitled the “Rewarding Achievement and Incentivizing Successful Employees” (RAISE) Act, which will amend the National Labor Relations Act and eliminate the de facto pay cap imposed on working Americans through stifling collective-bargaining agreements. Very simply, the RAISE Act would allow employers to reward high-achieving employees with raises, bonuses or other compensation regardless of limitations contained within a collective bargaining agreement.

The bill is H.R. 2732, which of course was assigned to a committee to die.

I’m going to close the post out with a calendar note. Tomorrow night (June 16th) will be another meeting of the local Americans for Prosperity chapter. They’ll meet at 7:00 p.m. at Adam’s Ribs in Fruitland; hopefully they’ll be able to build on some of their recent progress in Somerset County.

All those little items add up to long posts but I have fun putting these together, so I’ll just keep letting my e-mail box fill up and see what nuggets lie within.

A clunker of a deal

After I wrote about the possible loss of jobs in the local auto industry on Wednesday, I wanted to bring up a bill which passed the House on Tuesday which sounds innocent enough but to me sets a dangerous precedent and insults my intelligence on several levels.

Its formal name is the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act but H.R. 2751 is better known as the “Cash for Clunkers Act”. According to this story from The Hill by Jim Snyder and Silla Brush, the bill would allow consumers to collect on a voucher up to $4500 if they trade in a “gas guzzling” car for one which gets more mileage per gallon. Obviously the concept was enticing enough to get both our local Congressmen to vote in its favor.

I’m sure many will ask what is wrong with this concept. However, we see just how the government is handling its running of the American auto industry and how they’re attempting to take away choice from the consumer by adopting stricter CAFE gas mileage standards. Moreover, I’m very leery of regulating behavior on the public dime, since the estimated tab for the program ranges up to $4 billion. To me it’s much like adding a particular tax break for doing whatever action the government wishes one to do.

At the moment the voucher goes toward buying a vehicle which gets as little as 4 more miles per gallon. But as the Hill story notes, the manner of payoff is still negotiable and may be set up to eliminate any chance that a car fitting the classic definition of a “gas guzzler” (e.g. sport-utility vehicle, light-duty truck) qualifies for the taxpayer-funded subsidy.

In an era where we’ve proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that throwing taxpayer money at a problem can make it far worse than it was when it started, this program once again promises to be a never-ending boondoggle that will only siphon money from taxpayers and line the pockets of some large entity. It’s yet another case where a Congress which should have known better to mess with the free market is listening to the wrong set of people with the wrong set of priorities.

But what have they done to deserve it?

An article yesterday in the Washington Times by Michael Drost details the early handicapping of the 2010 race for Maryland governor – while he’s holding off on the official announcement, it’s all but assured that Martin O’Malley will run for a second term.

It’s intriguing to note the Drost piece talks about aspirations O’Guvnah has beyond his term, although as the “reluctant politician” that Martin portrays himself to be he’s certainly sounding a little bit like someone who has even higher aspirations and plenty of time on his hands past 2014…just in time for a second Obama term to be completed (that is, if the 22nd Amendment isn’t repealed).

I took some time yesterday (since it went well with related research I was doing) to remind myself what some of O’Malley’s objectives have been since he moved into Government House.

One of his first objectives 2 1/2 years ago was to reward his union backers by imposing service fees to non-union state workers. The issue didn’t pass then nor did it make it through the General Assembly this year either. But Martin did see his pet StateStat program instituted and shepherded California-style emissions standards for new cars through – they’ll take effect in 2011, just as tougher federal mileage standards are placed on the horizon for automakers. (Remember, it takes a fairly lengthy period for a new car to move from concept to showroom.)

Because O’Malley was working within a budget created by immediate predecessor Gov. Robert Ehrlich as he took office and wanted to hold off on radical changes in his first few months, we didn’t really get to see what many of Martin’s spending priorities were until he called a Special Session in late 2007. This was the infamous General Assembly gathering which raised our sales tax and our tobacco tax, yet created even more spending as O’Malley added $500 million to our bloated budget to supposedly give health insurance to thousands of Marylanders – naturally the money isn’t there to insure the number he thought his program would because health care costs continue to go up and as we all know “free” health care isn’t truly free.

After O’Malley “solved” our financial problems, he turned to creating a number of environmentally-based hurdles to progress during the 2008 session. The utility companies were stuck with the Regional Greehouse Gas Initiative, the EmPOWER Act, and an increased renewable energy portfolio (read: much higher energy costs). Other anti-free market initiatives came in a push for “transit-oriented” development, the High Performance Buildings Act, and grants for solar and geothermal energy (which were underfunded as people again sought “free” government money).

Intrusive government also came in the form of expanding the area covered under Critical Areas restriction (which affects the Eastern Shore disproportionately) and instituting speed cameras in specific situations as a cash cow for local and state governments.

Finally, adult education was moved out of the auspices of the Maryland Department of Education and placed into the Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation.

Obviously 2008 was an aggressive year for the O’Malley agenda, and as the year wore on we found that revenue continued to lag behind projections – necessitating cuts in a number of programs to maintain the budget’s balance lest we end up like California. It also meant 2009 saw a scaling back of O’Malley’s legislative program.

Probably the biggest controversy faced by the General Assembly this spring was whether to end the state’s death penalty, which turned into a compromise that satisfied neither side. But there were also efforts to extend unemployment benefits to part-time workers (which would have by necessity led to higher unemployment insurance premiums for businesses large and small), another bid to reduce greenhouse gases (also putting Maryland businesses at a competitive disadvantage), and a mandate to grab guns from those who have protective orders against them. (One amendment to that bill which would have made more sense was to allow those who sought the protective order easier access to firearms. But this common-sense amendment was rejected on a largely party-line vote.)

Obviously many who reside to my left would argue that much of the state’s problem comes from the national economic situation. However, given the expansion of both federal and state government over the last 2 1/2 years it’s apparent that those woes lie mainly in the private sector.

Unfortunately, the policies enacted by Governor O’Malley and his Democrat allies in the General Assembly have tended to favor confiscation of power and freedom from the private sector to use as they see fit, shifting the largesse to those in Annapolis who would run things to favor their friends in the unions and public sector. Notice that much of the additional spending goes to labor because it’s focused on government jobs and service industries rather than on creating private-sector jobs in making goods or building infrastructure for public or private usage. (O’Malley also signed so-called “living wage” legislation that made state contracts more expensive for private employers who bid on state contracts.)

Continue reading “But what have they done to deserve it?”

D-Day for health care

I have such fun with these “Organizing for America a Socialist Paradise” appeals from Barack Obama’s flunkies. Wonder who’s hosting the local one?

They’re planning a push for so-called health care reform on Saturday, at least according to Obama mouthpiece David Plouffe:

Remember this date: Saturday, June 6th, 2009. We will look back on that day as the moment when the fight for real health care reform began in your neighborhood — perhaps even in your own living room.

It won’t be in my living room, that’s for sure. I write from my office most of the time.

On June 6th, in thousands of homes across the country, we’ll gather to launch our grassroots campaign for health care. We’ll watch a special message from the President. We’ll build the teams and draw up the plans for winning health care reform the same way we won the election: Building support one block, one neighbor, one conversation at a time. And we’ll put those plans into action.

Give me a break. You (well, more specifically liberals and their allies in Congress) have already put these plans into place. We’ve had the camel’s nose under the tent for so long that half the hump is in there as well. To me that’s the problem.

There’s no prior experience required. We’ll send you the details for dialing into the President’s call and provide you everything you need to make your meeting a success.

You know, I wonder who pays to provide you everything you need? Is that taxpayer money or leftover special interest funds? I presume it’s the latter since “Organizing for America a Socialist Paradise” is an arm of the DNC.

After the election, people gathered at over 9,000 meetings across every state to set priorities for health care reform. Our voices were heard. Now the race is on to make sure Congress produces a plan that reflects the President’s call for reduced costs, guaranteed choice, and quality care for all.

I think they have two words reversed in that sentence – the sentence should read, “reduced choice, guaranteed costs”.

Let’s look at this logically. Unless and until someone reduces regulation and makes it easier to provide health care as a free market, private companies who provide funding (through premiums paid) will escape as they can from a market where it becomes more difficult to create a profit for themselves.

Like it or not, there is a phenomenon in health insurance known as “adverse selection” where those who need health insurance the most are the most likely to seek it out. It’s why those in the business try to build as large of a group as possible, particularly if they can get a large number of healthy folks. And while in theory a group of 300 million would spread costs around, the problem is in the perception of “free” health care liberals try to spread to an unwitting public.

To make that happen, we need to build a groundswell of support in every district and every state, and we have no time to lose. All summer we’ll be reaching out to our neighbors, knocking on doors, serving in our communities, and building a grassroots network strong enough to win.

Oh please…come knock on my door. I need a good argument I would win.

These gatherings on June 6th are just the beginning of a battle between those who fought and believe in change and those who would protect a broken status quo. The stakes for our country could not be greater.

Nor can the cost for our country if you succeed. They are correct that the status quo is broken, but it’s still far better than most other places in that we have the greatest technology and have made many of the advances in healthy living possible (along with making possible some lifestyle choices that aren’t so great…but that usually comes from personal choices made).

These kickoffs will be both effective and fun. You’ll meet likeminded supporters in your neighborhood, share stories, enjoy good company and a shared mission, and know that no matter what this effort requires of us, if we work together we’ll be ready to face it and persevere.

Yeah, let’s have a block party. The real job in all of this will be fighting the special interests who have a stake in this so-called “reform” – unions, certain government employees, senior lobbying groups like the AARP, and some business interests.

Here’s the rub. As I mentioned above, those who need health insurance most are the most likely to seek it out while healthy individuals tend to shy away from the investment. In order to make health insurance profitable from a government standpoint, one solution would have to be forcing those who are healthy to bear the cost of those who are sickly. In our current employer-based system this can be done, but it becomes quite expensive for the employer. In the last 15 years, the palette of benefits a company generally offers has come down simply to health insurance and possibly a 401 (k) account. They’ve also passed along more of the costs through higher co-pays and assuming less of the insurance payment, making the employee take a larger deduction out of his or her check.

Eventually I believe the government needs to get out of health care entirely, as in sunsetting Medicare and Medicaid. Much as I’d love to see it happen though, that’s not going to happen in my lifetime – despite the eventual unsustainability of these programs which provide “free” health care and prescription drugs. (Yes, I know there is some cost to the end-user but it’s small in proportion to actual costs so it may as well be free.) Nor do I believe that health insurance needs to be compulsory – advisable, of course, but not required for everyone should they wish to roll the dice in life.

Instead, I hear various proposals being bandied about to cover everyone with health insurance paid for either by employers or the government. But where does that cut costs?

Or, we can simply go to a British- or Canadian-style single-payer system, where those who are seriously ill have to take their chances that they’ll receive life-saving or life-enhancing treatment in a timely manner. Honestly, I think the Obama folks would like to head in this direction but may use the compulsory health insurance idea as a bridge to get there when private companies can no longer compete in the insurance market due to regulations and restrictions on who and what they have to cover.

The other side of the pincer movement toward socialized medicine comes through a proposal to count employer-provided health care benefits as taxable income. While John McCain had this idea as a campaign plank, he combined it with a tax break. Unfortunately, we all know tax breaks aren’t forever in this debt-ridden economy of ours. And once taxpayers scream about needing to “do something” about this unfair situation, the government would be all too happy to step in and save the day.

It all comes back to money. In the case of all providing parties their goal is to at least recoup their costs in providing health care and medical services.

Doctors need to pay for their lengthy term of education and particularly the skyrocketing costs of malpractice insurance and other overhead in operating a practice – including providing benefits themselves. Yet they are squeezed by shrinking reimbursements from insurance companies and government.

Hospitals are saddled with mounting costs in building state-of-the-art facilities and treating patients (many of whom are here illegally) who have no ability to pay but use the emergency room as their physician of choice. While the left likes to claim that 47 million people don’t have health care the reality is that federal law mandates treatment for anyone regardless of ability to pay. In addition, hospitals also have many of the same overhead issues doctors face.

What those who would attend these Obama-sponsored meetings seem to see as the last resort, however, is the one entity which can print money – the federal government.

They’re confused on one thing, though. While health care is a legitimate need, it is NOT a right.

The road to real health care reform starts by attempting to make the best choices for a healthy lifestyle and doing those things which aren’t congruent to that goal in moderation – but not having the choices made for you by an overreaching nanny state.

It continues by being encouraged to contribute to your own health care costs through tax-free medical savings accounts combined with a health insurance plan that gets back to the basics of covering catastrophic losses, but makes you consider whether some non-emergency or cosmetic procedures are worth the price you’d bear.

On the way, we roll through a healthy dose of tort reform, including the adoption of “loser pays”. This should bring down the cost of malpractice insurance; slowly at first but as the need for “defensive medicine” decreases so should the costs involved which would need to be reimbursed in any lawsuit.

As a lot of smart people have learned for generations, though, the road to health care reform ends with a market-based solution. It’s quite amazing what our prosperity hath wrought despite the best efforts of overzealous regulators, hordes of illegal immigrants and freeloaders looking for a scam, and greedy trial lawyers to game the system to their advantage. People still come here from foreign lands across the globe because they know we provide the best health care anywhere.

Let’s not allow that standard to be diminished in the pursuit of so-called equality, because the only equality Obamacare promises is equality in misery.

By the way, the closest host to me here in Salisbury is a man named Brian Bernard (you can find yours here). I hope he reads this and comments, I’d love to hear his side.