• Harry Reid,  Hugh Hewitt,  Jim DeMint

    Audio: Obama-GOP Tax Deal to be Filibustered by Senator Jim DeMint

    South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint on the Hugh Hewitt Show

    Guess the LEFT is NOT the only ones who do not like the Bush Era Tax Cut Deal between President Obama and the GOP Senate leadership. I don’t know of any other GOP Senator who will not vote for cloture tomorrow but there will be others from the Democrat side for sure.

    DeMint argues:

    Senator JimDeMint just announced on my program that he will oppose the deal as well as a vote for cloture on the deal.  He is reluctant to criticize GOP Senate leadership, but believes the deal at a minimum has to be paid for, and that we need “a permanent economy” not a temporary one as well as permanent tax cuts, not temporary tax cuts.

    Senator DeMint also expressed disappointment with the House GOP’s elevation of Hal Rodgers and Spencer Bachus to key committee chairmanships, noting that the revolution of 1994 failed in part when the old guard took control of committees despite the huge freshman class.

    The machinations of this deal continue, including Harry Reid appending an online poker bill to it.

    But, remember either it passes or taxes will increase for everyone on January 1.

    Stay tuned…….

  • Poker

    Harry Reid Tries to Add Online Poker to Tax Bill

    "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is trying to use the tax cut package President Barack Obama brokered with Republicans to legalize online poker, POLITICO has learned — a move that could further complicate the deal Obama announced Monday.

    Already, the online poker proposal has exposed the Nevada Democrat to charges of flip-flopping on a controversial issue, as well as using his Senate leadership position to repay big casino interests that helped him win reelection in a hard-fought campaign against Republican Sharron Angle last month.

    " Reid, who has previously opposed online gambling, declined to comment Monday through a spokesman.

    But Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), as well as several senior congressional sources and gambling lobbyists, confirmed that Reid and his staff have reached out to other Senate offices to try to build support for adding the online poker legislation — a draft of which POLITICO has obtained — to a measure extending the Bush-era tax cuts.

    So, is this a way Harry Reid will try to kill the Bush Era Tax Cut deal with the GOP and President Obama? Or, just a plain ol’ cynical attempt at pork barrel politics with Reid trying to cram in a special interest favor into a big bill?

    I don’t know but from what I read the online poker bill is a LOSER for American poker players who now play online (which I do) and benefits really only Harrah’s (Caesar’s Entertainment) and MGM – both large Las Vegas Casino mega-corporations.

    Senator John Kyl has already said that this "rider" was not part of the deal with Obama and will try to block it. And, some of the other casinos in Las Vegas and on Indian Tribes are not happy with the bill either.

    House Republicans would probably vote against the Bush Era Tax cut Bill in its entirety if this poker provision is added to the bill. With Far-Left Democrats that might spell the end of the entire tax cut deal.

    Stay tuned as the vote plays out tomorrow. I don’t think this attempt by Harry Reid will make it into the final bill.

    tags: Harry_Reid Poker

    Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

  • Dream Act

    The DREAM Act Comes to a Vote in the U.S. Senate Tomorrow – MELT THE PHONES

    telephoneoperators57762 The DREAM ACT is Coming Up for a Stand Alone Vote in the U.S.Senate   Melt The Phones

    Melt the Phones, Patriots

    I read yesterday that Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was going to file cloture on the DREAM Act this afternoon and schedule it for a vote tomorrow. Apparently this is the case. However, I have not seen a news story indicating Reid has filed the motion as of this writing.

    Most pundits are not giving the DREAM Act much of a chance of passing but you can NEVER take anything for granted. So, call these on the fence Republican Senators tomorrow morning and tell them you do not support illegal alien amnesty which the DREAM Act is.

    Here is the list:

    • SEN. JOHN MCCAIN 202-224-2235; 480-897-6289
    • SEN. OLYMPIA SNOWE 202-224-5344; 207-874-0883
    • SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI 202-224-6665; 907-271-3735
    • SEN. SUSAN COLLINS 202-224-2523; 207-945-0417
    • SEN. SAM BROWNBACK 202-224-6521; 785-233-2503

    At least four GOP Senators will have to cross over and join ALL of the Democrats to vote cloture. However, a number of Democrats have indicated they will not vote for the bill, including Jon Tester of Montana and Ben Nelson of Nebraska – both running for re-election in red states in 2012.

    Hence, a good chance this bill will be filibustered to its death in this session of the Congress.

    But, please call anyway. NO on the DREAM Act.

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  • California

    UCLA report: California Economic Recovery is Still Far Off

    Just not right away.

    That’s the gist of the UCLA Anderson Forecast, one of the most closely watched economic crystal balls in the state. The latest quarterly edition of the forecast, to be released today, says unemployment in California won’t dip below 10 percent until the fourth quarter of 2012.The statewide unemployment rate as of October was 12.4 percent.

    Among the factors holding back stronger economic growth in the near term: the ongoing slump in housing, weakness among overseas trading partners, and the state’s budget deficit.

    UCLA senior economist Jerry Nickelsburg said in an interview Monday that the recovery in California will be led largely by exporters."

    There will have to be a major realignment of pro-business policies from new Democrat Governor Jerry Brown and the Democrat dominated California Legislature in order for business to either remain or relocate to California.

    Taxes are very high and business regulations burdensome. Most importantly real estate prices continue in a highly inflated state and there is little new business employment who can support the mortgages.

    Look for outmigration of business to Arizona and Texas which have more pro-business recruitment policies and conservative state governments.

    tags: California UCLA

    Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

  • Taxes

    Obama Sells Out the LEFT: A Republican Win on Taxes

    "There really is no other way to say it: the Republicans won, the liberal Democrats lost, and the president sided with the Republicans. The subject, of course, is an agreement to extend all the Bust tax cuts. The president tonight announced a "bipartisan framework" for agreement on, among other things, to extend the Bush tax cuts for two years. A Republican House aide tells me tonight it is "a damn good deal." And so it is, from the perspective of conservatives.

    As they’ve been demanding, all of the Bush tax cuts are extended for two years. The estate tax that was due to pop back up to a rate of 55 percent was retained, but with a $5 million exemption and at a rate of 35 percent (better than Republicans privately expected). For that huge concession, the president extracted… a 13 month extension in unemployment benefits.

    Now it’s true that the deal includes a one-year payroll tax cut of 2 percent. Plus other tax credits — the earned income credit, the child tax credit and the newly-created college credit — all remain in place. And businesses will be allowed to expense 100 percent of their purchases for equipment. Liberals and White House spinners will argue that the White House "wanted" many of those tax credits and breaks, but in point of fact the Republicans didn’t mind giving more tax breaks. It sounds better to slide those items into the White House’s column, but really the only concession by the Republicans was on extension of the unemployment benefits."

    Indeed correct that the Republicans have won with this deal.

    However, the real winners are the American people.

    Let’s see how well the Obama Administration sells this "compromise" to his own Democratic Party and if there is a revolt – enough to deny passage in the House.

    tags: Taxes Barack_Obama GOP

    Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

  • California Budget,  Sarah Palin

    Sarah Palin on the “B” Word – BAILOUTS

    Sarah Palin last night posted her latest missive on her Facebook Page – this time about government bailouts. It is particularly interesting since California is facing a continuing budget deficit and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Legislature are at an impasse as to how to solve the chronic budget shortfall.

    Is a bailout in the future?

    Read all of what Sarah Palin has to say:

    Do insolvent states actually believe other states should bail them out?  In June 2009, I was invited to introduce Michael Reagan at an event in Anchorage. In my remarks as Governor of Alaska, I warned against President Obama’s debt-ridden stimulus bill and its effect on all our state budgets. I believed that the bill’s benefits would be limited because government would grow exponentially, and I warned that the package was equivalent to a federal bribe with fat strings attached that created new unfunded mandates for state governments. At the time, most state legislatures, including Alaska’s, chose to ignore that warning. I predicted that states like California would soon be coming to the federal government asking for a bailout.  After I gave that speech, I remember the mocking I received for predicting California and other big government states would continue to spend recklessly and yet expect others to bail them out. The naysayers in the media went a bit wild in their condemnation of my sounding that alarm.

    Well, fast forward to today. We now know that the nearly trillion dollar stimulus package didn’t lead to the job growth promised by President Obama; instead it left already struggling state governments even deeper in debt because now they are on the hook to continue programs and projects that were started by these “free” federal funds. So now, as predicted, folks in Washington and in over-spending state capitols are whispering the dreaded “b-word”: bailouts – for individual states!

    American taxpayers should not be expected to bail out wasteful state governments. Fiscally liberal states spent years running away from the hard decisions that could have put their finances on a more solid footing. Now they expect taxpayers from other states to bail them out, which will allow them to postpone the tough decisions they should have made ages ago and continue spending like there’s no tomorrow. Most Americans would say these states have made their bed and now they’ve got to lie in it. They accepted federal dollars and did not voice opposition to the unfunded federal mandates, and they even re-elected politicians who foisted debt-ridden programs on them that could never be sustained.

    Instead of coming to D.C. cap in hand asking for more “free” money, they should follow the example of their more prudent sister states and take the necessary steps to sort out their own finances. They must start by reforming their insolvent pension systems. Many states have multi-billion dollar unfunded pension liability problems that they have refused to address for many years.  They’ve deferred their spending problems, assuming the problem deferred would be an issue avoided; instead, it’s resulted in a crisis invited.  These states still won’t reform their costly defined benefit systems for fear of offending the powerful public sector unions. Sooner or later, their pension systems will collapse unless they do what states like Alaska did, which is to swap unsustainable defined benefits, which are more like glorified Ponzi schemes, for a more prudent defined contributions system.

    My home state made the switch from defined benefits to a defined contribution system, and as governor, I introduced a number of measures to build on that successful transition, while also addressing the issue of the remaining funding shortfall by prioritizing budgets to wrap our financial arms around this too-long ignored debt problem. When my state ran a surplus because we incentivized businesses, I didn’t spend it on fun and glamorous pet projects for lawmakers – though that would have made me quite popular with the earmark crowd. In fact, I vetoed more excessive spending than any governor in our state’s history, and I used the state’s surplus to bring our financial house in order by paying down our unfunded pension plans that some other governors wanted to ignore. This fiscal prudence didn’t make me popular with the state legislature. In addition to vetoing hundreds of millions of dollars in wasteful spending, I put billions of dollars into savings accounts for future rainy days, much like most American families do in responsibly planning for the future. I also enacted a hiring freeze and brought the education budget under control through a commitment to forward-funding. I returned much of the surplus back to the people (it was their money to start with!) through tax relief and energy rebates. I had proven as the mayor of the fastest growing city in the state that tax cuts incentivize business growth, and though the state legislature overrode some of my veto cuts and thwarted an additional tax relief request of mine, the public was supportive of efforts to rein in its government.

    It’s one thing to veto spending and reduce the size of government when your state is broke. I did it when my state was flush with revenue from a surplus – though I had to fight politicians who wanted to spend like there was no tomorrow. It’s not easy to tell people no and make them act fiscally responsible and cut spending when the money is rolling in and your state is only 50 years shy of being a territory and everyone is yelling at you to spend while the money is there to build. My point is, if I could fight this fight in Alaska at a time of surplus, then other governors can and should be able to do the same at a time when their states are facing bankruptcy and postponing this fight is no longer an option.

    So, let’s not continue to reward irresponsible political behavior. Instead of handing out more federal dollars, let’s give the governors of these debt-ridden states some free advice. Shake off the pressure from public sector unions to cave on this issue. Put up with the full page newspaper attack ads, the hate-filled rhetoric, and the other union strong arm tactics that I, too, had to put up with while fighting those who don’t believe a state needs to live within its means. Stand up to the special interests that are bankrupting your states. You may not be elected Miss Congeniality for fighting to get your fiscal houses in order; but in the long run, the people who hired you to do the right thing will appreciate your prudence and fiscal conservatism.

    As Michael Reagan’s dad once said, “We hear much of special interest groups. Well, our concern must be for a special interest group that has been too long neglected…. ‘We the people’…” The people deserve leaders who will make the tough decisions to secure the future prosperity of their states.

    – Sarah Palin

    With the new Congress about to take office in January and with the House being led by a new Republican majority, I do not think a California bailout is in the cards. There is plenty to cut in the California budget and Jerry Brown, the new Democrat Governor, who also takes office in January will just have to do it. I predict that some of the largess in welfare programs and public employee pensions will be cut fairly easily.

    But, there are also cuts in education and other social welfare programs that will be on the table and those will be harder.

    No help from the federal government will be forthcoming until California can demonstrate its own budgetary discipline – if then.

  • Day By Day,  Julian Assange,  WikiLeaks

    Day By Day December 7, 2010 – Assaults

    Day By Day by Chis Muir

    The CIA and other world wide intelligence services want to stop WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. The leaking of classified American State Department cables has disconcerted many and makes it difficult to conduct frank discussions in the government – a chilling effect in communications.

    But, whose fault is it?

    If it wasn’t Julian Assange and WikiLeaks would it not be someone else?

    Espionage, intelligence and counter-intelligence is a game of sorts and isn’t this revelation just another part? Spies and agents have been stealing cables. secrets, photographs, etc. since early man. Deceit is the game.

    And, the trumped up charges against Julian Assange are just ludicrous. A spy novel could not be written anymore cheesy.

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