Articles tagged as

Congress

GrokTALK! – Congress Passed A Budget?

Greg Moore asks why is it remarkable that congress passed a budget? Is it even more remarkable that what “passes” for a budget might someday be balanced?  We also talk about budget priorities, tax reform, business taxes, and more.    

GrokTALK! With Carly Fiorina

Former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina joins us for a Q&A on Common Core, dealing with bureaucracies, spending and budgets, Congressional responsibility, health Care in the US, and what the GOP can do to win the Presidency.  

April 27th GrokTALK! Guest Segment – NH House Rep Bill O’Brien

This week on GrokTALk! New Hampshire House Republican, and former Speaker of the NH House, Rep Bill O’Brien talks to Skip and Steve about budgets, deficits, dishonest accounting gymnastics, devolving power from Concord and returning it to the towns and the people, and how his exploration of a potential congressional run is going. To download … Read more

Congressional Democrats in DC – Can Congress grant ourselves a waiver from Obamacare – it costs too much!

And I am hoping it is going to cost them dearly – and not just as another deduction from their Federal tax paid payroll checks.  Like many Conservatives, my heart dropped when the Supremes declared it Constitutional – being penalized for simply being an American citizen that breathes if you decide to do “nothing”?  A Collectivists’ wet dream but in my mind, it shattered the Founders’ vision of a limited Government.  However, being a 3,000 page of a bill and now up to 20,000 pages of regulations (with more yet to come) to implement, States refusing to set up their own Exchanges and blowing out their budgets by expanding Medicare, are we starting to see panic as the October implementation date coming up?  And with this, are we seeing the first moments of the political equivalent of “insider trading”?

Or are we seeing the first screaming of those closest to an explosion starting to run to save their hides?

“I have no problems with Congress being under the same guidelines,” Burr told Politico. “I think if this is going to be a disaster — which I think it’s going to be — we ought to enjoy it together with our constituents.”

That would be US Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) over at The Corner and I think that SHOULD be the line that the Republicans should take – but will they cave?  At Politico (2 days ago):

Congressional leaders in both parties are engaged in high-level, confidential talks about exempting lawmakers and Capitol Hill aides from the insurance exchanges they are mandated to join as part of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, sources in both parties said.

…There is concern in some quarters that the provision requiring lawmakers and staffers to join the exchanges, if it isn’t revised, could lead to a “brain drain” on Capitol Hill, as several sources close to the talks put it.

The problem stems from whether members and aides set to enter the exchanges would have their health insurance premiums subsidized by their employer — in this case, the federal government. If not, aides and lawmakers in both parties fear that staffers — especially low-paid junior aides — could be hit with thousands of dollars in new health care costs, prompting them to seek jobs elsewhere. Older, more senior staffers could also retire or jump to the private sector rather than face a big financial penalty.

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When does a President become a dictator?

This from today’s Washington Post: President Obama is considering a series of new executive actions aimed at working around a recalcitrant Congress….One of the first orders is expected this week….The moves underscore Obama’s increasingly aggressive use of executive authority….. Query: Does the U.S. Constitution provide for a President to bypass “a recalcitrant Congress” when it … Read more

Annie McKluster Doesn’t Pay Her Taxes? [Updated & Bumped]

Ann Kuster doesn't pay her property taxes?
Ann Kuster: “Property taxes? What property taxes?”

The New Hampshire Young Republicans (NHYR) want to know why Congress-critter Ann McLane Kuster (I prefer McKluster) is worth an estimated $1.8 million dollars but can’t manage to pay her property taxes?

“While Annie Kuster pushes a message that we all need to chip in a little extra, she has failed to pay her fair share. Yesterday we realized that a tax-and-spend liberal member of Congress is delinquent on her own taxes. Time and again, Uncle Sam’s cup is passed around and we are told to dig a little deeper. When the cup was passed to Annie Kuster, she didn’t chip in.
…
I can understand if she was late on a payment or if there was just a simple oversight, but this is not a one-time mistake. Kuster has been delinquent 6 times for over $40,000 in property taxes owed to the towns of Hopkinton and Jackson. With a reported net worth of $1.8 Million (Center for Responsive Politics) how can she in good faith and with any level of moral authority ask any more of the American people than she does of herself.

This arrived in my in-box, and I don’t have a link or details, so I’m just reporting what I received… but we’ll follow up with more information as it becomes available.

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Data Point – NRA Popularity

I point out that the approval rate of Congress is less than a colonoscopies at (31 – 58%).  The approval rate for Obama is 52% (H/T: Gallup)

Guinta Calls Shea-Porter

Congressman Guinta called Congresswoman-elect Carol Shea-Porter to congratulate her on her win. (From the Guinta Press Release) “I would like to congratulate President Obama, Governor-elect Maggie Hassan, Congresswoman-elect Anne McLane Kuster and Congresswoman-elect Carol Shea-Porter on their victories. “What’s important in these races is the future of New Hampshire. I am committed to continuing my … Read more

Barack Obama, Ben Ghazi, And Warren Women Walk Into a Bar….2.0

It occurs to me that the Obama Administration has a huge problem ahead of it. With Republicans retaining the US House, the various investigations will proceed unhindered.  New ones will begin.  And the idea of asking uncomfortable questions about the scope of Executive power should be brought to the fore. The US House has significant … Read more

Dennis Lamare – Nashua Telegraph Interview

NH CD-2 Republican Primary candidate Dennis Lamare (Challenging incumbent congressman Charlie Bass), was recently interview by the Nashua Telegraph.   Dennis is running as a Constitutional Conservative and in defense of State sovereignty.  He who would act to limit the abuse of congress and vote against anything the US Constitution has not empowered the Congress to … Read more

Really, Judd?

“working” is only goodness when “working” is on the right stuff and achieving the right results inline with proper governance

A few days ago, former US Senator from NH Judd Gregg had an Op-Ed in The Hill (an inside- DC-political-baseball newspaper) was decrying the loss of the “bipartisan centrist” and it included :

…Our politics has for the most part always been played between the forty-yard lines. Unlike a parliamentary form of government where the majority party has all the power, our system is designed to be incremental — and it usually is.

As a consequence, it is almost always necessary to include the minority party in any action that is going to actually lead to governance, especially if the act contemplated affects a significant number of Americans.

This means that if there is no middle ground, nothing happens. Big issues of significant national concern go unaddressed.

I dryly note that this vaunted “centrist moel governance” has resulted, as a result of BOTH Republicans and Democrats, with a mind-blowing $16 trillion dollar debt laid upon our childrens’ children – but only if we last that long as a nation even if it has been just incremental (“just turn that knob on the stove up EVAH so slightly, wouldja?”).  Nice to see that you’re owning up to owning that, due to this middling governance that I hear so lamented lately.

We now have a Federal Government that acts as if every other political entity is entirely subordinate to its decrees even as Congress continues to pass laws to which it exempts itself.  I also note, with much lamentation, that you helped to set the stage for the current brand Executive branch governance that has decided that it no longer has to mind that the Constitution mandates that a Legislative Branch and a Judicial Branch also have roles to play in how that governing happens (as in “We Can’t Wait” and thumbing its nose at judicial decrees that stop it from what it wants to do (e.g., EPA, FCC, NLRB, Interior Dept; the list goes on).  Why should it – the Leviathan is here and has figured out that it has sufficient power and leverage on its own to act as the Progressive end game – The Administrative State.

Yeah, such a great thing, that bipartisanship that has governed seemingly with only lip service to the words of the Constitution (and almost zip with its underlying philosophy) in dealing with a limited government (e.g., Nancy Pelosi’s outburst of “Are you serious?”).    I also note that the Founders did not set out to make a government that only worked from the middle – their intent was to deliberately make it hard to get anything done if an idea was not that substantial or important enough (leaving aside for the moment, those items that are highly urgent but totally stupid which seem to crawl through DC’s Halls of Power on a too frequent basis).

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Really, Judd – Part 2

“I’ll believe it’s a crisis when the people who tell me it’s a crisis start acting like it’s a crisis.“

– Glenn Reynolds, owner of Instapundit, law professor, columnist, author

Sometimes, the posts just write themselves…

Judd Gregg:

This means that if there is no middle ground, nothing happens. Big issues of significant national concern go unaddressed.

Well, this must be one whale of a Big Deal (civility requires that I not quote VP Biden’s words) – unanimous!  Not just the middle but the entire shootin’ match!  The Hill:

The Senate on Wednesday quickly approved legislation that would remove the word “lunatic” everywhere it appears in the federal code.

The Senate approved S. 2367 by unanimous consent, giving the House a chance to act if it wishes, although no House member has introduced a similar bill.

…The word “lunatic” appears in the U.S. Code in Title 1, Chapter 1, which covers rules of construction. Chapter 1 holds that when determining the meaning of any law, “the words ‘insane’ and ‘insane person’ and ‘lunatic’ shall include every idiot, lunatic, insane person, and person non compos mentis.”

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Congressional Stalemate is better than Financial Disaster

Is Congress at a stand-still?  If so, is that good or bad?

Americans elect representatives whose views, they believe, are best for our country and our people.  Since Americans disagree about these things, there will be disagreements, conflicts and even stalemates in Congress.

Our nation’s founders wanted to ensure that extreme legislation, violating their principles, customs, and beliefs, is not imposed on the American people.  So, the founders created a system which typically forces compromise to ensure that legislation is acceptable to most Americans.

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GrokTV Event: Ron Paul – Q11, Q12 & Q13: Policy on Israel, have to use a charity hospital, dealing with both parties in Congress

And the “Press Gaggle” ( aka “press availability” or it can be called “the time when reporters and MSM Press can ask silly questions to show their Editors they are actually doing something to earn their expense accounts / salaries”) – added after the jump!

LAST OF THE QUESTIONS!

Question 11: What is your policy on Israel?

Question 12: Will my sick child have to stand in line at a charity hospital under your administration?

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Pelosi Corruption Scandle Hits 60 Minutes Tonight.

Throw Them All Out, which hits bookshelves nationwide on Tuesday, reportedly contains a powder keg of original investigative information that suggests Pelosi leveraged her insider status to acquire her highly profitable Visa IPO and then used her congressional authority to shield Visa from disadvantageous legislation.

Turner & Amodei Win – Referendum?

You know as well as I that it is only a referendum when a Democrat wins, so the special elections to fill two US House seats, the ones that resulted in two Republican Wins, not a referendum. Dope slap, bitch slap, slam dunk, home run, owned; these are more appropriate descriptions of what happened last night, particularly in the cold blue underbelly of the Big Apple.

Sen. Rand Paul confronts our enemy

She appears in the person of an unctous, self-satisfied, smug, federal government bureaucrat…and she means to control us all:

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