From Flopping Aces

No, this is not a joke. Sadly, this is not a piece from the Onion.

President Obama has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

There are some moments in history which are just stunning in their audacity. This is one of them:

OSLO (AP) - President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, citing his outreach to the Muslim world and attempts to curb nuclear proliferation.

The stunning choice made Obama the third sitting U.S. president to win the Nobel Peace Prize and shocked Nobel observers because Obama took office less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline. Obama’s name had been mentioned in speculation before the award but many Nobel watchers believed it was too early to award the president.

Last Friday, he failed to win the 2016 Olympic prize because it was not deserved. This Friday, he succeeded in getting a prize he doesn’t deserve.

This stunning example of O’fellatio is proof of what a joke the Nobel Prizes have become.

Democrats Pushing Another Stimulus Spending Spree

The first one $trillion bill didn’t create many jobs and the second won’t either!

Albert Einstein once said “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Clearly Democrats are insane! There is yet another round of talk (here, here, here) in the Capital of a second stimulus bill. Though you might hear them call it something else as it’s clear they promised too much and delivered too little with the first one.

Obama is suggesting that this second round would “explore additional options to promote job creation.” Yet, what was the first bill about? It was supposed to keep unemployment below 8%. It’s now 9/8%. Obama’s National Economic Director Larry Summers said: “You’ll see the effects begin almost immediately.”

Instead of creating jobs, we saw multiple examples of typical Democrat spending gone mad. There were the grants from the National Endowment for the Arts which used stimulus money to promote pornography in San Francisco. Billions went to states to help shore up budgets without one job being created. The biggest chunks of cash went to areas that voted heavily for Obama.

In state after state, billions in new spending yielded few jobs. In Oregon, where unemployment is over 12% 4,600 stimulus jobs for transportation projects are supposed to be created by the end of the year. One billion in stimulus spending has gone to Oregon thus far with 75% of it being sucked up to pay state expenses.

In New Hampshire, 400 million in stimulus spending by mid July had created only 34 full time jobs. The same is true in Minnesota where $1 billion out of $4.7 billion has been spent but Minnesota can’t even say with certainty how many jobs were created.

Worse than Doing Nothing!

In the face of the thundering criticism that the stimulus was a waste and a political boondoggle Democrats are reduced to the lame and unprovable suggestion that things would have been worse if we had not passed it. However, readers may recall that the Congressional Budget Office, which Democrats loved to hate until the CBO whitewashed the cost of the Senate Finance Committee health bill, warned that passing this spending spree into law was “worse than doing nothing.” Who was right?

Study Shows Countries with Smaller Stimulus Have Better Recovery

Now more than one year after the financial meltdown in September 2008 it’s a good time to compare U.S. recovery efforts to those of our leading economic competitors worldwide. Richard Rahn of the Institute for Global Economic Growth asks the question: “How has the United States fared compared to other nations that had smaller or no stimulus programs?”

One might argue that the stimulus had worked if the results in the United States were better than in other countries that had smaller or no stimulus packages. The recession has been global, and every country has been affected negatively. Only Great Britain attempted to put in a stimulus package that was relatively as large as the U.S. package. A crude measure of economic stimulus is the size of the deficit relative to gross domestic product. During recessions, tax revenues decline in all countries, so most will run a deficit whether they intend to or not. A stimulus package normally contains a mix of government spending increases and tax cuts, resulting in a deliberately larger deficit.

As you can see in the accompanying chart, the United States and Britain have by far and away run the largest deficits as a percentage of GDP (i.e. the most stimulus), yet the U.S. and Britain, along with Italy and Russia, had not bottomed out in second-quarter 2009, while the rest of the 10 largest economies were showing real growth in the second quarter. Russia’s poor performance is largely a function of relying very heavily on the export of raw materials rather than developing a broad-based economy as all the others in the Big 10 have done.

The three countries with the smallest deficits (the least stimulus) - Brazil, China and Germany - have all turned the corner rather quickly and are growing. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has just announced she is going to push tax cuts, which should give the German economy an additional shot in the arm.

While the data set is too small with the top 10 countries (which collectively account for a large majority of the world’s GDP) to draw definitive conclusions, the existing evidence indicates that a big stimulus package seems to delay recovery, while little stimulus leads to a quick return to economic growth.

The only things one can say for sure about stimulus money is that it will add to the deficit, ultimately driving up interest rates and taxes; and much of it will be wasted and/or stolen, neither of which benefits the unemployed. By any objective measure, the stimulus program has been and will continue to be a failure - but don’t expect the Washington politicos ever to admit it.

House Republicans have written to President Obama offering a series of well thought out ideas that would help make any new legislation truly a bipartisan effort. Since Obama hasn’t listened to them up to now and since Nancy Pelosi won’t even let them in the room when negotiations are underway I don’t expect Dems will embrace these common sense alternatives:

• Allow small businesses to take a tax deduction equal to 20 percent of their income. This will immediately free up funds for small businesses to retain and hire new employees.

• Let small businesses join together to purchase health insurance for their workers the way large businesses and labor unions do.

• Enact genuine legal reform and policies that incentivize wellness to reduce health care costs for small businesses.

• Lower taxes for all taxpayers by reducing the current 15 percent rate to 10 percent and reducing the current 10 percent rate to 5 percent. This will provide an immediate increase in income to every taxpaying family in America and free up capital to help small businesses hire more workers.

• Expand health savings accounts (HSAs) to provide additional flexibility to small businesses in providing health care to their employees.

• Increase the net operating loss carry back from 2 to 5 years to provide struggling employers with additional resources to keep their doors open.

The forecast: Hold onto your hats. More waste, fraud and silly spending is on the way! The only jobs that will be created are for more bureaucrats to pass the money around to Obama’s friends.

also:

Health Care plans for back door passage - agenda usurps transparency

I’ve spoken often about “puzzle pieces” on a variety of political subjects in my posts. Rarely can we, Joe Q Public, see one news event and piece it into the entire puzzle until someone assembles all the pieces in one place.

Thus is the case with the plot for usurping traditional input from the public, and passing a bill reforming remaking America’s health care system… with very little cost savings measures included.

Yesterday, the puzzle piece assembler happened to be Brian Darling, posting at Heritage Foundation’s blog, The Foundry. Yes yes, many of you will say… the *conservative* Heritage Foundation?? Lest you embarrass yourself resorting to the typical “attack the messenger” defense, you’ll find that Mr. Darling’s facts and events have been confirmed by many a traditional and prominent liberal leaning media, as well as Congressional events. However, as the MSM constantly demonstrates, they are math challenged and - in this case - they have failed to put two and two together.

Allow me to ’splain…

My first heads up came with a morning Senate Brief email update from McConnell’s office, discussing the Baucus bill, with the following comments that piqued my curiousity…

First, as Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell pointed out this morning, the bill “has as its foundation a trillion dollars in spending, half a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicare, higher premiums, higher taxes on just about everyone at a time of near double-digit unemployment, and limits on the health care choices that millions of Americans now enjoy.” As for the CBO score, Sen. McConnell said, “It’s irrelevant. The bill it’s referring to will never see the light of day.” He explained why last night: “This partisan Finance Committee proposal will never see the Senate floor since the real bill will be written by Democrat leaders in a closed-to-the-public conference room somewhere in the Capitol.”

~~~

So Democrats are starting with two flawed pieces of legislation and will then be stitching them together behind closed doors. As Sen. McConnell put it, “the real bill will soon be cobbled together in a secret conference room somewhere in the Capitol by a handful of Democrat senators and White House officials.” And that’s why the CBO score that Democrats are so proud of today is much less consequential than they would have Americans believe.

Hummm… what two flawed pieces of legislation will be stitched together, and how does it slide past the US taxpayer in the dark of night? By playing games with Congressional rules, of course. Now to Brian Darling’s summary of the four part Congressional Act designed to hoodwink the US taxpayer, using loophole rules.

Note: Each “STEP” title is a link itself… expand your horizons and click on them!

STEP ONE

“The Senate Finance Committee will finish work on the marking up of Senator Max Baucus’ (D-MT) conceptual framework for legislation by this Friday.” Progress on this had been stalled and the bill was not passed by the end of last week. Foxnews.com is reporting that the Congressional Budget Office score of the bill will be released later today and a high score may further stall progress on the Committee’s Vapor Bill. Senate Finance Committee’s progress on passing something out of committee – INCOMPLETE.

Since “later today” has passed, and we now have a figure estimated at $829 bil, the game playing moves on with Dems ecstatic at having a figure under a trillion to dangle before the nation’s eyes. Aside from the fact that we’ve become so immune to the billion-trillion nuances, this figure helps advance the progress of Step One.

But remember what McConnell said above about the CBO math being irrelevant because that bill - in it’s current form - will never see the light of day. Which brings us to….

STEP TWO

Next, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will take the final product of the Senate Finance Committee and merge it with the product of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee. CNSnews.com has confirmed that “the actual final text of the legislation will be determined by Reid himself, who will consolidate the legislation approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee [HELP] and the still-unapproved legislation from the Senate Finance Committee [Baucus]. Reid will be able to draft and insert textual language that was not expressly approved by either committee.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will write the final version of Obamacare to be considered in the Senate with no input from the American people.

This is an extremely complex procedure that will not be done in public, or in the form of a hearing, or a public conference committee, and only Senator Harry Reid, some other Senators chosen by Reid and Obama Administration officials will be allowed to read the bill before the Senate debate starts. Merger of the bills – IN PROGRESS.

Starting to understand the puzzle pieces, and why the Dem’s are adamant that the public doesn’t get to read the bill? It’s because any mandate that the public be allowed to view throws a monkey wrench into their carefully plotted four act Congressional stage play to merge the bills at last minute and get that turkey to the POTUS table by Thanksgiving.

Allow me to jog your memory on the HELP proposal passing the Senate Committee. I posted on this July 15th when the nation and the media were all fired consumed with the Sotomayor debate. There was a specific reason for my title to that post… “While the nation was busy with Sotomayor…. health care destruction advancing under cover of media darkness”.

The Senate Committee appeared to be addressing the House proposal - HR 3200 - introduced by Michigan’s John Dingell (D) and his eight Dem crony co-sponsors including Rangel and Waxman. The Times description suits HR 3200 to a tee.

What seems less clear is how and why the Senate was entertaining a House bill that had not been voted on by the body. And I have been unable to locate a sister bill in the Senate chamber that echos the same mandates. Any of you stellar readers out there are free to dig up what I’m missing if there is such a Senate bill for related legislation. Otherwise, it strikes me that the Senate appears to be usurping the usual path by having House bills voted on by that chamber before advancing it to their own committees for consideration… bizarre.

Just for a bit of procedure, Committees, much like “mini-Congresses”, generally advance or kill legislation by reporting favorably or unfavorably. In the case of HR 3200, it has thus far passed thru the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee… both of which revised the bill text. We do not have access to that revised text as committee proceedings are notoriously opaque, varying in what information they make public. Additionally, they often do not provide basic public information such as the results of votes electronically or in an understandable format. Furthermore, if you do not have a representative that sits on that committee, you have no input via elected official, and therefore no opportunity to voice an opinion.

Are the shenigans becoming more clear?

The HELP proposal, as summarized by the WA Times article I linked in that post, creates a mandate for citizens to purchase insurance, and employers to contribute to that cost. Make note… any Baucus bill that combines with this committee passed proposal doesn’t need a mandate. It’s already there.

The mandate for every American to purchase insurance is, of course, an insurance company’s demand because - quite simply - with the advancing boomers apt to increase claims risks exponentially, they need the younger, healthier Americans to foot the bill.

Now, with an “acceptable” under trillion price tag, the Baucus bill can advance.. making Step One “complete”, and advancing the Step Two “In Progress” to a “complete”. Once that happens, Sen. Reid can proceed with the opaque “merge” process of the bills. As New York Times reported on Sept 27th, Reid’s plans are specifically to marry the Baucus bill with the HELP proposal, … leaning heavily on President Obama to arbitrate a number of contentious issues that still threaten to divide liberal and centrist Democrats and derail a final bill.

Mr. Reid’s challenge is to stitch together legislation that can win 60 votes to stop a Republican filibuster. It must satisfy liberals demanding more generous subsidies and safety-net provisions for the middle class, without alienating centrist budget hawks or Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, the only Republican who has indicated she might back the bill.

Democrats now control 60 seats in the Senate, with the appointment last week of Paul G. Kirk Jr. of Massachusetts as the interim successor to Edward M. Kennedy, who died in August. But the party is far from united on the health care issue, even though Mr. Obama has declared it his top domestic priority and has expended enormous political capital on getting a bill passed.

Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota, said the task of merging the two bills would be “very challenging.” Democrats are also mindful of the disaster that befell them in 1994 after the majority leader, George J. Mitchell of Maine, failed to pull together competing health care proposals.

All of this is accurately predicted, and substantiated in Mr. Darling’s Step Two above… which then brings us to:

STEP THREE

Senator Reid will then move to proceed to H.R. 1586, a bill to impose a tax on bonuses received by certain TARP recipients. A senior aid to Senate Majority Leader Ried has confirmed that he will move to proceed to Senate Calendar Number 36, H.R. 1586, or another House passed tax measure, so the Senate can avoid the Constitutional mandate that tax bills originate in the House. Proceed to tax shell of a bill – CONFIRMED.

HR 1586 is a Charlie Rangel sponsored bill that passed the House 328 to 93, with 10 present/not voting (See vote details here) In that vote, 85 GOP representatives unwittingly contributed to the Congressional back room scam.

HR 1586 imposes a 90% tax rate on bonuses received by any individual who earned them via any business entityreceiving $5 billion or more of TARP bailout funds. Lest ye believe this only affects those evil CEOs, it applies to any individual with a regular pay or adjusted gross income over 250,000 dollars for an individual filer, or income over 125,000 dollars. Woof….

To “be perfectly clear”, as the POTUS loves to say, HR 1586 is the shell to which the tax heavy health care bill will be attached as a rider in order to usurp Constitutional law that tax appropriations *must* originate in the House. It is to be the vehicle to which Obama’care, designed by the Senate in the back rooms with the chosen few and the WH, can hitch a legitimate ride to the Oval Office desk.

Utilizing such tactics for such a game changing piece of legislation, not to mention the economic repercussions, is ensuring the nation’s taxpayers are being taken for a ride too

Step Four is also complete… insure a supermajority by replacing the vacated Kennedy seat with a friendly and pliable Democrat.

STEP FOUR

This scenario would most likely be implemented after the Massachusetts state legislature gives Governor Deval Patrick the power to appoint a new Senator and that Senator is seated by the Senate. The Senate swore in new Massachusetts Senator Paul Kirk on September 25th. Change Law of Massachusetts to allow for interim Senator – COMPLETE.

One now sees why Obama felt quite comfortable “meddling” in MA state law…. their very back door scam depended on that seat being filled.

The final nail in the coffin… which appears to be only a hair shy of being sealed… is to hand the legislation back to the House, who initiates a vote without a single change and advancing it to the desk of the POTUS for signature. CNS confirmed this to be in the works.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) won’t rule out having the House vote on the Senate health-care bill without making any changes in it, which would allow the bill to go directly to President Barack Obama without having to pass through a House-Senate conference committee and another round of votes in the House and Senate–and a longer period of public scrutiny of what the text of the proposed law actually says.

“I won’t rule it out or in because I don’t know what the package is,” Hoyer told CNSNews.com on Tuesday.

“However, content will be critical in what action the House takes,” he added a moment later.

This would, of course, be the same Steny Hoyer who defended the reconciliation process as “… doing what Democracy calls for” during a Sept 1st townhall meeting in Waldorf, MD.

Going back to the first CNS story quoted INRE the House scam:

Under the proposal, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would offer the Senate’s version of health reform as an amendment to a House-passed bill, H.R. 1586, which levies a 90-percent tax on bonuses received this year by employees of financial institutions that took at least $5 billion in government bailout money. Reid’s amendment would strip out the substance of H.R. 1586 as passed by the House and replace it with the entirety of the Senate health care bill.

As a senior aide to Reid explained to CNSNews.com, this would be done because the Constitution only allows the House to initiate revenue bills, and since the Senate health care bill contains revenue provisions it technically cannot be initiated in the Senate. By being amended into the “shell” of H.R. 1586, which is a House-initiated revenue bill, the Senate health care bill would technically become a House bill.

If Reid can muster enough votes (60) to overcome a filibuster of this maneuver and filibusters of any amendments subsequently made to the bill, Senate Democrats could pass their health care bill and send it back to the House, where it nominally originated. (See related story here)

The only prediction above I may disagree with is the “stripping out” of the 90% tax hike. I’m not so sure the Dems will let go of that revenue (designed to punish), and may just pass on all of it, in it’s entirety, to the Executive Branch to sign.

So for those of you who have believed this remaking of health care could be avoided, you might want to be aware that… at this point… the only thing standing between passage and reconciliation is blue dog Democrats. So if you’ve got a betting pool going, you may want to start considering the back door approach, well on it’s way to success, when placing your bet and assessing the odds. It ain’t lookin’ good…

Once again, the “transparent” Pelosi House and the “transparent” POTUS has tossed public engagement under the bus with so many in order to advance an agenda….

Legal via Congressional rules? Yes. Moral? Not in the America I was raised.