Category Archives: Political Commentary

Business, Economics, Political Commentary

More Unconstitutionality

6 Comments

…in ObamaCare:

Today former Congressman Ernest Istook testified before the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee about the $105 billion slush fund in advance appropriations liberals tucked inside Obamacare. The $105 billion bypasses the traditional yearly budgeting process and is spread throughout the 2,700 page legislation. It took the Congressional Research Service (CRS) seven months to identify all the disparate funds and it was not until February (11 months after the bill passed) that all of the funds could be totaled up.

Well, Queen Nancy told us we’d have to pass the bill to find out what was in it. This one only took a little less than a year.

It looks kind of unseverable to me, too.

I’d add that anyone who knew about this and voted for it is either ignorant of the Constitution, or indifferent to it, or both. I’d bet on both in most cases, but if the latter, it’s a violation of their oath of office.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Programs To Cut

22 Comments

How about Head Start?

I know that discussing the elimination of a government program is heresy, and that all government programs once initiated become sacrosanct, and the only permissible discussion about them is the budget level, but I just find it amazing that, given our fiscal straits, we aren’t having a serious discussion about a) what should the federal government be doing, b) even if the goals of the program are constitutionally legit, is it doing them in the most cost-effective way possible? We should be talking about eliminating programs entirely, and not just arguing about how much money we should be wasting on them. Planned Parenthood and CPB/NPR are obvious examples, particularly given the results of recent stings, but even those run by people who are well intentioned, and not duplicitous, should on the block as well, if they’re not federal responsibilities, or if they are not effective. When our monthly deficit is larger than any of George Bush’s annual ones, it’s time to get serious.

By the way, this principle would apply to NASA as well. Certainly SLS/Orion are prime candidates for elimination, and the only thing keeping them alive is their constituencies for the pork.

[Update a few minutes later]

The Democrats’ dull budget scissors.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Dispatch From The Bizarro World

12 Comments

…of Democrats:

Thanks to this bill — which doesn’t touch any of the civil service protections afforded public workers, nor any private-sector unions — public sector workers will have a choice over whether to join a union. Thanks to this bill, public workers who elect not to join a union won’t be forced to pay dues anyway. Thanks to this bill, elected officials won’t be negotiating away taxpayer dollars with the people who finance their campaigns. So, naturally, the Democrats call it the the undoing of fifty years of “civil rights.”

Naturally.