Business, Economics, Political Commentary

Just In Case The House Dems Are Stupid Enough To Believe Harry Reid…

36 Comments

The Senate Republicans have the votes to prevent “fixes” via reconciliation.

What’s important for people to understand (including the wavering House Democrats) is that once the Senate bill passes the House, Obama can simply sign it, and the war is over. They have no incentive to keep their promises. Or at least not enough to do so. And even if they want to, as noted above, they won’t be able to. So it has to be stopped now.

[Update a few minutes later]

For those who comment without following the link (far too many), let me provide a couple quotes to make it clear:

“There are a lot of things they want to see fixed that are going to be subject to parliamentary point of order in the Senate,” Kyl said during an interview on Fox News. “And we believe we have the votes to sustain those points of order, which means that those things will come out of the legislation.”

“…It is a very risky proposition for those Democrats in the House who are nervous about their reelection, and are banking on the Senate banking [sic — I assume he means “bailing” — rs] them out,” he said. “It’s probably not going to happen.”

That’s the way I’d bet. But maybe they think that “transforming America” is more important than keeping their seats. I hope not.

[Thursday morning update]

Michael Barone says that the Dems have put themselves in a no-win situation. Well, since their victory is the Republic’s defeat, good.

It’s beginning to look like the goal of health-care legislation was a bridge too far. There’s a reason it’s hard to pass unpopular legislation on party-line votes. It’s not the Senate rules. It’s called democracy.

Unfortunately, the misnamed Democrats don’t appear to believe in that.

Business, Economics, Political Commentary

The Coming Fiscal Disaster

48 Comments

The latest CBO report:

According to CBO, the Obama budget plan would run up much larger budget deficits and pile up even more debt than the administration reported in February.

Over the period 2010 to 2020, CBO expects the Obama budget would run a cumulative deficit of $11.3 trillion — $1.2 trillion more than the administration predicted. By 2020, total federal debt would reach an astonishing $20.3 trillion — up from $5.8 trillion at the end of 2008.

The president likes to say he inherited a mess. He did in fact enter office during a deep recession that sent deficits soaring on a temporary basis. But his policies have unquestionably made an already difficult medium- and long-term budget outlook much, much worse. The problem is that President Obama is a world-class spender. He wants to pile massive new commitments on top of a bloated and unreformed government. He is willing to raise taxes to pay for some of his wish list, but far from all of it. For the rest, he plans to run up the nation’s debt with reckless abandon.

Fortunately, the people are finally on to him.

[Mid-morning update]

More from Veronique de Rugy. Look at the graph.

Political Commentary

The “L-Word”

12 Comments

Matt Welch, with thoughts on the president’s ongoing estranged (if he ever had a serious one) relationship with the truth.

When Carney confronted a White House spokeswoman with the falsehood, she conceded nothing. “As the President said,” she wrote, “we have turned away lobbyists for many, many positions.” Just not all of them.

As such defiance suggests, this was no isolated slip of the tongue. The president, who promised in both word and style to usher in a “new era” of Washington “responsibility,” routinely says things that aren’t true and supports initiatives that break campaign promises. When called on it, he mostly keeps digging. And when obliged to explain why American voters are turning so sharply away from his party and his policies, Obama pins the blame not on his own deviations from verity but on his failure to “explain” things “more clearly to the American people.”

What is amazing is not that his approval ratings are so low, but that so many remain enthralled with such a huckster and charlatan.

Space

And It’s Lit

22 Comments

I just got a text from FL Today that SpaceX has started the Falcon 9 hot fire test. Here’s hoping all goes well.

[Update a couple minutes later]

I guess that text was way late. Here are some comments over at Clark Lindsey’s place. Sounds like it may not have gone as planned.

Humor, Political Commentary, Satire

We Few, We Unhappy Few

3 Comments

We band of brothers:

This day is call’d the feast of Reconciliation.
He that votes aye this day, and comes home
To face the slings and arrows and pitchforks of the town-hall mob,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,
And rouse him at the name of Reconciliation.
He shall have returned to DC on this day, and have the last laugh,
And a seven-figure sinecure on K Street.
In his stately paneled office with Potomac view
He will yearly on the vigil feast his lobbying-staff,
And say ‘To-morrow is Health Care Day.’
A PowerPoint graph of his Gallups he will show,
And say ‘These wounds I had on Reconciliation day.’

The Battle of Agincourt it ain’t.

History, Political Commentary

Twenty Years After The Fall

3 Comments

..of the tyrant. Michael Totten has an interesting photoessay of a visit to Romania.

I’ve always wondered what democrats who grew up in communist countries thought of communists who grew up in democratic countries. Hardly anyone in the West ever voted with their feet, so to speak, by moving to a communist country, but communist dictatorships created millions of refugees who fled their homelands for Western democracies. East Germans were willing to risk being shot to make a run over the wall, Cubans are still willing to risk drowning to reach Florida, yet once in a while I still meet Westerners who have a warm spot in their hearts for regimes like Castro’s.

“What do you think,” I asked her, “of people in the West who think communism is a good idea but haven’t actually experienced it? There are quite a few people who admire the system in Cuba. You know the types I mean. The people who wear Che Guevara t-shirts.”

“Ah, yes,” she said. “They are ridiculous. But somehow I can understand them. Let’s take the example of France. In France they were all socialists when they were young. Sartre was a close friend of Castro’s. Gerard Depardieu was a close friend of Castro’s. They believed in this ideal, but after they saw what Stalin did they couldn’t look to the Soviet Union. So they turned their hopes to Cuba. Then they saw what Castro did. The only one who still seemed to live up to the ideal was Che Guevara. So they turned to Che Guevara. I understand them. They were wrong their entire lives, and it is difficult to admit this.”

And they are wrong still.

Hit his tip jar.

Political Commentary

The Time For Talk

14 Comments

…is over. Heh:

…nothing more effectively communicates that “the time for talk is over” than spending your week traveling to Pennsylvania and Missouri and giving speeches about your health-care plan.

Apparently the White House has never learned about the definition of insanity — to keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting to get different results. The Obama team always seems to think that the solution is more cowbellObama.

Business, Political Commentary, Space

The Latest Lurio Report

1 Comment

…is out. Clark Lindsey has a summary of it. If you’re a subscriber (and if you’re not, you should be) you can read it here.

Charles seems quite encouraged by recent events. I’m a little less sanguine, because I’ve seen too many times how Washington can really screw things up, even when the people attempting to execute a good policy are acting in good faith.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!