|
Morning Briefing
For December 11, 2013
1. BOHICA Act of 2013
I am old enough to remember when the GOP said
not to worry about it caving on Obamacare funding because, by God, it
would hold the line on sequestration.
Hell, that was a month ago.
Amazing how much can change in a month.
Congressman Paul Ryan and Senator Patty Murray have decided to give up
the last thing the GOP was fighting for — spending restraint. “Don’t
worry,” Paul Ryan says with his boyish charm designed to induce sweats
and heart palpitations among conservatives, “it’s only a little less
restrained.”
The budget deal puts discretionary spending
over $1 trillion, which is higher than the sequestration deal of 2011,
which was at $967. This is, in fact, a spending increase.
It funds Obamacare.
It does not impact the national debt. It does not reform entitlements.
And it raises taxes, but with the more
acceptable euphemism of "user fees", i.e. it only raises taxes on people
who go through airport TSA checkpoints. For those of you who dispute this, let me put it this way, has the cost of the TSA grabbing our junk gone up? Will the TSA will be able to grab more junk per hour with the added revenue?
By the way, if this money is going to the
TSA, I hope they'll kindly be slightly more honest and refer to "abuser
fees" instead of "user fees" if they aren't going to honest and call
this a tax increase.
So
it raises spending, it raises taxes … errr … “user fees”, and it funds
Obamacare. It’s the budgetary equivalent of being only a little big
pregnant. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
2. “Thank You, Paul Ryan, Sir!”
In
the wake of the shutdown, there is every evidence that the congressional
leadership has renewed its commitment to rolling over conservative
lawmakers, in order to gain favor in the “puppet press.” And there is
some evidence that demoralized conservatives are willing to let this
happen.
But understand these three things . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
3. A Washington Budget Deal: Republican Style
Yesterday, Democrats utilized the nuclear option for the first time. They pushed through the nomination of Mel Watt to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). Now, one of the biggest supporters of affordable housing mandates will guard the hen house at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Additionally,
Democrats pushed through the nomination of two more liberal judges to
serve on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the second most important
court in the country.
Instead
of responding by shutting down all bipartisan deals on outstanding
legislation (which are still subject to a filibuster), Rep. Paul Ryan,
without any protest from leadership, handed Democrats the biggest
legislative victory in months. Let’s examine the ramifications of the deal . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
4. McConnell Hosts Fundraiser for North Carolina’s Charlie Crist at Home of Fannie Mae Lobbyist
Senator Mitch McConnell has been awfully quiet lately. After
making it clear in October that he would never again fight Obamacare in
the budget or a debt ceiling increase, he has fallen off the face of
the earth. Harry
Reid pulled the nuclear option in the Senate, yet McConnell has not
threatened to hold up the deals on the farm bill or new budget
conference. In fact, he hasn’t commented on them at all. He hasn’t even commented on Obama’s Iran capitulation, an issue in which he presumably shares our views.
So what is Mitch McConnell doing as the most powerful Republican in Washington? . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
5. State Rep. Amy Stephens (R, Colorado) needs to run the state assembly primary gauntlet. #obamacare
Amy
Stephens is a Colorado state legislator who is running for the 2014
Republican nomination. As that link shows, there is at least one serious
issue with her as a candidate: Rep. Stephens sponsored and helped get
passed a bill that set up Colorado’s currently-malfunctioning state
Obamacare exchange. As I noted earlier today on RedState, the site is
under-performing even the most pessimistic expectations of it; and with
end of year deadlines looming, betting that a Democratic-controlled
state could handle Obamacare any better than the federal government can
is starting to look like a very, very poor call on Rep. Stephens’ part. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
6. The pathology of dissent
A
few weeks ago, I went to see “12 Years a Slave,” a movie retelling the
harrowing experience of Solomon Northup, a free man from the North
kidnapped and sold into slavery for the agonizing twelve years
referenced in the title. I
found it a somewhat difficult film to review, in the same way that some
very effective horror movies are tough to review: is anyone going to
truly enjoy the experience of watching it, and are they really meant to? The
craftsmanship and acting in the film are excellent, particularly
Chiwetel Elijofor, who provides the only truly uplifting moments in a
relentless dirge of horror by delivering some memorable speeches about
his refusal to submit to despair. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
|
No comments:
Post a Comment