| | USATODAY.com reports that states in trouble are likely to withhold state income tax refunds for months while they struggle with record deficits, etc. California and New York are mentioned in the article along with several others. We suspect this problem will become more widespread, especially if Congress manages to cram its health care bill through. The bill contains a number of unfunded mandates for states, which will make their cash crunch even worse. States cannot print money to cover their debts, as the Federal government can, nor can they really be sued for money owed. What WILL happen, however, is that states will become increasingly unable to borrow money, and more government and contracted services will end as vendors refuse to do business with states. Indiana is actually in better shape than many states, with employment rising about 5% in the last month or so, and this is largely because the state as actually kept its taxes LOW, which makes it easier to do business here. Unfortunately, unfunded mandates passed by the federales essentially amount to a tax increase, because state and local governments have to do SOMEthing to cover the costs. When will Washington learn? Maybe never, but that’s what elections are for.  Louise Slaughter, D. NY As outrageous as the Democrats’ behavior has been in trying to cram healthcare through to passage, we still had to say, “Hey, wait a minute” when reports of the so-called “Slaughter Solution” cropped up on talk shows today. I mean, would they really do this? The Slaughter Solution is named for New York Democrat Louise Slaughter, who is also the House Rules Chairperson. Basically, according to the National Journal’s Congress Daily, as quoted in the Washington Examiner: Slaughter is weighing preparing a rule that would consider the Senate bill passed once the House approves a corrections bill that would make changes to the Senate version (emphasis ours).
Basically, the House would “deem” that they passed the Senate’s version, even though they haven’t. The House would vote on the rule but not the bill itself. This way, House members can make corrections to the bill before the pass it, which they won’t ever actually do. This sort of goofy logic would be laughable (like so many Democrat shenanigans) if it weren’t being seriously put forward. Radio talker (and constitutional scholar) Mark Levin is both outraged at the notion and terrified of the consequences, calling for the expulsion of Ms. Slaughter at the very least, because she should know better — and if she doesn’t, she’s incompetent to hold her position. The Slaughter Solution essentially opens the way for Congress to create laws without passing them. By fiat. By manipulation alone. But not by a vote. Our guess (and hope) is that this maneuver won’t happen. As of this afternoon it hadn’t been presented to the House leadership (and maybe, just maybe, it was floated as a trial balloon just to test reaction). But the fact that it has been considered by anyone in Congress is chilling. Ms. Slaughter should not be in Congress at all, much less making rules that relieve members of the responsibility of voting. But this is the mentality that runs our government at the moment. As usual, the major news media are largely silent on this proposed violation of the constitution that protects them.  Sam Adams -- Brewer with a brain Checked out a new (to me) website today — Political Mommentary — written by a conservative mom in Missouri. She offers this quote from Sam Adams. If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains set lightly upon you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. – Samuel Adams
This one seems quite appropriate at a time when our government is offering so-called security in exchange for our freedom. This masquerade has been over since 1776, boys. Time for the progressives to leave the dance.  Obama According to The Weekly Standard, President Obama has appointed Scott M. Matheson to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. This wouldn’t be notable if it were not for the fact that Mr. Matheson’s brother, Congressman Jim Matheson of Utah were one those whose “yes” vote on healthcare is one Obama badly needs. It appears the fix may be in on the healthcare bill. That the Democrats are apparently willing to buy any vote, subvert any rule and break any arm to get this destructive bill passed would be breathtaking if it were not so routine. There are some possible routes to defeat, but the fact is, the Democrats have abandoned any semblance of honesty in their quest to turn the US into a welfare state. Sure, Obama pulled the special deals for Nebraska and Florida out of the current bill, but has now apparently replaced them with political payoffs that are simply outright bribery. We cannot expect a President this dishonest to remove “waste, fraud and abuse” from the health care programs when is personally responsible for so much fraud and abuse of power himself.  George Soros, uber-creep According to this report in the Orlando Sentinel,
billionaire George Soros doesn’t feel like he got his money’s worth in supporting Barack Obama. That this international control freak, who is not even a US citizen, should financially support a presidential candidate, is bad enough. But that the issue of his “satisfaction” should be the subject of news interview is ludicrous, and very revealing. Zakaria on his “Fareed Zakaria GPS” this morning also noted that Soros was one of Barack Obama’s biggest supporters. Zakaria asked, “Are you satisfied with the job Barack Obama has done?” Soros said he wasn’t. Soros wanted the banks nationalized, but added that Obama “made the political decision that that is un-American, will not be accepted.”
Why is Zakaria asking this? Why does CNN give Soros any kind of attention, much less an audience? Soros makes money speculating on currencies, and can make money when whole countries’ economies collapse, so nationalizing our banks and going for socialized medicine would certainly have been good business for him. Most important to us, however, is that Zakaria even thought to ask about Soros’ satisfaction. Why should this be important? Why is this news? CNN’s approach should be more investigative, trying to figure out what this creep is up to, rather than tossing him softballs about how happy he is with OUR president (not his.) Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid commented, not atypically, “”Men, when they’re out of work, tend to become abusive. Our domestic crisis shelters in Nevada are jammed.” Reid made the comment on the Senate Floor yesterday, presumably shilling for the jobs bill, which is now also an anti-spousal-abuse bill, apparently. It never ceases to amaze us how many ways politicians come up with to justify legislation, but this is weirder than most. Reid is one of the more devious politicians in the congress, to our way of thinking, but increasingly, he seems to have a screw loose somewhere. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s got a rough re-election campaign coming up? Nah. Reid seems typical of polticians who, in the course of testing just how gullible the constituents are, oversteps. He thought this might sell, so he said it. Because he thought we were dumb enough to swallow it. Wrong this time, anyway, Harry. Full reference here  Elco Theater from High Street Since we’re downtown fairly frequently, it’s interesting to see the slow but sure progress being made on the Elco Theater, which, once refurbished, will be renamed the Lerner Theater (its original name). A lot of the work on the Elco is being done inside where it can’t be seen, so the biggest attention getter is the construction of the adjacent building which will accomodate meeting/ballroom among other things. The construction requires blocking off Franklin East of Main for a couple blocks, which makes it slightly problematic for access and parking at the IUSB Elkhart Center right next door. But it’s not too bad. The UN is apologizing for recent errors in its report on the disappearance of Himalayan Glaciers, and admitted there may be further errors. I’m more prone to buy a gas guzzler today than ever before. |
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