The terrific Emily Miller at Human Events caught up with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) who says Republicans are to blame for the tax hike on small businesses which will go into effect on January 1. He does not accept the premise that the Democratic leadership is responsible now to extend the lower tax rates.

Congressman Hoyer tells Ms. Miller:

“If they do go up, they’re going up because of the Republican policy to phase out those taxes this year,”

Of course, blame someone else. If you do a little checking on the facts, this statement by the majority leader is false (to put it bluntly – he lied).

The Bush Tax Cuts were split into two parts, the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, which essentially lowered taxes in most tax brackets, and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 which lowered taxes on investments. In both cases, the law was design to be within the letter of the PAYGO law which was enacted in 1990.

As Wikipedia notes:

One of the most notable characteristics of EGTRRA is that its provisions are designed to sunset, or revert to the provisions that were in effect before it was passed. EGTRRA will sunset on January 1, 2011 unless further legislation is enacted to make its changes permanent. The sunset provision sidesteps the Byrd Rule, a Senate rule that amends the Congressional Budget Act to allow Senators to block a piece of legislation if it purports to significantly increase the federal deficit beyond a ten-year term. The sunset allowed the bill to stay within the letter of the PAYGO law while removing nearly $700 billion from amounts that would have triggered PAYGO sequestration.

As I mentioned, PAYGO was enacted in 1990 as part of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (H.R. 5835). This bill was introduced in Congress by then Congressman Leon Panetta. Congressman Hoyer was one of 217 Democrats who voted for the measure. Do yourself a favor and look up the information yourself.

So who’s to blame for the expiration Congressman Hoyer?

(Cross posted @ LeeHernly.com)

Al Gore, former Vice President, and noted global warming activist, took to the microphone at last weekend’s Jim Moran fundraiser and spoke about Patrick Murray and what Mr. Murray stands for as far as environmental issues. Mr. Gore said Patrick Murray was for “more fossil fuels…more drilling…more carbon pollution.”

This is a lie. But, we shouldn’t be surprised seeing as how Jim Moran lied at last week’s debate in Reston. Mr. Moran also lied at the June kickoff of his re-election campaign where he said his opponent (Mr. Murray) wants ‘to shoot illegal immigrants.’

All one has to do is look on Mr. Murray’s website to find out that is far from the truth (emphasis mine):

ENERGY

“And for the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: In 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East.” — President Barack Obama

I support President Obama’s goal to wean America off of OPEC oil. Unfortunately after two years in office, the Obama Administration has not really done much toward accomplishing this goal, and there are few members of Congress who have any interest in looking beyond how to get themselves reelected. In fact, presidents and Congress have been taking about this for about 30 years (my opponent Jim Moran has been present for 20 of those years. He is very successful when it comes to getting reelected, but he has done nothing to improve America’s energy situation). I want to help this President accomplish this goal, so we need a plan and we need to get busy.

The U.S. uses approximately 21 million barrels of oil per day. Of that amount, 13 million barrels are imported, 5 million barrels of which are from OPEC. Not only is this an unprecedented transference of wealth, it is also a national security issue, as this ends up funding Islamic extremists and renders our energy supply vulnerable to events in the volatile Middle East. To put it slightly differently, we are funding both sides of the war while making us much more vulnerable to events and decisions in the Middle East by hostile regimes such as Iran.
We need a comprehensive national strategy that will accomplish the following:

• Near Term: Eliminate American reliance on OPEC oil and put us on a glide path to energy self-sufficiency. In 2008, our reliance on foreign oil amounted to over $405 billion leaving our pockets for foreign markets. Think of the massive growth in our economy were we to keep that revenue here. While weaning ourselves from foreign oil, we will be creating jobs here at home, reducing the price of gas at the pump and choking off revenue streams the terrorists rely upon to fund their attacks on us. This is a “win-win” situation regardless of which political party you are in.

• Long Term: Empower the private sector to develop large scale renewable energy solutions. As Americans who believe in the power of the free market, we have the ability to accomplish anything we set our minds to. However, if we really do care about future generations of Americans, we need to learn to look beyond the next election cycle when it comes to long-term strategic planning. This is particularly true when it comes to alternate sources of energy. It is in U.S. national interests to pursue multiple sources of energy.
As your Congressman my Energy priorities will be:

• Near Term: Pursue American energy independence from OPEC by maximizing our own oil and gas exploration. Set annual goals of reducing the number of barrels of oil we import, so that by 2018 (President Obama’s stated goal) we no longer will need to import any OPEC oil. One viable way to do this quickly would be to maximize our own domestic exploration and to increase our use of natural gas. The U.S. has vast natural gas reserves, and gas is both cheaper and burns cleaner than oil.

• Long Term: Incentivize the private sector to invest in and develop the technology and infrastructure necessary to maximize our use of wind, solar and nuclear energy. Also, incentivize homeowners and the owners of commercial buildings to upgrade their insulation and other energy saving options. Set national goals of gradually increasing our energy supply from clean sources. For example, in 2008, nuclear power accounted for about 20% of the total net electricity generated in the United States. By contrast, France currently generates over 75% of its energy from nuclear power. We should strive to build an average of two new nuclear power plants every year here in the U.S. Also, we only get about 2% of our energy from solar and wind. We should pursue these renewable sources on a larger scale. As our ability to employ these sources increases we can concurrently reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

Does that sound like someone who’s for “more fossil fuels…more drilling…more carbon pollution?” Frankly, one would think Lowell over at Blue Virginia would do a little research before posting some of the crap he does.

The Other McCain has more information including the origin of the video.

If you are tired of people like Congressman Moran and Al Gore lying to you, support Patrick Murray for Congress so Congress can get something done.

(Video via Blue Virginia)

The mainstream press widely reported that President Barack Obama attended church in Washington on Sunday, Sept. 19, only the third time he has worshiped publicly since taking office.

What got little notice was that immediately following Obama and his family’s attendance at St. John’s Episcopal Church, a pro-Palestinian activist delivered an address at the same church.

After the 9 a.m. service Obama attended, an “Adult Forum” was held at St. John’s, and Ziad Asali, founder and president of the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), took the podium. His message, according to Israel Today, amounted to a demand for Israel “to surrender its biblical heartland for a phony ‘peace.’”

Israel Today pointed out:

“Asali and the ATFP pretend to want a lasting two-state solution to the conflict, but also advocate the demographic destruction of the Jewish state by supporting the demand that Israel open its gates to millions of so-called ‘Palestinian refugees’

[...]

Asali draws moral equivalency between Palestinian terrorism and Israeli counter-terrorism operations.”

The ATFP reportedly calls for the re-admittance of not only the relatively few remaining survivors who were among the 725,000 original Palestinian refugees, but also more than 5 million of their descendants. “The right of return is an integral part of international humanitarian law and cannot be renounced by any parties,” the ATFP has stated.

Israel Today observed:

“Perhaps unsurprisingly, the U.S. mainstream media ignored the fact that a Muslim with a thinly-veiled anti-Israel message was preaching on the day that the Obama family attended church for only the third time in the past year.

“Presidents and their staffs don’t schedule things on a whim, and they don’t show up at the same place as someone like Asali by mere coincidence.”

Lowell at Blue Virginia, and sadly now Joshua at Red Nova both think Jim Moran gave an excellent response to Col. Patrick Murray’s question at the recent Reston debate. The one thing I will agree with both of them is that the question should have been framed better and should not have been a ‘meandering, long-winded question’ as Lowell noted.

It doesn’t change the fact that Moran lied through his teeth when giving the answer.

In his response to the question posed by Col. Murray, the menacing 8th District Congressman Moran responds that:

We left President Bush with a surplus of $5.6 trillion. Bush cut taxes, increased spending on two wars, and there was a $9 trillion fiscal reversal.

This is completely and utterly false. There NEVER was a $5.6 trillion surplus at the end of the Clinton Administration. I posted about this myth at this link.

Now, at the beginning of his remarks, Jim Moran said this:

During the Clinton Administration, I chaired the ‘New Democrat Coalition.’  We put together a Balanced Budget Amendment. We passed it.

Hmmm. Maybe Jim Moran is showing his age?

The New Democrat Coalition was formed in 1997 by Congressmen Cal Dooley (D-CA), Jim Moran (D-VA), and Tim Roemer (D-IN). The last Balanced Budget Amendment to pass the House was in March of 1995. This bill came within one vote of passing in the Senate during the same year. Other bills have been drawn up since but none have ever passed either House.

So there is no possible way Jim Moran’s New Democrat Coalition could have put together a Balanced Budget Amendment that was passed in the House. In other words, Jim Moran lied again tried to rewrite history at the Reston debate. We voters in the 8th district certainly deserve better.

We’ll get to Congresssman Moran’s erroneous claims about ‘pay-go’ in another post later but right now, a few words on what a ‘Balanced Budget Amendment’ really means.

Let’s be honest. I am ALL for paying down the debt because I do not want my two-year old being saddled with debt I let the 535 in Congress get away with. A Balance Budget Amendment is just not the way to go. In fact, if Congress could pass a law to balance the budget, why not pass a law to just erase the Federal debt altogether or one to give every American $25,ooo?

A Balance Budget Amendment does no good without first controlling Government spending and could even bring about tax increases. As we have seen with the news out of England recently about the proposal for the Government to confiscate paychecks, do we really want that? I surely hope not. Lawmakers have historically responded to budget deficits with tax increases rather than spending controls. With a Balance Budget Amendment, we could certainly see tax increases back toward pre-JFK levels.

So don’t be fooled by a lawmaker who proposes such a thing. Do yourself a favor and do your own research on this. And support Patrick Murray for Congress because hasn’t Jim Moran committed ENOUGH fiscal child abuse on your kids? Even $5 will help kick Jim Moran out. Do your kids a favor by supporting Patrick Murray.

I wrote about this exchange just the other night. Now, the Patrick Murray campaign has released a video of the alleged wife-beating Congressman Jim Moran at last week’s debate in Reston which was taped for TV.

As I mentioned before, Congressman Moran after being questioned by Candidate Murray during the debate, repeats (lies about) one of the biggest myths coming out of the Clinton presidency: that the federal debt had been erased, and that we had more than a $5 trillion surplus.

This is completely and utterly false. In other words, Congressman Moran lied. There NEVER was a $5.6 trillion surplus at the end of the Clinton Administration.

The projected surplus Congressman Moran referred to was a 10-year figure that was already made dubious by a weakening economy at the end of the Clinton Presidency and a pent-up Congressional urge to spend. The largest annual surplus actually realized was $236 billion in fiscal year 2000, which ended a month before Bush was elected.

As for the truth, there was at the end of FY 2001, however, about $3.3 trillion in debt held in federal treasuries, and about $5.7 trillion worth of total debt, including that existing in trust funds and other government accounts. Read the data for yourself at this link.

Therefore the claim by Congressman Moran that under Bill Clinton, we had erased the federal debt and had gone on to a surplus were based on long-range projections that were totally inaccurate, and had never been realized.

Why do Democrats like Jim Moran continue to lie about this?

Now, as for his claim about the Balanced Budget amendment and pay-go, these are erroneous claims as well which I’ll get to in a later post.

Do your kids a favor by helping to kick out our current corrupt Congressman Moran by supporting Patrick Murray for Congress. Your kids will thank you. Hasn’t Jim Moran spent ENOUGH of your tax dollars?

(Cross posted at LeeHernly.com)

This holiday season, as President Reagan pointed out, one thing I am thankful for is our freedom and liberty that we enjoy in the USA. We have our troops to thank for that. This holiday season, consider supporting our troops through the Bob Woodruff Foundation’s program ReMIND.

Walmart also has a way you can show your support for our troops. Enter your show of support here on Facebook. Here’s my favorite commercial of the holiday season brought to us by Walmart.

(Cross posted at LeeHernly.com)

The Washington Post reported on a provision in the health reform bill that would give the state of Louisiana – whose Senator, Mary Landrieu, is indecisive on health reform – $300 million.

“The promise of the Obama campaign is to change the way Washington works,” CNN’s John King asks Sen. Sherrod Brown. King argues that this process is “Washington as usual, is it not?”

Brown and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen were tongue-tied as to how to answer the question at first.

King continued, “Is it important enough to buy votes?”

That question seemed to help to get Senator Brown and Senator Shaheen going.

(H/T Breitbart TV)

(Cross posted @ The Alexandria Patriot)

If you’re like me, you’ll be watching a bit of football on Thanksgiving. If you do, you’ll probably see quite a bit of this PSA from the NFL and President Obama (nice throw Drew Brees!) on volunteerism and exercise.

‘The One’ can’t even let us have Thanksgiving without us seeing him on TV. What a narcissist. I wonder if SEIU’s Andy Stern gave his approval for using the kids in the video.

For those that have laughed off the ‘death panel’ (which was actually instituted under the Stimulus bill), health care rationing is here thanks to the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

The task force 6 months ago continued its recommendations that women have mammograms every one to two years starting at age 40. The panel, which changes with every administration, now says that the screening shouldn’t start until age 50 and that a woman at this age only needs a screening once every two years. These recommendations are based on data collected since its last advisory in 2002.

What’s changed? We are getting closer and closer to state-run health care.

If ObamaCare is passed, the government will be paying for a lot more of these exams.  That will put a serious strain on resources and health care dollars. The motivation here for the task force and HHS clearly is to cut costs, not to save lives.

As the Boston Herald stated:

According to that data, routine mammograms for women age 39 to 49 reduce cancer deaths by 15 percent, a figure the task force considers “modest.” Put another way, for every 1,900 women in their 40s who undergo a mammogram, one life will be saved. For women in their 50s that figure jumps to one life saved for every 1,300 screened, and for women in their 60s the figure is one in 377.

So clearly the numbers point to screenings being increasingly significant with age. The task force insists that for 40-somethings the risks of false positives outweigh the benefits. While those “risks” consist largely of anxiety, the benefits of finding that one woman in 1,900 – a young woman, let’s not forget, possibly the mother still of young children – whose life might be saved are very real indeed.

Over on MSNBC, Dr. Nancy Snyderman tried to explain it this way:

“But, you ration what food you eat. You ration how much sleep you get. And this is saying we should question about how we spend our health care dollars.”

As the Boston Herald put it…

Are we really prepared to write off the lives of tens of thousands of women in their prime for whom early detection really is a life-saver?

When I see stories like this, it reminds me how thankful we Virginians should be that we live in a right to work state.

A Boy Scout in pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge toiled for 200+ hours trying to improve a local park. Doesn’t he know that’s a union job?

In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park.

Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city’s largest municipal union.

Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park.

“We’ll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails,” Balzano told the council.

Balzano said Saturday he isn’t targeting Boy Scouts. But given the city’s decision in July to lay off 39 SEIU members, Balzano said “there’s to be no volunteers.” No one except union members may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path.

We can’t have concerned citizens doing their part to improve their community now can we?