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1. Dear House Republicans, This is Your “Time For Choosing”
2. It Is As I Feared
3. The American People Are Fast Becoming More Furious
4. Palin.
5. The Amazon Tax fight isn’t over in California
6. The EPA Must Be Stopped, and I’m Not Talking About Light Bulbs
7. The Horserace
1. Dear House Republicans, This is Your “Time For Choosing”
In the election of 2010, voters sent you to Washington to do two things: (1) End Obamacare and (2) pull us back from the brink of financial ruin.
You have failed at the first task. Obamacare remains. You never even seriously attempted to restrain its funding or implementation. Heck, you haven’t even saved the incandescent lightbulb.
Will you now fail at the second task too?
If you cave, fold, or compromise on the President’s terms, you will have failed in both your missions. If you support Mitch McConnell’s plan, you will have decisively failed.
Now is a time for choosing. Now is your time for choosing.As I pointed out to John Boehner yesterday, despite what the pundits in Washington are telling you, it is you and not Obama who hold most of the cards. Obama has a legacy to worry about. Should the United States lose its bond rating, it will be called the “Obama Depression”. Congress does not get pinned with this stuff.
But there are a few points that you need to understand.
First, as the hours go on, the doom and gloom scenarios are going to get worse. By the end of July, Goldman Sachs, Ben Bernanke, and Timmy Geithner are going to tell you the world will end unless you raise the debt ceiling.
They did it with TARP too.
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2. It Is As I Feared
We should be quick to praise and slow to anger. I know I frequently go to DEFCON1 quicker than many others, though they eventually get there. I try to be quick to praise too.
And so it was yesterday that I and others praised Mitch McConnell for signing on as a co-sponsor to Cut, Cap, and Balance.
In my praise, I wrote, ” I can only hope that he will, now signed on, aggressively push CCB and not be a supporter in name only.”
I write this because I remember in TARP and in the Obamacare fight and in several other fights, McConnell signed on to conservative proposals only to work behind the scenes to advance other agendas that undercut conservatives. TARP got passed and the Senate GOP never used the full force of Senate rules to block Obamacare. Those aren’t the only two times.
And so as the sun rises today, I learn from multiple Hill sources and now media reports that after McConnell sent out notice that he was signing on to Cut, Cap, and Balance, he began making door to door visits throughout the Senate lining up support for the Pontius Pilate Pass the Buck Act of 2011 — his plan to allow Barack Obama to raise the debt limit by $2 trillion.
What’s more, McConnell has enlisted the help of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to line up Democrat votes for the plan. Meanwhile, Speaker Boehner is saying the McConnell plan is a viable option.
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3. The American People Are Fast Becoming More Furious
The ATF went statistic-shopping in support of a proposed rule to limit the freedoms of firearm owners and dealers. Operation Fast and Furious was an effort to create a law enforcement problem so that government could expand its enforcement operations without actual organic crimes to fight. This involved the government deliberately seeding areas near the US border with firearms that they intended to track after sales. These straw man deals went bad when the USG promptly failed to track their inventory of 1,700 firearms. Losing just one would get a 2nd LT tossed from the USMC.
The government weapons began turning up at murder scenes that resulted from gunplay between rival international narcotics gangs. Allegedly, at least two USBP agents and 150 Mexican Citizens have turned up dead after being drive-by body-pierced by Operation Fast and Furious firearms. In fairness, even some ATF agents have become angry that .50 caliber Barrett Rifles have been sold into Mexico and lost by USG employees and have gone to the media with accounts of it all.
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4. Palin.
It’s been almost three years since I, along with many others, was introduced to Governor Sarah Palin. In that time we have been saturated with coverage of her and just about everybody on the left and the right, has had the opportunity to get to know who she is and what they think of her.
At least that’s what I thought.
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5. The Amazon Tax fight isn’t over in California
While Jerry Brown has signed the budget bill that imposed an Internet Sales Tax on California, an arguably unconstitutional attempt to tax out-of-state businesses conducting interstate commerce with Californians, the fight’s not over. I’ve said again and again that Amazon doesn’t play around. And sure enough, the very night Brown signed the bill, Amazon emailed me and every other Amazon Associate in California to terminate our contracts.
Amazon’s not stopping there though. This company is admirable in its insistence that it will do the right thing and stand up for the shareholders. That trend continues as now Amazon has filed for a referendum on ABx1 28, the Amazon Tax portion of the budget. Referendum is of course one of the three classic Progressive acts of Democracy that the far left celebrates, held up along side Initiative and Recall, the latter of which we’re currently seeing used with gusto in Wisconsin.
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6. The EPA Must Be Stopped, and I’m Not Talking About Light Bulbs
There’s been a lot of talk these days about light bulbs. The Hill is reporting on how it’s shedding light on the “new Republican party,” one that is so “out of touch with the mainstream” because it only listens to it’s “extremist elements.” The New York Times has declared victory for the green movement, while some in the blogosphere have taken to referring to the bulb issue as a “fatal conceit,” referring to the White House’s fulfillment of Hayek’s description.
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7. The Horserace
For the first time in a month, Michele Bachmann is on the decline, though slightly. It’s a brewing situation in Iowa her competitors are using to get the best of her. There’s more rough water on the horizon.
Of all things, people close to Sarah Palin are now saying they think she might get into the race. I’m still not sure, but given the chatter there’s got to be something to it. Rick Perry, as well, may actually soon be getting in.
Along the way, Tim Pawlenty has found his footing again and, though he’s going to have a tough time combatting recent polling trends, he’s making a show of it in Iowa. Jon Huntsman is going after Mitt Romney, but Romney is holding his lead.
And then there is Ron Paul. Ron Paul is suddenly surprising a lot of people, including me.
We’ll get into it all in this week’s horse race on the road to the White House.
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