Apparently, Mr Poskevich is going to be in the neighborhood.  He was around today, but since I wasn’t aware, there’s not much point in posting what’s already past, is there.

Pray tell, why is it when anyone comes to Hardin County, they have to schedule their visit before some people are even functional??  Sheesh!  Well, who knows….maybe I’ll be up and about, and take stroll over that way to see what he has to say. 

What’s the Senate Thinking?
The Foundry

April 29 marks the third year in which the U.S. Senate has not passed a budget — a staggering dereliction of duty, particularly given the country’s near-$16 trillion debt. But that’s not the Senate’s only blockbuster failure under the leadership of Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). From spending to jobs to energy policy, the Senate has totally dropped the ball, leaving one to wonder, “What’s the Senate thinking?”

But it’s not just a matter of a simple failure or benign neglect, like forgetting to take out the trash. The way some in the Senate are behaving is equivalent to buying a dog but then deliberately choosing not to feed it. These men and women sought elective office, won a seat in the Senate and now have the power to take action to confront America’s problems. But under the leadership of Majority Leader Reid, they’re making the choice not to do so.

When it comes to the Senate’s failure to pass a budget, the facts are bleak. From 2012 to 2022, federal spending per household is projected to rise to $34,602 — a 15 percent increase. Without entitlement reform, that spending is swelling to a crippling level, exceeding 40 percent of the economy by 2050. Despite all this, the Senate is sitting on its hands and not pursuing the significant reforms that are necessary — and opting not to pass a budget for three years is emblematic of their reckless inaction.

Last week, in fact, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND), whose primary responsibility is to marshal bipartisan support of a budget resolution, declined to take on the task, remarking that it would be too difficult in an election year. Last year was not an election year, and they didn’t bother to do it then, either.

Meanwhile, as America continues to wrestle with staggering unemployment and weak job creation, Senate Democrats yesterday blocked an effort to help workers, employers and the U.S. economy.

Republican lawmakers moved to halt the National Labor Relation Board’s (NLRB) latest effort to give unions the upper hand in organizing work places. Earlier this year, the NLRB enacted a rule that speeds up union elections, making it easier for unions to grow their ranks by unionizing more workplaces while depriving workers of a truly informed choice in the matter.

Normally when unions try to organize workers in a business, they plan their efforts before they request an election. Once the employer receives an election request, they have a limited amount of time to inform their workers of why unionization might not be right for them. Under the NLRB’s new rule, employers will have even less time to make their case, all to the detriment of their employees. Heritage’s James Sherk explains the rest of the story that the workers won’t hear:

Employers, not union organizers, will explain that unions often do not achieve their promised wage increases, but they always take up to 2 percent of workers’ wages in dues. Employers will also point out patterns of union corruption and clauses in union constitutions that levy stiff fines against workers who stray from union rules. Employers are free to tell workers what the union organizers do not.

Because Senate Democrats blocked the effort to put a stop to the NLRB’s rule, workers will be more likely to be pushed into unions. And make no mistake, the economic consequences won’t be good. Unions reduce profitability, meaning that unionized companies invest less and create fewer new jobs than nonunion companies. Overall, that’s bad news for workers, companies and the U.S. economy.

Perhaps the ultimate example of what the Senate is all about emerged yesterday when Majority Leader Reid said he would not help in the House Republicans’ effort to force President Barack Obama to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which could bring up to 830,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada to the United States (as well as jobs, economic growth and tax revenue). “Personally I think Keystone is a program that we’re not going — that I am not going to help in any way I can,” Reid said. “The president feels that way. I do, too.”

Under Reid’s leadership, that’s the name of the game in the U.S. Senate. Regardless of the country’s exploding debt, soaring energy prices or 12.7 million unemployed workers, Reid and his like-minded colleagues are flat out refusing to do the job they were hired to do, all in accord with the president’s agenda. So if you’re wondering what the Senate’s thinking, now you know. Unfortunately, the country’s best interests aren’t what they have in mind.

Yesterday we pushed out a story about Obama’s No-Plan, No-Budget Plan and his complete loss of reality. Today we find out he’s not alone. His fellow ilk in the Senate apparently feel no need to actually do what they were elected to do. Senate Democrats will not submit a budget before November of 2012.

Note: Title of post comes from Washington Examiner. This is what we get from the ‘leadership’ of Runnin’ Harry Reid, one of the most useless human beings on the planet. 

The day the Democrats took over was not January 20, 2009, it was actually January 3, 2007, the day the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate, at the very start of the 110th Congress. The Democrat Party controlled a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995. For those who are listening to liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is “Bush’s Fault”, think about this:

On January 3, 2007, the day the Democrats took control of Congress:

The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77
The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%
The Unemployment rate was 4.6%
George Bush’s Economic policies had SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB CREATION!

Remember that day…?

January 3rd, 2007 was the day Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee. The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy?

BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!  THANK YOU DEMOCRATS (especially Barney), for taking us from 13,000 DOW, 3.5 GDP and 4.6% Unemployment to this CRISIS by (among MANY other things) dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac FIASCOES!

(BTW: Bush asked Congress 17 TIMES to stop Fannie & Freddie – starting in 2001 because it was financially risky for the US economy. Barney blocked it and called it a “Chicken Little Philosophy”, but…the sky did fall!)

And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac?  OBAMA!!!

And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie?  OBAMA and the Democrat Congress, especially BARNEY!!!!

So when someone tries to blame Bush…  REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd, 2007…. THE DAY THE DEMOCRATS TOOK OVER!

Bush may have been in the car, but the Democrats were in charge of the gas pedal and steering wheel while they were driving the economy into the ditch. Budgets are not passed in the White House. They are passed by Congress, and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 (until the 2010 election and the Republicans took the majority in the House) is the Democrat Party.

Furthermore, the Democrats controlled the budget process for 2008 & 2009, as well as 2010 & 2011. Obama has now gone more than 1,000 days without a budget, and is still blaming it on the Republicans! In that first year, Congress had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending when Bush, somewhat belatedly, got tough on spending increases.

For FY 2009 though, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid bypassed “Lame Duck President” George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the 2009 budget. And where was Barack Obama during this time? He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of those massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete 2009. Let’s remember what the deficits looked like during that period:

If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the 2007 deficit, the last of the Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years, and the fourth straight decline in deficit spending. After that, Democrats in Congress took control of spending, and that includes Barack Obama, who voted for the budgets.

If Obama inherited anything, he inherited it from himself and a Democratic Congress.

In a nutshell, what Obama is saying is: “I inherited a deficit that I voted for, and then I expanded that deficit four-fold since January 20th 2009.”

Of course, the left will do all they can to silence the truth, but as Jesus said in John 8:32, “…And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

“The problems we face today exist because the people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.”

Shared by Sharon, with a few additions of my own.

Another Vision to Solve the Budget Crisis
The Foundry

While Washington’s eyes are focused on the historic Obamacare hearings at the Supreme Court, work continues across the street in the House of Representatives where some Members of Congress — though not all — are doing their best to clean up Washington’s budgetary mess.

It has now been 1,064 days since the U.S. Senate passed a budget, the national debt is nearing $16 trillion, and the deficit is at $3 trillion. In the face of this mess, the Republican Study Committee (RSC) yesterday unveiled its plan to balance the budget in five years, and it does so with entitlement reforms, sharp and aggressive spending cuts, avoiding tax hikes, including pro-growth tax reform, and providing for a strong national defense.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), RSC Chairman, and Rep Scott Garrett (R-NJ), also of the committee, issued a statement saying that their plan is a clear, practical way to cut spending and balance the budget — and that leadership is needed in Washington’s budgetless vacuum:

Our country’s spiraling debt crisis has reached a tipping point. We need a plan that makes the hard decisions now, not later, to solve our spiraling debt crisis. In the absence of President Obama coming forward to lead our country on the most pressing issue of our time, the RSC stepped up to the plate today by putting forward a bold solution to balance the budget in five years.

The RSC’s budget proposal follows the one issued by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), which cuts spending in budget year 2013 and into the future, includes market-based reforms to health entitlements, and features a solid, growth-oriented tax plan. Contrast those plans with President Obama’s FY 2013 budget, which delivers a fourth consecutive annual deficit exceeding $1 trillion with spending that rises from $3.8 trillion to $5.8 trillion in 2022.

Or just pause for a moment to consider the Senate’s non-efforts. Though it would take Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) only 51 votes to pass a budget resolution, he is instead opting for inaction. As The Wall Street Journal‘s Stephen Moore writes, “The reality is that Mr. Reid has made a calculation that Democrats are better off with no budget at all. This allows them to attack Mr. Ryan’s cuts to programs like Medicare without Democrats having to show their own hand.”

The RSC’s plan isn’t perfect — Heritage’s Patrick Knudsen says it “falls short in substantiating many of its significant spending cuts with adequate policy detail.” Those details are necessary because budgets should be policy driven, not numbers driven. But Knudsen explains that it is, nevertheless, an “ambitious effort aimed at solving the twin crises of spending and debt.” Among the plan’s features, it contains $3.4 trillion in entitlement savings, repeals Obamacare, includes a solid (though very basic) step for Social Security by gradually raising the retirement age, and adopts Ryan’s plan to boldly transform Medicare into a premium support program. Knudsen concludes, “Notwithstanding its limitations, the aims and convictions behind this plan should not be ignored.”

Among some quarters, aims and convictions are lacking on Capitol Hill, and leadership on the left is taking a pass on doing anything to get spending under control. And while everyone pays a price for higher debt, including slower economic growth, higher taxes and a lack of entrepreneurial independence, there is one group of Americans much worse off than the rest. America’s Debt-Paying Generation — those who are under 30 — will struggle throughout their lives to pay down the debt we’re racking up today.

Heritage’s Saving the American Dream plan offers a fiscal blueprint that all budget proposals should follow — change and simplify the tax code, cut bureaucratic and regulatory spending, and begin reforming Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid so that those who need it most can count on them. It’s a good sign that conservative voices in Washington are offering ideas to help avert America’s fiscal disaster. Now it’s time for Congress to act on them.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has rightfully earned the reputation of running a do-nothing Senate. More than 1,000 days have elapsed since the upper chamber approved a budget. He’s currently ignoring the House-passed JOBS Act and actively opposing steps to lower gas prices.

Now, in a blatant political stunt, Reid is attempting to blame the Republican minority for the Senate’s failure to confirm 17 of President Obama’s district court nominees.

“Republicans have refused to allow us to even vote — won’t even allow us to vote — on these qualified judicial nominees,” Reid declared. “Republicans have prevented the Senate from doing its constitutional duty and that’s what it is.”

Reid should be commended for his hyperbole.

Let’s begin with the fact that Reid is majority leader, the one who sets the Senate’s agenda and determines the floor schedule. So if Reid is unsatisfied with the pace of progress on Obama’s nominees, then he has only himself to blame.

Conservatives aren’t blocking any votes because they aren’t filibustering. According to statistics compiled by the Senate Republican Policy Committee, Obama has secured approval for 129 district-court judges in three years. That’s more than President George W. Bush’s 120 confirmations over his final four years in office.

There’s also the fact that Obama has sent fewer nominees than Bush to the Senate. In the first three years of his presidency, Bush nominated 215 district court judges; Obama made 173 nominations.

That follows a pattern under Obama. Of the 83 judicial vacancies that currently exist, he’s made 39 nominations, leaving 44 openings unaddressed. And 17 of those nominees haven’t yet been approved by the Democrat-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee.

That means an astonishing 73 percent of current judicial vacancies are awaiting action from either the White House or the Senate Judiciary Committee. What’s more, it has been reported that the American Bar Association secretly declared a significant number of the president’s nominees to be “not qualified.”

When Reid has brought Obama’s nominees to the floor for a vote, the president has a near-perfect record, including the confirmation of two Supreme Court justices, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) reminded Reid yesterday.

So while Reid would like to paint Republicans as obstructionists, his criticism is misdirected.

Conservatives should use Reid’s stunt to remind Americans about the unconstitutional appointments Obama made earlier this year. In January, while Congress was still in session, Obama ignored the Senate’s advise-and-consent role and purported to unilaterally appointed three people to seats on the National Labor Relations Board and Richard Cordray to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Obama’s actions prompted an initial outcry from Republicans. But with few exceptions, they’ve acquiesced. In the two months following Obama’s illegal appointments, the Senate has confirmed seven judicial nominees. That alone is a strong rebuttal to Reid’s bombastic statement that “Republicans have refused to allow us to even vote.”

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is one of the few conservatives who has vowed on principle to vote against each nominee until the Senate properly considers the four illegally appointed individuals. Lee’s approach is different from a filibuster, which requires a 60-vote threshold. He simply wants a recorded up-or-down vote on each nominee.

“We simply cannot continue to afford nominees near-complete deference until President Obama rescinds his unconstitutional appointments and restores the Senate’s proper constitutional role in the confirmation process,” Lee explained. “I cannot sit idly by and watch as the president openly violates the Constitution and ignores a century of Senate rules.”

Lee spoke at Heritage last month about the long-term consequences, noting that he would be equally outraged if a Republican president was pursuing the same strategy. Watch our exclusive interview.

Reid, however, appears perfectly comfortable with Obama’s approach. He suggested that more illegal “recess” appointments could be coming. He warned, “we will have no alternative but to take action.” Reid’s actions also reveal his blatant hypocrisy. He originated the use of pro-forma sessions to avoid recess appointments under the previous administration, and that’s more proof that Reid’s actions are nothing more than partisan grandstanding.

While Senate conservatives have not filibustered, they would be well within their prerogatives to do so. After all, as Heritage’s Hans von Spakovsky noted, former Senator Robert Byrd held up more than 70 nominations and the promotions of 5,000 military personnel over recess appointments that he believed pushed the limits of the recess appointment power, even though the Senate actually was in recess. That’s in contrast to the unconstitutional and invalid act of this president of making recess appointments while the Senate was not in recess.

Now is not the time for political theater. Reid, unfortunately, appears more willing to appease his liberal allies when he should be focusing on issues of job creation and gas prices.

You might expect Tennessee’s senators to clash with President Barack Obama on most of their congressional votes.

After all, Republican Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker are no fans of the president’s policies.

After the president’s State of the Union address Tuesday, Alexander nicknamed the nation’s economic doldrums the “Obama economy,” and according to Bloomberg, Corker told its next-day breakfast panel the speech signaled “that for the next year we’re really not going to do much.”

But Alexander and Corker voted in line with Obama’s positions 63 percent and 61 percent of the time last year, respectively — more often than all but a few other Republican senators.

I know I can’t be the only person in the state of Tennessee who KNOWS we need new Senators!  Last go round, I couldn’t, in good conscience, vote for Alexander.  I didn’t vote for the other guy either.  I just left it blank.  This time, Corker is up for re-election, and once again, unless we have someone who actually reflects the values of Tennesseans, instead of the elites of D.C., I won’t be able to cast my vote for him either!

I honestly wish we could find a CONSERVATIVE primary challenger.  I have asked at least one person I know who would make a great Senator, but he has other obligations right now.    Perhaps Marsha Blackburn could challenge him?  At least she hasn’t fallen so far into the trap of D.C. insider politics, she can’t see the light!    Hmm….  I wonder if Stacey Campfield would be up for the challenge?  Just a thought!

How can we have any trust in our representatives who vote so overwhelmingly WITH a man/child whose sole purpose seems to be the destruction of our nation?  The answer is quite simple.  We can’t.

The White House is standing by the Transportation Security Administration in its standoff with Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and his father, Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas)

The elder Paul called the TSA a “police state” Monday after Sen. Paul was reportedly detained by TSA after he refused to take a pat-down from TSA officials at the Nashville International Airport.

I’m not a huge fan of the senior Paul, but when he’s right…he is right! Thanks to the TSA, travel has turned into an ordeal that most rational people try to avoid!

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Monday that he didn’t have any reaction to Paul’s comment about “police state.”

But Carney sided with the TSA saying, “I think it is absolutely essential that we take necessary actions to ensure that air travel is safe.”

Carney is a moron. We are no safer now than we were before the TSA turned into travel Nazis!

“The police state in this country is growing out of control,” the elder Paul said in a statement released by his presidential campaign.

“One of the ultimate embodiments of this is the TSA that gropes and grabs our children, our seniors, and our loved ones and neighbors with disabilities,” he continued. “The TSA does all of this while doing nothing to keep us safe. “That is why my ‘Plan to Restore America,’ in additional to cutting $1 trillion dollars in federal spending in one year, eliminates the TSA.”

I do not believe Ron Paul will be the Republican nominee.  Shoot, he’s not even really a Republican, he just runs as one because he couldn’t win any other way.  BUT…. I do hope that whoever does get the nomination, and WINS, will remove the power this administration has handed over to these gropers and thieves!  Instead of targeting those who WOULD be a danger to fellow passengers, they target a U.S. Senator, and small children.  Enough!

The Senate begins work this week on a spending bill that would set up a new $10 million grant program aimed at helping states combat “distracted driving,” which focuses on texting behind the wheel.

“While there is no definitive data as to how many distracted driving deaths and injuries are caused by cell phone use and texting, 20 percent of the drivers involved in fatal accidents in 2009 were either using or in the presence of a cell phone at the time of the crash, and there is reason to be concerned about whether the recent rise in distracted driving fatalities is linked to the increasing use of electronic devices,” according to report language for S. 1596, the 2012 spending bill for the Department of Transportation and other agencies.

Pissing away even more of OUR money. Evidently, using said funds to protect our borders, or shoot, just give it back to us, never occurs to Congress. Seriously? “…in the presence of a cell phone…”? I’m “in the presence” of my cell phone every time I get in my truck. And when the Mr is with me, I’m in the presence of TWO! GASP!

Now, don’t get me wrong…I do think ‘distracted driving’ is a fairly serious issue, however, that is not for the federal government to deal with, it is a state issue.  The state makes the laws concerning its roads like speed limits, etc.  Unfortunately, the feds have used blackmail to push through their agenda.  Anyone else remember the forced 55mph debacle?  The feds threatened to withhold funds unless the states complied with their rules.  Isn’t it odd how the federal government decided to blackmail states with money that came from….the states? 

Here’s a novel concept!  How about using that large chunk of change, and actually TEACH good driving habits in those public indoctrination centers?   Just glancing through this bill, I want to smack the dog fire out of someone.  A few trillion here, several billion there, and the occasional million tossed in for good measure.

I think it’s time to remind Congress, once again, who is in charge, because they obviously have forgotten…..THEY WORK FOR US!  And we can fire them!

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ‘Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011’ or the ‘PROTECT IP Act of 2011’.

SEC 3, b

1) IN GENERAL- On application of the Attorney General following the commencement of an action under this section, the court may issue a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction, or an injunction, in accordance with rule 65 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, against the nondomestic domain name used by an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities, or against a registrant of such domain name, or the owner or operator of such Internet site dedicated to infringing activities, to cease and desist from undertaking any further activity as an Internet site dedicated to infringing activities, if–

Have they met our current Attorney General? The man is quite off his rocker, and completely anti Constitution. He drops cases that are obviously a violation of our laws, and brings suits against hard working Americans. He’s dangerous. Putting such power in his hands is beyond insane. Putting such power in ANYONE’s hands is beyond comprehension.

Apparently, those we have elected to represent us….don’t.   Fortunately, at least one co-sponsor, Marco Rubio, has come to his senses.  Will any of the others?

Tax policy should be serious business carried out by serious politicians using real facts and figures. This is why we have the Library of Congress and the Congressional Budget Office, among other expert institutions.

How can we take Congress seriously when the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, makes patently inaccurate, outrageous and bizarre claims on an important tax-policy issue without any heads being turned? I guess this is what we have come to expect of Congress. No wonder citizens with favorable opinions of Congress are as rare as unicorns, to borrow a phrase.

Congress’ ratings suck because Congress sucks. It’s pretty much that simple. We have no trust in a body of arrogant back stabbers who are suppose to be working for US, not against us at every turn.

Harry Reid’s statement on December 6 on his proposed 1.9 percent surtax on million-dollar incomes has kicked up some dust. Here is his statement:

“Millionaire job creators are like unicorns. They’re impossible to find, and they don’t exist… Only a tiny fraction of people making more than a million dollars, probably less than 1 percent, are small business owners. And only a tiny fraction of that tiny fraction are traditional job creators…Most of these businesses are hedge fund managers or wealthy lawyers. They don’t do much hiring and they don’t need tax breaks.”

I’m tellin’ ya….this guy needs to be put out to pasture! Millionaire’s don’t create jobs? Really? What has Bill Gates been doing? How about Steve Jobs? I guess they had their own unicorn’s farting rainbows filled with pots of gold, eh? The dud shows all the signs of being either in early onset of Alzheimers or he is just flat out insane, and in need of a heavy dose of thorazine!

Taking their cue, National Public Radio launched a search for one millionaire job creator. They triumphantly announced:

“NPR requested help from numerous Republican congressional offices, including House and Senate leadership. They were unable to produce a single millionaire job creator for us to interview.”

Really? Ya know, I find it absolutely amazing that no matter what we say, we are still funding NPR. What a bunch of useless libtards.  And they still beg for more from clueless listeners.  I seriously doubt they could survive in the real world where the market actually dictated the need for their, uh….non-services. 

Were it not for Google, I would have accepted Harry Reid’s unicorn story and NPR’s confirmation. Unlike Harry Reid’s office, I went to the IRS’s Table 1.4 “Sources of income, adjustments, and tax size of adjusted gross income, 2009” to check things out. (I summarize my sources in a separate blog posting). Here is what I found:

There are 236,883 tax filers with incomes of a million dollars or more. By Harry Reid’s count, only one percent, or 2,361 of them, are business owners, and a tiny fraction of them create jobs. I do not know what Harry means when he says “a tiny fraction of a tiny fraction.” If we let 5 percent represent Harry’s “tiny fraction,” we are left with 118 businesses owners who earn a million or more and create jobs. Yes, they are only slightly less rare than unicorns, if Harry is to be believed.

This leaves 236,765 million-dollar-plus tax payers, most of whom are “hedge fund managers and wealthy lawyers” who “don’t create jobs and don’t need tax breaks.”

I would have to say that Reid’s staff is totally incompetent. But then, so is Reid, so I guess they’re all a good match. Heed the words Mr Reid: Google is your friend. Or if you prefer, Bing will also aid you in your search for a fact or two.

My Google search for Harry Reid’s quarter million hedge fund managers and wealthy lawyers came up empty handed. I could identify at most sixteen thousand “wealthy lawyers and hedge fund managers,” not Harry Reid’s quarter million.

Well, Harry Reid’s numbers leave much to be desired, but maybe he is right that millionaire business owners do not create jobs.

What does the IRS have to say about this? Millionaire tax filers earn a total taxable income of $623 billion, on which they pay the highest average rate (30 percent) of any tax bracket. (Either Warren Buffet’s secretary has an incompetent tax accountant or Buffet has some pretty juicy tax breaks. I think the latter is more likely). A 1.9 percent tax surcharge on million-dollar-earners would yield $11 billion, assuming those shifty millionaires take no evasive action to avoid the tax.

I’m more inclined to say that Warren Buffet has lost what little sense he has, and will soon be sharing a rubber room with Harry Reid. While there are many people who are totally clueless, and will not do any investigation for themselves, there are just as many who WILL. This leaves people like Buffet, Reid, Pelosi, and D’Bama with a dilemma. What to do about the folks who aren’t as stupid as they believe? Well, they are doing their darnedest to silence any dissent from their rainbows and unicorn scenario, of course!

Millionaire tax filers earn $221 billion – almost a quarter of a trillion — from business and professions, partnerships, and S-corporations. This is puzzling: If Harry Reid’s figure is correct (2,361 millionaire businesses), then the average millionaire-owned business earns almost a hundred million dollars, and all, except 118 of them, do this without hiring anyone. These super heroes do their own typing, selling, drafting. public relations, building, and manufacturing. They do not need employees. Remarkable!

I wonder, since Harry Reid has become quite rich off the backs of the taxpayers, does he actually create any private sector jobs? Hmmm… Evidently, all those real business folks have managed to become quite wealthy (good on them) without doing a thing. How can I get into that racket? Not that I care about being rich or anything, but I’d really like to learn how these folks manage it without producing any products that the public wants, or without hiring hundreds or even thousands to not produce anything.

To summarize:

Millionaire tax filers earn almost a quarter trillion dollars from their businesses. They must hire hundreds of thousands of employees to do so.

There are a trivial number of millionaire hedge-fund managers and wealthy lawyers (who, according to Harry, do not hire anyone and don’t need tax breaks). The millionaire tax surcharge is not aimed at them, but at the tens of thousands of millionaire business owners.

To put it in ol’ broad terms…. Harry Reid is full of caca de toro!

The White House says it’s been flooded with responses to the question it posed Wednesday: “What does $40 mean to you?”

One day after the White House asked “working” people to “tell us what your family will give up if your (payroll) taxes increase,” the stories are rolling in, including one from a person who worried about not having enough to pay the cable bill — or continue family pizza nights.

“Our cable internet bill is $49 per month. If we lose this payroll tax cut then we will have to give up either (our) internet access or possibly our ‘Friday Family Pizza’ night. Either way, we will lose something that brings us together as a family,” wrote “K.Z” from Frederick, Maryland.

Honestly, I can’t believe there are people in this country that are so freakin’ dense that they actually buy into the large piles of male bovine excrement that continuously come out of this White House and the sad sacks of Congress.  It’s truly pathetic!

An extension of the payroll tax cut will save a “typical” family earning $50,000 around $40 a paycheck, the White House says. It also will reduce the only dedicated funding source for Social Security benefits, but only a few people in Washington are talking about that.

If that typical family is making $50K, they aren’t suffering all that much. Some folks really do need to learn how to live without luxuries. And yes, having cable or ‘pizza night’ is a luxury, NOT a necessity of life. Are we truly so spoiled that a mere two month extension of a pitiful ‘tax break’ would so totally ruin our lives that we find it necessary to whine to the White House?  This is truly embarrassing, and I’ve no doubt that if people in other countries read this drivel, they’d think even less of us spoiled RICH Americans than they do now….if that’s even possible.

President Obama and his fellow Democrats are blaming House Republicans for the current stalemate over extending the payroll tax cut. The House bill calls for a year-long extension; but the Senate passed a bill extending it for two months. Unless the two bills are reconciled by the end of the year, the payroll tax will go up.

Naturally D’Bama blames others. I think I’d be totally shocked if he, just ONCE, took responsibility of his own actions. And heaven knows, the Senate Dems, led by one of the most weaselly beings on the planet, can’t possibly tell the truth about this whole issue. 2 months from the Dem controlled Senate VS a full year from the Republican controlled House….which one makes more sense? To the left, naturally 2 months of a break is so much better than a full year. Why? Because they are feckless morons who want YOUR money. Of course, the left stream media is all over this, right? Pointing out the difference between the two plans?   …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Ok, stupid question.  I admit it.

Some conservative Republicans say the payroll tax cut extension is a bad idea, period, because it siphons money from the Social Security Trust Fund.

What a novel concept. A Social Security Trust Fund. Problem is….there is no “Trust Fund”. Congress has been so busy spending money that was intended to be returned to the person who paid it in, that there is nothing left for the future. How many older people bought into the idea that S.S. was going to fund their retirement? Likely way more than the population of the State of Texas!

Wolf called the payroll tax extension a “raid on Social Security, which is already going broke,” and he noted that the money paid into the system now — through payroll taxes — pays benefits for existing retirees.

“Granting another tax holiday is unwise. It puts the existing benefits of those 55 million Americans who currently receive Social Security at risk to continue a failed ‘stimulus’ policy,” Wolf said.

*shakes head* We don’t need another ridiculous scheme from Congress.  Both sides of the aisle has been playing fast and lose with our money for way too long.  We need a TOTAL tax system overhaul. You jackwipes in D.C. need to pull your collective heads out of you collective hinders and realize, we ain’t as stupid as you believe us to be!  We are quite well aware of your irresponsible behavior, year in, and year out.  And ya know what?  We are DAMN SICK OF IT!   The behavior of BOTH parties has been down right criminal, and the vast majority of y’all should be behind bars!  Stealing is a crime, you know!

On the front page of the White House’s website, a clock slowly ticks away, second by second, counting down to the day, hour, minute, and second that the nation’s payroll tax “holiday” expires and the American people get socked right where it counts — in the pocket book. And just next to that clock is a message laying the blame squarely on the House of Representatives. But today the real culprit in this debacle is the U.S. Senate which, right now, is home for the holidays already, celebrating with family while Washington sits in a stalemate.

In a rare appearance in the White House press room yesterday, President Barack Obama reiterated his message, blaming Washington’s inaction on “a faction of Republicans in the House” and their “refusal to cooperate” with the Senate — as if it’s the job of Members of Congress to go along and get along for the sake of advancing the President’s agenda, regardless of whether it’s the right move for America. As a reminder, this is the same President who has not met with House Republican leadership in five months and is now praising the grand accomplishment of a Senate that has failed to pass a budget for nearly 1,000 days under Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) direction.

As you might not be surprised to learn, there is, of course, more to the story than the President lets on. Here’s what you need to know about the latest standstill in Washington that, unfortunately, follows much of the same order of business that America has witnessed for the past year.

In a matter of days, the payroll tax “holiday” will expire, meaning higher taxes for working Americans. At the same time, fees for physicians and hospitals providing Medicare services will be severely cut and additional weeks of unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed will run out. None of this was unexpected. This was not an unforeseen calamity that caught Washington by surprise. They saw it coming, and it’s been on their list of things to do since last December–yet here we are waiting for a resolution and watching as Republicans and Democrats point fingers at each other.

Heritage’s Alison Fraser, Director of the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies, describes the state of play on the Hill today:

To its credit, the House passed a bill which, while not perfect, would at least prevent the looming tax hike for all working Americans, extend additional unemployment benefits and prevent cuts to Medicare providers with another “Doc Fix” for a full year.  Besides these three key policies, the House also included some policies helpful to job creation as well as an important change to fix Medicare’s finances, thus strengthening it for seniors today and tomorrow.  This change is crucial toward tackling the nation’s largest and most pressing fiscal issue — our entitlement crisis.

Somehow this was too much to do for the Senate.  Unable to get the job done right, they passed a measly two-month extension of these three policies and quickly got out of Dodge, a.k.a. the Nation’s capital.  Somehow, this is supposed to reassure us that [Reid] and the rest of his Senate colleagues are able to do the people’s business.

The trouble with the Senate’s two-month plan is that it leaves so much undone and with so many people hanging. Working Americans will have no idea whether or not they’ll suffer a tax hike when the extension expires. Employers will take on additional costs and have to jump through more hurdles in having to change their payroll systems to keep up with Washington’s policy du jour — and that will be an even bigger pain in the neck for small businesses who do payroll by hand. In short, it’s terrible policy, and the American people deserve better.

To make this fruitcake taste even worse, as Fraser explains, the Senate packed in some good old-fashioned class warfare by “limiting the amount of income that qualifies for payroll tax relief so that upper-income earners don’t get more than their ‘fair share’ of the tax relief during this brief two-month period.” And they paid for it all by increasing fees on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Though such fees could have been used to help improve the government-sponsored housing agencies’ horrendous financing, it is of course being used to pay for more spending and to offset the costs of avoiding a tax hike.

And this is where America finds itself. The House is in one corner. The President is in another. And Senators checked the box and hopped a flight home for the holidays instead of doing the people’s business and reaching a compromise. Though President Obama would like us to believe the onus is on the House, it’s the Senate that has dropped the ball. And for the sake of the American people, they should come back to Washington and get to work on reaching an agreement.

Some politicians claim that politicians create jobs.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says, “My job is to create jobs.”

What hubris! Government has no money of its own. All it does is take from some people and give to others. That may create some jobs, but only by leaving less money in the private sector for job creation.

Actually, it’s worse than that. Since government commandeers scarce resources by force and doesn’t have to peddle its so-called services on the market to consenting buyers, there’s no feedback mechanism to indicate if those services are worth more to people than what they were forced to go without.

The only people who create real, sustainable jobs are in private businesses — if they’re unsubsidized.

Please read the whole column here.

I am constantly baffled by the Democrat politicians.  There is no logic in their way of thinking.  I’m not really sure where they got the idea that government was a job creator, when in truth, they are a job killer!  Between Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and B. Hussein, more jobs have been killed than in my memory.  They have not learned from their own mistakes, much less those of others.

That absurd ‘stimulus’ bill that was suppose to stimulate the economy and get Americans working again, did nothing of the sort.  It took money from us, and gave it to people who would be obligated to the government, not the hard working Americans whose pockets were picked.  And the majority of our money went for some of the most ridiculous things known to mankind. $219,779,694,062 was given out in grants. Grants, not loans….GRANTS.  Not one penny will ever have to be returned to the tax payers.  They call this ‘creating jobs’?  There are more than 10,000 pages of grants on their website.  A great many were handed out by the Department of Eduction, and the Department of Labor.  Why was so much handed out to the union thugs at SEIU?  That speaks volumes!

  Click to embiggen, or go to the source.

Along with some seriously “blue states”, it also appears Governor Perry’s state received quite a chunk of change, as well.  Just sayin’. 

We were told that the unemployment rate would never go above 8%.  Problem is, it hasn’t gone BELOW 8% pretty much since Obama has been in office.  The major decline started when the Democrats took over the House and the Senate in 2006.  The only reason that it has now dropped below 9% is because people have given up looking, they are no longer applying for unemployment, so aren’t counted in the Department of Labor’s statistics. The REAL number of unemployed, or under employed is closer to 22%.

Corporations, as a whole, are NOT evil.  Corporations were created by men and women who risked everything to get a company going, to hire people, to provide services and goods for the consumers, which in turn grows said business, and creates more jobs.  It really isn’t that complicated.  If a little ol’ broad, sitting in her jammies in Podunk Tennessee can figure this out, why is it those over paid, over educated bozos in Washington D.C. can’t?

Are some corporations ‘evil’?  No, but the people who run them may very well be!  I understand business ethics is no longer a requirement for a business degree, or a law degree either.  Hmm…  Makes you wonder, doesn’t it!  There are people who believe they are allowed to take money from businesses, and put it their own pocket.  Hopefully, the majority of them end up in jail, as they are stealing from the employees and the stock holders who put their faith in a feckless weasel.

On the other hand, there are corporations that started out as a small family business.  The business grew thanks to the ethical behavior of it’s owners.  They employed more and more people, the company turned into a big corporation, and that big corporation in turn, employees a WHOLE lot of people.  As long as unions don’t get their fingers in the pie, odds are, with smart management, that corporation will continue to grow and continue to employee hundreds, or even thousands of people.

So Mr Reid, if you are serious about creating jobs, would you kindly GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY, and allow private businesses to do what they do best!  I have found nothing in the Constitution that states the Senate has the power, or duty, to create jobs.  Nope…not your job at all!

Two Republican Senators from Tennessee voted in favor of allowing President Obama to imprison US citizens indefinitely without trial on Tuesday the 29th of February. The amendment to remove the Constitutionally offensive section of the bill was proposed to the National Defense Authorization Act and voted down 38-60. The only Republicans voting for the removal of the “indefinite detainment” section of the bill were Senators Rand Paul (KY) and Mark Kirk (IL) More details of the bill and amendment itself can be found at this blog post.

Senate Bill 1867, Amendment is #1062 and would eliminate Section 1031 which states:

“Congress affirms that the authority of the President to use all necessary and appropriate force…includes the authority for the Armed Forces of the United States to detain covered persons…Detention under the law of war without trial”

Now, what is not included is the next Section 1032:

CUSTODY PENDING DISPOSITION UNDER LAW OF WAR.—

(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in paragraph (4), the Armed Forces of the United States shall hold a person described in paragraph (2) who is captured in the course of hostilities authorized by the Authorization for Use of Military Force (Public Law 107–40) in military custody pending disposition under the law of war.
(2) COVERED PERSONS.—The requirement in paragraph (1) shall apply to any person whose detention is authorized under section 1031 who is determined—
(A) to be a member of, or part of, al-Qaeda or an associated force that acts in coordination with or pursuant to the direction of al-Qaeda; and
(B) to have participated in the course of planning or carrying out an attack or attempted attack against the United States or its coalition partners.

Now, here is the really important part:

APPLICABILITY TO UNITED STATES CITIZENS AND LAWFUL RESIDENT ALIENS.—

(1) UNITED STATES CITIZENS.—The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to citizens of the United States.
(2) LAWFUL RESIDENT ALIENS.—The requirement to detain a person in military custody under this section does not extend to a lawful resident alien of the United States on the basis of conduct taking place within the United States, except to thee xtent permitted by the Constitution of the United States.

Not being a Constitutional scholar, by any stretch of the imagination, I can’t say for sure, but it appears to me that Sec. 1032 clarifies issues that Sec. 1031 brings up, which a whole lot of folks, including the ACLU, are having a few problems with.  I guess I need to ask P/H for her expert opinion, eh?

For your reading pleasure, the whole bill is here.  All 682 pages.  And here is how they voted.

H/T: Paula