Support for Stimulus Package Falls to 37%

Support for the economic recovery plan working its way through Congress has fallen again this week. For the first time, a plurality of voters nationwide oppose the $800-billion-plus plan.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 37% favor the legislation, 43% are opposed, and 20% are not sure. Two weeks ago, 45% supported the plan. Last week, 42% supported it.

Opposition has grown from 34% two weeks ago to 39% last week and 43% today.

READ MORE

.

"We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much."

-- Ronald Reagan

.

Ronald Reagan isn’t just a Republican thing anymore.

Fifty-six percent (56%) of U.S. voters say the Republican Party should return to the views and values of the iconic 40th president of the United States to be successful, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Twenty-nine percent (29%) say the GOP should move away from the Reagan legacy, and 15% aren’t sure which is the best course to follow.

Eighty-five percent (85%) of Republican voters believe a return to the two-term president’s views and values are the road to success. Just eight percent (8%) disagree.

Among unaffiliated voters, 61% say the Republican Party should return to Reagan, while 23% think the party should move away from those values.

Even 29% of Democrats think Reagan is a good role model for the modern Republican Party, although 50% disagree and 21% are undecided.

In his first inaugural address, Reagan declared that “Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” Fifty-nine percent (59%) 59% of voters still agree with him. Reagan also strongly believed that tax cuts are good for the economy, and 57% of voters continue to share that view.

Only 17% disagree.

[yet here we are, because we wanted a 'cool' president - and we've paired him with a majority in congress]

READ MORE

The Senate is expected to vote on S.1, its
version of the bill, the first week of February...

If the Senate follows the House’s lead and passes this borrow-and-spend "stimulus" bill, it will waste record amounts of tax dollars, provide virtually no benefit to the economy, and only add to our nation's soaring liabilities.

Please tell your Senators today to vote
NO on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act!
[mere seconds to complete -
click link and please, pass it on]
.

UN backtracks on claim that deadly IDF strike hit Gaza school

[HT:Ldot: "Something to keep in mind when reading dispatches from that part of the world "]

The United Nations has reversed its stance on one of the most contentious and bloody incidents of the recent Israel Defense Forces operation in Gaza, saying that an IDF mortar strike that killed 43 people on January 6 did not hit one of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency schools after all.

It seems that the UN has been under pressure to put the record straight after doubts arose that the school had actually been targeted. Maxwell Gaylord, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Jerusalem, said Monday that the IDF mortar shells fell in the street near the compound, and not on the compound itself.

Gaylord said that the UN "would like to clarify that the shelling and all of the fatalities took place outside and not inside the school"

READ MORE

Iraq Is Obama's Mideast Pillar

As an Arab democracy, it's a model for what we would like the rest of the Arab world to become.

Imagine yourself as Barack Obama, gazing at a map of the greater Middle East and wondering how, and where, the United States can best make a fresh start in the region.

Your gaze wanders rightward to Pakistan, threatening war with India ... Iran, drawing ever closer to its bomb ... Israel is talking pre-emption ... Palestine is riven between feckless moderates and pitiless fanatics ... Lebanon and Hezbollah are nearly synonyms ... [snip]

And then there is Iraq, the country in the middle that you would have just as soon banished from sight. How's it doing? Perplexingly well.

In 2005, Iraqis voted their sectarian preferences. Now sectarian parties are out of fashion. "Those candidates who campaigned under the banner of religion should be rejected," Abdul Kareem told Al Jazeera. "They corrupted the name of religion because they are notorious for being thieves. Religion is not politics." Mr. Kareem is a Shiite cleric.

Also out of fashion: Iran, previously thought to be the jolly inheritor of our Iraq misadventure ... This time, Sadr didn't even dare to field his own slate, and early reports are that the Supreme Council was trounced.

What's in fashion, electorally speaking, are secular parties, as well as the moderately religious Dawa Party of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. This wasn't supposed to happen. The Palestinian parliamentary election of 2006 that put Hamas in power was taken in the West as proof that Arab democracy was destined to yield illiberal results. Saturday's election suggests otherwise... [snip]

So what are you going to do about the one bright spot on your map -- an Arab country that is genuinely democratic, increasingly secular and secure, anti-Iranian and, all-in-all, on your side? So far, your only idea seems to bid to it good luck and bring most of the troops home in time for Super Bowl Sunday, 2010. [snip]

There was a time when American strategists understood the role countries could play as "pillars" of a regional strategy. Within the Arab world, Iraq is the only country that can now fulfill that role. For that it will need military and economic aid, and lots of it. Better it than futile causes like Palestine, or missions impossible like winning over the mullahs.

With Saturday's poll, Iraq has earned a powerful claim to our friendship. Yes, you'd rather look elsewhere on the map for a Mideast legacy. But Iraq is where you'll find it. Don't miss your chance.

[Recommended > ]

READ MORE

N Korea missile can hit US zones

NORTH Korea's belligerent posturing of recent weeks appears to have escalated into preparations to test-fire a long-range missile capable of hitting US territories, according to Japanese and South Korean officials. Reports in Tokyo and Seoul yesterday, quoting unnamed government officials, indicated US satellite surveillance had detected preparations for a Taepodong-2 missile launch at a recently identified west coast missile base.

READ MORE

Our German Problem, and Theirs

It’s 10 p.m. Do you know where the German Army is?

If it’s the few thousand social worker-servicemen in Afghanistan, they’re probably tucked securely into bed. That’s because German soldiers serving with the U.S. and other allies have a curfew, among other “national caveats” that prevent them from making a serious military contribution to the fight against the Taliban.

On crucial issues ... Germany still lags, especially by continuing to trade with the Iranians and especially in Afghanistan, where their obduracy is helping to jeopardize the fight against the Taliban and thereby bringing into question the very future of NATO.

For over three years, 100 members of the German KSF Special Forces were stationed in Afghanistan but apparently did not participate in a single mission, and now their inactivity is being cynically exploited by German politicians as a questionable excuse to bring them home.

The fate of Afghanistan and NATO may hang in the balance, but by 10:00 p.m. German soldiers are no doubt safely abed. Four time zones to the West, amidst lush countryside and bright and shiny cities Germany’s 82 million citizens go about their business enjoying peace and plenty that is still all-too-often ensured by her allies.

READ MORE

NEW DEAL OR RAW DEAL?

Some seem to believe Barack Obama is the second coming of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Yet, before we embrace a "new" New Deal, its worth revisiting the alleged success of the old one, says economic historian Burton Folsom Jr., in his new book, "New Deal or Raw Deal?"

According to Folsom, FDR is remembered for his economic populism and campaigns against business leaders and "economic royalists." Less known is how heavily his policies weighed on the poor and the working class:

• Despite his best efforts to soak the rich and impose near-confiscatory tax rates on high earners, the early New Deal relied upon heavily regressive excise taxes.
• From 1933-1936, federal revenues from excise taxes were greater than those from personal and corporate income taxes combined.
• Despite the enactment of many new federal programs, there was little positive result; by 1939 Roosevelt's treasury secretary, Henry Morgenthau, was forced to admit that "we are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work."
• While unemployment dropped during Roosevelt's first term, it crept back up between 1936 and 1939, and stock values plummet from 1937-1939, causing some to call the late 1930s a depression within the Depression.
• Moreover, the U.S. underperformed other industrialized nations during the 1930s.

Even accounting for differences in how economic indicators were calculated in various nations, Folsom notes, "the U.S. economy under Roosevelt did poorly not only in an absolute sense, but in a relative sense as well." More recent economic research, confirms Folsom's claim that the New Deal did more to extend the Depression than to end it.

READ MORE

[that's right, a 2nd {different} petition.
Go ahead, it's free...]

WHERE HAVE YOU GONE, GRAY DAVIS?

In 2006, California passed the most sweeping greenhouse gas limits for any state in the union. Under the plan, CO2 output would be slashed by 25 percent by the year 2020; that is equivalent to removing 6.5 million vehicles from the road.

Sounds great, except that greenhouse gas output has yet to budge, and the promised boom from "green jobs" is nowhere in sight. California's jobless rate is now officially over 7 percent, nearly a point above the national average.

Instead, the greenhouse gas limits approved by Gov. Schwarzenegger will cost California billions of dollars in lost output as businesses locate elsewhere and take jobs with them:

• California's nonpartisan budget analyst predicted the state will have a $27.8 billion deficit over the next 20 months.
• This gap is equal to roughly 26 percent of the state's $103.3 billion in annual general-fund spending; if nothing's done, the deficit will average $22 billion a year for the next five years.

Gov. Schwarzenegger's response has been to cut spending and raise taxes, says IBD. The time to cut spending, however, was 4 years ago, not when disaster struck. A narrow slice of rich Californians now pay virtually all the state's taxes, so when a downturn occurs, the budget collapses:

• Since then, overall spending under Schwarzenegger has soared $41 billion, or more than 40 percent.
• General-fund spending has jumped by $27 billion to $103.3 billion, a 35 percent increase.

Moreover, California's economy is struggling in large part because Schwarzenegger hasn't lived up to his promise to tackle the out-of-control budget. Instead, he's riding his global warming hobbyhorse...

READ MORE

Obama's conflicting goals

President-elect Barack Obama is taking office embracing two almost mutually exclusive economic goals. On the one hand, he wants to gain control over the spiraling federal budget deficit - the excess of spending over revenues - and on the other he is seeking massive federal spending in an attempt to kick-start the flagging economy.

READ MORE

[3rd: any-and-all economic progress will be overshadowed by the massive economic hit of obligating us to any manner of Kyoto-like AGW swindle...]

Obama vows to engage world on climate change

LOS ANGELES — US president-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday vowed he would "engage vigorously" in global climate change talks and that denial was no longer an acceptable response to global warming.

READ MORE

MANDATORY HEALTH INSURANCE FAILS IN MASSACHUSETTS

America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), a trade group representing more than 1,000 insurance providers, has come out in favor of a law requiring everyone to buy what they sell. This may be the wave of the future: if people don't want to buy what you sell, get a law passed making them do it anyway, says health economist Greg Scandlen.

But this mandate approach isn't going so well in Massachusetts, which remains the highest profile state to implement an individual insurance mandate:

• State costs have gone up so much that Massachusetts has decided to cut payments to physicians and hospitals, reducing access to medical services.
• The state is also planning to mandate an increase of 10-12 percent in insurance premiums while cutting payments to physicians and hospitals by 3-5 percent; this will reduce access to care even more.
• Even the poor are being hurt; the Cambridge Health Alliance, which has long provided care to the indigent, is cutting staff, reducing services and limiting referrals to specialists in an effort to stay solvent in the face of rising costs and reduced payments.

In addition to all these problems, the program is now costing taxpayers $400 million more than originally advertised, 85 percent more than the promised cost. [since Jul. 3 2007: one and a half years, 85%]

Mandatory insurance violates insurers' and consumers' right to act in their own best interests by forcing insurers to sell and customers to purchase insurance on terms and prices dictated by government decree. This destroys the very conditions that give insurance any value at all, concludes Scandlen.

[how many of these abysmal failure stories must we endure before the message sinks in: they're doomed to failure - so by all means let's now try it at the national level...]

READ MORE

Congress: The New Power Class

.
There is no native criminal class except Congress.

- Mark Twain

Traditionally Americans have loved to hate their Congress. But in the last several years our country has changed. Most clear thinking Americans no longer hate our Congress -- we now fear it.

The reason for this fear is, and should be, deeply disturbing. Those who have carefully followed the bailout bills that Congress has recently passed know just how pervasive the corruption has become. But the whole story goes much deeper than mere trillions of dollars. America is losing (or has already lost) its constitutional republic.

Americans also traditionally love to hate the rich and powerful. Tales of the 19th century "robber barons" have the cultural status of epic myths in American history. Even if they were greedy and unscrupulous, the Rockefellers, Mellons, and Carnagies helped create wealth in this country. The acquisitions of their personal fortunes may have been ruthlessly pursued; but their fortunes were not solely obtained by stealing money from their fellow citizens using the power of the central government.

The robber barons became powerful because they created wealth. In that sense, these men earned their power and influence. Congress has turned this principle on its head. Our elected representatives become wealthy because they wield their political power in an unconstitutional, and often illegal, manner. The new power class in America is not productive ... it is Machiavellian. [snip]

There was a brief window of opportunity for our elected officials to stop the graft. The Republicans took the majority from the Democrats in Congress in 1994 on the heels of multiple revelations of massive fraud by the Democrats.

The Republicans had a plan and a playbook. It was called "Republican Contract with America." Here are the actual promises that were made:

FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress;

SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;

THIRD, cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;

FOURTH, limit the terms of all committee chairs; [recently repealed by Pelosi]

FIFTH, ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;

SIXTH, require committee meetings to be open to the public;

SEVENTH, require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;

EIGHTH, guarantee an honest accounting of our Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.

The plan lasted about two years. The Republicans discovered that it was much easier to raise a million dollars by having lunch on K Street, than it was getting 10,000 of their constituents to pop for a hundred bucks each. Republicans reneged on their contract and set about strong arming K Street lobbyists. In short, the Republicans became a more traditional power class, following the historical example set by the Democrats.

Now the Democrats are back in power. Our Congress is the new power class of America -- a robber baron pretending to be a Robin Hood.

READ MORE

It's hard to believe I'm no longer American

In the last several weeks I've learned that I am no longer an American. Given the taxes that I have paid, who would have known?

On the front of USA Today was the screaming headline, "Americans go gaga over first lady's inaugural gown." I didn't even know she had an inaugural gown. Then, and this is the tricky part, it turns out, according to rumor, that she hadn't actually picked out the gown she would wear; it was still before noon on the day of the inaugural.

I could not connect with the inauguration of our new president. Evidently, I would be gaga later, but the USA Today was so sure that I, as an American, would be gaga that the headline could be written in advance.

The day after the inauguration, the USA Today headline read, "Emotions reach heightened pitch across USA." I must be living in Canada; at least it is cold enough to be Canada. I worked all that day, leaving my office well after 10 p.m. My emotions were pretty stable, they weren't even "heightened," let alone pitched.

[The point: He's a government employee that is answerable to us - not the other way around. It's prudent to remember that.]

READ MORE

Time Mag: Obama a 'Prince' Like Jesus Born of 'Imagination, History and Hope'

This week's Weekly Standard magazine recited “some of the worst over-the-top reactions to The One's ascendance,” starting with Time's Nancy Gibbs who opened this week's cover story by comparing Obama with Jesus:

“Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope...”

In the issue, she heralded (citing his full name) the 'greater meaning' of Obama's victory and gushed over how

“an election in one of the world's oldest democracies looked like the kind they hold in brand-new ones, when citizens finally come out and dance, a purple-thumb day, a velvet revolution.”

[I would love to adopt the purple [index finger] thing - but it would put ACORN out of business so the Dems will never allow it]

READ MORE

[opinions vary]