Credit : http://www.apfn.org

Congress just passed a $700 billion “stimulus” package less than two weeks ago.

Today, the headlines read that the House just passed a $410 billion spending bill and that Obama is preparing a $634 billion health care fund.  All of this on top of Obama’s bold statement that he’ll cut the deficit in half by 2013.

How?

Well, you obviously know how.  What needs to be re-focused is Obama’s historical position on the concept of taxes, socialsim, and the purpose of government in general.  And we can get that from Dreams of My Father.  Allow me to point you to a posting from National Review…from AUGUST 2008 (i.e., plenty of time before the election to wake the voting public up).  I also encourage you to read the Investors Business Daily article this post references.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NGZiMGZlNGRiOWJjYzE5OTEwMWEwZWZhOTQzZjVjMTY=

“…high taxes are morally and practically good, if the government then uses them to provide for the people. How high should the tax rates be?  ”Theoretically,” he wrote, “there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100% of income so long as the people get benefits from the government commensurate with their income which is taxed.”  Yes, you read it: a 100% tax rate is fine.  Obama Sr. continued, ” It is a fallacy to say there is a limit (to tax rates), and it is a fallacy to rely mainly on individual free enterprise to get the savings.”

The real betrayal of Specter, Collins, and Snowe

posted at 11:15 am on February 16, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

I have one last thought on the Porkulus events from last week.  This weekend, Mitch and I took a lot of calls on the passage of Porkulus, with many demanding some retribution for Senators Arlen Specter, Olympia Snowe, and Susan Collins.  Usually, both Mitch and I advise against revenge on defector votes.  We both agree that a big-tent party has to have room for some disagreement, and the only way to get to a majority again in Congress is to build a large enough coalition to take charge.  Purity drives lower our numbers and our ability to influence policy.

This, however, is a different matter.  First, the Republicans need to re-establish credibility as the party of fiscal responsibility, and supporting Porkulus is antithetical to that effort.  No matter how big a tent the Republicans need to pitch, they still need to stand for core values — and among them should be fiscal responsibility and smaller government for greater individual liberty.  Porkulus fails on both counts, which is why the House GOP maintained a solid wall of opposition to it.  Specter, Snowe, and Collins apparently don’t share those values.

But in this case, the betrayal goes beyond core values.  Despite Barack Obama’s demagoguery earlier in the week, many Republicans wanted a big stimulus package to come out of Congress as quickly as possible.  Given the chance, Republican partnership would have produced a bill with less long-term spending, more short-term spending, better tax cuts, and a huge reduction in the health-care bureaucracy that comprised almost half of Porkulus. Such a bill would have easily received a hundred Republican votes or more in the House and may have passed on acclamation in the Senate, and it would have sent a message of unity in a time of economic crisis.

In order to get that, Republicans had to shut down Porkulus.  It would have forced Democrats to negotiate with Republicans and get the better bill to Obama’s desk.  All we needed was Republicans to stand firm in the service of their fellow Republicans and to defy Nancy Pelosi’s triumphalism.  The House did its job, as did most of the Republicans in the Senate, even while saying that they would support a real stimulus package.  Instead, Specter, Collins, and Snowe essentially stabbed their colleagues in the back — while Specter whined about the lack of debate on the bill, after he voted for cloture and an end to debate.

That was the real betrayal.

What can the Republicans do to the Porkulus 3?  Not much, really.  The GOP needs them to offer an illusory chance at filibustering legislation, although their failure to filibuster something as bad as Porkulus more or less exposes that as an empty threat.  Republicans need to find credible primary opponents for these three, even if it means losing the seats, because after Porkulus it appears they’re already lost.

Today is the last chance to stop this. The final version of the stimulus package just passed the House with the following vote:

Yea: 246 Democrats
Nay: 183 (176 Republicans and 7 Democrats)

One Democrat voted “Present” and one Democrat plus two Republicans did not vote.

Now you will recall on Tuesday that little exchange between Fox News’ Megyn Kelly and Sen. Specter (see my original email below) in which the honorable Senator from Pennsylvania admitted he had not read the details of the bill and that it would have been better if the Senate had more time to carefully review the bills provisions. Well, to help remedy that critcism, Speaker Pelosi stated that the House would have at least 48 hours to review the final package before voting (as if 48 hours is really enough time to adequately review a bill that is over 1,000 pages long.) She lied. The final version was made available at 11pm EST last night and the vote was scheduled for 1:30pm EST today. Why? Her official answer was that she had a plane to Europe to catch this afternoon and didn’t want to miss it. The real reason, however, is simply that she doesn’t want her fellow representatives (or you or me) to have enough time to identify the massive amounts of pork, provisions for nationalizing our free market system, and erosion to what few liberties we still have that are contained in this abomination. Here’s a clip of Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), chair of the Republican Study Committee underscoring what the concern is.

If you’d like to read the stimulus package yourself,
http://www.readthestimulus.org/

The only hope to prevent this steep slide into socialism is for the three Republican Senators who voted this week on the Senate version to vote NAY when the vote comes up for the final version (possibly today.) It is imperative that these individuals be “encouraged” to not break ranks like they did last time. And while you’re writing those letters and making those calls, why not give a pat on the back to House Minority Leader Boehner, the House Republicans, and ESPECIALLY those seven Blue Dogs for holding the line and making Pelosi completely own this piece of garbage.

Please do this – for the children.

If you care to read…

http://www.readthestimulus.org/

As they state on the website – $850 Billion, 1588 pages, and counting… somebody needs to read it!

So let’s recap what has happened.  The House Democrats unilaterally constructed the most significant expansion-of-government bill this nation has seen since the New Deal (some economists argue this package surpasses anything Roosevelt ever dreamed up.)  When the bill came up for its passage vote, not one Republican voted in favor of it.  As such, the House Republicans forced the Democrats to “own” this legislation, and rightfully so.  In the Senate, however, the same could not be said.  Three Republicans voted for the Senate version of the bill: Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine.  Without the support of these three Republicans, the Stimulus Package would have failed, which would have provided the opportunity for an introduction of a less expansive (and expensive) package (consider the bill introduced by Rep. Walt Minnick, a Democrat [!!] from Idaho, which he terms as being “…targeted, timely, and temporary…”.)  Instead, this horrible legislation is now headed to Conference Committee where it will be marked up such that the House and Senate versions match, followed by a final vote for passage into law.

Now, I realize that Sen. Specter is NOT my Senator. However, his spineless actions this week will potentially affect ALL of us for generations.  Therefore, it is my opinion that we all have the right to let him know our thoughts on his actions this week and our preferences on his future vote regarding this matter.  By his own admission, Sen. Specter did not realize how intrusive this legislation is.  He confessed that he hadn’t read some of the more eye-opening provisions and that the Senate probably should have been allowed more time to review, discuss, and debate – a “rush to judgment”, as he states in the video below…yet he VOTED FOR CLOSURE.

Yet another example of completely irresponsible government. I urge you to melt the phones on this and any other intrusive legislation – not only in contacting your elected officials in Congress, but any elected official who appears to be waffling. The consequences of their decisions go well beyond their districts and states.