DelawarePolitics.net

Profile of the Next Speaker of the House?

David Anderson — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:05:49 +0000

The Hill has an interesting profile of the Republican Leader, John Boehner. It is based upon the possibility of his being the Speaker in waiting. It is a good read.

Note: Our Twitter subscribers often get a head start. They got live feeds from the Lincoln Day Dinner. They received some of the first special election results, were first to get polling results, and often get information such as this hours in advance. If you tweet, join the DP family.

For those who would dismiss that possibility , district by district polls say differently.

Dems Attack Jobs In Delaware

David Anderson — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:16:23 +0000

The attack on the Student loan industry is about to cost hundreds of existing jobs and prevent many more from ever starting in Delaware. Another reason to kill the bill (Health deform).

From the E-Mail Box Hatch coming to Delaware

David Anderson — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:08:36 +0000

Sorry for the short notice, but we would like to invite you to join us on Monday, March 22 to meet US Senator Orrin Hatch. Senator Hatch, of Utah, is one of the Senate’s leading conservatives and the longest serving Republican in the Senate. He will be joining us at Republican Headquarters in Wilmington for a light breakfast and meet and greet.

The event will begin at 8:30am and cost is $25 per person, including a light breakfast. Please RSVP to Paula Manolakos at 302-668-1954 ext 1 or pmanolakos@delawaregop.com.

Note from me, Don’t forget Sussex Lincoln Day in the Evening. It sounds like a fine day to be a Delaware Republican.

Fearless

David Anderson — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:39:48 +0000

Senator Coburn has thrown down the gauntlet to house sell outs.

For state employees blocked from Youtube and slow connections, here is the money quote. Can you say scorched earth?

SEN. TOM COBURN (R), OKLAHOMA: I want to send a couple of messages to my colleagues in the House.

If you voted no and you vote yes, and you lose your election, and you think any nomination to a federal position isn’t going to be held in the Senate, I’ve got news for you. It’s going to be held.

Number two is, if you get a deal, a parochial deal for you or your district, I’ve already instructed my staff and the staff of seven other senators that we will look at every appropriations bill, at every level, at every instance, and we will outline it by district, and we will associate that with the buying of your vote. So, if you think you can cut a deal now, and it not come out until after the election, I want to tell you that isn’t going to happen. And be prepared to defend selling your vote in the House.

Tie our hands

David Anderson — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:43:57 +0000

“If you don’t tie our hands, we will keep stealing”, Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) said. He was speaking recently on the raiding of social security and the trust funds. Almost on cue, the new CBO report shows that the reconciliation amendments to so called health care reform (deform is my preference) will cost around 70 billion more than the old senate bill. It supposedly cuts the deficit more (remember that it was increased 900 billion to allow for HCR) than the senate bill to qualify for reconciliation.

How did that happen? It raids 70 billion from the long term health care insurance fund and 56 billion from an already struggling Social Security plan. It makes you wonder what the Democrats don’t like about seniors. I am working this Saturday so I can not go to D. C. If you can, please do so. Tie their hands or they will keep stealing either that or bring your proverbial pitchforks.

HCR 28 Gets it Right

Timothy Pancoast — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 05:38:40 +0000

On Wednesday Delaware Patriots from around the state descended on Legislative Hall in Dover. We went there, in part, because of HCR 2, A resolution that would give President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid the state of Delaware as a rubber stamp for whatever the health care takeover bill ends up being. This was unsatisfactory to us as we know much of the state is not in agreement with the current bill, and many of us find the tricks and methods used to push it distasteful, unethical, and in some cases even unConstitutional. We want a fresh start and real reform that won’t kill whole swaths of our economy in the process.

Well just in case anyone wonders whether the time the sacrificed on Wednesday accomplished anything, here it is just a couple of days later and a new resolution has been unveiled. HCR 28. This time the sponsors ask the General Assembly to urge our Congressional delegation to stand up against this fiscally unsound takeover of the health care system. I think they hit most of the essentials. The resolution pushes for several things including:

1. Abandonment of the current disaster of a bill.

2. Recognition that the majority of Americans don’t approve of the bill.

3. Recognition of the fiscal irresponsibility of the bill.

4. States rights

5. Seeking better, fiscally sound strategies for improving health care and reducing its cost.

6. Including an opt-in procedure to enable states to choose to participate or not if such a bill is passed.

Thank you to all of the Senators and Representative that listened to the people of their state. I am pleased to see how many have sponsored resolution 28 compared with resolution 2. I urge the remainder of the General Assembly to vote for this resolution and even join in as sponsors. I addition I urge our state Legislature to seek out and implement ways to reduce the cost of health care in our state. Many people need only be made aware of the assistance and programs that are already available.

If we solve the problem for ourselves than we will have no need or desire for additional federal entitlements and regulations concerning the matter.

Update:

I find this report disturbing. I am highly disappointed with the Delaware House Majority Leader’s response to the resolution and the voices of the citizens of Delaware.

From: “Briggsking Ruth (LegHall)”
To: XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2010 4:46:40 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Health Care Update

Gentlemen,

Today during session we introduced a resolution regarding Health Care. Upon distribution, the majority leader was joking as if to put it in the trash can. It was immediately assigned to committee so it probably will not see the light on the house floor. We need our citizens to see and understand the battles we face in the house.

Thanks

Ruth Briggs King

Representative

37th District

Currently HRC 2 has made it to the Ready List and may be on the floor for debate and a vote soon. HRC 28 has been moved to the House Administration Committee. They don’t have to keep it there very long before the resolution no longer matters. Delaware’s House is gone for the weekend and won’t be back in session till Tuesday. Go ahead and give your Representative a call , especially if they are on the House Administration Committee, to let them know you want HRC 28 brought to the floor and passed.

Public Apology To My Wife

Frank Knotts — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:18:57 +0000

After the release of the health care bill that Pres. Obama and his lackeys in Congress are foisting upon the American citizens, I feel that I owe my wife an apology.

I have now read and heard that this health care reform bill will cost the nation $940 billion, (so you can bet it will be well over a trillion). There is $25 billion in subsidies for consumers who have never bought insurance before.

There is $8 billion for eleven states and D.C. which already meet the bill’s required level of Medicaid.

There is double counting of Medicare money , there is shifting and hiding and accounting sleight of hand being done, that if a private corporation were to use, they would be hauled before a congressional hearing.

$525 billion in Medicare cuts. And they are hiding a provision in the bill that will make it law that all Federally guaranteed student loans will now be made only by the government, this will put private banks out of the student loan business. Another case of the Obama administration nationalizing another industry of what has been a private sector industry.

The bill has some new taxes embedded within it also, like a new Medicare payroll tax on upper income wage earners. Well at least the President and the Democrats haven’t given up on their favorite tactic, class warfare.

So, we have a bill that will cost over a trillion dollars, and still the Democrats are telling us that it will save us $138 billion over ten years .

This is where I have to apologize to my wife. For years now she has been coming home after a shopping spree and telling me that even though she spent $200, she saved us money because everything was on sale for 40% or 50% off. So in her world and evidently the world of Democrats, even though you are spending money you are still able to save money. So to my lovely wife I apologize for not understanding the concept.

But seriously, do the Democrats really expect us to buy into this bunk ? Let’s for argument sake say that they can somehow find $138 billion in savings(not likely though),they have still spent $802 billion new dollars. How does this reduce the deficit?You can not reduce the deficit by spending more money, that’s like me saying that I’m going to increase the amount of money in my sving account by spending it.

Just think about the fact that they are adding in $25 billion in subsidies, we all know that subsidies raise the cost of everything that they are applied to.

There will be no savings from this bill. The tax payers will pay higher taxes, health care cost will go up, quality of health care will go down, the deficit will explode.

President Obama and the Democrats are insane if they think they can put this over on the American citizens and not suffer for it. That or they believe that the majority of the citizens are too stupid to see exactly what this bill is intended to do, and that is to take over a sixth of the nation’s economy and to control every aspect of our lives.

And as an aside, President Obama has been gathering votes for this bill by promising to move quickly on immigration reform. This comes directly from Rep. Luis Gutierrez D-Ill. who said that he had promised to vote for the health care bill as long as the president promised to advance an immigration bill quickly. People, do not underestimate this President, he has a vision and a plan, and health care , education and immigration are the three legs of the stool that is the plan, and a fascist state is the vision.

31st District Republicans Endorse Smith

Tennessee Walker — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:18:53 +0000

From my Kent Friends comes the news that the 31st District Republicans endorsed Ron Smith over Ron Poliquin. I am sure Dave Anderson will have some comments on this.

My take is that both candidates are solid conservatives. Either will be an improvement over the current Democrat incumbent.

Poliquin’s argument was that a new face is needed.
Smith’s argument is that he already has a record of fiscal conservatism as an elected official.

The above is probably too simplistic.

By all accounts Chairwoman Gigi Windley ran a fair and dignified presentation by both candidates and a fair and honest procedure for voting.

The desire for a district endorsement came largely from local Republicans who saw Republicans from outside the district being featured on Candidates’ web sites.

In short the local grass roots volunteers wanted their voices heard.

The Sestack Scandal: Is this Draining the Swamp?

David Anderson — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:18:51 +0000

Written by Howard Rich
Thursday, 18 March 2010 10:40

In addition to promising an end to Republicans’ out-of-control spending, Democrats vowed to “drain the swamp” of corruption in Washington D.C. prior to winning their Congressional majorities in 2006. Of course that was just an entrée for the real “hope and change” to come, as Barack Obama stormed to victory in the presidential election two years later promising to “change Washington” – and cut taxes for a majority of Americans.

In both cases, Democrats positioned themselves to the right of Republicans on fiscal issues – which obviously wasn’t very hard to do given the GOP’s record of excess – and then hammered away relentlessly on Republican corruption. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for example, blasted a “seriously ethical and possibly criminal streak” in the GOP.

“An ethical cloud hangs over the Capitol,” Pelosi said in 2005. “This culture of corruption must stop.”

Yet now – just over a year into Obama’s first term (and over three years since the Democratic takeover of Congress), has that “culture of corruption” stopped?

Of course not. In fact, both fiscally and ethically, things have only grown more putrid in the Washington D.C. “swamp” that Democrats promised to drain.

In addition to reneging on their promises of tax relief, Democrats have put the reckless and unsustainable spending of their GOP predecessors on steroids, adding nearly $6 trillion to the national debt over the past three years alone. But they’ve also taken the low road ethically, as evidenced by the glorified bribes that were offered to (and accepted by) Senators Mary Landrieu and Ben Nelson in exchange for their support of Obama’s socialized medicine proposal. Then there are the scandals involving disgraced House Ways and Means Chairman Charlie Rangel and former Reps. William Jefferson and Eric Massa – as well as the numerous tax scandals that have plagued so many of Obama’s appointments to critical Cabinet posts.

More troubling, however, is the case of Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak, who has stated publicly on more than one occasion that the Obama administration offered him a high-paying job in the federal government in exchange for dropping out of a Democratic primary with party-switching Senator Arlen Specter.

“Yes,” Sestak said last month in response to a Philadelphia reporter who asked him if the White House had offered him a job to forego challenging Specter.

Sestak later confirmed his account to MSNBC host Joe Scarborough.

“Something happened last July, before I got into the race, and I never got asked about it,” Sestak told Scarborough. “All of a sudden, somebody asked me. And, you know, I answered it honestly. I just said yes.”

Obviously, it’s illegal for a federal official to bribe a candidate like that, and while the Obama-friendly mainstream media has largely fallen asleep on the Sestak scandal (choosing instead to focus on the lurid details of Rep. Massa’s fall from grace), it’s pretty clear that the allegation has struck a nerve.

First, the White House issued a blanket denial of Sestak’s charge – although it did so anonymously, a move which raised plenty of eyebrows. Also, when pressed on the issue three days after the allegation was first made, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told a reporter “I haven’t looked into this.” He promised to get answers, but a week later Gibbs apologized, saying “I have not made any progress on that.”

Sadly, this isn’t the only thing Obama and his Congressional allies haven’t “made any progress on.”

In addition to abandoning middle class tax cuts and spending restraint in favor of tax hikes and record deficit spending, Obama’s “hope and change” have also been replaced by corrupt insider deal-making and Gangland-style bribery.

The end result? As was the case three years ago, Washington’s “swamp” is still in need of a good draining.

The author is Chairman of Americans for Limited Government

Government Expansion

Frank Knotts — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:39:22 +0000

Some people may watch the evening news and believe that the number one debate in the nation today is about health care. On the one side, I’ll call it the left, you have people in power and control of the Congress who want to take over the nation’s health care industry and put it under the purview of the Federal government. On the other side, I’ll call it the right, you have people who still believe that the individual and the private sector are still the best way to handle such an important decision as life and death.

The real question in this so-called health care debate isn’t just what is best for the consumer, it’s about whether the nation wishes to continue down this dangerous path of out of control government expansion.

If we allow the Federal government to take over the decision-making of where and how and of what kind of health care insurance we are to buy, or even if we wish to buy it, then we will have conceded that we as individuals are not capable of running our own lives. We will have admitted that we must have government agents make all of our life’s most important choices. We will have become nothing more than a small piece in the government machine.

We have over the years allowed government expansion in so many areas of our lives that we now take it for granted. Many times we hear that government expansion has been for the benefit of the nation and the people. Examples such as how much safer our roads are due to the fact that government inspectors give our cars a good two-minute inspection every two years.

But as so often is the case, inspections by the government then turn into regulating. Once we gave the authority to the government to inspect our car and to determine whether they were safe or not, the government then took it upon itself to make our cars safer and more efficient. The government started mandating such things as fuel mileage. The car companies were forced to make their cars out of lighter materials to achieve this , without giving up the performance that the consumers desired.

Due to the lighter materials however the cars were not as safe , because they crumpled so easily. So the government came back and saved the day again by mandating all sorts of safety changes. Then the government took it upon itself to mandate environmental limits on the exhaust of the vehicles.

Now some will say that all of this is for the good of the nation, the world and the people. This can be argued, but what it did was to raise the cost of the vehicles. Some may ask , so what ? Well just imagine what people would be able to buy with the extra two, three or even four thousand dollars, that all of that government regulation has added to the price of a car. What this has done , it has narrowed the consumer’s choices of where they can spend the money they earn.

Another favorite example that the left loves to use to justify government expansion is the FDA. They will tell you that millions of lives are save every year because of the FDA’s inspection of food and drugs. Again this can be argued to be a benefit, one that even I would not deny. But also again , once we handed over the authority to the government to make the determination of whether our food was safe and whether our drugs would do what the pharmaceutical companies said they would, we also opened the door for the government to expand its authority .

We have reached a point in this nation where , not only does the government regulate the preparation of food and the testing of drugs, we now see governments such as New York City regulating such things as saturated fats and salt limits in the foods that restaurants sell, we see the government telling restaurants that they must post calorie content on their menus. Is this really what government should be doing?

If this health care reform is passed in any form, by any party, we will see the largest expansion of government control and regulation in the history of this nation. We will witness the government take over of every aspect of our lives.

Once we allow the government to have the power to decide our health care issues, it will expand and grow and regulate everything from the food we eat to the kind of car we drive, to the leisure activities we choose to participate in.

If we allow the government this power, it will be the end of freedom in this nation. It will be the end of the great experiment.