Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) promises that a GOP Congress will repeal ObamaCare:

"we will do everything we can" to delay, defund and repeal Obamacare.

Let’s hold Eric to his promise.  Elect a GOP House and Senate – then put their feet to the fire!

H/T – Lynn Mitchell @ SWACgirl and RealClearPolitics

MASSIVE TAX INCREASE WILL HIT ALL AMERICANS

More than 7 million jobs have been lost in the last three years and over 3 million of those jobs have been lost since the President signed the so-called stimulus bill into law last year.

Unfortunately, these are numbers that the American people are all too familiar with and yet the Congress continues to pursue an agenda that will further threaten American job creators. While Americans are asking “Where are the jobs?”, the Majority in Congress continues to demonstrate that they do not understand the priorities of our constituents or appreciate how private sector jobs are created.

It is clear: the policies of higher taxes, runaway spending, government takeovers and record debt which have become commonplace in Washington these days are having a chilling effect on the nation’s small businesses, the economic engine of our economy. From the so-called stimulus bill to the government takeover of our health care system and the threat of higher taxes and massive deficit spending, these policies have further hindered the creation of private sector jobs.

Unfortunately, just a little over four months from now, Democrats will impose further tax increases on American families and small businesses who are already struggling to make ends meet. According to the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation, unless the $3.8 trillion tax hike, which will take effect on January 1, 2011, is prevented every American income taxpayer will face higher rates.

Specifically, 88 million taxpayers will pay an average of $503 in higher taxes due to the elimination of the ten percent bracket, 35 million married couples will pay an average of $595 in higher taxes due to a reinstatement of the marriage penalty, 31 million families will pay an average of $1,033 in higher taxes due to a reduction in the child tax credit, the death tax will soar to 55 percent, and 94 percent of small businesses will see their tax bills increase as well.

At the same time that millions of Americans are confronted with these oppressive tax hikes, they will also be faced with the first round of tax increases that are part of the new health care reform law. This monstrosity includes over 20 new taxes or tax increases which total $569 billion in additional taxes on individuals and employers.

As if all of this isn’t devastating enough, more than 25 million taxpayers will be ensnared by the Alternative Minimum Tax and higher taxes will be levied on investments starting January 1, 2011.

The last thing our economy needs is crushing tax increases. Instead Congress must focus on policies that allow individuals and businesses to keep more of their hard-earned tax dollars, which would encourage investment and provide financial relief for America’s small businesses. Most importantly Congress must send a clear message to our nation’s job creators that they can hire new workers with the confidence that a higher tax bill is not on the way.

I remain committed to working to stop these massive tax increases on small businesses and working families that will have a devastating impact on job creation and our struggling economy. I will continue working to enact responsible legislation which puts money back into the hands of those who can really turn our economy around – the American people and small businesses.

by Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA)

courtesy of Lynn Mitchell @ SWACgirl

We’ve seen it all before.  The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) just can’t seem to help screwing up.

First, they supported Charlie Crist.  Florida Republicans wanted Marco Rubio.  The NRSC wanted Sue Lowden.  Nevada Republicans wanted Sharon Angle.  The NRSC wanted Trey Grayson.  Kentucky Republicans wanted Rand Paul. … You get the idea.

NOW, NRSC chairman Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) may be getting ready to make his BIGGEST MISTAKE YET!

As a tight Alaska senatorial primary goes to absentee ballots, the NRSC appears to be putting resources behind incumbent senator (and primary night loser) Lisa Murkowski.  There’s just one problem.  Rumors are swirling that Murkowski is in negotiations to buy her way onto the ballot through Alaska’s Libertarian Party should she lose after the absentee count.

Does Sen. Cornyn really want to go to GOP donors asking for money and have to explain why NRSC funds went to support someone on the Libertarian line.

Barack Obama wants MORE spending to aid the economy.  Yet, he didn’t hesitate to put an estimated 23,000 people out of work “for the environment”.  That’s the cost of his administration’s decision to stop drilling in the Gulf.

I guess a job’s not a job unless you work for the government.

We were told that this was necessary because we were facing the greatest environmental disaster of our lifetimes.  Well, it seems that wasn’t exactly true.  However, Obama followed Rahm Emmanuel’s advice – never let a good crisis go to waste.

I guess it’s still all George W. Bush’s fault!

High Unemployment Continues.  Home sales are in decline.  Auto sales fell through the floor after Obama’s “Cash for Clunkers” program ended.  Used car prices are unnaturally high thanks to government interference in the market. 

What do these little factoids have in common?  Liberal interference with the free market.

Who’s at fault?  OF COURSE, it can’t be the sainted Obama.

If Republicans were out of power for DECADES.  The left and the media would STILL somehow manage to blame George W. Bush and the GOP.  One thing is for certain; FACTS mean nothing!

It should come as no surprise to you that I don’t think we can.  Thanks to the profligate policies of Obama / Pelosi / Reid most Americans realize it too.

Is there a solution?  YES!  Read this outline from Heritage:

When President Barack Obama was selling his economic stimulus plan to the American people, he promised that, if enacted, the legislation would prevent unemployment from rising above 8%.  $3 billion in Cash for Clunkers bailouts, $10 billion in government union bailouts, $16 billion in Medicaid bailouts, $13 billion in home buyer tax credits, and $814 billion in stimulus act spending later the nation’s unemployment rate stands at 9.5%. And now the  Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says that number is not going to come down any time soon. Yesterday, the CBO released its 10-year budget baseline predicting that the economy will grow at an anemic 2% next year (half the growth rate it predicted last summer) and that unemployment will remain above 9% through the rest of this year. And that wasn’t even the worst news.

The CBO also said the federal deficit will surpass $1.3 trillion this year, and predicted an additional $6.2 trillion in deficits over the next decade. But even these numbers are too rosy. By law the CBO only analyzes federal budgets as written ignoring almost certain policy changes that include the annual “doc fix” (stopping cuts to doctor’s Medicare payments), rising discretionary spending, and tax changes. Using more realistic assumptions, The Heritage Foundation’s Brian Riedl shows that: 1) annual budget deficits will never fall below $1 trillion and will reach nearly $2 trillion by 2020; 2) the national debt held by the public will pass 100% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020; 3) by 2020 half of all income tax revenues will go to pay just the interest on our $23 trillion national debt.

Even leftist economists are now admitting that this administration’s borrow and spend economic plan has been a complete failure. But instead of cutting their losses, the left wants to double down … with your tax dollars. Last month, Vice President Joe Biden told ABC News that the only problem with the Obama administration’s economic policies was that they failed to spend more and drive us into debt faster. This is insanity. It must stop. To get our country back on the right track The Heritage Foundation’s Solutions for America chapter on Reining in Runaway Spending and Deficits recommends:

Stop Digging: Washington should repeal the remaining stimulus funds, which have failed to create jobs and growth. Any new unemployment assistance should be offset by spending cuts elsewhere. Remaining TARP funds should be rescinded before they can be allocated to new spending. Most important, lawmakers must repeal Obamacare, a ticking spending and deficit time bomb.

Rein in Entitlements: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are driving long-term deficit growth. It is impossible to rein in runaway spending significantly without fundamentally reforming these programs.

Enact Spending Caps: Congress should enact a firm cap on the annual increase in total government spending, limited to inflation plus population growth. Lawmakers should exert all effort to keep overall federal spending to less than 20% of U.S. GDP, the historical post–World War II average for federal spending.

Empower States: Washington taxes families, subtracts a hefty administrative cost, and sends the remaining revenues back to state and local governments with specific rules dictating how they may and may not spend the money. Instead of performing many functions poorly, Congress should focus on performing a few functions well. Most highway, education, justice, and economic development programs should be devolved to state and local governments.

Empower the Private Sector: Anyone who has dealt with the post office or lived in public housing understands how wasteful, inefficient, and unresponsive government can be. Government ownership of business also crowds out private companies and encourages protected entities to take unnecessary risks. Any government function that can also be found in the yellow pages may be a candidate for privatization.

Ban Corporate Welfare: Even before the financial bailouts, Washington spent more on corporate welfare ($90 billion) than on homeland security ($70 billion). There is no justification for taxing working Americans to subsidize profitable companies. Lawmakers could start by reforming America’s largest corporate welfare program—farm subsidies, which are overwhelmingly distributed to large, profitable agribusinesses rather than struggling family farmers.

Bring Federal Pay in Line with the Private Sector: Federal employee total compensation—hourly wages plus benefits—is 30 to 40 percent above that of comparable private sector workers. Congress should bring equity to federal pay and align federal compensation with market rates. Doing so would save taxpayers approximately $47 billion a year.

These spending reforms may not be easy, but the alternative—record government debt and historic tax increases—is even worse.

Quick Hits:

• According to the Labor Department, initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 500,000 last week, the highest since last November.
• President Barack Obama blamed Congress, which is controlled by Democrats, for the poor jobs numbers.
• Obamacare supporters are now admitting the law has failed to gain support since passage, have stopped pretending the law will reduce costs or help the economy, and are now stressing a new promise to “improve” the legislation.
• The Obama administration has scrubbed mentions of the President’s previous support for a cap on carbon emissions from the White House website.
• The city of Vernon, California, like Bell, was also paying its government employees millions of dollars in salaries.

Yesterday was National Cost of Government Day.  What does that mean?  It means that, on average, you have finished paying the cost of government for this year:

Today is the first day you stopped working for Uncle Sam and began working for yourself. Americans must labor 231 days out of the year just to meet all costs imposed by government – 8 days later than last year and a full 34 days longer than 2008.

Sadly, if you live in Maryland (as I do) you will continue paying for the cost of government through September 4th (4th worse in the nation).  Delawareans will have met their obligations tomorrow.  Virginians on August 25th.

Taxes go up in January.  Unemployment is still hovering at 10%.  The economy is still in the tank.  The deficit has soared to an unheard of TRILLION dollars.  What’s a Democrat to do?

Go back to the playbook!  The politics of fear seems to work when all else is failing.

Their policies have been complete failures.  If they run on their record, few Democrat seats are safe.  So ….

During his weekly radio address, President Barack Obama gave us a glimpse into this fall’s mid-term elections:

IF YOU VOTE REPUBLICAN OLD PEOPLE WILL DIE!

Seniors freezing in the cold, eating cat food; that is the image Barack Obama and the DNC want to paint for this fall’s election.  Why not?

As Erick Erickson points out in RedState – it’s a replay of 1994 all over again.  Fortunately, it didn’t work then.  Hopefully, it won’t work now.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the blogosphere …

Politicians have egos.  Let’s face it, you need a healthy ego to run for public office.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  However, when politicians conspire with the bureaucracy – and each other- to prevent average citizens from exercising their First Amendment rights, something is WRONG!

To that end, politicians are turning to campaign finance laws to prevent citizen bloggers from criticizing those self same politicians:

In Ohio, for instance, Edmund Corsi runs GeaugaConstitutionalCouncil.org, a blog that praises and criticizes various local officials. Well, it turns out that some of those officials don’t like getting criticized. Rather than responding with their own speech, however, those pols got the Geauga Board of Elections to file a complaint with the Ohio Election Commission. They said that Corsi violated Ohio’s campaign finance laws because he failed to register, appoint a treasurer and file regular financial reports with the state before daring to speak.

After some legal wrangling, the Commission now reads the complaint to say that Corsi violated the law by not disclosing his name and home address on the website. But, as the Institute for Justice has repeatedly pointed out, mandatory disclosure laws cause far too many people to remain silent. Thankfully, an Ohio-based public interest law firm has come to Corsi’s defense and asked for these charges to be dismissed.

I’m not a huge fan of anonymous blogging, but I certainly don’t support government interfering with the right of an individual to engage in that practice.  What would be next?  Ending all anonymous commenting?  Sure, some folks would argue that this would promote a more “civil” debate on the internet.  It would, if by “civil” you mean one that lacks vigor and passion.  We as readers have a responsibility to be critical of the content placed in front of us – NOT the government.

The Institute for Justice’s Robert Frommer hits the nail right on the head:

If campaign finance “reformers” hate anything, it’s the idea that someone somewhere might be speaking freely about politics.

It’s one thing to require an authority line on something relatively static like a campaign website, blog, or even Facebook page.  However, are we going to see requirements to include an authority line on every “Tweet”?  What about “Re-Tweets”?  Those 140 characters are going to be used up pretty fast.

“Reformers” will never learn.  The only means to enact such “reform” is by instituting a police state.  Personally, I’ll take a coarser public debate.  At least we’ll have a debate then.

As we noted earlier today, my Congressman, Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD) hasn’t been the most available fellow ever since hordes of constituents let him know last year that they were none too happy with his votes FOR the Obama PORKULUS and “Cap and Tax”.  They were going to be REALLY angry if Kratovil voted for ObamaCare.  Being the courageous fellow that he is, Kratovil reversed himself on one of the few issues he actually took a stand on in 2008 – he voted against the massive takeover of our health care system.

While Kratovil claims to be a “fiscally responsible” Democrat.  I wonder if Frank has been checking on where some of that PORKULUS money has been going?  If so, perhaps that explains why Kratovil has been in hiding – he’s embarrassed!

Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK) and John McCain (R-AZ) have recently released Summertime Blues – 100 Stimulus Projects That Give Taxpayers The Blues.  I’m definitely embarrassed for Kratovil and I’m not even a supporter!  Here are just a few of the stellar uses of borrowed dollars which our children and grandchildren will be paying off long after we’re gone:

• $141,000 – to study DINOSAUR EGGS in CHINA
• $1.9 Million – to PHOTOGRAPH ANTS
• $144,500 – to study COCAINE USE in MONKEYS
• $296,000 – to study DOG DOMESTICATION

Now these are just some of the low dollar items.  Check out Summertime Blues for some of the rather large, and of course, rather wasteful big ticket “projects”.  I particularly like Pittsburgh’s answer to the “Big Dig”.  A project Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell equated to a black hole – until PORKULUS offered to pony up.