Why should we trust them again?

House minority leader John Boeher was on Michael Medved's show today. In response to a caller's question, Boeher said that the the GOP did indeed have a health care proposal. He gave the URL where it was posted.

REALLY??? I'll bet that most people have no idea that the GOP has a health care plan. Of course Boehner didn't articulate AT ALL what was actually in the plan.

Reagan and Gingrich understood something that Boehner doesn't -- being shy and keeping things quiet is NOT how one wins in the marketplace of ideas.

The sad fact is that the current GOP members in Congress lack the kind of great leadership and communication skills that they had in the 1990s under Newt Gingrich, Dick Armey, and Bill Archer. Not only did those guys accomplish a lot (welfare reform, capital gains tax cut, balanced budget, etc), they also set the stage for what would happen when the GOP took control of the Presidency. I remember the big debates between Armey and Archer on how they would scrap the current tax code in favor of either a flat rate income tax or a national sales tax. Even "moderates" like Pete Domenici (R) and Sam Nunn (D) came up with their own version of radical tax reform (a “consumption-oriented” income tax).

ALL reform (let alone talk of even more radical reform) died in January 2001 when George Bush became President. Instead, George Bush and Karl Rove tried to emulate the Democrats by buying votes with the first new entitlement program since LBJ and the largest federal intrusion into the classroom in history. It didn't work and they got booted out of office. Boehner was part of the mess that Bush made.

The result was inevitable -- the Democrats now control the federal government and are doing everything possible to make it even larger.

I am so VERY happy that Scott Brown won in Massachusetts. It signals that virtually everyone except the most brain dead socialist is waking up to reality. However, this doesn't mean that we should automatically trust John Boehner and the Bush GOP sell-outs again. We need to take it candidate-by-candidate and really take a hard look at whether or not they going to return power to the people or continue to consolidate government in the hands of a few elitists.

Obama Care goes to Senate Floor

All of the Democratic Senators plus Socialist Bernie Saunders and "Independent" Joe Lieberman voted to send the government healthcare take over bill to the floor for debate.

Lieberman still claims that he will not vote for the final bill if it includes the "public option" (government run program). Is he serious or just posturing???

At one point, Senator Mary Landrieu was making similar noises, but then she got a $300 million payoff from Harry Reid. She bragged about it and then voted for the bill.

This is how your government actually works. This is why we are in so much trouble.

Ron Paul bill to Audit Fed wins in House Committe

Well, here is some good news for once. Ron Paul's bill to audit the Federal Reserve Bank passed the House Financial Services committee by a vote of 43-26. The bill has 309 co-sponsors, so it should sail through the House.

The the Federal Reserve and the rest of the financial establishment are up in arms, panicked with the thought of us rubes on main street finding out what goes on behind their closed doors.

So, at the last minute, Barney Frank tried to sabotage the bill by proposing an amendment that would have essentially gutted the bill.

The bill still has to pass the House, without being gutted by Barney Frank, Mel Watt, and the rest of the establishment. Then it has to pass the Senate. Then the two bills needs to be reconciled and pass the House and Senate again.

We're still along way from knowing what goes on behind the closed doors of the fed. But it's a good start. Congratulations Dr. Paul!

Republican lawmaker says he would 'consider' a war tax as last resort

Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said he would "consider" supporting the Democrats war surtax should President Barack Obama withdraw all American forces from Afghanistan.

I have news for Mr. King -- the "war" (actually a misguided nation building exercise) cannot be won. The Russians couldn't subdue the unruly Afghanis. Neither could Bush. Obama won't be able to either.

A REAL conservative would not be in favor of flushing American tax money down the toilet.

We need to get out of Afghanistan and then spend a fraction of war money on bribing the Afghani war loads to do what we want. It worked in Egypt -- we've been paying the dictator Mubarak a relatively small amount every year to make nice with Israel. He has.

Is the Collapse of the Dollar a Blessing in Disguise?

Over the last several weeks there have been rumors that a group of countries, including China, Russia, Japan, France, and the oil rich Gulf States are preparing to dump the dollar for oil trades. This follows months of speculation that many of the same countries have been working to replace the dollar as the world's primary reserve currency with a new international monetary standard based on a basket of currencies. The dollar has been plunging on world markets.

Why is this import? Well, because the massive and ever increasing U.S. government debt has been largely financed by foreign countries. When a country sells us products for dollars, it can use the dollars in four ways:
• It can buy things from us
• It can buy things (like oil) from other counties that are priced in dollars
• It can invest in U.S. assets (stocks, bonds, real estate, etc)
• It can lend the money to the U.S. government to finance deficit spending

Countries like China sell us products for dollars. They lend a lot of this money to the U.S. government to finance deficit spending. China also uses some of the dollars to buy oil, which is priced in dollars. The countries who sell oil for dollars also use their dollars to finance U.S. government debt.

If countries stop taking dollars for oil and other products they sell to us, it will be the end of the U.S. government’s ability to borrow enormous sums of money. If that happens, the days of big government would soon be over because they wouldn’t have the money to keep spending. That’s a very good thing.

The question is how it would happen? If the world dumps the dollar, the government will have two choices. They can cut spending and live within their means. Or they can turn the printing presses on to keep spending just a tiny bit longer, and create a hyperinflation in the process. The latter would be a catastrophe that would wipe out the middle class and set the stage for political upheaval, including the potential for violent revolution. It’s happened in other countries. We don’t need it to happen here.

If the world does dump the dollar, let’s hope that there are enough rational people around to realize that the party is over and have the courage to reign in government spending. If not, things will get much worse before they get better.

Is opposition to Obama’s programs really driven by racism?

Recently, there has been a flurry of accusations claiming that the people who oppose Obama’s programs are motivated by racism. I understand the why. Most Republicans didn’t say a thing when George Bush expanded the federal government at a faster clip than anyone since LBJ. The very few Republicans, like Ron Paul, who did speak out against the big government schemes of George Bush and Karl Rove were ostracized by the GOP leadership.

Today, Republicans are going ballistic because Obama is doing basically the same thing as Bush – spending money like crazy, centralizing decision making, and driving a stake into the heart of America’s future. It shouldn’t be surprising that many see racism at work, even though a better explanation is simple partisan politics.

Regardless, it should be very clear that the GOP is filled with unprincipled hypocrites who, like the Democrats, only care about power and control. They need do some house cleaning if they want to gain the trust of the American people again.

The Sheer Idiocy of Government

There was a great story today about how the government denied a disabled person the request to buy a $150 iPhone application that translates text to speech. Instead, they recommended that the person purchase an $8,000 specialty computer that can’t be used for any other function.

Why? Because, Medicare regulations only allow people to purchase single purpose devices. Any and all multi-purpose devices are automatically rejected, even though they may be orders of magnitude less expensive. Wouldn't it be great if a disabled person could check their email from the same computer that they used for their disability??? Unfortunately, it's just not allowed according to government rules.

There is only one word to describe this -- idiotic.

This conclusively demonstrates the sheer idiocy of government. There isn't any common sense. There isn't any compassion. There are only mindless people who follow mindless rules.

Then we wonder why everything is so screwed up.