Democrats

When Democrats are in power, there are no rules.  Paul Krugman, a columnist for the rapidly declining New York Times,  has recently joined the media chorus visciously castigating Senator Jim Bunning for his attempt to delay a bill until Harry Reid and the Democrat leadership agreed to follow Obama’s “PayGo” order and fund the legislation.  The Senator described the bill as non-controversial, and at a mere $10 billion—pocket change to Liberals—it could easily be funded with unspent stimulus dollars.  As Bunning put it in his own editorial, “If the Senate cannot find $10 billion to pay for a measure we all support, we will never pay for anything.”  At that rate, I guess we should just stop paying taxes altogether and fund everything with deficit spending.

Of course, to Krugman, this couldn’t be about enforcing Senate rules and revealing the “PayGo” sham.  No, Jim Bunning is amoral, and hates the unemployed.  That’s the message in his editorial.  Krugman then cites the “Bunning Blockade” as evidence that: Democrats are reasonable, moral, and care about the underdogs; Republicans have become extremist right-wingers and that is why there is no more bipartisanship in Washington; and the GOP only cares about the “affluent victims of the ‘death-tax.’”  He uses these conclusions as a justification for passing ObamaCare through reconciliation.

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Senate Reconciliation was established in 1974 under the Democrat-controlled 93rd Congress.  Reconciliation exists for a very specific purpose: to eliminate the threat of a minority party filibuster on budget bills.  It has been used 22 times since its inception, and I’ll trust Senator Reid’s figure that 16 of those were by Republicans—most recently to pass the “Bush Tax Cuts.”  However, Reid is incredibly misleading when he says Republicans should “stop crying about Reconciliation as if it’s never been done before.”  While it has been used to pass budget-related legislation, it has never been used to create a new program—though not for lack of trying.

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There is no doubt Scott Brown’s “Massachusetts Miracle” dealt a stunning blow to Obama and the Democrat leadership’s far left agenda.  With Roland Burris’ announcement that he will step down at the end of his term–apparently he was only able to raise $20,000 for his re-election election campaign–the GOP has awoken from its coma to campaign against “Chicago Politics” in Illinois.  The Illinois GOP has taken center stage with aggressive campaigns for both the Senate and the Governorship.  Even more astounding, the candidates have a legitimate chance if there’s a less than enthusiastic turnout among mortuary voters.

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At over an hour in length, President Obama’s State of the Union address revealed one thing: he hasn’t been paying attention to the will of the American people.  The President was quick to remind us of the dire economic conditions he “inherited” from his predecessor.  He failed to acknowledge that his policies have produced no demonstrable economic recovery as evidenced by continued job losses, even in the holiday season, and 10% unemployment.   While the stimulus failed to keep unemployment below 8%, the President touted the measure as a success, and called for another “jobs bill” to be delivered to his desk as soon as possible.

The President continued blaming former President Bush by asserting that the trillions of dollars in deficit spending racked up over the past year were the result of his predecessor’s “tax cuts” and failing to “pay for two wars.”  The “Stimulus bill” and spending hikes by the Democrat controlled Congress are the more accurate contributors to our current fiscal woes.  The TARP bill also played a role, and was signed under the former President. However, it had the full support of Obama and his transition team and was touted–wrongly–as a necessary measure to save our financial systems.

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