Erick Erickson's Blog, page 167

Bipartisan Mendacity

If House Republicans vote for the bipartisan compromise, they should be driven into the street by the tea party movement and horsewhipped — metaphorically speaking. In reality, they should be primaried.

What started out as $38.5 billion in cuts, turned into around $14 billion in cuts and a bunch of accounting gimmicks. Each new day brings new disgusting revelations. According to the Congressional Budget Office, "total federal outlays will still rise by approximately $177 billion." Yes, that says "rise" not "decrease."

More startling, the Congressional Budget Office reports that the deficit will only be cut by $352 million. That's million with an "m". The budget deficit will be $1.6 trillion this year.

Republicans who vote for this compromise are lying to the American people that they get how serious the problem is. The one silver lining is that this will hopefully radicalize freshman Republicans against anymore leadership deals.

But it's not just Republican mendacity the republic must be worried about. Barack Obama spoke yesterday in a speech filled with lies, half-truths, and enough class warfare rhetoric to make Karl Marx blush. The mendacity of Obama's class warfare is designed to distract from the fact that under Obama, gas prices have risen more than 100% from when he took office, food prices have gone up, and every dollar every American brings home buys less and less.

The man started his speech praising the free market and the rugged individualism of the American people, while ignoring that under his Presidency more Americans are on food stamps than at any time in American history and it is the Obama administration, not the free market, that is picking winners and losers in the marketplace.

Paul Ryan, on the Mark Levin Show last night, called Obama "a pyromanic in a field of straw men." Obama's mendacity goes deep — even to the point of lying about the national debt.

According to Mark Knoller at CBS News, "Even if every provision of President Obama's deficit reduction plan is enacted - and he concedes it won't be - there still won't be a balanced budget on the horizon. And the National Debt will continue to expand by trillions of dollars."

Knoller continued, "The Obama plan is designed to reduce deficit spending over the next 12 years by $4 trillion dollars. If every penny of that $4 trillion in deficits is eliminated, the government's own budget projections show that trillions of dollars more in deficits would remain in place."

Taking Mr. Obama at his word, a dangerous thing to do, if his plan involves three times the spending cuts as tax increases, he is still talking about a $1 trillion tax increase. In defense of taxing the rich, Mr. Obama said

As a country that values fairness, wealthier individuals have traditionally born a greater share of this burden than the middle class or those less fortunate.  This is not because we begrudge those who've done well – we rightly celebrate their success.  Rather, it is a basic reflection of our belief that those who have benefitted most from our way of life can afford to give a bit more back.  Moreover, this belief has not hindered the success of those at the top of the income scale, who continue to do better and better with each passing year.

Let's break this down:

As a country that values fairness, wealthier individuals have traditionally born a greater share of this burden than the middle class or those less fortunate.

If all Americans were taxed at 10%, people making $1,000,000.00 would pay $100,000.00 in taxes. People making $100,000 a year would pay $10,000.00 in taxes. In other words, if all Americans were treated equally, the rich would still pay more.

But wait, it gets better. Right now, the wealthiest 1% bring home 19.6% of all income in America and pay over 40% of all taxes. The wealthiest 5% pay 60% of all taxes in the country. Suddenly we're claiming they need to pay more?

But wait, it gets even better.

Moreover, this belief has not hindered the success of those at the top of the income scale, who continue to do better and better with each passing year.

Actually, the people Barack Obama is referring to pay relatively low income taxes, and not because of tax cuts, but because they derive the bulk of their wealth from sources other than a regular salary. They make their money with investments impacted by capital gains taxes and through tax reduction strategies.

The people who will get impacted by this increase are the working stiffs who own small businesses. Obama, not ever having a real job in the private sector, might not realize it, but the bulk of businesses in this country are S-corporations, LLC's, partnerships, and sole proprietorships. These people see the profit from their businesses flow through to their personal income taxes, unlike Warren Buffet.

Meanwhile, in his 5,600 words, Obama avoided using the word "entitlement" and dodged substantive entitlement reform.

When neither Republican leaders nor Democratic leaders can be honest with what they are cutting, how much they are cutting, or what reforms they want to do, we're sunk. This is just another reason why returning power to the states and the people is critical for the success of this country.

Washington is failing us. The people and the states can do better.

Morning Briefing for April 14, 2011

RedState Morning Briefing

For April 14, 2011

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. Bipartisan Mendacity

2. Barack Obama Fully Embraces Death Panels

3. Is Unofficial Inflation Present In The Economy?

4. Questionable Visitors' Log Reveals AFL-CIO Boss Made Four Dozen White House Trips

5. Planned Parenthood Clinics Help Statutory Rapists Cover Their Tracks

6. Nancy Pelosi Is Right: Elections Shouldn't Matter As Much As They do

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1. Bipartisan Mendacity

If House Republicans vote for the bipartisan compromise, they should be driven into the street by the tea party movement and horsewhipped — metaphorically speaking. In reality, they should be primaried.

What started out as $38.5 billion in cuts, turned into around $14 billion in cuts and a bunch of accounting gimmicks. Each new day brings new disgusting revelations. According to the Congressional Budget Office, "total federal outlays will still rise by approximately $177 billion." Yes, that says "rise" not "decrease."

More startling, the Congressional Budget Office reports that the deficit will only be cut by $352 million. That's million with an "m". The budget deficit will be $1.6 trillion this year.

Republicans who vote for this compromise are lying to the American people that they get how serious the problem is. But it's not just Republican mendacity the republic must be worried about. Barack Obama spoke yesterday in a speech filled with lies, half-truths, and enough class warfare rhetoric to make Karl Marx blush. The mendacity of Obama's class warfare is designed to distract from the fact that under Obama, gas prices have risen more than 100% from when he took office, food prices have gone up, and every dollar every American brings home buys less and less.

The man started his speech praising the free market and the rugged individualism of the American people, while ignoring that under his Presidency more Americans are on food stamps than at any time in American history and it is the Obama administration, not the free market, that is picking winners and losers in the marketplace.

Paul Ryan, on the Mark Levin Show last night, called Obama "a pyromanic in a field of straw men." Obama's mendacity goes deep — even to the point of lying about the national debt.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Barack Obama Fully Embraces Death Panels

While everyone else was focused on Barack Obama bashing Paul Ryan, I noticed that he took full ownership of death panels yesterday. Naturally, Obama did not call them death panels. He called them "an independent commission of doctors, nurses, medical experts and consumers." But his description hits dead on with what his death panels will do.

According to Barack Obama yesterday, the death panels "will look at all the evidence and recommend the best ways to reduce unnecessary spending while protecting access to the services seniors need."

We already know what they'll recommend as "the best ways to reduce unnecessary spending". Barack Obama's own advisers have told us. They will prioritize giving health care to healthier people and let sicker people die. At end of life, they will deny people life sustaining treatment because, after all, they're going to die anyway. Note his phrasing: "protecting access to the services seniors need." Dying people, according to Obama's advisers, need hospice not hope. They certainly do not need expensive treatments that may buy them time to see the birth of a new grandchild or other reasons.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Is Unofficial Inflation Present In The Economy?

In the late 1970's and early 1980's, inflation became a crippling detriment to the American Economy. Federal Reserve Chairman, Paul Volker, showed remarkable patriotism for a Democrat. He brought down the hammer athwart this scourge. He raised interest rates through the roof and forced down the price of most consumables to acceptable levels. As a result of Paul Volker's courage and love for America, the fixed-income consumer was temporarily spared great misery and deprivation.

Of course Fed Chairman Volker's policy decisions were kryptonite to elected officialdom. They solved a long-term Seldon-Crisis of political economy with little or no concern for short-term public opinion. The primary measure that set off Paul Volker's alarm system was the CPI (Consumer Price Index). Sadly, the CPI referenced today would not mathematically map to the CPI Volker relied upon back in the day. Therein lies a tale of statistical machination and nerdacious skullduggery.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Questionable Visitors' Log Reveals AFL-CIO Boss Made Four Dozen White House Trips

In a critical report published by the Center for Public Integrity regarding the White House visitor log, one of the more peculiar items noted was the amount of visits that AFL-CIO boss Richard Trumka has made to the White House. While the Center's criticism centers around the lack of (or missing) data provided by the White House, the records did reflect that Trumka has visited the White House an astonishing four dozen times.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. Planned Parenthood Clinics Help Statutory Rapists Cover Their Tracks

Planned Parenthood claims to support women's health. Their institutional actions, though, indicate they support criminal activity that would harm a child. How? By facilitating abortions for children raped by adult men. Fully 91% of the abortion clinics contacted would help an underaged girl receive an abortion even when the clinic counselor knew the father was an adult male.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

6. Nancy Pelosi Is Right: Elections Shouldn't Matter As Much As They do

Speaking at Tufts University on April 8th, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi had one of those marvelous moments of self-revelation in which a usually polished politician speaking casually and without a script among like-minded friends says what everyone is thinking–what everyone knows to be true–in this case what is considered an unquestionable "fact" by their audience. As you can see from the video, there was not a murmur when Pelosi circled around to her punch line that "elections should not matter as much as they do." She went on to lament that the lack of "shared values" had lead to the unpleasantness of last Friday in Congress with all the shouting and staying up late and worries over who would get to keep their Blackberrys.

The thing is, Pelosi is right. Elections are burdensome things. They are expensive, intrusive and all too frequently unfair. Even when you win, the cycle of fundraising and campaigning distracts from the business at hand.

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Responding to Stern Emails From Speaker Boehner's Office

I'm getting stern emails from Speaker Boehner's Office about my prior post. The Speaker is not happy with me.

The feeling is mutual the more I learn of this budget deal.

Here's the first email:

Subject: This is False

"Turns out it does not cut $38.5 billion. According to the Congressional Budget Office, it only cuts $353 million."

From story: "The CBO study confirms that the measure trims $38 billion in new spending authority."

I understand you're opposed, but at least be accurate.

Okay, I should have said "cuts the deficit $353 million."

But we're playing with semantics here. Note what I said: "cuts $353 million."

Now note what the Speaker's Office points out from the CBO analysis: "the measure trims $38 billion in new spending authority."

I think I'll stand by what it being cut, because a cut implies something is going down — in the case of what we always have been talking about, the deficit.

The Speaker's Office also sent this email:

Subject: This also not true

"It's just the *deficit* only gets cut $353 million."

353 million in the next 6 months, but 315 billion over a decade. For example from the story: "CBO does credit a move to eliminate year-round Pell Grants with generating more than $40 billion in deficit reduction over the coming decade from both mandatory and appropriated accounts, though just slightly less than $1 billion this year."

So . . . we are only cutting the deficit $353 million this year? I haven't been talking about the next decade. No one has. And $315 billion over the next ten years is one grain of sand on deficit beach. This year's deficit is $1.5 TRILLION.

I'd just point out that John Boehner said on February 11, 2011, "We are going to cut $100 billion in discretionary spending next week. Write it down. $100 billion in discretionary spending. And we aren't going to stop there."

Oh, lastly we also know the spending baseline went up $3.3 billion.

The net, bottom line IMPACT is that the CR will only reduce discretionary spending by $352 million this fiscal year (once all the smoke and mirrors are cleared).

Obama Speaks. I Interpret — #EERS

Tonight on the Erick Erickson Show, I will give you the official interpretation of Barack Obama's speech from earlier today. The show kicks off at 7:00 p.m. ET.

You can tune in to http://wsbradio.com and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK. You can also follow along on twitter with hashtag #EERS.

Consider this an open thread.

That Budget Deal Some of You Love Isn't Much of a Deal

That budget deal some of you have been going ga-ga over? Turns out it does not cut $38.5 billion. According to the Congressional Budget Office, it only cuts $353 million.

Tim Pawlenty is the first 2012 candidate coming out of the gate in opposition to the deal. He's urging Republicans to vote against it.

Frankly, at this point, any House Republican who votes for the compromise should be flogged by the tea party movement — metaphorically speaking of course.

And we might really need to reconsider whether or not our existing leadership has the moral authority to continue leading. They said they were all in for $100 billion. Cut it to $61 billion. Compromised at $38 billion. And now that turns out to be $353 million.

This is embarrassing.

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UPDATE: The one silver lining in all of this is that the House GOP Freshmen should now be radicalized against any deal cut by the House leadership.

Should House Republicans Start Thinking About Replacing Speaker Boehner?

The short answer is no, but I have been getting a lot of emails and phone calls into my radio show asking if the GOP should boot Boehner.

No, they shouldn't. I think John Boehner is more conservative than Eric Cantor, who'd most likely replace him, but Boehner's leadership has been crap lately. This deal that got us $38.5 billion in cuts, turns out to not only have gotten us $14 billion in cuts, but also raised the baseline on spending. That's a fancy way of saying it will wind up costing us money to get these cuts and put the Democrats in a better position to begin the 2012 budget fight.

Boehner just seems off his game. He is advised by Barry Jackson, an amiable guy from the Bush Administration whose first major policy fight as Boehner's Chief of Staff following the untimely death of Paula Nowakowski was to make sure support for traditional marriage got stripped from the GOP's Pledge to Nowhere or whatever they called it.

It's been all down hill from there with the coup de grace being Harry Reid thanking Barry Jackson last week for his vital role in getting the compromise done.

John Boehner is convinced that the GOP will lose the PR battle over a government shutdown and, consequently, is scared to death to pick a fight and chance the government shutting down. He is absolutely right that the GOP will lose the PR battle in the media, but that does not mean the GOP should not fight on principle.

Unfortunately for conservatives and House Republicans, Boehner seems to want to play Washington politics as usual and do some buddy-buddy back scratching instead of leading. Having a Bushie advising him compounds the problem.

John Boehner doesn't need replacing, but he does need recalibrating.

The President Will Offer Unicorns

Today at 1:00 p.m., President Barack Obama will address the nation to talk about balancing the budget.

Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told the White House Press Corp that Paul Ryan's budget plan is a non-starter because the budget is not balanced. Carney failed to mention that Barack Obama's budget does not balance either.

In fact, it is Paul Ryan who is necessitating Barack Obama's speech. Obama set up his deficit commission and then, upon getting its recommendations, treated it as the red headed step child of the administration. It was neither seen nor heard. When Obama gave his State of the Union address he ignored the commission in its entirety.

Only after Paul Ryan came up with a detailed plan did Barack Obama have to respond. More the follower of the free world than leader of the free world, Obama will yet again follow someone else's idea and explain how his is better.

What we know from the plan is that it will not be better. It will be more of the same backfilled with wishes, dreams, and unicorns. It will also include massive tax hikes and finally embrace the deficit commission while, no doubt, Obama works furiously behind the scenes to undermine it.

The top one percent of income earners in the nation earn only 19.6% of income in the nation, but pay 41% of the taxes in this country. The top 5% of income earners in the country pay 60% of all taxes in the country. How asking them to pay more is in any way fair or equal treatment is beyond me. But Obama will ask them. To Obama, all men should be treated equal except the successful.

Only a few weeks ago, Barack Obama praised the tax deal Republicans and Democrats entered into in December. Remember that deal? It extended the Bush tax cuts. Obama was perfectly happy to attribute that tax deal to job growth in this country.

But now Obama wants to demagogue the rich and demand scrapping the Bush tax cuts. What he is doing is not offering up a real plan — a plan that can be agreed to on Capitol Hill. He's offering instead more class warfare.

In Barack Obama's zeal to punish the successful, he will ignore that Americans of all incomes have less and less disposable income. He will ignore high gas prices. He will ignore inflation in food and basic commodities. He will instead demagogue.

And he will embrace plans made under compromise in Washington that leave Washington in charge. In fact, the compromises Obama will embrace are the same types of compromises that have gotten us to the verge of bankruptcy.

We can only hope the GOP fights. But given how their deal went last Friday, it is better to hope for the unicorns.

Morning Briefing for April 13, 2011

RedState Morning Briefing

For April 13, 2011

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. The President Will Offer Unicorns

2. Don't Call Them Easter Eggs, Intolerant Monsters! They are Spring Spheres

3. Nick Ayers: The Big News You Might Not Have Noticed

4. Energy Flow: Sources and Uses

5. Boundless Immigration: The Silent Killer of the Welfare State

———————————————————————-

1. The President Will Offer Unicorns

Today at 1:00 p.m., President Barack Obama will address the nation to talk about balancing the budget.

Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told the White House Press Corp that Paul Ryan's budget plan is a non-starter because the budget is not balanced. Carney failed to mention that Barack Obama's budget does not balance either.

In fact, it is Paul Ryan who is necessitating Barack Obama's speech. Obama set up his deficit commission and then, upon getting its recommendations, treated it as the red headed step child of the administration. It was neither seen nor heard. When Obama gave his State of the Union address he ignored the commission in its entirety.

Only after Paul Ryan came up with a detailed plan did Barack Obama have to respond. More the follower of the free world than leader of the free world, Obama will yet again follow someone else's idea and explain how his is better.

What we know from the plan is that it will not be better. It will be more of the same backfilled with wishes, dreams, and unicorns. It will also include massive tax hikes and finally embrace the deficit commission while, no doubt, Obama works furiously behind the scenes to undermine it.

The top one percent of income earners in the nation earn only 19.6% of income in the nation, but pay 41% of the taxes in this country. The top 5% of income earners in the country pay 60% of all taxes in the country. How asking them to pay more is in any way fair or equal treatment is beyond me. But Obama will ask them. To Obama, all men should be treated equal except the successful.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Don't Call Them Easter Eggs, Intolerant Monsters! They are Spring Spheres

A Seattle public school has decided that Easter eggs are super offensive and not politically correct. They've renamed them Spring Spheres (even though eggs are not spheres. This is our public education system at work, people).

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Nick Ayers: The Big News You Might Not Have Noticed

I have done my best to ignore Tim Pawlenty. He has never struck me as the most exciting politician. His global warming position made me squeamish. He's always had an okay record as Governor, but around the edges he struck me as not really a movement conservative.

So I haven't paid attention to Tim Pawlenty. Then he went and hired Nick Ayers.

For those of you who do not know Nick Ayers, he just finished a very successful tenure as Executive Director of the Republican Governors Association. Wunderkind is a word typically associated with Ayers.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Energy Flow: Sources and Uses

A picture is worth 1,000 words. Or 95 quadrillion BTUs, which is how much energy from all sources the U.S. consumed in 2009.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. Boundless Immigration: The Silent Killer of the Welfare State

As we finally embark on the imperative discussion of entitlement reform, we cannot overlook immigration and its disproportionate effect on the welfare state.

Our immigration system is stuck in the Kennedy days of the 1960's when our population was half of what it is today. Over the past few decades, in addition to the migration of 12 million+ illegals, we have allowed legal immigration to spiral out of control. We no longer promote an immigration system which benefits Americans, rather an unsustainable system of chain migration. This system encourages immigration which is too random, too low skilled, and quite simply too much. While our historical average for annual immigration ranged from 200,000-400,000, the current inane system has allowed for over 1 million new immigrants almost every year for the past decade. Again, a disproportionate number of those immigrants are low skilled.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Republicans Got Played and Envirowackos Gone Wild — #EERS

It is becoming more and more clear that Republicans got played in the budget deal. Likewise, envirowackos have gone totally wild.

We'll get into it all tonight on the Erick Erickson Show at 7pm ET. You can listen live at http://wsbradio.com and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

Consider this an open thread.

Nick Ayers: The Big News You Might Not Have Noticed

I have done my best to ignore Tim Pawlenty. He has never struck me as the most exciting politician. His global warming position made me squeamish. He's always had an okay record as Governor, but around the edges he struck me as not really a movement conservative.

So I haven't paid attention to Tim Pawlenty. Then he went and hired Nick Ayers.

For those of you who do not know Nick Ayers, he just finished a very successful tenure as Executive Director of the Republican Governors Association. Wunderkind is a word typically associated with Ayers.

He is a young, principled conservative grounded in an unapologetic faith in Christ. I know him pretty well. He started out in politics and I just took him for being a bright kid in the right place at the right time for Georgia's Republican tidal wave back in 2002. But he kept being successful. At some point, people like me who were willing to assume it had all been about being in the right place at the right time had to realize Nick Ayers is sharp.

And he is not a sell out — a trait I have more fondness for than most traits among political wunderkinds.

For the past year, Republicans have been in a war to get Nick Ayers. Pretty much everyone has wanted him. Instead, Nick sat on the sidelines, choosing instead to help Reince Preibus's transition to the RNC.

Everyone assumed, given the closeness of their relationship, that Nick would be going with Haley Barbour. That Nick did not suggests to me that either Barbour is not fully invested in 2012 or he really has no shot of winning.

This is all a long way of saying that this hire forces me to pay attention to Tim Pawlenty and you should too now. Putting a twenty-something in such a position is a bold and risky move. But Nick Ayers's track record suggests Pawlenty is suddenly a force to be reckoned with — especially for guys like me who were counting him out before he really got started.

Single staff picks are rarely, if ever, game changers. But they can be game starters. To me, that's what this is. Tim Pawlenty is in it to win it in a way I didn't think he really would be.