Erick Erickson's Blog, page 40

More Evidence the GOP is Not Serious About Spending

I have repeatedly bemoaned the Republicans (and Democrats) for not doing enough to cut spending. Sixteen trillion dollars in debt and rising. Trillion dollar deficits. Billions of dollars spent every day.

Well, the incredibly resourceful Club for Growth is out with another look at the GOP and Democrats’ commitment to cutting spending this morning, and it isn’t pretty.

The Club has compiled a mini-scorecard of clean spending cut amendments from appropriations bills recently considered in the House. What they have found is, yet again, depressing.

Only 20 members of the House have voted for every amendment to cut spending. All are Republicans.
50 members of the House have voted against every amendment to cut spending. 49 are Democrats. One is a Republican (Bonner).
The average Republican voted for spending cuts 59% of the time. (Republican Freshman are only slightly better at 60%.)
The average Democrat voted for spending cuts 6% of the time.
The nine Republicans, including four freshmen, who have least often voted to cut spending are: Bonner 0%, Meehan 4%, LaTourette 4%, Bass 4%, Simpson 4%, Lucas 4%, King, P. 4%, Grimm 4%, and Dold 4%
The eight Democrats who have most often voted to cut spending are: Matheson 32%, Rush 31%, Kucinich 30%, Polis 28%, Cooper 20%, McIntyre 17%, Velazquez 17%, and Honda 17%

We expect the Democrats to vote against spending cuts. Shame on the Republicans who joined them.

View the scorecard by clicking here – the Club tells me they will continue to update it as appropriations bills are passed, so all of us should take a look at it periodically to check up on how both parties are doing:http://www.ClubForGrowth.org/spendingcutscorecard

Meet the Micro-Union

The National Labor Relations Board under Barack Obama has become a totally politicized entity intent on destroying free enterprise and advancing union interests across the nation. One of the NLRB’s latest schemes is to authorize “micro-unions.”

Imagine going into a department store. With a micro-union, the shoe department of that department store could unionize. The rest of the store could be union free, except the shoe department. That’s a micro-union.

The Workforce Fairness Institute is trying to education people about just how problematic these things can be for both consumers and businesses. They have a new video, which they are debuting here at RedState this morning. Likewise, late yesterday came word that Senator Lindsey Graham intends to introduce legislation to defund the NLRB’s ability to support micro-unions.

Morning Briefing for June 14, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing

June 14, 2012

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

1. More Evidence the GOP is Not Serious About Spending

2. Meet the Micro-Union

3. The Media’s Little Bubble of Ignorance

4. Adding to my Reagan Maxims: My Take on “Reagan Couldn’t Win Today”

5. From Sen. Rick Santorum: Standing for Veterans, Their Families, and Religious Freedom

———————————————————————-

1. More Evidence the GOP is Not Serious About Spending

I have repeatedly bemoaned the Republicans (and Democrats) for not doing enough to cut spending. Sixteen trillion dollars in debt and rising. Trillion dollar deficits. Billions of dollars spent every day.

Well, the incredibly resourceful Club for Growth is out with another look at the GOP and Democrats’ commitment to cutting spending this morning, and it isn’t pretty.

The Club has compiled a mini-scorecard of clean spending cut amendments from appropriations bills recently considered in the House. What they have found is, yet again, depressing.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Meet the Micro-Union

The National Labor Relations Board under Barack Obama has become a totally politicized entity intent on destroying free enterprise and advancing union interests across the nation. One of the NLRB’s latest schemes is to authorize “micro-unions.”

Imagine going into a department store. With a micro-union, the shoe department of that department store could unionize. The rest of the store could be union free, except the shoe department. That’s a micro-union.

The Workforce Fairness Institute is trying to education people about just how problematic these things can be for both consumers and businesses. They have a new video, which they are debuting here at RedState this morning. Likewise, late yesterday came word that Senator Lindsey Graham intends to introduce legislation to defund the NLRB’s ability to support micro-unions.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. The Media’s Little Bubble of Ignorance

Ed Klein’s The Amateur is going to be the number one book on the New York Times Best Sellers List for the fourth consecutive week. Like David Limbaugh’s The Great Destroyer, Klein’s book is published by Regnery, our sister company within the Eagle Publishing, Inc. family.

Limbaugh’s book, The Great Destroyer, is going to debut on the New York Times Best Sellers List at number two.

You would think that a book on top of the best sellers list for four consecutive weeks would get a lot of media attention.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Adding to my Reagan Maxims: My Take on “Reagan Couldn’t Win Today”

I have not had a chance to write about the Jeb Bush remarks on Ronald Reagan, but I figure I ought to.

Full disclosure: I know many of you disagree with me, but I privately and publicly urged Jeb Bush to run for President this year. On most issues, he and I are of like mind and I think he was a tremendously good Governor of Florida. I would have preferred him to his brother from 2001 to 2009. I’d have preferred him to Mitt Romney. I’d most assuredly prefer him to Barack Obama. And I think he is right on immigration.

Nonetheless, I have a Reagan Maxim. Anyone who references Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment is probably a squishy Republican who cannot win a primary should any conservative dare discuss his record. The 11th Commandment has become a defense for squishes trying to claim some mantle of Reagan when their record is anything but Reagan like.

Now I must add a new maxim.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. From Sen. Rick Santorum: Standing for Veterans, Their Families, and Religious Freedom

It has been said that this nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave. Those brave men and women, our noble veterans, deserve our respect and support on all levels and at all times.

I am the son of two Veterans Administration professionals and grew up on VA Grounds in the states of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. I was deeply impacted when I saw first-hand the wounded and returning veterans. This exposure instilled in me that we must honor them with the respect and the dignity they earned in defense of our freedoms. It is paramount that America keeps its promise to our 22 million veterans, our 2 million service members, and the families of veterans who go through the journey of defending freedom alongside them.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

The Media’s Little Bubble of Ignorance

I have just learned that Ed Klein’s The Amateur is going to be the number one book on the New York Times Best Sellers List for the fourth consecutive week. Like David Limbaugh’s The Great Destroyer, Klein’s book is published by Regnery, our sister company within the Eagle Publishing, Inc. family.

Limbaugh’s book, The Great Destroyer, is going to debut on the New York Times Best Sellers List at number two.

You would think that a book on top of the best sellers list for four consecutive weeks would get a lot of media attention. You would think the media might even pay attention to David Limbaugh, given both his bona fides as an author, being a noted columnist, and even, maybe, possibly because he is Rush’s brother and Rush gets a larger audience than pretty much any news show out there. So maybe your news show might get mentioned if you have David on. Maybe.

But it’s all just guessing.

After four consecutive weeks at the top of the best sellers list, the major media in the United States has flat out ignored Ed Klein and his book. They are doing the same to David Limbaugh. The major media in the nation has a history of ignoring conservative authors despite their ability to sell best sellers. Were Ed Klein to write a book alleging George W. Bush were really a hermaphroditic mermaid princess from Atlantis, Brian Williams would have him on for a multi-part interview on NBC.

If David Limbaugh wrote a hit job on his own family, he’d be feted at fancy restaurants in New York City by all the news networks who would enter a bidding war over first interview rights.

But write about the media’s man-god? Silence.

Add this to the long list of data on why the media’s readership and viewership is in decline. Instead, Americans can rely on Matt Drudge and Roger Ailes.

Meanwhile, even the New York Times cannot avoid the fact, through its best sellers listings, that many Americans are daring to read what the New York Times et al would prefer America not even know exists.

UPDATE: I reached out to Marji Ross, Publisher at Regnery, for her thoughts on this. She tells me, “It’s a very exciting day here at Regnery, having both the #1 and the #2 books in the country. Clearly these books have struck a chord with the American people, who are very worried about the future of our country and the direction Barack Obama seems to be taking us. Both David Limbaugh and Ed Klein have done a tremendous amount of work in documenting the failures of this administration and we’re thrilled with the books’ success. Regnery has a relatively small team and we only publish about 25 new books a year, but we try to make every one of them count. It’s great to see that come to fruition.”

Adding to my Reagan Maxims: My Take on “Reagan Couldn’t Win Today”

I have not had a chance to write about the Jeb Bush remarks on Ronald Reagan, but I figure I ought to.

Full disclosure: I know many of you disagree with me, but I privately and publicly urged Jeb Bush to run for President this year. On most issues, he and I are of like mind and I think he was a tremendously good Governor of Florida. I would have preferred him to his brother from 2001 to 2009. I’d have preferred him to Mitt Romney. I’d most assuredly prefer him to Barack Obama. And I think he is right on immigration.

Nonetheless, I have a Reagan Maxim. Anyone who references Ronald Reagan’s 11th Commandment is probably a squishy Republican who cannot win a primary should any conservative dare discuss his record. The 11th Commandment has become a defense for squishes trying to claim some mantle of Reagan when their record is anything but Reagan like.

Now I must add a new maxim.

Anyone who says Ronald Reagan could not get the Republican nomination in today’s Republican Party most likely would not have voted for Ronald Reagan in the Republican primaries of 1980. That includes Jeb Bush. I think we can, however, all agree that he is right about his dad who couldn’t even win in 1980 and only won in 1988 by claiming the heir of the Reagan legacy as a third term proxy for Reagan only to be thrown out of office after everyone realized they read a lie from his lips.

The fact is, George W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney all had records to the left of Ronald Reagan on a host of issues and were still the party’s nominees. Of the three of them, only John McCain supported Ronald Reagan in 1980.

In fact, this is a nonsensical game because Ronald Reagan could not even be a Presidential contender now. California has drifted so far left that Reagan could never get elected Governor there. Meanwhile, in the real world, Joe Lieberman is too conservative for the Democrats and more Democrats have become Republicans in the past twenty years than the opposite.

What this is really about is quite simple.

Left of center moderates make up the majority of focus in the media, which leans left and thinks most Americans do too despite every poll suggesting we are a center-right nation and Fox News eating every other network’s lunch.

When a politician drifts left, he claims Ronald Reagan could not get the GOP nomination in today’s climate because the politician himself no longer thinks he can. And politicians and their egos, like journalists and their egos, cannot handle rejection well. So they’d rather claim Reagan was rejected rather than they themselves were rejected. And they sure as hell would never want to admit they’ve evolved because flip-flopping is a political sin in America. Therefore, it’s not them, it’s the party that has evolved. In essence, it is immaturity among adults unwilling to admit they have changed.

The media laps it up because the media, despite plummeting readers and viewers of traditional media, still cannot except that they too are being rejected because their world view is so out of touch with the average American.

Frankly, as much as I adore Jeb Bush, I think he’s had a bit of a personal self pity-party now realizing he probably could have sewn up the nomination and, because he sat on the sidelines, he’s now probably done with politics at that level and must transition to the role of “elder stateman,” which is diplomatic-ese for put out to pasture. Instead of choosing to engage the party, he’d rather blame it than himself.

The media loves these sorts of things. Yesterday, I had to discuss this on Erin Burnett’s show on CNN. Just out of curiosity, I went on Nexis to see how many “death of the Democratic Party” stories there were compared to “death of the Republican Party” stories there were in the past 15 years. It’s not even close. From CNN to other networks, there is a rather ridiculous obsession with predicting the end of the GOP at the hands of extremists.

Meanwhile, the GOP made the biggest local, county, state, and federal gains of any party since the late 1800′s and the Democrats are having a very public crack up, losing Appalachia, the South, the Rust Belt, and seeing the GOP make local gains in New England, which the media talking heads routinely assure us the GOP could never win. As Sean Trende noted recently, Democrat gains out west will take up to 30 years to make up their losses in Appalachia.

But, it’s okay. Ronald Reagan could never win the Democrats’ nomination. Just like Joe Lieberman and Bob Casey, Sr. Or something like that.

By the way, on Jeb Bush’s point, echoed by Erin Burnett and David Frum and John Avlon last night on CNN about the extremes getting so much attention — though most of the focus is on the right because of how successful it has been in the past decade — there’s a point everyone seems to miss.

We are a 50-50 nation. When the nation is at 50-50, the voices on each side grow louder because only a few votes need drift across the center to side with the other side on issues. Consequently, both left and right must be loud and engaged to hold their own in a near evenly divided nation. Once the nation decides to hand a clear and sizable majority to one side, we’ll suddenly stop noticing it as much. But there’s an additional point.

Many of the very same people who hope someone mature and adult rises from the fray in the 50-50 nation are rooting for the smallest minority in the country — the true centrist independent who really stands for nothing and everything at the same time. People advocating for that really are the political fringe and they do not see it. But hey, they can get on TV and lament right-wing extremism. And more often than not, these are left-wingers who want the centrist-independent to stand for nothing and everything with them against the right.

Now Is Not The Time for the Senate GOP to Divide Republicans

Not a day goes by these days that I don’t hear more about Senator Marco Rubio’s immigration plan and get asked my thoughts on it. The plan is just that — a plan. To my knowledge there is no legislative language yet. But from what I have heard I like the plan with some reservations.

I am to the left of many of RedState’s readers when it comes to immigration. While I oppose the DREAM Act and amnesty, I have a moral problem with telling a child brought into the country by his or her parents and who has subsequently been raised here that the child, because of the parents’ actions, must now be sent back from the only country the child has known.

I like most of what I’ve heard of Senator Rubio’s plan, though I still have some substantive problems, including my foundational belief that we should pursue no plan until we have secured the border.

Nonetheless, I write not to praise or defend Senator Rubio’s plan, but to point out that should the Republicans in Congress actually pursue this plan this year, they will have fully become the stupid party and do more than any Democrat Super PAC to aid in Barack Obama’s re-election effort.

A party, now united behind Mitt Romney, will suddenly find itself yet again divided through self-inflicted wounds dealt by Senate Republicans who, at the same time, are more and more willing to also consider raising taxes.

There is no good strategy to get Senator Rubio’s plan passed this year. Sadly, some in the Republican Party have decided they need to do what the Democrats do and embrace identity politics. For years the GOP tried identity politics issues to try to break the Democrat monopoly on the black vote. They finally gave up and have moved on to hispanic voters.

The calculus is that if the GOP offers up an immigration plan, hispanics will fall all over themselves to become Republican. It’s almost as ridiculous as now publicly talking about being willing to raise taxes.

Let me break down the politics of this for you.

The Senate Republicans offer up the plan. Some Republicans will reject the plan as amnesty. The PrObama press corps will seize on every objection, no matter how legitimate, as crazy, racist bigots who hate brown people. You need to understand that there are many, many legitimate objections to a lot of what is out there publicly related to any Senate GOP immigration proposal. There are legitimate concerns about the rule of law. There are legitimate concerns that, given the birth dating issues, etc. there will be a whole industry of new counterfeit documents springing up to illegitimately grandfather people into the country who really are not supposed to qualify.

Perhaps the opponents will outnumber the supporters. If so, the plan will die. The GOP will be dealt a PR disaster that Barack Obama will campaign on to paint Mitt Romney as the leader of a bunch of bigots. The PrObama press corps will seize on every objection, no matter how legitimate, as crazy, racist bigots who hate brown people. Shampoo. Rinse. Repeat.

But let’s say the plan moves forward.

There will be three scenarios.

In the first scenario, the Democrats will push the plan’s supporters further and further left. The Democrats will insist more compromises be made. Many Republicans such as myself who might view the plan, as proposed, to be the ideal ultimate solution, will begin seeing the GOP cut deals to pass it that will undermine the deal and cause more and more objections from the base. The PrObama press corps will seize on every objection, no matter how legitimate, as crazy, racist bigots who hate brown people. Shampoo. Rise. Repeat.

In the second scenario, the Democrats will push the plan’s supporters to cut deals and the supporters will decide they are being pushed out onto a bridge too far. The Democrats and prObama press will point to the GOP and say, “See, see, they want all or nothing. Everyone knows we have to compromise here and they won’t compromise. They are being . . . political.” Then the PrObama press corps will seize on every objection, no matter how legitimate, as crazy, racist bigots who hate brown people. Shampoo. Rinse. Repeat.

In the third scenario, the PrObama press corps will seize on every objection, no matter how legitimate, as crazy, racist bigots who hate brown people. As the GOP soldiers on with the media and Democrats pointing out every objection as racist, the plan will pass. It will pass with a bipartisan majority in the House and Senate, but the Democrats control the Senate and, you mark my words, it would require Democrat votes to get passed in the House.

The President have a huge photo-op. Marco Rubio will be on stage with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Democrat hispanic leaders, and President Barack Obama signing a bill the press will herald as a true sign of Barack Obama’s willingness to work across party lines for hispanic voters. He will get all the credit. Marco Rubio will get a handshake or maybe even a Presidential hug.

Mitt Romney will not be seen.

The goal of this election season is to elect Mitt Romney. Handing the Democrats multiple opportunities to paint the GOP as bigoted anti-brown people and potentially give the President a bi-partisan photo opportunity is definitionally stupid.

The GOP should not dare trot this out this year.

Morning Briefing for June 13, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing

June 13, 2012

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

1. Now Is Not The Time for the Senate GOP to Divide Republicans

2. Sen. Cornyn to A.G. Holder: ‘Resign Your Office’ over Fast and Furious

3. Why Stifle Employers from Offering Raises?

4. David Limbaugh’s The Great Destroyer

———————————————————————-

1. Now Is Not The Time for the Senate GOP to Divide Republicans

Not a day goes by these days that I don’t hear more about Senator Marco Rubio’s immigration plan and get asked my thoughts on it. The plan is just that — a plan. To my knowledge there is no legislative language yet. But from what I have heard I like the plan with some reservations.

I am to the left of many of RedState’s readers when it comes to immigration. While I oppose the DREAM Act and amnesty, I have a moral problem with telling a child brought into the country by his or her parents and who has subsequently been raised here that the child, because of the parents’ actions, must now be sent back from the only country the child has known.

I like most of what I’ve heard of Senator Rubio’s plan, though I still have some substantive problems, including my foundational belief that we should pursue no plan until we have secured the border.

Nonetheless, I write not to praise or defend Senator Rubio’s plan, but to point out that should the Republicans in Congress actually pursue this plan this year, they will have fully become the stupid party and do more than any Democrat Super PAC to aid in Barack Obama’s re-election effort.

A party, now united behind Mitt Romney, will suddenly find itself yet again divided through self-inflicted wounds dealt by Senate Republicans who, at the same time, are more and more willing to also consider raising taxes.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Sen. Cornyn to A.G. Holder: ‘Resign Your Office’ over Fast and Furious

Attorney General Eric Holder appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday morning to answer questions about several ongoing issues. These include the federal government’s lawsuit against Florida to prevent the state from culling its voter rolls of noncitizens and others who legally don’t belong, as well as the ongoing investigation (led in part by a Holder appointee and former Obama donor) into a recent spate of national security “leaks” within the administration (Holder noted that he had received “a serious interview” from “serious FBI agents” as a part of the investigation).

Perhaps most importantly, though, Holder was once again questioned about Operation Fast and Furious, a program specifically designed to sell guns to Mexican cartels and allow them to “walk” across America’s southern border (without telling the Mexican government, by the way).

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. Why Stifle Employers from Offering Raises?

When observing the chaos that big union bosses have interleaved into the labor market, you instinctively think of the above-market wages that are forced upon employers (and taxpayers, in the case of public-sector unions) as a result of the monopolistic collective bargaining contracts. However, what is even more deleterious is the limitation on paying individual workers more than their contract dictates.

Believe it or not, under current labor laws, employers cannot pay individual employees more than their union contracts stipulate. Union contracts tend to reward seniority over merit and performance. This is part of our broader problem with collective bargaining laws. These laws disincentivize good performance on the job and reduce productivity. The egregious labor laws block any merit-pay system – the foundation of our free market system.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. David Limbaugh’s The Great Destroyer

Our sister company within Eagle Publishing, Inc. has published a new book that, even were Regnery not the publisher I’d be seeking out. That’s because it’s author is David Limbaugh, who continues to be one of the most informative and easy to read authors of current events within conservatism.

David’s new book is The Great Destroyer and I have been on a mission for two weeks to get from front to back before writing about it.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Juana Summers Says It Was All Just A Joke

Juana Summers of the Politico gets the clueless reporter award of the day. In her story on swatting she describes it as “an elaborate practical joke.” It’s so funny than more than 80 members of Congress and local authorities in several locations are asking the FBI to get involved.

Let me describe what Summers’ calls a practical joke:

Someone calls the police posing as me claiming both to have killed my wife and, before hanging up on the 911 operator, saying I’m going to go kill someone else.

The police show up. One officer keeps his hand on his gun as my 3 year old goes outside to see what’s going on.

That was just how jokingly it was done to me.

In Los Angeles, helicopters surrounded the airspace of LA County Prosecutor Patrick Frey’s home. The actual SWAT team got him out of his house and put him in a police car with guns all around. His wife and children were taken out of the home as well.

Yep. Some joke.

On twitter, Juana Summers notes that “Point was made in the article that it is dangerous and people could be hurt.” So, I’m guessing if swatting is an “elaborate practical joke” that the danger and harm must be the punchline.

David Limbaugh’s The Great Destroyer

Our sister company within Eagle Publishing, Inc. has published a new book that, even were Regnery not the publisher I’d be seeking out. That’s because it’s author is David Limbaugh, who continues to be one of the most informative and easy to read authors of current events within conservatism.

David’s new book is The Great Destroyer and I have been on a mission for two weeks to get from front to back before writing about it.

First, you should know I’m a big fan of Crimes Against Liberty, David’s previous book. It is on my desk and provides some of the best conservative insight into Barack Obama. The Great Destroyer is no different.

Through 400 pages, David Limbaugh not just demonstrates Barack Obama’s ongoing assaults against our values, culture, economy, oil, job creators, and the foundational underpinnings of the United States itself, i.e. being a nation of individuals and not a nation of the collective, but he does a particularly good job of explaining why conservatives see these things as an assault so the prObama media might at least be able to understand the angst out there.

Frankly, if you read The Great Destroyer you’ll understand immediately why conservatives who may not care much for Mitt Romney have rallied to him against Barack Obama.

David Limbaugh has another best seller on his hands and the left will do their best to ignore it. Why? Because it’s not just Limbaugh’s opinion. He’s copiously documented his statements and the left would prefer to ignore it rather than deal with inconvenient truths.

Head over to Amazon or even to Apple’s iBooks Store to grab a hardback or digital copy.

Remember the Democrat Justices of the Florida Supreme Court During Bush v. Gore?

Pretty much everyone except the most hard charging partisans have finally conceded that, despite the United States Supreme Court’s involvement in Bush v. Gore, George Bush did win Florida by just over 500 votes in 2000. In fact, in a nonpartisan media backed recount effort, George Bush would have won by every standard demanded, including Al Gore’s standard, except ironically George Bush’s preferred standard.

While everyone largely now accepts that George Bush won Florida, Democrats still hold hard hearts toward the supposed partisan hacks on the United States Supreme Court. They choose to ignore the even more clearly partisan Justices of the Florida Supreme Court who became, during their hearings in the recount matter, national embarrassments.

Three of the Justices, Barbara Pariente, R. Fred Lewis, and Peggy Quince are back in the news for, yet again, being an embarrassment. Their high handedness from the 2000 election seems to have continued.

According to Florida Today the three Justices seemed to think they were immune to the laws of Florida and did not have to qualify for re-election.

The three justices nearly missed the deadline to qualify for the ballot in April. The seven-member court abruptly put a hearing on hold for more than an hour to allow the justices to finish their paperwork and turn it in to state elections officials with just minutes to spare.

Rep. Scott Plakon, a Longwood Republican, wrote a letter to Gov. Rick Scott alleging that Justices Barbara Pariente, R. Fred Lewis and Peggy Quince violated the law by using court employees to notarize their paperwork for this year’s vote. Violations are a misdemeanor.

Maybe Florida voters should consider sending these three out to the pasture and spare the state further embarrassment.