Dems speak out on the "nuclear option..."

Our Unsustainable Debt

I am posting an essay by one Joseph Lupo, an executive in the financial industry who is part of our Tea Party staff. Joe is our go-to guy in all matters of fiscal and monetary policy - he writes today of the most recent bit of fiscal insanity:

Congressman McMahon did our country a great disservice this week. Our Congressman yielded to Nancy Pelosi's arm-twisting and voted with other liberal Democrats to increase the federal national debt limit by $1.9 trillion to an astounding $14.3 trillion. This partisan vote demonstrates a complete lack of fiscal responsibility and an utter disregard for the economic and monetary consequences of unrestrained spending.

Our great country is nearly bankrupt. The federal government is exacerbating a painful recession by pursuing economic policies that threaten the stability of our fiscal and monetary system. Instead of encouraging fiscal discipline and curbing the growth of discretionary spending, the Democrats in Congress have chosen to exponentially increase the crushing debt burden that will be inherited by the next generation of Americans. In fact, the Congressional Budget Office projects that deficits over the next 10 years will total $6 trillion. Where does the insanity stop?

Congressman McMahon should take heed of the current fiscal crises currently spreading throughout the Eurozone. In the past two weeks, the economies of Greece, Spain and Portugal have been severely damaged as international investors increasingly doubt their ability to fund massive budget deficits via the public debt market. As a means of comparison, lets consider the debt-to-gdp ratios of these countries (Debt to GDP ratio measures total outstanding government debt divided by gross domestic product, expressed as a percentage). Portugal is currently projected at 90%, Greece at 125% and Spain at 50%. So where does the United States stand - projected at 94%! This simple statistic should concern every American and our Congressional representatives should be mindful of the tremendous risks associated with uncontrolled government spending.

What typically happens when this ratio eclipses 100%? Many economists argue that debt-to-gdp ratios above this figure represent an economic "point of no return" whereby future gdp growth is permanently constrained by the insurmountable costs associated with debt interest payments and higher interest rates. Should our country permanently sacrifice an ever improving standard of living to fund an insatiable Congressional appetite for tax dollars and a proven proclivity for wasteful spending? Congressman McMahon should understand that no country can spend their way to prosperity.

Sustainable economic growth is fostered through sound fiscal and monetary policies, a low tax burden, free market competition and productivity improvements. However, the Democratic Congress has pursued exactly the opposite. The proof is everywhere - the US dollar is trading at decade lows, gold (an inflation hedge) is near all time highs, liabilities on the Federal Reserve balance sheet total over $2 trillion, unemployment is hovering around 10%, income and capital gains tax rates are going higher, and the federal government is re-regulating every industry from banking to energy.

The federal government has kept interest rates artificially low by essentially becoming the largest securities buyer in the public market. For example, the Federal Reserve now owns more than $1 trillion in mortgage backed securities and agency debt. This intervention has kept mortgage rates and treasury rates low - but these quantitative easing measures are short term and extremely difficult to reverse. Once these programs run their course, our economy will once again be subject to natural market forces and the laws of supply and demand.

Massive federal deficits only make the eventual transition to a fully private market all the more risky. Furthermore, the federal necessity to auction billions of dollars in treasury securities every month essentially "crowds out" private borrowing - that is to say private corporations have increased difficulty competing for capital since the US government is issuing billions of dollars in treasuries and forcing interest rates higher.

In a year that has already seen Dubai essentially declare bankruptcy and the state of California once again contemplating the issuance of IOU's, Congressman McMahon and his Democratic allies should read the tea leaves - stop the uncontrolled spending lest our great country end up like some third world banana republic. The American public is watching.

The State of the President

The President used the occasion of his first State of the Union address to appeal for unity in our country, but true to his proclivity for avoiding blame, he refused to take responsibility for the nation’s great divide.

In the mind of Barack Obama, of course, the culpability lies with the Republicans; when our dear leader speaks of “unity,” what he really means is “acquiescence.” Failure to rubber-stamp his agenda is considered to be the chief component of disharmony in Obama-world - daring to stand firmly in opposition to his schema borders on disloyalty.

Never mind that what is offered by his lapdog Congress is terrible - and terribly radical - legislation. Most of his programs have not been passed, despite a Democrat super-majority in the Senate, simply because the bills are so bad that the American people have risen up to voice their outrage at almost every turn.

It seems that for each budget-busting, job-killing, government-expanding proposal that comes along, the Tea Party movement gains another hundred thousand followers.

So to a man (and woman), Republicans are voting “no,” and when they are not voting “no,” they are voting “HELL no.” Who can blame them? They are accused of blind partisanship, but they are merely listening to their consciences and their constituency – a pretty damned good approach to representative government, I would think.

Voting for a bad bill for the sake of Barack Obama’s definition of unity is just plain wrong, just as it would be wrong to vote for a bad bill to avoid being called an obstructionist.

There was a time, during his campaign and in the early part of his administration, that when the President would make statements that defied credulity, he would get away with it. Not anymore; he exhausted his supply of free passes long ago. He continues to defy credulity, to be sure – but now there is a real-world price that must be paid.

The American public told him as much when given the opportunity in New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts.

Until now, Barack Obama has had a career in which he never actually had to perform, as one would if running a business, or a town, or an agency. Every “job” he has ever held involved only two things: offering his opinion and running for the next highest office. Now, however, he’s bumped into highest ceiling of them all – there’s nothing else to run for and he’s got to be, for the first time in his adult life, a decision-maker. And also for the first time in his adult life he’s going to be graded on his performance, not his oratorical and campaign skills.

He’s not getting very high marks - and for all the reasons we knew he wasn’t going to: his upbringing was radical and far left, and when he brought those values to the White House, they turned out to be well beyond the threshold that the majority of the American people could find palatable. He’s surrounded himself as President with the same kinds of people he’s surrounded himself with for his entire life: leftist ideologues with no real-world experience.

Obama is now being held accountable by the world’s media for his every decision, and many of those decisions are turning out to be poorly conceived, illogical and strongly driven by partisan politics. Rather than seek the haven of most Presidents – the political center – his hubris caused him to believe that such a shift was unnecessary.

So we find ourselves trying to make sense of oxymoronic policy statements, which is what we get when instead of actually offering a firm and cogent position, he tries in vain to please both the left and the right.

Epic fail. Witness a strategy (and I use the term loosely) in Afghanistan that has us surging, and then pulling out without regard to the result of the surge, a policy I like to call belli interruptus. This is no way to govern, and the people of the United States know it; some admit it more readily than others, but the realization is certainly seeping into the broader American consciousness – Chris Matthews notwithstanding.

Decision-making for the most powerful country in the world cannot be done Chinese-takeout-menu style. One from Column A and one from Column B just isn’t getting it done, and not surprisingly we find ourselves hungry for a new policy a few hours later.

Bit by bit, like a mosaic, a picture of this Administration is slowly coalescing, and it is not a pretty one. Incompetence abounds, sometime on a scale so huge (think Napolitano, Geithner and Holder) that we peer intently at the facts in order to discern some master plan so incredibly intricate that we mere mortals cannot discern it.

But that’s not it, is it? It is just plain incompetence. So when the President calls for a “change in tone,” by which he means that everyone must sing in his key, I have to say no, I don’t think so, Mr. President.

You’re not good for America, and unless you have an epiphany of the highest order, you never will be. And I’ll never stop saying so. Now that you’ve done what no other President in MY lifetime has been able to do – get me up off my butt and behind a keyboard – you’ll have to deal with me until you go away.

Ready. Aim. FIRE CONGRESS!

This past November, a tsunami swept ashore with a vengeance; an anti-Obama, anti-Reid, anti-Pelosi wave that wiped out big-government Democrat governors in deep blue New Jersey and purple Virginia – both states having been won easily by Barack Obama only a year before.

And like a tsunami, its energy was not spent at the beaches.

It continued to push on, and last night it engulfed what Democrats had smugly taken to calling the “Teddy Kennedy Seat.” Indeed, the defining moment in this campaign would be when Scott Brown reminded David Gergen during a debate that it was, despite the Left’s best efforts to re-shape reality, what it had always been – the people’s seat.

And those of you that have been active in the Tea Party movement – born less than one year ago – should know that last night’s results had more to do with you than the Republican Party.

I am proud of you all; when you had to do it, when it was all on the line, after you got knocked down by the media and academia and the effete snobs of the chattering class you got up, wiped off the slime, and punched back. Hard.

For years, for decades, while you were educating yourselves, building your future, raising your families, and paying your taxes, you – ordinary, hard-working Americans – were demonized, insulted, taken for granted and told to shut up and like it. Those who spoke up against the politically-correct insanity that slowly crept over our society like a fungus were labeled as racists, bigots, xenophobes, homophobes and worst of all, ignorant, bitter people clinging to your guns and bibles.

They thought they had you beaten. They did not.

Having no real grasp of the history of this country, they underestimated you, and they underestimated the intensity of the fire that burns within Americans who believe that they should be free from the burden of nanny-state regulations and a controlled economy; free from the burdens of misguided wealth-redistribution; and free from the insulting left-wing drumbeat that somehow the United States of America, the greatest force for good in the history of the world, was somehow to be blamed for all that was wrong with the planet.

And so you rose up and did what you had to do. Not the Republican Party, not your elected representatives, not the slick media-men, not the well-funded think-tanks – you. And me. And millions of other plain folks who had had enough.

"I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve." These words were attributed to Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who led the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. How ironic that an enemy of America understood this country better than the man who occupies the Oval Office today.

The victory in Massachusetts last night belongs to the Tea Party movement far more than it belongs to the Republican Party, who lately seems to be hesitant to enter the fight until the little guy has softened up the bully for them. But for a small handful, no Republican was quick to embrace the Tea Party movement, frightened, as they were, that we were unacceptably politically incorrect.

Our work has paid off, but of course our work is not yet done; we should be encouraged, but not complacent. Do NOT be fooled into thinking that an astounding victory in January guarantees a sweeping victory in November – it does not. We cannot let up – now is the time to push harder and harder; as long as there is an attempt to pass radical, anti-free-market legislation, the pressure must be intensified, not relaxed.

This Democrat Congress has been an unmitigated disaster for America, and they must be recalled.

November looms.
Mary Jo Kopechne July 26, 1940 – July 18, 1969

Healthcare Reform Bill: Nothing Will Change - Neither Should McMahon's Vote

Back in 2006, Democrats self-righteously mourned the "death of deliberative democracy," amidst much wailing and gnashing of teeth:

"Republican leadership abused the Rules of the House to block Members, both Republicans and Democrats, from legislating in an informed and thoughtful manner. House-Senate conferences are a critical part of the deliberative process because they produce the final legislative product that will become the law of the land."

Now, at a time when the party that trumpeted their intention to be the most transparent in the history of government adjourns to reconcile the two healthcare bills in smoke-filled back rooms with blacked-out windows, sans even the slightest whiff of opposition, we should all be mindful of what a politician's word is worth. Spit.

And please bear in mind that some pledges are worth even less than others:

"We'll have the [healthcare] negotiations televised - on C-SPAN - so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituencies and who ise making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies..."

Thus spake Barack Obama on the campaign trail. Spit, again.

The Democrats have decided to "ping-pong" the bill, which means that there won't be any bicameral horse-trading, and that the House will merely take the Senate bill, tweak it, and return it. So at this juncture, and with the expectation that the complete removal of any dissenting voices will quicken the pace of negotiations mightily, we need to take a brief look at Congressman McMahon's statement after he voted "nay" on the House version of the healthcare plan:

"I believe that we need to reform the healthcare system, reduce spending, cut waste, fraud and abuse and expand coverage for more Americans. Unfortunately the bill that passed the United States House tonight does not do that.

The cuts to Medicare will affect seniors in my district, the cuts to the Disproportionate Share Hospitals (DSH) will make it harder for hospitals to service Staten Island and Brooklyn and the cost containment doesn't go far enough. There is no guarantee that this bill will reduce the cost of healthcare premiums for Staten Island and Brooklyn families."

Now that we have seen what the Senate version contains, there seems to be little hope that many, if any, of the Congressman's quite appropriate concerns could possibly be alleviated. No matter what parts of either bill are kept or dumped, no matter how they are ultimately reconciled, he is bound to find the final product of the Pelosi/Reid tete-a-tete offensive, obligating him to vote no yet again.

That is, as long as he meant what he said and is a man that stands by his convictions. And unless and until he proves us wrong, we believe that he is.

This Insanity Must End

I think I lack the writing ability needed to describe the range of emotions I’ve been experiencing in the last 48 hours or so; starting about the time Senator Nelson sold his vote to Harry Reid.

I’m probably having so much difficulty because what I’ve been seeing and hearing is so remarkably alien to me. It’s like a poorly constructed plot line from a bad novel – you know, the kind you stop reading because it’s just too improbable.

Well, the highly improbable seems to be happening right before our eyes; I can scarcely believe that this isn’t a nightmare from which I’ll eventually awaken - sweaty, but none the worse for wear. But I am not asleep, and this is not a dream.

It seems that what couldn’t be accomplished in 233 years by the mightiest armies in the world - the subjugation of the American people and their Constitution - is being accomplished by a Chicago punk and a radical Democrat Congress.

The reality of what we’ve actually been witnessing has become abundantly clear after the 60 majority members of the Senate, in the wee hours of Monday morning, voted to shut down debate on the federal takeover of 17 percent of the economy. It is nothing less than the non-violent shackling of the citizens of the United States by their own government.

It is the shredding of the Constitution by those who have sworn to protect it.

The final indignity was an insult to our intelligence known as the Reid amendment. That’s the one that, among other things, bought off Ben Nelson by agreeing that Nebraska would be indemnified against all Medicare increases caused by the bill in perpetuity!

Now, mind you, that’s not the Senators’ money we’re talking about here – it’s your money and mine.

See how this works? If you or I were to try to bribe a public official we’d obviously be breaking the law and would wind up in jail, but at least we’d be using our own money in the attempt. If you’re the Senate Majority leader, not only are you not prosecuted – you don’t even have to foot the bill for the bribe. The suckers will pick up the check.

The unmitigated effrontery of it leaves me breathless. The sheer insanity of it has me spinning.

And now comes news that there are provisions in the bill that would illegally change Senate rules – making it virtually impossible for the new law to be repealed or changed. This is what is meant by the tyranny of the majority.

The more I think about it the angrier I get. The reaction to this abomination should transcend party lines – lovers of America, of any political denomination, should be decrying this legislation for the constitution-killing piece of socialist dogma that it is. What we get instead are lies, spin and distortions, which they really don't care if we buy into it or not. Such is the level of their arrogance.

You know what? We’ll take a break to celebrate Christmas, we’ll let the New Year ring in, we’ll let the House/Senate conference make their changes – none of which will be able to prevent this bill from being a complete disaster - and then we'll pick a date and we will hit the streets.

Maybe I’ll be by myself. Maybe there’ll be a hard core of a hundred or two joining me. And maybe, just maybe, there will be thousands of you out there - because there damn well should be.

So go dig out your thermal underwear, your ski caps and your woolen socks.

It could be cold on New Dorp Lane.

The Contempt of Congress

When pollster and pundit Pat Caddell was asked recently why our elected officials seem to ignore the will of American citizens, his response was that Congress has “nothing but contempt for the very people they are supposed to represent.”

Sounds pretty harsh, doesn’t it? Surely, the good men and women of the United States Senate and House of Representatives have faults and make mistakes, but do they have “contempt” for their constituents?

Or, perhaps, is it merely that they see us as sheep; a flock of tiresome animals, possessing a bleating sameness, unable to determine what is really best for ourselves and our families, and incapable of making rational decisions about our own future?

Indeed, given the scope of recent legislation – all designed to take whatever decision-making autonomy we might have had out of our own hands and place it into theirs – it’s hard to dispute that they view themselves as our shepherds.

Here is what's in store now, or in the very near future, and in no particular order: they will tell us how much we can pay our executives; they will tell us what kind of cars we can drive; they will enslave us to the religion of global climate change; they will tell our bankers to whom they should lend money and on what terms; they will control the air you breathe by EPA fiat; they will tell your doctor how much he will earn and what treatment he may provide to you; they will force you to buy a product you may not need or want; they will usurp the majesty and wisdom of your creator and re-define the rights with which you were endowed – and worst of all, they will render impotent the ink and parchment we call the Constitution of the United States of America, making it an archaic relic of a glorious, but distant, past.

Caddell is right – it is contempt. When government elites pass, or attempt to pass against our will, various pieces of legislation that are so radical, so antithetical to our free market, capitalist roots, what else can we call it?

I find myself wondering what the breaking point will be for the American people, when it will come, how it will manifest itself.

And in my nightmares, I find myself wondering if there is a breaking point for the American people, or are we going to allow ourselves to be, like sheep, herded and penned up, oblivious to our fate, powerless to prevent the slaughter of our rights and the butchering of our future as free Americans.

We have always believed that we could never be defeated, that no foe could steal our liberty, that no army could bend our will, that we would know freedom not only for the rest of our lives, but for the lives of our children and grandchildren, and for future generations as of yet undreamed.

Today that is not so certain - so insidious has this radical administration and complicit Congress proven to be.

In April of 1775, when the shots rang out by the rude bridge in Concord, Massachusetts, the people of America knew they were at war and must fight to defend their freedoms.

In December of 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the people of America knew they were at war and must fight to defend their freedoms.

In September of 2001, as the towers fell, the people of America knew they were at war and must fight to defend their freedoms.

Now, as the first year of the Obama Administration draws to a close, our Constitution has come under assault by our own government - and even though no musket was fired, no bombs were dropped, and no buildings destroyed, once again the people of America must realize that we are at war.

And once again, we must fight to defend our freedoms.

A Short Course on Brain Surgery

Living in a DC Comic Book World.

During a Q&A session at one of the Meet and Greet events a few weeks ago, a young lady on our staff stood up and said she felt like she was living in Bizarro World, an expression I've used myself on many occasions.

For those of you too young to remember, Bizarro World was an invention of the fruitful minds of the writers of DC Comics, originally introduced in their Superman series in the early 60's. On Bizarro World, everything good is bad, everything right is wrong, everything beautiful is ugly.

Those who live on Bizarro World are hideously disfigured clones of their counterparts on Earth. As enunciated so clearly by Bizarro, the character after which the planet formerly known as Htrae (Earth spelled backwards, of course) is named, their credo is as follows:

"Us do opposite of all Earthly things! Us hate beauty! Us love ugliness! Is big crime to make anything perfect on Bizarro World!"

It doesn't take a terrific leap of the imagination to see where this is going: the Obama Administration and the Democratic Majority have transported us magically, in less than one year, to what seems to be a bizarre alternate universe. Only, unlike the product of some comic book writer's imagination, this is all too horrifyingly and sickeningly real.

What makes this Administration bizarre? One scarcely knows where to begin.

What we as Americans have revered for centuries our own government now reviles. Our free-market, capitalist system, which made us the greatest nation in the history of the world, is in the process of being crushed under the boot-heels of radicals. Do you realize how successfully this Administration has made "capitalism" a dirty word?

They and their minions work day and night strip all the goodness and morality from it, to portray it as greedy and selfish - all the while ignoring that it is a system of true equality for all men, a system under which the poorest among us can rise - not simply to mediocrity - but to great heights, by the virtue of our own minds and our willingness to work hard for ourselves and our families.

Think about how far this President and the Democrats have come in denying you the right to keep what you earn. Think about how far this President and the Democrats have come in their fight to convince Americans that they, the bureaucrats in Washington, know better how to spend your money than you do - you, who have actually earned it.

Bizarre, indeed.

We are a country that, since its inception, bent at the knee before NO foreign power, yet now Obama bows and scrapes in a sickening display of groveling as if WE were the cause of the world's ills - not the best hope for a cure. Forgotten by Obama, or perhaps never fully understood or appreciated, are the sacrifices of 25 generations of America's youth, who died as protectors of liberty for freedom-loving people everywhere on the planet.

Yes, I would call it bizarre for an American President to refer to his own country as "arrogant."

And what would you call it when a country rewards terrorists with the finest legal representation in the world, and all the Constitutional benefits of the citizens of the country they despise and would destroy - yet imprisons three Navy SEALs, who bloodied the lip of an murdering jihadist during his capture, and now await a Court Martial.

What would you call it when, after an Islamic jihadist murders 13 American soldiers about to be deployed, in a blatant act of terrorism on American soil, the President of the United States reminds us immediately that we should not blame his Muslim faith, that we should not jump to conclusions as to his motives, and that we must not let "diversity" be a casualty. This is the same President that labeled the Cambridge Police "stupid" when they responded to a breaking and entering call while he knew none of the facts and only one side of the story.

He and the Democrats are so quick to blame America, and so quick to excuse those who would destroy us.

Almost since Inauguration Day we have had inflicted upon us crisis after crisis, all followed by a flurry of multi-thousand paged legislation, incomprehensible bills to be rushed through Congress - because, of course, there is no time to waste.

And yet our media, those brave watchdogs of democracy, sit mutely on the sidelines, their silence painfully indicative of their lack of objectivity, their rare questioning of policy a bone flipped to the masses, their smug belief in their own superiority barely concealed.

Yes, we live in bizarre times, but more than that we live in dangerous times. Those who are not on the inside of the strategy, all of us, are coming to the horrifying realization that the destruction of the America we know and love is imminent not because of the actions of some foreign dictator, but because of a dangerous and duplicitous rogue regime.

And because we are now living in Bizarro World, the rogue regime that would destroy America sits in the White House, and walks the halls of Congress.

The Way It SHOULD Be Sung

The Obama Administration: God DAMN America

Late on a Friday afternoon, with the President out of the country, the Attorney General of the United States announced that the mastermind of 9/11, and four of his cohorts, will be brought to New York for trial. In a courtroom that would be in the shadow of the Twin Towers - were they standing - will be the vilest America-haters in the world, and sadly, not all of them will be members of al-Queda.

At the forefront of these will be Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

This sub-human piece of garbage will be accorded the same rights granted to the American citizens whose lives he snuffed out, because he so believed in the twisted drivel that is radical Islam.

This sub-human piece of garbage will be granted a hearing in a way that his victims never were.

This sub-human piece of garbage will get a bully pulpit from which to publicly bash our country after killing thousands of its innocent citizens, and from the very place where those Americans died.

This sub-human piece of garbage will get to plead for his life in front of a magistrate, and with legal counsel.

I have some questions.

When the passenger on those jets realized that they had no alternative but death, to whom could they make a plea? When those poor souls working in the Towers - forced to choose between leaping out of a window or facing an inferno of burning jet fuel - had to decide how they wanted to die, who was there to give them counsel?

There is only one way to describe this decision by the Obama administration: sick and demented. Perhaps as sick and demented as the men they are bringing to New York to face the justice guaranteed to American citizens by a Constitution they so despise.

We have elected a diseased group of America-hating radicals, and must be turned out of office.

Interpreting McMahon

We can all feel very much gratified, for a number of reasons, when considering the vote of Congressman McMahon on HR3962 this past Saturday evening.

First and foremost, from my perspective, is the apparent affect your tireless work had on the outcome, forcing him to examine the roots of our opposition to the bill, and helping him to understand the reasonableness of our objections.

For his part, he listened, and that is big, and ultimately he voted against his party’s leadership. We’ll take as an act of faith that he voted his conscience.

But what if he didn’t? Should the Congressman be condemned if his vote was merely an act of political expediency? The more cynical among us will point out that Ms. Pelosi had 40 votes to play with – to pass, the bill needed a majority of 218 votes, and there are 258 Democrats in the House. This gave her, ostensibly, a pocketful of dispensations which could be doled out to nervous Blue Dogs - or other vulnerable Democrats. Michael McMahon is one of these, since he is a freshman D in a district that is reliably Republican - 28 years worth - in a district that voted comfortably for John McCain in the last Presidential election.

To be sure, Congressman McMahon listed a goodly number of appropriate reasons for voting against the bill – indeed, had he gone a little further, he might have been able to justify supporting the Republican version of healthcare reform, which came to be known as the Boehner Amendment.

In a statement, the Congressman said:

"I believe that we need to reform the healthcare system, reduce spending, cut waste, fraud and abuse and expand coverage for more Americans. Unfortunately the bill that passed the United States House tonight does not do that.

The cuts to Medicare will affect seniors in my district, the cuts to the Disproportionate Share Hospitals (DSH) will make it harder for hospitals to service Staten Island and Brooklyn and the cost containment doesn't go far enough. There is no guarantee that this bill will reduce the cost of healthcare premiums for Staten Island and Brooklyn families."

To summarize, Congressman McMahon’s objections to HR3962 are as follows:

1. The bill does not reduce spending.
2. The bill does not cut waste, fraud and abuse.
3. The bill does not expand coverage for more Americans.
4. Medicare cuts will affect seniors in the district.
5. Cuts to Disproportionate Share Hospitals will affect service to Staten Islanders.
6. Cost containment does not go far enough.
7. There will be no guaranteed reduction in the cost of healthcare premiums.

A quick look at the Boehner amendment reveals that it would address many of these concerns; certainly the fiscal ones, according to the scoring by the Congressional Budget Office.

However, Congressman McMahon dutifully, and to no one’s surprise, voted against this Republican amendment, even though it would have overcome nearly all the hurdles that caused him to vote NO on the version that came to the floor. That may cause one to wonder if the stated reasons for voting against the bill were the real reasons he voted against the bill – or might he have voted NO to take political cover in his Republican district.

That would be known as having your cake and eating it, too.

(We should note that there is a distinct possibility that the bill will be back again for another vote, if and when the Senate passes its version. Having set a high bar, a bar any reconciled bill may not be able to hurdle, Congressman McMahon will be forced to vote NO once again. We certainly live in interesting times.)

Despite all of this, Congressman McMahon has voted the right way on HR3962, and in the end that’s all that we asked for. So kudos to the Congressman, and great big kudos to the tireless work of the hard-working, ordinary citizen-members of the Staten Island Tea Party.

We never stopped letter-writing, phone-calling, e-mailing, sign-making, trip-taking and generally being a tenacious bunch of pains-in-the-asses - and in the end, we learned that yes, we can make a difference.

I’m very proud of you all.

They Are Voting Us Into Slavery.

I don’t know what else you would call it. Nancy Pelosi’s version of HR3200, which is called HR3962, would essentially make slaves of us all.

Sounds dramatic, I know, but consider that never in the history of American law-making has the federal government ever mandated the purchase of anything.

Until now.

Passage of this bill will force every American to buy health insurance. For most of us reading this, the money that we use to “buy” something comes from our labor – OUR labor, not someone else’s. We trade the work product of our muscles or intellect for money, in a free exchange with our employer or employees. If the federal government forces you to buy something, it is compelling you to wake up and go to work some morning not to earn money for your own purposes, but to satisfy a bureaucrat’s vision of what he thinks is in the best interests of you and the nation.

Of course, you can choose not to make the purchase and pay a fine of 2.5% of your total income. Further, you can choose not to pay the fine. I don’t need to carry this exercise to its final conclusion, which I’m sure you have realized means, ultimately, being taken at the point of a gun to trial and eventual incarceration.

Your crime? Failure to turn your property, the sweat of your brow, over to a federal bureaucrat. In an earlier part of our country’s history, when a man was compelled at the point of a gun to work for the benefit of another, it was called slavery. It is still slavery today.

We expect our government to protect us from those that would enslave us.

How’s that for irony?

I have never asked anyone to send something I wrote to another, but I think it would be a good thing to make as many Americans aware of this as possible; if you agree, forward this to your email list.

If you’re a Staten Islander, or a Brooklynite living in parts of Bay Ridge or Bensonhurst, your Representative is Michael McMahon. Congressman McMahon has indicated lately that he is leaning towards voting for the bill. We have little time to persuade him not to. Here is where to contact him:

Congressman McMahon in D.C.:
Phone (202) 225-3371
Fax: (202) 226-1272

Congressman McMahon in Staten Island:
Phone (718) 351-1062
Fax: (718) 980-0768

Please call and fax.

Let him know that if he votes in favor of this bill, he will be supporting a massive intrusion of government into our lives.

Let him know that if he votes in favor of this bill, he is voting to forever change America – not to become a greater country, but to become a lesser one.

Let him know that if he votes in favor of this bill, he is voting to kill the rugged individualist spirit of Americans.

Let him know that if he votes in favor of this bill, he will be complicit in the bankrupting of the United states of America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world.

Let him know that we do not want any form of socialized medicine – it has failed wherever it has been tried – and it will fail here.

And finally, let him know that he will be held accountable for his votes.

The Stuff of Nightmares.

It is the stuff of nightmares.

I’m standing outside my own home, my wife and children are huddled alongside me, and my precious baby granddaughter is asleep in the arms of my eldest.

I am peering through the window, and in the house - my house - are faceless thieves. They are methodically stealing everything I have worked for in life – stuffing it into a sack that is bottomless and seemingly able to hold anything they are capable of lifting. I don’t know why, but I am powerless to stop them, frozen in place and mute.

All my life I thought that I was protected from this. I thought that what I was witnessing was impossible; after all, I worked hard, I saved, I was a good citizen, charitable and community-minded. I was, along with my neighbors, my fellow Americans, enjoying the bounty of a carefully planted and nurtured garden. What did I do wrong?

This wasn’t supposed to be happening. There were locks on the doors, defenses in place. There was a magical document (I had seen it!) which guaranteed that what I was witnessing could never, ever happen in this country. My father, and countless other fathers, sons, brothers and loved ones, fought to defend that document, and far too many paid the ultimate price to ensure its safety for all future generations.

They didn’t want to die, but they did. For a few lines of ink on an old piece of paper.

I'm confused. I don’t understand why the ones who are supposed to be protecting me from this crime are instead standing guard at the door, so that I cannot stop the looting, stop the destruction. I chose those protectors, and I pay them – very well. They are supposed to look out for us, especially for my grandchild, so vulnerable, so trusting, and with her entire life ahead of her. Her name is Emma, and she sleeps on, blissfully, with no idea that I am watching them steal her future.

What will Emma have if they take everything?

I realized as I watched in stupefied horror that they are snatching up all the things that made the house my house. Little by little, into that cursed sack has gone the precious freedoms that made me unique, that made me an individual before the eyes of God and man, the freedoms that guaranteed that I could take care of my family – I, not the thieves – to the best of my abilities, the freedoms that guaranteed me the right to make my own choices in life, according to the dictates of my values and my conscience.

In stunned silence, I watch them as they substitute their cheap, ugly and degrading ideas for mine. As they work, they mumble about my "greed."

After a while, I cannot recognize my house – oh, the foundation is still there, but it’s cracked and all manner of damp mold is forming. The frame is racked and worm-holed, the roof leaks, the plumbing's rusted, the wiring frayed and dangerous.

It has become ugly. There is no secure life there anymore. There is no presence of God; no grace.

The house, once so strong and safe, is now vulnerable. Unlocked as it is, vagrants wander in and out, gleefully stealing what they can. The protectors tell me that these strangers, the ones who had no part in building the house or working to make it what it was, have as much right to be there, to help themselves to the fruits of my labor, as does the peacefully-sleeping child in the arms of my son.

I wonder when I will wake up. I will wake up, won't I? This is, after all, just a nightmare.

Michael McMahon's Time for Choosing...

Sooner, rather than later, there will be a bill before Congress that addresses health insurance reform in the United States, and when it happens, it will be Congressman McMahon's time for choosing.

If he utters the word "YEA" on any of the bills now before the various committees, it will be the Congressman's way of telling us that he supports his party's thinly-veiled contention that the age of rugged individualism is dead. His yes vote will indicate his belief that the Age of Statism has come, because, grown fat and lazy both physically and intellectually, the American voter is less concerned with hewing his own path to success and prosperity than he is with being led down the gently-sloping paved road created by his federal government, replete, as it is, with low-hanging fruit to be effortlessly plucked from trees planted by stealing the labor of others.

This is not the excuse that will be given, of course, but make no mistake, it is the underlying truth. We will be told that the cost of doing nothing is greater than the trillion-dollar cost of another government boondoggle - oddly enough, however, no free-market solutions will be entertained. To the current administration, the only road to problem-solving runs through Central Planning City, loops around Entitlement Town and terminates at Dependency Depot.

All Congressmen wear two hats; that is understood. And when it comes to delivering the requisite tonnage of pork to his district, Congressman McMahon pulls into Staten Island driving a fully-loaded semi with admirable regularity. Bringing home the bacon requires skills, to be sure, but little tough decision-making.

However, when the Congressman dons his other cap, he becomes a legislator voting on issues that affect not only every individual in his district, but every individual in the country. It is then that a choice must be made; whether he will vote to uphold the liberties endowed by our Creator and guaranteed to us by our Constitution, or whether he will vote for the marginalization of those rights, and that document, by the moral busybodies of the left - who wish to substitute their best judgment for our own. There really is no middle ground.

The country is more divided now than it has ever been in my lifetime, and that includes the era of the Vietnam War. This great rift has not occurred because the Right has moved further right - Conservatives want what they have always wanted, to be left alone to earn for themselves and their posterity the best life possible, and to enjoy the freedoms that our Constitution was created to protect.

And as always, Conservatives continue to believe that capitalism is the single most moral political and cultural system in the history of the world, allowing, as it does, for the possibility that the individual who is the least among us can to soar to unimaginable heights - an opportunity no other system could have afforded him.

The Left, however, is a different story. This chasm between us has become immeasurably vast because the Left has drifted so far from our founding principles that it has rendered Democrats unrecognizable. They are clearly no longer a party that believes in the liberty of the individual; they have become naked collectivists and re-distributionists - indeed, such ideas were enshrined by our current President in his college thesis.

Liberalism is beginning to reek with the stench of the oppressor, and it tries to cover it by bathing in the sweet-smelling perfume of government handouts. It requires no great leap of imagination to see this for what it is - a systematic approach to creating a permanent underclass, so dependent upon government largess that they will unthinkingly supply enough votes to keep Leftists in power for generations to come.

So a simple "NAY" vote by our Congressman will not do; not if it is based on some minor funding technicality, or other innocuous and transparent bit of cover.

What it is necessary is a resounding repudiation of the underlying philosophy.

Congressman McMahon is now charged with taking a real stand. Will he vote to uphold our Constitution and protect the liberty of the individual men and women who made this country great and strong? Or will he vote to give it up to the collectivists?

Will he have the courage to demand free-market solutions, or will he vote to continue the headlong rush into American decline? The 13th Congressional District of New York waits and wonders.

Time to check the moral compass, Congressman McMahon, and let us know in which direction it is pointing.