House GOP Push Counter-Proposal on Stimulus …. Lets Go DE-FENSE!

If defense is the best offense … the house GOP are getting their act together.  Representative Price (R-GA) is right when asserting that if governement spending worked, we would have been out of this mess a long time ago b/c spending is all that has been going on.  It is ridiculous that such a small fraction of the Democrats’ stimulus bill is allocated to tax cuts.  They have no solid track record of spending tax money prudently, and neither does the GOP of the past few years.  At least half of the stimulus should be tax cuts.  That is fundamental fairness ….

No one in Washington D.C. can claim to know what will work … so lets split the pot and see who does better … the U.S. taxpayer or the U.S. government.

-AP

Trust, But Verify

From Foxnews:

Far from rolling over, House Republican leaders are trying to win concessions from President Obama over the massive economic stimulus package and have proffered a bill of their own to put on the negotiating table. 

The counter-package, which is separate from a substitute amendment already proposed by House Republicans, would shift focus entirely from spending to tax relief. Though a full House vote on the Democratic package is expected in a matter of hours and President Obama said he’s confident it will pass, GOP lawmakers are hoping their proposal at least influences the final product. 

In a brief session with reporters Wednesday, Republicans panned the $825 billion proposal under consideration as a “non-stimulus” bill chock full of gift-wrapped spending items. 

“People are recognizing very quickly that’s it’s not one, stimulative, and two, it’s full of all sorts of things that are sort of favorite political projects of the Democrat majority,” said Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., chairman of the Republican Study Committee. 

“If government spending was going to get us out of this mess, we’d have been out a long time ago, because that’s all we’ve been doing,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. “This is not going to work. That’s why we’ve got a bill we think will work.” 

Their bill, called the Economic Recovery and Middle-Class Tax Relief Act of 2009, promises a host of tax-cutting measures. It includes a 5 percent “across the board” income tax cut; an increase in the child tax credit from $1,000 to $5,000; a freeze on capital gains and dividends tax rates at 15 percent; and a number of other measures targeted toward businesses. 

The Republicans authoring the alternative bill did not have an estimate for the cost of their counter-proposal, but Price said so far the bill has 65 co-sponsors.

Republicans said they’re not just trying to make a political point, but put forward a proposal that reflects the wishes of their constituents. 

“Bipartisan does not mean that either side should be giving up what their principles are,” said Rep. Scott Garrett, R-N.J. 

The Democratic bill due for a House vote Wednesday includes about $550 billion in spending and about $275 billion in tax cuts. 

Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., and Rep. David Camp, R-Mich., have also proposed a substitute amendment to the Democratic bill that would strip almost all of the existing language and add income tax rate deductions, alternative minimum tax relief, small business deductions and other measures. 

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., said Wednesday that Republicans are “finding their voice” on the debate and “getting in the fight.”

He and House Minority Leader John Boehner dismissed the Democratic proposal as a partisan grab bag driven by “old liberal spending priorities.”

“The Democratic bill won’t stimulate anything but more government and more debt,” Boehner said. “Americans need this bill to work.”

Republicans won a few concessions, as Democrats deleted $20 million meant to re-sod the National Mall in D.C., and stripped about $200 million for contraceptive services. But that’s not enough say Republicans, who said they felt Obama had reached out to them in meetings a day earlier on Capitol Hill and were hopeful the new president would at least incorporate some of their ideas. Obama said Tuesday that lawmakers should put politics aside and pass a stimulus for the sake of the American economy.

Trust, But Verify ….. Thank You President George W. Bush

While the pop-culture popularity of bashing-Bush remains, and due credit for keeping the country safe, et al, did not make it in PBHO’s inaugural speech, Trust, But Verify thanks President George W. Bush for his consistent leadership and providing the framework and foundation for the national security of the United States that will protect America for decades to come.  While it is popular to bash and boo G.W. Bush today, conservatives will not, in their now transposed role v. the Left, succumb to the bitterness and divisiveness of the Left over the past eight years; but, rather remain the informed, mature, and constructive loyal opposition while never forgetting our uniform consistent endeavor of working to form a more perfect union.  Fellow conservatives, our better example of a responsible minority party will nurture credibility and later consensus that our view of a small fiscally conservative government empowers citizens, while a large big spending federal bureaucracy creates a culture of dependency.  Below, enjoy Charles Krauthammar’s thoughts on the Bush legacy .. one that will transcend the pop-culture diss of today and cement America’s choice in ’00 and ’04, our 43rd President, as the right leader  to lead us into the new millenium …. and who reminded the world that the United States will never need to “grow a pair”.

– AP, Trust, But Verify

 

Exit Bush, Shoes Flying

By: Charles Krauthammer

Vindication is being expressed not in words but in deeds — the tacit endorsement conveyed by the Obama continuity-we-can-believe-in transition. It’s not just the retention of such key figures as Defense Secretary Bob Gates or Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner, who, as president of the New York Fed, has been instrumental in guiding the Bush financial rescue over the past year. It’s the continuity of policy.

It is the repeated pledge to conduct a withdrawal from Iraq that does not destabilize its new democracy and that, as Vice President-elect Joe Biden said just this week in Baghdad, adheres to the Bush-negotiated status-of-forces agreement that envisions a U.S. withdrawal over three years, not the 16-month timetable on which Obama campaigned.

It is the great care Obama is taking in not preemptively abandoning the anti-terror infrastructure that the Bush administration leaves behind. While still a candidate, Obama voted for the expanded presidential wiretapping (FISA) powers that Bush had fervently pursued. And while Obama opposes waterboarding (already banned, by the way, by Bush’s CIA in 2006), he declined George Stephanopoulos’s invitation (on ABC’s “This Week”) to outlaw all interrogation not permitted by the Army Field Manual. Explained Obama: “Dick Cheney’s advice was good, which is let’s make sure we know everything that’s being done,” i.e., before throwing out methods simply because Obama campaigned against them.

Obama still disagrees with Cheney’s view of the acceptability of some of these techniques. But citing as sage the advice offered by “the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history” (according to Joe Biden) — advice paraphrased by Obama as “we shouldn’t be making judgments on the basis of incomplete information or campaign rhetoric” — is a startlingly early sign of a newly respectful consideration of the Bush-Cheney legacy.

Not from any change of heart. But from simple reality. The beauty of democratic rotations of power is that when the opposition takes office, cheap criticism and calumny will no longer do. The Democrats now own Iraq. They own the war on al-Qaeda. And they own the panoply of anti-terror measures with which the Bush administration kept us safe these past seven years.

Which is why Obama is consciously creating a gulf between what he now dismissively calls “campaign rhetoric” and the policy choices he must make as president. Accordingly, Newsweek — Obama acolyte and scourge of everything Bush/Cheney — has on the eve of the Democratic restoration miraculously discovered the arguments for warrantless wiretaps, enhanced interrogation and detention without trial. Indeed, Newsweek’s neck-snapping cover declares, “Why Obama May Soon Find Virtue in Cheney’s Vision of Power.”

Obama will be loath to throw away the tools that have kept the homeland safe. Just as he will be loath to jeopardize the remarkable turnaround in American fortunes in Iraq.

Obama opposed the war. But the war is all but over. What remains is an Iraq turned from aggressive, hostile power in the heart of the Middle East to an emerging democracy openly allied with the United States. No president would want to be responsible for undoing that success.

In Iraq, Bush rightly took criticism for all that went wrong — the WMD fiasco, Abu Ghraib, the descent into bloody chaos in 2005-06. Then Bush goes to Baghdad to ratify the ultimate post-surge success of that troubled campaign — the signing of a strategic partnership between the United States and Iraq — and ends up dodging two size 10 shoes for his pains.

Absorbing that insult was Bush’s final service on Iraq. Whatever venom the war generated is concentrated on Bush himself. By having personalized the responsibility for the awfulness of the war, Bush has done his successor a favor. Obama enters office with a strategic success on his hands — while Bush leaves the scene taking a shoe for his country.

Which I suspect is why Bush showed such equanimity during a private farewell interview at the White House a few weeks ago. He leaves behind the sinews of war, for the creation of which he has been so vilified but which will serve his successor — and his country — well over the coming years. The very continuation by Democrats of Bush’s policies will be grudging, if silent, acknowledgment of how much he got right.

Bobby Jindal Shares Ideas On Fixing the GOP

Gov. Bobby Jindal .... New Leaders .... New Ideas.

AP – Trust, But Verify

1/13/2009

In an interview last Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at the governor’s mansion, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal commented on what fixing the GOP entails:

Fiscal Conservatism

“The party must consistently do what it says,” Jindal admonished. “You can’t be the party of fiscal discipline and tolerate the kind of spending that our party has accepted in the last several years, especially in Washington. … If the Democrats had proposed many of the spending initiatives and projects that Republicans ended up approving, we would have been the first to criticize them.”

 

Corruption

“We’ve got to consistently oppose corruption in our own party,” said Jindal. “It’s not enough to make excuses that ‘the other side does it.'”

 

Big, New Ideas … But the Right Ones.

“We have to apply our ideas to the problems Americans care about. I oppose greater government intrusion into our lives, but on health care, for example, for too long the Republican answer to this problem has been dumb.”

Calling for the GOP to again be the party of “ideas and solutions,” Gov. Jindal said, “Too often the rhetoric from the party has been ‘vote for Republicans because the other side is worse’. That doesn’t motivate or excite voters. You have to have a positive, proactive agenda for America.”

 

Louisiana ….  Setting an Example:

Fiscal Conservatism at work:

Louisiana is constitutionally required to balance its budget. Jindal claims to be saving $341 million in the state’s fiscal ’09 budget. “We will continue to pursue policies to move Louisiana forward while we tighten our belts in government and ensure we are living within our means,” said Jindal, which, he criticizes, is something Washington is not doing.

Accountability at work:

“We are one of eight states that put all of its spending online. We’re the only state that links it to performance outcomes. So you can go online and see where your tax dollars are going and you can link it to accountability.”

 

What Must the GOP Change Most?

“The Republican Party needs to do two things: One, we need to stop worrying about the Republican Party and start worrying about our country. Second, we need to stop worrying about the messenger and start worrying about substance. We will deserve to be a majority party again when we show the American people we are competent, we truly believe the principles we espouse and we’ve got relevant solutions to the things they care about, whether it’s the economy, health care, international terrorism.”

Ziegler’s Sarah Palin Interview ….. Speaks Out on Media’s Coverage of Her

Ziegler landed one of the very few interviews Sarah Palin has provided for his documentary “How Obama Got Elected”.  Gov. Palin speaks out an various aspects of her coverage by the MMM during the election and hints she is willing to go through it again citing the need for true reform.

 – AP

www.trustreagan.com

 

Future Senator Burris (?) Has a Monument to Himself

According to Politico, there is plenty of room on this for future accomplishments.  With no clear way to block Burris and the almost imminent Al Franken win, the Senate is going to be very interesting to watch for the next few years.  Our resurgency may not come from reininvigoration of ideals, but from the collapse of the Democrats from within.

– Yossarian

Chuck DeVore – A Policy Minded Rising Star on Nuclear Power & the Auto Bailout

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-CA) Will Take on Barbara Boxer in 2010

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-CA) has declared he is running for Barbara Boxer’s Senate seat in 2010.  A refreshing policy-minded politician who knows what he speaks, doesn’t rely on prepared positions and bullet points, thus providing clarity in argument through sound analysis, the use of facts, analogy, and common sense.  We at Trust, But Verify believe Chuck DeVore represents the renewed focus on fiscal conservatism first, sound policy positions, and big ideas that our party’s resurgence needs in order to succeed in ’10 and ’12.  Below are two clips,  enjoy and support Chuck DeVore early and often.

DeVore 2010:  http://chuckdevore.com/index.php

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chuck-DeVore/22771210763?ref=s

 

– AP

Chuck DeVore on Radiation and Nuclear Power:

 

Chuck DeVore on the Auto Bailout