Dems Got Run Over by The Omnibus

The Dems' $1.1 trillion omnibus pork bill is dead...

This from Jim DeMint:

Harry Reid finally admitted he didn't have the votes to pass the pork-filled omnibus. Too embarrassed to read their own bill, Democrats agreed to a short-term [continuing resolution], funding government at current levels without earmarks.

Uberconservative Jim DeMint deserves a lot of credit for this.

Stay tuned for updates....

Updated per LCR, Fox News reports:

A visibly frustrated and angry Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, lashed out, saying that he had nine GOP senators supporting the measure, but that suddenly the support evaporated.

"This action taken by my friends on other side of aisle going to cause people to lose their job," Reid predicted.

"There's only one reason why cloture is not being filed...He doesn't have the votes.," McConnell chided, as he referred to the term for the process to shut down a filibuster. "And the reason he doesn't have the votes is because members on this side of the aisle increasingly felt concerned about the way we do business."

A McConnell aide said the leader "worked the phones" for days, pressing his members to quash the bill which contains $8 billion in earmarks (1% of the overall bill), several that belonged to the leader, himself, before he agreed to a pork moratorium.

Elections have consequences. Also, we won.

Updated again per LCR: Video of the fate of the Omnibus (I couldn't find a bus crash scene that didn't involve people dying so a video game had to do):

Update III: Unfortunately, this is entirely believable:

Reid says nine Republican senators approached him today to tell him that while they would like to see the bill passed, they could not vote for it. He did not reveal the names of the nine. A top Senate source tells National Review Online that “it looks like Harry Reid buckled under the threat of Republicans reading [the bill] aloud.”

[emphasis added]

There's still a bunch of GOP porcophiles in the Senate. Via Cubachi, here's a list of some Republicans who wanted to use Omnibus earmarks to buy votes with your tax dollars (along with the number of earmarks that they each placed in this spending bill):

Cochran (R-MS) 230

Wicker (R-MS) 199

Grassley (R-IA) 86

Bond (R-MO) 78

Bennett (R-UT) 76 (Defeated by Tea Party in 2010)

Voinovich (R-OH) 68 (Retiring)

Hutchison (R-TX) 63

Collins (R-ME) 57

Murkowski (R-AK) 55 (Queen of the RINO Turncoats)

Vitter (R-LA) 48

Cornyn (R-TX) 45 (RINO lover)

Chambliss (R-GA) 42

Crapo (R-ID) 41

Risch (R-ID) 41

Brownback (R-KS) 39

Burr (R-NC) 38

McConnell (R-KY) 35 (On very thin ice. Be careful, buddy.)

Roberts (R-KS) 35

Shelby (R-AL) 32

Inhofe (R-OK) 32

Alexander (R-TN) 30 (Watch out for the Tea Party, dude.)

Lugar (R-IN) 29

Graham (R-SC) 27

Thune (R-SD) 26

Isakson (R-GA) 24

Sessions (R-AL) 21

Bunning (R-KY) 21

Ensign (R-NV) 20

Gregg (R-NH) 13 (retiring)

Any guess as to which Republicans were among Dingy Harry's nefarious nine? Hold all of these porkers' feet to the fire and get ready for the 2012 primaries!

And lets give credit where credit is due: These are the earmark-free Republicans.

Johanns (R-NE) 0

LeMieux (R-FL) 0

Hatch (R-UT) 0 (Frightened by Tea Party)

McCain (R-AZ) 0

Kyl (R-AZ) 0

DeMint (R-SC) 0

Kirk (R-IL) 0 (He's on a short leash)

Coburn (R-OK) 0

Update IV: Nice Deb cautions against excessive jubilation over the death of OmniPork...

I hope some deal wasn’t struck with Republicans. I’m sorry I have a suspicious mind, but I do…

Update V: Tea Party power!

Republicans - caught with their hands in the cookie jar — deserted the measure in an effort to square themselves with tea party activists and conservatives in the party.

X-posted at LCR

Discussion: Memeorandum

A Picture Is Worth A Hundred Words

Above: my protest poster for the 4th of July Tea Party. Like it?  Download a supersized copy suitable for printing at Flickr.

Below: my most recent posts boiled down to one randomly-generated wordle.  Why does it look so much like a pig? I suppose this is what happens when you spend too much time writing about the Imperial Federal Government.  h/t: adagioforstrings

Obama's Big Rush

"The time for talk is over. The time for action is now." Obama left little room for doubt. If Congress did not pass the spending bill immediately, the country would fall apart, and the damage would be "irreversible."

"Rise to the moment," Obama commanded Congress. "Every day, our economy gets sicker," he warned. Upon learning that the national unemployment rate had jumped to 7.6 percent, the highest since 1992, Congress could no longer question Obama's "fierce urgency of now."

Congress acted in accordance with Obama's instructions and produced a bill posthaste. Public negotiations were deemed to be impractical—too time consuming. So fierce was their urgency, they forgot to read the 1,100 page bill, and they broke their 48-hour public posting promise. 

Immediately after the bill was passed on Saturday, Obama signed the bill into law.

...No, wait, that's not what happened.  After pushing Congress to hurry up and pass the trillion dollar stimulus bill, Obama promptly took off for a three-day holiday getaway.  Eh, what's the rush?


More

Obama delays signing 'urgent' stimulus for Chicago fun

To a critical eye, the hurry to pass the bill appears to have been a con, a legislative stampede.

What's the rush?  Urgent stimulus on hold for Bam's weekend off.

The push to get the bill through before the holiday weekend was so frantic, members of Congress didn't have a chance to read all 1,071 pages of the document before they could vote.  "In a perfect world it would have been nice to have had more time to process it," said Ilan Kayatsky, a spokesman for Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY).

British Women Pay High Price for Multiculturalism
Britain has headed down the same "rape path" as other neighboring  "enhanced" multiculturalized countries, such as Norway, where two out of three rapes are committed by men of "non Western backgrounds". 

Obama levitates, but the train goes off the rails.
One of many highlights of the stimulus bill the Democrats just rammed through Congress is $8 billion for high-speed rail. What makes this appropriation special is that there was no money for high-speed rail in the original House legislation. The Senate bill had $2 billion. The legislation coming out of conference "compromised" on $8 billion.

Remember when Obama promised to give us five days to review every bill that ended up on his desk?



"Sunlight is the greatest disinfectant... No more secrecy... And, when there's a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you the public will have 5 days to look online and find out what's in it before I sign it."

Obama Is Not Doing His Job

When abroad, Obama criticizes his own country, praises the antithetical world view of another, and tells us that his job is to focus on the well-being of International Muslims.  At home, Obama has told us that we should live our lives in accordance with the wishes of "other countries."  In the court of international opinion, Obama wants to represent all sides.

What if you hired a lawyer, and instead of representing YOU, he decided he should be "fair" and represent "all sides." What if you couldn't afford a lawyer and your public defender insisted on playing the prosecutorial role? 

Yes, your lawyer must listen to the other side, but he isn't going to express their concerns, or recognize the validity of their points unless it serves your interests in some way. Everything your attorney says and does should serve your interests.  That's what it means to have representation.

As the current occupant of the office of the President of the United States of America, it is not Obama's job to represent the interests or express the concerns of other nations. His delusional "President of the World" schtick is even more absurd and egotistical than his "Office of the President-Elect" charade was.  As long as Obama insists on being the self-appointed President of the International Community, there is no one representing the citizens of the United States of America.

If the Jimmy Carters, the Susan Sarandons, and the Code Pinks among us want to abuse their freedom to express the concerns of other nations and represent their interests, they're free to do so. Barack Obama is NOT.

More

Meltdown 101: Highlights of economic stimulus plan

So, how much of a tax cut is he delivering to 95% of the American people with that $790 billion? A whopping $13 per paycheck that later gets reduced to $8 per paycheck. 

Democrat Leaders Hold Midnight Meeting, Freeze GOP out of “Stimulus” Negotiations

It is the prerogative of congressional Democrats as to whether the hearing will be an honest and open forum or instead a dog and pony show while real negotiations take place in a smoke-filled backroom.

More Appointment Chaos: Gregg Withdraws After Policies Too Much to Stomach

"It has become apparent during this process that this will not work for me as I have found that on issues such as the stimulus package and the Census there are irresolvable conflicts for me. Prior to accepting this post, we had discussed these and other potential differences, but unfortunately we did not adequately focus on these concerns."

The Sordid Story of The Stimulus

Arlen $pecter has written an article for the Washington Post, trying to convince us that he is acting responsibly in supporting the $timulus Package.  Here are some of his asinine points:

• I am supporting the economic stimulus package for one simple reason: The country cannot afford not to take action.

• Failure to act would be devastating not just for Wall Street and Main Street but for much of the rest of the world, which is looking to our country for leadership in this crisis.

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the proposed cuts "do violence to what we are trying to do for the future," especially on education. 

• This proverbial half a loaf beats no loaf by a mile.
  

My response:

Dearest Arlen,

Your argument for the "stimulus" is incoherent.  Let me help.  This bill is 88% pork and 12% stimulus. If you were being perfectly honest you would tell us that you simply do not know what impact this bill will have—no one does. If you were being perfectly reasonable, you would admit that a trillion dollar spending spree will likely do more harm than good. 

Because of the tremendous impact their decisions have, physicians take the following oath: "...first do no harm." I know that Senators aren't held to the same high standard, but maybe you should think about these words as you go forward.  You say we "cannot afford not to take action."  Fine.  But here's my question...can we afford to make things even worse?

Perhaps your thinking is being shaped by considerations regarding your chances of being re-elected next year. You don't want to be labeled as a "do nothing", do you?  I can sympathize, but please put your concern for the future of this country ahead of your political ambitions.

I think you're digging your own grave.  Conservatives in your state are going to be sorely disappointed with you. Liberals will know that they can get more of what they want from a real Democrat.  Let's frame the discussion this way: why should Pennsylvanians vote for you when they could have someone who is more honest about his political and ideological affiliations?

Audio Update: Hannity interviews Republican Arlen Specter on his support for the spendulus package.  h/t: M

Other Thoughts

• Pork = stimulus?  Obama is having a hard time selling his stimulus package, not for lack of communication skills, but because his stimulus package is a lie.  Sweet little lies are easy to sell.  This lie is neither sweet nor little.  

• Obama espouses all of the worst political ideas of the last 100 years.  How could he not fail?  If he is re-elected in 2012, it will be because he will have been successful in one single thing: shifting the blame.
  

More

We have nothing to hope for but hope itself.

Jesus took a handful of loaves and two fish and fed 5,000 people. Barack wants to take a trillion pieces of pork and feed it to a handful of Democratic Party interest groups. 

The New Great Communicator … Isn't

Somehow this week, unbelievably, Obama and the Democrats seem to be losing the spin war. There are the worrying poll numbers.

50 De-Stimulating Facts

The great French economist Frédéric Bastiat called politics “the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.” But who pays for the state bailout? Savers will pay to bail out spenders, and future generations will pay to bail out the undisciplined present.

Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan

Health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.

Obama's Remarks at Press Conference

"The strongest democracies flourish from frequent and lively debate, but they endure when people of every background and belief find a way to set aside smaller differences in service of a greater purpose."  Translation: Sign the bill or I will trump you.

10 questions for Obama

Mark Sanford clearly explains why the stimulus is a very bad idea: 

h/t: American Thinker

The Collaborators

Senators have reached a tentative deal on a version of President Obama's economic stimulus plan, including about $811 billion in spending and tax cuts, that will win enough Republican votes to move forward. Sens. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Susan Collins of Maine appeared to be the critical Republicans to sign onto the bill, giving Democrats the 60 votes needed to advance to a final vote. Democrats also voiced confidence that Republican Sen. Olympia Snow of Maine also would vote for the plan.

"It represents an effective, targeted approach to the economic crisis facing our country," Collins said Friday.  "And even more important, it demonstrates to the American people that at a time of crisis we can work together" [to make things worse].

Don't be discouraged, conservatives. Keep pounding away. This one should be a no-brainer for every Republican—liberal, moderate or conservative. The spendulus bill is neither popular nor prudent. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that only 37% of voters favor the legislation; and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has determined that the "stimulus" package will actually lead to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years.


FYI:

Collins (202) 224-2523; ME office (207) 622-8414
Snowe (202) 224-5344; ME office (207) 622-8292
Specter (202) 224-4254; PA office (717) 782-3951


More

You must read this! This is a spectacular article about the economy.

Tyra Banks: Is Gay the New Black?

Crisis, Catastrophe: Are These Words of Hope?

Sorry, O: 'I Won' Won't Cover This

CBO: Obama stimulus harmful over long haul

Support for the Porkulus Bill has droped to 37%

Democrats Fighting Dirty For Your Money

Democrats are launching an ad campaign to turn Americans against the Republicans who voted against the Democrats' pork bill.  Apparently the era of postpartisan hope, change and brotherly love is officially over.  Here are some of their loathsome statements:

House Republicans just don't get it.  They celebrate being the party of no and status quo, while more than 2.6 million Americans have lost their jobs, the stock market has plummeted wiping out nearly $7 trillion [in] stock market wealth and endangering thousands of investors' nest eggs, and one in 10 homeowners was delinquent on mortgage payments or in foreclosure this fall. 

Republicans' champagne wishes and caviar dreams simply don't connect with middle class families struggling to make ends meet and furious that their tax dollars are going to bail out banks, build schools in Iraq, or send American jobs overseas.  [emphasis mine]

Here's the message I left on their website:

Your ad campaign is partisan and deceptive and your rhetoric is asinine. 

You talk about connecting with the middle class. Is Obama trying to connect with the middle class with his cocktail and wagyu steak soirées?  Is he trying to connect with the middle class with $170 million dollar celebrations and posh superbowl parties?  Americans are freezing to death while Obama luxuriates in a White House that is now hot enough to grow orchids.

Spending a trillion dollars two years from now isn't the way to help the middle class to get out of this recession. The middle class understands that.  And that's why support for Obama's highly partisan plan is eroding.  If Democrats want to get serious about a quick stimulus, they'd get behind a two-month tax holiday for all Americans. That would "cost" the government about one third as much as Obama's plan, and would have an immediate stimulative effect.  But there is one big downside to that plan: it doesn't give politicians any power.  They don't get to choose winners and losers. They don't get to reward special interest groups.

You aren't really serious about helping the middle class, are you?

P.S.  Regarding the $700 billion bank bailout package, most of the house democrats voted in favor, most of the Republicans voted against.  Don't try to trick Americans into believing that House Republicans are responsible for that bill.  It's a lie. 

More

Iran sends first home-built satellite into orbit.

In the first foreign reaction, France expressed concern because the technology used was "very similar" to that employed in ballistic missiles.  "We can't but link this to the very serious concerns about the development of military nuclear capacity," foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said in Paris.  In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the satellite programme could "possibly lead to the development of ballistic missiles...that's of great concern to us," he said.

Tax issues prompt Obama nominees to withdraw!

Iran says Obama's offer to talk shows US failure

After nearly three decades of severed ties, Obama said shortly after taking office this month that he is willing to extend a diplomatic hand to Tehran if the Islamic republic is ready to "unclench its fist".  In response, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a fresh tirade against the United States, demanding an apology for its "crimes" against Iran...

Obama voices concern about freed Guantanamo inmates

"Can we guarantee that they're not going to try to participate in another attack? No," Obama said. "But what I can guarantee is that if we don't uphold our Constitution and our values, that over time that will make us less safe. And that will be a recruitment tool for organizations like al-Qaeda."  

Being president is not community organizing. Being president means you have real responsibilities. A primary responsibility is protecting the citizens.  Those citizens killed in a terrorist attack because of freed terrorists are then rendered totally incapable of "upholding U.S. values and law;" instead they have been sacrificed for the unAmerican value of debasing its citizens to appease enemies.

The Stimulus: A Picture is Worth a Trillion Words

Eye-popping illustrations of the stimulus from Suitably Flip via Midnight Blue:

It's difficult to visualize a million dollars, much less a million million dollars.  But that's the true threshold cracked by the "$825" billion "stimulus" bill, when you include $347 billion in estimated interest costs associated with the incremental borrowing required.

So how big is the resulting $1.2 trillion spending package?  Big enough to dwarf any government program in history, even after adjusting for inflation.  It's bigger than the New Deal and the Iraq War combined.  The interest alone will be costlier than the Louisiana Purchase or going to the moon.  The $18 billion in bonuses paid legally by private Wall Street firms in 2008 - decried by the President as "shameful" - is vanishingly small in comparison (smaller even than the bill's incremental food stamps expenditures).

More

Why Obama is so scary...he refuses to learn from history. We're doomed to repeat the mistakes of history, only in a bigger way this time.  Obama Explains FDR's Folly? 

‘Jimmy Carter’ tag has Obama wincing.

The GOP Should Go Upscale.  If the GOP abandons "downscale" voters, guess who will be there to scoop them up?

Money for nothing won't grow the economy.

Rendition Suddenly Back In Vogue

Shout out to GCA!

Americans Don't Want The Porkulus Plan

Some interesting and encouraging analysis and commentary regarding the stimulus package:

Democrats say the tax cuts in the economic recovery plan are evidence of their outreach to Republicans. The problem with that logic is that President Obama understood the importance of tax cuts during his successful campaign for the White House. That’s one reason the Democratic presidential candidate promised to cut taxes for 95% of all Americans. The latest polling data confirms that tax cuts remain the most popular part of the economic recovery plan. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of voters nationwide say tax cuts generally help the economy, and only 17% disagree.

Forty-three percent (43%) of Americans would support an economic recovery plan that included only tax cuts and no new government spending. Just 15% would support a plan with only new government spending and no tax cuts.

So the inclusion of tax cuts are both a way for the president to honor his campaign pledge and a bipartisan solution that Americans naturally view as part of an economic recovery plan.

Many pundits have tried to make the case that Obama has a mandate to ignore the right.  I don't believe this is true.  After the primaries, Obama moved to the center. But the stimulus package, in its current form, is not a centrist piece of legislation.  Centrist America wants to see a stimulus strategy that includes tax cuts and restrained spending.  If Obama really is the political genius that his worhipers say he is, he will insist on legislation that reflects America's commonsense values.

More

Obama administration co-opting media analysts

Politico warns TV news viewers to take political analysis in the Age of Obama with a five-pound bag of Morton’s Salt.  Barack Obama’s right-hand man, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, holds daily conference calls with three prominent analysts who appear regularly as independent voices in the media’s political coverage.  

Bush hatred and Obama euphoria 

In fact, Bush hatred and Obama euphoria -- which tend to reveal more about those who feel them than the men at which they are directed -- are opposite sides of the same coin. Both represent the triumph of passion over reason. Both are intolerant of dissent. Those wallowing in Bush hatred and those reveling in Obama euphoria frequently regard those who do not share their passion as contemptible and beyond the reach of civilized discussion.

Big Government Stimulus

In the Western world, countries that were once the crucible of freedom are slipping remorselessly into a thinly disguised serfdom in which an ever higher proportion of your assets are annexed by the state as superlandlord. Big government is where nations go to die – not in Keynes' "long run," but sooner than you think.

Obama's Global Interest Imperialism

On Nov. 4, 2008, Americans elected their first international president. They elected a man who does not seek to preserve American values. Leftists perceived George W. Bush as an imperialist for American interests; by the same token, Obama is an imperialist for "global interests." In a war to save America from implacable foes, Obama's Global Interest Imperialism dooms American exceptionalism to the ash heap of history. With it may go the last, best hope of Earth.

Netanyahu says Iran will not get hands on nukes

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's leading candidate for prime minister, said Saturday that Iran "will not be armed with a nuclear weapon."  In an interview with Israel's Channel 2 TV, Netanyahu said if elected prime minister his first mission will be to thwart the Iranian nuclear threat. 

New Obama tax-evasion scandal: Tom Daschle

Daschle’s team claims that the former Senator deserves the credit for revealing the problem himself.  Daschle did report this — but only after getting picked as HHS Secretary.  If that sounds familiar, it’s because that’s when Geithner suddenly discovered that he owed Uncle Sam money too, only Daschle paid back a lot more: over $100,000.

Hackers Crack Into Texas Road Sign, Warn of Zombies Ahead