The 2009 Liberal Scorecard

One of the problems conservatives face in the coming election is that the electorate is largely uninterested in lengthy explanations detailing the nation or state’s current problems. The general populace is much happier with short sound bytes rather than the details. This is one of the areas the American left has mastered. They have for years been able to articulate their talking points in attractive ways that sound good. Conservatives find themselves in the difficult position of going through detail-oriented explanations to counter very vulnerable arguments from their liberal counterparts. A glossy, polished speech that is low on details trumps the less dynamic speech rich with substance. It is a sad fact of contemporary American politics.

If one were to transcribe the liberal demagoguery to golf, liberals would not keep score in a tournament, but would decide on a winner by who hit the coolest shots, who was best dressed, or who was the most charismatic during the round.

The conservative keeps score. On a federal and state level, this has been a disastrous six months. Here are the scores that the conservative can use to prove his or her point.

Federal:
1) American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Remember when the new administration promised transparency? There were earmarks upon earmarks in the bill ranging from additional funding for STD prevention (as if people don’t know where babies come from or how gonorrhea is spread) to $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts (because that will put people right to work). This bill along with the Obama budget also increased federal deficit spending from 3% to 12-13% according to the Congressional Budget Office.
2) Gitmo is still open. Didn’t General O. promise to close it? Even many Democrats saw the peril in doing this and blocked this from happening.
3) Nancy Pelosi vs. the CIA. Yeah, she lied…and then disappeared to China. Nothing to see here…carry on! After all, people will forget that she knew about the waterboarding and then lied about knowing it despite ripping Big Bad Bush for waterboarding terror suspects.





4) Cap and Trade. Gee, here’s an idea…how about we try to lower the global temperature by ourselves by imposing higher taxes on manufacturers and energy producers? No, no…they won’t choose to manufacture in China instead. China and India are not bound by Kyoto, so there is no way that American companies would look to lower costs by outsourcing to China. Nah. Silly conservatives…the United States can easily cool the earth down from its fever on its own…stick it those Big Bad Oil Companies! Just because heating and cooling homes is going to be exponentially more expensive under this plan doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do something to combat a problem that has not been proven to even exits. But don’t take the evil conservatives’ word for it, take The One’s word for it…





5) The AIG tax. Who would have known that the person who introduced language into the stimulus allowing AIG to award bonuses was a Democrat at the blessing of the tax cheat Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner? Remember how angry those guys were at AIG and how they proposed a 95% tax on them? It was as if they did not know about it beforehand…they act well.
6) Nationalization of GM. But wait, Chairman, I mean, President Obama does not want to run GM, but will tell them to keep their headquarters in Detroit. How is the government taking over the nation’s largest auto company not socialism?
7) Proposal of nationalized healthcare. Wow! Free healthcare! Sounds good, right? It does…until the taxpayers get stuck with the bill, patients are excluded from planning their own medical care, and all profit-driven incentive is removed from pharmaceutical companies and health care professionals to practice any kind of innovative experimentation…
8) Iraq. Wasn’t General Barry going to cut and run? U.S. troops are still in Iraq. Maybe Bush wasn’t so crazy…
9) Oh, there’s more (disarmament when North Korea is testing nuclear missiles, sitting and watching instead of taking any stand on Iran, surging the military in Afghanistan when the Taliban is running amok in Pakistan, apologizing to the Arabs and Europeans about American arrogance…), but for the sake of sparing the details, this will have to do.

State:
1) The Wisconsin State Budget. Jim Doyle signed a budget that increased the garbage tax, eliminated the Qualified Economic Offer (QEO) for public educators, released “non-violent” felons early, provided in-state tuition to illegal immigrants (don’t worry, they can’t get drivers licenses), extended domestic partners of state workers to be eligible for the state insurance plan (not just the gay ones, either), increased fees on cell phones, established a new income tax bracket, lowered the enrollment cap on school choice, increased the hospital tax four months after it was implemented, increased the cigarette tax, increased the capital gains tax, etc. The Joint Finance Committee (composed by a 12-2 Democratic majority) inserted many provisions behind closed doors in the middle of the night and the budget passed the Senate and Assembly before the “little people” (a.k.a. the public) even became aware of it. Remember when Jim Doyle promised not to raise taxes?
2) State smoking ban. Remember when if someone did not like a restaurant or bar, he or she would go to a different one? That was not good enough for the state legislature or the governor. Apparently, private restaurants and bars cannot decide for themselves whether or not to allow smoking.

This is only a partial scorecard. The Obama Administration has been in power for not even six months and look what is happening.

The problem the conservative faces is presenting the disastrous public policy decisions above to a populace that gives Obama a 60% approval rating while the Congress (run by the Democrats) has an approval rating in the 30s. This is a populace that has 40% of people that believe that the government has its own money (that is not paid for by the public).

But then, Obama and his teleprompter sure give good speeches. It is really a shame about those pesky little conservatives busting apart his platitudes and fluff with facts and figures.

Ode to Wisconsin

What a bad day for Wisconsin.

Wisconsin is a state known for its extremes in its seasons. Winters often see temperatures drop well below zero and the summers can sometimes rival Floridian heat and humidity. As a result of this, rarely do Wisconsinites have a time of the year where they are not running the air conditioning or their heat. After all, winter is the best seven months of the year in Wisconsin.

For some reason, out of the eight people representing Wisconsin in the House of Representatives, only three of them had the sense to vote against the toxic American Clean Energy and Security Act, which is riddled with all kinds of tax increases and fees that most people do not even know exist.

Some of the number crunching has led some actuarial tables to calculate a staggering 171% increase in natural gas prices due to the new legislation. That it bad news for Wisconsin since it does not have so-called "clean energy" in any great amount such as nuclear power plants. Wisconsin is expanding its wind power capacity which is akin to filling a swimming pool with a dixie cup.

The summers will not be much of a bargain for Wisconsinites either as they are now faced with the possibility that the purely evil coal industry is staring directly into the face of another tax increase.

Are these legislators that out of touch that they cannot see that these costs will be passed on to the people that pay their utility bills? Can they not see that they just dramatically raised prices on their constituents should this legislation pass through the Senate?

Here in Wisconsin, the neighbor immediately to the south has nuclear power plants. That just may convince more Wisconsin-based companies to leave.

The Kyoto Protocol does not include China and India. Many more Wisconsin jobs will likely continue to move abroad to get out of this state and nation's toxic tax environments.

And then there is the 2009 Wisconsin State Budget.

Here are just a few of the tax and fee increases: garbage tax, elimination of QEO for state teachers, in-state tuition for illegal immigrants, increased capital gains taxes, cell-phone tax, digital downloads tax, cigarette tax, work permit fee, increased auto insurance coverage requirement, etc.

This budget is toxic and is increasing taxes, fees, and spending in a recession.

The two combined are a major blow to anyone living in Wisconsin for any prolonged amount of time.

Both bills are major fiscal blunders. The Senate can stop "Cap and Trade," but it is unlikely. The unintended consequences could lead to this bill being one of the top five worst public policy blunders ever made.