Rove’s 2012 Predictions

By Alaina Segovia

Filed Under Congress, General, Race for White House 2012 on Dec 30 

Karl Rove has made a few political predictions for 2012.  What say you?

  1. Republicans will keep the U.S. House, albeit with their 25-seat majority slightly reduced. In the 10 presidential re-elections since 1936, the party in control of the White House has added House seats in seven contests and lost them in three. The average gain has been 12 seats. The largest pickup was 24 seats in 1944—but President Barack Obama is no FDR, despite what he said in his recent “60 Minutes” interview. Read more

Gobble Gobble VI

By Stephen Fountain, Editor

Filed Under Congress, Humor, Outside the Track on Nov 24 

It has been a great, and now time-honored privilege to take the occasion of Thanksgiving to award our own PoliticalDerby Big Turkey Award.

In the past we have honored a person or persons with this distinction. This year, we searched, wrestled and then performed a detailed statistical analysis to find a worthy candidate. You won’t be disappointed, as we discovered a host of individuals who fit the bill.

Our 6th Annual Big Turkey Award goes to The Debt Reduction Super-Committee in their endeavor to gobble up the nation’s debt. Patty Murray, Max Baucus and John Kerry we salute you! Jon Kyl, Rob Portman and Pat Toomey we salute you!

turkey

For Congress to abdicate its responsibility and put its faith in a supercommittee of twelve (go here for a complete list of committee members) was a bird brained idea from the beginning. The fact that the committee failed is just gravy for the goose.

It should be noted that this is now the 2nd time (Gobble Gobble) that John Kerry has appeared as at least a partial recipient of the Big Turkey Award. Mr. Kerry, we offer you a special Big Turkey salute! You are the gift that keeps on giving.

We at PoliticalDerby hope you have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving!

‘We can’t wait on Congress: The time to act is now’

By Scott A. Robinson, Editor

Filed Under Congress, Domestic Policy, POTUS, Whitehouse News on Oct 31 

The headline above is the headline of an Obama Administration press release distributed only a few minutes.

I do not care what the issue is, the attitude and actions of legislating by executive order rather than by the process established by the Constitution is wrong. The President of the United States dictating laws from his desk are the actions of just that–a dictator.

Dick Durbin tests the Water Balloon Theory

By Anthony W. Hager

Filed Under Congress on Oct 12 

No one likes high bank fees, especially in an era of bailouts, Wall Street occupations, and Washington deciding which banks survive. So a $5 monthly debit card fee creates an ideal situation for a manipulative politician, and Sen. Dick Durbin is ready to reap the populist hay. 

Bank of America initiated the $5 debit card fee and you’d have thought they’d reinstated debtor’s prison. No sooner was the fee announced than Durbin pounced.  Read more

Obama is Lebron and Lebron is Obama

By Daniel Bassali

Filed Under Congress, Humor, Scandals on Sep 21 

This is a fantastic article that a good friend of mine sent to me yesterday. I love the side by side comparisons of these two very controversial figures. Ironically, my very first article was something very similar.

Click here to read the article by Joe Scarborough.

If you would like to read the article I wrote comparing Anthony Weiner to Lebron James, click the “Read More” link.

Enjoy your Wednesdays PD family!

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Democrats and Republicans created the Tea Party

By Anthony W. Hager

Filed Under Congress, Tea Party on Sep 9 

If you were born in the 1960s, educated in the 1970s, and emancipated from parental dependence in the 1980s, the ideological differences between Democrats and Republicans were clearly defined. Democrats favored high taxes, government regulation, and wealth redistribution. Republicans advocated low taxes, limited government, and private charity. During the 2000s those lines were blurred. 

Republicans gained control of the federal government for the first time in memory. For conservatives the results were underwhelming. The hope was for Republicans to curtail government’s growth and influence. Instead, they expanded the federal role in education, healthcare, airport screening, and law enforcement. Budget deficits grew, partially due to wars fought for righteous reasons but with murky objectives, and partially due to tepid efforts at entitlement reform.  Read more

Send out the clown

By Anthony W. Hager

Filed Under Congress, Domestic Policy on Aug 27 

A rodeo clown wears some of the most garish outfits imaginable. But who would expect ordinary from someone who’ll willingly tease a 2000-pound bull that’s wearing a bucking strap around his groin? While unquestionably odd, the rodeo clown’s wardrobe is functional, which is more than can be said of Rep. Frederica Wilson’s (D-FL) attire. One glimpse of her costume will send a bull scrambling for his sunglasses.

Rep. Frederica Wilson — Congress Clown — playing the race card (My apologies for using an external link rather than inserting the video. I can’t seem to make it work. AH) Read more

Live to spend, spend to live

By Anthony W. Hager

Filed Under Congress, Tea Party on Aug 6 

Vice President Joe Biden sticks his foot in his mouth so often that he’s developed athlete’s tongue. The news flash comes when Biden doesn’t say something eccentric, unpredictable, or just plain stupid. So it was no great revelation to hear he’d accused Tea Party Republicans of behaving like terrorists during the debt limit debate. It’s also no surprise that he denied making the comment that everyone within earshot clearly heard. 

That’s just Joe being Joe, right? He has a long history of uttering inanities at the worst possible moment. Sometimes his gaffes unintentionally reveal hidden truths. While Biden was merely blowing his usual hot air with his “terrorist” comment, Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) can’t make the same claim. He pulled a “Biden” in the same meeting, and inadvertently revealed a not-so-secret truth about Washington politics.  Read more

Our Senators finally get the vacation they deserve

By Daniel Bassali

Filed Under Congress on Aug 3 

“Hooray! We saved the country one trillion dollars in spending cuts! Now lets go on vacation and forget about the billion dollars we will be losing this month because we couldn’t agree on 13 million in FAA subsidy cuts. That seems smart.”

After crying for the past month about the need to get more revenue into our budget, Democrats in the Senate decided not to vote on the bill to put 4,000 furloughed FAA employees back to work AND allow the government to collect revenue from flight taxes worth 200 million dollars a week. Meanwhile Obama says his priority now is jobs. Could this situation get any more disgusting? Oh yeah, Harry Reid told the media yesterday that he planned to have a vote before the August recess to resolve this situation. I guess he was too busy packing his sunscreen for the Nevada sun to get around to it.

Its just too easy… its not even fun anymore to point out all the flaws in this Senate.

Read more about this story here.

Real job creation

By Scott A. Robinson, Editor

Filed Under Congress, Domestic Policy, Race for White House 2012 on Aug 3 

There is a rather widespread argument recently circulated. It essentially is: Unemployment would not be so bad if government tax revenues were not down, causing governments to lay off workers.

This argument assumes that government jobs have no negative effect on other employment, or the negative effect is offset by the positive effect of those employees having a job. It also assumes that all jobs are good because they provide the employee income, driving the multiplier effect, or are essentially Keynesian “stimulus”.

Both premises are wrong.

Outside of government, jobs exist for one reason alone.

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US credit downgraded from AAA to AA+

By Scott A. Robinson, Editor

Filed Under Congress, Domestic Policy, Race for White House 2012 on Aug 2 

Perhaps it was missed over the weekend that Egan-Jones was the first to downgrade the credit of the United States of America from AAA to AA+. This downgrade was not based upon the latest “significant crisis”, but rather our long-term performance.

The major factor driving credit quality is the relatively high level of debt and the difficulty in significantly cutting spending. We are taking a negative action not based on the delay in raising the debt ceiling but rather our concern about the high level of debt to GDP in excess of 100%….

History has proven that defaults on domestic public debt do occur. In fact, seventy out of three
hundred twenty defaults since 1800 have been on domestic public debt

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What’s next?

By Daniel Bassali

Filed Under Congress, Domestic Policy on Aug 1 

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a deal. While there is no guarantee that the House will be able to obtain the 216 votes required to raise the debt ceiling, it does seem that we will avoid default barring any late drama. My first reaction after hearing about this deal and the details within the legislation was not what I expected. I was not thinking about the proposed $3 trillion in cuts or the fact that we are going to have yet another committee in Washington. A few months ago, who could have seen the fact that we may see Defense cuts, entitlement cuts, and tax reform all in the next few months with this President in office? But none of this grabbed my attention immediately. Rather, I first thought to myself, “What am I supposed to do now?”

My favorite show is nearing its season finale and I am facing withdrawal issues. This crisis has captivated me, and the nation, for a month. Some days were encouraging while some were frustrating. Our leaders came so close to imploding our economy. This show had two rivals pitted against each other playing in a strategic game with America’s fiscal future and in doing so gave all who watched a few grey hairs along the way. Every day had a new headline, a new story that brought out new opinions and emotions.
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Let’s cover the moon with yogurt

By PD Administrator

Filed Under Congress, Domestic Policy on Aug 1 

A guest submission from Rochelle Edvalson

I have been having nightmares. Nightmares about the debt ceiling debacle. Seriously. I’m not kidding. The pundits who keep saying that the American people are not tuned in to this debate are absolutely wrong. Heroes are emerging on each side of the aisle. Paul Ryan has for many months now been considered the lovable but slightly goofy republican mascot. This speech seals the deal, and probably moves him from mascot, to at the very least, sidekick. (Although, one could argue that full-on hero status will be forthcoming.)

Lesson to DC: Don’t wet the bed

By Daniel Bassali

Filed Under Congress on Jul 29 

Let me just get this straight, Republicans pass a bill that has popular support and Democrats refuse to even bring it up for a vote. So the logical thing for Republicans to do then is to scramble and offer up another more compromising bill while still trying to wrangle up votes so that the Democrats can reject it AGAIN? Democrats are chuckling to themselves on the sidelines, elbowing each other and asking “Is this really happening?”

This gives me flashbacks to the 1st grade when I kept asking my teacher to go to the bathroom during class and she kept denying me. One side kept offering up a solution to a problem and the other side kept saying no. The solution was for the best interest of both parties yet my teacher for some odd reason refused. Guess how the story ends; I did the only logical thing to do and went right there. Congress will share the same fate, no one wins.
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Stossel: ‘Take a chainsaw to the budget’

By Scott A. Robinson, Editor

Filed Under Congress, Domestic Policy, Latest News on Jul 29 

If we were actually serious about eliminating the national debt, we need to stop adding to the deficit.

John Stossel, Chris Edwards from the Cato Institute, and Stuart Butler from the Heritage Foundation have put together a list of cuts that would balance the budget today and partially address social security and medicare for the future, which are the most significant long-term budget and deficit issues.

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Everything wrong with our government

By Scott A. Robinson, Editor

Filed Under Congress, Domestic Policy on Jul 28 

You do not have the votes because the constituents of the members of Congress do not agree with the bill you are attempting to pass.

So what do you do? They call it compromise. It is also known as “the way things are done in Washington”.

However, in plain language, this practice is nothing more than buying votes. In still plainer language, this is bribery, illegal everywhere but in the halls of our lawmakers. Obamacare would not have passed without it and neither will John Boehner’s debt ceiling bill. Politico reports:
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Down goes Tigger!

By Daniel Bassali

Filed Under Congress on Jul 28 

Is there something wrong with the water in D.C.? Senator Ensign, Congressman Lee, Congressman Weiner, and now Congressman Wu have all resigned for sex related accusations his year. Just to make sure we all still have our sanity allow me to state THIS IS NOT NORMAL! To put in perspective how rare resignation is for a representative from Oregon, nearly twice as many Representatives from Oregon have died in office than resigned.

The allegations arose when an 18 year old woman sent a message to Wu’s district office accusing him of “aggressive and unwanted sexual behavior.” Even before these horrible allegations, Wu’s sanity has been questioned. During his close re-election campaign in 2010 Wu’s staff demanded the congressman seek psychiatric treatment because they were concerned about his odd, frantic, and erratic behavior. This erratic behavior includes dressing up as the world’s creepiest tiger for no apparent reason. Doesn’t this guy seem like the worst possible boss ever? Actually, it turns out that many of his staffers quit on him during the 2010 election.
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When you’re $14 trillion in debt, rap about it

By Daniel Bassali

Filed Under Congress, Domestic Policy, Humor on Jul 26 

Goremy has been hilariously rapping about living in the DC area for a few years now. He just put up his newest video on the debt ceiling. Funny enough, Goremy’s satirical message is right on point; the comedy displayed by his character in this video highlights the immaturity of our politicians during this debt ceiling crisis and why we so desperately need spending cuts and reform. Enjoy!

What’s this, bipartisanship?

By Daniel Bassali

Filed Under Congress, General, Policy on Jul 19 

The 2011 edition of the “Gang of Six” made their proposed debt reduction proposal today, take a look here.

Since I have only had a few moments to review the proposal, I have only formed an early opinion. My initial reaction is so far so good! The numbers are $3.7 trillion in total cuts and $500 billion in immediate cuts. This bipartisan measure seems to focus on spreading the tax base which allows us to increase revenue by $1 trillion yet lower marginal rates for everyone. The new highest income tax rate would be 29%. This bill sets up three tax brackets and abolishes the Alternative Minimum Tax (worth $1.7 trillion) The legislation also reforms enitlement spending and cuts from discretionary spending from every department.

I feel like this really is a fair and balanced compromise. (By this I do not mean a “Fox News compromise.”) Let me know what you guys think about this deficit plan. Judging from the comments on the last post I am sure we will have a number of varying views so go ahead and sound off on this!

I’ll trade you my Juicy Juice for your Kit Kat

By Daniel Bassali

Filed Under Congress, General, Policy on Jul 18 

Many of us have compared our politicians to stubborn children. That’s just it! Why don’t we look at these negotiations as a bunch of 3rd graders at the cafeteria table trading their lunches? The Republican 3rd graders want to trim down but Democrats want everyone in the class to bring more food from home to share. Here are two trade scenarios that I believe would appease both sides just before lunch time is over.
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