If you thought there was no federal funding for abortions in the Senate health care bill think again.

Michael Bennet – D Colorado is introducing a new bill forcing reform on earmarks, Lobbyists and procedure changes to get Congress back to work.

Specifically, Bennet’s Plan for Washington Reform would:

Salaries, Spending, and Perk
* Freeze congressional member pay until there are 4 quarters of job growth
*Freeze congressional office budgets until there are 4 quarters of job growth
* End the health care subsidy for Members of Congress until health care reform passes and eliminates discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, doesn’t cut guaranteed Medicare benefits, increases coverage, and is fully paid for
* Require full payment for the seat and disclose of those traveling with a Member of Congress on a charter jet
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Representatives Mike Pence and Jeb Hensarling appeared Wednesday on “The Kudlow Report” to discuss their new plan to pass a constitutional amendment to limit federal spending.

The rapid pace of growth of the federal government has increased 24.7% from 19.9% of the economy. That is the highest level since World War II. The debt accrued in the past five years, is the total of debt summed up from President George Washington to Bill Clinton.

Read the Wall Street Journal article here.

You can’t make this stuff up:

From The Right Scoop site this puts it all in a nice package

The war between these two heats up.

The latest phrase to describe the Obama Admin and the Dem Congress? As a matter of fact, no. it’s the description of the Republican held Senate in 2005, when the Repub’s wanted to use the “nuclear option” on judicial nominees that the Dem’s were holding up – the same tactic the Dem’s want to use to pass health care (reconciliation).

A rather lengthy list of Democrats sounding extremely righteous in their criticism of it.

Biden (a classic as always): “I pray God that we don’t we don’t make the kind of naked power grab you are doing.”

So, now that you do have the power, have you decided that it’s all of a sudden OK to try these ‘arrogant naked power grabs’?

Incredible display of hypocrisy…

An interesting news item crossed my desk this AM. Apparently the Congress is pushing a bill that would create a separate race-based government for native Hawaiians, similar to that of an Indian tribe. Pres Obama has promised to sign the bill if it comes to him.

This troubles me on many levels. First, doing anything “based on race” is racist. The only way we’re going to get past racial issues in this country is to stop obsessing about them. I was sure Obama was supposed to be post racial or something, but it seems he and his people like to push the race card all the time. Second, living where I do in Northern New Mexico, surrounded by no less than 5 different Native Nations, and having taught on “The Rez” I have seen firsthand the failure of tribal governments and the Federal government where their people and tax monies are concerned. Read more

I was reading an article about someone who listed as one of their primary influences in life Walt Disney. My eight-year-old daughter happened to be reading the article over my shoulder and asked what it meant for someone to be an influence. After I explained it she told me Walt Disney was a bad man. You should have seen the look on on my face. My eight year old daughter just said Walt Disney was a bad man!!! This is the same girl who loves Disney princess everything, who would watch three Disney movies every day if we would let her, and whose dream vacation is (or was) Disney World.

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As I shoveled the last of the four feet of snow settled on our sidewalk, walkway, and cars, I found lots of time to ponder the connection between our national indebtedness and our recent weather patterns. Pardon me if you’re tired of hearing about frozen precipitation – I find snow drifting into everything I think about or discuss. Even my dreams have snow swirling around in them these days.

First, the snow: We have in place at the Eddio household a standard methodology for snow removal. It involves the time tested resolve of a few dedicated volunteer shovelers, and specific locations around the property where we can dump the impediment before moving on with our lives. Most of the time, we incur small batches of it, just enough to address in a short term way without much interference. We give it a quick momentary focus, then we’re off. This works great when average snowfalls are anywhere from 2-6 inches.

But when four inches turns into 4 feet, we have a problem.
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Hey everyone. I am still alive. However, I’ve been very busy being a capitalist (e.g. putting forth additional effort at work with the hopes of earning an increased reward) and fighting my Home Owners Association Board that is trying to take away many of our property rights for the “greater good”. Fortunately, I learned today that the efforts of two of my neighbors and I were effective and we won in the vote. Although the published news from the HOA Board that the amendments had failed was couched with essentially “we need more meetings to tell you why this is a good idea”. Sounds quite “progressive”, like when President Obama basically tells us we need Socialized healthcare, but us little people just aren’t smart enough to understand why, so he will just keep telling us.

Anyway, the original point of this post was to point out something I read today:

The Obama administration has argued that warrantless tracking is permitted because Americans enjoy no “reasonable expectation of privacy” in their–or at least their cell phones’–whereabouts. U.S. Department of Justice lawyers say that “a customer’s Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the phone company reveals to the government its own records” that show where a mobile device placed and received calls.

Uh? Seriously? Will we have any rights left in three years? I don’t know. For one thing, I’d avoid buying a Government Motors vehicle with OnStar. In this case, there is no middleman that government must work through to access your location, driving habits, or to shut your vehicle down.

There’s been a lot of discussion and controversy over the Administration’s plan to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his 9/11 accomplices in civil court in NYC. Most Conservative lawmakers and a great majority of the American public feel they should be tried under the auspices of a military tribunal, and treated as enemy combatants, not as civil criminals: (From CNN Politics)

According to a just-released CNN poll, Americans are giving a big thumbs-down to the Obama administration’s decision to try the Sept. 11 terrorist mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed in a civilian court. Sixty four percent of us want KSM tried in a military court; only 34 percent agree with President Obama that KSM should be tried in a civilian court in New York City.

“The decision to bring Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in front of a civilian court is universally unpopular – even a majority of Democrats and liberals say that he should be tried by military authorities,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.

Eric Holder, the U.S. Attorney General, said that KSM et. al, qualify as both enemy combatants and civil criminals and therefore the Government had a choice to make as to where to prosecute them.
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Just in case you are not aware of the history of Social Security let me inform you of the facts.

Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social Security Program (FICA) and promised:

1.) That participation in the Program would be completely voluntary.
The program is no longer voluntary.

2.) That the participants would only have to pay 1% of the first $1,400 of their annual incomes into the program.
Now you pay 7.65%. (plus your employer pays 7.65%)

3.) The money the participants elected to put into the program would be deductible from their income tax each year.
This money is no longer tax deductible.

4.) The money the participants put into the independent ‘Trust Fund’ rather than into the general operating fund, and therefore, would only be used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program, and no other Government program.
Under Johnson the money was moved to the General Fund to be spent.

5.) The annuity payments to the retirees would never be taxed as income.
Under Clinton and Gore, Up to 85% of your Social Security can be taxed.

Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are now receiving a Social Security check every month, only to find out that we are getting taxed on 85% of the money we paid to the Federal government to ‘put away’, you may be interested in the following:
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A big thanks to Rush Limbaugh for reading this on his show today!

After losing a close game, the coach put his arm around the young rookie quarterback who came off the bench to try to spark a comeback for his team. In an unsettling retort to his coach’s encouragement, Tom Brady said, “I gave it my best shot coach, but remember, I inherited that situation.”

A young relief pitcher was called in with the game tied in the bottom of the 9th inning with a runner on third and no outs. As he takes the ball from the manager, Mariano Rivera looks into the manager’s eyes and says, “I’ll give it my best coach, but remember, I inherited this situation.”

These two scenarios seem unimaginable in the world of sports. In fact, if they had really happened, you may not have expected these two players would have ever become superstars.s

Any player with that attitude would be toxic to a team. And that kind of attitude would not be tolerated for an instant from any coach, teammate, or fan for that matter. Their selfishness and egotism would always upset the balance and continuity of team play, making it very difficult to win. As a detriment to the team, they would be eliminated as soon as possible. (Contracts not withstanding)

However, there have been instances of players like this. Take Terrell Owens for example. He never took responsibility for a loss and always made sure any blame landed on someone else. He was shuffled from team to team and always with the same result – he didn’t last. Owens has great talent, but because he’s not a team player, he’ll always exit early.
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While I know the New York Times is not held in high esteem by most of the readership here, they do produce provocative op-eds on a fairly regular basis. This one was sent to me by a colleague, and it analyzes three economic issues that could lead to political craziness in the next 12 months.

No question, the world’s major economies badly need 2010 to be another quiet year politically and geopolitically, but that will require, at a minimum, that three major struggles — the banks vs. President Obama, China vs. Google & friends, and the world vs. Iran — can be defused with win-win compromises rather than win-lose confrontations.

What seems the most likely to you?

Well, the truth is out. Indisputable. Inevitable. Indubitable. Irrefutable. Incontrovertible.

The verdict is in.

Earlier this morning, Punxsutawney Phil took one look at the proposed new federal gov’t budget, saw the shadow this debt-riddled monstrosity cast over him, let out a shriek, and quickly scampered back into his hole.

His last words were, “What the #@$% is THAT?” …or something to that effect.

So there you have it – six more years of recession. Have a nice day.

I wonder if someone could slip him a copy of the latest Derby rankings and see if he could give a few thoughts on it?

I suspect he’ll go for Paw-lenty over Mittens…by a hair, of course.

So what did you think about the President’s first SOTU address? Was it as pleasurable as root canal?

Weigh in, PD gang, with what you heard and saw. We know he gives good speeches; but did he “ring the bell” yet again?