Carolina Politics Online

Congressman Brad Miller (D-NC-13) wrote a column for the Huffington Post over the weekend in which he referred to the Republicans in Congress as hypocrites for opposing Obama’s tax on “too big to fail” banks because they posed a similar plan just a few years ago.  Well, that may be true and they probably are hypocrites.  I have met very few politicians who aren’t, but hypocritical or not, this tax should not be implemented and that’s the bigger picture Miller isn’t seeing through his partisan eye glasses.  He quotes a 2000 testimony by Stephen Moore of the CATO Institute.

“The user fee is a partial payment for the implicit guarantee it receives from Uncle Sam,” Moore said. “The rationale behind such a fee is that since taxpayers are bearing an implicit risk on Fannie Mae activities, it is reasonable that the federal government recoup fees to pay for that assumption of risk. The main advantage of such a fee is that it would help level the playing field between Fannie Mae and its fully private competitors.”

What I am reading there amounts to double taxation on you and me.  First of all, Moore is right about Fannie and Freddie.  We, the taxpayers, are bearing a huge risk on backing their overly risky and poor business activities.  We are already being taxed to pay for their recklessness.  The question that should be asked here is why?  Why is the government continuing to take responsibility for Fannie and Freddie with our tax dollars?  That’s what should be addressed.  Miller also notes that the tax will go to help reclaim $120 billion in tax dollars that were lost through the TARP program.  Again, it begs the question, why was it done in the first place?  Adding a 15% tax on all banks to cover this stupidity is what amounts to the second round of taxation on people like you and me because as Congressman Miller and many in the Democrat party don’t seem to understand, businesses don’t pay taxes.  They pass their tax burden on to us  through increased fees and prices and we pay for it when we patron them so I don’t see how Obama’s bank tax is good for anybody other than the power brokers in D.C. steering our nation into the crapper.

HR 3962, the infamous Pelosi health care bill passed the U.S. House of Representatives last night by a mere five votes.  This doesn’t mean that we’re doomed.  The U.S. Senate still has their own version to pass and then it has to be reconciled with the House bill and both chambers have to vote on the final combo bill.  It is unlikely this will all happen before the end of the year, so there is time for the American people to stop this.

I want you to understand what this bill does.  It is going to cost in excess of $1.2 trillion over the next ten years.  This is all new spending on top of what our government spends today.  Bear in mind, we have a $1.7 trillion budget deficit this year alone an $11 trillion debt.  It’s actually even worse than that, though.  The $1.2 trillion figure is what the House reps are saying.  The CBO has a much, much larger price tag.

Senator Gregg: Updated CBO Estimate of House Bill Pulls Back the Curtain on Majority’s Intent to Grow Government by $3 Trillion

Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH), ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee today commented on the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) more detailed cost estimate of the manager’s amendment to the House health reform bill.

Senator Gregg stated, “The CBO estimate released last night finally sheds light on the smoke and mirrors game the majority has been playing with the cost of their health care reform proposal. Over the first 10 years, this legislation builds in gross new spending of $1.7 trillion – and most of the new spending doesn’t even start until 2014. Once that spending is fully phased in, the House Democratic bill rings up at more than $3 trillion over ten years.

“Additionally, this bill cuts critical Medicare and Medicaid funding by $628 billion, accounts for nearly $1.2 trillion in tax and fee increases and will explode the scope of government by putting the nation’s health care system in the hands of Washington bureaucrats. The $3 trillion price tag defies common sense – we simply cannot add all this new spending to the government rolls and claim to control the deficit.

“If we continue to pile more and more debt on the next generation, they will never be able to get out from under it. The health care system needs reform, but this massive expansion of government, financed by our children and grandchildren, is the wrong way to proceed.”

This bill will fine employers who do not provide health insurance to their employees.  This is a double edged sword.  Many small business, for one, don’t provide it because they can’t.  Of those companies that do, the fine that would be implemented by the Federal government will actually cost less than providing the benefits.  The obvious result is that many companies out there will simply drop employee health benefits and force them onto the public “option.”  Personally, I think this is by design because the Democrats have been very open about wanting a single payer government run health care system and that is exactly the path we will go down.

This bill will make your current insurance policy even more expensive.  Remember how the whole point of health care “reform” was to lower the cost.  Yeah, that’s out the door.  Taxes on medical devices and supplies as well as on insurance companies and mandates requiring them to cover anyone who walks through the door regardless of age or preexisting conditions will raise the price of your insurance.  This will put many more Americans on the public “option” because they won’t be able to afford the premium increase or their company will stop offering the benefits and just pay the fine.  We are headed towards a two-tiered health care system.  High quality health care for the elite rich of our nation who can afford to pay outside the public “option” and a watered down rationed system for the rest of us.

This bill was 1,990 pages long.  Everyone that voted for this bill doesn’t have the slightest clue what is in it.  They haven’t had it long enough to know and many of them have already admitted that they don’t read the bills anyway.

Probably the most destructive part of this bill is the individual mandate.  Never in the history of our nation, one that prides itself of personal freedom and liberty, has our government passed a law forcing the American people to  buy a product.  This is blatantly unconstitutional and I imagine that if the Senate companion bill passes with the same mandate, which it does possess, and this is signed into law there will be Constitutional challenges to this piece.   I want you to understand the ramifications if such a mandate is held up by the Supreme Court.  Going forward our government will have no limitation of powers.  Once they are told by the highest court in the land that they are allowed to tell us what to buy based upon the court’s interpretation of the Commerce Clause or providing the general welfare, they will have complete control over the American people.  Our nation as we know it today will be a thing of the past.  We are heading into a Soviet style government.  Make no mistake about it.

All Republicans in North and South Carolina voted against this bill.  Democrat Congressmen Larry Kissell, Mike McIntyre, and Heath Shuler also voted against the bill.

The following Democrats voted to throw you in the gulag if you don’t buy health insurance.

• G. K. Butterfield (NC-01)
• Bob Etheridge (NC-02)
• David Price (NC-04)
• Mel Watt (NC-12)
• Brad Miller (NC-13)
• Jack Spratt (SC-05)
• Jim Clyburn (SC-06)

The Club for Growth has released their annual RePORK card that gauges how responsible our Congressional representatives have been with our tax dollars.  The result is usually pretty atrocious and this year is no different, but we do have a few responsible representatives in our states’ delegations.  The ratings are based on 68 amendments introduced in the House that would have stripped wasteful earmarks out of 12 annual spending bills.  Representatives who voted for all of the amendments received a score of 100%.  Those that voted for none received a zero.  So how did our guys and girls stack up?

Virginia Foxx (R-NC-05) was the only member to receive a perfect score of 100%.  However, there were a few others who weren’t far behind her.  Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10) received a 99%, voting against only one of the amendments.  Gresham Barrett (R-SC-03) and Sue Myrick (R-NC-09) both received a 97%.  Bob Inglis (R-SC-04) a 96%.  All others were below 90% which means the rest have some work to do, some a little and some are completely worthless.

Two more Congressmen that stood out to me were our two Blue Dog Democrats in North Carolina:  Heath Shuler (NC-11) and Mike McIntyre (NC-07).  Bear in mind that the Blue Dogs are supposed to be fiscal conservatives.  Apparently, these two didn’t get the memo.  Shuler supported only one amendment out of the 68 and McIntyre found the only way to top his poor showing by voting for none of them.

Also on the wall of shame for frivolously throwing your tax dollars away are the following pigs who received a zero score:

• G.K. Butterfield (D-NC-01)
• Jim Clyburn (D-SC-06)
• Bob Etheridge (D-NC-02)
• Larry Kissell (D-NC-08)
• Brad Miller (D-NC-13)
• David Price (D-NC-04)
• Jack Spratt (D-SC-05)
• Mel Watt (D-NC-11)

It’s interesting to note that all the high scoring members of Congress are Republicans and all the ones with the shitty scores are Democrats.  That really illustrates the differing views the two parties have on the role of the Federal Government.

The Triangle’s three Democratic congressmen sought to build support for President Barack Obama’s health-care proposal Monday, saying it would help ensure that when middle class people become seriously ill or change or lose jobs they would not be left to pay their own medical bills.

The News & Observer

Correct.  They would not be paying their medical bills.  You would be paying their medical bills, in addition to your own.

In their first joint appearance since coming home for the August congressional recess, the lawmakers scoffed at critics’ cries of socialism, saying the president’s plan has deep roots in American history.

“Theodore Roosevelt, when he ran for president as the nominee with the Bull Moose Party in 1912, called for universal health care,” said Rep. Brad Miller of Raleigh. “Harry Truman called for it in 1948. We come back to this issue again and again. It’s an issue that faces every family.”

That’s propaganda.  Teddy Roosevelt was incredibly left wing compared to your average Republican today.  Harry Truman was Vice-President under FDR who was a big government stooge and an authoritarian control freak.  To say that government controlled health care has deep roots in American  history is a blatant manipulation of our history.  Where are the quotes from our Founding Fathers advocating a strong centralized government to plan our lives for us?  These guys are liars and they know it.

The three congressmen, Miller, David Price of Chapel Hill and Bob Etheridge of Lillington, appeared at a private event at Wake Health Services, a community health center in East Raleigh.

A private event.  That’s because they’re cowards who are afraid to face their constituents.  They know that the voters don’t want this, but they want to try and jam it through anyway.  They know once public health care is passed it will be here forever.

The word on the street is that Congressman Brad Miller (D-NC-13) has received a death threat over the whole ObamaCare affair.  I’ll keep my ears open for more information if I hear it.

Update: It seems to be only a few left blogs talking about this like the Daily Kook, but ABC does have something on it.

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=6950802

UPDATE-

I need to check my mailbox more often. It turns out Bill Randall emailed me on Wednesday about his congressional run. Here’s what he has to say:

Good day to you.  This is Bill Randall.

I intend to run for the U.S. Congressional seat in the 13th District
(…currently held by Democrat Brad Miller).  I have discussed the matter with my County Chairman (Claude Pope, Wake), and this has also been communicated up-the-chain to my NCGOP 13th District Chairman (David Robinson) and the NCGOP State Chairman (Tom Fetzer).  For the record, my campaign will be launched “officially” on July 1, 2009.

The race for this pivotal U.S. Congressional seat will be challenging, and will
require that we are all pulling in the same direction.  The vital importance of your support, along with the other counties in the 13th District, CANNOT BE OVERSTATED.

For your information, I have been invited as one of the speakers at the
Independence Day (Family) “Tea Party” at Halifax Mall in downtown Raleigh (1:00 -5:00 PM).  Website:  www.ncteapartyrevolution.com

Feel free to call or e-mail me anytime. Your thoughts and input are key to a
Conservative Republican “comeback” in 2010, as well as in our winning key
municipality races in 2009. 

Thank you for your stalwart work behind-the-scenes in your counties.  I look forward to seeing (and hearing from) you once again in the near future.

Sincerely,

William (“Bill”) Randall
bill@pray4ncgop.com

/UPDATE

Wasn’t it just two weeks ago that I hoped aloud that Bill Randall would continue to be active in politics?

Bill Randall, an unsuccessful candidate for state GOP chairman, plans to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Miller of Raleigh next year.

Randall, 42, a retired Navy meteorologist from Wake Forest, plans to announce his candidacy July 1, reports Rob Christensen.

“I believe the current representative is out of touch,” Randall said. “With his voting record he does not represent the average constituent in the district along with the so-called stimulus plan.”

The N&O

Brad Miller is one of the 219 assholes who today voted for the biggest tax hike in American history. Godspeed, Mr. Randall.

By a vote of 219 to 212, the House narrowly passed the Cap and Trade bill that will cost us millions of jobs and devastate the American economy even more as it starts going into affect. Just ask Spain how well it went for them?

This still has to pass the U.S. Senate of course and that is nowhere near certain. They need 60 ayes just to be able to vote for it and I imagine there will be Democrat defectors there just as there were in the House.

Those who voted to raise your energy bills by about $1500 a year to “save the planet” are as follows:

• G.K. Butterfield (D-NC-01)
• Bob Etheridge (D-NC-02)
• David Price (D-NC-04)
• Heath Shuler (D-NC-11)
• Mel Watt (D-NC-12)
• Brad Miller (D-NC-13)
• Jack Spratt (D-SC-05)
• Jim Clyburn (D-SC-06)

Those who voted to protect your liberty, labor, and livelihood were:

• Walter Jones (R-NC-03)
• Virginia Foxx (R-NC-05)
• Howard Coble (R-NC-06)
• Mike McIntyre (D-NC-07)
• Larry Kissell (D-NC-08)
• Sue Myrick (R-NC-09)
• Patrick McHenry (R-NC-10)
• Henry Brown (R-SC-01)
• Joe Wilson (R-SC-02)
• Gresham Barrett (R-SC-03)
• Bob Inglis (R-SC-04)

North Carolina’s congressional delegation served up $228 million in pork barrel spending for fiscal 2009, a 5 percent jump from the previous year, according to the latest report from the government watchdog group Citizens Against Government Waste.

CAGW’s 2009 “Congressional Pig Book,” released one day before hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets to protest wasteful government spending in a series of “tea parties,” catalogued 10,160 total pork projects, also called earmarks, amounting to $19.6 billion. Although the number of earmarks was down this year, the amount spent on those projects rose by 14 percent compared to fiscal 2008.

The Carolina Journal

I guess while the rest of us cut back, Congress felt the need to make up for it by spending more. But hey, what’s another $19.6 billion compared to the trillions we’re tossing around?

Despite a pledge to reform the earmark system, President Obama last month signed a $410 billion omnibus appropriations bill laced with pork barrel spending. “I am signing an imperfect omnibus bill because it’s necessary for the ongoing functions of government, and we have a lot more work to do,” Obama said.

Hope and change. Change and hope. Just click your ruby slippers together and maybe it’ll come true.

U.S. Rep. David Price, D-4th, helped score the most earmarks among North Carolina representatives, followed by former Rep. Robin Hayes, R-8th. Price and Hayes secured a combined 34 earmarks totaling over $11 million in the omnibus spending bill alone, according to a report by Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Reps. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, and Patrick McHenry, R-10th, were the only Tar Heel lawmakers to pass on the pork. Rep. Walter Jones, R-3rd, was responsible for only one earmark: $2.4 million for a U.S. Navy cancer vaccine program in California.

Foxx, Jones, and McHenry have promised to abstain from earmarks. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., made the same pledge, but the CAGW report shows that Burr played a role in securing 52 earmarks in appropriations bills this fiscal year.

I’m interested to know what Burr’s earmarks were, and what excuse he had. Last week Bane took some S.C. lawmakers to task for breaking their no-tax pledge. Well, I’m not to pleased to see my U.S. Senator break a no-earmarks pledge. That and his support for Bush’s bailout plan last year are causing me to sour on this guy real quick.

UPDATE: Butterfield tries to explain himself -kinda- in the N&O:

As it turns out, U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield doesn’t like to call them earmarks either.

The Wilson Democrat was the only member of the North Carolina delegation to actually label his requests for special appropriations in the federal budget “earmarks.”

But he told Dome he doesn’t like the term.

“I don’t like to call them earmarks because they have such a bad reputation around the country,” he said. “I call them Congressionally-directed funds.” 

Oh, well as long as we have some sort of innocuous pseudo-Orwellian term for these money-wasting travesties, I guess that makes it OK.

Jeeez, do we ever need a revolution.

Here’s the list:

Rep. G.K. Butterfield: 98, $7.3 billion

Rep. Larry Kissell: 103, $530.1 million

Rep. Bob Etheridge: 59, $312.2 million

Rep. Mike McIntyre: 67, $302 million

Rep. David Price: 89, $264.6 million

Rep. Brad Miller: 59, $185.5 million

Rep. Mel Watt: 66, $179.7 million

Rep. Howard Coble: 29, $90.3 million

Rep. Heath Shuler: 79, $81.5 million

Rep. Walter Jones: 11, $43.8 million

Rep. Sue Myrick: No earmark requests

Rep. Virginia Foxx: No earmark requests

Rep. Patrick McHenry: No earmark requests

The N&O

At least three of our congresscritters are trying to be responsible with our tax dollars. I won’t say that I expect better from Coble and Jones, because I don’t. We do deserve better though.

But let’s take a look at the top of that list, shall we?  G.K. Butterfield got $7.3 billion. BILLION! A “B” and 9 zeros! Now, I understand that G.K. represents the cradle of Eastern N.C. BBQ, but this goes a little too far.

So what did ol’ G.K. get with other peoples’ tax money?

The Wilson Democrat released his list of 98 requested appropriations for the federal budget on his Web site.

The largest request is $2 billion for Virginia-class submarines from the Northrop Grumman Corp. The smallest is $150,000 to upgrade lecture halls at Halifax Community College.

Other notable earmarks:

* Refueling overhauls for Navy aircraft carriers, $1.6 billion.

* Construction of new aircraft carriers, $807 million.

* Funding a National Textile Center at N.C. State University, $16.5 million. 

* Starting a rural business incubator in Scotland Neck, $10 million. 

The N&O

Hey, G.K., you know we’re in a recession, right?

A lot of hay has been made about the $160 million AIG handed out in bonus money to its employees after they were given near $100 billion in taxpayer dollars to keep them afloat.  If that is what makes your blood boil, so be it.  Of course, the real outrage should be over the $75 billion of taxpayer money that AIG used the vast majority of to pay debt it held with several foreign banks.  If you didn’t already know that, which isn’t surprising because the media has only been harping over “Bonusgate,” yes, the Federal government gave AIG tens of billions of dollars to send right out of our economy while it is in the crapper.  Brilliant, huh?

Anyway, this is just a reminder to you to not forget which of our Carolina representatives voted to make all of this possible:

Voting for the bill:

• Bob Etheridge (D-NC-02)
• David Price (D-NC-04)
• Howard Coble (R-NC-06)
• Sue Myrick (R-NC-09)
• Mel Watt (D-NC-12)
• Brad Miller (D-NC-13)
• Henry Brown (R-SC-01)
• Joe Wilson (R-SC-02)
• Gresham Barrett (R-SC-03)
• Bob Inglis (R-SC-04)
• John Spratt (D-SC-05)
• Jim Clyburn (D-SC-06)