Blog post

January 20, 2010 [LINK / comment]

Obama's budgetary sneak play

So, how do you suppose President Obama and the Democrat leaders in Congress reacted to the obvious signs of growing and widespread antipathy toward their agenda, in Massachusetts and elsewhere? Why, by pushing to make the government less democratic, of course! Apparently some folks in the White House and Capitol Hill finally got the message that this country's finances are going to hell in a handbasket, and they are determined to show that they really care about it! Rather than calling for belt-tightening measures that would risk more electoral defeats, however, they came up with an unaccountable government body that would make the unpleasant but necessary decisions on which budget items to cut, in backroom sessions. Some "transparency"! What's more, Congress wouldn't have to vote on the recommendations until after the next elections, when many of them are lame ducks and therefore immune to public pressure. Utterly disgusting. From today's Washington Post:

Under the agreement, President Obama would issue an executive order to create an 18-member panel that would be granted broad authority to propose changes in the tax code and in the massive federal entitlement programs -- including Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security -- that threaten to drive the nation's debt to levels not seen since World War II.

It doesn't seem to have occurred to any of them, however, that creating a legislative agency by executive fiat is a flagrant violation of the whole principle of separation of powers. (What-ever!) Kudos to Rep. Frank Wolf for vehemently protesting this scam and insisting that "the American people participate and have a say in how their tax dollars are spent." On Facebook, I thanked Rep. Wolf for "resisting this unconstitutional and anti-democratic bit of skullduggery, and for remaining vigilant in defense of open, representative government."

Miscellaneous

The Huffington Post (hat tip to Connie) blames Martha Coakley's loss on the failure to use social media such as Facebook. To which I say, there are so many reasons for her calamitous drop in the polls over the past month that it would take a page or more just to list them.

It puts a smile on my face to see the newly revamped governor.virginia.gov Web page, with Gov. Bob McDonnell. Brighter days are ahead...

Finally, here's my favorite bumper sticker from libertystickers.com:

The Constitution doesn't matter unless you say it does.