First he votes in favor of a bad bailout bill because his boss, Nancy Pelosi, tells him to.  Then he votes in favor of a bad bill loaded with pork from the Senate and then issues this idiotic statement; ”I voted for the Economic Stabilization Act because I believe taking no action would be a considerable risk of serious pain for America, as witnessed by today’s negative reaction of the stock market.  The legislation would not reward Wall Street for bad risks.  Instead it would keep local banks open. It would protect retirement accounts. It would help families get the credit they need. It would keep small businesses alive and hiring.”

He not only voted against the opinion of 92% of his constituients, but then he goes on the radio and says “I didn’t like the bill, but I voted for it.”  This man has no principals at all, not to mention courage!  If you don’t like it, don’t vote for it!  Your one vote wouldn’t have decided the outcome, so you had the chance to stand on principal and you couldn’t even do that.  Blind Guide!

Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?   You and I don’t propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don’t have the Constitutional authority to vote on
appropriations, the House of Representatives does.

You and I don’t write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don’t set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don’t control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president, and nine Supreme Court justices .  545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally,  and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but private, central bank.

I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a president to do one cotton-picking thing. I don’t care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator’s responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party. What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits. The president can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? She is the leader of the majority party. She and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want. If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted — by present facts — of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can’t think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it’s because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it’s because they want it in the red.

If the Army & Marines are in IRAQ, it’s because they want them in IRAQ.

If they do not receive social security but are on an elite
retirement plan not available to the people, it’s because they want it that way.   There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. 

Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there
exists disembodied mystical forces like ‘the economy,’ ‘inflation,’ or ‘politics’ that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.   Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible. They, and they alone, have the power.

They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses. That is provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees. We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper.

I’ve been talking at great length about this issue to the people of the 3rd district, and I can tell you that they get it!  They don’t support bailing out the Congressman’s banker buddies and his loyal lobbyists.  Many of the people I talk to are ones who have there entire life savings on the line and they still don’t want the bailout.

What amazes me most is that when working families were being crushed by soaring energy prices this summer, he went on vacation for five weeks and yet when Wall Street faced the consequences of its actions, he’s worked around the clock to bail them out?

Why doesn’t Carnahan place the same priority on helping Main Street that he placed on helping Wall Street? 

All you have to do is to look at his voting record to find out why.  This guy votes with his party 98
percent of the time, so this isn’t a surprise to me at all.  He has proven that he doesn’t have a political stance that doesn’t emanate from the DNC and Nancy Pelosi first.

But now Congressman Carnahan will have an opportunity to explain his position later this month in an open forum hosted by the League of Woman Voters at the Antonia Fire District Station #2 in Barnhart on
October 16th.

The current mess would never have occurred in the absence of ill-conceived federal policies. The federal government chartered Fannie Mae in 1938 and Freddie Mac in 1970; these two mortgage lending institutions are at the center of the crisis. The government implicitly promised these institutions that it would make good on their debts, so Fannie and Freddie took on huge amounts of excessive risk.

Worse, beginning in 1977 and even more in the 1990s and the early part of this century, Congress pushed mortgage lenders and Fannie/Freddie to expand subprime lending. The industry was happy to oblige, given the implicit promise of federal backing, and subprime lending soared.

The fact that government bears such a huge responsibility for the current mess means any response should eliminate the conditions that created this situation in the first place, not attempt to fix bad government with more government.

The obvious alternative to a bailout is letting troubled financial institutions declare bankruptcy. Bankruptcy means that shareholders typically get wiped out and the creditors own the company

The bailout has more problems. The final legislation will probably include numerous side conditions and special dealings that reward Washington lobbyists and their clients.

The answer is liquidity.  Implement measures that will entice investors to bring their capital back into the market.  How do you do this?  CUT TAXES AND DO IT NOW!

A solution is to suspend or eliminate the capital gains tax and cut the corporate tax rate to 10 percent.  By doing so, you will get nervous investors off the sidelines and back into the game because they all know that there are deals out there, and most are sitting this hand out because they feel that we haven’t hit bottom yet.  

So what should the government do? Eliminate those policies that generated the current mess. This means, at a general level, abandoning the goal of home ownership independent of ability to pay. This means, in particular, getting rid of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with policies like the Community Reinvestment Act that pressure banks into subprime lending.

The right view of the financial mess is that an enormous fraction of subprime lending should never have occurred in the first place. Someone has to pay for that. That someone should not be, and does not need to be, the U.S. taxpayer.

Why doesn’t Carnahan place the same priority on helping Main Street that he placed on helping Wall Street? 

Because he’s a politician, and he’s in bed with every special interest group that is being effected by this situation.  He’s accepted lobbying money from both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ever since he’s been in office and he’s voted in favor of ACORN one-hundred percent of the time!  In case you’ve forgotten, ACORN is the biggest source of voter fraud in the nation.  Talk about CYA! 

Since 2002, my colleagues and I have been going to Washington warning them of the situation that THEY were creating, by letting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac expand their portfolios.  We warned them giving loans to high risk borrowers was a bad thing and that if they failed, the results would be catastrophic.  But did they listen, of course not.  Why?  Because they’re politicians and politicians are experts at everything.

Now we have this bailout situation to deal with.  And considered yourself warned on this one; 700 billion dollars will not be enough!  I say this because back in 2002, Fannie and Freddie had more money tied up in mortgage-backed securities than all of the money in the U.S. Treasury, and this was before they started taking on water!

Unless you want socialism, oppose this bailout at every turn!  Remember, a government big enough to give you everything you want is also strong enough to take away everything you have.

The legislation effectively keeps the 26-year-old congressional drilling ban in place for 85 percent of all offshore petroleum reserves. Pelosi’s measure allows virtually no drilling within 100 miles of U.S. coastlines, yet that’s where most of the untapped resources are. Incredibly, that’s not the worst of it. Pelosi’s bill leaves in place the endless delays created via lawsuits filed by rabid environmentalists. U.S. Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., calls this problem the bill’s ‘litigation loophole.’ … Even without the open invitation to lawsuits, the bill is a bad deal. We’ve noted before that it shares not a penny of revenue from new oil leases with the states off whose shores the drilling would occur. This provides no incentive for states to give the necessary approval for drilling to occur between 50 miles and 100 miles from their coasts. … But for a perfect indication of just how cynical a ploy Pelosi pulled, consider that Republicans Tuesday night offered a motion to “recommit” her bill so it could be replaced with a bipartisan, compromise energy bill co-sponsored by 39 Democrats. Twenty-four of those Democrats, including lead author, Rep. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, effectively voted against their own legislation. Not even the sneakiest lawyer alive could possibly explain that logic.  These politicians just keep demonstrating that they don’t care about the people who elected them in the first place.

House Democrats voted today to block an investigation of Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY).  The privileged resolution, which was introduced by Republican Leader Boehner, would have required Rangel to step down from his post as Chairman of the powerful Way sand Means Committee until completion of the investigation.  However, Democrats overwhelmingly voted to “table” (kill) the resolution.

See the attached text of the resolution for additional information.  Click here to see how Members voted.

The House of Representatives passed a bill today that would fund federal grants for “environmental education programs.”  Before its passage, however, Republicans tried to amend this bill to prohibit taxpayer funds from going to

an organization…that lobbies or retains a lobbyist for the purpose of influencing a Federal, State, or local governmental entity or officer, including lobbyists employed or retained to advocate against the production and exploration of American energy. 

The Republican motion also sought to require that organizations receiving funds must “provide a balanced presentation of environmental issues by providing readers with the full spectrum of scholarly viewpoints on the subjects examined.”

Democrats overwhelming voted against this motion, thereby allowing government subsidies to be given to anti-energy groups, left-wing environmental groups, and groups that lobby the government.  For example, the Sierra Club, whose leadership says “we’re better off without cheap gas,” has received this funding in the past, and will continue to be eligible. 

The text of the Republican motion is attached and the House GOP Conference bill analysis is here. 

To see how Members voted on this Republican motion, click here.

This is proof that Carnahan doesn’t care about how much we’re hurting over high gas prices!  He’s just another politician who caters to the special interests at the expense of every person he’s supposed to represent. 

Meanwhile, you and I are still struggling with energy costs that are crushing American families.  And what do they do once they get back into office?

THEY MAKE SURE YOU AND I FEEL THE PAIN BY VOTING AGAINST THE REPUBLICAN “AMERICAN ENERGY ACT”!  THIS IS A “ALL OF THE ABOVE” BILL.  THIS WOULD ALLOW US TO DRILL EVERYWHERE, MINE FOR COAL, DEVELOP NEW NUCLEAR PLANTS AND BUILD NEW REFINERIES, AND THOSE HYPOCRITICAL, SELF-RIGHTEOUS BASTARDS VOTED AGAINST IT!!!!!! 

How long are we going to take this?  This government is running the country right into the ground!  Where are the patriots?  Where is the protest?  What do you think is going to happen to oil prices now that OPEC has voted to cut production, and our government has signaled that they aren’t serious about reducing our dependence on foreign oil?   

Where is the leadership?  Why isn’t anyone calling these people out on this?  The public must be made to realize what the Democrats have done! 

Here are 10 ways that the Democrats’ “no energy” bill fails the American people at a time when real leadership on this issue is needed most:

1.       The Democrats’ “no energy” bill permanently locks up 80 percent of American energy on the Outer Continental Shelf.

2.       The Democrats’ “no energy” bill permanently locks up more than 1 trillion barrels of oil from oil shale in the Inter-Mountain West.

3.       The Democrats’ “no energy” bill permanently locks up more than 10 billion barrels of oil on Alaska’s remote North Slope – an area where energy production and wildlife have been safely coexisting for decades.

4.       The Democrats’ “no energy” bill blocks more nuclear power production – clean, efficient, and less costly production that nations such as France have been safely using for years while the United States continues to fall behind.

5.       The Democrats’ “no energy” bill does nothing to construct new clean coal energy production facilities – facilities that are a win-win, with benefits both to consumers and for the environment.

6.       The Democrats’ “no energy” bill raises taxes – a new burden for overstressed consumers already paying high prices at the pump and preparing to pay higher home heating costs this winter.

7.       The Democrats’ “no energy” bill permanently prevents federal agencies from using unconventional and alternative sources of fuel at exactly the time when Congress should be encouraging the use of these fuels.

8.       The Democrats’ “no energy” bill increases electricity costs on families, seniors, and small businesses by creating a new, heavy-handed electricity mandate.

9.       The Democrats’ “no energy” bill includes plans for exactly zero new refineries to be built on American soil.  Is this the way to show our competitors around the globe that we are finally serious about achieving energy independence?

10.   The Democrats’ “no energy” bill defies the will of a solid majority of Americans who support the House GOP’s “all of the above” plan to increase American energy production, promote the use of alternative and renewable fuels, and encourage more conservation and efficiency.

As Democrats prepare to unveil a “no energy” bill that fails the American people in so many ways, is it any wonder that families, seniors, and small businesses are so fed up with Washington?

House Republicans have proposed bold energy reforms to lower gas prices that the American people support.  When will Speaker Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues finally get serious about this issue and allow a real vote on the American Energy Act?

Enjoy!  and remember if Obama gets into the Oval Office, it’s only going to get worse.

Democrats Pushing for Four Day Work Week for Federal Bureaucrats   [Mark Hemingway]

Their justification? High gas prices:

The high cost of fuel makes the four-day week all the more important, [Majority Leader Steny] Hoyer’s letter said. “In these times of high gasoline prices, I believe the federal government should do all it can to ensure that federal agencies and departments are appropriately reducing gasoline consumption. This goal can be accomplished with the adoption of personnel policies to limit unnecessary commuting.” 

So Pelosi shuts the place down and Congress skips town without passing an energy bill. Now Democrats are pushing for a four day work week for gas relief for federal employees, even as they’ve refused to do anything to provide relief for ordinary Americans. Republicans are hitting back — Republican Study Group Chairman Jeb Hensarling issued the following statement:

The Democrat solution to high gas prices – a four day work week for themselves and federal bureaucrats.  Brilliant! While the Speaker of the House is off jet setting to promote her book, the Majority Leader is figuring out how to get more time off.  Americans struggling to pay their bills and fill their gas tanks deserve so much better from their elected officials.

People across the country are begging for Congress to work on a common sense energy plan that will lower costs at the pump.  For months, we’ve made clear that we need conservation, but not just conservation. We need renewable energy, but not just renewable. We need alternatives, but not just alternatives. We need to produce energy in America for Americans so we can drive down the cost of gas and increase our energy independence. Though Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer continue to block our efforts, Republicans will keep fighting for a comprehensive, common sense energy plan that includes all of those goals.