The Foundation
“Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.” – Plato
Conservative Talkers
Michael Barone | Gangster Government Becomes a Long-Running Series
Almost a year ago, in a Washington Examiner column on the Chrysler bailout, I reflected on the Obama administration’s decision to force bondholders to accept 33 cents on the dollar on secured debts while giving United Auto Worker retirees 50 cents on the dollar on unsecured debts.
This was a clear violation of the ordinary bankruptcy rule that secured creditors are fully paid off before unsecured creditors get anything. The politically connected UAW folk got preference over politically unconnected bondholders. “We have just seen an episode of Gangster Government,” I wrote. “It is likely to be a continuing series.”
Matt Towery | What Are the Democrats Smoking? Now a Value-Added Tax
Remember, I’m just a political analyst and pollster. Perhaps President Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress know more than the rest of us. But with a new poll out showing the president with his lowest approval rating since taking office, the last thing I would advise him, were he to ask, would be to even hint at his potential receptivity to a “value-added tax.” Especially with elections just around the corner.
I can’t help but wonder whether both the White House and the Democratic congressional leadership are so intent on changing the entire basic social and economic structure of America in just two years that they’re willing to risk fumbling the political gains they’ve made in the last few years.
Not only is the president talking a VAT, but Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is saying that now is the perfect time to seriously consider cap-and-trade legislation. Apparently, it matters greatly to the Democratic leadership to attempt to curb global warming now, following the coldest winter anyone can remember. Polls show that the American public ranks the issue of warming, and of the supposed solution of cap-and-trade, near the bottom of the list of what most concerns them.
There have been many times that I’ve asked Republicans the rhetorical question, “Are you people crazy?” Just one example was that idiotic Medicare prescription drug bill for seniors that the GOP-dominated Congress passed. But now the Democrats are driving the train, and it’s time to ask them, “What are you smoking?” Not even Cheech and Chong, that cinematic comedy duo of pot fiends, would ever talk as stupidly as the Democrats are with the fall elections — and potentially unmitigated disaster for them — creeping closer.
Plus, the Democrats are busy bashing the Republican-backed concept known as the fair tax. The Democrats falsely claim that it would be an additional tax on working Americans. And not surprisingly, many Republicans shy away from openly proposing the fair tax because they know the facts about it can so easily be distorted in a 30-second TV ad.
