The Super Majority

Soak the Rich, Lose the Rich

With states facing nearly $100 billion in combined budget deficits this year, we’re seeing more governors than ever proposing the Barack Obama solution to balancing the budget: Soak the rich. Lawmakers in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Oregon want to raise income tax rates on the top 1% or 2% or 5% of their citizens. New Illinois Gov. Patrick Quinn wants a 50% increase in the income tax rate on the wealthy because this is the “fair” way to close his state’s gaping deficit.

Mr. Quinn and other tax-raising governors have been emboldened by recent studies by left-wing groups like the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities that suggest that “tax increases, particularly tax increases on higher-income families, may be the best available option.” A recent letter to New York Gov. David Paterson signed by 100 economists advises the Empire State to “raise tax rates for high income families right away.”

Read the Full Article at WSJ

Be the Party of No

Republican leaders in Congress have created something called the National Council for a New America (NCNA). It describes itself as “not a Republican-only forum” but one that seeks to “engage people in a discussion to meet common challenges and build a stronger country through common-sense ideas.” The expectation–mine, anyway–is those ideas will differ from President Obama’s in a way that makes Republicans look fairminded and reasonable. The council’s first event at a pizza parlor in Arlington, Virginia, did just that. Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush showed up, media coverage was heavy, and the session was deemed a success.

Improving the party’s image is a worthy cause, but it isn’t what Republicans ought to be emphasizing right now. They have a more important mission: to be the party of no. And not just a party that bucks Obama and Democrats on easy issues like releasing Gitmo terrorists in this country, but one committed to aggressive, attention-grabbing opposition to the entire Obama agenda.

Read the Full Article at The Weekly Standard

Keep Us Competitive

Major policy changes in the United States require the support of the business community.

This is exactly as it should be. After all, entrepreneurs, partnerships, family businesses, public corporations and multinational enterprises are the foundation on which our nation has built the greatest economy in the world – an economy that has brought unprecedented prosperity to Americans.

This is exactly what is happening right now, as the business community appears poised to get behind health care reform plans proposed by the Obama administration and congressional Democrats.

Read the Full Article at the Washington Times

EPA, Waxman-Markey Join Forces to Raise Energy Costs

New FreedomWorks member and geophysicist, Dennis Henke of Wichita, KS is testifying today before the EPA at a hearing about the regulation of CO2 – carbon dioxide, gas we all exhale and that the EPA recently declared to be a harmful greenhouse gas worthy of regulation under the Clean Air Act. In a press release, Henke points out the faulty science and poor logic behind the ruling.

My review of the EPA’s supporting models lead me to conclude that their research scientists have failed to account for even the most simplistic variances in the hydrologic cycle (water vapor) that must be honored in order for fundamental credibility in projected temperatures due to greenhouse effects. In my opinion, the conclusions drawn in this report bear very little resemblance to the reality of the atmosphere we observe today.

Read the Full Article at FreedomWorks.org

Pelosi ‘Lied,’ ‘Despicable,’ ‘Dishonest,’ ‘Vicious,’ ‘Trivial’

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich today offered a blistering critique of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s handling of oversight on harsh interrogation tactics, in a major escalation of partisan attacks being aimed at Pelosi.

In an interview with ABC News Radio’s Marcus Wilson, Gingrich, R-Ga., said Pelosi, D-Calif., “has lied to the House” in claiming that she was never briefed by the CIA about the Bush administration’s use of waterboarding and other harsh tactics.

“I think she has lied to the House, and I think that the House has an absolute obligation to open an inquiry, and I hope there will be a resolution to investigate her. And I think this is a big deal. I don’t think the Speaker of the House can lie to the country on national security matters,” Gingrich said.

Read the Full Article at ABC News

Obama Prepares to Slam Life Insurance, Securities Dealers with Higher Taxes

President Barack Obama proposed raising money to pay for his health-care overhaul by imposing $58 billion in new taxes on securities dealers, life insurance products and Americans with valuable estates.

The eight new proposals, outlined in budget documents released today, are in addition to more than $1 trillion in tax increases over the next decade the president wants to impose beginning in 2011. Those would include higher rates for top earners and restrictions on tax-avoidance techniques commonly used by U.S.-based multinational corporations.

Frank Keating, president of the Washington-based American Council of Life Insurers, warned against imposing the new taxes. “Seventy-five million American families rely on the products offered by life insurers for their financial and retirement security,” Keating, the former Republican governor of Oklahoma, said in a statement. “This is absolutely the wrong time to make it more expensive for families to obtain the security and peace of mind our products provide.”

Read the Full Article at Bloomberg

Nobody Listens to the Real Climate Change Experts

Considering how the fear of global warming is inspiring the world’s politicians to put forward the most costly and economically damaging package of measures ever imposed on mankind, it is obviously important that we can trust the basis on which all this is being proposed. Last week two international conferences addressed this issue and the contrast between them could not have been starker.

The first in Copenhagen, billed as “an emergency summit on climate change” and attracting acres of worldwide media coverage, was explicitly designed to stoke up the fear of global warming to an unprecedented pitch. As one of the organisers put it, “this is not a regular scientific conference: this is a deliberate attempt to influence policy”.

What worries them are all the signs that when the world’s politicians converge on Copenhagen in December to discuss a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, under the guidance of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), there will be so much disagreement that they may not get the much more drastic measures to cut carbon emissions that the alarmists are calling for.

Read the Full Article at Telegraph

Prez Pushes Responsibility — Except About Sex

In these uncertain times, some things remain constant. One is the arrival each Jan. 22 of tens of thousands of pro-life Americans to Washington, D.C., to note the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision and to mourn.

Forty-eight million American children, given the gift of life, but deprived of seeing the light of day, have been destroyed in the womb since that 22nd of January in 1973 when the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion.

So, again this year they came.

Change really is not such a new idea in America. They have been coming to Washington seeking change now for 36 years.

Read Full Article at WorldNetDaily