Entries for June 2009

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Give Dr. Larry Hunter, the former chief economist for the United States Chamber of Commerce and founder of the Social Security Institute, considerable points for creativity.

Hunter is one of hundreds of Obama opponents who have taken to the Internet to make the case for opposing the Obama agenda. His latest project is an online petition where citizens can request to "opt out" of any future government-run, politicized healthcare system.

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

As his opponents predicted during the 2008 election, President Barack Obama's plans for America will be paid for by higher taxes on the American middle class.

Candidate Obama promised those in the middle class that they wouldn't see an increase in the taxes they pay to the federal government. "I pledge to you that under my plan, no one making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not income tax, not capital gains taxes, not any kind of tax," the Manchester, N.H., Union Leader reported him saying in September 2008. Well, as Mona Lisa Vito said in My Cousin Vinny , "that plan's moot."

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

The cap and trade national energy tax bill is not the only solution to a manufactured problem drawing attention in the nation's capital. The Washington Examiner ' s generally excellent David Freddoso explains Friday that efforts are under way to make policymakers believe America is suffering from a "crisis in philanthropy."

Freddoso writes that the National Council for Responsible Philanthropy and its directors "have been both subtly and overtly threatening new federal regulations that would force foundations to give half their money to a narrow set of causes, and with few strings attached."

America's foundations give only 33.2 percent of their grant money to nonprofits serving those "most in need," a factoid the group has come up with that is being used to pressure Congress to act. But, Freddoso says, that figure measures the contributions made in the interests of serving "most vulnerable populations," as the liberal NCRP defines them. This includes the poor, racial minorities and girls and AIDS patients but not, he points out, people with cancer, drug addicts, or boys.

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Politico is reporting that former Vice President Al Gore "cancelled plans to fly to Washington for a news conference with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday" and would, instead, work the phones from Tennessee to lobby undecided members that they should vote for the cap and trade climate bill.

Could it be the Democrats are learning? Could it be they figured out the image of the former vice president, expending energy and emitting carbon by flying in from his large carbon footprint abode in the Volunteer State to the nation's capitol to explain why America needs a cap and trade law to reduce carbon emissions would step on their message?

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Seeking to prove the GOP is more than the party of "No," South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint has come up with a healthcare reform plan that, he says, "Insures more Americans in half the time at no cost," when compared to the plan being pushed by the Democratic majority.

According to an estimate by the conservative Heritage Foundation, DeMint's bill will reduce the number of uninsured in America by 22.4 million people in just five years. And he addresses the cost by terminating the Troubled Asset Relief Program—also known as Wall Street Bailout No. 1—and requiring companies that took federal funds repay them within the same five years.

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

My nephew met the president.

It happened Saturday during an impromptu family outing to The Dairy Godmother, a well-known frozen custard store near my home in Alexandria, Va. Coming out the door, my lemon lavender sorbet cone in hand, I noticed a man with an odd-shaped pin in his lapel talking into his wrist. Having lived in the Washington, D.C., area for 25 years, I know that means the president (or a VIP of similar stature) is on his way.

By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

During his victorious presidential run, Barack Obama promised he would not raise taxes on the middle class. "Under my plan," Obama told a New Hampshire gathering, "no family making less than $250,000.00 a year will see any form of tax increase."

Somebody wasn't paying attention.

Democrats in the House of Representatives are now contemplating massive tax increases in order to raise some of the revenues they need to fund Obama plan's for a government takeover of the U.S. healthcare system.