Clipping blog

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Clearing the Browser Tabs – The Budget Battle is Now Joined Tuesday Edition Posted: 05 Apr 2011 03:10 AM PDT Today, the 2012 budget battle begins in earnest. Rep. Paul Ryan has introduced  his budget proposal in an article in today’s Wall Street Journal and it’s a humdinger. In fact, it is probably the most ambitious and complete fiscal plan we’ve seen in this country since the Reagan administration. Not only will it cut the deficit hard, but it will also rein in Medicare and Medicaid and overhaul the tax code. The detailed plan will come out later, and that’s when the real analysis will begin, but the outline is impressive. My only qualm is that it still leaves Federal spending above 20 percent of GDP. That figure needs to be at least two percentage points lower if we have any hope of reducing the deficit to nothing. If we want to whittle away at the national debt, it’s going to have to be even lower still. I’m hopeful that the Republicans will treat this plan as their opening bid, not the ideal that will be chipped away by hundreds of tiny craven compromises. If they do that, we might see some real deficit reduction very soon. Also don’t forget about the live show tonight — 9:30 P.M. Eastern! And now, links! It’s no surprise that air travelers hate the airlines. Who would like being treated as little more than a source of cash rather than as a valuable customer whose return business airlines crave and for which they will fight viciously? Chalk one up for the Laffer Curve. It’s not lost on me that England is rediscovering capitalism and personal freedom just when our government is taking us in exactly the opposite direction. The number of Obamacare waivers is now up to 1,168. Tell me again how wonderful government-run health care is? I can’t quite hear for all the stampeding away from it. I’m not entirely sure there’s corruption going on in Wisconsin, but it sure looks like a few Democrats are trying to discourage citizens from getting information they have a right to possess. You know where plenty of public employees won’t find the union label? On their paychecks. I’m looking forward to the upcoming A Game of Thrones series. Unfortunately, I don’t get HBO, so I’ll have to wait until it’s available on Netflix or DVD. However, I’ll enjoy this 12-minute clip from the pilot episode. Red. Velvet. Sheet. Cake.

Are The Clintons Sabotaging Barack Obama? Posted: 04 Apr 2011 08:34 PM PDT If I was a suspicious man, I’d think that Bill and Hillary Clinton have spent the past three months diligently working a campaign to destroy Barack Obama’s presidency. Consider the following three events: In December, Bill Clinton essentially ‘jacked an impromptu press conference from the President in full view of the entire country, then dismissed the humiliated Obama like he was the hired help. About ten days ago, Clinton systematically undercut the President’s message that Muammar Gadaffi had to leave power by leaving open the likelihood that we could see a peaceful and stable Libya even if he stays. Then, less than a week ago, she destroyed the President’s contention that we know who some of the leading Libyan rebels are when she said that we had no “specific information about specific individuals” and that we weren’t sure who was leading the rebellion. That brings us to today. The President has been very busy framing the rather paltry Republican budget cuts that might lead to a government shutdown as “irresponsible”. It is an echo to the “extremist” talking point the Democrats in Congress have employed and there are signs that his ploy was working. But look who look who jumped in today to rain all over President Obama’s parade (via memeorandum). A government shutdown might not have a “traumatic” effect on the economy, former President Bill Clinton said Monday. Clinton, who faced a shutdown during his 1995 budget negotiations with congressional Republicans, said he wasn’t sure whether President Obama was giving too much ground to the GOP in current negotiations, but suggested that a shutdown could backfire against Republicans, much as it did in the ’90s. That sound you heard was the President’s grand budget strategy groaning from a very serious gut shot. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Clinton made his statement on the very same day President Obama formally announced he will run for re-election. So he didn’t simply undercut the President’s message; he also stole his campaign thunder, too. These can’t be coincidences. The Clintons are very shrewd political operators, perhaps the best politicians the Democratic Party has seen in a generation. I find it almost impossible that we would see them pop up so often in such a short period of time saying things that undercut the President’s positions so well. Oh, sure, it’s possible. Then again, it’s also possible that we could be hit by a planet-killing asteroid tomorrow, but I wouldn’t go on an all-night crack and hooker bender based on the possibility. Neither should the President assume that his Secretary of State and her husband are on his side.

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