Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Compare and contrast the governors

Kimberley Strassel writes about the great divide:
Wisconsin 1, Illinois 0
With Springfield raising taxes amidst its fiscal disaster, the new Republican governor of the Badger State is telling Illinoisans, “Escape to Wisconsin.” (h/t Betsy)

On one side are wide swathes of the country that this past midterm elected reformers intent on slashing spending and reviving growth. On the other are the holdout pockets—Illinois, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut—drifting further into the abyss of tax and spend. The chasm has huge implications, not just for local and regional politics but for Washington.

For instance (quoting from the article),

  • Wisconsin is working to enact the total elimination of corporate income taxes for two years for firms that migrate
  • In Ohio, John Kasich’s Republican legislature has already introduced legislation to kill the state death tax
  • Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s first order of business will be to end the 22% surcharge on his state’s job-killing business tax
  • Nevada’s Brian Sandoval has vowed to kill the tax hikes passed by Democrats in 2009
  • In Iowa, South Carolina, Florida, you name it, new Republican governors have made top priorities of cutting or eliminating state corporate income taxes

This is good. However, all these governors must bear in mind that the problem is spending, not just deficits, a point lost on this WaPo headline,
Tax pledge hinders Obama’s plans to overhaul tax code, reduce deficit. No mention in the article of how Obama and the Democrat Congress have increased the deficit into stratospheric numbers.

Meanwhile, on the front page of today’s Wall Street Journal,
New Hit to Strapped States
Borrowing Costs Up as Bond Flops; Refinancing Crunch Nears.

As Strassel points out,

No state has taxed and spent itself to prosperity.


No country has, either.

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Barney Frank hits panic button; lends $200,000 to his campaign

Barney Frank gives $200K to his campaign

Longtime Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank has given his re-election campaign $200,000 as he faces his toughest race in years.

A campaign finance report filed Tuesday showed that Frank, the chairman of the powerful House Financial Services committee, lent himself the money Tuesday.

Stacy McCain:

When an incumbent congressman has to lend money to his own campaign, the crisis must be very dire indeed. Allahpundit wonders, “What on earth are his internal polls showing him . . . ?”

Hey, when a congressman and his heckler boyfriend fly to the Virgin Islands aboard the private jet of a hedge-fund billionaire in the midst of an economic apocalypse the congressman arguably helped cause . . .

Do you really need polls to tell you that might hurt his chances for re-election? Yeah, I know it’s Massachusetts, but the economy’s in a ditch, and Barney’s up there sippin’ on a Slurpee, so to to speak.

It’s time to retire Bawney:

Visit RetireBarneyFrank.com and help put a stake in the metaphorical heart of the “Fat Bastard of Massachusetts Politics” (which is not meant to be insulting — I hear it’s the term he prefers).

And then it’ll take years to undo the damage Bawney’s done.

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What does Obama want?

For starters, he wants to fight for you by trying to pass a bill you despise

Tragicomedy from today’s “permanent campaign” stop in Ohio: “This is not about me!” saith The One, before launching into the salute to his own political fortitude that you’re about to see. Which, in fairness, is all he has left. No one likes the bill, it’s killing him with independents, but he’s invested too much political capital in it to end up with absolutely nothing. So he’ll end up with a hugely pared-down bill, a.k.a. almost absolutely nothing, and then tout it as some grand accomplishment that he’ll build on later even though everyone knows that he won’t. Remember, the goal, practically from day one, was simply to pass something, and that’s exactly what they’re going to get. “Something.”

Opposition to O-Care is back up to 58 percent in today’s Rasmussen tracker, incidentally, which ties the mark for the highest disapproval rating yet. Stay tuned for the numbers next week after the Dems launch their bold new plan to nuke Scott Brown’s vote by going with reconciliation.

It’s not about healthcare at all, it’s all about control: Control over the economy. Control over how the American people vote. Control over our lives.

That’s what Obama wants.

The Anchoress is asking a question relevant to my first question: What Does Obama Like About America? The short answer is, not a heck of a lot:

We know all the things the Obama administration dislikes about America: Banks, business, journalists who ask actual questions, investors, entrepreneurs, unintimidated voters, traditional alliances, military tribunals, Gitmo, the private sector, the middle class, cities that are still thriving, or trying not to turn into Detroit, people who make more than federal workers while working within the private sector, George W. Bush, transparency, capitalism and possibly the rights to free speech, the rights to dissent and tea partiers.

Also, in general, he doesn’t seem to like being president, much, and having to do more than look pretty, read the teleprompter and blame Bush.

What does he like about America? As one sycophant in the WH press corp has asked, What “enchants” him? The question is worth asking as Obama seems to be declaring a war against suburbia. 77% of Americans think our president is against business. Jobs? I guess we’ll all have to work for the government. It’s the only thing Obama seems to like.

It’s all about the control.

Everything else is the means to that end.

Can it be stopped?

We’re about to find out.

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“How tall is Scott Brown?”

Yesterday I was checking the blog stats on what people were looking for (a.k.a. “keyword analysis”) when coming to my blog, and whoa! 10% of people coming to my blog wanted to know “How tall is Scott Brown?”

In the interest of bringing my readers the important information they need, I asked my friend and investigative blogger Dan Riehl, who in turn replied,

I zoomed in on the Cosmo article – says 6’2″ if they were telling the truth. You may have to zoom in all the way but you can make it out.

There you have it,

Scott Brown is 6’2″


Or at least he was 6’2″ back in 1982, according to Cosmo.

And, as an additional public service to my readers (and further rule #5), you can check out the 1982 centerfold photo again right here:
[Read more…]

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Brown wins: Let me rain on your parade, Republicans

He Did It

I was at tango when the results came in: Scott Brown won the Senate seat formerly occupied by Ted Kennedy, the day before the 1-year anniversary of Obama’s inauguration,
Democrats seek back footing after epic Mass. loss

Republicans are rejoicing and Democrats reeling in the wake of Scott Brown’s stunning victory over Martha Coakley in a special Massachusetts Senate election that Brown insists was not simply a referendum on President Barack Obama.

Still, Obama grimly faced a need to both regroup and recoup losses on Wednesday, the anniversary of his inauguration, in a White House shaken by the realization of what a difference a year made. The most likely starting place was finding a way to save the much-criticized health care overhaul he’s been trying to push through Congress.
…
Brown will become the 41st Republican in the 100-member Senate, which could allow the GOP to block the health care bill. Democrats needed Coakley to win for a 60th vote to thwart Republican filibusters.

Brown became the first Republican elected to the U.S. Senate from supposedly true-blue Democratic Massachusetts since 1972.

Democrats are upset, and the liberal reaction is what one expects.

Clearly the Brown victory shakes up the balance of power in Washington since

The Brown victory forces the White House and congressional leaders to decide how—or whether—to salvage their long-sought health-care overhaul. Rushing the bill after losing Massachusetts carries political risks. So does letting it collapse.

Anticipating rough sledding for the bill, the S&P health-care sector stock index surged by more than 2% Tuesday, leading all other industry sectors, with managed-care stocks posting strong gains.

But another important factor is Brown’s stance on national security: Marc Thiessen, in an email this morning notes,

Most of the focus on the Massachusetts Senate race has been on health care.

But according to Senator-elect Brown’s chief strategist, terrorist interrogation was the issue that put his candidate over the top.

“People talk about the potency of the health-care issue,” Brown’s top strategist, Eric Fehrnstrom, told National Review’s Robert Costa, “but from our own internal polling, the more potent issue here in Massachusetts was terrorism and the treatment of enemy combatants.”

The Republicans should celebrate Brown’s victory, yes. It shows that

Any candidate that condescends, takes for granted, turns a deaf ear and ignores the will of the people will go down like Martha Coakley. Every seat will be contested if the constituents are discontented.

But the Republicans would be wise to apply that lesson to their own candidates, and listen to Rick Moran,

On the one hand, there is the danger that if the GOP were actually to cooperate with Democrats on issues of mutual concern, they wouldn’t get any credit for their efforts from the voters. On the other hand, there is the real danger that the charge of “obstructionism” by Democrats may carry a little more weight given the circumstances of Brown’s victory.

Threading the needle on expectations is going to be an interesting problem for the Republican leadership, one made more complex by the activism of the tea party movement. Paralysis may be the only viable option when so many are so angry at so much of the inside-the-beltway elite. “Responsible” governance might require that the GOP work with the Democrats to at least bring the economy out of its horrible doldrums. But anything proposed beyond tax cuts would probably be met by fierce resistance from those who see any government spending to stimulate the economy as worse than useless and an actual betrayal of conservative principles.

Such might be the case, but the question of whether the bulk of the American people will stand still for gridlock with the economy in the shape it is in today needs to be answered. The Republicans may want to think long and hard about that in the run-up to the 2010 midterms, when voters may decide that those who obstructed measures that might have lifted the economy out of its malaise without offering any realistic alternative of their own should not be rewarded with the keys to power.

The Republicans have their work cut out for them.

And yes, thank you and congratulations, Scott Brown.

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Brown vs Coakley showdown

538 Model Posits Brown as 3:1 Favorite: The forecasting model that predicted all 35 Senate races in 2008 predicts Brown will win, and not only that,

Coakley’s odds are substantially worse than they appeared to be 24 hours ago, when there were fewer credible polls to evaluate and there appeared to be some chance that her numbers were bottoming out and perhaps reversing. However, the ARG and Research 2000 polls both show clear and recent trends against her. Indeed the model, which was optimized for regular rather than special elections, may be too slow to incorporate new information and may understate the magnitude of the trend toward Brown.

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion will be liveblogging starting at 8:30AM today.

Will this mean the end of healthcare reform?

The bigger hurdle for Democrats, however, will be the anxiety and political upheaval caused by the election. If Brown wins, it will be in large part because of high turnout from independents who oppose the health care reform bill. That’s going to make going forward with reform, already a big gamble, even riskier.

Or will the Dems resort to a big gambit, and rush the bill through before Brown is seated, if he wins?

We live in interesting times, alright.

In a lighter mode, Obama: Coakley Victorious if Brown Gets Less Than 60%

Update
In Louisiana, the race is seen as important for the nation,

Kermit Hoffpauir, also of Baton Rouge, said he decided to make calls to help clients in his chemical process equipment business.

“The party in power’s an economy killer,” he said.

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Please note there will be no podcast this morning due to a change in a business appointment.

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Trucking for Scott Brown

After Obama made a fuss about Scott Brown’s truck, Leslie’s omnibus is trucking in support of Scott Brown.

I can’t vote in Massachussets, and don’t own a pickup truck, but if I did I’d love one like this Ford pickup,

The Whited Sepulchre is also trucking right along.

Here’s the Scott Brown ad,

Brown, by the way, drives a GM truck. I guess Obama forgot the government now owns GM?

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VIDEO Coakley vs Brown: Baseball wars!

Elevating the political discourse even further,

Coakley dismisses Schilling: ‘Another Yankee fan’

In the intensifying Democratic precriminations game over who to blame if Coakley loses, here’s one for the blame Coakley camp: On another talk radio show, “Nightside With Dan Rea,” Coakley jabs Rudy Giuliani as a Yankee fan, then goes on to describe Brown supporter Curt Schilling, the great former Red Sox pitcher, as a Yankee fan as well.

Not lagging behind, The Nose on Your Face has come up with a follow-up video, New Coakley Ad: Scott Brown Is A Yankee Fan,

Jules Crittenden finds the election impossible to call.

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