Richest lawmakers grew wealthier as economy faltered

Seven of the top 10 are Democrats. And No. 11 is Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., followed by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., also makes the list at No. 23.

From Rachel Rose Hartman of The Upshot today:

The rest of the country is still struggling with high unemployment amid a sluggish-at-best economic recovery -- but the wealthiest members of Congress are in high cotton. Indeed, the top 50 wealthiest lawmakers saw their combined net worths increase last year, according to the Hill's annual analysis of financial disclosure documents.

Combined, the 50 lawmakers were worth $1.4 billion in 2009 -- an $85.1 million increase over their 2008 total -- the Hill reports. The members' total combined assets depreciated by nearly $36 million last year -- but Congress' well-to-do set also reduced their debts by a combined $120 million.

The list of 50 lawmakers spans both parties (27 Democrats and 23 Republicans) and both chambers of Congress (30 House members, 20 senators), the Hill reports.

Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts topped the list for the second year in a row; Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas made his debut in the top 10.

Here are profiles for the 10 most flush Hill power-and-money brokers:

1. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.): $188.6 million. Kerry's worth, which grew by $20 million in 2009, stems from his wife's assets. Teresa Heinz Kerry, of the Heinz ketchup family, inherited hundreds of millions upon the death of her previous husband, Sen. John Heinz.

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White House considering major tax breaks for businesses, sources say

From Lori Montgomery of The Washington Post today:

With the recovery faltering less than two months before the November congressional elections, President Obama's economic team is considering another big dose of stimulus in the form of tax breaks for businesses - potentially worth hundreds of billions of dollars, according to two people familiar with the talks.

Among the options are a temporary payroll tax holiday and a permanent extension of the research and development tax credit, say people familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to describe private deliberations.

Permanently extending the research credit would cost roughly $100 billion over the next decade, tax experts said. And depending on its form and duration, a payroll tax holiday could let businesses keep more than $300 billion they would otherwise owe the Treasury.

While significantly less than last year's $814 billion stimulus package, both ideas would be far more dramatic than anything the White House had been expected to propose.

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NAACP watches for 'tea party' racism, stirs controversy

Gimme a break.

From Krissah Thompson of The Washington Post today:

NAACP leaders have a message for the members of the tea party movement: We're watching you.

The civil rights group has partnered with three liberal media Web sites to form a "tea party tracker" intent on monitoring "racism and other forms of extremism" within the tea party movement.

The online project, which was developed and branded by the NAACP's new media staff, has already drawn strong criticism from tea party supporters, who have said repeatedly that racism plays no role in their movement.

Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington bureau, said the project was started because NAACP leaders kept hearing from its members that they were seeing racist signs, T-shirts and commentary coming from the tea party movement.

"The site is set up to be utilized as a tool to track activities as they come up," Shelton said. "It is in some ways consistent with the kind of tracking that has been done of other extremist entities. I do not want to suggest that the tea party is a hate group, but there are some disturbing elements within."

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Does the NAACP have anything better to do? This group is a big ball of hypocrisy.

GOP plans wave of White House probes

From Glenn Thrush of Politico.com on Aug. 27:

If President Barack Obama needed any more incentive to go all out for Democrats this fall, here it is: Republicans are planning a wave of committee investigations targeting the White House and Democratic allies if they win back the majority.

Everything from the microscopic — the New Black Panther party — to the massive –- think bailouts — is on the GOP to-do list, according to a half-dozen Republican aides interviewed by POLITICO.

Republican staffers say there won’t be any self-destructive witch hunts, but they clearly are relishing the prospect of extracting information from an administration that touts transparency.

And a handful of aggressive would-be committee chairmen — led by Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Lamar Smith (R-Texas) — are quietly gearing up for a possible season of subpoenas not seen since the Clinton wars of the late 1990s.

Issa would like Obama’s cooperation, says Kurt Bardella, spokesman for the ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. But it’s not essential.

“How acrimonious things get really depend on how willing the administration is in accepting our findings [and] responding to our questions,” adds Bardella, who refers to his boss as “questioner-in-chief.’

That’s feeding anxieties within the West Wing — even if administration officials won’t admit it publicly.

“I actually think it will be even worse than what happened to Bill Clinton because of the animosity they already feel for President Obama,” says Lanny Davis, a deputy White House counsel who lived through Clinton’s trials.

With that in mind, here’s a list of six possible committee investigations if Republicans take back the House in November, culled from GOP aides, Democratic insiders and outside experts:

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Crist says he'd have voted for health care, then retracts -- 'I misspoke'

Here we go again. How does Gov. Charlie Crist, I-Fla., make up his mind? It depends on whom he talks to.

From William March of The Tampa Tribune on Aug. 27:

TAMPA - In an Orlando television interview, Gov. Charlie Crist told an interviewer he would have voted for the health care reform plan proposed by the Obama administration — a dizzying reversal of his previous position — but then retracted the comment, saying he misspoke.

In an interview with Scott Harris of CFLN in Orlando, asked about the health care bill, Crist said, "I would have voted for it but I think it can be done better, I really do."

That reverses Crist's position, stated on his web site, plus other past comments including his support of Attorney General Bill McCollum's lawsuit against the health care legislation.

Crist's opponents, Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Kendrick Meek, both pounced on Crist's reversal and re-reversal -- Meek saying Crist has "political amnesia" and Rubio saying, "This is getting ridiculous ... [Crist] doesn't actually care about health care, he only cares about getting himself elected."

Even Crist supporters would have to acknowledge he's shown flexibility in his views since he began becoming alienated from the Republican Party, but this reversal is in a different category.

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Murkowski concedes GOP Senate race to Miller

Another RINO goes down. Keep it up, America.

From Sean Cockerham of the Anchorage Daily News today:

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski on Tuesday night conceded the Republican primary election to Joe Miller, the tea party backed challenger who maintained his Election Day lead after thousands of additional absentee and other ballots were counted through the day.

"We know that we have outstanding votes to count in the primary but based on where we are right now I don't see a scenario where the primary will turn out in my favor. And that is a reality that is before me at this time," Murkowski said in a news conference broadcast live over statewide television from her campaign headquarters in Anchorage.

Murkowski did not endorse Miller in her concession speech. She took no questions.

Miller said Murkowski called him early this evening to say she was conceding.

"I thanked her for the hard-fought contest and wished her the best and asked for unity," Miller said in a telephone interview from his hometown of Fairbanks.

Miller said he thinks Murkowski will end up supporting him in the general election. "I'm going to give her some time and we're going to talk more about it later," he said.

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Dear Patients: Vote to repeal Obamacare

From Hal Scherz in The Wall Street Journal today:

Facing a nationwide backlash, Democratic congressional candidates have a new message for voters: We know you don't like ObamaCare, so we'll fix it.

This was the line offered by Democrat Mark Critz, who won a special election in Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district after expressing opposition to the law and promising to mend it—but not to repeal it. As a doctor I know something about unexpected recoveries, and this latest attempt to rescue ObamaCare from repeal needs to be taken seriously.

For Democrats who voted for ObamaCare, this tactic is an escape route, a chance to distance themselves from the president with a vague promise to fix health-care reform in the next Congress.

To counter this election-year ruse, my colleagues and I at Docs4PatientCare are enlisting thousands of doctors in an unorthodox and unprecedented action. Our patients have always expected a certain standard of care from their doctors, which includes providing them with pertinent information that may affect their quality of life. Because the issue this election is so stark—literally life and death for millions of Americans in the years ahead—we are this week posting a "Dear Patient" letter in our waiting rooms.

The letter states in unambiguous language what the new law means:

"Dear Patient: Section 1311 of the new health care legislation gives the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and her appointees the power to establish care guidelines that your doctor must abide by or face penalties and fines. In making doctors answerable in the federal bureaucracy this bill effectively makes them government employees and means that you and your doctor are no longer in charge of your health care decisions. This new law politicizes medicine and in my opinion destroys the sanctity of the doctor-patient relationship that makes the American health care system the best in the world."

Our doctor's letter points out that, in addition to "badly exacerbating the current doctor shortage," ObamaCare will bring "major cost increases, rising insurance premiums, higher taxes, a decline in new medical techniques, a fall-off in the development of miracle drugs as well as rationing by government panels and by bureaucrats like passionate rationing advocate Donald Berwick that will force delays of months or sometimes years for hospitalization or surgery."

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Minnesota governor orders state agencies to decline Obamacare funds

From Rachel E. Stassen-Berger of the Star Tribune on Aug. 31:

Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty Tuesday ordered all state agencies to not to submit applications to any health care funding from the federal government related to the health care overhaul.

Any applications must be either required by law or approved by the governor's office.

Pawlenty, who appears to be gearing up for a run for president in 2012, has long decried the health care overhaul, which opponents call Obamacare, and has pledged to join a lawsuit to undo it.

“Obamacare is an intrusion by the federal government into personal health care matters and it’s an explosion of federal spending that does nothing to make health care more affordable,” Pawlenty said in a news release.

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Something for nothing

From Walter E. Williams of Townhall.com today:

Perhaps the most difficult economic lesson is that we live in a world of scarcity and everything has a cost. Scarcity exists whenever human wants exceed the means to satisfy those wants. For example, Rolls-Royce produces less than 4,000 cars a year but it's a safe bet that more than 4,000 of the Earth's 6.5 billion people want a Rolls-Royce. That means Rolls-Royces are scarce. But it's not just Rolls-Royces that are scarce. It's clothing, food, land and most anything a human would want. There's not enough to meet every single want.

Scarcity means there's no free lunch. Having more of one thing requires having less of another. You might say, "Williams, that's where you're wrong. Someone gave me this newspaper and I'm reading your column for free!" Not true. If you weren't spending time reading my column, you might have spent the time reading something else, chatting with your wife or children, or going out for a jog. You're reading my column for a zero price but you're not doing so at zero cost. You have to sacrifice something. There are zero-price services such as "free libraries," "free public schools," "free transportation" and free whatever. It doesn't mean that costs are not being borne by somebody.

The vision of getting something for nothing, or getting something that someone else has to pay for, explains why so many Americans are duped by politicians. A congressional hoax that's flourished for seven decades is the Social Security hoax that half of the Social Security tax (6.2 percent) is paid by employers, the other half (6.2 percent) paid by employees. The law says that if you are self-employed, you get to pay both halves. The fact of the matter is whether you're self-employed or not, you pay both halves of the Social Security tax that totals 12.4 percent. Let's look at it.

Suppose you hire me and our agreed-upon weekly salary is $500. From that $500, you're going to deduct $31 as my share of the Social Security tax and you're going to add $31 as the so-called employer's share, sending a total of $62 to the IRS. Here's the question: What is the weekly cost for you to hire me? I hope you answered $531.

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Sources: Rick Scott to select Jennifer Carroll as running mate

From Abel Harding and Matt Dixon of The Florida Times-Union today:

Multiple sources have told the Times-Union that state Rep. Jennifer Carroll is Rick Scott’s likely choice for lieutenant governor.

Scott supporter Rep. Mike Weinstein, R-Jacksonville, could not confirm that Carroll is the choice, but said she is on a “very short list.”

He said that former Lieutenant Governor Toni Jennings, who served with Jeb Bush’s administration, is also on that list.

Weinstein and others from around the area say that politically, Carroll makes sense as Scott’s running mate."I just really think she adds a lot to the ticket. She is African-American, she is a female, and she is really sharp," said state Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville.

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Bill Nelson releases results of offshore drilling survey

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., released today the results of the offshore drilling survey he sent at the end of July. He says he received responses from 18,000 Floridians.

And the survey says ...

• 21.36 percent want to develop comprehensive energy legislation to decrease our reliance on fossil fuels, like foreign oil.
• 18.76 percent want to raise the cap on damages companies would owe from an oil spill from $75 million to at least $10 billion.
• 17.75 percent want to find out whether there's a lot of oil from the Gulf spill beneath the surface and what the long-term threat might be.
• 15.84 percent want to provide tax breaks for small businesses hurt by the spill and for employees who hire workers displaced by it.
• 15.58 percent want to keep oil rigs away from states like Florida that rely on tourism, fishing and beach-front economies.
• 10.71 percent want to conduct a criminal investigation and put those most responsible for the spill behind bars.

Nelson says: "Our government must enact a national program to transition us from petroleum to alternative and synthetic fuels -- and we need to act with the same urgency that led us to reach the moon within the 1960s. We also need more solar, wind and thermal energy, and safer nuclear power."

Oikophobia: why the liberal elite finds Americans revolting

From James Taranto of The Wall Street Journal on Aug. 27:

If you think it's offensive for a Muslim group to exploit the 9/11 atrocity, you're an anti-Muslim bigot and un-American to boot. It is a claim so bizarre, so twisted, so utterly at odds with common sense that it's hard to believe anyone would assert it except as some sort of dark joke. Yet for the past few weeks, it has been put forward, apparently in all seriousness, by those who fancy themselves America's best and brightest, from the mayor of New York all the way down to Peter Beinart.

What accounts for this madness? Charles Krauthammer notes a pattern:

Promiscuous charges of bigotry are precisely how our current rulers and their vast media auxiliary react to an obstreperous citizenry that insists on incorrect thinking.

-- Resistance to the vast expansion of government power, intrusiveness and debt, as represented by the Tea Party movement? Why, racist resentment toward a black president.

-- Disgust and alarm with the federal government's unwillingness to curb illegal immigration, as crystallized in the Arizona law? Nativism.

-- Opposition to the most radical redefinition of marriage in human history, as expressed in Proposition 8 in California? Homophobia.

-- Opposition to a 15-story Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero? Islamophobia.

Now we know why the country has become "ungovernable," last year's excuse for the Democrats' failure of governance: Who can possibly govern a nation of racist, nativist, homophobic Islamophobes?

Krauthammer portrays this as a cynical game: "Note what connects these issues. In every one, liberals have lost the argument in the court of public opinion. . . . What's a liberal to do? Pull out the bigotry charge, the trump that preempts debate and gives no credit to the seriousness and substance of the contrary argument."

But this has its limits as a political strategy. Krauthammer writes that "the Democrats are going to get beaten badly in November," and no one will credit him for boldness in that prediction. Some may disagree with his reckoning as to the reason for that likely loss: that "a comeuppance is due the arrogant elites whose undisguised contempt for the great unwashed prevents them from conceding a modicum of serious thought to those who dare oppose them."

But can anyone argue that a show of contempt is a winning political strategy? The question answers itself and implies that the contempt is genuine.

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Man holding 'Impeach Obama' sign assaulted by police

This nearly made me cry.

FREE SPEECH! Do you understand?

Glenn Beck launches conservative news site

Fox News TV host Glenn Beck launched a new conservative news site Aug. 30 called The Blaze.

The site features news stories, blogs and videos covering topics such as health, politics, government and the nation. The four-member editorial staff includes Scott Baker, cofounder of Breitbart.tv.

To me, the site seems a little disorganized and overwhelming (does the tease for featured story on the home page have to appear in such a big graphic?). But the content seems to stand on its own. We'll see how popular it gets.

Minnesota on its way to becoming America's first Somali-Muslim state

"There is such a thing as carrying politeness too far. "

Record number in government anti-poverty programs

From Richard Wolf of USA Today on Aug. 30:

WASHINGTON — Government anti-poverty programs that have grown to meet the needs of recession victims now serve a record one in six Americans and are continuing to expand.

More than 50 million Americans are on Medicaid, the federal-state program aimed principally at the poor, a survey of state data by USA TODAY shows. That's up at least 17% since the recession began in December 2007.

"Virtually every Medicaid director in the country would say that their current enrollment is the highest on record," says Vernon Smith of Health Management Associates, which surveys states for Kaiser Family Foundation.

The program has grown even before the new health care law adds about 16 million people, beginning in 2014. That has strained doctors. "Private physicians are already indicating that they're at their limit," says Dan Hawkins of the National Association of Community Health Centers.

More than 40 million people get food stamps, an increase of nearly 50% during the economic downturn, according to government data through May. The program has grown steadily for three years.

Caseloads have risen as more people become eligible. The economic stimulus law signed by President Obama last year also boosted benefits.

"This program has proven to be incredibly responsive and effective," says Ellin Vollinger of the Food Research and Action Center.

Close to 10 million receive unemployment insurance, nearly four times the number from 2007. Benefits have been extended by Congress eight times beyond the basic 26-week program, enabling the long-term unemployed to get up to 99 weeks of benefits. Caseloads peaked at nearly 12 million in January — "the highest numbers on record," says Christine Riordan of the National Employment Law Project, which advocates for low-wage workers.

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GOP leaders lay out plan to end gov't support for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac

Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee released Aug. 17 recommendations for ending government bailouts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

"To achieve a healthy, sustainable mortgage finance system," they wrote, "House Republicans support mortgage finance reform legislation that seeks to achieve the following goals:"

• Reestablish a housing finance market that has long-term stability in which private capital is the primary source of mortgage financing.pan>
• Restore stability and liquidity to the secondary market for residential mortgages, and prevent significant disruptions to the financial market been the rescue of government-sponsored enterprises.
• Encourage innovation and diversity in housing finance that provide choices for consumers.

• Protect taxpayers from further losses and future

  bailouts

• Require that taxpayers be made whole on

  outstanding loans, guarantees and capital infusions

  made by the government.

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Plunge in home sales stokes economy fears

From Sudeep Reddy and Nick Timiraos of The Wall Street Journal on Aug. 25:

U.S. home sales plummeted in July to a level not seen in more than a decade, spurring fears of renewed weakness in housing prices and the broader economy.

Sales of previously owned homes fell 27.2% from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday, the lowest level since the industry group started its tally in 1999.

The expiration of a home-buyer tax credit in the spring was expected to damp buying, though less severely. Economists said the sales drop—together with a corresponding rise in the inventory of unsold homes—meant another decline in housing prices was on the horizon. House prices had stabilized last year after declining since 2006.

High unemployment and meager wage growth already are driving many Americans' reluctance to make major purchases, so a return of falling home equity could further depress confidence and consumer spending.

"At this point in the recovery, every little bit counts," said economist Paul Dales of Capital Economics. "A double dip in the housing market and house prices would not be enough to generate another recession. It would certainly help to hold back the recovery." He expects home prices to fall another 5% after a 30% decline during the recession.

The data sent stocks tumbling, briefly pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average below 10,000 for the first time since early July. The index closed at 10040.45, down 133.96 points, with investors rushing into safer assets as they reassessed the economic outlook. A rally in Treasurys pushed the yield on the 10-year note as low as 2.47%, its lowest mark since early 2009. Oil prices and other key commodities such as copper fell on expectations of weaker demand.

The renewed worry about housing comes as economists downgrade their forecasts for the economy this year and early next year. Traditionally, the housing sector, along with purchases of durable goods such as furniture, would help pull the economy out of a recession as lower interest rates spurred higher demand. But this time, potential home buyers either don't have the jobs or savings to jump in or are wary of another decline in the market.

"Consumers and housing are in no position to lead us out," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight. "We've gone through the inventory-cycle boost. The stimulus boost is fading. We're falling back on whatever underlying strength there is in the private sector, in exports and business-equipment spending, and there's not a lot."

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Obama weekly job approval average at new low of 43%

From Frank Newport of Gallup on Aug. 23:

PRINCETON, NJ -- President Obama's job approval rating slipped to 43% for the week of Aug. 16-22, down one percentage point from the previous weekly low set a week ago.

The new low also marks the first weekly average in which 50% of Americans disapprove of Obama's job performance. The erosion reflects particularly low ratings at the beginning of last week, including 41% for Aug. 15-17 and Aug. 16-18, the lowest three-day averages of his administration. By the end of the week, however, Obama's job ratings inched up, averaging 44% approval Aug. 20-22.

The president arrived at Martha's Vineyard, Mass., on Thursday, settling in with his family for a 10-day vacation, and for the most part dropping out of the daily news cycle. Whether this contributed to his slightly better ratings near the end of the week cannot be determined.

Obama's current 43% rating is well below the job approval ratings for both Presidents Bush at this point in their second year in office, but at roughly the same level as Presidents Clinton, Reagan, and Carter. None of the three presidents who were in the 40% range in August of their second year got back to 50% by the time of the midterm elections.

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Putting the brakes on Obamacare

From Gracie-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, in The Wall Street Journal on Aug. 25:

If Republicans take control of one or both houses of Congress this fall, many will have been elected with a promise to "repeal and replace" ObamaCare. But what are their options, really? There likely will be an initial showdown, but President Obama will surely veto any challenge to the law, and it would be hard to imagine mustering the votes to overturn it.

Information is the key weapon. Republicans can use congressional hearings to explain what ObamaCare is doing to the economy and the health sector. Their strongest cases would be built around jobs, the cost of health care, and the rising deficit.

If evidence shows that looming mandates on employers are crippling job-creation, they should be repealed. If health costs are rising, as they inevitably will be, Congress needs to hold hearings to investigate the causes and explain why the offending taxes and regulations must be repealed.

Here are six key strategies that a Republican Congress could employ to put on the brakes:

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Information is ammunition.

Repeal Obamacare? Get your congressman on the record

From Newt Gingrich on Human Events on Aug. 25:

In the run-up to pass the Democrats’ government takeover of healthcare against the clearly expressed wishes of the American people, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi notoriously declared,“We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.”

Obamacare is now passed and signed into law and the speaker has been proven both right and wrong.

She was right that we’ve learned more about what’s in the bill.

She was wrong because what we’ve learned has been disastrous, and as a result, the controversy has continued.

Top 5 Surprises in Obamacare

The more the American people have learned about Obamacare since it was passed the more they dislike it. And with good reason. Here is a list of some recent surprises buried in the 2,300 pages of legislation.

1. Beginning in January 2012, businesses are required to file with the IRS for every business to business transaction over $600. This includes all transactions, not just health based ones. (Section 9006).

2. A new program (the Community Living Assistance Program) was established that is woefully underfunded by the bill and will eventually require much more money than allocated. (Section 8002).

3. As of January 2014, states must expand Medicaid coverage to all individuals under the age of 64 with family incomes at or below 133% of the federal poverty level. States already do not have the resources to provide adequate Medicaid coverage and this law will add millions more to Medicaid rolls. (Section 2001, as modified by 10201 and H.R. 4872; Sec. 1004 and 1201).

4. Beginning January 2011, individuals are not allowed to use Flexible Savings Accounts, Health Reimbursement Accounts, and Health Savings Accounts to purchase over-the-counter medicines. The law also caps annual contributions at $2,500, down from $5,000. Many Americans (especially younger ones in relatively good health) rely on FSAs, HRAs, and HSAs to help pay for healthcare. This law makes these consumer-oriented tools that encourage smart shopping less convenient and provides a perverse incentive for individuals to buy expensive prescription medicine instead of over-the-counter alternatives. (Section 9003).

5. Verizon, AT&T, Caterpillar and other companies publicly acknowledged that the tax structure of the new law actually encourages companies to stop providing coverage for their employees beginning in 2014. (Section 1003).

Read more.