No? Neither did I, but members of Congress will. They could have voted against the automatic pay raise, but why would they do that? Their average salary is only $169,300 per year or $3255.77 per week. Who can live on that?

Shouldn’t members of Congress have to go through the same process their constituents endure to earn a raise? I propose a report card for every member of the House of Representatives and Senate be sent to the voters, like a performance evaluation. They should be given specific goals and scored on whether they’ve achieved those goals.

If a member fails to meet the goals, no raise. The report cards will be published at election time so voters can plainly see if their representatives meet expectiations. If not, we can vote them out of office. Isn’t that simple?

Did anyone else notice that while the Big 3 CEO’s were in Washington with their tin cups begging for taxpayer funds, none of them mentioned CAFE standards required by Congress? Talk about an elephant in the room! At least when they’re manufacturing  SUV’s and luxury cars the companies can make a profit, justifying meeting the UAW’s demands.

I guess it’s politically incorrect to criticize Congress these days. They hold the bailout purse strings.

It isn’t that the auto companies don’t understand that Congress has mandated a failed business model. Holman W. Jenkins at the Wall Street Journal came across an email written by GM’s vice chairman. Read the rest of this entry »

Saturday Barack Obama released his video, promising massive Federal spending like most of us haven’t seen in our lifetime.  He promised lots of goodies, like internet access in every living room. What he didn’t mention is how he plans to pay for his big splurge. Read the rest of this entry »

Obama and the Natural Born Citizen Clause - Demanding that our elected leaders abide by the Constitution is not crazy, it’s the right thing to do.

Gov. David Paterson at the Gridiron: He Said What? - “Once you go black, you don’t go back.

The Obama Health-Care Express - Protocol, schmotocol! Democrats won’t let silly old Senate protocol get in the way of their plans!

Obama’s End Run around Congress - The imperial Presidency of Barack Obama. If you read nothing else, read this description of Obama’s stealth plans to ram through all of his proposals without debate or opposition.

How did the financial crisis happen? Congressman Bilbray (R-CA) talks about the role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after a Congressional hearing. Unfortunately, this news was overshadowed by the news of Governor Shakedown, er, Blagojevich.

As I listened to Detroit auto executives begging for taxpayer dollars, I was reading about how those same CEOs flew to Washington on private jets. They didn’t even jet-pool! Three private jets flew three CEOs to DC so they could put their grubby little hands out asking for a bailout that, according to Mitt Romney, will put them out of business. Talk about having a lot of nerve. They didn’t even look embarrassed.

How many times did the Democrats grill oil company CEOs about their “obscene profits” and their own compensation and benefits? Geez, at least oil company execs aren’t flying in on private jets pleading for a piece of the TARP!

The only big businesses Democrats like are the failed ones. They want windfall profit taxes on successful companies so they can turn around and throw it away on failed business models. They would be better off burning the money. Romney believes the best thing for the US automakers is to go bankrupt, and that to bail them out will ultimately lead to their demise. Read the rest of this entry »

We learned from the first talks on bailouts that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. It’s time to email, call, write and blog to stop bailouts for the auto industry. What makes me shudder is the plain and simple fact that the answer to “too big to fail” is let them get smaller. For a political elite that wants us to believe they are the big giant heads in this country they haven’t shown the common sense of a ten year old.

Here in the United Kingdom the liberal party in power has admitted that the country is in the worst financial condition for decades. Their opponents, the conservatives have said enough is enough and they will no longer support the governments plans. Read the rest of this entry »

I forgot to change the channel after the local news ended and ABC News came on. They gave a little recap of the bailout hearing today in Congress. Of course they showed clips of Democrats like Maxine Waters and Barney Frank whining about how the bailout isn’t helping. I laughed out loud, and found it especially amusing that ABC News couldn’t find it in their hearts to allow the truth of the financial crisis to see the light of day. Click here for a live blog from the hearing (not ABC News).

As a refresher, it was the housing crisis that sent the house of cards tumbling down. The housing crisis was caused when banks were forced to give mortgage loans to people who weren’t credit worthy. So the banks and other financial institutions made lemonade out of the lemons dealt to them by our government. Some (Republicans) tried to do something about this ponzi scheme, but Maxine Waters, Barney Frank and other Democrats led the charge to keep it going. If you don’t believe me watch this video.

Now, not only are these idiots going to be left in charge of “bailing out” our financial system, they’ve increased their numbers. But hey, America has spoken. Apparently, incompetence, idiocy and corruption are all the rage these days.

Why vote for Dan Maffei, or any Democrat for Congress for that matter? Let me count the reasons!

1-You despise the First Amendment to the Constitution and want free speech wiped out with the Fairness Doctrine. You also despise the Second Amendment. Only criminals should have guns.

2-You believe the Constitution is a living, breathing document and you hope someone finally kills it once and for all.

3-You don’t believe employees have the right to a secret ballot when deciding on unionizing. You prefer that thugs show up at employees’ doors and make them sign a card. Read the rest of this entry »

The Wall Street Journal is sounding the alarm about what the ultra liberal Democrats will do with their supermajority should they win the trifecta in next months election.

If America is truly a center-right country I can’t imagine the voters will let this happen. I certainly hope not. Do you really want the most liberal member of the US Senate leading our country with absolutely nothing to reign him in?

The Journal predicts the following will be enacted between 2009 and 2010: Read the rest of this entry »

The Federal government’s been pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy but it doesn’t seem to be helping. The markets have been in a free fall and there’s no end in sight. According to Investors’ Business Daily investers are afraid of the wealth sucking, job killing socialist tsunami that’s about to hit the United States. Read the rest of this entry »

In the famous words of Charles Dickens, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” That’s sort of the feeling I have today. Watching the stock market fall certainly was no fun. But witnessing the preservation of American freedom was kinda nice.

Did you catch the partisan bickering on Capital Hill? Nancy Pelosi started the day with a bitterly partisan speech. Not exactly the best way to win favor or move people over to your side. The Democrats were quick to blame Republicans for the bill’s failure. They forgot to mention the 95 Democrats who voted against the bill.

Democrats control Congress, why did they need Republicans to go along with them? If they wanted this bill passed it should have been easy. They even had 65 Republican votes to help them along. Where was Barack Obama, the leader of the Democratic Party? Why wasn’t he in Washington, lobbying members of his own party to vote for the bill?

I think the Dems may want to quiet down on this one.

Now it’s time to head back to the drawing board and come up with some free market solutions to this problem. They need more oversight (which the Democrats fought tooth and nail - watch this video from 2004) and accountability. Americans want to see those responsible for this mess investigated and punished, not rewarded.

That’s right. It began as 3 pages. After a week in Congress it’s up to 102 pages and growing. Like I said, Congress should just go home.

I am very pro capitalist and when I first heard about Paulson’s plan I was angry, shocked and dismayed. I’m still angry about how we got into this mess. Please, don’t waste your time leaving me a comment blaming Bush or free markets. That’s not what caused this mess and anyone who’s done any research knows it. Read the rest of this entry »

This has to be the best thing I’ve heard all week. A Constitional amendment to impose term limits on Congress. This is the stuff dreams are made of. Read the rest of this entry »