Only Six Democrats Voted Against Debt Scheme

Don't be fooled by this nonsensical claim that Republicans won the debt ceiling battle.  Spin it all you want, but when it came right down to it, only six of 51 Demcrat senators voted against it--so much for them thinking they got a bad deal.  The proof is in the pudding and in this case, the pudding is the voting.

Of the 26 senators who voted against the scheme, 19 were Republicans.  Socialist Bernie Sanders from Vermont joined six Democrats (Gillibrand of New York, Harkin of Iowa, Lautenberg and Menendez of New Jersey, Merkley of Ohio, and Nelson of Nebraska)  to get the number up toe 26.

Thus while Democrats were 90 percent in favor of the scheme, it was only 28-19 for Republicans.  In case, you're having trouble locating the 19, I found them on the Senate site.

"Among the senators who voted against the debt ceiling bill, 19 are Republicans, six are Democrats, and one is an Independent:

Ayotte (R-NH), Chambliss (R-GA), Coats (R-IN), Coburn (R-OK), DeMint (R-SC), Gillibrand (D-NY), Graham (R-SC), Grassley (R-IA), Harkin (D-IA), Hatch (R-UT), Heller (R-NV), Inhofe (R-OK), Johnson (R-WI), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Lee (R-UT), Menendez (D-NJ), Merkley (D-OR), Moran (R-KS), Nelson (D-NE), Paul (R-KY), Rubio (R-FL), Sanders (I-VT), Sessions (R-AL), Shelby (R-AL), Toomey (R-PA), Vitter (R-LA)."

Congraulations to Kelly Ayotte who didn't make up her mind until the very end.  I was convinced she'd vote yes, so it goes to show--there are some still some surprises in life.

Marco Rubio and Rand Paul are certainly no surprises.  We need 49 more like them.  I suspect Orrin Hatch might have voted yes were it not for a Tea Party challenge next year in Utah, just like Senator Lee ousted Bennett there last year.  I was also pleasantly surprised by South Carolina's Lindsey Graham who managed to accomplish a medical miracle; he somehow disconnected himself from that unfortunate attachment at the hip to John McCain and Joe Lieberman.  Could that have something to do with him being up for re-election in a tea party-dominated state next year?  Call me cynical.  I trust Jim DeMint, but I wouldn't trust little Lindsey as far as McCain could throw him.

New Senators Johnson of Wisconsin and Toomey of Pennsylvania were also good to see on the no list.  As I've said often this year, elections have consequences, but apparently not for Frank Guinta (what a lame article in defense of the indensible in today's Union Leader) and Charlie Bass!

The Week In Polls--Aug. 3--No To Debt Ceiling Increase

The Week In Polls, usually a Monday feature on this blog and More Politically Alert, is two days late this week since I was enroute from Montreal back to the U.S., but it's just as well.  It gives us a chance to look at Gallup's new numbers regarding the debt ceiling increase.

Despite the crocodile tears from Democrats on how the "compromise" would devastate the country, real numbers reveal that only Democrats favored the $2.1 trillion increase in the debt ceiling.  Overall, Gallup found 46 % of Americans opposed to the scheme while 39 % supported it.  Democrats were 58-28 in favor, Republicans 26-64 against, and Independents 33-50 against.  That  tells us that Speaker Boehner, in getting all but 66 Republican Reps to vote for the sell-out, was going against the wishes of 64 % of his own party.  Hear that Frank Guinta?  Hear that Charlie Bass?  Your own party opposes your vote by a two and a half to one margin.

Gallup found liberals supported the scheme 51-35 (so much for all that phony whining) while conservative opposed it 25-64.

Gallup today has Obama's approval rating at minus 7, 42-49.  That's a rebound from the minus 12 he registered over the weekend, but as with killing Bin Laden, you can only get one bounce from raising the debt ceiling.  It'll be interesting what we see the next few days.

Rasmussen has Obama down 10 points, 44-54, but he's down 19 (22-41) on the very favorable-very unfavorable scale.

He's also bounced back slightly in the Real Clear Politics average.  It's negative 4.5 (44.9-49.4).

Interestingly, Gallup has Obama down four points for the entire month, from a 46 to a 42 percent favorability.  He's down from 74 to 72 among liberals, from 24 to 22 among conservatives, but perhaps most significantly down from 56 to 49 with self-described moderates.

Gallup has Obama losing to a generic Republican by seven (42-49), even more than Rasmussen (42-47) , but the real news is from Pew Research which had Obama up ten points (47-37) in March.  Today, he's only up one point, 41-40, and he's dropped from a 6 point lead among independents (40-34) to an eight point deficit (31-39).  Ouch!

Rasmussen's lead for Republicans on the generic Congressional ballot has ticked down two points this week to plus four, 43-39.

Zogby reveals that by a 75-18 % margin, Americans want the death penalty for the Fort Hood shooter.

Obama continues to look like a loser in 2012, but perhaps only if Republicans nominate Mitt Romney.  Just look at Pennsylvania, a state even Democrats would admit Obama cannot afford to lose.  In a Quinnipiac poll, Obama loses 44-42 in that state, and since most pundits acknowledge that three of four undecided voters break against the incumbent, Obama is really down nearly double digits in that state.  However, he leads Bachmann by eight (47-39) and Perry by six (45-39) in Pa.

While I don't trust PPP polls (due to their Democrat bias), we can use them for comparative purposes, and a new poll has Obama up by only one over Romne in Nevada (47-46), but he leads Bachmann by 10 (50-40) and Perry by 9 (49-40).

How do the words President Mitt Romney sound?  An early prediction--better get used to hearing those three words.

So, I was wondering how likely it is that Republicans will shoot themselves in the foot and turn away from Romney who appears to be a sure winner (keep in mind, I remain a stalwart RON PAUL supporter, but I would find Romney acceptable).  Some recent polls show him losing some of his big lead, but that's mostly in individual states.  He's still up 8.4 points in the Real Clear Politics national average.  It's Romney 21.6, Bachmann 13.2, Perry 12.6, Palin 12.1, Giuliani 11.0, Paul 8.2, Cain 6.6, Gingrich 4.8, Pawlenty 2.8, and Santorum 1.9.  The bad news for Romney is that Palin and Giuliani are not likely to run, and how much of their 23 percent will go to him?  Some of the Rudy vote for sure, but not much of the Palin vote.  Romney continues to look strong in a crowded field, but it won't remain crowded forever.

In a Quinnipiac Pennsylvania Republican poll, Romney leads Santorum by seven, 21-14, but keep in mind, this is Santorum's home state.  Bachmann gets 11, Perry 8, and Ron Paul 5. 

Would You Be A Patriot If You Marched To The Harbor And Failed To Toss The Tea? No, You'd Be A Coward

Was there ever any doubt that Republicans would capitulate, fold like the proverbial house of cards and allow the debt ceiling to be raised?

Not to me there wasn't, and while some in the Republican fold claim victory (Laura Ingraham was going gaga on her radio show yesterday--it was almost like an orgasm), make no mistake.  This was no victory.

Republicans have given Obama The Destroyer permission to spend another $2.1 trillion that we don't have, and he got just what he wanted--ability to avoid coming back to Congress for phase two some time next year.

Most of the cuts were typical Washington cuts--no actual cuts in spending, but cuts in proposed increases and cuts which won't kick in for two years or so.

Worst of all, we will get a special 12 person study panel populated with six Democrats, who insist even before the ink on the deal is dry that they'll push for tax increases, and six Republicans to be named later, named by the very people who fashioned this phony deal.

You just can't make this stuff up.

We already here that no senator who voted against the deal will be among those named by McConnell.  That means no Rand Paul, no Marco Rubio, not Orrin Hatch, Jim DeMint not even a Lindsey Graham.  I have no confidence in those McConnell will pack--god almighty, if that big government enabler Jugghead were still around, McConnell would undoubtedly appoint him.  Or maybe he could reach back into the past and appoint that tax collector for the welfare state, Bob Dole.

It's fashionable to say the tea party should take credit for this deal.  That's dishonoring a movement.  It would be like giving credit to those tea party members who went to the Boston harbor in the 1770s and then after arriving at the ship, threw up their hands, and said, "Never mind.  We've made out point.  No need to throw this tea into the harbor."

Cowardice is the only word to describe the McConnells of the world who want nothing more than keep government fat and happy.

It used to be billions, and there was even a time when we worried about millions.  By 1926, the Calvin Coolidge administration could take pride in reducing the debt from Woodrow Wilson's War from $26.3 billion down to $19.3 billion.  When Chester Arthur was president in the 1880s, the federal government had too much money, so much in fact that a debate raged over how much to cut tariffs which protectionists wanted maintained at a high level.

Our leaders today labor under the false assumption that people are too stupid to realize that you add three zeros to go from million to billion, and three more to go up to trillion.

We could not afford to pay the debt we'd run up--let's call it 12.5 and simply forget the work trillion.  Does anyone with even a sixth grade education in arithmetic actually think that if you can't pay at 12.5 unit debt, you're going to be more capable of paying a 14.5 (again, let's not use that unfortunately word TRILLION) unit debt.

Even the most naive of budgeters knows that when you borrow more, you need to pay more in interest.  There comes a point when you can't even afford to pay the interest, let alone pay off the principle like Coolidge was doing.

We were at that point--we can't even pay the interest--and the logical thing to do would be to cut spending so drastically that we actually begin to start paying off the debt, not adding to it.

In other words, the debate which has occupied so much air time this past month should not have been over increasing the debt limit two trillion, but of DECREASING THE DEBT LIMIT TWO TRILLION.

There was never any doubt that Jeanne Shaheen would go along with this same.  If those were tears Democrats were shedding between their pauses to vilify tea partiers as terrorists (Joe Biden in one of the most defamatory phrases ever used by a Vice President of this great country), they were certainly crocodile tears.

Democrats who criticize this play won't be happy until government takes all our money and our freedoms along with it.

Republicans like Frank Guinta and Charlie Bass (hey, Ayotte voted no) have quickly become part of the problem and deserve a challenge from the right next year.  They are no more tea party members than those men in the Boston Harbor, those patriots dressed as Indians, would have been if they'd turned tail and headed home before a single crate of tea had been thorwn overboard.

Timid patriotism did not create a country in 1776, and timid patriotism will not save a country today.

Only the Pauls and Rubios and such will save a country, and sadly there aren't enough of them.

You know how American people, those who can balance a check book, realize the terrible trouble we're in today.  Because they're smart enough to know that the solution to not being able to pay your bills is not to borrow more money so that your bills will be even greater next month.  The solution is not to make up phony savings which will kick in some time in the future.  The only true solution would be to close down the EPA, the Education department, to cut off all Obama's czars and half the congressional staff and that's just a starter.  Any yes, any real solution will begin with the recognition that we can no longer afford to be the world's policeman, that we can't waste trillions adventuring abroad and call it defense.  This is not defense spending; it's outrageous offense spending which makes us hated everywhere we throw money down rat holes.

Laura Ingram (fool) notwithstanding, Nancy Pelosi's crocodile tears notwithstanding, Charles Krauthammer (whom I respent) contending that you can only do so much with just the House notwithstanding, this is not a happy day.  It's a day of capitulation to the status quo of big bloated government which is destroying our country...and only a person brave enough to dump the tea once he gets to the harbor can save us.

We are doomed.

Obama's Too Conservative for Bernie the Bouncer

Bernie The Bouncer Sanders

My cousin Eddie, currently a  Las Vegas black jack dealer, gives me permission to use this delicious story.

Eddie didn't always live in Nevada and he wasn't always a black jack dealer.  Before he headed west, he was working at a store in the Burlington, Vermont area.  Those were the days before Bernie Sanders became Congressman or socialist Senator and in fact even before he became Burlington Mayor.

Seems that Bernie was as irresponsible with his own monies (thousands of dollars) as he is with taxpayer monies (trillions of dollars) today. 

Eddie tells me that not just once or twice, but on a regular basis, Bernie the Socialist Sanders would bounce a check at the store he worked at.

This is the same man who doesn't think Barack Obama is liberal enough to be President, who thinks Obama should be challenged from the left.

Hopefully, if Obama does get a Democrat opponent, from either the left or the right, it'll be someone who, unlike Vermont's socialist, is able to balance his check book.

Now cue my favorite line--

You just can't make this stuff up.

Thanks Eddie.  Do players always split aces and eights?  I hear they should if they know the basic strategy.

By the way, it's Eddie's brother who almost became Burlington mayor a few years back and may well win the next race up there.  He also worked at a store--wonder if Bernie ever bounced any checks with him?

Hey, This Therapy Is Better Than Drugs

Greetings from the Grand Bibliotheque at Rue Berri in Montreal, what a place!

My cousin, the ultra liberal one, doesn`t believe in using any kind of drugs, doctor-prescribed or over the counter, none at all.  She says exercise can make you feel better.  Sounds too much like work to me (give me an aspirin whenever the head aches), but I discovered that a daily dose of doing this blog is good therapy.  When I arrived hot and tired yesterday--something about a flat tire with neither me nor the tow operator unable to remove the tire; he had to tow the car to a dealer--I was out of it until I popped in here and wrote a few words.

Festivals await--Just For Laughs, Divers Cite, and the final fireworks show of the summer (a salute to the Beatles), so this will be quick, and even though it`s not Monday (our day for looking at polls), we need an update.

Obama slipped to an all-time low with Gallup yesterday.  It was 40-50.  Today, it`s even worse, 40-52. Rasmussen has it at 44-56, and the Real Clear Politics average is a -5.7, 44.6-51.3.

The Canadian press seems to be covering the U.S. fiscal "crisis" as much as in the, more than the totally out of it Burlington Free Press.

Amidst the bad radio up here, I discovered one good syndicated show, Jerry Doyle (overnight on WVMT 620).  He was critical of both the media which such up to Democrats (CNN and MSNBC) and those that suck up to Republicans (Fox, especialy Sean Hanity).

I haven`t heard any important Canadian news (except road and bridge closures) so all is quiet here.  Itr takes $1.05 American to buy a Canadian dollar, a far cry from ten years ago when I was getting $1.40 Canadian for $1 U.S.

I read there were 22 Republican holdouts for Speaker Boehner`s latest dead-on-arrival in the Senate proposal.  Ron Paul was one.  You probably can guess that I would have been number 23!  After all, I voted against House Bill 2 because we didn`t cut enough!