The Patriot Post Chronicle 6-1-2011

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The Patriot Post Chronicle 6-1-2011
From The Federalist Patriot
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The Foundation

"Our conflict is not likely to cease so soon as every good man would wish. The measure of iniquity is not yet filled; and unless we can return a little more to first principles, and act a little more upon patriotic ground, I do not know when it will." --George Washington

Editorial Exegesis

"During the summer of 2009, in the early stages of the health care debate, a frustrated Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., lamented that he wasn't getting any cooperation from Republicans. ... This 'Party of No' rhetoric was parroted by nearly every liberal writer. It is less common today, now that the tables have turned. The new Republican House majority has passed a serious proposal to reform the broken entitlement system and avert national insolvency. Not only has Reid refused to work with the GOP on a budget, but he said it would be 'foolish' for Democrats to release one of their own. And last Wednesday, Senate Democrats gave new meaning to the label the 'Party of No' when they held a series of four budget votes. Not a single Democrat voted for any budget proposal, including Obama's own plan, which was rejected by a unanimous 97-to-0 vote. Democrats have settled on a political strategy of isolating and attacking the Ryan plan instead of offering constructive solutions that could leave them open to attack. If history is any guide, this is a winning election strategy. But it is not necessarily responsible governance. The nation faces an unprecedented debt crisis that makes the problems in the health care system pale in comparison. ... As tempting as it is for Republicans to blast Democrats' inaction, they would do much better to go on offense and attack the bad ideas Democrats have already embraced." --The Washington Examiner1

Upright

"Senate Democrats haven't passed their own budget plan in more than two years, despite having strong control of that body. Meanwhile, the nation is teetering on bankruptcy. I don't make that statement lightly. Our national debt is $14.3 trillion, and our federal deficit is $1.65 trillion. ... Republicans will make a mistake if they continue to be in counterattack mode, waiting for the latest Democratic broadside to respond. They should be on the airwaves every morning and every night presenting the nightmarish facts and their proposal to end the nightmare and exposing the Democrats for the reckless rogues they are. Time's running out." --columnist David Limbaugh

"Obama and his policymakers told the country that we would recover from the deep recession by vastly increasing government spending and borrowing. ... Employers aren't creating any more new jobs than they were during the darkest days of the recession; unemployment has dropped slowly because they just aren't laying off as many employees as they did then. In the meantime many potential job seekers have left the labor market. If they re-enter and look for jobs, the unemployment rate will stay steady or ebb only slowly. We tend to hire presidents who we think can foresee the future effect of their policies. No one does so perfectly. But if the best sympathetic observers can say about the results is that they are 'unexpected,' voters may decide someone else can do better." --political analyst Michael Barone

"The U.S. intervention in Libya's civil war ... is now taking a toll on the rule of law. In a bipartisan cascade of hypocrisies, a liberal president, with the collaborative silence of most congressional conservatives, is traducing the War Powers Resolution. Enacted in 1973 over President Nixon's veto, the WPR may or may not be wise. It is, however, unquestionably a law, and Barack Obama certainly is violating it. ... 'No president,' says Sen. John McCain, 'has ever recognized the constitutionality of the War Powers Act, and neither do I. So I don't feel bound by any deadline.' Oh? No law is actually a law if presidents and senators do not 'recognize' it? Now, there is an interesting alternative to judicial review, and an indicator of how executive aggrandizement and legislative dereliction of duty degrade the rule of law." --columnist George Will

"Congressman Barney Frank, former Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, helped his then-lover Herb Moses land a nice, lucrative 'government job' working at Fannie Mae back in the 1990's. Even though it happened several years ago, this 'news' raises some very legitimate questions about a 'conflict of interest,' because in his position as an elected member of Congress, Mr. Frank had direct governmental oversight of Fannie Mae. ... This type of 'political favoritism' has become flagrant, and is out in the open in many parts of the country. What is not so out in the open is the way taxpayer dollars get spent by government agencies and bureaucracies 'behind the scenes.'" --columnist Austin Hill

Insight

"The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions." --American statesman Daniel Webster (1782-1852)

"Unionism seldom, if ever, uses such power as it has to insure better work; almost always it devotes a large part of that power to safeguarding bad work." --American writer H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

The Demo-gogues

On the legality of illegal immigration: "I think the president was clearly articulating that his position -- the Democrats' position -- is that we need comprehensive immigration reform. We have 12 million undocumented immigrants in this country that are part of the backbone of our economy. And that is not only a reality but a necessity. And that it would be harmful if -- the Republican solution that I've seen in the last three years is that we should just pack them all up and ship them back to their own countries, and that in fact it should be a crime and we should arrest them all." --Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), who is also DNC chairwoman

Bad solution: "All I know is, whenever you have any type of a problem and the problem is one that you spend more than you are actually bringing in then you have to bring in more and spend less. It just makes so much sense ... it's all we have to do." --Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) on raising taxes

Opposing the very debt increase they wanted: "Well, when [Democrats] were in charge, when the president of the United States wouldn't let you do some of the things you wanted to do, Bill Clinton was there to veto things, we had a surplus for four years in a row and we didn't increase the debt [limit] once. Under George W. Bush we increased it seven times. I yield back the balance of my time and urge a no vote on this irresponsible piece of legislation that should have been handled in bipartisan way." --House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD)

Race bait: "You know, I'm 70 years old. And I can tell you; people don't like to deal with it, but the fact of the matter is, the president's problems are in large measure because of the color of his skin." --Assistant Minority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC), who later insisted that his comments weren't about racism

Um, what? "We have a leader with the backbone of a ramrod." --Joe Biden