BluntPolitics.com

I enjoyed the Tea Party but came away with a conflicting emotions. My observations were that the tea party was eclectic. I saw Libertarians, Democrats, Ron Paulites, Republicans, Conservatives, old, young, black, white and families. I saw angry conservatives that are angry with Republicans who went to the spending trough and democrats who feel that progressives/regressives (left wing marxists that seek big government and Obama leans this way) are taking over the “party of the working man”. Having viewed this, my reflections troubled me but I was not sure why. I knew I had questions about how to coalesce this movement but I was not sure how to frame the question until I saw this article from politico.com. This article says exactly frames the question I had in this article.

I also believe there were about 60,000 participants because this is based on my conservsation with the Capitol Police Chief which  you can see in my pictures on facebook.

Protests present GOP with tricky task By: Kenneth P. Vogel and Alex Isenstadt September 12, 2009 08:14 PM EST

The “Taxpayer March on Washington” proved that conservatives can turn out in impressive numbers to protest the direction of the Democratic-led federal government, but it also presented Republicans with a tricky task in figuring out how to marshal the energy on display on the Mall Saturday.The ability to channel the wide-ranging frustrations expressed by speaker after speaker may determine whether beleaguered conservatives will be able to create a movement rivaling that which liberals used to help power Democrats back into the majority in the 2006 congressional elections and Barack Obama into the White House last year.The sentiments expressed Saturday, however, suggest Republicans can’t necessarily count on the tens of thousands of protesters who turned out in Washington – and at simultaneous rallies in Dallas, Denver, Quincy, Ill., and other cities and towns across the nation – to make inroads in the 2010 congressional midterm elections and, later, to mount a stiff challenge to President Obama’s 2012 reelection effort. Many marchers displayed little allegiance to Republicans, and some were openly hostile, contending that that when the party controlled Washington until 2006, the federal government spent recklessly. “When Republicans were in power, they acted like everyone else,” said marcher Debi Bohannon of Oklahoma City. “Personally, I don’t feel like [Republicans] are standing up and fighting hard enough,” said Jim Bryant, an aviation consultant from Trenton, Georgia. “I want them to stand up for truth, honesty, and personal freedoms.” The protestors, whose numbers were in the tens of thousands, though no definitive estimate was available Saturday evening, aired grievances on issues ranging from the bank and auto bailouts to Obama’s push to overhaul the nation’s health system to concerns about perceived erosion of First and Second Amendment rights. Still, most of their fire was aimed at Democrats, and some of their sentiments bordered on extremist rhetoric that could do the GOP more harm than good. As the march, which began at Freedom Plaza, a park close to the White House, neared the U.S. Capitol, it was difficult to miss the signs protesting Obama’s health plan, declaring “Bury Obamacare with Kennedy” or featuring grisly images of aborted fetuses. And there were widespread accusations from attendees that Obama isn’t American-born – a charge from which the mainstream of the Republican Party has sought to distance itself. But as the last of the protesters scattered Saturday evening, leaving the Mall silent, organizers expressed confidence that the march would help re-center the Republican Party around fiscally conservative themes with widespread appeal. “My message is: your roots are lower taxes, less government, and freedom. Why don’t you lead with those issues?” said Adam Brandon, a spokesman for FreedomWorks, the small-government, anti-tax organization chaired by former House Republican Leader Dick Armey that sponsored the protest. Brandon touted the text-messaging system FreedomWorks deployed on Saturday to gauge protestors’ top issues, explaining the group would use the information to organize activists around those issues by congressional district in the run-up to the 2010 election, a similar technique to one used by Obama’s own tech-savvy presidential campaign. After Saturday’s showing, the grassroots local activists who form the heart of the so-called Tea Party movement hold more of the cards than either the Republican Party or the conservative groups that bolster it, asserted GOP strategist Craig Shirley. “Could the Republican National Committee turn out 50,000 people on the mall?” asked Shirley, who has a forthcoming book, “Rendezvous with Destiny; Ronald Reagan and the Campaign that Changed America,” chronicles how Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign re-centered the GOP around a strong national defense and fiscal conservatism. “Really the tea party is in the position to dictate terms to the Republican Party. So the question for the Tea Party people is do they say, ‘A pox on all their houses,’ and possibly investigate starting a third party – a populist, anti-big government, anti-Wall Street party – or do they try to take over the Republican Party, starting at the county and state level?” Still, Shirley suggested that in order for the movement to have a lasting impact on American politics, it needs to embrace an agenda, rather than just oppose the Democratic one. “At some point, that will come,” he predicted.   Only a handful of GOP lawmakers were on the roster of rally speakers – and those that did were conservatives like South Carolina Sen. Sen. DeMint, and Reps. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Mike Pence of Indiana, and Tom Price of Georgia. The common thread among the speakers, both the politicians and the leaders of various conservative groups, many of them with a libertarian tilt, was an assertion of American decline, and that the assembled protesters were the nation’s best hope of correcting course and reconnecting with its traditional values. But the values varied from speaker to speaker, with many concerned about fiscal failings, while others stressed individual rights and others warned of a descent into Socialism and a loss of the “American way.” Most all of them, though, portrayed the assembled as the first line of defense against these varied national ailments. Rep. Blackburn told the crowd that “You have been called to serve liberty and to defend the futures of our children and grandchildren,” and Rep. Price told them that “”a new generation of patriots has emerged. You are those patriots.” Republican Party leaders seemed optimistic Saturday that they could harness the energy, which first emerged as widespread in February, when tens of thousands turned out to Tea Party protests around the country, leading to a larger turnout at Tax Day Tea Parties on April 15, and attracting even more attention this summer, when angry constituents turned out in droves to during the recently concluded congressional summer recess to voice their displeasure with their federal lawmakers.  “If the Republican Party will carry the banner for the people who are here today, I think the majority of Americans will come with us and I just hope the rest of the Republicans here in congress will be smart enough to see that,” Sen. DeMint told Fox News television host Glenn Beck – who has emerged as perhaps the star of the movement – during a special Saturday afternoon broadcast timed to coincide with the march. DeMint, whose political action committee was a co-sponsor of the march, told Beck before his speech, “I really do believe that in 2006 and 2008, Republicans didn’t just lose our right to govern, we lost our way. I mean, we lost those elections because we walked away from the principles that had drawn hundreds of thousands of people in the nation’s capitol, to the tea parties all across the country and town hall meetings.” But Beck seemed unconvinced, telling DeMint and Rep. Pence, who appeared with DeMint on Beck’s show via satellite before speaking to the rally – that the national Republican Party had yet to reach “a pivot point.” “I’m a recovering alcoholic,” said Beck, “and I can tell you the moment I said ‘enough. I have to change my life or I will die.’ And I have not seen that from the Republican Party.” Americans, Beck said, believe that Republicans have lost their way and that – even when they oppose Obama’s plans – they are doing so for political motivations, not philosophical ones. “I don’t care who you vote for. I really don’t,” Beck said in introducing DeMint and Pence. “Vote for Republicans, Vote for a Democrat. I think, quite frankly, you vote for either of them right now, and you still haven’t gotten it. And, they are both taking us into a land of gigantic government where they control everything through corruption and everything else.” Perhaps nothing better illustrates the difficulty Republicans will have in winning over the Tea Party activists than their adulation of Beck, whose fiery populist rhetoric often attracts controversy.  At Saturday’s rally, some waved “Glenn Beck for President” signs and many activists attribute the idea for – and energy behind – the marches to Beck. During a March broadcast, he unveiled what he called The 9-12 Project  in which he urged viewers to try to recreate the united America that emerged the day after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. “It’s not about politics,” Beck said during the March broadcast. “You actually believe in something. And you thought for a while there your politicians did as well. And now you kind of realize well, maybe they don’t.” As they marched today, the activists — who chanted, “We own the dome,” while pointing at the Capitol — sounded that same note. “We used to be Republicans,” said Helen Benson of Jacksonville, Florida. “We didn’t like John McCain. The media liked John McCain.” “They’re certainly not listening – Democrats or Republicans,” said Steve Cobb, who made it to Washington from Cordelle, Georgia with his wife, Sylvia.

© 2009 Capitol News Company, LLC

Politico (Politico)
- Clipping Loc. 20-55 | Added on Tuesday, August 04, 2009, 11:14 PM

Recess strategies center on health Carrie Budoff Brown | 800 words They call this a recess? The five-week House break — the Senate is meeting another week — could go a long way in determining the direction of health care reform when lawmakers return next month. Aware of the stakes, House Democratic and Republican leaders have armed their members with enough talking points and tips to keep them from taking much of a vacation. Here’s the CliffsNotes version of what you need to know about the summer strategy on health care, according to House Democratic and Republican memos: Strangely absent. Many Democrats consider the government-run insurance plan their top priority, but there’s not one mention of it in the House Democratic strategy memo. It’s a noteworthy omission, given that Democratic leaders have said repeatedly and unequivocally that the House bill will include a public plan. Members are instead encouraged to talk about insurance market reforms, which are far less controversial than the public plan. They are following a slight shift in messaging that started last month with the White House calling the bill ‘health insurance reform" rather than ‘health care reform." So what will you hear? ‘No discrimination for pre-existing conditions," according to the House Democratic memo. ‘No dropping your coverage because you get sick. No more job or life decisions made based on loss of coverage. No need to change doctors or plans. No co-pays for preventive care. No excessive out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays. No yearly or lifetime cost caps on what insurance companies cover." Weapon of choice. Despite a few recent town halls gone bad, the traditional recess sit-down with constituents is still a preferred method of spreading the message. But both Democrats and Republicans suggest a slightly more controlled option: the telephone town hall, which can make it much harder for critics of either side to hijack the event — and media headlines. An unruly event Saturday with Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) suggests it may be a long recess month. After saying he would support the Democratic health care plan even if his constituents opposed it, the congressman faced chants of ‘Just say no." The shouting protesters followed him to the parking lot with signs and appeared to cheer when his car pulled away, according to a video posted on YouTube. Message of choice. Voters could be in for a confusing month. Republicans plan to argue that the Democrats want a government takeover of health care. Get used to hearing Republicans draw comparisons between the health care effort and the bailout of the auto and financial industries.’Democrats are leaving Washington on the defensive, and as a Republican challenger candidate, you must do everything you can to own the issues and frame the debate," the Republican memo states. ‘It is up to you to reaffirm what the voters already know, which is that government is NOT the answer to an ailing economy." Democrats have built a messaging strategy aimed at explicitly refuting the government takeover argument. The Democratic boogeyman is the not the government but, rather, insurers, which disrupt the doctor-patient relationship. By all means necessary. Democratic House leaders seem intent on leaving no media untouched. If you go on Facebook, they want you to visit their health care reform page. Ditto for Twitter. They also want members to create their own health care Web pages and are sending a template to member offices in case they didn’t get the hint the first time. And lawmakers should record YouTube videos, reach out to Hispanic media, hold online video chats with reporters and create flash quizzes on health reform for their websites, the leaders urge in their strategy memo. Best gimmick. You know that clock in Times Square that displays an ever-spiraling uptick in the federal debt? The ‘hidden tax" clock is next. Look for one on a member website near you, tallying the money insured families pay to subsidize the care of the uninsured. The strategy is to convince people who worry about paying more money to cover the uninsured under a reform bill that they are already footing the bill. The idea of a hidden health tax was introduced in a May report from the liberal consumer group Families USA. Its bottom line: In 2008, families paid a ‘hidden health tax" of $1,017, and individuals paid $368. Shameless coordination. Democrats will roll out all their assets. The House Democratic memo details coordination not only with the White House and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius but also with advocacy groups, including Health Care for America Now, AARP and the Service Employees International Union. Spoiler alert. Republican House leaders are urging members to submit op-eds to local newspapers for Aug. 17 to mark ‘the six-month anniversary of the signing of the failed ’stimulus’ bill’" — which will no doubt be tied back to the health care debate.

Folks,

The left wing of the democrat party is on the attack. Obama certainly falls into this category even though he ran in the middle. Last week in his several conferences, President Obama mentioned that doctors were theives by just giving people tests to protect their backsides! Next he spoke about the insurance carriers and how they “ration” care by getting in the way of you and the doctor etc. When I was in Canada on the drive last week with some agent friends I said that you will see the democrats now attempting to demonize the insurance carriers and then agents. Today Nancy Pelosi attacked the carriers outright saying the carrier control of health care was almost immoral. Well guess you are next since you deliver insurance policies thus are you immoral? I hope you are offended and call your Representative and complain about this treatment.

They are desperate folks and the new tobacco is the rich (defined as those who create jobs), insurance carriers and then the agent!

We called our Representatives and asked them to stop by our office and “meet the folks they are going to put out of business” and they did! You can do the same. If you don’t call, write, get involved and let others carry the fight you deserve to lose your job, career and retirement if the “left wing” gets their way of having a government run program.

This fight goes deeper than control of health care. The left wing believes in fairness for all. The problem is that in America where we have individual choices over our destiny (Judge Sotomayer proves this) fairness is impossible unless you force everyone into a government run program. Then fairness can be achieved however, the loss is our freedoms. Freedom of choice, freedom to choose the doctor, freedom to go to the doctor without rationing and others telling me what they will pay for! If you read the book 1776 you will clearly see that this country rebelled from government control in the lives of people because it translates into limiting choices. This fight is about freedom and individual choice versus fairness. Fairness is like persuing the elusive happiness because happiness is usually defined by those who are in control and so is fairness.

Speak up

June 19, 2009

By DAVID HOGBERG
Investor’s Business Daily

Even as health care reform slows in the Senate over huge program costs, House Democrats doubled down Friday, betting on a more-expansive plan while offering few clues on how to pay for it.

Members from the House Ways and Means; Education and Labor; and Energy and Commerce committees released a “discussion draft” bill that reads like a reform wish list that will appeal to the Democrats’ base. It includes a public plan, a Medicaid expansion, subsidies for those up to 400% of the federal poverty level, and individual and employer mandates. Democrats expect it to cover about 95% of Americans.

It also might prove more costly than those of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that those bills would each cost over $1 trillion, while leaving tens of millions of people without coverage.

That sent Baucus back to the drawing board, announcing his Finance Committee would delay its hearings until after July 4.

He isn’t the only one pushing dates back. President Obama has backed off his July 31 deadline for getting a reform bill to his desk.

“I don’t think it’s a surprise that this is going to take some time to do. It’s an issue that we’ve been discussing for 40 years,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. “The president isn’t pessimistic about being able to get this through Congress this year.”

House Bill’s Cost Unknown

The CBO has yet to score the cost of a public plan or increasing Medicaid eligibility to 133% of the federal poverty level, as the House Democrat plan proposes.

Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said, “We’re going to pay for this bill. We’re going to pay for it by cutting down on expenditures in public programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and by reforms in the system that will hold down costs for everyone. And we’re going to pay for it with revenues.”

On the latter point, Ways and Means and other House panels are mulling a variety of tax hikes to pay for health care, including a value-added tax and a soda levy.

Tax hikes could be politically poisonous and cut the legs out from a tentative economic recovery. But the public also is increasingly worried about soaring budget deficits.

Also, a health plan would need 51 Senate votes if it’s fully paid for — but 60 if it’s not.

A previous CBO report concluded that some Democrat reforms would save money. The employer mandate and community rating would increase federal revenues by $48 billion and $5 billion, respectively, over 10 years. Requiring drugmakers to give the same rebate to Medicare Part D that they give to Medicaid would save $110 billion.

But the Democrats’ plan increases costs by closing the “donut hole” in Medicare Part D and eliminating annual Medicare physician payment cuts. CBO estimated that doing the latter would cost at least $318 billion over 10 years.

Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., chairman of the Energy and Commerce health subcommittee, was noncommittal on the cost of reform.

“We haven’t figured out exactly where we want that line to be,” he said when asked if the House would have to keep the cost at about $1 trillion. “A lot may depend on the level of cuts and savings. We don’t have CBO scores, so we really can’t say at this point.”

Baucus Balks

CBO scoring compelled Sen. Baucus to rework his plan. A new draft leaked to the media showed he had cut subsidies from 400% of poverty to 300% and Medicaid’s expansion from 150% of poverty to 133%.

Liberal Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein took the CBO score of the Baucus plan as a bad sign. “(H)ealth reform has just gotten harder. The hope that we could expand the current system while holding costs down appears to have been just that: a hope.”

At least one key House lawmaker seems unfazed.

“Everything is on the table. Nothing is locked in cement,” said Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. “I’ve been here a long time. We’ve got momentum.”

By Ric Joyner

As I watched the debate it became clear to me that the election  is over. As Charles Krauthammer said tonight on Fox News, Obama was presidential, cool, calm and collected.

McCain went on the attack, but Obama deflected well. Obama tends to say a lot of words without much content which was boring.

Regardless, the game is over. Obama-3 wins, McCain 0. The headwinds are blowing against McCain. The wind is called “fed up” and fearful Americans.

Republicans/Bush lost their leadership in several areas.

They had control of the House and Senate and went to the trough to feed and accomplished little.

Started the war in Iraq that is prolonged and barely manageable.

Couldn’t handle a disaster correctly aka Katrina

Looked in the eyes of an X KGB and saw his soul. (Not good foreign policy)

Oversaw a growing economy and then allowed it to go bust through the housing crisis.

Proposed to bailout Wall Street (which is a misnomer)

Didn’t complete energy independence and allowed the average American to pay higher gas prices.

Created massive deficits fighting a war and other spending

Virtually nothing was done to help the 15% who are uninsured.

Did I mention a war?

As Charles Krauthammer said, “not even the great Ron Reagan could stand up against the economy collapsing…” And I will add the incredibly poor job the Republicans did when they had control.

Charles also said this was the year of the Democrats even though they played a major role in the housing crisis, prefer not to drill for energy independence and want higher taxes on the very people that create jobs.

Our country is headed for a form of socialism under Obama especially in light of a Democratically controlled Congress. Perhaps this is the leadership America is looking for…the Left sure thinks so.

But, the Republicans deserve the thrashing they have gotten and Americans are rightly seeking a change. Obama wants to deliver the change and I can’t fault him for that. His world view is not mine and vice versa.

I can’t vote for Obama because of my conservative roots.  And will still vote McCain.

I don’t respect President Bush any longer. The turmoil that has accompanied his administration is incredible.

I hope my fellow Republicans and Conservatives don’t blame the press, or that Obama cheated, but take a hard look in the mirror, and sees the problem for what it is. Lack of vision, lack of leadership and lack of integrity. The other helpful focus would be to stop the critique of the other party and keep our “side of the street clean”.

Only then can the party rebuild. But the vision has to be the American People, lower taxes, access to health care, lower spending and smaller government.

By Ric Joyner

I listen to the Bush haters rant, and rave about how George Bush is cashing in on the high gas prices. I sit back and wonder what happened to their common sense, and lack of understanding of basic economics. So what is causing the high oil prices? Simple: Demand. When demand goes up, and supply is down, prices go up for any good or service. There is an old saying, “I believe in the golden rule…he who has the gold rules”. Who has the gold…in this case the black gold of oil? Several countries that are keeping the output down to increase prices.

But could these large price increases be prevented? Yes, by drilling in our own back yard. Have we? No for several reasons. Environmental groups, and the liberal democratic congress who won’t let us drill in our own oil reserves.

The facts are as follows:

Environmental groups:

“Environmental concerns militate against drilling, but improvements in technology have greatly reduced both the above-ground footprint and the risk of offshore spills. Any new drilling would be subject to the world’s strictest standards.”  —Ben Lieberman is Senior Policy Analyst for Energy and Environment in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

To understand why enviromental groups create crisis, follow the money. They artificially create “environmental causes” to get donations, and “feed the monster”. EGs are like any business. They need money to survive. For example, EGs were successful in CA by filing lawsuits to stop new refineries, off shore drilling, and nuclear power plants. They advocated for renewable energies. Last year I was watching CNN, and the Sierra Club was protesting more wind farms due to the hazard to birds! I did an OMG! They got what they wanted… renewable energy, and now they are protesting the very thing they were advocating? But why? If you follow the protest, the young media respresentative of the Sierra Club was seeking money donations! This is what feeds their monster…creating crisis to collect more donations! For more information and reading on wind energy: http://www.wind-works.org/articles/SCSCRCWind.html

Democratic Congress:

Passed a bill that would tax the companies producing energy which the companies will pass on to consumers! That bill was passed in 2007 vetoed by Bush. Look at the gas prices now! For more reading on this bill: http://www.conservative.org/pressroom/2007/070808pr.htm

The Dems in the Senate stopped any potential drilling in a wasteland called ANWR. (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) The problem with ANWR is that there is little “life” in the tundra, but it holds untold billions of gallons of oil! Why won’t the democrats allow us to be energy independent? Gas is .12  in Venezuela and Mexico who produce their own energy! http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/global_gasprices/

Here is a terrific conclusion in an article from the Heritage Foundation:

“Conclusion. It is no coincidence that, despite the massive 2005 and 2007 energy bills, the price at the pump continues upward. Both measures did little to create new oil and gasoline supplies or to untangle the red tape afflicting existing supplies. America needs fewer laws, regulations, taxes, and other government-created impediments to a more affordable gasoline supply. Most of the provisions in the American Energy Production Act are intended to liberate Americans from that morass. In contrast, the Consumer-First Energy Act of 2008 contains just about everything we don’t want or need.”
—Ben Lieberman is Senior Policy Analyst for Energy and Environment in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation.\

George Bush doesn’t have his hand in the pocket of oil companies, the democratic congress has its hands in the pockets of environmentalists, and special interest groups that are opposed to energy freedom!

But the Democrats answer is to tax the people who produce the energy because of profits! This actually drives up the prices for everyone. Why? The example is my wife’s coffee shop. The CAM (a form of moveable rent cost) increased 22% in one year! She has to decide where to make up this cost increase. The only recourse is to pass on to the consumer. But can she raise prices on a cup of coffee to almost $2.00 per cup and expect people to continue to buy? No. So she has to raise prices by 10%, but must cut expenses in other areas. One option is to cut worker pay or lay off employees. I just don’t think the Democrats understand basic economics. They use slogans like “tax the rich” and “windfall profits tax on oil companies” to get people’s blood boiling to pass this economic terrorism by enacting taxes (they love taxes). But is it the right answer? No, for the reasons stated above.

Another famous democrat who wrecked havoc on our economy was Jimmy (the I negotiate with terrorists) Carter in the 70s. Jimmy imposed a windfall tax on oil company profits to help the poor afford gas. What happened? National oil rationing and higher prices! The producers of gas lowered their output, and the result is we all paid for this dumb approach to energy.

Write your congressional representative today, and tell them you want energy freedom which will increase supply, and for the US to become self sustaining in energy. And another approach is to ignore the enviromental groups.

Tell your respresentative to stop the economic terrorists (enviromental groups and liberal democrats)!