Government Shutdown Day 4: This morning, with no let-up in sight on the part of the House, Senate or President Obama, here are some new factoids about the matters at hand…with only a little commentary added (-:

The House has now passed and sent 9 bills to the Senate that would either completely or partially re-open the government. Harry Reid has refused to let the Senate vote on a single one of them. Harry Reid has sent the House one single proposal in all that time. 57 House Democrats have joined every House Republican in voting for all or some of those 9 bills. That’s over one-quarter of all the House Democrats that have supported all or at least one of the Republican proposed solutions. Similar support from Senate Democrats would guarantee passage in the Senate. But, votes have not been allowed in the Senate on these bills. Speaking of Democratic support for Republican solutions, click HERE to view a chart that tracks party defections vote-by-vote on each funding bill before the … Read More

“Well, I won’t back down. No, I won’t back down. You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won’t back down.” – Tom Petty

“I have always figured that half a loaf is better than none, and I know that in the democratic process you’re not always going to get everything you want.” – President Ronald Reagan, February 9, 1983.

Government Shutdown – Day 1: Back in March of 2010, I wrote a daily “Laptop Report” during the weeks leading up to the passage of ObamaCare through the House by the slimmest of margins. I recounted all of our attempts to convince enough Democrats of the folly of this miserable law. Not a single Republican voted for it and a number of Democrats opposed it – but, not enough.

Today, I will again begin a daily “Laptop Report” series for the length of this government shutdown. I have no idea how long this will last. No one does. But, I will give you a few of my thoughts and update you as this process moves along.

The two quotes at… Read More

Stephanopoulos: But you reject that it’s a tax increase?

Obama: I absolutely reject that notion…….

Stephanopoulos:……That may be true, but it’s still a tax increase.

Obama: No, that’s not true, George.

-Excerpts from an exchange between President Obama and George Stephanopouls in 2009. For the entire clip of the exchange, click HERE.

Obamacare: I am old enough to remember Harry Truman. No, not President Harry Truman. I am not quite that old! I mean the stubborn individualist who lived in Washington State at the base of Mount St. Helens when that volcano erupted in 1980. That Harry Truman refused repeated attempts by government authorities to evacuate him from the base of the mountain he loved. He was never seen again after the eruption and is presumed to have been buried in a deep lava flow. So, what does… Read More

Health Care is an important topic. Not just because of the obvious fact that we all need it and it directly relates to the continuity and quality of human life. But, also because it represents a major segment of our economy. And, the economic impact doesn’t just extend to medical care providers. It also affects employers, through whom most Americans obtain their health insurance if they are under 65 years of age, and the economy at large.

It will be no surprise to readers of this missive that I think ObamaCare is an unmitigated disaster. But, even if you think it was a good thing, the problems surrounding its implementation have injected even more government-created uncertainty into a major element of the economy. Uncertainty retards growth because it freezes capital, labor and decision makers. The uncertainty here is not just a result of the pending Supreme Court decision. It began long before that as it quickly became apparent that major elements of ObamaCare just don’t work. Even the White House has admitted this. Even more problematic, the provisions that the White House has already agreed not to implement have now put other parts of the law in question… Read More