Wheels coming off Obama Express

(Nantucket) If the recession wasn’t enough, the summer’s unprecedented bad weather has added to this island's woes. Also experiencing very heavy weather these days is the Democratic Party and it looks like getting worse for them before it gets better. The roots of Democratic disarray lie in one very great success and one huge strategic mistake. Oddly the same man bears a principal responsibility for both.

Inside the Beltway there is wide consensus that Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is a really smart guy and that more than any one person he is the principal architect of Democratic Party strategy. While still an Illinois Congressman he gained great acclaim as the Chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Emanuel shrewdly grasped that if Democrats were to capture control of Congress they couldn’t run liberals everywhere. Accordingly he recruited an excellent cadre of moderately conservative candidates to run in Republican leaning districts and got George Soros and others to insure that they were very well funded.

The result-aided greatly by an unpopular war and a stumbling economy- was that in 2006 and 2008 dozens of “safe” Republican seats fell to the Democrats who gained control of Congress for the first time in twelve years.

Of this group of newly minted Democratic congressmen- currently numbering 52- many (22) but not most were from the South. California and Pennsylvania had the largest representation. Collectively they are known as the now famous “Blue Dogs”.

Once elected it was assumed that the presumptively grateful Blue Dogs could easily be transformed into Lap Dogs for Nancy Pelosi. On routine votes this proved true but on high visibility votes- issues their home folks really cared about-complications arose.

The first big test was the “Stimulus” vote. Not too subtly threatened by party “whips” most (40) Blue Dogs toed the line and the bill passed comfortably. However as the ineffectiveness of the Stimulus became more evident those 40 had a lot of trouble back home explaining their vote for a 1300 page pork laden bill they hadn’t even read.

The second big test was the infamous “Cap and Trade(Tax)” bill where most Blue Dogs were among the 44 Democrats who defied the party’s left-wing leadership and voted No. Though the bill passed by a razor thin 7 vote margin it was such a mess- riddled with exceptions, exemptions, payoffs, and obfuscations- that the Senate refused to even take it up, thus leaving over 200 Democrats to answer for an unpopular vote that the “Global Warming” ideologues Pelosi and Obama never should have demanded.

All of this set the stage for a full scale Blue Dog revolt in response to the Pelosi/ Obama insistence on passing health care “reform” before the August recess. Having had their arms twisted on the Stimulus, then broken on the tax raising/economy killing Cap and Trade votes, the Blue dogs –most of them elected by very narrow margins- saw their approval numbers back home falling even faster than Obama’s.

Thus faced with the prospect of electoral extinction, the Blue Dogs en masse effectively “crossed the aisle” to join Republicans and bring health care reform (a.k.a. Government seizure of one sixth of the U.S. economy) to a screeching halt.

So, in a supreme irony this historic break-up of the Democratic House majority was triggered by the very same individuals who made that majority possible.

All this happened because Emanuel made a huge strategic mistake in acting on his famous aphorism that “a crisis is too good a thing to waste”. Believing that they could hype and exploit fears about the economic crisis (“Another Great Depression!) and the soaring early popularity of Obama in a way that would allow swiftly ramming through the most radical and expensive legislative agenda in history without people or even Congressmen understanding that they had given birth to a Socialist America, Emanuel and his fellow Democrats audaciously gambled that a strategy of stealth, speed, and deception could in less than a year deliver our country into that “Brave New World” that generations of liberals have yearned for.

Their great gamble has been lost. The American people have won. Perilous days yet remain ahead, but now a new kind of “Hope and Change” comes into view. Let Freedom Ring!

William Moloney’s columns have appeared in the Wall St Journal, USA Today, Washington Post, Washington Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Baltimore Sun, Rocky Mountain News and Denver Post.

Grandiosity wearing out

"The Messiah of 2008 went missing" in summer 2009, says John Andrews in the August round of Head On TV debates, predicting that Obama "will continue to struggle until he stops overreaching." But Susan Barnes-Gelt predicts the young president "will prevail because people trust him." John on the right, Susan on the left, also go at it this month over health care, the recession, Ritter's chances for reelection, and "what I did on my summer vacation." Head On has been a daily feature on Colorado Public Television since 1997. 1. OBAMA LOSING HIS GROOVE?

John: During the financial crisis last fall, Barack Obama was Cool Hand Luke. His masterful style won the presidency. But the Messiah of 2008 went missing amid the Tea Parties and townhalls of 2009. Obama’s poll numbers plummeted, first on issues, then on job approval. Even independent voters are deserting him.

Susan: Obama's cool and methodical style remains in tact and will hold him and us in good stead. The Tea Parties and town meetings are a sideshow. People are understandably fearful because of the economy. Obama's agenda and the country's will prevail because people trust him.

John: The President is amazingly gifted. As a political animal myself, I halfway admire him. But he’ll continue to struggle until he stops overreaching. Socialism may sell in France. Charisma may work in Kenya. But here in America, grandiosity wears out fast. We’ll see if Barack regains his footing.

Susan: Obama is addressing some of the toughest challenges a new president has faced in decades: a terrible economy, failing infrastructure, healthcare crisis and a multi-pronged war. Americans are scared and the change he promised - and the country voted for - is hard. Leadership isn't a popularity contest.

2. HEALTH CARE DEBATE

John: Obama and the Democrats are pushing hard for a government takeover of the medical industry. Americans of all political persuasions are pushing back, based on widespread concern that the cost of health care would increase and quality would decline. The debate is raucous but important. So far the President is losing.

Susan: Health care consumes 16% of our economy and 47 million have no coverage. Costs are surging, eating up our paychecks. Uncompensated emergency room care - Medicaid is eating the federal budget. The nation needs reform. Our economic future depends on it.

John: Susan, listen to yourself. Medicaid and Medicare are both broke, proving that all government giveaways are unsustainable, whether for welfare or clunkers or doctor visits. The Congressional Budget Office warns Obamacare will only make things worse. Most Americans have coverage and most are satisfied. This bill is all wrong.

Susan: Medicaid eats the economy because too many low and moderate income Americans cannot afford insurance and seek care in emergency rooms. Dick Armey may be the only senior in America who eschews Medicare, and he is as credible as a $3 bill. Obama must stand firm.

3. THE ECONOMY & ANXIETY

John: The recession drags on, unemployment worsens, and economic misery is no longer Bush’s fault. This mess now belongs to Obama and his party, with total control of Congress. Their huge, irresponsible stimulus bill failed to stimulate. A socialist-minded White House is obstructing the business recovery. Even Jimmy Carter wasn’t this bad.

Susan: The stimulus bill is working - though it's not big enough. Shovel ready projects are the wrong answer because the money is being spread like peanut butter across the country's roads and highways. Big investment is called for - power grids, high-speed rail, public transit. Boldness is key.

John: Whoa, you’re hallucinating. Lay off the Keynesian Kool-Aid. And the public works peanut butter. What’s made America the economic engine of the world, the place everyone wants to immigrate, is free enterprise. Enterprise gets the flu sometimes. Then it gets well. Provided Dr. Obama Kevorkian stays out of the way.

Susan: Yeah, right. It was largely free and unfettered enterprise, abetted by greed and arrogance, that gave us Wall Street's meltdown, Detroit's tumble, Halliburton, Enron, Joe Nacchio, AIG, Madoff, and $500 toilet seats for Navy ships. Free enterprise has the flu alright - the swine flu!

4. GOVERNOR'S RACE

Susan: An incumbent governor hasn't lost since Steve McNichols in 1962. Voters were piqued he accepted Boettcher mansion as the gov's residence, saving it from demolition. Ritter's first term's been rocky but he's made no major mistakes. McInnis is already self-destructing and Penry will lose in the general.

John: No mistakes? Ritter blundered bigtime on vehicle fees and penalties. The car tax backlash alone could cost him reelection, as it once cost Gov. Bill Clinton in Arkansas. Ritter’s property tax hike was another mistake, his botch of the budget during this recession was another, his favoritism for labor yet another.

Susan: Ritter has made a couple of rookie mistakes. But the looming GOP primary between a very cranky and pugnacious Scott McInnis and a very young and inexperienced Josh Penry will expose their vulnerabilities and the Republican party's statewide and national weaknesses. The R primary helps Ritter.

John: This incumbent is likable but lightweight. What’s he done? Roy Romer energized the economy and built DIA. He beat me easily for reelection. Bill Owens cut taxes, passed school reform, and pulled off T-REX. He cruised to a second term. What will Ritter run on – wind farms? Good luck.

5. SUMMER VACATION

Susan: The summer of ‘09 has been fun - watching the self-righteous self-destruct. Mark Sanford couldn't find his way from Appalachia to Argentina; Blago flamed out, taking Sen. Roland Burris with him. Dick Armey was outed by Rachael Maddow and Pretty Boy John Edwards is a liar and a jerk.

John: Easy there, Susan. Let that hostility just melt away now. I guess my summer was more relaxed than yours. Grooving on Rockies baseball, reliving my childhood at Disneyland, hiking the 14ers, splashing in the pool, reading a funny novel by two guys from Castle Rock. Colorado is just the best.

Susan: It has been a great summer in Colorado - no forest fires, or major floods, gorgeous Front Range weather and a welcome respite from the state capitol crazies. With fall around the corner and Mayor Hick's final budget due soon - we're in for some firecrackers.

John: I’m happy for you. Anyone who can say firecracker and Hickenlooper in the same breath is easily entertained. Although snuggling in with a cup of cocoa to study the mayor’s budget might not be bad, if the alternative is watching the Broncos in a rebuilding year. Happy autumn!

Sabotaging our competitiveness

“If a foreign power had done this, we would consider it an act of war.” So said a blue-ribbon panel, outraged by bad education policies. I say the same about Colorado Democrats’ economic mismanagement. Bill Ritter’s tax-hike threat this week is the latest absurdity. Now that Obama’s socialistic interventions and massive stimulus have failed to cure the recession, policymakers in each state must look to their own toolbox for policies to revive prosperity. Gov. Ritter, his legislative majority, and their liberal allies are making all the wrong moves at the worst possible time. Deliver us. There’s more than Republican rhetoric to back up my indictment. For witnesses I call Arthur Laffer, the father of supply-side economics; Stephen Moore, economist for the Wall Street Journal; and Jonathan Williams, fiscal analyst for the American Legislative Exchange Council. They’ve authored “Rich States, Poor States,” the ALEC economic competitiveness index for 2009.

The book’s findings should both please and worry Coloradans. For the decade through 2007, our economic performance ranked 10th among the states, based on personal income growth, employment growth, and population growth. ALEC’s data belie the lament that fiscal restraints are “strangling Colorado” (Susan Barnes-Gelt in a recent TV debate) or that tax cuts would make this “a state we want to leave” (reader Robert Schmidt after my Aug. 2 column on the car-tax backlash).

Mr. Schmidt can move away if he wants, should Initiative 10 with its reduction of income, vehicle, and phone taxes pass next year. But most people tend to vote with their feet in the other direction. Laffer, Moore, and Williams report that in the 10 states with lowest personal and corporate tax rates, population grew more than twice as fast as it did in the 10 states where tax rates were highest. “Strangling” indeed.

Overall, it’s clear our state was doing something right since 1997, despite shifting party control in the General Assembly and Governor’s office. Colorado families benefited hugely from what Laffer and his colleagues call the “shocking power” of tax and regulatory policy to lift or depress prosperity. Why now, of all times, amid a global economic downturn, would the Ritter crew decide to push every policy lever into full dive?

The “Rich States, Poor States” index puts Colorado 2nd nationally in terms of favorable economic outlook to keep gaining wealth and population, based on a scorecard for 15 variables. Eight of those measure taxation. The others look at debt burden, public employee burden, workers’ compensation, minimum wage, right to work, the liability climate, and fiscal guardrails such as TABOR.

The big-government zealots now in power could not be more backward in their handling of these levers if they were using a checklist. Democrats have raised property taxes and car taxes. They boosted the minimum wage via the 2006 ballot and blocked right to work via the 2008 ballot. They also tried an energy tax and a TABOR-buster in 2008. They’ll seek more debt and taxes for RTD in 2010.

They’ve added over a thousand jobs to state payrolls in each of the last two budgets, deficit woes notwithstanding. This spring they attempted to raid the workers’ comp agency, Pinnacol, and they’re prepping for another try this summer. Our Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, lauded by Laffer, is Dracula as far as Ritter is concerned. Reelect him next year and it’s gone the year after, he has said. Legislators are prepping for that as well.

If Coloradans let this economic rampage continue, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and other highly-ranked states on the ALEC index will be quick to pounce. Our loss is their gain. Wealth will flow out of state as surely as water flows downhill. But what a fiasco, to sabotage our state’s competitiveness that way. What a shame.

Extinction, Chicago style

Slated on Backbone Radio, Aug. 23 Listen every Sunday, 5-8pm on 710 KNUS, Denver... 1460 KZNT, Colorado Springs... and streaming live at 710knus.com.

Chicago muscle tactics spread to new areas of formerly-free America week by week. Now comes Obama's diversity czar for broadcasting, with a brazen confiscation scheme that could drive conservative radio to extinction. And you thought liberals cared about endangered species. Right-minded talk hosts don't evoke the same solicitude from President Hope & Change as a polar bear on his iceberg or the little Delta smelt on prime California farmland. But you won't hear any whiny victim noises from us at Backbone Radio. We'll be cheerfully on the air for liberty until Axelrod axes us. Bring it on.

** This Sunday as the congressional recess rolls on, with many Obamacare backers wishing it was over, we'll talk with Mark Hillman, GOP national committeeman for Colorado, about the Democrats' woes.

** Faith-based and proud of it, our show will also feature Rabbi Daniel Zucker with a report on democracy vs. Islam and Archbishop Charles Chaput with insights from his new political book, "Render to Caesar."

** Plus former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore on the lessons for our state in 2010 from his state's "No Car Tax" campaign in 1997... with zingers from Scott McInnis and Josh Penry on the car tax backlash here.

Providing habitat for your sanity, JOHN ANDREWS

Car Tax Backlash: Podcast & Links

Our Aug. 20 radio special noted that while DC politicians are talking in trillions, folks in Colorado are steamed about a $32 vehicle fee hike and a $100 late penalty. We looked at the FASTER bill for highway funding, source of this uproar. And we talked about the impact angry motorists may have on next year’s legislature and the 2010 election. "Under the Dome: Car Tax Backlash" was my latest issue special on 710 KNUS in Denver. Click here for the podcast.

It's a full record of my conversation with former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, Colorado gubernatorial candidates Scott McInnis & Josh Penry, Arapahoe County Clerk Nancy Doty, and tax-cut petition advocate Jeff Gross. Judicial reformer Matt Arnold joined me for the interviews.

Doty's recent article on the backlash as felt in her motor vehicle section is linked here.

Info on Gross's petition, which would roll back the vehicle fees, cut the state income tax, and do away with most phone taxes, is at www.cotaxreform.com

Info on Arnold's campaign to dismiss four activist judges from the Colorado Supreme Court, which erased the distinction between fees and taxes in 2008 decision, is at www.clearthebenchcolorado.org.