Saturday, December 04, 2010

‘Lame Duck’ Eggs Eager to Hatch:

"Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their kids pay for it." - Richard Lamm

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on the objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." - James Madison

"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." - Alexis de Tocqueville

Here are a few stinkers in the congressional incubator that commentator Bill Wavering calls: “…one last orgy of contempt for the American People.”
• “[…]”Extension of Unemployment - Benefits for some 2 million Americans, who have already collected up to 99 weeks of federal extended unemployment benefits, expired on November 30th. Democrats want these benefits extended yet once again.[…] The thought process here is; "I lost a $35k job, and I'll stay home until another $35k job comes along. And unemployment is ‘free' money anyway, why shouldn't I take it?[…]"
• “The DREAM Act – […] Is a loop-hole ridden amnesty act for illegal aliens. It supposedly concentrates on the minor children of illegal aliens but would apply to anyone brought to this country before the age of 16 and is less than 35 today.[…] This is a blatant attempt to allow senators who are no longer accountable to forward amnesty in time for their compatriots to reap the benefits of newly created Democratic voters for 2012.
• “DADT- The rescinding of the Don't Ask, Don't tell policy of military service is probably the largest social engineering experiment ever undertaken by the progressive left. They intend to use the US military as the vehicle in an attempt to further mainstream deviant behavior in society. And if on top of all that, it causes a significant impact on the readiness of the troops, or a significant reduction in enlistments and/or re-enlistments so much the better as they never really cared much for those people anyway.
• “START - There is really no urgency to adopt this treaty immediately. In fact Republicans are concerned over what negotiators may have ‘promised' to Russia in the preamble of this treaty. We've already had some experience regarding what happens when we ask Congress to ‘hurry up and pass something’ (refer to the Stimulus and the Health Care Bills). Why should we push ratification of this treaty into the next two weeks, forcing the entire country to live with whatever these lame ducks have hidden in this legislation?
CR For 2011 - Democrats were so concerned about Health Care in 2010 that they let one rather important item slip through the crack. They forgot to pass the Appropriations Bills for the 2011 budget. So now they are in Washington DC, two weeks form the end of the congressional session, and they need to pass a Continuing Resolution in order to allow the federal government to keep going for the balance of 2011. This makes the most sense as we're already into the third month of fiscal 2011. It does however, beg the question, that if the most important job Congress has is to ensure the United States government is properly funded; how did we end up with this ‘grab-bag' of progressive wet dream legislation and never once address Congress' constitutional duty? For this lack of oversight the present Speaker should be jailed.[…]”[emphases mine] (Full commentary)