Today in Washington, D.C. - June 25, 2010 - Troubling Times!

The House Passed the Disclose Act. The DISCLOSE Act restricts political speech and is the Democrats' response the Supreme Court's striking down of McCain-Feingold's worst provisions. The bill creates a special carve-out for large special interests like the NRA and the Sierra Club, whose support was needed in order for this bill to pass. A "NO" vote is a vote in support of limited government. The vote of 219-206, opened the door for a full Senate vote which democrats intend to muscle through by July 4th. The real purpose of the "DISCLOSE" Act (which is an acronym for Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections) is to impose restrictions on speech by corporations, nonprofit groups and others who express themselves through political campaign advertising.

Of course UNIONS would be exempt from most of the provisions of the bill since unions support Democrats almost exclusively. Read more here... Please call your US Senators and urge them to VOTE NO to their version of DISCLOSE ACT (bill # not yet assigned). We can't let this legislation slip through our fingers again! It is just another way for government to deny Americans their freedom of speech.

Congressional negotiators (Democrats from the House and Senate) approved the boldest compromoise takeover of the finance industry since the 1930s. The effort was lead by Rep. Barney Franks and Sen. Chris Dodd. The legislation was revealed after all-night negotiations and will now go to the full House and Senate for final approval next week by the Democrats who hope President Obama can sign the bill into law by July 4. Obama said Friday that he's "gratified" by the bill House and Senate negotiators worked out. Gratified is a euphemism for "Hold on to your wallets." The Democrats leaders refused to reform Government run Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae which precipitated the largest collapse in housing prices threatened to bring down the banking system which led to the first $700 Billion taxpayer bailout and a sever recession. Now these same people are on track to regulate the entire financial markets while ignoring problems with Freddie and Fannie. Welcome to government socialism! The way things are going, one could easily expect that Sen. Chris Dodd will wind up high in the bureaucratic structure overseeing the government's strings on our money thus allowing him a very large second income after his retirement from the senate.

The Washington Post reveals that "Democrats appear poised to deliver a final bill that largely reflects the administration's original blueprint unveiled almost precisely a year ago. Although it would not fundamentally alter the shape of Wall Street or break up the nation's largest firms, the legislation would establish broad new oversight of the financial system. A new consumer protection bureau housed in the Federal Reserve would have independent funding, an independent leader and near-total autonomy to write and enforce rules. The government would have broad new powers to seize and wind down large, failing financial firms and to oversee the $600 trillion derivatives market. In addition, a council of regulators, headed by the Treasury secretary, would monitor the financial landscape for potential systemic risks." Obama told reporters that the bill includes "90 percent of what I proposed."

Last night, Senate Democrats made a motion to invoke cloture on their ugly "tax extenders" bill. Sixty votes were needed to prevent the ongoing Republican filibuster. The bill would extend several tax provisions, raise certain taxes on small businesses for the first time, raise the per-barrel oil tax to 49 cents (a 612% hike!), extend unemployment benefits, and undo Medicare spending cuts. A "NO" vote is a vote in support of limited government. The motion was rejected 57-41.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid immediately filed cloture on the motion to proceed to the small business bill last night, setting up a Monday cloture vote. The Senate adjourned until 2 PM Monday.

For the third time, all 41 Senate Republicans joined together to block Democrats last night from passing their “tax extenders” bill which would have added $33 billion to the debt. Democrats simply refused to agree to a bill that extended expiring jobless benefits, tax cuts, and other provisions that didn’t include tax hikes or deficit spending. The New York Times reports, “Senate Republicans and a lone Democrat, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, joined forces to filibuster the bill in a procedural vote on Thursday. Visibly frustrated, the majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said he would move on to other business next week because he saw little chance of winning over any Republican votes. The vote was 57 to 41, with the Democrats falling three short of the 60 votes needed to advance the measure. ‘You’ll hear a lot of excuses,’ Mr. Reid said at a news conference. ‘The bottom line is the minority just said no.’”

The Times adds, “The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, has insisted that the bill not add to the deficit. Democrats argued that they had found ways to cover the entire cost of the $112 billion measure, with the exception of the $35.5 billion extension of unemployment benefits . . . .” This was Democrats’ third version of the bill. The previous two iterations of the bill would have added either $130 billion or $50 billion to the debt.

Yet Democrats never offered a version that was entirely paid for, and voted down or objected to GOP alternatives that would have paid for the bill. Just last week, every Democrat save Ben Nelson voted to kill a substitute amendment offered by Sen. John Thune (R-SD) that fully paid for extending tax credits, unemployment insurance, and the ‘doc fix’ (Medicare reimbursement rates), and even cut spending by $100 billion to save $55 billion from the deficit.

Despite this, Democrats and “Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-NV) blamed Republican intransigence for killing the measure and dismissed talk of continuing negotiations, saying the only path forward would require Republican compromise,” according to The Washington Post. Reid came to the floor again this morning and accused Republicans of not “believ[ing] that middle-class America deserves a break.” Reid didn’t stop there. He railed, “[O]ne thing my friends on the other side of the aisle should be very proud of is they protected corporate interest. They did that big time. They’re betting on our country to fail, Mr. President.”

Of course, none of that is true. As Sen. McConnell explained yesterday, “The only thing Republicans have opposed in this debate are job-killing taxes and adding to the national debt. We’ve offered ways of paying for these programs, and we’ve been eager to approve them. What we’re not willing to do is use worthwhile programs as an excuse to burden our children and our grandchildren with an even bigger national debt than we’ve already got.”

Even Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) took a dim view of Democrats’ finger-pointing, saying yesterday, “If we are serious about creating jobs, we absolutely could identify a pathway to extend the expiring tax provisions in this legislation which are important to America’s job generators, without simultaneously and inexplicably raising taxes on our small businesses--the very entities we look to in order to lead us out of this recession--in the name of increased spending and a more expansive tax extenders package. This approach simply makes no sense and lays bare the stark disconnect between Washington and the entire rest of the country.”

Democrats have simply refused to pay for their torrent of new spending without adding to America’s $13 trillion debt. Republicans repeatedly offered ways to pass this extenders bill without raising taxes and without adding to our crushing debt burden. Democrats rejected every offer. In the end, Democrats said to the American people “loud and clear that their commitment to deficit spending trumps their desire to help the unemployed,” as Sen. McConnell put it.

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