Matt Kibbe appeared on Fox News Sunday on March 17 to debate Steve LaTourette, a former Republican Congressman who now leads the Republican Mainstreet Partnership. The debate centered around how the GOP can win elections in the future, and was a classic case of the Tea Party vs. the Establishment. As host and moderator Chris Wallace stated, "CPAC highlighted the disagreement for the [GOP] to broaden its base."
Congressional Democrats have finally gotten around to proposing a federal budget - the first one in four years - and you can probably imagine what it includes. According to The Hill,The first budget from Senate Democrats in four years includes nearly $1 trillion in new taxes but would not balance the budget.
Interesting news out of South Carolina this morning. Bruce Carroll, an openly gay Republican and board member at GOProud, has resigned his position on that organization’s board of directors. He is seriously contemplating making a run for Senate and challenging Lindsey Graham in the primary. If successful, Carroll would be South Carolina’s first openly gay Senator.
Portland, Oregon likes to fancy itself as ahead of the curve, and more educated than your average city. We're routinely listed as among the most wired cities in the nation, and typically have a more educated workforce than most. Our biggest mission, it seems, is to become the greenest city imaginable. But our government leaves a lot to be desired, with liberal pipe dreams dominating over such considerations as reality and common sense.
In the constant stream of pixels, ions, electrons and hot air that passes by at a constant and overwhelming rate that is akin to the speed of light, two articles caught my attention on Wednesday. The latest waste of attention is on the looming sequester cuts that are set to hit on Friday, that would have the 'devastating' effect of cutting $85 Billion in budget increases from a non-budget that is already over a trillion in the hole.
A few weeks ago, as my state legislature was gearing up to steal more of our personal liberty pass sensible legislation that benefits the greater good, I saw a tweet roll by from a state legislator in favor of her pet bill - banning smoking in cars while children were inside the car. This tweet stated something to the effect that, "It's not nanny state legislation!
Several of us have blogged about this previously at FreedomWorks, but I simply can't get over how absurd it is that President Obama has nominated Jack Lew for Secretary of the Treasury. (Click here for a list of all Jack Lew articles on the blog.) If you thought Timothy Geithner was bad, you should check out Jack Lew's record.
Imagine, for a moment, a game show set. Wink Martindale is the host, because you need a pro to keep this thing on the rails. Contestants are picked at random from the studio audience to answer questions about the IRS, prepared by auditors and CPAs. Winners are awarded a tax rebate. Losers get the last 10 years of their income tax returns audited.
Much was made of the New York Times article earlier this month that detailed how Karl Rove has created an offshoot of American Crossroads to fund candidates in Republican primaries that are, in the estimation of well heeled GOP donors, "more electable". At Breitbart.com, Ben Shapiro described it as Rove having declared war on the Tea Party.
On February 5, the Congressional Budget Office released a report titled, "Macroeconomic Effects of Alternative Budgetary Paths". Full disclosure: even to us policy wonks, this report sounds a bit dry. Not exactly 50 Shades of Grey, if you know what I mean. But this report did contain some very interesting nuggets. Prepared at the request of the Chair of the Senate Budget Committee, Patty Murray, I'm certain that it came as a bit of a surprise.