THE DEATH TAX HAS TO GO…
One of the biggest challenges facing Republicans in Washington, D.C., is that while there is technically a Republican majority in Congress, it is a weak majority at best. Actually, you have to things working against you if you are the President, anxious to have some legislation reach your desk that will excite and motivate conservatives. The first challenge is that a number of the "Republican" United States Senators, such as Jim Jeffords, Olympia Snowe, John McCain, and Arlen Spector (there are a few others) look to themselves as ‘mavericks’ of sort — with that word being code for ‘squishy’ — or maybe I should say that these GOPers really are not committed to reducing the size and scope of the federal government. It is this group of ‘squishy’ GOP Senators that is responsible for porking up the latest appropriations bill, sent over from the House, with funding for the War on Terror and for Katrina recovery efforts.
But as if this particular group of ‘GOPers’ wasn’t enough of a hurdle — there are the liberal Democrats, empowered by obscure Senate rules that require not 51 votes, but 60 votes to end debate on an issue and move onto a vote. This becomes significant because of an issue like the one highlighted in today’s FlashReport with a lead article from California Republican Congressman John Doolittle: abolishing the death tax!
Congressman Doolittle told me when we were together recently that the repeal of the death tax (which has passed the House of Representatives over, and over, and over) is set to come up for another vote in the United States Senate in the coming weeks. It would seem that there are a few Republican Senators (Voinovich of Ohio being one that comes to mind) that are not committing to vote "aye" on the bill. Because of the 60-vote rule I mentioned above, it is a high burden to get this tax-relief to the President’s desk. Estimates are that the full repeal is sitting around 58 or so votes! So close! Of course, our own California Senators are NO votes, another reason why we need to ask ourselves why we have two radical left-wingers from San Francisco representing California in the United States Senate.
Anyways, please take the time to read Congressman Doolittle’s piece. We are all very fortunate to have John Doolittle in Congress. I’ve known John for nearly 20 years, and he is a fine, honorable man who is truly dedicated to conservative principles. You often times hear me slamming the House Leadership in Washington, D.C., for failure to lead — most notably I am frustrated that they do not pass meaningful reductions in government spending or, if they can’t get the votes, at least have the votes so that we KNOW which GOPers are to blame. Well, if all of our House Leadership were made up of John Doolittles, this wouldn’t be an issue!
WILL SOME UNION SOMEWHERE PLEASE PICKET THE STATE CAPITOL?
In my favorite story from yesterday, graduating seniors from the University of California at Berkeley got to see prime example of a ‘role model’ in action. Apparently the lock-step support that employee unions get from their vassels in the state legislature, including (of course) the lefty Speaker Fabian Nunez, is that these legislators will not cross a picket line. Ever. When Speaker Nunez arrived at Cal to deliver a commencement address (undoubtedly he was prepared to tell students about the importance of working hard, so that 1/2 of their wages can be forcibly taken from their paychecks and spend on socialist programs — to which all of the students’ professors would cheer), he came across about 20 janitors picketing in front of the University. So, Nunez FLAKED OUT on the thousands of Cal grads, waiting to hear his remarks, and went home. Then he starts trying to use his position as Speaker to solve the woes of the ‘wronged’ janitors. It really does beg the question — is a striking labor union always in the right? Is there ever a time when maybe the collective force of a union is trying to actually make unfair demands on an employer? In this case, the employer is the taxpayers of California. Silly me, if the unions can gauge the taxpayers directly in the State Capitol, it only makes sense that they would also inflict the state with ‘torture of 1000 needles’ by supporting every disgruntled or ‘underappreciated’ worker in the state. Now I don’t pretend to know the details of why these janitors were striking. I only know that at some point, the Speaker might want to actually let the employee and the employer resolve their issue without meddling from government, or a politician. In the meantime, I hope that the U.C. Berkeley College Republicans had their voter registration table up as the new graduates left the stadium…
Perhaps our one great hope would be that some employee union would picket the state capitol, and then all of the Democrats would be stuck hanging out at the Hyatt Hotel across the street – and at least for that day, the taxpayers could rest assured that they won’t be getting jerked around by the legislature!
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