3-29-12 The Best Guests for Your Show

1. Joseph Klein: Obamacare in Critical Condition
2. Doug Johnson: The Hypocrisy of the Republican Leadership
3. Kyle Olson: Spineless Illinois Politicians Propose to Shift Pension Burden to Schools
4. James Hirsen: Jane Fonda’s Nancy Reagan Role Linked to ‘Game Change’ Writer
5. Will McAndrew: Green Energy Gets More Tax Breaks than Oil and Gas

Obamacare in Critical Condition

By Joseph Klein

President Obama’s signature legislation, "Obamacare," has been debated in the political arena and all across the country for over two years. The central issue boils down to the scope of federal government power over individual purchase decisions. Will the constitutional scheme of limited enumerated powers granted to the federal government have any meaning if the Obamacare individual mandate is held to be constitutional? The answer to this question revolves mostly around two key provisions of the Constitution. They are: the Interstate Commerce Clause, which specifically authorizes Congress “to regulate commerce... among the several states,” and the “Necessary and Proper Clause,” which authorizes Congress to “make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution” its other enumerated powers. [more...]

 

The Hypocrisy of the Republican Leadership

By Doug Johnson

House Speaker John Boehner, the third most powerful person in government, is trying to show his strength at standing up for America by writing a letter to President Obama regarding his "hot mic" comments made in Korea earlier this week. According to an article by ABC’s Jake Tapper, Mr. Boehner is requesting that the president explain his comment to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev about waiting until after the election so he’ll have more flexibility. Mr. Boehner’s letter is fairly strongly worded but means nothing. Sure, it puts forth an image that he is standing up for the nation and holding the president accountable, but that’s all it is. It's all showboating, no matter how much he may say otherwise. Not only will the president ignore it, but Boehner doesn’t have the backbone to do anything about it regardless of what the answer is. He’s proven that enough times in the past. [more...]
 

Spineless Illinois Politicians Propose to Shift Pension Burden to Schools

By Kyle Olson

By and large, politicians are not willing to tackle the unsustainable costs they’ve created. Consider Illinois public employee pensions. Public employee pensions have been a state expense. Therefore, a big chunk of legacy costs don’t need to be shown on school district books. But new legislation proposed by Senate Democrats seeks to change that. They want local school districts to bear that burden. The problem? One third of Illinois school districts are already on “financial watch lists,” according to the New York Times. So the geniuses in Springfield are proposing to increase the weight because it is likely much easier to raise property taxes in local communities than it is to reform spending or raise state taxes in Springfield. [more...]
 

Jane Fonda’s Nancy Reagan Role Linked to ‘Game Change’ Writer
By James Hirsen

The writer of the upcoming movie, “The Butler,” in which Jane Fonda has been cast to play the role of former First Lady Nancy Reagan, has a track record of bashing the GOP on film. Lee Daniels, who directed the Academy Award-winning film “Precious,” is co-writing the upcoming project with Danny Strong. Strong is the writer who adapted HBO's “Game Change” from the book of the same title. The movie was sharply criticized by John McCain, Sarah Palin and other prominent conservatives as having distorted facts and depicted Palin in a highly negative light. [more...]
 

Green Energy Gets More Tax Breaks than Oil and Gas

By Will McAndrew

Once again Obama will go to Congress to play the class warfare card. This time he will pit the mighty oil producers against the lowly green energy companies. In a new bill sponsored by Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, Congress would end approximately $2.1 billion per year in tax breaks over a period of ten years. The idea is to take increased tax revenue from oil and gas companies and give it to the struggling green energy companies. “This money can be better spent promoting domestic manufacturing, encouraging the development of clean energy technologies that will reduce our dependence on oil, and cutting the deficit,” the White House said in a statement supporting the Menendez bill. The hidden agenda there is that our need is to cut our dependence on all oil and not just foreign oil. [more...]