Cap and Trade

Since when did Congress get to the point where a representative voted for something they did not read? That is part of their job, to read legislation being considered, understand it, and vote. However, when it comes to major legislation, our elected officials base their votes on its title.

I applaud the House Minority Leader, Representative John Boehner of Ohio, for standing up against the effort of the Democratic majority in the House to ramrod a piece of legislation, The Cap and Trade Bill, that would hurt both our economy and our environment. Boehner stood on the House floor and read a 300 page amendment for an hour. The amendment, written by Representative Waxman of California, was given to the members of the House at 3 am of the same day it was to be voted upon by the full House. A 300-page amendment added to a 1500 page bill that seeks to crush our economy and ruin the environment all in one motion.

Despite Boehner’s efforts, the House passed the amendment and the bill on a narrow vote, 219-212. The Democratic majority, along with eight liberal Republicans, had enough members to allow 44 of their most vulnerable members to vote against this bill, shielding them from the political fallout of this bill. Representative Herseth Sandlin voted no on this bill, which gives an indication that she is planning to be seeking elected office next year.

This Congress will go down as the one that oversaw the biggest expansion of the power of the federal government. We are sinking ourselves into a massive fiscal hole that will take many generations to recover. Yearly deficits will be more than $1 trillion for the foreseeable future. The government owns two automobile companies that are bankrupt. A stimulus bill that nobody read and is now controlling our lives. With the Stimulus bill, Cap & Trade, and the health care reform bill coming this fall, President Obama will eventually have the power to control the lives of every person in the United States. Where is John Galt when we need him?

People need to wake up and realize that the government is taking over. We need to reverse Obama's policies before they become permanent in law and in the fabric of society.

The roll-call vote of Cap and Trade:

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll477.xml


http://www.aberdeennews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090712/OPINION01/907120304/-1/opinion

No Hope, No Change

Last year, fiscal year 2008, the deficit was $455 billion, the worst deficit of US history. However, this year, that record could be crushed as the Obama White House and Congress project could be $1 trillion to $1.5 trillion, if not more. National Debt is currently over $6 trillion and going up.

The fiscal mess we are in today is caused by those in Washington that promise their constituents

everything to get elected and cannot make the hard choices to keep the government fiscally strong. It also does not help that the current President preaches fiscal discipline but has already sign a huge stimulus plan that won't stimulate anything and other legislative bills that spend even more.

When Obama promised hope and change, the change was the money we will have to pay to the government in forms of higher taxation, while the hope was for government bureaucrats who will delight in an ever expanding national government.

http://zfacts.com/p/461.html

http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp1213.htm

Tiller, abortion, and "Government of Laws"

"The Government of the United States has been emphatically termed a government of laws, and not of men. It will certainly cease to deserve this high appellation if the laws furnish no remedy for the violation of a vested legal right." John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison

The situation in Kansas is a case of taking justice into your own hands. A doctor in Kansas, George Tiller, was murdered while attending church. The suspect is under arrest and in custody in connection with the murder. Dr. Tiller, nicknamed "Tiller the Killer," was known for performing late-term abortions. Tiller performed thousands of abortions, a majority of the fetuses being viable outside the womb and/or unnecessary.

Although pro-life myself, I believe that this murder was a despicable act of domestic terrorism. Dr. Tiller was within the law to perform these abortions. The Supreme Court has made it legal to have an abortion at any time of the pregnancy. Tiller was working within the law to help women in certain situations. Although I believe that abortion is wrong, what Dr. Tiller did was legal and medically ethical.

The person that killed Dr. Tiller must be punished. A society cannot survive if a person can kill another based on their opinion and beliefs. If we allow personal killings like this, then we have descended into a government of men and not of laws, where upholding the law is impossible. Without a government of laws, man will descend into a state of war, as described by Hobbes as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" (Leviathan). We must maintain the rule of law and counter any act of injustice with a measured response.

One final thought, the killing took place in a church where Tiller was an usher. If the killer had read Hamlet, a rational person does not kill a person in the confines of a church, the holiest of sanctuaries. Apparently, the killer's only concern was to murder Dr. Tiller wherever he had the opportunity.