Stupak portrayed as Judas by a fellow Democrat.

This excerpt is from the Jewish World Review.

Stupak's clumsy fall from grace is a lesson in human frailty. In a matter of hours, he went from representing the majority of Americans who don't want public money spent on abortion to leading the army on the other side.

Something must have gone bump in the night.  Whatever it was, demonizing Stupak seems excessive and redundant given punishments to come. Already he has lost a speaking invitation to the Illinois Catholic Prayer Breakfast next month. 
His political future, otherwise, may have been foretold by a late-night anecdote.  After the Sunday vote, a group of Democrats, including Stupak, gathered in a pub to celebrate. In a biblical moment, New York Rep. Anthony Weiner was spotted planting a big kiss on Stupak's cheek.  To a Catholic man well versed in the Gospel, this is not a comforting gesture.

Congressman Thaddeus McCotter Demonstrates Statesmanship. Go Get 'em Thad!

Watch Congressman McCotter speak for the American people about the travesty that is "National Health Care" in under four minutes. Click here.

Congresman Upton has an Epiphany

March 11, 2010 by WLKM

Congressman Fred Upton (R-St. Joseph) made the following statement in support of the Republican effort to ban earmarks.  The effort comes on the heels of a report released last week by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that estimates deficits resulting from the President’s record-breaking $3.8 trillion budget will amount to nearly $9.8 trillion over the next decade – $1.2 trillion higher than the White House’s initial forecast.
            “The current earmark system is clearly broken and riddled with scandal – we must work to regain the trust of the American people.  Banning all earmarks is a big step toward getting our fiscal house in order.  The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has stated that the President’s budget is a blueprint for disaster that puts us on the fast track to financial ruin.  We are in desperate need of additional budget reforms, including the line-item veto and spending caps to ensure that we do not cripple the livelihoods of future generations….let alone this one.”

It is nice to know that the Congressman feel this way now. A year ago, he was one of only 16 Republicans to defy his party and vote for the Obama Omnibus Appropriations Act. This bill HR 1105 has 9,287 earmarks worth over $13 Billion. Read more about it here.

Yup. He Folded. Stupak Sells Out

Politico reports that The Obama White House and anti-abortion Democrats led by Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich) have reached a deal on preventing the use of tax dollars for health care abortions. This closes a process that lasted late into Saturday night and into Sunday. Politico's sources report that President Obama will sign an executive order that no federal funds will be used to help pay for abortions in the Obama Health Care Reform Bill.

Bottom line: You cannot stop portions of legislation with an executive order. It is unconstitutional. The brief blog below from National Review Online expresses it simply:

I know we tire of the hypocrisy, but I really think this is remarkable. We spent the eight years through January 19, 2009, listening to Democrats complain that President Bush had purportedly caused a constitutional crisis by issuing signing statements when he signed bills into law. Democrats and Arlen Specter (now a Democrat) complained that these unenforceable, non-binding expressions of the executive's interpretation of the laws Bush was signing were a usurpation Congress's power to enact legislation.

But now Democrats are going to abide not a mere signing statement but an executive order that purports to have the effect of legislation - in fact, has the effect of nullifying legislation that Congress is simultaneously enacting?
The Susan B. Anthony List observation that EOs can be rescinded at the president's whim is of course true. This particuar EO is also a nullity - presidents cannot enact laws, the Supreme Court has said they cannot impound funds that Congress allocates, and (as a friend points out) the line-item veto has been held unconstitutional, so they can't use executive orders to strike provisions in a bill. So this anti-abortion EO is blatant chicanery: if the pro-lifers purport to be satisfied by it, they are participating in a transparent fraud and selling out the pro-life cause.

But even if all that weren't true, how do we go from congressional Democrats claiming that signing statements were a shredding of the Constitution to congressional Democrats acquiescing in a claim that the president can enact or cancel out statutory law by diktat?

You need to contact Stupak's office NOW. Click here to link directly to his office.

Will Stupak Hold Up Under the Intense Pressure? Or Will He Compromise?

On the one hand...This is an excerpt from the New York Post.

   "President Obama's attempts to ram health- care reform through an increasingly reluctant Congress are starting to resemble a really eventful episode of "The Sopranos."
   Those who oppose the president can expect the political equivalent of a horse head between their sheets.
Some of this is just traditional electioneering: On-the-fence Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln is getting a primary challenger with some backing from the national Democratic machine.
   But some of it is much nastier. For instance, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), whose opposition to abortion funding has become one of the bill's biggest hurdles, is now seeing attacks on his ethics.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow recently questioned the legality of the low rent that a conservative Christian group charges Stupak for his DC apartment. She even noted ominously that disgraced South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford stayed at the same building. The liberal blog Daily Kos has picked up on the charges and suggested that both the IRS and the House Ethics Committee investigate.
   "Politics ain't beanbag," as Mr. Dooley noted. Presidents have always twisted arms and made deals. And when two-thirds of voters are opposed to your plans, you may have no choice but to play hardball.
   But when Obama promised to change the way Washington does business, we didn't think he meant making it a "family" business."

On the other hand...here is an excerpt from the Huffington Post.

   "Everyone's going around saying there's a compromise--there's no such thing," Stupak said. Though the Michigan representative did admit meeting with both House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) this week to talk about potential fixes to the bill, such discussions have not yet produced results.
   "I'm more optimistic than I was a week ago," Stupak said about reaching an acceptable compromise on abortion wording in the bill. Any such a compromise must fix the wording before the bill goes up for a vote, Stupak continued.
Maybe you should send a note to his office and encourage him to stand firm. 

Only 16 Republicans (Two from Michigan) Got on This Bus

If there is one common frustration with Congress that is shared by most Americans it's the spending and deficits. Congressmen can swear off taxes, but at the federal level, they can still spend without raising taxes, they just print money and borrow.  Congress is now passing budgets with deficits over $1 trillion per year!

The House Republicans in Washington have a website: www.gop.gov. On February 25, 2009, they published a summary of HR 1105, "The Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009". The purpose of the site is to inform voters of what is going on in Congress and the GOP's position on various bill in Congress. Without question, the message from gop.gov is, "this bill costs too much money."

Regarding HR 1105, gop.gov said: "The $32 billion increase represents the largest one-year hike in annual appropriated spending percentage since the Carter administration, with the exception of funding immediately after September 11th.  And since many of these programs and agencies received funding in the recent "stimulus," the combined increase is $301 billion or 80% over Fiscal Year 2008."

The website lists numerous "concerns" about the legislation, such as: 

• $545 million that will be funneled to International abortion providers
• $1.45 billion for Amtrak (because they keep losing money)
• $181 million for the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, a suspected shell organization of ACORN
• $155 million in additional funding for the National Endowment for the Arts
• $80 million for Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery
• $1.9 billion for the Dept. of Energy for "energy efficiency initiatives"
• $300,000 to National Fish and Wildlife Service for "Loon Research"
• $1.1 billion for "Cattle Studies"
• $347 million to the Mine Safety and Health Administration, in part to pay for trophies and certificates for mine rescues and first-aid work

The list goes on, and on, and on...you can read all the inglorious details here.

The website expresses serious concerns with the Omnibus Bill and its wasteful spending. The GOP was mostly successful in convincing Republican members of Congress to NOT support the bill. Of the 178 Republicans serving, only 16 voted for the Omnibus. (Two are from Michigan.) Find them all here.

Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, and that is good!

Harry Reid speaks.