Tag Archives: political parties

Three Press Conferences

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After the “what shellacking?” outcome of Tuesday’s mid-terms, Senate Minority Leader (and expected Majority Leader in the next Congress) Mitch McConnell (R, KY) held a press conference in which he invited bipartisanship and a working-together atmosphere in which the President and Congress could get done the things that need doing in those areas in which there was substantial agreement and continue debating those matters in disagreement.

A few hours later, President Barack Obama held his own press conference. In this one, the principle, Obama, also invited bipartisanship and a working-together atmosphere. So long as the Republicans came along with him. If they did not, he would act unilaterally, most particularly on immigration, via Executive Order. After all, he insisted, the election outcome was a demand by the voters—especially those two-thirds who stayed home and didn’t vote—to “work together.”

The next day, with the offer of peace and willingness to compromise having been thrown in Republicans’ face by Obama, House Speaker John Boehner (R, OH) came out angry, offering to work with the President, but warning him against going against or around Congress.

Two out of three isn’t bad. Unfortunately, that third is willfully rejecting the voters’ demand—especially of those voters who voted.

No, Mr Obama, the outcome was not a demand to work together. It was a repudiation of your behavior, of your policies, of the policies of your party. The results are plain, not just at the Federal level, but also in the governors’ mansions where Democratic Party governors were ejected, for a net gain of three governorships by the Republicans, and in the 99 State legislative houses, where Republicans increased their control to 67-69 of those chambers (some elections remain too close to call).

Neither, though, was this set of outcomes a mandate for the Republicans to enact their plans (which, despite the NLMSM’s attempt to spin otherwise, have been quite specific). Republicans, under our system, were simply the alternative on the ballot. Suggesting that if it’s repudiation of the one it must be endorsement of the other is a cynically false dichotomy proffered by that same NLMSM.

This was a demand, rather, to do something else. Not necessarily what the Republicans propose, just most definitely to stop doing what the Democrats and Obama have been doing, and do something else.

That will take the two parties working together, and where the Democrats continue their obstruction, it will take the Republicans exercising their majority power and the majority authority the voters have given them—for now—so overwhelmingly.

And it will take Obama getting out of the way.

Outcomes

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Tuesday’s mid-term elections have the potential to be a sea change in the governance of our country and in the direction we take as a nation. The elections have resulted in a sharp change of control of the Senate to the Republicans, giving them both houses of Congress for the last two years of President Barack Obama’s term; an expansion of House control by 13 seats; a net gain of three (so far) governorships; and an increase in Republican control, depending on how too-close-to-call local races come out, to between 67 and 69 out of 99 of State legislatures. The governorships are especially telling given some particular victories: Scott Walker in Wisconsin, John Kasich in Ohio, Rick Scott in Florida, Bruce Rauner in Illinois, and Larry Hogan in Maryland, among others.

Together, these outcomes represent a stark and clear repudiation by Americans all across our country, in Red States and Blue, of the policies of President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats. This is demonstrated not only by the broad swath of States involved in the Senate and Gubernatorial elections, but especially by the fact that every Representative in the House was up for election—Americans in every district of America had something to say on the matter—and by those state legislature results: Americans in every local district had something to say on the matter.   It’s also demonstrated by the fact that Obama put his policies on the ballot—every single one of them—and the voters said, “No.”

Now Republicans need to do things.

In short order, they need to organize and publish a coherent legislative agenda, as House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R, CA) said on the night of those elections that he wanted them to do. Then, just as quickly, they need to pass legislation with specific, simple, coherent requirements. A good set of bills with which to start would include tax reform, jobs (re-execute, for instance, the 40+ jobs bills the House passed and sent to the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, NV) personally killed them); immigration reform; repeal of Obamacare; a series of bills to restore health insurance and to improve the operation of health insurance and health care systems; approval of the Keystone XL pipeline; and elimination of “green” subsidies (and subsidies for oil and gas companies).

It’s entirely likely that Obama will veto most, if not all, of those bills.

However, if the Republicans in Congress put forward a coherent plan and then act with specifics in the first days and weeks of the new Congressional Session, three things will occur: Republicans will demonstrate that they can govern better, with more coherence, and less intrusion into Americans’ lives than the Democrats have done; our economy finally will take off; and whatever Obama does—sign or veto—will enable the Republicans to shape the 2016 elections on terms favorable to them.

In the meantime, Congressional Republicans need to be alert to, and able to stop, Obama and Reid shenanigans during the Democrats’ lame duck next couple of months. The Senate Democrats, don’t forget, have judgeship confirmations to approve, and they have an Attorney General to confirm, and they have cover for Obama’s immigration travesties to provide, and they have….

Democrats’ Myths

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The Wall Street Journal published a list of 10 Democratic Party myths that they’ve been pushing during recent campaign seasons. Here are a couple of their dog-whistle myths to keep in mind as you go to the polls tomorrow.

Raising the minimum wage helps the poor. The president wants to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 from $7.25, with the tagline “Let’s give America a raise.” The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the hike would cost 500,000 jobs, one blow to the low-wage earners it claims to help. Employment aside, only 18% of the earnings benefits of a $10.10 hike would flow to people living below the poverty line, according to analysis from University of California-Irvine economist David Neumark. Nearly 30% of the benefits would go to families three times above the poverty line or higher, in part because half of America’s poor families have no wage earners. Minimum-wage increases help some poor families—at the expense of other poor families.

And

Voter ID laws suppress minority turnout. More than 30 states have voter-ID laws, which the left decries as an attempt to disenfranchise minorities who don’t have identification and can’t pay for it. Yet of the 17 states with the strictest requirements, 16 offer free IDs. The Government Accountability Office this month released an analysis of 10 voter-ID studies: five showed the laws had no statistically significant effect on turnout, four suggested a decrease in turnout (generally among all ethnic groups, though percentages varied), and one found an increase in turnout with voter ID laws in place.

And again: go vote.

Why the Left is so Anxious to Govern

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Adam Schrager and Rob Witwer have a book out describing how the Left got control of the State of Colorado as recently as 2008, titled The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado.

Early in this book, Rob Stein, who is among other things the founder of the Democracy Alliance, laid out why the Left wanted control of Colorado and why especially they want control of our Federal government.

The reason it is so important to control government is because government is the source of enormous power,” Stein continued. “One president in this country, when he or she takes office, appoints…5,000 people to run a bureaucracy, nonmilitary nonpostal service of 2 million people, who hire 10 million outside outsource contractors—a workforce of 12 million people—that spends $3 trillion a year. That number is larger than the gross domestic product of all but four countries on the face of the earth.”

So the reason we’re doing what we’re doing…and the way we get progressive change, is to control government,” Stein said. “That’s what this is about.”

Get out and vote.

 

h/t Power Line