Tag Archives: political parties

Tax-Addicted Progressive-Democrats

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Party has never seen a tax or an increase in existing taxes they don’t like. Washington and New York present examples.

Washington demonstrates the desperation for ever more tax fixes that Party needs to feed its collective addiction for OPM. The State’s Party is determined to impose a 9.9% tax on household income over $1 million a year.

On Monday lawmakers in Olympia pulled an all-nighter to push through the legislation, which [Progressive-]Democratic Governor Bob Ferguson has said he will sign. The bill passed the House 51-46 and goes back to the state Senate.

Never mind that the State’s citizens have repeatedly rejected income taxes in referendum after referendum. What do Party politicians care about the wishes of the small people of their State.

Never mind, either, that the State’s constitution forbids any form of income tax. What do Party politicians care about laws, however foundational, that get in their way?

And never mind that the State’s Senate Majority Leader, Manka Dhingra (D), campaigned for office on her opposition to income taxes, and now in office, actively supports this one. What do Party politicians care about truth or honesty?

Next is New York.

Democratic senators want to increase the state’s top income tax rate by 0.5 percentage points on households making more than $5 million. That would raise the top state-and-local rate in New York City to 15.3%. They also propose to raise the state’s corporate tax to 9% from 7.25% on businesses with more than $5 million income and let New York City raise its corporate tax rate to 10.62% from 8.85%. All told, large businesses would pay a nearly 20% tax rate in New York City.

And this one:

Governor Kathy Hochul, Democratic legislators, and union leaders held a rally over the weekend in support of rolling back the state’s 2012 pension reforms that raised the retirement age to 63 and requires workers to contribute between 3% and 6% of their paychecks to their pensions. “I’m fighting for a fair pension plan,” the Governor declared.

I’m not sure France is a useful model to emulate in the areas of work and retirement.

Taxes are a far more powerful addiction for Party politicians than are nicotine, or sugar, or opioids for us average Americans. Worse, Party’s addiction is severely damaging to our nation, whereas nicotine, sugar, and opioid addictions do their primary damage to the users.

Talking Filibuster

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It’s complicated, claims Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R, SD), and it’s a mirage claim the editors at The Wall Street Journal.

Thune:

The talking filibuster idea “is much more complicated and risky than people are assuming,” Majority Leader John Thune told reporters this week. He said Tuesday that Republicans lack the votes to get to a talking filibuster or sustain one if they did.

The editors:

The reality is that Democratic Senators could take turns giving interminable speeches. Cory Booker last year went 25 hours all by himself. Meantime, Republicans would have to keep most of their Senators handy at all times, ready to answer a quorum call, meaning it would turn into an endless GOP campout. Bring your pajamas, toothbrush, and CPAP machine.

And

Democrats could offer amendments that either undermine the bill’s intent or put swing-state Republicans on the spot. Raise the minimum wage? Extend ObamaCare subsidies? What else?

The editors are straight up wrong with their claims, though. Look past this poster’s over-the-top polemics, and look at the facts presented. Under existing Senate rules, Senators are limited to two speeches per day on a particular piece of legislation. A Senate day, though, isn’t 24 hours; it runs from Senate adjournment to Senate adjournment. Recesses don’t count. And recesses could be had for hygiene breaks, grabbing a drink of water, eating something, etc. All Thune would have to do is not adjourn the Senate once the SAVE Act is brought to the floor until it’s voted on.

Endless amendment proffers? The Majority Leader controls the amendment process, including being first to offer amendments. Just as Reid did routinely (and other Majority Leaders of either party), Thune could fill the amendment tree with his own amendments, preventing the Progressive-Democratic Party, and Precious Republicans, from offering their own amendments. That imposes a small and finite number of amendments and votes on them.

Do the “camping,” but it would be only for a week or two. The limiting factor is those Republicans themselves. Republicans lack the votes to get to a talking filibuster or sustain one if they did? As recently as mid-February, the Republicans had 50 votes for the Act, which with the Vice President’s vote, is all he majority they need. Is Thune really saying he can’t hold his caucus together in the face of Progressive-Democrat intransigence? If so, that, in the eventuality, would be the end of the Republican Party for a long sequence of election cycles, as they would be exposing themselves as not having the stomach for serious struggle.

The editors rationalized their position with this cover excuse for those Reluctant Republicans’ timidity:

Democrats would have done it [used the talking filibuster] already—and they’d certainly copy the maneuver next time to pass far more transformational bills than the SAVE America Act.

That’s not an excuse for timidity; it’s simply stating a fact. The Progressive-Democrats most assuredly will use it, whether or not they eliminate the cloture vote filibuster when next they get a Senate majority. Republicans using it now is irrelevant to that.

General George Patton:

Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser. Americans play to win all the time.

That appears to be not the case with today’s crop of Republicans, if Thune is right.

A Bit More on this Person James Talarico

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The Progressive-Democratic Party candidate for Senator from Texas actively distorts various aspects of the Bible. I’ve described his…misapprehension…of Apostle Paul’s description of God. Talarico has also distorted the birth of Jesus by Mary which he read this…Luke.

Mary is probably my favorite figure in the Bible, the mother of Jesus. And you know she is, um, she’s an oppressed peasant teenage girl living in poverty under an oppressive empire as a Jew, and she has a vision from God that she’s going to give birth to a baby who’s going to bring the powerful down from their thrones.
But I say all this […] in the context of abortion because before God comes over Mary and we have the incarnation, God asks for Mary’s consent, which is remarkable. I mean, go back and read this in Luke. I mean, the angel comes down and asks Mary if this is something she wants to do, and she says, if it is God’s will, let it be done. Let it be. Let it happen.

[G]go back and read this in Luke. So this Texan non-seminarian did. This is what Luke actually had to say on the matter, as recounted in his Luke 1:26-38 in the King James Version.

26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
31 And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.
32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
34 Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
36 And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren.
37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.
38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

Notice that: there’s not a word, not a syllable, of any request for Mary’s consent, only a matter-of-fact heads up regarding what was going to happen.

What else—religious or secular, Texas constituent positions, or anything else—will Talarico choose to distort during his campaign or if he’s actually elected?

It’s Not Him, It’s Me

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The funeral for civil rights icon, ordained and practicing minister, and one-time Democratic Party Presidential candidate Jesse Jackson occurred last week. His family had explicitly asked that there be no politics involved, only celebrations of the man and his accomplishments.

“Who dat said dat,” said Progressive-Democrat ex-Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

Obama:

Each day, we’re told by those in high office to fear each other, and to turn on each other. And that some Americans count more than others. And that some don’t even count at all. Everywhere we see greed and bigotry being celebrated and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength[.]

Biden:

We got an administration that doesn’t share any of the values that we have, and I don’t think I’m exaggerating a little bit[.]

Biden added, and it wasn’t an aside; it seemed like an emphasis of the importance of the rest of his remarks,

I’m a hell of a lot smarter than most of you.

Progressive-Democrats can’t help themselves. They must—they’re driven to—turn every event they attend into a political diatribe against those who disagree with them, especially anything or anyone Trumpian.

On the other hand, the Evil Current President Donald Trump (R), who often clashed with Jackson and more often helped him, had this to say:

Jesse was a force of nature like few others before him. He had much to do with the Election, without acknowledgment or credit, of Barack Hussein Obama, a man who Jesse could not stand. He loved his family greatly, and to them I send my deepest sympathies and condolences. Jesse will be missed!

Do we really need such self-centered, self-important persons in our republican democracy-structured government?

“Who Do You Work For?”

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The stereotypical Chicago question applies to the governorship of Kentucky. The Wall Street Journal‘s editors put the question to the State’s Progressive-Democrat Governor Andy Beshear.

Will he listen to parents or unions on federal tax credit scholarships?

The State’s legislature passed legislation that would opt the State into the Federal government’s school choice program, which would be the only school choice program the State has. That was over a week ago, but Beshear still has it on his desk, unsigned.

Beshear’s…hesitation…answers the question. Kentucky’s parents don’t pay his salary. Neither do the unions directly, just through their political donations and their votes.

On top of that, the fact that the legislature could easily override his veto serves only to give him cover for his inaction: “The legislature made me do it (apologies for the opening ad).”