http://www.freep.com/article/20090611/OPINION05/90611022/1231/OPINION/A+dangerous+choice

June 11, 2009

GM offers brutal lesson about labor in U.S

By Saul Anuzis

The news that General Motors (GM) declared bankruptcy makes me ill. You see, I grew up in Michigan, where the auto industry was so much a part of the culture, that I and many others considered it as American as apple pie. My father spent 32 years as a skill tradesman at the GM Fisher Body plant in Detroit.

Yet, as GM awaits its $30 billion in government, bail-out money, 68% of which could end up going to the United Auto Workers (UAW), its employees look for new jobs. The same folks who made demands of GM it could not meet now stand to receive as much as $20 billion.

By the end of the day, the Federal Government will own more than 50% of GM and the UAW will own another 20%.

There is an old saying that “as GM goes, so goes America.” Let me explain.

The reason that the great American tradition of making cars in my home state has now gone belly up is due in large part to the irrational and unreasonable demands made by UAW chief Ron Gettelfinger, former UAW chief Frank Garrison, and the union leaders that came before them. And the rest of it lies with the management of the Big 3 who made promises they knew they couldn’t keep, and the politicians who continued to enable this to happen.

GM will have to close plants and dealerships all over the country just to stay afloat. But staying afloat is more than some of their employees may be able to get away with.

It seems like all we are left with are questions. What if the UAW & management had negotiated more reasonable and competitive contracts earlier, would GM have survived?

All of this serves as a sobering reminder of how power-hungry union leaders – still at work trying to elevate their interests above those of employees and employers – pose a major threat to other industries. Currently being considered in Congress is a bill that would decimate small businesses throughout the nation while lining Big Labor’s pockets. The Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act (EFCA) provides no real free choice to workers or employers, but does ensure both union bosses and their mismanaged pension programs are rewarded and subsidized.

Under EFCA, a worker’s right to a secret ballot vote during union elections would vanish as would a businesses right to determine the wages and benefits of its employees. Leaders on both sides of the political spectrum have decried EFCA as an unnecessary risk to the American economy and a step back in our democracy.

A recent economic study by Dr. Anne Layne-Farrar reveals that every three percentage points gained in union membership through card checks and mandatory arbitration would result in a one percentage point rise in the unemployment the following year.

The American people cannot afford legislation that further damages the economy. EFCA puts everything at risk – our jobs, businesses, sacred right to a private vote, and the right of workers to have a say on contracts determining their wages and benefits.

EFCA essentially serves as an opportunity for the labor bosses to do to small business what they have done to the great American auto industry. But, simply stated, our nation cannot afford it.

The common thread throughout all of this is that the workers suffer most – and in an incredibly challenging economic environment – there are few things that would be more damaging than the Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act.

Any vote for job-killing legislation that eliminates worker rights and sacrifices small businesses in an attempt to reward union bosses will never see the light of day. The GM bankruptcy demonstrates just how high the stakes really are in this debate.

Saul Anuzis is the former chair of the Michigan Republican Party.

The “New Source Review” regulation administered by the U.S. EPA and supported by many environmental groups is a sham.

Some of the more extreme environmentalist, who are working to totally get the U.S. “off” from any use of carbon including coal.  These groups are being  intellectually dishonest when they insist that renewables can immediately replace coal which accounts for 50% of the electricity produced in the U.S. at prices that help to make our manufacturing sector cost competitive with foreign companies.  

Currently renewables minus hydro equal at most, about 4% of our needs and they are not reliable as a base load due to their dependence upon external factors such as wind and sun!  To ensure we have electricity when we turn on the light switch or maintain medical equipment, we need a base load that is reliable.  At this time, renewables do not afford that reliability.  Therefore, to advocate we can do away with coal is dishonest.   

Coal fired power plants have the ability to develop more efficient operations but are precluded from doing so because of the “New Source Review” regulation.  This requires any non maintenance improvement at a facility to make additional improvements which are prohibitive due to the high costs versus simply investing in the efficiency only upgrade.  This needs to be changed because the environment is missing out on some easy low hanging chances to reduce carbon emissions due to the rule which is considered sacrosanct to the “environmental” community.  

To gain a perspective of the scale of coal’s opportunity to contribute, consider this: if we were to improve the efficiency of the existing coal power-generation fleet by only one percentage point, that is to increase from 32% to 33% efficiency (which is well within the present technology’s capability to do), we would save more energy than we would gain by expanding existing wind generation capacity twelve fold! This increase in efficiency would also result in a 3% reduction in CO2 released from coal-powered generation for the same amount of power delivered.

Going further, if we aggressively improve efficiency by 4 or 5 percentage points, then emissions could fall by 25 MMmt 0, or about 13% of last year’s CO2 emissions from coal power (n.b. another example of why reducing carbon intensity is a worthwhile goal, but stymied by NSR problems).

Extrememist in the environmental movement don’t want incremental, practical change.  Chaos, controversy and excessive pollution helps their cause…and hurts our society and environment.  Their “politics” of extremism is bad for America and bad for the world we will leave behind to our children.

So when you hear them pitch their new “Cap & Trade” policies, the devil is in the details and for all practical purposed, Cap & Trade is designed to be one of the biggest tax hikes in America’s history.  If they really wanted to see carbon emissions reduced, there are practical alternatives available now!

You can see the whole report on the effects of reducing carbon emissions  here:  http://www.netl.doe.gov/energy-analyses/pubs/CFPP%20Efficiency-FINAL.pdf

After some 8 weeks of work and countless hours of meetings, research, analysis and discussions…the RNC Transition Team presented their findings and 100-Day Plans to Chairman Steele.  The last reports were presented this last Thursday.

RNC Chairman Michael Steele asked 10 RNC members from around the country and recruited a number of “politicos” and “consultants” to help analyze exactly what the RNC did…what it should do…and propose a 100-Day Plan to implement a new, fresh approach for the RNC.

I was most impressed with Michael’s initial meeting with the team where he challenged us to leave no stone unturned and not to be afraid to “think outside the box”.  He wanted us to challenge the status quo and just because things were done one way, it didn’t mean it had to be done that way going forward.

He created 7 sub-committees that analyzed various aspects of what the RNC does…those included Finance, Administration, Political, Education, Technology, Communications, Strategy and Legal.

Each group interviewed staff, reached out the other RNC members for their input and insight, put together current and suggested organizational charts, budgets and objectives.  Each group proposed a 100-Day Plan with timelines and goals to move the process forward.

Much of the analysis involved reaching out to the grassroots for comments and help.  I think it’s impressive that over 8,000+ activists from around the country provided insights, suggestions, comments and ideas…even plans and proposals.  Many volunteers just jumped in and did all they could to help Steele get all the input he should have as he prepares to implement his plans and strategy.

As of this week, Chairman Steele was presented with everyone’s final recommendations, suggestions and comments.  Needless to say, Michael and Jan have some “heavy reading” to go over this weekendJ

Overall I think the process was very productive and instructive.  Many great ideas and suggested were put forth.  The Chairman’s challenge is to go through this huge volume of information and recommendations and put forth his vision and plan on how to move our party forward and organize our troops nationwide.

I have to say, I feel confident Michael Steele has taken the time, made the effort and reached out to all that were willing to help put together a plan to lead us to victory.  The challenges are great, the obstacles formidable and the opportunities boundless.

As Chairman Steele implements his plan, builds him team and reaches out to the grassroots for help, I hope all of us join together to help move our party forward.

It was an honor to be part of this process and I look forward to working with and supporting Chairman Steele as we rebuild our great party and movement.

See my original post here: http://www.thatssaulfolks.com/2009/03/27/rnc-transition-team-report/

So join Newt Gingrich and sign this online petition to Congress asap…and pass it along:

http://www.AmericanSolutions.com/FreedomNotFear

In a closed-door meeting Tuesday, President Obama told over 100 top union officials that “we will pass the Employee Free Choice Act.” It’s now clear that President Obama, Big Labor, and their left-wing allies in Congress, will attempt an unprecedented power grab that is a mortal threat to our economy and our democratic values.

This is being done in a stealth manner because its backers know that this bill will not pass if the American people understand its destructive nature.

To expose and stop this effort, I’ve joined American Solutions as National Chairman of our “Freedom Not Fear” campaign, and you can join us by signing our petition here.

The Employee Free Choice Act, or “Card Check,” would eliminate the right to vote by private ballot when deciding whether to join a union, and it would undermine the right to freely negotiate contracts.

We can’t tolerate this. We must stand for freedom, not fear in the workplace. We cannot afford to be intimidated. Please stand with us now. This is about protecting our fundamental right to vote privately without coercion. It’s about protecting the right of employers and employees to negotiate freely. It’s about allowing businessmen and women, not bureaucrats and union bosses, to run our businesses. And in the end, it’s about saving and protecting American jobs.

Please sign the petition now.

http://www.AmericanSolutions.com/FreedomNotFear

Sincerely,

Saul Anuzis

National Chairman,

Save American Jobs Project

American Solutions

620 Days until Election Day

February 20, 2009

MORNING UPDATE:

FINAL COMMENTARY…BYE BYE…MAYBE NOT SO FAST…I can’t thank the Michigan Republicans and all our friends throughout the state who gave me this opportunity to serve as your Chairman. We had some challenging times over the last four years, but I think the effort each and everyone of you put in to help build our party and support our candidates made a difference.

I’m not sure where I will land, but I’m looking forward to continuing my activities with conservatives and Republicans nationwide. I have put together a blog that I’ll be posting to regularly, so you can still follow along. www.thatssaulfolks.com
Thanks again for all you do and your friendship!

COMMENTARY & ARTICLES COMING TO AN END…today will be my last “Articles of Interest” and collection of top political clips. I am in the process of creating my own private webpage where I will continue to post regular commentaries and share articles of interest…but not daily and no compilation of clips. A special thanks to Bob Wolfer, George Blichar, Brian Began, Jessica Aspiras, and all those who made the articles what they were. I hope to have an address by tomorrow…still called “That’s Saul, Folks!”.

TWITTER…anyone can follow my daily activities and impressions throughout the day by joining and following along. Twitter.com is another social networking site most easily described as a type of instant messaging - but with tons of people. You can follow the ‘tweets’ of others - and they follow you and what you write. The catch is that your posts are limited to 140 characters. But for many, that’s enough to say the important things. To follow me click here. To follow the Michigan Republicans, click here.

FACEBOOK...is a great "social networking" tool that many Republicans are using. This is particularly popular with College Republicans, TeenAge Republicans and Young Republicans. If you would like to become a "friend" join me here. To join the Michigan Republicans, you can join here.

MRP STATE CONVENTION…Just a quick note to let you know that the Michigan Republican’s website has been updated with State Convention information.   For your reference in directing potential delegates to the site, the address is: http://www.migop.org/event.asp.

CPAC 2009 Timeless Principles, New Challenges…Register today for the largest gathering of conservative grassroots activists in the country! The American Conservative Union Foundation is pleased to invite you to participate in the nation’s largest annual gathering of conservatives. The 36th Annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will be held on February 26-28, 2009.

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FOR THE LATEST NEWS, COMMENTARY & INFORMATION:

Check…out…our…online Articles of Interest………News…you…can…use………

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REST OF THE STORY:

No Further Commentary Today

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

Taxpayers Revolt Against Gimme-Mania

By Michelle Malkin

There’s something in the air. It’s the smell of roasted pork. President Obama heralded the signing of the trillion-dollar "stimulus" bill in Denver and promoted his massive mortgage entitlement expansion in Mesa, Ariz., at tightly controlled campaign events. But outside the Secret Service perimeters, a raucous grassroots rebellion against Beltway spending binges has caught fire. The new Boston Tea Party is here, baby, and it’s doused in barbecue sauce.

The first revolt took place on Presidents Day in Smurf-blue Seattle, where mom-blogger Keli Carender hastily organized a downtown demonstration to oppose what they called the "stimulus rip-off." A motley band of nearly 100 protesters — moms and their kids, college students, libertarians, taxpayer groups, GOP activists — raised their voices and dined on pulled pork (donated by yours truly). They assailed both the substance of the overstuffed stimulus package and the short-circuited, nontransparent process by which it was passed.

Some wore pig noses. Others waved Old Glory and "Don’t Tread on Me" flags. Their handmade signs read: "Say No to Generational Theft"; "Obama’$ Porkulu$ Wear$ Lip$tick"; and "I don’t want to pay for the SwindleUs! I’m only 10 years old!" The event was peaceful, save for an unhinged city-dweller who showed his tolerance by barging onto the speakers’ stage and giving a Nazi salute.

Auto bankruptcy changes offered

BY JUSTIN HYDE • FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

WASHINGTON — It’s not the kind of new chapter in the history of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC that executives have in mind, but two bankruptcy experts unveiled a plan Thursday for a "Chapter 10" bankruptcy tailor-made for automakers.
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While it’s just an idea, at least one prominent member of Congress, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has raised the possibility of changing federal law to allow automakers into bankruptcy while minimizing the damage to the rest of the economy.

"Chapter 11 for a ‘too big to fail’ company, such as a Big Three automaker, could be disastrous for the country," said George Kuney, a law professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law, and San Francisco bankruptcy attorney Michael St. James, in a paper for the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal.

Housing plan leaves out critical pieces

Victoria McGrane / Politico.com

President Barack Obama’s sweeping plan to stabilize the housing market leaves out critical pieces that may determine whether the administration can halt the growing mortgage crisis, critics say.

Potentially, the most gaping hole in the housing plan could be the lack of an aggressive attempt to encourage principal write-downs on homes that have lost much of their value.

And there’s the threat that the nation’s economic woes will mount to such a scale that the plan would be worthless.

"There is no loan modification plan that will work in the long run if unemployment spirals out of control," a senior Treasury adviser said in a background briefing, stressing the housing plan’s links to the $787 billion economic stimulus bill that Obama signed Tuesday.

Mr. President, Keep the Airwaves Free

By RUSH LIMBAUGH

Dear President Obama:

I have a straightforward question, which I hope you will answer in a straightforward way: Is it your intention to censor talk radio through a variety of contrivances, such as "local content," "diversity of ownership," and "public interest" rules — all of which are designed to appeal to populist sentiments but, as you know, are the death knell of talk radio and the AM band?

You have singled me out directly, admonishing members of Congress not to listen to my show. Bill Clinton has since chimed in, complaining about the lack of balance on radio. And a number of members of your party, in and out of Congress, are forming a chorus of advocates for government control over radio content. This is both chilling and ominous.

As a former president of the Harvard Law Review and a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, you are more familiar than most with the purpose of the Bill of Rights: to protect the citizen from the possible excesses of the federal government. The First Amendment says, in part, that "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." The government is explicitly prohibited from playing a role in refereeing among those who speak or seek to speak. We are, after all, dealing with political speech — which, as the Framers understood, cannot be left to the government to police.

Jackson bar owners lament Governor Jennifer Granholm’s plan to double liquor license fees

by Chris Gautz | Jackson Citizen Patriot

Local bar owners are not happy with what Gov. Jennifer Granholm wants to serve up in 2010 — a doubling of their annual liquor license renewal fees.

Granholm is seeking to raise the fees — which haven’t been increased since 1976 — as a way to help solve the state’s massive budget deficit.

"It’s a 100 percent tax increase," said Jeff Veach, owner of Veach’s Office Bar in downtown Jackson.

Lance Binoniemi, executive director of the Michigan Licensed Beverage Association, said the cost of the license fees depend on the establishment and what types of permits they have. Permits for an average bar can range from about $700 to $1,000 annually, he said.

Barbour to speak at Michigan Republican convention

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour will be in Michigan this Friday night to speak at the state Republican Party convention.

Barbour spokesman Laura Hipp says the governor is not traveling at public expense. The convention is Friday and Saturday in Lansing.

Barbour was chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1993 to 1997 and often travels to other states to speak to party gatherings or on behalf of Republican candidates.

Headed for another budget meltdown?

Phil Power

I hate to tell you this, but as of now, resolving the state’s budget deficit looks as though it’s going to be just as much of a mess as it was back in 2007, when Michigan was shut down for a few hours and our legislative leaders were reduced to attempting to tax the bronzing of baby shoes, and negotiating by text messaging.
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The problem lies in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1, when Michigan will be facing a $1.5 billion deficit in the $9 billion general fund (give or take a few hundred million).

Whatever anyone tells you, nobody yet knows in detail what all the Obamabucks from Washington will really mean for Michigan, although lots of lawmakers are hoping the stimulus plan will give them a way to wriggle out of some tough decisions.

Grading Bailout?: Student Expectations Seen as Causing Grade Disputes

By MAX ROOSEVELT

Prof. Marshall Grossman has come to expect complaints whenever he returns graded papers in his English classes at the University of Maryland.

“Many students come in with the conviction that they’ve worked hard and deserve a higher mark,” Professor Grossman said. “Some assert that they have never gotten a grade as low as this before.”

He attributes those complaints to his students’ sense of entitlement.

“I tell my classes that if they just do what they are supposed to do and meet the standard requirements, that they will earn a C,” he said. “That is the default grade. They see the default grade as an A.”

Auto industry aid request balloons to $39B

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors and Chrysler said Tuesday their request for federal aid ballooned to a staggering $39 billion — only months after receiving billions in loans — in new plans that envision massive job losses and intense restructuring to survive a deepening recession.

General Motors Corp. presented a survival plan that calls for cutting a total of 47,000 jobs globally and closing five more U.S. factories, a move that represents the largest work force reduction announced by a U.S. company in the economic meltdown. Chrysler LLC said it will cut 3,000 more jobs and stop producing three vehicle models.

The grim reports came as the United Auto Workers union said it had reached a tentative agreement with GM, Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. on contract changes. Concessions with the union and debt-holders were a condition of the government bailout.

621 Days until Election Day

February 19, 2009

MORNING UPDATE:

OBAMA’S WAR…Barack Obama, whose presidential ambitions were launched by his opposition to one war, moved Tuesday to expand the U.S. deployment in another. Despite no presidential verbal statement about the troop increase to Afghanistan and despite the fact the president spent all day in Phoenix talking about housing, it’s the issue of Afghanistan that is starting to dominate the news. After all, the addition of 17,000 troops by the summer is a 50% increase in the U.S. commitment. The announcement of the 50% troop increase came without any presidential explanation or new policy announcement. And that’s got some anti-war advocates very upset. More “change” we can count on? http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-02-17-afghanistan-forces_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Once again, Obama’s campaign “anti-war” rhetoric doesn’t seem to match the “change” he promised. Folks may not be mad yet, but clearly many are disappointed in the politics as usual.

EFCA – CARD CHECK…With successful passage of the $787 billion stimulus package in their rearview mirror, organized labor is returning to their top political priority: convincing Congress and the President to pass and sign the Employee Free Choice Act, or card check, which removes to the right to a secret ballot to organize and direct negotiations on the terms and conditions of employment.

The grassroots field campaign of the unions continues to be gradually ratcheted up; events will be held in 16 states. And labor is working closely together: the state-based events are being done in complete coordination between AFL-CIO, Change to Win, and SEIU, who will be working in total coordination to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
Talk about a job killer program…at a time we can least afford these union boss’s games.

COMMENTARY & ARTICLES COMING TO AN END…this Friday will be my last “Articles of Interest” and collection of top political clips. I am in the process of creating my own private webpage where I will continue to post regular commentaries and share articles of interest…but not daily and no compilation of clips. I hope to have an address by tomorrow…still called “That’s Saul, Folks!”.

THAT’S SAUL FOLKS!…starting next week, I will have my own blog where you can follow my commentary and activities as I move on. The new site will be at www.thatssaulfolks.com and will be up and running next week. Let’s keep in touch!

TWITTER…anyone can follow my daily activities and impressions throughout the day by joining and following along. Twitter.com is another social networking site most easily described as a type of instant messaging - but with tons of people. You can follow the ‘tweets’ of others - and they follow you and what you write. The catch is that your posts are limited to 140 characters. But for many, that’s enough to say the important things. To follow me click here. To follow the Michigan Republicans, click here.

FACEBOOK...is a great "social networking" tool that many Republicans are using. This is particularly popular with College Republicans, TeenAge Republicans and Young Republicans. If you would like to become a "friend" join me here. To join the Michigan Republicans, you can join here.

MRP STATE CONVENTION…Just a quick note to let you know that the Michigan Republican’s website has been updated with State Convention information.   For your reference in directing potential delegates to the site, the address is: http://www.migop.org/event.asp.

CPAC 2009 Timeless Principles, New Challenges…Register today for the largest gathering of conservative grassroots activists in the country! The American Conservative Union Foundation is pleased to invite you to participate in the nation’s largest annual gathering of conservatives. The 36th Annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will be held on February 26-28, 2009.

************************************************************************

FOR THE LATEST NEWS, COMMENTARY & INFORMATION:

Check…out…our…online Articles of Interest………News…you…can…use………

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REST OF THE STORY:

No Further Commentary Today

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

Feds Re-Impose Loan Standards They Helped Undermine

By Steven Malanga

When President Obama announces Washington’s new plan to help troubled mortgage-holders today, the betting is that the program will include a loan-modification effort that reduces the size of a besieged homeowner’s debt. One goal would be to cut the size of loans and perhaps also their interest rate so that a mortgage holder’s monthly payment would equal no more than 31 percent of his pre-tax income. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have already been experimenting with an income-to-payment ratio of 38 percent in their loan modification efforts, but Washington wants to go further, indeed probably needs to go further, if it is to stem the tide of defaults.

There is a great irony that Washington will now lead the way in imposing new, stricter standards, including a tougher income-to-payment ratio, because it was Washington, prodded by affordable housing advocates, which pushed mortgage lenders to dilute their traditional underwriting values in the first place. Federal regulators attacked those established standards as being “unintentionally biased” against low and moderate income borrowers and used a variety of laws and regulatory bodies to push often resistant lenders into programs based on these lower standards. The government and those who backed its actions assured lenders these lower standards were safer than they thought, even though there was little research to support that contention. Now that a huge chunk of the market based on these debased standards has melted down, the government is going full circle.

If Stocks Are in Turmoil, Blame the Feds

by Declan McCullagh

(CBS) In financial and investing circles, it is an article of faith that investors abhor uncertainty. Measurable risks are fine, but unknown risks can be deadly.

Unfortunately, both the Bush and Obama administrations are responsible for injecting a staggering amount of uncertainty into the world’s financial markets. If you’ve given up opening your 401(k) statements, or this week’s dismal stock market news has postponed your retirement, thank your elected officials for their contribution to this situation.

Since September 2008 — a mere five months ago — the Feds let Lehman Brothers fail while seizing control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and rescuing insurance giant AIG. It temporarily suspended investors’ ability to bet on price declines in some stocks, but not others. It has bailed out some failing companies and ignored the pleas of others.

Stimulus Fight Helps Bring Real Obama Into Focus

By Cathy Young

February is the cruelest month - at least for Barack Obama. After the very real sense of hope and renewal that surrounded Obama’s inauguration, shared even by many who did not vote for him, came the morning after. First, another scandal over unpaid taxes took down Health and Human Services nominee Tom Daschle. Then came the acrimonious battle over the stimulus bill, with a victory that may or may not turn out to be a Pyrrhic one.

In some corners of the right where Obama Derangement Syndrome has been as fierce as the similar Bush-related malady on the left, these new developments have been viewed as justifying the worst of fears about Obama: a phony and a commie. In recent days, far-right websites have psychoanalyzed Obama’s alleged hatred of America and free enterprise and suggested that he may be (I kid you not) a well-groomed Soviet plant. In fact, so far, Obama’s policies are those of a mainstream liberal-to-centrist Democrat. He is no dangerous radical and no idealistic bringer of change. And, while he is a gifted and usually smooth communicator, he is neither a messiah who can lead us into a glorious future nor a pied piper who can lure us to perdition with seductive words.

Obama banked a great deal of his credibility on the stimulus package, and his appeals managed to improve public opinion of the legislation during the Congressional wrangling. Yet a Rasmussen poll of likely voters conducted on February 14-15 found that only 38% thought the bill would help the economy, and 29% thought it would hurt. Albeit by a small margin (35% to 32%), Americans said that they would be less, rather than more, likely to vote for a member of Congress who supported the bill.

Some Republican governors may reject stimulus funds

Melinda Deslatte / Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. — A handful of Republican governors are considering turning down some money from the federal stimulus package, a move opponents say puts conservative ideology ahead of the needs of constituents struggling with record foreclosures and soaring unemployment.

Though none has outright rejected the money available for education, health care and infrastructure, the governors of Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alaska, South Carolina and Idaho have all questioned whether the $787 billion bill signed into law this week will even help the economy.

"My concern is there’s going to be commitments attached to it that are a mile long," said Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who considered rejecting some of the money but decided Wednesday to accept it. "We need the freedom to pick and choose. And we need the freedom to say ‘No thanks.’ "

Bishop takes first step toward run for state AG

Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

LANSING –Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, announced Wednesday he has formed an exploratory committee to consider running for state attorney general in 2010.

The 41-year old Bishop, who will complete his second and final Senate term that year, said he’ll spend the next two months talking with state leaders and gauging the support he could expect.

The current attorney general, Mike Cox, can’t seek re-election under the state’s term limits law and is considering a run for governor.

White House: Obama Opposes ‘Fairness Doctrine’ Revival

BY Judson Berger

President Obama opposes any move to bring back the so-called Fairness Doctrine, a spokesman told FOXNews.com Wednesday.

The statement is the first definitive stance the administration has taken since an aide told an industry publication last summer that Obama opposes the doctrine — a long-abolished policy that would require broadcasters to provide opposing viewpoints on controversial issues.

"As the president stated during the campaign, he does not believe the Fairness Doctrine should be reinstated," White House spokesman Ben LaBolt told FOXNews.com.

Auto analysts predict painful picture, whether it’s bankruptcy or bailout for auto industry

by Rick Haglund | Detroit Bureau

Viability plans submitted Tuesday by General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC to the Obama administration, raise serious questions about whether the two troubled automakers can be viable at all.

Chrysler is asking for an additional $2 billion from the federal government above the $7 billion it already requested and says it will need a check from Uncle Sam for $5 billion by March 31 to stay alive.

UAW, Detroit Three land tentative deal

Tom Krisher • Associated Press

DETROIT - The United Auto Workers union and Detroit’s three automakers reached a tentative agreement on contract concessions Tuesday, about the same time General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC filed restructuring plans to justify government loans.

But the union was unable to make a deal with GM, Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. on funding for a trust fund that will take over retiree health care costs starting next year.

Terms of the deal were not announced, but they were expected to eliminate the jobs bank in which laid-off workers get most of their pay, as well as make work rule and other changes that the government loan terms set out so the companies’ labor costs are competitive with their Japanese counterparts that have U.S. factories.

US commander: Troops ’stalemated’ in Afghanistan

By LARA JAKES

WASHINGTON (AP) - The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan offered a grim view Wednesday of military efforts in southern Afghanistan, warning that 17,000 new troops will take on emboldened Taliban insurgents who have "stalemated" U.S. and allied forces.

Army Gen. David McKiernan also predicted that the bolstered numbers of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan - about 55,000 in all - will remain near those levels for up to five years.

Still, McKiernan said, that is only about two-thirds of the number of troops he has requested to secure the war-torn nation.

622 Days until Election Day

February 18, 2009

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“You should not get caught up on a word [nationalisation]. I would argue that we cannot be ideologically a little bit pregnant. It doesn’t matter what you call it, but we can’t keep on funding these zombie banks [without gaining public control]. That’s what the Japanese did.”
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in a Financial Times interview. Wow!

MORNING UPDATE:

COMMENTARY & ARTICLES COMING TO AN END…this Friday will be my last “Articles of Interest” and collection of top political clips. I am in the process of creating my own private webpage where I will continue to post regular commentaries and share articles of interest…but not daily and no compilation of clips. I hope to have an address by tomorrow…still called “That’s Saul, Folks!”.

STIMULUS PACKAGE…IS IT A SCAM?…As Newt said…With less than 48 hours notice, they passed a 1,073 - page collection of special interest spending and dared to call it a "plan." With interest, the $787 billion bill will cost us, our children and their children about $1.14 trillion. That works out to about $4 trillion. That works out to about $30,000 in new debt for each American household. Worse, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) asked the Congressional Budget Office to estimate the cost of permanently extending the twenty most popular provisions in the bill. The cost? $3.27 trillion. Are you worried yet???

OBAMA BRINGING THE TROOPS HOME…According to POLITICO, President Barack Obama has approved sending roughly 12,000 troops to Afghanistan, 8,000 Marines and a 4,000-soldier Army brigade, plus support troops.

TWITTER…anyone can follow my daily activities and impressions throughout the day by joining and following along. Twitter.com is another social networking site most easily described as a type of instant messaging - but with tons of people. You can follow the ‘tweets’ of others - and they follow you and what you write. The catch is that your posts are limited to 140 characters. But for many, that’s enough to say the important things. To follow me click here. To follow the Michigan Republicans, click here.

FACEBOOK...is a great "social networking" tool that many Republicans are using. This is particularly popular with College Republicans, TeenAge Republicans and Young Republicans. If you would like to become a "friend" join me here. To join the Michigan Republicans, you can join here.

MRP STATE CONVENTION…Just a quick note to let you know that the Michigan Republican’s website has been updated with State Convention information.   For your reference in directing potential delegates to the site, the address is: http://www.migop.org/event.asp.

CPAC 2009 Timeless Principles, New Challenges…Register today for the largest gathering of conservative grassroots activists in the country! The American Conservative Union Foundation is pleased to invite you to participate in the nation’s largest annual gathering of conservatives. The 36th Annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will be held on February 26-28, 2009.

************************************************************************

FOR THE LATEST NEWS, COMMENTARY & INFORMATION:

Check…out…our…online Articles of Interest………News…you…can…use………

************************************************************************

REST OF THE STORY:

No Further Commentary Today

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

Automakers reveal changes they depend on to survive

BY MARK PHELAN

When General Motors Corp. Chairman Rick Wagoner said Saturn and Saab must either be sold or go out of business as GM focuses on its key brands to survive, he embraced the reality of a drastically smaller U.S. car market Tuesday with a move GM’s critics have advocated for years.
Advertisement

As GM huddles to protect its vital organs — Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC — Chrysler LLC promised a profusion of new models in its viability plan to the Treasury Department. While GM protects resources for its core brands, however, Chrysler’s strategy depends on its proposed alliance with Fiat SpA.

For too long, GM’s brands fought each other for corporate resources more fiercely than they battled Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. Saturn is a casualty of that unnecessary fight.

Wall Street Pans Obama’s Plans

Charles Gasparino

ON the day that President Obama signed the much- hyped "stimulus bill" into law - one of the largest spending plans in US history, billed as nothing short of a savior for a US economy heading toward a possible Great Depression - the stock market reacted loudly and resolutely, falling nearly 300 points.

No one can deny that Obama’s been dealt a crummy hand - he took office with a weak economy and a banking system in shambles. And the markets may ultimately rebound if the "stimulus" actually does a little stimulating.

But the consensus building on Wall Street is that this president doesn’t look to be up to the job of fixing the economy.

Stocks Hate Obeynomics

The results are clear. The market hates Obama’s stimulus package and just about everything related to Obamanomics. Or shall we call it Obeynomics? (I’ll explain in a minute.) Stocks are down 27% since the Nov. 4th election. Stocks have plummeted more than 40% since Obama sewed up the Democratic nomination in June.

Capital is on strike. And why wouldn’t it be? Private capital has no idea what future holds in terms of taxes, regulation, trade, deficits and the value of the dollar. None whatsoever.

Capital has figured out one thing, however. The politicians in Washington most hostile to private investment are running the show. Example: David Obey, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. From Wikipedia: “Obey is one of the most liberal members of the House; he considers himself a progressive in the tradition of Robert La Follette.”

GM needs up to $30 billion in aid to avoid failure

By Kevin Krolicki

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp (NYSE:GM - News) said on Tuesday it could need a total of up to $30 billion in U.S. government aid — more than doubling its original aid — and would run out of cash as soon as March without new federal funding.

The request for additional aid from the top U.S. automaker came in a restructuring plan GM submitted to U.S. officials on Tuesday.

The GM restructuring plan of more than 100 pages was posted on the U.S. Treasury Web site.

The request came on the same afternoon that No. 3 U.S. automaker Chrysler requested an additional $5 billion from the current $4 billion in U.S. government aid, saying it expected the brutal downturn in the U.S. market to run another three years.

Old Ways Of Washington Persist Despite Administration’s Ambitious Ethics Agenda

by Eliza Newlin Carney

The Obama administration has fielded some tough ethics questions lately, and Congress may be next.

House Democrats have done their best to tamp down smoldering controversies involving Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and John Murtha, D-Pa, chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. But the questions dogging the two are not likely to go away soon, particularly given recent Republican efforts to revive the ethics wars.

Democratic leaders beat back a GOP bid to remove Rangel from his Ways and Means chairmanship last week as the chamber voted 242-157 to scuttle a resolution by Republican Conference Secretary John Carter, R-Texas. Carter had called on Rangel to step down as chairman until the House Standards of Official Conduct (Ethics) Committee concludes its probe into his activities. (Sixteen House members, including those investigating Rangel, voted present.)

VEBA not resolved in tentative UAW deals

BY BRENT SNAVELY • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Although the UAW said Tuesday that it has reached tentative deals with each of the Detroit Three to modify its 2007 labor contract, the union acknowledged that the largest, and most contentious, issue remains.

The tentative deal does not include an agreement on how to fund a critical health care trust — commonly called a VEBA — and no deal will be final until that gets worked out.

The UAW announced its tentative deals with the automakers just as General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC filed viability plans with the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday.

Obama OKs about 17,000 more troops for Afghanistan

By ANNE GEARAN

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama has approved adding about 17,000 U.S. troops for the flagging war in Afghanistan, administration, defense and congressional officials said Tuesday.

The Obama administration is expected to announce on Tuesday that it will send one additional Army brigade and an unknown number of Marines to Afghanistan this spring and summer. Officials spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the official announcement.

About 8,000 Marines are expected to go in first, followed by about 9,000 Army troops.

The new forces represent the first installment on a larger influx of U.S. forces widely expected this year. Obama’s decision would get several thousand troops in place in time for the increase in fighting that usually comes with warmer weather and ahead of national elections in August.

Republicans Prep the Portals of Online Organizing

By Emily Cadei, CQ Staff

Republicans already are gearing up to regain lost ground from the 2008 elections, with a plan to level the digital playing field and fight the Democrats precinct by precinct and byte by byte.

That was the overarching theme Feb. 6 at a hastily organized “Tech Summit” held by the Republican National Committee, which brought party activists and strategists together to present ideas on how the RNC can better use available technologies to engage voters.

Under new Chairman Michael Steele, the GOP has embraced new technology as part of its rehabilitation efforts in the wake of the disastrous 2008 election.

Close to 300 people took part, with hundreds more joining online. The summit featured a steady stream of speakers, each sharing their thoughts on everything from online marketing to political text messaging to social networking.

Iran minister seeks missiles on Russia trip

MOSCOW: Iran’s defence minister will seek to convince Russia on Tuesday to deliver air defence systems which could help repel possible Israel and U.S. air strikes, Russian media reported.

Iran has long been interested in buying Russian S-300 air defence systems from Russia but Israel has sought to convince Moscow not to deliver the systems.

Iranian Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar met Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov in Moscow on Tuesday.

"I hope this visit will lead to the further development of relations between our two countries in all areas, including in the sphere of military cooperation," Najjar was quoted as saying by the Iranian embassy in Moscow.

623 Days until Election Day

February 17, 2009

MORNING UPDATE:

DISAPPOINTMENT…STIMULUS BILL…some have expressed frustration, while others anger…maybe it’s really just disappointment.
It is “disappointing” that Obama allowed a bill to be voted on before any member or the American people had had time to read it in violation of his New Hampshire pledge that all bills would have five days on the internet.
 
It is even more disappointing that apparently the Democrats were leaking parts of the bill to lobbyists before the elected members had seen them.
 
It is “disappointing” that the bill includes clear pork barrel spending like Reid’ railroad, Pelosi’s mouse and Obeys $2 billion for his sons organization.
 
It is “disappointing “ that Obama would try to politicize the census by taking it out of Commerce and putting it under the most partisan chief of staff since HR Haldemann and Nixon.
 
It is “disappointing” that the democrats consistently took out pro-jobs provisions in conference to make room for spending by politicians and bureaucrats.
Maybe it’s just that the American people expected more…change…and now we’re disappointed?!?

STIMULUS WATCH…STATE BY STATE…here is a great web site that should be very helpful and following where all the money that is suppose to “create jobs” is really going. You want to talk about a disappointing list…check it out, state by state and city by city. http://www.stimuluswatch.org/project/by_state

STABENOW WATCH…Right Michigan asks…” What did Senator Stabenow know and when?” Are the Democrats on the verge of another “ethics crisis”? Is this pattern of behavior more than a pattern of behavior? http://www.rightmichigan.com/story/2009/2/16/134455/493

TWITTER…anyone can follow my daily activities and impressions throughout the day by joining and following along. Twitter.com is another social networking site most easily described as a type of instant messaging - but with tons of people. You can follow the ‘tweets’ of others - and they follow you and what you write. The catch is that your posts are limited to 140 characters. But for many, that’s enough to say the important things. To follow me click here. To follow the Michigan Republicans, click here.

FACEBOOK...is a great "social networking" tool that many Republicans are using. This is particularly popular with College Republicans, TeenAge Republicans and Young Republicans. If you would like to become a "friend" join me here. To join the Michigan Republicans, you can join here.

MRP STATE CONVENTION…Just a quick note to let you know that the Michigan Republican’s website has been updated with State Convention information.   For your reference in directing potential delegates to the site, the address is: http://www.migop.org/event.asp.

CPAC 2009 Timeless Principles, New Challenges…Register today for the largest gathering of conservative grassroots activists in the country! The American Conservative Union Foundation is pleased to invite you to participate in the nation’s largest annual gathering of conservatives. The 36th Annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will be held on February 26-28, 2009.

************************************************************************

FOR THE LATEST NEWS, COMMENTARY & INFORMATION:

Check…out…our…online Articles of Interest………News…you…can…use………

************************************************************************

REST OF THE STORY:

No Further Commentary Today

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

"Urgent" Stimulus on Hold for Obama’s Weekend Off

By BRENDAN SCOTT IN ALBANY and ANA MARIA ALAYA IN NY, AP

After pushing Congress for weeks to hurry up and pass the massive $787 billion stimulus bill, President Obama promptly took off for a three-day holiday getaway.

Obama arrived at his home in Chicago on Friday, and treated wife Michelle to a Valentine’s Day dinner downtown last night. The couple was spotted leaving upscale Table Fifty-Two, which specializes in Southern cuisine, with the first lady toting what appeared to be a doggie bag.

The president plans to spend the Presidents’ Day weekend in the Windy City, and is not expected to sign the bill until Tuesday, when he travels to Denver to discuss his economic plan.

Bill’s tax cuts underwhelm analysts

Donald Lambro

When the Tax Policy Center graded 17 key tax-cut provisions in President Obama’s economic-stimulus bill last week, 10 received a C or D grade and none merited an A.

The tax-policy analysis group, sponsored jointly by the liberal Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, said its scores were an attempt to evaluate whether the bill’s tax credits and other tax incentives will boost the economy and deliver the biggest "bang for the buck."

Many of the tax provisions in President Obama’s two-year, $787 billion stimulus plan were found wanting, either because the stimulative effects were small, came too late to have an impact on the recession, or went to people who did not need them.

The Madoff Bill

By Dennis Prager

I write this column without any illusion that it will reverse America’s current movement toward socialism. Rather I am writing it primarily so that future generations will not be able to say that the radical and destructive nature of the Obama/Democratic Party’s so-called stimulus plan was unknown at the time. I am writing this so that my children will know that their father vigorously opposed it and why.

How radical — in fact, revolutionary — is the $789 billion stimulus plan? It is, in the words of House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, D-Wis., "the largest change in domestic policy since the 1930s."

It is, as Robert Rector, identified by the Times of London as "one of the architects of Clinton’s 1996 reform bill," "a welfare spendathon that would amount to the largest one-year increase in government handouts in American history."

GM to seek more federal aid

Restructuring plans due today lack critical concessions

Robert Snell, David Shepardson and Alisa Priddle / The Detroit News

DETROIT — General Motors Corp. will ask for billions more in federal aid today when it submits a restructuring plan to the U.S. Treasury Department outlining cuts that will dramatically shrink the iconic but troubled American automaker.

But GM’s recovery plan and one from Chrysler LLC, due today as a condition of a $17.4 billion federal loan package, are not expected to include key money-saving concessions from the United Auto Workers and bondholders.

Despite long negotiations over the weekend and Monday, neither automaker was expected to reach agreements by today’s deadline, sources said. The loan terms call for GM and Chrysler to restructure their payments into a UAW-run retiree health care trust and to reduce their unsecured public debt by two-thirds.

Ford-UAW talks progress; may be basis for GM, Chrysler pacts

By FREE PRESS STAFF

Talks between the UAW and Ford Motor Co. on a deal to help the struggling automaker progressed over the weekend and any plan that is reached between the two sides could serve as the basis for a similar pact with General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, people familiar with the talks at Ford told the Free Press.

The UAW has been bargaining in Dearborn with Ford over the past six weeks, but the talks have escalated in recent days, as union discussions with GM hit an impasse Friday and then resumed Sunday, the people said. They did not want to be named because of the sensitive nature of the talks.

“They’re going to use that as the basis for agreements at GM and Chrysler,” one person familiar with the Ford talks told the Free Press. He believed a deal between the two sides was imminent.

Don’t Believe the Stimulus Scaremongers

By AMAR BHIDé

Our ignorance of what causes economic ailments — and how to treat them — is profound. Downturns and financial crises are not regular occurrences, and because economies are always evolving, they tend to be idiosyncratic, singular events.

After decades of diligent research, scholars still argue about what caused the Great Depression — excessive consumption, investment, stock-market speculation and borrowing in the Roaring ’20s, Smoot-Hawley protectionism, or excessively tight monetary policy? Nor do we know how we got out of it: Some credit the New Deal while others say that that FDR’s policies prolonged the Depression.

Similarly, there is no consensus about why huge public-spending projects and a zero-interest-rate policy failed to pull the Japanese out of a prolonged slump.

Obama is Big on Symbolism

By Jack Kelly

At the battle of Asculum in 279 BC, the Greek king Pyrrhus defeated a Roman legion, but at frightful cost to his own troops. When sycophantic courtiers congratulated him on his "great victory," Pyrrhus responded: "one more such victory, and we shall be undone."

President Obama plans to celebrate his Asculum — passage of the (at least) $787 billion "stimulus" bill — with a signing ceremony in Denver Tuesday. Sycophantic courtiers in the news media hailed this as a great victory for the president, but it comes at the cost of the illusion Mr. Obama represents a change from the corrupt old ways of Washington.

Candidate Obama promised a new openness in government. But the biggest spending bill ever was drafted behind closed doors. Candidate Obama pledged to weaken the influence of lobbyists. But lobbyists received copies of the "stimulus" bill before lawmakers did. Candidate Obama pledged a bipartisan approach to government. But not a single Republican in the House, and only three in the Senate, voted for it.

The GOP, Atwitter About the Digital Possibilities

By Jose Antonio Vargas

Eight years of the Bush presidency created and strengthened the netroots, the liberal blogosphere. The conservative blogosphere, the so-called rightroots, appears poised to benefit the same way from the Obama administration.

But for that energy to galvanize a fully formed political movement — in the way bloggers, MeetUp and MoveOn helped reinvigorate the Democratic Party — the GOP must remake itself online and harness grass-roots support.

Such was the overarching theme of Friday’s Technology Summit, hosted by the Republican National Committee.

STAFFERS GET SECRET RAISES AMID ‘FREEZE’

ALBANY - Gov. Paterson has secretly granted raises of as much as 46 percent to more than a dozen staffers at a time when he has asked 130,000 state workers to give up 3 percent pay hikes because of the state’s fiscal crisis, The Post has learned.

The startling pay hikes, costing about $250,000 annually, were granted after the governor’s "emergency" declaration in August of a looming fiscal crisis that required the state to cut spending and impose a "hard" hiring freeze.

One raise was approved as recently as last month - when Paterson claimed the budget deficit had reached an unprecedented $15.5 billion.

625 Days until Election Day

February 15, 2009

MORNING UPDATE:

STIMULUS SCAM…unfortunately passed both houses of Congress last night as Republicans stood strong, completely rejecting the plan in the House and all but a few Republicans doing the same in the Senate.

After Mark Schauer and Gary Peters won their elections last fall, campaigning largely on cutting back on wasteful government spending and fiscal responsibility, both voted for this massive spending package as one of their first acts as Congressmen. Probably a preview of what we can expect from both as they serve as rubber-stamps for Pelosi’s and Obama’s policies.

GOVERNOR HALEY BARBOUR…to kick off our state convention Friday night.  We will also have WJR’s Frank Beckmann there who will discuss "what media bias".  All Friday night!  For more information see the next paragraph.

TWITTER…anyone can follow my daily activities and impressions throughout the day by joining and following along. Twitter.com is another social networking site most easily described as a type of instant messaging - but with tons of people. You can follow the ‘tweets’ of others - and they follow you and what you write. The catch is that your posts are limited to 140 characters. But for many, that’s enough to say the important things. To follow me click here. To follow the Michigan Republicans, click here.

FACEBOOK...is a great "social networking" tool that many Republicans are using. This is particularly popular with College Republicans, TeenAge Republicans and Young Republicans. If you would like to become a "friend" join me here.

MRP STATE CONVENTION…Just a quick note to let you know that the Michigan Republican’s website has been updated with State Convention information.   For your reference in directing potential delegates to the site, the address is: http://www.migop.org/event.asp.

CPAC 2009 Timeless Principles, New Challenges…Register today for the largest gathering of conservative grassroots activists in the country! The American Conservative Union Foundation is pleased to invite you to participate in the nation’s largest annual gathering of conservatives. The 36th Annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will be held on February 26-28, 2009.

************************************************************************

FOR THE LATEST NEWS, COMMENTARY & INFORMATION:

Check…out…our…online Articles of Interest………News…you…can…use………

************************************************************************

SUNDAY MORNING TALK SHOW LINEUP:

After pushing the $785 billion stimulus package through Congress, top Obama administration officials head to the Sunday talk shows to map out their next steps.

Senior adviser David Axelrod is on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and “Fox News Sunday” to sell the public the package that President Barack Obama is eager to sign early next week.

Google CEO Erick Schmidt and economist Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com round out Fox host Chris Wallace’s guest list. And NBC’s David Gregory lands for his political roundtable The Atlantic’s Ron Brownstein, The Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson, The Wall Street Journal’s Kimberly Strassel and Politico’s Roger Simon.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, meanwhile, appears on CNN’s “State of the Union” to square off against Obama’s former presidential rival, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

CBS’s “Face the Nation” also has Gibbs, along with House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

And Bloomberg TV snags Obama’s top economic adviser, Lawrence Summers, for a weekend chat with host Al Hunt on “Political Capital.”

ABC’s “This Week” is without a Team Obama playmaker, but host George Stephanopoulos rounds up some of the sharpest tongues from the stimulus debate.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) faces off with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), with an undercard bout featuring Reps. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Peter King (R-N.Y.).

Finally, Michigan Rep. Dave Camp, the ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, is on C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers,” where he’ll be questioned by The Hill’s Molly Hooper and Congressional Quarterly’s Joseph Schatz.

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

UAW rejects Chrysler, GM trust plans

BY JUSTIN HYDE • FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

The UAW has rejected changes to its retiree health care trust proposed by General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, saying the companies want to shortchange workers to benefit bondholders.
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The union said Saturday that the automakers wanted to reduce their contributions to the trust fund, increase its obligations and stretch out their remaining cash payments over 20 years.

The dispute, four days before the automakers must submit restructuring plans to the Obama administration, suggests the difficulties the companies face to win the concessions called for by the government.

Bill’s tax cuts underwhelm analysts

Donald Lambro

When the Tax Policy Center graded 17 key tax-cut provisions in President Obama’s economic-stimulus bill last week, 10 received a C or D grade and none merited an A.

The tax-policy analysis group, sponsored jointly by the liberal Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, said its scores were an attempt to evaluate whether the bill’s tax credits and other tax incentives will boost the economy and deliver the biggest "bang for the buck."

Many of the tax provisions in President Obama’s two-year, $787 billion stimulus plan were found wanting, either because the stimulative effects were small, came too late to have an impact on the recession, or went to people who did not need them.

Next Issues Will Be Even Harder for Obama

By David Broder

WASHINGTON — Now comes the hard part.

Difficult as it has been to push the almost $800 billion stimulus plan to the point of passage in Congress, making it work in local communities across America will be much more challenging. And here in Washington, the political tests that lie ahead as the agenda shifts to energy, the environment, health care, Iraq, Afghanistan and other trouble spots will also pose higher hurdles.

Predictably, President Obama has had a shaky introduction to his new duties. Talented as he is, he had never previously been asked to assemble an administration, to identify prospective appointees, decide where they might fit, recruit them and qualify them for the confirmation process.

Some of the biggest names on his list — Tom Daschle, Bill Richardson and Judd Gregg — backed out before they ever took office. They withdrew for different reasons, but had Obama, with only four Senate years behind him, known the environment and personalities in public life better, he might have anticipated some of these problems.

Nothing fair about Fairness Doctrine

By Nolan Finley

Americans are about to learn that when it comes to protecting their civil liberties, they can’t relax no matter which party is in power in Washington.

After spending eight years wailing about President George W. Bush’s relentless disregard for the Bill of Rights, Democrats are preparing to launch an assault on the most precious individual freedom of all — free speech.

They are trying to shut down conservative talk radio, the primary source of criticism of their programs and policies.

Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow was reportedly leading the effort, though she now says "that’s not my issue." Good thing, since it would have been an obvious conflict of interest. Her husband, Tom Athans, is a co-founder of Air America, the left-wing network that’s never caught fire with radio listeners.

In Gingrich Mold, a New Voice for G.O.P. Resistance

By ADAM NAGOURNEY

WASHINGTON — The last time Congressional Republicans were this out of power, they turned to a college professor from Georgia, Newt Gingrich, to lead the opposition, first against President Bill Clinton in a budget battle in 1993, and then back into the majority the following year.

As Republicans confronted President Obama in another budget battle last week, their leadership included another new face: Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, who as the party’s chief vote wrangler is as responsible as anyone for the tough line the party has taken in this first legislative standoff with Mr. Obama. This battle has vaulted Mr. Cantor to the front lines of his party as it tries to recover from the losses of November.

As Republican whip, Mr. Cantor succeeded again on Friday in denying the White House the support of a single House Republican on the stimulus bill. That was a calculated challenge to the president, who, in his weekly address on Saturday, hailed the bill as “an ambitious plan at a time we badly need it.”

Checking in with the Labor Movement

By Ruben Navarrette

SAN DIEGO — At a time when many Americans choose to be exposed only to opinions with which they agree, I still enjoy talking with those who see issues in a different light. And given my opinion of unions — namely, that for all the good they did in the 20th century, they’re now hurting America by demanding too much, giving up too little, fostering a sense of entitlement, and conditioning members to fear competition — this means occasionally checking in with Beth Shulman.

A lawyer, author, and former vice president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Shulman is currently a senior analyst with the Russell Sage Foundation and a true believer in the power of unions to improve people’s lives — especially in tough economic times.

Our topic of conversation was the Employee Free Choice Act now before Congress. One of the most hotly contested pieces of legislation in recent memory, the bill would allow workers to register their desire to join a union by simply signing a card — as opposed to an election supervised by the National Labor Relations Board.

Obama warned over ‘welfare spendathon’

BY Tony Allen-Mills

RONALD REAGAN started it, Bill Clinton finished it and last week Barack Obama was accused of engineering its destruction. One of the few undisputed triumphs of American government of the past 20 years – the sweeping welfare reform programme that sent millions of dole claimants back to work – has been plunged into jeopardy by billions of dollars in state handouts included in the president’s controversial economic stimulus package.

As Obama celebrated Valentine’s Day yesterday with a return to his Chicago home for a private weekend with family and friends, his success in piloting a $785 billion (£546 billion) stimulus package through Congress was being overshadowed by warnings that an unprecedented increase in welfare spending would undermine two decades of bipartisan attempts to reduce dependency on government handouts.

Robert Rector, a prominent welfare researcher who was one of the architects of Clinton’s 1996 reform bill, warned last week that Obama’s stimulus plan was a “welfare spendathon” that would amount to the largest one-year increase in government handouts in American history.

Stimulus is a temporary breather for state’s ills

The Detroit News

The federal economic stimulus package will help Michigan sustain important programs and institutions in tough economic times, but ultimately the state will be on its own to transform its economy.

The full outlines of the package for Michigan aren’t clear, but one report, from the group called Federal Funds Information for States, a service of the National Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures, pegs the stimulus revenue for Michigan at close to $7 billion.

With revenues down for state governments across the nation, much of the package is devoted to simply shoring up spending gaps so the states can make assistance available to the homeless, cover payments to the unemployed, sustain public education and maintain Medicaid, which provides health insurance for the poor.

Chrysler, GM fix-it plans due in days

BY JUSTIN HYDE • FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

WASHINGTON — Over the past six months, Detroit’s automakers, workers and creditors have wrestled with how to survive the worst economy in decades while developing the high-tech vehicles of the future.

Now it’s President Barack Obama’s turn.

On Tuesday, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC will submit cost-cutting plans that call for shedding thousands of jobs, closing plants, paring union benefits and cutting their debts, aiming to spread a bitter sacrifice among the UAW, suppliers, bondholders and dealers.

Burris confirms request for Blagojevich donation

By JOHN O’CONNOR

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Raising fresh questions about his appointment to Congress, Sen. Roland Burris admitted in a document released Saturday that former Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s brother asked him for campaign fundraising help before the governor named Burris as Illinois’ junior senator.

The disclosure reflects a major omission from Burris’ testimony in January when an Illinois House impeachment committee specifically asked if he had ever spoken to Robert Blagojevich or other aides to the now-deposed governor about the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama.

State Rep. Jim Durkin, the impeachment committee’s ranking Republican, told The Associated Press that he and House Republican Leader Tom Cross will ask Sunday for an outside investigation into whether Burris perjured himself.

626 Days until Election Day

February 14, 2009

MORNING UPDATE:

STIMULUS SCAM…unfortunately passed both houses of Congress last night as Republicans stood strong, completely rejecting the plan in the House and all but a few Republicans doing the same in the Senate.

After Mark Schauer and Gary Peters won their elections last fall, campaigning largely on cutting back on wasteful government spending and fiscal responsibility, both voted for this massive spending package as one of their first acts as Congressmen.  Probably a preview of what we can expect from both as they serve as rubber-stamps for Pelosi’s and Obama’s policies.

GOVERNOR HALEY BARBOUR…to kick off our state convention Friday night.  We will also have WJR’s Frank Beckmann there who will discuss "what media bias".  All Friday night!  For more information see the next paragraph.

MRP STATE CONVENTION…Just a quick note to let you know that the Michigan Republican’s website has been updated with State Convention information.   For your reference in directing potential delegates to the site, the address is: http://www.migop.org/event.asp.

CPAC 2009 Timeless Principles, New Challenges…Register today for the largest gathering of conservative grassroots activists in the country! The American Conservative Union Foundation is pleased to invite you to participate in the nation’s largest annual gathering of conservatives. The 36th Annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will be held on February 26-28, 2009.

TWITTER…anyone can follow my daily activities and impressions throughout the day by joining and following along. Twitter.com is another social networking site most easily described as a type of instant messaging - but with tons of people. You can follow the ‘tweets’ of others - and they follow you and what you write. The catch is that your posts are limited to 140 characters. But for many, that’s enough to say the important things. To follow me click here.

FACEBOOK…is a great "social networking" tool that many Republicans are using. This is particularly popular with College Republicans, TeenAge Republicans and Young Republicans. If you would like to become a "friend" join me here.

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FOR THE LATEST NEWS, COMMENTARY & INFORMATION:

Check…out…our…online Articles of Interest………News…you…can…use………

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TODAY’S TOP STORIES

The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

Michigan Republicans hang tough against stimulus bill

Gordon Trowbridge

February 13, 2009

WASHINGTON — Intense pressure from the White House and outside groups failed to convince Michigan Republican lawmakers to support a massive economic stimulus plan that the House approved Friday.

Reps. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township, and Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, joined the rest of the House GOP caucus in unanimously rejecting the measure, which includes nearly $800 billion in spending and tax cuts. They had been the target of radio ads from liberal groups pushing them to support the measure, and of intense lobbying from Democrats, including President Obama. Upton accompanied Obama this week to Elkhart, Ind., just across the state line from his West Michigan District.

The Senate is expected to pass the plan Friday evening, sending it to Obama’s desk.

Unanimous ‘no’ from House GOP

By PATRICK O’CONNOR & ALEX ISENSTADT

2/13/09

Rep. Joseph Cao (R.-La.), defied convention once again on Friday by casting another vote against the Democrats’ economic stimulus package-hours after telling a crowd of reporters in the Capitol that he’d likely support it.

His surprising turn meant that the $787 billion package of spending and tax cuts the House approved Friday passed without any Republican support.

While the party had unanimously opposed an earlier version of the bill last month, few expected a repeat party rejection this time around. But members of the minority once again sought safety in numbers by voting against the package as a unified bloc, giving the ever-dwindling number of Republicans in tight districts more political cover to explain their votes back home.

Stimulus bill passes; Mich. may get $18B

Only 3 Republicans in Congress vote for $787B plan that Obama may sign next week.

February 14, 2009

Gordon Trowbridge

WASHINGTON — Congress gave President Barack Obama his first major victory Friday, a $787 billion package of tax cuts and spending that he believes will create jobs and help right the nation’s economy.

The Senate approved the measure 60-38, with three GOP moderates providing crucial support. Hours earlier, the House vote was 246-183, with all Republicans opposed to the package of tax cuts and federal spending that Obama has made the centerpiece of his plan for economic recovery.

The president could sign the bill as early as next week, less than a month after taking office.

Stimulus Plan Places New Limits on Wall St. Bonuses

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS and ERIC DASH

February 13, 2009

WASHINGTON - A provision buried deep inside the $787 billion economic stimulus bill would impose restrictions on executive bonuses at financial institutions that are much tougher than those proposed 10 days ago by the Treasury Department.

The provision, inserted by Senate Democrats over the objections of the Obama administration, is aimed at companies that have received financial bailout funds. It would prohibit cash bonuses and almost all other incentive compensation for the five most senior officers and the 20 highest-paid executives at large companies that receive money under the Treasury’s Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

The stimulus package was approved by the House on Friday, then by the Senate in the late evening.

Thirty Years Later, a Return to Stagflation

By PAUL D. RYAN

February 13, 2009

CONGRESS has made a terrible mistake. Amid a rhetorical debate centered on words like "crisis," "emergency" and "catastrophe," it acted too fast. While arguments were made about the stimulus bill’s specific components - taxpayer money for condoms, new green cars and golf carts for federal bureaucrats, another round of rebate checks - its more dangerous consequences were overlooked. And now the package threatens a return to the kind of stagflation last seen in the 1970s.

To get a sense of the pressures ahead, we must first assess our fiscal health. We started this year with a projected trillion-dollar budget deficit for the 2009 fiscal year. In 2008, we spent $451 billion just to pay the interest on our debt.

With the stimulus bill now becoming law, we’re digging even deeper into debt. The headline price tag of $787 billion doesn’t include the extra $348 billion it will take to finance the new debt, or what it will cost when Congress extends the spending programs in the bill, as is likely - as much as $2 trillion more. Add in the billions that are being used to prop up the financial system, and when the dust settles on 2009, with millions of baby boomers retiring and entitlement spending exploding, taxpayers will face a financial nightmare.

GM to Offer Two Choices: Bankruptcy or More Aid

FEBRUARY 14, 2009

General Motors Corp., nearing a federally imposed deadline to present a restructuring plan, will offer the government two costly alternatives: commit billions more in bailout money to fund the company’s operations, or provide financial backing as part of a bankruptcy filing, said people familiar with GM’s thinking.

The competing choices, which highlight GM’s rapidly deteriorating operations, present a dilemma for Congress and the Obama administration. If they refuse to provide additional aid to GM on top of the $13.4 billion already committed they risk seeing an industrial icon fall into bankruptcy.

Legislators set transparency example

In the month or so since assuming office, two freshman state representatives have set a good example by posting their office expenditures online for public scrutiny. Tom McMillin of Rochester and Justin Amash of Grand Rapids, Republicans both, took up the Mackinac Center on its "Show Michigan the Money" challenge. The lawmakers follow Attorney General Mike Cox and Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land in posting their spending. Voters should pressure more state government officials to do the same.

Students at Northern Michigan University will be granted a respite from the harsh Michigan winter and a chance to expand their horizons — thanks to an endowment funding the university’s study abroad program. The endowment, funded by a $1 million donation from Northern Michigan alum Gloria Jackson and her husband Bill, will allow students to travel and study all over the world without racking up too much debt. One student from each of the 15 counties in the Upper Peninsula will be granted a study abroad grant each year.

Some extra millions could complicate Michigan budget debate

BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF

February 14, 2009

The federal stimulus plan could spark a budgetary free-for-all in Lansing, as lawmakers ponder Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s plans to slash $670 million from state spending next fiscal year.

By one estimate, Michigan stands to receive $7 billion in direct payments from the stimulus package, a whopping windfall in light of a potential $1.6-billion deficit facing the state by 2010.

Most of the money will be restricted to fix roads, provide Medicaid health coverage and help schools pay for special education and programs for at-risk students.

MSU warns of tuition boost

Officials: Mich. budget cuts would hit hard

BY ROBIN ERB

February 14, 2009

If the governor’s budget is approved as proposed, Michigan State University officials warned Friday they may have to raise tuition or cut hundreds of jobs.

Additionally, MSU would have to slash outreach services — from helping farmers with crops to providing nutritional programs for needy people and mentoring programs for urban youth.

Though Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s budget plan announced Thursday is just the starting point of what promises to be a long debate over how cash-strapped Lansing spends state funds, MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon and several trustees were already recoiling Friday.

U.S. Would Slow Missile Shield Plan for Russian Help With Iran

February 13, 2009

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The United States indicated a willingness on Friday to slow plans for a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe if Russia agreed to help stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Plans for the shield have contributed to a deterioration in the relationship between the United States and Russia over the past few years, but the administration of President Obama has said it wants to press the "reset button" and build better relations with Moscow.

"If we are able to work together to dissuade Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapons capability, we would be able to moderate the pace of development of missile defenses in Europe," a senior administration official said.

627 Days until Election Day

February 13, 2009

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"By turning down a position of great honor, Senator Gregg has made a bold statement for principle and responsibility today. The President’s politically charged move to place the nonpartisan census process in the hands of his staff contradicts every pledge of openness he made on the campaign trail. While the White House continues to break promises for politics, I commend Senator Gregg for acting with integrity. Senator Gregg has shown the American people the type of selfless leadership they should only hope to see from the White House."

Republican Study Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA)

MORNING UPDATE:

STIMULUS SCAM CONTINUES…Nobody seems to be pointing out that Obama’s "middle class tax cut" is going to millions of people who don’t pay any taxes.  That’s not a tax cut.  It’s welfare.  Are so few people really paying attention?

PORK BARREL SPENDING…NOT…BUT MICE ARE OK…it seems that the "stimulus package" has earmarked MILLIONS to save some mice in California…stimulating what…cheese sales?  This is absurd and at some point American voters will say enough is enough.  The Democrats have gone overboard!

TODAY…RNC TECH SUMMIT…Chairman Michael Steele has asked me to head up the transition Team’s effort on bringing new technologies and tactics to the RNC.  We are in the process or reviewing and analyzing the current operation.  We also called for a Tech Summit where we are bringing interested parties together to share ideas, make suggestions and present their perspectives of what and how we could do more.  If you’re interested, join us.  For more details click here.

If you can’t attend in person please send thoughts via e-mail to ecampaign@gop.com and put "Tech Summit" in the subject line or call 202-863-8728.

An on-line discussion will be held.

We will also provide internet streaming video.

GOVERNOR HALEY BARBOUR…to kick off our state convention Friday night.  We will also have WJR’s Frank Beckmann there who will discuss "what media bias".  All Friday night!  For more information see the next paragraph.

MRP STATE CONVENTION…Just a quick note to let you know that the Michigan Republican’s website has been updated with State Convention information.   For your reference in directing potential delegates to the site, the address is: http://www.migop.org/event.asp.

CPAC 2009 Timeless Principles, New Challenges…Register today for the largest gathering of conservative grassroots activists in the country! The American Conservative Union Foundation is pleased to invite you to participate in the nation’s largest annual gathering of conservatives. The 36th Annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will be held on February 26-28, 2009.

************************************************************************

FOR THE LATEST NEWS, COMMENTARY & INFORMATION:

Check…out…our…online Articles of Interest………News…you…can…use………

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TODAY’S TOP STORIES

The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

Dems push stimulus to Friday finish line

By Alexander Bolton 

Posted: 02/12/09 08:08 PM [ET]

Congress is poised to pass a $789 billion stimulus package in time to meet a self-imposed Presidents Day deadline, fulfilling President Obama’s first priority for reviving the national economy.

The House is scheduled to vote on the final version of the package Friday and Senate lawmakers said they expected a final vote in their chamber by Saturday.

Economic stimulus package on track for final votes

By ANDREW TAYLOR

Reid’s office issued a statement noting that a proposed Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas rail might get a big chunk of the money.

Scaling back the bill to levels lower than either the $838 billion Senate measure or the original $820 billion House-passed measure caused grumbling among liberal Democrats, who described the cutbacks as a concession to the moderates, particularly Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., who are feeling heat from constituents for supporting the bill.

Specter played an active role, however, in making sure $10 billion for the National Institutes of Health, a pet priority, wasn’t cut back.

Opposing view: Stop the spending sprees

Republicans support fast-acting tax relief, not Democrats’ boondoggle.

By Michael Steele

During his campaign, President Obama’s advisers promised an economic stimulus that would be "timely, targeted and temporary." It sounded pretty good. But now congressional Democrats are pushing something very different.

The legislation written by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is shortsighted, with potentially harmful long-term ramifications. What was supposed to be an immediate boost to our economy has morphed into yet another overreaching spending boondoggle. There’s no place for things like $45 million for ATV trails and government office renovations. Yet, that’s precisely the sort of unnecessary spending that Reid and Pelosi are pushing.

Shut Up, They Said

Big Labor threatens banks on ‘card check.’

FEBRUARY 13, 2009

First the political class came for the bonuses and corporate jets. Now the First Amendment?

The biggest bailout news this week wasn’t the ritual shaming of bank CEOs Wednesday on Capitol Hill. The real political cudgels were wielded in a February 10 letter that Big Labor sent to Wall and K Streets: Any business that takes a bank rescue dollar must give up its rights to free political speech and free association.

Obama faces a Cabinet setback, again

Gregg backs out; explanations don’t match

Jon Ward and David R. Sands, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Friday, February 13, 2009

Sen. Judd Gregg abruptly withdrew his Cabinet nomination Thursday just nine days after being named commerce secretary, citing irreconcilable differences with President Obama that had left him silently erecting roadblocks to the administration’s own economic recovery package.

The New Hampshire Republican’s unexpected decision dealt a sharp blow to Mr. Obama’s efforts to create a bipartisan administration and was the latest drama in a young presidency that has suffered three other high-profile nominee withdrawals, questions about its vetting process and a flubbed banking plan that sent Wall Street reeling.

The White House defended the administration’s record but acknowledged that the latest setback might lead some to question the administration’s early competence.

Stimulus plan has $7 billion for Michigan

David N. Goodman / Associated Press

DETROIT — Michigan is in line for about $7 billion under a compromise $789 billion national stimulus plan now before Congress, according to a report from two groups that represent state governments.

About $2.27 billion of Michigan’s share would go to Medicaid, the health care program for the poor and disabled, and about $2 billion to schools.

The figures came Thursday from Federal Funds Information for States. It is a service of the National Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Education, arts hit hard in budget proposal

BY CHRIS CHRISTOFF
FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU CHIEF

February 13, 2009

LANSING — Slashing $670 million from state spending, ranging from schools to the prisons to the arts, Gov. Jennifer Granholm proposed a 2009-10 budget Thursday that leaves the door open to restore some cuts with federal stimulus money that neared approval in Washington.

Granholm said the federal money could nullify her proposed $59-per-pupil reduction to school districts and a 3% cut in state aid to the state’s 15 public universities.

But the federal money won’t avert an estimated 1,500 layoffs, mostly from unspecified state prisons that Granholm would close by releasing about 4,000 inmates who have served their minimum sentences and are considered a minimal public threat.

Michigan lawmakers may use federal stimulus to kill fees, cuts in Granholm’s proposed budget

by Peter Luke | Lansing Bureau

Thursday February 12, 2009, 8:35 PM

LANSING — Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s 2010 budget sets up a predictable deficit-reduction battle over spending cuts and revenue hikes that lawmakers are more than familiar with.

As soon as next week, however, she’ll offer up a second, and very unfamiliar, budget that proposes how to spend a mountain of federal cash provided through the economic stimulus package crafted by President Barack Obama and Congress.

State panel adjourns without decision on pay cut for governor, other top officials

Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

February 12, 2009

LANSING — The State Officers Compensation Commission, an obscure panel that recommends the salaries paid to top elected officials, adjourned today without taking action on Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s recommendation for a 10-percent cut for herself, the lieutenant governor, lawmakers and judges.

Commission members, meeting for the first time in more than four years, said they want a legal opinion from state attorney general on the legality of including judges in the pay reduction plan. They cited a clause in the Michigan Constitution that judges’ pay can be trimmed only if all other state employees get the same reduction.

"We’ve got time…we’re dealing with people’s lives," said the Rev. James Holley, pastor of Detroit’s Little Rock Baptist Church and a member of the commission. He made the motion to table Granholm’s recommendation.

GM ducks a tax bullet in stimulus plan

by Ken Thomas | The Associated Press

Thursday February 12, 2009, 7:10 AM

WASHINGTON - General Motors Corporation would receive a tax break in the $790 billion stimulus bill after the automaker argued its government-led restructuring would unintentionally lead to at least $7 billion in tax liabilities.

General Motors, which received a $13.4 billion lifeline from the Bush administration last year, would have been required to pay additional income taxes from its government loans, potentially undermining its turnaround plan.

Lawmakers said several conditions in the Detroit company’s loan agreement with the government could trigger an "ownership change" under a law that was designed to prevent companies from merging to avoid a hefty tax bill.

628 Days until Election Day

February 12, 2009

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"I think the American people deserve to know that legislation that would comprise an amount equal to the entire discretionary budget of the United States of America is being crafted without a single House Republican in the room."

House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.)

MORNING UPDATE:

STIMULUS SCAM…President Obama says that "economists from across the political spectrum agree" on the need for massive government spending to stimulate the economy. In fact, many economists disagree. Hundreds of them, including Nobel laureates and other prominent scholars, have signed a statement that the Cato Institute has placed in major newspapers across the United States.

RNC TECH SUMMIT…Chairman Michael Steele has asked me to head up the transition Team’s effort on bringing new technologies and tactics to the RNC.  We are in the process or reviewing and analyzing the current operation.  We also called for a Tech Summit where we are bringing interested parties together to share ideas, make suggestions and present their perspectives of what and how we could do more.  If you’re interested, join us.  For more details click here.

If you can’t attend in person please send thoughts via e-mail to ecampaign@gop.com and put "Tech Summit" in the subject line or call 202-863-8728.

An on-line discussion will be held.

We will also provide internet streaming video.

GOVERNOR HALEY BARBOUR…to kick off our state convention Friday night.  We will also have WJR’s Frank Beckmann there who will discuss "what media bias".  All Friday night!  For more information see the next paragraph.

MRP STATE CONVENTION…Just a quick note to let you know that the Michigan Republican’s website has been updated with State Convention information.   For your reference in directing potential delegates to the site, the address is: http://www.migop.org/event.asp.

CPAC 2009 Timeless Principles, New Challenges…Register today for the largest gathering of conservative grassroots activists in the country! The American Conservative Union Foundation is pleased to invite you to participate in the nation’s largest annual gathering of conservatives. The 36th Annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will be held on February 26-28, 2009.

************************************************************************

FOR THE LATEST NEWS, COMMENTARY & INFORMATION:

Check…out…our…online Articles of Interest………News…you…can…use………

************************************************************************

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

Stimulate First, Ask Questions Later

With the stimulus bill, Obama chose urgency over transparency.

By John Dickerson

Posted Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2009, at 6:32 PM ET

For President Obama to get a stimulus bill, something had to give. You can have urgency or transparency or a thorough think about things. But you can’t have all three. Forced to choose, Obama chose the fierce urgency of now.

The president heralded a deal reached Wednesday in the House and Senate on a stimulus bill, but the process wasn’t pretty. Creating legislation often isn’t. Instead of finding a Lego piece that fits, lawmakers get a larger one and bite it in half. Never mind the jagged edges.

Runaway Stimulus

By George Will

WASHINGTON — The president, convinced that the only thing America has to fear is an insufficiency of fear, has warned that "disaster" and "catastrophe" are the certain alternatives to swift passage of the stimulus legislation. One marvels at his certitude more than one envies his custody of this adventure.

Certitude of one flavor or another is never entirely out of fashion in Washington. Thirty years ago, some conservatives were certain that their tax cuts would be so stimulative that they would be completely self-financing. Today, some liberals are certain that the spending they favor — on green jobs, infrastructure and everything else — will completely pay for itself. For liberals, "stimulus spending" is a classification that no longer classifies: All spending is, they are certain, necessarily stimulative.

Geithner Can’t Find Gun, Let Alone Silver Bullet

David Reilly

Feb. 11

That’s it? That’s all Geithner had to offer?

It is amazing that this far into the financial crisis, we are still stumbling along, still so reluctant to tackle the problems facing the financial system and the economy.

Rather than offer the kind of comprehensive solution he had promised, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner yesterday served up a plan for banks and the financial system that was long on platitudes and short on specifics.

Stimulus has perks for Michigan

$789-billion measure will help Michigan, senators say

BY JUSTIN HYDE • FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF • February 12, 2009

WASHINGTON — The compromise on a $789-billion economic stimulus package reached Wednesday between congressional Democrats and key Senate Republicans curbs several ideas that could have helped Michigan, but Democrats said the deal was desperately needed to fight an economic downward spiral.

The plan , which could get a vote by the U.S. House as soon as today, would not extend Medicaid benefits to unemployed workers, pares back proposed tax breaks for buying a new vehicle and has much less money for repairing and updating schools than what the House had agreed upon.

But many features directly helping Michigan survived.

Obama to Big 3: Craft plan that works

Deb Price / Detroit News Washington Bureau

Thursday, February 12, 2009

WASHINGTON — Nearly an hour of heavy questioning had ticked by and, finally, a reporter asked what probably all the reporters were wondering.

What, exactly, was the brick-size wooden box with the red button on top, on the table in front of President Barack Obama?

"If any of you really got me mad, I would press it," Obama said with a mischievous laugh.

Pelosi has eye on automakers

Democrat met with experts for industry update as GM, Chrysler prepare viability plans.

David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau

Thursday, February 12, 2009

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is keeping close tabs on the efforts of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC to file restructuring plans by Tuesday.

"The February 17th proposal from autos is critical and they must take it seriously," said her spokesman Drew Hammill.

Last Wednesday, Pelosi, D-Calif., held a meeting with a number of top auto industry analysts to get an assessment of the state of the struggling auto industry. Auto sales fell 37 percent in January amid the struggling economy and are projected to remain sharply lower throughout 2009.

Senator aims for secretary of state

Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

Thursday, February 12, 2009

LANSING — State Sen. Cameron Brown, R-Fawn River Township, announced Wednesday he’ll seek the 2010 Republican nomination for secretary of state to replace Terri Lynn Land.

Land, a fellow Republican, is term limited and can’t seek re-election.

Brown, 54, was elected to the Michigan House in 1998 and to the Senate in 2002 and again in 2006.

State budget, slash and burn version

Barb Arrigo
February 11, 2009

Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s 2009-10 budget gets unveiled at 11 a.m. Thursday. (For the true wonks among you, the budget director’s presentation to the joint legislative committee should be available online here on HouseTV.)

We already know the governor plans to close three prisons to save money in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. It will be interesting to see where else she chooses to go in order to close the $1.6-billion budget gap the state is facing. I expect she will cut back per-pupil spending for K-12 schools. She may try to hold higher-ed funding steady, as part of her request to the community colleges and universities to hold tuition steady, but that hardly seems possible. Almost everywhere, I expect there will be some real blood on the floor from cutbacks.

You can bet, then, that lawmakers’ first question will be how much Michigan can expect to get from what looks like the compromise version of the stimulus that emerged from Congress this afternoon. Whatever their favorite cause — or yours — it’s almost sure to be hurt in this budget.

Panel meets on pay cut for top elected officials

First session in four years will review Granholm’s request to cut salaries 10% amid economic crunch.

Charlie Cain / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

Thursday, February 12, 2009

LANSING — An obscure state pay panel convenes today for the first time in more than four years, to consider a 10 percent pay cut for top elected officials amid souring economic conditions.

The seven-member State Officers Compensation Commission has been asked by Gov. Jennifer Granholm to chop her salary from $177,000 to $159,300 and reduce by 10 percent the salaries of the lieutenant governor (currently $123,900), state lawmakers ($79,650) and Supreme Court justices ($164,610).

On a 108-1 vote this month, the House approved a resolution endorsing the pay reductions. The legislative version, now before the Senate, does not call for the 10 percent cut for justices but added the offices of secretary of state and attorney general into the plan.

State prison, health funds face ax

Those areas expected to receive largest cuts among proposed reductions when gov unveils budget today.

Mark Hornbeck and Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

Thursday, February 12, 2009

LANSING — Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s state budget blueprint, to be unveiled today, cuts spending in nearly all areas of state government next year, with some of the deepest reductions coming in prisons and community health programs, according to sources familiar with the plan.

Education lobbyists say they expect the proposal will spare per-pupil aid to schools, but may cut money for programs, such as transportation, school administration and teacher training.

"There are deep cuts in Corrections and community health, but those aren’t the only departments affected," said Senate Appropriations Chairman Ron Jelinek, R-Three Oaks, who is familiar with the governor’s proposal. "Every cut being made is hard. They’re not putting in any new programs."

630 Days until Election Day

February 10, 2009

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"So then you get the argument, ‘well, this is not a stimulus bill, this is a spending bill.’ What do you think a stimulus is?  That’s the whole point."

Obama warned Republicans not to "come to the table with the same tired arguments and worn ideas that helped to create this crisis." Americans, he said, "did not vote for the false theories of the past, and they didn’t vote for phony arguments and petty politics."

President Barack Obama on the Stimulus Scam

MORNING UPDATE:

STIMILUS SCAM…the $838 billion so called "economic stimulus" bill backed by the Obama White House survived a key test vote in the Senate on Monday despite strong Republican opposition, and Democratic leaders vowed to deliver legislation for President Barack Obama’s signature within a few days.  The vote was 61-36, one more than the 60 needed to advance the measure toward Senate passage on Tuesday.  More Democrat spending, Democrat’s deficits, and Democrat’s debt for your children and grandchildren…I guess that’s "Change" you can count on?

RNC TECH SUMMIT…Chairman Michael Steele has asked me to head up the transition Team’s effort on bringing new technologies and tactics to the RNC.  We are in the process or reviewing and analyzing the current operation.  We also called for a Tech Summit where we are bringing interested parties together to share ideas, make suggestions, and present their perspectives of what and how we could do more.  If you’re interested, join us.  For more details click here. 

If you can’t attend in person please send thoughts via e-mail to ecampaign@gop.com and put "Tech Summit" in the subject line, or call 202-863-8728.

GOVERNOR HALEY BARBOUR…to kick off our state convention Friday night.  We will also have WJR’s Frank Beckmann there who will discuss "what media bias?".  All Friday night!  For more information see the next paragraph.

MRP STATE CONVENTION…Just a quick note to let you know that the Michigan Republican’s website has been updated with State Convention information.   For your reference in directing potential delegates to the site, the address is: http://www.migop.org/event.asp.

CPAC 2009 Timeless Principles, New Challenges…Register today for the largest gathering of conservative grassroots activists in the country! The American Conservative Union Foundation is pleased to invite you to participate in the nation’s largest annual gathering of conservatives. The 36th Annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will be held on February 26-28, 2009.

************************************************************************

FOR THE LATEST NEWS, COMMENTARY & INFORMATION:

Check…out…our…online Articles of Interest………News…you…can…use………

************************************************************************

THE REST OF THE STORY:

Just get ready to pass this tax bill and deficit on to your children and grandchildren…ONLY 13% of the so called "stimulus bill" creates jobs.

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

Dangers of the Stimulus Bill

by  Gary Wolfram

02/09/2009

There are many reasons to oppose the so-called stimulus bill and none of them are partisan.   An obvious one is the haste with which Congress is acting on a bill that is in excess of 700 pages and spends hundreds of billions of dollars. It is being rushed through both the legislative process with little or no input from the minority party legislators, much less the general public. The so-called Senate compromise was not available to most Senators until past 11 pm on Saturday night and yet a vote is expected by Tuesday at the latest. 

Even if the Keynesian theory behind the bill — the recession is being fed by lack of consumer spending and this can be rectified by government spending — is correct, the lack of analysis of such a major piece of legislation is dangerous.  To put this in perspective the compromise Senate amendment, at $827 billion, is about the amount of U.S. currency in circulation.  The entire federal budget did not reach $827 billion until 1984.  We may remember that the last time Congress rushed through a massive spending bill, the TARP legislation, the result was not what Congress had intended.

GOP playing vital role in stimulus bill

Twice in recent weeks President Barack Obama has reminded Republican members of Congress that there was an election in November, and he won. That’s true. There’s no disputing that Obama now gets his mail at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C.

But those GOP members of Congress also were elected by the people, and their voters have certain expectations of them. Their role this week is to provide vigorous opposition to a stimulus bill that is losing its mission.

Obama wants at least some Republican support for his stimulus package, the price tag of which is likely to approach $900 billion by the time it’s finished. The measure passed the House without a single Republican vote, and the president hopes for more bipartisanship in the Senate. He’s urged senators not to play politics.

Pelosi’s Indefensible Bill

For Barack Obama, a cautionary tale of audacity.

Historians tell us it was Roman custom to place a slave in the chariot behind a conquering hero, there to whisper warnings about the fleeting nature of fame amid the accolades of adoring crowds.

Barack Obama is no stranger to the cheers of roaring crowds. If his prime-time press conference last night is any clue, moreover, he intends to use this personal popularity to help Congress get a stimulus bill to his desk quickly. As he does, those who wish his presidency success might do well to whisper in his ear two words of tempering wisdom: "Nancy Pelosi."

In the public eye as well as on Capitol Hill, the California Democrat has become the mother of all stimulus packages. Whatever issues Mrs. Pelosi may claim with the Senate version, her leadership has defined the direction. Her intransigence has set the tone. And her penchant for excess helps explain why out of 535 members of Congress, only three Republicans seem willing to go anywhere near the thing.

Big jobless numbers, no big answers

February 9, 2009

Even if you are among them, and many people around here are, it’s a little hard to grasp that the number of people out of work last month was a staggering 4.1 million more than in the same month a year earlier. There are 11.6 million people officially unemployed in the United States today; jobs are vanishing at a clip not seen since 1945 and we all know that the real jobless rate - if you count people who have just quit looking or are trying to make it on part-time work or are just working to protect health care benefits - is well above the official 7.6% (10.6% in Michigan.)

There are a lot more numbers that quantify just how bad things are - manufacturing dumped 207,000 jobs last month, the biggest monthly shedding since 1982 - if you can stand to look. But more importantly, everyone keeps saying things will get worse before they get better, even here in Michigan, where things have been the worst of anywhere in the country for a long, long time.

Treasury says automakers’ bankruptcy possible

Mike Ramsey and Tiffany Kary / Bloomberg News

General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC may have to be forced into bankruptcy by the government to assure repayment of $17.4 billion in federal loans, a course of action the automakers claim would destroy them.

U.S. taxpayers take a backseat to prior creditors, including Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., according to loan agreements posted on the U.S. Treasury’s Web site.

If federal officials fail to get a consensual agreement to change their position regarding repayment, they have the option of forcing the companies into bankruptcy as a condition of more bailout aid. The government would finance the bankruptcy with a debtor-in-possession loan, a lender status that gives the U.S. priority over other creditors, said Don Workman, a partner at Baker & Hostetler LLP.

Michigan can no longer pretend and spend

State government leaders lack urgency to deal with crisis, pursue reforms

Tom Watkins

President Barack Obama could have easily been talking about Michigan in his inaugural address when he declared, "Our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed."

We know the "State of the State"; it is a mess. Michigan, which has led the parade of economic decline for a decade before the nation caught up, has been putting off tough decisions to deal with our structural budget crisis. The special and narrow interests have beaten back attempts of real reform, continuing to pretend and spend as though nothing has changed — when everything has changed.

The spending at the state level, along with the government and school structures at the local level, are unsustainable — and must change. It is about time that our elected leaders catch up with this reality. Change is the most talked about and least acted on idea in Lansing.

Granholm’s energy answer isn’t blowing in the wind

Henry Payne

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

In her State of the State speech, Gov. Jennifer Granholm outlined a restructuring of Michigan’s energy infrastructure that aims to meet this industrial state’s future energy needs with wind power. The plan is radical but hardly new. The governor’s policy closely parallels the failed experiment of Denmark — a similar peninsular water state that has invested billions of dollars in wind generation during the last 25 years.

In an interview with The Detroit News after her address, the governor was curiously unaware of Denmark’s experience, even though she toured Scandinavian countries in 2007 and cited them as models of an alternative energy future. But it is crucial that the state understand the lessons of Denmark and the very real limitations of wind power.

More Michigan roads allowed to crumble into gravel, study says

BY MATT HELMS
FREE PRESS DRIVING COLUMNIST

February 9, 2009

More Michigan county road agencies are letting paved roads revert to gravel and taking other drastic measures because of road funding shortfalls, according to a survey released today.

The County Road Association of Michigan said its survey found that 23 counties, mostly in northern or western Michigan or the Upper Peninsula, returned paved roads to gravel in 2008 because they didn’t have resources to keep the pavement in safe driving condition. The year before, only seven counties made that decision.

"We are literally reverting to the stone age," said the association’s director, John Niemela. "Unfortunately, we know this trend will continue unless funding for Michigan’s road agencies is increased substantially."

RNC holding summit to embrace Web 2.0

By Reid Wilson 
Posted: 02/09/09 03:45 PM [ET]

Following two election cycles in which Republicans saw Democrats best them in technological innovations, the Republican National Committee is throwing open its doors to conservative technophiles for a technology summit to get input on how to improve.

Bloggers, Web 2.0 fans and others who see technology as the next step toward reasserting the party will meet at RNC headquarters on Friday and will be given an opportunity to address the new administration for periods of five minutes each.

Planning Victory in Afghanistan

Nine principles the Obama administration should follow.

By Frederick W. Kagan

President Obama has said many times that America must succeed in Afghanistan. He is right, and he deserves our full support in that effort.

Afghanistan is in many respects harder to understand than Iraq was. Even with a good strategy and sufficient resources, success will almost certainly come much more slowly. But as a great man said two years ago, hard is not hopeless.

The keys to finding the right approach lie in nine fundamental principles.

631 Days until Election Day

February 9, 2009

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

‘The days when our government could be all things to all people are behind us."

– Gov. Jennifer Granholm, rhetoric, if only she and other Democrats believed it?  Their campaign rhetoric continues to NOT match reality.

MORNING UPDATE:

TOO FUNNY…TOO SAD… Our email program wouldn’t let us send emails Sunday morning because it labeled $870,000,000,000 as a scam. We couldn’t agree more.

DANGER…DANGER…STIMULUS SCAM… $827,000,000,000.00…it’ your tax dollars and debt…debt our children and grandchildren will be paying back for generations. Government is completely out of control and spending billions more than we take in.  Billions each and every day!

This is a government-induced problem, where bad public policy encouraged easy credit and now you and I are getting stuck with the bill.  See my commentary of Detroit TV.

MCCAIN ON SUNDAY TALK…I watched with anticipation and then excitement as Senator John McCain took on the Stimulus Package and pointed out that this was much more than infra-structure spending that would create any jobs.  This was about changing public policy, creating new government programs, and significantly growing the deficit.  The fiscal hawk was back!  Thanks John McCain!

MRP STATE CONVENTION…Just a quick note to let you know that the Michigan Republican’s website has been updated with State Convention information.   For your reference in directing potential delegates to the site, the address is: http://www.migop.org/event.asp.

CPAC 2009 Timeless Principles, New Challenges…Register today for the largest gathering of conservative grassroots activists in the country! The American Conservative Union Foundation is pleased to invite you to participate in the nation’s largest annual gathering of conservatives. The 36th Annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will be held on February 26-28, 2009.

RNC TECH SUMMIT…Chairman Michael Steele has asked me to head up the transition Team’s effort on bringing new technologies and tactics to the RNC.  We are in the process or reviewing and analyzing the current operation.  We also called for a Tech Summit where we are bringing interested parties together to share ideas, make suggestions and present their perspectives of what and how we could do more.  If you’re interested, join us.  For more details goto: http://net.gop.com/TechSummit/

CARD CHECK…Protect the workers’ right to a secret ballot. The vast majority (around 81%) of Americans believe that American workers have a right to have a secret ballot election before they are forced to join a union. Last year the House Democrats passed a bill that would strip American workers of the secret ballot. A new bill should be introduced reaffirming that right, and it should be brought up again and again until marginal Democrats are forced to vote with the American people against the union power structure.  This, coming from a Teamster.

For more information go to: http://www.unionfacts.com/cardcheck/whatIsCardcheck.cfm

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DANGER…THE STIMULUS SCAM…we can NOT spend, borrow and fake our way out of this government produced crisis.  Government encouraged over spending, easy credit, and government directed social engineering that backfired.  It’s BILLIONS of DOLLARS a day that Obama and the Democrats are borrowing that our children and grandchildren are going to have to pay back.  Where is the fiscal discipline?  Where is the fiscal responsibility?  As our boy scout motto says "Be Prepared".

Mike Allen in POLITICO pointed out that Newsweek editor Jon Meacham: ‘Without a great deal of fanfare, the America of 2009 has become a more socialist country … Harvard economist Ken Rogoff predicts the United States will move toward ‘a more centralized, re-distributional health-care system, as Europe already has,’ with a greater emphasis on the environment, higher regulation, and increased protectionism. Rogoff’s conclusion: ‘I take the 2008 U.S. elections as marking a turn toward continental Europe.’ Meacham and Evan Thomas, in their ‘violin’ introducing the cover package: ‘History has a sense of humor, for the man who laid the foundations for the world Obama now rules is George W. Bush, who moved to bail out the financial sector last autumn with $700 billion. Bush brought the Age of Reagan to a close; now Obama has gone further, reversing Bill Clinton’s end of big government.’

Hillsdale Economics Professor Gary Wolfram has said…Common sense tells us that our problem is not that consumers are not spending enough.  As John Taylor, Stanford University economics professor wrote in a recent NBER paper, we are in the recession because of government actions that artificially expanded credit resulting in people buying houses and consumer durables that they couldn’t afford.  As a consequence, the market is now correcting and resources, including labor, are moving out of the housing construction and consumer durable (such as auto) industries. 

There are only three ways to fund the $827 billion-cut other spending, increase taxes, or borrow.  Clearly the government’s intent is to borrow the money, and this will cause a drag on the economy rather than improve it.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that only 20.8 percent of the spending in the Senate substitute will occur in this fiscal year and another 38% in the 2010 fiscal year.

Government is NOT the solution…it’s the problem…be prepared.

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

The Stimulus Tragedy

Obama bets that we can spend our way to prosperity.

President Obama has started to play the "catastrophe" card to sell his economic stimulus plan, using yesterday’s terrible January jobs report to predict doom unless Congress acts. No doubt he’ll get his way, but the tragedy of this first great effort of the Obama Presidency is what a lost opportunity it is.

Everyone agrees that some kind of fiscal stimulus might help the economy, and that running budget deficits is appropriate in a recession. The stage was thus set for the popular President to forge a bipartisan consensus that combined ideas from both parties. A major cut in the corporate tax favored by Republicans could have been added to Democratic public works spending for a quick political triumph that might have done at least some economic good.

Instead, Mr. Obama chose to let House Democrats write the bill, and they did what comes naturally: They cleaned out their intellectual cupboards and wrote a bill that is 90% social policy, and 10% economic policy. (See here for a case study.) It is designed to support incomes with transfer payments, rather than grow incomes through job creation.

Adviser: Stimulus battle still on

WASHINGTON (AP) - One of President Obama’s top economic advisers forecast Sunday a difficult struggle with Congress over Senate cuts of $40 billion for state and local governments from the administration’s massive spending and tax cut package to stimulate the failing economy.

The $827 billion Senate version of the plan - designed to bring the economy out of the worst downward spiral since the Great Depression - was expected to pass the Senate on Tuesday. The House had already passed its $819 billion version of the measure.

How Government Created the Financial Crisis

Research shows the failure to rescue Lehman did not trigger the fall panic.

By JOHN B. TAYLOR

Many are calling for a 9/11-type commission to investigate the financial crisis. Any such investigation should not rule out government itself as a major culprit. My research shows that government actions and interventions — not any inherent failure or instability of the private economy — caused, prolonged and dramatically worsened the crisis.

The classic explanation of financial crises is that they are caused by excesses — frequently monetary excesses — which lead to a boom and an inevitable bust. This crisis was no different: A housing boom followed by a bust led to defaults, the implosion of mortgages and mortgage-related securities at financial institutions, and resulting financial turmoil.

Monetary excesses were the main cause of the boom. The Fed held its target interest rate, especially in 2003-2005, well below known monetary guidelines that say what good policy should be based on historical experience. Keeping interest rates on the track that worked well in the past two decades, rather than keeping rates so low, would have prevented the boom and the bust. Researchers at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have provided corroborating evidence from other countries: The greater the degree of monetary excess in a country, the larger was the housing boom.

Here’s a simple plan for our economy

Paul W. Smith

Monday, February 9, 2009

Outta my mind on a Monday moanin’:

• Here is all I know : As the swirl of hundreds and hundreds of billions of our dollars seem to be on the verge of making their way from our wallets and government printing presses into a variety of projects that appear to be spinning out of control and veering way off the path of what might be considered something that would kick start, or stimulate the economy, I am certainly happy about one thing…

At least the water park is gone.

Two million dollars down.

Barack Obama is a novice - and it shows

After a rocky start, the new President knows he has to seize back the political agenda, says Toby Harnden.

By Toby Harnden

6:47PM GMT 08 Feb 2009

During last year’s epic election campaign, Hillary Clinton said that in the White House "there is no time for on-the-job training". Joe Biden, too, remarked that the presidency was "not something that lends itself to on-the-job training". Both were aiming barbs at their then primary opponent. Mrs Clinton has since brought what she would refer to as her "lifetime of experience" to the role of Secretary of State, while Mr Biden has traded 36 years in the Senate for the vice-presidency. And the rookie they derided is President.

Now, the words of his former rivals are returning to haunt President Obama. After a distinctly rocky start to his presidency, he has admitted he "screwed up" and is returning to one thing in his political career that he has perfected - campaigning. In Elkhart, Indiana, today and Fort Myers, Florida, tomorrow, Mr Obama will try to seize back control of the political agenda with question-and-answer sessions with voters in two of the swing states that gave him victory.

Granholm bold in annual address

By GEORGE WEEKS

Gov. Jennifer Granholm, not noted for bold strokes, had an array of them in her State of the State Address last week, including a call to reduce the number of departments from 18 to eight.

Such Republicans as State Chairman Saul Anuzis and Attorney General Mike Cox, likely 2010 contender for her open seat, welcomed Granholm’s nod to government-shrinking/living within means. But — standard for the opposition party in SOS reaction — they lamented lack of details, some of which will come in the budget.

I have read the State of the State messages of every governor since Stevens T. Mason at age 25 presided over admission to statehood as the national Panic of 1837 was building and Michigan headed for its first economic fall. Granholm’s ranks high as well-crafted, and, among addresses I have watched, well-delivered.

Cutting pay of state politicians may not be easy

by The Associated Press

Sunday February 08, 2009, 12:44 PM

LANSING, Mich. — Rep. Alma Wheeler Smith cast the only negative vote last week when the Michigan House asked a state commission to recommend reducing salaries for lawmakers and the state’s top elected officials.

She says the pay cuts can’t occur unless the Michigan Constitution is amended. But the House didn’t try to change the constitution. Instead, it passed a resolution and sent out news releases trumpeting what Smith says were legislators’ "meaningless" efforts to cut their pay.

Reluctant Partners

Its rapid economic revolution gave rise to an influential global presence, but how long can America look past China’s suppressive human rights policies?

TOM WATKINS

What has transpired in China in its 5,000-year history is amazing. The last 30 years have been both remarkable and universally acknowledged.

There once was a time when what happened in China had minimal impact on our lives. Those days are gone.

What now happens in China no longer just stays in China. We not only feel the ripple effects; the tsunami wave of change will continue to wash upon our shores as the 21st century unfolds. How we adapt to and lead the changes that are coming will define our state and nation.

Taliban Growth Worries U.S., Security Experts

by Rob Gifford

While the Obama administration struggles with the economic crisis at home, it has another major challenge on its hands abroad: Afghanistan. The growing Taliban insurgency there was the focus at an international security conference in Munich, Germany, on Sunday.

A Missile for Mr. Obama

North Korea is calling, Mr. President.

Monday, February 9, 2009; Page A16

IT HASN’T been easy for foreign governments to command the attention of the Obama administration in its opening days, but North Korea is doing its best. Last week, the secretive Stalinist regime was spotted transporting what looked like a Taepodong-2 missile toward a launch site. In theory, the rocket has a range of more than 4,000 miles, which would allow it to reach Alaska. In trotting it out, Pyongyang is transparently threatening to violate U.N. resolutions by conducting its first flight test since 2006. This follows a steadily escalating series of provocations by the North toward South Korea, including the repudiation of past non-aggression agreements and a threat of "all-out confrontation."

The attention-getting behavior may look infantile, but from the North’s point of view it is quite logical. Time and again in the past decade, dictator Kim Jong Il has manufactured a crisis by testing missiles or a nuclear weapon, taking steps to produce bomb-grade plutonium, or expelling international inspectors. In most instances he has been rewarded with diplomatic attention and bribes of food and energy from South Korea, the United States, China and other nations, in exchange for reversing or freezing the actions. The Bush administration took office eight years ago declaring it would not condone such payoffs. It meekly ended, in October, by bribing Mr. Kim to reverse steps toward resuming plutonium reprocessing.

632 Days until Election Day

February 8, 2009

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"Republicans stand ready to work with reasonable Democrats to do what is right for America.  But it will take more than bipartisan words from the President. It will require fair-minded action from Democrats in Congress."

Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee

MORNING UPDATE:

SUNDAY MORNING SHOW…as provided by POLITICO and AP below.

RNC TECH SUMMIT…Chairman Michael Steele asked me to head up the transition Team’s effort on bringing new technologies and tactics to the RNC.  We are in the process or reviewing and analyzing the current operation.  We also called for a Tech Summit where we are bringing interested parties together to share ideas, make suggestions and present their perspectives of what and how we could do more.  If you’re interested, join us.  For more details click here.

STIMULUS SCAM….$827,000,000,000.00…in your tax dollars and debt…debt our children and grandchildren will be paying back.  Government is completely out of control and spending billions more than we take in.

RNC CHAIRMAN MICHAEL STEELE WEEKLY ADDRESS…so here we are, Republicans aggressively taking our message to the American people.  Check it out and share it with your friends.

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THE SHOWS, mostly from AP

ABC’s ‘This Week’ - Lawrence Summers, director of National Economic Council; Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele.

CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’ - Christina Romer, head of the Council of Economic Advisers; Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and John McCain (R-Ariz..).

NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ - Sens. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; and Reps. Mike Pence, R-Ind., and Barney Frank, D-Mass.

CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ - Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood; Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.

‘Fox News Sunday’ - Summers; Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

Senate closes in on $780B stimulus

Dems reach compromise with key Republicans as report shows firms cut 600,000 jobs last month.

Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats reached agreement Friday with a handful of Republicans to pass $780 billion in spending and tax cuts to boost the flagging economy on a day of miserable employment news.

Democrats said they had agreed to a compromise negotiated by a bipartisan group of Senate moderates and were confident they could get the Republican support they need to get the required 60 votes. Democratic leaders said Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, along with Pennsylvania’s Arlen Spector, would vote for the bill. .

"The people of my state don’t care how many Democrats or Republicans vote for this," said Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing. "They care about how many jobs this creates."

The Stimulus Tragedy

Obama bets that we can spend our way to prosperity.

President Obama has started to play the "catastrophe" card to sell his economic stimulus plan, using yesterday’s terrible January jobs report to predict doom unless Congress acts. No doubt he’ll get his way, but the tragedy of this first great effort of the Obama Presidency is what a lost opportunity it is.

Everyone agrees that some kind of fiscal stimulus might help the economy, and that running budget deficits is appropriate in a recession. The stage was thus set for the popular President to forge a bipartisan consensus that combined ideas from both parties. A major cut in the corporate tax favored by Republicans could have been added to Democratic public works spending for a quick political triumph that might have done at least some economic good.

Instead, Mr. Obama chose to let House Democrats write the bill, and they did what comes naturally: They cleaned out their intellectual cupboards and wrote a bill that is 90% social policy, and 10% economic policy. (See here for a case study.) It is designed to support incomes with transfer payments, rather than grow incomes through job creation.

Americans have doubts about plan for economy

Yet poll shows support for government action

By John Marelius

Union-Tribune Staff Writer

2:00 a.m. February 8, 2009

Thirteen years after President Bill Clinton declared that "the era of big government is over," one of the biggest government spending programs ever conceived is moving through Congress.

And the American people are on board - sort of.

"They’re all over the map," said Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.

"The way I would characterize what the public view is they know something has to be done, they’re not quite sure what should be done," Smith said. "They’ve been told that the economy is in dreadful shape and getting worse. They don’t want it to get worse. So just do something - anything."

Michigan couple among pairs laid off together

By MELISSA NELSON
Associated Press
February 8, 2009

It is a well-known risk to lack diversity in an investment portfolio. Now, couples employed by the same company are learning a similar lesson, the hard way.

As layoffs mount across the country and in all sectors, couples who are co-workers are increasingly vulnerable to losing their families’ twin sources of income at once.

The lack of variety in job skills can also make it difficult to bounce back, especially in a struggling industry.

Services for Livingston County veterans may fall victim to economy

BY SHARON GITTLEMAN
FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER
February 8, 2009

Is the short-term future of veterans services in Livingston County in jeopardy?

That’s the fear of Bob Heinel, retiring Department of Veterans Affairs director.

Financial troubles have spurred the Livingston County Board of Commissioners to consider what would be the elimination of the three-person office by not filling openings and merging its functions with other departments, although the department would likely continue in some lesser form.

Honeymoon over, Obama aides admit mistakes, retrench

Michael D. Shear and Anne E. Kornblut / Washington Post

WASHINGTON — President Obama retreated to the serenity of Camp David for the first time Saturday, stepping back briefly from a presidency that has quickly found itself tested by a loyal opposition and the loss of the pitch-perfect tone that helped sweep him to office.

Beset by criticism of an alleged ethical double standard over some of his Cabinet choices and an intensifying partisan debate over his economic recovery plan, Obama is attempting a return to the campaign-style approach and aggressiveness that echoes the toughest days of his battle with Hillary Clinton.

In a fiery speech before a gathering of House Democrats in Williamsburg on Thursday night that took place even as he was searching out GOP support for his stimulus package, Obama blasted Republican policies that "for the last eight years doubled the national debt and threw our economy into a tailspin." He then led Democratic members of Congress in a familiar chant: "Fired up!" he declared. "Ready to go!" they returned — voicing a call and response that became a trademark of his campaign.

Obama is stimulating gun sales

If gun owners are like wooly worms — they instinctively fatten up ahead of a harsh winter — then the Second Amendment is in for a rough spell.

Since Barack Obama’s election in November, gun and ammunition sales have soared, as have requests for concealed carry permits, on fears that the new president will clamp down on gun rights.

Business has been so brisk that one California store hung a poster of Obama with the words, "Salesman of the Year."

"Our sales are up 15 to 20 percent since October," says Roger Little, owner of Shooter’s Service in Livonia. "It’s not the 40 percent other stores are reporting, but it’s good business."

How can Republicans repair their brand?

Ernest Istook

Sunday, February 8, 2009

A few years ago we said goodbye to the Oldsmobile. It went the way of the Pierce Arrow, Plymouth and Studebaker.

Some believe conservatives and Republicans will be the next brands doomed to follow into extinction. They forecast death by suicide for the GOP and extinction via political climate change for conservatives.

But let’s not bury either group beside the Whigs and the Mugwumps.

Republicans and conservatives overlap but are not identical. Yet they need each other to flourish because Democrats own the liberal brand. Unless they have a conservative brand, Republicans will have no brand at all.

Obama, Reagan ‘face off’ at Kennedy Center

By PATRICK GAVIN | 2/7/09 10:07 AM EST

You can get members of different parties under the same roof, but that doesn’t mean they’ll get along.

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts experienced two very different sets of Washington’s political elite Friday night: While the first family attended a dance performance in the Center’s main theater, an impressive showing of Republicans gathered on the top floor to take in the premiere of "Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny," a new film narrated by Newt and Callista Gingrich which paints a glowing portrait of our 40th president.

While Barack, Michelle, Sasha and Malia were treated like rock stars down below, it was Ronald Reagan being toasted up above by such GOP notables as Mr. and Mrs. Gingrich, George Allen, Ollie North, Bob Livingston, Al Regnery, Craig Shirley, David Bossie, Saul Anuzis, Jim Pinkerton and Fred Thompson.

Biden offers olive branch to Iran, Russia

Craig Whitlock / Washington Post

MUNICH — Vice President Joe Biden held out an olive branch Saturday to Iran and Russia, and reassured European allies that the Obama administration would treat them as equals but emphasized that "America will ask its partners to do more as well."

In a major-foreign policy address Saturday to an international security conference here, Biden told an audience of world leaders that the White House was willing to engage the government in Tehran if it heeded calls to end its nuclear-weapons program and changed its policies in the Middle East.

"This much is clear: We will be willing to talk," Biden said. But he added a warning to Iran: "continue down your current course and there will be pressure and isolation."

633 Days
until Election Day

February 7,
2009

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

Reagan described the Soviet system as “an evil empire” and predicted the Soviet Union would end up on “the ash heap of history”.
President Ronald Reagan

MORNING UPDATE:

RNC TRANSITION….we finished another day of meetings at the RNC with the Transition Team. I was assigned e-campaign and technology as my area of responsibility. Chairman Steele made it clear he wants us to not only catch up with what the Democrats and the Obama campaign did this time around, but anticipate and be ready for what’s next. We have scheduled a Technology Summit for next week Friday at the RNC where we will invite folks from all over the country for a brainstorming session on how to proceed. Details to follow.

RONALD REAGAN’S 98th BIRTHDAY AND PREMIER…last night we celebrated Ronald Reagan’s 98 birthday with the premier showing of “Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny” at the Kennedy Center in D.C. Newt and Callista Gingrich hosted the event which included Senators Fred Thompson and George Allen, George Will, David Keene, Ollie North and many others from the Reagan administration as well as movement conservatives. It was a great tribute to Reagan and a great chance to see old friends from across the country.

Connect to the Michigan Republican Party through Twitter and recieve all the latest updates as they come in at: http://twitter.com/migop

MRP STATE CONVENTION…Just a quick note to let you know that the Michigan Republican’s website has been updated with State Convention information.   For your reference in directing potential delegates to the site, the address is: http://www.migop.org/event.asp.

CPAC 2009 Timeless Principles, New Challenges…Register today for the largest gathering of conservative grassroots activists in the country! The American Conservative Union Foundation is pleased to invite you to participate in the nation’s largest annual gathering of conservatives. The 36th Annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will be held on February 26-28, 2009. http://www.cpac.org/.

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FOR
THE LATEST NEWS, COMMENTARY &
INFORMATION:

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THE REST OF THE STORY:

No further commentary today

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

The following
stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

CBO: Obama stimulus harmful over long haul

Stephen Dinan

President Obama’s economic recovery package will actually hurt the economy more in the long run than if he were to do nothing, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation, said the House and Senate bills will help in the short term but result in so much government debt that within a few years they would crowd out private investment, actually leading to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years than if the government had done nothing.

CBO estimates that by 2019 the Senate legislation would reduce GDP by 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent on net. [The House bill] would have similar long-run effects, CBO said in a letter to Sen. Judd Gregg, New Hampshire Republican, who was tapped by Mr. Obama on Tuesday to be Commerce Secretary.

Senate Reaches $780 Billion Compromise Package

By GREG HITT and JONATHAN WEISMAN

WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic leaders struck a deal late Friday with three moderate Republicans on a leaner economic-recovery package, clearing a path to Senate passage of one of the most ambitious fiscal stimulus plans in decades.

The deal came after five days of partisan gridlock, and followed news earlier Friday that employers had slashed nearly 600,000 jobs in January. Senators valued the compromise plan at $780 billion — well less than the $930 billion plan the Senate debated most of the day.

No final vote on the package was expected before Monday.

Not counted in that estimate are several popular tax breaks — including measures to encourage auto and home sales — that were approved this week on the Senate floor and are expected to be incorporated into the legislation. Those could push the final cost of the Senate plan closer to $820 billion.

The Fierce Urgency of Pork

By Charles Krauthammer

"A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe."

– President Obama, Feb. 4.

Catastrophe, mind you. So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared "we have chosen hope over fear." Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill.

And so much for the promise to banish the money changers and influence peddlers from the temple. An ostentatious executive order banning lobbyists was immediately followed by the nomination of at least a dozen current or former lobbyists to high position. Followed by a Treasury secretary who allegedly couldn’t understand the payroll tax provisions in his 1040. Followed by Tom Daschle, who had to fall on his sword according to the new Washington rule that no Cabinet can have more than one tax delinquent.

The Daschle affair was more serious because his offense involved more than taxes. As Michael Kinsley once observed, in Washington the real scandal isn’t what’s illegal, but what’s legal. Not paying taxes is one thing. But what made this case intolerable was the perfectly legal dealings that amassed Daschle $5.2 million in just two years.

Stimulate the economy, not government

By Miitt Romney

(CNN) — These are extraordinary times, and like a lot of Republicans I believe that a well-crafted stimulus plan is needed to put people back to work. But the Obama spending bill would stimulate the government, not the economy.

We’re on an economic tightrope. The package that passed the House is a huge increase in the amount of government borrowing. And we’ve borrowed so much already that if we add too much more debt, or spend foolishly, we could invite an even bigger crisis.

We could precipitate a worldwide crisis of confidence in America, leading to a run on the dollar or hyperinflation that wipes out family savings and devastates the middle class.

From Awful to Merely Bad: Reviewing the Bank Rescue Options

By R. GLENN HUBBARD, HAL SCOTT AND LUIGI ZINGALES

When Henry Paulson, President Bush’s Treasury secretary, first introduced the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in Congress last September, we cautioned against using government funds to buy mortgages and mortgage-related securities from banks. After the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act was signed into law in early October, the Treasury decided not to buy these assets. Instead, it used the first $350 billion of TARP funds to inject capital first into nine systemically important troubled banks, and later into insurer AIG (as part of a refinancing) and auto makers General Motors and Chrysler.

This approach seems to have achieved (albeit at a high cost for taxpayers) its principal objective of avoiding a massive collapse of the financial system. But it has not yet resulted in an increase in bank lending or the attraction of new private equity to the banking system, both of which are important to reviving the economy. There now appears to be active consideration of using TARP funds to buy "bad assets" from the banks. Major problems with so doing remain.

The central issue is how to price the assets. When the subprime crisis hit in the summer of 2007, the Treasury’s first response was to encourage the private sector to create a fund — the so-called Super SIV (structured investment vehicle) — to buy mortgage-related assets. This proposal foundered due to the difficulty of setting a price for these assets, which come in complex and incomparable varieties. If Treasury pays close to par, it is paying far too much. If it pays current prices, no one will sell because of the adverse impact on their capital. If it pulls a price out of a hat, it will be acting arbitrarily.

Jobs Down, Stocks Up?

By Lawrence Kudlow

How do you explain it when jobs plunge and stocks surge? That’s what happened Friday as the January employment report revealed a disastrous 598,000 drop in payrolls. Actually, the job loss was 664,000 if you count downward revisions to the prior two months. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate moved up from 7.2 to 7.6 percent. So there’s no sugar coating it: It was a terrible report.

However, stocks traded strong on Friday, with the Dow Jones finishing up over 200 points. Broad stock indexes are up 15 to 20 percent from their November lows. How can this be? Well, the stock market is telling us that the economy’s future is a lot brighter than its past. The stock market looks ahead; the employment report looks behind.

Mustard seeds planted a while back are now pointing to economic recovery. The huge energy tax cut is one such mustard seed. The related inflation collapse is another. By the way, in today’s jobs report, wages rose again, and now stand nearly 4 percent higher than a year ago. With zero inflation, that’s a real increase in worker purchasing power for the 92.4 percent, or 135 million workers, still employed.

Congress risks criticism over luxury retreat trips

By LAURIE KELLMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) - Members of Congress were quick to shame corporate executives for over-the-top extravagance during the economic crisis, flying private jets and taking luxury junkets. But some lawmakers are strolling fancy resorts spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars and mingling with lobbyists.

"We’re very mindful" of perceptions, House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson told reporters Thursday camped outside of the sprawling Kingsmill Resort & Spa in Williamsburg, Va., where House Democrats spent about $100,000 on their three-day annual retreat. "It’s serious and it’s from morning till night. We’ve been dwelling, rightfully, on the economy," said Larson, D-Conn.

Republicans and Democrats in the House have passed new rules governing such trips even as lawmaker say the events are useful for negotiating public policy. But with a nation tightening its belt and already fatigued by stories of corporate excess, perceptions matter these days in Washington. Congress risks shattering its glass house throwing stones.

High stakes for Obama at weekend security conference

By Helene Cooper

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration is facing its first big international test this weekend as Vice President Joseph Biden Jr. heads to a conference in Europe in the face of a confrontational stance from an old cold war adversary.

Administration officials have concluded that Russia pressed Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic, to close the American base in that country, which they interpret as a shot across the bow. The base is crucial to the American-led fight in Afghanistan that Obama has identified as his central national security objective. Obama plans to deploy as many as 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan over the next two years; shaky overland supply routes through Pakistan would make it difficult for the United States to adjust to the loss of the base, in Manas, Kyrgyzstan.

It was Biden who warned publicly in October that Obama’s mettle could be tested early in his administration by some kind of an international crisis. Now, a speech that Biden is scheduled to deliver Saturday before leaders and defense officials from Europe and Asia will be watched closely to determine what tack America’s fledgling leadership will take regarding Russia.

Iran: US must rethink policies for reconciliation

By GEORGE JAHN and DAVID RISING
Associated Press Writers

MUNICH (AP) - Iran sternly dismissed decades of U.S. policies targeting Tehran and declared Friday that the new American administration had to admit past wrongs before it could hope for reconciliation.

The comments by Iranian parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani at an international security conference in Munich appeared to be the most detailed outline yet of Tehran’s expectations from President Barack Obama’s administration.

"The old carrot and stick policy must be discarded," he said, alluding to Western threats and offers of rewards to coax Iran to give up nuclear activities the West views as threatening. "This is a golden opportunity for the United States."

Obama has said the U.S. is ready for direct talks with Iran in efforts to overcome concerns that its nuclear program could be used to develop atomic weapons. Tehran denies that and insists its aims are peaceful. The former U.S. administration refused one-on-one negotiations with Tehran on the issue unless it made significant nuclear concessions beforehand.

Russia rattles sabres in Obama’s direction

By Quentin Peel

Russia may face a grim economic downturn but one would scarcely think so to judge by the sound of sabre-rattling emerging from the Kremlin. Unless, of course, it is intended as a domestic distraction from the gathering gloom.

The double-act of Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin has come up with a series of security initiatives that seem designed to provoke, or at least irritate, the new administration in Washington. Without even waiting to hear how President Barack Obama intends to conduct his relations with Moscow – something that Joe Biden, his vice-president, may well address on Saturday at the annual Munich Security Conference – the Russian leaders have thrown down the gauntlet.

First, they leaked details of naval and air bases to be established on the shores of the Black Sea in the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia, whose independence is recognised by Moscow alone. Then they signed an air defence treaty with the former Soviet republic of Belarus, apparently paving the way for an anti-missile defence system to counter one planned by the previous US administration across the border in Poland. Moscow appears to have persuaded the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan to oust the US from its air base at Manas, outside Bishkek, in exchange for $2bn (€1.6bn, £1.4bn) in loans, and $150m in financial aid.

642 Days
until Election Day

February 5,
2009

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

"This is America. We don’t disparage wealth. We don’t begrudge anybody for achieving success. But what gets people upset - and rightfully so - are executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers."

President Barack Obama

MORNING UPDATE:

OBAMA’S SOCIALIST REPUBLIC…it’s not enough to pick winners and losers in the free market, now the Harvard elite will decide how much pay is enough for whom. Government bureaucrats will define “failure”, you know the deficit spending guys? Next, we’ll be getting notices of what jobs we “qualify” for under government support and central planning. This is VERY dangerous.

GRANHOLM ORDERS SEARCH FOR ‘FEASIBLE AND PRUDENT ALTERNATIVES’ TO COAL..Gongwers reports before the Department of Environmental Quality issues a license for a new coal-fired power plant in the state, it has to show that the plant is the best way to meet the state’s energy needs. The directive requires the DEQ to determine whether there is actually need for the plant. Then it must find that it would not be “feasible and prudent” to cover that demand using demand reduction programs, alternative energy sources or emission sequestration technology, or purchase from existing power plants. More central planning, which over 1,000 years of safe, cleaner and cleaner coal power plants???

MRP TRANSITION…we have started meeting with Ambassador Weiser and his team to go over various operations, review programs and complete a variety of tasks that will provide for a smooth transition to our new state leadership. We are working on making changes to our upcoming state convention to accomondate Ron’s plans for kicking off this election cycle and have ordered an outside audit, just like we did before to insure a clean start. It’s great to see the new energy and commitment Ron is bringing to the task…our future is bright!

RNC TRANSITION TEAM…I will be heading to Washington DC today for our first set of meetings with our Chairman Michael Steele. He has assembled a team of party leaders from across the country to help him analyze what the party is currently doing well, what needs to be changed and how we can do what we do better. I look forward to working with Chairman Steele as we help rebuild our party and move forward toward 2010. Just as an fyi, not state party funds are being used for any of these activities.

MRP STATE CONVENTION…Just a quick note to let you know that the Michigan Republican’s website has been updated with State Convention information.   For your reference in directing potential delegates to the site, the address is: http://www.migop.org/event.asp.

CPAC 2009 Timeless Principles, New Challenges…Register today for the largest gathering of conservative grassroots activists in the country! The American Conservative Union Foundation is pleased to invite you to participate in the nation’s largest annual gathering of conservatives. The 36th Annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will be held on February 26-28, 2009. http://www.cpac.org/.

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Obama announces CEO pay caps

Carol E. Lee

Trying to regain the initiative after losing two top nominees to tax issues in 24 hours, President Barack Obama struck a populist stance on Wednesday in targeting Wall Street pay packages and luxury perks for CEOs.

Standing alongside Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, the president announced a $500,000 salary cap and limits on bonuses for top executives at companies that receive substantial amounts of federal bailout money.

"We’re going to be demanding some restraint in exchange for federal aid," Obama said.

The president took care to preempt criticism that the regulations, which are much stricter than under the Bush administration, smack of Big Government.

Obama’s Salary Cap Could Seriously Hurt New York

Marcia Kramer

President Obama’s Wall Street salary cap may be well intentioned and it certainly taps into public sentiment, but it’s a killer for New York.

"Without the talent of Wall Street to bring us back into a position of leadership in the global economy, we’re going to be in bad shape as a world economic power," said Kathryn Wilde of the Partnership for New York.

Wylde says the Obama salary cap will lead to a critical brain drain – China and the United Arab Emirates have already come to poach Wall Street talent. She also says lower salaries in the financial industry will mean dramatically lower tax revenues for the city and state.

Democratic Leaders Said to Prepare ‘Buy American’ Compromise

By Mark Drajem

Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) — Congressional leaders, trying to quell a dispute over “Buy American” provisions in the stimulus package, are crafting a version that would apply only when they don’t violate trade rules, according to industry officials and a congressional aide.

The lawmakers are reacting to a demand by the White House that the provisions satisfy U.S. obligations under the World Trade Organization. President Barack Obama “wants to ensure that any legislation that passes is consistent with trade agreements and doesn’t signal a change in our overall stance on trade,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said at a news briefing today.

The House Ways and Means Committee’s Democratic staff and aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, are working out the language, said a lobbyist who was briefed on the measure. The people familiar with the talks declined to be identified because the talks are confidential. Ways and Means spokesman Matthew Beck didn’t have an immediate comment, and Reid spokesman Jim Manley didn’t return a telephone message.

Steele to take ‘a fresh look’ at RNC

By Ralph Z. Hallow

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele has summoned members of his transition team to a dinner Thursday and to a meeting at the Republican National Committee’s Washington headquarters Friday, transition team members told The Washington Times.

Mr. Steele was elected to his position last week after Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a rival for the post, withdrew from the race and threw his support to Mr. Steele. Mr. Blackwell is not part of the transition team, though it does include another Steele rival for the chairman’s job, former Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis.

Mr. Steele has promised to clean house at the RNC.

"My transition team will take a fresh look at everything, with an eye toward preparing to win the campaigns of the future," he said in a statement that was unusual because transition teams usually are not launched with formal public notice.

A task for Lt. Gov. Cherry or a problem?

BY RON DZWONKOWSKI • FREE PRESS ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Gov. Jennifer Granholm has directed her No. 2, Lt. Gov. John Cherry, to “lead a comprehensive effort to dramatically change the shape and size of state government.” This presents an opportunity for Cherry to advance his candidacy for governor in 2010 — and also potential problems.

For now, even Republicans are lauding the idea, in their own way.

“It is encouraging that the Granholm/Cherry administration has finally seen the wisdom in what Republicans have been telling them from the beginning,” Michigan GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis said. “With the administration opting to reform our state instead of passing another mammoth tax increase, I hope that our state’s government can finally work in a bipartisan fashion to root out the structural inefficiencies that have plagued us for too long.”

Coalition for Progress received most of its $4.2M from Kalamazoo’s Stryker

Charlie Cain and Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

LANSING — Kalamazoo billionaire Jon Stryker bankrolled the state’s biggest political action committee for the second consecutive election cycle, a watchdog group reported Wednesday.

The Coalition for Progress raised more than $4.2 million during the 2007-08 election cycle, and $3.83 million of it — 91 percent — came from Stryker.

The coalition spent money on behalf of Democrats in 12 competitive state House races and helped them pick up nine seats in November — swelling their majority over Republicans to 67-43.

Ben Miller, executive director of the Coalition for Progress, said he doesn’t mind having the richest PAC — but the report may not tell the whole story.

"The fundamental difference is that we are transparent; it’s a matter of public record," Miller said. "Conservatives and Republicans can’t say the same thing. Historically, Republicans have flooded their campaign coffers with money from nonprofits, foundations and other (nonreporting) organizations."

The Stimulus Score Card

Joshua Zumbrun

The most recent version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as the stimulus package, is 736 pages long. The Congressional Budget Office estimates it will cost $884 billion if passed.

It’s a huge, risky bet. The interest alone on the spending could cost future taxpayers an additional $500 billion. So what’s in there? And, more important, will it help the economy? Those are the two biggest questions in Washington ahead of a likely vote by the Senate next week. Senators are just now looking at the entirety of the legislation.

We estimate some $350 billion is likely to flow into the economy quickly, $255 billion won’t do much, at least not in a useful time frame, and the impact of $144 billion in promised payroll tax cuts are a toss up. The remainder, about $135 billion, is comprised of dozens of smaller programs that would have little individual effect.

Lawmakers clash with SEC over Madoff probe

By MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer

WASHINGTON – House lawmakers on Wednesday accused the Securities and Exchange Commission of impeding their probe into how the agency failed to uncover the alleged $50 billion fraud perpetrated by Bernard Madoff.

The clash between lawmakers and high-ranking SEC officials came at a hearing after the whistleblower in the case, Harry Markopolos, said he had feared for his physical safety and would turn over new evidence to the agency showing the alleged Ponzi scheme mastermind had not acted alone.

Markopolos said he had discovered a dozen additional funds that funneled money to Madoff, "hiding in the weeds" in Europe. Managers of investment "feeder" funds that relayed money to Madoff willfully turned a blind eye to his improprieties because they were paid generous fees, Markopolos said.

We don’t have a moment to spare, but evidently we have $1 trillion

By Jacob Sullum

Last October, while campaigning in Toledo, Barack Obama called for "a new ethic of responsibility." The nation’s economic troubles, he said, occurred partly because "everyone was living beyond their means," including politicians who "spent money they didn’t have." In his inaugural address last month, Obama regretted "our collective failure to make hard choices" and heralded "a new era of responsibility."

Now President Obama, as one of his first priorities, is pushing a gargantuan "stimulus" plan that will add around $1 trillion to the national debt and cannot possibly work as advertised. Welcome to the new era of responsibility.

Remember when the problem with Americans was that we saved too little, preferring instant gratification even when we couldn’t afford it? As Obama put it in October, "we were allowed and even encouraged to spend without limits, to borrow instead of save."

Auto suppliers group in talks with Treasury for federal aid

By JEWEL GOPWANI • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

In an attempt to head off a cash shortage among the nation’s automotive parts suppliers, the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association is in talks with the U.S. Treasury about federal aid that could stave off a cascade of supplier bankruptcies.

Failures in the supplier community could derail the federally aided restructuring plans at General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.

“The most immediate need for the suppliers over the next four to six weeks is additional cash to cover the pending drop off in accounts receivables from their customers,” said David Andrea, vice president of industry analysis and economics at the Original Equipment Suppliers Association, which is a member of MEMA.

643 Days
until Election Day

February 4,
2009

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“Any honest assessment of our state’s economy has to recognize that things are likely to get worse before they get better. But if there is one thing I want you, the citizens of Michigan, to know this evening, it is this: Things will get better,”
Governor Jennifer Granholm (another way of saying “we’ll be blown away”!)

MORNING UPDATE:

GRANHOLM STATE OF THE STATE
10.6% unemployment and yes, once again, she promises that we will be “blown away”. Another “pipedream” is to reduce the state’s reliance on imported fossil fuel by 45 percent by the year 2020. The state now gets about 75 percent of its power from imported coal- and natural gas-fired plants. Raise the cost of energy, that’s going to do a lot to create jobs?!?

STEELE APPOINTS ANUZIS CO-CHAIR OF RNC TRANSITION TEAM…Comprised of current RNC members, the transition team will help implement the sweeping changes Steele proposed during his campaign for chairman.  Under Chairman Steele’s leadership, the RNC will focus on recruiting a new cadre of top-notch candidates and operatives, build new volunteer networks, and forge new working relationships with state and local parties.  The team will also immediately begin preparing for the gubernatorial and local elections later this year in Virginia and New Jersey, and the special Congressional election in New York State. It’s a great honor and opportunity to be part of the team.

CHERRY/GRANHOLM TAX LEGACY…Lieutenant Governor Cherry recently said he believes Governor Granholm has a ‘strong record’. If he believes sky-rocketing taxes and enacting a never-ending string of anti-business policies constitutes a strong record, then he’s made a better case for change in this state than I could ever hope to.

The administration lacked foresight into the state’s overall economic climate and should have let Republicans take the lead in prior years when the party was calling for massive cuts and reforms to state government.
 
We’re looking at record unemployment and tens-of-thousands of people leaving the state and the only answer this administration has is to do what Republicans have been telling them to do from day one. It’s encouraging they have finally seen the light, it’s just sad it cost our state over 400,000 jobs and $1.6 billion before they could realize they should have been listening to Republicans all along.

STIMULUS PLAN QUESTIONED… check www.nostimulus.com website and check out tonight’s national townhall teleconference with U.S. Senator DeMint on the stimulus. Details: Wednesday, Feb. 4th. From 8 to 9 pm. Call 1-877-229-8493. Pin #13896. We need your help.

MRP STATE CONVENTION…Just a quick note to let you know that the Michigan Republican’s website has been updated with State Convention information.   For your reference in directing potential delegates to the site, the address is: http://www.migop.org/event.asp.

CPAC 2009 Timeless Principles, New Challenges…Register today for the largest gathering of conservative grassroots activists in the country! The American Conservative Union Foundation is pleased to invite you to participate in the nation’s largest annual gathering of conservatives. The 36th Annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) will be held on February 26-28, 2009. http://www.cpac.org/.

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Granholm proposes ‘green’ initiatives, government cutbacks

Mark Hornbeck, Charlie Cain and Gary Heinlein / Detroit News Lansing Bureau

LANSING — Gov. Jennifer Granholm, in her seventh State of the State address, called Tuesday for a near-moratorium on new coal-fired power plants and a major reduction in reliance on coal for electricity generation over the next decade.

Approval of eight coal plants now in the pipeline will be delayed at least several months while the state reviews alternatives, and some of them won’t be built, the governor and her aides indicated. Alternative energy played a key role in the governor’s address, and she hopes to help rebuild the state’s economy, in part, by nurturing a "green energy" industry here.

Granholm’s address to the Legislature was delivered against the backdrop of economic crisis and a looming $1.6-billion budget deficit. She proposed several initiatives to ease the financial stresses on struggling families, including a moratorium on utility shutoffs to needy households, a freeze on car insurance rates, and a three-month notice before home foreclosures.

Granholm plan attempts to get tough too late

Tom Walsh

"It’s a time for relentless focus and discipline," Gov. Jennifer Granholm stated soberly Tuesday night as she cut the salaries of elected officials 10%, vowed to pare 18 state departments down to eight, cut funding for state fairs and shut down three more prisons.

To which Michigan business leaders replied: It’s about time. And then asked: Is all that enough to close a looming $2.5-billion budget gap over the next two years?

"Our fear," said Doug Rothwell, president of the Detroit Renaissance group of corporate chief executive officers, "is that we will rely too much on the federal stimulus package, without implementing enough structural reforms to fix our budget problems.

The Stimulus Package Is More Debt We Don’t Need

By TOM COBURN

As the Senate considers a massive $1.1 trillion stimulus bill, it is vital that the American people ask hard questions of their elected officials. When they do, it will become very clear that the bill will not only fail to stimulate the economy, but could seriously delay economic recovery.

As a nation, we got into this mess by spending and investing money that didn’t exist. We won’t get out of it by doing more of the same.

Yet this is precisely what this bill proposes we do. Less than 10% of the bill could be considered true stimulus, if one assumes tax credits and infrastructure spending will jolt the economy. The other 90% of the bill represents one of the most egregious acts of generational theft in our nation’s history, with taxpayer money going to special-interest earmarks, an ill-conceived bailout to states, and permanent spending increases that expand government’s reach in areas like health care and education.

Investing in What Doesn’t Work

By Neal McCluskey & Adam Schaeffer

President Barack Obama, in discussing the $800 + billion economic stimulus package now working its way through Congress, promised that "we will invest in what works." Well, if that’s true, every piece of education spending– totaling a whopping $150 billion– in the mammoth stimulus bill should fall by the wayside.

But isn’t education one of the best public investments we could possibly make? After all, doesn’t spending on education give our students the skills and knowledge they need not just to spur economic recovery, but long-term growth?

No. More and better education may indeed be a good thing, but government spending doesn’t give us that. What it gives us is more waste..

All the President’s Tax Cheats

By Michelle Malkin

You never get a second chance to make a first post-inaugural impression. Less than three weeks into his first 100 days, Barack Obama has left an indelible mark on his nascent presidency: the mark of incompetence and hubris. Despite the administration’s much-touted wealth of bright minds and high bars, the transition has been a complete disaster.

In a double whammy on Tuesday, tax troubles and ethical clouds forced the withdrawal of not one but two high-profile Obama nominees. These come on the heels of former Commerce Secretary-nominee Bill Richardson’s withdrawal due to a pay-for-play probe in New Mexico and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s "tax goofs" involving his failure to pay $43,000 in federal self-employment taxes for four separate years — until, that is, he was nominated for the Treasury post. Thorough vetting, it seems, is an inconvenient process — a pesky "distraction," if you will — in the Land of Hope and Change.

Obama’s Dangerous Bank Bailout

Team Obama is wrestling internally over the bank bailout supposedly to be introduced next week. We naturally are on the edge of our seats.

But let’s understand something: The taxpayer already stands behind the banking system, and is on the hook for its losses in one sense or another. Moreover, that guarantee has become more and more explicit in recent months — which is not an unmixed blessing, since such explicitness has tended to create new uncertainty among those stakeholders not specifically included in the safety net.

The main uncertainty lately has been whether the safety net includes bank shareholders as well as depositors and creditors. That uncertainty is why we have crazy gyrations in bank share prices, and yet don’t have bank runs. Citigroup’s shareholders only account these days for a measly $20 billion, in a bank with liabilities of $2 trillion — yet market speculation over their fate has seemed to be driving government actions.

Well, That Was Fast: Obama Comes Down to Earth

By MAUREEN DOWD

On 9/11, President Bush learned of disaster while reading “The Pet Goat” to grade-school kids. On Tuesday, President Obama escaped from disaster by reading “The Moon Over Star” to grade-school kids.

“We were just tired of being in the White House,” the two-week-old president, with Michelle at his side, explained to students at a public charter school near the White House.

Even as he told the children his favorite superheroes were Batman and Spider-Man, his own dream of being the superhero who swoops in to swiftly save America was going SPLAT!

It just ain’t that easy.

Conyers to oppose Cobo deal

Council president to propose measure against expansion of center, transfer to authority.
Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News

DETROIT — A spokeswoman for Council President Monica Conyers says she will try to sink the $288 million expansion of Cobo Center, despite what appears to be general support for the deal among her colleagues.

"The deal really doesn’t benefit the city," said Denise Tolliver, a spokeswoman for Conyers, who said her boss is preparing a resolution opposing the transfer of the city-owned facility to a new regional authority. Tolliver said Conyers doesn’t think the $20 million Detroit stands to gain from the deal is enough for the city’s long-term investment in the convention center.

But George Jackson, the head of the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, said he disagrees, citing an additional $12 million to $16 million a year the financially struggling city will save in subsidies it has had to earmark for the facility.

GM to offer buyouts to all hourly employees

By DAN STRUMPF
The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — General Motors Corp. will offer buyouts to all of its hourly employees, a spokesman confirmed Tuesday, as the troubled automaker continues to slash costs.

GM spokesman Tony Sapienza said the buyouts will mainly target GM’s 22,000 retirement-eligible hourly employees, though any union employee can take the offer.

News of the buyouts first broke on Monday. A union official told The Associated Press then that GM would offer $20,000 in cash and a $25,000 car voucher for workers who retire early and those who simply leave the company. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because workers were not yet notified of the packages.

North Korea Reminds Obama: We’re a Trouble Spot Too

By Bill Powell

If Barack Obama thought a change at the White House might ease a few of the outstanding problems left to him by George W. Bush, North Korea, for one, isn’t playing along — and that should surprise no one. Pyongyang is again demonstrating that it’s a bipartisan pain in the neck. Whether you’re a hawk professing your "loathing" for Kim Jong Il, the dictator who presumably still runs Pyongyang, or a dove who wants to extend hands across the water, North Korea has already made clear that nothing has changed as far as it’s concerned. In the past week, South Korean military sources have said that Pyongyang has moved a long-range missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead into test position; should a launch follow — and South Korean sources say they now expect one in the next month or two — it would be the most provocative act the North has taken since it tested a nuclear weapon in fall 2006. Furthermore, Pyongyang announced late last week that it will no longer recognize any political or military agreements struck with Seoul, including a border demarcation in the so-called West Sea, where there have been two bloody clashes between the North and South in the past decade.

Analysts in Seoul believe North Korea is trying to send messages to three audiences at the same time. The first is its own people, who need to be reassured at a time when rumors continue to circulate about the health of their Dear Leader, who foreign intelligence agencies believe had a stroke last summer. Like his father before him, Kim Jong Il rules on the strength of "symbolic capability," says Song Dae-sung, president of the Sejong Institute, a South Korean think tank. "North Korea idolizes a single leader. Kim Jong Il’s bad health and leaflets being sent by anti-North Korea NGOs in the South to the North Korean people are undermining the solidity of the ruling system." Song says heightened tension between the two Koreas helps to strengthen "the internal solidarity of [Kim Jong Il's] regime." (See the doctored pictures of Kim Jong Il after his reported illness.)