Legendary Fears

Even Though
The state Senate has advanced legislation to allow immigrant workers on Vermont farms to become legal drivers, even though they might be in the country illegally.

The 27-2 vote came nearly 19 months after the Vermont State Police stopped a car containing two passengers who were Mexican immigrant farmworkers in the country illegally and turned them over to the U.S. Border Patrol. (Burlington Free Press, 4/5/2013)

Continuing their laser-like focus on the issues vital to an economically sound and prosperous Vermont, state legislators roll up their sleeves to tackle drivers licenses for illegals.

Yesterday while taking our cat out for a walk, RedStateVT conducted an admittedly informal survey in the neighborhood. We asked: "What is the most pressing issue here in Vermont that we want our legislators to address?" Unanimously, our fellow Vermonters answered "drivers licenses for illegals." 

Well there you go. 


Hard Times
The president could face an even tougher time selling the Social Security change to liberal members of Congress. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., fired off a statement Thursday responding to what was then the rumor that Obama's budget could include the change. "Millions of working people, seniors, disabled veterans, those who have lost a loved one in combat, and women will be extremely disappointed if President Obama caves into the long standing Republican effort to cut Social Security and benefits for disabled veterans and their survivors through a so-called chained CPI," Sanders said. "In 2008, candidate Barack Obama told the American people that he would not cut Social Security.  Having him go back on his word will only add to the rampant political cynicism that our country is experiencing today." (Foxnews.com, 4/5/2013)

Whenever defending or advocating for government entitlements Colonel Bernie Sanders will inevitably provide a laundry list of those who would be affected. Working people, seniors, disabled veterans, those who have lost a loved one in combat, women, those with broken bones, with broken hearts, the tired, the poor, those who yearn, those who once yearned, pet owners, people who lost a pet, seniors who lost a pet, the disabled who lost a pet, the recently deceased, those about to be deceased, etc.

On the other side is a single group: taxpayers. 


Shore Line
“If the president believes these modest entitlement savings are needed to help shore up these programs, there’s no reason they should be held hostage for more tax hikes,” Mr. Boehner said in a statement. “That’s no way to lead and move the country forward.” (NYT, 4/5/2013)

Excellent point by John Boehner who is slowly rehabilitating himself. If President Obama believes in the absolute necessity of entitlement reform in order to ensure the sustainability of these programs for the long term, then why is such reform tied to tax hikes on the rich? The answer, we suspect, is that Obama is not a true believer on such reform.


Story Time
Our favorite anecdote from the tour, however, came when some protesters against Keystone XL chanted outside another rich man's home, "What do we want from the President? No pipeline for the 1%."

These protesters need to have their consciousness raised too. The 1%-ers writing checks to Mr. Obama loathe the pipeline. The folks who need and want it are the 99%. They're the working stiffs who are "struggling to get by" in this economy.... (WSJ, 4/5/2013)

See yesterday's RedStateVT post. More proof that the Wall Street Journal reads RedStateVT?


Hail Hail
The economy created a net 88,000 new jobs, 95,000 in private business. This means that for every unemployed American who found a job in March, about five left the labor force. If the Obama Administration can convince another three million or so Americans to leave the job market, the President will be able to hail "full employment." (WSJ, 4/5/2013)

Our favorite line from a column on the latest unemployment numbers. 

One Nature

Single Note Presidency
As Mr. Obama has before, his budget documents will emphasize that he would support the cost-of-living change, as well as other reductions that Republicans have called for in the popular programs for older Americans, only if Republicans agree to additional taxes on the wealthy and infrastructure investments that the president called for in last year’s offer to Mr. Boehner. (NYT, 4/4/2013)

Having already achieved success in raising taxes on the rich, Obama now wants to raise taxes on the rich again. We eagerly await wealthy Liberals stepping up and declaring that they are once more prepared to pay more taxes. The good news is that Obama may be willing to put entitlement reform on the table, but Republicans would be wise to be wary of a bait-and-switch. 


Trapped
When the police were able to defuse the traps and search his apartment, they found ammunition and explosives, role-playing computer games and a Batman mask, according to the documents. (NYT, 4/4/2013)

What can we expect from Liberals given this disclosure of the contents of the apartment of mass murderer James Holmes? 

An all-out drive to ban Halloween masks! (And never mind about those video games...)


Wade in the Water
The White House will also wade into the thorny issue of disability- and unemployment-insurance benefits. It will propose barring Americans from collecting unemployment benefits and disability benefits that cover the same period of time. Americans collecting unemployment benefits are supposed to be able to prove they are looking for work, and Americans collecting Social Security disability benefits are supposed to be able to prove they are unable to work. Social Security administrative law judges have complained in recent years that a number of people seeking disability benefits are simultaneously either applying for or collecting unemployment checks. (WSJ, 4/5/2013)

Great news, right?

Well yes, until you realize that this fraud has actually been going on! Then you get very angry.

And Republicans are criticized for talking about entitlement abuse....


Good Neighbors
If the president tells you that fences don’t work, ask him why he has one around the White House. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 4/4/2013)

Best line from Krauthammer column on immigration reform.

Human Interest

Workout
President Barack Obama is opening the door to the possibility of a resumption of White House tours, if it can be worked out. Obama says in an interview broadcast with ABC News Wednesday that the decision to cancel the tours in the wake of budget cuts was made by the Secret Service, citing the need to furlough some employees. Revealing he's trying to ease the no-tour policy, Obama says he's talked to the Secret Service about restoring some visits. (NYT, 3/13/2013)

Told ya!

(And note again how things are never Obama's fault.)


Sharp Objects
The head of the Transportation Security Administration plans to testify to Congress on Thursday, defending his decision to allow small knives on airplanes, amid worries that the move will endanger the public. (WSJ, 3/12/2013)

The agency that refuses to profile potential terrorists (hint: young single males from Middle Eastern countries who profess jihad) now gives the OK to knives. Which begs the question: who are the people that have been clamoring to bring knives on planes?


Symptoms
One fact, stunning to White House officials, is the degree to which many Republicans remain unaware of the substance of the administration’s offers on entitlement reform. This is symptomatic of a messaging failure on the part of the White House but also of the poisonous environment in which both sides live. (Ruth Marcus, Washington Post, 3/12/2013)

Count us among the unaware. Obama has offered entitlement reforms? Maybe they do have a messaging problem. Perhaps Obama should hold more press conferences.


Interpretation
But Ms. Sandberg (Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg) interprets the facts she describes in a different way. Though she presents her ideas as new, she thinks of herself as a feminist, and like all feminists, she blames "society" for sending "cultural messages" loaded with "gender stereotypes" that discourage women from becoming leaders in their fields. (WSJ, 3/12/2013)

In the past thirty years, RedStateVT has worked for several women (one of whom was the company CEO). We have had doctors, lawyers, and accountants who were women. But apparently women still can't catch a break in a male chauvinist world, or so says a female COO. Maybe Sandberg is joking...

Set Sail

Conclusion
"As everybody here knows, last year upon a long period of reflection, I concluded that we cannot discriminate against same-sex couples when it comes to marriage," Obama said at a Friday press conference at the White House. "The basic principle that America is founded on -- the idea that we're all created equal -- applies to everybody, regardless of sexual orientation, as well as race or gender or religion or ethnicity." (Huffington Post, 3/1/2013)

A bigot and a homophobe no more!


Problematic
The problem with sequestration, of course, is that the cuts are across the board and do not allow money to move between accounts. It’s dumb because it doesn’t discriminate. Fine. Then change the law. That’s why we have a Congress. Discriminate. Prioritize. That’s why we have budgets. Except that the Democratic Senate hasn’t passed one in four years. And the White House, which proposed the sequester in the first place, had 18 months to establish rational priorities among accounts — and did nothing. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 2/28/2013)

RedStateVT believes that Obama is angling to blame the continuing economic malaise of his second term on the sequester and Republicans. He may have miscalculated this time. Republicans have had some success in getting the word out that 1) sequester was Obama's invention, 2) the cuts are in the range of single digits, 3) if he was serious, Obama could prioritize the reductions (Krauthammer's point), and 4) the world did not end on March 1st. 


Business Like
Some business owners and people facing furloughs said the cutbacks were manageable, even a good thing. Moe Jafari, whose company Human Touch in McLean does technology work for the military, said he saw a new cost-consciousness in the government that pleased him.

“They’re looking at budgets that are not unlimited,” said Mr. Jafari, whose contracting includes work for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center in Charleston, S.C. “We see the government for the first time having discussions with us in ways we never thought. They’re looking at saving money. They’re starting to act like businesses.” (NYT, 3/2/2013)

Politicians should start managing the government like a business that has shareholders to whom they are accountable. The current practice of the political class is to treat constituents as a bottomless source of funding. 


Virtual
It does not add up to the “grand bargain” that the two parties had been seeking, because it leaves virtually untouched the entitlement programs — Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — that are responsible for projections of an unsustainably rising federal debt in coming decades. 
.....
“I still believe we can and must replace these cuts with a balanced approach — one that combines smart spending cuts with entitlement reform and changes to our tax code that make it more fair for families and businesses without raising anyone’s tax rates,” Mr. Obama said. (NYT, 3/2/2013)

Even the New York Times admits that entitlement reform is necessary?!?! 

What is galling is Obama's obfuscation on the issue. He has NEVER embraced entitlement reform and even recently took off the table any raise in the eligibility age for Medicare. And changes to the tax code? Proposed by Republicans, rejected by Obama.