Today in Washington, D.C. - Dec 8, 2010 - The 111th Congress Maybe The Most Irresponsible And Mistrusted Congress In History

Thomas Porteous - Guilty!

The Senate resumed impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton appointee G. Thomas Porteous, Jr. a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. They rejected a motion by defense counsel and convicted Judge Porteous on all four articles of impeachment by the necessary 2/3 vote on each and removed him from office. The Senate also voted to agree to a motion to disqualify Judge Porteous from holding any future federal office. In summary: Porteous is only the eighth federal judge in U.S. history to be impeached and convicted by Congress. The US House had previously unanimously approved the impeachment charges. The 64-year-old judge had a gambling problem and accepted cash and favors from people with business before his court. He was also accused of lying to Congress and filing for bankruptcy under a false name. God Bye Porteous! Now, when are we going to do something about the judges on the 9th Circuit Court?

The Senate has resumed legislative session and began consideration of S. 3991, a bill allowing more firefighters to unionize. At 4 PM, the Senate will hold a series of vote on cloture on the motion to proceed to each of the following 4 bills: S. 3991; S. 3985, a bill for a one-time $250 payment to senior citizens; S. 3993, the latest version of the DREAM Act; and H.R. 847, a 9/11 responders health bill.

If cloture motions on moving to all four bills fail, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has indicated he would like to vote this evening on reconsidering cloture on the motion to proceed to the fiscal year 2011 Defense Authorization bill, S. 3454, which includes a repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law.

It is obvious where Reid' priorities are - they are screwed up. He can only focus on pushing the extreme liberal agenda. He knows the people have spoken and they will not get most of these bills passed in the new Congress. It is also obvious that the Lame Duck session is not only "lame" but it is proving to be "un-American." The Democrat leadership is not acting per the the wishes of the majority of the American voters. Most former legislators had the dignity and honor to yeild to the voters of America and to not take actions in their final days to reshape American culture or to push through radical agendas opposed by the public. While Reid and Pelosi were re-elected by their constituents, they do NOT represent the majority of voters Nationally who voted to replace Democrats and their agenda. It has become more obvious everyday, that Reid and Pelosi "hate America" as it exists and desire to see you living in their new planned elitist world.

With respect to the Dream Act, Curtis Coleman reports that "Anywhere between 300,000 and 2.1 million illegal immigrants will be legalized if the DREAM Act (version 5), scheduled for votes today in the House and Senate, wins the approval of legislators and is signed into law by the President. Never mind, of course, that 15 million Americans who want to work can’t find a job, that all Americans are facing a tsunami of tax increases in less than 23 days, and no provision has been made for funding the government in 2011."

As more people have an opportunity to analyze the framework for the deal on preventing tax hikes worked out between the White House and Republicans in Congress, more recommendations of support are coming, especially from conservatives and business leaders.

To begin with, Gallup writes today that “[t]wo-thirds of Americans (66%) favor extending the 2001/2003 tax cuts for all Americans for two years.” Further, “[a]ccording to Gallup polling conducted Dec. 3-6, the slight majority of Democrats, as well as most independents and Republicans, would vote for a two-year extension of the tax cuts passed in 2001 and 2003.”

The National Review Online editors conclude the deal is “worth taking” and add, “Acting now reduces both uncertainty and volatility. Republicans can now spend the next two years advancing spending cuts and long-term tax reform.”

In a post at The Heritage Foundation’s blog, The Foundry, on Monday, Heritage’s Alison Acosta Fraser and J.D. Foster wrote, “If the details bear out, this is a compromise worth embracing.”

Today, a coalition of business groups including Americans for Tax Reform, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the National Federation of Independent Business wrote a letter to senators urging enactment of the tax deal. And in its own press release, the U.S. Chamber said yesterday, “Enacting this bipartisan framework forged by the President and Congress is one of the best steps Washington can take to eliminate the uncertainty that is preventing our employers from hiring, investing, and growing their businesses.”

Considering the deal in an editorial today, The Wall Street Journal writes, “[T]his deal is superior to anything we could have imagined six months ago. Much credit goes to Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans for holding together against the class war attacks of Chuck Schumer and other Democrats. By holding firm, they divided the opposition. This proves again that Republicans win the economic debate when they make the case for lower taxes for everyone in the name of faster growth and job creation.”

As Kevin Hassett, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, said on Fox Business this morning, “I think this is a big win for Republicans.” In fact, in a piece explaining how the deal came together, The New York Times notes that the agreed-upon estate tax provisions are policies that Republicans had been unable to secure for years. “[T]hey saw the talks as a golden opportunity to win an estate-tax agreement that had eluded them even when they controlled Congress and the White House.”

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, praised the estate tax provisions to National Review Online’s Andrew Stiles Monday. “Norquist says Republicans should be especially pleased with the proposal to reestablish the estate tax at a rate of 35 percent (for two years), given Democrats’ desire to return to a permanent rate of 55 percent after going all of 2010 without any estate tax whatsoever. ‘Think about how badly Democrats wanted [a return to a 55 percent rate],’ he says. . . . Now 35 percent becomes the new baseline, and Democrats are fighting a losing battle.”

Importantly, The Wall Street Journal editorial analyzes the other implications of President Obama’s acquiescence in extending all the tax cuts and agreeing to other Republican provisions. “In accepting the deal to cut payroll and business taxes and extend all of the Bush-era tax rates through 2012, Mr. Obama has implicitly admitted that his economic strategy has flopped. He is acknowledging that tax rates matter to growth, that treating business like robber barons has hurt investment and hiring, and that tax cuts are superior to spending as stimulus. It took 9.8% unemployment and a loss of 63 House seats for this education to sink in, but the country will benefit.” Kevin Hassett agreed, telling Fox Business’ Stuart Varney, “They are now admitting that if they increase tax rates during a recession then that’s really bad because it’s going to hurt the economy.”

“In this sense,” the WSJ editors explain, “the political symbolism is as important as the policy. Mr. Obama is signaling that businesses must be encouraged to make profits again so they can hire more workers, that ‘the rich’ he so maligns should be able to keep more of what they earn, and even that wealth built up over a lifetime shouldn't be confiscated wholesale at death. In policy if not in Presidential rhetoric, class war and income redistribution are taking a two-year holiday.”

As Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander pointed out to reporters yesterday, “[W]e believe our number-one goal is to make it easier and cheaper to create private-sector jobs. And the best thing we can do right now to make it easier and cheaper to create private-sector jobs is not to raise taxes on people who create jobs and on the American working people in the middle of an economic downturn. That's why the right thing for our country is to support the tax agreement.”

In summary, to quote Curtis Coleman, president of Institute of Constitutional Policy, "The 111th Congress, thankfully gasping its last breaths, may appropriately go down in history as the most irresponsible and mistrusted Congress in history."

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