Conservatives: learning to negotiate with liberal Progressives

David Horowitz was raised as a Communist but rejected the ideology as an adult. He sees today's DC battles through a different lens. Here are some extracts from his Front Page piece of Oct-10:

I never once heard my parents and their party friends refer to themselves as Communists. They were progressives – and registered Democrats.. . . 

The good news is that the bad five years we have just been through have aroused a sleeping giant among Americans who didn’t see it coming and couldn’t imagine that it would. For the first time since the Cold War, people with a public voice are calling socialists by their right name; conservatives are finally organizing at the grassroots to defend their freedom; and at last we have leaders who are willing to stand up to the thuggery of the left and who have the spine not to back down. 

As a sometime Jonah freed from the whale let me offer some intelligence about the political forces arrayed against us. Do not make the mistake of thinking that progressives and conservatives are people who merely differ about practical agendas. There are four defining features of the left, which distinguish it as a movement of individuals who approach politics quite differently from pragmatically-minded conservatives.The first of these features is their alienation from country. . . 

The second feature of the progressive left that is key to understanding it is its instinctive, practiced, and indispensable dishonesty. . . . The strategy of the lie is progressives’ new gospel. It is what the progressive bible — Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals — is all about. Alinsky is the acknowledged political mentor to Obama and Hillary, to the service and teacher unions, and to the progressive rank and file. Alinsky understood the mistake Sixties’ radicals had made. His message to this generation is easily summed up: Don’t telegraph your goals; infiltrate their institutions and subvert them; moral principles are disposable fictions; the end justifies the means; and never forget that your political goal is always power. 

An SDS radical wrote in the Sixties: “The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.” The Alinsky version is this: The issue is never the issue; the issue is always power: How to wring power out of the democratic process, how turn the process into an instrument of progressive control. How to use it to fundamentally transform the United States of America — which is exactly what Barack Obama warned he would do on the eve of his election... . . 

A third feature of progressives that defines their politics is that they regard the past, which is real, with contempt, and are focused exclusively on a future, which is imaginary. . . .Progressives focus on an impossible future, a utopia of promises, and this justifies for them their unscrupulous means. Issues for them are merely instruments for accumulating political power. 

Conservatives look to the past as a guide to what is possible and humanly practical, and what is not. Issues for them are problems that need to be fixed, and they take seriously the policies they devise to address them. This puts conservatives at a huge political disadvantage. It causes them to argue policy as though they were debating a party with whom they shared goals and only differed on the means to get there. But that is far from the case. . . . 

progressives see themselves as the redeemers, which is why they are so dangerous. Because they regard those who oppose them as the eternally damned. Progressives are on a mission to create the kingdom of heaven on earth by redistributing income and using the state to enforce politically correct attitudes and practices in everyone’s life. They want to control what you do, and who you are, and even what you eat. For your own good, of course. 

The fact that they see themselves as saving the world – or “saving the planet” as they would prefer — results in a fourth key characteristic of their politics, which is that they regard politics as a religious war. This explains why they are so rude and nasty when you disagree with them or resist their panaceas (and of course if they had the power, the punishments would be more severe); that is why the politics of personal destruction is their favorite variety, why they are verbal assassins and go directly for the jugular, and why they think nothing of destroying the reputations of their opponents and burying them permanently. And that is why they can perform their character assassinations without regrets . . .

As Mr. Instapundit says, read the whole thing. Here. 

Obamacare Discriminates Against Poor People

President Obama, Senate President Harry Reid and the rest of the Donkey Brigade are always claiming how Obamacare is needed to help the poor and unfortunate to receive healthcare they cannot afford. 

But as we see below, if you were ever in a bad financial way, have marginal credit or bad credit -- you will be singled out based on your credit score and will be charged higher rates.

Too bad you are just a normal hard working American trying to make ends meet, because if you were special and worked as one of Obama or Reid's Congressional Staff members -- you would be eligible for subsidies and a possible exemption.....

From Click Orlando --

 

Many people signing up for health care in Florida through the Affordable Care Act have been shocked when they have to give proof of their credit score before they finish the process.

Anne Packham, one of many people licensed by the state to help people navigate the government's website, said on Tuesday that the credit check occurs so providers can make an educated decision about who to insure.

"If someone is defaulting on all of their bills they may not want to have them as part of their health plan," said Packham, the lead Navigator in Florida.

Participants with low credit scores could end up paying higher premiums, according to Packham, who said that ultimately the insurance company makes the call.

Free the World War II Memorial

Free the World War II Memorial in DC

"With the help of Reps. Michele Bachmann, Steve King, and Louie Gohmert – the very Tea Party conservatives Obama hates – WWII veterans and their families pushed the gates aside, defied their government, and took their memorial back."

From Breitbart's David Bossie:

OBAMA'S DISGRACEFUL INSULT 

TO THE GREATEST GENERATION

If you've never visited the WWII memorial in Washington, D.C. you really should. It is a beautiful and fitting testament to the invaluable sacrifices made by so many Americans in the name of freedom. It is also outdoors, located on the National Mall between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument.

Since it’s an outdoor, open-air memorial, one has to wonder why the Obama Administration would attempt to close it on the first day of the government shutdown. There are no doors, gates, or elevators that might require attendants to be employed there. There is no gift shop for federal employees to manage. There aren't even any bathrooms that need cleaning.

So the question remains, why would the Obama administration erect physical barriers and rope off the area with caution tape most commonly found at crime scenes?

Common sense gives us an answer: to make WWII veterans and other visitors feel some pain from the government shutdown.

You see, every day Honor Flights bring WWII veterans and their families from all over the country to the WWII Memorial. Most of these veterans would never be able to see their memorial otherwise, and most – because of their age – will never see it again.

They get one chance to see the memorial erected in their honor, and this week, President Obama sought to take it away. By blockading the monument, Obama sought to deny these heroes their one chance to see the nation they defended say thank you.

This is not a pointless cruelty. By trying to keep WWII veterans out, Obama meant to inflict pain on them, pain that he hoped would turn into anger and resentment that would then be channeled at House Republicans and Tea Party conservatives whom Obama would like to blame for the shutdown.

He hoped these vets wouldn't learn the truth that House Republicans have passed a bill to keep national parks and monuments open and that it’s Obama’s Senate ally, “Shutdown” Harry Reid (D-NV) that is blocking those very bills.

This insult is a national disgrace. To think that the very heroes who stormed Omaha beach or the shores of Iwo Jima would in their twilight years be blockaded from their memorial – by their own government – is sickening.

Thankfully, as with everything else, Obama’s plan failed. Did he really think that men who had faced Kamikaze bombers and Panzer tanks would let a little metal fence and some plastic tape stop them? How foolish. With the help of Reps. Michele Bachmann, Steve King, and Louie Gohmert – the very Tea Party conservatives Obama hates – WWII veterans and their families pushed the gates aside, defied their government, and took their memorial back.

President Obama should be ashamed and these veterans should be cheered. 

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Has anyone heard more about the bikers October 5 ride to DC to Free The Memorial? 
UPDATE Oct-05 5:25pm: Gateway Pundit announced a Million Vet March that may be building off of, or instead of the Oct. 5 biker's ride to the WW2 Memorial. 

Meanwhile, things gets worse. Parks across the country are barricaded or patrolled to keep visitors out, and those "shutdowns" often require more manpower and equipment than just letting them stay open. The photo-shopped image below is not that far-fetched:

More on Obama Shutdown closures here. 

UPDATE Oct-05 5:30 pm: More veterans get around the Barrycades at the Marine Corps Iwo Jima Memorial in DC. Report and photos here.

UPDATE Oct-05 7pm. Video of the Marine Corps veterans at the Iwo Jima Memorial on Legal Insurrection (includes report on the Vietnam War Memorial).

UPDATE Oct-09 4:30 pm. Bryon Preston at PJ Media summed up more of the closures:

The Obama administration’s shutdown theater has largely backfired on the president and forever tarnished the image of the National Park Service. President Obama controls the executive branch agencies like the Department of the Interior, which controls the National Park Service. Obama’s approval rating has freefallen to 43% as his administration deployed the National Park Service to close not only the Claude Moore Colonial Farm, which has been self-sufficient since 1980, but also the Florida Bay, Mount Rushmore, unmanned scenic routes along thoroughfares, hundreds of privately managed parks and restaurants that pay into the Treasury, war memorials, briefly shut off the FBI’s Amber Alert website, and even cut off funding for death benefits for military families. The Obama administration also cut off sports broadcasts to military serving overseas, which are mostly handled by active duty military whose funding continued, and threatened to arrest contract priests who serve military chapels. All of these closures are unprecedented, and none of them were necessary to keep the partially shut down government going.

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Stop Common Core with a postcard campaign

An opportunity to Act Local! 

This from Marianne (Mansfield / Ohio TPP):

Many of you are aware of the hearings that will be starting next week regarding the repeal of Common Core State Standards (CCSS). I had a conference call with some of the leaders around the state earlier in the week, and would like to share the Repeal Common Core Postcard Campaign idea we are excited about. Needless to say, this postcard campaign is to supplement, not replace any phone calls, emails, tweets and Facebook posts that we're already doing.

The Game Plan Nothing hits home like a hand written letter.  The problem is, letters take forever to get through the system, but NOT postcards.   We would like to have our members send a postcard to the Chairman and the Vice-Chair of the Education Committee, which is where the first hearing will be held on Wednesday, the 9th.   Step 1.  At your next meeting (or call a special meeting) make sure every person attending has at least two blank postcards.  These postcards are very inexpensive, include postage, and can be purchased at the post office. (If you have no meeting(s) to go to, prepare your postcards at your convenience, at home, and mail them one at a time.)   Step 2.  The first paragraph could be written as:   Dear Chairman Stebelton (or Vice-Chairman Brenner), I am a taxpaying citizen of Ohio who is writing to express my support of HB237, and the complete repeal of Common Core Standards and any related testing and data gathering.   Following is a list of talking points that can be used, but feel free to customize or add to the list:   I am strongly opposed to the one-size-fits all education being forced upon us through Common Core State Standards (CCSS), including the use of the SAT and ACT which will also align with CCSS Although I agree we need higher standards, they should be developed at a state and local level, not nationalized through the federal government with various funding and grants I am educated enough to know who is behind the development, funding and push for CCSS, and who stands to benefit, and it is NOT our children After learning more and more states are pulling out or delaying implementation of CCSS.   I would hope that Ohio would also take the time to listen and learn and NOT implement an untested program, thereby using our children as the guinea pigs Governor Strickland, and others, accepted CCSS before standards were even written.  Why the rush to implement a system that has never been proven or even tested? Classical education is for everyone no matter what their talents, as it takes the ordinary mind into the direction of extraordinary thoughts and ideas Rather than focus on a multitude of courses, our children need to return to a classical form of education that builds a strong foundation on the various sciences, disciplines and arts  Classical education was the foundation of our schools till the early 20th century.  Once we changed that our schools began to experience a decline and our students began to lose the foundations on which they could build their educational pursuits Heidi Huber, from Ohioans Against Common Core, also sent me the following documents that could be used to create additional talking points for these or future postcards:  RNC Resolution and Letter from the US House of Representatives to Arne Duncan, Secretary of the Dept. of Education.   Step 3:  Collect all the cards at the end of the meeting and mail at one time.  This will create a greater impact upon receipt.   Step 4:  As the legislation passes through the committee, House and Senate, we will adjust our focus accordingly.

Where Do We Send the Postcards? Rep. Gerald Stebelton, Chair (R)  Phone (614) 466-8100    Rep. Andrew Brenner, Vice Chair (R) Phone (614) 644-6711     The Chairman and Vice Chair have the same mailing address: 77 S. High St   13th Floor   Columbus, OH 43215    Click Here for a Complete List of the Education Committee members.  If your Rep. is on the committee, you may want to also send a postcard to him or her.  # # #

House Republicans Have Hurt their Chance to Defund Obamacare

From former Congressman Ernest Istook via Washington Times -- 

WASHINGTON, October 2, 2013 — Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives may have painted themselves into a corner. They evidently will settle for symbolism to end the ongoing government slowdown. That would leave virtually all of Obamacare intact and more difficult than ever to defund or repeal.

The most-recent House vote lowered the GOP’s demand significantly. The original vote (Plan A) coupled funding for the rest of government with a defunding of Obamacare. The second vote late Sunday night (Plan B) offered to fund all of government in exchange for two things: a) a one-year delay in the individual mandate, plus b) enforcement of the requirement that Congress get its own insurance through Obamacare.

By lowering their goals voluntarily, the GOP has reduced the chance that they will accomplish anything substantive rather than symbolic regarding Obamacare.

Rather than accepting Plan B, the White House is standing back while the media trashes and blames Republicans for what is called a shutdown. (Huge parts of “essential” government remain on-the-job, so” slowdown” is a term that fits much better.) When Obama figures he’s gathered enough election year ammunition, he could pivot. Posturing as magnanimous, Obama would need only minor negotiations to close a deal along the lines of Plan B.

The House essentially has backed down to a mostly-symbolic demand. Under Plan B Obamacare continues to get all its money. Obamacare’s exchanges would still provide coverage, but purchases would be voluntary the first year rather than mandatory. The lighter load of customers would give breathing room for the system that was overwhelmed by the torrent of inquiries on its first day.

Some political gurus will claim that delaying the individual mandate makes it easier to go after the rest of Obamacare. To the contrary, it makes it harder to attack the rest of the law. Plus there already are reports that a dozen or so House Republicans are ready to back down now and support a “clean” funding bill that leaves Obamacare totally alone.

The House’s Plan B permits the vast majority of Obamacare to march ahead unimpeded. After one year the individual and employer mandates would both be back and would be as deadly as ever to companies, workers and our economy. Under Plan B, the problems with the mandates would disappear from public attention—driven undercover for a year rather than being publicized as they are now.

Any time that one segment of major legislation is revised, it protects the surviving portions by reducing the demand for change. Carving out the individual mandate and letting it stay in place (even though delayed a year) lessens the pressure to deal with the rest of Obamacare.

Insurance companies would object to a one-year delay because they want the guaranteed source of new Obamacare customers. Obama’s bureaucrats might create an offset or they might tell insurers to buzz off, just as they’ve so far stiffed some labor union allies.

Thanks to the one-year moratorium, Obamacare would essentially be vaccinated and protected from further attack. That means, for example, that these other provisions would no longer have significant opposion:

• Historical forms of private insurance would be outlawed.

• The provisions of Obamacare would become locked-in for all insurance policies and would continue to be a major cause of skyrocketing premiums (due to guaranteed issue, no pre-existing conditions, etc.).

• The tax would remain on medical devices.

• Employers would still be intimidated by the delayed-but-still-coming mandate on them. They would continue the trend of shifting full-time workers into part-time jobs and holding part-timers below 30 hours a week.

It would become harder than ever to repeal or defund Obamacare if the President and Senate Democrats accepted the House’s Plan B. The President would proclaim he’d compromised enough. The wind would go out of the sails for many champions of the repeal-or-defund effort.

How about the Plan B provision that Congress must get its coverage through Obamacare? Expect to see backdoor maneuvers such as raising staff salaries to compensate for higher costs. For Representatives and Senators, there’s also another avenue. They would increase their use of the boutique health care they receive through the Office of the Attending Physician in the Capitol Building, plus special care through Bethesda Naval Hospital (now combined with Walter Reed).

The Senate might insist that the House go it alone in living under Obamacare. That’s because only one-third of the Senators must face the voters in 2014 (or any election year). Thanks to six-year terms, they enjoy insulation from the public’s wishes.

Once Obama’s team feel the press has pounded Republicans enough, they could posture as heroes rescuing the nation from heartless Republicans. They would use that theme constantly in the 2014 campaigns. By claiming already to have compromised on Obamacare, the White House could insist the law is now off the table, including a refusal to address it during negotiations over an increase in the debt ceiling.

By dropping back to a weaker position, without any concesssions from Obama, House Republicans have undercut their own position. Maybe Obama’s stubborn narcissism will prevent him from taking the deal. Or maybe he’s just waiting for the right moment.

In any event, the Plan B put forth from the House GOP won’t help defund or repeal Obamacare. In all likelihood, they’ve made those goals even more difficult to reach.

The only people supporting Obamacare are exempted

Harry Reid and his team of progressives voted to throw a CR, which includes Obamacare funding, back into the lap of the House.

In the middle of the night last night (Saturday), the House voted on that CR, with the following amendments:

1. Defund/Delay Full Implementation of Obamacare until 2015

2. Continue current government spending levels through December 15, 2013 (the bill that passed the Senate changed the date to Nov. 15 - this bill changes it back to Dec. 15)

3. Repeal the Medical Device Tax

The final vote on the House Amendments to the Senate Amendment to H.J. Res. 59 was 231-192, with 2 "Republicans" defecting, and 2 Democrats joining. Click here for a complete roll call.

The other vote was a unanimous vote for H.R. 3210. This legislation will ensure the military gets paid in the event that the Senate doesn't act to keep the government running. 

Important note: Members of Congress would continue to be paid if a shutdown occurs.

Please take a moment to call your Congressman and thank him/her for standing with the American people.

Who's Responsible?

Framing the Message

It's important when discussing this issue, people understand that the House, twice, has passed resolutions to continue funding the government.  The Senate has voted against funding the government once: will they do it again?  

They voted against the majority of Americans who now believe Obamacare is bad for the country.  The voted against funding the government because the resolution did not include the perks previously carved out for themselves and their big business and union buddies.

Senator Ted Cruz continues to hit the nail on the head:

• The only people supporting Obamacare are exempted.  
• Everyone not exempted, wants to delay it for a year  
• Reid is willing to shut down government over refusal to compromise

Please continue to call your Senators and ask them not to vote for a government shutdown, but to vote in support of the American people.

# # #

The 'Secret Playbook' for Congress' Budget Battle

From former Congressman Ernest Istook via Washington Times --

WASHINGTON, September 28, 2013 — Did you miss the hidden-ball trick play the Senate pulled on Friday? Is the House running trick plays of its own?

The budget game is confusing, so let me share part of the playbook I learned during my 14 years as a Congressman.

Game Situation

To start, Friday’s 68-30 Senate vote “waived the provisions” (Congress-speak for “broke the promises”) of the budget rules. The 2011 budget deal promised spending cuts in exchange for adding over $2 trillion to the debt ceiling.

Now Senators voted to free themselves from that 2011 promise. Expect them to offer new promises (to be broken at some future date) to justify another increase in the debt limit.

The Senate vote went mostly unnoticed because reporters focused instead on the vote on cloture. Every Democrat, aided by 12 Republicans, approved the waiver of budget rules; the roll call is online here.

Now the House counters by proposing a 1-year delay in Obamacare. Or would their plan delay only part of Obamacare? The difference is crucial.

More confusion and trick plays are coming, so prepare yourself with these excerpts from the Secret Playbook that Congress uses in times like this:

Punt, Pass and Kick

Congress does what football coaches cannot: Changes the rules to extend the game. They buy time, procrastinate.

Passing short-term legislation is a punt. It briefly takes pressure off politicians by kicking deadlines into the future. Extensions may last just a few days, or several months. Current authority to spend expires October 1st; on Friday the Senate voted to move that to November 15. Since 2001, Congress has passed 50 continuing resolutions that extended spending approval.

They buy bigger chunks of time by raising the debt ceiling. Deficit problems are pushed a year or two into the future by allowing the Treasury to borrow more. We’ve reached the current limit of $16.7 trillion and the Administration has designated October 17 as the date when their accounting gimmicks won’t work anymore. Without raising the debt ceiling, our government must make do with the measly $2.7 trillion it gets from tax collections.

Trick Plays

Football’s trick plays aren’t new and neither are Congress’.

The Senate’s hidden-ball play worked because other votes got all the attention instead of the vote on waiving the budget rules.

Other classic trick plays include:

The Time Shift: A great example is House Speaker John Boehner’s pledge that every dollar of borrowing must be offset “one for one” with a dollar of spending cuts. The $2 trillion borrowed under the 2011 deal is all spent. The spending “cuts,” like the sequester, are actually reductions in growth of spending and not reductions in spending levels. Those cuts are spread out over 10 years.

Calling this “one-for-one” is like trading 100 dollars for 100 pennies. It’s one item for one item, but they’re not equivalent. Promises of future spending cuts are unreliable. But politicians praise them as though they are real and they are spectacular.

Conditional Approvals: Congress will direct that something be done “unless” the president or a Cabinet secretary certifies that it should not be done. Congress brags about advancing projects like the Keystone XL Pipeline, while still letting Presidents do the opposite.

Blue-Ribbon Panels: The last budget deal established a commission with supposed authority to fix budget problems. Except the commission couldn’t get the necessary consensus any better than Congress could. Plus the real authority stayed with Congress anyway.

Procedural Gimmicks: Internal rules are created so the House and/or Senate restricts itself from certain actions. Later they can simply vote to waive these rules. That’s what the Senate did on Friday.

Promote Consolation Prizes

This part of the playbook teaches politicians to treat a loss as at least a moral victory because you get a little something. It’s the equivalent of a football coach who brags after a defeat:

“We got more first downs than they did.”

“We outscored them in the third quarter.”

“At least we weren’t shut out,” or

“I saw some things today that will lead to victories in the future.”

House Republican leaders tested this approach. First they suggested Members should support current spending levels, without de-funding Obamacare, so long as they got a consolation prize. That got shot down so now it’s hard to tell what revised changes are major and what are minor.

For example:

Delaying the individual mandate: If the entirety of Obamacare were delayed, it helps the country. Yet if “delaying Obamacare” only means putting off this mandate, it could make Obamacare harder to repeal in the long run. Sure, delaying the individual mandate sounds good. But meantime workers keep losing hours and losing coverage while Obamacare’s other mandates wipe out affordable private insurance.

A mandate delay splits the united opposition and lets the law’s supporters posture as moderates. Fixing an ugly wart doesn’t fix the many things broken by Obamacare.

Eliminate the medical device tax: This placates one segment of Obamacare, putting them to sleep so they’re less likely to support future efforts to repeal or defund the rest of the law.

Medical malpractice reform: Again fixing a wart but ignoring broken bones.

Another consolation prize often offered is language expressing “the intent of Congress” to do something, or requiring the White House “to propose a plan.”

These are political jukes.

It’s like a runner who makes a stutter step or gives a head fake to avoid a tackler. Provisions like these don’t change anything; they just confuse the public.

Watch Out For The Referees

The referees don’t call it fair in this budget game. These refs rarely blow the whistle on Obama and his team. They’re allowed to commit personal fouls, cheap shots, late hits and unnecessary roughness. They can freely accuse Republicans of throwing temper tantrums, being terrorists, arsonists, juvenile, crazy, etc.

In politics, the referees also moonlight as cheerleaders.

Running Out the Clock

Although Congress can buy time, the time advantage remains on Obama’s side. Once millions of Americans are forced to get their health coverage through Obamacare, the law becomes harder than ever to reverse.

The President and Democrats don’t need to score to win. They established their lead when Obamacare was passed in 2010. Because it received ten years of guaranteed money for overhead, the program is not shut down even if other parts of government are.

The Pep Talk

The Left claims that conservatives oppose Obamacare because they fear that it will work. Not so. The fear is that millions of Americans will be trapped in an expensive boondoggle because Obamacare has wiped out their alternatives.

Too many employers have already cancelled coverage. Insurers are still banned from offering policies except the full-featured, high-priced coverge mandated by Obamacare. Delaying other features won’t change this.

Repealing pieces of the law would make it harder to repeal the many bad parts that remained.

Congress is predictable in its legislative stunting, but the current political standoff has no good and easy outcome. And neither does Obamacare itself.