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Roxeanne De Luca hits the nail on the head

Posted: January 7, 2011 by datechguy in congress, opinion/news
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…in this post about the actual fear of democrats concerning an obamacare repeal:

The liberals, who could barely pass ObamaCare with a 78-seat margin in the House and a 20-seat margin in the Senate, as well as a socialist in the White House, do not want us repealing that. They may never see majorities like that again, and they will never, ever have the support of the electorate for nationalizing health care again – not if we repeal and replace, not when Europe collapses and Canadians keep fleeing here for health care. 2010 was their very last chance to get it through, and if we kick it out now, the socialist wet dream is gone.

The Democrats handed us a weapon when they ensured that benefits would not kick in until 2014 (the purpose of which was to ensure that this “budget-neutral, deficit-reducing” programme would have ten years of revenue and six years of expenditures). We do not have the same reliance problems with ObamaCare as we do with Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, SCHIP, and welfare. As Mark Steyn keeps hammering away on, once these things are in, they are never coming out. That’s why conservatives need to get this out now – now, before the private insurance market is completely dead; now, before the liberals can scream too much about people whose only source of medical care is the federal government; now, before the bureaucrats are in place. To analogize: if you are on the side of cancer, that last thing you want is for the patient to get a lumpectomy while the disease is still localized. Republicans are ready, scalpel in hand, and “Operation Demoralize” (great term, Prof. Jacobson!) is fear-mongering over sponges that are sometimes left in the body after surgery.

This post is what you would call a “must read”.

What a shock 300k Fitchburg appropriation gone

Posted: January 7, 2011 by datechguy in congress, economy, local stuff
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When I wrote about Massachusetts getting the government it deserves I included this paragraph to the voters:

Maybe it will be the shock when you discover that all these democrats that you returned to congress are now in the minority and all of those tax dollars taken from you that they returned in lump sums at .82 cents on the dollar will not be coming back since they don’t have the clout to gain them and the republican house where all spending must originate is unlikely to approve them. If you had sent even a single republican to the house at least in one district there would be clout, but nope, no can do. You will miss that .82 cents on the dollar, but don’t worry the feds will meet you halfway. They will still take that dollar it was part of.

Well lo and behold we have a new congress and guess what the Sentinel and Enterprise reports isn’t coming

A $300,000 appropriation to help complete renovations at the ARC Community Services building on Main Street has hit a stumbling block and will likely not be approved by Congress, said ARC President Mary Heafy.

Despite news that the U.S. House of Representatives had approved the $300,000 appropriation, the office of U.S. Rep. John Olver, D-Amherst, informed Heafy this week that there’s a 99 percent chance the money will not come through.

But but I thought we HAD to re-elect John Olver and company because of all he could bring home for Fitchburg et/al?

“We were hesitant at first to announce publicly that the appropriation was approved, but officials for Olver said they were confident it would be approved based on past experiences.”

Of course they were. After all it wasn’t as if there was any kind of nationwide movement or something concerning wasteful spending was there?

Heafy said she received a letter stating that the fiscal 2011 Transportation HUD Appropriation Bill, which included the $300,000 for ARC Community Services, had not been passed by Congress but would be brought back up during its next session.

Oh in the next session, and tell me how many representatives do we have in the republican majority in that next session? Hmmm nearly, nearly one.

However, Republican leadership has stated it will not allow any earmarks to be approved in the bill when Congress takes it up in session again, Hunter Ridgway, Olver’s chief of staff, said Wednesday.

It looks like those who voted for Congressman Olver based on bringing home the bacon need to remember the disclaimer that investors have become familiar with “past performance is no indicator of future gains”.

Add to that democrat states like NY and Mass losing seats and republican states like Texas gaining them wholesale I suspect that it will be a long time before Mr. Olver and company have the clout in the house to raid the treasury.

We will as always get the government we deserve and will have to live with the votes we’ve cast, until at least 2012.

Another “Can we call it a tallywacker” moment for Dems

Posted: January 7, 2011 by datechguy in opinion/news
Tags: , , ,

Last week I talked about how playing with language is a sure sign that something isn’t working out.

Well it looks like the left is going to need new words again:

“Being described as a progressive, on the other hand, is a positive for 22% of voters and a negative for 34%, with 41% seeing it in between,” Rasmussen said.

“But in the previous survey, voters were evenly divided, with 29% saying progressive was a positive description and 28% describing it as a negative.

“This marks a continuing downward trend for progressive which little over three years ago was slightly more popular than conservative.”

And remember they started saying “Progressive” because “liberal” wasn’t popular.

Let’s see, can’t say liberal, can’t say progressive, no wonder communist and socialist is coming back.

Imagine the New Hampshire line times 49

Posted: January 7, 2011 by datechguy in economy
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When I go door to door around the area to sell advertising for the show, one of the things business’ tend to tell me is that the sales taxes are murder particularly with NH only a town or two away. If you live in Townsend or Ashby a retail store doesn’t have a chance.

Now here comes Illinois deciding it want to tax net sales. I can’t imagine anything more foolish. Instead of one border state that is not taxing drawing sales from the state. Now Illinois web sellers have 49 states that can undersell them by a percentage. That certainly will not help.

Every dollar not spent on those Illinois business is a dollar not re-spent by them, and taxes are generated by dollars that move within a closed system. If those dollars don’t move within Illinois they will move elsewhere.

And if that isn’t enough Amazon and overstock will be ending relationships as Backyard Conservative has just discovered:

Greetings from the Amazon Associates Program:

We regret to inform you that the Illinois state legislature has passed an unconstitutional tax collection scheme that, if signed by Governor Quinn, would leave Amazon.com little choice but to end its relationships with Illinois-based Associates. You are receiving this email because our records indicate that you are a resident of Illinois. If our records are incorrect, you can manage the details of your Associates account (here).

Please note that this not an immediate termination notice and you are still a valued participant in the Amazon Associates Program. But if the governor signs this bill, we will need to terminate the participation of all Illinois residents in the Associates Program. After that point, we will no longer pay any advertising fees for sales referred to amazon.com, endless.com and smallparts.com nor will we accept new applications for the Associates Program from Illinois residents.

If you are looking to raise money, is it dead foolish, but it’s not a question of raising revenue, it’s a question of a government wanting control.

How’s that blue state way of doing things working out?

Update: I have the feeling that Illinois is taking advice from this lady.

Update 2: And it looks like the Chicago papers aren’t interested in this story

No reporting on this in the Chicago Tribune or Chicago Sun Times. Like this isn’t news? Here is the Trib copy off their website. It’s not even the top story.

As Moe Lane point out Illinois has the right to be wrong and will pay for it:

At this point we usually hear from the people who want to ‘yes-but’ along the lines of “Yes, but the state of Illinois has a right to those sales taxes.” Indeed, the state of Illinois has the ‘right’ to raise and levy taxes on in-state purchases. No matter how burdensome and archaic that might be when it comes to online purchases; and no matter that it might be wiser to consider that possibly the fact that people shop online to avoid state sales tax implies that state sales taxes are generally too high. Wiser… but not politically safe; Democratic politicians prefer that government revenue be high, even when it’s at private revenue’s expense. That hypothetical sales tax money wouldn’t be going towards business-friendly programs, after all: it’d be largely going towards government entitlement programs, which are notoriously unprofitable*.

But then, having groups like Amazon pull out of Illinois would be a win, for a certain class of smug types: after all, they showed those corporations who the boss was! – And, really, they don’t actually care about anything else.

Like Massachusetts Illinois is getting the government it deserves.

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