The Wall Street Journal explains today that Senator Chris Dodd and Senator Kent Conrad received special “VIP” treatment from Countrywide, a company that has been heavily criticized in the sub-prime mortgage “crisis.” It turns out that while Senators Dodd and Conrad were self-righteously railing against companies that offered sub-prime loans, they were refinancing their homes with special deals from Countrywide that the average American did not have access to.
Now, these Senators are backing a $300 billion bailout of lenders and borrowers who made bad decisions on mortgages. Countrywide stands to gain a lot from the bailout, which is raising concerns about who else in the Senate received such special treatment. You can find out by calling your senators at 866-928-3035 and asking them. Post comments below if you talk to anyone in their offices.
UPDATE: Representative Jeb Hensarling is calling for hearings on the matter.
I think we all can agree that it would be wrong for Members of Congress to get special treatment on their mortgages simply because they are elected office holders. That’s why next week I will be sending a letter to the Speaker and the appropriate chairman with oversight requesting hearings on this issue. We must ensure that no Member is inappropriately benefiting from their position.
Texas state representative Phil King has a new YouTube video out where he calls for a complete elimination of the property tax in Texas. He says that this will lead to the biggest economic boom in Texas history. Watch the video below, and if you’d like to join the campaign for complete property tax elimination visit Texas Taxpayers.
Democrat Congressman Paul Kanjorski admits that Democrats “stretched the facts” when it came to ending the war in Iraq after the fall 2006 elections. When a blogger asked him about these statements, he lied again and said he never made that statement. As the blogger pressed him on the matter, Congressman Kanjorski grabbed his camera and said he didn’t have to apologize to anyone.
Welcome to the world of YouTube and the new media, Congressman. I’m sure this won’t help his re-election plans in the 11th congressional district of Pennsylvania.
It looks like the economy is going to be the biggest issue this election cycle. And the two presidential candidates couldn’t be farther apart when it comes to taxes, spending and regulation. Barack Obama offers hundreds of billions of dollars in more government, higher taxes and less freedom. He is promising the world to the American people, and is determined to make them pay for it.
John McCain, while not my preferred Republican candidate, is a spending hawk and is vowing to cut tax rates, encourage freer trade and follow a basic supply-side economics policy that will ensure long-term economic growth.
Perry Bacon of The Washington Post outlines a few more of the specifics from each candidate.
Speaking to a group of small-business owners in the District, McCain (R-Ariz.) pushed an agenda that emphasizes reduced regulation and long-term economic growth through cuts in corporate taxes, expanded free trade agreements and cuts in government spending…
And on Obama…
To pay for his plans, Obama would raise a variety of taxes, including increasing the capital gains rate to 20 percent, increasing taxes for families with incomes over $250,000 and raising the cap on taxing Social Security income, now set at $102,000, by taxing income over $250,000.
This election will be about a choice between higher taxes, more government and less freedom and lower taxes, less government and more freedom. Where the American people want to go is a question that will be answered in November.
William Ratliff of the Independent Institute has a good piece in The Washington Times today about Colombia. He points out that the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) recently lost its leader, and that there is an opening to finally defeat this communist insurgency.
Ratliff argues that the U.S. should end the drug war, pass the pending free trade agreement with Colombia and allow that country to grow its economy. He writes,
The death of one of Latin America’s top guerrilla leaders, Colombia’s Manuel “Sureshot” Marulanda, who died last month of a heart attack at age 77, increases the chances for peace and stability in the region. But much depends on the United States, which needs to understand that what happens in Colombia impacts all of Latin America.
The FARC is unpopular in Colombia, but Ratliff argues that it is only propped up by the profits it makes in narco-trafficking, which is primarily a U.S. demand problem. Decriminalize drugs and the funding dries up, according to Ratliff.
Whatever the proper prescription for U.S. relations with Colombia, it would be good for everyone involved if the Chavez-supported FARC became a footnote in Latin American history.
It’s not often that I write about a candidate for office. There are far too few pro-liberty candidates in the Republican Party these days. Whatever happened to the party of Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan and Dick Armey? It seems the Republican Party has become a party of bigger government and less freedom the last few years. But there is hope for the future of the party with candidates like Amit Singh, a Ron Paul Republican running for Virginia’s 8th congressional district.
The primary is this Tuesday, June 10th, and I plan to cast my ballot for Amit. He will need every limited government voter in the Alexandria/Arlington area to come out Tuesday and vote for lower taxes, less government and more freedom. Please vote for Amit, and bring a few folks with you. It will be a tough primary, but supporters have been working hard to make sure the turnout for Amit is high. It’s not often we have a candidate that is as dedicated to freedom as we are. But we have such a candidate in Amit Singh.
Columnist George Will has a good piece in the Washington Post about high gas prices and the current lack of domestic energy supply. He writes,
“One million barrels is what might today be flowing from ANWR if in 1995 President Bill Clinton had not vetoed legislation to permit drilling there. One million barrels produce 27 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel. Seventy-two of today’s senators — including Schumer, of course, and 38 other Democrats, including Barack Obama, and 33 Republicans, including John McCain — have voted to keep ANWR’s estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil off the market.”
Will goes on to point out who is drilling for resources off our coasts.
Drilling is underway 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are.
People can continue to complain about high gas prices, but they should realize that environmentalists and the loony left has been blocking efforts to explore for oil and gas in Alaska and off our coasts. Part of our current supply problem is due to the fact that for decades the left has refused to allow us to expand American energy supplies. Instead, they’ve forced us to get much of our energy from foreign sources. It’s time the American people sent a message to Congress that we should begin to drill now, so that we can produce more domestic energy in the future.
This week, the Senate will be debating the Lieberman/Warner “cap and trade” bill. If it passes, it will be a disaster for the U.S. economy. As Senator James Inhofe points out in today’s Wall Street Journal,
“The Lieberman-Warner bill (America’s Climate Security Act) represents the largest tax increase in U.S. history and the biggest pork bill ever contemplated with trillions of dollars in giveaways. Well-heeled lobbyists are already plotting how to divide up the federal largesse.”
The legislation would cause each gallon of gas to cost around 50 cents extra. With gas prices already skyrocketing, it is unbelievable that the Senate would be debating a bill with such a high price tag for consumers and taxpayers. To make matters worse, the bill would also cause a massive loss of GDP and redistribute money from those on the bottom of the income ladder to those at the top.
A recent CBO report found: “Most of the cost of meeting a cap on CO2 emissions would be borne by consumers, who would face persistently higher prices for products such as electricity and gasoline. Those price increases would be regressive in that poorer households would bear a larger burden relative to their income than wealthier households.”
If you haven’t done so already, please call your Senators and ask them whether they support new massive taxes on energy at a time of economic uncertainty and high fuel and food prices. If so, they should not get your vote this fall.
The blogs are abuzz with rumors of a tape that shows presidential hopeful Barack Obama’s wife referring to white people with the derogatory term “whitey.” Here is a YouTube video from Fox News where they discuss the possibility of such a tape. I’ll post updates as I find out more. Keep in mind this could be just a rumor.
UPDATE: My fellow blogger Jim Geraghty believes that there is nothing to this story. I’ll keep updating this post as more information comes to light. My gut tells me it is probably a rumor, but it would not surprise me if it were true.
