RedState — Dan Riehl blows up the NRCC in regards to NY-23
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009Link.
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RedState.com’s Erick Erickson announced that by noon today (Wednesday, Oct. 28), conservatives will know the “leaders who will stand with us, not suck up to us” by their clear support of Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman in New York’s congressional election on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
In Kansas, 4th District Congressman Todd Tiahrt has alone met the standard set by Erick Erickson.
US Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) endorsed Jerry Moran over Todd Tiahrt. But since the endorsement, the New York race is one of two major events which have aligned DeMint closely with Tiahrt. (more…)
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But as America struggles to emerge from a financial crisis, any renewal of the right will require Republicans to rethink their approach to the economy. An agenda focused chiefly on tax cuts, as the Republicans’ has been since Ronald Reagan’s presidency, is no longer enough.
In 1980, Reagan won the election by attracting a substantial portion of Democrats with three simple ideas.
First was the fight against the Soviet Union.
Second, the battle against the excesses of the state: “Government is the problem, not the solution,” Reagan famously said.
Third, and most relevant to this discussion, was faith in economic growth.
You’ve seen those commercials in which an airline pilot, or surgeon, or nuclear engineer is giving expert advice only to acknowledge eventually to his nonplussed listeners that while he is not actually a fill-in-the-blank, he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night. Do you ever get the feeling that we are getting Holiday Inn Express government?
The current state of American politics presents a paradox. On the one hand, survey after survey testifies to the rock-bottom standing of the Republican Party. Fewer Americans identify with the party than in the past, and fewer trust it to deal with the country’s problems. On the other hand, there are hard-to-ignore signs of a conservative resurgence. A 15,000 person Gallup survey out today shows that 40 percent of Americans now identify themselves as conservative (up from 37 percent at the time of Obama’s election), while only 20 percent regard themselves as liberal (down from 22 percent). Far more independents (35 percent) consider themselves conservative than was the case a year ago (only 29 percent).
WASHINGTON (CNN) – Sen. Joe Lieberman told reporters Tuesday that he will support Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on a procedural motion in order to start the health care debate – but opposes any kind of public option, including state opt-out and trigger provisions, and will ultimately not vote to approve any health care bill that includes any version of a public option.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln says she’s reluctant to support health care legislation that would include a government-funded insurance option.
WASHINGTON (CNN) – After announcing his intention to move forward with a health care reform bill in the Senate that includes a version of the public health insurance option that would allow states to opt out, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told CNN that he has not ruled out using a budgetary procedure called reconciliation which would allow Democrats to pass the bill with a simple majority.
States like Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire that have imposed ObamaCare-style regulations have seen premiums jump for everyone. If people can wait to get sick until they obtain insurance, fewer healthy people will carry insurance. The cost of an older, sicker insurance pool naturally rises. To prevent this spiral of “adverse selection,” ObamaCare imposes a mandate requiring all adults to buy insurance. But Senate Finance Committee Dems — sensitive to its politically unpalatable requirements and fines — watered it down.
This only stokes the cost problem. According to the National Journal, MIT health economist Jonathan Gruber says that under this looser regime, the young and healthy will drop their insurance, and premiums will go up by 10 percent. Sarah Bianchi, the Kerry and Gore presidential campaigns’ chief domestic-policy adviser, fears the same dynamic.
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The day after White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s Clintonesque plan to triangulate and divide Republicans and doctors failed a major newspaper published this headline: “Democrats Lose Big Test Vote on Health Legislation.” The title was so fair and balanced many media obsessed White House advisers could have attributed it to Fox News. Yet, it was the New York Times that captured in a well-written, fair and subtle story the depth of the challenge the White House faces in its push to enact major health care reform legislation.
As promised, Barack Obama is bringing change to America. He’s making it more Republican.
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The consensus among economists is that the recession is over, and, technically, the herd is probably right. Corporate profitability has been boosted by job cuts, pay cuts and a drive to restock depleted inventories. Immense federal stimulus has jolted the economy.