Update (7/9/2009): Thanks to Michelle Malkin, who spearheaded efforts to kill Cap-n-Tax in both the House and Senate, we are given the good news that the Pressure’s on: Senate Dems put cap-and-tax on ice. Obama and the liberals attempt to rush the legislation is a strong indicator they are very aware that Obama’s numbers are slipping and the faster they acted, the better the chance of pushing this farce through, further damaging the U.S. economy in the short term and all but wreaking it long term. While I fully believe passage of this bill faces more difficulty as time passes, as Michelle warns about the public pressure, “keep it up”. It has got to feel good to know you have made a difference. Thanks to Michelle and everyone else who called, emailed, blogged, attended tea parties, or screamed from their rooftops. The backs of the enemy now face us and we triumphantly give chase. From Richard Cohen at the Washington Post via Michelle Malkin:

The primary U.S. Senate committee responsible for writing climate change legislation will delay its work until September, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer said on Thursday.

Boxer, who earlier this week said she wanted her committee to finish writing its portion of legislation mandating reductions in carbon dioxide emissions before an early August recess, told reporters that instead, “We’ll do it as soon as we get back” in September.

The delay could be a setback to President Barack Obama, who wants quick congressional action on a climate change bill.

Best quote of the day comes from Michelle in reference to the eight GOP cap-and-traitors in the House:

Hey, GOP Cap-and-Tax 8?ers, feeling pretty stupid right about now?

Up next: health care reform.

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Original Post (7/8/2009):
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Cruising the internet this morning, I noted a piece in ABC’s The Note written by Rick Klein that brought a smile to my face. The tide is turning in the battle against the Obamaniacs, the enemy is in retreat, and now is the time to strike the final blow. In Economies of Sale – Obama Agenda Threatened by Economy, Mr. Klein notes:

Look what’s back.

It took a trip abroad, a few Republicans to make some other news, and maybe even one of those once-a-decade funerals that double as international events, but the economy is the big issue again.

It’s never really gone away — though $787 billion in stimulus cash was supposed to have turned things around by now.

But it hasn’t, and here we are. Give us a jobs report, a sliding Dow, a vice-presidential admission, and a presidential certainty that everything was handled right, and we’ve got a fresh dose of the issue that’s always been here — and that’s closer than ever to belonging to the Democrats alone.

(If the domestic divisions weren’t enough, let’s go international: The economy will be a main focus at Wednesday’s G-8 sessions, in Italy, where President Obama spends his day after wrapping up the Russia portion of his trip.)

(And while he’s been away — maybe a bit too much playing by his top aides? So far, President Obama has had to tidy up some mixed messaging coming from his vice president and his chief of staff; it’s only Wednesday.)

On the economy — this time, it’s not as easy to blame the predecessors. This time, the pressure to change course comes from the left and the right.

This time, there’s an ambitious domestic agenda that’s at risk of getting sidetracked.

Now, it’s the president himself on the line.

Dan Balz notes the coming judgement on Obama and the economy:

Nothing may be more important to public assessments of President Obama’s leadership than the state of the economy, and at this point there are political warning lights flashing.

Mr. Balz continues later in the article:

The administration is trying to tamp down talk that it didn’t get it quite right — talk created by Vice President Biden. On Sunday, he told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, “We and everyone else misread the economy.”

And where does all of this leave Obama’s agenda?

Concerns about whether the stimulus package is working, or will, are the last thing Obama needs at this moment. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has set the administration’s calendar to focus all energies this month on the legislative battle over health care. Questions about the economy, and about the need for more stimulus funding, may only complicate hopes for passing what other presidents have failed to get done.

Obama continues to argue that health-care reform is a critical piece of his plan to fix the economy, long term. But even some Democrats worry that the centerpiece of the administration’s economic program is not working as well as they had hoped. Senior administration officials contend that no stimulus effort could offset the full effects of this recession but that the plan is helping and will continue to ameliorate the effects of the downturn.

Just keep telling yourself that, boys and girls, while the adults in the room try to figure out what festering plague infects your frontal cortex to the point where you would believe that any government stimulus would help the economy. Nope, we are smarter than you and know better. Still, stimulus part two is making its debut. Hey, I know, let’s try this, and if it doesn’t work, lets try it again, and again, and again. If the definition of insanity is performing the same act over and over expecting different results, Obama and the Democrats are in dire need of padded cells and straight jackets.

And then there is Michael Gerson of the Washington Post on Obama’s Iceberg:

Around midnight on April 15, 1912, there were a few minutes when Capt. Edward Smith of the Titanic realized his ship was going down — six watertight compartments breached, less than two hours to float — yet his passengers slept in happy ignorance. A historical fate hardened while most of the participants dreamed on.

The jobs report last week opened a long gash beneath the waterline of President Obama’s legislative agenda. Few realize it, but a scramble for lifeboats is about to begin.

Obama and the liberals are creating their own economic Katrina and leaving common sense packed away neatly into suitcases in the attic. Is there a silver lining for Obama and his liberal allies? Yes, given their belief in the hoax of global warming; which the rest of the world is waking up to, they should be smiling. The dim bulbs in their heads certainly lower their carbon footprint. Inside the liberal skull, nature does not abhor a vacuum.

Michael Gerson continues:

By the time the health-care debate begins in earnest, these challenges at the federal level will be unavoidable. Perhaps $1 trillion in spending will be on the table. Some of the resources necessary for a “revenue-neutral” bill may come from savings in the health system. But administration and congressional officials are already hinting at the need for new revenue, including some type of tax on employer-provided health benefits. “The important thing at this point is . . . to keep the discussions going,” says Obama senior adviser David Axelrod, even if discussions include such taxes. “We haven’t drawn a lot of bright lines,” explains White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

To pass his health proposal this year, Obama would first need to violate his word. As a presidential candidate, he pledged that “no one making less than $250,000 a year will see any type of tax increase” — the most memorable number of the 2008 campaign. Taxing health benefits would certainly cross this very bright line and add to the public stock of cynicism.

Second, Obama would need to abandon economic common sense — adding debt to debt or new taxes to a struggling economy. Either way, it would be a sad story.

Or maybe the captain could wake the passengers, end their dreams and announce the obvious: Because the economy has not improved, ambitious health reform must wait.

Back to Rick Klein who informs us:

A little more open: “We need to be open to whether or not we need additional action” to stimulate the economy, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters, per Bloomberg’s James Rowley and Brian Faler.

“Democrats are all over the map on the stimulus and the possibility of a sequel, and it’s not hard to see why: When it comes to a second stimulus, they may be damned if they do and damned if they don’t,” Politico’s Victoria McGrane reports.

The thing about the urgency around quick action: “The Obama administration made its work harder by fostering unrealistic expectations. It projected in February a far rosier economic outlook than private analysts did,” McClatchy’s Kevin G. Hall and David Lightman report. “Obama’s stimulus was designed to create 3.5 million jobs. That would replace only about half the jobs lost since the recession began.”

Need more proof that the economy is back as the issue? “U.S. stocks fell to their lowest level in 10 weeks on Tuesday as talk of a second government stimulus plan heightened fears that the economy is not yet on the path to recovery and that the corporate earnings season starting this week will be weak,” Reuters’ Edward Krudy reports.

(And what happens if unemployment reaches 14 percent –as predicted by Louis Woodhill, at RealClearMarkets?)

About those jobs: “Leading economists agree that the most powerful effects of the stimulus package have yet to be felt. But even if the measure lives up to Obama’s expectations, it would barely offset the 433,000 jobs the nation lost last month alone, and the resulting employment would represent a drop in the bucket compared with the 6.5 million jobs lost since the recession began in December 2007,” Lori Montgomery writes in The Washington Post.

And then there is the warning for Republicans:

A counterpoint, from Bob Shrum in The Week: “For the GOP, it’s another case of buying short-term press at the expense of coherent strategy. The party again reinforced the sense that it has no answers of its own; Republicans came across as transparently eager for a continuing or deepening recession that they can blame on Obama,” Shrum writes. “The GOP will pay a heavy political price if the economy does turn around.”

Translation for Republicans: America wants smaller government. Start acting like conservatives and ignore the Colin Powells who are calling for moderation in the party. Take your balls out of storage and dust them off. We have already seen what a moderate RINO is capable of. Maybe its me, but George Bush and John McCain don’t seem that much different than the bozos leading us now. They can’t even pretend anymore, their attempts at hiding their onerous intentions exposing them as nothing less than a sheep in sheep’s clothing.

Remember, the first round of stimulus started under George Bush, and the biggest growth in government (present companye exluded, of course) happened on his watch with the Medicare prescription drug program. And don’t get me started on immigration or I’ll bust a blood vessel in my head.

What America needs now is fiscal conservatives dedicated to the founding principles of this country – smaller governement, freedom, and opportunity. And let’s not forget fiscal responsibility.

Shrum’s advice to the GOP?

Unless: “the GOP’s spectral rhetoric could spook congressional Democrats into a self-destructive period of doubt and disarray,” Shrum continues. “The casualties would be health reform, the energy bill that still has to pass the Senate, and conceivably a second stimulus package — which Vice President Biden just refused to rule out because it may be needed. The other casualties would be the Democrats themselves; instead of changing the country, the outcome would be a change in the balance of political power.”

I have a dream of success – and keeping my hard earned money away from obnoxious tofu-chomping, sushi-eating potheads. The liberal moto: Let no dream be fullfilled, excellence recognized, nor truth be recognized.

Meciocrity for all, and to all a good night.

More News and Opinions:

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air: Gore: Fighting global warming is like fighting Nazis

Sister Toldjah on Waxman: Not supporting Obama’s agenda means your are “against America”

Michelle Malkin: Cap and Tax 8 Watch: A letter to Dave Reichert

Emperor Misha I on a senior White House official trampling on the constitution regarding the START treaty.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 10:19 am and is filed under General Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.