Obama’s house of cards

Mr Obama is completing his first 100 days as president.

If you’re a Democrat, the words you might use to describe the president’s first 100 days would be something like these: energetic, intense, charming, refreshing, honest, likeable, smart and competent, a leader and a positive change agent.

If you’re a Republican, the words you might use are: dangerous, inexperienced, weak, indecisive, reckless spender and liberal.

He promised change and he brought it, alright, but where is it leading?  The first 100 days is a sprint, at the beginning of a very long marathon.  He has not yet had to “pay the piper”.  What happens when the bills start coming due?  How long can he keep blaming the “mess he inherited” before it’s his mess?

The most recent Rasmussen poll found 77% of Americans favor the free market over a government managed economy and 73% feel government spending is likely to increase under this administration and only 20% think their taxes will actually go down over the next 3 1/2 years.  A Fox news poll conducted last week found that over 60% feel government spending is out of control, and an overwhelming margin believe Obama has grown government, yet slightly over half  (55%) approve either slightly or strongly of the job he is doing.  A significantly larger percentage of voters strongly disapprove then they did on Day 1, 31%, up from just over 10%.

From “The Hill”, Dick Morris, former Clinton advisor, had this to say:

Obama’s very activism these days arrogates to himself the blame for the success or failure of his policies. Their outcome will determine his outcome, and there is no way it will be positive.
Why?
• You can’t borrow as much as he will need to without raising interest rates that hurt the economy;
• The massive amount of spending will trigger runaway inflation once the economy starts to recover;
• His overhaul of the tax code (still in the planning phases) and his intervention in corporate management will create such business uncertainty that nobody will invest in anything until they see the lay of the land;
• His bank program is designed to help banks, but not to catalyze consumer lending. And his proposal for securitization of consumer loans won’t work and is just what got us into this situation.

What he has proposed already is simply not sustainable.  Add in universal health care, sky-rocketing utility rates with cap and trade, amnesty – and government benefits – for illegal immigrants and the shaky house of cards he is building seems destined for collapse.  Remember Joe  Biden’s plea for support back in October? “You all are gonna be sitting here a year from now going, “Oh my G**, why are they there in the polls?  Why is the polling so down?  Why is this thing so tough?” I’m thinking the decline has begun, the honeymoon is ending and the winds of change ARE blowing – right on that house of cards.

Swine flu update 4/29

We now have 10 states with confirmed cases, the first death in the US (22 month-old in Texas) and the first suspected case in Utah.  Stay tuned!

UPDATE:WHO raises pandemic alert level to 5.  Maximum is 6.

Bennett and Hatch both running again

In a Deseret News article today, both Senators Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch confirm that they are planning on seeking re-election.  Senator Bennett would begin his 4th term at the age of 77, while Hatch would begin his at the age of 78.  Both say that age is not a factor and point to the leadership of the LDS church as an example of men who serve into their 80′s and 90′s.

While skimming over obvious differences between being elected to a DC seat and leading a world-wide church, I might point out that there are plenty of reasons for them to consider gracefully retiring, rather than end their political careers with an embarrassing defeat.

Hatch once again uses “experience” as his selling point, saying “Sen. Bennett and I work as hard every day for Utahns as the first day we set foot in the U.S. Senate, and experience goes a long way in Washington, especially in the Senate.”

Bennett agrees  and says “It’s the connections you make. It’s the trust that you build with your colleagues. It’s the people who may well remember when Sen. Bennett helped me with this, and now I’m willing to help him out with that,”

Perhaps he’s referring to the Democrats, who find him so easy to work with.  And it’s too bad his 16+ years of experience in the Senate didn’t help him figure out that a congressional seat for DC was unconstitutional until after he voted FOR the bill.  Or, I could point out once again that the rookie hot shot, as they like to call him, from Utah’s 3rd Congressional district in having no trouble at all with being the new kid on the block.

Both Hatch and Bennett insist they have not overstayed their welcome, and are not too old, showing with clarity how out-of-touch they are with fired-up Utah voters.  Seriously.  They’re both running scared and it shows.

The DNews does nicely point out that Utah has consistently voted out Senators when they have been in the Senate for too long, sending 11 of the last 13 packing.  (The other two stepped down of their own free will and were not voted out – Senators Wallace Bennett and Jake Garn).  The average age when they are defeated?  62. The average time served? 14 years.  The time has come for a changing of the guard.

Changing paradigms

Congressman Jason Chaffetz promised he would not accept a single earmark until there was significant reform. Many worried that their projects would not get funded. Others mocked him because, they said, “that’s just how it’s done”. As you might recall, there were a number of articles and blog posts from various quarters castigating the rookie for being naive at best for thinking he could get funding for worthwhile projects without following the “same old” system of earmarking pet projects.

Today, Chaffetz blew the lid off that theory as he announced an all-new way to fund transportation projects in Utah. According to the Deseret News, he

will not be the one who chooses which road projects will split the $15 million or so of federal money that he could earmark for his district in an upcoming, five-year transportation authorization bill.
Instead, he said Monday that he persuaded the House Transportation Committee to set aside roughly that amount of money for his district but let the Utah Department of Transportation decide how to spend it based on its priority list.

He worked with Utah Reps John Dougall and Becky Lockhart and announced this new funding method via a conference call with all three legislators and media reps. Rep Dougall said the “current process promotes patronage and pork barrel spending. This is a new day in federal transportation funding, promoting local control while leveraging Utah’s
transparent, needs-based, scientifically-driven prioritization process.”

He also noted that he had been hearing excuses for 5 years, and a freshman congressman with barely 100 days under his belt has been able to do what our “powerhouse” senators have been unable to accomplish.

What’s that saying? “Those who say it can’t be done should get out of the way of those who are doing it.”

The winds of change are blowing – in the right direction.

What’s up with swine flu?

Pandemic?  End of the world?  Or something less than that?  Here are the facts, as I could track them down.

Flu FAQ
*highly contagious, spread through the air or physical contact, like the ‘regular’ flu
*Most cases are relatively mild.
*Current flu vaccines are only somewhat effective against this strain of flu
*This particular variations contains two strains of swine flu, one strain of bird flu and one strain of human flu.
*Human flu portion of the virus is the only portion that the flu vaccine MAY offer some protection against.
*Incubation period of 1-7 days
*Symptoms include: fever, lethargy, lack of appetite, coughing, runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
*Type A flu, with the same markers (H1N1) as the flu pandemic of 1918.
*All pandemic flu outbreaks have been Type A and have had an avian component
*There is no natural immunity to this new variant
*Deaths are occurring in younger, healthier patients, leading doctors to believe that a cascading immune response, mounted by those with healthier immune systems, leads to organ failure – usually respiratory – and death
*There is no evidence that eating pork makes one more susceptible to swine flu
*The World Health Organization has moved the pandemic alert from a 3 to a 4, on a scale of 1-6, meaning significant human-to-human spread is possible
*A pandemic is an epidemic that has become wide-spread, instead of remaining localized.
*So far, there have been cases of this new strain of swine flu reported in 5 countries outside the US (Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, Scotland, and Spain) and 5 states within the US (New York, California, Ohio, Kansas and Texas)

Perspective
*annual fatalities from the “regular” flu average about 40,000 in the US
*over 27,000 cases and 200 deaths from measles in little Burkina Faso in Africa, right now.

Preparation
*CDC
*Pandemic flu website
*Pandemic Preparedness Training
*Pandemic Flu Summit 2007

The marriage is over

Governor Huntsman seems to have cut all ties to the Republican party in Utah.  Maybe the national office he is aiming for is under the current administration?  Yesterday, he was noticeably absent from both the Utah and Salt Lake county conventions – but was scheduled to speak in the very same building where the convention was held.  Many Utah legislators have got to be wondering -  if the love is lost, the marriage is over, how do you get through the next 3 years and still work together effectively?  I know *I* am wondering what the heck happened to him….oh yeah – the election’s over…..

Having it both ways?

Senators Bennett and Hatch both repeatedly tout the wisdom in choosing experienced legislators who “know their way around” DC and the process and warn against choosing rookie hot shots.  Strange, but it was  the rookie from Utah, Congressman Jason Chaffetz, that knew right away there were Constitutional problems.  Senator Bennett just “didn’t know” that a seat for DC was unconstitutional, remember.    I understand that there can be value in experience, but I’m thinking that a rookie that can grasp simple Constitutional concepts is not doing so badly…..So, Utah’s Senators seem to think their longevity in the Senate is their best selling point, yet want a “pass” when it comes to understanding the Constitution.  I am pretty sure they can’t have it both ways….

Utah County GOP convention

April 25th brought the winds of change to Utah county’s GOP leadership team.  Three of the four top spots were open seats this year and brought some good candidates.  Openness and transparency were the buzzwords of the day, followed closely by increased use of Web 2.0 tools (email, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc) and accessibility.  I expect that one of the first changes we will see is to the website.

Congressman Jason Chaffetz rocked the  house, with standing ovations at the beginning and end of his remarks, plus plenty of applause in-between.  He was greeted with cheers and loud applause as he began with “Welcome, fellow terrorists!”  Obviously popular and well-liked, he talked about his recent visit to Iraq and Afghanistan, the out-of-control spending in DC and affirmed to the approving crowd that “We will not support a president who goes around the world to apologize for our being the economic and military superpower”.  His speech stood in stark contrast to Senator Bob Bennett’s and Senator Orrin Hatch’s, both of whom received the barest of applause.  Senator Bennett said he could stand and be a cheerleader – or he could tell the truth (basically, the same speech as Friday night).  He then said the crowd had already had the cheerleading (from Congressman Chaffetz), so now he was going to tell the truth.  Senator Hatch spent his time talking about the bad things that can happen when someone runs more conservative than a moderate Republican Senator and warned against throwing the election to the Democrats by supporting a young, conservative “hot shot”.

In the end, a new generation of GOP leadership was elected, all in their 30′s and 40′s.  Real estate exec Taylor Oldroyd was elected chair, Mark Cluff – the only incumbent running – was re-elected by a very slim 10 point margin, Lisa Shepherd was elected secretary by a comfortable margin and newcomer Lynn Taylor was elected as treasurer with over 70% of the vote.

Bennett didn’t realize DC seat unconstitutional

Tonight’s Salt Lake county pre-convention dinner was well-attended.  There was plenty of opportunity for folks to mix and mingle beforehand and take advantage of photo ops.

The first speaker of the night was Attorney General, Mark Shurtleff.  He started off with some light-hearted banter, then proceeded to talk about the Eagle as envisioned by the founding fathers – three heads to represent the three branches of government, two wings to represent problem-solving (the left wing) and conservation (ie: conservative – the right wing).  Both wings are needed.  Both need to be carefully balanced so as not to tilt us towards tyranny or anarchy.  At the end of his speech, he commented briefly on Utah’s constitutional protection of marriage and expressed confusion over how our governor could himself be confused over what seems to be a very clear mandate.  In Utah, by constitution, marriage is between a man and woman and civil unions are out of the question.

Lt. Governor Gary Herbert then went to the podium and said “I am against civil unions”.  He talked about the state of the state and the recent ranking that put us the state the most well-position to recover from the economic downturn.

Following the Lt. Governor was Senator Bob Bennett.  He started his speech by saying he was not there to ‘be a cheerleader, but to tell the truth”.  He told us that the Democrats won in November and that “we” better not get complacent.  About 2/3 of the way through his 30 minute speech, he had this to say about the DC seat:

I was intrigued with that [bill] because it would have meant a 4th seat for Utah early. I made the mistake, looking back on it, of looking no deeper than that and being for it.  After I examined it clearly, after it was obviously going to pass, I realized ‘This is unconstitutional!”

Um, maybe he should have listened to the freshman Congressman from the third district.  Chaffetz was pretty darn vocal about it NOT being constitutional, and I as I recall, so were a large number of Utah’s citizens.

Sen. Bennett during AG Mark Shurtleff's speech

He also talked extensively about his leadership role and his experience, leading one to believe he was lobbing “rookie” jibes….

He concluded his speech by talking about the two seats SL county lost in the last election cycle.  (It was a net loss of two seats state-wide, but SL County lost 4 seats.)  He challenged the new party leadership to focus on regaining those seats, and to be reassured that the pendulum would swing back the Republican way.

We’ll see which captain will head the Salt Lake county “ship” in just a few hours!

Hatch – and Bennett – favored by the Dems

“The Hill” – a DC newspaper, asked all 99 seated senators which member of the opposing party they most enjoyed partnering with on legislation. The senators were also quizzed about their least favorite.

Utah’s own Orrin Hatch was labeled the 3rd easiest to work with by the Democrats.  Bob Bennett’s name was also frequently mentioned, along with Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe – yes, two of the 3 Republicans who voted FOR the most recent stimulus package.

Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) had this to say about Senator Hatch:
“I’ve worked with … Sen. Hatch. I think they’re all reasonable, they all want to get something done, and they’re not necessarily driven by ideology.”  Ouch.

Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) had this to say:
“I’m very pleased to be with Sen. Hatch on stem-cell research and a new reauthorization of national service. I would also add Bob Bennett to that list. I just went with him and Sens. McCain and Risch and Voinovich to Brussels for a forum to meet European leaders and talk about joint issues. “

The five Republicans listed as the most partisan, or the ones who stick the most closely to the Republican party platform are Jim Bunning (Ky.), David Vitter (La.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), Jim DeMint (S.C.) and Lamar Alexander (Tenn.).