Let’s face it guys, yesterday’s ObamaCare summit was nothing more than the theater of the absurd. It was designed by Obama and his minions to embarrass the Republicans, an effort that failed miserably. In fact what it did do is prove the Emperor has no clothes.
In the end, Obama basically threatened to do what the democrats have been threatening to do for some time: use "reconciliation" to circumvent the Senate rules and shove this unconstitutional mess down America’s throat with 51 votes, rather than the 60 it would normally take them to get this kind of heavily opposed legislation done. Obama is basically telling America: "You don’t like this? Tough, I won you lost, deal with it."
What made this Kabuki Theater so absurd was the fact Harry Reid started off making it all look so innocent by saying "Reconciliation? What reconciliation? No one’s talking about reconciliation!" Democrats are really interesting little whizbang creatures aren’t they? They actually think they can lie to people’s face and get away with it. This may work on their base of voters, but that’s a really small base. For the rest of us, that dog don’t hunt.
John McCain weighed in this morning with George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America. McCain said if the democrats used reconciliation, the results would be "cataclysmic" and stressed the fact that the democrats were using Bernie Madoff type accounting.
For her part, Sarah weighed in with a heavy critique of her own, offering up a little fact checking reality:
Fact-checking Obamacare Summit
Today at 12:01pm
We should be thankful for yesterday’s 7-hour health care summit – it was helpful in that it allowed Americans to hear the fundamental differences in approaches to meeting health care challenges. On one side, commonsense conservatives laid out fiscally-sound, free market-based, patient-centered solutions; and on the left’s side we heard about the Democrat’s belief that growing government is the only way to meet challenges.
As the saying goes, "Everyone is entitled to his opinion, but not his own facts." When these "facts" concern one-sixth of our economy and something as important to our personal wellbeing as health care, we’d better make sure they are the real deal.
Please take a look at the compilation below from GOP.com correcting the top five falsehoods from yesterday’s summit. I appreciate their research and revelations compiled here.
- Sarah Palin
TOP FIVE FALSEHOODS
If Democrats Would Start Listening To The American People, They’d Stop Telling Falsehoods
NO ONE’S TALKING ABOUT RECONCILIATION?
Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) Claims "No One Has Talked About Reconciliation." "No one has said -- I read what the President has online -- no one has talked about reconciliation but that's what you folks have talked about ever since that came out, as if it's something that has never been done before." ("Transcript: White House Health Summit, Morning Session," Kaiser Health News, 2/25/10)
But Reid Himself Is Talking About Reconciliation. "Harry Reid’s got a gift for hyperbole – and it keeps on giving. The Senate majority leader’s latest gem came in response to hints that Democrats might try to use the fast-track budget ‘reconciliation’ to bypass a Republican filibuster of President Obama’s health care plan. After advising Republicans on Tuesday to ‘stop crying over reconciliation as if it’s never been done before,’ he ticked off a list of legislative feats he contends were accomplished through the filibuster-busting process: ‘Contract [with] America was done with reconciliation. Tax cuts, done with reconciliation. Medicare, done with reconciliation.’" (Jonathan Allen, "Hyperbolic Harry," Politico’s "Live Pulse" Blog, 2/24/10)
"For Some Bizarre Reason, During His Initial Presentation, Sen. Reid Said That ‘No One Has Talked About Reconciliation,’ … But That's Obviously Not True. Everybody's Talking About It. And A Lot Of Dems Would Be Pretty Upset If They Weren't Talking About It." (Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo’s "Editors Blog" Blog, 2/25/10)
* "A Number Of Democratic Senators Have Signed A Letter Urging Reid To Use Reconciliation To Pass The Public Option." (Eric Zimmermann, "Reid: 'No One Has Talked About Reconciliation,’" The Hill’s "Briefing Room" Blog, 2/25/10)
Obama Health Reform Advisor Says The Door Is Open For Reconciliation. "Linda Douglass, the communications director of the White House Office of Health Reform, left reconciliation on the table as an option for passing a health care bill if Democrats and Republicans don't reach consensus during Thursday's summit. … ‘Certainly if that were not to be the case, he would be asking for a simple up or down majority vote and would certainly hope that the Republicans would not try to block that simple up or down majority vote.’" (Carol Lee & Patrick O’Connor, "Douglass Open To Reconciliation," Politico’s "44" Blog, 2/25/10)
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AREN’T INTERESTED IN RECONCILIATION?
Obama Claims Americans Don’t Care About Reconciliation. "You know, this issue of reconciliation has been brought up. Again I think the American people aren't always all that interested in procedures inside the Senate. I do think they want a vote on how we’re going to move this forward." (President Obama, Health Care Summit, Washington, DC, 2/25/10)
But 52% Of Americans Don’t Want The Democrats To Use Reconciliation To Pass Their Government-Run Health Care Experiment. "In the survey, Americans by 52%-39% oppose Senate Democrats using the procedure, which allows a bill to pass with a 51-vote majority rather than the 60 votes needed to end debate." (Susan Page, "Poll: Expectations Low On Health Summit," USA Today, 2/25/10)
DEM PROPOSALS WILL LOWER PREMIUMS?
President Obama Claimed CBO Determined His Plan Would Lower Premiums. PRESIDENT OBAMA: "It's not factually accurate. Here's what the Congressional Budget Office says. The costs for families for the same type of coverage that they're currently receiving would go down 14 percent to 20 percent." SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER (R-TN): "The Congressional Budget Office report says that premiums will rise in the individual market as a result of the Senate bill." PRESIDENT OBAMA: "No, no, no, no. Let me -- and this is an example of where we've got to get our facts straight." ALEXANDER: "That's my point." OBAMA: "Well, exactly, so let me -- let me respond to what you just said, Lamar, because it's not factually accurate. Here's what the Congressional Budget Office says. The costs for families for the same type of coverage that they're currently receiving would go down 14 percent to 20 percent." (President Obama, Health Care Summit, Washington, DC, 2/25/10)
But Actually, CBO Determined The Bill Would Raise Premiums For Americans Purchasing Insurance Individually. "CBO and JCT estimate that the average premium per person covered (including dependents) for new nongroup policies would be about 10 percent to 13 percent higher in 2016 than the average premium for nongroup coverage in that same year under current law." (Douglas W. Elmendorf, Letter To Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN), 11/30/09)
INCREMENTAL PLANS ARE UNACCEPTABLE?
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA): "[I]naction And Incrementalism Are Simply Unacceptable." (Mike Allen, "Will Dr. Obama Go For Plan B-1, Or Plan B-2? -- Dems' Post-Summit Message: POTUS Was 'Thoughtful, Comprehensive,' Rs 'Insulted The Summit' -- New NYT Expose May Finish Gov. Paterson," Politico’s "Playbook," 2/25/10)
But 56.4 Percent Of Americans Prefer An Incremental Approach. "Moreover, 56.4 percent of people indicated they would prefer Congress to tackle healthcare reform on a step-by-step basis, not take the comprehensive approach as embodied in the legislation that passed the House and Senate last year but has stalled for the past month." (Jeffrey Young, "Poll: Most Americans Think Congress Should Start Over On Healthcare," The Hill’s "Briefing Room" Blog, 2/16/10)
PUBLIC FUNDS WOULDN’T GO TO ABORTION?
Pelosi Said Abortion Wouldn’t Be Funded Under The Plan. "The law of the land is there is no public funding of abortion and there is no public funding of abortion in these bills and I don't want our listeners or viewers to get the wrong impression from what you said." (Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Health Care Summit, Washington, DC, 2/25/10)
But The Bill Allows Federally Funded Abortions. "Under the new abortion provisions, states can opt out of allowing plans to cover abortion in the insurance exchanges the bill would set up. The exchanges are designed to serve individuals who lack coverage through their jobs, with most receiving federal subsidies to buy insurance. Enrollees in plans that cover abortion procedures would pay with separate checks -- one for abortion, one for any other health-care services." (Paul Kane, "To Sway Nelson, A Hard-Won Compromise On Abortion Issue," The Washington Post, 12/20/10)
Pro-Life Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) Calls Obama’s Abortion Language "Unacceptable." "Unfortunately, the president’s proposal encompasses the senate language allowing public funding of abortion. The senate language is a significant departure from current law and is unacceptable." (Ben Smith," Stupak: "Unacceptable," Politico’s "Live Pulse" Blog, 2/23/10)
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) Says 15 To 20 House Dems Who Can’t Support Obama’s Proposal. "Rep. Bart Stupak, the Michigan Democrat who led efforts to tighten abortion language in the House health care bill, said Wednesday morning there are 15 to 20 House Democrats who cannot support President Barack Obama’s effort to bridge the gap between the House and Senate health plans. … He said well over a dozen House members will likely balk, not just on abortion but on the residual tax on so-called Cadillac health plans, which he said the House had already rejected." ("Stupak: 15-20 Dems Can’t Back Obama Health Plan," The Wall Street Journal’s "Washington Wire" Blog, 2/24/10)
Sarah was also on the Sean Hannity show giving her thoughts about this fiasco. Video courtesy Palin TV:
For his part, Allahpundit over at Hot Air put together a compilation of highlights (lowlights?) from yesterday’s dog and pony show. Highlights: The best freak-show moments from the health-care freak show. Please click here to read.
We are winning this fight and winning it big time. Right now everyone’s job is to remain strong and continue to put pressure on the enemies of freedom and liberty. We can stop this unholy mess.
The President and his lunatic Congress simply won’t listen to the American people. America has loudly rejected ObamaCare and any thought of it. The democrat/communist party just lost what has been one of the bluest of blue seats for half a century, based solely on the fact that Scott Brown, the new Senator from Massachusetts, promised to vote to kill ObamaCare!
The democrat/communist party is facing losses in the House and Senate like it has never seen in America’s history. The loses, to use the Obama regime’s favorite buzz word will be "unprecedented!"
And yet, knowing this is a suicide mission for anyone voting to advance this dangerous and unconstitutional legislation, Obama is asking his people to sacrifice their careers to get this monstrosity passed into law.
Never mind these people, including the President, work for us, and never mind 75-80 percent of "us," (according to some polling) have told these people to cease and desist!
To continue to attempt to force this completely rejected crap sandwich down America’s throat is criminal, and in my opinion, those pushing it should be treated as criminals, enemies of the people.
With that said, America’s Governor has weighed in:
More of the Same, Only More Expensive
The President has wrestled control of the health care debate away from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid by finally introducing his own plan. Unfortunately, the White House’s proposal includes everything we found untenable about the old Senate bill – only this one is even more expensive! This is what you might call putting "perfume on a pig."
What’s in this "new" proposal? It has the unpopular (and arguably unconstitutional) individual mandate that forces people and employers to purchase health insurance – only this time with much harsher fines on employers who choose not to go along with another expensive government mandate. It has provisions that will make employers think twice before expanding their workforce. It has cuts to Medicare Advantage, a popular program which allows seniors to pay a little more money out of pocket for better coverage. And, of course, it still has sweetheart deals – only this time they’ve been extended even more.
We don’t know what the final long-term cost of this will be because the Congressional Budget Office hasn’t had a chance to calculate costs. We do know that the White House recognizes that its proposal will cost tens of billions more over the next ten years than the already-expensive $2.5 trillion Senate bill. The President promised last July that he won’t sign a health care bill if it "adds even one dime to our deficit over the next decade." But he’s now proposing a health care bill with uncertain fiscal repercussions that could lead to endless deficits.
The rising cost of care has driven the entire health care reform debate. So how does the President’s proposal address this central issue? Price controls. That’s right: Washington, D.C. wants to give a panel of bureaucrats the power to cap insurance premiums and prices. As Michael Cannon of the Cato Institutenotes, "artificially limiting premium growth allows the government to curtail spending while leaving the dirty work of withholding medical care to private insurers." This leads to rationing. Any economist worth his salt – including the White House’s own Larry Summers – will tell you that price controls lead to all sorts of negative unintended consequences. It’s another step towards government controlled health care and away from the real solution: free market, patient-centered reform.
With a government-growing proposal this bad, it’s no wonder the President wants bipartisan cover for it in an election year. Thursday’s health care summit is already being revealed as little more than a photo-op. The Obama administration still denies the existence of the House Republicans’ health care plan that offers alternative solutions to health care challenges – even though the White House website links right to it.
The President’s proposal doesn’t include pro-free market ideas like allowing people to buy insurance across state lines, giving individual buyers the same tax benefits as those who get insurance through their employers, or instituting real medical liability reform. Despite the "kumbaya" rhetoric, Democrats are making plans to ram this bill through the Senate using a partisan procedural maneuver that will bypass the normal bipartisan debate process.
In the meantime, the White House will continue to ignore Republican reform ideas and cast the GOP as the party of no. That’s a hard sell considering that Democrats still hold the majority in the House and Senate. The only real "gridlock" preventing Democrats from doing what they want is the very real threat of America's voice being heard at the ballot box.
The public is clearly opposed to the Democrats’ health care bills. Americans want to scrap these big-government plans and start over with common-sense, incremental reform. Some on the left have urged Democrats to vote for Obamacare because it’s a foot in the door for universal health care. They understand what’s at stake; so should the rest of us.
The President can perfume this proposal however he wants, but it still doesn’t pass the smell test. Washington should listen to Americans now, or Washington will hear us in November.
- Sarah Palin
As always, Sarah has plenty of links to back her up, and I hope readers will take time to visit each and every one to learn more about the mess Obama is trying to get us into.
One of the things Sarah mentions, that is part of Obama’s failed strategery, is price controls. Governments have tried regulating prices since the time of ancient Rome. It has never, ever worked. It always leads to major shortages of the goods or services being controlled.
In the old Soviet Union, it lead to shortages of food, clothing, and other staples of life. This sort of thinking lead to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Empire. Price controls have destroyed the Cuban economy and are destroying the economy in Venezuela.
Richard Nixon imposed price controls in the 1970's. It caused massive economic problems for the country that lasted for over a decade. Also lead to massive inflation in the end.
Now this fool in the White House and his power mad Congress want to destroy the best health care on the planet in some maniacal scheme they hope will allow them to control the entire economy, as well as lives of all good decent Americans.
You wanna see "death panels"? Wait ‘till you see the massive health care rationing that will take place if this craven plan is allowed to come to fruition. More devastating than all of the dead ObamaCare will leave in it’s wake from health care rationing, is all of those who had hopes that modern medicine would find cures for diseases they suffer from. Obama’s insane Marxist plan will remove any and all incentives to further medical research.
And since Obama will have destroyed the economy and run up our already unsustainable debt to the point of no return, there will be no government money, tax payer money, to fund medical research either. You see communism is all about the equal sharing of misery, not prosperity and happiness.
This is evil, pure evil. These people are completely out of control. Obama and his insane Congress must be stopped and stopped now. Once stopped they must be watched like a hawk watches chickens.
As long as one progressive democrat/communist is in power, at any level, in any capacity, America, and the American people are in danger.
Looking at the prospect of losing both the House and the Senate this year and the White House in 2012, democrats are desperate. The American people have soundly rejected the entire Marxist agenda that Obama and his radical Congress has tried to foist upon them.
Knowing they have almost zero chance of remaining a viable political party after this Obama, Pelosi, and Reid fiasco, congressional democrats are bringing out their bete noire to try and motivate their rapidly shrinking base of supporters.
Recently Sarah Palin declared that she will be getting involved in Republican primaries like she did in her losing effort in last fall’s special election in Upstate New York. At the tea party convention, Palin stated, "Contested primaries aren't civil war; they're democracy at work and that's beautiful." [Sarah Palin, 2/6/10].
To make her job easy, the DCCC is launching "Palin's Primaries" a new site that will track the most divisive and messy House Republican primaries in the country.
Palin will have plenty to choose from: There are at least 55 competitive Republican primaries, many with Tea Party candidates, in Frontline races, open seats, targeted Republican districts, and other races House Republicans are trying to hype. The DCCC will regularly feature the messiest House Republican primary races out there.
Man, they got a nifty little map and all! Hilarious.
Obviously the democrats desperately hope the Tea Party movement will somehow field their own candidates, thus splitting the Conservative vote. I guess they haven’t been listening when Sarah has said third party is not the way to go, and that Tea Partiers need to "pick a party" and work from within to change. In most, if not all cases, that messages resonates with Tea Party members. They understand just how important the up coming elections are. They also understand that it’s easier to take a party over than to start a new one.
It worked for the Marxists in the democrat party!
I am forever tickled by democrats. They run around telling people that strong leaders like Sarah Palin are "inconsequential" or my favorite "dumb." They claim to be our intellectual superiors, knowing "what’s best for us." The funniest thing about our "intellectual betters" is how truly ignorant they are.
As always, democrats tell you who they live in abject fear of. There are no "stop Olympia Snowe before we all die" campaigns out there!
Say what they will, this private citizen, this mother of five from Wasilla, Alaska, has these people scared for their political lives. Frankly, they should be. Time and time again Sarah has proven she has the power to take these people on, and defeat them from her Facebook page! One can only imagine the destroyed democrat political careers that will dot the landscape once Sarah actually hit’s the campaign trail!
Next time you hear a democrat tell you just how "inconsequential" Sarah Palin is, remember what they are really saying is Sarah Palin is a strong and proven leader who scares the bejeezus out of them.
Bristol Palin is about to make her debut on the small screen on ABC Family Television’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager. ABC announced Tuesday Bristol will play herself on the ABC Family show.
According to the network, Bristol will play a friend of the show's main character, Amy. The show has recently focused on how Amy reacts to an unexpected pregnancy.
"I am thrilled to be on this show and to be part of a program that educates teens and young adults about the consequences of teen pregnancy," Bristol said in a statement provided by ABC.
"We're thrilled to have [Bristol] join us, and I think she will bring additional attention to the issues facing teen parents that we've been exploring for a couple seasons now," Brenda Hampton, the show's executive producer, said in a statement.
This is a great move on Bristol’s part. She announced last year that she would focus on trying to help young women understand the consequences of making bad decisions. If there was ever a shining example of a bad decision it’s this guy:
Bristol is showing great maturity by using her status as Sarah Palin’s daughter to do something for women and children by taking a tough chapter in her life and turning it into a positive, teaching moment. Bristol deserves our support for doing this.
Kudos to ABC Family, as well, for taking this tough subject head on.
According to the network, the episode will air this summer.
Not mincing words, Sarah Palin came out both barrels blazing this morning when she took on the global warming hoaxers and Obama with full force:
"Global Warming" – More Like a Snow Job
Today at 12:31am
Over the last few months, and even again today, very unsettling revelations have come to light about the "settled science" of man-made global warming. With all of these shoes dropping you’d think every member of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) would be barefoot by now.
One thing after another keeps popping up to further discredit the theory of man-made global warming. The IPCC’s supposedly definitive report proving the theory is riddled with serious errors. The organization has been publicly chastised by everyone from its former chair to the heads of the UK’s biggest funder of climate research and Greenpeace UK. One of the world’s top climate change scientists, Prof. Phil Jones, has conceded that there’s been no significant warming since 1995; that the medieval period may have been warmer than today; and that he’s had trouble even keeping track of raw data crucial to the global warming theory. Yet President Obama still seeks to create a federal office for global warming, and they’re still talking about mandating their cap-and-tax plan that's based on discredited data.
The Obama administration’s environmental extremism also shows up in its aversion to oil and gas development. A true all-of-the-above approach to energy would mean allowing oil and gas explorers to drill here and drill now because America has the proven reserves needed to meet our energy challenges. A new industry study reveals that the federal government's current restrictions on oil and gas drilling in Alaska and off the U.S. coastline will cost us $2.36 trillion through 2029. Think of the millions of U.S. jobs we could create, and how much more secure America would be, if we had a true free market approach to energy independence that allowed us to finally drill!
And though I applaud the President’s newly declared interest in nuclear power, it should be noted that he’s merely following through on loan guarantees authorized during the prior administration. What’s more, while the White House now touts the building of new nuclear power plants, its budget inexplicably calls for cutting funding to the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. A real nuclear energy plan requires a strategy for dealing with nuclear waste storage and recycling.
The man-made global warming hysteria isn’t based on sound science, and the Obama administration’s energy policy isn’t based on sound economics. If the climategate revelations teach us anything, it’s that we need to cool down the rhetoric and fire up our common sense.
- Sarah Palin
This folks, is why I support Sarah Palin. The woman has cojones! Big brass ones!
Most of the pretenders to the 2012 GOP presidential contest would never take on the global warming hoaxers, the flat earthers. Many of them actually believe global warming is real, which should disqualify them from ever holding any office. The rest are just political cowards because they know to question the global warming hoaxers is to face ridicule.
Sarah Palin isn’t afraid of a little mud slinging and lies by the left. Hell, I think she thrives on it. Makes her mad, keeps her focused and determined!
Energy independence and national security run hand and hand. Energy is the lifeblood of our economy. It is criminal that we don’t use our own natural resources.
Obama and his radical government is dead set on using his office to destroy America through some modified Cloward-Piven strategy and then remake it into his idea of a communist utopia.
The man must be stopped and common sense must prevail.
Sarah Palin has the right plan for national security, energy independence, and economic prosperity. It’s time we stop screwing around and start putting her plans into action!
Pretty hard to add much to this one. Sarah pretty much nails it:
Stimulus Bill Anniversary Proves Not-So-Stimulating
Today at 9:04am
One year ago today, President Obama signed a nearly trillion dollar stimulus package and handed our children the bill. What did we get for that massive price tag? Many promises, but the promises have proven false. On this stimulus anniversary, Washington needs to hear our message that Americans expect, and deserve, better.
Americans were promised the stimulus would keep unemployment under 8%. It’s now well over that. We were promised it would be targeted and pork-free. It’s been loaded with pork, corporate giveaways, union bosses’ goodies, and other manners of waste. We were promised there would be no fraud, but our government now tells us it can’t even verify the eligibility of people applying for the $325 billion worth of stimulus tax provisions. We were promised there would be strict oversight, but billions of dollars apparently were allotted to congressional districts that don’t even exist. We were promised it would provide "green jobs" for Americans, but 80% of the $2 billion they spent on alternative energy went to purchase wind turbines built in China! We were promised it would help state governments weather the recession, but states receiving the stimulus bait will be in worse fiscal shape now because local governments will be on the hook for new unfunded mandates and continuation of government programs they couldn’t afford in the first place – as many of us governors warned state legislatures.
One year later, we see plainly that the stimulus was not a well-thought out plan. It hasn’t revived our economy; instead the debt-ridden package will prove to be a drag on our economy. It hasn’t put us on the path to a better future; instead it’s unfairly mortgaged our children’s future and stolen opportunities from them. It hasn’t strengthened us; instead it endangers our freedom and security by making us even more beholden to foreign lenders. The legacy of the stimulus isn’t jobs or economic growth – it’s more dangerous debt.
But there is hope! And this hope lies in draining the swamp in D.C. and sending Commonsense Conservatives to Washington who understand the need for fiscal restraint. Those who are willing to rein in spending, respect Constitutional limits, and repeal the stimulus should get our support, and those who have been part of the problem should be replaced.
In this election year, we’ll see many daring Davids take on entrenched Goliaths. Just one of these many brave souls is a northern Wisconsin patriot named Sean Duffy. He’s running in Wisconsin’s 7th congressional district against a liberal Goliath who’s been in Congress over 40 years now and has the dubious distinction of being the author of the stimulus bill. To commemorate the anniversary of the signing of the stimulus, Sean Duffy is holding a fundraising "money bomb" for his campaign so he can replace the career politician who drafted this government-bloating behemoth.
If you’re frustrated about the waste in the stimulus bill, please support a solid fiscal conservative who will work to repeal it. Please visit Sean Duffy’s website and help him help us correct the mistakes of this past year.
On this first anniversary of the stimulus, let’s send a message to the big-spenders in Washington by helping Sean Duffy unseat the author of the stimulus. Let’s put government back on our side and get to work revitalizing America!
- Sarah Palin
One thing I like about Sarah’s blogging, she provides plenty of links to back up what she says. Please make sure you take the time to visit each link and learn even more.
Make no mistake about it, Obama’s pork laden "stimulus package" is a disaster for all Americans. Good money thrown after bad in an orgy of government spending that looked to build the perfect communist utopian state. Epic Fail on every account!
Although it’s hard to add to what Sarah has written, I did want to include more on all of the money that went to foreign energy firms. West Coast editor Stacy Drake brought this one to my attention from the San Diego Union-Tribune:
Foreign energy firms getting windfall of U.S. stimulus funds
Money is used to buy turbines made abroad
Of the more than $2 billion the federal government has given out to boost the economy and create green-energy jobs, more than three-quarters has gone to foreign-owned companies that dominate the global wind-power industry. This latest finding by the Investigative Reporting Workshop, a nonprofit at American University in Washington, D.C., is illustrated clearly in San Diego County, where about a dozen commercial wind developers have offices.
La Jolla is the headquarters for Eurus Energy America, the subsidiary of a Japanese firm that received $91 million in federal stimulus money for a wind farm in western Texas. It plans to apply for more money to fund a wind project in Oregon.
EnXco, a French-owned firm with American headquarters in Escondido, has received $69.5 million in stimulus money for its wind farm in Indiana. It installed 53 German-made turbines at the site. EnXco also is operating the Texas wind farm for Eurus.
A-Power Energy Generation Systems, a Chinese-owned company that might get federal grants through a consortium building a wind farm in western Texas, lists a vacant office in downtown San Diego as its U.S. address on recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Cannon Power Group of San Diego has received $19 million to expand a wind farm east of Portland in Washington. The company spent about half of that money overseas to pay for wind turbines it said it couldn’t get stateside.
The Reporting Workshop’s initial analysis of wind-energy grants was released in October and outraged some lawmakers. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., cited the group’s report — and news that $450 million in stimulus money might go to a group installing Chinese-made wind turbines in Texas — when he asked the secretary of energy to deny federal financing to firms that use foreign-made turbines.
American wind companies are receiving stimulus grants, but some such as Cannon Power spend much of that money abroad because few U.S. companies manufacture turbines.
Mark Anderson, chief executive officer of Eurus Energy America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Eurus Energy Holdings Corp., said his company would not have been able to move forward with other projects without the guarantee of stimulus money.
Eurus received $91 million in grants for the Bull Creek Wind Farm in Texas. It has the capacity to power about 48,000 homes a year.
Eurus is building a wind farm in Oregon. The company plans to seek green grants for that project, Anderson said.
"We plan to put more and more money into the United States," he said.
Eurus employs 20 people in San Diego, Anderson said, and has assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Its Texas project created between 300 and 400 jobs for construction, including 10 for operation, and is benefiting the local economy through property taxes and land leases, Anderson said. For the project, Eurus bought Mitsubishi turbines, which are manufactured abroad.
EnXco, the French-owned firm based in Escondido, also went abroad to buy turbines, from German manufacturer REpower. A spokesman for EnXco said the project created more than 200 construction jobs as well as a dozen permanent jobs. It has the capacity to power about 29,000 homes per year.
A-Power, based in northeast China, is part of a group building a wind farm in western Texas using turbines it is manufacturing in China. This is the project that affronted Schumer after the group announced plans to collect $450 million in stimulus grants.
In a letter, Schumer asked Energy Secretary Steven Chu to reject requests for stimulus grants from companies that buy key components abroad.
"In all due respect, I remind the secretary there is a four-letter word associated with the stimulus — J-O-B-S," Schumer told ABC News. "Very few jobs here, lots of jobs in China. That is not what I intended or any other legislator who voted for the stimulus intended."
Chu responded on Facebook: "But manufacturers will not build plants here and grow their production capacity here unless there is domestic demand; and, until recently, that was not the case."
In SEC filings this year, A-Power Energy Generation Systems lists a suite in a high-rise in downtown San Diego as its business and mailing address. However, the suite door is locked, and a building manager said A-Power is not a tenant.
When reached on his cell phone, Chief Operating Officer John Lin said he did not have time to answer questions.
Gary Hardke, president of Cannon Power Group, a renewable-energy company near Torrey Pines, said his company had no choice but to go abroad to buy parts for its wind farm in Klickitat, Wash. Two main U.S. manufacturers, GE Energy and Clipper Windpower, either did not make a turbine the size that Cannon wanted or were sold out.
Cannon bought the turbines — made up mostly of blades, towers and nacelles (the part in the middle that houses components such as the rotor and generator) — from Siemens, a German company that also was the main contractor.
In all, Hardke estimated, more than 50 percent of the stimulus grant went to Siemens.
"I appreciate that cosmetically it doesn’t look good, but the reality is … the grants (must) go into the project costs," he said.
Cannon is expecting $151 million more in stimulus grants to expand the wind farm and hopes all the parts will come from the United States.
Hardke pointed to ways the stimulus cash will do what lawmakers intended — boost the local economy. Cannon pays about $3 million a year to lease land from about 40 individual owners as well as $2 million in property taxes.
The project is in a county where nearly 20 percent of residents earn less than the poverty level, according to a 2009 U.S. Census release. It created more than 300 construction jobs, Hardke said, and 20 to 30 to operate the farm.
"There isn’t a family in Klickitat that doesn’t know someone employed by the project," he said.
"The ongoing economic development benefit in rural America is really significant."
The icing on the cake, he said, is "clean energy — really significantly helping the environment."
There are an incredible amount of links to more information at the Union-Tribune’s website so please be sure to visit them here. Wind energy is a huge boondoggle. a real waste, and as we are finding out, these turbines will not opperate in the subzero weather in the areas they are being placed! (Read more here)
What a mess.
This is more failure by our president and his corrupt government. It is past time for talking and time action. We must stop this insanity, and stop it now.
I am continually amazed by two ethnic groups in America: Blacks and Jews. Both are absolutely hated by the left in this country, and yet, both groups vote almost as a block for democrats. It makes no sense at all to me.
I tell you, as much as I can’t figure out why blacks vote for the party of the KKK and Jim Crow in overwhelming numbers, the fact that Jews vote overwhelmingly democrat puzzles me to no end. I mean if you hang around the average lefty, you’d find they blame all of the world’s problems on Israel (and George Bush)
In fact, many of the far left radicals openly support terror groups like Hamas over Israel. Our president has many ties to people who openly support Hamas!
With that said, it was refreshing to read this from Caroline Glick in the Jerusalem Post:
Column One: Sarah Palin’s friendship
Hers is the strongest single American voice opposing Obama’s foreign policy, supporting Israel and denying Iran nuclear weapons.
US President Barack Obama is an inept, incompetent leader. More than his failure to pass his domestic agenda on health care and global warming despite his Democratic Party’s control over both houses of Congress, Iran’s announcement on Thursday that it is a nuclear power and has the capacity to produce weapons-grade uranium is a testament to Obama’s feckless incompetence. Even his most ardent supporters are admitting this.
Take The New York Times. In a news analysis Thursday of Obama’s failure to prevent Iran from advancing with its nuclear program, David Sanger wrote that for the US president, the last year has been "a year in which little in his dealings with Iran has gone the way that the White House expected."
Since Obama first announced his wish to sit down with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at a Democratic presidential candidates’ debate in the spring of 2008, the 44th US president’s only strategy for dealing with Iran has been to appease its leaders. And as of Tuesday, he still believes that ingratiating himself with the regime is his best bet.
On Tuesday, Obama wouldn’t admit that appeasement has failed, even as all of Iran’s top leaders said they were expanding their illicit uranium enrichment activities. The most he would do was acknowledge that the regime’s leaders "have made their choice so far, although the door is still open."
As for sanctions, well, Obama said it will take "several weeks" to put those together at the UN.
The distressing truth is that Obama’s aim has never been to prevent Teheran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. His whole "sanctions-if-engagement-fails" strategy is just a ruse. The Obama administration has never intended to place biting sanctions on Iran. As one senior administration official told The New York Times, the purpose of the sanctions talk is to get the Iranians to agree to negotiate. As he put it, "This is about driving them back to negotiations, because the real goal here is to avoid war."
Got that? As far as Obama is concerned, Iran with nuclear weapons isn’t the main concern. Israel using force to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons is the main concern.
US PRESIDENTS have a far freer hand in foreign policy than they have in domestic affairs. A president’s ability to implement his domestic agenda is constrained by Congress. Congress has much less of a say in foreign policy. But the main constraining factor for a US president in both domestic and foreign affairs is public opinion.
Over the past year, Obama failed to pass his domestic agenda even though he enjoyed governing majorities in both houses of Congress, because the public opposed his agenda. So, too, if the public is able to express its opposition to his foreign policy, particularly as it relates to Israel and Iran, he will be unable to sustain it.
To date, in light of his sinking approval ratings, the main thing Obama has had going for him is that since the presidential election, his political opponents have lacked a leader capable of uniting his opponents around an alternative path. Over the past week, that leader may have emerged.
On Saturday, former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin gave the keynote address at the Tea Party Movement convention in Nashville, Tennessee. As she did in the presidential campaign, Palin electrified her audience in Nashville by credibly channeling the populist impulses of American voters. In her signature line she asked, "So how’s that hopey changey stuff working out for ya?"
Palin excoriated Obama on his handling of US foreign policy. Among other things, she noted that a year into his quest to appease dictators, America’s international standing is in shambles. "Israel, a friend and a critical ally, now questions the strength of our support," she added.
Palin bellowed that on issues of foreign policy, there is no room for self-delusion. As she put it, "National security, that’s the one place where you’ve got to call it like it is." And then, "We need a foreign policy that distinguishes America’s friends from her enemies and recognizes the true nature of the threats that we face."
If her address wasn’t enough to convince Americans – and specifically American Jews – that Palin thinks supporting Israel and standing up to Iran are the keys to US national security, then there was her interview on Fox News Sunday. Asked how Obama can win reelection in 2012, Palin responded, "Say he decided to declare war on Iran or decided really to come out and do whatever he could to support Israel, which I would like him to do."
And if that still isn’t enough, there is her lapel pin. The politician who leads the populist opposition to Obama decided to make her most important speech since the 2008 election wearing a pin featuring the US flag and the Israeli flag.
Palin, who is considering a run in the 2012 Republican presidential primaries, is using her public platforms to reassemble the coalition of security hawks, social conservatives and blue collar workers that propelled Ronald Reagan to the White House in 1980. Her support for Israel serves her in building support among both security hawks and social conservatives.
Unlike Obama’s empty protestations of support for Israel, Palin’s support is obviously heartfelt and therefore will not diminish while Obama remains in office. And as Palin becomes stronger, her ability to influence the US debate in a manner that constrains Obama’s freedom to intimidate Israel into allowing Iran to become a nuclear power will rise.
In spite of Palin’s extraordinary support for Israel, the American Jewish community overwhelmingly rejects her. As Jennifer Rubin noted in her article, "Why Jews hate Palin," in Commentary magazine, Jews disapproved of Sen. John McCain’s choice of Palin as his running-mate by a 54 to 37 percent majority. The sneering broadsides published against Palin by leading American Jewish writers are legion.
In her article, Rubin gives a number of reasons for American Jews’ rejection of Palin.
On the one hand, American Jews, who overwhelmingly self-identify as Democrats and disproportionately identify as liberals, oppose Palin for the same reason they oppose all social-conservative Republicans – because she isn’t a liberal Democrat. What makes American Jews’ rejection of Palin unique is its emotional potency. Rubin argues that the visceral hatred that many American Jews express towards Palin is effectively an issue of class hatred, or snobbery. They are four generations removed from the sweatshops where their great grandparents labored on New York’s Lower East Side. And they don’t like this woman with a funny accent who went to University of Idaho, guts fish and shoots moose.
This may be true. But if it is, American Jews might want to rethink their loyalty to their social class. As the demonstrations against Ambassador Michael Oren at UC Irvine, against former prime minister Ehud Olmert at University of Chicago, against Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon at Oxford, as well as the disinvitation of Prof. Benny Morris at Cambridge and the celebrity of Harvard’s anti-Semitic Prof. Steve Walt show clearly, the bastions of intellectual elitism where American Jews feel most at home have become the repositories of the most virulent hatred of Jews in America and the West today.
Liberal standard bearers like Hollywood have had no compunction about giving prestigious awards to movies like Paradise Now, which glorified murderers of Jews in a manner unmatched since the days of Leni Riefenstahl. Elite media outlets like The Atlantic monthly are only too happy to publish the rantings of newly fashionable critics like Andrew Sullivan.
Liberal Democratic Jewish voices, like Leon Wieseltier at The New Republic, are aware that there is a problem with the rampant anti-Semitism in their camp. And they fear that as a consequence, American Jews may take a second look at Palin with her Israeli flag lapel pin. As Wieseltier wrote this week, "A day does not go by when I do not do my humble part to prevent such a transformation [of American Jewry from liberals to conservatives] from coming to pass."
THE FACT of the matter is that for Israel’s sake such a transformation can’t happen quickly enough. It isn’t that American Jews have to change their social agenda, but they must recognize that today, sadly, there is not meaningful bipartisan support for Israel in the US Congress. The 54 lawmakers who wrote Obama a letter last month asking him to force Israel to open up Gaza’s borders were all Democrats. Opposition to passing sanctions against Iran, and opposition to an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear installations, are only politically significant among Democrats.
In her speech at the Tea Party Conference, Palin said, "We need a commander-in-chief, not a professor of law standing at the lectern."
The fact of the matter is that Obama came to many of his anti-Israel sensibilities through his professor friends – Rashid Khalidi, John Mearshimer, Samantha Power, William Ayres, Bernadine Dohrn and, of course, the late Edward Said. Americans interested in national security – and particularly American Jews who support Israel – should be the first ones to second Palin’s statement.
Sarah Palin’s emergence as the mouthpiece of populist opposition to Obama presents Israel’s supporters – and particularly Israel’s Jewish supporters – with an extraordinary opportunity and an extraordinary challenge. Palin’s coupling of support for Israel with her populist domestic agenda marks the first time that support for Israel has been treated as a core, populist issue. The opportunity this presents for American Jews who care about Israel is without precedent.
But of course, to make the best use of this opportunity, American Jews who support Israel have to disappoint Wieseltier. They have to acknowledge that the Left has rejected their cause and increasingly, rejects them.
Obama’s failure to prevent Iran from moving forward with its nuclear program, and his stubborn refusal to support an Israeli move to deny Iran the ability to threaten Israel and global security as a whole, place Israel and core US national security interests in unprecedented jeopardy. His fellow Democrats’ willingness to support him as he maintains this perilous course means that the Democratic ship has abandoned Israel, and strategic sanity.
Palin’s future in politics is unknowable. But what is clear enough is that today hers is the strongest single American voice opposing Obama’s foreign policy and the loudest advocate for supporting Israel and denying Iran nuclear weapons. For this she deserves the thanks and support of American Jewry.
As Americans, we must support Israel to the fullest. They are our strongest ally in that part of the world. Sarah Palin is unabashed in her support for Israel and the Jewish people. This is a good thing. Hopefully the Jewish people in America will wake up and realize who their friends are and who their enemies are.
Too good not to share. Popular Alaskan radio hosts Bob and Mark called Sarah on her birthday and did a nice impromptu interview at the same time. Candid conversation with the 'Cuda!
Exit question: Was Sarah messing with the media and the White House when she wrote on her hand?
BTW, we actually have a photo taken as she was writing:
Just a day after helping expose yet another scandal in the Obama administration, one where Obama’s Energy Department has been suppressing the people’s desire for more energy exploration in America, Sarah Palin announces the success of an oil exploration initiative she put in place.
As most know, some oil companies have leased land but are not exploring it, for any number of reasons. One of those leases was Point Thompson, held by Exxon-Mobil. After some 30 years of dithering, Exxon-Mobil has now drilled it’s first developmental well.
Congratulations are due Exxon and the State of Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources for completing the first development well at Point Thomson in northern Alaska. This is a huge field full of domestic crude, and it’s time to drill for it!
This week we’ve witnessed great progress toward more energy security for Alaska and our entire nation. What began as hefty trucks and hard working men and women heading up an ice road last year, to the commencement of drilling at Point Thomson, this progress has finally led to Exxon’s announcement today of completion of its first development well to produce oil and gas. Our "tough stance" with big oil and perseverance in insisting that Alaska’s resources be developed instead of warehoused while foreign countries are busy developing their oil and gas reserves has paid off to the benefit of everyone involved.
Drill here, drill now... energy independence is a national security issue that can’t be ignored any longer.
- Sarah Palin
Now this didn’t happen over night. It took a lot of hard work and a tough stance by then Governor Palin to force action at Point Thompson. Sarah played hardball with Exxon-Mobil. Threatened to take their lease and bid it to some other company.
When Sarah threatened to yank Exxon-Mobil’s Point Thompson lease, the world’s largest oil company threatened court action. Sarah laughed at them and told ‘em to go ahead, she knew the way to the courthouse too!
This folks, is how you get things done. Our current president doesn't get it. Energy independence and national security go hand and hand.