Dayhoff Westminster Soundtrack: Byron York - In Hawaii, a dispiriting glimpse of one-party rule

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Byron York - In Hawaii, a dispiriting glimpse of one-party rule

Byron York - In Hawaii, a dispiriting glimpse of one-party rule
HONOLULU - In Hawaii, there are 25 members of the state Senate. Twenty-four are Democrats. And then there is Sam Slom.
Slom, the lone Senate Republican in the state of President Obama's birth, has represented East Honolulu since 1996. He hasn't always been the only GOP senator; in the last session, there were two. But Republicans fared poorly at the polls in November, and Slom was left alone.
Which means that Democratic bills to increase state spending, to impose new regulations and mandates and to create new government departments are often passed on votes of 24-1. "I represent a point of view that would not be represented," the conservative Slom says, "even if it's just one voice."
Read more at the Washington Examiner

Sara A. Carter - U.S. officials fear other revolutions won't be bloodless
Inspired by the regime collapses in Egypt and Tunisia, opposition groups in Yemen, Iran, Bahrain, Libya and Algeria are trying to seize what may be a fleeting moment of freedom. But in some of those countries the chances of relatively bloodless revolutions are small, U.S. officials fear. That was evident Monday as groups clashed with security forces attempting to clamp down on protests in several Islamic cities. Four days of protests against longtime Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh have led to violent confrontations, including the death of a protestor over the weekend. Protesters marched for the first time to the presidential palace Sunday. On Monday, the anti-government groups fought with pro-government protesters outside Sanaa University.
The United States would like to buttress the government in Yemen, an ally in the Gulf and a bulwark against a virulent al Qaeda cell that would flourish in the chaos of a government collapse. But even a new counterterrorism program announced by Pentagon officials Monday to train Yemeni forces against al Qaeda may prove too little too late, a Yemeni diplomat told The Washington Examiner.
Read more at the Washington Examiner

Susan Ferrechio - 2012? 2011 still needs budget

As Congress and President Obama clash over the 2012 budget, they do so without having ever signed into law a spending plan for the current fiscal year. Seven months remain in fiscal 2011, and so far the government has been funded by a series of stopgap measures that maintain spending mostly at 2010 levels. In fact, government operations for the rest of the year could be funded by similar temporary measures if Democrats and Republicans can't agree on a budget. Read More

Brian Hughes - Obama proposes $3.7 trillion budget for 2012

President Obama on Monday sent Congress a $3.7 trillion budget reliant on a host of cuts to programs championed by his liberal base, a shift in funding that would be used to pay off historically high government investments in education, public transportation and energy. However, the president's professed "down payment" on the towering national debt did little to appease deficit hawks, who said Obama was sidestepping his obligation to tackle soaring entitlement costs. Read More

Susan Ferrechio - GOP: Obama not serious about cutting deficit

President Obama's $3.7 trillion spending proposal for 2012 was for the most part embraced by Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill Monday despite a five-year spending freeze and $30 billion in reductions. Read More

Mark Tapscott - Ethanol industry buys a top seed and three key politicians
Food prices here in America and around the world are rising quickly in great part due to the growing demands for corn to make ethanol in order to satisfy government mandates for its use.
Besides higher food prices, however, this form of government bureaucrats picking winners and losers in the energy market is having another unexpected consequence - boosting genetically modified food. Syngenta, a Swiss-based firm, recently got the go-ahead for sales of its genetically modified corn seeds.
Ethanol companies are cheered by the news because the genetically modified seeds are far better suited for growing corn destined to be refined into fuel instead of food. Critics worry that the two radically different strands of corn will inevitably get mixed up on the food chain, with unpredictable health and nutritional results.
Read more at the Washington Examiner

Philip Suderman - Fun with math: 2012 proposed budget edition
The New York Times has an interactive graph up of the $3.17 trillion proposed governmental budget up on their website. Some of the more interesting numbers:
* $808.04 billion in mandatory spending for the Social Security Administration (which the CBO has stated, barring any reforms, is permanently set to give out more money than it is taking in).
* $474.15 billion for interest on Public Debt -- not the principal, just the interest.
* $11.57 billion for the Federal Communications Commission, which is best known for making sure that people don't curse on television.
* $6.95 billion for the Railroad Retirement Board, a Social Security-style program for railroad workers.
* $1.31 billion for Agricultural Marketing Services. Not only does the government subsidize agriculture, they pay for advertisements telling telling you how good those subsidized veggies are for you.
Feel free to find your own interesting ways the government is spending money.
BONUS: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the population of the United States is 309,050,816, which means that if the $3.7 trillion dollar passes as stands, on average, each individual is responsible for $11,972 for this years budget.
Read more at the Washington Examiner

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