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Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
Weekly Standard Blog —
... this new foundation in the most unabashedly liberal and big-government speech a president has delivered to Congress since Lyndon Baines Johnson. Obama intends to use his big three issues, energy, health care and education, to transform the role of the U.S. federal government as fundamentally as did the New Deal and the Great Society.
Conservatives and Republicans will disapprove of this effort. They will oppose it. Can they do so effectively?
Read the rest here.
Day of Reckoning
The Corner on National Review Online —
... ] Bill Kristol sums it up well in his new Washington Post column : Obama really declared his intentions last night, and conservatives need to come terms with the magnitude of what he s proposing, and so with the importance of making the case for an alternative vision, with alternative solutions. The sheer number of immense undertakings the Obama team seems intent on attempting all at once makes it likely that on the whole their efforts will end in a train wreck, but in the process they could certainly get a lot done, much of it irreversible. Conservatives need to prioritize ...
Kristol's advice sounds familiar
Political Animal —
KRISTOL'S ADVICE SOUNDS FAMILIAR.... In his inaugural column for the print edition of the Washington Post , Bill Kristol offers some advice for his Republican brethren: obstruct as much as humanly possible. ...Obama's aim is not merely to "revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity." ... Conservatives and Republicans will disapprove of this effort. They will oppose it. Can they do so effectively? Perhaps -- if they can find reasons to obstruct and delay. They should do their best not to permit Obama to rush his agenda through this year. They ...
Obstruct and delay
The Reaction —
By Mustang Bobby William Kristol realizes that Barack Obama is in charge and that the Republicans are in deep trouble. Conservatives can't win politically right now. But they can raise doubts, they can point out other issues that we can't ignore (especially in national security and foreign policy), they can pick other fights -- and they can try in any way possible to break Obama's momentum. Only if this happens will conservatives be able to get a hearing for their (compelling, in my view) arguments against big-government, ...
New Cabinet Working, Batman for Governor of New Mexico
Notes From a Grumpy Old Man —
Henry Kissinger William Kristol President Obama's Cabinet picks have wasted no time by plunging right into their jobs: ...
Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points [67] -- Washington At Warp Speed
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
We open today's column with a mental image -- a gigantic metal turtle-bot, inching its way along. Clomp, clomp, clomp... it moves forward so slowly you can barely see it move. Voiceover: "This is Washington." But wait! Barack Obama jumps aboard, and the robot transforms into a giant steamroller. It starts moving so fast, flattening issues left and right, until you can barely even see it and it becomes a blur. "This is Obama's Washington. Any questions?"
Barack Obama is moving Congress so fast, we're approaching warp speed. Consider the fact that neither presidents Reagan nor Clinton got their (much smaller) stimulus packages passed for over six ...
Has Obamanomics Vanquished Reaganomics?
Opinionator —
“The budget that President Obama proposed on Thursday is nothing less than an attempt to end a three-decade era of economic policy dominated by the ideas of Ronald Reagan and his supporters.” So wrote The Times’s David Leonhardt in Friday’s paper, and it’s hard to disagree. Leonhardt continues: More than anything else, the proposals seek to reverse the rapid increase in economic inequality over the last 30 years. They do so first by rewriting the tax code and, over the longer term, by trying to solve some big causes of the middle-class income slowdown, like high medical costs and slowing educational gains. After Mr. Obama spent much of his first five weeks in office responding to the ...
Bachmann: GOP Must ‘Do Everything We Can To Thwart’ Obama From Securing ‘A Power Base…For All Time’
Think Progress —
Conservative talker Bill Bennett interviewed Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) on his radio show this morning. During the interview, Bennett asked, “Why [is Obama siding] with the liberal House Democrats rather than the more moderate [members]?” Answering his own question, Bennett continued, “The answer is because that may be where he is…the most liberal member of the Senate.”
Bachmann concurred, but added that she believes Republicans should “thwart” as much of Obama’s agenda as possible, specifically citing what she called “socialized medicine” and “the new tax on energy”:
BACHMANN: ...
Moderate Democrats Look To Serve Their Special Interests And Thwart Obama’s Agenda
Think Progress —
Last week, when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) attempted to end debate on the $410 billion 2009 omnibus appropriations bill, he came “one vote short.” Tonight, he’ll try again. While several Republicans who Reid had expected to side with him had defected, one vote, in particular, against ending debate was surprising: Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ).
Menendez voted against ending debate “in protest of a little-noticed Cuba provision that would ease U.S. rules on travel and imports to the communist-led island.” While Menendez claimed that including the Cuba provision in the omnibus was controversial, a majority of even Cuban ...
Leaked slides show Obama EPA is fast-tracking global warming endangerment finding.
The Hollywood Liberal —
Leaked slides show Obama EPA is fast-tracking global warming endangerment finding. In April 2007, the Supreme Court mandated that the EPA determine whether greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare and take action in response. After more than a year of resistance, the EPA released a document of staff findings, which was then quickly attacked by White House political appointees. They also […] climateslide1.gif In April 2007, the Supreme Court mandated that the EPA determine whether greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare and take action in response. After more than a year of resistance , the EPA released a document of ...
Bayh: My Group Of Blue Dogs ‘Literally Has No Agenda’ Other Than Blocking Obama’s
Think Progress —
Yesterday, MoveOn.org, Americans United for Change, and several other progressive groups began running ads urging “moderate” Democratic members of Congress to “get on board with the president’s budget.” The ads are, in part, a response to Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) and 14 of his Democratic colleagues who are creating what they call a “moderate coalition that will meet regularly to shape public policy.” Bayh responded to the new ads late yesterday, telling Politico that his group of “moderates” should not be targeted because they have “no agenda”:
Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) is also ...
