Every traditional Democrat I know saw it coming; every progressive extremist I know, thought it was impossible.

The late Teddy Kennedy with big boy-boobs!

We lost a seat we held for 57 years—Teddy Kennedy’s no less!—and there are still some Dems in DC who insist on pushing forward.

Let’s hope that calmer heads prevail and that the grown-ups in the Democratic Party take back the reins and calm the bucking bronco of the over-exuberance of far too much spending and far too ambitious an agenda.

They tried to do too much too fast!  Elections are never about ‘mandates’ and huge social shifts and social policy in America has always moved at a glacial pace.  When the political movements are too sharp, people recoil; they need time to absorb new things!

I think the US House is already gone for Dems and if there’s not a sharp realignment soon, yes, we could lose the US Senate too, though that would appear to be more difficult for the GOP.

Schwantz-less Sen elect Scott Brown!

Boy boobs, men without ‘happy places’?  What’s  going on in MA?

The GOP recruiting efforts took a big jump forward with Sen-elect Scott Brown’s impressive five point victory.  I’ve seen the numbers here and in several other states, and we really have completely lost the Independents

The Indies have solidified their place as the group that flows between both parties and controls elections in about 2/3’s of the states.

Including Nevada!

Harry Reid is so gone, it’s not even funny, and he’s taking a lot of local Dem offices down with him.  I’ve been telling you that was going to happen for 4 years!

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Incrementalism!: In the aftermath, finally some prominent Dems are embracing the incremental approach to healthcare we’ve written about and that are posted on the archives.

It’s the ugliest piece of legislation I have seen in my lifetime—even worse than the Patriot Act; that’s how bad a bill what’s currently moving truly is! There’s no reform within it, no cost controls; there’s just industry and special interest protections.  Reread all of our healthcare pieces and get an idea of how Congress should be proceeding.

Maybe there’s some hope too!  In the past few days, all of those pieces are the #1 views of our website from Washington DC!

Remember when I wrote this in November?:

http://www.watchdogwag.com/?p=5631

1. Barring insurers from canceling existing policies because beneficiary becomes ill and bar bonusing for such cancellations.  Two page bill.
2. Barring gender discrimination in coverage costs.  One page bill.
3. Ending McCarran-Ferguson’s health insurance federal anti-trust exemption.  Two page bill.
4. Allowing for all health insurers to compete in all 50 states. Two page bill.

Finally, some traditional Dems are talking horse-sense like this in DC!  All would pass with huge majorities from both parties!

Whatever they do, it will never be real reform without first ending McCarran-Ferguson Act industry protections that will force insurers to actually compete with each other for the first time in 65 years!

I dare any Republican to vote against any of the four; they can’t, and Dems are too damn stubborn to present things that can and will pass easily!

That’s what Tuesday was all about!

Sidebar: Missing in Tuesday’s coverage was a vote that was to have taken place that day to again raise the federal debt ceiling; this time by another 1.9 trillion bucks! You’re damn right voters are angry!

Can’t blame that on Bush, now can we?

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The #1 thing I hear from ‘regular people’ in both parties is ‘spending’; people are very agitated by that and it’s across the political spectrum.  We’d have been better off standing on Las Vegas Boulevard handing out $10,000 bills to passersby, than all of these bailouts that people are not feeling in their own pocketbooks or at their kitchen tables.

Lose the Kitchen Tables and you lose elections! There’s nothing new about that in American politics, and Democrats have completely lost the kitchen tables in one very short year!

I still believe with all of my heart and soul that the reason Obama refused to introduce his own healthcare bill was to cull the herd in his own party in 2010. He really can’t get anything of value done with his own party in super-majority.

He’s a bit dinged, but still has the affection of voters and it is Congress that is getting the blame; that’s exactly how his protectors intended it to be folks!

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Conflicts: Everyone knows that Keynesian Economics don’t ever work in the short run and have very mixed results in the long run.  ‘Progressives’ love Keynes though the record speaks for itself.  The biggest problem is that this isn’t the 1930’s, we can’t just hand someone a broom and pay them through WPA, we have prevailing wage, environmental impact, OSHA, NVDETR…all sorts of things that delay for many months anything of value happening with federal largesse; that’s if it even happens at all!

The way to jump-start hiring is to cut payroll taxes—especially on new hires—across the board. This is how we’ve gotten out of every recession, but the progressive extremists are loath to cut any taxes.

There is a big conflict in the administration in that many of President Obama’s advisors want to cut those payroll taxes, but others fear igniting inflation because when we resume consumer spending (70+% of our economy!), inflation will take off like a jet with the after-burners on because we are so deeply in debt.

You can’t have inflation without consumer spending, and we are in such an enormous debt hole that we can’t afford inflationary pressures either because that’s makes the borrowing to pay for this spending orgy, that much more expensive! If you lived through the 1970’s, the economic calamity was so bad with deflation, inflation, and then stagflation, that it cost President Ford and President Carter their respective re-elections.

We’re currently suffering those same economic convulsions so the answer is to look inward and stabilize and correct out that which collapsed—not to vastly expand federal programs and explode debt—and to step gingerly and with whatever course is taken to ensure people feel it in their pocketbooks and wallets positively.

Currently, Americans are feeling nothing is working and that no one cares about them because they’re not big banks or big businesses.

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History Repeats Again:  For you younger readers, know that this is normal.  The party out of power always scores big in the first mid-term elections after a presidential election. But, when the party in power reaches too deeply, voters punish them at the polls even worse.  It happened with both Reagan and Clinton after their first two years, and it will happen under Obama too.

Americans have a unique ability to place a check on power; we hate one party in control of everything for very long and this is our history for all of our 234 years with rare exceptions; usually when we are at war.

Sidebar: Forget the US House & Senate for a moment and consider what the coming tsunami is going to do to reapportionment all over the country.  Lost in the three big recent losses are the flips in the lower statehouses all over the country. We’ve already lost one Assembly seat in Nevada, could lose a NV Senate seat too, and guess what that means when it comes time to redraw the maps in 2011?

Thanks again Harry!

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On a Local Note:  Both Rochelle-y and Uncle Harry have campaign war chests bigger than both God and Jesus’, yet neither has helped any of our local individual candidates who are struggling to raise money.

When these two need a couple of bucks, not even they can go to Rochelle-y and Uncle Harry!

Those AD & SD’s and our state Constitutional offices desperately need the party’s two biggest cash-cows to kick-in in equal proportions to all qualified candidates even in the primary, yet they refuse and are hoarding their money.

The state Constitutional officers should at least have $5,000 for the primary from both; the SD’s $3000, the AD’s $2000 and so long it’s equal to all credible Dems, it’s OK for them to do this.

Yet, they refuse! Cost to both? Nothing, as it’s just a drop in their very big buckets!

That’s disgraceful and you newbies and oldbies should keep that in mind when you cast your own votes this year.

Who was there for you when you needed them the most?  Where are you going to be when they beg you for your votes and your volunteer efforts?

Hopefully in a political universe, far, far away!

You 2010 Dem candidates in Nevada should be furious about the obscene salaries and benefits all of the many, many flunkies at NVDEMS are pocketing at your expense! When will any of you speak up about that particular fiscal atrocity?

I’d fire ‘em all when we lose in November; most should have been fired ages ago!

NVDEMS eboard, it’s time to grow a set!  You are equal to the chair folks!

 

Dem candidates, remember their ignoring your pleas for their help every day of your own campaigns.

Mike Zahara
01212010
www.WatchdogWag.com