WSJ: ObamaCare at Ramming Speed...sigh

What part of "NO" do some people not get? After years of trying and failing to get "health care" passed, now BHO and the Dem controlled congress is ready to shove it down everyone's throat anyway. It makes you wonder why they could want something so bad that they are willing to destroy their careers for it. Must be lots of $$$ involved, the intensity of the effort is just a bit too much to be "looking out for those who can't afford health care" (14 to 50 million depending on who's counting). Let's see, at $900B+ for 50M people comes to 18K per person...that's better than my work provided HC. I wonder if that will be considered a Cadillac plan...

Concealed carry bill passes Wyoming House - KIFI - Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Jackson WY - Weather News Sports-

Concealed carry bill passes Wyoming House - KIFI - Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Jackson WY - Weather News Sports-
Now this is the way it should be everywhere. Rep. Lorraine Quarberg has the right perspective on this. Hope she decides to go to washington some day!

One person can make a difference

In a post entitled Common Sense Legislation in Utah, I told you about  H.B.78S01 that's pending in the Utah House. I decided to contact my Florida State House Representative Sandy Adams to ask her to support making similar changes to Florida's laws. Here's my original email:

 02/04/10 12:18 AM

To the Honorable Sandra Adams;

Please consider sponsoring, or promoting with others in the Florida House and Senate, Legislation in the Florida Senate that is similar to the current legislation the Utah House is working on. Here is a link to an article in the Salt Lake Tribune that outlines some info on the legislation: http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14295960

As a CCW permit holder and gun owner, I feel this type of common sense law will help protect law abiding firearms owners and CCW permit holders and provide us with more legal options in the event we are faced with potentially violent encounters. Providing options to de-escalate these encounters without the need for drawing a weapon makes sense to me. As always, gun owners should take every opportunity to take training on how to deal with these situations to achieve the best possible outcome: the situation is quickly terminated and no one gets hurt or killed. 

Responsible firearms owners and CCW permit holders are a valuable asset to law enforcement and the general public. I feel the state should support its citizens who take on this serious responsibility in order to protect themselves, their families and in some cases, other citizens who are unable to do in those critical times.

Best Regards,

Tom Trocine

To my surprise: I got a phone call from Representative Sandy Adams! After some voice mail tag, Sandy called my cell phone and we had a short discussion about my request, the process in Florida for this kind of thing and steps that Sandy would take to follow up, including working with the NRA folks.

I must say, I am still surprised and impressed that little 'ole me could actually stimulate positive action in the halls of government with a simple email. I very much appreciate Sandy taking the time to contact me about my request to learn more. I've contacted other Senators and Representatives, received the boiler plate reply with their on the fence position about whatever drop-down menu issue I contacted them about.

The fact that Sandy called me directly to find out more tells me there's at least one person in government that should be there and truly cares and takes an interested in what the people want and need. So there's a huge lesson here for all of us: Take Action, it does make a difference.

• Find the others like Sandy and support their campaigns
• Vote out the slackers and ones like Grayson
• Continually contact your Commissioners, Senators, and Representatives to tell them how you feel about issues important to you. This includes positive feedback to them that they are doing the right things.
• Do what you can to help educate your friends and neighbors on the issues so that they can add their voice and support.

Being Prepared

Today marks 29 days since the 7.0 earthquake hit Haiti. What would you do if it happened here? People look at me funny when I mention the idea of stocking food and supplies just in case. Do you really think it can't happen to you? What about Katrina, Andrew, the wild fires in FL, GA and CA? How are the people handling the record snow fall along the eastern seaboard today? Lucky for those folks in Chicago this morning the earthquake was only a 3.8...

Are you willing to bet you and your family's life on FEMA, the red cross or the government coming to the rescue in time if the unthinkable happens?

John Boehner's & Eric Cantor's letter to Rahm Emanuel....

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) wrote a letter to Rahm Emanuel (you can find it here) challenging the President's statement that he's "Open to ideas from all sides". Even the Dem's are taking issue with Rahm's contribution to the health care debacle Take a look for yourself...

Another example of why government...

Looks like Alan Grayson is busy wasting everyone's time (and taxpayer $$). He's proposed a bill in the house, H.R. 4431: the "Business should mind it's own Business" act.

"To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to impose
a 500 percent excise tax on corporate contributions to
political committees and on corporate expenditures on
political advocacy campaigns."

There are so many problems with this thinking. It certainly gives us insight into Mr. Grayson's point of view. How does anyone think it is legal or legitimate to use the power of the government, via the IRS, to restrict free speech? Corporations and businesses are legal organizations consisting of people. I'm curious to know if this applies to P.A.C.s, unions, and other "legal entities". What defines a "business". Is a lobby group a business? Am I as an individual business owner, who is incorporated for legal protections no longer allowed to support my favorite candidate's campaign by providing a donation to help him/her get the word out about their position on the issues?

Money certainly helps candidates become "viable". Does money buy elections? I don't think so. Certainly the more $ you have as a candidate gives you options for getting your message out but in the end it's the voter at the booth that decides. Every election has a winner and one or more losers, all of them spend a lot of $ in the process and like business, most of them fail to achieve their goal (to get elected).

Vote this guy out and replace him with someone better qualified to serve the country.

Common Sense legislation in Utah

Utah's Senate is working to pass a bill that adds some common sense aspects to legal carry rights. The Salt Lake Tribute article states:

"A House panel on Friday OK'd a bill clarifying that the legal carrier of a concealed weapon may reveal it or mention it in an effort to keep a quarrel from escalating. "

Steve Gunn (how ironic) of the Gun Violence Prevention Center testified:

"...that the bill raises the question of who in Utah may carry a gun openly without a permit. The law appears to allow any non-felon older than 18 to do that, he said, and he believes lawmakers should specify who has that right."

I agree with Mr. Gunn. The lawmakers should specify: Any non-felon older than 18 should be able to carry openly (or concealed) as the 2nd Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees.

Where's the balance?

I'm afraid to look at the news. BHO released his budget proposal today $3.8 trillion. The 2009 budget (proposed by GWB) was $1.182 trillion. The Wall Street Journal online has a good summary you can find here. I like the interactive graphs, especially this one which I've annotated with some other data:

The red horizontal line represents a -3% deficit as a % of GDP threshold. Most economists consider a deficit below this line to be unsustainable. Inflation, skyrocketing interest rates and high unemployment are expected results of large deficits.
At the bottom I put 3 horizontal colored bars, showing (top to bottom) the party of President, House majority, and Senate majority. blue is democrat, red is republican. Note that even under Clinton ('97 to '01), congress was controlled by the republicans. With the 2000 election, Bush takes office, the senate switches to Democrat control and the events of Sept 11, 2001 take place, leading to the wars in Afghanistan and then Iraq. Notice in 2003 when the senate is reclaimed by the Republicans, the deficit begins to head back to zero, then in 2007, both the senate and house switch to Democratic control which reverses the direction of the deficit. 2008 starts the housing meltdown and the bottom falls out in 2009.

One other note: the "recovery" in the projections of 2011 to 2015 are all based on the assumptions that unemployment will go back to ~5%, the economy recovers, healthcare reform passes and Cap and Trade kicks in. It also includes increase revenue from higher taxes on corporations and "rich" households making more than $250K adding $1 trillion to the feds income stream.
What happens when more companies and those with the means to do so, move off-shore to evade the increased taxes. Many couples with combined income over the $250K limit may decide that one income to get below the penalty line is the way to go.