Author Archive

Joe Bell

The Republican Party anticipates significant gains at the polls this November. Should the GOP pick up congressional seats its ability to hold them will depend upon whether its current embrace of conservatism is genuine and permanent or merely advantageous posturing.

Conservative? Not even close.

The conservative credentials of the 1990s Republicans faded as the party spent like Democrats (well, almost) during the George W. Bush years.

In his book, “A New American Tea Party,” John O’Hara observed the 1994 Contract With America was supposed to have been a landmark event in conservatism. O’Hara noted while nine of 10 items in the Contract were passed in the first 100 days “the majority of those items failed to pass the Senate and many were eventually rolled back by future Republican majorities. …The combined budgets of 95 of the major programs that the Contract With America promised to eliminate increased by 13 percent in 2000. A moratorium on all new federal regulations died in committee.” Read the rest of this entry »

Joe Bell

One topic that has gotten far too little media coverage is the looming expiration of the 2001 and 2003 Bush era tax cuts. Unless Congress takes action to renew them they will begin to sunset at the end of this year. If Congress permits that to happen taxpayers will face enormous tax hikes. Those increases will intensify the financial burdens that have already been imposed by the Obama administration and congressional Democrats.

Smart.

On April 10, The Hill reported that President Barack Obama supports extending the tax cuts to those making $250,000 or less a year. That’s not good enough.

Senator John Kyl, R-Ariz., has pointed out that unless Congress takes action, “Taxes will increase on families with children, on married couples, on income, on capital gains and dividends and even after death. It comes to a total of $2 trillion in new taxes over the next 10 years.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Joe Bell

On June 15, President Barack Obama revealed there is one war he is willing to fight with everything at his command. In the New Gulf War, being waged against British Petroleum, Obama pledged to leave no weapon behind. Four sentences into the speech he even mentioned Al-Qaeda, noting that as

Comparing BP to Al-Qaeda.

American soldiers battle terrorists abroad his administration will prove equal to the task against BP. The oil spill, triggered by an April 20 explosion at an oil rig off the Louisiana coast, is as grave an environmental disaster as one can imagine. It is not a war.

Obama dug into his usual bag of tricks, making the case that former President George W. Bush was responsible. Obama said over the last 10 years government embraced “a failed philosophy that views all regulation with hostility…”

Read the rest of this entry »

Joe Bell

Having passed health care reform against the wishes of the majority of Americans, President Barack Obama and the Democrats are now working to sell the new law to a disbelieving public.

On May 18, The Hill reported, “The White House is aggressively touting the new health care law after failing to see an immediate bounce in polls from congressional approval of the legislation. Faced with the prospect of a Democratic rout in November, the White House last month brought on

Paging Dr. Obama

communications expert Stephanie Cutter, a Capitol Hill veteran … to oversee health care messaging and at least minimize the political damage from the bill.”

The new law is not unpopular because it hasn’t been properly packaged and sold but because it is a bad law based on flawed policy. If the new law is as wonderful as the Democrats say, why is a communications specialist needed to “oversee health care messaging” and “minimize the political damage” the bill might cause? One would think reform that will cover more people for less cost and reduce the deficit would be an easy sell. Just tell the truth, let the outcome speak for itself and bask in the applause. The reality is, people know health care reform will not perform as advertised.

Read the rest of this entry »

Joe Bell

It’s never good when the president of the United States says something repeatedly and the world knows the words are empty. That is the situation President Barack Obama is in with respect to Iran’s nuclear program.

Coming soon.

In 2008, during his first press conference as president-elect, Obama said, “Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon … is unacceptable and we have to mount an international effort to prevent that from happening.”

Since then the administration has spilled gallons of words across numerous conference tables but no rational person could come to any conclusion other than Iran will become a nuclear power.

Read the rest of this entry »

Joe Bell

In 1978, Frankie Valli told us, “Grease is the word.” Americans who insist government spending is the cure for the nation’s economic woes should consider Europe to see where the policy leads. To paraphrase Valli – Greece is still the word.

Albatross.

Saddled with a national debt that is 115 percent of its Gross Domestic Product, Greece is in such a state of economic turmoil that the European Union has had to step in and bail the nation out. Within two decades America’s debt is expected to be 140 percent of its GDP. As with Greece, America’s economic growth is no match for Washington’s desire to spend.

No one on either side of the Atlantic is learning the lesson of frugality. As Greece languishes on the doorstep of financial collapse the EU continues to extol the virtues of entitlement spending. On April 18, the Sunday Times reported, “An overseas holiday used to be thought of as a reward for a year’s hard work. Now Brussels has declared that tourism is a human right and pensioners, youth and those too poor to afford it should have their travel subsidized by the taxpayers.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Joe Bell

The most illogical things have been happening in Washington D.C. lately so why not add one more absurdity to the list? On June 3, a few protesters gathered in front of the Grand Hyatt, site of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, to make the case that the English language is too difficult to learn and that it’s time to simplify the way words are spelled. If the American Literacy Council and the London-based Spelling Society have their way fruit will eventually be spelled “froot” and slow will become “slo.”

Gud jobb kidz!

Of all the causes one could dedicate themselves to this is among the most meaningless and potentially damaging. This is not a new movement.

On May 30, the Wall Street Journal explained this is a centuries old quest that has struggled to convince people of the need to spell words based upon pronunciation.

Read the rest of this entry »