Quote of the Day

“It’s probably better than anything we would have passed, if we were still the majority”
-- a conservative Republican Senate staffer on the $900 billion omnibus spending bill that keeps spending contained at President Bush's requested levels.

Quote of the Day

"Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."

-- Mark Twain

What Happens When Congress Pretends It's Smarter Than Markets?

This:















But it actually gets way worse than higher food prices. Thanks to Congress last year essentially commanding American farmers to scrap whatever they were doing to instead focus on producing as much corn as they can possibly manage -- you know, for ethanol, that magical alcohol that'll soon replace gasoline -- prices have also been pushed higher for gasoline, beer, farmland, and anything else even loosely related to corn.

Already, state and federal subsidies for ethanol -- pushed by greens hoping to diminish reliance on fossil fuels -- approach $6 billion per year. Couple this with a 54-cent per gallon import tariff, and farmers would be insane not to cash in. So while the size of American farmlands are retreating, the percentage dedicated to corn is growing. This led to American farmers producing more corn last year than any year during the last half century. Non-corn farm good are consequently growing more costly. Not that corn's getting any cheaper: its price grew 80 percent in 2006 alone.

All of this is owed to the artificial demand created by the economic wizards populating Congress. Perhaps people should start sending them their grocery bills as a sign of thanks.

And Reid Blames Bush for Congress's 14 Percent Approval ...

One week before Election Day, 2006:

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos: “On taxes, you heard the Vice President, he said Democrats come in to control, taxes are going to go up?”

DNC Chairman Howard Dean: “That’s just Republican National Committee propaganda. Nancy Pelosi has said they’re will not be a middle class increase ... [I] have not heard one person in the leadership, Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi, talking about tax increases except unwinding tax breaks that were put in the middle of the night for the oil companies and insurance companies.”

With just six months of leadership under their belt, congressional Democrats have already proposed higher or brand-new taxes on cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, university endowments, pension funds, people earning $250,000-plus annually, private-equity managers, American workers oversees, American exporters, energy companies ...

Next thing you know, we'll find out they weren't even serious about reining in pork! (Oh wait ...)

Quote of the Day

"Well, if Democrats want to declare the surge a failure after just a couple of months, we can declare the Democrat Congress a failure. They haven't achieved any of their benchmarks. It's time for a new direction." -- Rush Limbaugh, on his show today

Apparently They've Earned It

After spending last year's congressional campaign battering House Republicans for accepting automatic cost-of-living wage hikes, House Democrats Wednesday voted 244 to 181 to accept a $4,400 raise.

An Easy Way To Cut the Deficit

End this baloney: