For years those on the left have been saying that there is no such thing as trickle down economics.  Under the theory of trickle down economics, what is good for the wealthy is good for the rest of us since the wealthy invest and spend money which in turn creates jobs and increases the wealth of the nation.

Sounds logical, right?  Not to the liberal left.  They’ve argued against trickle down economics for decades and its underpinnings which are the workings of the free market, instead insisting on more wealth redistribution.

I saw this article on Yahoo News about the wealthy crimping spending and investing due to uncertainties in the economy to the detriment of everyone else.  Yes, that’s right, when average Americans are harmed by less spending by the wealthy, trickle down economics is real.  The thesis of the article is that the wealthy are contributing to the economic hardships of everyone by not spending enough of their money.

Yahoo article

The rich are sharing your financial pain — and contributing to it.

It may have taken longer and it may not be as acute, but there are early hints that the economic slump is crimping the lifestyles of the wealthy.

They are investing more conservatively, spending less on luxury goods and are being more thrifty with their credit cards.

That news may produce a shrug from many people who have lost their jobs or homes in this economy. The problem is that when the wealthy get stingy, it trickles down to the rest of us.

The 10 percent of households with the highest incomes account for nearly a quarter of all spending…

So, is trickle down economics real?  Yes, but only in situations where the wealthy can be vilified and class envy exploited for political gain.  It’s real when it comes to harm being done to average Americans, but not real when there is any benefit.

Another thought: if a bad economy leaves the wealthy either with less money to spend or with less comfort in spending it, wouldn’t higher taxes do the same?  Yes it would.

Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), who was busted in an airport men’s restroom for allegedly soliciting sex by tapping his foot, now has the backing of the ACLU. The ACLU has filed a brief supporting Craig’s bid to withdraw his guilty plea because foot tapping is protected free speech, or so says the ACLU.

While the activities Craig allegedly engaged in do not rise to the level of a criminal offense in the minds of most sensible people, the fact remains that he did plead guilty. Senator Craig is a man who writes and casts votes to make laws. If anyone should understand the way the US legal system works and be held strictly accountable to it, it should be someone who authors laws.

Senator Craig should not be allowed to withdraw his guilty plea. He should resign and disappear.

If you thought Representative Jefferson’s (D-LA) indictment for corruption was a unique thing for Democrats, you are wrong.

A bunch of Democrat elected officials have been arrested for corruption in New Jersey. Yes, Democrats. Eleven of them! Mayors, council members, state lawmakers, and even a school board member or two were arrested in the FBI corruption probe.

(MSNBC Story)

I wonder if Democrats remember James Traficant…

Don’t worry, folks, there will be plenty more Democrats charged with corruption in the future. You can count on that just like you can count on the Democrats trying to steal your hard-earned money every chance they can get.

If only we could get Democrats indicted for using our tax dollars to buy votes from welfare losers…

I happened to listen to the first hour of Rush Limbaugh on 08/08/2007, a rare treat as I am usually working when his program airs. Limbaugh played some audio from the recent Democratic union debate. Never in my life have I heard grown adults act like such little children. It was truly sickening, yet so typical of Democrats.

There isn’t much that I can say that wasn’t covered by Limbaugh. There was one guy crying, literally, because he lost 1/3rd of his pension and his health insurance when his employer went bankrupt. As Limbaugh mentioned after the commercial break, the ridiculous wages and benefits extorted by union members are the reason why these unionized companies are going bankrupt.

Democrat voters can’t see how their party’s policies destroy the economy and push jobs overseas. They can’t see how their party’s generous welfare benefits destroy communities and the fabric of society. Democrat voters are directly responsible for their own hardships. But they just aren’t smart enough to realize it; instead, they turn to multi-millionaire socialists like Hillary Clinton for salvation–salvation that can only come from within.

Democrat voters aren’t just crybabies, they’re idiots, too.

In both the House and Senate, enough Democrats caved-in to pass legislation designed to give the federal government a greater ability to monitor the communications of foreigners.

Just about every article I read about this legislation said that Democrats joined Republicans so they wouldn’t “appear weak on terrorism”. Really?

Democrats have been negatively spinning this issue as “domestic spying” for a couple of years now, as if the Bush administration were randomly listening in on the communications of average Americans, which is just not true. Does the Democrats’ hampering of the ability of the government to find terrorists and prevent acts of war against civilians appear to be weak on terrorism?

So, the real question is: did the Democrats who voted for the bill vote for it because they deemed the legislation to be in the best interest of the nation, or did they cast their votes for it because they were concerned about public appearances?

You never can tell with those dirty frauds and liars, the Democrats.

(Washington Post Wiretap Article)

I knew it would only be a matter of time before Democrats and their left-wing communist voting base were politicizing the collapse of the Interstate 35W freeway bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, MN, in yet another pathetic attempt to press for tax increases.

“We need to raise taxes,” is the tired refrain from the “Bankrupt America Now” crowd. Democrats act like there is an endless supply of money ripe for the picking and taking it will not interfere with the economy one iota. That just isn’t true.

Democrats always insist that more money be spent on education, but when you tell them that districts that spend the most per student like Washington DC (about $13,348 per student in 2005) have significantly lower student test scores than much lower spending places like Utah ($5,216) or North Dakota ($7,829), they just don’t comprehend the point you are making. All they want is more tax revenue because the more money they have to spend the more power they have. That is the extent of a Democrat’s understanding.

The same applies to roads.

Everywhere you look, left-wingers are pinning the blame for this tragedy on a lack of funding for transportation. Representative Jim Oberstar (D-MN) criticized the Bush administration saying the following at a news conference the day following the collapse:

This administration failed to support robust investment in surface transportation and the funding to accompany it.

When asked if under funding by the Bush administration was responsible for the bridge collapse, Oberstar replied:

No. But the needs are immense. And if we don’t fund the program properly, then necessary bridge inspections can’t be conducted.

Another Democrat lie. The bridge was inspected in 2006, and has been inspected annually for the past several years. The 2007 inspection started, but was interrupted by construction work and was to continue later this fall.

So, under funding wasn’t responsible for the bridge collapse, the bridge was inspected regularly, yet somehow we are to believe that we need more spending and corresponding tax increases?

Democrats would be more convincing if they weren’t so easily caught in lies.

It so happens that there were serious concerns about the safety of this bridge due to cracking in the steel support structure. There was sufficient money to pay for repairs of this bridge and ensure the safety of the public. But the department of transportation decided against making the repairs, opting for closer inspections instead. Why? Who knows.

If the bridge was found to be unsafe, it should have been closed. Then nobody would have been on it and nobody would have been a victim of this tragedy. As part of the federal interstate system, it is very likely that federal funding for replacement of the bridge would have been available, at least a signifcant portion of the cost.

But it wasn’t found to be unsafe by inspectors to the extent that it was unusable. No amount of additional transportation spending or tax increases will change the fact that it was deemed safe. This, sadly, is a case of human error and not a case of insufficient transportation funding.

No matter which way the wind blows, Democrats will be pushing for tax increases. Always.

Star Tribune article about bridge safety concerns, cracking of support structure

Star Tribune editorial from left-winger arguing for tax increases

The major freeway bridge collapse over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on August 8th, 2007 is not believed to be a terrorist attack at this time.

Right now, reports are that there are seven people dead, with more bodies surely to be recovered when daylight begins. Cars, trucks, even construction workers working on the bridge all plunged into the river. A freight train passing under the bridge was crushed by concrete from the bridge deck.

I used to drive over this bridge everyday. I can’t say that I’m surprised that it collapsed. When you were stuck in traffic on the bridge in the exit lane to downtown Minneapolis or the University of Minnesota, you could feel the bridge shake when trucks passed in other lanes. It was scary! The bridge looked as if it were supported by toothpicks. The steel support structure didn’t look very impressive, especially when compared to other bridges in the area.

There is a system to spray ice-melting chemicals on the bridge deck during the winter. I’m wondering if it is possible that these ice melting chemicals could have helped corrode the metal support structure contributing to the collapse.

In Minnesota, Democrats have been fighting to raise all sorts of taxes. As part of their transportation tax increases of 2007, they wanted to hit an average family of four with $550 in additional taxes each year (not including the other tax increases sought by the DFL). These tax increases were vetoed by Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty.

I was watching the news coverage when someone whom I think was the former transportation director was insinuating that it was a lack of transportation spending that was to blame for the bridge collapse. Democrats will surely use this catastrophe as yet another excuse to raise taxes on working Americans.

Democrats are shameless thieves…and liars…and frauds…and hypocrites…

Local news stations with coverage:

KSTP
WCCO
KARE

The Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed during rush hour Wednesday. At around 6PM, the tail end of rush hour, both lanes of the bridge collapsed into the river. Dozens of vehicles including semis, a tanker truck, and a school bus were on the bridge at the time.

The indications are at the moment that this is a structural failing. At first, it looked like a terrorist attack. How often does a major freeway bridge collapse? That’s union labor, for you.

Former CIA employee Valerie Plame, who was completely legally discussed with a reporter, had her lawsuit against innocent members of the Bush administration dismissed by a federal judge today.

Plame claimed she was a covert operative, but really wasn’t. Well, nobody knows if she was covert or not. Given that she’s a Democrat, and Democrats tend to lie frequently, who can really believe her? Since she worked at the CIA headquarters and walked in the front door everyday, odds are she wasn’t covert.

But that didn’t stop the Democrat spin machine from making all sorts of defamatory claims against the Bush administration, which didn’t have anything to do with the “leaking” of Plame’s name. It was Richard Armitage, former Deputy Secretary of State, who first discussed Plame with a reporter. You may not know that, since the network news tends to not report factual information like that. I wonder if Charlie Gibson will mention that on the news tonight…

(Story)

Under threat of presidential veto, a Senate committee approved a $35 billion expansion of a children’s health insurance program.

Why can’t the parents of these children pay for health insurance for their own kids? Assuming the parents are able-bodied (most are) and assuming the children don’t have chronic diseases not coverable under existing health insurance plans (most don’t), insurance wouldn’t cost that much. A 30-year-old man can get a health insurance policy on ehealthinsurance.com with a $10,000 deductible and 0% coinsurance for less than $70 per month, so I can’t imagine a child’s health insurance costing much more.

Unfortunately, this is supported by Republicans as well. Republicans are looking more like free-spending Democrats with each passing day. The cost of this bill, supposedly, is going to be paid for by tax increases on tobacco products. Unfortunately, less and less people are smoking all the time. So in a few years there probably won’t be enough smokers to pay for this program (a pack of cigarettes costs $4 a pack where I am now–I do not smoke).

This is the deal with the Democrats: they are trying to create a responsibility-free society with everything paid for by a third-party. And Republicans, more and more, are jumping on bandwagon.

How about this: pass a “parental responsibility act” which makes parents legally responsible for the upbringing and financial support of their own children instead of dumping more and more parenting responsibility onto the taxpayers!

Sorry, but if you are an able-bodied adult and are unwilling to get a job to pay for your own child’s health insurance, you are a piece of crap. And there is no shortage of crap voting for the DFL. Just check the public housing projects. Or check out how many kids receive free school meals in Democrat-voting strongholds (often 70% of all school kids or higher). Democrats love their own children so much they can’t be bothered to feed them.

If you think it’s right to steal money from those who work hard for it because you are too lazy to make something of your life, you might be a Democrat.

If you look at others who are more successful than you with jealously and rage, you might be a Democrat.

If you worship multi-millionaire lawyers who wouldn’t cross the street to spit on you just because they promise to give you more welfare freebies, you might be a Democrat.

If you think that giving people free cash and free housing is a good way to encourage people to become self-sufficient, you might be a Democrat.

If you believe that having five children with five different fathers all the while relying on welfare to support everyone is a good idea, you might be a Democrat.

If you think it is a good idea reward a welfare mother with increased welfare payments with every illegitimate child born, you might be a Democrat.

If you prefer to hide behind the apron strings of a union instead of working hard and rising through the ranks, you might be a Democrat.

If you are significantly below average in academic achievement, you are most likely a Democrat.

If you believe having more money magically makes people more intelligent, you might be a Democrat.

If you think raising taxes and taking money out of a consumer-driven economy during a recession is a good way to stimulate the economy and create jobs, you might be a Democrat.

If you think murderers, rapists, and career criminals should be treated with dignity and respect and believe that fetuses are nothing more than tissue to be chopped up and discarded, you might be a Democrat.

If you claimed that Saddam Hussein was a threat with WMDs as far back as 1997 then pretend that you never said those things today, you might be a Democrat.

If you say one thing to one group and say the exact opposite to another group, you might be a Democrat.

If everything you say is incoherent and completely lacking logical soundness, you might be a Democrat.

If you get excited over meaningless platitudes and flowery speeches, you might be a Democrat.

If you are a convicted felon, you most likely are a Democrat.