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12 Mar 09

The Michigan State of the State address is about to begin. I will be live blogging the event, giving my analysis (so my apologies for any spelling errors - I’ll fix them eventually).
Alright, she’s entering the chamber (I’m not sure if this is the House or Senate - probably House since it’s bigger).

24 Feb 09

Yesterday I was watching America’s Newsroom, and Megyn Kelly did a story about the budget crisis in Kansas. According to the Governor, Kathleen Sebelius (D), the state was not going to be able to pay tax refunds or state employees on time. Sebelius wants to borrow money from other state accounts within Kansas; however, Republican legislators want budget cuts because they feel Sebelius’s solution is irresponsible. Republican leaders in the state House and Senate (both where they’re in the majority) argued that the internal borrowing wasn’t legal until the Kansas had a balanced budget for the fiscal year (the fiscal year ends June 30).

07 Feb 09

Alright, this news article is a few days old, but since the Senate hasn’t voted on the stimulus package yet, it’s still applicable. I read an AP article that a friend showed me, and while I won’t post the whole thing, I’ll highlight some key points. The article talks about Republican Governors who are urging Congress to pass the stimulus bill. The full article can be read here. Then I went looking for more positions on the bill and found a few other governors’ positions.

30 Jan 09

On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, H.R. 1, Congress’s latest economic stimulus package. That bill passed 244-188; 11 Democrats broke ranks, while all of the voting Republicans voted against it. First, I would like to commend the 11 Democrats who voted against the $819 billion “stimulus” bill. This bill is an atrocity to the Congressional system of appropriations. Instead of focusing on true STIMULUS (after all, it is an “economic STIMULUS package”), the Democrats in the House packed the bill with billions of dollars of un-stimulating spending. For those of you who want to read the sources, here’s the version of the bill as it was introduced (it has been slightly changed, but not too much), here’s the summary from the House Appropriations Committee, and here’s the cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. And here’s the link to the roll call vote, Roll number 46.

12 Dec 08

I was watching FOX News the other day, and Neil Cavuto the Great (yes, I’ve now given Cavuto the Republican Ranting honorary title of “the Great”) was discussing a bill before Congress that would help bankrupt homeowners restructure their mortgages. Cavuto discusses the issue with Wall Street Journal editorialist Steve Moore. Watch the video, and I’ll discuss it below

19 Nov 08

So, I was taking a shower a couple days ago, when I had an epiphany (it’s where I always do all my great thinking). I came up with this phrase: “A tax-and-spend liberal is better than a tax-cut-and-spend conservative. At least the liberal can balance the budget.”

16 Oct 08

Alright, we’re moments away from the beginning of the debate. As always, I’ll be watching CNN, who will have a focus group (undecided voters in Ohio) with a tracking rating of how people like what they’re hearing (broken up by men and women). WordPress just added an option to add polls, so I’ll see if I can get that working after the debate is over and post a poll about who won.

03 Oct 08

Ifill: Talking about the Senate bill. “Was this the worst of Washington, or the best of Washington?”
Biden: Neither. The economic policies of the last 8 years were the worst part. Obama laid out rescue plan: Oversight, “focus on homeowners and folks on mainstreet, treat taxpayers like investors, and lastly, make sure CEOs don’t benefit.” “We will fundamentally change the … economic policy.”

01 Oct 08

I had hoped to do a post on this yesterday, but I wanted to actually see the bill before I did anything on it. It took them a while to get the bill language up, and I found out that it was about 110 pages long (it is available here if you’re interested). Also, here’s the bill that the Senate didn’t vote to pass (it needed 60% to pass).

21 Mar 08

Alright, so I was looking around Senator Chuck Hagel’s (R-NE) website to see about his new book, and I stumbled across this press release:
Hagel Statement on Vote Against Senate Economic Stimulus Package

February 7th, 2008 - U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel issued the following statement today after voting against the passed United States Senate economic stimulus package:“In the last few years we have overbuilt, overmortgaged, overleveraged and abused credit. The market is now self-correcting.“

19 Mar 08

OK, so over the weekend, me and some friends got bored and wanted to play Monopoly, but nobody had the game up here at college, so we decided to go out and try the new Monopoly Electronic Banking Edition.
It’s pretty cool - you put the credit card in, and the calculator senses a bump on the card (each card’s bump is different & some have 2), and it keeps track of how much money you have. It makes the game go a whole lot faster.

02 Feb 08

This is a movement that I have supported especially since the budget crisis last year. In 2007, the House of Representatives spent 134 days in session with the Senate having 132 days. In 2006, the House spent 95 and the Senate spent 98 days. In 2005, the House was in session for 110 days and the Senate 113 days. Legislatures are paid $79,650 per year with $12,000 yearly expense allowance for session and interim (vouchered) set by compensation commission.