26 August 2009

Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR lgn@limitedgovernmentnetwork.com

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

35,000 Earmark Requests — New Report Shows Federal

Just 50 Reps to Go [Cato at Overspending Worse Than
Liberty— Just 50 Reps to Go] Expected Over Next Decade
AUG 25, 2009 04:46P.M.
[Americans for Tax Reform]
WashingtonWatch.com’s project to collect congressional earmark data AUG 25, 2009 04:04P.M.
continues to make great strides. Over 35,000 earmark requests are in the
database, and fewer than 50 representatives remain on the “wanted” list. There’s a lot in the press today about CBO’s latest report on the budget.
The media will be reporting that it shows a cumulative ten-year deficit of
It’s not all good news. Even some appropriations committee members $7.1 trillion, which will increase the nation...
published their earmark disclosures as scanned PDFs. That’s
transparency in name, but not in spirit. Cato’s December policy forum on
government transparency was titled “Just Give Us the Data!”, and
scanned PDFs are not data . . . . FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

On the WashingtonWatch.com earmarks home page, the earmark Argentina Decriminalizes

requests collected so far are mapped by state and sortable by member of
Congress and senator. Visitors can vote and comment on earmark Personal Drug Consumption
requests, or edit a wiki article about requests, adding personal
knowledge about projects they are familiar with. [Cato at Liberty]
AUG 25, 2009 01:35P.M.

Following in Mexico’s footsteps last week, the Supreme Court of

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS Argentina has unanimously ruled today on decriminalizing the
possession of drugs for personal consumption.
What Really Happened Outside
For those who might be concerned with the idea of an “activist judiciary,”
Obama’s Town Hall Meeting the Court’s decision was based on a case brought by a 19 year-old who
was arrested in the street for possession of two grams of marijuana. He
[Americans for Tax Reform] was convicted and sentenced to a month and a half in prison, but
AUG 25, 2009 04:38P.M. challenged the constitutionality of the drug law based on Article 19 of the
Argentine Constitution:
The Bozeman Tea Party and supporters clashed with paid union thugs
outside the President’s Town Hall Meeting. The union hacks, modern- The private actions of men which in no way offend public
day brownshirts, included Service Employees Internation... order or morality, nor injure a third party, are only reserved
to God and are exempted from the authority of judges. No
inhabitant of the Nation shall be obliged to perform what the
law does not demand nor deprived of what it does not
prohibit.

Today, the Supreme Court ruled that personal drug consumption is

covered by that privacy clause stipulated in Article 19 of the Constitution
since it doesn’t affect third parties. Questions still remain, though, on the
extent of the ruling. However, the government of President Cristina

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR lgn@limitedgovernmentnetwork.com 26 August 2009

Fernández has fully endorsed the Court’s decision and has vowed to FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
promptly submit a bill to Congress that would define the details of the
decriminalization policies. Energy Citizens’ Rally
According to some reports, Brazil and Ecuador are considering similar LiveStreaming Today
steps. They would be wise to follow suit.
[Americans for Tax Reform]
AUG 25, 2009 11:55A.M.

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS Two Energy Citizens’ rallies will be taking place today in Elkhart, IN
and Greeley, CO. Energy Citizens’ is an alliance of people which is
Not Evil Just Wrong exposing “urging the Senate to get it right...

the costs of Global Warming

Hysteria [Americans for Tax FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

Reform] Tuesday’s Daily News [The Club

AUG 25, 2009 12:36P.M.
for Growth]
Last Wednesday, Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney screened their AUG 25, 2009 11:54A.M.
new documentary Not Evil Just Wrong: The True Cost of Global
Warming Hysteria. This feature-length documentary takes on the claims THE DAILY NEWS Club for Growth Puts Sen. Bennett in Crosshairs -
made... Aaron Blake, The Hill Club for Growth Targets Utah Republican - Real
Clear Politics Retarding the Recovery - Steve Forbes, Forbes.com The
Government Can’t Control Health Care Costs - Matt Kibbe, RCM
RomneyCare Redux - IBD Editorial Tax Penalties and the Health-Care
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS Bill - James Peaslee, WSJ Steele and the Left-Wing Republicans - Chris
Edwards, Cato Institute Suger Growers’ Sickeningly Sweet Deal -
How Cap and Tax Will Hurt Washington Post Editorial Watch Perfectly Good Assets Being Destroyed
- Mark Perry, Carpe Diem Uncreative Destruction - National Review
Hawaii [Americans for Tax Editorial

Reform]
AUG 25, 2009 12:03P.M.
FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
In our continuing, daily, state by state, look at the financial impact of the
Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade Tax Bill, we will show you the projected Club Launches Fourth
losses in Gross State Product, Personal Income, and...
Healthcare Ad [The Club for
Growth]
AUG 25, 2009 10:28A.M.

Club for Growth Launches

New Healthcare Ad in Utah
State GOP Convention Delegates Alerted to
Bennett’s Plan

Washington – The Club for Growth will launch a new

television ad today aimed at Utah Senator Robert

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR lgn@limitedgovernmentnetwork.com 26 August 2009

Bennett. The ad is part of the Club’s nationwide $1.2 FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS
million campaign to highlight the dangers of
government-run healthcare and focuses on the so- Embracing Bushonomics,
called Healthy Americans Act, legislation co-
authored by Sens. Bennett and Wyden (D-OR) that Obama Re-appoints Bernanke
would put the government in control of our health
system. [Cato at Liberty]
AUG 25, 2009 10:25A.M.
Club President Chris Chocola will also reach out to
3,200 likely delegates to the next Utah State
Republican Convention with a letter (available here)
urging them to call on Senator Bennett to drop his
plan for government-run healthcare.

“Senator Bennett’s bill is a healthcare nightmare,”

said Chocola. “Rather than lowering the cost of care
by increasing competition, it turns control of our
health insurance system over to the government.”

The new ad (seen below) describes key provisions of

Bennett’s bill, which would allow the government to
tell insurance companies what treatments and
medicines they must cover, what they must charge,
and who they can accept as customers, while forcing
citizens to buy an approved plan through a
government-run “exchange.” Insurance premiums
would automatically be taken from individuals’
paychecks and sent to the IRS, and employers would
also be forced to pay into the system through a job-
killing tax hike as high as 25% of the cost of a basic
health benefit.
“We believe it’s important for Senator Bennett’s
constituents to know that he’s pushing for massive
tax increases and government-run healthcare,”
added Chocola. “Empowering bureaucrats at the
expense of patients and doctors is the wrong
medicine for our health system. It’s time for Senator
Bennett to scrap his costly government takeover and
focus on patient-centered solutions that ensure
more Americans have access to real, quality care.”
You can read the whole letter from Club President
Chris Chocola to Utah State GOP Delegates in html
by following the link below.
In re-appointing Bernanke to another four year term as Fed chairman,
President Obama completes his embrace of bailouts, easy money and
deficits as the defining characteristics of his economic agenda.
Bernanke, along with Secretary Geithner (then New York Fed president)
were the prime movers behind the bailouts of AIG and Bear Stearns.
Rather than “saving capitalism,” these bailouts only spread panic at
considerable cost to the taxpayer. As evidenced in his “financial reform”
proposal, Obama does not see bailouts as the problem, but instead
believes an expanded Fed is the solution to all that is wrong with the
financial sector. Bernanke also played a central role as the Fed governor
most in favor of easy money in the aftermath of the dot-com bubble — a
policy that directly contributed to the housing bubble. And rather than
take steps to offset the “global savings glut” forcing down rates,
Bernanke used it as a rationale for inaction.
Perhaps worse than Bush and Obama’s rewarding of failure in the
private sector via bailouts is the continued rewarding of failure in the
public sector. The actors at institutions such as the Federal Reserve bear
considerable responsibility for the current state of the economy. Re-
appointing Bernanke sends the worst possible message to both the
American public and to government in general: not only will failure
be tolerated, it will be rewarded.

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Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR lgn@limitedgovernmentnetwork.com 26 August 2009

FISCALLY CONSERVATIVE BLOG FEEDS

The Cost of Getting Out of Iraq

[Cato at Liberty]
AUG 25, 2009 08:35A.M.

Getting into Iraq was easy. Fighting the war was expensive in lives and
money. Getting out will cost more cash.

In fact, the Pentagon figures that taxpayers will have to spend tens of
billions of dollars to bring home or transfer the equipment strewn about
Iraq. According to Jason Ditz:

A lot of the cost is going to depend on what the military

decides to do with the various items it required to occupy the
nation and then fight an insurgency for several years with
well over 100,000 US troops. Some of the gear will be
shipped back to the US, others will be sent to Afghanistan for
the ongoing war there. Still others will just be given to the
Iraqi government so they don’t have to deal with the other
two options.

The US has spent over two thirds of a trillion dollars on the

war in Iraq so far (and this is only figuring the direct costs),
but while President Obama has already started projecting
dramatically lower costs in the near future as the war “winds
down” (which so far hasn’t translated to actually removing
serious numbers of troops from the nation), the costs just of
hauling “mountains of equipment” out of Iraq show that
nothing the military does is done on the cheap, not even
ending a war.

So much for the occupation that was supposed to pay for itself!