John Boehner Would Like to Have an “Adult Conversation” With America About Entitlements Just So Long As That Conversation Contains No Solutions

BY:  Peter Suderman

The GOP’s House Minority Leader, John Boehner, appeared opposite Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday over the weekend and doubled down on last week’s pledge to avoid talking about any sort of actual policy proposal to deal with the unsustainable growth of entitlement spending. He said he wants to have an “adult conversation” about runaway entitlements, but apparently that doesn’t include any discussion whatsoever of what he and his party propose to do about some of the biggest drivers of federal spending and deficits. Here’s the key exchange:

WALLACE: But forgive me, sir. I mean, isn't the right time to have the adult conversation now before the election when you have this document? Why not make a single proposal to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid?

BOEHNER: Chris, this is what happens here in Washington. When you start down that path, you just invite all kinds of problems. I know. I've been there. I think we need to do this in a more systemic way and have this conversation first. Let's not get to the potential solutions. Let's make sure Americans understand how big the problem is. Then we can begin to talk about possible solutions and then work ourselves into those solutions that are doable.

The “adult conversation” line is really laying it on thick considering that what he’s actually demonstrating is that, at best, the GOP wants to baby voters through the basics of the entitlement situation before actually broaching the topic of specific policy changes.

Obviously many Republicans are afraid of political blowback from any proposal that could be portrayed as a cut to Medicare or Social Security, both of which have large constituencies that vote consistently. And to some extent that’s a legitimate fear, at least from a purely political standpoint; after all, one of the most effective (if frustrating) Republican attacks on the new health care law was that it cuts Medicare. But this fear fails to realize that proposals to control spending on entitlement programs are in fact proposals to preserve and strengthen those programs. Paul Ryan’s Roadmap, whatever its flaws, wouldn’t change Medicare a bit for anyone who is within 10 years of entering the program, and, perhaps with some adjustments, would at least set the program (as well at the federal budget) on a rough path to long-term sustainability.

In a way, though, Boehner is correct that “this is what happens here in Washington”: Voters become angry about government debt and spending. And so they turn to the GOP, which runs on a loud but vague campaign to cut spending and then, once in power, follows through by cutting taxes but not spending, thereby making the problem worse.

Reason

The Lighter Side of Deadbeats

BY: Tim Cavanaugh

After more than a year in action, the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is showing improvement on redefaults. But that improvement will turn out to be brief, and the details demonstrate how little impact the expensive program can ultimately have.


Redefault occurs when a delinquent borrower works with a bank to change the terms of a mortgage, but then after some period of time stops making payments again. It occurs in half of all modified loans, and the alarming rate of redefaults prompts interventionists to call for more generous principal-reduction loan mods – the idea being that if you give enough money to demonstrated bad borrowers, eventually they will become responsible.
 
(T)he direct quarter-by-quarter comparisons show a definite comedown in delinquencies at the six-month mark -- though the change is substantial only for deadbeats who got haircuts of 20 percent or more.


But dig a little deeper into the report and you will see how little meaning there is in a time frame of less than six months. Even loans that received the most charitable modifications start redefaulting at higher rates once you get out to a year or more, with most categories over 50 percent redefault rates at the 12-month mark. The category of de jure government-guaranteed loans (In effect, all mortgages are now government guaranteed) has a whopping 64.8 percent redefault rate. Overall, 49.7 percent of all modified loans are back in default within a year.

HAMP is only a $75 billion program. So where is the money going to come from? And when will they stop claiming that taking money from taxpayers (the vast majority of whom have never been late on a mortgage payment) and giving it to deadbeats and stupid banks does anything but drag out the problem?

Read the entire article: Reason

Obama Administration Wants Authority to Wiretap the Internet

Federal law enforcement and national security officials are preparing to seek sweeping new regulations for the Internet, arguing that their ability to wiretap criminal and terrorism suspects is “going dark” as people increasingly communicate online instead of by telephone.

Essentially, officials want Congress to require all services that enable communications — including encrypted e-mail transmitters like BlackBerry, social networking Web sites like Facebook and software that allows direct “peer to peer” messaging like Skype — to be technically capable of complying if served with a wiretap order. The mandate would include being able to intercept and unscramble encrypted messages.

The bill, which the Obama administration plans to submit to lawmakers next year, raises fresh questions about how to balance security needs with protecting privacy and fostering innovation. And because security services around the world face the same problem, it could set an example that is copied globally.

James X. Dempsey, vice president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, an Internet policy group, said the proposal had “huge implications” and challenged “fundamental elements of the Internet revolution” — including its decentralized design.

“They are really asking for the authority to redesign services that take advantage of the unique, and now pervasive, architecture of the Internet,” he said. “They basically want to turn back the clock and make Internet services function the way that the telephone system used to function.”

Officials are coalescing around several of the proposal’s likely requirements:


¶ Communications services that encrypt messages must have a way to unscramble them.
¶ Foreign-based providers that do business inside the United States must install a domestic office capable of performing intercepts.
¶ Developers of software that enables peer-to-peer communication must redesign their service to allow interception.

Read the entire article: NYT

Flouting the rule of law seems to be a family trait.

Obama's Aunt, you may remember, became an issue during the campaign. But, it all magically went away. She's still here, and she thinks you have an obligation to take care of her, because God said so.

Police warn residents after Whisper Lake children are approached by motorist

Madison police are warning residents to be wary of unfamiliar vehicles in their neighborhoods after a report of a motorist talking with children at the Whisper Lake section of Annandale Saturday.
According to witnesses, a driver in an older model white van resembling a construction van pulled alongside three children out walking and began to ask them if they were going to the clubhouse to swim. Madison Police Capt. Robert Sanders said the three became uncomfortable with the questions and ran to a nearby home to report the incident. The driver continued driving on Whisper Lake Avenue toward Whisper Lake Boulevard.

The motorist was described as a bald man in his late 30s to early 40s with no facial hair.

Similar situations of a motorist approaching children happened in July in Bradford Place and Sherbourne subdivisions. A Jackson man, Ricky Wayne Davis, 49, was arrested last month and charged with two counts of attempted enticement of a child and two counts of attempted kidnapping. He is in the Madison County Detention Center on $2 million bond.

Anyone with information about this or with concerns should call the Madison Police Department at (601) 856-6111.

MCH

MC Herald: Ridgeland teen arrested on Madison burglary charge

A Ridgeland teen has been arrested by Madison police on burglary charges.

Brandon Lambert, 17, of 102 Chicot Cove, is being charged as an adult with one count of house burglary, possession of burglary tools and a switched car tag, according to a police statement.

He is being held at the Madison County Detention Center pending an initial appearance Monday. No bond has been set.

MCH

Hedgecock: Democrats Want to Destroy Fiorina and Angle

by Roger Hedgecock

This much we know.

Carly Fiorina overcame a competitive field to decisively win the California Republican Senate primary election, earning the right to compete against incumbent Democrat Sen. Barbara Boxer in the November election.

Sharron Angle came from way behind to win decisively in the Nevada Republican primary election, earning the right to compete against incumbent Democrat Sen. Harry Reid in November.

What is not yet publicly known is the scorched-earth negative campaigns already beginning against both of these Republican women.

Hints in recent weeks have made it clear that the Democrats will not only campaign to retain these Senate seats, they will launch an immediate, relentless personal assault designed to destroy both women's reputations personally and politically.

What the liberal elites cannot stand about both women goes far beyond disagreement over their political views.

Both women were endorsed by Sarah Palin. Palin's endorsement in these races and others (notably Nikki Haley) made a positive difference. By contrast, Obama's endorsement didn't help Arlen Specter, or John Corzine, Creigh Deeds or Martha Coakley and only Bill Clinton saved Blanche Lincoln in Arkansas.

Why does Palin and everything she says and does provoke such a torrent of bile and abuse from the left? It’s because she is a successful, powerful woman who is definitely not a liberal feminist, and because she is an authentic American women of her time.

Palin is a success in her career, while she is also a mother facing the kind of difficulties in her family that sound all too real to many American families. She lives the daily juggling act that liberal feminists only write about.

Worse yet for the liberal elites in government, academia, and the media, she is politically powerful because she is authentic.

I witnessed Palin's appeal firsthand at the Tea Party Express rally in Harry Reid's hometown of Searchlight, Nev. On a cold, wind-swept day in the high desert before a crowd of nearly 30,000, Sarah Palin was introduced to a standing ovation.

But then something extraordinary happened. Women in the audience rushed the stage, many holding up Palin's book and all chanting "Sarah, Sarah." When was Nancy Pelosi last (or ever) greeted this way?

The gap between arrogant ruling liberal elites and "We the People," which fueled the Tea Party movement in the first place, has never been more apparent than when comparing the Botox phony feminist with a real accomplished American woman.

So get ready Carly and Sharron. The tornado of bitter, mean, false labels and charges is just beginning.

In Fiorina's case, Boxer has already previewed the witch's brew. According to Senator (don't call me ma'am) Boxer, Fiorina, as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, deliberately outsourced American jobs overseas, violated environmental standards and gouged her employees and the consuming public in a greedy drive to amass an obscene fortune while she, Barbara Boxer, by contrast has devoted her life to public service and the public good. Translation: Carly has actually created thousands of private sector jobs.

As for Sharron Angle, if you listen to Reid's paid shills in Nevada, she's a right-wing nut who would dismantle all the successful, necessary agencies of government and is backed by gun-toting militias full of Timothy McVeigh wannabes.

Apparently, Angle has the temerity to question the effectiveness of the federal Department of Education, and other monuments to wasteful, failed (and unconstitutional) liberal programs. And Americans who understand the importance of the 2nd Amendment do support her. Reid will soon find out that those supporters include the majority of Nevadans.

But beyond being prepared for the liberal smear machine, both Fiorina and Angle have a golden opportunity to unleash a secret weapon—the truth.

The truth is the U.S. cannot borrow its way to prosperity, our indebtedness to China is not an asset, and government "stimulus" is not creating good jobs. In short, Obama's campaign of HOPE has produced anxiety and despair and the CHANGE is widely seen as destroying jobs.

Hard times caused by failing Obama policies championed by Boxer and Reid cannot be forever masked by extending unemployment benefits.

Beyond telling the truth (You know, folks, the Emperor has no clothes), these candidates—and all who would win in November—need to tell us what needs to be done. What would they propose as an alternate to the failing policies now in place?

What real reforms would actually make the American healthcare system work better at a lower cost to more people? Could putting more power in the hands of patients be the beginning of a better plan than Obamacare, which starts by putting all power and choice in the hands of the government?

What is the proper role of government regulation now that the most regulated parts of the economy (banks, insurance and oil companies, for example) have experienced the most failure while the least regulated parts of the economy (Apple, for example) are the only good news we have.

Now that we know that the open border policy pursued by George Bush is also the policy of President Obama—and with equally disastrous results—what would these two candidates, if elected to the U.S. Senate, offer as an alternative? Our national security as well as the nation’s sovereignty hangs in the balance on this issue.

In foreign policy, now that bowing to foreign despots and apologizing for America has not brought greater security but rather emboldened America's enemies to new levels of atrocity, is “Peace Through Strength” an idea whose time has come again ?

Nikki Haley has shown that personal attacks can be turned to an advantage, and I wish Carly and Sharron the same success in the coming mud-slinging season,

More importantly these women have the opportunity to re-state the vision that inspired generations of Americans: Liberty guarded by a limited government, low taxes, an opportunity society anchored in personal responsibility, a free-market economy spreading the wealth to all who choose to earn it.

With this vision, the candidates win and the country wins too.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Hedgecock is a nationally-syndicated radio talk host. Visit http://www.rogerhedgecock.com/ . The Roger Hedgecock Show is syndicated on the Radio America network.