Heinrich: Wilson’s pretend indignity over spending is outrageous

From NMPolitics.net - by U.S. Congressman Martin Heinrich - Senate candidate Heather Wilson left more than a few important facts out of her recent attack in the Albuquerque Journal. Most importantly she failed to mention her 11-year track record in Congress. Perhaps most outrageous is Wilson’s pretend indignity over government spending. During her time in office, former Congresswoman Heather Wilson was all for taking out loans to fight two wars and pay for an unfunded prescription drug program. At the same time, she voted for tax breaks for the richest Americans and a taxpayer-funded Wall Street bailout. Read more
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Parker: Rubio's Courageous Speech

Star Parker
Townhall - Florida’s young Republican Senator Marco Rubio gave an important speech at the Reagan Presidential Library in California that has set off the liberal talking head universe. He had the temerity to suggest that the huge growth in government’s role in American life over the last century “actually weakened us as a people.” The resulting onslaught from liberal blogs and cable hosts comes as no surprise because Rubio directly took on the idol at which liberals worship – Big Government. But his analysis was courageous and profound. Eighty percent of Americans are not happy with the direction of the country. And, new Gallup polling shows that only 17 percent are positively disposed toward the federal government. Americans want answers. Senator Rubio, in this speech, stepped up to the plate to provide answers.
Marco Rubio
If liberals disagree, they are going to have to get equally serious. They’ve certainly got to do better than MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, calling Rubio “a political hack” who wants “to get rid of social safety nets.” Our fiscal crisis is undeniable. The trillions in debt we’ve taken on to finance massive government spending has resulted in the unthinkable downgrading in rating of our government’s bonds. But Senator Rubio took a bold step beyond looking at our problems just as an accountant. He suggested that we cannot separate our budget from our culture. The culture of government has displaced the culture of personal responsibility. I have been making the point for years regarding what the welfare state culture has done in our black communities. How it has created a permanent underclass, defined by family breakdown, sexual promiscuity, disease, and crime. American culture has changed profoundly over these years that Americans have come to increasingly believe that government social engineering can solve life’s problems and challenges. Read full dolumn here: News New Mexico
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Doan: Executive Order 13495

Lurita Doan
Townhall - President Obama and his team of economic advisors are continuing their crusade against entrepreneurs and small companies that are the traditional engine to economic growth. The latest anti-business Obama policies appear in a just-released Executive Order 13495, a new rule to be enforced by the Department of Labor. This particular regulation is aimed directly at small business owners and attacks small businesses' most valuable asset--their employees. Executive Order 13495, which will be both complicated and costly to enforce, represents just another example of Team Obama’s complete lack of understanding of the concerns of small business owners. After 15 years as a small business owner, and as the former Administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration, I've been to the circus a few times and seen all the strings connected the federal government and its indifference to the plight of small business owners. For small businesses, Executive Order 13495 is perhaps the most damaging action yet to come out of the Obama Administration. First, in our country, a business has the freedom to hire the workers it thinks are best suited to ensure the company's success. The new Team Obama contracting rule tramples over that basic, capitalist principle by requiring any company which wins a federal contract to hire the employees that the government identifies. This means that the government has new and expanded powers to direct the hiring, firing and promotion of employees at private companies. Read full column here: News New Mexico

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With No Layoffs Clause - Post Office Broke Again

NY Times - The United States Postal Service has long lived on the financial edge, but it has never been as close to the precipice as it is today: the agency is so low on cash that it will not be able to make a $5.5 billion payment due this month and may have to shut down entirely this winter unless Congress takes emergency action to stabilize its finances. Labor represents 80 percent of the agency's expenses. “Our situation is extremely serious,” the postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, said in an interview.
“If Congress doesn’t act, we will default.” In recent weeks, Mr. Donahoe has been pushing a series of painful cost-cutting measures to erase the agency’s deficit, which will reach $9.2 billion this fiscal year. They include eliminating Saturday mail delivery, closing up to 3,700 postal locations and laying off 120,000 workers — nearly one-fifth of the agency’s work force — despite a no-layoffs clause in the unions’ contracts. Read full story here: News New Mexico

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Troubled Waters


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Waters: After Tea Party Goes Straight to Hell, Enact a Trillion Dollar Government Jobs Program

Maxine Waters
UPI -- Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., said Sunday U.S. President Barack Obama should propose a "bold" jobs program costing $1 trillion or more. "The president must be bold. I agree that he must have a jobs program, must create jobs," Waters said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I'm talking about a program of $1 trillion or more. We've got to put Americans to work. That's the only way to revitalize this economy. When people work and they earn money, they spend that money, and that is what gets the economy up and going." As Obama prepares to deliver a major jobs speech before a joint session of Congress Thursday, Waters urged against "a program that simply gives more tax breaks to the very people who got us in this trouble in the first place." Read full story here: News New Mexico
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Government Causes Housing Crash Then Sues Everyone Else

Former Fannie Mae CEO - Franklin Raines
Conservative Daily News - The U.S. government on Friday sued 17 banking firms for their roles in the housing crash. The financial institutions are being accused of selling $196 billion dollars of now-toxic mortgage backed securities to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.The Federal Housing Agency (FHA) filed suits against Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan chase and 14 others. FHA is the government agency that oversees Fannie and Freddie which raises questions. Is this just a maneuver for Fannie and Freddie to recover some portion of the massive losses that they were responsible for taking on?
Fannie and Freddie have notoriously backed loans with questionable characteristics. So-called NJNA (no job no assets) loans and loans where the borrower was likely borrowing more than they could afford. This created the easy credit climate where banks, under pressure from regulators and community groups like ACORN, were pressed to make sub-prime loans. Now, the government is coming after them. Read full column here: News New Mexico
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Why Santa Fe Loves Big Government

Santa Fe New Mexican - With the 2011 summer tourist season nearing an end, Santa Fe's economy is about to get a post-Labor Day lift. Local hotels, restaurants and other businesses expect extra revenue from New Mexico's 112 lawmakers and various helpers converging on the Capitol for a special session of the Legislature that convenes Tuesday. So far, $50,000 a day is budgeted for the session, during which lawmakers primarily will take on the once-a-decade job of redistricting but also will grapple with other topics. It's unclear how long the session might last, but one key lawmaker said he thought it could take a month. Already, said Dana Ortega, director of sales and marketing at the Inn and Spa at Loretto, "we are having a better September than last year." She noted that the uptick is mostly related to more visitors from out of state. Read full story here: News New Mexico
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KOB I.D.'s State Police Officer Caught on Camera

KOB - TV - The New Mexico State Police officer caught on camera having sex with a woman on the hood of a car has been fired. That image has now gone viral all over the world and State Police said it is embarrassing. Sources identify former State Police Officer Bert Lopez as the man in the photo. "He is no longer employed with the department," said New Mexico State Police Sergeant Tim Johnson. Johnson would not confirm Lopez as being in the scandalous photo.
Through reliable sources, KOB Eyewitness News 4 identified Lopez as the officer in the photos when the story first broke, but decided not to reveal his name until official disciplinary action was taken. While the incident has been portrayed as humorous by many in the entertainment world, it is a slap in the face to New Mexico State Police. "I think it's unfair to paint us all with the same brush...a lot of us go out and make sound decisions every single day," Johnson said. Johnson also said it boils down to one officer's actions. Read full story here: News New Mexico

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California Shows the Way....to Record Unemployment

Bloomberg -  The percentage of working-age Californians with jobs has fallen to a record low, and employment may not return to pre-recession levels until the second half of the decade, according to a research group. Just 55.4 percent of working-age Californians, defined as those 16 or older, had a job in July, down from 56.2 percent a year earlier and the lowest level since 1976, the Sacramento- based California Budget Project said in a report released late yesterday. California’s 12 percent unemployment rate in July, the nation’s second-highest after Nevada, compared with 9.1 percent nationwide. The most-populous state lost 1.4 million jobs during the recession that began three years ago, and has gained back only 226,800, or about 17 percent, according to the report. Read full story here: News New Mexico

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