Posts Tagged ‘Deficit Spending’

PA GOP News Brief – 7.28.10

1. Philadelphia Daily News: Sestak’s tone-deaf when it comes to earmarks

2. The Hill: Voters can’t shake deficit worries

3. Delaware County Times: Corbett: Businesses need help from state

4. Delaware County Times: Public health insurance divides 7^th district candidates

5. The Hill: Obama flubs on creating new jobs

1. Philadelphia Daily News: Sestak’s tone-deaf when it comes to earmarks

Joe Sestak readily admits he has trouble answering questions succinctly.

He says that much of what he’s asked about is so complicated that he needs time to explain things. He also says this is a drawback in his profession and tells me that he works on it “constantly.”

The Democratic congressman and Senate candidate should work a little harder to reconcile taking campaign contributions from those benefiting from federal “earmarks” (which direct money to be spent on specific projects) while claiming “a personal policy” against doing so.

2. The Hill: Voters can’t shake deficit worries

The federal budget deficit will matter more to voters this year than it has in the past decade, according to polls.

While it continues to trail the near-double-digit unemployment rates and overall state of the economy as a leading concern for voters, it is proving central to the 2010 election.

“It used to be that people had vague concerns about the deficit. They knew there was one, but it didn’t seem to really matter,” said Republican Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a likely candidate in the 2012 presidential race. “Now average people outside of politics are zoomed in on it. You go to the grocery store or the dry cleaners or some place and average people, they make comments about the debt, the deficit and spending.”

The rise in deficit worries is exposing the political risk in a key plank of the Democratic agenda: pumping taxpayer money into the economy in the short term, while attempting to keep deficits and debt in check in the long term.

After barely registering for at least a decade, deficits began rising rapidly among voter concerns in 2009. Massive Tea Party protests around the country since early last year helped stir up public attention and unrest.

By February of this year, 11 percent of those polled by Gallup said the federal deficit was the most important issue facing the nation.

3. Delaware County Times: Corbett: Businesses need help from state

The next governor needs to reduce spending and remove any barriers for small businesses to flourish, said Pennsylvania Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett during a visit to Archway Press Inc. in Sharon Hill Tuesday.

Corbett called the family-owned Archway a success story in Pennsylvania for weathering the economic storm; though owner Tom Gaffney said the business has taken its lumps too, with a full-time workforce reduced from 20 percent to nine employees and productivity down about 20 or 25 percent in the last two years.

Corbett said such small businesses need government to be on their side. He has proposed cutting business taxes and holding the line on new taxes, streamlining tax paperwork, aligning state and federal investment expenses, and eliminating the inheritance tax.

4. Delaware County Times: Public health insurance divides 7^th district candidates

While the Democratic candidate for the 7th Congressional District kicked off an economic tour Tuesday, the Republican candidate denounced a public health insurance option.

State Rep. Bryan Lentz, D-161, of Swarthmore, is running against Republican Pat Meehan, a former U.S. attorney, for the seat currently occupied by U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak, who is running for U.S. Senate.

…

Meehan kicked off his business tour back in May with a stop at the Ridley Park Business District. Since then, Meehan has hosted a roundtable discussion, forums and other events with small-business owners and executives.

Meehan on Tuesday said he was concerned about U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) call for a public health insurance option. He said it “will cost the taxpayers billions of dollars and over time crowd out private insurance companies, leaving consumers with no choice but to sign up for a government plan.”

5. The Hill: Obama flubs on creating new jobs

The Obama administration has been focused on the wrong jobs numbers. Instead of obsessing over the president’s sagging job approval ratings, the focus should have been on a job-creation initiative.

We finally have a genuine “most important issue or problem” according to every poll out there, yet the president doesn’t seem to be responding, except to try and keep people on unemployment benefits. Even a public jobs initiative would be welcomed at this juncture, but things won’t really get better in this economy until consumer confidence rises in response to the availability of more jobs in the private sector.

The president isn’t the only one who seems confused about this matter. Last week a Quinnipiac University poll announced that Americans believe jobs are more important than deficit reduction. “American voters say 64-30 percent that reducing unemployment is more important than reducing the federal budget deficit,” said the pollsters’ release. It went on, “Even Republicans say 58-38 percent that reducing unemployment is more important.”

Mike Barley
Director of the Communications and Technology Departments

Republican Party of Pennsylvania
717-234-4901, ext. 115
mbarley@pagop.org

Come join us for our annual
fundraiser dinner!
This year’s dinner will be held on Saturday
May 8, from 5-8 pm at the Springettsbury Fire
Hall. All you can eat steak and shrimp
dinner. Yep, that’s right…ALL YOU CAN EAT
STEAK and SHRIMP!
We are honored to have as our guest speaker
Congressman Pat Toomey!
Tickets are just $35 for adults…$60 if you want
a professional photo with Pat. Ages 12 and
under is $15, and 3 and below are free.
So why not come out, enjoy some of the best
bluegrass music around (featuring Chairman
Peck and the Boys), meet the candidates and
our current elected officials, and enjoy ALL
YOU CAN EAT STEAK and SHRIMP!
Please contact Chris Reed for additional details
and tickets at 683-7456.

PA GOP News Brief 4.16 2010

1) Indiana Gazette: Go back to basics on budget, Corbett tells town hall meeting

2) Pittsburgh Tribune Review: Toomey: Welfare state plan shocking

3) DelCo Times: Senate candidate Toomey talks small business

4) Politico: Specter haul dwarfed by Toomey

5) Politico: A tale of two Obamas: Up in D.C., down in U.S.

1) Indiana Gazette: Go back to basics on budget, Corbett tells town hall meeting

The Indiana Gazette has an update on Tom Corbett’s campaign for Governor.

ELDERTON – The budget is the most important issue facing Pennsylvania, Attorney General and governor-hopeful Tom Corbett said. And if he is elected, he would rebuild it from the ground up.

“Let’s take a look at how we’re spending money,” he told a crowd of about 60 people at a town hall meeting Wednesday afternoon in Elderton. “We need to go back to the beginning.”

Corbett spent the day in Indiana and Armstrong counties, touring Diamond Drugs in White Township to tout his support of small businesses and answering questions at the Indiana-Armstrong Patriots’ town hall meeting in the Smith Complex.

Corbett is one of the Republicans running for governor in the primary election and has received the Republican endorsement. A Philadelphia native but nearly lifelong Pittsburgh resident, he has served as attorney general since 2004.

“You have to be able to connect with people, you have to understand all regions of the state are important,” he said. “Our current governor knows one region is important.”

Sabrina Balister, of Elderton, started the long line of voters with their questions written on pieces of notebook paper: Does Corbett intend to follow through with the lawsuit he joined against the health care bill?

“If I filed it, why would I not stick it out?” he replied. “This is not about health care, it’s about the Constitution of the United States. … And it’s about whether the federal government can tell you what to buy. ”With nearly all the questions, Corbett took a small-government approach with his answers.

See Also: The Progress: Governor candidate Corbett speaks at Lincoln Day dinner

See Also: Talking Points Memo: Justice Breyer: Health Care Reform Could Appear Before Supreme Court

2) Pittsburgh Tribune Review: Toomey: Welfare state plan shocking

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review reports on the Tax Day rally with Pat Toomey, Tom Corbett and Tim Burns.

Ignoring his primary opponent altogether and making only passing references to the senator he wants to unseat in November, Republican Pat Toomey lambasted Democrats in control of Washington by declaring Thursday night in Latrobe that “it is staggering what they want to do.”

Invoking the names of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Obama, Toomey said, “These guys are trying to turn us into a European-style welfare state.”

…Burns pledged “never” to vote for higher taxes as a member of Congress.

“I believe the country is in a fight for its very life,” said Burns, who decried Pelosi’s ringing endorsement of the recently passed health care reform bill with a bit of political embroidering of his own.

“Pelosi got and said now we (in Congress) can join those who established Medicare and Social Security. That is wonderful. Medicare and Social Security are bankrupt.”

In what otherwise was a low-key address, Corbett received a hearty cheer when he mentioned the action he took as state attorney general to oppose the health care law with a legal suit challenging the bill’s constitutionality.

Corbett said as governor he would cut the state budget, although he did not pinpoint how or by what amount. Dwelling somewhat on the intricacies of state tax policies, Corbett went on to extol the virtues of the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania as an economic generator. The industry needs a tax environment that would enable it to flourish, he suggested.

3) DelCo Times: Senate candidate Toomey talks small business

Delaware County Times reports on a roundtable discussion held by Pat Toomey.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate and former U.S. Rep. Pat Toomey held a roundtable discussion on economic and health-care issues with local business people Thursday morning at the Country Squire Diner in Broomall.

Toomey said he is in tune with the concerns of small business owners, having been one himself. Toomey and his brothers launched a successful restaurant business in 1990 with two locations in Allentown and Lancaster.

“We had a couple hundred employees and we did OK,” he said. “It was a pretty good business, but it was tough and I learned what it takes to create jobs, what it means to have to make a payroll on Friday, what it means to have your life savings invested in a building and wondering whether anyone’s going to walk through that door and help you to pay your bills and recover any of that.”

Toomey said Congress might be better served if it had more business people in it, a sentiment shared by Lucien Calhoun, president of financial consulting firm Calhoun, Baker Inc., which he founded in 1989.

Toomey claimed President Barack Obama’s legislative agenda is already having a “chilling effect” on economic growth and job creation, referring to proposed cap-and-trade carbon emissions legislation, unprecedented deficits, the proposed Employee Free Choice Act and the recently passed health-care reform bill.

“It’s really hard to overstate the problem we have with spending, in my mind,” he said. “For 60 years, the federal government averaged spending of about 20 percent of (gross domestic product) with remarkably little variation, regardless of who was in control. In one year, this administration took that to 25 percent of GDP. That is a 25 percent increase in the size of government overnight.”

4) Politico: Specter haul dwarfed by Toomey

Politico reports on the Pat Toomey’s stellar fundraising during the 2010 first quarter.

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter was outraised by a more than two-to-one margin last quarter by his Republican challenger, former Rep. Pat Toomey. Specter reported Thursday that he’d brought in $1.1 million in the first three months of the year, compared with $2.3 million for Toomey.

The incumbent Democrat still maintains a considerable cash-on-hand advantage: he has $9.06 million in his account, while Toomey reported banking over $4 million. And Specter easily outdistanced his primary challenger, Rep. Joe Sestak, who only raised $442,000 for the quarter, banking $5.3 million.

Specter’s quarterly fundraising totals have gradually declined since he switched parties a year ago. He brought in $1.92 million in the third quarter of 2009 and $1.15 million in the fourth quarter, before posting his latest, $1.1 million take.

See Also: The Hill: GOP candidates outraising Dems

5) Politico: A tale of two Obamas: Up in D.C., down in U.S.

Politico reports on the disconnect between President Obama’s Washington Insider image and his image he tries to project to the American voter.

The cover of The Atlantic this month shows a shirt-sleeved President Barack Obama and the headline, “WHY HE’S RIGHT.” It reflects the Washington conventional wisdom that Obama is on a roll, bolstered by his long-delayed victory on health reform.

Someone should tell the rest of the country.

While Washington talks about Obama’s new mojo, polls show voters outside the Beltway are sulking — soured on the president, his party and his program. The Gallup Poll has Obama’s approval rating at an ominous 49 percent, after hitting a record low of 47 percent last weekend. A new poll in Pennsylvania, a bellwether industrial state, shows his numbers sinking, as did recent polls in Ohio and Florida.

So there are two Obamas: Rising in D.C., struggling in the U.S...

“Everyone in the pressure cooker in Washington got all excited like the millennium had arrived [when health care reform passed], but I don’t think most reasonable people read it that way,” Democratic Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen said. Bredesen said people are worried about the cost and “appalled at the process in the Congress that produced it.”…

In Pennsylvania, Obama’s personal approval rating is at 42 percent, compared to 49 percent who disapprove of his job performance, Susquehanna Polling and Research said this week. And a Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll earlier this month in Ohio showed Obama eking out a 46 percent to 45 percent approval-to-disapproval rating, with only 42 percent of independent voters approving of his job performance.

Recommended Reading:

Wall Street Journal: Showdown Looms on Finance Rules

PA GOP News Brief 4.15.2010

1) Erie Times: Pa. GOP visits Erie

2) Pittsburgh Tribune Review: Attorney General Corbett touts toughness in bid for governor

3) Wall Street Journal: Karl Rove: Why Republicans Are Winning on the Tax Issue

4) The Hill: Gregg: GOP locking down against financial reform bill

5) TPM: Poll: Public Split On Whether They Would Prefer Obama Or George W. Bush

1) Erie Times: Pa. GOP visits Erie

The Erie Times reports on the PA GOP’s PelosiCare Accountability Tour stop in the 3^rd Congressional District on Wednesday.

The Republican Party of Pennsylvania’s PelosiCare Accountability Tour rolled into the 3^rd Congressional District, where party officials and local leaders spoke out about Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper’s decision to support government-run health care.

“The fact that Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper has told her constituents that ‘there is nothing to be afraid of’ when it comes to government-run health care demonstrates how out-of-touch she is with the people of the 3^rd Congressional District,” PA GOP Spokesman Mike Barley said. “While Kathy Dahlkemper doesn’t mind standing side-by-side with liberal leaders like Nancy Pelosi, her support for a government-run health care plan that raises taxes, kills jobs and drives a government-sized wedge between patients and their doctors will have a devastating effect on the 3^rd Congressional District for years to come.

Today’s visit to the 3^rd Congressional District and Congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper marked the third stop in the PA GOP’s PelosiCare Accountability Tour in the 3^rd Congressional District.  Also attending today’s press conference were Erie County Republican Committee Chairman Verel Salmons, Republican Party of Pennsylvania Spokesman Mike Barley, Dr. Dennis Michalak, small business owner Donna Reese of General Exterminating, Derek Dye of Allegheny College and a group of local college students.

See Also: ABC WJET – Speaking Out Against Health Care Reform

2) Pittsburgh Tribune Review: Attorney General Corbett touts toughness in bid for governor

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review reports on Tom Corbett’s campaign to be our state’s next governor.

Tom Corbett fielded questions for 45 minutes about jobs, the economy, state spending, taxes, energy and health care reform as a Republican candidate for governor during a town hall meeting held by the Indiana-Armstrong Patriots group Wednesday afternoon at the Smith Complex.

Then the state’s attorney general took a few minutes to tell the 60 people attending why he was the best choice to be the next governor.

“Prosecutors are leaders and executives,” said Corbett. “We have to make the tough decisions. I’ve also been in the corporate sector and I understand how business works.

“People want somebody who’s going to deal with the budget crisis we have in the state,” he said. “They want somebody who is going to lead the way in reducing the budget and reducing the taxes that allow businesses to grow. I think it is very important to have that executive who is willing to do the tough job.”

Corbett told the group his motto is, “Do your job. Do what you promised.”

See Also: Attorney General Tom Corbett: Health Care Reform Law is unconstitutional

See Also: SP&R Poll: GOP: Corbett 50% Rohrer 7%, DEM: Onorato 32%, Hoeffel 13%, Wagner 6%, Williams 4%…

3) Wall Street Journal: Karl Rove: Why Republicans Are Winning on the Tax Issue

Karl Rove latest column in The Wall Street Journal highlights the Republican Party’s commitment to lower taxes and limited government.

Today’s last-minute trip to the post office to mail in your return is a reminder of one of life’s unpleasant realities: paying taxes. Always important in politics, the tax issue is likely to play a larger role this year than in any midterm election since 1994.

A recent Rasmussen survey reported that 66% of Americans believe the nation is over-taxed. There’s a reason. Under President Barack Obama taxes are going up—a lot.

House Ways and Means Committee Republicans have issued a summary of the 25 tax increases signed into law by Mr. Obama so far. They total $670 billion over the next 10 years, including 14 tax hikes (including an annual tax on every insurance policy and an annual tax on brand-name drugs) that break Mr. Obama’s solemn 2008 campaign pledge never to raise taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year.

Many of these taxes are part of the ObamaCare monstrosity. New levies on investment, drugs, medical devices and insurance policies eventually will hit ordinary Americans, and the public knows it. A late March Fox News poll asked, “If major health care reform legislation is passed, do you think your taxes will increase, decrease or stay about the same?” Seventy-five percent think their taxes will increase.

Tax concerns will hurt congressional Democrats. In rural areas, their opposition to repeal of the death tax antagonizes farmers and ranchers. Then there are America’s 32 million small-business owners, who feel put upon by the administration’s tax everyone-and-everything philosophy.

See Also: Wall Street Journal: Europe’s VAT Lessons

See Also: LAT: Deficit reduction through tax reform

See Also: CNN: Poll: Most Tax Dollars Wasted

4) The Hill: Gregg: GOP locking down against financial reform bill

The Hill reports on Republican strategy to stop the Democrats from passing wreckless financial reform legislation.

Senate Republicans are holding a caucus meeting late Wednesday afternoon on the Democratic banking reform bill, which one senior Republican said the party will unanimously oppose.

Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said senators are

being urged by GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) to oppose the bill.

“We want to be back at the negotiating table, and the way we get there is by making it clear that they’re not going to be able to pass it,” Gregg said. “We’re not going to let it off the floor unless they come back and negotiate with us.”

See Also: The Hill: Scott Brown blasts Democratic Wall Street reform bill

See Also: Wall Street Journal: GOP Fights to Unify Opposition to Bill

5) TPM: Poll: Public Split On Whether They Would Prefer Obama Or George W. Bush

Talking Points Memo discusses a recent poll showing that the nation is divided on who they would rather have in office, President Bush or President Obama.

In yet another sign of political polarization, a new national survey from Public Policy Polling (D) finds that Americans are almost evenly divided on whether they would want to stick with President Obama — or go back to George W. Bush.

The poll asked: “Would you rather have Barack Obama or George W. Bush as President right now?” The answer was Obama 48%, Bush 46%, within the ±3.9% margin of error. Consider what a close result this is, compared to Bush’s amazingly low ratings at the end of his administration.

“George W. Bush’s approval ratings were horrid his final few years in office because even a decent number of Republicans and conservative leaning independents were unhappy with him,” writes PPP president Dean Debnam. “Now those folks wish they could have him back over Obama.”

See Also: AP-GfK Poll: Obama slips, other Dems slide, too

See Also: Hill: Poll: 46% want Bush back

See Also: The Hill: Healthcare history lessons

Recommended Reading:

New York Times: Poll Finds Tea Party Backers Wealthier and More Educated

Politico: Another liberal judge? No thanks

Washington Times: Health care battle sinks Obama in polls

PA GOP News Brief .14.2010

1) Pittsburgh Post Gazette: Burns up 4 in polling last month

2) Rasmussen Polling: Virtual Tie: Specter v. Sestak 44-42. Toomey Gains: Toomey v. Specter 50-40

3) The Hill: Warning of higher taxes

4) New York Times: G.O.P. Takes Aim at Plans to Curb Finance Industry

5) Politico: Dems: Ignore GOP in court choice

1) Pittsburgh Post Gazette: Burns up 4 in polling last month

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reports on a recently released poll showing Tim Burns beating Mark Critz in the 12^th Congressional District Special Election.

We already knew there was going to be lots of national attention on the special election to fill Jack Murtha’s congressional seat, and that Democrats were starting to sweat a loss. Time to throw some more (bituminous) coal on the sauna — polling done last month in the 12th District showed Republican Tim Burns with a 4-point lead over Democrat Mark Critz, despite the 2:1 Democratic registration edge.

The results from the poll of 400 likely voters by GOP strategist Gene Ulm — given to us in memorandum form by a Republican source — are from a full month ago, but still point out some troubling things for John Murtha’s former district director. It was done more than two weeks before either candidate started advertising in the district, and pointed out the negativity over health care reform that the National Republican Congressional Committee has tried to exploit lately with its own ads.

A previous poll done around the same time had Critz up by 4 points. The pair is also running head-to-head in first quarter fundraising. According to the Pa Dept of State, the district is 62 percent registered Democrat; 29 percent Republican; and 9 percent other. (Any registered voter can cast a ballot in the special election.)

See Also: CQ: GOP Poll Shows Burns Up By Four in Murtha Special

See Also: Washington Post: National Republicans hammer on health care in PA-12

See Also: PA2010: Cap-and-trade battle rattles the 12th

2) Rasmussen Polling: Virtual Tie: Specter v. Sestak 44-42. Toomey Gains: Toomey v. Specter 50-40

Rasmussen reports that Sestak is now dead even with Specter. Toomey maintains his lead and is up 10 points against Specter.

…Support for Sestak has remained in the narrow range of 35% to 38% in surveys since last October. But he’s gained ground among likely Democratic Primary voters and now trails Specter by a negligible 44% to 42% in the race for the party’s Senate nomination. Democratic voters pick their nominee in a May 18 primary…

Republican hopeful Pat Toomey for the first time registers 50% support in his race against incumbent Democrat Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania’s contest for the U.S. Senate.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state shows Specter earning 40% of the vote, a level he’s held steady at since the first of the year. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided.

Toomey this month also makes his strongest showing to date against Specter’s Democratic Primary challenger, Congressman Joe Sestak. Toomey picks up 47% support to Sestak’s 36%. Given this match-up, five percent (5%) like another candidate, and 12% are undecided.

See Also: Washington Post: Can Sestak Win?

3) The Hill: Warning of higher taxes

After expanding entitlement programs via government-run health care, the Obama Administration warns that the budget deficit will have to be countered by… higher taxes. The Hill reports:

Higher taxes must be considered to rein in the country’s mounting debt, a member of President Barack Obama’s fiscal reform commission told The Hill on Monday.

Alice Rivlin, who headed the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget, said that the highest priority is to reduce healthcare spending but that reforms to entitlement programs and higher taxes should also be considered.

A day after Volcker spoke, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Americans could only avoid unsustainable budget deficits by choosing from “higher taxes, modifications to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare, less spending on everything else from education to defense, or some combination of the above.”

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) last month also floated higher taxes as part of the mix. He said a “balanced approach” of spending cuts — including fewer entitlement benefits for the rich — and new revenues should be considered.

Domenici described the battle to rein in the debt as a war.

“It’s like we are having a war on our doorstep that is gigantic, and somebody has to lead this parade pretty soon,” said Domenici.

See Also: Wall Street Journal: Spreading the Wealth Isn’t Fair

4) New York Times: G.O.P. Takes Aim at Plans to Curb Finance Industry

The New York Times reports on the Republican objections to the Democrats Wall Street legislation.

WASHINGTON — Drawing the lines for a fierce election-year battle over regulating the nation’s financial system, Senate Republicans on Tuesday insisted that legislation proposed by Democrats and the White House would only encourage future taxpayer bailouts of big banks.

The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, criticized the Democrats’ plans to regulate Wall Street as arrogant and partisan, echoing the recent health care fight in which he accused Democrats of carrying out a government takeover.

“We cannot allow endless taxpayer-funded bailouts,” Mr. McConnell said in a floor speech. “That’s why we must not pass the financial reform bill that’s about to hit the floor. The fact is this bill wouldn’t solve the problems that led to the financial crisis. It would make them worse.”

See Also: AP: GOP spells out objections to financial regulations

See Also: Politico: Lincoln Wall Street bill tacks left

5) Politico: Dems: Ignore GOP in court choice

Politico reports on the upcoming nomination test for SCOTUS after Supreme Court Justice Stevens retires.

Democratic senators are urging President Barack Obama to abandon any hope of winning broad Republican support for his upcoming Supreme Court pick — and to nominate, instead, a dominant liberal voice who will counteract the current conservative majority.

…But National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn of Texas warned that going that route could backfire on Democrats at the polls.

“Folks that vote Republican and independents that lean Republican — they understand this debate and the importance of nominating and confirming judges who are impartial ideologically,” said Cornyn, who also serves on the Judiciary Committee. “I think there’s one way the president can guarantee a big fight … nominate an ideologue.”

Of course, a strong liberal nominee could alienate some moderate Democrats as well. Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, the conservative Democrat who has seen his poll numbers tank amid the health care debate, said he doesn’t foresee joining a GOP filibuster if Obama nominates a liberal judge, but he also said it’s “premature” to rule out that possibility.

Nelson said “of course” he’s concerned about liberals pushing for a liberal nominee, just as conservatives pushed for conservative justices.

“I want to see someone who doesn’t bring an ideology to the bench,” Nelson said.

Recommended Reading:

Wall Street Journal: Crony Contracts

PA GOP News Brief 4.13.2010

1) Patriot News: Attorney general has right to sue over insurance law

2) The Daily Item: Toomey pushes for job creation, strong economy

3) NYT: Baffled by Health Plan? So Are Some Lawmakers

4) Roll Call: McConnell Says GOP to Get Tough on Deficit Spending

5) Politico: GOP looks toward 2010 in court fight

1) Patriot News: Attorney general has right to sue over insurance law

State Rep. Doug Reichley penned an op-ed for The Patriot News on the obligation of Attorney General Tom Corbett to challenge the health care legislation.

For the last few weeks, Attorney General Tom Corbett has been under fire for his decision to challenge the constitutionality of the federal health care law. Interestingly, supporters of the law who are the most vocal against Corbett’s challenge are not claiming the lawsuit is frivolous. They simply don’t seem to understand how anyone could question the majority party’s “mandate” to pass the bill.

Instead of watching the law’s supporters act flabbergasted because numerous bipartisan attorneys general across the nation are challenging the law, we should be asking: Why shouldn’t Pennsylvania’s chief law enforcement official rely on sound legal analysis to challenge the most far-reaching legislation enacted in the past 40 years?

The outcry against Corbett’s decision reveals a disconcerting unwillingness by liberals to subject the health care act to the same constitutional scrutiny that other policies have endured. For many years, our courts have been the forum in which liberals have challenged many statutes, executive branch policies and judicial precedents. Now that one of the liberal holy grails — health insurance reform — is being challenged, why all this moralistic hand-wringing from left-leaning editorialists and politicians?

Instead of huffing and puffing about the supposed unfairness of the federal lawsuit, supporters of the health care law need only to read the two cases the attorney general cites as the legal grounds for intervention in the lawsuit.

See Also: Roll Call: Health Care Takes Lead Role in GOP Strategy

See Also: Rasmussen: Support for Repeal of Health Care Plan Up To 58%

2) The Daily Item: Toomey pushes for job creation, strong economy

The Sunbury Daily Item reports on a recent visit from Pat Toomey and his ideas to put America back on track.

Supporting and encouraging small businesses is what U.S. Senate candidate Pat Toomey said needs to be done to create jobs in today’s economy.

“A strong, growing economy is great for all communities if we get back economic growth and job creation,” he said Monday during a meet-and-greet in Sunbury.

The Republican is vying for the Senate seat held by Arlen Specter, a Democrat.

In addition to Sunbury, he stopped at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove and in Danville before heading up to Williamsport.

About 25 people came out to the brief meeting in the city’s Edison Hotel, where Toomey gave an introduction, highlighting his main campaign focuses — including jobs, the economy and health care — before holding a question-and-answer session.

“I recognize the only sustainable jobs are private sector,” he told the group. “We need to help launch entrepreneurs.”

See Also: Williamsport Sun Gazette: Toomey Brings Campaign to City

3) NYT: Baffled by Health Plan? So Are Some Lawmakers

WASHINGTON — It is often said that the new health care law will affect almost every American in some way. And, perhaps fittingly if unintentionally, no one may be more affected than members of Congress themselves.

In a new report, the Congressional Research Service says the law may have significant unintended consequences for the “personal health insurance coverage” of senators, representatives and their staff members.

For example, it says, the law may “remove members of Congress and Congressional staff” from their current coverage, in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, before any alternatives are available.

The confusion raises the inevitable question: If they did not know exactly what they were doing to themselves, did lawmakers who wrote and passed the bill fully grasp the details of how it would influence the lives of other Americans?

The law promises that people can keep coverage they like, largely unchanged. For members of Congress and their aides, the federal employees health program offers much to like. But, the report says, the men and women who wrote the law may find that the guarantee of stability does not apply to them.

See Also: The Hill: Healthcare law socks middle class with a $3.9 billion tax increase

4) Roll Call: McConnell Says GOP to Get Tough on Deficit Spending

Roll Call reports on the comments from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell regarding GOP focus in Washington over the next few weeks.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday that Republicans will focus on deficit spending over the course of the next several weeks as Democrats prepare to take on Wall Street and push their jobs agenda.

“Americans worry that we’re on the cusp or maybe even past the cusp of a debt crisis,” McConnell said on the floor after the two-week spring recess. “We must get a handle on the deficit and the debt. This is the issue that will focus our attention in the weeks and months ahead.”

McConnell’s comments came just hours before Senators were scheduled to cast a procedural vote to extend unemployment insurance benefits. Republicans blocked the extension before the recess in part because the measure wasn’t paid for. According to McConnell’s floor remarks Monday, that message will continue during the seven-week work period leading up to Memorial Day.

“And over the coming weeks, I assure you, Republicans will continue to give our colleagues across the aisle and our president the opportunity to live up to the president’s commitment on Feb. 13: ‘Now, Congress will have to pay for what it spends, just like everybody else.’” McConnell said. “Americans will not tolerate another crisis of Washington’s making.”

See Also: Washington Times: Hill Republicans vow to fight for cuts

5) Politico: GOP looks toward 2010 in court fight

Politico reports on the upcoming SCOTUS nomination battle after the announced retirement of Justice Stevens.

Republicans are enthusiastic about the prospect of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens’s departure, not because it signals an end to his liberal jurisprudence but rather for its rich political value.

Many in the party expect the nomination battle to succeed him will be a major asset to GOP House and Senate candidates, serendipitously timed to coincide with the homestretch of the midterm election campaign.

In their view, Supreme Court confirmation hearings will serve to stoke an already fired-up GOP base, particularly if President Barack Obama nominates a liberal jurist, and could potentially put Democratic candidates in conservative-minded states on the defensive.

“The GOP and conservative base has one more reason to stay excited, interested and activated. This is now reaching a perfect-storm level of conservative and GOP activation enthusiasm,” said Republican media consultant Rick Wilson. “For liberals, this is a no-win.”

Recommended Reading:

Talking Points Memo:  GOP Ad Goes After Health Care Bill In PA-12 Special Election

Hill: Gallup: GOP leads by four in generic congressional ballot

PA GOP News Brief 4.8.2010

1) CNN: Republicans have advantage in Pennsylvania

2) Hill: White House adviser suggests raising taxes, possibly adding a value-added tax

3) Big Government: GOP Will Win House and Senate

4) Washington Times’ Water Cooler: Steele: Republicans and the tea party movement

5) Politico: RNC keeps eyes on the prize

1) CNN: Republicans have advantage in Pennsylvania

CNN reports on the latest polling number showing U.S. Senate candidate Pat Toomey and PA Gubernatorial Tom Corbett in the lead.

Republicans have the advantage in this year’s battle for Pennsylvania governor and for one of the state’s U.S. Senate seats, according to a new poll.

A Quinnipiac University survey of Pennsylvania voters released Thursday indicates that the leading GOP candidate, Attorney General Tom Corbett, remains ahead of each of the three top Democratic contenders by double digits in hypothetical general election matchups. The incumbent governor, Democrat Ed Rendell, is term limited and prevented from running for re-election this year.

According to the poll, in the Senate campaign Republican challenger Pat Toomey leads Sen. Arlen Specter 46 percent to 41 percent, with 12 percent undecided. The advantage for Toomey is just inside the poll’s sampling error. Toomey trailed Specter in a Quinnipiac poll released a month ago. The two men have exchanged small leads since last autumn.

Toomey is a former congressman and former head of the Club for Growth, a limited-government and anti-tax organization. Specter, a five-term senator, switched parties from Republican to Democrat last spring. At the time of the party flip, he cited the difficulty in winning the Republican primary against Toomey as a factor.

See Also: The Hill: Toomey pulls ahead of Specter in new poll

See Also: Politico: Specter’s slip of the tongue

See Also: CQ Politics: Pennsylvania Gov. Field Still Under the Radar

2) Hill: White House adviser suggests raising taxes, possibly adding a value-added tax

The Hill reports on the White House’s statements that rasing taxes on the middle class will be needed to fight the deficit and out of control spending…

A top White House adviser on economics is suggesting a new tax might be needed to address rising deficits.

White House adviser Paul Volcker said taxes should be raised to help control deficits and the United States may need to consider a European-style value-added tax, according to a Reuters report.

The former chairman of the Federal Reserve said the value-added tax, “was not as toxic an idea” has it has been in the past, he told a group at a New York Historical Society event Tuesday night. Volcker also suggested that a carbon or energy-related tax may become necessary to bring the budget back into check.

Volcker acknowledged that the ideas weren’t popular but that the outlook on entitlement spending and budget deficits were grim without some changes.

“If at the end of the day we need to raise taxes, we should raise taxes,” he said.

Republicans went on the attack against the possible tax quickly on Wednesday, with the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) releasing a litany of instances in which President Barack Obama has pledged not to raise taxes on the middle class.

See Also: WSJ: Volcker on the VAT

See Also: LA Times: Tax burden mounting for high earners

3) Big Government: GOP Will Win House and Senate

Big Government comments on the possibility of the GOP winning the House and Senate in 2010.

…Each time the Republican activists battle, they become stronger. Their cyber and grass roots grow deeper. The negatives that attach to so-called “moderate” Democratic incumbents increase. And each time Obama, Reid and Pelosi defy public opinion and use their majorities to ram through unpopular legislation, frustration and anger rise.

Were Obama’s ambitions to slacken, perhaps a cooling-off might eventuate. But soon the socialist financial takeover bill will come on the agenda, followed by amnesty for illegal immigrants, cap-and-trade and card-check unionization. Each bill will trigger its own mobilization of public opposition and add to the swelling coalition of opposition to Obama and his radical agenda.

And, all the while, the deficit will increase, interest rates will rise and unemployment will remain high.

..

Finally, Obama is now responsible for healthcare in America. When premiums rise, it will be his fault. When coverage is denied, it will be on his watch.

When Medicare cuts kick in, it will be Obama who gets the blame.

Carville’s last book touted “40 more years of Democrats.” Now he dreams of a loss of “only” 25 seats in the House and “six or seven” senators. But these are pipe dreams. Republicans will gain more than 50 House seats and at least 10 in the Senate, enough to take control in both chambers. That’s reality.

See Also: WSJ: Karl Rove: Obama Has Overpromised and Underdelivered

4) Washington Times’ Water Cooler: Steele: Republicans and the tea party movement

The Washington Times has the latest from RNC Chairman Michael Steele regarding the Tea Party movement.

Tea Partiers and other Americans – of all political stripes – are tired of the failed logic that government-knows-best.  They’re tired of being taxed too much for a government that spends too much, delivers too little, and charges the bill on the backs of our children and grandchildren. They’re sick of political leaders in Washington ignoring their will on issues like health care, at the expense of problems that are hitting them the hardest at home: jobs and a sluggish economy.  And, perhaps most of all, they’re sick of those in power attempting to dismiss and ascribe nefarious motives to their legitimate and democratic opposition to the Obama-Pelosi-Reid leftist agenda.

These activists adhere to the Founding Fathers’ vision of a limited government that preserves individual liberty and promotes economic prosperity, then gets out of their way.  They believe in the power of America’s entrepreneurial spirit, a competitive free market, and local communities working together of their own free will to solve our country’s problems.  They know that America can remain that shining city on a hill, the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world, and believe that our best days are ahead of us.

Today, America is better off for having the Tea Party protesters fight for these American values and help us get back to our roots. My friends, the Republican Party shares these same principles and stands ready and willing to partner with the growing number of concerned citizens involved in the Tea Party movement and others.  Together, we have the power to take back our country from Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid in the 2010 mid-term elections, then from President Obama in 2012.

5) Politico: RNC keeps eyes on the prize

Politico reports on role that the RNC plays in elections nationwide.

As chairman of the California Republican Party and chairman of the RNC’s State Chairmen’s Committee, I believe I’m in a good position to weigh in on the impact the RNC is having out in the field.

So let’s talk about the facts on the ground.

The Republican base is energized today, and candidate recruitment bolstered, in large part because of the stunning Republican victories in Virginia and New Jersey. Two Democratic governors had to turn the office keys over to Republican successors.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell both acknowledged that they would not have won without the $13 million the RNC pumped into their races. This was in addition to the logistical and other support.

What the RNC does is unique in U.S. politics. It builds infrastructure that enables efficient use of volunteers to contact voters, identify supporters and get out the vote.

In 2009, during the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, there were almost three times as many contacts with voters than during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Any good candidate will tell you, these volunteer voter contacts are essential to victory. The many volunteers whose contacts swayed undecided voters, and ensured that supporters of Republican candidates actually voted, were using RNC equipment, in offices paid for by the RNC. They were checking data from voter files enhanced by the RNC, and were coordinated by professional RNC staffers.