I am glad that the vast overhaul of the Health care system has been slowed to a crawl. Sadly it does keep moving forward but has gotten bogged down in procedure and language that have a chance of killing it off. The last thing this country needs is another giant welfare program that is funded by higher taxes, bigger government and a vast expansion in spending. Many thousands of hours have gone into debates from Washington to Main Street. Imagine if Congress and the government devoted the same time and energy wasted on Health care to actually solving the deficit spending and massive borrowing. They didn't though.

Spending continues on both sides of the isle at breakneck speed. Just this week, there was a request to increase Education spending by $1 billion, $500 million for 'emergency' agriculture spending, $10 billion to extend jobless benefits (plus a pile of pork projects and 'critical' infrastructure needs), An unspecified amount for relief in Haiti and Chile. All of those items sailed through both houses of congress with broad support and very little opposition. Problem is, we have no money to be spending. Fully 34% of the 2010 budget is deficit (borrowed) spending. As if that isn't bad enough, now we have added more to it. Within a few weeks, congress will work through a $70 billion 'jobs' bill. It contains all the same kind of spending as the year old stimulus package but it looks nearly certain to pass. Never mind that 45% of the original monies for the stimulus have not yet been spent. Never mind that banks and Insurance companies have paid billions back to "the fed" and all that money is just sitting there (not being repaid to the treasury). Never mind that we are over $14 trillion in debt (a bit over $45,000 for every man woman and child in the United States). The average family of four now owes over $180,000 in debt that the government has spent on their behalf. The interest payments alone this year are around $100 billion!!

We HAVE to stop. This means broad cuts in Social Security, government pensions, Medicare, Medicaid, Education, NASA, foreign aid, the military and everywhere else money is spent. I realize that many individuals paid into the 'system' for many years and now they are dependent on it. That hurts - hurts bad. That is definitely not fair. But we as a nation just have to face the fact that we have all been lied to. The system was poorly designed and not sustainable. For many year's we have been warned that the system is out of balance and approaching failure. We just cannot afford to make those payments anymore. Not without massive new taxes. We are already one of the most taxed (per capita) nations on the planet. A nearly 50% increase in federal taxes is just not the answer.

I am sure my statements above are already making some of you squirm. I know because the thought of it makes me squirm. The collective groan of the beneficiaries of many programs will be loud and painful across the board. Still, its got to be done. We are broke.

I really don't know how many folks read this but I'm going to plead that anybody reading this takes a few minutes to call or email Ben Nelson and strongly urge him to represent the feelings of Nebraskans and vote "NO" on cloture for the Health Care Reform Bill. This seems to be the most likely way to slow the bill down or stop it altogether. There is no need to hurry this thing to passage. Urge Senator Nelson to force the Senate to take a deep breath and include more public comment before snowballing this over the American people just to meet an arbitrary deadline. So please call AND email - keep the pressure up and pray that he does the right thing. Please - even if you have never done such a thing before. http://bennelson.senate.gov/contact-me.cfm

Well it is December now and the National Health care debate is still in full swing. Democrats have sent off a 2,100 page bill off for analysis without showing it to anybody but promising that it holds a compromise solution to everything. We already know it is significantly different then the House version passed a few months ago. The same promise of cutting $500 billion in wasteful Medicare fraud is still there. Only now, we are going to expand Medicare for more people while cutting the funding to it. Makes real good sense - doesn't it?? I have no doubt whatsoever that the goal is to craft a highly watered down bill to sucker in a few Republican Senators and all the Liberal moderates. Then, during the reconciliation process, a small group of lawmakers will toss in all the bad (highly liberal left wing) parts and throw out all the lightweight vague promises to moderates and Republicans. I hope not but that seems to be the way of this congress.

Worse yet is the forthcoming EPA "administration" of carbon emissions. If you haven't already heard, the president is disappointed in congress for not taking swift action on CO2 reductions. So he ordered the EPA to craft some rules to regulate CO2 under the thin guise of a public health emergency. I expect our heating bills, electric bills and gasoline to double over the next 2 years if this ill crafted plan takes shape. It is simply unrealistic to meet the goals outlined by the fringe groups promoting this junk science. The only real goal here is to fill government coffers with all the new fines and taxes for falling short. Much of those monies will then be distributed around the world to "apologize" for American use of CO2 and our wealth and prosperity. At every chance on the international stage, Obama has already apologized for every action America has ever taken. The crippling effects of this on our economy will be staggering.

Not to worry though - Obama has plans to "spend us out of this recession". Over the past few months a few banks have repaid the TARP loans and others sold off loans and assets to the Federal Reserve to raise cash for repayments. Obama plans to try and spend those monies on more inane government projects and give-aways to help create all the jobs that never materialized from the original Stimulus monies. However, loan repayment that were filtered through banks via the Reserve is  just pulling money out of the left pocket and putting it in the right.  Actually it is more like copying off all the bills in your left pocket and then putting the copies in your right pocket and saying you have more money to spend. Smoke and mirrors. At the same time, he has the unmitigated gall to blame the deficit spending on the Bush administration AND he calls for fiscal restraint. No seriously - all in the same speech!!

Scary times my friends - scary times indeed.

Keep up the pressure on your local congressmen and senators to start overturing these outrageous new programs. Even if it seems they are not listening. Keep up the pressure. Emails, letters, showing up at their offices, phone calls. Marches in Washington. Use any and all legal means to get the message across.

Here we go again, more federal dollars on the way. Seems to be no end to the money flowing out of Washington DC for little Bridgeport's water system. The 52% of us that pay any federal income tax are again paying for an aspect of the needed water system. Nevermind that Bridgeport had artificially low water rates for decades and that the city failed at performing even basic maintenance on the existing system. No accountability, no consequnces - just more money to fix things up. Way too much dependancy on the federal government to take care of a local issue. Not much more to say on this one - here is the article: http://www.kneb.com/news/index/36ab64f3-30df-4898-92c3-d6133322005b.

The house of Representatives recently passed legislation aimed at stopping global warming. Also known as the Cap and Trade bill (http://www.rules.house.gov/110/text/110_hr6899text.pdf) - this legislation is an absurd attempt to regulate the types of energy Americans will be allowed to use. Among the many provisions, are sections aimed at reducing CO2 emissions back to levels not seen since the 1950's. Also, virtually all commercial enterprise that emits any CO2, will be taxed for those emissions. Of course companies generally pass the price of new taxes onto consumers. A system of "carbon credits" will be setup so that companies that sequester CO2 or reduce output will have surplus credit that can then be sold to other companies. Markets will be built to trade these credits like stocks or bonds. Several groups estimate the effects of this bill to be the largest tax increase in World history. Of course the politicians will tell you that they are trying to save us from the effects of "climate change".

Of course here is where the problem starts. In order to support such a Cap and Trade system, you must believe in Global Warming and then attribute nearly 100% of that warming to human activities involving CO2. You must also believe that global warming will have only negative effects on our way of life. To get to that point, you must believe that - the climate does not change on its own and that most CO2 in the atmosphere is emitted by human activity. I'll debunk all of that. Lets throw a few facts on the table.

• CO2 comprises roughly 4% of the atmosphere and even the most dire alarmist will tell you that no more than 1% of the total CO2 is human caused. (volcanic activity emits CO2, animals emit CO2, decay emits CO2, Oceans emit CO2, Natural fires emit CO2, etc). So we are talking about regulating .01% of the total atmosphere here. Keep that in mind. It is estimated that the US emits about 18% of the worldwide CO2 and the Bill will cut that by 70% - so much smaller even.
• The climate does change on its own without human influences. The late 1880's saw worldwide temperatures rise by several degrees for a number of years. The 1950's and early 70's saw a multi year drop in temperatures (some climatologists in the 70's warned we were entering a new ice age). The medieval world saw a mini ice age followed by a global warming period that allowed Vikings to farm Greenland and Cities to flourish in Europe - started the industrial revolution. We know great ice sheets once covered most of North America. It seems clear that the climate does shift up and down frequently - all by itself.
• Recent NASA measurements of the sun reveal that the total energy output of the sun does fluctuate by a few percentage points. Multi year observations saw both visible light and heat vary over time by small amounts.  The medieval cool period mentioned previously was during a period of very few sunspots - indicating the sun played some role in the phenomenon. Clearly - changes on the sun influence the climate on Earth.
• While CO2 emissions worldwide have grown significantly over the past 8 years, the average temperature has actually cooled by almost 1 degree Celsius since 2002. Proof that CO2 alone cannot be responsible for any observed warming trends. This simple fact has led to the new buzz word - "Climate Change". Hard to call it global warming when it has cooled a bit.
• Not all climatologists agree with human caused global warming. Almost 35% of climatologist actually disagree and have worked up a number of alternative theories. Among them is Dr Gray at CSU - noted for his annual Hurricane predictions. Many scientists disagreed with the United Nations report on climate but were not allowed to express any opinions in the final report due to political pressure.
• Studies carried out in the late 1980's in Colorado and Nevada actually showed benefits from having a greater concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. Plants grew larger and faster, rainfall increased, cops became easier to grow in certain soils. CO2 is not necessarily a bad thing.

Look, I don't advocate pollution. I'd actually like to see much less pollution - I'm sure the vast majority of Americans agree. But we cannot put a stranglehold on our economy based on fabricated fears of Global warming. There has got to be some rationale and some positive economic effects before we take sweeping action. The Bill passed by the house will force massive price increases onto the American public and change our way of life forever. Gasoline engines in our cars and coal in our power plants might go away. That will lead us to use far more expensive forms of energy to keep up our lifestyles.

Keep in mind who "owns" and controls the major auto makers these days. Changes will be forced on us from many directions here. We have all got to speak out strongly against this legislation. Once the Cap and Trade system is in place - it will be very difficult to remove it. China and many other developing nations will not be joining us in this crusade to reduce CO2. Its just our own congress racing us towards this economic suicide. All on the belief that it might have a small effect on our atmosphere and the temperature.

This seems like it is a very easy concept to grasp. You wouldn't think that we should have to try and convince anybody of the facts. Yet, congress just keeps spending. So here it is in as simple a format as I can: if you spend more than you take in and then borrow for 25+ years and keep spending more then you are broke. Now you have some choices to make. First you could increase the income via new and/or much higher taxes or two - you could decrease spending. Of course the third choice is some combination of choices 1 and 2. What has congress consistently voted for?? Choice xx - spend more, borrow more, increase taxes, increase welfare. Makes no sense at all.

This week alone, I am told congress wants to pay us up to $4500 for our old cars that get less than a combined 18mpg. Sounds like another auto industry bailout to me. Also, I am seeing real estate ads pushing the $8,000 available for first time home buyers. Nevermind all of us that already own a house and have payed our mortgages on time each and every month - we now get to subsidize other people's houses. I see a few hundred million was approved for some overseas vaccination program from congress. Apparently the 2 year plan for the stimulus funds isn't "fast" enough so now the administration is going to spend all the money yet this year. Tax credits for wind farms have been extended - again. New tax brackets have removed even more Americans off the income tax rolls. Government sponsored ads taut the earned income credit as being some kind of "refund" instead of the the clear redistribution that it is. You would think the coffers were just overflowing in Washington. In the middle of this, the new administration actually had the gall to make some sentimental statements about a "pay as you go" rule that would force the government to shuffle funds from one program to another.

The solution is clear, we have to cut spending. Dramatically. That means each and every one of us will have to see cuts to our favorite "pet" projects. Education, social security, defense, road projects, tunnels all need to see cuts. But before we cut those, lets cut bailout monies, wasteful spending, unnecessary projects, foreign funding and the like out completely. In addition, though it pains me to say so, we need to raise more tax revenue to start paying off this national debt. Start by making certain all working Americans are contributing some small amount to the system. It is time to change. There is no time to waste.