January 11, 2012
Patron saint of the Left slams recess appointments
Oh, dear! Another inconvenient truth for Obama and his fellow travelers: Recess appointments after TEN DAYS violate the Constitution -- at least when it's a Republican president doing the appointing. Good thing Obama's a Donk; the Constitution is less of a problem for them when they're in charge.
The Daily Caller reports:
A newly resurfaced court briefing filed by the late Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy in 2004 shows he would have opposed the logic President Barack Obama used to make four recess appointments last week.
In the amicus briefing, Kennedy argued that President George W. Bush’s recess appointment of Judge William Pryor to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals was unconstitutional. Kennedy thought the appointment was unconstitutional because the Senate was not officially on a recess. The Senate had been adjourned for 10 days before Bush exercised his recess appointment power.
“President Bush announced Judge Pryor’s recess appointment on the afternoon of Friday, February 20, 2004, the last business day before the Congress returned from its ten-day adjournment,” Kennedy wrote. “As discussed in the argument below, that brief adjournment is by far the shortest intra-session ‘recess’ during which a president has ever invoked the Recess Appointments Clause to appoint an Article III judge.”
When Obama appointed Richard Cordray to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and three new members to the National Labor Relations Board, though, he waited just one day after the Senate adjourned to make the appointments. Obama’s own lawyers believe he’s supposed to wait for at least three full days after the Senate adjourns to make “recess” appointments.
That means that not only did Obama break his own administration’s legal argument about how and when to make recess appointments, but Obama broke guidelines and legal arguments Kennedy outlined less than 10 years prior.
The Constitution is a marvelous, carefully crafted instrument designed to ensure that the presidency does not devolve a
Posted by Mike Lief at 06:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 05, 2012
Jerry Brown in charge: California is doomed
Want proof that Gov. Jerry Brown is insane? That California's doomed? That Sacramento is filled with nothing but tax-and-spend lunatics? Check out his plans for California's buggered-beyond-belief taxpayers. Bloomberg reports:
Brown proposed $92.6 billion in spending for the year starting in July, an increase of about 7 percent, which will count on voters approving $7 billion of higher taxes in November.
The spending plan foresees a deficit of $9.2 billion through the next 18 months. Almost half of that is in the current fiscal year, he said. He called for $4.2 billion in cuts, mostly to welfare and programs for the poor. If the tax increase isn’t passed, Brown’s plan would cut another $4.8 billion in support for public schools and community colleges.
“The state of California is a very generous, compassionate political jurisdiction,” Brown said. “When we have to cut spending, that spending is going to come from programs that are doing a lot of good. It’s not nice. We don’t like it. But the economy and tax statutes of California make just so much money available.”
Brown, a 73-year-old Democrat, wants to raise income taxes on individuals making at least $250,000 a year to 10.3 percent from 9.3 percent, and would boost sales levies to 7.75 percent from 7.25 percent.
Yes, you heard that right, folks. Californians don't pay enough taxes.
Income tax?
Too damn low!
Sales tax?
Dammit! Too damn low!
Cut spending?
Only if you force us to, you selfish bastards -- and we'll target children, puppies and baby seals, first!
Honestly, it's as if Brown and his fellow travelers haven't the slightest clue how to encourage economic growth.
What does the financial world think about Gov. Moonbeam's fiscal sanity?
California is Standard & Poor’s lowest-rated state, at A-, six levels below AAA.
Moody’s Investment Service grades it A1, four steps below the top rating, tied with Illinois for the worst credit rating among states.
And my friends wonder why I tell them that there's no hope for this state. We are well and truly doomed.
Posted by Mike Lief at 07:21 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack