There Are No Conservatives in the Race, So Stop Looking

By On · 2 Comments · In Opinion

Unknown Artist

The GOP presidential primary gets more ridiculous with each passing day. From N-word rock to Gloria Allred and now moon colonies, we’ve made sure to focus on issues that matter.  Don’t get me wrong, I think it’d be awesome to visit the moon, but with soaring unemployment, unsustainable debt, an increasingly fragile Middle East, and threat of Obamacare, whether or not we can put a Starbucks on the moon is not something I’m terribly concerned about, at least not today.

Even more outlandish than lunar living are the “True Conservative” purity tests.  Regardless of a candidate’s successes, cries from “True Conservatives” bemoan them as “not conservative enough.”   Such whining also suggests that there is a candidate in the race who is the shining star of conservative principles and values.  I hate to break it to you, but allow me to let you in on a little secret: there are no conservatives in the race. That’s right, you heard me, no conservatives, not one.

The current GOP field has three regular ol’ Republicans and a feisty little Libertarian. Breath a sigh of relief, there’s no need to scour their records to discern who is most Conservative. You can stop yelling at everyone who disagrees with you that their preferred candidate isn’t really a “truuuuuuuueeeee Conservative.”  Because you know what? You’re right. While it’s true each GOP candidate has engaged in conservative behavior from time to time, they are by every measure, simply Republican.   Whether it’s refusal to recognize this obvious fact, or a frantic desire to find Reagan incarnate, I’m not sure, but the sooner the base understands this, the easier life will be and the quicker we can all be friends again.

Blame “the establishment,” blame the media – it makes no difference because like it or not, we have four choices. In the Final Four we have three Republicans and Grand Pappy Libertarian. We have Romney, perhaps one of the most quintessential Republicans in existence (good hair and all) and yes, Romneycare, we heard you the first billion times you screamed it. We have Santorum, social Conservative, but Big Government Republican, supporter of Arlen Specter and believer in a restricted internet. And then there’s Newt, oh Newt. True, he led the GOP revolution in the 90′s and balanced the budget, yada yada yada, but he also supports the individual mandate and believes in global warming, or climate change, or whatever we’re calling it these days.  And he’s definitely not a social conservative (unless we’ve redefined that to include up to four marriages and/or affairs). And if you’re still dissatisfied with these choices, there’s always Ron Paul.

So there you have it. You can pack away your conservative measuring stick and save it for 2016 when we will again, eviscerate any actual conservative for forgetting a talking point or something equally as asinine, but claim the man willing to spend a bazillion tax payer dollars to put a McDonald’s on Mars is the hope of all conservadom.

Ryan Statement on President’s State of the Union Address

By On · Leave a Comment · In National Politics

Rep. Paul Ryan

Washington – Following President Obama’s State of the Union address, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin issued the following statement:

“In tonight’s speech, President Obama missed an opportunity to lead.  Instead of putting forward bold solutions to tackle our most pressing challenges, the President offered more empty promises and recycled the same failed policies.  Instead of charting a new course for renewed opportunity, the President recommitted to the path to debt, doubt and decline.  Instead of working together to find common ground, the President continues to exploit the real anxieties of hard-working families by dividing Americans for political gain.  Pitting Americans against each other makes us weaker, not stronger.

“The President stated his desire to ‘fight obstruction with action,’ yet his own party’s leaders in the U.S. Senate have failed to even propose a budget despite our looming fiscal crisis.  In fact, today marks 1,000 days without a budget from Senate Democrats – a legal and moral failure by elected leaders.  The economic and fiscal challenges before us require credible budget plans, and the President and his party’s leaders refuse to account for their reckless spending spree.  The speech offered little more than a laundry list of proposals to spend money we don’t have without any serious solutions to dig us out of the hole we’re in.  I invite the President and his party’s leaders to join our efforts to advance bipartisan solutions and principled reforms.  I’m proud to work across the aisle on reforms that save and strengthen Medicare and repair the broken budget process.  It is disappointing that the President continues to isolate himself from these efforts with false partisan attacks.

“The President rightly highlighted the need for a ‘renewal of American values.’  Yet the results of his failed policies and divisive rhetoric do just the opposite.  Centralizing more power in Washington is antithetical to the American Idea, which promotes economic freedom and upward mobility for each and every citizen.  It is critical we work together to advance a reform agenda that applies our timeless principles to the challenges of today.”

For more:

  • Chairman Ryan’s remarks on the House floor on today marking the 1000th day without a budget from Senate Democrats;
  • Chairman Ryan’s statement on the President’s missed budget deadlines;
  • Bipartisan options to save and strengthen Medicare;
  • Bipartisan efforts to repair the broken budget process.

Obama’s New Web Ad Highlights Jobs Record

By On · Leave a Comment · In 2012 Presidential Race

For quite some time conservatives have made the assumption that Obama will absolutely not be able to run on his record. Naturally this makes sense given how poor his record actually is, but Team Obama did not get the memo. In fact, this ad has to be seen to be believed,

This is surely one of the most disingenuous ads of this election cycle. To pretend this president has an excellent record on jobs is so patently absurd, only the Democrats could produce something like this with no shame.

Have no fear, ABC News fact-checked this and found the ad to be… true. No question most readers will find that shocking.

The U.S. economy added 200,000 private sector jobs in December, the Labor Department reported today, better than the 150,000 economists expected. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate ticked down to 8.5 percent – the lowest level since March 2009.

All told, the economy added 1.6 million jobs in 2011 after adding 940,000 in 2010, the Department said.

“More private-sector jobs were created in 2011 than any year since 2005,” Obama said today, taking credit for the gains. “After losing more than 8 million jobs in the recession, obviously we have a lot more work to do.  But it is important for the American people to recognize that we’ve now added 3.2 million new private sector jobs over the last 22 months.

These numbers actually have meaning when they are placed into context. This is called “fact-checking the lying MSM fact-checkers.”

The U.S. economy added 200,000 private sector jobs in December. Yes, this is quite common during the Christmas season. Many businesses hire temporary employees to get through their busiest time of the year. The bad news is many of those people will be laid off after the holidays. Status: debunked

The unemployment rate ticked down to 8.5 percent. The reason behind the down tick in unemployment was due to both the seasonal hiring, but more importantly, the drop of over 300,000 employees from the workforce in November alone. These are individuals who have given up seeking employment. This is similar to saying that if all the patients with a certain condition died, it would improve the numbers related to the incidence of that disease. Status: debunked

*As an aside, Jim Pethakoukis did some very important work on the labor force and actual unemployment rate. The impact of the discouraged worker not counted in U3 unemployment makes the president’s argument utterly ridiculous.

Actual Unemployment Situation

All told, the economy added 1.6 million jobs in 2011. A trip to the BLS website reveals this is true, but it excludes a rather important statistic that is mentioned above; that statistic is the number of people who dropped out of the labor force. Status: partially true

 

BLS Employment Data/2011

Do not be fooled by this ad. It has been awarded 3 Flaming Democrat Logos. The president and his compatriots in the media would like people to believe that he has been successful on the one issue most important to Americans. This is a blatant lie, and these numbers will continue to remain ugly until his disastrous anti-business policies can be reversed.

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