Jon's blog

At the All-Star game last week, President Obama went into the booth and spoke to the announcers at the bottom of the third inning.  Not a lot was said, however, I found it very interesting that he said that "we're our of money" in response to a question.  This is not the first time President Obama has made that sort of remark off the cuff.  I'm not sure whether its intentional or not, probably is but those of use who actually believe in fixing the fiscal situation in our nation should highlight and emphasize in efforts to trim the budget, modify entitlement spending and get our country back on the right track. 

This morning's Politico had an article about the potential political situation in which Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will be up for re-election while his son Rory will be running for Governor (if he makes it through the primary).

If this happens, the Rory Reid campaign will do the following:  

"Rory Reid campaign manager David Chase Cohen, who served as Barack Obama’s Nevada state director in the 2008 presidential caucus, wouldn’t say exactly how the campaign planned to distinguish between the two Reids. But he was quick to point out that the campaign would highlight the importance of local — as opposed to federal — governance." 

This campaign could give small government supporters the perfect opportunity to show local, regional or even voters accross the country the different roles that the federal government should play versus the role of state governments. 

I do not understand the politics of the latest CIA inspired hatefest on Capital Hill.  Certaintly it looks like the Ds are seeking to get payback for the Pelosi fiasco early this year.  But if I was a Republican on the side of this issue, I would do some polling to verify what seems intuitive -- namely that if there is one thing that the American people want the CIA to do it is to seek out and kill Al Qaida leaders around the world. I suspect that this issue will gain little traction in places outside of the beltway where process stories have a hard time gaining traction.  However, from a political perspective, I would think R's would want  to take advantage of this issue  by highligting it outside the beltway and presenting a picture of what they would like the CIA to do -- again identifying, capturing and/or killing AQ leadership around the world.  At the very least make the Ds go onto the defense on this issue. Over at Volokh conspiracy, Kenneth Anderson has this to say about the whole matter.  

Today the Whitehouse, via Vice President Joe Biden, are going to announce that hospitals are agreeing to $110 billion in cost savings over the next ten years.  A few weeks ago, the Obama administration also announced that they were going to save $80 billion a year in health care costs through concessions from pharmaceutical companies.  What is notable, is that these "agreements" are non-binding and won't be until Congress writes a law that is passed and is signed by President Obama. 

This sort of celebration is akin to the mark-to-market accounting practiced by Enron and other vilified businesses where they booked future profits as current revenue even when no money had actually been made.  Anyone who has been part of the legislative process knows that any non-binding agreement laid out between the Administration and industry groups now will inevitably be changed (and likely weakened) on Capital Hill. 

Those opposing the administration on health care need to highlight these fake announcements and show the world that the like Enron, these press conferences do not provide any actual cost savings to any actual Americans over any timeframe.