Day: July 9, 2012

The Military Officers Association of America has bestowed upon Honor Flight the Distinguished Service Award for 2012.

Ivan Jed has clued me into Los Angeles-based Walla, an electronic/dance/rock band that is quite good.

Uh-oh Chongo. Do new toll snarl-creating tolls roads and bridges loom in Pennsylvania’s future?

HB 3, passed by the state House 117-79 and the Senate 49-0, has been signed into Act 88 by Gov. Corbett. 

The legislation partners “the public and private sectors to help rebuild the state’s deteriorating transportation infrastructure” according to State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129)

Cox said the law “provides a broad-based framework for transportation public-private partnerships, or P3s, authorizing contractual arrangements between a public entity and a private entity.” Under the P3, the public entity maintains ownership of the asset, but contracts with a private entity to develop, construct, manage, operate and/or finance a given project.

The implementation of P3s has the potential to generate $2.7 billion in revenue over a five-year period to deal with the repair and replacement of nearly 5,000 structurally deficient bridges in Pennsylvania, the highest number in the nation, Cox said. A 2010 study by the State Transportation Advisory Committee indicated an additional $3.5 billion per year is needed to fully meet Pennsylvania’s transportation infrastructure needs.

Currently, 32 other states and Puerto Rico have enacted laws authorizing the implementation of P3s, Cox said.

Hey, how about we just get rid of prevailing wage which inflates construction cost by — at least — 10 percent, and then put our legislators and public school teachers on 401Ks to start solving the upcoming pension bomb? Then maybe we would start finding the money to fix our roads and bridges without new tolls.

By the way, it has been noted  that this year’s budget includes $1.7 million for prescription and dental benefits for our legislators. Granted the revelation comes from RockTheCapitol.com, which one strongly suspects would not be making an issue of this if the Democrats were running things, but those of us who think all politicians are suspect have no problem spreading this news.

We will point out that the “Cadillac” benefits package is not a new thing. 

Rusty Carter, the Springfield soldier paralyzed from chest down from injuries received while serving in Afghanistan, led the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance during the July 6 Phillies game.

Courtesy of Kate Rainey 

This tells the story of why Bush was so bad at the end of his term.

Don’t just skim over this, it’s not very long, read it slowly and let it sink in. If in doubt, check it out!!!

 The day the democrats took over was not January 22nd 2009, it was actually January 3rd 2007 the day the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate, at the very start of the 110th Congress.

 The Democrat Party controlled a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995.

 For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is “Bush’s Fault”, think about this:

 January 3rd, 2007 was the day the Democrats took over the Senate and the Congress. At the time:

 The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77

 The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%

 The Unemployment rate was 4.6%

 George Bush’s Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB GROWTH

 Remember the day…

January 3rd, 2007 was the day that Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee.

 The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy?

 BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!

 Unemployment… to this CRISIS by (among MANY other things) dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac FIASCOES!

 Bush asked Congress 17 TIMES to stop Fannie & Freddie – starting in 2001 because it was financially risky for the US economy.

 And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac? OBAMA

 And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie?

 OBAMA and the Democrat Congress

 So when someone tries to blame Bush..

 REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd, 2007…. THE DAY THE DEMOCRATS TOOK OVER!”

 Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from Congress and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 is the Democrat Party.

 Furthermore, the Democrats controlled the budget process for 2008 & 2009 as well as 2010 &2011.

 In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases.

 For 2009 though, Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the 2009 budgets.

 And where was Barack Obama during this time? He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete 2009.

 If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the 2007 deficit, the last of the Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years, and the fourth straight decline in deficit spending. After that, Democrats in Congress took control of spending, and that includes Barack Obama, who voted for the budgets.

 If Obama inherited anything, he inherited it from himself. In a nutshell, what Obama is saying is I inherited a deficit that I voted for and then I voted to expand that deficit four-fold since January 20th.

 There is no way this will be widely publicized, unless each of us sends it on