Democratic Scandals

While the press has dutifully reported the various recent scandals and peccadillos of Democratic politicians, but there is nothing like the drumbeat of offense-taking when it is a Republican politician. Note the following list:

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich tried to sell Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat. He was removed from office through impeachment.

Blagojevich appointed Roland Burris to that Senate seat, who has now admitted he wasn't completely forthcoming (i.e., he lied) about his interactions with Blagojevich before he received the Senate appointment. The new governor of Illinois, and the other Illinois Senator, has called on Burris to resign.

Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner didn't pay the Social Security and Medicare taxes from when he worked for the IMF. Note that Geithner's responsibilities include oversight of the IRS.

Former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle also had tax problems that led to his withdrawing his nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services.

In reality, he only left when tax problems befell Nancy Killefer, who withdrew her nomination, and feminist organizations began wondering why a woman was forced to withdraw her nomination over tax problems that were a tiny fraction of Daschle's.

Tax problems continue to plague Obama's cabinet nominees. Hilda Solis, the new Labor Secretary, had her husband settle tax liens outstanding as far back as 1993.

Charles Rangel, the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee (in charge of tax legislation in the House), is being investigated by the House ethics panel for a series of problems for: failing to pay taxes on rental income from a Caribbean home he owns; controlling multiple rent control apartments; using stationary from the House to raise money for a center named for him; and helping secure a tax break for a donor to his center.

William Jefferson, a representative from Louisiana, was indicted for 16 charges of corruption and, in a remarkable development, lost his overwhelming Democratic house district to a Republican last fall.

Senator Chris Dodd received below market mortgages from Countrywide, a company falling under his purview on the Senate Finance Committee. His promise to release documents related to the matter was delayed over six months, and he acted on his promise by letting journalists briefly review the documents in his office without allowing them to make copies and review at their leisure.

Tim Mahoney, a representative from Florida, paid his mistress $121,000 to keep their affair quiet after she threatened to sue him; he berated her on a voice mail that became public; and Rahm Emanuel, now Barack Obama's chief of staff, tried to keep the matter private to prevent it from hurting Maloney' re-election chances.

Contrast that with the intense media frenzy that accompanied Republican Mark Foley (whose seat Mahoney won), who wrote lewd messages to congressional pages but didn't act on those messages. The media used the Foley matter, which arose in September 2006, to help elect Democrats in congressional elections that fall. No similar drumbeat existed with the Mahoney matter in the fall of 2008.

Republicans have had their share of problems, but the Democratic scandals include a long list of significant political figures - without the near-hysterical media attention lavished on Republican scandals.

Atlas "Just Says No" to TARP

A Louisiana-based bank, IBERIABANK Corp. announced that it is returning the $90 million in TARP funds it previously received, making it the first bank to return the money. It said it is doing so to avoid being placed at a competitive disadvantage as result of being tarped.

In a bleak day of economic problems and the strong left tilt of President Obama as manifested in his disastrous budget plan, this qualifies as the best news of the day.

Let's hope more banks return TARP funds soon.

Europe 1, Obama 0

In an effort to get our European allies to contribute a meaningful number of additional troops to Afghanistan, Barack Obama has come up short. Other than commitments of a couple hundred troops, Europe has added nothing like the 17,000 new troops we just announced.

It looks like an Obama administration has not ushered in a sea change in our allies' willingness to help us in the fight against terrorism. As I discussed earlier, that is not surprising. The only thing that is surprising about this situation are the claims to the contrary during the presidential campaign.

Spending Blow Out Continues

Congressional Democrats are demonstrating just how much budget discipline Barack Obama really expects. The House passed a $410 billion spending bill, an 8.7% increase over the previous year. Future spending bills will now grow from this new, higher base. This is on top of the "stimulus" bill's spending spree.

Moreover, the bill includes additional support for key Democratic constituencies. The bill phases out school vouchers used in the atrocious Washington, DC school system. No doubt the teachers' unions are quite pleased their support for Democrats has been rewarded again.

It would be encouraging if Barack Obama threatened to veto the bill unless the voucher program is restored. Don't count on it.

Constitutional Change

A major change to out government institutions is underway with little debate. Guess which party this change helps?

Congress is planning to add two members to the House of Representatives, one for Washington, DC and one elsewhere. While the second seat will be for heavily Republican Utah in the short run, which is why Sentor Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) supports the measure, Utah would have gotten another House seat soon anyway while the DC seat will be asuredly Democrat.

Moreover, this will help lay the groundwork to make DC a state, which would add two Democrats to the Senate.

In 1937, FDR proposed adding six new Supreme Court justices to prevent the court from declaring unconstitutional various parts of the New Deal.  The uproar in the country, for something that was constitutional but was a radical change in our governing processes, led to its defeat.  

The number of representatives has been fixed at 435 for nearly 100 years, other than a temporary increase when Alaska and Hawaii became states.  There is disagreement whether allowing DC to have representatives is constitutional, and such a fundamental change in our basic governing process and institutions needs to be thoroughly debated and discussed.

Promises Made, Promises Broken*

Barack Obama continues to retreat as President from positions he took on the campaign trail, mostly for the better.

On his recent visit to Canada, he said that trade protectionism would be harmful to the economy. Contrast that with his campaign promise to reopen the North American Free Trade Agreement signed over 15 year ago.

The Associated Press' Ron Fournier came up with "accountability journalism", whose goal is to hold politicians accountable for the promises they make. Suffice to say, he has been AWOL on this and other issues related to the Obama administration.

More broadly, the press continues to give Obama a pass on these flip-flops, ensuring that politicians will continue to lie to the electorate while campaigning for office and making the political culture of the country more confrontational than reality warrants.

* An ongoing series that compares Barack Obama's campaign rhetoric with the reality of his administration's actions and policies (see previous columns on energy policy, Osama Bin Laden, and cabinet members).

Budget Shenanigans

Barack Obama has announced that he wants Congress to mandate across-the-board cuts in spending to offset any new spending programs or tax cuts.

Sounds like touch fiscal discipline? Think again.

Unlike a common sense approach to budgeting, the federal government's budget includes many programs that automatically increase each year due to inflation, demographic changes or rules. Obama is not saying that any increase in spending would be offset by automatic spending cuts - just any new spending program or tax cut. So the budget will balloon due to the automatic growth in Social Security and Medicare, for example, without triggering the spending cuts.

Moreover, note that Obama proposes this after securing passage of the biggest budget busting bill in history, our "stimulus" bill. So the baseline budget is now higher, so much easier to promise spending restraint after this spending spree.

Last, the plan would also mean tax cuts will never happen to any meaningful degree or without offsetting tax increases. Just as spending grows automatically, tax revenues are also on auto pilot to increase faster than inflation and growth in the economy due to their steeply progressive nature.

Since taxes and spending will continue to rise significantly even with no new programs, Obama's "get tough" approach on the budget is mostly about PR and laying the groundwork for tax increases.