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California Legislators Pelosi, Boxer and Feinstein Wealthiest Lawmakers in Washington…

Kind of makes you wonder why they want to tax the rich although they are not giving up THEIR money! Democrat voters are stupid to believe these lying liars! – Editor

Lynn Woolsey Killing Jobs Again!

Editor’s note: This is not about protecting workers. This is about Congress getting its grubby mitts on 1099 employees’ salaries so they can steal the taxes! Don’t fall for this. About the only place employment is growing is contracting because companies can not afford to hire full time. If business is forced to hire them as employees, it will stifle the job creation. Woolsey needs to be removed before she kills all new job growth.  

On Thursday, June 17, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing on preventing employers from misclassifying employees as independent contractors. The hearing focused on the Employee Misclassification Prevention Act (EMPA), a recently introduced bill intended to reduce instances of worker misclassification through new record-keeping requirements, notice requirements, and the imposition of civil penalties for employer violations.

Chairman Harkin (D-IA) opened the hearing by arguing that independent contractors are not afforded sufficient protections under the labor law, such as those provided by minimum wage standards, overtime requirements, unemployment compensation, workers’ compensation, safety and health laws and antidiscrimination provisions. Harkin asserted that a few “unscrupulous” employers thus make economic challenges “even more difficult for their workers by intentionally misclassifying them as ‘independent contractors’ to gain an advantage over their law-abiding competitors.” Harkin also argued employee misclassification costs federal and state governments “billions of dollars in unpaid revenues.” For example, it deprives governments of the payments that support unemployment and workers’ compensation systems, as employers are only required to make these payments on behalf of employees and not independent contractors. Accordingly, Harkin posited that while employer misclassification laws are currently in place in several states, a federal legislative response is necessary.

Read the entire article here.

You Already Know This – OPINION

Lynn Woolsey called for a “progressive resurgence” in a Hill blog article today. Who the heck does she think got us to this horrible mess in the first place? Look who has been running government for the past 3+ years! Besides, there really hasn’t been time to have a real conservative resurgence… yet. Maybe she is looking into the future and what November will bring.

The problem with progressivism is that, just because it sounds like a good idea doesn’t mean the federal government should be doing it or spending money on it. After all, their track record of success is pretty bleak no matter how noble they think their causes are.

The original founders saw the USA as a collection of individual countries (states) united under one limited federal government so that we would not end up where we are today; top down central planning. Instead they saw a country with a small federal government and strong state governments. Yet here we are 234 years after the Declaration of Independence, and we are exactly where they feared we would be; huge federal government (much more powerful than King George was?), unbridled deficit spending, freedoms being incrementally taken away in the name of “fairness” and religion kicked to the curb (unless you are a Muslim extremist). How did this happen? Over time, that’s how.

There is only so much bandwidth and money with which to tackle all the unconstitutional laws that have been passed over the years. And then our congressmen use those bad laws which survive to serve as precedents upon which to write more bad laws. This is the reason for the Constitution. It is a measuring stick by which laws are to be written (or not). But with Federal Judges seeing it as a “living, breathing document” they have twisted the Constitution to mean something other than what was originally intended. So it would seem the problem with progressivism is that in top down planning everyone must do it the same way regardless if it’s a good idea or not. Where’s the freedom? Besides that, it is not “constitutional”.

The original idea was that each state was a unique experiment free to try different things to see what worked to solve their challenges. It was even codified in the 10th Amendment in case the original version of the Constitution didn’t make that clear. It says, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Obama and Progressives call this a “negative” right. Actually, it is exactly right (correct)… period. Each state government was supposed to decide for itself how it should be run. They could then look to other states and see what worked in order to implement or improve upon those which their constituents found favorable. Not so today. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find any area in any state that didn’t come under the rule of some bureau of the federal government.

The original purpose of the Federal Government was to solve disputes and problems which crossed state lines. Read George Washington’s biography and you will learn that he viewed the federal government as a necessary evil and loathed the thought of it. He knew what “progressives” would do if given half a chance.

Examples of the founders intent for responsibilities of Federal government would be building and maintaining bridges between bordering states, or regulating commerce on shared waterways that touch several states. Two of the things the federal government is actually supposed to do, defending our borders or protecting our freedom overseas, are the same things Progressives complain about spending money on. They say we should be spending the money here on infrastructure or education. As in debt as we are, we probably shouldn’t be spending the money anywhere!

If you want to see the failures of progressivism you only need to look at states like Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Hawaii or California and cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, etc. to see that the progressive experiment doesn’t work. High crime and high unemployment are the norm for liberal bastions such as these. Yet what happens when Lynn Woolsey talks about how we need a progressive resurgence? Socialist ideologues come out of the woodwork and praise her, even though she and her buddies have spent us into the poor house thanks to progressives. Those people will never be persuaded to see the truth.

It is my belief that the majority of people in this area are liberal because they can afford to be. Things are pretty good for many people in Marin County. Fortunately, the high unemployment rate in California hasn’t really hit the San Francisco Bay Area yet… yet. Does that mean we should wait until it gets worse before we do something? Unlike an Obama administration spokesperson, we are not looking for a crisis to use to our advantage. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that to change people’s minds.

What we must do is seek out the reasonable Democrats, the patriotic ones who love our country and believe the party has left them, and turn them to our side like Reagan did. There are common sense, patriotic people on the other side who don’t like what their Democratic Party has become. They may not change parties, but they can be persuaded to vote for a candidate who wants to lower taxes to stimulate the economy and help businesses create jobs, among other ideals that will truly embody progress.

- FedUpEditor

Liberal Papers, Marin IJ and Press Democrat Support Halliwell – Judd is Favorite of Conservatives!

It’s no surprise that liberal papers like the Marin Independent Journal and Santa Rosa’s Press Democrat have thrown their support behind Mike Halliwell, a two time loser to unseat Woolsey. However, conservatives and business people have thrown support behind newcomer Jim Judd in hopes of making real change that will bring back conservative values in northern California!

Here is an Editorial from the PD and the link to it online

Who’s To Blame?

There is an old saying, “Losers fix the blame; winners fix what caused the problem.” It is as true now as it has ever been.

Day in and day out we are being presented with stories about the oil leak in the Gulf with finger pointing as to who is to blame for it. Industry blames regulators, and regulators blame the various industry players; the players start blaming each other. Why isn’t the environmental lobby being implicated? After all, if it weren’t for their strict no-drilling policy in other “safe” places, would we have to go so far off-shore to retrieve oil with dangerous deep-water drilling techniques? The answer, of course, is no.

But put all that aside. Just because there have been a few disasters related to oil production, refining and transport, does that mean we should stop drilling altogether like Arnold Schwarzenegger has concluded? With that same logic, any time a plane goes down, we would discontinue air travel. It is as stupid and predictable as those anti-gun zealots who think crime will stop if we ban firearms. All or nothing.

And if we stop drilling, does that mean the rest of the world stops drilling? No! In fact, other countries are ramping up their domestic oil production because we are not. Seeing us as the suckers we are, they know there is no other alternative energy source right now, and they have leverage over us.

Lynn Woolsey is leading the charge against big oil and big coal. Google reported many news stories over the last couple of days mentioning her name and quoting her, not like the lame representative she is, but as if she is riding in on her white horse to save us all. Her committees have been especially harsh on these two industries because of the recent problems; the mining disaster and the oil spill in the gulf. It’s almost as if Woolsey thinks she can legislate our way to never having another disaster or another lost life. Could this be considered a “God” complex? After all, she has been in the House so long I’m sure she thinks she is invincible. I hear she is so confident (or is that arrogant?) that she will not campaign here this fall, but will go out and help other Democrats get elected. Is she counting her chickens? But I am getting off my point.

Let me ask a few questions of Lynn Woolsey. If everyone starts running electric vehicles like you propose, where will the electricity come from? Have you thought that far ahead to consider that California has brown outs almost every summer as it is? Are you offering any alternative solutions to producing electricity in our state or in the nation? You talk about wind and solar as if they are our salvation. But I hear environmentalists are against putting solar panels in the desert to preserve its pristine beauty. That would make wind farms out of the question as well. How do you, Ms. Woolsey, propose to supply our country’s energy needs? Get back to me after we put you out on your rear end this November.

Now let’s look at our President. We are 18 months into his presidency, and Obama is still pointing to the failures of the previous administration for our woes today. It is wearing thin, as polls show. For Heaven’s sake, he has had more than enough time to do at least ONE thing right, but day after day he continues to lay blame and make excuses. The only solutions he has are to raise taxes, spend more money, create more government welfare and pass the buck. Is that what we want from our leaders?

I, for one, am tired of it. I know most of you are too. So is the country, and polls show there will be a huge surge to the right in November if the trend continues. Dick Morris says we stand to pick up 10 Senate seats (including California where he thinks Boxer is especially vulnerable to Chuck DeVore). This is because people are tired of the blame game.

No matter how you dress it up, people are waking up to the fact that government, you know, the ones who caused these problems, are certainly not the ones to solve them. If anything, people are learning that actually solving problems is not in the government’s best interest. Only saying they are going to solve them is business as usual. Barney Frank and Chris Dodd can blame whomever they want for the housing crisis, but they should be pointing into the mirror when doing so. Let’s send them back to the Minor League this Fall.

- FedUpEditor

Woolsey Again?

Ms. Woolsey should be concerned about the death of her Democratic Party. Once again she fails to realize that many good things have come from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But like true liberals, she believes the absence of war is peace. WRONG. Look at other places on the globe where dictators are killing people who disagree with them. Yet Woolsey looks the other way.

It’s true we are spending lots of money on the two wars, but not nearly as much as the money we are spending here at home on worthless government jobs and their benefits. It is killing our economy, and the war will now be brought home. Woolsey thinks her seat is safe, so much so that she will not campaign in her own district this fall. Pure arrogance.

What she fails to realize is that people (even Democrats) are tired of the endless spending and want to move this train wreck off the tracks and rebuild our engine of economic prosperity. With unemployment hovering at nearly 10% (and ready to climb as the recession drags on) Congress is set to extend unemployment benefits once again. This will disguise the real number of people out of work. As the printing presses whirl away kicking out endless supplies of more and more devalued dollars, Woolsey thinks she can buy her seat.

Woolsey doesn’t understand that people of Marin and Sonoma Counties are the ones producing so that others can feed off their hard work. The ones I have talked to are tired of it… both parties. After 17 years in Congress, are we better off now with Democrats running everything? You be the judge.

In the meantime, take a look at Jim Judd for Congress and see what you think. He is a commonsense guy who thinks both party establishments are to blame. Woolsey is going to be surprised come November!

Graham, Lieberman and Kerry Want ANOTHER GAS TAX!

Editor’s note: Maybe we should have a tea party so they know we are taxed enough already… wait! We already have! Are they listening? NO. Graham, Kerry and Lieberman ALL  must go! These three will be up for re-election in 2012. Then we will CLEAN HOUSE!

Today, Congress once again ignored what Americans want and introduced a new gasoline tax as part of a global warming bill that also contains a cap and trade energy tax on utilities. The section on the gas tax begins on p. 361.

Introduced by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT), this bill requires American oil companies to pay a fee to the government for their global warming emissions.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who helped craft the gas tax, admitted the fee “will be passed on” to motorists in the form of higher gasoline prices.

But Senators Kerry and Lieberman are offended that any American would dare call it a gas tax.

Don’t be fooled. This is a government requirement that will increase the cost of gasoline. It’s a tax. So not only will we have to pay more for gas, we have the added insult of Senators insisting that what we can plainly see as a new gas tax is not actually a gas tax.

The American people know better. And according to an American Solutions poll, 71% of Americans oppose this new gas tax, even if politicians are insisting it is not a gas tax.

In addition, this bill creates a cap and trade system that will dramatically increase the cost of residential and commercial electricity prices. 

Even the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says cap and trade will kill jobs and reduce American productivity.

With one bill, Congress will raise gasoline and electricity prices, raise the cost of energy, and kill jobs. This is not the way to create jobs and prosperity.

This bill is wrong for America. Will you help us defeat it?

We need to get information about this new tax to as many people as possible in the next 48 hours. Please visit our “Action Center” to forward your friends a special message about this gas tax.

Thank you,

Vince Haley
Vice-President of Policy

My Take on Mort Sahl’s Pacific Sun Interview

If you haven’t seen Mort Sahl’s interview, you should at least take a look. Fortunately, it’s still online at the Pacific Sun. Though I disagree with some of his political opinions, he isn’t very happy about most politicians, except perhaps Ron Paul whom he mentions favorably.

I was surprised. His take on Obama is right on. After all the promises to do it differently from Clinton or Bush, Obama is still in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He also hasn’t closed Guantanamo. Not that I am against either one, I am just agreeing with his point that Obama, in spite of promises for hope and change, he is more of the same.

Where I also disagree with Sahl is that these two wars are just like Vietnam and that enemy combatants shouldn’t be tried by the military. I was nearly drafted in the Viet Nam War… Drafted. There is no draft. All these soldiers in the Middle East are volunteers so that makes the current wars much different than the one in 1968. Sahl also talks about bankrupting the country, but doesn’t blame entitlement spending which is much more than any war we have fought. He blames paying for the wars as to why we are in debt. WRONG! And why should enemy combatants be tried in civilian courts and given the same rights as citizens? WRONG AGAIN!

Regardless of our political differences, I believe this is one person you could have a sane conversation. Apparently he frequents the Piazza D’Angelo’s in downtown Mill Valley. Who knows? I may have even seen him there and not recognized him!

- FedUpEditor

We Warned You! Gas Tax Coming!

Since gasoline prices have leveled out and everyone has gotten used to under $4 a gallon gas, Senators Kerry, Graham (a RINO who needs to be replaced) and Lieberman (remember when people thought he should become a Republican? He also would have been a RINO, something we don’t need in the Republican Party) are not understanding the TEA Parties. Throw them all out next election! - FedUpEditor

On Monday we may see a new gas tax introduced by Senators Graham, Kerry, and Lieberman as part of the energy and climate legislation they have been working on together the last several months.

Earlier this week we asked your fellow American Solutions members in South Carolina to call Senator Graham’s office and ask him not to introduce new gas taxes.  Many of them reported back that Senator Graham’s staff responded by saying that Senator Graham does not support new gas taxes and doesn’t have any plans to introduce new gas taxes.

We hope that is true and that Senator Graham, along with Senators Kerry and Lieberman, has indeed changed his mind. If so, it would likely be due in large part to the many American Solutions calls. 

But we remain skeptical. We are concerned that the legislation we expect to see Monday will nevertheless contain new gas taxes. For the last several weeks it has been widely reported in the media that the legislation will contain new taxes on gas, diesel, and other transportation fuels. These will be assessed in the form of a fee or other costs imposed on oil companies, which will then be passed on to consumers in the form of higher gas prices. 

(At the bottom of this email you will see some examples of reporting on the new gas tax.)

If consumers pay higher fuel prices due to a requirement of government, we at American Solutions consider it a tax, whether it is imposed indirectly at the wholesale level of the oil company and then passed on to consumers in the form of higher gas prices, or directly at the retail level of the average American buying gas at the local gas station. We oppose new taxes on gas, diesel and other transportation fuels, which we believe will kill jobs and stagnate economic growth.

It seems as if the three Senators don’t share this view and believe that new costs imposed on oil companies by the government, which will be passed along to motorists at the gas station in the form of higher gas prices, are not new gas taxes.   

We disagree, but we can certainly appreciate why they don’t want their new legislation to be seen as imposing new gas taxes. In a recent poll of 1,000 adults released by American Solutions, we found that:    

• 83% of all adults and 61% of independent voters have very little or no confidence that a fuel tax will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

• 71% of respondents oppose higher gas taxes (sometimes called “linked carbon fees”) in order to limit greenhouse gases.

• 78% believe that higher gas taxes will either kill jobs or have no effect on job growth.

• 69% oppose any new per gallon gas tax or fuel tax to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

• 64% of all adults are less likely to support a candidate for Congress who supports a gas tax, and 67% of independent voters are much more likely not to support a gas-tax candidate.

With the average gallon of gas already 80 cents higher than a year ago, it is not surprising that the vast majority of Americans oppose new gas taxes, which at least one organization has estimated could increase the cost of gas by 27 cents per gallon.

Come Monday, if the legislation proposed by Senators Graham, Kerry, and Lieberman contains measures that will increase the price of gasoline, you now know why American Solutions considers it a new gas tax and thus will vigorously oppose it.  We will also be asking for your help in calling your Senators to oppose any such new gas taxes.

If next Monday the Senators are insisting that they are not introducing any new gas taxes, but instead are describing a “linked fee” or a requirement that oil companies buy carbon permits, you will know that they are supporting a bill that will raise gasoline, diesel, and other fuel prices. 

We will report back with analysis after the introduction of the legislation next week. 

Sincerely,

Vince Haley
Vice President for Policy

Lynn Woolsey is NOT for the common folk!

Democrat Lynn Woolsey says she is for the working man and woman, but how can that be? When a vote comes up for cap and trade or any other environmental bill that raises our energy costs by not allowing domestic production who pays the price?

As a regular guy, I see my price per gallon on gas creeping up or my energy bills (gas and electric) climbing upward, I know it is becuase of Lynn Woolsey and Democrats like her, all pandering to the far left environmental fringe, that are to blame.

Now they want to introduce a VAT tax. Who do you think will hurt the most? With components taxed at every level of production, big screen televisions will be all but out of reach for most poor and moderate income consumers.

Look at Woolsey’s voting record, and you will see she is beholden to special interests like big union and environmental groups that she is too wrapped up in their concerns to begin to address her constituents. She has to go. There will be other choices out there. Hopefully one of them will take her place.

- FedUpEditor

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