Judging from the Fiscal Cliff votes, the United States appears to be eager to follow in the footsteps of Greece and California, rushing to unsustainable spending, crushing debt loads and inevitable bankruptcy, rather than following the lead of Texas and the Red State model of debt-free limited government and free enterprise. So let’s see where the two states are, shall we?
Via Reason comes a link to the website Pension Tsunami, which contains much of interest for those charting California’s decline.
One method California cities are using to continue funding their heroin outrageous pension spending habit is issuing Pension Obligation Bonds, where they sell bonds to pay for pension obligations and then invest them. Indeed, some that got burned by the tactic in the 1990s (like Oakland) are trying again. “Bonds issued in 1997 were, on average, underwater in 2007, even before the stock market crash…’That’s like a compulsive gambler telling you that he has to bet it all on red to make up for his past losses.’”
“Bankruptcy is the best bet most cities have for getting out of their crushing health and retirement obligations to public workers….Government employee compensation, mostly for health and retirement, is at the heart of nearly all the current and looming municipal bankruptcies across the country.”
Over at TPPF, Chuck Devore wonders why Californians don’t stage a tax revolt. “In the meantime, Texas will be more than happy to receive into its welcoming arms people who want to work hard, invest, and create jobs.”
In addition to both Texas Senators (John Cornyn, who should have known better, and the retiring Kay Baily Hutchison, who came in like a lion and is going out like a RINO; thank God Ted Cruz is replacing her), four Republican Texas congressmen voted for the “Fiscal Cliff” tax hike deal:
The tide of “you must enact liberal knee-jerk gun control legislation now!” editorials from the usual suspects in the MSM seems to have ebbed for now, but the fallout from the Sandy Hook spree continues. Here’s a roundup of some of the more interesting and informative
You need to read this entire piece by Larry Correia, but this is one of the most important takeaways: “The average number of people shot in a mass shooting event when the shooter is stopped by law enforcement: 14. The average number of people shot in a mass shooting event when the shooter is stopped by civilians: 2.5”
Yesterday: Liberals call conservatives “crazy” and “paranoid” for thinking that liberals want to take away their guns. Today: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo calls for mandatory confiscation of certain types of guns. (Hat tip: Alphecca)
The number of crimes committed by Texas concealed handgun License (CHL) holders is incredibly small.
How small? “Since 1996, when the law took effect, there have been 852,271 convictions of Texans under the 125 gun related offenses prohibited under state law, everything from Class A felonies like murder, aggravated robbery and aggravated rape, to relatively minor offenses like carrying a weapon in a prohibited place. Of those convictions, only 1,972 of them were of individuals who were licensed to carry a concealed handgun at the time of the offense, or roughly .19%.”
There’s a Texas school district where teacher’s are armed. Want to guess the number of shootings they’ve had?
Stacy McCain asks: “Why should the foolishness of Nancy Lanza and the evil acts of her son automatically impose limitations on people who are neither foolish nor evil?”
Some insightful commentary on the NRA from Sebastian: “You go to war with the NRA and the Wayne LaPierre you have, not the NRA and Wayne LaPierre you want. And we are going to war. We are arrayed against the entire left-wing apparatus, and they mean to extract their pint of blood.”
This guy has some serious questions about the media timeline for the Sandy Hook shooting, but then ruins his credibility with 9/11 truther crap. I know that a lot of early reporting on shooting sprees in wrong (for example, almost all initial reports say that “police are looking for a second shooter,” who almost invariably doesn’t exist), but I do remember that all the early reports said the shooter used two handguns, but at some point that switched to all of his spree being conducted with the .223 rifle.
I’m not a fan of the Texas Enterprise Fund, because I don’t think government should be picking economic winners and losers; let them succeed or fail on their own merits rather than getting a boost from the Aristocracy of Pull. Some liberal critics have accused the Enterprise Fund of being Rick Perry’s slush fund for donors, but in truth all federal business subsidies are slush funds, and I think the Texas Enterprise Fund is markedly less corrupt than the Obama Administration’s green energy pork for contributors, or its $25 billion Government Motors bailout gift to the United Auto Workers.
Given that the Texas Enterprise Fund does exit, I can think of at least one good use for it: Helping gun manufacturers relocate from Blue States to Texas.
After all, it’s obvious that Blue State sentiment is running (at least right now) against legal gun ownership by law-abiding Americans, and that pressure (legal and otherwise) will be brought to bear on them to stop manufacturing certain types of perfectly legal weapons, or to cease business entirely.
So why not invite them to relocate to Texas? We have a skilled and highly educated non-union workforce, a broad and deep manufacturing base, a thriving economy, a culture that appreciates firearms ownership and their place in American history, stautory protection against frivolous lawsuits against firearms manufacturers, and no state income tax. While it’s a pain in the ass to move a manufacturing facility, doing so now could both increase a firearms manufacturer’s profit and prevent political pressure and legal harassment further down the line.
I’ve held off on offering up immediate judgment on the election because I’m incredibly lazy to get past the panic and knee-jerk reactions. The world hasn’t ended, Republicans are not doomed to permanent minority status, and the cause of smaller government is not lost forever. Go over that list of bright spots again. Republicans did not do as badly as they did in 1932, 1964, 2006 or 2008. And we survived those elections, just as the Democrats survived 1994, 2004, and 2010. We’ll survive this one.
One persistent theme in a lot of recaps is how badly Republicans did among Hispanic voters, and that Republicans must immediately cave on the issue of illegal alien amnesty to have any chance of courting Hispanic votes. Though no one can dispute that Republicans need to do better among Hispanics, much of the panic over the 2012 Hispanic vote (and the resulting predictable knee-jerk push for amnesty among prominent RINOs) has been overblown, for a number of reasons:
First, we don’t actually know how well Republicans did among Hispanics because the AP and the networks decided not to do detailed exit polling in Texas and 18 other states, the vast majority of them red states. Thus we don’t know the true percentage of Hispanics who voted for Republicans, as states where Republicans would do better among Hispanics have been systematically excluded from the count.
So take a deep breath. Republicans are far better off trying to pitch the ideas of freedom and limited government to Hispanics, and running conservative Republican candidates who happen to be Hispanic like Ted Cruz, than transparent and incompetent pandering via illegal alien amnesty.
“Why would you leave $25 million on the table?” Oh gee, I don’t know, but maybe because you have to pay back $34 million on your risky $2.5 million loan? Math, liberal! Do you speak it?
Speaking of TPPF, they linked to this Dallas Fed report, which shows that the Texas economy continues to hum along. “Texas added 22,900 jobs in October, lowering its unemployment rate in October to 6.6 percent, down from 6.8 percent in September and 1.3 percent below the national average of 7.9 percent.”
This is big news. Rep. Bryan Hughes has dropped his bid to be Speaker of the Texas house of Representatives and has endorsed Rep. David Simpson in his run against incumbent speaker Joe Straus.
While conservatives wanted to see Straus replaced, they was worry that Hughes’ background as a trial lawyer could work against him, and there was also worry that Simpson would split the anti-Straus vote. With Hughes out and endorsing Simpson, conservatives now have their best chance ever to oust Straus.
Expect to hear more about the Speaker’s race in the near future.
Krauthammer: Republicans would be insane to take the “taxes now with a promise to consider cuts later” non-deal Obama is offering.
Especially since Obama’s tax hike “would have reduced the 2012 deficit from $1.10 trillion to $1.02 trillion.”
The national election was disappointing, but here in Texas Republicans continues to make gains. “Overall we have 796 more Republican elected officials in the State of Texas today than we did in 2008.”
Former Texas Democratic congressman Jack brooks has died.
And in case it got lost in the election night news, Steve Stockman, the Republican who retired Brooks in the 1994 election, is returning to congress representing the 36th district.
Displaying a willingness to perceive reality heretofore unguessed at, the Michigan senate passes right-to work legislation. Tomorrow: David Letterman’s Cold Day in Hell Special.
School goes into lockdown because a student brought…a thermometer.
Save the life of a fellow employee at AutoZone? That’s a firing. (Hat tip (last two): Alphecca.)
Once you find out that PSY once sang “Kill those f*cking Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives/Kill those f*cking Yankees who ordered them to torture/Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers/Kill them all slowly and painfully,” suddenly “Gangnam Style” doesn’t seem quite so amusing.
What I find revealing about the choice of Roy is that Cruz–who has been making noise as a potential contender for the White House in 2016–appears to be putting his chips on the tea party as the future of the Republican party. In doing so, he is aligning himself with insurgents like Rand Paul and, of course, the chief insurgent, Jim DeMint, who helped fund Cruz’s Senate race.
Is this a good bet? I’m dubious. The tea party has a lot in common with the old Ross Perot “United We Stand” bunch. These groups seldom have staying power. Granted, the Kochs’ involvement makes the tea party’s survival more likely, at least in the short run, but in the establishment almost always prevails. It may prove to be the case, though, that Cruz is so appealing that he can transcend the factionalism in the Republican party. The strength of the Republican field in 2016 is that it is filled with big names: Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Bobby Jindal, Paul Ryan, Rick Santorum, and Mike Huckabee. Only Rubio and Cruz qualify as fresh faces, though, and that might be where the rank-and-file look first.
Wait, let me get this straight: A conservative Republican Senator-elect, who worked at a conservative think tank, ran as a conservative, courted conservatives, and beat the overwhelming favorite establishment candidate while pledging to govern as a conservative, has now chosen…a conservative chief of staff?
Sadly, Burka misunderstanding conservatives is nothing new. The idea that conservatives truly believe in low taxes, balanced budgets, and limited government seems entirely alien to Burka. When it comes to describing inter-Republican-Party dynamics, he’s like a color-blind man trying to describe The Wizard of Oz.
And so instead of reaching the obvious conclusion, that Ted Cruz chose a conservative chief of staff because he’s a conservative, Burka prefers to envision imaginary 2016 horse-race jockeying.
