Perhaps we should:

…William Josephson, former head of the New York Law Department Charities Bureau, recently told a joint hearing of House Ways and Means subcommittees that a report from Representatives Wally Herger (R-California) and Dave Reichert (R-Washington) gives reason for Congress, the IRS, and the Government Accountability Office to investigate AARP.

The Republican congressmen claim that AARP is a billion-dollar, for-profit organization where commercial interests outweigh those of its members, and that AARP stands to make huge profits off ObamaCare by adding seniors to Medigap plans upon the loss of Medicare advantage plans…

AARP presents itself as a non-partisan group dedicated to advancing the cause of older Americans – and, for the most part, that is how AARP is treated both by the MSM and the politicians. But AARP’s support for ObamaCare – which is, at best, flawed and doesn’t offer much long-term hope for seniors in the matter of health care – should have rung alarm bells. It does indicate that AARP has ceased to be a non-partisan, advocacy group and has, instead, just become another locus of power and money in DC which is just looking after itself. Only an investigation can settle the matter.

Additionally, we do need to figure out some way to both allow such groups their fair say in political debates without risking them becoming the merest of hidebound, self-serving interests. One thought might be to ban such groups from selling insurance, but then you realize that groups like the Knights of Columbus sell insurance, too. It is tricky to figure out. And, so, initially, our task is just to find out the facts – does AARP have a vested interest in the changes of ObamaCare? Will AARP stand to increase its wealth if ObamaCare is fully implemented? Did such considerations cause AARP to back ObamaCare? These are the questions we need answers to – and I hope Congress will get them for us. We cannot afford to have a group working for itself while living in the public mind as a selfless advocacy group.

Over at NRO’s The Corner Lindsey Burke notes one of the provisions of the budget deal:

In a momentous victory for D.C. schoolchildren, Speaker John Boehner succeeded in reauthorizing the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program in the long-term continuing resolution to which the Obama administration agreed just before midnight. As Kathryn noted late last night, “John Boehner just walked Barack Obama into being a civil-rights leader.”…

This is a big deal – and it shows that Boehner has both his heart and mind in the right place. That even in the most intense, political battles, he remembers that there are genuine people out there who need help. This is a far cry from the Democrats using suffering as a political prop…this is actually doing something which will help. And Boehner got it past the Democrats.

This also illustrates, again, how scared the Democrats are of a shut down…that they let slide this program with its inherent threat to corrupt, union control of education indicates that they’ll pretty much do whatever we want, as long as we press it to the risk of a shut down.

Some times a picture really is worth 1,000 words:

Grassroots efforts at $335 a week. Well, did you really think that anyone supports the right to an abortion? I mean, outside a few fanatics, who is going to volunteer their time and effort to advance something which has as its end result a murdered child?

And so it is with most liberal ideas – no one volunteers to protect pornography, vile popular culture, high taxes, wasteful spending. You either have to dupe people in to coming out for you, or pay them…this ad shows that at least in the abortion debate, our liberals have opted for cold, hard cash to raise the troops.

HAT TIP: The American Catholic

A lot of discussion about the deal to keep government running – some saying Boehner blew it, others saying he was a master strategist. The big debate, right now, is over who won it. That, to me, is entirely unimportant. The most important thing is who lost: Obama and his Democrats.

First and foremost it must be remembered that if the Democrats thought they would have won the battle over a government shut down, they would have shut it down in a heart beat. Absolutely no question about that – the only reason they agreed to a deal is because they must have done some internal polling and it showed the American people trending towards the GOP or, at best, at least not trending in favor of the Democrats in a shut down situation. No, I don’t have proof of this – no one ever will. But it is none the less certain – Democrats agreed to a deal because they felt it was the best option in regards to their political future.

One has to think about what the deal did – it turned a $40 billion Democrat spending increase in to a genuine, $38 billion cut. Remember, most of the time when we talk about cuts to federal spending it is really just a reduction in the rate of growth. In Democrat-land, which has ruled such debates until just recently, if you spent $10 billion last year and would like to spend $20 billion this year, then if you end up spending $19 billion, that is a $1 billion cut. Times have changed – and now we have a genuine reduction in the amount of spending. Not much. Not nearly enough. But Democrats gave in on it rather than shut down the government. This is a first.

And, so, we know what to do – keep forcing things to a shut down crisis and watch them back down. No, they won’t back down enough and we daren’t press too far, too fast lest our desire to cut back fire on us. But, keep pressing. Cut, all the time. Every bill that gets sent up to the Senate should have some form of deficit reduction in it – and make them real cuts. That way when the inevitable deal is cut, we can still carry home at least some genuine reduction in spending.

The people are on our side, the Democrats are running scared – their whole existence now is just to hold on to as much Big Government as they can…our job is to keep pushing the limit and then work for victory in 2012.

One must agree, Donald Trump as a candidate would be endlessly entertaining, at the least. So, NY Times writer goes after Trump – Trump fires right back:

Even before Gail Collins was with the New York Times, she has written nasty and derogatory articles about me. Actually, I have great respect for Ms. Collins in that she has survived so long with so little talent. Her storytelling ability and word usage (coming from me, who has written many bestsellers), is not at a very high level. More importantly, her facts are wrong!..

This, of course, in response to Trump raising the birth certificate issue. Just to be clear before we get started: My view is that Barack Obama was born in the United States. Furthermore, even if someone could demonstrate that he was born in Kenya, the fact that he was born to an American mother is sufficient, in my view, to make him a native-born American. Certainly he’s as much an American as any kid of an illegal immigrant just born here today. What is happening here, however, is that the refusal to simply dispose of the issue is keeping it alive…and allowing someone like Trump to make a lot of hay about it.

As to why Obama won’t simply clear up the matter is beyond me. I don’t know. Perhaps he is just annoyed with the questions and doesn’t want to show respect to those raising them? I can understand that because if anyone were to ever question the status of my birth, I’d tell them to go jump in a lake. It is highly doubtful that I would ever go to the trouble to find the original of my birth certificate and hand it off to critics. On the other hand, I’m not President of the United States and thus there isn’t much interest out there in where, precisely, I was born.

I’m not quite sure what Trump’s real plan is. It could just be media-mongering…the guy might like being in the lime light so much that he’ll use any means possible to get in to it. On the other hand, he has very correctly identified some of the problems facing the nation – especially in his harping on China’s unfair trade practices. It might be that he really is seriously thinking of running for President. One thing I have noted talking to people who love this nation but who aren’t political junkies, they are liking the fact that Donald Trump doesn’t hide behind mealy-mouthed words…he says what is on his mind.

In this, Trump could end up being formidable – whether he enters the GOP primary or seeks a third party run. And if he does really run for office, it could be that bringing up the birth certificate issue was just a clever means of getting him on the political map. How so? Well, regardless of what pundits and liberals and conservatives like me think about Obama’s nativity, for a large and (apparently) growing segment of the population the questions about Obama’s birth are just part of a pattern about Obama…the utter dishonesty of his biography, the secretiveness about his associations and accomplishments, his endless failure to level with the American people about what he really wants to do. When you want to attack a man in politics, its best to pick one, simple stick to start with…Trump has picked his, and its working.

From the IMF:

Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), issued the following statement today on Portugal:

“The IMF has received a request for financial assistance from the Portuguese authorities and we stand ready to join the effort, together with our European partners, to help restore growth and financial stability in Portugal…”

The primary support for the IMF comes from the United States – and so, dear Americans, if you want to know who will be on the hook to help pay off Banksters who loaned Portugal too much money, look in the mirror. Yes, you can be mad at the Portuguese, if you like. They did go on a spending binge using borrowed money to give themselves a life style they hadn’t earned by hard work…but, then again, they wouldn’t have been able to do it if there weren’t bankers whose greed is only exceeded by their stupidity.

Think about it – from what I’ve read, Portugal, a nation of about 10 million people, needs $99 billion to square accounts. There is no way on earth that a population of 10 million – which is, by the way, declining because of a collapsed birth rate – can ever pay off $99 billion while also finding money for, you know?, living. It just can’t be done…but the Banksters loaned them that absurd amount and now want their money. Meanwhile, the Ruling Class is frightened that if the Banksters don’t get it, financial collapse will ensue with dangerous political consequences for, well, the Ruling Class. And, so, to the taxpayers they go…and not just us; they will also be hitting up European taxpayers, too.

More debt and more money printing…higher inflation and lower economic growth. All done because stupid people simply don’t want to face the consequences of their actions. Really, at best they are only buying some time. They are hoping against hope that some how, some way, a magical spurt of economic growth will ensue to create the phenomenal amount of new wealth necessary to both service the debt and make the newly printed money worth something. It won’t happen – we are doomed to financial collapse. The only question is how bad it will be – from really bad (the best-case scenario, right now) to utterly catastrophic (which is what we’ll get if we don’t stop this nonsense right quick).

Just burns me up – that it is happening and that there is little or nothing we can do to stop it before Election Day, 2012.

HAT TIP: Zero Hedge

Well, they (foolishly) averted a shut down:

After a long day of trading offers, the White House and House Republicans reached agreement Friday night on a budget framework that would cap 2011 appropriations near or below $1.050 trillion while cutting domestic and foreign aid by more than $40 billion from the rate of spending at the beginning of this Congress.

Behind the closed doors of special meeting of the Republican Conference, Speaker John Boehner presented the package to his party as at least an agreement in principle and said at one point: “We have a deal.” The Senate should now feel confident enough to move ahead with a stop gap spending bill to avert—or at least shorten—any shutdown beginning at midnight…

The only reason the Democrats agreed to a deal is because they figured they’d lose if the government shut down – that is absolute. Entirely political animals who don’t care about the fate of America, Democrats would have shut the government down for a month if they thought they’d gain an advantage out of it. We could have – and very much should have – pressed them to do it…we could have got $100 billion in cuts out of them.

But, still, we did get some cuts – and now its on to the fight over, first, the debt ceiling and then, more importantly, the 2012 budget. At least it is now known – and I hope the GOP leadership is paying attention – that the Democrats will not go for a shut down…they are deathly afraid of the American people figuring out that a shut down doesn’t affect American life. So, press them harder, next time.

Big question: How in heck did this get made?

But timely, none the less. Some times you really do have to commit your life, your fortune and your sacred honor for something more important than yourself.

Here’s why – from Open Secrets:

…In 2010, Planned Parenthood and a California affiliate together spent more than $700,000 on federal lobbying efforts, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis of federal lobbying records finds. By comparison, all other organizations that primarily advocate for abortion rights collectively spent $247,280 on federal lobbying efforts during the same period, according to the Center’s research.

Planned Parenthood’s political influence efforts hardly stop at lobbying.

The organization’s political action committee, for example, donated more than $148,000 to federal candidates — almost all Democrats — during the 2010 election cycle. The PAC spent more than $443,000 overall.

Planned Parenthood also recorded $905,796 in independent expenditures during the 2010 cycle — money spent in support of, or in opposition to, federal political candidates, largely through advertisements. The top beneficiaries of this money were Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.)…

And how can Planned Parenthood afford this massive effort? Because PP gets about a third of its annual budget from the federal government. Right around $360 million per year. When you have that kind of “free” money coming in, shelling out $1.6 million for politics is easy. You can claim all you want that no federal funds are used for abortions or for politics, but the PP budget is the PP budget…you have to budget for salaries, insurance, equipment, buildings, abortions and lobbying. If Reid the Magic Money Fairy comes along and gives you a bag of money to cover, say, salaries, insurance and equipment, then the money you would have spent on that can go for other things – like abortions and politics.

Democrats are fighting for PP not because of health care. Believe it or not, you can get a cancer screening – for free – plenty of other places; additionally, if PP is cut off from federal funds, they’ll still have more than $700 million to spend…not exactly chump change and that will cover a lot of cancer screenings. No, Democrats are fighting in the last ditch on this because almost all the money PP spends on politics goes to Democrats – in return for showering $360 million of other peoples money on PP, Democrats get a $1.6 million payout which works out to a clear profit for the Democrats of, well, $1.6 million. Its a great deal for PP and Democrats. Not so much for everyone else.

Meanwhile, of course, PP is actually quite a nauseating and inhuman organization. They are America’s largest abortion provider. They cover up rape and child abuse. They eagerly assist in other criminal, sexual activity. They are dishonorable and dishonest and no decent person should have anything to do with PP. A cut off of federal funds is just an exercise in basic morality and common sense. Naturally, Democrats fight against it.

HAT TIP: PJ Tatler

From The Hill:

…A spokesman for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Friday morning said spending cuts, not social policy provisions, are the “largest issue” preventing an agreement to keep the government open.

“While nothing will be decided until everything is decided, the largest issue is still spending cuts,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said in an email. “The American people want to cut spending to help the private sector create jobs — and the Democrats that run Washington don’t.”…

Democrats are already in war mode on this – using the tired, worn out play book of the left that any spending cut is an attack upon the poor and helpless. We might as well get in to war mode, too – start attacking all the monumentally stupid spending the Democrats want to keep. Let’s have it out – a nice, contentious and long-term battle, and then let the people ultimately decide between the sides. This is a fight I’m sure we will win.

Think about this – we’re going to spend more than a trillion dollars more in 2012 than we spent in 2008. On what? I mean, seriously, its not like we weren’t spending bags of money in 2008 – what additional, vital government tasks require us to spend more than a trillion dollars more than we spent in 2008? Anyone got an answer for that? Can anyone say what government is doing now which (a) wasn’t done in 2008 and (b) is vital to the lives, safety and liberty of the American people?

Mountains of flapdoodle have been piled on to government…and the Democrats are merely trying to defend this, because that is how they buy votes and pay off campaign donors. It is time for this to come to an and – and it won’t come to an end unless we fight it out. Shut it down. Don’t give an inch – until Democrats agree to stop bankrupting America, make no deals.