Because now its going to go broke even sooner than expected – woohoo! Extra bad national bankruptcy! Double Plus Good!

…according to the CBO, per Heritage, “the Social Security surplus will only be $16 billion this year, and only $3 billion next year”; it will show a deficit, or “go negative,” in 2011.

How can this be happening? I thought Pelosi, Reid, and the left all assured us several years ago that there was “no crisis.”

That they did. In May 2005, during the Bush administration’s weak attempt to build support for partial privatization of the system, “Pelosi accused President Bush of creating a crisis and manufacturing an issue.” Before that, in late 2004, as it became clear that Bush would try to mount such an effort, the pair jointly said, “We cannot support any plan that relies on massive and irresponsible increases in debt, which could destabilize financial markets and lead to large tax increases.” The current irony of that joint statement is provided at no extra charge.

The fact is that a crisis has been building for decades. It has seemingly come out of nowhere only because the POR (Pelosi, Obama, Reid – ed note) economy’s recession has sharply reduced Social Security tax receipts. Any recovery in collections arising from an economic comeback will necessarily build on a smaller base. That is why Social Security is on track to go negative six years earlier than was anticipated just a year ago. If February’s monstrous stimulus package doesn’t reignite job growth, it will probably go negative in fiscal 2010. The “save” part of Team Obama’s risible “save or create jobs” goal will do nothing to increase Social Security tax collections.

Once Social Security goes negative, we will have come to the point so many have long feared we would reach. To cover the system’s cash drains, the government will have to, in some combination, raise taxes, borrow more, or reduce benefits, year after year after year.

More importantly and tragically, the “no crisis until 2040 or so” crowd, which has been lying all along, will have accomplished what I believe has been their long-term goal, which is making even partially privatizing Social Security politically and financially unachievable. It appears that they’ve “won.” The economy and personal liberty have lost.

We certainly won’t be able to borrow, and no Democrat will ever think of a genuine cut in spending, so the only thing Democrats will be willing to do it raise taxes…and it doesn’t matter if any particular tax increase merely pushes off economic doomsday by two years…that is the time frame Democrats live in: election by election. To them, its ok to “solve” the problem for just one election cycle because, if they win, then they can just “solve” it again – we are dealing with the most monumentally stupid people to ever be involved in human governance, dear people.

All it would have taken is just a small bit of partial privatization and this would have been avoided – but Democrats were afraid that if we, the people, had an extra 1% of our income to invest, we’d be the people making a mess of it!

Jennifer Rubin takes a stab at it:

…Democrats and their media spinners, who just days before the race declared this would prove the president’s enduring popularity and the electoral potency of his stimulus plan, have grown hushed. They mumble that it doesn’t mean much of anything. Just move along; nothing to see here.

But in fact it may mean something important. When a district which voted Democratic by a 62-38% margin drops to 50-50% in five months something is happening.

Stu Rothenberg declared “Tuesday night offered Republicans a small but important bit of evidence that they have turned the corner.” And he disputed the Democratic spin that registration figures favoring the GOP make this a supposedly “safe” district for Republicans, noting that Barack Obama and Kirsten Gillibrand carried the district in 2008 as did Democrats Eliot Spitzer and Hillary Clinton in 2006, and Sen. Charles Schumer in 2004. He notes:

Talk of a stunning Murphy surge from far back is ridiculous and ignores normal campaign dynamics. … I can’t see why Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (Md.) and DNC Chairman Tim Kaine would be confident that Murphy will expand his lead. I don’t know who will eventually win, but more Republican than Democratic absentee ballots have been received, according to GOP sources…

…The National Journal’s Hotline echoed this theme:

But whether Scott Murphy (D) or Jim Tedisco (R) ultimately emerges from the morass of attys and absentee ballots as the NY-20 victor, new polling suggests GOPers may be the ones with bragging rights. … But almost as important for GOPers, our polling shows that indies are now up for grabs. That bears out what we saw in NY-20, where, according to the last Siena poll, Tedisco actually led among indies. When was the last time GOPers were competitive among these voters? It’s been awhile.

The party failed in ‘06 and ‘08 because its base was apathetic and because indies moved en masse to Dems. If the base reactivates, and if the party can continue to stay competitive among indies, ‘10 could get interesting.

What the results show, to me, is that the 30 or Democrats who are currently representing seats which were fairly safe GOP prior to 2006 are in deep trouble as long as Obama is pushing hard core leftism in economics. While such districts may not be open to a GOP comeback based on social issues, they are open based on economics – and, right now, Obamunism sucks eggs with fiscal conservatives and economic libertarians. A properly crafted GOP message on what will almost certainly be the core issue of 2010 – the economy – could lead to a GOP gain of 30+ seats, and perhaps even a GOP House majority. The Senate is more problematic as there are vulnerable GOPers…but now that Dodd is in trouble and NY and IL will have Senate races, things might work out to a significant GOP gain there, as well (though I’d put a GOP Senate majority in the realm of “miracle”).

As the economy continues to tank and 2010 approaches, look for the vulnerable Democrats to seek cover – but there are also stories out there where the left, convinced that Democrats will win big in 2010 (where they get this idea I have no clue – its monumentally stupid, but leftists seem to take it as an article of faith that the nation has swung hard left and will just become more so as time goes on) are already putting pressure on centrist Democrats to toe the Obamunist line. Caught between two fires, “blue dog” Democrats might be crushed utterly…with the few survivors switching to GOP after the 2010 election.

As for what is best for the GOP – I’d like to see 46 GOP Senators and 210 House GOPers…just enough to thwart the worst of Obamnuism, but not enough to allow Democrats off the hook for full responsibility as we head towards 2012. If Obama’s programs work out as bad as I think they will then a Democrat-controlled government in 2012 will be toxic and if we GOPers then craft a good campaign we’ll win a crushing victory, and then have the power to revolutionize American politics by making American government more in tune with the Founder’s principles.

Iowahawk strikes again.

The news story:

Ann Holmes Redding has what could be called a crisis of faiths.

For nearly 30 years, Redding has been an ordained minister in the Episcopal Church. Her priesthood ended Wednesday when she was defrocked.

The reason? For the past three years Redding has been both a practicing Christian and a Muslim…

…The Diocese of Rhode Island, where Redding was ordained, told her to leave either her new Muslim faith or the ministry. A diocese statement said Bishop Geralyn Wolf found Redding to be “a woman of utmost integrity. However, the Bishop believes that a priest of the Church cannot be both a Christian and a Muslim.”

For crying out loud, if you ordain women as priests you’re already pretty far off the Christian ranch; when you ordain as a Bishop a man who left his wife in order to have a gay love affair you’ve left Christianity waaaay the heck back there…and so what is the problem with this woman being a Moslem and a priest? She’s not supposed to be the latter, anyways, and if one is willing to violate the commands of God like that, what harm in denying God?

Oh, I know she believes she’s not denying God – but from a Christian perspective, she is: Christians believe that Jesus is God; God from God, light from light, true God from true God, as it were. To hold to Mohammad’s heresy one has to first deny the divinity of Christ. Its a rather curious thing for the Episcopalian Church to find this as the thing to stand firm on – go have an abortion on your way to the gay pride parade, and the Episcopal Church has no problem…become a Moslem, something no more heretical than the Episcopal Church at its inception, and that is out of bounds?

Very strange – but, also, a useful illustration as to just why “mainline” Protestant churches are in rapid decline.

Interesting:

Former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, became Catholic on Sunday, the first of thousands that will join the Church at Easter.

The U.S. bishops’ conference reported Tuesday that around 150,000 are scheduled to join the Catholic Church this Easter.

The press release noted that “the numbers show the growth and vitality of the Catholic Church in places where it has traditionally been a small minority.”

The Archdiocese of Atlanta estimates that 513 catechumens, who have never been baptized, and 2,195 candidates, who were baptized in another Christian community and are seeking full communion with the Catholic Church, will enter the Church this year, not including infant baptisms.

Tony Blair, Robert Bork, Sam Brownback…rumor has it that former President Bush is on the path to conversion, and Mikhail Gorbachev was spotted praying at a shrine to St. Francis of Assisi not too long ago…now Newt Gingrich enters the fold. As a Catholic “revert” (born Catholic, drifted away, came back) I can partially understand what these people go through as they enter the Church, but as someone who has never been other than Catholic, I don’t have any insight into just why they turned towards Catholicism…other than, of course, the workings of the Holy Spirit.

What a fizzle:

At Democratic National Committee headquarters yesterday morning, party workers were loading minivans with Xerox boxes, each addressed to a different congressional office. It was a classic campaign canvassing operation — except that the next election is 19 months away. “Supporters of President Obama’s Budget to Hand Deliver 642,000 Pledges Gathered from Around the Country to Capitol Hill,” announced the Democrats’ news release.

CNN and the Huffington Post dutifully reported the DNC’s claim of 642,000 pledges. Network cameras and the BBC showed up to film the operation. “We had one of the big printers downstairs smoking last night,” party spokesman Brad Woodhouse said.

In fact, the canvassing of Obama’s vaunted e-mail list of 13 million people resulted in just 114,000 pledges — a response rate of less than 1 percent. Workers gathered 100,000 more from street canvassing. The DNC got to 642,000 by making three photocopies of each pledge so that each signer’s senators and representative could get one.

I heard a snippet of the training video for this and I was utterly disgusted by it – mindless robots pledging themselves to Obama. Its a pity we can’t strip them of their citizenship – people with the minds of slaves should not be participants in our democratic republic. We expended hundreds of thousands of lives to end slavery in this nation, now we’ve got hundreds of thousands of people eager to have shackles bolted to them, body and soul. At least those who were held to slavery in the past yearned to be free…these slaves are afraid to be free and are seeking a master.

The stunts go on – Obama and his allies seeking to jury-rig popular applause for Obamunism. Fawning media, slick Hollywood productions, endless photo ops and sound bites. Obama is building a fairy tale – and his ardent supporters are falling for it hook, line and sinker.

Well, reality is coming – we’ll see how things look for these robots in November of 2010.

Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, was finally indicted today on federal corruption charges.

Several aides were also charged in the 75-page indictment filed late Thursday afternoon in federal court.

“Since 2002, even before he was first elected governor … Governor Rod Blagojevich and a circle of his closest aides … engaged in a scheme to deprive the people of Illinois of honest government,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

Blagojevich, 52, was indicted on 16 felony counts, including racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud, extortion conspiracy, attempted extortion and making false statements to federal agents.

He allegedly abused his office in numerous matters to seek money, campaign contributions, and employment for himself and others, in exchange for official actions, including trying to leverage his authority to appoint a United States senator, U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said in a statement.

Here is the full indictment.

The news story:

ALBANY—Now it’s Tedisco by 12!

As voting machines are re-canvassed, Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco has picked up 37 votes, evaporating Democrat Scott Murphy’s lead in the race to replace Kirsten Gillibrand in Congress, according to county election officials who are conducting a recanvass.

Tedisco now has 77,236; Murphy has 77,224.

Tedisco trailed by 25 votes yesterday after a recanvass in Columbia County. Elections workers in Rensselaer, Dutchess, Columbia and Otsego counties looked over their tallies today. Other counties will do so in the coming days.

Murphy led on election night by 59 votes.

Now we’ll see if the Democrat steal-an-election machine starts to swing into gear as it has in the Minnesota Senate race…

Nothing like a nasty, internecine battle in the Democrat party to warm a GOP heart:

“Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother.” That’s what President Barack Obama said to Rep. Peter DeFazio in a closed-door meeting of the House Democratic Caucus last week, according to the Associated Press.

A few weeks ago, Mr. DeFazio voted against the administration’s stimulus bill. The comment from Mr. Obama was a presidential rebuke and part of a new, hard-nosed push by the White House to pressure Congress to adopt the president’s budget. He has mobilized outside groups and enlisted forces still in place from the Obama campaign.

Senior presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett and her chief of staff, Michael Strautmanis, are in regular contact with MoveOn.Org, Americans United for Change and other liberal interest groups. Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina has collaborated with Americans United for Change on strategy and even ad copy. Ms. Jarrett invited leaders of the liberal interest groups to a White House social event with the president and first lady to kick off the lobbying campaign.

Its targets were initially Republicans, as team Obama ran ads depicting the GOP as the “party of no.” But now the fire is being trained on Democrats worried about runaway spending.

Americans United is going after Democrats who are skeptical of Mr. Obama’s plans to double the national debt in five years and nearly triple it in 10. The White House is taking aim at lawmakers in 12 states, including Democratic Sens. Kent Conrad, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor. MoveOn.Org is running ads aimed at 10 moderate Senate and House Democrats. And robocalls are urging voters in key districts to pressure their congressman to get in line.

Obama is not just President of the United States, but Il Duce of the Party-State, and just as with certain other such leaders of the past, he’s determined that the Führerprinzip be obligatory on all party underlings. As Obamunism is now to be the bearer of the American National Ideal, to be opposed to Obama is to be, in a large sense, opposed to America.

At least, that is what Obama appears to believe, even if he doesn’t articulate it like that. He’s a bloody, little fascist and a growing megalomaniac. His wife’s no better – if I hear one more story about Mrs. Obama’s arms and how beautiful and sexual she is, I’ll puke. She’s not that good looking, guys and gals, but it does seem to be a requirement upon the MSM to laud her to the skies as the price for continued White House access. I never thought I’d live to see the day when so many of my fellow Americans would abase themselves before a mere man – and a not too clever man, at that.

Will the Democrats stand up to him? Time will tell – I hope that some of them do show some guts here and tell the President to go jump in lake. He needs to be brought down a peg or two and it needs to be rammed home to him that he’s just a man – no better than anyone else out there.

Because they don’t want this albatross ’round their necks in 2010:

A new Quinnipiac University poll shows Connecticut U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd now trailing former Republican Congressman Rob Simmons and two other possible GOP challengers for the 2010 election.

The survey of nearly 2,000 registered voters also shows that Dodd is experiencing his lowest job approval numbers, with only 33 percent approving of the job that he’s doing and 58 percent disapproving.

Pollster Douglas Schwartz says a 33 percent job approval rating is unheard of for a 30-year incumbent.

The poll shows Simmons defeating Dodd by a 50 percent to 34 percent margin. Dodd trails state Sen. Sam Caligiuri 41 percent to 37 percent, and former ambassador Tom Foley 43 percent to 35 percent.

With polls showing Dodd trailing the second tier GOPers, the Democrats have to face up to the fact that Dodd is an almost sure-loser next year – only a complete GOP melt down in Connecticut would spare Dodd. So, what will Democrats do? In an honorable party there would be a backroom request to Dodd to retire gracefully but, if he decided to run, the party would loyally back him because of his long service to the party through thick and thin. Democrats aren’t honorable – so, look for them to try to force Dodd out the way they scratched Senator Toricelli (D-NJ) when he started to show himself as a sure-loser.

The bell weather for 2010 will be the Northeast – if the GOP continues to gain strength in that area where the GOP was forced to the brink of extinction in 2006/08, then it will be a sign the GOP will sweep the nation in 2010.