Archive for January, 2018
“My Hands Are Tied” – John Carney
“It’s a simple math problem. Our long-term growth rate for state spending is two times the growth rate of our revenues. We have to find a long-term way to limit our spending growth.”
The more I think about Carney’s speech the more I seethe. The sentence above gets to the heart of it. Wealthy Delawareans are more wealthy than they’ve ever been. The corporations benefiting from our courts and tax payer generosity are notching record profits. And yet, in Carney’s mind there is just no way to increase revenue. It is simply impossible. Why mention it at all? Any and all revenue increases are off the table at the outset.
Open Thread Jan. 20: Why Delaware Democrats Are Vulnerable
Want to know why Republicans in Delaware will have a chance in November, blue wave notwithstanding? Employment numbers. While growth has slowly but steadily improved nationally over the past two years, Delaware’s rate remains stagnant. No matter what happens elsewhere, that’s a problem the state’s ruling Democrats have resisted fixing. Of all the wounds inflicted […]
Lead Us, Bots, Into Temptation
As Puck noted on another thread, Twitter yesterday released the news that at least 50,000 Russian bots were tweeting about the U.S. election. To which I reply, so what? If Russian “interference” in the election amounts to nothing more than a handful of people at a troll farm pretending to be tens of thousands of […]
Song Of The Day: Jan. 20, 2018
Needed a shot of adrenaline after an amazing show by Tinsley Ellis at the Arden Gild Hall last night. Paging the Blasters:
Reactions to Carney’s State of the State
I listened. When you hear him speak, it is so plodding and dopey that you have to wonder if it is an act. A Forest Gump impression designed to lower expectations. An “under promise” set up for an “over deliver” approach to governing. Then you see him in action and you realize that is is no act.
Some smart commenter over at BlueDelaware said that. Other people said other stuff.
Well known pussy hound addresses “Christians”
Anti-abortion-rights activists who gathered at the National Mall for the 45th annual rally known as the March for Life heard a history-making address from the man who has become an unlikely champion of their cause: President Trump. Trump said he was “honored” and “proud” to be addressing the march. “The March for Life,” he said, […]
Open Thread Jan. 19: Dollars or Dreamers
Whatever else the government shutdown is about, it isn’t about saving money. Think tanks both liberal and conservative (well, libertarian, anyway) have run the numbers, and both found that expelling the 800,000 people who were illegally brought into the country as young children would cost at least $215 billion, according to the libertarian Cato Institute. […]
Here’s How Scared They Are
The defining characteristic of most modern politicians is cowardice. They are scared of everything, most especially the opinions of the people they supposedly serve. That’s in the best of times. In the worst of times — if, say, you’re a Republican Congressman in a suburban district that Trump lost to Hillary Clinton, as Pennsylvania Rep. Ryan […]
Delaware, Shell Corporations, Donald Trump’s Lawyer, And The Porn Star
The Wall Street Journal reports tonight that Donald Trump’s lawyer established a Delaware LLC, ‘Essential Consultants’, for the specific purpose of paying off actress Stormy Daniels to keep her from talking about her alleged affair with Donald Trump, and hiding the transactions from the public. The lawyer in question, Michael Cohen, reportedly chose the Delaware […]
It’s Official. Bernard Brady To Retire
The finest public servant I’ve ever known is retiring after 39 years. He has served as the Secretary Of The Senate for something like 30 of those years. He did the job even though he didn’t have the title before that. Anyone who knows Bernard knows that he is one of the kindest and most […]
Comment Rescue: All due respect, WTF Tom?
The comment below is thought provoking. It isn’t provoking the right person (Tom Carper) but it provoked me to think about why Tom Carper is running yet again?
He doesn’t need the money. Public life has made him richer than the most decadent sultan of the old Ottoman Empire.
He doesn’t have some burning desire to take on the GOP. That truth is established on a daily basis.
He doesn’t have corporate paymasters that need to be further enriched. Certainly after this most recent tax “reform” even his most rapacious corporate paymasters are saying “enough already.”
What is it? Why doesn’t Carper retire?
Tom Carper is riveting, watching him or reading the text of an interview one is overcome with the greatness of this man. Term limits? And we hold up these Senator for life types as role models for countries suffering from Politicians/Strongmen for Life. Tom look long and hard at Matt Denn’s decision.
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