The Dangerous Lame Duck

The best result of the midterm election was Kentucky Senator-elect Rand Paul saying that he wanted to form a Tea Party caucus combining Tea Party Members of both the Senate & House.  This will provide the bedrock for the real change we need for America.

 

Now before we focus on Tea Party caucuses or the 2012 presidential election we have to get past the dangerous lame duck session of Congress that will convene shortly.  In particular we should ask why Congress left town before the election without addressing the following points - but of course you know why.

 

1.  The current continuing resolution expires on December 3.  If the lame duck Congress does not extend funding for continuing operations some programs will expire or will be severely disrupted possibly resulting in a government shutdown.   

 

2.  Just about as big a point to the lame duck as #1 above is the fact that the so-called Bush tax (rate) cuts of 2001 & 2003 will expire on December 31 if no congressional action is taken thereby resulting in an automatic average income tax increase of about $2,000 a year for a typical family of four. 

 

3.  Part of the expiration of the above referenced Bush tax (rate) cut program is the expansion of the Alternative Minimum Tax that will ensnare 29 million people in 2010 up from 4 million people in 2009 &  the return of the federal estate tax that drops the federal exemption to a level of $1 million with a 55% tax rate.

 

4.  Unemployment benefits that were extended under the Bush administration are also set to expire this month without congressional action.

 

5.  Medicare payments to doctors are expected to fall 20% without congressional action.

 

Every bit as insulting as Congress leaving town with the above points in limbo is the fact that BO's Budget Commission (appointed by executive order after being rejected last winter by the Senate) will not report until December.  How are you feeling if you have been out of work for months leading into years waiting for some Congress or Commission to remove @ least some of the uncertainty that will encourage entrepreneurs to invest their money to possibly create good paying jobs thereby putting you back to work?

 

Of course the lame duck could be much more dangerous than indicated above if they take up & pass such measures as union card check & comprehensive immigration programs with no regard for the consequences because the ousted Members have kicked the socialist can down the road as far as they can.

 

To give us a chance against the professional career politicians described above we should encourage our Tea Party caucus to work with the large coalition of newly elected Governors & other responsible ones in redrawing the 2010 decennial census redistricting lines following the advice of George Hazel who provides an answer to gerrymandering when he writes "Technology now affords the possibility of fair, non partisan redistricting by computer.  Computer software would only identify numbers of citizens & their location, not their political party, gender, or race.  The districts would be designed to have the smallest perimeter, thus producing compact districts."