Feb. 3, 2010, 11:02 a.m.
By Greg Giroux
Roll Call Staff

Coats, who retired from the Senate in 1999 and was succeeded by Bayh, released a statement to the Indiana-based Howey Political Report that said he has “become increasingly alarmed and frustrated about the direction of our country and the failure by leaders in Washington to listen to those they were elected to represent.”

Coats, now a senior adviser with the firm King & Spalding, drew support for his Senate bid from Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), who had considered challenging Bayh but recently passed on the race.

“I am very excited about the possibility that former Senator Dan Coats may run for the United States Senate in 2010 and I sincerely hope he does it,” Pence said in a statement. “His integrity and conservative record would make him the ideal candidate for Hoosiers. If he runs, I will support him.”

Meanwhile, in a sign that Democrats are concerned about having another seat put into play this year, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released a statement that attacked Coats as a “federally registered lobbyist whose client lists include banks, private equity firms, and defense contractors.” It also described him as “a Washington DC insider.”

Coats would become the instant frontrunner in a May 4 Republican primary that already has four candidates, including former Rep. John Hostettler and state Sen. Marlin Stutzman.

Coats has about two weeks to collect the signatures of 4,500 Indiana voters, including at least 500 in each of the state’s nine Congressional districts.

December’s unemployment report shows the jobless rate hovering at 10 percent, which fails to reflect the number of working class citizens who have given up entirely on the job hunt.

Our government has spent only 40 percent of the federal stimulus Christmas gift — a gift from the taxpayers to the taxpayers is nothing but a liberal shell game. The spineless, apologetic Obama administration leaves us asking the ever-burning question: Where are the jobs?

Desperate for some good news on the jobs front, Pres. Obama acquiesced to business-minded scholars and acknowledged that it is the private sector that must take the lead in job creation.

He stopped just short of admitting that government meddling in free markets is what keeps the economy languishing.

At the recent White House Jobs Summit, Pres. Obama said he was “open to every demonstrably good idea.” For him, any old idea will do, except for the tried and true.

The folly of Obama’s approach is that he and the Democrats refuse any plan that does not involve:

• Increasing costly entitlements
• Implementing failed protectionist policies
• Hiking punitive taxes on the job creators

Tax cuts for business is a proven means of creating opportunity, jobs and prosperity for all, for it is the entrepreneurs and corporations who do the vast majority of all hiring. Besides, when has a tax cut ever failed? In contrast, the only thing that Democrat plans do is take away an individual’s incentive to prosper. In their unending quest for political power, Democrats are working at a fevered pitch to keep the unemployed unmotivated. Gotta keep their constituents begging for more! Ditto for those on welfare.

Meanwhile, we can expect the White House to hail as a grand accomplishment the marginal improvement in the unemployment rate — from 10.2 to 10.0 percent. For those folks taking Obamanomics 101, the difference is a mere two-tenths of one percent.

The official jobless rate now stands at 10.2 percent as the nation lost 190,000 non-farm jobs last month. Almost 16 million Americans are now jobless. If you count those who dropped from full-time to part-time and those who simply gave up looking for work, the rate escalates to 17.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration signs an extension of jobless benefits that pump more taxpayer money into an economy that instead needs profit-driven incentive to grow. It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a festering wound. And, when those benefits run out, then what?

With a Saturday vote coming on Pelosi Health Care Reform, America demands to know, “Where are the jobs?” And the silence from Washington is deafening.

This month’s chart comes courtesy of InnocentBystanders.net.

Today, Congressman Mike Pence released a video statement urging Americans to “Let Your Voice Be Heard” in speaking out against the Pelosi health care plan — an amalgam of three different House plans — that the Speaker of the House unveiled last week.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CT7xfoSiH5Q

The chart to the right, courtesy of CBS News, shows where we are on the crooked, winding path down the road to a socialist nanny state. And if you thought your elected officials were looking out for you, think again. Health care reform will swallow one-sixth of the U.S. economy and likely result in higher taxes for 46 million middle-class Americans.

Have a look yourself at the 1,990-page piece of legislation.

Also, we have posted a link to Contact My Congressman with all the info you need to tell your Senators and Congressman that government-run health care is a bad deal for America. Our children and grandchildren simply can’t afford it.

Links

• Transcript of Mike Pence’s Video Statement
• CBS News: Health Care Progress Report: November 2
• Pelosi House Bill, Oct. 29, 2009. 1,990 pp. (PDF)

A cable news network under scrutiny by millions is again the king of the hill with competitors far behind. The latest TV ratings data show Fox News is kicking butt and taking names.

One of my favorite web sites that I check weekly is TV by the Numbers. It’s not a political site — just a TV ratings site with charts, graphs and analysis of Nielsen ratings data.

Their cable news section has been a hotbed of activity lately thanks to the White House’s recent trash-talking about Fox News, a cable news organization that, frankly, gets lots of viewing in my household.

The ratings data show I’m not alone. The evening ratings for Fox News is near 2008 election levels, while the ratings for its competitors are down by at least 50 percent.

As an admitted news “junkie,” I do complement Fox News coverage with Internet news aggregators like Google News, which scour and collect news stories from the Internet. A more “low-tech” approach I use is with my TV remote control to check in on CNN, HLN, and yes, even MSNBC. Fox News is more likely to give the viewer a fair shake and not omit or tilt the story, a subconscious tactic I often see on CNN, especially from talking heads Don Lemon and Kyra Phillips.

Links

• Fox News Evening Ratings Near 2008 Election Levels, Competition Down 50%+
• TV by the Numbers
• Google News

U.S. payrolls plummeted by 260,000 in September as the unemployment rate inched upward to 9.8 percent, the highest level since 1983. State and local governments are reeling, and businesses small and large are posting losses.

“Where are the jobs?” is a rightful refrain Republicans like Rep. Mike Pence have been repeating for months now, and the Obama administration continues to lose focus.

In a statement, Pence said:

The American people know that true economic recovery starts with fiscal discipline in Washington, D.C., and tax relief for working families, small businesses and family farms.

The Democrat-led Congress is letting those wise words fall on deaf ears.

Adding insult to idiocy, Vice Pres. Joe Biden gave the not-so-brilliant assessment that “We don’t think that ‘less bad’ is good.”

Entrepreneurialism Not a 4-Letter Word

The problem at hand is a lack of jobs, caused by government meddling in what should be left to individuals acting in their own self-interests. This is free-market capitalism, where the unintended consequence is that everyone benefits.

It’s amazing what happens when liberals tax and spend other people’s money. Just look at how our government has wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on an inefficient pet projects like John Murtha’s airport. The bottom line is that individual “greed” motivates an entrepreneur to allocate his own resources efficiently, where his past profits become his future investments.

It takes money to make money, and coincidentally, it takes workers to make the widgets in the capitalist’s factory. As my economic professor used to say, “What greedy little capitalist piggy wants to stop at making $50,000? $100k? $500k? $1 million?”

Competition is a capitalist’s constant threat. It keeps him in line; it keeps him honest and on his toes. Liberals seem to ignore that fact and are eager to portray entrepreneurs as evil-doers. However, it is their complete and utter ignorance of how the world works that poses threats to our liberty and prosperity.

The Equality of Opportunity

The real evil is the United States’ fiscal irresponsibility that has empowered indirectly other countries, including our enemies, at the expense of blacks and minorities in this, a U.S. welfare state. Instead of economic equality and racial reparations, we need the equality of opportunity, where everyone starts the race from the same starting line.

Add to our nation’s woes a looming crisis in the Middle East, a belligerent, tyrannical dictator in North Korea, and not to mention an ongoing war in Afghanistan. All the while, Democrats keep conjuring up new ways to legislate the way to prosperity. It will never work. I can’t think of a better way to drive investors and jobs out of this country.

Will liberals ever admit that government is the problem?

Instead, these events have captured our imagination in recent months, overshadowing the urgent need for jobs:

Top 10 Reasons the U.S. is Losing Focus on Jobs

10. Cash for Clunkers
9. Health Care Reform
8. Cop, Educated Idiot Meet for Beers
7. Chicago-style Olympics Pitch
6. National Energy Tax
5. Soft Drink, Fatty Food Sin Tax
4. Where to House Guantanamo Bay Prisoners?
3. United Nations Apology Tour
2. A Hate Crimes Bill for Gays and the Transgendered
1. Presidents Clinton and Carter Form Racial Tag-Team

Watch for Pres. Obama to host another prime time news conference soon. Or maybe this time, we’ll be treated to a long-winded speech live from the Oval Office?

Links

• September Unemployment Data
• Pence Statement on Latest Unemployment Figures
• Biden on Unemployment: “Less Bad” Isn’t Good
• Republicans Seize on Jobs as Proof Obama’s Policies Have Failed

Earlier this week, U.S. Congressman Mike Pence gave a brief speech from the House floor in support of a bipartisan resolution to commemorate the horrific events of September 11, 2001:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLmP75Pi-JA

“We rise to pay a debt of gratitude to all those who rushed in when others were rushing out.”

The legislation was introduced by Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Sept. 8, 2009.

Background

On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked and destroyed four civilian aircraft, crashing two of them into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City; a third into the Pentagon outside of Washington, D.C.; and a fourth that crashed in a field near Shanksville, Pa. Nearly 3,000 innocent men, women, and children were murdered in the attacks. Immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, the U.S. Armed Forces moved swiftly against al-Qaeda and the Taliban, which the President and Congress had identified as enemies of America. Many members of the Armed Forces remain abroad, defending the Nation from further terrorist attacks and continuing to battle al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Links

• Pence Remembers September 11 on House Floor
• House Resolution 722