DC Democrats are the richest pols

Wealth is not in and of itself bad, but when the wealthy run around wildly spending other people’s money that’s practically criminal. So, we find it less than amusing that the spendthrift Democrats — check Omaba’s recent spending spree — are also the richest elected officials in Washington, DC.

The Web political publication, The Hill , just issued its list of the 50 richest politicians in DC, and eight of the top 10 are Democrats, which we list below.

Of the 50 richest members of Congress, The Hill says 26 are Democrats and 24 are Republicans.

What’s especially irritating is that Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry heads the list and he’s the guy we recently wrote about because he docks his new $450,000 sailing yacht in Rhode Island to avoid paying the Bay State’s sales and excise taxes. What a hypocritical cheapskate!

Of course, after the story hit every newspaper in America and many abroad, Kerry said he’d pay the $70,000 in taxes even though his boat would still be moored in RI. Kerry is the poster boy for adage, “Do as I say, not as I do.”

Here are the top 10 richest elected officials according to The Hill , where you can read the full list.

S. John Kerry, D-MA, 167M
R. Darrell Issa, R-CA, 164M
R. Jane Harman, D-CA, 112M
S. Jay Rockefeller, D-WV, 80M
S. Mark Warner, D-VA, 72M
R. Jared Polis, D-CO, 71M
R. Vern Buchanan, R-FL, 50M
S. Frank Lautenberg, D-NJ, 48M
S. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, 43M
R. Harry Teague, D-NM, 40M

Richest Politician Skirted Taxes

It only took two days of bad press to get the Democrataic Senate hypocrite John Kerry to cave in and pay his tax bill, as the AP reported.

Kerry is a free spender of tax dollars, but when it comes to his own money, he's obviously a bit tighter. Of course, all of that money really isn't Kerry's, a good bit of it comes from his wife who inherited the Heinz ketchup fortune from her late husband, also a politician.

Kerry recently commission the 76-foot yacht, christened Isabel, at a boatyard in Rhode Island. Therefore, it was naturally convenient for Kerry to have the boat legally moored in Rhode Island. The location also allows Kerry to avoid paying the sales tax plus annual excise tax, which total about $70,000 in Massachusetts.

If Kerry were only as stingy with tax dollars that would be nice.

We might note, too, that the Isabel is said to spend a good bit of her summer moored off of Nantucket Island, the millionaires island, where the Kerry family has a summer home.

A couple of broadcast reports the Kerry Yacht Fiasco and interesting. One is WBZ-TV, Boston, and the other isFox News'

US Says Repeal ObamaCare

60% of US voters want Obamacare repealed — “the second straight week that support for repeal of Obamacare is at 60% or above,” according to the Rasmussen Report.
And...
36% Oppose repeal.
45% Strongly Favor repeal.
27% Strongly Oppose repeal.

Plus…
62% believe Obamacare will increase the federal budget deficit.
58% think it will raise the cost of healthcare.
51% say the new law will hurt the quality of healthcare.
(Rasmussen 5-31-10)

Obama’s disaster: Unemployment

Gallup Daily tracking finds that 20.3% of the U.S. workforce was underemployed in March — a slight uptick from the relatively flat January and February numbers.

A rise in the percentage of part-timers wanting to work full time (from 9.2% to 9.9%) is responsible for the March increase in underemployment.

Unemployment saw a slight, but insignificant, decline in March.

Six in 10 underemployed Americans are not hopeful they will find work or move from part-time to full-time work in the next four weeks. That translates to 12% of the workforce that is both underemployed and not hopeful they will find their desired amount of work.

The lack of change suggests that underemployed Americans anticipated long-term difficulties in finding work well before the administration's formal announcement was made.

The Gallup report was released April 1, 2010.

US 47-50% Pro-Con On Obamacare

"Americans are now about evenly split in their reactions to the healthcare bill's passage: 47% consider it a good thing and 50% a bad thing. The divided, but slightly negative, assessment is similar to what Gallup found in recent months prior to the final House vote," the polling company reported today, Monday 3-29-10.

Poll: Kill ObamaCare

A week after the House passed ObamaCare, 54% of voters favor the law’s repeal, including 44% who Strongly Favor repeal, according to the latest Rasmussen survey.

The poll also shows that 42% oppose repeal, including 34% who Strongly Oppose repeal.

Rasmussen said these number are “virtually unchanged” from last week’s poll results.

84% of Republicans favor repeal.
59% of Independents favor repeal.
25% of Democrats favor repeal.
1% of black Democrats favor repeal.
55% say the plan will increase healthcare costs.
17% say it will reduce healthcare costs.
49% say it will reduce care quality.
60% say it will increase the federal deficit.

The Rasmussen president Scott Rasmussen said: "The overriding tone of the data is that passage of the legislation has not changed anything. Those who opposed the bill before it passed now want to repeal it. Those who supported the legislation oppose repealing it."

Remember Scott Brown? That vote didn’t count either

In voting for Scott Brown to fill the US Senate seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts voters demonstrated:
1. Dissatisfaction with the direction of the country,
2. Antipathy toward federal government activism, and
3. Opposition to the Democrats' health-care proposals.

Those are the conclusions (1-22-10) drawn from a Jan. 20-21 poll sponsored by The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University's School of Public Health, and released by The Post, which says the statistics show “how dramatically the political landscape has shifted during President Obama's first year in office.”

63% of Massachusetts’ special-election voters said America “is seriously off track,” the newspaper reported. “Nearly two-thirds of Brown's voters say their vote was intended at least in part to express opposition to the Democratic agenda in Washington.”

Among all Massachusetts voters — including those who voted for Brown’s opponent, state attorney general Martha Coakley — 48 percent oppose said they oppose Obama’s healthcare proposals while 43 percent support them.
Among Brown's supporters, however, eight in 10 said they were opposed to Obama’s healthcare proposals, and, 66 percent of them strongly opposed them.

President Lincoln would have cried

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared and prayed at Gettysburg Pennsylvania that "...government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

But a little over 200 years later, 219 self-important Democrats in the House of Representatives voted FOR Obamacare; this despite the fact that the majority of Americans had repeatedly told them that they did not approve of the proposed legislation.

Before the House vote was taken, 56% of American voters said they opposed Obama's plan while 40% approved of it. And for six months before the House vote, all major national polls demonstrated close, but consistently negative, public attitudes of both Obamacare and Obama himself, to say nothing about House Speaker Pelosi and Senate Leader Reid.

Obama's Travel List

Liberal California Rep. Henry Waxman directed a House subcommittee to determine the cost of presidential and vice presidential travel on Air Force One and Air Force Two; this was when Waxman and his party were minorities in Congress. The time was 2006, toward the end of the Bush administration and when presidential campaigning was ramping up.

Reading the full report reveals its clear political, anti-Bush, anti-encumbent, anti-Republican intentions. Click on the link below for the full Congressional report.

It seems, however, with Barack Obama’s extensive travel schedule Waxman’s malevolent intentions that inspired the report now may come back to haunt him, the Democrats, and the Big O himself. The report states, in part:

“This report assumes that flight operating costs are $56,518 per hour for Air Force One and $14,552 per hour for Air Force Two.” The precise name of the document and a link are below.

THE COST OF PRESIDENTIAL AND VICE PRESIDENTIAL POLITICAL TRAVEL

UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

PREPARED FOR REP. HENRY A. WAXMAN

COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM
MINORITY STAFF SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS DIVISION

MARCH 2006

We will be posting specifics about Obama’s travel excesses periodically.

Obama’s 2010 Travel Schedule

  1. 1/12 Wilmington DL Jean Biden’s funeral
  2. 1/13 Lanham MD
  3. 1/17 Boston, MA, campaign for Martha Coakley
  4. 1/22 Elyria, OH, Lorain Community College
  5. 1/28 Tampa, FL
  6. 1/29 Baltimore MD
  7. 2/2 Nashua, NH
  8. 2/14 Camp David, VA
  9. 2/16 Job Training Center
  10. 2/18 Las Vegas, NV
  11. 2/18 Denver, CO
  12. 2/28 Bethesda, MD
  13. 3/2 Savannah, GA
  14. 3/8 Philadelphia, PA
  15. 3/10 St. Louis, MO
  16. 3/25 Iowa City, IA, University of Iowa
  17. 4/8 Prague, Czech Republic
  18. 5/1 Planned: Ann Arbor, MI, University of Michigan commencement
  19. 5/9 Planned: Hampton, VA, Hampton University commencement

Obama’s 2009 Travel Schedule

  1. 2/14 Chicago, IL, Valentines Day
  2. 2/19 Ottawa, Canada
  3. 2/19 Camp David, VA, first trip
  4. 3/18 Costa Mesa, CA, town hall
  5. 3/21 Camp David, VA, spring break
  6. 3/31 London, UK, Obamas in London meets Queen and Medvedev
  7. 4/3 Baden Baden, Germany
  8. 14/3 Strasbourg, Austria, town hall
  9. 4/3 Paris, France, Sarkozy press conference
  10. 4/4 Prague, Czech Republic
  11. 4/6 Ankara, Turkey, Grand National Assembly
  12. 4/7 Baghdad, Iraq
  13. 4/16 Mexico City, Mexico
  14. 4/17 Trinidad and Tobago, Summit of the Americas
  15. 4/22 Newton, IA, Earth Day
  16. 4/29 Arnold, MO, 100 Days speech
  17. 5/13 Tempe AZ, Arizona State University commencement
  18. 5/14 Albuquerque, NM, town hall
  19. 5/17 South Bend, IN, Notre Dame commencement
  20. 5/22 Annapolis, MD, Naval Academy graduation
  21. 5/23 Camp David, VA, Memorial Day weekend
  22. 5/25 Arlington, VA, wreath laying at Arlington Cemetary
  23. 5/26 Las Vegas, NV, fundraiser for Harry Reid
  24. 5/27 Los Angeles, CA, DNC fundraiser
  25. 5/28 Los Angeles, CA, meet with President Abbas
  26. 5/30 New York, NY, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” at the Belasco Theater
  27. 6/3 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, meeting with King Abdullah
  28. 6/4 Cairo, Egypt, Meeting with President Mubarak
  29. 6/4 Dresden, Germany
  30. 6/5 Buchenwald, Germany, Meeting with Chancellor Merkel
  31. 6/6  Paris, France, meeting with Sarkosy
  32. 6/6 Normandy, France, American Cemetery at Coleville
  33. 6/7 London, UK, Sasha’s birthday in London
  34. 6/11 Green Bay, WI,  Southwest High School
  35. 6/15 Chicago, IL, American Medical Association
  36. 7/2 Camp David, VA, Malia’s birthday
  37. 7/6 Moscow, Russia, nonproliferation summit
  38. 7/8 L’Aquila, Italy, for G8
  39. 7/10 Rome, Italy, meets The Pope
  40. 7/11 Accra, Ghana
  41. 7/14 Detroit, MI, Macomb Community College
  42. 7/14 St. Louis, MO, All Star Game Obama first pitch
  43. 7/16 Holmdel, NJ, Rally for Gov. Jon Corzine
  44. 7/16 New York, NY, NAACP 100th Anniversary
  45. 7/23 Cleveland, OH, Cleveland Clinic tour
  46. 7/23 Chicago, IL, Fundraising at Hyatt Regency
  47. 7/29 Raleigh, NC, Broughton High School
  48. 7/29 Bristol, VA, Townhall with Kroger employees
  49. 8/1 Camp David, VA
  50. 8/3 Arlington VA, George Mason University
  51. 8/5 Elkhart, IN, Monaco RV in Wakarusa
  52. 8/6 Tysons Corner, VA, fundraiser
  53. 8/9 Guadalajara, Mexico, North American Leaders Summit
  54. 8/11 Portsmouth, NH, town hall
  55. 8/14 Bozeman, MT
  56. 8/15 Grand Junction, CO, and Yellowstone
  57. 8/16 Phoenix, AZ, and the Grand Canyon
  58. 8/23 Martha’s Vineyard, MA
  59. 8/29 Boston, MA, Kennedy funeral
  60. 9/2 Camp David, VA
  61. 9/7 Cincinnati, OH, AFLCIO Labor Day
  62. 9/12 Minneapolis, MN
  63. 9/15 Pittsburgh, PA, AFLCIO
  64. 9/15 Lordstown, OH
  65. 9/17 College Park, MD
  66. 9/21 Troy, NY, Hudson Valley Community College
  67. 9/22 New York, NY, UN Meeting on climate change
  68. 9/24 Pittsburgh, PA, G20 Summit
  69. 9/24 New York, NY, UN Security Council on disarmament
  70. 10/15 New Orleans, LA
  71. 10/15 San Francisco, CA, DNC fundraiser
  72. 10/16 College Station, TX, “Points of Light” Bush Library
  73. 10/20 New York, NY
  74. 10/21 Hackensack, NJ, Fairleigh Dickinson University
  75. 10/23 Connecticut, Sen. Dodd dinner
  76. 10/23 Boston, MA, Energy MIT speech
  77. 10/26 Jacksonville, FL, Naval Air Station
  78. 10/26 Miami, FL Fundraiser at the Fontainebleau
  79. 10/27 Arcadia, FL, DeSoto Solar opening
  80. 10/27 Norfolk, VA, Old Dominion University
  81. 11/1 New Jersey
  82. 11/3 Washington, DC, European Union
  83. 11/4 Madison, WI, Race to the Top on education
  84. 11/10 Ft. Hood, TX, Memorial
  85. 11/11 Veteran’s Day Breakfast Laying of the Wreath
  86. 11/12 Japan, Suntory Hall Speech
  87. 11/12 Singapore, APEC meeting
  88. 11/12 Elmendorf AFB, AK
  89. 11/15 Singapore
  90. 11/16 Shanghai and Beijing, China
  91. 11/17 Beijing, China
  92. 11/19 Seoul, South Korea
  93. 12/1 West Point, NY, West Point speech
  94. 12/4 Allentown, PA, Main Street economic tour
  95. 12/10 Oslo, Norway, Nobel Peace Prize
  96. 12/18 Copenhagen, Denmark
  97. 12/24 Honolulu, HI, Christmas in Hawaii