The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes.  It is very easy to say yes.

-Tony Blair

Much focus has been on the National Government since the election of 2010.  Of course, the real story of that election remains the overwhelming victory of Republicans in the state legislatures.  88 chambers had elections with Democrats dominating 52-33 (2 equal and 1 non-partisan), and now Republicans dominate 53-32 (2 equal and 1 non-partisan), picking up nearly 700 seats.

The importance of these legislators lies in the fact that they represent the first crop of tea party candidates that will reform the political process from the bottom up.  Yes, there are tea party candidates nationally, but the access to our state legislators makes it easier to maintain influence.

Missouri remained red, but with term-limits, many new legislators have come to office.  The Senate has a veto-proof majority, and the House is near veto-proof.  However, the influx of tea party influence has not been all roses and butterflies.  Leadership, especially on the House side, seems more intent on horse-trading politics than accommodating the new tea party mentality.

On the other hand, 4 state senators seem to get it.  Senators Jim Lembke (R-St. Louis), Brian Nieves (R-Washington), Rob Schaaf (R-St. Joseph) and Will Kraus (R-Lee’s Summit) have taken a principled stance on a number of issues, but one in particular has earned them the ire of Missouri’s establishment media and Democrat governor.

These senators have been using a filibuster to prevent Missouri from accepting federal subsidies on extension of unemployment benefits past 79 weeks.  Missouri became the first state to reject this federal largess, but only because the state senate has been unable to vote on it (the state house already agreed to accept the federal largess under Speaker Steven Tilley (R-Perryville)).

Senator Nieves endearingly refers to the $80+ million as “Chinese money,” and I think many would argue he is not far from the truth.  Those that do not understand what the last two years was all about need a gut check.  The arguments against the filibuster include those that claim the federal government will just spend the money elsewhere.  The Feds may very well do that, but that does not make a good argument for the federal government to continue spending money like a progressive benefactor of George Soros (sailors have taken enough beating over the years).

Another issue the 4 senators have taken a principled stance on pertains to around $189 million in education funds.  Senator Lembke’s stance over this and other federal spending issues focuses on the national debt.  What good will federal money be for state programs if federal finances implode under the mountain of debt being accumulated?  If we learn to live within our means now we will not have to worry about any future federal financial crisis.  And if the national government, especially the tea party caucus, gets the message, money could be spent on reducing the debt, rather than bribery money for the states.

Missouri does not need “re-distributed” wealth to fund irresponsible government policy.  More states should consider this sort of principled response to federal money, and if the Feds continue with this sort of bribery, states ought to consider withholding federal tax money altogether.

After all, those commentators emphasize, the Fed has adopted a target for the federal funds rate (the interest rate charged on overnight interbank loans) of between zero and 0.25 percent. The implication is that further reductions in that rate will have little or no effect on the incentives of businesses to invest in new plant and equipment or of consumers to borrow in order to finance the additional spending necessary to raise GDP growth above the (recently downwardly revised) estimate of 1.6 percent during the second quarter of 2010.

But those commentators overlook or ignore the easily verified reasoning of John Maynard Keynes, who defined a liquidity trap in terms of long-term rather than short–term interest rates. The long-term (ten- or 30-year) rate on Treasury securities now runs at about three percent, meaning that the Fed still has arrows in its quiver. Unfortunately, however, those arrows, the use of which would demand the central bank engage in further “quantitative easing”, requires it to purchase more under-performing, “toxic” assets from banks and other financial institutions that lent money to homeowners who could not repay their mortgages. Engaging in such transactions places more bad debts on the Fed’s balance sheet, constrains its ability to conduct monetary policy in the future and raises the specter of higher rates of future price inflation.

In his recent speech at Wood’s Hole, Wyoming, Fed Chairman Bernanke was right to say that economic recovery cannot depend solely on the policies of the central bank over which he presides. But the fiscal discipline (spending and tax cuts) required to achieve that goal is incompatible with the vote motives of incumbent politicians or their challengers for political office.

In consequence, the United States will not return to genuine economic prosperity for years to come. Americans ought to be grateful if a “double-dip” recession is the only price they are forced to pay as the result of recent monetary and fiscal policy choices. It would be far better to make the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 permanent, to reduce the tax rate on corporate income and estates to zero, and to limit government at the federal level to the powers granted to it by the people and the Founders of our compound republic.

America will be able to reclaim the path to prosperity only if the federal government and its central bank get out of the way.

A federal appeals court on Friday threw out a decision that had barred Congress from withholding funds from ACORN, the activist group driven to ruin by scandal and financial woes.

The ruling by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan reversed a decision by a district court judge in Brooklyn that found Congress had violated the group’s rights by punishing it without a trial.

Congress cut off ACORN’s federal funding last year in response to allegations the group engaged in voter registration fraud and embezzlement and violated the tax-exempt status of some of its affiliates by engaging in partisan political activities.

Fueling the outrage was a video that caught three employees allegedly advising a couple posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend to lie about her profession and launder her earnings.

ACORN responded with a lawsuit accusing Congress of abusing its power with what amounted to a “corporate death sentence.”

The appeals court disagreed, citing a study finding that ACORN received only 10 percent of its funding from federal sources.

“We doubt that the direct consequences of the appropriations laws temporarily precluding ACORN from federal funds were so disproportionately severe or so inappropriate as to constitute punishment,” the three-judge panel wrote.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, which argued on behalf of ACORN, said it was considering asking the appeals court to rehear the case with more judges.

Read the whole thing here.

Federal funds pay to put on a ghostly journey to the most haunted places in Illinois

The shopping mall to nowhere; $5 million stimulus grant to heat an “almost-empty mall”

Stimulus grant pays to keep tabs on how often doctors and nurses wash their hands at hospitals in Maryland

Agency that misspent public funds on a casino junket and $700 worth of coffee and lost a child on a field trip slated to receive $159,000 in stimulus funds

Stimulus saves or creates jobs for illegal aliens; Company that the federal government knew was intentionally hiring hundreds of illegal immigrants awarded $6.7 million in federal contracts—including nearly $1million in stimulus money—during the past year

Many of the jobs counted as being “saved” by the federal stimulus program “definitely wouldn’t have been lost in the first place, and others might not have been lost at all”

Nearly 10,000 employees who received pay increases being counted as jobs “saved” by the stimulus; “If I give you a raise, it is going to save a portion of your job,” explains government spokesman

New federal web site designed to track stimulus payments to the states is “a mess,” says official

National debt to exceed $12 trillion within the next month

That leaves 305 members of the House who are silent. If you want to find out whether your Congressman has taken a stand against an organization whose employees are eager to facilitate a child prostitution ring, call the House switchboard at 202-224-3121.

As James O’Keefe noted in his latest post, “Keep on the pressure. Never let up.”

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