National ID Card Being Considered By Senators

As Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) are working on a Senate version of comprehensive immigration reform and it includes a very controversial idea.  There is a provision in the draft bill to force all Americans to possess a biometric ID card.  Sources on Capitol Hill confirm to Big Government that the idea of a national ID card is part of the comprehensive immigration reform bill being negotiated between Graham and Schumer.

Laura Meckler of the Wall Street Journal reports:

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain.

Under the pre-text of halting illegal immigration, Congress may consider forcing citizens to carry an ID card as a condition of citizenship.  For those who mistrust big government and treasure freedom, this idea should be revolting and a shocking example of a bad idea run wild.  American citizens’ freedoms have been eroding over the past few years, yet this idea is much more than an erosion of rights.  It is an all out assault on the idea that Americans have a natural right to be free of government monitoring. (more…)

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Tags: Charles Schumer, Lindsey Graham, national id card, Wall Street Journal
Posted Mar 10th 2010 at 12:31 pm in Congress, Defense, Justice/Legal, News, Politics | 87086310 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/capitolconfidential/2010/03/10/national-id-card-being-considered-by-senators/National+ID+Card+Being+Considered+By+Senators2010-03-10+20%3A31%3A46Capitol++Confidential

Time to Pass The Buck and Start Pointing Fingers: Obama Living Up to His Absentee Legislator Past

During the Presidential “Media Fest” Campaign of 2007/08, many tried to impress upon the American people that Obama was an empty suit.  Quite simply, he had no significant legislative achievement to call his own.  Heck, as an Illinois State Senator, Obama voted “present” nearly 130 times, according to the New York Times:  “effectively sidestepping” issues.  The point of those who pressed Obama’s lack of executive experience and sidestepping tactics was that we could not afford a President who would do the same.

Ten months into the Obama Presidency, it is pretty clear that Obama is living up to his Absentee Legislator past.  Painful examples abound:

1. Trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Criminal Court.  Arguably one of the most detrimental legal and foreign policy decisions of our time, and Obama openly admits it wasn’t his call – it was an underling’s call – Eric Holder.  It was a terrible decision and, as Senator Lindsey Graham pointed out, an unprecedented decision.  While I doubt Obama sat purely on the sidelines on this decision, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that someone other than Obama has to take responsibility for this decision – good or bad.  And when it goes bad, then Obama will simply dump Holder.  Problem solved.
2. Health Care.  What’s a President to do when he is devoid of any significant legislation to his name?  Allow the most significant piece of legislation in the last 40 years to be written and managed by others.  Literally.   Before us is the biggest makeover of the relationship of the private sector and government since the Great Depression and Obama is merely a passenger on a bus being driven by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.  When it fails the American people, and it will, Obama will rightfully claim it wasn’t his bill.  Such is the prerogative of an Absentee President.
3. The Stimulus Bill.  It’s failing.  Indeed, over 3 million jobs have been lost since the Stimulus Bill was passed – a bill laden with pork because its passage was driven by someone other than Obama (not to say he would have passed a trimmed down bill).  Beyond that, we find out that the AIG bailout money was misspent – who would have thought?  Since the President can’t be in charge of such failures, and Obama can’t blame Pelosi or Reid,  the fall guy will be Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner – because, in time, simply blaming President Bush won’t be effective anymore.
4. The November Elections.  Even though Obama went and put his personal prestige on the line for New Jersey Governor Corzine, Corzine was soundly beat – as was the Democrat candidate in Virginia – a race Obama wouldn’t touch.  But those results, according to Obama, had nothing to do with him – those were races with local implications not national influences.

(more…)

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Tags: AIG bailout, Barack Obama, bush tax cuts, campaign 2008, civilian terror trials
Posted Nov 29th 2009 at 10:03 am in Congress, News, Obama, Politics | 34338162 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/tdelbeccaro/2009/11/29/time-to-pass-the-buck-and-start-pointing-fingers-obama-living-up-to-his-absentee-legislator-past/Time+to+Pass+The+Buck+and+Start+Pointing+Fingers%3A+Obama+Living+Up+to+His+Absentee+Legislator+Past+2009-11-29+17%3A03%3A53Thomas+Del+Beccaro

Lindsey Graham: For Cap and Trade, Except When He’s Not

From the “Imagine if a Democrat did this” files – say, in the context of opposing President Obama’s effort to transform our health care insurance and delivery systems . It seems that a Republican Senator has been outed as hopping in the sack with an advocacy group from the other team, itself exposed as financing ads on his behalf in support of his abandoning what has become a marquee issue for his party.

Oh, and to top it off, his staff began by deceiving about it and end (for now) by telling a whopper in the struggle to avoid scrutiny over the mess.

That is, however, precisely what’s going on in the Palmetto State, at least according to this report about the latest twist in the long, strange saga of Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Without reciting the story ably summarized by a Gamecock writer, the whopper told in the scramble is this, offered by “Graham’s top South Carolina strategist, Richard Quinn” – as well as to others I have spoken to who have recently called the Senator’s office seeking to inquire about the oddity:

“‘Lindsey doesn’t support Cap & Trade and he will not support Cap & Trade,’ Quinn told us flatly.”

Except when he does.

(more…)

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Tags: cap-and-trade, carbon emissions, climate change, global warming, John Kerry
Posted Nov 4th 2009 at 8:37 am in Congress, Environment, Politics | 2486684 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/chorner/2009/11/04/lindsey-graham-for-cap-and-trade-except-when-hes-not/Lindsey+Graham%3A+For+Cap+and+Trade%2C+Except+When+He%27s+Not2009-11-04+15%3A37%3A33Christopher+C.+Horner

Kerry and Graham on Global Warming: So Awfully Different

Sens. John Kerry and Lindsey Graham had a piece Sunday in the New York Times, stumbling through a pro-cap-and-trade routine. Initial thoughts on this homage to the bipartisanship fetish:

The “we even have different accents” bit tips their hand that the argument is as substantive as those Gore-group ads with Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson on a couch together. Not a bad parallel actually, though I can’t help but recall this far more entertaining version of the labored intro.

When one feels compelled to give six reasons why we ought to embrace their idea, you know they aren’t persuaded themselves with the “global warming” argument, and see little persuasive opportunity in it.

(more…)

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Tags: Al Sharpton, cap-and-trade, China, climate change, emissions
Posted Oct 15th 2009 at 12:45 pm in Congress, Environment, Politics, Uncategorized | 1531430 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/chorner/2009/10/15/kerry-and-graham-on-global-warming-so-awfully-different/Kerry+and+Graham+on+Global+Warming%3A+So+Awfully+Different2009-10-15+19%3A45%3A21Christopher+C.+Horner