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Entries for 'Carter Wrenn'
Carter Wrenn posted on January 23, 2013 12:07
Last month up in the hallowed halls of Congress, Speaker John Boehner slipped on a banana peel – deciding it was time to flex his muscles he stripped four Republican Congressmen of their blue-chip committee assignments – which, in Washington, is the same as the army stripping off a general’s epaulets in public.
Back then, watching, I half-figured, half-guessed with the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ vote coming up Boehner figured it was time to scare the bejesus out of the members of his caucus, who, like the Barons and Earls who tormented King John, tend to have too little respect for their leaders.
And humiliating a few Congressmen in public was one way to do the job.
But if that was the plan, it backfired.
Because when the ‘Fiscal Cliff’ bill rolled onto the House floor instead of marching in lockstep House Republicans split into two armed camps – one camp voting with Boehner (for the compromise) and the other voting against him. In the end, Boehner carried the day but only because almost every Democrat voted for the bill.
Next, the Hurricane Sandy bills rolled through Congress and the same thing happened again – half a dozen times. One Republican camp voted Yes, and the other voted No. And the bills passed because the Democrats voted Yes.
So are we looking at the new normal in the House?
If so, it sure seems like stripping epaulets off Congressmen wasn’t a good idea.
Worse for Republicans – with the votes on raising the ‘Debt Ceiling’ and the ‘Continuing Resolution’ rolling toward the House Floor, the rooster in the White House is now sitting in the catbird seat.
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Carter Wrenn posted on January 22, 2013 10:37
President Obama stepped to the podium in the White House at a press conference – with Afgnanistani President Karzai beside him – and said he’s bringing 66,000 American soldiers home from Afghanistan sooner rather than later (which sounded fine). Then he added, Because the Afghan Army is now ready to whip the Taliban all by itself – and thundering echoes of history reverberated out of the television set and hit me right between the eyes.
Forty years ago (in the days when I was a student at Chapel Hill with a draft number far too low) President Richard Nixon walked to a podium in the White House and announced he was bringing our army home from Vietnam because the South Vietnamese Army was ready to whip Ho Chi Minh all by itself – Nixon even gave it a name: ‘Vietnamization’.
Vietnamization and ‘bringing the boys home with honor’ cured my concern about the draft and got Nixon through the 1972 Presidential Election; but then, a year later, North Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon, ‘Vietnamization’ fizzled, and our army had to pull a good old-fashioned skedaddle.
Over in Afghanistan these days we’re on shakier footing than we were when we invaded eleven years ago but, who knows, maybe President Karzai is ready to whip the Taliban all by himself – even if we haven’t whipped them with orbiting satellites, lasers targeted drones and 66,000 American soldiers.
Next, at Obama’s press conference, President Karzai got up and laid a few demands on Obama of his own, saying Obama’s got to pull our army out of the small rural outposts we hold out in the Afghanistan provinces and turn six hundred Taliban prisoners we’ve captured over to him – then Karzai explained why: He said he wants to offer to free the prisoners and turn over the strongholds to the Taliban so they’ll make peace – which doesn’t sound like Hamid Karzai’s dead set on whipping anyone.
Then, right there in the middle of me sitting there watching history repeating itself, out of nowhere modernism reared its ugly head – a reporter stood up and asked Obama, What about women in Afghanistan – how do we know they keep their rights when Karzai makes a deal with the Taliban?
Now, there’s a problem Nixon never had to dodge – suddenly it looked like toxic mixture modernism and women’s rights was going to throw a monkey wrench into the gears of the Afghanistani version of ‘Vietnamization’ and bring it to a cold hard stop.
But then Obama saved the day: Smooth as Nixon ever was, Obama explained women’s rights are perfectly safe and there’s no need to worry because we’ve made it clear to the insurgents they’ve got to respect the Afghanistani Constitution (which protects women’s rights) – so now all we have to do to watch modernism (and women’s rights) flower in the Hindu Kush is bring our army home and let the Taliban run head on into the invincible juggernaut of the Afghanistan army.
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Carter Wrenn posted on January 18, 2013 10:51
To cure gun violence the Vice President met with the NRA, which told him the cure was fixing our broken culture – like violent video games; next the Vice President met with the video game industry which told him ‘Independent scientific research showed no connection between video games and real-life violence,’ then another group told him the American Academy of Pediatrics had a study that proved ‘Media violence is one of the causal factors in real-life violence.’
After that the pro-gun control folks weighed in saying they’ve decided instead of banning assault weapons they just want to ban the high-capacity magazines that make rifles assault weapons.
Then Vice President Biden aired a remedy of his own, suggesting technology that keeps a gun from being fired by anyone other than the person who bought it might be a cure – which sounded reasonable until I mentioned it to a friend who snorted, “What if a burglar breaks into my house and my wife needs to use the gun I bought to shoot him?”
By then the search for a cure was looking like a porridge of politics with people running in circles going nowhere.
Finally, President Obama weighed in hurling executive orders like lightning bolts and thundering about the bills the Congress had to pass, and right in the middle of the new rhubarb the NRA launched an ad dragging the President’s children into the melee – so, now, instead of a serious search for a cure that would protect citizens and preserve Constitutional Rights, both at the same time, there’s a political circus underway with ploys, gambits and thundering politicians – who won't cure anything.
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Carter Wrenn posted on January 15, 2013 10:29
The Democrats in Raleigh are grumpy because Speaker Thom Tillis has set up a new nonprofit to be the ‘Voice of House Republicans.’
Now, like ‘em or not, Super PACs, IE’s, and 527’s are the new political reality – Obama had ‘em, Romney had ‘em, and now Speaker Tillis has one. The more curious question is, why aren’t the House Democrats setting up one of their own – instead of grumping?
While it’s a cold hard fact Democrats still outnumber Republicans in North Carolina, it’s also a cold hard fact that last election Republicans in the State House and Senate out-fundraised, out-messaged and out-campaigned Democrats hands down – with a predictable result: Democrats lost every election in a swing district except in one lone State Senate district.
Democrats winning the next election with no voice (and no money) isn’t likely – unless lightning strikes, and that only happens about once in a decade. So why is the once-mighty party of Jim Hunt sitting by as Thom Tillis rolls up his sleeves and starts work on winning the next election?
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Carter Wrenn posted on January 11, 2013 15:54
Baseball statistician Nate Silver suddenly became famous by writing articles for the New York Times – putting statistical models (like the models he used in baseball) to work predicting who’d win the Presidential Election.
Then, the other day in an interview, Mr. Silver was asked which he found most frustrating – analyzing sports or politics? He replied it wasn’t even close, that politics won hands down, then explained why: “Between the pundits and the partisans, you’re dealing with a lot of delusional people. And sports provides for much more frequent reality checks. If you were touting how awesome Notre Dame was, for example, you got very much slapped back to reality last night. In politics, you can go on being delusional for years at a time.”
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Posted in: General, Issues
Carter Wrenn posted on January 03, 2013 17:42
Up in Congress the Democrats wanted to raise taxes on 2% of the people -- while the Republicans wanted to cut government spending instead.
So they reached a compromise.
The result?
They voted to raise taxes on 77% of the people -- and to increase spending.
How did that happen? It's hard to tell but mathematics only works that way in Congress.
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Carter Wrenn posted on December 28, 2012 10:04
A brawl followed by an outbreak of brawls erupted Sunday morning in the small insular world of politics;--it started on Meet the Press when Wayne LaPierre of the NRA said, 'The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun' -- David Gregory nodded politely, said, 'That might work,' then added, 'But don't you agree banning thirty bullet clips in semi-automatic rifles might do some good too?'
At first blush LaPierre's suggestion -- putting policemen in elementary schools -- sounded shocking. But, if you stop and think about it, for over 200 years we've been doing pretty much just that -- sending 'a good guy with a gun' to stop villains from George III to Tojo.
Anyhow, Gregory had LaPierre in a tight spot -- arguing a twenty-year-old holding a Bushmaster wasn't more deadly than a twenty year old holding a machete was going to be a tall order. So, instead, LaPierre started explaining what to do to stop the dark forces (which he described as 'madness and culture') that had turned Adam Lanza into a matricide. When he finished Gregory shot back, But what about banning thirty bullet clips?
By noon there was hardly a network talk show without a brawl.
Now, overall, Democrats and Republicans didn't really disagree much. Republicans said creating more mental health programs made more sense than banning thirty bullet clips, and Democrats were more than happy to create more government programs. Democrats and Republicans didn't disagree much about 'culture' either -- almost everyone said violent video games were villains.
But the brawling didn't shed much light at all on one question: When Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School, why wasn't there a tiny voice of conscience whispering in his ear, Stop. These are children.
With the light they have to see with in their small insular world, the politicians have decided video games and missing government programs are the answer -- that's their antidote to the dark powers that destroyed Adam Lanza's conscience.
Years ago, back home in Virginia, my grandmother had a cousin who was a bootlegger. One night his wife caught him red-handed with another woman and threw him out of the house then called the sheriff and told him where her philandering husband had hidden his still. The bootlegger had landed in a fix, so one Sunday morning he went to the local parson to unburden himself and said, Ole' temptation just got to whispering in my ear and my brains flew right out the window.
The country parson chewed that over awhile and said, I'd say what was whispering in your ear was a lot meaner than temptation and what flew out the window was your conscience not your brains. A fellow in a mess like you're in ought to be ready to try prayer.
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Carter Wrenn posted on December 21, 2012 17:49
Pat McCrory called reporters down to the Albemarle building for a press conference and said two words and near about gave liberals from Murphy to Manteo apoplexy.
He said, Art Pope.
And five minutes later ole Chris Fitzsimmons was howling on Twitter, The Pope Administration begins...and about an hour later the Democratic Party 'Tweeted,' claiming Pat McCrory appointing Art Pope Budget Director was pure 'pay to play.'
Now there's no doubt Art Pope is serious about Republican politics, but he's also unfailingly polite and, more to the point, when it comes to 'pay to play' he may be the most innocent man in North Carolina.
After all, can anyone name one single government subsidy, one appropriation, or one government contract Art Pope's ever sought? He's even serving as Budget Director for free. So how on earth can the Democrats howl his appointment is 'pay to play?'
The real reason the Democrats are having apoplexy isn't that they'd developed a sudden abhorrence to 'pay to play' politics - it's that Art Pope is dead serious about cutting government spending.
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Carter Wrenn posted on December 20, 2012 11:15
Two years ago as businesses were struggling through the recession, a family business in eastern North Carolina that cares for shut-ins and older people in their homes received a letter from PCG Corporation of Boston saying, We’re coming to audit the payments you’ve received from Medicaid.
Earlier, PCG (the ‘Public Consulting Group’) had told the Perdue Administration it had a way to save state government millions of dollars by rooting out Medicaid ‘overpayments’ – and all the state had to do to in return was pay a fee of $250,000 (monthly), plus a bonus based on how many millions of dollars in overpayments PCG identified.
Now, that word identified turned out to be a problem. Because back in 2010 PCG’s bonus was based on the amount in overpayments it identified – and not on the actual cash the state received in refunds for the 'overpayments.’ It was a prescription for a train wreck but the Perdue Administration bought it 'hook, line and sinker' and set the gears in motion that led PCG to the family business’s doorstep.
Right off, it was clear PCG had an unusual definition of ‘overpayments’ – for instance, when the family business had provided all the healthcare and all the services it was paid for by Medicaid, if it failed to check a box correctly on a government form – that was identified as an ‘overpayment.’ And the business had to repay the money.
In addition, PCG didn’t audit all the Medicaid payments the business received – instead it audited a fraction of the payments then extrapolated to estimate how much the business owed for all the payments. In other words, PCG may have audited, say, 100 payments – then extrapolated to determine how much was owed for all of its payments. It sounded reasonable but didn't turn out that way.
Two years after the business received the first letter from PCG it received another letter saying, Our audit is complete. We identified $650 in ‘overpayments.’ By extrapolation you owe the state $133,000 in refunds.
The business had landed in a fight for its life.
It appealed PCG’s findings, hired lawyers, had a hearing, and here’s the result:
It didn’t owe $650.
It didn’t owe $133,000.
It owed $7.50.
Another business PCG audited and extrapolated received a letter saying it owed $500,000 – it appealed and paid $0. PCG said still another business owed the state $3 million for overpayments – that business appealed too and paid $700.
And the Perdue Administration is still paying PCG $250,000 a month.
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Carter Wrenn posted on December 18, 2012 12:39
Back in the old days there was a breed of Congressman, rugged individualists, who, whenever he (or she) had to cast an unpopular vote, would shrug and say, Let the chips fall where they may.
That political animal is now all but extinct.
In the place of a troublesome conscience (when it comes to unpopular votes) our average modern Congressman has a finely tuned set of political antennae so sensitive he can detect a political threat from miles away and take evasive action.
But, now, the ‘fiscal cliff’ is giving our archetypical Congressman fits.
According to a poll last week, 78% of the voters don’t like the idea of going over the cliff one bit – a political bombshell our Congressman's antennae clearly have in focus. He also has in focus voters agree with President Obama about raising taxes – but from there his life gets more complex.
Because voters also oppose cutting Medicare spending.
Oppose cutting Medicaid.
Oppose cutting Social Security.
Oppose raising the Medicare or Social Security retirement age.
And oppose increasing debt.
That leaves our Congressman in a fix – suddenly his antennae are sending a hurricane of storm warnings to his frazzled brain and he can’t see a single vote he can cast to reduce the deficit (unless he’s a Democrat voting to raise taxes) that won’t blow him to smithereens.
And to ‘pile Pelion on Ossa’ he faces one more threat: If he votes the way his constituents want today and the economy tanks in two years, when he's stumping for re-election, voters will be asking, Where were you when we needed a Congressman who had the guts to cast the tough votes?
Nature has played a cruel trick on him. He’s trapped.
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