'This is a Serious Movement to Undo the Most Successful Government Program of the 20th Century'

These Democrats sure have a curious way to defining success. Here we have the odious Chuckie Schumer telegraphing the fact he plans to demagogue Social Security reform despite the fact the GOP is already pretty much retreating from the issue and even the president has acknowledged there is a need for reform. Of course, that's lip service, but we'll take him at his word for whatever that's worth.

Senate Democrats led by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) are gearing up for a battle with House Republicans over Medicare and Social Security benefits.

Schumer and other Democratic strategists see Medicare and Social Security as winning political issues that can help them regain the momentum they lost over the last two years.

Schumer, who has taken over the Senate Democrats' communications operation, delivered some of his most direct shots at House GOP leaders.

“They want to privatize Social Security,” Schumer said of Republicans. “Privatize equals end, no more.”

Well, nobody has actually introduced legislation proposing that, but hey, why quibble with facts? That's never stopped this pinhead before.

Senate Democrats have unified over the issue after President Obama stayed away from proposing a cut in Social Security benefits at Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

Democratic pollsters warned that if Obama called for raising the retirement age, it would create a schism in the party.

House Republicans have discussed advancing a proposal to privatize Medicare in the budget plan they expect to unveil in the next few weeks.

God forbid the GOP act responsibly to save programs through cost-cutting measures. Has it occurred to Schumer and Sanders that there won't be any money left in the Social Security Ponzi scheme a few decades down the road once the retired baby boomers have chewed through it? Apparently not. Because to them government dependency on a broken program equates success.

Democrats say the growing influence of the Tea Party in Congress poses a threat to entitlement programs.

“The fact that five senators are for privatizing Social Security shows we’re not crying wolf here,” Schumer said. “This is a serious movement to undo the most successful government program of the 20th century.”

I shudder to think what he would consider a failed government program.

Obama to Sleep Easy Tonight: Nutcake Bernie Sanders Won't Be Running Against Him

How upset are the far left nutcases in this country? Apparently some as so far gone they're pleading with loony Socialist Bernie Sanders to run against Barack Obama. Sadly, Bernie doesn't have it in him. Guess he figures there only room for one Socialist in the Democrat primaries.

One of the Senate's liberal leaders said that, despite receiving pleas to challenge President Obama in 2012, he won't take the bait.

When asked last week about launching a potential campaign against the president, self-described democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said he "ain't gonna do it."

"You will be the first to know: ain't gonna do it," he said during an interview on Vermont's WCAX-TV.

Speculation mounted that Sanders could run against Obama — it's unclear on what party label — after he spent over eight hours this month railing against the president's tax-cut deal on the Senate floor in a speech that came to be known as the "filibernie."

A website by the name of bernieforpresident.com, billing itself as "An independent and Quixotic plea for sanity," even turned up.

"Let’s face it, this will never happen," the site says. "But hey, why not at least put it out there."

Believe it or not someone with way too much free time actually polled an Obama-Sanders matchup.

If Sanders had decided to challenge Obama, he would have faced a steep climb. A recent Magellan Strategies poll found Obama with a 71-point lead over Sanders among registered voters in New Hampshire, a key early primary state.

Socialist Gasbag From Vermont Blathers On For 8.5 Hours

Yes, this is the kind of thing that qualifies as a smash hit on C-SPAN.

Don't worry, I won't post the video.

WASHINGTON — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders fought President Barack Obama's proposed tax cut compromise with a lengthy speech in the Senate.

He started at 10:24 a.m. ET and ended at 7 p.m.

Sanders, 69, an independent who usually sides with Democrats, said it was unconscionable to increase the national debt "by giving tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires who don't need it."

Sanders noted he'd been repetitious in making his points.

Cross-posted.

Socialist Senator: GOP Doesn't Want Americans to Succeed or Something

In one respect he's right. We don't want morons like him to succeed at destroying our economy, although they're doing a damn good job of it.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Sunday that Republicans "do not want Americans to succeed" in laying out his case for energizing the liberal base to go to the polls in November.

Sanders, a self-proclaimed Democratic socialist who caucuses with Democrats, discussed President Obama's disconnect with the liberal wing along with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday.

While Obama's accomplishment including healthcare reform have been "nothing to sneeze at," Sanders said, the middle class is shrinking while poverty increases and income gaps become wider.

"We have a very serious situation and I think there's a concern that the president hasn't seen that urgency," Sanders said, and "stood up for the American people the way we would like him to."

He said Obama needed to rally on a "progressive agenda to expand the middle class."

Uh, Bernie, it's exacly becasue of Obama's "progressive agenda that his party faces ruin next month. Good grief, some people just never will get it.

When pressed by host Bob Schieffer on his comments about Republicans, Sanders defended his words, saying that given the choice between political power and "initiatives to help the American people" that the GOP would choose power.

"The Republicans have said no, no, no," Sanders said. "They have been the party of no and obstructionism."

Of course Republicans haven't had the votes or ability to block any of the Democrat agenda the past 20 months, but let's not let facts get in the way of a good rant.

Richardson said it was more than just invigorating the liberal base, but about conservative and moderate Democrats as well, and he advised the various ideological wings to "stop complaining" and work together to win in November.

"All Democrats, we should stop firing at each other," Richardson said. "We've got enough people -- the Republicans -- firing at us."

Expect heavy fire in 30 days, champ.

'Even More Liberal Than a Guy Who Used to Call Himself a Socialist'

Comparing Obama to Bernie Sanders. Now that's low.

Mr. McCain also brought up, though not by name, the only self-declared socialist in Congress, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and sought to tie him ideologically to Mr. Obama.

"We know that Sen. Obama has been in the left-hand lane of American politics and he's a taxer and a spender. He is the most liberal senator in the United States Senate, by the way -- even more liberal than a guy who used to call himself a socialist.

"My friends, Sen. Obama wants to be redistributor in chief. I want to be commander in chief."

Mr. McCain also referred to a man he called "Joe the Biden," Mr. Obama's running mate who two weeks ago told a group at a fundraiser that Mr. Obama would likely be tested by an international crisis in the first six months of his presidency.

Speaking of Biden, while Sarah Palin draws overflow crowds across the country, a meager 1500 showed up to see him speaking in his own state. Pathetic.

More than 1,500 people crowded on to the green outside Memorial Hall at the University of Delaware on Friday to hear Biden deliver a message of hope and change.

Maybe They Should Leave Vermont

Clueless NY Times affirmative action "columnist" Bob Herbert gets all weepy-eyed today over some alleged letters Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders received from constituents.

This stuff is so over the top, they try and make you think you're living in Bangladesh.

If any of these tales of woe are true, and that's a big if, all I can offer for these folks is this advice: Leave the socialist state of Vermont and move somewhere where they practice capitalism.

A woman who has been trying to sell her house for two years and described herself as “stretched to the breaking point,” told the senator, “I don’t go to church many Sundays because the gasoline is too expensive to drive there.”

Well, whose fault is that? Big Oil? Or maybe the greedy government gouging us with taxes? Herbert, of course, doesn't even consider this. It's all Bush's fault, naturally.

Many of the letters touched on the extremely harsh winter that pounded Vermont and exacerbated the economic distress. With fuel prices sky-high, many residents turned to wood to heat their homes. A woman with a 9-year-old son wrote:

“By February, we ran out of wood and I burned my mother’s dining room furniture. ... I’d like to order one of your flags and hang it upside down at the Capitol building. ... We are certainly a country in distress.”

Seriously, does anyone believe this? Burning your mother's dining room furniture? OK, so what did she burn after that?

The letters to Senator Sanders offer a glimpse into the real lives of ordinary people in an economic environment that was sculpted to favor the very rich. One of the letters was from a woman in central Vermont who said she and her husband are in their mid-30s, are college-educated and have two young children.

“We are feeling distraught,” she said, “that we may never ‘get ahead’ but will always be pedaling to just keep up.”

Keep voting for Bernie Sanders and reading Bob Herbet, and that's exactly what you'll be doing.

Big Government Attacks Big Oil

The anti-capitalist Democrats are at it again. Build more refineries? Not on your life. Cut the taxes on gas? Forget about it. Take money from what the media now refers to as energy companies? Sure. But at the same time, they'll demagogue the rising gas prices and blame the dreaded Big Oil.

As Gas Prices Rise Again, Democrats Blame Big Oil

Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Congress would look into breaking up the giant companies. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) promoted her anti-price-gouging bill, which the Senate Commerce Committee adopted on Tuesday. And Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) backed a windfall profits tax, pointing to $440 billion in profits over the past six years for the nation's five biggest oil companies.

"I think it's time to say to these people, 'Stop ripping off the American people,' " Sanders said.

Every year, it's the same nonsense from these clowns. They kvetch and moan about gas prices, yet do nothing to help alleviate the problem.

They love having it both ways, and a compliant media do little to expose their double standard.

Now in the minority, Republican lawmakers this week poked back at the Democrats' ideas. "I think it shows that they're either unbelievably naive about how markets work or unbelievably cynical," said Rep. Joe L. Barton (R-Tex.), former chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Barton said most Democrats opposed opening up new areas of Alaska or the Outer Continental Shelf for oil and gas drilling. "If you want to get prices down, you're going to have to have a supply component to energy," he said.

Here's a suggestion to get prices down. Waive the state and federal tax on gas for a week. Consumers will then realize just how much they're paying in taxes per gallon. Just don't wait around for that to happen.