The Hollywood Liberal

House Republicans begin efforts to defund health-care overhaul
Republicans launched this week the first of what they vow will be a series of attempts to use their control of the House of Representatives to defund the health-care overhaul law.

Obama joins Wisconsin’s budget battle, opposing Republican anti-union bill
MADISON, WIS. – President Obama thrust himself and his political operation this week into Wisconsin’s broiling budget battle, mobilizing opposition Thursday to a Republican bill that would curb public-worker benefits and planning similar protests in other state capitals.

Boehner says any stopgap spending bill must trim federal budget further
As the House continued its marathon debate Thursday over a bill to fund the federal government, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) acknowledged that Congress might not reach agreement over spending cuts before the government runs out of money next month.

44: Republicans fight each other over spending cuts
A conservative budget proposal that would have cut an additional $22 billion across federal agencies on top of the $61 billion in cuts already proposed by House Republicans failed the House Friday amid sharp disagreements among Republicans over just how far Congress should go in seeking to rein i…

The Unions and Their Democratic Friends

Britain Takes a Whack at Multiculturalism
Daniel Hannan, Newsweek
The shocking thing is that anyone should have been shocked. The British prime minister’s repudiation of multiculturalism was so uncontroversial as to be almost platitudinous. In a recent speech, David Cameron emphasized the distinction between Islamic devotion and jihadi extremism, and argued that the government ought not to fund organizations that reject democracy, women’s rights, and equality before the law.

An Assault on Taxpayers
David Harsanyi, Denver Post
When Dan Nerad, the superintendent of schools in Madison, Wis., was informed that 40 percent of the teachers union was calling in sick this week (evidently, something's going around), he shut down the entire operation. “At this ratio,” he explained, “we have serious concerns about our ability to maintain safe and secure school environments.”Where can one find a safe environment for children? As political props for union activists, of course, holding prefabricated signs demanding the state go broke funding increasingly inferior yet increasingly costly education. OK, by…

The Tea Party Movement Stands Firm
Paul Rahe, Commentary
On February 19, 2009, when the finance commentator Rick Santelli indulged in a rant against the newly unveiled “stimulus” bill on the CNBC cable network and called for a demonstration in Chicago modeled on the Boston Tea Party, he fired a shot heard round the country. Santelli’s diatribe was focused on the fact that Americans who had played by the rules, had saved much of what they had earned, and had paid their bills on time were being required to bail out fellow citizens who had gotten caught short in purchasing a domicile they could not afford or while…