NebraskaPatriot

The Week That Was For Senator Nelson

1. ObamaCare 1099: Nelson voted for fellow Nebraska Senator Mike Johanns’ amendment that would have scrapped a section from the ObamaCare law. The Wall Street Journal reported on this completely insane provision this week:

“small businesses are staring in horror toward 2013, when the 1099 mandate will hit more than 30 million of them. Currently businesses only have to tell the IRS the value of services they purchase from vendors and the like. Under the new rules, they'll have to report the value of goods and merchandise they purchase as well, adding vast accounting and paperwork costs. Think about a midsized trucking company. The back office would have to collect hundreds of thousands of receipts from every gas station where its drivers filled up and figure out where it spent more than $600 that year. Then it would also need to match those payments to the stations' corporate parents. Most Democrats now claim they were blindsided and didn't understand the implications of the 1099 provision—which is typical of the slapdash, destructive way the bill was written and passed. 

The amendment failed 46-52 as the majority Democrats decided it’s more important to continue to pile on small businesses and retard job growth further.

2. Immigration: The Omaha World-Herald reports that Senator Nelson “offered a simple warning to Democrat leaders, “Just don’t do it.” “It” being the “DREAM Act”, which is an amendment that Majority Leader Harry Reid is apparently going to add to the Defense bill that will be coming in front of the Senate soon.

Reid’s “DREAM Act” would allow children who are here illegally to attain citizenship if they go to college or join the military.

This Defense bill sets out a range of key defense policies, including the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” as well as the authorization for military spending over the next fiscal year.

3. Nelson was on FOXNEWS’ On The Record with Greta Van Susteren Wednesday night and here are the highlights:

• Bush Tax Cuts – “no time to be raising taxes on anybody”
• Stimulus – “you have to go county by county in Nebraska, we have done an analysis of that and I think it [Stimulus] has worked”
• Spending – “You have to control the spending. I am hopeful that our appropriations process this year will hold the line on any growth in spending.”
• Election Reaction in Delaware – “all need to be on our toes always focused on what’s going on back home. I paid close attention a year ago with what was going on in Nebraska and so we tried to focus with people back home with more information and better explanation. Sometimes it’s not as important how you vote but why you vote – make sure we are responding to these concerns people have.”

Well there you go. Digest that and think about what he said and did this week.

Nebraska's Republican U.S. Senator Takes Lead

it's always good to have people in positions that have been decision makers . . .

Nebraska's Republican U.S. Senator Mike Johanns has introduced a bill that would help those of us in the small towns and cities across the country that chose to take on the power of the Federal Government in court.

Johanns' initiative came as the result of his concern over the ugly battle that the Obama Administration is waging against Arizona that is leading to "a battle brewing between the federal government and our communities when it comes to enforcing immigration laws."

In Nebraska, the city of Fremont, which is just west of Omaha, recently passed a city ordinance that bans harboring, hiring or renting homes to illegal immigrants.

The ordinance will require:

city businesses to use the federal government’s E-Verify system to verify the employment eligibility of new hires. If a business fails to register with E-Verify or provide the required affidavit, the business will be tried at a public hearing before the city council. And, if the city council determines the business has violated the ordinance, it may revoke the license, contract, or grant issued to the business. In addition, the city attorney will have the power to bring a civil action in district court against any business suspected of violating the ordinance. The measure also requires renters in the city to obtain an occupancy license before they could move into an apartment or house and, as part of the application process, have their immigration status checked.

The Nebraska Republican says measures such as Fremont's have been the result of the void left by our federal government's inaction. He is concerned that the Obama Administration's response to Arizona and cities such as Fremont is not to enforce laws as currently on the books but rather to file lawsuits against the state and local governments and in turn on the citizens of those states and cities.

Johanns' bill would require the Justice Department to reimburse the state or local  governments for any attorney fees and other legal costs if the court rules in favor of local citizens.

I know a couple people in Fremont that voted against the ordinance solely because they are concerned that the legal challenges will bankrupt the city and local tax payers.

With Democrats in control of Congress, this bill will go nowhere but this is one U.S. Senator to whom we Nebraskans need to say "thanks" for bringing some common sense to Washington, something sorely lacking.

Obama Has Now Passed into the World of the Absurb

White House becoming a freak show that Americans are turning their eyes from . . .

Critics of the President's approach to Arizona have asked a very good question of late: so if Arizona is supposedly violating Federal Law what about sanctuary cities?

Presently there are approximately 50 cities across the country that are refusing to enforce Federal Law that was implemented in 1996, which said if you have information on an illegal, you can not pass a law that bars your people from notifying the Feds. So what has sprung up in these feel-good  cities is an illegal immigrant version of don't ask-don't tell. Not surprisingly most of the sanctuary cities are Liberal meccas whose philosophical views run hand-in-hand with the President.

It was San Francisco's don't ask-don't tell policy that resulted in a vicious slay in 2008 of Tony Bologna and two of his three sons, age 16 and 20 at the time of the murders. A third son was an eye witness to the shootings and had to watch as his father and two brothers lie dying on the streets of San Francisco. The shooter was an illegal from El Salvador who had numerous prior arrests but because of San Francisco's don't ask-don't tell policy, local police did not ask if he was an illegal upon prior arrests which  kept the good folks of San Francisco of turning him over to the Feds for  deportation. Instead, he was given sanctuary in this radical leftist community and that freedom led to the slaughter of the three Bologna family members. 

Yesterday, Obama endorsed the sanctuary city policy and turned his head to the savage murders of the Bolognas when HIS Department of Justice said through its spokeswoman:

"There is a big difference between a state or locality saying they are not going to use their resources to enforce a federal law, as so-called sanctuary cities have done, and a state passing its own immigration policy that actively interferes with Federal law."

So Obama is saying it's ok for sanctuary cities to ignore Federal Law but it's not ok for Arizona to put  Federal immigration law in its state statute. Rhode Island ironically, has a law currently in use that allows law enforcement on a minor traffic violation to ask if the person is an illegal immigrant yet Mr. Obama has been suspiciously mum on it.

Hence, my headline.

And the White House wonders why the American people are growing more and more unhappy by the day with this man.

And Down Goes Obama . . .

 Arizona Governor Brewer throws a mean upper cut and it hits nothing but pay dirt!

Brewer 1 Obama 0

And so the State Run Media think Arizona's new law on immigration isn't a political winner for Republicans.

Governor Brewer's approval ratings have gone up almost 20 points since she signed the new bill into law. And then to top it all off, Governor Brewer sent this 100 mph fastball as chin music to the President.