Bread, meats, veggies, fruit (the strawberries are soooo good this time of year) are filling my cart as I circle the store towards the checkout lanes.  It is a Saturday so I know there will be lines.  Even though the store usually has most lanes open there will still be lines.  I was talking to one of the managers once and he told me that they generally have around a half million dollars in sales on a typical Saturday.  I am an experienced warehouse shopper and do everything I can to lessen my time in line.  I even line up my bigger items in the cart witht the UPC symbol exposed so they can scan without putting the items on the belt. 

The cart was pretty full this time and I got the usual shock when the total rung up.  It was over $250.00!  Shopping hungry probably increased my cost by at least 25 percent.  I had lunch ($1.50 for a quarter pound hot dog and a drink) and headed for home.  As I unloaded I came to the realization that I forgot the milk!  I always need to buy milk.  How could I forget to buy something so basic and always on my list?

Shopping hungry and in a hurry.

I think the Obamacrats were guilty of shopping hungry and in a hurry when they passed the ObamaPelosiReidCare.  They were starved for government health care for decades making my skipping breakfast look minor.  They sampled every idea they wanted to try and ended up with a 2,700 page shopping cart.  Unlike my bill from grocery shopping where I saw the total right away, the invoice for ObamaPelosiReidCare will come much later.  Word is that the Democrats had quite the celebration after passing the bill so I am guessing they didn’t have hot dog and a soft drink.  I paid for my lunch and probably paid for theirs too.

Like me forgetting the milk, the Democrats seemed to have forgotten some of the basic things off of their shopping list.  Of course they skipped tort reform to protect their trial lawyer buddies and decided to continue to allow states to prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines.  These things were never on their list.  In the weeks since Obama signed the bill into law the politicians are finally reading the bill…and finding the “milk” that they forgot:

• Obama worked to demonize the insurance companies to help sell his health care coup.  Unfortunately his minions failed to include any provisions to control health care premium increases which I thought was one of their big wishes.  That’s probably good news for the free market.
• A big thing that the skipped, though intentional, was to actually start offering health care to the millions of people who need it.  I guess those folks were only needed to USE to pass the bill.  In a sad sad commentary on some of the American public they are showing up at hospitals and doctors’ offices looking to sign up for the free Obamacare. 
• It was intentional, but the Dems did not extend health insurance to illegals.  My guess is that they’ll fix that as part of Comprehensive immigration reform.
• The Dems liked to use children as props to promote their agenda, but FORGOT to include a provision to cover children with pre-existing conditions.
• Even though Democrats promised to extend coverage to children under their parents health plans until the age of 25, they seemed to have botched that. 
• The Democrats may have forced Congress to take the same health care that they want to force on us.  This one is too funny. 

My guess is that we’ll see a true bipartisan bill to fix this last one.

I believe, and we should remember that this is a gathering storm against politicians of all party affiliations.

I have had the pleasure of being stuck at home with H1N1 (I am feeling better Thank You).  Being sick and more or less confined in my house gave me a unique opportunity to watch way too much television.  I caught an episode of Sports Soup on Versus yesterday and they played a clip of former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz discussing how Washington politicians are looking to weasel their way into college football most recently Senator Orin Hatch going as far as requesting that the Department of Justice look into the BCS organization. 

Trickle Evidence 1:  ESPN was having some fun discussing this issue in a “judicial” format seeking testimony from its hosts.  Obviously, they do not want the government to interfere with their corner of the planet.  It is a very interesting phenomena that people often call for government to “do something” UNTIL the government comes knocking on their door.  So it is not surprising that a bunch of sports guys object to government intrusion into sports, and especially college sports.  Watch the embedded video and pay particular attention to Lou Holtz’s segment.

Here are some highlights from Coach:

“As a taxpayer I have very low expectations.  I don’t expect our Congress to read a 1500 page stimulus bill before they spend 787 billion dollars we don’t have.  I don’t expect them to read the 2500 pages in the health bill before we spend a trillion dollars.  I don’t expect them to understand how we went 1.4 trillion dollars in debt in the last 12 months.  But I do expect them to read the 36 pages of the Constitution.” [Coach was prepared as he had a copy of the Constitution with him]

“Leave football alone.  It’s the one thing that’s competitive.  Not everybody gets a trophy.  Not everybody can say we’re number one…That’s part of the game.”

Fellow commenter, Mark May, was equally opposed and eloquent, but not as passionate as Coach Holtz. 

“They [the fans] don’t expect politicians to get involved with sports…that you have to change what you do in sports every single year because we’re politicians and we know what is better for the sport than people who are involved in the sport.”

Keep in mind that this exchange took place on an all sports cable channel during college game day and was seen by millions of fans.  That may be more than a trickle?

Trickle Evidence 2:  The front page of my paper carried the headline (above the fold) “Review: Stimulus employment overestimated.”  I have linked to the article as is my habit and the facts are not the focus of this posting.  The fact that my local paper carried a story questioning liberal issues was not that dramatic, but what struck me was the fact that the story was written by the Associated Press!  In an even bigger move, the story mentioned “President Obama’s economic recovery plan” very prominently.  It is unusual that a member of the MSM, when criticizing Obama, actually uses his name.  It is more their template to leave any reference to Obama out of the story or at the most use “Administration” or “White House.” 

I cannot help but comment on some of the facts of the story in that the focus is on the fact that estimates of the jobs “created or saved” may have been inflated by as much as a factor of four.  That is bad and a betrayal of public trust (public trust – oxymoron), but what is not highlighted is the fact that ONLY 30,000 jobs have been created (or saved).  Contrast that to the 2 to 3 MILLION jobs lost during the same period.   If you really want to get ticked, consider that it cost YOU only $15 billion as reported on the government website costing a paltry half million dollars per jobs.  If you adjust the jobs created as suggested by the AP (factor of four) that would be $2 million for each of the 7,500 jobs created OR SAVED.

Trickle Evidence 3:  The Wall Street Journal reports about the spreading gloom many Americans feel about the direction politicians are taking the country.  It should not be a surprise that folks are feeling gloomy when we have ten percent unemployment.  My evidence of the trickle is the fact that the Republicans cannot pin this tail on the Democrats who controls both houses and the White House.  As the minority party, they should be able to push all of the problems onto Obama, Pelosi and Reid (and the Republicans excell as a minority party – it does seem to bring out their “conservative” side).  People are getting it.  It is all of the politicians’ fault.

The ground has swollen, the trickle has started, next will be a steady flow…