A small handful of anti-war nuts came to downtown Chicago the other day and Chicago News Bench did the foot work to cover it all. Tom Mannis of CNB also has a great slide show of the freaks, geeks, wackos and communists that showed for the thing. And when I say communists, I mean it, I'm not just name-calling. There were actual, self-avowed communists and socialists at this thing.

I am amused at the hypocrisy of the anti-war "movement," these days, though. When it was the eeeeeevil Bushies in power they were having these parades of human detritus every other weekend in Chicago but now that their messiah Obama is in office this is the first one they've bothered with since inauguration day!

What does that mean? It means that being "anti-war" is NOT their goal. Being anti-George Bush was their ONLY goal. They couldn't really care less about any war. All they cared about was getting rid of G.W. Bush.

Anyway, head on over to Chicago News Bench and laugh at the comedy that is the anti-war "movement."

House Minority Leader John Boehner said the Democrat's health care plan will kill jobs in America if it is rammed through the House this weekend.

The analysis is below:

NUMBERS TO KNOW:

• $569.2 billion in tax increases
• $523.5 billion in Medicare cuts
• $48 billion more for Medicaid

1. A Job-Killing Government Takeover of Health Care. No amount of changes or legislative tricks can hide the true destructive nature of this bill: $17 billion in new taxes on Americans who do not comply with the individual mandate, $52 billion in new taxes on employers that do not provide health coverage deemed “acceptable” or “affordable” by government bureaucrats, and new taxes on capital gains, dividends and interest that will further stifle economic growth and job creation.

2. New Tax on Capital Formation and Job Creation. The Medicare tax on capital gains, dividends, and other investment income gets bigger, magnifying the destructive power of this new tax.  The bill increases the tax from 2.9 percent to 3.8 percent, pushing the top capital gains rate to 23.8 percent and the top rate for dividends to 43.4 percent in conjunction with tax relief expiring at the end of this year.  As The Wall Street Journal editorialized this week, this tax will “permanently skew the incentives to work, save and create jobs.”

3. Democrats Continue to Say ‘I Do’ To Marriage Penalty.  The bill leaves in place a massive marriage penalty, which will mean higher premiums for those that tie the knot.  As highlighted in January by The Wall Street Journal, “the disparity comes about in part because subsidies for purchasing health insurance … are pegged to federal poverty guidelines.”  The final bill leaves this unfair penalty on married couples in place.

4. Lower Wages and More Unemployment.  The final bill imposes $52 billion in new taxes on employers, including small businesses, that cannot afford to provide health coverage or that don’t offer coverage.  The effect of this type of tax, similar to a payroll tax increase, would ultimately fall squarely on workers in the form of lower wages or reduced employment.  In fact, the Tax Policy Center concluded that “economists generally believe that the burden of payroll taxes is borne by workers in the form of lower wages, regardless of whether the tax is levied on the employer or the employee.”  The tax proposed in this bill will likely have the same effect.

5.  Employers Targeted By Even Higher Taxes to Enforce Employer Mandate. The final bill incorporated President Obama’s suggestion to rake in a little more cash to pay for a massive government-takeover of health care by nearly tripling the job-killing mandate tax on employers who do not offer health coverage to $2,000 per employee. Sure enough, the President’s suggestion raises an additional $25 billion on the backs of American employers, according to CBO.

6. Individual Mandate Tax Reduced?  No, Not Really.  Democrats are highlighting their generosity by lowering the amount of the tax for not complying with the mandate. But just how generous are they?  Not very.  Democrats propose to reduce the individual mandate tax flat payment amount by a scant 14¢ a day.  And, while Democrats “reduce” the individual mandate tax flat payment amount, they actually raise $2 billion more by making other alterations to the individual mandate, according to CBO.

7.  The Power to Tax Our Health Care.  The Democrats’ final bill doesn’t just tax individuals and employers if they don’t comply with the complex mandates in the bill. The bill sends the IRS out to tax the very products Americans use to maintain and restore their own health.  New taxes on medical devices, on prescription drugs, and on health insurance itself are all targets of the bill.  And, with $10 billion in new enforcement resources, you can bet the IRS will be taking its full share out of the pockets of every American who uses any of these products or services.

8. Even More Subsidies, Even Greater Threat to the Economy.  The bill increases the subsidies provided under the bill from those provided in the Senate bill by $65 billion, a significant and unsustainable increase. In fact, the Associated Press reported a warning from Massachusetts’ state treasurer, who stated that Congress will "threaten to wipe out the American economy within four years" if it adopts a health care overhaul modeled after the Bay State's.

 9. Taxpayer-Funded Abortion Coverage. The final bill does not include the Stupak amendment language that would prohibit federal funds from being used to fund elective abortions.  Instead, states are given the option to opt-out of providing insurance coverage of abortions.  Still, taxpayers in a state that opts-out would still see their federal tax dollars fund elective abortions in other states. Additionally, each state through the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) can provide access to two multi-state plans, and only one of them will exclude abortions. OPM’s current health care program – the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) – does not include any plans that cover elective abortion. For the first time, a federally funded and managed health care plan will cover elective abortions. 

10.  Medicaid Rolls And Waiting Lines to Swell Even More. CBO estimates that as a result of the Democrats’ bill, one million more Americans will get their coverage from Medcaid, which is plagued with financial woes and wreaks all kinds of budgetary havoc on cash-strapped states.  The Democrats’ bill, as the New York Times highlighted, will push even more Americans into a program where they will have trouble finding doctors and have to wait for potentially months to receive care.  That’s not meaningful reform by any measure.

BONUS: Republicans have proposed a health care bill based on common-sense reforms that, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, would reduce premiums for families and small businesses by up to 10 percent. It is not too late to start over.

Pat "the accidental governor" Quinn told a union crowd that Illinois GOP Gubernatorial nominee Bill Brady would somehow destroy the middle class by his anti-union stance. Quinn also made the essential claim that without unions there'd be no "middle class."

"We're not going to have a middle class if we allow a lot of anti-labor, anti-union operators to get in politics and tear to shreds fundamental things we all agree on," Quinn said. "He doesn't believe in the minimum wage. He wants to abolish it."

There is, of course, a glaring error in Quinn's wild-eyed union claim. As of 2009 union members accounted for only 12.4 percent of America's workforce. With this fact one wonders how the middle class could be eliminated by anti-union forces when union workers make up such a tiny percentage of the total U.S. workforce already?

Is Quinn trying to claim that the entire middle class is made up of only 12.4 percent of the U.S. workforce?

On the contrary, just by the numbers it would seem that if unions wholly disappeared all at once there wouldn't be that big a dent in the total middle class of the country. In fact, unions have been losing members steadily for quite a while now and there is still a thriving middle class. After all, nearly half of American households fit into the middle class. (incomes median $46,000 annually).

Is the economy bad right now? Sure it is. But one could effectively argue that some of this bad economy is because of unions and their production killing demands, not despite them.

On top of that, there is no evidence that Bill Brady ever said he wants to eliminate the minimum wage. So Quinn has tow for two in lies on this one, for sure.

Sadly, Quinn has drifted far from the man of the people he once was and is now a scaremonger, a demagogue, and a hypocrite.

Joe Walsh, the GOP nominee for the 8th District Congressional seat, sat down with the folks at the Daily Herald to talk about the 2009 foreclosure on his Winnetka condo that recently became widely known.

Walsh's version of the final analysis is that this bank foreclosure on his Winnetka condo makes him just like a lot of Americans that lost their homes due to this bad economy and as a Congressman he'll be in a position to do something about it.

The Daily Herald, though, was skeptical that Walsh, with a current rent payment of $3,300 a month, could be an "average Joe." They peppered Walsh with questions asking how he could claim not to be a rich man with such an expensive rent payment?

Walsh admitted that he overextended himself financially but did so because he didn't want to leave the area in which his ex-wife and kids lived. He said he had promised not to leave his kids and wanted to stay as near as possible to them.

The big question that the Herald folks had is if Walsh felt embarrassed by the foreclosure. He said he didn't.

My big question is if he can afford to fund the required two homes, one in Washington and one here in his district, if he were to win the seat?

As to the foreclosure itself I have less trouble knowing he had one (it is common and not necessarily an indication of a "bad" person), but more that it wasn't widely known until after the primary. I had a feeling that Mr. Walsh was not vetted very thoroughly by his supporters and this just lends credence to that feeling.

From the Sam Adams Alliance…

Two weeks ago, Sam Adams Alliance released a groundbreaking study on the Tea Party movement. Our report, The Early Adopters: Reading the Tea Leaves offers the first-ever insights into the Tea Party movement that include a survey sample made up entirely of recognized Tea Party leaders.

In this edition of Engaging Democracy, Eric O'Keefe sits down with Anne Sorock, who oversaw the study, to find out what motivates the Tea Party leaders, what issues they care about, and who they would vote for in the 2012 Presidential election. Some of the results may surprise you.

Watch or Listen to the podcast. And for more info like this, follow our blog, The Point.

Sam Adams Alliance needs your help to keep creating pro-freedom content and tools to help people and organizations who support free-market principles and self-governance. Please consider a donation of $50 today.

From the Hayes for Congress (2nd District) campaign...

CHICAGO: The following statement was released today by Rev. Isaac C. Hayes, the GOP nominee for Congress in IL-2 in response to Rep. Jackson Jr.’s excessive automobile expenses.

“This amounts to nothing more than a never ending display of arrogance,” said Rev. Hayes, “a thumbing up of his nose to his constituents.” According to him, Rep. Jackson is taking “joyrides” while the rest of the country continues to “lose their jobs and homes.”

Recent reports, disclose Rep. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill) spent $1,259.00 per month last quarter for a hybrid Toyota Highlander. Some lawmakers spent far less on leases. Indiana Rep Joe Donnelly, Democrat, spends $450 each month and Rep David Drier (R-Calif.) spends $366 a month.

Congress receives an office expense account from which they can lease a vehicle for official business. But Rev. Hayes suggests Jackson is using this account as a “slush fund that he is confusing for a money tree.”

Rev. Hayes believes Jackson is out of touch and does not understand what it means to manage a budget “like the rest of America who lives paycheck to paycheck.” Striking a populist tone he goes on to say, “My opponent wants to raise our taxes to furnish his fat cat lifestyle on the backs of hardworking Americans who are struggling to buy gas and groceries.”

For more information on Rev. Hayes, please go to: www.isaac4honesty.com