Tuesday wrap

U.S. as Banana Republic: Obama sends in the Federal Czars ... I’m not going to discuss his reckless decision to allow the private Federal Reserve Banking System to serve as the czar of the financial industry. However, it appears that his appointment of numerous czars without senate approval is unconstitutional. Let me just say this. It should be clear to anyone who has the slightest idea what’s going on that the Federal Reserve is most responsible for this economic mess. The Federal Reserve strong-armed banks, perhaps even Paulson and others to act in a predatory, defiant, and illegal manner. And now Obama wants to grant the Fed absolute control of the financial industry? Are you kidding me? I can’t believe what I’m witnessing. I’ve been in disbelief now for over a year. Someone please wake me up when this nightmare ends; but not a minute before. (seekingalpha.com)


Honduras explained ... What do you do if you're a term-limited president in Latin America? Mel Zelaya, who until this weekend was President of Honduras, decided to call a referendum to rewrite the nation's Constitution. That he had no authority to call such a referendum was not supposed to matter; Zelaya is a friend of Hugo Chávez, after all. The Honduran Supreme Court ruled Zelaya's actions unconstitutional. The nation's attorney general found that the referendum was illegal. Nevertheless, with support from Chávez, Zelaya determined to carry out the illegal referendum that would allow him to extend his term in office and potentially recreate the entire Honduran regime in his own image. And so? Other Latin American leaders have gotten away with such shady shenanigans with barely a yawn from the rest of the world. Not in Honduras. Acting apparently on orders from their Supreme Court, the Honduran military arrested Zelaya and kicked him out of the country. A new president was appointed; this was also apparently done according to Honduran law. The nation's Constitution remains intact, regular elections--including for president--remain scheduled for November, and a wannabe strongman has been sidelined. All this has touched off a firestorm of criticism from a mix of Chávez cronies and other law-bending world leaders made nervous by the fall of one of their own. Some on the political left are even calling for "solidarity" with Zelaya, apparently because he shares their Progressive disdain for the United States and the rule of law. (libertylive.org)


Obama OK's counter-strike against Honduras Constitution ... Mr Zelaya announced his return in the capital of Nicaragua, Managua, where he has been attending a meeting with his leftist allies in the region, including Venezuela's Hugo Chávez. Mr Zelaya said he would fly home on Thursday, together with the head of the OAS. "I'll be finishing my term of four years whatever you - you groups of oligarchs, you the owners of the media - may want," he said. It is unclear how Honduras's current leaders would react but they have previously said that Mr Zelaya would be arrested and jailed if he set foot in the country. They say he was legally removed because he violated the constitution. Mr Obama said he would work with the OAS to restore Mr Zelaya to office. (news.bbc.co.uk)


Obama clears path for EFCA, taps unionist lawyer as top Fed Mediator ... George H. Cohen, Nominee for Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, Director. George Cohen has had an extensive and distinguished career as a labor lawyer, negotiator, and mediator. During the period 1966-2005 he was a senior partner at Bredhoff & Kaiser, a Washington, D.C. law firm with a national practice, specializing in representing private and public sector labor organizations in collective bargaining involving a wide variety of industries and government entities. (whitehouse.gov)


Obama Perestroika: 'Light touch' exposed ... "I am a firm believer in the power of the free market," President Obama told the Wall Street Journal recently. The "irony" surrounding his public image as a collectivist, the president insisted, was that "I actually would like to see a relatively light touch when it comes to the government." Either Obama is as confused about the definition of irony as pop singer Alanis "rain on your wedding day" Morrisette, or he was being disingenuous. Given the president's ambitious, state-bloating agenda and longtime disdain for free enterprise, the latter is more likely the case. The president is hell-bent on further extending government control over Americans' health care, and the administration-backed cap and trade bill that passed the House Friday, would, among other things, create a national building code. A "light touch," indeed. Nearly half of Americans now think the unspent portion of the stimulus package should be cancelled. Fewer than half approve of Obama's "speculator"-denouncing, CEO-firing approach to the auto bailouts, and six in 10 tell pollsters that he lacks a clear plan for taming our burgeoning deficit. Cap-and-trade is likely to stall in the Senate, and with the Congressional Budget Office scoring the leading health-care bill at $1.6 trillion over 10 years, "sticker shock" may kill Obamacare as well. Obama's popularity remains substantially higher than that of his policies. But that gap can't persist indefinitely. (washingtonexaminer.com)


Sotomayor compares unfavorably to rejected SCOTUS nominee ... Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has been overturned again. President Barrack Obama’s choice to fill the Supreme Court vacancy being created by the retirement of Associate Justice David Souter had another of her rulings overturned today when five of the high court justices upheld an appeal by 20 firefighters from New Haven, Connecticut, who had passed their test for promotion only to have all promotions cancelled because none of the African-American candidates passed the test. Sotomayor was part of a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York that unanimously dismissed the appeal. The full circuit court later declined to hear the case. The ruling in Ricci et al. v DeStefano et al. (pdf) would appear to add to the statistical challenge the nominee will likely face at her confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Sotomayor has been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court on 60 percent of her appealed rulings. Those with long memories may recall that Nixon nominee G. Harold Carswell, rejected by the Senate in 1970, was considered “mediocre” by many of the senators because he had been overturned on 58 percent of the appeals of his decisions. (thenewamerican.com)


Labor-state shows Congress how to kill jobs ... Three years ago, I stood on the floor of the California Senate and watched a similar celebration over a similar bill, Assembly Bill 32. And I have spent the last three years watching as that law has dangerously deepened California's recession. It uses a different mechanism than cap and trade, but the objective is the same: to force a dramatic reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. Until that bill took effect, California's unemployment numbers tracked very closely with the national unemployment rate. But then, in January of 2007, California's unemployment rate began a steady upward divergence from the national jobless figures. Today, California's unemployment rate is more than two points above the national rate, and at its highest point since 1941. What is it that happened in January 2007? AB 32 took effect and began shutting down entire segments of California's economy. Let me give you one example from my district. (ibdeditorials.com)


ACORN Housing: Union-backed foreclosure fraud exposed ... Kansas-based blogger Nancy Armstrong (MsPlacedDemocrat.com) reports that St. Louis, Missouri, gave a $100,000 grant to ACORN and that $82,000 of it is unaccounted for. The money was given to ACORN for loan modifications, that is, to help struggling homeowners refinance their mortgages. ACORN reportedly charges $750 for each loan modified and says it has completed 24 of them, which means it is entitled to $18,000 from the grant. Read more about it on Armstrong's blog here. (spectator.org)


"Health care by lobbyists thwarts your rights and can be stopped here." ... Voters in Arizona will decide next year whether residents will be subject to mandates in the pending health care reform that President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats are promoting. The Arizona Legislature introduced an initiative (HCR2014), which if passed, would amend the state constitution to codify that no resident would be required to participate in any public health care option. Arizonans will vote on the initiative in November 2010. “HCR2014 is proactive and will protect patients’ fundamental rights,” Arizona State Rep. Nancy Barto, a Republican, said in a statement. “We are a front-line battle state to stop the momentum of this powerful government takeover of your health care decisions. Health care by lobbyists thwarts your rights and can be stopped here.” (cnsnews.com)


Oakland: Police unionists holds out ... City workers represented by the Service Employees International Union have overwhelmingly agreed to a contract with the city that includes compensation reductions of 10 percent, the union said. "City workers have acknowledged these difficult times and once again have delivered for the Oakland community," said Brad Walters, SEIU's Oakland Chapter President in a statement. SEIU Local 1021, which represents more employees than any other city union, became the first of the city's four major unions to vote to accept a 10 percent compensation reduction as the city faces a projected $83 million general fund budget deficit. The 10 percent reduction comes in part from anticipated city shutdown days in the upcoming year and in part from increased retirement contributions from employees. The City Council is relying heavily on employee concessions to balance its budget. Besides Local 1021, the council also has a tentative agreement with Local 55 of the International Association of Fire Fighters and is close to a deal with Local 21 of Professional & Technical Engineers. Council members remain at loggerheads with the Oakland Police Officers Association, however. Unlike the other three unions, the police union had a contract in place when Oakland's budget crisis deepened this year, and talks to restructure that contract have thus far left both sides frustrated. (insidebayarea.com)


Social justice for union-backed, tax-funded fraud group ... Another ACORN worker was ordered held for trial on election law charges following a 20-minute hearing today before Senior District Judge Richard H. Zoller. Eric E. Jordan, 20, of North Braddock will stand trial on charges of soliciting a voter registration and interference with county voter registration officials. Jordan is the sixth worker from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now ordered to face trial in Allegheny County. A seventh defendant faces a preliminary hearing next month. Jordan already was in custody on unrelated charges. The cases stem from an investigation into allegations of voter registration fraud by District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. Jordan, like five of the other defendants, was hired as a canvasser. (pittsburghlive.com)


Toronto police hassle citizenscab.com ... “Roofer Dave” Batterton hopes that the city workers strike lasts a good long time. He has suspending his roofing business for the duration of the walkout, and begun picking up garbage, starting with the homes of his clients. Fortunately for Mr. Batterton, he has put slate roofs and copper eavestroughing on some of the stateliest piles in Rosedale and Forest Hill. These folks don’t want to wait on a picket line at a transfer station. “If this goes on, this may be a good living,” he said today, after accepting 10 bags of garbage from two big brick homes (with slate roofs) on Maple Street in Rosedale. “People are just happy to give me money and I’m getting rid of their garbage.” He has registered a domain name, fivebucksabag.com, where customers can register their address, and he’ll come and get their trash. The business idea came to him Friday night. He parked his truck near the end of a one-kilometre line of cars waiting to drop off trash at the Bermondsey Transfer Station, in the summer heat. As each car arrived, he asked the occupants for $5 a bag, and threw their trash in his truck, so they wouldn’t have to wait around. “Two bylaw enforcement officers came up and said, ‘We’d rather you didn’t. We’ve called the cops.’ I said, ‘I’m not causing trouble.’ But the officers said, ‘You gotta go.’ ’’ (network.nationalpost.com)


International Collectivism

LatAm Marxist wins over Obama ... The so-called "military coup" in Honduras was a successful effort by Honduran patriots to preserve their constitutional system of government from an international alliance of communists and socialists backed by Iran. Not surprisingly, America’s Marxist President has come down on the anti-American side. If all of this is news to you, consider yourself a victim of the "state-run media," as Rush Limbaugh calls it. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, noted that the problem was that the deposed president, Manuel "Mel" Zelaya, was "moving to re-write the Honduran constitution to extend and expand his power, while retaliating against those who stand in his way." (familysecuritymatters.org)


Unified Leftists H8 term limits ... During his campaign, President Obama made a big deal of criticizing leaders who are elected democratically but don't govern democratically. He's had a chance to show that it mattered in Honduras. He didn't. That's the sorry story as Honduras' now ex-president, Mel Zelaya, last Thursday defied a Supreme Court ruling and tried to hold a "survey" to rewrite the constitution for his permanent re-election. It's the same blueprint for a rigged political system that's made former democracies like Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador into shells of free countries. (ibdeditorials.com)


Honduras defends its Constitution ... Thank you to all the visitors, commenters, and bloggers linking to my coverage of yesterday’s events in Honduras. Here is more information on Mel Zelaya’s move: * Zelaya couldn’t get the ballots printed in Honduras since the referendum had been pronounced illegal by the country’s Supreme Court AND the electoral board. Therefore, the government couldn’t print them. No private printer was willing to break the law, either. So Zelaya had the ballots printed in Venezuela and flown in. * The Supreme Court instructed the military (who would be the ones doing the job) NOT to distribute the ballots to the polling stations. * Zelaya then "led thousands of supporters to recover the material from an air force warehouse before it could be confiscated." His supporters broke into the military installation where the ballots were kept. * Zelaya’s supporters started distributing the ballots at 15,000 voting stations across the country. This act placed him in outright defiance of the law, the Constitution, and the Supreme Court. (faustasblog.com)


Chávez flies Zelaya to Nicaragua for ALBA emergency confab ... Yesterday, in response to the coup in Honduras, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez put his military on alert, threatening action if his country's embassy or diplomats were threatened. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, a leftist ally of Chávez, also threatened military action if his country's diplomats were put in danger. Chávez, true to form, also broached the notion that Washington was behind the coup. "They will have to get to the bottom of how much of a hand the CIA and other imperial bodies had in this," he said. The White House has denied any U.S. participation in the coup. "There was no U.S. involvement in this action against President Zelaya," a White House official told Reuters. The U.S. has stated it will not recognize any other government in Honduras. Chávez also said if a new government was sworn in after the coup, it will be defeated (the president of the Congress, Roberto Michelleti was sworn in as provisional president yesterday). "We will bring them down, we will bring them down, I tell you," shouted Chávez to hundreds of Zelaya supporters in Venezuela. Chávez has convened an emergency meeting of his Bolivarian Alternative to the Americas (ALBA) coalition in Nicaragua today to discuss the implications of the coup and what actions to take. Ousted president Manuel Zelaya will attend the meeting. (examiner.com)


U.N. swayed by Chávez, ALBA ... After analyzing the circumstances that have arisen due to this Coup d’Etat, and the serious violations of human rights, the existing multilateral agreements of our countries with the Republic of Honduras, and in view of the total rejection that the International Community has expressed towards the dictatorial government that intends to take power, the member States of ALBA have decided to order our Ambassadors to leave their posts, leaving the minimal diplomatic representation in Tegucigalpa instead, until the legitimate government of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales has been reinstated. Accordingly, we will recognize only the Honduran diplomatic representation appointed by President Zelaya in our countries, and under no circumstances will we accredit any personnel appointed by usurpers. Also, as member states of the different integration systems of the continent, we call upon our brother nations of UNASUR, SICA, CARICOM, The Rio Group, The UN and OAS to act against the aggressors of the people of Honduras, as we have. (pww.org)

Monday wrap

Today's spotlight: International Collectivism

LatAm Leftist Thug Miscalculated ... Zelaya is an ally of leftist leader Venezuela President Hugo Chávez, who expressed support of his referendum along with Cuba's Fidel Castro. Honduras had joined ALBA, the alliance of leftist leaders in the region as an alternative to free-trade agreements they say are dominated by the US. Across Latin America, leftist leaders have successfully rewritten their constitutions to enable their re-elections. But while Mr. Chávez, Evo Morales in Bolivia, and Rafael Correa in Ecuador have successfully modified their charters to elongate their rule, it seems Zelaya miscalculated his institutional backing. "Zelaya confused himself with (other) governments by assuming that he had a constituency when he didn't really," says Larry Birns, head of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs in Washington. "He is not a person who had hit a respondent chord in the population, which he could politically rely upon. ... It was a miscalculation." (csmonitor.com)

In case you missed it: The Union News weekend
Sunday: Send in the union thug clowns
Saturday: Obama FDA cracks down against Cheerios


Global Leftists gang up against term limits ... Hugo Chávez's coalition-building efforts suffered a setback yesterday when the Honduran military sent its president packing for abusing the nation's constitution. It seems that President Mel Zelaya miscalculated when he tried to emulate the success of his good friend Hugo in reshaping the Honduran Constitution to his liking. But Honduras is not out of the Venezuelan woods yet. Yesterday the Central American country was being pressured to restore the authoritarian Mr. Zelaya by the likes of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo himself. The Organization of American States, having ignored Mr. Zelaya's abuses, also wants him back in power. It will be a miracle if Honduran patriots can hold their ground. That Mr. Zelaya acted as if he were above the law, there is no doubt. But Mr. Zelaya declared the vote on his own and had Mr. Chávez ship him the necessary ballots from Venezuela. Calculating that some critical mass of Hondurans would take his side, the president decided he would run the referendum himself. So on Thursday he led a mob that broke into the military installation where the ballots from Venezuela were being stored and then had his supporters distribute them in defiance of the Supreme Court's order. (online.wsj.com)


Obama miscalculates, sides with Chávez-Castro stooge ... Through all of this, Barack Obama abetted the Zelaya power grab through his calculated silence. Yet, the brave people of Honduras – enduring almost unfathomable duress – stood firm in support of their Constitution and the term limits embodied in it. Now that the will of the people has triumphed over tragedy, we believe the time has come for Mr. Obama to concede the defeat of his partner and policy, and for the U.S. media to support those who, putting principle above personal safety, have let freedom ring. At ALG news, we applaud the Freedom Fighters of neighboring Honduras. The story out of Honduras is that the people of that stalwart little country have now taken it into their own hands to preserve their democracy in the most courageous action since they established their constitutional republic nearly three decades ago. Just as former Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales prepared to seize full power in direct violation of the nation’s Constitution, the military leadership – with the backing of the people – removed him from power. Unfortunately, Barack Obama, after encouraging the Zelaya coup with his complicit silence, has now condemned the people’s move to uphold their Constitution and preserve their freedom. And, as expected, the mainstream media has joined Mr. Obama in censuring the restoration of democracy by censoring the full story. (netrightnation.com)


Communist Party backs Obama, Honduran Leftist over Constitution ... The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) joins with the world in denouncing the coup d’etat this morning against the legally elected president of the Republic of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, by the Honduran military, in which, according to a statement by the president’s wife, Mr. Zelaya was threatened and beaten before being sent into exile in Costa Rica. The CPUSA further recognizes that the Obama administration has repudiated the coup, and insists that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton hold firm to this position, refusing diplomatic recognition and any military aid to Honduras until President Zelaya is restored to power. (pww.org)


Argentine Leftist dynasty rebuked by voters ... The ruling centre-left coalition of Argentine President Cristina Kirchner has lost control of the country's Congress in key mid-term elections. Even the president's husband Nestor Kirchner, a former head of state, lost his race in Buenos Aires province, where he was seeking a seat in the Chamber of Deputies in Sunday's election. "Argentine society has sent the government a message," commented political analyst Rosendo Fraga. "It has to change course." With results from more than three quarters of the ballots counted, a coalition supported by the president and her husband lost four seats in the Senate and control of the 72-member upper house. With the 36 Senate seats still under their control, the pro-government Front for Victory is one short of a controlling majority. (news.smh.com.au)


Obama silent as Corporate-Fascist Iran oppresses unionists, unionism ... But the real foil to Ahmadinejad’s pro-market policies is a middle-aged bus driver from Tehran. Mansour Osanloo, acting as the president of the 17,000 worker-strong Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, led a 2005 strike in which drivers refused to accept fares in protest of working conditions and rising fares. The strike was immediately criminalized with Osanloo and fellow leaders placed under arrest. Undeterred, Osanloo led another strike attempt in 2006. He was again arrested and today sits in a cell in Iran’s notorious Evin prison — a living testament to both the courage of Iranian workers and the repressive nature of the regime. (news.smh.com.au)


Liberal Party leader restores constitutional order, Tegucigalpa streets are calm ... Interim President Roberto Micheletti has imposed an overnight curfew in Honduras, hours after being sworn in. The Congress speaker took office after troops ousted elected leader Manuel Zelaya and flew him to Costa Rica. The removal of Mr Zelaya came amid a power struggle over his plans for constitutional change. Mr Zelaya, who had been in office since 2006, wanted to hold a referendum that could have led to an extension of his non-renewable four-year term. Mr Micheletti told a news conference that a nationwide curfew was being imposed for Sunday and Monday, running from 2100 (0300 GMT) to 0600 (1200 GMT) on each night. The BBC's Stephen Gibbs, reporting from the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa, said roads were deserted and only a handful of protesters remained on the streets. (news.bbc.co.uk)


Chávez threatens war ... Zelaya, who took office in 2006 and is limited by the constitution to a four-year term that ends in early 2010, had angered the army, courts and Congress by pushing for an unofficial public vote on Sunday to gauge support for his plan to hold a November referendum on allowing presidential re-election. Speaking on Venezuelan state television, Chávez -- who has long championed the left in Latin America -- said he had put his troops on alert over the Honduran coup and would do everything necessary to abort the coup against his close ally. He said that if the Venezuela ambassador was killed, or troops entered the Venezuela embassy, "that military junta would be entering a defacto state of war, we would have to act militarily." He said, "I have put the armed forces of Venezuela on alert." (newsmax.com)


Chavistas suffer rare LatAm reversal ... Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on Sunday slammed attacks on the Venezuelan, Cuban and Nicaraguan ambassadors in Honduras capital of Tegucigalpa, alongside a coup in the nation. "If our ambassador or embassy were attacked, that would be de facto beginning a war," Chávez told a special edition of his Sunday broadcast Alo Presidente. "Venezuela's National Armed Forces have been put on alert," he declared. Chávez's statement came just after Armando Laguna, Venezuela's ambassador to Honduras, told Venezuelan television channel Telesur that he was beaten by hooded Honduran soldiers, with counterparts Juan Carlos Hernandez, of Cuba, and Mario Duarte, of Nicaragua. (news.xinhuanet.com)


Union organizers penetrate Turkey ... Activists and sex workers in Turkey are working on a project to establish Turkey’s first sex workers union. They are hopeful about finding a solution to their problems and changing society’s approach toward sex workers. They will organize an awareness walk to bring attention to their issues. An initiative to establish a union for sex workers in Turkey has been proceeding slowly but patiently for almost a year. Several activists plan to establish a trade union to protect the health, security and education rights of sex workers in Turkey, where the majority of them work without licenses or social security. (pww.org)


Corruption in America: U.S. Justice Department ... A default judgment against the New Black Pather Party (NBPP) in connection with a case of voter intimidation on Election Day, November 4, 2008 was dismissed by the U.S. Justice Department. The U.S. Commission of Civil Rights is demanding to know why this action was taken. NBPP members were caught on film blocking access to the polls and physically and verbally intimidating voters, actually wielding a nightstick in front of voters and poll watchers. Evidence was gathered by Justice Department lawyers, obtained the affidavit of former civil rights advocate Bartle Bull, and a complaint. The defendants did not respond and the court invited the Justice Department to file a default judgement. but the Justice Department withdrew from the case. What the Obama Justice Department did was to block action against a group that has been called a racist, anti-semitic hate group. Its members include an Obama poll-watcher and city democratic official who used epithets and physical intimidation to keep away voter from a polling place in Philadelphia. (examiner.com)

Related video: Securing Philly polling places



Congress was not allowed to read Climate Tax bill before voting ... Almost all of the House members surveyed Friday by CNSNews.com had not read the entire 1,200-page climate-change bill before they were to cast their vote Friday evening. But almost all of them knew how they were going to vote. Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) said that he supported the bill the House was considering (and subsequently approved Friday evening by a narrow 219-212 vote), but he had not read the whole bill. “You’d have to have hours and hours and hours to be able to do all that, but we’re well aware of the main items,” Rep. Abercrombie told CNSNews.com. But the liberal member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus also said he was skeptical about “how it works out in practice.” (cnsnews.com)


Congress won't be allowed to read ObamaCare bill before voting ... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) will not give the public a week to review the final text of a health-care reform bill before it is voted on later this year. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) has also declined to commit to giving the public a week to read and consider the final health-care bill. At her press briefing on Thursday, Pelosi was asked whether the health-care bill would be handled differently than the stimulus bill, which came up in February. The 1,071-page final text of that bill was posted on the House Appropriations Committee’s Web site late on a Thursday night and then voted on the next day. (cnsnews.com))


What, Me Worry? ... The most likely reason Oberstar, Mica, DeFazio, and Duncan said nothing about how this $500 billion boondoggle will be paid for is because they don’t know. Worse, they probably couldn’t care less. Oh sure, all would undoubtedly protest such a characterization vehemently, but the facts speak otherwise. Spending keeps going up, as does the government’s deficit and the national debt. But congressmen like these four keep piling on additional spending with hardly even any lip service for the idea of how it will be paid for when the bills come due. And by the way, the Transportation Trust Fund that is supposed to pay for highway construction and maintenance went bust last year, requiring an $8 billion bailout. Another $15 billion bailout will likely be needed this year. So, as TCS put it, “we’re supposed to buy the wink and a nod that says we’ll find a way to pay for it later?” (washingtonexaminer.com)