Between votes in the U.S. House, Oklahoma’s Dan Boren spoke with Tulsa Today on the last day of the Congressional session.  “I am sitting here in the cloak room off the House floor between votes and had a moment to call,” Boren said.

Question:  Can you tell us what our tax rate will be January?

“No,” he answered. 

After a pause, Boren (D, 2nd District) continued, “I think that what will happen is that we will adjourn late tonight.  After the election, we will come back November 15th and within a week to ten days we will have a vote on the extension of the Bush Tax Cuts.  My belief, and some will disagree, but I think we will extend all of them probably for about two years.  They won’t be permanent, but I think that will be the compromise.

The Bush Tax Cuts have been the operative level of taxation for about a decade in America so repeal of those would be a significant tax increase for many.

Rep. Boren said, “The President has left a little wiggle room open for some movement there, but he only wants tax cuts for those making under $250,000 a year.”

It is a busy time for Rep. Dan Boren as Congress ends the current session and he returns home to campaign for reelection.  September 23, Dan and Andrea Boren were blessed with a new baby son and just last Saturday they brought him home from the hospital.  Dad reports the baby is not sleeping though the night yet, but there is hope for the near future.  The child is “healthy as a horse with a good appetite.”  He was born in the afternoon at 1:07 pm weighing 7 lb 5 oz.  This is the couple’s second child.

Question:  Why is this Administration providing billions in American tax dollars to fund offshore drilling in Brazil and Mexico while forbidding off-shore drilling for America?  That oil will stay in those countries, build their economies, all the while hurting our oil industry and American workers.

“The Obama Administration has been the most anti-oil and gas industry administration on record.  We knew this going in.  I asked then Senator Obama in a meeting of super delegates just before the nomination about taxing oil and gas companies and taking away the tax deductions for intangible drilling costs and the depletion allowance.  Obama said straight up, yes that was what he wanted to do.  Luckily we have not had those taken away.  

“I have introduced a natural gas bill to expand the use of natural gas.  We were just getting to the point where more than the usual [congressional] players from Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas who are always pro natural gas were being joined by New York and Pennsylvania representatives when the oil spill happened.  The Administration did a terrible thing by issuing a moratorium [to stop all off-shore drilling].  I understand British Petroleum and some other folks did a bad job there and that the spill could have been prevented, but there are a lot of jobs tied to this industry off-shore.

“You may have noticed that Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) has put a hold on one of the Obama Administration nominees for the Office of Management and Budget,” Boren said.

In a released statement, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) explained her hold on Jacob J. Lew’s nomination as OMB director because of the Obama administration’s "ill-conceived moratoria on offshore drilling that are having such a devastating impact on working people and small businesses through the Gulf Coast," she said.

"The administration, for whatever reason, has stood in defiance of our federal courts and disregarded economists, experts and its own economic data in proceeding down a path that is putting thousands of people out of work and hurting the bottom line of hundreds of small businesses," Landrieu said.

Boren said, “We are doing everything we can procedurally to get that moratorium lifted and people back to work.  Beyond the jobs, this is also about energy security.”

Question:  Given the Administration’s tax provided funding for foreign oil and climate change and general foreign aid; can you tell us if President Obama’s goal of redistribution of wealth is intended just within the United States or does he plan to level the standard of incomes worldwide?

“I don’t know what President Obama’s worldwide plan is, but whatever it is doesn’t matter if you can’t get it through Congress,” Boren said.  “That is the great equalizer.  We have separate branches of government.  The old saying is, the president proposes and congress disposes and I think that after the election here you will see (as Democrats are on tap to lose seats) that government will come back into balance and hopefully much more bipartisan.

“Some of the economic issues you are questioning [the Administration] will not be able to do.  They will have to negotiate with Congress – they will have to come to the middle at least,” Boren said.

Question: They haven’t had to do that yet?

“No,” Boren said.

Question:  Are you the hope for a new Democrat Party, because this one doesn’t seem to like America very much?

“Well, there are so many factors involved here.  It is not just the parties.  They do play a role, but you have people on both sides of the isle that are extreme right and left.  They don’t believe in any kind of problem solving or bipartisanship.  They are looking to score political points.  The far left people are not in danger of losing their elections this cycle.  It is the people who are somewhat in the middle that ended up voting too far to the left and should have been more to the center.  The sad part of that for the country is that we need more people who are for America not for their political party – Democrat or Republican.

“President Bush ran on being ‘I’m a unite-er not a divide-er’ and President Obama said ‘I’m going to be post-partisan and things are going to be different’ but they both went into office and governed as if only their party was going to be the one doing things and they did not listen to the other party.  That is where you end up getting these really bad deals on both sides.  

Question: The economic policy of trying to pump up the economy with government spending has cost unbelievable trillions of dollars and accomplished nothing.  What is your economic philosophy?  

“There are a lot of parts to this.  Starting with TARP people were bailed out that actually made the bad decisions.  The problem was that if you didn’t bail out the bad guys, then the whole economic system was going to collapse.  TARP and Stimulus sometimes gets mashed into one thing, but TARP is a loan to be paid back with interest and some of that money has come back.  Stimulus is direct spending.  Stimulus will add to the deficit.

“I am not a lawyer.  I am an MBA.  My background is in economics and I have worked in a bank and in an oil and gas company.  I am not what you would call a traditional Democrat.  What I have learned and what I have seen is that we were in a situation and still are where private companies are not spending money because they are very scared about the economic situation, government regulation and the uncertainty of taxes.

"If you look at the timeline, TARP stabilized things.  Then you have the stimulus.  What I think has killed economic growth and frankly really hurt our economy is the Health Care Bill.  A lot of these companies are saying they are just getting back on their feet, but all of a sudden there is this new health regulation coming down the pike and they don’t know how that will impact them so they hold cash and do not hire people.  On top of that is the energy regulation bill known as Cap and Trade?  Both of those bills have had more of a negative impact than the Stimulus Bills.

"We have very low interest rates right now, but at some point what goes down is going to come up and this debt will dramatically increase the national debt and our interest payment on that debt will get larger and larger.  What I would like to see happen is for the Debt Commission made up of people like Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) on the Republican side and Andy Stern (indicted former union president of SCIU) on the Democrat side address the tough choices.  There will be a lot of spending cuts.  There will not be any sacred cows here.  

“I think it is a good thing, especially right now that people are paying concerned attention to their country.  Hopefully, we are going to fix some of these problems,” Boren added.

 

To reach Rep. Dan Boren’s Congressional web site, click here.  To reach his campaign web site, click here.

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About the author:
An individualist, David Arnett began a traditional journalism career untraditionally in an Aha Moment
you can review thirty years ago. Arnett has long argued that
government is incompetent if not corrupt at the Federal level, put his
life on the line to fight corruption on the state level and questioned
almost every “authority” in Tulsa at some point.  Passionately
belligerent in the demand for equal treatment under the law, Arnett
fought for racial integration of Tulsa Public Schools and equal rights
as youth liaison to the Community Relations Commission before he
graduated from high school.  Arnett is a communications consultant and equal opportunity aggravator.

You are encouraged listen and welcome to call-in between 4 and 6 pm each Saturday on The David Arnett Show on AM 740 and FM 102.3 news talk KRMG to discuss this story and others.  You may also register free on Tulsa Today
and comment below.  E-mail of news tips are welcome to
editor@tulsatoday.com.  (This e-mail address is being protected from
spambots.  You need JavaScript enabled to view it or use our contact
form at the top of the page.)  Arnett writes here as often as
opportunity allows.   This interview is similar to one he held during this campaign cycle with U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin.   Rrecent editorials you may enjoy include “Top Down or Free Up?” and "Obama’s Christian Experience" and "We Can Shrink Government" and "Obama’s Thinking Revealed."

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK), a practicing physician, released the following statement today regarding the status of food safety legislation in Congress.  

“Today’s House hearing illustrates why the American people have lost patience with Congress’ incompetence, excuses and partisan demagoguery.  Congress’ response to years of its own failed oversight and fiscal irresponsibility is to steal money from future generations and repeat the same failed regulatory policies of the past.  More money and more regulations solve nothing when Congress lacks the discipline to hold agencies accountable,” Dr. Coburn said.

“I was also disappointed that Chairman Waxman refused to allow a fellow member of his committee, Rep. Michael Burgess, to explain why various arguments made about Senate procedure were false.  Waxman and others are arguing with the wrong Senator.  Senate Majority Leader Reid alone is responsible for not bringing this bill to the floor for a full and open debate.  Only the Majority Leader can explain how he found time to debate gays in the military, immigration and campaign finance – pet priorities of his political base – ahead of food safety.  The schedule certainly suggests Congress is more interested in its political safety than food safety.  

“If the Majority Leader believes this legislation is a matter of life and death he should agree to advance a version that is paid for.  I intend to give the Majority Leader such an opportunity this afternoon.  With our national debt at $13.5 trillion and unemployment near 10 percent we can’t tolerate the borrow-and-spend status quo any longer.  It is nothing less than laziness and incompetence to argue that it is impossible to find $1.4 billion of waste in a $3.5 trillion to pay for this bill.  The rest of America has to live within its means.  It’s time for Congress to do the same,” Dr. Coburn said. 

Early in her speech in Tulsa Wednesday evening (September 15), former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin said she would not be surprised if some in the audience, based on news media coverage, believe she was “plucked from obscurity while staring at Russia from my home.”  That got a laugh.

Near the end of her speech to the Liberty Gala, Palin said, “I can see November from my house.  I can see November from this room, and it looks really good.”  The reference to the election brought a roar from the crowd, as part of a powerful closing statement calling on attendees at the event, sponsored by the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, to “take back” the U.S. government and restore limited, constitutional limited government.
 
In between those two moments, Palin took several stabs at news coverage of her 2008 vice presidential candidacy and her work since that time, endorsed recent moves toward education reform in Oklahoma, and outlined a pervasive fiscal conservative philosophy.
 
She observed that some journalists referred to those attending the recent Glenn Beck "Restoring Honor" rally in Washington, D.C. as “an angry mob.” Palin, a featured speaker at the event, said she was there with her mother and daughter Willow, and, “That was no angry mob, that was my mom.”
 
Palin teased about her alliance with Beck, who before an Alaska rally said he had “caught a trout” in Idaho. Palin said she got into a little “oneupsmanship” with her friend because she “had just caught a caribou.”
 
Palin renewed her endorsement of Republican gubernatorial candidate Mary Fallin, saying her friend “understands the wisdom of utilizing natural resources” for human use. She said it was a mark of Fallin’s wisdom that she has visited the north slope of Alaska to study resource development for herself.
 
Palin said she was proud of Fallin and other “Mama Grizzlies” in primaries around the country. She added, “These Mama Grizzlies are part of a broad citizens’ movement.”  In this week’s primary elections, she noted, “we saw some upsets, and those upsets upset some in the political machine.” Today, the Washington Post reported Palin has endorsed winning primary candidates 70 percent of the time.
 
As guests at the event gathered in the Tulsa Convention Center, members of Moveon.Org demonstrated nearby, crying out their opposition to Palin’s conservative views.
 
Attendees at the OCPA event included many of this year’s statewide candidates: U.S. Rep. Mary Fallin, state Sen. Todd Lamb running for Lt. Gov., Insurance Commissioner Kim Holland, Gary Jones former Republican State Chairman running for Auditor, former state Sen. Scott Pruitt and Dr. Janet Barresi. Holland’s opponent, John Doak and his wife, were also in the crowd.
 
Several state legislators were present, including state Reps. Pam Peterson of Tulsa, Jason Nelson of Oklahoma City, Dan Sullivan of Tulsa, Guy Liebman of Oklahoma City, and Gus Blackwell of Goodwell. Speaker-designate Kris Steele offered an opening prayer. 
 
This was the third OCPA Liberty Gala held in Tulsa. The event has become a wildly successful opportunity for OCPA’s supporters in and around the area to gather for substantive discussion and policy reflection.
 
In her speech, Palin continually pointed to the November election as “a great opportunity to turn around the federal government.” She said it was time “to have the Tenth Amendment be actually lived out.” She called for conservative unity as the election unfolds.
 
She described Democrats as “a weakened leftist party.” Saying it was “time for common sense conservative solutions” she reported a comment she made earlier on Fox Television: “Attitudes are contagious. Let’s make sure the attitudes coming out from the primaries are worth catching.”
 
In what seemed a new theme for the widely-traveled speaker, Gov. Palin put stress on her experience in local politics, as a city council member, a mayor and a city manager before she rose to a role in oil and gas regulation and two years as governor of Alaska.
 
She jabbed at reporters for putting “an emphasis on my wardrobe and eyebrow movements” rather than her policy messages.  Palin admitted she probably should not pick a fight “with people who buy ink by the barrel,” but insisted: “I didn’t pick this fight, and where I come from, you don’t retreat, you reload.  I’m not going to let them trivialize the things I believe in, including the importance of our free press in a free society.”   She admitted, “I personalize this.  My son has fought to preserve their right to print what they print.”
 
She said she learned in local politics the tension between “freedom and the nanny state.” She found herself opposing proposals for forced annexations, “how many kids a mom could babysit in her own home,” regulation of barber shop poles and other measures. She said local fights had prepared her for later state level jousts where she pressed to “concentrate on the core functions of government.”
 
Palin quipped she has long been worried “ about those who are addicted to opium — that’s ‘OPM’ – other peoples’ money.”  Speaking directly to Falin, she recalled what she characterized as “the largest veto cuts in state history,” telling her, “ if you do that the Legislature will get mad at you, but the public will appreciate you.”
 
She endorsed, “A true free market [that] levels the laying field for true capitalism, not crony capitalism.” In a slap at decisions by both former President George W. Bush and current President Barack Obama, Palin counseled “nothing is too big to fail.”
 
Recounting fights she had with some elements of the Alaskan energy business, Palin noted she was “not always the most popular girl on the block.”
 
Palin praised recent moves in Oklahoma to boost education choice, “charter schools, effective home schooling” and other steps. She lingered on the Sooner State’s new law allowing “special needs children to go to schools of choice.” She said, “Children with special needs for too long have been excluded. Why make it even tougher for these kids who have it so tough already?”
 
She and husband Todd believe “Trig reminds us of what really matters. The attitude that they can’t learn is a disservice to these children.” The couple’s youngest son lives with disability.
 
Palin assailed last year’s federal stimulus package, characterizing it as “a major federal power grab.” She noted she vetoed taking some federal stimulus funds during her tenure as governor, and was overridden. She remarked that federal money is “never free” and “always comes with strings attacked.” Palin said the stream of federal funding is “unsustainable” and new spending would “feed the beast, leading America into deeper debt.”
 
Palin recalled that Obama administration officials said the stimulus package would keep unemployment in the 8 percent range: “Well, it passed and now it’s at 10 percent.” Palin agreed with a ranking military official who characterized federal debt as  “the most serious national security risk we face.”
 
Some of Palin’s strongest criticisms of the current administration came in her summary of “ObamaCare,” which, contrary to promises during congressional debate, has brought “worse care, less choice, less care and higher costs.”
 
Endorsing State Question 756, the ballot proposal to allow Oklahomans to “opt out” of federal health care, Palin called for political resolve in opposition to expansive federal powers. Rejecting views that America has needed “fundamental change,” she said “we need to restore this nation. This battle is the war.”
 
She said the November election would be a choice “between European style socialism or a liberty loving Republic. This is our Valley Forge. This is our rendezvous with destiny. Don’t retreat. Reload. Our Constitution is the guide.” That government is best that governs least.
 
At conclusion of the event, Palin was presented a bronze sculpture of a scissor-tailed flycatcher, the Oklahoma state bird. As she left the stage during a brief lull in applause, someone shouted out loudly enough for all to hear, “We love you!”

 

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About the author:

Patrick B. McGuigan is editor of CapitolBeatOK, based in Oklahoma City, and has written frequently for Tulsa Today as Capital Editor since 2002.

Event Photos by Kevin Pyle for Tulsa Today.

Putting up a monument to Islam at Ground Zero is not just insensitive but provocative.

It’s hard to be an Obama sycophant these days. Your hero delivers a Ramadan speech roundly supporting the building of a mosque and Islamic center at Ground Zero in New York. Your heart swells and you’re moved to declare this President Barack Obama’s finest hour, his act of greatest courage.

Alas, the next day, at a remove of 800 miles, Obama explains that he was only talking about the legality of the thing and not the wisdom – upon which he does not make, and will not make, any judgment.

You’re left looking like a fool because now Obama has said exactly nothing: No one disputes the right to build; the whole debate is about the propriety, the decency of doing so.

It takes no courage whatsoever to bask in the applause of a Muslim audience as you promise to stand stoutly for their right to build a mosque, giving the unmistakable impression that you endorse the idea. What takes courage is to then respectfully ask that audience to reflect upon the wisdom of the project, and to consider whether the imam’s alleged goal of interfaith understanding might not be better achieved by accepting the New York governor’s offer to help find another site.

Where the president flagged, however, the liberal intelligentsia stepped in with gusto, penning dozens of pro-mosque articles characterized by a frenzied unanimity, little resort to argument and a singular difficulty dealing with analogies.

The Atlantic’s Michael Kinsley was typical in arguing that the only possible grounds for opposing the Ground Zero mosque are bigotry or demagoguery.

Well then, what about Pope John Paul II’s ordering the closing of the Carmelite convent at Auschwitz? Surely there can be no one more innocent of that crime than those devout nuns.

How does Kinsley explain this remarkable demonstration of sensitivity, this order to pray – but not there? He doesn’t even feign analysis. He simply asserts that the decision is something “I confess that I never did understand.”

That’s his Q.E.D.? Is he stumped or is he inviting us to choose between his moral authority and that of one of the towering moral figures of the 20th century? AT LEAST Richard Cohen of The Washington Post tries to grapple with the issue of sanctity and sensitivity.

The results, however, are not pretty. He concedes that putting up a Japanese cultural center at Pearl Harbor would be offensive, but then dismisses the analogy to Ground Zero because 9/11 was merely “a rogue act, committed by 20 or so crazed samurai.”

Obtuseness of this magnitude can only be deliberate.

These weren’t crazies. They were methodical, focused, steel-nerved operatives.

Nor were they freelance rogues. They were the leading, and most successful, edge of a worldwide movement of radical Islamists with cells in every continent, with worldwide financial and theological support, with a massive media and propaganda arm and with an archipelago of local sympathizers, as in northwestern Pakistan, who protect and guard them.

Why is America fighting Predator wars in Pakistan and Yemen, surveilling thousands of conversations and financial transactions every day, and engaged in military operations against radical Muslims everywhere from the Philippines to Somalia – because of 19 crazies, all of whom died nine years ago? Radical Islam is not, by any means, a majority of Islam. But with its financiers, clerics, propagandists, trainers, leaders, operatives and sympathizers – according to a conservative estimate, it commands the allegiance of 7 percent of Muslims, i.e. more than 80 million souls – it is a very powerful strain within Islam. It has changed the course of nations and affected the lives of millions.

It is the reason every airport in the West is an armed camp and every land is on constant alert.

Ground Zero is the site of the most lethal attack of that worldwide movement, which consists entirely of Muslims, acts in the name of Islam and is deeply embedded within the Islamic world.

These are regrettable facts, but facts they are. And that is why putting up a monument to Islam in this place is not just insensitive but provocative.

Just as the people of Japan today would not think of planting their flag at Pearl Harbor, despite the fact that no Japanese under the age of 85 has any possible responsibility for that infamy, representatives of contemporary Islam – the overwhelming majority of whose adherents are equally innocent of the infamy committed on 9/11 in their name – should exercise comparable respect for what even Obama calls hallowed ground.

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 First Published by the Jerusalem Post, 08/23/2010

Today, U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) and the co-chair of the Senate Army Caucus, reacted to news that President Obama accepted the resignation of U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, Commander of Allied Forces in Afghanistan:
 
 “General McChrystal’s service and leadership have proven to be invaluable and instrumental to our nation’s military success in Iraq and Afghanistan.  He is an American hero and has selflessly served this nation well. 

However, his recent interview with Rolling Stone was a clear sudden lapse of judgment that cannot be condoned.  That being said, I do believe that we should ask the questions ‘What led McChrystal and his team to feel the way they did?’ and ‘What needs to be corrected in Afghanistan to get the mission on track there?’.   

“President Obama must get his team of civilian advisors for Afghanistan on the same page and present a unified front that provides the support our men and women in uniform need to achieve victory.  The President must clearly articulate a winning strategy that is based on the situation on the ground rather than a date-certain exit.

“I salute General Petreaus for once again answering the call of his nation.  While I know General Petreaus will again perform skillfully on the field of battle, I am concerned about on-going and future operations in Afghanistan.  This change will impact operations in Afghanistan and it will impact our troops, our allies and our Afghan partners.  In order to mitigate this impact, it is imperative that President Obama provide General Petreaus, the new commander on the ground, all funding, personnel and assets he requires to achieve our strategic objectives in Afghanistan.”