Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) has been playing a bad messaging strategy, one that raises tactics above principle, conflating the fortunes of the Speaker with that of his party and his party with the broader conservative movement. The Speaker asked House conservatives to vote for an unpassable bill they didn't want in order to show President Obama's intransigence. Whether it had passed or not, that message would not have been received, but another would have: conservatives would have voted for a tax increase after having campaigned against doing so. Had it gotten to President Obama's desk, he would have vetoed it, but the blame would still have been put on Republicans.

President Obama (D-IL) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), are determined to raise taxes on the wealthiest 2% of Americans, as part of their class warfare agenda. Speaker Boehner should stand strong and restrain government by insisting that the existing tax rates be extended and the level already-agreed cuts remain. Holding taxes the same, and dealing with the budget in an orderly process is a step toward economic fairness.

On Sunday several Republican would-be darlings of the liberal media signalled their willingness to raise taxes, despite longstanding unified opposition in their party and despite indications that Democrats would treat Obama's narrow election win as a major mandate and refuse spending cuts except to defense. 

During the upcoming negotiations over the so-called fiscal cliff, the President and leaders of Congress will each try to leverage the crisis they created to their advantage.

The Wind Industry is a universal model for efficiency… not in energy production, but in marketing its product. Only the best and brightest marketing team, like our friends at the American Wind Energy Alliance (AWEA) could convince so many Americans and their lawmakers that the federal government should continue to subsidize and industry that is the model of inefficiency in the energy sector.

Over the next two months, members of Congress, the President, and his staff will be tasked with addressing and correcting the issues of debt, taxes, and spending, unmasked by nearly half a decade of weak economic growth. These issues are complicated no matter how easy either side portrays their solution to be. Years of ambivalence towards the cyclical issues surrounding the country’s finances and economy have led many to make inefficient decisions, and come to depend on the status quo.

Via Mark Knoller of CBS comes the list of CEOs summoned to the White House to be told by the President when to jump, and how high. Judging by the donation pattern and public stances of the attendees, he won't have much convincing to do. 

While researching another blog post, I came across an article that truly shocked me - which is really hard to do, given my familiarity with the Obama administration's free-spending ways.

In a completely deceitful report, the Center for American Progress Action Fund continued its disinformation campaign covering what the Center appears to believe are presidential election battleground states.  This particular report targeted voters in Colorado.