Phil Kerpen

August 06, 2010 9:53 PM
Jeff Crank and Phil Kerpen

Colorado voters have a huge opportunity to derail the radical lame duck agenda, and at the same time, ensure their Senate delegation represents the will of the people. If appointed Senator Michael Bennet loses his first election bid here, tradition suggests he should resign and allow the winner to be seated immediately for the lame duck.

The implications are huge because Congress may, after the election, convene for what Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad of North Dakota has called: “one of the most significant lame-duck sessions in the history of the United States.”

by Phil Kerpen

Illinois Governor Pat Quinn made it official: Illinois will have a special Senate election just for the lame duck session. Thus Illinois joins Delaware and West Virginia (both having special elections) as the three states whose winners on election day will—barring a disputed election result—be seated for a lame duck session in December. A fourth, Colorado, is less clear but may also be in play.

The lame duck session looks increasingly likely—and increasingly ambitious. Sen. Kerry continues to stress that cap-and-trade will be on the agenda, and Sen. Harry Reid (who may be a lame duck himself after Election Day) confirmed it to the Netroots Nation audience, saying: “We’re going to have to have a lame-duck session, so we’re not giving up.”

Read the rest on BigGovernment.com.

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/Video-Embeds/2010/April/Phil-Kerpen-on-the-Tax-Hikes-Tea-Party/

Phil Kerpen
March 25, 2010 4:00 A.M.

On Tuesday, the president signed the Democrats’ health-care-reform bill, but the House’s “reconciliation” bill of fixes has yet to become law. The Senate is debating it now and might vote on it this afternoon.

Among the bad provisions that the reconciliation bill would add to the law — special deals, an increase in the employer tax per uncovered worker from $750 to $2,000, a federal takeover of the student-loan industry — is an assault on the burgeoning investor class: a new 3.8 percent Medicare tax on capital gains and dividends. Between this and the hike that was already slated to come at the end of this year, the tax on investment income (which applies to single filers making $200,000 or more and married filers making $250,000 or more) will jump from 15 percent today to 23.8 percent in 2013 if the reconciliation bill passes.

Read the rest at National Review Online.

Listen to a related 2.5-minute KerpenCast here.

Don't be fooled. The bill before the Senate today does not clean up or complete the new health care law.

Updated March 24, 2010
The Top 5 Disasters In the Democrats' Reconciliation Bill

By Phil Kerpen - FOXNews.com

The Reconciliation Act of 2010 is a disastrous, anti-growth tax hike bill. If this were any other year, it would be by far the year's worst piece of legislation. This bill is once-a-decade bad, but unfortunately overshadowed by the all-time bad affront to personal freedom and fiscal sanity the president signed into law yesterday.

Read the rest at FOX Forum.

Listen to a related 3-minute KerpenCast here.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1337279116&play=1