Garden State Patriot

After some 9 months worth of campaigning, starting with the Republican primary season, Judgment Day is at hand in the New Jersey governor’s race.
In fact, like many New Jersey political bloggers, this campaign really started the moment The Anointed One, Barack Obama, was declared the winner of last year’s presidential election. And like many fellow Republicans and conservatives, my goal at that time was to do everything possible to oust Governor Corzine from office.

As this crucial election now falls upon us, I have come to the conclusion that this still remains my goal – and ought to be the goal of anyone who cares about the future of this state.

Like so many of my fellow conservatives, this race has left me troubled and conflicted. Little did I know a year ago just how much this race would divide us. The split between the Establishment of the party and grassroots conservatives is one that has reared its head – and likely will continue in the days and months ahead regardless of who wins on Tuesday. This battle, of course, is by no means limited to New Jersey. It stretches up to New York’s 23rd district, to a coming Senate primary battle in Florida, and likely into 2012’s presidential primary. I still firmly believe that the only way forward for the Republican Party, if it wishes to re-establish trust and a majority status, is by adopting conservative values and principles. And, ultimately, that means putting forth conservative candidates.

In this respect, this voter has been skeptical, perplexed, and, admittedly at times, downright disappointed with Mr. Christie. His campaign has left much to be desired in strategy, execution and philosophy. On various issues of great importance to New Jerseyans, such as COAH, property taxes and state aid to schools, I remain unconvinced that he will address them to my satisfaction and to the satisfaction of my fellow conservatives. On the other hand, I do believe he will improve our business climate, perhaps even enact some meaningful educational reforms via initiatives like vouchers and promoting more charter schools and, hopefully, live up to his promise to nominate conservative judges to the bench. Above all, though, I believe he will at least stop the bleeding caused by the destructive fiscal policies of Corzine, McGreevey and the Democrat-controlled legislature.

The alternative – a second term for Jon Corzine – is one I believe this state cannot bear. Jon Corzine has had four years to prove himself and he has failed miserably. By every measure, his term has been a disaster for New Jersey. Under his watch, the state has firmly established itself as the worst in the nation for taxes. He has shown himself to be disdainful of the plight of taxpayers while he protects government workers and curries favor with public sector unions like the NJEA. He will continue to appoint far left judges to the NJ Supreme Court – a court that, in the past, has handed down the terrible Mt. Laurel and Abbott decisions. A court that will have much to say on these matters, as well issues like gay marriage, in the future (if not near future).

The view of many conservatives – that four more years of destruction under Corzine would increase the chances of a conservative being a viable candidate in 2013 – I do believe has merit. Some lessons may well need to be learned the hard way. But that is an awfully tough path to choose when the stakes right now are so high. Four more years of Jon Corzine’s policies likely will lead New Jersey to financial ruin. If New Jersey fails, all of her citizens will likewise suffer. This is a choice I cannot make in good conscience.

Other factors, also, are difficult to ignore. At the national level, we are witnessing the most radical left-wing agenda in our history. We are painfully close to witnessing a government takeover of our healthcare system by a bunch of ruthless, power-hungry, liberal statists who have no regard for our constitution and the nation’s founding.

While I do believe that when next year’s mid-term elections finally arrive, voters will base their decision on issues other than this New Jersey gubernatorial election, a Chris Christie victory (along with victories in Virginia and NY-23) very well could contribute to building momentum for a Republican resurgence.

In the near-term, it could well damage Obama and help defeat the healthcare legislation before Congress. Democrat ‘blue dogs’ and other fence sitters may well ‘read the tea leaves’ and not want to risk their seats by voting for this agenda.

If circumstances were different, and the polls suggested Mr. Christie were on his way to a runaway victory or, conversely, a sound defeat, lodging a ‘protest vote’ would be a far easier choice. But this is not the case. If the polls are to be believed, this election will be a nail biter and Mr. Christie needs every vote possible.

Just yesterday President Obama said this of Governor Corzine:

He’s one of the best partners I have in the White House. We work together…We know our work is far from over.

Is this the kind of person we really want to remain in office? Knowing what we know now, are there any among us who would not prefer John McCain to be our President despite the fact that a McCain presidency might have been bad for the conservative movement?

Chris Christie is by no means my ideal candidate. I would much prefer to pull the lever for on Tuesday for Steve Lonegan (or even Jason Cullen for that matter). But given our current circumstances, and after much soul searching, such a vote in my mind cannot be justified.

On this Judgment Day, there is only one choice. We must terminate Jon Corzine.

Cross-posted at Red County and Conservatives with Attitude!

Talk about your hypocrisy! Here we are just days into the White House’s infantile war against Fox News. Rahm ‘Dead Fish’ Emanuel claims Fox isn’t a news organization because it has a “perspective.”

Their press secretary idiotically points to news opinion guys, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck, to *prove* their point. Then, in the next breath the White House invites two of MSNBC’s biggest Obama/Democrat lackeys to Pennsylvania Avenue for a secret, off-the-record meeting? (1:45)

Yes, Maddow and Olbermann – nah, no *perspective* there! MSNBC an arm of the DNC? Nah, couldn’t be!

Well, all I can say is I’m relieved. I now have a full and complete understanding of what it means to be a ‘news organization.’ Apparently, all it takes is agreeing with the President and doing his bidding.

(h/t Newsbusters)

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

The Obama Administration apparently is hell bent on controlling the media and stifling dissent at every turn. If it isn’t fighting a war with Fox News – the only war the administration is willing to fight I might add – it is threatening to bring back the ‘Fairness Doctrine’ to, ultimately, kill talk radio. Now, the next target in their crosshairs is the Internet.

On Thursday, the FCC will be voting on so-called ‘Net Neutrality’ rules. As is typical of the left, they couch their anti-freedom, un-American agenda in innocent sounding phrases. But ‘Net Neutrality’ is anything but. It is just another effort by this administration to erode our first amendment rights and attempt to silence opposing voices; in this case, by taking steps that would set the stage for government takeover of the Internet.

Phil Kerpen of Americans for Prosperity explains how this will work – and what you and I can do to try and stop it:

As important as all the fights are that we’re in right now, perhaps the biggest of all is the fight over whether the government will take over the Internet.  That’s because as long as the Internet is free, we can use it to communicate, educate, and organize.  Tea parties, townhalls, and AFP events would be very difficult to organize if government owned and controlled the Internet and chose to interfere with it.  That’s what’s at stake this week as the Federal Communications Commission decides on Thursday whether to move forward with so-called “net neutrality” regulations.

The net neutrality movement is an outgrowth of the larger so-called media reform project of radical left-wing activists like Robert McChesney who seek to destroy private control of the country’s communications systems.

I discussed McChesney and the so-called media reform movement last night on the Glenn Beck show, and you can watch that clip here.  I’ll be on with Glenn again tonight to discuss net neutrality specifically.

As the Internet Freedom Coalition shows on our Net Neutrality Scare Ticket it has now been nearly 7 years since the November 19, 2002 letter that started the net neutrality scare, without a single significant incident of the kind of egregious behavior by evil phone and cable companies we’re told require government intervention.  It’s a solution in search of a problem.

Net neutrality sounds simple–force phone and cable companies to treat every bit of information the same way–until you realize that modern networks are incredibly complex, with millions of lines of code in every router.  Making sure services like VoIP, video conferencing, and telemedicine (not to mention the next great thing that hasn’t been invented yet) get priority may be necessary to make the Internet work. But the government is working to do just the opposite.

These networks cost billions of dollars to build and maintain, and if there is uncertainty whether there will be a good return on that investment, private investment will dry up.  And then government will step in, spending billions of our tax dollars on a government-owned and controlled Internet.

That’s their plan.

The push for a Washington takeover of the Internet is coming from the White House.  It includes Susan Crawford, the so-called Internet Czar, who told The Wall Street Journal in April that the $7.2 billion of stimulus money for broadband she is helping spend is a “down payment on future government investments in the Internet.”  She went on to say: “We should do a better job as a nation of making sure fast, affordable broadband is as ubiquitous as electricity, water, snail mail or any other public utility.”

It comes right from the top.  President Obama himself said on the campaign trail: “I will take a backseat to no one in my commitment to Net Neutrality.”

The FCC will vote Thursday on what it calls a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Net Neutrality.  If it passes, it will start a public comment period and I’ll be emailing you again with instructions on how to file comments.  But for the next couple days, we need to make our case against the FCC even taking that first step down the road to a Washington takeover of the Internet. 

Here’s what you can do to help: The FCC created a website at www.OpenInternet.gov where you can comment on government regulating the Internet under so-called net neutrality rules.  The left has been flooding it with comments.  Please take a moment to head over to www.OpenInternet.gov and click on “Join the Discussion” to make your voice heard for keeping the Internet in private hands.  

Honestly, I don’t know what else is left for this administration to attack. They don’t like the free market. They don’t like the free press. And they don’t like free speech. To wit, it’s hard to conclude anything other than, this administration doesn’t like freedom much at all.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

On yesterday’s Glenn Beck show, Beck hosted a forum with some 40 doctors to discuss healthcare. After all, what better place to look for solutions than to actually ask the people in the industry what the problems are and how they feel they can be fixed? As you’ll see, many of the doctors indicated that the problems in healthcare stem from too much interference from the government and involvement of third party payors. Funny enough, those in the forum who were more inclined to favor Obamacare were med students who have yet to get a taste of the real world.

Here is the first of four installments of the show. You can watch the rest here, here and here.

Meanwhile, our President continues to demonize insurance companies and flat out lie to the American people. The man is a true fraud and a demagogue of epic proportions.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

***Warning: Extremely Violent Content***

Why do I show you this? Watch here.

And we thought liberals didn’t like torture. Yet the White House’s current Communications Director says Mao Tse Tung - the killer of upwards of 70 MILLION people – is one of her favorite philosophers?!?! Absolutely sick.

Oh, and what else is Dunn known for lately? That’s right, she’s the point woman in the White House for attacking Fox News…

God help us.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

Senator Olympia Snowe has once again sold Republicans down the river. Snowe already betrayed us by going along with the Porkulous Bill, now she has voted in committee for the destructive Baucus bill.

For all the dissent, for all the protesting, and despite public opinion firmly against the Democrat’s socialist healthcare proposals – I hate to say it – but right now we are losing this fight.

WASHINGTON – Historic legislation to expand U.S. health care and control costs won its first Republican supporter Tuesday and cleared a key Senate hurdle, a double-barreled triumph that propelled President Barack Obama’s signature issue toward votes this fall in both houses of Congress.

“When history calls, history calls,” said Maine Republican Olympia Snowe, whose declaration of support ended weeks of suspense and provided the only drama of a 14-9 vote in the Senate Finance Committee. With her decision, the 62-year-old lawmaker bucked her own leadership on the most high-profile issue of the year in Congress, and gave the drive to remake health care at least a hint of the bipartisanship that Obama seeks.

Obama, speaking to reporters at the White House, said, “I never count chickens before they hatch, but this is obviously another step forward in bringing about a better deal for the American people.”

Snowe, too, said there were problems with the bill, but on balance, the risks of doing nothing were too great.

“We should also contemplate the decades of inaction that have brought us to this crossroads,” she said. “The status quo approach has produced one glaring common denominator, that is that we have a problem that is growing worse, not better.”

This is the last of 5 bills to pass Senate committees. Now, Harry Reid will have a free hand to cherry pick whatever he wants from each and bring it to the floor for a vote.

Cross-posted at Conservatives with Attitude!

Last week I reported on Harry Reid’s scheme to pass Obamacare by tying the Senate measure to a House bill with nothing to do with healthcare. Further, during my trip to D.C. for the AFP Summit, our group met with a Lautenberg spokesperson who did not deny this was this case.

Well, to no surprise, this story has been confirmed by CNS News. Here is the update from The Foundry @ Heritage:

Leaders in the House and Senate have a plan to pass President Barack Obama’s sweeping health care plan by Thanksgiving without any significant participation by the American public. CNS News has confirmed the details in our September 22nd titled “Passing a Shell of A Bill: Congress’ Secret Plan to Ram Through Health Care Reform.” Nicholas Ballasy reports “a senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told CNSNews.com that it is ‘likely’ that Reid will use H.R. 1586—a bill passed by the House in March to impose a 90-percent tax on bonuses paid to employees of certain bailed-out financial institutions—as a ‘shell’ for enacting the final version of the Senate’s health care bill, which Reid is responsible for crafting.”

This story confirms the four part scenario that would railroad the bill through the Senate using a very unusual closed door procedure to craft the bill with no input from the American people.

The four stage plan to pass Obamacare has been publicly confirmed and is ready to be implemented. The following is a comprehensive update:

Step One: “The Senate Finance Committee will finish work on the marking up of Senator Max Baucus’ (D-MT) conceptual framework for legislation by this Friday.” Progress on this had been stalled and the bill was not passed by the end of last week. Foxnews.com is reporting that the Congressional Budget Office score of the bill will be released later today and a high score may further stall progress on the Committee’s Vapor Bill.  Senate Finance Committee’s progress on passing something out of committee – INCOMPLETE.

Step Two: Next, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will take the final product of the Senate Finance Committee and merge it with the product of the Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee. CNSnews.com has confirmed that “the actual final text of the legislation will be determined by Reid himself, who will consolidate the legislation approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and the still-unapproved legislation from the Senate Finance Committee. Reid will be able to draft and insert textual language that was not expressly approved by either committee.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will write the final version of Obamacare to be considered in the Senate with no input from the American people. This is an extremely complex procedure that will not be done in public, or in the form of a hearing, or a public conference committee, and only Senator Harry Reid, some other Senators chosen by Reid and Obama Administration officials will be allowed to read the bill before the Senate debate starts. Merger of the bills – IN PROGRESS.

Step Three: Senator Reid will then move to proceed to H.R. 1586, a bill to impose a tax on bonuses received by certain TARP recipients. A senior aid to Senate Majority Leader Ried has confirmed that he will move to proceed to Senate Calendar Number 36, H.R. 1586, or another House passed tax measure, so the Senate can avoid the Constitutional mandate that tax bills originate in the House. Proceed to tax shell of a bill – CONFIRMED.

Step Four: This scenario would most likely be implemented after the Massachusetts state legislature gives Governor Deval Patrick the power to appoint a new Senator and that Senator is seated by the Senate. The Senate swore in new Massachusetts Senator Paul Kirk on September 25th. Change Law of Massachusetts to allow for interim Senator – COMPLETE.

The final step in this plan is for the House to take up Obama care, without amending the legislation, and then sending that bill directly to the President for his signature. Matt Cover at CNSnews.com reports “House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) won’t rule out having the House vote on the Senate health-care bill without making any changes in it, which would allow the bill to go directly to President Barack Obama without having to pass through a House-Senate conference committee and another round of votes in the House and Senate–and a longer period of public scrutiny of what the text of the proposed law actually says.” This scenario is in the process of being implemented and, if successful, it will result in Obamacare being on the President’s desk in time for Thansgiving with minimal participation of the American public.

The San Francisco Examiner published an editorial today that exposed the fact that the American people can’t see the bill. “When then-Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama promised not to sign major legislation until it had been posted on the Internet for public reading at least five days, trusting voters took him at his word. Now they know better. Not only is the actual language of what is likely to become the main legislative vehicle for Obama’s signature health care reform not available on the Internet, it hasn’t been given to members of the key Senate committees or the Congressional Budget Office.” The procedure being used, in addition to the exclusion of the American people from the process, should be of grave concern to all who want to participate in democracy and have a say in Congress’ health care reforms that will touch 1/6th of the American economy.

Importantly, Reid’s scheme still requires breaking a filibuster. This is where healthcare opponents need to focus their attention and pressure. Per Dick Morris, the key Senators we need to persuade are Olympia Snowe and Blanche Lincoln.

Watch how Maine Republican Olympia Snowe and Arkansas Democrat Blanche Lincoln vote in the Senate Finance Committee on the Baucus version of the Obama healthcare plan. As Snowe and Lincoln go, so will the Congress.

The Democrats need Snowe’s vote desperately, to convince wavering moderate Democrats that they can offer a veneer, however thin, of bipartisanship to the health proposal. If Snowe, their last chance at a Republican vote, opposes the Obama/Baucus proposal, there is no hope of a bipartisan fig leaf for the package.

On the other hand, if Snowe backs the bill, it will send a signal to moderate Democrats that it’s OK to join in and the bill will probably attract the 60 votes it needs for Senate passage.

Lincoln’s vote becomes critical if Snowe votes no. Lincoln is probably the single most vulnerable Democrat running for reelection in 2010. She is the proverbial canary in the coalmine. If she makes it, so will all the Democrats. Hailing from a conservative Southern state, her poll numbers suggest that she would be in a heap of trouble with a stiff challenger.

If Lincoln defects and joins the Republicans in voting no (as she has done on a number of amendments), she will do a lot to cement her chances to remain a senator, but will open a wound in the Democratic Party. A domino effect will likely set in.

Here are the phone numbers of Snowe and Lincoln’s Senate offices. It’s time to start burning up the phone lines.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (AR) 202-224-4843
Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME) 202-224-5344

With apologies to that unforgettable band of the 80’s, A Flock of Seagulls, their biggest hit song of that era is an apt description of sorts of Obama policy towards the rogue, terrorist state.

President Obama’s approach to Iran is a failure unfolding before our eyes. Despite his overtures to open up a dialogue with the Tyrants on Teheran their fists have only become more firmly and tightly clenched than ever before. Now, as their efforts to acquire nuclear weapons become ever more close to becoming reality, Obama offers the free world nothing but empty words – plenty of carrots but no stick in sight.

In fact, you know the world is turned upide down when the leader of France – France! – feels the need to scold Obama for his failure to lead on the issue.

The contempt with which the president of France regards the president of the United States was displayed in public last week.

Nicolas Sarkozy was furious with Barack Obama for his adolescent warbling about a world without nuclear weapons at a meeting Mr. Obama chaired of the United Nations Security Council last Thursday (9/24).

“We must never stop until we see the day when nuclear arms have been banished from the face of the earth,” President Obama said.

What infuriated President Sarkozy was that at the time Mr. Obama said those words, Mr. Obama knew the mullahs in Iran had a secret nuclear weapons development site, and he didn’t call them on it.

‘President Obama dreams of a world without weapons…but right in front of us two countries are doing the exact opposite,” Mr. Sarkozy said.

“Iran since 2005 has flouted five Security Council resolutions,” Mr. Sarkozy said. “North Korea has been defying Council resolutions since 1993.”

“What good has proposals for dialogue brought the international community?” he asked rhetorically. “More uranium enrichment and declarations by the leaders of Iran to wipe out a UN member state off the map.”

If the Security Council had imposed serious sanctions on the regimes which are flouting UN resolutions, the resolution Mr. Obama proposed about working toward nuclear disarmament wouldn’t have been so meaningless, Mr. Sarkozy implied.

“If we have courage to impose sanctions together it will lend viability to our commitment to reduce or own weapons and to making a world without nuke weapons,” he said.

The extent of President Obama’s naivete – or duplicity – was on display Friday at the G20 summit when the president, flanked by Mr. Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, revealed to the American public that Iran had a second nuclear weapons site on a military base near the holy city of Qom.

News reports indicated Mr. Obama had been briefed on the site before his inauguration. But he’s been conducting his foreign policy as if the mullahs could be trusted.

The fact that Obama has known about the secret nuclear site in Iran and has still persisted in a Neville Chamberlain-like approach to this problem is stunning - and suggests that his ego is far larger than his intelligence. It his time for him to lead before it is too late.

Let me be clear. The Iranian situation is indeed complex. The answers are not easy, nor are the consequences of using military force to stop them pretty. Iran very easily could attack Israel, either directly or throught their surrogate terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah. They could also use these terror groups to attack American interests and disrupt the world’s oil supply and, thusly, further damage an already weak world economy. All of these possibilities are indeed bleak.

Bleaker yet, though, is a world in which Iran possesses nuclear weapons. Like Pakistan and North Korea now, the free world would have no leverage over Iran. The mullahs could see fit to transfer their nuclear know-how to other terror states like Syria or, worse yet, put nuclear weapons in the hands of Hamas or Hezbollah. An arms race could spread across the Middle East. Iran would also be free to continue to foment terrorist activities across the globe, with particular aim at the state of Israel, without the fear of consequence. This second scenario would be a far worse reality than using force to stop them now and, one would hope, replacing the regime with the pro-western contingent in that country.

Despite my many other serious concerns about what this President is doing, this issue should be above party and above ideology. An American President needs to, above all, be grounded in reality. He (or she) needs to understand their role as both leader of America and the free world. The time for diplomacy is quickly running out on Iran, I fear. The President now needs to step up and be forthright about the matter at hand and let the American people know that military force may be the only solution to this crisis. This is not an issue that the United States can defer on and leave to the state of Israel.

The President has before said the time for ‘childish games is over.’ Well, the time for fecklessness, weakness and naivete now ought to be over. It’s time for Obama to step up on this issue. To do otherwise, is an abrogation of his sworn duty to protect and defend our nation. To do nothing, would be unforgiveable.

Cross-posted at Red County and Conservatives with Attitude!

Well, he already owns the banks and car companies. So, it should come as no surprise that Barack Obama alos owns Jon Corzine’s bid for re-election. From the New York Times:

TRENTON — While President Obama’s political team seeks to nudge David A. Paterson out of the New York governorship, they are fully engaged in trying to get Gov. Jon S. Corzine re-elected here.

Every TV ad that Mr. Corzine puts on the air is being screened by the president’s team. The governor’s aides are giving daily briefings to the White House. Mr. Obama’s pollsters have taken over for Mr. Corzine’s polling team, and White House operatives are on the ground for everything from internal strategy sessions to obscure pep rallies with Latino supporters.

Read the rest here.

As we all know, Social Security is heading for the proverbial iceberg. And like the Titanic before her, she is speeding up instead of slowing down and turning away.

According to new CBO numbers, Social Security will begin running deficits - not by 2030, not by 2040 or 2050 – but by 2010! Here is the story from Ed Morrissey @ HotAir.com:

Four years ago, George W. Bush attempted to reform the entitlement program Social Security, warning that the system was accelerating into collapse and would soon run deficits.  Democrats scoffed and claimed the Social Security system was solid and wouldn’t have problems for at least 50 years, as Harry Reid told PBS’ Jim Lehrer in June 2005.  Just last year, the CBO — under the direction of Peter Orszag, now budget director in the Obama administration — claimed that the first cash deficits in Social Security would not come until 2019.

Now, however, the CBO has determined that Social Security will run cash deficits next year and in 2011, and by 2016 will be more or less in permanent deficit mode.  Hot Air has exclusively obtained the summer 2009 CBO report sent to legislators on Capitol Hill but not yet made public, which shows that outgo will exceed income for the first time since the 1983 fix on an annual basis in 2010:

See Chart Here

The numbers need explaining.  The number to watch is the “Primary Surplus” number, which watches actual income and expenditures without the interest payments from the general fund.  The interest payments mask the fact that costs have begun to outstrip income on an annual basis (individual months have gone into deficit in the past).   One way to look at this, according to my sources, is to think of this as a mortgage, and in 2010-11, the income can’t make the payments, so the general fund has to cover them.  Since the interest obligation compounds, the debt grows.

As we can see, this trend reverses itself temporarily from 2012-15, but the surpluses are minimal.  By 2016, the deficits return, and begin to accelerate again.  By 2019, the primary surplus runs $63 billion in the red, almost triple the deficit in 2017, showing the rapid decline of the Social Security system.

George Bush, for all his faults, was dead on about this issue while Democrats demagogued it and obstructed, allowing an opportunity to deal with the problem to slip away. Now, while Social Security heads for disaster, Obama & Co. continue to try to ram through asocialized healthcare entitlement we simply can’t afford. To pay for these deficits, there will be no choice but to raid the general fund and bust the federal budget or pass massive tax increases. And guess who is a proponent of that?

Barack Obama thinks that Social Security’s fiscal shortfall is overblown. He opposes private accounts, benefit cuts, or an increase in the retirement age. He writes:

I believe there are a number of ways we can make Social Security solvent that do not involve placing these added burdens on our seniors. One possible option, for example, is to raise the cap on the amount of income subject to the Social Security tax. If we kept the payroll tax rate exactly the same but applied it to all earnings and not just the first $97,500, we could virtually eliminate the entire Social Security shortfall.

That option would be the largest increase in marginal tax rates in decades—larger than the Bush 1990 and Clinton 1993 tax hikes combined.

Gird your loins, my friends. Gird your loins.