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Rationing our Elephant Intake

I was recently perusing the Tea Party’s Contract from America site and I have to say that I really like the way the movement is allowing the common man and woman to vote in order to decide what the final ten priorities will be within the contract expected to be unveiled on April 15th.  Seeing the list of proposed priorities as well as reading the multitude of great ideas circulating the Tea Party forums, I think the Tea Party movement needs to keep one thing in mind at all times:

You can’t eat the whole elephant at once.

I understand the excitement and energy behind the Tea Party movement.  As a long-time Republican, it disturbs me to see how many within that party are acting no different than the Democrats we helped them defeat.  Both parties have been spending out of control and leading us down a road to ruin.  The “silent majority” is now becoming quite loud and the Tea Party is providing the voice.

With that said, I fear that the Tea Party may become drunk on its own momentum and start believing that anything and everything they want to fix is possible right now.  Now, while I believe in the power of positive thinking, I also know that with poor planning comes poor performance and some things will take much longer than many of us would like.

To the Tea Party organizers credit, and to many evangelicals chagrin, the Tea Party has stayed focused on fiscal issues.  This is absolutely the right strategy.  A huge majority of Americans support the need to get our country’s fiscal house in order, but as soon as lines start to get drawn in the sand related to social issues, the support for a comprehensive platform will begin to wane.  In my opinion, this is big reason more Americans claim to be Independents rather than Republicans or Democrats.  At this point, Conservative Christians need to realize that for the Tea Party movement to be successful, it must remain focused on the topics that will rally the greatest support from the general public and out-of-control government spending and regulating is the one issue that can unify the largest base at this time.

With that said, I still believe that the message of fiscal conservatism could be in danger of getting spread too thin.  To avoid over-reaching or overshadowing many of our achievable ideas with those that are much more controversial, I would suggest a singular focus as we begin the long march to real fiscal change in the government.  That singular focus needs to be on fixing Congress first.

The public’s belief and trust in Congress is at an all-time low and this body not only controls the purse-strings of the country but passes legislation and regulations that intrude more and more each day into our lives.  We should be laser-like focused on improving this great albatross on our democracy.

I suggest packaging many of the great ideas posed in the forums related to Congress and make that the nucleus of the Tea Party platform.  Ideas such as term limits, citizen funding of elections, transparency of the legislative process and elmination of unrelated amendments attached to bills would be just a few of the sound and Congress-changing type actions that the vast majority of Americans will support.  With this focus, I believe we could begin to elect candidates that would be supportive of these changes or we would garner enough fear and attention of the incumbents that they will be compelled to make these changes for their political life.

Once we begin to fix Congress we will begin to take down an enormous obstacle to many of the more “radical” changes we have in mind – a flat tax or FairTax, reduction or elimination of the IRS, the elimination of Department of Education, entitlement reform, etc.

All of this will take time of course and I would like to think that the Tea Party movement has the patience and the intestinal fortitude for a long battle.  To win the battle we need a focused plan of action and I believe the first step of that plan is to fix Congress.  Three-fourths of America will support us.

Trickle-Down Policy Making

Found this picture and felt like it pretty much sums up our place in the hierarchy:

Republicans and Online Poker: Can’t We Be Friends?

I often rail against members of the Democrat Party for blindly supporting the agenda of their left-wing leaders.  Too often, they parrot the talking points script with no understanding of the facts or, worse yet, the consequences, unintended or otherwise, that such policies would inflict on the US economy or our personal liberties.  Well, suffice it to say, the Republicans are guilty of such nonsense at times as well and today’s post is going to point out one such issue.

In 2006, Congress passed the Security and Accountability For Every Port Act (SAFE Port) which enhanced port security.  The bill passed the House by a 421-2 vote in May of that year and the Senate passed it 98-0 on September 14th.  Who doesn’t want improved port security, right?  Well a funny thing happened when the bill went to conference.  Thanks to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), who received contributions from land-based casinos, Senator John Kyl (R-AZ), and Representative Jim Leach (R-IA) the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was attached to the SAFE Port bill on September 29th even though it was never debated in any congressional committee.  At midnight on September 30th, the day before Congress adjourned for mid-term elections, the SAFE Port Act with its new UIGEA attachment was passed.  Due to a resolution (H.RES.1064) sponsored by Representative Pete Sessions (R-TX), the reading of the conference committee report where UIGEA was added was waived before the vote.

The goal of UIGEA is to prohibit financial institutions from enabling money transfers to offshore casinos that provide internet users with “games of chance”.  This includes online lotteries, casino games such as blackjack and craps, sports betting, and of course, online poker.  Interestingly, horse race betting and fantasy sports were excluded…wonder why?  UIGEA has absolutely nothing to do with United States port security and attaching it to “must-pass” legislation like the SAFE Port Act without having it stand before a vote on its own merits is yet another example of members of Congress cramming their agenda down our throats under cover.  If we, as citizens, let Congress get away with these tactics on issues as relatively small as UIGEA, why are we surprised that Congress has the stones to try it with something as big as government-run healthcare?  Reconciliation, anyone?  But I digress…

Besides the methodology by which UIGEA was enacted into law, my chief concern is that poker was included as one of the “games of chance”.  Unlike games like blackjack or craps, a poker player is playing against other poker players, not the house.  In fact, the house (online poker site in this case) has an incentive to provide players with a safe, fair and fun playing environment since their money is made not on whether you win or lose but on a percentage, called rake (usually around 5%-10%), of each pot or tournament entry fee.  At the first sign of foul play, poker players will leave a site in droves for one of its competitors and the revenues will quickly dry up.   I did not and would not play online casino games due to my inherent distrust of a game where my opponent, the house, is running the software and makes money if I lose and loses money if I win.

Furthermore, I will submit to you that while chance plays a part in poker (every poker player has bad beat stories), it is primarily a game of skill and takes playing hundreds of thousands of hands before one can truly begin to master the skill aspects of the game.  Understanding and calculating pot odds, the betting patterns of your opponents, and proper style of play at various stages of a tournament are just three of the vital skills that must be learned and mastered in order to achieve long-term success in poker.  It is not surprising to see many of the same names over and over at the final tables of poker tournaments around the globe.  These men and women became pros of their game in much the same way that Albert Pujols or Kobe Bryant became pros of theirs – practice, practice, practice along with skill and God-given talent, whether cerebral or physical.

Why not just play at a casino?  I enjoy playing at a casino every once in awhile but quite frankly, I enjoy online poker for the same reason I pay my bills online – it is convenient, cheaper and much more efficient.  The rake at a casino is typically higher than online and I don’t have to drive to an online casino.  A typical online site can deal 70-80 hands of poker an hour, while in a casino you would be lucky to get half that amount.  In addition, if you have an annoying person playing at your table online you can just mute their chat and at home, I enjoy access to my own TV, refrigerator and bathroom.  The bottom line is that we as Americans should have the freedom to play poker online.

So back to the Republicans…Most of them continue to toe the party line on this subject with Rep. Ron Paul (TX) being a notable exception.  Every time a bill or resolution to clarify or delay the regulations imposed by UIGEA comes before a committee, the Republicans tend to oppose it as a block, yet I can not help but believe that most of them have not given an ounce of thought to this topic.  They simply vote as the leadership, such as Senator Kyl, tells them to vote.  Senator Kyl went so far as to delay nominations of Treasury department personnel because he was mad that Obama postponed administration of UIGEA regulations until June 2010.  Hey John, here’s a thought, how about helping Senate Republicans craft a unified plan to show us great unwashed folks why you are better than the Democrats before we go to vote in November?  Think you might put some effort into that or are you too busy with your little pet issues?  For the rest of you, how about checking with your constituents before falling in lock-step with your party leadership?  A 2006 Zogby poll showed that 71% of Americans believe that government should not be restricting adults from gambling with online sportbooks or casinos.  If you asked just about online poker, I would bet the percentage would be even higher based on the popularity of poker on television the last half decade.  So why do the Republicans keep running like lemmings to the “no” button each time?  Make your own opinion.  I got mine.

I would like to see online gambling, and poker specifically, moved on-shore.  Allow Harrah’s, home of the World Series of Poker, MGM, or the Venetian to buy licenses to run online gambling sites and pay taxes on the revenue.  Americans made up 50% of the $15 billion online gambling industry in 2006.  The US government is closing off a potential revenue source by attempting to outlaw online poker versus bringing it on-shore and regulating it.  The sad part is the poker industry is feverishly holding its hand up and saying regulate and tax me!  Two bills on this specific issue, H.R. 2267 and S. 1597, are currently working their way through Congress.  I would ask that the Republicans keep an open mind and put some thought into this one and, dare I say it, check the pulse of their constituents before simply voting no because Senator John Kyl and other tunnel-vision colleagues tell them to do so.

My trip to DC

I spent the front half of last week in our nation’s capitol and whenever I visit Washington DC, I like to hit as many government offices and/or historical sites as possible during my downtime.  In addition to attending and working the Federation of American Hospital conference, I had three other agenda items – take a Capitol tour, meet with John Pappas, executive director of the Poker Players Alliance, and meet with Representative Kenny Marchant, my House rep from TX District-24.  Unfortunately, Marchant was unavailable on Tuesday (the only day I had available) but his scheduler was kind enough to call me on Wednesday to inform me that he could see me later that afternoon as I was already halfway between DC and Philly.  Sigh.  Oh well, I guess two out of three isn’t all bad.

My chief reason for wanting a sit-down with Rep. Marchant was to discuss the legislation known as the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) which makes it illegal for banks to allow online poker players from transferring funds into online gaming accounts.  I will save my discussion about the Republican Party’s ridiculous stance against online poker for another post, but it was important to me to get in front of Marchant about this issue since he is a member of the House Finance committee that will be marking up a bill soon that would overturn this element of UIGEA.  This is probably the only topic that Barney Frank and I are on the same side and for that, I am really disappointed in the Republican Party.

John Pappas at the PPA and I had an excellent conversation and he and a staffer at the organization provided me with a great deal of facts and figures as well as summaries of pending legislation in advance of my meeting with Marchant.  They even put my name on “the list” to participate in a charity poker tournament on Wednesday night at the DC Hyatt, but I told them that it wouldn’t be fair for me to win all the money from the charity and that it should be put to better use.  Still wonder why they looked at me oddly…but seriously, I couldn’t play since I would be in Philly that night.  I will be working to get my points in front of Rep. Marchant in the coming weeks either via letter or in person at his Grand Prairie office.

The highlight of the agenda was the tour of the Capitol.  Despite half a dozen trips to DC, I had never gone on the tour and I am a big believer that it is a must-do for all citizens in their lifetime.  The tour itself only takes about an hour and it consists of a short film and a walk-through of  The Crypt, where Washington was originally suppose to be buried, The Rotunda, and the famous “whisper room” which was the original chamber for the House of Representatives.  The amazing thing about the whisper room, and the thing that congressmen hated about it, is that the acoustics are such that a person standing on one side of the room can hear a person’s whisper on the opposite side of the chamber as if they were standing right next to them.  I had read about this room before, but when I witnessed it in person, I was amazed!  I could only imagine how many secret conversations were “overheard” before folks caught on.

After the tour, I was able to get tickets into both the Senate and House chambers.  These are completely free to the public and you can obtain each from your respective House member or Senator’s office across the street from the Capitol.  Both chambers were in session that day and I was able to sit in the “stands” and watch rather mundane activities as well as a couple of speeches given on the floor of each chamber.  What I thought was funny was that NO ONE is in the chamber when the Senator or Representative gives his or her speech with the exception of the Congressperson presiding over the chamber at that time, congressional clerks and some pages.  Heck I could give a hell of a speech if no one is there to watch it.  It was the proverbial tree falling in the forest.  The exercise appeared to merely be a formal way of getting their remarks on the record, but the next time I hear someone say they gave a speech on the floor of the Senate or House, I can not help but wonder how many people were there to hear it.

The other thing that surprised me was the pace of the proceedings.  Everything…seemed…to….move….so…slowly.  The amount of time the clerks, pages, stenographers, etc. were just sitting around doing nothing amazed me.  And the PAPER.  I have never seen so much paper shuffling in my life.  Every individual that walked into the chamber had papers in the hands that they handed to a clerk who would stamp it or pass it to someone else.  So much for going green…

All of this fascinated me, but it also served as a reminder of how inefficient our government operates.  Can we even begin to fathom the bureaucratic nightmare that government-run health care would become?

I was also reminded of another thing during my stint in Washington DC this week.  We have got to make fixing Congress our first priority.  This body controls the purse strings, writes the legislation, and promotes regulations that impact all of us.  It is easy to become fixated on the President and his policies, but our real issues in this country begin with primarily one body of government – Congress.   More thoughts on this coming soon…

Fun with Plug-Ins

Okay, I wanted to try out this YouTube plug-in I just uploaded so this is my first, and hopefully successful, attempt to use it.  What better first upload than Alfonzo Rachel’s take on Conservatism.  Enjoy! (assuming it works)

Edit:  Good news is that it works, but Zo took down the video so I have replaced with another of his rants.