Low-tax crusader and Republican strategist Grover Norquist tells Newsmax that letting the Bush tax cuts expire in January 2011 would amount to a $1 trillion tax increase — the largest boost in American history.

Norquist — president of Americans for Tax Reform — also warns that President Barack Obama and the Democrats are intent on pursuing the “very bad idea” of imposing a European-style value-added tax.

Political analysts are predicting a huge win for Republicans in November’s congressional elections, but some Democrats believe they have a secret plan to stave off a crushing Republican landslide.

That’s the analysis from Newsweek magazine’s Andrew Romano, who writes that “the Democrats in charge are actually rather confident about getting their fellow Dems elected this year. The reason? They have a plan — a plan that they believe will produce much better results on Election Day than anyone expects.”

The first element of that plan is the return of Obama’s former campaign manager David Plouffe, who left politics after Obama’s election win. At the president’s request, he is now communicating on a regular basis with the Democratic National Committee on campaign strategy.

Plouffe’s top priority is to get many of the 15 million people who voted for the first time in 2008, and largely supported Obama, back to the polls this year. His main weapon is the 13-million-name e-mail list from the Obama campaign now available to the DNC.

The focus on individual elections for Democrats will be “keep it local,” according to Romano. “While Republicans hammer away at national themes targeted at right-wing activists, Democrats plan to focus on bread-and-butter regional concerns like jobs.”

Democrats also believe that the emergence of tea party challengers in GOP primaries will help their candidates attract moderate voters. A tea party candidate who wins the primary will drive moderates toward the Democrat in the general election, the thinking goes, and a tea partyer who loses will likely have forced the winning Republican to move further to the right and possibly alienate moderate voters.

Back in 1994, Democrats were unprepared for the GOP onslaught that captured both the Senate and the House, but that won’t happen in 2010, observes Romano, who concludes, “This year, careful planning, internal GOP conflict, an improving economic climate, and yet-to-be-introduced technologies have the potential to limit Democratic losses to less-than-catastrophic proportions.”

According to James Hirsen of Newsmax:

Ashton Kutcher is now reading from the script of some of the Democrats who have tried to blame Republicans for the Obama administration’s ecological disaster in the Gulf.

While on the red carpet of his new movie, “Killers,” an entertainment reporter decided to ask Kutcher to give his learned opinion on the undersea oil gusher.

“If you could go back to the Republican National Convention and look the guys in the eyes that were saying ‘Drill! Drill! Drill!’ at the Republican National Convention, those guys — there you go,” Kutcher said. “That’s — that’s what we got. Like, we did it. We drilled, drilled, drilled.”

Kutcher, of course, is making reference to the 2008 GOP Convention that nominated John McCain for president and Sarah Palin for veep.

But Obama won that election, took the oath and now sits in the Oval Office; that is, when he’s not golfing, shooting hoops, or rubbing elbows with celebrities. Didn’t anyone tell the actor and TV pitchman his guy won?

Moreover, the last time someone was advocating in favor of opening up offshore drilling, it was the same individual who took more money from BP than any other politician — President Obama.

On a side note, Kutcher’s latest flick performed far below expectations, bringing in a meager $16.1 million for its debut this past weekend, and coming in third behind “Shrek Forever After” (in its third week) and “Get Him to the Greek.”

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Not only did Rush Limbaugh get married last weekend in a semi-secret ceremony, the reception entertainment was provided by the ideologically challenged British rocker Elton John.

Sir Elton is no devoted dittohead, but he was paid a million bucks for the performance.

Hopefully, Rush and Elton will influence each other for the better. John could use some of that patented conservative soul that Rush exudes. And Rush could use a pair of oversized sunglasses.

Rush married longtime girlfriend Kathryn Rogers at The Breakers luxury resort in Palm Beach, Fla. Karl Rove, Rudy Giuliani, and Sean Hannity were among the gathering of friends and relatives.

In reporting on the story, the mainstream media have been their usual snarky selves. Rush’s previous marriages have saturated the coverage, and so, too, have predictions of a dire future for the newlyweds.

But it wouldn’t be the first time they got it wrong. What is hardly ever mentioned in the press, is that before Rush was let go from his gig back in the 1970s as a Pittsburgh radio station DJ, he was reportedly told by management that he would never make it as an on-air talent and should consider going into sales.

We all know how that turned out.

Congrats and best wishes to Rush and Kathryn!

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Hollywood screenwriter and producer James Sclafani is planning a biopic on Rush Limbaugh.

The writer’s model for the film is Oliver Stone’s celluloid hit piece on George Bush called “W.” The only plausible reasoning for Sclafani to be using “W” as his template has to be ideological.

“W” was an uneven movie with a mediocre script. On top of that, the thing was unimpressive at the box-office.

According to Sclafani, the docudrama will include the usual attack points on Rush’s life, i.e., issues of military service, prescription drugs, and the like, stale material that would draw yawns from all but the most die-hard anti-dittoheads.

Unfortunately, this type of agenda driven movie is similar to a lot of the flicks that get greenlighted in Hollywood these days.

Sclafani had optioned an authorized biography, “The Rush Limbaugh Story: Talent on Loan from God,” written by Paul Colford, who runs the media relations division of The Associated Press, a place not exactly known for having lots of Limbaugh fans.

Sclafani’s script is making the Hollywood rounds in the financing circles. Look forward to the film bombing soon at a theater near you.

Senate Republicans are poised to try to reignite the health care debate by launching a coordinated political messaging offensive to target Democrats and the White House for what they contend are the new law’s onerous consequences, according to Roll Call’s David M. Drucker.

A group of Republican Senators who played key roles in the yearlong fight over health care legislation met Thursday in Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (Ky.) office to discuss the strategy. Under the slogan “second opinion,” Republicans plan to communicate their message on multiple fronts, including on the Senate floor, in press conferences, via the Internet and through television and radio appearances.

A Republican Senate aide described the effort as intended “to draw attention to the consequences of the health care law that the White House hopes people miss.”

Democrats rebuked the strategy as typical of what the Republicans offered throughout the contentious health care debate. “I guess it takes Republicans a ‘second opinion’ to ignore all the benefits of the new law,” a Democratic Senate aide said. “Their second opinion pretty much sounds like their first opinion — just the same old rehashed obstructionism at its worst.”

The Republicans’ latest public relations offensive had been in the works since President Barack Obama signed the health care overhaul into law in late March, but their complete roll out was delayed while Senators focused on financial reform legislation. Until now, the Republicans’ pushback has been largely conducted by the GOP leadership’s press operation.

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), an orthopedic surgeon and key player in the health care debate, has not halted his criticism of the new law in the weeks since it was enacted. Barrasso, who coined the “second opinion” slogan, participated in Thursday’s strategy session in McConnell’s office.

“I’ve gone to the floor every week for the last four weeks and given a doctor’s second opinion of this health care law because at least every week something that I predicted would happen has actually happened,” Barrasso said, citing a new Congressional Budget Office report estimating that the health care overhaul could cost an additional $115 billion.

Also attending the GOP strategy session were Minority Whip Jon Kyl (Ariz.); Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (Tenn.); Policy Chairman John Thune (S.D.); Sen. Tom Coburn (Okla.); Finance ranking member Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions ranking member Mike Enzi (Wyo.).

Alexander’s GOP Conference office recently unveiled a website titled “A Second Opinion” to act as an online aggregator of news and talking points supporting the Republican health care message.

Additionally, a component of the new health care campaign involves Republican criticism of Donald Berwick, who President Barack Obama nominated to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. On Wednesday, McConnell and Republican Sens. Bob Bennett (Utah) and Pat Roberts (Kan.) engaged in a colloquy on the Senate floor in which they attacked Berwick’s record. Berwick is a doctor and Harvard professor.

Every Republican in the House and Senate voted against the health care bill on final passage.

Senate Democrats remain highly supportive of the law and were dismissive of these latest Republican campaign.

“We have so many things on our plate right now, so many things we have to do. To go back and get in a political argument is just the wrong place to go,” Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-Del.) said.

Sen. John McCain tells Newsmax that drug cartels and human traffickers have taken over Mexico and pose a direct threat to the security of the United States.

The Arizona Republican and 2008 presidential candidate also says bipartisanship is dead in this Congress as Democrats are intent on ramming through a left-wing agenda . . . asserts that the Obama administration has demonstrated a “fundamental misreading” of Iran and its nuclear ambitions . . . and warns that Americans will likely face a “dramatic” increase in taxes.

In an exclusive interview with Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy for Newsmax.tv, McCain explains his support for the tough new immigration law recently signed by Gov. Jan Brewer in his border state.

Debbee sent this in:

(Washington, D.C.) Democrats are attempting to convince the American people that the special deals have been stripped from the final health care bill.  U. S. Rep. Paul Broun, M.D. (GA-10) reminded folks today on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom today that if the House “deems” the Senate bill passed this weekend, the Louisiana Purchase, the Cornhusker Kickback, Gator Aid and many more will become the law of the land upon the President’s signature. If House Democrats try to remove them from the law of the land in the reconciliation process, it will only take affect if the Senate passes an identical reconciliation bill. If the Senate fails to do so, these special deals will remain law.

I think that it is safe to say that the health care bill that President Obama is trying to cram down our throats is endangering our way of life, and most importantly, our Constitution.

In a lot of ways, Nancy Pelosi is duly responsible for this. As the debate on Obamacare draws close to its end, she has the gumption and the unmitigated gall to use a parliamentary procedure that is a ruse, at best, to get her goals accomplished. The procedure in question? It’s called the “Slaughter Solution.”

Here’s how this “constitutionally illegal” ruse works.

The plan is not to pass a Senate version of a bill on an “up-or-down vote; What it does instead is have the House of Representatives “deem” the bill as being passed without the benefit of an actual vote and then have members of the House vote directly on a series of “sidecar” amendments to fix the things that it doesn’t particularly like.

This would also allow the House Democrats to avoid going on record as to have actually voted for provisions in the Senate bill – things such as the Louisiana Purchase, the Cornhusker Kickback and the “Cadillac” insurance plans – that are highly unpopular to you and I. If the reconciliation fixes pass, the House send the bill to Obama for his signature without ever having an actual “up-and-down” vote on the underlying legislation.

Should this happen, you can rest assured that the Democrats (and maybe some Republicans) can actually say that they opposed the Senate bill while at the same time allowing it to pass. And folks, this falls within violation of our Constitution, as Articla 1, Section 7 states that for any bill to become a law, it has to pass both the House and Senate. Not the House only and not the Senate only. Both wings of Congress.

In other words, not “deemed” to have passed, but actually voted on. In addition, the legislation has to have the same exact language  in both chambers – and in the version signed by the President – to become a legitimate law. This is exactly why there are committees to iron out the wrinkles of competing versions of the bill. We were taught this in Civics class, remember?

This “Slaughter Solution” is aimed at our current set of checks and balances and would allow Democrats to establish a dangerous precedent. The lawmaking process can be rigged to ensure the passage of any legislation without any democratic accountability or even a congressional majority, at the very least.

In a sense, it is paving a road towards tyranny – whether they realize it or not. Which brings us to the POTUS.

What Obama is starting right before our eyes is a leftist revolution. Ever he assumed the presidency, he has basically regarded the Constiution as some outdated document. The powers of the federal government has imploded; in the meantime, he has nationalized some very important sectors of American life – the big banks, the auto industry, financial institutions and large plots of energy-rich land from Montana ot New Mexico.

His crap-and-trade cap-and trade legislation, along with an all-of-a-suddenly empowered EPA, looks to impose new taxes and regulations on industry nationwide. If you think about it, this is “green socialism” as much of the economy would fall under a huge, bureaucratic corporatist state. Think France when you think of this.

But the holy grail for Obama was, is and always will be health care. And goes without saying that the POTUS wants a single-payer system, if he had his way.

Numbers do not lie. The vast majority of Americans do not approve of Obamacare in its current state; what this health care legislation is doing is polarizing and fracturing our country among ideological and racial lines – conditions that are conducive to a potential civil uprising. Which is what Obama wants. Let’s not forget that there are some Democrats who actually are in not in favor of this crap bill, as well.

And let’s not forget the states; a good number of them have went on record, saying that they will sue the federal government if Obamacare becomes law. You can expect that the states would consider themselves exempt from Obamacare while the legislation is in the court system for years to come.

To illustrate how clueless and out of touch the POTUS is, he is actually willing to risk his presidency, his party’s congressional majority and most importantly, our democratic institutional safeguards that are in place  to enact it. He is a “consequences be damned” ideologue who risks our nation’s stability in the pursuit of a Socialist utopia.

Should the “Slaughter Solution” actually be enacted, not only should “true Republicans” (RINOS need not apply – we don’t need the unpredictability, thank you very much) campaign for the repeal of Obamacare during the November elections, but seriously consider impeachment proceedings against Obama and his merry band of Chicago henchmen.

We have a constutional crisis brewing here, and time is rather short. Action needs to be taken – and needs to be taken now.