OCTOBER SURPRISE? 

Last week we talked a little about the idea of an October surprise. This will be a big move by the Obama administration to mobilize voters right before the election. There is serious chatter that the October surprise will be: amnesty. An internal memorandum from ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton was sent last week to the agencies legal adviser, and the memo was published by the New York Times.

The memo suggests that deportation proceedings of thousands of illegal aliens may be dropped if they are applying to stay in the United States. So if someone enters this country illegally and has an application pending for legal residency, then the Obama administration will drop all deportation proceedings.

Somehow I'm doubting the amnesty idea for an October surprise. Polls show that far more voters would be outraged than pleased. Sure ... a little Hispandering wouild help with the Hispanic voters ... some of them ... but on balance votes for Democrats would be lost.

Here's my idea for an October surprise. We have about 400 billion in unspent stimulus funds. That is somewhat equal to the total sum of income, Medicare and Social Security taxes our country would collect from individuals through the end of the year. Obama is making a speech on the economy today ... what if he were to announce the suspension of all federal taxes on individuals for the remainder of the year? No income taxes, no Medicare taxes, no Social Security taxes. Use the unspent stimulus funds to replace those revenues ... and let the people have their paychecks through December I'm sure the retailers would love it and it would certainly do as much to stimulate our eco0nomy as sending money to Siberia to teach Russians how to interact with their government in Moscow would. But ... to a president that things money should be seized from those who earn it and given to those who do not out of "fairness", this is a non-starter.