One surefire way to get rich is not to pay your bills.  It seems to have worked for Carly Fiorina, the person who claims to know “how the economy actually works.”

She made it work for herself by not paying her staff for her senate run against Barbara Boxer in 2010.

Until late last year, Fiorina was close to $500,000 in debt from her 2010 run, nearly all of it in unpaid compensation to campaign staffers and outside consultants, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

All the bill were paid in full when she decided to run for president.  Fiorina is supposedly worth $120 million. One consultant died with Fiorina owing him $30,000, didn’t pay his widow the monies owned him until January of this year.

Yep, that’s Republican economics.

Okay, for you folks from foreign states here’s some background on this story.

Dan Patrick got elected Lt. Governor of Texas.  Worse things have happened in Texas but not many.

Dan Patrick is as far rightwing as you can get without falling off the earth, something Dan has done once or twice.  He has become a tad paranoid this session, believing that the Governor and the Speaker of the House are picking on him.

Okay, any good story also has a plot thickener.  Here’s one:  a group called The American Phoenix Foundation has been secretly videotaping moderate Republican members of the Texas Legislature. They have 800 hours of what they consider damaging videotape they have turned over to Breitbart Texas.

Bringing the two together and you get —

A senior staffer in Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s office knew lawmakers were being secretly videotaped by a conservative nonprofit, but did not make senators aware because it did not involve anyone in the upper chamber.

The Texas Department of Public Safety briefed Patrick Chief of Staff Logan Spence on the videotaping previous to the story breaking last week, Patrick spokesman Alejandro Garcia confirmed Monday. Spence did not ask DPS to brief the full Senate, however, because no senators were believed to have been targeted by the group.

Of course, nobody believes that Spence didn’t tell Dan Patrick because Dan Patrick is a gossipy little ole bitty who would relish seeing moderate Republicans get beat and be replaced by his wildly crazy rightwing militia.  Dan Patrick would kiss Spence on the mouth to know secret stuff like this and would gleefully supply additional names of people to tape.

It’s gonna be like feeding red meat to lions in the Republican caucus in Austin.

Hell, this is better than recess in heaven!

Oh Hell, Texas.

Right now, 1.2 million Texans are enrolled in Obamacare.  HB1514 just passed in the Texas House.  The purpose of that bill is to up a big red S on the insurance cards of people getting a federal subsidy under Obamacare.

Roughly a million Texans with government-subsidized health coverage could see a new label on their health insurance cards, and critics say the designation is akin to a “scarlet letter.”

Here’s the deal.  Under the Affordable Health Care Act, insurance companies must continue to provide heath care for the insured for a grace period of 90 days, even if they have fallen behind in their monthly payments.  The big red S on their insurance card will help doctors to remind patients to keep up their payments.

Yeah, because that’s what doctors are for.

“Other than creating a group that you’re going to discriminate against, I don’t see any purpose for indicating that people are getting a subsidy,” said Jose E. Camacho, executive director of the Texas Association of Community Health Centers.

No shoot, Sherlock.

Thanks to Craig for the heads up.

To be rudely honest, Republican presidential wannabe Chris Christie eats a lot.  During the 2010 and 2011 football season he ate $82,594 worth of food at sporting events.  He paid for it with taxpayer money.

Chris Christie and Jamie Foxx dancing the night way.

I’m gonna guess that Christie entertained other folks but he refuses to say who they are or what they ate.  I’m suspecting he invited Canada.

My Uncle Booger is wanted by Weight Watchers dead or alive but even he can’t figure out how to spend that much money at football games unless he bought everybody a beer and some air for Tom Brady’s footballs.

I’m thinking there were lots of to-go boxes involved.

Can you even imagine the cost of state dinners if he gets elected President?  One billion dollars for Papa John’s pizzas.

This was Mike Huckabee’s answer to a question about him selling snake oil on teevee as a diabetes cure.

Okay, if you’re a Baptist, like Mike Huckabee, you believe that God has two books.  The Book of Life and the Book of Remembrances.  God writes stuff down in these books so that when you died, he can remember stuff.

“For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil” — Ecclesiastes 12:14

If you’re a Baptist, like Mike Huckabee, you believe that you stand before God and the Devil argues against letting you into Heaven.

And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life — Revelation 21:27.

So yeah, Mike, you kinda do.

Also, if you’re a Republican, like Mike Huckabee, you’re supposed to be the party of personal responsibility.

Thanks to Craig for the heads up.