Posts about Obama Health Care Failure as of October 23, 2009

By KleinheiderPosted on October 23, 2009 at 7:20 am What makes these efforts notable is that they are not the lashing out of a frustrated political operation. They are calculated campaigns, designed to create bogeymen, to divide the opposition, to frighten players into compliance. The White House sees a once-in-a-generation opportunity on health care and climate. It is obsessed with winning these near-term battles, and will take no prisoners. It knows that CEOs are easily intimidated and (Fox News ratings aside) it is getting some of its way.

Washington Examiner Political Digest Byron York – ‘Fierce urgency’ for jobs, not health care It’s not that people think health care is unimportant. They just think the economy and jobs are more important — far more important. Michael Barone – Senate Democrats wary of health care deficit spending Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid got rolled yesterday on Senator Debbie Stabenow’s proposal to increase Medicare payments to doctors by $247 billion over 10 years.

An interesting piece from Reason.tv about the Whole Foods health care debate: Similar Posts: But Where Will They Get Their Organic Ketchup ? Yes, The Whole Foods Boycott Is Stupid Obama Uncut: I’d Like To See A ‘Single Payer Health Care Plan’ Barack Obama Was For Single Payer Health Care Before He Was Against It Majority Says No Health Care Reform At All Is Better Than ObamaCare

Hubris and Heresy: Kennedy takes on the Catholic Church over abortion and ObamaCare.Tags: Healthcare, hypocrisy, Kennedy, religion This entry was posted on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 7:36 am and is filed under Broken News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Rush: If Fox News Is Talk Radio, MSNBC and CNN Are Pornography Man with ”XXXXXXX” number plate receives parking fines for every unidentified car in city Do we, the people, matter when the left is so close to seizing health care? 1503 Pages of Health Care Bill Summed Up in 15 Seconds Chris Matthews Compares Religous Right to Taliban Health Care Reform’s Biggest Winners and Losers Farrakhan says H1N1 vaccine developed to kill people Michael Moore: Take All Your Money Out of Banks and Stocks ‘Safe Schools Czar’ Funded Anti-Christian Gay Porn Art Exhibit U.S.

Public Option:  It’s Back It does sound like a bad monster movie or a clever take on the Arthur legend: Well, Glenn Reynolds did say “ that there’s a Monty Python clip for everything this Administration does . . . “ Here’s the Broadway version:

Gardasil has to be the perfect drug for the brave new world of ObamaCare, in a 1984 kind of way. Link to the original site

Quite a bit , actually . Posted in Democrats Tagged: Dishonesty, Healthcare, Obamacare

In the wake of poor jobs numbers, near 10% unemployment, not being able to make a decision to send troops to Afghanistan, record federal deficits, a childish war with Fox News and an unpopular Obamacare … President Barack Obama finds his Daily Presidential Rasmussen Tracking poll sinking to -13%.  This represents the 7th straight day that Obama has had a double digit negative rating. The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 26% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President.

By PoliPundit ~ October 22nd, 2009 @ 8:26 pm Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), on a timetable for passing Obamacare:“Christmas might be too soon. We should give it the time it deserves.” Subscribe to blog feed. « Weak MedicineIrony » 1 Response to Bonus Quote of the Day the aura of truthiness October 22nd, 2009 at 8:42 pmSnowe finally says something intelligent. You can smell the fear from the lefty kooks… that they’re desperate to ram through their kookiness.

CongressDaily is reporting that the House Leadership thinks they have 218 votes for ObamaCare . Speaker Pelosi herself said she “definitely” has 218 votes . Call the vote on ObamaCare NOW Mrs. Speaker, if you have the votes, call the vote. But you will not call the vote, because you don’t have the votes . Here is one report from one source, who is as credible and well informed as they get after meeting with a Dem Chief of Staff (CoS): Rep. Bart Stupak, leader of the pro-life Dems, has at least 50 votes in opposition to the bill.

CongressDaily is reporting that the House Leadership thinks they have 218 votes for ObamaCare . Call the vote NOW Mrs. Speaker, if you have the votes, call the vote. But you will not call the vote, because you don’t have the votes.

Senate Moderates Could Pose Problems for Reid on Health Care A handful of centrist Senate Democrats, along with moderate Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe, could pose a major problem for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as he tries to pull health care reform legislation to the floor. Snowe, in concert with Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., has for [...]

Day three on being sick with whatever crud it is I have.  I am feeling better though than I did this morning so hopefully I’m over the hump.  Here is the miscellany for today.  Consider this an open thread, it’s ok… you can comment.  Let me know what’s on your mind. U.S. Debt Clock – if you haven’t seen this you really should. Acton Institute: America’s Uncontrolled Debt and Spending is the Real ‘Waterloo’ by Ray Nothstine Stephen Kruiser: MSNBC Vows Investigation Into Racist Teleprompters Tim Keller’s sermons now free , at least a 150 of them, but still.

Perhaps the only epidemic more pervasive than the Swine Flu in America today is the endless litany of fake hate crimes. The most recent of such hate crimes — that is, political protests by wannabe-victims — is, of course, a black woman named Megan Williams who claimed that she was sexually tortured by a bunch of white rednecks who screeched that “this is what we do to niggers around here.” It was everything that liberals wanted: fat, ugly rednecks raping black women for kicks.

Posted in Conservatism, Conservatives, Democrat Lite, Elections, GOP, RINOS, Republican, Republicans, State Government, conservative, liberalism, news-By Warner Todd HustonIn July liberal Republican DeDe Scozzafava was tapped by the 11 Republican county chairmen of New York’s 23rd Congressional District to run for the seat being vacated by John McHugh, who resigned to take Obama’s offer to become Secretary of the Army.The NY GOP made a huge mistake with this smoke-filled-room choice.

-By Warner Todd Huston In July liberal Republican DeDe Scozzafava was tapped by the 11 Republican county chairmen of New York’s 23rd Congressional District to run for the seat being vacated by John McHugh, who resigned to take Obama’s offer to become Secretary of the Army. The NY GOP made a huge mistake with this smoke-filled-room choice. Scozzafava has made a hash of this campaign and should withdraw her candidacy immediately and allow Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman to take her place.

Key senators may rebuff Obama on health care CHARLES BABINGTON- Associated Press Writer - 10/22/2009  WASHINGTON- The Democrats’ control of a hefty majority in the Senate _ plus the House _ would suggest that President Barack Obama is within reach of overhauling the nation’s health care system this fall.   But the numbers mask a more complicated reality: Obama and Democratic leaders have modest leverage over several pivotal Senate Democrats who are more concerned about their next election or feel they have little to lose by opposing their party’s hierarchy.

“When Norwegian politician Vidkun Quisling was tried and shot for abetting the Nazi occupation of his country during WWII, his name entered the vernacular as a synonym for ‘collaborator.’ It is difficult to think of a more appropriate adjective to describe the health care ’stakeholders’ who have been genuflecting at the altar of ‘reform’ since the Obama administration marched into Washington last January.

The Cato Institute is out with a new Policy Analysis detailing free market reforms that can make a real difference in the delivery of health care in the United States: In a new Cato study titled, “ Yes, Mr. President, a Free Market Can Fix Health Care ,” I take up the president’s challenge and explain that markets are indeed the only way to achieve those goals.  I also explain how Congress can remove the impediments that currently prevent markets from doing so: Give Medicare enrollees

This statement is based on a mailing to Green Party supporters. It was posted at onthewilderside.com : ***ACTION ALERT for Single Payer*** Write Your Representative Today! It’s time to take action for SINGLE-PAYER NATIONAL HEALTH CARE! The media are focusing on the debate between Democrats promoting Obamacare and ‘Tea Party’ activists who are determined to block any health care reform at all.  Whether Obamacare gets passed in Congress or Republicans succeed in defeating reform legislation, the for-profit health insurance companies will win and the rest of us will lose.

1. The New York Post: “George Stephanopoulos, the pugnacious politico who swapped a Clinton White House job for a career in TV, is in talks to replace Diane Sawyer on ‘GMA’.”He does not have the gams.EVIL.2. Only 62% of Americans are willing to take the swine flu vaccine, Andrew Malcolm reported.That’s good because only 9% of the swine flu vaccine ordered has been delivered.GOOD.3. Obamacare will tax the heck out of “Cadillac” health care plans — except the federal government’s fleet of Escalades.Do as I tax, not as I play.EVIL.4.

Heather Graham’s latest starring role is playing “Public Option” in Obama’s health care epic (uh-oh, time to reconsider your agent).  You may remember Graham as Felicity Shagwell from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me … or perhaps Roller Girl in Boogie Nights .  Here, she gets physical in “Track Meet,” a new ad produced by leftist group MoveOn.org.  The philosophy: if you can’t pass the public option on its’ merits in policy and debate, why not try selling it through sex and cheap laughs? [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed.

Deep thoughts from a guy who insists that Rush Limbaugh is the pied piper of the GOP despite the fact that primary voters nominated his least favorite candidate last year, and who offers this at a moment when the biggest story raging on the right is a civil war among Republicans over Hoffman and Scozzafava. Jay Nordlinger’s already written two posts at the Corner about how insulting this is, with more, perhaps, on the way:Barack Obama is pretty interesting when he gets in front of his money-givers — his biggest fans, I guess.

A National Review report deals with a Washington Post poll asking respondents about the “public option” as it pertains to ObamaCare. The Washington Post poll is the latest example of a “public poll” in the past 2–3 weeks that curiously shows a growing number of Americans supportive of the “public option.” AP and Gallup were others. This is agenda-driven polling. The fact is: Asking an ignorant public about the “public option” is incomplete polling.

Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute explains how the “public option” is actually anti-choice. Cognitive dissonance is defined as holding two completely contradictory ideas at the same time. That seems to be the case with the American public, with a new poll showing rising support for a so-called public option in health care, even as the public continues to oppose greater government control over the health care system. Most likely that is because supporters of a public option have successfully framed it as just that: an option.

According to a new USA Today/Gallup poll released on Thursday, Americans are now more likely to say that their healthcare costs will increase if a healthcare bill passes…49% of respondents said they believe their healthcare costs will increase with the passage of a health care reform bill, up from 42% who felt that way last month. 27% said their healthcare costs would remain the same, compared to 32% who felt that way in September.

The netroots have served a warning to Harry Reid over health care reform.  Don’t even think about dropping a public option, they say, if you like your job.  CBS News reports that liberal activists have pledged to undermine Reid’s re-election effort if the final Senate version of ObamaCare does not include government-run coverage:Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is feeling the heat from his liberal colleagues to include a government-run health insurance plan, or “public option,” in the Senate

THIS IS A GUEST COLUMN CONTRIBUTED BY MIKE HATCHER, a.k.a., “MIKE 300 SPARTANS“ *** Uncle Sam’s Cabin (The Health Care Plantation) An old story from the antebellum era goes something like this: An escaped slave gets up to Boston and visits some ladies in an abolitionist society… This is only a comment summary. Visit http://guntotingliberal.com to view the lastest content complete with some of the most outrageous original photoshops in the political blogosphere!

Maybe I am missing President Obama’s true target in his War on Fox News.It is not Fox News. Fox News benefits. Its ratings rise.Instinct told me the target is the rest of the media — keeping them toeing the line.But with Democratic Majority Whip Jim Clyburn saying he still does not have enough votes in the House for Obamacare, maybe Obama’s game plan is simply to be playing a game to divert attention from dead fish in the living room — Obamacare.Harry Reid needed 60 votes on Wednesday — and wound up with only 47 as one-fifth of the Democratic senators balked on Obamacare.In the House, Clyburn said: “I think we`re very close.

Shocking! ….not: The nation’s medical costs will keep spiraling upward even faster than they are now under Democratic legislation pending in the House, a report from government economic experts concluded Wednesday. Republicans said the report is a warning sign that health care legislation is likely to fall short of President Barack Obama’s goal of “bending the cost curve” by slowing torrid rates of medical inflation.

I’ve got two new essays up at The Liberty Papers: Is An Individual Health Insurance Mandate Constitutional ? and Memo To Libertarians: Unite Or Die Similar Posts: Republican Senator Expresses Support For Mandatory Health Insurance Does Congress Have The Power To Force Individuals To Obtain Health Insurance ? Introducing The Liberty Papers If You Don’t Buy Insurance Under ObamaCare, You Could Go To Jail Yes, Insurance Companies Are The Enemy

-By Warner Todd Huston Roll Call is reporting that the $250 billion extension to the Medicare physician payment program was defeated in the Senate today. Reid couldn’t even get a simple majority losing in a 47 to 53 vote. Naturally Democrat Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev) blames the Republicans. Reid complained that the loss was a result of “activities and actions by the Republican-dominated Washington.” Seriously.

The latest HHS analysis on ObamaCare shows that far from containing costs, the proposals for health-care reform on Capitol Hill will actually increase costs , thanks to an entirely predictable response from people with new health insurance. As Ed Morrissey points out at the link: This should surprise no one who looks at the actual cost problem in American health care. It comes from a lack of price transparency, thanks to an irrational system which has most of the costs paid through third parties.

Time to Stop ObamaCare is Running Out What you do NOW will determine whether you will retain the right to choose your own healthcare or whether the government will choose for you.  Before you know it, unless WE rise up in opposition to the so-called healthcare reform bills now making their way through the Congress, a trip to the doctor will resemble a trip to the Department of Motor Vehicles and your every action and lifestyle will be put under scrutiny and surveillance by the total healthcare information awareness snoops.

This interesting idea came through my email today: Dr. Mr. Obama, Like most folks in this country, I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit. In order to get that paycheck in my case, I am required to pass a random urine test ( with which I have no problem ). What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don’t have to pass a urine test.

From a correspondent in Washington:The taxes in the Baucus proposal:1. If You Have Insurance, You Get Taxed$201 billion from excise tax on some union and other generous health plans:Joint Committee on Taxation: “40% excise tax on health coverage in excess of $8,000/$21,000 indexed for inflation by CPI-U plus 1% and increased thresholds for over age 55 retirees or certain high-risk professions.”Congressional Budge Office: “Estimated budgetary impact of the amended chairman’s mark… $201 billion in

Does the official HHS website include their latest study of ObamaCare along with their propaganda links?  Not so far, but the AP picked up on the new analysis, which shows that far from containing costs, the proposals for health-care reform on Capitol Hill will actually increase costs, thanks to an entirely predictable response from people with new health insurance:The nation’s medical costs will keep spiraling upward even faster than they are now under Democratic legislation pending in the House,

President Obama’s push for health care reform during the third quarter of 2009 has seriously damaged his public standing, according to new data from the Gallup Daily tracking poll. His job approval rating dropped nine points from the second to the third quarter, from 62 percent to 53 percent.The nine-point second-to-third quarter drop is the highest Gallup has ever measured for an incumbent president during his first year in office, and among the highest quarter-to-quarter drops measured for any president at any point:“Obama’s 9-point slide between quarters ranks as one of the steepest for a president at any point in his first year in office.

-By Warner Todd Huston In July liberal Republican DeDe Scozzafava was tapped by the 11 Republican county chairmen of New York’s 23rd Congressional District to run for the seat being vacated by John McHugh, who resigned to take Obama’s offer to become Secretary of the Army. The NY GOP made a huge mistake with this smoke-filled-room choice. Scozzafava has made a hash of this campaign and should withdraw her candidacy immediately and allow Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman to take her place.

The most recent data from Gallup is quite interesting. Among the findings: In Gallup Daily tracking that spans Barack Obama’s third quarter in office (July 20 through Oct. 19), the president averaged a 53% job approval rating. That is down sharply from his prior quarterly averages, which were both above 60%. In fact, the 9-point drop in the most recent quarter is the largest Gallup ever measured for an elected president between the second and third quarters of his term, dating back to 1953 .

Michelle Malkin: Obamacare doctor bribe fails in Senate, Reid whines and Gabriel Malor: More on Failed “Doctor’s Fix”: Reid Whines About Republicans, Ignores Democrats Who Bailed … poor Harry.  What about this one; Ed at HA: Reid: Those tonsil vultures stole my vote . I guess the last Obama Doctor Buy Out Clause FAILED! It looked like the fix was in. The “Doc Fix,” that is. As the Heritage Foundation has been reporting, the White House and Dem leaders scurried today to try and pass a $247 billion payoff to doctors groups as an enticement to support Obamacare.

Community Organizer Welcome to the World of Newspeak Communism in Chicago and the Obama Connection The Agitator: Barack Obama’s Unlikely Political Education Obama has zeroed in on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Fox News and doctors. There’s nothing coincidental about this trio of targets, either: They are, respectively, the nation’s most powerful business lobby, the television voice for Middle Americans worried about where Obama is taking the country, and the professional group with the greatest potential power to kill Obamacare.

NY Times columnist Dana Milbank spills lots of ink today excoriating Republican Senator Mitch McConnell for having the temerity to consistently and persistently object to the Democrats’ plans to alter the manner in which Americans receive health care.Ninety-four times he warned of the evils of a “government-run” system, according to a Washington Post analysis. Forty-seven times he warned of a “government takeover” of the same.

With Democratic support coalescing around Sen. Max Baucus’s (D-Mt.) health care reform proposal, passage of a comprehensive overhaul now appears more likely than ever.  Opponents had their summer of protests.  But, Democrats have shown a renewed sense of energy since discrediting Sarah Palin’s “death panels” and Sen. Charles Grassley’s claim that ObamaCare would “pull the plug on grandma.” Still, while those charges may have been a little overwrought, there is plenty to be concerned about with the Democratic health reform effort.

S ome express astonishment at how quickly the Democrats have proven themselves stoopid , misreading their perceived election mandate severely- thus the aggressive legislative overreach and consequent plunging support. They actually thought that most Americans wanted a statist makeover of this country, and are caught offguard by swelling public outrage… but I don’t see it that way at-all.

You wonder what bet the odds makers in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s home state of Nevada are placing on his re-election, given his sagging poll numbers and unflattering political news such as this: Thirteen Democrats joined all 40 Republicans to block a permanent repeal of Medicare’s payment formula for doctors, with lawmakers concluding the legislation’s $247 billion 10-year price tag was too steep in an era of record deficits.

I have been saying for a long time that the only way we will get single payer is to bypass Obama, Baucus and the Democrats, and just do it. I thought California the logical place, post-Arnold. But apparently it’s going to be Pennsylvania. If the Democrats in Washington won’t pass single payer. Then maybe the people of Pennsylvania will. I just returned from McConnellsburg and Harrisburg. Where a grassroots movement is growing. And fast. Demanding nothing less than a strong, enlightened, universal state single payer.

This made me wonder : Yesterday saw some rare good news on the health-care front, with the stealth Democratic plan to move $247 billion in ObamaCare costs off the books collapsing in the Senate on a procedural vote of 47 to 53. Maybe there’s more anxiety among Democrats about a huge permanent increase in government health spending than the White House is willing to let on. A dozen Democrats (plus independent Joe Lieberman) voted against Majority Leader Harry Reid’s gambit, which would have superseded automatic cuts in Medicare payments to doctors scheduled for 21% next year and higher after that.

A funny thing happened to the way to the first Senate floor vote on the health-care overhaul pushed by this administration.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, with 60 Democrats in the upper chamber, couldn’t get enough of them to end a filibuster.  Who’s to blame for the failure to get a vote?  Debbie Stabenow, who wrote the bill that attempted to sneak an extra $250 billion in costs past the CBO for ObamaCare?  Centrist Democrats from red states who have to face the voters?  A Majority Leader

The state-run media will definitely bury this story. It seems the supreme leader’s stimulus hoax is an even bigger disaster than we anticipated. Every state but one has lost jobs in the last 7 months. And we’re running a deficit of 6 million jobs from where the administration said we would be. It should be obvious to everyone now that Obama’s stimulus plan was just a huge lie. Expect the very same lies, and results, from the impending healthcare bill. LINK

Apparently the secret to passing ObamaCare is for the President to acknowledge that all Members of Congress have something they don’t like about the bill, but to vote for it regardless: AP reports the President said in New York yesterday: “The bill you least like” improves coverage for millions, he said in New York. “Let’s make sure that we keep our eye on the prize.” Seems a little strange to announce this in New York, a blue state, that members need to hold their nose and vote for health care reform.

Apparently the secret to passing ObamaCare is for the President to acknowledge that all Members of Congress have something they don’t like about the bill, but to vote for it regardless: AP reports the President said in New York yesterday: “The bill you least like” improves coverage for millions, he said in New York. “Let’s make sure that we keep our eye on the prize.” Seems a little strange to announce this in New York, a blue state, that members need to hold their nose and vote for health care reform.

Clearly, the Obami are tied up in knots over Afghanistan. They decided to implement a counterinsurgency plan and now are undecided, or re-deciding. Domestic-policy advisers have apparently convinced Obama that he is at risk with his base and with the country at large if he follows the advice of his highly respected general, Stanley McChrystal. And that’s where it gets a little murky. Karl Rove points out that even if you place the decision in the context of domestic politics, it makes little sense for the president to flinch.

Your one stop pundit shop. E.J. Dionne looks into a NY-23 crystal ball to forecast the future of the GOP: Is there room in the Republican Party for genuine moderates? Truth to tell, the GOP can’t decide. More precisely, it’s deeply divided over whether it should allow any divisions in the party at all. That’s why the brawl in a single congressional district in far Upstate New York is drawing the eyes of the nation. Conservatives are determined to use the race to prove that there is no place in the party for heretics, dissidents or independents.

RedState Morning Briefing For October 22, 2009 1. Remember the TARP Money? Yeah, It’s Gone. 2. Harry Reid Blames the AMA. Can’t Bring Himself to Blame RedState. 3. Charlie Crist Delenda Est 4. Pethokoukis: America’s Banana Republic Economy ———————————————————————- 1. Remember the TARP Money? Yeah, It’s Gone. Via USA Today, TARP IG Neil Barofsky has some harsh words for the way the TARP funds have been handled.