| Another week, another episode of health-care drama |
| Yet the ObamaCare dozer grinds on, and on, and on. |
| In the interest of sanity, let’s go through the theories. |
| The most popular might be termed the “If We Build It, They Will Come” hypothesis. |
| The White House loves this one |
| Americans just don’t understand the health bill. |
| Once it is in place, the polls will improve. |
| This might have been compelling, say, last July. There has since been an inverse relationship between the number of times the president briefs the country and the public’s view of reform |
| Americans now firmly believe the sum total is a monstrosity that will harm the economy |
| Moreover, the bill offers nothing in the short term to change that view. Its taxes kick in immediately; its benefits are delayed for years. Every time an insurer hikes premiums in coming months (as they will), Democrats will get to explain why ObamaCare isn’t working. History holds no examples of unpopular Washington policy quickly growing in public favor. |
Either one — Schmucky Schumer or Little Dick Durbin — would make a fine leader of the minority Democrats next year; Schumer with his cornrow-style hair-plugs and the other with his infamous halitosis.
And don’t you love the smell of virtual napalm on the Democrat side of the aisle? | No one remembers exactly when they started, but there is no doubt that the campaigns for Senate majority leader are raging on Capitol Hill. They have not been formally declared, of course, and for good reason — the position is still filled. But as Harry Reid’s November re-election has looked increasingly imperiled, his two top deputies in the Senate have become more overt in their quests for his job. And in a Senate that is already near paralyzed by partisan rancor, the two Democrats’ maneuverings are threatening to further gum up the works. |
Well, if by “gum up”, you mean prevent this rogue Congress from further screwing up the country with its unconstitutional power-grabs, well then, I’m all for it. Read more at directorblue.blogspot.com |
| And They’ll Do This Forever |
| or until someone like Obama finally kills the tax base and, eventually, the Republic |
The idea of Progressive Change is simple: collapse the economic system from within and solidify seat of power by providing government entitlement to the people affected by the economic collapse. What the Progressives did not expect – and admittedly I was not confident of – was that even in these times, Americans would ultimately rise up against those Progressive ideals. Why? Perhaps we’ve learned from our history and the devastation we now are forced to handle with FDR’s New Deal. Perhaps we’ve refreshed ourselves with world history and the brutality which always follows statist government. |
| “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”Read more at rantsandrefinements.blogspot.com |
Commentary: Recent data paint a picture of an economy slowing — sharply |
 The fledgling economic recovery appears to be running out of gas… The recent run of economic data is most compelling. Just about all of them paint a picture of an economy slowing — and sharply, at that… |
– both consumer confidence and sentiment have fallen unexpectedly;
– after-tax personal incomes adjusted for inflation have flattened;
– sales of both new and existing homes took a surprising stumble;
– orders for most durable goods are down;
– manufacturing has slowed;
– jobless claims are up;
– fourth-quarter GDP growth came largely from a slower pace of inventory liquidation, not from an increase in consumer spending; |
– and as a matter of fact, consumer spending weakened last quarter.
Understand that the changes in the data above were not insignificant:
– consumer confidence fell to a 27-year low; Read more at directorblue.blogspot.com |
 The White House and Democrats had one mission today: prepare the political class for the President’s announcement, probably Wednesday, that he thinks the Senate ought to proceed with reconciliation to ****pass or modify**** a comprehensive health care bill (passed by the House or Senate first? Not sure.). But Democrats still don’t agree: Kent Conrad, the budget committee chairman, says that the House must pass the extant Senate bill (with all the bad stuff in there) first; the House wants to see if the Senate has the votes for the Obama bill (with all the bad stuff taken out), and Conrad said today that reconciliation can’t be used to pass #HCR.
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On Fox News Sunday, Sen. Robert Menendez claimed that Senate Democrats would be able to muster 51 votes to pass the bill through reconciliation. |
When an average citizen donates money to a politician it is usually because that citizen believes in the politician and wants to help him have the war chest to conduct a campaign. Unions like to pretend that they donate to politicians out of the goodness of their hearts, just like common citizens do. Everyone knows, though, that they are merely making an attempt to buy them. A union in Alabama has as much as <a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/local.ssf?/base/news/1266315354117330.xml&coll=1
Union asks for donations back”>admitted that they were trying to buy a politician, but when he didn’t dance to their tune, these union folks demanded their contributions back. |
Al Henley, secretary-treasurer of the Alabama AFL-CIO, seems to be a mite miffed with Alabama Representative Parker Griffith. You’ll recall that Griffith was the one-time Democrat who jumped the sinking Donkey ship and became a Republican late last year. |
| Aite Group senior analyst Kunal Pandya pointed out that these cuts and additions may be part of a strategy to prepare the company for future changes brought on by healthcare reform…. Aite Group believes that when healthcare reform is enacted, early movers in focusing on elements that will be proposed by healthcare reform, like Humana, will find themselves positioned to benefit in the long-term.” |
Clearly, Humana is trying to position itself for whatever the future might bring, in terms of regulation, competition and demographic changes. The “cautionary statement” text –- typically mind-numbing boilerplate –- that closed the February 17 press release illustrated this. For example:
Read more at directorblue.blogspot.com |
| How’s this for an investment? |
| You pay a total of $124,000 into your pension plan and, upon retiring at age 49, you receive $3.3 million in pension payments and $500,000 in health care benefits. You receive $3.8 million in total on a $124,000 investment. |
| You pay a total of $62,000 towards a pension plan and absolutely nothing for health care (medical, dental and vision coverage) over your working career. Upon retirement, you are paid $1.4 million in pension and $215,000 in health care benefits. You receive $1.6 million on a $62,000 investment. |
| The reality is public unions are public enemy number one. Christie did not go far enough. He should have stated a goal of totally abolishing the unions. |
| Christie’s proposal is just a start. |
In 2004, a Congressional effort to limit the use of MCCs was defeated by a consortium of financial institutions, immigrants’ rights groups, consumer groups, and many others. These organizations had formed a loose coalition to defeat, again, limitations on the use of consular ID cards by banks, credit unions, thrifts and other financial institutions.
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By a vote of 222 to 177, the House passed a bipartisan amendment (HA 754), introduced by Representatives Barney Frank (D-MA), Pastor (D-AZ), Hinojosa (D-TX), Oxley (R-OH) and Kolbe (R-AZ). It prohibited the Treasury Dept. from implementing regulations regarding the acceptance of FCCs by financial institutions.
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| But prior to that hearing, the FBI was adamantly opposed to the use of MCCs as valid identification. Assistant Director Steve McCraw’s testimony before Congress in 2003 was blunt: “…consular ID cards are primarily being utilized by illegal aliens in the United States. |
| So Holder says that all relevant intelligence agencies were consulted. But: |
| Item 2: On February 2nd, however, CNN reported that no one in the intelligence communities knew of Holder’s decision. |
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Contrary To All The Theories, Democrats Will Not Benefit From ObamaCare
