Monthly Archive: September 2009

From the Obama Experiment.

Slate’s John Dickerson has finally said what has been so glaringly obvious for so many months, but has been ignored, not discussed and generally denied by the MSM and the supporters of ObamaCare with...

Leave Your “Blame the Republicans” Emails Here! By: Jane Hamsher Tuesday September 29, 2009 5:05 pm   I know my inbox is full of emails blaming the Republicans for killing the public option on...

A Full and complete quote from the DailyKos: Harry’s got a question by Jed Lewison Tue Sep 29, 2009 at 02:18:04 PM PDT So I just got this fundraising e-mail from Harry Reid: from:...

Democratic Senators Cantwell and Rockefeller may be able to vote for the ObamaCare bill in the U.S. Senate because their promise to vote against a bill without the public option may be null and...

Even the New York Times recognizes that the abortion issue could derail ObamaCare, and candidly admits that despite the White House and President Obama pledging that no federal dollars will fund abortion:  “The question...

Senator Rockefeller’s public option amendment offered in the U.S. Senate Finance Committee went down in flames today. The implications for Speaker Pelosi are profound. Her insistence on a public option in the House bill...

I know that there are many people who are incredulous that the U.S. Senate can proceed to a blank, shell health care bill next week — a vapor-bill. Every person knowledgeable about Senate procedure...

The Associated Press is reporting that liberal groups are targeting Senator Baucus in Montana with television ads that began to run today: “Two liberal groups are launching a hard-hitting television and Internet ad featuring...

The TPM (Talking Point Memo) reports: “A lot of the most pressing political questions about health care reform will soon be answered, and reformers and pols alike are grappling with the fact that Democrats...

Cook writes in the National Journal: “Talking with a conservative House Democrat from the South recently, I commented that it must be horrible to go home and get beaten about the head and shoulders...

Republicans are in possession of a letter which asks: Where are the secret Medicare cuts going to come from? Given that both Rasmussen and the AP polls have come up with the same answer:...

Politico has an interesting analysis of the latest revelation in the politics of health care reform: if you are a Democratic member of Congress with a high concentration of seniors, you are either publicly...

How many health care lobbyists do the young and the healthy have in Washington, D.C.? Exactly — uh, none? This is what happens to your group if you don’t play the lobbyist game:  You...

Polls that the media pay attention to are polls that poll “adults.” Polls that elected officials, campaign consultants and serious political operatives pay attention to poll likely voters. Rasmussen has been polling likely voters...

Just how many deep internal divisions among Democrats can this bill live with and still survive? The bill killer issues are deep and wide, and here is a re-cap: i) Wealth transfer from young...

As one wag said over the weekend, “the good news is I look good in orange.” From Politico: Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of...

Various Democratic amendments in the U.S. Senate Finance Committee will illustrate the great divide among Democrats in the Senate — just like in the U.S. House: to allow a public option or not. Senators...

Daily Kos is reporting that Organizing for America is sending emails to Democrats in Washington State to pressure Senator Cantwell to change her pledge to vote no on health care reform unless the Senate...

Liberals are watching Senator Snowe because they view her support — should it happen — for the Senate health reform bill, as the excuse the Democrats will use to weaken reforms and get health...

Excerpts from David Broder: “Schambra [the director of the Hudson Institute’s Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal] like many others, was struck by the “sheer ambition” of Obama’s legislative agenda and by his...

Excerpts from Rove: “Take, for example, his dustup on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” over whether requiring Americans to buy health insurance or pay a fine was a tax. Legislation in the House...

Click here for the flow chart.

Brent Budowsky, another Democratic strategist, who, like Charlie Cook, is trying to warn his Democratic colleagues of an impeding electoral defeat. From the sound of the memo, they do not seem to be listening:...

From Tony Blankley: “As the town hall meetings on health care started in early August, the Democratic Party’s talking points accused the attending citizens of being “demonstrators hired by K Street lobbyists.” Then they...

It is expected that the Senate Finance Committee bill will be substantially changed to attract Republican support, Medical News today reports on the findings of the major print media: The New York Times: “…...

From the Washington Times: Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday turned back a Republican amendment to wait 72 hours and require a full cost estimate before the final committee vote on the...

In other news related to promises unfulfilled, the head of CBO said today that Medicare benefits would be cut under the Senate bill, as reported by the Associated Press: Congress’ chief budget officer is...

From the New York Times: “The first big fight over the Senate Finance Committee’s health care legislation erupted Tuesday night: a rollicking brawl over a deal that the Obama administration cut with the pharmaceutical...

From Bloomberg:  White House Budget Director Peter Orszag said health-care legislation can be completed in six weeks and may largely be based on a measure being drafted by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. “The...

Republicans CHUCK GRASSLEY – yes ORRIN G. HATCH – yes OLYMPIA J. SNOWE – yes JON KYL – yes JIM BUNNING – yes MIKE CRAPO – yes PAT ROBERTS – yes JOHN ENSIGN –...

This is a story about free speech and doing buisness with the Federal Government, first reported in the Wall Street Journal.   ABC News below took part of the floor speech by Senator McConnell’s...

Senate staffers, the true veterans, are cynical and truly difficult to shock simply because they’ve seen it all — personal and political implosions, outrages, bad behavior and the worst motivations. But this, this shocked...

Capretta: In July, House Democratic leaders were insistent that they had the votes to pass a bill with a new, aggressively managed government-run insurance option for the under-65 population, total federal costs approaching $1.5...

From Politico: Senate Republicans issued a blunt warning to their Democratic colleagues today: Don’t even think about using reconciliation to ram through a health care bill. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters that Democrats...

From the Plumline:  The two top House progressives have just fired off a letter to Pelosi that, in effect, urges her to stick with them and to ditch the Blue Dogs when the public...

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi Speaker U.S. House of Representatives H-232, The Capitol Washington, DC 20515 Dear Madam Speaker: We write to see how we can best work with you to ensure that a robust...

To keep her repeated promise of including a public plan option as part of health care reform, Speaker Pelosi is killing the deal she made with Blue Dog Democrats to get the bill out...

In other news related to promises unfulfilled, the head of CBO said today that Medicare benefits would be cut under the Senate bill, as reported by the Associated Press: Congress’ chief budget officer is...

The Associated Press has sided with the rest of the health care and budget world to inform Obama that his Senate health care bill has a tax increase on the middle class. Obama denied...

The New York Times is reporting that “A Tax on Cadillac Health Plans May Also Hit the Chevys,” and it is causing significant budget stress on the Senate health reform bill, since this tax...

From the Washington Times: “Almost every poll we do when we break it down by age, President Obama is least popular with seniors. That is definitely the age group that he is having the...

BS News has a piece that identified five promises that Obama made that he will not keep (here is their list):Promise: 1. No Individual Mandate Reality: The president now fully supports an individual mandate....

The reason it matters what the pro-life community thinks of ObamaCare is because there are up to 40 Democratic pro-life votes on the House floor. And, because the pro-life community thinks Obama has broken...

With obvious implications for the U.S. health care debate, the Telegraph in England reports: As many as one in six patients treated in NHS [government run, National Health Service] hospitals and GPs’ [General Practitioner’s]...

Here is a prediction, add taxing the middle class to the thermonuclear weapon status of immigration and abortion with regard to health care reform. These issues are the tri-ad of ObamaCare killers. Politico has...

From Reuters:  “The demand for the option, if not the practice, is growing rapidly,” said Dr. Philip Nitschke, 61, founder and director of the pro-euthanasia group Exit International. The Australian doctor — nicknamed Dr...

Are the House Republicans counting votes over in the House?  You bet.  And this is what happened yesterday on Meet the Press, from CNSNews: “Boehner said the White House had not reached out at...

Most of this is the transcript of the ABC News interview between George Stephanopoulos and President Obama.  Below is the entire but short text of the story by Kimberly Schwandt at FOXNews.com: President Obama...