Health+Care

9/11 - Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Britain - Democrats/Leftists - Europe - France - Germany - Government - History - Japan - Liberals - President - Warner Todd Huston - WWII

Obama Signals British That They Aren’t So Special

March 1, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

>Barack Obama, it was claimed, would “repair” our reputation both with our enemies and our friends. So how has he done? Let’s take Britain for example. Has he “fixed” our special relationship with the British Isles? Well, if by fixed you mean he has fastened that relationship to a negative track, well then “fixed” it is.

Let’s review some of the slights that Barack Obama delivered to our closest allies, the British.

In February, immediately after he entered office, President Obama summarily rejected the most famous bust of Winston Churchill in England loaned to the U.S. for display in the Oval Office by the people of England. The bust was sent to us by the people of the U.K. as a gesture of solidarity and friendship in the aftermath of 9/11. Despite their generosity, Obama returned the generously loaned statuette without alerting the Brits that he intended to do so, blindsiding Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government.
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Obama Signals British That They Aren’t So Special”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Government - Health - Liberals - Military - Socialism - Warner Todd Huston

Lefty Dupe Says Pentagon Isn’t Part of the Government

February 26, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Americans for Prosperity has this hilarious slice of lefty disconnect that is just so typical of how folks on the left really just don’t have a grasp on rarity.

Just outside of Blair House, across the street from the White House at the corner of 17th St & Pennsylvania Ave., we see young lady from a tea party protest being confronted by a lefty. She is using the poor conditions of Walter Reed Hospital as an example of government healthcare that has failed or is failing.

Here is what this mind-numbed lefty says in reply…

That’s not government, that’s the Pentagon!?

Really?

This poor lefty soul thinks that the Pentagon isn’t part of the government and that military healthcare isn’t a government healthcare program?

You see, leftists hate the military so much that they refuse to even accept the purely factual assertion that the military is part of our government!

This sort of empty “thinking” is why there is no way to talk with a leftist. You may as well be speaking Martian to them because they just don’t have a grasp on reality.
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Lefty Dupe Says Pentagon Isn’t Part of the Government”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - Government - Health - Liberals - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

‘One Problem, One Bill’: Real Health Care Reform

February 25, 2010 by

-By Dr. Peter Weiss

Instead of President Obama’s gargantuan bill, let’s take the problems one at a time and address them individually.

Pelosi tried and failed. Harry Reid couldn’t do it either. So President Obama has put his plan for health care reform on the table and now he wants to ram it through both the House and Senate.

The president is acting as if he came up with some new and improved concept for health care reform, when all he’s done is repackage an old, out of touch with reality proposal that nobody wants, except maybe Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.
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‘One Problem, One Bill’: Real Health Care Reform”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Federalism - Free Trade - GOP - Government - Health - House of Representatives - Illinois - Liberals - Peter Roskam - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Congressman Peter Roskam: Obama’s Bipartisan Past

February 25, 2010 by

-By Congressman Peter Roskam (R, Illinois)

Mr. President: Business in Washington doesn’t have to be this way. You need not be pushed to the left and you can work across the aisle like you have in the past.

That is what I told President Obama a few weeks ago at the GOP caucus. He really does have an ability to work in a bipartisan manner. I know because we worked together for years to solve problems in the Illinois Senate.

Today’s health care summit doesn’t have to be a regurgitation of an unpopular health care bill. Nor does the President have to embrace Congressional Democratic leadership, which has systematically stiff-armed Republicans out of any conversation about solutions. Sure, health care is a contentious issue, but President Obama has successfully worked with Republicans under similar parameters.
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Congressman Peter Roskam: Obama’s Bipartisan Past”

Barack Obama - Budget - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Health - Liberals - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

When Did Dems Hate Reconciliation? When Bush was Prez, of Course

February 24, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Senate Democratic Majority leader Harry Reid is spitting more of his venom at the Republicans saying that they should “stop crying” about the Democrats desire to use the “nuclear option” — a process called reconciliation — to pass Obamacare despite that most Americans are against the bill. Reid says that reconciliation is common and that his Party is in control and should be allowed to do whatever it wants.

The thing is, though, Harry Reid was one of the loudest voices against this practice when Bush was in the White House. He and his fellow hypocrites… er, I mean Democrats… made speech after speech denouncing the Republicans as destroying our democracy when THEY wanted to use the process to pass what they wanted passed.

Democrats are hypocrites. Period.
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When Did Dems Hate Reconciliation? When Bush was Prez, of Course”

Budget - Business - Chicago - Democrats/Leftists - Illinois - Liberals - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - State Government - Taxes - Teachers Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Pension Failure in Illinois Worst in Country

February 19, 2010 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

According to the Pew Center on the States, Illinois’ public employee’s pension system is in the worst shape of all states. The Associated Press reported that pensions in Illinois are underfunded and over promised.

Illinois was rated the most troubled pension system during the study period, with a 54 percent funding level and a total liability of more than $54 billion.

Proof once again that public employee unions are antithetical to good government. The reasons these pensions are in such poor shape are twofold. One is that they are far, far too generous (fault: unions) and two is that even when the money does go into these accounts the state legislature raids the funds for general usage (fault: politicians). Both reasons are failures of government.

What this state needs to do first thing is to start a two tiered system. Since the pensions are protected by law, we need to accept that we are saddled with current pensions. But any new employee and all employees not yet vested should have their undeserved benefits massively cut.

The state should also look to offer as many buyouts at lower costs as it can. Early retirements might help the bottom line, too.

But taking care that future benefits are not so undeservedly high is the most important thing here.
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Pension Failure in Illinois Worst in Country”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Congress - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Government - Jobs - Pensions - Public Employees Unions - SEIU - Socialism - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

How To Become a Millionaire Easy: Become a Gov’t Worker

February 14, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Having trouble making ends meet? Eating your meals from a dog food can? Lost your job, seen your retirement accounts dwindle or disappear, having a hard time getting work? Millions of Americans are facing these problems. Some, however, aren’t. And those some are government workers, apparently. Unionized government workers at that.

Doug Ross has a very startling post at his website that really brings this home in stark and easy to grasp numbers. Under the rubric of “How’s this for an investment” Ross gives us the following:

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.

This is what happens when you work for the State of New Jersey as Ross discovered.
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How To Become a Millionaire Easy: Become a Gov’t Worker”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - Senate - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

NLRB Nominee Stymied

February 10, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Two Democrats joined newly seated Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown Tuesday to uphold the Republican-led filibuster against President Obama’s nomination of Craig Becker to head the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The Democrats that joined the filibuster were Blanche Lincoln (D, Ark.) and Ben Nelson (D, Neb.). Both are thought to face losing their seats in the upcoming 2010 elections over the many left-wing votes they’ve recently cast.

The GOP is against the elevation of Becker to the NLRB Chair because his past statements show that he’ll take the position with a Big Labor agenda firmly in mind.

“Mr. Becker’s previous statements strongly indicate that he would take an aggressive personal agenda to the NLRB, and that he would pursue a personal agenda there, rather than that of the administration,” Senator Nelson said.

The final vote was 52-33, falling short of the 60 that Becker needed to sail out of committee and toward an open vote.
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NLRB Nominee Stymied”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - Jobs - Journalism - Media - Media Bias - Newspapers - Pensions - SEIU - Senate - Socialism - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

How Media Chooses Words Adds to Bias

February 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Politico had a story about Big Labor penned by Jeanne Cummings, the reporter famed for going after Sarah Palin’s Party purchased wardrobe during the 2008 presidential campaign, that was an object lesson in Old Media bias. Her piece headlined “Labor helps kill its own top priority” is a great example of using language to subtly shade the arguments, in this case those of Big Labor, to elicit a positive view of the ideology contained in the issue. Her piece very subtly shades the goals of Big Labor in a positive light easily giving the reader a feeling that Big Labor’s goals are good and noble and is a perfect example of how the media creates emotional appeal for the left’s actions.

Because it is such masterfully crafted example of subtle bias, it deserves to be studied closely.

Cummings Begins her propping up of Big Labor by saying that Scott Brown’s win in Massachusetts is “bad news for health care” and will mean that Republicans can “block the Employee Free Choice Act,” and so she immediately casts the possible actions of the GOP in a negative light at the outset. “Bad news for health care”? It is said as if the GOP was against “health care.” It isn’t. And of course “block” is certainly a negative action. In any case, she started by shrouding the GOP in negativity right away.
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How Media Chooses Words Adds to Bias”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Communism - Democrats/Leftists - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - Government - Health - John Boehner - Liberals - Republicans - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Start Over on Healthcare: Now I Give John Boehner a Pat on the Back

February 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The other day I was slapping Congressman John Boehner (R, OH) around for his absurd claim that there was no difference between the Tea Party movement’s principles and the GOP establishment’s principles (or lack thereof). Well, today I have to give our Congressional Minority Leader a pat on the back for his letter to Obama about healthcare.

For those unaware, Obama has offered to come have another one of his odious “summits” with the GOP. Obama is claiming he wants to “listen” to the Republican’s ideas and that its time to work together. It’s all a sandbag, though. Obama is a liar and doesn’t intend to “listen” to anyone. It’s a move for show, a bright shiny bauble that the Old Media wonder at like the lap dogs they are.

Obama’s played this lie out many, many times in the past. It was his common mantra when he was a State Senator here in Illinois. He’d make all sorts of soothing noises about “listening” to all sides and “working together.” Then he would ignore all offers of collaboration and all ideas offered as he would go on to propose a strictly, down-the-line socialist styled liberal agenda. He’s never once in his life ever included any ideas from the other side in anything he’s ever done in politics. The man is simply a liar. There just isn’t any other way to say it.
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Start Over on Healthcare: Now I Give John Boehner a Pat on the Back”

Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Journalism - Liberals - Media - SEIU - Senate - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Dem Senate Hurries To Push Liars and Symps into Power Before Brown Comes to Town

February 4, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It’s Katie bar the door as the Democrats in the Senate try to push as many liars and Big Labor crooks into positions of power in the Obama Administration as they can before they lose their super majority once Scott Brown of Massachusetts is seated on the 4th of February.

On Monday, the Democrats pushed through the confirmation for Obama’s Solicitor of Labor despite that it has been effectively shown that she lied in her Senate testimony.

Senator Mike Enzi (R, Wyo.) revealed a report that Obama’s appointee as Solicitor of Labor, Patricia Smith, lied several times during her appearance before the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in May of 2009.

Then on Tuesday, the Democrats with their temporary super majority tried to push through Obama’s nomination of Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Becker is a union-flack and would become the first lawyer employed by unions to take a position that is supposed to investigate and rule for or against unions with an unbiased hand.
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Dem Senate Hurries To Push Liars and Symps into Power Before Brown Comes to Town”

Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - Government - President - Taxes - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston

What Lesson Did Brown Teach Obama/Democrats? Apparently Pass Bad Stuff Faster

January 26, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Once Scott Brown took away the Democrat super majority in the Senate by becoming the Republican’s 41st vote based in large part on the fact that Massachusetts voters were unhappy with Obamacare, one would think that President Obama and the Democrat Party would learn a vital lesson. A look at a dozen or so stories across the media over the last few days shows that the Democrats have indeed learned a lesson from Scott Brown’s victory. But is it the right lesson?

Did they learn that they’d better slow down their freight train of extremely left leaning policies? Did they learn that with 58% of Americans standing in opposition to Obamcare they’d better reassess their direction? Have they learned from an entire year of raucous healthcare townhalls, multiple loses at the polls, and tea party protests that brought out over a million people that they might be agitating the American people?

Nope.
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What Lesson Did Brown Teach Obama/Democrats? Apparently Pass Bad Stuff Faster”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - California - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Pensions - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Public Employees Unions Are Sinking California

January 23, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Steven Greenhut has a great piece in the Wall Street Journal about how the evils of public employees unions are destroying California.

Greenhut begins by noting that with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country California is losing its “productive citizens” to other states but is still saddled with an economy killing surfeit of public unions employees that “drive costs up and fight to block spending cuts.”

Greenhut goes on to report that the unfunded pensions that California is stuck with has increased by 2,000% in the last decade because of the overweening power of the unions.
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Public Employees Unions Are Sinking California”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Communism - Congress - Conservatives - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - GOP - Liberals - Louisiana - President - Republicans - Rights - Socialism - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Tea Party - The Law - Warner Todd Huston - Welfare

Louisiana Legislature Floating Bill Making Obamacare Illegal in State

January 20, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Louisiana State Senator A.G. Crowe (R, Slidell) is introducing a bill for the 2010 legislative session in Baton Rouge that would make Obamacare illegal if it violates state laws, effectively making Obamacare null and void in the Pelican State.

Senator Crowe states that his bill “provides that no law or rule shall compel, directly or indirectly, any person, employer or health care provider to participate in any health care system or health insurance.”

Crowe’s proposed Senate Bill (download .pdf file) begins as follows:

HEALTH CARE. Prohibits state or local governmental coercion of any Louisiana employer, health care provider, or individual to compel participation in any health care system or health insurance plan.

Crowe insists that Obamacare violates Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and “is therefore unconstitutional.” He also feels that the president’s plans violates the 10th Amendment among others.
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Louisiana Legislature Floating Bill Making Obamacare Illegal in State”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democracy - Economy/Finances - Freedom - Health - House of Representatives - Liberals - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Now WE Will Pay for Unions Fancy Healthcare Packages

January 16, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

As if there were ever any doubts, the unions bosses that descended upon the White House earlier in the week appear to have succeeded in getting their members excluded from the so-called Cadillac taxes on expensive healthcare packages.

The Obama administration, having been bought and paid for by unions, agreed to demands that unions be excluded from the onerous taxation that many of the rest of us will be forced to pay to float Obama’s budget busting Obamacare plans.

The unions pretended themselves to meet Obama in the middle by agreeing to put a time limit on this sweetheart deal. It was agreed that the unions would be exempt from these taxes for the next 18 years after which they’d then have to pay the tax like everyone else.

But, come on. Does anyone believe that 17 years from now that the unions would not be right back up at the White House demanding to have that 18 years extended or the tax exclusion made permanent? And does anyone believe that their demands would not be easily agreed to by pliant politicians looking for Big Labor’s giant political donations?

If anyone doubts that once Big Labor gets an exclusion it will never be rescinded, then they are not very bright!
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Now WE Will Pay for Unions Fancy Healthcare Packages”

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Jobs - Liberals - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

…Yet Not ALL Unions Willing to Bend Over for Obamacare Tax Hike

January 11, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Yesterday I posted a story about how the two big public employees unions were looking the other way on Obamacare and helping Obama to pass his socialist take over of our healthcare system even though the plan would hike taxes on their very own members and would devastate their helathcare plans. Well, not all unions are willing to hurt their own membership merely for political reasons.

Of course, in the past we’ve posted stories (here, and here) pointing out that there are the several unions that are not bending over backwards just to hand Obama a political victory and today The New York Post reported on several New York unions that are just as unhappy as those that we’ve previously mentioned.
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…Yet Not ALL Unions Willing to Bend Over for Obamacare Tax Hike”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Islam - Islamofascism - Liberals - Military - President - Security/Safety - Terrorism - Warner Todd Huston - Western Civilization

U.S. Judge Comes to Rescue of Terrorist, Throws Out Confession

January 9, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Get ready folks because this is the world of terrorist coddling that Barack Obama is setting up for us from now on. A left-wing, multicultural-loving, half-wit federal judge has sided with those who would kill us all by throwing out most of the evidence as well as the confession of a terrorist ensconced in Guantanamo Bay.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan said in a ruling that the government failed to prove that the statements made by Musa’ab Omar Al Madhwani were made free of coercion. I suppose this wonderful judge asked the terrorist if he was coerced and the terrorist unsurprisingly said, “uh, yeah, dat’s what happened. Dey que-orced me!”

Fortunately, this lame, idiot judge decided in his infinite wisdom that we should still hold the terrorist because other things he told authorities at other times was deemed important and accurate. So it could have been worse. At least this time, a hack judge didn’t let a killer free to roam about the United States at will… oh, but it’s coming.

This is what Obama has set up, America. He has set up a situation where terrorists will be loosed on an unsuspecting American public because some soft-in-the-head judge feels sorry for them.
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U.S. Judge Comes to Rescue of Terrorist, Throws Out Confession”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Elections - Health - Liberals - Senate - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Sen. Ben Nelson: Say, Maybe We Shudda Waited on Healthcare ‘Reform’

January 7, 2010 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Every week we are seeing another Democrat deciding not to run for re-election or one that is switching parties to the GOP all due to the wild, left-wing overreach indulged in by the Obama Administration and its cohorts in Congress. Connecticut’s Senator Chris Dodd is only the latest heavy hitter Democrat that is looking for an “exit strategy,” if you will. And with all these pols looking to jump ship, the infamous 60th vote on healthcare, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska, suddenly finds that bringing healthcare to a vote so soon was a bit of a mistake!

On Wednesday, Nelson, a master of the understatement, told the Fremont Tribune, “I think it was a mistake to take health care on as opposed to continuing to spend the time on the economy.”

Right after that statement, Nelson pronounced the maiden voyage of the SS Titanic “a bit of a flub,” said that Amelia Earhart made a “miscalculation” in her flight plan, and decided that founding the city of Pompeii at the foot of a volcano was probably “misguided.” But he still thought that his 60th vote for Obamacare was a good one.

So much for his judgment!
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Sen. Ben Nelson: Say, Maybe We Shudda Waited on Healthcare ‘Reform’”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Chicago - Communism - Constitution - Cook County - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - Health - Illinois - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Rights - Socialism - Society/Culture - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Chgo Sun-Times Says Healthcare is a Right

December 30, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

It has come to this. A newspaper in one of America’s biggest cities has so sold out to extremists, left-wing ideology that it has throw logic, facts, and reality to the four winds in order to sell Obama’s socialist healthcare policies. In a recent editorial the Chicago Sun-Times has absurdly determined that healthcare is a “right.” Unfortunately for truth and reality, the Sun-Times is simply wrong.

As we all know, the Senate has been engaging in a debate on Obamacare. But back on June 16 before the lesser light of the Kennedy clan passed away, Senator Edward Kennedy included a bit of foolishness in a statement issued in his role as the Chairman of the Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, or the HELP committee.

In that statement we saw the assumption that is popular on the left and one the Sun-Times just echoed, but it is one that should give pause to any liberty loving American. (See pdf file)
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Chgo Sun-Times Says Healthcare is a Right”

Barack Obama - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Constitution - Democracy - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Freedom - GOP - Health - House of Representatives - Liberals - President - Republicans - Socialism - Society/Culture - Supreme Court - Taxes - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Where Are You Frum, Anyway?

December 29, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Canadian David Frum is like the cross-eyed marksman, he can see the target but just can’t ever hit it. The self-styled conservative has been the Old Media’s leading conservative in attacking, well, other conservatives. Naturally his Dec. 25 piece on theweek.com is no exception. Not only does he attack other conservatives, as is his wont, he so badly misreads the Constitution and certain other facts in the healthcare debate, it makes one wonder if he’s muffing it all on purpose? He does, however, get one salient fact right: the U.S. has already so ignored the U.S. Constitution that this socialist Obamacare plan will likely be declared wholly constitutional.

Frum’s latest frumble asks the question whether or not Obamacare is constitutional? He determines that it is constitutional mainly because Congress and multiple Supreme Courts have already ignored the Constitution so often as to make it likely they will all do so again to OK the illicit intrusion into our lives that is Obamacare.

OK, with his basic premise Frum is right. It is likely that our out-of-control federal establishment will again warp the Constitution to cover yet another socialist abomination. But how he gets to this conclusion is so filled with missteps that it is laughable and further this lapse of sense does not make it actually constitutional. It just makes it a done deal.
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Where Are You Frum, Anyway?”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Liberals - President - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

New Ad: Lefty Group Calls Obama a Liar

December 24, 2009 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

A lefty Political Action Committee called Bold Progressives PAC is fed up with the political lies of … President Obama. They are chiefly upset at his lie that he never campaigned on the public option part of his socialist healthcare plan. Being good commies, Bold Progressives are a bit ticked off that Obama took a step back from his initial stated intention to torpedo any healthcare bill that didn’t have a public option included.

So, these folks got ticked enough to produce an ad calling Obama on his lies.

Now according to Politico, this Bold Progressives group is “One of the most aggressive defenders of the public option” and they’ve been pushing all sorts of extremist, left-wing ideas for a while now. This is no false flag operation. These guys are red through and through.
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New Ad: Lefty Group Calls Obama a Liar”

Campaign Finance - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - GOP - Health - House of Representatives - Illinois - Liberals - Republicans - Senate - Society/Culture - State Government - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

The Lobbying Army in Congress for Healthcare

December 21, 2009 by

The Chicago Tribune has an excellent resource reporting the number of lobbyists that are involved in the healthcare debate as it winds through Congress.

For instance, did you know that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D, Nev.) has 13 of his former staff members now working as lobbyists for the healthcare industry? Our own Senator, Dick Durbin (D, Ill.) who is also the Majority Whip, has 8 of his former staffers lobbying for the healthcare industry and GOP Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has seen 5 of his staffers quit to lobby for healthcare.

The webpage is interactive and you can search by lawmaker and committee. You can also search by client and download all the data.

It is some very interesting info that you should check out.

The information was assembled by the Trib staff and the Medill News Service of the Northwestern University School of Journalism.

Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Health - Liberals - President - SEIU - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Fugedaboutit: Healthcare Bill Not Socialist Enough for This Union

December 17, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

This is momentous news, harrowing news if you are a Democrat that wants Obamacare passed at all costs. The powerful and very rich Service Employees International Union (SEIU), is wavering in its until now stated support of Obamacare.

The Hill is reporting that the SEIU just backed out of an event promoting the Senate’s healthcare bill over “concerns” about the changes that have recently been made to get the support of Joe Lieberman and centrist Democrats.

Apparently the SEIU was going to attend a rah-rah session with the AARP, the liberal advocacy group Families USA, Consumers Union and the American Cancer Society Action Network but unexpectedly dumped out of the event on Wednesday.
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Fugedaboutit: Healthcare Bill Not Socialist Enough for This Union”

Barack Obama - Budget - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - Health - Illinois - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Republicans - Senate - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Govt Healthcare Will Give us ALL Pay Cuts

December 17, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Big Labor has, for the most part, fallen all over itself to help its patron President get his Obamacare policies passed in Congress spending millions to do so. If Obamacare should pass many millions will lose their healthcare and will be forced into government healthcare. According to the CBO at least 10 million will lose their insurance in short order. The CBO is likely lowballing the number, too.

That means many people that now have insurance through their employers will lose it and, thereby, lose some of their compensation and that brings up a major point that few people are talking about. I’ve mentioned it offhandedly in the past, but reader D. Harrison brought the issue before me in a recent email and I thought we should make it a point here.

Mr. Harrison wrote:
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Govt Healthcare Will Give us ALL Pay Cuts”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - Freedom - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - President - Rights - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

Science, Smoking, Healthcare, All Prove Gov’t Can’t be Trusted

December 14, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Just sit back and let big daddy government show you the way. The Democrat Party is assuring us that they know better because they have science, educated people, doctors, all that “expertise” in their control and further more they “care” about us all and they want us to know that they’d never do anything to lead us astray.

If you feel like the con is about to begin, you are right.

Of course, we don’t need mere suspicion to divine that the Democrats are liars. We can look at what government and Democrats have already done in several related areas — science, smoking and healthcare — to prove that this newest attempt to “help” us is based on lies, smoke and mirrors.

Let us begin with science. In two areas we see the failure that Democrats perpetuate even with science as their justification: global warming and healthcare.

We are all by now familiar with the lies that global warming is based upon as revealed by the scheming to hide failure of the science that went on behind the scenes with the email correspondence of the “scientists” at the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit (CRU). The science went from settled “consensus” to “ClimateGate” in only a matter of weeks. Yet governments all across the globe have based their policies on these lies. Total failure.
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Science, Smoking, Healthcare, All Prove Gov’t Can’t be Trusted”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - House of Representatives - Jobs - Liberals - SEIU - Senate - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Unions - Warner Todd Huston

Unions Again In DC Arguing Against ‘Cadillac Plan’ Tax

December 12, 2009 by

By Warner Todd Huston

The Associated Press reports the words of Lily Eskelsen, vice president of the National Education Association, who went to Washington D.C. to protest the so-called Cadillac healthcare plan tax currently in the Senate’s healthcare bill. “We should tax the millionaires, not teachers and bus drivers,” she told reporters.

This has been the constant refrain from Big Unions since Senator Max Baucus (D, Montana) included the taxing plan into his Senate version of Obamacare earlier this year. This 40 percent tax plan would kick in for any employee whose healthcare plan reaches $8,500 per year for individuals or $23,000 for families.

Of course, there is a fatal flaw in the Democrat’s assumptions of what this tax will do. As the AP reports, “The tax would raise some $150 billion over 10 years to help pay for the Democrats’ nearly $1 trillion health care bill.”
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Unions Again In DC Arguing Against ‘Cadillac Plan’ Tax”

Anti-Americanism - Barack Obama - Budget - Business - Capitalism - Communism - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Free Trade - GOP - Health - Liberals - President - Republicans - Socialism - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Senate Approves Motion to Proceed on Obamacare

November 21, 2009 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

With a 60 to 39 vote, the Senate has passed the motion to proceed to move on with the debate over Obamacare. Again, it is important to note that this is only a vote to begin the floor debate on the bill. It is not a vote to pass Obamacare.

In the Washington Examiner, Byron York has an excellent point when he asks, “why was it so hard for Democrats even to start the healthcare debate?”
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Senate Approves Motion to Proceed on Obamacare”

Anti-Americanism - Budget - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Health - Liberals - Senate - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Some Key Points in The Senate Healthcare Bill

November 19, 2009 by

Smoke and mirrors abound. Reid says we’re “saving” money, that Medicare is “saved” and that taxes aren’t being raised, but the truth argues against Reid’s obfuscations.

Some points according to the CBO and the Senate Republican Policy Committee:

  • Spending: The cost of the bill is $2.5 trillion over 10 years of full implementation (2014-2023).
  • Taxes Increases: Taxes will go up $493.6 billion — nearly half a trillion dollars.
  • Medicare Cuts: Medicare will be cut $464.6 billion — another half a trillion dollars.
  • Government Plan: The bill includes a government run plan and provides states with the possibility of opting out of participating in that plan. According to CBO, the government run plan “would typically have premiums that were somewhat higher than the average premiums for the private plans in the exchanges.”
  • Employer Mandate: The bill will impose $28 billion in new taxes on employers that do not provide government approved health plans.

Additional CBO Background:

  • The bill would bend the federal cost-curve up.
  • 24 million people would be left without insurance.
  • States will have to spend an additional $25 billion in Medicaid expenditures
  • Taxes on uninsured individuals will total $8 billion.
  • Taxes on employers from the “free-rider” penalty would total $28 billion.
  • 5 million Americans would lose their employer coverage.
  • Only 19 million people will get a subsidy to help them buy health insurance. None of the 162 million people with employer-based care will even be eligible for a subsidy.
  • The costs of the subsidies in the exchange would grow at 8 percent a year.
  • The tax on high value plans will quickly be applied to almost all plans. CBO expects the revenues from the Cadillac plan tax to grow at 10-15 percent per year outside the budget window.

(H/T John Goodman)