Bloomberg reports that Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, stated that despite the special election in Massachusetts, the Dems have been preparing to use a process called "reconciliation" to pass their wildly unpopular "health care reform" bill, literally changing the rule requiring a 60 vote requirement to pass the legislation to only requiring a simple 51 vote majority.
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RELATED: In a direct affront to the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, Obama promises that unions will be EXEMPTED from the planned new tax on so-called "cadillac" healthcare plans.
The biggest loser was President Obama, who campaigned tirelessly for Corzine, even giving up golf on several occasions and skipping a quarter-million-dollar "date night" with Michelle to stump for the Democrat.
Just two days before the election, Obama was at a rally in New Jersey assuring voters that Corzine was "one of the best partners I have in the White House. We work together. ... Jon Corzine helped get this done."
Except the problem is that voting for Obama a year ago was a fashion statement, much like it was once a fad to buy Beanie Babies, pet rocks and Cabbage Patch Kids. But instead of ending up with a ridiculous dust-collector at the bottom of your closet, the Obama fad leaves you with higher taxes, a reduced retirement fund, no job and a one-year wait for an MRI.
The Independent, under the front-page headline "The Demise of the Dollar", reported last Tuesday that Gulf states, together with China, Russia, Japan and France, were considering replacing the dollar as the currency for oil deals.
"In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning -- along with China, Russia, Japan and France -- to end dollar dealings for oil," wrote The Independent's Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk.
They would switch "to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar," added Fisk, citing Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources.
The report was denied by a host of countries, including Kuwait, Qatar and Russia, while France dismissed it as "pure speculation."
Even so, the United Nations itself last week called for a new global reserve currency to end dollar supremacy, which had allowed the United States the "privilege" of building up a huge trade deficit.
President Obama said this week that his health care plan won't cover illegal immigrants, but argued that's all the more reason to legalize them and ensure they eventually do get coverage.
(We at the Saloon think the President owes Congressman Joe Wilson one BIG apology! - Roland)
David Walker sounds like a modern-day Paul Revere as he warns about the country's perilous future. "We suffer from a fiscal cancer," he tells a meeting of the National Taxpayers Union, the nation's oldest anti-tax lobby. "Our off balance sheet obligations associated with Social Security and Medicare put us in a $56 trillion financial hole—and that's before the recession was officially declared last year. America now owes more than Americans are worth—and the gap is growing!"
Americans are about to re-learn that bank deposit insurance isn't free, even as Washington is doing its best to delay the coming bailout. The banking system and the federal fisc would both be better off in the long run if the political class owned up to the reality.
We're referring to the federal deposit insurance fund, which has been shrinking faster than reservoirs in the California drought. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reported late last week that the fund that insures some $4.5 trillion in U.S. bank deposits fell to $10.4 billion at the end of June, as the list of failing banks continues to grow. The fund was $45.2 billion a year ago, when regulators told us all was well and there was no need to take precautions to shore up the fund.
Warren Buffett says the growing mountain of U.S. debt could turn the country into a banana republic...Congress, Buffett says, must end the rise in the debt-to-GDP ratio and bring U.S. growth in obligations back in line with U.S. growth in resources.
Given hardening Republican opposition to Congressional health care proposals, Democrats now say they see little chance of the minority’s cooperation in approving any overhaul, and are increasingly focused on drawing support for a final plan from within their own ranks.
(This has NOTHING to do with "hardening Republican opposition" whatsoever. The people don't want it! Period. Simple. End of story. So, despite the overwhelming majority of American people being steadfastly opposed to socializing health care, the socialists in the Democrat Party intend to jam it down their throats anyway. We may very well be witnessing the DNC's waterloo that they so richly deserve. - Roland)
Self-identified conservatives outnumber self-identified liberals in all 50 states of the union, according to the Gallup Poll.
At the same time, more Americans nationwide are saying this year that they are conservative than have made that claim in any of the last four years.
In 2009, 40% percent of respondents in Gallup surveys that have interviewed more than 160,000 Americans have said that they are either “conservative” (31%) or “very conservative” (9%). That is the highest percentage in any year since 2004.
Only 21% have told Gallup they are liberal, including 16% who say they are “liberal” and 5% who say they are “very liberal.”
(H/t: Semra)
More>>> New Poll Shows Obama Approval Dropping Among Key Supporters
From the article: "(Canadians) have to understand that the system that we have right now - if it keeps on going without change - is not sustainable," said Doig.
"They have to look at the evidence that's being presented and will be presented at (the meeting) and realize what Canada's doctors are trying to tell you, that you can get better care than what you're getting and we all have to participate in the discussion around how do we do that and of course how do we pay for it."
The health insurance plans they want us to have is not good enough for them.
Now the planes we fly on are not good enough for some of them either.
"The whole thing kind of makes me sick to my stomach," said Mrs. McCaskill in an interview Sunday. "It is evidence that some of the cynicism about Washington is well placed -- that people get out of touch and they spend money likes it's Monopoly money."
More>>> Lawmakers' Global-Warming Trip Hit Tourist Hot Spots
When 10 members of Congress wanted to study climate change, they did more than just dip their toes into the subject: They went diving and snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef. They also rode a cable car through the Australian rain forest, visited a penguin rookery and flew to the South Pole.
The 11-day trip -- with six spouses traveling along as well -- took place over New Year's 2008. Details are only now coming to light as part of a Wall Street Journal analysis piecing together the specifics of the excursion.
It's tough to calculate the travel bills racked up by members of Congress, but one thing's for sure: They use a lot of airplanes. In recent days, House of Representatives members allocated $550 million to upgrade the fleet of luxury Air Force jets used for trips like these -- even though the Defense Department says it doesn't need all the planes.
The South Pole trip, led by Rep. Brian Baird (D., Wash.), ranks among the priciest. The lawmakers reported a cost to taxpayers of $103,000.
Are you one of the tens of thousands of people who don't want government-run health care and showed up at a town hall or a rally to let it be known?...then you are part of the right-wing, extremist, angry mob and your anger is fake. It's not organic. It's not grassroots...
(Indeed, Pelosi calls the protesters' movement "astro turf", a play on the term 'grass roots'. The Obama administration is calling on Americans to rat out their neighbors for dissenting political speech. When did we wake up in communist China? Why was dissent deemed "patriotic" by the left during the Bush years, but extreme and dangerous now? Legitimate question, fellow citizen, and something we need to seriously consider, regardless of political idealogy. - Roland)
*RELATED*: White House Brushes Off Health Care Protests
(Really? No kidding? This is basic economics at work. No economy can be taxed in to prosperity. You can't rob trillions and trillions from current and future generations to prop up failing multi-billion dollar corporations and their unions and to fund vast socialist spending and not expect revenues to drop. Cut spending, cut taxes. SCALE BACK the regulating! Get out of the way, Congress and Mr. President, and you'll see those coffers fill back up again.
When will the left ever learn? - Roland)
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Geithner, Summers can't "guarantee" that there won't be more taxes on middle class
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Rasmussen poll: 48% of Americans now rate America's health care as "good" or "excellent", up from 32% last year
Lawmakers can choose among several plans and get special treatment at federal medical facilities. In 2008, taxpayers spent about $15 billion to insure 8.5 million federal workers and their dependents...
...many Americans think Congress is out of touch. How, they wonder, can lawmakers empathize with the underinsured or those lacking insurance when they receive a benefits package -- heavily subsidized by taxpayers -- that most of us can only envy?
The targets in most cases are House Democrats, who over the past few months have tackled controversial legislation including a $787 billion economic stimulus package, a landmark energy proposal and an overhaul of the nation’s health care system.
Democrats, acknowledging the increasing unruliness of the town-hall-style events, say the hot-button issues they are taking on have a lot to do with it.
“I think it’s just the fact that we are dealing with some of the most important public policy issues in a generation,” said Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa), who was confronted by a protester angry about his position on health care reform at a town hall event several weeks ago
(Dealing with these issues is the problem? No, sir, that's not the problem and you know it. American's are finally waking up to the big, steaming and stinking pile of socialism that the Democrats' health care bill represents and they're speaking out against it. Ignore them at your own political peril. - Roland)
Under health care legislation on Capitol Hill, undocumented workers would technically not be covered. But the reality, immigration analysts say, is that the legislation is missing any mechanism to keep them out of the system. And if they exploit that loophole, taxpayers could be on the hook for billions to cover health care costs that employers don't!
The administration has fulfilled a promise to cut spending by trimming $100 million from the 2009 budget. That's right — $100 million with an "m," an imponderably small slice of this year's expenditures.
When Blue Dog Democrats revolted over the cost of ObamaCare 10 days ago, the White House quickly came up with a plan to give them political cover: a government board that would tell Congress how to restrain costs. Well, so much for that, as the Congressional Budget Office has now exposed this idea as another false economy. But it’s worth understanding the reason because it also exposes the core problem with government-run health care.
The White House just keeps bumping up against a little thing I like to call reality. [HT: Hot Air]
Update: Ed at Hot Air has a new post in which he notes that Orszag appears to be attacking the CBO directly now, saying the following on Friday:
White House Budget Director Peter Orszag said the CBO’s analysis — which it relayed to House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer on Saturday — could feed a perception of the office’s bias toward “exaggerating costs and underestimating savings.”
Finally, House Democrats are doing something I like...Republican Chuck Grassley said: “A Democrat congressman last week told me after a conversation with the president that the president had trouble in the House of Representatives, and it wasn’t going to pass if there weren’t some changes made… and the president says, ‘You’re going to destroy my presidency’.”
More>>> *Flashback Wednesday*: "This isn't about me"
Republicans on Wednesday criticized as inappropriate a meeting President Obama held Monday with the director of the Congressional Budget Office, Douglas Elmendorf.
Elmendorf, a Democratic appointee, has been a thorn in the side of President Obama and congressional Democrats for the way he has analyzed health care reform legislation. In their view, Elmendorf hasn’t sufficiently given their health care reform proposals enough credit for cutting costs – which has caused them political problems in getting the legislation passed. Last week, frustrated at one analysis by Elmendorf, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., snapped, "what he should do is maybe run for Congress.”
“No one blames Mr. Elmendorf for accepting an invitation from the President of the United States,” House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement.“The issue is whether it was appropriate for the White House to invite him to discuss pending legislation before Congress at all.”
Said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky: "I noticed that the CBO director was sort of called down to the White House yesterday. It strikes me as somewhat akin as the owner of the team asking the umpires to come up to the owner's box."
"This isn't about me. This isn't about politics. This is about a health care system that is breaking America's families, breaking America's businesses, and breaking America's economy," Obama said on a visit to a Washington hospital...
...Last week, South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint predicted the Obama plan would not pass Congress, and said such a failure could be Obama's "Waterloo," referring to the battle that effectively ended Napoleon Bonaparte's military career.
"It will break him," DeMint said.
(It isn't "about politics"? Wow, does this guy ever think we're stupid.
Mr. Obama, when are you going to shut the hell up and start listening to the people who really make this country run? Not the political or academic elite! Not ACORN! The business owner, the entrepreneur, the real taxpayer! This health scare sham, not unlike the so-called cap and trade sham, is totally about politics. It's about amassing power and control for the Democratic Party and nothing else. Never mind that it will devastate the economy and may even bring down the country. Never mind that you and your advisors are on record as saying that single-payer health care will be less efficient and will adversely affect the elderly and infirm...you know...the people who NEED medical care!
You aren't fooling anyone, Mr. President. There are reform ideas being presented out there that WON'T bankrupt the country and it's high time the Democratic Party start considering a few of them!- Roland)
From Politico: A series of bailouts, bank rescues and other economic lifelines could end up costing the federal government as much as $23 trillion, the U.S. government’s watchdog over the effort says – a staggering amount that is nearly double the nation’s entire economic output for a year.
If the feds end up spending that amount, it could be more than the federal government has spent on any single effort in American history.
(Cost the "federal government" $23 trillion?? No!! Cost you, me, our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and so on! Make the madness stop. Call your congressional representative and senator and politely inform them that you are watching and that you want the spending to stop now! The country can't survive this kind of debt. - Roland)
When we first saw the paragraph Tuesday, just after the 1,018-page document was released, we thought we surely must be misreading it. So we sought help from the House Ways and Means Committee.
It turns out we were right: The provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of "Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage," the "Limitation On New Enrollment" section of the bill clearly states:
"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law.
So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won't be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.
After half a century of fighting encroachments upon freedom in America, journalist Garet Garrett published "The People's Pottage." A year later, in 1954, he died. "The People's Pottage" opens thus:
"There are those who still think they are holding the pass against a revolution that may be coming up the road. But they are gazing in the wrong direction. The revolution is behind them. It went by in the Night of Depression, singing songs to freedom."
Garrett wrote of a revolution within the form. While outwardly America appeared the same, a revolution within had taken place that was now irreversible. One need only glance at where we were before the New Deal, where we are and where we are headed to see how far we are off the course the Founding Fathers set for our republic.
Honesty: Lawmakers voted on the stimulus and global warming bills without having read either. Eventually they'll vote on health care legislation that could fund unrelated items. Time to end this systemic fraud.
“I bring you good news from the U.S., “Gore said on July 7, 2009 in Oxford at the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, sponsored by UK Times.
“Just two weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey climate bill,” Gore said, noting it was “very much a step in the right direction.” President Obama has pushed for the passage of the bill in the Senate and attended a G8 summit this week where he agreed to attempt to keep the Earth's temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees C.
Gore touted the Congressional climate bill, claiming it “will dramatically increase the prospects for success” in combating what he sees as the “crisis” of man-made global warming.
“But it is the awareness itself that will drive the change and one of the ways it will drive the change is through global governance and global agreements.
(Now there's a phrase that just makes you feel all warm and fuzzy. Global governance. Concentrating more and more power in to the hands of fewer and fewer. On a global scale. Sounds almost...biblical...does it not? - Roland)
Call it Spawn of Spendulus. Return of the Porkulus Beast. White House economic adviser Laura D'Andrea Tyson told an international economic conference: "We should be planning on a contingency basis for a second round of stimulus." Team Obama flack Robert Gibbs says the president isn't "ruling anything out, but at the same time he's not ruling anything in." Despite the inconvenient fact that less than 10 percent of the initial stimulus has been spent (or misspent), congressional Democrats remain "open" to the idea of digging a deeper fiscal hole for your children and grandchildren.
(Have you Democrats no sense of decency...at long last? - Roland)
Think socialized medicine is the answer for our country? Better think twice. Many countries the world over have tried and failed because no matter what...the government must eventually turn to rationing care to keep down costs. Why would we want to destroy the greatest system available here in our country when there are already systems in place to help those who, for one reason or another, find themselves without insurance in a moment of medical need? Our friend over at the Liberty Page has compiled a list of headlines from around the globe of just a few of the horror stories related to government-run health care. We don't want this in the United States, friends. Ever.
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