Healthcare on Fox News Sunday

Fox News Sunday today provided a study in contrasts between the Democrats and the Republicans.

The topic was O's healthcare bill. The first segment had Senators Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ). Typically, Kyl gave straight-forward answers to Mike Wallace's questions. Menendez, on the other hand, evaded answering directly preferring instead to monopolize the microphone and attack Kyl and the GOP. It's not surprising Menendez should act this way he having the morally weaker hand.

The second segment had Paul Ryan (R, WI-1st), the well-spoken ranking member on the House budget committee. Wallace characterized Ryan as the one Republican President Obama didn't want to mess with, someone who knows as much about the issue as he does.

Ryan made it very clear to everyone that was listening that relying on the CBO's costing of the current healthcare bill can be very misleading:

…the CBO has to score the legislation that's put in front of them. And the legislation that's been put in front of them is full of smoke, mirrors and gimmicks.

The Fox News panel predicted passage of the bill will fail. And, it will fail to pass if there are enough Democrats left that will do the morally responsible thing. We shall soon see.

The verdict is in: AIG bailout is a loser

AIG posts $8.9 bn loss,   warns of more aid

We've heard the warnings on bailouts.   Now the verdict is in:

The insurer said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that without additional government support, "in the future there could exist substantial doubt about AIG's ability to continue as a going concern."

Bailouts don't work.   It didn't work for the airlines.   It didn't work for Chrysler.   Now we see it didn't work for AIG.

AIG is suggesting more taxpayer money is needed.   Our Congress better not take the bait.   If they do, they can be certain the voters will be taking names...

The latest screed from Consumers Union

Evidently the Consumers Union—a nonprofit organization—is using their tax status to push the Progressive's agenda:



Minerva Novoa
Minerva signs off
Minerva Novoa,
Advocacy Web Administrator

Dear Howard,

Consumer confidence just hit an all-time low. Yet Wall Street bonuses climbed 17% last year, and financial industry profits may reach $55 billion – nearly three-times the previous record!

The financial industry is more out-of-whack than ever, continuing to reward those who gamble with our hard-earned money. Meanwhile, promised reforms designed to bring back personal responsibility, fair play and common sense are sidelined in Congress – and political opponents think you won’t notice, or won’t care!

It’s time Washington stops listening to the banks and listens to you. The Senate is putting together a financial reform bill, and the banks’ top brass know their big bonuses are at stake. Make sure your Senators know their responsibility to voters is at stake – tell them to support real Wall Street reform now!

First impression

On the healthcare summit:  Watching O's body language during Senator Lamar Alexander's opening statement, it wasn't hard to notice how Obama kept his chin up high.  This is the same pose Muammar al-Khdafi maintained in public.

Then, when Senator Alexander segued into a review of this nation's founding principles, O put his head in his hands as though he was just so put off.  And, he probably was as,  being a Progressive,  he considers the Constitution a museum piece of no importance for today.  And, he may have had the off-putting thought of him arguing against the founding principles;  something Progressives try to keep out of public view.

Then there were the statements by Pelosi and Reid.  Both tried the ploy of holding up the plight of some poor person in their district as though the whole nation is in the same fix.  Of course, it never occurred to either of them that these hardship cases are easily remedied through a means-tested voucher system at far less cost than the monstrosity they are proposing to inflict on the country.

Or,  maybe the thought did cross their minds but they chose to ignore it.

And,  as players holding weak hands are wont to do,  Reid included a personal shot at Senator Alexander.

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The summit has concluded with the President conceding the Republicans made a few good points.  So now the onus is on the Democrat leaders to sit down with the other side and negotiate in good faith.  Let's see if Reid and The Nancy are up to the task.

Dense does as dense is

UN climate chief quits, leaves talks hanging

Evidently, common sense will prevail given enough time!  de Boer now recognizes the lack of science underlying the global warming hype.

Exhausted and frustrated by unrelenting bickering between rich and poor countries, Yvo de Boer said he will step down July 1 to work in business and academia.

Never mind. He's quitting for all the wrong reasons.  Rather he is retreating to academia where he will mislead the next generation.

Government irresponsibility quantified

Social security payroll tax revenues have been part of the general revenue fund since the Eisenhower administration. Same for the medicare tax revenue. And, as everyone knows, the irresponsible Congress simply spent it on other stuff.

So, how much did the Government's spendthrift ways cost us? How much further ahead would we be if these payroll taxes were used to purchase something tangible—say, gold?

I have calculated that if the government had used my payroll taxes to purchase gold at the average prevailing price over my working lifetime, my half of the account would currently be worth 3.75 times what I paid in.

What is the current value of my account instead? Essentially, zero. Isn't Progress wonderful?

Hope and anger

For Obama, 'Hope' has been replaced by anger, frustration

The article points out that Americans are angry with the Obama administration and describes how O is reacting to it:

The Obama response has come in two parts.  One is to try to get better about communicating to people that he is fighting to address exactly what angers them.   The other is to put the onus on whomever he deems is getting in the way of progress, hoping to shift the heat onto them.

If anyone had the idea O got the message—that his programs, with their obscene deficit spending, are unwanted—forget it.   O is convinced his progressive agenda is exactly what the people want and cannot even begin to imagine the voters are reacting against it.

Obama hasn't changed his mind.   He is not letting up on pushing his progressive agenda.  Obama is sure to use every trick imaginable to foist his programs upon us.  So now is not the time for complacency; we will need to remain vigilant until he is out of office.

Hope: That we now recognize progressives for what they are and hope to never vote another into office.

The 'healthcare' summit

There are rumors that the format for the February 25 healthcare summit will be the same question-and-answer format of the House Issues Conference in Baltimore.

O certainly is partial to that format because it allows him to monopolize the microphone as he did in Baltimore.

And, the Republicans would be foolish to accept a question-and-answer format. Rather, they should insist the format allow for formal presentations from both sides.

Refusal on the part of the President to adopt formal presentations would indicate O is not serious about an exchange of ideas over healthcare legislation.

More partisanship from the Consumer Union

Consumer Union persists in using members' email to push the Dem's healthcare reform. As you can see from the logo, they are a non-profit consumer organization taking a partisan position.

Gibbs mocks Palin

You can bet the entire White House crew has read Saul Alinsky.

Understanding Obama's mindset

From the State of the Union address: 

Still, [healthcare reform] is a complex issue, and the longer it was debated, the more skeptical people became.  I take my share of the blame for not explaining it more clearly to the American people. 

Blame? After all the speeches, one would think the legislation was thoroughly explained.  So, what is the President talking about?

It helps to understand a progressive's view of the role of the president.  From Woodrow Wilson's Leaders of Men: 

That the leader of men must have such sympathetic insight as shall enable him to know quite unerringly the motives which move other men in the mass is of course self–evident; but this insight … need only know what it is that lies waiting to be stirred in the minds and purposes of groups and masses of men. 

…

The competent leader of men cares little for the interior niceties of other people’s characters:  he cares much—everything for the external uses to which they may be put.  His will seeks the lines of least resistance; but the whole question with him is a question as to the application of force.  There are men to be moved:  how shall he move them?

So, what O, being the consumate Progressive that he is, is saying, I take my share of blame for failing to satisfactorily fulfill the role of progressive leader.  In a nutshell, this sums up O's mindset—how O sees his role as president:  Mover and shaker, progressive shaper of public opinion, all directed toward imposing the Progressive's agenda on the nation. 

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Postscript:  From O's remarks at the GOP House Issues Conference: 

I am not an ideologue. 

Amazing! When did pigs begin flying?