Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Mark Levin: your health care bill is a fraud, Mr. President, and you lied

Mark Levin:

I have a message for the President. Mr. President, I have a message for you. Your health care bill stinks, just as we said it did. As a matter of fact, your health care bill is a fraud.

Your health care bill does not cover pre-existing needs for children as you said it did.

Your health care bill does, in fact, slash life-saving diagnostic tests for senior citizens, as we said it did, including MRIs, CAT scans, diagnostic labs, home health, medical devices, nursing homes, in-patient rehab facilities, in-patient psych hospitals, etc. Did you know that, Mr. President?

Your health care bill does change coverage for retirees, who now receive prescription drug coverage from businesses -- and forces them onto Medicare Part D.

You lied again, Mr. President. That's a change in coverage.

At the same time, your health care bill is not $940 billion over ten years, is it, Mr. President?

You lied, didn't you?

You fixed the books like Al Capone's accountant. When you add $320 billion to cover payments to doctors under Medicare. And when you double-counted $550 billion in Medicare "cuts". You increased spending by over $2 trillion when we add in the rest. Don't you, Mr. President?

You lied, didn't you?

And if you were in the private sector, you'd be indicted and facing sure imprisonment, wouldn't you, Mr. President?

And, in fact, your health care bill does drive up costs for small businesses. If they offers a private plan to employees that exceeds some government-imposed limit, over time it's taxed at 40%. Why?

And if these business don't offer health care to their employees, they're fined $2,000 per employee. Isn't that an expense?

If they offer a health plan that's not approved by the government, they're fined as well. Isn't that an expense?

Doesn't that change coverage?

And if these businesses don't offer coverage to part-time workers, they're find $2,000 a pop, again.

And your health care bill punishes young people and middle-class citizens as well even though you said it wouldn't.

You lied.

As the great Bill McGurn reports in the Wall Street Journal today:

Almost by definition, those hit by the mandate will be either young people starting out, or those working for smaller businesses that do not provide employees with health coverage. Back in November, a report by the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that nearly half (46%) of the mandate penalties will be paid by Americans under 300% of the poverty line.

That's lower-middle class citizens, Mr. President. You lied.

In today's dollars, that works out to $32,500 for an individual. For a family of four, it's $66,150. Generally speaking, these are not the folks who have to worry about paying taxes on, say, a villa in the Dominican Republic or income from the International Monetary Fund.

So we are left with one of two possibilities. The first is that the penalty for not having "minimal essential coverage" is fully enforced, in which case Americans of relatively modest means will get a lesson in how the government deals with people who don't pay up.

Or the penalty for violating the individual mandate will become like the fines for not filling out your Census form. In other words, unenforced. In that case, the costs of this legislation will be even higher and more hidden than we have been led to believe.

You lied, Mr. President.

And you lied about the cost of premiums, too, Mr. President. You said that premiums would on average go down two thousand, five hundred dollars a year. The Associated Depress is reporting that:

Americans under the age of 35 can expect their individual health insurance premiums to rise by about 17 percent.

That's not a $2,500 cut, is it, Mr. President?

You lied.

You also lied about the costs to the states, Mr. President.

The Council of State Governments, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, estimates that your expansio of Medicaid alone:

...will cost states $25 billion over the next 10 years, not including other significant administrative costs to initially implement the new law.

And you lied when you said your health care plan would increase efficiency, didn't you, Mr. President?

In fact, it will cause doctor shortages and long waiting periods. The Associated Depress reports the obvious:

Primary care physicians already are in short supply in parts of the country, and the landmark health overhaul that will bring them millions more newly insured patients in the next few years promises extra strain.

And what of those medical records -- our medical records, which will become part of the federal medical database, Mr. President? How do you plan to secure those? With the IRS?

Who will have access and how will we prevent misuse of our records, Mr. President?

Oh, you were all proud and celebratory, excited about this historic moment. The more we learn about this bill, the more disastrous it becomes. You got a very slight pop in the polls -- did you notice, Mr. President? And now you're down again. The generic party polls for Congress? Pelosi Democrats -- you got a very slight tick up -- and now you're down again. The people are wise to you.

As a matter of fact, you know your bill is deeply flawed, don't you, Mr. President? You were on the Today Show this morning, which is where you go when you want to put out your talking points, because you're never really challenged there. And now you're talking about this being just a first step. This is just a first step, ladies and gentlemen! Gee, I can't wait for the next one, can you? All these little steps, right over the cliff.

I think it is a critical first step in making a healthcare system that works for all Americans. It is not going to be the only thing. We are still going to have adjustments that have to be made to further reduce costs.

What does he mean, "further reduce costs"? Have costs been reduced anywhere?

Now, let me ask you a question: does it occur to anybody at the Today Show or on any of these other programs... has it occurred to a real, live journalist with a degree in Journalism... to confront this President as a serious person and ask him, "Mr. President, all these issues, all these points, you've been campaigning on -- as recently as last week. As recently as this weekend... and yet they were false! And you do this, you massively expand entitlements in this country despite the fact that we now have a report that the Social Security system is broke! Where is your proposal, Mr. President, for fixing the Social Security system? What are you going to do about it?"

Oh, it's one thing to create new programs, to create new promises. But, as President of the United States, you're still responsible for these programs. Nancy Pelosi was as proud as could be! Ol' Stretch was down there on the House floor saying that you all had invented Social Security, you all had invented Medicare and Medicaid. Okay, I'll give you that. But you've also destroyed them! You invented them -- and you destroyed them.

So the question, Mr. President, is: on your watch, what are you going to do about Social Security?

The editors of Investors Business Daily -- a real newspaper -- write:

Social Security's chief actuary reports that the social safety net will run a deficit for 2010, nine years earlier than predicted. Put down that big gavel, Madam Speaker, we're about to hit the iceberg.

Wow. Social Security is now offically broke.

They're expanding Medicaid. There are states that are soon to be officially broke. And yet they're required to pay a huge amount of this Medicaid.

They're going to be slashing Medicare, while pushing more citizens onto it, because the bill punishes businesses that are generous with prescription drug programs for retirees.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, this is what happens when radical, left-wing ideologues sit around and talk with each other about coming up with a Utopian proposal. Because there's no Utopia. This is misery, and it's only just begun, because it hasn't really kicked in yet.

But people are planning. Small and large businesses, senior citizens, young people, they're going to have to plan, going to have to hustle, have to figure out how to protect themselves. While the president bounces all over the place from one issue to the next, one entitlement to the next, one tax and spending increase to the next, patting himself on the back over how wonderful he's made this country.

You know what bothers me most about this? We have a man in the Oval Office who has no respect for what's come before him. He has no respect for what's been tried and tested throughout American history or -- for that matter -- throughout world history. We know that these Stalinist-like programs are failures. We know that, rather than create food, they create starvation. Rather than clothe people, people freeze in the winter. Rather than provide medical treatment for people, people suffer.

Oh, Mark, you say, that's extreme rhetoric: 'these Stalinist-like programs'. Really? Soviet-style? Where does come from? It doesn't come from the Founding Fathers. It doesn't come from the great philosophers on whom they relied. Where does it come from?

It comes, mostly, from the same mindset. Oh, they have different degrees and levels of suffering and implementation and aggressiveness. But it's a soft tyranny as I've said before and have written. This is the soft tyranny that others have warned about. This is the soft tyranny that we witness in other societies -- being imposed upon us.

Obama has done nothing to cut costs in health care. He's done nothing to increase efficiencies in health care. He's done nothing to create competition in health care. He'd done nothing to address those who suffer -- and those who will suffer. Except to make it worse.

Except to make it worse.

...So welcome to ObamaCare, welcome to the Obama recovery, as jobs continue to not be saved or created, welcome to the Obama housing boom, welcome to the Obama business boom, isn't it great?

Isn't Utopia hell?

This bloated, out-of-control, top-heavy federal government couldn't run a damn weather-stripping program or "cash-for-clunkers" without billions in misery, waste, fraud and abuse. Now picture what that means for your health care.


All Class: DNC markets T-shirts celebrating Biden's F-bomb remark over DemCare cramdown

Just when you think Democrats have hit bottom (making up racial slurs to tar Tea Party activists was the previous limit), they find a new sub-basement and continue digging.

In this case, the Democrat National Committee is trying to raise funds using Joe "Plugs" Biden's F-bomb tacked onto miscellaneous Cafe Press schlock.

Assistant Junior Cub Reporter Biff Spackle observes that they probably won't raise serious funds until they plaster the emblem on coke mirrors, bongs and crack pipes.


Hat tip: W.

Should I be concerned that I found these in my bathtub last night after bathing?

In truth, these wouldn't fit in my bathtub. Holy frickin' crap.

A submarine exploring the ocean's depths recently returned with an unexpected visitor: a crablike critter that has left many readers startled and horrified...

In a posting to social bookmarking site Reddit, a deep-sea technician detailed the finding, asking the site's readers to help identify what exactly the bizarre looking creature was.

A submarine exploring the ocean's depths recently returned with an unexpected visitor: a crablike critter that has left many readers startled and horrified.

The post reads, "I work for a Sub-sea Survey Company, recently this beast came up attached to one of our ROVs. It measures a wee bit over 2.5 feet head to tail, and we expect it latched onto the ROV at roughly 8,500 feet depth. Unfortunately, the e-mail that these pictures were attached to came from a contractor, and the ship he was operating from (and therefore location) is unknown, so I can't tell you what part of the Earth this beast was living."

The pictures reveal the creature to be a giant isopod, a large crustacean that dwells in deep Atlantic and Pacific waters. This particular creature is a Bathynomus giganteus, a deep-sea scavenger that feeds on dead whales, fish and squid.

Update: Papa B: "I'd recommend seeing a dermatologist."


Obamanomics! Greenspan warns "huge overhang of federal debt, which we have never seen before," will soon make it hard for U.S. to borrow

The Cloward-Piven tactics of the Obama administration have borne fruit. Even the usually subdued Alan Greenspan is sounding the alarm.

Greenspan Calls Treasury Yields ‘Canary in the Mine’


Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said the recent rise in Treasury yields represents a “canary in the mine” that may signal further gains in interest rates... Higher yields reflect investor concerns over "this huge overhang of federal debt which we have never seen before," Greenspan said... "I’m very much concerned about the fiscal situation... [An increase in interest rates would] make the housing recovery very difficult to implement and put a dampening on capital investment as well."

...The U.S. budget deficit reached a record $1.4 trillion for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 amid falling tax revenue from the recession, a bailout of the banking and auto industries, and the $787 billion economic stimulus package.

"I don’t like American politics and what’s happening," Greenspan said... Historically, there has been "a large buffer between the level of our federal debt and our capacity to borrow... That’s narrowing. And I’m finding it very difficult to look into the future and not worry about that."

Democrats have proposed adding a value-added (VAT) tax to further extract money from the economy, presumably to emulate the petrified economies of Europe. Greenspan suggested that even a VAT tax wouldn't suffice.

Put simply, the problem is that the government isn't controlling its spending.

Everything Obama's doing is obvious: implementing a value-added tax, throwing sludge into the economy, transforming the society, rejecting the limits in the Constitution, cramming liberal activists throughout the judiciary, massively expanding the federal bureaucracy, and moving rule-making power to unelected bureaucrats.

It's not change, it's not hope, it's a disaster.


Hat tips: Mark Levin and AGAHB.

Larwyn's Linx: Will White House dictate the the content of textbooks?

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Nation

Will White House dictate the content of textbooks?: RWN
Drug lords take over entire towns on border: RWN
Democrats spit on law and the public: WashExam

Arizona Border Violence Keeps Growing: RSM
Constitutionally protected monsters: Bubba
Brick thrown through window of Michigan GOP office: BlogProf

Jaime Escalante, R.I.P.: Malkin
'Scorched Earth' in Arizona: RSM
O’Reilly Pays Legal Bill for Fallen Marine’s Father: GWP

Economy

Obama’s Broken Promises and America’s Growing Anger: Nice Deb
Confessions of a Census Worker: Malkin
The United States of Argentina: Tapscott

ObamaCare skulduggery and the doctor-reimbursement cuts: Hot Air
Unions buy their way into the White House: Examiner
Cancel the Post Office: Times

Prudential: Hey, Waxman - ObamaCare will cost us $100M: Ace

Climate & Energy

Freeing Energy Policy From The Climate Change Debate: Yale
Climate Depot's Morano is Winning: Esquire
'Change' is not new: Sowell

Media

Obama looks to ramp up partisan attacks: RWN
We are all pods now: Hanson
Enemies of the State: Times

The Census is Falling, the Census is Falling!: CFB
Media's public enemy #1: critics of ObamaCare: NewsBusters
President Obama says First Family won't join a D.C. church: AT

The Collective's New MAD (Marginalize, Abominate, Demonize): Hindenblog
Your Red-Blooded ‘Merican Nooz Right Here : GoV
Matthew Modine: Useful Idiot: PJM

World

Natural Law and the 'Right' to Health Care: AT
Euro-style VAT coming to U.S. in lame-duck session?: NewsBusters
Lawrence Eagleburger on Obama: He's Playing With Dynamite and Doesn’t Seem to Understand It: GWP

SciTech

Holy s***!: Fox News
Google Buzz exposes contacts for government's CIO: RWN
Iranian Nuclear Scientist Defected to Great Satan...Last Year : GoV

Cornucopia

Carla has left the building: MOTUS
Humanity - Passover 2010: Hindenblog
That many?: TYWKIWDBI


Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Out of control: salaries inside the paper-bushing bureaucracies of D.C.

Ever wonder why the federal government continually adds agencies, departments, bureaus, regulations, offices and employees -- but never sheds them? Or why government grows whether the economy is booming or flat on its back?

To illustrate the problem, consider this graph of salaries for all federal employees.

In DC, however, the salaries are considerably richer.

In the real world, of course, the distribution of salaries is considerably -- uhmmm -- flatter.

The federal government under the Social Democrat Party is out of control. In November, it's time to take the federal government back. And downsize the hell out of it. I can think of oh, about five different
departments to defund immediately.


Hat tip: Taxing Tennessee.

Reason #525 to oppose your power company's "Smart Meters"

Power companies are spending a lot of time and effort marketing "smart meters", "smart grids" and similar programs aimed at micromanaging our consumption of power. Even if you ignore the Orwellian nature of these efforts, another aspect of these devices should deeply trouble customers: they are vulnerable to computer-based attacks.

A security company has found holes in two-way meters that could allow a person with a laptop to tap into the communications between people's homes and utility companies.

Security consulting company InGuardians was hired by three utilities to test the vulnerability of smart meters from five manufacturers and the systems used to manage them, according to an Associated Press report.

The results were that smart meters, which create a network link between customers and utilities, have a number of potential vulnerabilities that could lead to scenarios such as a criminal remotely turning someone's power on or off...

...The communications standard used by smart meters, in particular, was an area that was a cause for concern, said Joshua Wright, a senior security analyst with InGuardians. If criminals are able to tap into the network, they could potentially doctor another person's bills or even stage bigger attacks on the grid, according to the report.

InGuardians has published a number of research papers on vulnerabilities in power grid security. They cover topics such as the security of Zigbee, the wireless standard used by some smart meters for in-home communications, as well as an "attack methodology" for two-way meters.

Studying the security vulnerabilities of the power infrastructure has become more common as efforts to modernize the electric grid with digital communications take hold around the world. Security company IOActive, for example, published a report last year showing that smart meters could be manipulated to give a criminal control over many meters.

There have also been public disclosures of attempted cyberattacks on the U.S. power grid.

But don't worry, rubes: what could go wrong?

Now that even "green" think tanks are troubled by the religious fervor of the Warmists, it's time for customers to push back on power companies. No big brother technology. Spend money getting us more power, not trying to move us to a third-world power grid.


Experts shocked as Jamie Gorelick executes another massive fail

Let me get this straight: your company wants to prevent an out-of-control federal government from nationalizing your sector of the economy. So you hire a key lobbyist to represent your case. And -- of the thousands of connected lobbyists in DC -- you hire "the Mistress of Disaster"? FireDogLake explains:

When President Obama signed the Student Lending and Fiscal Responsibility Act today, it dealt an enormous blow to Wall Street banks...

Sallie Mae spent $3 million on lobbyists last year, and got none of what they wanted.  Zero, zip, nada (largely because lobbyists like Tony Podesta and Jamie Gorelick screwed up...).

Long before this debacle, Gorelick earned her nomme de guerre by playing key roles in two massive disasters.

In 2004, observers were "astonished" to discover that a key member of the 9/11 Commission had a fatal conflict-of-interest. Jamie Gorelick had served as a Deputy Attorney General under Bill Clinton from 1994 to 1997.

It was later revealed that Gorelick had established a pre-Patriot Act "wall" that prevented the foreign intelligence and criminal investigative communities from collaborating.

Her 1995 memo, entitled "Instructions on Separation of Certain Foreign Counterintelligence and Criminal Investigations", stated explicitly that they would "go beyond what is legally required, [to] prevent any risk of creating an unwarranted appearance that FISA is being used to avoid procedural safeguards which would apply in a criminal investigation."

The result: shortly before 9/11, Gorelick's wall "specifically impeded the investigation into Zacarias Moussaoui", the so-called "20th hijacker."

At the time, an enraged FBI investigator wrote a memo to headquarters which included the sentence, 'Whatever has happened to this -- someday someone will die -- and wall or not -- the public will not understand why we were not more effective..."

The 2004 disclosure that Gorelick's service as a 9/11 Commissioner was the archetypical conflict-of-interest should have triggered a cacophony of complaints and demands for a new investigation. Instead, the mainstream media turned deaf and dumb and the controversy faded into the background.

Gorelick's "wall" wrapped a blindfold around America just when it needed its vision to stop the attacks that killed thousands and which sucked a half a trillion dollars out of the economy.

Where did Gorelick turn up next?

Though she had no training or experience in finance, Gorelick was appointed the Vice Chairman of Fannie Mae and served in the role from 1997 to 2003. During that six-year period, she earned over $26 million.

During Gorelick's tenure, FNMA suffered a $10 billion accounting scandal, an ominous harbinger of the firm's looming troubles. One of the falsified transactions helped FNMA hit earnings targets for 1998, which triggered bonuses for top executives including nearly $800,000 to Gorelick.

Put simply "Jamie Gorelick was one of the Fannie executives who benefited from inflated bonuses based on Enron-style accounting."

In 2002 Business Week interviewed Gorelick concerning the health of FNMA. She responded, "We believe we are managed safely. We are very pleased that Moody's gave us an A-minus in the area of bank financial strength -- without a reference to the government in any way. Fannie Mae is among the handful of top-quality institutions."

Less than a year later regulators "accused Fannie Mae of improper accounting to the tune of $9 billion in unrecorded losses."

Today, of course, FNMA is on taxpayer-funded life support, hundreds of billions in the red. And because it was thought to have been "managed safely" (Gorelick's words), many top-flight financial services companies held its stock. That's how Fannie helped take out AIG, Lehman Brothers, and other financial institutions that had assumed the GSE was a sound investment. Put simply, mismanagement at Fannie played an indisputable role in the mortgage meltdown.

Now, given this history, you really have to wonder about Sallie Mae. What the hell were they smoking in the board room that day when someone blurted out, "Get me Gorelick on the phone, stat!"?


Update: Jamie Gorelick helping to rewrite the privacy laws.

The Obama Doctrine: Israel's 'Ethnic-cleansing' Bomb and Other Lies

Tens of thousands of column-inches have attempted to analyze the treatment of America's allies by President Obama. The United Kingdom, France and Israel have all come in for the kind of treatment usually reserved for the Deputy Labor Minister of Malta.

What motivates Obama's behavior?

Consider June of 2007, when Obama's long-time church published an all-too-typical letter to the editor. The letter accused Israel of creating an "ethnic-cleansing bomb" in order to purge the Middle East of Arabs.

I must tell you that Israel was the closest ally to the White Supremacists of South Africa. In fact, South Africa allowed Israel to test its nuclear weapons in the ocean off South Africa. The Israelis were given a blank check: they could test whenever they desired and did not even have to ask permission. Both worked on an ethnic bomb that kills Blacks and Arabs.


Arabs have always supported the dismantling of this racist government. In 1962, African-Arab Sudan granted Mandela a passport to travel with to gain international support in his struggle to free his people. Libya, among other Arab states, provided Mandela and other African liberation movements, political as well as material support. As a result, Libya was designated by the White House as a terrorist rogue state...

Of course in the little land we like to call reality, the only ethnic cleansing going on in the region happens to be occurring in Darfur, Sudan.

The letter, authored by one Ali Baghdadi, is reminiscent of a Protocols of the Elders of Zion updated for the atomic age. As you could probably predict, Baghdadi's credentials are "impeccable".

Middle East advisor to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad the founder of the Nation of Islam, as well as Minister Louis Farrakhan; visited more than 80 countries throughout the world and met with many of their leaders, including ...Castro, Saddam Hussein, Hafez Assad, Qathafi, Abdallah ibn Abdel-Aziz, Rafsanjani, Ayatollah Khamenei...

The following month, Obama's church newsletter featured a long article by Mousa Abu Marzook, a leader of the terrorist group Hamas and -- as an added bonus -- a federal fugitive.

It doesn't take Columbo to figure out that a steady diet -- say, twenty years' worth -- of this sort of racist claptrap would be enough to brainwash anyone. That is, if they were willing to sit through the hatred and lies for two decades.


Larwyn's Linx: The Death of an Arizona Rancher

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Nation

The death of an Arizon rancher: Malkin
The Complete List of Obama Statement Expiration Dates: NRO
Obama donor charged with threats to kill Cantor: JWF

Code Pink Mob Shuts Down Rove Book Event: Malkin
Second Obama Nominee for TSA Withdraws in Scandal: PJM
Federal judge goes after gun owners: Times

Economy

'Focused Like a Laser' on Poverty and Misery: Strata-Sphere
Whom do You Trust?: AT
With DemCare, Obama has sown seeds of budget crisis: Samuelson

Insurance exec: your premiums will go up: York
Thanks, Obama! UAW lost 17 percent of members in '09: Marathon
Don't tell Waxman: Ski resorts worried about Demcare costs: Malkin

Climate & Energy

Seriously -- Global Warming Activist FREEZES To Death: RWN
Sediments Confirm Roman, Medieval Periods Warmer: C3
British climate alarmist: 'It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while': Toldjah

Media

Searchlight vs. L.A.: Photos From Rival Rallies Reveal Stark Right/Left Divide: PJM
Palin to the People: RSM
In Defense of Sarah Palin: WSJ

A Closer Look at the Capitol Steps Conspiracy: Cashill
We are expected to believe: AT
Mike Lupica, Political Ignoramus: LegalIns

The Times Blows: RWN
Actress Maria Conchita Alonso Smacks Down Useful Idiot, Sean Penn: RWN
Media Badly Misrepresent Ann Coulter's 'Take A Camel' Remark: NewsBusters

World

O's Ghanistan: Crittenden
Government’s Case Against 3 Navy SEALs Accused of Giving Terrorist a Boo-Boo May Be Falling Apart: Powers
Human rights emergency - Tehran's puppet Interpol arresting dissidents worldwide: Timmerman

Who are the Real Settlers in Jerusalem?: LegalIns
Obama's Jewish Defenders: Glick
The Man In The Mirror: Belmont

SciTech

WSJ: Verizon iPhone in the works: CNet

Cornucopia

Praying for the Pope and for all: Anchoress
Vanguard == ObamaCare: GM's Place
Ads credit: People's Cube.

Today, a two-count complaint and warrant was filed charging Norman Leboon with threatening to kill United States Congressman Eric Cantor and his family

"Funny how there hasn't been a single arrest resulting from any of the alleged acts of violence against Democrats of late but here we have a real incident resulting in an arrest....

WaPo reports the story. No mention that he's 1) a Muslim or 2) an Obama donor. Recall after that nutjob flew a plane into the IRS building in Austin last month a WaPo columnist immediately insinuated he sounded like a Tea Partier. Now we have evidence he's a Muslim Obama donor and pfft, nothing. Same at MSNBC. Same at CNN. Same at Politico.

Just imagine if a Sarah Palin donor was arrested for threatening a Democrat. You suppose that would make it into the story?" -- Jammie Wearing Fool


Monday, March 29, 2010

Boehner: Stop Trying to Intimidate America's Biggest Employers, Pig-man!

To be fair, I could have heard Boehner incorrectly. The dogs were barking.

House Minority Leader Boehner today accused Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman of using intimidation-like tactics in demanding congressional testimony from employers to back their claims the new healthcare law will be costly and undercut job creation.

"Instead of interrogating America's private-sector job creators, Congress should be listening to them, heeding their warnings about the effects of this deeply flawed new law, and replacing it with reforms that will help them get back to creating jobs," Boehner said in a statement. He said American employers have been warning that the new healthcare policies being promoted by President Obama and Democrats in Congress would damage the economy and hurt efforts to create jobs.

"Yet now that those policies have become law over the objections of the American people, congressional Democrats such as Chairman Waxman profess shock and surprise at hearing American employers announce that they will have no choice but to make painful changes to comply with it," said Boehner.

Boehner's comments referred to letters dated Friday from Waxman and Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak, D-Mich., to the heads of AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., Caterpillar Inc. and Deere & Co., requesting that they back up their claims in April 21 appearances before the subcommittee.

Company officials were also asked to provide documents to the panel by April 9.

Waxman's call for hearings came after Speaker Pelosi urged members last week to go on the "offensive" in defending and soothing public doubts the new law. Boehner's reaction shows Republicans are just as intent on pressing the case that the law carries negative implications for businesses.

Waxman's office did not comment by press time.


"Senator" Al Franken (D-Acorn) flings spittle at Jason Mattera, legacy media curiously unresponsive

When questioned by Jason Mattera about certain features of DemCare, Al Franken lived up to his nickname. The Spiteful Troll responded to a simple question with the delightful, enlightening missive, "You have to shut up -- right now!"

Biff Spackle, using his patented SpackleMatic™ Image Enhancement Suite, analyzed Mattera's video and produced these shocking stills of Franken hocking a lugie at the author.



Although legacy media published roughly 24,000 stories alleging that Tea Party activists had spat upon Democrat representatives -- without evidence of any kind -- Spackle's calls to the Associated Press, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times and Andy Rooney were not returned.


I Blame Fillmore

Consumer Indexes has the play-by-play on the Obamaconomy.


[Growth] had been dropping precipitously in part because of a sudden and significant weakening of our [composite index], which reached a level reflecting a 4.8% year-over-year contraction on February 27th. This was the lowest level recorded for the index since the middle of November, 2008. Although every one of our ten sector indexes weakened over the prior 10 days, our Housing Index retreated the most, again reaching readings representing a 9.5% year-over-year decline in consumer demand.

I blame Bush. Or Millard Fillmore. Or... anyone but the current tenant in the White House, who couldn't possibly be to blame, since he's not Bush.


Your feel-good green story o' the day

DailyFinance points out that a simple font change could help save the world.

The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay is actually making headlines this week by switching the font it uses in its emails. The school says that printing out documents in Century Gothic rather than its old font, Arial, uses 30% less ink.

The move is part of the school's five-year plan to go green -- and save money. Printer ink costs about $10,000 per gallon. But there's just one problem: Who prints emails from colleges? It's possible that if everyone in America were to start using Century Gothic instead of Arial for all correspondence that is printed, meaningful savings could be achieved. And perhaps this is a start to that. News websites could start by making all print versions of stories appear in a green-friendly font, and readers would appreciate the savings in ink...

I'd recommend printing out brand new copies of all of your documents -- with new, "green" fonts -- to take advantage of this exciting discovery.


Larwyn's Linx: A Word to the Weary

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Nation

A Word to the Weary: Doc Zero
Reid Supporters Threaten Violence Against Breitbart: Founding
Showdown in Searchlight: LATL

But is that a bug? Or a feature?: RWN
On Politics, Vandalism and Violence: Denninger
Big Brother Becomes Big Bully: AT

As Christie Shakes Up NJ, Watch This Fight: Riehl

Economy

Poor Demand For US Treasury Bills Because of Obamacare: YWL
Another mandate DemCare passage uncovered: Hot Air
The gap in public vs. private pay keeps growing...: Marathon

ObamaCare's CLASS Failure: Kesler
Sucking the blood of the ambitious: AT
New NLRB head: no punishment for hiring illegals: Breitbart

State tax collections confirm: economy devastated: Virtuous
Capping Insurance Rates: Engineered Chaos: AT

Climate & Energy

But It$ for the Children: CBullitt
UK wind-farms: FAIL: BlogProf

Media

Protesting ObamaCare: What Really Happened on March 20?: PJM
The Supreme Court and FDR's Power Grab: AT
Media gets the memo: gang up on Israel: PJM

Winning elections is great, but...: RWN
Seattle Times: Washington Attorney General has solid case to challenge ObamaCare: Wizbang

World

Islamist Gülen Movement Runs U.S. Charter Schools: AT
What If Palestinians Were Settlers?: LegalIns
Has the Obama Administration, Against U.S. Interests, Declared Diplomatic War on Israel?: BRubin

Two Blasts Kill At Least 41 on Moscow’s Subway System During Rush Hour: Malkin
Two Chinas, One Value: RWN
President Obama's Priorities: Human Rights Be Damned: Bayefsky

Just like Bush: a Surprise Visit to Afghanistan: AmPower
Different Presidents, Different CorPs: YouTube
Surprise! NHS denies surgeries to cut custs: TAB

SciTech

Sanity! California scraps moonbat 'cool cars' regulation: BlogProf
English Shellcode (PDF): Johns Hopkins

Cornucopia

Weekend Caption Contest™ Winners
Hitler finds out Jesse James cheated on Sandra Bullock: Denny


Sunday, March 28, 2010

Oh, Melvin, he's so historic!

But not in a good way.

US 'may not veto UN resolution on Jerusalem'


Israel considers areas within the Jerusalem municipality as its territory


The US is considering abstaining from a possible UN Security Council resolution against Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem, sources suggest to the BBC.

The possibility surfaced at talks in Paris last week between a senior US official and Qatar's foreign minister... The official said the US would "seriously consider abstaining" if the issue of Israeli settlements was put to the vote, a diplomat told the BBC.

The US usually blocks Security Council resolutions criticising Israel... But relations between the allies have been severely strained by the announcement of plans to build 1,600 homes in an East Jerusalem settlement during a recent visit to Israel by US Vice-President Joe Biden.

The move prompted the Palestinians to pull out of the US-brokered indirect "proximity talks" that had only just been agreed in a bid to revive the peace process, which has been stalled for more than a year.

Can anyone tell me why this administration treats dictators, thugs and tyrants better than our allies?


DemCare: a tidal wave of regulations, taxes, fees, bureaucracies, waiting lines, bankruptcies and seniors denied medical care are on the way

Courtesy of the House Committee on Ways and Means comes this timeline of DemCare socialized medicine. And this is only a taste of the hell to come. One thing is absolutely certain: if you like your existing plan, you most definitely will not be able to keep it.

  2009  

Medicare cuts to hospitals begin (long‐term care (7/1/09) and inpatient and rehabilitation facilities (FY10))

  2010  

• Provide income exclusion for specified Indian tribe health benefits provided after 3/23/10
• Temporary high‐risk pool and high‐cost union retiree reinsurance ($5 B each for 3.5 years) (6/23/10)
• Impose 10% tax on indoor UV tanning (7/1/10)
Medicare cuts to inpatient psych hospitals (7/1/10)
• Prohibits lifetime and annual benefit for private insurers spending limits (plan years beginning 9/23/10)
• Prohibits non‐group private insurance plans from canceling coverage (rescissions) (plan years beginning 9/23/10)
• Requires private insurance plans to cover, at no charge, most preventive care (plan years beginning 9/23/10)
• Requires private insurance plans to allow dependents to stay on parents’ policies through age 26 (plan years
beginning 9/23/10)
• Hospitals in "Frontier States" (ND, MT, WY, SD, UT ) receive higher Medicare payments (FY11)

  2011  

• Hospitals in “low‐cost” areas receive higher Medicare payments for 2 yrs ($400 million, FY11)
Medicare Advantage cuts begin
• No longer allowed to use FSA, HSA, HRA, Archer MSA distributions for over‐the-counter medicines
Medicare cuts to home health begin
Medicare cuts for wealthier seniors ($85k/$170k), who are forced to pay higher Part D premiums (not indexed for inflation in Parts B/D)
Medicare reimbursement cuts when seniors use diagnostic imaging like MRIs, CT scans, etc.
• Medicare cuts begin to ambulance services, ASCs, diagnostic labs, and durable
medical equipment
• Impose new annual tax on brand name pharmaceutical companies
• Americans begin paying premiums for federal long‐term care insurance (the CLASS Act, which analysis indicates is a ticking fiscal time-bomb)
Private insurance plans required to spend a minimum of 80% of premiums on medical claims (where 65% is considered the maximum "safe" amount to cover claims). Prior experience at the state level will indisputably harm private health insurance business.
• Physicians in "Frontier States" (ND, MT, WY, SD, UT ) receive higher Medicare payments
Prohibition on Medicare payments to new physician‐owned hospitals (which will dramatically reduce access to senior care)
• Penalties for non‐qualified HSA and Archer MSA distributions double (to 20%)
Seniors prohibited from purchasing power wheelchairs unless they first rent for 13 months
• New Medicare cuts to long‐term care hospitals begin (7/1/11)
• Additional Medicare cuts to hospitals and cuts to nursing homes and inpatient rehab facilities begin (FY12)
New taxes on all private health insurance policies to pay for comparative effectivness research (plan
years beginning FY12)

  2012  

Medicare cuts to dialysis treatment begins
Medicare to cut spending by using an HMO‐like coordinated care model (Accountable Care Organizations)
New Medicare cuts to inpatient psych hospitals (7/1/12)
Medicare cuts to hospitals with high readmission rates begin (FY13)
Medicare cuts to hospice begin (FY13)

  2013  

• Impose $2,500 annual cap on FSA contributions (indexed to CPI)
• Increase Medicare wage tax by 0.9% and impose a new 3.8% tax on unearned , nonactive
business income
for those earning over $200k/$250k (not indexed to inflation)
• Generally increases (7.5% to 10%) threshold at which medical expenses, as a % of income, can be deductible
Eliminate deduction for Part D retiree drug subsidy employers receive
Impose 2.3% excise tax on medical devices
Medicare cuts to hospitals who treat low‐income seniors begin
• $500,000 deduction cap on compensation paid to insurance company employees and officers

  2014  

Unconstitutional personal mandate begins: Individuals without government‐approved coverage are subject to a tax of the greater of $695 or 2.5% of income
• Employers who fail to offer "affordable" coverage would pay a $3,000 penalty for every employee that receives a subsidy through the Exchange
• Employers who do not offer insurance must pay a tax penalty of $2,000 for every fulltime employee
• More Medicare cuts to home health begin
• All non‐grandfathered and Exchange health plans required to meet federally mandated levels of coverage
States must cover parents /childless adults up to 138% of poverty on Medicaid, receive increased FMAP
• Tax credits available for Exchange‐based coverage, amount varies by income up to 400% of poverty
Private insurers cannot impose any coverage restrictions on pre‐existing conditions (guaranteed issue/renewability, which will bankrupt insurance providers)
Private insurers must offer coverage to anyone wanting a policy and every policy has to be renewed (which will bankrupt insurance providers)
• Insurance plans must include government‐defined "essential benefits " and coverage levels
• Government board (IPAB) begins submitting proposals to cut Medicare
Impose tax on nearly all private health insurance plans
Medicare payment cuts for hospital‐acquired infections begin (FY15)

  2015  

• More Medicare cuts to home health begin

  2016  

Impose "Cadillac tax on “high cost” plans, 40% tax on the benefit value above a certain threshold: ($10,200 individual coverage, $27,500 family or self‐only union multiemployer coverage)

There should be little doubt that this extravaganza of central planning will be devastating for insurers, pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, doctors, nurses, hospitals, and their business partners. It will crush an economy that is already flat on its back.

Let me ask you Democrats something. When -- in all of recorded human history -- has this kind of central planning, with price controls, arbitrary dictates, wage-fixing, giveaways, bribes, payoffs, cutout deals, and social engineering experiments, ever worked?

It's a rhetorical question, you anti-American moonbats. This bill sentences our seniors to premature disease and death while assuring our children of poverty, misery and economic dislocation. Of this, there can be no doubt.


Related: "This will close our business."

If you like the timeliness and quality of British dentistry, you'll absolutely adore ObamaCare!

Which explains the collapse in Barack Obama's Gallup approval ratings post-Demcare:

Say, if you just look at the disapproval tracking plot, I think we finally have a contender for a legitimate hockey-stick!

And polling in the swing state of Florida makes Gallup's data look positively rosy by comparison.

Florida poll: Healthcare law hurts Obama, Democrats


A new poll shows the healthcare law is bad political medicine for Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, President Barack Obama and his domestic agenda.

Only 34 percent of Florida voters support the new law while 54 percent are against it, according to the poll. Opposition is significantly strong among two crucial blocs: those older than 65 and voters with no party affiliation. Seniors disfavor the bill by a 65-25 percent margin, while independents oppose the law 62-34.

The poll, conducted last week, is the first to be taken in Florida since Obama signed the healthcare reform bill into law.

It shows that Floridians have a more negative than positive view of Obama by a margin of 15 percentage points. And they oppose his so-called ``cap-and-trade'' global warming legislation as well as the new healthcare law... The negative sentiment for Nelson was especially ``eye-popping,'' Mason-Dixon pollster Brad Coker said.

...Because Florida is such a crucial swing state with so many seniors, Nelson's troubles are a shot across the bow for Democrats everywhere, Coker said. The poll shows Nelson would lose his seat in theoretical match-ups against Bob Saget, Vanilla Ice and Corey Feldman.

Actually I made that last sentence up. Nelson, if the election were held today, would lose against Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and some phony conservative named Crist.


Now you see it, now you don't: AP executes quick headline change after Ace commenter observes that it accurately describes DemCare debacle

Now you see it ("Start the search for a doctor before the stampede"):

Now you don't ("Health overhaul likely to strain doctor shortage"):

Chalk this up as reason #48,204 that the Associated Press is a laughingstock.


Hat tip: MDr VB1.0 CS1st. Linked by: Hot Air and Ed Driscoll. Thanks!

Without any other pressing matters of concern looming, California assembly passes resolution to ban cursing

Some satire writes itself, and in the case of Democrat politicians, it often comes fast and furious as they try to steal more and more of your liberty.

Amid the ongoing — and occasionally tense — debate over how to clean up California's budget mess, lawmakers have taken time out to tidy something else almost as unmanageable: our language. This morning, the Assembly approved a ceremonial resolution turning the first week of March into "Cuss Free Week."

...To keep folks honest, Portantino is handing out no-cuss jars to all 120 legislative offices in the Capitol — and to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Every time a naughty word slips out, a few coins get dropped in.

On Friday, legislators announced that they'd found $1.5 billion in budget cuts.

That leaves $18.5 billion to go... Almost all the savings resulted from one bill that replaced the state’s existing tax on gasoline with a new one. The new tax siphons a bit more than $1 billion in revenues that used to go to local transportation.

Executive Summary: another Blue State, another fiscal disaster.


If You Liked Pravda's Reporting in the Seventies, You'll Love Legacy Media's Coverage of the Searchlight Tea Party Rally

Jim Hoft catches an uproarious example of misrepresentation by CNN:

Just in case you still trusted the state-run media... CNN [calls this] "At least dozens of people." This is dozens?

"Hundreds of people, at least dozens of people - we haven’t gotten a count of how many people turned out there. We heard Sarah Palin talk about everything about the campaign, to unseat Sen. Reid to what she calls ObamaCare, on the heels of that health care vote and even talking about her definition of her love of America."

Not to be outdone, the Associated Press beclowned itself with a "news" "report" that asked Andrew Breitbart to prove a negative.

Conservative columnist Andrew Breitbart disputed accounts that tea party activists in Washington shouted racial epithets at black members of Congress amid the health care debate, although he didn't provide any evidence.

Evidence that an event never occurred?

Breitbart also failed to provide evidence that a North Korean invasion force never stormed the beaches of Malibu.

This may come as a surprise to A.P., but dozens of video-cameras captured the events in question.

Not one of them captured any sort of epithet.

Put simply, the thousands of breathless reports by the legacy media (a Google search today results in 29,600 hits) never mentioned the complete lack of corroborating evidence.

All of the Democrat puzzle pieces are coming together: we have dozens of unaccountable "Czars" in Washington, a Politburo-style Congress that continually ignores the will of the people, a charismatic demagogue who dismisses and mocks those who dare to oppose his radical agenda, and a state-run media that would make the old Pravda beam with pride.

Legacy media has yet to report upon the documented death threats received by Sarah Palin, because said events do not align with the state's agenda.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin and Memeorandum. Thanks!