Posts Tagged ‘Obamacare’
Jaw, Jaw and Bromides: Obama’s State of His Next Campaign for President Address
Obama and Reid Must Eat Crow
By Isaac Hayes
On March 3, 2010, the President facing Obamacare’s doom in the Senate because the Democrats were short the 60 votes needed to close debate, called for a simple “up or down vote.” Through a process not normally used for major pieces of legislation known as “reconciliation,” Obamacare was jammed down the throats of the American people.
My, how the tide has turned! Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has decided to stand in the way of the very process our President called for nearly one year ago. Leader Reid has stated the Obamacare repeal bill that passed overwhelmingly in the House will not be taken up in the Senate. The hypocrisy and denial of suffrage to the American people who changed the makeup of our Congress for this very purpose borders on totalitarianism.
Since its passage, Republicans campaigned relentlessly on repealing and replacing Obamacare. The American people understood this would be their first legislative action and approved of such action by changing the House and empowering the Senate. President Obama, in the early stages of the Obamacare debate, told Sen. John McCain that “Elections have consequences, and at the end of the day, I won.”
The President and Leader Reid must now eat crow and afford the bill that now sits in the Senate to face an up or down vote, because elections have consequences, and at the end of the day, Republicans won.
Isaac Hayes, spokesman for the Coalition of Black Republicans and former GOP nominee for U.S. House in IL second district. You can follow him at https://twitter.com/isaac_hayes.
House Vote to Repeal ObamaCare: Nice, but NOW WHAT?
The House has kept a promise to many of us and voted to repeal Obamacare. That’s great, but now what, since the Senate will vote against repeal, and Obama will veto??
3 Democrats voted with the Republicans: Reps. Dan Boren (Okla.), Mike McIntyre (N.C.) and Mike Ross (N.C.) – all voted against the reform law in the last Congress.
Here’s what’s coming next on health care reform and/or ancillary issues: (go to the link for a much longer list than what I’m posting here.)
GOP votes to repeal: House Republicans made good on a campaign pledge Wednesday night, voting to repeal the healthcare reform law enacted less than a year ago. The party-line vote was 245-189. Senate Democrats have already vowed to block the bill from the upper chamber’s floor. http://bit.ly/i8lwBF
However, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is assuring that the Senate will take up a repeal vote. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) challenged Senate Democrats this week to allow an up-or-down vote on repeal. http://bit.ly/h1TE7U
Just three Dems against repeal: Despite some Republican projections that the bill repealing healthcare reform would generate hefty Democratic support, just three Democrats supported the measure Wednesday night. The Democrats supporting repeal — Reps. Dan Boren (Okla.), Mike McIntyre (N.C.) and Mike Ross (N.C.) — all voted against the reform law in the last Congress. http://bit.ly/i36oTs
Boehner says no timeline for replacement: There is no need for a timeline to replace the healthcare reform law, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Wednesday morning. Democrats blasted the GOP for pushing repeal without replacing the reform law’s consumer protections, but Boehner said committees need time to craft replacement legislation. http://bit.ly/eJ6sh1
Boehner cites Independent support for repeal and replace: Fifty-four percent of Independents support the plan to repeal and replace the reform law, according to a new survey from a Republican pollster. Boehner touted the poll on his Twitter feed Wednesday morning. http://bit.ly/hvhton
Medicare actuary won’t sit on the sidelines: Medicare’s chief actuary, a referee in the contentious healthcare reform debate, told The Hill he won’t hesitate to strike back at anyone who twists his analysis of the controversial law. The actuary’s cost estimates of healthcare legislation have been used by both parties to bolster their arguments, and Rick Foster said he’ll fight back if the office’s work is misrepresented or mischaracterized. http://bit.ly/fimz7wDebate not so civil at times: Although many called for lawmakers to avoid incendiary statements in the wake of the Arizona shooting, the floor debate showed that some members disregarded those pleas.
Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen (Tenn.) on the House floor Tuesday night compared Republican claims about the reform law to lies perpetrated by the Nazis that led to the Holocaust. “They say it’s a government takeover of healthcare. A big lie, just like Goebbels,” said Cohen, who is Jewish.
Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) said House Republicans will vote to repeal the healthcare law “lock, stock and barrel.”
Richard Falknor of Blue Ridge Forum casts a jaundiced eye towards the Senate:
Obamacare Repeal: Senate Next? Debate “Hits and Misses”
This afternoon, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a simple repeal of Obamacare by an overwhelming vote.
So what happens now?
Heritage’s Brian Darling at RedState explained yesterday in the Repeal of ObamaCare in the Senate – How To Do It –
“If Senators don’t take any action when the bill is transmitted from the House to the Senate, then there is little to no chance to pass the House repeal measure. This will show that Senate Republicans are not serious about a full repeal of ObamaCare. It is possible for conservative Senators to force a vote on H.R. 2, when the time is right, if they follow two simple procedures in the Senate to protect their rights.
The bottom line is that it is possible for opponents of ObamaCare to set themselves up for an extended debate on ObamaCare in the Senate — if they have the will. It is also possible to pass the bill in the Senate, if conservatives are patient and ready to spring a vote on liberals when the time is right.”
But Darling cautions – -
“As I said over at the Foundry, ‘if the supporters of a full repeal of Obamacare don’t use the Senate’s rules to force a vote on full repeal, don’t take them seriously when they say they . . . really want to repeal President Obama’s de facto government takeover of health care.’ A repeal vote is fully within the power of Senators — if they are serious about repeal.”
Greg Scandlen of Real Health Reform: Our Money, Our Health, Our Choice! gives us a scorecard of Hits and Misses of the Repeal Debate –
“Granted I may have missed something, but overall, I am left once again to wonder if the Republicans have the slightest idea of what they are talking about or how to craft a debate — other than maybe Mike Pence and Paul Ryan.” (Underscoring Forum’s.)
One Scandlen “hits-and-misses” example:
“MISS. Several Democratic congressmen from New York and New Jersey have said that if ObamaCare is repealed, thousands of their constituents will be deprived of health insurance due to their pre-existing conditions. No Republican has pointed out that those states have guaranteed issue (GI) for all lines of health insurance, so presumably there is no one in either state who would be deprived of health insurance for having a pre-ex.”
Heartland Institute Senior Fellow Scandlen of course is a strong opponent of Obamacare, but readers may profit from going through his list of “hits and misses” by both parties in today’s House debate.
And the “misses” illustrated in this debate will likely reappear in the positive portrayal of government medicine in much of the major media.
The list illustrates, in our view, the need for GOP incumbents to get on top of the details of government lest the machinery of government stay on top of us.
The need to do our government homework runs not just to Obamacare — but to rolling back industry-suffocating EPA rules, maintaining our infrastructure, and making the right choices in national defense — as well as to state and local topics such as public-employee-pension reform and stopping eminent-domain abuse.
And if we Tea Partyers and the conservative grass-roots want our elected officials to do their homework, of course we will also have to do it right along with them.
Obama Now a Regulation Slayer? Hardly!
Starving the ObamaCare Beast
Defunding ObamaCare Is Underway
Here at Uncoverage.net, we’ve talked about the process that might be used to rid the world of Obamacare and now that process is coming into much clearer focus. Not a soul on the planet believes that a Democrat controlled Senate, or a Democrat controlled White House would ever let a total repeal bill become law, therefore the only logical way to get rid of it is to starve it to death……as in ‘defund it’. If there’s no money appropriated to run it, it will sit dead in the water
Matt Cover has the Republican plan of action to defund Obamacare in this report from CNSNews.
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in this March 19, 2010, photo. Republicans are promising to repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul if they win control of Congress. (AP File Photo/Harry Hamburg)
“House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said on Thursday that the budget produced by his committee will reflect spending levels that assume Obamacare has been repealed and that Republicans will then use “mechanisms” inserted into the annual appropriations bills that fund the various departments of the federal government to stop Obamacare.
Given the widely accepted assumption that the Democratic majority Senate and President Barack Obama will not agree to legislation that repeals Obamacare, CNSNews.com asked Ryan if Republicans were going to defund implementation of the health-care legislation instead.
Under the Constitution, the Executive Branch cannot spend money unless it has been appropriated by Congress, and Congress cannot appropriate money without the approval of both the Senate and the House, which the Republicans now control.
“Everyone expects that the repeal bill will pass the House and then either not pass the Senate or certainly not get signed by the president,” CNSNews.com asked. “In your budget will there be any funding for that bill?”
“So, obviously we plan on repealing it and our budget should reflect repeal of the health care law, and we will do that,” said Ryan. “The real question I think you are trying to get at is defunding this law. That occurs in the appropriations process. So, what the budget does is send the numbers, the cap, to the appropriators. They write the spending bills. And inside of those spending bills is where we do plan on pursuing other mechanisms of trying to repeal this law.”
CNSNews.com asked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) if he would shut down the government in order to save Obamacare if the Republican majority House sent the Senate appropriations bills that included language prohibiting funding for the implementation of Obamacare. Reid did not directly answer the question, but said House Republicans “have to understand that the health care bill is not going to be repealed” and that they “should get a new lease on life and talk about something else.”
Read the entire CNS report here.
Reid is obviously smoking those unlabeled cigs again. He knows (and has known since November 2, 2010) that this is exactly what was going to happen and the Democrat brain-trust has had that long to formulate a plan to stop it. They have no such plan and Reid’s statement that “the health care bill is not going to be repealed” ranks right up there with several of his other brilliant statements, such as “Somebody tell Bush the war is lost”.
There’s a presidential election in 2012 and if a Republican is elected to take over the White House, along with just a few more seats in the Senate and Obamacare would be repealed so fast it would leave Reid wondering what the Hell just happened. I realize that’s a big ‘if’, but no one envisioned a 64 seat change in the House of Representatives last Fall and that’s exactly what happened.
For that reason and that reason alone, you’ll see a distinct change in how the president conducts himself over the next year. His 2012 re-election campaign has officially begun.
BiPartisan Congress to Obama: Take ObamaCare and SHOVE IT
It’s symbolic only, because Obama has threatened to veto it, but I am with Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh who say KEEP VOTING ON REPEAL BILLS EVERY WEEK OR EVERY MONTH and make them ANSWER to the public who wants Obamacare repealed. And make the “chickens++ts” who didn’t vote today TAKE A STAND. And make no mistake, 60% of America wants Obamacare repealed.
Confronting President Obama, the new Republican-led House took a first step Friday toward a symbolic vote to repeal his landmark health care overhaul law, which would provide coverage to more than 30 million Americans without health insurance.
But the 236-181 largely party-line vote is unlikely to amount to more than a political message, since Democrats who still run the Senate have promised to block efforts to scrap the law and Obama has veto power.
[click on image to biggify]
And remember yesterday’s story that repealing Obamacare would ADD $230 billion to the national deficit?
Today, the CBO sent a “clarification” to the Hill:
American Spectator’s Phil Klein:
“The Congressional Budget Office, in an email to Capitol Hill staffers obtained by the Spectator, has said that repealing the national health care law would reduce net spending by $540 billion in the ten year period from 2012 through 2021. That number represents the cost of the new provisions, minus Medicare cuts. Repealing the bill would also eliminate $770 billion in taxes. It’s the tax hikes in the health care law (along with the Medicare cuts) which accounts for the $230 billion in deficit reduction……”
and the pertinent part of the email from CBO:
“We have been asked to provide the revenue and direct spending components of that total. Extrapolating the estimated budgetary effects of the original health care legislation and accounting for the effects of subsequent legislation, CBO anticipates that enacting H.R. 2 would probably yield, for the 2012-2021 period, a reduction in revenues in the neighborhood of $770 billion and a reduction in outlays in the vicinity of $540 billion, plus or minus the effects of forthcoming technical and economic changes to CBO’s and JCT’s projections.”
Paul Ryan Promises to Eat His Tie if ObamaCare Reduces Deficit
CBO Tells A Big Fat Whopping Lie About ObamaCare Cost
By Jane Jamison
Is there no end to the lying this administration will do to keep working its agenda? Does anyone REALLY BELIEVE repealing Obamacare will cost more than LIVING with it?? For heavens’ sake…..another “Emperor wearing no clothes” scenario
The Congressional Budget Office released a preliminary estimate of the impact on the deficit if Repubs are able to repeal the big health care bill, as they say they will.
According to CBO: Repeal would increase the deficit by $230 billion over the next 10 years.
According to Taegan Goddard, two other effects of the repeal would be that fewer Americans would have health insurance and those who buy individual health insurance policies would pay more.
According to Politico: “The new Republican [House] rules will say that no bills can pass if they add to the deficit, but Republicans are making an exception to their own rules for the repeal bill.
According to a paper put out by the office of new Speaker John Boehner: Obamacare is “A BUDGET‐BUSTING, JOB‐KILLING HEALTH CARE LAW.”
Blue Shield in California Wants to Raise Insurance Premiums 59%
Just as a drastic increase in premiums LAST YEAR in California helped push the vote to approve Obamacare, perhaps an even more sharp rate rise THIS YEAR might help lead the charge to repeal Obamacare? Wishful thinking? My California HealthNet went from $420 to $510 a month in November because I am not SPECIAL (or Democratic) enough to be working for one of the “Oba-waivered” groups or companies. How about YOU? Are YOU special?
Nonprofit insurer Blue Shield of California submitted a proposal to raise rates on individual policyholders by as much as 59 percent beginning March 1.
The San Francisco-based company said the increase was necessary because of rising provider fees, greater use of medical services by its members, and “the fact that healthier people are dropping coverage during a bad economy,” Johnny Wong, a company spokesman, said today in an e-mail.
The increase comes less than a year after WellPoint Inc.’s Anthem Blue Cross unit tried to raise rates in California as much as 39 percent for those who buy individual policies. Eventually, the company lowered the proposal to an average 14 percent increase. WellPoint executives were called before Congress to explain the plan.
“Even with these rate increases, Blue Shield of California expects to lose tens of millions of dollars on its individual health care business in both 2010 and 2011,” Wong said in the e-mail.
California Insurance Commission Dave Jones, who took office Jan. 3, urged Blue Shield to delay the rate increases for 60 days. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said her office stands “ready to assist” Jones in his effort to analyze Blue Shield’s proposal.
Karl Rove says it’s increasingly obvious that ObamaCare is rewarding Democrat “cronies” and punishing political enemies:
“The AARP provided a big chunk of the $121 million spent on ads supporting the bill’s passage, as well as $21 million on lobbying in 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. HHS’s proposed regulations on Dec. 21 exempted the AARP’s lucrative “Medigap” plans from the rate review and other mandates and requirements.
The AARP and other Medigap providers can require a waiting period before seniors with pre-existing conditions have to be covered. Insurers covering those under 65 cannot.
The AARP is also exempt from the new law’s $500,000 cap on executive compensation for insurance executives. (The nonprofit’s last CEO received over $1.5 million in compensation in his last full year, 2009.) It won’t pay any of the estimated $14 billion in new taxes on insurance companies, though according to its 2008 consolidated financial statement, it gets more money from its insurance offerings than it does from dues, grants and private contributions combined. Nor will it have to spend at least 85% of its Medigap premium dollars on medical claims, as Medicare Advantage plans must do; the AARP will be held to a far less restrictive 65%.
It’s not hard to connect the dots. The Obama administration is using waivers to reward friends. On the flip side, business executives will be discouraged from contributing to the president’s opponents or from taking any other steps that might upset the White House or its political appointees at HHS.”
Happy New Year! No New Hospitals
Within days of “Obamacare” being signed into law last year, I asked my insurance adjuster how badly this bill would affect my private medical insurance premiums. His answer was ominous – “I don’t know and neither do the insurance companies. None of us will know until January.” I took this to mean that the insurance companies were being forced to wait until the New Year before they could get their hands on “Obamacare” to discover exactly what was in it. Well, it is now January 2011 and everyone has finally gotten a peek.
Lord, it’s worse than we thought.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obamacare-ends-construction-doctor-owned-hospitals_525950.html
As of January 1, 2011, construction on 45 brand new physician-owned hospitals (“POH”) has ground to a halt. Construction has also stopped on expansions of existing POH’s. Why? Well, according to Section 6001 of “Obamacare”, “Friday [New Year's Eve] marked the last day physician-owned hospitals could get Medicare certification covering their new or expanded hospitals, one of the latest provisions of the reform law to go into effect.” In effect, this bill cuts PHO’s off at the knees.
The reason this Section 6001 was inserted into the bill is because one of Obama’s most powerful donors is the American Hospital Association. That association despises having to compete with PHO’s for business. Thus, by inserting this penalty into the healthcare bill, the Association has effectively destroyed its competition. Of course, the PHO’s are fighting back with a lawsuit but that could take years as the case wends its tedious way through the courts. In the meantime, Obama’s bill is now preventing sick people from getting access to desperately needed hospitals and construction workers from access to desperately needed jobs.
Happy New Year to you too, ‘Bama! Oh, and make sure you don’t whack yourself in the head with one of your own golf clubs any time soon because your little cart would have to putter quite a long ways to get medical help.
Catholic hospitals are also threatening to shut down because of the abortion funding in ObamaCare. They’ve already shut down one Catholic hospital and have let it be known there will be others.
National debt increased 60% under Speaker Pelosi
By Dan Spencer VIA Red State
There are lots of reasons I will not miss Nancy Pelosi’s extreme left wing speakership. There’s Air Pelosi and radical legislation such Cap and Tax and ObamaCare. But the biggest reason to cheer the end of the ultra-Liberal/Progressive Pelosi Speakership is the national debt.
In the four years that Pelosi was Speaker the national debt increased an unbelievable 60%. CONTINUE