Progressives going after GOPer’s who vote against Healthcare….
Progressives Target Republicans Over Health Care Vote
Progressive groups are again targeting Republicans in competitive districts for voting to repeal health care reform while accepting federally financed insurance.
Americans United for Change, Daily Kos, and Blue America have aligned to run radio ads in the districts of Reps. Charlie Bass (R-NH), Paul Ryan (R-WI), Sandy Adams (R-FL), and Leonard Lance (R-NJ).
The 2010 Mid-Term Election Issues…..
Midterm Elections are Mainly About Three Issues
A new Gallup poll finds that 43% of voters say that current economic conditions are the most important issue for the midterm elections, followed by health care and the size and power of the federal government.
“Together, the top three issues account for more than 80% of the total, suggesting the 2010 elections are being contested on a fairly narrow issue space. This is a departure from the past two midterm elections, when there was no dominant issue, and voters’ choice for the most important one spanned a greater number of issues.”
Will a tax increase be necessary down the road for the Middle Class?…are the Republicans walking into trap?
With all of the things that President Obama is doing…..will taxes have to increased?
One war winding down…One gearing up…..Healthcare…..and Economic down turn…then slow recovery……
Pay outs of unemployment money…..
Is there going to be need for taxes to be raised?
This question is addressed by several in a The Hill piece……
The Dog agrees with McManus ( Yea, The John Birch Society Guy )……..Any tax raising isn’t going to completely solve the poblem…..but the Dog does not think McManus’s idea of government cuts are going to work…..
I have always thought that a robust economy is the ONLY way to refund the Government deficyits…..which last happened on Bill Clinton’s watch……
Some of the nation’s top political commentators, legislators and intellectuals offer insight into the biggest question burning up the blogosphere today.
Today’s question:
From the The Hill……
Will the United States have to eventually raise taxes on the middle class to pay down the national debt?
Peter Navarro, professor of economics and public policy at UC Irvine, said:
It’s not the U.S. that it is the issue. It is the Obama administration. If it keeps creating unfunded entitlements AND it keeps taxing capital, our economy will be choked by debt and slow growth and EVERYONE will have to pay more taxes. But that will only be self-defeating. Dumbest smart economics team I’ve ever seen.
Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, said:
People out here fear that we have to pay for tax breaks for the rich, and for the Iraq war somehow, and maybe raising taxes is the only way.
David Schanzer, director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, said:
Fixing Social Security, paying for Medicare, funding our military, and meeting our domestic obligations, while at the same time reducing the debt, is going to require a package consisting of both benefit and spending cuts and revenue enhancements. Everyone knows this and anyone that excludes either benefit cuts or tax increases is not being honest or is more interested in politics than problem-solving. On the revenue side, whether there will be taxes and fees on the middle class depends on how you define the term “middle class.” The revenue burden should fall as much as possible on those who can afford it the most, but the enormity of our fiscal problem cannot be solved by targeting only the super-rich and rich. Eventually, to solve this problem, we are going to need additional revenues from two-worker families making in the low- to mid-six figures — perhaps a police officer and a teacher. Many would consider such a family to be middle class.
John F. McManus, president of The John Birch Society, said:
The national debt is so huge that paying it down cannot be done by raising taxes alone. The other recourse, the far more substantial recourse, is to cut back the size and cost of government. It is in this area that substantial debt relief can be found.
Any sensible person would say that a nation so heavily indebted as ours already is would cease a foreign aid program. The fact that our leaders don’t even consider this is a measure of the times in which we live. The United States is already the most heavily indebted nation in all history. We are headed for self-inflicted destruction and we give away tens of billions each year! Brilliant!
What else besides foreign aid should be abolished?. How about the Departments of Education, HUD, Energy, Transportation, and many more? How about repealing the recently enacted monster healthcare measure before it lives up to its potential to cost more mega billions? How about bringing military forces home from the more than 100 nations where we have posted them? No one has to have a Ph.D. in economics to know the huge cost of what has rightly been termed empire building.
Unemployment dogs the land but the federal payroll has risen while so many Americans can’t find a job. This is looneyville and worse.
Our situation is the equivalent of inmates running the asylum.
The second part to the main question is……
Is Obama setting the Republicans up?
This piece in PoliticsDaily points out that if the Republicans just sit back and complain about the Democrats spending…..
And don’t cover their rears..they will be setting themselves into the position they just went thru with Healthcare……working a problem that the administration and democrats tackle from the outside in…with no real input……
The Politics Daily piece offers some suggestions for the Republicans,,,,,,
President Obama is in the early stages of setting a political trap for the GOP — one he hopes will take one of his greatest weaknesses and turn it into a strength.
The weakness Obama has is that he is viewed as fiscally reckless by much of the electorate, having engineered an unprecedented spending binge even before he passed into law a hugely expensive new entitlement program in health care. At a time when the deficit and debt are more potent political issues than ever, and when those who are viewed as responsible for them are more vulnerable than ever, Obama and Democrats in Congress are in a quandary.
What to do?
If you’re Obama, the answer is to admit America faces a fiscal crisis, ignore the fact that you are now a key contributor to it, then force Republicans into an uncomfortable choice: either sign on to large tax increases to cut into the deficit and the debt, or refuse to do so, in which case Obama will then blame Republicans for not taking the necessary steps to put our fiscal house in order.
The deficit commission is one vehicle the president will use; there are sure to be others.
So what can Republicans do to keep Obama’s attempt from succeeding?
Romney and Obama…..already?
This from Jerome Armstrong over @ MyDD.Com
The CNN poll shows Romney as being the slight frontrunner among the GOP 2012:
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney 22%
Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin 18%
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee 17%
Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich 8%
Texas Congressman Ron Paul 8%
Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty 5%
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum 5%
Indiana Congressman Mike Pence 4%
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour 1%
This morning at the AAPC pollies conference, I listed to Stan Greenberg describe the recently passed HCR as a bill based on Republican ideas (individual mandate, market-driven), and a number of writers have pointed this out lately.
If ya don’t like what they pass in Washington….Yell ‘States Right’s’!…..
[ In Utah, a bill by Representative Carl Wimmer, a Republican, would require the state to sign off on any federal health reform. ]
Weather it’s the upcoming Healthcare Bill, Gun legislation, Abortion or just about anything else……State legislators are starting to write their own laws……against the ones from Washington.…
Now to fair…state have always done so……but the Federal Governments tend s to win the battle when the lawyers go at it……
With a contensious Healthcare Bill on its way to become law…things are getting interesting around the country…..
Gov. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, a Republican, signed a bill into law on Friday declaring that the federal regulation of firearms is invalid if a weapon is made and used in South Dakota.
On Thursday, Wyoming’s governor, Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, signed a similar bill for that state. The same day, Oklahoma’s House of Representatives approved a resolution that Oklahomans should be able to vote on a state constitutional amendment allowing them to opt out of the federal health care overhaul.
In Utah, lawmakers embraced states’ rights with a vengeance in the final days of the legislative session last week. One measure said Congress and the federal government could not carry out health care reform, not in Utah anyway, without approval of the Legislature. Another bill declared state authority to take federal lands under the eminent domain process. A resolution asserted the “inviolable sovereignty of the State of Utah under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution.”
Some legal scholars say the new states’ rights drive has more smoke than fire, but for lawmakers, just taking a stand can be important enough.
“Who is the sovereign, the state or the federal government?” said State Representative Chris N. Herrod, a Republican from Provo, Utah, and leader of the 30-member Patrick Henry Caucus, which formed last year and led the assault on federal legal barricades in the session that ended Thursday.
If ya don't like what they pass in Washington….Yell 'States Right's'!…..
[ In Utah, a bill by Representative Carl Wimmer, a Republican, would require the state to sign off on any federal health reform. ]
Weather it’s the upcoming Healthcare Bill, Gun legislation, Abortion or just about anything else……State legislators are starting to write their own laws……against the ones from Washington.…
Now to fair…state have always done so……but the Federal Governments tend s to win the battle when the lawyers go at it……
With a contensious Healthcare Bill on its way to become law…things are getting interesting around the country…..
Gov. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, a Republican, signed a bill into law on Friday declaring that the federal regulation of firearms is invalid if a weapon is made and used in South Dakota.
On Thursday, Wyoming’s governor, Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, signed a similar bill for that state. The same day, Oklahoma’s House of Representatives approved a resolution that Oklahomans should be able to vote on a state constitutional amendment allowing them to opt out of the federal health care overhaul.
In Utah, lawmakers embraced states’ rights with a vengeance in the final days of the legislative session last week. One measure said Congress and the federal government could not carry out health care reform, not in Utah anyway, without approval of the Legislature. Another bill declared state authority to take federal lands under the eminent domain process. A resolution asserted the “inviolable sovereignty of the State of Utah under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution.”
Some legal scholars say the new states’ rights drive has more smoke than fire, but for lawmakers, just taking a stand can be important enough.
“Who is the sovereign, the state or the federal government?” said State Representative Chris N. Herrod, a Republican from Provo, Utah, and leader of the 30-member Patrick Henry Caucus, which formed last year and led the assault on federal legal barricades in the session that ended Thursday.
President Obama moves for a simple majority vote on the Healthcare Bill…..
Obama finally realizing that he old, community organizing, getting people together method, simply isn’t going to work…has decidied to ‘go it alone’ on Healthcare….While the Dog agreed with his wish to try to get at least a few Republicans on board for political cover….that is not ment to be…….
The best thing on this day is that the President has finally gotten in front of them issue , wher he oughta be…and is moving it alone….
It’s about time!
President Obama‘s endorsement Wednesday of a risky legislative maneuver to complete health-care legislation sent Democratic leaders scrambling to settle policy disputes and assemble the votes necessary for passage in the coming weeks.
n a speech at the White House, Obama urged Congress to “finish its work” on health care and indicated support for a strategy that includes the budget maneuver known as reconciliation, which would protect the final product from a Republican filibuster in the Senate. Obama told an audience of medical professionals that Congress “owes the American people a final vote on health-care reform.”
But completing the job would require weeks of complicated parliamentary tactics that Republicans have pledged to challenge at every turn. Although Obama has reached out to GOP lawmakers in recent days, hosting a bipartisanhealth summit last week and offering to include conservative proposals in his plan, Republicans remain unified and resolute in their opposition.
GOP opportunities to block reconciliation in the Senate will be numerous. The minority party may offer an unlimited number of amendments and can challenge provisions that don’t have a clear impact on the federal budget, restricting the bill’s contents. “We’re going to scrub the bill thoroughly,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell(R-Ky).
Even so, House and Senate Democratic leaders pledged to move aggressively. Under the plan taking shape, the House would pass the legislation approved Christmas Eve by the Senate. Both chambers would then pass a reconciliation bill that consists of fixes, being negotiated by Democratic leaders, to address House concerns with the smaller and more moderate-leaning Senate bill.
“The president’s announcement is a call to action,” saidHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.). “We will now move forward.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pledged to use “every option available.”
From Talkandpolitcs……Rep. Anthony Weiner gives the Republicans hell on Healthcare……
From Talkandpolitcs…..
Anthony Weiner slamming the GOP hard
Wow, check this one out:
“You gotta love these Republicans,” Weiner declared. “I mean, you guys have chutzpah. The Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of insurance companies.”
He goes on and on and repeats the whole thing several times, gets a rap and still repeats it. How long can a guy like that last in politics?
His website on youtube here.
Obama is giving up on Healthcare?
Merlin just sent me a heads-up on this……
After insisting for a year that failure was not an option, President Barack Obama is now acknowledging his health care overhaul may die in Congress.
His remarks at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser Thursday night sounded contradictory at times, complicating congressional leaders’ effort to revive health care legislation as Democrats hunger for guidance from the White House. Even while saying he still wanted to get the job done, Obama counseled going slow, and bowed to new political realities. Democrats no longer command a filibuster-proof Senate majority, and voters and lawmakers are far more concerned with jobs and the economy than with enacting sweeping and expensive changes to the health system.
“And it may be that … if Congress decides we’re not going to do it, even after all the facts are laid out, all the options are clear, then the American people can make a judgment as to whether this Congress has done the right thing for them or not,” the president said. “And that’s how democracy works. There will be elections coming up and they’ll be able to make a determination and register their concerns one way or the other during election time.”
It seemed to be a shift in tone for the issue Obama campaigned on and made the centerpiece of his domestic agenda last year.
“Here’s the key, is to not let the moment slip away,” Obama also said.
Sweeping health legislation to extend medical coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans passed both chambers of Congress last year and was on the verge of completion before Republican Scott Brown’s upset victory in a Massachusetts special U.S. Senate election last month. Brown was sworn in Thursday, giving Republicans 41 votes, enough to block the initiatives of the Democratic majority.
Now the health legislation hangs in limbo. Lawmakers are looking to Obama for a path forward, but he has not publicly offered specifics. His signals have been mixed. At the DNC event he said Republicans should be part of the process — something they’ve shown little interest in and that would doubtlessly drag out a legislative effort that many rank-and-file Democrats want to end quickly. The health care bill has become unpopular with the public and a political drag for lawmakers.
“The next step is what I announced at the State of the Union, which is to call on our Republican friends to present their ideas. What I’d like to do is have a meeting whereby I’m sitting with the Republicans, sitting with the Democrats, sitting with health care experts, and let’s just go through these bills. … And then I think that we’ve got to go ahead and move forward on a vote,” Obama said Thursday.
From the Dog…..
Ok….The Healthcare Bill isn’t dead ……Yet…..
The Dog is deeply disappointed in the leader of the Democratic party in this country…..Who happens to be the President …..
Barack H. Obama…….
He has handled this whole issue with indifference and nativity ……
This action reported today just confirms it…..The Dog has repeated countless times here that Obama wound this thing up..then stepped away to leave the Congress holding the bag…with their pants down……
He has not DONE A DAMN THING to help Congress with this issue….to come out and say that the Democratic majority should now look to the GOP for help on a bill that was voted on and agreed to, in principle, by both Houses of Congress is pure BULLSHIT…straight up…if I was a Congressman I’d turn my back when he walked in the room…..
No smart Democratic Congressmen should stand for this….If this is all the rookie President can come up with….let the damn bill die…..and let the Republican laugh in his face…and tie his agenda up…he desrves nothing less…..
Note:..…Bill Clinton did the same thing on Healthcare…and recovered….. and got re-elected to a second term….This isn’t the end for the guy…...
Obama must lead on Healthcare ……..
Senate Democrats held back from asking President Barack Obama about healthcare reform during a carefully scripted question-and-answer session in front of television cameras.
With the cameras rolling, a group of senators selected in advance by the Democratic leadership asked questions about such topics as partisan gridlock and GOP obstruction.
But once the president left and reporters were escorted out of the room, senators pressed White House officials about healthcare reform, according to those at the meeting.
Democrats expressed their frustration with the lack of a clear plan for passing healthcare reform, according to one person in the room.
One Democratic senator even grew heated in his remarks, according to the source.
“It wasn’t a discussion about how to get from Point A to Point B; it was a discussion about the lack of a plan to get from Point A to Point B,” said a person who attended the meeting. “Many of the members were frustrated, but one person really expressed his frustration.”
Senators did not want to press Obama on healthcare reform in front of television cameras for fear of putting him in an awkward spot.
“There was a vigorous discussion about that afterward with some of his top advisers and others,” Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) said regarding the healthcare discussion.
“I think people were probably aware that there was no easy answer and this is being broadcast on live national television and didn’t want to put him on the spot,” Bayh said.
The Dog has been talking about this for a while……
Obama has to sell the Healthcare Bill…which is just too toxic fro Democratic Congressmen back home……there is no reason for them to put their careers on the line….
……while there probably isn’t too far to go…those last steps are fought with risk for legislators…….
Update……
National health spending accounts for the largest share of the U.S. economy since federal auditors began tracking the data in 1960, according to a new report authored by the Office of the Actuary, an independent auditing body at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and published online by the journal Health Affairs.
In 2009, national health spending made up a record 17.3 percent of the gross domestic product, a 1.1 percentage point increase from 2008, the largest-ever one-year increase reported, the CMS actuaries report based on preliminary estimates.
This year, the actuaries expect healthcare spending growth to slow to 3.9 percent and predict the economy will grow by 4 percent, which would ameliorate the consequences of 2009. Those projections, however, assume that Congress will not step in to prevent a 21.3 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors, which is not likely. Were lawmakers to block those steep cuts, healthcare spending would grow by 4.7 percent this year.
Private-sector healthcare spending this year will increase by 2.8 percent, according to the actuaries. The chief reasons are expected continuing loss of health coverage due to unemployment and the expiration of the COBRA subsidies enacted by the stimulus bill.
The report does not consider what effect the pending healthcare reform bills would have on national healthcare spending.
Political News From Reuters…..- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
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