via Obama’s own party worried health plan lacks votes – Yahoo! News. The story is interesting in its own right as further evidence of the fracturing of the Democrat party that is in progress, but we also have one of the true gems of modern AP writing here:
Almost two-thirds say the government should guarantee health insurance for all Americans while half that many think it’s not the government’s responsibility.
Let’s think about that for a nanosecond. Half of two thirds is…
Don’t call what happened in Iran last week an election. – By Christopher Hitchens – Slate Magazine. Must read. Hitchens is at his best here.
Fascism at home sooner or later means fascism abroad. Face it now or fight it later.
Commentary » Blog Archive » A New Consensus?. Better late than never Mr. Obama. Will you too choose to support people fighting an oppressive government for their freedom?
“Conservatives” Are Single-Largest Ideological Group. I saw this on Drudge and had to do a double take. Look at these numbers carefully, or even casually, and it makes the current situation even harder to understand. These are the results of self identification of the poll subjects on the political spectrum.
By these numbers, liberalism should be considered a slightly out of touch fringe movement with about 20% total identification of liberal or very liberal. Conservative and very conservative constitute about 40% of the people.
So why is it that conservatives are on the defensive and the only ideas being discussed in public are those of the hard left? Could it have anything to do with the fact that the national press is about 90% liberal and the academy not much less?
Just Make Stuff Up by Victor Davis Hanson on National Review Online. Thanks Tiomoid. We are at war with Oceania. We have always been at war with Oceania. The Ministry of Truth will confirm that if anyone dares to ask.
What is stunning about Obama’s hostile demagoguery about Bush’s War on Terror is not that he has now contradicted himself on one or two particulars. Instead, he has reversed himself on every major issue — renditions, military tribunals, intercepts, wiretaps, Predator drone attacks, the release of interrogation photos, Iraq (and, I think, soon Guantanamo Bay) — and yet never acknowledged these reversals.
KeithHennessey.com » Understanding the Kennedy health care bill. Another hat tip to InstaPundit among others. This post outlines fifteen significant consequences of the current plan in plain English so that we can understand exactly how we’re going to be screwed if it is adopted.
As part of this effort, vast new powers of information gathering would accrue to the Secretaries of HHS and Treasury to select appropriate amounts of taxation for the purpose of encouraging participation and the creation of a Medical Advisory Council which would also have extraordinary authority over the scope and requirements of coverage.
- The Kennedy-Dodd bill would create an individual mandate requiring you to buy a “qualified” health insurance plan, as defined by the government. If you don’t have “qualified” health insurance for a given month, you will pay a new Federal tax. Incredibly, the amount and structure of this new tax is left to the discretion of the Secretaries of Treasury and Health and Human Services (HHS), whose only guidance is “to establish the minimum practicable amount that can accomplish the goal of enhancing participation in qualifying coverage (as so defined).” The new Medical Advisory Council (see #3D) could exempt classes of people from this new tax. To avoid this tax, you would have to report your health insurance information for each month of the prior year to the Secretary of HHS, along with “any such other information as the Secretary may prescribe.”
Congratulations. You, your insurance company, or your employer are now filing a new set of documents to another federal agency at least once per year. We all know how well the IRS works for income taxation, so this ought to go swimmingly.
I would ask if there is anyone out there with a functional north end of their central nervous system who thinks that adding an extensive new federal regulatory and oversight system coupled with extensive reporting requirements to the citizens which have literally incalculable costs associated with just the reporting effort is really going to extend coverage and lower costs at the same time but I think the answer is pretty obvious. Either they are lying or they are astoundingly stupid. I’m not certain which is a more charitble position to hold.
Canada’s ObamaCare Precedent – WSJ.com. Hat tip to multiple sources including Dyspepsia Generation and InstaPundit. This story by a Canadian doctor explains what is going to happen if we don’t fight this tooth and nail.
Only half of ER patients are treated in a timely manner by national and international standards, according to a government study. The physician shortage is so severe that some towns hold lotteries, with the winners gaining access to the local doc.
How about never? Never works for me. I don’t pretend to be an expert on healthcare or the financial aspects of same, but I do know that fundamentally changing the relationship of the citizen to the federal government is not only a bad idea but also unconstitutional, or it would be if judges like Sotomayor weren’t running around emoting all over their opinions.
With a nod to Mark Twain, the difference between the Republicans we want and the Republicans we have is the difference between spine and supine. I live in the district of the most liberal Republican in the Texas delegation to the House of Representatives. Ralph Hall’s lifetime ACU rating is 83.47 which I can live with because I know that he really is a man of principle and four out of five ain’t bad. Snarlin’ Arlen has been in the Senate as long as my congressman but has a lifetime ACU rating of 44.47 which doesn’t cut it. Two things are worth a mention as asides. Ron Paul, also a Texas congressman has a worse ACU lifetime rating than Hall, but only by two points and he is a self proclaimed libertarian. And finally, Ralph Hall was a member of the Democratic party until just a few years ago and had by far the highest lifetime ACU rating of any Democratic member of the Texas delegation in Congress, while Arlen Specter had by far the worst lifetime ACU rating of any Republican from Pennsylvania in either house of Congress. Don’t let it hit ya’ where the good Lord split ya’.
This is amazing. Just when you think it can’t get any funnier, it does.
