House bill would make health care a right
House Democrat leaders, pledging to meet the president's goal of health care legislation before their August break, are offering a $1.5 trillion plan that for the first time would make health care a right and a responsibility for all Americans. Left to pick up most of the tab were medical providers, employers and “the wealthy”.
In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid said he wanted floor debate to begin a week from Monday. With the Senate Finance Committee still struggling to reach consensus, that timetable could slip. Even so, it underscored a renewed sense of urgency.
Obama himself was driving the action, going off-script to push the issue during a speech in Michigan and scheduling a Rose Garden news conference for today to make more comments on the topic.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090715/D99EO8BO0.html
Eclipsed by a globe-trotting president, a foreign policy-savvy vice president and a bevy of special envoys, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is struggling to re-emerge this week as the Obama administration's diplomatic heavyweight.
Clinton is trying to retake center stage as the administration's top foreign policy voice after four frustrating, low-profile weeks during which a fractured elbow forced her to cancel two overseas trips.
Her diminishing presence abroad and at home, followed by her startling public criticism of the White House this week for delaying a key appointment, has prompted a flurry of speculation about whether her influence is waning inside President Barack Obama's Cabinet.
Clinton was set to deliver what aides billed as a major policy address at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington today. Tomorrow, she heads off on an around-the-world trip.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090715/D99EOJRO1.html
Sen. Leahy tries to lie out of Sotomayor’s racist statement
LEAHY SAID: "You said that, quote, you 'would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would reach wise decisions.'"
THE FACTS: If that's all Sotomayor said, the quote would barely have mattered to opponents of her nomination. The actual quote, delivered in a 2001 speech to law students at the University of California at Berkeley, was: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."
Given Democrat domination of the Senate, the debate doesn’t matter, Obama will get his confirmation and all that follow…unless Democrats are defeated at the polls.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D99ED63G1&show_article=1
Opinion:
Normal America can take heart – grass root action CAN make a difference
On its face, the outlook for our government’s legislative agenda is grim indeed.
Democrat liberals are on a roll. The not only control, they dominate both the House and the Senate. Sonia Sotomayor will be confirmed for a place on the Supreme Court, no matter how racially biased she may be.
With the nation’s media playing willing hand maiden to liberal politics and those who wage it, there is no shelter for honest Americans who fear for the future of their country -- a long line of extreme legislation that will ravage productive elements of our society through confiscatory taxation, and legislation that will have damaging impact on our freedoms and liberty.
The looming Democrat healthcare scam leads the pack. The Obama plan wants to replace our current healthcare system – with the highest quality care in the world, with Obama’s “healthcare on the cheap”. Not a good trade or outcome.
Democrats also encourage illegal immigration – intent on making use of Obama’s own ACORN to swell Democrat rolls to a magnitude that can end political competition.
In addition to their raw, dominating, numbers, Obama politicos have demonstrated a total lack of shame in implementing legislative efforts setting a new low in unethical procedure. The Obama team has shoved through several bills – high spending bills such as the “stimulus” scheme.
They do so by an expediting procedures that deny Republicans input into the legislative discussions.
Obama's tacticians even deny time to read the bills on which lawmakers are asked to vote.
Democrats are, in effect, using tactics that impose rather than democratically legislate.
Take hear! All is not lost.
As cited repeatedly on this site –- defeat of the amnesty bill on immigration stands as a defining moment in our nation’s politics -- proof real democracy is not yet dead.
The Amnesty bill, dubbed McCain – Kennedy – enjoyed the energetic support of the US Senate, the Bush White House, and the mainstream media. This cabal of cheerleaders made it seem as if opposition to this “reform” bill was unthinkable. It was sure to pass. It didnt!
Amnesty supporters didn't understand the power of grass root America -- or of the Internet. A hue and cry of opposition and public outrage washed over the ruling class like a tsunami. The Amnesty Bill was withdrawn and has not (YET) been brought back.
Fast forward to passage of the latest Democrat tax scam labeled “Cap and Trade”. If passed, Cap and Trade will force every single American to pay thousands more in taxes.
The bill passed by a narrow margin -- possible because eight Republicans and several "Blue Dog" Democrats voted with the Obama taxation team.
It now heads to the Senate.
BUT the eight turncoat Republicans are getting an ear full and thumping by supporters back home. Blue Dog Democrats are faring no better. Congressman Allen Boyd from Florida’s Panhandle, was savagely ambushed.
Over 300 angry Panama City voters greeted the hapless Boyd with cat calls, home made signs, and a demonstration reflecting local fury at Boyd's pro tax vote. The demonstrators knew Boyd had betrayed them.
Boyd had to sneak out a back door, bloodies by a spontaneous demonstration of his own voters. The Boyd injury was so severe that a liberal California-based "environmental" group ran paid TV commercials to give Boyd cover. The TV spots have created a backlash. Voters in Bay County understood Boyd's desperate TV spots were paid for by a California firm likely to reap a huge pay off should “Cap and Trade” pass. No wonder they had no shame in making false claims in their TV.
Thus, as with the amnesty bill, grass root action is having an impact on Congress. Public activism can be a roadblock against Obama and his liberal conspiracy. He can be stopped.
Whether we succeed in stopping Obama depends entirely on the willingness of normal, grass root Americans to respond to their obligation and take effective action. We can explain just how.
Buddy
1.
Democrat Takeover of Health Care Built on Rationed Care and Higher Taxes
(NOTE: The threat of Democrat plans must be made clear to all – Americans over 50 face being denied care when they become what government may consider “senior” and lose access to care. Democrats again move to soak the achievers of our society with higher and higher taxes, and, with government in control, quality care will be replaced with Obama’s “healthcare on the cheap”.)
Washington, D.C. – Republican Study Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) issued the following statement after Speaker Pelosi and House Democrat leaders unveiled the details of their plan for a government takeover of health care.
“House Democrats have concocted a health care plan that is a disaster for patients and quality care,” said Chairman Price. “Americans want health care reform, but the changes proposed by Democrats in charge only offer more of what is wrong with the current system. The House Democrats’ plan would firmly place a bureaucrat in between patients and their doctors. Under their vision, Washington would have ultimate control over what is best for patients, what treatments are acceptable, and how long patients wait for needed care.
“While the quality of American medicine is threatened by this plan, so too are America’s seniors and small businesses. To pay for this enormous growth of government-run medicine, they seek to ration services for America’s seniors on Medicare and levy a massive new tax on American small businesses – our nation’s leading engine for job creation. Our struggling economy already has many seniors and small business owners on the financial ropes. The one-two punch thrown by this disastrous health care plan could be the blow that knocks them out.
“Health care reform doesn’t have to give Americans a black-eye. By adopting patient-centered reforms, we can provide access to affordable care for all Americans without enabling a government takeover of health care. As we move forward, conservatives will fight for positive reform and offer solutions that will empower patients to control their own medical decisions.”
2.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/07142009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/o_channels_w_179131.htm
O CHANNELS W
RALPH PETERS
WHICH president spoke the following words?
"Where you have nations that are oppressing their people, isn't there an international responsibility to intervene? I think the need for intervention becomes a moral imperative. . .
"There are going to be objections to just about any decision, because there are some in the international community who believe that state sovereignty is sacrosanct. . .
"But we also say we're not going to just wait indefinitely and allow for the development of a nuclear weapon, the breach of international treaties, and wake up one day and find ourselves in a much worse position and unable to act."
No, that wasn't George W. Bush justifying regime-change in Iraq. It was Barack Obama, speaking at a press conference in Italy last Friday. But his language and logic sounded as if he were channeling Bush.
Our president cited the British prime minister's anecdote about a boy who dreamed of becoming a doctor, only to be massacred. The tale was set in Rwanda. But it could have been the story of a Kurdish child gassed by Saddam Hussein.
It would have shown a flash of integrity had the media noted Obama's sudden adherence to the Bush Doctrine. But this isn't just about Gotcha! Two big things appear to be in play.
First, Obama's been getting a taste of strategic reality served up by just about every thug on the planet. (And the prez can't have been happy with the lecture he got last week from Russian strongman Vladimir Putin -- the O-Man prefers to do the lecturing himself.)
The second thing is that political hypocrisy governs our domestic criticism of war. Had Bill Clinton deposed Saddam Hussein -- who Clinton believed held weapons of mass destruction -- our left would have celebrated him as the greatest liberator since Lincoln.
The problem was never what we did in Iraq, but who did it. The crocodile tears for our troops were all about tearing down Bush.
Where are the cries of "Support our troops, bring them home!" now that Obama's president? We still have almost 200,000 service members in war zones, folks. The soldiers and Marines are just as dead -- yet somehow Bush's surge was bad, while Obama's surge is good.
But what to make of the president's new rhetoric? Is Obama coming to his senses? If so, it will still involve a nasty learning curve. He's been making foreign-policy and security mistakes faster than any president in history.
Yet there's hope. Obama's latest adore-me tour began badly, but ended on a powerful positive note. Following the debacle in Moscow and disappointment in Italy (where the G8 proved resistant to charisma), the president made a wise, useful and praiseworthy stop in Ghana.
He was in his element. His speech to the continent (Obama doesn't speak to mere countries) was the finest I've heard on the subject from an American president. The charisma did work in Accra, and Obama used it to send a tough-love message that Africans needed to hear from our first black president.
He spoke, eloquently, of the need for Africans to take responsibility for their own future and to fight corruption, arguing that Africa needs strong institutions, not strongmen. He even had the audacity to insist that, while colonialism did its damage, it can't be blamed for the disaster in Zimbabwe and other self-wrought failures.
It was a great speech (he should give a variant of it to several of our own domestic constituencies). I could not have been prouder of our president.
But Obama was channeling Bush in Africa, too.
W never got remotely as much credit as he deserves for taking Africa seriously, for pushing through effective development programs that helped AIDS sufferers, small entrepreneurs and democracy advocates.
(NOTE: No wonder. The mainstream media has chosen to make itself an arm of liberal Democrat politics and has turned its back on honest journalism. All over-the-air TV Network news operations are corrupt and have been so for quite some time. Historians will have to look elsewhere for honest information and accuracy.)
Bush established a solid foundation on which Obama can build, making up for our long neglect of a continent of still-untapped potential. There's more to Africa than headline disasters. This may be the foreign-policy sphere in which Obama can do historic good.
And (go ahead and burn me at the stake) there's more to be gained in Africa than in Afghanistan.
The question now is which Obama we'll get as his administration matures. Will it be the eternal undergraduate convinced that America is wicked, or an emerging realist who recognizes that it doesn't matter if a mass-murderer's rhetoric is of the right or left?
Can the eternal campaigner become a man of conscience?
Ralph Peters is Fox News' strategic analyst.
3.
Chaos on Capitol Hill: All Politics Is Loco
Michael Barone | Washington Examiner
President Obama's legislative program is currently in a state of "disarray," as cap-and-trade and health care bills are both on hold. Polls indicate that Americans are more supportive of boosting the economy than they are of increased government spending on climate change and health care.
Disarray. That's one word to describe the status of the Obama administration's legislative program as Congress heads into its final four weeks of work before the August recess. A watered-down cap-and-trade bill passed the House narrowly last month, but Sen. Barbara Boxer has decided not to bring up her version in the upper chamber until September.
(NOTE: With Boxer’s move to delay Senate voting on the Cap and Trade tax bill, normal Americans can chalk up a victory. Obama and his liberal Democrat juggernaut were confident they could push through a thick gruel of left wing legislation that threatens to change America at a very basic level.)
Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, who promised a health care bill last month, still isn't delivering, and neither is the health committee's Christopher Dodd. They're both trying to nibble down cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, which has put the price tag at a trillion or more. But their latest ploys--broad-based tax increases, transferring more of the Medicaid burden to the states--sound like sputtering. Meanwhile, Majority Leader Harry Reid says he's taken off the table one approach that has potential bipartisan support--ending the tax preference for employer-provided insurance.
In the House, there is more chaos. Commerce committee Chairman Henry Waxman has delayed the health care markup he had planned for this week, giving the administration and House leaders a chance to win over balky Blue Dog Democrats. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel is also stymied, and says all he knows about agreements that the White House has struck with various health groups (pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, health maintenance organizations) is what he reads in the papers.
All this sounds like muddling by incompetents, but in fact these Democratic legislators are (mostly) highly competent and they are trying to do very hard things: restructure government regulation of--or establish government control over--one-sixth (health care) and one-tenth (energy) of the economy. And they're dealing with a president who has shown a striking lack of interest in details and whose single legislative achievement so far--the $787 billion stimulus package passed in February--has visibly failed in its asserted goal of holding unemployment down to 8 percent.
It turns out that details matter, a lot, when you're slinging around great gobs of dollars. Barack Obama let congressional appropriators write the stimulus package. The result, according to the Government Accountability Office, is that only $29 billion had been spent as of June 19, 90 percent of it for Medicaid and "the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund administered by the Department of Education."
Translation: The money has gone to state governments in fiscal trouble because of declining revenues and (in some cases) profligate spending. This insulates public employees union members from the painful effects of recession that are being felt by almost everyone else, with the added political benefit of channeling money to unions, which in turn channel some of it to Democratic politicians.
Obama was also content to let Waxman and Edward Markey write the House cap-and-trade bill. To get needed votes, they gave away carbon credits to politically connected businesses rather than sell them by auctions whose revenues Obama planned to use to finance health care. And they included potentially embarrassing provisions, like one regulating the efficiency of candelabra base lamps. Better be prepared to face the federal candelabra inspectors.
Such are the people whom we are asked to trust to reshape the provision of health care. They are struggling to amass the votes to establish a government health insurance plan whose transparent purpose is to drive private insurers out of business and impose one-size-fits-all health care on the bulk of Americans. They already inserted into the stimulus package a provision funding "comparative effectiveness research," which purports to show what treatments are medically effective and cost-effective.
But comparative effectiveness research is, if not junk science, not a fully developed intellectual enterprise. Medicine is an art as well as a science, and comparative effectiveness research may too often compare apples and oranges. Meanwhile, as Europeans know, the most effective way to squeeze out costs, as Obama promises, is denial of care. Hip replacement at 60? Hey, that's expensive and you're too old.
Polls show that most voters--and increasing numbers of independents--are queasy about vastly increased government spending and more concerned about bolstering the economy than about reshaping health care or addressing projected global warming. They've noticed that the stimulus package hasn't delivered the promised results. Do they want to turn over the health care and energy sectors to a president inattentive to details and congressional leaders in disarray?
Michael Barone is a resident fellow at AEI.
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