Now is your chance to stand up before it's too late...

]]> http://www.exposeobama.com/2010/03/21/hours-remain-to-stop-obamacare/feed/ 1 http://www.exposeobama.com/2010/03/20/why-obamacare-would-fail/ http://www.exposeobama.com/2010/03/20/why-obamacare-would-fail/#comments Sat, 20 Mar 2010 11:43:00 +0000 Caleb http://www.exposeobama.com/2010/03/20/why-obamacare-would-fail/ By Philip Klein, American Spectator

 Obamacare is destined to fail

With Democrats hurtling toward a scheduled Sunday vote on national health care legislation, Washington is already starting to speculate on the political ramifications of its passage.

The latest Gallup poll suggests that President Obama’s drive to jam the unpopular bill through Congress is taking its toll. For the first time of his presidency, more people disapprove of Obama’s performance (48 percent) than approve (46 percent).

Despite the polling numbers, the White House publicly insists that once Americans understand what’s in the bill, they’ll come to like it and over time will embrace it just like Social Security and Medicare. Yet the reverse is more likely to be true. Once Americans confront the consequences of this government takeover of the health care system, it will only become more unpopular.

When he set out to overhaul the nation’s health care system, Obama faced a basic problem in selling his proposals: roughly 85 percent of Americans have health insurance and are generally satisfied with their personal care. So as a result, he was forced to make a series of bold claims. He has argued that without his brand of health care legislation, premiums would spiral out of control; health care spending would eat up more than a fifth of our economy; and our entitlement crisis would cripple the federal government. Meanwhile, he’s claimed that his plan would expand coverage while reducing deficits and improving quality of care. And of course, none of these revolutionary changes would interfere in any way with people who like the coverage they have.

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Obama tells a sob story built on a lie 

A woman championed as the Obama administration’s emblem for health care reform does not have to choose between her home and her health, according to officials at the Ohio hospital where she is being treated.

With a self-reported annual income of about $6,000, Natoma Canfield is a prime candidate for financial aid in the form of Medicaid – the federal health care program for low-income and disabled people – or charitable assistance.

And the Cleveland Clinic said it has no intention of putting out a lien on Canfield’s house – or letting the billing process interfere with her treatment.

"It appears that I think she’ll be fine," said Lyman Sornberger, the hospital’s executive director of patient financial services. "By nature of the fact that she was not early on rejected by either program, that’s a key indicator that she will most likely be eligible."

Canfield was stunned last month when she unsealed a handwritten letter from none other than the president himself. She had written to Obama before the holidays to request that he count her as a "statistic," as she put it, among the scores of Americans unable to afford health insurance – but she never expected to get a response.

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 Obama is still working the phones

With the clock ticking down to a dramatic Sunday vote on healthcare reform, congressional Democrats are beginning to line up to support President Obama — but the battle’s ultimate outcome remains very much in doubt.

"The time for reform is now," President Obama told an enthusiastic crowd shortly before noon Friday at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. "We have waited long enough… In two days, a century-long struggle will culminate in a historic vote."

Hundreds of bullhorn-wielding, sign-waving tea party activists rallied outside the venue, as the president confessed to the college audience inside that the legislative process on healthcare reform had been "messy," "frustrating," and "ugly." But he also compared his reform initiatives to historic legislative fights to enact Social Security and civil rights legislation.

Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, followed Obama’s remarks with a brief response carried by some cable news channels. "There’s not one American who thinks we’re going to save money on this," Boehner said. "The American people do not want any part of this."

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President Obama gave a thumbs up Thursday to the outline of a plan to legalize illegal immigrants and create a flow of low-skilled foreign workers for the future, saying the immigration bill being worked on by a Republican and a Democrat is "promising."

In their broad blueprint, Sens. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, call for illegal immigrants to be put on a path to citizenship, offer green cards to keep high-skilled foreign university graduates and would create a temporary program for low-skilled workers, with some also getting the chance to become citizens.

The senators also proposed to turn all Social Security cards into tamper-proof IDs to be checked by employers when they are about to hire a worker. The cards would include biometric information designed to prevent counterfeiting — but the senators said the information would not be stored in a government database.

"I congratulate Senators Schumer and Graham for their leadership, and pledge to do everything in my power to forge a bipartisan consensus this year on this important issue so we can continue to move forward on comprehensive immigration reform," Mr. Obama said in a statement soon after the two senators published their blueprint in a column submitted to The Washington Post.

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High-income families would be hit with a tax increase on wages and a new levy on investments under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul bill.

For the first time, the Medicare payroll tax would be applied to investment income, beginning in 2013. A new 3.8 percent tax would be imposed on interest, dividends, capital gains and other investment income for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples making more than $250,000.

The bill also would increase the Medicare payroll tax by 0.9 percentage point to 2.35 percent on wages above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly.

The new tax on investment income is higher than the 2.9 percent tax proposed by Obama. House Democratic leaders increased it so they could reduce the impact of a new tax on high-cost health insurance plans strongly opposed by labor unions.

The 40 percent tax on health benefits would be delayed until 2018 and would apply only to premiums exceeding $10,200 a year for individuals and $27,500 for families.

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A Chicago nonprofit on which President Obama served as paid director provided startup capital and later funding to Midwest Academy, an activist organization described as teaching tactics of direct action, confrontation and intimidation, WND has learned.

Also, in 1998, Obama participated on a panel discussion alongside Midwest Academy founder Heather Booth, an extremist organizer and dedicated disciple of radical community organizer Saul Alinsky.

The Woods Fund, a nonprofit on which Obama served as paid director from 1999 to December 2002, provided startup funding and later capital to the Midwest Academy. WND first reported Obama sat on the Woods Fund board alongside William Ayers, founder of the Weather Underground domestic terrorist organization.

Midwest was co-founded by Booth’s husband, Paul Booth, a founder and the former national secretary of Students for a Democratic Society, the radical 1960s anti-war movement from which Ayers’ Weathermen splintered.

In 1999, Booth’s Midwest Academy received $75,000 from the Woods Fund. In 2002, with Obama still serving on the Woods Fund, Midwest received another $23,500 for its Young Organizers Development Program.

Midwest describes itself as "one of the nation’s oldest and best-known schools for community organizations, citizen organizations and individuals committed to progressive social change."

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 Washington Times editorial joins in calling for impeachment

The Democrats are assaulting the very pillars of our democracy. As the debate on Obamacare reaches the long, painful end, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is confronting a political nightmare. She may not have the 216 votes necessary to pass the Senate’s health care bill in the House.

Hence, Mrs. Pelosi and her congressional Democratic allies are seriously considering using a procedural ruse to circumvent the traditional constitutional process. Led by Rep. Louise M. Slaughter, New York Democrat and chairman of the House Rules Committee, the new plan – called the "Slaughter Solution" – is not to pass the Senate version on an up-or-down vote. Rather, it is to have the House "deem" that the legislation was passed and then have members vote directly on a series of "sidecar" amendments to fix the things it does not like.

This would enable House Democrats to avoid going on the record voting for provisions in the Senate bill – the "Cornhusker Kickback," the "Louisiana Purchase," the tax on high-cost so-called "Cadillac" insurance plans – that are reviled by the public or labor-union bosses. If the reconciliation fixes pass, the House can send the Senate bill to President Obama for his signature without ever having had a formal up-or-down vote on the underlying legislation.

Many Democrats could claim they opposed the Senate bill while allowing it to pass. This would be an unprecedented violation of our democratic norms and procedures, established since the inception of the republic. Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution stipulates that for any bill to become a law, it must pass both the House of Representatives and the Senate. That is, not be "deemed" to have passed, but actually be voted on with the support of the required majority. The bill must contain the exact same language in both chambers – and in the version signed by the president – to be a legitimate law. This is why the House and Senate have a conference committee to iron out differences of competing versions. This is Civics 101.

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 Obama’s Presidency is collapsing

Excuse me, but it is embarrassing—really, embarrassing to our country—that the president of the United States has again put off a state visit to Australia and Indonesia because he’s having trouble passing a piece of domestic legislation he’s been promising for a year will be passed next week. What an air of chaos this signals to the world. And to do this to Australia of all countries, a nation that has always had America’s back and been America’s friend.

How bush league, how undisciplined, how kid’s stuff.

You could see the startled looks on the faces of reporters as Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who had the grace to look embarrassed, made the announcement on Thursday afternoon. The president "regrets the delay"—the trip is rescheduled for June—but "passage of the health insurance reform is of paramount importance." Indonesia must be glad to know it’s not.

The reporters didn’t even provoke or needle in their questions. They seemed hushed. They looked like people who were absorbing the information that we all seem to be absorbing, which is that the wheels seem to be coming off this thing, the administration is wobbling—so early, so painfully and dangerously soon.

Thursday’s decision followed the most revealing and important broadcast interview of Barack Obama ever. It revealed his primary weakness in speaking of health care, which is a tendency to dodge, obfuscate and mislead. He grows testy when challenged. It revealed what the president doesn’t want revealed, which is that he doesn’t want to reveal much about his plan. This furtiveness is not helpful in a time of high public anxiety. At any rate, the interview was what such interviews rarely are, a public service. That it occurred at a high-stakes time, with so much on the line, only made it more electric.

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