Mitt Romney believes that his best line of attack is making the claim that he has not spent a moment as a D.C. politician while his two main opponents, Newt ...
No two ways about it, Rick Santorum had a good night. Not only did he sweep Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri but he also got off the best line of the ...
Few would argue the fact that Citizens United has been a major player in the Republican primary...and many if not most would concede that none of it has been healthy ...
As if you needed another reason to not vote Romney.
Celebrity business magnate Donald Trump endorsed Mitt Romney for president Thursday, telling reporters he will not mount an independent campaign if ...
In a perfect world, the Republican contest to find a nominee to face Barack Obama would go on forever...or at least until August. You cannot attach a number to the ...
I suspect there are a ton of conservatives secretly agreeing with Begala and while it's too early in the game for Dems to get cocky, it's difficult to not smile ...
Quotes don't get much better than this one by Bob Dole.
"Why do people take such an instant dislike to me?" asked a perplexed Gingrich, to whom Dole bluntly ...
After the beating Gingrich took last night, it's hard to imagine under what scenario he can make a comeback. Florida is going to Romney and for Gingrich to regain the ...
There's a lot out there on the President's SOTU, so I'll keep my thoughts short and sweet.
The speech did what it had to do which was target liberals and independents ...
The highlights from last night's debate.
- Newt Gingrich can't wait to become president so he can revisit the early 60s and overthrow Castro in Cuba. War, baby, war.
- Santorum, who ...
It appears that the South Carolina verdict is forcing Romney to start taking Gingrich seriously.
“We’re not choosing a talk show host, we’re choosing a leader,” Romney said, saying that their ...
Mike Huckabee offers advice to Mitt Romney concerning his unreleased tax returns.
Let him [Romney] make this challenge: "I'll release my tax returns when Barack Obama releases his college transcripts and ...
Via Political Humor...
"Mitt Romney is coming under fire because even though he is a multimillionaire, he only paid 15 percent in taxes. That's not a tax, that's barely a tip." ...
Good line.
My guess is that after Romney fails to beat Obama in the general, Huntsman will be back in 2016. The most electable guy in the field and he could ...
I found this pretty funny...and accurate. It comes from a reader over at Balloon Juice.
So, let’s review. The contenders for the GOP nomination are
A vulture capitalist who believes that any ...
Lively little debate going on at one of last week's posts with Libertarianism put under the microscope.
ocLiberal:
I know I am in sketchy territory here, (start the indignant shouting now) but ...
In the contest to determine the winner of the Far-Right Politics gold medal, rack up a few more points for Newt Gingrich.
“I think an intelligent conservative wants the right federal ...
Via Political Humor...
"Congratulations to Mitt Romney. He won the New Hampshire primary last night. See, this is proof that even the multimillionaire son of a multimillionaire can beat the odds ...
Story 1:
North Korea punishing those who 'didn't display enough sadness over Kim Jong Il's death'
North Korean authorities are reportedly punishing citizens who did not display enough sadness over the death ...
“The new CNN poll like many others finds greater support (53% to 46%) for a “public option” than for the Senate Health Care Bill which just 36% support, and 61% oppose.”
“Voters are not that well informed though. An overwhelming 79% believe the Senate Bill will add to the deficit even though the Congressional Budget Office has stated that it would actually shrink the deficit, as President Obama has promised it would.
The reason support for health care reform is declining is really very simple. The only message the public is receiving is that health care reform is bad. Turn on Fox News any given night and the message is this or that health reform bill is bad. Turn on MSNBC any given night and the message is this or that health reform bill is bad. Fox News blames all Democrats and MSNBC blames some Democrats.”
The people with the money to produce scary commercials and buy a lot of airtime also happen to be the same people who are skinning us alive for insurance.
A strong Government-run MEDICARE like Public Option is CRITICAL!!
A Medicare Buy-in at 55 is a GOOD! idea. But!, not a substitute for a strong Medicare like public option CHOICE for everyone. Nor is the (FEHBP). Without a strong public option on day one the Senate health-care bill is a disaster for the American People and the World. Therefore you must KILL!! it. Without a strong public option the health-care reform bill is MUCH WORSE! than what we have now, and what we have now is a catastrophe. SO YOU MUST KILL!! IT.
What is proposed in the Senate is the worst case scenario for health-care reform. It would shift trillions of taxpayer, public and private dollars into the hands of the private insurance industry (The single most costly, deadly and dangerous product sold in America). And it would compel by law millions of Americans to financially support this oxymoronic criminal enterprise. You cant have a MANDATE WITHOUT A STRONG PUBLIC OPTION CHOICE!
You will have NO! realistic way of controlling cost and quality. Cost will continue soaring through the roof bleeding the American people dry, and KILLing our economy. And our quality of healthcare will continue to decline below our current ranking of “WORST! quality of healthcare delivery in the developed World”.
H1N1 IS A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION!
I have to tell you now that the H1N1 virus is a man-made WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION! and TERROR! It is a WEAPONIZED version of a flu virus. It has swept the planet infecting millions. And causing a global pandemic that has killed tens of thousands, and injured millions.
The H1N1 virus is the product of the DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX! It was released in the U.S. in Texas in early January of this year, but not recognized until around April in California. The reason I know this is because when it came to America, it came to see me FIRST! How sweet…
This was around the time the MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX! assaulted the Whitehouse with all their devils deals to cripple and weaken YOUR! healthcare reform. Especially your right to have a single payer system like HR676 (Medicare For All) which most of you wanted.
They don’t even want you to have your HUGE!!! compromise position of a strong government-run MEDICARE like Public Option CHOICE. To compete with their DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN, MURDEROUS, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT PRODUCT (The single most costly, deadly and dangerous product sold in America).
They also wanted to take away your rights to have your government meet it’s responsibility to use it’s full power to regulate, negotiate, and control drug cost, healthcare cost and quality. Something every other civilized country in the developed World has done for it’s people. Their Greed! moral degeneracy and lack of patriotism knows no bounds.
Many of you will remember that before we knew about H1N1. I posted a open message to the President and Congress warning them to be vigilant about their health, and cautious about any medical advice they received. As I said then “they will not hesitate to try and hurt you”.
The U.S. and the World have been under a BIOLOGICAL TERROR ATTACK! for over a year now. It is CRITICAL that We The People Of The United States take away control of our healthcare system from the GREED DRIVEN MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX!
For our own National security, and the security of the world.
A Strong, government-run, MEDICARE like Public Option CHOICE. Available to everyone on day one, with the full unfettered power of the federal government to regulate, negotiate, and control cost and quality. Would be the most workable way to deal with this global crisis at this time. Including patent suspensions as needed for national security or the greater good.
As an American I invite the peoples of the World to help us fix our healthcare crisis. And bring pressure on our government to meet it’s responsibility to protect global security by controlling, and removing the corrupting influence of GREED and the PRIVATE FOR PROFIT motivations from healthcare in the U.S. and around the World.
I call on the governments of the World and the global intelligence community to track down these MASS MURDERERS, and bring them to justice. CONNECT THE DOTS! And be vigilant that they don’t slip in another viral strain on you under the cloak of H1N1 sequestration.
Further, the proposed patent protection on biologic’s must be stripped from the US bill. And greatly shorten/restricted, or abolished completely. This is a grave danger to humanity and global security.
I think President Obama is doing the best he can at playing the disastrous deck of cards he inherited from the previous administration. And I think he is doing an excellent job. But the wolves and devils of the medical industrial complex! are trying to exploit, and take advantage of his good heart, and desperate desire to help suffering Americans. But we must be strong and insist that healthcare reform be done right for the American people. Or everyone loose’s.
This is all I can say in a message post. I’ll try to find a way to tell you more later.
God Bless You My Fellow Human Beings
jacksmith – Working Class
p.s. The so-called nominal H1N1 virus is designed in such a way as to make it more lethal to children and young adults. The medical community must be more vigilant of secondary bacterial infections in the young caused by H1N1. And remember, a viral infection is also a transfer of genetic code to you. Think about it, and be vigilant. :-(
The amazing thing about this whole debate has been the polling dichotomy, and the complete lack of backbone on the part of liberals to recognize it. I have charted more than a dozen polls on health care reform over the past 2+ months (pollster.com) that have asked specific questions as follow ups to the “like it or not” main line; the results follow on this poll. Americans consistently want a “government-run option to private insurance”, in addition to other reforms. The numbers, including margin of error, range from 49%-61%. All of those polls showed a “Do you approve of Obama’s, or do you approve of Congress’” response in the 39%-52% range. It goes to the point that was one of the keys to 2008…health care reform built Obama and the Democrat’s advantage in polls prior to the financial meltdown, and was a significant fund-raising factor. Yet the Republican’s attack (funded by insurance companies) has been a marvel of strategy and execution. They have successfully branded the issue on their terms. It goes to what I heard a liberal strategist say a couple of months ago; “I wish the President would get a little W in him…”
@TonyM: I’m not surprised that the disclosure and discussion of the polling criteria (and the entire Huffington Post) is quickly discounted when the picked cherry is shown to have a less than agreeable reason for its existence.
“A new report from government economic analysts at the Health and Human Services Department found that the nation’s $2.5 trillion annual health care tab won’t shrink under the Democratic blueprint that senators are debating. Instead, it would grow somewhat more rapidly than if Congress does nothing.”
I’ve always thought that the best politicians are the ones who do nothing.
Awww Tommy. How can you truthfully question the financial acumen of these guys. I mean, any businessman with the barest minimum of common sense should understand….
You take a program that is already hemorrhaging money and is in imminent danger of failure and financial collapse. You cut funding to it by, oh say, around half a trillion dollars. Then you expand the minimum age requirements by 10 years or so, thereby increasing participation by 10′s of millions of people.
And then you sit back and pat each other on the back, congratulating yourselves with how smart you are.
And these are the guys that are going to save the U.S.
@Tommy Pane, there is no link to the actual HHS report in that article. I looked at http://www.hhs.gov to see if it was there, and there is nothing. If it truly came from the Dept. of Health and Human Services, I would think the report could be found there.
I’m not convinced that the fact that Medicare is in trouble (and I agree that it is) is a good argument for not trying to fix it. Medicare is being exploited far more by doctors than it is by patients. Not to say that all doctors are abusing Medicare – but it only takes a few to mess things up for everyone else. The plan for reducing costs relies far more on reducing fraudulent claims and frivolous testing (ie a CT scan for sinus infections) than it does in cutting benefits.
Frances – I was only looking through MSNBC to see if they were reporting on the 1.1 trillion dollar spending bill that’s about to be passed. The one that FOXNEWS is reporting as increasing many agency’s budgets by an average of 10%. Although MSNBC wasn’t reporting on it, they did publish the article that I quoted.
With regard to reducing costs by reducing fraudulent claims and frivolous testing, why aren’t we doing it now? What solutions to those problems does the HC bill propose specifically?
It is a veritable garden for cherry-picking talking points for those for and against HCR. So, now the Republicans are getting down to brass tacks and saying they want NO reform at all – I thought they were just against killing grandma (no one ever really cared about grandpa, I guess) and a government takeover of health care. At least now they are honest in what they are against – anything that could possibly indicate an improvement for the American people that might hinder their performance in 2010.
@Tommy Pane, maybe it’s because Fox News doesn’t like AP. AP is the news agency that not only fact-checked Palin’s book, but also played a role in several of the ethics probes against her.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheri-and-allan-rivlin/new-cnn-poll-shows-suppor_b_387727.html
“The new CNN poll like many others finds greater support (53% to 46%) for a “public option” than for the Senate Health Care Bill which just 36% support, and 61% oppose.”
From the same link as above.
“Voters are not that well informed though. An overwhelming 79% believe the Senate Bill will add to the deficit even though the Congressional Budget Office has stated that it would actually shrink the deficit, as President Obama has promised it would.
The reason support for health care reform is declining is really very simple. The only message the public is receiving is that health care reform is bad. Turn on Fox News any given night and the message is this or that health reform bill is bad. Turn on MSNBC any given night and the message is this or that health reform bill is bad. Fox News blames all Democrats and MSNBC blames some Democrats.”
The people with the money to produce scary commercials and buy a lot of airtime also happen to be the same people who are skinning us alive for insurance.
What do you expect from Airhead Huffington?
The first is fact. The second is editorial comment. Don’t confuse the two.
CRITICAL!! From jacksmith – Working Class
My Fellow Americans and People Of The World
A strong Government-run MEDICARE like Public Option is CRITICAL!!
A Medicare Buy-in at 55 is a GOOD! idea. But!, not a substitute for a strong Medicare like public option CHOICE for everyone. Nor is the (FEHBP). Without a strong public option on day one the Senate health-care bill is a disaster for the American People and the World. Therefore you must KILL!! it. Without a strong public option the health-care reform bill is MUCH WORSE! than what we have now, and what we have now is a catastrophe. SO YOU MUST KILL!! IT.
What is proposed in the Senate is the worst case scenario for health-care reform. It would shift trillions of taxpayer, public and private dollars into the hands of the private insurance industry (The single most costly, deadly and dangerous product sold in America). And it would compel by law millions of Americans to financially support this oxymoronic criminal enterprise. You cant have a MANDATE WITHOUT A STRONG PUBLIC OPTION CHOICE!
You will have NO! realistic way of controlling cost and quality. Cost will continue soaring through the roof bleeding the American people dry, and KILLing our economy. And our quality of healthcare will continue to decline below our current ranking of “WORST! quality of healthcare delivery in the developed World”.
H1N1 IS A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION!
I have to tell you now that the H1N1 virus is a man-made WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION! and TERROR! It is a WEAPONIZED version of a flu virus. It has swept the planet infecting millions. And causing a global pandemic that has killed tens of thousands, and injured millions.
The H1N1 virus is the product of the DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN PRIVATE FOR PROFIT MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX! It was released in the U.S. in Texas in early January of this year, but not recognized until around April in California. The reason I know this is because when it came to America, it came to see me FIRST! How sweet…
This was around the time the MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX! assaulted the Whitehouse with all their devils deals to cripple and weaken YOUR! healthcare reform. Especially your right to have a single payer system like HR676 (Medicare For All) which most of you wanted.
They don’t even want you to have your HUGE!!! compromise position of a strong government-run MEDICARE like Public Option CHOICE. To compete with their DISGRACEFUL, GREED DRIVEN, MURDEROUS, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT PRODUCT (The single most costly, deadly and dangerous product sold in America).
They also wanted to take away your rights to have your government meet it’s responsibility to use it’s full power to regulate, negotiate, and control drug cost, healthcare cost and quality. Something every other civilized country in the developed World has done for it’s people. Their Greed! moral degeneracy and lack of patriotism knows no bounds.
Many of you will remember that before we knew about H1N1. I posted a open message to the President and Congress warning them to be vigilant about their health, and cautious about any medical advice they received. As I said then “they will not hesitate to try and hurt you”.
The U.S. and the World have been under a BIOLOGICAL TERROR ATTACK! for over a year now. It is CRITICAL that We The People Of The United States take away control of our healthcare system from the GREED DRIVEN MEDICAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX!
For our own National security, and the security of the world.
A Strong, government-run, MEDICARE like Public Option CHOICE. Available to everyone on day one, with the full unfettered power of the federal government to regulate, negotiate, and control cost and quality. Would be the most workable way to deal with this global crisis at this time. Including patent suspensions as needed for national security or the greater good.
As an American I invite the peoples of the World to help us fix our healthcare crisis. And bring pressure on our government to meet it’s responsibility to protect global security by controlling, and removing the corrupting influence of GREED and the PRIVATE FOR PROFIT motivations from healthcare in the U.S. and around the World.
I call on the governments of the World and the global intelligence community to track down these MASS MURDERERS, and bring them to justice. CONNECT THE DOTS! And be vigilant that they don’t slip in another viral strain on you under the cloak of H1N1 sequestration.
Further, the proposed patent protection on biologic’s must be stripped from the US bill. And greatly shorten/restricted, or abolished completely. This is a grave danger to humanity and global security.
I think President Obama is doing the best he can at playing the disastrous deck of cards he inherited from the previous administration. And I think he is doing an excellent job. But the wolves and devils of the medical industrial complex! are trying to exploit, and take advantage of his good heart, and desperate desire to help suffering Americans. But we must be strong and insist that healthcare reform be done right for the American people. Or everyone loose’s.
This is all I can say in a message post. I’ll try to find a way to tell you more later.
God Bless You My Fellow Human Beings
jacksmith – Working Class
p.s. The so-called nominal H1N1 virus is designed in such a way as to make it more lethal to children and young adults. The medical community must be more vigilant of secondary bacterial infections in the young caused by H1N1. And remember, a viral infection is also a transfer of genetic code to you. Think about it, and be vigilant. :-(
The amazing thing about this whole debate has been the polling dichotomy, and the complete lack of backbone on the part of liberals to recognize it. I have charted more than a dozen polls on health care reform over the past 2+ months (pollster.com) that have asked specific questions as follow ups to the “like it or not” main line; the results follow on this poll. Americans consistently want a “government-run option to private insurance”, in addition to other reforms. The numbers, including margin of error, range from 49%-61%. All of those polls showed a “Do you approve of Obama’s, or do you approve of Congress’” response in the 39%-52% range. It goes to the point that was one of the keys to 2008…health care reform built Obama and the Democrat’s advantage in polls prior to the financial meltdown, and was a significant fund-raising factor. Yet the Republican’s attack (funded by insurance companies) has been a marvel of strategy and execution. They have successfully branded the issue on their terms. It goes to what I heard a liberal strategist say a couple of months ago; “I wish the President would get a little W in him…”
@TonyM: I’m not surprised that the disclosure and discussion of the polling criteria (and the entire Huffington Post) is quickly discounted when the picked cherry is shown to have a less than agreeable reason for its existence.
1. American’s don’t want what Congress is trying to force on us.
2. Arianna Huffington is an airhead.
Where’s the surprise?
I just read this article on MSNBC.com
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34382286/ns/health-health_care/
“A new report from government economic analysts at the Health and Human Services Department found that the nation’s $2.5 trillion annual health care tab won’t shrink under the Democratic blueprint that senators are debating. Instead, it would grow somewhat more rapidly than if Congress does nothing.”
I’ve always thought that the best politicians are the ones who do nothing.
Awww Tommy. How can you truthfully question the financial acumen of these guys. I mean, any businessman with the barest minimum of common sense should understand….
You take a program that is already hemorrhaging money and is in imminent danger of failure and financial collapse. You cut funding to it by, oh say, around half a trillion dollars. Then you expand the minimum age requirements by 10 years or so, thereby increasing participation by 10′s of millions of people.
And then you sit back and pat each other on the back, congratulating yourselves with how smart you are.
And these are the guys that are going to save the U.S.
May Gold OR God help us!!
@Tommy Pane, there is no link to the actual HHS report in that article. I looked at http://www.hhs.gov to see if it was there, and there is nothing. If it truly came from the Dept. of Health and Human Services, I would think the report could be found there.
I’m not convinced that the fact that Medicare is in trouble (and I agree that it is) is a good argument for not trying to fix it. Medicare is being exploited far more by doctors than it is by patients. Not to say that all doctors are abusing Medicare – but it only takes a few to mess things up for everyone else. The plan for reducing costs relies far more on reducing fraudulent claims and frivolous testing (ie a CT scan for sinus infections) than it does in cutting benefits.
Frances – I was only looking through MSNBC to see if they were reporting on the 1.1 trillion dollar spending bill that’s about to be passed. The one that FOXNEWS is reporting as increasing many agency’s budgets by an average of 10%. Although MSNBC wasn’t reporting on it, they did publish the article that I quoted.
With regard to reducing costs by reducing fraudulent claims and frivolous testing, why aren’t we doing it now? What solutions to those problems does the HC bill propose specifically?
Found the pdf of the original report. The increase in cost would be 0.7% over 10 years and insure 33 million more people. Here is a link to the document: http://www.politico.com/static/PPM110_091211_financial_impact.html
It is a veritable garden for cherry-picking talking points for those for and against HCR. So, now the Republicans are getting down to brass tacks and saying they want NO reform at all – I thought they were just against killing grandma (no one ever really cared about grandpa, I guess) and a government takeover of health care. At least now they are honest in what they are against – anything that could possibly indicate an improvement for the American people that might hinder their performance in 2010.
I don’t understand why MSNBC would report this and not FOX.
@Tommy Pane, I’m not sure what you mean.
MSNBC is liberal. FOX is conservative. One would think FOX would report such a story because of how it potentially harms the HC momentum.
@Tommy Pane, maybe it’s because Fox News doesn’t like AP. AP is the news agency that not only fact-checked Palin’s book, but also played a role in several of the ethics probes against her.
FOX actually did report it. I found it in the political secrtion. Most of their stories are AP reports.
That’s good news Tommy.