… former Vice President Al Gore on Monday said he made a mistake in supporting corn-based ethanol while he was in office, admitting he was more interested in farm votes for his presidential run than what was best for the environment.
Wonder when he’ll ‘fess up & admit that he was similarly “misguided” in his ranting about Global Warming Climate Change. I won’t be holding my breath waiting for it.
So President Obama wants to drastically scale back the NASA budget, but still wants to keep America in space. Perhaps what he’s got in mind is something like this…
Reminder: Don’t try this at home, unless you truly are a rocket scientist, like the guys in the video.
It’s been a crazy-busy day for me today, one that followed by an even crazier day for the folks in our nation’s capital, and that one word title kinda sums up my reaction to the day.
Crap.
As in what I said when I heard Obama’s poorly named “Health Care Reform” bill barely got the votes needed to pass it.
Crap.
As in what the politicians supporting this bill are full of and are spreading around thick. Example: Our Glorious President said last week that this bill will add “almost a decade of solvency to Medicare;” wonderful, but what happens after that? And does anybody else notice the irony in a statement like that being used to defend a program that will make Medicare look like a first-aid box by comparison? How long will Obamacare program stay solvent? And what new and bigger-still program will be proposed to extend Obamacare’s solvency when it’s suffered a few decades of expansion and three card monte at the hands of politicians?
They say it will ‘only’ cost just shy of a trillion dollars, but it will reduce the deficit by hundreds of billions in the first ten years. Bull crap. What they don’t tell us is that “$53 billion of the $118 billion “lower” deficit over the next 10 years comes from Social Security payroll tax revenues that result from the increase in wages that employers will offer employees instead of health insurance.” Horse hockey. But what about the burgeoning number of Social Security recipients that will be on the government dole in the next ten years? Seems like the CBO might have missed that little detail.
There’s also the matter of some $463 billion in cuts to the Medicare program over the next decade. While Obamacare essentially adds how many millions of people to the Medicare rolls? The cost to run Medicare isn’t going to magically shrink in the coming years; it seems like every day you hear something about some pharmacy chain or hospital or group of doctors that refuse to see any new Medicare patients because when they bill Medicare for services rendered, they either don’t get paid or get paid a fraction of the bill. It also looks like the Feds will just push some of those costs off to the states and make them worry about where it comes from. Can you say “unfunded mandate”? Last I heard there were already eleven states lining up to bring suit against the Federal Government once Obama signs this thing into law. (and what do you wanna bet that nobody in Congress or the CBO took legal costs into consideration.)
Crap.
As in what this bill is worth.
If you listen to the Democrats and the mainstream media, this bill is full of Sunshine and Rainbows and Puppy Dogs. It’s passage is important not only for the President’s Legacy, but it will also reduce the deficit, be revenue-neutral, cure blindness, eliminate hunger, cool the climate, slow the rise of the oceans, heal the planet… (sorry; different speech.) Meanwhile the Republicans counter with their own version of what this bill will accomplish, and paints a somewhat less rosy picture. Somehow I think the reality of the thing be somewhere in between, but as trustworthy as the Democrats have proven to be since taking control of Washington, I’d say the Republican version is closer to reality. The good that’s in it is more than outweighed by the bad in it. Like a pan of brownies made with all the best ingredients, but has had a half cup of dog crap mixed in. I don’t care how great the other ingredients are, you won’t catch me eating one.
Yup. Crap is the word.
Wow; this guy is in-stinkin’-credible! Now he’s telling us that if his Health Care Insurance Reform somehow makes it through Congress, we and our health insurance providing employers will see 3000% reductions in our insurance premiums. Three thousand percent!
Of course, it was a slip of the tongue or more likely a teleprompter miscue, but still… If it had been George W. Bush making a mistake like this, the media would be all over it, but again, our President can do no wrong. This guy is supposed to be the brightest bulb to grace the White House in centuries; shouldn’t he have caught that flub or at least corrected himself after he said it? And what about the adoring crowd? Was no one listening to what the man actually said and applying any critical thinking before cheering madly?
It seems the man is in permanent campaign mode, constantly trying to sell us something, even when polls show that we don’t want what he’s selling, and the facts show him to be dead wrong. Even Congressional Democrats are afraid to vote on it fearing a backlash come November.
They really can’t be serious about this, can they?
House Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter is prepping to help usher the healthcare overhaul through the House and potentially avoid a direct vote on the Senate overhaul bill, the chairwoman said Tuesday.
…
In the Slaughter Solution, the rule would declare that the House “deems” the Senate version of Obamacare to have been passed by the House. House members would still have to vote on whether to accept the rule, but they would then be able to say they only voted for a rule, not for the bill itself.
This is only another attempt by the Democrat “Leadership” to obfuscate the fact that even with the huge majority they have in the House, Nancy Pelosi still is unable to muster the votes to push this thing through. The Representatives know a ‘yes’ vote would be political suicide, so they don’t want to touch it. Comically, the story from Nancy is still that the Republicans are the problem (cue rolling of eyes). Even if they proceed with this cockamamie plan, a vote to accept the rule will still have the stink of death on it, so the issue is pretty much moot.
Speaking of leadership (or the lack thereof), for the last few weeks President Obama has been insisting that Congress get this healthcare thing put to bed before Malia & Sasha’s Big Adventure (featuring stops in Guam, Indonesia & Australia; one can only wonder whether a visit to Dad’s birthplace is on the itinerary…) The Southern Hemisphere Tour was supposed to take off March 18, but has been pushed back to March 21. Again, he has drawn a line in the sand, and allowed that line to be moved. Is it any wonder that his job approval numbers have tanked? Or have they tanked because he’s pushing so hard for something so many people don’t want? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Or at least this speech he gave in 1961 sounds like he must be commenting on President Obama’s effort to push through the travesty known as “Healthcare Reform” that’s before Congress right now. Take a listen…
I guess what it really shows is that there really is little new in the world of politics.
Vice President Joe Biden had some notable things to say about his Executive Branch position today…
Just moments before the afternoon session (of the today’s health care summit at the Blair House) got underway, C-SPAN’s cameras picked up audio of Biden chatting casually with participants.
“It’s easy being vice president — you don’t have to do anything.”
Whomever Biden was chatting with said, “It’s like being the grandpa and not the parent.”
“Yeah, that’s it!” replied Biden.
Good grief, what a buffoon. And to think that the people who voted to put this guy a heartbeat from the Presidency were worried about Sarah Palin… After all of his gaffes last year I’m surprised he’s still allowed out in public.
Here’s a good read by Dan Kennedy on the Business & Media Institute website. An excerpt:
Mrs. Obama… reportedly has a staff of 22 assistants. Yes, I said twenty-two. (Previous First Ladies’ dedicated staffs were in the single digits). Michelle’s little army includes a Chief of Staff costing $172,000 a year; a Deputy Chief of Staff at $90,000; a Director of Policy and Projects at $140,000; a Director of Communications at $102,000; a Deputy Director of Scheduling at $62,000; two Social Secretaries – mysteriously, one at $65,000, one at $64,000; an Associate Director of Correspondence at $45,000, an Assistant to the Social Secretary at $36,000, and more, in total consuming $6.3-million annually thus $25-million during her 4-year term. Not to mention a make-up artist and hair stylist.
Kennedy took the occasion of the scolding tone of President Obama to bring this up; when he said that a trip to Vegas wasn’t the wisest move “when you’re trying to save for college. You prioritize. You make tough choices. It’s time your government did the same.”
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black…*
*not a racist comment.
I’d heard rumblings of Nancy Pelosi’s boorish attitude before, but this news just takes the cake. Since stepping into the position of Speaker of the House, the bill for Madame Speaker’s air travel is pushing the $3 million mark, with well over $100,000 in just in-flight food & booze. Then there was the staggering bill for the monstrous Congressional presence at the Copenhagen Climate Summit…
She has been using Air Force aircraft and personnel to jet back and forth between Washington, D.C. and her home in San Francisco, plus has made several overseas junkets (for who knows what)… But traveling alone isn’t much fun, so she has her usual entourage tagging along, plus any number of her family members, plus whatever Congressional delegation needs to come along, plus their own entourages, plus security…
And when asked about the extravagant use of taxpayer funds for travel, Pelosi’s defense is along the lines of, it’s all necessary for the person third in line to the Presidency. Can she justify all of the travel and expenses? Has she reimbursed the DOD for any of those expenses? If Denny Hastert had pulled the same stunts, would there be the near deafening silence from the mainstream media about it? I think not, on all three counts.
Not my words, but the words of highly respected economist, Dr. Arthur Laffer from an interview published on Human Events.
“Obama is a fine, very impressive person. He really is. Unfortunately, everything that he is doing in economics is exactly wrong. He is a crappy president,” Laffer said.
Dr. Laffer had a lot more to say in that interview about the state of the country’s economy and how the Obama Administration’s economic policy is affecting it. Although Laffer didn’t have much nice to say about the current policy, his is not your run-of-the-mill partisan mudslinging. He’s also written some scathing reviews of Bush Administration spending decisions, especially the bailouts in 2008. He may not be a totally unbiased source of info, but he is consistent in calling bad economic policy as he sees it. And he has some solid credentials backing up what he says.
President Obama told Diane Sawyer in an interview recently, “I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president.” I would so love for him to be a really good president, but if he continues on his present course, I forsee him being more of a crappy one-term president.
Human Events Interview
“Get Ready for Inflation and Higher Interest Rates” — June 11, 2009, WSJ
Soak the Rich, Lose the Rich — May 18, 2009, WSJ
“How to Fix the Health-Care ‘Wedge’; There is an alternative to ObamaCare” — August 5, 2009, WSJ
