Clippings

The Trouble with Harry
The cheers for Reid in Washington are not being heard back home: a poll conducted this month on behalf of The Las Vegas Review-Journal found that Nevadans disapproved of the health care bill. Reid’s attempt to slip in financing to offset Nevada’s Medicaid costs, precisely the kind of vote-getting sweetener that could display his worth to Nevadans, came under fire in Washington, so he withdrew it rather than risk having the bill unravel. (New York Times 1/13/2010)

Harry Reid is the poster boy for health care reform, but "Nevadans disapproved of the health care bill." RedStateVT misses the days when politicians represented the people they served. Also, looks like Harry was trying to get the same deal he gave Ben Nelson of Nebraska.....what a slimeball!

Mr. Reid, 70 years old, is faring worse than most of his colleagues. Besides taking flak from some over health care, he hails from a relatively conservative state with a tough economy. Its unemployment rate, 12.3%, ties for third highest in the nation. Nevada ranks second in mortgages that are in foreclosure. (Wall Street Journal, 1/13/2010)

Reid fiddles while Nevada burns.

Democrat Has A-ha Moment
Under the Senate bill, the federal government would impose a 40 percent tax on the value of employer-sponsored health coverage exceeding $8,500 a year for an individual and $23,000 for a family........But Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, said: “The view of many progressives is that the tax is unacceptable. It would affect a lot of middle-income people.” Mr. Nadler said the politics of the tax should worry Democrats. In effect, he said, “the tax tells blue-collar workers that you should pay higher taxes and get lower benefits to help finance coverage for the uninsured.” (New York Times, 1/13/2010)

Nadler must have thought that the health care fairy was going to pay for insuring the uninsured!

Sub-Standards
(Massachusetts Senate race - Democrat Coakley versus Republican Brown)
And Democrats are clearly unnerved by other recent polls that found the two neck and neck. Some of those polls do not meet the standards of The New York Times and other news organizations because they relied on automated telephone calls. (New York Times, 1/14/2010)

RedStateVT guesses that any poll that shows a Democrat losing in Massachusetts fails to "meet the standards of The New York Times."

In Other Words
With a growing sense of urgency, President Obama and top Congressional Democrats held a marathon negotiating session on Wednesday in an effort to thrash out agreements on sweeping health care legislation that could provide insurance coverage to more than 30 million Americans. (New York Times, 1/13/2010)

With a growing sense of urgency, President Obama and top Congressional Democrats held a marathon negotiating session on Wednesday in an effort to thrash out agreements on sweeping health care legislation notwithstanding serious concerns among large numbers of Americans that the reforms were too costly and would reduce benefits. (RedStateVT, 1/14/2010)

Health Care Apocalypse
“If we do nothing, if, God forbid, this bill crashes and burns, we could have 60 or 80 or 100 million people without insurance,” said Representative Eliot L. Engel, Democrat of New York. (New York Times, 1/13/2010)

Engel also noted that failure to pass the bill would result in plagues of locusts, the darkening of the sun, and worldwide famine.

New Material for Letterman
Mr. Biden was also consistently disgruntled with Mr. Obama's campaign strategy, apparently even more so than Sarah Palin was by John McCain's. Before a "Meet the Press" appearance in August, Mr. Biden told Mr. Obama's aides: "Well, it's your campaign. I'll say what you want me to say. But after Election Day, all bets are off." Evidently, Mr. Biden went rogue long before Ms. Palin did. (Wall Street Journal, 1/13/2010)

In between harassing female subordinates, David Letterman continues to tell tired Sarah Palin jokes. Note to Dave: Biden offers much better material!