Go On Pretending

Whether
With the end of open enrollment, the administration must now turn its attention to a handful of practical questions that may have as much impact on the law’s success as the number of people who sign up. These include whether consumers continue to pay their share of monthly premiums, whether they have access to the doctors and hospitals they need and whether insurance companies will be required to raise premiums. (New York Times, 4/2/2014)

We already know the answers to these questions. No, no, yes. 


No Buts
But Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, said she did not think the health care law would be the decisive issue in this year’s midterm elections, regardless of the intensity of the attacks leveled by Republicans.

“I never said that we would run on it,” Ms. Pelosi said in an interview. “That wasn’t why we passed it. But we are not running away from it.” In the end, she said, “elections are always about jobs and the economy.” (New York Times, 4/2/2014)

And how is that working out for Dems, Nance? The jobs and economy thing?


Saving Paul Ryan
Mr. Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman and a possible White House contender in 2016, laid out a budget plan that cuts $5 trillion in spending over the next decade. He said it would bring federal spending and taxes into balance by 2024, through steep cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, and the total repeal of the Affordable Care Act just as millions are reaping the benefits of the law.
....
“This is what elections are about,” said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee. “Budgets are the clearest roadmaps for discovering what people’s priorities are.”
....
Because Senate Democrats do not intend to even draft a budget this year, the Ryan plan will serve more as a political manifesto than a legislative roadmap for the 113th Congress. (New York Times, 4/2/2014)

First of all, Paul Ryan is brilliant. Think of his intellect in the VEEP chair versus the bozo we have and weep that America did not elect Mitt Romney. Second, Ryan is courageous in spelling out his budget in minute detail. In doing so, he opens himself up to Democrat nitpicking over every line item which they then turn around and campaign on. Sample Democrat party news release: Ryan budget would kill the poor! 

And the most dishonest thing about Dems? They don't even have the guts to propose a budget as the Times generously points out.


Euphoria
Suddenly ObamaCare is a roaring success, happy days are here again and liberals are euphoric, or claim to be. There are more than a few reasons to doubt this new fairy tale, not least the behavior of Senate Democrats running for re-election this year.

In the Rose Garden Tuesday, President Obama reported that 7.1 million people had signed up so far, confirming a Monday night White House news leak. "That doesn't mean all our health-care problems have been solved forever," he conceded with customary modesty. The government appears to have tapped heretofore-unknown reserves of bureaucratic efficiency by releasing numbers timed to this campaign-style pep rally. (Wall Street Journal, 4/1/2014)

So just to be clear, 45 million people did not have health insurance. That is what the Dems told us was a major reason why America needed Obamacare. Now 7.1 million have signed up. Therefore, the percentage of people in the U.S. without health insurance went from 15% to 12.7%. And Dems score Obamacare as a raging success. Only remember that the 7.1% includes many who had health insurance before, but had to sign up because Obamacare resulted in the cancellation of their policies. Let's say, conservatively, that enrollees who were previously insured total 2 million. Obamacare then moved the uninsured percentage from 15% to 13.3%. Victory!

Of course, don't forget that 80% are getting government subsidies... 


Run-In
Today, we are going to discuss the Supreme Court decision on political donations. Already, we have run into a terrible problem, which is the difficulty in having a fun conversation about campaign finance laws. (Gail Collins, New York Times, 4/3/2014)

Typically dishonest op-ed piece by a New York Times Liberal. Collins decries the Supreme Court ruling on campaign donations while mentioning the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson. Geez, Ms. Collins, are there any billionaires who give lots of money to Democrat candidates? Maybe you could Google it...

Physical Manifestation

Liberal Hate Speech
Do you think Wyoming wants a fresh face? Cheney is extremely fresh, having lived in the Virginia suburbs until recently. In her YouTube announcement, she basically argued that her genes were from Wyoming, where her grandmother was the first female deputy sheriff of Natrona County. She frequently points out that her great-grandmother was a settler who walked across the state in her bare feet. If we could get a re-enactment of that, it could make this a campaign for the ages.

Meanwhile, her supportive father has agreed to take part in Wyoming’s annual antelope hunt competition with Colorado. Exciting things happen when Dick Cheney goes off to shoot wild critters. (Gail Collins, NYT, 7/17/2013)

With snide female New York Times Liberal columnist Maureen Dowd claiming the hate Bush space, snide female New York Times columnist Gail Collins goes for the hate Cheney space (see the pattern?) Collins takes exception to Liz Cheney running for office in Wyoming after living in Virginia. Which brings to mind a former female senator and later Secretary of State who, having decided on a career in politics, shopped around for a state to run in, eventually settling upon New York. What was her name again? 

Of course, Collins wrote extensively about that at the time. Or maybe she didn't.

As to her reference to Dick Cheney's hunting accident. Well shame on Collins. That is despicable.


Liberal Policies in Action
Detroit has become the largest city in U.S. history to file for bankruptcy.

State-appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr on Thursday asked a federal judge permission to place the city into Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection. (Washington Post, 7/18/2013)

Here is what you need to know: the last seven (count em, seven) mayors of Detroit have been Democrats. Dating back to 1962. That's 1962. 


Touty
President Barack Obama on Thursday will tout the benefits of the Affordable Care Act to a skeptical public during a speech at the White House as part of an effort to build support for the health law in the face of continued Republican efforts to block it. (WSJ, 7/17/2013)

We wonder. Will the president's speech address the following?:

The letter was unusually harsh. Addressed to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, it was really intended for President Barack Obama. The letter was not from Mr. Obama's GOP adversaries but from the presidents of three powerful unions.

On July 12, James Hoffa of the Teamsters (1.4 million members), Joseph Hansen of the Food and Commercial Workers (1.3 million members) and D. Taylor of UNITE-HERE (200,000 members, mostly culinary and hotel workers) wrote to complain about the president's Affordable Care Act. (Karl Rove, WSJ, 7/17/2013)


Pursuit
The military judge in the trial of Pfc. Bradley Manning decided on Thursday not to drop a charge accusing Private Manning of “aiding the enemy.” 
......
The government has said it will not pursue the death penalty against Private Manning. (NYT, 7/18/2013)

So basically, good news/bad news.

Dueling Factions

Taxing
Rep. Janet Ancel, D-Calais, wanted House members to keep in mind all the taxes her committee considered but rejected as it deliberated how to raise the extra funding the House budget would require.

So she opened her presentation on the tax bill with a list of the rejected proposals: imposing taxes on heating fuel or break-open tickets, or raising the rate on capital gains or capping mortgage deductions.

Critics wanted to keep the spotlight on all the taxes the House Ways and Means Committee selected to raise $27 million in the next budget year.

The list includes changes in the income tax, additions to items subject to the sales tax, increases in the tax on tobacco products and a one-year increase in the tax on meals.

Ancel argued the package a majority of the Ways and Means Committee recommended was “fair and equitable.”

A majority, almost exclusively Democrats and Progressives, agreed and voted 85 to 55 to give the bill preliminary approval. (Burlington Free Press, 3/27/2013)

Vermont Progressives develop a new strategy for countering voter complaints about new taxes: "Yes, but look at all the things we are not taxing!"

To his credit, Governor Shumlin argued against the new taxes.


Paint By Numbers
The deputy mayor, Joseph J. Lhota, never went to see the painting. Just hearing about it was enough.

The eight-foot-tall portrait of the Virgin Mary, a semi-abstract collage hanging at the Brooklyn Museum, contained clumps of elephant dung and cutouts of female genitalia from pornographic magazines. Mr. Lhota, a Roman Catholic, was horrified. “As a concept,” he said in a recent interview, “it was offensive.”

In fall 1999, that personal revulsion turned into public policy. Overnight, he became the tip of an unbending Giuliani spear aimed at the museum, seeking to cajole, browbeat and threaten the 190-year-old organization into removing the work of art. (NYT, 3/27/2013)

In a profile of a NYC candidate for mayor, the New York Times replays Lhota's role in the Guiliani administration's attempt to get the Brooklyn Museum (funded by taxpayer dollars) to remove a vile and offensive painting. Clearly the Times viewed these attempts, then and now, as a grievous assault on free expression.

Of course, this is the same New York Times that published cartoons deemed offensive to Islam. Thus establishing their creds on the point that all religions should be able to tolerate artistic mocking. 

Oh, wait....the Times DIDN'T publish those cartoons?


In The Lobby
“You don’t doubt that the lobby supporting the enactment of same-sex marriage laws in different states is politically powerful, do you?” he asked the lawyer. (NYT, 3/27/2013)

Chief Justice John Roberts tries to redeem himself. 


The Marrying Kind
Our point is not to raise a parade of unlikely horribles. It is that for the Court to transform the definition of marriage for one group fundamentally restructures it for all groups and makes it harder for society through its representatives to rule out anything that adults want to call "marriage." (WSJ, 3/27/2013)

Those in favor of gay marriage make the rather absurd argument that it is a "right."  Says them. As Conservatives often point out, Liberals seek the moral highground - and attempt to avoid a substantive debate on topics dear to them - by declaring their position to be a fundamental right...legalized dope, abortion, gay marriage. All are "rights." The short excerpt above succinctly captures the essence of the rebuttal. 


Keyless
But a carbon tax/fee is the key to controlling climate change. (Gail Collins, NYT, 3/28/2013)

More proof (you didn't really need it, did you?) that Liberals believe that all problems in the world can be solved by more taxes.


Stamped Out
The Wall Street Journal today provides some frightening statistics on the percentage of people in the country and state-by-state that receive food stamps.

Nationwide the number is 15%. (This is not a misprint.) Wait it gets worse. In Vermont it is 16%. In Maine it is 19%. In Oregon it is 21%  And in the District of Columbia it is 23%. 

The numbers are staggering.