Double On Kazoo

If Only
One adviser said if the White House had realized the economic troubles would be as sustained as they have been, health care might never have been on the table. Others disagree, arguing that health care did not detract from efforts to promote recovery. (NYT, 6/29/2012)


And the proof, of course, is that Obama was able to pass health care AND turn around the economy. Just kidding!


Leg Up
Republicans say that the court called the mandate a tax although Obama had insisted that it wasn’t. True, but I’m not sure that has legs outside the Grover Norquist-no-tax echo chamber. (Charles M. Blow, NYT, 6/29/2012)


John Boehner warned Republicans not to "spike the football" anticipating that the Supreme Court would strike down Obamacare. Of course, that did not happpen. Democrats, playing by different rules, have no problem celebrating and taunting Republicans as Blow does here. Their celebrations may be short-lived with the November election looming. Given Obama's poll numbers Democrats should be a lot more worried than they appear to be at the moment. 


Meanwhile Blow gives us this gem: no one really cares that Obama said the mandate wasn't a tax and the Court said that it was. Here's a prediction: the average American will see over 1,000 television ads between now and November that show footage of President Obama insisting that the mandate is not a tax. We'll see about those "legs."

A RedStateVT Primer on Obama's Lies

Today's post is prompted by the following inquiry from a Loyal Reader.


Dear RedStateVT,


Is it true that President Obama lies? If so, can you provide a list of his lies?


Sincerely, 


Loyal Reader


RedStateVT replies: Yes, Loyal Reader, it is true that President Obama lies. Space considerations prohibit us from listing all of his lies, so we have provided a representative sample. First, it is important to remember that it is not only as president that Obama has lied. In fact, candidate Obama lied, as well. The best example of this is when candidate Obama said that he was not going to opt out of public financing for his presidential bid. Oops, he lied and opted out. 


As president, Obama has lied many times: he said he was going to close Gitmo - lie; he said he was going to limit the influence of lobbyists - lie; he said he was going to have a transparent administration - lie. 


Because Obama's signature legislative achievement - Obamacare - is much in the news today, it may be useful to look at the various lies surrounding it. First, Obama swore up and down that the indivdual mandate was not a tax. Yesterday we learned from the Supreme Court that he lied - it is a tax. Obama also said that insurance rates would go down, not up as a result of Obamacare. As RedStateVT has previously reported rates are ALREADY going up (in our case 54%) as insurers brace for the full onslaught of Obamacare. Obama also announced that you could keep your own health care if you wanted to. In fact, as Obamacare begins to take hold your plan may no longer be available. Some students have already discovered that the plan they purchased through their college or university is now not being offered. We count this as a lie.

We hope that this is helpful.




Favorites From Today's WSJ
In any case, brace yourself for the admiring profiles of Chief Justice John Roberts. Last week's wisdom: right-wing nut in black robe. This week's wisdom: rigorous mind, independent nature, unswayed by partisan considerations, he's grown in the role since being appointed by George W. Bush. (Peggy Noonan, WSJ, 6/28/2012)


Good point, mentioned by Ann Coulter right after the decision was announced yesterday.


Somebody will have fun compiling a list of quotes from lefties bewailing 5-4 decisions yesterday, then praising this one. (James Taranto, WSJ, 6/28/2012)


No finding of constitutionality changes the fact that a significant majority of the public resents the health law's mandates, its costs, its rationing, its taxes. The president has been largely mum on his "achievement," not just because it is politically toxic, but because it is a continual reminder that his first years were wasted on this health-care hubris while the economy slipped further into the malaise that dominates it today. (Kimberley A. Strassel, WSJ, 6/28/2012)

Court Of The Crimson King

When the inexplicable happens, it is often best to turn to the smartest people around to explain, clarify and expound. Hence RedStateVT waited patiently for Krauthammer and Will to weigh in:


Obamacare is now essentially upheld. There’s only one way it can be overturned. The same way it was passed — elect a new president and a new Congress. That’s undoubtedly what Roberts is saying: Your job, not mine. I won’t make it easy for you. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 6/28/2012)


Elections matter most; only they can end Obamacare. (George Will, Washington Post, 6/28/2012)


And, in fact, one of the few comforting interpretations of the Supreme Court's ruling on Obamacare was that Chief Justice Roberts essentially handed the 2012 election to Mitt Romney. The thinking is that - given the unpopularity of the law and given the fact that it was only upheld if defined as a tax (which Obama expressly denied) - the American people will rise up and reject Obama. President Romney then will undo the law. 


We hope so because alternative interpretations are unsettling, e.g. Roberts - like other seeming conservative judges before him, is a liberal in disguise; or, Roberts caved under Obama's relentless haranguing of the Court. Let's hope that Roberts is the legal genius that some are calling him.

Choomba!

Full Monty
Politico, in full attack mode against Republicans on the eve of the Supreme Court's likely decision to overturn all or part of Obamacare, sought out former Rep. Anthony Weiner to offer his insights on the law. Weiner claims that Democrats were right to pass the law, but that the public is simply too stupid to understand its benefits, and that the party should have done a better job of defending its members from public outrage over the issue. (Breitbart.com, 6/27/2012)


Now who, Dems wondered, can we get to speak from a position of moral authority on Obamacare? Why Anthony Weiner of course!


No Show
Young Hollywood will have to make do without Barack Obama at their Friday fundraiser. The president is skipping the “Gen44” event at L.A.’s Soho Houseon June 29, instead sending campaign surrogates like chief technology officer Harper Reed and Battleground States director Mitch Stewart, Deadline reports. (POLITICO.com, 6/26/2012)


Thus snubbed, an excellent opportunity for "Young Hollywood" to show their independence....and back Romney!


Swamp People
Surviving one of the toughest re-election fights of his career, Representative Charles B. Rangel fended off four challengers on Tuesday to win the Democratic nomination for a 22nd term in Congress.


Mr. Rangel’s victory capped a gripping campaign for a Congressional seat that for decades has been at the center of black political power — and preserved a career in Washington that had been threatened by ethics troubles and changing demographics.


Mr. Rangel was censured in 2010 after the House Ethics Committee found him guilty of 11 counts of ethical violations, including failure to pay taxes, improper solicitation of donations and failure to report his personal income accurately. (NYT, 6/26/2012)


Corrupt politician Charlie Rangel wins his primary with the full and complete support of Nancy ("Drain the swamp") Pelosi.


No Show
Senator Senator Claire McCaskill on Tuesday became the latest Democrat to decide to skip the party’s national convention in Charlotte, N.C., later this summer...This week, three leading Democrats from West Virginia – Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, Senator Joe Manchin III and Representative Nick J. Rahall II – said they would also miss the convention this September, according to the state’s Democratic Party. All three are up for re-election in November. (NYT, 6/26/2012)


Never a good sign when people in your own party start making up excuses NOT to hang out with you!

The Interceptor

Teeny Tiny
There are a tiny number of liberals capable of single-handedly reversing Priorities’ lackluster fortunes. But financier George Soros has shown no signs of supporting Priorities; his adviser Michael Vachon told me that this year his boss was “more focused on Europe.” Meanwhile, Progressive Insurance chairman Peter Lewis, who gave $25 million in 2004, is currently concentrating on marijuana-law reform, and his adviser Jennifer Frutchy told me that he won’t be contributing to Priorities. (tnr.com, 6/22/2012)


President Pander gave in on gay marriage and illegal immigration to get votes, why not give liberal billionaires what they want also? We're not certain what Soros wants, but Obama could clearly free up millions in campaign donations to his super PACs from Lewis by legalizing marijuana. 


Moot Point
Donald B. Verrilli Jr., who became solicitor general last June, rehearsed in multiple moot court sessions. But on the critical day of Supreme Court arguments on March 27, he momentarily choked on a drink of water and was hammered by justices skeptical of his argument. (NYT, 6/23/2012)


So apparently, if Obamacare is defeated it will be because water went down the wrong pipe.


Pathways
The majority of Democrats, polls suggest, have followed roughly the same path as the former Yale Law School dean Harold Koh, a staunch critic of Bush’s wartime policies who now serves as a legal adviser to the State Department, supplying constitutional justifications for Obama’s drone campaigns. What was outrageous under a Republican has become executive branch business-as-usual under a Democrat.(Ross Douthat, NYT, 6/23/2012)


RedStateVT recognizes that politics is bloodsport, but just once (once!) we would like to hear either Democrats or Republicans say: "In hindsight, the policies that we were previously critical of have turned out to be correct and necessary and we apologize for our previous opposition."


Good column by Douthat.


Defiant
The Romney campaign, whose fund-raising prowess has defied assumptions about President Obama’s financial advantages, offered wealthy donors and bundlers an extraordinary level of access to the candidate, his staff members, advisers and family this weekend at a three-day retreat that even seasoned political contributors said dwarfed previous presidential powwows. (NYT, 6/23/2012)


Breaking news! Fat Cat Republican donors get "extraordinary access" to Romney! Do Democrat donors get the same privileges we wondered? Well we had to read until paragraph fifteen of this twenty-nine paragraph article to get this:


Mr. Romney, of course, is not alone in granting his donors special treatment. Mr. Obama has invited major contributors to state dinners, put them on his Job Council and, as visitor logs show, allowed them into the White House for meetings with advisers.


...and not to mention the intimate dinners with Hollywood's finest!


Conversion
Now, campaign officials and other top Democrats said this was their best chance yet to convert enthusiasm among gay men and lesbians for Mr. Obama into more than just votes.


“It’s like shooting fish in a barrel this year,” said Steve Elmendorf, a Democratic consultant... (NYT, 6/24/2012)


Clarification/retraction expected shortly....

Total Absorption

Away In A Manger
Democratic Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren is celebrating her 63rd birthday with a fundraiser. (BostonHerald.com, 6/22/2012)


For those who have not heard it, RedStateVT presents the Elizabeth Warren nativity story. Sixty-three years ago Warren was born in a tepee on an Indian reservation in North Dakota. Her father was Colin Wentworth Warren III, a corporate executive, and her stay-at-home mother was Little Sewing Bear. Warren would go on to became a professor at Harvard Law where she never told anyone about her Native American heritage, not wanting to be viewed as someone who traded on her diversity background.


Knoxed Out
The Supreme Court’s ruling this week in Knox v. Service Employees International Union is one of the most brazen of the Roberts court. It shows how defiantly the five justices act in advancing the aggressive conservatism of their majority on the court.


The court’s moderate liberals were rightly dismayed by the majority’s willingness to breach court rules in pursuit of its agenda. (NYT editorial, 6/22/2012)


Conservatives are conservatives, but Liberals are "moderate liberals." This one had us falling on the floor laughing. It is entirely in keeping with the manner in which the modern Left attempts to hide their own extremism or to alter the fundamental facts.  To wit, dismayed to discover that George Zimmerman was not white and hence they could not advance the story line of white prejudice, he is described as a "white Hispanic."


Well RedStateVT is fighting back. Liberals are now "liberal Liberals."


Bane
Bain structured deals so that it was difficult for the firm and its executives to ever really lose, even if practically everyone else involved with the company that Bain owned did, including its employees, creditors and even, at times, investors in Bain’s funds. (NYT, 6/22/2012)


The New York Times has already done the Mitt Romney's Bain Capital screwed companies story, the Mitt Romney's multiple house story, the Mitt Romney's wife's expensive horses story, the Mitt Romney was not really a good governor of Massachusetts story, and now they return to the Bain Capital story. How about getting some new material? (You know they are just dying to do the "cult of Mormonism" story, but that will likely be their "October surprise."

We Will Move This Country Forward

Inappropriate
An additional $2 billion has been appropriated to states for care for the aged outside of nursing homes, and there is also $350 million to combat fraud and waste in Medicare. (NYT, 6/21/2012)


Did we read that correctly? $350 million to combat fraud and waste? Here's another idea: let's just not spend that money. Chances are we will end up ahead. 


Share-Holders
The largest share of the money to date, about $5 billion, has gone to employers, public retirement plans, unions and others that provide insurance coverage for workers who retire before they are eligible for Medicare. Under this early-retiree program, General Electric and the United Automobile Workers were among those entities receiving money.


G.E., for one, said it had used the $39 million it received under the program to reduce its costs and the costs of both active and retired employees. Republicans like Senator Mike Enzi from Wyoming have argued that much of the money went to unions and state retirement plans as a way of rewarding “politically connected constituencies.”


Let's see....unions - public sector and other - are enormous contributors to Democrats and GE's Jeffrey Immelt is an Obama supporter. Yes, rewards to "politically connected constituencies" sounds about right.


Denmark
Rewind to 2009. The fight over ObamaCare is raging, and a few news outlets report that something looks ethically rotten in the White House. An outside group funded by industry is paying the former firm of senior presidential adviser David Axelrod to run ads in favor of the bill. That firm, AKPD Message and Media, still owes Mr. Axelrod money and employs his son.


The story quickly died, but emails recently released by the House Energy and Commerce Committee ought to resurrect it. The emails suggest the White House was intimately involved both in creating this lobby and hiring Mr. Axelrod's firm—which is as big an ethical no-no as it gets. (WSJ, 6/21/2012)


Hold on a second here. We simply cannot deal with all of the Obama administration scandals at once. Let's take them one at a time. First we'll do Fast and Furious, then Solyndra, then the intelligence leaks, then Axelrod.


The most ethical administration....


It's A Drag
One of the largest drags on our economy has been the layoffs of public employees like teachers, firefighters and police officers due to state budget cuts. Even as American businesses have created nearly 4.3 million private-sector jobs over the past 27 months, state and local government employment has fallen by 450,000 jobs during that time. But Congress has failed to act to put hundreds of thousands of teachers and first-responders back to work.  (Jeffrey B. Liebman, WSJ, 6/21/2012) Mr. Liebman is a professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and a senior economic policy adviser to the Obama campaign. From 2009 to 2010, he was executive associate director and then acting deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.


We were tempted to label this: Why Republicans Will Win. RedStateVT does not want to get too cocky about the November election, but the thinking outlined above is certainly cause for optimism. Inexplicably - after the mid-term elections, after Scott Brown's victory, after the failure of the Wisconsin recall - Democrats still do not get it. Did they not see what happened in Wisconsin? The people do not think that the answer to America's economic malaise is to hire more teachers! But when you hear Howard Dean exclaim: First of all, we view Wisconsin as a win, you realize that Dems are destined to wander in the wilderness. Which is where they belong at this moment in history.