What’s New Today
Story #1 is
my prediction of what will happen to Obamacare.
Actually, it comes from just paying attention to what people are
saying. #2 compares the private and
public sector to see who is doing fine and who isn’t. #3 is a setback from the Catholics for the
Obama campaign. #4 finds a way to blame
conservatives for Obama lying in his autobiographies.
Today’s
Thoughts
President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad plans to
retire from politics when his second term ends in 2013. So will
Barack Obama.
Sarah Palin: “In
a time of universal deceit, telling the
truth is a revolutionary act.”
1. What will happen to Obamacare—A Prediction
Since
the healthcare ruling by the Supreme Court will not be coming out today, I thought I would give you my prediction. Actually it isn’t based on some great
knowledge I have or insider information.
It’s based on watching what is being said. Ruth Bader Ginsburg told everyone in a speech
last week that there is “sharp disagreement”
on the rulings that are yet to come out.
While this doesn’t give a lot of information she did go on beyond
that.
She went on to
say, "I have spoken on more than one occasion about the utility of dissenting opinions, noting in particular that they can
reach audiences outside the court and can propel legislative or executive
change,"
Ginsburg is a
reliable liberal on the court. If she is
reminding people of the “utility of dissenting opinions,” to me that sounds
like she is calling attention to her dissenting opinion on the healthcare
law. My prediction is that means all or part of the law will be struck down.
2. Which Sector is doing fine?
After recently letting it slip that
he believes the private sector in the United States is “doing fine,” many
looked to President Barack Obama’s economic speech Thursday in Cleveland, Ohio,
as a potential defining moment of his reelection effort and, perhaps, as an
opportunity to negate some of the backlash resulting from his “doing fine”
remark.
Yet, in a swing state as important
as Ohio and at a critical juncture in his campaign, President Obama failed to break new ground or outline an agenda for
economic growth. Instead he offered up the same tired approach that he has
employed throughout his presidency: more
government spending.
As Republican National Committee Chairman Reince
Priebus said Friday, referring to the President’s speech, “I think we can call it a major flop.”
But President Obama’s commitment to economic
stimulus using taxpayer money hasn’t been a “flop” for the entire American
workforce, just the private sector. As
pointed out by Ed Carson of IBD, federal government employment has gone way up
on President Obama’s watch. “Federal
employment actually is 225,000 jobs above its January 2008 level.” That is
an increase of 11.4 percent. “The
recession was boom time for federal employment.”
Meanwhile, Carson also pointed out that “[p]rivate-sector jobs are still down by 4.6
million, or 4 percent, from January 2008.” Mr. Obama ought to consider
that, while the private sector struggles, it’s actually the government-sector
that’s “doing fine” – too fine, actually, thanks to his prescription for
economic health….
This will
be quoted over and over again. It is the
equivalent of the John McCain remark about the underlying health of the
economy, or the John Kerry “I voted for the bill before I voted against it.”
3. More Catholic troubles for the White House
The Obama administration’s key
Catholic ally on its controversial plan to require health insurers to provide
free contraceptive coverage is dropping support for the plan, potentially
complicating the president’s relations with Catholics in an election year.
The Catholic Health Association, which comprises 2,000
Catholic hospitals, health systems and related organizations, said Friday that
although it had initially supported what the White House called a compromise on
the contraception issue, it is now “deeply concerned” about the plan and says
the White House “has not relieved our initial concerns.”
Many Catholic groups expressed
opposition to the Obama administration’s proposal to require employers to
provide free contraception coverage to their employees. Although the plan
exempted churches, other religiously affiliated employers - including colleges
and hospitals - were not exempt.
In the face of that opposition, the
Department of Health and Human Services tweaked its original rule in February
to require health insurers, not employers, to cover the cost of contraception
coverage, reasoning that would prevent Catholics instructions from having to
finance such coverage.
The so-called compromise won support
from certain Catholic groups, most significantly the Catholic Health
Association, which calls itself the nation’s largest group of nonprofit health
care providers.
“The Catholic Health Association is
very pleased with the White House announcement that a resolution has been
reached that protects the religious liberty and conscience rights of Catholic
institutions,” Sister Carol Keehan, president and chief executive officer of
the Catholic Health Association, said in a February statement.
But on Friday, the Catholic Health
Association sounded a much different line, saying in a letter to the agency
that “We remain deeply concerned … with the approach the Administration has
taken with respect to contraceptive services, especially abortifacient drugs
and sterilization.”…
This is a reversal from a more liberal portion of the
Catholic Church in America.
4. Obama lies: It’s
the conservatives’ fault
Buzzfeed's Ben Smith criticizes President Barack Obama for falsifying a significant portion of his first autobiography, Dreams from My Father. Smith builds his case on the research in David Maraniss's new book, Barack Obama: The Story. But even when joining Obama's critics, Smith tries to protect him--and the media that allowed Obama to get away with his lies for years, with no small amount of help from Smith himself.
Smith says that Maraniss presents "38 instances" in which the available evidence contradicts "significant elements of Obama’s own story of his life and his family history." Yet he all but excuses Obama's falsehoods, claiming that they were motivated by a desire "[t]o tell a familiar, simple, and ultimately optimistic story about race and identity in the 20th Century." That Obama might have had political ambitions in mind--given that the book was released on the eve of his campaign for the Illinois state senate--does not compute for Smith.Smith does blame Obama for creating so many false narratives about himself--but then claims Obama shares the blame with conservatives, whom he attacks for taking the president's claims about himself seriously:
That the core narrative of Dreams could have
survived this long into Obama’s public life is the product in part of an
inadvertent conspiracy between the president and his enemies. His memoir evokes
an angry, misspent youth; a deep and lifelong obsession with race; foreign and
strongly Muslim heritage; and roots in the 20th Century’s self-consciously
leftist anti-colonial struggle. Obama’s
conservative critics have, since the beginnings of his time on the national
scene, taken the self-portrait at face value, and sought to deepen it to
portray him as a leftist and a foreigner.
If you actually read what Smith is saying, the Conservatives
are to blame for believing Obama. Does
that mean we should never believe a liberal again?
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