A Republican Congress

Obamacare under a Republican Congress—what could they do?

From the Wall Street Journal, here's some of the things a Republican Congress could do about Healthcare.

Information is the key weapon. Republicans can use congressional hearings to explain what ObamaCare is doing to the economy and the health sector. Their strongest cases would be built around jobs, the cost of health care, and the rising deficit.

If evidence shows that looming mandates on employers are crippling job-creation, they should be repealed. If health costs are rising, as they inevitably will be, Congress needs to hold hearings to investigate the causes and explain why the offending taxes and regulations must be repealed.

Here are six key strategies that a Republican Congress could employ
to put on the brakes:

• Defund it. House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio has vowed to choke off funding for implementation of the legislation, starting with parts that are especially egregious such as the "army of new IRS agents" needed to police
compliance.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703649004575437271015655924.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Ugly report on existing home sales is latest setback for Democrats

Things aren't working out well for the Democrats as the midterm elections approach.

Democrats are finding little success in their nearly two-year campaign
to ease the nation’s housing woes.

Since coming into office, President Obama has undertaken a series
of policy initiatives intended to stabilize home prices, boost demand and reduce
foreclosures.

But a series of recent reports indicate those policies have not
stopped the precipitous decline in housing, which began well before the official
start of the recession in December 2007. The National Association of Realtors on Tuesday reported that existing home sales plunged 27.2 percent in July, hitting the lowest level in more than a decade.

http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/801-economy/115641-brutal-housing-report-is-latest-setback-for-democrats

Yet another reason for Democrats to worry

A new survey by the Democratic-leaning firm Public Policy Polling finds that even in Illinois voters are by 40% to 26% less likely to support a
candidate if he or she has been endorsed by President Obama. "If his
support isn't an asset in his home state it's hard to imagine where it is," says
PPP head Tom Jensen……

Mr. Obama's sagging popularity is even following him to his favorite vacation spot on Martha's Vineyard this week. According to the Boston Globe, last year the island's largest T-shirt store sold 4,000 shirts that read, "I vacationed with Obama." This year, those shirts are being outsold by others that have former President Bush asking, "Miss me yet?"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703447004575449572520837524.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLESecond


Democrats privately fear House prospects worsening

Top Democrats are growing markedly more pessimistic about holding the
House, privately conceding that the summertime economic and political recovery
they were banking on will not likely materialize by Election Day. …..

A Democratic pollster working on several key races said, “The
reality is that [the House majority] is probably gone.” His data shows the Democrats’ problems are only getting worse. “It’s spreading,” the pollster said…

And before Tuesday night’s races, 15.4 million Republicans had
already voted in primaries, compared with 12 million Democrats who have turned
out for primaries so far in 2010.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41469.html#ixzz0xhkrD2ek

Even Letterman appears to be abandoning ship

On CBS’ “The Late Show” Tuesday night, David Letterman took a jab at the president, saying: “He’ll have plenty of time for vacations after his one term is up.”

Iraqis say 'wrong time' for US withdrawal

Leftist like to remind us that you can’t impose democracy on people as they explain our need to leave Iraq (and Afghanistan). But a recent poll shows that the Iraqi people actually would like for us to stay a bit longer.

BAGHDAD (AFP) – A majority of Iraqis believe it was the wrong time for a major withdrawal of US combat troops, a poll said on Tuesday, with more than half also warning that it would have negative consequences.

When asked if it was the right time for American soldiers to leave -- the US military earlier confirmed troop numbers in Iraq had fallen under 50,000 for the first time -- 59.8 percent said no, compared to 39.5 percent who said yes.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100824/wl_mideast_afp/iraqusmilitarypullout_20100824133725

A Review of Obamacare

Healthcare News

During the healthcare debate, Republicans and some Democrats objected the cost. A CBO estimate came out projection the cost for 10 years at $940 billion. Opponents called it a bogus number and less than two months later we are beginning to hear more about the true cost.


President Obama's new health care law could potentially add at least $115 billion more to government health care spending over the next 10 years, congressional budget analysts said Tuesday.

If Congress approves all the additional spending called for in the legislation, it would push the 10-year cost of the overhaul above $1 trillion - an unofficial ceiling the Obama administration set early on in its push for the law.


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/12/cbo-hikes-estimate-of-cost-of-health-care-law/

Rationing Healthcare

Another debate had to do with whether the new healthcare bill would lead to rationing. Some supporters said no, while others simply said there already was rationing based upon whether you had insurance or not. Now we hear from Mr. Obama's pick for Medicare and Medicaid services his view.

'The decision is not whether or not we will ration care — the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open" is what Dr. Donald Berwick, President Obama's nominee to head the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, said in an interview published in Biotechnology Healthcare in June 2009.

He seems to be agreeing with those who didn't deny there would be healthcare rationing. But to the American public we have bought a pig and a poke having no idea of what this rationing might entail.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=534205

So what's so wrong about Sarah?

"This is why the Democrats' feverish attempts to link Palin to Republican candidates have failed. Democrats love to bring up Palin because her poll numbers are lousy. They brought her up with Bob McDonnell in Virginia and with Scott Brown in Massachusetts. Lately they've been trying to link her to Mark Kirk in Illinois. But the McDonnell and Brown attacks didn't work, and the Kirk attack won't work, either. Voters are sophisticated enough to distinguish between politicians. They know who is on the ballot and who isn't -- and Sarah Palin isn't. (Nor is George W. Bush.)"

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/palin-mainstream

I think the Democrats have got the worst of all world with Sarah. She can raise a lot of money for Republican Candidates, but she isn't in office and she isn't so far running for any office. Trying to link Republicans to her does exactly what the above article says, nothing as the voters know who is on the ballot and who isn't. And the more they make fun of her and disparage her the stronger fund raising appeal gets.

Spitballing the numbers

Remember how Nancy Pelosi told the National Association of Counties that they needed to “pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy." Well unfortunately they did pass the bill and we are beginning to find out what's in it.

On Wednesday, Kathleen Sebelius appeared before the House Appropriations Committee to discuss the appropriations for high-risk pool subsidies that ObamaCare provides to the states. The bill appropriated $5 billion for this program, but as Sebelius tells the committee, that was just a spit-balling number. In reality, no one has the faintest clue how much money will actually get spent on this program.

And according to an AP summary, a new report "found that the law falls short of the president's twin goal of controlling runaway costs, raising projected spending by about 1 percent over 10 years. That increase could get bigger, since Medicare cuts in the law may be unrealistic and unsustainable, the report warned."

It also "projected that Medicare cuts could drive about 15 percent of hospitals and other institutional providers into the red, 'possibly jeopardizing access' to care for seniors." So when the President told AARP members that "nobody is talking about reducing Medicare benefits," presumably he meant nobody but Medicare's chief actuary.

With these kinds of results coming to light, either President Obama and the Democrats don't know what they are talking about or do know, but decided to simply deny the truth. In either case, this doesn't bode well for this administration. Perhaps we'll soon be hearing, Obama lied and seniors died.