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Demonomics

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This week the big story was the tag end of the old JournoList gang trying to spin gold out of the dross of the Congressional Budget Report. The CBO report projected that by 2021 under ObamaCare more than 2 million full-time workers will find it financially advisable to quit work entirely or switch to part-time jobs in order to get more subsidies for healthcare insurance. To most of us who studied real economics or just paid attention to human nature, subsidizing indolence means you’ll get more of it.

But to the airheads on the left and their JournoList spinmasters — the very people who believed in their hearts that young, healthy workers would willingly pay more for their health insurance to subsidize older, sicker Americans and learned nothing from the failure of that prediction, this devastating CBO report spelled out a wonderful new world of possibilities for American workers at the bottom rungs.

1. Job Lock

Working their dreidels overtime, the gang argued that the CBO report was going to end job lock — long a Republican goal — but as “Ignatz” posted on Just One Minute: “I believe the Republican idea was to decouple insurance from employment, not decouple the employee from employment”

Nancy Pelosi, the JournoList band leader on this less-is-more score taunted: “The GOP seems to have forgotten that ending ‘job-lock; has been an avowed Republican goal for years — even a highlight in the Republican Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential race.” Her claim was a gross misrepresentation:

“Job-lock” itself is a different problem. Instead of effectively paying people to work less, as Obamacare does, conservative proposals would end federal preferences for employer-based insurance, allowing Americans to take insurance with them from job to job. People would not be stuck with a specific employer because they want to stay insured.

Read more from this story HERE.

CBO Report Fallout: Specter of Welfare State Jolts Democrats

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Photo Credit: Charles DharapakThe White House and congressional Democrats are trying to limit the fallout from the politically damaging conclusion in a Congressional Budget Office report that the Obamacare entitlement creates a major incentive for some people not to work.

While some critics focused on a finding by the CBO that Obamacare will result in 2.5 million fewer workers over a decade, conservatives said the bigger fundamental issue highlighted in the report is one familiar to the welfare state — that taxpayer-funded government subsidies provide disincentives for full-time work.

“People used to be stuck in jobs because they needed the health insurance,” said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a practicing physician and a specialist on health care policy at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute. “Now they’re going to be prevented from taking jobs because they need the subsidies.”

The CBO forecast continued to reverberate across Capitol Hill on multiple issues. The nonpartisan budget agency’s prediction that the U.S. jobless rate likely will stay above 6 percent through 2016 was revealed as Senate Democrats were preparing a push for another extension of benefits to the long-term unemployed, raising the prospect that the government will face much higher benefit costs over the coming years.

The Senate is expected to stage a test vote Thursday on extending the long-term jobless benefits.

Read more from this story HERE.

Begich, Other Red State Dem Senators Up for Re-election Stand By Their Man

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Photo Credit: APEvery vulnerable Senate Democrat up for re-election in 2014 voted with President Barack Obama at least 90 percent of the time in 2013, according to CQ Roll Call’s latest vote studies, released Monday.

Arkansas Democrat Mark Pryor broke with the president most often, opposing him in 10 percent of all 2013 votes where the administration stated a preferred outcome. Sens. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, Mary Landrieu, D-La. and Kay Hagan, D-N.C., voted for Obama’s position 97, 97, and 96 percent of the time, respectively. Of those four, only Begich serves with a Republican who has bucked the GOP to back Obama with any frequency. (See our Jan. 21 story.)

Support for Obama’s initiatives from incumbent Democrats who are favored but not safe was just as high if not higher than from vulnerable members: Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Mark Warner of Virginia supported the president in 99 and 97 percent of votes.

Read more from this story HERE.

Senate Democrats Have Reason to Freak Out

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Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite/Associated PressBy Jennifer Rubin.

Senate Democrats on the 2014 ballot who were sitting in the House chamber last night had reason to worry — a lot.. Here are eight reasons they should be nervous:

1. The president is already a drag on the ticket in 2014 in swing states. Gallup reports that among the twelve states in which Obama is most unpopular (ranging from 22.5 percent to 35 percent approval) there are four hotly contested Senate seats where the Republican can lasso his opponent to the president (e.g. West Virginia, Montana, South Dakota and Alaska). In other competitive states, the president is also a drag. (Arkansas 34.9 percent, Louisiana 40 percent, New Hampshire 44.6 percent, Colorado 42.3). In the top 12 battleground states, his approval averages 36 percent.

2. Whatever you thought of the State of the Union address it was no game changer, and the Democratic candidates will have to defend a “more of the same” message.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsVulnerable Dems avoiding Obama? Itinerary skips over battlegrounds

By Fox News.

His poll numbers are diving, he just gave a State of the Union address that even his own supporters panned as flat, and with three years left to run the country he’s fending off the term “lame duck.”

So as Democrats fight to keep control of the Senate and make gains in the House, are they giving President Obama the cold shoulder?

Over the past six months, the president only has visited two states — North Carolina and Louisiana — where a vulnerable Senate Democrat is facing a tough race. And none of the states Obama was visiting on his latest two-day tour have Senate Democrats up for reelection in the fall.

The president’s itinerary has led to Republican jeers that vulnerable and moderate Democrats are intentionally avoiding him, keeping their distance as they try to hold their seats in November.

Democrats themselves aren’t exactly challenging that narrative.

Read more from this story HERE.

Barack Obama’s Lows Could Hurt Democrats in Alaska and Other Battleground States

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Senate Democrats must defend seats this year in five of the 10 states where President Barack Obama is most unpopular.

Daily tracking numbers published Monday by Gallup highlight the treacherous map facing Democrats in the midterm elections and offer a reminder of why incumbents in West Virginia, South Dakota and Montana decided to retire rather than run again.

Obama was most unpopular in Wyoming, with an average approval rating of 22.5 percent over the course of 2013. He was most popular in Washington, D.C., with an average approval rating of 81 percent.

Republicans need to pick up six seats to win the majority in the Senate, and Obama’s approval rating is below 35 percent in five states where Democrats are trying to defend seats.

In West Virginia, where Jay Rockefeller is retiring, 25 percent approved of Obama…

In Alaska, where Mark Begich is seeking a second term, it was 33.5 percent.

Read more from this story HERE.

House Democrat Slams Obamacare… After Announcing His Retirement First

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

A top House Democrat slammed Obamacare’s inability “to work” — but only after he announced his impending retirement from Congress.

12-term Virginia Rep. Jim Moran, an Appropriations Committee member who said this month that he will not seek re-election in 2014, said that not enough young people are signing up for Obamacare coverage to make the law work.

“I’m afraid that the millennials, if you will, are less likely to sign up. I think they feel more independent, I think they feel a little more invulnerable than prior generations. But I don’t think we’re going to get enough young people signing up to make this bill work as it was intended to financially,” Moran said in an interview with WAMU American University Radio.

Read more from this story HERE.

When a Democrat Lies, it’s Never an Actual Lie

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Ever notice that? When a Dem gets caught red-handed telling a lie, it’s very, very rare for the media to actually call it a lie. Even Obama’s monumental whopper — “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan” — still has its diehard defenders.

This week’s example is Texas state senator, gubernatorial candidate, and heroine of abortion enthusiasts across the country: Wendy Davis. As it turns out, she’s said a bunch of stuff about her past that isn’t true.

Well, she’s a politician. It’s to be expected. But she’s also a Democrat who’s championing one of the left’s most treasured policy goals, abortion on demand, so she must be protected.

Read more from this story HERE.

Begich Spokeswoman Takes Blame For Misstating His Whereabouts During Key Vote to Extend Unemployment Benefits; Murkowski Votes with Dems

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

A spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Mark Begich said Thursday that she misspoke when she said he missed a vote in Washington because he was traveling to the capital when, in fact, he was in Hawaii.

The Associated Press asked spokeswoman Heather Handyside by email Tuesday why the Alaska Democrat hadn’t voted on whether to proceed to debate on a renewal of benefits for the long-term unemployed. Handyside responded by email that he “wasn’t there. Is on his way back to D.C.”

The vote was close, with six Republicans, including Alaska’s senior senator, Lisa Murkowski, voting with Democrats to advance to debate. Begich was one of three members, and the only Democrat, shown as not voting.

The Hill reported Thursday that Begich missed the vote to deliver a speech Wednesday at a conference in Hawaii hosted by the American Association of Airport Executives.

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Dems Believe Income Inequality To Be Winning Issue In November

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Democrats aren’t wasting any time tackling an issue they are convinced will help them this election year: income inequality.

One of the Senate’s first votes upon returning to Washington from its holiday break Monday will be on a bill reviving emergency unemployment benefits that lapsed at the end of 2013.

The vote marks the first concrete step by Democrats toward a populist economic platform ahead of the November elections. The inequality campaign will intensify later in the year with a push in the Senate to raise the federal minimum wage that will be synced with President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech, which is expected to dig heavily into the issue of economic disparity.

The focus on income inequality builds on the economic themes Obama successfully harnessed to beat Mitt Romney in 2012. Democrats believe they can win again by spotlighting the growing divides between the rich and poor and daring Republicans to oppose legislation aimed at benefiting low-income Americans.

“Our Republican colleagues should take note. Certainly we’re going to build on the progress we’ve made to reduce the deficit, but it is no longer the most important issue that we face,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in laying out Senate Democrats’ agenda for the coming year. “Issues like job creation, minimum wage and unemployment insurance are going to weigh on the minds of voters far more than Obamacare by the time the 2014 elections roll around.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Do Democrats Really Need to Promote Religious Persecution?

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Photo Credit: DonkeyHotey

Photo Credit: DonkeyHotey

Democrat politicians do not want respectful disagreement between evangelicals and gays. War between homosexuals and evangelicals is important for them. The Democratic Party, in order to raise money from gays and lock in millennial votes, is attacking freedom of thought, speech and religion. This is a basic community organizing tactic: encourage grievance, divide the community, fan the flames of conflict, and inject government power into social problems. By putting their own political interests before every other value, Democrats have pushed our country into a culture clash that is becoming unresolvable.

It is time to take a deep breath and reaffirm the principles we all love. Phil Robertson, imperfect human being, master of the duck call, has given us a wake up call.

Gays have civil rights in our society — along with all the rest of us. When gay rights are made absolute, they threaten everyone’s fundamental civil rights. Homosexual wants and desires for universal acceptance are not civil rights.

These are our civil rights: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom from involuntary servitude, the right to vote, the right to equality in public places, the right to due process of law, the right to equal protection under the law. That’s it.

Our constitutional civil rights are inalienable, meaning God-given rights, based ultimately on the teachings of the Bible. These are rights of individuals, not groups.

Read more from this story HERE.