Posts

DNC Chair Wasserman Schultz: Democrats Will Win in 2014 Running on Obamacare

Photo Credit: AP/J. Scott ApplewhiteRep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that Democratic congressional candidates would win by running on Obamacare in the 2014 midterm elections.

“I think, actually, Candy, that Democratic candidates will be able to run on ObamaCare as an advantage leading into the 2014 election,” Wasserman Schultz told host Candy Crowley.

Crowley had been asking Wasserman Schultz about the common perception that the Obamacare issue had made the Virginia governor’s race closer than expected, causing Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe to lose ground in the final days of the raise, ultimately eeking out a narrow victory over Republican Ken Cuccinelli,

“I think Obamacare, because Americans have been feeling the benefits since 2010, where young adults can stay on their parents’ insurance until they’re 26, where on January 1 if you have a preexisting condition, like I do, as you know, as a breast cancer survivor, the peace of mind … that those Americans are going to have knowing that they can never be dropped or denied coverage for that preexisting condition, the preventative care that’s available without a co-pay or a deductible, those are benefits that Americans have already been feeling and will increasingly feel as Obamacare is fully implemented,” said Wasserman Schultz.

Read more from this story HERE.

GOP Can Win by Waiting: Make Democrats Clean Up their Own Mess

Photo Credit: National Review Democrats are pleading for help, in the face of the implosion of Obamacare. House Republicans confronted with these pleas should listen to those who say: “Don’t do something; just stand there.”

It was Obama and the Democratic Senate who caused the disaster now unfolding. Specifically, Democratic red- or swing-state senators such as Mary Landrieu (La.), Kay Hagan (N.C.), Mark Begich (Alaska), Mark Pryor (Ark.), and even Al Franken (Minn.) provided key votes to adopt the monstrosity without a single ballot to spare. Let them face the music; let them reap the consequences. And let them try to fix what’s utterly unfixable.

If they want to delay the individual mandate, fine: They can go first. If they want to fix the grandfathering rules so that people who want to keep their plans really can do so, fine: They can go first on that, too. Let them figure out the details. Let them try to make it work. The House can always vote to add its assent once the Senate has acted — all while noting, accurately, that even the delay or the grandfathering fix won’t make the whole of Obamacare successful or popular.

But with each fruitless effort to correct the uncorrectable, the vulnerable Senate Democrats effectively will be acknowledging that they were wrong to begin with.

The likelihood is that the Senate won’t act. It’s likely that the White House won’t let it happen. It’s likely that the vulnerable senators won’t even be able to get the more liberal members of the Senate Democratic caucus to go along with them. It’s likely that the Hagans and Pryors will be left to look both wrongheaded for having passed Obamacare and ineffectual for being unable to convince their leaders to try to improve it.

Read more from this story HERE.

Dems Resume ‘Nuclear Option’ Threats to Bypass GOP, Confirm Obama Nominees

Photo Credit: Susan Walsh/APSome Senate Democrats resumed calls for the so-called “nuclear option” Thursday after Senate Republicans blocked two presidential nominees.

Republicans have blocked the nomination of Democratic Rep. Mel Watt to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the nomination of Patricia Millett to the U.S. Appeals Court for the Washington, D.C. Circuit by voting against cloture, effectively filibustering the nominations.

If invoked, the nuclear option would allow Democrats to push through presidential nominations without any support from Senate Republicans.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell struck a deal in January to avert the nuclear option. In July, the two again negotiated on a “new normal,” in Reid’s words, to streamline the process for confirming presidential nominees. The deal, Reid said at the time, was that “Qualified executive nominees must not be blocked on a procedural supermajority vote.” An exception was made for “extraordinary circumstances.”

But after the Watt and Millett votes, the nuclear option is back on the table, some Democrats have declared.

Read more from this story HERE.

There are Lies, Damned Lies and Democrats

Steny Hoyer certainly is a creative man. Asked about Barack Obama’s promise that everyone would be able to keep his health coverage if he liked it and the recent revelation that the Democrats knew all along that millions of Americans would lose their health plans under ObamaCare, he had an answer.

“I think the message [the promise] was accurate. It was not precise enough…[it] should have been caveated with – ‘assuming you have a policy that in fact does do what the bill is designed to do,'” reports National Review.

My, that’s rich. Almost Frank Rich.

Since Hoyer’s lie about a lie speaks for itself, let’s just have a little fun here. Try this on for size:

Subject: “But you said that if we supported your law, no one would lose his freedom of speech!”

Leader: “My message was accurate. It just wasn’t precise enough. It should have been caveated with, ‘assuming you agree with me.'”

Read more from this story HERE.

Democrat Senate Intelligence Chair Dianne Feinstein Calls for ‘Major Review’ of NSA Spying and Says it’s a ‘Big Problem’ if Obama was Unaware

Photo Credit: APThe U.S. Senate’s top foreign intelligence official said Monday in a scathing statement that she is ‘totally opposed’ to spying of the sort that has gotten the Obama administration into hot water this week.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who chairs the powerful Senate Intelligence Committee, seemed miffed at the idea that she and her colleagues were out of the loop when the president’s men conducted surveillance on foreign leaders in Europe and Latin America.

And she said President Obama’s lack of knowledge about monitoring of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phones going back to 2002 posed ‘a big problem.’
So she’s tightening the leash.

‘The White House has informed me that collection on our allies will not continue, which I support,’ said Feinstein.

‘But as far as I’m concerned, Congress needs to know exactly what our intelligence community is doing. To that end, the committee will initiate a major review into all intelligence collection programs.’

Read more from this story HERE.

Kudlow: Don’t Delay Obamacare, GOP; Let the Democrats Hang Themselves

Photo Credit: Scott ClarkOne huge political question surrounds the catastrophic launch of Obamacare: Will the cancelled insurance contracts for millions, terminated doctor-patient relationships, sticker shock from higher premiums and deductibility, damage to job hiring and economic growth and the administration’s double-talk get the GOP off the shutdown hook for the 2014 midterm elections?

That is the question. Donald Rumsfeld would call it a known unknown. And right now nobody knows the answer.

But Christopher Ruddy, founder and CEO of Newsmax, makes an interesting point about this: “The key to stopping Obamacare is for its opponents to win in congressional elections in 2014. Delaying Obamacare only helps the Democrats who support this boondoggle.”

So far, with all the problems plaguing the Obamacare website, Senator Marco Rubio is leading the Republican charge to delay the March 31 enrollment deadline and tax penalty. And a lot of Republicans are lining up behind him. But is that the right tactic? On the Democratic side, Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and nine of her colleagues are urging the White House to push back the same deadline.

But is that just to save their re-election hides next November?

Read more from this story HERE.

Begich, Other Senate Dems Join Call to Delay ObamaCare Mandate Amid Website Failures

Photo Credit: APSeveral Democratic senators are calling on the Obama administration to delay enforcement of the health care law’s individual mandate, joining their Republican colleagues in saying it would be unfair to penalize Americans for failing to buy insurance when the primary sign-up website doesn’t work.

The Democratic dominoes began to fall quickly Wednesday, after Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., circulated a letter urging President Obama to extend enrollment beyond March 31, 2014.

Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., in a statement released late Wednesday, said: “I believe, given the technical issues, it makes sense to extend the time for people to sign up.”…

The White House, while defending the health care law and vowing to fix the problems with the website, has not explicitly ruled out the possibility of delaying the individual mandate. Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska, also backed Shaheen’s call in a written statement Wednesday.

“I have repeatedly said this law is not perfect and have proposed changes to make it work for Alaska families and small businesses,” he said. “Given the recent website issues, I also support extending open enrollment season. I want to work with the administration to ensure that individuals are not unfairly penalized if technical issues with the website continue.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama to Go On Post-Shutdown Fundraising Blitz for Democrats

Photo Credit: Intel PhotosPresident Obama plans to be the star guest for at least eight fundraising events around the country over the next five weeks for House and Senate Democrats, sources say.

The aggressive cross-country trip comes after a government shutdown battered Republican approval ratings and raised Democratic hopes of keeping control of the Senate and winning back the House for Obama’s final two years in office.

Obama enjoyed having his party wield power during his first two years in office, and seeing Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) return to the House Speakership would dramatically increase his sway while limiting his days as a lame-duck president.

The fundraising push starts Friday in New York with events for House Democrats and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). The president will then head to Boston for another House Democratic fundraiser on Oct. 30, before traveling early next month to Miami and Philadelphia to raise money at two events for Senate Democrats.

Obama will then head to Seattle and San Francisco to raise money for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the fundraising arm of House Democrats.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama: Your Call is Important to Us (+video)

By Carrie Budoff Brown.

President Barack Obama delivered an Obamacare speech Monday that sounded a lot like hold music.

With a staunch defense of the law and a hint of outrage over its problems, Obama sought to buy time with Congress, potential customers and the public while his administration rushes to fix HealthCare.gov, the beleaguered website that threatens the viability of his signature domestic achievement.

But as congressional oversight committees circle, he has to hope that improvements to the website ramp up more quickly than do the calls for suspending or delaying enrollment.

“There’s no sugarcoating it. The website has been too slow,” Obama said in the White House Rose Garden. “People have been getting stuck during the application process. And I think it’s fair to say that nobody’s more frustrated by that than I am. Precisely because the product is good, I want the cash registers to work, I want the checkout lines to be smooth, so I want people to be able to get this great product.

Read more from this story HERE.

______________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: APDems caught in Obamacare uproar

By Jonathan Allen and Jennifer Haberkorn.

It’s not the GOP that President Barack Obama has to worry about in defending his botched health care rollout, it’s fellow Democrats.

They voted for the law, sang its praises for three-plus years and still believe in the promise of health care reform. But now they face a conundrum: stay in lock step with Obama and risk their credibility as advocates for the law’s benefits or publicly criticize the administration for its recent problems — especially a failure to more quickly acknowledge, and rectify, the major malfunction of its Internet marketplace.

It’s a particularly vexing question for Democrats worried about their party’s chances in the 2014 midterm elections, and, increasingly, they’re opting for the latter strategy.

“What has happened is unacceptable in terms of the glitches,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week.” “They were overwhelmed to begin with. There is much that needs to be done to correct the situation.” It was the second time in a week that Pelosi had gone public with her dismay over the implementation of a law that she carried to enactment by winning tough votes on the House floor in 2009 and ’10.

Read more from this story HERE.

Republicans Can Say “We Told You So” as Obamacare is Inflicted on America

Photo Credit: Irish Central President Obama and his Democrat colleagues must take all of the credit as Nancy Pelosi’s promise: “we will find out what is in Obamacare after it is passed,” starts to become reality.

Since not one Republican voted for Obamacare and Republicans were shut out of putting any input into Obamacare, the credit and or blame will fall appropriately

The President made all kinds of promises as he sold Obamacare to the people of the United States.

But Seems like most of them have fallen by the wayside as promises face the dawning of reality.

Were these claims the President made, honest miscalculations? Or were they cynical lies designed to get a gullible public to accept a government takeover of our healthcare system?

According to the latest estimates, Obamacare will cost around $2.6 trillion over the next 10 years, nearly $1.7 trillion more than Obama’s initial promise of $900 billion.

President Obama’s claim that if you like your existing healthcare plan, you can keep that plan is proving utterly false as Obamacare gets unveiled. Millions of Americans are getting rude shocks as employers start to drop their plans and force employees into the new healthcare exchanges.

He also promised if you liked your doctor, you could keep your doctor…Period! But of course that whopper has fallen to the wayside as people are kicked off their existing healthcare plans and new plans don’t include their doctor.

President Obama claimed the average healthcare premium savings would be 2,500 per family. That claim is proving to be bogus as families get sticker shock from the new healthcare plans with Obamacare mandates. To add insult to injury, many of these plans have huge deductibles that must be paid before the insurance kicks in.

Most Americans will soon forget this latest budget impasse and the resultant government “shutdown.” The negativity directed toward the Republicans who tried to block or make changes to Obamacare before it gets implemented will swiftly pass in the coming weeks and months.

But in a little over a year, the all important midterm elections will occur; with House and Senate seats up for grabs…

The quotes below from two naive supporters of Obamacare just discovering huge increase in healthcare premiums may prove ominous for Democrats trying to retain their seats:

“Of course, I want people to have health care I just didn’t realize I would be the one who was going to pay for it personally.” Or: “I was laughing at Boehner until the mail came today.”

What will be fresh on American workers and voters minds as the November elections arrive, will be who has raised their taxes and who is responsible for the huge increases in their healthcare costs…..They will also remember who tired to keep their taxes lower and tried to warn them about Obamacare.

_____________________________________

Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.