“Choice and Competition” – But Not For Education

The White House tell us that the government public option in health care insurance reform will introduce “choice and competition” into the insurance market. But when it comes to education, which already “enjoys” a government monopoly, “choice and competition” are not at all something White House has any desire to introduce. And, in fact, it […]

 



Fact Checking The Democrats – Private Health Insurance

Private health insurance companies have been demonized by the Democrats and the administration as modern day “robber barons” who are raking in obscene profits mostly by denying you coverage. But a simple fact checking dispels that sort of an attack as negative propaganda with no basis in reality: Health insurance profit margins typically run about […]

 

If You Were A Democrat In Congress, What Would Your First Domestic Priority Be?

Health care reform? Cap-and-trade? Or, perhaps, economic recovery and jobs? On Thursday, Obama’s economic adviser Christina Romer told Congress the administration agrees with other analysts that the economy will grow in the third quarter, and beyond. Even so, she said, “unemployment is likely to remain at its severely elevated level,” and noted expectations that few […]

 

TARP Report – “We don’t even know where the money went”

So let’s give them health care too! Sorry, couldn’t help myself. The quote in the title is from Democratic Representative Daniel Lipinski of IL. It’s a good preface to a Treasury Department Inspector General report issued today which was rather scathing. USA Today provides the “executive summary”: A Treasury Department watchdog is warning that a […]

 


Obama Administration Votes To Restrict Free Speech (update)

This is worrisome. I just featured a story in which Democrats have slipped a “hate speech” bill into the Defense Appropriations bill in a bid to further eroding our 1st Amendment protections. Now we find out that the Obama administration has supported a UN resolution that is also designed to restrict free speech: Around the […]

 


Senate Health Care Bill Will Put 1/3 Of US On Welfare

That’s a truly stunning number. 90 million will be on either SCHIP or Medicaid (not Medicare … Medicaid) if the Senate Finance version of health care becomes ObamaCare according to the Heritage Foundation: But of those 29 million with new insurance coverage, almost half (14 million), will get their coverage through the welfare programs Medicaid […]

 

Putin, Iran, Nuke Talks And First Strikes

Vladimir “Pooty Poot” Putin, with the opportunity to either back the words of Russia’s president that sometimes sanctions are just necessary or the Foreign Minister’s words of yesterday, chose to back the FM’s: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned major powers on Wednesday against intimidating Iran and said talk of sanctions against the Islamic Republic […]

 

So Much For “The Content Of His Character” In Baltimore

If the mayor isn’t black then that’s unacceptable to the Maryland NAACP. You see the present mayor (who is black) is about to be convicted of seven theft-related charges will have to vacate the office. That has put the state NAACP in a low hover. Apparently they don’t want the governor appointing someone that doesn’t […]

 

“Why, Oh Why, Do Conservatives Hate America So?”

The title is a quote from Eugene Robinson’s latest effort in which he indulges himself in another leftist “history began January, 20th, 2009” moment. His ire and the reason for his rhetorical question comes on the heels of the announcement that Barack Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace prize and the derision by which […]

 


CBO Says Baucus Bill Won’t Add To Debt – But It Will Leave 16 Million Uninsured

The Washington Post’s “Capitol Briefing” breathlessly announces: A health-care reform bill drafted by the Senate Finance Committee would expand health coverage to nearly 30 million Americans who currently lack insurance and would meet President Obama’s goal of reducing the federal budget deficit by 2019, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday. The bill would cost […]

 



The “Post-American” President?

Elliot Abrams, with a sense of deja vu, reviews Carter era foreign policy as one of weakness and accommodation leading to disaster. He’s seeing some eerie similarities in the foreign policy the Obama administration seems to be fashioning. One begins to wonder how far we will drift into a new period of generalized disaster. In […]

 


Tom Friedman’s Selective History And Left-Wing Paranoia

I don’t know how else to describe this from Thomas Friedman: I was in Israel interviewing Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin just before he was assassinated in 1995. We had a beer in his office. He needed one. I remember the ugly mood in Israel then – a mood in which extreme right-wing settlers and politicians […]

 


Democrats Kill Public Option In Senate

Not that I’m complaining. Max Baucus’ Senate Finance Committee voted on Jay Rockefeller’s public option amendment. No joy for public option supporters: After five hours of debate, the Senate Finance Committee this afternoon voted down Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s proposal for a public option to compete with private insurers. Though a majority of the committee’s Democrats […]

 

Waxman-Markey: 397 New Regulations And 1,100 New Mandates

This story slipped quietly under the radar last week as we had the UN speech, the Iran revelation and the G20. An examination of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade legislation finds it contains 397 new regulations and 1,100 new mandates. And you’ll be pleased to know it will simplify your life, make child birth pleasant and cost […]

 



Obama, Clinton and State Department Wrong About Honduras

I think we know the answer to the question “what in the world are Constitutions for if not to be followed” as we address it to those named in the headline, but we now have the Congressional Research Service weighing in on Honduras and it isn’t good news for the US’s policy toward that country. […]

 

Why The UN Will Love Obama’s Speech (Update)

It appears that today is the day for rather scathing assessments of President Obama in the British press. This one by Nile Gardiner. He points out that the third-world debating club, known as the UN, will certainly deliver a standing ovation to their favorite US president in a while. But, says Gardiner, we should understand […]

 

Obama OK, Democrats In Trouble

Charlie Cook, one of the most respected of the political prognosticators, continues to sound the alarm for Congressional Democrats. Since August, Cook has been telling them they’re headed for electoral disaster in the 2010 midterms if they don’t change their ways. Most of the erosion of support has taken place among independents. Although the country […]