Obamacare Delay? What Delay?

Just a reminder of what the Obama Administration told us only recently...

As @JimGeraghty at NRO likes to say "All Obama statements come with an expiration date"...

Apparently Health Care Rationing is 'Important' to the Obama Administration

This past week the Obama Administration provided a recess appointment to Dr. Donald Berwick to be director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid.

According to ABC News, the White House says "Berwick Appointment 'Too Important' to Wait for a Hearing"

This morning on ABC News’ "This Week," Senior White House Advisor David Axelrod insisted that President Obama’s recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick to be the administrator of The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was simply “too important” to wait for a Congressional hearing.

“The Republican Party has made it a policy in the United States Senate to hold up... as many nominations,” as possible, Axelrod said. “This is too important. This position is too important,” he told host Jake Tapper. “In the midst of implementing health reform, it is too important to allow that kind of game-playing to go on.”

So let me get this straight... The Obama Administration considers the appointment of Berwick, a man who advocates "health-care rationing and using the health-care system to redistribute wealth", to be "too important" to held up by some silly constitutional requirement like confirmation.

If they keep this up, some people might start to think they have a hidden motive....

Profiles in Senatorial Courage

So what did the Senate Dems vote against today?

1) 57 Dems voted to NOT "reduce the cost of providing federally funded prescription drugs by eliminating fraudulent payments and prohibiting coverage of Viagra for child molesters and rapists..." Only two Dems voted Yes...Bayh and Nelson [NE].

2) 58 Dems voted to NOT allow "States to opt out of a Federal health care takeover." This time Nelson was the only holdout. I guess we know who can see the writing on the wall....

3) 56 Dems voted to NOT "prevent Medicare from being used for new entitlements and to use Medicare savings to save Medicare." Nelson & Webb voted for, Byrd did not vote.

4) 54 Dems voted to NOT "eliminate the sweetheart deals for Tennessee, Hawaii, Louisiana, Montana, Connecticut, and frontier States." Nelson & Bayh voted for, Byrd & Begich did not vote.

5) 57 Dems voted to NOT "ensure that Americans can keep the coverage they have by keeping premiums affordable." Bayh voted for, Kaufman did not vote.

6) 56 Dems voted to NOT "make sure the President, Cabinet Members, all White House Senior staff and Congressional Committee and Leadership Staff are purchasing health insurance through the health insurance exchanges established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." Bayh, Nelson and Lincoln voted for.

7) All 59 Dems voted to NOT "enroll Members of Congress in the Medicaid program."

8) 58 Dems voted to NOT "improve the [HCR] bill by waiving the $40,000 penalty on hiring previously unemployed individuals." Nelson voted for.

The GOP continues to offer Amendments to the HCR reconciliation, so there will be more where this came from....

UPDATE:

9) 55 Dems voted to NOT "ensure that no State experiences a net job loss as a result of the enactment of the SAFRA [Student Aid] Act." Bayh, and BOTH Nelsons voted for, Byrd was apparently asleep again.

UPDATE II:

10) 56 Dems voted to NOT "strike the medical device tax." Bayh & Nelson voted for, Byrd, still napping.

11) 57 Dems voted to NOT "exclude pediatric devices for persons with disabilities from the medical device tax." Nelson for, Byrd snoring.

12) 54 Dems voted to NOT "protect access for America's wounded warriors." Not sue what that means exactly, but I am for it.

13) 54 Dems voted to NOT "protect the integrity of Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense health care programs for veterans, active-duty service members, their families, widows and widowers, and orphans who have sacrificed in defense of our Nation."

14) 54 Dems voted to NOT "repeal the sunset on marriage penalty relief and to make the election to deduct State and local sales taxes permanent." Of note 1 Republican voted agianst this as well. Somebody call Judd Gregg's office and slap him around!

15) Dems Voted to NOT "increase women's access to breast cancer screenings." [Number not known yet, as roll call not posted]

Note: I counted Lieberman and Sanders as the Dems they really are...are should be. No GOP members vote with the Dems on these, and Isakson did not vote on any.

Potemkin Village Healthcare

#hhrs #tcot #rs #sgp
All we need to know about the just posted House Obamacare bill:

The Democrats' 2,309-page reconciliation bill was released for public viewing Sunday and will begin the mark-up process in the Budget Committee Monday at 3pm. Contrary to the Democratic pledge to post the reconciliation measure 72 hours before consideration, the bill posted is a dummy -- or a "shell" as Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wisc.) put it -- an early version of the House bill that cleared key committees in 2009, thus making it eligible for the reconciliation process under budget rules. Once that bill clears the the committee it will be gutted and replaced with the closed-door "fixes" agreed upon by Congressional Democrats, and appended with an unrelated student loan bill.

It is nothing but a Potemkin Village, set out to fool people, or better yet distract us from the real goings-on. The funny thing is, even with this previous version of the bill that was sitting around, they couldn't see fit to post it 72 prior to consideration.

The contempt for their constituents is palpable....

Nancy Pelosi Channels Baghdad Bob

Nancy and Bob....separated at birth??


"They're not even [within] 100 miles [of Baghdad]. They are not in any place. They hold no place in Iraq. This is an illusion ... they are trying to sell to the others an illusion." [2003]


"There has never been a more open process for any legislation," Pelosi said at a press conference concerning Healthcare Reform [2010]

The Sticky Mess That is Obamacare

Instapundit quotes Ann Althouse:

“People just don’t want this bill. I think the big mistake was skipping the step of winning public support for a particular plan. It wasn’t enough that people believed there was a problem. People needed to believe the solution wasn’t worse than the problem. We were supposed to look away and trust them. The trust was never won, never earned. It’s been a horrific mess, and it just looks messier and messier as time wears on. Obama kept his distance, which looks pretty smart now.”

Two thoughts on this....

1) The main problem that has doomed Obamacare is that the American people have a general historic distrust of what comes out of Congress. If the people had a positive, or even neutral, opinion of our Congresscritters, then Obama may well have been able to sign a healthcare reform bill by now. But the fact that the effort was so closely associated with Congress and not the highly popular new president probably spelled its doom. Since 'Obama kept his distance', and every pronouncement came out of preening camera-hogs in the Capital rotunda, its was obvious who was making the sausage. The One should have expended his own newly bestowed political capital to push the bill over the goal line, but he left it to those people that all polls show that America distrusts.

2) At the same time, keeping his distance did not work for Obama. The simple fact that the term 'Obamacare' is synonymous with the effort to cede the government control of everyone's healthcare, shows that his attempts to remain above the fray failed. While he did avoid being seen as working the details in the trenches, it was clear from the White House that healthcare reform was considered one of Obama's 'legacy issues'. Thus it is clear to most American's that while Congress is making the sausage, it was the White House that is running the Red Hot cart on the corner, selling the product to the public at large....

I think Ann is wrong. Obama does not escape the mess, and he does not look very smart...

Nurse Pelosi says Turn Your Head and Cough

Many good Americans, though less by the day it seems, ask "What's wrong with passing this health care reform? Especially if it will lower costs and give coverage to those without it."

But many more people have realized however that this "reform" is not about either cost nor coverage. For those that are pushing it, this is not about health care, but rather about "health control".

While the Democrats may spout their assigned talking points about how Obamacare will bring gumdrops and candy canes, they will rarely admit their real motivation despite the fact that everyone knows what it is. That admission would not help them sell this lemon of a used car.

Apparently someone forgot to tell this to one of Nancy Pelosi's staffers. The one in charge of her website's "Mythbuster" feature.

In response to the 'myth' that "Health insurance reform could be unconstitutional…or violate the 10th amendment", Pelosi's website (is that like saying Obama's teleprompter?) says:

"Since virtually every aspect of the heath care system has an effect on interstate commerce, the power of Congress to regulate health care is essentially unlimited."

That's right...one of the leaders of the Congress is happy to let you know that she has your health care by the balls. Now turn your head and cough!

So the next time some nice lefty tells you it is all about high costs and the uninsured, and that the government would never ration your health care, just remember that Nurse Ratched Nancy Pelosi wants you to know her power is unlimited when it comes that health care, and then remember this, this, and this.

Like I said...it isn't about health care, it is about health control....

[Hat Tip: Jonah Goldberg]

Put Away Your Pink Ribbons

#tcot #hhrs #rs #sgp
The United States vastly outpaces the rest of the world in Breast Cancer survival for one simple reason....screening.

Researchers discovered that it was because of breast cancer screenings that women with breast cancer have a 14 percent higher survival rate in the United States than in Europe. Breast cancer mortality is 52 percent higher in Germany than in the United States, and 88 percent higher in the United Kingdom. Breast cancer mortality is also 9 percent higher in Canada than in the US. Less than 25 percent of U.S. women die from breast cancer. In Britain, it’s 46 percent; France, 35 percent; Germany, 31 percent; Canada, 28 percent; Australia, 28 percent, and New Zealand, 46 percent.

However now a Health & Human Services panel recommends that women should reduce the number of mammograms that they get. What is the reasoning behind this recommendation? They cite "evidence that the potential harm to women having annual exams beginning at age 40 outweighs the benefit..."

One might argue that the numbers listed above would counter that line of reasoning.

And the intelligentsia cackled when some warned that socialized medicine Obamacare would lead to rationing with faceless bureaucrats deciding levels of treatment. Like, say, a cancer related recommendation from a panel that doesn't have one oncologist.

Of course the left will argue back that this is simply a recommendation, not law. But do we really think that when Obamacare is the law of the land that these bureaucratic pronouncements won't become policy for those who are stuck with government-run health care?

Not the Hope and Change I was expecting....

We're Getting Socks for Christmas... Thanks Grandma Pelosi!

Nancy Pelosi lets the cat out of the bag and lets us know what we are going to be getting for Christmas...



Errr, thanks Grandma...just what I always wanted....

[Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit]

Tyranny of the Minority Majority

#hhrs #tcot #rs
Some prescient thoughts on the results of last night...

Jennifer Rubin:

If Pelosi gets her 218 votes, it will be unprecedented. It is fair to say that never will a piece of legislation this sweeping (and damaging) have been passed over the opposition of so much of the electorate and on the votes of such a narrow ideological slice of the governing class.

'A Senate Friend':

If the only thing bipartisan is the opposition, and a party with an overwhelming majority is scrambling to get it over the first hurdle, it sure says something about the bill.

I believe that this is what might be called the 'Tyranny of the Minority Majority'...

House Obamacare Bill Word Cloud

Below is the word cloud for the top 100 words that appear in the text of the House Health Care Bill:



Hmmmm...looks like Indians Native Americans get a lot of attention in this bill. And apparently, so will the secretarial pool....

Fear & Loathing on Healthcare

#tcot #hhrs
Steny Hoyer's Town Hall via Mark Hemingway over at The Corner:

"...when I arrived for the town hall being held by the congressman from Maryland's fifth district last night at a high school in Waldorf, I was two hours early, and the place already looked like Calcutta on Free Malaria Shot Day....[Hoyer's] speech was made up of such canned Democratic talking points that it would normally have been unremarkable, except that when you hear all the current Democratic health-care talking points assembled in one place, it's kind of hard not to notice how breathtakingly disingenuous they are."

But the best lines of the night came from Hoyer himself:

"After he repeatedly assured everyone that this bill was fiscally responsible, another questioner asked somewhat incredulously how this bill would save money. Hoyer responded, "I didn't say the bill would pay for itself, I said it would be paid for." The angry crowd didn't like that bit of sophistry one bit. And when another questioner asked how he could assure the bill's fiscal responsibility when Social Security and Medicare were bankrupt, Hoyer responded by saying, "Indeed, I don't know if they are going bankrupt . . ." and had to wait to continue because of the riotous laughter that ensued."

I would think that politicians should fear for their proposals, and perhaps their futures, when they are openly mocked by their constituents.

I think that may be my nomination for political line of the year.... "I didn't say the bill would pay for itself, I said it would be paid for." Now that is ballsy....

New England's Big Weekend

This looks like it could be quite a weekend in New England...

- According to these projections, Hurricane Danny could ruin the end to the First Family's posh vacation on the Vineyard. I wonder what the over/under will be for how long it will take the White House to blame it on Global Warming? Or perhaps paid for by those evil insurance companies?

- Depending on speed, said Hurricane could also put quite a fix on the planned Boston funeral ceremony for Senator Ted Kennedy.

- Interestingly, it seems that the new line of attack by the Dems will be to try and push through Obamacare quickly in order to honor Kennedy and cement his legacy. However last time I checked for a good deal of American's Kennedy's legacy is already cemented, and it is that of a punchline to many late-night TV jokes about womanizing, drunken behavior, or political elitism. And Mayor Quimby didn't just miraculously materialize on the pages of a script from 'The Simpsons'. Thus for the Dems to want to use him as a reason to convince Americans that this healthcare boondoggle needs to be completed immediately seems a little misguided.

Obamacare Haiku

As seen on Twitter:

My body, my choice
Liberal mantra no more
Government decides
-'Dead Voter'

John Stossel on Health Care Reform

#tcot #hhrs #rs
I am a couple of weeks behind, and I missed this video.... It is well worth a few minutes of time.



Hat Tip: Patterico guest blogger DRJ

Single Payer Mash-Up

#tcot #hhrs
Verum Serum has put out another good video that highlites the desires of the leadership on the Left in this country for a single payer system, no matter what some might say in public...




Hat Tip: Guy Benson

The Cost of Growing Old

#tcot #hhrs
Where would you cut health care costs?

Lets play a hypothetical game....after an extended period without a job, and enjoying the new magically unending unemployment benefits (also known as Pelosi bucks!), you manage to land a mid-level position at the new National Health Administration, headquartered at the new Robert C. Byrd Federal Building in Charleston, West Virginia.

You are quickly assigned to the "Efficiencies" division, where you are given the task of helping reduce the operating costs of the new National Health Program. You are told that reducing costs due to waste and fraud will be handled by another division, located at the other Robert C. Byrd Federal Building located on the other side of Charleston.

In order to get your project kick-started, you are told to use the following graph, representing per-capita health care costs across a number of categories, to help decide where to cut costs.



Looking at this graph, there are obviously a few categories that contain significantly higher costs than the others. It is obvious to you and all the other newly hired bureaucrats around the Robert C. Byrd Conference Table that these categories are ripe for cost savings. Problem solved! By reducing those categories down to the levels of the other categories, not only can you hit your cost-savings targets, but you can instantly make health care spending 'fair', as all the categories would be relatively equal.

Who knew being a federal employee could be this easy??

Now lets come back to reality.... Sure that example is fairly simplistic, but he point is when you hear Democrats talk about achieving cost-savings with their nationalized health care proposals, those savings they talk about will come from the operational areas that contain the highest costs. If we know anything about government bureaucracy, it will tend to solve its problems not through tough choices, but through the "easy" choices. For bureaucrats, the easy choice is to reduce your highest cost.

Now lets take another look a at that graph, but this time using its proper sorting and labels.


(Numbers are from Canadian data, but is similar to US and other country's data as seen here and here)

This look makes it plain where those highest health care costs lie....with those Americans who are 65 and older. This makes perfect sense, as some of the most expensive medical procedures are those that have allowed us to extend our life expectancy over the last few decades.

So, if the goal of your plan is to provide the highest quality health care for everyone, you won't care if the costs spike at the end. But if the goal of your plan is to provide adequate health care to everyone at the least possible cost, then you will quickly begin to eye those outliers at the right end of the graph as the road to your budgetary salvation.

For those who protest that the suggestion that Obamacare would shortchange seniors is just scaremongering by an unruly mob, lets take a look at those countries that the Democrats want us to emulate (Sorry Mr Moore, Cuba is not on this chart...)


A quick look shows that overall costs for the younger portion of populations is not all that different, regardless of the country. However, in every other country, money spent on those over the age of 65 is significantly lower than in the US. Is there some magical European secret to providing the same health care to seniors that we do and a greatly reduced cost? No...they simply don't provide their seniors the quantity nd quality of care that we do. But hey. it saves them loads on money. The Democrats always trot out the stat that the US has the highest health care costs of any developed nation. Of course we do, because we spend 50-100% more than any other developed country on the medical quality of life for our seniors. It is good to grow old in the US, but it sucks to grow old in Europe.

To me it is quite obvious, that if Obamacare becomes the diktat of the land, there is one place where penny pinching bureaucrats will go to find their easiest possible savings. And if that is the future it will soon suck to grow old in the United States as well.

Nanny State Weekend

Congratulations America, this is what you voted for.... View how little the left thinks of you...

Taxes:
On whether the Obama Administration will break its pledge not to raise taxes on 95% of Americans in order to pay for Trillions in new spending, Tim Geithner said:

"We’re going to have to do what’s necessary.”

That's reassuring! I think that this can be translated as "We are going to do whatever we want to get the money", since most Americans don't see all the spending as "necessary".

Health Care:
With public opinion turning against the health care proposals in Congress, the left reveals that they think they know better than everyone else.

"47% of people who have coverage don't want change, they don't like what they are hearing. Now, they may not know what is good for them..."

Thanks Andrea. There is an executive position waiting for you at the HHS Public Affairs office...

Personal Freedom:
Individual liberties? Personal responsibility? Anachronisms of a different era. Welcome to the age of the coddling Nanny State in New Hampshire....

"Our State portrays an unfriendly message that every individual has to succeed on their own, rather than count on a support system for assistance (Live Free or Die is not a friendly, supporting message that appeals to young people)."

Hmmm....if the message is considered "unfriendly" by government bureaucrats now, I wonder how much longer it might be before expressions of personal freedom could be considered hate speech? Or at least incompatible with the common good....

This is the Nanny State you voted for. Revel in it....but not too loudly, or by consuming anything with transfats...

Got Chest Pains??

Take a number....

Acton Institute's 'The Problems With Socialized Government Healthcare'

Our Ignoramus in Chief?

#tcot #hhrs
"He was so learned that he could name a horse in nine languages; so ignorant that he bought a cow to ride on." -- Benjamin Franklin

This week President Obama has caught a lot of flack for stating "I don't know all the facts", but then proceeding to provide unwarranted and inflammatory conjecture anyhow.

Although that statement was concerned with a very specific incident, one might argue that this is a phrase that he might want to utter before speaking on major policy topics like economics and health care. For it seems that like many who emerge from liberal academic echo chambers, he is chock full of intellect, but lamentably short on actual knowledge.

The President has thus far admitted his ignorance as to what was specifically contained in the House health care but urged its rapid passage in order to do great things such as save the planet and not ruin the upcoming Congressional vacation. And Fred Barnes at the Weekly Standard calls Obama the "Know-Nothing-in-Chief" for his seeming total void of knowledge free-market economic theories:

Know-Nothing-in-Chief
There's no evidence Obama has even a sketchy grasp of economics.

Is President Obama an economic illiterate? Harsh as that sounds, there's growing evidence he understands little about economics and even less about economic growth or job creation. Yet, as we saw at last week's presidential press conference, he's undeterred from holding forth, with seeming confidence, on economic issues.

Obama professes to believe in free market economics. But no one expects his policies to reflect the unfettered capitalism of a Milton Friedman. That's too much to ask. Demonstrating a passing acquaintance with free market ideas and how they might be used to fight the recession--that's not too much to ask.

But the president talks as if free market solutions are nonexistent...

Getting back to the topic of health care, fairly intelligent and experienced men state that the President doesn't even do a good job faking that he knows what he is talking about.

Glenn Reynolds speaking on the Hugh Hewitt show said "Obama is an idiot when he talks about medical things...", as well as saying some of the President's prescriptions doled out when taking on the subject are like "...prescribing a laxative for lung cancer. This guy is making health care policy, and he's clueless."

On the same show, Charles Krauthammer (a former board certified doctor) said this:

"The real problem with Obama is he’s extremely intelligent, but he’s even more arrogant. And he trusts his own intelligence to get him through anything, even with a lack of knowledge. And it is amazingly arrogant. He’s standing up there, and he’s saying that there are doctors out there who will rip out a kid’s tonsils in order to make some money, without even knowing what are the indications for a tonsillectomy, and what’s not. He sort of made it up as he went along. You’re right. He operates on what he thinks he only needs, a minimal level of knowledge..."

Fortunately for us, but unfortunately for the President, his ignorance of a range of ideas on major policy issues may well be the undoing of his proposals. Much of this is due to the repeated public display of this ignorance in his self-induced hyper-exposure. If he were to keep from the spotlight, and only appear when escorted by a phalanx of teleprompters, he could limit the damage. But it may already have been done. But perhaps he is willing to sacrifice these things on the alters of vanity and narcissism.

Unfortunately it would not be a surprise if President Obama had spent all those years in academe becoming an intellectual, rather than a learned man.

"A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep." -- Saul Bellow

“There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.” -- Johann Wolfgang vonGoethe