Tag Archives: US Politics

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U.S. Loses Control on Texas Border

Texas governor sends Rangers to Mexico border
Perry accuses federal government of failing to ‘adequately secure’ zone

Special teams of Texas Rangers will be deployed to the Texas-Mexico border to deal with increasing violence because the federal government has failed to address growing problems there, Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday.

“It is an expansive effort with the Rangers playing a more high-profile role than they’ve ever played before,” Perry said of the Department of Public Safety’s elite investigative unit.

The forces, dubbed “Ranger recon” teams, are the latest effort “to fill the gap that’s been left by the federal government’s ongoing failure to adequately secure our international border with Mexico,” he said.

Like they say…”Don’t mess with Texas!”

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Right Wing Bomb Threat!

Oh,  – it was the right wingers who were threatened with a bomb.

Bomb Threat Forces Evacuation of DC TEA Party Planners

On the eve of what organizers call a ‘Big Ol’ TEA Party’, the Washington, D.C., offices of FreedomWorks were evacuated by DC Metro police on Friday afternoon after the conservative organization reported to authorities at 3:42 pm ET that it had received a bomb threat.

Domestic terrorism? Once again evidently from the left.

Constitution Watch

“King of the Wild Frontier” with Words for Today

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Perhaps the Chief is dating himself here…if so, oh well. For those who don’t remember (for any number of possible reasons) Walt Disney ran a series on their show that dramatized “Davy Crockett – King of the Wild Frontier”

It should be noted, that they took some historical liberties with the topic (hey, it was a mass TV thing aimed at kids!), but as this article illustrates, often the events of the past are directly relevant to the issues of the latter days.

In this case Congressman David (preferred by him instead of “Davy”) Crockett was called to account by a concerned constituent, and wasnot only willing to listen, but was willing to both admit his error and change his position as the result.  Not bad…especially when compared to the current crop of Congresscritters.

Charity and the good ol’ Constitution

“Where do you find in the Constitution any authority to give away the public money in charity?”

It might be a question out of today’s headlines, but it isn’t.

No doubt, it could rightly be asked in the health-care debate, but it goes well beyond that. In every disaster, in every disturbance, the federal government today is ready with a checkbook at hand to help those in need. Hurricane Katrina? California fires? Montana snowstorms? They’ve all been declared disasters in order to justify federal spending to help out the victims and to speed recovery. The average number of disaster declarations reached as high as 130 during the George W. Bush administration, an increase of almost 50 percent over the Clinton era.

Of course, no one could be against helping the innocent victims of natural or manmade disasters, could they? Well, no. Not anyone in their right mind, at least. Charity is one of the highest impulses of mankind, and our desire to help and protect each other is a noble heritage that we all cherish.

But that does not answer the original question:

“Where do you find in the Constitution any authority to give away the public money in charity?”

That question was asked not of President Obama nor of Sen. Max Baucus or Rep. Nancy Pelosi, but of the less well-known Tennessee congressman, David Crockett.

It was a question that Rep. Crockett was not well-prepared to answer, but his constituent wanted to know why he had voted to spend federal funds for the relief of families that had been left homeless as the result of a ravaging fire in Georgetown. Crockett had actually seen the fire and gone to help rescue women and children and to fight the flames, so he was more than happy a bill came before Congress to aid those victims further. As he himself said, “We put aside all other business, and rushed it through as soon as it could be done.”

Again, sort of reminiscent of the “rush” to pass health-care ‘reform” in the current Congress,

At this point you really need to read the account in the piece of the conversation between Cong. Crockett and constituent Horatio Bunce.

The Chief heartily endorses the conclusion:

In this day and age, the only congressman I know of who follows Crockett’s example as a born-again constitutionalist is Ron Paul, who never votes for a bill without first confirming in his own mind that Congress is authorized by the Constitution to pass such a law. Most of the rest of them just ask themselves how popular the bill will be, and whether it will help or hurt their efforts to be re-elected.

Yes, the Constitution is a relatively old document, but it is not moldy, and if we think of it as quaint and irrelevant, we do so at the ultimate cost of our liberty. That would be unconscionable.

Let’s hope that this story of Rep. David Crockett and a plain old U.S. citizen who held him accountable helps to remind each and every one of us that America’s exceptional quality is partly based on the fact that we are ruled from the bottom up. It is “we the people,” not “we the governed.”

It is important also to remember that solutions to most American problems are to be found in American lore and history — if one could but be bothered to look. Although times change, human nature doesn’t, nor does the nature of our republic, as long as it stands fast and hews to the line of the Constitution.

Here’s hoping we can get a few more Crocketts for Washington.

Obamunism

SD Donk Not Happy Camper

‘Losing patience,’ S.D. consultant says

A South Dakota campaign consultant who helped steer Barack Obama to victory last year said he and other Americans are “losing patience” with the White House’s inability to deliver the changes Obama ran on.

Steve Hildebrand in recent weeks also has criticized Blue Dog Democrats in Congress, including South Dakota Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, for compromising with Republicans. Those compromises threaten to make Democrats the minority party in Congress because they are not enacting a progressive agenda on issues such as climate change and health care reform.

Tuesday, Hildebrand told Politico.com, a news site that covers politics, that Obama “needs to be more bold in his leadership.”

Steve Hildebrand in recent weeks also has criticized Blue Dog Democrats in Congress, including South Dakota Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, for compromising with Republicans. Those compromises threaten to make Democrats the minority party in Congress because they are not enacting a progressive agenda on issues such as climate change and health care reform.

Looks to the Chief like Hildebrand has what could be described as a lack of situational awareness.

The problem B.O. and others of his and Hildebrand’s ilk are having is NOT that they are moving too far away from their preferred left-outpost positions pushing a so-called “progressive agenda” (i.e. an ever more intrusive and increasing role of government), but a repulsive reaction of most voters to this approach.

Obamunism

Baucus Caucus B.O. B.S.

Montana Donk Sen. Max Baucus has been actively trying to muster votes for the Obamacare Obamination…with a lack of success thus far.

Sections of his proposals show a strong presence of a major bi-product of Montana’s cattle ranching, as he beats the bushes (and trees, plains, grasslands, and anywhere else) to find ever more creative ways to mulct the American taxpayer to support ever-expanding government.

One item the Baucus Caucus (otherwise known as the “Gang of Six”) is discussing is forcing us to protect ourselves from ourselves”

Baucus health plan would fine uninsured

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus’ bid to get a bipartisan agreement on a health care overhaul before President Obama addresses a joint session of Congress Wednesday night calls for imposing a $6 billion tax on insurance companies and fining families $3,800 for not obtaining insurance coverage.

Sound good?  Wait – there’s more (and more, and more…etc.)

What’s Hidden in the Baucus Bill?

“Section I: Health systems savings.” There are four chapters. “Ensuring appropriate payment. Capturing productivity gains. Reducing geographic variation in spending, and modifying beneficiary contributions.” “Section II: Options for Modifying the Exclusion for Employer-Provided Health Insurance.” (Repeats for emphasis.) “Options for Modifying the Exclusion for Employer-Provided Health Insurance.” “Section III: Other Health Care Relate Revenue Raisers, Modify Or Repeal The Itemized Deduction For Medical Expenses. Repeal Or Modify The Special Deduction And Special Unearned Premium Rule For Blue Cross And Blue Shield Or Other Quantifying Organizations. Modify Health Savings Accounts. Modify Or Repeal The Exclusion For Employer Provided Reimbursement Of Medical Expenses Under Flexible Spending Arrangements And Health Reimbursement Arrangements.” Wow, they’re really simplifying this, aren’t they?

Now, every time you hear me say “modify or repeal,” think “eliminate or cut.” Or another word, yeah. (laughing) It begins with an F. Another word we can’t use. “Limit The Qualified Medical Expense Definition. Modify The FICA Tax Exemption.” That’s Social Security. “Extend The Medicare Payroll Tax To All State And Local Government Employees. Modify The Requirements For Tax Exempt Hospitals.” Now, whenever you hear “modify or limit,” or “repeal,” or “limit;” think “cut,” or “get rid of,” or the F-bomb. “Section IV: Lifestyle Related Revenue Raisers. Impose A Uniform Alcohol Excise Tax. Enact A Sugar Sweetened Beverage Excise Tax. Section V: Administration’s Revenue Raising Proposals,” and I have them all here. I printed it out. I’m sorry it’s very long. It’s five pages.

Unfortunately, this listing goes on and on. The old warning BOHICA comes to mind: Bend Over, Here It Comes Again. Check it out…there’s NO WAY we’re all not going to get stuck with paying Uncle a lot more.

The result of all this to date: not much obvious agreement:

Baucus: No deal yet on health care bill

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said Wednesday that his committee will debate a health care overhaul bill the week of Sept 22, whether or not he has the panel’s Republicans on board.

The Montana Democrat was hoping the committee’s “Gang of Six” of three Republican and three Democratic members would reach a compromise Wednesday ahead of President Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress, but the group wasn’t able to reach an agreement.

May he continue to meet with such success!

Obamunism

B.O. Bipartisanship? Non-existant!

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Boehner: GOP leaders haven’t met Obama for health talks since April

Looks like B.O.’s calls for “bipartisanship” mean as much as his claims of “transparency” – not much at all!

Boehner told reporters that the president has not invited House GOP leaders to the White House for meetings on healthcare reform since the end of April.

Earlier this year, GOP leaders sent a letter to the president in May stating that they would like to work with the administration to find “common ground” on healthcare reform.

But the administration responded with a tersely worded letter indicating that they had healthcare reform under control.

Now THERE’S B.O.’s key concept: CONTROL – him controlling us.

Obamunism

B.O’s Umpteenth Pronouncement on Health Care

Obama: Time for ‘bickering’ is over on health care

Shaking off a summer of setbacks, President Barack Obama summoned Congress to enact sweeping health care legislation Wednesday night, declaring the “time for bickering is over” and the moment has arrived to protect millions who have unreliable insurance or no coverage at all.

ACHTUNG!  Remember you all…I am your Leader! Shut up and get in line!

As far as the necessity for a government insurance plan, B.O. continued in waffle mode:

…Obama spoke in favor of a provision for the federal government to sell insurance in competition with private industry. But in a remark certain to displease liberals, he did not insist on it, and said he was open to other alternatives that create choices for consumers.

Obama said he remains ready to listen to all ideas but added in a clear reference to Republicans, “I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it’s better politics to kill this plan than to improve it.”

This really means those who prefer to kill “this plan” rather than improve the current system.

All did not receive this word gladly:

In an unusual outburst from the Republican side of the House chamber, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., shouted out “You lie” when the president said illegal immigrants would not benefit from his proposals. The president paused briefly and smiled, but from her seat in the visitor’s gallery, first lady Michelle Obama shook her head from side to side in disapproval of the interruption. Wilson later apologized for his “lack of civility.”

Bad form given the setting and circumstances…but…Wilson called it the way the proposals are currently written. Truth can be a bitch!

In general, the president shied away from providing lawmakers with a list of particulars he wants to see included in the legislation, and there was nothing in the speech to invite comparisons with Bill Clinton’s pen-waving veto threat more than a decade ago on health care.

The devil remains in the details…which are being hashed out by the Donk Congs under the hegemony of SanFranNan Pelosi and Dusty Harry Reid.

B.O. also declared:

“Well, the time for bickering is over,” he said. “The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action….I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last,” he added.

Huh? “…determined to be the last”? If Obamacare is approved, it’ll be chiseled into stone like the Laws of the Medes and Persians and never be addressed again?

Well, the Chief’s overall reaction to this is…yadda, yadda, yadda. Same song, different day.

Constitution Watch

Obamacare Waffle Kitchen at Work

A couple of alternative versions of what’s going on with this…all seems in a state of “definite maybe” with B.O. et al.

Bottom line on public insurance plan gets blurry

The Obama administration’s bottom line on a government health insurance option blurred Sunday as White House officials stressed support but stopped short of calling it a must-have part of an overhaul.

As President Barack Obama prepares for a Wednesday night speech to Congress in a risky bid to salvage his top domestic priority, no other issue is so highly charged. Obama’s liberal supporters consider the proposal for a public plan to compete with private insurers do-or-die. Republicans say it’s unacceptable. It’s doubtful the public plan can pass the Senate.

Puh-leese – let it be so!

Finally, Axelrod showed mastery of the sort of bureaucratic governmental dialog illustrated in Atlas Shrugged:

White House political adviser David Axelrod said Obama is “not walking away” from a public plan. But asked if the president would veto a bill that came to him without the option, Axelrod declined to answer.

The president “believes it should be in the plan, and he expects to be in the plan, and that’s our position,” Axelrod told The Associated Press.

Asked if that means a public plan has to be in the bill for Obama to sign it, Axelrod responded: “I’m not going to deal in hypotheticals. … He believes it’s important.”

Meanwhile…both sides in Congress are not pleased…a hopeful sign of possible failure of the whole collectivist mess.

Government Insurance ‘Trigger’ Draws Bipartisan Criticism in Health Care Debate

Conservatives and liberals alike are puncturing the latest trial balloon in the health care reform debate, finding flaws with a proposal that would keep a government-run health insurance plan on reserve in case private insurance companies don’t meet certain benchmarks.

The so-called “trigger” has been floated by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, a member of the “gang of six” Senate negotiators who are trying to broker a bipartisan compromise. Under such an option, if agreed-upon goals are not met by the insurance industry, then that would pull the trigger on government-run insurance.

It’s unclear whether President Obama will address the idea when he delivers a high-stakes health care address to Congress Wednesday night. But even as the White House signals it’s open to considering alternatives to a hard-and-fast “public option,” administration officials and congressional negotiators are hard-pressed to find an alternative that could win more votes than it loses.

Keep watching. It ain’t over ’till it’s over.

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Czar Abdicates

Obama ‘Green Jobs’ Adviser Van Jones Resigns Amid Controversy

White House green jobs adviser Van Jones resigned in the middle of the Labor Day weekend following persistent controversy over his past remarks and associations.

Jones, who served as an adviser to the White House Council on Environmental Quality, had generated mounting criticism over the past week. He earlier issued back-to-back apologies — first, for calling Republicans “assholes” during a videotaped address earlier in the year, and second for signing a petition in 2004 supporting the “9/11 truther” movement, which believes the Bush administration may have been involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The latter development, which came on top of several others, was perhaps the most devastating and led to calls for his resignation.

Jones stepped down late Saturday.

Good riddence to bad rubbish!

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Bachman Sounds the Tocsin

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Bachmann calls for ‘covenant’ to defeat health care overhaul

If the GOP leadership of the last few election cycles had THIS sort of attitude, B.O. would still be a ward-heeling left-wing Chicago community political hack.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) stepped up the rhetoric against her liberal colleagues in Congress on Monday, calling on Americans to “make a covenant, slit our wrists, be blood brothers” in a mission to stop the Democratic health care proposal.

Commenting on present-day Washington conditions, she shows a clear and correct state of situational awareness:

“You’ve got your usual slothfulness, boozing, skirt-chasing members of Congress — we could only wish that those were our problems,” Bachmann said, according to a video of the event released by the institute. “Right now we are looking at reaching down the throat and ripping the guts out of freedom [in] this country. And we may never be able to restore it if we don’t man up and take this one on. This has to be defeated — this Obama Care. Cap and trade has to be defeated. Those two alone have the strength to destroy this country forever.”

Responding to a question about what changes to health care delivery and payment would be necessary if the Democratic reform proposal were to pass, Bachmann emphasized that “we can’t even have that discussion.” She added: “This cannot pass. It cannot.”

Going beyond opposition there is the suggestion for some much-needed (REAL!) health-care reforms:

Bachmann suggested that better methods of overhauling health care would be to “erase” state boundaries for purchasing health insurance and address tort reform.

You go girl!

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Free Pass from B.O.’s DoJ

Firstly, there’s the case of Donk Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico:

Richardson Probe ‘Was Killed in Washington’

Looks like prominent Donk pol Bill Richardson won a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. It’s great to have friends in high places!

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former high-ranking members of his administration won’t be criminally charged in a yearlong federal investigation into pay-to-play allegations involving one of the Democratic governor’s large political donors, someone familiar with the case said.

The decision not to pursue indictments was made by top Justice Department officials, according to a person familiar with the investigation, who asked not to be identified because federal officials had not disclosed results of the probe.

“It’s over. There’s nothing. It was killed in Washington,” the person told the Associated Press.

Commenting further:

DoJ drops prosecution of top Dem

An unpleasant smell attends the Department of Justice decision to not prosecute New Mexico Governor (and Obama ally) Bill Richardson. Fresh on the heels of the Department declining to prosecute the New Black Panthers for voter intimidation, while appointing a special prosecutor for CIA interrogators, the appearance of a politicized Justice Department is being created.

D’ya think?  (Yep, sure do!)

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Obamacare Update: No public plan?

White House appears ready to drop ‘public option’

Bowing to Republican pressure and an uneasy public, President Barack Obama’s administration signaled Sunday it is ready to abandon the idea of giving Americans the option of government-run insurance as part of a new health care system.

This is highly disingenuous. If it was only Republican opposition, there would be no issue. With the dominance of the Donkey Party in both houses of Congress, they could effectively do anything they wanted.  The problem is that enough Donks don’t want to adopt a “public” (government) system (that according to the House bill would inevitably result in the destruction of private insurance), so the B.O. administration is apparently poised to run up the white flag on this at least, and blame the “wascally Wepublicans” in a ploy to attempt to appease the Donk’s hard left.

Facing mounting opposition to the overhaul, administration officials left open the chance for a compromise with Republicans that would include health insurance cooperatives instead of a government-run plan. Such a concession probably would enrage Obama’s liberal supporters but could deliver a much-needed victory on a top domestic priority opposed by GOP lawmakers.

Obviously, the situation is developing, or is it decaying?

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Big Brother Proposal by Dem Cong

Congressman wants government GPS in cars

This is NOT so you can find your destination more easily!

An Oregon congressman says he wants to test having a government GPS unit in every car so a tax could be imposed on the miles driven. The proposal, H.R. 3311, which calls for a test project costing $150 million-plus, was introduced by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.

Really… it would only be to monitor miles. Of course, there are a few other features that COULD be used in the future for additional purposes to allow the USSA to control your activities down more effectivelybe able to help you more efficiently.

what other applications would there be for a GPS unit attached to each car in the nation?

What about “shutting down the vehicle when its allotted emissions cap had been reached.”

“Why not?” Lamb wrote, “The current cap-and-trade bill would limit industrial emissions and force each business to pay an extra tax for the privilege of emitting additional carbon dioxide. Why not arbitrarily assign a weekly or monthly cap on auto emissions and shut down the vehicle when that limit is reached? The new Global Positioning Satellite device would have that capability.

“Every American ought to be outraged that such a system is even contemplated,” he continued. “This system is the tool that makes slaves of every person who depends upon a vehicle. Every person should consider just how his life would be changed if he were required to get approval from the federal government to start his car.”[emphasis added]

Lamb said shutting down a vehicle would be among the less intrusive possibilities.

“The proposed GPS road tax system could easily be programmed to listen to and record conversations inside any vehicle. It could stop a vehicle, lock the occupants inside and notify the ‘jack boots’ that the occupants were en route to a tea party,” Lamb wrote. “We would hope that the federal government would never sink to the level of paranoia that gripped Nazi Germany. But then, we also hoped that the federal government would never sink to the level of labeling legal, peaceful assemblies, such as the recent tea parties, as gatherings of potential terrorists.”

Words fail…

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Obamacare Update & Non-apology

First something new! This will help you to understand how Obamacare has great potential to simplify, improve the system, and reduce costs. Right?

healthcarechart.jpg
(Click here for larger view)

It didn’t help? Oh, darn!

To a different aspect of this topic: The Chief received flaming replies and was the subject of  heartfelt  postings (comparing him to Rush Limbaugh!) to his previous posting concerning Obamacare, DEMANDING abject apology on the part of yours truly for having the nerve to question the plans of The One and His Disciples in the Halls of Congress.

Apparently the posting has tripped the trigger over in Madison and has the Madville Times living up to it’s name on this one. Sorry about that Mr. Heidelberger, but can’t we just disagree? No? Oh well…I’m grief stricken.   If you don’t agree with my conclusions, that’s YOUR business: time will ultimately tell who’s really right on hese, and other issues.

I WILL concede that the below cited provision is not an outright ban on private insurance, but…the devil’s in the details, as is usually the case when dealing with Byzantine proposals for massive new tax-and-entitlement centralized programs, and further apology will be eschewed based on the EFFECT of said program which IMHO results in the eventual end of private insurance. To go back to the piece that originally caught my attention…at risk of possible repetition:

When we first saw the paragraph Tuesday, just after the 1,018-page document was released, we thought we surely must be misreading it. So we sought help from the House Ways and Means Committee. It turns out we were right: The provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of “Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage,” the “Limitation On New Enrollment” section of the bill clearly states: “Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day” of the year the legislation becomes law.

Based on my understanding of English language, tat seems to be fairly clear.

So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won’t be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.

If the government gets into the business of offering subsidized health insurance coverage, the private insurance market will wither. Drawn by a public option that will be 30% to 40% cheaper than their current premiums because taxpayers will be funding it, employers will gladly scrap their private plans and go with Washington’s coverage.

Tell me this WON’t happen…if you REALLY believe it won’t, please contact me for some tropical beachfront in NW Moody County, SD – do I have a DEAL for you! So, where does the end of private health programs come in? Attrition, for sure, and small (and large) businesses bailing out of private coverage like mad…let Uncle Sam do it, and figure out the financing too…result, IMHO the attritional death of private coverage. (By the way, this already happened in the UK contributing to the rationing and maltreatment that is far too common over there.)

The nonpartisan Lewin Group estimated in April that 120 million or more Americans could lose their group coverage at work and end up in such a program. That would leave private carriers with 50 million or fewer customers. This could cause the market to, as Lewin Vice President John Sheils put it, “fizzle out altogether.”What wasn’t known until now is that the bill itself will kill the market for private individual coverage by not letting any new policies be written after the public option becomes law.

The legislation is also likely to finish off health savings accounts, a goal that Democrats have had for years. They want to crush that alternative because nothing gives individuals more control over their medical care, and the government less, than HSAs.

The final result will ultimately be the end of private health care and insurance as we know it, not by direct execution, but by an inevitable exercise of a sort of Gresham’s Law applied to health care…bad care drives out good care (unless you are REALLY rich in a way I can’t even begin to imagine, as a semi-retired teacher).

If you, as Mr. Heidelberger is, (and to some extent I also am) are disturbed by the like of the Stanford-MeritCare merger, this too is an inevitable result of the movement towards Obamacare…as these organizations attempt to render themselves “too big to fail” by the standards of even bigger government. (They just want their place at the health care table…no big deal, right, and if Goldman-Sach’s money talks in the halls of Washington, then why not Sanford’s?)

Now, one can decide that this is a positive change in things or not. No problemo, but I continue to call the shots as I see them, whether or not Mr. Heidelberger likes what I say, or agrees with it or whatever…that’s HIS call.

My choice is to reply to specific issues…NOT to get into the gratuitous exchange of invective and personalities in keeping with the counsel of a man much wiser than me: “Never mud-wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig enjoys it.”

By the way C.H. – I am honored to be attacked in the same sentence as Rush Limbaugh! It makes me thing I must be doing something RIGHT!

Uncategorized

Still talking…unfortunately.

Hillary Clinton rejects notion of diminished role

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday rejected suggestions she had been sidelined by President Barack Obama her rival for last year’s Democratic presidential nomination.

With media reports swirling that Clinton’s influence has been usurped by the National Security Council, the top U.S. diplomat insisted she played an important role in crafting the foreign policy agenda.

“I really stay focused on the work that I do. I broke my elbow, not my larynx.

Oh well. Maybe next time!

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Huh?

Joe Biden: ‘We Have to Go Spend Money to Keep From Going Bankrupt’

Vice President Joe Biden told people attending an AARP town hall meeting that unless the Democrat-supported health care plan becomes law the nation will go bankrupt and that the only way to avoid that fate is for the government to spend more money….

“We’re going to go bankrupt as a nation,” Biden said.

“Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’” Biden said. “The answer is yes, that’s what I’m telling you.”

The VEEP’s mind is certainly not troubled by the presence of logic and reason.

Glowbull Warming, SD Politics

Glowbull Warming Updates & Cap and Tax

(New York blogging!)

With B.O. and Congressional Donks pushing for the passage of the energy mega-tax bill, these items are either directly or indirectly related.

First Some of their political strategery…

Al Gore not coming to D.C.

Awwwwwwwww!

Former Vice President Al Gore canceled plans to fly to Washington for a news conference with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday, and instead was working the phones from Tennessee to help push a landmark climate bill to passage.

Hopefully this next bit is wrong…but we’ll see what happens.

Friday’s vote on the measure is expected to be close, but multiple sources on both sides of the aisle say they’re confident that the bill will pass — with some Republican votes — following a deal between House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson.

Why is this a BAD idea: a number of issues are in play here:

The Cap and Tax Fiction

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has put cap-and-trade legislation on a forced march through the House, and the bill may get a full vote as early as Friday. It looks as if the Democrats will have to destroy the discipline of economics to get it done.

Despite House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman’s many payoffs to Members, rural and Blue Dog Democrats remain wary of voting for a bill that will impose crushing costs on their home-district businesses and consumers. The leadership’s solution to this problem is to simply claim the bill defies the laws of economics.

This will NOT be doing anything to help the economy, quite the contrary. (Are you paying any attention Congresscritter Herseth-Sandlin?)

The biggest doozy in the CBO analysis was its extraordinary decision to look only at the day-to-day costs of operating a trading program, rather than the wider consequences energy restriction would have on the economy. The CBO acknowledges this in a footnote: “The resource cost does not indicate the potential decrease in gross domestic product (GDP) that could result from the cap.” [emphasis added]

The hit to GDP is the real threat in this bill. The whole point of cap and trade is to hike the price of electricity and gas so that Americans will use less. These higher prices will show up not just in electricity bills or at the gas station but in every manufactured good, from food to cars. Consumers will cut back on spending, which in turn will cut back on production, which results in fewer jobs created or higher unemployment. Some companies will instead move their operations overseas, with the same result.

So what else is new in the Glowbull Warming debate?

EPA Suppresses Internal Global Warming Study

Scientific findings at odds with the Obama Administration’s views on carbon dioxide and climate change are being suppressed as a result of political pressure, officials at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) charge.

“This suppression of valid science for political reasons is beyond belief,” said CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman. “EPA’s conduct is even more outlandish because it flies in the face of the president’s widely-touted claim that ‘the days of science taking a back seat to ideology are over.’”

The agency has never made the study public or included it in official reference materials, according to CEI. As part of a recently concluded EPA public comment period on a proposed rule, CEI submitted a set four EPA emails, dated March 12-17, 2009, as evidence that the suppressed study included a critique of the agency’s global warming position.
CEI has asked EPA to make the study public and to allow public comments on it. CEI has also asked that EPA to prevent any reprisals against the study’s author who has been employed with the agency for 35 years.

And then there’s this this bit of common sense:
Electric Cars Will Not Decrease Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Says Federal Study

The stimulus law enacted in February promoted the purchase of plug-in electric cars by the federal government and the broader market, but a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released this month says that the use of plug-in electric vehicles will not by itself decrease greenhouse gas emissions.

To do that, the report argues, the United States would have to switch from coal-burning plants to lower-emission sources to generate electricity such as nuclear power.

“If you are using coal fired power plants and half the country’s electricity comes from coal powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?”
Mark Gaffigan, co-author of the GAO report and a specialist in energy issues told CNSNews.com.

Well, DUH!

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Transparency? What’s that?

Obama Closes Doors on Openness

This report is interesting as much from it’s origin as for its content. Newsweak, and Issikof are FAR from being part of the VRWC!

As a senator, Barack Obama denounced the Bush administration for holding “secret energy meetings” with oil executives at the White House. But last week public-interest groups were dismayed when his own administration rejected a Freedom of Information Act request for Secret Service logs showing the identities of coal executives who had visited the White House to discuss Obama’s “clean coal” policies. One reason: the disclosure of such records might impinge on privileged “presidential communications.” The refusal, approved by White House counsel Greg Craig’s office, is the latest in a series of cases in which Obama officials have opted against public disclosure. Since Obama pledged on his first day in office to usher in a “new era” of openness, “nothing has changed,” says David -Sobel, a lawyer who litigates FOIA cases. “For a president who said he was going to bring unprecedented transparency to government, you would certainly expect more than the recycling of old Bush secrecy policies.”

The hard line appears to be no accident. After Obama’s much-publicized Jan. 21 “transparency” memo, administration lawyers crafted a key directive implementing the new policy that contained a major loophole, according to FOIA experts. The directive, signed by Attorney General Eric Holder, instructed federal agencies to adopt a “presumption” of disclosure for FOIA requests. This reversal of Bush policy was intended to restore a standard set by President Clinton’s attorney general, Janet Reno. But in a little-noticed passage, the Holder memo also said the new standard applies “if practicable” for cases involving “pending litigation.” Dan Metcalfe, the former longtime chief of FOIA policy at Justice, says the passage and other “lawyerly hedges” means the Holder memo is now “astonishingly weaker” than the Reno policy. (The visitor-log request falls in this category because of a pending Bush-era lawsuit for such records.)

ANOTHER case of the B.O. bite veing very different indeed from the bark.  Not a problem to the Chief, since he thinks that this is actually a more rational policy that the originally stated one.

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Political “Gravy” Flows Downhill

A political pattern to stimulus tour

Looks like the B.O. administration has taken the art of wardheeler politics of distributing political loot to the faithful to a new high (low?!).

Since Congress passed President Barack Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus bill in February, administration officials have traveled to at least 66 events across the country to tout the massive spending program or hand out stimulus cash to grateful local officials.

But a POLITICO examination of the travel reveals a distinctly political trend line: Top officials have hosted events predominantly in states that Obama won in 2008.

What’s more, the examination revealed that Obama officials all but avoided Southern states that Obama lost.

It is not unusual for a presidential administration to find ways to reward its supporters through federal largesse, particularly in this case, when the goal of the stimulus program is push money out the door to states and localities that can spend it quickly to jump-start the economy. The Bush administration was criticized in 2004 for sending Cabinet officials on trips that critics said doubled as campaigning for the president’s reelection bid.

But the numbers tell the tale: 52 of the 66 events were in states that backed Obama. And taken together, the itineraries amount to a veritable map of Obama’s election-night victories — big-money states like California and New York, swing states like Ohio and Colorado that Obama turned blue and other solidly Democratic states Obama kept in his column.

Shocking! Simply shocking!

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Where the Sun Doesn’t Shine: Colin’s Moves to the Donk Side

Colin Powell fires back at Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney

In the latest round of the increasingly heated intra-GOP feud, former Secretary of State Colin Powell Sunday defended his Republican credentials and fired back at radio host Rush Limbaugh and former Vice President Dick Cheney, saying the party had to expand beyond its conservative base.

“Rush will not get his wish and Mr. Cheney was misinformed – I am still a Republican,” Powell said in a much-anticipated interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” two weeks after Cheney suggested on the same show that the retired general had left the party by endorsing Barack Obama last fall.

Frankly, that dog don’t hunt. Powell has endorsed Donk policies, criticized the GOP, and endorsed B.O.

Applying the rule that “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, so it’s a duck!”, then in spite of any protestations to the contrary, Colin Powell has moved himself out of the GOP to the Donk side.

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How revolting!

Here comes California’s May 19 Rebellion

Whoo-hooo!

California voters head to the polls next week with predictions of doom echoing in their ears if they decline to endorse the massive tax hikes prescribed for them by big Democratic majorities in the statehouse, Arnold and a handful of now ruined-politically Republican legislators.

“Shrill” doesn’t begin to describe the campaign designed to stampede the Golden State electorate. The latest ad has a weary, soot-covered fire-fighter urging a yes vote on the tax hike. The message is clear: Vote no and your homes will burn down.

Not even this sort of fear-mongering is moving the needle towards “yes” on the massive tax surge on next week’s ballot as poll after poll shows all the key measures put forward by the tax-and-spend-and tax-again crowd failing badly.

Good for California, if this trend continues.

Arnold is doing his best to summon up the old magic but his appeal long ago hit Gray Davis-levels. Arnold was elected to slash taxes and spending, and somehow he confused that mandate with orders to throw in with the public employee unions. Too bad. He could have been a contender.

The GOP “leaders” who signed on to this roadmap to ruin have been dumped by their caucuses, and go down in California history as the biggest marks to have ever had a seat at the poker game known as the “Big Five” negotiations wherein the governor and the top Republicans and Democrats in the State Assembly and Senate hash out budget matters.

Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom and every other would be Democratic governor are watching their chances in ’10 swirl down the drain as deep disgust with the tax-addicted grows.

Looks like the voters aren’t buying into the Governator’s transplanted version of Austrian-style National State Socialism.

What happens next is anyone’s guess because very few people think Arnold has any game left and so the state is effectively leaderless after its voters deliver an unambiguous message to carve state government back to the bone.

The first logical step would indeed be massive downsizing in the state government outside of public safety and education. Public assistance budgets will have to be slashed, and public employee pensions renegotiated to manageable levels.

California’s budget woes are much greater than those of GM and Chrysler combined, but no give-backs have even been requested of the public employee unions beyond a symbolic loss of a holiday or two lost. Entitlement payments have to be slashed and state assets sold.

The Golden State is bankrupt. It needs a quasi-bankruptcy proceeding, and it needs it now.

It’s fitting that the film Terminator Salvation is coming out too…looks like the voters are taking the title to heart, and seeking their salvation.

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The Soprano Administration

Gangster government gave Chrysler to the UAW

Give President Obama credit – he at least made the proverbial offer Chrysler’s secured creditors couldn’t refuse. The way Obama strong-armed creditors who rightfully expected to be treated justly under the law was right out of Juan Peron’s playbook. Like the Argentinian strong man, Obama muscled the owners and creditors out of a productive private company and gave it to union leaders, who will then fill his campaign coffers in gratitude for his generosity. The Examiner’s Michael Barone – who has forgotten more about American government and politics than most Washington political experts know – was correct to dub Obama’s Chrysler heist “an episode of Gangster Government.”

Another example of this that comes to mind is the “aristocracy of pull” described by Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged.

Forget what anybody in the White House or what is left of the Chrysler executive corps claims to the contrary because the UAW effectively owns the company now, holding 55 percent of its stock. True, the union doesn’t get an explicit controlling majority of the board of directors, but who needs that when you’ve got the White House guaranteeing your work and the U.S. Treasury Department making sure you never have to worry about the bottom line. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger’s place in Big Labor’s Hall of Fame is now secure. He found a sugar daddy with an endless supply of cash. So UAW members and retirees can keep right on drawing those pay and benefits so excessively generous they made it impossible for the old Chrysler to compete with Toyota and Honda.

What next? One shudders to consider the possible (probable?) course.

Glowbull Warming

Poor Situational Awareness, Again

On guns and climate, the elites are out of touch

Many years ago political scientists came up with a theory that elites lead public opinion. And on some issues they clearly do. But on some issues they don’t. Two examples of the latter phenomenon are conspicuous at a time when Barack Obama enjoys the approval of more than 60 percent of Americans and Democrats have won thumping majorities in two elections in a row. One is global warming.

The other is gun control. On both issues, the elites of academe, the media and big business have been solidly on one side for years. But on both, the American public has been moving in the other direction.

Citing long-term (and continuing) trends in Gallup and other polling (scarcely hot-beds of militant conservatism), the trend on these issues is clear: reality is trumping LibDonk ideology. The refusal of Glowbull Warming to occur as predicted, along with the lack of harmful consequences along with a decline in violent crime as 40 states have allowed concealed carry permits HAS been noticed, and is starting to be felt by some of the pols who actually listen to their constituents.

So what’s it mean?

The liberal elite is less interested in giving up its luxuries (Al Gore purchases carbon offsets to compensate for his huge mansion and private jet travel) than in changing the lifestyles of the masses who selfishly insist on living in suburbs and keeping guns for recreation or protection. Ordinary Americans are seen not as responsible fellow citizens building stable communities but as greedy masses who must be disciplined to live according to the elite’s religious dogmas.

It should not be completely surprising that, over time, these views have become less congenial to the masses who are the object of such condescension. Democratic officeholders who must live by the discipline of the ballot have noticed. Party leaders did not press to re-enact the assault weapons ban when it expired and are currently flummoxed by their backbenchers who are resisting a cap-and-trade bill that will impose huge costs on those who use electricity. Elites may lead, but Americans do not always follow.

Illegitami non carborundum!

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ex-RINO Becomes Donk

Obama and Biden Publicly Welcome Specter to Democratic Party

President Obama and Vice President Biden publicly welcomed Sen. Arlen Specter to the Democratic Party Wednesday, calling him a man of “immense personal courage” and “unmatched integrity.”

Does this mean he lives up to the high ethical standards of Charlie Rangel, Charles Murtha, and the tax honesty of SecTreas Geithner and the former Sen. Daschle?

Personal courage to jump parties? When he was down +20% in the GOP primary polling? Yeah. right.

Hope he didn’t let the door hit him in the ass on the way out! Good riddence!

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A Call for John Galt

Bill Whittle is the Chief’s favorite online essayist & commentator…at his best, a 21st Century Thomas Paine. This is his most recent.

A MESSAGE TO THE RICH

The Washington Post ran a column a few days ago, in which a Mr. Joel Berg applauds the Obama Administration for reducing the amount of charitable deduction that The Rich are allowed to take when they write a check to charity.

Mr. Berg – who runs a charitable foundation that feeds the poor — explains things for us thusly:

“…It is wrong to give them [the very rich] unilateral power to decide whether their taxpayer-subsidized donations should go to, say, well-heeled operas or lavish care of pets rather than to organizations that meet more pressing communal needs.”

Bill goes on with more of the gory details of Berg’s whine about his offended sense of entitlement, leading up to the central proposition of the piece:

Well, I read this article in the Washington Post, and I thought: there you have it. The top ten percent, that pays sixty percent of the total income tax and which allows the bottom half – HALF! – to pay nothing… Those horrible, greedy bastards are not using their free-will generosity as “efficiently” as the government can, so let’s just take more of their money and call it square.

So let me now send a personal message to The Rich in America…

As an American and a patriot, I implore you – I go to my knees and beg you – LEAVE NOW.

Go and read this. It’s well worth the trouble, and oh, yeah, about John Galt…if you don’t know, check out Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.

Glowbull Warming

Senate Rolls B.O. Glowbull Warming Plan

1 Comment

Cap and Tax Collapse

A light in the forest!

Please pass Al Gore a Valium — and better make it a double — because his cap-and-trade dreams just took a dive in the U.S. Senate. In a vote late Wednesday, no fewer than 26 Democrats joined all 41 Republicans to insist that any new cap and tax on carbon energy would require at least 60 votes.

Tennessee Republican Lamar Alexander called it “the biggest vote of the year” so far, and he’s right. This means Majority Leader Harry Reid can’t jam cap and tax through as part of this year’s budget resolution with a bare majority of 50 Senators. More broadly, it’s a signal that California and East Coast Democrats won’t be able to sock it to coal and manufacturing-heavy Midwestern states without a fight. Senators voting in favor of the 60-vote rule included liberals from Wisconsin, Michigan and West Virginia.

Now look for Team Obama to attempt to impose cap and tax the non-democratic way, via regulation that hits business and local governments with such heavy costs that they beg Congress for a less-harmful version.

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Administration Potomac Fever Continues

George Will in the WaPo summarizes a lot that’s going on right now in Baghdad on the Potomac….and, with apology to the late Warren Zevon, “It Ain’t That Pretty at All”!

The Toxic Assets We Elected

With the braying of 328 yahoos — members of the House of Representatives who voted for retroactive and punitive use of the tax code to confiscate the legal earnings of a small, unpopular group — still reverberating, the Obama administration yesterday invited private-sector investors to become business partners with the capricious and increasingly anti-constitutional government. This latest plan to unfreeze the financial system came almost half a year after Congress shoveled $700 billion into the Troubled Assets Relief Program, $325 billion of which has been spent without purchasing any toxic assets.

After listing a number of weirdly reversed situations (like China lecturing us on maintaining a stable capitalistic system!), Will concludes with:

This is but a partial list of recent lawlessness, situational constitutionalism and institutional derangement. Such political malfeasance is pertinent to the financial meltdown as the administration, desperately seeking confidence, tries to stabilize the economy by vastly enlarging government’s role in it. [Emphasis added.]

As noted above, it ain’t that pretty at all.

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Donks Unsure about B.O. Budget

A couple of items suggest that this may be the case:

Sen. Bill Nelson on Obama Budget: Need to ‘Rework This Whole Thing’

Sen. Bill Nelson, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, said the Obama budget will have to be revised in light of the latest Congressional Budget Office projections.

The Florida Democrat said in an interview on Fox News Channel this morning that “we’re going to have to go back and rework this whole thing, and that’s going to be done this week in the Budget Committee.” He later added that “Kent Conrad, our chairman of the Budget Committee, is definitely going to have to be Merlin.” CBO numbers released Friday show federal deficits over the next decade will exceed President Barack Obama’s projections by $2.3 trillion.

Well, B.O.’s so popular, he can take it directly to the people the way Reagan did, right?

Wrong:

Congress isn’t feeling much heat from Obama’s ‘army’

President Barack Obama’s army of canvassers fanned out across the nation over the weekend to drum up support for his $3.55 trillion budget, but they had no noticeable impact on members of Congress, who on Monday said they were largely unaware of the effort.

“News to me,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, a House Budget Committee member, of the canvassing. Later, his staff said that his office had heard from about 100 voters.

So much for B.O.’s vaunted net corps.

Constitution Watch

Congress: “We don’t need no steenkin’ Constitution!”

House passes bill taxing fat AIG and other bonuses

Denouncing a “squandering of the people’s money,” lawmakers voted decisively Thursday to impose a 90 percent tax on millions of dollars in employee bonuses paid by troubled insurance giant AIG and other bailed-out companies.

In some cases the bonuses might be taxed 100 percent leaving the recipients with nothing.

So, what’s wrong with this picture?

From TechLawJournal.com

Bill of Attainder

Definition: A legislative act that singles out an individual or group for punishment without a trial.

The Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 9, paragraph 3 provides that: “No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law will be passed.

“The Bill of Attainder Clause was intended not as a narrow, technical (and therefore soon to be outmoded) prohibition, but rather as an implementation of the separation of powers, a general safeguard against legislative exercise of the judicial function or more simply – trial by legislature.” U.S. v. Brown, 381 U.S. 437, 440 (1965).

“These clauses of the Constitution are not of the broad, general nature of the Due Process Clause, but refer to rather precise legal terms which had a meaning under English law at the time the Constitution was adopted. A bill of attainder was a legislative act that singled out one or more persons and imposed punishment on them, without benefit of trial. Such actions were regarded as odious by the framers of the Constitution because it was the traditional role of a court, judging an individual case, to impose punishment.” William H. Rehnquist, The Supreme Court, page 166.

“Bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, and laws impairing the obligations of contracts, are contrary to the first principles of the social compact, and to every principle of sound legislation. … The sober people of America are weary of the fluctuating policy which has directed the public councils. They have seen with regret and indignation that sudden changes and legislative interferences, in cases affecting personal rights, become jobs in the hands of enterprising and influential speculators, and snares to the more-industrious and less-informed part of the community.” James Madison, Federalist Number 44, 1788.

The Constitutional standard is clear…what’s not understandible to the Chief is the brazen disregard of that standard by a majority of the legislative lawmakers lawbreakers.

The House, and (probably soon the Senate) has pretty effectively demonstrated either their total ignorance of the Constitution (that they are allegedly sworn to uphold) or their total lack of concern for it’s provisions in the midst of their overwhelming desire to indulge in a legislative tantrum to impress the voters that they’re looking out for the little guy. The Chief isn’t sure which, if either of these, is worse than the other.  Either one is a poor commentary on the current state of our national legislooters.

Hey, I don’t like the bonus deal either…but let’s be real about this: if we really want to punish those evil executives – LET THEIR COMPANIES GO BANKRUPT! If the government didn’t give out the bailout money to start with, this whole situation would be non-existent. THAT would be a market system at work, not the fascistic pattern of government-corporate incestuous politics, favors, special interests, insider deals, etc. that has evolved over the last century

This is NOT a partisan issue. Many GOP’ers are just as bad as a lot of the Donkey Party denizens. On the other hand, there are some on both sides of the aisle (not enough these days!) that are still capable of reading the Constitution.

The Chief sends kudos to those who are still trying to uphold the Constitution, and would invoke the curses of heaven and hell upon the heads of the others.

F.E.T.E.

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Change to Believe In: Sticking it to Vets

    UPDATE

:
Insurance Change for Veterans Is Scrapped

Under withering criticism from veterans and Congress, President Obama on Wednesday abandoned a proposal that would have required veterans to use their private health insurance to pay for the treatment of combat-related injuries.

DISCLOSURE: The Chief is a 26-year veteran of the Navy and Naval Reserve, without any service-incurred medical problems, so PERSONALLY I have no dog in this fight, except for very strong feelings on what’s fitting and proper for the government when dealing with those who have put their lives and blood on the line in the service of the country.

When the government is dominated by the left both in the White House and on The Hill, one supposes that this sort of thing is what has to be expected, given the gut-level enmity that the hard left traditionally carries for virtually all things military.

What makes this idea even more diagnostic of this attitude is that the Workmen’s Compensation laws extend medical coverage for civilian employment related injuries, but here’s B.O. and his henchmen acting to limit coverage for service-incurred medical problems. Any employer that tried to pull something like this would have severe legal repercussions (at the least!), but apparently this is just fine coming from the Olympian heights of the B.O. administration.

At the same time this is happening, there continues unrelenting opposition from the left side to any form of means testing Ponzi-scheme government “entitlements” like Social (In)Security and Medicare.

(And save the empty rhetoric…any claim that the Obamanation Abomination is anything but hard left is laughable.)

Obama mulls making vets foot bill for service injuries

The Obama administration is considering making veterans use private insurance to pay for treatment of combat and service-related injuries. The plan would be an about-face on what veterans believe is a long-standing pledge to pay for health care costs that result from their military service.

But in a White House meeting Monday, veterans groups apparently failed to persuade President Obama to take the plan off the table.

“Veterans of all generations agree that this proposal is bad for the country and bad for veterans,” said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “If the president and the OMB [Office of Management and Budget] want to cut costs, they can start at AIG, not the VA.”

American Legion Strongly Opposed to President’s Plan to Charge Wounded Heroes for Treatment

The leader of the nation’s largest veterans organization says he is “deeply disappointed and concerned” after a meeting with President Obama today to discuss a proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans who have suffered service-connected disabilities and injuries. The Obama administration recently revealed a plan to require private insurance carriers to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in such cases.

“It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan,” said Commander David K. Rehbein of The American Legion. “He says he is looking to generate $540-million by this method, but refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by it.”

The Commander, clearly angered as he emerged from the session said, “This reimbursement plan would be inconsistent with the mandate ‘ to care for him who shall have borne the battle’ given that the United States government sent members of the armed forces into harm’s way, and not private insurance companies. I say again that The American Legion does not and will not support any plan that seeks to bill a veteran for treatment of a service connected disability at the very agency that was created to treat the unique need of America’s veterans!”

When the B.O. is unwilling to give veterans the same priority in coverage that civilian employees get, clearly the B.O. administration is showing it’s true colors and the level of (dis)respect that it has for the military, and by extension, those who have and do serve in it.