Can They Make Obamacare Worse? Yes They Can!

from The Foundry (The Heritage Foundation blog)

Flacking for President Barack Obama’s “new” health care plan, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters assembled for yesterday’s press briefing: “The president posted ideas of his on the White House website today. We hope Republicans will post their ideas either on their website, or we’d be happy to post them on ours, so that the American people could come to one location and find out the parameters of what will largely be discussed on Thursday.” And this might have been a small bit of successful Obama administration gamesmanship on health care and transparency in government except for one small problem: reality. Not only do House Republicans already have their own health care plan, not only is it already available online, but the White House’s own website already links to it!

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Why would Reuters pull this story?

Backdoor Taxes to Hit Middle Class

Earlier today, Reuters ran a story with the preceding headline. Then, suddenly, it was gone.

Poof!

Imagine that. A story that confirms yet another broken promise by President Barack Hussein Obama removed from public view.

Is this censorship? Did the propaganda ministry in the White House black list the story? No explanation from the news agency certainly leads the mind to wonder.

Fortunately, the folks at ShowbizGossips posted the story before the censors decided bad press for Obama isn’t allowed. We’ll repost it here in case they feel the Propaganda Ministry pinch too. Here’s the post Reuters (and the Obama administration?) didn’t want you to see!

The Obama administration’s plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade relies heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families. In the 2010 budget tabled by President Barack Obama on Monday, the White House wants to let billions of dollars in tax breaks expire by the end of the year — effectively a tax hike by stealth. While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases. The targeted tax provisions were enacted under the Bush administration’s Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. Among other things, the law lowered individual tax rates, slashed taxes on capital gains and dividends, and steadily scaled back the estate tax to zero in 2010. If the provisions are allowed to expire on December 31, the top-tier personal income tax rate will rise to 39.6 percent from 35 percent. But lower-income families will pay more as well: the 25 percent tax bracket will revert back to 28 percent; the 28 percent bracket will increase to 31 percent; and the 33 percent bracket will increase to 36 percent. The special 10 percent bracket is eliminated. Investors will pay more on their earnings next year as well, with the tax on dividends jumping to 39.6 percent from 15 percent and the capital-gains tax increasing to 20 percent from 15 percent. The estate tax is eliminated this year, but it will return in 2011 — though there has been talk about reinstating the death tax sooner. Millions of middle-class households already may be facing higher taxes in 2010 because Congress has failed to extend tax breaks that expired on January 1, most notably a “patch” that limited the impact of the alternative minimum tax. The AMT, initially designed to prevent the very rich from avoiding income taxes, was never indexed for inflation. Now the tax is affecting millions of middle-income households, but lawmakers have been reluctant to repeal it because it has become a key source of revenue. Without annual legislation to renew the patch this year, the AMT could affect an estimated 25 million taxpayers with incomes as low as $33,750 (or $45,000 for joint filers). Even if the patch is extended to last year’s levels,the tax will hit American families that can hardly be considered wealthy — the AMT exemption for 2009 was $46,700 for singles and $70,950 for married couples filing jointly. Middle-class families also will find fewer tax breaks available to them in 2010 if other popular tax provisions are allowed to expire. Among them: Taxpayers who itemize will lose the option to deduct state sales-tax payments instead of state and local income taxes; The $250 teacher tax credit for classroom supplies; The tax deduction for up to $4,000 of college tuition and expenses; Individuals who don’t itemize will no longer be able to increase their standard deduction by up to $1,000 for property taxes paid; The first $2,400 of unemployment benefits are taxable, in 2009 that amount was tax-free

Everybody knows the union bosses names…

…at the White House.

The folks at the National Right to Work have put together this video emphasizing the Obama White House’s unnaturally close relationship with big labor’s bosses. This is a clear violation of the President’s campaign promise to keep lobbyists out of positions of influence in his administration. Of course, he’s already broken that promise many times over.

Obamacare for Illegals Already in the Works!

from Blogs for Borders

From the left-wing Talking Points Memo comes the headline, “Democrats Considering Health Care-Immigration Deal To Overcome Key Sticking Point.”

Following Harry Reid’s success in passing his 2,000+ page version of Obamacare, the Left now feels safe revealing what most conservative activists have realized all along–Democrats fully intend to cover illegal immigrants with the so-called “reform.”

Lawmakers who want to extend health coverage to illegal immigrants will not block the passage of the final health care reform bill so long as the White House offers a substantive promise to start pushing comprehensive immigration legislation this year.

So the plan is to pass the bill without including illegal immigrants, then add them to the plan later this year. Anywhere but the Democrat Party, that’s about the height of dishonesty. In fact most people would consider it an outright lie!

Rep. Joe Wilson’s famous “You lie!” cry was never inaccurate after all. Feigning outrage, Democrats knew all along this was part of the plan. In the article, reporter Christina Bellantoni, actually credits Wilson’s outburst for forcing Democrats to temporarily abandon the plan to cover illegals.

The Senate’s health care bill bars illegals from any sort of coverage, a provision embraced after Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) shouted “You lie!” during Obama’s address to Congress when the president said that illegals would not be able to get health care under the legislation.

TPM’s liberal sources in the White House even admit they’re lying, and that talks are already proceeding to construct an immigration bill that will sweep illegal immigrants under the umbrella of Obamacare.

TPMDC sources have been telling us that members won’t admit it publicly but they are ready to concede on immigration in the health care bill. Political aides in the White House have told key parties in Congress that President Obama wants to see a bill this year, and negotiations are under way for how it would be written.

Joe Wilson wasn’t wrong, he wasn’t mistaken, he wasn’t confused, he was dead on when he yelled to President Obama, “You lie!”

Excuse me Mr. President. It was an act of terror!

Update–US knew Ft Hood Terrorist Tried to Contact Al-Qaeda

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That’s right!  Even though the Apologist-In-Chief, the Great Empathizer with Radical Islam, the Socialist Leader of the United States doesn’t want to call the latest slaughter of Americans on US soil by a Muslim Jihadist a terror attack, anyone who opens their eyes can now see this was exactly that!

Even the former Democrat Senator Joe Liebermann (I-CT) is now calling the murderous rampage by the American-born Muslim radical, Nidal Hasan, a terror attack.  But not our illustrious Nationalizer of Private Industry!  No.  His Justice Department immediately concluded that terrorism was NOT involved, before a single FBI agent arrived at the scene!  The first statement from the Great Orator Reader of Teleprompters to the American public he believes is foolish enough to believe anything he says was “Don’t jump to conclusions!”

Now how on Earth could our Omnipotent Oracle and his underlings divine that terror wasn’t involved when the attack was minutes old?  When they couldn’t have received much more information than the name of the shooter and a rough sketch of how the carnage was carried out?

Simple.  The Prophet of Partakers of Entitlement Programs didn’t want it to be terrorism.

That might interfere with his most pressing priority, to force Americans to enjoy the services of a new government-run health care system.  It also might impede his planned heart-to-heart talk with the President of Persia, the Virulent Victor of last summer’s elections in Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  It might cause Americans to question our Dithering Dear Leader’s indecisiveness on General McChrystal’s request for more troops in Afghanistan.

In short, a terror attack at this time would just be too inconvenient, so the Propagandist President Obama just decided to call it something else.  Anything else.  Or nothing at all.  Just not terrorism.

But those pesky pests in the Out-of-the-Mainstream Press just kept digging, and the evidence shows the Administration’s assumptions may be off the mark.  Comments to colleagues and internet postings paint a clear picture of a developing Jihadist in the months preceding the attack.  Referring to the War on Terror as a “war on Islam” and berating the US with “anti-American rants” motivated his colleague Dr. Val Finnell to complain to superiors when the two worked together in 2007-2008.  Now, Finnell says he’s not surprised at Hasan’s violence.

And leave it to our friends across the pond (because it’s certain our mainstream media wouldn’t cross the hand that feeds it) to get the scoop on Hasan’s ties to the September 11 hijackers.  The Telegraph.co.uk has discovered Hasan attended mosque with two of the terrorists who killed almost 3,000 on American soil in 2001.  Led at the time by a radical imam who now lives in Yemen and has been forbidden from preaching in the UK due to his ties to terrorism and support for terror attacks on British troops, the mosque and its influence on Hasan must be considered as possible motivation for, not just this attack, but his motivation for joining the US military in the first place.

Hasan only completed his studies at the Uniformed Services University Of The Health Sciences F. Edward Herbert School Of Medicine – Bethesda MD in 2003.  His residency wasn’t completed until 2007.  According to the USUHS website, its MD, PhD programs consist of three phases.  The first phase or Graduate Program is generally completed in 3 years, 2 years of classes and the final year spent in research.  The entire program takes 7-8 years to complete.

It’s been reported that his father died in 1998 and his mother in 2001, so he would have matriculated at USUHS just before, or right around, the time of his father’s death according to the time line for his med school program.  Last week’s tragedy reeks of a terrorist act when all these facts are compiled.  But it’s possible administration officials didn’t have all this information compiled immediately following the tragic events.  But that still doesn’t excuse the knee-jerk denial of any possibility of links to terrorism by the monster Hasan.

And even though it’s possible White House officials’ statements were made without knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Hasan, the FBI should most certainly have had the information.  Especially since Hasan had shown up as a blip on their radar screen months before.  In the months following the Omnipotent One’s inauguration, Hasan seemed to become more open about his radical ideology.   Internet posts defending suicide bombers, conversations with a young Muslim mentee, and a presentation given in his fellowship program depict a terrorist sympathizer at best, and a “ticking time bomb” at worst.

All of this evidence contradicts the stance taken by the Administration of the Great Admirer of Himself, that this was not a terrorist act.  Still, in his weekly address to the nation, our President who continues to refuse to give our troops in the field the resources to protect themselves and perform their mission, “honored” those who fell at Ft. Hood, but never once did the words Terror, Terrorism, or Terrorist escape his lips.

Call it what you want Mr. President.  A rose by any other name is still a rose, and a terrorist is a terrorist regardless of the label you give him.

Major Malik Nidal Hassan slaughtered 13 unsuspecting men and women who devoted their lives in the defense of this country, and wounded dozens more.

He’s a terrorist, plain and simple.

Propaganda Czar Anita Dunn: We control news media

Oh and how the liberal lapdog press played right into the hands of their master manipulators! But what happens when they can’t control a player in the news arena?

We on the right have long argued the relationship between the Obama campaign (and now administration) and the mainstream media was more like puppeteer and marionette than the public servant and public watchdog envisioned by our founders when they insisted on the freedom of the press in our 1st Amendment. But now we have President Obama’s chief propagandist gloating about pulling the strings to manipulate the supposed objective media.

“Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn’t absolutely control,” said Dunn. “One of the reasons we did so many of the David Plouffe videos was not just for our supporters, but also because it was a way for us to get our message out without having to actually talk to reporters,” said Dunn, referring to Plouffe, who was Obama’s chief campaign manager. “We just put that out there and made them write what Plouffe had said as opposed to Plouffe doing an interview with a reporter. So it was very much we controlled it as opposed to the press controlled it,” Dunn said.

Now we musn’t forget this is the same Propaganda Minister Anita Dunn who last week initiated a war on Fox News, attacking the organization as a “wing of the Republican Party.”

With video of the Obama administration equivalent of Joseph Goebbels boasting about controlling the press, it seems clear White House animosity towards Fox stems more from its inability to control the network’s coverage than the purported bias.

Some are questioning the wisdom of the White House strategy of waging a war with a major news outlet. “It’s a very risky strategy. It’s not one that I would advocate,” David Gergen said. But such thoughts may represent a level of naivete in thinking the Obama administration still respects the rules of the game, and American traditions such as freedom of the press. But our President may be willing to take yet another lesson from some of his new buddies like Chavez and Castro.

After all, Obama and his Democratic allies haven’t tried to camoflauge their intentions for the future of talk radio. They’ve already made clear, to anyone with open eyes, they intend to destroy any broadcaster who dares air messages critical of the Obamessiah.

Chavez’ media strategy of ‘if you can’t control it, kill it’ may be what Obama has in mind for Fox. I mean, the President’s Propaganda Minister proudly proclaims Mao Tse Tung is one of her most admired political leaders. Mao was responsible for the deaths of some 70 million to establish control of the Chinese population.

What can we infer from such radical idolization of a murderous, Communist tyrant and the war now being waged on Fox News by the White House Propaganda Ministry?

Maybe the White House intent is to control the message, or destroy the messenger.

Wheels Coming Off the Obama Agenda

by Donald Lambro at Townhall.com

WASHINGTON — The gutsy admonition that “failure is not an option” has turned into the “failed public option” in President Obama’s trouble-plagued, government-run health care plan.

The idea of the federal government operating another health-insurance business to compete with Blue Cross/Blue Shield and hundreds of other private plans has crashed and burned — the victim of a massive grassroots protest movement and deepening fears and divisions among Democratic lawmakers.

The White House gave Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius the go-ahead Sunday to suggest that the administration was not necessarily wedded to a government health-insurance plan for millions of uninsured Americans. But in a bit of good-cop/bad-cop playacting, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs insisted Monday that the president was still behind a government plan and that the news media had misinterpreted her remarks. Other West Wing officials said his positions had not changed, though they left him some wiggle room.

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What about transparency Mr. President?

Sometimes I think the President and his cohorts must think the words transparent and opaque are synonyms.  It’s so often they practice the latter and claim the former they must be truly confused.  Another case in point leapt out at me today as I perused the headlines.

We (conservatives) are making progress in our campaign to keep the government’s hands off our health care.  Reuters is reporting public support for Obama’s plan for a government-run system is eroding.  In April, 57% of adults polled supported the President’s reform plan. Today, less than half–49%–believe another government bureaucracy is needed to make our health care system more efficient and less costly.  The number of Americans who disapprove of such a mess has risen from 29% to 44% since April.

For those of us who don’t want to see the health care system run by the same crowd who runs Social Security, Medicare, the Post Office, and the TSA’s airport security, this is great news.  Support is slipping for Obama’s plan to seize control of another 1/6 of the American economy!

What’s the White House response to the faltering support?  I’ll give you a hint.  It’s the opposite of transparency!

An AP story released today with the too benign headline “White House Putting Off Release of Budget Update.”  Buried inside one discovers this report is typically released around the middle of July.  But Obama has decided to delay it’s release until the middle of next month.  Why?

Let’s see, that will be after his deadline for Congress to pass his Socialized Medicine plan.  After Congress leaves for its August recess.

The release of the update — usually scheduled for mid-July — has been put off until the middle of next month, giving rise to speculation the White House is delaying the bad news at least until Congress leaves town on its August 7 summer recess.

Unemployment is rising faster than the President predicted, the deficit is rising faster than he said it would, and the economy wasn’t stimulated by his so-called “stimulus” package.  You can bet if this budget report contained good news, the White House would release it as quickly as possible to counter so much bad news.  But instead, it’s being pushed back while Obama continues his propaganda campaign to create another monstrous bureaucracy to distribute health care in America.  Why?

Because it’s bad news and it won’t complement his propaganda on health care reform!  He’s hiding it because he knows it will impede his campaign to have the government decide which sick Americans get to go to the doctor, which surgery will benefit a patient enough to justify its cost, which patients are too old to receive life-saving treatments because some bureaucrat determines the cost-benefit ratio just isn’t there to perform costly treatments on someone who’s old enough they could die anyday from natural causes.

Obama’s idea of transparency is a blacked-out window.  Write and call the White House and tell them we want to see the damned report NOW!

Feel free to copy and paste the text of my written submission to the White House or create your own:

I just read that your administration is delaying release of a budget report that is sure to include worse than your projected figures on the deficit and the state of the economy. I recognize this as a delaying tactic in your propaganda campaign to socialize the health care system of this country. Your strategy in this case is precisely opposite of transparent. In fact it’s downright deceptive. Release the report on time and be honest with the American people!

White House Phone Numbers Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414 FAX: 202-456-2461

Patients First – Vote No on Government Run Health Care — Sign the Petition

John Allison III Cabot, AR US
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