Obama Goes Belly Up

How much do people hate health care reform? They hate it so much they’re starting to hate President Obama because he won’t shut up about it. Gallup has the distressing news for President Obama: 47% disapprove. 46% approve.

Three more weeks of health care haggling? That should put President Obama over 50% disapproval or more.

I’ve heard people say that approval goes up as soon as it passes. Um, I doubt it.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Barack Obama’s approval rating drops to 46 per cent (telegraph.co.uk)

Posted in Barack Obama | No Comments »

Health Care Reform: About Doctors

My last post focused on jobs generally. Now, what about Doctors? Everyone wants to know about doctors because it’s already tough to get a doctor if you’re on Medicaid or Medicare.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, it’s going to get worse:

Physician Support of Health Reform in General
• 62.7% of physicians feel that health reform is needed but should be implemented in a more targeted, gradual way, as opposed to the sweeping overhaul that is in legislation. [NOTE: I think this reflects the American public, too. No one is saying to do nothing. This bill is just not the "something" that needs to be done.]
• 28.7% of physicians are in favor of a public option.
• 3.6% of physicians prefer the “status quo” and feel that the U.S. health care system is best “as is.

Health Reform and Primary Care Physicians
• 46.3% of primary care physicians (family medicine and internal medicine) feel that the passing of health reform will either force them out of medicine or make them want to leave medicine.

Health Reform, Public Option, and Practice Revenue/Physician Income
• 41% of physicians feel that income and practice revenue will “decline or worsen dramatically” with a public option.
• 30% feel income will “decline or worsen somewhat” with a public option.
• 9% feel income will “improve somewhat” with a public option, and 0.8% feel income will “improve dramatically” with a public option.

Health Reform, Public Option, and Physician Supply
• 72% of physicians feel that a public option would have a negative impact on physician supply, with 45% feeling it will “decline or worsen dramatically” and 27% predicting it will “decline or worsen somewhat. [NOTE: This is the part that is most concerning. What will then happen is that the United States will recruit less-qualified drones to fill the jobs. As the role of physician becomes commoditized, the person seeking that job will change.]
• 24% of physicians think they will try to retire early if a public option is implemented.
• 21% of physicians would try to leave medicine if a public option is implemented, even if not near retirement age at the time.

Health Reform and Recommending Medicine to Others as a Career
• 36% of physicians would not recommend medicine as a career, regardless of health reform.
• 27% would recommend medicine as a career but not if health reform passes.
• 25% of physicians would recommend medicine as a career regardless of health reform.
• 12% would not recommend medicine as a career now but feel that they would recommend it as a career if health reform passes

Source: The Medicus Firm “Physician Survey: Health Reform’s Impact on Physician Supply and Quality of Medical Care,”
The Medicus Firm, www.TheMedicusFirm.com

This does NOT bode well for the future of American medicine. More importantly, it harms the care Americans will receive.

By the way, Democrats know this. This bill is NOT about health care. It’s about transitioning costs away from the unions and the ballooning aging Boomer population to the younger, healthier people.

Health care reform is a tax plan.

Posted in Barack Obama, Body, Economy | No Comments »

President Obama Again Challenged By A Citizen: Ingrid Martin Plays Joe the Plumber

Matt Lewis gets the exclusive story. Setting: Townhall, Somewhereville, America. Mood: Stacked crowd…except for this lady. Here’s what happened:

Martin said she opposes Obama’s health care plan for philosophical, not parochial reasons, and after his speech, she caught the president’s attention.

“I didn’t clap and I didn’t smile, and I just sort of held firm to my beliefs and held my tongue so I didn’t get into any trouble,” she recalled. “And I think that, being in the front row, he noticed that because when he came down off the stairs and started shaking hands, when he got to me, he said, ‘Thanks for coming,’ and he looked at me and said, ‘Are you okay?’ And I said, ‘Yes sir, I just don’t support your bill’.”

Ingrid Martin said she then entered into about a 2-minute-long debate reminiscent of Obama’s meeting with another Ohioan, Joe Wurzelbacher (a.k.a. “Joe the Plumber“), telling him she worries about the long-term implications of his sweeping legislation. She told the president he was focused on insurance reform, as opposed to the rising cost of health care, which she believes to be the fundamental problem. Martin stressed her view of the need for tort reform. She also noted: “He said things like, ‘Medicare is not going to be affected by this bill,’ which is not right.”

When Obama said that his bill addressed her concerns, “I just kind of shook my head and said, ‘I don’t believe it does’ — oh my gosh, I’m calling the president a liar,” she added with a nervous laugh. Obama then took Martin’s business card and promised to send her information on the bill. While she was not persuaded to change her mind and support Obama’s policy, she was impressed with him for engaging her. “He took the time to stop and listen, which I appreciated,” she said.

Matt has much more at the link.

Why is it that common citizens are the ones asking these tough questions and bringing up the obvious?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Obama pitches health-care bill in Ohio (cbc.ca)

Posted in Barack Obama | No Comments »

NYT: Millions Spent To Sway Democrats. You Don’t Say? Actually, You DON’T Say

Is it any wonder Americans hate with a pure, enraged hate, the politics of Washington, D.C.? What a disgusting town.

The New York Times reports the obvious, yet again:

The yearlong legislative fight over health care is drawing to a frenzied close as a multimillion-dollar wave of advertising that rivals the ferocity of a presidential campaign takes aim at about 40 House Democrats whose votes will help determine the fate of President Obama’s top domestic priority.

Oh, wait. What’s that? The article is about advertising being spent to sway those on the fence about the health care reform bill? That’s bad?

There aren’t even words to describe my contempt for this purposeful misdirecting piece of garbage cloaked as news.

If Jeff Zelany and the New York times cared about money in politics, they’d investigate the money that the Democrats are throwing around to bribe their fellow Democrats to vote for a piece of legislation that no one wants besides the New York Times editorial board.

What nonsense!

I went to the article figuring they’d be talking about the avarice disguised as sausage-making and they’re taking time to talk about advocacy advertisements and the millions being spent on a bill no one wants?

The outrage should be focused where the American people are focusing: on the nasty pit-vipered swamps of D.C. But no. Focus everywhere else. Blame the American people and advocacy groups for trying to influence this fetid process.

The president’s traipsing through the jobless midwest? Worthless. The Congress Democrats bickering and buying-off and banning Republicans from the process? Worthless. The Press, like the New York Times, spewing empty drivel when Americans know the truth? Worthless.

Push ‘em all into the Potomac and start over. We’d be better off.

Posted in Barack Obama, Democrats | 1 Comment »

Democrats And Health Care Bill: Bait & Switch & Switch & Then, Probably, Switch Again

Public option: In

School loans: In

And yet, it’s called a “shell” bill that will be stripped. Philip Klein explains it all. Here’s a bit:

Shortly before midnight on Sunday, Democrats released a 2,309 page health care bill that will start the process of reconciliation — but don’t let that fool you, it’s not the actual reconciliation bill with all the changes you’ve been reading about. Instead, as Rep. Paul Ryan, the ranking Republican member on the Budget Committee, explained to me last week, this is just the “shell” bill — the vehicle that Democrats need to get moving on health care. Once the bill gets approved (likely Monday), Democrats will send this phantom bill over to the Rules Committee, where it will be stripped, and then they’ll insert in all of the actual changes that they’ve negotiated.

Rep. Paul Ryan says:

Despite claims of transparency and calls for a “simple up-or-down vote,” there is nothing simple about this process. This convoluted legislative charade demonstrates how far the Democratic majority has wandered from real health-care reform and cost control, employing any means to achieve political victory.

Then the 2300 page non-bill bill aka “shell” will be sent for mark-ups. Link here.
Now, is the time to fight. Call your representative. Write. Pray. Do not sleep. This bill must die. Or there won’t be much left to fight for.

Michelle Malkin has who to call, where to go and what to do.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Big Government Burrito: A taste of the 2,309-pg Demcare/Student Loan Reconciliation Bill; Update: A tortilla shell fake-out (michellemalkin.com)

Posted in Barack Obama, Democrats, Socialism | 7 Comments »

New York Times Deifies Obama

From the New York Times the Obama Jesus. Says Jammie Wearing Fool [photo at link]:

Not content to show Obama with a halo, the New York Times is now creating images of him with a cross in the background.

Good grief. I guess the separation of church and state no longer applies when it comes to The Sainted One.

This is the definition of sacrilege. But I’m not sure the editors at the New York Times know God–that’s why they’re fooled by Obama.

Posted in Barack Obama, Bias, Christianity | 1 Comment »

A Concise Explanation For Why Americans Ain’t Buyin’ What President Obama Is Sellin’ On Health Care

To little avail, I tried explaining why Health Care Reform scares Americans on Bloggingheads the other day. While, Democrats haggle over the details of health care reform, they’re ignoring how the entirety of the bill feels like to the American people. Rasmussen sums it up, with data:

Why can’t the president move the numbers? One reason may be that he keeps talking about details of the proposal while voters are looking at the issue in a broader context. Polling conducted earlier this week shows that 57% of voters believe that passage of the legislation would hurt the economy, while only 25% believe it would help. That makes sense in a nation where most voters believe that increases in government spending are bad for the economy.

When the president responds that the plan is deficit neutral, he runs into a pair of basic problems. The first is that voters think reducing spending is more important than reducing the deficit. So a plan that is deficit neutral with a big spending hike is not going to be well received.

But the bigger problem is that people simply don’t trust the official projections. People in Washington may live and die by the pronouncements of the Congressional Budget Office, but 81% of voters say it’s likely the plan will end up costing more than projected. Only 10% say the official numbers are likely to be on target.

As a result, 66% of voters believe passage of the president’s plan will lead to higher deficits and 78% say it’s at least somewhat likely to mean higher middle-class taxes. Even within the president’s own political party there are concerns on these fronts.

Americans just don’t believe a big government program saves money. Americans are smart. There is no evidence in the history of the universe that government programs are cost-saving ventures. And, if they do save money, they do it by cutting, denying or restricting services.

Here’s another problem, probably 10-20% of the voters all in favor of this plan already use government services. Of course another “free” government program sounds good to them. They won’t be paying for it. Meanwhile, those opposed are seeing their own taxes going up for a product that is bound to be crappy. Or, that’s how they picture it anyway.

Go to your local VA Hospital. Americans ain’t stupid.

Posted in Barack Obama, Democrats | No Comments »

Rahm Emanuel Is “Devil’s Spawn”–UPDATED Should Massa Refuse To Resign?

Democrats who hate Rahm Emanuel (and that seems to be all of them) are coming out against the man. The far left hates him because of his Southern Strategy.

This is my favorite description of him, though, by disgraced Congressman Massa:

“Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil’s spawn,” Massa added. “He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote. He would strap his children to the front end of a steam locomotive.”

Dan Riehl has more.

As an aside, it does seem like the Democrats are picking of their own to get health care reform passed. It’s a ruthless drive to get this done.

UPDATED:

William Jacobson says that Massa shouldn’t resign if what he is saying is true:

Here is Massa’s office contact information. Call or send an e-mail asking him not to resign:

Washington DC Office: 1208 Longworth House OfficeBuildingWashington, DC
20515, Phone: (202) 225-3161, Fax: (202) 226-6599, email here

I spoke with Massa’s office. His resignation is scheduled to go into effect at 5 p.m. The person I spoke with did not know if it could be reversed. More calls could not hurt.

As reported by Roll Call, Massa over the weekend said he would consider rescinding his resignation: “Several times during the broadcast Massa raised the prospect of rescinding his resignation if national news media picked up on his story of being railroaded out of office by Democratic leaders.”

It sure does seem like the Democrats are going after their own for various reasons: one, because they think the politician will lose in November, and two, to try to get this health care vote passed.

I would like to remind everyone that the ONLY real beneficiary of this legislation is President Obama.

Posted in Barack Obama, Democrats, Political Animals | No Comments »

Podcast & A Poll: More Rangling Over Health Care Reform & Reconciliation

Poll: Patriot Room bloggers Clyde Middleton and Bill Dupray say it’s dead. Steve Schippert of Threatswatch isn’t sure. I say that it could still pass. Who’s right?

Podcast here:

Welcome to the second (and long delayed!) edition of the Liberty Pundits podcast. Melissa, Bill, Clyde, and Steve discuss health care, the every-changing story on the American Jihadists caught or not caught, the developing 2012 POTUS run, and a few other interesting topics.

Posted in Barack Obama, Democrats | No Comments »

Rahm Emanuel Is Committing Suicide By Cop

Erick Erickson writes a provocative piece tonight:

It started mid-February with a hagiographic tale of woe in the Obama administration and how Rahm Emanuel is the hero and adult in the room.

A week later it followed with another look into the White House with Obama as the wimp and Rahm as the muscle. Earlier this week Rahm became the voice of reason according to the Washington Post and the Politico fawned over Rahm’s bromance with Sweet Lindsey Graham.

Reading between the lines, Rahm Emanuel is dead. He may not know it, but the man has no pulse left. His ghost is now trying to defend his legacy in the White House. Chief of Staff — the real one — Valerie Jarrett killed Rahm.

How do I know? I’ve heard from multiple people who, interestingly enough, are close to the White House who tell me that David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett are calling the shots and Obama increasingly relies on Jarrett for advice because she knows the Obamas, not necessarily Washington.

Erick says it’s time to start a Rahm dead pool. I say it’s time to start a Suicide By Cop pool.

Rahm Emanuel wants this. He wants out. He wants to get off the sinking ship and wants to tether his fortunes to another donkey.

I’ll let you guess who the other donkey might be….

Posted in Barack Obama, Democrats, Political Animals | 3 Comments »