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March 29, 2010

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Rick Ballard

"I think that Obama, by merrily conflating "pre-existing condition exclusion" with denial of coverage, is trying to make domestic policy by gaffe the same way he has tried to make foreign policy by gaffe."

Perhaps. Alternatively, BOzo is lying through his fangs about this in the same way that he did in describing the failure of his liability coverage to cover collision damage caused by another driver.

The debate then becomes "Is the President as stupid as he appears or is he simply mendacious scum?" I have difficulty deciding between the two and wonder if I may have inadvertently introduced a false dichotomy.

Jane

Now that is one thorough post.

During reconciliation I implored a Judd Gregg staffer to put this change in amendment form and let the democrats vote against it.

He should have done it.

The debate then becomes "Is the President as stupid as he appears or is he simply mendacious scum?"

No need to compromise. I'm pretty sure he is both.

MarkO

Yawn. Obama is a liar. Next witness.

Steve C.

Will anyone bother to ask about this at the next press conference? Major Garret?

Danube of Thought

Look, when this clown demonstrated to the entire nation that, after graduating from the Harvard Law School, he did not understand the difference between liability coverage in collision coverage in his own auto insurance policy, we were all on notice.

Charlie (Colorado)

I thought the fallback spin was that Obama's critics were racists?

Danube of Thought

...liability coverage *AND* collision coverage

Jane

I hate to admit it, but I think I'm a lot like Obama - I never know details and don't care about them. I have always practiced 1 kind of law at a time, and never know anything about any other kind. I see the big picture but am an idiot when it comes to the minutia. And that appears to me exactly how Obama operates.

I would make a terrible president altho probably not as bad as he is.

maryrose

Once again Joe Wilson's charge of "You Lie" bears fruit. Remember the Alinsky rule of the end justifies the means. Obama will lie about anything if he thinks it will get him what he wants. I just finished reading "Game Change" It was very illuminating and I have to say there must be a better way to get really qualified people to run for office. This collection of retreads including the neophyte Obama not ready for prime time is just pathetic. Crist lied to Guiliani and he like a dope based his whole campaign on thinking he had Crist's endorsement locked up. One person should never be regarded as a king-maker.

Porchlight

I have to say there must be a better way to get really qualified people to run for office.

It's tough when you look at the gauntlet they have to run. It pretty much guarantees that we get either idiots or ones that are only in it for money, power and perks. Increasingly, honorable people stay away to protect their reputations and their families.

narciso the harpoon

Well sadly Jane, he's not even that fluent in his area of expertise, constitutional law. hence the Alinsky power relationships in that
supposed seminar that Jodi Cantor captured for
her profile. I'm sure you'd do much better

rse

Looks like Aetna is not trying to go after the administering claims market since their CEO is openly being quoted that you are not going to be able to keep your current coverage.

I wonder if we will get a piling on effect since there has been no Obamacare bounce.

Companies will start openly describing the coming parade of horrible consequences.

matt

Obumble lied again?

I'm shocked, shocked.....

Jim Ryan

Precision and even accuracy become unimportant when your goal is to drive a large steamroller straight ahead and keep going.

So some of the lies don't stick? People are used to the lies by now and take them in stride. With Congressional majorities and a 40% die-hard base of leftists and dolts, it's no big whoop. The steamroller plows forward.

Even Obama doesn't know whether he was lying or mistaken. It doesn't matter to him. It got the job done.

Appalled

Nice post, Tom. I think you nailed the issue, and agree that it will be tough for HHS to assert there is ambiguity on the effective date. That said, this simply looks like a drafting error, where somebody lost track of what Section 2704 of the Public Health Act actually said. (The Obamacare bill is a drafting nightmare -- the fact that it is the productr of periodic allnighters really does show.)

By the way, there has been a talking point lately about the earnings hits certain large companies are taking as a result of the health bill. I think its a mistake to make too much of that. The provision of the health bill that is causing the earning warnings is a change in the law that allowed an employer to deduct their payments to employees for post-retirement drug coverage. Under current law, employers who provide post-retirement drug coverage receive a subsidy from the federal government, and are also able to deduct the payments from their tax return. After Obamacare, the employers no longer get the deduction, thouh they still get the subsidy.

I think, on the issue causing the earnings heartburn, the Obamacare bill removed some corporate welfare unwisely granted by the Bush administration.

Porchlight

Companies will start openly describing the coming parade of horrible consequences.

I hope so. But they may be cowed by Waxman/Stupak hauling them in front of cameras. Which is of course the intention of the haulers.

Appalled

The "keep your own coverage" thing is not, in any real sense, accomplished by this act. If your medical program never really changes, then, indeed, the Obamacare law will not apply to it. But if your program changes in any way (like, say a doctor is added to the network, or a new procedure is covered), the full panoply of Obamalaw applies to it.

Jane

he's not even that fluent in his area of expertise, constitutional law.

Oh that's not his area of expertise - campaigning is his area of expertise.

Pteus

'an act of America wanting to expand its influence'
I guess health care was this and now it's come back from overseas. O is too scared, I mean busy, with health care to go and visit the places he sends his employees. Now, he'll go after we waited and got attacked. The Russians and Americans have been mining the arctic for years with subs and Canada's attempts to catch up with subs and RCMPs livings there is ridiculous. It's all mapped and mining has been under way. The natives never really had a claim to the underwaters anyway. O should have been on this with all that funding for the geo spacial intelligence agency and those arctic spy meetings, I mean summits and studies. Global warming and all that funding and this got missed by O, the dems, and the intelligence committee? Health care.

maryrose

The eternal campaigner is what has been elected. The foreign policy goofs are what really traumatize me. This goof is clueless and rogue nations are going to school him in the folly of so-called Smart diplomacy. Unfortunately Hillary is the fall guy here as she lurches from crisis to crisis. A seder dinner tonight for Obama to make up for the snub to Bibi.

hit and run

TM:
My guess is that the people who do this for a living have known for a while that Obama was just making stuff up

Obama may have a piece of paper that says he graduated from Columbia and Harvard. He may have an entry on his resume that says he was a professor instructor at the University of Chicago.

But he really is a product of MSU (no,not the one in the final four).

Making Shit Up University.

He graduated summa commie laude from MSU.

And like Jim Ryan says,he couldn't care less whether we know it or not,because 30-40% of our fellow citizens,the less sentient among us,wouldn't or couldn't tell the difference between the shit he makes up and their reality-based existence.

Clarice

I am NOT talking to DoT for a while. It's not that I stopped loving him. It's just that it's so like a man to cut out a bit here and there and lose 13 lbs in two weeks doing that. And then have the nerve to brag about it.

PHeh

Buford Gooch

"campaigning is his area of expertise."

I think we may be confusing "experience" with "expertise". Obama is not a great campaigner. He had the full weight of the press behind him, or he would have been laughed off the stage. He did some rabble rousing, but he wasn't really very good at that either.

Jim Ryan

DATELINE Washington DC. The Democrats in Congress repealed the so-called ObamaCare law today, just six weeks before the 2010 midterm elections and just days after Moody's revised credit ratings for the U.S. came out at single-A.

"It was not the right law for American families," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. "It was a bipartisan bill, but it was really a boondoggle for big insurance companies. It was the same-old-same-old with Republicans and their corporate masters."

"Today is a proud day when we are able to step forward and protect working American families," President Obama said during the signing ceremony.

Recent polls show that with the CPUSA candidates for Congress receiving 20% of likely voters' support, the GOP with 60%, undecided voters representing 15%, the Libertarian candidates again running on the "legalize it" platform garnering 1% support, Democratic candidates are looking at only 4% of the vote in the coming elections.

MarkO

In almost every other aspect of life, lying has consequences. Lying about greatly important things generally has heavy consequences. No lying while President. There is no consequence. Can't sue. Can't prosecute. Can't really even get anyone to notice. Isn't that why Clinton was caught lying, he was so used to doing it without repercussion that he just did it.

Conservatives need to call it what it is (not something cute like a "statement expiration date") make a large list and hammer on about it and how the election would have had consequences if Obama were not such a liar. Then, more of the above.

Someone has to make it stick to start with. That person cannot be president.

Frau  Geschäft

Valerie Jarrett was just on a business channel, pointing out her business experience, thus hoping to counter the charge that Pres.Sux's administration lacks such real experience. Hers was part of the Chicago machine's hold on housing: 1995, CEO of The Habitat Co., a real estate development and management company.
Business the Chicago way has a different meaning for most of us.

Pofarmer

If your medical program never really changes, then, indeed, the Obamacare law will not apply to it. But if your program changes in any way (like, say a doctor is added to the network, or a new procedure is covered), the full panoply of Obamalaw applies to it.

Somebody has been practicing Obamaspeak.

If you have a policy, it will be affected. Check out Title IX.

Captain Hate

I hate to admit it, but I think I'm a lot like Obama

LOL, no...

Janet

MarkO - I elect you to take Michael Steele's place. You have great STRONG ideas.

Jeff

apalled ...

they are going to lose the deduction and many will choose to drop the coverage ...

so getting rid of the "horrible corporate subsidy" will end up cost us taxpayers more money since those seniors dropped will be paid for by you and me at a higher cost than the subsidy ...

EBJ

"I think, on the issue causing the earnings heartburn, the Obamacare bill removed some corporate welfare unwisely granted by the Bush administration"

And I thought the issue was that the Dems just passed a major bill and were surprised one week later that companies would be taking charges in the next accounting quarter. Or is it just Waxman who's confused?

Soylent Red

Wait a doggone minute...

Do you mean to tell me that our Democratic Congress and President are

a. liars
b. stupid
c. some toxic combination of both?

The hell, you say!

Jim Ryan

..."We're going to keep fighting the bastards!" said CPUSA presidential candidate Jane Hamsher. Hamsher has been garnering 17% of likely voters in recent polls, well ahead of Democratic nominee Joe Biden's 4% but trailing GOP nominee Chris Chistie who has 67% of likely voters at this point.

Hamsher recently won her party's nomination by cunningly taking the moderate ground away from her opponent, Dennis Kucinich. "Mr. Kucinich wanted to pull this party way to the left, and I think CPUSA voters sent him a clear message that we are a big tent of moderate, sensible communists," Hamsher said. "I think by the time voters get to the polls next week, they're going to have taken a look at the Communist Party and have decided that yes, this is the party that truly stands up for American values," she added. "Americans say no to private property and I think we're going to see results next week bear that out."

President Biden was unavailable for comment as he was needed as a witness in the ongoing indictment hearings of former-president Obama.

Rick Ballard

I've read both of today's posts re the Democrats doing it to the children - again - twice and I remain unsure as to why the desired objective could not be obtained through passage of legislation of rather limited length.

Does 'No parent[s] or legal guardian[s] of a child of less than 19 years of age shall be denied the opportunity to purchase coverage for any child due to any pre-existing medical condition nor shall any health insurance policy issued exclude any pre-existing medical condition which any child may have.' have any gaping loopholes which are obvious at a glance?

Unless the "desired objective" is actually screwing the kids and protecting the insurance companies, of course.

d-day@hotmail.com

(How Mitch McConnell and his fellow Attack Senators missed this is an annoying puzzle. I know they were not involved in the final negotiations that led to this text, but still - they should feel free to read the bill and hold the other side accountable before the final vote.)

It wasn't available for most of the "debate" period. There were dozens of different draft bills of thousands of pages and no consensus on which would be the actual proposed legislative text.

Clarice

Very good, Jim.

Rick Ballard

"There were dozens of different draft bills of thousands of pages and no consensus on which would be the actual proposed legislative text."

The President ran half way 'round the world like a scalded rat to avoid questions concerning the content of his "victory". The key Maladministration suckups who compose the Journoliarlist don't even know which talking point to babble next. Kinda tough to pick on McConnell for not having all the jots and tittles down.

drjohn

Democrats are going to blame insurance companies for their own incompetence?

That's going to go well.

PDinDetroit

Wait a doggone minute...

Do you mean to tell me that our Democratic Congress and President are

a. liars
b. stupid
c. some toxic combination of both?

The hell, you say!

The Answer is always C, mixed in with a little traitorous stomping on the US Constitution.

Janet

This whole bill is too convoluted to understand...for me anyway. I just oppose the whole darn thing on the grounds that the federal government has no business in our health care. They never should have begun at all...medicare, medicaid, mediwhatever. It is a fiasco.
Our federal government needs to get their nose out of our business. Congress should be a part-time job. Meet 1 or 2 months a year and maybe some weekends.
This 24/7 "idea mill" is killin us.

Soylent Red

the federal government has no business in our health care.

Damn skippy, Janet.

Danube of Thought

"I think, on the issue causing the earnings heartburn, the Obamacare bill removed some corporate welfare unwisely granted by the Bush administration" and a bipartisan congressional vote in both houses.

MayBee

Don't you worry. Sebilius has now written a letter to the insurance companies imploring them to ignore the law just passed and instead do what they want.

MayBee

Do what the administration wants, I mean.

Janet

What are the laws? Does anyone know? How are Americans suppose to obey laws that the writers do not even understand?
Really, This is a fiasco.
I thought we were a nation of laws...not a nation of how a woman named Sebelius is feeling. Is she our national prophetess? our Seer?
Perhaps we should build some temple on a mountain and consult her when we need an answer...."Oh wise Sebelius, can I have a band aid?".

Old Lurker

"Unfortunately Hillary is the fall guy here"

Not gonna buy that.

Never.

Did you catch her dissing the Canadians today concerning their artic resource conference? She was a witch. She is a witch. She will be a witch. And a dumb one at that.

Plus, she's shrill and ugly.

That she is tied to a garbage truck is a fact of her own making.

Again.

What did I leave out?

Rick Ballard

"What did I leave out?"

The time she turned you into a newt?

Ignatz

--The time she turned you into a newt?--

She did that to that Gingrich dude too.

Soylent Red

The time she turned you into a newt?

Well...I got better.

Old Lurker

:-)

Hillary

That hurt my feelings. I have feelings you know.

Hillary

Just kidding!

rse

Janet-

The bill is so poorly drafted that the lawyers who know this area keep pointing out the discrepancies. (I get nerdy emails).

It was about political power and a story MSM could run with.

Those are poor terms for taking over 1/6th of the economy.

Old Lurker

It is quite telling that in this biggest of deals, when the boss could only recite four or five things about it, that his team could not even be sure to get those few things right in 2400 pages.

That is the story of Obama.

Danube of Thought

I love all this confusion. The more sturm und drang there is about what the hell this bill does and does not say between now and November, the better. Doesn't matter who's right on any particular issue--the more the perception grows that the whole thing is a rat's nest, the better.

Mark Buehner

Somebody is going to have to dig up the anonymous Congressional staffer that wrote that page of the bill and ask him what his intentions were for reorganizing 1/6th of the US economy. Since nobody else in DC has a clue.

mark l.

no pre-existing conditions...

so basically, if you are a smoker, you'll get thousands off the cost of private insurance with the govt plan.

so much for one the biggest reasons to quit.

Csmith

Obama lied - Children died

Purple Pimpernel

p

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