ObamaCare Debacle - Soon To Be The 24/7 Story

As soon as this debt ceiling/shutdown drama is in our rear view mirror Republican strategists can figure out how to exploit screw up the 24/7 story they have kept off the front pages for two weeks.

Not even Ezra Klein or the NY Times are willing to pretend the ObamaCare website roll-out is anything other than awful. Klein:

“One of the Obama administration’s jobs, separate from all of the political stuff we talk about here, is to simply run things like this well, to run their signature legislative initiative well,” he continued. “On that, so far, this has been a big failure.”

And the NY Times front-paged a story Sunday that will terrify anyone rooting for a quick comeback. Politics, poor decisions, and excessive optimism may have created a website problem that cannot be solved in a timely fashion:

For the past 12 days, a system costing more than $400 million and billed as a one-stop click-and-go hub for citizens seeking health insurance has thwarted the efforts of millions to simply log in. The growing national outcry has deeply embarrassed the White House, which has refused to say how many people have enrolled through the federal exchange.

Even some supporters of the Affordable Care Act worry that the flaws in the system, if not quickly fixed, could threaten the fiscal health of the insurance initiative, which depends on throngs of customers to spread the risk and keep prices low.

“These are not glitches,” said an insurance executive who has participated in many conference calls on the federal exchange. Like many people interviewed for this article, the executive spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying he did not wish to alienate the federal officials with whom he works. “The extent of the problems is pretty enormous. At the end of our calls, people say, ‘It’s awful, just awful.' ”

Some problems with politics:

To avoid giving ammunition to Republicans opposed to the project, the administration put off issuing several major rules until after last November’s elections. The Republican-controlled House blocked funds. More than 30 states refused to set up their own exchanges, requiring the federal government to vastly expand its project in unexpected ways.

The stakes rose even higher when Congressional opponents forced a government shutdown in the latest fight over the health care law, which will require most Americans to have health insurance. Administration officials dug in their heels, repeatedly insisting that the project was on track despite evidence to the contrary.

Within a few weeks we may see Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid demanding a delay to ObamaCare and Sen. Cruz insisting it proceed full speed ahead, over a cliff.

One example of the magical thinking and miserable leadership guiding this:

One highly unusual decision, reached early in the project, proved critical: the Medicare and Medicaid agency assumed the role of project quarterback, responsible for making sure each separately designed database and piece of software worked with the others, instead of assigning that task to a lead contractor.

Some people intimately involved in the project seriously doubted that the agency had the in-house capability to handle such a mammoth technical task of software engineering while simultaneously supervising 55 contractors. An internal government progress report in September 2011 identified a lack of employees “to manage the multiple activities and contractors happening concurrently” as a “major risk” to the whole project.

...By early this year, people inside and outside the federal bureaucracy were raising red flags. “We foresee a train wreck,” an insurance executive working on information technology said in a February interview. “We don’t have the I.T. specifications. The level of angst in health plans is growing by leaps and bounds. The political people in the administration do not understand how far behind they are.”

Can this be salvaged? The same people who assured us that all was well now assure us that all will soon be well, but the Times hears other voices, too:

Administration officials have said there is plenty of time to resolve the problems before the mid-December deadline to sign up for coverage that begins Jan. 1 and the March 31 deadline for coverage that starts later. A round-the-clock effort is under way, with the government leaning more heavily on the major contractors, including the United States subsidiary of the Montreal-based CGI Group and Booz Allen Hamilton.

One person familiar with the system’s development said that the project was now roughly 70 percent of the way toward operating properly, but that predictions varied on when the remaining 30 percent would be done. “I’ve heard as little as two weeks or as much as a couple of months,” that person said. Others warned that the fixes themselves were creating new problems, and said that the full extent of the problems might not be known because so many consumers had been stymied at the first step in the application process.

Time will tell. Just for a sense of how nasty the coverage can get, check this - the Weekly Standard got a Drudge link for this story about a relentless CNN reporter who can't get signed up:

Two Weeks Later, Reporter Still Can't Sign Up for Obamacare

The healthcare.gov website has been online for two weeks. But folks are having trouble signing up.

One person who says she's been trying for two weeks straight to sign up is CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

Gee, her too? The NY Times story linked above included this detail:

Many users of the federal exchange were stuck at square one. A New York Times researcher, for instance, managed to register at 6 a.m. on Oct. 1. But despite more than 40 attempts over the next 11 days, she was never able to log in. Her last attempts led her to a blank screen.

I am sure we will learn that every major news outlet has a similar story to tell and will be ready to do so. Well, unless Ted Cruz kidnaps Sunny or Bo.

Comments

[jimmyk]

Not even Ezra Klein or the NY Times are willing to pretend the ObamaCare website roll-out is anything other than awful.

Really? Here's Bill Keller today:

Unless you’ve been bamboozled by the frantic fictions of the right wing, you know that the Affordable Care Act, familiarly known as Obamacare, has begun to accomplish its first goal: enrolling millions of uninsured Americans, many of whom have been living one medical emergency away from the poorhouse. You realize those computer failures that have hampered sign-ups in the early days — to the smug delight of the critics — confirm that there is enormous popular demand. You have probably figured out that the real mission of the Republican extortionists and their big-money backers was to scuttle the law before most Americans recognized it as a godsend and rendered it politically untouchable.

And that's just the opening paragraph. Granted it's an opinion piece, but don't opinions have to be fact-based? Not in the NYT evidently.

[Ignatz]

--As soon as this debt ceiling/shutdown drama is in our rear view mirror Republican strategists can figure out how to exploit screw up the 24/7 story they have kept off the front pages for two weeks.--

The stories are one and the same. The debt ceiling/shutdown drama is a result of the Reps trying to protect us in some meager way from a hugely unpopular monstrosity and the Dems trying to ram that monstrosity down our throats.

[Account Deleted]

"confirm that there is enormous popular demand"

Just as there is for subscribing to the NYT, as revealed by their loss statements. 404Care is targeted to the same sort of ever more selective audience.

[Army of Davids]

Looks like GOP is going to capitulate

Points to pound Democrats over the head over and over again per ObamaCare

- IRS involvement
- Vitter Amendment- 72% Obama subsidy giveaway to congress and staffers
- IPAB
- Individual Mandate (very, very unpopular)
- damage to job market

[Bob]

A guy claims he went on the Obamacare website to look around but didn't buy. Result was $95 dun letter from IRS. http://tinyurl.com/py92jzq Go to 3:00. That if true should kill it off.

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

Bill Keller == Walter Duranty v2.0

[1_cathyf_says_typepad_is_the_most_wonderful_software_in_the_world_2]

Within a few weeks we may see Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid demanding a delay to ObamaCare and Sen. Cruz insisting it proceed full speed ahead, over a cliff.

I was under the impression that one of the bills passed by the House (2nd to last, 3rd to last?) was the continuing resolution plus a one-year delay in Obamacare. Can't the Senate simply take that up and pass it and send it to the president, with no Republicans necessary?

[jimmyk]

Is there any evidence that "millions" have "enrolled"? As opposed to "got on the website," or "applied"?

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

Now hold on; I heard the Searchlight Pederast wheezingly claim that millions of people would love it once they started looking at it. I assume he was referring to 404Care.

[Ignatz]

President Barry, head of the executive branch of the feds weighs in scornfully on the Redskin's name and yet our beloved Federal employees all get today off in honor of Columbus. Columbus, the murderer of millions of Indians, oops I mean American Indians, errr, Native Americans, no, wait, First Peoples, no, Indigenous Peoples, Jeez, First Nations, I give up,....Redskins, Columbus the murderer of millions of Redskins.
Ironic, no?

[Army of Davids]

Paul Ryan saying House will ask for one year delay on Individual Mandate

Obama is trying to work through the capitulating Senate Republicans to squeeze the House.

Prioritization...nonsense on default...let October 17 come and go...only a failure to prioritize by Treasury/Obama/Lew will lead to debt default

Assuming accuracy....The House needs to hold that Individual Mandate line.

[Army of Davids]

Cathy wonderful..

The Senate/Reid do not want a delay on the individual mandate.

[Porchlight]

Is there any evidence that "millions" have "enrolled"? As opposed to "got on the website," or "applied"?

None whatsoever. The last figure I heard was 51K *applications,* nothing on how many successful enrollments.

[Army of Davids]

Tom McG,

Credit due for zeroing in on gold reserves

Treasury games are sickening per debt ceiling.

Failure to raise debt ceiling only means that the budget must now be balanced and that business as usual in DC is impaired.

The real "hostage takers" "putting a gun to the head" (of the U.S. citizen) are Democrats, DC insiders and bankers/primary dealers.

[Porchlight]

I am sure we will learn that every major news outlet has a similar story to tell and will be ready to do so.

Are you? I have this weird feeling that when they no longer have the shutdown to bash Republicans with, they'll go strangely quiet on Obamacare.

But, we shall see.

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

I'd prefer they are all forced to sign up opposed to a one year delay.

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

One year delay brings it up again before the 2014 election.

[Account Deleted]

"Looks like GOP is going to capitulate"

From Politico:

The plan under consideration would require larger bicameral budget negotiations to conclude by Dec. 15, sources said. Moreover, Senate Democrats are open to a requirement that those receiving Obamacare subsidies be subject to income verification. But it appears that the fight over delaying Obamacare’s medical device tax is still a point of contention with Democrats objecting to its inclusion in the package, sources said.

If sequestration were to continue in 2014, the proposal would give federal agencies more discretion to implement the across-the-board cuts.

Under the plan, the government would be funded at $986 billion until Jan. 15, the same day that a $21 billion across-the-board sequestration cut is slated to take place. Indeed, by aligning the government funding fight with the date that the next sequester is supposed to hit, it all but ensures a heated fight over whether to continue the unpopular cuts in the new year. Doing so would lower 2014 funding levels to $967 billion, a level far too low for many Democrats.

That's not capitulation. It starts the new year with the commies on their back foot and allows 404Care to sink a lot lower.

[Danube on iPad]

I posted this a few minutes ago on the previous thread, but it seems relevant to this one as well:

"Do you think Republicans reading into the Congressional Record or making stump speeches about how the program will be a disaster would have been extensively covered by the media the way the defunding attempt was?"

No. I think that Republicans appearing on all the MSM Sunday shows, and on Fox News, and in their multiple print outlets with a unified, coherent message about the disaster that is Obamacare would have generated a national conversation, in which the MSM could not have escaped participation, about...well, the disaster that is Obamacare.

Instead, we had a brief period of Cruz talking about the disaster that is Obamacare, followed by a national conversation about...who will cave, what is a default, and who is to blame.

Hard for me to accept that this was wise.

[Gmax]

Just wait Susan, Kelly and Lisa will step with a better idea any minute now...

[Danube on iPad]

Harry Reid will never in a million years seek a one-year delay. As we have seen with breathtaking clarity, Obama himself can bring about such a delay unilaterally whenever he wants to, and no one can stop him.

[rich@gmu]

***I am sure we will learn that every major news outlet has a similar story to tell and will be ready to do so.***

lol.

if only we had a media...

here is a sample article...http://www.allgov.com/news/where-is-the-money-going/7-government-it-projects-that-failedat-taxpayer-expense?news=839923

if my google scholar subscription were paid up I could find about 10 years of articles documenting government failure in big it projects.

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

The party of McCain hasn't had a coherent and unified message since the Contract With America.

[aged lurker]

Byron York wrote a great piece of contrafactual history, at the LUN.

I really do think that Ted Cruz might as well be a Manchurian candidate created by David Axelrod to destroy the conservative movement; it breaks my heart that so many JOM regulars seem to think that Cruz is sincerely interested in anything but his own self-aggrandizement. Cruz has done more to promote Obamacare than any Democrat. It's a shame.

[Army of Davids]

Senate French Republicans are the weak link both in messaging and per capitulation.

Should also be cash on hand to go beyond October 17th (without prioritization)

If this goes to October 18th and nothing happens how does that change the game?

Is the 17% government shutdown really making that big a difference right now outside of DC?

Does anyone really miss the 90% of IRS and EPA employees who are on furlough?

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

The concern trolls are shutdown proof

[Ignatz]

Zerohedge with a story from China's official press calling for a "de-Americanized" world and a new reserve currency.
The author also calls for;

For starters, all nations need to hew to the basic principles of the international law, including respect for sovereignty, and keeping hands off domestic affairs of others.

Still awaiting comment from Japan, Taiwan, Viet Nam, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and China's western provinces.

[Extraneus]

Heh. Drudge:

White House brings in closer...

[1_cathyf_says_typepad_is_the_most_wonderful_software_in_the_world_2]

...China is advocating that Japan, Taiwan, Viet Nam, Tibet, Inner Mongolia and China's western provinces all keep their hands off domestic affairs of China...

[Porchlight]

Anyone that uses acronyms like LUN and JOM probably isn't a troll.

But seriously, Cruz has done more to promote Obamacare than any Democrat? That's ludicrous. Obviously, without Democrats like Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi we wouldn't have Obamacare at all.

[Sandy Daze]

(cont fm prev thread):
Celebs, Hollywood:

James Woods (place of honor b/c of Twitter storm)
Maria Conchita Alonso
Scott Baio
Adam S. Baldwin
Orson Bean
James Caan
Stacy Dash
Bo Derek
Robert Duvall
Clint Eastwood
Angie Harmon
Elizabeth Hasselback
Patricia Heaton
Andy Garcia
Kelsey Grammer
Victoria Jackson
Rob Long
Rob Lowe
JOHN MALKOVICH
Dennis Miller
Alley Mills
Starr Parker
Adam Sandler
Pat Sajak
Nick Searcy
Tom Selleck
Gary Sinise
Kevin Sorbo
Fred Thompson
Janine Turner
John Voight
Bruce Willis
Chuck Woolery

GOs-FOs:

William G. "Jerry" Boykin (Army, LTG)
James Aloysius "Ace" Lyons, Jr. (Navy Admiral)

any others?

[Extraneus]

it all but ensures a heated fight over whether to continue the unpopular [sequester] cuts in the new year

Says who, POLITICO? I love 'em and home they ratchet down every year for the next fifty years.

[aged lurker]

Jamie Weinstein wrote an even better piece on Cruz's serial dishonesty, at the LUN. Why are GOPers shooting ourselves in the head again?

[Sue]

Chuck Norris!

[Extraneus]

er, I know it's bad form to correct typos, but that would be "hope."

[Sue]

John Voight

[Account Deleted]

If you're keeping score, that's the Pitzer Putz strumming the concern ukelele.

[OldTimer]

I like to read GW read for the comments...

http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/2013/10/14/here-is-what-senate-majority-leader-harry-reid-and-senate-minority-leader-mitch-mcconnell-just-said-click/

[Ignatz]

Egad, Cruz used the term Surrender Caucus to describe a bunch of invertebrates who routinely surrender to the Dems, which is how we have gotten to our present sorry state.

I imagine nearly everyone here has used a saltier term than that to describe the gutless wonders.

[aged lurker]

Thanks for sticking up for me, at least kind of, Porch. I occasionally responded to some of your comments (under a different handle, because I am a coward) during the campaign and especially when the stories about the HHS mandate on abortifacients broke. I was grateful that Christians like you were sticking up for pro-life Catholics, even when you kind of blamed the bishops for getting us into this mess. Obviously, Harry Reid and Pelosi and Obama and Stupak gave us this horrible law; my rhetoric was totally overheated (I lurk and don't comment until I'm too upset to think straight, much less write properly, so I'll go back to lurking after this.) But I am sincere: I think we would have had a much better chance of exposing Obamacare's massive flaws if Ted Cruz hadn't done his thing. The only way to get rid of Obamacare is to win the Senate and White House. Not an original thought, obviously. But I do not understand why anyone who says that (from George Will to Krauthammer to inarticulate me) is a RINO. I would not be so angry at Ted Cruz if I did not care so much about defeating Obamacare.

Okay, back to lurking. All the best.

[Danube on iPad]

"The party of McCain hasn't had a coherent and unified message since the Contract With America."

Common sense dictates that we choose, at every level, between the Democratic Party and the other one. If you choose to characterize the latter as being the party of McCain, so be it.

Is there a party of Cruz with a unified message? Will that party win a national election?

[glasater]

I think China is messing with India's water supply so that should go into Ignatz's mix.

[Gmax]

Will that party win a national election?

I for one am quite ready to find out. We know the answer to the alternative, two elections in a row, now don't we?

[jimmyk]

Is there a party of Cruz with a unified message? Will that party win a national election?

There's room for debate about Cruz's tactics, but I'd prefer the GOP to unify around Cruz than to unify around McCain. And I think the reports of "damage" from Cruz's tactics are greatly exaggerated, whereas the damage from Republican "leaders" attacking Cruz rather than Obama is very real.

[Some Guy]

I think we would have had a much better chance of exposing Obamacare's massive flaws if Ted Cruz hadn't done his thing.

I think that's somewhat silly.

No offense, but what planet are these people living on who think the press would do a full-court press on how much Ocare sucks? There have been a thousand outrages by this Admin before the Ocare crash and burn, how'd the MSM cover all of those?

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

Funny you talk about a unified message when Cruz has been attacked by Rove and his minions. One big happy family, right?

[centralcal]

About the media coverage, Some Guy, is right. I especially love all the conservative journos and opinionistas who lament the shutdown press coverage completely obliterating the Ocare roll out fiasco. As AliceH asked a time or two on Twitter (and I am paraphrasing, but not quoting her), "what's stopping YOU from reporting it?"

It is utter fantasy for ANYONE to think the MFM would be reporting honestly on anything Obama related.

[glasater]

I've got to wonder why the 'world' so so concerned about our not spending so much money which a debt ceiling default would certainly do.
We still have enough money to cover interest payments and important other obligations.

[Threadkiller]

"Common sense dictates that we choose, at every level, between the Democratic Party and the other one."

http://www.brennancenter.org/legal-work/dnc-v-rnc-consent-decree

[Joan]

Oh, Tom Maguire, you always make me chuckle--"...unless Ted Cruz kidnaps Sunny or Bo."

I wish I'd been born intelligent and witty. :)

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

Speaking of a "unified message", I wasn't the one going ballistic over Akin and Mourdock so I don't need to be hectored by somebody who did.

[Threadkiller]

"I imagine nearly everyone here has used a saltier term than that to describe the gutless wonders"

But only a limited few get chewed out for using language.

[glasater]

I've got to wonder why the 'world' is so concerned about slowing down spending which a debt ceiling default would certainly do.

This 'world' has been worried about US profligate spending for a long time.

A default wouldn't mean we don't pay interest and major obligations.

[Threadkiller]

You baited him, CH.

[Neo]

OMG

Five thoughts on the Obamacare disaster
In the weeks leading up to the launch I heard some very ugly things about how the system was performing when transferring data to insurers — a necessary step if people are actually going to get insurance. I tried hard to pin the rumors down, but I could never quite nail the story, and there was a wall of official denials from the Obama administration. It was just testing, they said. They were fixing the bugs day by day.
According to Bob Laszlewski, those problems aren’t resolved. They’re just not getting much attention because the health-care law’s Web sites aren’t working well enough for people to get that far in the process.

When you’ve lost Ezra Klein, DC’s boy-version of “Chatty Cathy”, there is no defense.

[Old Lurker]

Aged Lurker "I lurk and don't comment until I'm too upset to think straight, much less write properly, so I'll go back to lurking after this."

Hey cuz, you write just fine and should post more often. We love to argue with each other so long as we say what we think and think about what we say.

Except when DoT and TK are going at each other. Then we all revert to lurking until the storm blows through.

[pagar 75]

Another side of the Sen Cruz debate.

"Ted Cruz Isn’t The Problem With The Republican Party; He’s The Solution"

[Extraneus]

Is there a party of Cruz with a unified message?

If there were, it would be the only party with a unified message other than the Democrats, and I would heartily join it and support it.

[Extraneus]

Will the feds dock EBT card-holders who over-drew on their "benefits" during the "glitch," or will they simply stiff Walmart and let the looters keep the free stuff?

The question almost answers itself.

[narciso]

It's fautous that they would have admitted to this, it wasn't in the bill, we never figured connectiivty, would be even the 100th problem

[BB Key]

test

[Extraneus]

Hey, daddy, check out this dude that fought off a bear by grabbing its tongue and making him bite it.

link

[jimmyk]

Here's one take on how many have actually enrolled in Obamacare:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/dandiamond/2013/10/14/how-many-people-have-enrolled-in-obamacare-an-early-look/

Even this rather sanguine take puts it in the thousands, as opposed to Keller's "millions." You get a bigger number if you include enrollees in expanded Medicaid, but that is hardly the core of 404Care.

Still, I know that some on the left are blaming states for (a) not setting up their own exchanges; (b) not going along with the Medicaid expansion. My response would be along the lines of "Since when can the Federal government just order states to do things (other than obey the Constitution)?" but I suspect the answer is "All the time." Still, the argument is maddening, because it suggests states should just be subservient to the wishes of Obama.

[pagar 75]

IMO, Obamacare is going to end all private business in the US.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/10/14/georgia-small-business-weighs-paying-obamacare-fine/

"Those penalties could add up to $400,000 in just the first year. That comes right off their bottom line. Still, it's a fraction of what providing health care could cost them. That tab could top $2 million per year. "
---------------------------------
Obamacare shock: $12,600 deductible, 40 percent co-pay, zero competition

http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/2537200#.Ulv35lJHQWA.twitter

[Threadkiller]

"I think we would have had a much better chance of exposing Obamacare's massive flaws if Ted Cruz hadn't done his thing."

What "thing" was that. It appears he unified the GOP in the House, save one.

The House on Friday passed legislation that defunds ObamaCare but would keep the government running through mid-December.The legislation was approved on a party-line 230-189 vote, with Rep. Scott Rigell (Va.) the only GOP "no" vote. Two Democrats voted for the measure.

Two Dems voted for the defund?!?

Maybe Cruz's thing was creating bipartisanship.

I think the majority of people who are upset with Cruz don't understand the difference between a Senator and a Representative.

The House is calling the shots. Not Cruz. Calm down.

[Account Deleted]

jimmyk,

It may be that many are figuring out the 404Care exchange is a Parasites Only site. If there is no way you can figure out how to qualify as a parasite, then ehealth or direct contact with Friendly Fascist Insurance obviates the hassle factor.

The wholly unimpressive numbers for the functioning state sites support my hypothesis at this point.

[Sandy Daze]

In the wake of the government shutdown, despite provisions in the Pay Our Military Act, Catholics at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia are being denied religious services. The Catholic priest who serves this community has been prohibited from even volunteering to celebrate Holy Mass without pay, and was told that if he violated that order, he could be subject to arrest. Protestant services continue to take place. Only Catholic services have been shutdown.

This is an astonishing attack on religious freedom by the federal government, and the latest affront towards the military since the beginning of the shutdown.

As a result, the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, MI, today, filed a federal lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

[Sandy Daze]

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Father Ray Leonard, a Catholic priest contracted to serve as base chaplain and Fred Naylor, one of Father Leonard’s parishioners and a retired veteran with over 22 years of service. Fr. Leonard is a civilian Catholic Pastor contracted by the Department of Defense (DoD) to serve as a military chaplain at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia.

Fr. Leonard who served Tibetan populations in China for 10 years, informed the court in an affidavit; “In China, I was disallowed from performing public religious services due to the lack of religious freedom in China. I never imagined that when I returned home to the United States, that I would be forbidden from practicing my religious beliefs as I am called to do, and would be forbidden from helping and serving my faith community.”

On October 4, 2013, Fr. Leonard was ordered to stop performing all of his duties as the base’s Catholic Chaplain, even on a voluntary basis. He was also told that he could be arrested if he violated that order. The approximately 300 Catholic families, including Fred Naylor’s, served by Fr. Leonard at Kings Bay have been unable to attend Mass on base since the beginning of the shutdown.

[Sandy Daze]

Fr. Leonard was locked out of his on-base office and the chapel. Fr. Leonard was also denied access to the Holy Eucharist and other articles of his Catholic faith. The order has caused the cancellation of daily and weekend mass, confession, marriage preparation classes and baptisms as well as prevented Fr. Leonard from providing the spiritual guidance he was called by his faith to provide.

[Sandy Daze]

Is this how the Spitehouse "gets back" and Catholics and the military?

[Sandy Daze]

This is not just a Catholic fight...

[Sandy Daze]

First they came, quoting Martin Niemöller...

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

Aged Lurker,

I'm glad you posted, but I still love Cruz. Convince me I am wrong.

[Sandy Daze]

And someone(s) thinks Cruz was out of line... The fight is some much bigger than just that...

[Account Deleted]

Arvik Roy provides more details on the 404Care Parasites Only aspect. Ehealth publishes the metals prices for all states for those who wonder what reality looks like.

[Sandy Daze]

quoting Churchill...

We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France in the Senate, we shall fight on the seas and oceans monuments and parks, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our islandway of life, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender

[Jack is Back!]

Back home after a 5 hour drive up 95. Listening to all the news, talk and analysis of this so-called deal I am left with one concern. There should be no deal that endangers the Speaker of the House Boehner. If you are going to cave, it has to be a cave that all House republicans can agree to and not one that only 20 do along with the Dems.

And regarding the Cruz effect that DoT believes will make 2016 unwinnable that is an opinion and like assholes we all have one. Myself, I am inclined toward the Cruz position. Its about time to hit the trip wire and go nuclear on the spending, the regulations, the deficit, the tax policy, the decline of our economy, our character and our respect around the world.

If Cruz is such a bad deal then give me the alternative. I think we are at a Patrick Henry moment and only the brave and committed will save this country. It is in deep jeopardy and the Memorial fiasco is a public example. Maybe trivial compared to the debt ceiling, the CR, the budget and extreme dsyfunctional governance but it is not an outlier of what the left's and Obama's plan is for all of us.

[Sandy Daze]

We must fight with everything we have, with every weapon we possess...

[Eric in Boise]

It's becoming more and more plain where the priorities are for our betters-the ones making laws that influence our daily lives.

The National Mall in DC is closed to the veterans that fought for our freedom, but opened up to a protest by those who are here illegally.

This isn't an accident. Those of us who favor free enterprise, the rule of law, and individual responsibility are being directed to the back of the line. Will we take our place there, or will we effect change? If the latter, what will it look like?

[rich@gmu]

shocking Sandy Daze. had heard glad he is fighting back.

***As AliceH asked a time or two on Twitter (and I am paraphrasing, but not quoting her), "what's stopping YOU from reporting it?"***

waiting on the media to learn how to chew gum and walk at the same time.

[boatbuilder]

Haven't read the thread yet, but the takeaway for the Ted Cruz "fringe" (which includes me) will be and should be "Now you see why we fought so hard." This turkey isn't going away, and the Republicans who worry more about the news cycle than their basic principles should recognize that tactics mean little or nothing if nobody thinks you have any principles.

[MaryD]

JIB at 7:08 -- kudos. I'm going to use the following thought for my letter to Kelly Ayotte, newly-minted girl RINO:

"Its about time to hit the trip wire and go nuclear on the spending, the regulations, the deficit, the tax policy, the decline of our economy, our character and our respect around the world."

I've been mulling around about a letter to her, but I had my second eye done for cataracts last Tuesday, and my style has been severely cramped. Thanks for the inspiration!

[narciso]

Meanwhile, the moveon aspect, is noted as they turned up the two minute hate, on Bolton, after they gae to Nobel Peace Prize, to the outfit that failed to prevent the first use of chemical weapons in 25 years.

[rich@gmu]

also in re: Cruz. not sure where I stand on the politics on the matter (conservative by temperment, booo), but it has focused the debate and jammed up a GOP reach-across-the-asile priority of immigration reform (amnesty).

I would contrast it with Paul's "filibuster" of Brennan earlier. He extracted a pretty much worthless statement from the administration and he was confirmed 63-34 shortly thereafter. Brennan is wholly unfit for the postition and has lots of question still to answer but Paul got his half day of kook stroking.

[rich@gmu]

narciso-

can't wait for the Russians to drop the evidence that the prize committee is corrupt and accepted bribes (esp when they do that for Obama's peace prize-it is only a matter of time).

[rich@gmu]

the news is a depressing read.

[rich@gmu]

This warning *** is part of the ObamaCare website terms and conditions.
That's right. It's in Invisotext!

lifted from the sidebar at the Ewok's shop via NRO. it just gets better and better (knew the warning would be the case but didn't think they would go to that extreme to hide it). Awesome. Just awesome.

[Jack is Back!]

What Cruz is doing is exposing one layer at a time the squishes from Christie to Krauthammer to Douthat to York to Hume. But then he is a domestic violence abuser according to Babs.

She who once asked me during the Iraq hostage crisis (our people so I was involved) why Iran would want to hold our people hostage. She was not aware that Iran and Iraq were two separate countries since she had never heard of Iraq. She was one of our local Congress members back then.

Dumb as a rock as California proves everytime it re-elects her.

[narciso]

No I don't think they needed the brbe, they believe they a re good so it is, whereas someone who actually risked her life, like Mall yousafsai, they don't count.

[Janet - It's not cheating, it's allowed,...& it's free!]

If it wasn't for Cruz & Paul & Lee speaking up, I'd just about be done with the Republican party.

[centralcal]

Same here, Janet.

[pagar 75]

Sandy, Glad to hear someone is fighting the shutdown on the religious services.

------------------------
Be sure and read the link that Rick B. put up at 07:04 on the Obamacare mess. It should make your blood boil.

[Appalled]

While Cruz is not my cup of Tea Party, he made the focus of his crusade Obamacare -- which it should have been. It has been Ryan and Boehner who have shifted the focus to all sorts of different random stuff (Entitlement reform?? -- Mr. Ryan, I love ya, but that's an issue for 2015). I think they hurt themselves on the messaging by losing the thread of what they were fighting about.

[DublinDave]

Someone needs to give Mitch McConnel the Congressional medal of honor.

He's literally saved America.

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

Without the ewok's steadying presence, Malor has gone full retard. It wasn't a long journey.

[Porchlight]

aged lurker,

I do believe you're sincere. I think it's going to work out, though, at least in the short term. Getting rid of Obamacare in the long term was always going to be very difficult no matter what Cruz does or doesn't do. Right now the only thing that matters to me is that the Republicans are positioned as 100% against Obamacare, down the line. So far so good, even if they disagree on tactics.

I did kind of blame the bishops, didn't I - they were so very enthusiastic at first for what was obviously going to be a terrible law. I don't understand why anyone could pursue "social justice" (a term I despise) and then be surprised to end up being used as a tool by the left. But that is another discussion.

[Army of Davids]

Ted Cruz gets nothing but kudos here.

The country is riddled w/ economic cancers.

Want to finally deal w/ these problems instead of let them fester and get worse?

We need more like him. Not more like mealy mouth French Republicans like Lindsey Graham or Mitch McConnell.

The leadership of the Democratic Party is not about taking prisoners. Cruz and Lee understand this. Too many GOP DC insiders either do not or more likely don't care...as long as they are invited to the right parties.

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

Go Mary!

[jimmyk]

Rick's 7:04 link is quite interesting. All this from the most transparent administration evah!

(Summary: The websites were designed to conceal from those ineligible for subsidies how expensive the insurance would be, while trumpeting low premiums only for the eligible. That contributed to a lot of the technical problems.)

[narciso]

wELL YES, BUT HE WAS PELTED WITH STONES FOR HIS TROUBLE,
rEMEMBER WE WERE STILL ON DELAY NOT DEFUND,