Category Archives: Congress
Veto Proof
In an interview with NPR President Obama had this to say about losing the Senate in the midterm elections:
I haven’t used the veto pen very often since I’ve been in office, partly because legislation that I objected to was typically blocked in the Senate even after the House took over — Republicans took over the House.
Now I suspect there are going to be some times where I’ve got to pull that pen out.
Within the first hour of the new session of the 114th Congress he threatened to veto the Keystone pipeline bill. He also threatened to veto bills on immigration and regulations.
Still Bush’s Fault
Diane Feinstein issued a Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA terrorist interrogation tactics it called torture. Members of the committee approved those same tactics after the 9/11 attacks.
The report was written the style of the health care bill – 100% by Democrats. And researched Rolling Stone style – none of the accused were interviewed.
Bottom line – it’s almost 2015 and it’s still Bush’s fault.
Chuck Schumer Bails on ObamaCare
Chuck Schumer, the third ranking Senate Democrat, gave a speech trashing ObamaCare. He said it was a mistake to ram through health care reform when the main concern of voters was the economy. The uninsured were a small percentage of the electorate and most of them didn’t vote. ObamaCare meant middle class working people had to pay more for their insurance to subsidize the non-voting beneficiaries of ObamaCare. Schemer said that was politically stupid. As a result Democrats are now getting shellacked at the polls.
The speech came as a shock to Progressives and the press but it’s something Schumer must have given a lot of thought to. As Dan Henninger said in the WSJ, “Let us count the times Sen. Chuck Schumer has blown himself up politically.
That was a short count, wasn’t it?”
Go it Alone
Three days after he was elected president Barack Obama told congressional leaders, “elections have consequences and I won”. He then proceeded to go it alone on an economic stimulus plan.
On September 9, 2009, Paul Ryan had the temerity to explain what was in the health care bill – before we passed it. Obama waited until April 13, 2011 (The Presidential Divider – WSJ) for payback. He invited Ryan to sit in the front row and then publicly humiliated him during a speech on the budget.
As a result of that and other insults, the Affordable Care Act was passed without a single Republican vote. Even at that, it required stunts like the Louisiana Purchase, the Cornhusker Kickback (later removed in reconciliation), and the illegal prosecution of Alaskan senator Ted Stevens (The 60th ObamaCare Vote – WSJ).
ObamaCare has never been popular with a majority of Americans. According to Jonathan Gruber Americans are a simple people who need to be lied to for their own good because they’re too stupid to understand basic economics.
Go it Alone
In January of this year Obama announced he no longer needed the serfs or Congress. He had a pen and a phone and he would go it alone on immigration reform. And so he did. Here’s the speech. When Congress refused to give him a bill he could sign – something David Harsanyi points out Congress has no obligation to ever do – he ordered immigration reform without a single vote from either party.
Stupid Voters
The administration whose foreign policy is “don’t do stupid shit” thinks we’re stupid.
Here’s why.
The United States Supreme Court has agreed to decide King v Burwell. The case is about the survival of ObamaCare. The plaintiff says the Affordable Care Act only permits subsidies on state run health care exchanges. The IRS allows subsidies on federal exchanges as well. Without subsidies ObamaCare is no more.
The reason the law was written that way was to create an incentive for states to set up exchanges say law professors Jonathan Adler and Jonathan Turley. Apparently it wasn’t incentive enough because only 16 states set up exchanges.
The administration argument (not surprisingly) is that the law doesn’t mean what it says. The intention of those who wrote it was to offer subsidies on all exchanges. And good intentions are everything.
Enter one more Jonathan, MIT egghead Jonathan Gruber. He’s the architect of the law and he says the plain wording is just a type-o. His intent was indeed for federal exchanges to offer subsidies.
Unfortunately for Gruber a video emerged in which he claimed that if a state doesn’t set up an exchange not only will its citizens not receive subsidies, they, as taxpayers, will have to pay for other people’s subsidies on other state exchanges.
Gruber, wearing his egg on his face, called that a speak-o.
Stupid is as Stupid does
But that’s not all. More videos have surfaced starring Professor Gruber. One of his most memorable lines is that “lack of transparency is a huge political advantage”. He says that if voters understood that healthy people would be paying for healthcare for sick people they would oppose the bill, because they’re stupid.
Ron Fournier of National Journal and an ObamaCare supporter now says the law was built on a foundation of lies.
Progressives believe in government by experts. Gruber is an expert. For him, telling the truth would have been nice but he’d rather “have the law than not”. Jonah Goldberg wrote a great book called Liberal Fascism. Gruber fits the bill.
You may be wondering who was the crack investigative reporter who dug up these videos. It was some guy in his basement. He’s an investment adviser named Rich Weinstein. David Weigel has a great story in Bloomberg about him.
