House lawmakers tussle over Medicare mailings
House Democrats are accusing the Republican majority of censoring language in mailings to constituents about a Republican plan to privatize Medicare for future retirees.
At issue is official mail that goes to constituents with taxpayers picking up the cost of postage. Any materials mailed at taxpayer expense have to have bipartisan approval.
In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, five Democrats complained that previously approved language describing the proposal by Republican Representative Paul Ryan no longer was okay.
“Given this abrupt and inconsistent new interpretation of the established Franking Guidelines, we must surmise that there is a deliberate, strategic attempt to censor any Member communication that echoes the widespread public criticism of the Republican Plan for Medicare,” the Democrats wrote.
“This politically motivated censorship undermines our ability to execute one of our primary roles and diminishes the credibility of this institution,” they added.
Public opinion polls have shown the Republican Medicare plan is unpopular. It was a major issue in a recent special election in New York where a Democrat won in a traditionally Republican district.
From now on, phrases like the Republican plan “will end Medicare as we know it” have to become “will change Medicare as we know it.” Also Democrats cannot call the plan a “voucher system” even though many analysts describe it as such. Republicans want it called a “premium support system.”
Democrats, Meet Mr. Hobson
Democrats don’t like President Barack Obama’s tax compromise. They’re disappointed. Some may vote against it. But the package still seems destined to pass.
“If the idea is that this is a take-it-or-leave-it deal, I think the president’s going to realize there are going to be a lot of Democrats who are going to be voting ‘no’,” House Democrat Anthony Weiner tells ABC.
The tough-talking New Yorker, one of Obama’s more ferocious critics on the tax issue, has likened the tax discussion Vice President Joe Biden had with House Democrats on Wednesday to a prison brawl.
He calls Obama ”negotiator in chief” for accepting a weak-kneed deal with congressional Republicans and warns the president to pull his socks up or face the consequences: “I have to tell you something: It’s only going to get worse for the president if he allows himself to be pushed around like this,” Weiner says.
The question is which consequences are likely to matter most to Democrats at large.
The ‘no’ votes Weiner’s talking about would say ‘no’ to further tax cuts for wealthy Americans.
But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says that would also mean ‘no’ to middle-class tax cuts and extended unemployment benefits for the jobless, because those dang filibustering Republicans in the Senate want tax cuts for all and won’t budge an inch.
We do it by $250,000 incraments. We ask the opposed parties OK we now pass it with a cap of $500,000 no how about $750,000, common now we know you hoe’s have a number lets say $999,999.99 but you have to include all bone-us ‘s just like a waitress has to include her tips. lets make it even. Whatever, percent of the wealth of this country you controll equals your tax rate, if your in the top 2% and you controll 80% you pay 80%, phased in over 10 years of course, this will drive down national spending on oh say 10 years.
Obama tries to make political mountain out of ant hill
President Barack Obama and fellow Democrats are trying to make political hay out of a comment by House Republican leader John Boehner that managed to mention ants and nuclear weapons in the same sentence.
In an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Boehner criticized the financial regulatory reform legislation making its way through Congress as an overreaction to the financial crisis. “This is killing an ant with a nuclear weapon,” he said.
Democrats couldn’t resist pouncing on it. Especially since they are struggling to come up with the votes to pass the landmark legislation through the Senate where 60 votes in the 100-seat chamber are required to overcome procedural hurdles.
The White House released excerpts of remarks that Obama will make later today in Wisconsin in which the president took Republicans to task for opposing the financial regulatory reform bill.
“In fact, just yesterday, I was stunned to hear the leader of the Republicans in the House say that financial reform was like using a nuclear weapon to target an ant. That’s right. He compared the financial crisis to an ant. The same financial crisis that led to the loss of nearly eight million jobs. The same crisis that cost people their homes and their lives savings,” Obama will say.
“Well if the Republican leader is that out of touch with the struggles facing the American people, he should come here to Racine and ask people if they think the financial crisis was an ant,” Obama says in the excerpts.
“These Americans don’t believe the financial crisis was an ant. They know that it’s what led to the worst recession since the Great Depression. And they expect their leaders in Washington to do whatever it takes to make sure a crisis like this never happens again. The Republican leader might want to maintain a status quo on Wall Street. But we want to move America forward.”
I think Boehner and the Republican party is showing how out of touch they are with the American people. They are very mean spirited and heartless and sold out the American people with their reckless support of BP in the Oil crises. They are un American and close to being traitors….
Democrat gets naked with Rahm Emanuel, labels him “son of devil’s spawn”
Eric Massa knows all about awkward. The House Democrat, who leaves Congress today over a sexual harassment complaint by a male staffer, says he’s been up-close, personal and naked with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel — all at the same time.
Emanuel, Massa has decided, is a blood relative of Satan.
“Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil’s spawn. 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,” Massa says in a recording from his radio show posted to the RealClearPolitics Web site.
Massa’s close encounter with Emanuel occurred in the showers of a congressional gym about eight weeks after he entered Congress in January 2009.
“I’m sitting there showering, naked as a jay bird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel, not even with a towel wrapped around his tush, poking his finger in my chest, yelling at me because I wasn’t going to vote for the president’s budget,” says the 50-year-old, soon-to-be-former-lawmaker from Upstate New York.
“Do you know how awkward it is to have a political argument with a naked man?”
“There was a time in this country when one entered politics as a duty of honor to ones country”
lol, when was that exactly?
Healthy lifestyle discount or insurance loophole?
Dozens of healthcare reform advocates are sounding alarm bells over a Senate proposal to allow companies to reward employees who quit smoking, exercise or engage in other healthy activities.
The groups, including the American Heart Association, say the measure would create a “dangerous” loophole that would allow insurance companies to discriminate against people with health problems if it is included in the final healthcare reform legislation.
The healthcare overhaul aims to stop insurance companies from excluding coverage for people with pre-existing conditions or charging people more based on medical history. But Sue Nelson of the American Heart Association said the provision is written in a way that would allow insurers to raise premiums but then provide discounts, as much as 50 percent, for people who quit smoking or join gyms and exercise more.
“Although described as ‘incentives’ this practice allows employers to raise costs across the board for everyone and then lower them selectively for those who meet certain health targets. Incentives quickly become penalties for those who cannot meet the targets,” Nelson said.
Supporters of the provision argue that encouraging people to quit smoking or engage in a healthy lifestyle would help bring down soaring healthcare costs. Current law allows up to 20 percent premium discounts for people who engage in employer-sponsored wellness programs.
The provision was added in the Senate Finance Committee as an amendment offered by Republican Senator John Ensign and Democrat Thomas Carper. Committee Chairman Max Baucus supported the measure, but at the time said it needed refinement.
The healthcare advocacy groups said they prefer the House version, which provides incentives to small businesses to sponsor wellness programs for workers. Grants would be awarded for up to 50 percent of the costs of the program.
It is still the unpublished portions of the Obamacare Bill that bother me. Should not America be able to see it all.
I’d like to see what this has in it. Obama has made it way too important for it to be only about healthcare.
What little “weiners” of Juicy ” Constitution killing “Healing Herbs and Viniger Balancing ” is hiding in the depths of the legeslation???
Want to be Obama’s neighbor? House in Chicago for sale
CHICAGO – Be President Barack Obama’s neighbor for a cool $1.85 million.
The 17-room, 6,000 square foot (557 sq metres) brick house for sale adjacent to Obama’s Chicago home needs work to update the kitchen and bathrooms, but there is no need to worry about break-ins, the seller says.
“It’s definitely got phenomenal security. A whole team of Secret Service agents is posted 20 feet (6 metres) away” night and day, real estate agent Matt Garrison said.
”Some people may view that as a negative thing but we’re looking for buyers who see it as a positive thing,” Garrison said.
Prospective owners won’t face daily searches, Garrison said, but visitors will likely have to be cleared in advance.
The Obama family, of course, lives in the White House for now and their Chicago home in the Kenwood neighborhood is presumably vacant. The Chicago Police Department recently scaled down its around-the-clock presence at the house.
But when the Obamas and their two daughters were there, they sometimes chatted with neighbor Bill Grimshaw and his wife, who preceded them in the neighborhood. The Grimshaws, whose children have grown, bought the home for $35,000 in 1973.
if i had to have my neighbors permission to have visitors there’s no way i’d move into the neighborhood. shouldn’t he live in the white house anyway?
Obama trying hard to get healthcare back on track
President Barack Obama is pushing hard to get health care reform back on track after it veered a bit off course while he was in Europe last week.
He has spent the better part of the week pushing the issue. First he went after “nay-sayers and cynics,” warning them “don’t bet against us.”
“I just want to put everybody on notice, because there was a lot of chatter during the week that I was gone: We are going to get this done,” he said. “Inaction is not an option.” Then he stood with nursing leaders in the Rose Garden and tried to buck people up.
“It’s time for us to buck up Congress, this administration, the entire federal government to be clear that we’ve got to get this done,” Obama said. “Our nurses are on board. The American people are on board. It’s now up to us.”
The last couple of days he has been meeting with lawmakers, listening to their concerns about the legislation and prodding them to action — not always to good effect.
Maine Senator Olympia Snowe said she told the president Thursday his goal of passing a bill early August wasn’t realistic.
“It is important for us to take the time to work through these issues,” she said after a White House visit. “I thought it was overly ambitious to accomplish passing it on the Senate floor before the August recess.”
Obama needs to read the Bible, and pray everyday. Not to mention, he needs to “love” everyone he sees; even those who persecute him.
Obama doesn’t need to get everyone under his thumb and fix it so America will be controlled by the government. That’s evil.
Obama needs to be an inspiration, so Americans will concentrate on putting the Lord Jesus Christ #1 in their lives.
Whoever came up with the idea to put God out of the country should be fired.
Giving up “House” for the White House
He escaped from Guantanamo, inhaled and went in search of White Castle burgers, journeyed in search of his Indian heritage, and then became a doctor (who committed suicide this week).
Now it’s time for a reality show on politics. Actor Kal Penn has landed a job at the White House where the pay isn’t as great as in Hollywood but the scenery is different.
No one bats an eye any more at the jump from acting to politics given the history of President Ronald Reagan, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and former senator and presidential candidate Fred Thompson (who jumped back into acting).
Penn, who worked on President Barack Obama’s campaign, will be an associate director in the White House office of public liaison working with the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and arts groups, says White House spokesman Shin Inouye.
“It’s been called the front door to the White House through which everyone can participate and inform the work of the president,” Inouye said.
Penn starred in the movies “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle,” “The Namesake,” and “Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.”
He most recently played Dr. Lawrence Kutner in the television series “House.” That character committed suicide in Monday’s episode, freeing the actor to take up his new job.
First Draft: double vision
WASHINGTON – Don’t rub your eyes. Despite the early hour, you weren’t seeing things when White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs somehow managed to be in two places at once.
He showed up on ABC and NBC morning television shows at the same time to talk about how President Barack Obama has no hard feelings toward Republicans who refused to vote for the economic stimulus, and in fact had them over to the White House last night for a cocktail party among other guests.
It was a neat trick, Gibbs being questioned on different channels by different TV personalities about the same issue at the same time.
The party must have made for some interesting conversation over drinks, or perhaps it was all smiles since Obama got the bill passed and Republicans had their (no) say.
More bad economic news. U.S. weekly jobless claims rose by 3,000 to 588,000 and U.S. durable goods orders posted another decline in December, falling 2.6 percent.
Obama to meet with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner this afternoon. Economic concerns dominate the Washington landscape. The Federal Reserve can’t cut interest rates much more or it would have to pay banks to take money.
And one word on the health front from the FDA - Peanuts. Throw out anything made with peanuts processed by Peanut Corporation of America in Georgia over the last two years.
Robert Gibbs is not a good speaker. There are too many uhms and stammering. His jokes are lame and his presentation is a cross between ousted preacher and used car salesman.
Club for Growth warns against stimulus vote
Beware any Republican who might fall for President Barack Obama’s sales pitch Tuesday for his $825 billion economic stimulus plan. A vote for the legislation will disqualify you from receiving the Club for Growth’s “Defender of Economic Freedom” award.
The conservative economic advocacy group issued the warning just hours before Obama was to meet with Republican members of the House of Representatives and the Senate in hopes of drumming up more support for his economic recovery plan.
“No congressman can vote for the stimulus bill and claim to be a defender of economic freedom,” Club for Growth President Pat Toomey said in a statement. “In fact, the Democrats’ package is the antithesis of economic freedom. The bill is a paragon of government run amok, a ballooning deficit, fiscal irresponsibility, and political greed.”
So far congressional Republicans have been cool to the Democratic-backed legislation, arguing it spends too much and gives too little in tax cuts. But with U.S. job losses mounting and consumer confidence crumbling, it may be difficult for many lawmakers to vote against the legislation Obama says is urgently needed to keep the economy from falling deeper into recession.
The Club for Growth keeps a voting scorecard of up to 100 points. Every year its economic freedom trophy goes to those who earn a score of 90 or better. The group advocates conservative economic policies that include making President George W. Bush’s tax cuts permanent, limiting government and cutting spending.
For more Reuters political news, please click here.
Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Snow cleared from Capitol grounds ahead of visit from President Barack Obama)
Well, Mr.Obama wants increased spending (read almost 1 Trillion). The last good Dem president ((JOHN KENNEDY)understood the simple concept that it is free enterprise, not government that drives this Great Country. That is why he was a advocate of lower tax rates. Liberal Congress members that headed Fanny Mae/Mac helped GET US INTO THIS FIX. Oh, and lets close Guatuanimo Prison, and let’s enable more America haters that want to kill our families. That is happening already. Also, let,s pay for the world’s abstinence problem (pay for everyone’s irresponsibility). That is a hall mark of the New Democrats. We need equality of opportunity, not equal government outcomes.
