Frugal Café Blog Zone

Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on February 24, 2010

Pres. Barack Obama’s health care bill is a joke, a fiscal nightmare, a fiasco, an angry crippled hippo… take your pick.

The proverbial fur — or hippo dander — is starting to fly furiously in Congress and it will only heighten over the next few days before Obama’s dog-and-pony summit show on it Thursday.

All Americans must read the new Obama health care plan. It’s online at WhiteHouse.gov. Be prepared… it’s an ugly beast of a document that does NOTHING to lower costs and bears a tremendous similarity to previous government-oppressive health care bills already brought forth by the Democrats in Congress that the majority of Americans have loudly rejected. We can’t afford it, American jobs should be the priority, nor do we want the government (aka Team Obama) in charge of our bodies, our health, and 1/6 of the nation’s economy. Canada’s government-run health care is breaking down, as are other nationalized health care programs in other countries.

But there’s more… the Stupak amendment against providing government-funded abortion has been excised and abortion coverage has been stuffed back in, torquing off spearheading Rep. Bart Stupak and other pro-life Democrat members of Congress, who find the revision of the revision “unacceptable.” It will do untold damage to the pharmaceutical industry by raising its taxes, thus pretty much killing off clinical trials. Democrats are claiming they would be happy to look at the GOP alternative for health care, if it existed… which it DOES, on the GOP blog and a link to it on the WhiteHouse.gov website, you knuckleheads. Since last summer. Oops.

Will there be enough votes to pass this unmitigated disaster? Hard to say, although Washington Examiner says “no”. The earlier versions barely passed in Congress, and things have dramatically changed.

Two analyses of Obama’s so-called “new” health care bill. First, this terrific interview on Good Morning America with Republican Whip Eric Cantor:

Republican Whip Cantor Discusses President’s Health Care Bill & Summit: ABC’s Good Morning America

Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh brokedown a tiny fraction of Obama’s outrageous health care bill on his EIB Network radio program on February 22, 2010. Here are transcript portions of El Rushbo’s analysis:

Rush Limbaugh Show: Obama Unveils Health Care Plan: A Defiant “Screw You” to Nation
EIB Broadcast February 22, 2010

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: It’s a suicide pact. I mean, that’s all you can say this thing is. They don’t care. They know Harry Reid is going to go down in flames, they know Obama is going to go down in flames in 2012 — they don’t care. His approval number is down to 45% in Rasmussen. It’s minus -19 on the strongly approve, strongly disapprove Rasmussen graph. The American people don’t want any part of this. They’re still going to ram this thing down our throats. They do not care.

[...]

I’ve been trying to gather as much information on this stupid thing as I can. And, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, I somewhat feel responsible for what’s happening today because it was I and I alone, who, for a year said, “Where the hell is his plan? He doesn’t have a plan!” He’s letting Reid go down with the ship and he’s letting Pelosi go down with the ship over in the House and the Senate, but he hasn’t put his name to any plan — where’s his plan? Well, he’s got a plan now, and it’s still not a piece of legislation. It’s just a bunch of outline and overview things.

[...]

Folks, this is a monster. The first seven pages are a summary, and it’s all Robin Hood, it’s all Robin Hood, then it gets ugly.

It’s the fourth quarter. We got two minutes, he’s down 13 and Peyton Manning is hurt. This thing is going to get uglier and uglier. Do you realize, this line’s actually in it: “The president’s proposal provides that it –” … This proposal is actually in this president’s outline. “The president’s proposal provides that, if necessary, funds will be transferred to the Social Security trust fund to ensure that they are held harmless by the proposal.” That’s an admission it’s going to fail, so they’re trying to create another revenue stream here. So what that means is if Social Security goes broke, revenue from health care taxes will be transferred.

Oh, by the way, do you realize Obama didn’t wait for the CBO. This is a $1 trillion plan, and, you know what? It’s going to insure everybody that’s uninsured, 31 million people now, and it’s not going to add to the deficit. Do you believe that? Yeah, it’s magical. It’s pure magic. It’s going to cover everybody that’s not covered.

He’s going to really choke those insurance companies, too. The federal government is going to take over setting their rates and make sure everybody gets covered, spend a trillion dollars — didn’t he just have these two clowns come out, deficit commission last week, reduce spending commission? And he comes up the following week, hey, here’s my $1 trillion plan, doesn’t add to the deficit, insures everybody. We’ve got a panacea here…

[...]

Do you know how many times the word “tax” is mentioned in Obama’s health care bill? Thirty-five times “tax” is mentioned in the Obama health care bill. So, yeah, Ben Nelson is hung out to dry here. “Eliminating the Nebraska FMAP provision and providing significant additional Federal financing to all States for the expansion of Medicaid.” The public option’s not in it, but what I just read essentially says that it is. If you believe that there’s not a public option in this, you’re too gullible, and besides, this is just phase one.

Now, it also will increase “the threshold for the excise tax on the most expensive health plans from $23,000 for a family plan to $27,500 and start it in 2018 for all plans.” It’s 2010, right? 2018. Nobody’s fingerprints on this thing are going to be around for you to punish. They’re all going to be gone. Louisiana Purchase stands, at least the way I read it. There’s more, ladies and gentlemen. Obama’s plan would set a national eligibility threshold for Medicaid, the federal state insurance program for low-income Americans at 133% of poverty, the Senate preference, rather than 150% of the federal poverty level as proposed by the House. So under the White House proposal states would get 100% federal funding for any newly eligible Medicaid participants for four years, from 2014 to 2017. So the states are being incentivized to go higher and go sign up wards of the state.

Now, there’s no public option, right? They’re big-time touting no public option. But listen to this provision: “Under the White House proposal, states would get 100% federal funding –” and remember, now, this isn’t going to add to the deficit. We get 100% federal funding for any newly eligible Medicaid participants for four years, from 2014 to 2017, with 95% reimbursement the following two years and 90% after that. Folks, I mean we’re talking dead on bankruptcy here, national bankruptcy.

We’re talking about bankrupting the country. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, are broke, there is no Social Security trust fund anymore anyway. That’s why he’s talking about “refunding” it, none of this is sustainable. Expanding any of this is sheer madness. Promising to fund Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, is a lie. We don’t have the money. And as I asked mere moments ago in a very brilliant way, how can President Obama say that he’s setting up a blue ribbon committee to fix the deficit and then make these irresponsible new spending promises? They don’t care. They literally don’t care.

The bipartisan commission is a lie. Obamacare is a lie. The country’s broke, and this just accelerates our already certain bankruptcy. The State-Controlled Media are saying: “Obama’s bill helps cover 31 million Americans.” Sorry, it mandates coverage with the threat of a fine or a tax. It coerces coverage. This is raw, bare-knuckled, government power, fines for not buying Obamacare, unconstitutionality throughout this thing. Thank you, Professor Obama.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: By the way, from the Los Angeles Times, this is from yesterday, headline really says it all: “White House adjusts strategy on Republicans — The Obama administration aims to put members of the GOP on the spot, forcing them to compromise on issues or be portrayed as obstructionists.” That’s the health care summit Thursday at Blair House. Is there any reason now to go to this thing? Somebody help me out here. Is there any reason for the Republicans to trudge up there and appear at this thing?

Obama’s plan, he put it out there. And, look, everybody knew from the get-go this is designed to make the Republicans look like the obstructionists. The Democrats cannot get anything passed in the House and the Senate, and they have all the Democrats they need in the House to do it, and they had all the Democrats in the Senate, they couldn’t get it done, so now they want to shift blame to the Republicans, and the Republicans are being advised by people, “You can’t reject the invitation to the president, you really gotta go to the White House.”

Boehner, I think, there’s a letter he released this morning questioning why they should go now. I don’t know what the status of it is, but here it is: “As voters lose patience with political gridlock –” They are not losing patience. That’s another story that’s being spun. Folks, the American voter loves the gridlock right now. The gridlock is what is saving this country. Gridlock is what is preventing the Obama administration succeeding at their destructive agenda. Voters are not losing patience with political gridlock. Democrats are. “– the Obama administration is embarking on a strategy aimed at putting Republicans on the spot: Either participate in bipartisan exchanges initiated by the president, or be portrayed as the party of obstruction.” You may as well be portrayed as the party of obstruction because you can’t stop ‘em anyway. I mean you can, I guess, now with Scott Brown over in the Senate. I’ll tell you what, this is no slam-dunk. They just made it by three votes in the House on the Pelosi version of this.

We’re getting closer and closer to November and these Blue Dogs over there, the Democrat Party, people are dropping like flies, and I’m not sure they’re going to get this passed out of the House this time. You would think they’ll do it, but where’s Pelosi? You talk about going underground, you talk about low profile, where’s Pelosi? We haven’t seen her, and we haven’t seen Dingy Harry except when he was trying to act like he wasn’t at the Obama town hall.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, I want to look at the Democrats here as a couple of parents, in a way. You people know that having children will not save dysfunctional marriages. It just doesn’t work. And to the Democrats, passing Obamacare will not save you. It is going to destroy you! It is a suicide pact.

Troubled marriages become more troubled when new responsibilities are added to couples who are already prone to anger and disagreement — and, frankly, hate each other. Obamacare is not being conceived by a bunch of happy people who are likely to stay together, folks. This health care plan has been prepared in anger…

The purpose of this health care plan is for them to show you who the hell is boss and you think that they think that you are respected. No! They think you are stupid and they’re going to ram this down your throat regardless. There’s not happiness, there is no joy. There is nothing that is positive about the conception of this health care plan. This November, the American people are going to impose a divorce decree on the very Democrats plotting to conceive a bill that will destroy private health insurance, a bill that will grow up to become a doomed single-payer, government-owned and operated, rationed health care system.

The Democrats are giving birth to every movie monster you have ever seen, from Freddy Krueger to… Hell, I can’t remember them all. Every movie monster ever, the Democrats are conceiving it. They are not happy with themselves. They’re in a series of rapid divorces. They’re angry. They’re throwing the kitchen sink at each other — and to try to help themselves out, they are now conceiving a health care plan.

Obamacare is an act of anger, it is an act of desperation, it is a law that soon-to-be-fired Democrats will abandon and leave on the doorstep of the rest of the country. It’s a bill with no visible means of support. We’re getting a total deadbeat offspring of the Democrats here. It has no visible means of support or love. Nobody’s going to love this bill. Nobody’s going to have any support for it. It’s going to be an unwanted, unloved bill, dependent on the expanding bankrupt government. What could possibly go wrong here? What could possibly go wrong?

This bill, while it is right now just an unviable tissue mass which has zero humanity in it, needs to be aborted. I’ve always been pro-choice. I’ve always chosen life, except in this case. This bill needs to die.

This bill’s being conceived by the most unhappy bunch of parents. It’s a bill conceived in grievance and anger and desperation and defiance and an attitude of “Screw you!” to us.

Pertinent reading at Michelle Malkin’s place… Lights! Cameras! Health care Oba-kabuki!; Update: WH excludes governors, state legislators

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