Thursday Link-Around: The Costly Disaster That is ObamaCare

Today, the Romney campaign held a press conference call to discuss the Congressional Budget Office report that confirms that Obamacare is a costly disaster for American families and businesses. The call featured Governor Bobby Jindal who enlightened reporters on the disaster that is ObamaCare.

The WSJ’s Sara Murray filed her report, here:

Mitt Romney might joke about accepting the role as the ā€œgrandfatherā€ of President Barack Obamaā€™s health-care law, but Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal didnā€™t take the bait.

ā€œI canā€™t speak to the governorā€™s sense of humor,ā€ Mr. Jindal said in a conference call, Ā organized by the Romney campaign, in which he decried Mr. Obamaā€™s health-care law.

Mr. Romney ā€œhas consistently been against the national mandate,ā€ Mr. Jindal said. ā€œHe has consistently said that what works in one stateā€¦may not necessarily be right for other states.ā€

The Romney campaign was seeking to capitalize on a recent Congressional Budget Office report that showed nearly six million Americans, many of them middle class, will be subject to a tax penalty if they donā€™t obtain insurance under the health law.

Guy Benson of Townhall has more on the report: CBO: Obamacare Mandate Tax Overwhelmingly Hits Middle Class:

The Congressional Budget Office has determined that millions of Americans will get socked by the Obamacare mandate tax, 80 percent of whom are middle income citizens:

Nearly 6 million Americans – significantly more than first estimated– will face a tax penalty under President Barack Obama’s health overhaul for not getting insurance, congressional analysts said Wednesday. Most would be in the middle class. The new estimate amounts to an inconvenient fact for the administration, a reminder of what critics see as broken promises.Ā  And the budget office analysis found that nearly 80 percent of those who’ll face the penalty would be making up to or less than five times the federal poverty level. Currently that would work out to $55,850 or less for an individual and $115,250 or less for a family of four. Average penalty: about $1,200 in 2016.

While he falsely accuses Mitt Romney of secretly plotting to raise taxes on the middle class, Barack Obama is…actually raising taxes on the middle class.Ā  The Obamacare tax isn’t the first instance of this either.Ā  He’s also violated his “firm pledge” with cigarette taxes, tanning taxes, and a slew of other taxes embedded elsewhere in his giant healthcare boondoggle.Ā  Here’s another fun CBO nugget mined by the Washington Times:

CBO also said there will be 30 million people without insurance, though all but the 6 million will be exempt from the tax. The exempt Americans are a combination of illegal immigrants and those with incomes too low to pay income taxes.

Just so we’re clear: Obamacare raids $716 Billion from almost-insolvent Medicare to chip in toward its own $2 trillion price tag, raises premiums on average families, increases national healthcare spending faster than doing nothing would have, swells the deficit, exacerbates the national doctor shortage, is insanely costly and difficult to comply with, and raises taxes by $500 Billion on the backs of millions of middle class families — and the country will still have 30 million people lacking health insurance.Ā  What a deal! And most of that dysfunction doesn’t kick in until 2014.Ā  For a review of what a logistical migrane the current elements of the program have already become, read this sobering analysis.Ā  It really is a debacle, guys.Ā  Try to keep this stuff in mind next time the Democrats run an attack ad about free contraception or Mitt Romney’s tax returns, or whatever.Ā Ā  But in case you’re still wavering, Obama campaign manager Jim Messina really, really wants you to know how much he loves Obamacare.

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Seton Motley, PJ Tatler: Government Motors Files for Divorce from Government; Obama Demurs:

We have a federal government that is hemorrhaging our cash.

U.S. Budget Deficit Tops $1 Trillion for 4th Year

National Debt Reaches $16 Trillion as Dems Begin Their Convention

And a General Motors (GM) hemorrhaging our cash via its plummeting stock price.

We the Taxpayers are still stuck with 500+ million shares of GM stock.Ā  For us to break even, they must be sold at $54 per. They debuted post-bankruptcy at $33 per share and are now around $24 per share.Ā  This sets us up for an almost $15 billion loss ā€“ just on the stock.

And the government and Government Motors are joined together at our wallet ā€“ in pathetic matrimony.Ā  So which of these linked losers will first seek to get out from under the other?

General Motors Pushing U.S. to Sell Stake

So GM is filing for divorce. Ā Butā€¦

Feds Refuse to Sell Their Shares of GM ā€” And the ā€˜Whyā€™ Is Quite Interesting

ā€¦(Barack Obama Administration) Treasury officials arenā€™t interested in selling because it would mean posting a multibillion dollar loss during an election yearā€¦.

Obviously ā€œBin Laden is Dead ā€“ and General Motors is on Life Supportā€ doesnā€™t have quite the same rhetorical flourish.

Read the rest, here.

But – but – but – GM is one of Obama’s raging successes!

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Ben Stein, The American Spectator: Letterman Stunner:

First, when Mr. Obama came out, the crowd went wild. That’s not surprising. The first question that Dave asked Mr. Obama was something like this: “You look great. How much do you weigh these days?”

Mr. Obama answered, as if the question were not insane, “About one eighty.”

“Looks good on you,” said Dave. “You carry it well.”

The first question should have been, “Mister President, what on earth are you doing here? The Middle East is on the brink of war. Iran, the most dangerous nation on earth, is about to get a nuclear bomb. Why did you blow off talks to save the world from an Islamic bomb and the Mideast from war to appear on a comedy talk show?”

Of course, that was never asked.

Instead, we got a lot about Republican obstructionism in Congress and the greed of the Republican rich. (Mr. Letterman makes about $30 million a year.) After one particular sally, Dave actually asked, “Is this just the attitude of the country club rich?” or something like that. Well, duh. It takes one to know one, Dave. How dare you talk about “the rich” as if you were a peasant laborer in Sinkiang?

It was a spectacularly ass-kissing performance, but just about what I expected from Dave. However, Mr. Obama is so smooth, just so incredibly, unbelievably smooth, it just left me gasping.

Read the rest, here.

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Now here’s a blog I’ve never visited before, but will be sure to visit again: Global Rhetoric: Why Isnā€™t Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger In Jail?

To begin with, as reported by Polticoon May 1st of 2011 in a story involving leaks of classified information, comes this:ā€œRuppersberger, the highest ranking Democrat on the committee, noted that the recent leaks were ā€œabout the worst that Iā€™ve seenā€¦ā€ adding, Ā ā€œEveryone who works in the area of intelligence and has the clearances to deal with that needs to know these leaks cannot happen and youā€™re going to be held accountable and go to jail if you do leakā€¦ā€

Then, Maryland Watch reported this:

ā€œOf course, if you were paying attention to the news the evening of May 1st, 2011, you may have seen the news reports of the killing of Osama bin Laden. Prior to the statement by President Barrack Obama, one congressman confirmed the killing to NBC News and Politicoā€¦Congressman Dutch Rupperserger. Politico has Dutchā€™s office on the record leaking this classified information.ā€

Back to me againā€¦

What had happened, apparently, was that CIA Chief Leon Panetta had briefed lawmakers on the killing of Osama Bin Ladenā€¦and hereā€™s where the bumbling Dutchā€™s unintentional hilarity comes into play.Ā  Old Gasbag Dutch either directed his press secretary to announce Bid Ladenā€™s death to the world, or was asleep at the wheel from a donut eating sugar crash, when she went public, telling Politico ā€“ BEFORE PRESIDENT OBAMA ANNOUNCED BIN LADENā€™S DEATH TO THE NATION ā€“ this:

ā€œOsama Bin Laden is dead. He was killed in Afghanistan,ā€ Ruppersberger spokeswoman Heather Molino told Politico after the (Panetta) phone call. ā€œThe U.S. has the body to ensure confirmation.ā€

Well, wasnā€™t that all very special ā€“ except for the fact that as President, only Obama could declassify the information, which he did later when he went on TV to tell the world that the Navy Seals had killed Bin Laden.Ā  No one, not a Congressman, not a Gasbag, not a Sugar Crashing Bungler, could legally put out classified information beforehandā€¦ which is exactly what Dutch had done.

So, I ask again: Why isnā€™t Dutch Ruppersberger in jail?

Hell, even he said (a few paragraphs up) that ā€œthese leaks cannot happen and youā€™re going to be held accountable and go to jail if you do leakā€¦ā€

So I ask again: Why isnā€™t Dutch Ruppersberger in jail?Ā  Even HE believes he should be in jail, if you believe what he said about leakers at the moment it helped his image to condemn ā€“ you know ā€“ those who leak classified information, such as himself.

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Sunshine State Sarah: Is the UPS Store using “You Didn’t Build That” as a theme in their new ad?

As the ad goes back and forth between these different small business owners think about what they are saying:

This is my business…This is my place.

I’m the owner and sole proprietor…I’m the boss…I’m the CEO, the CFO, I do it all.

I’m in charge of everything…marketing, promotions, customer service, new business, fulfillment.

I only have one other employee, Chester [gestures to his dog]…

It’s a romantic notion, take on the world, no one telling you what to do, but, uh, you are alone…

The ad then segues to their sales pitch, that these small business owners are actually notĀ alone, because they have a local UPS Store providing very helpful services for them. The ad emphasizes that the UPS Store is conveniently located in their neighborhood (“Best thing? They’re right down the street!” “Two blocks away!”) and that each store is “locally owned and locally operated.”
Sounds to me like UPS may be trying to tap into the energetic response to Obama’s much-criticized “you didn’t build that” comments.
***
The Washington Examiner: The Obama you don’t know (in 10 chapters. )
I suspect that for political junkies me,Ā  it will be the Obama we kinda do know but wish more people knew.
Ace excerpts, and posts video of Bret Baier’s coverage of the report on last night’s Special Report in Fox.

Obama, of course, wrote no scholarly articles while attached to the University (unlike any serious legal thinker). And he was generally… let us say the most Reaganesque part of him was his apparent agreement with Reagan’s line, “Hard work never killed anyone, but why take chances?”

Senior lecturers were, however, still expected to participate in university activities. University of Chicago Law School Senior Lecturer Richard Epstein told The Washington Examiner that Obama did not do so.

Obama, Epstein said, “did the minimal amount of work to get through. No one remembers him. He was not a participant in luncheons or workshops. He was here and gone.”

Robert Alt, a former Obama student, echoes Epstein, telling the Examiner that “I think it’s fair to say he wasn’t engaged in the intellectual life of Chicago outside of the classroom.”

The pattern of minimal performance at the Chicago campus was not an exception to the rule for Obama. In the state Senate during the same years he was lecturing, Obama voted “present” nearly 130 times, the most of any legislator in the chamber.

See? I kinda already knew about that. Still, I bet the report has some interesting tidbits, forgotten, or never widely reported even in the conservative media. Looking forward to digesting it all.

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This will set your blood to boiling: Michelle Malkin: Radical left-wing Center for Constitutional Rights represented Abu Sufian bin Qumu:

Many readers have asked whether the firm represented Abu Sufian bin Qumu, the former Gitmo detainee released in 2007 ā€” and now named as the possible lead plotter in the bloody attacks on our consulate personnel, staff, and private security contractors in Benghazi.

The left-wing organization that helped spring Qumu was the Center for Constitutional Rights. Last April, the group issued an indignant press release painting Qumu as a harmless victim and blasting those concerned about his unrepentant jihadi ways. After a trove of Gitmo documents found their way to Wikileaks and were published by the New York Times, CCR rose to Qumuā€™s defense and parroted jihadi propaganda that the aggrieved Qumu was actually a friend of the U.S.:

Keep reading, here.

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Jeffrey Lord, The American Spectator: Romney Tapes Doctored? Mother Jones Confesses to ‘1-2’ Minute Gap:

Legal Insurrection‘s William A. Jacobson has done a brilliant piece of detective work.

Take a look here at a cornered David Corn of Mother Jones finally admitting that, yes indeed, Mother Jones has beenā€¦ahhhhhā€¦shall we sayā€¦..less than forthcoming about the now famous Romney tapes.

The tapes, as the world now knows, appear to show Governor Romney discussing the number of Americans who don’t pay taxes, consider themselves victims, and so on.

But wait!

After considerable prodding by an alert Jacobson, who noticed something askew, Corn is finally forced to admit:

According to the source, the recording device inadvertently turned off. The source noticed this quickly and turned it back one.(sic) The source estimates that one to two minutes, maybe less, of recording was missed.

So.

Mother Jones, in its zeal to get Romney, deliberately released a tape insisting that they had released the whole tape, nothing but the whole tape, so help them God. Here is Corn flatly asserting a falsehood to Jacobson:

Romney says we posted “snippets” & not full answers in the secret videos. Uhā€¦no. See for yourself. The full tape: motherjones.com/politics/2012ā€¦

Now we find out that ..uhā€¦yes.

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Ann Coulter: Wildly Out Of Touch Media Complain Romney Not Regular Guy:

Only our totally unbiased watchdog media could turn the burning of U.S. embassies in countries where Barack Obama had recently supported mob revolts into Mitt Romneyā€™s blunder. Journalists couldnā€™t risk having Obamaā€™s campaign slogan ā€œOsama is deadā€ being amended with ā€œand so is our ambassador.ā€After our ambassador to Libya was murdered in a preplanned, coordinated attack on our embassy last week, preceded by an attack on our embassy in Egypt (and followed by attacks on our embassies in Yemen, Indonesia, Tunisia and Lebanon), Romney criticized the Obama administration for ā€œsympathizing with those who had breached our embassy in Egypt.ā€
He was referring to a statement put out by our Cairo embassy before the ambassadorā€™s murder, criticizing an American filmmaker whose YouTube trailer was the alleged provocation for the attacks. Attacks that happened to occur on the anniversary of 9/11.

The NFM (Non-Fox Media) uniformly denounced Romneyā€™s criticism and pronounced his campaign finished.

The Obama administration insisted that Romney had his ā€œfactsā€ wrong: Obama had absolutely nothing to do with the statement ā€” the embassy staff was freelancing ā€” and, even if the White House had approved it, it was a good statement because the riots were caused by the movie trailer, and furthermore, the embassy statement was issued before the riots even began.

This is known as an argument in the alternative: ā€œI didnā€™t break into that house, and if I did, I didnā€™t steal the silver, and if I did, I only got twenty bucks for it.ā€

I know, right?! (<<<channeling my 14 yr old, there.) I’ve never understood how they managed to turn Mitt’s criticism into a “gaffe” when it was nothing of the sort. The MSM in its zeal to reelect their Precious are tripping over their own clown shoes. It’s nothing short of pathetic. Coulter concludes, “the media happen to love the party of big government with all their heart, so from now until the election, no matter what Romney says, they plan to be scandalized.”

I wish more Americans understood how corrupt our MSM is.

John Nolte of Big Journalism knows: CORRECTION REQUEST: Politico Falsely Reports GOP Congressman Walked Out of Townhall:

Looks pretty bad, doesn’t it — a sitting Congressman turning tail and running from his own constituents?

Yep, pretty weak.

Oh, except…

Politico’s source publishedĀ incomplete video.Ā And had Politico been the least bit curious and skeptical of its left-wing source, it would’ve seen that Rep.Ā Schilling did not “walk out” of the town hall meeting.

In fact, whatĀ the Republican Congressman did do wasĀ actually pretty shrewd. Ā He made it look as though he was going to leave, which got the obnoxious protesters to leave, and then after they left, Schilling coolly and calmly returned to the front of the room and picked up right where he left off.

The picture of poise and composure.

Human Events: A short visual history of the creepy Obama cult

A longer visual history can be seen in my Obama Cult Products category.

Here’s Governor Rick Perry with the Tweet of the day/week/month/year helping Obama out with the debt number since he didn’t seem to have a clue on Letterman, last night:

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