EckerNet.Com

On Monday, President Obama threw out the opening pitch for the Phillies-Nationals baseball game, nothing exciting there.  By all accounts, his pitch sucked by magnitudes not yet invented…but at least he wasn\’t wearing \”Mom jeans\”.  Ok fine, I really don\’t care about the athletic abilities or fashion sense of my candidate.  In fact I really don\’t care if he knows what a baseball is, it\’s irrelevant to his job.

What DOES concern me escaped my notice until just yesterday.  After his pitch, he went up to chat with the announcers.  One of them quizzed him on his favorite White Sox player.  Instead of answering the question, he gave this rambling answer.

You know, uh…I thought that, uh, you know, that the truth is, a lot of the Cubs I like too. Uh, I did not become a Sox fan until I moved to Chicago.  Because I, ah, you know, I was growing up, uh, in Hawaii, so I ended up actually being an Oakland A\’s fan. But when I moved to Chicago, I was living close to what was then Cominsky(!) Park.  And, went to a couple games, and just fell in love.  And the nice thing about the Sox, is it\’s real blue-collar baseball.  You know, we always tease about the Cubs.  They, you know, they\’re up at Wrigley, sipping wine, playing those day games, they\’re having a good time.

Okay fine, you can\’t name a single Sox player, I don\’t care, again, it\’s not relevant to your job.  You can\’t pronounce the name of their ball field properly, again, not part of your job, below your pay grade as it were.

But it does bother me that when you\’re backed into a corner on a question you can\’t answer, your first reaction is to start playing the class warfare card.  For a chief executive of anything, that is a very disturbing gut reaction.

Turns out the public is confused over health care reform.  Chief amongst their confusion is where does one go to get that sweet \”free\” healthcare??

Two weeks after President Barack Obama signed the big health care overhaul into law, Americans are struggling to understand how — and when — the sweeping measure will affect them.

Questions reflecting confusion have flooded insurance companies, doctors\’ offices, human resources departments and business groups.

\”They\’re saying, \’Where do we get the free Obama care, and how do I sign up for that?\’ \” said Carrie McLean, a licensed agent for eHealthInsurance.com. The California-based company sells coverage from 185 health insurance carriers in 50 states.

Well to answer those questions I\’d tell them, get in line.  Because sure as hell there is going to be widespread shortage of health care providers.  Set aside the politics, ideology, rhetoric, etc….there is just no way, on a even a simple logistical level that you can suddenly add millions of customers to the field and expect our existing health care system to be able to handle them.

Then add in things like shitty reimbursement rates and you discourage expansion of that same system to handle the added demand for their services.  Possibly even convincing some doctors to leave the system entirely, which from headlines we\’ve already seen is not an unreasonable concern.

But wait, it gets better….

\”We tell them it\’s not free, that there are going to be things in place that help people who are low-income, but that ultimately most of that is not going to be taking place until 2014,\” McLean said.

In other words, people are just now finding out it\’s not \”free\”…not even the socialist form of  \”free\”.  And due to the accounting gimmicks the Democrats had to make this look like anything but a financial disaster, most of the \”benefits\” (I use the loosest definition of that word) don\’t kick in until 2014.

What\’s amazing about that is we haven\’t seen the bottom of public disapproval rates for this health care boondoggle yet.  We\’re already at the point where a majority of people are opposing the health care plan, so much that 54% would still like to see it repealed.  If people are still finding out that they got sold a sack of lies, it\’s going to get worse.

I look forward to the evolution of Obama\’s \”It\’s Only Been A Week\” excuses….\”It\’s only been a week\” ==> \”It\’s only be a year\” ==> \”It\’s only been two years\” ==> \”It\’s only been four years\” ==> \”It was Bush\’s fault!!\”

John G.  Is 63 years old and owns a small business. He\’s a life-long Republican and sees his dream of retiring next year has all but evaporated. With the stock market crashing and new taxes coming his way, John assumes now that he will work to his dying  day.

John has a granddaughter. Ashley is a recent college  grad. She drives a flashy hybrid car, wears all the latest fashions, and loves to go out to nightclubs and restaurants. Ashley campaigned hard for Barack Obama. After the election she made sure her grandfather (and all other Republican family members) received a big I told-you-so earful on how the world is going to  be a much better place now that her party is taking over.

Having lost both roommates, Ashley recently ran short of cash and cannot pay the rent (again) on her 3 bedroom townhouse… Like she has done many times in the past, she e-mailed her grandfather asking for some financial  help.

Here is  his  reply:

Sweetheart,

I received your request for assistance. Ashley, you know I love you dearly and I\’m sympathetic to your financial plight. Unfortunately, times have changed. With the election of President Obama, your grandmother and I have had to set forth a bold new economic plan of our own…\”The Ashley Economic Empowerment Plan.\” Let me explain.

Your grandmother and I are life-long, wage-earning tax payers. We have lived a comfortable life, as you know, but we have never had the fancier things like European vacations, luxury cars, etc.. We have worked hard and were looking forward to retiring soon. But the plan has changed. Your president is raising our personal and business taxes significantly. He says it is so he can give our hard earned money to other people. Do you know what this means, Ashley? It means less for us, and we must cut back on many business and personal expenses.

You know the wonderful receptionist who worked in my office for more than 23 years? The one who  always gave you candy when you came over to visit? I had to let her go last week. I can\’t afford to pay her salary and all of the government mandated taxes that go with having employees. Your grandmother will now work 4 days a week to answer phones, take orders and handle the books. We will be closed on Fridays and will lose even more income to the Wal-Mart.

I\’m also very sorry to report that your cousin Frank will no longer be working summers in the warehouse. I called him at school this morning. He already knows about it and he\’s upset because he will  have to give up skydiving and his yearly trip to Greenland to survey the polar bears.

That\’s just the business side of things. Some personal economic effects of Obama\’s new taxation policies include none other than you. You know very well that over the years your grandmother and I have given you thousands of dollars in cash, tuition assistance, food, housing, clothing, gifts, etc., etc. But by your vote, you have chosen to help others — not at your expense — but at our expense.

If you need money now sweetheart, I recommend you call 202-456-1111. That is the direct phone number for the White House… You can also contact the White House here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/ .

You yourself told me how foolish it is to vote Republican. You said Mr Obama is going to be the People\’s President, and is going to help every American live a better life. Based on everything  you\’ve told me, along with all the promises we heard during the campaign, I\’m sure Mr. Obama will be happy to transfer some stimulus money into your bank account. Have him call me for the account number which I memorized years ago.

Perhaps you can now understand what I\’ve been saying all my life: those who vote for a president should  consider the impact on the nation as a whole, and not be just concerned with what they can get for themselves. What Obama supporters don\’t seem to realize is all of the money he is redistributing to illegal aliens and non-taxpaying Americans (the so-called \”less  fortunate\”) comes from tax-paying families.

Remember how you told me, \”Only the richest of the rich will be affected\”? Well guess what, honey?  Because we own a business, your grandmother and I are now considered to be the richest of the rich. On paper, it might look that way, but in the real world, we are far from it.

As you said while campaigning for Obama, some people will have to carry more of the burden so all of America can prosper… You understand what that means, right? It means that raising taxes on productive people results in them having less money; less money for everything, including granddaughters.

I\’m sorry, Ashley, but the well has run dry. The free lunches are over. I have no money to give you now. So, congratulations on your choice for \”change.\” For future reference, I encourage you to try and add up the total value of the gifts and cash you have received from us, just since you went off to college, and compare it to what you expect to get from Mr. Obama over the next 4 (or 8 ) years. I have not kept track of it, Ashley. It has all truly been the gift of our hearts.

Remember, we love you dearly….but from now on you\’ll need to call the number mentioned above. Your \”Savior\” has the money we would have given to you. Just try and get it from him.

Good luck, sweetheart.

Love, Grandpa

Obama campaigned with the promise of \”smart diplomacy\”, which is supposedly an improvement on the \”reckless cowboy\” diplomacy used by Bush.  For one it was supposed to endear us to our friends…well let\’s do the lineup.

Israel? Pissed them off

British? Apparently the special relationship is over

Poland? Sold them out for nothing from the Russians

Czech Republic? Same deal we gave the Poles

Canada? Insulted them over a petty issue in the Arctic, now they\’re withdrawing from Afghanistan

Wow…if that\’s how we\’re treating our friends, we certainly don\’t need enemies, how is he handling them?

Smooth, real smooth.

If this is Obama\’s \”smart diplomacy\”, I\’d hate to see when he screws up!

A Marine squad was marching north of Fallujah when they came upon an Iraqi terrorist who was badly injured and unconscious. On the opposite side of the road was an American Marine in a similar but less serious state. The Marine was conscious and alert and as first aid was given to both men, the squad leader asked the injured Marine what had happened.

The Marine reported, \”I was heavily armed and moving north along the highway here, and coming south was a heavily armed insurgent.  We saw each other and both took cover in the ditches along the road. I yelled to him that Saddam Hussein was a miserable, lowlife scum bag who got what he deserved.  And he yelled back that Barack Obama is a lying, good-for-nothing, left wing Commie who isn\’t even an American.

So I said that Osama Bin Laden dresses and acts like a frigid, mean-spirited lesbian!  He retaliated by yelling, \”Oh yeah? Well, so does Nancy Pelosi!\”

\”And, there we were, in the middle of the road, shaking hands, when a truck hit us.\”

Look most of you I\’ve been watching the progress of the health care bill. I\’ve been wanting to do a post on it, but to be honest there were just too many variables and shifting tides to to put together any sort of coherent analysis of the situation. Well call this the calm before the storm, but in the last few hours things have started to calm down. That doesn\’t mean the bill is dead, far from it, it just means some of the unknowns are either known or we at least know what we don\’t know at this point. So despite my confidence that this post will be out of date almost as soon as I push the Publish button, I\’ll give it a stab.

Here\’s what we know, Pelosi doesn\’t have the votes….yet. She may get them, but she\’s looking at a pretty uphill climb (more on that in a second). The Slaughter Solution is looking less and less likely….in fact one Congressional office was reporting it dead Wednesday afternoon. I\’ve seen nothing to confirm that, but it\’s likely that Democrats are fretting over the PR hit they\’re going to take over this. After weeks of Obama and the Senate demanding an up or down vote, the House is now doing everything it can to prevent one. Even Chris \”Mr. Tingle\” Matthews is seeing the folly in the Slaughter Solution.

One of the biggest factors driving lack of votes is lack of a CBO score for the bill. In order to qualify for reconciliation, the House changes have to reduce the deficit by at least a billion dollars in order to qualify. And for political reasons they need to get the cost of the bill below one trillion. Numerous sources have indicated that so far the Democrats haven\’t gotten the language to that point, hence they don\’t have an \”official\” bill yet and no vote. Undoubtably many of the current undecideds are waiting to see what the final form takes.

So where do we stand?? This is the way it breaks down. There are 431 members of the House, 253 Democrats and 178 Republicans. All the Republicans oppose the bill and the Democrats are divided. Pelosi needs 216 votes to pass it, and opponents need 216 votes to defeat it. Nobody really knows exactly where we stand, there are a number of different whip counts out there. By far the most accurate (and therefore useful) one I\’ve found so far is by the lefties over at FireDogLake. Their numbers are tracking pretty closely with what I\’ve seen elsewhere. Plus you have to figure that any Democrat that\’s going to vote Yes will tell the lefties for sure…why put themselves through the hell of their base revolting for no reason.

According to FDL

With leaners, you\’re at 205-210, with Democrats able to lose only 5 of the remaining uncommitted 16:

Jim Matheson, Harry Teague, Travis Childers, John Barrow, Zack Space, Chris Carney, Brad Ellsworth, Henry Cueller, Nick Rahall, Solomon Ortiz, Earl Pomeroy, Bill Foster, Harry Mitchell, Jason Altmire, Marcy Kaptur, Melissa Bean

So by that count, opponents need 6 of 16, and Pelosi needs 11 of 16. But there are a couple in that undecided list I think you can easily move into one of the two categories. Obama said that Teague is ready to announce his vote, which pretty much means he\’s in the Yes column. And Altsmire has been increasingly declaring very negative opinions of both the bill and the process, so he\’s a pretty good candidate for the No column. Which makes the count 206 – 211. It\’s damn close and it\’s a toss-up on where things go from here.

On one hand, public opinion is still solidly in the No category, and anyone considering a Yes vote should be pretty confident in their re-election chances. On the other hand, Pelosi can still bribe her members. She\’s somewhat constrained by the fact that the Cornhusker Kickback and the Louisana Purchase has left a sour taste in the publics mouth. So any bribe is going to be of the under-the-table IOU variety.

But it all still depends on the CBO score. And since we didn\’t get one today, a Saturday vote is pretty much impossible, Sunday is the soonest likely vote if we get the CBO score today which we\’re supposed to. But the Democrats appear to be having problems getting the score they\’re gonna need to plausibly pass this. Democrats are only asking for things that cost money, nothing that saves money. Call that a temporary hurdle, as there is no way the Democrats will let that stop them. They\’ll come up with some accounting tricks to eventually get the CBO score they need.

Even then reconciliation is in doubt, as the Senate has put the House on alert that reconciliation is an unlikely bet. So these remaining Democrats are going to have to make their decision with the liklihood that these \”fixes\” probably won\’t pass.

Ultimately, it really comes down to what 14 Democrats think. If any five of those fourteen think the political risk isn\’t worth it, it\’s game over and Katie bar the doors, you\’ll have Democrats scrambling to switch sides. Otherwise this is just step one of a long process to this bill passing. The Senate almost certainly won\’t pass reconciliation, but Obama will sign the Senate Bill.

Then you\’ll have the inevitable court challenges. Any challenges to the procedural process are going to be a PR move at best as there is pretty solid (and recent) case law indicating that this Slaughter Solution is constitutional. Any court challenge is likely to hinge on whether the courts agree that the Commerce Clause of the Constitution covers this health care bill. That\’s far from certain but it\’s a long shot. More than likely the court cases will be to score political points and drag the Democrats through more mud than they dragged themselves through.

Bottom line though is that even the White House agrees the economy isn\’t recovering in 2010, and approval ratings tend to track very closely to economic performance. So basically the public opinion polls numbers you\’re seeing is what we\’re likely to have in November. So Democrats are going to have an disastrous year, and hopefully those 14 Democrats are making their decision with that in mind.

My favorite part is that Gibbs has no neck.

It\’s a message from his holiness again!

Kevin —

Bammy!!

Last Thursday\’s first-of-its-kind summit capped off a debate that has lasted nearly a year.

You do realize not EVERYTHING you do is historic right?

Every idea has now been put on the table. Every argument has been made. Both parties agree that the status quo is unacceptable and gets more dire each day. Today, I want to state as clearly and forcefully as I know how: Now is the time to make a decision about the future of health care in America.

Er, hate to point this out, but you did forget one critical step. You forgot to consider the opinion of the American people, who have been trying to tell you in every way possible, be it polls, mid-term elections, whatever, that they hate this shit pile of a bill.

The final proposal I\’ve put forward draws on the best ideas from all sides, including several put forward by Republicans at last week\’s summit. It will put Americans in charge of their own health care, ensuring that neither government nor insurance company bureaucrats can ration, deny, or put out of financial reach the care our families need and deserve.

You realize that your bill is self-contradictory right? You can\’t suddenly add a bunch of people to a failing government program and have it NOT dramatically increase in price AND introduce rationing AND reducing quality. Price caps have NEVER worked, they\’ve only created shortages and lower quality. Which when we\’re talking health care is a rather fatal mistake.

I strongly believe that Congress now owes the American people a final vote on health care reform. Reform has already passed the House with bipartisan support and the Senate with a super-majority of sixty votes. Now it deserves the same kind of up-or-down vote that has been routinely used and has passed such landmark measures as welfare reform and both Bush tax cuts.

Oh yeah, we owe the public an up or down vote on this bill the public hates.

One Republican vote is NOT bi-partisan, and even that one Republican has changed their mind. Actually more Democrats voted against this than Republican have voted for it. The only thing bi-partisan about this bill is the opposition to it.

And there is nothing routine about what you\’re doing. If this had the support you\’re trying to pretend it did, it would have passed before Thanksgiving of last year. You\’re having to cram it through a method reserved for budgetary bills to get around the fact that you just don\’t have the support for this bill.

Plus, it\’s misleading to say this bill passed both the House and Senate, because it\’s actually two very different bills that have passed each. And you\’re now proposing yet a THIRD bill.

Earlier today, I asked leaders in both houses of Congress to finish their work and schedule a vote in the next few weeks. From now until then, I will do everything in my power to make the case for reform. And now, I\’m asking you, the members of the Organizing for America community, to raise your voice and do the same.

Fair enough, but while you\’re waiting for them, how about you listen to the vast majority of the public who has been raising their voice and letting you know what they think for months now. People that have never been involved in the political process have been showing up to rallies. Polls have consistently shown the public hates this bill. Nobody wants a massive government takeover of anything anymore.

The final march for reform has begun, and your participation is crucial. Please commit to join with me to take reform across the finish line.

Fair enough, if you want to lead a herd of lemmings, that\’s your deal. And I\’m certainly not going to stand in your way, but watch the first step off that cliff.

Essentially, my proposal would change three things about the current health care system:

First, it would protect all Americans from the worst practices of insurance companies. Never again will the mother with breast cancer have her coverage revoked, see her premiums arbitrarily raised, or be forced to live in fear that a pre-existing condition will bar her from future coverage.

Is this another one of those tales of woe that turn out not to be true, just like every other one you\’ve shared??

Second, my proposal would give individuals and small businesses the same choice of private health insurance that members of Congress get for themselves. And my proposal says that if you still can\’t afford the insurance in this new marketplace, we will offer you tax credits based on your income — tax credits that add up to the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history.

Does that mean you\’re going to agree to be covered under this plan as well??

Finally, my proposal would bring down the cost of health care for everyone — families, businesses, and the federal government — and bring down our deficit by as much as $1 trillion over the next two decades. These savings mean businesses small and large will finally be freed up to create jobs and increase wages. With costs currently skyrocketing, reform is vital to remaining economically strong in the years and decades to come.

You\’ve made claims like this before, but they\’ve always proven incorrect. In fact it usually means that people will be dropped from their employer\’s insurance and be forced to join the government program, even if they were fine with their employer\’s coverage.

In the few crucial weeks ahead, you can help make sure this proposal becomes law. Please sign up to join the Organizing for America campaign in the final march for reform:

http://my.barackobama.com/commit

Doesn\’t it concern you that while you\’re having to plead to get people to push for this, millions of every day voters are coming out without prompting to oppose this legislation??

When I talked about change on the campaign, this is what I was talking about: coming together to solve a huge problem that has been troubling America for 100 years and standing up to the special interests to deliver a brighter, smarter future for generations to come.

Seriously? THIS is what you were talking about?

Coming together? This has been the most partisan railroading we\’ve seen in a long time. Standing up to special interests? They wrote most of the bills, and you\’ve been having closed backroom meetings with them to craft these bills in secret.

I look forward to signing this historic reform into law. And when I do, it will be because your organizing played an essential role in making change possible.

Historic, you keep using that word. I don\’t think it means what you think it means.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

It was your pleasure I\’m sure.

It seems like it\’s probably a bad thing that actually look forward to these emails now.

Kevin —

You hitting on me?

As we head into an election year, the new strategy for killing reform is claiming that members of Congress who vote for it will suffer at the polls.

No, that\’s not the strategy for killing reform, that\’s the strategy for voting your worthless asses out of office. And we don\’t have to do much claiming.  The voting public has been doing plenty of that themselves.  Whether it be Scott Brown in Massa-fucking-chusetts.  Or the Governor races in New Jersey and Virginia.  Republicans haven\’t just made those up.  Those are cases of the voters telling you they hate this shitty bill.

For months, our opponents have spread lies about reform to scare voters away. But the simple truth about what reform would actually do — save jobs, guarantee all Americans affordable, stable coverage, and significantly reduce the deficit — is something most Americans strongly support.

Problem is the facts doesn\’t back up any of that.  Truth is that this bill will RAISE the cost of health care for most and won\’t affect it much at all for everyone else.  And it\’ll massively add to the deficit, but due to some fancy bookkeeping you\’ve managed to hide most of it, but even then it\’ll still add to the deficit.  You seriously can\’t expect that you\’re going to massively increase the size of a program that\’s already losing money and expect it to suddenly be profitable do you??

So yeah, it\’s true that most Americans probably support all that, but the problem is your bill doesn\’t provide any of it.

The question is, come November, will the voters know the facts?

I hope so…because polling shows that the more the voters learn about this bill the more they hate it.

OFA supporters have asked for a way to show every member of Congress that if they fight for reform now, we\’ll back them up this election season.

Well you could have started by supporting the Democrat in Masschusetts, Virgina and New Jersey when it actually mattered.  Instead Democrats have stayed home, not that I\’m disappointed.

That\’s why we\’re launching \”You fight, we\’ll fight\” — a volunteer pledge bank where you can commit your time to back up candidates and officials who fight hard for health reform.

Another meaningless feel-good program by Democrats, why am I not surprised.  From the same party that spends spends spends, promising to pay it off later…but never actually does.

We\’re shooting for 1,000,000 hours pledged to spread the word to fellow voters. And if we get there, we\’ll publish the total hours pledged in USA Today, so there will be no doubt that health reform is both good policy and good politics.

Reminds me of that South Park episode where the boys are trying to make millions in \”Internet Theoretical Dollars\”.  But heh, I suppose this is what you have to settle for.  The polls are against you.  The elections are against you.  Political momentum is against you.  Nobody likes you, everybody hates you, time to go eat some worms.

Can you pledge right away?

Sure, why not? I pledge 5 billion hours…I promise…totally I do.

President Obama has made it crystal clear that he has no intention of walking away from health reform — and this movement has made its desire to fight on just as clear.

Yeah, a promise from Obama is about as rock solid as the one I just gave.  Every promise Obama makes has an expiration date.

And many members of Congress are already working hard by his side to get the job done. But for those on the fence about whether or not to proceed, knowing you are there to back up a courageous stand can make all the difference.

Yeah, you\’ll almost make up for the massive numbers of independents running away from Democrats.  Your candidate will only lose by 10 percentage points instead of 15.

Your volunteer hours can have a huge impact no matter where you live. You can make calls into critical districts where health reform champions are in jeopardy, write letters to the editor, volunteer for nearby campaigns, or even just talk to friends, family, and neighbors to help cut through the special interest spin.

You just lost Massachusetts….ergo EVERY district is in jeopardy.

And Obama hired most of the special interests for his administration…why would you be needing to cut their their spin??

We\’ll offer lots of ways to get involved between now and the elections in November, and you can decide which are right for you — the important thing right now is to publicly show your commitment to fight for those who make health reform a reality.

Basically feel free to make all sorts of promises, with the full understanding that you\’ll never actually follow through on them…..HEH! That sounds a lot like the ObamaCare plan….how convenient!

We\’ve certainly faced setbacks in this fight. But as President Obama told OFA supporters last week, that only means we need to work that much harder.

Setbacks?  Yeah, the Titanic also had a minor navigational error.  The public has turned against you.  The voters are voting against you.  Your base has abandoned you.  The independents are disgusted with you.  Only thing you have going for you is the Republicans are too incompetent to fully take advantage.  But I suppose in your always sunny world, that\’s a \”setback\”.

Thanks for making it possible,

Don\’t thank me, thank the voters.

Mitch

Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

Thanks Chuck