Posts Tagged ‘Nancy Pelosi’
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
President Obama and Congressional Democrats are scrambling to draft yet another version of Obamacare to assist House passage of Obamacare by the White House deadline of March 18, 2010
Fox News is reporting, building on prior AP reporting, that the White House has today increased pressure on Democrats in Congress, especially the House Democrats, putting out word that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats must either pass Obamacare through the House of Representatives now, before the Easter recess begins on March 18, 2010, or the entire effort at comprehensive health care reform will die.
Over the past few days, the White House has indicated it wants a vote in the House by March 18, and Congressional Democratic leaders like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have resisted agreeing to any deadline. However, with the new, increased pressure today, Congressional Democratic sources say that they are “on the same page” as the White House:
A House Democratic leadership source tells Fox there is something approaching convergence on the White House’s March 18 deadline for a vote on the Senate health care bill.
“Everyone is now on same page,” the leadership source said about the March 18 deadline. “We understand the White House believes that would be optimal timing. But they understand we are not wedding ourselves to any deadlines.”
With today’s developments, it now appears that the year-long health care debate finally has a date certain where either Obamacare will pass or it will not, and that deadline appears to March 18, 2010. The next eight days may decide the historical trajectory of the United States, as strict federal control over the entire health care delivery system, 16% of the US Economy, will surely substantially alter the direction of the American economy and political system for decades to come.
Ironically, after over a year of debate over health care reform, and lots of talk regarding cooperation between President Obama/Democratic Congressional Leadership and the GOP on writing the final version of the bill at the health care summit 10 days ago, Democrats continue to scramble behind closed doors to write a final version to the liking of Democrats in Congress. Of course, no Republicans are involved in any way with these last minute drafting efforts by Obama and the Congressional Democratic leadership, despite the clear preference of the American people for such joint drafting to occur. Fox News’s Major Garrett describes the frantic backroom drafting occurring now:
In reality, the White House isn’t budging and the House Democratic leadership is trying. But it can’t vote on the Senate bill until it has a fully drafted and CBO (Congressional Budget Office)-scored bill to “fix” the Senate bill’s imperfections.
But the so-called “fix” bill isn’t ready and there is no expectation CBO will deliver preliminary cost estimates Wednesday. That pushes the schedule back because House Democratic leaders cannot begin the final whip process (counting “yes” and “no” votes) until it has a full “fix” bill with a concrete CBO score on costs, revenues and deficit implications.
In other words, there’s a lot of work left to be done and not much time to finish it. What may well be happening is House Democrats and the White House are agreeing to disagree — on the timing, not the objective.
Technorati Tags: 8 days, American Economy, Care Delivery System, Comprehensive Health Care, Comprehensive Health Care Reform, Congressional Democrats, Democratic Sources, Dems Scramble, Easter Recess, Fox News, Health Care Bill, Health Care Debate, Health Care Delivery, Health Care Delivery System, Health Care Reform, House Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, march 18, Nancy Pelosi, Optimal Timing, pass now or die, pass now or its dead, Senate Health, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, White House Press, White House Press Corps
Tags: 8 days, American Economy, Care Delivery System, Comprehensive Health Care, Comprehensive Health Care Reform, Congressional Democrats, Democratic Sources, Dems Scramble, Easter Recess, Fox News, Health Care Bill, Health Care Debate, Health Care Delivery, Health Care Delivery System, Health Care Reform, House Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, march 18, Nancy Pelosi, Optimal Timing, pass now or die, pass now or its dead, Senate Health, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, White House Press, White House Press Corps
Posted in Daily Content | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Unemployment Rose in 30 States in January 2010
Despite the claims of various politicians in Washington, D.C. that the recession is over and a recovery is well underway, unemployment continues to surge throughout the United States, as shown in the release of detailed information today by the Labor Department regarding the January 2010 jobs situation. While 30 states reported an increase in the unemployment rate, five states reached all-time highs in unemployment rates:
Unemployment rose in most states in January—even breaking records in several states, according to government data released Wednesday.
Joblessness in five states—California (12.5 percent), South Carolina (12.6 percent) , Florida (11.9 percent), Georgia (10.4 percent) and North Carolina (11.1 percent)—hit a record high. The District of Columbia, at 12.0 percent, also reached a record high.
In all, 30 states and the District of Columbia saw their rates increase in January over the previous month. Nine states reported a decrease and 11 states had no change in their unemployment, according to the Labor Department.
One disquieting, and unreported, detail of the extended January 2010 report is that all of the above numbers are “adjusted” figures and actual unemployment is actually higher. Overall, the American job market appears to be “frozen”:
“It shows that the labor market is virtually frozen,” said Nick Colas, chief market strategist at the ConvergEx Group. Although the data is from January, he said that “there has not been any dramatic change in these past six weeks.”
Many economists and other observers have pointed to the uncertainty caused by the push to fundamentally alter the health care delivery system by the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress as a potential cause of this “frozen” labor market. Business owners and operators, both small and large businesses, are less likely to hire new employees while facing potential higher costs in the near term from a possible employer mandate and associated tax on employers who do not provide health coverage to employees.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has famously claimed, with no discernible substantive basis other than a far left wing think tank report, that passing Obamacare through Congress will “almost immediately” result in a gain of 400,000 jobs in America, with 4 million jobs to be created overall by Obamacare. Even Obama-worshipper and Washington Post writer Charles Lane admits Pelosi’s claim is ludicrous, especially considering the main cost-cutting mechanism, the so-called “cadillac tax”, has been removed until 2018 at earliest, hence postponing any job creation gains from lower health care costs well beyond “almost immediately”:
Here’s my problem, though: For Pelosi’s scenario to pan out, health-care reform must actually produce substantial cost savings. And that is more doubtful now that President Obama has offered a version that postpones the strongest cost-containment provision in the Senate bill — the “Cadillac tax” on high-value insurance plans — until 2018. That’s like postponing it this long. The president did this largely to appease organized labor and their allies in the House Democratic caucus — led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Such claims by Speaker Pelosi are especially odd in light of her statement yesterday that its uncertain what is actually in the bill as she advised reporters that “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.” Regardless, considering the uncertainty and outright hostility being generated amongst business owners about the Democratic health care reform efforts, it is much more likely that hundreds of thousands of jobs will be created in America if the partisan effort to comprehensively reform health care is officially shelved by President Obama. Providing this certainty to business owners of the future near term cost of hiring an employee, and not increasing such costs and federal regulatory liability as Obamacare would, could be the single greatest thing Washington, D.C. could do to help the American unemployed find a new job.
Indeed, average Americans overwhelmingly agree with this proposition, as recent CNN polling shows 73% want Obama and the Dems to either stop or start over instead of passing the present comprehensive plan and yesterday’s AP polling shows 68% want Obama and the Dems to continue to work with the GOP to make a deal instead of pushing through the present comprehensive plan without GOP support. A full 57% of Americans believe that Obamacare will hurt the economy – just 25% think it will help. It appears to us that the intuition of the American people and the great center of America have correctly determined that the giant new federal bureaucracy and new federal taxes associated with Obamacare would be a drag, if not an anchor, on the efforts of businesses to rebuild their workforces and the economy as a whole to recover.
Perhaps President Obama, Congressional Democratic leaders and the GOP leadership will all decide that the needs of the American people, regarding jobs and the economy, are more important that scoring political points (and “historical” ones for liberals) over health care reform and immediately shelve the present plan and pass centrist health care reform that would both help some uninsured, reduce costs and provide confidence to business owners so that hiring can begin again.
Technorati Tags: All Time Highs, American Job Market, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Breaking Records, Bureau Of Labor, Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Busi, Care Delivery System, Chief Market Strategist, Colas, District Of Columbia, Dramatic Change, Employer Mandate, Government Data, Health Care Delivery, Health Care Delivery System, Health Coverage, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Joblessness, Labor Department, Market Business, Nancy Pelosi, Recession, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Surges, Unemployment Rate, Unemployment Rates
Tags: All Time Highs, American Job Market, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Breaking Records, Bureau Of Labor, Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Busi, Care Delivery System, Chief Market Strategist, Colas, District Of Columbia, Dramatic Change, Employer Mandate, Government Data, Health Care Delivery, Health Care Delivery System, Health Coverage, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Joblessness, Labor Department, Market Business, Nancy Pelosi, Recession, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Surges, Unemployment Rate, Unemployment Rates
Posted in Daily Content | 3 Comments »
Monday, March 8th, 2010
Democratic House Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) is blaming the White House for forcing his ouster from the House of Representatives, creating a new Obamacare scandal: the "Massa Disasta"
In a shocking claim made this morning on a New York radio station, Democratic House Representative Eric Massa (D-NY) pointed to the White House and Democratic House Leadership as engineering his demise, essentially forcing him out because of his opposition to Obamacare. Politico quotes Massa:
Rep. Eric Massa (D-N.Y.) says the House ethics committee is investigating him for inappropriate comments he made to a male staffer on New Year’s Eve — and that he’s the victim of a power play by Democratic leaders who want him out of Congress because he’s a “no” vote on health care reform.
“Mine is now the deciding vote on the health care bill,” Massa, who on Friday announced his intention to resign, said during a long monologue on radio station WKPQ. “And this administration and this House leadership have said, quote-unquote, they will stop at nothing to pass this health care bill. And now they’ve gotten rid of me and it will pass. You connect the dots.”
Massa’s claims this morning, as reported by Roll Call that his ouster was “orchestrated by Democratic leaders to get him out of office before the health care vote”, will likely lead news reports on cable during the day today. One especially newsy soundbite from Massa was his claim that:
“Rahm Emanuel is son of the devil’s spawn…He is an individual who would sell his mother to get a vote.”
The “Massa Disasta” is unwelcome news for the Obama Administration, which is already struggling to remedy prior questionable process actions regarding Obamacare, such as the Louisiana Purchase, Obama’s appointment of undecided Dem. Rep. Matheson’s brother to a federal judgeship and Cornhusker Kickback. Now, the “Massa Disasta” will take its place amongst the process scandals surrounding Obamacare as America begins the final days before the all-important House vote on the Senate health care bill.
UPDATE: Ed at Hotair links over, thanks for the link Ed. Ed points to an interesting piece by the Washington Examiner on the Massa Disasta which is a good read. So far, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, and CBS are engaging in a news blackout on this story, we’ll see how things develop during the day.
Some “interesting” quotes from Massa also from the same NY radio station tape, which now is, of course, a dead link, courtesy of the Washington Examiner and Roll Call:
Roll Call reports this morning that on the local radio show he hosts in his district, Massa said he had not been informed of the sexual harassment allegations before they became public. He claimed that Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., spoke falsely when he said he had brought the matter to him previously, Massa said. “Steny Hoyer has never said a single word to me, at all, ever, not once,” Massa said. “Not a word. This is a lie. It’s a blatant, false statement.”
He also railed against Hoyer for discussing Ethics Committee business with the press. “Never before in the history of the House of Representatives has a sitting leader of the Democratic Party discussed allegations of House investigations publicly before findings of fact. Ever.”
Directly calling our your Majority Leader as a liar is a pretty substantial claim by a House member, and these comments are also bringing to the fore the dislike of Rahm Emanuel amongst rank and file House Dem members. Some other choice quotes from Massa this morning regarding Rahm Emanuel, from Realclearpolitics:
Rep. Massa describes a confrontation with Emanuel in a shower: “I am showering, naked as a jaybird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel, not even with a towel wrapped around his tush, poking his finger in my chest, yelling at me.”
UPDATE#2: Ben Smith reports on Glenn Beck’s tweet that Massa will be on for full hour on his 5PM show tomorrow. Expect fireworks:
Tomorrow at five: congressman Massa for the full hour. I just spoke with him off air. All Americans need To hear him. Exclusive 2morrow fox
Technorati Tags: "I am showering, "Never before in the history of the House of Representatives has a sitting leader of the Democratic Party discussed allegations of House investigations publicly before findings of fact. Ever.", "son of the devil's spawn", “Not a word. This is a lie. It’s a blatant, “Steny Hoyer has never said a single word to me, and here comes Rahm Emanuel", at all, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Democratic Leaders, devil, Eric Massa, ever, false statement.”, Federal Judgeship, Health Care Bill, Health Care Reform, Inappropriate Comments, Kickback, Louisiana Purchase, massa disasta, massa disaster, massa quote, massa soundbite, Matheson, Media Blackout, Monologue, naked as a jaybird, Nancy Pelosi, New York Radio, no vote, not once”, obamacare, Ouster, pelosi, Power Play, Quote Unquote, Radio Station, Rahm Emanuel, resign, Resignation, Roll Call, Son Of The Devil, Soundbite, Staffer, White House, Wkpq
Tags: "I am showering, "Never before in the history of the House of Representatives has a sitting leader of the Democratic Party discussed allegations of House investigations publicly before findings of fact. Ever.", "son of the devil's spawn", “Not a word. This is a lie. It’s a blatant, “Steny Hoyer has never said a single word to me, and here comes Rahm Emanuel", at all, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Democratic Leaders, devil, Eric Massa, ever, false statement.”, Federal Judgeship, Health Care Bill, Health Care Reform, Inappropriate Comments, Kickback, Louisiana Purchase, massa disasta, massa disaster, massa quote, massa soundbite, Matheson, Media Blackout, Monologue, naked as a jaybird, Nancy Pelosi, New York Radio, no vote, not once”, obamacare, Ouster, pelosi, Power Play, Quote Unquote, Radio Station, Rahm Emanuel, resign, Resignation, Roll Call, Son Of The Devil, Soundbite, Staffer, White House, Wkpq
Posted in Daily Content | 9 Comments »
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
House Democratic Leadership (shown above) are Bracing for an Onslaught of GOP attacks via Robocalls to Voters in Swing Districts
WaPo’s Greg Sargent is reporting exclusively on Wednesday evening that the Republican Party is planning to unleash millions of robocalls to American voters in the districts of 40 vulnerable House Democratic Representatives tomorrow. The new GOP robocalls will focus on the “dangerous” comprehensive health care plan that Obama and the Democrats want to “ram” through Congress, and such robocalls come on the heels of today’s announcement by Obama that he will attempt to do an end-run around the Senate filibuster via use of reconciliation. A full script of one version of the GOP robocalls is here.
Sargent details the GOP strategy and the content of the robocalls:
National Repubicans are planning to unleash a huge wave of robocalls tomorrow targeting dozens of House Dems and warning their constituents that Obama and Nancy Pelosi are plotting to “ram” their “dangerous” health reform plans through Congress.
The robocalls — the first paid media by the NRCC’s new “code red” program, which targets Dems on health care — comes after Obama told Congress to pass reform via reconciliation.
The calls are meant to spook House Dems right at the moment when the White House and Dem leaders are about to undertake a grueling effort to round up support for what’s expected to be a hair-raisingly close vote. It warns constituents that the targeted House Dem risks supporting this “dangerous” move.
“Even though a majority of the country wants them to scrap it, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Obama are planning to ram their dangerous, out-of-control health care spending bill through Congress anyway,” the call says, according to a script provided by a GOP official.
The version targeting Dem Rep Frank Kratovil of Maryland continues:
What’s worse, Congressman Frank Kratovil might vote for it. Frank Kratovil votes with Nancy Pelosi 84% of the time and may follow her orders on this bill too. Frank Kratovil might vote for a bill that will kill jobs, raise the costs of health care, and increase taxes. Frank Kratovil should be focusing on creating jobs, yet he might be the deciding vote that causes this massive new spending bill to pass.
The call concludes by calling the reform proposals “dangerous” a second time and admonishing voters to call their Representative and urge a No vote “before it is too late.”
The call — which will be pumped into GOP, independent and Dem households — will target 25 House Dems who voted for the proposal the first time, 11 who voted No, and four open-seat Dems who have yet to say how they plan to vote this time.
Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Comprehensive Health Care, Congressman Frank, Control Health, Dangerous Health, Dangerous Move, Democratic Leadership, Democratic Representatives, Frank Kratovil, Gop Official, Greg Sargent, Health Care Plan, Health Care Spending, Health Reform, Huge Wave, Nancy Pelosi, Nrcc, Repubicans, Senate Filibuster, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Swing Districts, Wapo
Tags: Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Comprehensive Health Care, Congressman Frank, Control Health, Dangerous Health, Dangerous Move, Democratic Leadership, Democratic Representatives, Frank Kratovil, Gop Official, Greg Sargent, Health Care Plan, Health Care Spending, Health Reform, Huge Wave, Nancy Pelosi, Nrcc, Repubicans, Senate Filibuster, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Swing Districts, Wapo
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Sunday, February 28th, 2010
On ABC's This Week today, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Again Attacks the Tea Party Movement as "Astroturf, as Opposed to Grassroots"
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to be reading from the summer of 2009’s talking points, smearing the tea party movement as “directed” by the GOP and “astroturf, as opposed to grassroots” this morning on ABC in remarks taped earlier this week, echoing her remarks from the summer of 2009:
And Pelosi still believes Washington Republicans are trying to quietly influence the tea party movement through well-funded, fake grassroots organizations, referred to as “astroturf.”
“The Republican Party directs a lot of what the tea party does, but not everybody in the tea party takes direction from the Republican Party,” Pelosi said. “So there was a lot of, shall we say, Astroturf, as opposed to grassroots.”
And she said she’s not worried about the threat the movement present to her party.
“We’re fully prepared to face the American people with the integrity of what we have put forth, the commitment to jobs and health care and education and a world at peace and safe for our children and with the political armed power to go with it to win those elections,” she said.
Speaker Pelosi appears to be behind the times, even in liberal circles, as while her summer 2009 “astroturf” comments were backed by the mainstream media, in 2010 the media has shifted gears and reports on the tea party movement as an authentic grassroots movement, as in this AP article covering Sarah Palin’s speech at the tea party convention a few weeks back:
Her audience waved flags and erupted in cheers during multiple standing ovations as the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee gave the keynote address Saturday at the first national convention of the “tea party” coalition. It’s an antiestablishment, grass-roots network motivated by anger over the growth of government, budget-busting spending and Obama’s policies.
Palin’s 45-minute talk was filled with her trademark folksy jokes and amounted to a pep talk for the coalition and promotion of its principles.
An AP story this morning also outlines the Pelosi claim on ABC’s This Week that the tea party movement is not an authentic grassroots movement:
WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is questioning whether the conservative “tea party” coalition truly represents a grass-roots movement.
In a broadcast interview, Pelosi calls tea party voters the “astroturf” movement. She says many of those voters have good intentions but that the Republican Party has hijacked the movement for its gain.
Speaker Pelosi is also forgetting the impact the tea party movement had in pushing the GOP to victories in Virginia, New Jersey and most recently Massachusetts, all of which occurred after her original “astroturf” comments in the summer of 2009. If the tea party movement actually was just an artificial, shallow creation of the GOP, and not a true, broad-based, grassroots movement, the surge in voting for GOP candidates since the tea party emerged probably would not have occurred. As tea party activists from all around America contributed to Scott Brown’s Massachusetts Senate election campaign, and when some even made the trek to Massachusetts to work in phone banks, knock on doors and plant signs all around Massachusetts, it is unreasonable to claim such a movement is artificial and fake as the facts simply do not support the claim.
Amazingly, despite smearing them as astroturf, Pelosi also claimed that the Democrats are on the side of the tea party movement at one point in the interview as well:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi believes the tea party movement shares a common enemy with Democrats — the entrenched special interests that feed money into the political system.
“We share some of the views of the tea partiers in terms of the role of special interest in Washington, D.C.,” Pelosi said in a taped interview airing Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “It just has to stop. And that’s why I’ve fought the special interest, whether it’s on energy, whether it’s on health insurance, whether it’s on pharmaceuticals and the rest.”
Perhaps Pelosi is not keeping up with the news, because Democratic President Barack Obama, not the GOP, made the backroom deal with Big Pharma, and others, and such backroom deals is a source of disgust to most tea party activists. Further, Obama also lined up almost all of the Fortune 500 behind his cap and trade plans, hardly evidence of Democrats fighting special interest influence. Pelosi also omits any reference to the Democratic kowtowing to unions, who after all are also special interest groups using big money in politics, and Obama most recently evidenced his undying allegiance to unions by placing a pure union political operative, SEIU boss Andy Stern, on his “bipartisan” deficit commission.
Finally, any claim that the Democrats and Obama are trying to combat special interest and big money influence was made inoperative by Obama’s appointment of Julianna Smoot as his White House Social Secretary in the wake of Desiree Rogers’ resignation in disgrace over the party crashers debacle. Julianna Smoot was the President’s chief fundraiser for Obama 2008, and as such was the main point of contact for Obama’s bundlers and big money donors. Now, as Social Secretary, Smoot is in charge of controlling access to the White House, which can only be seen as “good news for wealthy donors to President Obama’s campaign, for whom Smoot — the chief campaign fundraiser — is friend and point of contact.” Smoot also has close ties to convicted bigwig Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu as Hsu was “one of the most reliable donors from her tenure as finance chair for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.”
All told, Pelosi’s appearance today on This Week, with the renewal of the “astroturf” smear of the tea party movement, is unlikely to bolster Democratic fortunes in the short term or in the November 2010 election. While Pelosi puts on a brave face and declares the Democrats will retain their majority in the November 2010 elections, the continued smears of America’s most vibrant political movement as of today will probably move the needle in the opposite direction.
Technorati Tags: Ap Article, Astroturf, astroturf as opposed to grassroots, Cheers, Circles, Cnn, Gears, GOP, Grass Roots Network, Grassroots, Grassroots Movement, Grassroots Organizations, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Keynote Address, Mainstream Media, Nancy Pelosi, Party Coalition, Presidential Nominee, Republican Party, Sarah Palin, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Standing Ovations, Talking Points, Tea Party
Tags: Ap Article, Astroturf, astroturf as opposed to grassroots, Cheers, Circles, Cnn, Gears, GOP, Grass Roots Network, Grassroots, Grassroots Movement, Grassroots Organizations, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Keynote Address, Mainstream Media, Nancy Pelosi, Party Coalition, Presidential Nominee, Republican Party, Sarah Palin, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Standing Ovations, Talking Points, Tea Party
Posted in Daily Content | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
President Barack Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid May Want to Review CNN's Finding that 73% of the American Public Oppose Passing the Health Care Reform Bills before Congress now or Something Similar
This afternoon CNN released some troubling findings for the Obama Administration: Just 25% of the American public wants Congress to follow the lead of the newly released Obama Health Plan and pass a health care reform plan similar to the plans now before Congress. An overwhelming majority of Americans, 73%, prefer that Congress either start from scratch (48%) or stop work completely on health care reform (25%). Obama’s Health Plan contains essentially the same policies as the bill passed by the Senate, with the addition of price controls for health insurance premiums.
CNN buries the lede in its article accompanying the release of its findings, never mentioning that an overwhelming majority (73%) of the American public disapprove of passing a bill similar to the one before Congress, including four in ten Democrats who want the President and Congress to start over. CNN does manage to state that “nearly three quarters” of Americans want some kind of reform, including in that figure the 48% who want Congress to start over in that grouping in a somewhat dishonest fashion:
Washington (CNN) – Although the overall health care reform bills passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate are unpopular, many of the provisions in the existing bills are extremely popular, even among Republicans, according to a new national poll.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday also indicates that only a quarter of the public want Congress to stop all work on health care, with nearly three quarters saying lawmakers should pass some kind of reform.
Twenty-five percent of people questioned in the poll say Congress should pass legislation similar to the bills passed by both chambers, with 48 percent saying lawmakers should work on an entirely new bill and a quarter saying Congress should stop all work on health care reform.
…..
The poll’s release comes one day before a critical televised health care summit hosted by President Obama that will include top Congressional Democrats and Republicans.
The survey indicates nearly half of all Democrats say Congress should pass legislation similar to the bills passed by both chambers, with nearly 4 in 10 Democrats saying Congress should start from scratch and just 1 in 10 saying lawmakers should stop all work on health care.
A majority of Republicans questioned, 54 percent, want Congress to start from scratch, with just under 4 in 10 saying lawmakers should halt work on health care reform and just 6 percent saying Congress should pass into law the current legislation.
Fifty-two percent of Independents want Congress to start work on a new bill, with 27 percent saying lawmakers should stop all work, and 18 percent saying that the current legislation should be passed into law.
The final finding noted above in the CNN excerpt is truly incredible: a full 79% of Independents reject passing the current bills before Congress or something similar and only 18% of Independents favor moving forward with the present bills as advocated by the Obama Health Plan. That’s a 61 point gap between approval and disapproval, running against the plan initiated by the release of the Obama Health Plan last Monday and subsequent advocacy of the reconciliation process to circumvent the filibuster and push through Obamacare by the President and his Democratic congressional allies. With the mood of the country so clearly opposed to moving forward with the present bills or something similar in Congress, Obama must provide an incredible performance tomorrow to move public opinion back his way to convince nervous Democrats in Congress that proceeding with pushing through Obamacare now is in their best electoral interest.
UPDATE: Hotair points out that a new USAToday/Gallup poll taken yesterday shows the public opposed to Obama’s possible use of reconciliation to pass Obamacare by a 52%/39% margin and that only 22% of the public thinks the health care summit will result in a bipartisan deal.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs indicated Monday that, if necessary, the White House was open to using a parliamentary maneuver known as reconciliation to bypass a prospective filibuster in the Senate. That means a measure could pass the Senate with a 51-vote majority rather than the 60 votes needed to end debate.
Americans are opposed 52%-39% to using that device to get a bill through.
The poll of 1,009 adults nationwide, taken by landline and cellphone Tuesday, has a margin of error of +/—4 percentage points.
UPDATE: Ace at Ace of Spades and Allahpundit at Hotair link over, thank you guys. Readers of Ace and Hotair please take a look around and leave a comment or three.
Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, Cnn, Harry Reid, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance Premiums, Health Plan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Lede, Nancy Pelosi, National Poll, Opinion Research Corporation, Overwhelming Majority, Passing A Bill, Reform Bills, Senate Majority Leader, Senate Majority Leader Harry, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Start From Scratch, Three Quarters
Tags: Barack Obama, Cnn, Harry Reid, Health Care Reform, Health Insurance Premiums, Health Plan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Lede, Nancy Pelosi, National Poll, Opinion Research Corporation, Overwhelming Majority, Passing A Bill, Reform Bills, Senate Majority Leader, Senate Majority Leader Harry, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Start From Scratch, Three Quarters
Posted in Daily Content | 28 Comments »
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
Michigan Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak today rejects the Obama Plan, calling it "unacceptable"
In a dramatic statement this morning reported exclusively by Ben Smith at Politico, Democratic House Rep. Bart Stupak rejected yesterday’s 11 page Obama Plan as “unacceptable”:
I was pleased to see that President Obama’s health care proposal did not include several of the sweetheart deals provided to select states in the Senate bill. Unfortunately, the President’s proposal encompasses the Senate language allowing public funding of abortion. The Senate language is a significant departure from current law and is unacceptable. While the President has laid out a health care proposal that brings us closer to resolving our differences, there is still work to be done before Congress can pass comprehensive health care reform.
While most of the media’s focus in the past few days has been on whether Obama and Harry Reid can find 50 Democratic Senators (with VP Biden as tiebreaking vote) to push Obamacare through the Senate using reconciliation, little ink has been spilled regarding whether Speaker Nancy Pelosi can again find 218 Democratic votes for Obamacare. It may be that the more difficult task will be finding the 218 House votes, and Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak’s “unacceptable” comment this morning brings that difficulty into focus. Dick Morris recently wrote about the coming battle to find 218 votes in the House:
We don’t believe that there is any chance of stopping Obama’s renewed push for his horrible health care changes in the Senate. Harry Reid is going to use the reconciliation procedure to jam it through with 51 votes — and he will get them. All the hype about how difficult it will be is to distract us from the real battle which will come in the House.
There, where every member faces re-election, it will be a lot harder for Pelosi to round up the vote she needs. Last time she passed health care by 220-215. This time, a lot of the Democrats who voted for health care are going to be so worried about re-election that they might be induced to jump ship.
Stupak previously led the fight to conform the prior House version of Obamacare to existing law regarding federal funding of abortion and succeeded in forcing through an amendment in the House with tough language disallowing any federal funding of abortion through Obamacare. The Senate bill has much more permissive language regarding such federal abortion funding, and Stupak’s “unacceptable” statement this morning highlights the importance of the abortion policy in Obamacare and could be a sign that the House of Representatives will not pass the Obama Plan without the insertion of Stupak’s prior restrictive language. The key question in days and weeks to come is whether liberal Democratic House members will buckle under and support the restrictive abortion language Stupak is advocating or risk the defeat of Obamacare in the House of Representatives.
UPDATE: Hotair links to an interesting analysis by Philip Klein on the issue of House passage of Obama’s Health Plan:
Of the 39 Democrats who voted against the House health care bill [in November], 31 of them were elected in districts that went for John McCain in 2008, according to a TAS analysis. One of the Democratic “no” votes, Rep. Parker Griffith of Alabama, has subsequently switched parties. Given that a Republican who campaigned on being a vote against the health care bill was just elected to fill the Senate seat once held by Ted Kennedy in a state that went for Obama by 26 points, it’s hard to see why anybody in a McCain district who already voted “no” would decide switch their vote to “yes.”
While Obama won the districts of the remaining eight “no” votes, in six cases, he won by only single digits, making them potentially competitive races this time around. And a closer look at several members who represent these areas are not very encouraging to proponents of Obamacare…
The biggest problem she faces is that President Obama’s proposal maintains the abortion provision in the Senate bill, rejecting Rep. Bart Stupak’s more restrictive language. When the bill passed the House the first time around, 41 Democrats voted for the health care bill only after voting for the Stupak amendment. Any of them could explain switching to a “no” vote on a final bill by citing abortion funding. Stupak himself has said there are at least 10 to 12 Democrats who voted for the bill the first time who would vote against it if it didn’t include his amendment (he reiterated Tuesday morning that the Senate abortion language adopted by Obama was still “unacceptable”). One of his co-sponsors, Rep. Brad Ellsworth, said at the time that he was only able to vote for the bill after the Stupak language was adopted, and he’s now running for Senate in Indiana, where a Rasmussen poll taken last month shows voters oppose the health care legislation by a 23-point margin.
UPDATE #2: CBS News reports on Stupak’s statement calling the Obama Health Plan “unacceptable” and notes Politico’s reporting that Obama and the Democrats do not have the votes to pass Obamacare now.
Michigan Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak, who opposes abortion rights, has released a statement saying the White House health care reform plan is “unacceptable” because it “encompasses the Senate language allowing public funding of abortion.”….
The House health care bill would likely not have passed without the Stupak amendment, which attracted the support of 64 Democrats when it came up for vote.
While the Senate and White House plan bans direct funding of abortions, it allows subsidized individuals to pay for covered abortion services with personal funds.
Meanwhile, according to Politico’s Mike Allen, there are currently not enough votes in the House or Senate to pass a health care reform bill.
“Moderate and endangered lawmakers want the spotlight off comprehensive health reform,” he writes. “Instead, it’s about to take center stage.”
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Tags: Abortion, Bart Stupak, Comprehensive Health Care, Comprehensive Health Care Reform, Democratic Rep, Democratic Senators, Democratic Votes, Dick Morris, Dramatic Development, Dramatic Statement, Harry Reid, Health Care Changes, Health Care Reform, Health Plan, Hype, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Reconciliation, Senate Bill, Senate Language, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sweetheart
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Monday, February 22nd, 2010
Obama Releases an 11 Page Health Care Plan the CBO Cannot Score
In the wake of this morning’s thunderous 11 pages of vague and somewhat contradictory bullet points from the Obama Administration as the latest iteration of Obamacare, the CBO makes the ironic point that Obama’s plan is too vague to score with any degree of accuracy regarding the 10 year cost of the plan. CBO Director Douglass Elmendorf, who was elevated to his position by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, makes this point as delicately as possible on the Director’s Blog:
This morning the Obama Administration released a description of its health care proposal, and CBO has already received several requests to provide a cost estimate for that proposal. We had not previously received the proposal, and we have just begun the process of reviewing it—a process that will take some time, given the complexity of the issues involved. Although the proposal reflects many elements that were included in the health care bills passed by the House and the Senate last year, it modifies many of those elements and also includes new ones. Moreover, preparing a cost estimate requires very detailed specifications of numerous provisions, and the materials that were released this morning do not provide sufficient detail on all of the provisions. Therefore, CBO cannot provide a cost estimate for the proposal without additional detail, and, even if such detail were provided, analyzing the proposal would be a time-consuming process that could not be completed this week.
So the CBO would need the Obama Administration to actually provide “very detailed specifications” of their provisions to score the bill, as opposed to the eleven pages of bullet points with underlined or bold faced (and probably poll-tested) phrases (such as affordable or greater accountability or Improve Individual Responsibility). Indeed, the only real changes, even by the White House’s own talking points, involve only reversing prior, unpopular backroom deals cut by Obama and special interest groups (unions) or specific senators (Ben Nelson (D-NE), the insertion of price controls into the legislation, and a claim that “Republican” ideas are driving the Medicare cuts. Politico’s Ben Smith reports:
The White House, in talking points circulated to allies on the Hill, points to three major differences between Obama’s proposal and the Senate health care bill:
In particular this proposal makes three specific changes to the bill passed by the Senate:
• It eliminates several “special deals” including the arrangement made for Nebraska;
• It includes a series of measures proposed by Republicans to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse;
• It includes a new provision to prevent arbitrary rate hikes like the recent 39 percent increase in California.
The reversal of the odious Cornhusker Kickback and the deal with the unions over the cadillac tax are good steps to reverse prior mistakes, but are not substantive progress towards a more centrist health care reform plan. Indeed, the CBO will not have a price for Obama’s “new” plan by the time of the great health care summit Thursday as planned and by now undoubtedly fully scripted by the Obama Administration. The reason the CBO will not have a score is that Obama’s plan lacks the specifications needed to score a proposal, and even if those specifications were provided, the CBO cannot score a bill in that short a period of time. The Obama Administration obviously knew of this inability of the CBO to score its proposal before it was released, as we know the Administration has hired the best health care economists in America to work on its scoring of the various iterations of Obamacare (remember Jonathan Gruber?). Accordingly, it must be Obama’s intent to head into the health care summit he created blind regarding the cost of his bill according to the CBO. Obviously, the CBO’s scoring will play a critical role in any serious negotiations between the GOP and Obama over a health care bill.
A conclusion from the above-outlined CBO issue and the explicit statements regarding reconciliation by Obama’s communications people this morning when releasing their 11 page bullet point summary could be that Obama is not serious about entering substantive negotiations with the GOP and is instead, again, rushing the process. As noted by the NYT back on February 7, 2010 when Obama first floated the idea of a health care summit with the GOP, it appears that in the absence of an attempt at real consensus, this week’s meeting with the GOP will “serve only to allow Democrats to frame a political argument against the Republicans going into the midterm campaign.”
UPDATE: Regarding the politically charged issue of the inclusion of the public option in the Obama Plan, the Obama Administration omitted any reference to same in today’s 11 pages and via spokesman Robert Gibbs stated “Thats up to Leader Reid”:
The White House says it’s up to Harry Reid whether the Senate votes on the public option.
Twenty senators have signed a letter asking for a vote on the public option through reconciliation, which would allow Democrats to pass legislation with just 51 votes.
White House press secretary Robert Gates said today that the White House will leave that up to the Senate Majority Leader.
“I think they’ve asked for a vote on the floor of the Senate, and that’s certainly up to those who manage those amendments and up to Leader Reid,” Gibbs said.
President Obama did not include a public option in the new healthcare plan he unveiled this morning, which builds on the Senate bill.
Gibbs suggested it was left out because it lacks support, saying the president is looking for “the best way forward into something that can ultimate wind its way through Congress.”
Technorati Tags: "that's up to leader reid", Accountability, Accuracy, Additional Detail, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Bullet Points, Caption, Cbo, Complexity, Cost Estimate, Elmendorf, Health Care Bills, Health Care Plan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Iteration, Nancy Pelosi, obama plan, Page Health, Phrases, Proposal, Provisions, public option, Punts, Senate, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, too sketchy to score, Will Take Some Time
Tags: "that's up to leader reid", Accountability, Accuracy, Additional Detail, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Bullet Points, Caption, Cbo, Complexity, Cost Estimate, Elmendorf, Health Care Bills, Health Care Plan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Iteration, Nancy Pelosi, obama plan, Page Health, Phrases, Proposal, Provisions, public option, Punts, Senate, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, too sketchy to score, Will Take Some Time
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Monday, February 22nd, 2010
Democratic President Barack Obama, and Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Leader Harry Reid, signaled this morning the pathway for the final Democratic push for the passage of Obamacare: the reconciliation process
Three days before the highly publicized health care summit, billed by President Obama and Democrats as an opportunity for bipartisan negotiations regarding the provisions of a potential health care overhaul, the White House signaled its intent to move forward with a $950 billion dollar Democrats-only bill that can garner, at most, a bare 51 vote majority in the United States Senate. Indeed, eight Democratic Senators (including Lieberman) have already gone on record opposing the use of reconciliation to ram through the Obamacare package. Despite Obama’s prior pledges of bipartisan negotiations with the GOP and this morning’s bipartisan rhetoric from the White House, the fact is that the only bipartisanship associated with health care reform is the bipartisan opposition in the House to Obamacare (39 Democratic “no” votes) and the bipartisan opposition to the use of reconciliation to pass Obamacare through the Senate.
The substantive content of this morning’s latest White House version of Obamacare is essentially the same plan negotiated between the President, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the days leading up to Republican Scott Brown’s January 2010 election to the Senate from liberal Massachusetts and the White House roadmap contemplates the use of the reconciliation process in the Senate so as to avoid the need for a 60 vote majority:
“This is our take on the best way to merge the House and Senate bills,” a senior White House official told ABC News. The official said the proposal was “informed by our conversations from negotiations” before Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., was elected, thus depriving Democrats of their 60-vote supermajority, as well as from subsequent discussions.
“We thought it would be a more productive meeting if we brought one consolidated plan to use as jumping-off point,” the official said. “We hope the Republicans do the same.”
By posting their proposals in such a form, White House officials are providing a roadmap for how they think they can best pass health care reform in the new post-Massachusetts Senate race reality: have the House pass the Senate bill, then use reconciliation rules requiring only a majority Senate vote to pass the “fix” to make the bill more palatable.
In the conference call with reporters this morning accompanying the disclosure of the latest iteration of Obamacare, White House officials explicitly stated they intend to use reconciliation to pass Obamacare without any GOP Senate votes:
In the course of unveiling Obama’s new health reform proposal on a conference call with reporters this morning, White House advisers made it clearer than ever before: If the GOP filibusters health reform, Dems will move forward on their own and pass it via reconciliation.
The assertion, which is likely to spark an angry response from GOP leaders, ups the stakes in advance of the summit by essentially daring Republicans to try to block reform.
“The President expects and believes the American people deserve an up or down vote on health reform,” White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said on the call.
Accordingly, it appears that the Obama Administration has settled on pursing the use of the Senate reconciliation process, instead of normal order which would require a 60 vote majority, to pass the most far-reaching reform of the health care system in our nation’s history. Indeed, the “package is designed to help us [use reconciliation] if the Republican party decides to filibuster health care reform,” stated White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer.
The new Obamacare policy summary and the conference call with reporters strongly indicate that little, if any, substantive discussions will occur at Thursday’s health care summit as the Democrats have now settled on the use of reconciliation as the pathway to final passage of Obamacare. The GOP’s incremental ideas such as allowing the purchase of insurance across state lines, significant tort reform and the use of risk pools for uninsurable Americans with preexisting conditions are nowhere to be found in this morning’s announcement nor in the present Democratic bills in the Senate and House and are essentially inconsistent with the comprehensive, government-centered, Democratic health care reform plans. Furthermore, in a move apparently designed to paint the GOP as pro-insurance, Obama also proposed substantial new federal price controls over the cost of health insurance as part of this morning’s summary.
The above-described White House posture this morning stands in stark contrast to their posture just two weeks ago when the idea of a health care summit was first pitched by President Obama. At that time, Obama promised to engage in substantive negotiations with the GOP on all parts of health care reform plan during the summit:
“I want to come back and have a large meeting, Republicans and Democrats, to go through systematically all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward” Mr. Obama said in the interview from the White House Library.
The 2/8/2010 NYT piece quoted above notes that it “remained an open question whether the meeting could lead to real consensus on health care, or whether it would serve only to allow Democrats to frame a political argument against the Republicans going into the midterm campaign.” Considering this morning’s developments, and the clearly stated intent to move forward with reconciliation passage of the intra-Democrat negotiated Obamacare, there no longer remains a “open question” and instead Obama intends the coming summit to “serve only to allow Democrats to frame a political argument against the Republicans going into the midterm campaign.”
For the ideological left, this morning’s White House summary and the coming health care summit represent “the last, best shot” to pass a comprehensive, government-centered health care reform plan. To a majority of Americans, including almost all conservatives, a strong majority of independents and even some liberals, the Obama Administration’s continued relentless focus on forcing a strongly partisan Obamacare package through Congress is an unfavorable development, as shown by public polling of Obama’s job approval and the approval of the Democratic health care reform packages in Congress.
At least eight Democratic Senators have already announced their opposition to the use of reconciliation to pass Obamacare, and those Democratic Senators will almost certainly be joined by the 41 GOP Senators in opposition to the President’s reconciliation plan as announced this morning. It appears from early GOP responses that the GOP intends to attempt to garner 10 Democratic Senator votes to block the use of reconciliation (with 10 Democratic votes, the GOP would have the 51 votes needed to block reconciliation).
Indeed, the irony of the health care reform debate and Obama’s continuous public pledges to engage in bipartisan negotiations with the GOP is the fact that the only bipartisanship associated with health care reform is the bipartisan opposition in the House and Senate to Obamacare, and the next few weeks will probably determine if the GOP is able to garner enough bipartisan support to block the passage of Obamacare through the 51-vote (50 votes plus VP Biden tiebreaker) reconciliation process. Finally, should Obama succeed in finding 217 House votes and 50 Senate votes for Obamacare, the response of the electorate towards those Democrats in November 2010 may be an historic wave of GOP victories rivaling or even surpassing the 1994 GOP wave.
Technorati Tags: Abc News, bipartisan opposition, Democratic Senators, Democratic Speaker, Gop Senators, Health Care Plan, Health Care Reform, Health Care Summit, House Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi, Potential Health, Senate Bills, Senate Leader, Senate Majority Leader, Senate Majority Leader Harry, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi, United States Senate, Vote Majority
Tags: Abc News, bipartisan opposition, Democratic Senators, Democratic Speaker, Gop Senators, Health Care Plan, Health Care Reform, Health Care Summit, House Nancy Pelosi, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi, Potential Health, Senate Bills, Senate Leader, Senate Majority Leader, Senate Majority Leader Harry, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Speaker Of The House Nancy Pelosi, United States Senate, Vote Majority
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Massa Disasta: Obama and Pelosi Force Massa’s Resignation Over Obamacare; UPDATE: Says Hoyer is Liar; UPDATE#2: Massa on Beck Tomorrow For Full Hour
Monday, March 8th, 2010
Democratic House Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) is blaming the White House for forcing his ouster from the House of Representatives, creating a new Obamacare scandal: the "Massa Disasta"
In a shocking claim made this morning on a New York radio station, Democratic House Representative Eric Massa (D-NY) pointed to the White House and Democratic House Leadership as engineering his demise, essentially forcing him out because of his opposition to Obamacare. Politico quotes Massa:
Massa’s claims this morning, as reported by Roll Call that his ouster was “orchestrated by Democratic leaders to get him out of office before the health care vote”, will likely lead news reports on cable during the day today. One especially newsy soundbite from Massa was his claim that:
The “Massa Disasta” is unwelcome news for the Obama Administration, which is already struggling to remedy prior questionable process actions regarding Obamacare, such as the Louisiana Purchase, Obama’s appointment of undecided Dem. Rep. Matheson’s brother to a federal judgeship and Cornhusker Kickback. Now, the “Massa Disasta” will take its place amongst the process scandals surrounding Obamacare as America begins the final days before the all-important House vote on the Senate health care bill.
UPDATE: Ed at Hotair links over, thanks for the link Ed. Ed points to an interesting piece by the Washington Examiner on the Massa Disasta which is a good read. So far, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, and CBS are engaging in a news blackout on this story, we’ll see how things develop during the day.
Some “interesting” quotes from Massa also from the same NY radio station tape, which now is, of course, a dead link, courtesy of the Washington Examiner and Roll Call:
Directly calling our your Majority Leader as a liar is a pretty substantial claim by a House member, and these comments are also bringing to the fore the dislike of Rahm Emanuel amongst rank and file House Dem members. Some other choice quotes from Massa this morning regarding Rahm Emanuel, from Realclearpolitics:
UPDATE#2: Ben Smith reports on Glenn Beck’s tweet that Massa will be on for full hour on his 5PM show tomorrow. Expect fireworks:
Technorati Tags: "I am showering, "Never before in the history of the House of Representatives has a sitting leader of the Democratic Party discussed allegations of House investigations publicly before findings of fact. Ever.", "son of the devil's spawn", “Not a word. This is a lie. It’s a blatant, “Steny Hoyer has never said a single word to me, and here comes Rahm Emanuel", at all, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Democratic Leaders, devil, Eric Massa, ever, false statement.”, Federal Judgeship, Health Care Bill, Health Care Reform, Inappropriate Comments, Kickback, Louisiana Purchase, massa disasta, massa disaster, massa quote, massa soundbite, Matheson, Media Blackout, Monologue, naked as a jaybird, Nancy Pelosi, New York Radio, no vote, not once”, obamacare, Ouster, pelosi, Power Play, Quote Unquote, Radio Station, Rahm Emanuel, resign, Resignation, Roll Call, Son Of The Devil, Soundbite, Staffer, White House, Wkpq
Tags: "I am showering, "Never before in the history of the House of Representatives has a sitting leader of the Democratic Party discussed allegations of House investigations publicly before findings of fact. Ever.", "son of the devil's spawn", “Not a word. This is a lie. It’s a blatant, “Steny Hoyer has never said a single word to me, and here comes Rahm Emanuel", at all, Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Democratic Leaders, devil, Eric Massa, ever, false statement.”, Federal Judgeship, Health Care Bill, Health Care Reform, Inappropriate Comments, Kickback, Louisiana Purchase, massa disasta, massa disaster, massa quote, massa soundbite, Matheson, Media Blackout, Monologue, naked as a jaybird, Nancy Pelosi, New York Radio, no vote, not once”, obamacare, Ouster, pelosi, Power Play, Quote Unquote, Radio Station, Rahm Emanuel, resign, Resignation, Roll Call, Son Of The Devil, Soundbite, Staffer, White House, Wkpq
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