You want some brie with that whine?
“Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit” Democratic voters “and it will encourage the extremists.”
(President Walking Eagle to House Democrats before the vote on HR 3962)
Now there’s a real class-act statement for you. I wasn’t sure it was possible for Barack Obama to debase the office of the President of the United States any more than he already has but…color me wrong.
What doctors and lawyers do is called a “practice” because they are always trying to get it right.
This was born out by the latest news that the American Medical Association’s alleged “endorsement” of HR 3962 wasn’t really a proper endorsement after all. Not that the need to follow proper procedure has ever stopped President Walking Eagle from weaseling or bullying to take what he wants, of course, but in this case, those of us who were baffled and stunned by the unexpectedness of his remarks on the eve of a forced vote for the bill sure hoped something had gone awry.
And, indeed, AMA members who understand the ugly effects of the legislation on their field have let it be known that PEW’s use of an endorsement was made without the formal approval of the organization’s House of Delegates. Which means there is really no endorsement at all. The matter will be put to rest by the AMA following their own procedures properly on Monday.
May sanity prevail.
While this column has been quiet due to other priorities (like working so that the mortgage is paid, and volunteering so that others may improve their lot in life), it doesn’t mean we haven’t been watching the wankers in Washington as they continue their dangerous attempts to complete the progressive’s long-planned enslavement of the citizens of these United States. Indeed, our silence is due, in part, to head-shaking amazement that writing fresh material for this column becomes harder and harder because every day has become Groundhog Day. President “I Won” continues to use our hard-earned tax monies to hump his campaign stump; appearing on television almost every day in order to jolly Americans into thinking he’s just a normal guy via some talk show or to actively campaign for Democrat candidates in upcoming elections around the country. Speaker of the Nuthouse, Nancy Pelosi, hasn’t stopped her deer-in-the-headlights, utterly non-sensical evasion of legitimate questions; like, for example, exactly where in the Constitution does it give Congress the power to, among other oversteps, mandate health care be purchased by every American?
And true to their lying form, “the most transparent administration in history”, this legend-in-their-own-minds gang of thugs and thieves, scuttled off like the rats they are and locked themselves into an obviously airless room in order to poke and prod and breathe some semblance of life back into deadly, massive HR 3200, their first blatant, sweeping attempt at the usurpation of the private-sector, free market-driven business of American health care. What came out of that headlong rush into madness is HR 3962. A veritable Frankenstein’s monster at 1,990 pages and about 400,000 words, this latest incarnation of mandated submission to government welfare is designed to take over and, as is the case with anything run by the government, annihilate a full ONE-FIFTH of the nation’s economy.
It is a monster only progressives and idiots could love. Like its predecessor, HR 3962 sets up a financial shell game by front-loading revenue and postponing serious spending to later years (years when those who would otherwise be called on the carpet for such reckless misuse of hard-earned taxpayer monies will be far away, enjoying their taxpayer-funded retirements). It contains 13 tax hikes that will hit everyone one way or another:
Employer Mandate Excise Tax (Page 275): If an employer does not pay 72.5 percent of a single employee’s health premium (65 percent of a family employee), the employer must pay an excise tax equal to 8 percent of average wages. Small employers (measured by payroll size) have smaller payroll tax rates of 0 percent (<$500,000), 2 percent ($500,000-$585,000), 4 percent ($585,000-$670,000), and 6 percent ($670,000-$750,000).
Individual Mandate Surtax (Page 296): If an individual fails to obtain qualifying coverage, he must pay an income surtax equal to the lesser of 2.5 percent of modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) or the average premium. MAGI adds back in the foreign earned income exclusion and municipal bond interest.
Medicine Cabinet Tax (Page 324): Non-prescription medications would no longer be able to be purchased from health savings accounts (HSAs), flexible spending accounts (FSAs), or health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). Insulin excepted.
Cap on FSAs (Page 325): FSAs would face an annual cap of $2500 (currently uncapped).
Increased Additional Tax on Non-Qualified HSA Distributions (Page 326): Non-qualified distributions from HSAs would face an additional tax of 20 percent (current law is 10 percent). This disadvantages HSAs relative to other tax-free accounts (e.g. IRAs, 401(k)s, 529 plans, etc.)
Denial of Tax Deduction for Employer Health Plans Coordinating with Medicare Part D (Page 327): This would further erode private sector participation in delivery of Medicare services.
Surtax on Individuals and Small Businesses (Page 336): Imposes an income surtax of 5.4 percent on MAGI over $500,000 ($1 million married filing jointly). MAGI adds back in the itemized deduction for margin loan interest. This would raise the top marginal tax rate in 2011 from 39.6 percent under current law to 45 percent—a new effective top rate.
Excise Tax on Medical Devices (Page 339): Imposes a new excise tax on medical device manufacturers equal to 2.5 percent of the wholesale price. It excludes retail sales and unspecified medical devices sold to the general public.
Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting (Page 344): Requires that 1099-MISC forms be issued to corporations as well as persons for trade or business payments. Current law limits to just persons for small business compliance complexity reasons. Also expands reporting to exchanges of property.
Delay in Worldwide Allocation of Interest (Page 345): Delays for nine years the worldwide allocation of interest, a corporate tax relief provision from the American Jobs Creation Act
Limitation on Tax Treaty Benefits for Certain Payments (Page 346): Increases taxes on U.S. employers with overseas operations looking to avoid double taxation of earnings.
Codification of the “Economic Substance Doctrine” (Page 349): Empowers the IRS to disallow a perfectly legal tax deduction or other tax relief merely because the IRS deems that the motive of the taxpayer was not primarily business-related.
Application of “More Likely Than Not” Rule (Page 357): Publicly-traded partnerships and corporations with annual gross receipts in excess of $100 million have raised standards on penalties. If there is a tax underpayment by these taxpayers, they must be able to prove that the estimated tax paid would have more likely than not been sufficient to cover final tax liability.
Note for the record that those individuals paying the “individual mandate” tax don’t get anything for their money. It is a penalty, cleverly set up to be enforced (as a criminal liability) by the IRS. Those folks still have to buy health insurance, and the government’s option contains higher premiums that low- and moderate-income individuals and families would have to pay for health coverage to avoid the tax.
Like its predecessor, HR 3962 includes yet another uncontrolled and unaccountable czar who will determine the requirements for health insurance policies. For ALL health insurance policies; which means, as before, if your employer’s plan doesn’t meet the czar’s requirements, it will be determined to be illegal and you will be forced to make another “choice”. Read: take the government’s plan.
Of course, mandating requirements that are unsustainable, such as no exclusions for pre-existing conditions and specific items and services than must be covered as well as the minimum frequency or duration of a required covered service and the maximum allowable patient cost sharing, sets the stage for failure of the free market. The government will simply regulate the free market for health insurance out of existence. Leaving you with no choice but what the government wants to give you.
And with that lack of choice must, by definition, come rationing. The same rationing that exists in the free market and with welfare programs like Medicare and Medicaid today, though the former driven (and therefore avoidable) by consumer choice and the latter driven by its inherent purpose of pulling the unsuspecting under the control of the government for the gains of a few who consider themselves above those they see as the stupid, great unwashed masses (citizens of these United States whom they are, by oath, supposed to represent).
There’s nothing new in this warmed-over, dung-filled bowl of swamp water soup. Those who work hard and play by the rules are going to continue to pay for those who buy into the progressive mindset that they are entitled to something for nothing for the price of their freedom.
HR 3200 was wrong. Its latest incarnation as HR 3962 does nothing to fix any problems and, indeed, only serves to make them worse.
“We will not back down. Dignity does not have a price in our country.”
Do you know who said this? Is your first guess that it must have been a proud American? Do you think it was someone who values freedom? Perhaps someone who values the Constitution?
Guess again.
Honduran President Roberto Micheletti told this to Honduran radio today. Not only is the Obama administration strong arming its socialist agenda by cutting more than $30 million in aid to this poor country, now, in an attempt to pressure Micheletti to step down so that exiled Manuel Zelaya may be reinstated, the United States has revoked his visa.
You will recall that Zelaya is an ally of socialist and anti-U.S. Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez. You will recall that Zelaya was forcibly removed from office after he attempted to put in place constitutional changes that would allow presidents to seek re-election beyond a four-year term. A little Chavez-type trick that the Honduran constitution expressly forbids.
So, as we have already noted here at the Smoke Break, we have yet another idiot hoisted firmly on his own petard yet one who is deemed worthy of Barack Obama’s support.
This makes me shake my head in disbelief. And it is wickedly sad. It creates one of those “what the hell?” moments. The kind we’ve experienced far too many of, lo these last 8 months.
Van Jones is history. Ultimately he will be just another ugly little blip on the radar; hoisted firmly onto his own petard by his personal, self-avowed Communist manifesto and his radical socialist organizing and, ultimately, by his own big, foul mouth.
Despite the ready availability of the material record of Jones’ own stupidity, including that he called Republicans “assholes” only one month before Obama appointed him as his “Special Advisor for Green Jobs”, the mainstream media is playing their violins in chorus of his “I was smeared” excuses. Falling right into Obama and his administration’s divisive tactics and once again failing to do their job of reporting facts. It’s a funny switch, this; news op/ed folks bringing to light hard facts while “regular” news reporters and degreed journalists simply drool over every word spun out on the teleprompter and opine derisively about those who hold a differing opinion.
But I digress.
Van Jones is merely one little pawn in a very big game. He is merely a symptom of an attempt to overthrow the United States Constitution; an overthrow long in the planning. To ask serious questions about the eligibility of Van Jones to hold a prominent and unaccountable position in the Obama administration is but the first step in crushing the wolf in sheep’s clothing known as the “progressive movement”.
What must now be asked is exactly WHO KNEW about Jones’ claims to Communism, his arrest record, his creation of STORM (Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, a group explicitly committed to revolutionary Marxist politics) and Color of Change, as well as his many crude public statements? John McCormack explains in a short piece in the Weekly Standard that if Jones had answered their questions truthfully, the FBI would have been fully aware of his less-than-savory…errrr…normal past and (emphasis mine):
… the background report would go to the Counsel’s office (run by Greg Craig), who would then raise the question of whether what the FBI found was disqualifying with the potential employee’s boss. Jones was hired by Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley, but he presumably (and ultimately) reports to the chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel. Emanuel must have decided that nothing in Jones’s background was alarming enough to prevent his appointment.
So … it’s worth asking: Did Rahm sign off on Jones’s appointment despite what the FBI must have discovered about his background. And, incidentally–did Jones tell the truth to the FBI?
These questions must be asked about ALL of Obama’s appointees and nominees. The President, his administration, and Congress are there by the will of we, the people, to SERVE our interests and to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” and we, the people, are entitled to straight answers about those who make it their life’s work to subvert it.
Michelle Malkin recently posted a piece about Representative Pete Stark (D-CA). In it, she has documented his rude, crude, and socially unacceptable reactions to being questioned.
Just don’t allow the children around when you watch it.
It is this kind of blatant, know-it-all arrogence and contempt for their constituents that has finally awakened the silent and mainly conservative majority, much to the August recess angst of Congress critters of all stripes. They can try to spin it all they want, but as more and more light illuminates the dangerous mindset of the vast majority of our unrepresenting representatives at all levels of government, the more we, the people, realize the need to take matters (back) into our own hands.
Bummer, dudes and dudettes. Or is that, bummer, commies, Marxists, progressives, and socialists? You have no one to blame but yourself. Well, maybe you can blame the mainstream media, who have allowed you to flourish like a poisonous, noxious weed.
After too-long of a long sleep, we’re going to pull you all out by the roots and burn you with the brush pile.
One down, at least 31 more to go:
“I am resigning my post at the Council on Environmental Quality, effective today.
On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me. They are using lies and distortions to distract and divide.
I have been inundated with calls – from across the political spectrum – urging me to “stay and fight.”
But I came here to fight for others, not for myself. I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future.
It has been a great honor to serve my country and my President in this capacity. I thank everyone who has offered support and encouragement. I am proud to have been able to make a contribution to the clean energy future. I will continue to do so, in the months and years ahead.”
Did he sign it, “Love & Commie Kisses, Van”?
It’s really a pity that someone who is apparently so bright went so wrong. First by buying into the victim mentality and then by using that bright mind to push for something that history has proved time and time again will reward no one but a few who pull the real strings.
It’s time for reflection, Van. A time to realize that you, along with so many others, have simply been used to further the ambitions of a few, and to understand that there never was a place for you at their exclusive, elitist table. That was only a carrot dangled in order to get you to be a front man and to take the fall for them should, as has happened, their nefarious tactics come to light.
Knocking down others in order to raise yourself has never worked. Only by supporting the United States Constitution will you find that you may freely pursue your own happiness and, in that pursuit, perhaps even find it.
It is narcissistic at best. Considering the behavior of this administration to date, at worst it smacks of the McCarthy era.
The White House wants to save everything to do with President Obama for his eventual presidential library. This includes information posted by the President on the internet. Not a bad thing, until you read just how this is now being hired out.
Here are the pertinent parts:
1. Purpose
The purpose of this Statement of Objectives (SOO) is to obtain the necessary services to ensure that content published by the Executive Office of the President (EOP) on publicly-accessible web sites is archived in accordance with the Presidential Records Act (PRA), that information posted on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP maintains a presence is archived in accordance with the PRA, and that all archived information is securely stored and provided to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) for historical preservation, in accordance with the PRA.
2. Scope
The contractor shall provide the necessary services to capture, store, extract to approved formats, and transfer content published by EOP on publicly-accessible web sites, along with information posted by non-EOP persons on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP offices under PRA maintains a presence, throughout the term of the contract. The contractor shall if possible, capture, store, extract to approved formats, and transfer content published by EOP on non-public websites. The contractor shall include in the information posted by non-EOP persons on publicly-accessible web sites where the EOP maintains a presence both comments posted on pages created by EOP and messages sent to EOP accounts on those web sites. Publicly-accessible sites may include, but are not limited to social networking sites. The contractor shall provide a user-friendly way of organizing and searching captured information. The contractor shall properly transfer the captured information, as identified by EOP, to NARA in an acceptable format for both preservation in NARA’s Electronic Records Archive and presentation at the future Presidential Library. The Contractor shall provide a method to separate content posted by other EOP component offices as required.
3. Period of Performance and Place of Performance
The period of performance is for twelve months from date of award and seven one year options for a total of eight years. The work may be performed and stored at the Contractor’s facility as appropriate.
4. Background
In order to comply with the Presidential Records Act, the White House New Media team is looking for a non personal service contractor to crawl and archive PRA content on all third party sites where the EOP has a presence (i.e. Facebook.com/whitehouse, Twitter.com/whitehouse). Currently, the Government team is capturing the data and content both programmatically (via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) from social networks) and manually (through daily screen shots). EOP requires a provider to ensure we automatically capture this content in a scalable, efficient and reliable manner.
5. Performance Objectives
(A) The scope is to capture, store, extract to approved formats, and transfer to NARA all content posted by EOP components subject to the PRA on publicly-accessible websites during each calendar year.
(B) Capture and store content of any kind, including text, graphic, audio, and video, in any existing file format.
(C) Demonstrate an ability to adapt to and archive new file formats that are created after the initiation of this contract.
(D) Capture and store content regardless of whether it is uploaded from the EOP network to the site or created directly on the site.
(E) Capture all created content at regular intervals daily, ensuring the retention of any deltas introduced between captures per day (it is preferable, but not necessary, for vendor to capture content that was added to a site and subsequently removed in the interval between captures). Vendor must capture content at least twice a day, and preferably would have a process to initiate a re-crawling of the content on demand.
(F) Capture (and later display) content in context, as it appeared on a given web page.
(G) Capture of comments and publicly-visible tags posted by users on publicly-accessible websites on which an EOP component subject to the PRA maintains a presence. Vendor must be able to either:
(i) Capture all comments posted to a list of websites provided to vendor; or
(ii) Capture a sample of comments posted to a list of websites provided to vendor, according to a sampling methodology that will be provided to vendor and approved by EOP.
(H) Provide the ability to search and/or organize collections by website, keyword, date and/or filter by file type.
(I) Store and transfer data in a manner that preserves both the record content, associated with comments, and related objects, as they were created and with the relationships they exhibited on the web page at the time of capture creation.
(J) Ability for government employees to tag captures from publicly-accessible websites by arbitrary fields or tags such as office or issue (i.e. OVP or health care).
(K) Provide a web-based tool for government employees to administer and manage this record-keeping. (i.e. add new publicly-accessible websites to the crawl or adjust the crawl frequency). Provide a minimum of 10 simultaneous login accounts.
12. EOP Special Contract Requirements
12.1 Restriction Against Disclosure
12.1.2
The Contractor agrees, in the performance of this task order, to keep the information disclosed to the Contractor, or information contained in the source documents furnished by the EOP or otherwise obtained in the course of its employment in the strictest confidence, said information being the sole property of the EOP. The Contractor also agrees not to publish, reproduce or otherwise divulge such information, in whole or in part, in any manner or form, nor authorize or permit others to do so, taking reasonable measures as are necessary to restrict access to the information, while in his or her possession, to those employees who must have the information to perform the work provided herein on a ?need-to-know basis, and agrees to immediately notify the Contracting Officer in writing in the event the Contractor determines, or has reason to suspect, a breach of this requirement. The Contractor is responsible for ensuring all employees involved in the performance of this task order sign a ?Non-Disclosure Agreement (See Attachment 1). The Contractor shall provide an original copy of each signed statement to the Contracting Officer prior to each employee beginning work.
13. Prohibition of Advertising of Award
13.1
The Contractor shall not refer to this award in commercial advertising, or similar promotions in such a manner as to state or to imply that the product or services provided is endorsed, preferred, or is considered superior to other products or services by the Executive Office of the President (EOP) and any of its components including the White House. This includes advertising, or similar promotions, in all forms or electronic, broadcast, and print media.
13.1.2
In addition, the Contractor is restricted from reproducing the image(s) of the EOP or the White House in any form of commercial advertising, or similar promotion. This includes images of official seals and buildings. The reproduction of official seals and the images of buildings are a matter controlled by regulation and Executive Order. Any proposed usage of such symbols must be brought to the attention of the Contracting Officer (CO).
From the Q&As:
2. Approximately how many sites are controlled by EOP?
Answer: The 7 networks where the EOP currently maintains a presence are:
www.facebook.com/whitehouse
www.twitter.com/whitehouse
www.myspace.com/whitehouse
www.flickr.com/whitehouse
www.youtube.com/whitehouse
www.vimeo.com/whitehouse
www.slideshare.com/whitehouse
4. Is there an incumbent currently performing this work (even manually)?
Answer: There is no incumbent the Government staff does this manually.
9. The Presidential Records Act does not require the storage or archiving of non-EOP content, as such is there a specific reason as to why the content provided on EOP related websites in the form of comments is included in these archiving procedures?
Answer: The PRA includes in its definition of presidential records content “received” by PRA components and personnel. Out of an abundance of caution, we are treating comments made by non-PRA personnel on sites on which a PRA component has a presence as presidential records, requiring them to be captured or sampled.
10. Has NARA’s Electronic Records Archive expressed an interest in public content contributed to EOP websites?
Answer: See the answer to question #9.
Now if all this was just for the sake of posterity and just to be sent to the National Archives, why do government employees need to the ability to sort and search the data for words like “health care”?
I can’t help but wonder if they’ll also be including an archive of the Organizing For America website, particularly when it referred to citizens showing up at townhalls as “Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists“?
It was laughable enough to uncover that the left-wingnuts are actually paying people to protest against Americans protesting socialized medicine in the form of HR 3200, but now they’re presuming the Kool-Aid drinkers can actually read and that they care about what books are topping the best-seller lists.
“50 Ways You Can Help Obama Change America“, courtesy of “Progress Now”, is hitting the bookstores and in order to offset the lack of content, they’re sponsoring a contest to help spur sales:
“It never hurts to offer a little incentive, especially if your incentive has the potential to drive extreme right wingers crazy, so among our prizes is a grand-prize of a trip for two to Honolulu, Hawaii for a private tour of the hospital where President Obama was born, followed by an opportunity to take part in a community service project there on MLK Day of Service, January 18, 2010.”
They also want stories about how “people can help Obama change America for the better”. How about we start with a most basic one: impeach every member of the administration who is failing to uphold their oath of office.
Blog comment about the First Lady dozing off during Ted Kennedy’s funeral mass on Saturday:
“I wonder if she was dreaming about her friends Bill Ayers and Bernadine, and how they love sirhan sirhan so much that they dedicated a book to him, and she gets to sit here with his victims family. Here she is sitting in that church nodding off thinking about what a small world it is. She is at Bobby’s brothers funeral, and oh how she can’t wait to call her best girlfriend Bernie to tell her about her day with Bobby’s relatives.”