ObamaCare? You bet he does!

I hate providing clicks to Huff-Smuff, but this piece from Hilary Rosen is a good reason to make an exception:

……

….Democrats and Independents need to rally around the president now. We cannot let the Republicans and the tea partiers get away with continuing to lie about the impact of this bill and negating the actual benefits to so many Americans in need.

Let’s take the Republican’s signature word and wrap it around their ears.

ObamaCare? You BET he does!

• Obama cares if insurance companies can once again be able to drop people when they get sick — exactly when coverage is needed most.

Obama cares if children with preexisting conditions are denied coverage, while insurance companies impose devastating annual and lifetime caps.

 

Obama cares that young people stay on their parents’ plans until age 26.

 Obama cares if pregnant women and breast cancer survivors can be denied coverage.

* Obama cares if seniors face an increase in their prescription drug costs — millions thrown back into the Medicare Part D Donut Hole — denying seniors a 50% discount on prescription drugs and re-creating the devastating coverage gap.

Obama cares if health care repeal explodes the federal deficit by143 billion over the next ten years and1 trillion over the next two decades.

 ObamaCares and John Boehner doesn’t. Bring it on.

************************************************************

Las Vegas Sun:

House GOP ready to start new Congress with foolish repeal of health care

….

But Republicans just don’t get it. Americans largely support the health care law’s key provisions, and a repeal would once again give insurance companies the right to exclude people from coverage because of preexisting conditions and would reinstate the so-called “doughnut hole” in Medicare prescription coverage.

This is foolish, but the Republican desire to press ahead with repealing the health care law only foreshadows what is to come. They’re playing for the 2012 election, no matter what the public wants, and that will lead to a greater partisan divide and less work done in Washington.

For example, Republicans are already intending to stall work in Congress. Eric Cantor, the incoming House majority leader, last month released the calendar for the House of Representatives that appears to leave little time for work.

Under the plan, members of the House will only need to be in Washington for a total of 123 workdays spread over 32 weeks. Only two of the weeks include five workdays, and the entire year’s workload is cushioned by long weekends and extended time away from Washington.

As well, Cantor has limited the time members have to be on the floor for votes so they won’t have to worry about rushing back to conduct the people’s business. Cantor said that his intention is to schedule votes no earlier than 1 p.m. nor later than 7 p.m. But on the first day of the week, voting won’t start until 6:30 p.m., giving members essentially an extra day off. And on the last day of the week, votes will end at 3 p.m. so members can take off early to get home.

So much for “working” for the people.

// more

 

The Mishmash

Hello, good people

1. Daily reminder of Change That Matters project.

2. You may want to know that the number of nasty comments trying to get through is on a real rise.

3. Recovery (a): Orders to U.S. Factories Unexpectedly Increased in November

4. Recovery (b): GM December Total U.S. Sales Up 7.5% (The average estimate of  was for an increase of 4.3 percent).

5. Recovery (c): Sales at U.S. Retailers Increased 3.6% Last Week

6. Recovery (d): Dollar General to hire 6,000

7. Recovery (e): Chrysler December 2010 U.S. Sales Increased 16 Percent.

8. Recovery (f): Oh yea, Ford too.

************************************************************************** 

9. He told you he was persistent: President Obama Weighs Move to Retain Control of Guantanamo Closure

 ************************************************************************

10. Gallup: Looking at 2011 Economy, Optimists Double Pessimists

***********************************************************************

11. U.S. to detail $100 bln in Pentagon savings, cuts-sources

************************************************************************

12. So much for “he’s anti-business” crap memo:

Benen has the story.

*************************************************************************

13. Big, big weekend is coming in Sudan. The administration is – obviously – all over it:

Senator John  Kerry in Sudan for referendum

***************************************************************************

14. Two good reads. One from Bob Herbert:

You just can’t close the door on this crowd. The party that brought us the worst economy since the Great Depression, that led us into Iraq and the worst foreign policy disaster in American history, that would like to take a hammer to Social Security and a chisel to Medicare, is back in control of the House of Representatives with the expressed mission of undermining all things Obama.

//

….

Have we forgotten already who put us in such grave peril? Republicans benefit from the fact that memories are short and statutes of limitations shorter. It was the Republican leader in the House, Tom DeLay, who insisted against all reason and all the evidence of history that “nothing is more important in the face of war than cutting taxes.”

But that’s all water under the bridge. The Republicans are back in control of the House, ready to run interference for the rich as recklessly and belligerently as ever.

******************************************************************

And one from Eugene Robinson:

If the incoming Republican leadership in the House of Representatives is serious about trying to repeal health care reform, there’s only one appropriate Democratic response: “Make my day.”Just to be clear, there’s no earthly chance that a bill repealing the landmark health care overhaul could actually make it through Congress and be signed into law. Even if Republicans managed to hold together their new majority in the House, they would face the inconvenient fact that Democrats still control the Senate. And even if a repeal measure somehow sneaked through the Senate, President Obama would veto the thing faster than you can say “pre-existing conditions.”So this exercise in tilting at windmills can’t even be described as quixotic, since that would imply some expectation of success, however delusional. The whole thing is purely theatrical — and woefully ill-advised.

//

************************************************************************

15. And, a very funny Jon Stewart segment from last night:

Barack Obama Is Luke Skywalker

***********************************************************************

Welcome home, Mr. President. Good to have the adult back in town. Give them hell.  

Last day of summer