GOP walks unarmed into health-care repeal battle

Republicans Denounce Republican Health Care Plan
Tim Noah on Republican outrage over high risk Health Insurance pools: Of all the arguments Republicans have been waging against ObamaCare as the House of Representatives prepares to vote for its Repeal, none is harder to take than their criticism of the federally subsidized high-risk pools the law created to provide immediate relief to the Uninsured. In May, the House Republican Conference complained that these high-risk pools would be unfair to people currently enrolled in existing state-run r...

US Chamber backs "Repeal the Job Killing Health Care Law Act"
Good thing that the U.S. Chamber ally Bill Daley will be in the White House to provide a liaison to the business community, to bring them along on President Obama's agenda for the nation and The Economy. Or not. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is backing Republican plans to try and Repeal President Obama's Health Care bill. "We see the upcoming House vote as an opportunity for everyone to take a fresh look at Health Care reform," chamber president Thomas J. Donohue said in his annual State of Amer...

What the health reform repeal effort says about the 112th Congress
Members of the House of Representatives will vote next week on a bill to Repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, the health reform law that aims to cover the Uninsured through state Health Insurance exchanges, an individual coverage mandate, and an expansion of the Medicaid program, among other provisions. While the measure will probably pass the House, it is unlikely to be approved by the Democrat-controlled Senate, and even if it were to pass both chambers, the President has threatened t...

Democracy Now!: End-of-Life Discussions Are Not Death Panels
As Republicans take control of the U.S. House of Representatives, GOP leaders say they will immediately try to Repeal President Obama's signature healthcare law. Even before the Repeal vote takes place, Republicans can lay claim to a key victory in the healthcare battle. Last week, the Obama Administration said it would reverse a Regulation that would have covered end-of-life planning for Medicare beneficiaries during their annual checkups, after Republicans revived the specter of so-called "d...

Private Solutions for Health Care, Shunned by Big Government
Obamacare extends the hand of government into the largest Private Sector left in America, Health Care. If allowed to ferment, this extension of government will filter into every aspect of your life. If it is repealed by the new, 112th Congress, other solutions need to be considered to fix the problems that exist in the current system. Let’s keep on our newly elected officials, including Cory Gardner from the 4th Congressional District, to repeat ObamaCare, and offer real solutions. The rep...

Chris Korzen: If the Health Care Repeal Vote Is Symbolic, Why Have Such a Divisive Debate?
At a moment when we need to tone down the discourse in our politics, why have a purely symbolic debate over Health Care Repeal in the U.S. House of Representatives? The debate may take us back to the worst days of the Health Care discussion, when swastikas were commonplace at anti-reform rallies, and some Talk Radio and TV turned into hate radio and TV. Will opponents talk about "Death Panels," or "killing grandma?"  Will people carry signs that say "bury ObamaCare with Kennedy" or wear t-shi...

Health care repeal postponed
The much-touted Republican midterm campaign promise of voting to Repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, President Obama’s signature Health Care law, has been postponed along with all other legislative business for the 112th Congress. The postponement, which will last through the week, comes in wake of Saturday’s Assassination attempt of Congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, Arizona, which killed six and injured 14 including, including Giffords. The vote for repe...

The Coming Constitutional Debate
The Constitution has returned to Congress. It began with a ceremonial reading of the document on the House floor for the first time in US history. While the event had some problems, the act of reading the document that provides the authority for Congress in the first place sets the tone and defines the core purpose of the new Congress: to restore constitutional limits on the Federal Government. The real test comes with the debates over the new House rule requiring that each piece of legislatio...

Detroit News writer so far in the tank for ObamaCare, she's about to be crushed by hydrostatic pressure
I don't know a lot about Marisa Schultz, but based on her writing she is so far into the tank for ObamaCare that the hydrostatic pressure is about to crush her into the size of a pea. She took it upon herself to release the result of a biased, partisan report from a supposedly non-partisan organization that most never heard of to put out the canard that repealing the Unconstitutional ObamaCare law would hurt Michigan. This was apparently so important that she wrote it twice with 2 different hea...

Why do we have a debt ceiling?
Can someone please explain to me why we have a Debt ceiling at all? Its existence seems to violate every tenet of risk management and good governance. James Hamilton put it well back in 2006: One of the peculiar embarrassments of the American political process is the fact that Congress votes separately on the Deficit and debt, as if they were two different decisions… If the government is (a) required by the Deficit Legislation to spend, and (b) precluded by the Debt Legislation from borro...

Lame Duck Turns Mighty for New Vets
The Oregon Ducks came up short against Auburn this week, but December's Lame Duck delivered for vets. You may have missed it while buried in a blizzard or trapped in a holiday food coma, but Congress came through big-time for vets during the Lame Duck session. In a surprising turn of events, when most people left the administration and Democratic leadership for dead, Washington showed some signs of life and made huge progress. As the media focused on issues like Tax Cuts, nuclear stockpiles an...

Lawmakers Consider New Curbs on Incendiary Speech
© n/a Shocked and saddened lawmakers grappled on Monday with the weekend shooting of one of their own, with some suggesting that new laws and regulations are needed to curb incendiary Speech. The aftermath of Saturday's attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) brought a rare moment of unity on Capitol Hill, but it also escalated a contentious debate over violent imagery in the nation's political discourse. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) was having a beer and eating pizza at a New Jersey...

Colo. has first divided Legislature in a decade
DENVER—Republicans are back in charge in Colorado's House of Representatives and they're vowing to slash spending and stick to conservative principles. Members of the House and Senate convened for the new session Wednesday. The GOP now has a thin one-seat majority in the House. Democrats still control the Senate by a comfortable margin, giving Colorado its first divided Legislature in a decade. Both sides are promising to find common ground because either house can kill Legislation they...

U.S. Chamber President: Repeal Of Health Reform Is Just To Get Everybodys Attention
U.S. Chamber President: Repeal Of Health Reform Is Just To ‘Get Everybody’s Attention’ This morning, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue, who just yesterday announced the organization’s support for the GOP’s Health Care repeal bill, hinted that his group is more interested in tweaking the measure than eliminating it outright. Asked why he was endorsing a measure that had no chance of becoming law, Donohue reminded MSNBC host Chuck Todd that the Chamber...

Marian Wright Edelman: Health Reform Under Attack
In 2010, there was finally good news for millions of Uninsured Children and families when the President and Congress took a major step towards ensuring affordable and comprehensive health coverage for millions of Children and families in America. With the passage of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the Affordable Care Act), more than 35 million Americans including more than 95 percent of Children will have access to the critical health coverage they need to survive and thrive. A...

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Calls for Repeal of Obamacare
Wednesday, January 12, 2011 By Penny Starr Tom Donohue, CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, gave his State of American Business address Tuesday in Washington, D.C. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr) (CNSNews.com) - Tom Donohue, CEO and president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said on Tuesday that the Health Care bill signed into law last year by President Barack Obama should be repealed. “Last year, while strongly advocating Health Care reform, the Chamber was a leader in the fight against th...

68th General Assembly set to open today
Colorado's State Legislature will convene for its sixty-eighth biannual session today. The gathering of 65 representatives and 35 senators comes one day after the inauguration of a new Governor, new state treasurer, and new Secretary of State. Republicans took control of the House of Representatives by one seat in the November election. Democrats, as they have since Jan. 2005, continue to hold the majority in the Senate. Both the House and the Senate will convene today at 10 am. Bills may be in...

Spill report rekindles Democratic push for reform
(01-11) 14:47 PST WASHINGTON, CA (AP) -- Democrats in Congress pledged Tuesday to push for tougher Regulation of Offshore Drilling and to make Oil companies more financially responsible for spills — steps a presidential panel says are necessary to prevent another catastrophic blowout. The National Oil Spill Commission unanimously endorsed 15 recommendations to the Oil Industry, Congress and the Obama Administration for preventing another large-scale Oil spill. Most require action by Cong...

The Corporate View, Part 3: What the new CEI criteria means for transgender-inclusion, etc.
( - promoted by Pam Spaulding) Part 1 | Part 2 Since 2002, the CEI has emerged as the consensus benchmark for LGBT-workplace equality in the U.S. – it’s because of that status that the changes occurring in the criteria this year will have a big impact going forward. When we started the last decade, 89 companies participated in the survey – and had to answer 10 basic questions. In the last cycle, the number of companies has grown to 477… and the survey now asks detaile...

Webb: Obama did 'a really terrible job' on health care
Speaking in Norfolk about the importance of Military installations and ports to Virginia, Sen. Jim Webb also managed a swipe at President Obama for his management of the Health Care debate. From The Virginian-Pilot: The Obama Administration "did a really terrible job handling Health Care reform," [Webb] said, because the president relied on Congress to draft a plan. "You can't turn something that complicated loose on the United ...

Single, Self-Employed And Without Insurance? Get Married And Hire The Spouse
What is this? As The Economy continues to limp along, individuals on the lookout for Health Insurance don't have a lot of options, especially if they have Health Problems. Of course, there are the Pre-existing Condition Insurance plans called for in the health overhaul law, but those have restrictions. And some states have plans guaranteeing coverage. Self-employed people without Insurance should put a ring on it, some say. Self-employed people without Insurance should put a ring on it, some say...

ObamaCare Lies About Helping Small Business
The Propaganda issued by the Obama Administration to obtain support for ObamaCare is blatant and wrong. An example is touting that ObamaCare has helped small businesses to obtain medical Insurance. The federal Department of Health and Human Services cites a Democrat-front organization. The real facts say otherwise. The federal Department of Health and Human Services website HealthCare.gov offers this “fact...

Pennsylvania subsidized health insurance for low-income people to end
Pennsylvania's subsidized Health Insurance for low-income working people will likely end next month, officials on Gov.-elect Tom Corbett's transition team said Tuesday, leaving more than 40,000 people with less palatable options and dashing the hopes of more than 400,000 on the Waiting List. "AdultBasic is not sustainable," said Kevin Harley, a spokesman for the transition, referring to the Insurance program that began eight years ago under Gov. Tom Ridge, a Republican, and was expande...

Whos Really To Blame For The Arizona Shootings? Obama And The Dems
The Obama Administration will seek to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 during the Bush Administration, Attorney General Eric Holder said today. “As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons,” Holder told reporters. Yet, with a clear majority in the House and Senate, Obama and the Dems failed to pass even bring up...

A Kindler, Gentler Push for Repeal?
House Republicans have postponed their vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act until next week, because of the Arizona shooting. And even when that debate resumes, Jennifer Haberkorn and Carrie Budoff Brown report in Politico today, the House Republicans will likely adopt a more measured tone. They won’t change their position on the issue itself. They remain committed to total Repeal. But the Republican insiders that Haberkorn and Brown interviewed seem to think Republicans would talk i...