The Live-and-Let-Live Deli

The Live-and-Let-Live Deli
Convening of the new Congress brings back a long-age image, a Manhattan store called the Live-and-Let-Live Deli with a sign in the window: “Out of Business.” The proximate cause is literal-the White House’s backing off from a provision in Health Care reform that would allow doctors to include end-of-life discussions with Medicare patients. Whether this is in response to the “death panel” scare raised by Dr. Sarah Palin and other GOP advocates for the elderly,...

Boehner: Budget office "entitled to their opinion" on health care repeal's deficit impact
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday defended House Republicans' efforts to Repeal the national Health Care law, disputing the accuracy of a preliminary Congressional Budget Office estimate that a Repeal of the law would add $230 billion to the National Debt through 2021. "I do not believe that repealing the job-killing Health Care law will increase the Deficit," Boehner said at a Capitol press conference the day after the GOP formally regained the House majority. "CBO is entitled to ...

Could John Boehner be a Great Speaker?
I have long been Bullish on the man who is now Speaker of the House.  Perhaps, it’s that John Boehner and I grew up not far from one another, he in the Working Class Cincinnati suburb of Reading, I in the more affluent enclave Wyoming just west of the Republican leader’s hometown. Cincinnati folk have always struck me as hard-working, decent Americans, largely respectful of their peers and generally treating people from different backgrounds with dignity.  It is no wonder that th...

Speaker Boehner Dismisses CBOs Report Health Care Repeal Increases Deficit
ABC News’ John R. Parkinson reports:  Speaker of the House John Boehner dismissed a report by the Congressional Budget Office that found that repealing the Health Care law would increase the federal Deficit and warned that the “best Health Care system in the world is going to go down the drain” if Congress fails to Repeal the law. Earlier Thursday, the Congressional Budget Office released a preliminary analysis that the Repeal of the Health Care Reform law, including reduced spend

Brit Hume on Gavel Transfer: Pelosi Could Not Quite Believe that Today was Not About Her Video 1/5/11
Here is video of Brit Hume delivering a commentary last night on the first day of the 112th Congress. He summed it up perfectly when it comes to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: “It was perhaps fitting that it took Nancy Pelosi longer to say her peace in surrendering her gavel to John Boehner than it took Boehner to say his. It was as if the nation’s first woman Speaker could not quite believe that today was not about her . . . “ Perfectly said. ...

A White House Week One Cave-In
Political pressure and a seemingly paralyzing fear of bad headlines, however, appears to be guiding Administration policy this close to Election Day. As if to prove the point, within an hour of publishing this line, I got a call from a White House press person vigorously complaining about my wording. Ridiculous, he said, the Administration would never let politics get in the way of good policy. “Paralyzing fear”? Come on! Well, this week, it looks like the Administration let politics...

President Obama gives in to Sarah Palin's dishonesty
Is Darrell Issa the new Joe McCarthy? Michele Bachmann for president. Seriously?! All over Washington this week were the thrilling sounds of Democracy at work -- the speeches of incoming and outgoing officials, the emotional swearing in ceremonies, the weeping of Boehner the Damp, the solid crack of the gavel being brought down and, less thrillingly, the peep-peep of a chicken as the Obama White House reversed itself on end-of-life counseling. The Big Lie won once again. The lie is that these se...

End Of Life Counseling Out Of ObamaCare Again
First Obama pushed for end-of-life counseling in ObamaCare, then it was pulled after Sarah Palin rightly pointed out the spooky nature of the Death Panels (you put this in as a cost saving feature of a bill and you’re damn right its a death panel). Then Dr. Donald “I love Socialism” Berwick, head of Medicare, put it back in…this time during the yearly Medicare checkups, and he tried to do it all sly like and back door the thing. He got caught and now Obama is pulling it o...

Obama's stealth movereviving 'death panels'
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin last year created a nationwide furor when she predicted that ObamaCare would lead to the creation of "Death Panels" that would decide who would receive life-saving treatments – or be allowed to die. Now Obama's health policy team stealthily is moving forward with that idea, WND has learned. And this development has nothing to do with proposed rules that would have called for doctors to have "end of life" discussions annually with Senior Citizens. Those plan...

Obama challenges Republicans on US debt
Newly empowered US Republicans faced stiff early challenges as President Barack Obama pressed them to raise the US Debt Limit and his Democratic Senate allies vowed to defend his policies. One day after Republicans took over the House of Representatives, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner formally asked politicians to let the US government to borrow more money, the opening shot in a political war over the giant US Debt. Geithner warned in a letter to senior members of Congress that failure to r...

The GOP's Health Care Repeal Problem: $230 Billion In Lost Revenue And Counting
Since taking the majority -- and even before that -- Republicans have been at pains to explain away a problem they've seen coming for months: the fact that CBO and most analysts find that repealing the Health Care law will cost money. Big money. But they have a separate, less appreciated problem. Today, CBO forecast that the 10-year cost of repealing Health Care reform is actually $230 billion. That's nearly $100 billion higher than one might have expected, given that just under a year ago, t...

Is Congress Listening to the American People?
Elected representatives are clearly talking more and more these days about listening to the American People. This is particularly true for the new Speaker of the House, John Boehner. As Politico put it in their Wednesday morning edition: “John Boehner will take the Speaker’s gavel with a commitment to restoring the House as an institution focused on listening to the American People.” The Washington Post reported that Boehner told reporters outside his apartment on Wednesday ...

Speaker Boehner: GOP Will Not Increase Debt Limit Without Spending Cuts
Shouldn't Obama be in 100% agreement with Boehner here? Didn't he promise to reduce the Deficit by going through the Federal Budget line by line and get rid of those programs that do not work? gatewaypundit reported Speaker John Boehner said that Republicans will not agree to increase the Debt Limit without Spending Cuts. Boehner released a statement: Washington (Jan 6) House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement on the Debt limit: “ I’ve been notified that the...

Boehner: Spending cuts must accompany debt limit
WASHINGTON—House Speaker John Boehner says any increase in the nation's Debt Limit must include steps to cut federal spending. The Ohio Republican says the country cannot default on its Debt, but neither can it continue to borrow recklessly. His statement comes after the Obama Administration notified lawmakers that the government will reach the current Debt Limit of $14.3 Trillion this spring. The Debt Limit sets a ceiling on the government's borrowing authority. Boehner says in his state...

Boehner claims he'll hold debt limit hostage
Reuters: U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said on Thursday that any move to increase the United States' $14.3 Trillion Debt Limit must be accompanied by Spending Cuts. "The American People will not stand for such an increase unless it is accompanied by meaningful action by the President and Congress to cut spending and end the job-killing spending binge in Washington," Boehner said in a prepared statement. Boehner is doing his best to pretend that he has a strong hand, but let's not forget, if ...

Men shave heads to spite genetics
Sandy Poirier, the owner of Shag salon, said he started shaving his head five years ago "when no one else was doing it," and he learned there are new obligations that come with the style. "You have to dress well, be more fashionable, or you're going to look like you don't care," Poirier said. "There should be a Moratorium on the word 'bald.' Everything else is politically correct, why not this?" he said. Santa Monica, Calif., Jan. 6 (UPI) -- Actress Jaime Pressly was arrested in Santa Monica, C...

Constitution reading goes bipartisan
The new Congress kicked off with a reading of the constitution on the floor of the House today, a first in the chamber’s history. Republicans proposed the reading, but it turned into a rare moment of true Bipartisanship on the floor. Continue Reading Text Size - + reset House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) went first, followed by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). House Republicans made the reading a requirement as part of the new Congress’ rules. Initially, there were questi...

Congressional Hostages
One of the things new House Speaker John Boehner said he intended to do was to give up some of the power the majority holds in the House, to spread around some of the power he and his party holds. He didn't give out too many details, but the general idea was to make the House a bit less of a pure Democracy, and more of a republic -- majority rule, but recognition of the rights of the minority. Kind of like the Senate, in a sense, where a simple majority isn't enough to do much, but needs a sup...

The power of propaganda
THE POWER OF Propaganda.... The idea was once so obvious and uncontroversial that it was one of those rare Health Care policies that enjoyed broad Bipartisan support. As the proposal goes, doctors would be reimbursed for speaking to Medicare patients who choose to consider end-of-life care options. The whole point of the idea was to ensure that these decisions are made by individuals in consultation with their doctors. As Sen. Johnny Isakson, a conservative Republican from Georgia, explained l...

Robert Mackey: The Day I Lost What Few Voting Rights I Had
I am a Veteran. I served my country--proudly--from 24 years, and through three wars (Panama, Gulf War, Iraq). And yesterday, I lost a bit more of my rights as a citizen in this great republic. My non-voting representative from D.C. lost her ability to vote on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole. I lost this. So did 4.5 million of my fellow citizens from D.C., Puerto Rico, and the Pacific Islands. Many of us want to be U.S. States--DC clearly does, and a growing number in PR do as wel...

Congress to Tackle Healthcare, Filibuster Rules
On Wednesday, congressional observers were treated to a spectacle which used to be rare—a changeover in power at the House of Representatives. Both the House and the Senate swore in new members, and the new 242-seat Republican majority in the House handily elected Ohio Representative John Boehner to become Speaker of the House. In between raucous cheers and some campaign-style Rhetoric from both sides, now-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi handed Boehner the gavel and watched him give h...

Boehner demands spending cuts along with debt hike
Now new House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is weighing in on the Debt ceiling -- and saying any increase needs to be accompanied by Spending Cuts. "The American People will not stand for such an increase (in Debt ceiling) unless it is accompanied by meaningful action by the President and Congress to cut spending and end the job-killing spending binge in Washington," Boehner said in a statement e-mailed to reporters. Congress is expected to vote on increasing the $14.3 Trillion Debt ceiling in ...

In House Constitutional Reading, Some Inconsistencies
Updated: 1:35PM ET House Representatives participated this morning in a full reading of the Constitution of the United States, marking the first such occasion in American history -- though the version of the Constitution that was read varied from the original document. (Watch video of the proceedings at left.) Following initial questions regarding which Constitutional document was being read - the amended or original Constitution - Rep. Bob Goodlatte, of Virginia, who is leading the proceedi...

Underwhelmed by Speaker Boehner
Bill Daley: Is it about competence or ideology? Is Darrell Issa the new Joe McCarthy? Nancy Pelosi spoke of combating Climate Change, ensuring college affordability, expanding access to Health Care, ending the war in Iraq. Newt Gingrich envisioned a Balanced Budget amendment, welfare reform, Tax Cuts, Deregulation, term limits. John Boehner promised... well, not very much. The 112th Congress, he said, will not "kick the can" or "fall short." It will be "the people's House," a place where "we ca...

Boehner Dismisses CBO Despite Previously Touting It, Wont Commit To Protect Consumer Protections
Boehner Dismisses CBO Despite Previously Touting It, Won’t Commit To Protect Consumer Protections This morning, at a press availability at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) dismissed the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) estimate that repealing the Affordable Care Act would add $230 billion to the Deficit over 10 years and would not commit to pursuing universal coverage that prohibits insurers from discriminating against individuals with pre-exis...