I'm Gonna Flat Out Say, No.

Do I believe that Barack Obama is misguided in his political beliefs? Yes. Do I think the legislation he is trying to pass will severely damage the country? Yes.

Do I think he's the Anti-Christ?

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllllllllll No.

Somebody needs to go smack who ever made that movie.

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Democrats - "Read Our Lips...ALL NEW TAXES"

First a tax on tobacco products, then a tax on Carbon Emissions, then a "You make too much" tax, and now this...

A 10% tax on Plastic Surgery.

Democrat Max Baucus called the ideas to help pay for the huge costs of ObamaCare, "interesting," "creative," and "kind of fun" ideas.

Interestingly, 86% of Plastic Surgery patients are women, and many of them are in households making under $100k, saving for years to have treatments done.

Included on the list of taxed surgeries, Liposuction, Lip enhancement, Nose jobs, Teeth Whitening, Botox, Hair implants, and I'm almost certain of the new big thing, Laser hair removal.

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Is America Waking Up?

Ben Stein has an good piece about why Democrats are trying to recklessly shove ObamaCare through the House and the Senate, even though they are finding major resistance from their own party.

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CNN Realizes "Hey, ObamaCare Isn't That Great"

Now here is an amazing realization. The opening portion for CNN Money's article about the 5 key freedoms you'll lose with ObamaCare (Emphasis mine);

A close reading of the two main bills, one backed by Democrats in the House and the other issued by Sen. Edward Kennedy's Health committee, contradict the President's assurances. To be sure, it isn't easy to comb through their 2,000 pages of tortured legal language. But page by page, the bills reveal a web of restrictions, fines, and mandates that would radically change your health-care coverage.

If you prize choosing your own cardiologist or urologist under your company's Preferred Provider Organization plan (PPO), if your employer rewards your non-smoking, healthy lifestyle with reduced premiums, if you love the bargain Health Savings Account (HSA) that insures you just for the essentials, or if you simply take comfort in the freedom to spend your own money for a policy that covers the newest drugs and diagnostic tests -- you may be shocked to learn that you could lose all of those good things under the rules proposed in the two bills that herald a health-care revolution.

In short, the Obama platform would mandate extremely full, expensive, and highly subsidized coverage -- including a lot of benefits people would never pay for with their own money -- but deliver it through a highly restrictive, HMO-style plan that will determine what care and tests you can and can't have. It's a revolution, all right, but in the wrong direction.

ObamaCare is the epitome of a government run program. Make everything as equal as possible in as many aspects as possible. Charge the same for everyone, use the same treatment for every case of Disease X, use the same physician for everyone, etc... And as they state it is a revolution in the wrong direction

On top of that, Obama and Democrats continue to make the claim that you'll be able to keep your private coverage for as long as you want. Currently there are some 160 Million Americans who currently get their insurance through the company they work for. Their employer (Unless self insured) get their insurance through a private insurance company. That private insurance company is in business to make a profit. There is a specific amount of money that the HAVE to charge in order to break even.

Insert "Public Plan" which will likely be subsidized by the government. This means that they can charge LESS than the break even point, by A LOT (25-40% lower), but because it is subsidized, what ever money it loses, gets made up through either higher taxes or more than likely the selling of U.S. Treasuries (Adding more to the national debt).

Even self insured companies are going to see that the people who work for them can pay less and get the same coverage with the Public Plan, and will stop insuring their employees, and switch them over to the Public Plan.

My question to Dems and Obama is, "How do you expect private companies to compete against a plan that is allowed to perform at a loss? Do you truly believe that the Public Plan will not eliminate Private Insurance without the same subsidies that the Public Plan is covered under, and will you not include those same subsidies to the Private Plans in order to level the playing field?"

If CNN even begins to jump ship on this plan, there is definitely something wrong with it. Now if MSNBC comes out and states "This thing is garbage," then I think I'll have to start betting on the Snowball.

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Obama Disapproval Rating Goes Up

Obama may still hold 49% of the country saying they at least somewhat approve, but of the 50% that disapprove, 4 out of every 5 of them strongly disapprove. Only 29% strongly approve of his performance, giving an Approval Index of -11% for the strong feeling, and a -1% overall.

So, it has reached the point where a huge majority of Americans either think "Well, he's not bad" or they think "This guy is horrible."

Just think about that for a minute. If 10% more people switch to the Strongly Disapprove side, then the majority of Americans will begin to have the same opinion of Obama as they did for Bush; "Anyone but this guy!" And in less than a year after taking office.

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The Sneaky Pain of ObamaCare

Aside from "Just taking pain pills"there are hidden pains that you might want to buy a bottle of Aleve for if you are in these groups.

Young People
Small Business Owners
People with HSA's
People Enrolled in Medicare Advantage

The Young;

If the government mandates that everyone must have health insurance, healthy young people will have to buy policies that don’t reflect the low risk they have of getting sick. The House and Senate bills do let insurers set premiums based on age, but only up to a 2-to-1 ratio, versus a real-world ratio of 5 to 1. This means lower prices for older (and wealthier) folks, but high prices for the young. “They’ll have sticker shock,” says Rep. Paul Ryan, ranking Republican on the Budget Committee.

Small Businesses;

Employers who don’t provide coverage will have to pay a tax up to 8% of their payroll. Yet those who do provide coverage also have to pay the tax—if the law says their coverage is not “adequate.” Amazingly, even if a small business provides adequate insurance but its employees choose coverage in another plan offered through the government, the employer still must pay.

HSA Owners;

Eight million Americans, according to the Treasury Department, are covered by plans with low-cost premiums and high deductibles that are designed for large, unexpected medical costs. Money is also set aside in a savings account to cover the deductibles, and whatever isn’t spent in one year can build up tax-free. Nearly a third of new HSA users, according to Treasury figures, previously had no insurance or bought coverage on their own.

Medicare Advantage Participants;
To summarize, M.A. provides a higher standard of medical coverage than the standard Medicare, something that will vanish once the government decides which treatment option is best for each condition. The selection of prescription drugs will be reduced, and other things. Obama even described it as a prime example of where to cut costs in an interview with the Washington Post.

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RCP Uses TennCare As A Model Of How Not To Run Health Care

I have referenced the massive beast that is TennCare on GOPAC before, and now my parent's Congressional Rep. Marsha Blackburn (who I endorsed as my pick for the first female President) has posted about the topic over at the very visible RealClearPolitcs.

Universal Health Care was tried in Tennessee, and it failed...Miserably.

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Questions Americans Need To Ask Obama And Democrats

With a major Presidential Press Conference coming up, Keith Hennessey has compiled an excellent list of questions that need to be asked of Democrats and definitely of the President and his cabinet who can't decide whether the economy is doing well or doing bad.

A few Examples...
Economy;

"The U.S. economy has lost 2.64 million jobs since you took office. The
unemployment rate is 9.5% and rising. The good scenario is one in which the
unemployment rate begins to decline early next year. The Vice President said
your Administration misread the economy. You said you had incomplete information
when proposing the stimulus. Yet you have said you would not change anything
about the stimulus if you could. If the facts have changed, why doesn’t it make
sense to change your policy?"

"You proposed spending money from the TARP
to prevent foreclosures, help small businesses, and to buy toxic assets from
banks. In June CBO said they had found no evidence that any money has been spent
for any of these programs. How many foreclosures have been prevented, how many
small businesses have received loans from, and how many toxic assets have been
purchased?"

Health Care;

"You have insisted that health care reform “bend the cost curve down.” CBO
Director Elmendorf says the bills being debated would instead raise the health
care cost curve and would increase long-term budget deficits. Will you continue
to insist that health care reform not increase the deficit?"

"In a
February 2008 debate with then-Senator Clinton you opposed an individual mandate
to buy health insurance. In that debate you said, “In some cases, there are
people who are paying fines and still can’t afford it, so now they’re worse off
than they were. They don’t have health insurance and they’re paying a fine. In
order for you to force people to get health insurance, you’ve got to have a very
harsh penalty.” Now you are supporting a bill that would force people to buy
health insurance, and that CBO says would still result in eight million people
not having health insurance and paying higher taxes. How do you explain to those
eight million uninsured people why you now support the mandate and “very harsh
penalty” they would have to face, and which you opposed during the campaign?"

"Your party controls the White House, has a 38+ seat margin in the
House, and has the 60 Senate seats needed to overcome any filibuster. How can
Republicans be holding up health care reform?"

Energy and Climate Change;

"The Indian government told Secretary Clinton that India will not agree to limit
its carbon emissions. The Chinese have sent the same signal. Are you willing to
sign a new climate agreement that does not contain binding commitments by China
or India to reduce or slow the growth of their emissions?"

"Does it make
sense for the U.S. to impose higher energy costs on American workers and
manufacturers if the two largest developing economies are unwilling to slow
their emissions growth? Won’t that just disadvantage American workers with
little reduction in future global temperatures?"

"Do you support the
expansion of nuclear power in the U.S.? If so, what are you doing to encourage
it? And where are you going to store the nuclear waste, given the strong
opposition of Senate Majority Leader Reid to storing it in Nevada’s Yucca
Mountain?"

"The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Finance
Committee have called for you to submit to Congress for their approval the
signed Free Trade Agreements with U.S. allies Colombia, Panama and South Korea.
Why have you not submitted them to Congress? When will you do so?"

In total there are 20 questions and they hit the nail right on the head.

My question would be this;
Who prepares your taxes, and why? If you're philosophy is that it is the duty of the wealthy to pay more in taxes, why would you not fill out the standard 1040EZ, and would you be willing to only take standard deductions while in a public office?

Will the White House Press Corps ask anything remotely this tough? Doubtful, but with the rose colored glasses beginning to come off, there could be some interesting ones.

H/T: Instapundit

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No Buyers Remorse?

Rasmussen has a daily tracking of not only Obama's approval rating, but also tracks things like who they trust on certain issues.

Looking at the topics in terms of (%Trust in Dems - %Trust in GOP) with the rank in importance as their number
3) Health Care +4%
8) Education +3%

OK, so they have two. Let's dig deeper;
1) Economy -5%
2) Ethics/Corruption -1%
4) National Security -9%
5) Social Security -5%
6) Taxes -16%
7) Immigration -6%
9) Abortion -7%
10) War in Iraq -4%

Out of the top 10 issues for the country, America trusts the GOP more than Democrats on 8 of 10 issues.

Something else that should emphasize that the people elected politicians that don't give a rat's a$$ about them? These are in (Help - Hurt)%
Tax increases help or hurt economy? -31%
Tax cuts help or hurt economy? +31%
Increases in Gov't spending help or hurt economy? -23%
Decreases in Gov't spending help or hurt economy? +19%

So, America thinks that decreasing taxes and decreasing government spending are the best way to help the economy. Think about the results of these polls, and the plans of Democrats.

• Cap and Trade (Tax on Carbon emissions)
• Income Surtax
• Tobacco Tax Increase
• Eliminating Social Security Contribution limit (but keeping benefits same)
• Tax on Executive Bonuses
• Government run health care
• Government run banks/financial institutes
• Government run Auto Makers

The only thing I have to say is read the book Fleeced by Dick Morris. The book was published in June 2008 before the election, and the predictions are eerily similar.

To those who got caught up in the Hope n' Change bliss...Told you so.

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The Boss Is Down!

Malkin's site and HotAir are both blank right now. No clue why.

And they're back up.

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