Hawaii on the Horizon, President Obama Praises Senate’s “Historic Vote”

WASHINGTON (AP) – President Barack Obama on Wednesday expressed frustration with the way the Senate does business, saying the use of delaying tactics there harms the nation’s ability to “deal with big problems in a very competitive world.”
“Other countries are going to start running circles around us,” Obama said in a White House interview with PBS. “We’re going to have to return to some sense that governance is more important than politics inside the Senate.”
So, now that he is in the White House he wants Congress to change the rules to suit him? I’m certain “other countries” like Venezuela or Cuba don’t have to worry about parliamentary procedures.
C’mon, MSM call the president on these statements!

this makes me mad. i saw on abc news a tour of the house he’s staying for two weeks. $4k per night. is this on his own dime? i need to make $8k to have $4k in disposable income because of this fool. he doesn’t make that much to afford that. i make just over a million a year and couldnt afford that. he’s much more worried about being a rockstar that really helping people

I still can not understand why this playboy needs another vacation he has been on one since taking office.Wow what a jerk .O yes He does not even beleive in CHRISTMAS anpothe joke sad sad sad we have him there .
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Here we go with the morons complaining about a Christmas holiday.

“We’re going to have to return to some sense that governance is more important than politics inside the Senate.”
{Officials say Congress will likely forego the normal “conference committee” wherein House and Senate negotiators work out a compromise bill, and will instead likely be hashed out among Democratic leaders including Pelosi, Reid, and perhaps even the president himself.)
Yay for governance! Does anyone know when CSPAN will televise this?

At least they haven’t confused Iran and Iraq.
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Don’t be so sure. Bush confused Iraq and North Korea.

Does anyone wonder what is in the bill that is making healthcare stocks rise?
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Health care insurance coverage for 30 million more Americans coupled with stock market speculation?

When our representatives ignore the people they represent, then it is time to work VERY hard to elect new ones.

“…who indicated they would move operations to her home country if legislation approved”
Clarification: These executives indicated they would move U.S. based HEADQUARTERS to her home country if legislation approved.

“Health care insurance coverage for 30 million more Americans coupled with stock market speculation?”
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Perhaps or were there some back room deals made with insurance companies as there were with drug companies?
Speculation is dangerous and paying for something for years before you get benefits might bump them in the short term but something doesn’t seem right about this…I hope I am wrong.

a.) Other countries have been running circles around us for a long time (mainly because they promote a climate favorable to the development and growth of industry)
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Yeah, like 1) no child labor standards, 2) no pollution standards, 3) restricted political freedoms, 4) military and police rule . .. .

Speaking of “paying for something for years before you get benefits” that is EXACTLY how Obama and Dems are able to claim “savings” and “deficit reductions. This legislation requires a “headstart” of four years in the form of tax collections and cuts (2010-2013) in order to make this bill deficit positive. The actual cost of this legislation is $2.4+ Trillion, not less than $900 Billion and does not “trim the deficit” as Obama and Dems disingenuously claim. They are, in fact, lying. Everyday.

The actual cost of this legislation is $2.4+ Trillion, not less than $900 Billion and does not “trim the deficit” as Obama and Dems disingenuously claim.
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It was the Congressional Budget Office who claimed the legislation would trim the deficit.

“Other countries are going to start running circles around us,”
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They already are simply because we are frozen in fear and uncertainty which right or wrong comes from the top.
I just saw that the continuation of hiring temporary workers continues at a faster pace and the thing that may bring us below 10 % unemployment is temporary hiring and hiring for half million temporary census workers.
Sad

“It was the Congressional Budget Office who claimed the legislation would trim the deficit.”
True – After 4 year headstart on paying for bill by collecting taxes and making cuts. In effect, 10 years of taxes and cuts are required to pay for 6 years of benefits. Get it?
10 years of ObamaCare will cost $2.4+ Trillion.
Obama/Reid/Pelosi are using 14 years of cuts and taxes to pay for 10 years of ObamaCare. This legislation is not deficit-neutral over long-run.

Get it?
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Of course I ‘get it’. Unlike Bush and the previous administration.
Bush and company tried to deliver programs while cutting taxes thus plunging the country further and further into debt every year of his presidency.
When the economy also collapsed on his watch, the country was in pitiful shape to absorb the blow.
Hence – exactly what you see now. The United States staggering under the weight of huge debt and a huge recession.

“You didn’t repudiate a single point.
tierra – look around – the jobs to which you refer (those that require unskilled labor) left the U.S. a while back. In the 90s and early 00s blue collar and back office/shared service positions moved off-shore with push to Latin America, E. Europe and Asia. White collar professional positions in financial services, R&D, and high-tech capital intensive industries have followed suit.
It’s convenient/easy/lazy to reach for expired talking points, but it exposes your lack of connection to reality. True, there have been cases of exploitation of labor in emerging economies, but once exposed, U.S. industry paid the price (see Nike, Walmart, etc. who were excoriated when suppliers with whom they did business were exposed for such practices).

“It’s convenient/easy/lazy to reach for expired talking points”
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Oh sure . . . ‘expired’ talking points about companies producing overseas – like none of the following are taking place any more …
1) no child labor standards, 2) no pollution standards, 3) restricted political freedoms, 4) military and police rule . .. .
You’ve heard of China right? You think American companies went to produce there because of ‘health care’?

The oh-so-predictable “Bush Did It!” whose expiration date has passed.
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Sorry, as much as you Republican right wingers would like to re-write history the truth remains.
Bush and his administration did 2 major things.
They overspend and cut taxes thus plunging the country into debt totalling over $10 TRILLION dollars.
And the oversaw the complete collapse of the economy throwing the country into economic turmoil – hundreds of thousands losing their jobs each month, stock market crashing, bankruptcies and foreclosures through the roof and major banks and finacial institutions collapsing.

“They overspend and cut taxes thus plunging the country into debt totalling over $10 TRILLION dollars.”
tierra, we’ve been through this many times. I agree with sentiments of another poster: “worst case of BDS I’ve ever seen”
Bush: ~$2.2 Trillion in deficits 2001-2008 (This is Bad)
Obama: $5.0 Trillion in projected deficits 2009-2013
Obama: ~$8.1 Trillion in project deficits 2009-2016 (THIS IS DISASTROUS!)
How you can claim that Bush was more fiscally irresponsible than Obama is beyond belief. Pure BDS on your part.

Actually it was the Congressional Budget Office who analyized the bill and came up with the figures on deficit reduction.-posted by tierra 12/24 at 12:20p
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Tierra, of course the figures were produced by CBO, but I know you are completely aware that President Obama and the Democratic leadership in Congress eagerly jumped on those figures and have used them repetitively to encourage (browbeat?) senators to pass the Senate bill.
I do not for a minute believe you are so naive to not see that.
I don’t like this bill, and the methods used to push if forward are wrong.

I do not for a minute believe you are so naive to not see that.
Posted by: malcat
Wanna bet?

Try to catch up with what’s going on – there are two bills that have been passed; one by the house, one by the senate. Not Obama.–posted by tierra
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Tierra, did you not hear about President Obama’s closed-door meetings with congressional Democrats?
President Obama did everything he could to push these bills forward. The fact that he did not actually cast a recorded vote on either of these bills does not mean he did not help pass these bills.
Are you worried that something WILL go hideously wrong with the final merged product? Is that why you are trying to distance the President from the process?
I thought you had far more confidence in the Democrats and the President than that.

“Bush and his administration did 2 major things.
They overspend and cut taxes thus plunging the country into debt totalling over $10 TRILLION dollars.”
How much have Obama and the libs spent?

December 21 Rasmussen poll reporting 55% oppose this bill. 64% of voters not affiliated with either party oppose the plan.
In a letter sent late Dec. 22, about 36 hours before the expected Senate vote Christmas Eve morning, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops urged opposition to the Senate bill.
In addition to not maintaining the legal status quo on abortion funding that has been supported by President Barack Obama and by the majority of Americans in many polls, the abortion provisions in the manager’s amendment to the Senate bill would require purchasers of some health insurance plans “to pay for other people’s abortions in a very direct and explicit way,” the USCCB letter said.
“There is no provision for individuals to opt out of this abortion payment in federally subsidized plans, so people will be required by law to pay for other people’s abortions,” it added.
The Senate bill also fails to include provisions to prevent “discrimination against health care providers that decline involvement in abortion” and would not protect the rights of Catholic and other institutions “to provide and purchase health coverage consistent with their moral and religious convictions on other procedures,” the chairmen said.
Rasmussen polling released last week showed that 57% of voters say passing nothing would be preferable to passing the current legislation.
Whatever happened to the liberal mantra of get your laws off my body?
Now that the Democrats have gone completely against the will of the people and have dictated their own will onto us, is it safe to start calling them the communist party?

“Tierra, did you not hear about President Obama’s closed-door meetings with congressional Democrats? ”
No transparency? No CSPAN?! This is wrong!

Ezra Klein has a good post up about winning ugly.
Well said. I agree.
Posted by: progressive mama | Dec 24, 2009 1:00:43 PM
I’m so glad you and Ezra can be so unconcerned about the 30 plus million people who will remain uninsured for the next 3years or more. It must be nice.
I am opposed to this legislation but if the Democrats are going to pass it, they should at least be honest enough to insure these people asap or start with something that actually works. Otherwise, everybody gets screwed – except Congress of course.
They are so incompetent, they couldn’t even pass the proper legislation. What a joke!

tjp, I don’t know where your figures come from, and I think you are confusing deficits with debt.
According to Treasury, shen Bush took office, the national debt was $5.73 trillion. When he left, it was $10.7 trillion. That’s a difference of $4.97 trillion – that would be the sum of the Bush deficits.
However, it is even more than that, and you should know there is a reason that the deficits under Obama now look larger.
There were at least four accounting gimmicks that President George W. Bush used to make deficit projections look smaller. Obama’s changes include accounting for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars (Bush relied on “emergency supplemental” war spending), assuming the Alternative Minimum Tax will be indexed for inflation, accounting for the full costs of Medicare reimbursements, and anticipating inevitable expenditures for natural disaster relief. The result of Obama’s openness is a budget that is $2.7 trillion deeper in the red over the next decade than it would otherwise appear. That debt was always there. It was just being hidden.

“Senate passes historic health bill”…….The Titanic was an historic vessel; The Hindenberg was an historic dirigible; & Obama is an historic President!

Posted by: Flash Override | Dec 24, 2009 3:51:26 PM
Strong
Republicans take pride in accounting and statistical macrame.

The result of Obama’s openness is a budget that is $2.7 trillion deeper in the red over the next decade than it would otherwise appear. That debt was always there. It was just being hidden.
Posted by: Flash Override |
Congress playing games with deficit numbers is the opposite of a news flash.
Your assertion that hiding deficits leads to understated of actual (not projected) debt is baffling.

Obama is not much different from Bush. I am saying this as a Democrat. He has really sold America down the river with this health insurance bill. When I think of all the self righteous liberals who called Hillary supproters “racist” it makes me sick. Look what the Obots have stuck us with! Some guy who bows like a servant to foreign leaders and to his corporate masters.
Merry Christmas

Obama is not much different from Bush.
Posted by: Bebee | Dec 24, 2009 7:13:22 PM
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Good to hear! I guess the Republican right wingers will be flocking to the Democratic cause after reading your words!

Didn’t Hawaii have public health care until it became too outrageously expensive after about 8 months and they had to suspend the program?
Ghost of Christmas future!

Posted by: Skip | Dec 24, 2009 5:21:00 PM
I don’t know what’s going on with Gore’s book. This was a replay of Limbaugh’s program the day the PM from India was hanging out with BHO at the WH. Newsbusters has a story about Gore Photoshop-ing a satellite view of the earth and Florida almost under water. I was just wondering why Gore would have to publish a faked satellite picture. I guess the earth isn’t disintegrating fast enough for him.
If you have any actual information other than Rush-bashing get back to me.

The facts are wrong, the arguments are disingenuous and the BDS whining is incessant.
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Sorry, you can’t pretend it didn’t happen and you can’t pretend it isn’t still playing a major role in our current situation.
The Bush administration overspent and cut taxes plunging the country further and further into debt every year he was in power.
He also oversaw the collapse of the economy, hundreds of thousands of jobs lost each month, collapse of the stock markets, collapse of major financial institutions, skyrocketing foreclosures and bankruptcies . . . and so on.
“It’s just a rough patch” – George Bush.

So if Bush’s deficits were bad, how are the ever so bigger Obama deficits good?
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It’s not at all difficult to figure out.
Bush bankrupted the country and oversaw the collapse of the economy – and all of this was left on the table for Obama. A $10 trillion deficit, a collapsed economy.
Do you have any idea what the collapse of the economy did to the tax base – and thus deficits?

Posted by: Live! From D.C.! It’s Saturday Night! | Dec 24, 2009 11:43:16 PM
Try not to worry about it; it was just a ‘rough patch’. Talk about being out of touch with reality.

Do you have any idea what the collapse of the economy did to the tax base – and thus deficits?
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So Mr. Obama double down on the spending, or tightened our collective belts and cut spending dramatically?
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You seem to have missed the point about what the crashing of the economy did to the tax base – Bush ran huge deficits every year of his presidency.
The collapse of the economy handed Obama not only the Bush deficits, but a huge automatic deficit – at a time when State budgets were also collapsing, unemployment benefit costs were going through the roof, hundreds of thousands of people were losing their jobs, their health care, their housing, etc.

You seem to have missed the point about what the crashing of the economy did to the tax base – Bush ran huge deficits every year of his presidency.
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By the way, Bush’s deficits and the national debt he left Obama ARE going to have to be paid for by TAXES.

Posted by: Live! From D.C.! It’s Saturday Night! | Dec 25, 2009 12:00:51 AM
Interesting accusations D.C. – but just that.

It’s not at all difficult to figure out.
Bush bankrupted the country and oversaw the collapse of the economy – and all of this was left on the table for Obama. A $10 trillion deficit, a collapsed economy.
Do you have any idea what the collapse of the economy did to the tax base – and thus deficits?
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Sorry, it happened – we all are. You can’t wish it away.

At least there won’t be any pesky Congressional approval required for whatever amount Fannie and Freddie need.
Happy holidaze from Bailout Nation!”
Posted by: Live! From D.C.! It’s Saturday Night! |
Phony and Fraudie. Brought to you by your US government, makers of Obamacare. Our motto is “Doing for the health care system what we’ve done for public education”.

“The Obama family is spending Christmas and New Years in President Obama’s native Hawaii and the schedule for the next few days has no public events. Obama has no “home” church in Honolulu from his youth, and the Obamas have only attended church services in Washington three times in the past year.
“The Obama family quit Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ during the presidential campaign because of the controversies surrounding the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. So you may wonder, will the Obamas attend church services on Christmas? What will he be doing in Hawaii between now and Jan. 3, when the family is scheduled to return?
“Church seems iffy. Golf seems certain, based on past vacations and the Chicago friends who will be with him in Hawaii.” – Lynn Sweet, Politics Daily, 12/24/09

“Church seems iffy. Golf seems certain”
RICK WARREN: Now, let’s deal with abortion; 40 million abortions since Roe v. Wade. As a pastor, I have to deal with this all of the time, all of the pain and all of the conflicts. I know this is a very complex issue. Forty million abortions, at what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?
BARACK OBAMA: Well, you know, I think that whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade.

“Now, in an unexpected move, Obama has told White House aides that instead of joining a congregation in Washington, D.C., he will follow in George W. Bush’s footsteps and make his primary place of worship Evergreen Chapel, the nondenominational church at Camp David.
“A number of factors drove the decision — financial, political, personal — but chief among them was the desire to worship without being on display. Obama was reportedly taken aback by the circus stirred up by his visit to 19th Street Baptist in January. Lines started forming three hours before the morning service, and many longtime members were literally left out in the cold as the church filled with outsiders eager to see the new President. Even at St. John’s, which is so accustomed to presidential visitors that it is known as the “Church of the Presidents,” worshippers couldn’t help themselves from snapping photos of Obama on their camera phones as they walked down the aisle past him to take communion.
“The challenge of not only being part of a church community but also praying in peace has long been a problem for Presidents, according to historian Carl Sferrazza Anthony.”
TIME

Opening para of ‘It’s Our Time Now,’ from the amazingly articulate 17 year old Jackie from her blog Red, White & Conservative, 12/22/09
“The Founders spent endless days fighting over a vision for this nation. Our grandparents fought to keep it free for us. Men and women continue to fight on our behalf today. Our parents do everything in their power to make our lives pleasant. But it’s time we take matters into our own hands. I’m talking to the youth of America. As I sit here writing this my mind is whirling about with thoughts of what is going on in this country and my heart is heavy. I am just one of a growing number. A growing number young people concerned about their futures. We come from all backgrounds, beliefs, and economic standings. But we all share one thing in common, we love America. We love America and have a similar vision. Our parents have taught us morals and ideals but we also have some thoughts of our own.”

“They may miss singing carols and reading the Christmas story in the book of Luke, at least in a formal church setting, but after entertaining 50,000 house guests, all the First Family must really want for Christmas is some peace and quiet.” TIME

It’s come to this:
Senator Robert Byrd (D-West Virginia) is quoting Arab proverbs
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And this is important because . . . ?

….we’re not bankrupt yet…so he continues merrily spending into 2010.
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Every industrialized western nation has instituted deficit funding, tax cuts and stimulus funding in attempting to save themselves from complete economic collapse.
It is VERY unfortunate, the Bush administration chose to overspend and under tax – he passed on a huge national debt, and a built-in huge deficit to the current President.
And he handed the current President an economy in ruins.
p.s. – in case you missed it, the health care legislation before the senate actually reduces the deficit . .. also, TARP was put in place under the previous administration . .

Every industrialized western nation has instituted deficit funding, tax cuts and stimulus funding in attempting to save themselves from complete economic collapse.
It is VERY unfortunate, the Bush administration chose to overspend and under tax – he passed on a huge national debt, and a built-in huge deficit to the current President.
And he handed the current President an economy in ruins.
p.s. – in case you missed it, the health care legislation before the senate actually reduces the deficit . .. also, TARP was put in place under the previous administration . .
Posted by: tierra |
The facts are wrong, the arguments are disingenuous and the BDS whining is incessant.
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Sure they are, all the facts are wrong . .. and you’ve done a non-existent job of challenging them . . .

Spending, spending, wasteful spending, and earmarks….started in the Bush administration continues on speed in the Obama administration. Responsible Americans will vote Obama out of office and he deserves it. Earmarks, earmarks, earmarks….come get your earmarks. Obama the candidate…”I’ll eliminate earmarks”. What a liar. Earmarks, earmarks, earmarks…come little piggies.