The budget negotiations continue: Obama apparently has rejected the Republican capitulation offer from yesterday.
The Republican plan, which I think sucks, was simply not humiliating enough. Meanwhile, there appears to be some pushback from conservative Republicans. I am not hopeful, however. The cowards at the head of the Republican party always back down.
The Republican leadership folds on the government shutdown. Key quote:
In exchange for meeting, at least momentarily, all of Obama’s demands, the House GOP is seeking a “framework” for future negotiations.
They get a repeal of an Obamacare tax on medical equipment, but lose everything else, plus give up some of the sequester cuts that have actually produced the first real reduction in the size of government in decades.
And the Republican leadership wonders why they keep losing elections? With incompetent friends like this, who needs enemies.
Knowing what’s in it: When surveyed, more than 70 percent of all doctors and practices say they will not participate in the Obamacare health exchange insurance plans.
The doctors cite a fear of complex administrative and regulatory requirements as well as the exchanges’ low reimbursement rates.
Note how this wonderful government health insurance plan is providing doctors with less pay and more paperwork while charging patients more for fewer benefits. Doesn’t that combination warm the cockles of your heart?
But remember! The Democrats have your back! They are going to keep Obamacare the law no matter what!
Posted from Texas.
Working for the Democratic Party: Not only did Sarah Hall Ingram illegally share confidential taxpayer information with White House officials, she met with White House officials 165 times.
Of Ingram’s 165 White House meetings with White House staff, a staggering 155 of them were hosted by deputy assistant to the president for health policy Jeanne Lambrew, according to a June Watchdog.Org analysis of White House visitor records. Ingram exchanged confidential taxpayer information with Lambrew and White House health policy advisor Ellen Montz, according to 2012 emails obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
I notice that Obama’s so-called outrage over the IRS scandal has not caused him to remove Hall as the person in charge of the IRS’s implementation of Obamacare.
Finding out what’s in it: One man’s Obamacare nightmare.
In sum: Obama lied. His health plan died. He can’t keep his doctors. He couldn’t sign up in 10 minutes for health care. He’s being steered toward a government plan he doesn’t qualify for or want. And he can’t get his personal information back from the online Obamawreck black hole.
And then there’s this: A disabled mother finds she is forced to chose between food or Obamacare premiums.
But don’t worry: The Democrats think Obamacare is so great that they have forced a government shutdown to make sure it goes into effect immediately!
Posted as we circle Little Rock, Arkansas.
Working for the Democratic Party: Sarah Hall Ingram, now in charge of administrating Obamacare for the IRS, not only advised the White House on how to harass conservative organizations, her emails appear to have illegally included confidential tax information.
And just remember: This woman is now in charge of managing the IRS department that will implement Obamacare, giving her access to everyone’s health and tax records. If you say something that she (or Obama) doesn’t like, don’t be surprised if those records end up in the hands of Obama, to use against you.
Gee, maybe this explains why the Democrats have been willing to even shut down the government to get Obamacare up and running.
Utah has forced an agreement with the federal government to reopen its national parks.
The article says that Utah negotiated this agreement, but the only way I can imagine Utah got the Obama administration to agree to this was to tell them that Utah was going to open the parks one way or the other, and that the Obama administration would look really bad if it resisted local authorities as they protected citizens who wished to visit these parks.
Update: More information here. It appears the Obama administration is backing down across the board. They have not only announced that they will let the parks open if the states pay for their operation, they have removed the barricades at Mount Rushmore, as well as in the Great Smoky Mountains.
Click on the link. Lots of hilariously captioned pictures of evil tourists defying their righteous government which is so sincerely trying to protect its property from those disgusting “little people.”
Posted as we pass Knoxville, Tennessee.
Jack-boot thugs: A Iowan Mennonite couple that owns an art gallery has filed suit against the state’s Civil Rights Commission after being threatened with punishment for refusing to host a same-sex wedding on their property.
Posted from Tennessee.
Another reasonable thought: “The Obama Administration’s behavior during the first week of the shutdown has been the best argument against Obamacare anyone has ever made.”
The American people do not want Obamacare, and they are demanding that Washington act to protect them from the harmful effects of this unfortunate law. The president’s response has been to ignore them, allow the government to shutdown, and then use his power to close national parks and monuments, stop paying veterans’ benefits, and cut off cancer research. This is exactly why we should not expand the government’s power over our health care choices. What power the government has, it will use – and misuse – to advance its own interests, even if that means punishing the American people along the way. [emphasis mine]
Just think what any power-hungry politician, from either party, might do if he or she had unfettered access to your personal health records. If you express any opposition to them, they might even use that information to attack and destroy you.
“How can we tax people for not buying a product from a website that doesn’t work?”
This seems like a perfectly reasonable question to me.
Posted driving past Radford, Virginia.
Government marches on! The Obamacare website — that doesn’t work and probably never will — was originally supposed to cost $93.7 million and ended up costing more than six times more, $634 million.
Gee, this is almost as good as the James Webb Space Telescope, which is probably going to end up cost nine times more than originally budgeted.
And obviously, this disaster must be the fault of either George Bush or the tea party!
