Obama Administration Blurs Lines Between Governance and Activism
I suppose this should be no surprise to those aware of Saul Alinsky's influence on this administration, but the extent to which this bunch turns government into its own political action arm is shocking. I see it over and over, from the "blog squad" running inside the Justice Department to the White House advocacy blog and beyond.
The Cato Institute alerts us to this HHS report, released on the eve of the congressional vote to reveal Obamacare, which warns that 129 million Americans with a pre-existing condition could be denied coverage if repeal occurs. How conveniently can this possibly be timed? What business does HHS have engaging in such political activism on our dime?
Adding insult to injury, the HHS "wildly overstates the problem of pre-existing conditions -- and ignores its cause, says the Cato Institute's Michael Cannon. Read Cannon's post. He's very knowledgeable on this subject and this post is informative.
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Sep '10
Re: Obama Administration Blurs Lines Between Governance and Activism
What, are they counting bad breathe, body odor, and cottage cheese thighs as pre existing conditions? That is an absurd claim.
Re: Obama Administration Blurs Lines Between Governance and Activism
Mark Belling Fan
What, are they counting bad breathe, body odor, and cottage cheese thighs as pre existing conditions? That is an absurd claim. · Jan 18 at 10:40am
Good point. That objectively exaggerated figure alone shows the political motivation in the report.
Oct '10
Re: Obama Administration Blurs Lines Between Governance and Activism
It is clearly unconstitutional for a division of the Executive branch of government to use tax payer dollars to propagandize an issue in an attempt to influence legislation regulating that very division of the Executive, and they should be called out and loudly condemned for such action. Furthermore, this would clearly be a legitimate cause for congressional investigation.
Jul '10
Re: Obama Administration Blurs Lines Between Governance and Activism
You gave us the HHS link twice, David. I think you intended the second link to be to Cannon's post.
So they beat the stuffing out of the real insurance companies with mandates and price setting, and having destroyed the industry they say "gosh, look at all these "pre-existing conditions" we just shoved underneath the bus, we must save them!!!
HHS: defund it, dissolve it, put those fat, hateful slobs on unemployment, bulldoze the buildings, sprinkle them with garlic and holy water, pour concrete over them, the whole Chernobyl treatment, and rejoice that the terror is at an end.
When they ask why, just give them this link.
Re: Obama Administration Blurs Lines Between Governance and Activism
As Sam Kinison told Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School, "Good answer. I like the way you think."
Re: Obama Administration Blurs Lines Between Governance and Activism
Sisyphus: You gave us the HHS link twice, David. I think you intended the second link to be to Cannon's post.
So they beat the stuffing out of the real insurance companies with mandates and price setting, and having destroyed the industry they say "gosh, look at all these "pre-existing conditions" we just shoved underneath the bus, we must save them!!!
HHS: defund it, dissolve it, put those fat, hateful slobs on unemployment, bulldoze the buildings, sprinkle them with garlic and holy water, pour concrete over them, the whole Chernobyl treatment, and rejoice that the terror is at an end.
When they ask why, just give them this link. · Jan 18 at 11:07am
Thank you. Corrected the link.
Jun '10
Re: Obama Administration Blurs Lines Between Governance and Activism
Wait, I thought it was Bush, the younger, who ran the Imperial Presidency. I guess it all depends on whose ox is being gored. Oops, was that me being uncivil again?
Nov '10
Re: Obama Administration Blurs Lines Between Governance and Activism
We are all tap-dancing around the elephant in the living room, again. This post (along with David's previous one about START) is ample proof that the Federal Government is now a law unto itself — answerable to no one!
That is a pre-revolutionary condition. Once you stack up enough pre-revolutionary conditions, you wind up with a big pile of dry kindling, just waiting for a spark. And, since government over-reach and expansion is now in the exponential stage, those conditions are coming thick and fast. Things could blow up at any time.
May '10
Re: Obama Administration Blurs Lines Between Governance and Activism
Aside from the point Lady K just made about the government not really caring about laws anymore, the real story in this is that Democrats have correctly identified a point of weakness in opposition to Obamacare.
There seems to be a large number of Republicans who believe government should be involved in helping people with pre-existing conditions. Despite the disagreement about what form that aid should take, the inclusion of aid for those conditions (even if they're not specifically identified) in Obamacare invites people to believe that Obamacare isn't all bad and can be merely modified, rather than completely repealed.
In other words, this is a politically savvy move.
Sep '10
Re: Obama Administration Blurs Lines Between Governance and Activism
The current CR expires the first part of March. THE GOP is talking about reducing current year spending by 60 – 100B., which means they will do something less. They could actually cut all funding for sections of HHS that produce this kind of garbage, along with many other sections of other agencies. They could also reduce salaries of federal workers by 10%, etc. etc. But they won’t. We have a $14T. debt and a $1.3T deficit and the GOP is proposing a 3% cut in Proposed current year spending and they wouldn’t being doing that if it weren’t for the tea party. When a party has no meaningful opposition they become emboldened. Have you seen the new Medicare ads. Expect more of the same until more go along/get along Republicans are sent home.
Jul '10
Re: Obama Administration Blurs Lines Between Governance and Activism
K Street, the Saudis, and the Chinese, just for starters, have sunk a lot of money into this country, this Congress, and this Regime. They and their puppets are not going to give up the game just because a handful of Tea Party congresscritters got themselves elected.
Don't get me wrong. Watching the hamster James Fallows and his little friends at the Atlantic do the hamster tearing apart the discarded toilet paper roll by whacking it viciously against anything and everything in the cage trick for months on end over the existence of a real reform movement is amusing. (The NYT, of course, lacks the skill and wit to be amusing as their oafish buffoons choke on the cardboard.) But the establishment Republicans and the Democrats outnumber the grown ups and will continue selling whatever is not nailed down to the highest bidder until they lose the next election and are dragged screaming and biting and pulling hair from the people's house.
Someone once said that a good politician is one that stays bought.
So far, I want to see a lot more dead in my deadlock.
Nov '10
Re: Obama Administration Blurs Lines Between Governance and Activism
Whatever they can pry loose is not nailed down.
Re: Obama Administration Blurs Lines Between Governance and Activism
Great post, David. I think the Obama administration thinks this Obamacare repeal effort is going to be a trap to ensnare the Republicans -- the 2011 version of Gingrich's shutting down the government. And the steady drumbeat of disaster scenarios are there as warning bells.
Nov '10
Re: Obama Administration Blurs Lines Between Governance and Activism
What disturbs me more than anything else is how little regard the Democrats have for not just the average person's intelligence, but his memory. Obamacare is less than a year old, yet a lot of the Democratic talking points make it sound as if repeal will somehow make things worse than they were before. The 129 million figure can be easily refuted by simply pointing out that that figure was not true in 2008. 129 million is close to half the population; the total number of people who lacked insurance for any reason amounted to about 10-15% of the population, and not all of those were denied due to health reasons.