Reading list on Obamacare: when government gets involved

NYT: Obamacare Collapse 'Has Deeply Embarrassed' White House  "A New York Times investigative article based on two dozen interviews with industry insiders and confidential Obama Administration documents reveals that the catastrophic $500 million Obamacare rollout "has deeply embarrassed the White House" and has the technology companies involved "publicly distancing themselves" from the Obamacare fiasco. "

Well, this may be splitting hairs, but the embarrassment is over the website and not, as yet, over the ACA itself and its issues.

The NY Times article From the Start, Signs of Trouble at Health Portal; Even some supporters of the Affordable Care Act worry that the flaws in the system, if not quickly fixed, could threaten the fiscal health of the insurance initiative, which depends on throngs of customers to spread the risk and keep prices low.
...."Former government officials say the White House, which was calling the shots, feared that any backtracking would further embolden Republican critics who were trying to repeal the health care law. "

Daily Caller; Obamacare is in Crisis Now. Right Now. ..."Young people won’t make the effort to look up insurance companies on their own when they don’t really care that much about getting insurance anyway. They won’t try 50 times to use a balky web site.  ”Without the exchanges, the death spiral seems almost assured.' ”...

All the above and many more at Lucianne.

Mona Charen; Republicans’ Secret Ally Against Obamacare   "For all its flaws, the GOP remains the only vehicle for advancing conservative ideas in practice, and it is the only possible vehicle for saving this country from the truly awful consequences of Democratic governance. If the Republican party loses all purchase with voters, Democrats will do to America what they’ve done to Detroit, Philadelphia, and Chicago."
....
"As is typical of Democratic solutions, it imposes a nationwide mandate on everyone to solve the discrete problem of a few."  Emphasis added.

The Top 10 Reasons Why Obamacare Will Always Be Controversial   "While some Americans will come to depend on Obamacare and its subsidies, driving up dependence on government and solidifying more Democrat votes, their signature law will always be a divisive, controversial law."

The President’s Lawn

Chip Bok 

"The president thinks the National Mall is his lawn. He used park service storm troopers to try to keep veterans and everyone else – except illegal immigrants – away from the mall and memorials. Maybe the illegal immigrants were represented by illegal immigrant lawyers.

Lawn Job

"Over the weekend veteran groups uprooted park service barricades and dumped them on the White House  lawn."

 

Israel's blind watchmen

Caroline Glick   "During his visit to Israel in March, US President Barack Obama compelled Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to apologize to his Turkish counterpart for the actions of IDF Naval Commandos aboard the Mavi Marmara terror ship in May 2010."

...."By forcing Israel to apologize to Turkey, Obama took the side of the aggressor against the victim."
...."They did not consider the possibility that Obama could transfer US support from the man who upheld the peace treaty with Israel for three decades - and so served as the anchor for the US's alliance system in the Arab world - to his greatest enemies, the Muslim Brotherhood, which spawned Hamas and al-Qaida, along with jihadist networks throughout the world including in the United States."

A Return to Keynes?

Thomas Sowell

"The nomination of Janet Yellen to become head of the Federal Reserve System has set off a flurry of media stories. Since she will be the first woman to occupy that position, we can only hope that this will not mean that any criticism of what she does will be attributed to sex bias or to a "war on women."

"The Federal Reserve has become such a major player in the American economy that it needs far more scrutiny and criticism than it has received, regardless of who heads it."

Almost 100% Of Visitors To ObamaCare Website Did NOT Sign Up

American Glob  "I believe this is what the kids at BuzzFeed would call a FAIL…"

...."Here’s a handy chartful o’ fail from the story linked above."

 

 

 

The chart above is a perfect match for this Rich Terrell, um, cartoon below:

America Is Intervened Out

"Our security interests have changed, along with out sense that we can make a difference."

Victor Davis Hanson   "In the immediate future, I do not think the United States will be intervening abroad on the ground — not in the Middle East or, for that matter, many places in other parts of the world. The reason is not just a new Republican isolationism, or the strange but growing alliance between left-wing pacifists and right-wing libertarians." 
....
..."Their attitude to the Obama administration’s unfortunate abdication of both theaters is mostly, “I am unhappy that we look weak getting out, but nonetheless happier that we are getting out.”
....
.... "Rather, Americans are not sure that we have the security interests we once had in the Middle East and elsewhere, and our elites do not have the wisdom to explain how our projected aims, methodologies, and desired results will improve life for the supposed beneficiaries of limited U.S. intercessions."

Fencing Lesson

Hope n' Change

 

"Specifically, military veterans attending the "Million Vet March" in Washington DC removed the aptly-named "barrycades" preventing access to the World War II memorial, and piled them in front of the White House while chanting "Obama must go!' "

....

"In 2010, the military considered giving medals for "courageous restraint" to soldiers who refrained from responding violently in the face of provocative enemy action.  Hope n' Change thinks that medal should be awarded, with honor, to every veteran who peacefully protested this weekend at the White House."

House GOP to push Obama, Biden into Obamacare

Washington Times  "House Republicans on Tuesday narrowed their attack on Obamacare to the issue of fairness, insisting that President Obama and his top political appointees all have to buy their insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges as part of a new bill to end the government shutdown and extend the federal debt ceiling.
"GOP leaders hope to put the bill on their chamber’s floor for a vote later Tuesday, with little time to spare before the Thursday deadline the Treasury Department has set for when it will run out of maneuvering room under the current $16.7 trillion debt ceiling."

theblaze.com/

One Confederate flag at the veterans rally? What do we make of a Soviet flag at a pro-Obama rally? That Che Guevara poster at an Obama office?

Communism on the Doorstep of America?

From 2008: Obama Workers' Che Guevara Poster Was No Fluke

 

"Yet the mainstream media doesn't seem to find this worth mentioning."

The Obama campaign disavowed this as I'm sure the right will disavow the Confederate flag. But the MSM was more than happy to buy the Obama disclaimer.

This is a volunteer office that is not in any way controlled by the Obama campaign. We were disappointed to see this picture because it is both offensive to many Cuban-Americans -- and Americans of all backgrounds -- and because it does not reflect Senator Obama’s views. Barack Obama has been very clear in putting forward a Cuba policy that is based on one principle: freedom for the Cuban people.

 

The man who could have saved us from Obama now regrets his punt

Investors.com   "A Barack Obama Update: The good news is we have endured 1,729 days of this guy. The bad news is there are still 1,193 left.
   "His pettiness and lack of leadership helped produce and prolong a record duration of high unemployment, the worst economic 'recovery' in decades, record deficits, record national debt, a wasted trillion dollars in stimulus, record youth and black employment hardships, untold lies about the unfolding disaster called ObamaCare and Benghazi and so many other things.
   "The country's latest fiscal crisis continues this week as an arrogant incumbent president of the United States, who approached this crisis by playing more golf, leads his nation to the brink of an historic default, which he voted to have eight years ago, but now opposes."
....
 "In 2003, Sen. George Allen, namesake son of the legendary NFL coach, approached Ditka to be the party's nominee the next year. Ditka, who had described himself as "uber-conservative," subsequently said he considered the new career path for two days. But turned it down as an interference with business plans."
Instead we got Alan Keyes and the rest is history

The state of, um, "journalism" today

http://legalinsurrection.com/2013/10/branco-cartoon-liberation-theology/

 

As I said yesterday, that guy with the Confederate flag was either an idiot or a left-wing plant,LukeHandCool nails it with this comment:  

....Imagine if a Republican were in the White House and just a tiny, ragtag Cindy Sheehan group of a couple dozen people (2/3 of them reporters) had disgustedly deposited barricades outsids I wrote yesterday, that guy with the Confederate flag was eitheran idiot or a left-wing plante the White House … those TV cameras would zoom in like Hubble telescopes and pan forever.

But, alas, to the great masses of low-info voters watching the MSM news … absolutely nothing happened in DC yesterday.  

I'm sure that Confederate flag got plenty of coverage. Especially on the race-pimping MSNBC (Often promoted on "Law and Order").

I told you the guy with that Confederate flag was either an idiot or a leftist plant. Race-baiting MSNBC jumped right on it. And so did these guys:
DC Ralliers Fly Rebel Flag, Tell Obama ‘Put the Quran Down’ "Ralliers"?. One stupid or vindictive guy. One.

From the left-wing ThinkProgress: Veterans Slam Tea Party Politicians For Hijacking Protest Against War Memorial Closures   "Polls show most Americans blame Republicans for the shutdown, and both the GOP and the Tea Party’s popularity are at all-time lows."
But it is the Obama administration which closed down all sites and gave orders to make the shutdown hurt citizens.

 

Let's not forget to check in on ObamaCare

11,588,500 Words: Obamacare Regulations 30 Times as Long as the Actual Law    "Bureaucracies in the Obama Administration have thus far published approximately 11,588,500 words of final Obamacare regulations, while there are only 381,517 words in the Obamacare law itself.

"That means unelected federal officials have now written 30 words of regulations for each word in the law. "....

Cronyism, incompetence cited in failure of healthcare.gov site  ..."InfoWorld summed it up: "It was built by people who are apparently far more familiar with government cronyism than they are with IT."

"All but one of the 47 contractors who won contracts to carry out work on the Affordable Care Act worked for the government prior to its passage," the report reads."... 

...."Nominally a defense contractor, SAIC has been involved with many government projects with ghastly end results, such as New York City's fraud- and corruption-riddled $600 million CityTime payroll software boondoggle." Rick Moran

Politico says: It's time to fire Secretary Sebelius 
“If Apple launched a major new product that functioned as badly as ObamaCare’s online insurance marketplace, the tech world would be calling for [CEO] Tim Cook’s head.”
"That searing indictment of Obamacare didn’t come from a conservative. Those were the words of the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein — yes, liberal Ezra Klein —and Evan Soltas in a blog post on Oct. 4, just three days after the online Obamacare marketplace opened. They were right."

 Obamacare website troubles began long before launch  ..."But the public simply wants to understand what is going on in the meantime, as the clock ticks on the individual mandate.  As we’ve seen the responses from this administration, which repeatedly tells the public these are all just glitches due to the overwhelming demand for Obamacare – demand it claims was unexpected – it should be evident by now that no straightforward answers appear to be coming our way anytime soon."
The NY Times article cited here: From the Start, Signs of Trouble at Health Portal

 

Obamacare’s Secret Is Out  "Timing is everything. And just as Congress’s focus seems to be drifting from Obamacare’s ravages on the economy, Americans are learning the reason this law’s implementation was postponed until after the presidential election.

"That reason is becoming clear as person after person opens the mail. Insurance costs are going up. For many, not just going up—skyrocketing.
"Ross, a married father of three small boys in Florida, tells us his insurance will be going up $525 per month. “I feel completely helpless,” he says."....