This week’s edition of the Liberty Update, CFIF’s weekly e-newsletter, is out. For those readers who don’t receive it in their e-mail inboxes or if you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, below is a summary of its contents:
Here at CFIF, we don’t make it a habit of promoting chain emails. But one such email, which has landed in our inboxes on more than one occasion today, is worth an exception. The author is unknown. Here it is as it has been sent to us.
Senator Harry Reid goes to a local GM dealer in Washington, D.C. with the intention of buying a brand new vehicle. Harry looks around and finds one he likes.
After going back and forth with the salesman, Harry settles on a price of $45,000.
Harry and the salesman go back to the office to complete the paperwork. Harry works out a 4 year payment plan, and signs on the bottom line.
The salesman shakes Harry’s hand and says, “Thanks Senator Reid, the car will be ready for pickup in 4 years.” Harry says, “What are you talking about?”
“Where are the keys to my new car?” The salesman replies, “No, you don’t understand Senator. You make payments for 4 years…THEN we give you the car. You know, just like your health plan.”
According to a recently released Fox News poll, nearly four out of every five voters (79%) feel the U.S. economy could collapse and that Washington has no credible plan to fix it.
That pessimism is not held by voters identifying with just one political party either. 72% of Democrats, 84% of Republicans and 80% of Independents share the pessimism about the economy, while just 18% of all voters surveyed think it’s “so big and strong it could never collapse.”
Before you go blaming those greedy Wall Street suits for the nation’s gloom, read this little nugget from FoxNews.com’s report on the poll:
78 percent of voters believe the federal government is ‘larger and more costly’ than it has ever been before, and by nearly three-to-one more voters think the national debt (65 percent) is a greater potential threat to the country’s future than terrorism (23 percent). …
“Three in 10 American voters (30 percent) say they are comfortable with the size and role of the federal government right now, while 65 percent say the government has become too big and ‘is restricting American freedoms.’”
Less than 48 hours after Democrats in the House of Representatives passed their government-run health care bill, President Obama this morning signed it into law.
In doing so, the president violated yet another promise he made to the American people. In fact, the “ethics” page of Obama’s “Organizing for America” website still reads:
Sunlight Before Signing: Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them. As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.” [emphasis added]
Then again, the president has reneged on that specific promise on at least 32 occasions prior to today. At this point, why even bother counting?
Democrats in the House of Representatives just approved the Senate-passed health care bill by a vote of 219-212. They did so without any Republican votes and against the will of the American people.
In a surprise move today, Democrats decided to vote on the Senate bill directly instead of using the so-called Slaughter Solution, a procedural maneuver that would have shielded them from a direct vote on the bill.”
This week’s edition of the Liberty Update, CFIF’s weekly e-newsletter, is out. For those readers who don’t receive it in their e-mail inboxes or if you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, below is a summary of its contents:
President Barack Obama’s job approval is the worst of his presidency to date, with 46% of Americans approving and 48% disapproving of the job he is doing as president in the latest Gallup Daily three-day average. …
“Americans hold Congress in far less esteem than they do the president — 16% approve and 80% disapprove of the job Congress is doing.”
High unemployment and the struggling economy are without a doubt a major source of the American people’s frustration. But it is no coincidence that the president’s job approval numbers have toppled to a record low during the same week, as Gallup reports it, “in which the White House and Democratic congressional leaders are working to convince wavering House Democrats to support healthcare reform, which they hope to pass using a series of parliamentary maneuvers in the House of Representatives and Senate.”
Yet, with two out of every three Americans opposed to ObamaCare, the Associated Press informs us that the president is telling fence-sitting House Democrats that “their political fates are linked to the bill’s passage.”
Huh?
Ask anyone on your local street corner if they think politicians in Washington are out of touch with the people they claim to represent. Nine times out of ten (if not 10 out of 10) you’ll get the obvious answer, “Yes!” But simply being “out of touch” doesn’t even begin to describe the audacity of this president.
In these week’s Freedom Minute, CFIF’s Renee Giachino discusses how President Obama and his allies have sacrificed both sound policy and basic ethics in their push for government-controlled health care.
Nearly one-third of all practicing physicians may leave the medical profession if President Obama signs current versions of health-care reform legislation into law, according to a survey published in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
“The survey, which was conducted by the Medicus Firm, a leading physician search and consulting firm based in Atlanta and Dallas, found that a majority of physicians said health-care reform would cause the quality of American medical care to ‘deteriorate’ and it could be the ‘final straw’ that sends a sizeable number of doctors out of medicine.
“More than 29 percent (29.2) percent of the nearly 1,200 doctors who responded to the survey said they would quit the profession or retire early if health reform legislation becomes law. If a public option were included in the legislation, as several liberal Senators have indicated they would like, the number would jump to 45.7 percent. “
So much for reducing the nation’s health care costs.
Fewer doctors, greater demand and inferior health care for all. Is that the “change” you believe in?
This week’s edition of the Liberty Update, CFIF’s weekly e-newsletter, is out. For those readers who don’t receive it in their e-mail inboxes or if you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, below is a summary of its contents:
Regarding all the back room deals and horse trading taking place on ObamaCare, we thought the American people had seen it all. Apparently not.
President Obama, in his effort to sway key Members of Congress to vote “yes” on reform, invited Rep. Bart Stupak to the Russian opera last week. As reported by John McCormack of the Weekly Standard:
Asked if he was a big fan of the opera, Stupak, who represents a district encompassing the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, laughed and said: ‘No, I’m not a fan of opera, especially not Russian opera because I wouldn’t understand a thing.’ …
“‘The point I was trying to make’ by relaying the opera story, Stupak said, ‘is that the White House is pulling out all of the stops trying to get members to commit to voting for health care.’”
Gee. It took approximately $300 million to buy off Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA). Hundreds of millions more to bribe Senators Ben Nelson (D-NE) and Bill Nelson (D-FL). All they could offer Stupak, who assures everyone that he has 12 solid pro-life House Democrats who voted “yes” in November but who are now committed to voting “no,” was a ticket to the Russian opera?
Ironically, what the president refuses to realize is that we are all waiting for the fat lady to sing.
The Hill newspaper recently surveyed key House Democrats on where they stand on ObamaCare.
Twelve representatives who voted yes on the House-passed health care bill in November are “Undecided.” Among others who voted yes in November, Rep. Michael Arcuri (NY) is “Leaning No” and Representatives Russ Carnahan (MO) and Jim Oberstar (MN) are “Leaning Yes.” Eleven House Members who voted for the Stupak Amendment in November are in the “Firm No” category.
This week’s edition of the Liberty Update, CFIF’s weekly e-newsletter, is out. For those readers who don’t receive it in their e-mail inboxes or if you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, below is a summary of its contents:
John McCormack of The Weekly Standardreported yesterday:
Tonight, Barack Obama will host ten House Democrats who voted against the health care bill in November at the White House; he’s obviously trying to persuade them to switch their votes to yes. One of the ten is Jim Matheson of Utah. The White House just sent out a press release announcing that today President Obama nominated Matheson’s brother Scott M. Matheson, Jr. to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.”
First it was the “Louisiana Purchase.” Then, the “Cornhusker Kickback.” Is the president now trading federal judgeship’s for health care votes? Read McCormack’s entire piece, then you decide.
In this week’s Freedom Minute, CFIF’s Renee Giachino discusses the facade that is the administration’s debt-reduction commission and, specifically, how appointing a panel of has-been politicians to give Washington cover for tax hikes is not exactly a profile in courage.
This week’s edition of the Liberty Update, CFIF’s weekly e-newsletter, is out. For those readers who don’t receive it in their e-mail inboxes or if you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, below is a summary of its contents: