Freedom Line Blog

The official count, according to early news reports, is 60,000 people who have turned out for the 9-12 march on Washington.  But tune in to Fox News and I am pretty sure you’ll agree that it looks like a lot more.

Of course, House Democrats tried their hardest to diminish the significance of this event before it even started.  According to FoxNews.com, a House leadership aide penned a memo to fellow Dems warning that 2 million people could show.  The strategy?  Float a ridiculous number and anything less is failure.

These so-called leaders in Washington just don’t get it.  It is not a Democrat vs. Republican thing.  It’s not about which major political party can score the most political points.  This is about a bunch of ordinay people standing up for the principles on which this great country was founded. 

In addition to the 60,000 plus who have turned out in D.C., tens of thousands more are gathering in large cities and small towns across the country.  The more Washington politicians continue to play games and ignore the voice of the people, the larger this grassroots movement gets… and rightly so.

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives plan to pass a resolution censuring Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) for saying “you lie” during the President’s ObamaCare live infomercial Wednesday night, and refusing to apologize on the floor of the House, even though he has apologized to the President.

We assume that this censure will follow that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for calling Town Hall protesters “Nazis” and that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for saying that the CIA lies to Congress all the time.

Too bad there won’t be enough time left that day to deal with the people’s business.  How large is the deficit now?

The taxpayer protests must be working because the left is angry …  so angry that they called in a bomb threat to the offices of FreedomWorks today, forcing an evacuation.  FreedomWorks is the lead sponsor of the 9-12 rally in D.C. tomorrow (CFIF is also a co-sponsor), and they have even received death threats to their office.

I don’t think that the felon who phoned in this threat realizes his call only strengthens our resolve to fight harder against elements that obviously can’t tolerate dissent or alternative plans for health care, taxes, and regulatory reform.

The march will go on tomorrow and it will be a success, despite the radicals calling in to threaten the lives of people in their 20’s and 30’s working solely to limit the size and scope of Uncle Sam.

It is an old Washington refrain: political friend supports a presidential candidate and then gets a plum ambassadorship in a swanky country, likely one with a nice view or a beach.  This political quid pro quo happens countless times in D.C. but I was somewhat surprised to learn that it also happens across political parties, though the motivations might be the same.

Douglas Kmiec, Reagan official and former Dean of Catholic University Law School, drew some right-of-center criticism for his endorsement of President Obama.  Kmiec, a devout Catholic, was even refused communion because of his support for the pro-choice candidate.

However, despite the policy differences, Kmiec publicly endorsed Obama in an LA Times op-ed, and even wrote a book about then-Candidate Obama’s qualifications for office.

Of course, in D.C., no good deed goes unpunished and I learned from Catholic University this morning that Kmiec had been appointed ambassador to the beautiful island nation of Malta.  Surrounded by nothing more than the Med and fine dining, I’m sure Kmiec deeply regrets his decision last year, and I’m sure his vocal support for the President had nothing to do with his appointment.

Here’s a pic of the sunset in Malta.  It looks like rough times ahead for our new ambassador.

Here’s a great video from our friends at Americans for Tax Reform:

Cato Institute – Congressional Conflict of Interest
Representative Tom Price – Health Care Fact Check
Chris Cillizza – A Re-Energized Democratic Base?
Reason – Big Stimulus Winners and Losers
Political Wire – Obama Speech a Boon to Health Care Fight?
Cafe Hayek – Benefits Have Costs

D.C. 9/12 March on Washington

Remembering 9/11:

Today, we remember the fallen heroes of eight years ago and their enduring legacy for our country.

Tomorrow, taxpayers and citizen activists will be marching on Washington for the 9/12 taxpayer rally.  The Center for Individual Freedom is a proud co-sponsor of the event and we hope that you will be able to join us as we march down Pennsylvania avenue.  Here is more information about the event.

According to CNN, capitalism, the original inventor of fantasy sports, steel, smiles, ice cream, and prosperity has reinvented itself in the shadowy realm of fantasy football.

For those who follow the pigskin, you’ll remember that the quarterback for the New England Patriots (Tom … something) tore several ligaments in his knee last year.  Fantasy owners who drafted him were left with a huge loss in point production, and had to settle with an inferior quarterback, likely one from New York or Philly.

In response to this suffering, some intrepid entrepreneurs decided to essentially offer insurance for the fantasy sports market.  Fantasy “players” can now buy insurance for players, in the event they are lost to injury.  As a result of such genius innovations in the market, fantasy sports are now an $800 million industry.  Regrettably, the number of relationships and marriages that fantasy sports has destroyed is incalculable at this moment, but I wouldn’t put it past the market to give everyone an estimate.

Of course, fantasy football was already a nice product of capitalism before people started making money off of it.  For millions of over-enthusiastic beer-drinking football junkies across the nation, fantasy sports provide plenty of psychic income.  Thankfully, the IRS has not yet begun to tax this potential revenue stream.

Congressional Budget Office – September Budget Review
WSJ – GOP Response
Political Wire – Biden Predicts Health Care Bill by Thanksgiving
Cato Institute – Thoughts on Citizens United v. FEC

Steny Hoyer – Today’s House Schedule
John Stossel – Free Speech Watch
Greg Mankiw – Judging Downturns
Government Bytes – A Missed Opportunity for Obama

Federal Debt: 11.796 trillion

The first surprising quote came from the opening line of his remarks.  “I’m not the first President to take up this cause but I am determined to be the last.”  Really?!?  Mr. President, do you really think that passing a 1017-page bill will end all of our health care problems?  Have you seen the Prime Minister’s Question Hour on C-SPAN?  Do you realize they still have debates over health care in other single-payer countries?  Only their debates focus on people dying in hospitals because the government won’t pay for procedures, and they die waiting.  Passing your bill will assuredly not make you the last President to take up the cause of health care, especially with trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities.

Also, the President claimed, “I will not sign a plan that adds one dollar to our deficits either now or in the future.”  We hope you live up to that promise because the current version of the House bill will add to our deficits.  According to the Congressional Budget Office, it will add at least $239 billion over the next ten years, and this is a conservative deficit projection according to some experts.

Of course, the deficit is only one piece of the health care puzzle.  Cutting costs and confronting over $50 trillion in unfunded liabilities should also be addressed, but the President only promised that he would not touch Medicare.  There is simply no way the President can promise health care for all without drastically raising taxes or adding trillions more to our national debt.

What was left unsaid last night was how the President plans to give consumers more control over their health care.  The bill that the President is likely to sign instead gives 53 new government agencies control over health care, not patients and doctors.

Because of a meeting this morning, morning links are now afternoon links, at least for today.

WSJ – Biden Touts Stimulus
Steny Hoyer – Today’s House Schedule
Reason – Naive First Amendment Question
Government Bytes – Five Ideas the President Should Have
Chris Cillizza – What Obama Should Say
Washington Post – Previewing VA and NJ
Political Wire – Van Jones is Back…

C-SPAN – Oral Argument Transcript from Citizens United v. FEC

Federal Debt: $11.806 trillion

During his speech to a joint session of Congress this evening, President Obama will again endorse the idea of a government-run public health insurance option.  This, according to some staffers in Congress and despite the public outrage against it.

In doing so, many insiders have hinted that while Obama will make a soft endorsement of the controversial provision, he is also likely the hedge his bets to leave open the possibility for further negotiations with Congressional moderates. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the other hand continues to insist that a public health insurance option must be part of any final bill in order for it to pass in the House of Representatives.  Pelosi continues to get a lot of heat from progressives in her caucus (as many as 100 of them), who claim they will vote “No” on any bill that doesn’t include the government-run public option.

After a heated August recess on the health care issue, the Kabuki Dance that the President performs tonight should be interesting.  As Congressman Mike Pence, Chairman of the House Republican Conference, stated this morning, “The American people have spoken. Tonight we’ll see if Washington is listening.”

We’re not holding our breaths.

During the August recess, at least 23 House Democrats pledged opposition to the health care reform bill being pushed by House Leadership, including Nancy Pelosi.   If 16 more Dems join the 23 already opposed to the legislation — assuming all Republican remain united against the plan — Pelosi won’t have enough votes to pass it. 

The bill’s price tag and opposition to the government-run public option are among the reasons moderate Democrats have indicated they will vote “No.”   But as many as 100 members of Pelosi’s caucus have suggested they will not for for a bill that doesn’t include the so-called “public option.” 

Below is the list of 23 House Dems opposed to the legislation as compiled by The Hill:

John Adler (N.J.)
Jason Altmire  (Pa.)
John Barrow  (Ga.)
Dan Boren (Okla.)
Rick Boucher  (Va.)
Allen Boyd (Fla.)
Bobby Bright (Ala.)
Travis Childers (Miss.)
Jim Costa (Calif.)
Henry Cuellar  (Texas)
Parker Griffith (Ala.)
Frank Kratovil (Md.)
Betsy Markey (Colo.)
Eric Massa (N.Y.) — Doesn’t believe the public option in the current legislation is strong enough
Jim Matheson (Utah)
Charlie Melancon (La.)
Walt Minnick (Idaho)
Tom Perriello (Va.)
Earl Pomeroy (N.D.)
Heath Shuler (N.C.)
Bart Stupak (Mich.)
John Tanner (Tenn.)
Gene Taylor (Miss.)

From FoxNews.com:

Families who fail to get health insurance could be fined up to $3,800 under a health care reform plan proposed by a top Senate negotiator. 

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee is leading talks among the “Gang of Six” senators to hammer out a bipartisan compromise, offered what he described on Tuesday as a “framework” and not a “final product.” 

But the detailed proposal comes just days ahead of a self-imposed Sept. 15 deadline for such a deal. Baucus is pushing his committee members hard to hammer out a bill, and those details come as strong suggestions. 

The framework, a copy of which was obtained by FOX News, includes what amounts to a no-choice option. It would make health insurance mandatory, like auto insurance. 

Read the full article here.

Despite the uproar, President Obama today is delivering his much-anticipated speech to the nation’s school children from Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia.  But as pointed out by Byron York today in the Washington Examiner:

[W]hen President George H.W. Bush delivered a similar speech on October 1, 1991, from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington DC, the controversy was just beginning. Democrats, then the majority party in Congress, not only denounced Bush’s speech — they also ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate its production and later summoned top Bush administration officials to Capitol Hill for an extensive hearing on the issue.

Then House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt complained at the time that “The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president.”

And, according to Mr. York:

Rep. William Ford, then chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate the cost and legality of Bush’s appearance. On October 17, 1991, Ford summoned then-Education Secretary Lamar Alexander and other top Bush administration officials to testify at a hearing devoted to the speech.

Read Byron York’s entire article here.

From Ronald Bailey at Reason and the Cato Institute:

So how does health-status insurance work? As Cochrane [Cato Institute Scholar] explains, ‘Market-based lifetime health insurance has two components: medical insurance and health-status insurance. Medical insurance covers your medical expenses in the current year, minus deductibles and copayments. Health-status insurance covers the risk that your medical premiums will rise.’ Cochrane offers the example of a 25-year-old who will likely incur $2,000 in medical expenses in a year. His medical policy component would thus cost about $2,000 per year, plus administrative fees and profit. For purposes of illustration, Cochrane then assumes the 25-year-old has a 1 percent risk of developing a chronic medical condition that would increase his average medical expenses to $10,000 per year. In that case, he would be able to buy medical insurance for $10,000 per year—which is a big financial hit. That’s where health-status insurance comes in: It insures that you can be insured in the future.”

When Glenn Beck began to expose Van Jones, the “Green Jobs” Czar forced to resign from the Obama administration in the middle of a holiday weekend night, Color of Change, an organization founded by Van Jones, called for advertisers to boycott Beck’s Fox News Channel program.  Some have.

Now, Keith Olbermann is asking (at Daily Kos) for people to provide deleterious information about Beck, his producer and Roger Ailes, President of Fox.  Olbermann says that he will extend the request to his MSNBC audience tonight, making some kind of  what’s good for the goose is good for the gander argument.

Given that “goose” is not a euphemism that we would apply to Jones, nor “gander” to Beck, Mr. Olbermann seems to have forgotten that the really, really big “gander” a bit above his pay grade is General Electric, which owns MSNBC and makes more consumer products subject to boycott than just about any other corporation.

When you begin to see reruns of “Little House on the Prairie” mysteriously appear at 8 pm on MSNBC’s schedule, you may assume that adults at GE have decided that goose liver should not be among the company’s product mix.

WSJ – ObamaCare to Cost Over $2 trillion
WSJ – Obama Vows Action on Health Care
WSJ – Key Week for Obama Starts on Feisty Note
Cafe Hayek – Downside of Minimum Wage Legislation

Political Wire – Franken’s Map
Club for Growth – Coburn v. Public Option
Reason – Coming Soon to Congress
Greg Mankiw – Unemployment Update

Federal Debt: $11.816 trillion

As Jeff noted yesterday, the filter between Van Jones’ brain and mouth is leaky at times.  However, as the Washington Times reports, Jones once (or possibly still) believed that 9/11 was an inside job.

In 2004, Jones signed a statement on 911truth.org demanding an investigation into the administration’s activities leading up to 9/11, “as a pretext for war.”