Research

In an interview with The Washington Post, Obama said that in his first year in office he “rescued the economy and placed it on a path of long-term growth.”  Looking back at the job losses each month leaves us wondering when exactly he rescued the economy: Since Obama’s Stimulus plan passed in February over 2.8 Million Americans have lost their jobs and unemployment is currently at 10 percent.

To make matters worse, more job losses are expected in the coming months. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said recently that we will see more job losses in December and we won’t see any growth until spring.  The Federal Reserve has also said that unemployment will remain high through 2012.  Mike Allen of Politico reports today in the “Playbook” that the White House:

[I]s going to make a very hard pivot to jobs in the run-up to the State of the Union.  You'll see an intense focus on the economy and jobs from this White House in the beginning of 2010.

If the above job losses are any indication ... more

MSNBC’s Ed Schultz can be added to the list of liberals who strongly oppose the individual mandate in the Obama-Reid-Pelosi government-run health care experiment. He even calls it a “form of socialism!”

Yet Schultz isn’t alone. Monday, far-left blogger Jane Hamsher referenced the criticism in a list of 10 reasons to oppose Reid’s bill. And, Democracy for America, a group founded by Howard Dean, had this to say:

What they are actually talking about is something called the “individual mandate.” That's a section of the law that requires every single American buy health insurance or break the law and face penalties and fines. So, the bill doesn't actually “cover” 30 million more Americans - instead it makes them criminals if they don't buy insurance from the same companies that got us into this mess.

Of course, the most famous liberal critic of the individual mandate is President Obama. While campaigning against Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary last year, Obama said:

Obama promised transparency in the health care debate:

We'll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies.

Now Harry Reid is saying they’ve fulfilled that pledge:

Throughout this debate, we have kept our promise to make this process as transparent as possible. Just as the committee hearings were open to the public and televised, so has the debate been on the final bill. Debate on the Senate floor has been televised on C-SPAN and also streamed on the Internet.

In truth, the health care debate has taken place almost entirely behind closed doors. Sure, Senators have spent days making speeches on the Senate floor, but all of the real work goes on in Harry Reid’s office, where Rahm Emanuel makes threats and Harry Reid offers goodies to persuade wavering Senators. If there was real transparency, there’d have been a CSPAN ... more

The nostalgia of the campaign still hasn’t worn off for Obama’s pugnacious mouthpiece, Press Sec. Robert Gibbs. 

Gibbs was on the attack again yesterday when he took aim at Republicans, this time accusing them of not participating in health care negotiations:

I would suggest this for the RNC and for anybody that's in the Republican Party:  There are millions of people that don't have health care this Christmas.  There are millions of people that are watching their health care rates skyrocket.  And instead of giving chippy interviews, it might be good to actually be part of negotiations and a solution to get health care reform -- to make health care reform a reality for the American people.  I think that's what they want to see from their two political parties in Washington.

The truth is that despite the best efforts by Republicans in Congress, as well as the President’s and Democratic Leadership’s specious promises and false claims of bipartisanship and openness, Republicans have ... more

Over the weekend, we noted that President Obama and Senate Democrats were In A Reckless Rush to push through their government-run health care experiment.  Now it appears Obama is in another “reckless rush” to fulfill his ill-conceived campaign pledge to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center, regardless of the national security consequences. Jake Tapper reports that the Obama administration has agreed to transfer six Gitmo detainees to Yemen and two Somali detainees to the Somaliland region.  

While the President may celebrate these transfers, there is some information the White House is yet to divulge.  First, America’s top military officer Admiral Mike Mullen noted yesterday that Yemen is quickly becoming “another safe heaven” for terrorism, and The Wall Street Journal notes that once “the detainees are in Yemen their treatment will be impossible to control.”  The editorial further explains:

Several former Gitmo detainees from other countries have moved to Yemen to rejoin the ... more

Recently, Christina Romer wrote an op-ed in The Seattle Times, discussing the administration’s plans for Stimulus II.  She promotes the “cash for caulkers” program as well as more infrastructure spending.  We’ve pointed out before the many problems with “cash for caulkers,” which is based on the failed weatherization programs in Stimulus I and the disastrous “cash for clunkers.” 

In her op-ed, Romer says that the President is “calling for new investments in a wide range of infrastructure, designed to get out the door as quickly as possible…”  We’ve seen this movie before.  Stimulus I contained “shovel-ready” projects that were supposed to put people to work right away. That, of course, turned out not to be the case. What we did see, however, were projects which were slow to get started and money being wasted on projects without merit. 

It is sad to hear that despite the fact that the stimulus failed to create jobs, it has not stopped the Obama administration and Congressional ... more

Harry Reid may have cut enough deals with his backroom “cash for cloture” to ram government-run health care through the Senate, but the war is far from over. Before the conference committee even begins to meet, House and Senate Democrats appear to have reached an impasse as irreconcilable differences remain between their two bills. They’ll have to slug it out on highly controversial issues like the public option, abortion, and taxes. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) hit the nail on the head when he summed up the issue of compromise:

“There is a natural tendency to split the difference between the Senate and the House.” But on major issues in the health bill, Mr. Lieberman said, “splitting the difference means you won’t have 60 votes in the Senate.”

To see which Democrats have already drawn lines in the sand, check out our Research Briefing, “The Coming Conference War.”

We’d like to believe that Senate Democrats’ watches simply weren’t working over the weekend, unfortunately it’s more likely they simply aren’t listening to their constituents’ calls for transparency. In October, eight Democrat Senators demanded that Sen. Harry Reid make the health care reform process a transparent one. They insisted on all legislative text and corresponding budget scoring being posted online for them and the American people to review at least 72 hours before a vote. In their desperate rush to ram this bill through before Christmas, however, they fell woefully short of their pledge. Democrats waited only 37 hours and 16 minutes between the introduction of Reid’s manager’s amendment and joining every other Dem in voting for Reid’s bill in this morning’s 1 AM vote.

Take action and contact Sens. Bayh, Landrieu, Lincoln, Lieberman, McCaskill, Nelson, Pryor, and Webb and let them hear what you think about them ramming through the Obama-Reid government-run health care ... more

In his Politico Playbook today, Mike Allen got the inside scoop from Democrats as to “the real reason” the Senate is rushing through their government-run health care experiment:

EXCLUSIVE - -THE REAL REASON FOR THE RUSH: …Here are the five reasons Democrats say history won't wait: 1) Legislation is about momentum. If the latest compromise is allowed to languish over Christmas, it could fall apart. And if the process stops, it may never start again. 2) A sense of urgency: Lawmakers only make hard choices with their backs up against a wall. Big votes are almost always jammed up against a deadline for getting out of town. 3) Obama and congressional Democrats ran on competence, and they need to get this done. It’s getting embarrassing after eight months of maneuvering. 4) The White House and Democratic leaders want to pivot to jobs and deficit reduction with Obama’s State of the Union address, in late January or early February. 5) It’s going to take some time to unify the House and ... more

After last night’s vote to advance the Obama-Reid government-run health care experiment, which did not garner a single Republican vote, Chairman Steele released the following statement:

“Very early this morning, as the majority of Americans were asleep, Harry Reid and his liberal allies quietly got one step closer to enacting their 2,700-page government-run health care experiment with absolutely no input from Republicans and absolutely no care for the American people’s opposition.  For months concerned citizens have been telling Democrats that they don’t support their plan and with this vote Democrats have shown they aren’t listening to their concerns.  I don’t know about you but I am sick and tired of it.  President Obama and Harry Reid will claim that they have reached a grand compromise benefitting all Americans.  But I would call it a grand deception because this costly government-run plan still increases premiums and health care costs, still cuts Medicare, and still forces ... more