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Sebelius: Time for ‘reeducation’ on Obamacare
With a number of polls showing a sustained level of opposition to the Democrats’ health care reform efforts more than five months after passage, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the Obama administration has “a lot of reeducation to do” heading into the midterms.
While some surveys – namely the Kaiser Family Foundation monthly tracking poll – have suggested an uptick in support for the reforms, most other surveys continue to show a steady level of opposition to the new law that remains higher than the favorable opinions of it.
“Unfortunately, there still is a great deal of confusion about what is in [the reform law] and what isn’t,” Sebelius told ABC News Radio in an interview Monday.
With several vulnerable House Democrats touting their votes against the bill, and Republicans running on repeal, Sebelius said “misinformation given on a 24/7 basis” has led to the enduring opposition nearly six months after the lengthy debate ended in Congress.
“So, we have a lot of reeducation to do,” Sebelius said.
Obama meets with Bloomberg to discuss economy… while playing golf
POTUS is golfing with Mayor Bloomberg today, and they prefaced their game with a 15-minute discussion of the economy in the clubhouse at the Vineyard Golf Club. Seeking more details. CBS’s Mark Knoller, hailed by many including the WH for his command of presidential data, says the two men have not golfed together before. After their conversation they headed to the driving range, and then the links. Also in the foursome: Vernon Jordan and trip director Marvin Nicholson.”
The President and Mayor Bloomberg took the opportunity to discuss plans for short- and long-term economic growth at a pivotal point in our recovery,” said White House spokesman Reid Cherlin. POTUS invited the Mayor about a week ago. The mayor met POTUS at the golf club — he did not travel with him in the motorcade.
Obama brings Arizona immigration feud before UN Human Rights Council
Apparently Barack Obama is not content to make a federal case out of his immigration feud with Arizona; he just made it an international one.
The president’s first-ever report on U.S. human rights to the UN Human Rights Council contains a rich vein of offensive material. So far, one aspect has not been reported: our petty president used the situation to bash Arizona’s immigration law — and possibly transfer jurisdiction over the law from Arizona to the UN. Throughout the report, which sounds like an Obama campaign speech, the president discusses “the original flaw” of the U.S. Constitution, America’s tolerance for slavery, and his version of our long and despicable history of discriminating against and oppressing minorities, women, homosexuals, and the handicapped. After each complaint, he addresses how he is delivering us from ourselves, patting himself on the back for such initiatives as ending “torture,” promoting Affirmative Action, and passing health care legislation.
In his section on “Values and Immigration,” he praised the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to provide better medical care for detainees and increase “Alternatives To Detention” (e.g., letting them go). Then he turned to the one state that has had the temerity to stand in his way of fundamentally transforming the American electorate:
A recent Arizona law, S.B. 1070, has generated significant attention and debate at home and around the world. The issue is being addressed in a court action that argues that the federal government has the authority to set and enforce immigration law. That action is ongoing; parts of the law are currently enjoined.
Marine Corps Commandant: Obama’s Afghanistan withdrawal gives the Taliban “sustenance”
The commandant of the Marine Corps said Tuesday that President Barack Obama’s July 2011 deadline to begin American troop withdrawals from Afghanistan was “probably giving our enemy sustenance.”
The remark was by far the most sharply worded public remark from a senior military commander about the White House’s timetable for starting to wind down the war.
But the commandant, Gen. James Conway, said he thought the deadline might not ultimately comfort the insurgents, who could find that only a small number of U.S. forces leave Afghanistan next July, a scenario that is increasingly set forth by senior military commanders. Conway predicted that Taliban fighters, who he said have been told repeatedly by their commanders that the Americans would leave en masse, would be demoralized when they realize that the United States is staying.
Imam thanks Obama
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf used his taxpayer-funded Mideast tour yesterday to praise President Obama’s qualified support for the mosque near Ground Zero.
“I am grateful to President Barack Obama and all those who expressed support for our project,” Abdul Rauf said at a dinner for student leaders in the Gulf state of Bahrain. the Gulf Daily News in Bahrain reported.
Obama fueled the debate over the mosque with a White House speech defending the right to build the project, but hedged by saying he wouldn’t comment on the “wisdom” of its location.
Abdul Rauf also wryly noted that “We are in the media a lot these days due to one of our initiatives,” a reference to the planned Islamic cultural center including a mosque on Park Place two blocks north of Ground Zero.
Obama’s failed stimulus program cost more than Iraq war
Expect to hear a lot about how much the Iraq war cost in the days ahead from Democrats worried about voter wrath against their unprecedented spending excesses.
The meme is simple: The economy is in a shambles because of Bush’s economic policies and his war in Iraq. As American Thinker’s Randall Hoven points out, that’s the message being peddled by lefties as diverse as former Clinton political strategist James Carville, economist Joseph Stiglitz, and The Nation’s Washington editor, Christopher Hayes.
The key point in the mantra is an alleged $3 trillion cost for the war. Well, it was expensive to be sure, in both blood and treasure, but, as Hoven notes, the CBO puts the total cost at $709 billion. To put that figure in the proper context of overall spending since the war began in 2003, Hoven provides this handy CBO chart showing the portion of the annual deficit attributable to the conflict.
Border Patrol joins ICE agents to condemn Obama Administration
On the heels of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ 258-0 “vote of no confidence” against their superiors, U.S. Border Patrol agents are slamming President Barack Obama’s administration especially Attorney General Eric Holder.
“We are receiving reports… that Eric Holder and DOJ have signaled that they [will continue to] challenge SB1070. If this development wasn’t so sad, it would be funny,” according to the membership of the National Border Patrol Council Local 2544, which represents U.S. Border Patrol agents in Tucson, Arizona.
While lamenting the disinterest in the Obama Administration for border security and immigration enforcement, Local 2544 officials said in a statement,
“Now, [Attorney General Eric] Holder and DOJ [Department of Justice] apparently have found resources to challenge SB1070. This is an obvious political ploy, and Americans should be outraged [that] they actually go after a state for trying to do something about the out-of-control illegal immigration mess.”
“How many times have Americans heard lawmakers, mayors, governors, and immigration advocates when asked about Arizona enforcing immigration law, claim that their police officers aren’t authorized or trained to enforce immigration laws?” asks a career law enforcement officer from New York.
“Well, either these government leaders are too ignorant to hold office or they’re out-and-out lying to the American people,” said former NYPD detective Sid Franes.
US calls for Lockerbie bomber to be returned to jail
The Obama administration used the anniversary of the bomber’s release on compassionate grounds – because he had advanced prostate cancer – to condemn the decision.
The US president’s office said it had advised Libyan officials of its view that Megrahi should not be free.
John Brennan, Barack Obama’s counter-terrorism adviser, criticised the “unfortunate and inappropriate and wrong decision.”
He said: “We’ve expressed our strong conviction that Al Megrahi should serve out the remainder – the entirety – of his sentence in a Scottish prison.”
Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez, said that a “cloud of suspicion” hung over the decision to release Megrahi, who is now living with his family in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
Sheriff’s challenge to Obama: Give me half hour, I’ll show you how to secure border
“If the president gave me a half hour, I am confident that I could convince him and to show him the way that he can personally secure the border, and he would be the hero of everybody that truly transcends bipartisan politics and secures that border,” said Babeu. “I believe that if a leader truly wanted to do that we have the means and the resources necessary to secure our border and to protect America once and for all, and then we can get to the point in the future, only after the border is secure, that there is some type of discussion about what do we do with the approximate 13 million people who are here illegally.”
The ten-point border security plan backed by Sheriffs Babeu and Dever and Senators McCain and Kyl includes provisions to complete 700 miles of double- and triple-layered border fending, significantly increase the number of drone surveillance aircraft patrolling the border, and deploy 3,000 National Guardsmen to the Arizona section of the Mexico border alone until the governor of Arizona in consultation with local law enforcement officials certifies that the border is secure.
In addition to serving as sheriff of Pinal County, Ariz., Babeu has served 18 years in the Army National Guard, where he is now a major. Babeu did a tour in Iraq and also commanded Task Force Yuma, a group of 700 Army and Air National Guard troops who worked with the Border Patrol on securing the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona.
Obama boasts of his ‘progressive’ triumphs
President Obama told a Hollywood fundraiser Monday night that he and congressional Democrats have passed the most progressive legislation in decades.
“We have been able to deliver the most progressive legislative agenda — one that helps working families — not just in one generation, maybe two, maybe three,” Obama said.
Obama was joined by a number of lawmakers and celebrities at an event for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) that raised $1 million.
Chamber economist: Obama tax increase would be ‘bullet in the head’ of recovery
U.S. Chamber of Commerce economist Martin Regalia on Monday said the tax increases advocated by President Obama would essentially kill any chance for an economic rebound.
“That’s what you’re suggesting, is a corporate bullet in the head,” Regalia said. “That is going to be a bullet in the head for an awful lot of people that are going to be laid off and an awful lot of people who are hoping to get their jobs back.”
Regalia made the comment at an American Petroleum Institute event on the tax increases proposed by the Obama administration. Much of the discussion focused on tax cuts enacted by President George W. Bush that are slated to expire at the end of the year.