During the one-sided health care “debate” Nancy Pelosi found an interesting source for funding the program- cuts in Medicare.
(CNSNews.com) – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said today that Congress will pay for half of the $1 trillion health care reform bill that President Obama wants enacted by “squeezing” Medicare and Medicaid to wring out what she called “waste, fraud, abuse, redundancy, obsolescence and whatever it is.”
Pelosi was asked at her weekly press briefing if she agreed with President Obama that much of the health care reform plan can be paid for by cutting Medicare and Medicaid.
“Half the bill will be paid for by squeezing excesses out of the [Medicare and Medicaid] system, and there is $500 billion dollars to do that and we’re looking for more,” Pelosi said. “That can be achieved–waste, fraud, abuse, redundancy, obsolescence, whatever it is. Squeeze it out of the system; and that means out of the providers and the rest as well.”
Of course, Pelosi had two full years to find and eliminate that waste without any interference from Republicans.
Fail.
Fast forward to April, 2011. About those cuts? That waste? That fraud? That redundancy? That obsolescence?
(CNSNews.com) – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sent a message to House Republicans about their proposed 2012 budget that would reform entitlement spending, stating on Friday: “Hands off our Medicare.”
At a press conference with Democratic leaders outside the U.S. Capitol building, Pelosi said, “This budget, we’ve always said we will judge every initiative that comes before us as to whether it creates jobs, as it reduces the deficit, strengthens the middle class and continues the economic growth of our economy. This budget does none of the above as it ends Medicare. Hands off our Medicare! Hands off our Medicare!”
How about June?
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Sunday described negotiations to raise the debt limit as “civil and constructive,” but reiterated that any Republican proposal that cuts Medicare benefits for seniors is a “nonstarter.”
“There is a bipartisan discussion going on that is civil and constructive, and that they’ve come to some areas where they can possibly reach agreement. But nothing is agreed to until everything is agreed to,” the California Democrat said.
“But I welcome this line of questioning because this is a place where we’re looking how we go forward with a sound fiscal policy to reduce the deficit,” she added, “and I could never support any arrangement that reduce benefits for Medicare.”
Democrat cuts to Medicare= Good
Republican cuts to Medicare= Bad
On July 5, Obama sought his inner Gandhi:
“I believe that right now we’ve got a unique opportunity to do something big, to tackle our deficit in a way that forces our government to live within its means, that puts our economy on a stronger footing for the future and still allows us to invest in that future,” Obama said.
So what happened to his first budget this year? Was it something big? Was it something to tackle our deficit? Was it something that would put us on stronger footing for the future? Or was it something blasted 97-0 by the Senate? So when did Obama have this epiphany? I’d say it was April 4, 2011.
Obama had this wisdom to offer:
“It’s my hope that everybody’s going to leave their ultimatums at the door, that we’ll all leave our political rhetoric at the door, and that we’re going to do what’s best for our economy and do what’s best for our people.”
Leave the political rhetoric at the door? You mean like this?
During a news conference at the White House, Obama expressed impatience with lawmakers, saying that they’re not working as hard as he does — or even as hard as his young daughters do to get their homework done.
“They don’t wait until the night before. They’re not pulling all-nighters,” Obama said at his first full-fledged question-and-answer session since March. “Congress can do the same thing. … If you know you’re going to do something, just do it.”
And more of that “leaving the political rhetoric at the door” thing:
“If everyone else is willing to take on their sacred cows and do tough things in order to achieve the goal of real deficit reduction, I think it will be hard for Republicans to stand there and say a tax break for corporate jets is sufficiently important that we’re not willing to come to the table and get a deal done,” Obama said.
It was so partisan, so crass that Mark Halperin called Obama a “dick.”
Evan Thomas had his own religious experience. Thomas’ epiphany saw him convert from referring to Obama as “sort of a god” to a “God D*mn democrat.”
For the first time in a very long time, Thomas got it right.
“Yeah, because it’s happened before – Obama has got to be President of the United States,” Thomas said. “He has to be two things. He has to make a public case of how bad is this, because he is not doing that. He’s not being honest about just how bad this is going to be — no, he was partisan. He was God [bleep] Democrat! He was just, you know – being a party guy. I applaud the energy but it wasn’t getting me anywhere. He has got to rise above that and then in private, in private – he’s got to make a deal.”
Obama said one thing well:
“A lot of people say a lot of things to satisfy their base or to get on cable news,” Obama said. “Hopefully, leaders at a certain point rise to the occasion and do the right thing for the American people. That’s what I expect to happen this time. Call me naive, but my expectation is leaders are going to lead.”
They are going to lead. They are not going to whine. They are not going to be bloody hypocrites. They are not going to play golf and then claim to do nothing but work. They are not going to campaign for re-election and claim not to leave town.
democrats are so full of crap.
UPDATE: Let’s revisit this for a second:
“It’s my hope that everybody’s going to leave their ultimatums at the door, that we’ll all leave our political rhetoric at the door…”
And no sooner had the internet ink on that dried, when
President Barack Obama says the debt ceiling should not “be used as a gun against the heads” of Americans to retain breaks for corporate jet owners or oil and gas companies.
“Gun against the head”
You just can’t make this stuff up. Which is more of why you’re an idiot to believe anything Obama says.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
Let me get this straight; Dems evil (they are), Republicans good (they aren’t).
Another day of SOS at FA.
I’m confused here….I thought we were all flogged (is that word ok to use or is it too provocative?) and lectured to by Democrats about the dangers of using violent imagery and metaphors….oh, wait: That only applies to conservatives and Republicans. Nevermind.
Although Obama turned his Tucson Memorial Service speech into a political convention at times, he did use the opportunity to call for more civility in political rhetoric.
It was advice he refuses to follow.
Perhaps, as we have seen when he mistakenly introduced himself, he simply reads whatever the Teleprompter tells him to read.
Perhaps he just read those words at Tucson then later read other rhetorically inflammatory words simply because they rolled onto his teleprompter.
There is a verse in the Bible that says there are men who can look at themselves in a mirror then walk away and immediately forget what that man they just saw looks like. (James 1:23&24.)
Read the context and see that Obama is like that man…..he might be a hearer of the word but then, after hearing it (even speaking it!) he does not do it.
I thought she had fallen into the background but I guess she is back….How can any of them work anything out. All they do is blame one another……Pelosi is the worst because she has no clue how we all live just look at her and everyone elses bank accounts and see…………………..
DrJohn, yes, very well put,
he seems to have the ability to detach himself of the problems he create by shifting it to not back to himself but other that happen to be the REPUBLICANS,
THE WAY HE DOES IT IT MAKE PEOPLE BELEIVE THAT THEY STARTED THE PROBLEM
and he’s just there to tell them how to solve it. this is hillarious and pathetic to see that playing,
someone would say to him
you know , your problem is full of c,,p, and you know where to put it. we’re done helping to solve it.
Just curious, how did you like it when Republicans had the:
A. Presidency
B. House of Represenatives
C. Senate
In 1/2003 to 1/2007.
Did government grow or get smaller?
I love asking faux-conservatives this questions and watching themselves fall all over themselves trying to make all sorts of lame excuses for their near-criminal conduct.
Ivan have you talked to Barney Frank and Chris Dodd about what they did with Fanny May and Freddie Mac and how we got into the housing mess that we are in…….Oh were they conservatives????????????
YVAN, are you asking me that question?
are you protecting the libs? you have a double standard,
my reference was not on bashing the REPUBLICANS,
IT WAS CONCERNING THIS ISSUE ONLY,
REMEMBER THE REPUBLICANS AND THE CONSERVATIVES AND TEAPARTYS AND PAUL’S FOLLOWERS WILL HAVE THE SAME PRESIDENT THEY WILL ELECT IN 2012, SO THAT IS WHY,
YOU MUST REFRAIN FROM BASHING EITHER ONE OF THOSE,,
we are getting closer every day, and the DEMOCRATS ARE BASHING THESES PARTYS ENOUGH,
DON’T YOU THINK?
AND DON’T PICK ON ME
BYE
Someone nudge Ivan the broken record…
Ivan, if you are so desperate to hear the GOP being bashed, go to huffpo…and stay there since you’re really one of them anyway.
Hard Right, hi, thank’s for coming,
bye
@Ivan:
Ivan, there’s just so much material to work with! 🙂
@Hedy:
That was only part of the problem, and you know it. Bush sat back and did NOTHING about all the “Liar Loans” and illegal aliens getting loans, despite a 2006 warning to congress from the FBI that these loans represented a security threat to the US.
Tell me, did Bush reign in Freddie/Fannie or did it grown under his reign?
‘
‘The truth hurts.
@Hard Right:
If bashing the GOP, the party that dramatically grew government in 2003 to 2007 is so bad why is that?
Are you a defender of the Pretorian Gaurds of big government?
Or am I lying? Instead of attacking me (ad hominen), why not refute my claim that the GOP grew government?
Or can’t you?
@ilovebeeswarzone: I wasn’t picking on you, old friend.
@Ivan: I can go on all day with you but you think you have an answer for everything. Who told the banks to give all the people that could not afford a home to give it to them because that is the American Dream well it wasn’t a conservative…Obama told us that the stimulas would get us out of this mess and we are in a bigger one and now he wants MORE MONEY so he can give it to all his backers that he wants to raise their taxes……..What a joke……….
@Hedy:
I’m so confused! Are you saying that when the GOP OWNED the Federal Government it wasn’t being run by conservatives??
I ask this because during the 2003 to 2007 time-frame that is when these liar loans and sub-prime loans EXPLODED.
Are you saying that the Republicans aren’t responsible for these excesses during their ownership of the government?
Why shill for these crooks? They helped, with their confederates the “Democrats” to bankrupt the nation.
Yeah, we know the “Stimulus” didn’t work. No duh. But we were in trouble BEFORE the stimulus. Get it?
The only joke the the continued shilling for the crooks in the GOP.
Look, our base is made up of great people. but our leaders need to dance a little “jig”.
YVAN, don’t forget that the DEMOCRATS HAD A MAJORITY, and they where slipping their own bills under the pile of BUSH’ s bills, they had the control on what go in the adoption of the bills, by playing their game of inciting and make beleive that was all the BUSH’S SIDE,
THAT ‘S THOSE SNEAKY TRICKS THAT GOT THEM ELECTED, AFTERWARD,
SOME DAY MR BUSH WILL WRITE A BOOK THAT WILL SHOW HOW FAR THE DEMOCRATS WENT
UNDER THE BELT,
so put your negative on the last 3 years, and the past has fallen behind ,
now look who in charge and responseble of this mess by spending AMERICA AWAY UNTIL IT CRASH,
THE REPUBLICANS are now trying to find a SOLUTION THAT MUST BE TO BEGIN NOW,
NOT IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS, WHERE THE CHILDREN WILL BE SUFFERING,
AND EVERYONE POOR OR RICH OR IN THE MIDDLE WILL HAVE TO GET IT,
OR CONTINIUE TO WHINE THAT IT WAS BUSH ‘S FAULT,
instead of accepting the umongoust effort being done now to save the worse event of crashing AMERICA, they are telling respectfully
to MR PRESIDENT YOU HAVE TO STOP SPENDING NOW, as they have been telling from the beginning of it’s sspending spree.
while we are whining and waiting for handout sitting on our a..
@Ivan:
Are you really serious about this? Were you in a coma or something? From 2005
Bush started warning Congress in 2001.
@Ivan:
What, precisely, do propose that Bush should have done instead of what he did?
Also, please cite a source to support your claim that the FBI warned Congress in 2006 that risky loans were “a security threat to the US.”
Bush warned congress but the democrats were in control and when Barney was asked he said that they were in good shape. I am so tired of Bush getting the blame for everything it’s time Obama started taking responsibility for what is going on now. If I don’t have the money I don’t spend…..If he went page by page like he said he was going to and get rid of the wasted money that is being spent we would be ok…And where did he and all politicians find the money to give everyone raises when people are struggling they are only there for one reason it is for all of them to line their own pockets………..
HEDY, yes depressing is in it,
they don’t seem to remember why they are elected, they get too comfortable,
and think IT’S just a community working job, they where doing before,
bye
South Sudan joyfully celebrated its independence from Sudan this week.
South Sudan’s new president, Salva Kiir Mayardit, couldn’t have made a stronger statement about who made his country’s independence possible after 50 years of warfare.
“It was George Bush and the Christian fundamentalists who heard the cry of South Sudan,”
But to hear Obama Bush had NOTHING to do with it….it just happened!
“Today is a reminder that after the darkness of war, the light of a new dawn is possible,” wrote Obama.
In 2005, President Bush put South Sudan at the top of the U.S. foreign policy agenda.
He forced the murderous Islamofascist government of Sudan to negotiate with the South Sudan rebels, including their right to secede.
That hard work led to this result — and with it, the first chance South Sudan has ever had to break free of its oppression.
Obama made sure to thank the African Union, civil society groups and even Sudan itself. But recognition of President Bush was relegated to nothing more than a nameless “U.S. leadership” that “played a part.” Christian groups that made it their cause were also ignored.
Weird because the crowd in Sudan was led by the new president, Salva Kiir Mayardit, who was wearing a cowboy hat president Bush gave him and the crowd had signs reading, THANK YOU, PRESIDENT BUSH.
PS, TIME TO VOTE, SOUTH SUDAN is one of the best videos ever!
Obama is a lousy excuse for a leader when he cannot bring himself to give credit when it is 100% due.
@Aye:
Oh, you mean you were IGNORANT of the FBI’s warnings about the liar loans prior to the explosion of the Sub-prime crisis? Wow, that took guts to request “proof” of my claim, which by the way tells me you didn’t know of it.
No charge for this tutoring session, Aye! ;->
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/business/30fbi.html
Some excerpts:
Well, what do you know? 7,000 cases right when the Republicans take over all the branches of the government (excluding the Judiciary), then three years later, still under Republican domination we have nearly 36,000 cases.
Typical Republican “blind-eye” to criminal activity as long as the economy is doing well (which in reality was a lie).
Aye, some advice:
“Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt”.
@Hedy:
What a load of horsecrap is this? Bush sat on his ASS while millions upon millions of illegal aliens flooded into our nation.
Then Bush does NOTHING while liar loans infect our mortgage industry helping to bring down our economy.
Here:
Can you handle the truth? That is from the NYT story on the FBI warning about criminal conduct by people, many illegal aliens, taking loans and lying about their credit.
Yes, Frank and Dodd are horrible, but please spare me the “Bush and Republicans are great!” bullshit as it only shows you are either ignorant or stupid.
Which is it?
@Ivan:
Yo dumbazz…You claimed that the FBI said that these loans were “a security threat to the US.”
That’s what I asked for a citation on. The bold part. Of course, you didn’t provide that now did you?
Care to try again?
@Ivan:
Here’s a question I posed to you earlier but, for some reason, you haven’t answered:
Also, your claims that “Bush [did] NOTHING while liar loans infect our mortgage industry” is another of your easily disproven, blatant, bold faced lies.
Exit Question: You correctly state that the GOP controlled both houses of Congress as well as the White House during a portion of GW Bush’s time in office. During which of those years did the GOP have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate?
Nice, more personal attacks. Face it, you didn’t know that the FBI was warning the nation about the Republicans sleeping at the wheel.
Tisk, tisk. You’re way behind everyone else, Aye.
;->
@Aye:
Son, is English your second language? You’ve heard me scream here about Bush DOING NOTHING ABOUT THE BORDER and ENFORCING OUR IMMIGRATION LAWS.
Fucking illegal aliens getting loans back by the full-faith and credit of the USA. Bullshit.
If you can’t connect the dots to our economic collapse to free-trade, immigration gone-wild and a break down of the rule of law then you need to get on some meds.
Duh.
@Ivan:
Wow! You’re trying to pretend that you’re telepathic now? Able to read people’s minds to find out what they know and what they don’t know? Too bad that isn’t working for you, eh?
I’ve actually known what the FBI had to say about this since way back when they said it. But your questioning of my knowledge of the matter is nothing more than another irrelevant straw man from you because it doesn’t address my argument.
What you claimed is that the FBI said that these loans were “a security threat to the US.”
Now, dumbazz, where is the citation for your claim?
Oh, you don’t have one? Didn’t think so.
Thanks for playing though.
YVAN, so to come back to today, who will close the borders at this time ,and they cannot put the blame on
BUSH, because they have the power now to act, and no excuse will do,
It’s his show, and so far , nothing but worse , even murder now, on an officer of the law,
do they have to wait for a murder to get them moving?
@Ivan:
So, it’s your contention that illegal immigrants defaulted upon enough loans to cause the mortgage mess? [snicker]
Is that right? [snicker]
That’s funny.
Cite for me any statistical borrower breakdown which supports your contention.
Oh, by the way, none of those loans were “backed by the full faith and credit of the USA.”
@Ivan:
Ivan
As has been well established here, democrats incentivized subprime mortgages and now are coming back for even more. And democrats at F&F bought them up. And democrats like Frank protected that fraud.
We have furnished a truckload of proof that this is all the handiwork of the Clinton/Rubin/Cuomo hydra.