Obama is a loser at 2013's end: Column: 2014 will be even worse for our president.

A lot of people are saying that 2013 was President Obama's worst year. Roll Call headlined, "Subdued Obama Hopes For Better 2014." The Hill reported, "Obama names health care rollout his biggest mistake of dismal year." Most people seem to think it was. But I think it was average, in the manner of the old Soviet joke:

Ivan: So how was your day?

Boris: Average.

Ivan: What do you mean, average?

Boris: Worse than yesterday, better than tomorrow. So, average.

Unless something turns around, Obama's 2013 is likely to be similarly "average": Worse than 2012, but better than 2014.

COLUMN: Pelosi rejects generous, one-of-a-kind subsidy

It's true that Obamacare has been a debacle, wrapped in a catastrophe, shrouded in a disaster. But it's also become clear that it was founded upon a lie: Obama's "if you like your health insurance plan, you can keep it" statement was named by PolitiFact its lie of the year for 2013. Many Americans have already learned that their individualplans are being cancelled because they don't live up to Obamacare, causing enough chaos that the Obama administration has had to give certain people a last-minute "waiver" of the mandate that they buy insurance. But many more problems have just been kicked down the road -- into 2014 -- by Obama's unilateral decision. Ironically, the White House and Democrats were, just a couple of months ago, calling Republicans who wanted to delay the mandate anarchists and terrorists, and loudly proclaiming that Obamacare was "the law of the land."

Via: USA Today

Continue Reading....

Democratic senator says Obamacare could have 'meltdown,' hurt party

1. 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's healthcare law could have a "meltdown" and make it difficult for his Democratic Party to keep control of the U.S. Senate next year if ongoing problems with the program are not resolved, a Democratic senator said on Sunday.

Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who has urged delaying a penalty for people who do not enroll for health insurance in 2014 under the law, told CNN that a transitional year was needed for the complex healthcare program, commonly known as Obamacare, to work.

"If it's so much more expensive than what we anticipated and if the coverage is not as good as what we had, you've got a complete meltdown at that time," Manchin told CNN's "State of the Union" program.

"It falls of its own weight, if basically the cost becomes more than we can absorb, absolutely."

The White House has been scrambling for months to control the damage from the botched October 1 launch of the law, formally called the Affordable Care Act, which aimed at making sure that millions of Americans without health insurance are able to receive medical coverage.

There have been complaints from consumers about higher premiums than they previously had to pay for health insurance after their old plans were canceled because of new standards under the law, as well as lingering problems with the main web portal used to sign up for insurance, HealthCare.gov.

Manchin said Senate Democrats who are up for re-election next year are "feeling the weight" of the program's woes and could have trouble keeping their majority in the chamber.

Via: Yahoo News

Continue Reading.....

Top GOP White House prospects Christie, Jindal urge fellow governors to focus first on 2014

re interest than Christie, the group’s new chairman who arrived in Arizona only two weeks after a sweeping re-election victory in Democratic-leaning New Jersey.

However, the highlight of the event was perhaps a surprise visit from George W. Bush, the last Republican to occupy the White House.

Bashing Washington dysfunction at every turn, the governors offered up their can-do records --

Republican Govs. Chris Christie, of New Jersey, and Bobby Jindal, of Louisiana, are top Republican presidential prospects. But with the party needing to defend 22 governorships next year, they cautioned members this week against looking too far ahead to the 2016 White House race.

They made their remarks at the annual Republican Governors Association meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz., where Christie told party members, “start thinking about 2016 at our own peril."

No one generated mo and themselves -- as a model for a party looking to return to power.

Via: Fox News

Continue Reading....

Immigration Reform All But Dead for 2013 and 2014

Shocked by their poor showing in the 2012 presidential election, Republicans looked for ways to change their brand. The first idea: Embrace immigration reform. A slew of Republican lawmakers and influential conservative intellectuals came out in favor of granting citizenship to illegal immigrants. Even Sean Hannity said that he had “evolved” on the issue. The once unthinkable—Republicans supporting amnesty en masse—became a political reality.

Efforts to reform the system began in the U.S. Senate. Republican Sens. Jeff Flake, John McCain, Marco Rubio, and Lindsey Graham worked with four Democratic Senators to draft immigration legislation. Ultimately, the 844 page bill could be summarized thusly:

The Gang of Eight bill would essentially revamp every corner of U.S. immigration law, establishing a 13-year pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants, with several security benchmarks that have to be met before they can obtain a green card. The measure would not only increases security along the border, but requires a mandatory workplace verification system for employers, trying to ensure no jobs are given to immigrants who are not authorized to work in the United States.

It also includes a new visa program for lesser-skilled workers – the product of negotiations between the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and labor unions. And it shifts the country’s immigration policies away from a family-based system to one that is focused on more on work skills.

It passed the Senate in June 68-32, with 14 Republicans going every Democrat in supporting the bill. The compromise was such an accomplishment that the New Yorker even wrote a long piece describing how it came about. Then all eyes turned to the Republican-controlled House.

Most, if not all, Democrats have supported immigration reform that includes pathway to citizenship provisions. House Republicans also showed a relatively strong amount of support for reform. Last month, CalWatchdog wrote about some California Republicans moving to the left on immigration reform, despite the small likelihood of any legislative action actually occurring:

Although Issa, Valadao and Denham all would like to see some form of immigration reform happen soon, it’s unlikely to occur this year. House leadership has indicated that their focus will be on passing fiscal reforms over immigration, and the recent government shutdown left many Republicans unenthusiastic about compromising with their Democratic colleagues.

Via: California Political Review

Continue Reading....

Obamacare Reforms Could Doom Dems in 2014

Things aren’t exactly looking up for President Obama these days. The rollout of the Affordable Care Act’s central feature, the exchanges where people without employer-provided health insurance are meant to purchase plans, has been disastrous, marked by IT problems and astonishingly low enrollment numbers. The President’s promise that “If you like your plan, you can keep it” has been shown to be knowingly false. The number of people losing coverage is so far rapidly outpacing the number of people gaining coverage. And the administration’s haphazard fixes may only be worsening the situation, promising even deeper political trouble down the road.

First the administration delayed the employer mandate, which, now starting in 2015, will force employers with more than fifty quasi-full-time employees to provide health insurance or pay a new tax. The administration’s decision to delay the mandate, welcome as it may have been to businesses that gained an additional year to deal with the new regulations and obligations they will face, will almost surely lead to political damage at a very unhelpful time. Right before the 2014 midterm elections, about half of all employer plans would have to be canceled or replaced. This would show an immense number of Americans, more than ten times as many as those who are now receiving individual-market cancellation notices, that the administration’s promises that you can keep your doctor were false, and it will show them this in a direct, personal manner. It seems unlikely that congressional Democrats would be willing to deal with the political fallout from such unpleasant news right before facing reelection.

Via: The National Interest

Continue Reading....

The Obamacare albatross for congressional Democrats

Never before has President Obama’s signature health-care law been so politically toxic for congressional candidates, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows.

Nearly four in 10 voters (39 percent) say they would be more likely to oppose a candidate for Congress who supports the law. Just under a quarter (23 percent) say they would be more likely to support a candidate who backs the law, according to the survey. Thirty-six percent of voters say a candidate’s position on Obamacare would not make a difference in their vote.

The support/oppose gap is much wider than it’s ever been in Post-ABC polling, including four months before the 2010 midterm elections in which Republicans made historic gains. In that July 2010 poll, voters split, with 39 percent saying they would be more likely to support a candidate who backed health-care reform and 37 percent saying they were more likely to oppose. In July 2012, the support/oppose split was an even 28 percent among voters.

The poll also comes as overall views of the law and the president’s handling of its rollout have cratered. Fifty-seven percent of Americans oppose the law, compared to just 40 percent who support it. And more than six in 10 Americans (63 percent) say they disapprove of the way Obama has handled the law’s implementation, nearly double the 33 percent who say they approve.

Via: Washington Post

Continue Reading.....

If you like the campaign, you can keep it: Obama promises 2014 elex blitz for Dems

After offering an apology for the failed rollout of his signature health care reform law, President Obama in recent days has “pivoted” yet again — this time into full-blown campaign mode, blasting Republicans and reiterating his wish list of agenda items that can be achieved only if his party reclaims full control on Capitol Hill.

Over the past week, the president has spoken at Democratic Party fundraisers in Dallas and Miami, and used a Friday speech in New Orleans to bash the Republican Party and lay out an ambitious second-term agenda that includes immigration reform, infrastructure investment and free trade agreements.

---

SEE ALSO: Study: Just 3 percent of projected Obamacare enrollees have signed up

---

His underlying strategy, analysts say, is twofold.

First, the White House is eager to turn attention away from Obamacare, which continues to garner nothing but negative publicity from website glitches at HealthCare.gov, reports of Americans being booted off their insurance plans and other problems.

Second, and perhaps more important, is the president’s resurrection of a message to voters — along with wealthy donors and party foot soldiers — that he needs Democrats in full control on Capitol Hill to accomplish anything substantive during his final years in office.

Via: Washington Times
Continue Reading.....

Deep sleep: ObamaCare site goes offline for extended maintenance

The problem-plagued ObamaCare website will be shut down Saturday night for “extended” repairs, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Technicians have shut down HealthCare.gov during weekends since the site launched Oct. 1 but just for a few overnight hours.

The site will go offline this weekend from 9 p.m. Saturday until 9 a.m. Sunday.

"The HealthCare.gov tech team is performing extended maintenance this weekend to improve network infrastructure and make enhancements to the online application and enrollment tools,” agency spokeswoman Joanne Peters said Saturday.   

The Obama administration says Americas can still apply for insurance coverage by calling a toll-free number available around the clock.

In recent weeks, the administration has brought in outside experts to assist in getting the site running so Americans can enroll before premiums kick in January 1, 2014.

Officials say their goal is to eliminate such problems as volume-related crashes, slow response times and incorrect information before the insurance policies kick in January 1, 2014.

Via: Fox News

Continue Reading.....

Vulnerable New York Republican Raises $550K

Republican Rep. Tom Reed raised more than half a million dollars in his bid for a second term representing New York’s 23rd District.

He raised $550,000 and had $910,000 at the end of the quarter, according to a national GOP source.

Reed is a top Democratic target in 2014. Tompkins County Legislator Martha Robertson is all but certain to be his Democratic challenger, and she’s a highly regarded recruit at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The race is rated Leans Republican by Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call.

Via: Roll Call

Continue Reading....

No Evidence Dems Can Take Back House

The 2010 midterm election that swept Republicans into power in the U.S. House of Representatives was a mandate to put the brakes on President Obama and his agenda.

Aside from voters also hoping that Republicans would do something – anything – to boost the economy, restraining Obama was pretty much the issue of that election.

It was the second wave election in four years (Republicans were dumped from the majority in 2006). And it had less to do with voters finding Republicans appealing once again and more to do with putting a halt to the Democrats’ overreach.

At the center of that overreach was the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare – which is why many of those elected to office in that cycle and reelected last year have been adamant about repealing it, even at the cost of a government shutdown.

Or even at the cost of losing their seats, which has led to talk of a Democrat wave election cycle. It is a possibility pushed by paid pundits as reality, but the facts do not support it.

That does not mean a wave election isn’t brewing out on Main Street. In fact, early polling indicates the 2014 midterm might produce another electoral shift, but not one that shoves Republicans out of power.

First of all, the playing field of vulnerable GOP seats is too narrow for Republicans to lose their majority, baring a massive wave. (Think 1894, when 107 Democrats were swept out of the House.)

Second, major waves historically have not happened concurrent with the “six-year itch” – the election held in the sixth year of a president's tenure, in which the party holding the White House typically loses a substantial number of House and Senate seats.

And remember that, in the 1996 midterm election of the Clinton era, Republicans lost 18 incumbents but kicked the Democrats’ butts in the open-seat races. The Republicans’ losses were mostly “wave seats” that they unexpectedly won two years earlier, during their first sweep back into power after 40 years in the political wilderness.

Via: Real Clear Politics

Continue Reading.....

HUELSKAMP: GOP LEADERSHIP FORGETTING TEA PARTY GAVE THEM HOUSE

Congressman Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) told Breitbart News that his party's leaders should be very careful about targeting conservative members associated with the Tea Party, as the reason Republicans hold a majority in the lower chamber is because Tea Party activists voted in a wave of conservatives in 2010. 

"The Tea Party was the majority maker for House Republicans; without much of these new conservatives, there would not be a Speaker Boehner. There would not be an opportunity to push back on Obamacare, so it’s pretty clear," said Huelskamp. "But the Tea Party is not some small part--it is the conservative wing of the [Republican] Party, which is a pretty strong majority. I mean it’s taken on some key tenets of the Republican Party, which are conservative." 

Moderate Republicans appear most concerned about the effect conservative Senator Ted Cruz (R–TX) will have on the upcoming 2014 mid-term elections, and mainstream media outlets are taking delight in this worry. However, according to the Center for Politics, if the GOP is successfully blamed for the government shutdown, it is not conservative Republicans who need to worry about running in tough races. More importantly, even if those GOP moderates lose those seats in 2014, the analysis says, the GOP is not necessarily in danger of losing the House:

Let’s be clear here: This is largely a thought experiment. Republicans have plenty of things going for them in the 2014 midterms. There’s no historical precedent for the president’s party to take over the House from the other party in a midterm; indeed, history tells us that the “out” presidential party — in this case, the GOP — is likelier to gain seats than the “in” party. The president’s approval rating as measured by the HuffPost Pollster average is actually worse today — 43.4% approve, 51.0% disapprove — than it was right before the 2010 midterm (45.1% approve, 49.9% disapprove).

As we’ve shown recently — and as Prof. Arrington’s piece indicates — Democrats are going to have to really dominate the House generic ballot, and Election Day national House vote margin, to have a real chance at taking back the House.

However, if Republicans do open the door to the Democrats in the House, it’s not going to be the “Ted Cruz Republicans” who will pay the price. Rather, it’s the House Republicans in marginal districts who could see their ranks decimated, just like the House Democratic moderates whose anti-Obamacare votes couldn’t save them in 2010.

Does the outrage from moderate Republicans towards conservatives have more to do with the fact that moderates could lose hefty influence within the party after the 2014 midterm elections?

Via: Breitbart

Continue Reading.....

Take Back the House? Democrats Aren't Even Ahead on Friendly Turf In 2014

There’s nothing Democrats can do about gerrymandering, so here’s a radical proposal: Let’s turn our attention to whether Democrats are poised to capitalize on the opportunities that do exist in the House. Because for all the talk about gerrymandering, there are still 17 House Republicans in districts carried by President Obama. And there are another 17 districts that Romney carried by less than 3 points, and still a handful more of even redder districts where weak GOP incumbents won reelection by a narrow margin. If Democrats are going to ride a wave of public frustration with the shutdown, the wave would hit these districts first—and Democrats would need to be poised to ride it. Right now, they’re not.

Last time, Democrats didn’t even come close in most of the districts that Republicans continue to hold that also voted for President Obama. Only one was decided by less than 5 points.

Republican incumbents outperformed Romney in each of the 43 districts where Romney won by less than 5 points. And usually, those Republican incumbents outperformed Romney by a significant margin. They just weren’t close races (another reason why gerrymandering probably didn’t represent the GOP’s margin of victory in the House).

Via: New Republic

Continue Reading.....

California: Refinery ‘Safety’ Bill Could Reduce Safety

Never let a refinery disaster go to waste. That’s what Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, is doing with Senate Bill 54, according to critics of her bill.

Hancock and fellow Democrats say SB54, which passed the Legislature last week, will improve refinery safety by increasing the number of trained contract workers at refineries. But critics say the bill actually will make refineries less safe, while providing a sweetheart deal for labor unions that will also benefit Democrats’ political campaigns.

“Refinery safety is an increasing problem in California due to recent incidents which truly risked workers’ health and public health, including the 2012 Chevron refinery explosion in Richmond,” Hancock told the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee on Aug. 14.

Pipe, not worker, failure

But it’s unlikely that Hancock’s bill, had it been in place years ago, would have done anything to prevent the Chevron refinery pipe rupture and fire on Aug. 6, 2012. SB54 focuses on the training, skills and experience level of contracted workers, which was not a factor in the accident, according to an interim investigation report by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.

“[T]he pipe failed due to thinning caused by sulfidation corrosion, a common damage mechanism in refineries,” the report states.

But rather than deal with the problem of corroded refinery pipes, Hancock’s bill focuses on getting more union-trained workers into refineries. Beginning Jan. 1, 2014 at least 30 percent of a refinery contractor’s on site workforce must have completed at least 20 hours in a state-approved apprenticeship program. That increases to 45 percent in 2015 and 60 percent in 2016. And SB54 requires that they be paid prevailing (i.e., union) wages.

Naturally, the industrial unions, with one notable exception, are strong backers of the bill.

Via: California Political Review

Continue Reading....

Don’t Let Them Detroit Virginia

Fight for Tomorrow, a new national Super PAC based in Texas and developed by several conservatives in Virginia and in other states, is launching an advertising campaign as major effort in the Virginia Governor’s race.  Our first ad, “Don’t Let The Detroit Virginia,” is running on TV in Richmond and northern Virginia in the Washington, DC market and in the “A” section of today’s Washington Post.

Like-minded individuals can help us run this ad in Virginia.  While our focus is on this critical contest for the next two months, our interest is wider than simply one state.

A GOP 2014 “wave” in 2014 to ensure Republican control of the U.S. Senate and the Congress is there for the taking, but it won’t happen until the Democratic Party leadership and its allies are confronted over the one tactic they have been using to hold onto power, especially in the U.S. Senate.  Avoiding any “liberal” vs. “conservative” comparisons is paramount for Democrats and they have done this by making elections ugly mano a mano contests.  Their tactic: isolate the Republican with a furious barrage of attack ads sponsored by mega rich environmentalists, abortion extremists or smear groups funded by anti-American financier George Soros.

This is only the latest iteration of a tactic first recommended by Clinton-Obama hero, Saul Alinsky.  It has been most shrewdly employed in recent years by two principal Democratic players – New York Senator Chuck Schumer, who has raised much of the Wall Street and Hollywood money, and David Axelrod, who employs the Obama echo chamber by working the phones with the closet Obama partisans masquerading as news executives and editors in the elite media.

On display all year in Kentucky against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for speaking out against the administration’s attempts to silence dissent, the attacks are focused most recently on the GOP candidate in the Virginia governor’s race, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.   Coordinated by the national Democratic Party, the Obama White House, and the Clintons, as Clinton protégé and professional “Friend of Bill” Terry McAuliffe is Cuccinelli’s opponent.  Democrats believe turning Virginia from red to blue would be just the sort of demoralization needed to slow down a GOP “wave.”  They hunger for the headline “Conservative Disaster in Virginia.”

Va: Red State

Continue Reading....