Obama to cite Mass. health care law's slow start

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is citing the Massachusetts health care system's slow start to keep expectations low for early sign-ups for his own overhaul. And he's pointing to the bipartisan effort to get the program launched in Massachusetts to encourage his opponents to stop rooting for his law's failure.

The president planned to speak about the embattled law Wednesday from Boston's historic Faneuil Hall, where Massachusetts Republican Gov. Mitt Romney was joined by the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy to sign the state's 2006 health care overhaul bill.

There's been no such bipartisanship surrounding Obama's effort, particularly this month as the marketplace to allow individuals to buy health insurance went online with myriad technical problems. Republicans say the dysfunction is more reason to repeal the law, and they're pressing Obama administration officials for an explanation.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was testifying Wednesday before a Republican-led House committee, a day after Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner was questioned by lawmakers about the problems.

Via: CNS News

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Body language expert: Obama in personal crisis mode over website glitches

President Barack Obama’s glitch-ridden Obamacare website rollout has plunged him into a personal anxiety never before seen during his presidency, a professional body-language expert told The Daily Caller.

“Basically, we’re seeing an Obama that we’ve never seen before,” body language expert Dr. Lillian Glass told TheDC. “Body language-wise, he looks tentative. He looks down. We see an embarrassed Obama.”

Glass recognized signs of great distress in the president’s posture and lower jaw in his recent speech acknowledging Obamacare website failures and in other recent public appearances.

“He’s not as confident as he once was. It’s really taking its toll on him. He swallows more when he speaks. He has much more tension in his lower jaw. His posture is more slouched over… This whole situation has affected him,” Glass said. “The tension around the jaw is very prevalent, more than it was before. That signifies a lot of anger and a lot of tension and anxiety.”

“You see the puffiness around his eyes. He’s losing a lot of sleep over this for sure,” Glass said. “What is so unusual body language-wise is that we’ve never seen him in this state. We really see how this has had an effect on him.”

Glass noted that Obama offended body language experts, and the entire study of body language, in a recent speech.

“I know the press likes to focus on body language, and he’s got that kind of slouch, looking like the bored kid in the back of the classroom,” Obama said in August, referring to Russian president Vladimir Putin. ”But the truth is, is that when we’re in conversations together, oftentimes it’s very productive.”

“Even though Obama talked about body language and said in one speech, ‘don’t look at body language,’ the body doesn’t lie,” Glass said. “People pick things up. When we decipher it and we analyze it, it’s quite relevant because we’re seeing it in action right away.”

Via: Daily Caller

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[VIDEO] Sebelius: ‘Whatever, Yes,’ Obama’s Responsible

Kathleen Sebelius had an exasperated response for the congressional committee today, when pressed as to whether President Obama is ultimately responsible for problems facing Obamacare.

“Whatever, yes — he is the president, he is responsible for government programs,” she said at Wednesday’s hearing, after first rejecting Republican representative Gregg Harper’s claims that the president can be held accountable for the health-care law’s implementation.

Via: NRO

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[VIDEO] OBAMA TELLS INSURANCE COMPANIES TO SHUT UP, IF THEY KNOW WHAT’S GOOD FOR THEM

More thug tactics from a White House that is no stranger to them, as CNN reports insurance companies have been warned to dummy up about the ObamaCare disaster if they know what’s good for them:

“What is going on is a behind-the-scenes attempt by the White House to at least keep insurers from publicly criticizing what is happening on this Affordable Care Act rollout,” reports Andrew Griffin of CNN.  ”Basically, if you speak out, if you are quoted, you’re going to get a call from the White House, pressure to be quiet.”

According to Griffin’s sources, Bob Laszewski of Health Policy and Strategy Associates – a prominent consultant for insurance companies with a history of criticizing ObamaCare – says he’s getting calls from the executives he works with, asking him to speak out on their behalf, “because they feel defenseless against the White House PR team.”

Laszewski told Griffin, “The White House is exerting massive pressure on the industry, including the trade associations, to keep quiet.”  Industry sources confirmed “they fear White House retribution.”

Via: Human Events

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3 Trillion Reasons Not to Raise Taxes Again

Do you know how much President Obama has raised taxes?

Oh, by about $3 trillion.

In a new paper, Heritage expert Curtis Dubay reminds us:

President Obama has already raised taxes substantially twice—first as part of Obamacare and then as part of the “fiscal cliff” deal earlier this year. Together, those increases raised taxes by more than $1.3 trillion over 10 years. Including the payroll tax increase that was also part of the fiscal cliff deal, taxes have risen by almost $3 trillion during President Obama’s tenure.

That’s right: Taxes have risen by almost $3 trillion during President Obama’s tenure.

>>> See the 13 tax increases just in 2013

Today, a special congressional committee will meet to start hashing out what the next budget could look like—and members of this committee will face a lot of pressure to raise taxes again.

They should not.

Via: The Foundry

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Annoyed Obama demands fix

An agitated President Obama has expressed frustration to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about the faulty ObamaCare enrollment website.

A visibly annoyed Obama behind closed doors has made clear to Sebelius that it’s her responsibility to fix what has become an unwanted second-term blunder, according to senior administration officials. 

White House officials say the strong words from Obama don’t mean Sebelius is necessarily in the doghouse but that she’s responsible for fixing the problem.

In the words of one senior administration official, “She’s in a tough spot. She’s on the hook.”

Sebelius is scheduled to appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday amid a sea of negative press.

She has been lambasted by Republicans and even parodied in a “Saturday Night Live” opening sketch.

Senior officials maintain that Obama is sticking with Sebelius.

“She has his full support,” White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said in an interview. 

“They have a good relationship, one of mutual respect,” which has “developed over time,” Jarrett said. 

Obama has a reputation for sticking by Cabinet officials who get in trouble.

When Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt by the House for his role in the “Fast and Furious” gun tracking controversy, Obama defended him. He did so again when Holder was criticized for secretly subpoenaing The Associated Press’s phone records.

Those close to Obama say the president is taking the long view and feels that Sebelius is also responsible for positive aspects of the law that have gone well.

“The president isn’t looking for a scalp to win the news cycle,” one senior administration official said.

One former senior administration official added: “The way he sees it is, ‘Does this one problem negate four or five years of good work?’ ”

Via: The Hill

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Obama and Democrats Lied Us Into a Bad Law ...

Well, let’s see if we can lift the veil of mystery. For starters, Obama’s statements were not  ”narrowly untrue.”  They were broadly, knowingly and entirely untrue. He repeated them over and over again, often straight into the camera. It’s nice that Greg Sargent concedes now that the president “could have been clearer.” But “could have been clearer” implies that he was a little clear about how this would work and just didn’t clarify enough. The truth is the complete opposite. He wasn’t even deliberately unclear. He was clearly dishonest. Obama was stridently deceitful. Seriously, watch this video compilation of Obama’s repeated and vociferous statements about “keeping your plan” and tell me he was just failing to be sufficiently clear that millions of people wouldn’t be able to keep their plans:

 This raises a larger problem about the wonkosphere. Ross Douthat is right when he tweets:

“Furor over ‘if you like your plan …’ is a reminder to everyone in Wonkland (where everyone knew it was BS) that most ppl don’t live here.”

I agree that everyone in wonkland knew it was b.s. But what does it say about the liberal wonks that they either never said so when the legislation was being debated or said so very quietly under their breaths. I’m genuinely curious, did Sargent or his colleagues at the Washington Post report that what Obama was saying — never mind the impression he was leaving — was a lie, or even “narrowly untrue”? I mean did they report it when it might have hurt the law’s chances of passage, not afterwards when all lies are retroactively absolved as the price for social progress.

Indeed, what is so infuriating to many of us is that now that it’s the law of the land, Obamacare supporters act as if all of the lies were no big deal and no serious person believed them anyway. But as anyone can tell you, if Obama had been honest about the trade-offs in his signature piece of legislation, it would never have become his signature piece of legislation. So please, don’t tell me the lies don’t matter.

Via: Fox News

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[VIDEO] 13 Democrats That Knew You’d Lose Your Health Insurance But Promised You Could Keep It

The Obamacare rollout debacle has been way more than a broken website. Millions of Americans are set to lose their health insurance - whether they liked their plan or not. A direct contradiction to President Obama and Democrat's promise. 

Last night NBC News reported that that the "Obama Administration knew millions could not keep their health insurance" but still campaigned across the country promising Americans otherwise. 

President Obama was able to postpone the implementation of Obamacare until after he secured re-election. But for Democrats up for re-election in 2014, their less than honest claim to their constituents will now be front and center next November. 

Here are 13 Democrats running for election in 2014 that knew you'd lose your health insurance but promised you could keep it: 

1) Gary Peters - Michigan 

"If you’re covered and you like your insurance, you can keep it."

2) Bruce Braley - Iowa 
 ObamaCare would "allow Americans to maintain their choice of health insurance." 

3) Mark Pryor - Arkansas

ObamaCare would “protect and expand an individual’s choice of doctors and insurance plans.”

4) Mark Begich - Alaska 

“If you got a doctor now, you got a medical professional you want, you get to keep that. If you have an insurance program or a health care policy you want of ideas, make sure you keep it. That you can keep who you want. That we keep that patient-doctor relationship very strong.”

Via: NRSC
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Jon Stewart interrogates Debbie Wasserman Schultz about the “troubling” effects of Obamacare on ‘The Daily Show’

After receiving no acceptable answers about the failed Obamacare implementation from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, comedian Jon Stewart was forced to consult Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) — and the host essentially interrogated the Chair of the Democratic National Committee about the President’s healthcare law, as she tried her best to dodge his questions.

Wasserman Schultz sat down with Jon Stewart on Tuesday’s episode of The Daily Show, where the duo had a lengthy discussion about the current state of Obamacare. Their interview comes just three weeks after Stewart shredded Sebelius on his show.

The host primarily wanted to know two things: why President Barack Obama didn’t know about the problems with HealthCare.gov prior to its dismal launch and why Obama promised that people wouldn’t lose their current health insurance — and now they are.

“Both of those things strike me as really troubling at a foundational level,” the host said. “Is that understandable as a concern?”

“Well, there’s no question that it was problematic that the website was not working properly right from day one,” the Congresswoman dodged.

“But that he [Obama] was not aware of it,” Stewart pressed. “Apparently after a day, they said he found out.”

“I think we have to look past and not focus — ” Wasserman Schultz responded.

The host began laughing, but then let her continue.

Via: Red Alert Politics

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McCaskill demands explanation over staged arrival ceremonies for fallen soldiers

WASHINGTON –  Sen. Claire McCaskill is pressing the Pentagon for answers following reports -- and an admission by the U.S. Department of Defense -- that it staged “arrival ceremonies” for fallen soldiers.

“This is even more evidence that these recovery efforts are suffering from systematic problems and a lack of coordinated leadership,” McCaskill said in a statement. “Families in this community just want officials to be honest and forthright about the government’s efforts – instead, what they’re often getting is false hope and fake ceremonies.”

Joint Prisoners of War, Missing in Action Accounting Command -- a unit in the Defense Department -- has been holding arrival ceremonies for seven years, with flag-draped coffins being carried off cargo planes as though they held the remains of American troops that had just been returned, according to an initial investigation by NBC News. However, the remains typically were on site before each ceremony began, at a lab where they were undergoing analysis. The report focused on ceremonies at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii. 

“These ceremonies, which have been held numerous times over the past seven years, reportedly represented to veterans and families that the remains had been recently recovered and were arriving in the United States for the first time,” McCaskill wrote in her Oct. 25 letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

Via: Fox News Political

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Gov't 'Encouraging People to Sign Up for Insurance and a Subsidy That They May Not Be Eligible For'

(CNSNews.com) - People who depend on tax refunds may be in for "rude awakenings" under Obamacare, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told the head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Tuesday.

He said the problem is subsidies and whether people who get them should be getting them.

"The law is, if you are under the age of 26, and you are eligible to stay on your parents' plans, you cannot receive subsidies," Ryan told Marilyn Tavenner, who was called before the House Ways and Means Committee to discuss the Affordable Care Act.

"And there is nothing -- nothing -- on your website that tells an under-26-year-old those facts," Ryan said. "So you're encouraging people to sign up for insurance and a subsidy that they may not be eligible for, and they don't even know this."

Under the law, people who get subsidies they should not have received will have their tax refunds docked.

Earlier, Tavenner told Ryan that the healthcare.gov website includes "clear instructions" that you are completing the application under penalty of perjury. "It's very clear, there's also help instructions on each site to explain each process -- what is credible employer coverage, what happens if you're under 26, it is all available on the website," Tavenner said.

Via: CNS News

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Krauthammer: Obamacare Will Lead to Government 'Domination'

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Charles Krauthammer tells Newsmax that the successful implementation of Obamacare would lead to European-style government "intrusion and domination" — but adds that it is "quite possible" it will fail.

He also asserts that the government shutdown has led to a "tremendous drop" on the GOP's standing, says he agrees with Sen. Ted Cruz's objectives but not his tactics, and predicts the 2016 Republican presidential candidate will come from the ranks of GOP governors.

Krauthammer is a Fox News contributor, physician, and author of the new book, "Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes, and Politics."

In the book, Krauthammer issues a passionate defense of limited government. Considering the massive growth of the government during the Obama administration and the growing number of Americans dependent on the government for entitlements, he was asked if the concept of limited American government can endure.

"A lot of conservatives are worried that we passed the tipping point," he says in an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV on Tuesday. "That's wrong. It's still very doable for Americans to reconsider the inexorable growth of the leviathan state.

"I'll give you one example: Obamacare would be the singular achievement of the Obama administration, the capstone of 100 years of American liberalism, and would bring us very close to the kind of government intrusion, regulation, domination that you find in the social democracies of Europe.

Via: Newsmax

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