Free Republic

**SNIP** In Kalamazoo, in GOP-heavy western Michigan, perceptions of the health care law and its impact on the Senate race depend on who you ask. "These issues can be fixed," said Lucy Bland, director of a food co-op kitchen. "It going to set us all back for a long time," countered Kevin McLeod, with the area Chamber of Commerce. Democratic National Committee leaders say publicly they welcome election-year attacks on the health care law, and plan to respond by pointing to the October shutdown. By next fall, they contend, the contour of the Michigan and Colorado Senate races will look...

In this video commentary, I discuss how the 2014 election is shaping up now for the Democrats. Tune in!

A month after emerging from a government shutdown at the top of their game, many Democrats in Congress newly worried about the party’s re-election prospects are for the first time distancing themselves from President Obama after the disastrous rollout of his health care overhaul. At issue, several Obama allies said, is a loss of trust in the president after only 106,000 people — instead of an anticipated half million — were able to buy insurance coverage the first month of the new “Obamacare” websites. In addition, some 4.2 million Americans received notices from insurers that policies Obama had promised they...

The president owes these Americans who lost their policies and family physicians a fix that will make his promises become true. It will not be easy but it can be done. It must be done to restore public trust in his words and safeguard the legacy of his presidency. Under the Affordable Care Act, millions of Americans are receiving letters from insurers informing them that their health insurance policies have been canceled. They are worried and angry that they may be forced to accept new policies with dramatic premium increases that President Obama repeatedly promised them would not happen. These...

The White House on Tuesday asked health insurers for help in quelling the growing furor over the cancellation of insurance plans under ObamaCare. In a meeting at the White House, Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough asked insurance executives to explain to customers who are losing their plans what new options are available under ObamaCare, and what new subsidies they might qualify for. “He emphasized the need for all involved in the marketplaces, including the administration, issuers and other stakeholders, both federal and private, to ramp up communication and education efforts to consumers who have received or might receive letters...

WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's top health official apologized on Wednesday for the botched rollout of the government's healthcare website, acknowledging it was a "debacle", while also blaming insurers for cancelling coverage for hundreds of thousands of people. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, .. vowed to win back the confidence of millions of disappointed Americans. "Hold me accountable for the debacle. I'm responsible," Sebelius said in response to questions from Marsha Blackburn, the Republican U.S. Representative of Tennessee, .. Technical glitches have dogged the Healthcare.gov since its launch on Oct. 1, .. . But critics...

Speaker John Boehner’s proposal includes a balanced-budget amendment and a raise in the debt ceiling by $1 trillion. The proposed plan would save $1.2 trillion over the next decade. Fox News reported: The approach was received from a senior GOP leadership aide and reads as follows: Two-Step Approach to Hold President Obama Accountable Republicans insisted if the President wants his debt ceiling increase, the American people will require serious spending cuts and reforms. This two-step approach meets House Republicans’ criteria by (1) making spending cuts that are larger than any debt ceiling increase; (2) implementing spending caps to restrain future...

What does it say about your cause that nearly every policy idea you cook up is based in some form or another on coercing the American people? When House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., was recently asked to identify where the Constitution granted Congress the authority to force all Americans to buy health insurance, he replied, "Under several clauses; the good and welfare clause and a couple others." For those of you who aren't familiar with the "good and welfare" clause, it states that "The Congress shall have Power to make Citizens of each State compelled to partake of...

See article below.

On April 21, the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program Act of 2009--"SIGTARP"--submitted his quarterly report to Congress on his office's activities in relation to the TARP program. The report is a disquieting document that should be read by every American--certainly be every taxpayer. The Inspector General's report documents the stunning and at least partly illegal expansion of TARP from the $700 billion originally allocated by Congress to what is now a $3 trillion complex of programs. This chart shows the various programs that are now included within SIGTARP's oversight, and how they have expanded from the...

As the AIG bonuses debacle grows ever larger and the angry voices grow ever louder, the question for some may be: Who created this mess, anyway? To make a long, long story short: The U.S. government bailed out the ailing insurance giant AIG with $170 billion. Unbeknownst (allegedly) to anyone (until now), AIG is using $220 million of taxpayers' hard-earned dollars for "retention bonuses" for its financial products division, the section arguably to blame for the company's downfall. Today, the House passed a bill, 328-93, that would slap huge taxes on employee bonuses from bailed-out firms. Here is a list...

Some observations of the debacle 1) No doubt about it. The Democrats have a mandate, being defined as anything above 50% of the vote. 2) Sarah Palin will fade into the background, she is a candidate that excites the conservative base and for this reason they will try to neuter and discredit her before the four years are up. 3) Conservatives as always invested themselves heavily into the GOP. They forgot that conservatism is a political movement, NOT a political party and thus they acted accordingly by investing too much in a flawed candidate. 4) No matter how much McCain...

The "bitter" answer, captured on audiotape, came in response to a question about whether Obama could win white rural voters because he is black. He basically said these voters have other grievances more salient than race, which is why they don't vote their economic interests and are vulnerable to wedge issues having to do with God, gays and guns. Clinton surely knows what Obama was trying to say, but seeing her path to the nomination narrowing, she manipulated his words for political gain. Fair enough. She hurts him, but she hurts herself more. Pollster Doug Schoen, who has advised her...

<p>The war in Iraq has become "a major debacle" and the outcome "is in doubt" despite improvements in security from the buildup in U.S. forces, according to a highly critical study published Thursday by the Pentagon's premier military educational institute.</p>

As a liberal, it was a real eye opener to see the role Super Delegate’s play in the DNC. I found this link of Jason Rae, the 22 year old “Super Delegate” on youtube which was originally aired on Channel 2 WISN. The piece is so pathetic that it’s actually hilarious and outraged me so much that I may just pull the plug on them.

<p>The last politician who took advice from the bond market was Bill Clinton. When he pushed for a tax hike back in 1993 to cut the budget deficit, it was under the assumption that bond investors would respond by bringing down interest rates. (The theory here is that deficits are inflationary. Inflation is bad for bonds.) Yet long-term interest rates surged from 6.45 percent when Clinton signed his tax-hike bill on Aug. 10, 1993, to 8.16 percent on Nov. 7, 1994, the day before the midterm congressional election where Republicans won back the House and Senate.</p>

HBO is revisiting one of the most dramatic events in U.S. election history with "Recount," a film about the 2000 turmoil in Florida to be directed by Oscar winner Sydney Pollack. Paula Weinstein is executive producing the HBO Films project, which is targeted to premiere in spring 2008. Written by actor Danny Strong, Spring Creek Prods.' "Recount" chronicles the weeks after the 2000 presidential election and goes behind the scenes of the recounts in Florida to explore the human drama of ordinary people caught in an extraordinary event that would decide the leadership of the country. "It's a very compelling...

Investors are breathing a sigh of relief as Wednesday's stock market rebound wiped away some of the pain inflicted by Tuesday's tumble. They would do well to stay very scared... ...The U.S. stock market, by far the world's largest, has been on a bull run for four years without a major pullback. While the S&P 500 is nowhere nearly as expensive as it was in the late 1990s, neither is it cheap at about 17.6 times the latest 12-months' earnings. ...The housing market, for one, is looking increasingly shaky. Defaults of subprime mortgages are already rising, and Wednesday's announcement of...

On Jan. 18, 2005, top executives of Airbus and its parent company, European Aeronautic Defense & Space, staged the aviation industry's equivalent of a Broadway musical for the A380s coming-out party here, complete with strobe lights, smoke machines and chorus girls. Before a rapt audience, Jacques Chirac, the French president, extolled the colossal, twin-deck jet as an unparalleled symbol of European manufacturing prowess.

Americans who have stretched themselves financially to buy a home or refinance a mortgage have been falling behind on their loan payments at an unexpectedly rapid pace. The surge in mortgage delinquencies in the past few months is squeezing lenders and unsettling investors world-wide in the $10 trillion U.S. mortgage market. The pain is most apparent in subprime mortgages, though there are signs it is spreading to other parts of the mortgage market. Subprime mortgages are loans made to borrowers who are considered to be higher credit risks because of past payment problems, high debt relative to income or other...