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An update on the health care debacle in America. As I mentioned before, America already does have universal health care in states such as Massachusetts, California and Maine and that just like its overseas counterparts, was a failure. Another example of this failure was brought to my attention recently. A friend of mine from Portland Maine told me of how a homeless man with Maine care was denied payment of medical bills. Turns out this was because the bills were made very early on. Matter of fact he did not know he had those bills until recently. They were supposed...

Barack Obama’s initial approach to the office of the presidency has been as grandiose as Bush’s was restrained. It’s not hard to recall that he ran as a transformative candidate, promising sweeping, though somewhat fuzzy, “change” during the campaign. For the first several months of his presidency, Obama has labored to deliver on that pledge. He pushed a controversial stimulus bill through Congress to help rev up the economy, turned Bush’s reluctant bailout of Chrysler and General Motors into a giant government auto buyout and appointed a record number of “czars” to help regulate bureaucracies in both public and formerly...

NEW YORK (AP) — Weren't Republicans against Medicare before they were for it? It's a question vexing Democrats in the fierce battle over President Barack Obama's push for a health care overhaul as the head of the Republican Party has portrayed the GOP as the lone bulwark preventing deep cuts to the popular, government-run health plan for older people. It's a remarkable turnaround for a party whose leaders tried to slash billions from Medicare more than a decade ago and have assailed the program as a wasteful entitlement. None other than Ronald Reagan, a hero to Republicans, warned in 1961...

Trippi: GOP trying to turn Obama into another Jimmy Carter Posted: September 6th, 2009 12:21 PM ET From CNN Associate Producer Martina Stewart WASHINGTON (CNN) – A prominent Democratic strategist said Sunday that Republicans are trying to turn President Barack Obama’s administration into another “failed presidency” like that of former Democratic president Jimmy Carter. “They’re going to keep gunning,” Democratic strategist Joe Trippi said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, referring to conservatives’ recent — and ultimately successful efforts — to target Obama’s green jobs adviser Van Jones over controversial comments he made before becoming a part of Obama’s...

THE OBAMA / BIDEN STIMULUS IS WORKING NEWS: "STIMULUS" PROPPED UP A FEW GIANTS, LETS EVERYBODY ELSE GO DOWN THE TUBES The US banking system will lose some 1,000 institutions over the next two years, said John Kanas, whose private equity firm bought BankUnited of Florida in May. “We’ve already lost 81 this year,” he said. “The numbers are climbing every day." PLUS, FDIC INSURANCE WAY DOWN AND BANK FAILURES EXPECTED TO COST FDIC $70 BILLION BY 2013 Of course, that's even assuming the FDIC fund really exists. Former FDIC Chairman points out that the fund is an "accounting fiction."...

Mr Bernanke made three critical mistakes in his pre-Lehman incarnation: First, and foremost, he was deeply wedded to the philosophical conviction that central banks should be agnostic when it comes to asset bubbles. On this count, he stood with his predecessor – serial bubble-blowing Alan Greenspan – who argued that monetary authorities are best positioned to clean up the mess after the bursting of asset bubbles rather than to pre-empt the damage. As a corollary to this approach, both Mr Bernanke and Mr Greenspan drew the wrong conclusions from post-bubble strategies earlier in this decade put in place after the...

Master politician that he is, Barack Obama is a lousy calculator. He spectacularly misjudged the American public's appetite for a government nanny. Or maybe he miscalculated the power of his slippery tongue to sell government snake oil. His apparent willingness to abandon the attempt - for now - to nationalize the health-care industry appears to defer the Democratic first step in remaking the home of the brave and the land of the free into Little America, cutting it down to a size incapable of intimidating the likes of Switzerland or Swaziland. But only if the opposition keeps up unremitting pressure....

Jeffrey T. Kuhner authored a column in the August 15, 2009 Washington Times titled, “A failed, single term?” with which I am in total agreement. He referred to the current, in my opinion, illegal occupant of the White House in Washington, DC, Barack H. Obama, who continues to pay highly touted legal-eagles to keep his vital birth information secret. Any normally honest person so besieged by so many millions of people would just show that information to settle an ongoing turmoil and usurpation of an elected office that requires a natural born citizen to legally hold. This secrecy, especially from...

Is Obama's 'let's talk' diplomacy failing? The US has scored no big wins under his policy of talking with the enemy. Doubts that it can are rising. By Howard LaFranchi | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Washington President Obama may be willing to talk to America's adversaries abroad, but six months into his tenure hardly anyone is returning his call – a situation that is prompting restiveness in Congress and a round of "we told you so's" by diplomatic hawks. In one sign of impatience with Mr. Obama's approach, the US Senate in late July unanimously urged the...

You get a two-fer: 1 What do you think about Obama's health care plan? Thumbs down 59% Thumbs up 41% Total Votes: 9,153 2 Are you satisfied with your health care coverage? Yes 68% No 24% I'm uninsured 8% Total Votes: 14,266

It used to be that the worst grade you could receive in school was an F, and that was bad enough. But B.C.'s Simon Fraser University is taking punishment to a whole new level, introducing a grade of FD -- meaning failure with dishonesty -- the worst possible grade a student can receive. Dr. Rob Gordon, director of criminology at SFU and acting chair of the senate committee on academic integrity, says the new grading is intended to curtail cheating using the internet. "What used to be a lot of cheating in libraries has changed quite significantly," he told ctvbc.ca....

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: People say, well, how can a private company compete against the government? If you think about it, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. Right? No, they are. I mean, it's the post office that's always having problems. (END VIDEO CLIP) That's supposed to make me want government-run health care? I guess the world makes a lot more sense when you're reading from a teleprompter. But, that wasn't the only gem from the town hall meeting. Apparently Obama still thinks doctors are all greedy, cash-hungry, limb-cutting monsters: (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: If a family care...

The Treasury Department announced today that in July the deficit rose by $180.8 billion to a new record of $1.27 trillion. Over the course of the month, the government only had $151.5 billion in receipts, compared to $332.2 billion in outlays. Increased government spending to stem the current economic crisis, combined with a decrease in tax revenues, have caused the deficit to soar to new levels this year. The latest record of $1.27 trillion comes with two months still left in the fiscal year. The Obama administration has forecast that the deficit will eventually hit $1.84 trillion by September 30....

As misunderstandings of President Obama's health care plan abound at town hall meetings across the country, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has built a website, HealthCareFactCheck.com. The DCCC needs that support, because its people are some of the ones getting beaten up at those town-halls on YouTube. The Democratic strategy, now, is to broaden its own interpretive community, in which there's a shared truth that reform would make health care better, not by telling people that's so, but by deconstructing the other side, by making it less appealing and, in "fact," totally unbelievable. Who wouldn't want to support Obama if...

KANO, Nigeria -- As military rule ended in Nigeria a decade ago, an Islamic legal system was swept into place on a wave of popular support...It has turned out in a way few expected. The draconian amputation sentences have mostly not come to pass. But neither has the utopia envisioned by backers of sharia law, who believed politicians' promises that it would end decades of corruption and pillaging by civilian and military rulers. The people are still poor and miserable and politicians are still rich. How the battles over sharia play out could have effects beyond Nigeria, a nation pivotal...

MADISON - Governor Jim Doyle announced $12.1 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds for community development projects in Wisconsin. The Recovery funding will strengthen 72 counties across the state, particularly advancing skill building and employment programs. "Strengthening our communities and creating employment opportunities is at the heart of the Recovery Act," Governor Doyle said. "With this funding we will help communities across the state not just survive this difficult financial time, but be stronger as a result of this investment." The Community Service Block Grants (CSBG) are directed to local organizations for efforts that ensure citizens have...

(CBS/AP) While the White House promised strict oversight of stimulus money, new findings from a government watchdog show that the administration paid for 50 airport projects that didn't meet the grant criteria and approved projects at four airports with a history of mismanaging federal grants. CBS News has reported on $100 million in stimulus money being spent on tiny airports that cater to recreational flyers, corporate jets and remote communities as part of the Department of Transportation's "Airport Improvement Program." Now CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports on new problems with oversight of that program along with billions more...

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- The Federal Reserve has spent the past year cleaning up after a housing bubble it helped create. But along the way it may have pumped up another bubble, this time in stocks. To head off the worst downturn since the Great Depression, the central bank has slashed interest rates while funneling money to banks. The Fed has mostly won praise for its efforts. The pace of job losses has slowed, and there has been a modest recovery in output. At the same time, stocks have bounced back with startling speed. Since global markets hit their bottom...

Public support for the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats has fallen to a new low as just 42% of U.S. voters now favor the plan. That’s down five points from two weeks ago and down eight points from six weeks ago. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that opposition to the plan has increased to 53%, up nine points since late June. More significantly, 44% of voters strongly oppose the health care reform effort versus 26% who strongly favor it. Intensity has been stronger among opponents of the plan since the debate...

Tomorrow, in a historic visit, President Obama is coming to New Hampshire to talk about his plan for health care reform and refute the lies being spread by those who hate reform. Join us the the Pease Tradeport Park & Ride to take a shuttle bus to the President's town hall to show our support for lasting, quality, health care reform. Last year we elected for change. This year, let's make sure it comes true. PLEASE RSVP if you plan on attending. We want to make sure there are buses for everyone.

PORTSMOUTH -- Six hours before President Barack Obama was scheduled to pitch his plans for health care reform at the city's high school, protesters and supporters were already standing roadside waving flags and holding signs with messages both pro and con. Police said Monday that the largest group expected to arrive in the city for the president's visit is comprised of members from the national Democratic party. Anticipated protesters are expected to include representative from the Tea Party Coalition, Steward of Prosperity, Coalition of NH Taxpayers, Cornerstone Policy Research, Granite State Patriots, GraniteGrok, NH Liberty Alliance, Citizens Leadership NH, Granite...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is speaking out against the people who are speaking out against health care reform. Of course, that move by the California Democrat won't win her any fans among health care critics. Sorry, but Pelosi shouldn't be wasting too much of her time attacking opponents. Sure, some of them are planted by the GOP just to kill the Democratic Party's attempts at reform. But there also millions of Americans who have legitimate concerns about what's in the health care bills now circulating in Congress and how much proposed changes would cost. By now, both Democrats and Republicans...

Obama's grassroots group from the campaign, Organizing for America, sent an email out to the millions on its list, urging supporters to visit their members of Congress in their offices. The email names each supporter's representative and offers help on the message. "All throughout August, our members of Congress are back in town. Insurance companies and partisan attack groups are stirring up fear with false rumors about the President's plan, and it's extremely important that folks like you speak up now," writes Mitch Stewart, director of the group. "So we've cooked up an easy, powerful way for you to make...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 30% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-nine percent (39%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -9. Fifty-six percent (56%) of Democrats Strongly Approve while 70% of Republicans Strongly Disapprove. As for those not affiliated with either major party, 22% Strongly Approve and 40% Strongly Disapprove. When it comes to health care, 51% fear the federal government more than private insurance companies. Forty-one percent (41%) hold the opposite view. In the health care...

A new CNN poll shows that more Americans consider the first six months of President Barack Obama’s administration worse than the same time period of his predecessor, former President George Bush. When asked whether they thought the first six months of Obama’s tenure in office has been a success or a failure, 37 percent responding to the poll released Friday said they believe it was a failure. After Bush’s first six months in office, a similar CNN poll from August of 2001 showed only 32 percent considered it to be a failure. Those who said the first half year of...

When I taught the Jr. High grades, I failed anyone whose average grade was a D and less. Not for lack of talent, but for lack of effort in the right direction. I remember them for the challenge they presented. Some still stop by to share their successes and thank me for not giving up on them. I’m not sure that our government officials have learned or ever will learn anything about our current challenges. I refuse to watch and listen to the biased “reporting” coming from the mainstream media, especially the networks, but also MSNBC and CNN. Even PBS...

FRIDAY, Aug. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Even if Congress extends health coverage to the nation's 46 million uninsured Americans, there's no guarantee that everyone will have access to care -- unless payment reforms and new models of care are adopted, some experts say. "As more people have insurance, they will try to get appointments with more doctors, and that will lead to dramatic increases in the time it takes to get an appointment." Depending on the coverage people have, where they live and whether they have an existing relationship with a physician, some Americans could encounter long delays in getting...

The bipartisan group of negotiators on the Senate Finance Committee — three Democrats and three Republicans – who have been working to fashion compromise legislation to overhaul the nation’s health care system has been invited to visit the White House on Thursday morning to meet with President Obama. [T]he group of six senators, which includes Democrats Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Kent Conrad of North Dakota as well as Republicans Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, has continued this week to slog its way through complex sections of the...

The Colorado Department of Education Wednesday announced 17 grants totalling $924,815 to school programs supporting homeless children using funds from the federal stimulus program. The grants will support tutoring and academic enrichment programs, professional development for teachers and others who work with homeless children, early childhood education programs, mentoring, summer programs, clothing and school supplies, the department said.

Oregon Health & Science University will receive more than $1.3 million to expand its biomedical informatics training program through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Specifically, 13 student internships have been funded, which allow students from a number of colleges and universities to work through the summer on projects led by OHSU faculty.

Wakarusa, Ind. -- President Obama returned today to this economically hard-hit stretch of northern Indiana for the fourth time in 15 months, proclaiming that the government's economic stimulus program is working and has begun to switch gears from rescue to recovery. A few feet away Shelley Ahlersmeyer, a part-time paralegal who lives in Warsaw, Ind., said too many of her friends and family are having trouble finding work to call the stimulus plan a success. "I keep feeling that Obama's still in campaign mode: making lots of promises, giving us few details and not giving us a lot of results,"...

A double-digit drop in mail volume helped pushed down third-quarter earnings at the U.S. Postal Service, which posted a loss of $2.4 billion for the quarter ended June 30. The service, which has lost $4.7 billion so far this year, compared to a loss in the same period last year of $1.1 billion, said it expects to lose more than $7 billion by fiscal year’s end on Sept. 30.

1. These disruptions are being funded and organized by out-of-district special-interest groups and insurance companies. 2. People are scared because they are being fed frightening lies. 3. Their actions are getting more extreme. 4. Their goal is to disrupt and shut down legitimate conversation. 5. Republican leadership is irresponsibly cheering on the thuggish crowds.

Seventy-one percent (71%) of U.S. voters say President Obama’s policies have increased the size of the federal deficit, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Only five percent (5%) say the president’s policies have cut the deficit, and 10% say they have had no impact. Thirteen percent (13%) are not sure. Eighty percent (80%) of investors say Obama’s policies have driven up the deficit, a view shared by just 57% of non-investors. Not surprisingly, 88% of Republicans blame the president’s policies, compared to 52% of Democrats. But 79% of voters not affiliated with either party agree.

After six months in the Oval Office, Pres. Barack Obama has a lower job-approval rating than did ten of the last twelve presidents at the same point in their presidencies. Rasmussen reports that the daily tracking poll of the president's popular standing shows eleven points negative: Twenty-eight percent "strongly approve" and 39 percent "strongly disapprove." The support for his signature issue, health-care "reform," is falling by the day. The more that Americans learn about it, the more revulsion they feel against it. His big stimulus bill has not delivered what he said it would. A giveaway stimulus is the Democrats'...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. private employers axed more jobs in July but at the slowest pace since October, offering a glimmer of hope the labor market is stabilizing. U.S. companies shed 371,000 jobs in July, compared with a revised 463,000 drop in June, a report by a private employment service said on Wednesday. The June decline was originally reported at 473,000. The median of estimates from 26 economists polled by Reuters for the ADP Employer Services report, jointly developed with Macroeconomic Advisers LLC, was for 345,000 private-sector jobs lost in July. "It is of course worse than expected, but...

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is set to release the unemployment rate for June on Friday. You can track it ahead of time in the moves by the Obama administration today. Vice President Joe Biden is off to Michigan, where the state unemployment rate of 15.2 percent is way, way worse than the national one of 9.5. If you're looking for the worst rate by metropolitan area, head to Elkhart County, Ind., with 16.8 percent in June. Elkhart County is getting President Barack Obama today. Meanwhile, junkyards are competing for Clunkers cast off for Cash.

TAPPER:  A couple questions.  One, is it your contention -- is it the White House contention that the anger that some members of Congress are experiencing at town hall meetings, especially over health care reform, is manufactured?GIBBS:  I think some of it is, yes.  In fact, I think you've had groups today, Conservatives for Patients Rights, that have bragged about organizing and manufacturing that anger.TAPPER:  How is their organizing and getting people to come to town hall meetings and express their feelings any different from a liberal group doing the same thing?GIBBS: Well, I think what you've seen is they...

Democratic Senators emerged from their working lunch meeting with President Obama at the White House today confident that they would pass health care this year, comparing the President’s lunch invitation as a “pep talk before the game.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) called out what he called the “loud, shrill voices” that have been interrupting town hall meetings across the country held by Democratic members of Congress and members of the administration on health care reform. “In spite of the loud, shrill voices trying to interrupt town hall meetings and just throwing a monkey wrench into everything, we’re going...

The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded the Georgia Museum of Art a $50,000 stimulus grant to provide a year of salary and benefits to fill the vacant position of curator of decorative arts through the 2009 NEA Direct Grants: Museum-Recovery Act. Recognizing the importance of the nonprofit arts industry on the economy, the Recovery Act provides stimulus funds, which the NEA uses in an effort to preserve jobs in the nonprofit arts sector that are threatened by the current economic downturn. "Happily, this very timely grant allows us to continue the work of the Henry D. Green Center...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Despite accusations of conflict of interest and other wrongdoing, Charleston City Council members agreed Monday to award all of a federal stimulus grant to the Kanawha Valley Collective -- and none to a competing group. The Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program grant will help hundreds of homeless and about-to-become homeless people during the next three years, city officials say. One local minister wasn't satisfied with the decision. "I hope you will amend your proposal," the Rev. Darin Freeman said in brief remarks to council members. "We believe there was a conflict of interest, a comedy of...

MADISON, Wis. - Eighteen arts organizations in Wisconsin will receive federal grants to help save their workers' jobs. The Legislature's Joint Finance Committee on Tuesday approved a proposal to award $318,500 in federal stimulus funds to the groups. Grants will range from $8,500 to $25,000. Recipients include the Madison Ballet, the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, American Players Theatre and the Museum of Wisconsin Art. The Arts Board selected the groups out of 94 applicants. The money comes from a $50 million pot of federal money designed to help groups that are struggling in the recession and facing potential downsizing.

So is there a way for Obama to raise taxes on the middle class -- despite his repeated campaign promises -- and still remain in good standing with the same constituency? "By arguing as George Bush, the dad, did. That it was needed. That he had to have this money to fund a variety of things to bring down the deficit," CNN Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley said. Rothenberg said that such a move by the Obama administration "wouldn't have quite the same response in his party that the first George Bush felt when he said 'no new taxes' and...

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is struggling to find a way to pay for an overhaul of the nation's health care system without violating his campaign promise not to raise taxes on the middle class. Obama's dilemma was highlighted this week when two top economic advisers refused to rule out a middle class tax hike as a possible way to pay the health care overhaul bill or to reduce the rapidly escalating federal deficit. It would be a distraction from the already difficult sales job needed for Obama's top domestic priority. Critics have booed and jeered lawmakers at home while...

Congress has agreed to step away from its promise to pass expansive health bills before its August recess as the president wanted. It would have bordered on legislative malpractice for the House to have rushed to pass its bill last week as its leadership hoped to do, considering that most members still have not read the 1,017-pager. Here are just four things that promise to radically change some people's health experiences—and everyone's relationship with the government—even if you are now among the happily insured. 1. Health choices commissioner. 2. Health Benefits Advisory Committee. 3. Federal penalties. 4. Money from the...

Think of “cash for clunkers” as a sort of bizarro twin of that “bucks for banks” program from last autumn. You know, the one where Congress authorized $700 billion to keep financial clunkers on Wall Street up and running. Thank goodness the automobile version won’t be nearly as expensive for taxpayers, consisting of a mere $1 billion in incentives for individuals to trade in their old gas guzzlers for new, (at least slightly) more fuel-efficient vehicles. And giving away free money turned out to be so wildly and unexpectedly popular that the House quickly passed a bill giving away another...

WASHINGTON – Some of President Barack Obama's health care numbers don't seem to add up. And that's complicating his efforts to pass his top domestic priority. Obama claims his health effort will not dig the nation deeper into debt and over time will help reduce deficits. He has vowed to not sign any health bill that raises deficits. The White House stands by its claims. Its allies claim that CBO forecasts, for instance, don't reflect potential future cost savings that might be expected from the prevention of illness achieved from wider health care coverage. Recent polls show increasing anxiety over...

Taser International Inc. executives hope federal stimulus money will free up cash-strapped police departments to purchase the company’s new multishot stun guns and other high-tech equipment, but some local law enforcement officials say they aren’t planning to buy more Tasers any time soon. CEO Rick Smith and CFO Dan Behrendt said stimulus funds will pay for essential police expenditures, including hiring new officers, but other money should be available for equipment purchases. They hope the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, along with trade-in rebates Taser is offering through the end of the year, will boost demand.

TALLAHASSEE - As national politicians debate the effects of the $789 billion federal stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama this year, those in the Florida transportation industry say any impact is yet to be felt. For instance, $393,700 in stimulus funds went to arts organizations like the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville to help preserve 27 jobs, according to the state's Division of Cultural Affairs. Lawmakers also used billions in stimulus money to shore up education and health care, among other areas of the state budget for the fiscal year that began July 1. "It's not a whole lot,...