The President's Nun: Obamacare Scranton Scandal Explodes

The American Spectator ^ | 10/11/2010 | Jeffrey Lord

[jhigh]

Can you say "October Surprise"?

A mushrooming political battle over ObamaCare involving the White House, two incumbent Pennsylvania congressmen, three Catholic hospitals and a nun has just exploded in, of all places, Scranton, Pennsylvania. Charges from the Scranton medical community of intimidation by the Obama White House and its allies are filling the air.

All of this just as Vice President Joe Biden arrives in Scranton today to raise money for one of the participants.

There are two issues at the core of the controversy.

1. ObamaCare and the sale of three Scranton-area Catholic hospitals.

2. The re-election prospects of the two House members, Democrats Paul Kanjorski and Chris Carney, both of whom cast key votes to pass ObamaCare.

Here's the list of players -- major and minor -- so far.
• The President of the United States.
• The Vice President of the United States.
• Three Scranton-area Catholic hospitals suddenly for sale.
• The CEO of the three Scranton-area Catholic hospitals for sale.
• ObamaCare, otherwise known as "health care reform" or the "Affordable Care Act."
• A Catholic nun.
• Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak.
• A pen.
• Victoria Reggie Kennedy, widow of the late Senator Ted Kennedy.
• Time magazine.
• The Scranton Times
• The two Scranton-area House members Kanjorski and Carney, both losing in the polls.
• U.S. Senator Bob Casey, Jr., a native and resident of Scranton.
• Congressman Joe Sestak, the Democrats' nominee for the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat.

Where to start? That would be….

[PATRIOT1876]

Let the scandal news begin!

May 0bamacare die a swift painful death...

[Recovering_Democrat]

Any chance we’ll hear about this on ABC/CBS/NBC/CNN?

[RandallFlagg]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2605478/posts

[opentalk]

Great article. This administration (machine), has no respect or real concern for the average person. It seems like a big game with no thought to the pain they create.

[Izzy Dunne]

Here's the list of players -- major and minor -- so far.

• The President of the United States.
• The Vice President of the United States.

Which one is major and which one is minor? I's getting harder to tell...

[Luke21]

There’s no body, just a bunch of questions and clues.

The body could be gushing blood and turning gray and the media wouldn’t cover it, but if Bush were president...

[SpaceBar]

So now they can toss in racketeering charges at the impeachment hearings.

[earlJam]

Wow. One of the most poorly written articles I have tried to read in a long time.

By the bottom of page three I still did not know who the nun was or why it was important.

By the time I started page four, I didn’t care anymore.

[Luke21]

Yeah, no smoking gun at all.

[SunkenCiv]

additional:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2605287/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2605478/posts

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

The Nun was one of the select group of people at the signing of ObamaCare that got one of the “cherished” pens Obi used to sign it. Meaning she knew the hospitals would be sold to a group that ALLOWS abortions, against the wishes of the Bishop (chuch?) that was against ObiCare.

[linn37]

That is some story.

[earlJam]

Thanks.

A good rule of thumb in news journalism is to get the basic facts out in the first paragraph or two.

It would have been helpful to have somewho? what? and why? at the beginning of the article, instead of waiting until the end.

[Jaidyn]

Part of the last page:

In other words, Sister Carol is not just some kindly nun who reminds you of the nun whacking your knuckles in grade school for this or that offense. No, in the world of Washington Sister Carol is a powerhouse lobbyist -- make that a liberal social justice lobbyist -- with a clear set of political skills and a very, very high-powered set of very elite friends. She is quite decidedly not just the neighborhood nun. Sister Carol is the Washington voice of the Catholic Health Association, once called the Catholic Hospital Association, which means her clout with Catholic hospitals around America -- like the Mercy Hospital in Scranton and its siblings in Nanticoke and Tunkhannock, all run by CEO Cook -- is considerable. Not to mention her clout with the parent company located in Cincinnati -- and not to mention with Congressman Bart Stupak. Selected as one of Time magazine's "2010 Time 100" most influential people, Sister Carol's social justice passions were written up glowingly for Time by one of the other Obama 21 pen-receivers at the health care signing: Victoria Reggie Kennedy. AKA, Mrs. Ted Kennedy. Sister Carol, as demonstrated by her status as the receiver of

[philman_36]

But...but...”October Surprises” are only supposed to happen to Republicans! /dumbfounded liberal impression

[Nick Danger]

she knew the hospitals would be sold to a group that ALLOWS abortions

That's assuming that anyone wants to buy them. The article makes the point that the reason these hospitals are up for sale is that Obamacare is going to drive all hospitals into the ground by continually reducing Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, thus making it impossible to service the debt that is acquired in the normal course of keeping a hospital's equipment up-to-date.

Driving even non-profit hospitals out of business is part of the Democrats' plan. That's how they swoop in at the last minute to have the government acquire the hospitals in order to "save" them... from the government.

This CEO apparently thinks there's a Greater Fool out there who will want to buy a hospital that he knows is already doomed. I can't believe that anyone in the business of hospital administration doesn't know this. The only hope they have is that the Republicans get in come November and change course. If that doesn't happen, the future looks like one hospital after another collapsing into the waiting arms of the federal government, who will take it over and hide the losses by having the taxpayers cover them.

Note that the government could have the taxpayers cover the losses by simply not cutting the Medicare reimbursements so much. But that's not what the Democrats want. The Democrats want the health care workforce to turn into unionized government workers, which is what this whole thing is really all about. Does anyone believe that the federal government's Medicare bureaucracy can process paperwork more efficiently than Blue Cross does? Of course it can't. The real reason the Democrats want to destroy private medical insurance is to turn all those insurance company clerk jobs into SEIU government jobs. The same paperwork will still need to be done; it will just cost more but be unionized once the government does it. That's all the Democrats care about.

[DallasDeb]

The b!t<# should be excommunicated. She’s headed for hell for her support of murderers unless she repents.

[DallasDeb]

Don’t understand your problem.

[DallasDeb]

She shouldn’t covet such an earthly idol (the pen) or the pen’s owner, another idol to her.