by Bill O'Connell on April 28, 2011
It wasn’t long after the Paul Ryan budget was released that the disinformation Democrats began trumpeting seniors being starved, being unable to afford health care, and the usual demogogic scare tactics. But doctors are dropping coverage, the key slices of the pie above are growing much faster than inflation, and the Democrats have no plan other than the age old cut benefits (reimburse doctors less) and increase taxes, just enough to kick the can down the road for someone else to deal with. Congressman Ryan had the guts to come up with a plan to actually fix the system by giving seniors a choice and they seem to like the idea. Why?
Click to read more
by Bill O'Connell on April 16, 2011
(This is the last of a series of articles focusing on topics presented at the Cato Policy Perspectives 2011 conference held at New York’s Waldorf Astoria hotel on Friday, April 8, 2011)
“What a difference a year makes” is short assessment of ObamaCare presented by Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute. “It cannot be fixed, it has to be repealed,” was his blunt conclusion.
As long as you are not Rip Van Winkle you should know by now that as Nancy Pelosi famously said, “We have to pass the bill, to find out what is in it.” Well, we’re finding out. We found out that it was true ObamaCare does double count $500 billion in savings, there are thousands of organizations asking for waivers from the program, and the individual mandate has been struck down by several courts.
Click to read more
by Bill O'Connell on March 3, 2011
So here’s the bottom line. Once fully implemented, I’m convinced the Affordable Care Act will do what it was designed it to do — cut costs, cover everybody, end the worst abuses in the insurance industry, and bring down our long-term deficits. I am not open to re-fighting the battles of the last two years, or undoing the progress that we’ve made. But I am willing to work with anyone — anybody in this room, Democrat or Republican, governors or member of Congress — to make this law even better; to make care even better; to make it more affordable and fix what needs fixing. – President Barack Obama addressing the National Governor’s Association.
Is President Obama addressing members of the House of Representatives or the Senate? No. If he were, I would have no problem with what he said. Both he and the members of both houses of Congress are part of the federal government. No law gets passed until all three play their part. There are checks and balances between them, but they do negotiate and can take various positions.
Click to read more
by Bill O'Connell on February 6, 2011
It’s a funny thing about government programs. Since they sprout from laws and regulations, they all come with rulebooks that everyone can read. The law abiding citizen can read them to see what procedures they must follow to comply with the program and the lawbreaker can read the same rules to see how to game the system.
Click to read more
by Bill O'Connell on February 1, 2011
It is difficult to imagine that a nation which began, at least in part, as the result of opposition to a British mandate giving the East India Company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people to buy tea in the first place. – Judge Roger Vinson opinion in STATE OF FLORIDA v UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Perhaps the most arrogant, condescending act of Congress was the passage of ObamaCare. Opinion polls consistently counted the American public to be strongly against it. Town hall meetings during the summer before its passage were raucous and united in opposition as politicians cowered before their constituents. Many politicians who voted for the bill stopped holding town hall meetings, choosing instead to hide under their desks. During the fall 2010 elections, rare was the Democrat who boldly campaigned on ObamaCare.
Click to read more
by Bill O'Connell on January 26, 2011
On the surface, President Obama’s State of the Union address was like many others, long on platitudes, short on substance. I had the opportunity to witness it at the studio of WNYC in New York. We were a handful of Tea Party members is a sea of progressives.
Click to read more
by Bill O'Connell on January 20, 2011
With all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over those obstructionist Republicans and how they stopped the Obama agenda, particularly during the Lame Duck session, the Democrats were going to change the rules so that never happens again.
Click to read more
by Bill O'Connell on December 14, 2010
Whether you call it an iceberg or a torpedo, ObamaCare just struck something or vice versa and it doesn’t look good. The ship is taking on water and you can hear the orchestra tuning up as they rearrange the deck chairs.
Click to read more
by Bill O'Connell on November 12, 2010
When President Obama and his team stood before their supporters and introduced ObamaCare you could almost hear them sing in unison the Carly Simon song, “Nobody does it better…”. They were going to bring us the health care we had been waiting for. Magically covering every soul in America whether they wanted it or not. If they did not, the government would be just like granny used to be, “Open wide, this won’t hurt a bit.” Come to think of it, was that granny or… never mind.
Click here to read more
by Bill O'Connell on November 1, 2010
We all know by now Tim Bishop’s position on outsourcing. Rather than being a response to conditions of full employment and poor quality work, it can only be described as despicable. One problem with his view is that he voted to bail out GM who turned around and outsourced good manufacturing jobs to their overseas plants increasing production there by 50%, once the bailout was approved. You don’t hear Mr. Bishop talking about that vote very much. He also doesn’t like to talk about his vote on TARP that sent billions of dollars to French and German banks. He only wants to talk about outsourcing. Not the outsourcing that he has done but only about his opponent.
Click here to Read More
