Recently in Obama Category

While all the attention in Washington yesterday was focused on the posturing and pontificating over health care reform, there was something else going on. Democratic Congressman Sylvestre Reyes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, proposed an amendment to the 2010 Intelligence Authorization Act. The amendment is called the Cruel, Inhuman, and Degrading Interrogation Prohibition Act of 2010 which, in essence, does nothing more than codify what already exists in Articles 1 and 16 of the...

It's no secret by now that I've been disappointed in some of the actions of the Obama administration. None more so than their continuation of the Bush/Cheney policies of dealing with those accused of terrorist activities. I expected much better from a president who professed to be something of a Constitutional scholar, and the administration bowing to pressure over the weekend from those who are against trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 4 others in New...

Whatever happened to that calm, cool, and collected candidate from the 2008 presidential campaign? This latest move is born out of sheer panic over the Scott Brown victory in Massachusetts and, by the way, something for which candidate Obama criticized John McCain for proposing during the campaign:"President Obama will call for a three-year freeze in spending on many domestic programs, and for increases no greater than inflation after that, an initiative intended to signal his...

Up 'til now I haven't been a proponent of the "pass something" idea on health care reform legislation, but I think the time has come. It has become such a convoluted mess and such a distraction that it's time to get it off the table and move on to economic issues. Like taking on Wall Street for instance:"President Barack Obama on Thursday is expected to propose new limits on the size and risk taken by...

Stop the presses. President Obama has finally found something he is willing to fight for on health care reform. No, not the public option, but he didn't campaign on that anyway, or so he says. It's the 40% excise tax on benefits. Politico reported yesterday that the president delivered a "forceful" message to House Democrats that he "wants a final bill that includes a tax on Cadillac insurance plans." AP this morning says:"President Barack Obama...

Ping pong, anyone? With much of the national attention focused on the underpants bomber, the White House, the Senate, and the House are preparing for a game of three-way table tennis, as they work on the final version of the health care reform bill. Well it's not really 3-way, it's the White House and the Senate on one side, and the House on the other. I wonder how that's going to turn out? All this...

Today will be my final post of 2009, but I'll leave you with some recommended reading on where we are now and one view of what 2010 may hold in store. First from The Huffington Post, The Cash Committee: How Wall Street Wins On The Hill. Excerpt:"In the fall of 2008, Democrats took the White House and expanded their Congressional majorities as America struggled through a financial collapse wrought by years of deregulation. The public...

Following up on last week's post about the excise tax on the so-called "Cadillac" health plans, Bob Herbert has some new information in an op-ed piece in yesterday's New York Times. I'm not surprised that there's a lot of smoke and mirrors involved in the supposed cost-cutting and deficit reduction figures coming from the Senate, the CBO, and the White House. Smoke and mirrors seems to be the SOP when it comes to selling this...

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that Santa brought you everything you wanted. He certainly was very good to Fannie and Freddie. Only in their case, Santa is the American taxpayer, you and me. One thing is clear, the plutocracy never sleeps, or takes a holiday. How about this for a Christmas Eve news dump?"The Obama administration pledged on Thursday to back beleaguered mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac no matter...

I suppose everybody has a particular portion of this alleged health care "reform" bill passed by the Senate which they find the most objectionable. For some it's the individual mandate, for some it's the lack of a public option. For me it's the 40% excise tax on the so-called "Cadillac" plans. Better known as the 'screw organized labor and the middle-class' tax, in my opinion. It's not in the House version, they propose an income...