I'll do anything... except the one thing you want me to do

President Obama had admitted that the results of this week's elections were bad for him - a "shellacking" is the term he used. Clearly, the nation wants a change in course from the last 2 years, and has handed the reins of the House to the Republicans. But with a divided Congress, compromise and negotiation will be critical. So, what is the president's idea to start negotiations?

To take the one thing Republicans are sure to want off of the table completely.

"At a time when we are going to ask folks across the board to make such difficult sacrifices, I don’t see how we can afford to borrow an additional $700 billion from other countries to make all the Bush tax cuts permanent, even for the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans," the president said. "We’d be digging ourselves into an even deeper fiscal hole and passing the burden on to our children."

Obama noted the importance of extending the tax cuts in the lame-duck session, but focused the address on digging in against the full extension sought by Republicans and some Democrats.

Well, clearly the president is eager to take back the "Party of No" label he had previously stuck onto the GOP. Unfortunately for him, I get the sense that many Democratic congresspeople are more ready to compromise in order to win back the electorate.

Here's hoping...

From here

Another Obama Administration Gaffe

Am I the only one shocked that the Obama Administration is still making spectacular diplomatic gaffes? This time they flew the Phillipine flag upside down behind their president. This signifies that the nation is at war. Not a small thing.

What if?

One of the differentiating marks of a Moderate over either a Liberal or a Conservative, these days, is the ability to see and the honesty to acknowledge the strengths of both sides. So in that vein, let me ask a question.

Barack Obama ran on a platform of "hope and change," where his core promise was to "change Washington". He noted that the political culture was broken, and pledged to fix it. The last year and a half seems like a bust on that score. Partisanship is worse than ever. Now that it looks like the Democrats may lose the House, Republicans are already talking about returning to the old practice of White House probes and hinting at special prosecutors. This is the new rhythm that has existed since Reagan, where the wrongs of the last majority are used to justify those same wrongs by the new majority over and over.

What if Barack Obama's real legacy of "change" is turning the other cheek? What if he manages to break the cycle by making such tit-for-tat politics unsavory, by letting his enemies destroy themselves as they overplay their hands? In theory, it could work and could lead to a new era free of the hardball politics that have characterized the USA since at least the Clinton era.

Honestly, I remain skeptical. The President has shown himself to be, if anything, an old-school Chicago politician. But if this were his only legacy, it might be one of great service to the American system.

"Pre-existing Condition" Plans began July 1

"ObamaCare" has begun as the requirement for states to offer alternative plans to anyone denied health insurance for a "pre-existing condition" went into effect. If you need health insurance and are in this boat, check out the healthcare.gov website to see what your state offers. For example, my home state is offering a plan to anyone uninsured more than 6 months and unable to get coverage.

Republican Scott Brown wins Mass. Senate Seat

It seems like so much of the politics surrounding Barack Obama is driven inexorably by history, defying expectations and stereotypes. His own rise to power dumbfounded critics - a relatively obscure junior Senator became president over a Hillary Clinton (the assumed nominee from the day she announced). Now, the Obama agenda is threatened by another wave of history as Republican Scott Brown has defeated Democrat Martha Coakley to win the senate seat vacated by Ted Kennedy. This seat has been held by a Democrat for for decades, and Massachusetts has not sent any Republican to the Senate since 1972 - two year before I was born.

Brown's victory was so sweeping, he even won in the Cape Cod community where Sen. Edward Kennedy, the longtime liberal icon, died of brain cancer last August.
"While the honor is mine, this Senate seat belongs to no one person, no one political party," Brown told his supporters Tuesday night. "This is the people's seat," he added to chants of "People's seat!"
Brown will become the 41st Republican in the 100-member Senate, which could allow the GOP to block the health care bill. Democrats needed Coakley to win for a 60th vote to thwart Republican filibusters.

Health Reform empowers IRS

It was seen as a key victory for the average American when the IRS lost power under President George W. Bush. In the late 90s and 2000s, there were a number of high profile cases of abuse of power by the Internal Revenue Service which illustrated Conservatives fears of the unbounded power of agents. Now, as part of President Obama's desire to be the anti-Bush, it appears the pending Health Care Reform Bill is poised to return significant new powers to the IRS, as it will be the primary agency responsible to monitor American's purchasing of Health Insurance. Anyone who fails to purchase insurance under the new rules, will be paying their fines to the IRS.

Welcome back, Tax Man.

Peace Prize Judo

From here

President Obama wins the Nobel Peace Price for... what exactly?

I am happy that the President has won a Nobel Prize. It is a major honor for any American to win, and I hope that people see it that way. At the same time, I admit to being confused. He has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize yet has accomplished no major diplomatic achievement that I can see. There is no Mideast Peace Agreement, we are still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, there is no sense that he has decreased global terrorism - or that it has simply decreased during his tenure, and it does not appear that the "Great Recession" has been alleviated which one could argue would decrease international tensions. The only explanation in the articles I am reading is really a vague allusion.

The committee said it attached special importance to Obama's vision of, and work for, a world without nuclear weapons.

"Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play," the committee said.

This seems awfully nebulous to me. Aren't Nobel Prizes supposed to recognize great achievements done by great men? President Obama may be judged as a "great man" someday, but it seems too early in his tenure to be sure now. It seems more like either (1) they had no other contenders, or (2) the Committee has decided the prize is simply a political tool to further their own agenda without regard to its intended use.

Priorities

From here

Obama: Make the School Year Longer

If President Obama had any hope of recovering his approval rating among teens, he probably just lost it when he announced support for making children go to school longer each day and each year. The reasoning given is that schoolchildren in other developed nations have longer school years, and are learning more than Americans.

"Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," the president said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom."

"Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

This is not a new idea. When I was in high school, they were talking about year-round schooling and experimenting with alternative school schedules. Very few showed any concrete results. Then again, it does seem strange that we're still observing school schedules based on the corn harvest in parts of the country where you can't find a corn stalk.

Makes you wonder if there is a presidential manikin kept around for photo ops

Barack Obama's amazingly consistent smile from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.

President Obamas Health Care Speech

Like most Americans, I was out living my life during most of the president's speech on Health Care, so I missed it. And this morning, all I am finding is coverage of the "You lie!" outburst on the floor that was bad etiquette but otherwise irrelevant to the speech. So, in the interest of clearing things up for the rest of us, here is the transcript of the speech and here is the online video taken by CNN.

Call the Fire Companies!

From here.

Time to update the scorecard

Obama Plan would outlaw "New" Private Insurance?!

Thanks to @AaronKlein for pointing out this article. This is outrageous and unmasks the true intend of the Obama plan. Hopefully, this will kill it as dead as HillaryCare.

It turns out we were right: The provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of "Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage," the "Limitation On New Enrollment" section of the bill clearly states:

"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law.

So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won't be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers...

What wasn't known until now is that the bill itself will kill the market for private individual coverage by not letting any new policies be written after the public option becomes law.

The legislation is also likely to finish off health savings accounts, a goal that Democrats have had for years. They want to crush that alternative because nothing gives individuals more control over their medical care, and the government less, than HSAs.

Communities who need it most, getting least Stimulus money

I guess we file this under "paving the road with good intentions". Anyone else wondering if rushing that bill through Congress may have caused a few "bugs" to slip though unnoticed?

Altogether, the government is set to spend 50 percent more per person in areas with the lowest unemployment than it will in communities with the highest.
The AP reviewed $18.9 billion in projects, the most complete picture available of where states plan to spend the first wave of highway money. The projects account for about half of the $38 billion set aside for states and local governments to spend on roads, bridges and infrastructure in the stimulus plan.
The very promise that Obama made, to spend money quickly and create jobs, is locking out many struggling communities needing those jobs.
The money goes to projects ready to start. But many struggling communities don't have projects waiting on a shelf. They couldn't afford the millions of dollars for preparation and plans that often is required.

Obama skips National Day of Prayer

I had been struggling with this story, as I am not sure what to say about it. On the one hand, I am saddened to see the National Day of Prayer effectively abandoned by our president. On the other hand, presidents before George W. Bush gave it far less attention, too, and President Obama has never worn his religion on his sleeve.

I guess this post is as much a place for discussion as anything else. What do Mod-Bloggers think? Is this a travesty? Is it restoring the symbolic day to its previous station? Or is it a proper separation of church and state. I look forward to reading your comments.

Obama Pushing Off-Shore Wind Farms

I'm skeptical of the push for green power generation for environmental sake. I do, however, see it as a good thing for us to not have such a dependence on oil given the general instability of our relationships with major oil countries. Obama is pushing for off-shore wind farms and ocean current generated electricity. Interesting thought, though I wonder how many that were against off-shore drilling because it would ruin the view will be for this. Or is this okay since it's "green"? The good news is that they estimate we can generate twice our current energy capacity.

The Anti-Bush: Trying to do it all

There was one characteristic of President George W. Bush that his opponents never figured a way to effectively combat - his ability to focus all of his attention and power on one issue at a time. While his Democratic opponents were all trying to pull him into battles on health care, defense, immigration, stem cells, abortion, etc., he would pick just one issue and make it his administration's top priority. Every major speech, every major TV appearance, every major article produced would focus on that one issue, until either the president has his way or it became clear that the American people wee not behind him.

President Obama seems obsessed with the idea of being the Anti-Bush, not only undoing moves that the public was never comfortable with (i.e. Gitmo) but also taking opposite stances on nearly everything. One of those moves is trying to attack every issue and every constituency at the same time. Now, in the midst of an economic crisis, not only is trying to tackle military transformation, health care reform, and tax reform, but now also Immigration Reform (which incidentally is one of the few issues that President George W Bush focussed on but had to abandon without having his way).

Perhaps this is a "divide and conquer" strategy to force the opposition to thin themselves out by opposing every Obama priority. But it looks like a desperate man trying to make hay because he knows his time is short. And desperation is never attractive in a leader.