Oil Spill Hearing on the Hill: BP, Transocean & Halliburton testify…
Everyone doing their best ‘it ain’t me’ impression…
CNBC livestream covering the hearing here, in a recess right now
Update 3: Rangel Presser 9:00am; Charlie says hell no he won’t go; Charlie Rangel stepping down as Chair of House Ways & Means Cmte!!
Update 4: Charlie taking ‘leave of absence’ from chairmanship…
Wednesday 8:45am Update 3: Rangel has a presser in about 15 mins…
Above the post Update 2: HotAir covers news that Charlie refuses to step down..oh boy…
Update: The plot thickens!
Charlie Rangel emerged from a closed-door meeting in Nancy Pelosi’s office Tuesday night to declare that he’s still the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and hasn’t agreed to give up his gavel – even as some media outlets were reporting that he’d done just that.
But asked whether he’d still be the chairman tomorrow and in the coming days, Rangel said: “I can’t make all those promises at my age.”
And when Pelosi was asked whether Rangel was resigning, she said “no comment.”
When Roll Call asked him if he’ll still be chairman, he said, “You bet your life.” Looks like we’re going to have to do this the hard way. On to the floor vote! Just one question: Who leaked the bogus news that he had quit? Was that the Dems’ way of trying to pressure him into leaving, knowing that if it looked like he had changed his mind and was trying to hold on, irritated caucus members would be more likely to abandon him?
Wow! Breaking on the CNBC Chyron now…cant stand the heat! get out of the kitchen!!! Charlie BTW was the one on the conference call to HRC telling her she must withdraw and not go to a roll call count at the convention and fight in the RBC….cough cough karma cough cough cough
hey who gets that Cmte gavel now???
giving his gavel away, hey he has made it through countless shenanigans before, I would never have believed he step down…
He lost our AZ mod Dems already, my Rep Harry Mitchell and Gabby Giffords in Tucson both said they would vote against him tomorrow
Update: Chuck Todd on Kudlow now says SANDER LEVIN D-MI, Carl Levins bro will be taking over the gavel, he is 3 in seniority, but number 2 is PETE STARK! Who is apparently ill, sorry for that but Stark would be a DISASTER OMG! Hey MI Dems have to answer for Pres Barack Carter Obama too! they stopped the revote….
Todd indicating Rangel not to resign seat, but will likely retire this yr if he doesnt get gavel back after end of ethics investigations…..
Update: Health Care Action Alert: Call Your Critters!!!
Update: Here is the timeline, they are trying to do it before reconciliation under the budget expires AND before they come home to face us for Easter recess...Ive heard of Christmas and Easter Catholics but Christmas and Easter CongressCritters? frakkers…
…John Lawrence, chief of staff to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, told health care activists in a conference call Friday that Congress needed to act before the Easter recess, or they could see a repeat of the tumultuous August break. Only this time, Republicans will use reconciliation to characterize the party as “shoving it down our throats,” Lawrence said, according to notes provided by a person on the call….
Having lived through the Democratic primaries as an HRC supporter, when Hillary kept winning the big electoral state primaries and Obama kept swiping caucuses, only to have the Dem leadership push Obama as ‘the candidate’ again and again and again, I am sadly not SHOCKED! that these fools are on a kamikaze mission on health care…that is the whole problem with this group, they have no ‘off’ switch, no ‘self-preservation’ mode….why?
four words for you…Nancy Pelosi and Andy Stern.
IMO Nancy Pelosi helped ‘select’ Obama and Andy Stern (SEIU) funded him and proivded the busloads of ‘caucus’ voters and rally crowds coast to coast.
They are calling in the debt IMO and this is why Obama will not listen to Rahm and do the scaled down bill.
PLEASE CALL YOUR CRITTERS. Let them know reconciliation is not an option the American people accept on this massive bill that we have said N-O to, over and over and over again.
WSJ covers the arrogance of these pseudo intellectual, social engineering, elitist toolz here.
Obama actually appointed Stern to his ‘deficit reduction commission’, pffft!!! Does he think we are BLIND or what??
Krauthammer Agrees!: Twofer Tuesday: The Middle
Update: Feb. 19, 2010 – Krauthammer agrees!:
..It turned out that the country’s problems were not problems of structure but of leadership. Reagan and Clinton had it. Carter didn’t. Under a president with extensive executive experience, good political skills and an ideological compass in tune with the public, the country was indeed governable.
It’s 2010, and the first-year agenda of a popular and promising young president has gone down in flames. Barack Obama’s two signature initiatives — cap-and-trade and health-care reform — lie in ruins.
Desperate to explain away this scandalous state of affairs, liberal apologists haul out the old reliable from the Carter years: “America the Ungovernable.” So declared Newsweek. “Is America Ungovernable?” coyly asked the New Republic. Guess the answer….
The leadership of the Democratic Party still does not get it.
The lamestream journOlists are trying to spin the departure of Bayh as a sign the ‘system doesn’t work’ i.e. government is broken.
Huh funny that, I remember Dubyah getting Medicare Part D, two wars, No Child Left Behind and tax cuts passed with far less of a majority and the same system of governance. Big Dawg got NAFTA, SCHIP, FMLA, balanced the budget. Both created millions of jobs.
The system is not broken, the leadership is weak. OWN YOUR CANDIDATE.
And that’s the view from here in ‘The Middle’ 🙂
I read posts from the ‘left’- BTD at TalkLeft, and the journOlists – the Politico hit piece on Evan Bayh today and I think, wow they are So Far Away From Me. I think they will continue to be shocked! and amazed! and astounded! as the Dems are swept out of power. It is clear to everyone but those in the bubble or on the left that the country is saying N-O to the Obama Agenda all down the line.
The Democratic Party is So Far Away from the Middle. Since America IS The Middle we will have to remove them at the ballot box again. My Generation’s (X)turn to be a ‘Reagan Democrat’ is it, and save the country from the worst proclivities of the farleft neoprogressive agenda? Okay I’m down with that.
I get so tired when I have to explain
When you’re so far away from me
See you’ve been in the sun and I’ve been in the rain
And you’re so far away from me-Dire Straits
Update: Deficit for FY 2009 to hit $1.4 trillion, another record: Congress faces hurdles in push for second stimulus…
Update: TOTUS voted against raising the debt ceiling as a Senator. The hypocrisy continues unabated
Another record deficit projection from CBO. Can’t we send TOTUS to the IMF and he can withdraw us from all foreign subsidy obligations the way he does with our defense agreements? I can see it now:
Of course, they are not letting this stop them from adding the ginormous healthcare entitlement to the economy but they appear wobbly on a jobs bill now, figures.
Democratic leaders pressed President Barack Obama on Wednesday to extend more elements of the existing economic-stimulus package, and to possibly add tax cuts that were rejected the first time around, despite a record budget deficit that is giving some lawmakers pause.
On Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the federal deficit for fiscal 2009 will be $1.4 trillion…The figure remains the largest budget deficit, measured as a percentage of gross domestic product, since World War II. That so far isn’t stopping Democratic leaders discussing further stimulus measures.
Worried that the economy isn’t creating jobs, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) went to the White House for a hastily planned meeting. White House economists had already embraced extending enhanced unemployment-insurance benefits and subsidies for the purchase of health insurance under Cobra. Both of those measures are currently set to expire Dec. 31.
After the meeting, Mr. Reid made it clear he also wants an extension of a generous tax credit for first-time homebuyers, something the White House was leaning against as too expensive for the number of jobs it might create(…) Go read the entire piece..
They are going to attempt a giant ROADS AND INFRASTRUCTURE BILL now, which is what they CLAIMED was in the giant spendulus package, guess Apollo Alliance didn’t have enough union jobs to warrant any real infrastructure when they wrote our stimulus bill. Frakkers.
Update: Steny Hoyer (D-MD) gets booed at townhall…
Update from TheHill go read the whole thing! Steny tried to filibuster with a bunch of panelists and the crowd got mighty pixxed:
…at the conclusion of Hoyer’s planned speech, when five panelists were introduced and asked to give their own remarks, the crowd turned on its congressman, erupting angrily at having to continue to wait for their chance to ask questions.
“We don’t want to hear this!,” a man’s voice rose above the crowd “Get to the questions!” A chant of “We want questions! We want questions!” soon broke out
After a few questions about the cost of the healthcare overhaul, Hoyer repeated emphatically his pledge not to vote for a healthcare bill that wasn’t paid for, a statement that only drew a mix of boos and laughter….
…“A woman earlier asked who’s going to keep the health insurance companies honest. I’m concerned who’s going to keep the government honest,” an unidentified man asked Hoyer, prompting a roar from the crowd fit for a championship basketball game, as people in the packed bleacher seats stomped their feet, amplifying the noise….
He was rolling out the EEEEvil insurance company (TM) line when he got a round of boos…
A report from outside the townhall fromThe Sundries Shack via Instapundit:
Tonight, a standing room-only crowd of over 1500 people packed the gymnasium of North Point High School in my hometown of Waldorf, MD to attend a health care town hall meeting with Congressman Steny Hoyer….(go read the whole thing)
Here are some helpful facts as the new attack, this time ginning up class warfare HARD against insurance companies, gets rolled out next week. Courtesy of a comment on TheAtlantic where Ambinder gently lays out all the approved journOlist talking points for Team TOTUS:
Obama is not honest in his rhetoric.
– 61% of major health plans are non-profit. NON-PROFIT
– The other 39% earn a WHOPPING 3.2% profit margin, same as Wal-Mart. Google earns 25%. Google CEOs get invited to appear in Obama campaign ads. Insurance company CEOs, including non-profits, get villainized.
– 82% of hospitals are non-profit are government run. About half of nursing homes are as well.
Health care insurance and provision of services is one of the least profit-oriented sectors in the economy, given the widespread participation of non-profits.
Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Companies make 15% profit margins, roughly. That is real money. However, other innovation-oriented technology companies often make more. Apple earns 15%. Google earns 25%. Microsoft earns closer to 30%. Pharma is not out of line with other R&D lead industries.
As for the uninsured, it is actually 46 million PEOPLE.
– 9 million are illegal immigrants
– 2 million are legal residents who can return to their home country if they get too sick, so they do not insure themselves
– 12 million are actually covered by Medicaid but have not signed up because they are not sick
– 15 million are uninsured, yet make more than $75,000 and CHOOSE not to purchase coverage
When you get down to it, the number of people who fall through the cracks because of economic reasons amounts to…
8 million people.
That is about 3% of the population.
Keep in mind another important factor. This data is collected by the US Census every year and they ask the following question.
“In the last year, were you without health insurance coverage?”
What that means is that anyone who was between jobs or failed to re-up their policy for any reason gets included.
This probably overstates the actual level gap in coverage significantly because lots of people may go for a month without coverage between jobs, even in a good economy….
Waxman prepares to roll big Pharma…
Ahh Billy, Billy. What were you thinking trusting any deal with this Administration? Tsk, tsk. Karmic backlash.
Ed has all the details at HotAir:
Barack Obama picked up considerable political support for his overhaul of the American health-care system by promising a limit on price concessions to the pharmaceutical manufacturers. They signed onto ObamaCare after getting assurances that their givebacks would amount to no more than $80 billion over 10 years and that the federal government would not try to bargain for lower pricing using its advantage through Medicare. Henry Waxman plans to renege on just about every aspect of that agreement:
As the health care debate focuses on whether cost cuts are looming in Medicare coverage, Representative Henry A. Waxman is on a crusade to save Medicare billions of dollars — in a way that he says would end up helping the elderly.
That is because the money would come from the drug industry, which is why Mr. Waxman may have a fight on his hands.
Drug makers contend they have already worked out a 10-year, $80 billion cost-savings deal with the White House and crucial Senate gatekeepers on the trillion-dollar health care overhaul. The industry says that trying to add Mr. Waxman’s provision could scuttle that agreement.
“You not only break the deal, but you break the bank for us,” said Billy Tauzin, chief executive of the drug industry’s trade group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, known as PhRMA….
Cry me a river Billy you jaggoff. Pharma has the biggest profit margin of all the playas in this line of business and they were skating away, just like they did on Medicare PT D, and leaving Americans to bear the brunt of a POS reform package in some kind of frakkin protection racket they have going up in the Oval these days…Nice little pill business you have there, shame if anything were to happen to it…as we have said here numerous times, if he sold out Americans for 150m ad deal in exchange for ‘protection’ from the jackboots running the House right now he is a fool.
Phil Collins video courtesy of nik0la007
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Speaker knows: Pelosi finds the villain of the piece…
Dems miss the SELF-imposed August recess deadline on health care reform. Who, who can be to blame!? Not the Dem leadership, not TOTUS, but who? The Shadow Nancy knows, BWAAAAHAAAAAA Muhuuuuhaaaaaaaa!!!
Of course, they’ve been immoral all along,” she added. “They are the villains in this, they have been part of the problem in a major way. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening and the public has to know.. They have had a good thing going for a long time at the expense of the American people and the health of our country.”…
See AP at HotAir for more.
Courtesy of davesherman74:
This is the opening of The Shadow, played by the legendary Orson Welles. This episode is “The Circle of Death”, which originally aired November 28, 1937. It’s only fitting that this is being played over my 1936 Zenith console radio you see. This was given to me by a friend, and I have restored it to working condition. Hope you enjoy it!
Moderate in the Middle 