Obama to GOP: "Go For It"

I cut and pasted this from Rich Galen's column, at www.mullings.com , after he cut and pasted it from The New York Times:

COSTLY CHANGE: The new health care law will make it more expensive for companies to offer prescription drug coverage for retirees because companies will receive smaller tax deductions for those benefits in the future.
TOUGH TO SWALLOW: One study estimates that U.S. companies could lose as much as $14 billion this year because of the tax law change.

SIDE EFFECTS: As many as 1.5 million to 2 million retirees could lose the prescription drug benefits their former employers provide because of the tax changes.

Galen comes to the same conclusion I have come to over the president's dare to Republicans running for office in November: I agree with the President. If Republicans want to run against a bill which imposes $14 billion in new costs to American businesses, and causes and 2 million retirees to lose their prescription drug benefits they should "go for it."


Think back to the beginning of the uprising that is now known as the Tea Party movement. It began with a rant on CNBC by one of their money experts. Contrary to popular spin today from the Democrats, the Tea Party movement organized and grew from discontent with out of control government spending, especially in the form of one bailout after another. Uncle Sugar is out of control. It's as simple as that. It began over TARP, then the stimulus/tax and spend program, then the mortgage bailouts, then the auto company bailouts, all along with the continued brow beating over the reform of our health care delivery system.



Two Republican governors have written opinion pieces for The Wall Street Journal. These two men are touted as rising stars in the GOP and they both speak to the new health care legislation, now law.

From Indiana, Gov Mitch Daniels "We Good Europeans" http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704094104575144362968408640.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h speaks to the burden to the states that the federal legislation brings. Daniels is a very successful governor and was re-elected with a strong majority of votes in 2008, though the state fell to Obama. He speaks of the elimination of a program that provides 50,000 low income Hoosiers with health insurance. These folks will be forced into Medicaid. And, with the extra burdens of expanding Medicaid to one in every four citizens, the state will have to implement increased taxes. He speaks of the need to increase job retraining programs since so many jobs will be lost due to employer mandates. And, yes, he will ask his state attorney general to join with other states to file a lawsuit over Obamacare. He acknowledges it is a long shot, but worth a try.

From Louisiana Gov Bobby Jindal writes "Persistence is the Key" http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704094104575144361145435600.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h and says the GOP isn't the party of no. It is the party of hell no and he is proud of that.

And this from Kimberley Strassel in The Wall Street Journal:

Democrats only got their ObamaCare victory by breaking every rule, and that was always going to come at a price. To lever the health bill through the House, Democrats used the arcane process of reconciliation. It got them a win, but it also meant Senate Democrats this week had to endure the political equivalent of water-boarding.

Here's why: reconciliation allowed Republicans to bring up unlimited amendments. Because Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) could not allow the reconciliation bill to be changed in any way—which would send it back to the House—his party was obliged to vote down every one of those amendments. And every one had been designed to make even hardened pols whimper.

Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) offered language to bar the government from subsidizing erectile dysfunction drugs for convicted pedophiles and rapists. Democrats voted . . . No! Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) proposed exempting wounded soldiers from the new tax on medical devices. Democrats: No way! Pat Roberts (R., Kan.) wanted to exempt critical access rural hospitals from funding cuts. Senate Democrats: Forget it! This was Republicans' opportunity to lay out every ugly provision and consequence of ObamaCare, and Democrats—because of the process they'd chosen—had to defend it all.

November is right around the corner.