Archive for Obama
Two Speeches
Posted by: | CommentsIt occurred to me tonight to juxtapose two speeches. I was reminded of the first by Digby, who posted The Day of Affirmation speech by Robert Kennedy, from 1966. That led me to remember the second, the famous “Yes We Can” speech by President Obama which was his message upon coming in second in the New Hampshire primary to Hillary Clinton early in 2008. Read More→
Pay No Attention to the Misleading Headline
Posted by: | CommentsThis is my second experience with misleading headlines today. The first was the headline on my letter on the opinion page. Then this.
Politico: Poll: 54 percent against Obamacare
Fifty-four percent of Americans oppose President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement, according to a CNN poll released Monday, while 43 percent support the law.
But that headline is misleading, which the reader finds out a few paragraphs later. From the CNN poll:
According to the poll, 43% of the public says it supports the health care law, a figure that’s mostly unchanged in CNN polling since the measure was passed in 2010 by a Congress then controlled by Democrats and signed into law by President Barack Obama. Fifty-four percent of those questioned say they oppose the law, also relatively unchanged since 2010.
But wait! There’s more. A minor detail someone finally decided to ask [emphasis added]:
The survey indicates that 35% oppose the health care law because it’s too liberal, with 16% saying they oppose the measure because it isn’t liberal enough.
LIVE at noon: 2 Million Americans Say No to Cuts to Social Security, Medicare
Posted by: | Comments
Organizations Representing Tens of Millions of Americans to Deliver Over 2 Million Petition Signatures Directly to the White House Rejecting Cuts to Social Security Benefits
Will Be Joined By U.S. Senator Who Vows to Block Benefit Cuts
Coalition Includes AFL-CIO, MoveOn.org, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, CREDO, National Organization for Women, Social Security Works, Alliance for Retired Americans, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, Democracy For America, Campaign for America’s Future, The Other 98%, Progressives United, Blue America, Rebuild the Dream, Center for Community Change, Health Care for America Now and Others
(Washington, DC) – Senator Bernie Sanders and Reps. Mark Takano and Rick Nolan will join organizations representing tens of millions of Americans to deliver more than two million petition signatures opposing cuts to Social Security benefits to the White House on Tuesday, April 9, 2013 at 12:30 p.m. ET.
Friday Open Thread
Posted by: | CommentsObama destroys the economy (again): Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 236,000 in February. Unemployment rate drops to 7.7%. Dow hits all-time high (again). Simpson-Bowles and the Austerians (Hey, great band name!) order their priests to throw poor people into the volcano to appease the Market gods.
They Won’t Take Yes for an Answer
Posted by: | CommentsNC Democrats newly in the legislative minority had better learn what Ezra Klein just learned via Twitter: Republicans won’t take yes for an answer. Give them what they want and they’ll just demand more.
Klein had suggested that if only congressional Republicans knew how much President Obama was willing to offer, they might be willing to settle on a budget deal. He cites a recent background briefing with a prominent Republican legislator to illustrate:
Would it matter, one reporter asked the veteran [unnamed] legislator, if the president were to put chained-CPI — a policy that reconfigures the way the government measures inflation and thus slows the growth of Social Security benefits — on the table?
“Absolutely,” the legislator said. “That’s serious.”
But Obama has, another reporter injects. (It’s on the White House website in bold type.)
94 Percent of Americans Don’t Know: Deficit Getting Smaller
Posted by: | Comments
At the Maddow Blog, Steve Benen examines the results of a Bloomberg News poll. Respondents were asked, “Is it your sense that this year the deficit is getting bigger or getting smaller, or is it staying about the same as last year?”
Benen writes:
A 62% majority believe the deficit is getting bigger, 28% believe the deficit is staying roughly the same, and only 6% believe the deficit is shrinking.
In other words, in the midst of a major national debate over America’s finances, 90% of Americans are wrong about the one basic detail that probably matters most in the conversation, while only 6% — 6%! — are correct.
For the record, last year, over President Obama’s first four years, the deficit shrunk by about $300 billion. This year, the deficit is projected to be about $600 billion smaller than when the president took office. We are, in reality, currently seeing the fastest deficit reduction in several generations.
Presidential Visit Open Thread Part 4: Obama-mania!
Posted by: | CommentsYour one stop shop to complain about traffic, share rumors and tid-bits on the comings and goings of the POTUS, and whatever else you care to share.
GO!
“The Administration does not support blowing up planets.”
Posted by: | CommentsIn case you were wondering:
[h/t/ BuzzFeed]
Medicare, ACA and the Big, Bad IPAB
Posted by: | CommentsRemember the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) panel charged with holding down Medicare costs, the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB)? House Republicans, the ones with their hair on fire about deficits and runaway Medicare costs — “Not only are they unwilling to propose actual, concrete cost-cutting measures for Medicare,” says Kevin Drum at Mother Jones, but they are determined to keep the IPAB from holding down those runaway costs. Via The Hill:
House Republicans signaled Thursday they will not follow rules in President Obama’s healthcare law that were designed to speed Medicare cuts through Congress.
The House is set to vote Thursday afternoon on rules for the 113th Congress. The rules package says the House won’t comply with fast-track procedures for the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) — a controversial cost-cutting board Republicans have long resisted.
