More Fallout

…from the selection of John Kerry as Secretary of State.

This time, it’s his Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power.  Keep in mind that she reports directly to him.  That’s where the fallout comes from.  Power had this to say during her speech last Wednesday at the United Nations Association of the USA 2013 Global Leadership Awards ceremony:

Hi everybody.  You know life has changed when you’re hanging out with Jane Fonda backstage.  There is no greater embodiment of being outspoken on behalf of what you believe in—and being “all in” in every way—than Jane Fonda.  And it’s a huge honor just to even briefly have shared the stage with her.

Throughout her speech, Power had no words at all for our Viet Nam who fought over there, got maimed over there, died over there during the war for which Fonda’s “being ‘all in'” behavior that got her the nickname “Hanoi Jane.”

This from the woman who works for the man who also “fought” over there, then came home to toss his medals on the ground in disdain and testify before a Congressional committee that his fellow soldiers were terrorists.

Fonda has since apologized for her behavior.  Kerry never has.  I have no expectations in that regard for Power, either.

More Lies

…of my President.

If you have or had one of these plans before the Affordable Care Act came into law and you really liked that plan, what we said was you could keep it if it hasn’t changed since the law’s passed.  So we wrote into the Affordable Care Act you are grandfathered in on that plan.  But if the insurance company changes it, then what we’re saying is they have got to change it to a higher standard.

That’s what President Barack Obama is claiming now that his original lie has been exposed, with 2 million Americans, and counting, losing their existing insurance policies.  Now he’s lying about his lie, as with this example, made at Faneuil Hall in Boston last Monday.

No, Mr President.  You said no such thing.  What you did say was

I you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan.  Period.

No caveats.  No “except if we change our minds later.”

Further, aside from your current lie denying that you said your earlier lie, your new lie also ignores the fact that your Obamacare requires the insurance company to change their existing plans so as to meet your standard—which means that plan no longer meets your grandfather criteria.  I’ve already been over your arrogance in presuming to Know Better what is adequate insurance than the person who’s buying it, whose money it is being spent on it.

There’s also this new lie about HealthCare.gov, Obama’s new ObamaMart.  Obama is claiming, through his Press Secretary, Jay Carney, that consumers who are having trouble getting through that HealthCare.gov Web site now have their problems solved: they can send in paper applications, or they can get on the phone to a “trained operator standing by” and complete an application in all of 25 minutes.

What Obama is carefully ignoring with this new one is that that paper application, and that telephone application, both have to be entered into the system—through HealthCare.gov.

Folks need to remember this over the primary season this summer and then again this fall.

Obamacare’s Grandfather Clause is Easily Fixable

From Texan99, over at Grim’s Hall, comes this interesting little datum [emphasis hers]:

 [T]he only, yes only, reason that people are losing their current policies is because President Obama’s administration (which he presumably leads) wrote regulations that overrode the grandfathering clause in all those policies.

This is important.  They didn’t have to do that!  It’s still reversible!

Texan99 expanded on this point:

I’m making this point—that HHS could reverse the harmful regulations tomorrow without violating the ACA—in every forum I can reach.  It won’t prop the ACA up [listening, knuckleheads?]; the income from we few “Wild Westers” isn’t enough even if every one of us knuckles under to paying double the premiums from now on.  But it will get some of us out of an acute, immediate bind, and it will show either that the President screwed the pooch big time, or that he could help this “unimportant 5%” but simply can’t be bothered to do it.

She’s right.  She’s right, also, that the Republicans (and Conservatives, say I) need to be shouting this from every rooftop and town square podium in the nation.  But given the mendacity of this President and his…staff…I’m not holding my breath on his choosing the right answer.

Lies and “Apologies”

First he lied with his bald, clearly spoken, oft-repeated “Period.”

Then he lied with his denial that he said “Period,” insisting that he really said “If.”

Now he “apologizes.”

I am sorry that they are finding themselves in this situation based on assurances they got from me.

Let’s leave aside whether we can believe him this third time around.  Let’s look at what he’s masquerading as an apology.

For what is he apologizing, really?  That folks find themselves in “this situation” as a result of his behavior.  There’s not the least syllable of an apology for his behavior.

A third lie.

Update: As I think about this a bit more, here’s another thought: Obama is sorry that folks took him at his word–that whole “based on assurances they got from me” thing.

Hmm….

Who Gets to Decide?

White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer claimed Sunday on ABC’s This Week that millions of Americans lost insurance their insurance policies because ObamaCare had deemed them inadequate.

[I]f the president were to allow people to have those plans…or insurance companies to keep selling barebones plans…he’d be violating even more important promise to the American people, that everyone would have a guarantee to access of quality…health insurance[.]

Ex-Obama advisor Dr Ezekiel Emanuel (and University of Pennsylvania Vice Provost) said much the same thing on Sunday’s Fox News Sunday.

WALLACE: Dr. Emanuel, simple question—why does Betsy Tadder need you or President Obama telling her what insurance she needs?

EMANUEL: For two reasons: first of all, if she goes in and that insurance doesn’t cover enough…

WALLACE: But she likes her plan.

EMANUEL: But we’re cost shifting.

Plainly our Know Better Progressive Government is the only one qualified to decide.  Not us, not about our insurance, not about our money.