Showing posts with label Nancy Pelosi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nancy Pelosi. Show all posts

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Meanwhile Iran 's March Toward Bomb Is (Probably) Complete!

May 10, 2015 Democrats , Mike Lillis 0 Comments
Iran letter divides Democrats

By Mike Lillis, May 9, 2015, TheHill.com

The warning from Democrats to Republican leaders about undermining President Obama's Iran diplomacy has split party leaders.

One hundred and fifty House Democrats wrote a letter to Obama Thursday urging him to exhaust all diplomatic avenues to a nuclear deal before pursuing tougher options like sanctions — a strong indication that Democrats are ready to block any Republican effort rejecting such an agreement.

But while top leaders like Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) and Xavier Becerra (Calif.) endorsed the May 7 letter, Reps. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the minority whip, and Joe Crowley (N.Y.), vice chairman of the Democratic Caucus, did not.

The same divide does not surround legislation that would give Congress an up-or-down vote on any nuclear deal finalized between Iran, the United States and five other global powers. Democratic leaders have endorsed that legislation, which sailed through the Senate 98-1 on Thursday and is expected to soon pass through the House with broad bipartisan support.

But the Democrats' letter is widely viewed as a warning shot to Republicans that they have the numbers to sustain a presidential veto if the GOP uses the power provided by the Senate bill to disapprove of an Iran deal down the road.

Read the full story:  www.thehill.com

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Thursday, November 20, 2014

Jonathan Gruber: Obamacare Architect, Unplugged By Larry Elder

November 20, 2014 Articles by Larry Elder , Fox News 0 Comments
By Larry Elder, Nov. 20, 2014

Economist Milton Friedman said the promotion of bad policy requires two types of advocates. "Do-gooders," he said, act in good faith but out of ignorance in promoting counterproductive policies. The second type are the "special interest" rent-seekers, those who stand to personally profit from the scheme.

For economist Jonathan Gruber, the primary architect and intellectual godfather of both Romneycare and Obamacare, we need a new category. Gruber is a two-fer -- both a do-gooder and a rent-seeker. Gruber, so far, has pocketed $6 million advising the federal and state governments on the very law he helped design.

Massachusetts retained MIT economist Gruber to help design its signature health care measure. President Obama later employed Gruber to do the same thing for Obamacare, which Gruber called a deficit-reducing measure that bends the cost curve down. But it turns out when Gruber lets his hair down, he speaks very differently about the nature and goals of Obamacare. Recently, some rather embarrassing videotapes of Gruber comments have surfaced.

Gruber on cost controls: "Cost control turns out to be very, very hard to do. Probably the single biggest frustration I have with critics of this law are people who say it didn't go far enough. ... We do not solve our cost problem in health care in the U.S. with this legislation. We simply do not, OK? But you know what? That's because it was impossible to do so."

Gruber, in 2012, explaining how Massachusetts pulled off Romneycare: "The dirty secret in Massachusetts is the feds paid for our bill, OK? In Massachusetts we had a very powerful senator you may know named Ted Kennedy. ... Ted Kennedy and smart people in Massachusetts had basically figured out a way to sort of rip off the feds for about 400 million dollars a year."

Gruber, in 2012, admitting that Obamacare was intentionally designed so that only enrollees in state-run exchanges -- not the one run by the feds -- receive subsides and tax credits (a matter the Supreme Court will soon decide): "I think what's important to remember politically about this, is if you're a state and you don't set up an exchange, that means your citizens don't get their tax credits."

Gruber, in 2013, on voter stupidity: "Lack of transparency is a huge political advantage. And basically, you know, call it the stupidity of the American voter or whatever. ... Look, I wish ... that we could make it all transparent, but I'd rather have this law than not. ... Yeah, there are things I wish I could change, but I'd rather have this law than not."

Gruber, in 2012, on Americans' lack of understanding economics: "We just tax the insurance companies. They pass on higher prices that offsets the tax break we get -- it ends up being the same thing. It's a very clever, you know, basic exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter."

Gruber, in 2013, on Democrats' efforts to disguise a direct tax on people who purchase so-called Cadillac plans: "Then another Massachusetts hero, John Kerry ... came up with a great substitute idea. They said ... 'What if we instead just levied a 40 percent tax on the insurance companies that sell these terrible expensive Cadillac plans?' We said, 'Well, that's pretty much the same thing. But why does it matter?' 'You'll see.' And we proposed it, and that passed because the American voters are too stupid to understand the difference."

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in 2009, extolled his credentials: "I don't know if you have seen Jonathan Gruber of MIT's analysis of what the comparison is to the status quo versus what will happen in our bill for those who seek insurance within the exchange."

Then-Sen. Obama, in 2006, bragged about how he stole ideas from Jon Gruber: "You have already drawn some of the brightest minds from academia and policy circles, many of them I've stolen ideas from liberally. People ranging from Robert Gordon to ... Jon Gruber." In 2009, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called Gruber "one of the most respected economists in the world."

Today neither Pelosi nor Obama knows the economist from a fence post. Asked recently about Gruber, Pelosi said, "I don't know who he is." When asked about him, Obama shrugged and reduced Gruber to some guy who "was never on our staff": "The fact that an adviser who was never on our staff expressed an opinion that I completely disagree with in terms of the voters is not a reflection on the actual process that was run." According to Fox News, Gruber visited the Obama White House at least 19 times.

In deciding this key issue about state exchanges, the Supreme Court may throw the Gruber's own words right back at him -- and rule Obama's unilateral reinterpretation unlawful. Then even Pelosi will know Gruber's name.


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Wednesday, November 19, 2014

ES Twitter Flash

November 19, 2014 ES Twitter Flash , Jonathan Gruber 0 Comments


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Thursday, October 9, 2014

Rats abandon ship ahead of mid-terms

October 09, 2014 Democrats , GOP 0 Comments
Embattled House Dems Turn Against Nancy Pelosi

By Shane Goldmacher, Oct. 8, 2014, Nationaljournal.com

House Republicans have surprising new company in attacking Nancy Pelosi: her fellow House Democrats.

Three Democrats running in GOP-leaning House districts have used late-stage television ads in a bid to distance themselves from the liberal leader of Democrats' House caucus—the same caucus they're fighting to join in 2015.

"Here's what I believe: Congress is broken," says Gwen Graham, one of the Democratic Party's top recruits, in a recent TV ad as a photo of Pelosi and House Speaker John Boehner flashes on the screen. "Both parties—Republican and Democrat—are to blame. And both need new leaders in Washington."

In Georgia, Rep. John Barrow, one of five Democrats to vote against Pelosi as party leader at the start of the 113th Congress in 2013, uses that fact as one of the key reasons to reelect him. "I voted against Nancy Pelosi as speaker," Barrow brags to Georgians in a recent television ad.

And in Colorado, Democratic candidate Irv Halter is trying to gain some traction in a very Republican district by lumping in his opponent, Rep. Doug Lamborn, with the Democratic leader. "Career politicians like Doug Lamborn and Nancy Pelosi have failed," Halter says, as he gestures toward photos of Lamborn and Pelosi. "…There's only one way to change Washington: Vote them out."

Read the full story:  www.nationaljournal.com

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Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Nancy Pelosi Calls The Humanitarian Crisis At US Border An 'Opportunity' --For more dem voters

July 01, 2014 Businessinsider.com , Colin Campbell 0 Comments
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi 
By Colin Campbell, Jun. 28, 2014, Businessinsider.com

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) traveled down to Texas on Saturday, where she addressed the ongoing humanitarian crisis of thousands of unaccompanied children who have attempted to cross the border.

Pelosi, using cautious language around the word "crisis," labeled the problem an "opportunity" for America to demonstrate its values. Many of the children have been kept in shocking conditions as federal officials scrambled to provide them basic necessities.

"This is a community with a border going through it. And this crisis — that some call a 'crisis' — we have to view as an opportunity," Pelosi told reporters at a press conference.

Pelosi stressed the children involved are worthy of basic human respect as they are being moved "as quickly as possible into another setting."

"What we just saw was so stunning. If you believe as we do that every child, that every person, has a spark of divinity in them and is therefore worthy of respect, what we saw in those rooms was [a] dazzling, sparkling array of God's children, worthy of respect. So ... we have to use the crisis — that some view as a crisis, and it does have crisis qualities — as an opportunity to show who we are as Americans, that we do respect people for their divinity and worth," she said.

Read the full story:  www.businessinsider.com

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