Obamacare Road Show, Pt. II: Bring out the human kiddie shields
My column shines light on the Hail Mary strategy of the Demcare-peddlers: Quick, hide behind the children! Just a reminder that President Obama will be in St. Charles, Missouri today for a closed-door, invitation-only Kabuki health care speech to high school students and then he’ll be heading off for a fund-raiser with Claire McCaskill. Tea Party activists are organizing two counter-protests — get all the info on the who, what, where, when at Gateway Pundit.
The column notes two new developments — Hill buzz over some Senate Democrat leaders’ plan to attach the nationalization of student loans to the health care reconciliation bill and the use of a new, dubious poster boy for Demcare, Marcelas Owens. The story doesn’t add up, and as usual, anyone who questions the logic and holes in these anecdotes will be labeled a “stalker.” Been there, done that…
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Desperate Dems cling to human kiddie shield
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2010
Have you noticed something about the audiences that President Obama has cherry-picked to cheer his government health-care takeover road show? They’re getting younger and younger. Today, Obama brings the traveling campaign to St. Charles High School in St. Louis, Missouri for a closed-door, invitation-only speech. If he doesn’t end the endless “No More Time For Talk” talks soon, he’ll be peddling Democrat reconciliation tactics on Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob Squarepants.
But desperate times call for demagogic measures. True to form, the Obama White House is wielding the human kiddie shield as its last-stand defense for Demcare.
On Monday, Obama surrounded himself with a ticketed-only crowd of Arcadia University college students in Pennsylvania (sprinkled with purple-shirted officials from the Service Employees International Union, natch). The Washington-based commander-in-chief traveled outside his Beltway bubble to a campus bubble to trash the political climate which he leads.
“That’s just how Washington is. They can’t help it,” he pontificated as the idealist young students nodded like empty bobbleheads. “They?”
You won’t be surprised by Obama’s biggest applause line of the speech: Peddling a Big Nanny provision in the Senate-passed health care bill that requires insurance plans that cover dependents to provide benefits to children up to age 26. Vowed Santa Obama: “If you’re a young adult, which many of you are, you’ll be able to stay on your parents’ insurance policy until you’re 26 years old.” Whoops and huzzahs erupted from the eager wards of the permanent, ever-expanding Nanny State.
As I’ve reported before, there are now an estimated 20 states that have already passed legislation requiring insurers to cover adult children. The slacker mandates cover “kids” ranging in age from 24 to 31. And it’s these very government health care mandates that contribute to rising health care costs.
But there was no time for higher learning at Arcadia University. Out: education. In: adulation. “I love you!” screamed a cult follower in the stands. “Love you back,” Obama responded.
Now, comes word from The Hill that Senate Democrat leaders want to graft Obama’s single-player plan to nationalize the student loan market onto the Senate health care reconciliation bill. That way, Obama’s college-age foot soldiers can argue that a vote against Demcare is a vote against The Children.
How low can they go? One of President Obama’s youngest lobbyists – 11-year-old Marcelas Owens of Washington state – traveled to D.C. on Tuesday on the dime of astroturf group, HCAN (Health Care for America Now). His 27-year-old mother, Tiffany, died of pulmonary hypertension. According to the family, Ms. Owens – a single mother of three — lost her job as a fast-food manager and lost her insurance. She received emergency care and treatment throughout her illness, but died in 2007.
Young Marcelas – goaded by his left-wing activist grandmother and promoted by Democrat Sen. Patty Murray — is now a regular on the pro-Obamacare circuit and is leading a congressional sit-in until the Democrat plan passes. He admits he doesn’t understand the complexities of health insurance reform and doesn’t “think it’s anyone’s fault” that his mom passed away. “But they could have done more” for her, he says.
It’s a heart-wrenching story, but the tale raises more questions than it answers. Washington state offers a plethora of existing government assistance programs to laid-off and unemployed workers like Marcelas’s mom. Why didn’t she enroll? Second, she died nine months after she reportedly lost her health insurance. By the time she lost her coverage through her employer, she was apparently already in dire health straits. It’s not clear that additional doctors’ visits in the subsequent months would have prevented her death.
All that said, the Owens’ case demonstrates the flaws of the employer-based system of health insurance. It needs real reform. Unfortunately, the current crop of Democrat plans would leave the employer-based system fully intact. What we need are grown-ups to start over from scratch and leave the kids on the playground.
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We just spent the last few days in The ‘Lou–fortunately, I heard about this trip and planned accordingly.
Gag. It’s been on the news all morning.
What I wanna know is what has hi-skoolers got to do with ramming his healthcare down our throats?
I fear the left is creating a mentality of “if you have health insurance, you won’t die”.
We are more and more distanced from the reality of death. We don’t kill our food anymore; we don’t see huge infant mortality like 150 years ago; our news doesn’t show us people dying. Death is a reality and it does happen to all of us. And sometimes it’s nobody’s fault; it was just supposed to happen.
Given the way things are going with the definition of “children” i.e., up to age 31 (and growing), pretty soon Dingy Harry, San Fran Nan and even KKK Byrd will be out on the swingset while real adults solve the country’s problems.
At least leftists are consistent. I’d be worried if they started doing something that wasn’t in their playbook.
Worst President Ever!
Rasmussen “Approval Index” for BHO is now at -21%, (my prediction of -25% for last Friday was only a tad premature)
This show is too busy indoctrinating children into the Spanish culture, among many others.
True. Dems could be easily mocked with an “Eternal Life” campaign. Some possible slogans could be
Eternal Life is a Human Right!
Eternal Life for All, Not Just the Rich!
Stop the Deaths. 10,000 Americans Die Every Day.
Problem is the Dem base wouldn’t get it is a joke and would start demanding legislation to stop this unspeakable tragedy.
Love Matt Drudge‘s compilation of all the lame stream headlines since way back that catagorizes every democrat move toward healthcare ‘reform’ as an ‘End Game’.
The real end game is coming this November…
Obama’s reply:
Yes, here we go again. Do it for the children! The children! The poor poor children!
They don’t care about grandma and grandpa because they are old, cost too much and don’t contribute enough anymore. They are disposable. Their Medicare can be cut and services rationed. But the children can be taxed for decades to come. They need the children. They want the children. Unless you feel like murdering them before they are born, which this health care reform will make sure is a covered service.
The health care bill needs a Do Not Resuscitate order on it.
Maybe he thinks these HS kids can sway their parents…you know while they still know everything their parents don’t??
And let’s not forget. We are talking about the helpless little 24, 25 and 26 year old children that benefit from this health care takeoever.
I can’t speak for others, but all of my kids were able to be covered on my insurance until they were 23 years of age as long as they remained in school …
I had to fill out a form each year that was submitted along with a letter from the university registrar verifying that they were still actively enrolled in classes to keep them covered …
It seems like BO wants them covered until age 26 regardless of whether they are still continuing their education or not just to have another argument to throw out there for his socialized medicine …
Has anyone seen any numbers on how much they are going to start immediately taking out of our paychecks to pay for this snake oil program? …
How do the rest of you feel about paying for what you have now and also paying for something for 4 years that doesn’t even exist? …
Remember that you can’t refuse to pay the new taxes for BO’s health care program just because you already have insurance coverage … so you pay for 2 programs …
More smoke and mirrors from Barack Copperfield …
Indoctrinate the students. When election time comes in 2012, many will be voters. They hope for a full takeover at that time, with loss of liberty/freedom, and the establishment of a full marxist state, amid cheering by the young.
I think there is a direct correlation to the Student loan interest and the Obama healthcare plan. Unless you can make Doctors fall in line and accept low payments there is no Government healthcare. By allowing higher Student Loan interest rates, as well as Universities increasing costs dramatically, you will have doctors with so much debt they will have no choice but to turn to the Government for help. This is exactly what the Obama and his backers want. Doctors willing to be Government employees for much less than they would normally make and practice the way the government wants. Not a plesant thought, but it appears to be what is happening. There have been options for a few years for select professions to work in particular jobs and locations and the Government would forgive their loans, but I see a much darker plan comming our way very soon.
Did he mention to those kids that they won’t have jobs when they get out of high school?
or that they’ll have to compete with illegal aliens and other cheap labor foreigners…
Can I buy stock in milk crates and empty wire spools? Furniture of choice for 26-year olds living in the basement…
Cicerokid–from what I’ve seen come out of St Louis schools, they’d do well to get on at Mickey Ds.
How long ’til we’re all slaves?
I am finally beginning to see how this transparency thing works!
Not long, if Obama and congress has its way. He’s got his czars working overtime to get it done, as quickly as possible.
He is targeting our kids with every breath he takes! They are his main focus, trust me. He knows, if you can continue to brainwash the kids, you have them for life. I see he is travelling with his SEIU thugs. This POS HAS to be stopped! He is the mafia gone ballistic and is RUNNING THIS COUNTRY! How has it come to this? The most corrupt administration in our history, and they continue to ram their agenda down our throats and we don’t seem to be able to do anything about it!! Obama, tell your thugs to LEAVE MY KIDS ALONE! I am turning into a Mother Bear and my cubs are being attacked.
Eight years of the media bashing Republicans and then a year proclaiming Obama the Saviour of the World. A population too lazy or stupid to do their own homework.
Unless, of course, you are an unborn baby. Then they will take money out of our pockets to MURDER you.
Whe did we elect Don Quixote as President?
Or, perhaps, is it….Wile E. Coyote?
Might have been a good idea for one of the 535 members of Congress or one of the Supreme Court Justices or Dick Cheney, or SOMEONE to raise their hand and object to swearing in a man who was never eligible to be President.
Natural born citizen has a specific meaning: born in this country, by two U.S. citizens. The founders didn’t think they needed to define every word in the document, they thought we would be an intelligent citzenry, Oh, well…..
I am a birther…and proud of it. So sue me. There are too many unanswered questions and too many coverups!!! This POTUS stinks to high heaven.
On the other hand, my daughter is poised to graduate cum laude from college in May and is having a terrible time trying to find a job. She is healthy – she has played soccer since age 5, works out 3x a week at school, has no weight or health issues.
Because she will be dropped from our employer provided family plan the day after she graduates, I have started shopping for individual coverage in case she can’t land a job that offers health care insurance.
Here in CA, the rates for her to get minimal coverage exceed the costs of our family coverage – and that is before rates are re-set on April 1st by the insurance companies offering coverage in CA. (Remember the proposed 49% increase batted around the last few weeks?)
So, even if she becomes an unemployed boomerang kid living at home, our health care premium more than doubles the day she graduates. Ditto for car insurance.
If she lands a job without health care coverage, just these two types of insurance will make it really tough for her to afford to live on her own – even with a roommate. Great way to start out, eh?
If the Republicans in Congress had shown some backbone and killed the health care bill last year, then we would be already moving toward changes that would make insurance for 21 year olds affordable. Unfortunately they caved and I see our costs more than double. My daughter doesn’t qualify for SCHIP because she won’t be a full time student. Our alternative strategy is for her to sign-up for classes at the local JC in order to qualify for continued coverage under our family plan or under SCHIP coverage and save a ton of money. Pretty insane.
Allow me to introduce myself.(Hands business card to Bugs which reads, “Wiley E. Coyote, Supergenius.”)
From then on, Bugs repeatedly outsmarts the self proclaimed genius.
From Wiley’s only speaking cartoon.
I love Looney Tunes.
I am so tired of this health care nonsense. We can’t afford it, it will break the frickin’ bank, what more do you need to say?
*Sigh* Where’s an anvil and a cliff to drop it from when you need it? *Sigh*
Well, OK, I’ll say it: This child would do better to visit with Michelle O. and embrace her cause-du-jour, childhood obesity. I’m not picking on the little guy; I’m just saying that he’s an easier sell on that social program than the unnecessary health care boondoggle.
So parents who arent burdened enough now are forced by the federal government to pay for their loafing 20 somethings. Note to the slackers: You have a degree – get a J-O-B!
I am so sick of Nanny Obama. He missed his calling. He needs to be on the show Super Nanny.
http://www.imao.us/
New Obama doll pictured as well.
in_awe: Has your daughter considered serving in the military for a few years?
With a degree she can go either the officer or enlisted route. She doesn’t have to make it a career, but she can build her resume for when things turn around (if they ever do!). As the commander of a fighter squadron in the late ’80′s, I could say I ran a billion dollar organization with world-wide responsibility. One of my senior NCO’s could say they managed a division responsible for critical life-support systems for operators of multi-million dollar assets (F-16′s) and another scheduled the day-to-day operations of the unit.
She gets healthcare immediately and, whether she goes officer or enlisted, she will get more responsibility and do more than her peers — remember the Army ad where the voice-over says, “We do more before 7 AM than most people do all day.”
He reminds me of an incessant nagger.
Nag, nag, nag, yap, yap, yap, whine, nag, nag, nag.
Hey, Nag In Chief. Take 24 hours off. Take the family to Camp David or something. Anything…. just STFU.
Nag, nag, nag….
Meanwhile, Wile. E. Obama anxiously awaits Acme reconciliation package arriving in the mail…
I can’t help but think of the Cowardly Lion from the Wizard of Oz.
“Put ‘em up! Put ‘em up!
The reason his speeches are to kids is that adults see right through him.
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HI B-CAT–#32. I also love Looney Tunes–and I no longer have to watch these cartoons on the kiddie channels.
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I just watch C-Span or most of the Left Wing Media TV. Or I just watch Comrade Obama (PBUH), SanFranNan, Dingy Harry Reid, and their ilk. It’s like Alice in Wonderland all over again when “leg tingle” Chris Matthews or his deranged compadres “strike up the band”. Nothing like a little Keith Olbermann or lezzie Rachel MadCow in action.
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Wiley E. Coyote doesn’t stand a chance in the stupid contest against these clowns. CUE THE ANVILS!
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It would be funny if we weren’t standing at “ground zero” in the Roadrunner Canyon waiting for the next hit. The Looneys are running the U.S.A. now.
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John Bibb
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The worst part of this whole mess for me is the fact that St. Charles high school is just down the street from the college where I’m taking my grad school courses. He’s screwed royally with the traffic and if things don’t clear up, I could be seriously late to my class tonight… Just great – Obama delivers a lecture on healthcare that nobody likes or wants and I get screwed over in my very expensive college classes. Reason #1,996,276 to vote against this clown and McCaskill…
let’s see, tax subsidies to insure the young’uns to age 26, and tax subsidies to insure abortions so that they never see the light of day. Is this that irony thing I’ve heard so much about?
There is no question the current system needs to be reformed, but have no fear. The employer-based system will remain fully intact only until it is replaced by the government monopoly-based system that Obamacare will automatically lead to. Between penalizing employers and private insurance companies, none of these will be offering anything related to healthcare within a few years. Then everyone will be on Medicaid/Medicare. It’s a travesty with 15% of the population using those services. When 99% are forced to use it rather than continue to use the plans and doctors we like as Obama has been telling us we could for the last year, we will see “Obama lied — people died” up close and personal.
Rush just said that he heard a rumor (totally unsubstantiated at this point) that Obama told a MSM reporter after his closed-door, invitation-only speech that he “was not allowed” to interview any of the audience. As I said, this has not been substantiated yet, but just the fact that I believe this POS is capable of such tactics says it all. NOT ALLOWED to interview a private citizen?? Hugo Obama needs to go back and study the Constitution that he swore to preserve and defend. He might be in for a bit of a shock. There actually is Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press covered in there.
They will all be given green jobs for their help in passing Obamacare.
Cushy government jobs where they can not be fired or laid off, can retire at age 40 with a huge pension, will receive massive vacation time and certainly great health benefits.
And they won’t add anything to the GDP because the government will take from the rich to subsidize a green industry that makes nothing that people will buy.
I know it’s been debated, but I more than firmly believe that it’s time for the Tea Party and/or RNC or conservatives to grab as many constitutional scholars and lawyers as they can find to find SOME way to repeal health care (and nat student loans for sure) if (when?) it goes through, as least as soon as possible before the public becomes too addicted to resist. If it’s not contested now, not only will the camel’s nose be under the tent but the population will be whetted for Nat. Free Housing $$$ which not even Beck is joking about anymore.
James Greenidge
Queens, NY
Bho collects the idealistic, stupid, naive and gullible because they are the only ones who are impressed with him. Wait till they get the bill for all this nanny state entitlements. Wait till no one wants to hire their lazy butts. Wait till they find out that they have been sold a bill of goods by lefty morons. Utopia lasts until the gov runs out of other people’s money.
And wait until their parents kick their lazy asses out of the basement! I wonder how they will like being homeless?
And if they only had a brain.
Actually if the left knew how much they’re lied to, they’d be, well..Conservatives.
If you read the comics I noticed this from Maxine. Here is her latest thoughts on Health Care Reform:
“Let me get this straight…
we’re trying to pass a health care plan
written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it,
passed by a Congress that hasn’t read it but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president that also hasn’t read it and who smokes, with funding administered by… a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, all to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that’s broke.
What the heck could possibly go wrong?”
“Westworld. Where nothing can go worng”.
This Obamacare crap is making me sick.
obowma is making me sick…period…
Oh that’s just great! Now my taxes are going to go up even more to subsidize healtcare for you two hypochondriacs!
You just don’t get it. This is why we must have Barrycare. It makes us sick so we will need it to cure that sickness, unless of course the cure makes us sicker than the original sickness in which case we will need to cure the cure by repealing it so that the…Oh, snap. Now I don’t feel so good.
Tea Party Patriots just distributed this-
CODE RED! CODE RED!
National Coordinator Jenny Beth Martin just got off the phone with 2 reliable sources in Washington DC who have told us that the Blue Dog Democrats
are caving on health care and will be voting for it. Many Blue
Dogs are saying that Speaker Pelosi will have the votes before or by
next Thursday and they are saying this very confidently. The
important thing to note is that as soon as Speaker Pelosi thinks she
has the votes, she will immediately call for the vote on the House
Floor. That means it the vote could come as early as tomorrow, or it
could be later.
Time for Action!
I smell scam. Vigilance is always a good idea, but nothing has really changed. Blue Dogs face a choice. Make Nanny and Barry happy, or get re-elected. My money is on them saving their a$$es. And this doesn’t affect the Stupak abortion coalition in the House. The numbers don’t add up. The votes aren’t there. This is likely more Pelosi “We will pass a bill” hyperbole.
November can’t get here fast enough. I just hope there is a Country left to save by then.
Much like what happened in Britain, there are many people who will accept anything out of D.C., like sheep. They’ll just go along with their lives and say nothing, as more and more ridiculous laws are passed to “protect” them. Some of them are so absurb you wonder why there isn’t a general uprising. Hospital and health care is so bad, I would refuse to work there. If I was visiting there and got sick, I would fly home immediately, and if a doc decided to “check me out”, I would produce my license to practice and refuse him. My new favorite? Microchips in the trashcans to monitor your trash. People just live their lives and do nothing. My worry is that the same could happen here. Too many people will want to “live their lives” and shrug their shoulders. Some I know, have no idea what Obamacare is…or care.
If Bart Stupak votes FOR Obamacare, I think a few more people will understand what scumbags the Democrats in Congress are! Unfortunately, there also remains no shortage of Republican scumbags in Congress.
Funny isn’t it—-
Abort the children or soak them in money.
Liberal greed.
Go figure.
Shows you how, on so many levels, Zero and the Dhimmicrats are operating like the islamic terrorists using children and civilians as human shields.
Pravda….oops, I mean the AP is reporting: Pelosi: Dems close on health care agreement
Weird that they support aborting future citizens on welfare, and therefore, socialism supporters, or aborting future taxpayers producing more tax money for them to spend.