Category Archives: US economy

Scott Brown, Martha Coakley, campaigning, Saturday, January 16, 2010, WBZ TV video, Coakley Losing 1 in 5 Dems, Coakley counting on union muscle, Brown leads in absentee voting 58 to 42, Scott Brown criminal complaint

MA senate race news, Saturday, January 16, 2010.

Scott Brown and Martha Coakley campaigning Saturday, January 16, 2010

From Fox News Boston.

“Coakley counts on union muscle to win Senate race”

“Democrat Martha Coakley is counting on union muscle to help her win Tuesday’s U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts.

She kicked off the final weekend of campaigning Saturday with a stop at an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers hall in Boston to encourage a group of canvassers.”

Read more:

http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/politics/state_politics/coakley-counts-on-union-muscle-to-win-senate-race-25-apx

From Gateway Pundit.

“Brown Leads Coakley 58-42 in Absentee Ballots– Coakley Losing 1 in 5 Dems to Brown …BIG UPDATE: BROWN PRESS CONFERENCE- PRESSING CHARGES AGAINST DEM PARTY”

“One in five democrats in Massachusetts is going with Scott Brown.

And, there’s more bad news for democrat Martha Coakley…
Scott Brown is leading in the absentee voting 58-42. 9% of registered voters said they have already cast a ballot.
Real Clear Politics reported:

Coakley loses one-in-five Democrats to Brown, while the Republican state senator has 94 percent of Republicans behind him. Brown has a commanding 58-37 advantage among “unenrolled” voters, mainly independents and those who prefer not to register affiliation with the major parties.”

“Dan Winslow, counsel for the Scott Brown for U.S. Senate campaign, will hold a media availability to announce the filing of a criminal complaint against the Massachusetts Democratic Party regarding a recent mailing paid for and sent by the Massachusetts Democratic Party. Winslow will make a statement and take reporters’ questions at MassGOP Headquarters in Boston TODAY at 4:00 PM.”

Read more:

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/

Obama campaigns in MA, Obama to stump for endangered Massachusetts Democrat, Martha Coakley, Suffolk poll shows Scott Brown ahead of Coakley

From MSNBC, January 15, 2010.

“Obama to stump for endangered Mass. Dem
Poll shows GOP candidate up; race could tip Democrats’ 60-vote majority”

“BOSTON – His health care bill at stake, President Barack Obama plans a trip to Massachusetts to campaign for endangered Senate Democratic candidate Martha Coakley amid release of a poll showing an edge for the Republican Party in the race to fill a Senate seat Democrats have held for over a half-century.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that Obama would appear at an event for Coakley in Boston on Sunday.

A Suffolk University survey released late Thursday showed that Brown, a Republican state senator, with 50 percent of the vote in the race to succeed the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in this overwhelmingly Democratic state.

Coakley had 46 percent. That amounted to a statistical tie since it was within the poll’s 4.4 percentage point margin of error, but it was far different from a 15-point lead that Coakley, the Massachusetts attorney general, enjoyed in a Boston Globe survey released over the weekend.”

Read more:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34876791/ns/politics-more_politics/

“President Obama: Support Martha Coakley for U.S. Senate”

View this report from News 7 in Boston

Will Obama’s visit to MA help Martha Coakley or hurt her?

Scott Brown, MA senate race poll, January 15, 2010, Suffolk University 7News poll, Poll shocker Scott Brown surges ahead in Senate race, Opposition to Democratic health care reform

From the Boston herald, January 15, 2010.

“Poll shocker: Scott Brown surges ahead in Senate race”

“Riding a wave of opposition to Democratic health-care reform, GOP upstart Scott Brown is leading in the U.S. Senate race, raising the odds of a historic upset that would reverberate all the way to the White House, a new poll shows.

Although Brown’s 4-point lead over Democrat Martha Coakley is within the Suffolk University/7News survey’s margin of error, the underdog’s position at the top of the results stunned even pollster David Paleologos.

“It’s a Brown-out,” said Paleologos, director of Suffolk’s Political Research Center. “It’s a massive change in the political landscape.”

The poll shows Brown, a state senator from Wrentham, besting Coakley, the state’s attorney general, by 50 percent to 46 percent, the first major survey to show Brown in the lead. Unenrolled long-shot Joseph L. Kennedy, an information technology executive with no relation to the famous family, gets 3 percent of the vote. Only 1 percent of voters were undecided.

Paleologos said bellweather models show high numbers of independent voters turning out on election day, which benefits Brown, who has 65 percent of that bloc compared to Coakley’s 30 percent. Kennedy earns just 3 percent of the independent vote, and 1 percent are undecided.

Given the 4.4-point margin of error, the poll shows Coakley could win the race, Paleologos said. But if Brown’s momentum holds, he is poised to succeed the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy – and to halt health-care reform, the issue the late senator dubbed “the cause of my life.”

Yet even in the bluest state, it appears Kennedy’s quest for universal health care has fallen out of favor, with 51 percent of voters saying they oppose the “national near-universal health-care package” and 61 percent saying they believe the government cannot afford to pay for it.

The poll, conducted Monday through Wednesday, surveyed 500 registered likely voters who knew the date of Tuesday’s election. It shows Brown leading all regions of the state except Suffolk County.

“Either Brown’s momentum accelerates and his lead widens, or this becomes a wake-up call for Coakley to become the ‘Comeback Kid’ this weekend,” Paleologos said.

And with 99 percent having made up their minds, voters may be hard to persuade.

The poll surveyed a carefully partitioned electorate meant to match voter turnout: 39 percent Democrat, 15 percent Republican and 45 percent unenrolled.”

Read more:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1225720&format=text

 

Scott Brown ahead in Poll, January 15, 2010, Suffolk University Poll, News 7 Boston

Martha Coakley Takes Money From Health Insurance Lobbyists, MA Republican Party ad video, Coakley ties to drug companies, Coakley fundraiser Washington DC, Health care lobbyists, Martha Coakley smear campaign, Health Care Bill

The MA Republican Party has a new video out accusing Martha Coakley of taking money from health insurance lobbyists.

“Martha Coakley says she holds health insurers accountable, then one day later, takes money from the very same health insurance lobbyists at a Washington fundraiser.”

Was this a fair portrayal of Coakley’s ties to lobbyists and drug companies?

You decide.

From the Washington Examiner, January 8, 2010.

“Coakley in trouble? Pharma and HMO lobbyists to the rescue”

“With Democrat Martha Coakley in trouble in the Massachusetts special election to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat, Democrats could lose vote No. 60 for President Obama’s health-care bill. In response, an army of lobbyists for drug companies, health insurance companies, and hospitals has teamed up to throw a high-dollar Capitol Hill fundraiser for Coakley next Tuesday night. The invitation is here.

Of the 22 names on the host committee–meaning they raised $10,000 or more for Coakley–17 are federally registered lobbyists, 15 of whom have health-care clients. Of the other five hosts, one is married to a lobbyist, one was a lobbyist in Pennsylvania, another is a lawyer at a lobbying firm, and another is a corporate CEO. Oh, and of course, there’s also the political action commitee for Boston Scientific Corporation.

All the leading drug companies have lobbyists on Coakley’s host committee: Pfizer, Merck, Amgen, Sanofi-Aventis, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Astra-Zeneca, and more. On the insurance side of things, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Cigna, Humana, HealthSouth, and United Health all are represented on the host committee.”

“Here are some of Coakley fundraiser hosts with some of their current health care clients:

Thomas Boggs, Patton Boggs: Bristol-Myers Squibb
Chuck Brain, Capitol Hill Strategies: Amgen, BIO, Merck, PhRMA
Susan Brophy, Glover Park Group: Blue Cross, Pfizer
Steven Champlin, Duberstein Group: AHIP, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis
Licy Do Canto, Raben Group: Amgen
Gerald Cassidy, Cassidy & Associates: U. Mass Memorial Health Care
David Castagnetti, Mehlman, Vogel, Castagnetti: Abbot Labs, AHIP, Astra-Zenaca, General Electric, Humana, Merck, PhRMA.
Steven Elmendorf, Elmendorf Strategies: Medicines Company, PhRMA, United Health
Shannon Finley, Capitol Counsel: Amgen, Astra-Zeneca, Blue Cross, GE, PhRMA, Sanofi-Aventis.
Heather Podesta, Heather Podesta & Partners: Cigna, Eli Lilly, HealthSouth
Tony Podesta, Podesta Group: Amgen, GE, Merck, Novartis.
Robert Raben, Raben Group: Amgen, GE. ”

Read more:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Coakley-in-trouble-Pharma-and-HMO-lobbyists-to-the-rescue-81067542.html

“Fox News Reports On Martha Coakley’s “Controversial” DC Fundraiser With Health Care Lobbyists”

“It won’t be the first time but Martha Coakley smeared Scott Brown tonight outside of her big Washington DC lobbyist fundraiser.

Martha Coakley is a smear merchant.
She already tried to tie Republican Scott Brown to Rush Limbaugh even though the two have never met.

Now tonight Martha Coakley tried to tie Scott Brown to “extreme right groups” who she says are pouring money into Massachusetts. She says this despite the fact that Brown raised over $1.3 million, mostly in small donations, in an online money bomb yesterday. And, she had the gall to say this outside of her Washington DC lobbyist fundraiser where 22 big-time lobbyists from drug, health care and insurance companies met tonight to help bail her campaign out.

Brian Maloney has more on Coakley’s big money fundraiser tonight.

As if Martha Coakleys support from the corrupt establishment wasnt already clear enough, now comes word that a coalition of sleazebag industry lobbyists have teamed up with Bay State Democrats for an eleventh-hour bailout of her faltering campaign.

Many of those involved in this hastily-organized rescue attempt have no Bay State ties, their only allegiance is to piggish K Street – Beltway lobbying firms.”

Scott Brown, Catholic Families for America endorsement, CFA, January 13, 2010, Voters of conscience, Not Kennedy seat, People’s seat

Catholic Families for America, CFA, has endorsed Scott Brown for the MA senate seat.

From the Christian News Wire, January 13, 2010.

“Catholic Families for America Endorses Scott Brown for Massachusetts Senate Seat”

“CFA Executive Director: “For voters of conscience in Massachusetts, the choice is clear: Scott Brown is a traditional values public servant who would bring a refreshing voice of common sense to the U. S. Senate. We applaud him for reminding the political class in Washington that this is not ‘the Kennedy seat — it’s the people’s seat.'””

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 /Christian Newswire/ — Dr. Kevin Roberts, executive director of the Catholic grassroots advocacy group, Catholic Families for America (CFA), announced the organization’s endorsement of Scott Brown in next Tuesday’s special election for the U.S. Senate.



“”Scott would be such an upgrade on every major issue from the late Teddy Kennedy,” Roberts said. “Furthermore, his opponent, who espouses the same anti-life, anti-family, anti-values agenda that made Kennedy such a tragic figure to the Church, should give Catholic, Christian, and values voters an easy choice next Tuesday.””

“”Our republic cannot withstand a long period of liberal, anti-family super-majorities in Congress,” Roberts explained. “If Scott Brown surprises the pundits next week, then we know that the end is near for the abject failures of Pelosi, Reid, and Obama.””

Read more:

http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/5497512674.html

I love this response Scott Brown gave during the recent MA Senate Debate.

The Citizen Wells blog enthusiastically
endorses Scott Brown for the MA senate seat.

US Chamber of Commerce, Obama, Chamber pledges to stop Obama agenda, Play big role in November elections, President Thomas Donohue, Health care legislation, Fiscal insolvency, Valerie Jarrett

“Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.”…George Bernard Shaw

Those who can’t do, won’t do, have never successfully run a business and hate business are part of the Obama Administration…Citizen Wells

 

From USA Today, January 12, 2010.

“U.S. Chamber pledges to stop Obama agenda, play big role in Nov. elections”

“U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue attacked President Obama’s domestic agenda Tuesday, criticizing Democratic efforts on climate change, health care and oversight of the nation’s financial system.

And he pledged to use the chamber’s might in November’s elections to take on the president’s allies in Congress.”

“The chamber will carry out “the largest, most aggressive” campaign in its 100-year history as it works to influence the outcome of mid-term congressional elections and stop legislation it views as harmful to the economy, he said. “As Americans choose a new House and senators this fall,” Donohue added, “the chamber will highlight lawmakers and candidates who support a pro-jobs agenda and hold accountable those who don’t.””

Read more:

http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2010/01/us-chamber-pledges-to-stop-obama-agenda-play-big-role-in-nov-elections.html

Apparently Obama and US Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue are not good buddies. Of course, the Obama Administration, a model of business acumen and job creation, has it’s answer to the US Chamber of Commerce in the Business Roundtable. Valerie Jarrett is the president’s liaison to the corporate world. You remember Jarrett.

“I was in the process of reporting more on Valerie Jarrett and her past ties to corruption in Chicago and I will do so. For now, Michelle Malkin does an excellent job in this video of exposing the truth about Obama and Jarrett and their motives for getting the Olympics for Chicago.”…Valerie Jarrett, corrupt slumlord Obama friend

From the LA Times, October 25, 2009.

“White House confronts the U.S. Chamber of Commerce”

“WASHINGTON — The Obama White House, stepping in where other Democrats feared to tread, has launched a potentially risky fight with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — attempting to bypass the nation’s most powerful business organization and develop independent ties to corporate America.

In recent weeks, President Obama, his Energy secretary and one of his other most senior advisors have begun criticizing the chamber publicly, casting it as a profligate lobbying organization at odds with its members in opposing the administration on such issues as consumer protection and climate change.

At the same time, the administration has been meeting privately with prominent corporate leaders — more than 60 of them since June — in an effort to develop its own pipeline to the business community.
The White House also has gone out of its way to cultivate another corporate group, the Business Roundtable, which is much smaller than the chamber but represents chief executives of many of the nation’s largest corporations.

“Our strategy is to reach out directly to the business community,” said Valerie Jarrett, the president’s liaison to the corporate world. “This is a shift. Previously, the chamber had served as the sole intermediary for business. That’s not our approach.”

Jarrett praised the Business Roundtable, saying that it brings member CEOs to White House meetings in addition to Washington lobbyists.

In an indirect dig at the chamber, Jarrett said the roundtable meetings were more substantive and valuable because they included not just a trade association leader but someone who actually runs a business.

The White House role in criticizing the chamber has, predictably, riled Republicans. But it also has made some Democrats nervous.”

Read more:

http://articles.latimes.com/2009/oct/25/nation/na-chamber25

Here are some exerpts from the speech of US Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue, January 12, 2010.

“Think for a moment about the nation’s job creators—the men and women who run our small and large businesses—as well as those who lead our universities, our health care facilities and the many other institutions that employ our workforce. If you were in their shoes today, would you jump quickly into new investments and hiring? Or would you wait for some clarity, and some common sense, to take hold first?

Most of these job creators would like nothing more than to keep their workers employed, create new jobs, and bring some hope and relief to families struggling without a paycheck. But when they look at what’s going on in Washington, in the states, and around the world, what do they see?

They see massive tax increases on the horizon—not just the expiration of the tax cuts passed over the last decade, but also hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes.

They see health care legislation that contains a burdensome mandate on employers and virtually no meaningful reforms to improve quality or control costs.

They see a climate change bill and potential EPA regulations that could significantly raise energy prices and impose new layers of bureaucracy on their organizations.

They see financial services legislation moving forward that could choke off their access to capital at a time when lending is already very tight.

America’s job creators also see a renewed push by unions to pass card check and many other measures to control the workplace.

They see the trial bar working with their allies in Congress and with many state attorneys general to expand opportunities for new litigation.

They see the rise of trade isolationism at home and abroad that could threaten their export markets—and now, renewed fears about terrorism.

And our job creators see the federal government planning to expand the national debt by at least $9 trillion over the next decade—more debt than has been piled up in all previous years since George Washington. They see many states going broke as well. What will the impact be on their companies and employees?

These are the uncertainties that job creators are wrestling with—uncertainties that call into question how quick or strong our economic recovery will be. And no one is paying a higher price than the American worker.

Over seven million Americans have lost their jobs since the recession began. Ten percent of the workforce is unemployed—a number that soars beyond 17 percent when you add those who have stopped looking for jobs and the millions of part-time workers who want to work full-time.”

Read more:

http://www.uschamber.com/press/speeches/2010/100112_sab

By the way, the Chamber of Commerce of a major NC city, was my first business account assigned to me when I was young. It was a pleasure to present this article.

MA senate debate video, January 11, 2010, Scott Brown, Martha Coakley, Joseph L Kennedy, Youtube video, Cspan video

*** Update below  1:20 PM, EST ***

The MA senate debate between Scott Brown, Martha Coakley and  Joseph L Kennedy took place last night January 11, 2010 at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Here is a Youtube video with portions of video from Fox 25, Boston and News 22, WWLP, Springfield, MA. Links to the complete videos are below.


http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/p…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgT_TS…

Cspan video.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/291174-1

This post will be updated later today.

***  Update  ***

The Boston Globe provided interactive comments during the debate.

At 7:02 PM poll results were presented

What candidate do you support?
Scott Brown (R)  

 
 ( 71% )
Martha Coakley (D)

 
 ( 25% )
Joseph L. Kennedy (I)

 
 ( 4% )

Comments

6:52
Andrew Phelps (WBUR): 

We’ll be watching and talking about the Senate debate, which starts at 7 p.m. sharp.

Monday January 11, 2010 6:52 Andrew Phelps (WBUR)
6:53
Andrew Phelps (WBUR): 

Our guest bloggers this evening are Renee Loth, columnist for The Boston Globe; Ralph Ranalli, WGBH’s “Greater Boston”; and Julie Mehegan, deputy editorial page editor of The Boston Herald.

Monday January 11, 2010 6:53 Andrew Phelps (WBUR)
6:53
Andrew Phelps (WBUR): 

The debate will be broadcast on television and radio stations throughout Massachusetts.

Monday January 11, 2010 6:53 Andrew Phelps (WBUR)
6:59
Julie Mehegan (Herald): 

Those who plan to vote but haven’t paid attention at all to this race will probably be tuning in tonight, and the candidates know it.  Big stakes.

Monday January 11, 2010 6:59 Julie Mehegan (Herald)
7:00
[Comment From BrianBrian: ] 

Brown is raising a lot more money than I thought he would today…

Monday January 11, 2010 7:00 Brian
7:00
[Comment From Allen GAllen G: ] 

Watching from Tennessee

Monday January 11, 2010 7:00 Allen G
7:01
[Comment From SteveSteve: ] 

Watching from northern Virginia.

Monday January 11, 2010 7:01 Steve
7:01
[Comment From ChristopherChristopher: ] 

Watching from Kalifornia

Monday January 11, 2010 7:01 Christopher
7:01
[Comment From Chris PChris P: ] 

Watching from Virginia (former Mass resident)

Monday January 11, 2010 7:01 Chris P
7:02
[Comment From mlsmls: ] 

logging in from texas…y’all hold the fate of our nation in your hand. do the right thing mass voters!

7:02
[Comment From LindaLinda: ] 

Watching from Florida…go Scott!

Monday January 11, 2010 7:02 Linda
7:02
Ralph Ranalli – WGBH: 

Complacency on the Democratic side will be the biggest enemy.

Monday January 11, 2010 7:02 Ralph Ranalli – WGBH
7:02
[Comment From JoannaJoanna: ] 

Watching from Jacksonville, FL Go SCOTT

Monday January 11, 2010 7:02 Joanna
7:02
[Comment From AndrewAndrew: ] 

watching from Pennsylvania! Go Brown!!!!

Monday January 11, 2010 7:02 Andrew
7:02
[Comment From Jo ElizabethJo Elizabeth: ] 

Go Scott Brown!!!!!! Florida support 110%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Read all comments:

Mayo Clinic, Medicare, No longer accept new Medicare patients, Obama praised Mayo Clinic, Mayo lost $840 million last year on Medicare, Medicare Trust Fund going bankrupt

From BNET, January 4, 2010.

“Mayo Clinic Bridles at Medicare Payments”

“The Mayo Clinic, which has been praised by President Obama as an exemplar for the healthcare industry, will no longer accept new Medicare patients at a primary-care clinic in Glendale, AZ, a Phoenix suburb. While this office serves only a small portion of Mayo’s 526,000 patients in Minnesota, Arizona, and Florida, the organization says that the Glendale clinic is part of a 2-year pilot that will determine whether Mayo continues taking care of Medicare patients at other facilities. Meanwhile, the 3,000 Medicare patients who see family doctors at the Glendale office will have to pay nearly $2,000 a year out of pocket if they want to stay with their physicians.
Mayo is going in this direction because it lost $840 million last year on Medicare. Its Arizona hospital and four primary-care clinics lost $120 million. Nationwide, physicians earn about 20 percent less from Medicare than they do from private payers, but there’s no evidence that most are losing money on Medicare. In a Bloomberg article, Dr. Robert Berenson of the Urban Institute is quoted as saying that some primary-care physicians can afford to do without Medicare “because there is an unlimited demand for their services.” In areas where private health plans pay much more, Medicare looks like a poor payer, he adds.
Nevertheless, the Mayo experiment highlights the grim realities facing Medicare. Even at the current payment rates, the payroll-tax-funded Medicare Trust Fund, which covers inpatient care, is expected to go bankrupt in 2017. General tax revenues and beneficiary premiums guarantee the solvency of Medicare Part B, the outpatient program, but neither higher taxes nor the current rise in premiums is popular. Cutting doctors’ fees is not politically acceptable, either. To keep those fees stable for the next decade, the House recently passed a supplemental spending bill of nearly $200 billion, and the Senate is expected to follow suit, in return for the AMA’s support of its reform bill.”

Read more:

http://industry.bnet.com/healthcare/10001573/mayo-clinic-bridles-at-medicare-payments/

Thanks to my good friend Bill for the info.

William M. Daley, Democrat party, Obama approval rating, Listen to American people, Alabama Representative Parker Griffith, Washington Post warning, Far left agenda

A warning to the Democrat Party from the Washington Post (hardly a conservative rag) to listen to the American public and embrace centrist viewpoints.

“Keep the Big Tent big”

“The announcement by Alabama Rep. Parker Griffith that he is switching to the Republican Party is just the latest warning sign that the Democratic Party — my lifelong political home — has a critical decision to make: Either we plot a more moderate, centrist course or risk electoral disaster not just in the upcoming midterms but in many elections to come.
Rep. Griffith’s decision makes him the fifth centrist Democrat to either switch parties or announce plans to retire rather than stand for reelection in 2010. These announcements are a sharp reversal from the progress the Democratic Party made starting in 2006 and continuing in 2008, when it reestablished itself as the nation’s majority party for the first time in more than a decade. That success happened for one major reason: Democrats made inroads in geographies and constituencies that had trended Republican since the 1960s. In these two elections, a majority of independents and a sizable number of moderate Republicans joined the traditional Democratic base to sweep Democrats to commanding majorities in Congress and to bring Barack Obama to the White House.
These independents and Republicans supported Democrats based on a message indicating that the party would be a true Big Tent — that we would welcome a diversity of views even on tough issues such as abortion, gun rights and the role of government in the economy.
This call was answered not just by voters but by a surge of smart, talented candidates who came forward to run and win under the Democratic banner in districts dominated by Republicans for a generation. These centrists swelled the party’s ranks in Congress and contributed to Obama’s victories in states such as Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado and other Republican bastions.
But now they face a grim political fate. On the one hand, centrist Democrats are being vilified by left-wing bloggers, pundits and partisan news outlets for not being sufficiently liberal, “true” Democrats. On the other, Republicans are pounding them for their association with a party that seems to be advancing an agenda far to the left of most voters.

The political dangers of this situation could not be clearer.
Witness the losses in New Jersey and Virginia in this year’s off-year elections. In those gubernatorial contests, the margin of victory was provided to Republicans by independents — many of whom had voted for Obama. Just one year later, they had crossed back to the Republicans by 2-to-1 margins.
Witness the drumbeat of ominous poll results. Obama’s approval rating has fallen below 49 percent overall and is even lower — 41 percent — among independents. On the question of which party is best suited to manage the economy, there has been a 30-point swing toward Republicans since November 2008, according to Ipsos. Gallup’s generic congressional ballot shows Republicans leading Democrats. There is not a hint of silver lining in these numbers. They are the quantitative expression of the swing bloc of American politics slipping away.”

Read more:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/23/AR2009122302439_pf.html

Bart Stupak, Obama pressure, Obama Administration Bullying Congressman Stupak, Abortion funding, Taxpayer financing of abortions, Obama thugs

“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”…Matthew 6:24

 

Congressman Bart Stupak is being bullied by the Obama thugs to remain silent and accept the Reid Nelson compromise that allows taxpayer financing of abortions.

“Greta Interviews Bart Stupak over White House Bullying”

From Life News, December 23, 2009.

“Stupak: Obama Admin Bullying Me to Accept Abortion Funding in Health Care”

“Congressman Bart Stupak, the pro-life Democrat who has been the consistent champion against abortion funding in the health care bill, says the Obama administration is trying to bully him. Stupak says in a new interview that he will not back down in the face of pressure from the White House.

Stupak told CNS News that the White House and top Congressional Democrats are attempting to twist his arm to accept the Reid-Nelson “compromise” language that still allows massive taxpayer financing of abortions.

“They think I shouldn’t be expressing my views on this bill until they get a chance to try to sell me the language,” Stupak told CNSNews Tuesday.

“Well, I don’t need anyone to sell me the language. I can read it. I’ve seen it. I’ve worked with it. I know what it says. I don’t need to have a conference with the White House. I have the legislation in front of me here,” Stupak said defiantly.

Stupak said the White House specifically requested that he not talk about the Nelson sellout and the language that the Senate has approved via the Reid manager’s amendment.

Stupak said that the White House “asked me just to hold off for awhile and not to say anything about this language.”
He told the conservative news outlet, “But as soon as the news broke that they had this [compromise], and they got the 60 votes, folks were asking me, and I’m not going to run from the issue I’m going to stand up and say, ‘Look, here’s my objections.’ Here – it’s not just my objections – but there’s a number of my [colleagues] who feel strongly about this issue, and these are the parts that have to be fixed.””

“Stupak said after Nelson’s compromise that he will not back down and will “hold firm” against abortion funding.”

Read more:

http://lifenews.com/nat5810.html

Congressman Bart Stupak, we stand beside you in spirit and in person if necessary.

Don’t back down.