I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Wabbit

Medigal ... it was just a bit of satire on how Beck & Co. might go after Huckabee for daring to disagree with them.

IMO of course.  If Enjoyful and blue don't agree I'm sure they will be back later to say so.

bluedahlia

You're spot on WR!

bluedahlia

I think a few republicans want to distance themselves from Beck now.

Anonymous

First of all, Trump is a democrat.  I don't know when he changed to Republican.  He's been extremely liberal on most all issues from Pro-choice (flip-flopped now), Universal Health Care (flip-flopped again), the bailouts, blah blah blah.  I have not heard one other republican candidate ask for Obama's birth certificate.  I don't believe Trump has found anything.  He talks big about what he'd do to China and OPEC.  Yeah, right!

Alpal

Shirley - we don't want him! You all can have him. LOL

AnneW

Huckabee used to be obese. He lost what--nearly a hundred pounds not too long ago. If anyone knows about the problems asocciated with obesity, it would be he. I'm glad he's human enough to recognize the work Mrs. Obama has been doing to help bring this public health issue to light.

The other republican candidates don't HAVE to ask for Obama's birth certificate. Their base is doing it for them. By allowing the subject to keep running ad nauseum, they imply their agreement.

Enjoyful

I thought that Michelle Bachmann had asked for his birth certificate?

Medipal!  Yes, WR is correct.  I don't hate Huckabee at all!

Edited to add:  I mentioned something about circumcision records because the proposed Arizona birther law mentioned them as proof of a USA birth.

Anonymous

The OTHER republicans want the b'certificate thing to go away.  It does no good for the republican cause...believe me.  Not ALL republicans are "birthers".  However, I do find it very interesting that he doesn't release any of his college records, health records, writings......and I'm amazed that you do not care. 

Anonymous

No, Michele Bachmann did not ask for his b'certificate.  She said she took the president at his word.  What she did say after all of this was brought up AGAIN by Trump was if Obama wanted this to go away just show it.  Other than that she's fine with his saying he was born in Hawaii.

Anonymous

Do any of you have any suggestions on fixing our problem with our debt besides blaming it on Bush.  The main thing I've heard from Obama is "Winning the Future"...that we must continue "investing" when we have no money to invest!

People are truly hurting.  Gas prices have gone to the roof which affects our economy is numerous ways. 

Any suggestions?

I think he needs to stop campaigning and work on our problems.  He's got plenty of time to campaign and raise oodles of money.  Besides, that big ole plane he flies in is polluting the environment along with all of the other airplanes that have to come along and the transportation of his SUV.  I do remember him saying that his plan, Cap and Trade, would necessarily cause electricity to skyrocket.  Boy, that bummed me out!  He scares me!

Here's a little piece from a republican that you may or may not read or may not agree with...I'm sure you won't agree with him.  However, seniors are not being explained to what exactly it is that Ryan was proposing when it comes to Medicare.

I listened to Obama's speech on HIS budget and was stunned.  For one thing he gave no specifics but could only ridicule Ryan's plan.

http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/dick-morris/156879-obamas-medicare-hypocrisy    

Obama's Medicare hypocrisy  

Piously posturing as the savior of Medicare, President Obama lashed out at the House Republicans for embracing the budget proposed by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). But a comparison of the president's own plans for Medicare with those in the Ryan budget shows that the Democratic cuts are far more immediate and drastic than anything in the GOP proposal.

While the Republican Medicare changes only take effect in 2021, Obama's cuts will begin hurting seniors right away. The president's healthcare legislation imposed a hard spending cap on Medicare 
- the first time it has ever had one - which he has just proposed lowering by another one-half of 1 percent of GDP (a further cut of about $70 billion a year).

Obama's cuts, which will take effect immediately, are to be administered by his newly created Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) of 15 members appointed by the president. Its recommendations for cuts in Medicare services or for reductions in reimbursement will not be subject to congressional approval but will take effect by administrative fiat. Right now.

The IPAB will be, essentially, the rationing board that will decide who gets what care. Its decisions will be guided by a particularly vicious concept of Quality Adjusted Life Years (QUALYS). If you have enough QUALYS ahead of you, you'll be approved for a hip replacement or a heart transplant. If not, you're out of luck. Perforce, many of these cuts will fall on those at the end of their lives, reducing their options to accommodate Obama's mandate to cut costs. If death comes sooner, well, that's the price of aging in Obama's America.

Ryan's approach is totally different. First, he does nothing at all to cut benefits for those now on Medicare or for anyone who turns 65 before 2022 (leaving me in the clear!). Second, the Republicans would leave the elderly in charge of their own medical decisions by letting them spend their Medicare money as they wish. The subsidy they would receive for health insurance would permit them to buy plans tailored to their needs. Just as a myriad of insurance-company plans sprang up to fill the mandates of the new prescription drug benefit, there will likely be quite an array of choices for the elderly of 2021. Finally, the savings from Ryan's plan will be plowed back into Medicare, prolonging its life, rather than being diverted, as Obama would do, into paying for a new entitlement for younger people.

But the most important difference is that Obama's cuts are now and Ryan's are not. Any budget projection is a guess. When the projection is made two to three years in advance, it is conjecture. Ten years away it becomes fantasy. Who can possibly tell how the American economy will be doing a decade hence? What revenues will it generate? And the only thing less certain than guessing about the economy is projecting healthcare costs. 

Medicine is on the verge of a revolution akin to that which followed the creation of antibiotics. Genetic medicine and ultimately nanotechnology are about to change everything. No longer will we fight cancer by cutting or burning or poisoning diseased cells. Instead, we will use DNA and RNA to predict cancers and grow healthy cells. Who knows what the costs will be? Possibly, they could be lower than our current range of therapies.

And, between now and 2021, Congress will be able to change the Ryan plan as it chooses. But the early deaths triggered by the rationing decisions of Obama's IPAB cannot be saved. Their decisions are, for the elderly of today, irreversible.

Democrats are drooling over the prospect of conducting the elections of 2012 over Medicare. They better watch their steps. The truth might come out!

molly52

Shirley, I hear this a lot and don't understand.

Why do you blame Obama for rising fuel prices?  In Canada, our fuel prices are rising.  They are higher than the US prices, but lower than European prices.

To my knowledge, no one president in the world is responsible for fuel prices.

What do you expect your president to do to lower fuel prices?

crazy4carrots

Shirley -- If you are so concerned about your President's college records, why don't you contact Harvard?  He did graduate Magna Cum Laude and was President of the Law Review; maybe you'd like to contact some of his old Profs and get their take on him?  Oh, and then he's written a few books, and was hired by U of Chicago to teach Constitutional law, so perhaps those facts speak for themselves.  And, it's highly unlikely that anything he wrote while at Harvard (other than Law Review articles) would still be around -- either in his closet or in the University's archives.  I'm sure Harvard didn't have any foreknowledge of his becoming President!

bluedahlia

Exactly.  The gas price here is $1.34 per LITRE.

1 US gallon = 3.78541178 litres 

=  $5.07 per gallon

if my math is right?

I'm gonna start blaming Obama....it's all his fault!

Enjoyful

She's said both.  "I take the President at his word, but he should produce his birth certificate."  Here's a link with a YouTube video:

http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/04/bachmann-obama-should-put-his-birth-certificate-on-the-table/ 

bluedahlia

Come to think of it, I'm gonna start blaming him for all my woes.

Enjoyful

.....and we're back to death panels.  Good grief.

crazy4carrots

U.S. task force will investigate high gas prices

 

By STEVEN THOMMA AND KEVIN G. HALL

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- WASHINGTON-President Barack Obama announced Thursday that his administration will investigate to see if fraud or manipulation in oil markets is behind the sharp increase in gasoline prices.

"We are going to make sure that no one is taking advantage of the American people for their own short-term gain," Obama said at a town hall meeting in Reno, Nev.

He said a government task force under Attorney General Eric Holder would "root out any cases of fraud or manipulation" in gasoline prices, "and that includes the role of traders and speculators."

Financial speculation is widely considered a possible reason for higher oil prices. Despite turmoil in the Middle East, there has been no significant interruption of oil production, and supplies remain abundant. Meanwhile, financial institutions have been purchasing contracts for future oil delivery as an investment strategy, driving up prices.

Other factors contributing to rising oil prices are thought be a fear of future supply interruption because of the troubles in the Middle East, and projections of more demand for oil as the global economy recovers.

Obama is under political pressure to address gasoline prices that are nearing an average of $4 a gallon. The average price of regular this week hit $3.84 a gallon, according to AAA, up 30 cents in a month and almost a dollar from a year ago.

A McClatchy-Marist poll this week showed that only 11 percent of drivers blame Obama and the Democrats. Still, high gasoline prices are a likely factor in a drop in Obama's overall approval rating and a big increase in the ranks of Americans who say the country is the country's headed in the wrong direction - a significant political barometer now at its highest level since November 2007.

In Washington, Holder said a Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force Working Group, comprising regulators from several federal agencies, would focus on fraud in energy markets. An Oil and Gas Price Fraud Working Group would investigate oil and gas markets for potential violations of civil or criminal laws. It also will examine commodities markets and the role of speculators and index traders in oil futures markets, he said.

Speculation has been on regulators' minds as oil prices climbed from about $80 a barrel late last year to more than $112 on Thursday.

A regulator whose agency will participate said the task force isn't for public relations purposes alone. In the past when oil prices soared, prosecutors tried to make examples of gas station owners or middlemen profiting from high prices. This task force is looking at financial markets, and seeking much bigger targets.

"We are definitely looking at trading in the markets that isn't nickel-and-dime stuff. They're big enough that we would want the Justice Department involved. We would want people potentially to go to jail," said the regulator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about ongoing investigations.

Commodities markets rely on speculation. It's excessive speculation that regulators are trying to curb.

Bart Chilton, a member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has argued that speculation is excessive. But he said that determining how much of the oil-price increase stems from speculators, rather than a "fear premium" rising from Middle East instability, isn't a simple calculation.

"It really is more nuanced than that," he said. "They're having an impact, and I think a fairly large impact. It's adding several dollars to the cost of a fill-up."

Proving market manipulation isn't easy. For most of the past decade, the Justice Department - focused on prosecuting terrorists - showed little appetite for tackling oil speculation.

"Up until recently, 75 percent of our criminal referrals to Justice were rejected. We end up with decent outcomes, but nobody goes to jail because it's not criminal prosecution if we do it," Chilton said, referring to the CFTC.

He tried unsuccessfully last year to persuade Congress to give the commission power to bring criminal charges in such instances, instead of civil cases that result in fines but do little do deter big Wall Street firms.

Large-scale investment by big institutional investors, such as pension funds, is also thought to be pushing up oil prices. They are buying contracts for future delivery of oil on the assumption that prices will keep going up. Futures markets are designed to hedge against price shifts, but these big investors treat their oil contracts like stocks.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/04/21/2179675/us-task-force-will-investigate.html#ixzz1KDEQTcpt

Enjoyful

From http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/20/facts-about-independent-payment-advisory-board

• IPAB would recommend policies to Congress to help Medicare provide better care at lower costs.  This could include ideas on coordinating care, getting rid of waste in the system, incentivizing best practices, and prioritizing primary care.
  

• IPAB is specifically prohibited by law from recommending any policies that ration care, raise taxes, increase premiums or cost-sharing, restrict benefits or modify who is eligible for Medicare.

• Congress then has the power to accept or reject these recommendations. If Congress rejects the recommendations, and Medicare spending exceeds specific targets, Congress must either enact policies that achieve equivalent savings or let the Secretary of Health and Human Services follow IPAB’s recommendations.

crazy4carrots

Gee, it really helps to know what the law actually says....

konakat

I think that Obama went to Harvard, graduated Magna Cum Laude (I guess he was stupid since it wasn't Summa Cum Laude) and was President of the Law Review kinda speaks for what his college records were.  Here's how the honors system works:  http://college.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k61161&pageid=icb.page263699

But then, Harvard might be involved in the conspiracy!!!!  Bunch of commies!

molly52

Gas prices and the financial traders.  The scr***ed the world economy with the sub-prime market and now they want to do it all over again with oil.

Alpal

Shirley - I've got a cut for you - cut out the tax breaks for the weatlthy. How much proof does there need to be that trickle down doesn't work? Why should the elderly, women, children and the middle class do all the sacrificing? I'm not blaming Bush, but his tax breaks have to go!

Medigal

Shirley:  This business of giving the elderly vouchers to purchase their own insurance is a lot of crap imo!  Most elderly I know have a lot of medical problems so who in blazes could sell them medical coverage they need and can afford?  As for how I would make necessary cuts, you don't want to know cause it would curl the hair on your legs if you have any (hair not legs).   Our government spends money on so much stuff it doesn't need to and then when they get in a predicament like we have now, they want to go after the poor and elderly!   I bet I pay a heck of a lot more in taxes than wealthy people do because I don't get all the deductions and loopholes so why not make the rich people quit hiding their money and actually PAY the real taxes they owe?  Gee, if I made over $250,000.00, I don't think I would scream at paying a bit more in taxes to save the poor and elderly from being burned!

As for Obama showing his birth certificate and other papers, that seems like a lot of fuss by people who don't want to face the real problems of our country.  We're frying and they are screaming about personal documents!  Any thing to keep us from paying attention to the REAL issues!  If you want to know why gas is so high it is because greedy people are making a LOT  of money keeping it high!  It is NOT because we don't have enough gas.  But let's not worry about $5.00 gal gas when we can listen to hairy Trump bitch about a birth certificate.  I am betting he never puts in his name to be a candidate for the presidency.  First of all, he has made the Repubs ticked off at him and secondly, I get the idea from an interview with him I watched yesterday that he is not very keen to make his tax records public.  He seems to be insisting he is more wealthy than others say he is and doesn't seem keen on making his tax records public.  Yet he bitches daily about Obama not wanting to show his birth certificate.  If this isn't the pot making the kettle black, I don't know what is.   Have a good evening ladies.

Enjoyful

Hey Cindy!

It looks like there are some cuts and other deficit-reducing measures that take effect beginning 2013:

From the CBO's analysis of Mr. Ryan's proposal:

Starting in 2013, the federal share of all Medicaid payments would be converted
into block grants to be allocated to the states. The total dollar amount of the block
grants would increase annually with population growth and with growth in the
CPI-U.  (No word on what the starting block grant would be, but I assume a decrease from current payments.)

Mr. Ryan's proposal also eliminates provisions of newly enacted health care reform, including "The expansion of Medicaid coverage to include most nonelderly people with income below 138 percent of the federal poverty level." 

There are other, undefined, cuts in discretionary spending so that it drops from 12% of GDP in 2010 to 6% in 2021.  Presumably, some of those cuts would take effect immediately. Up for grabs are veterans' programs, unemployment, SSI, federal civilian and military retirement benefits, and other programs.

Revenues as a percentage of GDP are also projected to rise (by magic, apparently, since that mechanism isn't defined either) from 15% of GDP in 2010 to 19% in 2028.  That's a 27% increase.

I assume that some of the discretionary spending cuts and projected revenue increases would happen immediately, with gradual changes through 2021 and beyond.

BarbaraA

Sandy, I get my uncured hot dogs at the health food store. R_R, comfort food is needed because things at work are not going too well. This too shall pass.

River_Rat

Barbara, looking for the silver lining here - maybe you'll at least put on a few pounds while the work situation isn't going so well.

Edited to add: I ate a hot fudge sundae last night, this morning down another pound.  WTH! 

Anonymous

enjoyful wrote:

.....and we're back to death panels.  Good grief.

enjoyful, what do you call the panel of experts in Canada who wanted to pull Baby Joseph's breathing tube against his parent's wishes?  The doctors and a government panel or the courts (as I understand it) wanted to force the parents to sign a release to do so.  Priests for Life got involved, brought the baby to the U.S. through donations..not expense for the parents or the Canadian government... and the parents for Baby Joseph got what they were asking for...a trach so they could take their baby home to die just like they took their little girl home about 9 years ago.  Is that a death panel to you?  Or is it a group of people who thinks THEY know what is best for the baby and his parents?  Stunning!

Anonymous

enjoyful wrote:

Congress then has the power to accept or reject these recommendations. If Congress rejects the recommendations, and Medicare spending exceeds specific targets, Congress must either enact policies that achieve equivalent savings or let the Secretary of Health and Human Services follow IPAB's recommendations.

What exactly does that mean?  Seems like the Secretary of Health and Human Services and IPAB would have the LAST SAY.

Edited

Anonymous

lindasa wrote:

Gee, it really helps to know what the law actually says....

Linda, I read that before.  Do you have an answer to my question that I asked E?  Avastin was taken away from women who have Stage IV breast cancer.  Why?  Could it possibly be more about $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ than about risk vs. side effects?

Anonymous

Has Obama come up with any answers?  BESIDES raising taxes...that will not fix the problem. 

He's out campaigning..has no idea what to do...won't seriously sit down with both parties...did not wink when the Bi-partisan Deficit Commission came up with ideas...no discussion whatsoever.  Please, ladies, whose leading us?

We don't need to be fighting each other.  We need some answers or ideas to fix our problems.

Just a question...anyone ever see one of Obama's Law Reviews published?  My DD didn't go to Harvard (way too expensive...I wonder how much Obama owes or did he get a scholarship or did someone finance for him?) and she graduated Summa Cum Laude, valedictorian and now has her own law practice after working for a very large firm right after graduating. 

Aren't you curious about his records?  Is there something he doesn't want us to see.  I do know that the Harvard Law Review changed before Obama became president of it.  It took into consideration what race one is.  There had not been enough minorities in that role...just saying.  You can find an article in the NYTs from 1990 about this.

Edited to change a word