Katie Pavlich: #ObamaCare Website Could Top $1 Billion

She's one of the smartest commentators around.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen Letter Demanding Delay of #ObamaCare Enrollment Deadline

That sound you're hearing is the crackup of the Obama-Democrat electoral coalition.

This is the beginning of the end of the 2014 Democrats.

And 2016 is just around the corner.

Make these f-kers eat it.

From the homepage of New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen, "AS WEBSITE GLITCHES LINGER, SHAHEEN URGES WHITE HOUSE TO EXTEND OPEN ENROLLMENT FOR HEALTH EXCHANGES."

And boy, in no time did the Senate Democrat 2014 reelection caucus sign up to the plan, "SHAHEEN LEADS COALITION OF SENATORS TO CALL FOR OPEN ENROLLMENT EXTENSION":

As technical glitches persist, Senators urge HHS Secretary to push back health insurance exchange enrollment deadline

October 25, 2013

(Washington, DC) – As Americans continue to experience technical difficulties with federal and state health insurance enrollment, a coalition of U.S. Senators led by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) is calling on Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to extend the open enrollment period to give Americans more time to obtain health insurance coverage.

“As long as these substantial technology glitches persist, we are losing valuable time to educate and enroll people in insurance plans,” read the letter signed by Shaheen along with U.S. Sens. Mark Begich (D-AK), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Kay Hagan (D-NC), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Mark Udall (D-CO), Tom Udall (D-NM), Michael Bennet (D-CO), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM).  “Our constituents are frustrated, and we fear that the longer the website is not functional, opportunities for people to log on, learn about their insurance choices, and enroll will be lost.”

The letter sent today reiterates Shaheen’s earlier call to extend open enrollment if the technological glitches persist with healthcare.gov.  An extended open enrollment deadline “will give consumers critical time in which to become familiar with the website and choose a plan that is best for them,” the Senators said.

Continue reading (via Memeorandum).

Make these f-kers eat it.

More at Big Government, "REPORT: SENATE DEMS UP FOR RE-ELECTION IN 2014 TO BACK DELAY OF OBAMACARE ENROLLMENT DEADLINE."

Rats Jumping the Sinking #ObamaCare Ship

At Jammie Wearing Fools, "Politico: Democrats’ United Front Cracks":

The great Democratic unity of 2013 held for five-and-a-half days.

For weeks leading up to the shutdown — and over the 16 days it dragged on — President Barack Obama did the unthinkable: he held every Democrat in the House and Senate together. There weren’t any defectors. There wasn’t even anyone running to reporters to question his strategy. The man who’d disappointed them so many times was suddenly exciting them, with his newly apparent backbone and successful resistance to Republicans. They were rushing to do whatever they could to stand by him, next to him, with him.

Like any fad, that’s gone the way of trucker hats and the macarena.

The problems with the Obamacare website have transformed the president from a man who seemed to have gotten a sudden infusion of political capital to a man who’s been pushed back on his heels. He was firm, and he was setting the agenda. Now he’s back to trying to beating back the latest frame Republicans have forced on him, inadvertently providing evidence to support the doubts they’ve been trying to sow from the beginning. He spent last week against the backdrop of a shutdown that made people appreciate all the things government can do for them. Now he has a website which shows how little it can.

Nobody was appreciative of what government can do for them. In fact, most people got along just fine. Now everyone realizes the government is trying to do way too much and want no part of it. So, Democrats, please run on a platform of more government and defending ObamaCare. That bloodbath of 2010 will seem tame by comparison come next November.

Previously: "Democrats Run for #ObamaCare Cover."

Image Credit: Moira Fitzgerald.

#ObamaCare Forcing Hundreds of Thousands Millions to Lose Health Insurance Coverage

From Ed Morrissey, at Hot Air, "CBS: ObamaCare forcing millions to lose their insurance."



Via Memeorandum.

Democrats Run for #ObamaCare Cover

From Kim Strassel, at WSJ, "After weeks of vowing they wouldn't cave on the president's signature legislation, some Democrats are doing just that":

Jeanne Shaheen doesn't sound like a Democrat who just won a government-shutdown "victory." Ms. Shaheen sounds like a Democrat who thinks she's going to lose her job.

The New Hampshire senator fundamentally altered the health-care fight on Tuesday with a letter to the White House demanding it both extend the ObamaCare enrollment deadline and waive tax penalties for those unable to enroll. Within nanoseconds, Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor had endorsed her "common-sense idea." By Wednesday night, five Senate Democrats were on board, pushing for . . . what's that dirty GOP word? Oh, right. "Delay."

After 16 long days of vowing to Republicans that they would not cave in any way, shape or form on ObamaCare, Democrats spent their first post-shutdown week caving in every way, shape and form. With the GOP's antics now over, the only story now is the unrivaled disaster that is the president's health-care law.

Hundreds of thousands of health-insurance policies canceled. Companies dumping coverage and cutting employees' hours. Premiums skyrocketing. And a website that reprises the experience of a Commodore 64. As recently as May, Democratic consultants were advising members of Congress that their best ObamaCare strategy for 2014 was to "own" the law. Ms. Shaheen has now publicly advised the consultants where they can file that memo.

Continue reading (via Memeorandum).

Russell Brand for the Proletarian Revolution

Via R.S. McCain, "Celebrities Are the New Proletariat":

Russell Brand has international fame and a net worth of $15 million, and also used to bang Katy Perry. Nevertheless, in his own mind, he is one of the downtrodden toilers struggling to overthrow the greedy oppressive parasitical regime of bourgeois capitalism...

RTWT.

Wretched Joan Walsh Whines About How Everybody Hates Joan Walsh

She's vile.

And sorry if I'm all out of sympathy for this #p2 POS.

Turns out she's come under heavy fire on the left for her objectively stupid defense of the administration's #ObamaCare rollout debacle. And amazingly, it's juice-box hero Ezra Klein who comes out as the voice of reason in all of this. Clue to Joan: It's not "just a glitch" and giving it "more time" won't solve a thing. Ezra's right. ObamaCare's blown, down deep inside, to the "back end" and beyond. Frankly, it sucks donkey balls, and so does Joan Walsh, the dumb [four-letter word here].

Here's the filthy whiny weasel at Salon, "How I became the poster girl for liberal agitprop" (via Memeorandum):

That women are treated badly on Twitter is not breaking news. But the depth and scale of the personal cruelty and wanton misogyny weirdly confirmed the point I was trying to make in the original piece: The “unhinged right” is well-organized and dangerous, and a lot of people, including liberals, don’t seem to be taking that in completely. The election of our first black president unleashed primitive reactionary forces. Open expressions of racism and misogyny are now a form of political protest, and if you complain, you’re the oppressor. Uppity black people and uppity women especially must be put in their place.

The difference between my Twitter experience and that of my white, male liberal friends and critics reminded me once again how relatively insulated even many liberals are from the insanity. As a white person, I don’t always take it in fully myself. Every time I’m ready to blame President Obama for his political troubles, and yes, he deserves some blame, there’s a story like the one about Rep. Pete Sessions telling the president, to his face, “I can’t even stand to look at you.” (The White House is now saying this story is based on a misunderstanding. Stay tuned.) I can’t even stand to enumerate the ways in which this president has been insulted in ways unknown to white presidents, Sessions aside.

I know that good conscientious journalists, even some liberals, believe that when Democrats have such deadly enemies, they can’t afford to hand them weapons, and a badly designed ACA exchange website is a weapon. And I wish Bill Clinton had kept his pants up, too. But now Barack Obama, whose only known personal weakness involves Nicorette, is being treated even more viciously than Clinton. So you’ll excuse me if I argue that we ought to focus on the sickness that’s taken hold of the Republican Party, rather than the fact that our last two Democratic presidents haven’t been able to cure it.

Bitter partisanship has left this woman a hulking, steaming pile of radioactive filth. She just hates. No amount of Obama/Democrat failure will shake her from what is, for all intents and purposes, a psychotic obsession with the "evil" right. Shoot, the father of Trig-trutherism sounds positively subdued compared to the unhinged Salon hate-monger. See the Dish, "Epistemic Openness Watch":

I have faith in the judgment of Americans, and do not share the agitprop tendencies of Joan Walsh. What matters is the truth. What matters when things go wrong is transparency. What truly worries me is less the website’s failure than Obama’s defensive, secretive posture in response to it. Take the hit as hard as you can now. Explain the fail fully. And move relentlessly forward.

When You've Lost Jon Stewart ... You Know the #ObamaCare Rollout Was a Disaster ...

From Major Garrett, at National Journal, "The Biggest Joke of the Obama Presidency."

And watch Stewart hammer the administration at the link. (More here.)

Stop Watching Us

From the Electronic Frontier Foundation, FWIW.

Sen. Joe Manchin Seeks Delay of #ObamaCare Individual Mandate

I posted on this yesterday, "Democratic Unease Grows on Health Law."

Now here's Manchin on O'Reilly's show last night:



Also at Politico, "Red state Democrats propose changes to Obamacare."

Nick Gillespie: Obama's Like 'Hitler in the Bunker'

He takes it back, since Van Jones objects to the Hitler reference, but it's apt. I used the bunker analogy the other day. Where has this man been? He's the chief executive. He's in charge of his administration. The buck stop with him. And he's been completely out of it.

An excellent clip:



More at RCP, "Sebelius: Obama Did Not Know About Obamacare Website Glitches."

#ObamaCare Is in Deeper Trouble Than Obama Admits

From Jennifer Rubin, at WaPo. (Via Louise Mensch on Twitter.)

Los Angeles Bans Use of Bullhooks on Circus Elephants

The effect is to ban Ringling Bros. Circus from Los Angeles, a very bad move. The policy won't protect the animals but will harm the local economy. It's stupid PC run amok.

NBC Los Angeles reports.

And here's the letter to the editor from Stephen Payne, who is vice president for corporate communications at Feld Entertainment, Ringling Bros.' parent company:

Re "Of elephants and bullhooks," Editorial, Oct. 22

Every year since 1922, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey has performed for circus fans in Los Angeles. Elephants have always been an integral part of Ringling Bros., providing an up-close way for our audiences to experience these amazing animals in a way they can nowhere else.

Unfortunately, The Times appears to have simply accepted the representations of animal rights groups about how our elephants are trained. The "guide," referred to by the outdated term "bullhook" in the editorial, is an animal husbandry tool for working with elephants approved by experts, including the American Veterinary Medical Assn.

Our elephants are comfortable with the training methods and tools used at Ringling Bros., and, more important, many of those trained behaviors are vital for optimal husbandry and veterinary care.

Our elephants define Ringling Bros. for the nearly 100,000 people who come to see them at Staples Center each year. The L.A. City Council should not deny people the right to make the decision to attend and also threaten local jobs by passing this unnecessary and unfair ban on circuses in the city.

Stephen Payne
Vienna, Va.

More at LAist, "Los Angeles Just Basically Banned Circuses."

Network Anchors: Obamacare Rollout a ‘Debacle,’ ‘A Mess’ and ‘A Complete Disaster’

Via Free Beacon.

Bill O'Reilly Calls 'Em Like He Sees 'Em: Democrat Agenda Is 'Form of Communism'

This is Tuesday's talking points memo, and he nails it:

Democratic Unease Grows on Health Law

At the Wall Street Journal, "Lawmakers Cite Website Woes in Call for Delay in Penalties for the Uninsured":

The hard line Democrats have drawn against delaying a core element of the federal health law has begun to crack, as problems with the new federal insurance website prompted calls for President Barack Obama to delay penalties on people who don't carry health coverage.

Democratic leaders in Congress and Mr. Obama have defended the minimum penalty of $95 in 2014 as crucial to inducing uninsured Americans to sign up for coverage, and the party held firm against Republican calls to delay or eliminate the coverage requirement that provoked this month's partial government shutdown.

Late Wednesday, the Obama administration said it would establish what amounts to a six-week extension in the time people have to obtain insurance coverage before incurring a penalty, responding to what some have called a lack of clarity in the law over the deadline.

Some Democrats say the flawed rollout of the law could mean bigger changes are needed. Sen. Mark Begich (D., Alaska), who is up for re-election in 2014, said Wednesday that individuals shouldn't be penalized if technical issues with the HealthCare.gov website aren't resolved.

The signs of growing Democratic unease came as the White House acknowledged for the first time Wednesday that the problems extend beyond sign-up logjams that kept thousands of people from being able to view insurance offerings online. Experts are working to "iron out the kinks" that have led insurers to receive flawed data, including duplicate enrollments and spouses reported as children, the White House said after a meeting among administration and insurance industry officials.

The debate over the botched launch will kick into higher gear Thursday at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing. In their prepared testimony, contractors responsible for the federal insurance portal pointed fingers at each other and the administration.

Cheryl Campbell, a senior vice president at CGI Group Inc.'s CGI Federal unit, the lead contractor for the HealthCare.gov website that launched Oct. 1, blamed the bottlenecks on a system designed by another contractor, UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s Optum unit, which verifies users' identities.

Optum group executive vice president Andrew Slavitt, in turn, said in his prepared testimony that a decision to disable anonymous shopping drove traffic to its system that was higher than "if consumers could 'window shop' anonymously." The administration has since reversed its decision to make people first register before shopping.

At least two more congressional hearings are scheduled next week, including one where Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is expected to be grilled.

The penalty for failure to carry insurance is at the heart of the Affordable Care Act. Insurers say individuals—particularly younger, healthier people—must be coaxed to buy insurance so that carriers aren't left with a risk pool of predominantly older and sicker people.

Massive finger-pointing.

And clearly, this so-called six-week delay for sign-up is a trial balloon launched in case the White House decides to delay the individual mandate --- which by now, obviously, is the least Demo-Rats could do to save some face from this utter political and policy debacle.

In any case, more at the click through.

Also at the Hill, "Manchin: Delay ObamaCare mandate."

And at AP, "Frustrated Dems lament damage from website bugs" (via Memeorandum.)

'The Conservative Mind'

Reading it now.

Here's the Amazon link, The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot.

I tweeted this to Robert Stacy McCain the other day, but he's been too busy with the Kimberlin psychos.

.@RSMcCain Reading Russell Kirk, "The Conservative Mind." pic.twitter.com/Vm620Kq9DU
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) October 16, 2013

Budget Discord Simmers on the Left

Democrats aren't serious about reducing the national debt, and they never will be.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Some Liberal Groups, Lawmakers Worry About Cuts to Social Security, Other Entitlements":

Cracks are showing in the Democratic coalition as the next round of budget talks gets under way, hurting the chances for progress toward a broad deal that changes the tax code and significantly narrows future deficits.

While Republicans are still smarting over nasty infighting they engaged in during the debt-ceiling fight and 16-day government shutdown, Democrats have stayed united. This helped them beat back Republican demands to undo or scale back President Barack Obama's 2010 health law as a condition for ending the showdown.

But with eyes now turning toward a newly formed budget committee, some liberal lawmakers and groups are worried that Democrats will negotiate cuts to Social Security benefits and other entitlement programs. The president's budget blueprint, which was released in April, proposed slowing the growth of Social Security spending by using a new measure of inflation—an idea that drew a rebuke from some lawmakers and liberal groups.

"The president is about to run into a major base problem if he tries to do this," said Rep. Keith Ellison (D., Minn.), co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, referring to using the new formula, the chained consumer-price index, to determine benefits. "My advice to him is: Don't do it."

Well, when has O ever worried about the base?

And frankly, President Obumbler's not serious about entitlement reform. We'll be over $20 trillion in debt when he leaves office, and perhaps much more.

"#ObamaCare's Exchanges Are Still Broken...

...and Obama's Speech Shouldn't Give Anyone Confidence They'll Work Soon," says Peter Suderman, at Reason.

#ObamaCare Raising Premiums, Hurting Middle, Lower Class

It's just one nightmare headline after another.

At Free Beacon.