Toyota Dealers Fight Back Against "Predatory Tactics" by GM


"The head of the Toyota National Dealer Council today blasted the federal government for using 'taxpayer dollars' to fund incentive campaigns to lure customers away from Toyota, and accused GM of using ‘fear’ in an attempt to lure away its customers, 1200 WOAI news reports."

Health Insurance Premiums Fell by 3.2% in 2009


"Describing runaway entitlement spending as “health inflation” is terribly misleading (even when Rep. Ryan does it), because doing so confuses rising prices with rising utilization of medical goods and services by people who are insulated from actual costs by taxpayer-financed subsidies."

"Government subsidies also raise costs to those using private insurance. The CMS notes that 2009’s 4.6% increase “private health insurance premium spending per employee . . . resulted in part from an increase in the proportion of high-cost claims—many of whom have temporary COBRA coverage” [emphasis added], which is 65% financed by taxpayers."

"By contrast, health inflation per se is projected to be 2.8% this year — comparable to other labor-intensive service industries and also down from 3.2% in 2009 and 3% in 2008. Morevoer, “out-of-pocket spending is projected to have grown 2.1 percent in 2009, down from 2.8% in 2008.”

"What about all the uninformed media fuss about health insurance companies supposedly “asking for” premium increases of “up to” 39%?"

"If President Obama really wanted to find out how quickly typical health insurance premiums have been increasing, he could have a staffer call the Bureau of Labor Statistics and ask for Table 3A of the “Consumer Price Index Detailed Report Tables Annual Averages 2009.” It turns out the consumer price index for health insurance premiums fell by 3.2% in 2009."

Under the Byrd rules, legislation is subject to a reconciliation point of order challenge because it is "extraneous" if:

• ...it has no budgetary impact;
• ...it increases outlays or reduces revenues and the instructed committee fails to meet its overall instruction;
• ...it is not in the jurisdiction of the committee reporting the title of the reconciliation bill;
• ...it has a budgetary impact which is merely incidental to the policy components of the provision;
• ...it increases outlays or decreases revenues in any one year after 2014 and that offense is not netted at least to zero by other outlay reductions or revenue increases in that title of the bill in that year; and/or,
• ...IT INCLUDES CHANGES IN SOCIAL SECURITY.

CBO’s Estimate of the Budgetary Effects of the President’s Budget - $1.5 trillion in 2010


"If the President’s proposals were enacted, the federal government would record deficits of $1.5 trillion in 2010 and $1.3 trillion in 2011. Those deficits would amount to 10.3 percent and 8.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), respectively. By comparison, the deficit in 2009 totaled 9.9 percent of GDP."

Obama's whopper on health care

FOX: DeMint Discusses Plan to Force Earmark Ban Vote

Democrats' Health Care Bill Will Cut Medicare, Raise Premiums

The Stimulus Bill’s Hidden Attack on What We Eat, Drink, and Smoke


"It’s on pages 66 and 67 on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which created a $1 billion “Prevention and Wellness Fund.” Of that, $650 million went to Kathleen Sebelius’s Department of Health and Human Services and has been used to start a new program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called “Communities Putting Prevention to Work” (CPPW)."

If You're Gonna Soak the Rich You Might As Well Balance the Budget


"Surprise! Under the new budget plan by the rising star that conservatives are flipping over, the rich would pay a lot less, the poor and middle class a lot more. I'd have never guessed."

BOB HERBERT's path: From "More Than Charisma" to "Obama era chanting health care"


At the beginning "Yes, as everyone agrees, Mr. Obama is handsome, fit, smart, and a great speaker. As Ms. Ifill noted in her book, “Voters are attracted to youth, vitality and change.”

And now: "A major employment rebound is the only real way to alleviate the deep economic anxiety that has gripped so many Americans. Unaddressed, that anxiety inevitably evolves into dread and then anger."

But while the nation is desperate for jobs, jobs, jobs, the Democrats have spent most of the Obama era chanting health care, health care, health care.

Senate votes 100-0 to highlight spending


"In a rare 100-0 roll call vote, the Senate adopted an amendment offered by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) that would create a running tally on the secretary of the Senate's website of any new mandatory spending that isn’t paid for through offsetting spending cuts or tax increases."

"If Congress passes the unemployment aid and tax extenders bill, it will have approved $120 billion in spending that isn't paid for since the pay-go law was signed by President Barack Obama, Coburn said."

Are unemployment benefits no longer temporary?


"About 11.4 million out-of-work people now collect unemployment compensation, at a cost of $10 billion a month. Half of them have been receiving payments for more than six months, the usual insurance limit. But under multiple extensions enacted by the federal government in response to the downturn, workers can collect the payments for as long as 99 weeks in states with the highest unemployment rates -- the longest period since the program's inception."

Does the President’s budget increase the deficit or reduce it?


"Team Obama says the President’s budget would reduce the deficit. CBO says the President’s budget would increase the deficit. What the heck is going on? Who is right?..."