Newt’s Todd Nod
In New Hampshire Mitt Romney’s a-sailin’,
While Rick Perry’s campaign is ailin’.
But that old rascal Newt
Has got just cause to hoot —
He’s just been endorsed by Todd Palin!
Day: January 10, 2012
U.S. Debt Now Equals U.S. Economy
$15.23 trillion
The amount of money the federal government owes to its creditors, combined with IOUs to government retirement and other programs. That’s roughly equal to the value of all goods and services the U.S. economy produces in one year: $15.17 trillion as of September.
Paladino Still a Class Act
He didn’t solve shit, but you guys made him a hero.
— Former New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino (R), quoted by the New York Observer, on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s (D) first year in office.
Majority of GOP Voters Want a New Candidate
58%
Of Republican primary voters want more presidential choices, while just 37% say they are satisfied with the current field, according to a new CBS News poll. The percentage of Republican primary voters that wants more choices has increased 12 points since October.
Bush to Blame for GOP’s Crummy Candidates
A successful Presidency can produce a new crop of future Presidential candidates for the party that controls the White House. The vice president and cabinet officials, as well as governors and senators elected over the course of the administration, are historically major sources for a party’s next round of candidates. The Bush years had the opposite effect. It was unthinkable that his vice president would run for higher office and much of his cabinet left Washington tainted by the President’s unpopularity. Moreover, Bush helped sink his party in the 2006 and 2008 elections, thus depleting the ranks of potential Republican candidates for 2012.
— Ryan Lizza, writing in the New Yorker, blaming former President George W. Bush is at fault for the exceptionally weak field of Republican presidential candidates.
Even Taken in Full Context, Romney Lied When He Implied That Individuals Can’t Fire Insurers Under ‘Obamenycare’
“I like being able to fire people,” GOP presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney said during a campaign stop in New Hampshire yesterday.
Under “Obamacare,” which is based on “Romneycare,” which was based on a right-wing Heritage Foundation plan, individuals who don’t like what an insurer does can “fire them,” go back to the exchange and choose to purchase insurance from another private company
This assertion certainly aligns with Romney’s record. As head of Bain & Company, he made millions — we don’t know how many millions because he refuses to release his tax returns — by buying businesses, laying off employees and then re-selling the companies at a profit.
Romney’s statement yesterday was, of course, taken out of context. The statement, in full, went like this:
“I want individuals to have their own insurance. That means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. It also means that if you don’t like what they do, you can fire them. I like being able to fire people who provide services to me. You know, if someone doesn’t give me the good service I need, I want to say, ‘You know, I’m going to go get someone else to provide that service to me.’ “
Romney appears to be proposing replacing the current employer-based health-insurance system — in which, by the by, the employer not employees, choose insurance providers — with an Ayn-Randian “every man, woman and child for himself or herself” system in which individuals purchase health insurance on the “free” market, the way they buy car or homeowners insurance.
What he’s describing is the failed system we have. Premiums for individual policies are the most expensive on the market. The people who most often need these policies — minimum-wage workers, self-employed creatives, the unemployed — can’t afford them.
