I hate to nitpick, but “enjoy” is hardly the right verb for 30 hours per week flipping burgers. Even for those who lack the skills to do anything else, working in fast food is NOT enjoyable! I know from personal experience; I did it summers while in undergrad.

They are putting themselves in a very bad position, unless, they decide to come out of the closet and admit they are closet libs – we are watching and they are losing our votes.

Boehner and his crew won’t fight. The ENTIRE Rep. Sen. voted against ocare and that includes McCain and Graham.

It can’t be defunded without the senate dems and Obama going along with it, which isn’t going to happen. Some people think they can be forced to defund it though by threatening to not raise the debt ceiling unless they agree to defund it. Not raising the debt ceiling, and the default it would cause, is what Boehner is referring to.

It looks like we need a new party or at the very least TERM LIMITS. There are many new conservatives that should take to place of the old rinos. So far I like the young guns and Dr Ben Carson is very impressive. He speaks of how to FIX the problems rather than just complaining about the left. As long as the left is able to blame the conservatives for their failed policies they will win. Obama owns the media…and therefore controls the masses. The conservatives need to take a lesson.

This is the same problem as always. The current GOP is by and large not a conservative body. The vast majority of them came to power along with Bush and his big government brand of tepid non-Liberalism.

I simply do not understand why ‘conservatives’ elect people who are demonstrably not, and then expect them to behave as though they are. That is lunacy.

The reason Obamacare will not be repealed is that the people we have elected to represent us do not wish to repeal it, and have never stated that they would. Expecting them to do something they never said they would in a political climate where even outright promises to act are ignored is, again, lunacy.

The only real play conservatives have to them now is a) stop being stupid and get better R’s into office and then b) use the huge financial pressure Obamacare will put on the rest of the federal budget to win battles elsewhere. Make the Democratic Party’s constituents fight with each other for a limited supply of pork. Make a large argument and force the Democratic Party to have dozens of small intra-squad ones.

The fight against Obamacare is over. We lost. We chose poorly as a country, and Obamacare is the result.

There is no such thing as a ‘house veto’.

Yes, the house can refuse to pass the continuing resolution which funds the government, but that’s not an Obamacare specific thing, it’s the funding mechanism for the entire government. Not passing it would result in a wholesale shutdown of the entire government.

And yes, they can refuse to raise the debt ceiling unless the senate and Obama repeal Obamacare. But that threatens a default, as Boehner said.

Neither of these things is an actual veto. And again, nor is either of those things confined to Obamacare. They both affect everything else. Obamacare simply can’t be cleanly repealed, defunded, or delayed without Senate and presidential OK. And you need to stop blaming the congressional leadership for understanding what you don’t.

rand paul or ted cruze

I don’t suppose Mr Paul Ryan sees any irony at all in sucking up gold and titanium level healthcare for life, for cheap out of pocket, as self voted in, and also trying at same time to defund and cut healthcare for everyone else. As in parenting, “Don’t do as I do, but do as I say” works like tying an anvil to a helium ballon overhead !!
I recall some news story years ago about a hospital and clinic in a western state like WA or OR that applied the “Toyota Way” to their operations, philosophy, and costs were going DOWN as the quality was going UP, no gov’t regulations involved. Why is that success story lost and buried and we haven’t found a way to encourage all medical systems to give it a try ??

Erick, thank you for using your pen to prompt our GOP leadership to take up the fight. They have been on the sidelines for too long.

Shutting down the government was what brought the GOP down after the Republican revolution in 1994. You really want to do that again?

A simple YES!

Obama showed in his recent interview that he doesn’t have a clue on the economy by stating we are not in a crisis at this time……our debt is OK. maybe he hasn’t see what happened in Greece or Italy. We are at the crisis point and Obamacare is one of the major drivers. It continues to increase in all areas including private healthcare. If enough folks will demand and mean demand from their represdntatives and senators something can be done. They want their jobs and enough negative feedback will cause them to take action. This includes governors who caved, they need to be reminded that they can be replaced next election.

I disagree. We need to stop waiting for our messiah and start having a methodical, systematic approach to politics: grass roots, ground up, precinct by precinct, primary by primary, and above all use every election from dogcatcher to district to DC to **persuade** rather than lecture or complain.

“Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results.” – Narcotics Anonymous

I passed this along to our tech contact.

Some how I don’t think that you know the meaning of conviction. Just to take on a battle to take on a battle is not to win but for show. Speaker Boehner is out of the water like a fish and does not have conviction that his leadership is to lead the Rep. to a win not give-up and cave to O.

If you get a chance talk to Sen. Cruz about his speech in High School when he spoke on the burning of Rome. “O” is playing the fiddle now and Speaker Boehner is the pfife and drum core leading the U.S. to its destruction.. My question to Speaker Boehner; do you want to be know in history as the Hero or Nero?

EE…if we don’t do something about Obamcare and the ripple effect…our country is going to resemble Detroit. We won’t have to worry about crumbling…the whole tent is going to come down. People don’t seem to get this.

OK…let’s take you…I will give you a salary of $500K a year. Well, in case you don’t know it…you are going to be taxed out the ying yang. I think you live in Georgia…so don’t think about moving to NYC…the financial capital of the world (NOT FOR LONG). Let’s give you a house that is currently valued at $400K…and you sell it. Well…..$15,200 just went to the Federal Government. So…you say…what is the big deal…I can still survive. Oh…but look at most of the people in your state. Either retired, living on a fixed income, just above the poverty level or in it. If Governor Deal takes that Medicaid deal…and with Obamacare really putting Medicare out of reach for most people…WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO YOUR TAXES. This is just a state problem…because of this stupid thing.

Because we have a president that does not believe in “real income” as a source of revenue…but rather taxes on top of Obamacare (which has lots and lots of taxes hidden in it)…what is going to happen to this country. Obamacare is going TO SHUT DOWN THE COUNTRY.

It is not to be enjoyable, it is a learning tool.

Some how I have a problem of a candidate conceding 47% to your opponent an have a viable chance to win the election. Also, I have a problem with winning a debate and then play prevent defense. How do you win? Don’t ask Romney’s team.

That is what the Liberals want you to believe but it isn’t true. The bring down of the GOP was already in motion and would have happen regardless of the shut down. The Liberals had just learned that they can always blame the Republicans for anything that goes wrong whether true ort not. They activated the youth groups and concentrated on taking their naivety and promising them the world if they followed them. The problem right now is that the youth members of the GOP are liberals like it or not. Boehner will cave on the shutdown at the last minute like he did a few years ago. A shutdown is what we need and then the GOP has got to come alive and show the failures of the Democrats.

Excellent points, lwc – very well said. Hope you can put this in a diary – would love to see more discussion. There are lots of conservatives that don’t realize the history behind this “truth”. It really hurts the argument when you are missing a lot of the facts. I have heard more than one 20-30-something, college educated, working professional, who are otherwise generally conservative-minded ask the question: “What’s so wrong with this? I probably should be paying a little more so that everyone can obtain health care. Why is this bad?” We’re doing a crappy job of educating our own in the value of personal liberty and offering up another “compassionate” choice for them. You just described why we are where we are. What we need is a better plan to fix this. “All or none” may not be the best way to attack the problem.

Hmm. Good point. Curious how they came out so different.

Lakeworthcane,

Respectfully, you are wrong on many counts. Obama DID want this, he campaigned on this, he lobbyied the opposition on this, he hired his Chief of Staff’s (at the time Rahm Emmanuel) brother, a physician by the name of Ezekiel Emmanuel (who was widely published as a proponent of The Complete Lives Plan, a program for European style rationing of care) to help craft large parts of this, he funded s bills to pave the wave for this and tucked them into the Stimulus package a year earlier (e.g., Federal Healthcare Information Technology “czar”). The Obama White House pushed Pelosi and Reid hard to pass the bill AT ALL COSTS. Case in point, Barack Obama signed an “executive waiver” stating essentially that the law would not provide federal funding for abortions (it does, he lied….) to give Rep. Bart Stupak political cover. Stupak, a blue-dog pro life Catholic and a pretty good guy, lost his seat and Obama’s White House has doubled down on the Church to provide insurance that they know funds abortifacient drugs. All costs….

It was written by many Democratic staffers and Max Baucus (who you mentioned), and Rahm Emmanuel and his brother Zeke, and I will concur with you that the right hand did not know what the left hand was doing, but one thing was clear: Republicans, for all their shortcomings, stated unequivocally that this bill was wrong for the country, nearly impossible to determine all of its unintended consequences, and that it should be stopped. The country said no to this bill loudly and clearly before it was passed: 75% the week it was passed were polled and stated to either not pass any bill, or not this bill in particular. Physicians en-masse left the already poorly participated in AMA when it lent its name to the law (at that time they represented only 17% of the country’s doctor work force). Physicians by and large have not been in support of the law, and have louldly stated so. Those that support it are statistically in a small minority. Small business was very vocal in saying no, and many big businesses have since petitioned for waivers. The law was not supported, but was pushed through via the thinnest of legislative technicalities. When you have to push through a law with smoke and mirrors while tens of thousands protest outside against your efforts, you should know that you are legislating agianst the will of the people and not in a bipartisan fashion, as you suggest.

In short, this law was hook line and sinker a Democrat Party item. Obama, mentioned specifically in the third presidential debate against Mitt Romney, the he “liked that name”, regarding Obamacare, countering the many times the media and the left tried to decry that term as derogatory. So, on national television, in a highly watched debate, Obama took on the mantle of “Obamacare” and smiled. Whether he penned a line of it or not, he took complete ownership and has pushed forward with it ever since.

In no sense has the law been embraced by most of the country as it still remains highly unpopular in poll after poll since its passage. Not once has it garnered above populist support statistically.

So, historically, your facts are completely wrong, your revisionist history does not hold up the conclusions you draw are erroneous. So here is my question to you: Why is it that when Democrats are angry with Republicans it is all the Republicans and Fox News and Talk Radio and the Tea Party’s fault? But when Democrats KNOW they have egg on their faces (big time in this case….), then it INVARIABLY becomes a narrative of: “Well, both parties bear some responsibility here….”?

Be careful, some of us lived this and fought hard against it and know the history and the law well. So, respectfully, you can’t get away with dupliticity today, not on this one.

I don’t know but I do know that Harry Reid’s wealth is growing leaps and bounds. I think all senators are. We are dead in the water so to speak. Please go to the primary reports on the open seats in 2014. Read, research and choose.. then go directly to candidate’s webpage and volunteer, give or just give a high five to them to encourage their fortitude. Elections are tough these days but we can all make it better for the true conservatives. Money is being thrown at these elections from every interest group who ALL expect to get benefits. All I ask for my donation is that they remain honest and fight for what is right for the people. We really are on the edge of losing it all. Pity! And we have absolutely no recourse against these politicians who lost their backbones. I can’t think how ashamed I would be if I did not fight for those who voted for me. NOTE: I did not say “who gave me money”. Oh well……..so it goes

Absolutely, positively brillant! The Tea Party split which really disappointed me. It had to do with power or the idea of power. I can’t go to my local meetings but I have contacted and will stay in touch with them. The night they meet is not possible for me. I am to blame for this mess as I have never gotten this involved before but darn it I am now. Will you join me?

What the Republicans did that shot themselves in the foot (and other places) was the date of the sequester. That was a horrible, horrible mistake!

Rand Paul’s message at CPAC was pretty Libertarian – big surprise. But that is OK. My opinion is that he is “being” Libertarian to bring in the “low information” youth vote (legalize some drugs and promote some isolationism). Not to worry. If he is elected, the Congress will tone down any “extremist” rhetoric.

“They must be willing to shut down the government until the Democrats consent to defunding Obamacare.”

It’s getting a bit ridiculous at this point. Obama was elected in 2008 promising universal healthcare. The duly elected Congress passed Obamacare. Obama was REELECTED in 2012, when his opponent’s main argument was repealing Obamacare.

It’s not going anywhere.