The Feehery Theory

Another Run At Obamacare

May17

By John Feehery

Copyright © 2012 Creators Syndicate

So, amid the myriad of scandals that currently occupy by DC elite, the House of Representatives worked late into the night to vote once again to repeal Obamacare.

The press played this as another partisan attempt to poke at the President, a waste of time, a waste of effort, a waste of money.  The bill wasn’t going to go anywhere in the Senate, so why would House Republicans do this for the 37th time?

I think there are several good reasons.

1. First, this is a revenue bill, and should the Senate want to go to conference on a revenue bill, this gives them a vehicle to do that.
2. Second, Obamacare is still not very popular, and for those who currently have health insurance (which is about 80% of the country), Obamacare is going to become even more unpopular.  This might seem like a wasted effort now, but next year, vulnerable Democrats are going to wish that they voted a different way.
3. Third, it is not true that the House voted the same repeal 37 times.  This is the third time they have done a complete repeal.  The other 34 times they voted to defund parts of that bill.

Seven of those bills have actually been signed into law by the President.  For example, the President signed into law a repeal of the small business paperwork mandate, which was HR 4 last year.  HR 4348 ended the so-called Louisiana purchase, a payoff to the Senior Senator from Louisiana.  HR repealed the CLASS Act, which saved more than 6 billion.  HR 3630 slashed 5 billion from the so-called Obamacare slush fund.

These are not trivial savings.  A billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon you are saving some real money.

According to a Kaiser poll, only 1 in 3 voters believe that House Republican efforts to block implementation of Obamacare is a waste in time.  More than half think it is a good idea to continue to block the law so that it has less of an impact on taxpayers.

These are all good reasons to continue down this road to repeal.

That fact that the person at the IRS who was in charge of investigating Tea Party groups is now in charge of implementing Obamacare only makes this even better political fodder for the Republican Party.

Is this a wasted effort?

Only 2 Democrats voted with all of the Republicans to repeal Obamacare last night.  When Republicans choose next year to vote again to repeal Obamacare, we will see how many Democrats decide it is a wasted effort and how many Democrats decide to change their vote to protect their backsides.

Right Wing on a Roll

May14

By John Feehery

It has been a good couple of weeks for conservative activists.

They have been able to take issues that they care deeply about and get the MSM (or main-stream media) to pay attention.

First, it was the trial of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell that caught fire.

I noticed on my Facebook page some of my “friends” kept talking about this Philadelphia doctor who killed babies after they were born.  They were complaining bitterly how the trial was not being covered by anybody outside of Philly.

And as it turned out, they were right.  The MSM didn’t cover the story for weeks, especially in Washington.  But late last month, a switch seemed to turn, and the GR888, even Morning Joe would talk about it on their roundtable discussions.

The Gosnell story was grisly and it also put the media (which is overwhelmingly pro-abortion rights) in the terrible position of having to defend the indefensible, which is the destruction of little babies.

But they had no choice.  The man was a monster, and what he did was so despicable, even the most ardent pro-abortion zealot had to admit that fact.

Some activists tried to spin this as a result of what would happen if abortion were made illegal, a curious defense of a barbaric process.  Killing viable babies should be illegal, no matter if they are born or not quite born.

Second, it was the Benghazi brouhaha.

I admit it.  I haven’t been paying much attention to this mini-scandal.  But the right-wing certainly has, as has the families of those who were killed in Libya.

Clearly, the White House put Susan Rice out on the talk shows to lie about what happened.  I don’t know why they did.  It seemed stupid to me.

Is this an impeachable offense?  I seriously doubt it.   There are much bigger fish to fry out there.  And Hillary Clinton did a pretty good job of defending herself several months ago, making Senate Republicans look pretty silly in the process.

But the Administration did more than lie.  They stifled dissent.  They muffled whistle-blowers.  They demoted career civil servants who wanted the truth to get out.

For what effect and for what reason?  I don’t know.  But clearly this deserves closer scrutiny.   And the MSM is on this story, because it might be good for ratings.

Third, it was the IRS targeting of conservative groups.

The right wing has been complaining about this for years.  The Tea Party groups, who often come off as paranoid and irrational, seemed paranoid and irrational about the Internal Revenue Service.

They complained loudly to the media, who largely ignored their complaints.

But it turns out that all of paranoid protesters were on to something.

The IRS was targeting them.

Amazing how stupid this Administration really is.

They run a very good campaign, those Obama folks.   Governing?  No so much.

The right wing is on a roll.

Maybe next week it will be revealed that the President was actually born in Canada, and not Hawaii.  Wouldn’t that be something?