09290903 Hugh Hewitt: Hour 3 – Hugh talks domestic politics and the Iranian Missile Crisis with John Podhoretz of Commentary Magazine, and with National Review Campaign Spot blogger, Jim Geraghty.
09290902 Hugh Hewitt: Hour 2 – Hugh takes calls from senior citizens worried about what Obamacare is going to do to them.
09290901 Hugh Hewitt: Hour 1 – Hugh talks about the Swine flu and how to prepare against the next wave of it with Dr. Eric Handler, then talks why the Roman Polanski arrest and extradition is a big deal with James Hirsen.
Bill Kristol’s eulogy of his father Irving Kristol is a very touching salute to an extraordinary man. Very few fathers are blessed with children as eloquent, but every father can reach for the kind of life and leadership of a family that produces children as devoted in life and as sad but also as grateful at the time of their death.
Montana’s Max Baucus is in a hurry to get the highway robbery of American seniors’ health care benefits over and done with, and so he’s using jam-down tactics in his Senate Finance Committee. Arizona’s Jon Kyl is standing up against the attempt to blow the seizure of $500 billion in seniors’ medical dollars, but Baucus is aiming to shut the process down and jam down the bill this week. Politico has the details.
There isn’t a lick of tort reform in the Baucus bill, which is one reason why seniors should be wondering why they have to bleed but the plaintiffs’ lawyers don’t.
The list of Blue Dog Democrats and Senators facing re-election is below. Call as many senators as you can today, and start with Senator Baucus’ office. 202-224-3121. If seniors sit on their hands this week and next, they’ll find their Medicare benefits cut and their Medicare Advantage premiums skyrocketing in 2010. The list:
Key Democratic Senators:
Arkansas
Sen. Blanche Lincoln (18.70% Lifetime ACU rating)
DC Phone: (202) 224-4843
Local Phone: Dumas (870) 382-1023, Fayetteville (479) 251-1224, Little Rock (501) 375-2993, Jonesboro (870) 910-6896, Texarkana (870) 774-3106
Link to E-mail [# More #]
Sen. Mark Pryor (18.33% Lifetime ACU rating)
DC Phone: (202) 224-2353
Local Phone: Little Rock (501) 324-6336
Link to E-mail
Connecticut
Sen. Joe Lieberman (15.96% Lifetime ACU rating)
DC Phone: (202) 224-4041
Local Phone: (860) 549-8463
Link to E-mail
Florida
Sen. Bill Nelson (37.28% Lifetime ACU rating)
DC Phone: (202) 224-5274
Local Phone: Orlando (407) 872-7161, Miami-Dade (305) 536-5999, Tampa (813) 225-7040, West Palm Beach (561) 514-0189, Tallahassee (850) 942-8415, Jacksonville (904) 346-4500, Broward (954) 693-4851, Fort Meyers (239) 334-7760
Link to E-mail
Indiana
Sen. Evan Bayh (20.70% Lifetime ACU rating)
DC Phone: (202) 224-5623
Local Phone: Evansville (812) 465-6500, Fort Wayne (260) 426-3151, Hammond (219) 852-2763, Indianapolis (317) 554-0750, Jeffersonville (812) 218-2317, Southbend (574) 236-8302
Sen. Mary Landrieu (23.20% Lifetime ACU rating)
DC Phone: (202) 224-5824
Local Phone: Baton Rouge (225) 389-0395, Lake Charles (337) 436-6650, New Orleans (504) 589-2427, Shreveport (318) 676-3085
Link to E-mail
Montana
Sen. Jon Tester (16.00% Lifetime ACU rating)
DC Phone: (202) 224-2644
Local Phone: Billings (406) 252-0550, Bozeman (406) 586-4450, Butte (406) 723-3277, Glendive (406) 365-2391, Great Falls (406) 452-9585, Helena (406) 449-5401, Kalispell (406) 257-3360, Missoula (406) 728-3003
Link to E-mail
Nebraska
Sen. Ben Nelson (47.26% Lifetime ACU rating)
DC Phone: (202) 224-6551
Local Phone: Omaha (402) 391-3411, Lincoln (402) 441-4600, Scottsbluff (308) 631-7614, Kearney (308) 293-5818, South Sioux City (402) 209-3595
Link to E-mail
Nevada
Sen. Harry Reid (18.96% Lifetime ACU rating)
DC Phone: (202) 224-3542
Local Phone: Carson City 775-882-7343, Las Vegas (702) 388-5020, Reno (775) 686-5750
Link to E-mail
North Dakota
Sen. Kent Conrad (19.57% Lifetime ACU rating)
DC Phone: (202) 224-2043
Local Phone: Bismarck (701) 258-4648, Fargo (701) 232-8030, Grand Forks (701) 775-9601, Minot (701) 852-0703
Link to E-mail
Sen. Byron Dorgan (16.57% Lifetime ACU rating)
DC Phone: (202) 224-2551
Local Phone: Bismarck (701) 250-4618, Fargo (701) 239-5389, Minot (701) 852-0703, Grand Forks (701) 746-8972
Link to E-mail
South Dakota
Sen. Tim Johnson (18.36% Lifetime ACU rating)
DC Phone: (202) 224-5842
Local Phone: Aberdeen (605) 226-3440, Sioux Falls (605) 332-8896, Rapid City (605) 341-3990
Link to E-mail
West Virginia
Sen. Robert C. Byrd (28.26% Lifetime ACU rating)
DC Phone: (202) 224-3954
Local Phone: Charlestown (304) 342-5855, Eastern Panhandle (304) 264-4626
The “Blue Dog” House Democrats:
Alabama
Rep. Bobby Bright – 2nd District
DC Phone: (202) 225-2901
District Phone: Dothan (334) 794-9680; Montgomery (334) 277-9113; Opp (334) 493-9253
Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/bright/contact-form.shtml
Rep. Parker Griffith – 5th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-4801
District Phone: Huntsville (256) 551-0190; Decatur (256) 355-9400; Shoals (256) 381-3450
Link to E-mail: http://griffith.house.gov/?sectionid=7§iontree=4,7
Arkansas
Rep. Marion Berry – 1st District
DC Phone: (202) 225-4076
District Phone: Jonesboro (870) 972-4600; Cabot (501) 843-4955; Mountain Home (870) 425-3510
Link to E-Mail: http://www.house.gov/berry/messageform.html
Rep. Mike Ross – 4th District
DC Phone: 1-800-223-2220
District Phone: El Dorado (870) 881-0681; Hot Springs (501) 520-5892; Pine Bluff (870) 536-3376; Prescott (870) 887-6787
Link to E-mail: http://ross.house.gov/?sectionid=77§iontree=76,77
Arizona
Rep. Harry Mitchell – 5th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-2190
District Phone: (480) 946-2411
Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/mitchell/webforms/issue_subscribe.htm
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords – 8th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-2542
District Phone: Tucson (520) 881-3588; Cochise (520) 459-3115
Link to E-mail: https://giffordsforms.house.gov/contact/email.shtml
California
Rep. Mike Thompson – 1st District
DC Phone: (202) 225-3311
District Phone: Napa (707) 226-9898; Humboldt (707) 269-9595; Mendocino (707) 962-0933; Yolo (530) 662-5272
Link to E-mail: http://mikethompson.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za.pl?/mthompson/contact/email_auth.txt&form=/mthompson/contact/email_form.shtml&pass
Rep. Dennis Cardoza – 18th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-6131
District Phone: Merced (209) 383-4455; (209) 527-1914; Stockton (209) 946-0361
Link to E-mail: https://writerep.house.gov/htbin/wrep_findrep
Rep. Jim Costa – 20th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-9308
District Phone: Fresno (559) 495-1620; Bakersfield (661) 869-1620
Link to E-mail: http://www.house.gov/formcosta/issue.htm
Rep. Loretta Sanchez – 29th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-2965
District Phone: (714) 621-0102
Link to E-mail: http://www.lorettasanchez.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=218&Itemid=17
Rep. Jane Harman – 36th District
DC Phone: (202) 225 8220
District Phone: El Segundo (310) 643 3636; Wilmington (310) 549 8282
Link to E-mail: http://www.house.gov/harman/contact/email.shtml
Rep. Joe Baca – 43rd District
DC Phone: (202) 225-6161
District Phone: (909) 885-2222
Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/baca/ht_zip_parms.txt&form=/baca/messageform.shtml
Colorado
Rep. John Salazar – 3rd District
DC Phone: (202) 225-4761
District Phone: Grand Junction (970) 245-7107; Pueblo (719) 543-8200; Durango (970) 259-1012; Alamosa (719) 587-5105
Link to E-mail: http://www.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/salazar/contact-zip.txt&form=/salazar/contact2.shtml
Florida
Rep. Allen Boyd – 2nd District
DC Phone: (202) 225-5235
District Phone: Tallahassee (850) 561-3979; Panama City (850) 785-0812
Link to E-mail: http://www.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/boyd/zip_authen.txt&form=/boyd/contact_email.html&pass
Georgia
Rep. Sanford Bishop – 2nd District
DC Phone: (202) 225-3631
District Phone: Albany (229) 439-8067; Colombus (706) 320-9477; Thomasville (229) 226-7789
Link to E-mail: http://bishop.house.gov/display.cfm?section_id=13
Rep. Jim Marshall – 3rd District
DC Phone: (202) 225-6531
District Phone: Macon (478) 464-0255; Dublin (478) 296-2023; Tifton (229) 556-7418
Link to E-mail: https://writerep.house.gov/htbin/wrep_findrep?HIP29329573301.1220.9427
Rep. John Barrow – 12th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-2823
District Phone: Augusta (706) 722-4494; Sandersville (478) 553-9215; Savannah (912) 354-7282
Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/barrow/webforms/issue_subscribe.htm
Rep. David Scott– 13th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-2939
District Phone: Jonesboro (770) 210-5073; Smyrna (770) 432-5405
Link to E-mail: https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
Iowa
Rep. Leonard Boswell – 3rd District
DC Phone: (202) 225-3806
District Phone: (515) 282-1909
Link to E-mail: http://boswell.house.gov/?sectionid=81§iontree=4,81
Idaho
Rep. Walt Minnick – 1st District
DC Phone: (202) 225-6611
District Phone: Meridian (208) 888-3188; Lewiston (208) 743-1388; Couer d’Alene (208) 667-0127
Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/minnick/contact-form.shtml
Indiana
Rep. Joe Donnelly – 2nd District
DC Phone: (202) 225-3915
District Phone: South Bend (574) 288-2780; Logansport (574) 753-2671; La Porte (219) 326-6808; Michigan City (219) 873-1403
Link to E-mail: http://donnelly.house.gov/contact/email.shtml
Rep. Brad Ellsworth – 8th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-4636
District Phone: Evansville (812) 465-6484; Terre Haute (812) 232-0523
Link to E-mail: http://www.ellsworth.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=325&Itemid=
Rep. Baron Hill (Co-Chair for Policy) – 9th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-5315
District Phone: Jeffersonville (812) 288-3999; Bloomington (812)336-3000
Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/baronhill/IMA/issue_subscribe_parm.txt&form=/baronhill/IMA/issue_subscribe_verify.shtml
Kansas
Rep. Dennis Moore – 3rd District
DC Phone: (202) 225-2865
District Phone: Overland Park (913) 383-2013; Kansas City (913) 621-0832; Lawrence (785) 842-9313
Link to E-mail: http://www.moore.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za.pl?/moore/contact/zip_authen.txt&form=/moore/contact/email.shtml
Kentucky
Rep. Ben Chandler – 6th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-4706
District Phone: (859) 219-1366
Link to E-mail: https://writerep.house.gov/htbin/wrep_findrep?HIP29329573301.26817.5636
Louisiana
Rep. Charlie Melancon (Co-Chair for Communications) – 3rd District
DC Phone: (202) 225-4031
District Phone: Houma (985) 876-3033; Chalmette (504) 271-1707; Gonzales (225) 621-8490; New Iberia (337) 367-8231
Link to E-mail: http://www.melancon.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=205
Maryland
Rep. Frank Jr. Kratovil – 1st District
DC Phone: (202) 225-5311
District Phone: Centreville (443) 262 -9136
Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/kratovil/contact-form.shtml
Maine
Rep. Mike Michaud – 2nd District
DC Phone: (202) 225-2943
District Phone: Bangor (207) 942-6935; Lewiston (207) 782-3704; Presque Isle (207) 764-1036; Waterville (207) 873-5713
Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/michaud/webforms/issue_subscribe.htm
Minnesota
Rep. Collin Peterson – 7th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-2165
District Phone: Detroit Lakes (218) 847-5056; Marshall (507) 537-2299; Montevideo (320) 235-1061; Red Lake Falls (218) 253-4356; Redwood Falls (507) 637-2270; Willmar (320) 235-1061
Link to E-mail: http://collinpeterson.house.gov/zipauth.htm
Mississippi
Rep. Travis Childers – 1st Districts
DC Phone: (202) 225-4306
District Phone: Tupelo (662) 841-8808; Hernando (662) 449-3090; Colombus (662) 327-0748
Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/childers/webforms/contact_parm.txt&form=/childers/webforms/contact_form.htm
Rep. Gene Taylor – 4th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-5772
District Phone: Bay St. Louis (228) 469-9235; Ocean Springs (228) 872-7950; Hattiesburg (601) 582-3246; Laurel (601) 425-3905
Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/genetaylor/webforms/zipauth.htm
North Carolina
Rep. Mike McIntyre – 7th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-2731
District Phone: Lumberton (910) 735-0610; Fayetteville (910) 323-0260; Wilmington (910) 815-4959; Bolivia (910)-253-0158
Link to E-mail: http://www.house.gov/mcintyre/issue.shtml
Rep. Heath Shuler (Whip) – 11th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-6401
District Phone: Asheville (828) 252-1651; Murphy (828) 835-4981; Sylva (828) 586-1962
Link to E-mail: http://shuler.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/shuler/ht_zip_parms.txt&form=shuler/messageform.htm
North Dakota
Rep. Earl Pomeroy
DC Phone: (202) 225-2611
District Phone: Bismarck (701) 224-0355; Fargo (701) 235-9760
Link to E-mail: http://www.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/formpomeroy/ht_zip_parms.txt&form=/formpomeroy/messageform.htm
New York
Rep. Mike Arcuri – 24th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-3665
District Phone: Utica (315) 793-8146/8147; Auburn (315) 252-2777/2778; Cortland (607) 756-2470
Link to E-mail: http://arcuri.house.gov/IMA/issue_subscribe.htm
Ohio
Rep. Charles Wilson – 6th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-5705
District Phone: Canfield (330) 533-7250; Marietta (740) 376-0868; Bridgeport (740) 633-5705; Ironton (740) 533-9423; Wellsville (330) 532-3740
Link to E-mail: http://www.charliewilson.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=139
Rep. Zack Space – 18th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-6265
District Phone: Dover (330) 364-4300; Zanesville (740) 452-6338; Chillicothe (740) 779-1636
Link to E-mail: http://space.house.gov/?sectionid=61§iontree=26,61
Oklahoma
Rep. Dan Boren – 2nd District
DC Phone: (202) 225-2701
District Phone: Muskogee (918) 687-2533; Claremont (918) 341-9336; McAlester (918) 423-5951
Link to E-mail: http://www.house.gov/boren/emailsignup.shtml
Pennsylvania
Rep. Jason Altmire – 4th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-2565
District Phone: Aliquippa (724) 378-0928; Natrona (724) 226-1304
Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/altmire/webforms/issue_subscribe.htm
Rep. Patrick Murphy – 8th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-4276
District Phone: Bristol (215) 826-1963; Doylestown (215) 348-1194
Link to E-mail: http://www.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/formpatrickmurphy/ht_zip_parms.txt&form=/formpatrickmurphy/messageform.shtml
Rep. Christopher Carney – 10th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-3731
District Phone: Clarks Summit (570) 585-9988; Shamokin (570) 644-1682; Williamsport (570) 327-1902
Link to E-mail: http://www.carney.house.gov/contact.shtml#email
Rep. Tim Holden – 17th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-5546
District Phone: Berks (610) 921-3502; Dauphin/Perry (717) 234-5904; Lebanon (717) 270-1395; Schuylkill (570) 622-4212
Link to E-mail: http://holden.house.gov/htbin/formproc_za/holden/email_zipauth.txt&form=messageform.shtml
Tennessee
Rep. Lincoln Davis – 4th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-6831
District Phone: Columbia (931) 490-8699; Jamestown (931) 879-2361; McMinnville (931) 473-7259; Rockwood (865) 354-3323
Link to E-mail: https://writerep.house.gov/htbin/wrep_const
Rep. Jim Cooper – 5th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-4311
District Phone: Nashville (615) 736-5295
Link to E-mail: http://www.cooper.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=117&Itemid=61
Rep. Bart Gordon – 6th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-4231
District Phone: Murfreesboro (615) 896-1986; Cookeville (931) 528-5907; Gallatin (615) 451-5174
Link to E-mail: http://gordon.house.gov/contact/contact_form.shtml
Rep. John Tanner – 8th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-4714
District Phone: Union City (731) 885-7070; Jackson (731) 423-4848; Millington (901) 873-5690
Link to E-mail: https://writerep.house.gov/htbin/wrep_findrep
Texas
Rep. Henry Cuellar – 28th District
DC Phone: (202) 225-1640
District Phone: Laredo (956) 725-0639; McAllen (956) 631-4826; Rio Grande City (956) 487-5603; San Antonio (210) 271-2851; Seguin (830) 401-0457
Link to E-mail: http://cuellar.house.gov/Contact/ContactForm.htm
Utah
Rep. Jim Matheson – 2nd District
DC Phone: (202) 225-3011
District Phone: South Salt Lake (801) 486-1236; St. George (435) 627-0880;
Link to E-mail: https://forms.house.gov/matheson/contact.shtml
Virginia
Rep. Glenn Nye – 2nd District
DC Phone: (202) 225-4215
District Phone: Hampton (757) 326-6201; Eastern (757) 789-5092
Link to E-mail: http://nye.house.gov/?sectionid=7§iontree=4,7
European officials stressed Monday they are likely to seriously consider new sanctions only at year-end, citing a December deadline, replacing President Barack Obama’s September deadline, that has now been set to see if diplomacy with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad works.
The aricle is specific only on those sanctions which won’t be imposed:
ban on gasoline sales also is difficult to get through the Security Council because Chinese state companies this month began providing up to one-third of sales to Iran, filling in the market vacated by BP and Reliance of India.
A total embargo on Iranian oil — which Israeli officials have suggested — seems unlikely. U.S. law already forbids U.S. firms from buying Iranian oil, but Europe, Japan and China are big customers. Analysts say an embargo on Iranian oil would drive up prices and damage the global economy, unless a big producer such as Saudi Arabia made up the difference — about 3% of world supply.
A U.N. tightening of an arms import ban on Iran would run up against the interests of a powerful sector of the Russian economy. “A lot of larger contractors in those sectors of the Russian economy don’t have necessarily other extensive markets that they can easily go to,” said Paul Saunders, executive director of the Nixon Center in Washington.
Because the Obama Adminsitration is not credible on the idea that it would ever use the military option, other nations reluctant to hurt their own economic interests don’t worry about blocking lower level sanctions. They don’t have to worry about America escalating the confrontation because it is President Obama they are dealing with, and he cannot even bring himself to meet with his Afgan commander more than once in two-and-a-half months.
Already the voices urging a de facto surrender to Iran’s ambitions are surfacing in the usual palces –the editorial pages of the New York Times for example. “[T]he administration should seek a strategic realignment with Iran as thoroughgoing as that effected by Nixon with China,” write Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett in today’s paper, barely 72 hours after the president and his British and French allies demanded Iran comply with international law.
Secretary Gates has said that military action against Iran will only buy time, but time may be Israel’s best ally right now as it watches the world roll over in a surprisingly swift resignation to the inevitability of Iranian nuclear weapons.
Iran’s stratagem is to “engage” as it pushes ahead with its bomb, thereby making it hard for the international community to impose meaningful sanctions. Once it feels certain it has all the pieces of the nuclear weapon’s puzzle in place – fuel, warhead, delivery system – it might offer Obama a stop just short of a test detonation, in return for a long list of Western concessions.
Anyway, the pace of economic sanctions is way out of sync with the progress the mullahs are making on their bomb. Even if Russia and China accepted a winter embargo on refined petroleum products entering Iran, is there any reason to imagine that the mere discomfort of the Iranian masses would take precedence for Khameini and Ahmadinejad over the bomb?
Obama should leapfrog over futile intermediate steps and place draconian sanctions on the table, now. To paraphrase John Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, this would mean that all ships and planes bound for Iran, from whatever nation, would be turned back.
Perhaps this prospect, coupled with a complete land, sea and air quarantine, can influence Iran’s leaders to rethink their one-step-forward-two-steps-back strategy, and save humanity from an Iranian bomb.
Alas, President Obama wants very much to look and sound like President Kennedy, but it is highly unlikely that he will be acting like him anytime soon. The appeasers don’t want to force a confrontation over Israeli security, so if Israel genuinely fears the Iranian bomb on Iranian missiles –or some lesser WMD made in the secret facilites of Iran and smuggled via Syria to the Hezbollah forces on Israel’s northern border– it will have to arrange for the remedy by itself. And soon.
My new Washington Examiner column is posted.
How the MSM covers what increasingly appears to be a full scale strategy of appeasement vis-a-vis Iran will define the legacy media’s legacy, in the same way that Geoffrey Dawson’s support for the policies of Neville Chamberlain defined the Times of London’s editor’s reputation.
Iran is reported to have test fired a long range missile today, which is all the reply a sensible person needs to understand how the mullahs will conduct themselves over the next two months. Today’s coverage of this event will tell us a lot about whether Beltway-Manhattan media elites even understand what is unfolding around the world.
The Monday morning column from Clark Judge:
With ObamaCare in a Hole, Will the White House Stop Digging?
By Clark S. Judge, managing director, White House Writers Group, Inc.
Increasingly in Washington over the last few weeks, we have heard this assessment of the president’s health care upheaval prospects: Something will pass, because the president and his party have such large majorities (nearly 60 percent) in both chambers of Congress that it is inconceivable that they could not bludgeon their way to the necessary majorities. But victory will be the product of power, not debate – and it will cost them control of the House in the next election.
The problem for the president is that he has lost the health care debate. No one in either party or in the media has dared speak this fact as of now, but it is inescapable.
Let’s review the bidding:
-Cost: The president said the upheaval would cost nothing. The Congressional Budget Office put a trillion-dollar-plus price tag on it. Others have since confirmed their assessment.
-Taxes: The president said only those making more than $250,000 per year would pay more. As details have emerged, virtually every American will be paying additional taxes to fund this new federal health care behemoth. [# More #]
-Death Panels (really policies to cut the cost of that famously expensive “last year of life”): The president and his team have called the death panel charge a lie. They have pointed to Britain’s National Health Service as a counter example. But about two weeks ago, an article by British policy expert Rupert Darwall appeared in the Wall Street Journal (http://tinyurl.com/nqr3au) showing that, well, actually policies in the British service are tilted toward cutting off care to the aged.
As Darwall wrote:
[Recently] a group of senior doctors and health-care experts wrote to a national newspaper expressing their concern about the Liverpool Care Pathway, a palliative program being rolled out across the NHS involving the withdrawal of fluids and nourishment for patients thought to be dying. Noting that in 2007-08, 16.5% of deaths in the U.K. came after “terminal sedation,” their letter concluded with the chilling observation that experienced doctors know that sometimes “when all but essential drugs are stopped, ‘dying’ patients get better” if they are allowed to.
Darwall was pointing out what everyone except the president’s policy experts seems to understand: None of us knows which year is our last year of life until we actually die. The rationing policies at the heart of the president’s money saving plan will inevitably lead to government panels setting standards for the entire population. But not everyone – actually, not most of us – will fit those standards. With genetics driving medicine towards highly individualized care at all levels, the president’s upheaval plans will drive the nation to care by the averages, or, as one former senior Food and Drug Administration official called it in a talk with me recently, a lurching back to the Middle Ages of treatment.
-Keep our own plans: The president has said that no one will be forced to give up his or her current health plan. But increasingly it is clear that his program will drive current health plans from the market. As someone put it, “No, you won’t be forced to give up your current plan. It’s just that your current plan will cease to exist.”
-More: I could go on. But undoubtedly the best rundown of the misconceptions at the heart of the president’s plan and of why he has lost the debate is a book (available here — http://tinyurl.com/6rzagq — for free in pdf form) titled The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care: A Citizen’s Guide. It is by Sally Pipes, president of San Francisco’s Pacific Research Institute (of which I am chairman). “[F]or health care policy makers, it should be required reading,” says Steve Forbes in its introduction — not that the president’s people can be expected to heed Forbes’ advice.
On point after point, the president has been on the short end of the health care argument. Facts have got in his way so often as to raise doubts about whether the White House even has a fact checking staff.
Meanwhile, he and his allies have tried to ignore the increasingly loud and much better informed voices for modest reforms that might actually lower costs while improving access and quality. A recent and brilliant brief for this consumer-driven model appeared (http://tinyurl.com/lquswk) in the September issue of The Atlantic. By businessman and Democrat David Goldhill, it was just one dozens of recent appeals along the same lines: that if Washington’s Golden Rule is “he who has the gold makes the rules”, in health care each of us individually should have the gold: not the government, not our employer, us.
Over the weekend, the Rasmussen organization released polling numbers that found the percentage of likely voters strongly disapproving of the president’s handling of his job ten points higher than strong approving. Public opposition to his health care proposals was as large a week following his recent address to Congress as it was the week before. This debate is over – even if the power politics are not.
An old political rule says, if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. The more Mr. Obama demands passage of his unsaleable program, the higher his disapproval ratings go. The question now is, will he will he have the sense to stop digging?
Byron York has the story of Mitt Romney’s assessment of the president’s choice on Afghanistan.