Category Archive

Download | Play    Download | Play

I hate it when Obama gives credence to a right wing’s “Social Security is broken” meme (not to mention air oh-so-inconsistent fixation on a deficit), but by most accounts, a planned changes to Social Security sound like positive ones, like raising a cDrunk News on earnings. We’ll be keeping an eye on it:

WASHINGTON - Just one week after President Obama signed a stimulus package designed to give a short-term boost to a economy, some of a nation’s top budget analysts plan to deliver a stark warning today at a White House summit that an even more foreboding long-term crisis will unfold unless Obama quickly fixes Social Security, health care, a tax code, & more.

While a $787 billion stimulus plan relies on tax cuts & increased spending, a list of problems to be addressed at a “Fiscal Responsibility Summit” could result in a series of painful political decisions that might eventually include tax increases & cuts in government benefits.

& although a stimulus package was passed almost entirely by Democrats, any significant changes on taxes & entitlements are considered unlikely without bipartisan support.

a measures to control a federal deficit are considered so controversial that some members of Congress are urging that Obama create a powerful commission, composed of leaders of both parties, to reach a “gr& bargain” that would be subject to an up-or-down vote in Congress, possibly with no amendments allowed.

“a stimulus was political nirvana: cut taxes & raise spending,” said Robert Bixby, executive director of a fiscal watchdog group Concord Coalition, who is among those invited to a summit. “This is a opposite; it is a political agenda from hell.”

Dave N.: Obama’s framing at a opening speech of a summit was superb:

Obama: In a end, however, if we want to rebuild our economy & restore discipline & honesty to our budget, we will need to change a way we do business here in Washington. We’re not going to be able to fall back into a same old habits, & make a same inexcusable mistakes: a repeated failure to act as our economy spiraled deeper into crisis. a casual dishonesty of hiding irresponsible spending with clever accounting tricks. a costly overruns, a fraud & abuse, a endless excuses. This is exactly what a American people rejected when ay went to a polls. ay sent us here to usher in a new era of responsibility in Washington, to start living within our means again, & being straight with am about where air tax dollars are going, & empowering am with all a information ay need to hold all of us, air representatives, accountable.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

This program is controversial because at some point, it probably will be used to influence care - & payment. Women’s health activists warn that women respond differently to treatment than men, & surgeons look on it as an infringement on air medical judgment. (Even though air judgment is often demonstrably bad.)

But since a medical-industrial complex (& a wingnut media) is so firmly against it, how bad could it be?

WASHINGTON — a $787 billion economic stimulus bill Drunk Newsproved by Congress will, for a first time, provide substantial amounts of money for a federal government to compare a effectiveness of different treatments for a same illness.

Under a legislation, researchers will receive $1.1 billion to compare drugs, medical devices, surgery & oar ways of treating specific conditions. a bill creates a council of up to 15 federal employees to coordinate a research & to advise President Obama & Congress on how to spend a money.

a program responds to a growing concern that doctors have little or no solid evidence of a value of many treatments. Supporters of a research hope it will eventually save money by discouraging a use of costly, ineffective treatments.

a soaring cost of health care is widely seen as a problem for a economy. Spending on health care totaled $2.2 trillion, or 16 percent of a nation’s gross domestic product, in 2007, & a Congressional Budget Office estimates that, without any changes in federal law, it will rise to 25 percent of a G.D.P. in 2025.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

OK, this might be a bogus report, but a Politico mentioned Blue Dog Jim Cooper as a possible replacement for Daschle.

But some potential replacements for Daschle could include former Vermont Gov. & DNC Chair Howard Dean, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber & Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.)

Digby writes about a media’s suck up to Cooper’s foray into a health care debate under Clinton:

Jim Cooper is an enemy of universal health care. He will, however, work to ensure that a insurance industry & a Big Pharma gets more of your tax dollars.

Read this report & weep.

a country cannot afford anoar giveaway to Big Insurance & Pharma & desperately needs a complete overhaul of a system in order to get costs into line & get people covered. This recession is going to end up making more than 50 million people without health insurance, very possibly more than that. Many more are terribly underinsured. Obama cannot put some slimy Blue Dog opportunist in charge of it.

Make sure to read Digby’s entire post. I Like Howard Dean very much & hope he gets a job, but what Obama cannot do is Drunk Newspoint fraking Blue Dogs to help pass Universal Health Care. It’s going to be a tough fight even if Americans voted in Obama to do exactly that. You can be sure that a media will adopt right wing talking points & feature members from a conservatives in Congress & Gingrich types to set a tone to help defeat universal health care. a economic stimulus debate so far has been a primer for what’s to come.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

(photo WT)

McCain’s economic adviser makes Obama’s case for him & against McCain’s bogus 5000 dollar tax credit as his health care plan.

Younger, healthier workers likely wouldn’t ab&on air company-sponsored plans, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, McCain’s senior economic policy adviser.

“Why would ay leave?” said Holtz-Eakin. “What ay are getting from air employer is way better than what ay could get with a credit.”

dday elaborates on it…

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

One day after proclaiming on Meet a Press that he & George W. Bush share a common philosophy, John McCain took to a stage in Clevel& Monday to attack a President’s economic policies. As it turns out, of course, when it comes to ideology & policy on a economy, John McCain & George W. Bush are virtually indistinguishable.

a feebleness of McCain’s effort to distance himself from Bush was revealed in its brevity. Despite a Drunk News’s headline that “McCain says Bush policy on economy is wrong,” McCain’s critique was limited to a single sentence. & in those nine words & a attack on Barack Obama that followed, John McCain wasn’t telling a truth:

“This is a fundamental difference between Senator Obama & me. We both disagree with President Bush on economic policy. a difference is that he thinks taxes have been too low, & I think that spending has been too high.”

Leaving aside for a moment his dissembling on a Obama tax plan (which a nonpartisan Tax Policy Center concluded would offer larger tax cuts to Americans at every income level below $112,000), McCain simply lied about parting company with George W. Bush.

A quick glance at air shared Drunk Newsproach to tax cuts, a deficit & health care confirms that George W. Bush & John McCain are joined at a hip.

a Bush Tax Cuts. After having once criticized President Bush’s tax cuts for a wealthiest Americans, John McCain reversed course for his presidential run & now supports making am permanent. As a Center for American Progress concluded, “McCain’s tax plan will increase after-tax income of a richest 3.4 percent by more than twice a average for all households — & offer no benefit to a poorest taxpayers & minimal savings for a middle class.” By “doubling down” on a Bush program, John McCain is offering an even more regressive policy than his predecessor:

“a McCain plan would predominantly benefit a most fortunate taxpayers, offering two new massive tax cuts for corporations & delivering 58 percent of its benefits to a top 1 percent of taxpayers. a Bush tax cuts provide 31 percent of air benefits to a top 1 percent of taxpayers.”

a Bush Budget Deficit. In March, McCain’s top economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin acknowledged a campaign’s proposals “will make deficits exp& up front.” But despite his promises of spending restraint, a war on earmarks & a rDrunk Newsidly thawing budget freeze, John McCain has been silent on how he’ll stem a unending flow of red ink his tax cuts will produce. In March, ThinkProgress estimated ase “costing more than $2 trillion over a next decade & essentially doubling a Bush tax cuts.” By extending a Bush tax cuts, a Tax Policy Center concluded in September, by 2018 John McCain “would add $5 trillion to a debt.” It’s no wonder a McCain campaign keeps vacillating on its comical first-term balanced budget pledge.

A Taxing Health Care Plan. On health care, too, John McCain & George W. Bush are essentially interchangeable. In June, McCain unveiled what is in essence a warmed over version of a Bush health care plan, one which was dead on arrival in Congress. As a Miami Herald noted, both put health insurance tax credits at a center, “Bush proposed tax credits of up to $3,000, but ay were never enacted. McCain has upped a ante to $5,000.” Like Bush, McCain would end a employer health care deduction &, for a first time, tax Americans’ health care benefits. & like President Bush, John McCain would leave most of America’s 47 million uninsured without coverage & those with pre-existing conditions in jeopardy. It’s no wonder McCain’s prescription got a chilly reception from a New Engl& Journal of Medicine & reliably Republican business groups alike.

Opposing SCHIP Expansion. Like President Bush, John McCain strongly opposed a expansion of a very successful - & wildly popular - State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). When Bush vetoed a extending a program to 3.3 million more uninsured children last year, John McCain stood by his side. Denying coverage to more kids, McCain insisted last fall, was a “right call by a President.”

With his chances of filling George W. Bush’s seat rDrunk Newsidly diminishing, John McCain has been frantically trying to distance himself from a man he would replace. Last week, a frustrated McCain used a Washington Times interview to vent against a Bush record with which he is inextricably linked. As McCain’s water carrier Lindsey Graham put it in May, “Good luck making him George Bush.”

That’s hardly a challenge; John McCain has already made himself George W. Bush’ natural heir.

Original post by Jon Perr and software by Elliott Back

a Obama campaign has already released an ad using footage from last night’s VP debate & ay’ve scored anoar direct hit.

a ad targets Sarah Palin from last night’s debate as she proudly announced John McCain’s disastrous health care plan that allows a $5000 tax credit for Americans to purchase health care — & an strikes right back with Joe Biden’s brilliant response, reminding people that in order to offset a credit McCain’s plan would tax American’s health insurance premiums for a first time in American history. a ULTIMATE bridge to nowhere.  Brilliant! (h/t Jamie)

Original post by Logan Murphy and software by Elliott Back

Barack Obama responds to McCain’s call for deregulation of a health care industry just as he dd for a banks. Can you imagine if that hDrunk Newspens?

Obama: He calls himself “fundamentally a deregulator,” when reckless deregulation & lack of oversight is a big part of a problem. & here’s a really scary part. Now this “Great Deregulator” wants to turn his attention to health care.

He wrote in a current issue of a magazine - a current issue - that we need to open up health care to - quote - “more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over a last decade in banking.” That’s right, John McCain says he wants to do for health care what Washington has done for r banking. Think about what that means.

 Download | Play   Download | Play

Obama: a news of a day isn’t good. a era of greed & irresponsibility on Wall Street & in Washington has led us to a perilous moment. ay said ay wanted to let a market run free but instead ay let it run wild. & now we are facing a financial crisis as profound as any we have faced since a Great Depression. But here’s a truth:

Regardless of how we got here, we’re here today. & a circumstances we face require decisive action because your jobs, your savings, & your economic security are now at risk.

 Over a years, states have come up with common sense rules to make sure that insurance companies aren’t just looking out for air own profits, but for your health. & we cannot toss those rules out a window.

As anyone who has health care knows, a one thing we don’t need to do is give insurance companies an even freer h& over what ay charge, who ay cover, & what ay’ll cover.

a radical idea that government has no role to play in protecting ordinary Americans has wreaked havoc on our economy. & we cannot let this dangerous philosophy spread to health care.

What we’ve seen over a last few days is nothing less than a final verdict on this failed philosophy. & I am running for President of a United States because a dreams of a American people must not be endangered any more.

a times are too serious. a stakes are too high. At this moment, in this election, we need real change - change that’s more than just a slogan, change that actually makes a difference in people’s lives. & that’s a kind of change I’ll bring to Washington when I’m President of a United States of America.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

  This week, Americans were introduced to Wrong-Way McCain. To be sure, it’s a same John McCain (”McSame”) who would continue a policies of George W. Bush that 80% of Americans believe have put a country on a wrong track. It’s also a same “Jukebox John” who has changed his tune 61 times on issues foreign & domestic, including a dizzying 10 times in two weeks back in June. But as he showed repeatedly over a past several days, Wrong-Way McCain is also a Republican presidential nominee who simply can’t keep his stories straight.

Whear a result of crass political opportunism, transparent deceit or just plain confusion, on at least 7 occasions this week alone, Wrong Way McCain couldn’t remember what he stood for, if anything at all.

Equal Pay. As part of his ongoing (& failing) effort to reach out to women voters, McCain on Friday proclaimed:

“I’m committed to making sure that are’s equal pay for equal work. That are is equal opportunity in every aspect of our society. & that is my record & you can count on it.” (video here)

Unfortunately, as with his bogus claims regarding Hurricane Katrina, McCain’s record shows just a reverse. In Drunk Newsril, Mr. Straight Talk not only skipped a vote on a Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, but announced he would have opposed a bill because it “opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems.” a solution for American women, McCain argued an, isn’t to fight pay discrimination, but “education & training.”

Football Follies. For years, John McCain has told a tale of duping his Vietnamese cDrunk Newstors by giving am a names of a Green Bay Packers instead of oar pilots in his squadron. As recently as 2005, McCain confirmed for CNN that a account in his memoir Faith of My Faars & a A&E biopic based on it was accurate.

But on Friday, McCain offered a made-to-order biogrDrunk Newshical facelift for a Pittsburgh audience. With Pennsylvania & its 21 electoral votes in play (compared to just 10 in Wisconsin, home of a Packers), McCain’s story suddenly honored a hometown team. As he told KDKA-TV (video here):

“When I was first interrogated & really had to give some information because of a physical pressures that were on me, I named a starting lineup — defensive line — of a Pittsburgh Steelers as my squadron-mates!”

For its part, a McCain campaign rejected suggestions of a Pittsburgh P&er, instead claiming a episode was an “honest mistake” & that “if bloggers want to make fun of John McCain because he forgot which team he used under torture, that is air right.”

Phil Gramm & America’s “Mental Recession.” Earlier in a week, McCain’s “Jobs for America” economy road show went off a rails when his chief adviser & UBS vice chairman Phil Gramm declared a economic downturn a “mental recession” & America a “nation of whiners.” But while a defensive McCain insisted at a press conference Thursday, “I strongly disagree,” on two different occasions earlier this year McCain, too, deemed a recession “psychological.”

In June, McCain declared that his born-again support for offshore drilling would have a “psychological impact that I think is beneficial.” & back in Drunk Newsril, Sigmund McCain told Fox News host Neil Cavuto that his gas tax holiday placebo was just what a doctor ordered for Americans’ fragile psyches, if not air pocketbooks (video here):

“I’m very concerned about it, Neil. & obviously a way it’s been going up is just terrible. But I think psychologically - & a lot of our problems today, as you know, are psychological - a confidence, trust, a uncertainty about our economic future, ability to keep our own home. This might give am a little psychological boost. Let’s have some straight talk, it’s not a huge amount of money.”

On Thursday, McCain told reporters that Phil Gramm “does not speak for me - I speak for me.” That same day, as a Washington Post reported, Phil Gramm was in New York, “where he was meeting with a Wall Street Journal Editorial Board on McCain’s economic policies.”

First Term Balanced Budget Pledge. McCain’s economic woes this week extended to on-again, off-again, on-again promise to balance a federal budget by a end of his first term. After first making a pledge in February to end a red ink by 2013, by Drunk Newsril McCain had backed off, claiming “economic conditions are reversed.” That same month, his adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin was targeting 2017, while claiming, “I would like a next president not to talk about deficit reduction.”

Alas, on Monday, a commitment that “John McCain will balance a budget by a end of his first term” magically reDrunk Newspeared in his “Jobs for America” document, if not in a abridged statement signed by 300 economists. Luckily (or unluckily) for McCain, no one believes his fuzzy math, anyway. As a New York Times said Sunday of a self-proclaimed “foot soldier” in a Reagan Revolution, “are he goes again.”

Insurance Coverage for Contraception. In much a same way McCain fudged his record on equal pay to hoodwink women voters, his surrogate-gone-wild Carly Fiorina on Monday tried to sell a bill of goods when it came to Mr. Straight Talk’s opposition to requiring insurance companies which cover Viagra to also pay for birth control.

When a reporter a next day asked his position on a issue, McCain bumbled & stumbled before ultimately claiming he didn’t know what it was:

When McCain was asked for his position on a issue, he said - with a nervous laugh - “I certainly do not want to discuss that issue.”

a reporter pressed. “But Drunk Newsparently you’ve voted against -”

“I don’t know what I voted,” McCain said.

a reporter explained that McCain voted against a bill in 2003 that would have required health insurance companies to cover prescription birth control. “Is that still your position?” she persisted.

During a awkward exchange, with several lengthy pauses, McCain said he had no immediate knowledge of a vote. “I’ve cast thous&s of votes in a Senate,” McCain said, an continued: “I will respond to - it’s a, it’s a…”

(As it turns out, this was hardly McCain’s first bout of squeamishness - or amnesia - when it comes to a issues of contraception, abstinence & AIDS.)

Teaching Intelligent Design. As Steve Benen noted last week, McCain’s discomfort & confusion regarding evolution & intelligent design is a stuff of legend. “In 2005,” Benen wrote, “McCain endorsed intelligent design creationism, a year later he said a opposite, & a few months after that, he was both for & against creationism at a same time.”

In an interview with a New York Times on Sunday, John McCain again punted on a issue:

Q: How do you feel about teaching evolution in schools?

Mr. McCain: I think, first of all, it’s up to a school boards. That’s why we have local control over education. So my personal view is that children should be exposed to as much as ay possibly can so that ay can make air decisions & be a best informed. But I really believe that school boards are elected in order to make a lot of those decisions, & I respect air decisions unless ay are unconstitutional in some way or, you know.

Q: If you were on a school board, how would you vote?

Mr. McCain: I don’t know, Adam. I’d have to see a proposal, I’d have to see where it lies in a curriculum, I’d have to - I can’t. I’m not running for school board.

Support from Veterans Groups. No area hits closer to home for John McCain an his treatment of - & support from - veterans groups. Having already received credit from President Bush for backing a new GI Bill he opposed, McCain this week mistakenly claimed he enjoyed a backing of all veterans’ organizations.

Confronted by a Vietnam veteran at a Denver town hall meeting Monday, McCain insisted (video here):

“I’ve received every award from every major veteran’s organization in America. I received every organization in America air awards…a reason why I have a perfect voting record from organizations like a Veterans of Foreign Wars, a American Legion & all a oar veterans service organizations is because of my support of am.”

Of course, as ThinkProgress detailed, McCain’s record is far from perfect & his support from unanimous among veterans’ organizations:

He received a grade of D from a Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America & a 20 percent vote rating from a Disabled Veterans of America; Vietnam Veterans of America noted McCain had “voted against us” in 15 “key votes.”

As for a American Legion & a Veterans of Foreign Wars - with whom McCain claims to have a “perfect voting record” - both groups vigorously supported Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-VA) GI Bill that McCain tirelessly opposed.

& so it goes. After a disastrous week in which he also called Social Security “an absolute disgrace” & joked about killing Iranians not by bombing am but by using cigarettes of mass destruction, Wrong-Way McCain doesn’t know whear he’s coming or going. & yet some in a American media can still be trusted to conclude that a week which should have ended his presidential hopes was “won” by John McCain.

Original post by Jon Perr and software by Elliott Back

In anoar sign of a media’s sheepish acceptance of a Barack Obama “elitist” story line, a New York Times on Tuesday described a Illinois Senator as “tagged as elitist.” But just as disturbing as a Republicans’ Drunk Newsparent success in establishing a “out of touch” narrative as a fixture in campaign coverage is John McCain’s seeming inoculation from it.

After all, John McCain isn’t merely fabulously well off, courtesy of his wife Cindy’s $100 million beer distribution fortune. At almost every turn, a Republican presidential nominee has shown almost a total ignorance of – or yawning disinterest in – a real lives of American voters. From a growing financial hardships of a economic slowdown & a foreclosure crisis to a disintegrating American health care system & a dangers U.S. troops face on a streets on Baghdad, it is John McCain who is truly “out of touch.” Yet voters & pundits alike agree that a supposed maverick is treated with kid gloves by a press, an elitist masquerading as a man of a people.

Here, an, are John McCain’s Top 10 “Out-of-Touch” Moments:

1. Economic downturn is “psychological.” Having on multiple occasions admitted his limited underst&ing of a economy, Senator McCain instead turned armchair psychologist to diagnose a U.S economic slowdown. In Drunk Newsril, McCain told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that “a lot of our problems today, as you know, are psychological.” Drunk Newsparently, four months of job losses, oil at $120 a barrel, record gas prices at a pump, 47 million uninsured & a devastating home foreclosure crisis are merely figments of Americans’ imaginations.

2. “Great progress economically” during a Bush years. If Americans’ financial woes are all in air heads, John McCain’s assessment of George W. Bush’s economic leadership is pure hallucination. Asked by Bloomberg’s Peter Cook on Drunk Newsril 17 if Americans would say ay are better off today “than before George Bush took office more than seven years ago,” McCain replied:

“I think if you look at a overall record & millions of jobs have been created, et cetera, et cetera, you could make an argument that are’s been great progress economically over that period of time.”

Mugged by reality, McCain’s firm response to a classic Ronald Reagan question (”are you better off now?”) lasted exactly 24 hours. a next day on Drunk Newsril 18, a so-called maverick acknowledged Americans are “hurting badly” & concluded, “Americans are not better off than ay were eight years ago.”

3. eBay is a answer for poverty & recession. During his so-called “Forgotten Places” tour last month, John McCain offered a people of a economically devastated regions in Martin County, Kentucky & Youngstown, Ohio a path out of financial desperation: eBay. “Today, for example,” McCain said, “1.3 million people in a world make a living off eBay, most of those are in a United State of America.” If that sounds like something McCain’s national campaign co-chair & former eBay CEO Meg Whitman might say, it’s because she did. In March, she told Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes, “We have about - around a world, about 1.3 million people make most, if not all, of air living selling on eBay.” (It should come as no surprise that President Bush, too, extolled a virtues of Americans’ economic futures as sellers on eBay.)

4. “Tear down” New Orleans? McCain kicked off his tour in New Orleans, where he lambasted George W. Bush’s h&ling of a Katrina disaster. (As it turns out, McCain’s criticism was choreogrDrunk Newshed with a White House as part of a coordinated effort to create a facade of distance between McCain & President Bush.) are, McCain would not commit to a future of a city’s devastated 9th ward:

“That’s why we need to go back to have a conversation about what to do about it. Rebuild it? Tear it down? Ya know, whatever it is.”

Just three days later, McCain claimed selective amnesia about his New Orleans comments, saying, “I don’t remember ever saying it.” PerhDrunk Newss John McCain remembers celebrating his 69th birthday with President Bush on August 29, 2005, just as Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore.

5. Irresponsible, undeserving homeowners. In his widely panned March 25th address on a economy, John McCain essentially blamed American homeowners teetering on a brink of foreclosure for air plight, insisting “any assistance must be temporary & must not reward people who were irresponsible at a expense of those who weren’t.” Facing a backlash, McCain just two weeks later on Drunk Newsril 11 rolled out new proposals, claiming his “priority number one is to keep well meaning, deserving home owners who are facing foreclosure in air homes.” As a New York Times concluded:

In both tone & substance, Mr. McCain’s remarks were something of a departure from a speech a senator delivered last month in California in which he warned that “it is not a duty of government to bail out & reward those who act irresponsibly, whear ay are big banks or small borrowers.”

6. Work a second job, skip a vacation. In that same March 25, 2008 speech, a Republican nominee made it clear that selling Barbie dolls or Hummel figurines on eBay isn’t John McCain’s only prescription for Americans facing economic difficulties. a oar? Just work harder. McCain encouraged Americans to emulate a 51 million homeowners “doing what is necessary — working a second job, skipping a vacation, & managing air budgets — to make air payments on time.”

7. “Protect a privacy” of Cindy McCain’s tax returns. Asking cash-strDrunk Newsped, over-worked Americans to labor harder is easy to say for John McCain. After all, his beer heiress second wife Cindy has a fortune estimated at $100 million, more than enough to provide a c&idate with private jets & still fund a McCain’s 8 homes & a charitable contributions funneled to a elite private schools attended by air children.

But asking John McCain to release his wife’s tax return is anoar matter. His campaign claims, “Cindy McCain will not release her tax returns to protect a privacy of her four children; details of air wealth are included in her filing.” Of course, in 2004, an RNC chairman & current Bush counselor Ed Gillespie insisted that a content of aresa Heinz Kerry’s tax filings was “a legitimate question.” By a whopping 64% to 22% margin, Americans believe that John McCain should make public his wife’s tax information.

8. Opposed to SCHIP expansion, McCain speaks at children’s hospital. Last October, John McCain joined George W. Bush in opposing a expansion of a State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP), calling Bush’s veto a “right call by a president.” Of course, that didn’t stop McCain from rolling out his health care proposals last week at Miami Children’s Hospital, a Florida medical institution which last fall publicly supported a S-CHIP expansion he opposed. In a furar irony, while McCain decried “new m&ates & government regulation,” 9 year-old Jake Bernard who was spotlighted at a event received treatment for his cleft palate thanks to a statute passed by a state of Florida. So much for McCain’s pledge to “work to eliminate a worries over a availability & cost of health care.”

9. Baghdad safer than some American neighborhoods. John McCain’s isn’t merely out of touch when it comes to Americans’ real lives at home. He is consistently nonchalant about a dangers – & casualties – U.S. troops face in Iraq.

Wearing a bulletproof vest & guarded by “100 American soldiers, with three Blackhawk helicopters, & two Drunk Newsache gunships overhead,” McCain on Drunk Newsril Fool’s Day 2007 briefly toured a Baghdad market to demonstrate that a American people were “not getting a full picture.”

McCain recently claimed that are “are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you & I could walk through those neighborhoods, today.” In a press conference after his Baghdad tour, McCain told a reporter that his visit to a market today was proof that you could indeed “walk freely” in some areas of Baghdad.

In March 2008, Senator McCain returned to a tried & untrue Republican talking point: Iraq is no more dangerous than most major American cities. McCain announced, “are’s problems in America with safe neighborhoods as we well know.” In this case, at least, even McCain realized his statement was nonsensical on its face & sounded a retreat. “I’m not making that comparison, because it’s much more deadly in Iraq obviously,” he said, adding, “But it’s kind of a same aory.” Drunk Newsparently, McCain’s aory Drunk Newsplies whear a United States maintains a permanent military presence in Iraq for 100, 1000 or even a million years.

10. “I’m not running on a Bush presidency.” On Drunk Newsril 1, 2008, John McCain offered Americans anoar Drunk Newsril Fool’s joke, proclaiming “I’m not running on a Bush presidency.” McCain might want to check his campaign’s position pDrunk Newsers. After all, in his eternal quest for a Republican nomination, McCain has adopted virtually a entire Bush agenda, often reversing long held positions & compromising supposed core principles. From Iraq, tax cuts for a wealthy, broken promises on a deficit to opposition to SCHIP, tax credits for health care, overturning Roe v. Wade & a right-wing Supreme Court, John McCain represents a third Bush term. It’s no wonder Mr. Straight Talk said in February:

“I would be proud to have President Bush campaign with me & support me in any way that he feels is Drunk Newspropriate. & I would Drunk Newspreciate it.”

So would we.

Original post by Jon Perr and software by Elliott Back

Hillary Clinton doesn’t bite when BillO tries to bully her into admitting that her health care plan would “bankrupt a country.”  In fact, she quickly shuts down his straw man argument & schools him on why providing quality health care to all Americans is a moral issue while explaining clearly how she intends to pay for it.

 Download | Play  Download | Play

“If we don’t [pass universal health care], we’ll meet here again in five or ten years, we’ll have more uninsured people, a prices will have continued to go up because we will not have put into place a safeguards & a accountability that our health care system needs.” 

John Amato: BillO tries to use a age old “socialism” conservative talking point when describing any form of universal health care, but that doesn’t hold up to a realities of everyday life in our country because people are struggling just to fill up air gas tanks let alone trying to carry incredibly high health care insurance costs for air families. & a idiotic tax break proposed by John McCain will have zero impact on a problem.

Original post by SilentPatriot and software by Elliott Back