Obamacare Games
Well, he did it again. Sen. John McCain killed the previous attempt to repeal Obamacare and he likely killed this one too.
The vote count on the Graham/Cassidy bill is nip and tuck, just like last time. But, honestly, I think a lot of games are being played by some Republican senators, and conservative voters are increasingly feeling betrayed.
For example, Sen. John McCain said last time that he would not support anything the governor of Arizona did not support. Well, Governor Ducey supports this bill.
Now Senator McCain is obsessing over "regular order" -- process. He wants the legislation to go through the appropriate committees. He wants public hearings.
Does McCain remember how Obamacare was rammed down our throats? Did he forget how Nancy Pelosi said we had to pass it to find out what was in it?
In a statement this afternoon, McCain said, "I cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal. I believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats, and have not yet really tried."
I’m not sure what compromise Sen. McCain thinks can be achieved. Democrats are demanding single-payer socialized healthcare.
We need to get this disaster off the backs of hard-working Americans, and I don't think they really give a hoot about "regular order" or the Senate's arcane rules.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) voted for the previous repeal effort, the so-called "skinny repeal," which did very little. Yet now he says he is going to oppose this bill, which is much more conservative in that it turns over the funding and direction of Obamacare to the states, where major changes can be made.
The Graham/Cassidy plan at least puts "federalism" at the center of the program. If we're going to be stuck with Obamacare, I'd prefer to give the states, rather than Washington, more control. That should be a high priority for our libertarian-leaning friends.
Senator Paul could become a hero to conservatives if he reversed course and declared, "I am so frustrated with John McCain's repeated betrayals of our party that I am putting my objections to this bill aside for the greater good of the country."
Senator Lisa Murkowski is another holdout. Just to remind you, Republican voters in Alaska were so frustrated with Murkowski that they defeated her in the 2010 primary. But the GOP establishment abandoned the conservative Republican nominee, and Murkowski won as an independent candidate in the general election.
How's that working out for the party now? She is a major stumbling block on perhaps the biggest issue of the past eight years.
Then there's Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who is unreliable on good days. Collins, the most liberal Republican in the Senate, was "leaning no" before McCain's announcement.
Kim's Threat
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un lashed out at President Trump yesterday in a rare televised speech. He called Trump a "mentally deranged dotard," adding that he would "tame" Trump "with fire." These kinds of insults are nothing new.
What is new is the threat by North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, who said that Kim might conduct "the strongest hydrogen bomb test over the Pacific Ocean."
Exactly how would North Korea conduct such a test? There hasn't been an atmospheric test of a nuclear weapon since 1980. Tests using ballistic missiles haven't been done since the 1960s -- for obvious reasons.
Several security experts noted that in order to carry out such a test, North Korea would have to fire a live nuclear warhead over Japan. MIT Professor Vipin Narang said that would be "exceedingly provocative," adding "If it ... didn't go exactly as planned ... it could be a world-changing event."
Another Left-wing Jew-Hater Exposed
Remember Valerie Plame? She became a major hero to the left during George W. Bush's Administration after her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, publicly accused the Bush Administration of manipulating evidence to justify the invasion of Iraq.
Plame became a media star when the late Bob Novak "outed" her as a CIA agent in one of his columns. Novak's report triggered the appointment of a special prosecutor to identify the leaker (Richard Armitage). But, ultimately, Scooter Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, ended up going to jail on unrelated charges.
Well, Plame, a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, is back in the news. She circulated a column yesterday written by Israel hater Philip Giraldi in which he promotes raw anti-Semitism. The media, of course, are whitewashing the controversy because they don't want you to know how disgusting the column really is. But just consider this excerpt:
"Those American Jews who are strongly attached to Israel and somehow find themselves in senior policy making positions involving the Middle East and who actually possess any integrity on the issue should recuse themselves. . .
"For those American Jews who lack any shred of integrity, the media should be required to label them at the bottom of the television screen whenever they pop up, e.g. Bill Kristol is 'Jewish and an outspoken supporter of the state of Israel.' That would be kind-of-like a warning label on a bottle of rat poison -- translating roughly as 'ingest even the tiniest little dosage of the nonsense spewed by Bill Kristol at your own peril.'"
Plame is now attempting to do damage control. She apologized, saying she only "skimmed" the article and missed the "gross undercurrents."
Sorry, but I'm not buying it. There's no way she could have been confused by the title -- "America's Jews Are Driving America's Wars."
Moreover in a series of tweets, she told critics, "Read the entire article," implying that she had not merely "skimmed" it. She also defended that trash as "thoughtful."
I urge the Anti-Defamation League and the Anne Frank Center to condemn Plame.
Keep in mind, friends, that Plame was a 20-year career CIA official, inside our government at the highest levels. Just like the late journalist Helen Thomas, you don't harbor this kind of raw anti-Semitism and it just slips out once. It infects everything you do.
You can bet that Plame was pushing the same kind of biased views at the CIA and in the Clinton campaign.
Values Voter Summit
Join me in our nation's capital October 13th - 15th for the 2017 Values Voter Summit!
Vice President Mike Pence said, "The Values Voter Summit [is] the greatest gathering of conservative pro-family Americans in the nation." And he is absolutely right!
That is why American Values has been a proud sponsor of the Summit every year.
This year's Summit features an incredible lineup of top government officials, opinion makers and faith leaders. There will be educational and informative breakout sessions, as well as events honoring those who have made significant contributions to the conservative movement.
I look forward to seeing you there!