Category Archives: News

Who knows more about economics? Obama or people who run businesses?

Consider this article from The American Spectator, which talks about the Obammunist response to companies losing massive amounts of money because of Obamacare. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

By last Friday, AT&T, Caterpillar, Deere & Co., and AK Steel Holding Corp. had all announced that they were taking the one-time charges on their first-quarter balance sheets. More companies were expected to make similar announcements this week.

[…]On Friday White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and Obama senior advisor Valerie Jarrett were calling the CEOs and Washington office heads of the companies that took the financial hits and attacked them for doing so. One Washington office head said that the White House calls were accusatory and “downright rude.”

[…]”Most of these people [in the Administration] have never had a real job in their lives. They don’t understand a thing about business, and that includes the President,” says a senior lobbyist for one of the companies that announced the charge. “My CEO sat with the President over lunch with two other CEOs, and each of them tried to explain to the President what this bill would do to our companies and the economy in general. First the President didn’t understand what they were talking about. Then he basically told my boss he was lying. Frankly my boss was embarrassed for him; he clearly had not been briefed and didn’t know what was in the bill.”

[…]”We had memos on these issues, but none of our people, we think, looked at them,” says  a staffer. “When they saw the stories last week about the charges some of the companies were taking, they were genuinely surprised and assumed that the companies were just doing this to embarrass them.  They really believed this bill would immediately lower costs. They just didn’t understand what they were voting on.”

And more from National Review, where the CEO of Aetna was interviewed. (H/T Ace of Spades via ECM)

Excerpt:

Will insurance premiums go up?

The answer is yes, and some of the things that will drive those premiums are significant additional taxes the industry will ultimately have to pay in the first year.

The President said that this bill would not have any impact on people who already had coverage, that it was about the uninsured, that there would be no change. Will this legislation change the coverage of people who are already paying for it?

My perception is, yes, things will change. You might not have a plan that includes the exact same doctors. You might have plans that have richer benefits, and therefore you’re going to pay more for benefits you may or may not want. It would have been a better message to say, we’re going to make certain you maintain your eligibility.

The “Robin Hood” intention of giving to the unproductive by taking from the productive seldom pays off, since the productive are the ones who give people jobs. And a lot of people are going to lose their jobs because of Obama’s economic ignorance. Either that, or companies will raise their insurance premiums, so that the poor will have to pay more for health care. Obama doesn’t know what he is doing, he probably thinks that communism has made Cuba rich. He’s just trying to help poor America reach the opulence of communist North Korea.

Obama’s nationalization of student loans killed private sector jobs

Marathon Pundit reports.

Excerpt:

PENNSYLVANIA: “Sallie Mae Decided Against Hiring 300 Temporary Workers At Its Loan Servicing Center After The Passage Of Student Lending Reform. Still to be determined are the long-term effects on the nearly 1,000 workers at the company’s facility in the Hanover Industrial Estates. “The temporary jobs that were posted in preparation for this year’s peak loan processing season have been eliminated,” Martha Holler, spokeswoman for Sallie Mae, said in an e-mail Friday. The move was in reaction to the passage Thursday of The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act that was included in the health care reform bill.” (“Sallie Mae plan for 300 temps halted,” The Times Leader, 3/27/10)

NEBRASKA: “Congressional Votes On Thursday To End Federally Subsidized Student Lending By Private Companies Will Mean Job Cuts At Lincoln Student Loan Company Nelnet, a company spokesman said Friday. “We are very disappointed by this political news,” spokesman Ben Kiser said. “We believe it is poor public policy that will eliminate a part of our business and result in job losses in our community.” Kiser declined to give any details about the scope of the cuts, although he said they will occur over the next several months. Nelnet employs about 2,100 people, including more than 800 in Lincoln. The provision to end the Federal Family Education Loan Program and to channel all federal student lending directly through the government was tacked on to the controversial health insurance overhaul reconciliation legislation.” (“End Of Student Loan Program Will Mean Job Cuts At Nelnet,” Lincoln Journal Star, 3/26/10)

And more from this post:

STUDENT LOAN CENTER IN LYNN HAVEN, FLORIDA: “It’s Devastating With The Swipe Of A Pen We Can Wipe-Out 700-Jobs.” “Another potential nail in the coffin for SallieMae Thursday. The U.S. Senate has passed a Health Care Reconciliation bill. The ‘fix it’ bill reshapes parts of the new health care overhaul law. The Democrats voted down all 40 Republican amendments to the bill. One of those was an amendment offered by Florida Senator George Lemieux that would have protected SallieMae and some 700 local jobs. Lemieux’s proposal would have stripped the health care bill of the language which basically takes the student loan program from the private sector. The bill now goes back to the House for a final vote. ‘It’s devastating with the swipe of a pen we can wipe-out 700-jobs.’ Renee Meng said it was a sad day for the SallieMae center in Lynn Haven where she described the staff as devastated and heartbroken.” (“Time Could Be Short For SallieMae In Lynn Haven,” WJHG-NBC, 3/25/10)

Thousands of jobs lost. People who can’t feed their families, send their children to university or even get medical care. All because of Obama. The voters had fears about the future. And the voters believed that he could make real life go away with a magic wand called “big government”.

Owner of the last anti-Chavez TV station arrested in communist Venezuela

Hugo Chavez is arresting anyone who disagrees with him. (H/T Ace of Spades)

Excerpt:

The owner of Venezuela’s only remaining TV channel that takes a critical line against President Hugo Chavez was arrested Thursday, raising concerns the government is carrying out a widening crackdown aimed at silencing opponents.

Guillermo Zuloaga, owner of Globovision, was arrested on a warrant for remarks that were deemed “offensive” to the president, Attorney General Luisa Ortega said…

The Attorney General’s Office said in a statement that prosecutors are investigating Zuloaga for allegedly violating a law prohibiting Venezuelans from spreading “false information through any medium,” including newspapers, radio, television, e-mails or leaflets, “that cause public panic.”

Hugo Chavez has his own version of the Democrats’ “Fairness Doctrine”. I really don’t think there is much difference between Chavez and Obama, either. This will happen here too, in time. When you look at the way that Democrats attack and censor their opponents in the media and on university campuses, it’s not unexpected. They’re fascists. It’s not an insult, it’s just reality. That’s the worldview of the secular left.

Are Obama and Chavez really so different?

Here’s a picture of Barack Obama and Hugo Chavez.

Hey, Chavez! Good work arresting dissenters!
Hey, Chavez! Good work arresting dissenters!

They seem to get along well. Perhaps because they share the same views?

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