Snakes & Weasels

Republicans should take a lesson from nature: Snakes eat weasels.

Republican weasels don’t take over in the House until next January and already they are curling up with Democrat snakes on repealing socialized medicine:

Their vociferous denunciations of PPACA notwithstanding, many House Republicans have expressed reservations similar to those of Rep. Paul Ryan: "Well, yeah, technically speaking, we can put riders in appropriations bills that say, 'No such funds can go to HHS to do x, y, or z in implementing ObamaCare.' He's gotta sign those things. And he doesn't strike me as the kind of person who would sign those things." Similar noises have been heard in the upper chamber. Retiring Senator Judd Gregg recently said, "I don't think starving or repealing is probably the best approach here …"

NOTE: John Boehner is a mongoose:

John Boehner was right when he said, "[W]e have to do everything we can to try to repeal this bill…"

Maybe the weasels can tell us what they plan on doing about socialized medicine if it is not defunded or repealed?

The way some Republicans talk it seems to me that they are more interested in protecting the snakes than they are in doing what a majority elected them to do. Of course Hussein is going to veto everything in order to keep HillaryCare II on the books. Voters knew that before the midterms. They also knew that repeal is the primary target; stomping congressional snakes who oppose repeal is the secondary target.

Hussein’s veto is not the end of it. The real test comes in the vote to override his veto. Failure to override is not the end of it. The elections in 2012 will be the final battle.

This next excerpt exposes the fear of a government shutdown for the fraud it is:

These and other Republicans are understandably chary of fighting a PR war with the White House. Their shellacking by Bill Clinton in 1995 is still green in their memories. But much has changed since then. Fifteen years ago, the Democrat-friendly "news" media could exert considerable control over the public perception of a battle between Congress and the President. Now, the blogosphere and conservative talk radio can -- and will -- provide an alternate narrative. And the voters who came out in such impressive numbers to repudiate the Democrats are not likely to be patient with a pusillanimous approach on this issue. Most would likely agree with the chairman of DeFundIt.org, who responded thus to Ryan's squeamishness: "t is a policy battle we must fight…. Make no mistake, the conservative base will revolt against a Republican Party that backs down in a funding fight over ObamaCare."

Indeed, much has changed since the two shutdowns: Nov. 1995 and again in Dec. 1995 to Jan. 6 in 1996. In addition to the Internet’s increasing, and unstoppable, influence, the Tea Party has emerged. Any Republican who is planning on hiding behind 1995 would be wise to take a hard look at the new realities. Republicans looking for lifetime tenure in Congress should be more afraid of not standing up to Hussein and his dying liberal media.

Finally, a government shutdown of NON-ESSENTIAL SERVICES is short-term; socialized medicine is forever if it is not repealed. Look at it this way: Americans can easily live with a shutdown; they can’t live with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act —— literally.

Liberal media platforms will not control the dialogue this time; so Republican conservatives should make the choice clear in the weeks leading up to a shutdown.

The article I quoted is in part two.

 

PART TWO

How the GOP Can Stop the Spread of Obamacare
By David Catron on 11.5.10 @ 6:09AM

Progressive pundits and policy wonks boast that, despite Tuesday's Republican victory in the House, ObamaCare will be very difficult to eradicate. They correctly point out that, to get rid of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), both houses of Congress must pass repeal legislation and that a Democrat filibuster would more than likely forestall any such effort in the Senate. They further point out that President Obama would certainly veto any repeal bill that somehow found its way to his desk, and that there is virtually no chance that his veto would be overridden. All of this is absolutely true. Moreover, the PPACA infection has already been introduced into the health care system and has begun to spread. Nonetheless, when the Republicans officially take control of the House in January, they will still have the ability inoculate us against future outbreaks of this contagion.

The three-stage vaccine with which the GOP can stop the spread of PPACA has already been proven effective -- in Massachusetts of all places. It will come as a surprise to many that Romneycare was not the first "universal coverage" law to be inflicted on the long-suffering citizens of the Bay State. In 1988 that state's legislature passed a health care bill containing many of the provisions that later reappeared in the 2006 boondoggle signed by Romney. That "reform" program was signed into law by then-governor Michael Dukakis, who gave it a prominent place in his résumé during his unsuccessful bid for the presidency. Like polio, however, "DukakisCare" is all but forgotten. Why? Because a group of newly elected state legislators defunded the program, delayed its implementation and, for all intents and purposes, killed it after Republican William Weld was elected governor in 1990.

The many similarities between the DukakisCare and ObamaCare situations have not received any attention in the media, of course, but they have not been lost on everyone. Mike Stopa, who unsuccessfully sought the 2010 Republican congressional nomination for the MA-3 district, offered a PPACA repeal plan whose introduction declared, "[T]he experience of Massachusetts in the late 1980's… serves as a model in our current situation." Indeed it does. Not long after the Dukakis legislation passed, the GOP made significant gains in the state legislature and immediately set about dismantling the bill. There are also parallels in the executive branch. As Stopa put it, "Michael Dukakis passed universal healthcare in 1988 and his term as governor ended in 1990. Barack Obama passed PPACA in 2010 and his term ends in 2012." All of which suggests that the "MA vaccine" could work on ObamaCare.

For the newly empowered GOP, however, the most difficult stage of the vaccination process may be the first -- getting solidly behind the defunding project. Their vociferous denunciations of PPACA notwithstanding, many House Republicans have expressed reservations similar to those of Rep. Paul Ryan: "Well, yeah, technically speaking, we can put riders in appropriations bills that say, 'No such funds can go to HHS to do x, y, or z in implementing ObamaCare.' He's gotta sign those things. And he doesn't strike me as the kind of person who would sign those things." Similar noises have been heard in the upper chamber. Retiring Senator Judd Gregg recently said, "I don't think starving or repealing is probably the best approach here …"

These and other Republicans are understandably chary of fighting a PR war with the White House. Their shellacking by Bill Clinton in 1995 is still green in their memories. But much has changed since then. Fifteen years ago, the Democrat-friendly "news" media could exert considerable control over the public perception of a battle between Congress and the President. Now, the blogosphere and conservative talk radio can -- and will -- provide an alternate narrative. And the voters who came out in such impressive numbers to repudiate the Democrats are not likely to be patient with a pusillanimous approach on this issue. Most would likely agree with the chairman of DeFundIt.org, who responded thus to Ryan's squeamishness: "t is a policy battle we must fight…. Make no mistake, the conservative base will revolt against a Republican Party that backs down in a funding fight over ObamaCare."

Assuming the Republicans can absorb this reality and summon the courage to face down the President on funding, they can move to the second stage of the vaccination process. In addition to the power of the purse, the new House majority will also have subpoena power that can be used to delay implementation. They can hold numerous and protracted public hearings, while demanding all manner of documentation from the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). They can summon HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to answer questions about her 2009 gag order to insurance companies and her growing reputation as an enemy of the First Amendment. It would also be instructive to hear CMS administrator Donald Berwick to elaborate on statements like, "Any healthcare funding plan that is just ... must redistribute wealth."

The third and final stage of the vaccine must, of course, be administered in 2012. The event that enabled Massachusetts legislators to finish off the 1988 universal coverage bill was the replacement of Michael Dukakis with Republican William Weld. The decision, by the former, not to seek reelection in 1990 made that process easier than might otherwise have been the case. Needless to say, Barack Obama is very unlikely to follow the Duke's example. However, if the President stays true to form and refuses to face the reality that the American people do want to "re-litigate" the reform issue, it is at least possible that a good Republican opponent can beat him in the 2012 presidential contest. And Tuesday's big GOP gains in key state houses and legislatures, particularly in crucial battlegrounds like Pennsylvania and Ohio, render an Obama defeat even more plausible.

Cynics will argue that, even if Obama can be given the bum's rush in 2012, that doesn't guarantee the success of this three-stage vaccine. And it is certainly true that it didn't permanently inoculate the Bay State from new and more virulent strains of health "reform." But that's hardly an argument for supinely allowing the PPACA to spread or waiting for the Supreme Court to provide a miracle cure. This contagion must be eradicated now. John Boehner was right when he said, "[W]e have to do everything we can to try to repeal this bill…" And, if outright repeal isn't possible, then the MA vaccine is the next best alternative.

David Catron is a health care revenue cycle expert who has spent more than twenty years working for and consulting with hospitals and medical practices. He has an MBA from the University of Georgia and blogs at Health Care BS.

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/11/05/how-the-gop-can-stop-the-sprea

 

I’m happy to report that Sen. Mitch McConnell might be a mongoose:

“We can and should propose and vote on straight repeal repeatedly.”

That means that John Boehner and McConnell are on the same page. Conservative Republicans can’t ask for more than that at this juncture. If nothing else, hardcore RINO will be outed if they vote against repeal.

Top Senate Republican Signs on to Support Lawsuit Challenging Health Care Overhaul
November 10, 2010 10:14 AM
ABC News’ Matthew Jaffe reports:

The top Senate Republican intends to file a friend-of-the-court brief next week in a federal lawsuit that questions the constitutionality of the Obama administration’s new health care law.

In his amicus brief to be filed in the US District Court in the Northern District of Florida, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-KY, challenges the health care overhaul’s requirement that nearly all Americans purchase health insurance.

McConnell has asked other Senate Republicans to join him in signing on to the brief. In a letter to his Capitol Hill colleagues on Tuesday, McConnell outlined his argument against the law.

“For the first time, the Congress is not regulating an economic activity in which its citizens have chosen to engage, but rather is mandating that its citizens engage in economic activity—that they purchase a particular product—to begin with, and it would allow the federal government to punish those who make a different choice,” McConnell wrote. “Second, the brief argues that if the Individual Mandate is deemed constitutional, there will no longer be any meaningful limit on Congress’s power to regulate its citizens under the Commerce Clause.”

McConnell has called for the health care law to be repealed altogether.

In a speech last Thursday at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, McConnell said, “We can and should propose and vote on straight repeal repeatedly. But we can’t expect the president to sign it. So we’ll have to work in the House on denying funds for implementation and in the Senate on votes against its most egregious provisions.”

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/20...lawsuit-challenging-health-care-overhaul.html

 

Burmese pythons banned due to threat to Florida wildlife...

US Bans Snakes Plaguing Florida Everglades
January 17, 2012 - The United States is banning the import of Burmese pythons and three other species of giant constrictor snakes due to the danger they pose to local wildlife.

 

Snakes don't eat weasels often. Weasels don't eat snakes often. Both eat mice and rats.

 

Snakes and weasels do not want to be associated with the likes of politicians and broadcast media spinners.