ObamaCare architect defends plan, says president not to blame for rollout glitches

POLITICS

Published November 03, 2013
FoxNews.com

Ezekiel EmanuelFox News

WASHINGTON – The architect of the Affordable Care Act insisted on “Fox News Sunday” that President Obama isn’t to blame for the rocky rollout of ObamaCare and deflected charges that the administration misled Americans about being able to keep their current health plans.

Ezekiel Emanuel, a bioethicist, was part of the president’s health care reform team for two years and is the brother of former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

“We grandfathered in plans,” Emanuel said.

Host Chris Wallace pressed Emanuel to defend the growing number of cancellation notices sent to people whose plans changed after the law was implemented, but Emanuel could not.

Instead, he blamed much of the problems on insurance companies and not the new law.

“The law does not say ‘Sears drop coverage!’ Sears decides what’s good for Sears,” Emanuel said. “The insurance decides how to make money. When the private companies decide to drop an individual, you blame Obama. He isn’t responsible for that.”

Wallace’s other guest in the segment, James Capretta of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, called the grandfather clause in ObamaCare too narrow, adding that “the whole point of the exchanges was to close down the individual insurance market.”

Capretta called out Obama’s pitch to the public about the benefits of the plan and repeated pledges that Americans would be able to keep their current insurance providers if they liked it misleading and says Obama should shoulder the blame.

“There’s no extenuating circumstances,” Capretta said. “It was central to passing the law. He said clearly you can keep your plan. This wasn’t a minor pledge. It was central to the law. He broke that pledge.”

Capretta said the Obama administration “shouldn’t be able to play fast and loose” with people’s medical coverage.

In recent days, a growing number of Democrats have joined Republicans calling to extend the March 31 deadline to sign up for health insurance. They argue that the White House should extend the deadline to make sure that people who want it have enough time to buy it.

Capretta suggested “delaying the whole thing for a year.”

Emanuel did not agree.

“(Americans) will have a full four months to sign up,” Emanuel said. “You can’t prejudge now.”
White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer added a new twist to Obama’s pledge to millions of Americans that they could keep their insurance if they like it.

“[People who are happy with their insurance] can keep it, if it hasn’t been changed or canceled,” he said on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos.

In the days that followed the Oct. 1 rollout, the site has been riddled with problems.

The ObamaCare website shut down Saturday night for “extended” repairs, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Technicians have shut down HealthCare.gov during weekends since the site launched Oct. 1, but just for a few overnight hours.

"The HealthCare.gov tech team is performing extended maintenance this weekend to improve network infrastructure and make enhancements to the online application and enrollment tools,” agency spokeswoman Joanne Peters said Saturday.

Last week, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius testified during a congressional hearing that officials are working “24-7” to improve the health insurance website HealthCare.gov. The online portal debuted on Oct. 1 to mostly negative reviews over glitches in the system.

The website was designed to allow people to sign in and sign up for insurance in their state.

It is a part of Obama’s signature health care overhaul. The law, which was passed with no GOP support, was signed by the president in 2010 as a way to fix the nation’s ailing health care system and providing insurance to millions of people who couldn’t afford it.

Sebelius was grilled for three hours last week by lawmakers who wanted to know why there were so many problems with the system. Sebelius took most of the blame for the botched debut.

Jeffrey Zients, a former White House budget deputy, has said the site will be fixed by the end of the month. Sebelius has also said she feels confident about the Nov. 30 re-launch.


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Never On A Sunday

Rahm Emanuel


By Edward McClelland
| Tuesday, Apr 30, 2013 | Updated 1:30 PM CDT








So, good for Mayor Rahm Emanuel in getting Chicago Parking Meters LLC to create a parking Sabbath in most neighborhoods. Having to pay for parking on a Sunday was a reminder of one of America’s most unflattering characteristics: it’s a place where everything is for sale, and where someone’s trying to make a buck off you, seven days a week. No one should get a parking ticket for going to church.
It’s a good time, though, to revisit how Mayor Daley's parking giveaway has not only fleeced the motorists of Chicago, but has perverted the original purpose of parking meters. Parking meters were not invented to make money for municipalities. They were invented to make money for businesses, by keeping cars circulating throughout the day. Without meters, a motorist could park in the street in front of a store all day, preventing new customers from finding a spot. Fees were minimal, because the idea was simply to discourage loitering. But, with the sale of the meter concession, street parking went from serving merchants to becoming a business itself. And not just a business, but a business whose very existence is at the expense of the merchants it was originally designed to serve. Chicago Parking LLC’s meters are discouraging the commerce they are supposed to facilitate, as drivers head to the suburbs, where the parking is cheaper -- or free -- and the meter maids less aggressive.

At least now your neighborhood hardware store/vacuum cleaner repair shop/bike shop/pharmacy have a partial reprieve. They can open on Sunday.

Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Never-On-A-Sunday-205407291.html#ixzz2RzJf5Mex

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Chicago Mayor Shows Support for City’s Cristo Rey Schools

20 December 2012



Jesuit Father Chris Devron, president of Christ the King College Preparatory School


Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is a big supporter of his city’s two Jesuit Cristo Rey Network schools, Cristo Rey Jesuit High School and Christ the King Jesuit College Preparatory School. He recently took part in an event at Loyola University Chicago with the goal of creating 30 jobs for the schools’ corporate work-study programs for students. At Cristo Rey schools, students work part-time, and their salaries help pay tuition.

“If you’re serious about education and that it can open doors, you’ll do this. You’re not leaving until you do,” Emanuel told those gathered, which included some of the biggest names in Chicago business. Emanuel also announced that he had added another work-study job to the one already in his office.

Jesuit Father Chris Devron, president of Christ the King, says the event brought commitments for 28 jobs. Four students share each full-time, entry-level position, and they work one day a week.

“The mayor might be disappointed we didn’t meet the 30 goal, but we still might get two more,” says Fr. Devron, who became friends with Emanuel when he was running for mayor.

Fr. Devron wanted Emanuel to see his school’s work-study program, and Emanuel visited Christ the King on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2011.

“He [the mayor] says, ‘I’m assuming all these kids are Catholic.’ And I say, ‘only 10 percent,’ ” Fr. Devron recalls. “You could see the light bulb go on in the mayor’s head because he saw the commitment went beyond religion.”

Emanuel promised his support that day.

“I don’t care if it’s a magnet school, baccalaureate school, military, charter, parochial,” Emanuel said in an interview after the job-raising event. “I want educational excellence, and I’ll look at anything.”

Of the work-study program, the mayor says it shows “that regardless of backgrounds of kids, you can succeed educationally.” [Crain’s Chicago Business]

Below is a recent ABC Chicago segment on Christ the King students sharing a Chicago City Hall job.



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Chicago Teachers On Strike

September 11, 2012 at 10:00 AM

Teachers strike in Chicago puts reform, resistance, respect and big politics in the spotlight.

Public school teachers cheer as they march on streets surrounding the Chicago Public Schools district headquarters on the first day of strike action over teachers’ contracts on Monday, Sept. 10, 2012 in Chicago. For the first time in a quarter century, Chicago teachers walked out of the classroom Monday, taking a bitter contract dispute over evaluations and job security to the streets of the nation’s third-largest city — and to a national audience — less than a week after most schools opened for fall. (AP)

The country’s got an education crisis, and Chicago’s got a teachers strike. Talk about an epicenter. The President’s hometown. His former chief of staff, the Mayor – Rahm Emanuel. His education secretary, Arne Duncan, Chicago’s former school boss, now pushing reform nationally.

Rahm Emanuel wants reform. Chicago teachers want respect. And air conditioning. And more computers. And textbooks that arrive on time. Now it’s all boiled over, in the middle of a presidential campaign.

This hour, On Point: the Chicago teachers’ strike, the nation’s education.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Joel Hood, reporter for the Chicago Tribune.

Steven Greenhouse, the labor and workplace reporter for The New York Times.

Laura Washington, columnist with the Chicago Sun Times.

Timothy Knowles, director of the University of Chicago’s Urban Education Institute .

From Tom’s Reading List

Chicago Tribune “Talks between Chicago’s school board and the city’s striking teachers failed to produce an agreement Monday, leaving more than 350,000 children locked out of the classroom for a second day.”

New York Times “The high-stakes strike by 26,000 public school teachers in Chicago is only the latest episode in which the nation’s teachers’ unions have been thrown on the defensive in the face of demands for far-reaching changes.”

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Hizzoner Rahm Emanuel's brand of Hope and Change

You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.

- Rahm Emanuel

Read more at

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/r/rahmemanue409199.html#ARUEHKABv6Bt6q6g.99

Youtube video:


http://youtu.be/1yeA_kHHLow

~*~

(September 10, 2012)

Chicago teachers strike; students and parents scramble
http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/10/us/illinois-chicago-teachers-strike/index.html

(August 24, 2012)

19 people wounded in Chicago shooting attacks overnight, including 13 within 30 minutes, police say
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57500026-504083/19-people-wounded-in-chicago-shooting-attacks-overnight-including-13-within-30-minutes-police-say/

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Emanuel Turns Over Homeless Services to Catholic Charities

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announces an expansion of services to the homeless through a partnership with Catholic Charities at a press conference Thursday on the construction site of the New Moms facility on the West Side. (Nancy Stone, Chicago Tribune / August 23, 2012)

By John Byrne

Tribune reporter

5:33 p.m. CDT, August 23, 2012

Catholic Charities is taking over as the agency giving people late night rides to shelters as part of Chicago's latest plan to fight homelessness.

The city will use an expected $1.7 million in annual savings from turning over the overnight services to the venerable charity to help provide more beds and support to homeless youth and others, Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Thursday.

"For half the cost, we can provide the same services in terms of transportation, and then plow that money back into better servicing, more beds and more wrap-around services, both for the kids and adults," Emanuel said at the site of a shelter for young mothers and their children under construction in the Austin neighborhood.

The mayor has been looking for ways to cover the cost for services to the city's homeless population since last year.

After the state cut $2.3 million to subsidize the nighttime rides-to-shelters program, Emanuel briefly canceled it. After aldermen complained, he used $200,000 in city funds to rehire some of the workers who provided the rides. Eventually, the state restored the funding.

In addition to the overnight rides to shelters, Catholic Charities will answer requests for well-being checks and deliver food boxes, according to the administration.

The charity will dedicate 30 full-time employees and about 12 part-time employees to do the work, according to Evelyn Diaz, commissioner of the Department of Family and Support Services.

About 50 city jobs will be eliminated under the switch. The city will work with Catholic Charities to see if the organization will hire those who lose their positions, according to Matt Smith, spokesman for the city agency.

The announcement is part of a longer-term homelessness plan, Emanuel said.

"Plan 2.0" is a seven-year attempt to build more housing for homeless youth, create new units of housing for homeless people with disabilities and provide financial assistance to more families who have lost their homes so they can find new places to live. Next year, the city hopes to leverage state and federal funding to boost the housing units available to homeless people locally.

It's the latest attempt to make a dent in the difficult problem of homelessness in Chicago.

In 2003, Mayor Richard Daley unveiled a plan designed to end homelessness in the city by 2013, in part by closing homeless shelters and using the money saved to fund permanent housing.

jebyrne@tribune.com
Twitter @_johnbyrne

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Emanuel vows no tax hikes to bridge $635.7 million budget gap

Mayor Rahm Emanuel at City Hall today. (Brent Lewis/Tribune)


By Hal Dardick
Tribune reporter
12:23 p.m. CDT, July 29, 2011

Mayor Rahm Emanuel today said next year's city budget hole is nearly $636 million and he won't use one-time fixes or reserves to fix it.

"Today is to inform the public who pays the bills of the size and the scope of the problem," Emanuel said at a City Hall news conference. "The system needs reform. It is calling out for it."

Emanuel also said he won't raise taxes on Chicagoans who feel "nickeled and dimed" until the city's financial structure gets reformed.

"I can't ask people to pay more into a system that needs to be fundamentally restructured," he said.
Without significant changes in how the city operates, the city budget gap would widen in coming years to $741.4 million in 2013 and $790.7 million in 2014, the administration estimates.
Much of the budget imbalance results from long-term union contracts with locked-in raises, rising health care costs for workers and increased borrowing in recent years that brought higher interest payments.

The budget figures do not include shortfalls in city pension systems, which could add costs of $500 million or more annually in coming years. Absent changes in the pension systems or new revenue sources, that could result in a doubling of the city property tax, according to The Civic Federation, a non-partisan budget watchdog group.

Emanuel is required under state law to make them public by July 31.

Release of the preliminary figures is the first step in fashioning a budget for the coming year. Emanuel’s task will be to find ways to close that gap without tapping one-time revenue sources, as former Mayor Daley did repeatedly in recent years.

Emanuel, who personally briefed City Council committee chairmen on the budget this morning, told them he has asked his department heads to come up with ideas to close the gap. His appearance at the briefings was a break from past practice, when Daley had his financial chiefs present the news to aldermen.

In May, Daley said he anticipated a budget shortfall next year of $587 million, but incoming Emanuel administration officials have said they anticipated it would be higher.

Last year, the city plugged a budget gap of $655 million largely by dipping into dwindling reserves, refinancing debt and drawing money from once-sacrosanct special taxing district funds.

During his first couple of months in office, Emanuel has taken steps to curtail spending. He announced plans to cut $75 million from this year’s $6.15 billion spending plan, and he has pushed unions to make concessions, so far to little avail.

Critics note that even in 2007, when the economy peaked, the city faced a budget gap of $95 million, and spending has only increased since.

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"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.."

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."
Let's put this in the "things not to say before trying to spend a trillion dollars" column...
-Rham Emanuel



[Uploaded by WSJDigitalNetwork on Nov 19, 2008
For more political videos, head to www.wsj.com/video. Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff for president-elect Barack Obama, outlines the opportunities for bipartisan reform that he says the financial crisis presents at the Wall Street Journal CEO Council in Washington, D.C. (Nov. 19)]


P.S.

Now Rahm Emanuel is mayor of Chicago, and the Brother of the previous mayor, William M. Daley (replacing Emanuel) is Obama's White House Chief of Staff... Nothing is wasted. Especially the Crises.
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Rep. Rahm Emanuel honors 2002 Wrigley Field Usher of the Year

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Ram_Emanuel%2C_Louise_Coughlin%2C_Rev_Daniel_Coughlin.jpg

Ram_Emanuel,_Louise_Coughlin,_Rev_Daniel_Coughlin.jpg ‎ (575 × 534 pixels, file size: 221 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Description

English: Rep. Rahm Emanuel honors 2002 Wrigley Field Usher of the Year, Louise Coughlin, 89, along with her son, Rev. Daniel P. Coughlin, Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives. Emanuel presented Coughlin with an official copy of a statement he entered into the Congressional Record marking her achievement

Please Note: Rahm Emanuel's name is mispelled in the image title.


Date
13 August 2003


Source
http://www.house.gov/emanuel/photo_030815.htm


Author
United States office of Rep. Rahm Emanuel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ram_Emanuel,_Louise_Coughlin,_Rev_Daniel_Coughlin.jpg
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Say hello to my little friend

Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago

Da Bears?

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The comedian-elect: Rahm jokes about reporters, residency — and himself

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter Feb 23, 2011 03:55PM


Rahm Emanuel’s first full-blown news conference as Chicago’s mayor-in-waiting was a showcase for his sense of humor.

Mayor Daley could be funny at times, too. He loved to laugh at his own jokes. He was at his best when he had an audience of underlings who laughed along with him — often at the expense of the press.

But Emanuel’s humor was less biting and more playful.

He opened the 40-minute news conference — while standing on a riser at the Union League Club — by joking about his height.

“This is the first time I’ve actually seen you from this perspective. ... I’m 5-8, man. I can’t see you like this,” he said.

When a reporter noted that the view was “not any prettier” from above, Emanuel said, “I don’t think I’m any prettier, [either]. And I can say that from this perspective looking out.”

WBBM-TV Channel 2 reporter Jay Levine began the questioning by congratulating the mayor-elect.

“That sounded so heartfelt, Jay. Thank you,” Emanuel said.

Levine replied, “I speak on behalf of the entire room, Mr. Mayor-elect.”

Emanuel countered, “Are you sure? You guys want to have a secret ballot on that?”

The subject turned to Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) and whether Emanuel planned to replace Burke as chairman of the City Council’s Finance Committee.

“I’m so proud of you guys. It only took three questions for that” to come up, he said.

Emanuel also joked when Fox Chicago’s Mike Flannery asked about the forensic audit that the mayor-elect talked about ordering during a morning radio interview.

“I’m very proud that you were up early listening to the radio. [But,] you weren’t at the gym working out with me,” Emanuel said.

When asked how it felt to be Chicago’s first Jewish mayor, Emanuel joked about the residency challenge that nearly knocked him off the ballot.

“I got elected as a person from Chicago, a resident. I’m gonna use that word now,” he said.

The mayor-in waiting also teased reporters for asking a series of two-part questions.

“Does it make you feel like you’re back in Washington?” asked WBBM-AM Radio reporter Craig Dellimore.

Emanuel replied, “No. Those are three-part questions.”

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Rahm Emanuel: You never want a serious crisis to go to waste

After one year, Obama's approval at 50%

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

by Joe Sudbay (DC) on 1/19/2010 08:27:00 AM

I wanted to get up at least one look at Obama's first year before it becomes completely entangled in the Brown/Coakley race fallout. I have to admit, I'm surprised at the damage done to Obama's presidency over the past year. The Republicans were unrelenting in their attacks. But, the White House brain trust didn't do the President any favors. Remember how Obama kept saying he wanted health care reform done by August? Yet, his staff, led by Rahm Emanuel and Jim Messina, kept letting Max Baucus drag out the process last summer with those useless meetings by the "Gang of Six." It's January and there's no final bill. Let's just say, a lot of us expected a lot more from President Obama.

This is from CBS:

Mr. Obama's job approval rating is now 50 percent, up from last week's all-time low of 46 percent. When he took office a year ago, 62 percent approved.

The recent four-point rise in Mr. Obama's overall job approval rating may reflect the widespread approval of his handling of the U.S. response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti last week; 80 percent approve, and just 8 percent disapprove. Majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents approve on this measure.

But when it comes to overall approval, the president has maintained his early high approval ratings only among Democrats (four in five approve). Only four in 10 independents and a quarter of Republicans now approve. A year ago, 56 percent of independents approved of the job President Obama was doing, as did 36 percent of Republicans.

At 50 percent, Mr. Obama's approval rating is similar to that of Presidents Ronald Reagan (49 percent), Jimmy Carter (51 percent) and Bill Clinton (54 percent) one year into their presidencies. All were plagued by economic troubles – and Mr.
Clinton also attempted to reform health care.

One of the worst results in this poll has to do with banks:

Forty-nine percent say the president has done too much for the banks, and 37 percent think he's done too much for U.S. auto makers. At the same time, 54 percent say he's done too little for the middle class, six in 10 think he's done too little for small businesses and a plurality says he's done too little for homeowners.

A lot of Americans see the banks as big winners in the first year of the Obama administration. All the news about bonuses reinforces that perception. Now, the GOP left the economic mess. But, Obama's economic team appeared to have abetted the banks instead of reining them in.

We can expect more of these polls and much more discussion of Obama's first year for the rest of the week. What happens today in Massachusetts will shape that discussion.
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Source:http://www.americablog.com/2010/01/after-one-year-obamas-approval-at-50.html
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NPR, Emanuel no longer on first-name basis

POLITICO

November 23, 2009
NPR, Emanuel no longer on first-name basis

Josh Gerstein

After one of its reporters repeatedly referred to Rahm Emanuel simply as "Rahm" in an on-air segment last week, NPR executives have decided such familiar references by reporters will be verboten in the future.

Henceforth, the White House Chief of Staff will be known only as "Rahm Emanuel." The customary second reference using only the person's last name is being set aside in this case because Rahm is rarely referred to as "Emanuel" in Washington circles.

"No one, absolutely no one, refers to Rahm Emanuel as Emanuel, or Mr. Emanuel, or Chief of Staff Emanuel. Therefore our style for him will have to be Rahm Emanuel, both names on first reference and second reference," NPR Washington editor Ron Elving told the network's ombudsman, Alicia Shepard last week.

Shepard said she disagreed with the special second reference for Emanuel and thinks he should simply be called by his last name on second mention, like most others referred to on NPR.

Posted by Josh Gerstein 11:35 PM

Source: http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerstein/1109/NPR_Emanuel_no_longer_on_firstname_basis.html

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Health care reform will bankrupt America

November 16, 2009

Dr. Allen D. Unruh

The last nail in the coffin of capitalism will be a government takeover of health care. All doctors will be slaves of the state, while all patients will be wards.

This undermines the entire Declaration of Independence, where the inalienable (God-given) right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is guaranteed.

President Obama has promised fundamental reform, which replaces God-given rights with government-given rights.

The first lesson in economics is there never are enough resources to meet everyone's desires. The first lesson of politics is to ignore the first lesson in economics.

Karl Marx said, "The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism." C.S. Lewis said, "Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised to the good of its victims may be the most oppressive." And Thomas Jefferson said, "I predict happiness for the American people if they can keep the government from confiscating the fruits of their labor under the pretense of taking care of them."

"One of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the great struggle for independence," Charles Beard said. Government health care will be like a hospital gown: You think you're covered, but you're not.

What is at stake in the health care reform debate? Your health, your freedom and your life. Your economic opportunity to prosper will change to a survival mind-set.

We are told the sky will fall if we don't let government take over health care immediately. A better metaphor is that the Titanic is sinking, and bureaucrats want the country to get on board because it will be too late next year. It's time we send some lifeboats because all Americans are in the same boat.

There is one principle about a boat: You can't sink half of it. We either live in freedom or in servitude. There is no in between.

Obama has said, "We are our brother's keeper." But the good Samaritan walked across the road to help the beaten pilgrim. He didn't call a social welfare agency.

They tell us we should just "trust them." Has the federal government given even one reason why we should trust it? Medicare costs nine times more than projected estimates and is going broke fast. In history, there never has been a government program that has come in under budget.

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, has been appointed to two key positions: health policy adviser at the Office of Management and Budget and a member of the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research. He bluntly admits that cuts will not be painless.

In the Feb. 27, 2008, issue of Health Affairs, Emanuel wrote, "Savings will require changing how doctors think about their patients." In the June 18 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, he added that doctors take the Hippocratic oath "as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others."

Ezekiel Emanuel wants doctors to look beyond the needs of their patients and consider social justice such as whether the money could be better spent on somebody else. The people who fall through the cracks are the elderly, people in chronic pain, the disabled and those who require expensive procedures. He explicitly defends discrimination against older patients.

Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, urged Congress to delegate its own authority over Medicare to a new, presidentially appointed bureaucracy that wouldn't be accountable to the public.

The current version of health care reform undermines the First, Fourth, Fifth, 10th and 13th amendments to the Constitution. America will go bankrupt, freedom will be lost, health care costs will go up dramatically, health care quality will go down, health care workers will be demoralized and millions of jobs will be lost.

This is not about health care. It's about tyranny and power.

There is only one solution: Kill the bill.

We must give a pink slip in the next election to everyone who votes for it. Market solutions are not allowed on the table.

Edmund Burke said, "Bad laws are the worst form of tyranny." Jefferson said, "Rebellion to tyranny is obedience to God."

Nothing less than the future of civilization is at stake.

Source: http://www.argusleader.com/article/20091116/VOICES05/911160315/1052/OPINION01

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Lawmaker Proposes Bill Banning Czar Funding

Title: Lawmaker Proposes Bill Banning Czar Funding
Published: Thu, 16 Jul 2009

Description: Rep. Jack Kingston on why he wants President Obama's 34 Czars to go through Congress


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Automatically Generated Transcript (may not be 100% accurate)

" Obama currently has 32. Account of thirty -- are working under most draw salaries and have a staff Republican representative Jack Kingston of Georgia wants all of this to go through congress first and he joins us now -- what are your concerns here. Well article -- in section two of the United States constitution says that the the president must seek advice and consent of the US senate before naming somebody took cabinet post -- position of higher authority on policy. Clearly these stores and cars have high authority and influence on. Policy and even many of them directly report to Rahm Emanuel the chief of staff -- president himself and so weaker -- He needs to go through the Senate and have a betting kind of policy so we know who these people aren't what their background is and why. 31 year old for example can turn around automobile business well live."

" Let's let's take you as Steve Brenner is an example of course he just stepped down as car czar. Given the various conflicts of interest a lot of people raised about his background of some of the companies he bailed out -- cars are. Would he ever have been approved when he had passed the test through the Senate."

" I don't think he would have and I think that is very important understand that there was that a major pension question in terms of some corruption. That he was involved and and people would want to know about them probably what would have happened he would have withdrawn his name to begin with as well not like. Not paying your nanny tax you know that the filter just the threat of going in front of the US senate could."

" Committee often gets people's and I don't think they'll want that job. Again you think about 31 year old guy with no background in the automobile business but he's going to turn around Detroit. He had no spark plug from the lug nuts but he's going to be the whiz kid did turn for the month down around and I just don't believe enough that the US senate the constitution -- famine follows. Put this and therefore recent for the checks and balances."

" You know certain of the art and on the other side of the island says hey look at SARS have been around and David I've been reporting this sense that the -- days. And they had no budget authority what do you say to that argument."

" Well here's what I've been that on the average salaries seems to be about 172000. Dollars. They will be getting staff they have offices. They have their own budgets the accountability. That the stimulus accountability -- spent eighteen million dollars. Designing the web page for the stimulus program. That that's why we on the Appropriations Committee have to have these people have fun of us so that we can talk about them but. You know Ronald Reagan believe overnight -- period of time had something like. Three bizarre president Obama's up to 34 already had that right he will probably reach. Three or 400 stars by the end of a four year period and we believe. That they should not only come before this senate. To be thoroughly vetted so that we can know their expertise in the background but also come before the house appropriators so that we can look at their budgets and state. If there's been an eighteen million dollars on web site and."

Source: http://www.foxbusiness.com/search-results/m/25312259/lawmaker-proposes-bill-banning-czar-funding.htm

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DEADLY DOCTORS

DEADLY DOCTORS
O ADVISERS WANT TO RATION CARE

By BETSY MCCAUGHEY

Emanuel: Believes in withholding care from elderly for greater good.

Last updated: 1:13 am

July 24, 2009 Posted: 1:03 am

July 24, 2009

THE health bills coming out of Congress would put the decisions about your care in the hands of presidential appointees. They'd decide what plans cover, how much leeway your doctor will have and what seniors get under Medicare.

Yet at least two of President Obama's top health advisers should never be trusted with that power.

Start with Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. He has already been appointed to two key positions: health-policy adviser at the Office of Management and Budget and a member of Federal Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research.
Emanuel bluntly admits that the cuts will not be pain-free. "Vague promises of savings from cutting waste, enhancing prevention and wellness, installing electronic medical records and improving quality are merely 'lipstick' cost control, more for show and public relations than for true change," he wrote last year (Health Affairs Feb. 27, 2008).

Savings, he writes, will require changing how doctors think about their patients: Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath too seriously, "as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others" (Journal of the American Medical Association, June 18, 2008).
Yes, that's what patients want their doctors to do. But Emanuel wants doctors to look beyond the needs of their patients and consider social justice, such as whether the money could be better spent on somebody else.

Many doctors are horrified by this notion; they'll tell you that a doctor's job is to achieve social justice one patient at a time.

Emanuel, however, believes that "communitarianism" should guide decisions on who gets care. He says medical care should be reserved for the non-disabled, not given to those "who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens . . . An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia" (Hastings Center Report, Nov.-Dec. '96).

Translation: Don't give much care to a grandmother with Parkinson's or a child with cerebral palsy.

He explicitly defends discrimination against older patients: "Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination; every person lives through different life stages rather than being a single age. Even if 25-year-olds receive priority over 65-year-olds, everyone who is 65 years now was previously 25 years" (Lancet, Jan. 31).

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Source: http://www.nypost.com/seven/07242009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/deadly_doctors_180941.htm

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Brothers: Rahm Emanuel and His Family

Rahm, Zeke, and Ari Emanuel have become very successful in different fields—politics, medicine, and Hollywood. But it’s hard not to notice the similarities among the brothers. They’re all intense, pugnacious, and in perpetual motion.

By Susan Baer Published Thursday, May 01, 2008

From the May 2008 issue of Washingtonian

The joke among the Emanuel brothers is that Zeke, the eldest, is bringing the family down.

That would be Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, 50, chair of the department of bioethics at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. Zeke is an oncologist with a master’s from Oxford, an MD from Harvard, a PhD in political philosophy from Harvard, and a 27-page CV that includes fellowships, professorships, books, and numerous awards and honors.

“Ari and I tell Zeke: ‘You haven’t done squat for the family,’ ” says Rahm, the middle brother.

That’s because Zeke hasn’t had a TV character based on him, as have Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois congressman and former Bill Clinton adviser who was said to be part inspiration for White House aide Josh Lyman on The West Wing, and Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel, the model for lovably trash-talking agent Ari Gold on HBO’s Entourage.

But part of being one of the hyperkinetic Emanuel brothers is being relentlessly competitive. So Zeke points out that the charge against him is not entirely true. The eldest brother notes that he was a participant in a British reality TV show during his Oxford days. “They loved to hate me there because I was the American on the team, the loud American.”

Loud, like his brothers. And impatient, intense, and successful. Three hard-driving superachievers in one family is kind of like having the Eiffel Tower, Washington Monument, and Statue of Liberty all in one town. People often ask their parents, Benjamin and Marsha Emanuel, what was in the water in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette, where the family lived. Benjamin, an Israeli immigrant who still has a heavy accent, says there was no magic to their child rearing. He and his wife just paid a lot of attention to their kids.

“If you figure it out, let me know,” says Marsha, who at age 74 still works as a psychiatric social worker. “I honestly don’t know. I do know there was a lot of love and affection and treating them all like they were intelligent babies.”

The three brothers, less than four years apart, have risen to prominence in three different fields—medicine, politics, Hollywood. But it’s hard not to notice similarities: the wiry frame and dark hair (in varying degrees of volume and gray), the big personalities, the headstrong nature that lands each of them in the headlines and with their share of enemies.

Rahm, 48, is the best known—at least on the East Coast. Now the fourth-highest-ranking Democrat in the House, the three-term congressman gets much of the credit for his party’s success in the 2006 elections, when he raised lots of cash—sometimes by threatening candidates and browbeating colleagues—as head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Appointed to that post in 2005, he rattled House Republicans who recognized that for the first time in a while “there was a killer at the helm of the Democratic Party,” says Rahm biographer Naftali Bendavid. “He really, really, really wants to win—whatever it is—and he’ll go to extraordinary lengths to do it.”

The stories of his ruthlessness, honed in the rough world of Chicago politics, are legendary: sending a dead fish to an associate with whom he’d had a falling-out; plunging a steak knife into a restaurant table as he denounced political adversaries; flashing his right middle finger, especially disarming because the finger was severed by a meat slicer when Rahm was a high-school student working at an Arby’s.

Rahm, who was President Clinton’s political director and an original member of the 1992 Little Rock “war room,” admits he’s driven in part by a fear of failure. “You’d bring shame to the family,” he says, only partly joking, in his Capitol hideaway office that’s filled with family photos. “I always tell the staff failure is not an option. You never give in, and you never give up.”

Zeke, who commutes to Washington from his home in Chicago every week, says that his staff jokes that it’s a good thing he’s in the office just three days a week. A pioneer in the field of end-of-life care who’s been an NIH chief for the past decade, Zeke has been a passionate voice for healthcare reform. He’s been so outspoken that he’s had to issue caveats making clear that he speaks for himself only and not as a government official.

“We don’t accept the current circumstances as somehow given,” Zeke says of the brothers. “We’re always challenging. We want to know, ‘Can it be better? Let’s make it better.’ It often comes across as we don’t respect authority a lot.”

Ariel, or Ari, the youngest at 47, has held up his end. He broke off from International Creative Management to start the Endeavor Agency in Beverly Hills and has turned it into one of Hollywood’s most successful talent agencies. Ari’s clients include Larry David, Aaron Sorkin, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Martin Scorsese. He called on Hollywood to blacklist Mel Gibson after the actor’s drunken, anti-Semitic tirade in 2006. He denounced Disney chief Michael Eisner after the mogul tried to prevent distribution of Fahrenheit 9/11, made by Ari’s client Michael Moore.

“It’s not what you’re supposed to do as an agent,” says Rahm, suggesting that his brother has more soul than the TV character based on him.

In the family room of the middle-class suburban home where the boys grew up and where their parents still live is a wall of black-and-white photos of relatives, most of whom never made it to America. One of the photos is of their father’s brother, Emanuel, who was killed in the 1936 Arab insurrection in Palestine. Benjamin’s parents changed the family’s last name from Auerbach to Emanuel in their son’s honor. In the middle of the wall, in a frame, is a crocheted money belt that the boys’ great-grandmother wore when she emigrated from Russia.

“There’s nothing subtle in Jewish families,” Rahm says. “It was my parents’ way of reminding us of our fortune of being here, the sense that it’s a privilege and an honor to be in this country, and that that can’t be wasted.”

Rahm says his parents also gave their children two seemingly contradictory thoughts—“one is to always challenge authority; the other is to always respect it.”

Their father, a pediatrician who moved to the States from Israel in 1959, devoted himself to public-health matters in Chicago, helping to get lead paint removed from houses, treating poor immigrants for free. As a young doctor trying to build a practice, he quit the American Medical Association over its position on national healthcare. “Not exactly the brightest move in 1962 when you’re trying to raise three kids,” says Rahm.

Their mother was a civil-rights activist in the early 1960s. She ran the north-side branch office of CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality, and occasionally, if she didn’t expect violence, took the boys to civil-rights marches with her.

“Early on, she wasn’t present in our lives,” says Rahm. “She was in jail.”

There was always extended family living with them—“nerve-racking for me but extremely helpful for the children,” says their mother. It was a loud household where the parents encouraged reading and debate, held monthly meetings at which anyone could say anything, and gave each son 15 minutes of “only child” time each day.

The Emanuels taught the boys to swim by the time they were 18 months old, made them all take ballet lessons, and had no qualms about pulling them out of school for trips all over the world.

Rahm describes dinner-table conversations, which often included his large and opinionated grandfather, a six-foot-four meat cutter from Moldavia, as political free-for-alls. “You had to get ready for dinner conversations at our house,” the congressman says. “You didn’t just come down to dinner and say, ‘How was your day?’ You either came ready or you got shut out.”

Story continues @ : http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/7712.html

ABC Officially Responds to Stephanopoulos-Emanuel Phone Call Questions

Thursday, Feb 05

ABC Officially Responds to Stephanopoulos-Emanuel Phone Call

Since last week's Politico story about the regular phone calls between former Clinton White House'ers Rahm Emanuel, George Stephanopoulos, Paul Begala and James Carville, several conservative outlets have raised the question of a conflict of interest.

Media Research President Brent Bozell has been one of the most vocal critics (Rush Limbaugh's callers also jammed the ABC News phone lines). Bozell, who makes a claim not part of the Politico story that these are "strategy phone calls," requested ABC respond to the story on Newsbusters and in an open letter. "With each passing day, ABC's failure to speak to and about this issue tarnishes further the network's reputation as a legitimate news entity," he writes.

Today, ABC responded to Bozell and other critics, although they say there have been several prior on-the-record responses ignored by Media Research Center. "To be crystal clear, George Stephanopoulos does not advise Rahm Emanuel nor anyone else in the Obama Administration," says the letter from SVP of editorial quality, Kerry Smith. "He reports on the Obama Administration. He speaks to Mr. Emanuel, a friend he has known for nearly two decades, as a source, just as he speaks to countless sources across the political spectrum each and every day."

Politico also later wrote "I don't think they have the story quite right," regarding Bozell's claims.

Click continued to see the full response letter from ABC...

Dear Mr. Bozell,

Thank you for your letter regarding George Stephanopoulos.

To be crystal clear, George Stephanopoulos does not advise Rahm Emanuel nor anyone else in the Obama Administration. He reports on the Obama Administration. He speaks to Mr. Emanuel, a friend he has know for nearly two decades, as a source, just as he speaks to countless sources across the political spectrum each and every day. That is his job as an anchor and reporter and one that he does according to the highest standards.

In your letter and public utterances you falsely assert that ABC News has been silent on this matter. That is simply untrue. Upon reading your press release last week, we reached out to the MRC to make it abundantly clear that you had totally mischaracterized the Politico story written by John Harris last Tuesday. Indeed, Politico posted a story last Friday by Ben Smith pointing out exactly how badly you had mangled the facts. In that post, Harris stated that, " The calls are certainly a fascinating Washington ritual, but by no means do I think that George Stephanopoulos is participating in strategy sessions. To my mind, he established his journalistic bona fides more than a decade ago, even as the Clinton administration was still underway, when he showed his willingness to report aggressively on Democrats as well as Republicans." To give further lie to your claim that ABC News has not responded to your distortions, our senior vice president was quoted in the Politico story saying, "George speaks to Emanuel, but he speaks to plenty of conservatives and Republicans every single day -- that's part of his job. The idea that there is some kind of daily conference call that George hops on is just nonsense and not true."

Furthermore, last Friday, a reporter from CNS News, which was founded by you and continues to be directly affiliated with the MRC, contacted our media relations staff

for a piece he'd been assigned to write on this very topic. We cooperated immediately and provided him an on the record response. We have since learned from your reporter that his story was killed.

You have said, "if the charges are false, provide the evidence. We will gladly accept it and consider the matter closed." From the moment you issued your first press release on the Politico story last week - and numerous times since - we have made it clear to you and your staff that your assertions regarding Mr. Stephanopoulos and ABC News are false and based on a willful and knowing distortion of John Harris' original story.

Sincerely,

Kerry Smith
Senior Vice President, Editorial Quality, ABC News

Posted by SteveK 12:57 PM

Source: http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/abc/abc_officially_responds_to_stephanopoulosemanuel_phone_call_questions_107871.asp

Emanuel, Blagojevich Talk Senate 21 Times

Wed, 12/17/2008 - 12:33 —Judicial Watch Blog

Barack Obama’s chief of staff was recorded discussing Illinois’ vacant Senate seat with the state’s indicted governor 21 times, even though the president elect assures his staff did nothing wrong in the bribery scandal that has rocked the nation.

To prove it, Obama conducted a thorough internal review which, for unknown reasons, can’t be released until Christmas week when few pay attention to the news. Not surprisingly, the Camp Obama probe concluded that no one in the administration had“inappropriate discussions” with Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich concerning the search for Obama’s Senate replacement.

Perhaps the mysterious report will explain why Obama’s new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, had so many discussions with Blagojevich about the Senate vacancy. Close friends and political allies, Emanuel and Blagojevich were recorded on FBI wiretaps having 21 different conversations about Obama’s Senate replacement.

Days after the November 4 presidential election Emanuel began pushing for Obama’s successor, strongly urging the corrupt governor—charged with trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat and for years the influence of his office— to appoint Obama confidante Valerie Jarrett.

Jarrett eventually dropped out of the running to become Obama’s senior advisor, but Emanuel continued pushing for candidates that his new boss obviously endorsed. He even gave the governor a list of candidates suitable to the Obama team.

Emanuel, a veteran legislator who usually basks in the media limelight, has been suspiciously elusive and tight-lipped regarding his repeated contact with Blagojevich. The entire Obama team has tried desperately to distance itself from Blagojevich, even though the soon-to-be commander-in-chief and the Illinois governor are close pals and longtime allies who have endorsed each other’s political careers and shared a major (convicted felon Antoin Rezko) donor.

In fact, Obama’s top advisor (David Axelrod) innocently revealed during a television interview last month that his boss had spoken to Blagojevich about his Senate replacement. When the massive Blagojevich indictment became public however, Axelrod issued a statement saying that he was mistaken, claiming that Obama and Blagojevich“did not then or at any time discuss the subject.”

Source: http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2008/dec/emanuel-blagojevich-talk-senate-21-times