My Reply to Steve

Thoughtful, calm, intelligent and reflective are qualities that my friend Steve has possessed the entire time I've know him.  It's likely he's been this way all his life.  And, he has great balance in his life, able to separate politics from his family and personal life.  He keeps things in balance.  I urge you all to read his blog, The Peripatetic Blogger.  He generally posts only once a week,and only after great reflection and analysis.  He loves the Oklahoma Sooners and the Dallas Cowboys.

He wrote a blog this week which, in part, chastised some Democrats for breaking ranks with the President over the Affordable Care Act.  He feels they should "all hang together."  Indeed I'm tempted to agree with him, especially on the "hanging" part.  But, hey, I don't want to be accused of pulling a Martin Bashir, so please disregard that last comment.

I wrote a short response to Steve that I felt deserved repeating here.  In short I don't ever feel that Party Loyalty should ever interfere with good judgement.  Here is my response to Steve:

Dear Steve, 

I believe the President Obama had the very best of intentions.

And I know that our Congress is badly broken and that caused The ACA to be written in back rooms and passed late at night by a Congress that never read the bill or had the time needed to resolve potential defects.

And, even though not a single Republican voted for the act, they deserve equal blame for the dysfunction that forced Pelosi and Reid to act in a hurried and secretive manner.

Regardless of all this, the bill is nothing short of a disaster. Forget the website as that will get fixed. It’s not the problem anyway. As a result of the ACA more people, not fewer, will be uninsured. Most people will pay substantially more for insurance, not less. The blow to the middle class, financially, will be nearly unimaginable. Meanwhile the rich, who had Cadillac Plans to begin with, will be virtually unaffected.

This will all get fixed, eventually. But, in the meantime, the ACA doesn’t deserve the support of any self respecting Democrat (or Republican). Let’s admit our mistakes, avoid placing blame, and get on with the job of repairing the system.

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Here is just one of the first (and certainly the most ironic) examples of the financial disaster awaiting the middle class: Woman Hailed by President as Obamacare Success Story Now Can't Afford Obamacare

The Slow, Inexorable March into Hell

I realize I should be writing about the Affordable Care Act nearly every day.  So should every blogger and analyst. The issue genuinely is that important.

But there are other important issues, too.  And important events capture our attention, like the current debate over military action in Syria.  Nearly every blogger, liberal and conservative alike, are debating this chain of events, presidential powers, war powers, red lines and more.  This is an important discussion and President Obama's actions could have major ramifications for the region or even the world.

On a brighter note, the Syrian debate has temporarily distracted Republicans from their insanely stupid, "Defund Obamacare" debate in the House and Senate.  First it is technically impossible to "Defund" the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and second, the move actually hurts the effort to fix or even repeal this monstrosity of a law.

Democrats know full well the law must be massively altered to become remotely functional.  But they don't dare allow any bill to come to the floor fearing (quite correctly) such a bill would bring about nearly complete repeal of the President's most important legislative victory.  And, so far, protecting the President is more important than serving the best interests of the American public.

So we continue the slow slog down the hill to a medical insurance disaster.  Virtually everyone loses.  Two important news articles this week illustrate the misguided nature of the ACA, it's ill conceived provisions and the unintended consiquences of passing a 1,900 page bill without even bothering to read it.

Late last week, the 22,000-member United Union of Roofers, Waterproofers and Allied Workers withdrew its support for the Affordable Care Act and went one step further and demanded its full repeal.  Several other unions have also withdrawn support or demanded exemptions from the law.

The Roofer's Union issue hit the very core of the problem with the ACA.  The insanely mercurial ACA forces everyone in America into a one size fits absolutely no one policy and penalizes severely anyone who dares to have better health insurance.  This is the dumbing down of American Healthcare.  The bottom line is that the Roofers are deemed to have a "Cadillac" plan and must pay a penalty premium in taxes for their hard earned union benefits.

While President Obama said "If you love your plan, you can keep it," that was simply untrue.  What he should have said is "Many Americans will be forced to accept inferior insurance at much higher rates than they've had in the past."  And he might have added, "My bill will favor non-union workers and give then tax subsidies while taxing Unions for their negotiating skills."  That's exactly what ObamaCare (the ACA) does.

On the flip side of the coin the ACA is even a worse disaster for America's creative culture, hitting artists, musicians, photographers and "gasp" even writers hard by taking away their insurance entirely.

Here I have to quote Nancy Pelosi, the real architect of the ACA (it should be called PelosiCare) who said, "Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance."  The sad joke here is that before Pelosi dumped this rotten fish onto the canvas of unsuspecting artists, they had achieved that goal. PelosiCare took it all away.

Once again the enemy is the ACA's dogged determination to create a one size fits absolutely no one insurance template.  But for loosely knit groups likes artists or photographers, Congress made it much worse.  Ignoring the pleas of Democrat Senator Ron Wyden, Congress outlawed insurance plans from operating across state lines and demanded each individual purchase only through his or her State Insurance Exchange in each individual state.  Hence group policies that served creative artists across state lines were made illegal!!!  Virtually every policy serving loose knit groups will end this December, forcing artists and musicians and other independent professionals to purchase significantly more expensive policies from their state exchanges.

In reality Nancy Pelosi should have said, "Under my Affordable Care Act, artists and creative people will be forced into the workplace to accept mundane labor jobs and will no longer be allowed to pursue their dreams. Creativity, whether in Insurance or in the arts will no longer be allowed to exist."

I'll leave you today with this terribly funny ObamaCare parody video produced by the extremely evil Karl Rove Crossroads group.   Laugh while you still can because, like it or not, the ACA takes over on January 1st.

We Seriously Need A Better Quality of Protester

File under Tea Party Protester Envy.


Ann Coulter wrote a devastating column in which she was 100% correct. Colter wrote (in part):

"I am not the first to note the vast differences between the Wall Street protesters and the tea partiers. To name three: The tea partiers have jobs, showers and a point."

"Tea partiers didn't block traffic, sleep on sidewalks, wear ski masks, fight with the police or urinate in public. They read the Constitution, made serious policy arguments, and petitioned the government against Obama's unconstitutional big government policies, especially the stimulus bill and Obamacare." 

"Then they picked up their own trash and quietly went home. Apparently, a lot of them had to be at work in the morning."

Damn but Coulter is right. The Tea Party folks had literally hundreds of individual protests and involved hundreds of thousands of protesters with virtually no arrests, no destruction of property and organization and cleanliness that was stunning.  Most parks, streets and protest venues were left cleaner than before the protests began.


The Occupy Wall Street protests are now limping across America, but have no logic, no intelligent commentary and virtually no point. But there are plenty of arrests and tons of garbage and filth.

Videos abound showing the tragically uninformed protesting the banks and bankers, the wealthy and super rich and the high price of broccoli. Demands include, but are not limited to forgiveness of all debt, especially student loans and all mortgages, guaranteed jobs for everyone at high wages, and that all retirees can vacation in Cancun (no joke).




Some rally around President Obama, others call him a traitor. Many call for the overthrow of the government and the abolition of capitalism.


What's even more frightening is how many Democrat politicians and pundits have endorsed their cause, what ever-the-hell that might or might not be. Even President Obama and Vice President Biden have added their voice of support. Nancy Pelosi, who we must remember was terrified of the law abiding Tea Partiers, Has heartily endorsed the Occupy Wall Street Crowd and many other Dems have given them moral support.

Keith Olbermann is their biggest and most visible supporter. I guess he's praying he can become to the Occupy Wall Street crowd what Glenn Beck was to the Tea Partiers and ride the movement to giant protests and a television special on the capital mall. The problem is Olbermann has to carefully chose his interviews and generally supply meaning and message when none is actually there. If only the entire rest of the national media had stayed away and hadn't reported the truth about the protests. Alas, Olbermann look more like an idiot with each passing day.


The final insult is that, in order to move the protests nationwide, politicians and union members have had to print up signs and then pay illegal immigrants and out of work union members to carry the signs.  Many of the pseudo-protesters do not speak English and have no idea what the signs even say.

The Myth of the Tea Party

I like and I admire Thomas Friedman. And I certainly like and greatly admire former President George H.W. Bush. But Friedman's Op-Ed in today's New York Times, "Bring Back Poppy," may be the most stunningly stupid article I've ever read.

Friedman's error certainly wasn't his praise for former President H.W. Bush. His comments about Bush were spot on correct. Instead his fatal lapse into stupefying moronic idiocy was to somehow give total credit to about 60 neophyte Congresspersons for blocking common sense Tax and Spending reform. Somehow, amazingly, Friedman forgot there are 200 Democrat Congresspersons, not to mention 150 or so mainstream Republican Congresspersons, that could have stopped this madness at any time.

It's convenient and maybe even fun to blame the 60ish Tea Party Republicans for events they had absolutely ZERO control over. But you have to pretend that the entire Democrat caucus and their leader, Nancy Pelosi, don't exist or have forgotten how to vote. In reality it is the Democrats and the huge majority of Republicans that Speaker John Boehner DOES CONTROL, that have forgotten how to compromise. One tiny drop of real bipartisanship by the supposedly reasonable 365 members of the House and this all ends.

If Boehner and Pelosi were actually willing to do their jobs the Tea Party would be the irrelevant minority caucus that they really are.

What's happening here is that the Democrats have cleverly used the Tea Party as cover for their own failure. And Thomas Friedman and most of the mainstream media have fallen for the ruse.

The Red Sox Fans Won

What Happened in Massachusetts? How did Scott Brown win?

I can't believe that all the PROGRESSIVE bloggers, Tweeters, Pundits, Television Guru's and Washington Insiders can't see what every Boston Red Sox fan saw so very clearly.

The Red Sox Fans saw it clearly all the way back in August. They even held impromptu protest rallies. Real rallies with hand written signs and everything.

The Red Sox fans and the Oakland Fans and the Texas Ranger's fans and the Royals fans. And the Cleveland fans. The Baseball fans. The football fans. The hunters and the fishermen. All the people who live ordinary, non-political, lives. The workers. The housewives. The little people.

They did their level best to tell the President they adored what was going on. They held their rallies, small ones at first, and called 'em Tea Parties. These protesters called their Congress Persons. They wrote their newspapers. They appeared on FOX NEWS (sadly the only network that actually figured out what was going on).

But the President they loved, the President they voted for, wasn't listening. And Nancy Pelosi wasn't listening. Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews weren't listening. They actually made fun of these "little people." They belittled their efforts. Made fun of their misspellings and their homemade signs.

They accused these people of being dupes for big corporations, paid protesters or some such thing. This wasn't the least bit true.

Then Nancy Pelosi actually accused them of being traitors, enemies of Democracy. They same Nancy Pelosi who embraced and praised the Iraq war protesters, said these protesters were enemies of Democracy.

It started to get much worse as the Progressive bloggers led by the MSNBC trio of Olbermann, Maddow and Matthews began using a thinly veiled sexual slur, "Teabaggers" to characterise the efforts of these protesters to alert the President of the problems they so clearly saw. All Obama had to do was listen.

But, after several hundred thousand of them arrived in Washington to protest, Barack Obama claimed he knew absolutely nothing about them or their protest. He actually blamed FOX News for covering the event. And Obama banned FOX from Administration interviews.

It became obvious that the Democrats in Congress were not going to listen to them. The "peoples party" was ignoring the people.

Isn't it obvious what happened in Massachusetts? The Red Sox fans showed the Democrats who really was the boss.

Here's a fact we all need to remember: It is the Red Sox Fans who decide every election. They decided this one. They are the fabled INDEPENDENTS Scott Brown spoke of last night.

But it was EXACTLY those same INDEPENDENTS, those same Red Sox Fans who decided the Obama election. It was not the Progressives. And Coakley DID NOT LOSE because Progressives stayed home. Nope. Give credit where credit is due. It was the Red Sox Fans whose Scott Brown so deftly courted at Fenway Park in the icey cold of a Boston night.

Those Red Sox Fans were also the Tea Party protesters. They were the little people. They were everyman.

In the end the Independents were disappointed by Obama's biggest failure: TO CHANGE THE CLIMATE IN WASHINGTON and TO END BUSINESS AS USUAL. Obama PROMISED to usher in a new era of BIPARTISANSHIP. And he could have done that. Instead he turned his legislative agenda over to Nancy Pelosi, the most partisan (and the absolute WORST) House Majority Leader in History.

If Obama had done exactly as he promised and let every faction have a seat at the Health Care Reform table and then televised the negotiations, we wouldn't be here today.

If Obama had done as he promised and eliminated pork barrel spending and gone through the appropriations bill line by line, we wouldn't be here today.

Let's hope President Obama hears them now. And let's hope Obama stops taking advice from the far left Progressives and the bloggers and (heaven help us all) the IDIOT TRIO (Olbermann, Maddow and Matthews) over at MSNBC. These are the Pied Pipers who will lead our President over the cliff.

If President Obama decides to really play ball with Senator-elect Scott Brown, trust me, all the Red Sox Fans will cheer them both.

Thoughts on a $1,118.00 Day

If it is always darkest before the dawn, daybreak must just be moments away. Because, on both the social and economic scales, it is a very dark time in America. Gold today hit a record high of over $1,118.00 an ounce as investors and governments around the world abandoned the US Dollar and other paper currencies in favor of the precious metal. Publicly and privately many say the see the collapse of the US Dollar and possible the collapse of the United States.

Misled and misguided by a President wholly unqualified and unready to lead this nation during an economic crisis, the United States is floundering. And the deaf, dumb and blind US Congress is leading the nation off the edge of the cliff as surely as the Pied Piper led the rats and then the children in the fairly tale to their potential doom. I'm not at all certain we can have a happy ending.

Clearly investors and foreign governments don't think a happy ending is in our future as they abandon on currency as if it were infected with Swine Flu (or, more likely, the Ebola virus). Death be to those holding US currency when the end times arrive.

President Obama's biggest mistake today is that he is ignoring the economy as he pursues a Health Care Restructuring Plan that is horrifically bad in its own right. He should be working on the economy and the deficit, but if, god forbid, he succeeds in forcing this Health Care Bill down the throats of a public that neither wants it nor needs it, it will bring on the collapse all by itself.

Poor President Obama has done virtually nothing right. Being naive in both the ways of Congress and in basic economics, he turned the Economic Stimulus Act over to Nancy Pelosi and give little or no guidance. Pelosi hadn't the slightest idea how to build a stimulus package, so she did what she does best, packaged up 780 billion dollars of pork and special favors for friends and supporters and called it stimulus.

Now some folks are surprised (or, at least, act surprised) to find the stimulus package isn't doing any good and the very slow economic recovery is exactly what would have been expected without a package.

The problem is the stimulus package is actually a time bomb and is ready to explode the deficit. Gold, therefore, is the safe haven for investors and other nations that are handling their economy correctly.

Three things need to happen. First, and perhaps most important, the Health Care Restructuring Bill must be stopped.

Second, the President needs a new economic team, a strike force if you will. He should ask Mitt Romney to head up this effort to, literally, save the United States.

Finally, Nancy Pelosi should step down as Speaker of the House and usher in a new spirit of true bipartisanship. Now is not this time to build walls and foster hatred. Pelosi isn't capable of anything else and she must go.

The Worst Bill Ever

The Worst Bill Ever.

That's how The Wall Street Journal characterized the House version of Health Care Restructuring introduced yesterday to a waiting world by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Last night on Bill O'Reilly's cable opinion show comedian Dennis Miller referred to Pelosi as "sub-reptilian." I couldn't agree with both characteristics more.

I've said before that Nancy Pelosi is the "worst Speaker of the House in United States history." I repeat that here again today. The woman, left unchecked, will destroy our country and never, ever realize what she has done.



I know I'm offending many folks and I usually don't get this emphatic, but the woman is a menace and this bill..... well, this bill is the worst bill ever.

Here are just a few of the key points from the journal article:

In a rational political world, this 1,990-page runaway train would have been derailed months ago. With spending and debt already at record peacetime levels, the bill creates a new and probably unrepealable middle-class entitlement that is designed to expand over time. Taxes will need to rise precipitously, even as ObamaCare so dramatically expands government control of health care that eventually all medicine will be rationed via politics.

All this is particularly reckless given the unfunded liabilities of Medicare—now north of $37 trillion over 75 years. Mrs. Pelosi wants to steal $426 billion from future Medicare spending to "pay for" universal coverage. While Medicare's price controls on doctors and hospitals are certain to be tightened, the only cut that is a sure thing in practice is gutting Medicare Advantage to the tune of $170 billion. Democrats loathe this program because it gives one of out five seniors private insurance options.

As for Medicaid, the House will expand eligibility to everyone below 150% of the poverty level, meaning that some 15 million new people will be added to the rolls as private insurance gets crowded out at a cost of $425 billion. A decade from now more than a quarter of the population will be on a program originally intended for poor women, children and the disabled.

All told, the House favors $572 billion in new taxes, mostly by imposing a 5.4-percentage-point "surcharge" on joint filers earning over $1 million, $500,000 for singles. This tax will raise the top marginal rate to 45% in 2011 from 39.6% when the Bush tax cuts expire—not counting state income taxes and the phase-out of certain deductions and exemptions. The burden will mostly fall on the small businesses that have organized as Subchapter S or limited liability corporations, since the truly wealthy won't have any difficulty sheltering their incomes.

This surtax could hit ever more earners because, like the alternative minimum tax, it isn't indexed for inflation. Yet it still won't be nearly enough. Even if Congress had confiscated 100% of the taxable income of people earning over $500,000 in the boom year of 2006, it would have only raised $1.3 trillion. When Democrats end up soaking the middle class, perhaps via the European-style value-added tax that Mrs. Pelosi has endorsed, they'll claim the deficits that they created made them do it.

Read the entire article.

Wizard Prediction: Barack Obama Will Blow It! Big Time!!!

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON 9/3/2009 - MOVED TO TOP OF LISTINGS SO WE CAN EASILY COMPARE IT TO PRESIDENT OBAMA'S SPEECH TONIGHT. ALL I HAVE HEARD AND READ TODAY LEAVES ME CONVINCED THAT MY PREDICTIONS BELOW WILL BE TRAGICALLY ACCURATE.

I watch Morning Joe on MSNBC every morning after my full dose of National Public Radio. I enjoy Joe and Mika and his entire rotating crew. They make sharp observations, provide reasonable balance of opinions and they are entertaining. While MSNBC lacks any real conservative voices (Joe Scarborough is a weak kneed Libertarian and Pat Buchanan is a radical isolationist), they still try to present all sides of most issues.

This morning the panel was lamenting the disastrous drop in the polling of both Congress (lowest approval ratings in the 50 years of polling) and President Obama (lowest approval rating of his short Presidency). They discussed that Republicans had solid leads in the races for the governorships of both New Jersey and Virginia

One of the panel observed that Barack Obama WON THE ELECTION because he promised a new kind of Presidency. He promised he would embrace bipartisanship and end the gridlock.

The Morning Joe Crew all agreed. It was Obama's absolute FAILURE to even attempt bipartisanship along with Nancy Pelosi's refusal to work with Republicans that had so infuriated the American public.

I couldn't agree more. As I've written several times in this space, had President Obama merely picked up the telephone and TOLD NANCY PELOSI to sit down and genuinely listen to Republicans and to make an effort to forge a bipartisan bill, he could have already had a new Health Care Plan. He would have made his summer goal and basked in a major victory.

Instead he allow Pelosi and her team of reactionary progressives to build plans that were weird, complicated, convoluted and generally unworkable. A thousand pages of nonsense. I've read them.

Pelosi insured every single Republican amendment was handily defeated. She even went so far as to write into the bill provisions that directly contradicted promises the President was publicly making on funding of abortion, taxation, and deficit spending.

Barack Obama then had a chance to take a second bite at the apple and convene a bipartisan panel on health care during the summer recess. He failed to do that, instead going out and campaigning on a group of bills he hadn't even read.

Now for my prediction. President Obama has now given himself one more chance to embrace bipartisanship and build a great health care plan. All Republicans and all insurance companies are on board for universal health care. Victory is in his grasp. He can still emerge a winner! But he won't!

Instead Obama will engage in the absolute worst kind on partisanship. He will absolutely FAIL to acknowledge the concerns of the American Public. He WILL NOT call for bipartisan action. He WILL NOT convene a new panel to develop a real health care solution. He WILL absolutely enrage the American Public. He won't listen. He WILL lecture.

President Obama's speech to the Joint Session of Congress will go down as the death of his Presidency.

Let's all hope I'm wrong.

Principle above Party

I've been meaning to write a few lines about the rapidly expanding war in Afghanistan and the strong presence the United States is still maintaining in Iraq, but President Obama's (supposed) Health Insurance Reform has captivated our attention as a society and my attention personally.

The other day, during my two hour morning monitoring of Morning Edition on National Public Radio, I was astounded to hear that President Obama expected US Troops to be involved in Afghanistan for at least ten more years. Troop strength has already doubled from President Bush's inadequate allocation and may increase again this fall.

What struck me most was the complete lack of protest or concern on the part of most Americans to our continued adventures in Nation Building.

I paused for a moment to consider what would have happened if a newly elected President McCain had maintained over 100,000 troops in Iraq for the next five years and then announced that as many as 100,000 troops might be needed for as long as ten years in Afghanistan.

Had my imaginary President McCain merely echoed Obama's exact strategy, there would literally be rioting in the streets.

And this is why I so strongly hate the current climate of loyalty to political parties (Republican or Democrat) instead of principle. If 150,000 plus American troops adventuring over in the middle east was wrong a short seven (7) months ago, shouldn't it still be wrong today?

I'm confident that, had we elected John McCain, our involvement in the middle east would be rapidly winding down. Not because McCain wanted smaller involvement, but because he would be battling Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid tooth and nail for every dollar. McCain would be forced by Congress and the American people to speed up his exit and cut his forces and costs. Hell, we might actually be talking about deficit spending!

But the Democrats in Congress support their President, right or wrong. The very few of them with an ounce of integrity are holding their noses and focusing on the Health Care battle and pretending Iraq doesn't exist.

What caused me to remember this issue from a week or so ago was Cindy Sheehan, a woman with immense principle. A woman that should be representing Nancy Pelosi's district in the House instead of the opportunistic and totally unprincipled Pelosi.

Cindy is a woman who puts principle way above party labels. This week she is taking her August vigil from President Bush's summer home in Crawford, Texas to President Obama's summer vacation spot at Martha's Vineyard.

"We as a movement need to continue calling for an immediate end to the occupations [in Iraq and Afghanistan] even when there is a Democrat in the Oval Office," Sheehan said in a statement. "There is still no Noble Cause no matter how we examine the policies."

She will fight the battle alone. She will have only a handful of followers. There will be no television interviews. And no one, not even Chris Matthews, will wonder why the President doesn't have the courage to walk down the road and meet with her, even though he strongly urged then President Bush to hold such a meeting.

And this is exactly why I put PRINCIPLE above PARTY. President Obama and most of the Democrats have betrayed most of the most cherished liberal principles. Calling protesters a "mob." Dismissing the genuine concerns of American Citizens. Harry Reid and many Democrats refuse to even hold town meetings, calling American Citizens who actually care "evil doers." Hell, Reid even sounds like President Bush. "Evil Doers" indeed.

Democrats do not somehow magically deserve my support because they have a "D" behind their title. They have to earn my respect through honor, honesty and integrity.

Nancy Pelosi - Then and Now

Nancy Pelosi was, of course, very correct in 2006. How quickly whe has forgotten.

Dissent is the very heart of democracy and freedom.



As Camille Paglia so wisely stated in her column yesterday, "And what do Democrats stand for, if they are so ready to defame concerned citizens as the "mob" -- a word betraying a Marie Antoinette delusion of superiority to ordinary mortals. I thought my party was populist, attentive to the needs and wishes of those outside the power structure. And as a product of the 1960s, I thought the Democratic party was passionately committed to freedom of thought and speech."

Byzantine Beyond Belief

The brilliant Camille Paglia, whose rambling columns over at Salon.com are often incendiary, has written the finest overall analysis of President Obama's health care initiative and the subsequent political battles that I've read by any author, anywhere. In writing Obama's Healthcare Horror, Paglia is witty, biting and, most of all, insightful in her look at the strange progress of what she calls, "one of the most vital issues facing the nation."

Paglia is an Obama supporter. She voted for him in the election and has high praise for his handling of foreign affairs and other issues. But, in this article, she dissects his political team and his handling of the healthcare debate alternatively with a razor sharp knife and a sledge hammer! She leaves no bodies unbloodied.

I must confess my dismay bordering on horror at the amateurism of the White House apparatus for domestic policy. When will heads start to roll? I was glad to see the White House counsel booted, as well as Michelle Obama's chief of staff, and hope it's a harbinger of things to come. Except for that wily fox, David Axelrod, who could charm gold threads out of moonbeams, Obama seems to be surrounded by juvenile tinhorns, bumbling mediocrities and crass bully boys. Case in point: the administration's grotesque mishandling of healthcare reform, one of the most vital issues facing the nation. Who would have thought that the sober, deliberative Barack Obama would have nothing to propose but vague and slippery promises -- or that he would so easily cede the leadership clout of the executive branch to a chaotic, rapacious, solipsistic Congress? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom I used to admire for her smooth aplomb under pressure, has clearly gone off the deep end with her bizarre rants about legitimate town-hall protests by American citizens. She is doing grievous damage to the party and should immediately step down.

Where Paglia is especially sharp is in her analysis of the various competing healthcare bills floating around Congress this summer. These bills do not do the very things the President promised. Worse yet, it is increasingly clear President Obama doesn't even know the content of the bills he is championing.

There is plenty of blame to go around. Obama's aggressive endorsement of a healthcare plan that does not even exist yet, except in five competing, fluctuating drafts, makes Washington seem like Cloud Cuckoo Land. The president is promoting the most colossal, brazen bait-and-switch operation since the Bush administration snookered the country into invading Iraq with apocalyptic visions of mushroom clouds over American cities. You can keep your doctor; you can keep your insurance, if you're happy with it, Obama keeps assuring us in soothing, lullaby tones. Oh, really? And what if my doctor is not the one appointed by the new government medical boards for ruling on my access to tests and specialists? And what if my insurance company goes belly up because of undercutting by its government-bankrolled competitor? Face it: Virtually all nationalized health systems, neither nourished nor updated by profit-driven private investment, eventually lead to rationing. And why such an abject failure by the Obama administration to present the issues to the public in a rational, detailed, informational way? The U.S. is gigantic; many of our states are bigger than whole European nations. The bureaucracy required to institute and manage a nationalized health system here would be Byzantine beyond belief and would vampirically absorb whatever savings Obama thinks could be made. And the transition period would be a nightmare of red tape and mammoth screw-ups

Camille Paglia echoes my exact sentiments in her review of the current, keenly orchestrated, Democrat effort to brand any concerned citizen as a member of an AstroTurf "mob." It simply isn't possible for a political party to so stunningly betray the American People.

And what do Democrats stand for, if they are so ready to defame concerned citizens as the "mob" -- a word betraying a Marie Antoinette delusion of superiority to ordinary mortals. I thought my party was populist, attentive to the needs and wishes of those outside the power structure. And as a product of the 1960s, I thought the Democratic party was passionately committed to freedom of thought and speech.

Be certain to read Camille Paglia's complete article: Obama's Healthcare Horror

How to Make Universal Health Care an Overwhelming Success

If ever a national program deserves to succeed, it is Universal Health Care. It is a great goal, worthy of a great nation. Americans, and, indeed, all people deserve Universal Health Care. Even the weakest and poorest among us deserve health care with respect, caring and quality.

A catastrophic health crisis should not drive anyone into bankruptcy. There should never be a choice between a loved one and a mortgage. As a nation we can afford Universal Health Care and now is the time we should gather our brightest and our very best and design a plan that protects and shelters our people and strengthens our nation.

We should gather our best and brightest, our experts in each area of wellness, care and management and we should craft a program that combines our greatest strengths with our capacity for caring for our poor and those currently uninsured, for what ever reason.

We should bring our very best and brightest to the table. But we're not. Instead we've gathered a bunch of politicians and bureaucrats and partisan hacks who have virtually no real world experience and no health care expertise. What they do know how to do is raise money for their re-election. They do know how to demonize their opposition. The do know how to pad the wallets of their patrons. They do know how to fill reams and reams of paper with bizarre and convoluted legal jargon.

The one thing that is emerging from their efforts at Universal Health Care is the virtual destruction of our current system which works so very well for the vast majority of Americans to be replaced by a bureaucratic nightmare of forms, quotas, rationing and, well, more bureaucracy.

Both the House and Senate have now got drafts of programs that exceed 2,000 pages each! And the Congressional Budget Office has reviewed these plan and certified that they will not work. Taxes and health care costs will skyrocket to the point they will bankrupt our nation in just a few short years.

What doctors and health care experts are pointing out is that these few short years will be miserable. Delays in service. Loss of your personal physician. And doctors who will be unable to use their best judgement in treating your ailments.

How did this happen? Nancy Pelosi, the most incompetent, partisan hack to ever fill the seat of Speaker of the House, has DEMANDED that only far left liberal members even be allowed to work on the House proposal. Absolutely NO REPUBLICANS and no MODERATE DEMOCRATS were allowed to raise a single objection and add a single idea to the bloated give-away to party loyalists. As a result, great ideas that would have reduced red tape, lowered costs, increased competition and improve care were left out.

Harry Reid has done essentially the same thing in the Senate, although rules there will eventually demand more thoughtful input.

But, for reasons no one will ever understand, President Obama is attempting to rush the program through the Congress without review, input, ideas, study or analysis. It is impossible for anyone to guess why. It is, most assuredly, a betrayal of the American people.

Can this be fixed. Of course it can. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE has signed on to the goal of Universal Health Care! Doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, virtually all Republicans and all Democrats. The team is here and ready to work.

It can be fixed. But it won't be unless Barack Obama wakes up and realizes that the Democratically controlled Congress is the problem. It won't be fixed unless Obama uses this recess to gather a true bi-partisan team at the White House and works them day and night to really compromise and to build the best possible plan. Republicans, Blue Dog Democrats and Liberals, all at one table, all with their eyes focused on the ball.

Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana has submitted an excellent compromise plan. It's a hell of a good place to start. You can all read it here: How to Make Health-Care Reform Bipartisan

Who is President Barack Obama?

The Barack Obama we have as President today is not the Barack Obama we elected. I strongly believe Americans overwhelmingly elected Barack Obama because he promised massive reform in Federal Government. He promised honesty. He promised transparency. He promised the strict rule of law. He promised to keep his promises.

My fellow Democrats and I were sick and disgusted at what we felt was the "Imperial Presidency" of George Bush. Especially galling were the "signing statements" that President Bush claimed allowed him and the Executive Office to ignore the law. Barack Obama made this a centerpiece of his campaign against the Republicans.

And Barack Obama promised a new era in Washington, an era of bipartisanship. Republicans would have a place at the table and all bills would have input from all parties. All ideas would be welcome and we would have compromise instead of gridlock.

Barack Obama made more promises for transparency including posting all bills on line for at least 5 days before signing, no current lobbyists in his cabinet and more. Barack Obama is a great orator and we really did understand his message. He won the election by a modern day landslide.

I'm having a great deal of trouble today finding a single promise Barack Obama has made that he hasn't broken. Not just broken but flaunted. In six short months Barack Obama has made George Bush look like Honest Abe.

The Barack Obama we elected is not the man who is President today.

Immediately abandoned was the promise to post bills on line. In fact, in what has turned out to be the biggest lie in legislative history, Obama demanded Congress quickly pass and he quickly sign the Economic Stimulus Act, a pork barrel filled gift to lobbyists and supporters that has put the country deeply in debt. Now, six months later there is no stimulus and only a scant 10% of the money has been spent. There most certainly were five days available to post that turkey on line! As it turns out almost no bills have been posted on line for taxpayer review.

Exemption after exemption allowed lobbyists to fill the Cabinet. But what is much, much worse is the thirty plus CZARS who are actually responsible for everything from soup to nuts. None need be approved by Congress and several are radical zealots who aren't remotely qualified for the positions they hold. Some are downright scary characters. For example, consider Van Jones, the newest Environmental Jobs Czar, a religious and social fanatic.

Even more tragic is Obama's immediate implementation of "signing statements," which has really earned the ire of Democrats in Congress. The Associate Press reports:

President Barack Obama has irked close allies in Congress by declaring he has the right to ignore legislation on constitutional grounds after having criticized George W. Bush for doing the same. House Democrats on Tuesday said they were "surprised" and "chagrined" by Obama's declaration in June that he doesn't have to comply with provisions in a war spending bill that puts conditions on aid provided to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Earlier in his six-month-old administration, Obama issued a similar statement regarding provisions in a $410 billion omnibus spending bill. He also included qualifying remarks when signing legislation that established commissions to govern public lands in New York, investigate the financial crisis and celebrate Ronald Reagan's birthday. "During the previous administration, all of us were critical of (Bush's) assertion that he could pick and choose which aspects of congressional statutes he was required to enforce," the Democrats wrote in their letter to Obama. "We were therefore chagrined to see you appear to express a similar attitude." If Congress can't place conditions on the money, "it will make it virtually impossible to provide further allocations for these institutions," they wrote.

While these are troubling signs, what has concerned me the most is his virtually total failure to even attempt to work on legislation in anything remotely resembling a bipartisan way. Instead the leadership in the House and Senate have completely shut out all Republican and even moderate Democrats from the legislative process. Bills are crafted in secret. Republicans are not allow to attend these sessions. Then Pelosi and Reid decry the lack of Republican support even though they are the total cause of the Republican alienation.

Barack Obama could put a stop to this with one single phone call. It's a call he has not made.

The tragedy is the proposed Health Care Reform Legislation. With the Insurance Companies and most Republicans FIRMLY on board for reform, this could have been Obama's finest moment. He is allowing EXTREME PARTISANSHIP to potentially scuttle the potential cornerstone of his young administration.

Later today or tomorrow I will post a special entry on the blueprint for real Bipartisan Health Care Reform that is already on the table from Republicans AND the Insurance Companies.

Take a Deep Cleansing Breath

There are several things that we really ought to be discussing. And if you've been following me on Twitter we may have already discussed some of them. One thing about the 140 character limit, discussions are short and sweet. But some things need more than 140 characters.

We really ought to be discussing the disastrous economic outlook. Thing are not getting better. In fact they are getting much, much worse. The Economic Stimulus Package is not working... at all. Of course we should not be surprised. The Pelosi package was absolutely the single worst piece of legislation ever passed by Congress up to that time. Of course no Congress Person ever read it, so what should we have expected.

How bad is the economy? Just look at what Warren Buffet had to say this week:

The world's second richest man, veteran investor Warren Buffet, has given a blunt assessment of the state of the United States economy - it's still in a shambles. In an interview with US business television channel CNBC, Buffet said that he doubts whether the economy has made much progress since May, when he declared the economy was at war. "I get figures on 70-odd businesses, a lot of them daily," Buffet said. "Everything that I see about the economy is that we've had no bounce."

We really ought to discuss the economy, but it is just too damn depressing.

We ought to be discussing The Waxman-Markey Energy Bill or Cap and Trade and Pork as it should be called. Up until today students of modern government had believed it was impossible to pass a worse piece of legislation than the Pelosi Stimulus Bill. It appears they were wrong. Once again the House, under Pelosi's non-existent leadership has passed a disastrous bill without reading it. That's right folks, not one single Member of Congress read this bill before passing it.

I want a job where I can simply not do the work! And when things go bad, I can avoid all blame. But I digress.

We really ought to be discussing the recent Supreme Court Rulings, all of which were excellent. Most important was the landmark ruling that guaranteed a defendant could face and cross-examine his accusers in court, even if that accuser was a laboratory technician or forensic scientist. Please take a few minutes and listen to this excellent report by National Public Radio and then we'll discuss this further. Maybe.

I can hardly wait to Sonia Sotomayor to join the High Court. She will be an excellent addition.

We ought to be discussing the death of local radio. Fortunately, Jerry Del Colliano has done this for us. Please read his rather frightening and eye popping analysis. And do join us on Twitter to discuss this further.

There are so many things we need to be discussing. But.... let's just take a deep breath, cool down and fight off this summer heat wave and listen to some excellent music by the wonderful Regina Spektor.

The Great Depression: The Advanta House of Cards Collapses

Are you feeling depressed? Well, you should. That's why it's called The Great Depression.

What happened in the 1930's is repeating itself today in a virtually identical pattern. The names have changed and certain new industries have replaced the institution of the 1920's and 1930's, but the chain of events remains unbroken.

Students of The (first) Great Depression know that the Stock Market Crash neither caused nor even marked the beginning of the depression. It was more of an early warning system. In fact, many people in late 1929 and 1930 felt we had weathered the storm of the stock market collapse and were on the way to recovery. Sadly, they were wrong.

The cascade of business and institutional collapses and, especially the banking collapse happened slowly and over time. The worst of the crisis didn't hit until 1932. And then, as today, our government did virtually everything wrong.

Actually, today the actions of our government are much worse. We may well be looking down the barrel of a loaded gun that will actually destroy our country. We have the absolutely wrong leadership team in Washington. They do not see or understand the crisis that grips our country. Our leaders are literally fiddling while Rome burns.

I am especially distressed that, in spite of the daily warning bells, President Obama seems oblivious to the crisis at hand. But, as a friend mentioned to me earlier today, that might just be for the best. He would certainly prescribe the wrong medicine.

Today might just be the beginning of the final collapse. Yesterday Advanta Bank abruptly cancelled over one million business credit cards that have virtually kept small business in America afloat. With average credit limits of $25,000.00 to $40,000.00 these cards have been a lifeline as bank loans dried up and other credit card companies, like American Express, reduced lines and limits.

Unless you work with small businesses like I do, you cannot imagine the disaster happening today. Literally one million businesses are scrambling to replace a credit card in an economy where no new credit cards are being issued.

You can look for business payroll defaults as early as next week. You can look for layoffs as early as today. You can look for bankruptcies and store closures in the next few months.

Add this to the bankruptcies of Chrysler and General Motors, the bizarre closing of over 1,000 automobile dealerships and the general layoffs at factories and white collar businesses around the nation and you will soon see the death of many small towns. It is literally a house of cards. And the first card to fall was Advanta's.

If.... if..... if..... If only we had a real stimulus package instead of the pinata of death designed by Nancy Pelosi and the clueless Democrats in Congress. Dammit America. You should never let people who have done a day's work, managed a business, made a payroll, or worked and studied in economics design a "stimulus package."

You will note from the government's own website that, 120 days later, almost no money has made it into the economy. As of 20 minutes ago the government has somehow managed to spend a whopping $31.1 billion dollars out of the$ 787 billion dollars in the stimulus package!!

Watch the House of Cards Fall:

Advanta Closes One Million Credit Card Accounts

Feel the pain in real time: The Twitter Advanta Feed

Ask The Consumerists: Small Business Credit Cards

Advanta Freezing All Credit Card Accounts

NPR: The End of Advanta

Mechanical Issues

I want to apologize for the lengthy delay between posts and the very brief post today. The major reason for the delay is a very difficult work schedule primarily caused by our tough economic conditions. I am reminded daily just how pathetically poor the Obama/Pelosi stimulus package really is. Make no mistake about it, our government has failed us badly in this current crisis.

I also have some minor computer problems that have limited my ability to post. These will be corrected very soon. It is interesting to note that tonight's post is actually being made on an iPhone!

I have three short observations to make tonight. First, and by far the most important, is to simply note that the absolute greatest strength of our democracy was illustrated by last weeks back to back speeches by President Obama and former Vice President Dick Cheney. Such an open, honest, articulate debate couldn't happen anywhere else. And it was all so civil and peaceful and gentlemanly. Regardless of your position on the issues presented, it was a moment that should have made us all proud.

Second, I applaud and endorse President Obama's nomination of Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. Republicans will bluster, but look for a speedy confirmation. By the way, if any of you happened to witness Rachel Maddow's silly Whiskey Sour analogy, it was spot on correct (but still silly).

Finally, President Obama's cuts in missile defense are stupid and extremely dangerous. It is moments like this that I wish Alaska Governor Sarah Palin were Vice President (or President). Not only would we have a stronger, better and more intelligent defense program, we would have had a real and effective stimulus program.

Barack Obama's Small Business Initiative

I've been rather tough on Barack Obama's economic plans and programs and with good cause. Obama allowed Nancy Pelosi oversee the creation of Frankenstein's Stimulus Monster, an unworkable combination of hands and feet and legs and ears that can only slither off to die the death it so richly deserves. It's just a damned shame we had to pay eight hundred billion dollars for this monster.

But today Barack Obama announced an excellent group of programs and policies that stand a good chance of building a solid base for future economic growth. Obama's Small Business Initiatives will help provide much needed credit for small businesses and provide change the tax laws to help businesses survive the recession/depression. It's no substitute for the stimulus package we still need, but it will save a significant number of jobs and might actually create a few new ones.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama freed billions of dollars to help the nation's small businesses on Monday, hoping to get credit flowing again to Main Street, not just Wall Street. He heaped praise on the little guys of American industry, often overshadowed in the blitz of government bailouts. The centerpiece of Obama's latest plan will allow the government to spend up to $15 billion to buy the small-business loans that are now choking community banks and lenders. That, in turn, could allow those banks to start lending money again to small companies to invest, pay bills and stay afloat. "You deserve a chance. America needs you to have a chance," Obama said in an appeal to all those who run small businesses or hope to one day. Obama's effort was, at one level, fundamental to helping the economy rebound. Small businesses have created about 70 percent of the new jobs over the past decade, and as their credit lines have dried up, so has their ability to thrive or survive.

Barack Obama has really had a tough start to his presidency. Fortunately the press either hasn't noticed many of the real problems and issues or has purposely chosen to ignore them. And you've got to give credit to the highly coordinated Democrat Demolition Squad that has kept at least the Obama supporters clearly focused on nonsensical non-issues like Rush Limbaugh, James Cramer and Glenn Beck. What a joke. Any Democrat or liberal who has fallen for this misdirection ploy should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.

But Barack Obama is genuinely a very smart guy. He is a quick study and he hasn't been "misdirected." While Carvell and company kept the adoring masses entertained, Obama has worked to strengthen his economic proposals and programs. His economic team is still woefully understaffed and Secretary Geithner is still in deep trouble, but each day shows signs of improvement.

The Party of No

While Wall Street and virtually all economists not on Obama's payroll understand the depth and breath of the onrushing governmental spending disaster, it will well beyond the grasp of most ordinary Americans. Trillions of dollars. We can't even begin to understand numbers that large.
Sadly, it's well beyond the grasp of most politicians in Washington, too.

The Washington Dems are trying to blame the whole thing on previous administration, normally a foolproof strategy good for the first couple of years of any new administration. Unfortunately, in this case, such an argument doesn't stand up to even the most cursory analysis. Compared to Obama's spending, Bush was a rank amateur. Actually Bush was a rank amateur in most areas of government, but I digress.

While Dems love to point a finger at the cost of the war in Iraq or the so-called tax breaks for the rich to explain the deficit, Barack Obama has done more damage in two short weeks than Bush did in eight long years. The chart below says it all.

We are in the process of creating an unpayable debt. And inflation is just months away. The complete default of the United States is clearly on the horizon.

How Nancy Pelosi could propose an 8% increase in spending in this recession is beyond all comprehension. That she did it on top of $800 billion in new spending, not so cleverly disguised as a "stimulus package," is stunning. If only anything passed earlier was actually a stimulus, we might have a prayer. It wasn't and we don't.

Just read some of the analysis dominating the nation's newspapers and economic journals.

Reuters reports Obama budget plan forecasts $1.75 trillion deficit. "An eye-popping $1.75 trillion deficit for the 2009 fiscal year is projected in Obama's first budget. That is equal to 12.3 percent of U.S. gross domestic product."

ABC News points out that Obama is planning the largest tax increase in US history: Almost $1 Trillion in New Taxes Over Next 10 yrs, Starting 2011. "President Obama's budget proposes $989 billion in new taxes over the course of the next 10 years, starting fiscal year 2011, most of which are tax increases on individuals."

While the President attempts to aim tax increases toward the highest wage earners, the facts simply prove his oft stated plan cannot possibly raise the needed revenue to offset his massive spending plan. In a detailed analysis, The Wall Street Journal shows that even if Obama taxed this top 2% of wage earners at 100% of income, he would still fall trillions short of the revenue needed. The 2% Illusion shows the complete fallacy of Obama's tax the rich scheme.

"But let's not stop at a 42% top rate; as a thought experiment, let's go all the way. A tax policy that confiscated 100% of the taxable income of everyone in America earning over $500,000 in 2006 would only have given Congress an extra $1.3 trillion in revenue. That's less than half the 2006 federal budget of $2.7 trillion and looks tiny compared to the more than $4 trillion Congress will spend in fiscal 2010. Even taking every taxable "dime" of everyone earning more than $75,000 in 2006 would have barely yielded enough to cover that $4 trillion."

Tragically Obama's may well hit the lower and middle classes hardest of all. Since it is simply impossible to tax the rich enough to cover the deficit, hidden taxes on energy that hit the poor the very hardest will make up a huge part of the shortfall.

What Obama's plan does do is tax small business into oblivion. Virtually every small business will be really hurt by Obama's announced tax plan. Instead of helping the economy, these taxes will lead to massive unemployment. What Obama fails to announce is virtually all small businesses fall under his tax increase plans. The ABC Analysis covers the tax increases on business.

In order to sell this insane plan in congress, Dems are designing the fight as Class Warfare. While John Kerry fired the first salvo yesterday, the demonization of the rich and corporations isn't lost on the Associated Press who detail it today's article, Obama plan brings cries of class warfare.

While Democrats are calling the Republicans the "Party of No," a resounding "NO" is exactly what is needed if we are to save our economy and, ultimately, our country. Sadly, it will require Democrats to wake up and show some sense and demand economic realism and restraint from the Democrat leadership and the tragically naive President Obama.

Barack Obama's Vision

This is exceptionally short entry just to add my voice to the overwhelming approval the President has received for his speech last night. Barack Obama did a masterful job. He was articulate and inspiring. One poll I saw this morning on MSNBC indicated his post speech approval rating jumped to 80%.

Taking a step back and looking at the scope of his vision for America, I cannot disagree with him on anything. He has my support on every single proposal.

Of course the devil is in the details and those details will take do time to develop. And Obama still runs the risk that Nancy Pelosi will circumvent his vision and replace it with a pale partisan version of her own.

Already there is one rather horrific note to indicate politics as usual will actually hold sway in Washington. Obama "promised" that "next year" there would be "no earmarks in the omnibus spending bill." He cleverly omitted that promise for this year's bill. The Pelosi authored spending bill being introduced tomorrow contains over 8,000 pork laden earmarks, some so stupefyingly wasteful they defy belief.

As I said, the devil is in the details.

Unfortunately, I heard absolutely nothing from Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to inspire me. His bizarre partisan pandering seemed small, petty and out of place. He did not represent the Republican Party well. But Jindal was just the sideshow, Obama was the star.

It's Not Morning In America

Have you noticed how very pessimistic and negative Barack Obama has become? President Obama is forecasting a longer and longer recession and distant recovery. He is not upbeat. He is not optimistic. He is depressed.

Compare his slow, deliberate and leaden speeches with the buoyant optimism of Ronald Reagan in his first few days as President. It really was "morning in America" and the public found Reagan's optimism was contagious.

This was President Obama just yesterday, "This recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse."

Many in the retail sector (where most of my personal contacts work) are really complaining about Obama "talking down" the economy. They feel Obama is not just forecasting the coming depression, he is actually making it much worse.

I have to agree.

This afternoon the House passed the completely partisan Pelosi and Reid Stimulus Package. It is a real shame that President Obama failed to properly oversee and guide this bill. The package will do a lot of things, but it's not going to "stimulate" the economy. This mess of a pork laden goulash of a bill will not help us to recover from the current recession and, frankly, Barack Obama and his advisers know this all too well.

He dare not speak optimistically, because there is not hope on the horizon. Nor was there any change in the bills development.

Nancy Pelosi, the worst elected governmental officer in the entire history of the United States, effectively killed bi-partisanship by all herself. Not one single Republican voted for her rat (err, mouse) infested stimulus bill. And not one should have voted for it. First, it is morally and ethically wrong to vote for a bill that will damage and perhaps destroy the United States. Second, if Pelosi is bound and determined to exclude all Republican ideas and voices from the development of the bill, she deserves no support.

As a Democrat I am repulsed by Pelosi and her heavy handed and light headed power grab. With supporters like Pelosi, President Obama doesn't need enemies.

Barring a much needed miracle, the pseudo stimulus bill will now pass the Senate. But Republicans will put up a good fight.

But there will be no moral victory for the Republicans. When the country is in ruins and unemployment and inflation reach double digits, there will be no joy in saying ,"I told you so."

Barack Obama is our president and he deserves our support and loyalty. He will need to support of every American to cope and cure the damage this bill will do to our country.