Unbelievable! He doesn't get it. This is what the C student from Yale doesn't get:
Health Insurance DOES NOT EQUAL Health Care
His Plan make some "generous" employer provided plans taxable and allow those who have to pay for their own insurance tax deductible.
(I cross posted this diary on the Daily Kos, OrangClouds115 asked me to join your site here and cross post). I'm glad to help...if it helps. I'm new to your community, but not to kos, please forgive me, if my language is a little more direct than you are used to.
George Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger look ridiculous supporting the "McCain Doctrine" escalation of the Iraq war. California Democrats have a huge opportunity to do the right thing (supported by the vast majority) and stand up against the Escalation of the war in Iraq that has already cost the lives of more than 300 Californians and is on track to cost Californians more than a half a trillion dollars.
Progressive States is working with MoveOn to introduce Resolutions against the surge escalation in a 50 State Strategy manner. As of yet, I'm told that it has yet to be introduced in California. Who is going to step up and lead on this no-brainer and where do your legislators stand? You can contact your legislators and when they step up, all they need to do is cut and paste the draft resolution that is after the flip:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would call a vote on the increase, trying to isolate Bush and put Republicans on the spot. Democratic leaders in the Senate also said they would schedule a debate next week on a symbolic measure expressing opposition.
Key Bay Area Democrats like Foreign Affairs Committee chair Tom Lantos and Ellen Tauscher, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, were part of a small delegation that met with the President yesterday.
Pelosi is on offense, putting the GOP on the spot. But Bush is too, going after the only two Democrats of the Bay Area delegation who screwed up when he fooled them the first time.
Tauscher needs to stop talking to Bush and start following Pelosi.
"It was not a confrontational meeting," said Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Alamo), who said she emphasized the importance of the Iraqi government making political progress. "I think he understands that, at some level, this is the last best chance."
Why the hell was it not confrontational? Tauscher needs to go.
The front page of today's San Francisco Chronicle features a piece by Marc Sandalow on the battle brewing over Bush's expected plan to escalate in Iraq (known as the McCain Doctrine, "When you're hip deep in shit, dig faster, until you're in over your head.")
If the president, as expected, announces his intention to deploy as many as 20,000 additional U.S. troops in Iraq, he may encounter widespread political and public defiance.
It will quickly test the new Democratic majority's capacity to stand up to the commander in chief in a time of war, and the ability of the legislative branch to seize control of the White House's controversial foreign policy. [...]
"We can see a major clash coming between a Democratic Congress and the administration on this very, very fundamental issue,'' said Bruce Riedel, a former member of Bush's National Security Council and now a fellow at the Brookings Institution. "Not only do most Democrats on the Hill oppose the surge or have serious doubts about it, but more and more Republicans have doubts about the wisdom of the surge.''
While "most Democrats" are smart enough to fight with Pelosi to oppose the escalation, there is one Democrat who already put together the necessary mechanics for such an escalation.
The incompetence of Ellen Tauscher's internet moves has Washington insiders paying attention, with the Hotline's Blogometer noting:
CA 10: "The Kiss" Becomes "The Caress"
The samecircles that got such mileage out of naming Sen. Joe Lieberman's (I-CT) SOTU embrace of Pres. Bush "the kiss" have now labeled the pre-Iraq-war picture of Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) sitting with Bush's hand on her lap "the caress." But Tauscher's trouble with pictures past does not end there. DailyKos' founder Markos Moulitsas calls Tauscher "a coward" for "scrubbing pictures of Lieberman from her site in fear they'll be used against her." Kos even hits Tauscher for photos not on her site including one from the signing of the Homeland Security Act, calling the pictured Tauscher, Lieberman, Bush, and ex-Maj. Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) "the four horsemen of the apocalypse."
Kos later spells out the netroots case against Tauscher: "Suffice it to say, she's the leader of the Conservative Blue Dog Democrats, has consistently undermined the Democratic Party, has been a driving force (not just a supporter) in things like the Bankruptcy Bill, and essentially acts like she represents Utah while serving in a 59 percent Kerry district."
That last point is key, because if it weren't for the district, the netroots would be giving Tauscher a pass (the blogs have never gone after Jim Matheson). But Tauscher's district deserves to send somebody to DC who actually, uh, represents the district.
A grim milestone approaches as California currently stands at 299 deaths in Iraq.
This picture is dated from the summer of 2002, during the run-up to the war, just a few months before Representative Ellen Tauscher voted with George Bush on Iraq. Just days before the vote, Gwen Ifill interviewed Ellen Tauscher during the debate over the resolution. Representative Tauscher defended the resolution and the deal she cut for her support:
And I am happy to say that have we moved this resolution very far away from where he where it was originally, which was almost a blank check and where we effectively gave the president a rubber stamp -- where Congress has really inserted itself - and I think that's in the best interest of the American people.
That's right, the deal Tauscher cut was for congress to act as a rubber stamp for the Administration. By doing this Tauscher failed during the most important issue of our time:
Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the moderate New Democrat Network, faulted the administration on its representation of intelligence, but refused to blame the White House entirely.
"It's clear now that they cherry-picked intelligence, amplified some things, played down dissent. [But] we all got it wrong," she said.
That's just not true, not all of us did get it wrong. The problem is that Tauscher marginalized and ignored the voices who have since been proven correct.
(The stem cell initiative has its flaws, but the far Right is holding this research hostage to its own moral agenda. - promoted by SFBrianCL)
**UTBriancl asked me to post this here as well. Thanks Brian!**
The day after President Bush vetoed the federal stem cell bill, Governor Schwarzenegger authorized a loan of $150 million to California's stem cell research funding agency, the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine.
