Posts Tagged ‘obamacare’

I wanted to get a comment from Liz Carter running in the Georgia 4th district against Hank “I’m not a geologist but I play one in the congress” Johnson. Her Chief of staff Cheryl Prater remembered me from CPAC (proving the Cannoli rule correct) and did me one better. Rather than a simple comment she graciously consented to give me an interview over the phone. It was VERY informative.

Before anything else it must be understood that this district GA-4 is rated Safe democratic according to GQ politics map. This is a majority-minority district that elected Cynthia McKinney so any Republican was going to have a tough time of it.

That was my first question: How could she win in such a district? She answered that the Healthcare bill had changed everything. Voters in the area were disgusted with the bill and how it was passed. I then asked her specifically about the comments of Doug Shulman, her thought in one word:

“Appalling!”

She reminded me of the promises that the changes wouldn’t hurt the middle class and pointed to the congressional leadership saying that feeling in her district was running 60-40 against the bill. Take another look at that GQ map and run that through your head.

The Clincher was the local NAACP event she attended in Rockville. She was greeted warmly by really great people. Their focus was all about solutions. The feeling is that congress went too far and were more interested in Power than in Service. Her own solutions and suggestions are on her site here. In our interview she stressed the idea of “Health Courts”, from her site:

Malpractice cases today are often won by emotion and who has the best attorney. By creating health courts, we remove emotion and allow opinions to be decided by those who understand the practice of medicine.

Even more incredible was their reaction concerning the Media. The were fed up with it, they concluded that they were not getting the true picture from the MSM. As they put it: “Truth Matters!”

If you are getting the NAACP deciding that the Mainstream media can’t be trusted then the seminal change I was discussing is upon us. The same issues, regardless of race, face all.

I asked about the Tea Party movement, it is active in the area and as CNN has discovered is not not the monochrome racists that the Democratic Leadership would have you believe. She said the democrats: “fundamentally think that people will forget”. She disagrees, the People aren’t stupid, and if the administration is foolish enough to push “immigration reform” (read Amnesty) it will be the final straw. The people are already ready to revolt, this will send them over the edge.

The one wild card is the democratic primary. There is a real chance that Mr. Johnson might not survive it. Vernon Jones in particular seems capable of knocking him off, but Liz declares she is ready for Johnson, Jones or anyone the Democrats have to offer.

In the short time I had she really impressed me. Take a peek at her blog and you will be impressed too. I’ve very happy for the people of GA-4 they have such an excellent choice to represent them.

Continuing the comments from candidates on the Shulman statement series I received the following comment from Will Gregory who is running for Congress in Connecticut’s 4th Congressional District.

The power to tax is a broad power of the federal government, and is easily abused. It’s no casual thing to levy additional taxes on Americans struggling to make ends meet. Just because the IRS has a sneaky regulatory loophole to take your property to force compliance with a sweeping federal invasion into the health care system, doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. The President promised us transparency — enough with the backhanded tactics.

Jim Himes the incumbent democrat only managed 51.3 percent of the vote in 2008. I’m thinking he might be wise to follow the Calvin Coolidge route that Mr. Olver did today on the subject.

Building on the IRS refund grab story this morning I talked to Patricia Sullivan running against MSNBC’s Favorite congressman Alan “die quickly” Grayson in Florida’s 8th district. She called it the “Tip of the Iceberg” in both our conversation and in the following release which she forwarded to me this morning:

IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman acknowledging Monday, while speaking to the National Press Club, that the recently passed Health Care Reform measure limits the IRS’s enforcement options to include the confiscation of individuals tax refunds as the “most likely way to penalize individuals” whom do not comply with the mandate. This is just the “Tip of the Iceberg to the Federal Government’s intrusion into the private lives of the American People” stated Patricia Sullivan, conservative Republican candidate for the 8th Congressional District in Florida. Shulman warns the public to “not read into anything about me doing it now” as he reports of being “just a busy guy” the myriad of enforcement capabilities and the private army health corps created by this Health Care Reform measure are definite cause for concern.

Don’t worry Mr. Shulman, as Patricia points out above the new IRS people that will be hired to enforce this monstrosity will be more than happy to do the heavy lifting for you.

I’m sure Mr. Grayson will be delighted to defend this for Ed Schultz or Chris Matthews, but closer to home I called up Congressman John Olver’s Fitchburg Office for comment, they referred me to his Washington Office and I left a message requesting comment from Liz Murphy from his press office. I’ll let you know what comment I get.

If you don’t remember Patricia Sullivan, Stacy McCain and I interviewed her at CPAC here.

Update: Heard back from Ms. Murphy, Congressman Olver has no comment at this time. It was a pretty prompt response and it speaks well that she got back to a mere fedora wearing blogger quickly. He is wisely taking Calvin Coolidge to heart:

…if you don’t buy health insurance says the IRS Chief:

Speaking at the National Press Club on Monday, Shulman downplayed the IRS’s role in enforcing the recent overhaul of the health insurance industry by claiming the agency would not aggressively target individuals who don’t purchase coverage. He noted that the health-care bill expressly forbids the agency from freezing bank accounts, seizing assets or pursuing criminal charges, but when pressed said the IRS would most likely use tax refund offsets to penalize those that don’t comply with the mandate. The IRS uses refund offsets to collect from individuals that owe the federal government a delinquent debt.

Tell me that this didn’t take place one week before tax day and while the Tea Party Express is driving across the country.

I’d just LOVE to be the congressman who has to defend attaching people’s refunds, the young who this will hit the hardest will be positively thrilled!

This is one more reason to adjust your withholding. Once you do so take that money and put it in a CD that matures around April 15th of next year. Instead of hoping to see your refund let the government wait for your money.

And you get the interest too!

Stuff like this has an excellent chance of turning 2010 and 2012 into a seminal election and remember in Bart Stupak’s own words we don’t know which democrats voted no only because he gave them cover.

Update: It made Hotair’s headlines.

Update 2: I’m soliciting comments from congressional candidates.