Opinion: McClintock on the wrong side
By Athan Manuel
Over the past several weeks, America’s public lands, including our national parks and monuments, became a symbol of the pain caused by the government shutdown. And rightly so.
Visitors were turned away, once-in-a-lifetime trips were canceled and local California economies lost an estimated $8.5 million each day of the shutdown. The public outrage over the closure of our parks, monuments and other public lands made clear the importance of these special places.
U.S. House Republicans, including Congressman [Tom] McClintock found themselves on the wrong side of public opinion. Instead of acknowledging their role in the shutdown, and that they were in fact the reason why our public lands closed, Republicans are callously looking to shift the blame to federal land agency employees for simply doing their job.
In a joint hearing of the House Natural Resources and Oversight and Government Reform Committees recently, Republicans spent hours attacking Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis. The tone was reminiscent of Congressman [Randy] Neugebauer’s confrontation with the park ranger at the World War II memorial. More of the same type of bullying is expected this week at another House hearing, tellingly titled “Threats, Intimidations and Bullying by Federal Land Managing Agencies”.
Behind the scathing diatribes lies the truth, the closure of our parks and monuments is just the latest example of Republicans’ lack of concern for our public lands.
– Appropriations legislation that came through the House this year slashed parks and public lands funding by $315 million – 13 percent.
– The last Congress was the first since World War II not to protect a single new acre of public land, and the current Congress is on track to be the second.
– Even during the shutdown, congressional Republicans pushed forward legislation to sell off 3.3 million acres of public land to the highest bidder.
Congressman McClintock should be ashamed of his role in this farce. It is House Republicans who are the real bullies here. And it is the American people who are suffering as our nation’s natural treasures are neglected. Please use your editorial voice to call on Congressman McClintock to stop using our public lands as political chips and to stand with the American people in support of our special places.
Athan Manuel is director of the Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program.
Same old same old.
What is on the wrong side is Obama Care, look what it is doing to the economy and all the millions of people losing their insurance coverage.
That is what is wrong.
America is on the wrong track and McClintock and the Tea Party simply want to return to the Constitutional foundation of our country.
That is the right side as far as I am concerned.
Here’s is what one former republican member of the US Senate and the House of Representatives thinks of today’s GOP, “the party is so far off to the right that can’t even come to grips with reality in America today”, ” it seems to me when I hear Republicans talking, I hear a lot of sexism, I hear a lot of racism” (Lowell Weicker of Connecticut)
The writer is correct to call it bullying. The House “hearings” (on whatever topic you care to consider) are all about posturing, sound bites, and public image, not about honestly examining problems and coming to consensus about real solutions.
No facts, throw out the race card, this is all the liberals have to argue with, everything must revolve around race because their leader is an incompetent failure of massive proportions and has not only harmed every one of the ten million people receiving insurance cancellation letters to date for direct results, he has further harmed our allies view of this country for decades to come with endless spying on allied leaders. The orders to shut down as many high traffic tourist areas came directly from DC liberals from the top and there was no reason for it, except to try to cause trouble and outrage like what they did to the veterans by having a rally for illegals in front of the closed open air War Memorial. The cuts to the NPS are from the Sequester that was put in place by the Dems as there has not been a budget passed in five years for a first in history. Keep distracting and listening to liberal media for the next cover-up commands for the massive failure called radical liberalism.
Justin, you obviously didn’t pay much attention to what I wrote. A former republican lawmaker made the statements in my comment. And are you REALLY insinuating that monitoring our friends along with spying on our enemies is something new? Wasn’t it George W that started snooping on Angela Merkel? And then you use proven false facts by aping your hero’s Rush and those at Fox News while telling us liberals WE are guilty of YOUR sins.
I can’t agree more with the author. To those of you who are claiming receiving “cancellation” notices, I can’t say that some PRIVATE INSURANCE COMPANIES are not taking advantage of this. I, too, received a letter from my employer provided insurer that explained that their plan was being brought into full compliance with the provisions of the ACA (coverage for pre-existing conditions, coverage for my dependents until age 26, etc). And as a result, I will not need to go to the marketplace.
However, some with PRIVATE policies have received letters explaining that in order to comply with the law, they will need to raise premiums or can no longer offer the plan that someone has enjoyed but offer a new plan. Those folks should NOT take their “for profit private company’s” word for this. Do some research, get on the exchange and SHOP or call or make an appointment with an insurance broker.
These letters and their content are the sole responsiblity of the insurer….so direct your ire there.
Party liner Athan is in locked goose step with his fellow party members. Does anyone else feel we are losing America to the totalitarians? Government uber alles.
I don’t see any “race cards”. I don’t know anyone who has lost their insurance due to the ACA. I haven’t seen or heard of any, ANY, proposals from republicans to replace the ACA despite their rhetoric about “repeal and replace”. They bragged about “shutting down the government” for over a year, got their way and accomplished nothing in the process. Clearly, it didn’t work out they way they wanted. The facts about the history of this legislation point strongly to a republican idea that they couldn’t enact because they can’t agree on anything that doesn’t benefit their masters. And the beat goes on…
Obama Voters Are Outraged Over Huge
Insurance Hikes
Posted on October 28, 2013
More and more liberals will wake up as the truth slaps them in the wallet.
Check it out:
California residents Cindy Vinson and Tom Waschura are proud to say they voted for President Obama in 2008 and 2012. They’ve also been proud advocates for his prized health care law. But after opening their health insurance bills last month, they’re both “floored.”
“I was laughing at Boehner—until the mail came today,” Waschura told San Jose Mercury News, referencing House Speaker John Boehner during the heat of the defund Obamacare debate on Capitol Hill in late September.
Both Vinson and Waschura’s health insurance plans are being replaced to meet the requirements of Obamacare. Vinson will pay $1,800 more a year for an individual policy, while Waschura’s plan for his family of four will increase by $10,000.
Continue Reading on blog.heritage.org …
Amazing how facts get lost, misconstrued and blatantly ignored by the wackos of the Republican party. It is true some junk policies are being replaced with ACA compliant policies, that’s a good thing. The wackos lost the fight and now are trying to use bullying tactics. The American people have had enough. Tea party factions approval ratings are in the 20’s. Some folks sound like a broken record, its snowing, I spilled my coffee, it must be the fault of Obamacare.
The only way the Republicans are holding on to their jobs is through gerrymandering. Democrats received more numerical votes but due to gerrymandering they lost. Is this the USA? Vote, vote , vote these traitors out of office.
Dhimmitude
What does this word mean?
Yes, snopes was checked, now let’s all get our lives in check…eh?
What does this word mean? Dhimmitude
The word “Dhimmitude” is found in the new health care bill; so what does it mean?
Thought this was interesting and worth passing on.
Obama used it in the health care bill. Now isn’t this interesting? It is also included in the health care law. Dhimmitude — I had never heard the word until now. I typed it into Google and started reading. Pretty interesting. It’s on page 107 of the healthcare bill. I looked this up on Google and yep, it exists.. It is a REAL word.
Dhimmitude is the Muslim system of controlling non-Muslim populations conquered through jihad (Holy War). Specifically, it is the TAXING of non-Muslims in exchange for tolerating their presence AND as a coercive means of converting conquered remnants to Islam.
ObamaCare allows the establishment of Dhimmitude and Sharia Muslim diktat in the
United States . Muslims are specifically exempted from the government
mandate to purchase insurance, and also from the penalty tax for being uninsured. Islam considers insurance to be “gambling”, “risk-taking”, and “usury” and is thus banned. Muslims are specifically granted exemption based on this. How convenient. So I, as a Christian, will have crippling IRS liens placed against all of my assets, including real estate, cattle, and even accounts receivable, and will face hard prison time because I refuse to buy insurance or pay the penalty tax. Meanwhile, Louis Farrakhan will have no such penalty and will have 100% of his health insurance needs paid for by the de facto government insurance. Non-Muslims will be paying a tax to subsidize Muslims. This is Dhimmitude.
I recommend sending this on to your contacts. American citizens need to know about it —
snopes..com : Health Insurance Exemptions Apr 13, 2010 … Dhimmitude is the Muslim system of controlling non-muslim populations … The ObamaCare bill is the establishment of Dhimmitude and Sharia … http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/exemptio ns.asp s/medical/exemptions.asp>
Every non-Muslim in the
United States of America needs to know about it.
Gamechanger don’t believe everything you see and hear;
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/government/a/muslims_exempt_health_insurance_mandate.htm
OMG, you can’t make some of this stuff up! The laughable b.s. just posted above by “gamechanger” is complete fiction. The link provided to snopes.com uses the email pasted above as an example of the ludicrous claim, and then shows that it is totally unhinged from reality. Read for yourself:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/medical/exemptions.asp
Likewise, other “facts” cited here to justify the harm caused by McClintock to small businesses, our economy, park visitors, etc. through their government shutdown are equally fictitious.
“Justice” — provide a link to a credible, fact-checked site that substantiates your claim about “one of the ten million people receiving insurance cancellation letters to date”.
I was on a tele-town hall meeting with McClintock during the shutdown, where he was tossing around bogus figures like that to justify his shutdown action. To him and others, the economic harm to businesses around Yosemite and throughout our district that got hammered due to the shutdown was justified by the holy crusade to undo a law they are obsessed over, and couldn’t stop through the legislative, electoral or legal process.
For anyone who supported that move, answer this: Would you support Democrats in Congress using the same tactic (government shutdown, threat of default) to sabotage a law passed by Republicans?
McClintock and his supporters need to use actual facts, not fear, conjecture, rumor and innuendo to make their case that the stopping people from participating in the ACA justified the cost of their shutdown. If the effects of the health care law are really so bad in your view, bad enough to hijack the government, use the truth to make your case. Convince us with facts and reason. Then propose fixes.
Now the pathetic parade continues by dragging park service officials into hearings to be grilled on the effects of the shutdown by those who caused it. Along the lines of what was said during the McCarthy hearings in the 50s, “have you no shame, Mr. McClintock?”
Dumbfounded –
We just received a letter from Kaiser Permanente cancelling our policy as of January 1, 2014 because it doesn’t meet the ACA standards. I am self-employed and buy my own insurance. Our current policy was $583 per month. The new policy quoted through Covered California that most resembles my current plan is $1078 per month, and I do not qualify for any “subsidy”. Practically a 100% increase. BTW, no one in our family has visted the doctor in over four years. Obamacare is great, huh…
Anyone who actually quotes the despicable Lowell Weicker as a viable member of the GOP is pretty desperate! He has never represented anything remotely close to mainstream conservatism. What, was Linc Chafee not available? How about Arlen Specter? Wait… he’s dead. Oh well. Then there’s always Colin Powell, huh? He only endorsed Barack Hussein Obama… TWICE!
The wrong side of this issues is Obama Care, reports are that over a million and half people have had their insurance cancelled. Further it is reported that Obama knew that millions would lose their insurance when he lied and said you could keep your insurance.
How do liberals have any credibility?
Another “wrong” side in our nation is the debt and the Federal reserve liabilities. Those massive amounts are so wrong it’s reached a level of immoral. Intergenerational theft and enslavement. The markets are going up because of one reason only, the $85 Billion a month printed money by the Fed. This is driving the bankers and the rich to new heights middle class is being destroyed.
Our liberal government did this to us.
House Republicans spent weeks if not months holding hearings on Benghazi. To this day they have not passed a single piece of legislation to make our embassies and workers in foreign lands safer. They are all talk and no walk. Hearings are just opportunities for soundbites.
The House will work for 19 more days this year and they do not plan to pass or work on a single peice of legislation. Anyone else in here making six figures only have 19 more work days till the end of the year in which you plan on doing nothing?
“Continue Reading on blog.heritage.org …”
LOL you could have started your post with this…
dj , that is a terrible bit of thinking…WOW out there man
Because of the coverup of Banghazi to this day they don’t even know what happened.
DO YOU READ THE NEWS or just listen to the hate on MSNBC? –
We don’t need new laws we need an administration that is competent.
Robot slave!
CJ, the debt came from two centuries of over-spending, by both parties. Those little wars combined with tax breaks for the entitled didn’t help the debt situation. The United States has been out of debt for less years than you can count on your hands. If you can’t be objective and honest, why bother to comment?
CJ I don’t identiy with either party (please don’t group me) When we hold hearings for several months and spend millions of dollars I expect my elected officials to take action. If they don’t I can only assume they are making political hay are they are completely worthless individuals.
When we vote to make 400 new tanks and then send them directly to the scrap yard yet we cannot vote on making our embassies safer I become a little suspicious.
I agree it was a cover up. The problem is that nobody really cared about the people in danger as the argument escalated. Dems backpeddling and keeping Hil Dogg Safe and Issa and his GOP cronies going on the attack. At it’s end nothing has been done to make them any safer. Sad really.
So, Gamechanger, what is your answer to Arod’s post? More of the same nonsense? Please try to keep it down when the adults are talking, please.
Apparently, not too many folks actually read the article or the comments. They just repeat their talking points and insult fellow citizens. This is exactly why the elected continue to do whatever they want. As long as they keep us at each other’s throats, we’re not paying attention.
If found a plan on Covered Cali for $220, thought it to be a fair price. Why not fix the law? It definately could use some repairs, shouldn’t we all want our brothers and sisters to be healthy?
Bingo DJ! Yes, why the massive resistance to the U.S. becoming the last developed country to provide a national health care plan?
Premiums would be less if the health care law were a “Medicare for All” type approach (Medicare admin overhead is 3%, insurance corporation average is approx. 30%). But resistance from conservatives to “government run health care” led to the private-insurance based ACA, which was initially proposed by the conservative Heritage Foundation as an alternative to Clinton’s plans in the 90s.
Still, for everyone who has been denied health care coverage because of “pre-existing conditions”, those who haven’t been able to afford any coverage, and other segments of the 50 million people without health coverage, the ACA is a major improvement. Millions will sign up for coverage on the exchanges, as flawed as they’ve been.
Yes, premiums have gone up for some who have individual, not employer based, health plans. One fix for this would be to reintroduce the “public option”, which would force insurance corporations to compete with a plan administered by public agencies that are not required to pay exorbitant CEO salaries or large returns to investors.
DJ…good for you!
I wonder if you would mind letting us know your age and the amount of your deductible?
Thanks.
DJ- Yes, it would be great if all of our brothers and sister were covered. I am all for a single payer system that covers everyone. My biggest issue is that our government lives WAY beyond their means. Something has to give. It is not sustainable to keep giving to those that produce the least am taking from those who produce the most. Why can’t we fairly tax (ie equally tax) everyone and then form our budget around what we take in. Our leaders (BOTH PARTIES) are running this country like undiciplined twenty something’s with credit cards and no work ethic. The madness must end. Congrats on your low insurance premium btw…how much is subsidized?
This article seems to be more about the harm done to the Forest Service, but has been hijacked about ObamaCare. But while we are at it. Yes Dumbfounded, we have always had a national debt, but it has never been this high. At the end of 2008 it was 8 trilion, it is now over 17 trilion, that is a doubling in 5 years. Cant place all the blame on one party there is plenty of room to put the blame on both parties(yes even the demos) no one wants to give up their own boondogles. When Obama took office the budget was 2.9 trillion in 2008 in 2013 it was 3.8 trillion, that is 900 trillion increase, with a 900 billion deficit. In 2008 we had TRAP, & Iraq still. If we just brought the budget back down to 2008 wouldnt that be wonderful we would not have a deficit or it would be very little, esp since tax income is more with more being collected from the 1% because of the 2012 tax deal
“In 2008 we had TRAP, & Iraq still”
We paid those off already?
Facts: Deficits exploded under Reagan because of huge military increases and tax cuts. Deficits were brought under control by Clinton, who left office with budget surpluses. Deficits exploded under W Bush because of massive military budget increases, Trillions with a capital T for 2 worthless wars, tax cuts for the rich and the Wall Street bailout. During that time, VP Cheney said “deficits don’t matter”, and all who are so gravely concerned about the debt now were silent then. Hmmm.
Republicans during the Obama era have refused to consider additional revenues and pushed for further tax cuts, against closing of corporate tax dodges, have not considered cuts to the major expenditure areas (military & war), and have postured as born again deficit hawks while touting cuts to programs like food stamps (which hurt people but are inconsequential to bringing the debt down). Oh, and tax revenues have been down because so many people got hammered by the financial meltdown that happened pre-Obama.
You can’t have your wars, your tax cuts, your wall street deregulation with resulting bailout, and your balanced budget too.
Clinton did not give us the surplus. That happened because there was a Republican majority
In the House and Senate.
We do not need new sources of revenue. Government needs to quit spending so much money. They steal quite enough already.
WOW Tahoedad,
“Deficits were brought under control by Clinton”
How do you say something so patently untrue?
Where did you get your education? California?
After eight years of a presidency ended with a budget surplus, yet that president had NOTHING to do with it?
CJ, where did you get your education? A Sears and Roebuck catalog?
Tahoe Dad,
The Fact is that deficits grew under Reagan because the Democrats reneged on spending cuts they agreed to enact, sound familiar anyone ?
Same old story – Liberals Lie – it is a constant, be it by ignorance or by intention.
Liberalism is a cancer to societies, always has been throughout history. But the progressives that took over education stopped teaching truth and started indoctrinating students into a socialism.
All of you free minded people that know what I say is true but are to scared to speak up better start standing up and speaking up to the Robot/ Slaves mentality soon.
Biggerpicture, you’re right! he helped get Newt Gingrich elected who led the conservative fight for reform and produced the surplus.
Well CJ, then you wouldn’t argue that the the GOP controlled House and Senate for 6 years under George W are to blame for the economic woes that we have been digging out of for the last five years?
forget it biggerpicture-Who do you think you are-“the Idiot Whisperer’?
Tea Total, that was good. Seriously.
Who came up with that?
It’s time for you to all go find another subject to bicker about someplace else. It’s like you are children and just want the last word without saying anything intelligent.
I’m having the last word here — move on — unless you have something to say about the subject, and not about the people commenting.
Kathryn Reed, LTN publisher
100% agree with Athan Manuel on this one ! Good Job for putting it in perspective !
Once an angry man insulted the Buddha. The Buddha simply asked the man if people ever visited him in his home. Surprised at the change of topic, the man answered yes.
The Buddha then asked if his visitors ever brought gifts. When the man replied yes again, the Buddha asked what would happen if he refused to accept the gifts? Who would the gifts belong to then? The man said that, of course, they would still belong to those who brought them.
The Buddha then calmly and kindly said, “In the same way, since I do not accept your insults, they remain with you.”
Synopsis: Keep your insults to yourselves because you own them.
Thank you Kathryn