Tiger Woods, with a late string of birdies, built a four-stroke lead at the PGA Championship after 36 holes.
Woods' record gives the outcome a look of inevitability. Tiger is 8-0 in the majors when leading after 36 holes. He has never lost any tournament when leading by four shots going into the weekend.
Watch the following Associated Press video report:
In today's weekly Republican address, Senator Orrin Hatch does an excellent job of dialing down the rhetoric, while still effectively criticizing the Democrats' rush and spend approach to governing:
Our nation expects us to solve this challenge in an open, honest and responsible manner. More spending, more taxes and more government is not the answer.
After the rushed stimulus bill, Americans are rightly concerned about what is being pushed through the Democratic Congress. The rush to pass something that will affect every American life and one-sixth of our economy has raised concerns all around our nation.
So, why are Americans so skeptical of and concerned with the approach of the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress? A big reason for this concern is that nearly 85 percent of Americans have coverage and they are really worried about what reform means for them. Especially our seniors.
President Obama and the Democrats tried to rush Obamacare through Congress just like they rushed the so-called stimulus and cap and trade tax. Liberal Democrat leaders have to try and rush Obama's change, because they know the more the American people find out about it, the more they oppose it.
Senator Hatch goes on to call for sustainable, fiscally responsible and bipartisan reform:
There are several areas of consensus that can form the basis for a sustainable, fiscally responsible and bipartisan reform. These include:
Reforming the health insurance market for every American by making sure that no American is denied coverage simply based on a pre-existing condition
Protecting the coverage for almost 85 percent of Americans who already have coverage – coverage they like – by making it more affordable. This means reducing costs by rewarding quality and coordinated care, giving families more information on the cost and choices of their coverage and treatment options, discouraging junk lawsuits against
doctors and hospitals and promoting prevention and wellness measures like quitting smoking and living a healthier lifestyle
Giving states flexibility to design their own unique approaches to reduce uninsured
Empowering small businesses and self-employed entrepreneurs – the
job-creating engines and lifeblood of our economy – to buy affordable
coverage for their employees
Full transcript of Senator Hatch’s address:
Hello. I’m Orrin Hatch, from the great state of Utah. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with all of you today to talk about the very important challenge of health care reform.
Ensuring access to affordable and quality health care for every American is not a Republican or Democrat issue - it is an American issue. Our nation expects us to solve this challenge in an open, honest and responsible manner. More spending, more taxes and more government is not the answer.
After the rushed stimulus bill, Americans are rightly concerned about what is being pushed through the Democratic Congress. The rush to pass something that will affect every American life and one-sixth of our economy has raised concerns all around our nation.
So, why are Americans so skeptical of and concerned with the approach of the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress? A big reason for this concern is that nearly 85 percent of Americans have coverage and they are really worried about what reform means for them. Especially our seniors. And these concerns are moving from kitchen table conversations to town hall discussions.
I am disappointed about the attempts to characterize the behavior of Americans expressing their concerns as "un-American." Although I strongly encourage the use of respectful debate in these town halls, we should not be stifling these discussions. There is nothing "un-American" about disagreements. In fact, our great nation was founded on speaking our minds.
Families are voicing their concerns because they feel like they are not being heard in Washington and I’m here to tell you that your voices are coming through and it is essential for all of you to be involved in this issue.
Republicans in Congress agree with the majority of Americans who believe that just throwing more taxpayer dollars at a problem will not deliver meaningful reform. Telling the American public that the solution for solving a $2.5 trillion health care system is to simply spend another trillion dollars in our current economy, just does not make sense. Especially at a time when spending and debt are multiplying with such alarming speed, like an almost $2 trillion national deficit this year alone, $200 billion in state deficits, a Medicare program on the edge of bankruptcy and a national debt that will triple within the next decade.
There are several areas of consensus that can form the basis for a sustainable, fiscally responsible and bipartisan reform. These include:
Reforming the health insurance market for every American by making sure that no American is denied coverage simply based on a pre-existing condition
Protecting the coverage for almost 85 percent of Americans who already have coverage – coverage they like – by making it more affordable. This means reducing costs by rewarding quality and coordinated care, giving families more information on the cost and choices of their coverage and treatment options, discouraging junk lawsuits against doctors and hospitals and promoting prevention and wellness measures like quitting smoking and living a healthier lifestyle
Giving states flexibility to design their own unique approaches to reduce uninsured
Empowering small businesses and self-employed entrepreneurs – the job-creating engines and lifeblood of our economy – to buy affordable coverage for their employees
Unfortunately, the path we are taking in Washington right now is to simply spend another trillion dollars of taxpayer money to further expand the role of the federal government. The reform proposals being pushed by the Democrats include massive expansions of the Medicaid program and the creation of a new Washington-run plan that will drive millions of Americans from private coverage of their choice into government-run plans. As the federal government’s control of our health care system continues to increase, private coverage will continue to decrease, till we are left with a Washington-run and dictated health care system.
Medicare offers an important lesson. With $38 trillion in future costs, it is facing bankruptcy within the next decade, threatening access to care for millions of Americans. So what is the Democratic approach to fix Medicare for our seniors? Hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts which will be used to expand a financially-strapped Medicaid program and create another government-run plan.
To enact true health care reform, we should work together to write a responsible, bipartisan bill for the American families who are faced with rising unemployment and out of control health care costs.
We have a real need for reform and an opportunity on behalf of the American people to get it done. If we are responsible in our policy approaches and strive for true bipartisanship, we can achieve meaningful reform.
The Senate Finance Committee decided to remove the so-called "death panel" provision from its version of Obamacare legislation because the language could be "misinterpreted or implemented incorrectly."
The decision and rational amounts to an admission that fears the language allegedly designed to allow Medicare to pay doctors to counsel patients about planning for end-of-life decisions could morph into "death panels" are justified
According to the Los Angeles Times, a similar provision remains in the Obamacare legislation that was passed by three House committees last month, and could remain in the final bill. Until the death panel provision is removed from all the Democrats' Obamacare proposals, the controversy will continue.
So much for Obama's assertions that complaints about "death panels" are nothing more than misconceptions.
Democrat Senators Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Ben Nelson of Nebraska say the Senate should abandon efforts to pass cap-and-trade this year.
Cap-and-trade legislation will require 60 votes to pass the Senate. According to Bloomberg, at
least 15 of the Senate's 60 Democrats have said the
House-passed version -- the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade tax climate change legislation -- would hurt the economy and must be changed before they can support it. Most Republican Senators oppose the cap-and-trade measure.
The resistance by Senate Democrats Lincoln undercuts President Obama’s plan to cap carbon dioxide emissions and establish a market for trading pollution allowances. A plan that presidential candidate Obama said will cause electricity rates to "necessarily skyrocket" and will bankrupt anyone who builds a coal-powered plant.
Does Obama's cap-and-trade tax, face the same fate as President Clinton's BTU energy tax, which died in the Senate?
At Tuesday's town hall meeting on health insurance reform at Portsmouth High School in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, President Obama falsely claimed the AARP endorsed Obamacare. That is another Obama falsehood, one the AARP denies.
In his opening remarks Obama said, "We have the AARP on board because they know this is a good deal for our seniors." In response to a question from a women concerned about losing her Medicare supplement if something happens to her husband, Obama said, "AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare, okay?":
Well, first of all, another myth that we've been hearing about is this notion that somehow we're going to be cutting your Medicare benefits. We are not. AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare, okay? So I just want seniors to be clear about this, because if you look at the polling, it turns out seniors are the ones who are most worried about health care reform. And that's understandable, because they use a lot of care, they've got Medicare, and it's already hard for a lot of people even on Medicare because of the supplements and all the other costs out of pocket that they're still paying.
The AARP has not endorsed any health care plan that is currently being considered by Congress.
Obama's false claim of an AARP endorsement caused the AARP issue a denial:
"While the President was correct that AARP will not endorse a health care reform bill that would reduce Medicare benefits, indications that we have endorsed any of the major health care reform bills currently under consideration in Congress are inaccurate."
Counting his whopper that he has not said he was a "single payer supporter," that's two lies in one town hall meeting. What else is Obama lying about? Obama cannot expect the American people to believe anything he says about Obamacare when the record shows he is not telling the truth.
President Obama is not trustworthy when it comes to what he says about health care.
At Tuesday's town hall meeting on health insurance reform at Portsmouth High School in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Obama claimed he has not said he was a "single payer supporter." That is simply not true.
In 2003 Obama, a more honest Obama told an AFL-CIO conference that he was a supporter of a single payer universal health care program:
I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that’s what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House.
Don't take my word for it, watch the following short video:
Obama's assertion today, that he has not said he is a "single payer supporter" is a bald face lie:
I have not said that I was a single payer supporter, because frankly we historically have had a employer-based system in this country with private insurers and for us to transition to a system like that, I believe, would be too disruptive.
Again, don't take my word for it, Watch the following short video:
Obama cannot expect the American people to believe anything he says about Obamacare when the record shows he is not telling the truth. What else is Obama lying about?
Presidential candidate Barack Obama promised over and over, and over, and over, and over, again not to negotiate healthcare reform behind closed doors, to bring all parties together and to broadcast those negotiations on C-SPAN "so the American people can see what the choices are. Obama promised the healthcare negotiations would be on C-SPAN:
Obama was correct about the involvement of the American people:
"Part of what we have to do is enlist the American people in this process." -- Barack Obama, CNN Democrat Presidential Debate, January 31, 2008.
Look at those town hall meetings. The American people have enlisted. I hope Obama is also right about Congress can be shamed into doing the right thing:
"I would not underestimate the degree to which shame is a healthy emotion and that you can shame Congress into doing the right thing if people know what is going on." -- Barack Obama, San Francisco Chronicle -- January 17, 2008
Can you hear them now? You work for us. Hear our voice. Don't close the door.
Indiana Republican Congressman Dan Burton on Cap and Trade Tax, Obamacare and those Town hall meetings:
Cap and Trade Tax
Spain has tried this already. And for every job, a new job created that
would help the environment they lost two and a half jobs.
Because of
the new programs its gonna cost American jobs, American people
jobs. It's gonna drive jobs overseas.
Its gonna cost the American
consumer about $3000 a year in additional expenses because when
they turn on their lights it'll cost more because the producer of the
electricity is gonna have to pay more taxes. Its gonna cost more for
gasoline and anything that's an energy source that pollutes in
any possible way.
I don't think the Senate ultimately will pass it because
constituents across the country are becoming very interested in this
and the health care issue.
We don't need more taxes. We don't need more
spending. We don't need to have jobs driven overseas when we need to
create more jobs here at home.
Obamacare
Its gonna
take money, billions of dollars, out of Medicare.
Its gonna do away
with Medicare Advantage.
Its gonna cause the rationing of health care.
This is a bad, bad bill and its socialistic.
We need to make some improvements in health care, but this ain't
the way.
The Democrats are starting to feel what the American
people want them to feel -- real disgust about this bill [Obamacare].
Town Hall Meetings
I've
had town meetings now for a long, long time. And I can tell when
there's a put up job and when there's real concern among constituents.
These people are angry. They're not being sent there by anybody.
Watch the following video of Congressman Burton's interview with Jamie Colby.
Sonia Sotomayor took to two different oaths today.
First, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., administered the Constitutional Oath to Judge Sonia Sotomayor in a private ceremony. Then Justice Sotomayor took Judicial Oath before a larger gathering of 60 friends and family members, which was recorded by television cameras for the first time:
Sotomayor is the 111th Justice of, the third female, and
first Hispanic to sit on the nation’s highest court. At 55, Justice Sotomayor is the second
youngest current Justice; Chief Justice John G. Roberts is 54.
The Senate voted 68-31 to confirm Judge Sotomayor as a Justice of the Supreme Court. There were more votes cast against Sotomayor than any other current Supreme Court Justice except Justices Alito and Thomas:
Chief Justice John G. Roberts, September 29, 2005, 78 – 22
Justice Samuel A. Alito, January 31, 2006, 58 – 42
Justice Stephen G. Breyer, July 29, 1994, 87-9
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, August 03, 1993, 96-3
Justice Clarence Thomas, October 15, 1991, 52-48
Retired Justice David H. Souter, October 02, 1990, 90-9
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, February 03, 1988, 97-0
Justice Antonin Scalia, September 17, 1986, 98-0
Justice John Paul Stevens, December 17, 1975, 98-0
There was no question about the fact that Justice Sotomayor is
qualified. The concern was that she was less than forthcoming about
things, such as her Wise Latina remarks, in the confirmation hearings. NPR's Ari Shapiro
said that he and other reporters studied Sotomayor's background and
career for months and the Sotomayor at the Senate confirmation hearings
bore "little resemblance" to the woman they studied.
It truly unfortunate that the confirmation process has become such a farce that a Supreme Court nominee is allowed to obfuscate to such a degree and still be confirmed.
Now we face Obama's most dangerous experiment yet -- a government takeover of healthcare. An experiment that could cost $1 trillion dollars, threaten your private health insurance and cost taxpayers hundreds of billions in new taxes.
The presidency of Barack Obama -- a failed experiment in just 200 days.
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