Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog

• Obamacare: Understanding the Kennedy health care bill
  Over the weekend a draft of Senator Kennedy’s (D-MA) health care bill leaked. After playing with Adobe Acrobat, here is the text of the draft Kennedy bill as a text file (173 K), and as a single Acrobat file (3.4 MB). Update: I fixed the broken link to the PDF. Unlike the leaked version, both of these are searchable.

  Calling it the “Kennedy” bill is something of an overstatement. Senator Kennedy chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee, and his staff wrote the draft. By all reports, however, Chairman Kennedy’s health is preventing him from being heavily involved in the drafting. Senator Reid has designated Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) to supervise the process, but as best I can tell, it’s really the Kennedy committee staff who are making most of the key decisions. For now I will call it the Kennedy-Dodd bill.

  (tags: healthcare Obamacare)
• Obama Economic Stimulus: Handicap Curbs and Teen Pregnancy
  As local cities and counties put together their applications for some of their first tastes of stimulus money, they've come up with block grant applications where the typical project costs less than $250,000.

  The city of Covington, for example, has broken down its line items as small as $1,650 each – to replace 117 curb ramps in the neighborhood around Decoursey and Winston avenues, to make them handicapped-accessible. Cincinnati is giving out grants as small as $8,556 for a program to prevent teen pregnancy and violence.

  The list of local applications for the Community Development Block Grants also includes $61,200 for sidewalks in Forest Park, $93,000 for air conditioners in Sharonville and $56,008 for playground renovations in Hamilton.

  (tags: economic_stimulus barack_obama)
• California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger backs state services to Illegal immigrants
  Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he's "happy" illegal immigrants get state services and says they're not to blame for California's $24.3 billion budget gap.
  Schwarzenegger, an immigrant himself, says the estimated $4 billion to $5 billion the state spends on illegal immigrants annually is a "small percentage" of the deficit.

  The Republican governor told The Sacramento Bee's editorial board on Friday that it's easy to "scapegoat" illegal immigrants. But he says the state's budget has a much deeper spending imbalance.

  He noted the federal government requires California to provide emergency health care and education to illegal immigrants. And he says illegal immigrants often help pick the state's crops and construct its buildings.

  (tags: ArnoldSchwarzenegger California)
• Gallup Poll: Obama Rated Highest as Person, Lowest on Deficit, Spending
  While 67% of Americans view President Barack Obama favorably, his overall job approval rating and his ratings on specific areas are less positive. At the low end of the spectrum, only 45% of Americans approve of Obama's handling of federal spending, and 46% of his handling of the federal budget deficit.
  (tags: barack_obama)
• Obama pushes Health Care Reform and Pisses Off GOP Senator Grassley
  Meanwhile, White House aides must be concerned about the Twitter message sent by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) over the weekend: "Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us"time to deliver" on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND."

  Grassley added: "When you are a "hammer" u think evrything is NAIL I'm no NAIL."

  First Read: "Obama has been working over Grassley hard, so this criticism from him must be very frustrating. While no one in the White House expects Grassley to be a Republican who will sign on to the entire Obama health-care agenda, they do have hopes he'll be someone Senate Finance Chair Max Baucus can work with to write a bill that can at least bring over a few moderate GOP senators. "

  (tags: Obamacare charles_grassley)
• Henry Kissinger: Reining In Pyongyang
  The Obama administration entered office determined to give negotiations with North Korea every opportunity. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hinted that she was seriously considering a visit to Pyongyang. Stephen Bosworth, a distinguished scholar and moderate diplomat, was appointed principal negotiator.

  These overtures were vituperatively rejected. Pyongyang refuses to return to the negotiating table and has revoked all its previous concessions. It has restarted the nuclear reprocessing plant it had mothballed and has conducted nuclear weapons and missile tests. It has said the Korean Armistice Agreement of 1953 no longer applies.

  (tags: NorthKorea)
• Surprise: Obama Big Government Spending Programs Hurt Housing Market
  The Federal Reserve announced a $1.2 trillion plan three months ago designed to push down mortgage rates and breathe life into the housing market.

  But this and other big government spending programs are turning out to have the opposite effect. Rates for mortgages and U.S. Treasury debt are now marching higher as nervous bond investors fret about a resurgence of inflation.

  That's the Catch-22 threatening to make an awful housing market potentially worse and keep the economy stuck in a funk. Kick-starting the economy requires higher spending, but rising rates mean fewer Americans will be able to refinance their home loans. And some potential buyers will be shut out of the market by higher monthly payments they won't be able to afford.

  (tags: economics barack_obama)
• Democrats Weigh Health Mandate as Obama Urges Taxing Wealthy – Limits ALL tax deductions
  President Barack Obama wants Congress to consider taxing the wealthy instead of workers to pay for a health-care overhaul, as House Democrats discuss a plan to require health insurance for most Americans.

  The Obama administration stepped up efforts to influence health-care legislation today as advisers David Axelrod and Austan Goolsbee appeared on television talk shows to discuss the issue.

  The president is trying to avoid broad-based levies such as a Senate proposal to tax some employer-provided health benefits Axelrod said. Instead he is urging lawmakers to reconsider limiting all tax deductions for Americans in the highest tax brackets.

  “He made a very strong case for the proposal that he put on the table, which was to cap deductions for high-income Americans, and he urged them to go back and look at that,” Axelrod said on the CNN’s “State of the Union.”

  (tags: Obamacare socialized_medicine)

The latest Rasmussen poll drops this bombshell on President Obama and Congressional Democrats.

Voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on six out of 10 key issues, including the top issue of the economy.

This is the first time in over two years of polling that the GOP has held the advantage on this issue. The parties were close in May, with the Democrats holding a modest 44% to 43% edge. The latest survey was taken just after General Motors announced it was going into bankruptcy as part of a deal brokered by the Obama administration that gives the government majority ownership of the failing automaker.

Voters not affiliated with either party now trust the GOP more to handle economic issues by a two-to-one margin.

Here are the results:

Now, we know why President Obama is ramping up his economic stimulus tour today.

He can read pollls too or at least Rahm can.

And, 45 Per Cent say no in the latest Rasmussen Poll.

The Question:

Do most Islamic nations want to have a positive and peaceful relationship with the United States?

• Yes – 32%
• No- 45%
• Not sure – 24%

This is why President Obama’s speech in Egypt last week fell flat.

It is merely symbolism or the Obama Teleprompter over substance.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein

Well, Arnold removes all doubt.

He is a MORON.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he’s “happy” illegal immigrants get state services and says they’re not to blame for California’s $24.3 billion budget gap.

Schwarzenegger, an immigrant himself, says the estimated $4 billion to $5 billion the state spends on illegal immigrants annually is a “small percentage” of the deficit.

The Republican governor told The Sacramento Bee’s editorial board on Friday that it’s easy to “scapegoat” illegal immigrants. But he says the state’s budget has a much deeper spending imbalance.

He noted the federal government requires California to provide emergency health care and education to illegal immigrants. And he says illegal immigrants often help pick the state’s crops and construct its buildings.

NOte: California unemployment is the second highest in the United States and the state budget is bleeding red ink with no prospects of balancing it.

California is essentially insolvent and teetering on bankruptcy.

If Arnold did not have a short time remaining in office, he would surely be recalled.