A rally against government-run healthcare, coinciding with the “9-12 March on Washington” in Washington, D.C., will be held Saturday on the corner of Lynn and Hillcrest. Bill Rice will attend. Organizers of the local march are encouraging people to either bring an American flag or signs that state their concerns about government-run healthcare and out-of-control spending without accountability. The rally will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 2525 Moorpark Road. For more information, call 262-2477 or e-mail teapartythousandoaks@yahoo.com

In his speech tonight, the president introduced a new number in the health care debate. Remember all those statements from Democrats, including Barack Obama himself, that 47 million Americans are without health insurance? That's no longer the operative number. "There are now more than thirty million American citizens who cannot get coverage," the president said in tonight's speech.

But on August 10, at a town hall meeting, Obama referred to the "46, 47 million people without health insurance in our country…" And on July 23, he said, "This is not just about the 47 million Americans who don't have any health insurance at all…"

One of the talking points I have seen in numerous comments posted around the blogosphere is that Obama was correct because Section 246 of the House Bill excludes illegals from receiving Individual Affordability Credits. That is true, and one of the few exceptions under the Bill. But it is the exception which proves the rule. As the CRS found, illegal aliens can participate in most of the critical aspects of the government health system including the health care exchanges. Added: It also would be interesting to see how long the exclusion of illegal aliens from getting the credits lasted, since as the CRS notes, illegal aliens are subject to the health care mandate; one can anticipate the argument that if the House Bill requires illegals to have qualified health insurance, some accomodation needs to be made for those who cannot afford it.

It's been a long time since James Carville said the most famous thing he ever said: It's the economy, stupid. That famous phrase was in fact part of a sign hung in the Clinton campaign headquarters in 1992. There was a sense among the electorate in the fall of 1992, not entirely accurate, that the economy was foundering under George H.W. Bush. Bush lost control of the public's perception of the economy, and then he lost the presidency.

Why with unemployment heading above 10% was Barack Obama on TV last night draining a dwindling reservoir of presidential capital on health care? Redesigning the 17% of the economy that is health care appears to be the siren song of Democratic presidencies. Mr. Obama's crew has famously said it wouldn't make the mistakes the Clintons made on health care. How calling forth both houses of Congress in prime time to join him in betting the ranch on health care qualifies as smarter politics than the Clintons is a mystery.

Team Obama is essentially asking congressional Democrats to take a huge gamble. The White House is arguing that ramming through a controversial bill is safer for Democrats than not passing anything. This is based on the false premise that the death of HillaryCare is what doomed Democrats in 1994. Mr. Obama told a reporter in July that the defeat of HillaryCare "Helped [Republicans] regain the House." Former President Bill Clinton echoed that thought recently by saying "doing nothing" today is "the worst thing we can do for the Democrats."

Actually, attempting to pass HillaryCare is what brought down the party. Voters rejected a massively complicated, hugely expensive government takeover of health care and the Democrats who pushed it.

Media figures have falsely claimed that Democrats' audible disapproval of President Bush's misleading claim in his February 2 State of the Union address that Social Security will be "exhausted and bankrupt" in 2042 was "unprecedented." In fact, Republicans routinely booed and hissed during President Clinton's State of the Union addresses.

A rally against government-run healthcare, coinciding with the “9-12 March on Washington” in Washington, D.C., will be held Saturday on the corner of Lynn and Hillcrest.

Bill Rice will attend.
Organizers of the local march are encouraging people to either bring an American flag or signs that state their concerns about government-run healthcare and out-of-control spending without accountability.

The rally will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 2525 Moorpark Road.

For more information, call 262-2477 or e-mail teapartythousandoaks@yahoo.com