links for 2010-01-01

Republicans hope a push to repeal the Democrats' health care bill will inspire voters to turn out for them in the 2010 elections — even though some of them admit that it has no realistic chance of working.

“We have to repeal very substantial parts of it and that’s not going to be easy,” said Republican Pat Toomey, who's running for the Senate in Pennsylvania. “I’m not sitting here predicting that a president who signs this into law in 2010 is likely to sign a repeal in 2011.”

The repeal-or-bust strategy is designed to give Republican candidates a powerful talking point for the midterms — a way to tap into deep anxiety about the health care plan among the GOP base and independent voters.
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Just wait until the tax increases occur without any real increase in health care for Americans

Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh said Friday that he had not suffered a heart attack and that his physician did not know the reason for the symptoms that resulted in his hospitalization in Hawaii this week, despite a number of tests performed on him.

"I wish I knew what it was,” Limbaugh told reporters before he was released from Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu, which he was rushed to Wednesday after complaining of chest pains. "All people can do is make wild guesses about it."
"The treatment I received here was the best that the world has to offer,” Limbaugh said. “Based on what happened here to me, I don't think there's one thing wrong with the American health care system. It is working just fine, just dandy."
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Of Course, the Left will say it is because he has the money to pay for care – well, DUH.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has diverted nearly half a million in contributions from her political action committee to her son’s political consulting firm from 2001 to 2009, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.

Boxer and Associates, owned by son Douglas Boxer, has in the last 8 years profited to the tune of $497,409.17, $36,000 of which was from last year alone as the politically-vulnerable Boxer readies for a contentious reelection campaign in the fall. These $36,000 in fees are supplementary to the $141,000 Boxer’s leadership PAC awarded her son in 2008 for fundraising consulting.

The subject of a 2007 Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) exposé on the practice of politicians using campaign funds to employ relatives, Boxer insists on keeping it in the family–with expenditures to her son’s firm the highest among all others for the 2010 cycle–despite concerns from constituents and watchdog groups.
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But, Boxer's son has a law degree!