Good morning folks,
Harry Reid was already the most unpopular Congressional Leader in Washington according to Gallup. There are many reasons for that feat.
Our men and women in uniform undoubtedly remember the time Reid was so tone deaf that he actually declared, “This war is lost,” while troops were risking their lives waging it overseas. Or perhaps you remember when Reid proudly declared that “only 36,000 Americans lost their jobs today… which is really good.”
Hispanic Americans might recall the time Harry Reid called birthright citizenship insane. Of course there was the time Reid complained about how badly the tourists visiting their own Capitol smelled. Others might recall when Reid tried to claim that paying taxes in America is “voluntary.”
No matter how ridiculous, tone deaf, and flat out wrong those are, Harry Reid actually may have outdone himself yesterday. When asked by CNN’s Dana Bash why he wouldn’t be willing to help even one child who has cancer, Reid asked “Why would we want to do that” before proceeding to insult Dana Bash.
The heartless and cold response was so shocking that it diverted attention from the fact that Chuck Schumer, who was standing behind Reid, actually was literally trying to put words into the LINO’s (Leader in Name Only) mouth by answering the question for him. He must have known what was coming.
Everyone in Washington knows that Chuck Schumer pulls the strings, but it is Harry Reid’s difficulty with the truth – which is often on public display - that erodes the credibility of Senate Democrats and candidates like Alison Lundergan Grimes who are proxies for his dysfunctional agenda.
We’ve been working to #RetireReid for some time now. At some point, one would have to think vulnerable Democrats and aspiring candidates might not mind it either.
Seize the day,
Brad Dayspring
@BDayspring
Brook Hougesen
@Brook_H
2014 BATTLEGROUND SONAR
(2014) Help kids with cancer? Reid asks: ‘Why would we want to do that?’
“If you can help one child who has cancer, why wouldn’t you do it?” she asked. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., quietly asked, “Why pit one against the other?” And Reid immediately chimed in: “Why would we want to do that? I have 1,100 people at Nellis Air Force base that are sitting home. They have a few problems of their own.” Reid’s response was widely noticed by Republicans. “How out-of-touch and heartless can Senate Democrats be?” an email from the National Republican Senatorial Committee asked.
Do Democrats stand by Reid?
Senate Democrats won’t fund programs for kids with cancer
Harry Reid unwilling to help kids with cancer avoid government shutdown
(2014) Obamacare hurts many but Congress gets reprieve
President Obama is illegally modifying his health care law to protect Congress from its effects, and he’s willing keep government shut down to do it. The fight over forcing congressmen and their staffs into Obamacare’s insurance exchanges has been clouded by misleading Republican rhetoric and slippery Democratic legal arguments, but it boils down to this: Obamacare harms many groups of people, but the politically connected get to escape the law’s effects.
Democrats: ObamaCare for You, But Not For Me
(MONTANA) While Dems beat their chest about a war on women, they actively recruit candidates like John Walsh
The GOP didn’t waste any time in attacking Walsh, blasting him for problems at the Montana Department of Military Affairs while he was running the department and accusing him of sexism because the department was sued for unfair hiring practices toward women. “Democrats beat their chest about a war on women, but actively recruit candidates like John Walsh who has an atrocious record of defending women from harassment and degradation,” says National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman Brook Hougesen. “Folks in Montana yearn for leaders who speak the truth and will be a voice for them, not just another man who says one thing and does another.”
(MICHIGAN) Gary Peters: ObamaCare for You, But Not For Me
Better to let Obamacare proceed uninterrupted so voters could experience its full consequences before they go to the polls in 2014. Let them feel the economic destruction wrought by this law that belongs wholly to the Democrats. Give them a chance to ask Democratic congressmen who voted for the law and then exempted themselves from its impact (Gary Peters, for example) why it’s good for us but not for them. See how they react to IRS agents chasing them down to pay fees for not buying something they don’t want. Instead of a futile fight to save America from Obamacare, give voters the opportunity to punish those politicians who inflicted it on the country. And hang the words “If you like the health insurance plan you have now, you can keep it” around the necks of every Democrat on the ballot.
(GEORGIA) Poll: Georgians blame Democrats for shutdown, want ACA repealed or delayed
A new Landmark/RosettaStone poll conducted yesterday of 1000 registered voters says 46% of Georgians blame Democrats for the partial federal government shutdown, 39% blame Republicans. More (received via press release): The numbers among self described independents is more informative, with Independent voters blaming the Democrats by an aggregated margin of 53%-29%. 17% of Independent voters also surveyed say they think “all sides” share some of the blame.
ObamaCare leaves Grady $45 million short
(NEW JERSEY) NRA PAC endorses Lonegan – will be “active” in race
The National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund has endorsed Steve Lonegan in his bid for the U.S. Senate and will play an active role, according to Lonegan’s lead strategist. ”Mr. Lonegan is the only candidate in this race who will stand against Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) for your Second Amendment rights in the U.S. Senate,” the organization said in a release posted on ammoland.com.
(LOUISIANA) Landrieu’s Obamacare: Website glitches leave Blue Cross of Louisiana without new enrollees after first day
Louisiana’s leading health insurance company reports that not one person has yet successfully enrolled in a new health care plan offered through the Affordable Care Act. Since the marketplaces opened to much fanfare Tuesday (Oct. 1), many of the state’s potential customers have been stalled on the website, unable to move past the portion of HealthCare.gov that instructs them how to set up their profile.
(WEST VIRGINIA) Health Care website experiences glitch
A federally operated website designed to help people choose health care plans under the Affordable Care Act experienced some glitches on its opening day. Many who visited www.healthcare.gov saw error messages, most of which resulted from the high traffic to the site, said Jeremiah Samples, assistant to the secretary for the state Department of Health and Human Resources.
(ARKANSAS) Pryor’s ObamaCare experiences major problems
The first day of enrollment on health-insurance exchanges across the country got off to a bumpy start Tuesday as computer glitches prevented many people from accessing an online portal that was supposed to allow individuals to compare plans and sign up for coverage. Several attempts by a reporter throughout the day Tuesday to navigate the portal at healthcare.gov failed to get past a series of security questions that a user is required to create, along with a password, as part of setting up an account.
(IOWA) Braley’s ObamaCare website continues to be sluggish
The government’s new online health insurance marketplace continued to be balky Wednesday, its second day of operation. Alejandra del Rio, a family support worker at Primary Health Care in Des Moines, tried to help clients sign up for health insurance on the new marketplace, also known as an exchange. With patience, she could work her way partly through the website’s enrollment process, “but after a little bit, I get kicked off,” she said.
ON THE TWITTERS
@SarahMMimms - Just delivered to my desk. Nice micro-targeting @NRSC #lasen #lapol pic.twitter.com/za2lufBTqj
@ajjaffe - NRSC asking whether Dem Senate candidates support Reid’s remarks on funding cancer treatments for kids: http://bit.ly/1bwLgO7
@NRSC - How can any Democrat possibly stand by Harry Reid’s heartless position on kids with Cancer? http://bit.ly/16i9XgA #RetireReid
@jimgeraghty - Montana Lt. Gov. John Walsh is undoubtedly the breast Senate candidate available for the Democrats. http://natl.re/174IP1h
NATIONAL RADAR
(NEW YORK TIMES) Problems Persist on Second Day of Insurance Markets
The new online health insurance exchanges continued to experience heavy traffic and technical problems in their second day of operation Wednesday, as officials said the systems were still drawing more users than they had anticipated. Many state-run systems seemed to be functioning — albeit, in some cases, slowly and with scattered problems — but the federal system operating the exchanges for 34 states remained trouble-plagued. Consumers trying to log on to that system encountered long waits, malfunctioning Web pages and messages telling them to try again later
(POLITICO) Report: California Obamacare totals inflated
California’s health insurance exchange reported — wrongly — that it had received 5 million hits on its website the first day of Obamacare. State officials said the real number was only about a tenth of that, or 645,000, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday. Dana Howard, a spokesman for Covered California, as the state exchange is known, said internal miscommunication about the numbers caused the error. “Someone misspoke and thought it was indeed 5 million hits. That was incorrect,” the paper quoted him as saying.
(CNN) RNC offers to pay for WWII memorial guards
The Republican National Committee is offering the United States government a check to pay for guards at the National World War II Memorial, chairman Reince Priebus announced Wednesday. ”We’re willing to pay the bill,” said Priebus, who was speaking to reporters as he stood in front of a fence at the memorial. The memorial had been the site of a dramatic encounter Tuesday between visiting World War II veterans and a fence erected to keep visitors out. The National Parks Service argued the government shutdown left them with no personnel to guard and maintain the open air memorial.
(WASHINGTON EXAMINER) Obamacare is the zombie law of the land of entitlements
Three and a half years after it was signed, sealed and delivered, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act remains the undead; not interred, not thriving, but fought over on numerous fronts. This enrages the left, which calls the case settled, and says it has facts on its side: The act was passed legally by both houses of Congress, survived the Supreme Court and five center-right justices, and survived 2012 and the presidential election, in which voters endorsed it. Like other big laws — Social Security, Medicare and Medicare Part D — it had initial delays, but will soon be accepted. No entitlement has ever been scaled back or repealed once it got started, as this one soon will.
(WALL STREET JOURNAL) Health Insurance Website Still Sees Delays
Efforts to clear logjams in the federal health law’s new online insurance marketplaces met with only modest success Wednesday, with strong traffic exacerbating waits and relatively few consumers able to enroll in policies during the system’s second day. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of North Carolina, for one, said it was able to enroll only a single person in a subsidized health plan under the law by Wednesday afternoon.
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