Hewitt Blog

The Torquemada-in-his-own-mind, Henry Waxman, has summoned executives from Anthem Blue Cross ("ABC") to explain themselves before his House committee.

Please, ABC execs, push back.  Hard.  Start by explaining how many people you employ and how many jobs are imperiled by the continued fecklessness of the hard left social engineers running D.C. these days.

Then talk about the bills you receive and have to pay, how many claims you promptly dispatch and how many more are paid after review.

Defend the industry that has helped build the greatest health care delivery system in the world.

Waxman et al have no idea of the seething contempt in which they are held beyond the Beltway.  Their reputation is even lower than that of your industry. You have been their whipping boy for the past year, and your D.C. lobbyists have urged you to cooperate every step of the way towards oblivion. 

Why not defend yourselves, and by doing so, our medical delivery system.  Flawed as it might be and as screwed up as some in your industry are, there is no desire in the land to turn your job over to Henry Waxman and Nancy Pelosi.

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Read the assessment of White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan's statements and posturings from Powerline's Scott Johnson.

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America's best sportswriter, Terry Pluto, assesses the appeal, or not, of the Big Apple to America's best hoops player.

Another reason to stay in Cleveland --a writer/analyst like Pluto is rare.  Enjoy his new book, written with another talented reporter Brian Windhorst, on James

 

Marco Rubio is a guest on hour three tonight.  Duane will post the audio here later.

02-09hhs-rubio.mp3 

I don't know who will seek the GOP nomination to fill Congressman Murtha's seat, or even if PA law provides for nominations by ballot or from the party.  If the latter, I hope the PA GOP avoids the self-destructive impulse that led the New York party bosses to nominate Dede Scozzafava in New York 23rd's special last year. 

Without any names yet put forward or candidacies declared, here's my description of the perfect candidate.

He or she will have been a long time member of the community, though, in this heavily gerrymandered district, if their residence is between one of the screwball boundary lines (see below) as opposed to within them, that isn't a big deal.

He or she will have been a veteran of the military, and familiar with the war in which we find ourselves.

He or she will be a small-to-medium sized business owner or operator, who has actually created jobs, made a payroll, and provided health insurance to their employees.

He or she will attend some congregation, participate in the community's self-organizing charitable work, and generally be recognized as a good man or woman to have on a team tackling some problem.

He or she will be a parent, preferably either in the middle of or not too far removed from the trials and joys of raising children in this era, and concerned about the state of the country's fiscal situation, a legacy of shame that needs to be tackled now.

He or she will be smart, curious, and as well-read as their business allows them to be.  They will be up to speed on the key issues, but not wonkish or an academic removed from the reality of every day life.

They will have attended a Tea Party gathering of some sort.  They will not have run for office before but feel that now is a critical time in our country's history.

He or she will support the rights of the unborn, support free speech and the right to bear arms, and a robust military.

God forbid the cheer for the Steelers, but I suppose that is inevitable given the geography.  If, however, we could find a Cleveland Browns fan among them --and it is not too far from the Lake to hope-- that would be a benefit.

He or she would listen to Rush, Sean, Levin, Ingraham and my colleagues Bennett, Gallagher,  Prager and Medved when they could find the time between their business and their home and community duties.  They would also read the New York Times or the Washington Post online, and glance at Politico.com and Powerline when they had a few spare moments.  In short, they will have had a long time interest in the substance of the debates that absorb the chattering classes without having been captive to them.

They would read books, both fiction and non-fiction, and travel as they could.  They could tell a joke and be the subject of a good natured one.

They will love the idea of harnessing technology for a lightning campaign, won't be afraid to say "I don't know" when necessary in the many interviews they are willing to give, and will have an easy smile and confidence on a platform.

Their spouse will support the idea wholeheartedly and be a good campaigner themselves, and the kids if they are still at home will be game.  They too will almost certainly and sadly be Steeler fans.  We cannot have every thing.

They will have a dog.  And maybe a truck.

And most of all, a vast amount of common sense, for D.C. is in need of great quantities of it.

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There is a good piece on the congressman in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and the communities he represented will certainly miss the federal dollars he brought them.

Congressman Murtha's controversial legacy will be extended to include what will be a hugely symbolic special election to fill his seat in Pennsylvania's 12th, a heavily gerrymandered-for-Murtha district that nevertheless was carried by McCain in '08.  The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza speculates the election will be held May 18, and all eyes will be on it as another referendum on Obamacare and on the president's the Pelosi-led House's huge lurch to the left.



 

The regular Monday morning column from Clark Judge has become a Tuesday column because of the snows in D.C.:

Health Summit Starting Point: Ban Three Bad Ideas
By Clark S. Judge, managing director, White House Writers Group ( www.whwg.com <http://www.whwg.com>  )
 
How bad have the last few weeks been for Mr. Obama’s White House?
 
You can keep the score in headlines and magazine covers.  
 
Covers?  My favorite is The New Yorker’s, with the President in three cartoon panels walking across the water.  In the fourth he’s falling in.
 
Headlines?  Take this one from Monday’s Washington Post, “A year later, where did the hopes for Obama go?”  Or as the Financial Times put it, for a story that in good British fashion blamed the courtiers (in this case, four senior advisors) and not the king, “As Barack Obama struggles to put his presidency on track, concerns are growing….”
 
No kidding.
 
As part of his self-revival tour, Mr. Obama has called a health care summit to, he said, “to go through systematically all the best ideas that are out there and help move it forward.”

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Colonel Allen West is running for Congress in Florida's 22nd and will be my guest today.

As will be Alex Berenson, whose new thriller The Midnight House, hit stores and Amazon.com this week. 



And I'll be playing the tape from my time on Reliable Sources yesterday as well as discussing Internet Business Reporting (IBizReporting.com).

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The president has called for a bipartisan health care summit.  I suppose I am too suspicious, but I suspect this is part of the great pivot --from blaming George W. Bush for all of the Obama Administration failures of 2009 to blaming you for all of the Obama Administration failures of 2010.  After all, David Plouffe didn't come back in to manage Congressional relations.

President Obama could be serious.  He has, after all, allocated an entire half day to the effort.

But against the possibility that he is not and that he intends this as a trampoline from which he can execute a great jump and a perfect dismount, pointing at you the entire way and leaving an adoring media to mutter about the "party of no," I suggest you respond quickly, substantively, and in writing:

Mr. President:

We accept your invitation.  In the spirit of bipartisanship we also suggest that the agenda consist of six items, of 30 minutes each, with half of the items and presentation chosen by us, and half by you, the Speaker and The Majority Leader.

We suggest that these presentations be staggered, one from one party followed by one from the other party, and have no objection to going first or second. 

Our three points will be:

1.  There can be no comprehensive health care cost control and thus no real health care reform without tort reform.  In addition to a national cap on pain and suffering damages similar to California's, we will offer some other keys to controlling the cost of defensive medicine in this country.  We urge you to ask your colleagues to refrain from immediately rushing to the defense of the plaintiffs' bar.  The only way to stop the rising cost of medicine is to stop the need for doctors to practice with a lawyer on both shoulders.

2.  There is an enormous need for an interstate market in health care policies.  We should move immediately to eliminate this artificial and extremely expensive obstacle to the lowering of the cost of health insurance.

3.  There can be no long term confidence in our health care system without confidence in a growing, vibrant and robust economy, one freed from crippling entitlement debt and massive borrowing.  Therefore we will use our last presentation to acquaint you and your colleagues with the details of Congressman Paul Ryan's "Roadmap," which we believe could be enacted in parallel with comprehensive health care reform thus setting our domestic policy house in order.

We look forward to the meeting Mr. President, and urge a similar one be scheduled on national security matters so we could persuade you to abandon the the decision to try KSM in civilian court in America and to offer Miranda rights to terrorists past and future.

Sincerely,

John Boehner and Mitch McConnell

UPDATE:  John Boehner and Eric Cantor release their own letter.  Not as good as mine, I think, because it is too long and doesn't mention tort reform --sigh-- but a good step nonetheless:

February 8, 2010

The Honorable Rahm Emanuel
Chief of Staff
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. Emanuel:

We welcome President Obama’s announcement of forthcoming bipartisan health care talks.  In fact, you may remember that last May, Republicans asked President Obama to hold bipartisan discussions on health care in an attempt to find common ground, but he declined and instead chose to work with only Democrats. 

Since then, the President has given dozens of speeches on health care reform, operating under the premise that the more the American people learn about his plan, the more they will come to like it.  Just the opposite has occurred: a majority of Americans oppose the House and Senate health care bills and want them scrapped so we can start over with a step-by-step approach focused on lowering costs for families and small businesses.  Just as important, scrapping the House and Senate health care bills would help end the uncertainty they are creating for workers and businesses and thus strengthen our shared commitment to focusing on creating jobs.

Assuming the President is sincere about moving forward on health care in a bipartisan way, does that mean he will agree to start over so that we can develop a bill that is truly worthy of the support and confidence of the American people?  Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said today that the President is “absolutely not” resetting the legislative process for health care.  If the starting point for this meeting is the job-killing bills the American people have already soundly rejected, Republicans would rightly be reluctant to participate.

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My Washington Examiner today this week deals with Sunday's debate with Arianna Huffington on Reliable Sources.

Taking the early plane to Phoenix, but encourage you to check out Internet Business Reporting, (IBizReporting.com), another indication of how rapidly media is changing.  I will be discussing it on tomorrow's show as well as the exchanges with Arianna.

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