Democrats Demand Private Insurers Assist In Demagoguing Themselves

Suppose I decide to target you for a demonization campaign, and rather than just go through your garbage and go through the whole process of gathering dirt on you, I just demand you provide all the dirt on yourself.  And I’ve got the full power of the government behind me.

We’re out to demagogue you, and you’d better help us.

Two House Democrats Seek Information From Insurers

WASHINGTON — Two powerful House Democrats have sent a letter to insurance companies asking them to provide detailed information about their conferences and retreats, executive pay, and other business practices.

The letter comes in the midst of a campaign by Democrats, as part of their push to build support for a health overhaul, to portray the insurance companies as the villains of the health-care system. Insurers say they are working with Congress on an overhaul and resent being cast as the bad guy.

The letter is from Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.), who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Bart Stupak (D., Mich.), who heads the panel’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

More:

An industry source replied when asked for comment: “This is nothing more than a taxpayer-funded fishing expedition designed to silence health plans.”

By Sept. 4, the firms are supposed to supply detailed compensation data for board members and top executives, as well as a “table listing all conferences, retreats, or other events held outside company facilities from January 1, 2007, to the present that were paid for, reimbursed, or subsidized in whole or in part by your company.”

Democrats seem to like going “fishing” these days.  The White House set up it’s own site to collect information on Americans who said anything “fishy” about their government takeover of health care before public pressure made them alter their operation.

These Democrats have raw, naked chutzpah.  They are the kind of people who shrilly demonized CEOs for flying private planes, and only to try to spend half a billion dollars to buy the very sort of planes they demonized private businesses from using.

These rat bastards routinely go on junkets to exotic lands, never fail to give themselves more pay raises and more benefits, and then self-righteously damn private businesses for looking after their own.

Waxman is a demagogue par excellence:

“It appears that the Republican Party leadership in the Congress has made a decision that they want to deny President Obama success, which means, in my mind, they are rooting against the country, as well,” [Waxman said].

Obama is America, and Waxman is the law.  And to fail to recognize either is its own form of treason.  He is a man who has long used the power of his gavel as a club to attack his political opponents.  Whether he was spearheading constant investigations into Bush White House for pure political retribution, or whether he was going after baseball players for public circus, he has always been the same demagoguing pig.

A liberal trumpets, “Henry Waxman strikes fear in every Republican!  Woohoo!”

And right now he is trying to strike fear in every insurance company CEO to intimidate them into meekly going along with the Democrat Party’s takeover of the health care industry.

Hope you don’t complain when a “Republican Waxman” comes along to strike fear in the heart of every Democrat when Republicans take over again.  It’s what you’ll deserve, and it’s what you get if you don’t stop using the most thuggish tactics in order to impose your agenda.

This IS a fishing expedition.  These companies haven’t broken any laws; and Congress doesn’t have any right to such information (which they could actually obtain on their own online if they had the first clue how to think for themselves).  Without question, Democrats just want to obtain this information which they will use in their campaign of demagoguery to attack and humiliate private businesses in order to impose their will upon them.

Letters demanding to allow Democrats to examine executive compensation and other business practices were sent out to 52 of the largest health insurers in the country – and not to any other industry groups – in a clear effort to threaten and intimidate those companies and the industry.

Harrad Sar wrote:

This move is nothing more than a flagrant violation of the office in which Waxman and Stupak hold. There is no constitutional authority or mandate that allows congress to intimidate and threaten the private sector through arbitrary investigation of private property ownership. This is a blatant move to silence all opposition to H.R. 3200 starting at the top.

And he is exactly right.

This is simply a continuation of the Constitution-be-damned tactics that the White House and Democrats have undertaken.  First they had their “fishy” effort to use the power of the White House to turn supporters into snitches.  This was so blatantly illegal that even the hardcore partisan liberal ACLU was forced to acknowledge that “the White House blog is a ‘bad idea that could send a troublesome message.'”  Then it started sending out unsolicited political emails from the White House – in fact from White House political adviser David Axelrod – urging people to support ObamaCare.  Can you even imagine the outcry of “constitutional crisis” that would have ensued had Karl Rove sent out unsolicited White House emails urging people to support the Iraq War?  And now Democrats are seriously talking about using budget reconciliation in a flagrantly unconstitutional manner: the Constitution requires that the federal government pass a budget, which is the only reason why the reconciliation process exists.  The Constitution does NOT require Congress to pass government health care.

Obama has been using thuggish tactics from the getgo of his administration.

An article entitled “A Study in Contrast” demonstrates the profound differences between the way that the Bush administration dealt with its critics versus the “Chicago thug” style Obama has taken.

Allahpundit points out:

The One can’t stop demagoging his critics for the simple reason that his image won’t allow it. As the risen Christ of American politics, his agenda is ipso facto good and just; treating his critics’ concerns as valid instead of the ravings of a lunatic mob would be like Jesus telling Satan, “Well, you’ve got a point there.” The whole Hopenchange mythos is at its core demagoguery.

Nancy Pelosi described ordinary Americans as “un-American” for exercising their rights of free speech and free assembly.  But she, Henry Waxman, and Democrats are the ones who are truly un-American.  Because they are using tactics right out of the classic book of fascism to impose their will on a country that obviously does not want what the Democrats are trying to impose by force.

Democrats Livid Over ‘Manufactured Outrage’; Those Evil Republicans Are Stealing OUR Tactic

“Democratic National Committee’s press secretary Hari Sevugan said nationwide protests of democratic health care town hall events were “manufactured outrage” today on Washington Unplugged.”

That’s the talking point repeated all over the mainstream media.

Crap like this:

These mobs are bussed in by well funded, highly organized groups run by Republican operatives and funded by the special interests who are desperately trying to stop the agenda for change the President was elected to bring to Washington. Despite the headline grabbing nature of these angry mobs and their disruptions of events, they are not reflective of where the American people are on the issues – or the hundreds of thousands of thoughtful discussions taking place around kitchen tables, water coolers and in homes.

Why are people showing up to town hall meetings in droves and shouting down Democrat politicians and White House officials over the Democrats’ multi-trillion health care takeover?  It’s manufactured outrage ginned up by some vast, rightwing conspiracy.  Let’s ignore the fact that Democrats routinely bus in their people, or that no one was more “well funded” and “highly organized” than the Obama political machine.

But a snippet from a Politico article that is describing the vitriolic town hall meetings is telling:

Within an hour of the disruption, police were called in to escort the 59-year-old Democrat — who has held more than 100 town hall meetings since he was elected in 2002 — to his car safely.

“I have no problem with someone disagreeing with positions I hold,” Bishop said, noting that, for the time being, he was using other platforms to communicate with his constituents. “But I also believe no one is served if you can’t talk through differences.”

A registered Democrat confronting New York Democrat Steny Hoyer at a town hall in Utica said:

“Why would you guys try to stuff a health care bill down our throats in three to four weeks when the President took six months to pick what he wanted for a dog for his kids?!?!  What are you doing?  What are you doing?  Are you willing to have your family members sign on to every bill that you pass?”

Pundits are now using the term “Town hell” to describe the outrage with which voters are confronting Democrats pushing for Obamacare.  And it is by no means just Republicans who are utterly outraged and confronting their elected officials.

The latest Quinnipiac poll on health care is telling:

American voters, by a 55 – 35 percent margin, are more worried that Congress will spend too much money and add to the deficit than it will not act to overhaul the health care system, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. By a similar 57 – 37 percent margin, voters say health care reform should be dropped if it adds “significantly” to the deficit.

By a 72 – 21 percent margin, voters do not believe that President Barack Obama will keep his promise to overhaul the health care system without adding to the deficit, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University national poll finds.

American voters disapprove 52 – 39 percent of the way President Obama is handling health care, down from 46 – 42 percent approval July 1, with 60 – 34 percent disapproval from independent voters. Voters say 59 – 36 percent that Congress should not pass health care reform if only Democratic members support it.

Heritage points out:

The White House is losing the health care debate. Polls from National Public Radio, Wall Street Journal/NBC News, The Washington Post, Gallup, and Pew all show that the American people do not support President Barack Obama’s health care plan. The White House wants people to believe they are losing the health care debate because “scary … videos are starting to percolate on the internet” that are spreading “disinformation” about Obama’s health care plan.

Obama and Democrats are not just losing the argument among Republicans called in by insurance companies to raise havoc.  They are in fact losing the debate with the overwhelming majority of the American people – as every single poll on health care shows.  It is as disingenuous as hell to try to make the angry “mobs” as being Republican plants.  Yet that is precisely what the Democrat Party is doing, and the mainstream media is helping them do it.

A message from the Obama White House shows just how Nixonian – and frankly Stalinist – this administration truly is:

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

This is an example – unprecedented in modern American political history – of a President of the United States seeking information on political opponents who are exercising their 2nd Amendment-protected rights.  Imagine the appalled and angry outrage if George W. Bush had solicited the White House to create such an “enemies list.”

The whole affair very much reminds me of the Orwellian 1984 description of anonymous informers – including children against their own parents – spying on and reporting potential thought-criminals who might endanger The Party.

And of course it reminded me of another incredibly Orwellian statement from the Obama administration on the ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program:

“This application provides access to the DoT CARS system.  When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a Federal computer system and is the property of the US Government.  Any or all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, DoT, and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign.”

Heritage.org suggests we turn in Democrats to the White House as “the people spreading disinformation about Obamacare.”

And in point of fact, we should turn in Obama to the White House for being one of the people encouraging anger and a mob mentality:

“I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors. I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican.  I want you to argue with them and get in their face,” [Obama] said.

Or consider Obama saying he had no intention of laying off his campaign to intimidate AIG executives who were literally receiving death threats:

“I don’t want to quell anger. People are right to be angry. I’m angry. What I want us to do is channel our anger in a constructive way.”

Presumably, that meant trying to limit his followers from just shouting from the streets in front of AIG employees’ houses rather than actually entering the homes and murdering families.  Which was nice of him, considering that only Chris Dodd accepted more contributions from AIG.

Hot Air provides the following list of exceptions to the Democrats’ charge of Republican extremism:

* People who want Congress to take more time debating healthcare are shutting down debate.
* Pres. Obama says the time for talk on healthcare is over, but his critics are trying to shut down debate.
* Harassing and threatening the families of AIG employees is awesome; razzing Representatives and Senators is totally bogus!
* Asking Representatives and Senators to read bills before voting on them is killing democracy.
* Sen. Specter saying “we have to make judgments very fast” is awesome. Booing him for saying so is shutting off debate.
* Healthcare protesters are “thugs” “shutting off debate”; antiwar protesters are “rowdy.”

The thing I find the most amazing is that – even if Republicans are doing EVERYTHING the Democrats claim they are (and they AREN’T), the Republicans are merely following in the example that has been set for YEARS by liberals.  FrontPage Magazine provided a list compiled way back in 2001 of liberals routinely shouting down conservative speakers and disrupting events.  Shouting and being disruptive was a tactic created by the left; how can they be angry if conservatives use it without their pointed heads exploding from containing the massive contradiction?

I found it amusing and utterly despicable at the same time to read about a 14 year old girl who – after noticing all the Obama T-shirts – decided to wear a shirt that said, “McCain Girl.”  And was utterly and hatefully attacked for doing so.  Just never forget that Republicans are intolerant and divisive, though.

The left is a group of people who come completely unglued if others do unto them as they did unto others.  Hypocrisy defines them; it is their quintessential essence.

Barack Obama was a disciple of Saul Alinsky.  And Rule 12 of Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals is:  ‘Pick the Target, Freeze It, Personalize It and Polarize It.’ And as a business article pointed out,  Obama has used that rule to effect again and again.

The White House is saying that the outrage over ObamaCare “appears to be orchestrated” and “organized” by rightwing organizations.  The word “organized” should show how demonstrably ridiculous Obama’s outrage truly is, given his pride in having been a “community organizer.”  And let us realize that “orchestrate” is merely another synonym for “organize.”

This community organizer is now mad that communities are beginning to organize to stop government health care they absolutely do not want?

I’ve seen about a dozen videos of so-called “mobs” shouting at Democrats.  What I’ve noticed is that members of the audience would ask pointed questions, and the crowd only started shouting down Democrats when their elected officials give stupid and dismissive answers.  When someone asked Kathleen Sebelius and Arlen Spector why Congress wasn’t even bothering to read the bills they were voting for, for example, nobody started screaming at Sebelius until she gave the utterly ridiculous answer that she had never served in Congress; nor did they scream at Spector until he answered that they had to work very fast and didn’t have time to read the bills that are transforming our society.  And the crowd erupted in outrage at such stupid and contemptible answers.

Youtube video of Arlen Specter shouted down after saying “We have to do this fast.”

My own view is this: the Democrat establishment is trying to marginalize the huge crowds going to town halls to confront their elected representatives and telll them NOT to vote for this terrible health care bill.  They want the Blue Dog Democrats to ignore the crowds and dismiss them as “plants.”  They do so at their own political peril.