You see, they chose that number because it puts it just under the TRILLION dollar(s) figure that we know will be scored by the CBO..

I didn’t get a chance to post this, but out of the all the crap spewed by NoBama yesterday, this was the most honest portion:

Obama on Slaughter strategy: “I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what the … rules are”; Update: “Combative” video added

“We share some of the views of the Tea Partiers in terms of the role of special interest in Washington, D.C., as — it just has to stop.  And that’s why I’ve fought the special interest, whether it’s on energy, whether it’s on health insurance, whether it’s on pharmaceuticals and the rest.”

Pelosi held to her skepticism about what is behind the movement.  “Some of it is orchestrated from the Republican headquarters,” Pelosi said.  She also added that, “Some of it is hijacking the good intentions of lots of people who share some of our concerns that we have about the role of special interests.”

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA

HA

– Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are dating again. And word has it they’re seeing way too much of each other. Because their Congressional “parents” cannot be totally unaware of what Fannie and Freddie have been up to, individual incumbents in both chambers are either consciously avoiding their personal oversight responsibility—to provide adult supervision—or, may actually condone the various schemes carried out by the two government-controlled mortgage finance companies

As election returns came in Tuesday night, Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) said it’s clear that voters wanted “a whipping boy” for all the lost jobs and foreclosed homes.

“It’s like in Roman times, they’d be trotted out to the coliseum and the lions would be brought out,” Kennedy told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday night. “I mean, they’re wanting blood and they’re not getting it so they want to protest, and, you know, you can’t blame them. But frankly, the fact is we inherited this mess and it’s becoming ours.”

And today:

Rep. Patrick Kennedy has decided not to seek re-election to Congress, saying his life is “taking a new direction.”

Hopefully the direction is not toward a bottle of booze or pills… Don’t let the door hit you where the good lord split you

White House Hits Palin with Open Hand Slap | TMZ.com.

Just a reminder

People will complain that this is petty and beneath the dignity of the office, but (a) Gibbs partly redeems himself by winking at the ubiquity of their moronic “hope” and “change” buzzwords, (b) Palin is an Al Qaeda accomplice, so she sort of had it coming, and (c) as we’ve discussed before, the White House press briefing is one of the lamest, most useless spectacles in American politics. How can this be beneath the dignity of an office that has no dignity to begin with? The only time the briefing’s worth watching is when Gibbs is forced to defend something especially stupid that Biden said, or when something bad’s happened in the Middle East that sets Helen Thomas up for a “question” about whether we maybe had it coming. Lacking either of those contingencies, if the guy wants to resort to some hackish partisan Mencia-esque schtick to liven things up, I say go crazy.

The real action will have to be next year, after the mid-term elections. But even then, it’s not clear whether our political system can deal with the crisis of deficits and debt, or whether it will take our foreign creditors, on whose lending we are totally hooked, to administer the shock we need to get our financial foundation on a sound footing. I suspect the latter. They wouldn’t have to do much, just a few public pronouncements in Beijing that China’s central bank plans to invest excess reserves in a different way than it did in the past. In other words, there would not have to be withdrawals of foreign investments, just no increases to feed our ever-growing needs, to induce widespread panic in the markets and in Washington.

If I suspended my instincts about how the crisis would ultimately be resolved, and make an assumption that our political system could rise to the occasion—an assumption of historic proportions—what would Washington have to do?

When you are finished reading that link, go to this NYT article about the ‘Volcker Rule’..another must read

“I think it’s confused the issue considerably, because he’s basically fanned the fires of populism and in a lot of instances, populism doesn’t give you either good regulatory activity or strong markets.”

PAPER: Obama's fortunes set to deteriorate further...
Bernanke under pressure; Faltering support for Fed chief...
Dow Suffers Worst Week SInce Last March...
Obama seen as anti-business by 77% of investors...
Europe welcomes bank plan, won't imitate it...
White House nightmare persists...

RASMUSSEN:
Obama Approval Index: -19
Strongly Approve 24%
Strongly Disapprove 43%
Total Approval 44%

THE DAY HEALTH CARE DIED

Many rank-and-file Democrats said their stunning defeat in this week’s Massachusetts special election — in which Republicans captured the Senate seat held for decades by the late Edward Kennedy — meant it was time to seek more modest health legislation.

It would be “problematic” to persuade House members to approve the Senate measure, Pelosi said, though Democrats haven’t completely ruled out trying to do so. Many of them say the Senate bill does too little to help people afford health coverage.

“In its present form without any changes I don’t think it’s possible to pass the Senate bill in the House,” Pelosi said, adding, “I don’t see the votes for it at this time.”

Any effort to reshape the health legislation could well be a lengthy process — despite Democrats’ desire for a quick election-year pivot to address jobs and the economy, which polls show are the public’s top concern. Lawmakers have already been working on the issue for a year.

“We’re not in a big rush” on health care, Pelosi said. “Pause, reflect.”

Several Democrats said they should refocus the legislation onto popular proposals like barring insurance companies from denying coverage to sick people.

via DRUDGE REPORT 2010®.

WALL ST CHILLED...
MORE JOBS LOST...
Democrats propose $1.9 trillion increase in debt limit...

The election transformed reliably Democratic Massachusetts into a battleground state. One day shy of the first anniversary of Obama’s swearing-in, it played out amid a backdrop of animosity and resentment from voters over persistently high unemployment, industry bailouts, exploding federal budget deficits and partisan wrangling over health care.

The Democrats’ Massachusetts meltdown

In “Paul Revere’s Ride,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote of “the muster of men at the barrack door.” Today, it’s the muster of men at Barack’s door who must be met with “a cry of defiance, and not of fear.” The nutroots are cranking up the pressure on congressional liberals to cling to the most radical form of Demcare and “fight harder for change.” What part of Coakley/Obama’s epic fail doesn’t the party in power understand?

Tea Party activists must stay vigilant and crank it up even louder to warn of the coming big government perils.

Politico: House Dems already starting to run from ObamaCare

What do Blue Dogs stand to gain by still voting yes? A promise from Obama that he’ll campaign for them? How did that work out in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts?