Tag: Healthcare

Democrats Launch Health-Scare Attack on Judge Amy Coney Barrett

It seems as though Democrats have settled on a scheme to undermine the nomination to the Supreme Court of Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

Apparently already ruled out is a boycott of the hearings by the Democrats. Such a ploy would actually speed up the nomination process, and they look to be hell-bent on doing just the opposite.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his campaign strategists may be coaching Biden’s running mate Senator Kamala Harris, D-Calif., on how to use the proceedings to grab the media spotlight, as was done during the hearings for now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Although House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently boasted that she and her colleagues have a few “arrows in [their] quiver,” at this point it is unlikely that the Democrats will pursue some of the more off-the-wall options, such as attempting to impeach the president a second time, launching an effort to impeach Attorney General William Barr, or forcing a government shutdown.

It is probable, however, that they will try to delay the proceedings in every way possible. Arcane Senate rules could be employed, as some members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have used in the past to gum up the legislative works.

Another delay tactic may be the advancement of a false narrative, suggesting that the nomination of Judge Coney Barrett is somehow illegitimate.

Additionally, the questioning by committee members of Judge Coney Barrett may include an attempt to entrap the nominee into hypothetical predictions about how she might rule in a case that involves one of the more heated topics, such as abortion, discrimination, or immigration.

The primary focus of the Democrats, along with the left-leaning organizations with which they are aligned, has routinely been messaging.

It looks like Democrat leaders have already shown their cards and decided to go the health care route. They are quite experienced in trying to scare the wits out of folks.

Some Democrat strategists are of the opinion that the Democrats were successful in gaining a majority in the House of Representatives during the 2018 mid-term elections by talking about the imminent loss of health care coverage for pre-existing conditions at the hands of the Republicans.

Well they’re at it again. Health care seems to have become the main attack angle with which Democrats are going to try and harm, pump the brakes on, and/or completely halt Judge Coney Barrett’s confirmation.

Specifically, Democrats are using an upcoming case, which will be heard by the Supreme Court shortly after the election, that involves the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a., Obamacare.

In a letter to Senate Democrats, Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., provided some of the details of the sly Dem plan to de-rail Judge Coney Barrett’s nomination.

There will apparently be an attempt to convince Senate Republicans to forestall a vote on the Supreme Court nominee until after the election.

According to Sen. Schumer, in order for this to be accomplished “public pressure on Senate Republicans” must be exerted. Lo and behold, the minority leader surmises that “health care remains the best way to keep the pressure up.”

Sen. Schumer followed his own wily advice and did so with some reckless rhetoric. Here are some of his recent over-the-top statements:

–“By nominating Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, President Trump has once again put Americans’ healthcare in the crosshairs.”

–“A vote for Amy Coney Barrett is a dagger aimed at the heart of the healthcare protections Americans so desperately need and want.”

Democrats themselves have frequently cautioned against the use of language that could potentially prompt on the part of those so inclined hostility and/or aggressive behaviors toward others.

Use of loaded words such as “arrows,” “quiver,” “crosshairs,” “dagger,” and the like evoke an ugly imagery that may oftentimes precede acts of violence.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi focused on “pre-existing conditions,” declaring that Judge Barrett’s “nomination threatens the destruction of life-saving protections for 135 million Americans with pre-existing conditions together with every other benefit and protection of the Affordable Care Act.”

Former Vice President Biden’s campaign managed to additionally tie the coronavirus to the nominating process, saying, “If President Trump has his way, complications from COVID-19, like lung scarring and heart damage, could become the next deniable pre-existing condition.”

Regarding another facet of the health care-related scheme, Democrats are zeroing in on a book review by Judge Coney Barrett, written in 2017, in which she agreed with the author of the book that Chief Justice John Robert’s legal reasoning in the 2012 Supreme Court case that upheld Obamacare was faulty.

It is important to point out that the above-referenced was a book review, not a court decision or ruling. She has not opined from the bench about the health care law in her capacity as a judge on the Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit.

The single passage that Senate Democrats will likely cite from the book review has no predictive value in determining how Judge Coney Barrett would potentially rule on an individual case that has not yet been argued in front of the High Court, including the one that will be heard in November.

Chuck Schumer and Democrat Allies Use Jimmy Kimmel as a Political Pawn

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After late-night host Jimmy Kimmel used the opportunity of his show to launch a series of attacks on the latest Senate version of the GOP’s health care legislation, many folks were wondering how it was that Kimmel had become such an authority on health care in general, and on the Graham-Cassidy bill in particular.

It turns out that the co-writer of Kimmel’s health care remarks was none other than Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

According to The Daily Beast, for months Kimmel and Schumer had been coordinating behind the scenes to put a wrench in the Republican undertaking of repealing the failing health care system known as Obamacare. Schumer had apparently given Kimmel “technical guidance and info about the bill, as well as stats from various think tanks and experts.”

Kimmel’s spokesman Lewis Kay confirmed to CNN that the late-night host had consulted with Schumer and other groups opposed to the bill. As Graham-Cassidy began to look as though it may have a chance at passage, the partisan New York senator was evidently the one who encouraged Kimmel to use his show as a platform to critique the legislation.

Kimmel’s son had already had to battle congenital heart disease in his infant life. The Democrats apparently saw the opportunity to exploit Kimmel’s family difficulties, using the hardship as a means to attack the Republican proposed legislation by feeding lies to the late-night host. Particularly underhanded was the reframing of the efforts by the GOP to repeal and replace Obamacare as a plan that would fail to protect people with pre-existing conditions such as the one Kimmel’s son experienced.

In an on-air monologue, Kimmel demeaned the legislation for failing to meet the so-called “Jimmy Kimmel test,” a term that Cassidy had used inadvisably as a measure of acceptable health care legislation.

Kimmel seemed more than willing to engage in some Hollywood style virtue signaling while simultaneously relishing the opportunity to disrespect President Trump. He even targeted by name Fox News co-host Brian Kilmeade for calling out the banality of Kimmel’s analysis. Kilmeade had referred to Kimmel as a member of the Hollywood elite, a designation of the late-night host with which few could disagree.

Lost in the media coverage has been the truth that people with pre-existing conditions would not be denied coverage under the GOP’s proposed legislation. However, it appears as though Kimmel was fed purposely misleading information from Schumer and dutifully repeated the lines for his audience.

The influence of Kimmel on the press and social media seems to have accomplished the goal of tainting the image of Graham-Cassidy, which consequently created an opening for the Republican Party non-loyalist, Senator John McCain, to once again attempt to kill the bill.

The late-night host dedicated a series of monologues to emotion-packed health care sermonizing.

Rather than engaging in serious debate, Kimmel put out falsehoods and half-truths, which went wholly unchallenged by the mainstream media.

Democrats took advantage of Kimmel’s health care segments, using them as fodder for advertising and social media posts in an effort to leverage the late-night host’s influence with a sizable segment of the public.

Kimmel became the star of the Democrat political grandstanding sideshow. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) launched a digital advertising campaign that was framed around the “Jimmy Kimmel test” meme. The ads targeted Republican candidates in crucial midterm election states.

As part of a six-figure digital campaign in 12 states, ads appeared in searches by those trying to get information on “health care,” “repeal,” “the Jimmy Kimmel test,” and other topics, redirecting individuals who clicked on the terms to the DSCC’s already existing health care page.

The targeted states were those that were perceived to have the closest upcoming Senate races in 2018: Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Democrats also took advantage of the Kimmel coverage by posting comments on social media. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted a video of one of the Kimmel monologues along with a thank you note.

“Stories like yours are why we will defeat #Trumpcare,” Pelosi wrote.

Other high-profile Democrats who took to Twitter in an effort to make the most of the Kimmel criticism of GOP health care legislation included Schumer, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsome.

The truth of the matter is that while out boisterously attacking the pending GOP legislation, Kimmel deceptively kept quiet about the fact that one of the highest profile partisan Democrats was supplying him with his politically poisonous script.

It is more than unfortunate that a television personality on a major broadcast network would allow himself to be used as a pawn on a political chessboard.