Today in Washington D. C. - Sept 28, 2009 - Olympics, Gag Orders and More

What does Globetrotting for the Olympics and a Gag order on Free Speech have in common? Well, I am sure you will discover the answer below.

Congress is observing Yom Kippur today. Tomorrow, the Senate will resume consideration of the fiscal 2010 Defense appropriations bill, H.R. 3326. Also, the Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to resume its markup of chairman Max Baucus’ (D-MT) health care bill.

The White House announced today that the President will travel Thursday night to Copenhagen (Denmark) to make a personal appearance before the International Olympic Committee with First Lady Michelle Obama Michelle Obama who is (or was) to make a presentation to promote Chicago as the host city for the 2016 Summer Games. This all smacks as a tribute to the Chicago and its political machine. A Huffington Post article expresses the lack of enthusiasm by Chicago residents for the Olympics: "Mayor Daley, rocking a 35% approval rating, says that the Games would be 'a huge boost to our economy, raising it to a new level. The Games will help us recover sooner from the recession that still grips our nation and enable us to better compete in the global economy.' There is only one problem with this argument: the history of the Olympic Games almost without exception brands it as a lie. . . . It's also difficult for Chicago residents to see how this will help their pocketbooks, given that Daley pledged to the International Olympic Committee that any cost overruns would be covered by taxpayers. This is why a staggering 84% of the city opposes bringing the Games to Chicago if it costs residents a solitary dime."

Wow, maybe the citizens of Chicago are waking up! Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), a ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, said Obama's decision to go to Denmark to promote the Olympics is a sign that the president needs to "establish some priorities" -- the most pressing of which is the need to "respond to Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for more U.S. troops in Afghanistan." And Folks, guess who is paying for this globe trotting trip. The American taxpayers. Do you feel safer now?

As the health care debate continues, more and more Democrats and the Obama administration seem determined to obscure or muzzle the real facts about their health care reform plans.

Back in August, at an Organizing for America event on selling his health reform plan, President Obama told supporters, “So you’ve really got to emphasize, I think, to seniors that, number one, nobody is talking about messing with your Medicare benefits.” And just last week, Vice President Joe Biden told a crowd in Maryland, “Nobody is going to mess with your benefits. Nobody.”

However, last week the AP reported, “Despite Obama's repeated claims that Medicare benefits will not be cut, Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf told senators Tuesday that the elderly in the private Medicare Advantage plans could see reduced benefits under Baucus' bill.” And today, in a piece examining cuts to Medicare, The Washington Post acknowledges, “Many health policy analysts, along with the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, agree that the Medicare Advantage cuts are likely to hurt, causing insurance companies to scale back popular extras such as dental coverage and gym memberships. They could also pull out of suddenly unprofitable markets, leaving seniors without a popular program and violating Obama's pledge that people who like their insurance can keep it.”

Even though major news outlets and the CBO director are saying it is true that seniors on Medicare Advantage could see benefit cuts under Democrats’ health care reform plans, the Department of Health and Human Services has refused to lift a gag order it imposed on insurance companies, prohibiting them from informing their customers of this very fact. The Obama administration on Thursday evening rejected Senate Republicans’ request that the Department of Health and Human Services lift a so-called gag order on insurance companies. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell summed up the situation to Fox’s Neil Cavuto last week: “I think the Democratic majority is undeterred by the facts. The facts are that they are trying to cut Medicare. They certainly are cutting Medicare Advantage as well. They are going to have a $500 billion—half a trillion—cut in Medicare over the next 10 years and they’re acting like they aren’t. No one believes that. The director of the CBO . . . has underscored what they are doing, and it’s astonishing.”

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