The Patriot Post Digest 7-10-2017

________________________________________
The Patriot Post Digest 7-10-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
________________________________________

Mid-Day Digest

Jul. 10, 2017

IN TODAY’S EDITION

Just as Trump meets Putin, the media “discovers” year-old news to undermine him.
Ted Cruz and Mike Lee want to lower insurance costs. Will their proposal do that?
Barack Obama is the consummate hypocrite for his lavish lifestyle.
Daily Features: Top Headlines, Cartoons, Columnists and Short Cuts.

THE FOUNDATION

“If by the liberty of the press were understood merely the liberty of discussing the propriety of public measures and political opinions, let us have as much of it as you please: But if it means the liberty of affronting, calumniating and defaming one another, I, for my part, own myself willing to part with my share of it, whenever our legislators shall please so to alter the law and shall chearfully consent to exchange my liberty of abusing others for the privilege of not being abused myself.” —Benjamin Franklin (1789)

TOP RIGHT HOOKS

Trump Impresses So Media Distracts With Another Russian Collusion Story1

On Saturday, the day after Donald Trump met and faced off with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, The New York Times trolled out yet another article2 aimed at reviving the Leftmedia’s Trump/Russia collusion conspiracy. This time the story relays the existence of a meeting that took place in June 2016 involving Donald Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner and a Russian lawyer. Allegedly the lawyer claimed to have dirt on the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton being funded by Russians. But Trump Jr. said he ended the meeting after about 20 to 30 minutes because the lawyer’s comments were “vague, ambiguous and made no sense.” So has the Leftmedia finally found its long-sought-after smoking gun? Nope.

A better question to ask is this: What did New York Times “journalists” know and when did they know it? How “convenient” for the Times to suddenly come across “breaking news” of a year-old meeting directly after Trump confronts Putin over Moscow’s meddling in the election. Clearly the timing is designed to overshadow another successful foreign trip3 for Trump. And once again the sources are anonymous government officials. We’ve seen this movie before, and it’s getting old.

The Times and its media kissing cousins are eagerly engaging in an anti-Trump smear campaign using trickled-out fake news. Their insistence on pushing the Trump/Russian collusion conspiracy is evidence of a no-holds-barred effort to impede and undermine Trump’s presidency. The irony is that the Leftmedia has been playing right into Moscow’s hands, as Putin would love nothing more than to undermine Americans’ trust in our electoral system. But Trump is not the darkness threatening the American republic; the source of that darkness is these fake news stories published by the Leftmedia.

Cruz and Lee Offer a Key Health Reform Amendment4

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell fired a shot across the bow of his fellow Republicans last week — either repeal ObamaCare or start fixing it5. Of course, his point is that ObamaCare is such a disaster that fixing it is unlikely to, well, fix anything.

Enter Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee. The pair of conservative leaders, as part of their “Path to ‘Yes’” initiative, offered a significant amendment to the Senate’s health reform bill6 called the Consumer Freedom Option. In short, Cruz explained, “The ‘Consumer Freedom Option’ simply says that if an insurance company sells in a given state a plan that is consistent with the [ObamaCare] Title I mandates, that company can also sell any other insurance plan consumers desire.” Currently, all health insurance plans must comply unless they are grandfathered.

Cruz added, “What this will allow is OK, fine, you want to keep your [ObamaCare] mandates? Knock yourself out with your mandates, but in addition to mandates, let’s let Texans buy the plans they want, let’s let Texans buy the benefits they want, and let’s let them get lower prices so that more families who are struggling can actually afford health insurance.”

Indeed, one of the main reasons that Democrats’ repeated promises of lowered premiums was a bald-faced lie is that forcing everyone, including older and sicker Americans, to buy health insurance that covers a lengthy list of required services is going to be really expensive. Scratch that — it has been really expensive, as we can attest7. Lowering health insurance costs should be one of the primary goals and communication points for Republicans. They must explain how they’re going to save Americans money if they’re going to move the ball downfield on repealing and replacing the monstrously deceptive “Affordable” Care Act.

The question is whether the Cruz/Lee amendment does this in the best way. James Capretta of the American Enterprise Institute says it does not. He writes8, “The primary problem in American health care is not that too many healthy people have to subsidize the premiums of the unhealthy; it’s that too many Americans are largely insulated from the cost of care they receive through expansive third-party insurance payments covered by employer-provided plans and Medicare. These consumers never really participate in any meaningful way in the health-care marketplace. They get the services they believe they need, and their insurers pay the bills.”

Republicans must offer a plan dictated by the free market. Cruz and Lee aim to do this, but the debate is over whether they hit the mark.

Top Headlines9

The Left’s revealing panic over Trump’s defense of the West. (The Daily Signal10)

Trump shuns G20 lapel pin worn by other leaders, struts U.S. flag instead. (BizPac Review11)

G20 protests: Looting, burning, vandalizing and over 200 police injured. (Reuters12)

Americans’ top financial worry is the cost of health care. (Washington Free Beacon13)

Hundreds of VA officials fired since Trump’s inauguration. (CBS News14)

U.S., Russia reach deal on Syria cease-fire. (Associated Press15)

Marist poll: More people trust Trump administration than the media. (Hot Air16)

Comey memos may have contained classified information. (Fox News17)

“Hillary Clinton Defense” fails to persuade Justice Department to free former Navy sailor convicted of sharing classified information. (The Washington Times18.)

Oregon finds opening to curtail gun rights. (Reason19)

Policy: Balancing college and career readiness. (American Enterprise Institute20)

Policy: Let the Commandments stand! (Alliance Defending Freedom21)

For more, visit Patriot Headline Report22.

FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
Conspicuous Wealth and Consummate Hypocrisy23

By Arnold Ahlert

“We’re not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that’s fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.” —Barack Obama, 2010

As Obama’s post-presidential life continues to unfold, we are likely to discover one of two things: how much money is really enough — or how deep progressive hypocrisy goes.

It’s no secret one of the most enduring pillars of the American Left’s political strategy is class warfare. And no one is a bigger target than wealthy Americans. Make that some wealthy Americans, like the Koch brothers. Harry Reid insisted24 they’re un-American “shadowy billionaires” who “pour unlimited money into our democracy to rig the system.” So what about billionaires like Tom Steyer, who donated25 $100 million to Democrats in 2016, or George Soros, whose far more shadowy26 political contributions dwarf those of the Koch brothers?

Well, some “fat cats” are more equal than others.

“Fat cats” is a term Barack Obama used in 2009 to slam Wall Street bankers. “I did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on Wall Street,” he said during an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes.” That sentiment was certainly not misplaced, considering how many Wall Street bankers remained largely immune from the financial meltdown they precipitated in 2008.

Or partially precipitated. It’s worth remembering that Democrats played a big hand27 in that meltdown when they threatened banks with punitive measures if they didn’t approve mortgage loans to people with questionable credit.

It’s also worth remembering that until “out-of-touch elitist” Republican candidate Mitt Romney broke his record in 2012, Barack Obama took more28 campaign contributions from Wall Street than any other presidential candidate in the history of the republic.

________________________________________
The Patriot Post Digest 7-10-2017
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
________________________________________

Now that he’s no longer president, he’s no longer taking campaign contributions from Wall Street. Instead, he’s getting paid directly. “Former President Barack Obama, less than 100 days out of office, has agreed to speak at a Wall Street conference run by Cantor Fitzgerald LP, senior people at the firm confirm to FOX Business,” the NY Post reported29 in April. “His speaking fee will be $400,000, which is nearly twice as much as Hillary Clinton, his secretary of state, and the 2016 Democratic Party candidate, charged private businesses for such events.”

Again, some fat cats are more equal than others. Moreover the man who railed30 against “an economy that’s become profoundly unequal” in a 2013 speech, and chastised the top 10% of Americans for taking more than their fair share, has only just begun amassing his share of personal largesse. “With book deals, speaking engagements, and a government pension, former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama stand to earn as much as $242.5 million in the next 15 years, according to data from the Kogod School of Business at American University,” Business Insider reported31 in February.

Part of that take was $20 million to $45 million The New York Times estimated32 the Obamas would receive for their White House memoirs. Memoirs that would give them “more than enough to pay the estimated $22,000 monthly rent for the nine-bedroom home they will occupy in the Kalorama neighborhood of Washington and foot the bill for flights on private jets,” the paper stated.

Those estimates were far too modest. According33 to the Financial Times, book publisher Penguin Random House will pay more than $65 million for the global rights to two books written separately by Barack and Michelle. The record-setting price for presidential memoirs, precipitated by an auction, dwarfs the $15 million paid to former president Bill Clinton for his 2004 memoir “My Life,” and the $10 million George W. Bush made from “Decision Points.”

In a hand-wringing column34 for The Washington Post, Ruth Marcus wonders if Obama’s “rapaciousness” is “really the image he wants to cultivate — for himself or for fellow Democrats?” Moreover, she asks, “Having left his party in such terrible condition, does he really have to offer opponents ammunition to attack him as hypocritical?”

Apparently Ms. Marcus remains oblivious to the reality that Barack Obama has always been a member in good standing of the “do as I say, not as a I do” group of progressives, all of whom are immune to accusations of hypocrisy.

Fox News has chronicled35 some of Obama’s image-making, noting that since he left office in January, he has been on “a seemingly endless tour of millionaire and billionaire luxury retreats.”

Luxury travel agency owner Kendra Thornton illuminates the level of lavishness. “These are some of the most luxurious travel destinations in the world,” she explains. “Many of our clients spend tens of thousands of dollars or more to stay at these resorts, which cater to the most discriminating and demanding guests. For example, Necker Island has a nightly price tag of $80,000. Anyone who stays at these properties does so because they want the best of the best.”

Pat Caddell, who was President Jimmy Carter’s adviser, is less than enthused. “I think every time Obama opens his mouth, the fair question is: Which billionaire’s paradise island did he do it from? When is he going to do anything to help people other than enrich himself?” he wondered.

In our capitalist system, achieving a luxurious lifestyle is in some ways the pinnacle of the American Dream for anyone with drive, the willingness to take risks, the entrepreneurial skills, and the ambition to go as far as their abilities take them.

What is not okay is the rank hypocrisy of Obama presenting himself as the arbiter of sufficient wealth — and the definer of “fairness” in achieving it — when there’s no end in sight to his own appetite for luxury, or his highly conspicuous consumption of wealth.

In other words, the class warfare rhetoric that was Obama’s political stock in trade now rings exceedingly hollow. “I’m not sure he’s ever been more out of touch than he is right now,” stated HBO host John Oliver last month.

Not out of touch, John. Out of office, and no longer feeling constrained by political expediency — all the images of “rapaciousness” in the world notwithstanding. Even those political constraints weren’t much, though, as he lived rich and famous36 while in the White House too. It’s just who Obama is — the consummate hypocrite.

MORE ANALYSIS FROM THE PATRIOT POST

Indoctrination of Children Knows No Bounds37 — The Boys & Girls Clubs of America have new guidelines about being more friendly to LGBTQ kids. It’s not friendly.
McConnell Pushes Republicans on Health Reform5 — Either repeal it or fix it. Meanwhile, Sen. Toomey essentially blames pollaganda for Republicans’ lack of preparation.
Hybrid Cars and Islamic Power38 — Government regulations are driving economic decisions that may also have geopolitical and security implications.
A Humorous ‘Apology’ to CNN39 — Brandon Morse recognizes that he should have never made fun of the great and totally not fake news organization CNN.

BEST OF RIGHT OPINION

George Will: A Measure to Rein in Medicaid’s ‘Mission Gallop’40
Peggy Noonan: On Health Care, a Promise, Not a Threat41
Rich Lowry: Trump’s Warsaw Triumph42

For more, visit Right Opinion43.

OPINION IN BRIEF

George Will: “Were it not for the provision that Pat Toomey, the Pennsylvania Republican, put into the Senate’s proposed health care reform, this legislation would be moderately important but hardly momentous. Toomey’s provision, however, makes it this century’s most significant domestic policy reform. It required tenacity by Toomey to insert into the bill a gradually arriving, but meaningful, cap on the rate of growth of per-beneficiary Medicaid spending. … Lawrence Lindsey, formerly a governor of the Federal Reserve System and an assistant to both presidents Bush, puts the matter plainly: ‘No large component of the federal budget can perpetually grow faster than nominal GDP.’ In 1970, Medicaid spending was 1.4 percent of federal spending. In 1980, it was 2.4 percent. In 1990, 3.3 percent. By 2000, it had doubled to 6.6 percent. In 2010, it was 7.9 percent. In 2017, it will be 9.8 percent. … As Lindsey says, Medicaid’s unrestrained growth will become economically impossible, then arithmetically impossible. Democrats fancy themselves the ‘party of science’ — strangely, because they think climate science (unlike astrophysics, neurobiology or any other scientific field) is ‘settled.’ Democrats certainly are not the party of arithmetic. Republicans can fill that comparatively mundane but useful role by enacting Toomey’s provision, which is, as Lindsey says, ‘the first serious attempt to limit the unsustainable rise in entitlement spending in our lifetime.’”

SHORT CUTS

The Gipper: “A friend of mine was asked to a costume ball a short time ago. He slapped some egg on his face and went as a liberal economist.”

Observations: “The difficulties the Republicans have faced were inevitable. They are divided; they don’t have the will or the base. The party is undergoing a populist realignment, with party donors, think-tankers and ideologues seeing things more or less one way, and the Trump base, including many Democrats, seeing them another. The long-stable ground under Republican senators has been shifting, and they’re not sure where or how to stand. The president, philosophically unmoored and operating without a firm grasp of the legislation he promotes, is little help. He has impulses and sentiments but is not, as the French used to say, a serious man. He just wants a deal and a win, and there’s something almost refreshing in this, in the lack of tangled and complicated personal and political motives. It makes so much possible.” —Peggy Noonan

Non Compos Mentis: “Taxation is a sharing of responsibility … only the wealthy believe that taxation is theft … they dont pay taxes … we should make them.” —tweet from “Chelsea” Manning

Braying Jackass: “Our whack job POTUS @realDonaldTrump is tweeting about me at the G20. Get a grip man, the Russians committed a crime when they stole my emails to help get you elected President.” —John Podesta

That’s racist! “Trump’s white-nationalist dog whistles in Warsaw.” —Jonathan Capehart opinion headline

More race bait: “The Racial and Religious Paranoia of Trump’s Warsaw Speech.” —The Atlantic headline

And last… “Democrats seem to believe that if they were capable of successfully impeaching Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton would become president because she came in second last November. That’s what comes of not reading the Constitution.” —Burt Prelutsky

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Managing Editor Nate Jackson

Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families.