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Pataki Says Obamacare Can Be Repealed

On April 25, 2010, In If Bush Had Done That, Obama Care, By Shon Jimenez

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Former New York Gov. George Pataki is leading a national effort to repeal Obamacare.

In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, Pataki said he is launching the effort because the recent healthcare plan signed into law by President Barack Obama imposes the heavy hand of the federal government into the healthcare decisions of all Americans, contrary to the great traditions of the United States.

The popular conservative Republican who was thrice elected to the Empire State’s governorship, has just launched a new organization, RevereAmerica.org, a group Pataki says is aimed at promoting American traditions such as personal freedom and free enterprise.

Pataki has had a stellar career in politics. In 1994, he defied the polls by defeating Mario Cuomo in a gubernatorial upset. He presided over New York’s economic resurgence in the 1990s and had been widely credited in leading New York City back to health after the devastating attacks of Sept. 11.

Pataki left the governorship in 2007 and took up private practice as a lawyer. But he coming back into the political fray with his new 501(c)4 nonprofit, RevereAmerica, where he serves as chairman.

The group’s main priority is to encourage Americans to go to the RevereAmerica.org website to sign an online petition where concerned citizens can voice their desire to repeal Obamacare.

The organization has also begun airing TV ads on Fox News and MSNBC featuring a Paul Revere figure on horseback with a message from Pataki urging Americans to “protect” the country’s freedom.

Pataki argues that many of the claims of Obamacare are not true. For example, he says the oft-made claim by Democrats that individuals will be able to keep their current healthcare plan if they like it, is not true.

He also noted that millions of seniors on Medicare Advantage will have to give up their healthcare plans because the program is essentially being eliminated.

“He said it wasn’t going to increase healthcare costs, but today Obama’s own HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) has put out a report saying Obamacare will drive up healthcare costs over this coming decade,” Pataki told Newsmax.TV.

“And then they said it’s going to reduce the deficit, and I think everyone understands that rather than reduce the deficit; they are going to create unsustainable deficits by hundreds of billions ̶ probably over a half-trillion dollars.

“It’s not what they said it was, and they thought the American people would roll over and accept it once they rammed it through.”

Pataki vows his organization will be among those leading the fight to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a better plan.

Republicans would likely need large majorities in both houses of Congress to override a presidential veto for any repeal legislation. Still, Pataki expressed his belief that Republicans could succeed.

“I’m realistic about it, and I think we can do it,” he said.

The former governor said winning Republican majorities in the House and the Senate was critical to his goal of repealing Obamacare.

“The president would have a tough choice if he had a Congress that passed a bill that would repeal and replace, with good reforms repealing Obamacare,” Pataki said. “And he may well sign it, but probably the most realistic of all is that we have over half ̶ a majority committed to repealing and replacing Obamacare ̶ then they could just refuse to fund important or critical parts of this law.”

Getting the healthcare reform law repealed will require popular resolve, and Pataki encourages everyone interested in repealing the law to sign the petition on his website.

Pataki favors replacing Obamacare with tort reform including an elimination of “junk lawsuits,” allowing competition for insurers across state lines, as well as making healthcare premiums and policies tax deductible for individuals.

“None of these provisions were in Obamacare except the insurance provisions, and they will drive down costs; they will give people the power to get better healthcare and make their own decisions the way they should be in this country,” Pataki said.

Asked about Obama’s financial reform bill, Pataki said the administration and the Democrats have quickly latched onto it in an effort to get Americans to forget about the healthcare debacle.

In other parts of the wide-ranging interview, Pataki said:

Trying Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his al-Qaida 9/11 co-conspirators in New York City would be an unconscionable mistake, and they should be tried and executed by a military tribunal.

Obama likely is supportive of the decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in civilian court.

New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has failed New Yorkers by not taking strong enough of a stand against trying the 9/11 defendants in lower Manhattan.

As for speculation he may run for president in 2012, Pataki said he has no interest in doing so.

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Obama Change, Changes Again

On March 10, 2010, In If Bush Had Done That, By Shon Jimenez

The Obama administration appears to have abandoned plans to put Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and four co-conspirators on trial in Lower Manhattan, according to administration sources.

“It seems less and less likely” that the trial will take place in New York, according to a senior administration official.

The administration was facing a surge of political opposition to hosting the trial in New York. That opposition crystallized in recent days when New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, an early supporter of holding the trial in the city, said the security and financial costs were too great.

In a letter to the president Friday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said a New York trial heightens the risk of a terrorist attack.

“Without getting into classified details, I believe we should view the attempted Christmas Day plot as a continuation, not an end, of plots to strike the United States by al-Qaeda and its affiliates,” Feinstein said. “Moreover, New York City has been a high-priority target since at least the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. The trial of the most significant terrorist in custody would add to the threat.”
She told the president in the letter that he has “the flexibility to move this trial to a less prominent, less costly, and equally secure location.”

Administration officials said they remain committed to putting Mohammed and the other defendants (who are currently held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba) on trial in federal court, not in a military commission as some in Congress have been demanding.

That commitment was welcomed by proponents of using the federal courts to try terrorist suspects.
“As long as these trials occur in federal criminal courts with proper due-process protections, the actual venue doesn’t matter very much,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. “All of our federal courts are equipped and able to handle such cases. That’s where they belong and that’s where they should stay.”

Oh well,
Shon Jimenez

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Tagged with: Guantánamo Bay • Khalid Sheikh Mohammed • Michael Bloomberg • New York • New York City • September 11 attacks • United States • World Trade Center

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