memeorandum: Obama's Big Lie (Jonah Goldberg/National Review)

11:45 AM ET, October 30, 2013

Top Items:

Aparnes / The Hill:

Annoyed Obama demands fix — An agitated President Obama has expressed frustration to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about the faulty ObamaCare enrollment website. — A visibly annoyed Obama behind closed doors has made clear to Sebelius that it's her responsibility …

Discussion: Right Wing News

Amy Argetsinger / Washington Post:

Kathleen Sebelius, welcome to an unwelcome Washington tradition: The deathwatch. — It's Kathleen Sebelius's turn now. On the Hill, they're calling for her resignation and tossing around words like “subpoena.” Pundits are merrily debating her future. … Her interviews, more closely parsed than usual, seem wobbly.

Discussion: The Week, ProPublica and Talking Points Memo

Michelle Malkin / Townhall.com:

The Thuggery of Obamacare Czarina Kathleen Sebelius — U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius is allergic to the truth. She is the ruthless enforcer of Obamacare's Jenga tower of lies upon lies upon lies. Now that this fatally flawed government edifice is collapsing …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog

Washington Post:

Obama accused of breaking promise to consumers as health plans cancel policies — A new controversy over the president's health-care law is threatening to overshadow the messy launch of its Web site: Notices are going out to hundreds of thousands of Americans informing them that their health insurance polices …

Discussion: The Hugh Hewitt Show, Hot Air, Cafe Hayek and Post Politics

Michael Warren / Weekly Standard:

Senate Democrats Struggle to Defend Health Insurance Promises — As he stepped off an escalator leading from the Capitol's underground subway system to the U.S. Senate, Ron Johnson opened up a yellow folder, pulled out a copy of the “If You Like Your Health Plan, You Can Keep It Act,” and handed it to fellow senator Chris Coons.

Discussion: Power Line, Taylor Marsh, NBCNews, Scared Monkeys, Weasel Zippers, The Lonely Conservative, Guardian, National Review, The Heritage Foundation, NewsBusters, Michelle Malkin, American Spectator and NewsBusters blogs

Ian Swanson / The Hill: White House struggles to defend Obama healthcare claim

Washington Free Beacon:
Carney Falsely Claims Insurers Are Responsible for Eliminating Policies in Individual Insurance Market

Discussion: Salon, Politico, AMERICAblog News, Bloomberg, Weasel Zippers, Debra J. Saunders and Pat Dollard

Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:

Obama's pledge that ‘no one will take away’ your health plan — “That means that no matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, NationalJournal.com, Weasel Zippers, Hot Air, Congressman Tim Griffin, @NCCapitol, CBS DC, Liberal Values, National Review, NBCNews, The Lonely Conservative, Scared Monkeys, The PJ Tatler, Outside the Beltway and BillMoyers.com

Wall Street Journal:
Americans are losing their coverage by political design.

Discussion: bizjournals and National Review

Sally Kohn / CNN:
A canceled health plan is a good thing

Discussion: National Review, The Daily Caller, EconLog, Washington Post, Twitchy, American Spectator and Michelle Malkin

ThinkProgress:
Democratic Congressman Blows Up At GOP During Obamacare Hearing: ‘Are You Really Serious?’

Discussion: Liberaland, The Raw Story, Feministing and Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times

New York Times:

Spying Known at Top Levels, Officials Say — WASHINGTON — The nation's top spymaster said on Tuesday that the White House had long been aware in general terms of the National Security Agency's overseas eavesdropping, stoutly defending the agency's intelligence-gathering methods …

Discussion: Firedoglake, Taylor Marsh, Gawker, AEIdeas, The Hill, WJLA-TV and Wall Street Journal

Peter Baker / New York Times:

Where the Buck Stops, Some See a Bystander — WASHINGTON — President Obama finds himself under fire on two disparate fronts these days, both for the botched rollout of his signature health care program and for the secret spying on allied heads of state. In both instances, his explanation roughly boils down to this: I didn't know.

Discussion: JustOneMinute, The Hugh Hewitt Show, Connecting.the.Dots and Washington Post

Leslie Bentz / CNN:
EU delegation to meet at White House over NSA spying concerns

Discussion: The Week

CNN:

First on CNN: Obama administration warned about health care website — Washington (CNN) — The Obama administration was given stark warnings just one month before launch that the federal healthcare site was not ready to go live, according to a confidential report obtained by CNN. — Read documents

Discussion: ThinkProgress, ProPublica, IntoxiNation, National Review, American Spectator, Betsy's Page, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Speaker.gov, New York Times and Associated Press

Sahil Kapur / Talking Points Memo:

27 GOP Senators ‘Disapprove’ Of Their Own Vote To Raise Debt Ceiling — Twenty-seven Republican senators voted with Democrats on Oct. 16 to lift the debt ceiling and avert a catastrophic default. And each one of those 27 senators voted Tuesday to “disapprove” of their own votes.

Discussion: Esquire, Washington Monthly, The Moderate Voice, ThinkProgress, Political Capital, Balloon Juice and Juanita Jean's

Quinnipiac News + Events:

Release Detail — October 30, 2013 - Mcauliffe Up By 4 Points In Close Virginia Gov Race, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Libertarian Has 9 Percent — The Virginia governor's race is going down to the wire with Democrat Terry McAuliffe clinging to a slight 45 - 41 percent likely voter lead …

Discussion: Roanoke College, ABC News, NationalJournal.com, Weekly Standard, Talking Points Memo, Hit & Run, NewsMax.com, Taegan Goddard's …, The Plum Line, First Read, Political Capital and Politico

Adam C. Smith / Tampa Bay Times:

Alex Sink is running for C.W. Bill Young's congressional seat, will move to Pinellas — ST. PETERSBURG — Alex Sink is running for Congress. — Florida's former chief financial officer and Democratic gubernatorial nominee on Tuesday confirmed exclusively to the Tampa Bay Times that she is jumping …

Discussion: TheHill, Talking Points Memo, Politico, Post Politics and Taegan Goddard's …

Mhooper / The Hill:

Republican: Many in GOP don't live in political reality — A House Republican lawmaker says many of his fellow GOP colleagues in Congress, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), don't live in “political reality.” — Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.) said that shutting down the government “over a deep matter of principle” didn't add up.

Discussion: First Read

Jonah Goldberg / National Review:

Obama's Big Lie — 'All we've been hearing the last three years is if you like your policy you can keep it. . . . I'm infuriated because I was lied to," one woman told the Los Angeles Times, as part of a story on how some middle-class Californians have been stunned to learn the real costs of Obamacare.

Discussion: VodkaPundit

KVUE-TV:

17,000 gallons of crude oil spill near Smithville — FAYETTE COUNTY, Texas — Crews have contained a giant oil spill in Fayette County. — Ramona Nye with the Railroad Commission of Texas told KVUE on Tuesday that about 400 barrels of crude oil (17,000 gallons) were spilled near Red Hollow Lane and Old Smithville Road in Smithville.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Austin American-Statesman and InsideClimate News

Dylan Scott / Talking Points Memo:

Why Extending The Obamacare Deadline Could Hurt Democrats In 2014 — With HealthCare.gov's problems piling up last week, a small coalition of Democratic senators formally urged the Obama administration to extend the deadline for enrolling in a health plan beyond March 31, 2014, which is when the enrollment period ends now.

David Edwards / The Raw Story:

12-year-old ‘suffragette’ fires back at NC gov. for voter suppression: ‘I am not a prop!’ — A 12-year-old North Carolina girl fired back at Gov. Pat McCrory on Monday (R-NC) after he called her a “prop” because she had accused him of voter suppression for signing a voter ID law that stripped pre-registration rights for young people.

Discussion: Liberaland and Mock Paper Scissors

The Atlantic Online:

Marriage Makes Our Children Richer—Here's Why — Young people from less-privileged homes are more likely to graduate from college and earn more if raised by two married parents. — The United States' reputation as “the land of opportunity” is a cruel bit of false advertising.

Discussion: The Other McCain, Public Religion Research … and AEIdeas