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Culture, Religion

UNDATE: Officials in Bartow, Fla., are ordering residents who have placed “God Bless America” signs on their front lawns to remove them or pay a minimum fine of $25 a day. (MYFOXTAMPABAY.COM)

Residents of a Florida city – Bartow – who have had “God Bless America” signs posted on their front lawns for months have been ordered by local officials to remove them.

The First Baptist Church of Bartow says they distributed some 300 signs to residents following last summer’s Fourth of July celebration. The city only permits residents to display signs during major holidays, and is now beginning to crack down on the displays.

“Being a veteran, I felt like I was just kicked in the gut. I couldn’t believe it, that I couldn’t display my love for my nation by putting a sign up that says “God Bless America,” said Bartow resident Marcus Seger.

Bartow’s code enforcement division recently notified citizens with signs that its temporary sign ordinance has been in place for 13 years. They further go on in the notice to praise themselves for already allowing for some exceptions — yard displays. Bartow Code Enforcement Director, Gregg Lamb, said:

They can have those signs out on holidays that are relevant. You can have a temporary sign around Christmas if it’s related to Christmas, or the Fourth of July. The sign ordinance has exceptions for that.

Many Bartow residents disagree with the ordinance and have no plans to comply with the city’s request. “This is my yard that I’m paying the taxes on. It’s my right,” Emmett Purvis, an area resident with a sign, told MyFoxTampaBay.com.

The amount of residents that are expected to seek a waiver from the ordinance at an upcoming Bartow City Commission meeting, are growing in numbers. The city’s code enforcement division does not enforce fines or penalties for non-compliance, according them, but someone is threatening to fine the taxpaying citizens $25.00 per day.

City Manager George Long, released a statement late Friday reminding residents that code enforcement officers are targeting all types of signs, regardless of the message.

“It is clear that some recipients of the notices have interpreted them as an indication that their message of ‘God Bless America’ is in violation of city code. This interpretation is not the case or the intent of the city. Instead, the issue is and remains the sign type – not the message,” Long said.

Whether or not City Manager Long is being honest with his assessment of the crack down, remains up to you, the reader. However, it does seem as if the First Amendment does not apply to the faithful, if we were to be honest about it.

Residents of a Florida city - Bartow

News, Politics

WASHINGTON — The House has passed a bill to give 800,000 furloughed federal workers retroactive pay once the government reopens.

The House passed the bill in a rare Saturday session. The vote was 407-0. The Senate was expected to pass it as well, but when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will schedule that vote is not yet known.

The White House said yesterday that President Obama will sign the legislation.

The federal government has been partially shut down since Tuesday, the start of the new budget year. Since Tuesday, the House has moved to pass a succession of piecemeal bills to ensure funding Veterans Affairs, the National Institute of Health, National Park Service, and many others.

So far, only military funding and now this bill have received support from Democrats.

Both President Barack Obama and Congress are in Washington on Saturday, but there’s no apparent progress in ending the shutdown.

After the voting, House are planning to leave town and not return until Monday evening.

As long as Democrats keep rejecting the piecemeal approach, saying the entire government should be reopened.

WASHINGTON — The House has passed a

Polls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iOWdv1LcCFo

With Lt. Gov. John Walsh announcing in a new Web video that he will run for the open Montana Senate race in 2014, this race could get competitive. handing Democrats their first big-name recruit in the race for the open seat. Former governor Brian Schweitzer (D) surprised many by opting not to run for the seat.

Walsh’s video plays up his service in Iraq and his status as a political newcomer. He served as adjutant general of the state’s National Guard before being selected as now-Gov. Steve Bullock’s (D) running mate in the 2012 election.

Freshman Rep. Steve Daines (R) is still considering the race and is expected to run. For now, the GOP field is led by state Rep. Champ Edmunds.

The seat is considered a top pickup opportunity for the GOP following Sen. Max Baucus’s (D-Mont.) retirement. Many well-known possible Republican hopefuls, such as Rep. Steve Daines (R), ex-Gov. Marc Racicot (R) and ex-Rep. Denny Rehberg (R), who lost to Sen. Jon Tester (D) in 2012, were anxiously awaiting Brian Schweitzer’s decision. It will now be a bit more interesting to see  how the field plays out, but Schweitzer’s decision made a Republican-controlled Senate a real possibility now.

People’s Pundit Daily will continue to hold our call on this race, despite Walsh being a type of candidate that I could foresee spoiling the GOP’s hopes for a Republican-controlled Senate. For now, the race is still “Leans Republican.” View our Interactive 2014 Senate Map with ratings and full analysis.

With Lt. Gov. John Walsh announcing in

News, Politics

Finally, the White House and Congress have managed to actually accomplish something, whether or not we agree with the result.

However, the bill isn’t exactly controversial. For the first time since ping-pong negotiations over the budget on Monday, the White House announced Friday that it would support a House spending bill that provides back-pay for furloughed federal workers.

“Federal workers keep the nation safe and secure and provide vital services that support the economic security of American families,” the White House said in a statement. “The administration appreciates that the Congress is acting promptly to move this bipartisan legislation and looks forward to the bill’s swift passage.”

The only other House bill that the Senate has approved and President Obama has signed in the last week has been a measure to pay the nation’s military. The White House has threatened to veto every single other bill, as the House pushes a series of separate spending measures meant to fund certain agencies amid the partial government shutdown.

Since the shutdown, the House has voted to fund the National Institutes of Health, the National Guard and Reserve, the National Park Service and the Department of Veterans Affairs. A series of votes are scheduled for Friday, and the bill to retroactively pay furloughed federal workers is on the docket for Saturday.

Though the White House statement in support of that bill could be considered a minor victory for Republicans – who have been pressuring Democrats to approve their separate bills – it did not signal a breakthrough in talks to re-open the government.

“This bill alone, however, will not address the serious consequences of the funding lapse, nor will a piecemeal approach to appropriations bills,” the White House said, calling on the House to approve a catch-all spending bill.

Republicans are continuing to insist that Democrats agree to some concessions on ObamaCare in exchange for such a budget bill.

The White House decision to back the measure for furloughed workers, though, does offer Republicans an opening to ask why the president would support that bill, but not bills to fund such vital agencies like the NIH.

There are 800,000 federal workers who have been furloughed without pay, which leaves approximately 65% intact not including postal workers, and it would take nothing short of an act of Congress to retroactively pay them for the missed days.

Many more federal employees are working this week without pay – but under the law, they will automatically get paid once a budget deal is reached.

The White House announced Friday that it

News, World

 

CAIRO –  Egyptian military vehicles fired live rounds at supporters of ousted Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi near Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Friday. Thousands of angry protestors marched in the cities across the country demanding the end of military-backed rule.

According to a witness who spoke to Reuters, one Muslim Brotherhood supporter was shot dead in the clashes between government forces and the pro-Morsi demonstrators. Police and military authorities fired tear gas and blocked off entrances to Tahrir Square and other main streets with tanks and barbed wire, diverting traffic from the central plaza.

Support for the Muslim Brotherhood seems to be dwindling still, as bystanders were throwing rocks at the Brotherhood protesters, and many demonstrators returned them as tension built in the streets.

“Down down with the murderer!” protesters chanted, in reference to Defense Minister and Army Chief Gen. Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, who forced Morsi out of power after millions took to the streets this past summer demanding he step down.

An Associated Press reporter says they saw protesters pushed away by other Egyptians armed with sticks and bottles, who then chased them in the streets before the two sides started lobbing rocks just steps from the Egyptian museum. The museum located at one of the main entrances of Tahrir Square.

The Muslim Brotherhood has been banned by court order, but members tried to reach the presidential palace before they were turned back by police.

“We will go protest and take all streets possible,” said Mohammed Said, 45, during a march from the Dokki neighborhood to Tahrir. “We will get in Tahrir at any price.”

Islamist supporters organized the march in defiance of military security crackdowns on demonstrations, and the ban on the organization. Egyptian authorities warned the Brotherhood that new demonstrations would not be tolerated, and met with whatever means it takes to quell.

One so-called rally ended at a Defense Ministry building and a second at Rabaa el-Adawiyah mosque in eastern Cairo. Egyptian military troops, backed-up with armored vehicles, increased security in the area of the mosque where protesters chanted slogans against the military.

But late afternoon, protesters had retreated from the area, according to Reuters.

Clashes have broken out in several other Egyptian cities, too, with Egyptian police firing tear gas and gunshots in the air. More fighting occurred on a road leading to the Giza Plateau – home to the world famous pyramids – in the suburb of Giza and in Alexandria and two cities in the Nile Delta.

A Health Ministry spokesman, Khaled el-Khateeb, said that eight people were injured, in total. In the southern province of Assiut, a security official said 44 protesters were arrested in different towns following pro-Morsi demonstrations.

Authorities declared a state of emergency in mid-August after a pro-Morsi protest camp was violently put down and then imposed a strict night curfew in Cairo, as well as several other areas to try to stop the fighting.

Morsi’s Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood chapter is escalating protests to coincide with the start of Egypt’s first strike during the 1973 war with Israel, which takes place on October 6.

The Brotherhood won every election after an uprising deposed autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011, but lost favor with the Egyptian people under Morsi’s rule. Morsi was accused of abusing and consolidating his power, reneging on reform promises that would have led to economic opportunity, and establishing the Brotherhood as an unappeasable, dominant political. These are allegations Morsi has vehemently denied.

Since Morsi was ousted last summer, nearly 2,000 Muslim Brotherhood members have been arrested and  its top leaders referred to courts with charges of inciting murder, and violence. Morsi, himself, has been detained without access to outside communication, for fear he might rally an even greater social unrest movement.

Earlier in the day, at least two Egyptian soldiers were killed in an attack by suspected militants on an army convoy east of Cairo.

Egyptian military vehicles fired live rounds at

Policy

Reports of various problems with the Obamacare exchanges continue to roll in. Nancy Jean Beigel, last seen in the Rose Garden being exploited with and by President Obama, is a prime example of someone who the president claimed would benefit from ObamaCare, but immediately encountered problems when she tried to enroll.

Beigel told the Washington Post she tried for two days to sign up before giving up for now. “It’s a little confusing,” she said. And Jean isn’t the only one.

Others, many who have gotten letters from their insurance carriers telling them exactly how much they will pay, are fretting over Obamacare for different reasons.

Tom Gialanella from Seattle, WA, who is self-employed, told reporters from Fox News “my premiums would increase approximately 61 percent. I went from $891 a month to $1437 dollars a month. And also my deductibles all doubled.”

The letter Gialanella received from his insurer said his current deductible for his family of five was going to double from $4,000 a year to $8,000.

And that’s for the Bronze Plan, which is the least expensive option in the ObamaCare exchanges. He says his additional payment of$550 a month will give him a plan that is no better than what he already has. Also, it also it carries a benefits that his family does not need, including maternity and newborn care.

“My wife is 58 years old and our youngest child is soon to be 18,” says Gialanella. “We’ll be having no more children. That is not a benefit that we would ever purchase nor need or be able to use.”

Gialanella is almost 60, himself, and makes too much money to get any subsidies. But those Gialanella’s age aren’t the only ones affected, because this is how collectivist policies are designed, when centralized planners consider how best to govern in the private affairs of citizens. Nobody is an individual, we all have to have so-called qualified plans, which are standardized by bureaucrats, whether you need it or not or can afford it or not.

Young people, especially but not limited to young men, can face huge premium increases.

Chris Holt of the conservative American Action Forum says, “we said let’s look at what the lowest cost Bronze Plan is and compare that to the lowest cost plan that I can buy today. And what we found is that it will go up about 260 percent for a 30-year-old male.”

Recent reports have made prior studies conducted to predict costs under Obamcare credible, particularly from the Manhattan Institute, which showed that the Midwest indicated increases of more than 100 percent..

Holt won’t see an increase quite that much, but the problem is that young people will be forced to buy more benefits than they might be willing to pay for, as a recent survey by Gallup found.

“For young adults, Holt said of one recent survey, “if they saw 30 percent increase in their insurance premiums – these are the ones that already had coverage – 45 percent of them said they would drop coverage.”

Only two states in the country – New Jersey and Massachusetts – have rate increases for that age group that are lower than 30 percent.

The subsidies in ObamaCare are not exactly very generous at lower income levels, either.

For any young person making more than $20,000 a year, insurance premiums – which does not even count deductibles totaling in the several thousand dollars – would cost more than paying the penalty for not getting insurance.

That raises the prospect of young people deciding the plan makes no sense for them.

That possibility could be critical, because the administration is counting on signing up enough young, healthy people to offset the cost for the older and less healthy.

If that doesn’t happen, as is typically the case in collectivist health care, the costs of ObamaCare could soar.

Obamacare “only works … if young people show up,” admitted former President Bill Clinton in a recent MSNBC interview.

It’s why Obamacare supporters and government agencies are trying everything from sports advertising to video contests to get young people in the game.

But will those millions of Millennials show up and sign up for health insurance under the Obamcare? And considering recent statements made by Democratic leaders regarding an intentional step to single-payer, totally socialized medicine, is that really the government’s desire? Or would they rather just collapse the exchanges, the private insurance market – as they did with housing – so that the government can rush to our aid in a crisis with a single-payer option?

Of course, it wouldn’t exactly be an option, because in crisis government takeovers are always sold as the only option.

A recent Reuters poll found Obamacare may not attract enough young people to keep costs low for others. And according to Fox’s small sampling, the answer would be no.

“An entire generation is being turned into a part-time workforce” because of Obamacare, said 22-year-old Patrick Richardson, a senior at the University of Toledo in Ohio who considers himself fortunate to have health insurance through his employer.

Perhaps young people are discovering they have another option after all?

Reports of various problems with the Obamacare

News, Politics

(Credit – REUTERS)

A partial government shutdown has entered its third day Thursday with no end to the deadlock in sight. Or is there?

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is proposing to House Republican and Democratic leaders a compromise to end the government shutdown by repealing a medical device tax and maintaining across-the-board spending cuts.

Representatives Charlie Dent, a Pennsylvania Republican, and Ron Kind, a Wisconsin Democrat, are leading a group of 20 lawmakers who sent House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi a letter today offering the compromise.

“It is time that we break this impasse,” the lawmakers said in the letter.

While the medical device proposal has drawn support from Democrats in both chambers, Charles Schumer, the Senate’s No. 3 Democrat, as well as Majority Leader Reid, have said their party won’t accept a bill to fund the government that contains a single measure related to PresidentBarack Obama’s health-care law. “If we were to give in while the government is shut down to a demand, what do you think happens on the debt ceiling?” Schumer said. “If they open the government first, we talk about it.”

The mainstream media has been depicting the Tea Party Republicans as uncompromising, but repealing the 2.3 percent tax on medical equipment mandated under Obamacare actually won the support of 34 Senate Democrats and every Republican in March as part of a budget blueprint. So who is uncompromising?

The bipartisan offer comes as more than a dozen House Republicans who want to drop attempts to undermine the health-care law and reopen the government are meeting among themselves and with Boehner.

U.S. congressional leaders did meet for about an hour late Wednesday with President Obama, who called them for the distinct purpose of appearing to be engaged and reasonable. But they emerged from the closed-door session at the White House with no progress on the budget impasse being made, which triggered the shutdown.

House Speaker John Boehner said Obama told him he will not negotiate a deal to reopen the government. Boehner said he told the president he wants a discussion of what he referred to as the “fairness” of Obama’s signature health care program – Obamacare – or the Affordable Care Act.

Republicans have wanted to tie funding the government to a delay in the individual mandate for all Americans, just as the White House unilaterally did for big business. A new Fox poll today showed that Americans have widespread support for that proposal, and have blamed both Boehner and Obama equally.

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid R-NV, arrogantly said Democrats are happy to talk to the Republicans about anything they want, but only if a spending bill is passed and the government shutdown ends.

The White House called Wednesday’s meeting useful and said the president is glad it took place. However, before the talks, Obama told CNBC that he has “bent over backwards” to work with the Republicans, which People’s Pundit Daily has provided substantial evidence enough to deem that comment ludicrous. He said he is exasperated, calling the government shutdown totally unnecessary.

The U.S. government shut down at midnight Monday after Democrats refused to negotiate with Republicans, let alone pass spending bills that would defund or postpone the health care overhaul.

Obama said no president can govern effectively if he allows extremists from either party to extort concessions, but apparently the president can only unilaterally alter laws, which unlike the executive, is actually a power granted to the legislature by the Constitution. He called on Speaker Boehner to bring a “clean” spending bill, one that funded the government without any conditions related to the health care reform law, to the House floor for a vote.

The shutdown has furloughed more than 800,000 federal workers and closed national parks and many federal agencies. The shutdown is not affecting Voice of America broadcasts, but it has closed the Smithsonian museums and services like tax offices, help for veterans, and some food aid for the poor.

The government shutdown is also forcing Obama to cancel stops in Malaysia and the Philippines during his trip to Asia, which starts Saturday. VOA White House correspondent Dan Robinson reports that Obama still plans to visit Indonesia and Brunei for the APEC and East Asia summits.

Implementation of the Affordable Care Act, nicknamed “Obamacare,” went ahead as scheduled Tuesday. It is intended to provide health insurance coverage to millions of Americans who otherwise cannot afford or get coverage.

Republican opponents of Obamacare say it forces people, including small businesses, to buy expensive insurance policies against their will, hurting the economy.

A bipartisan group of about 40 House lawmakers is holding private talks to find a compromise to end the shutdown, said Representative Reid Ribble, a Wisconsin Republican.

The number of Republicans, including Representatives Dent and Peter King of New York, pressing Boehner to call a vote on a Senate-passed spending bill free of Obamacare-related measures had grown to 20 by today, enough to pass a clean bill if all Democrats joined in. Five of them met with Boehner before he and other congressional leaders met with Obama at the White House.

“There’s a group of us – Charlie Dent, myself and other pragmatists – that are just spit-balling some ideas” to “help leadership bring an end to this,” said New York Representative Michael Grimm, who attended the meeting.

Representative Michael Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican who’s also part of the group, said Boehner “very clearly wants a long-term resolution that puts the country on a more solid economic and financial footing.”

Michael Steel, the speaker’s spokesman, didn’t comment on specific meetings with members, saying his boss “constantly listens to members from every part of our conference.”

Representative Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican and chairman of the Budget Committee, said House leaders see talks “converging” over a spending deal and the debt ceiling. “From the get-go, we’ve wanted to get a budget agreement to grow this economy and get this debt under control,” he said.

Ryan isn’t the only Republican who has tipped his hand that the Republicans are looking at the possibility of rolling the shutdown and debt ceiling into one.

Michigan Representative Dave Camp, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, also said “we’re at a point where we need a broader solution here.” Rep. Camp said Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew called him the night of Oct. 1 to remind him that the U.S. has used “all of the extraordinary measures” to extend the nation’s borrowing power, slated to be exhausted on Oct. 17. And those involved with the meeting expressed Boehner’s conscientious plan to address both issues at once.

Whether President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic Party will be open to such a solution, is far from certain.

A partial government shutdown has entered its

Polls

People hold signs protesting against State Sen. Wendy Davis as her supporters line up in the background outside the venue hosting a rally Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013, in Haltom City, Texas.AP

Democratic state Sen. and staunch opponent of late-term abortion bans, Wendy Davis, declared her candidacy for governor of Texas on Thursday, promising to focus on the needs of average Texans.

In an email to supporters, Wendy Davis said she would focus on education, economic development and health care. Davis has said that the experience of going from being a single teen mother to a successful Harvard-trained attorney informs her political views and her commitment to Texas’ middle-class residents.

That’s a bit ironic, considering the Fort Worth lawmaker rose to national prominence in June for her nearly 13-hour filibuster against popular new abortion restrictions in Texas.

Davis’ opponents plan to use her support for restriction-free abortion to rally conservative Christian voters next fall. About 40 anti-abortion demonstrators marched outside the venue where Davis was speaking Thursday, and Texas Right to Life plans to begin airing an ad over the weekend that calls her an “abortion zealot.”

If her defense of abortion rights angered the right, it caused the Democratic Party establishment to urged her to run for governor in 2014, which they hope will reinvigorate a party that hasn’t won statewide office since 1994. Her speech in the Legislature also added to her donor list, both in Texas, but mostly from proponents of restriction-free abortion and across the country.

“I thought the filibuster was inspiring and it seems like she really cares about people,” said Amanda Fisher, a 24-year-old from Dallas. Fisher said she was considering volunteering for a political campaign for the first time.

Davis must raise money quickly to compete with the front-runner for the GOP nomination, Attorney General Gregg Abbott. He has already raised $25 million to her more than $1 million and is polling far ahead of Davis.

Davis and the political action committees supporting her will need to spend about $40 million to make it a competitive campaign in Texas, because Democrats have not won more than 42 percent of the vote in the last three elections.

Democratic Party operatives hope that national Democratic support, as well as changing state demographics will give Davis a chance to end the party’s 20-year losing streak in Texas.

Davis’ personal story is at odds with the stand she took on late-term abortion bans. She has a marvelous story of coming from a trailer park to Texas Christian University, and landing at Harvard Law School. Even though this has captured the imagination of many of her supporters, it is a bit suspicious that someone who had a child young – and chose to keep it – would be so inclined to support terminating pregnancies when science has established that they are physically aware of the painful procedure.

As far as her professional life, Davis was a successful attorney when she decided to enter politics by challenging a veteran Republican state senator in Tarrant County in 2008. She barely won that race and a tough re-election bid in 2012, when most voters in her district cast ballots for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Observers say her ability to win Republican crossover votes will be critical if she expects to beat Abbott, who has the full strength of the GOP establishment behind him. But that was before she took a stand against a popular piece of legislation banning late-term abortions after 6 months of pregnancy.

Davis originally promised to announce her intentions by Labor Day, but her father became ill following complications from abdominal surgery and died Sept. 5.

Democratic state Sen. and staunch opponent of

Polls

While voters oppose defunding the health care law, they strongly favor a move to delay Obamacare, and a majority wants all or part of the law repealed. But voters also strongly oppose the shutdown, view it  negatively and think it is a serious problem.

Yet a majority believes their family won’t be significantly affected by it. That’s according to a Fox News national poll conducted after the shutdown began.

The new poll, released Thursday, finds that an overwhelming majority of Americans think the shutdown is a “serious problem,” including 58 percent who see it as “very serious,” while two-thirds think that government closing is “definitely a bad thing.” Comparatively, that is more than twice the number who say it “could be a good thing,” by 67-30 percent.

A 59-percent majority says their family won’t be “significantly affected” by the shutdown, while a still sizable 37-percent minority report that they will.

As far as how many voters blame “Republican leaders such as John Boehner,” for the shutdown, just 25 percent do and just about the same number point the finger at President Obama – 24 percent.  Notably, only 17 percent blame “Tea Party Republicans such as Ted Cruz,” and surprisingly, only 8 percent blame “Democratic leaders such as Harry Reid.” One-fifth – 20 percent – think all of them are responsible for the shutdown.

By a 48-39 percent margin, voters say they trust Republicans in Congress more than President Obama when it comes to cutting government spending enough to make a difference in the deficit, while at the same time not cutting so much that valuable programs are hurt.

Those who identify with the Tea Party movement are more likely to think the government shutdown is not a serious problem – with 53 percent – and most say it could be a good thing at 71 percent. A surprisingly small figure of Tea Partiers place blame  the shutdown solely on Obama at 49 percent.

President Obama’s overall job rating has improved 5 percentage points over last month’s Fox poll, with 45 percent approve now, which up from 40 percent in September. The increase comes from an improvement within his own party.  A total of 84 percent of Democrats approve of Obama’s performance now, up from the record-low of 69 percent last month during the so-called crisis with Syria.

The president’s approval for his handling of health care has also improved, with 45 percent of voters approving and 38 percent approved in September.

Also, almost twice as many voters overall have a favorable opinion of Barack Obama as Ted Cruz, who has a 60 percent favorability rating among Tea Partiers. Both congressional majority leaders, Boehner and Reid, are wildly unpopular with their own, with Boehner’s 35 percent among Republicans and Reid’s 34 percent among Democrats.

Health Care Law

A 54-percent majority of voters would like to see all or part of the health care law repealed, which is actually down a bit from 58 percent who said that way in June, and the high of 61 percent in January of 2011. The 54 percent supporting repeal of at least some of the law matches a low recorded twice before by the Fox poll in October of 2012 and October of 2010.

Most people are happy with their current health care coverage – 76 percent – which suggests that Republicans are not getting the message across to the American people that they won’t likely be able to keep it. But, still, by a 52-36 percent margin, they say the pre-Obamacare system would be better for their family than the new law.

Even though a 57-percent majority saying the law “should be delayed for a year until more details are ironed out,” voters oppose defunding the law by a 53-41 percent.

However, even 39 percent of Democrats favor the move to delay Obamacare, as well as 55 percent of independents and a whole 80 percent of Republicans.

Not surprisingly, considering the media coverage, voters are more likely to think Cruz’s 21-hour speech did more to hurt – 36 percent – rather than help – 19 percent – his cause. However, 4 voters in 10 aren’t familiar enough with the speech to offer an opinion. Among Tea Partiers, 50 percent think Cruz’s speech helped, while just 16 percent say it caused more damage.

Views split over lawmakers’ attempts to cut off funding for the health care law, with 46% percent seeing it as “an important effort.” But the same number of voters say they consider it “a waste of time and effort.” A whopping 74 percent of Tea Partiers and 59 percent of Republicans call it an important effort, while 61 percent of Democrats view it as a waste of time.

What is potentially detrimental to Republicans, or rather conservatives, is that 64 percent of voters believe Obamacare will survive these battles and remain the law of the land, which is up from 56 percent who felt that way in 2011.

On general views of government, almost all voters – 88 percent – say “the government is in charge of the people.”  That includes 83 percent of Democrats, 88 percent of independents and 94 percent of Republicans.

Only 8 percent feel “the people are in charge of the government.” That poses a few simple questions. Do Americans even understand their social contract anymore? And for those who say that and approve of the party in power, do they even know what true freedom looks and feels like anymore?

We shall see.

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 952 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from October 1-2, 2013.  The full poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

While voters oppose defunding the health care

Opinion

WASHINGTON — The Obamacare/shutdown battle has spawned myriad myths. The most egregious concern the substance of the fight, the identity of the perpetrators and the origins of the current eruption.

(1) Substance

President Obama indignantly insists that GOP attempts to abolish or amend Obamacare are unseemly because it is “settled” law, having passed both houses of Congress, obtained his signature and passed muster with the Supreme Court.

Yes, settledness makes for a strong argument — except from a president whose administration has unilaterally changed Obamacare five times after its passage, including, most brazenly, a year-long suspension of the employer mandate.

Article 1 of the Constitution grants the legislative power entirely to Congress. Under what constitutional principle has Obama unilaterally amended the law? Yet when the House of Representatives undertakes a constitutionally correct, i.e., legislative, procedure for suspending the other mandate — the individual mandate — this is portrayed as some extra-constitutional sabotage of the rule of law. Why is tying that amendment to a generalized spending bill an outrage, while unilateral amendment by the executive (with a Valerie Jarrett blog item for spin) is perfectly fine?

(2) Perpetrators

The mainstream media have been fairly unanimous in blaming the government shutdown on the GOP. Accordingly, House Republicans presented three bills to restore funding to national parks, veterans and the District of Columbia government. Democrats voted down all three. (For procedural reasons, the measures required a two-thirds majority.)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid won’t even consider these refunding measures. And the White House has promised a presidential veto.

The reason is obvious: to prolong the pain and thus add to the political advantage gained from a shutdown blamed on the GOP. They are confident the media will do a “GOP makes little Johnny weep at the closed gates of Yellowstone, film at 11” despite Republicans having just offered legislation to open them.

(3) Origins

The most ubiquitous conventional wisdom is that the ultimate cause of these troubles is out-of-control tea party anarchists.

But is this really where the causal chain ends? The tea party was created by Obama’s first-term overreach, most specifically Obamacare. This frantic fight against it today is the fruits of the way it was originally enacted.

From Social Security to civil rights to Medicaid to Medicare, never in the modern history of the country has major social legislation been enacted on a straight party-line vote. Never. In every case, there was significant reaching across the aisle, enhancing the law’s legitimacy and endurance. Yet Obamacare — which revolutionizes one-sixth of the economy, regulates every aspect of medical practice and intimately affects just about every citizen — passed without a single GOP vote.

The Democrats insist they welcomed contributing ideas from Republicans. Rubbish. Republicans proposed that insurance be purchasable across state lines. They got nothing. They sought serious tort reform. They got nothing. Why? Because, admitted Howard Dean, Democrats didn’t want to offend the trial lawyers.

Moreover, the administration was clearly warned. Republican Scott Brown ran in the most inhospitable of states, Massachusetts, on the explicit promise to cast the deciding vote blocking Obamacare. It was January 2010, the height of the debate. He won. Reid ignored this unmistakable message of popular opposition and conjured a parliamentary maneuver — reconciliation — to get around Brown.

Nothing illegal about that. Nothing illegal about ramming it through without a single opposition vote. Just totally contrary to the modern American tradition — and the constitutional decency — of undertaking major social revolutions only with bipartisan majorities. Having stuffed Obamacare down the throats of the GOP and the country, Democrats are now paying the price.

I don’t agree with current Republican tactics. I thought the defunding demand impossible and, therefore, foolish. I thought that if, nonetheless, they insisted on making a stand, it should not be on shutting down the government, which voters oppose 5-to-1, but on the debt ceiling, which Americans favor 2-to-1 as a vehicle for restraining government.

Tactics are one thing, but substance is another. It’s the Democrats who have mocked the very notion of settled law. It’s the Democrats who voted down the reopening of substantial parts of the government. It’s the Democrats who gave life to a spontaneous, authentic, small-government opposition — aka the tea party — with their unilateral imposition of a transformational agenda during the brief interval when they held a monopoly of power.

That interval is over. The current unrest is the residue of that hubris.

Charles Krauthammer’s email address is [email protected].

(c) 2013, The Washington Post Writers Group

Award-winning columnist and commentator Charles Krauthammer, writes

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