Michele McGinty: July 2009 Archives

It's pretty pathetic when the WH mouthpiece mocks the fawning coverage of the WH-hyped news event.

BTW, Gates' daughter appears to be following in her father's footsteps.

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How incredibly tacky! It really makes the White House look like it's run by a bunch of newbies who know nothing about etiquette.

Four of the most powerful business leaders in America arrived at the White House one day last month for lunch with President Barack Obama, sitting down in his private dining room just steps from the Oval Office.

But even for powerful CEOs, there's no such thing as a free lunch: White House staffers collected credit card numbers for each executive and carefully billed them for the cost of the meal with the president.

The White House defended the unusual move as a way to avoid conflicts of interest. But the Bush administration didn't charge presidential guests for meals, one former official said, and at least one etiquette expert found the whole thing unseemly - suggesting it was a serious breach of protocol.

Don't think the public option will lead to single payer? Well, Barney Frank does and he's counting on it:

It's obvious what they're trying to do, they know it's not popular so they are calling it something else.

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And it's going to be suspended. It was too popular. $1 billion in six days! You give away $3,500-4,500 for a car, who wouldn't jump on that deal?

The government's $1 billion "cash for clunkers" program, designed to boost stagnant auto sales, is almost out of money, putting its future in question, government officials said Thursday.

The program started only six days ago, giving vouchers to consumers who trade in their gas-guzzling cars for more fuel-efficient models. But the unexpectedly brisk response made federal transportation officials increasingly fearful Thursday that they would exhaust their allocated funds, according to sources familiar with those discussions.

[...]

Lusk said his group has fielded hundreds of calls from frustrated dealers who were experiencing computer crashes as they tried to input data into the government's Web site to complete deals.

It's as if they think we haven't a clue what's been going on over the last month with Obama hectoring us about the need for healthcare "reform" before the August recess:

Reid said reporters created a fictitious deadline of a successful vote by the August recess, and downplayed the fact that the chamber won't meet that mark.

"That is a deadline that you created," Reid told a group of about 75 reporters. "It's not like we don't have a product. Significant progress has been made ... The mere fact that this wasn't done by last Friday or by five o'clock doesn't mean we're not going to get a quality product."