“HARD PIVOT:” Obama puts off healthcare to February, decides to work on jobs. I’m sure those folks in the Senate who stuck their necks out for him will appreciate that . . . .

Plus this: “The other term for ‘hard pivot’ is ‘dithering.’ The more Obama dithers, the less likely ObamaCare becomes.” Works for me.

TALKING ABOUT THE POLITICS OF HEALTH CARE over at The Hill.

MATT WELCH: Can Obama Open His Mouth Without Lying About Health Care? Plus, from the comments, “He doesn’t expect the Post to check. They didn’t. And if any of them had tried, they’d have been fired.”

UPDATE: Jim Lindgren: If You Like Your Health Plan, You Will NOT Be Able to Keep It. “I like my employer’s health plan. Today I learned that under both the Senate and the House bills, I won’t be able to keep my plan. Both bills require reductions in health reimbursement benefits under my plan. . . . Those who argued that President Obama could not possibly keep that promise were accused of spreading lies and disinformation, of using ‘scare tactics.’ Now we learn that Obama’s critics were right.”

CATS AND DOGS LIVING TOGETHER? “Today, Hamsher and Grover Norquist, who runs the conservative Americans for Tax Reform, have issued a joint letter demanding the resignation of Rahm Emanuel, and an investigation into Emanuel’s activities at Freddie Mac before the statute of limitations runs out.” Coming next — real Wrath Of God stuff?

PROOF THAT ANYTHING CAN BE DEEP-FRIED.

THIS IS WHO THEY ARE, THIS IS WHAT THEY DO: Time Reporter: Dem House Leadership Dealing Dirt on Griffith.

UPDATE: Nancy Pelosi to new Republican Parker Griffith: You’re fired!

MAKING PLANS for the State Of The Union?

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Where Did These Guys Come From? The Origins Of Obamism.

BUSTED: Ben Nelson Caught In The Act.

HMM: Omega 3 fatty acids from fish make mice less likely to overreact to loud noises. The idea here is maybe the same happens with humans.

MARKDOWNS ON mobile electronics. Still a few hours for one-day shipping.

CONSTITUTIONAL SUITS against ObamaCare?

A VERY TESLA CHRISTMAS.

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: IRS Has 70% Error Rate in Issuance of Taxpayer ID Numbers, Resulting in Fraudulent Tax Refunds.

UPDATE: One of my IRS moles thinks there’s less to this than meets the eye:

Not only that, we can’t verify claimed wages and withholding at the time a tax return is processed if the W2’s aren’t provided with the return. This isn’t a secret. We don’t start getting that stuff from the social security administration until june or so after filing season. We do fact check returns as information becomes available to us and some discrepancies do get flagged at processing. We’ve recently begun having folk come in with notices for the 2007 tax year. We’re a small agency and there’s a lot of return-filers. I do sometimes get the idea that as an independent agency, TIGTA is quite comfortable with an adversarial role. Not that there’s anything wrong with that (he said while squinting at the mirror over his monitor…).

If we could verify at time of filing there’d be howls of self-righteous protest from sea to shining sea.

I’d drop the income tax entirely, of course, and solve all these problems.

NICK GILLESPIE: Now Are The Times That Try Men’s Souls.

UPDATE: Here’s Scott Stein’s original post. I couldn’t get it to open before.

PALIN: I Told You So. “It didn’t take long for Jim DeMint’s outrage over highly unusual language protecting a care-rationing board to generate a response from Sarah Palin . . . When government rations commodities, it does so with the force of law. Considering the power it would have had in a completely government-run system to make the kind of decisions now left to insurers in a competitive market, people are correct to be worried about how exactly IMAB would bend the cost curve.”

It’s not a scary “Death Panel” that determines who’s denied medical treatment and dies. It’s a friendly “Life Panel” that determines who gets treatment and lives! Mostly friends of the regime, I’d guess, based on recent history.

CLIMATEGATE: How To Follow The Money.

JOHN FUND: The latest example of violating principles of transparency and accountability in the single-minded pursuit of legislative victory. “Look for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to try to circumvent the traditional conference committee process by which the different versions of health care reform passed by each house will be reconciled. If so, it will be the latest example of violating principles of transparency and accountability in the single-minded pursuit of legislative victory.”

END OF AN ERA: Last GM Big-Block Engine Rolls Off The Line.

IN THE MAIL: From Joshua Ferris, The Unnamed.

CBS REPORTS ON vote-buying in the Obamacare bill. “When CBS Evening News reports on Democratic corruption, we know that the story has gotten legs.”

AMERICAN THINKER: Why The Angry Mob Is Angry. “We’re justly and increasingly angry because our reps not only refuse to hear us, but they also chastise us for wanting to be heard.”

CORRECTING Jon Krakauer’s Math.

CBO BUDGET ESTIMATES: The new mortgage ratings.

HANDLING OUR MONEY WITH THEIR USUAL CARE: Treasury Inspector General: IRS Cannot Verify Taxpayer Eligibility for 2/3 of $325 Billion of Stimulus Tax Benefits. Hey, it’s only 2/3.