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Tag Archives: pelosi
Unhealthy from Pueblo Chieftain
NANCY PELOSI got her political victory Saturday night when the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill that would ultimately give the government total control of health care and 20 percent of the nation’s economy.
The bill passed by only five votes – 220-215, after 39 Democrats refused to be bullied into supporting this monstrosity. And a monstrosity it is.
It requires all Americans to enroll in a “qualified plan.” If you get your insurance at work, your employer will have a “grace period” to switch you to a “qualified plan,” one which is designed by the secretary of health and human services.
What’s more, it provides that 18 months after the bill becomes law, the secretary of health and human services will decide what a “qualified plan” covers and how much you’ll be legally required to pay for it. Would you sign a bank loan that allowed the banker to decide 18 months later the interest rate and repayment terms?
The bill makes it clear that, although the “qualified plan” is not yet designed, it will be of the “one size fits all” category. The bill claims to offer choice, but the benefits are the same. Only the co-pays and deductibles differ. The bill says that when you file your federal income tax returns, you will have to include proof that you are in a “qualified plan.” If not, you will be fined thousands of dollars.
In one effort to “pay” for the so-called public option, the bill eviscerates Medicare by an estimated $500 billion. This at a time when the Baby Boom generation is getting ready to retire and enroll in Medicare.
But not to worry. Because Washington bureaucrats will decide what kind of care retirees can get – meaning how much or how little of it.
Rationing will be right around the corner.
Three sections of the bill initiate programs to reduce payments for patient care to what it costs in the lowest cost regions of the country. Boy, we can see doctors flocking to treat all those new Medicare Baby Boomers.
Of course, the Pelosis of this world tell us with certitude how much the total cost of this government boondoggle will cost the taxpayers. Don’t believe a word of it.
Rather, let history be the guide. In 1965, when Congress was considering Medicare legislation, the House Ways and Means Committee estimated that the hospital insurance portion of the program, Part A, would cost about $9 billion annually by 1990. But the actual cost by 1990 was $67 billion a year.
That same committee predicted the entire cost of Medicare by 1990 would be about $12 billion. Actual medicare spending in 1990 was $110 billion – off by nearly a factor of 10.
Two sections of the Pelosi plan establish racial and ethnic preferences in awarding grants for training nurses. Gee, we thought the Obama presidency was supposed to be post-racial.
The Pelosi plan forces the states to spend more on Medicaid at a time when state budgets are taking body blows from the sour economy. So, state taxes will have to go up or other state functions will have to absorb even more losses so the Medicaid welfare program can grow.
The Senate now takes up its own health plans in earnest – the president gave those deliberations a rah-rah send-off on Sunday. All we can hope is that Majority Leader Harry Reid can’t muster the 60 votes he needs to pass a Senate version of the monstrosity that would be government-run health care.
When the vast majority of Americans find out what’s in store for them, the politicians who support this madness will find themselves looking for employment elsewhere.
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Posted in Political
Tagged baby boom, House of Representatives, medicaid, medicare baby boomers, pelosi, qualified plan, senate
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HealthCare HR3962 Passed the House 11-7-2009
In the dark of night on a Saturday they did it. Two hundred and twenty members of the House of Representatives voted to place the government in control of your health care. It’s the largest expansion of government in our lifetimes. The $1.2 TRILLION package features rationed care for seniors and veterans, nearly $700 billion in tax hikes on small businesses, a government-run insurance plan and a mandate to purchase government-forced insurance (backed by criminal sanctions).
Call & Email Your Congressman Now!
There are over 2,000 pages to wade through before we know exactly what else is in Speaker Pelosi‘s government-run health care bill. Unfortunately, the speaker broke her promise to make the final bill public 72 hours prior to a vote. What is certain is the bill that passed last night:
- Creates new entitlement programs based on the nearly bankrupt Medicare and Medicaid programs;
- Forces individuals to pay for government-regulated insurance or face criminal sanctions (effectively a $15,000 mandate based on Congressional Budget Office projections);
- Outlaws private health insurance plans, rendering false the claim that you can keep the insurance plan you have now;
- Pays for reform by taxing small businesses and cutting $500 billion from Medicare;
- Places a bureaucrat in between you and your doctor to make sure your care can be rationed.
Doctors will become scarcer as their civil rights are diminished, Americans will have less choice and lower quality care under a government-run insurance plan and millions of middle-class citizens will drown in unbearable taxes.
Click here to find out how your Representative voted.
Last night’s vote was a victory for Speaker Pelosi and the Administration. But the battle is far from over. Call your Congressman now.
If you Representative voted:
- Against the bill — thank them for putting patients first;
- For the bill – tell them they cast the wrong vote. Then email your friends and ask them to call theirCongressmen. Send them this link (http://www.rallycongress.com/patients-first) to make it easy.
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Posted in Congressional, Political
Tagged congressmen, entitlement programs, healthcare, house bill, House of Representatives, pelosi
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A Post from Michael Steele – Chairman, RNC
In his speech in France, Barack Obama called America “arrogant.”
I’m sure the French loved it – And so did the liberal press.
But who is this president who calls the American people arrogant?
This is the same politician whose supporters anointed him “The One” and a candidate who boasted that his election would be remembered as “the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”
This is the same man who indicated his disdain for small town and working Americans when he said they “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them,” while addressing a group of San Francisco caviar and champagne liberal elitists.
How arrogant is that? Arrogant enough?
In truth, President Obama seems to champion the twisted “Blame-America First” mentality of the worst of the American left.
More importantly, it shows an absence of wisdom to criticize the United States while on foreign soil, and then join with the Pelosi-Reid Democrats in Congress to do everything possible to end American exceptionalism and create a weak, dependent socialist state patterned after the examples of Europe.
* He has taken steps towards nationalizing American auto companies; firing executives while leaving in power the same Union Bosses who funded his campaign and helped cripple the U.S.’s manufacturing base.
* He has refused to let financial firms pay back taxpayer-funded bailout loans, so he can make them hostages to the whims of the Federal government.
* As a lawyer, Obama once sued the same financial institutions on behalf of radical groups like ACORN for failing to use leftist social engineering criteria for lending instead of an applicant’s ability to repay a loan.
* He has opened up talks with Iran. Apparently, he believes he can make peace with crackpot tyrants and heartless terrorists simply by sitting down and talking.
* He campaigned on “transparency” and “integrity” in government and then has nominated a rogue gallery of tax evaders, Washington bureaucrats, and lobbyists to run his Administration.
* And he has brazenly followed his chief of staff’s maxim of “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste … This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before” to cripple our free markets with massive taxation and spending that wrests away our freedoms and puts even our great-grandchildren in debt.
You know that Barack Obama’s hubris and charisma conceal the inexperience and lack of wisdom that our country cannot afford in its president.
And though the teleprompter and mainstream media liberals may delay America’s realization of the peril the Obama White House portends for our future for a while, the eventual failure of leftist policies and ineffective leadership will not.
We must be ready when that time comes.
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Red State – Black Caucus – US Tax Code – How Much is 1 Trillion – Independents GOP – Pelosi-Mobile
APRIL 8, 2009
1. Black Caucus Gives Castro Attention; Ammunition
Since When Does Congress Make Foreign Policy?
2. US tax code one of the most progressive …
The better you do, the more the government screws you.
3. How Much is 1,000,000,000,000
Speaker Pelosi’s budget projects deficits averaging almost one trillion dollars a year for five years.
4. Independents Trending Toward GOP
Liberals Say America Loves Obama; If So They Have a Funny Way of Showing It
5. The Pelosi-Mobile is Here
Obama Demands. GM Delivers… Dreck
————————
1. Black Caucus Gives Castro Attention; Ammunition
Since When Does Congress Make Foreign Policy?
The Congressional Black Caucus has again sent a delegation to meet with Raul Castro and talk about the need to end the U.S. embargo on that country. And at least according to Fidel Castro, they were just as eager to apologize for America’s sins as Barack Obama has been.
The White House has no problem with this visit, notwithstanding how it may interfere with the administrations’ effort to set policy. Perhaps this group is acting with Obama’s blessing then.
This visit calls to mind the debate during the presidential campaign over whether it made sense to engage in high-level talks with dictators. The United States should always remain open to communicating with dictatorships about how they can move toward freedom. But if there’s no willingness to reform, then the dictator only gains credibility from being engaged. And what’s more, he gains the opportunity to portray America’s views about him and his regime.
In this case, I have no idea whether the Congressional Democrats who visited Cuba really compared the Castro regime to the ANC. I don’t know if they really expressed admiration for Cuba’s tremendous scientific advances. I don’t know if they really said it was necessary for the United States to apologize to Cuba, or if they said that ‘the anti-Cuban right wing’ would defeat Obama in 2012 if he fully lifted the embargo. Looking at the delegation, it’s entirely possible. Or Castro may be making it all up in order to elevate himself in the eyes of an oppressed populace.
2. US tax code one of the most progressive …
The better you do, the more the government screws you.
Clive Crook reminds us that our tax code is one of the most progressive in the developed world. And the Democrats want to take even more from the wealthy:
“Mr Obama intends to squeeze the rich, but the scope for this may be more limited than US liberals would wish. Few Americans seem aware that the US income tax code, as a recent Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development study showed, is already one of the most progressive.* Even before the rise in top marginal rates promised by Mr Obama, the US income tax collects 45 per cent of its revenues from the highest-income deciles. Compare that with Britain at 39 per cent, Canada at 36 per cent, France at 28 per cent, Sweden at 27 per cent and an OECD average of 32 per cent.”
Just a helpful reminder. With facts.
3. How Much is 1,000,000,000,000
Speaker Pelosi’s budget projects deficits averaging almost one trillion dollars a year for five years.
On April 2nd, Speaker Nancy Pelosi succeeded in passing her federal budget that outlines more than 3.5 trillion dollars in spending for fiscal year 2010. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected a 1.8 trillion dollar deficit for the current fiscal year (FY2009), and that projection does not include the stimulus bill that will cost Americans more than one trillion dollars, which was signed into law by the President on February 1st. As of April 7, 2009, the U.S. national debt stands at more than eleven trillion dollars (you can view the latest numbers here).
The sheer magnitude of Speaker Pelosi’s spending spree is mind boggling. Most of us do not use the number 1,000,000,000,000 in our daily lives, so it is difficult to attach tangible value to the figure. However, as Congress and the Administration continues spending your tax dollars trillions of dollars at a time, it is worthwhile to have a discussion about what these numbers really mean.
One of the simplest ways to get an idea of one trillion dollars is to consider the amount in terms of the passage of time. One million seconds is equal to roughly eleven days and twelve hours, and one billion seconds is thirty-two years. One trillion seconds equals thirty-two thousand years.
If you spent one million dollars every minute of every day, it would take you nearly two years to spend one trillion dollars. Apparently, that’s not fast enough for Speaker Pelosi. Under her budget, the government plans to spend 6.7 million dollars every minute during the next fiscal year alone.
There are 4.24 million people living in Kentucky. Raising one trillion dollars from every man, woman and child in the Commonwealth would require Kentuckians to contribute $235,849.05 each. $235,849.05 is enough money to pay for four years of tuition at the University of Kentucky for yourself and thirteen of your children or grandchildren.
In fact, one trillion dollars could pay for the college education at a four-year public institution for every student graduating high school across America from now until 2018. It could pay the rent of every renter in the nation for three years, or the mortgage of every homeowner for fourteen months. It is even enough money to purchase all the homes that were foreclosed in 2007 and 2008 combined.
4. Independents Trending Toward GOP
Liberals Say America Loves Obama; If So They Have a Funny Way of Showing It
National Journal takes a look at some recent polls, and despite Democratic protestations to the contrary, they notice a clear trend:
Three recent polls show the GOP gaining ground on the generic ballot question, starting with an NPR survey conducted by Public Opinion Strategies (R) and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research (D) that put the two parties exactly square: 42 percent for each. Independents, however, preferred the GOP, 39-30. Democrats led slightly overall, but trailed even worse among independents, in a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll out last week that phrased the generic ballot question in terms of curtailing Democratic power.
The latest Diageo/Hotline data gives Dems a little more breathing room, with the generic Democrat leading 37-32. But the trend line was clear: In January, 46 percent favored the generic Democrat; at the beginning of March, 40 percent did so. Independent voters, who at the beginning of March favored Democrats by 3 points, now lean towards Republicans by the same margin.
If these polls are early indicators of an independent break toward the minority party, it will be doubly surprising given those voters’ continued support for President Obama. Independents were crucial to the party’s success in 2008, going 52-44 for Obama last November and 51-43 for Democratic candidates, according to exit polls.
It’s a long time between now and the midterm elections, but obviously there’s every reason to be optimistic. Democrats are taking comfort in the fact that Obama’s ratings are significantly higher than those of Congress. But voters know that Obama has only been here a few months; they are unlikely to blame him for policies whose effectiveness they question. That’s likely to come a few months down the road, once they recognize that Obama is as much to blame as Congress for the problems in Washington.
5. The Pelosi-Mobile is Here
Obama Demands. GM Delivers… Dreck
Barack Obama dismissed Rick Wagoner, and he is reportedly planning to dismiss a majority of GM’s Board of Directors. He also says he wants bold reform, so that General Motors offers the sort of cutting-edge products that the car buyers of today and tomorrow want. He also doesn’t like the Chevy Volt.
So what does Barack Obama expect us to drive? Today’s news gives us reason to worry. Maybe Obama doesn’t want Americans to own cars at all; maybe he expects us to buy this… thing.
You can read GM’s press release on this here. It’s a cute little toy actually, and I’m sure it’ll be very popular in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other warm(ish) cities where liberals cluster. This might make a very nice second or third vehicle in such locales, to be used for little jaunts around the city.
There are a few problems with the PUMA though. First off, to the extent that it is successful, it’s likely to draw a lot of riders away from mass transit. After all, if you can buy a two-seater for one-third to one-quarter the price of a car, get around town conveniently and be seen as a savior of the environment, why would you stay in a bus or train? If the PUMA can be bought for a few thousand dollars – and it’s probably a safe bet that Obama will give taxpayer subsidies to ensure that – it’s likely to replace mass transit for thousands of regular riders.
Beyond that, this vehicle can’t be successful in most American cities today. Who will want to drive in this car next to regular passenger vehicles, trucks, SUVs, and even 18-wheelers? To allow the PUMA to thrive, most of the cars you currently see on the road will probably have to be sidelined. Presumably this will be only in major cities – at least initially. Liberals in Washington and in the major cities can accomplish this in several ways: by barring them entirely, limiting the hours in which they can operate, or by making legislative changes that make those vehicles unpopular – such as increasing gas prices.
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