Time to Get to Work and Fix Health Care

One of the advantages of health care being run by private insurance companies is that government can regulate it. That is a much better option than the government itself running health care because who would regulate the government? You can always sue the insurance company. If the government screws up, you’re stuck. There are no options when the government is the ultimate decision maker.

President Obama may be coming to his senses and may or may not be considering the so called public option. Reality is meeting his ideology, and they don’t mix. Maybe now there can be some serious based effort to fix our health care system based on what is needed rather than what ideological beliefs dictate. Here is what they have to do:

1) Define the people who are uninsured so you can get a truthful idea of what reforms are actually needed, how many people are involved, and the cost of fixing the problems. He will discover that this is not a one size fits all problem.

2) Allow insurance companies to sell nationally based products as opposed to state based products to equalize the pool and the costs.

3) As a condition of being allowed to sell health insurance, the insurance companies shall contribute to a cooperative non-profit venture whose sole purpose will be to insure folks who can’t buy regular policies at affordable rates because of pre-existing conditions.

4) Require all citizens to purchase health insurance. No insurance, no driver’s license. The government can set standards for a basic, high deductible policy with health savings accounts and require the insurance companies to offer such a policy to those under the age of 30.

5) Allow the formation of insurance cooperatives with basic care standards for those who feel straight insurance policies are too expensive.

6) Make sure that all citizens who currently meet the qualifications for existing government programs get signed up.

7) For those who fall through the cracks, expand the existing Medicare program (perhaps to those over 55 who lose their jobs either through layoffs or plant closings) and Medicaid for those who simply can’t afford it. This should be paid for by increased Medicare contributions from those working…such is the price of keeping out of a single payer, government system.

We, as Americans, have indicated these past few weeks that we believe our health care system is the best in the world. We want to keep our choices and the government out of our medical decisions. By the same token, we must realize that nothing is free. We may have to bite the bullet of increased Medicare/Medicaid taxes in order to achieve the above. I think it is worth the price…to stay away from single payer, rationed care.

I Read the Health Care Bill

Midst the shouting and the accusations over the proposed change in health care, one thing has been conspicuously absent: what does the House bill do? The bulk of the problem lies in the undisputed fact that the Democrats have attempted to rush a bill the Congress that no one has read. Not only haven’t they read the bill, those out selling the thing are clueless as to what is in it. That includes Barack Obama who hocking ideology rather than hard details.

Of course, there are those who contend that Obama and his cronies know exactly what is in the bill, and they also know if the public knew what they know, it would be dead in the water. Better to keep the folks back home focused on the evil insurance companies.

So, I decided to read the bill to see for myself who is telling the truth. It is long, but it is not insurmountable. Minimally, you can read through the Section titles and first paragraphs and clearly understand what this thing does. You can also reference directly, through a little homework online, the various sections of the bill that are under fire.

I can tell you that this bill is as Draconian a piece of legislation as I ever seen. It does exactly what the critics say it does. It is voluminous. The process is detailed to the point of incoherence. I think it is patently unconstitutional, and the many of the key provisions would be overthrown if challenged in court. Obama said today that this is not the Canadian plan. Well, it is minimally a cousin. The Canadian Supreme Court came close to throwing out the entire Canadian system in 2005, saying the right to health care does not mean the right to stand in line. Here is what I found out relating to the most offensive parts of the bill.

1) I have written for the past two weeks that if you have private insurance, you can keep it. BUT, if it changes in any way, or you are fired, or your company cancels insurance for all employees, private insurance companies will not be able to sell you a plan directly. You will have to go to the government insurance clearinghouse, and buy plans that have been crafted by the government and approved by the government…it is one size fits all. It may be through a private company, but it would be like Ford, GM, and Toyota all selling the identical car. THIS IS THE AMERICAN EQUIVILENT TO WHAT THE CANADIAN SUPREME COURT THROUGH OUT, RULING THAT GOVERNMENT CANNOT LIMIT PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS FROM ACCESSING INSURANCE OFFERED BY PRIVATE COMPANIES.

2) The government has to be granted access to your bank accounts.

3) The government will establish an extensive and intrusive end of life “counseling” plan that even I can't even figure out. You and your family will spend the last days dealing with a government bureaucracy.

4) Comparative effectiveness, that theory which will limit your access to the best drugs available, is specifically written into the bill. It has a whole section dedicated to it. It will “effectively” remove any incentive to drug companies to develop new drugs. If they can’t sell them, what’s the point?

This is a scary bill. You should be afraid. You should be outraged. EVERYONE SHOULD TAKE THE TIME TO READ THROUGH THE BILL.

A Dangerous, Imperial Presidency

When President Obama was elected President, I was skeptical. He seemed like a nice guy. Although his history was one of interesting associations out of the mainstream re: Bill Ayers and Rev. Wright to name just a fes, maybe it was just politics. His initial appointees, the ones who had to be approved by Congress, seemed to be centrist. I thought maybe he would surprise folks. I was wrong.

After six months in office, I have concluded that Barack Obama is a leftist radical, hell bent on shaping America to fit his view of “social justice”. He is a socialist. Slowly, but surely, his true beliefs are emerging. Previous statements now coming to light highlight his lies and contempt for the American electorate. His appointees (“czars” appointed outside of the Congressional confirmation process) are extremists. We should be outraged and concerned at the fraud he has perpetrated on the American public wrapped in his smiling veneer. No other President, including Richard Nixon, has done more to move almost dictatorial power to the White House. His is THE imperial presidency. His sole goal is to right his perception of 400 years of oppression, the Constitution be damned. There is a reason he is a Constitutional expert…that is how he learned to get around it, manipulate, and ignore it.

Item 1: His ties to Acorn are strong and alive. He is attempting to move the census out of the oversight of the Department of the Interior into the White House. He is hiring Acorn to do the counting. He believes in census computer models. If he doesn’t like what the actual count shows, he will not hesitate to attempt to use the computer model instead. He can manipulate computer models to fit his vision of reality. That is dangerous. That is how the Communists work.

Item 2: Eric Holder, Obama’s Attorney General, is a committed black leftist. How committed? He recently dismissed Federal charges against the new Black Panther Party for voter intimidation at Philadelphia polling places in the last election. For God’s sake, they have the intimidation on tape. The Black Panthers failed to answer a Federal suit against them thereby admitting the charges. If you aren’t familiar with the new Black Panther movement, you ought to be. These are weapon wielding thugs, and you should be afraid of them. Barack Obama should go after them. He won’t. He approves.

Item 3: Obama’s “Green Jobs” Czar is an admitted communist and felon. Van Jones is also a committed black activist who has stated numerous times he is a communist and black nationalist. He is about as radical as one can get. He has done jail time. His views are beyond “out of the mainstream” bordering on treasonous. And this is who Obama appointed? This guy should be in jail. We should be running from people like this. And yet Obama has chosen to make him an unconfirmed White House “czar”.

Item 4: Obama is outright lying to the public about his health care reform to solve the health care “crisis”. What crisis? He stated overtly, numerous times, and on tape in 2003, that it is his clear goal to establish a single payer, government run, health care system, and to eliminate private health insurance companies. You can watch him say it on my web page this week. Barney Frank has said that the current bill will pave the path to a single payer system. Former Senator Tom Daschle, one of the chief architects of Obama’s health care has written numerous times seniors need to learn to live with their infirmities and accept the reality of the “end of life.” Is this what you want to hear when you are over 75?

Item 5: As his lies become more evident, he has demonized health care professionals, accusing doctors of ROUTINELY over treating people, and prescribing unnecessary medications or more expensive medications. This has come out since the violent reaction by the public against his health care policies. What is his reaction to these health care plan protests? On the White House website, he has asked people to inform him of those that disagree.

Item 6: His attack on the Cambridge police department in an unscripted comment shows a chip on his shoulder. That chip is the dominant factor in all of his decisions. He can drink all the beer he wants. Those comments were wrong. They were uncalled for, and were made in defense of his Harvard professor buddy. The pattern continues.

Item 7: While loudly proclaiming he is not anti-business, he is slowly but surely nationalizing every aspect of our society. He is inserting government into every aspect of your life. He is big brother personified. If you doubt what he wants to do, read the now removed disclaimer from Cars.gov relating to your computer and what is on it. This is scary stuff.

Item 8: His cap and trade bill will control every aspect of your life, more than you can possibly imagine. Couple that with his health “reform”, he will control every single thing you do, from how far you can drive to how much light is allowed in your house to how much natural gas you will be allowed to treat yourself to computers monitoring you home’s energy useage to how much food you will be allowed to eat.

Item 9: He strong armed his buddies in the press into carrying yet another news conference last week…the health care one… in which he said absolutely nothing new. By the way, while the health care debate rages everywhere else, the lead stories on the mainstream media aren’t about health care, they are about Michael Jackson. Folks…that is how it is done in Russia! The state controlled media simply doesn’t report the news of consequence. Why churn the pot and cause fear?

This is not a new story. History shows time and again this is how socialists move into power. Banks are evil. Corporations are evil. Rich people are evil. They are the tools of racism and oppression, and must be eliminated or destroyed. He can say what he wants, reading platitudes of democracy from his teleprompter; but look at what he does, not what he says. You won’t like what you see. Wait a minute. Take the time to go back beyond 2008, and you can read what he says. His views are perfectly clear.

End of the Magnificent Obsession

While the American obsession with Barack Obama may not be over, it may finally be descending from the stratosphere. How can I tell? Just watch the mainstream press. The man who was raised to Messiah status over the past 12 months, the man who could do no wrong, the one who was going to save us all…has been dropped like a hot potato. Or maybe the press is following my number one rule of life: when you are in trouble…lay low!!

Last week, Obama had a fiasco news conference about his government health care takeover, offering little new in the face of a Congressional Budget Office report which has blown the plan out of the water. He even declined to be covered by the same policy he hopes to foist on you. He finished with a flourish calling the Cambridge Police Department stupid vis-à-vis his friend, Harvard professor Dr. Henry Gates who decided to right 400 years of racial oppression on his front porch while surrounded by police sent there to protect his property.

So with racism abounding, and his legislative agenda limping around in circles, and his poll numbers plummeting, the mainstream press decided to lead off the news with a flurry of Michael Jackson stories and a bride and groom doing a dance down the aisle to get married (actually, it was pretty good!!) I guess the rule is “out of sight, out of mind.”

Barack Obama is learning a political lesson. If you are going to tax and spend, sooner or later you are going to run out of people to tax. In the case of health care, it is the suburban, middle to upper class independents in the northeastern part of the country that are experiencing buyer’s remorse now that he is going after them. It’s really not a good idea to raise the specter of government health care when 85% of Americans rate their health insurance as good to excellent, and the health care crisis is at bottom of the list of country concerns; especially after spending the country into oblivion his first 12 weeks in office.

More importantly, I think the country is beginning to see him for what he is. He is a radical tax and spend liberal/socialist with a chip on his shoulder. He gives a good speech with the tele-prompter. Take it away, and his true beliefs come out. Consider the following;

1) He was elected to be a post partisan president, who could bring people together. He has been the most partisan president I can remember in my lifetime. Even “W” could find common ground with Ted Kennedy. Obama’s entire legislative agenda has been so radical, it could not garner more than a few Republicans votes, and now the Blue Dog Democrats have come to their senses and are running towards the door. You won’t get re-elected in West Virginia supporting a San Francisco agenda. The Democratic tent just isn’t that big.

2) He was supposed to be a post racial president. But his off the teleprompter comment about the police and Dr. Gates show his true beliefs. You can judge a man by the company he keeps. President Obama had a penchant for racists and radicals, Dr. Wright, Dr. Gates…and Bill Ayers. He is certainly the president of black America, and to a degree Hispanic America, but when will be President of the people in the America who are pulling the freight?

3) He has failed to lead. Who is running the country? Obama is busy partying in France, in Hawaii, in Martha’s Vineyard while Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod are calling the shots. Obama is the black guy in the White House being told what to do by the radical left. His purpose is clear, cheerlead and sign what is put in front of him.

4) His foreign policy is a fiasco. The President of the World has lost the respect of the Europeans who have shifted to the right. The Russians ignore him. The Chinese lecture him. The Iranians, the Venezuelans, and the North Koreans laugh at him. God knows what the Arabs think. He bowed down to the King of Saudi Arabia. And the same press, who criticized Bush for military action in Iraq and the surge, is barely covering the rapid build of troops in Afghanistan, the graveyard of empires. Where are the peaceniks now?

This guy had better shift to the center and shift fast, or his presidency will implode and then we will have a problem. Of course, ideologues don’t care. Notwithstanding, the old Silent Majority is still there. It will destroy him.

A Reruen to Normalcy - The Left's Waterloo

Isn’t it interesting that midst the economic malaise in which the country finds itself, the stock market is going up? That is not necessarily unusual. Unemployment is a lagging indicator, which means that it is backward looking reflecting what has already happened. The stock market is a leading indicator reflecting what is anticipated to happen. If the market anticipates things are going to get better, the market will go up.

Part of an anticipated upturn involves decreased inventories. When things get bad, stores and manufacturers don’t buy new inventory choosing instead use whatever is on hand. When that is depleted, the inventory rebuild primes the pump, so to speak, and one there is an upturn in economic activity. The economy, in effect, reseeds itself. But something more fundamental has happened giving the market a boost way beyond the current economic fundamentals, which quite frankly, suck.

Markets hate uncertainty. In order for business and markets to thrive, the players have to know the rules. This past fall, we experienced a severe credit freeze which had the possibility of collapsing the entire world economy. It was scary. I don’t think any words can describe the seriousness of what happened. President Bush, followed by President Obama, reacted. They threw everything at the problem but the kitchen sink, and something worked. Credit markets are beginning to function again.

Unfortunately, the crisis hit in the middle of the presidential election. Center-right America shifted to the left, and elected a Democratic House and Senate, and a very personable, confident, and extremely radical left wing president. President Obama, not one to waste a crisis, moved to implement a suppressed far left agenda while wrapped in conservative lingo. In his short time in office, he nationalized the largest automobile producer in the United States. He took over the largest insurance company. He took over the largest bank. He formed a shadow government outside of the checks and balances of Congress by the appointment of so-called “czars” to handle everything from foreign policy to food additives. He increased the White legal staff by 25% in his rush to move power from Congress to the Executive branch of government. He threw out the rules of bankruptcy, and began to replace executives and boards of directors of American corporations. He quadrupled the national deficit, and his debt projections have reached a point where our GDP cannot begin to repay the amount of money owed in any meaningful way.

Then he made the biggest attempted power grab in United States history by attempting to take over the health and energy sectors of the economy. This would give the government unprecedented intrusive power over the daily lives of Americans. Under the guise of wellness programs, it would dictate what you can eat and how much exercise you have to do. Under the guise of global warming, it would set the temperature in your house. It would monitor where you go, and how much you drive. And in the name of efficient health care, it would do cost-benefit analysis to determine just how much medicine and what treatments you are entitled to. The net result would be a decrease in care overall, but especially in the area of elder care, where when you reach the age of 75, you may be deemed to old for that hip replacement….and that new cancer drug that has just been developed…you can’t have it because you are over 80. These are Orwellian changes in our way of life, and our expectations.

Reality has finally caught up to Mr. Obama. Even a fawning press couldn’t hide the truth behind what Obama was trying to accomplish. A very brave soul in the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office blew the whistle on the proposed health care “reform”, and spelled out the costs and how it works. The "ram it through" approach with no details and no explanation has been stopped, and maybe now we will get a legitimate debate as to how to handle the problems for a true and legitimate health care reform bill as opposed to a takeover and control bill.

In energy, Cap and Trade passed the House by one vote with eight Republicans voting for it. Not great in an overrwhelmingly Democrat Congress. The opposition continues to line up as it becomes clear that Cap and Trade means Americans pay while China, Brazil, Mexico, and India continue to spew carbon emissions. It will not pass the Senate, as constituents ask what company in its right mind would locate a factory here with this stuff on the books.

What does that have to do with a rising stock market? Business senses that the radical left has been stopped in its tracks by reality and an election in 2010. While the spending got through, business is sensing that the two main bills that would have decimated the American economy for the next 50 years are, if not dead in the water, sinking fast. Senator DeMint may have been almost right. Maybe Obama hasn't met his Waterloo, but I think America has reached the limit with left wing manipulation, lies, and policies.The rules are once more returning to normalcy.

Dictatorship of the Minorities

Every day I read some group or company or organization is getting Federal aid. Today is no exception. In one article, I read that minority broadcasters have approached Timothy Geithner for a bailout. They claim that minority broadcasters are suffering more than most and are “almost an extinct species.” Of course, they will probably get it, and you shouldn’t be surprised.

In another article, I read that the government is once again considering assistance to those who are unable to make their mortgage payments. An Obama official was quoted as saying it was reasonable for the administration to consider measures of loan forbearance.

My question is, who is there for me? My wife and I get up every morning and go to work. We have worked hard through adverse circumstances when the legal profession was so crooked locally it effectively stopped me from practicing. The corruption crossed over into the education system where my wife was accused of stealing money, threatened with job retaliation if she didn’t talk her union into certain terms the school system wanted, and then was left hanging out to dry by both the school system and her union after an illegal reduction in force. No one was there for us, and my wife had paid union dues for 20 years.

Right now the government is there for blacks. The government is there for Hispanics. The government is there for gays. The government is there for terrorists. The government is there for Muslims. When has the government done anything for me? In a word, never!

Majority rule has been taken over by a Dictatorship of the Minorities. It is getting scary. Recently, in Akron, a group of black thugs attacked a white family and seriously hurt these folks. The shouted as they beat these people up that is “a black world now!” The Akron police are investigating that this might be a “hate crime.” Do ya think? The fact that they have to even ask the question is insulting to whites. Of course it is a hate crime.

Now Judge Sotomayor is being considered for the Supreme Court. Her opinion that a Latina woman could reach a better decision than a white male is racist and insulting. Yet certain members of Congress did everything during the hearings today but clean her feet. If a white lawyer said the same thing in reverse, his/her license would be revoked and face trumped up criminal charges.

Even illegal aliens make out better, with their kids getting in-state tuition to colleges while other Americans are shut out. And of course, let’s not forget the activist women, who said they didn’t want the money going to white, male construction jobs. It didn’t, and now unemployment is pushing 10%.

The government is going to learn a hard lesson. After Jimmy Carter, the press conjured up the angry white male…blue collar Democrats who voted for Reagan. Maybe the angry white male will make a comeback. You can only soak a certain segment of society to pay for all of the rest for so long before the end of the line is finally reached. That is when the real problem will rear its ugly head.

That Great Money Machine in the Sky

The economic news continues to be bad, and I am constantly amazed why government officials are so surprised. It’s very simple, until some normalcy returns into the country’s financial life, banks will be reluctant to lend, businesses will be reluctant to expand, entrepreneurs will be reluctant to take risks, and consumers will be reluctant to spend. The rule of the day, preserve what you got because you never when “they” will be coming to take it away from you.

For the economy to work, there have to be rules. People have to know what to expect. And the Obama administration has turned the rules upside down. A friend of mine said it best, it’s like everything is backwards. What concerns me the most is I am hearing this from places where I shouldn’t be hearing it, and from people who have rarely say anything at all political. They don’t understand what is going on, and they are afraid of what is going on. The contrarians among us will say that is a good sign. Don't bet the rent.

President Obama and his cohorts in Congress just don’t get it. There isn’t some big money machine in the sky that continually pours out its bounty on America. America’s wealth comes from Americans that work. And Americans won’t work if the government is going to take what they make away from them. The least scintilla of government abuse of power will cause these folks to pull back. We have more than a scintilla. If I have heard it once, I have heard it a thousand times. If the government can takeover GM, what can they do to me? No matter what the motivation of the government, what has happened is inherently un-American, and the population is beginning to sense it.

That doesn’t even begin to tap into the growing fear of increased taxes, increased energy costs, increased inflation, and increased interest rates. All of these are legitimate fears.

A client of mine is the epitome of an entrepreneur. He and his family work in several separate but related businesses. They work 12 hours/day, 6 days/week in the most basic of American undertakings…buying and selling surplus merchandise. These guys know one thing, hard work. But the client said to me today “I just don’t get it. What is the government doing? These people work for us, or at least they used to, and I am deeply concerned.” And that pretty much sums it up.

Deeply concerned is an understatement. No one will do much of anything if they think the government is going to tax and spend us into the poorhouse. I don’t think that President Obama is a bad man. He is a creature of his upbringing and his experience. He attended private school growing up on scholarships. He attended undergraduate schools on scholarships. The attended law school on scholarships. Throughout it all, he was at the receiving end of racism while watching the benefits of privilege. When he finished his education, he went to work as a community organizer, which basically lobbied to take money from one group of people and give it to another.

Now, as President, he continues his redistributive ways. That is what he knows; all the while thinking the pot of money at the end of the industrial rainbow will never run out. Even his stimulus package is based on social fairness rather than projects that will generate hard jobs that use concrete and steel. They don’t need any more jobs for white construction workers. Nowhere is there any incentive for business start ups, business expansion, and job growth and creation.

Meanwhile, those of us down here in the real world are scratching to make a living, reluctant to take the chances that will make this country grow again, and wondering whether or not the government will ever realize that in order for that big money machine in the sky to work, it has to prime the pump with some incentive.