Obama Updates

Obama Defends VP Biden’s “Terrorists” Remark

President Obama, when asked at one of his recent Iowa stops about Vice President Biden’s allegedly agreeing that Tea Party freshman were terrorists stated the following: “What he said was for us to be willing to take the economy to the brink was irresponsible, and it was.”

However, here’s what Politico reported:

Vice President Joe Biden joined House Democrats in lashing tea party Republicans, accusing them of having “acted like terrorists” in the fight over raising the nation’s debt limit, according to several sources in the room.

Biden was agreeing with a line of argument made by Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) at a two-hour, closed-door Democratic Caucus meeting. “We have negotiated with terrorists,” an angry Doyle said, according to sources in the room. “This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money.” Biden, driven by his Democratic allies’ misgivings about the debt-limit deal, responded: “They have acted like terrorists.”

Hide YouTube Video Controls Code

DREAM Act Attached To Military Pay Raises

ObamaNation (Obama/Reid/Pelosi) failed in their attempt to repeal the 17 year old “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law.

Attaching the provision to a major military spending bill was just another effort of this failed administrations effort to pass more of their unpopular agenda.

Another attached provision was the DREAM ACT that would allow illegal immigrants to become ‘legal residents’ if they spent two years in college or served in the military. What other country would pay to send you to college or give you three square meals a day, fresh new uniforms to wear, and a warm bed to sleep in (let alone a gun)? Only in ObamaNation does that happen! This administration will go to any lengths to give the illegals ‘legal status’ and it is their hope that they can push their agenda through before the 2012 elections since Obama will need all the votes he can muster after the defeat he will witness this coming November.

He’s already made it into a racial issue based on his recent speech to the Congressional Black Caucus as he “implored black voters to restoke the passion they felt for his groundbreaking campaign two years ago and turn out in force this fall”. Without his base of black voters he and many fellow Democrats will be soundly defeated in 2012 which is why they are now pushing for illegals becoming ‘legals’ with the ability to vote within six years. This Act is meant to allow those born (or arriving under the age of 15) to illegals living in the States to apply for this program and eventually gain citizenship over a six year period. Babies born to illegals should be considered illegals as well and sent packing along with their parents. They are a burden on our school systems stretched budgets, requiring additional English learning classes since most parents do not speak English at home. We are the only country that caters to foreign speaking residents at the taxpayers expense.

It is almost a given that if this DREAM ACT ever passes the ACLU will step in and demand that it not only apply to young people but also to women and children no matter what their age is.  It will also require this nations taxpayers to cough up for teaching them English so that they can get passing grades in college as well as understand their commanding officer. There aren’t enough jobs available for the current citizens of this nation so why do we need to grant legal status to those who came here by breaking the law?

Those who came here and ended up at Ellis Island did so legally and waited in lines for hours for processing. That is what all the illegals need to do. GET IN LINE!

Mr. Brown Goes To Washington!

….in his pickup truck as Americans across the nation THANK Massachusetts for their vote Tuesday.

Obama Says He Is Ready For The Fight!

According to President Obama’s recent speeches, if his health care passes the Senate and House he is ready to beat the bricks and campaign on behalf of Democrats who are worried how their vote will effect their re-election chances. With several starting to get jumpy (like jumping ship on the health care bill), Obama has promised to give it ‘the good fight’ against Republicans who were totally left out of the negotiations.

I am encouraged by his comments and can only HOPE that Scott Brown kicks the Democratic candidates ass in Massachusetts so he can throw a monkey-wrench in Obama’s 60 vote controlled Senate. Then, for sure, Obama would have to come out of the smoke-filled rooms and face the public whose majority opposes the health care plan he and his cronies have devised.

Just like Senator Dodd said “We Will Always Remember This Day” when the Senate version was approved, we the voting public Will Always Remember That Day as well and send Obama and many of his Democratic buddies packing in 2010 and 2012. Harry Reid is already history and so will many others once the voters have their say.

For those that voted for HOPE, about all they got was Rope-A-Dope!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quoting Senator Dodd: "We Will Always Remember This Day!"

Senator Christopher Dodd, you can sure bet your boots on that statement! You, along with 59 other Senators should start looking towards retirement because the voting public “Will Always Remember This Day”! You and your Democratic cronies have started the ball rolling to ruin the best health care available in the world, yet you and your cohorts proudly display your ‘accomplishment’ with pride. What you have done is cause the worst kind of bi-partisan hate that has ever existed in the halls of Congress, let alone bankrupting the Nation, and it will not go unnoticed when elections come up in February.

With under-the-table deals and bribes to other Democrats. like Senator Ben Nelson, the leader of the Senate, Harry Reid, will be one of those looking at retirement after the next election. Voters are not ones to easily forget this type of underhanded politics and will be giving YOU the ‘finger‘. Everything that was promised by the Obama administration was thrown out the window in an effort to get a health care bill on the President’s desk by Christmas. His promise of transparency and line-by-line removal of entitlements meant nothing. We can no longer look President Obama in the eye and trust his word. It was all a bunch of lies, as he was called out during a speech to the joint session of Congress.

I urge ALL voters to AVOID purchasing ANYTHING from the State of Nebraska since YOU will ALL be paying their share of any increases in Medical coverage, besides paying your own! The ‘deal’ amounts to the federal government agreeing to cover 100% of Nebraska’s health care bill for an indefinite amount of time, which means that taxpayers in every other State will be picking up Nebraska’s tab!

This is the type of bribes that it took to get Senator Ben Nelson’s and others votes. The Governor of Nebraska says that he wants nothing more than to be equal to everyone else and wants the language removed, but until the ‘bribe’ is removed from the health care bill, start sending a message to Nebraska NOW! The sooner you stop buying ANYTHING being sold in or shipped from Nebraska, the sooner the Senator and cronies like him will get the message. With this language in the current bill, the easiest way to offset your tax dollars paying Nebraska’s fair share is to STOP buying their products and boycott traveling to the state! I assure you they will get the message as their constituents pressure the Reid’s and Nelson’s who agree to these types of bribes.

WE, the Voters of America, REJECT this type of deal making that pits one American against another.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The President and Congress’ Push for Health Care!

The health care reform legislation would now become a joke if the consequences were not so devastating to millions of Americans. In an effort to quickly pass legislation in the Senate, regardless of its content. Legislators are removing anything that would prevent votes from being lost. This policy, which originates in the White House, reflects the President’s demand of passing a historic health care bill this year regardless of whether or not it meets the original goals. The goals were to insure all (or at least most) Americans, lower the cost of health care as well as the cost of health care insurance and to regulate the health insurance industry to cover patients with pre-existing conditions and to prevent coverage from being terminated. Guess what – we aren’t even close to achieving these goals. In fact, health care costs will increase, available care will be reduced, Americans will be taxed if they don’t purchase private insurance and in the end the cost of health care and insurance will increase significantly. Worst of all, it appears that the President and many members of Congress don’t care. We now have come to the point where not only Republicans are against this legislation but now many Democrats also oppose it. Regardless, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi (with the help of the President) are trying desperately to find enough votes to ram this bill through. The latest NBC/Wall Street Poll now indicates that only 32% of the people of the United States are in favor of this legislation, but this doesn’t matter either, the Democratic leadership is still hell bent on passing this disastrous legislation.

We lost the basic focus of what the goals are. First and foremost should have been the reduction of the cost of health care. There are a number of things that can be done. Tort reform would have created a tremendous savings by limiting the number of tests and procedures performed only to protect against litigation and it would have reduced physician and facility liability insurance premiums which could have been passed along to lower costs. Allowing most insurance carriers to offer insurance in most states would have created additional competition which almost always drives prices down. Regulating test and procedure costs based upon many years of historic data collected by government resources such as VA, Medicare, Medicaid, could have standardized costs at lower prices for most tests and procedures. Allowing FDA approved prescription drugs to be imported from other countries like Canada would provide substantial savings. Correcting Medicare/Medicaid fraud and mismanagement would save and reduce costs by hundreds of billions of dollars. This could be achieved by contracting independent auditors who would be paid based upon what they identified and recovered, thereby not costing anything, being paid from funds that were previously not collected and lost. When you add up the potential gains of implementing these actions, there is no question in my mind that ample savings could be used to cover more uninsureds under the Medicaid program. The costs to move these programs forward would be almost non existent when compared to the current legislation.

Instead our government is attempting to pass legislation that will reduce Medicare/Medicaid funding by $400-$500 billion dollars. This is supposed to save these programs that are deeply in debt. What it will do is reduce reimbursements to physicians and facilities. This will reduce the number of physicians who will accept Medicare/Medicaid patients, increase the number patients accepting physicians can treat, thereby drastically increasing the load and reducing the time available to schedule treatments, which of course creates a rationing situation. There will be additional taxing on most Americans. Those in the $200,000 earnings category will be taxed, those who have high end health care insurance policies nicknamed the “Cadillac Policies” which includes many union members and of course those who choose not to purchase health care insurance will be taxed, although some choose to call this a penalty. Insurance companies will be forced to take patients with pre-existing conditions, but they won’t be forced to offer low premiums. Forcing those who can’t afford this high cost insurance to pay a penalty for not carrying insurance on top of dealing with life threatening illnesses. There will be government agencies involved with health care decisions similar to one that recently suggested that women under the age of 50 do not need mammography screening. Prescription drug importing has been defeated in the Senate. Tort reform is not part of the legislation. And the list of negatives goes on and and on. Even the former director of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean, is now against passage of this legislation. Yet the President and Democratic leadership is still trying to push to through.

The passage of this bill has required the President to make deals with AARP, AMA, the drug industry and the insurance industry to name a few. AARP was promised the Medicare Advantage program would be discontinued in favor of AARP’s supported Medi-gap program. AARP gladly supported the legislation for this trade off. The American Medical Association (AMA) which membership includes only about 17% of the doctors in the US was promised that a scheduled reimbursement reduction would be suspended if they supported the bill. Of course the AMA became a strong endorser. The prescription drug lobby agreed to a $80 million dollar reduction in costs to Medicare/Medicaid (basically peanuts) and support of the health care bill in trade for the continued blocking of importing low cost, FDA approved drugs from other countries. The insurance industry agreed to support the bill when congress had offered to penalize those who did not purchase private insurance, which would have increased the number of people needing to purchase insurance significantly. However, when congress dropped the penalty to $1500 the insurance industry dropped its support. One of the few groups that would not offer support for the legislation was the medical device manufactures. They were rewarded with a tax on their products.

If this legislation needs to be bought and sold to gain enough votes to pass, how good is it? If every political trick in the book is used, if every lie possible is told, if the majority of Americans don’t support it, if a large group of Democrats lead by Howard Dean and the majority of Republicans won’t support it – why in the world is it being pushed through Congress?

Our President promised he would govern from the middle – he has been far left, he promised transparency – there are more closed door meetings than public ones, he promised to reach across the aisle – there is no co-operation between Democrats and Republicans. Today there is only one thing he can do to have any chance of savings his reputation and re-election –scrap this terrible bill and start over with real health care reform and no deals for anyone

Contributor:
Charles Patti is President/CEO of NCD Medical Corp. and National Consulting and Development Corp. http://www.ncdmedical.com

Government-run Health Care? No Thanks!

The United States Senate has voted to move the health care bill to the Senate floor to begin debate before the actual vote. This follows the House of Representatives which adopted their view of health care reform by the narrowest of margins, 210-205, after having just hours to read and absorb a 2,000-page bill, and the vote took place on Saturday night. So much for President Obama’s campaign promises of “transparency in government.” Both these actions follow a summer of discussion, town hall meetings, and a flurry of e-mails and other messages between U.S. Senators and Congressmen and their constituents. A great share of the reports I have seen and/or read, together with many national polls, have indicated that a majority of Americans do not favor the health care plans now under consideration.

The bill passed by the House of Representatives did remove abortion coverage in the “public option.” After some discussion on the House floor, an amendment was introduced and passed to adopt this move. Speculation has it that Congressional leaders succumbed to this move, believing that it can be eliminated, either in the Senate bill, or in conference when or if the Senate bill is passed. The House leadership needed the votes of a number of pro-life Democrats in order to move the legislation forward. Even with this sop to those pro-lifers, 39 Democrat congressmen voted against the bill. It is sort of scary to note that this bill which will affect 1/6 of the U.S. economy, was adopted by such a slim majority.

Many of the facets of these health care reform bills worry me. The abortion issue is one. The public option is another, since when the government operates a health insurance plan, it has no care if it loses money, since the government simply raises taxes or borrows money to take care of it. How can free market insurance plans compete with this? Therefore, how long might we expect there to be free market insurance plans available to us competing with such a situation?

The plans in question have established cost estimates in the neighborhood of $1 trillion. We know full well how well government estimates the costs of programs. One example is Social Security, which exceeds the original cost estimates by many times, and is on track to become bankrupt in a few years, unless some drastic action is taken to reduce benefits, or increase retirement age, or both. Medicare is another example, which we are now given to understand will also be bankrupt in a few years, unless benefits and qualifications change substantially. We know that Social Security will not recognize a cost-of-living increase in benefits for the coming year. As I understand it, there will be a one time “gift” to seniors to partially offset this situation.

One more example to consider is the U.S.Postal Service. Some years ago, it was shed from being under the wing of the federal government, since it wasn’t doing so well. So it is now not government run, but is subsidized significantly by the taxpayer. All of these facts are doubly worrisome since we learned the operating deficit for the past fiscal year exceeded $1 trillion … the largest in the history of the nation.

Here is another worrisome feature about the “public option,” which will be run by the federal government. What could go wrong? Let’s start with government-run Medicare, which according to an article in November issue of AARP magazine, is bursting with billions of dollars of fraud annually. Apparently medicare fraud is so low risk and lucrative that cocaine dealers in Florida and California have switched to instead.

Another example of a government-run operation is Recovery.com. It has the responsibility of tracking stimulus dollars and how they create jobs. Recovery.com has reported thousands of jobs created in various locales, which upon examination turned out to be very wrong. The result: stimulus programs probably provided very few additional jobs. In fact, the job market has deteriorated to over 10% unemployment currently. We would hope that the reports by Recovery.com were simply errors. But how come is it that all the errors found OVERSTATED job creation? A simple occurrence of errors would have likely found some overstatements as well as understatements. More likely, Recovery.com was created to rationalize the stimulus packages, also at taxpayers’ expense, of course. This is the same government which touts the “public option” of the health care bills as a cure for keeping the free market insurance companies honest, and provide competition for them. Does that make you feel better about our entry into government-run health care?

One of the facets of the health care legislation, is to cover some of the costs there will be $500 billion reduction in Medicare. Probably a reduction in the rate of payment for services to doctors and medical institutions. I could see this as adding to the cost of premiums and services to all other patients to help the institutions to overcome that shortage. Further, it may cause doctors to refuse to see Medicare patients since they know that reimbursement will be inadequate for them to continue their practices. Or it may cause doctors to leave the profession. This at a time when 30 million new patients with insurance coverage will demand to be seen and treated. That is a recipe for rationing health care.

Congressional Republicans have sponsored several amendments to the Health Care reform bills in committee. To bear consideration: Allow health insurance companies to sell their products over state lines to increase competition. Cost saving? Probably. Or how about tort reform? How can attorneys add to our health care situation? Only negatively. If lines were drawn on the process of litigation over procedures and outcomes to make them more sensible, there would obviously be a savings since doctors and medical institutions pay significant premiums for liability insurance to protect themselves from lawsuits. It also causes doctors to over-prescribe in many cases so they can never be accused of not prescribing enough care or treatment for their patients so to reduce the chance of lawsuits being filed against them. One way for tort reform is to mandate that litigants must stand the cost of the litigation if it is found to be frivolous, or if the litigant is unsuccessful in the lawsuit. Attorneys would no longer be able to advertise “If we don’t win, you don’t need to pay me.”

I fear that many lawsuits are brought by the litigant because he has “nothing to lose”, so why not sue?

Contributor:

http://www.easytoinsureme.com/california-health-insurance.html

The Problems With Nationalized Health Care: OR "If the Grass is Greener, You Know the Water Bill is Higher"

We’ve all heard that the United States spends more (16% of GDP, or $2.10 trillion dollars) on health care than any other industrialized country.

High tax burden

However Norway, long heralded as a “shining example” of nationalized health care, has its own problems to contend with. Norway’s overall tax burden which is 45% of its GDP, ranks second only to Sweden, which has the highest tax burden among all the industrialized countries.

On any given day 280,000 Norwegians (out of a country of 4.6 million) are waiting for health care. Norway’s government has been trying to legislate these waits out of existence since 1990…unsuccessfully.

Problems of nationalized health care

While Norwegians generally report that they are “fairly satisfied” with the way their health care system is run, there has been growing discontent over such issues as:

•the ability to choose a health care provider,
•involvement in decisions regarding care or treatment,
•and waiting periods.
The average wait for hip replacement is more than 4 months.

Prostatectomy, 3 months.

Hysterectomy, over two months.

It’s estimated that 23% of all patients needing hospitalization must wait at least 3 months for admission.
This for a country ranked 11th in the world by the World Health Organization among industrialized countries. The US ranks 37th just ahead of last place Slovenia, and behind 36th place Costa Rica.

Norway at a glance and why it is a fun place to visit:

•Has the longest coastline in Europe
•Has around 50,000 islands and only 2,000 islands are inhabited
•Norway Vikings founded the world’s oldest parliament, the Lyn Wald, over 1,000 years old
•Norwegians enjoy a very healthy diet and have one of the world’s highest consumptions of fish, milk, and cheese
•Norwegian inventions include the cheese slice and the paper clip
•Norwegian per capita income ranks amongst the world’s highest

Contibutor:
Doug Gulleson is a partner of Good Neighbor Insurance. Good Neighbor Insurance represents 10 international health insurance companies and provides international health and travel insurance for every country in the world. http://www.gninsurance.com

Yet Another Secret Service Snafu!

This incident didn’t get as much publicity as the so-called “White House Crashers” but it shows you how lax the people in charge of protecting our President are.

Back on Veterans Day, a couple from Hogansville, GA, Harvey And Paula Darden, arrived at the White House a day earlier than their scheduled tour. The lax security escorted them in and brought them breakfast along with other veterans Obama was hosting in the East Room. At first, they didn’t think anything of it and felt it was all part of the tour but eventually they began to ask each other if they were in the right place.

This additional Secret Service snafu was quickly dispelled by spokesman, Ed Donovan, saying that it did not compare to the Salahis, since the Dardens had passed all security checks including a criminal history check. Consequently, it was easy for staff to bring them in when they showed up early.

But get a load of this White House Secret Service BS! Here was their cover-up for yet another snafu: “As a nice gesture, after confirming the couple passed all the Secret Service checks, we invited them to attend.”

The Darden’s were NOT informed that they had arrived a day early by the Secret Service which is why they began asking themselves if they were in the right place. They were simply escorted into the breakfast function even though they were dressed like tourists.

Even with this additional revelation of lax security, Congress has subpoenaed the Salahis’ to testify and possibly slap them with a fine or even jail time. They just can’t admit that the security was lax and move on, thanking the Salahi’s for pointing it out to them!

If I were the Salahi’s I wouldn’t say a single word unless Desiree is also subpoenaed to testify rather than being protected by Obama’s ‘separation of powers’ policy.

Do you think that you or I would be escorted in ‘as a nice gesture‘? What a weak, bullshit excuse coming from our Secret Service!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Michael Moore’s "Capitalism: A Love Affair" Hits and Misses

The ultimate capitalist, “I’m all about the money”, Michael Moore has released the next installment of his series of antiestablishment films. I really liked his “wind up.” It was a confirmation of what we all really know that “Big Business” has bought and sold the Executive and Legislative branches of our government for years. The recent “bail out” was what we all suspected – a heist. Moore does a great job of connecting the dots here and provides us with the smoking gun, the bullets, and the perpetrators. But the generalizations that follow are far too broad and shallow and as with all of his other films they will actually stop any meaningful change from happening.

Concluding that Capitalism is evil and needs to be abolished resonates more with Al Qaeda then it ever will with the American People. Concluding that the replacement for Capitalism is Democracy is like replacing cantaloupes with cashews. Even one verb sentences imply a noun. Capitalism cannot exist without Democracy. Replacing Capitalism with Democracy shows the limitations in Moore’s thought process. As a film maker he is brilliant seeming together poignant moments to give the audience an emotional ride…but as a source of forward thinking? Well? He is a brilliant film maker. Capitalism is the engine that makes everything in America possible. Capitalism has the potential for abuses and needs a strong government to hold those forces in check. The conclusion that capitalism must be eliminated is ludicrous.

The conclusions should have been: Let’s use Democracy to stop corporate greed, Let’s use Democracy to elect politicians that represent the interests of the people, Let’s mobilize democracy to diminish the influence of “Big Business”, Let’s find the stolen money and get it back.

Another conclusion that is MIA in this film is that with our capitalistic system, granted through a Representative Democracy, we get to vote. We vote, not just once a year, but every waking hour of every day. We vote with our dollars. Let’s not just mobilize the vote to throw a politician out of office but let’s support companies that are socially conscious and boycott those companies that value greed above the interests of people. Let’s sell their shares into the dirt and boycott their products.

Oh, and all of that effort collecting evidence and chasing perpetrators while the body is alive and bleeding at an alarming rate. Aren’t we supposed to stop and render aid? The fact that the rich got richer and the poor got poorer isn’t good for the rich. The continuation of this trend will lead to blood and the hunting of the rich. Let’s not forget the lessons of France or Russia. When people have had enough oppression they rise up and seize control. Helping average, hard working, people have access to the American Dream with FDR’s Second Bill of Rights brings with it peace and prosperity at home and security and stability in Foreign Relations. The bleeding body is America hemorrhaging on debt. The tourniquet to stop the bleeding is apparent: 1. Stop war on terror – pull the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, 2. Pass health care reform – (cut the costs of health care by providing preventive care for those without health care insurance, provide incentives to remain healthy, get America off of the corn syrup based food system), 3. Balance the Federal Budget by trimming any and all pork projects, 4. Spend money on infrastructure projects that improve the flow of water, treatment of sewage, dependence on foreign oil, and improve education, 5. Stop all entitlements to corporations (they are not citizens).

Doesn’t anyone see the irony here? Big Business, who fights against 2nd Bill of Rights issues are the very same companies that won’t compete on a level playing field and are constantly asking the government to be bailed out with dollars or special laws that make them anti-competitive.

Let’s do some quick math. The amount of three years of current deficits is three trillion dollars or ten grand per man, woman and child in America. The National Debt is twelve trillion dollars or forty grand per man, woman and child. Add to this the unfunded Social Security debt and the Medicare debt and we have over a hundred trillion dollars in debt or three hundred and thirty-three dollars per man, woman and child in America. That is a shocking number…$333,000 per person.

How much wealth is in America? According the Federal Reserve, household net worth is $53.1 trillion. Stat USA estimates the current value of domestic publically traded companies to be $20 trillion. Add to this the gold, silver, diamonds, land, private businesses, cars, boats, RV’s, stamp collections, paintings, works of art, military bases, roads, parks, and city, county, state and federal government assets and you get a figure must top $200 trillion. If a business had income of 14 trillion, assets of 200 trillion and liabilities of 100 trillion would we lend them more money? The answer would depend upon the rate of interest paid on the debt. As long as the interest rates remain low we don’t have a problem. What if interest rates shoot through the roof? Might be a problem paying back the debt.

Why is this all so difficult now? America is faced with few choices but to deal with major infrastructure changes. We can no longer offer up small tweaks to get things moving. At a minimum we need a Constitutional Amendment to stop “Big Business” lobbying in government. We definitely need to pass FDR’s Second Bill of Rights powered by the engine of capitalism. Or we might really need a complete overhaul of the system – potentially we need a Constitutional Convention to make new and lasting changes. If and when we do, let’s send Michael Moore to France on a fully paid vacation.

Contributor: Michael Douglas Carlin is the author of “A Prescription For Peace” (available at Amazon.com) He is credited with the quote: “Our work will not be done until every man, woman and child alive has three square meals a day, a roof over their heads, access toquality health care, personal security, an education, and a job.”