Health Care. A Look at Some of the Real Cost?

Caterpillar said Obamacare will cost it an additional $100 million in the first year; Medtronic warned that the new tax on its products "could force it to lay off a thousand workers;" Verizon told its employees that it "will likely have to cut health benefits to offset the new costs;" and AT&T announced that it will record a $1 billion non-cash expense in the first quarter and "will be evaluating prospective changes to the active and retiree health care benefits offered by the company."

Target is what is called a self insurer and they are looking at how this is going to effect them. Rumor has it that they will drop coverage or lay off many full time employees. The cost of doing business just went up and  Target will not be the only one to raise prices to cover cost.  Wal-Mart has put out numbers saying it will cost them millions and will increase prices in the future.

Does anyone really think that a company such as Caterpillar can keep jobs in the US and absorb these unsustainable cost?  Look for Cat to start moving more of it’s business overseas.  

These announcements are but the tip of the iceberg; hundreds like them will follow as Obamacare becomes a reality. Congressional Democrats, evidently stung by the bad publicity, are trying to strike back.  Evidence of this was shown this week when Sen. Waxman of California called the CEO’s to appear before Congress and bring everything they have, including e-mails that prove what they are saying to be true.  All Waxman and his henchmen want to do is to get the CEO’s in one place to lecture, threaten, and humiliate them. You can be assured that the CEO’s will not be allowed to show their evidence but be assured that Waxman will call them liars and thief’s because they want to operate and make a profit. There's nothing new in Congressional Democrats hauling businesses before some committee or other to brow beat them and get face time on TV.
Black-letter financial accounting rules require that corporations immediately restate their earnings to reflect the present value of their long-term health liabilities, including a higher tax burden. Should these companies have played chicken with the Securities and Exchange Commission to avoid this politically inconvenient reality? Democrats don't like what their bill is doing in the real world, so they now want to intimidate CEOs into keeping quiet.
Apparently, in this brave new world created by Obamacare, having an opinion about its benefits that is at odds with the ruling party is not good for the health of one's company.

 As I wrote earlier Waxman wants all internal communications connected to the analysis of how this provision will impact companies, including private emails. Andy McCarthy of NRO got it right in summation of this demand:

“If we are now under a system where disclosure gets you a public whipping and other threats by the Powers That Be while nondisclosure promises the ruinous expenses of defending against criminal investigations and civil enforcement, this is no longer anything but a thugocracy.” 

But then we already knew that didn’t we. 

Democrats in Congress have been using thug tactics since 2006 but then no one paid attention especially the Lame Stream Media. Now that they have a “fearless leader” in the White House who was trained in such tactics the use becomes more common. Don’t look for a lot to change until the elections in November and even then the “thug” factor will continue to be there and played by Obama at every opportunity. His propensity for hitting the campaign trail to sell his snake oil when faced with reality and questions of his reality or lack thereof will take on an even more threatening tone when he no longer holds the majority in both houses of Congress.  Every opportunity will be used to paint the right as the wrong and showing his way to be the only way.  If current responses by the LSM are any indication to the future expect them to continue to cover him like a blanket with warmth and goo goo sounds. The blanket is wearing thin but the LSM doesn’t seem to realize this yet.

A larger question perhaps looms on the horizon in the form of just how strong will the Republicans stand on repeal of this fiasco.  If Senator Cornyn of Texas (I am ashamed to say) is any indication, then look for that stand to last about as long as Custer’s last stand and be just as bloody.  Cornyn recently stated that ‘there is non-controversial stuff here, like the pre-existing conditions exclusion and those sorts of things.' Surely this so called Senator has the sense that God gave a goose to understand that a provision in the bill will completely change the character of insurance companies from private business to public utilities and others will adversely effect major industries in this country as well. Surely there must be something in the water in DC or Cornyn is once again holding his finger in the wind to check which way it is blowing before totally caving.  It is a character flaw of his or so it seems.  There is no place and this is no time for the weak of heart, the complacent, the sycophants school yard bully victim syndrome, it is time to stop tolerating such nonsense. Either grow a spine and demand full repeal or prepare for a long trip home come election day. 

If the Republicans in power today fail, fold and run away thinking they can fight another day they are in for a surprise. They will not have another day and this country may not survive long enough to find those who will stand up to the culture of corruption that inhabits Washington from the White House to the halls of Congress. 

That's my opinion. What say you?

A History Lesson

Being a history buff and especially a Civil War history buff, I was preparing to write a blog post using the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 as a comparison of what is occurring today in our country. It is indeed amazing how easy it is to find parallels in our history in relation to the occurrences of today. Of course one must have some knowledge of history to do so and sadly most Americans have little of such knowledge, especially those under the age of forty. Our grandchildren will have even less fact but more revised history ideology presented to them by our ever increasing statist educational propaganda system. (More on that in another post)

Anyhow, as I was researching the subject I ran across this piece by Tony Blankley and it pretty much said what I was going to say on the subject and being a bit smitten with spring fever here in North Texas, I decided to allow his article to speak to what I had been thinking.

I hope that you will take time to read carefully the entire article and for those of you who know and understand history I believe you will see the parallels and for those of you who are challenged in the area of history it is an opportunity to learn a bit of the history of our country and see where this country is headed under the current administration.




Kansas-Nebraska Act 1854,
A Commentary By Tony Blankley
Saturday, March 27, 2010

We are now beginning to enter the Kansas-Nebraska Act stage of the socialist crisis of the Republic. At our constitutional founding, the evil of slavery had been crudely evaded. In 1820, the Missouri Compromise was enacted that prohibited the abomination north of 36/30 degrees latitude (about the middle of Missouri).
But with the western push of the frontier, a new compromise was needed. So the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 decreed that the "popular sovereignty" of each territory should decide whether they would be slave or free states. But then, adherents of both the abomination and freedom migrated to Kansas to struggle -- with their bodily presence -- for their respective causes. First there was politics. Then the political rhetoric turned violent. Then real violence ensued. Kansas became known as Bleeding Kansas. John Brown, most famously, applied unjustified, murderous violence for his righteous cause of ending slavery and was hanged, but the Civil War ensued because, as Lincoln sagely explained:

 "A House divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure; permanently half slave and half free.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided.

It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery, will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new -- North as well as South."

Now we enter our History's second stage in the struggle against the abomination of socialism. Just as slavery had been contained in the South, so entitlement socialism has, until this week, been more or less contained in service to only the poor and the elderly -- and even in those programs (for the elderly) on the principle of beneficiaries paying monthly premiums for the benefits they will later get (Medicare/ Social Security). Only the poor under Medicaid received benefit without premium payment.

But now, just as the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 broke through the slave state limitation to the South, the Democratic Party's 2010 health care law has broken socialism's boundary of being so limited. Now, the chains of socialism (slavery) are to be clamped on to the able-bodied middle class -- not merely the already presumed helpless poor and old who have paid their insurance premiums.

Even the New York Times -- after the vote -- admits what the bigger goal has been all along. In Wednesday's edition ("In Health Care Bill, Obama Attacks Wealth Inequality" by David Leonhardt), they point out: " Beyond the health reform's effect on the medical system, it is the centerpiece of his deliberate effort to end what historians have called the age of Reagan. ... Speaking to an ebullient audience of Democratic legislators and White House aides at the bill-signing ceremony on Tuesday, Mr. Obama claimed that health reform would 'mark a new season in America.'.... Above all, the central question that both the Reagan and Obama administrations have tried to answer -- what is the proper balance between the market and the government? -- remains unresolved. But the bill signed on Tuesday certainly shifts our place on that spectrum."

I thank The New York Times for that honest statement of historic fact.

For example, the new law takes away from insurance companies the right to charge for insurance based on actuarial risk -- which is the essence of insurance. Now they will charge what the politicians tell them to charge -- and pay such benefits as the politicians order them to pay. They may, for a while, make money, but that will be at the sufferance of the politicians. One may call this mere regulation, but it is regulation to such a degree that it constitutes effective ownership of the insurance company. The former equity holders in such companies are now merely nominal owners. Also, the new law provides for taxes on investment income to pay for socialized health care, sucking out the lifeblood of our economy to the deathbeds of the destitute.

When these intrusions are combined with 1) the nationalization of GM and Chrysler, 2) the partial nationalization of the banks, 3) the establishment of trillion-dollar taxpayer-funded slush funds (stimulus package and TARP) and 4) the planned 10-year, $10 trillion of further government debt (which steals from our children and grandchildren dollars yet unmade by them to pay foreign debt holders), the center of gravity of our economy moves from the private sector to the public sector.
And just as the free states could not tolerate the spread of slavery into their midst, so, too, free middle-class America -- if it still has its historic character -- will not tolerate the yoke of socialism put upon our necks.

First, the unambiguous will of the majority has been defied by the vote of Congress last Sunday.

Come November, we shall see whether the system can still turn the popular will into the constitutionally permissible legislative will of the majority. If it can, all will be well and the crisis will end. Rallying the vote between now and November is roughly equivalent to the early stage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act period -- people started migrating to Kansas to support their convictions.

But come November, if the majority still opposes the socializing of health care delivery and the other central government intrusions, and yet the corrupt bargains and constitutional distortions of Washington deny that will its just expression -- then, for the second time in our history, we enter that dangerous period where the House resolves its temporary division. Let us devoutly pray --and commit to ourselves -- that this time freedom shall be reacquired … peaceably.

It's All About Control

 

I and other bloggers  have been writing all along that this so called Health Reform bill was nothing more than about control and now the truth has  been spoken and brazenly spoken.

IT TAKES A LONG TIME TO DO THE NECESSARY ADMINISTRATIVE STEPS THAT HAVE TO BE TAKEN TO PUT THE LEGISLATION TOGETHER TO CONTROL THE PEOPLE. John Dingell (D Michigan)

Finally the truth has come out. Dingell has said what many of us have been saying not only about this bill but about this entire administration.  Of course Dingell has attempted to claim fatigue for his statement but the truth was spoken and there is no way that he can water down the horrendous facts contained in his statement. 

Dingell was elected in a special election upon the death of his father in 1955 to take the office held by his father from 1933 to 1955.

April 2006 Dingell along with fellow Democrat from Michigan brought an action against George W. Bush and others alleging violations of the Constitution in the passing of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. The case (Conyers v. Bush)) was ultimately dismissed. I find it amazing that he now considers the Reconciliation Act the way to proceed with a bill as unconstitutional as the Health Reform Bill.  According to  Newsweek , he wants to investigate the  Buch Administration’s handling of port security, the Medicare prescription drug program and  Dick Cheney’s energy task force. Once again it is amazing how he picks and chooses what he supports. He was against Medicare prescription drug program but is for another program that includes more of the same for the program that he opposed. However I must say that this is typical of progressive Democrats and typical of their way or the highway.

 Dingell is generally classified as a liberal Democrat, and throughout his career he has been a leading congressional supporter of organized labor, social welfare, measures and traditional progressive (another name for socialist) policies. He is an old-fashioned social Democrat who knows that most voters don't agree with his goals of a single-payer national health insurance plan but presses forward toward that goal as far as he can.

'It's hard to believe that there was once no Social Security orMedicare', he says. 'The Dingell family helped change that. My father worked on Social Security and for national health insurance, and I sat in the chair and presided over the House as Medicare passed (in 1965). I went with Lyndon Johnson for the signing of Medicare at the  Harry S. Truman Library, and I have successfully fought efforts to privatize Social Security and Medicare'. Whether you agree or disagree, the social democratic tradition is one of the great traditions in our history, and John Dingell has fought for it for a very long time." 

Amazingly Dingle would seek to destroy the very Medicare that he so passionately supported in 1965. Surely he does not believe that taking $5 billion out of Medicare while increasing the number of people within the program by millions will somehow maintain the program.  Savings from the Medicare cuts will be invested in government IOUs, like any other trust fund surplus. The special Treasury securities count as an asset on Medicare's books — making the program's precarious financial situation seems more reassuring. But the government will spend the actual money. And when time comes for Medicare to redeem the IOUs, lawmakers will have to scramble to come up with the cash.   The Congressional Budget Office said, "so they cannot be set aside to pay for future Medicare spending and, at the same time, pay for current spending ... on other programs."  And to think Dingell supports such! Amazing, simply amazing how totally ignorant Dingell, and  I include other Democrats, can be after serving for so long in the government and as  supposedly representatives of the people.

Dingell is only one of the many Democrats and in some ways I hate to use that label for there was a time that Democrats were just as much defenders of the Constitution as Republicans.  I suppose a better name would be Social Democrat, Progressive Democrat, those who embrace the socialist ideology, which would destroy this nation, more than democratic ideology, which seeks to maintain this nation as the best and the most free nation in the world.  

But then there is nothing like control is there!

March 21st, 2010, A Day of Infamy

March the 21^st, 2010 will go down in history not as a great day for civil rights for there was nothing civil nor right about this travesty called a Health Reform Bill.  I am reminded of December 7, 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor, certainly not a happy day nor a day for celebration except for the foes of this country. Yes the foes of this country are rejoicing now that their progressive agenda has had some success and they feel that more victories are to come just as the Japanese did on December 7 of 1941.  March the 21^st, 2010 was the day the enemies of America declared open warfare on America, a war which has been on going since the days of FDR and his agenda to bring America into the fold socialism.

I have taken the liberty to paraphrase the words of the speech given by FDR, the father of this invasion of our freedoms, after the attack of December 7^th, 1941 on Pearl Harbor.  I feel it fitting.

This day will is a day which will live in infamy---the United States of America was deliberately attacked by the forces of progressivism and socialism.   

The United States was at peace with that group albeit an uneasy peace and at their solicitation was still in conversation and looking forward to an attempt of maintaining a democratic republic.  Indeed even within hours of this attack members of the group who wished to maintain the freedom of this republic were in talks with the leaders of those who attacked. The attack came and it seemed useless to continue to negotiate.

It will be recorded that the attack was deliberately planned many weeks and months ago. During the intervening time the progressive socialist have sought to deceive the people  of the United States by making false statements and expressions of hope for bi-partisan cooperation. The attack yesterday on the United States of America has caused and will cause severe damage to the freedoms and rights of all Americans. I regret to tell you how much this will cost not only in terms of dollars but in loss of individual freedoms of individuals and businesses in this country.  In addition attacks have been made and are being made on the sovereignty of this nation in form of amnesty and increased taxation through other nefarious programs with full intent of the destruction of this once great nation.  

The facts of yesterday and the plans for the future by this group speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety and freedoms of our nation.

As a citizen of this nation I ask that all measures be taken for the defense and restoration of this nation and that our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us. 

Health Care Passes and it Going To Cost You Big Time

The Votes: 

Bill passed  by 219 to 212. 34 Democrats voted NO. They are to be commended.

Vote on reconciliation:  Was passed by the Democrats 220-211. The bill is law as soon as it is passed.

Motion to suspend the rules was passed. It’s a done deal as soon as the gloating Obama signs the most unconstitutional piece of legislation passed since Social Security and Medicare.

Motion to recommit with instructions has failed by a vote of 197 Republicans to 226 Democrats.  The bill goes to the Senate without the amendment language is will be passed immediately and the travesty will become law upon Presidential signature. It does not even have to go back to the House under reconciliation.   Count on Monday for it to become law and the gloating to begin by this narcissistic president.

Tonight we are seeing on live TV, for those who are watching as I am, the beginning of the end of America as we have known it for nearly 300 years.  The vote in the House  on the Senate version of the Health Reform bill will come late tonight. Once it is passed, technically it could be taken to the Desk of the POTUS for signature. Yes, there are the so called reconciliation amendments that the House has added but regardless of what becomes of that the bill will become the law of the land as soon as the bill is signed. The republican members of the house are going to attempt to a re-commitment vote which would throw the entire bill along with the reconciliation back to the Senate who would have to pass the bill along with the amendments or any part of them and then send it back to the house. In the House all that would be required for passage a vote with absolutely no majority. VP Biden could cast the deciding vote and overrule the Parliamentarian should he object on grounds of parliamentary procedure being violated.  Regardless the bill will pass and place on the American people the greatest burden of taxes and government control ever known in this country. The bill when passed as law is totally unsustainable. In other words there is not enough money to pay for it and taxes can not be raised enough to cover the cost.

The people and Congress were told that cost would go down but that is not true. Earlier tonight I sent out an e-mail which explained what the truth is. For those who did not receive the e-mail since you may not be on my mailing list I will  reiterate what was in the e-mail only in briefer terms.

 Many individuals and families would experience changes in premiums that differed from the changes in average premiums in their insurance market. Some provisions would tend to increase the premiums paid by healthier enrollees relative to those paid by less healthy enrollees or would tend to increase the premiums paid by younger enrollees relative to those paid by older enrollees

.

CBO and JCT estimate that the average premium per person covered (including dependents) for those who do not have group policies would be about 10 -13 percent higher in 2016 (long after Obama and most of those who have voted for this bill are gone from Congress ) than the average premium for non-group coverage in that same year under current law. Of course those who receive subsidies will pay less but then there is a big IF included in this estimate. Should many companies drop their coverage of employees due to the tax, which is not to be considered a tax according to the bill then there will be no money for subsidies since in effect a large group of people who were not counted on being part of the package plan would suddenly be thrown into the mix. There would be no money to subsidies their premiums. The only recourse is to either raise taxes or take the money from somewhere else such as Medicare which will already have lost a huge sum of dollars(no one really knows at this point just how much will be taken to offset  cost of the overall bill and create an artificial reduction of cost and the debit.    

The difference in unsubsidized premiums is the net effect of three changes: 

 ]Average premiums would be 27-30 percent higher because a greater amount of coverage would be obtained. In particular, the average insurance policy in this market would cover a substantially larger share of enrollees’ cost for health care and a slightly wider range of benefits. Those expansions would reflect both the minmum level of coverage(and related requirements) specified in the proposal and people’s decision to purchase more extensive coverage in response to the structure of subsidies.

There would be on the average premiums a 7 to 10 percent lower cost  that insurers incurred to deliver the same amount of insurance coverage group of enrollees. Most of that net reduction would stem from the changes in the rules governing the non-group market. (in other words forced purchasing of insurance and or fines if insurance is not purchased)

Average premiums would be 7 to 10 percent lower because of a shift in the types of people obtaining coverage. Most of that change would stem from an influx of enrollees with below-average spending for health care who would purchase coverage because of the new subsidies to be provided and the individual mandate(forced purchasing) to be imposed. Again that is an IF. If there is money to continue subsidies.

Average premiums per policy in the non-group market in 2016 (two years after the bill actually goes into affect) would roughly be $5800 for single policies and $15, 200 for family policies under the proposal, compared with roughly $5500 for single policies and $13, 100 for family policies under current law.

The Democrats claimed that large groups would see a cut in cost according to the estimates of the CBO. Unfortunately the CBO could not take into consideration the cost (fee) that would be imposed on large corporations for each employee and dependent covered. Even just taking in the number of employees the cost will be significant to those corporations who because of the cost will stop hiring except to perhaps to replace certain key employees.

Wal-Mart employees 1.2 million; Caterpillar has nearly 95, 000 employees and that is down by nearly 18,000 just since last year. Just think what adding millions of dollars of fees to their cost of doing business will do to them.

Look for more unemployeement rather than the lie that has been told by Obama and the Democrats that this bill would add jobs. Oh yes it will add jobs but to the federal government. Four new agencies will be formed out of this bill to oversee it which will require hundreds of thousand of new employees just to shuffle paper. That does not include the new 16000  Internal Revenue Agents who will insure that you are in compliance with the orders to buy insurance.   

There goes another chunk of your freedom, but then that was not mentioned by Obama or the Democrats. To Obama it was to insure a win for him no matter what the American People wanted. He stated in his talk just moments ago that this bill was By the People and for the People. He forgot that 56% of the people didn’t want this bill as written and that 70% wanted it chunked and started over. So much for By the People and for the People. It’s all about The ONE.

That will not and is not the end of increased cost that were not spoken of before passage. To pay for the changes, the legislation includes more than $400 billion in higher taxes over a decade, roughly half of it from a new Medicare payroll tax on individuals with incomes over $200,000 and couples over $250,000. A new excise tax on high-cost insurance policies was significantly scaled back in deference to complaints from organized labor. In other words Unions get a break, you don’t

 

In addition, the bills cut more than $500 billion from planned payments to hospitals, nursing homes, hospices and other provider that treat Medicare patients. An estimated $200 billion would reduce planned subsidies to insurances companies that offer a private alternative to traditional Medicare.  

 In case you are now on  Medicare or soon will be you will see a cut in services, a lack of doctors who will see you and that is  inaddition to the 15million who will be added to the Medicare rolls by virtue of passage of this bill. So count on waiting longer and getting less and oh you will be paying more no matter what the bill says about those making $200, 000 or more. 

Medicare is not sustainable just with the number of people who are currently on the program and will be coming into the program with out the additional millions who will be added. Your premiums will go up plus you will not have your Advantage programs to supplement payments to doctors. If you do you will have a fee added to your premiums and the insurance company will also pay an additional tax, but it is not to be called a tax. Insurance companies will drop those plans like hot potatoes. You will pay more just because of this bill.  Obama said you would not and the Democrats said you would save money. Guess someone lied

. 

So there you have the truth. Rates will go up and it appears that 219 House members were either duped or didn’t care about the American people who elected them. We have seen the destruction of the American Constitution tonight.

I also report that a useless Executive Order was submitted on the abortion segment of the bill and it supposedly deleted such language from the bill. That along with $700,000 for small airports in Stupak’s region assured his vote. Of course an Executive Order Order is not worth the paper it is written on since it has no effect on the language of the bill once it becomes law. So Stupak got duped or sold out which is more likely.

 Unfortunately this is not the last bill which will be brought before the Congress that will have a total destructive action on this country. There will be the Cap and Trade or better known as Crap and Tax which will further drive businesses out of business. The Health bill will be a start and we will see the disappearance of jobs because small business will fold since they will not or can not pay for coverage of employees. Crap and Tax will further drive companies out of the country or they will close because of the oppressive tax that will be imposed on them and the cost of power to keep the lights on.

Immigration Reform is actually the next travesty that will hit the American People since Obama has guaranteed that it will be a reality by the end of the year. ( he did so in his speech tonight to a large crowd on the National Mall of immigrants, illegal and legal which was shown on huge screens set up there for his speech)

I also would remind you of a bill that has been languishing somewhere in the Senate hopper, one which was written by Obama when he was a Senator. It is called the Global Poverty Bill. In essence it will subjugate this nation to the control of the UN by proxy and add billions to the already maxed out debt limit.

 We are in trouble and we are in even more trouble folks unless the conservatives and those who know and understand the Constitution re-take this country in 2010 and 2012.

Pray for our Country. 

How to Win Friends...

All the leftwingers and Obama all decry that George Bush mishandled foreign affairs and made enemies of our friends while in office but then they never mention the fact that Barack Hussein Obama just totally ignores some of our staunches allies which certainly is not a way to make friends or to keep those we have. To these allies it seems that BHO doesn’t really know what he is doing.  The Australian’s refer to  him and his administration as dysfunctional and that is when they  are being nice.  All this comes on the heels of BHO’s cancellation of his trip to Australia, Indonesia and other Pacific nations in order to castigate, bribe, and otherwise harass Democrats who are against his sham of a health reform bill.  Most know that BHO could care less about others because it’s all about him and his agenda that counts most in his own eyes. Remember his narcissistic  words… I WON!  Very telling!

 Brad Norington of the Australian tells us how the Aussies feel about being ignored in his article, Now we know we're off Barack Obama's radar.

THE decision of Barack Obama to put off his visit to Indonesia and Australia a second time - this time by three months - provides a valuable insight into how this dysfunctional White House operates.
If any proof were needed that US foreign policy, especially in the Pacific, is far down the list of priorities for Obama and his team then here it is.
George W. Bush ignored the region, say his detractors. What about Obama?

The President's spokesman, Robert Gibbs, stumbled through a prepared script yesterday. But he put the situation aptly: "The passage of health reform is of paramount importance and the President is determined to see this battle through."

In other words, Obama's domestic push to pass a watered-down version of health reform in the US congress so he can chalk up a legislative victory after a year of bumbling comes first. The message to Indonesia and Australia could not be clearer.
Gibbs even omitted Australia as he read from his script that Obama expected to visit Indonesia in June.
He later issued a "clarification" that added Australia.

In an election year, Kevin Rudd would obviously be disappointed about a no-show from Obama. The presence of a charismatic president could help lift his flagging position in opinion polls.
But Rudd will get over it. He will see Obama later in the year. He also knows what the White House knows: Australia's support for the US is a given and often taken for granted.

Indonesia's disappointment may be more acute, which only reinforces the clumsy approach taken by Washington.

Obama not only delayed his Australian visit last week but compressed the leg into an overnight stay.
Now it is off the table until June. Surely the White House could have foreseen a week ago that a better option then would have been to delay until June.
Gibbs said yesterday a congress vote on health could not take place before tomorrow, the day of the President's proposed departure, because congress rules provided that legislation must sit on the table for a 72-hour review period before a vote takes place. This is not a sudden revelation - the White House knew it all along.

It all smacks of an indecisive President who is trying to please everybody but ends up pleasing no one.

All the claims of dithering levelled[sic] against Obama by his opponents appear more and more accurate. He may sound good, but what does he do?

The heavy politicking by Obama now to nudge reluctant fellow Democratic Party members to pass health legislation could have been done last year. The prospects for passing the health legislation still do not look good at this stage.

The only plus from this experience, from Australia's point of view, is that a presidential visit in June could mean a longer stay. A President who knows not much about Australia could understand more about the country and the US alliance if his stay was not limited to a one-night stand.

Spring has Sprung but it's Snowing

It’s the first day of spring and in Texas it’s SNOWING.  Yep, I said snowing. It has been snowing steadily for about 4 hours or more tonight and the ground is white and cars are covered.  There is not much accumulation on the streets or sidewalks as they are warm from the several days of 60 plus weather we had earlier in the week.  It also rained for much of the morning which is a reason for the limited accumulation on the grassy areas. 

Who would have thought snow on March 20^th but then again I remembered, it’s not Easter yet and the weather can do anything and everything,  before and at Easter.  My grandmother use to say never expect real spring weather until after Easter and she was proven correct more times than not.

 

Not to worry however for Monday will see temps in the 60’s once again and rising as the week progresses.  By Tuesday and Wednesday we can expect mid 70’s. But folks I ain’t holding my breath or making bets that the weather is going to continue to be warm. Easter is not until April 4^th and in that time anything can happen and often does even if you are not in Texas where the saying is, if you don’t like the weather, stick around a while, it’ll change.  How true, how true.

 

So that’s the news from North Texas. What’s new and what’s news in your neck of the woods.






UPDATE:TWO INCHES ON THE NEIGHBORS CAR AND STILL SNOWING HARD !!! (11:12 PM CDST)

Pulling the Plug on our Constitution

 For those of you who perhaps do not read The Patriot Post and even for those of you who do I wish to offer this for your thoughtful consideration.  Mark Alexander points out in both of the links provided just how the current administration is destroying our Constitution and in the end the way of life as we know it in this country. It is not a pretty picture. Just as the administration uses crisis to shove their ideology down the throats of the American people we have become so sedated to it that we no longer recognize a true crisis when we face one. We indeed are facing the biggest crisis in this country that we have faced in our entire history.

"If the federal government should overpass the just bounds of its authority and make a tyrannical use of its powers, the people ... must appeal to the standard they have formed, and take such measures to redress the injury done to the Constitution as the exigency may suggest and prudence justify." --Federalist No. 33

Our Constitution is on life support, and House Democrats are about to pull the plug.

Read the rest of the story here:

The Pantocrator?

The New York Times article As Health Vote Awaits, Future of a Presidency Waits, Too was accompanied by a photograph of a backlit cross, over which the shadow of Obama is enveloped in a halo of light in the shape of a holy rood.  Obama's raised index finger reminiscent of Jesus instructing the masses at the Sermon on the Mount-master teacher, pantocrator( Ruler of All ) for those not familiar with the word) Obama educates America about the righteousness of social vision.   The only missing component is an audio link to the Hallelujah Chorus.

Picture is as appeared in the NY Times.

Description provided by Jeannie DeAngelis via American Thinker.

RECONCILIATION AND THE BYRD RULE

The Democrats are threatening to use Reconciliation in order to pass Obama’s NOCARE Bill. Senator Byrd says it can’t be done according to the rules that he wrote in 1985 and that were amended in 1990. Under the Byrd Rule, for those who are not familiar with it, it defines a provision to be “extraneous” (and therefore ineligible for reconciliation) in six cases:

1.  if it does not produce a change in outlays or revenues;

2.  if it produces an outlay increase or revenue decrease when the instructed committee is not in compliance with its instructions;

3.  if it is outside the jurisdiction of the committee that submitted the title or provision for inclusion in the reconciliation measure;

4.  if it produces a change in outlays or revenues which is merely incidental to the non-budgetary components of the provision;

5.  if it would increase the deficit for a fiscal year beyond those covered by the reconciliation measure, though the provisions in question may receive an exception if they in total in a Title of the measure net to a reduction in the deficit; and

6.  if it recommends changes in Social Security.

The Social Security Act of 1965  was signed into law on July 30, 1965, by President Lyndon B. Johnson as amendments to Social Security legislation. This was the act under which Medicare was brought into being. The so-called Health Care Reform Bill does just this by taking money from Medicare to pay for Health Insurance. The Social Security Administration is responsible for determining Medicare eligibility and processing premium payments for the Medicare program.

OOPS: Do you think perhaps the Dems and Obama have failed to understand this part of the Byrd Rule, or do they not care? Probably not, but if they attempt to do such, it would be totally unconstitutional. But then little do they care about that either as long as they can spread their control agenda.

I have read on several blogs recently where the leftists are arguing that Bush used the Reconciliation to get his Tax Cuts passed. Yes, he did, but the legislation was written to conform with the Byrd Rules in that they expired in ten years. (See Rule 5).

The leftists on the blogs, as well as Obama and his minions Pelosi and Reid, argue that they are in compliance with the Byrd Rule, but they fail to show how they can comply with Rule 6.

There are many items in the Bill that would automatically make this piece of so-called legislation ineligible for Reconciliation.  I have picked out just a few from HR3200, or whatever name it is going by now. (A skunk by any other name is still a skunk and smells just as bad.)

1.  Section 1131 proposes changes to the Social Security Act that pertains to payment to hospitals.

2.  ObamaNOcare proposes to change the language in the SSA bill. It would change Social Security Act 1842(b)(18)(C); 1861(aa)(5)). (ii); 1861(bb)(2)). (iii); 1861(gg)(2)). (iv)’ 1861(hh)(1)). (v); 1861(ii)). (vi)

3.  Section 1122, Misvalued Codes Under The Physicians Fee Schedule, offers a revision of SSA Sec. 1848 which includes  adding this language: "(i) In General.-The Secretary shall establish a process to validate relative value units under the fee schedule under subsection …”

4.  Section 59B, Tax On Individuals Without Acceptable Health Care Coverage , “In the case of any individual who does not meet the requirements of subsection (d) at any time during the taxable year, there is hereby imposed a tax equal to 2.5 percent of the excess of (1) the taxpayers’ modified adjusted gross income for the taxable year, over (2) the amount of gross income specified in sections 6012(a)(1) with respect to the taxpayer.”

As well as failing to qualify under those violations of the SS Act, it also fails under Rule 1 which is a change in outlays and revenues. The Dems think they have circumvented that rule as well. The statement on Page 167: Any individual who doesn’t have acceptable healthcare (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income.  (See 4 above, Section 59B.)

What part of change of revenue does this not address?  Oh, but they think they have this covered, along with several other taxes imposed within this so-called bill.

Here is how they do it: Page 203: "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax." Yes, it really says that.

And that, folks, is just more subterfuge (1.  deception by artifice or stratagem in order to conceal, escape, or evade; 2.  a deceptive device or stratagem) and finagling (1.  To obtain or achieve by indirect, usually deceitful methods; 2.  To cheat; swindle:. v.intr. To use crafty, deceitful methods) of the Constitution of the United States by this Administration.
 

Dress up Games by Politicans

 

Remember last week when Obama appeared with a group of folks dressed in white lab coats appearing to be doctors?  Well it seems that perhaps that he (Obama) and Kevin Rudd (PM of Australia) are reading from the same script.  It makes it all really laughable when they go to such extremes as trying to dupe folks into thinking that Doctors are backing their ridiculous plans. This week Kevin Rudd appeared wearing a surgical gown and revealed that he is handy with a defibrillator.  He also is known for telling tales of woe when it comes to health care which of course we all know that Obama is a master at doing even though most of his tales have been debunked as pure Barnyard Bovine Excrement.

 

Australia is undergoing a change in health care as they are finding that it is an  expensive proposition but the current administration under Kevin Rudd is determined to continue to take even more of the health care in Australia under government control. 
 

KEVIN Rudd faces growing distrust among premiers over his proposed health funding shake-up, reducing the chance of a negotiated agreement on a federal takeover of public hospitals.

With Western Australia and Victoria already openly hostile to the Prime Minister's plan to seize 30 per cent of state GST revenues to bankroll the move, Queensland hardened its attitude yesterday by linking its co-operation to a major increase in funding for aged-care services.

"In Victoria's case, that would mean close to $1 billion a year extra for our state from the commonwealth," Mr. Brumby(Premier from Victoria) said.

"The reality is, I think as all the independent commentators have observed, the heavy lifting and the extra effort in health in the last decade on health has been done by the states.

"The Prime Minister is probably frustrated. I think he is frustrated that he has announced a major health reform and, to be honest, he hasn't got too many supporters out there." One might add here that Obama has few supporters for his plan as well. According to Rasmussen Reports 65% of the American people do not support his NOCARE plan. It is also noted that down the road that States will be saddled with even more of the cost.

Sounds a bit familiar doesn’t it.  But yet Rudd gives the same reply to those who speak against his plan as Obama does. His most recent reply was, "It's time to get on with it,". Obama keeps saying, “it must be done NOW”. 

Why is it that liberals are so arrogant when it comes to those who oppose their agenda?  I have come to the conclusion that that is all they have--arrogance. They have no real plan that will pass the smell test but are insistent that theirs is the only answer. It is like insisting that even though there may be five hammers in a tool box of all colors and sizes, their red hammer is the only hammer to use be it for nailing a picture hanger to the wall or knocking down a concrete wall. It makes no difference if it is a sledge hammer, at least to liberals it doesn’t.

 

Rudd stated that "In terms of hospitals, beds, doctors, nurses, aged care, dental health, mental health, let me just say this: we now have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to get hospital reform right. Doctors want reform of our hospitals to happen, nurses want it to happen, working families who can't find a place with elective surgery want it to happen." What he forgot to say is that it is going to cost states more and more.  Sounds very familiar since Obama is not telling the American People the true cost of his fiasco.

 

Rudd does tell the truth about elective surgery since it has a long waiting list for such things. There are extensive waiting times for elective surgeries at public hospitals. Although waiting lists for the most urgent elective surgery for heart disease and cancer are almost nonexistent, there are long waiting lists for orthopedic surgery (median wait for total hip replacement is 88 days; 10% of patients waited over 345 days in 1999 to 2000), and cataract surgery (median is 73 days; 10% waited more than 316 days). One of the attractions of health insurance is the ability to bypass public hospital waiting lists. Notice that those with private health insurance are not subjected to the long waits as those who are on government controlled medical treatment. Of course under the Obama fiasco there would be no real thing as private insurance. It would all be controlled by the government.

The cost for health care in Australia is actually less than in the US but then taxes are lower in the US than they are in Australia. Australia spends about 8.5% of gross domestic product while the US spends somewhere in the area of 13.7%. Waiting times for surgery is almost non-existent in the US but is common in countries with Government health control.

 Under Australian Medicare all citizens are covered. There is no limit on fees charged by doctors. There is, however, a government-set fee schedule. Doctors can bill patients or send their bills directly to the government insurance authority, the Health Insurance Commission (HIC). If sent to the HIC, the payment is 85% of the government-set fee for out-of-hospital expenses and 75% of the government set fee for in-hospital services; the money is paid directly to the doctor, and the doctor is not allowed to charge the patient an additional fee. About 75% of family physician services are directly billed to the HIC. If a doctor bills the patient directly, the patient then applies for the rebate of the government set fee. 

Of course this is not true of the Obama fiasco. Fees will be set and will be lower than they are now according to studies done by independent groups and the Senate bill calls for a 20% reduction in fees paid to doctors. Why?  Control is the only reasonable answer that one can offer. Rudd in Australia is seeking a greater control of medical care in Australia and a greater slice of the economy just as Obama and his Democrat minions are seeking to achieve here in the US.

 

Will we learn from Australia and other countries with socialize medicine or will be allow the government even more control over our lives under the Obama NOCARE fiasco?  Mean while the politician like Rudd and Obama carry on their dress up games in attempt to sway the minds of those who lack the ability to see through the game and the snake oil sales pitch.

The Polls Speak But the Lies Continue

According to most polls the American people want to see the so called Health Care fiasco scrapped and started from scratch but the current administration is determined to have it passed and forced down the throats of the American people. The President and the House and Senate leadership continues to lie, spin, and try to fool the people into believing that they and only they know what is best for them.   Here is what I found on what the polls are saying.

Most U.S. voters (55%) would rather see Congress scrap the original plan and start all over again, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.  Unaffiliated voters, by a nearly two-to-one margin, also favor starting over.

The president's health care summit last week seems to have nudged up support for the reform plan, but  52% of US voters continue to oppose it.   Sixty percent (60%) of voters believe Democrats should change the bill to win support from a reasonable number of GOP's. This finding is similar to the those found in October and  August of last year. Only 31% believe Democrats should go ahead and pass the bill without Republican support.

Separate polling finds that 65% of U.S. voters now think politics in the nation's capital will become more partisan over the next year.


Scott Rasmussen notes that Americans are "united in the belief that our political system is broken, that politicians are corrupt, and that neither political party has the answers.  Wonder why American’s believe the system is broken?  Could it be because of the lies that are being foisted upon them by the current administration?  Certainly congress has not been transformed into what was promised by Nancy Pelosi. It remains corrupt, even more corrupt than any congress in recent years. Scandals and back room deals certainly have proven to the American people that nothing has changed, and has only gotten worse this past year.


It doesn’t stop at Congress. It goes all the way to the top.  In his push to foist an unwanted Health Care Bill upon the American people Obama  has done a total 180 from his early campaign days, but then when has campaigning ever stopped in this administration.  So the question is, was he lying then or is he lying now?  Frankly I believe he is a compulsive liar and the truth is not in him.
Here are just a few examples from recent days. I am sure that most of you can add more  to the pack of lies already put forth by this man.


President Barack Obama is trying to achieve a health care overhaul the way he once said it couldn't, and shouldn't, be done. He now wants congressional Democrats to move ahead without Republican support and pass the legislation with a bare majority in the Senate instead of the broader majority he favored as a presidential candidate.

He's reverting to a "50-plus-one" strategy that he called a losing proposition — because "you can't govern" with it — back when he was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs(another compulsive liar and spin master) denied that, insisting Obama was "talking about electoral strategy, not vote counting in the House and the Senate," in his October 2007 remarks. In fact, Obama was talking about both, and more.

THE CLAIM: Gibbs at first said Obama was only talking about how to get elected when he criticized the 50-plus-one strategy in an October 2007 interview with the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire. Pressed, Gibbs then said Obama meant "you're not going to get legislation through Congress if only 50 percent plus one in the country think it's a good idea. That's why if you look at poll after poll, people want health care reform and the debate on health care reform to continue."

THE FACTS: Obama wasn't talking about polls or public opinion — or only about electoral politics — in the interview.

"You've got to break out of what I call the — sort of — 50-plus-one pattern of presidential politics, which is you have nasty primaries where everybody's disheartened, then you divide the country 45 percent on one side 45 percent on the other and 10 percent in the middle," he began. "Battle it out and then maybe you eke out a victory of 50 plus one, and then you can't govern."   

He went on to talk specifically about getting legislation through Congress: "You can't deliver on health care. We're not going to pass universal health care with a 50-plus-one strategy. We're not going to have a serious bold energy policy of the sort that I proposed yesterday unless you build a working majority."  [And of course everyone who has heard his constant campaign for his NOCARE plan knows that he is lying now and that he was lying then.]

Asked in the interview if his Democratic nomination rival Hillary Rodham Clinton would be a "50-plus-one president" and that's why he, as a consensus builder, would be better, he replied, "Yes."  [ So far he has been the most disaffecting , president yet]

It’s time for the lies and spin to stop Obama. The  majority of the American People , have seen the truth and they are calling you a liar. They are not whispering it, Obama, they are screaming it.  Time to let the ego go and stop the nonsense, start over and maybe, just maybe real Health Care Reform will be accomplished in your time. Keep up as you are going and you will face the wrath of the American People and it will be as you nor your cohorts in the Congress have ever seen before.  Are you listening?  Doubtful, indeed doubtful.