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Multiculturalism is the most recent, and perhaps final, expression of the late 20th-century left-wing ascendancy...
If there were a category higher than Must-Read, this would go there.READ MORE
"The battle against terror is a race between rationality and luck" and our luck will run out."
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Authoritarian multiculturalism today possesses an advantage it never had before: one of its most enthusiastic adherents currently occupies the White House...
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On the recently announced soaring recidivism rate for Gitmo detainees returning to terror, State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley said on Fox News that "we actually expected this to happen."
[yet they do it anyway]
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Internal emails obtained by Judicial Watch suggest a number of top deputies in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office “went to great lengths” to help the developers of the proposed Ground Zero mosque, including drafting a letter addressed to the community board on their behalf...
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America; still land of the free?
The Wall Street Journal's Index of Economic Freedom shows the United States has fallen from the top-tier in 1999 to being moderately competitive in 2010...
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Nearly everyone agrees that Judge Hudson's finding that the ObamaCare health insurance mandate is unconstitutional will be appealed to the Supreme Court.
Here's the kicker;
Justice Elena Kagan, having served in the Obama Justice Department, is surely to recuse herself. With the "liberals" one judge down, even a Kennedy vote to uphold the individual mandate would presumably result in a 4-4 tie. And guess what? If there is a tie, the lower ruling stands...
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Fifty-three percent (53%) of voters nationwide favor repeal of the recently passed national health care law. The latest weekly Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey on the subject finds that only 42% oppose repeal...
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A December 13 ABC News/Washington Post poll found Barack Obama's health law at a new low in popularity, but Monday's World News and Tuesday's Good Morning America offered only meager coverage of the development...
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As recognition grows that the so-called tax bill has become Stimulus II, some of the bill's supporters are rethinking their earlier positions. Bill Clinton's usurping of the baffled Obama's role on point for the deal may have helped clarify the situation for many as 42 bluntly noted that Democrats have to support the Christmas Tree deal because they cannot possibly do as well in January...
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$575.13 million per page...
[No one learned anything from November, business as usual. Washington won't change until we change everyone we send there.]
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Good Morning America's Jon Karl on Thursday offered misleading, sloppy reporting on a congressional tax deal, bizarrely suggesting that the proposal "slashes" the estate tax. In a follow-up piece, news anchor Juju Chang asserted that many Democrats "are still opposed, especially to the estate tax cut."
In reality, the so-called death tax is currently at zero. Under the deal, it will increase to 35 percent. Karl mangled, "Even Democratic leaders are fuming, especially unhappy with the provision that slashes the tax on inheritances."
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Thanks, Vlad. Your gift will probably end up in the hands of Mexican drug gangs.,,
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Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon warned Monday that
"Venezuela is Iran’s advance outpost on the Latin American continent. The two countries have joined together to create an axis of conventional and nuclear terror [that threatens] not only the Middle East, but also the continent of America, and the United States in particular,"Ayalon told a group of some two dozen journalists from Latin American countries...
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Going almost totally unnoticed by he MSM is the news that Iran intends to place "medium-range" missiles (read: they can reach the US) in Venezuela. You know, for an Iranian military base manned by Iranian soldiers, see?
It can't be a "missile crisis" if Obama and the 'press' couldn't care less, right?
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A useful guideline in evaluating the significance of a national security-related news story first revealed by someone in the establishment press is whether other media outlets pick it up. If they don't, it's probably significant.
Such is the case with the Washington Post's Saturday story about Venezuela acquiring 1,800 Russian antiaircraft missiles. That appears to be 1,700 more than originally thought.
The story has gone through two additional overnight news cycles. Yet it appears from relevant site searches that both the Associated Press (searches on Venezuela, Venezuela missiles [not in quotes], and missiles) and the New York Times (Venezuela, "Venezuela missiles," and missiles) have chosen to ignore the story...
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Incoming Chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wants to Isolate Enemies, Make U.N. Accountable
The incoming Republican chairwoman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday identified U.S. funding of the United Nations as a target. The comments are likely to send a chill through supporters of the Obama administration’s policy of deeper engagement with the U.N.
“I plan on using U.S. contributions to international organizations as leverage to press for real reform of those organizations, such as the United Nations,”Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said after GOP lawmakers confirmed she will chair the committee in the next Congress...
[And in America...]
At noon on October 30, 2010, a devastating device ripped through a crowded Philadelphia department store. Hundreds of unsuspecting shoppers were suddenly exposed to an infectious agent delivered with explosive power. Those exposed are still dealing with the immediate effects. They could be faced with ongoing effects for the rest of their lives.
Similar attacks at malls and food courts have been reported and posted on YouTube.
Not surprisingly, the media have been silent...
The barbarians we need to fear aren't just bearded monsters from the Middle East. The biggest threat to our civilization comes from our own elite universities that once preserved and extended it. The insane siege engine they've built is a rickety contraption of lies, distortions, and manipulations that tirelessly assaults our foundations with myths and superstitions...
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Most Americans are probably unaware that Jews were the victims of more than eight times as many anti-religion hate crimes last year as were Muslims. And the reason is simple: anti-Muslim crimes receive far more media attention.
Case in point: the media has been all but silent on a slew of anti-Semitic acts of vandalism at Indiana University, coinciding with the beginning of the celebration of Hanukkah...
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For nearly 15 years, the Pulliam Hall clock tower on the campus of Southern Illinois University has played Christmas carols. But this year, after a few complaints, the bells have been silenced while the school tries to expand its melodic tradition to include a more 'diverse' selection of music.
“We took the music off the clock tower as a result of some complaints we received that religious music was offensive to non-Christians,” SIU Chancellor Rita Cheng told KFVS...
[Note how our otherwise activist academics never consider for a moment defending long established practices as being American societal traditions - those have no intrinsic value, you understand...]
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Over the last several decades, government's sanctioning of secular fundamentalism has emboldened its proponents, aiding a slow but sure erosion of our societal norms...
[And as our Founding Fathers explicitly warned us, a country without shared values cannot stand.]
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The Obama administration's actions and policies epitomize the veracity of Lord Acton's famous proposition that "[p]ower tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
From the passage of ObamaCare to the offensive TSA screenings, this country's citizens have seen the Constitution trampled upon with little to no acknowledgment that such actions would have caused our forefathers to board a ship to a far-off land in search of liberty and freedom...
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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) apparently is headed for a 3-2 party-line vote to regulate the Internet on Dec. 21, which Commissioner Robert M. McDowell (a stalwart free-market champion who opposes the regulations) points out is the darkest day of the year.
Regulating the Internet under the banner of so-called network neutrality has been a far-left cause celebre ever since it became clear that unregulated media gravitates toward the conservative majority of the nation...
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It's difficult to conceive of a liberal myth more out of touch with economic reality than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's oft-repeated claim that tax cuts must be "paid for." Over and over this week, Pelosi has insisted that any extension of the Bush 2001 and 2003 tax cuts should be restricted to the "middle class." If the cuts are extended to couples making more than $250,000 -- the rich, in Pelosi's view -- then, she claims, Republicans are saying "we should not pay for it, we should add that $700 billion to the deficit"
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"Russian democracy has disappeared and the government was an oligarchy run by the security services,"
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Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told CNN television that Russia would deploy nuclear weapons and "strike forces" if it were shut out of a Western missile shield, adding punch to a warning from President Dmitry Medvedev...
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“The Kremlin displays scant ability or inclination to reform what one cable characterized as a ‘modern brand of authoritarianism’ accepted with resignation by the ruled,”
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Here we go again. President Obama is trying once again to ram a legislative initiative through Congress knowing full well that, by so doing, he is maximizing the chances that his project's defects will not become widely understood until it is too late to do much about them. Call it the pig-in-a-poke stratagem.
This time around, however, Mr. Obama is not simply trying to socialize the economy, destroy the world's finest health care system or assault the Constitution. No, at the moment he has the national security in his crosshairs - and the negative implications could make those associated with his other, domestic policy campaigns pale by comparison...
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The squealing is a sign that Romney hit his target: New START is a bad deal for the United States, and the Senate should send the administration back to the negotiating table...
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Press coverage of the new Pentagon Don't Ask Don't Tell report suggests that large majorities of U.S. servicemen and women wouldn't mind the repeal of the military's current policy on gays. Don't believe it.
What the report actually shows is that the military is deeply divided over the policy, both between the service branches and especially between those who have served in combat and those who haven't.
Did you know that 59 percent of Marines who have served in combat say repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell would have a negative effect?
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. Here’s a challenge: Can you name one difference between what the media refer to as “world opinion” and left-wing opinion? Take all the time you need.
No matter how much time you take, you probably won’t come up with any examples. Here are examples of major world issues and what is deemed “world opinion” on them.
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It's time for America's youth to buckle up and take a rough ride on Reality Highway. For the past two years, President Obama has promised our children the moon, stars, rainbows, unicorns and universal health care for all. But the White House Santa's cradle-to-grave entitlement mandates are a spectacularly predictable bust. (Snip) In a related development, over the past several months several insurers across California, Colorado, Ohio and Missouri have dropped child-only plans because of Obamacare-induced premium increases. Untold tens of thousands of families who purchase their plans in the private individual health market will be affected...
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Rep. Michele Bachmann, founder and chairman of the House Tea Party Caucus, told CNSNews.com that there will need to be an “insurrection” against the House Republican leadership if it does not hold an independent, straight up-or-down vote on repealing the entire Obamacare law that does not tie this repeal to other policy initiatives including any effort to “replace” elements of Obamacare with new federal health-care reforms...
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... news of the privatization plans came as it emerged that the eurozone bail-out fund will next month begin issuing debt on behalf of embattled member states...
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"We are not producing the body of news and information that democracy needs to conduct its civic dialogue."
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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is poised to add the Internet to its portfolio of regulated industries. The agency's chairman, Julius Genachowski, announced Wednesday that he circulated draft rules he says will "preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet."
No statement could better reflect the gulf between the rhetoric and the reality of Obama administration policies.
With a straight face, Mr. Genachowski suggested that government red tape will increase the "freedom" of online services that have flourished BECAUSE bureaucratic busybodies have been blocked from tinkering with the Web....
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Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Wednesday afternoon that the Obama administration will not allow offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico or off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as part of the next five-year drilling ban, reversing two key policy changes President Obama announced in late March...
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Gas prices are on the rise and many stations are hitting the dreaded 3 dollar mark. One month ago the average price of unleaded in Springfield was 15 cents lower...
[Can't imagine why.]
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The United States appears to have shot itself in the foot yet again, as drilling for offshore oil near the island nation approaches next year. There is no question that the United States needs more oil. Its imports will approach 4 trillion barrels in 2010.
It is also true that, in spite of the catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill, U.S. companies have considerable expertise in offshore drilling and the U.S. government has experience in seeing that drilling is done safely and with respect for the environment.
Cuba and the countries it's sub-leasing to don't, and wouldn't care about American coastlines if the did...
[WE ARE the richest oil and gas nation in the world - yet...]
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In October, a study by the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University concluded that the reduction of shallow water oil drilling permits that followed the BP oil spill would cost 40,000 jobs in the region...
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... Not only does the 'Palestinian Authority' get its powers from Oslo, but Oslo is the sole basis of the 'Palestinian' claim to the Arab occupied land in Judea and Samaria.
It's why the Israelis did something no other country in the Middle East was willing to do... give the Palestinians some land to call their own.
The 'moderate' Fayyad's statements simply formalize what Yasser Arafat's former political commissar in Jerusalem, Feisal Husseini openly admitted years ago - that Oslo was simply a Trojan horse designed to deceive Israel.
Since the 'Palestinians' are no longer bound by Oslo, neither is Israel and Netanyahu should make that crystal clear immediately.
Since there's no longer a legal or practical basis for them, Israel should immediately break off the futile negotiations with the 'Palestinians and annex the Israeli controlled areas of Judea and Samaria, while moving the 'Palestinian' non-Israeli citizens to the 'Palestinian' occupied areas...
[But 'world opinion' will demand that Israel continue to abide by the accords even if their 'partner in piece' doesn't...]
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Pakistani Muslims have threatened anarchy if the Government pardons a Christian mother sentenced to death for blasphemy, calling hundreds of protesters onto the streets. Hundreds of Muslims marched in the eastern city of Lahore after the most influential Sunni Muslim alliance in Pakistan urged the Government not to grant mother-of-five Aasia Bibi clemency...
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A schoolgril said to have been filmed burning the Koran has been arrested on suspicion of inciting religious hatred. The 15-year-old was nicked after a video of her alleged act - watched by other pupils on school premises - was posted on Facebook...
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They're a militant Shiite Muslim organization defined by the U.S. government as a terrorist group, but don't tell that to CNN senior editor of Middle Eastern affairs, Octavia Nasr...
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A Mexican-based financial company is forecasting $22 billion in remittances for 2010 making it Mexico’s second highest revenue maker behind crude oil....
Not only are we not recirculating billions of U.S. dollars earned in our country back into our own economy, we are also dolling out tens of billions taxpayer-funded social services to millions who don’t contribute to the system.
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[So naturally, in California...]
Oakland is poised to join a handful of cities in creating a municipal identification card that is touted primarily as a way for illegal aliens to prove their identity. But unlike programs in other locales, Oakland's plan will be the first in the nation to create an alternative banking system for them...
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Why are diplomatic cables secret at all?
It's a fair question to ask as we assess the WikiLeaks disclosures and the damage they may do. Overall, there are very few surprises in these cables. Anyone who regularly get their news from the new media should know that governments around the world consistently lie in public...
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The Wikileaks fiasco reveals many things about many people, and despite the mainstream media's attempt to equate it to a "diplomatic 9/11," much of it appears to be far less than that. At this point in time, is anyone really surprised that so many people in high places are as venal, self-interested, conniving and incompetent?
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A hot mic left on during a Senate vote Tuesday morning on the Food Safety Act caught a Democratic senator complaining that the process of setting the agenda during the lame-duck session is “rigged.”
“It’s all rigged. The whole conversation is rigged,”said Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet. “The fact that we don’t get to a discussion before the break about what we’re going to do in the lame duck. It’s just rigged.” The remark was picked up live on C-SPAN 2...
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U.S. Rep. Mike Pence made it clear that the problems facing the country transcend government and business.
The nation cannot be restored with public policy alone, he said, adding that “public virtue” also will be necessary...“To renew American exceptionalism, we have to recognize one more thing, we have to recognize that our present crisis is not merely economic and political but moral in nature,”
"At the root of these recent times should be the realization that people in positions of authority from Washington to Wall Street have walked away from the timeless truths of honesty and integrity”
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...in Brussels, the Europhiles believe that this will move the balance of power from the nation states to them. The European Parliament has passed a motion declaring that, in future, “Europe will be an important political force”. Even more absurdly, Elmar Brok, a German MEP, declared that: “It must be clear that this [Baroness Ashton] is the only one responsible for operational foreign policy.”
I can’t see that going down too well with William Hague – nor with the Americans.
Can you really image the White House wanting to ring Baroness Ashton, a former treasurer, to ask for help in a missile strike?
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“Both our friends and our adversaries alike have assessed this as a very weak administration, uncomfortable with asserting American interests or defending them, particularly through the use of force internationally. This assessment has led us to this point."
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Why would the Senate take up precious time in the lame duck session considering a food safety bill?
This power grab of the nation's food supply may end up benefiting a certain Hungarian billionaire.
Just as ObamaCare wasn't really about health care reform but about government power, S510 is not really about food safety but about government control of agriculture and the nation's food producers...
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When George Soros invests $50 million to 'revolutionize' the way Americans think about a certain issue, it would normally be deemed newsworthy. Not so with the formation of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) - the MSM is dutifully keeping its public profile low.
Despite its name, its philosophy is nearly a century old.
The group blames the economic crisis on free market capitalism and promotes a return to the theories of John Maynard Keynes to “apply the same Keynesian courage and innovation” to ending the worldwide recession...
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The Federal Communications Commission plans to impose "net neutrality" without any legislative or legal authority, in effect silencing a conduit for the truth that keeps us free.
The Internet is once again under attack, not from hackers intent on spilling secrets or causing mischief, but by an administration intent on controlling the free flow of information that it views as a threat to its expanding power.
Note the announcement's emphasis on "lawful Internet traffic" and a "level playing field."
This is government-speak for controlling what gets said and who gets to say it.
The Internet is already open to all, but in the marketplace of ideas, as in other areas of endeavor, some ideas win out over others. The FCC wants to decide what and whose ideas get heard...
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It takes up to 90 private sector workers to support the salary of one state worker making the same amount of money, according to a new analysis. The nonpartisan state Office of Legislative Services, in response to a question posed by the Assembly Republican office, says it takes between 67.5 and 90 private-sector workers to support the salary of one state worker...
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."In fact, many of the richest Americans like Buffett, Bill and Melinda Gates and Ted Turner say that they should pay higher tax.”
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Three of the “Patriotic Millionaires for Fiscal Strength,” a group of 90 plus millionaires who signed a letter to President Obama asking him to allow the tax cuts on people with an income of $1 million or more each year to expire, say that despite their call to raise taxes, they will not pay the government more than they are required to, nor will they cut the government a personal check...
[Liberal 'philanthropy ': forcing others to act as you think they should.]
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Carbon dioxide dioxides, claimed to be the chief cause of global warming in political circles, decreased from 2008 to 2009, largely because of the global economic slowdown, says a study released Sunday.
"There is a close link between the world's gross domestic product and emissions of carbon dioxide,"says study lead author Pierre Friedlingstein of the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, according to a story in USA TODAY...
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SCAMS: A high-ranking member of the U.N.'s Panel on Climate Change admits the group's primary goal is the redistribution of wealth and not environmental protection or saving the Earth.
It's also the motivating force behind what is left of the climate change movement after the devastating Climate-gate and IPCC scandals that saw the deliberate manipulation of scientific data to spur the world into taking draconian regulatory action.
Left for dead, global warm-mongers are busy planning their next move...
[As in another name change, this time to "Climate Disruption" - also know a weather. You think a hundred-Trillion dollars will be given up without a fight?]
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Eight people have frozen to death in Poland since Monday, police in Warsaw said... The winter began with a vengeance this week in Europe, with sub- zero temperatures reported in most countries...
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Next time a concept like, say "death panels" from the federal government seems far-fetched, consider the ordeal California's Central Valley has endured for the past two years.
Based on a prior judicial ruling, some of the most prized and productive agricultural land in the country was turned into a wasteland after its water was shut off....
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“It is really having a detrimental impact on small business owners. They are suffering from even higher premium increases than in the past two decades. And a lot of them are having trouble even keeping the coverage they have, which we were all promised.”Source
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If doctors were set free from Medicare price controls, the Medicare administrators would be better able to reduce Medicare's contribution to provider reimbursement without fear of a physician exodus from the system...
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