Tuesday, March 23, 2010
The Reality of Obamacare
[HT:LDot; "$10 billion to pay for 16,500 IRS agents who will collect
and enforce mandatory 'premiums.'" Think about it.]
First: Congratulations to President Obama and the Democratic leadership.
You won dirty against bipartisan opposition from both Congress and the majority of Americans.
You've definitely polarized the country even more, and quite possibly bankrupted us too. But hey, you won.
Bubbly for everyone. Simply, you have nationalized healthcare by proxy. Insurance companies are now heavily regulated government contractors.
Way to get big business out of Washington...
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IRS to hire thousands of armed tax agents to enforce health care laws
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While it’s still not known exactly how many will be hired, here’s what’s clear: Under the new law, the IRS is required to fine taxpayers thousands of dollars if they do not purchase health insurance.
In order for the government to enforce compliance, tax authorities will need information, for the first time, about people’s health care...
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20 Ways ObamaCare Will Take Away Our Freedoms
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... it is worthwhile to take a comprehensive look at the freedoms we will lose. Of course, the overhaul is supposed to provide us with security.
But it will result in skyrocketing insurance costs and physicians leaving the field in droves, making it harder to afford and find medical care. We may be about to live Benjamin Franklin’s adage,
“People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both.”
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Rush Was Right
[Credit where due.]
USEFUL NICE GUYS
In hindsight Republicans will point the President Obama's Blair House health care meeting with Republicans as the event that enabled Democrats to get to a point where the Senate health care bill could pass.
During the event and immediately afterward, some Republicans were given credit for standing up to the President and attempting to get a leg up, but according to a Democrat leadership aide in the House, the event accomplished exactly what the Democrats and the White House wanted.
"It allowed the Democrats to create the impression that Republicans had had a hand. It allowed the President afterward to claim he had included Republican proposals in the bill, and gave him a clear path to moving the process along, where before he didn't,"
A White House aide, who was involved in planning the media sideshow at Blair said,
"If the Republicans had actually listened to Rush [Limbaugh] and [Mark] Levin and [Fred] Thompson and not attended, we couldn't have built any momentum...'
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If You’re against Obamacare, You’re Probably a Racist
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Today, the New York Times features an article drawing a direct link between the Obamacare debate and the civil-rights struggle over 40 years ago. The title is “Past Strife and Jeers,” and here is the opening paragraph:
"WASHINGTON — Forty-five years ago, John Lewis began the third of what became society-shifting civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. On Sunday, the anniversary of that famous trek, he joined hands with fellow House Democrats and marched past jeering protesters into the Capitol to remake the nation’s health care system..."
We have no tolerance for intolerance and condemn anyone who would resort to racist name-calling. Shame on anyone who did.
But shame on the New York Times for comparing those who protested the Democrats’ health-care policy with the virulent southern racists who participated in violent and often deadly protests against civil-rights demonstrators.
Give us a break.The Left’s plan for November is to promote exactly this kind of thinking, shaming opponents into staying at home rather than going to the polls to vote the bums out, while fooling proponents that opposition is nothing more than the most atavistic form of prejudice.
With every poll showing that far more voters hate Obamacare than love it (with the balance made up of the lukewarm on both sides of the issue), this is the New York Times’s effort to help shift voter intensity — which spells turnout in November — in favor of Obamacare.
We suspect the electorate won’t prove so gullible. The Old Grey Lady is not as smart as she thinks she is, nor are Americans the ninnies she believes they are.
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New CNN Poll: 59% Oppose Obamacare
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“President Obama is set to begin an immediate public relations blitz reshaping the legislation’s image"
[So many racists.
Unfortunately, after the absurd success of '08, the Left is now convinced they (with the MSM as key component) can sell the American public on anything given time - and they've 7 months...]
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America’s Day of Wreckoning — the Socialist Putsch Comes to Washington
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The peaceful, patriotic millions who marched over the course of the year were virtually ignored by the media and certainly ignored by the President. Big media only deemed fit to cover the people’s revolution long enough to libel them and smear them with vulgarities (“tea baggers“). This campaign of destruction culminated Saturday in the specious charge that a protester shouted “ni**er” at the Congressional Black Caucus.
The only problem with all this was that the charges were false. Video evidence proved that no one shouted “ni**er” or “faggot.” Is it a coincidence that after a year of millions marching against this ugly leftist power grab, that on the day before the vote both racist and homophobic slurs were allegedly hurled?
The daily drumbeat of lies and smear is so relentless that it has lost its sting. It’s like water off a duck’s back. But for the first time, America is getting a taste of it. Ordinary Americans are being smeared and slandered. And the silver lining here is that the American people will never trust the Democrats or big media again...
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Al Sharpton: 'The American Public Overwhelmingly Voted for Socialism When They Elected President Obama'
Al Sharpton:
Sharpton, the founder of the National Action Network and talk radio host told Fox News on March 21, during their special coverage of the House of Representatives' passage of health care reform legislation, this victory for President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would begin "transforming" the country.
"First of all, then we have to say the American public overwhelmingly voted for socialism when they elected President Obama," ... "Let's not act as though the president didn't tell the American people - he was overwhelmingly elected..."
[Tell: true, but the MSM hid it, Overwhelming: 7.1% {vs. Reagan's >18%}.
Still, past time the unvarnished truth slips out. NOW does America know what it's up against?]
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It's a Civil War: What We Do Now
Subject: txt 1st 2010 hstry edu vals -
A terrible thing happened to America on Sunday, March 21, 2010. The country took its biggest step ever down a road diametrically opposed to its original intent of keeping the state small so that the individual can be free and great.
Therefore, in this unprecedented crisis of values, this is what needs to be done:
1. Know and teach America's core values. We got to this point solely because over the past few generations, Americans have forgotten the values that have made America distinctive and great... [snip]
2. Recognize that we are fighting the left, not liberals. Liberalism believed in American exceptionalism; the left not only does not believe in it, the left opposes it.,, [snip]
3. Democrats should be referred to as Social Democrats. This is not meant to be a slur, but there is no longer any difference between what is now known as the Democratic Party and the Social Democratic parties of Europe... [snip]
4. 6. Do not let other matters distract. Neither Republicans nor conservatives are united on every issue facing America. Immigration is one example. But we are united on the big government vs. free individual issue, which, more than anything else, has defined America. If we allow any other domestic issue to divide us, we will lose... [snip]
5. Our motto: "The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen." It encapsulates this epic battle of American values versus leftist values.
6. Acknowledge that we are in a non-violent civil war. The fact is that the left and the rest of the country share almost no values. The American value system and the leftist value system are irreconcilable. If the left wins, America's values lose. If American values prevail, the left loses.
After Sunday's vote, for the first time in American history, one could no longer confidently believe that the American system will prevail.
And if we don't fight for it, we don't deserve it.
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[The challenge:
Everyday Americans will need overcome their two greatest disadvantages is defending their values from the ceaseless onslaught of Progressivism:
1) The aversion of good people to imagine what bad people are capable of. and so slow recognition of evil being done {the enabler of tyrants throughout history}, and
2) The disinclination of conservatives toward 'activist' activities, as contrary to their self-reliant/libertarian/live-and-let-live values.
This combination of traits assures defeat over time, as it faces the opposite in liberal-progressivism:
> Belief in progressive values is self-evidence or superior intellect, and is accompanied with a moral obligation to direct the masses for their own good, and{exaggeration? the nationalization of college tuition loans in a 'health care' bill?}
> The altruism of this end justifies any-and-all means toward achieving - chief among them being stealth and deception, such as secured their virtually monopolies of key social institutions (academia, media, public employees).
The point:
Everyday busy/self reliant/minding-their-own-business Americans need wake up to the reality that progressive-liberals, by their nature, fervently believe that our business is their business to manage and consider no means toward doing so beyond bounds.
Eternal counter-activism [action] is required or the individual liberty this country was founded on will be consumed by the never ending assault of collectivism.
I.e., it's our turn.
Monday, March 22, 2010
The real arithmetic of health care reform
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On Thursday, the Congressional Budget Office reported that, if enacted, the latest health care reform legislation would, over the next 10 years, cost about $950 billion, but because it would raise some revenues and lower some costs, it would also lower federal deficits by $138 billion.
In reality, if you strip out all the gimmicks and budgetary games and rework the calculus, a wholly different picture emerges: The health care reform legislation would raise, not lower, federal deficits, by $562 billion...
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[click to enlarge]
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Health Care Bill, CBO Estimates Based on 'Nefarious' Assumptions
Subject: txt 1st hcare = Economist Morici:
That critic was University of Maryland economist Peter Morici, who expressed skepticism of the assumptions built into the health care reform bill, projected that it would raise costs for many average families and it would add "substantially" the federal deficit.
"There's a lot of assumptions in this bill that are kind of nefarious, uh, and I believe that the typical American family will pay $1,000 to $2,000 more for coverage for a family of four,"
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What America Will Look Like If The White House Gets Its Way
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What will that change look like? Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said, “we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,” and President Barack Obama said, “By the time the vote has taken place, not only will I know what’s in it, you’ll know what’s in it.”
In other words, here’s a ticket to ride, get on board, we can’t tell you where it’s going, but you’ll like it once you get there. We promise.
A picture of America’s future under Obamacare can be revealed, though, after peeling away the pages and digging through the dirt. Here’s 10 things you can expect:
- 1. A Massively Engorged Government, to the tune of $2.5 trillion in new entitlement spending. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), new entitlement spending in the plan would cost $216 billion by 2019, then increase by 8 percent every year thereafter.
- 2. A Cornhusker Kickback for All. No, special deals aren’t removed from Obamacare this time around. Instead, the House bill extends new federal funding for Medicaid to all states. Incidentally, you’re paying for it.
- 3. A Freight train of taxes, slamming the American people in 2018. You’ve heard of the “Cadillac” tax on high-cost insurance plans? It will be pushed back to 2018, and given the way “high-cost” plans will be defined, a large segment of the middle class would get hit with the tax over time.
- 4. Beware the shape-shifting tax monster. New taxes will take many forms, including taxes on prescription drugs, medical devices (like wheel chairs), and health insurance.
- 5. Unconstitutional mandates, courtesy of Congress. Don’t want to buy health insurance? Congress will penalize you if you don’t, regardless of income.
- 6. Higher health care costs will be sneaking in. The plan gives subsidies to low-to-moderate wage families, but the subsidies will increase at a lower rate than the rate at which premiums increase. In other words, those families will pay more every year.
- 7. Lights out for small businesses. Companies that hire certain low-income Americans will have to pay $3,000 per employee, per year, even if the company offers insurance.Oh, and if a company employs 50 or more workers, they’ll face higher tax penalties to the tune of $2,000 per full-time employee.
- 8. Abortions. You will pay for them, like it or not. The House bill includes major funding for community health centers with no restrictions on federal taxpayer funding of abortions.
- 9. Let's dampen investment while we're at it. The House bill slaps a 3.8% tax on investment income.
- 10. It’s not a federal system, after all. States will have less power. They’ll no longer have authority to regulate health care premiums. Instead, the federal government will take on the job. States and local governments won’t be able to control their own employee health plans; they’ll have to abide by new federal regulations.
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Health Overhaul's Assault On Business
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Taxes: If ObamaCare becomes permanent, no one will suffer more than U.S. businesses. They'll face higher taxes, more regulations and a higher cost of capital. But don't take our word for it. Go ask Caterpillar.
The heavy-equipment giant reckons its insurance costs will go up 20%, or $100 million, the first year after the health care system is overhauled, and may go even higher. Multiply that by literally tens of thousands of companies nationwide, large and small, and ask yourself what effect it will have toward the goal of "jobs, jobs, jobs" the White House so recently assured us was Job 1...
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[It's never been about health 'care'.]
Obama Supporter: ‘What’s Wrong With A Little Bit Of Socialism?’
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Yesterday, we attended an impromptu Tea Party outside the Evanston, IL office of Democrat Rep. Jan Schakowsky. Below are some photos and our in-depth video report documenting the event. Very few people turned out, but that didn’t prevent the scene from turning dramatic as a couple of Obama supporters tossed around accusations of racism, called everyone idiots, and asked the absurd question: “What’s wrong with a little bit of Socialism?”
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Barbarians at the Gates
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If you're not overly concerned with the government takeover of a sixth of our nation's economy {and all the individual liberty it will obliterate in the process}, I have a video recommendation: The Barbarian Invasions.
Set in Canada with French dialogue and English subtitles, it won last year's Academy Award for best foreign film, and Americans should view it if only to see how much worse being sick is when government controls health care.
The Barbarian Invasions documents the mediocrity, rationing, mindless bureaucracy, corruption, and elitism that inevitably follows government involvement in anything...
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Socialism Vs. Capitalism: Illustrated on Film
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Although he probably didn’t mean to say this, director Godfrey Reggio’s excellent 1982 film Koyaanisqatsi has a sequence that beautifully illustrates the failure of large socialized programs vs free market capitalism. This illustration reveals why if government spending often results in poor services and bankrupt results over time.
Here’s the clip. We start with scenes of New York majesty followed by a street slum, followed by rows of project apartment buildings as urban blight. Then, at the end, we’re shown gleaming glass towers which are the product of free market capitalism. The project buildings were products of President Johnson’s war on poverty which spent billions and did exactly what you’d expect billions of tax dollars thrown at an abstract problem like poverty would do. Those apartment buildings would have gone up in the 60s. The film was shot around 1979. Less than 20 years. Think on that when you watch the clip above.
That’s government in action right there. Some of those buildings were barely 20 years old, if that. And they want to take over 1/6th of our economy, the health care business, and manage it the way they do everything else. You know, as effectively as Medicare, Social Security, The Post Office, Amtrak which are all about to go under. Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae? Failing badly. Hey, why not just show the government debt while we’re at it to see how well they run things. They’ve created trillions in debt based on promises they made. Promises made by politicians that you and your descendants would be footing these bills. They didn’t ask for your consent. Just as they are ignoring the public’s will with the health care bills.
Governments don’t produce, they consume. They take from the people who create things and convert some of those resources into “benefits”. These benefits are, more often than not, bribes to ease us into letting them keep spending our money like mad. At some point, a long time ago, they stopped caring about wanted and started telling us what was good for us. They began taking more and more tax dollars and bribing the least productive citizens so they’d have voters who can override the productive citizens if they complained too much.
They used a divide and conquer strategy. They promised every splinter group what they wanted, but what they got is something else.
Nothing the government does is created out of thin air. It’s made from the wealth it has taken from others. While the free market has created many wonders on its own, most of the government’s great works are in the distant past and they’re falling apart from neglect. Or they’re maintained local governments or free enterprise. Most of the great towers of Manhattan and other cities were built by companies who earned their own wealth to build them. The rotting projects that have fallen into disarray were neglected by a government that promised those people they’d be lifted from poverty. Instead it segregated then into a decaying hell and trapped them into a cycle of dependence.
Tax dollars don’t solve problems. Neither does government.
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