Showing posts with label Healthcare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Healthcare. Show all posts

Thursday, March 04, 2010

Bankruptcy Here We Come: Federal Court Rejects California Medicaid Cuts

The San Francisco Chronicle:

A federal appeals court barred California on Wednesday from lowering Medi-Cal payments to doctors and hospitals by 5 percent and from cutting in-home care workers' wages by nearly 20 percent, saying the state's budget crisis doesn't justify violating federal laws that protect the poor and disabled. In four rulings, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rejected attempts by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature to reduce the state's deficit by paying less to the health professionals who treat 6.6 million low-income Californians, and to hundreds of thousands of workers who care for some of the neediest.

The appellate court said federal law requires "states to maintain poor residents' equal access to basic health care, and forbids cuts intended solely to save money" (Egelko, 3/4).

Medicaid is bankrupting the states. Medicare is underfunded by tens of trillions of dollars while hemorrhaging a hundred billion each year in fraud. And Social Security is running in the red this year, a decade earlier than Democrats predicted.

And the far left, union-controlled, Democrat Party continues on its death march to nationalize one-sixth of the economy.

So how's that progressive movement working out?

Not so great for we, the people.


Interviewer's question to SEIU head Andy Stern reveals who is really in charge: "How have you decided to pass [health] reform?"

Earlier today, The Cornell Daily Sun published an exclusive interview with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) president Andy Stern. The leader of the huge public-sector union lectured for two days at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations ("How to Bankrupt Taxpayers and the Auto Companies in Three Easy Steps?") and granted the interview before he left.

For reference purposes, it's worth noting that the White House is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the SEIU. Stern has visited the White House at least 28 times to set policy and, apparently, to serve as lead negotiator between Rod Blagojevich and President Obama for the latter's vacant Senate seat.

Sun: Despite the concern, why has America’s unionization rate been falling for the past several decades?

A.S.: It’s a combination of three factors. One factor is that the jobs that have been exported have been significantly more union. The jobs more in retail that have been created have been significantly less union. Two, we have laws that were written in 1935 that have been weakened substantially by the courts and by administrative law rulings and we have employers who are viciously fighting to stop giving workers a right. And when you look at the difference, with 37 percent of the workers in the public sector in union [sic], 7 percent in the private, you can ask that maybe the difference is the unions, or maybe the difference is the workers, but I would say the difference is the employers’ behavior... The private sector has decided that they want to give people a communist choice, which is no union. That’s all they really want on their ballot, and anyone who really tries to buck the domination and tyranny of the employer will pay a price.

Sun: What do you mean by a communist choice
?

A.S.: I’m just saying that in the communist countries when they have elections, there’s really only one choice. [You mean like "Card Check", Andy?] What employers want is to make it very clear there’s only one choice as far as they’re concerned, which is no union.

...Sun: Have you seen many successes so far?

A.S.: I think we’re on the verge of success in healthcare. I hope the president today will announce that he’s on the goal line and he’s organizing a huddle to try to make the plan to get across, which would — for the first time in the history of our country — allow people some sense of security and opportunity to not be victims of the insurance industry and increasingly higher and higher premiums. I think we’ve seen, because of the economic collapse, no real progress yet on how American workers get a raise. I think we’ve stabilized the patient, meaning the economy, but we’ve not begun to revive it significantly. I think that’s the next challenge.

...Sun: So how have you decided to pass the reform? [Ed: note the phrasing]

A.S.: The president, after a long process, has stepped in with his final set of ideas that will come out today or tomorrow. The Speaker of the House [Nancy Pelosi] is preparing the education process to get members of her party understanding the bill. And we hope, in congressional districts all over the country, to have our members go speak with their representatives — call, write, fax — to make it clear this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and we can’t let it slip away.

...Sun: About a year ago, you said that Obama would “shepherd” EFCA to passage in 2009. It still hasn’t been passed, so what went wrong?

A.S.: We all got to watch, from a ring-side seat, the dysfunctional character of our Congress, and particularly the United States Senate, who over a number of election cycles were given a rare moment, which was the ability to debate any single issue they wanted to without a filibuster of the other party. They squandered it and used it instead to hold bills hostage, hold their colleagues hostage, cut special deals for their state or for certain employers. We missed an opportunity to have what Americans sent them there to do, which is to have a debate and vote. Instead we got an arrogance of power, of individuals stopping change because they could.

The interviewer's question about a government takeover of health care is fascinating: "So how have you decided to pass the reform?"

Not: "How are your members helping the President pass reform?" Not: "What can interested citizens do to help Democrats in Congress make a decision?" Not: "Are there some GOP health care suggestions that you would embrace to help Congress reach a bipartisan consensus?"

No, it's phrased as though Andy Stern is calling the shots. And he is.

It's estimated that union bosses donated between 400 million and half a billion dollars of their members' dues money trying to elect Democrats in 2008. The unions' agenda -- and that of the Democrats -- conflicts directly with the interests of the American taxpayer.

And, in return, virtually every policy the Obama Democrats try to slam through Congress -- cap-and-trade, socialized medicine, the "Employee Free Choice Act", and the auto industry takeover -- is designed to benefit the unions and harm taxpayers. And that explains the hysterically funny decision to name Andy Stern, a man whose unions have done mortal damage to federal and state budgets, to Obama's "deficit commission".

Andy Stern, not Alexander Haig, is in control at the White House.


Tuesday, March 02, 2010

The Obama Economic Death-Mobile Accelerates: February 2010 Federal Tax Withholdings Plunge To Multiyear Low

It's another Obama miracle!

February was not an auspicious start to Obama's record budget deficit-busting plans. The Daily Treasury Statement for the full month of February was just released, and it disclosed that while corporate tax withholdings, net of refunds, actually climbed marginally to $3.4 billion from $(3.4) billion in February 2009, individual tax withholdings plunged to a multi-year low of $30.7 billion.

Combined, the two items also posted a multi low of $34 billion, less than the previous recent low from February 2009 when the first leg of the Greater Depression was allegedly at its zenith. We can't wait to hear how the "recession is over" brigade will paint this particular data point.

Leave it up to the White House publicists at the Bureau of Made-up Labor Statistics to take care of that problem. Count on Census hiring, for instance, to drive the unemployment rate down to -3%.

Tax revenues are plunging. States are going bankrupt. The federal deficit is exploding. And the withholding numbers are even worse than they appear: for 2010, your withholding increased, though taxes haven't changed (yet). This gives the Treasury an interest-free loan, which you'll get back in 2011 in the form of a refund.

And what are Democrats fixated on? Nationalizing the health care industry. The entire economy is melting down, and they're trying to implement death panels and giant health care databases.

No wonder Americans are livid.


Hat tip: ZH commenters.

Little-used 'Staple-and-bind' parliamentary procedure will allow Democrats to pass health bill with just nine votes in House, three in Senate

(Washington DC - RNN) Democrat insiders say that an obscure parliamentary procedure known as "Staple-and-Bind" will be used as an alternative to pass a health care overhaul should reconciliation efforts fail. "Staple-and-bind" refers to the final act of preparing legislation, using an industrial-grade stapler and a three-ring binder, for shipment.

"We take a trivial piece of legislation -- a resolution to honor Vin Diesel for his lifetime acting achievements, for instance," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"At the very last second, the instant before we staple and bind the legislation, we can insert as many pages of new law as will fit in the binder," she said, "This will allow us to pass a meaningful, bipartisan health care reform bill that will benefit all Americans with just nine votes in the House and three votes in the Senate."

Politico's Mike Allen reported late this afternoon that Senate staffers were scouring the District for the largest American-made three-ring binder, the Avery Royale Deluxe. It is widely believed that the Royale is the only binder large enough to contain the entire 2,770-page health care reform bill.

Congressional Democrats have also purchased a Staple Jihad 5000 Nail Gun, the only street-legal stapler capable of binding the massive legislation. The propane-powered stapler can penetrate up to 3,000 8.5" x 11" pages, which leaves room for Democrats to nationalize other aspects of medical delivery including dentistry, veterinary medicine and crystal healing stones.


Sunday, February 28, 2010

Exclusive: Transcript of President's secret meeting with Congressional Democrats to discuss strategy for passing health care



A man becomes president...

...he's expected to have...

...enthusiasms.

Enthusiasms!

Enthusiasms.

What are mine?

What draws my admiration?

What is that which gives me joy?

Nationalization!

A president stands alone in the White House.

This is the time for what?

Individual achievement!!

There he stands alone.

But the House of Representatives, the Senate, the SEIU, the community organizers, ACORN... Part. Of. A. Team.

...uhm, teamwork... ehm... teamwork...

Agitates, organizes, registers dead people to vote, supports the government!

Part of one... big... team!

Works for the party, the people, all the live-long day...

...Ayers, Hoffa...

...Alinsky...

...and so on.

If his team don't organize... help nationalize health care...

What is he?

You follow me?

No one.

...

*** THWAKK!!! ***

*** THWAKK!!! ***

*** THWAKK!!! ***

You got that, Stupak?

You got that?

Get someone to clean this s*** up, Rahmmie.


Reconciliation: "If the American people find out that this bill is about giving health care to non-citizens, they will rise up against it."

Those thuds you hear in the distance are Democrats firing every bit of political artillery they can muster. They're trying to soften up the American people to the notion of using reconciliation to pass their amazingly unpopular health care bill. The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder says the White House will announce their demand for reconciliation on Wednesday.

The White House and Democrats had one mission today: prepare the political class for the President's announcement, probably Wednesday, that he thinks the Senate ought to proceed with reconciliation to ****pass or modify**** a comprehensive health care bill (passed by the House or Senate first? Not sure.). But Democrats still don't agree: Kent Conrad, the budget committee chairman, says that the House must pass the extant Senate bill (with all the bad stuff in there) first; the House wants to see if the Senate has the votes for the Obama bill (with all the bad stuff taken out), and Conrad said today that reconciliation can't be used to pass #HCR.

On Fox News Sunday, Sen. Robert Menendez claimed that Senate Democrats would be able to muster 51 votes to pass the bill through reconciliation.

This is the same menacing supporter of the radical Hispanic separatist group La Raza ("The Race") who believes that a health care bill should offer "stealth amnesty" to illegal immigrants. A caller to the Mark Levin Show on June 25, 2009 described how Menendez and La Raza view "health care reform".

I want to tell you that last week I attended a conference on health care reform sponsored by La Raza. And I will tell you that what they had to say, Mark, is scarier than anything that's been said so far on the health care plan.

...someone from Menendez' office [Ed.: Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ] promised that he would make sure that "the useless barriers of citizenship would not be in this bill" and that he would make sure that they would use keywords like "streamline"...

...Yes [they said they would get free health care for illegal aliens], these are my notes, Mark. They actually got up and said "Latino children need health care more than whites". And then they would say things like "you must go out into your communities, use words like 'streamline', use phrases like 'all workers' and 'all families'," because they said -- and I quote -- "If the American people find out that this bill is about giving health care to non-citizens, they will rise up against it."

"If the American people find out?"

Gee, what a surprise. A Senator and a group that preaches racial superiority and divisiveness want to enact a stealth illegal immigration bill -- not dissimilar from their approach to chain migration. The bill will reward illegal immigration to the direct detriment of all American taxpayers and especially the elderly.

And Democrats are willing to pass this crap sandwich in complete violation of Senate rules -- that's according to Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV), not me -- which demonstrates just how little interest the oligarchs in Washington have in representative government.

Every poll shows Americans overwhelmingly want to keep the hands of government -- which bankrupts everything it touches -- off of the finest health care system in the world.

I urge you to contact members of Congress this week (Senate contact page and House Contact Page) and urge them, politely and firmly, to reject this unconstitutional maneuver that defies the will of the American people. And, if they vote for this disastrous bill, tell them they had better have a good outplacement service.


Hat tip: Memeorandum.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Rasmussen Rates the Bounce in Popular Support for Obamacare Since Health Summit 'a Good, Solid B+'

Rasmussen has late-breaking details of the astounding 'bounce' in popular support for Democrat health care reform spurred, apparently, by the Obama Health Summit™.

The first evidence on whether Barack Obama got a bounce from the health care summit comes from the overnight Rasmussen polling. The short answer: No. Or perhaps: au contraire. Rasmussen shows Obama’s strong approval at 22% and strong disapproval at 43%, for a net approval index—this is Rasmussen’s term—of minus 21. That matches the low recorded in Rasmusssen polling on December 21 (reported on December 22), as the Senate was preparing to pass its health care bill and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was in the process of delivering the Louisiana Purchase and the Cornhusker Kickback.

One night’s results are not overwhelming proof of anything, and the one-day downtick in Obama’s numbers is not statistically significant. But it’s interesting that his numbers fall when health care legislation leads the news. Not what White House strategists want to see.

Especially since Nancy Pelosi now claims that Democrats really never had a health care bill they were interested in passing:

...despite all the debate of the past year, despite the fact that the House and Senate have actually passed national health care bills, and despite the fact that the Senate bill is the single bill that will have to be passed for national health care to become law, there is not, in fact, a national health care bill. It might seem somewhat counterfactual, but in a new interview with CNN, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi flat-out says there is no health care bill currently under consideration.

"You think people don't understand the bill?" asked CNN's Candy Crowley.

"No, I don't think -- there isn't a bill," said Pelosi. "When we have a bill, which we will in a matter of days, then that is the bill that we can sell. Our bill, the House and the Senate bill, had major differences which we are hoping now to reconcile. And then when we have a bill -- you -- as I say, you can bake the pie, you can sell the pie, but you have to have a pie to sell. And when we do we will take it out there."

From the pundits, on NPR's Diane Rehm Show yesterday, Newsweek's Eleanor Clift said that Democratic health proposals "never really turned into an actual bill. There have always been competing versions."

Gee, thanks for clearing that up. And it's always good to see state-run media working hand-in-hand with our beloved Democrat leaders.

Kinda reminds me of Venezuela in the springtime.


Friday, February 26, 2010

What I learned about health care yesterday

If you took all -- all! -- of the annual profits of every health insurance company in the U.S., you could fund health insurance coverage for the entire American population for only two days. That's right: the profits of all U.S. health insurance companies equals two days of coverage for Americans. Yet these are the profits vilified by the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress.

The full ten-year cost of the Democrat health care bill offers taxpayers a $460 billion deficit. The second ten-year cost has a $1.4 trillion deficit. Dishonest accounting and hiding expenses doesn't make the bill reasonable.

14% of the population is on Medicare. 14% is on Medicaid. 9% receive government benefits. 4% are on military health plans. 43% receive coverage from their private employment. Only 6% of the population actually purchases their own insurance. Yet the Democrats want to destroy the insurance companies over this.

Five percent of the population uses 50% of all health care spending. These are the chronically ill, folks who suffer from multiple, serious health conditions. A study of 20,000 chronically ill patients was conducted recently. An intriguing discovery was made: because each patient took an average of 16 different prescription medicines, coordinated and holistic care could cut medication spending by 50% and save hundreds of thousands of dollars per patient.

Let me close by repeating: you could take the annual profits of the private health insurance companies and buy health insurance for people for two days.

Consider that the next time President Obama vilifies the 'obscene' profits of the insurance companies.


Hat tip: Excellence in Broadcasting.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

"Republicans opened a can of whoop-ass today"

Commenter Ann at Just One Minute:

Republicans Opened a Can of Whoop Ass Today!

News round up from Hot Air:

CNN’s WOLF BLITZER: “It looks like the Republicans certainly showed up ready to play.” (CNN’s “Live,” 2/25/10)

CNN’s GLORIA BORGER: “The Republicans have been very effective today. They really did come to play. They were very smart.” (CNN’s “Live,” 2/25/10)

BORGER: “They took on the substance of a very complex issue. … But they really stuck to the substance of this issue and tried to get to the heart of it and I think did a very good job.” (CNN’s “Live,” 2/25/10)
BORGER: “They came in with a plan. They mapped it out.” (CNN’s “Live,” 2/25/10)

CNN’s DAVID GERGEN: “The folks in the White House just must be kicking themselves right now. They thought that coming out of Baltimore when the President went in and was mesmerizing and commanding in front of the House Republicans that he could do that again here today. That would revive health care and would change the public opinion about their health care bill and they can go on to victory. Just the opposite has happened.” (CNN’s “Live,” 2/25/10)

THE HILL’S A.B. STODDARD: “I think we need to start out by acknowledging Republicans brought their ‘A Team.’ They had doctors knowledgeable about the system, they brought substance to the table, and they, I thought, expressed interest in the reform. I thought in the lecture from Senator John McCain and on the issue of transparency, I thought today the Democrats were pretty much on their knees.” (Fox News’ “Live,” 2/25/10)

GERGEN: “He doesn’t have a strong Democratic team behind him.” (CNN’s “Live,” 2/25/10)

Gee, David, you mean the intellectual giants -- Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Schmucky Schumer -- aren't "strong"? What gave it away? The botox -- or the vapid expressions when confronted with multi-syllabic words?


Hat tip: Larwyn.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Chuck Schumer trying to steal billions of your money to pay off New York's public sector unions and avoid real cost-cutting measures

The New York Daily News caught Schmucky Schumer in front of (what else?) a camera.

Schumer Trying for $3B NY Budget Boost » By Michael McAuliff

Sen. Chuck Schumer is hoping to whip up a little $3 billion gift for Gov. Paterson and New York — six months of federal Medicaid aid that the governor has already included in next year’s budget — but has not been passed by Congress.

The cash, part of $25 billion that would be spread around the country and which many other governors are also praying for, is among the numerous casualties of the stalled health care legislation.

Now Schumer wants to add that money to another vital federal payout — extending unemployment and health insurance for three months for people still out of work — which also is worth about $25 billion. Unemployment runs out this week for vast numbers of people.

...But since nothing is ever simple in the Senate, it’s unlikely legislators will act in time, meaning they probably will have to pass a two-week unemployment patch, and then get back to the longer deal next week... With no votes in the Senate today, the New Yorker should take to the floor at some point this afternoon to make his pitch for the Medicaid aid.

Paterson had better hope Schumer prevails. The governor is counting on that cash lasting until June of 2011. Without it, he’ll face drawing up an even grimmer budget during a grim election year...

Did I mention that everything the Democrats touch -- every single thing -- turns to crap?

In this case, more money of yours, billions upon billions of your hard-earned private property, is going to be taken to help balance state budgets and pay off public sector unions. In other words, Schumer and his ilk are helping states avoid the real cost-cutting measures that they'll have to make sooner or later. And the more it's deferred, the more painful it will be.

Is there a more reprehensible character in Congress than Schmucky Schumer?

Now that I think about it, that's a rhetorical question.


Monday, February 22, 2010

It Should Have Been Enough

President Obama has presented his new health bill, which is a rehash of the old Democrat health bills. And rather than embracing his own rhetoric and advocating a bipartisan approach to solving the health care crisis, Obama has instead articulated threats, Chicago-style.

The Plum Line has the official White House position: "If the GOP filibusters health reform, Dems will move forward on their own and pass it via reconciliation."

In short, Republicans have no say in the bill and if they try to stop its more insane measures, Congress will use an illegal maneuver to nationalize one-sixth of the economy.

After This Threat...


After a threat like this, any Republican Who Attends The Obama Health Care and Public Sector Union Infomercial isn't operating with a full deck.

This direct threat from the White House invalidates any pretense of bipartisanship, collaboration and open dialogue.

We have an out-of-control federal government that is willing to break the rules of the Senate and ignore the will of the people -- even writing in clearly unconsitutional "one-way" laws that can't be reversed -- in order to install a Stalinist health care system.

It Should Have Been Enough


When angry voters, against all odds, elected a conservative Republican to fill Ted Kennedy's Senate seat because he'd explicitly campaigned on a pledge to block socialized medicine, it should have been enough.

When Democrats Evan Bayh, Patches Kennedy, Chris Dodd, Vern Tincher, Byron Dorgan, Brian Baird and Roland Burris abruptly announced they would not seek reelection -- because they knew the fate that awaited them -- it should have been enough.

When angry voters, defying every prediction, elected a fiscally conservative Republican as governor of New Jersey, it should have been enough.

When, on the same day, enraged voters swept Democrats out of virtually every state-wide office -- something that hadn't happened in a century -- it should have been enough.

When hundreds of thousands of concerned citizens showed up in Washington to protest socialized medicine and an out-of-control Congress, it should have been enough.

When tens of thousands of AARP members canceled their memberships in protest of their selling out senior citizens, it should have been enough.

When senior citizens, concerned voters and even young people showed up at town hall meetings last summer to ask their representatives why they wouldn't listen to them, it should have been enough.

When Bill Clinton lost Congress in 1994 after pushing his ill-fated HillaryCare initiative, it should have been enough.

When Harry Truman tried to sell national health insurance after the end of World War II, which Congress utterly rejected, it should have been enough.

When Franklin Roosevelt wanted national health insurance in 1935 but, despite his power over the Supreme Court and Congress, feared tying it to Social Security lest the whole package go down in flames, it should have been enough.

Enough! Enough!!!

Very soon now, the anger of the electorate will become palpable, resonating throughout the halls of Congress and echoing among the monuments of D.C.

We. Have. Had. Enough.

And that's change you can believe in.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!