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

Saturday, April 03, 2010

The Priorities of the Left

What do you think would be the most important agenda item for the leftists at change.org? Perhaps stopping the genocide occurring in the Sudan? Lowering taxes to stimulate private job creation? Calling for China to end the slaughter of female babies? Coming up with sensible ways to help corporate America increase hiring? Addressing the horrific treatment of women in Saudi Arabia? Long-term solutions to poverty and starvation in Africa?

Uhm, no.

The suppression of free speech -- specifically, getting Sarah Palin kicked off her television show -- is the top concern of the Marxist left.

The number one idea at change.org: "Urge Discovery Communications to drop Sarah Palin's new show".

Why?

Because, like the six Alaskan Governors before her, Palin supports aerial hunting of wolves. As is the wont of the left, this is yet another smear of a conservative figure.

Aerial predator control in Alaska preserves the caribou, moose, and other species. The program has existed for decades (see: Current: Aerial Predator Control and Predator control, politics, and wildlife conservation in Alaska).

The modern Left cares more about wolves than humans. Their support of ObamaCare, which condemns seniors and children to death and debt respectively, says it all.

Timeline: Anatomy of a Tea Party Smear by the Democrat-Media Complex

This post updates yesterday's article entitled 'A tale of two time-stamps: Smoking-gun proof that Democrats, the Huffington Post and McClatchy conspired to smear Tea Party activists?'. I want to personally thank McClatchy DC editor Mark Seibel, who has been incredibly helpful in providing transparency into his side of the story.


This article attempts to reconstruct the events of 3/20/2010, in which Congressional Democrats were reportedly harassed by Tea Party activists with racial and sexual slurs during their walks to and from the Capitol building. Reports that black Congressmen had been called the "n-word" spread within minutes into mainstream media reports.

3/20 14:30


At around 2:30pm, members of the House uncharacteristically walked from the Cannon Building to the Capitol in the middle of a massive Tea Party protest. Michelle Bachmann said this journey was unprecedented in her experience. She stated, "In three years I have never seen Nancy Pelosi cross the street, the way that you saw in that picture... They deliberately went through that crowd perhaps to try and incite something."

There were a variety of videotapes of the incident (for example, the walk to the Capitol is covered here and here, the walk from the Capitol here, here and here). Furthermore, as you can see above, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. appears to have videotaped the walk, presumably to catch protesters in the act of hurling racial slurs.


3/20 14:34


Lauren Victoria Burke, a self-described "unbought and unbossed" blogger reporting upon "the 42 members of the Congressional Black Caucus" tweets the first report of the use of the "n-word". @CrewOf42 is Burke's Twitter handle.

Her first tweet reporting the incident came at 2:34pm, just four minutes after -- according to Cashill's timeline -- the CBC departed the Cannon Building for the Capitol. @CrewOf42 tweeted that Rep. Carson said he'd been called the "N-word", the HuffPo DC bureau chief re-tweeted the news. There was no link and no attribution associated with this message.

Her tweet was posted from the web, which means she posted from either a high-powered smart-phone, a full-blown laptop or a desktop.


3/20 15:42


Lauren Burke posts the following on her blog.

Reps Andre Carson and John Lewis had racial epithets hurled at them while walking from the Cannon Building to the US Capitol to vote about 45 minutes ago. Andre Carson reported to me and several other journalists in the Speaker’s Lobby off the House floor that he and Lewis were repeatedly called the N word while on the ir way to vote. About 300 demonstartors were yelling and waving signs outside the Longworth and Cannon House Office Buildings as GOP members made their way from a Caucus meeting in Cannon and Democratic members were leaving a meeting in Longworth.

Put simply, these were flat-out fabrications. If they were "repeatedly" slurred, why don't the tapes capture even one of the epithets? Andrew Breitbart has offered $100,000 to anyone if they can come up with audio proof -- and there have been no takers.


3/20 16:36


According to Twitter's time-stamp, the original McClatchy article hits the web.



3/20 16:51


According to a screen-cap of the content management system provided by online editor Mark Seibel, McClatchy reporter William Douglas' original article was entered into the system.

Bill's first version of the story was posted at 5:01 p.m. (Eastern) Here it is in its entirety: "WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., said Saturday that some demonstrators gathered outside the Capitol to protest the health care overhaul legislation called him "ni--er." [Ed: Redaction mine]

Lewis, a longtime civil rights activist who is head of the Congressional Black Caucus, said some demonstrators also spat on black members of Congress as they left the Capitol after meeting with President Barack Obama.

The claim could not immediately be confirmed."


3/20 16:56


The Huffington Post's Sam Stein breathlessly punches out a story advancing the allegations of rampant racial smears.

In just minutes, Stein cranks out a 400-word piece including interviews with Rep. James Clyburn and a staffer, has it edited and then posted.

First Posted: 03-20-10 04:56 PM

A staffer for Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told reporters that Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) had been spat on by a protestor. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a hero of the civil rights movement, was called a 'ni--er.' And Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was called a "faggot," as protestors shouted at him with deliberately lisp-y screams. Frank, approached in the halls after the president's speech, shrugged off the incident... But Clyburn was downright incredulous, saying he had not witnessed...


3-20 17:12


McClatchy updates the article with version 2 of the story, according to Mark Seibel's CMS archive.

WASHINGTON — Demonstrators outside the Capitol, angry over the proposed health care bill, shouted the N-word Saturday at Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon who was nearly beaten to death during an Alabama in the 1960s, and shouted obscenities at other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, lawmakers said.

“They were shouting, sort of harassing,” Lewis said. “But, it’s okay, I’ve faced this before. It reminded me of the 60s. It was a lot of downright hate and anger and people being downright mean.”

Lewis said he was leaving the Cannon office building when protesters shouted “Kill the bill, kill the bill,” Lewis said.

“I said ‘I’m for the bill, I support the bill, I’m voting for the bill,” Lewis said.

A colleague who was accompanying Lewis said people in the crowd responded by saying “Kill the bill, then the N-word.”

“It surprised me that people are so mean and we can’t engage in a civil dialog and debate,” Lewis said.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., said he was a few yards behind Lewis but distinctly heard the N-word shouted out.

“It was a chorus,” Cleaver said. “In a way, I feel sorry for those people who are doing this nasty stuff – they’re being whipped up.. I decided I wouldn’t be angry with any of them.”

CNN reported that protestors inside the Capitol also used a slur to refer to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., an openly gay member of Congress.


In short, within 16 minutes, McClatchy's writer(s) added three interviews and a CNN report to the original story, whose allegations appear to be entirely false.


3/20 16:15


HuffPo editor Nico Pitney tweets several messages, one to Sam Stein reporting he "personally witnessed Barney Frank being called a "faggot," protesters then continued with lisp-heavy chants"; the other re-tweeting a Huffington Post message with the original allegations.

The latter message read "RT @huffingtonpost: Congressmen called 'ni**er,' 'faggot,' spat on by Tea Party protesters (with protest pics) http://bit.ly/aWAu0V".


03/20 17:19


McClatchy's Mark Seibel describes the posting of the third version of the story:

The second version, posted at 5:12 p.m., corrected when the incident had taken place (it was on the way to the Capitol that the n-word incident happened, not on the way back) and was nine graphs long. The last graph cited a CNN report on the Barney Frank incident. That citation was changed to HuffPost in version 4 at 5:19 p.m. after I was alerted by a Nico Pitney tweet.


As Jim Hoft and Kevin Jackson (author of The Big Black Lie) wrote several days ago:

The state-run media is now pushing their anti-tea party propaganda from sources at the anti-military Jew-hating conservative-hating Huffington Post. And, they’re reporting this propaganda without a single piece of evidence.

At least one report said that it was “a chorus” of racist hatred. Another report said the Congressional members heard the n-word at least 15 times.  Reporters from ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX News, (including Bill O’Reilly), MSNBC, and so on, repeated this horrible story.

Unfortunately, it was a fake. The media had no evidence... Nothing. As the story was a complete fabrication. It was totally made up.

In fact, several videos were later released that proved that there was no "chorus" of racist hatred and no one screamed the n-word. It was all a lie.


Democrats in Congress wanted to provoke a racial incident. That's why their media drones started tweeting word of the incident just seconds after their walk began.

And a state-run media complex -- as liberal as the day is long -- acted either as ignorant dupes or as active accomplices (take your pick) to market the scam.

From all appearances, this entire incident appears to have been scripted by Democrat representatives to provoke a racially divisive incident. But because the Tea Party movement is freedom-loving, it embraces all races, creeds, religions and colors. Because the freedom tent is the biggest tent of all. And the tyranny tent gets smaller by the day.



Update: Andrew Breitbart writes:

The Democratic Party is trying to signal to the black community and to progressive media types that the way to push back against the Tea Party and Republicans is to use the reliable race card by provoking a racial incident. The ensuing rhetoric about the bill and about the nature of the Tea Party is based upon repeated talking points. Propaganda. Everyone is on message that Republicans and Tea Partiers are racist — a divisive and dangerous argument, so lacking in any shred of evidence save for the fact that the majority in the Tea Party, as in America itself, is white. This is Duke lacrosse politics at its worst.

Those in the movement who are Hispanic or black are given the Clarence Thomas treatment: mocked, ridiculed and marginalized. The Democratic party cannot afford for minority groups to break from the pack, so they show that apostasy is met with high-grade ridicule. Those willing to withstand vile and hateful un-American taunts are some of America’s greatest patriots...

...We’ve called their bluff. And they have tried to back off. They realize that this race warfare can backfire, just as it did with the railroaded Duke lacrosse players, as it did with professor Madonna Constantine and her faked noose incident at Columbia and the Sergeant Crowley boner by Barack Obama who stupidly said the white police officer had behaved “stupidly” in handcuffing Skip Gates.

The first Alinsky president is now using surrogates to split this nation into two hostile parties so he can puppeteer the have-nots against the perceived haves. The non-response to my $100k challenge is a tacit acknowledgement that the Congressional Black Caucus and Barack Obama don’t have the stomach for doubling down.

The other part of the strategy that is built into the N-Word Capitol Hill Walk is the strategy to incite. The media is doing their job for them by speaking of an unhinged white Tea Party mob. Absent any evidence other than creatively selected hand-crafted signs from the fringe of the audience that are presented to represent the whole, the media is simply repeating assumptions that Democrats and media elites have against fly-over types. What we have here is hardcore media elitism mixed with politically correct class warfare.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin, Gateway Pundit and Patterico. Thanks!


Friday, April 02, 2010

Charts from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Illustrate the Spread of Misery and Poverty Orchestrated by the Cloward-Piven Democrats

Presenting yesterday at Washington & Lee University, William Dudley, the president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, offered some sobering charts and analysis.

In a nutshell, everything the Democrat leadership doing is wrong, and the economy has yet to hit bottom.

Dudley hinted that we may be in a period "of persistent unemployment."

It's a Catch-22: "Given that the personal saving rate is still relatively low, it will be hard for consumer spending to grow more quickly without large increases in real labor income. But big increases in real labor income won't be possible without a much stronger recovery in output. And a much stronger recovery in output is unlikely without stronger consumption."

Real estate prices -- both residential and commercial -- have yet to hit bottom, primarily because of a lack of jobs. Without a job, a consumer can't make mortgage payments and has little discretionary income.

The percentage of those participating in the workforce continues to decline, along with the average number of hours worked by each employed person.

Diana Furchtgott-Roth, director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Employment Policy, observes that despite artificial census hiring, the unemployment rate remains unacceptably high at 9.7%.

"The number of unemployed rose in March to over 15 million, and the percentage of the unemployed out of work for 27 weeks or longer increased to 44%, up from 41% in February."


"The Labor Department’s broadest measure of unemployment, including discouraged workers and those at work part-time for economic reasons, rose to 16.9%."

"Job creation is being slowed by the passage of laws that discourage employers from hiring, such as health care “reform,” which is resulting in many companies writing down earnings for 2010. And Congress is still considering tax increases in 2011, as well as a cap and trade energy bill that would raise energy costs and encourage new plants to locate offshore. All these measures will reduce job creation."

"...since the recession began in Dec 2007, 8.1 million jobs have been lost."

It may sound shocking to some, but the real Democrat strategy is to destroy the economy so that they can remake the system. It's called the Cloward-Piven Strategy, and was articulated in the sixties by a couple of radical Columbia professors. If you put this hard left Democrat government's actions in the context of Cloward-Piven, the massive deficits, high unemployment and unsustainable spending all make perfect sense.

So it begins: 'If you voted for Obama... seek urologic care elsewhere'

An Orlando urologist is expressing his delight over socialized medicine with the following sign.

"I'm not turning anybody away — that would be unethical," Dr. Jack Cassell, 56, a Mount Dora urologist and a registered Republican opposed to the health plan, told the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday. "But if they read the sign and turn the other way, so be it."

The sign reads: "If you voted for Obama … seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years."

Estella Chatman, 67, of Eustis, whose daughter snapped a photo of the typewritten sign, sent the picture to U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, the Orlando Democrat who riled Republicans last year when he characterized the GOP's idea of health care as, "If you get sick, America … Die quickly."

Chatman said she heard about the sign from a friend referred to Cassell after his physician recently died. She said her friend did not want to speak to a reporter but was dismayed by Cassell's sign.

"He's going to find another doctor," she said.

Oh, honey, this is only the beginning. Democrats are slashing care of every kind to seniors: diagnostic tests, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, inpatient care, etc.

Just how unpopular is the Democrat health care cramdown? Mark Knoller's tweet says it all.

Even the latest CBS poll -- with its tradition of oversampling Democrat voters -- can't hide the decline.

Americans despise this criminal health care bill and everything it stands for. And those counting on people forgetting by November will get a rude reminder why the symbol of the Republican Party is the elephant.

We don't forget. And we will trample you, politically speaking, of course.


Hat tip: C&S.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Mark Levin: your health care bill is a fraud, Mr. President, and you lied

Mark Levin:

I have a message for the President. Mr. President, I have a message for you. Your health care bill stinks, just as we said it did. As a matter of fact, your health care bill is a fraud.

Your health care bill does not cover pre-existing needs for children as you said it did.

Your health care bill does, in fact, slash life-saving diagnostic tests for senior citizens, as we said it did, including MRIs, CAT scans, diagnostic labs, home health, medical devices, nursing homes, in-patient rehab facilities, in-patient psych hospitals, etc. Did you know that, Mr. President?

Your health care bill does change coverage for retirees, who now receive prescription drug coverage from businesses -- and forces them onto Medicare Part D.

You lied again, Mr. President. That's a change in coverage.

At the same time, your health care bill is not $940 billion over ten years, is it, Mr. President?

You lied, didn't you?

You fixed the books like Al Capone's accountant. When you add $320 billion to cover payments to doctors under Medicare. And when you double-counted $550 billion in Medicare "cuts". You increased spending by over $2 trillion when we add in the rest. Don't you, Mr. President?

You lied, didn't you?

And if you were in the private sector, you'd be indicted and facing sure imprisonment, wouldn't you, Mr. President?

And, in fact, your health care bill does drive up costs for small businesses. If they offers a private plan to employees that exceeds some government-imposed limit, over time it's taxed at 40%. Why?

And if these business don't offer health care to their employees, they're fined $2,000 per employee. Isn't that an expense?

If they offer a health plan that's not approved by the government, they're fined as well. Isn't that an expense?

Doesn't that change coverage?

And if these businesses don't offer coverage to part-time workers, they're find $2,000 a pop, again.

And your health care bill punishes young people and middle-class citizens as well even though you said it wouldn't.

You lied.

As the great Bill McGurn reports in the Wall Street Journal today:

Almost by definition, those hit by the mandate will be either young people starting out, or those working for smaller businesses that do not provide employees with health coverage. Back in November, a report by the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that nearly half (46%) of the mandate penalties will be paid by Americans under 300% of the poverty line.

That's lower-middle class citizens, Mr. President. You lied.

In today's dollars, that works out to $32,500 for an individual. For a family of four, it's $66,150. Generally speaking, these are not the folks who have to worry about paying taxes on, say, a villa in the Dominican Republic or income from the International Monetary Fund.

So we are left with one of two possibilities. The first is that the penalty for not having "minimal essential coverage" is fully enforced, in which case Americans of relatively modest means will get a lesson in how the government deals with people who don't pay up.

Or the penalty for violating the individual mandate will become like the fines for not filling out your Census form. In other words, unenforced. In that case, the costs of this legislation will be even higher and more hidden than we have been led to believe.

You lied, Mr. President.

And you lied about the cost of premiums, too, Mr. President. You said that premiums would on average go down two thousand, five hundred dollars a year. The Associated Depress is reporting that:

Americans under the age of 35 can expect their individual health insurance premiums to rise by about 17 percent.

That's not a $2,500 cut, is it, Mr. President?

You lied.

You also lied about the costs to the states, Mr. President.

The Council of State Governments, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, estimates that your expansio of Medicaid alone:

...will cost states $25 billion over the next 10 years, not including other significant administrative costs to initially implement the new law.

And you lied when you said your health care plan would increase efficiency, didn't you, Mr. President?

In fact, it will cause doctor shortages and long waiting periods. The Associated Depress reports the obvious:

Primary care physicians already are in short supply in parts of the country, and the landmark health overhaul that will bring them millions more newly insured patients in the next few years promises extra strain.

And what of those medical records -- our medical records, which will become part of the federal medical database, Mr. President? How do you plan to secure those? With the IRS?

Who will have access and how will we prevent misuse of our records, Mr. President?

Oh, you were all proud and celebratory, excited about this historic moment. The more we learn about this bill, the more disastrous it becomes. You got a very slight pop in the polls -- did you notice, Mr. President? And now you're down again. The generic party polls for Congress? Pelosi Democrats -- you got a very slight tick up -- and now you're down again. The people are wise to you.

As a matter of fact, you know your bill is deeply flawed, don't you, Mr. President? You were on the Today Show this morning, which is where you go when you want to put out your talking points, because you're never really challenged there. And now you're talking about this being just a first step. This is just a first step, ladies and gentlemen! Gee, I can't wait for the next one, can you? All these little steps, right over the cliff.

I think it is a critical first step in making a healthcare system that works for all Americans. It is not going to be the only thing. We are still going to have adjustments that have to be made to further reduce costs.

What does he mean, "further reduce costs"? Have costs been reduced anywhere?

Now, let me ask you a question: does it occur to anybody at the Today Show or on any of these other programs... has it occurred to a real, live journalist with a degree in Journalism... to confront this President as a serious person and ask him, "Mr. President, all these issues, all these points, you've been campaigning on -- as recently as last week. As recently as this weekend... and yet they were false! And you do this, you massively expand entitlements in this country despite the fact that we now have a report that the Social Security system is broke! Where is your proposal, Mr. President, for fixing the Social Security system? What are you going to do about it?"

Oh, it's one thing to create new programs, to create new promises. But, as President of the United States, you're still responsible for these programs. Nancy Pelosi was as proud as could be! Ol' Stretch was down there on the House floor saying that you all had invented Social Security, you all had invented Medicare and Medicaid. Okay, I'll give you that. But you've also destroyed them! You invented them -- and you destroyed them.

So the question, Mr. President, is: on your watch, what are you going to do about Social Security?

The editors of Investors Business Daily -- a real newspaper -- write:

Social Security's chief actuary reports that the social safety net will run a deficit for 2010, nine years earlier than predicted. Put down that big gavel, Madam Speaker, we're about to hit the iceberg.

Wow. Social Security is now offically broke.

They're expanding Medicaid. There are states that are soon to be officially broke. And yet they're required to pay a huge amount of this Medicaid.

They're going to be slashing Medicare, while pushing more citizens onto it, because the bill punishes businesses that are generous with prescription drug programs for retirees.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, this is what happens when radical, left-wing ideologues sit around and talk with each other about coming up with a Utopian proposal. Because there's no Utopia. This is misery, and it's only just begun, because it hasn't really kicked in yet.

But people are planning. Small and large businesses, senior citizens, young people, they're going to have to plan, going to have to hustle, have to figure out how to protect themselves. While the president bounces all over the place from one issue to the next, one entitlement to the next, one tax and spending increase to the next, patting himself on the back over how wonderful he's made this country.

You know what bothers me most about this? We have a man in the Oval Office who has no respect for what's come before him. He has no respect for what's been tried and tested throughout American history or -- for that matter -- throughout world history. We know that these Stalinist-like programs are failures. We know that, rather than create food, they create starvation. Rather than clothe people, people freeze in the winter. Rather than provide medical treatment for people, people suffer.

Oh, Mark, you say, that's extreme rhetoric: 'these Stalinist-like programs'. Really? Soviet-style? Where does come from? It doesn't come from the Founding Fathers. It doesn't come from the great philosophers on whom they relied. Where does it come from?

It comes, mostly, from the same mindset. Oh, they have different degrees and levels of suffering and implementation and aggressiveness. But it's a soft tyranny as I've said before and have written. This is the soft tyranny that others have warned about. This is the soft tyranny that we witness in other societies -- being imposed upon us.

Obama has done nothing to cut costs in health care. He's done nothing to increase efficiencies in health care. He's done nothing to create competition in health care. He'd done nothing to address those who suffer -- and those who will suffer. Except to make it worse.

Except to make it worse.

...So welcome to ObamaCare, welcome to the Obama recovery, as jobs continue to not be saved or created, welcome to the Obama housing boom, welcome to the Obama business boom, isn't it great?

Isn't Utopia hell?

This bloated, out-of-control, top-heavy federal government couldn't run a damn weather-stripping program or "cash-for-clunkers" without billions in misery, waste, fraud and abuse. Now picture what that means for your health care.


Monday, March 29, 2010

Boehner: Stop Trying to Intimidate America's Biggest Employers, Pig-man!

To be fair, I could have heard Boehner incorrectly. The dogs were barking.

House Minority Leader Boehner today accused Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman of using intimidation-like tactics in demanding congressional testimony from employers to back their claims the new healthcare law will be costly and undercut job creation.

"Instead of interrogating America's private-sector job creators, Congress should be listening to them, heeding their warnings about the effects of this deeply flawed new law, and replacing it with reforms that will help them get back to creating jobs," Boehner said in a statement. He said American employers have been warning that the new healthcare policies being promoted by President Obama and Democrats in Congress would damage the economy and hurt efforts to create jobs.

"Yet now that those policies have become law over the objections of the American people, congressional Democrats such as Chairman Waxman profess shock and surprise at hearing American employers announce that they will have no choice but to make painful changes to comply with it," said Boehner.

Boehner's comments referred to letters dated Friday from Waxman and Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Bart Stupak, D-Mich., to the heads of AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., Caterpillar Inc. and Deere & Co., requesting that they back up their claims in April 21 appearances before the subcommittee.

Company officials were also asked to provide documents to the panel by April 9.

Waxman's call for hearings came after Speaker Pelosi urged members last week to go on the "offensive" in defending and soothing public doubts the new law. Boehner's reaction shows Republicans are just as intent on pressing the case that the law carries negative implications for businesses.

Waxman's office did not comment by press time.


Sunday, March 28, 2010

DemCare: a tidal wave of regulations, taxes, fees, bureaucracies, waiting lines, bankruptcies and seniors denied medical care are on the way

Courtesy of the House Committee on Ways and Means comes this timeline of DemCare socialized medicine. And this is only a taste of the hell to come. One thing is absolutely certain: if you like your existing plan, you most definitely will not be able to keep it.

  2009  

Medicare cuts to hospitals begin (long‐term care (7/1/09) and inpatient and rehabilitation facilities (FY10))

  2010  

• Provide income exclusion for specified Indian tribe health benefits provided after 3/23/10
• Temporary high‐risk pool and high‐cost union retiree reinsurance ($5 B each for 3.5 years) (6/23/10)
• Impose 10% tax on indoor UV tanning (7/1/10)
Medicare cuts to inpatient psych hospitals (7/1/10)
• Prohibits lifetime and annual benefit for private insurers spending limits (plan years beginning 9/23/10)
• Prohibits non‐group private insurance plans from canceling coverage (rescissions) (plan years beginning 9/23/10)
• Requires private insurance plans to cover, at no charge, most preventive care (plan years beginning 9/23/10)
• Requires private insurance plans to allow dependents to stay on parents’ policies through age 26 (plan years
beginning 9/23/10)
• Hospitals in "Frontier States" (ND, MT, WY, SD, UT ) receive higher Medicare payments (FY11)

  2011  

• Hospitals in “low‐cost” areas receive higher Medicare payments for 2 yrs ($400 million, FY11)
Medicare Advantage cuts begin
• No longer allowed to use FSA, HSA, HRA, Archer MSA distributions for over‐the-counter medicines
Medicare cuts to home health begin
Medicare cuts for wealthier seniors ($85k/$170k), who are forced to pay higher Part D premiums (not indexed for inflation in Parts B/D)
Medicare reimbursement cuts when seniors use diagnostic imaging like MRIs, CT scans, etc.
• Medicare cuts begin to ambulance services, ASCs, diagnostic labs, and durable
medical equipment
• Impose new annual tax on brand name pharmaceutical companies
• Americans begin paying premiums for federal long‐term care insurance (the CLASS Act, which analysis indicates is a ticking fiscal time-bomb)
Private insurance plans required to spend a minimum of 80% of premiums on medical claims (where 65% is considered the maximum "safe" amount to cover claims). Prior experience at the state level will indisputably harm private health insurance business.
• Physicians in "Frontier States" (ND, MT, WY, SD, UT ) receive higher Medicare payments
Prohibition on Medicare payments to new physician‐owned hospitals (which will dramatically reduce access to senior care)
• Penalties for non‐qualified HSA and Archer MSA distributions double (to 20%)
Seniors prohibited from purchasing power wheelchairs unless they first rent for 13 months
• New Medicare cuts to long‐term care hospitals begin (7/1/11)
• Additional Medicare cuts to hospitals and cuts to nursing homes and inpatient rehab facilities begin (FY12)
New taxes on all private health insurance policies to pay for comparative effectivness research (plan
years beginning FY12)

  2012  

Medicare cuts to dialysis treatment begins
Medicare to cut spending by using an HMO‐like coordinated care model (Accountable Care Organizations)
New Medicare cuts to inpatient psych hospitals (7/1/12)
Medicare cuts to hospitals with high readmission rates begin (FY13)
Medicare cuts to hospice begin (FY13)

  2013  

• Impose $2,500 annual cap on FSA contributions (indexed to CPI)
• Increase Medicare wage tax by 0.9% and impose a new 3.8% tax on unearned , nonactive
business income
for those earning over $200k/$250k (not indexed to inflation)
• Generally increases (7.5% to 10%) threshold at which medical expenses, as a % of income, can be deductible
Eliminate deduction for Part D retiree drug subsidy employers receive
Impose 2.3% excise tax on medical devices
Medicare cuts to hospitals who treat low‐income seniors begin
• $500,000 deduction cap on compensation paid to insurance company employees and officers

  2014  

Unconstitutional personal mandate begins: Individuals without government‐approved coverage are subject to a tax of the greater of $695 or 2.5% of income
• Employers who fail to offer "affordable" coverage would pay a $3,000 penalty for every employee that receives a subsidy through the Exchange
• Employers who do not offer insurance must pay a tax penalty of $2,000 for every fulltime employee
• More Medicare cuts to home health begin
• All non‐grandfathered and Exchange health plans required to meet federally mandated levels of coverage
States must cover parents /childless adults up to 138% of poverty on Medicaid, receive increased FMAP
• Tax credits available for Exchange‐based coverage, amount varies by income up to 400% of poverty
Private insurers cannot impose any coverage restrictions on pre‐existing conditions (guaranteed issue/renewability, which will bankrupt insurance providers)
Private insurers must offer coverage to anyone wanting a policy and every policy has to be renewed (which will bankrupt insurance providers)
• Insurance plans must include government‐defined "essential benefits " and coverage levels
• Government board (IPAB) begins submitting proposals to cut Medicare
Impose tax on nearly all private health insurance plans
Medicare payment cuts for hospital‐acquired infections begin (FY15)

  2015  

• More Medicare cuts to home health begin

  2016  

Impose "Cadillac tax on “high cost” plans, 40% tax on the benefit value above a certain threshold: ($10,200 individual coverage, $27,500 family or self‐only union multiemployer coverage)

There should be little doubt that this extravaganza of central planning will be devastating for insurers, pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, doctors, nurses, hospitals, and their business partners. It will crush an economy that is already flat on its back.

Let me ask you Democrats something. When -- in all of recorded human history -- has this kind of central planning, with price controls, arbitrary dictates, wage-fixing, giveaways, bribes, payoffs, cutout deals, and social engineering experiments, ever worked?

It's a rhetorical question, you anti-American moonbats. This bill sentences our seniors to premature disease and death while assuring our children of poverty, misery and economic dislocation. Of this, there can be no doubt.


Related: "This will close our business."

If you like the timeliness and quality of British dentistry, you'll absolutely adore ObamaCare!

Which explains the collapse in Barack Obama's Gallup approval ratings post-Demcare:

Say, if you just look at the disapproval tracking plot, I think we finally have a contender for a legitimate hockey-stick!

And polling in the swing state of Florida makes Gallup's data look positively rosy by comparison.

Florida poll: Healthcare law hurts Obama, Democrats


A new poll shows the healthcare law is bad political medicine for Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, President Barack Obama and his domestic agenda.

Only 34 percent of Florida voters support the new law while 54 percent are against it, according to the poll. Opposition is significantly strong among two crucial blocs: those older than 65 and voters with no party affiliation. Seniors disfavor the bill by a 65-25 percent margin, while independents oppose the law 62-34.

The poll, conducted last week, is the first to be taken in Florida since Obama signed the healthcare reform bill into law.

It shows that Floridians have a more negative than positive view of Obama by a margin of 15 percentage points. And they oppose his so-called ``cap-and-trade'' global warming legislation as well as the new healthcare law... The negative sentiment for Nelson was especially ``eye-popping,'' Mason-Dixon pollster Brad Coker said.

...Because Florida is such a crucial swing state with so many seniors, Nelson's troubles are a shot across the bow for Democrats everywhere, Coker said. The poll shows Nelson would lose his seat in theoretical match-ups against Bob Saget, Vanilla Ice and Corey Feldman.

Actually I made that last sentence up. Nelson, if the election were held today, would lose against Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and some phony conservative named Crist.


Now you see it, now you don't: AP executes quick headline change after Ace commenter observes that it accurately describes DemCare debacle

Now you see it ("Start the search for a doctor before the stampede"):

Now you don't ("Health overhaul likely to strain doctor shortage"):

Chalk this up as reason #48,204 that the Associated Press is a laughingstock.


Hat tip: MDr VB1.0 CS1st. Linked by: Hot Air and Ed Driscoll. Thanks!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Lunatic Democrat Alan Grayson: We need politics without fear and hatred, which is why I support cleansing the world of Republicans

And the media continues to market the intolerance of conservatives? Interviewed on MSNBC by Ed Schultz, whose ratings lie somewhere between electron microscopes and nasal ultrasounds, the utterly bizarre Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) expounded upon the delightful philosophy of the Left.

It's all they've [GOP] got left, fear and hatred, it's all they've got left.

...It's absurd, they stoke the fires of hatred and inspire a national nervous breakdown by instilling people with fear the way that Naomi Klein described in "The Shock Doctrine" and then they blame the Democrat Party for that.

...I think the Republican leadership's at fault.

[On talk radio and Fox News fanning the flames by misrepresenting health care reform] Is the Pope Catholic?

We have to put them out of office, once and for all. These haters and fearmongers from office in the November elections. I'm not worrying any more about losing seats for the Democrats, we have to put an end to that style of politics.

And that means getting rid of the Republicans entirely.

...we're trying to work on a new model that doesn't work on fear, and doesn't work on hatred. That means people of good conscience coming together and showing what people power looks like in this country.

...Every time [Sarah Palin] smiles, she proves that ignorance is bliss. I don't know if she understands half the things she's talking about.

...I'd love to see a Palin-Grayson ticket in 2016, because the next day she'd quit. She's the patron saint of quitting.

As an aside, in the videotaped discussion, Ed Schultz appears almost physically repulsed by Grayson, who everyone suspects is several sandwiches shy of a picnic.


Hat tip: American Power. Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Poetic Justice: DemCare Will Erase Health Care Benefits for Million of Union Members Starting in Just Nine Months

Remember how the President endlessly bragged that health care reform would never -- never! -- impact your existing health plans? You know, the "if you like your plan, you can keep it" shtick? Well, I know this comes as a shock, but he lied.

What no one appears to be pointing out is that DemCare specifically targets private sector union members first. Because of the dizzying new regulations imposed by the new law, "industrial concerns [and/or] those with unionized employees, say the end of the deduction could force them to ... curtail or even cancel them [health benefits]," according to The Los Angeles Times. That's right: most union retirees will have their cushy plans slammed by DemCare through changes in the tax code.

Which unions will be hardest hit?

• The Communication Workers of America, whose website doesn't bother to mention the impending disaster. Telecom companies such as Verizon and AT&T will be forced to slash upwards of two billion in health benefits to retirees.

• The United Auto Workers, specifically at manufacturers like Deere and Caterpillar.

• The United Steelworkers, through diversified manufacturers like 3M.

• The Sheet Metal Workers International Union.

• The Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers (OCAW) union.

And many, many more.

I won't get into the accounting details associated with these companies' benefits programs (mainly, because I don't understand them), but informant "CPA Ray" tells me that only three general scenarios are possible -- and all of them are devastating for union members and retirees.

Put simply, their promised benefits will be slashed and they'll be forced onto the government-run program. Oh -- and the government-run program will have 30 million more people on the books and spend $500 billion less on seniors, even as the need dramatically increases for the elderly.

Union members, it's time you started kicking the crap out of your union bigwigs -- politically speaking -- because:

They. Sold. You. Out.


Hat tip: Legal Insurrection.

Friday, March 26, 2010

Yes, Virginia, some states really do have a recall mechanism for political hacks gone bad

Yes, Virginia, it may be possible to recall your Congressional representative.

The state of New Jersey provides in Article 1 Section 2b of its Constitution that:

The people reserve unto themselves the power to recall, after at least one year of service, any elected official in this State or representing this State in the United States Congress. The Legislature shall enact laws to provide for such recall elections.

Eight other states—Colorado, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin—have laws on their books providing for broad recall of elected officials, which could include Members of Congress. Altogether, these nine states have 12 incumbent Senators in the runaway Congressional majority who are not already standing for re-election in 2010, but, in the event of successful petition drives, could be.

Give it a look-see. The current rush to socialism deserves nothing less.

The Seven Most Awesome Quotes from President Obama's Health Care Victory Speech in Iowa

Quotes from the President are on the left. Today's news stories are on the right.


...today, health insurance reform is the law of the land all across America...

AT&T Inc. will take a $1 billion non-cash accounting charge in the first quarter because of the health care overhaul and may cut benefits it offers to current and retired workers...

...over the last year, there's been a lot of misinformation spread about health care reform. There's been plenty of fear-mongering, plenty of overheated rhetoric...

AK Steel Corp... and Valero Energy announced [similar] accounting charges, saying the health care law that President Barack Obama signed Tuesday will raise their expenses.

...You turn on the news, you'll see the same folks are still shouting about there's going to be an end of the world because this bill passed. (Laughter.) ...

On Friday, 3M Co. said it will also take a charge of $85 million to $90 million.

...I'm not exaggerating. Leaders of the Republican Party, they called the passage of this bill "Armageddon." (Laughter.) Armageddon. "End of freedom as we know it" ...

Manufacturer John Deere announced Thursday that it expected the company's expenses to be about $150 million higher than last year...

...So after I signed the bill, I looked around to see if there any -- (laughter) -- asteroids falling or -- (applause) -- some cracks opening up in the Earth. (Laughter.) It turned out it was a nice day. (Laughter.) ...

That came a day after Caterpillar predicted a new cost of $100 million...

...Birds were chirping. Folks were strolling down the Mall. People still have their doctors...

Most of the new costs will come in a reduction in subsidies that about 1,400 companies receive for providing drug coverage to their retirees. In an effort to raise several billion dollars for implementing the health care package, the law makes those subsidies taxable, just like income...

From this day forward, all of the cynics, all the naysayers -- they're going to have to confront the reality of what this reform is and what it isn't... this isn't a government takeover of our health care system. They'll see that if Americans like their doctor, they'll be keeping their doctor. You like your plan? You'll be keeping your plan. No one is taking that away from you...
...10 top companies, including Caterpillar, John Deere, Verizon, Xerox, Boeing and Met Life, warned Congress in December that over the long term, it would [hurt their bottom line] "Taxing the subsidy means that more companies will eliminate or reduce the coverage," they warned, "and more retirees will shift to Medicare ... which will create more cost for both the government and the retirees."


Doesn't Obama's rhetoric sound like "Hugo Chavez North"?

The real, uhmmm, benefits of Politburo-style central planning won't become obvious until 2014, when ObamaCare kicks in for good. But don't worry. Government-run health care will be shovel-ready.