Showing posts with label Reid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reid. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

That was quick: reports filtering in of health care premiums for families rising $2,400 annually in reaction to today's signing of Demcare bill

Karl Denninger relays a note published just hours after the Democrats celebrated the signing of DemCare.

So I just got a call from my health insurance provider. My family rates are going up $200/month ... $2400/year per employee effective April 1st. Didn't take long after signing to get this s**t going.

So much for the "my plan will save Americans" $2500/year in Healthcare premiums...

Yes, this law will induce people to hire, it will improve health access, and it will be positive for the consumer, economy, stock market and spending... [and the] market rallies on for today, as I sit back and chuckle to myself... "I told you so."

Please, buy more stocks to drive the DOW, S&P, Nasdaq and Russell higher on the mythical economic "recovery" and mythical job gains that will take hold as employers, right here and now, four full years before the "benefits" show up for adults in this bill (those very same workers) get whammied for $2,400 per year in additional costs per employee.

...One way or another the employees will be paying every single penny of that cost. Either directly through lower wages (which will do great things for consumer spending and the economy) or indirectly as people are either laid off or not hired in the first place.

Why are premiums for families certain to rise? Because of the Democrats' ham-handed attempts at social engineering, which are reminiscent of their "mortgage affordability programs". And those turned out so very well.

...health experts said the proposed regulations pertaining to children will result in higher premiums for consumers. The issue of who will pay the medical costs of the nation's uninsured and underinsured children, especially those with potentially debilitating and lifelong conditions, is not yet settled.

...Tim McBride, a health economist and associate dean of public health at the Brown School at Washington University, said he expects the cost of mandating health coverage for chronically and severely ill children to be "absorbed by the health insurance companies, causing them to raise premiums.

Gee, you mean the Democrats were lying when they said if you liked your health care you could keep it? And that quality of care would improve? And prices would decline? While adding 30 to 47 million more people? Who'da thunk it?

And this news aligns with reports that small businesses are preparing for the worst.

"It's going to create huge uncertainty and the potential for another downtick in the economy fed by that uncertainty," said Keith Ashmus, a partner at Frantz Ward LLP, a law firm in Cleveland. He said the bill will "almost certainly" lead to increased health insurance costs for businesses with more than 50 employees — like his.

"And it's going to result in a lot of people looking at the structure of their business to see how they can structure themselves to avoid horrendous penalties," Ashmus told FoxNews.com.

Some people never learn. We call those people "Democrats".


Update: Dyslexic POTUS Confused his Symbols?

Original images: Reuters.

What I'm reading now: "Learning from failure in the NHS?"

Just trying to prepare myself for the inevitable (PDF).

The number of inquiries into failures of care in the NHS has increased markedly in recent years. The early inquiries date back to the late 1960s and the consistent patterns of failure, which have been revealed over more than 3 decades, are striking. They raise major challenges for public policy and for the protection of individuals in public care.

This paper asks about the purposes of inquiries; it looks at the different types of inquiry which have been established and at the methods and processes used. It also explores the results of inquiries and the changes in policy which have arisen from their recommendations. Some of these inquiries have examined high profile cases, which attracted great publicity, while others have escaped the glare of national attention.

Nevertheless, all of them are important for what they tell us about the quality of care provided to individuals in the NHS.

This paper argues that it is vital to examine the ways in which we conduct inquiries. They consume vast resources (particularly financial and human) and it is important that they satisfy their purpose in the most appropriate way. It concludes that there is more we can learn from failures of care, in the past, in order to improve the health service of the future.

Yes, you've got it: this paper reviews decades of inquiries into the disastrous failures of the U.K.'s ruinous National Health Service.

This is a preview of your future. This is the system Democrats chose to emulate when they shredded our Constitution.


Smart Kids, Criminal Politicians

The Facebook status of this teenager reflects a blunt opinion.

I suppose she got a glimpse of this chart.

Oh... and this illustration reflected projections before government-run health care.

This young one, and her friends, are on the hook for the catastrophe orchestrated by Pelosi, Obama, Reid and their Democrat drones. These politicians will be long gone when the system comes crashing down.


"I, for one, welcome our new Democrat overlords"

Having health care is going to be just like Christmas, according to certain intellectually challenged residents of Durham, North Carolina.

"It's just going to be like Christmas," said DeCarlo Flythe, who lost health coverage for his family when he was laid off almost three years ago. "It's going to be great. You know, no worries (about) the bills. We are going to go ahead and pay our co-pay and be alright."

[His] wife has insurance, but the couple couldn't afford to put him on the policy. Now, he's excited he may also have coverage because of health care reform... "It'll make the world better. It'll make us all better, actually," he said.

I think someone forgot to tell DeCarlo that his Constitutional right to free, unlimited and instant health care doesn't kick in until 2014.


Hat tip: Memeorandum.

Monday, March 22, 2010

A Three-Pronged War Against Statism

Conservative Republicans must have an agenda beyond repeal. I hope I'm not out of line here, but I believe the time for civility is over. It is time for outright political warfare. Democrats have crossed the line.

The targets, in order of highest priority to lowest, are as follows.

1. War against the Democrat Party itself: in its every incarnation, the Democrat Party has become the tool of Marxists, Gore-ian ecostatists, Soros one-worlders, outright Communists, and a cadre of useful idiots, the Bush-haters.

In Congress, Republicans must block everything. They must use every procedural maneuver possible, filibuster everything, add amendments, motion to recommit, stall endlessly, block any and all activity in Congress. Call a strike. Democrats deserve nothing less for their desecration of our Constitution and our Declaration.

In states and municipalities, Republicans must target public sector unions, which donated hundreds of millions to Democrats in 2008. The unions are in the process of killing themselves, what with their outsized and unsustainable pensions and benefits. Let's just speed up the process. Every public sector union must be targeted and smashed using the playbook of Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman.

2. War Against the Legacy Media: Barack Obama owes his election, in large part, to a compliant and useless state-run media complex. A week-long series detailing Barack Obama's bizarre background in The New York Times would have ended his campaign.

Instead, most Americans never became aware of Obama's mentor, Communist Frank Marshall Davis. Or of his pseudonym at an Indonesian school: Barry Soetero. Of of his work with -- and lies about -- the criminal front group ACORN. Of his membership in the Democrat Socialists of America. Of his role in the mortgage meltdown as a litigator for ACORN against Citibank. Of his odd relationships with disgraced slumlord Tony Rezko, terrorist Bill Ayers, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Governor Rod Blagojevich and Jimmy Hoffa, Jr. Of his work with the Arab-American Action Network's Ed Said, and Hamas-supporter-slash-close personal friend Jeremiah Wright.

Had the media been doing its job and outlined Obama's background, we would not be in the position of watching the country's balance sheet implode.

Thus my recommendation is to simply boycott the Old Gray Lady. If you subscribe to the print edition, cancel it. I know the Sunday Times is iconic. I don't care. Cancel it. And if you have a blog, don't link to the Times. Find the equivalent news article elsewhere. If you're a reader of the electronic edition, kill the RSS feed and stop visiting.

The Times is the bellwether of state-run media. It's close to collapse anyhow. Let's hasten the joyous day when its entire staff consists of Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd and Pinchy.

3. Against Unprincipled Republicans - The "Gang of 14" included Lindsey "Goober" Graham and John McCain; they allowed Democrats to use yet another of their unprecedented tactics: filibustering judicial nominees, which -- true to their incessant use of identity politics -- they used to block Hispanics from high court positions. Unconstitutionally, I might add.

We must primary these unprincipled moderates who stand for nothing. We must take a stand and support conservative Republicans like Marco Rubio, J.D. Hayworth and Chuck DeVore, all of whom believe in the Constitution and can speak eloquently about their beliefs in the founding principles.

Democrats have crossed a line by spitting on, then burning, the Constitution. If the founders had wanted a giant, endlessly growing, centralized federal government to control the size of your toilets, regulate the air you breathe, or force you to buy health insurance, they would have empowered the government to do so.

They didn't. And everyone knows it. The Democrat Party must be smashed politically and left as a footnote to history, just behind the Whigs in importance.


Join me on the Impeach & Convict Tour 2011

Dear Democrats,

I don't think you have any idea how angry we are.

So you would institute an authoritarian bureaucracy like the one our founders despised and revolted against? You would completely disregard public opinion? You would bribe, threaten, reward and punish legislators -- with our money! -- to jam through an unprecedented agenda completely antithetical to our founding? You would saddle generations yet unborn with trillions in debt when your unfunded entitlements are already crushing us? You would redistribute trillions of American wealth in futile central planning schemes that can't work and have never worked in the entire history of the world? So you would destroy the greatest health care system in the world?

And, to top it all off, you would blatantly violate your oath to uphold the Constitution?

November will come. And paybacks are hell.

And we promise to pursue you and your ilk to the ends of the Earth. To unearth your crimes. To impeach those in power and to prosecute the rest. To unwind your Marxist schemes. To politically crush the Democrat Party and leave it as much of a force as are the Whigs.

What you are doing is nothing less than child abuse. Punishing the next generation and generations yet unborn. Which seems to be the only skill the Democrat Party possesses.

So enjoy these next few months. Anticipating that ambassadorship to Aruba. Or that cushy job on K street. Or some high-paying job as a bureaucrat in Fannie Mae.

Be warned. We will pursue you. And we will punish you. Guaran-damn-teed. It's not a threat. It's not a promise. It's an oath.


Sunday, March 21, 2010

Barney Frank on the Rule of Law

The toad-like Barney Frank weighed in this afternoon on the Capitol's raucous crowd as Democrats bribed, cajoled and threatened their caucus to vote for a government takeover of health care.

Rep Michael Turner (R-Ohio) walked by carrying a sign saying “I’m voting no!” Trent Franks, a Republican of Arizona and Pete Olson, a Republican of Texas, came down to thank the Tea Partiers for their support.

Inside the House chamber, a protester was ejected by Capitol Police after yelling from the House gallery.

Frank was visibly angry with his GOP colleagues, whom he believed goaded the protesters.

"Did you guys see the Republicans encouraging the disruption?" Frank left the House floor to tell about 15 reporters. "These clowns are out there encouraging violation of the law and making the job of the guys up there harder. It's really disgraceful."

This pathetic excuse for a legislator spits on the United States Constitution, claims to have granted "rights" by stealing the labor of others, and -- to top it off -- promotes the bankruptcy of the country by expanding entitlements at a time when we can least afford it?

And he's angry about a protester?

I'll tell you what I'm angry about. A man like Barney Frank who started his law-breaking days when he allowed a brothel to operate out of his condo and never paid a price. A man who is culminating his career with the destruction of the American experiment, changing forever the relationship between the individual and government. Citizens of Massachusetts: you could select a representative by throwing a dart at a phone book and do significantly better than this disgraceful troll.


Update: Attorneys general launch lawsuit backlash against Demcare.

Update II: Eight Health Care Charts That Depict the Utter Cruelty of DemCare.

Eight Health Care Charts That Depict the Utter Cruelty of DemCare








Rather than honestly address the impending entitlement catastrophe, Obama, Pelosi and Reid are adding a brand new unfunded entitlement.

These Democrats are historic alright; they will live in infamy.


Source: Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). Hat tip: Charlie Foxtrot.

Stupak: the Sanctity of Life is Important to Us, Which is Why We Will Slash Care for Old People and Further Enslave Children to Massive Deficits

Moments ago, Democrat Bart Stupak announced that a deal had been brokered between the President and the Democrat pro-life contingent in the House.

In exchange for their votes, the President will sign an Executive Order banning -- supposedly -- federal spending on abortions. Nancy Pelosi gets a dozen or so hard-fought votes that almost guarantee the successful passage of the Senate health care bill in the House.

Ironically, Stupak's pro-life posse of Democrats are assuredly condemning children and generations yet unborn to massive deficits, when our existing entitlement programs are already broken.

The bill uses every account gimmick known to man -- including slashing Medicare payments (really humane, Bart) and double-counting the cuts -- and invents a few new ones to create a brand new entitlement when the country is already in dire financial straits.

This bill fundamentally changes the relationship between the federal government and the people; and it does so in a despicably evil way. Health care will, there is no doubt, be wielded as a political weapon to reward and punish.

Congratulations, Bart Stupak and your so-called "Pro-Life" Democrat Caucus, you've sentenced the unborn generations of this country to misery, poverty and economic ruin. Way to stay true to your beliefs.

You aren't pro-life, you're low-lives.


Update: "You deserve better."

Update II: Eight Health Care Charts That Depict the Utter Cruelty of DemCare.

President Creates or Saves 16,500 Jobs of IRS Agents Who Will Work in the New Federal Health Care Enforcement Division

The Internal Revenue Service, the country's most beloved agency, will soon be hiring if CubaCare passes.

Obamacare will result in the creation of at least 16,500 new jobs. Doctors? Nurses? Ha! Dream on, suckers. That’s 16,500 new IRS agents, who’ll be needed to check whether you — yes, you, Mr. and Mrs. Hopendope of 27 Hopeychangey Gardens — are in compliance with the 15 tax increases and dozens of new federal mandates the Deemocrats are about to “deem” into existence. This will be the biggest expansion of the IRS since World War II — and that’s change you can believe in. This is what “health” “care” “reform” boils down to: fewer doctors, longer wait times, but more bureaucrats.

Oh, please, Senator Nogoodnick, I need that kidney transplant! I know my age exceeded the government-approved limit on Life Quality Years™, but I really want to live...

The health bills being pushed through Congress put important decisions in the hands of presidential appointees like [Rahm Emanuel's brother] Dr. [Ezekiel] Emanuel. They will decide what insurance plans cover, how much leeway your doctor will have, and what seniors get under Medicare.

...In the Lancet, Jan. 31, 2009, Dr. Emanuel and co-authors presented a "complete lives system" for the allocation of very scarce resources, such as kidneys, vaccines, dialysis machines, intensive care beds, and others... Dr. Emanuel concedes that his plan appears to discriminate against older people, but he explains: "Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination...

When you add politics into health care, you've created a truly evil brew. These malevolent Democrat hack politicians will, if this bill passes, use health care as a weapon against the people. They will reward allies and punish enemies. They will withhold treatment, share personal data, and exercise control over every American's life.

In fact, every single aspect of their despicable activities are at odds with the American founding, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

And they don't care. Not a bit. Because, for Democrats, socialism trumps patriotism.


Today is a momentous day. Today we lose our right to choose.

by Victor the Contractor

Today is a Momentous Day!

Today is the day! Today is the day that all Americans see the naked ambition of fifteen percent of the population as they exert their will over the silent, hard working 85 percent. Today is the culmination of many years of hard work in swaying public perception, breaking down the walls of decency and building a climate of victimization and entitlement. Today the House of Representatives votes on the Senate Health Care Reform Act.

Never mind that no one has actually read this pork nirvana: this bill that nationalizes one sixth of the economy. Never mind that this bill is a slap in the face to all who work hard and don't expect or would accept a handout from anyone. Never mind that, on its face, the bill is a brazen attempt to subvert the Constitution of the United States and assign obligations to buy a service and criminalization of the God-given right to choose.

The right to choose not to buy a service one may see as a bad bargain, or the right to decide what is right for your own body. Those who have eroded the belief in right and wrong for decades; who have literally made a federal case over the right to control a person's body; who have cried that the state had no business, indeed no say at all, about what what one put in their body, believed in their head, and even what they did to their unborn children. Now those very same harpies have turned that tenet on its head as they grasp at the ability to regulate every aspect of what we do with the body God gave us.

A God they do not believe in and they do not seem accountable to. For we live in a time where the ugliest of motivations are cloaked in compassion. A time where the killing of an unborn child is seen as 'kind' as opposed to saddling a selfish couple with the 'burden' of raising unwanted offspring. A time where the lazy and the losers in the lottery of life are trying to maintain a lifestyle by taxing the driven and conscientious people who make this country hum with productivity. These are times that try the morals of men as those who want to invalidate hard work and drive have control of the levers of power and use that awful responsibility for their own gain and avarice.

Before you go on and whine about the poor and stricken and the addict who can neither care for themselves or have the tools to prosper in this world, know this: Life is a harsh taskmaster who punishes the dumb, the lazy and the foolish with scourge and tribulation until they learn to operate within the constraints of civilization. Lessons you don't learn or fail to heed as a child will be revisited repeatedly until you get with the program, succumb to the destruction brought on by your own lusts. Attempts to rewrite God's law, or common sense, for those agnostically inclined, will always result in an unbalanced society that careens hither and yon morally, until it sputters to a halt, mired in the ambivalence of indecision and relativism. A civilization that feels more empathy for the sinners than the sinned-against is destined to fail as the criminals achieve a critical mass and take the controls in efforts to profit from the moral decline.

We have such a state of affairs now. The ugly girl at the dance is now calling the tune, much to the chagrin of the highly offended orchestra. The drop-outs who threw stones at the University's stained glass windows now are the faculty; destroying the ideas and ethics that made this country great. There is a joke in the trades that men teach their children to work before they go off to college and get ruined. The ability to define right and wrong is the hallmark of a great society and the lack thereof the talisman of a civilization in decline. The loafers and anti-establishment crowd of the sixties are now deciding the tax rate for the rest of us, and they are not amused anymore. They are out for revenge. Revenge on the 'boy scouts' who kept their collective noses clean and worked eighty hours a week and put their kids through college and took care of their ailing parents and saluted on Veteran's Day all across this fine country.

'Liberal' doesn't even begin to appropriately label these Marxists! They really are the failed Communists who sewed the cancer of relativism into our public psyche and tried with all of their drug-addled reasoning to convince the rest of us that drive and vigor were not valid traits and conscientiousness was tantamount to selfishness. That success was to be punished, or at least taxed to support the 'less able' among us.

The Democrat majority in both Houses and the Marxist in the White House are poised to enact their vengeance today on all those who ignored their pleas for fairness and charity to the losers and lazy in society. Today they can 'get over' on the corporate toadies and millionaires who rule over and abuse the working class. If it were that easy, FDR, LBJ or even Ralph Nader would have so changed the collective zeitgeist to such an extant that this latest populist farce would be ignored, even maligned by the healthy, prosperous and well adjusted masses.

Instead we have an anti-St. Patrick leading the snakes from the swamps right into the halls of power. Its ironic that the 'most transparent' government in history has hidden its agenda and blocked public reflection on its programs. Its ironic that even the President is not sure what is actually in the health care bill and more troubling that he doesn't care by what process it arrives at his desk. It will be law, no matter how many seats are lost in the coming elections.

This rush to political suicide by an overtly socialist Democrat Party barely disguises the real intent of this travesty of legislative process: the health care reform bill is Communism. Socialism is a 'cooperative' between business and Government. Communism's hallmark is the Government's possession of the means of production. I trot out this aged mare to make a point: a government that can nationalize the better part of a native automobile industry is, by its very nature, Communistic. Such a Government should not be trusted to 'nurse' a substantially healthy industry. Period. If its too big to fail, its just too big.

If the Government can decide that an entire industry needs to be saved and defies its own Constitution to do so, then that Government is invalid and must go. I trust that the Supreme Court will strike this law as soon as the mountain of lawsuits start. But what do we make of a process by which a minority of the population forces its mindset on the majority? Under what authority have GM and Chrysler been seized? Its not Constitutional. And neither is this health care bill.

Yes, today is a momentous day! It is the day we declare war on Liberalism. Today is the day we record the vote for this Communistic legislation. Today we make plans to campaign against our socialist Senators, reprobate Representatives and power-hungry President. And, pass or fail, we will know who voted for our 'right to choose' and who opted for a 'Stalinization' of our legislative process. It works both ways: Freedom of choice extends to the right to choose NOT to do, buy or consume anything, for whatever reason.

"Give me Liberty or give me death!"

Victor The Contractor


Saturday, March 20, 2010

Democrats libel 'Kill the Bill' crowd as racist, violent crackpots when 99.99% are patriots concerned with the evisceration of the Constitution

Leftist blog Drink Progress offers an ironic take on these two signs.

"Tea Party sign threatens gun violence if health care passes."

And the author somehow takes offense at this Hitler analogy for President Obama.

Gee, after every Democrat in the country alluded to Bush as a Nazi or approved of the representation, this seems a bit -- how you say? -- hypocritical. For just a small taste, do a search on "Bushitler".

Seems a tad curious that Stink Progress is complaining when, in fact, the Democrat Party is orchestrating a government takeover of a full 48% of the economy (health care, the banks, AIG, GM, Chrysler, the student loan business...).

Meanwhile, The Huffington Post breathlessly reported an anecdote that made it appear Tea Partiers are racists -- without audio, video or even named attribution.

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 protesters 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 such treatment since he was leading civil rights protests in South Carolina in the 1960s.

Of course, the last time this sort of incident happened, it turned out that the so-called racists were actually Democrat plants helpfully seeded by the SEIU. Remember this golden oldie from last year?

This screenshot was used in reports by the [media] who painted the protesters as Nazis. Here's the thing, though - that black man is a Dingell supporter!

Last Friday, Frank Beckmann on his show broadcast on WJR 760 AM interviewed an eyewitness that said not only were union thugs let in through a side door before anyone else was let into the venue, but that he clearly saw from his vantage point that very Obama as Hitler poster in that back hallway after the union thugs took their seats.

So take every report of "racism" with a grain of salt.

I'll eagerly await the video to see if (a) this incident really occurred; and (b) whether the perpetrator was a union member hired for the occasion.


Update from Neomom:

I was there. I saw the CBC group walk both from the Office Building to the Capitol and then again from the Capitol to the office building.

Were they boo'd? Yep. Rude? No more than ignoring the will of the people. Was the "N" word said? Yep.... "Vote NO!" and "NOVEMBER 2" Along with a raucous chorus of "Kill.The.Bill."

Update II from Gateway Pundit: Media Lying About Racist Attacks on Black Reps By Tea Party Protesters… VIDEO PROOF.


Related: "Manufactured Outrage of the Day: Left Horrified Over Alleged Gay Slur at DC Rally ." Linked by: Michelle Malkin, Jammie Wearing Fool, Protein Wisdom and Memeorandum. Thanks!

Microcosm of all that's wrong with Demcare: Former Impeached Judge Alcee Hastings (D-FL) Defends New Taxes on Medical Devices and Innovation

Here's an example of everything that's wrong with Democrat Health Care Reform: the Chairman of the Rules Committee's Subcommittee on Legislative and Budget Process -- Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) -- just debated Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-MN) over a 2.9% "medical innovation tax" introduced by the Demcare bill (streaming video on C-Span). So let me make sure I understand: a former impeached judge (Hastings) is going to decide the ramifications on medical innovation through the introduction of new taxes on health care manufacturers?

Democrats believe that central planning -- a la the Soviet Union -- can somehow work for one-sixth of the American economy when we all know it can't work... and has never worked. This ludicrous excuse for a political party is not simply a polar opposite to the American founding and experience; its leadership is a poisonous pack of economic illiterates who ruin everything they touch. But I suppose that goes without saying, given everything this Congress has accomplished since November of 2006.

Best Photos from the 'Kill the Bill' Tea Party Rally in DC

Great coverage from InstaPundit, Michelle Malkin, Gateway Pundit, The Other McCain, Nice Deb and Business Insider. Some of the best photos spotted thus far:






















Keep Calling.