Health Care Snowe Job

The Senate Finance Committee has issued a set of "talking points" about why the so-called America's Health Future Act is good for you. Missing is any straight talk about how the bill drives up health care spending, rations care and will force people to wait longer for less time with fewer doctors. Call it the Senate Finance Committee's "Snowe Job."

Eight Things to Know about the America's Healthy Future Act (amended for honesty and accuracy):

1. Individuals and employers who are satisfied with their current health insurance coverage can keep it and would not be required to change health plans. (For five years. And then individuals and employers -- note, not employees -- would be forced to buy health plans through exchanges that cost up to three times as much as their previous coverage with benefits they may not want or use. Poor and working class people will have no choice but Medicaid, which will double in size even as physician pay is cut. Good luck trying to keep your own doctor in either case unless you pay cash.)

2. No American can be denied health insurance or charged more because of a pre-existing health condition. (But since Americans who are and stay healthy will subsidize those of us who get sick and enroll only when they are seriously ill, the costs of coverage will increase or care will be rationed. Probably both. And Americans with pre-existing conditions will be denied coverage of drugs or tests and be forced to wait to see specialists as health plans, under the threat of a public option trigger, will cut access to care that the Obama administration regards as unnecessary.)


3. Health insurance companies will not be able to discriminate on the basis of gender or health status -- so insurance companies can't charge more for women or Americans who are sick. (See above. This is pay for performance in reverse.)

4. Health insurance companies will no longer receive tax deductions if they give their executives excessive salaries and compensation. (And this improves health care access and quality how?)

5. Members of Congress will be required to buy their health insurance through the same exchanges that people in their own states will use, instead of having a separate Congressional health plan. (Yes, but Members of Congress will have their insurance deeply subsidized.)

6. Health insurance companies will no longer be able to limit how much coverage you can use over your lifetime or how many benefits you can use each year. (Sounds good. But remember the government will be making those decisions from here on in. What benefits you use and how much will be decided by a Quality Czar who will issue reimbursement and coverage decisions for health exchanges based on what bureaucrats believe is cost effective. That's rationing.)

7. The bill specifically says there will be no Medicare benefit cuts for individuals. In fact, it strengthens Medicare's finances so the program can continue to provide benefits for years to come. (Nice try. The bill specifically cuts Medicare Advantage, the fastest growing program for the most chronically ill seniors. Score a big one for AARP which, in exchange for shilling for Obamacare, will reap billions as seniors dumped from Advantage have to buy supplemental coverage for what the shuttered program used to pay for. It specifically reduces what doctors will get under Medicare. It specifically seeks to reduce how much doctors do based not on how sick people are -- see the similar contradiction in point 6 -- but on the lowest amount of care given per person regardless of burden of disease. And it micromanages the decision of whether to pay for new technologies to assure that fewer people get innovations more slowly. Maybe it's not a cut, but it is denial of care.

8. Low-and middle-income seniors will get 50 percent of their drug costs paid for when they reach the so-called doughnut hole in the Medicare Part D prescription drug program, where no coverage is provided today. (And what drugs they get will be determined by a government panel that will increasingly delay access to new drugs based on price alone and without regard to individual differences.)

As health care costs and premiums go up, as they will, government bureaucrats will pull the public option "trigger." Price controls and bigger government run health plans -- the public option -- will follow.

Thanks to Robert M. Goldberg

Chris Matthews Fantasizes About Someone Shooting Limbaugh in the Head

Perfect look into the Liberal philosophy; If somebody doesn’t agree with your beliefs, they should be shot.
Look for more of this attitude from fellow liberals, and, even scarier, from the White House

WHY OBAMACARE SHOULD BE FLATLINED...

We told about the quarterback sneak pulled by the private health industry who finally realized that President Obama was lying like a big dog. As it turns out, more and more economically-based criticism of Obamacare is coming to light. For starters, the tacit ‘approval’ some thought they saw courtesy of the Congressional Budget Office, isn’t that at all. Not if you’re really looking, at least.
While the CBO has said they expect the collect a fair bit of money via the various taxes associated with the plan. But what if they aren’t there? The Congressional Budget Office projections (which are, in this case, the Joint Committee on Taxation's projections, as the CBO doesn't estimate tax revenues) actually suggest that the bulk of the tax's revenues will come from the response to the tax, not the payment of the tax. As the New York Times reports, the JCT believes that "about $142 billion of the 10-year total of $201 billion to be raised by the [excise tax] would come from increased income and payroll taxes." In other words, the vast majority of the revenues would come because employers would "structure their benefits to get around this tax." Workers would receive more of their compensation in wages and less in healthcare benefits, and because wages are taxable and health benefits aren't, tax revenues would go up. The trouble is that the CBO didn't adequately account for the response to the implicit marginal tax created by the sliding scale of subsidies. In other words, the CBO doesn’t fully incorporate the effects of these higher marginal tax rates in their cost estimates.
If taxpayers respond to these new incentives by, say, working less, GDP and tax revenue from income and payroll taxes will go down.
Want the bonus plan? Ask yourself if you’d feel the pinch of a 20 percentage point tax increase. I know I would.

To sen richard durbin

I see that your are not listening to us, we do not want you to continue on your present course to pass and sign this dog of a healthcare policy....healthcare reform is a joke, have you polititions even read the proposals??? I think not, or you just dont care about what we say!
You sir were elected to office to represent us sir, not the other way around....dont put your name on any of these power grabbing bills, cap and trade...healthcare, or any other bill that violates our freedom and liberty!!
STOP TAXING US TO DEATH!!!!
I have watched what you have been involving yourself in sir and I can tell you with 100% confidence that you do not have our wishes in mind....STOP signing your liberal, power grabbing bills and START doing our bidding...
Everything you and your colleagues are doing is a disgrace, what in the constitution gives you the authority to carry out what you are doing???? You polititions shouldn`t continue to be sent to washington, you all should be in jail sir, what you people are doing is nothing short of theft!!!! How dare you sirs.......
What you and the rest of washington are doing to our troops and the military is also disgraceful....WHILE YOU, OBAMA, AND THE REST OF THE SELF APPOINTED KINGS AND QUEENS OF CONGRESS ARE HAVING THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE, ON THE TAXPAYERS DIME BY THE WAY, OUR BRAVE BOYS AND GIRLS ARE OVERSEAS FIGHTING AND DYING......HOW DARE YOU CALL YOURSELF AN AMERICAN SIR!
Shame on you and your colleagues!!!!!
This summer you treated the U.S. citizens has a joke, come election time we will return the favor, so mark my words!!!
I pray for my country, its citizens, and our troops.
If you continue on your present course of pursueing your liberal agenda, and the distruction of this great country then start packing your bags, because we are going to start looking for real representation and you WILL be fired sir!

Does Obama Violate the Hatch Act with Acceptance of Nobel?

The Hatch Act restricts the political activity of executive branch employees of the federal government, District of Columbia government and some state and local employees who work in connection with federally funded programs. In 1993, Congress passed legislation that significantly amended the Hatch Act as it applies to federal and D.C. employees (5 U.S.C. §§ 7321-7326). (These amendments did not change the provisions that apply to state and local employees. 5 U.S.C. §§ 1501- 1508.) Under the amendments most federal and D.C. employees are now permitted to take an active part in political management and political campaigns. A small group of federal employees are subject to greater restrictions and continue to be prohibited from engaging in partisan political management and partisan political campaigns.

Is the Nobel Foundation political?

Penalties for Violating the Hatch Act

An employee who violates the Hatch Act shall be removed from their position, and funds appropriated for the position from which removed thereafter may not be used to pay the employee or individual. However, if the Merit Systems Protection Board finds by unanimous vote that the violation does not warrant removal, a penalty of not less than 30 days’ suspension without pay shall be imposed by direction of the Board.

High Crimes and Misdemeanors.



Obama’s Nobel response:

This morning, Michelle and I awoke to some surprising and humbling news. At 6 a.m., we received word that I’d been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.

To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize — men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.

But I also know that throughout history the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it’s also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes.

That is why I’ve said that I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations and all peoples to confront the common challenges of the 21st century. These challenges won’t all be met during my presidency, or even my lifetime. But I know these challenges can be met so long as it’s recognized that they will not be met by one person or one nation alone.

This award — and the call to action that comes with it — does not belong simply to me or my administration; it belongs to all people around the world who have fought for justice and for peace. And most of all, it belongs to you, the men and women of America, who have dared to hope and have worked so hard to make our world a little better.

So today we humbly recommit to the important work that we’ve begun together. I’m grateful that you’ve stood with me thus far, and I’m honored to continue our vital work in the years to come.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama

Sounds like there were political strings attached. Strings that Obama accepted.

Chicago March on the Media

The Chicago Tea Party Says…
Can You Hear Us Now?
We are silent NO more!

March on the Media
Friday
October 16th
4 p.m. – 6 p.m.
ABC Studios
180 N. State Street
(We will also visit CBS News Studios, 22 West Washington Blvd., one block away, during their broadcasts, too!

Silent NO More Tea Party
Saturday
October 17th
11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Millennium Park
Michigan Avenue and Washington Blvd.
Guest speaker: Kevin Jackson of the Black Sphere
www.TheBlackSphere.net
We have also invited Janeane Garofolo, who has resurrected her dying career by calling American patriots involved in tea parties, racists, to debate Kevin Jackson… Let’s see if she accepts!

US harshly rebukes Israel on settlement plans

AP - Sat, 5 Sep 2009 01:04:39 -0400 (EDT)
By MATTHEW LEE

Alarmed by Israeli plans to build new housing units in settlements and dimming prospects for American peace efforts, the Obama administration on Friday put out a rare and harsh public rebuke of its main Mideast ally.

The White House said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's settlement plans were "inconsistent" with commitments the Jewish state has made previously and harmful to U.S. attempts to lay the groundwork for a resumption in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

"United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement expansion and we urge that it stop," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement. "We are working to create a climate in which negotiations can take place, and such actions make it harder to create such a climate."

Netanyahu's aides, speaking on condition of anonymity Friday because the plans have not been formally announced, said any Israeli settlement freeze would not halt building the new units and or block completion of some 2,500 others currently under construction. They also said the freeze would not include east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians hope to make their future capital.

The unusually blunt White House criticism reflected the administration's growing frustration with Netanyahu, whose decision would approve hundreds of new housing units in West Bank settlements before considering even a temporary freeze in construction, as President Barack Obama has requested.

The White House typically refrains from commenting on such moves until they are formally announced. But in this case, U.S. officials said they acted because Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell had already been briefed on the Israeli plans earlier in the week.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Mitchell and the Israelis had been having "a very open dialogue" in "very intense discussions." He would not elaborate.

But one U.S. official familiar with Mitchell's Wednesday meeting in New York with Netanyahu envoy Yitzhak Molcho and Israeli Defense Ministry chief of staff Michael Herzog said the Israelis "told Mitchell they were going to do it and he told them they could expect a sharp response."

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic exchange, said the meeting had "not gone well."

The official added that the White House statement was released before a formal Israeli announcement of Netanyahu's plans because "we wanted to send a strong signal early on."

Publicly, the State Department had described Mitchell's discussion with the Israeli delegation -- which came after his talks with Netanyahu a week earlier in London -- as a "good meeting."

The department said Mitchell would travel again to the Middle East next week to follow up. That trip is still on, officials said Friday.

"The process will continue," said one. The official also noted that the statement was not entirely negative and expressed appreciation for "Israel's stated intent to place limits on settlement activity."

"We are working with all parties -- Israelis, Palestinians, and Arab states -- on the steps they must take to achieve that objective," said Gibbs.

Netanyahu's refusal to bend on the settlement issue despite repeated U.S. appeals threatens to damage Obama's credibility in the Arab world. The administration is counting on Arab support for a resumption in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations but will not likely get it unless Netanyahu makes concessions on settlements.

The Palestinians have said they will not sit down for talks unless there is a settlement freeze and Arab leaders have made similar demands.

This is amazing to me that obama has no problems scolding our allies but can`t use that same tone to the nations that would do us harm!!! Obama should grow a set and put Iran, Korea, Russia in their place and stop kissing up to their leaders!!! It is amazing just how much damage one man and his self appointed administration has done to this once great nation. With every passing day he finds new ways to weaken our standing in the world, whats even more amazing is the millions of dazed americans that just can`t see the harm he is doing.