HEALTHCARE NIGHTMARE

I think it’s important to look at the FACTS behind what the President and Democratic Congress are saying about the proposed gutting of our healthcare.

"If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan." (President Barack Obama, Remarks To The American Medical Association, Chicago, IL, 6/15/09)

THE FACTS: The Congressional Budget Office says the President’s plan would result in employers canceling insurance for 10 million Americans in 2017 alone. Looking at one year–2017–as an example, CBO estimated that, under the HELP proposal, about 147 million people would have employer-sponsored insurance in that year, 15 million fewer than would have such insurance under current law.

"If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor." (President Barack Obama, Remarks To The American Medical Association, Chicago, IL, 6/15/09)

THE FACTS: Government-run health care reimburse physicians much less than private insurancers, which often means that doctors refuse patients. 

One example of this comes from an article recently published in Michigan. "Doctors say the state-set reimbursement rates are already too low, in some cases covering only one-third of the actual costs of patient visits …" (Christina Rogers, "Doctors Balk At Medicaid Program," The Associated Press, 6/7/09)

"[W]e want some competition. If the private insurance companies have to compete with a public option, it’ll keep them honest and it’ll help keep their prices down." (President Barack Obama, Remarks At A Town Hall Meeting On Healthcare, Green Bay, WI, 6/11/09)

THE FACTS: Chicago Tribune Editorial: “Government-Run Health Care Will Crowd Out Private Competitors. But the federal government isn’t competition. It is the health care equivalent of Bigfoot, with so many Americans on its rolls that it dictates prices for doctors, drugs, and other benefits…A new public option may start small. But it could easily crowd out private plans depending on how premiums, benefits and subsidies are structured." (Editorial, "Hope and Experience," The Chicago Tribune, 6/16/09)

Democratic Congresswoman Told Supporters "Public Option" Will Drive Private Insurers Out of Business.  Rep. Schakowsky, (D-IL):  "’My single payer friends, he [a gentleman in the private insurance sector] was right; the man was right … I am so confident in the superiority of a public healthcare option that I think he has every reason to be frightened.‘" (Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Remarks at the Health Care for America Rally, Chicago, IL, 4/18/09)

"[R]eforms that we’re introducing … [mean] faster economic growth, higher living standards, and falling, instead of rising, budget deficits." (President Barack Obama, Remarks To The American Medical Association, Chicago, IL, 6/15/09)

THE FACTS: CBO Director has said plans for government-run health care would worsen the budget outlook. "President Obama’s plan to expand health coverage to the uninsured is likely to dig the nation deeper into debt …[the plan] would be much more likely to worsen the long-run budget outlook than to improve it,’ he said. …" (Lori Montgomery, Shailagh Murray & Ceci Connolly, "Obama’s Health Plan Needs Spending Controls, CBO Says," The Washington Post, 6/17/09)

Washington Post: Experts Warn Obama’s Plan Means "Higher Costs" For Private Sector. "President Obama’s plan to rein in federal spending on health care could end up shifting costs to the private sector, economists say…[T]he result could be higher costs for insurers, employers, and people with private medical coverage, they say." (David S. Hilzenrath, "Health-Care Cuts Could Shift Costs," The Washington Post, 6/18/09)

House Democrats have lots of potential targets for higher taxes as they aim to expand health care coverage…under consideration are higher alcohol taxes, increases to the Medicare payroll tax and a value-added tax, a sort of national sales tax, of up to 1.5 percent or more … The [other] tax options include: a new employer payroll tax could target 3 percent of employers’ health care expenditures, taxing employer-provided health insurance benefits above certain levels." (Erica Werner, "House Eyes New Taxes As Senators Pare Health Bill," The Associated Press, 6/19/09)

FAST TRACK TO FINANCIAL RUIN

As lawmakers begin to debate President Obama’s $3.6 TRILLION budget request, even the liberal Washington Post has issued what they call a “Red Ink RED Alert.”

The article argues that long-term federal budget deficits resulting from this unprecedented spending is – at the very least – cause for alarm.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/21/AR2009032101761.html

And this from one of most liberal newspapers in the nation. Contact your Congressional Representatives before it’s too late.

Technorati Tags: budget deficit,congress,Nebraska,political mom

Did Canada’s Universal Health Care kill Natasha Richardson?

 

You decide… http://bit.ly/LELeH

As for me, I have NO DESIRE for socialized medicine in the United States. If you agree, contact your representatives and tell them to stand firm against the President’s plan to nationalize healthcare.

Yeah… I want some government employee like the lady at the DMV in charge of administering my healthcare.  Not in this life.

AIG bonuses protected by Dems

Behind closed doors, Democratic Senators voted to include a provision in the 1100+ page “Stimulus” bill to protect the $165 million in tax-payer funded bonuses sent to AIG executives this week. In case you haven’t heard – these are the same executives that drove the company that was “too big to fail” into the ground. Then they asked taxpayers to buy 80% of the stock – which our “brilliant” lawmakers agreed to do.

But it gets even better…

Republican Senator Olympia Snow – who was in the closed door meeting – says she tried to convince Democratic Senators (including Nebraska’s own Ben Nelson) to at least include a provision to limit these bonuses or tax them at a higher rate. The Democrats – these same lawmakers who are now expressing outrage over the bonuses – declined to include the language.

I wonder why?

Could it be that the two senators who chair committees charged with overseeing AIG and the insurance industry, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), are among the top recipients of AIG contributions?

Keep reading – then let me know what you think. 

According to www.opensecrets.org…

• Baucus chairs the Senate Finance Committee and has collected more money from AIG in his congressional career than from any other company–$91,000.
• And with more than $280,000, AIG has been the fourth largest contributor to Dodd, who chairs the Senate’s banking committee.

Oh yeah… AIG also gave our new President more than $100,000 to help him get elected last fall.

I was also not surprised to read at www.opensecrets.org that…

“AIG has been a personal investment for lawmakers, too.  Twenty-eight current members of Congress reported owning stock in AIG last year, worth between $2.5 million and $3.3 million. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), one of the richest members of Congress, was by far the biggest investor in AIG, with stock valued around $2 million.”

Hmm… wonder how much Barney Frank got from AIG?

Cha-ching!

Technorati Tags: AIG,AIG bonuses,Ben Nelson,Chris Dodd,Barney Frank,John Kerry,Democrats,Obama

Financial discipline… or free-for-all?

Americans watched as President Obama gave a speech last night trying to make a case to the American people that the unprecedented “financial stimulus” passed by the Democratically controlled Congress is money well spent to pull the country out of the economic meltdown and invest in the future.

It was a brilliant speech from a very skilled orator. But do you buy it? I’m not so sure. In fact, I’m not at all sure.

Unfortunately, I don’t have time to worry about what’s already been done. Just like I don’t have time to worry about the billions our government is giving to people who didn’t pay their mortgages and are in danger of foreclosure.  Or that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a trip to China last week with hat in hand to ask our largest lender – CHINA – to keep loaning us money.

Today brings a completely new reason to worry as Congress considers a $410 billion piece of legislation with more than 9000 new earmarks.

That’s right. A NEW spending bill.

The bill contains $410 billion for things like tattoo removal and $22 million to fix up the JFK library (which should be funded by foundation money).

So … what’s a few billion dollars here and there? Consider this – if you sat down to count from one to a billion, it would take you 95 years to finish. 95 years!

So, if my math is right, counting from one to 410 billion would take 38,950 years.

What is going on in our country? I’m waiting from Rod Serling to stroll in from the laundry room to tell me that I’m in The Twilight Zone. At least then I would understand the madness.

Technorati Tags: Congress,economy

Git ‘er done… or get it right?

Contrary to President Obama, I feel when it comes to spending a TRILLION dollars — and mortgaging our children’s future — it’s more important to GET IT RIGHT.

The reason – with such a massive spending bill – we won’t have a SECOND CHANCE.

I applaud the congressmen and senators who are standing firm — and forcing overzealous leaders to shape a bill that GETS IT RIGHT.

Technorati Tags: economic stimulus plan,political mom,nebraska

Straight Talk from Senator Lindsay Graham

FINALLY! A politician not afraid of straight talk!

I just heard Lindsay Graham on Fox News say that the Economic “Stimulus” bill that is being debated needs to be TOTALLY REVAMPED or better yet- SCRAPPED – for a bill that actually creates jobs and stimulates the economy.

Critics of the stimulus measure, including lawmakers and economists, have warned that it included too many long-term spending programs, which may represent laudable public policy goals and certainly reflect Democratic priorities, but that were unlikely to provide the quick boost in job creation and consumer spending needed to halt the economy’s downward spiral and spur a recovery.

I ask Democrats and President Obama to consider our children — who will be paying the price of what many experts consider a “folly” — and go back to the drawing board.

 

Technorati Tags: Linsay Graham,economic stimulus

IT TOOK A NEBRASKAN…

…TO BRING REASON BACK TO CONGRESS. 

Kudos to Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson (D), who sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, for leading an effort to radically renovate the economic stimulus package passed by House Democrats without a single Republican vote.  Senator Nelson says Republicans and Democrats alike want to gut the nearly $900 billion program of items that he says will not stimulate job growth. 

“We’re talking in the billions, and tens of billions, that we’re looking to exclude from this particular program,” said Nelson.

He singled out provisions in the bill for programs like U.S. Department of Agriculture computers and medical research as items that might be worth funding — but NOT in a stimulus package. 

Finally — it looks like common sense has a chance of prevailing as support for the House bill wanes in both parties. 

Thank you Senator Nelson — and the rest of the Nebraska contingent in Congress – Congressmen Lee Terry, Jeff Fortenberry, Adrian Smith and Senator Mike Johanns for standing firm against this massive “stimulus” that doesn’t look like it will “stimulate” anything other than campaign contributions to House Democrats.

Technorati Tags: Ben Nelson,Lee Terry,Jeff Fortenberry,Adrian Smith,Mike Johanns,economic stimulus,Congress

Economic Stimulus Plan: Proceed with Caution

I’ll admit it. I am scared to death by the “Economic Stimulus Plan” passed by House Democrats last night.

I have scoured the newspapers and the web to educate myself on the provisions of this bill. I spent all this time — while the laundry piles up — because three faces won’t let me rest.

The faces are those of my children – Freddy, Liz and Anna.

   

 

 

 

 

These are the faces I see when politicians scurry to get their share of the largest appropriations bill in our nation’s history. A behemoth bill equal to 25% of our nation’s budget. A bill filled with new spending that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with stimulating our economy.

I mean… how can funneling a bunch of money into birth control create more jobs? Or giving a tax break to people who already don’t pay taxes?

The bottom line is that this spending bill will increase our national deficit to 1.2 TRILLION. Not MILLION OR BILLION– but TRILLION. I didn’t even think TRILLION was a real number. I thought it was like ZILLION. Not a real number — just a word for “way too much money to count.”

So — with one bill — the House of Representatives voted to increase our national debt $1.2 TRILLION. Money we have to borrow from countries like China. Or the the oil rich countries of the Middle East. You know — those “friendly” countries that love the United States.

So.. who will have to pay this debt back?

It certainly is not the politicians who are scurrying around the Capital.  Or the lobbyists all trying to grab their piece of the pie.  Or the pundits who feel they are the ones who truly shape policy.

The ones who are being saddled by this crushing debt are the kids pictured above. Kids who are trusting the “adults” to make the right decision.

My children. Your children. Our children.

And right now … I am so sick to my stomach that I can’t look them in the eye.  Can you?

Technorati Tags: Economic stimulus 2009,Nancy pelosi,federal deficit,federal debt,Congress,House of Representatives,children,moms,politicians

A Deal’s a Deal

If a man’s faith is sincere, it is the most important thing about him, and it is impossible to understand who he is and how he will lead without first understanding the religious vision that informs his life.

Stephen Mansfield, author of The Faith of Barack Obama

In August, Thomas Nelson Publishers sent me a review copy of one of their new titles, The Faith of Barack Obama. In return, they asked me to post a review on my blog. An honest review.

I was familiar with Mansfield’s work through his best-selling title, The Faith of George W. Bush. Intrigued by Obama’s words on the subject of his personal faith and the juxtaposition of the Democratic Party’s numerous positions in opposition to Biblical truth, I was eager to read Mansfield’s book. Plus, the book was from a Christian publisher.

Now, feeling a bit like “Joe the Plumber”  — the single dad from Ohio who was crucified for daring to ask Barack Obama an “uncomfortable” question–  I’m extremely hesitant to post my review of this book for the “world” — or a least the “publishing world” to see.

You see, I’m a Christian author and Thomas Nelson is a very large and influential Christian publishing house. Do I dare give my honest opinion – and risk the wrath of the TN? What would my agent think? After all, the CEO of TN started off by deleting negative comments about the book from his blog. I can only imagine what he was saying on Twitter… Yikes!

But a deal’s a deal. And I’ve already received two reminders from TN that I haven’t held up my end of the bargain by posting about the book. I guess the least I can do is muster up half the courage of “Joe the Plumber” and ask a few questions.

So here’s the deal… In my opinion, Mansfield’s book gave me no clearer picture of Obama’s faith than rhetoric from his campaign staff. Specifically, Obama says he is a Christian and believes in the redemptive power of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross – but feels there are many paths to heaven.

Why didn’t Mansfield explore — or better yet — FOCUS on this contradiction of the most important tenet of Christianity — that  Jesus Christ is the ONE TRUE GOD and ONLY through HIS sacrifice can we enter heaven? And why didn’t TN, as a Christian publisher, insist he do so before rushing to press?

Bottom line: I sure wish Rick Warren wrote this book. I learned much more about the faith of Senator Obama in 30 minutes with him than I did the many hours slogging through this book.

BTW — after this experience, I am definitely not accepting a review copy of Lynne Spear’s book about raising her daughters from TN.