Filed under: Bureaucracy, Communism, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Economics, Economy, Election 2020, Foreign Policy, Law, National Security, Progressivism, Regulation, Socialism, The United States | Tags: Congress, Democrat Corruption, Democrat lies, Healthcare, Politics
Newsy day! We have had one death from Coronavirus here in Washington State, apparently with some Korean connection. Joe Biden has won the South Carolina caucus. Corona beer has NO Connection to the virus with “corona” in the name. I know it’s hard, but try to pay attention and not get panicky.
Democrats are trying their hardest to make President Trump responsible for the Coronavirus, but they are, as usual, making no sense, and lying through their teeth. You need to understand that the Democrats believe themselves to be morally superior and thus entitled to be in charge of, well, everything! They are morally superior because they care.
For example, they care about anyone in Mexico who wants to cross the border, and assume that we should allow them in because they might have coronavirus, and we need to help them. Most sane Americans would admit that Mexico has a number of cases of coronavirus, a number of deaths, and that Mexico has an obligation to take care of their own people, which they are trying to do. We do not have any obligation to open up our borders to anyone from another country. Elizabeth Warren has proposed a “Bill to Take All Money From Trump’s ‘Racist Wall,’ Give to HHS to Fight Coronavirus.” Some polls suggest that Elizabeth Warren might not win her own state of Massachusetts. “Racist Wall” ??? A President of the United States’ first responsibility is to the people of his own country, not to the citizens of Mexico, nor of all the other countries’ citizens trying to illegally cross the border. If Warren does not understand that basic fact, she has no business considering herself qualified to run for anything. There is a legal way to come to America and become a citizen. You apply, and wait your turn.
AOC, who never fails to demonstrate her ignorance, was outraged (isn’t she always?) that Vice President Pence, appointed to lead the Coronavirus program, said he would pray as he took on the effort. He is a religious man, and of course would pray for help in doing an important job. AOC promptly announced “Mike Pence literally does not believe in science. It is utterly irresponsible to put him in charge of US coronavirus response as the world sits on the cusp of a pandemic.” Well we all make silly mistakes, Hank Johnson worried about Guam tipping over. Just refrain from suggesting that the folks serving in government are our “betters.”
We elect people to serve us in government so we don’t have to do it. They want to serve because it’s a good paying job with all sorts of benefits, among which are lots of attention from the media, and if you get to be some sort of celebrity, there are even more benefits that involve recognition, name familiarity, and maybe a book deal somewhere down the road, aside from being able to steer business to your family. We have to keep an eye on them, and, if they get too far out of line, elect someone else.
Joe Biden has won the caucus in South Carolina as I said, in spite of getting a little confused about whether he was running for the Senate or the Presidency. It helps to maintain a good sense of humor regarding politics, but it’s hard when one candidate announces that he is a socialist. Socialist/Communist, there’s not much difference. If you don’t know what the term “socialist” means, it’s time to seriously educate yourself. The public schools and our colleges and universities will not do it for you. The universities are staffed with those who got deferments for being in school as they protested the Vietnam War, and a college education doesn’t mean what it once did. Head to your public library, look for The Black Book of Communism, The Gulag Archipelago, The Passing of an Illusion, Property and Freedom, Mao, or any of dozens of books explaining what “socialism” really is. Socialism does not mean free health care, or anything else free for that matter. It costs more than can be endured.
*I don’t know the source of this image, but it expresses the reality clearly
Filed under: Economy, Environment, Foreign Policy, National Security | Tags: Congress, Democrat Corruption, Healthcare, liberalism
Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the leading climate skeptic in the Senate, said Thursday that upcoming cap-and-trade legislation can muster no more than 26 votes. Climate change is far down on Americans’ list of concerns. Only 33 percent believe that human activity is responsible, and 48 percent say global warming is caused by long-term planetary trends.
Evidence continues to appear indicating that cap-and-trade is ruinous for an economy, accomplishes nothing for climate change, and is aimed only at societal control. President Obama’s efforts to sorta-kinda-maybe suggest that we might have a bit of support for nuclear power or offshore oil-and-gas drilling, were offset by all the areas that he put firmly off-limits, so that can be considered as thrown under the bus.
According to a Pew poll released Sunday night, trust in the federal government to do “the right thing” most of the time has fallen to a near all-time low of 22 percent.
How odd. When the public is concerned about spending, the federal government pursues a health care bill that the majority of the public oppose. When the public is concerned about spending and jobs, the federal government pursues climate change alarmism. When the public is concerned about Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, the federal government gets an agreement from Canada to send us their enriched uranium. Why would we conceivably trust the federal government to do “the right thing.”
Filed under: Capitalism, Law, The Constitution | Tags: Democrat Demagogues, Democrat lies, Healthcare
Earlier this month Humana sent a one-page letter to its customers who were enrolled in its Medicare Advantage plan, which offers extra benefits to Medicare beneficiaries. Humana explained that because of spending cuts proposed by Democrats (Taking $500 Billion out of Medicare) “millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many of the important benefits and services that make Medicare Advantage health plans so valuable.” They also suggested their customers contact their congressional representatives. Not exactly a startling political communication.
Well. You have probably noticed that strongarm tactics are definitely on the menu when it comes to the Democrats’ Health Care plans. Senator Baucus, whose very own health care plan has just been released, not only took offense, he went to war. He complained to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency in charge, which on Friday ordered Humana to cease and desist. And opened an investigation to see if the company mailer violated laws about how insurers that manage Advantage plans are allowed to communicate with their customers.
According to the Wall Street Journal:
“It is wholly inappropriate for insurance companies to mislead seniors regarding any subject—particularly on a subject as important to them, and to the nation, as health-care reform,” Mr. Baucus said in a statement yesterday, playing the role of Congressional censor. “The health-care reform bill we released last week strengthens Medicare and does not cut benefits covered under the Medicare program—and seniors need to know that.”
In fact, the Baucus draft legislation slashes $123 billion over the next decade from Medicare Advantage, which Democrats hate despite the fact that almost one-fourth of beneficiaries have chosen it over traditional fee-for-service Medicare. One reason seniors like it is because private insurers focus on quality and preventive care and try to manage benefits, as opposed to simply paying bills.
A new study from America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry trade group, finds that seniors on Advantage in California spent 30% fewer days in hospitals over fee-for-service patients, based on federal data. Democrats say that insurers are “overpaid,” but the cuts—as Humana correctly noted—mean that seniors may lose this coverage.
What business it is of government to tell private companies just what they may communicate to their customers remains a mystery. The Journal adds: “Mr Baucus and the Obama Administration are out to make [Humana] an object lesson to the rest of the business class, and that means they won’t stop until Humana cries uncle or is ruined.”
Filed under: Democrat Corruption, Politics | Tags: Democrat Demagogues, Healthcare, Obama
I read about President Obama’s phone call to a group of rabbis to urge them to support his health care plan; and to send their flocks forth to urge friends, families and neighbors to support ObamaCare. And I was pondering just how to address this uncomfortable idea, when I visited Pajamas Media and found that Andrew Klavan already had dealt with the whole thing most satisfactorily. Do read more: This is why Andrew writes vast numbers of successful novels and I just blog.
Filed under: Democrat Corruption, Liberalism, Politics | Tags: Congress, Democrat Demagogues, Healthcare
Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) had a Town Hall meeting a few days ago. A citizen asked if he had read the health care bill. He responded that they didn’t have time to read the whole thing so he divided it up with his aides and each read part of it. Mark Steyn posted a comment. An Arlen Specter supporter responded that:
“Every CEO in the country, including Ronald Reagan as President, reads executive summaries of important documents. The idea that any Senator has to read an entire bill in nonsense. He needs staff not only to read it but to relate how items on page 3 relate to provisions on page 1009…What is true is that without time there is no way staff could read it and draft the necessary critiques for Senatorial review but this ‘he hasn’t read the bill stuff’ is stupidity not some great insight.”
Mark Steyn responded (and this is the brilliant part):
Arlen Specter is not a CEO: — notwithstanding the vast Gulf Emir-sized retinue to which he has become accustomed. He doesn’t run anything. He has no payroll to make, no contracts to fulfill, no deliveries to expedite. A legislator is elected to legislate — so, if he doesn’t read the law before he makes it law, he’s not doing the only job he has. When you go to see Barbra Streisand, she has an orchestra and a conductor and arrangers and lighting designers and hair stylists, but she’s still expected to do the singing herself. If she stood up and said, “Okay, I’ve outsourced “People” to my intern Kevin and “You Don’t Bring me Flowers’ to the niece of a friend of mine who needed a summer job and the Yentl medley to some people Kevin met for a breakfast session and said seemed to know what they were talking about,” you’d begin to wonder why anyone needs Barbra.
Why does anyone need Specter? Why can’t we just eliminate the middle-man and have his “staffers” announce their collective vote like a U.N. Security “Council meeting? (emphasis mine)
Excellent exchange. Of course they have to read the bills. If they recognized that they are required to read every bill in its entirety, bills would be shorter, earmarks would be fewer, laws would be clearer and work better, and they would pass much less legislation — which would benefit the country immeasurably. Half of the problems in the country are caused by some little provision that someone sneaked into a bill that no one read. As far as that goes, a lot of staffers would no longer be needed if they didn’t have to read the bills and summarize them for the very people who are supposed to be doing that job, and the budget would be smaller.
Don’t miss the update from another correspondent to Mark Steyn. It’s priceless.
Filed under: Capitalism, Economy, Freedom, Health Care | Tags: Democrat Demagogues, Healthcare, Nancy Pelosi, Obama
The claims of those attempting to promote a government takeover of the American Medical System grow ever more strident. Now Nancy Pelosi and her crew are attempting to blame the insurance companies for whatever is wrong. They’re very sure that “envy” is the key. If they portray the CEOs of health insurance companies as “greedy” people making too much money, then you will want to turn everything over to those clever folks in Congress. “Class envy” is a favorite Democrat trick. You will note that Congress itself never does anything wrong, and all congressmen are sincere and honest people who read every word of each bill they vote on, and understand all of the economic consequences of what they have decided.
President Obama seems to believe that his charisma and mellow baritone will offer veracity to his increasingly false pronouncements. At every “Town Hall Meeting” he makes more claims that are contradicted by the very words of the bills before Congress.
Some things need improvement, but the American medical system remains the best in the world. Here are a few facts about our health care system from the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA).
Fact No. 1: Americans have better survival rates than Europeans for common cancers. Breast cancer mortality is 52 percent higher in Germany than in the United States, and 88 percent higher in the United Kingdom. Prostate cancer mortality is 604 percent higher in the U.K. and 457 percent higher in Norway. The mortality rate for colorectal cancer among British men and women is about 40 percent higher.
Fact No. 2: Americans have lower cancer mortality rates than Canadians. Breast cancer mortality is 9 percent higher, prostate cancer is 184 percent higher and colon cancer mortality among men is about 10 percent higher than in the United States.
Fact No. 3: Americans have better access to treatment for chronic diseases than patients in other developed countries. Some 56 percent of Americans who could benefit are taking statins, which reduce cholesterol and protect against heart disease. By comparison, of those patients who could benefit from these drugs, only 36 percent of the Dutch, 29 percent of the Swiss, 26 percent of Germans, 23 percent of Britons and 17 percent of Italians receive them.
Fact No. 4: Americans have better access to preventive cancer screening than Canadians. Take the proportion of the appropriate-age population groups who have received recommended tests for breast, cervical, prostate and colon cancer:
- Nine of 10 middle-aged American women (89 percent) have had a mammogram, compared to less than three-fourths of Canadians (72 percent).
- Nearly all American women (96 percent) have had a pap smear, compared to less than 90 percent of Canadians.
- More than half of American men (54 percent) have had a PSA test, compared to less than 1 in 6 Canadians (16 percent).
- Nearly one-third of Americans (30 percent) have had a colonoscopy, compared with less than 1 in 20 Canadians (5 percent).
Fact No. 5: Lower income Americans are in better health than comparable Canadians. Twice as many American seniors with below-median incomes self-report “excellent” health compared to Canadian seniors (11.7 percent versus 5.8 percent). Conversely, white Canadian young adults with below-median incomes are 20 percent more likely than lower income Americans to describe their health as “fair or poor.”
The whole list of 10 Surprising Facts by Scott Atlas is available at the National Center for Policy Analysis, with sources as well as a list of the 10 Most Important Recent Medical Innovations (with the country of origin).
Do read the whole thing. It will open your eyes a bit and give you terrific arguments when you talk to your congressmen while they’re home in August.
Filed under: Capitalism, Economy, Taxes | Tags: Democrat Demagogues, Economy, Healthcare
If you speak of millions and billions and trillions often enough, the reality of those numbers fades away. Here is a reminder, for taxpayers, of just what a trillion dollars represents. It’s worth reviewing. Maybe you can comprehend it. I have trouble.
Filed under: Democrat Corruption, Economy, Energy | Tags: Economics 101, Healthcare, Liberalism is a Mental Disorder, The Free Market
I was still giggling over Nancy Pelosi’s comment on Progressive Health Care: “We will have a cap on costs, and we will have no cap on benefits, ” when I learned that in Michigan, suffering from some of the highest unemployment in the country, State Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer wants to test support for potential ballot initiatives that will:
“give voters the chance to circumvent recalcitrant politicians in Lansing, he said, demonstrating that Democrats are “on the side of the people.”
The brilliant ideas they are proposing consider:
- Hiking the minimum wage to $10 an hour for all workers.
- Cutting utility rates 20% across the board.
- Imposing a blanket moratorium on home foreclosures for 12 months.
- Requiring all employers to provide health care to their employees.
- Hiking, by $100 a week, and extending, for 6 months, unemployment benefits.
Raising the minimum wage will increase the unemployment rate. Cutting utility rates will cripple Michigan power companies. Mandating health insurance should shut down any small businesses who were considering staying in Michigan, and no small employer would consider relocating to Michigan. Remaining would be the Democrats and the unemployed, but who would pay for their additional unemployment benefits remains a mystery.
Then Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm has mandated that 20 percent of the state’s power come from renewable resources — and now she wants utilities to cut consumer rates by 20 percent. Yes, she wants utilities to provide more costly power, and cap the prices that customers pay for it.
Last year, Barack Obama named Ms. Granholm to his 17-member economic advisory board. According to Edward John Craig, she seems to still be active in that role. At least the climate bill, the budget, the stimulus and the health care reform agenda would seem to indicate that she is.
I knew that Democrats don’t much like the free market, nor do they understand it. They are deeply suspicious of the profit motive, and antagonistic to business.
That is why we have a stimulus bill that is going to wait a year or two to attempt to stimulate. That is why, in spite of warnings that fiscal stimulus seldom works, they were sure that more money would make it work. That is why they are quite sure that dumping large amounts of federal funds into wind turbines and solar panels to produce “clean” electricity will somehow reduce our dependence on foreign oil; and by making the cost of energy far more expensive will somehow create more jobs. And as Nancy Pelosi claims, by capping costs and making all health care benefits available to millions more people, we will save money.
It seems that we have all stumbled down the rabbit hole, and are lost in a make-believe world.
Filed under: Democrat Corruption, Economy, Progressivism | Tags: Global Warming, Healthcare, Irresponsible Spending, Obama
President “Transparency Is the Touchstone of my Administration” Obama has noticed that while the official calendar calls for a revised budget estimate to be issued in July, um, we’ll just put it off till at least mid-August. President Obama wants major health care reform and, if possible, a global warming bill from Congress before they recess in August. And we don’t want any inconvenient budget overruns mentioned just now.
As details of the cost of these policies begins to emerge (reading thousand-page bills takes time) Americans are beginning to get glimpses of the trillions of dollars in spending that will do nothing whatsoever to improve health care or lessen the amount of CO2 in the air.
This year alone, the deficit will be upwards of $1.8 trillion, and earlier deficit estimates total up the red ink through 2019 at $9.3 trillion.
Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) says that what began as a “modest” $700 billion program to buy up bad mortgages has morphed into 12 programs with $3 trillion in government commitments.
According to Barofsky’s testimony, total efforts to “stabilize and support the financial system” since 2007 could eventually “reach up to $23.7 trillion.”
The total take by government at all levels will be well over 50 percent of GDP, or the destruction of the American economy. Investors Business Daily puts it well:
Good governance begins with honesty. Unfortunately, the Democrats’ plans to expand the scope and reach of government to nearly every part of Americans’ lives have been marked by fiscal deception and budget chicanery. The American people deserve better.
It has been exactly six months since Barack Obama was inaugurated. Is the honeymoon over?
Filed under: Capitalism, Economy, Freedom, Health Care, News the Media Doesn't Want You to Hear, Progressivism | Tags: Healthcare, Massachusetts, Socialism
President Obama has had two “Town Hall” meetings to promote ObamaCare. These are carefully stage-managed events featuring ‘the One,’ with only enthralled supporters, and no dissenting voices. There was apparently an ‘event’ in our town earlier in the week to sell the president’s health care plan, featuring MoveOn.org activists with bullhorns. I didn’t attend.
Progressives have long, long wanted to inflict Universal Health Care on Americans. Since members of Congress and the government exclude themselves from any part of it, they know very well that it is not what they claim for it, and does not live up to the exclusive plan they all subscribe to. That indicates to me that they are not interested in the health care, but in the power that controlling our health will bestow upon them.
I pointed out in an earlier post that Great Britain has a population of 33 million, and their National Health Service is a mess. Canada has a population of 66 million, and they send their difficult cases down here, and many of their doctors have moved here too. Massachusetts has a population of 6.5 million, and enacted MassCare in 2006.
What has actually happened with Massachusetts’ plan has simply not received the media attention that it should in the light of the current debate. Sandy Szwarc reports on the reality.
Massachusetts was to be the nation’s test ground for universal health insurance. MassCare has been held up as the model for similar policies on a national level. Its key elements are part of the national healthcare reform measures being proposed for all of us.
It is newsworthy what the experiment has learned and how things have been working. Yet, national media has been quiet on news about what is happening… even when the most anticipated benefits have not been proved out, and in fact, have been made worse.
As readers remember, Massachusetts enacted MassCare in 2006 and made it law that everyone must buy health insurance — but only state-approved managed care plans with coverage mandates focused on prevention — and that the State would provide coverage under a government program for growing numbers of people unable to afford insurance. About three-fifths of residents now receive free or subsidized health insurance, according to the Massachusetts government — 16% paid through MassHealth and 41% through the subsidized Commonwealth Care.
It had been sold to the public as saving money through a medical home model with care management focused on prevention, pay-for-performance measures and integrated electronic medical records. Instead of costing less for residents and the government, as we’ve learned, nearly one-third of residents report that their individual healthcare costs have increased, and public spending on health insurance this year are expected to have increased 42 percent since the program was enacted. Government spending on the free and subsidized insurance has doubled just in the past two years and is expected to reach $1.3 billion this fiscal year.
Our tax dollars — $1.35 billion per year in federal funds — are now going towards trying to keep Commonwealth Care, which provides free or subsidized insurance for low- and moderate-income residents, solvent. But the costs are even greater for patients and healthcare providers. These are the costs — to lives and quality of care — that we never hear about on the national news.
Read the rest of this important article here. Sandy Szwarc is the proprietor of the excellent website junkfoodscience, which I have found invaluable. It’s a good one to bookmark.
To repeat, MassCare is such a flop that the rest of us are already paying for it to the tune of $1.35 billion, it isn’t covering everybody, it costs way more than expected and doctors are leaving Massachusetts in droves. MassHealth denies more claims than regular insurance, and it does not, as claimed, reduce the public’s use of emergency rooms.
If Massachusetts can’t make the plan that was supposed to serve her 6.5 million citizens work; the plan that was to prove how wonderful universal health care could be when administered by caring Progressive bureaucrats, then God help us when the Progressive bureaucrats in Congress try to fiddle up a plan for over 300 million of us (excluding Congress and the administration, of course).
American Elephants 