Yesterday the Republicans and Democrats finally met together to discuss health care reform.  I guess Scott Brown (R-MA) really scared the crud out of the progressives, so much so that Obama actually made good on one of his campaign pledges.  That brings us to three promises fulfilled.  1) Take Michelle on a date, 2) Get a dog for the First Daughters, and 3) Air the health care debate on C-SPAN.  Actually, let’s strike number 2. The President promised to rescue a shelter dog, but instead accepted Bo as a gift from Ted Kennedy.  Which I don’t really care about, but it just goes to show that this guy has a really, really hard time staying true to his word.

My favorite moment was when Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) became my new hero.  He flat out explained that the CBO scores weren’t real, and explained exactly why.  The best part is the look on the President’s face as Ryan is explaining that “hiding a deficit is not reducing a deficit.”  I almost felt sorry for the guy, he looked so confused.  No wonder he’s racked up our debt- he does not understand that you can’t print more money.  Now I really want to see his transcripts.  He probably failed econ 101.

Remember this chart?  It was from the 2008 Presidential campaign.  I can’t tell you how many Obama supporters calmly and patiently explained to me that I would be silly to vote for McCain over Obama because I would get a bigger tax cut under Obama.  And I calmly and patiently explained to them that by taxing top earners so significantly, they’d have to cut jobs at their companies.  I also pointed out that in order to fund all of Obama’s socialist pie-in-the-sky ideas, the money would have to come from somewhere, and that I was 100% certain that we’d see that $250k bar drop.

Within a couple of weeks of the inauguration, Obama raised taxes on the poorest people in our country, those who have the highest majority of smokers in their demographic. The cost increase on a pack of nicotine sticks was the highest in US history.

But lots of people don’t see that as a *real* tax, because smokers can choose to quit and probably should for their health.

But even those tobacco-taxes-aren’t-real-taxes people should be worried now.  In an interview out today, President Obama said:

The whole point of it is to make sure that all ideas are on the table… So what I want to do is to be completely agnostic, in terms of solutions.

What I can’t do is to set the thing up where a whole bunch of things are off the table…Some would say we can’t look at entitlements. There are going to be some that say we can’t look at taxes, and pretty soon, you just can’t solve the problem.

The real problem has to do with the fact that there is a just a mismatch between the amount of money coming in and the amount of money going out. And that is going to require some big, tough choices that, so far, the political system has been unable to deal with.

I have a suggestion Mr. President.  How about we spend less money?  Why does Nancy Pelosi need $1000 per week for booze and delicacies on her private cross-country jet rides?  That’s $1000 per week for food and booze, mind you, not the cost of the travel itself. And I’m sure the turtles didn’t really need a $3,400,000 tunnel to cross the road.  What about the $800,000 for repaving a back-up runway at an unused airport?

President Obama, please don’t raise my taxes to fund those ridiculous projects.  I don’t know how much more of your “help” I can afford.

The New York City Health Department just spent $32,000 of tax-payer money to print out 70,000 pamphlets with ten tips for safe use of… heroin. It’s true!  Now intravenous drug addicts will no longer needlessly worry about whether they should share needles, or spring the extra two dollars for a fresh one?  The booklet also includes tips on disposing your sharps, finding your veins, and seeking treatment for Hepatitis.

My favorite tip is number nine: Get help for depression.

Un-freaking-believable.

Well, it looks like the Senate has its 60 votes to pass the health care bill through.  A bill so fantastic that votes had to be bought by Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE), Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), Rep. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), and Lord knows how many others.  There were a few whose votes couldn’t be bought.  So the Democratic leaders resorted to threatening their family members unless they supported the bill.

Not only is the health care bill so stellar that Senators had to be bribed and threatened into voting for it, but it’s going to be voted on at 1 o’clock in the morning, four days before Christmas.  Some perspective for you- no one will see any benefits from this bill until 2013 (if ever), yet it’s being rushed through in the middle of the night during a time when most Americans have turned off their TVs and put down their newspapers in the hopes of having a joyful holiday season with their friends and family.  I understand doing what we have to do, but this is NOT something that couldn’t easily wait until January.

During debate on the Senate floor today, Senator Tom Coburn made some excellent points and observations on why this health care bill is not a health care reform bill, but only an unsustainable health care coverage expansion.  Sen. Coburn is one of only two practicing physicians in the Senate (the other is Senator John Barrasso), so he speaks from the unique perspective of being both a doctor and a politician.

Sen. Coburn pointed out that there are zero guarantees that taxpayers won’t finance abortions, zero prohibitions on the rationing of health care, and zero Senators required to enroll in either Medicaid  or another government run option.  The Republicans proposed amendments to disallow the use of federal funds to finance abortions or the rationing of health care, but the Democrats voted down the measure.  Let me ask you this: If funding for abortions and rationing of care aren’t part of the plan for this bill, why wouldn’t the Democrats put those amendments in?  That’s like a bookie betting on a game to get others to bet as well, without actually putting any money into the pot.  The bookie ends up making money, and I’ve read enough crime dramas to be pretty sure that that’s highly illegal, not to mention immoral.

What does this health care bill do besides use tax payer money to provide abortions and limit care to those the government deems “unworthy” due to age or lifestyle or previous health?  It creates ten new taxes, and seventy-one new government programs.  There are 1,697 times that the Secretary of Health and Human Services will write regulations, and 15,000-20,000 new government jobs will be created to carry out this legislation.  That’s funny, I thought the idea was to create more DOCTORS to treat more patients at an affordable price, but I guess a job-is-a-job-is-a-job, right?  Maybe those four out of ten doctors that said they’d consider quitting the practice of medicine if this bill passes can apply for a job with the government.

Another thing in the bill is the word shall.  It’s in there a lot- 3,607 times at last count.  What’s significant about the word shall?  It takes away your options.  The bill does not say, “You may choose to purchase health care insurance in the event that you become ill or injured,” it says, “You shall purchase health care insurance, whether you want it or not!”

That’s the individual mandate that you’ve been hearing about.  It is the first tax in United States history that will tax you for simply existing.  It’s not based on your work or purchases or decision as to whether to take the toll road or surface streets.  It’s a tax that you can choose not to pay by choosing not to breathe.  And even though I’m not a doctor, I’m fairly certain that breathing is pretty important.

That’s not right! You may be saying to yourself.  No, it isn’t right. It’s completely unconstitutional. And more likely than not, it will be completely unenforceable in court.  Which means that no one will buy health insurance until they are sick or injured. And given that the bill will require health insurance companies to provide coverage for pre-existing conditions, and place limits on how much they may charge their customers, they will inevitably go bankrupt.  Leaving the only option the government option.  That, my friends, is called socialized health care, and it has never worked well.

The government is not compassionate. We already see rationing in government run health care systems like Medicare and Medicaid.  The government already comes between elderly and/or underprivileged patients and their doctors, deciding what treatments and procedures may be done, regardless of the patient’s personal history or the doctor’s recommendation.  Why on Earth would it be a good idea to expand government control of health care, when Medicare and Medicaid are inarguablly broken and on the verge of bankruptcy?

People are compassionate. Doctors are compassionate. Neighbors and family and benefactors are compassionate.  Let’s focus on incentivizing the prevention and treatment of chronic disease, creating transparency so that we can choose and purchase our own health care insurance based on value and quality, and assisting those facing tough times that need some extra help.  That’s true reform.  This bill is nothing but smoke and mirrors to lead our once liberty-loving country into a single-payer health care system.

In the words of Ronald Reagan during a 1961 radio interview:

One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It’s very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project, most people are a little reluctant to oppose anything that suggests medical care for people who possibly can’t afford it.

The government is not compassionate.

From the Ways and Means Republicans-

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail.  The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.

Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor.  Who do these people think they are?  I am not a recalcitrant child; I’m a real live grown-up, capable of making my own decisions on whether or not I want to pay for health care for myself and my family.  I happen to think that it’s beneficial to my family to carry health insurance, so I choose to do so.  But I don’t assume that that’s the best choice for everyone.  Healthy, single people fresh out of school at introductory level jobs, struggling to pay rent and student loans probably don’t need health insurance.  I’m not so arrogant that I assume that my decisions are the right ones for everyone else.  Every person and every situation is unique.

The House of Representatives will be voting today on health care legislation.  In defiance of President Obama and Speaker Pelosi’s promise that the legislation would be available to the public for 72 hours prior to a vote.

There is still time to call the Representatives leaning yes on a bill that will severely limit our freedom and liberty and tell them to vote no.  Refuse to be silent.  Make a stand.  It’s more important now than ever.

The Smart Girl Report

Congressman Rangel is U.S. Representative from New York, and he serves as the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.  The Ways and Means Committee handles the financial matters of legislation.  That is to say- tax code.  All bills regarding taxation must go through the Ways and Means Committee before they go anywhere else in Congress.  To be on the committee is a pretty big deal, and to be the head of it is an even bigger deal.  Only seven of the 435 U.S. Representatives have offices in the actual Capital building, and the Chairman of the House and Means Committee is one of them (along with The Speaker, Majority and Minority Leaders and Whips, and the Appropriations Committee Chairman). The Ways and Means Committee has an incredibly wide influence, with legislation including welfare reform, Medicare prescription drug benefits, social security reform, tax cuts, and trade agreements (to name a few) going through it.  Needless to say, Charles Rangel is in a very powerful position to shape policy in our country.

So what kind of man is one of our most powerful legislators?  What kind of man is the one occupying the role in charge of introducing bills on financial matters to Congress, to be voted on by the House and Senate and signed into law by the President?  Bills that will affect the wallets of every American as various taxes are imposed?  What kind of man has such enormous power over the finances of America?

Charles Rangel is a serial tax cheat so corrupt he makes Tim Geitner look like a fourth grader caught cheating on a spelling test.

He failed to disclose income from multiple rental properties in New York and the Dominican Republic. He accepted considerable financial gifts, in violation of the House gift ban (say, isn’t that what Duke Cunningham is jail for?).  He kept numerous assets hidden.  He took bribes to cut taxes for companies that didn’t feel like paying them.  When confronted about half a million dollars found in two hidden accounts, he claimed that he forgot about them.

Why in the world is this man in charge of writing and/or introducing tax code to Congress?  Why would anyone want a tax cheat in charge of the committee that introduces legislation to raise your taxes?  What reason does he have to be mindful of the tax burden on Americans?  Of course he doesn’t care if taxes go up- he doesn’t pay them!

Obviously, this man needs to be removed from his position on the Ways and Means Committee, if not from the House of Representatives itself.  That’s a given, right?  Right?

Then why did The House vote today to keep him as the chairman of the Ways and Means committee?

The House voted 246-153 along mostly partisan lines to refer a GOP resolution to remove Rangel to the House ethics committee. The Democratic maneuver rendered the Republican effort meaningless, since Democratic leaders have said they have no intention of removing Rangel while the ethics committee is conducting a long-term investigation of his conduct.

I’m venturing a guess that all of those that voted not to have him removed from his position are hiding some unpaid taxes or other misdeeds themselves.  Why else would they not be outraged by Rangel’s outrageous behavior?

For the past few weeks, my mind has been wrapped around the health-care debate.  Just hearing the words government option sends chills down my spine.  My body (which incidentally enjoys being taken care of by quality health-care) responds to those words with an increased heart rate and sweaty palms.  The idea of government taking part in the practice of medicine SCARES the heebeejeebees out of me.

The main line of defense for the pro-government-health-care-option (or whatever it’s being called today… co-ops, isn’t it?) crowd has been to mock that fear; to question it and make it seem ridiculous.  They say I’m backwards and uninformed for not wanting to follow Europe’s example of socialized health-care, where life is apparently much better than it is here in the US.  They say I’m silly for thinking I won’t get to keep my private health insurance.  They say I’m mean and selfish for not wanting to pay higher taxes to provide health-care for those that cannot afford it.  They say that due to the preventative treatment allowed by government run health-care, quality of life for all will improve, babies will never die, and we’ll finally achieve immortality (or something like that).  How could I be afraid of all of that goodness?

What am I afraid of?

I’m afraid I’ll lose my private health insurance. President Obama has stated point-blank that his plan is to lead the US into a single-payer system, using a so-called government “option” as a transitioning period.  Let me break it down for you.  The government says, “Don’t worry, of course you can keep your private health insurance (although we’re going to tax you so much that you won’t have any other realistic option than to accept the government plan)!”  Do you see how this hurts the middle class?  Only the extremely wealthy will be able to afford private health insurance once you add in all the taxes and fees associated with it.  The rest of us will be forced to accept the government care if we want any coverage at all.  The middle class is the one that will suffer the most, as they are forced to surrender their private insurance and accept the waiting lists and rationing that come with government health-care.

I’m afraid of waiting lists and rationing.  I’m afraid of getting too sick or too old, when the cost-benefit ratio for keeping me alive is no longer worth it to a nameless, faceless bureaucrat. Health-care will be rationed in a socialized system, as we’ve seen in the UK, in Finland, in Canada, and many others.  I’m afraid of being told it’s my patriotic duty to die, so the cost of keeping a person alive can go to someone perceivably healthier than myself.  I’m afraid of unnatural selection, when at 22 weeks pregnant and in premature labor, I might be denied drugs like magnesium sulfate and terbutaline (which would stop contractions and mature the baby’s fetus’s lungs), because not only are they expensive, but the cost of caring for a preemie in the NICU can be upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I’m afraid that my quality of care would plummet.  If I need life saving treatment, I don’t care if my doctor is a one-armed albino that speaks in haiku’s and has a tendency to skip everywhere he goes.  I just want him to be an expert in the area I need treatment.  At the same time, I don’t think someone should become a doctor just because he or she might add “diversity” in the medical field.  It is discriminatory to give grants/promotions/benefits/special treatment to people based on their skin color, height, weight, the size of their ears, or because they pick their nose.  Ok, I take that last one back.  Anyone that picks their nose during a medical school entrance interview should not be allowed to become a doctor.  At the same time, the pool of intelligent and dedicated individuals willing to work themselves to the bone to become good doctors would shrink.  Too many people considering medical school might take a look at the bureaucratic red tape nightmare of government health-care and say, “No thanks!”

I’m afraid breakthroughs in medical technology will come to a halt. Since 1945, 87 of the 143 Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine awarded have gone to Americans.  American doctors and scientists have pioneered transplant surgeries, chemotherapy, and vaccinations in the 20th and 21st centuries.  Will there still be breakthroughs when the government decides what kinds of care physicians can provide to what kinds of patients?

I’m afraid that my children and grandchildren will be paying for this.  French health-care is often touted as one of the best systems in the world, yet it is currently causing a huge deficit in their economy.  In the US, Medicare and Medicaid are already bankrupting us and leading to higher taxes and inflation.  How long before our country bankrupts itself?

I’m afraid that my tax dollars will be used to fund abortions, something that I’m morally opposed to.  Religious schools don’t receive tax-payer money because it would be unfair to require people morally opposed to religious education to pay for it.  How is requiring me to pay for abortions any different?

I’m afraid this is just be the beginning, as Ronald Reagan warned in a 1961 radio interview:

One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It’s very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project, most people are a little reluctant to oppose anything that suggests medical care for people who possibly can’t afford it.

What am I afraid of?

Government health-care, that’s what.

Did President Obama really just tell people opposed to his socialist agenda to get out of the way?

“But I don’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of talking.”

Are you kidding me?  Isn’t this the same community organizer that said, “My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington”?  And now he’s telling the 54% of Americans that oppose the health care plan (the one that he’s not even familiar with) to get out of his way?  How exactly is he following through on his commitment to represent us to Washington if he doesn’t even want to listen to what the majority of Americans have to say, let alone work with politicians on the other side of the aisle?

And how exactly is exponentially expanding the government entitlement programs that created the mess in the first place going to clean it up?  It’s like  trying to put out a fire by throwing gasoline on it.  Of course I’m going to organize with my community to stand in the way of politicians that want to tax me into bankruptcy so that the US can have a health care system as stellar as Great Britain’s, where 40% of cancer patients are never able to see an oncologist.

No Mr. President, I will not get out of your way.  I will do everything I can to stand up to you and protect the freedom, liberty, and equality of all Americans, according to my constitutional rights.  This is not a school play yard, and I will not be bullied into silence.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the past few months, you’ve undoubtedly heard about the Tea Party protests being held across the country.  They are energizing rallies of liberty loving Americans who have the audacity to question the thousands of pages of bills that are being  rammed through congress like a freight train.  A freight train that is going to end up costing American taxpayers trillions of dollars.

Protesters want to know: Where is that money coming from, if not from the taxpayers?  Why should the money I pay in taxes go to fund other people’s new cars or abortions?

We have the gall to question elected officials (who work for us) on their doublespeak.  Please tell me, President Obama, were you lying last month when you said, “First of all, if you’ve got health insurance, you like your doctors, you like your plan, you can keep your doctor, you can keep your plan.  Nobody is talking about taking that away from you.” or in 2003 when you said, “A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House.”

People are attending townhall meetings with their representatives, and asking questions like, “Medicaid is broke, Medicare is broke, Social Security is broke and you want us to believe that a government that can’t even run a cash for clunkers program is going to run one-seventh of our U.S. economy?”

People want to know.  There is a grassroots movement taking the country by storm, while being no more forceful than to ask tough questions, and maybe even sometimes ask those questions in a raised tone of voice.  There have been thousands of these protests over the last six months, attended by millions of Americans.  Guess how many arrests have been made for violence or obscenity at the Tea Party protests.  Zero.  Wow, what a group of wing nuts!

So how is our government and the media responding to these peaceful protests of upset Americans?  By dismissing them.  Insulting them. LYING about them.

Rachel Maddow says we’re “tea-baggers” a term I’m unfortunately newly familiar with.

Nancy Pelosi insists that protesters are “carrying swastikas and symbols like that to townhall meetings.”

Barbara Boxer told Chris Matthews the the protesters are nothing but angry and noisy “well-dressed middle-class people in pinks and limes… [the] Brooks Brothers Brigade.”  She also told him (and his 8 viewers), “You in the media have to take a look at what’s going on here.  This is all planned.  It’s to hurt our president and it’s to change the congress.”  I don’t know which is a more ridiculous notion: That the Tea Party movement was planned to hurt the president, or that MSNBC is considered “media” to some.

And the Democratic National Committee released a one minute ad yesterday that calls Tea Party protesters “right-wing extremists,” claims that we’ve “lost the confidence of Americans,” and “Now desperate republicans and their well funded allies are organizing angry mobs…their goal: to destroy President Obama.”

There are so many things to say about those comments that I’m not sure where to begin.  How about the insult that Senator Boxer gave to liberal protesters?  It’s probably not the best campaign move to insult those that put you in office.  I can only assume that by saying the Tea Party protesters are too well dressed, she’s comparing them to liberal protesters.  And if the Tea Party/conservative protesters are too well dressed (in Brooks Brothers, no less!), then the liberal protesters must be slobs.

What about Ms. Pelosi?  Swastikas?  Really?  If you’re going to lie, at least make up something remotely believable.

Rachel Maddow- thank you so much for expanding my vocabulary to include tea-bagging.  I’m really not sure how I could’ve lived the rest the my life without knowing what that classy term meant.  Maybe you could learn some new vocabulary from the Tea Partiers too.  Like liberty.  Look it up, it’s a word worth knowing.

And as for hoping to destroy President Obama?  Nope. Not the plan.  Destroy his agenda to double or triple our energy costs, lead us to a single payer health care system, and generally spread the wealth around?  Yeah.  That’s worth bringing down.  I will stand up to anyone that tries to steal my liberty and freedom.  Given the explosion of peaceful protests recently, I’m not standing alone.