YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BUY PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE

No matter what that lying snake oil salesman says, you will NOT be able to keep your current health care insurance policy under Obama’s health care plan. Here is how it works.

Assume this plan passes. Next year, your employer looks at the cost of the plan he is currently paying for you. He decides that it would be cheaper for him to pay the 8% payroll tax to Mr. Obama, and ceases to offer health care as a benefit. Here’s the rub. Private insurance companies will be forbidden from writing private insurance policies directly to you. They will only be allowed to write insurance policies through a government clearing house, which will dictate to the insurance companies what the plans must contain. What is in these policies will be determined by an unelected Health Commissioner. The commissioner will dictate what is in the policies, and how much the insurance companies can charge. There will be no variation. The insurance companies, in reality, will cease to be insurance companies and become insurance administrators, monitoring the government imposed health insurance on a fee basis. When you hear Obama say he wants to “level the playing field”, this is what he means. This, by definition, is socialized medicine no matter what platitudes he wraps it in, or how convincing his smile.

YOU WILL BE UNABLE TO BUY PRIVATE INSURANCE OTHER THAN WHAT IS MANDATED BY THE GOVERNMENT.

This isn’t health insurance reform. This is health insurance control. We will be no better than Canada or the United Kingdom, whose newspapers and pundits are screaming at us to run the other direction.

Read more here: DEMS WANT TO CONTROL HEALTH DECISIONS
By Robert Tracinski

Health Care and Race: Don't Look Here...Look There!

There are two things Glenn Beck says about Barack Obama that I agree with 100%. In his efforts to consolidate power in the White House to implement his vision social justice: 1) Don’t listen to what he says, look at what he does; and 2) Don’t look here, look over there. Translated, this means he lies and distracts.

Obama believes in government control of everything. He currently controls General Motors, Chrysler, Citigroup, and AIG, as well as numerous other financial institutions. He is also making moves to take student loans out of private institutions and only allow student loans to be issued directly by the government tied to “public service.” Now he wants to control your total life. He is doing this under the guise of Cap and Trade (global warming gobblygook) and Health Care Reform.

Distraction is up first. His efforts to shove health care reform down your throat with no details is failing as his phony figures of cost start to collapse under the reality of the Congressional Budget Office figures. This is on the tail of the failed non-stimulus stimulus package which does everything but stimulate business. Obama and Pelosi and Reid with Tom “let the old folks die” Daschle really thought they could get away with cramming the health care takeover through Congress. It is pretty clear it hasn’t worked, and slowly people are beginning to understand Obama’s socialist beliefs. Notwithstanding, Pelosi is still trying making threats to those who oppose her imperious wishes.

So what did Obama do at his health care press conference to distract the public from what is going on? He played the race card. He called the Cambridge Police Department stupid for arresting black Professor Henry Louis Gates for “breaking into his own house.” Then Obama said that had he been in the same position at his house in Chicago, he would have been shot.

What was the lead story on the NBC, CNN, ABC, and CBS the next morning? Not health care, but Obama’s racial comments. Fox News brought on the New York Times black White House correspondent to comment on health care. When asked about Obama’s health care comments, she responded about the Professor Gates case and issues surrounding the arrest. Who needs health care? DON’T LOOK OVER HERE…LOOK OVER THERE!

I will leave you to read the accounts of what happened to Professor Gates on your own. Click here to read the police report (X). By the way, when my burglar alarm went off at my house, I had to identify myself to the investigating officer and show him my ID. I cooperated. The cop was doing his job. I didn’t think it was racist, and I am an over the hill white guy.

Then there is the Obama use of Clintonian word parsing. First he said there will be no tax hikes on the middle class to pay for his vision of health care. But at the press conference, he changed his tune a bit, and “viva la difference.” Now he is opposed to tax hikes which put the burden of paying for his utopian health care plan “completely” on the middle class. He is opposed to a plan in which the burden is “primarily” on the middle class. His plan will be revenue neutral for a “decade”.

Take it apart, and you should be concerned. Look at the words. He is now saying that there will be a tax hike on the middle class to pay for health care, but not completely, and not primarily. Do you think you can define that? And that “decade” comment…assuming you believe the figures he is currently giving…he accomplishes that by raising taxes before he starts to spend money on the new health care plan by two to four years. He front loads the funding. So maybe it stands a miniscule chance of sort of being revenue neutral for about a day. After 10 years, it skyrockets out of control. Of course, he won’t be President then…and who cares?

You should.

He's Gonna Pay My Mortgage...Literally

I think we all like to believe that we have good hearts. I know whenever I am able, I try to help folks in need in any way that I can. Even mean lawyers do substantial amounts of pro-bono work, and rarely toot their horns or ask for any recognition in return. I truly believe that for the most part, the human race is fundamentally good and compassionate.

On the other hand, being good and compassionate should not be confused with being a sucker. And two recent articles that I read show that the government spending binge has crossed the line and is now going to sucker punch the American public. At some point in time, the give-a-ways have to stop, and people need to take responsibility for their own lives. What a man the President is giving away other people’s money. If I could do that, I would be a big shot too.

Reuter’s News Service reported the following on July 14: “Officials are also considering whether the government should make mortgage payments on behalf of borrowers who cannot keep up with their home loans, tapping an unused portion of a $50 billion housing aid kitty.” Why? I ask you, has any one, at any time, ever paid your rent? The plan under consideration would tack rent on as a rental stipend to extended unemployment benefits.

In addition, The Denver Post has reported that the Colorado is considering a plan to give free cell phone service to those receiving public aid as part of a public assistance program for utilities. How about that? Free cell phone service!! What do you pay for your cell phone service? I didn’t know that cell phone service was a necessity of life…but this same plan is currently in operation in 17 states. Why? Who has paid for your cell phone?

It is clear that we are reaching the tipping point. As the Obama supporter claimed in last fall’s campaign, “I won’t have to worry about putting gas in my car. I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage.”

The liberal goal of a total "cradle to grave" nanny state is here. From free health care to free pre-school to free food to free rent to free utilities to free college….except the question still remains, who will pay for it? The answer is easy…you and I. And what the government offers as free, will be sustenance level at best. If you want to know what we are headed for, look at the former Soviet Union, and you will see what free will buy.

University Building

While the success of Obama’s stimulus package is floundering in every sense of the word, the nation’s educational system is more than picking up the slack giving us a whole slew of shovel ready projects that merrily spend our tax dollars away. The building industry may be in the hole with home and business construction, but all levels of education are on an unprecedented building spree.

It clicked in my head when my son told my how misses using “THE” Ohio State University fitness facility. Since he has graduated and started back forth between here and Columbus on a semi-regular basis, he has been relegated back to the local Creekside fitness facility, which is a far cry from the four story state of the art facility in Columbus. Of course, YSU also has its own fitness facility…much of it paid for with donations…much of it paid for with tuition and tax dollars.

Can anyone tell me why school buildings wear out so quickly? When I went to Ohio State back in 1970, there was the Ohio Student Union on High Street, which was built in 1950. Then the school built an additional student union between the two new dormitory towers on the west side of the main campus in the late 1960's. If one student union is good, then two student unions must be better!! The school had approximately 49,000 students on the main campus.

Of course, the unions got “old.” The new union was closed and the old union (you know…the one built only 59 years ago on High Street) was torn down, and is being replaced with a temple to student unioness…you have to see this thing to believe it. The school still has about 49,000 students in attendance on its main campus. Can anyone tell me why, in a period of 50 years, “THE” Ohio State University had to build a total of 3 student unions? Who paid for it? You and me!!! Obviously our administrators have never been to Europe, where buildings are still in use that are several hundred years old…and that’s after a couple of major wars. Of course the new union has a grand hall and a great ballroom. Wow!!

My local pet peeve is the tearing down of Volney Rogers Junior High School, which was built in the 1960’s. It was a perfectly good building. But of course the state had some money from the tobacco settlement that was burning a hole in the now broke State of Ohio’s pocket…and they tore it down and built a new one. Why? I thought you needed a chair, a desk, and a teacher in order to teach students basic math. 1 + 1 still equals 2, whether in a new building or one that is 40 years old.

Youngstown State University has been on a building spree as long as I can remember. It has won awards for being one of the most beautifully urban universities in the country with marvelous landscaping. I remember when I attended school there in 1968, we had classes in the basement of the old Lincoln Hotel, that flooded on a semi-regular basis. I still learned English and Public Speaking. The new Williamson Business School had just opened up, and everyone was thrilled. It was a multi-story beauty that had air-conditioning!!!!!! We were so happy!

Now it is moving across the street to a multimillion dollar new facility, because what was wonderful in 1968 is now crap in 2009. Again, there is that 40 – 50 year life cycle for a university building. The new one will be nice, though!!

Oh ya!!! They are going to tear down the Lincoln Avenue deck, which we were also thrilled to get because of lack of parking when it was built about 40 years ago. They claim it is cheaper to tear down than to repair it. Who knows…but it will eliminate a bunch of needed parking spaces.

Oh well, the good news is that as long as the educational institutions are building buildings...Obama can spend his stimulus on things like Nancy Pelosi's mice. Maybe they need a student union.

So You Sew...So You Reap

Very few things get me so upset that I lose sleep over them, but an interview on the O’Reilly Factor last night did the trick. Juan Williams, whom CNN has referred to as “the happy negro”, substituted for the vacationing O’Reilly last night. Williams is, for the most part, a liberal commentator on Fox News, and I was surprised to see him in that position. I was stunned at his adeptness at interviewing, and heard an hour’s worth of some of the best and tough interviewing I have heard in years.

Lost in last Friday’s news cycle midst the 24/7 coverage of Michael Jackson’s early demise was the House of Representatives passing what is better known as the Cap and Trade Bill. This is the global warming climate legislation. It passed by one vote, with approximately 35 Democrats voting against it, and 8 Republicans voting for it. It is the single most draconian piece of legislation to come from the loony left in the history of the United States, and Americans have yet to appreciate what it is and what it does. It will control and tax every aspect of your life, and will be hard to dismantle once implemented.

Juan Williams asked the interviewed White House spokesman about a little known part of the bill called REEP, which stands for Retrofit for Environmental and Energy Performance. What this portion of the bill does is to require anyone selling their homes, and I am not making this up, to retrofit their home to meet EPA mandated guidelines prior to selling their house. That would mean you would have “retrofit” your furnace, your air conditioner, your refrigerator, your insulation, your windows, before you could sell your home. If this stuns you, it should. Nothing else can demonstrate just how radical the current administration is on whacko environmentalism based on questionable science.

Above and beyond the shock of what this piece of legislation does, was the total nonchalance of the White House spokesman being questioned by Williams as to whether those running the government are nuts. His response was a complete defense of the provisions, claiming that it will be good for America in the long run. It will “save” people money in the long run. Of course, the bill provides that the government will reimburse the homeowners for a portion of the retrofitting…translate…the taxpayers…translate…you. And of course, the homes that would probably require the most retro fitting, say in the bad parts of town, will most likely be paid for by the taxpayer in total. That means you will be paying for yours, plus the poor…because it's only fair.

This Cap and Trade bill will destroy the American economy, and bankrupt those of us who are struggling to pay our bills. It will move massive amounts of industry to India, China, Brazil, and Russia, who are steadfastly refusing to implement similar measures in their own countries. Britain already has a Cap and Trade bill, and it is costing each British homeowner an average of $1300.00 per year, while the economy goes into the dumpster as industry flees the country.

While Michael Jackson’s death was certainly noteworthy, it does not affect my daily life on iota. Cap and Trade, on the other hand, will lead us to the poor house. WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!!!

Of Tangos and Toe Suckers

In the category of what was he thinking….Mark Sanford, the Republican governor of South Carolina, self destructed when he took off to visit his Argentine Firecracker in Buenos Aires last week. This thing is just too good to pass up, and will be fodder for the late night television talk show hosts for weeks. An example of the coming humor: the tabloid headline “Buenos Airhead”!!!

This guy was an up and comer in the Republican party, and had a shot of being the presidential nominee in 2012 as the party’s right wing candidate. But his long distance romance founded in an internet chat room and then blossoming into true love, or lust, ended up with his wife throwing him out of the house two weeks ago and telling him don’t come back. She had no idea where he was, or so she says. Given she has known about the “affair de Coeur” since December, my guess is she knew exactly where he was, but was mindful of the perks from which she benefited as South Carolina’s First Lady.

We could have done without his seven minute mea culpa as he deboarded the plane describing how he cried for five days. And for God's sake, if you are going to screw around, don't hide your car in plain sight. Dude, they were looking for you!!

Listen, nothing our politicians will try to get away with surprises me. The gold standard for tolerating elected executive peccadilloes belongs to Bill Clinton and his “not having sex” in the oval office with a 21 year old intern. Elliot Spitzer, the prostitution prosecutor, is another gem as he used public funds to frequent high end hookers while throwing others in jail for doing the same thing. One of my personal favorites is John Edwards hiding in a men's room in a Los Angeles hotel as he dodged reporters covering his cheating on his dying wife. Then there was Governor James McGreevey of New Jersey, who came out of the closet in public with his wife standing next to him as he admitted he put the guy he was schtooping on the State of New Jersey payroll. His wife was either very stupid or very brave…or shell shocked.

Given the headlines of the day, it was ironic that Fox News hosted former Clinton advisor, now Clinton hater and conservative advocate, Dick Morris as a guest on Fox and Friends this morning. His comments on the proposed health care restructuring have substantial merit and will be discussed another day.

That being said, you may remember that Dick Morris was the subject of a scandal himself while a Clinton adviser. You see, Mr. Morris liked to frequent women of questionable repute, and had a propensity to be on the phone with the President, receiving national security briefings, while in a hotel room with a babe getting his toes sucked. Not the President, Dick Morris was getting his toes sucked. The President was getting something else….well…never mind. And the rockets’ reds glare…the bombs bursting in air!! I don’t know about the flag, but something else was still there!!

So what have we learned from all of this? Nothing else may be bipartisan in politics, but sex hath no ideology. Let’s all join hands and sing Kum By Yah!! On the other hand, how about a chorus of Besame Mucho?

Health Insurance: No Laughing Matter!

The health care debate is revving up to full speed, and the government flim flam artists are stepping out in full regalia. Folks, at the end of the day, the issue is will you be able to get the health care that you need when you want it without undue bureaucracy hindering your treatment. If you think that a government run health care policy will do that…then you should be happy. If you don’t, get your pre-paid funeral contract paid for because you are going to need it.

The Democrats keep bandying about the 45 million uninsured Americans as the reason for a complete overhaul of our health care system. They ignore the 350 million Americans (85% of the population) that are insured, and for the most part, are happy with their health care. The 45 million consists of illegal and legal aliens; people less than 30 years old who simply won’t buy health insurance; the permanent “wards of the state” class who are otherwise covered by some other government program; and then there are the folks who are self employed and can’t afford health insurance or those who have lost their coverage through employment termination and can’t buy insurance either because of cost or pre-existing condition.

I am not so sure how concerned the Democrats are about the so called 45 million uninsured as much as they are concerned about controlling other people’s lives. I have come to the conclusion that there is no single way to fix what is wrong with the system without decreasing the quality of health care currently enjoyed by 85% of the population.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has put the kybosh on the Democratic plan by stating that it will cost $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years, will drive 15 million people, if not more, out of the insurance plan they are currently in, and will end up only insuring 16 million people out of the 45 million uninsured. And the cost of the insurance for those 16 million people will be $65,000.00/person. In other words…it won’t work. A better approach would be to address the individual segments that make up the uninsured.

Start with the under 30 crowd that is working but simply doesn’t want to buy it. This is an easy one. I picked up a Health Savings Account qualified policy for my 23 year old son with a $1500.00/year deductible for $79.00/month. If I went with a $3,000.00/year deductible, the cost would be $58.00/month. Here’s a thought…tell these 20 something dudes to buy a cheaper cell phone and get a health insurance policy. No policy…no driver’s license. These policies are not expensive.

Next, let’s move to those who can’t buy insurance because of a pre-existing condition, a category that includes a lot of folks who are in their mid 50’s and have lost their factory jobs and their coverage. The government should require all health insurance companies to form a cooperative to which all the insurance companies must pay a premium, the purpose of the cooperative being to sell insurance to the currently uninsurable. That is not as dreadful as it sounds. Sure, there are horror cases of folks with very serious and expensive illnesses. But for the most part, an insurance company will define you as uninsurable if you are 20 pounds overweight, or have taken an anti-depressant. This will shape the companies up a bit, and with the increase in insured 20 somethings now purchasing coverage, help them cover the cost of the so called uninsurable.

Now comes the place for the government alternative policy. The government should offer an alternative policy to the following: 1) If you are a legal alien, you must prove you have insurance to enter the country, or purchase a government insurance policy if you want to maintain your legal status while here in the United States. 2) If you are among the working poor and you meet certain financial criteria, you may have access to the government insurance policy at a reduced rate commensurate with your income. 3) If you are unemployed and have no access to either Medicare or Medicaid, the government will provide you with insurance. 4) If you are an illegal alien, you are on your own. If you present yourself to a hospital for treatment, the government will pay for such treatment as is necessary to sustain life and get you sufficiently healthy to send you back to your country of origin. Why should we pay for you??

The government does not have to self fund the payment for services. Those deemed qualified for the alternative government insurance make up a risk pool including healthy and non-healthy individuals. The government should put this policy out for bids among those insurance companies who know what they are doing, and pay the insurance companies a premium for those folks who qualify for the program just like they are buying regular insurance.

Of course, if the government is more interested in control rather than providing insurance, nothing anyone can say will sway the socialists to any other direction.Which brings up the most important thing for all of us. The cost of a government run system will require "cost effectiveness" testing for all medical treatment. That means rationing, and our freedom to choose the procedures we want, for ourselves and our loved ones, will be diminished. If you don't believe they would deny a bypass operation to an 85 year old manbecause it would not be cost effective, read the ruling of the Canadian Supreme Court about the state of health care in Canada, and look at how Medicaid for the poor operates in America today. There is nothing more or less at stake than that...and that is no laughing matter.