PelosiCare: Liars, Luddites and Leprechauns
by Gary GrahamNancy Pelosi, having renamed the Public Option, the ‘Consumer Option,’ triumphantly trotted out this morning the Hose version of the Health Care Reform Bill, now called The Affordable American Health Care Bill. (“Affordable” – what does that mean, exactly? Affordable to whom?) But then Steny Hoyer proclaimed the process of crafting the bill the most open, transparent process he’s seen in over thirty years in Congress. (Really??) And finally, the President followed up on Teleprompters to announce that finally we have a bill that will cover the 36 million uninsured, not cost the taxpayers anything extra, improve the quality of our health-care system, and bring down the costs of health care. Speaker Pelosi assured us that this bill represents the principles of “…opportunity, choice, competition, and innovation.”
How can you tell when they’re lying? Their lips are moving.
They think you’re stupid. It’s understandable that they should think that, because though they may on occasion listen to you, they never really hear you. Hence, the only frame of reference for feedback on their incredibly absurd redistributive ideas, tax-and-spend proposals and unprecedented treasury-busting health care take-over bills…comes from their own constituents, the Democrats. Whoops and hollers, cheers and laughter, nods, smiles, enthusiastic ‘yes-we-cans!’… as they serve up yet another heaping portion of socialist slop you’ll be expected to grab your ankles and pay for. They think you’re stupid.
As the entire Democratic Party has now been fully commandeered by the hard Left, I wrestle daily with the following quandary: Are they evil? Or merely dense?
Anyone paying attention and not mired in self-deceit can easily see that everything the current administration and Democrat-controlled Congress is doing and attempting to do is based in Marxian principles of redistribution, government takeovers of private industry and control of the American citizenry. And anyone with just a rudimentary knowledge of basic economic principles and merely a modicum of historical perspective can see that capitalism lifts up and advances any civilization it touches; whereas socialism degrades quality of life by enriching the government as it dis-empowers the individual. Freedom-loving people worldwide have been battling these statist oppressors throughout the millennia. The failure of a modern American voting populace to intellectually link the smiling promises of today’s ‘free’ lunch with the blood, death and horror of tyrants of the past is to shame us all with a new definition of national myopia.
They’re lying to us. A bill crafted behind closed doors, excluding participation by the opposition party, the Republicans, and rejecting all alternative ideas about health care reform like freedom to shop insurance plans interstate? Or TORT reform, so that doctors don’t have to practice defensive medicine? Or how about cutting down government red tape so hospital administrators don’t have to add the cost of voluminous paperwork to medical bills, and pairing back excessive government regulations so that hospitals and doctors can drive down costs through healthy competition? But Steny Hoyer called it an open and transparent process. Right.
Timothy Geithner is asking the government for more control over the Fed. That’s certainly comforting. His answer to current economic woes is to borrow more hundreds of billions from China…and print more money. But – if they’re printing billions and billions of more dollars, doesn’t it make the dollars already in my hand…worth… less? Uh…yeah. And just wait until next year when the banks start to put these newly printed dollars into circulation. And gold shoots sky high and the dollar plummets. Then the fun begins…
They’re stealing from you.
Not only are they working around the clock to shore up their losses and lunatic-lefty programs, but they are preparing to raise your taxes through the roof. Some of them will be hidden ‘fees.’ (Watch for them to pop up like measles spots when the virus begins.) Some of them will be overt, you’ll be able to see them, at least for the ‘wealthy’ – you know, anyone earning over 100K. But once inflation kicks in, pretty soon that will be the greater majority of us. And they’ll expect us to be happy we’re earning so much. And never mind the fact that those dollars we’re earning are becoming ever-increasingly worthless, and our standard of living is starting to tank. Shortages, rationing, loss of services… Anyone remember the long lines at the gas stations in the Carter years? Odd-and-Even days to fill up? Fist fights at the pumps…station owners wearing side-arms?
But our leader smiles endearingly and promises us that it will all work out. After all, there is a beautiful rainbow in the sky and if we just follow his dream for America we will find at the end of it (after eight short years)…a pot of gold. We merely have to Believe. Just close our eyes, stare at his picture, click our heels three times and the Leprechaun in Chief will deliver us a pot of gold.
As the media and the Marxists march us to the edge of the bottomless pit of total government control of our wealth, our businesses, our property…our very lives…(some call this tyranny)…we are left with this question about our current leaders: Are they evil…or merely stupid? Or both?
And more importantly…what are you going to do about it?
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Big Hollywood and Carolyn Linares, Tim . Tim said: PelosiCare: Liars, Luddites and Leprechauns – http://bit.ly/TGZxV @bighollywood [...]
State legislatures need to pass a State Constitutional amendment that opts the State out of the Federal health care plan. It will stop this. It is legal. It must be done.
Once again the Political Elite in DC have proved my point. The only absolute in life is that All Politicians LIE!
As I understand what is being proposed in the Senate version, the States may opt out of participation but not out of contribution. Talk about taxation without representation. Where is Patrick Henry when we really need him.
At least we will have Health Care as we pay $20 for a loaf of stale bread. During the Carter administration the money supply was raised by 12% that caused interest rates to go up to 20%. Currently we have raised the money supply by 120% over the last few years, that should allow us to light Cigars with billion dollar bills. But you need to by your Cigars now and save them because they will cost a trillion dollars a each.
This has nothing to do with the Senate version, House version or the Fed Govt. The States can independently opt out by amending their own State Constitutions. STATES RIGHTS!!!!
Sure, a state may opt out of said plans, but our income taxes will still pay for this mess whether or not one's state has opted out.
"now called The Affordable American Health Care Bill. "
Interesting indeed. So when did "FREE health care for all" become "AFFORDABLE health care for all"? Gotta love Nancy's little bait and switch.
If enough States opt out, it will die.
Parents can opt out (and frequently do) of the State Education System by home schooling or sending their children to private schools, but said parents still have to pay the local and/or state taxes that funds the state education systems they "opted out " of.
make mine Kohibas.
If it were this easy, health-care reform would have happened long ago. If it were affordable, it would have happened long ago. There is no clue left in the liberal ranks.
Nancy Pelosi…triumphantly trotted out this morning…
This reference is a dishonor to the entire equine family.
and we're all surprised by this torturous path taken by our elected politicians?
Thanks to the 24/7 news cycle and the internet- for as long as IT lasts- this lot cannot manage an event. So, they are proverbially 'lost at sea'. So used to media control, they are apoplectic about their best l;aid palns being sabotaged- before they even happen.
Ergo the change in language. Tired attempt; it is already a Jay Leno joke and it hasn't even entered the public conciousness yet.
To riff on Abe Lincoln: All of the politicians lie some of the time. Some of the politicians lie all of the time.
Now, all of them lie all of the time.
Ain't life grand?
The failure of a modern American voting populace to intellectually link the smiling promises of today’s ‘free’ lunch with the blood, death and horror of tyrants of the past is to shame us all with a new definition of national myopia.
That pretty much sums it up.
I say the politicians (that try to increase govt entitlements) are evil and the people who vote for them are stupid.
But schools no longer teach this stuff. All history is a lie perpetuated by dead white men. One of my kid's teachers said history is not really important, as it does not repeat. The poor moron probably tought that since the old white dudes were dead, they can't do it again.
Great typo, "the *Hose* version of the Health Care Bill."
Writing our congress people (at least here in CA) does nothing. I've written, particularly to my two SENATORS (if they're reading this I'd hate for them to think I don't know how hard they worked for that title), and I hear nothing back. It's kind of like a twisted relationship where the one party is making all the overtures and the other is completely ignoring them. Yet, we the people continue thinking some day they will listen to us, their constituents, because that's why they're in Washington. So, in a long way, I'm saying I agree with Pelosi, et al, that we are stupid. We keep electing these people. Of course, what are the alternatives? The GOP refuses to run a conservative for fear of losing. And yet, keeps losing when they run libs. Yeah, they're stupid too.
"if they say it it must be true." that, seriously, is the argument my lib friends and family will give me when i raise the issue.
It's too bad that everything in you're column was so short on the truth. Maybe you don't get out much or possibly haven't ever read a paper. But your piece was so full of lies I'd watch out for lightning.
Somethings are better run by the government. Would you want the fire department and the police department to charge you if you used their services.?
"I'd like to report a fire." "Thanks you, May I have you credit card first. That will be $10,000."
So we socialize the cost. Heck I've never called the fire department once but I'm sure glad they're there and their damn good to boot. I happily pay through my taxes..
The insurance companies have had 60 years to show that the private sector could cover the American people and have failed. They deny 6 month old babies in Colorado for being too fat. They raised my company copay 25% this year. 10% last year, 10% the year before, etc. They have departments dedicated to canceling paying customers who they think might actually use their policies. They have left 40,000,000 Americans uninsured.
You claim that the health care bill was done behind closed doors. Are you kidding me? We've been talking about this for more than six months. The bill is now online to read. Take you're lies and foist them somewhere else.
With all due respect Mr. Graham, I think you miss read modern liberal democrats in Washington.
They don't think we're stupid. They're counting on us being too busy dealing with unemployment, medical bills, failing educational system, work, family, etc. to pay attention to what they're doing.
Dr. Thomas Sowell over at Townhall.com had an essay a couple of weeks ago, where he basically says, we don't really have to worry about dumb people because they are usually not smart enough to cause big problems. It takes really smart people to really screw things up. And that's what we're seeing now.
All these stunts are because they think we're dumb, they're trying to fly under We The People's radar.
I'm glad to see it's not working nearly as well as they thought it would.
If all the states with a brain opt out, only the die hard lefty states will still be in the program, And they will thumb their noses at us as they burn through all OUR hard earned tax dollars.
That, my friend, illustrates what's going to happen with this bill. By the time people come around their paychecks will be lighter and it will be too late….
I was going to say that the odor of horse-shit preceeded her….
Ben Franklin, death and taxes.
Great read as always Gary! “This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius,” the Woodstock nation is in full regalia, and the spoiled worthless ‘60s brats are in charge for the moment. No more hiding behind “moderate” and be certain ladies and gentlemen 2010 is going to be ugly for Washington politicians. So I say haul ass to the left, expose all of your witless egalitarian horse twaddle and real America is going to stick it in your ear in the next, 2, 4, 6, 8 years, so you liberals may have to get a job yet. This is a Conservative country and will return to same, so everybody just point and laugh at your loony liberal friends for now, their liberal utopia will be short lived!
ah, finally able to get back in… ID was doing that wierd thing again..
Anyway, I understand your point, but I would be very surprised if such a case was not accounted for and dealt with, hidden deep within the thousands/plus pages of this constantly changing bill.
LOL! I hear that too now and then, and i throw it right back at them when they rant on and one about when conservatives present issues.
considering that their numbers from the 1st round of the stimulus package were completely off, why would anyone trust their projections for healthcare.
How about densely evil?
ps. Expect hatemail from the liars, Luddites and leprechauns. They don't want to be associated with these clowns.
Indeed. Spread the wealth by making sure none of us can ever attain it.
such a weak argument for government intervention. Always the fire and police are the only examples given. How about education? The fact that our kids are getting more and more stupid on par with a lot of the rest of the world when coming out of public education. I'm so glad we have people like you that are so willing to abdicate your freedom to people who have said they want total control over the system. Are you serious about your comment of the bills being put together behind closed doors? Sure we've been talking about it, but the Democrat/Socialist party has been crafting it without any Republicans or compromise. The bill (2000 pages) is out there to read. But debate is next week only and it's to be voted on by Veteran's day. You're a joke to say or think this is being transparent or informative. This is the typical lefty stuff they pulled with Cap and Trade, the "Stimulus" (which wasn't one, but paybacks to unions and other contributors). I hope it gets pissed on next week and defeated!
Ken trusts them with his hard earned money. Nancy, Harry and Obama are doctors. No she's a millionaire, Harry's a failed lawyer and Obama's a very inexperienced lawyer. So what could go wrong?
Indeed, History is unimportant.. oh and let's not bother with math and science either. We have government sponsored experts to tell us the "facts" about all things and we need not worry our little peasant heads over it.
I vote evil.
They know exactly what they are doing.
These insane people need to realize that that woman at a Townhall who said "they've awakened a sleeping giant" was dead on. There are millions of us that bitched and moaned only after taxes were passed or new entitlements crept in. Now we are informed and involved. She has never given a collective aerial fornication about any of us, and we know it. And, we will stop it.
mmmm-mmmm-mmmm, thanks for being the one this time around to contribute the standard lefty straw man argument that because it's occasionally necessary for govt to provide some essential services, then we should just let them run everything. when people such as yourself argue for 'free' or reduced cost healthcare, what you're really saying is that you'd rather have somebody else pay for it. contrary to general public ignorance, there is no free lunch.
and btw- your inconsistent and often incorrect use of your/you're makes it sound like you're (you are) an idiot. well, okay, that and your pi$$poor understanding of economics, etc.
And Ken, let's use your police/fireman example. The same people who have bankrupted their cities, LA, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, any city in NJ, and can't pay their firemen/policemen are the same people you are of the same ilk as Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Harry Reid, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, etc. Glad you trust them so much. By the way do you live in one of those bankrupt liberal utopias?
He's obviously a Democrat. Democrats DON'T know anything about economics except where to steal more money through taxation. Other than that – NOTHING!
They've already said what their ultimate intentions are. This isn't the end, it's getting their foot in the door.
We all need to let Nancy & Harry that we will be contributing AGAINST them in the next election. I don't care if you are a Republican or Democrat. Let them know you will target their race specifically. IF enough people call and let them know that if they push their bills through you will send your money to Ca and Nv to defeat them SPECIFICALLY. Neither is doing well in their races. They don't care how any other Democrat does in the coming elections. So let's ALL let them know the election target is on their back personally…..
The people aren't just stupid, they are lazy. I am not talking about the ones on unemployment who are desparately trying to find another job, I have been there and I commend you for it. Swallowing my pride long enough to accept the unemployment was hard enough. However, these folks are your welfare lifers who do not know what it is like to earn a paycheck and feel good about being able to support your family. There is no better feeling in the world. Once you feel it, you're hooked.
So Police and Fireman is a strawman, huh. Is there any state in the union that has a private police or fire? I've never seen a protest of people wanting to turn them private. We want them controlled and accountable to the people. Health care is a right. The Declaration of Independence states, "LIFE, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." If you're dead the second two are irrelevant.
I live in Orange County, California. Our health care system is exploding. In the Southern California area 20 emergency rooms have closed in the last ten years. I have one of those Cadillac insurance policies that the Democrats are talking about taxing. But I don't mind, because I have a friend who is unemployed and has no health insurance for him or his two kids. If the hospitals close it doesn't matter if you have insurance or not, they are gone.
Los Angeles IS a great town. We've got awesome beaches, great museums, symphonies, baseball clubs (Go Angels – Next Year
) and I could go on and on. You probably would like to come to Los Angeles to go on vacation. I can see you riding the teacups at Disneyland now.
Now get this. This liberal utopias of California has one of the biggest economies in the world. Being from Mississipi YOU'VE proabably never seen an economy before. But the difference between the great states and YOUR state is we care for our people. Like Congressman Grayson said, Republican health plan, "Die fast!"
By the way ToddM, thanks for the grammar check. That second sentence there was a great example of fine writing. Don't forget to put periods. It's L.A. and N.J.
No, I'm a Republican. But I care about my fellow man. The entire first world has universal health care. That would be Germany, Japan, Canada, France, England, Finland, Switzerland, Italy, So. Korea, Etc. Why can't we talk care of every American?
Oh, and Ken, the same people you're so eager to sign over your healthcare are the same ones who got us into our current economic mess. Ever hear of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) that was signed into law by Jimmy Carter and renewed by Bill Clinton? It essentially forced banks into providing loans to people who couldn't pay them back or weren't qualified. These are the same financial geniuses in congress that you want to decide whether or not you get certain treatments, if any? I weep for our future if there are others out there like you.
Todd,
Don't talk about things you don't know anything about. It's embarrassing.
The CRA says that if a bank takes 50% of it's deposit from a committee it has to make 50% +- a small percentage to that same committee. It's that simple. That's why it's called the Community Reinvestment Act.
The current crisis is a result of the big investment banks handing out crap loans. Breaking them up into unintelligible bonds, rated at AAA by Moodys, et al. Sell this sweet smelling piece of crap oversea Then they bet on them with OTC derivatives. A small federal branch of the government tried to regulate derivatives because they saw the danger. But Fed Chairman Greenspan got Congress, both Dems and Repubs to outlaw the regulations. Frontline did a show on it if you're insterested in learning the truth.
"As the media and the Marxists march us to the edge of the bottomless pit of total government control of our wealth, our businesses, our property…our very lives…"
Just to be clear about this , do you guys really think Timothy Geithner is a Marxist?
You're joking, right Ken. Maybe you haven't received the memo but California is BANKRUPT!
Ken,
So aren't you smart enough to know that it is a different thing to have medicine controlled/provided by the government, and fire police provided through the government? I do know that communities that decide to outsource their police departments to either local communities, or larger police agencies.
IF you don't mind helping others with taxes then why don't you just give something to your friend to get health insurance? Have you offered to give him even $5 to help him get it? No, I thought not. Why should I help him get insurance if you don't think you should? Put your money where your mouth is. Or are you just like our beloved president that has said we need to help out our brothers, and hasn't given $1 to his OWN 1/2 brother in Africa that lives on $12 a YEAR. They bring in Millions, and if he just gave his own brother $12 as a gift, he would have doubled his brother's yearly income.
How appropriate that they're wheeling this monstrosity out just in time for Halloween – if this isn't their version of Frankenstein's Monster, I don't know what is. I wouldn't be surprised if there was lightening hitting the Capitol dome to power the bolts in its neck when they were cutting and pasting it together behind their "transparent" closed doors. And then they try to fool us into thinking its some kind of "new, improved, radically different" kind of public option plan. This is a slippery slope towards single payer and their continual movement towards the nationalization of industries and Socialism in America.
Ken you really have no clue. None!
You are not a Republican. The ones with Universal healthcare can't keep up with the costs. They are going bankrupt.
I never said that California wasn't a beautiful state. It's a bankrupt one. Did you miss that bit of current events? Give it up. Now you're down to checking grammar? Obviously your handle of economics is lacking.
Ken says he's a Republican. Ken's clueless.
They're evil in that their primary motivation is obviously self adulation and power and they don't accept the obvious fact that Americans do not want this. In addition they are evil because it is patently obvious that America does NOT NEED them, in order to function quite well and they are terrified by this realization and hope to legislate themselves into relevance for the future. Don't you wish you could do this in your business? They are stupid because they could not possibly possess knowledge that would justify their taking health care choices away from our children in this vile and despicable manner. The are stupid in that they do not even consider that the US Constitution prohibits their actions. Above all they are INSANE: Obama is a paranoid delusional megalomaniac driven by false beliefs and false memories concerning America's need to be punished. To accept military leadership from this sick man is insane; to allow him to ruin your children's future is insanely suicidal. These people cannot be reasoned with, or treated. They must be stopped.
Great article. As for what to do…I'm a former liberal Democrat, now an independent fiscal conservative…I now write at least one email each day to my 3 federal representatives and speak my mind and ask that they open theirs. Unfortunately, I live in California and have super Marxist representatives. However, if everyone starts writing and calling, maybe that can change. I also drive my friends and co-workers a little crazy, as I try to daily show a FACT to them (something that most are not used to seeing), illustrating to them what this current adminstration is doing to destroy our great country and how the "mainstream" press is hiding such. Keep up the good work by exposing the truth. If we all rally, we can succeed.
I also wanted to add the following to my prior comment, but had to break it into a second comment because of space allowed. Originally, I was going to leave out this point, as it relates to an issue that I cannot quite reconcile (and which is why I cannot be a Republican). As a recent convert to conservatism, I might add that more Democrats might also jump the fence if the focus remains on fiscal conservatism, defeating fraud and irresponsible governement, and not on some of the social issues (of which I do not necessary agree, other than that the country does need to regain its social consious as a whole). Please keep the USA a free country!!!
Geithner's not a Marxist, just incompetent.
News flash to all of you. California is not bankrupt. Revenues have fallen 10% so they have to cut the budget. They don't want to. The legislature kicked and screamed but then they cut the budget. Rumor is they will have to do it again in 2010. Wow there is recession going on. Who knew.
Just another lie from this web site.
The next Congress will amend this garbage bill into oblivion if enough seats turn over with a mandate to get the hell out of private business and make REAL sending cuts. We'll see.
Uh yes you did. You listed a number of cities, some pretty beautiful and said that they were all bankrupt. Chicago, Los Angeles and Atlanta are all great cities. I've never been to Detroit but I hear it's pretty awful.
Once again, California is not bankrupt. They had to cut the budget. Oh no! Every state in the nation except North Dakota has had to do that.
Where did you hear the California was bankrupt. This website? Do you know what the word bankrupt means?
Oh, that's right, you're just $25billion, with a b, in the hole. So much that even liberal Republican, Ahnold has actually had to cut about everything. You're tax and spend history has brought you to this. Also it's a precursor to what can happen to the country as a whole with constant out of control spending.
I don't think Pelosi and company think they are evil, (they are). I think they believe they are just so much smarter, more advanced, more visionary, than we hick conservatives. Except in their visualization of healthcare utopia, they have a blind spot, where costs and rationing are concerned. If their ideas are so crystal clearly head and shoulders above the current system… why the delay in implementing it.?If they can quickly create a 1900 page bill addressing all facets of health care—they should be able to hit the ground running. There's a reason it doesn't start till 2013. They are not confident it will work!!. Jerks.
Califorication is running a defict, deficits are illegal for state governments like Cali – sooo bankruptcy is one remedy.
Other states, mainly red ones, already had their stuff together. Did they have to perform cuts? Sure, but their states weren't near as dire as the ones listed. Most of the fly over country states had already not spent like money was water, as in California. You want to play symantecs huh? That's alright. California is $25billion in the hole. So I guess that means they're solvent? In your world, that's probably how you see it? You can go to most traditionally red states and find that their books aren't nearly as bad as most blue states. Just a fact. Cutting here and there is part of normal good housekeeping. You're comparison there is as weak as most of your other points.
Todd,
No you have no clue. Here is the CRA.
"The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 seeks to address discrimination in loans made to individuals and businesses from low and moderate-income neighborhoods.[7] The Act mandates that all banking institutions that receive FDIC insurance be evaluated by Federal banking agencies to determine if the bank offers credit (in a manner consistent with safe and sound operations) in all communities in which the bank takes deposits."
It does not say that banks must loan to uncredit worthy borrowers. It says they have to loan money in areas that they bet deposit. Banks started lending money to people all over the nation, but especially in California, because they thought there was no end to housing prices rising. Not because of the CRA. I heard commercial on the radio stating they would get out "Stated income loans" We called them liar loans. They were giving money to every living body and some that weren't. THAT is what caused this recession. If Bush and Congress hadn't had the TARP (As much as a horrible thing as it was) The US would be in a depression right now.
Firemen and Police on UNPAYED leave in that sociialist utopia CHICAGO, Obama's mothership!
Hee hee
Ken, again, you know nothing. The government essentially threatened banks to do these loans or else. There was no law said they had to, but they were threatened to do them.
A few months ago when Pelosi said there will be a 'robust' public option. You could see a glint in her eye when she said "robust". It made me swear off women.
For about a day. But whenever I see or hear that clip, I puke in my mouth a little.
You're not a Republican. Every other first world nation has universal healthcare. They spend less money per capital, by a large amount, then we do. A Republican believes in finding the most efficient system to solve a public problem. If the private sector can do it then they should. I this case they have shown that they can't
I don't know what you are. You would let people suffer so that you don't have to pay taxes. There are huge benefits to having a educated, healthy, safe society. I gladly pay taxes to get those results. Where problems exist we improve it.
Luckily a majority of Americans agree with me that all Americans, rich and poor. deserve healthcare.
Nancy Pelosi is what happens when you have a daddy in politics, and you marry rich.
She has the intellectual capacity of an anthill.
Other than that they're doing great!
You're telling me that government, the same one that runs the Post office, Amtrak, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security is the one that's going to run this efficiently? You ARE a joke. A Republican/Conservative wants to help people, but not take care of them their entire lives. We definitely don't want government encroachment in our lives. What planet are you from? Most American's have healthcare you nimrod! The number of uninsured, who truly can't afford it, is around 15 million. Why not give them healthcare instead of socializing the entire system? Please leave the Republican party if you really are one. Liberals, like yourself, are Democrats now.
Nimrod. So when your arguments fail you go to ad hominen attack. Oh well.
So using you number, tough luck to the 15,000,000 who can't afford insurance. Do not get sick suckers. Nice.
Second, the house plan doesn't socialize anything. They are not going to take over one doctors practice or one private hospital. They are going to offer government insurance that has to bargain with doctors and hospitals for reimbursement rates. The bill is going to forbid recessions, ban preexisting condition exclusions and policy caps.
And no I won't quit the party. NA, NA, NA.
Where do you get your news? In July, California SIGNED a budget cutting $25 billion, That's a big number to you because California's budget is bigger than every midwest state combined. But in fact it was about a 10% cut, just like I said. It looks like they will have to cut again because revenue continues to decline.
I can only hope you're right about people leaving the state. With over 35 million people it is way too crowded. I might make my commute a little easier for once.
Yes, but only when it comes to other people's money.
California is not in bankruptcy. People are not leaving the state. I wish they were but they're not. They are coming from all over the nation and world.
Why? Because Todd wants to ride the teacups at Disneyland.
I would lose my mind if someone said that to my kid. Clearly there are no standards in education anymore.
Ken. I love California, but it's a mess, admit it.
"More are moving out of California than in
For a fourth year in a row, residents moving to other states outnumber arrivals from other states, a trend that underscores the sour economy."
But they can NOT opt out of paying for it. And eventually, the government will force the states to comply.
No it won't.
Not to quibble, but interest rates were 18 % under Carter.
I propose we ensure the moronic retards that are defecating this mess on the American people be the first to use it due to .44 lead poisoning. Then, MAYBE they would wake up and actually give half a crap about the people they supposedly work for.
The only way these 5hit heads will listen is if you deliver the message with violence. They ALL have clearly demonstrated they will not listen to peaceful disagreement and belittled those with differing opinions and "astro-turf tea baggers." When discussion and reason are ignored, only violence and warfare are left to get the point across. God help this country as we are already heading there.
Who said my arguments failed? You? All squishy spined liberals please leave the Republican party. You are really a Democrat. Just admit it.
If you liked "affordable housing", you're gonna love "affordable health care"
And everyone on this site knows you ARE a liberal troll.
Ken,
Your state is BROKE. Your health care system is exploding due to 3 million illegal immigrants draining the resources of your state. They cost California 9 billion dollars per year in services. Kick them out and you neighbor might get one of the couple of millions jobs that would open up. When they come into your hospitals, fix them up and send them home. I doubt you would let someone just show up in your home and take your stuff until you were broke. You'd call the police. Yet, the illegals that infest California deserve to live off someone else's treasure? Your great entitlement experiment has failed. Give a man a fish, etc….
As to Mississippi… maybe you should examine the Democrats that started the KKK in the south to stop my fellow African Americans from life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
The declaration does not say you have a right to a doctor paid for by someone else. It says you have a right to live and pursue happiness. It does not say you have the right to take my treasure, destroy my life and pursuit of happiness to give the best medical treatment to someone who feels entitled to my treasure.
This bill is going to take Medicare Fraud to a whole new level. The 60 Minutes expose last week reported at least $60 Billion of medicare fraud per year. The government wastes one of every three dollars it confiscates from us via fraud, patronage, and corruption. So, your must believe they will cut costs by at least one third to start. GDP of US is about 14 trillion. Medicare is 3.2% of that. Do the math. This bill will become the largest heist in the history of mankind. The only way the CBO will show this is defecit neutral is because they start taxing us now and the program kicks in sometime in 2013. If this is such an emergency, why does it not start immediately. Because the arguments are intellectual dishonest. It's a pure power grab.
Seriously, you want to do something about health care. It's called TORT reform. If you worried about companies killing people because it is cheaper to pay off lawsuits rather than fix the problem. Make it a criminal offense starting with the CEO all the way down if they knowlingly put out a Pinto or Vioxx. Have them face a murder count. That will take care of that.
If this country started promoting responsibility and accountablilty instead of entitlement, we could turn it around very quickly. But the DEMS garner too much power by institutionalizing the victim mentality.
Nancy Pelosi is a whack job that could not think her way out of a box. Same for Barbara Boxer.
If you are quoting Grayson, then you have blown your credibility right there.
Sorry, Dark, you got the early edition….
The Bill is actually called the Affordable Caring Health Empathy for America Act.
ACHE for America.
The only part of the entire equine family that Nancy Pelosi could closely compare to, and still be more unfavorable than, is equine fecal matter.
Horses are leaps and bounds better than Nancy.
I can buy the idea that Nancy disgraces horse krap.
You are way wrong on that. The CRA mandated banks to make a certain amount of loans in certain areas of the community. It was intended to stop redlining – a noble idea. Again, good idea, poor execution. The leverage was that if a bank did not make enough loans to those areas, they would not be given new charters for bank branches and even worse, could have their charters revoked. They were forced to make bad loans. They could not sell them to anyone except Fannie and Freddie. Maybe if Barnie wasn't sleeping with an executive at fannie while he was writing the rules for them, things would have been different. Look at the executives at those two institutions. It was a who's who of Democrats. Frankllin Raines took $150 million home. Another scam. The derivatives you speak of were insurance on the instruments. Another government program with consequences that shows exactly why we should not let them run healthcare.
I'm from the big city, and I have a short story, about a young woman living in the city. She is struggling with her student loans, tuition, buying textbooks, and she encounters a wealthy businessman one evening at a bar. He finds her very attractive and begins talking to her, and she accidentally lets slip about her financial woes. He asks her to dinner the next night and she accepts. After dinner he tells her he has to go home but gives her a hundred dollars for cab fare. She doesn't ask him about his personal life and where or who he goes home to, content with the lie of omission. She begins seeing him once a week, does some easy clerical work, and although she remains in debt she does start buying luxuries. The sleazy relationship comes close to ending when they meet one day and he has forgotten to take off his wedding ring. The illusion of their romance is shattered and he prepares to apologize for deceiving her. But she quickly interrupts "Just lie to me! It's ok!"
The question you should be asking is, "Why can't every American take care of themselves?" Start with a suffocating government, failing public education, and a punitive tax system that penalizes the producers. 40 million tax returns have a zero or negative tax liability. Start right there…
"Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies," goes the song. People don't mind being lied to if they think there is monetary gain. In case you were wondering, it is Congress as the businessman. The lady in the story is the public. But in the story, the woman has a choice to make a clean break. We have to continue to take what the Congress doles out to us.
But what makes this truly exploitative is that Congress isn't using any money they have. They think its theirs and that they are entitled to it but really it comes from the American people. And we are a captive consumer to every product they come around and try to make us buy.
They've made us buy Social Security insurance, they've made us buy into hundreds of little research projects about bears doing their business in the woods, they're making us buy into Global Warming with the Cap and Trade bill. When are we going to have a choice?
Pelosi and the rest can go suck a fart. I am astounded at how the democrats celebrate and smile when they kick the stool out from underneath us. All the lefties claim the country was held hostage for 8 years. Really? The republicans were certainly not infallable, but at least they didn't celebrate the destruction of America in bits and pieces.
There are people in need who must be helped. Let's do that. Let's help our neighbors like we should and leave everyone else to enjoy their sucess and prosperity. America wasn't created to take care of us, but to let us be free to take care of each other.
Ken, you need to brush-up on our "I'm a Republican" talking points. I give you a -5 at best. Be more prepared before you accept your marching orders next time. Just sayin………
Oh dear. Well, apparently "somethings" (should have been two words, i.e., "some things") are not better run by the government, as you quoted in "you're" (should have been "your", as your is the possessive form of the word you, not "you're", which is a contraction of the words "you are") comment. One of those things that is obviously not better run by the government, judging from your poor English grammar, punctuation, and logic, is education. That is, if you are any example of the result of a public (ergo government-run) education. And by logic, I mean your faulty syllogism that because SOME things are better run by the government, therefore ALL things should be run by the government. That is as illogical as saying that because I can fix a loose board with a hammer I should also be able to fix a loose screw with the same tool.
Also, to stick to your syllogism: fire departments and police departments, you say, are better run by government. First, what is the equivalency between a policeman and a doctor? Do policemen require seven to eleven years of training to perform their tasks? Do you really believe that a policeman's bedside manner is the same as a doctor's, so we should let the same people who give us one service provide the other? Hmmm.
Also, most of the research that supports the fire and police departments by developing new equipment and techniques is done in the private sector. I know of no fire department with its own research laboratories, for example. And, so far as I know, the guns and ammunition used by policemen weren't invented by any government committee, but were invented by private sector people, like Samuel Colt. Even public enterprises are supported by private enterprise, and indeed are dependent upon them for their success.
I shudder to think what will happen to medical research in this country when the incentives provided by private enterprise disappear in favor of government-run medical care. Most of the Nobel prizes for medicine, after all, have gone to American doctors, where our research is the best in the world, and is also, mainly, privately funded. Cheap, ineffective medicine doesn't treat people as well as expensive, successful medicine does. In America we now have, on average, 90 percent survival rates for cancer, our second biggest killer. You think that once it gets put in the government's hands that will somehow improve? That hasn't been the experience in other countries who have gone with government-run medical schemes.
Oh, and please do come back and tell us everything that's in the bill that is now online to read, after you've read it. It's only, what, 1500 pages long? Should be no problem for someone with your government-provided education…
…a lifelong Republican right?
(Avast, there be a Moby swimming around here!)
Mr. Graham loved your character on Alien Nation. I can see you hitting the inside of your car roof when think about the statists plan for our great nation. As to your question about “what are you going to do about it?” We are going to be the nut crackers to their ACORN and throw these unrepresentatives out. We will continue to watch and educate ourselves, we are going walk door to door and helm the phones, and we are going to gleefully vote when and wherever we can.
I remember 22%
Damn near destroyed my family financially.
<spit>
Orwell lives!
Hey, what do these geniuses care about a few tens of millions of eggs?
They're making a big arse omelet…
Yes and the other part of the bill is how they pay for it. The Public American Income Negator.
ACHE and PAIN is the full version of the bill
My cousin teaches gifted chidren (8th grade). Two of her students failed all the tests because the never studied and skipped class. She gave them an F on their report cards. She was surprised when the parents did not come see her about it. At the next PTA meeting she found out they got C's. When she went to the principal she learned that any student who got an F would automatically get a C because the school could not afford to keep students back a year. Your Government Schools Tax Dollars at work. These were gifted kids (130+ IQ)
I'd say most are purposefully misinformed by them. In 2006 did you know that Fannae Mae had an adverse accounting opinion issued on their financial statements. Do you even know now. IF you wanted to know the Agency involved in regulating Fannae Mae so you could read the 2006 reports you would have to remember that in 2008 they disbanded OFHEO and created a new agency. They play shell games and by the time you have waded through 1000 pages of reports and deciphered the bureaucratic red tape it's too late. Anything they want you to know they's have MSNBC talk about it forever though.
Fire and Police are a nonsequitor. The reason to put out fires is to stop the enitre city from burning down. The reason for Police officers is because criminals need to be stoped. I could decide to not pay and let my house burn down but then the chances of your house catching fire increases exponentially. Likewise I can't decide just before going in to rob the bank that no thank you I don't need Police Protection so leave me be.
My Health on the other hand is none of your D@mn business. Who are you to tell me what health insurance I must have or which doctors I have to see. Get this, pass your bill I will still not see your doctors. If I have too I will travel to the Bahamas and find a doctor that will accept my money for diagnosis. What are you going to do about that, skippy. Why don't you take your lecture somewhere else and foist it on them.
That is how Medicaid/Medicare works. Not ever state participated, but every American citizen was being taxed to pay for it.
Of course the Dems think we are stupid…we voted to put them in charge!
So let's see…..
Charley Rangel the tax cheat is Head of the Ways and Means Committee.
Tim Geithner the tax cheat is Secretary of the Treasury
Then the person Obama will want to run the new HEalth Care Program would be…..
You guessed it ….. Dr. Kevorkian
Mr Graham – as a hard-core "trekkie", I assume you only appeared in an inferior offshoot of my favorite sci-fi franchise for financial gain. Clearly you have no grasp of the values held by it's creator and it's fans. Nothing is more pathetic than a post-W neo-con still making excuses for their bad judgment, but nobody likes to admit they were wrong – so I understand. Hell, even Castro believes "history will absolve me" – hope you don't mind being in such company.
Excellent point, In New Jersey, the school systems take around 70-75% of your property taxes, which you can't opt out even if you have NO children.
I was just thinking the same thing. Affordable Healthcare, sorta like Peace keepers.
Spot on, Gary…again! These morons running the government need to be sent packing. I have scant hope of that ever happening, however, given the utter stupidity of many Americans who really BELIEVE in something for nothing.
At least one of the bills wants to unionize Medical professionals. How stupid is that. IL home care people just rejected that in their vote.
Members of democratic congress are on VIDEO saying that this is the first step to a one payer system. There is video of obama saying that he favors a one payer system, but that it will take years to get there. Duh, I think that is enough for us to DOUBT ay bill they pass
Tell me one country that has better health care yjan we do. Especially one with universal care….
So basically if enough people on welfare deposit their government checks in a bank the bank has to make loans in that are even if they are NOT good risks, and has to deal with mortgages for those people tat do not qualify. You can try to spin it however you want but that is the reality.
I've been out of the country for almost a year now.
I happen to agree that a reform of the medical and insurance system is needed.
Having said that, are the Dems. mad/nuts?
We are talking about enormous changes and you seem to want to do it in a couple of months?
I don't believe in virtues of a speedy legislative process. The system worked precisely thanks to its slowness and that was the intent of the Founding Fathers.
Then again, if the gov. manages everything already and people just can't wait to be cuddled to its bosom (titty), why bother with legislative process at all. Why not just RULE buy decrees.
But remember: a gov. that gives you everything can (and will) take everything away.
So Sleep Well Ya'll (I'm on the side of "ya'll vs. "y'all' if you want to argue about this) but if you wake up with a sore butt then I think you yourself should know very well what happened – Ya'll have bent over already.
Toby,
It is interesting how little data influences your argument. You make a lot of points but ignore much of data available to us. But I will try to answer each point as best I can.
1. Grammar: I made a couple of contraction errors and you write your biggest paragraph on that. Wow! Let's take a look at your writing. Let’s see. paragraph three. "… ammunition used by policemen weren't invented …" I believe the word you were look for is "wasn't". You made a grammar mistake so you must have been home schooled. Silly isn't it. The real truth is this is an internet comment section so we write very quickly and make stupid mistakes. You found an error on the internet. Congratulations.
2. The operating principle of this site seems to be the government can do NOTHING well. I just made a small point that not only does it do some things well, but there are functions that the government is the best at doing. If you accept that point then the question is how do we decide which functions are best left to the private sector and which are better served by government? I don't think I read anyone saying the police and fire should be privatized. So you must agree with me on this.
So the question is should government be involved in providing health care for everyone? In another post, someone said the reason why government runs a fire department is because if a fire starts it can burn down the whole town. Exactly true. Is this true in medicine? Yes. If we don't take care of Tuberculosis or Polio it will spread to the entire population. Does it benefit society if we fix someone’s broken leg or reattach a severed finger? Yes it does. So medicine does fit in along the same lines as fire and police.
3. All of you feel that government will stifle innovation. There is not one bit of evidence that this is true. Our military (government run) is the greatest in the world. All of the weapons are supplied by private companies. NASA sent a man to the moon, on rockets built by private companies. Fire Department gets its trucks from private companies (your point, thank you). Government and private sector get along just fine.
4. Is universal health care better than private? I know I will get massacred for this but it's real live searchable data. Every other first world country provides universal health care. ALL OF THEM have a lower infant mortality rate and a longer longevity rate than we do. So are we the best because we are or do we think we are the best.
I thought that Republicans were the thinking mans party. After reading some of the insults and lies and poor logic shown here it does make me wonder.
Well, Ken-O, "guns and ammunition" is two items, which makes it plural, which means "weren't" is the correct usage.
The school I attended taught me to use English correctly whether I'm using it fast or slow.
You ARE judged by your use of the language. I judge you to be dumb.
if enough seats turn over
Not "if" but when.
No "guns and ammo" are a single unit like bacon and eggs therefore wasn't is the proper tense. But I won't call you a name. Jesus said judge not least ye are judged. HA!
Your comment takes my sentence out of context. by the use of ellipses: " … ammunition used by" etc. The original sentence was "guns and ammunition used by policemen weren't invented…" In your school were you taught that "guns … wasn't" is the correct grammar? Or did you ever, indeed, learn grammar in school?
And I'm sorry that you are unable to write both quickly and correctly. Something you didn't learn in school, perhaps? Those of us who went to private schools back in the era before there was a federally-run Department of Education labor under no such handicap.
ACHE indeed, and that is what we will be feeling constantly once they bend us over.
indeed, and if the value of one's property goes down, the tax does not.
Yes my school did teach exactly that. A unit that is always together should be conjugated as a single unit. Bacon and Eggs, Guns and Ammo, etc are singular. Why are we talking about grammar? Ugh! I was trying to point out that you make mistake too.
BTW I always hated that rule. Thought it was stupid. But that IS the rule. I also hate "An history" too. Plus, why are dough and tough spelled the same but sounds different.
Once again. No insults from me.
But my post stated that police and fire departments do not run solely as government-run institutions. Also, nowhere in my comment did I state that government can do NOTHING well. Who are you responding to, exactly?
And I think you miss the apples-and-oranges nature of the comparison you're making: fire and police departments are LOCAL organizations, not federal. People are naturally more motivated to save their own towns than towns in another part of the country. However, education, the example I pointed to as a negative (and more telling) example of a government-run program, is run on the federal level. The results of federally-run education can be seen in your inability to write quickly and well, for one example. The embarrassing test results and drop-out rates of American students compared to other countries shows that, to use your analogy, the fire of poor education has spread throughout the country, not just the whole town.
And the Polio vaccine, which effectively ended the spread of the disease, was funded by the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which was a PRIVATELY funded organization. Thanks for making my point for me!
If government and private sector get along just fine, why change it? Isn't that what the health care bill is intended to do, change that relationship? My point in my original comment was that American medical research, largely privately-funded, is the best in the world. As you pointed out in your example, the Polio vaccine was developed in America by a private institution. Show me the medical breakthroughs that came from the Soviet Union and its government-run medical research. Go ahead, we'll wait.
The lower infant morality rate has much to do with how those rates are counted. For example, in most of those other first world countries, premature births are NOT counted as live births, as they are here in the U.S. Since preemies tend to die more, naturally their infant mortality rates are lower, as they simply ignore their premature births. And comparing longevity rates is also misleading, as we have higher accident rates than countries that don't have the same automobile culture as we do. It's called "fudging the numbers," something socialist countries are very adept at. Living in a country with no press censorship, we here in America have to live with the truth.
What we do have are higher cancer survival rates than any of those countries that provide universal health care. In other words, the medical care we get is of higher quality than theirs, like our record-keeping. Would you prefer to live in a country with worse cancer treatments but better public relations? I wouldn't.
Here's another statistic: in Britain, six percent of the people there practice do-it-yourself dentistry, including extracting their own teeth, because of a shortage of dentists. Sound like a better system to you?
Ah, Jonas Salk developed the Polio vaccine at the University of Pittsburgh, a public institute. Most basic research is developed at University from funding from NIH. private research grants and charitable donations. If the research is promising than it is given to private companies to develop. Private companies do little to no basic research. That is almost all done by the pubic sector.
None of this is relevant to this debate. These are bills about health insurance for all Americans. No pharma companies or doctors or hospitals are being taken over by the government. The government is going to offer insurance and is changing the rules the private companies follow when they offer insurance.
Your state is a classic example of the failure of socialism. It's fine to grab everyones else's money while it lasts. But when the money is gone everything falls apart.
Why do you think that those other countries are telling the USA "don't go there"!
You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. We The People are lying in wait…some silently, some not so silently.
We are not going to take this tyranny, not without a commensurate fight!
Khr'ell — Bollocks to you, sir! If I may say so — you talk out your ass. I release gas in your general vicinity, for you are one of the aforementioned Luddites of which i wrote. You are the one who fails to grasp the vitality of the human spirit in all its creative facets, and it is you who, stuck in the mud of your own obvious self-abasement, continue to deny American exceptionalism and the brilliance of the concept of a nation comprised of self-governed free individuals.
And if you had even the most basic understanding of history and politics, you'd realize the lunacy of comparing myself, George W, or any 'neo-cons' to the mostrous commie Castro. Sounds like he's much more your boy…along with Che…and Chavez…Mao…
But I don't merely blame your bad education and pbs indoctrintion for your stupidity; I fault your laziness of intellect to actually make the journey. Thinking is hard work — and best left to adults. And, for your information, Star Trek: Enterprise happened to be the absolute BEST of the franchise…and…yes, as a matter of fact I DID just take the job for financial gain, how do ya like them apples? So there, Mr. I-don't-even-have-the-balls-to-post-my-real-HUMAN-name!
methinks you've spent too much time in the teacups.
just a bit dizzy and confused
What is funny is how Ken states that people don't know what they are talking about. Then he ignores comments, that he doesn't like. He can't state ONE country that has better health care than the US. ONE country that he would rather go to and have major surgery rather than the US. Example of anther comment that "lower infant mortality rate". Which is VERY easy to refute. When confronted that his argument is faulty he just ignores it. He has a closed mind and couldn't find the forest for the trees.
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