Obama Lies… Freedom Dies
The lies coming from the Whitehouse concerning health care reform continue. The media (main stream type), doesn't call him on them and your freedom to choose how you handle your relationship with your doctor is getting closer and closer to being taken away from you.
Controlling your health care will give the federal government unprecedented control over your personal life. The second the government can dictate whether or not you can get the treatment you need to live based on a cost benefit analysis you are no longer in control of your life. You will be a slave to the federal government for as long as they decide it's affordable to provide you the care you need to live. The One knows that this bill is just the first step and as soon as they control access they will be able to dictate whatever behavior of yours they consider relevant to your health... since they are now the ones providing your health care.
Our Socialist in Chief has chosen to lie about these bills from the beginning. Here's just a few examples:
Your premiums will go down by double digits. - The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has determined that your premiums will go up not down.
The deficit will be lowered. - "When government outlays and revenue collection are considered together in a 10-year period, Medicare cuts are not double-counted, and the “doc fix” is included, the bill will substantially increase the deficit, with an overall cost of approximately $2.3 trillion."
You can keep your coverage if you want. - CBO estimates up to 10 million Americans would no longer be covered by their employers.
No funding for abortion. - The Senate bill will provide funding for abortion. Unlike the House the Senate didn't even vote for an amendment to stop it.
No reduction in access to medicare. - The bill would reduce Medicare payments by an estimated 3 billion over 10 years, including payment reductions for Medicare Advantage, hospital care, home health care, and nursing homes. Common sense tells you that can't happen without reducing seniors access to their medicare benefits.
No "death panels". - Call them what you like, these are still going to be the government bureaucrats who decide on how to control costs and who can get what treatment. Seems like a recipe for a "death panel" to me. When you don't have the freedom to make your own life and death decisions what freedom do you have?
A vote against this bill is a vote for the status quo. - Patently false. A vote against this bill is a vote against this piece of crap bill... nothing more nothing less. A vote against this bill is a vote for personal freedom and against a government takeover of nearly 18% of our economy. A vote against this bill is a vote that will give us all a chance to consider a common sense free market approach to solving this issue.
These health care reform bills have absolutely nothing to do with health care reform and everything to do with the taking of your freedom. They are all about an already out of control government grabbing more and more power for itself and assuming for itself the power to make personal life and death decisions for you. If like me you find this totally against the principles this country was founded upon... an affront to the founders, the constitution, and your unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness then LET THEM KNOW NOW!
Insurance Companies Are Not the Devil
The One enjoys making the insurance companies out to be the devil incarnate. Out to gouge the unsuspecting public and make totally obscene profits. The facts beg to differ. Here is another little video by me that points that out.
Here is the link to the National Review Online research.
The Slaughter Solution… How To Pass a Bill Without Even Voting On it.
Here's a little video I made explaining the sliminess of the Democrat controlled congress. Short, sweet, and to the point.
They have gone from not reading the bills they vote on to pretending to vote on bills they haven't read.
We can still stop them. Call, fax and email your Representative today.
The Senate’s Health Care Reform… I Mean Takeover. The Facts – Part 4
Medicare cuts are the source of "savings" that will cut deficit. Grandma ain't getting' what she was promised and the statists do not give a rip. The One is going to cut medicare by $500 Billion, but don't you worry. Those cuts are going to come from rooting out the waste and the fraud already in the system. What a crock. After all these years The Obamessiah has finally figured out where all the waste is... I don't think so.
Those cuts are coming from cuts in payments to doctors and hospitals. Here is some info from an article on FOXNews:
- 1) For the past decade Medicare consistently paid physicians 20% less than traditional insurance companies for identical service.
- 2) On January 1, 2010 Washington made hidden cuts to Medicare by altering its billing codes.
- 3) Medicare will cut physician reimbursement by another 21% on March 1. The CBO said this cut must take place if the Senate healthcare bill was to “reduced the deficit.”
- 4) Even more, Congress pledged to cut Medicare by yet another $500 billion. Again, the CBO said this additional cut must take place if the Senate healthcare bill was to “reduced the deficit.”
Many physicians were operating at a loss even before this series of massive cuts. In 2008, Mayo Clinic posted an $840 million loss in caring for Medicare patients. No businesses can survive when patient care expenses exceed revenue.
Common sense will tell you that $500 billion in cuts plus the other cuts in payments to doctors and hospitals will drastically reduce the treatment choices and opportunities grandma will have. On top of that we have this from the Heritage Foundation:
Moreover, these Medicare cuts include more than $100 billion in "savings" from changes in Medicare Advantage plans, a move that would directly affect the benefits of millions of seniors. In his analysis of the Senate bill, Foster confirmed that these changes would result in "less generous packages" and that enrollment "would decrease by about 33 percent."[17]
It is still not to late to stop this.
The Senate’s Health Care Reform… I Mean Takeover. The Facts – Part 3
The Ones health care reform plan will stick us with over a dozen new taxes breaking the "no new taxes of any kind" pledge he made during the campaign. Nothing new for Obama though. From raising payroll taxes and sticking the proceeds in the general fund where it will be used for whatever by whoever to making those with good plans pay a tax to subsidize those who don't. The looting of your paychecks is a sport to statists like Obama, Reid, and Pelosi and they are the captains of the all-star team.
Once again thanks to the Heritage Foundation for this list:
- A 40 percent excise tax on "high value" health care plans of $8,500 or more for an individual and $23,000 or more for a couple ($149.1 billion in new taxes over the next 10 years);
- A 0.5 percent hike in the Medicare payroll tax for single earners over $200,000 and joint earners over $250,000 ($53.8 billion);
- Changes in health savings accounts (HSAs), Archer Medical Spending Accounts, health flexible spending accounts (FSAs), and health reimbursement arrangements ($5 billion);
- A $2,500 cap on FSAs in cafeteria plans ($14.6 billion);
- An increase from 10 percent to 20 percent in the penalty for early non-qualified HSA withdrawals ($1.3 billion);
- A tax on branded drugs ($22.2 billion);
- An annual tax on the health insurers[31] ($60.4 billion);
- A tax on companies that manufacture or import medical devices ($19.3 billion);
- A 0.5 percent excise tax on cosmetic surgery ($5.8 billion over 10 years);
- An increase in the floor of the medical expenses deduction from 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income to 10 percent, except for seniors, who will stay at 7.5 percent ($15.2 billion);
- Elimination of the Medicare Part D (prescription drug) deduction ($5.4 billion);
- A $500,000 cap on the tax deduction for the salaries of employees of health insurance companies ($0.6 billion over 10 years)[32]; and
- A mandate on companies with more than 50 employees to provide health coverage or pay a $750 penalty per employee for those who obtain coverage through the insurance exchange ($36 billion over 10 years) and a mandate on individuals to obtain coverage or pay a tax penalty.[33]
You know if it actually gets passed they will be back at the trough sooner than later for more of your paycheck. Your money and power over your decisions is like crack to these people. They will never stop until we get rid of them at the ballot box. Let's roll.
The Senate’s Health Care Reform… I Mean Takeover. The Facts – Part 2
The Employer Mandate (Sections 1511-1513) : This section of the bill is designed to take money from employers no matter what they do, and to "force" you out of your employee based plan by making it cheaper and easier for employers to drop coverage. Here's how they do it.
Employers with 50 or more employees have to offer "government approved" plans or pay a $750 tax for every full time employee. You will lose the employer contribution part of your premium, because $750 is cheaper than your insurance. Not really a plan designed to lower costs, provide competition or keep you in the insurance you like now is it?
Now, if a full time employee takes a subsidy for a premium he gets from the "insurance exchange" the employer must pay a penalty of $3000, or $750/employee if 25% or more more of their employees qualify and do the same.
Here are the facts as laid out by the Heritage Foundation:
In summary, if a company employs many low-income workers, it can save money by dropping its health plan and paying the $750-per-employee tax or by reducing as many employees as possible to working part-time. However, if a company has mostly middle-income workers, it faces a $3,000-per-year penalty for hiring a worker from a low-income family who elects the subsidy. Also, this penalty applies to the employee's family income, not the income that the employee is paid by any particular company.
Therefore, a company would save $3,000 by hiring someone with a working spouse or a teenager with working parents whose family income is higher instead of a single mother with three children. Even worse, if one-fourth of its employees qualify for a premium subsidy based on income and family size, the company would still pay the $750-per-employee tax whether it offers insurance or not.
The Senate bill would create many perverse incentives that would encourage companies with many low-income employees to drop their health plans entirely. Unlike the lower-income workers who would qualify for the subsidies, higher-income workers would have to obtain coverage on their own with no assistance.[24]
Not exactly as The One is explaining it is it? Call, write, fax, and email to help stop this thing.
The Senate Health Care Plan – Real Facts… Not Obama’s
First in a series of posts outlining the real facts about health care reform. Thanks to the Heritage Foundation and their awesome research team for these facts.
Here's the main thrust of their research. Not the details, just the big picture. Here it is, and believe me it does not sound like The One's version.
The Senate health care bill would overhaul the entire health care sector of the U.S. economy by erecting massive federal controls over private health insurance, dictating the content of insurance benefit packages and the use of medical treatments, procedures, and medical devices. It would alter the relationship between the federal government and the states, transferring massive regulatory power to the federal government. The bill would also restrict the personal and economic freedom of American citizens by imposing controversial and unprecedented mandates on businesses and individuals, including an individual mandate to buy insurance.
The One has said from the beginning that "his" plan would lower health care costs and the cover the uninsured. No one and I mean no one believes this bill comes close to doing either of those things. Here thanks again to the Heritage Foundation are just a few of the things this bill "does" do.
- Cause many Americans to lose their current health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that up to 10 million Americans would no longer be covered by their employers.[6] Given the bill's incentives for employers to discontinue job-based coverage, independent analysts expect the loss of employer-based coverage to be much higher.
- Bend the cost curve up. According to independent analysts and government actuaries, the bill would substantially increase total health care spending instead of reducing it as promised. Richard Foster, Chief Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), recently judged the projected savings from the Medicare updates as "doubtful" and estimated that the total national spending on health care would increase.[7]
- Impose many new taxes on middle-class Americans. The Senate bill contains over a dozen new taxes, including a 40 percent excise tax on high-priced health plans and special fees and taxes on insurance, drugs, medical devices, and anyone who violates the new mandates.[8]
- Reduce many seniors' access to Medicare benefits and services. The bill would reduce Medicare payments by an estimated $493 billion over 10 years,[9] including payment reductions for Medicare Advantage, hospital care, home health care, and nursing homes.
- Provide federal funding for abortion. Contrary to the President's clear statement to Congress and the nation on health care reform,[10] the Senate bill would provide funding for abortion. The House would prohibit using taxpayers' dollars to finance abortion, but a similar amendment to the Senate bill was tabled without even a floor vote.[11]
More to come. Let your representatives and senators know you do not want this bill passed... EVER.
Healthcare Bill Shatters Obama’s No Tax Increase Pledge
The folks over at Americans For Tax Reform have compiled a list of just seven ways that the Senate health care reform bill Makes The One a liar. Click to view the report here.(or right click and save) Here's a list:
Individual Mandate Tax
Employer Mandate Tax
Medicine Cabinet Tax
HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike
FSA Cap
Raise “Haircut” for Medical Itemized Deduction from 7.5% to 10% of AGI
Tax on Indoor Tanning Services
In a "read my lips" moment on the campaign trail The Obamessiah makes a firm promise that no one making under $250,000/yr would have any form of tax increase at all. Another promise with an expiration date from Obama.
UPDATE: Jan 6 2010 - Obama OKs taxing high-end health plans. The AP is reporting
"Obama expressed his preference for the insurance tax contained in the Senate's health overhaul bill..."
Instead of taxing the "evil rich" the way Pelosi wants to The Obamessiah wants to tax "Cadillac plans". So all you union folks and lots of us with employer based insurance plans prepare for your paycheck to be hopenchanged.
Obamacare… Sen. Reid Says Screw You and Steals Your Money to Buy Needed Votes
Sen. Ben Nelson held out not on principle but on greed. He got the democratic leader of the Senate to steal million from taxpayers in 49 other states to cover a permanent exemption from the state share of Medicaid expansion for Nebraska.
Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu got a $300 million bump in medicaid funding for Louisiana. Pennsylvania, New York and Florida managed to screw the other 47 states Medicare Advantage recipients by getting special exceptions while the other 47 are getting cut.
Check out all the hope others are getting with your change here.
These people make me sick. In 2010 make them pay. Vote them out!
Obama and Democrats Threaten Our National Security To Get Healthcare Takeover
There are truly no limits for the liberals/statists in this administration. According to Michael Goldfarb at the Weekly Standard the Obama administration is threatening to close Offutt Air Force Base. Offutt Air Force Base is the headquarters of STRATCOM... that would be the US Strategic Command. Located in Nebraska Offutt has become the latest weapon in The One's arsenal. He is using it to threaten Sen. Ben Nelson into voting for the Obamacare monstrosity. A senate staffer said that this was a:
"naked effort by Rahm Emanuel and the White House to extort Nelson's vote." They are "threatening to close a base vital to national security for what?
In a time of economic hardship and world turmoil the Obamessiah is willing to cripple the economy of the surrounding area, put thousands more people out of work and threaten our national security just to get control of your healthcare decisions. Keep calling and mailing and calling and mailing... we can still stop this.