SodaBoy.Net

An interesting piece by Michael Barry-


Under the new socialism, we need those bad industries to generate wealth, so that we can pay for the good ones. So, the simple strategy is: Do whatever you have to do to keep capitalism alive, and then bleed it for everything you can.

link

I see some merit to the argument but certainly not in relation to health care- the left simply wants health insurance companies to die as they are an obstacle to public dependency.  Europe is the primary example of how a horrible government run healthcare system keeps the left in power.  Voters, not wanting to see their benefits cut and wholly dissatisfied with the care they receive (or lack thereof) continue to elect leaders that promise to improve their failed experiment by either investing more or making the system "efficient"-  both pipe dreams.  There is no real conservative option in Europe despite the fact that those folks continue to experience poorer outcomes and higher costs than their American counterparts.... they simply cannot get over their addiction to cradle to grave government.

There is no financial or clinical benefit to government run health care, in fact Americans receive the best care in the world and pay less than most for it.  The only real benefit is political.

One day after Obama laughs at the mention of death panels and rationed care within the context of his health care bill Drudge digs up this gem.   What a surprise:

“I don’t know how much that hip replacement cost,” Obama said in the interview. “I would have paid out of pocket for that hip replacement just because she’s my grandmother.”

Obama said “you just get into some very difficult moral issues” when considering whether “to give my grandmother, or everybody else’s aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when they’re terminally ill.

“That’s where I think you just get into some very difficult moral issues,” he said in the April 14 interview. “The chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80 percent of the total health-care bill out here.”

Hmmm....what do you think he means by this?

Its funny that the left keeps putting out the same debunked myths and falsehoods after volumes of evidence continues to pile up.  And I mean "same".  The much anticipated response by the White House to the opinions of those they are tracking through their enemies list is nothing more than the old arguments that have already been shredded.

Again I'll ask- if he really wants to reduce the costs of health care while improving quality why is tort reform no where to be found, where is the crackdown on illegal immigration, where are the dollar for dollar tax deductions for health care costs? The answer is that these decisions would cost the left a lot of money (trial lawyers), control (lower taxes mean less government agencies) and base support.

All he has to show for his "vision" is a massive spending bill that takes all sorts of decisions out of the hands of individuals. Instead of parents, sons, daughters, loved ones or you making the decision - it will be Obama.  Obama, the man who voted against a bill that would protect the life of a child who survived an abortion and overturned the Mexico City Policy is asking you to trust him with your life and the life of your loved ones.

By the way, he overturned the Mexico City Policy  while preaching fiscal responsibility. I guess paying poor countries to help mothers kill their children is one way to cut costs and denying care to the elderly or the terminally ill is another. 

Will your life be worth saving?

http://www.eunicekennedyshriver.org/

As you know there has been a lot of controversy about the government “snitch line” flag@whitehouse.gov

This was set up by the White House so that people can essentially snitch on other people who disagree with Obama-Cult's socialized healthcare bill. Well, I decided to be a good citizen so I provided them with all the information I knew. Here is what I sent:

Good Morning-

I understand that you would like to receive updates on false information being presented to the public about the Presidents health care plan and the radical extremists who are responsible for these lies. I also understand that you'd like to track the extremists who are organizing angry mobs to disrupt informed debate on this topic. I would like to help.

The individual I would like to report for passing on bad information is President Barack Obama (or Barack Hussein Obama- depending on what country he's in and what group he is trying to win over). You can find countless lies and disinformation on this website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/health_care/

You will also be able to find other individuals and links that pass on bad information about healthcare as well.

Now for President Obama- he is the sort of fellow I think you target in your most recent commercials (the one about extremists and angry mobs). He has a long history of organizing “angry mobs”- in fact that was, according to him, one of his main qualifications for becoming President. In Philadelphia we know, for example, that the New Black Panthers engaged in one of the worst acts of voter intimidation in this country's history on behalf of President Obama without consequence. We know that President Obama had close ties with the likes of Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers – the former happy that America got attacked on 9/11 and the latter actually responsible for an attack on America. Now, President Obama is not just your run of the mill extremist, what makes him unique is that he is actually President and he has surrounded himself with a variety of tax cheats and other deviants.

Recently, President Obama enlisted the assistance of John Sweeney (AFL-CIO President) who is promising to bring in scores of thugs to these town hall meetings to intimidate the seniors, veterans and working class Americans opposed to the radical plan developed by Obama and the extreme left wing. To date, left wing thugs have been the only individuals responsible for any violence at these meetings so you guys should keep a really close eye on these folks.

I hope you find this information helpful. Please let me know if I can be of any further assistance.

Maybe I'll get some sort of reward.

With only 10% of the stimulus spent, the economy is showing across the board signs of a rebound which essentially tells us that the stimulus package was an enormous waste of money.  I guess Americans forgot that recessions are a normal phenomena in all economies with the exception of socialist states where they define the economy and an extra drumstick after a four hour wait on the soup line is considered a boom.

Even Bush, who most Americans are now wishing was still President, bought the lie the media and Obama was feeding the public to sell a campaign. Funny how the war on Iraq hasn’t really been talked about since September ’08.

Now here’s the rub- that $787 billion we’re deciding to throw away – well, we really don’t have that money and a great deal of it is already allocated to a bunch of junk. A while ago I wrote about how the New Deal had absolutely no impact on the Great Depression – an objective, demonstrable fact – this new experiment in socialism will clearly show how leftist economic theory can kill a recovery.

Obama is correct in cautioning the public about the recovery and lowering expectations in the face of all the good news because his stimulus has not yet had a chance to fly, crash and burn.  Obama is wrong when he takes credit for the economic recovery - economies do this naturally and it would have probably happened sooner and stronger if he hadn't taken over every industry in the US.

By the way, was I the only person who thought Larry Summers giving the stimulus credit for the rebound while, in the same breath, explaining that unemployment was still high because the stimulus money hadn’t really been spent sort of funny?  It was on last Sunday on Meet the Press.

During the last two weeks citizens who have spoken about Obama's attempt to shove socialized medicine down the country's throat have have been marginalized as extremists when in fact, poll after poll shows that the vast majority of Americans do not agree with the left on this issue and with good reason.  Not only has the left ridiculed ordinary Americans for exercising their freedom of speech - they have now turned to blocking citizens out of town hall meetings while trying to pack the room with their supporters.

More disingenuous is the language the left is using to describe these Americans (angry, mob like, swastika carrying) when the only acts of violence has been from others trying to stop these Americans from having their voice heard.  If you look at those who the left are calling "fringe" you will notice a large majority are people they claim to represent - seniors, veterans, working class folks.

It appears anytime you disagree with the left in this country and show public opposition you better prepare yourself for personal attacks.  If you recall, similar tactics were used against those who organized tea parties.  Many on the left - including people in high ranking positions - referred to these Americans as "tea baggers".  Is this the sort of crude arrogance we should begin to expect from an administration who promised to be open to both sides of the debate?  Should we now expect our representatives to treat us as political enemies when we disagree with them?

Welcome to a new America where the promise of "change" is becoming clearer with each passing day.

Link to Tampa Meeting Video- "Deep in the corner of your upper left screen, there's a gentleman in a green shirt, whose is getting roughed up, as these two are pushing others. A police officer enters the seen, (Dark blue uniform, short, and a black officer.) You still see the gentleman getting roughed up. The cop not doing anything. They then let the guy go, as they slam the door shut. Later in the video, you see the officer conversing with the gentleman who got roughed. After a brief description from myself, the cop walks away."

Link to St. Louis Video

White House to Democrats: 'Punch back twice as hard' "
"“If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard,” Messina said, according to an official who attended the meeting. The hourlong session was the last opportunity for Democratic leaders and the White House to prepare senators for what will be a crucial month in shaping public opinion on health care. With no final legislation to promote, senators have expressed concern about dealing with questions and criticisms about the almost $1 trillion overhaul. The spate of confrontational town hall meetings have raised the stakes. “They are just helping us understand the fringe that is trying to mess up our meetings,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). "


Cornyn accuses White House of compiling 'enemies list'

"Texas Sen. John Cornyn, accusing the White House of compiling an "enemies list," has asked President Barack Obama to stop an effort to collect "fishy" information Americans see about a health care overhaul.

Cornyn, who leads the Republicans' Senate campaign effort, said Wednesday in a letter to Obama that he's concerned that citizen engagement on the issue could be "chilled." He also expressed alarm that the White House could end up collecting electronic information on its critics.

"I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward e-mails critical of his policies to the White House," Cornyn wrote."

Pelosi: Town Hall Protesters Are "Carrying Swastikas"

AARP Organizers Cancel ‘Listening Session’ After Participants Refuse to ‘Keep Their Comments Quiet’

I recently used someone's facebook account to have an all out flame war on health care reform, and as would be expected the leftists that supported the national catastrophe currently (yes still) in the hands of congress brought up some predictable points. Being that some people may live in a cave or are still in the powerful grip of Obama-Cult I think it may be a good idea to debunk a few myths surrounding a national system.

Myth #1: Other countries do health care cheaper and more effectively.

The WHO is notoriously referenced as a source to justify this stupidity.  The infamous WHO rankings are based on subjective indicators having very little to do with quality health care such as:

Fairness of financial contribution
Distribution of Financing
Distribution of Health in the Populations

So, as long as you have a health care system in line with a socialist philosophy you'll rank just fine regardless of quality of care- which is why countries like Portugal rank higher than the US.  I have family in Portugal and spend a decent amount of time there- the system is a joke.

Then there are other studies that “definitively prove” the US system is horrible using indicators like infant mortality and health care costs.  What these studies don't tell you is that other countries measure certain variables like infant mortality rather creatively (there appears to be some disagreement when to count a dead baby as a dead baby).  They get more creative when it comes to reporting their health care costs.  When you actually get to what counts (public opinion about health care, how satisfied people are with the care they receive, actual treatment outcomes) then things become a bit more interesting.  To get a really good understanding of how big the lie really is you may want to check this out.

Myth #2: Nationalizing health care will control costs.

It really is quite hard to say this with a straight face given the enormous financial disaster that Medicare and Medicaid turned out to be along with the back to back CBO reports that stopped just short of calling the bill a sad joke.  Nationalizing health care does nothing to solve the root cause of increased costs. In fact, this “cure” is much of the same fuel that caused the fire in the first place.  Health care costs are high for several reasons:

1.Ironically enough, you and I pay more for private health insurance because programs like Medicare and Medicaid do not competitively reimburse for services their consumers utilize. Costs through these programs are kept artificially low and health care facilities need to recover their costs somehow.

2.I almost fell over when Obama talked about how doctors practicing defensive medicine were driving up health care costs and that a lack of rationing (essentially what he said) was the issue. Those infomercials were funny. What he neglected to tell you is that the reason doctors are so test crazy has to do with ridiculous law suits.  It is not unheard of for Doctors who have never been sued to pay well over $100,000 for malpractice insurance.  So who exactly does a litigious medical environment benefit?  Trial Lawyers of course and guess what party they favor. The current plan does nothing to resolve the root cause of this problem and the fact that the left is trying to spin it as indicative of a need for socialized healthcare is bizarre.

3.Illegal Immigration. Really not much to say here other than these folks use emergency rooms for everything.  They have no coverage and hospitals have to go elsewhere to recover their losses. Guess who ends up paying for it.  Last I heard there wasn't anything that addressed illegal immigration in the new health care bill.

4.Employer based plans are a hold over from another American socialist's (FDR)  policies of wage and price controls. The current system essentially forces people to pay for coverage packages that may offer way more than what is needed. Additionally states have added and are continuing to add coverage requirements to plans that increase costs while offering little to no benefit for the majority of covered individuals.

Myth #3: There are 47 million uninsured Americans creating a health care crisis.

The left in power doesn't even believe this themselves but says it every now and then so that Obama-Cult can feel good about itself.  Actually, the number reported by the census is closer to 45 million. About 9 million of the 45 million are illegal immigrants that shouldn't be here in the first place. Another 9 million include individuals who make over 75k a year and who did not choose to purchase health insurance. That leaves about 29 million (9% of the US population), many of whom are employed and chose not to participate in their employer or state plan or are simply in between jobs.

Add to the mix that no one is really denied care in the US and the use of the word “crisis” to describe the situation seems a bit dramatic.

Census Data

Myth #4: You will get to keep private insurance

The public “option” is not an option but rather part of a strategy the leftists had in dismantling our healthcare system some time ago.  The game goes like this:

1.The public option offers lower reimbursement rates than private plans.

2.Healthcare providers recover costs by increasing rates where they can (private plans).

3.In order to fund the public option, taxes will need to be increased on those paying for and being covered by a private plan.

4.People in private plans are wondering why they should pay more for their healthcare when they can get the public option for "free". They start switching – eventually taking down private options and leaving the US with a single payer system.

The rest is how I see this play out.

5.Reimbursement rates remain low creating disincentives for people to become doctors, nurses etc as cost recovery now has to be realized in cuts v. price increases.

6.Reduction in doctors and services creates need to ration care.

7.91% of the country just got switched to horrible healthcare coverage because 9% may or may not have been able to get coverage. A certain percentage of 9% are now being forced to pay for health care coverage they didn't want in the first place.

8.The left wing just increased their political base by creating a whole new kind of dependency.

Hell, the leftists in the House didn't even try to hide it it in the original bill.  The famous “page 16” essentially stopped people from being able to enroll in private plans.

I probably forgot a ton of stuff but Ill add to this as time goes on.  Leeches of Congress are heading back to those they screw on a daily basis so this should still be on the radar until they get back to “work”.

Biden, in an interview airing Sunday on ABC's "This Week," said the nation's 9.5 percent unemployment rate is "much too high."

"The figures we worked off of in January were the consensus figures and most of the blue chip indexes out there," Biden said.

"We misread how bad the economy was, but we are now only about 120 days into the recovery package," Biden added. More jobs will be created in coming months, he said

Link

Sort of true. If he said that they overstated how poorly the economy was doing, neglected to pay attention to some basic history lessons and failed to look up the definition of the word “stimulus” it may have been more accurate.

The problem is not that the economy was worse than the Obama administration had thought, the true problem is that their solution, just like the New Deal, is turning the recession into something more serious. Throughout the entire New Deal, government spending was unprecedented but it never managed to bring unemployment down to under double digit numbers. It did take a few percentage points off of a swelled unemployment figure but the impact was minimal and when the New Deal ended, the US economy was back in the same boat requiring a massive war effort to get people back to work and economy on track.

Despite the massive amount of spending on pork (yet another campaign promise broken), failed industries and the labor unions that sucked them dry -consumer confidence took another hit recently, the market is still not back to its high in January and unemployment (which the stimulus was all about) is going in the wrong direction. Not to worry, there are several disastrous and expensive environmental and health care bills on the table to make this stew even tastier.  There were a few significant tidbits I left out – but why depress everyone? It's a holiday weekend after all. One thing I will say about BHO is that he promised change, and on that he delivered.

Update-

And the hits keep coming..

It may be time for America to finally and legitimately apologize to a Middle Eastern country.  You know -instead of apologizing for defending ourselves and our national interests while removing tyrants and establishing freely elected governments. I never thought I would see, in my life time, a French President actually show more balls than an American President in defending democracy.  I guess when the Media, Acorn and the New Black Panthers lie, buy, steal and intimidate an election from the American people on your behalf, you really don't have much of a leg to stand on.  I know, the alternative in Iran isn't much better- but that's not the point, is it? 

While we go through what is quickly becoming the worst four years of our history we can take comfort in the fact that we've had real leaders in the past and have survived buffoons before.  After this debacle, Americans will learn the same lesson they learned with FDR, Johnson and Carter and we'll probably experience another streak of adults who actually have a clue running the White House.  Until then we can always remember the good ones...like the guy we had before this clown.

To help BHO out (we are now able to refer to his middle name) I thought I'd suggest a training video of sorts...

BREITBART: Know thy enemy: This is not your mother's Democratic Party

Democrats invest - with taxpayer money, mind you - in groups like ACORN that, among other sordid tactics, seek out Skid Row bodies and wheel them to polling places. All the Democratic National Committee needs are vans and smelling salts. Pop culture and the "education system" have done the rest, making "D" the default choice on Election Day.

Democrats brazenly take policy positions - think government services and even amnesty for illegal immigrants - not because they are the right thing to do, but because they are time-tested demographic bribes. Forget cigarettes and beer, Democrats would distribute needles, methadone, medical marijuana and biscotti in voter goodie bags if they could get away with it.

Democrats long ago jettisoned America's melting-pot ideal - E Pluribus Unum ("Out of Many, One") - because it imperils their campaign for permanent rule. Splitting the country into separate identity groups and playing them against each other works a lot better. And anyone who disagrees is a racist.

Link

I have to disagree- this is in fact your mother's democratic party- at least since FDR (with a small break with Kennedy- who had his own issues).  A central tenet of leftist government has always been that individuals don't matter - ideas, movements and ideologies do.  There is no tolerance for difference, ironically enough, and there never has been.  Take the push to redefine marriage for example- when President Bush pushed for a Constitutional amendment to define marriage (who knew it needed to be defined?) the left and the media (one in the same) went nuts calling it unconstitutional. How is changing the Constitution through a process defined by the Constitution, unconstitutional?  Yet the left is perfectly okay with a small group of elites stepping outside of their authority to re-write the constitution according to their world view, which is essentially how abortion became a sacrament in America.

The manner in which the left uses the court today to impose its social agenda on states and communities is no different than how FDR attempted to use the court to add legitimacy to his insane and failed agenda. All leftist governments eventually devolve into oppressive killing machines- Soviet Union, China, Cuba, Nazi Germany- the more government is centralized the less influence people have until, in the end, they don't matter.

The tactics used today, although more sophisticated, are no different than those used in the past- the media has always been complicit  in helping the left grab and hold power, the left has always pitted groups against one another and has always played to win at all costs.  In fact, that is their advantage-  their philosophy lends itself to these tactics.