Month: August 2009

Australia rejects Cap-And-Trade

No, we’re not all-health-care-all-of-the-time here.  Via Wattsupwiththat:[*1]

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) — Australia’s Senate[*2] rejected the government’s climate-change legislation, forcing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd[*3] to amend the bill or call an early election.

Senators voted 42 to 30 against the law, which included plans for a carbon trading system similar to one used in Europe. Australia, the world’s biggest coal exporter, was proposing to reduce greenhouse gases by between 5 percent and 15 percent of 2000 levels in the next decade.

Isn’t it time for some small sense of sanity to start seeping in here in America, too?

That doubles as my daily dose of alliteration for the day. Dang!

Why are leftists so emotionally attached to The Big Lie?

A comment on a thread at Classical Values[*1] :

I went round and round this week on my blog on Open Salon (yeah, some – no scratch that – many of them are rabid lefties)but many of them are otherwise sensible and reasonable people who like my writing and all that. I was trying to make the point that as an SA Tea Party committee member I could personally attest that no one was funding us, that we had raised all our operating funds from small donations, that we were all volunteers – and that we found out about a lot of town-hall events directly from our politician’s websites and from a Moveon.org mailing list that one of us joined – and all I got out of it was being called a liar or clueless – and a racist. They are sunk so far in denial about their teleprompter-genius that I don’t know what it would take to bring them out.

Sgt Mom[*2]   ·  August 13, 2009 12:37 PM

Personally, I think it’s as simple as “Fear of the Other.” Everybody has it, even sophisticated, literate leftists. And it manifests itself in this kind of utter, blind, unthinking irrationality, and an overwhelming desire to control those who are in any way different from you–different in thought, different in speech, different in behavior.

We see in the actions of the left today (and yes, of the right too) the increasingly vocal and energetic rejection of any action, concept, or person who lies outside everybody’s personal comfort zone. Civil discourse is impossible when you believe The Other is totally incapable of understanding your point of view. The Left has been there for a while. The Right is now catching up.

One can hope that we are not becoming completely impervious to reason and understanding, because the alternative is open violence and civil war.

And that would be a bad thing indeed. But not as bad as living in fear under tyranny. That’s what the Declaration of Independence was all about, after all. (See, this is one of the things that the Left does not understand about the Right–“it is better to die on your feet, than to live on your knees.” That’s why trying to ram this health care thing through is really, really, really playing with fire.)

Obama Lied, Patients Died

Headline too strong?  Well, since Obamacare hasn’t actually killed anyone yet, I suppose it is.  But that’s the exaggeration in the headline, because Obama is a serial liar regarding health care reform (or, now, the better-focus-group-performing phrase “health insurance reform”).

Heritage Foundation[*1] documents seven lies Obama told in his New Hampshire “town hall” rally.  To be fair, two of those seven are “merely” exaggerations and willful misinterpretations of what’s before Congress, not outright lies, so I only include here the Five whoppers Obama is desperately trying to cram down everyone’s throats:

1.  “I have not said that I was a single-payer supporter.” This is directly contradicted by candidate Barack Obama’s own website[*2] which quotes Obama at a rally in Ames, Iowa form 2008: “If I were designing a system from scratch I would probably set up a single-payer system. … So what I believe is we should set up a series of choices….Over time it may be that we end up transitioning to such a system.”

2.  “Under the reform we’re proposing, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” This statement is also plainly false. Again, as demonstrated above, the true purpose of Obama’s public option is to move Americans out of their private coverage and into government run health care. Independent, non-partisan analysis from the Lewin Group[*3] has confirmed the House bill, H.R. 3200, will do exactly that: About 88.1 million workers would see their current private, employer-sponsored health plan go away and would be shifted to the public plan.

3.  “We have the AARP on board because they know this is a good deal for our seniors.” This is just plain false. The AARP released a statement late yesterday directly contradicting the President[*4] : “While the President was correct that AARP will not endorse a health care reform bill that would reduce Medicare benefits, indications that we have endorsed any of the major health care reform bills currently under consideration in Congress are inaccurate.”

4.  “I said I won’t sign a bill that adds to the deficit or the national debt. Okay? So this will have to be paid for.” That is a nice promise, but so was Obama’s October 2008 promise that he would enact a “net spending cut.”[*5] We all know how that has turned out.[*6] The reality is that the Senate still has not figured out how to pay for their bill and the House bill would increase the budget deficit by $239 billion over the next ten years. CBO director Doug Elmendorf has said: “In sum, relative to current law, the proposal would probably generate substantial increases in federal budget deficits during the decade beyond the current 10-year budget window.”[*7]

5.  “My belief is, is that [Obamacare] should not burden people who make $250,000 a year or less.” Both the House and Senate bills partially pay for Obamacare by imposing “employer mandates” or “pay or play” provisions that require employers to pay higher taxes if (a) they do not offer health insurance, or (b) they offer it but have employees who decline it and instead use the government system. Multiple[*8] studies[*9] have shown that such provisions cause both lower wages and lost jobs for low-income workers.

UPDATE:  One more Obama lie, this time from the American College of Surgeons, via Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic[*10] :

—  Yesterday during a town hall meeting, President Obama got his facts
completely wrong. He stated that a surgeon gets paid $50,000 for a leg
amputation when, in fact, Medicare pays a surgeon between $740 and
$1,140 for a leg amputation.  This payment also includes the
evaluation of the patient on the day of the operation plus patient
follow-up care that is provided for 90 days after the operation.
Private insurers pay some variation of the Medicare reimbursement for
this service.

So, at what point will reasonable, open-minded people simply conclude that Obama just makes $hit up and whatever he says should be taken with the largest grain of salt available?

Camille Paglia on Obamacare

A must-read article at Salon.com[*1] :

I just don’t get it. Why the insane rush to pass a bill, any bill, in three weeks? And why such an abject failure by the Obama administration to present the issues to the public in a rational, detailed, informational way? The U.S. is gigantic; many of our states are bigger than whole European nations. The bureaucracy required to institute and manage a nationalized health system here would be Byzantine beyond belief and would vampirically absorb whatever savings Obama thinks could be made. And the transition period would be a nightmare of red tape and mammoth screw-ups, which we can ill afford with a faltering economy.

. . .

As a libertarian and refugee from the authoritarian Roman Catholic church of my youth, I simply do not understand the drift of my party toward a soulless collectivism. This is in fact what Sarah Palin hit on in her shocking image of a “death panel” under Obamacare that would make irrevocable decisions about the disabled and elderly. When I first saw that phrase, headlined on the Drudge Report, I burst out laughing. It seemed so over the top! But on reflection, I realized that Palin’s shrewdly timed metaphor spoke directly to the electorate’s unease with the prospect of shadowy, unelected government figures controlling our lives. A death panel not only has the power of life and death but is itself a symptom of a Kafkaesque brave new world where authority has become remote, arbitrary and spectral. And as in the Spanish Inquisition, dissidence is heresy, persecuted and punished.

Surely, the basic rule in comprehensive legislation should be: First, do no harm. The present proposals are full of noble aims, but the biggest danger always comes from unforeseen and unintended consequences. Example: the American incursion into Iraq, which destabilized the region by neutralizing Iran’s rival and thus enormously enhancing Iran’s power and nuclear ambitions.

Unfortunately, the basic rule of comprehensive legislation isn’t “do no harm” it’s “let’s pay off our donors, our special interests, and our cronies at the expense of everyone else.” The health care bill is no different. It’s not about health care, or health insurance. It’s about power. They want what little power you still have over your health care. They know what’s best for you and are quite willing to do anything at all to do it.

Other than that . . . as usual with Paglia, Read The Whole Thing.

Thought for the day

Raising a ruckus at a Congresscritter’s town hall meeting is getting a bit like students at a college basketball game storming the court after a big win.

Part of it is real emotion, part of it is “Look, Ma, I’m on TV” and part of it is kind of a fad.

Although personally I’m all for every politician being aggressively yelled at whenever he or she pokes his/her face out in public.  That’s what they’re for.

When you absolutely, positively need health care . . .

Remember the old Federal Express ads that said “when you absolutely, positively need it delivered overnight?”  No?  Here’s one:

Now, consider that President Obama says, in defense of government health care, that “FedEx and UPS are doing just fine.”  Well, that’s true.  They’re private companies, and compete with each other, and with the U.S. Postal Service.  How about that “public option?”  From the Heritage Foundation:

1.) The U.S. Post Office is the only entity allowed by federal law to deliver first class mail to your mailbox. In fact, Fedex and UPS are strictly prohibited from delivering “non-urgent” letters. If the government can fairly compete and is setting fair rules, wouldn’t the post office be open to competition at your mailbox?

2.) If Americans were offered “free” postage paid for by massive government spending and tax hikes, would Fedex and UPS still exist?

3.) The Post Office is on track to lose a staggering $7 billion this year alone. How will a government-run health care plan manage taxpayer resources more efficiently?

4.) Postmaster General John Potter says he lacks the “tools” necessary to run the Post Office effectively like a business. Would a government-run health care system have the tools it needs to run as effectively as the private sector entities it is replacing?

5.) On the one hand, the President remarks how great his public health care plan will be. On the other hand, he notes it won’t be good enough to crowd out your private insurance, i.e. the Post Office comparison. So which is it Mr. President? Will it be so great that private insurance disappears or so awful that it isn’t worth creating in the first place? 6.) But the most important question is this: if you have an urgent piece of mail you need delivered, life or death, who are you going to call?

When you’re advocating for a major change in policy, shouldn’t you . . . you know . . . actually use examples that help your argument rather than hurt it?

The devil in the details

Some guy is reading through the entire health care bill, and trying to tease out what’s in it.

Here’s the link to the bill [*1] (PDF).

Here’s the links to part one[*2] and part two[*3] of what Peter Fleckstein says the bill contains.  On everybody’s to-do list is to look at the bill and see if it’s as bad as it seems, before more voices rise and more fists fly.

Here’s what the guy says is in the bill (they were all originally Twitter tweets, so they’re pretty terse):

Pg 22 of the HC Bill MANDATES the Govt will audit books of ALL EMPLOYERS that self insure!!
Pg 30 Sec 123 of HC bill – THERE WILL BE A GOVT COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benes u get
Pg 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill – YOUR HEALTHCARE IS RATIONED!!!
Pg 42 of HC Bill – The Health Choices Commissioner will choose UR HC Benefits 4 you. U have no choice!
PG 50 Section 152 in HC bill – HC will be provided 2 ALL non US citizens, illegal or otherwise
Pg 58HC Bill – Govt will have real-time access 2 individs finances & a National ID Healthcard will b issued!
Pg 59 HC Bill lines 21-24 Govt will have direct access 2 ur banks accts 4 elect. funds transfer
PG 65 Sec 164 is a payoff subsidized plan 4 retirees and their families in Unions & community orgs (ACORN).
Pg 72 Lines 8-14 Govt is creating an HC Exchange 2 bring priv HC plans under Govt control.
PG 84 Sec 203 HC bill – Govt mandates ALL benefit pkgs 4 priv. HC plans in the Exchange
PG 85 Line 7 HC Bill – Specs for of Benefit Levels for Plans = The Govt will ration ur Healthcare!
PG 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill – Govt mandates linguistic approp svcs. Example – Translation 4 illegal aliens
Pg 95 HC Bill Lines 8-18 The Govt will use groups i.e., ACORN & Americorps 2 sign up indiv. for Govt HC plan
PG 85 Line 7 HC Bill – Specs of Ben Levels 4 Plans. #AARP members – U Health care WILL b rationed
PG 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill – Medicaid Eligible Indiv. will b automat.enrolled in Medicaid. No choice
pg 124 lines 24-25 HC No company can sue GOVT on price fixing. No “judicial review” against Govt Monop
pg 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill – Doctors/ #AMA – The Govt will tell YOU what u can make.
Pg 145 Line 15-17 An Employer MUST auto enroll employees into pub opt plan. NO CHOICE
Pg 126 Lines 22-25 Employers MUST pay 4 HC 4 part time employees AND their families.
Pg 149 Lines 16-24 ANY Emplyr w payroll 400k & above who does not prov. pub opt. pays 8% tax on all payroll
pg 150 Lines 9-13 Biz w payroll btw 251k & 400k who doesnt prov. pub. opt pays 2-6% tax on all payroll
Pg 167 Lines 18-23 ANY individual who doesnt have acceptable HC accrdng 2 Govt will be taxed 2.5% of inc
Pg 170 Lines 1-3 HC Bill Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from indiv. taxes. (Americans will pay)
Pg 195 HC Bill -officers & employees of HC Admin (GOVT) will have access 2 ALL Americans finan/pers recs
PG 203 Line 14-15 HC – “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax” Yes, it says that
Pg 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill Govt will reduce physician svcs 4 Medicaid. Seniors, low income, poor affected
Pg 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill – Doctors, doesnt matter what specialty u have, you’ll all be paid the same
PG 253 Line 10-18 Govt sets value of Dr’s time, prof judg, etc. Literally value of humans.
PG 265 Sec 1131Govt mandates & controls productivity for private HC industries
PG 268 Sec 1141 Fed Govt regulates rental & purchase of power driven wheelchairs
PG 272 SEC. 1145. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN CANCER HOSPITALS – Cancer patients – welcome to rationing!
Page 280 Sec 1151 The Govt will penalize hospitals 4 what Govt deems preventable readmissions.
Pg 298 Lines 9-11 Drs, treat a patient during initial admiss that results in a readmiss-Govt will penalize u.
Pg 317 L 13-20 OMG!! PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. Govt tells Drs. what/how much they can own.
Pg 317-318 lines 21-25,1-3 PROHIBITION on expansion- Govt is mandating hospitals cannot expand
pg 321 2-13 Hospitals have oppt to apply for exception BUT community input required. Can u say ACORN?!!
Pg335 L 16-25 Pg 336-339 – Govt mandates estab. of outcome based measures. HC the way they want. Rationing
Pg 341 Lines 3-9 Govt has authority 2 disqual Medicare Adv Plans, HMOs, etc. Forcing peeps in2 Govt plan
Pg 354 Sec 1177 – Govt will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs ppl! WTF. My sis has down syndrome!!
Pg 379 Sec 1191 Govt creates more bureaucracy – Telehealth Advisory Cmtte. Can u say HC by phone?
PG 425 Lines 4-12 Govt mandates Advance Care Planning Consult. Think Senior Citizens end of life
Pg 425 Lines 17-19 Govt will instruct & consult regarding living wills, durable powers of atty. Mandatory!
PG 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3 Govt provides apprvd list of end of life resources, guiding u in death
PG 427 Lines 15-24 Govt mandates program 4 orders 4 end of life. The Govt has a say in how ur life ends
Pg 429 Lines 1-9 An “adv. care planning consult” will b used frequently as patients health deteriorates
PG 429 Lines 10-12 “adv. care consultation” may incl an ORDER 4 end of life plans. AN ORDER from GOV
Pg 429 Lines 13-25 – The govt will specify which Doctors can write an end of life order.
PG 430 Lines 11-15 The Govt will decide what level of treatment u will have at end of life
Pg 469 – Community Based Home Medical Services=Non profit orgs. Hello, ACORN Medical Svcs here!!?
Page 472 Lines 14-17 PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORG. 1 monthly payment 2 a community-based org. Like ACORN?
PG 489 Sec 1308 The Govt will cover Marriage & Family therapy. Which means they will insert Govt in2 ur marriage
Pg 494-498 Govt will cover Mental Health Svcs including defining, creating, rationing those svcs
Pg 503 Lines 13-19 Govt will build registries and data networks from YOUR electronic med records.
PG 506 Lines 19-21 The Center will recommend policies that would allow for public access of data.
PG 518 Lines 21-25 The Commission will have input from HC consumer reps – Can u say unions & ACORN?
PG 621 Lines 20-25 Govt will define what Quality means in HC. Since when does Govt know about quality?
PG 624 “Quality” measures shall b designed to profile u including race, age, gender, place of residence, etc
Pg 630 9-24/631 1-9 Those Multi-stake holder groups incl. Unions & groups like ACORN deciding HC quality.
PG 633 14-25/ 634 1-9 The Secretary may issue non-endorsed “Qual Measures” 4 Physician Svcs & Dialysis Svcs.
Pg 635 to 653 Physicians Payments Sunshine Provision – Govt wants to shine sunlight on Docs but not Govt.
PG 660-671 Doctors in Residency – Govt will tell U where ur residency will b, thus where u’ll live.
Pg 676-686 Govt will regulate hospitals in EVERY aspect of residency programs, incl. teaching hospitals.
PG 711 Lines 8-14 The Secretary has broad powers to deny HC providers/suppliers admittance into HC Exchng.
Pg 719-720 Sec 1637 ANY Doctor who orders durable med equip or home med svcs MUST b enrolled in Medicare.
Pg 735 lines 16-25 For law enforce. purposes the Secretary-HHS will give Atty General access to ALL data.
Pg 757-762 Fed govt will shift burden of payments 2 Disproportionate Share Hospitals (DSH) 2 States. (Taxes)
Pg 768 Sec 1713 Govt – Nurse Home Visitation Svcs (Hello union paybacks)
Pg 769 3-5 Nurse Home Visit Svcs – “increasing birth intervals btwn pregnancies.” Govt Abortions any1?
Pg 770 SEC 1714 Fed Govt mandates eligibility 4 State Family Planning Svcs. Say abortion & State Sovereign.
Pg 789-797 Govt will set, mandate drug prices, controlling which drugs brought 2 mrkt. Bye innovation
PG 801 Sec 1751 The Govt will decide which Health care conditions will be paid. Say RATION!
Pg 810 SEC. 1759. Billing Agents, clearinghouses, etc req. 2 register. Govt takes over private payment sys.
PG 829-833 Govt will impose a fee on ALL private health ins. plans incl. self insured to pay for Trust Fund!
Pg 838-840 Govt will design & implem. Home Visitation Prog 4 families w young kids & families expect kids.
PG 844-845 OMG! This Home Visitation Prog. includes Govt coming in2 ur house & telling u how 2 parent
Pg 859 Govt will establish a Public Health Fund at a cost of $88,800,000,000. Yes thats Billion.
Pg 865 The Govt will MANDATE the establishment of a National Health Service Corps
PG 865 to 876 The NHS Corps is a program where Drs. perform mandatory HC for 2yrs for part loan repayment
PG 876-892 The govt takes over the education of our Med students and Drs
PG 898 The Govt will establish a Public Health Workforce Corps. 2 ensure supply of public health prof.
PG 898 The Public health workforce corps shall consist of civilian employees of the U.S. as Secretary deems.
PG 900 The Public Health Workforce Corps includes veterinarians
PG 901 The Public Health Workforce Corps WILL incl commissioned Regular & Reserve Officers. HC Draft? WTF!
PG 910 The Govt will develop, build & run Public Health Training Centers.
PG 913-914 Govt starts a HC affirmative action program thru guise of diversity scholarships.
PG 915 SEC. 2251. Govt MANDATES Cultural & linguistic competency trng 4 HC professionals.
Pg 932 The Govt will estab Preventative & Wellness Trust fund- intial cost of $30,800,000,000-Billion
PG 936 Govt will develop “Healthy People & National Public Health Perform. Standards” Tell me what 2 eat?
PG 942 Lines 22-25 More Govt? Offices of Surg. Gen. -Public Health Svc, MinorityHealth, Women’s Health
PG 993 Govt will establish school based health clinics. Your kids wont have a chance.
PG 994 School Based Health Clinic will be integrated into the school environment. Say GOVT Brainwash!
PG 1001 The Govt will establish a National Medical Device Registry. Will u be tracked?
PG 1003 9-11 National Med Dev Reg ‘‘(iii) other postmarket device surveillance activities” U WILL b tracked.

Apologies for the wall of text, but this whole thing is kinda important, don’t cha think?