Free Republic

It is a TIME to CHALLENGE EVERYONE involved with taking over 1/7th of the economy. Challenge the media. Challenge your friends. Challenge the congress-critters. And yes, challenge yourself. We’ve pointed out specific sections of current health care legislation that will make things worse for Americans. We’ve given you the page numbers. We’ve told you exactly what it means and what it will do. Why don’t the statists (lefties) point out sections that will make things better? You might think they don’t care, but in reality the sections we have pointed out that will increase costs, decrease quality and yes, ration...

As a part of the recently passed House healthcare insurance reform bill, the Democrats included a provision that would cap flexible spending accounts (FSAs) at $2,500 per year. For most people that is not a big deal because some companies set caps lower than that anyway and few people actually contribute more than $2,500 into their own FSA accounts. FSAs, of course, are accounts in which individuals can set aside portions of their wages on a tax-deferred basis to be used exclusively for healthcare purchases. They are ‘use it or lose it’ plans, meaning that if they do not spend...

As Americans we are facing the most challenging era in the history of our country. Perhaps more challenging than the Great Wars and the Great Depression. The ultimate government intrusion into all of our lives and the loss of human freedoms will be the replacement of the American Medical Association (AMA) by the Obama Medical Association (OMA). This was initiated in the 1990's by Hiliary Clinton with the advent of Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO's) and the other alphabetical nightmares that followed. More and more physicians are employees of hospitals and other large entities whose bottom lines have nothing to do...

As the dean of Harvard Medical School I am frequently asked to comment on the health-reform debate. I'd give it a failing grade. Instead of forthrightly dealing with the fundamental problems, discussion is dominated by rival factions struggling to enact or defeat President Barack Obama's agenda. The rhetoric on both sides is exaggerated and often deceptive. Those of us for whom the central issue is health—not politics—have been left in the lurch. And as controversy heads toward a conclusion in Washington, it appears that the people who favor the legislation are engaged in collective denial... Speeches and news reports can...

It was brought to my attention today that the cost of the current Healthcare bill is equal to our Total current debt to China (1.3 Trillion dollars).

Been thinking about what I'd put together as a conservative, if I had to correct things in our current healthcare system. Number of things come to mind, none of which Pelosi or Reid or any of the dems come to grips with. Further making me feel confident I'm on the right track. 1. Health Insurance strongly encouraged to buy, not forced. Strongly encouraged because the alternative is paying for 100% of your catastrophic emergency medical costs, asset forfeiture if necessary. This means coming after any form of wealth you've got to pay your debts. Going after 401k's, going after IRAs,...

Fixing the financial sys tem so that it doesn't blow up the economy again isn't hard. But complex solutions help Washington and the "too-big-to-fail" financial firms maintain the status quo -- and make future problems worse. The administration and lawmakers are giving us pretend ways to fix finance. The latest came Tuesday from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd -- a 1,136-page plan for bureaucratic "reform," plus new bureaucracy. We'd get a "Consumer Financial Protection Agency" to police things like mortgages. We'd get an "Agency for Financial Stability," which would supposedly stop catastrophic risks, like AAA-rated mortgage securities, before they...

The Reformed Church in America ship is sinking, argues one Reformed believer. "Listen. Do you hear them? Those are the gentle, mournful sounds of a denomination imploding," Donald A. Luidens, professor of sociology at Hope College in Holland, Mich., wrote in an article featured in November's Perspectives. "The denominational craft has carried us far, but its time is up. It has sprung debilitating leaks which can no longer be plugged." "It was here; it flourished; it ministered; it floundered; and then it was gone ... It is time to look for a new vehicle, or collation of vehicles, to move...

Reporting from Sacramento - Backers of an overhaul of California's government, who hope to leverage disgust with Sacramento into support for changing how the state raises taxes and spends money, have a difficult path ahead, according to a new poll of California voters. Major segments of the electorate see the state's problems as the product of unrestrained lawmakers driven by special interests to waste taxpayer money, and reject arguments that structural issues with the state's Constitution and government institutions are to blame. Voters don't want the tax code overhauled in the ways that many fiscal experts promise would tamp down...

Obama's health care reform agenda is failing, Democrats are turning against it, and the powers that be haven't got an answer on how to turn it around. Obama, however, has a technique sure to turn public opinion in his favor... NOTE: The author of this comic requests that you visit his web site and please refrain from copying the comic within this thread. Thanks a bunch!

Link only - Matheson to vote against health reform

There is a provision (section 532 on page 325) of the house bill that will increase taxes on lots of people. The provision places a $2,500 cap on qualifiying benefits in Flexible Spending Accounts (so called "Cafeteria Plans"). Currently there is no cap. Here's a real example. I own a small business and I provide up to $10,000 a year, per employee, into an FSA. If an employee making $50,000 a year uses the entire $10,000 for family health care coverage, it's all tax-free. Under the health care plan (both Pelosi's and the Senate Finance Committee version), only the first...

Not all Dem governors for health reformThursday, November 5, 2009 By Donald Lambro When the nation's 28 Democratic governors were asked to send a letter to congressional leaders last month expressing their support for health care reform, seven refused to sign the letter and even some who did complained that the pending reform plans could hit them with budget-busting expenses. The big concern among the holdouts is that the health care overhaul will leave them on the hook to pay for expansions in Medicaid programs for the poor while Washington reaps the political credit. Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, one of...

Health Care Reform Legislation Becomes Vehicle for Reshaping Immigration Policy .Weak Verification and Loosening of Welfare Reform Rules Alter Longstanding System of Enforcement and Incentives WASHINGTON, .PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Current versions of both the House and Senate health care reform bills contain inadequate verification measures that will fail to prevent millions of illegal aliens from accessing taxpayer funded health benefits, charges the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). And in a radical change from current law, both versions of the bill grant immediate health care benefits to immigrants currently subject to a 5-year waiting period before they may access most federal...

(Even Canada Said These Were Illegal) H.R. 3962, the Democrats’ health insurance reform bill, to be voted on this week by Congress, contains a provision to establish waiting lists as a mechanism to control costs. Such waiting lists have long been a characteristic – and a bane - of socialized medicine. Indeed, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled them illegal in June 2005. "Access to a waiting list is not access to health care," wrote Canada’s Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverly McLachlin at the time. Yet, this is exactly what the Democrats’ plan has in mind for Americans if their proposed...

An Object Lesson in Governmental Failure: Derivatives reform By Ken Silverstein If you want to understand why Congress seems completely incapable of checking the power of Wall Street, look back to a hearing on the Hill last October 7, and the subsequent events surrounding it. On that day, the House Financial Services Committee hosted a panel on reform of the market for derivatives, the financial instrument which played such a notable role in the country’s economic meltdown. Everyone rational knows that there is an enormous need to seriously reform the derivatives market, but the committee, headed by Congressman Barney Frank...

The Congressional Budget Office is out with its analysis of the House Democrats' health care bill...in reality, the CBO says that the gross cost of the bill will be $1.055 trillion.....the CBO says the bill's gross spending will be $60 billion in the first four years, and $995 billion in the next six years (or 94 percent of the total).

WASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration has allowed drugs for cancer and other diseases to stay on the market even when follow-up studies showed they didn't extend patients' lives, say congressional investigators. A report due out Monday from the Government Accountability Office also shows that the FDA has never pulled a drug off the market due to a lack of required follow-up about its actual benefits — even when such information is more than a decade overdue. (excerpted)

US Is Seeking Tougher Powers In Too-Big-To-Fail Legislation Published: Monday, 26 Oct 2009 | 11:27 AM ET Text Size By: Albert Bozzo Senior Features Editor The Obama administration and House Democrats have made major changes to proposed legislation giving the federal government new powers to wind down the businesses of too-big-too-fail financial firms. The revised legislation, which is now being finalized, will be made public late today or early tomorrow, according to sources. The key changes in what is known as resolution authority affect compensation of creditors, shareholders and management, as well as the role of the Federal Reserve in...

In the face of solid Republican opposition, Senate Democrats on Tuesday backed down from their effort to increase Medicare payments to doctors without offsetting any of the cost over the next 10 years. It was the first skirmish in a larger partisan battle over President Obama’s effort to remake the health care system in a fiscally responsible way. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, had hoped to whisk the Medicare bill through the Senate this week, before taking up a much larger bill to provide health insurance to nearly 30 million Americans. But Republicans had other ideas,...

Legislate in haste, repent at leisure. Almost everything we’ve done in response to the credit crunch has served to exacerbate our problems. Quite apart from the generational debt, the nationalisations and the red tape, we have put in place the machinery of global economic government.

Derivatives Markets Rebound As Reform Recedes Robust trading activity in OTC derivatives products likely to continue as reform momentum dissipates. Guest Post by Oxford Analytica Over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives, particularly credit default swaps (CDSs), were faulted as a cause of the credit crunch, most prominently in a June 17 speech by US President Barack Obama announcing his administration’s plan for financial reform. This led to calls in the United States and elsewhere to regulate the CDS market. Regulatory outlook. Some of this pressure has been addressed indirectly by proposals such as the G20’s commitment to require all standardised OTC derivative contracts...

In speech after speech, and issue after issue, President Obama's refrain has been that the nation needs a "new foundation." Whether addressing health care in a recent radio address, the new unemployment figures, or what he sees as the nation's collapsed international reputation, the president's pledge is that he will erect "a new foundation." Even the administration's plan for reforming the financial regulatory system is subtitled, "A New Foundation." Mr. Obama's advocacy for health care reform is typical of his "new foundation" talk: "We must lay a new foundation for future growth and prosperity, and a key pillar of a...

NEW YORK – Get over it, America. Wall Street bankers make too much money. The latest example: Goldman Sachs says it has set aside $16.7 billion so far this year for compensation — or about $530,000 per employee. Not bad for a company that a year ago received $10 billion in federal money as well as $12.9 billion from the government's bailout of American International Group Inc. Maddening? Sure. But forcing Goldman or any other Wall Street firm to pay employees less won't help a single unemployed American find a job. It won't help a single homeowner who can't afford...

We are a nation fully settled by government. The terrain ahead is both crowded and costly. People who oppose a health-care overhaul are not in love with insurance companies. They're not even in love with the status quo. Everyone knows the jerry-built system of the past half-century has weak points. They just don't think the current plan will shore them up. They think the plan would create new weak points and widen old ones. They think this because they have brains. But even that doesn't get to the real subtext of the opposition. Yes, the timing is wrong—we have other,...

VIEWED from the outside, things have been going quite well for Russia recently. The United States has scrapped, at least for now, the plan to base missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic. Germany and Russia seem to have overcome opposition in Europe to their Nord Stream pipeline, despite fears that it will solidify Russia’s dominance of the European natural gas supplies. Oil prices have recovered from the disastrously low — for Russia — levels of last winter. And, far from buckling under pressure from the United States over sanctions against Iran, Russian leaders felt confident enough to...

Health-care reform adds to troubles of Sens. Reid and DoddBy Gail Russell Chaddock Published Fri, Oct 16 2009 9:23 am WASHINGTON, D.C. — Two of the three Democrats charged with producing a Senate healthcare bill to take to the floor - Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut - face tough reelection bids in 2010. Senate leaders are used to being lightening rods. But the overhaul of the US healthcare system sets up a perfect storm of competing interests, especially for Democrats. As leader of a 60-member majority, Senator Reid has the votes to...

Dodd: Reform must have public optionUpdated: Friday, 16 Oct 2009, 6:27 PM EDT Mark Davis Hartford (WTNH) - There are two bills passed by two senate committees. Dodd is on the inside of the group that will blend the two versions into something that can pass the Senate with the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster by Republicans and that President Obama would sign. Senator Dodd rejected the criticism that the final Health Care Reform bill is being negotiated with the White House behind closed doors at the Capitol. Dodd is among the key players who is negotiating the...

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday that the drop in the health insurance stocks this week was a sign the industry has become nervous that a healthcare reform bill may pass.

We, the American people, find ourselves in quite a conundrum. Our elected officials and the White House who have spent hundreds of hours working on health care reform have lost sight of its original purpose, which is to bring down the cost of health insurance and get as many people who are not currently insured the primary and preventative care that will help them stay well and live long lives. What Congress and the White House has created, however, is a circus of partisan bickering, scare tactics, unfair and outrageous accusations and thousands of pages of federal rules, regulations, fees...

Despite increasingly desperate attacks from the insurance lobby, the Senate Finance Committee took the historic step of voting reform legislation out of committee with bipartisan support. They're the final committee to do so -- and the negotiations over the final bill will now move to the full House and Senate. Soon, every senator and representative must decide where they stand. Lobbyists will be racing to each office, trying every trick in the book to derail the President's plan. In fact, just this week, the insurance lobby released a self-serving report falsely claiming that reform would increase costs. Journalists called it...

Democrats are breathing a sigh of relief after a positive cost report on health care overhaul gave them a chance to rally around a Senate plan that significantly expands coverage while trimming the federal deficit. The Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that the latest version of the Senate Finance Committee proposal would expand coverage to 94 percent of all eligible Americans at a 10-year cost of $829 billion. The budget umpires added that the legislation would reduce federal deficits by $81 billion over a decade and could lead to continued reductions in federal red ink in the years beyond. But...

As Congress takes action on health care reform, public opinion on the issue remains divided and, at times, contradictory. The latest FOX News poll shows a decline in support for health care reform over the past two weeks. Currently, one-third favors the legislation being considered (33 percent) and a slight majority (53 percent) opposes it. This compares to 38 percent favoring and 48 percent opposing the legislation two weeks ago (15-16 September 2009).

John Fund - WSJ "Obama's Two America's" http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574445134229948894.html Excerpt: Why is Barack Obama having trouble getting a health care plan through a Congress dominated by his own party? Partly because the coalition that elected him is an unwieldy blend of the rich and the poor. The two groups view the need for radical surgery on the nation's health delivery system quite differently. But he also calls the Obama coalition a fragile one when it comes to economic issues. The Gallup Poll reports that voters earning under $30,000 a year wanted health care reform by a 13-point margin. But those earning...

What's driving the great health debate of 2009 is not a popular clamor for universal insurance. "Many Americans are balking again at the prospect of health care reform," writes pollster Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center. A new Wall Street Journal poll found 41 percent of respondents opposed to President Obama's proposals and 39 percent in favor (the rest were undecided). The underlying driver is politicians' psychological quest for glory. "My colleagues, this is our opportunity to make history," implored Chairman Max Baucus as the Senate Finance Committee last week opened consideration of his bill. Politicians, in their most...

ObamaCare is bleeding support; Rasmussen shows approval at its lowest level to date. Because senior citizens are the age group paying closest attention, they are the age group showing greatest intensity of opposition to health care reform. Guess which age group is paying the least attention and yet shows strongest support for ObamaCare? If you clicked on the links you already know the answer, 18-29 year olds. Unfortunately for young adults, they are also the group most likely to bear the greatest costs of Obama's health care reform and obstensively Obamanomics in general.

Blame the lack of reform on teachers’ unions that are “extraordinarily powerful.” They quote a study of state-level politics that found teachers’ unions to be the single-most-powerful interest group in the entire country throughout the 1990s. This lets unions block reforms, like pay for performance and the firing of incompetents, which are not in the interest of their members. It is ironic that the United Auto Workers union has taken so much heat for contributing to the economic woes of U.S. manufacturing. One might argue teachers’ unions should get a bigger part of the blame simply because they’ve put their...

Just 41% of voters nationwide now favor the health care reform proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s down two points from a week ago and the lowest level of support yet measured. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 56% are opposed to the plan. Senior citizens are less supportive of the plan than younger voters. In the latest survey, just 33% of seniors favor the plan while 59% are opposed. The intensity gap among seniors is significant. Only 16% of the over-65 crowd Strongly Favors the legislation while 46% are Strongly Opposed. For the first...

“It will provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance. It will provide insurance to those who don’t. And it will lower the cost of health care for our families, our businesses, and our government." – PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA For All Americans, the President's Plan: Won’t add a dime to the deficit and is paid for upfront. Requires additional cuts if savings are not realized. Implements a number of delivery system reforms that begin to rein in health care costs and align incentives for hospitals, physicians, and others to improve quality. Creates an independent commission of doctors...

Chuck at 115 Linden Hall Lane worries about losing the monthly $9,000 infusions of a drug that keeps his lungs from collapsing. Martha, who lives at 113 and is expecting her second child, has had trouble finding a midwife. Thelma, residing at 109, fears being forced into a nursing home because insurance won't cover a home health aide. And Sarah, at 114, out thousands of dollars every year to pay for special services for her autistic son that her insurer won't cover, now faces the heart-stopping proposition of losing that coverage altogethe

Quick! What's the name of President Barack Obama's health care plan? We can't remember, either. We seem to recall "health" and "choice" is in the title, but we're not sure. We were reminded of this when we saw the latest New York Times poll, which showed a large bloc of Americans still don't understand major elements of the plan. We'd say the challenge for Obama and the Democrats is even broader: Not only do people not understand the bill, they don't even know what it's called. So let's have a contest to give it a name! We'll have two categories...

Revised: The Health Insurance Black Hole Tweet @CoachChic to @larrymwalkerjr Tell me: If Obama wants us to buy-into a healthcare package, why not just give us what congressmen get? I'm serious here. Facts With more than 1.8 million civilian employees (1), the Federal Government, excluding the Postal Service is the Nation’s largest employer. The U.S. Postal Service employs an additional 636,000 (2) full-time employees. Politicians receive the country’s best care - at taxpayers' expense. While over 46 million Americans (disputed) remain uninsured and millions more underinsured, members of Congress receive health-related services that many in the U.S. will never...

President Obama has been on television - again and again and again -- making public appearances and sitting down for interviews on every station (exceptFox News, natch!) pushing his proposals for health care reform. Never mind that his directives remain hazy and vague, and his speeches are no different than they were during the campaign, chock-full of boiler plate bromides that make liberals feel warm and fuzzy all over. Jonah Goldberg over at the National Review had this to say: "...the White House still thinks it has a communication problem, and if only it dispels the cloud of 'lies' belched up by the...

I’m not usually one to care much what a celebrity thinks, but I’m going to briefly comment on Eva Longoria’s statement about immigrants before I get offline for the evening. Longoria is the national spokesperson for the Padres Contra el Cancer (Parents against Cancer) non-profit organization, and she attended their 9th annual fundraiser gala in Hollywood. She was either asked a question at the event about illegal aliens or just brought it up herself. From FoxNews’ Pop Tarts column.

Democratic Reform Party - Democrats seeking reform within The Democratic Party. As Democrats of The Democratic Party, we join together in seeking reform within The Democratic Party. Many Democrats see The Democratic Party leaders abandoning the principles and values as set forth within the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. At the very least, most Democrats already know The Democratic Party leaders are no longer placing much value in following the time-honored footsteps laid down by Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and the founding father of The Democratic Party. For instance, The Democratic...

If federal health care reform achieves its goal of providing health coverage to most of the 46.3 million uninsured Americans, it could strain a large segment of the local medical provider workforce, many experts warn. The bills proposed before Congress could give patients who were uninsured, and more likely to put off preventive care, access to insurance so they can see family physicians. While this could prove good for their health and their wallets, it is not clear whether there will be enough workers on the primary care side of health care to accommodate all those new patients.

The likely victors are insurance giants such as UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Aetna (AET), and WellPoint (WLP). The carriers have succeeded in redefining the terms of the reform debate to such a degree that no matter what specifics emerge in the voluminous bill Congress may send to President Obama this fall, the insurance industry will emerge more profitable. Executives from UnitedHealth certainly showed no signs of worry when Senate Democrats proposed to help pay for reform with a new tax on the insurance industry. Instead, UnitedHealth parked a shiny 18-wheeler outfitted with high-tech medical gear near the Capitol and invited members...

Health care bill squeezes the middle class By Juanita Thouin At a press conference held after his town hall meeting in Murfreesboro last month, Congressman Bart Gordon was asked if he could say with certainty that, under H.R. 3200, citizens with pre-existing health conditions and income above a certain poverty level would have their health insurance premiums capped. Gordon responded, “I cannot.” H.R. 3200 is the health care reform bill now under consideration in the House of Representatives. It contains no language stipulating premium caps for families earning more than 400 percent above the federal poverty level. This means that...

In his address last week, President Obama said he had talked to some doctors and learned that medical procedures were being done that may not be necessary due to fear of medical malpractice lawsuits, and he entertained the idea of tort reform, saying we could try it in some states with pilot projects. But there's no need for a pilot project. Texas enacted malpractice reform years ago. The president would benefit from a phone call to Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R)....

As the three of us drove to the nation’s capital Saturday, the suggestion that we should have made a sign saying “I’d Rather Drink Tea Than Kool-Aid” had two of us praising our friend’s thoughtful creativity all day. After all, it is an incontrovertible truth that the dogmatic devotion leftists have exhibited to stupidities since they began praising the “important” ideas to be found in the works of the “great” Karl Marx reeks like the stables of Hercules’ Fifth Labor. But as I read the NY Times’ opinion columns the next day, it occurred to me that there is something...