Free Republic

The lies exposed.

US bishops conference mounts late drive against 'unacceptable' health-care reform October 29, 2009 The US bishops' conference is mounting a late drive to secure passage of a pro-life amendment to the health-care reform bill. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is asking pastors all across the country to include an insert in their weekly bulletins, urging parishioners to call their Congressional representatives and encourage a vote for a pro-life amendment. The USCCB's pro-life office has indicated that it will press bishops to promote the dissemination of these bulletin inserts. The insert exhorts parishioners to act immediately. "Congressional votes may...

Poppy was transferred to the leading children's hospital in London for specialist care after she was born three months early on Christmas Eve last year, in Basildon, Essex. But she died after a "domino effect" of mistakes, an inquest was told. Rebecca Tite, a trainee nurse, who had spent just three weeks in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, set up a machine supplying her with glucose incorrectly, flooding her body with the solution. The levels of glucose in Poppy's blood rose to 20 times the maximum level they should have been, causing ''devastating effects'' to her body, St Pancras...

Obama lifts ban on US entry for those with HIV New.Yahoo.com ^ | DARLENE SUPERVILLE Posted on Friday, October 30, 2009 4:16:00 PM by raybbr WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Friday the U.S. will overturn a 22-year-old travel and immigration ban against people with HIV early next year. The order will be finalized on Monday, Obama said, completing a process begun during the Bush administration. The U.S. has been among a dozen countries that bar entry to travelers with visas or anyone seeking a green card based on their HIV status. Obama frustrated with companies over flu vaccine Reuters...

U.S. House Health Care Plan Bill (pdf of 1,990 bill) United States House of Representatives ^ | October 29, 2009 | 11th Congress Posted on Thursday, October 29, 2009 11:36:00 AM by MaestroLC This is the official pdf from the U.S. House of Representatives unveiled by Nancy Pelosi today. It is 1,990 pages. 10 Facts Every American Should Know About Speaker Pelosi's 1,990-Page Gov't Takeover of Health.. republicanleader.house.gov ^ Posted on Thursday, October 29, 2009 5:31:46 PM by Sub-Driver 10 Facts Every American Should Know About Speaker Pelosi's 1,990-Page Gov't Takeover of Health Care Pelosi Unveils Health Bill With Government-Run...

Romney ducks the leadership test What do you find most often in the middle of the road? Road kill. Mitt Romney, who hopes to be the GOP's next presidential nominee, couldn't bring himself to endorse anyone in New York state's contentious 23rd congressional district special election. The contest,.....has been a flashpoint for a party in search of its identity. An all-star lineup of national party leaders has weighed in, allowing themselves to be defined by whose side they're on. But not Romney. The former Massachusetts governor passed, and this could have serious ramifications down the road. The cliche about the...

The new House health care bill (H.R. 3962) unveiled by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) yesterday clocks in at 1,990 pages and about 400,000 words. As written, the bill purports to cost only $1.05 trillion over the first ten years and is paid for by over $700 billion in tax increases and cuts to Medicare Advantage and Medicare prescription drug payments. But as troubling as those numbers are, the scariest thing about the bill is the solid foundation it lays for a complete government take over of the health care sector of our economy. The Washington Post describes the bill as...

House Minority Leader John Boehner appears with a copy of the Democrats’ version of the health care bill during a news conference on Capitol Hill on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009. (AP Photo/Harry Hamburg) Washington - The health care overhaul bill produced by House Democrats would impose an array of new taxes, fees and government mandates on major players in the health industry, including insurers, doctors and drugs and medical devices makers. In most cases, the pain has been meted out with an eye toward raising the money needed to finance President Barack Obama's plan for reshaping the health system but...

Washington, DC -- It's alive. The Medicare end-of-life planning provision that Governor Sarah Palin said was tantamount to "death panels" for seniors is staying in the latest Democratic health care bill unveiled Thursday. Recently, the DNC went on the offensive not only claiming The Governor is lying but communicated to it’s supporters to attack Sarah Palin on Facebook. The DNC executive director Jen O'Malley Dillon communicated via e-mail insisting private citizen Sarah Palin has been lying and should he harassed. The provision allows Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling to help beneficiaries deal with the complex and painful decisions families...

There's been a weird talking point bubbling up that the House health-care plan makes private insurance -- sigh -- illegal. Rep. Michelle Bachmann, who breathes out crazy like the rest of us exhale carbon dioxide, warns that "on the 16th page, it says whatever health care you have now, it’s going to be gone within five years." Investor's Business Daily says, "right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal." Sigh. Not really. Shadowfax does the lord's work and explains what's actually going on here. The short version is that your insurance doesn't become illegal....

Members of Congress and the American people are just beginning to look at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) 1,990-page government takeover of health care, but it’s already becoming clear just how costly and unsustainable this proposal is. From higher taxes on middle-class families to job-killing mandates on small businesses to cuts in Medicare benefits for seniors, here are 10 facts every American should know about Speaker Pelosi’s 1,990-page government takeover of health care:

An excise tax on high-priced insurance policies might violate President Obama's pledge to not raise taxes on the middle class, House Democratic Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said last night. "I do not want to see anything jeopardize the president's promise not to raise taxes on the middle-class," Clyburn told MSNBC last night. "And that could very well get us there." The House healthcare bill to be unveiled today will not include such a tax, but the Senate bill does. Under the Senate bill, an excise tax on so-called "Cadillac" insurance policies would help pay for subsidies and expanded coverage. President...

Medical Center cutting services to poor (lost govt funding) Macon Telegraph ^ | 10/28/2009 | S. Heather Duncan Posted on Wednesday, October 28, 2009 5:37:59 AM by markomalley The Medical Center of Central Georgia is cutting hours, clinics and pharmacy offerings at its W.T. Anderson Health Center, which provides primary and specialty care to the poor. In addition, the Anderson Health Center will not be accepting new primary care patients into its CarePartners program, which provides primary and specialty care on a sliding-fee scale based on patients’ income, assets and insurance. Sick baby is turned away by doctor because mom...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is acknowleding that the health care plan he famously implemented as governor did nothing to address costs. "We were unable to deal with - and didn't have any pretense we would somehow be able to change - health care costs in Massachusetts," Romney said in an interview with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta. "We still have a fee for service, a re-imbursement system here like every other state in America. That's the way Medicare and Medicaid are structured, that's the way the insurance industry is structured." Romney said "Massachusetts is not the model"...

Negligent medical personnel of a hospital in Omsk, Russia, caused mass blindness to hospital patients. During surgeries, the doctors infected the patients’ eyes, making 13 people blind. According to Rosbalt news agency, lawyers of the affected patients are pessimistic. They do not think that it will be possible to hold the health professionals accountable...

Appearing on CNN last night, Mitt Romney conceded that the Massachusetts health care plan he signed into law did nothing to control costs. But, he now says, it was never intended to. "We were unable to deal with -- and didn't have any pretense we would somehow be able to change -- health care costs in Massachusetts," Romney said. "That's a whole different topic, which is how do we get the cost of health care down in America." The problem with Romney's account is that at the time he signed the bill, he was saying it would bring down health...

Facts are a stubborn thing. And despite the false claims of ideologues, academics and politicians, the facts tell the story of Massachusetts' remarkably successful health-reform law. The lengths that critics have gone to in their various attempts to disprove the obvious—that our state's landmark 2006 law and its implementation amount to a truly historic achievement—would be amusing if the subject were not so serious.

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had two problems. How would he get the healthcare bill out of the Senate Finance Committee without revealing the glaring potential fissures in his party over the public option on healthcare? And how could he lend a veneer of bipartisanship to a one-party bill? He couldn't allow a vote on final passage out of the committee with a public option in the bill because he knew that he would lose Democrats and would have no GOP support. But real compromise was always out of the question. He wanted his public option. So...

Does HIV mean certain death? In the quarter century since the world was introduced to the idea that a new sexually transmitted virus was the cause of Aids, HIV has been generally regarded as one of the biggest killers of our time. HIV/Aids has not been the mass disease in Britain that people were led to believe in the 1980s, but the death toll from immune deficiency diseases ascribed to HIV in Africa has been staggering. The scale of death there is an ongoing tragedy that tests the moral resolve of the rich world. How much do we care? Enough...

AARP may benefit from health reform; GOP cites possible conflict of interest Denver Post ^ | 10/27/2009 | Dan Eggen Posted on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 5:17:47 AM by markomalley The nation's pre-eminent seniors group, AARP, has put the weight of its 40 million members behind health care reform, saying many of the proposals will lower costs and increase the quality of care for older Americans. But not advertised in this lobbying campaign have been the group's substantial earnings from insurance royalties and the potential benefits that could come its way from many of the reform proposals. Screwing the Seniors?...

For an editorial promoting fiscal responsibility, The Dispatch overlooked one of the best ways to lower health costs: a public option that competes with private insurers to lower costs and keep the industry honest ("Honest accounting," Oct. 19). The newspaper called the public option "the way for a government takeover of health care," but I ask: A takeover from whom? The two insurance companies that control more than 50 percent of Ohio's health-insurance market? The insurance companies across the nation that deny care based on gender or pre-existing conditions? The insurers that place arbitrary limits on how much medical care...

In what possibly could the funniest thing said on the House floor in a long time. Rep. LaTourette mocks democrats who have been whining and crying that the Republican party is blocking health care reform. Here's the video of LaTourette. Below is the transcript. Mr Speaker. All through out history there's been the big lie. And we got the big lie going here again. And it goes like this: Republicans wont let us have health care reform. WAHHHH Republicans are the party of no. WAHHHHHH Why are Republicans stopping us from reforming health care? WAHHHHH ..We couldn't stop a one...

Rep. Bart Stupak said Speaker Pelosi is not pleased with his effort to change abortion-related provisions in the healthcare bill being crafted by the House. During an interview on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal" show, Stupak (D-Mich.) said he is undeterred in trying to ensure that taxpayer dollars do not pay for abortions. Stupak, who opposes abortion rights, acknowledged that some in his party are upset with his public campaign to change the bill. "The Speaker is not happy with me," Stupak said. The Energy and Commerce subcommittee chairman said he has been working with Democratic leaders on a compromise, but they...

He makes some good points.

Washington is captivated by the Senate melodrama over the so-called public option, salivating at the ring of Harry Reid's political bell (see below). But the most important health-care questions continue to be about the policy substance—particularly those that Democrats don't want asked. Foremost among them is: How will ObamaCare affect insurance premiums in the private health-care markets? Despite indignant Democratic denials, the near-certainty is that their plan will cause costs to rise across the board. The latest data on this score come from a series of state-level studies from the insurance company WellPoint Inc. At the request of Congressional delegations...

According to CBS and other media reports, “Sen. Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.) said Tuesday that he would support a Republican filibuster of a health care bill that includes a public option.� This is a serious blow to the passage of any Obamacare bill including a public option, yet the blow may not be fatal. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) yesterday announced a deal and it is notable that he was not accompanied by any member of the secret team negotiating a deal on Obamacare including Senators Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Director...

Click the link. Read the latest updates on HR 3200 from the Hill, check the hyperlinked resources, and sign the petition. Petitions to be delivered to Congress on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009.

BOSTON (AP) ― The four Republicans who held the Statehouse Corner Office for 16 years have endorsed Charles Baker for governor next year. William Weld, Paul Cellucci, Jane Swift and Mitt Romney made the announcement Tuesday during a fundraiser for the Massachusetts Republican Party.

Uncertainty over health care costs is preventing small businesses from adding jobs, part of the reason for the so-called jobless recovery, said by some to be underway. Gary Fields paints a compelling picture of the worries and doubts faced by small businesses, in the Wall Street Journal. One employer: "... cut overtime for many of his 150 employees in anticipation of facing fresh health-care costs. He's worried about getting hit by higher taxes next year, which would cut into income to pay for expansion, raises, bonuses, new product lines and delivery trucks." It is always safer to postpone spending, in...

The House Dem leadership has conducted its preliminary whip count and has tallied up less than 200 likely Yes votes in support of a health care reform bill with a robust public option, well short of the 218 needed for passage, according to an internal whip count document I’ve obtained. The document — compiled by the office of House leader James Clyburn — was distributed privately at a meeting between Clyburn and House progressives today where the fate of the public option was the subject of some contentious debate, with liberals demanding that House leaders push harder to win over...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid addressed a development, first reported by TPMDC, that Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) will filibuster a health care bill if it includes a public option. "Joe Lieberman is the least of Harry Reid's problems," Reid told reporters at his weekly press conference. During a Q&A session with reporters, Reid offered a fairly spirited defense of Lieberman, signaling perhaps that he doesn't believe Lieberman will ultimately be an obstacle--or at least that he doesn't want to tip his hat: "I don't have anyone that I've worked harder with, have more respect for, in the Senate than Joe...

Senate GOP leaders warned Tuesday they will hold Democrats accountable for procedural votes during the floor debate over healthcare reform, bracing against a sneak legislative attack from the majority party. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) left no doubt they would pursue Democrats who face reelection in 2010 by considering any procedural votes on the health bill as equally important as final votes. Cobbling together the Senate’s 60 Democrats on procedural votes has emerged as a likely strategy for Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). It involves a controversial legislative tactic called reconciliation...

Senate Dems Short Health Votes — For Now Lawmakers must meld the House and Senate versions of the health bills WASHINGTON - Several Democratic senators withheld their backing Tuesday as party leaders tried to nail down support from moderates for the government to sell insurance in competition with private companies as part of a sweeping health overhaul bill. Across the Capitol, Democratic leaders in the House were working to finalize the shape of a government insurance option in their version of the legislation, with many saying the effort got a boost from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision to include...

Independent Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman said Tuesday that he would back a Republican filibuster against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's health care reform bill if a government-backed insurance plan remains in the package. The announcement is a blow to the Democratic leader and signals that he does not yet have the votes to advance the bill. While Reid needs just 51 votes to pass the package, he needs 60 votes to crush a filibuster. "If the bill remains what it is now, I will not be able to support a cloture motion before final passage," Lieberman told reporters... The trouble...

<p>Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said Tuesday that he’d back a GOP filibuster of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health care reform bill. Lieberman, who caucuses with Democrats and is positioning himself as a fiscal hawk on the issue, said he opposes any health care bill that includes a government-run insurance program — even if it includes a provision allowing states to opt out of the program, as Reid’s has said the Senate bill will. "We're trying to do too much at once," Lieberman said. “To put this government-created insurance company on top of everything else is just asking for trouble for the taxpayers, for the premium payers and for the national debt. I don’t think we need it now." Lieberman added that he’d vote against a public option plan “even with an opt-out because it still creates a whole new government entitlement program for which taxpayers will be on the line." .................</p>

October 27, 2009 Obamacare’s False Dawn The public option is a recycled means of pretending away Obamacare’s costs. Rich Lowry The public option is back. Its Lazarus act is hailed as a sign of how rosy the health-care debate looks for Democrats. August is but a sepia-tinged memory. Passage of a sweeping bill is now considered a lock by the wisest and most conventional Beltway pundits. And legislation may even include the most shining prize of all, the public option that liberals — no matter what the talking points for public consumption — consider a way station to the Valhalla...

Breaking News: Senator Joe Lieberman has announced that he will join the GOP in filibustering the Reid-pushed Health Care Bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is holding a series of meetings with Democratic centrists to secure the 60 votes he needs to begin the healthcare debate. Democratic leaders expect the legislation to hit the Senate floor next week or the week after. Reid appears confident that the entire Democratic Conference will vote en bloc to begin the healthcare debate, but he’s not taking any chances after losing a crucial vote last week on legislation to address Medicare payments to doctors. Nothing is certain in the wake of Reid’s announcement Monday that he would include a government-run insurance plan in...

American Life League 27 October 2009 CONTACT: Katie Walker540.659.4942| kwalker@all.org  Washington, DC (27 October 2009) – The Senate version of America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009 may transform the nation’s largest abortion chain into a quasi-government entity for sex education. Section 1803, page 503, creates a National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Resource Center and states: The Secretary shall award a grant to a nationally recognized, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that meets the requirements described in clause (ii) to establish and operate a national teen pregnancy prevention resource center (in this subparagraph referred to as the ‘Resource Center’) to carry out the purpose...

Here is audio of Barack Obama as a candidate in 2007 where he said flatly "we are not going to pass universal health care with a fifty plus one strategy." Obama said "you can't govern" if you go about things in that way. But now, of course, the Democrats are contemplating the use of just such a "Nuclear Option" to ram ObamaCare through. . . . (AUDIO)

Please use the number 202-224-3121 to call the key Democratic senators and urge a no vote when Harry Reid attempts to bring Obamacare to the Senate floor next week or the week thereafter.  The idea that Reid, Chuck Schumer and Patrick Leahy are the architects of your health care for the rest of your life should be enough to move you to action.  It takes 60 votes to open debate.  Urge each office you call to tell their senator to vote "no" on the cloture motion to open debate. Start with Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, Senator Evan Bayh...

<p>After a weekend of intense consultations with fellow Democrats, Senate majority leader Harry Reid has decided he has the votes to get a health-reform bill with a public option to the Senate floor. "I believe we clearly will have the support of my caucus to move to this bill and start legislating," Reid declared at a news conference Monday afternoon.</p>

If recent reports are accurate, legislation being prepared in the U.S. Senate would cause nearly every healthy American under the age of 65 to become uninsured. Under current proposals, large employers would face a fine of up to $750 per employee if they didn’t offer health insurance. Since that is much less than employers currently spend on employee health insurance premiums, most businesses would choose to pay the fine and drop their group health insurance. Individuals who did not buy health insurance would face an initial fine of between $0 and $100. Since the biggest fine is much lower than...

Why Government Health Care Keeps Falling in the Polls The Wall Street Journal ^ | October 25, 2009 | Arthur C. Brooks Posted on Monday, October 26, 2009 5:39:23 AM by Puzzleman Regardless of how President Barack Obama's health-care agenda plays out in Congress, it has not been a success in public opinion. Opposition to ObamaCare has risen all year. --snip-- The health-care debate is part of a moral struggle currently being played out over the free enterprise system. It will be replayed in every major policy debate in the coming months, from financial regulatory reform to a cap-and-trade system...

The public option is back. Its Lazarus act is hailed as a sign of how rosy the health- care debate looks for Democrats. August is but a sepia-tinged memory. Passage of a sweeping bill is now considered a lock by the wisest Beltway pundits. And legislation may even include the most shining prize of all, the public option that liberals -- no matter what the talking points for public consumption -- consider a way station to the Valhalla of a government-controlled system. The flush on ObamaCare's cheeks, though, is not necessarily a sign of health. The return of the public...

As few as 4.7 per cent of women in England have been given the option of having their child at hospital, in a birth centre or at home, according to the National Childbirth Trust. In April 2007 ministers guaranteed all pregnant women would be able to select the place of birth where they would feel most comfortable. The devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, all say that they aim to do the same but have not made any time-specific promises. Research shows that women who give birth away from hospital obstetric units are more likely to have a natural...

Fearmongering First Lady Pushes Nationalized Health Care (Video) Monday, October 26, 2009 Jim Hoft Michelle Obama made a video to push for the nationalized health care this weekend. The First Lady made sure to focus on the horrors facing women in the United States under the present private system: Via FOX Nation The fearmongering First Lady pulled out all the stops to push for the dem’s government controlled health care legislation: In some states, maternity care is not covered because pregnancy can be seen as a pre-existing condition. Its even legal in some states to deny a woman coverage because...

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka warned Senate Democratic leaders not to include a tax on high-cost healthcare plans in a bill that is expected to reach the floor in coming days. Trumka dismissed the notion that Democratic leaders could placate the powerful union by raising the threshold on plans that would be subject to the tax. Under the Senate Finance Committee’s bill, plans costing more than $8,000 for individuals and $21,000 for families would be hit with a 40-percent excise tax. “Working families struggling to pay for healthcare should not be required to pay even more in the form of a...

Just in from the Senate Majority Leader’s press shop: Washington, DC—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will hold a press conference this afternoon to give an update on the merger of Senate health insurance reform proposals. Today, Monday, October 26, 2009, at 3:15 p.m. Practically every report agrees that Reid will deliver a bill to the CBO today for scoring, and that it will include a public option with the potential for states to opt out.

WASHINGTON – In the health care debate, Democrats and their allies have gone after insurance companies as rapacious profiteers making "immoral" and "obscene" returns while "the bodies pile up." But in pillorying insurers over profits, the critics are on shaky ground. Ledgers tell a different reality. Health insurance profit margins typically run about 6 percent, give or take a point or two. That's anemic compared with other forms of insurance and a broad array of industries, even some beleaguered ones. Profits barely exceeded 2 percent of revenues in the latest annual measure. This partly explains why the credit ratings of...