Half of All States Now Suing to Stop Obamacar

Heritage.org ^ | 1/12/11 | Conn Carroll

[Paleo Conservative]

[sasportas]

Does anybody know who the “half” are? Virginia, Florida, Arizona (I think), Missouri, are the only ones that come to mind. To my mind, at least.

[AFreeBird]

Wow! Un frick’n believable!

[gonzo]

What if I told you that the Chairman and CEO of IBM, Samuel J. Palmisano, approached President Obama and members of his administration before the healthcare bill debates with a plan that would reduce healthcare expenditures by $900 billion?

Given the Obama Administration’s adamancy that the United States of America simply had to make healthcare (read: health insurance) affordable for even the most dedicated welfare recipient, one would think he would have leaned forward in his chair, cupped his ear and said, “Tell me more!”

And what if I told you that the cost to the federal government for this program was nothing, zip, nada, zilch?

And, what if I told you that, in the end and after two meetings, President Obama and his team, instead of embracing a program that was proven to save money and one that was projected to save almost one trillion dollars – a private sector program costing the taxpayers nothing, zip, nada, zilch – said, “Thanks but no thanks” and then embarked on passing one of the most despised pieces of legislation in US history?

Well, it’s all true. Samuel J. Palmisano, the Chairman of the Board and CEO for IBM, said in a recent Wall Street Journalinterview that he offered to provide the Obama Administration with a program that would curb healthcare claims fraud and abuse by almost one trillion dollars but the Obama White House turned the offer down.

Mr. Palmisano is quoted as saying during a taping of The Wall Street Journal's Viewpoints program on September 14, 2010: "We could have improved the quality and reduced the cost of the healthcare system by $900 billion...I said we would do it for free to prove that it works. They turned us down."

A second meeting between Mr. Palmisano and the Obama Administration took place two weeks later, with no change in the Obama Administration's stance. A call placed to IBM on October 8, 2010, by FOX News confirmed, via a spokesperson, that Mr. Palmisano stands by his statement.

Speaking with FOX News' Stuart Varney, Mort Zuckerman, Editor-in-Chief of US News & World Report, said, "It's a little bit puzzling because I think there is a huge amount of both fraud and inefficiency that American business is a lot more comfortable with and more effective in trying to reduce.

And this is certainly true because the IBM people have studied this very carefully. And when Palmisano went to the White House and made that proposal, it was based upon a lot of work and it was not accepted.

And it's really puzzling...These are very, very responsible people. They don't have a political ax to grind. They are very familiar with the subject; they understand exactly what the issues are."

Given the fact that Mr. Obama’s own Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services actuary debunked the claim that health insurance costs would diminish over the next decade and given that the budget deficits for 2010 and 2011 are in the $1.2 trillion–$1.4 trillion ballpark, the question begs to be asked: Why would Mr. Obama balk at a sure-thing savings of almost $1 trillion?

Cost projections prepared by economists at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), revealed the nation's healthcare spending, as a share of the economy, will be 0.3 percentage points higher in 2019 than estimated before the law was passed. That CMS report, published September 9, 2010, in the journal Health Affairs, also revealed healthcare spending will grow by an average of 6.3 percent each year over the next decade, whereas pre-reform projections pegged annual growth at 6.1 percent.

CMS actuaries also say that Medicare cuts mandated by the law are unrealistic and unsustainable. An April 22, 2010, CMS report about the financial and coverage effects of selected provisions of the new law estimates that about 15 percent of hospitals and other healthcare providers could lose money treating Medicare beneficiaries as a result of the proposed cuts. And the Congressional Budget Office is projecting that the deficit for the 2010 budget year, which ended Sept. 30, will total $1.29 trillion.

The Obama administration has projected that the deficit for the 2011 budget year, which began on Oct. 1, will climb to $1.4 trillion and that over the next decade, it will total $8.47 trillion.

So, again, I ask you, with the main issue being the economy, including the audacious spending habits of elected officials in Washington DC, why would Mr. Obama and his team balk at facilitating not only the saving of almost $1 trillion in healthcare expenditures, but the opportunity to affect an issue victory in the 2010 midterm election cycle? Mr. Zuckerman concluded, "When you are in a situation where this country is facing a huge deficit and where anybody who knows anything at all about the healthcare system knows how much waste, fraud and abuse is involved in that system...not to take this offer up, frankly, does not make sense."

Mr. Zuckerman is correct, but only to a point. It doesn’t make sense if Mr. Obama is trying to reduce waste and fraud, and make health insurance affordable for all Americans. It does make sense if those were never the goals in the first place.

As I wrote in an article titled, Cloward, Piven & Obamacare, “...the goal of the Progressives is to crash the system; to overwhelm the system to such an extent that it fails. It is at this moment of failure that Progressives believe they can enter the situation as the “knight in shining armor.”

It is at this particular moment of vulnerability that Progressives believe the American public will acquiesce to the false choice of “something is better than nothing”; to a government-run universal healthcare plan to rescue the devastated American healthcare system, a system Progressives themselves threw into chaos, courtesy of their ridiculous health insurance reform law.

“As an aside, keeping this plan in mind, it makes perfect sense that Progressives and Liberal Democrats wouldn’t waste their time reading the massive health insurance reform bill. They never intended for it to be around long enough for it to matter.”

It is one thing to be – as a good many elected officials in Washington DC are – arrogant, self-absorbed spendthrifts, so detached from the actualities of what Americans require and want from their government.

It is quite another to willfully abuse the system – and the American people – in an attempt to bring about an ideological “change” – a “fundamental transformation” – of the very system of government that has made the United States the most prosperous nation in the history of the Western Civilization and the last best hope for freedom and liberty for all in the world.

In Mr. Obama’s shunning of a private sector program that would have saved our country almost $1 trillion in healthcare expenditures, presented to him as he declared a “crisis in healthcare,” he proves two things beyond any doubt: that he is anti-Capitalist and anti-private sector in nature and that he can no longer be trusted to tell the truth in both his political declarations or espoused goals.

.

Paragraphs are our friend .................................... FRegards

[FARS]

MUST READ - in case you missed this

http://noiri.blogspot.com/2011/01/obama-originally-disqualified-by-hawaii.html

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks FARS. Tenth Amendment ping.

[Texas Fossil]

http://noiri.blogspot.com/2011/01/obama-originally-disqualified-by-hawaii.ht

Yes, I had missed it. Thanks for the link.

All I can say is that article is an amazing bit of detective work. Very credible. The "devil" is truly in the details.

[bigheadfred]

Does anybody know who the “half” are?

25 regular states.

3 1/2 for the STATE OF INSANITY.

[TheOldLady]

Thank you! I read the wall, and your paragraphs will make it easier for everyone to read this information.

Not that the motives are anything we haven’t already figured out from congress’s and <zer0’s behavior and attitude.

[GailA]

How ObamaCare Guts Medicare
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703649004575437311393854940.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

Health law’s heavy impact by Paul Guppy (Taxes)
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/mar/28/health-laws-heavy-impact/

Obama murdered Medicare
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/oct/15/obama-murdered-medicare/?ref=nf

Monthly premiums to rise for 7 of top 10 Medicare prescription plans in 2011
http://www.startribune.com/business/103642009.html?elr=KArks:DCiU1OiP:DiiUiacyKUnciatkEP7DhUr

Lies, Damn Lies and the ObamaCare Sales Pitch (WSJ)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704300604575554273700857644.html

Social Security: No 2011 increase expected (COLA)
http://money.cnn.com/2010/10/05/news/economy/Social_Security_cost_of_living_adjustment/index.htm

No Social Security COLA Expected For 2011 News Expected To Be Bad For Democrats
http://www.kptv.com/politics/25344443/detail.html

They forgot to add this to the “Rest of the Story”
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/jan/22/chain-email/chain-e-mail-says-congress-raised-own-salaries-whi/

Dr. Milton Wolf: Obamacare’s Unkeepable Promises Utopian vision was a fraud from the beginning (BTW Dr. Wolf is Obama’s Cousin!)

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/oct/21/we-are-witnessing-the-unmistakable-collapse-of-an-/

Obama’s physician cousin angrily denounces health care reform
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/03/obamas_physician_cousin_angril.html

Writing in the Washington Times, Barack’s cousin, Dr Milton R Wolf, a physician, blasts this legislative attempt to take over health care:

Harvard Pilgrim cancels Medicare Advantage plan
http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2010/09/28/harvard_pilgrim_

Seniors’ coverage options dwindle as Medicare Advantage programs close shop
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-advantage_22bus.ART.State.Edition1.3c912a9.html

Survey in New England Journal of Medicine 46% of US Doctors Will Quit Obamacare Passes http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2798380/shocking_survey_in_new_england_journal.html?cat=75

ObamaCare has just made me Sicker!
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/bamcare_has_just_made_me_icker_c1dBRZ6M3yuH27rAVnLsvN

In the notice, EmblemHealth told Gowland, who is healthy, “The proposed rate increase includes two components: a basic increase on your type plan and an increase due to the cost of enhanced benefits required by the new federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.”

Mayo clinic stops taking Medicare patients
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=517004

Principal To Cut Jobs, End Med Insurance Business
http://www.kcci.com/money/25224059/detail.html

Obama: We knew health costs would go up
http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/118079-obama-we-knew-health-costs-would-go-up

President Barack Obama insisted he can overhaul the U.S. healthcare system without raising taxes for anyone but the wealthiest Americans

The New Federal Wedding Tax: How Obamacare Would Dramatically Penalize Marriage
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/01/The-New-Federal-Wedding-Tax-How-Obamacare-Would-Dramatically-Penalize-Marriage

1099: The Trojan Horse within Obamacare
http://palmettoinsider.com/2010/09/21/1099-the-trojan-horse-within-obamacare/

Repeal Obamacare: Small-Business Killer
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38496

Senate Expands IRS Form 1099 Reporting Requirement to Include All Rental Property Owner
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/75911

Paperwork nightmare: New 1099 mandate must be repealed
http://billingsgazette.com/news/opinion/guest/article_61e61666-bbc1-11df-b2c3-001cc4c002e0.html

Health care law’s massive, hidden tax change( 1099’s)
http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/05/smallbusiness/1099_health_care_tax_change/index.htm

Lost in Taxation, The IRS’s vast new ObamaCare powers.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704518904575365223062942574.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

ObamaCare’s Unseen Costs
http://reason.com/archives/2010/10/15/obamacares-unseen-costs/print

Bad Medicine: A Guide to the Real Costs and Consequences of the New Health Care Law
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11961

Report: Bill would reduce senior care Medicare cuts approved by House may affect access to providers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/14/AR2009111402597.html

Health Reform’s Hidden Victims Young people and seniors would pay a high price for ObamaCare.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203517304574306303720472842.html

Weighing Medical Costs of End-of-Life Care
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/23/health/23ucla.html?_r=1&ref=business&pagewanted=all

Slashing Medicare to pay for healthcare reform an ugly shell game Dr. Stuart M. Shapiro, July 27, 2009
http://www.mcknights.com/slashing-medicare-to-pay-for-healthcare-reform-an-ugly-shell-game/article/140656/

Obamacare Impact on Seniors
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Reports/2010/05/Obamacare-Impact-on-Seniors

The Senate Health Bill: Ordinary Americans Have Been Warned
http://blog.heritage.org/2010/03/17/the-senate-health-bill-ordinary-americans-have-been-warned/

Obama Names Rationing Czar to Run Medicare
by Terence P. Jeffrey 05/26/2010
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=37186

Under Obamacare, IRS Has Power to Penalize Americans Who Refuse to Buy Required Insurance
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2807832/under_obamacare_irs_has_power_to_penalize.html?cat=75

obamacare taxes on working families
http://www.atr.org/obamacares-taxes-working-families-a4745

Electronic Records to costly says doctors
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/08/health/policy/08health.html?fta=y

Obamacare Endgame: Doctors Will be Fined or Jailed if they Put Patients First

by Dr. Elaina George
http://biggovernment.com/egeorge/2010/10/30/obamacare-endgame-doctors-will-be-fined-or-jailed-if-they-put-patients-first/

700,000 Medicare Beneficiaries to be Displaced
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/700000-medicare-beneficiaries-be-displaced_518419.html

[potlatch]

That’s a very interesting article. We always suspected and it’s good to see more tidbits of information about it.

[FARS]

Excellent aggregation! Cross-posted on AntiMullah to reach an international audience.

[GailA]

Thanks FARS, the more it reaches the better. I put it together to send to my flaming lib cousin to show her how deathcare will harm her mom. She still doesn’t believe what she is reading, all right wing news...how can the WashCompost be a right ring news? Or Mother Jones a commie rag was squawking about 0 gutting Medicare but I can’t find it now.

[GailA]

Couldn’t find the original article but this one will do.

Harry Reid’s Medicare Mess

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2009/12/harry-reid-medicare-mess