Free Republic

Hoyer Says Constitution’s ‘General Welfare’ Clause Empowers Congress to Order Americans to Buy Health Insurance Wednesday, October 21, 2009 By Matt Cover (CNSNews.com) – House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said that the individual health insurance mandates included in every health reform bill, which require Americans to have insurance, were “like paying taxes.” He added that Congress has “broad authority” to force Americans to purchase other things as well, so long as it was trying to promote “the general welfare.” The Congressional Budget Office, however, has stated in the past that a mandate forcing Americans to buy health insurance would...

Get in shape or pay a price. That's a message more Americans could hear if the health care reform bills passed by the Senate Finance and Health committees become law. By more than doubling the maximum rewards and penalties that companies can apply to employees who flunk medical evaluations, the bills could put workers under intense financial pressure to lose weight, stop smoking or even lower their cholesterol.

*Per Live Interview with Mike Tuffin of American Health Insurance Plans: *Regarding "Humana letter" sent out to Seniors (in regards to Obama Health Care proposed policy). *Insurance Companys have been told by the White House to withdraw letter to Seniors. *WH: "STOP SCARING SENIORS" *Mike Tuffin: "Infrigement on Freedom of Speech."

From: Blum, Joanne S. Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 5:00 PM Subject: HELP NEEDED - To Protect State Revenues A Threat to Our Communities A small group of individuals are threatening to jeopardize Massachusetts working families by seeking to qualify a number of initiative petitions. One these would reduce the sales tax which would cut state revenues by approximately $2.5 billion. This would result in cuts in our communities to education, health care, public safety and other programs that we all depend on every day. If you see or have seen any petitioners carrying this or other petitions in your...

President Obama appeared on television yesterday 5 times and it is interesting that very little, if any news, came out of any of them. The guy is worse than a broken record. At least there, we can take the needle off the disc and make it stop. We are not so lucky with Obama. There's nothing we can do but turn off the TV when he repeats the same things over and over again about health care reform the same things he has been saying for months. Every speech, every townhall, every interview he makes the same points, tells the...

Health bill says 'tax' when President Obama said 'not' By: Chris Frates and Mike Allen September 21, 2009 09:06 AM EST In the most contentious exchange of President Barack Obama’s marathon of five Sunday shows, he said it is “not true” that a requirement for individuals to get health insurance under a key reform plan now being debated amounts to a tax increase. But he could look it up — in the bill. Page 29, sentence one of the bill introduced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont) says: “The consequence for not maintaining insurance would be an excise...

On a Sunday show, the President offers a revealing definition. President Obama didn't make much news on his round of five Sunday talk shows yesterday, with one notable exception. The President revealed a great deal about his philosophy of government and how he defines a tax increase. It turns out the President thinks a health-care tax is not a tax if he thinks the tax is for your own good.

President Barack Obama is poised to abandon attempts to broker bipartisan health care reform and instead push through proposals using only the votes of Democrats. White House officials said they had been forced to take the step by Republicans amid an increasingly bitter debate over the plans. The Obama administration appears set on taking the politically dangerous route of painting Republicans as health care obstructionists despite polling showing widespread concern among Americans. Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, told The New York Times that the Republican leadership "has made a strategic decision that defeating President Obama's health care...

The goal of the Democrats' plan for health-care reform is coming more and more out into the open: they want to eliminate health insurance. This has turned out to be the most passionate source of public opposition to the Obama health-care bill. People are terrified that they will be deprived of any choice or any control over their own health care if their only option is to depend on the... --snip-- Do the Democrats even understand what insurance is? Over at Mother Jones, Kevin Drum muses that "Health insurance is a weird industry…. They don't do research, they don't perform...

Vocal crowd turns out for health care forum Wednesday, August 05, 2009 By NATALIE HOFFMAN Register Staff Writer A packed Napa church hosted a boisterous meeting Monday night regarding health care reform. The meeting drew some 500 people to listen to — and occasionally shout at — a panel of speakers that included Rep. Mike Thompson, D- St. Helena. The audience at First United Methodist Church demonstrated varying policy viewpoints. Some asked mild questions, others pointed ones, and still others burst into verbal attacks at panel members. Shouts of “This is America!” and “What’s wrong with profit?” emerged from a...

THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG "The world we leave our children" SNIPPET: "And some took heart in what the First Lady assured them would be "a new day" at the EPA."

Many say that now that Barack Obama has been elected, we should all work together for the common good. That sounds wonderful until you realize that we don't all agree on what is the common good. Notice I don't take the position that Republicans should refuse to cooperate with Mr. Obama because Democrats have been indescribably partisan, cruel and unfair to President Bush for the past eight years. Those are certainly grounds to call them hypocrites, but we must always put the best interests of the nation above petty partisanship -- obviously. So we must ask: Would it be in...

A NEW weapon in the battle against obesity was rolled out last month when the Los Angeles City Council decided to stop new fast food restaurants from opening in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. Even in a country where a third of the schoolchildren are overweight or obese, the yearlong moratorium raises questions about when eating one style of food stops being a personal choice and becomes a public health concern. The Sisyphean struggle against poor diets has included booting soda from schools, banning trans fat and, more recently, sending New Yorkers into dietary sticker shock with a law...