Free Republic

Pres. Barack Obama promised Americans “health-care reform.” So far, “health-care form” is more like it. Obamacare is devolving into the Paper Industry Salvation Act of 2010. This new law spans 2,562 tree-killing pages. Far worse, it will force Americans to spend countless irritating hours completing, transmitting, and filing endless reams of federal paperwork. The scariest news for America’s forests may be a brand-new mandate that will compel each business — from General Electric to the neighborhood handyman — to file an IRS Form 1099 for every business on which it spends at least $600. Form 1099 today applies only to...

A few weeks ago Moody’s Investors Service, the credit rating agency, issued a warning about the US economy that was largely ignored by the mass media. Moody’s said that unprecedented financial conditions in the US might cause rating agencies to lower the country’s credit score from its current AAA status, which it has maintained for decades, to a level much less conducive to easy borrowing. Such a change would have a devastating effect on every American’s pocket book. Quite simply, a the Triple-A rating enables a country to borrow money at the lowest possible interest rates. The more secure a...

Deere Says New Health Care Reform Law Will Increase 2010 Expense By $150 Million After-Tax MOLINE, Illinois (March 25, 2010) — Deere & Company announced today that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed into law this week will adversely impact its expenses for fiscal 2010. As a result of the legislation, the company's expenses are expected to be about $150 million higher on an after-tax basis, primarily in the second quarter. This impact was not included in the 2010 outlook for net income attributable to Deere & Company of approximately $1.3 billion disclosed in the company's first-quarter earnings...

If you thought the health care bill was just about, well, health care, guess again! It's about income redistribution as much as anything: For all the political and economic uncertainties about health reform, at least one thing seems clear: The bill that President Obama signed on Tuesday is the federal government’s biggest attack on economic inequality since inequality began rising more than three decades ago. Over most of that period, government policy and market forces have been moving in the same direction, both increasing inequality. The pretax incomes of the wealthy have soared since the late 1970s, while their tax...

This is a government unlike anything those of us who have been around a long time and have long memories has ever seen. You may recall that when the Bush administration tried to foist yet another amnesty for illegal aliens, Americans came out in full force to ultimately defeat the bill. When Bush tried to pass legislation to reform Social Security he threw in the towel when it became evident that no one wanted it. Not so today. Despite the polls that demonstrate that the vast majority of Americans are opposed to Obamacare and despite the protests taking place in...

High-income families would be hit with a tax increase on wages and a new levy on investments under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul bill. For the first time, the Medicare payroll tax would be applied to investment income, beginning in 2013. A new 3.8 percent tax would be imposed on interest, dividends, capital gains and other investment income for individuals making more than $200,000 a year and couples making more than $250,000. The bill also would increase the Medicare payroll tax by 0.9 percentage point to 2.35 percent on wages above $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for married couples...

know you're not going to listen to me. I'm going to say it anyway, because as a concerned citizen of The United States of America, I must. You are making a grave, perhaps nation-ending mistake. Attempting to "deem" the Health Care bill passed when it has not actually been voted on is not Constitutional. Article 1, Section 7: There are millions of Americans who are extraordinarily pissed off right now. Some of them, like me, write scathing columns on The Internet or we rant on Talk Radio and Television (such as Judge Napolitano) But some just smolder. Some remember the...

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During the ObamaCare summit three weeks ago, Nancy Pelosi declared that the bill would create four million jobs over the next ten years, with 400,000 new jobs created almost immediately. Pelosi relied on a study written by the left-wing advocacy group Center for American Progress for those figures, although the Bureau of Labor Statistics already predicts growth in the health-care industry of 3.2 million jobs without ObamaCare. Now, Americans for Tax Reform and the Beacon Hill Institute have conducted their own study using CAP’s methodology and determined that ObamaCare will destroy jobs, not create them. Hot Air has an exclusive...

STRONGSVILLE, Ohio (AP) - With a fresh sense of urgency, President Barack Obama sought to reassure seniors Monday about health care legislation approaching a final vote in Congress, pledging it would make preventive care cost-free and close a gap in Medicare prescription drug coverage. "This proposal adds almost a decade of solvency to Medicare," Obama said in a visit to a senior center. Obama's trip to Ohio marked his third out-of-town foray as he tries to build support for long-stalled legislation to remake the health care system.

To provide for reconciliation pursuant to section 202 of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2010. 2300+ pages and includes student loans. Happy reading...

The official title is the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act,” popularly known as “Obamacare,” passed by the Senate in the wee-hours of Christmas Eve. This 2400-page monstrosity does what no enemy of America has ever been able to do: transform the land of the free into the home of the enslaved. [...] When government is paying for health care, government dictates the quantity, quality and price of the care. The costs that are not extracted as premiums or co-pay will be extracted as increased taxes. When government is paying for health care, there are no choices, there are no...

Admittedly, I approached this article with a mixture of fear and anger. Setting aside these feelings and, valiantly I may add, resisting the urge to break something, I read. It was not until approximately 1/2 complete, that the actual story was revealed: "Exactly how Americans define "socialism" or what exactly they think of when they hear the word is not known" It occurs to me, that this statement encapsulates much of what I believe to be a the failings and ills of society today. Gone are the days, if they once existed, of opinions rooted in fact and study. Regardless...

Health care regulation is the worst form of tax, as it confiscates wealth and prevents effective drugs and treatments—that save lives and comfort terminal patients—from entering the market. Regulation isolates competition, limits market activity, and politicizes industries, all of which afflict consumerism and restrict individual liberty. Regulation confines industry and accepts the status quo, by constraining production and discouraging innovation and development. Regulation weakens economies and corrupts society, and for American health care, it has disparaged industrial progress and escalated costs to unprecedented levels. Christopher Conover of Duke University noted the social costs of regulation across 47 health care categories....

It's all supposed to be voluntary, those "home visits" that are tucked into the mammoth Obamacare bill. If you have a strong stomach, and a stronger bottom, you can find home visitation on pages 568-595. That's Section 2951 of H.R. 3590, the Senate bill that Harry Reid brought down the chimney on Christmas Eve. All voluntary, they say, but once you "volunteer" to have the oh-so-helpful folks from Social Services come in to help with your newborns, or with a number of other specified issues, will you ever be able to get rid of them? The bill provides for federal...

By Irwin Kellner, MarketWatch PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. (MarketWatch) -- The fledgling economic recovery appears to be running out of gas. The fuel for this or any other recovery has to come from the consumer. Purchases of goods and services by people like you and me account for about 70% of gross domestic product, so without our help a recovery could not last too long. Guess what? This is exactly what seems to be happening. Retailers report that, for the most part, shoppers are few and far between. The recent run of economic data is most compelling. Just about all of...

Krauthammer blasts Obama on Special Report: "look I'm not disillusioned in Obama because I was never illusioned, and those who believed you know, 'yes we can' means yes I can do anything I damn well please if I have the one vote majority" (Video)

Communist writer Jed Brandt thinks trouble is brewing in America and hopes to use this turmoil to overthrow the American system, Glenn Beck said on his TV program. He played video of this dangerous kook urging the destruction of the United States: We have to help bring this government down, we have to help destroy this system and that requires increasing the alienation that working class and oppressed people feel. The way change is going to happen in this country is through the destruction of what we call the United States of America. I’m opposed to white supremacy not because...

White House officials tell ABC News that in his remarks tomorrow President Obama will indicate a willingness to work with Republicans on some issue to get a health care reform bill passed but will say that if it is necessary, Democrats will use the controversial reconciliation rules requiring only 51 Senate votes to pass the "fix" to the Senate bill. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been awaiting the president’s remarks direction on how health care reform will proceed. In his remarks, scheduled to be at the White House, the president will paint a picture of what he will say will...

Obama Threatens to Advance Health Care Reform Without GOP Support WASHINGTON - President Obama ended Thursday's daylong White House summit with a bang, threatening to pass health care reform without Republican support if a bipartisan agreement remained out of reach. President Barack Obama gestures at the Blair House in Washington, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010, as he renewed his efforts for health care reform while meeting with Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders. (AP) WASHINGTON - President Obama ended Thursday's daylong White House summit with a bang, threatening to push for passage of health care reform without Republican support if a bipartisan...