Free Republic

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid recently made clear what conservatives have long suspected: that he and other Democrats, including the president and key officials, see ObamaCare as a stepping stone to single payer, government-controlled health care. Reid told a television interviewer, "Don't think we didn't have a tremendous number of people who wanted single payer system." But, he added, it didn't happen because "you know, we have to get the majority of the votes and we weren't able to do that." A single payer system would involve the government paying for all health care costs and abolishing the private insurance...

Five years after Gov. Mitt Romney signed Massachusetts’ groundbreaking health care legislation, it has met its chief goal of extending insurance coverage to most residents — but with costs rising faster than inflation, lawmakers face the challenge of how to pay for it all. Although the law has extended coverage, it has done little to fundamentally change the way consumers shop for health care, which analysts say is the only lasting solution to ballooning costs. Massachusetts’ uninsured rate plunged to the lowest in the nation, from 6.4 percent to 1.9 percent, after the law was enacted in 2006. The rest...

TALLAHASSEE — Movies and TV shows with gay characters could be ineligible for a "family-friendly" tax credit in Florida under a little-noticed provision tucked into a $75 million incentive package that Republican House leaders hope will attract film and entertainment jobs to the state. The bill would prohibit productions with "nontraditional family values" from receiving a so-called family-friendly tax credit. But it doesn't define what "nontraditional family values" are, something the bill's sponsor had a hard time doing, too. "Think of it as like Mayberry," state Rep. Stephen Precourt, R-Orlando, said, referring to The Andy Griffith Show. "That's when I...

WASHINGTON – They may not like it, but many House liberals look ready to accept a compromise health care bill, putting Democratic leaders well on the way to delivering on President Barack Obama's call for overhaul. After claiming for months they couldn't vote for a bill without the strongest possible government-run insurance option, liberals are putting aside their disappointment over the weaker version in the legislation for a historic chance to remake America's medical system. "The current language is far weaker than what I would have preferred, and I think that is also true of the Progressive Caucus," Rep. Emanuel...

More Honest Debate What is a Cooperative (Co-Op)? A Cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit. A cooperative may also be defined as a business owned and controlled equally by the people who use its services or who work at it.There are many types of Co-Ops in the United States. I will attempt to address some of the most common cooperatives. If you belong to a credit union, you are already a member of a Co-Op. My electric and natural gas utility company is an EMC, another word for Co-Op....

Dr. Lawrence Hunter of the Social Security Institute has a ringside seat of what is really happening in the ObamaCare negotiations and it is not anything like any of us would expect. Serious pressure is building and the momentum is on our side. However, without the knowledge of what is actually happening behind the scenes, the grave we are digging for ObamaCare could actually become our own graves. Our collective effort could all be for naught if we allow the construction of any scaffolding for a public option. Liberals are very patient about realizing their agenda. They will build upon...

Today is the first edition of my blog Tremoglie's Tea Time. Here is the first post: All feedback - good or bad - is welcome.

Washington DC, June 25, 2009, Today, The Social Security Institute (SSI) announces the launch of the National ObamaCare Opt Out (NOOO!) Registry a patient-centered movement designed to allow individuals to demand that Congress not force them to join a national healthcare system, nor to purchase healthcare coverage against their will. This online platform, located at http://www.patientoptout.com, is modeled after the National Do Not Call Registry, and will allow individuals to sign up on the National ObamaCare Opt Out Registry.

If the presidential candidates don't convince you tonight that our system for financing health care is broken, consider two local incidents that happened Friday. Osteopathic Medical Center of Texas announced that it was shutting down after 58 years, primarily because it couldn't win decent-paying contracts from health insurers. Then Albertsons, a leading grocer, said it will shift thousands of full-time employees to part-time status, because, among other reasons, health insurance has become too expensive. What's wrong with this picture? On the same day, one longtime business says it can't get enough health care money to stay afloat, while another has...