The Democrats' Plan

It is bitterly funny to recall how - only a year ago - the left shrieked hysterically about the preciousness of freedom and liberty and the alleged assault on those principles by George W. Bush. My, how perceptions radially shift with the reins of power. While we still retain the freedom to protest and demonstrate for the time being, our voices may as well be mute as it is clear that our public servants cannot or will not hear them.

In blatant and arrogant defiance of the will of the people, the House of Representatives not only is ignoring the citizens, but is also brow-beating its own members who are reluctant to vote for the health care fiasco touted by the Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Scheduled for a vote today, the measure may be pushed back a day or two because the leadership is having difficulty securing the requisite 218 votes for passage. This is somewhat good news in an atmosphere of doom since the longer it takes for a vote, the more scrutiny the bill receives.

Even as the opposition points out the obvious flaws in the bill, quoting from the very language of the document, the Democrats flatly deny its nefarious intent. Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) has posted a letter online from the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) in response to his request for confirmation of the penalty for non-compliance with the provisions of H.R. 3962. The bill clearly states that individuals who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and do not pay the required penalty face fines of up to $250,000 and five years in prison.

Some frightening excerpts from the JCT letter:

“H.R. 3962 provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax.” [page 1]

“If the government determines that the taxpayer’s unpaid tax liability results from willful behavior, the following penalties could apply…” [page 2]

“Criminal penalties

Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses. Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:

• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.

• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]

The key players in this mess, Obama, Pelosi and Reid keep repeating the talking point "choice and competition". Well, here is your choice if this monstrosity gets passed; You can forfeit a minimum of $15,000 per year for government healthcare, you can pay 2.5% of your income for the new individual mandate tax if you don't buy coverage, or you can pay $250,000 in fines and rot in a cell for five years.

So where does the "competition" come in, you ask? My best guess is whether the government charges you for its compassion or they offer it for free to you, prisoner number 54961A.

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Withering On The Vine

Any politically savvy reader will no doubt recall the instant notoriety bestowed upon Newt Gingrich for hoping that "Medicare would wither on the vine". Oh, how he hated old, sick people. The evil SOB. The problem is however, that it was all a cunning and effective lie propagated by Big Labor over a decade ago.

In 1995, then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich delivered a speech to Blue Cross regarding health care and the Clinton's designs on it. During the campaign for Bill Clinton's reelection, the AFL-CIO ran a television ad designed to help Clinton's campaign by demonizing the Republicans, and Gingrich was the poster boy for the union giant. In the fall of 1996, the AFL-CIO ran the ad which began with a voice-over compassionately droning, "When you're older, and you're sick, Medicare is more than health care, it's peace of mind."

The ad immediately cuts to the Blue Cross speech by Gingrich, with a partial excerpt. "Now we don't get rid of it in round one because we think that's politically smart and we don't think that's the right way to go through a transition. But we believe it's going to wither on the vine." But Gingrich wasn't doing his best impersonation of the fabled greedy, mustachioed landlord, twisting his facial hair while giddily tossing mothers and hungry children out of their homes. Here's the full context of Newt's comment on Medicare:

"What do you think the health care financing administration is? It's a centralized command bureaucracy. It's everything we're telling Boris Yeltsin to get rid of. Now we don't get rid of it in round one because we don't think that's politically smart and we don't think that's the right way to go through a transition. But we believe it's going to wither on the vine because we think people are going to voluntarily leave it. Voluntarily."

It was a very effective ploy, as I know people who still despise Gingrich to this day because of that misrepresentation. The DNC took the approach a step further during George W. Bush's administration with cartoon commercials showing the President pushing old people in wheelchairs down a flight of stairs. Charming.

Current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today peeled the wrapping off of 1,990 pages of the same poison pill that Gingrich warned us of, and House Minority Leader John Boehner promptly referred to it as "1,990 pages of bureaucracy". CNN interviewed Congressman Mike Pence for the Republican reaction, and he was equally dismayed. See the video below.



Perhaps the reason for the Democrats' unveiling of this monstrosity being closed to the public - on the West side of the Capitol which is traditionally open to the public - is the direct result of this past summer's town hall meetings, when it was mostly Democrats on the receiving end of constituents' blistering outrage.

The only good news is that there will a period of roughly a week for House members to peruse this massive tome before a vote moves to the floor. I hope the Republicans along with moderate Democrats use this time wisely and develope a serious insurgency to put a stop to its passage. If not, it won't be Medicare withering on the vine. It will be American liberty.

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Prescription For America And State Run Media

On June 24th, ABC News will surrender its programming to the State and Obama, and I'll make a bet right now that no one will bat an eye. It will be sold as "business as usual", and we'll be told that posts such as this are merely the shrill protestations of right wing lunatics.

Charlie Gibson will broadcast WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House and the network will be airing a prime time special titled 'Prescription for America' from the East Room. No opposing viewpoints will be permitted, despite the fact that Republicans did request the opportunity. On top of all of this, according to an ABC News report, GOOD MORNING AMERICA, WORLD NEWS, NIGHTLINE and ABC’s web news will all feature special programming on the president’s health care agenda, followed by nine days of promotional programming on ABC hawking the president's attempt to socialize health care.

Speaking to the AMA yesterday, Obama said quite clearly that he didn't want to socialize health care, and pundits picked up that mantra and repeated it as sufficient to allay fears of socialization. But it must be remembered that Obama also made it abundantly clear that he didn't want to own car companies and banks, he would eliminate pork barrel spending - especially in the case of the stimulus bill - and that his would be a "transparent" administration.

Now he owns the car companies and banks, the stimulus bill contained more that 8000 earmarks, and his administration is about as transparent as a slab of concrete. So when he says he doesn't want to socialize health care, brace for all-out socialization. And don't expect that transparency anytime soon, as the administration has refused requests from MSNBC and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) for White House visitor logs.

CREW will file a lawsuit today against the Department of Homeland Security that accuses Obama of "following the same anti-transparency policy as the Bush administration when it comes to White House visitor records. Refusing to let the public know who visits the White House is not the action of a pro-transparency, pro-accountability administration."

Meanwhile, don't count on hearing about these things from State-run ABC.

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Rush For President

No, it's not about Rush Limbaugh running for the position of Commander in Chief, sorry.

All throughout his long and extremely expensive campaign for president, Barack Obama promised - and people believed - that he would run the country with complete transparency and measured pace. He vowed that bills sent to him from lawmakers would be posted online at the White House website for review and comment by the people before making a decision on whether or not to sign them. Well, just as he's done with the countries finances, you can take his previous promises and throw them out the window.

Assisted by his congressional accomplices, the president's agenda and plans are being created and implemented at dizzying speed. In the decision to spend roughly $850 billion dollars on the stimulus bill, both houses of congress rushed the bill through without having read its voluminous 1,588 pages. Obama wasted no time in signing it on the Tuesday he returned from his Presidents Day and Valentines Day holiday weekend. (He has since admitted that much of the money, particularly in the case of GM, has been wasted).

When David Souter announced his intention to retire from the Supreme Court, Obama swung into action and nominated Sonia Sotomayor in great haste. He now wants her to be confirmed in the senate by August. Perhaps he's just a product of modern society, which wants everything and wants it now; the generation of instant gratification.

Now he is urging congress to act as quickly as possible to deliver health care legislation so he can sign into law socialized medicine. Yes, I call it socialized medicine but if anyone prefers, it can also be termed universal health care, much to the chagrin of its proponents, who insist on calling it "health insurance for all". Obviously eager to emulate Canada and Europe, Obama is adamant about expediency, saying, "If we don't get it done this year, we're not going to get it done."

Using economic fear tactics, Obama is tying health care to virtually every financial malady afflicting the country. One can only speculate on what may be the rush. Perhaps it's a desire on the president's part to accomplish that which the Clinton's could not. The only thing that matters, however, is that if Obama succeeds in achieving socialized medicine it will be a disaster for the country and like Rush Limbaugh, I want Obama to fail in this regard.

He's clearly misunderstood the nature of his victory in November. Unaware of the euphoric giddiness of the electorate at the mere prospect of finally electing a black man to president as the prime motivation for his election, he instead mistakenly believes that his campaign promises won the day. To quote him: "This is our big chance to prove that the movement that you started during the campaign isn't over, we're just getting started."

"If we don't get it done this year, we're not going to get it done." That should be all the encouragement congressional Republicans need to do everything in their power to ensure it does not happen this year and pray that Obama is right in his assessment of the time frame.

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Losing My Fear Of Sharks

I used to marvel at the conditions that would cause people to flee a country through shark infested waters on make-shift rafts, but now I am developing a keen understanding for such motivation, courtesy of the democrats in control of everything and also the Obama administration. It has become increasingly evident that the cabal currently in charge has taken its temporary electoral victory to mean that we the people are eager for the type of "care" it intends to inflict upon us. And they are preparing to dole out a heaping helping of it.

Determined to implement socialized medicine - cloaked as the more palatable "health care for all" - our government is preparing to tax everything they can possibly imagine in order to fund the program. If the "Tea Party" endorsers thought they had a just cause before, there are much more draconian measures on the horizon at which to tilt, and the "parties" will no doubt become more frequent and much larger. My hope is that they become proportionately more effective, too.

On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee began exploring new tax targets and reexamining some old favorites for enhanced taxation, all for the purpose of paying for the reform they envision regarding the health of the citizenry. While their motivation is ostensibly for the benefit of the commonwealth, I maintain that it is for nothing more than suffocating control of the people.

Cigarettes are being considered for yet another two dollar per pack tax, and alcohol is also in the cross hairs. Big Brother is paving the way for controlling peoples behavior. But that's not enough. The prospect of taxing company health benefits is once again rearing its ugly head in the hallowed halls of congress, possibly removing the pre-tax status of employee deductions. Additionally, congress is eyeing health savings accounts - or "flex spending" accounts - for taxation, complaining that the accounts encourage “excess consumption” of health services. Common sense would dictate that if a person's own funds - wisely set aside to cover the cost of health care - encourage "excess consumption", then the erroneous perception by people that their coverage is "free" will cause even more of a run on services.

The difference is, however, that the democrat, would-be perpetrators of Universal Health Care know that they can't ration services for people who pay or have private coverage. This is why they seek to control that aspect of our lives.

Between the government takeover of corporations, the hiring binge currently under way by the feds, and the specter of having my behavior regulated by the State, I'm beginning to feel that the president's name should be Fidel. I am not ready to live in Cuba or anything like it. When Obama succeeds in "levelling the playing field" by creating equal misery for all, the only benefit is the prospect that I will not have to run uphill toward the shore, where my raft will be waiting. Sharks seem suddenly less frightening, and my understanding of the motivation is complete.

I wonder how long it will take to drift to Australia?

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Is Stress Taxing Your Health

Talk about a snowball effect. Stress is one of the things that causes many health-related problems in people and there is an abundance of it these days, what with the economy running downhill like a spring melt in the Rockies and the democrats using a flame thrower on the snow at the summit. Many people are thankful for the health benefits their employers provide, albeit at a still-substantial cost to the individual. Now, however, the Obama administration and congress are preparing to heap more stress on the people in the form of taxation, once again. Yes, change is in the air.

Despite his campaign rhetoric last fall, Obama is now signaling that he will be "receptive" to a plan being prepared by congress to begin taxing employer-provided health care benefits as income. The first thing that comes to mind, at least to me, is that this is a precursor to socialized medicine or, for the more politically correct thinker, "universal health care". It is a way to smoothly transition the American people into the mindset that government is now providing your health care plans through taxation. Once everyone settles in and gets used to the notion, government can formally seize the reins and we'll be socialized once and for all.

There is a side note to this possibility, however. When John McCain floated this idea during the presidential campaign, the Obama camp trounced it soundly. Obama called McCain's idea “the largest middle-class tax increase in history.” And we all know that Obama is going to cut taxes for ninety-five percent of all working Americans, right? As we're now learning, that was simply the sales pitch for the magic elixir, that which was designed to land Obama in the White House. Mission accomplished, but now we know what snake oil tastes like and that is has none of the benefits and all of the side effects.

It is peculiar how all of the broken campaign promises from this young neophyte - and in such a truncated time frame - have gone all but unnoticed by the press that were once such vociferous watchdogs for the country. Whether they share the same ideology as the president - something which seems a rhetorical point - or not, one would at least expect them to do their jobs and point out the obvious. Whether well meaning or not, a lie is still a lie, a broken promise just that.

Without a strong voice of opposition from that other party in congress, we may as well resign ourselves to the fact that stress will increase and continue to tax our health. Now Government is going to tax it as well.

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