Category Archives: Economy

Economy, Media, Politics, Supreme Court

An Alternative To Obamacare Already Exists

On the eve of the Supreme Court taking up the constitutionality of Obamacare, and a week after the CBO said that the cost of Obamacare is now estimated to be almost double what was promised, it is time to check the private-sector solution to reforming health care.

Introduced in the 111th Congress, where it died in the Democrat-controlled Senate, was a bill called H.R.3400, The Empowering Patients First Act.

It’s not that Americans would not like improvements in health delivery and health insurance in this country. It’s just that they did not ask for and do not want THIS solution.

The alternative exists that will deal with those ten percent of Americans that don’t have and for some reason do not want health insurance. It will do it without ruining the health insurance industry and the plans for the other 80 or 90 percent of Americans and their employers that are just fine with their current situation and the plans they have. The alternative is not a budget buster. Nor does it take your choice away or make your health care decisions for you. That alternative is H.R. 3400

The Empowering Patients First Act, or H.R. 3400, would allow:

  • Individuals to choose their health insurance (no mandates)
  • Deductibility of health insurance premiums regardless of who pays
  • Employers to give flexible health-insurance options to employees
  • Health insurance coverage for low-income families (300 percent of the federal poverty level)
  • Health insurance for high-risk individuals (pre-existing conditions)
  • Sale of health insurance across state lines
  • Expansion of Health Savings Accounts, or HSAs
  • Individual membership association health insurance plan
  • Association Health Insurance Plans
  • Medical liability limitations (Tort reform)

Unlike Democrat-care, the Republican alternative would not impose fines on workers or employers, require cuts in Medicare, increase taxes, require a new government bureaucracy, require a “government health insurance” option nor add $1 trillion or more to the national debt.

Pulled this out of the archives . . .

At the beginning of President Obama’s speech to the joint session of Congress on Sept. 9, 2009 a truism was spoken about “comprehensive” (that’s political-speak for government-controlled) health care.

President Obama said “A bill for comprehensive health reform was first introduced by John Dingell Sr. in 1943. Sixty-five years later, his son continues to introduce that same bill at the beginning of each session.”

The truism that seems to escape Democrats is that for 65 years, they continue to ignore the will of the people. That socialized medicine is one thing that Americans do not want, and it’s time to move on. If the president really believes what he is saying, then he ought to be confident enough to also say that if his plan does not increase the availability and quality of care and the debt, and does not decrease the cost, then he will scrap his version of health care reform before his term ends and enact H.R. 3400, the Republican alternative.

Regarding President Obama, you have a decision to make. Is he lying about their not being a Republican alternative, or is he that far out of touch that he doesn’t even know it exists? Which one works for you?

Besides, if you take the president at his word, it should be President Obama calling for its repeal. He said he would not sign a health care reform bill if it did not bring down costs or if it increased the debt. By any account, Obamacare has not lived up to what he promised. Do you still trust what President Obama says? It’s a rhetorical question.

The American people already answered that one. And it’s time for a change. H.R. 3400, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, ought to be the course of action to take where actual health care reform (as opposed to deform) is concerned. Whatever comes out of it, it ought to be something that the American people want, not what a bunch of idealogues high on government-run health care want. An idea that has been rejected routinely for 65 years.

 

Economy, Politics

What Snake-Oil Looks Like

Do you happen to remember when, back in September 2009, President Obama spoke before a joint session of Congress to sell his Government controlled health care plan, known now as the Affordable Health Care Act?

There was all kinds of opposition to Obamacare then, for the same reasons as exist today. Paramount among the opposition is the debt picture, it is going to cost more money that we don’t have.

In response to the no-more-debt objection, Barack Obama brings out the snake oil and says this . . . (29:15 in video)

I will not sign it if it adds one dime to the deficit, now or in the future, period. And to prove that I’m serious, there will be a provision in this plan that requires us to come forward with more spending cuts if the savings we promised don’t materialize.

“And to prove that I’m serious, there will be a provision . . .” If he was serious, that provision would have already been written.Which begs the question, now that we know that Obamacare will cost more, way more. What happened to that cost saving “provision?” Was that a lie too?

The first two minutes of this video is worth the price of admission. That’s why it’s here.

At 12:45 in the video is the Big Lie about keeping your doctor and your plan if you want to.

At 31:00 is where President Obama says “not a dollar” of Obamacare will come from Medicare. He says “I will protect Medicare.” (well, except for that $500* Billion cut) And all the other gems of promises made.

I know this video is from September 9, 2009. But when you see this performance today, you have the advantage of seeing the same smooth talker today as three years ago. And what’s good about that is that the American people can see that after three years of Obama’s economic policies, the economy is treading water at best.

*Update 9/3/2012: The total removed from Medicare now stands at $716 Billion. That’s up from $500 Billion.

Economy, Politics

Obamacare Lies Coming Home To Roost

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Anyone remember President Obama say in 2009, when he was pushing for the passage of his Affordable Health Care Act, that he would NOT sign a bill that would raise health care costs, premiums, and/or the national debt?  It was the same time he claimed to have “pulled this economy back from the brink.”

And here’s what you need to know.  First, I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits — either now or in the future.  (Applause.)  I will not sign it if it adds one dime to the deficit, now or in the future, period.  And to prove that I’m serious, there will be a provision in this plan that requires us to come forward with more spending cuts if the savings we promised don’t materialize. {emphasis added}

The pitch was that Obamacare was going to cost $940 billion over ten years.  The CBO this week revised the number to $1.4 trillion over nine years.  And when they factor a full ten years of spending in Obamacare, then the total cost will be over $2 trillion.

All of which means that you could expect President Obama to call for the repeal of Obamacare himself. That is, if he is not a lying Marxist.

Links: ‘Obamacare’ foes on way to capital | President Obama to Joint Session of Congress

Economy, Energy, Politics

What’s Pelosi’s Excuse Now?

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The last time gas prices were this high, then Speaker Pelosi put the blame on the “two oil men in The White House.” It is instructive to see how nothing on her part, or on the part of her political party has changed with respect to increasing our oil supply and capacity.

Pelosi said she would continue to oppose two policy changes that President Bush and congressional Republicans have been advocating: lifting the ban on offshore drilling and opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration. Video Watch Pelosi argue against more drilling »

Pelosi said she had no plans to allow votes to lift a ban on offshore drilling despite widespread support for the move.

You know we haven’t seen the peak of high gas prices yet, and they’re already at or above the 2008 levels. If you want a laugh at how ignorant this woman is on this subject, look at the video.

Every time you fill up your gas tank(s) at a record high price, remember all that Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi are doing to bring prices down. Nothing.

Link: ‘Two oil men’ to blame for high gas prices, Pelosi says

2012 Election, Economy, Politics, Race Relations

The Poor Tax – Energy, Food, Transportation

The tax hammer has long been the tool of the politician to micro-manage behavior. In order to insulate them of any real accountability, the bean counters in Washington institutionalized the big deception when they took energy and food out of the mix in measuring the cost of living in America. After all, who needs to eat or get anywhere? And while the Obama administration is fine with promoting class warfare, wealth envy, race divisiveness, and Obama’s latest distraction, gender warfare, the people he supposedly champions the most are the ones getting screwed by his no-energy ‘energy policy.’

As a percentage of income, Obama’s economy hits the poor, and poor working people the hardest. The increase ‘taxes’ that the poor must pay to put food on the table, gas in the car, and clothes on their back is way more damaging and sinister than the $40 street money Congress ‘gave’ them by cutting funds from Social Security and senior citizens. It doesn’t make up for their rising heating and electric bills. It does nothing to those homeowners poised to lose their home due to falling home values. No, Obama is just fine with letting the poor squirm before, during, and after his fundamental changing of America.

Food cost has gone up, not only here but everywhere in the world. And the cause has nothing to do with capitalism. It has everything to do with the environmental movement and the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy.

Beginning with monetary policy. This is where the ‘hidden tax’ comes in, and it is always first. As the Federal Reserve increases money supply, QE 1 & 2, all that, the value of the dollar decreases. Increasing of our national debt to the point of losing a AAA credit rating (for the first time in history) also puts negative pressure on the value of the dollar. So what cost you a dollar before Quantitative Easing, now cost you $1.20. Suddenly, $100/barrel turns in to $120/barrel because the dollar is worth less. Then comes the push to use foodstuffs in our gas tank, bio-fuels, and killing new drilling and exploration and the Keystone Pipeline. All of these events cause the price of gasoline to rise. None of it puts negative pressure on the price of oil.

Food price spikes due to droughts in grain-producing nations are one thing. And usually temporary. But the permanent variable in food prices is the price of oil. Oil price increases cause a general escalation in the costs of fertilizers, food for the farmer’s livestock, food transportation, fuel for tractors and industrial agriculture.

The root causes are political, not scientific. The deflation of the dollar, the increasing use of biofuels in developed countries, and an equally jaundiced outlook for increasing our domestic oil supply and capacity. These are all pieces in the food cost puzzle.

Everything that is wrong with the economy now is a result of the tried and failed policies of this administration. Whatever miniscule increase in economic activity does happen, happens in spite of Obama’s policies, dictates, and Czars. Not because of them.

We could have a much brighter economic outlook if the Senate would stop sitting on the dozens of bills submitted by the Republican House designed to do just that. Not the least of which is the FairTax. But remember, it is the President that wants to run on a ‘do-nothing’ congress.

That’s what elections are for. Getting the White House doesn’t get you much without also getting control of the Senate and keeping a majority in the House.

Maybe voting for the same guy again and expecting a different result is not a good strategy?

Economy, Energy, Media, Organized Labor, Politics

Obama, Oil Is The Energy Of The Past

Never missing an opportunity to prolong our dependence on foreign oil, and high gas prices, President Obama lobbied the Democrat controlled Senate to oppose a bill that would, if passed, be the start of the Keystone Pipeline project with our Canadian neighbors.

The message to the president was clear. There is majority bi-partisan support for the pipeline. The senate voted for it 56-42. But because the Senate rules required 60 votes for passage, it was defeated.

In all, 11 Democrats joined 45 Republicans to support the pipeline. Only the fact that 60 votes were needed for passage saved the White House from an embarrassing defeat.

How does a president justify turning down a project that would build a measure of energy independence and energy infrastructure and lower gas prices?

How does a president justify turning down a project that would create 20,000 jobs now, and over 140,000 jobs once complete? Union jobs in fact. (Big Labor supports the pipeline.)

Today it’s out. President Obama doesn’t want jobs if they have anything to do with the oil industry. He doesn’t want energy infrastructure improvements nor any oil from Canada to come to our refineries and our ports. He made that known today.

President Obama finally gave us his blueprint for the nation’s energy future, beginning today apparently. He told us that oil is the energy of the past.

Oh really? Here’s what the United States Energy Information Administration has to say about it.

EIA projects that most petroleum-based and non-petroleum based liquid fuels — including those derived from fuels such as coal, biomass, and natural gas — will continue to be used for transportation over the next two decades.

Who at the EIA is going to update President Obama on this?

Economy, Media, Politics

Treasury Sec. Geithner, ‘We Have No Solutions’

In what has turned out to be the most important news item NOT reported, it is this gem that bubbled up from the questioning of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan.

After three years of Hope and Change, after three years of blaming the Bush administration for its $4 trillion in debt that the Dear Leader Barack Obama inherited, after 4 yeas of consistent deficit spending, and after spending programs that hike the national debt from 4 to 16 trillion dollars, our treasury secretary is finally asked whether his 10 year budget projection does anything to reduce the debt and deficit. The short answer is NO.

Here’s the way Obama’s Secretary of the Treasury put it . . .

We’re not coming before you to say we have a definitive solution to our long-term problem. What we do know is we don’t like yours.

Well, wait a minute.  What happened to compromise?  What happened to working together?  What happened to crossing the aisle?  You notice how that only goes one way?

It takes pure audacity to presume to tell the American people that the economy is turning around, which it isn’t, while having no intention, not now and not for the next ten years, to limit spending to something less than the government takes in. That is reckless and irresponsible. Well, unless you’re a Marxist.

Apparently no solution is preferrable to a Republican one. Guaranteeing that the President will have a ‘do nothing’ congress.

Economy, Florida, Media, Pensacola, Politics

Bayou Texar Closed Again

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“Visit Pensacola! You’ll love our shit!” There’s your Chamber of Commerce bumper sticker.

Like water sports? Fishing, swimming, water skiing? Come to Pensacola. But just don’t go in Bayou Texar for any of that. The Health Department has closed it for the umpteenth time due to excessive levels of fecal contamination.

It happens so often now, that the Health Department no longer calls it what it is like they used to. Now they’ve sanitized the warning. Now they just call it ‘bacteria.’ You have to call the Health Department to find out the nature of that bacteria. I called to ask. It’s the same as it has always been. Fecal bacteria.

What’s worse, the reaction to it is also the same. After having abandoned the study to find out the sources of the contamination years ago, the city and county officials continue to ignore the problem. Apparently, unless it has anything to do with BP, they’re not interested in cleaning up their own back yard.

Link: Bacteria prompts Bayou Texar health alert

Economy, Energy, Politics

Gasoline, The Hidden Tax On Working People

Whether high gas prices at the pump are referred to as a tax is irrelevant. Although high gas prices are not a tax, they may as well be because it is a distinction without a difference. Everyone pays the price regardless of your economic status or family budget.

Under normal circumstances, the president could effectively lower the price of a barrel of crude oil in a matter of minutes. All he has to do is announce and commit this country into becoming an oil producer instead of an oil buyer.

Using his bully pulpit, he can announce an energy policy that actually gets energy.

  • Free-up natural gas and oil drilling and exploration
  • Call for the rapid approval of the XL Pipeline
  • Building of new refineries.
  • Stop fining the coal industry out of existence with Cap and Trade.
  • Reverse himself on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste depot.

All the needed parts to get to energy independence can be announced, and the markets would react.

There is a problem. These are not normal circumstances. We have heard his commitment to reach energy independence before. We have seen his actions doing the opposite. His liberal man-made-global-warming ‘theology’ is calling the shots.

President Obama could hold his press conference on energy independence, a new ‘war,’ if you will, on high energy prices. But his biggest obstacle to him using the bully pulpit on this subject is that no world leader or oil speculator would believe him.

Link: Obama’s Oily Rope-a-Dope, Part 2  |  Who Do You Trust?

2012 Election, Economy, Media, Politics

Playing Politics On The Backs Of Senior Citizens

Time was when the United States was the envy of the world. A country that took care of its own. A super-power that stood for freedom and liberty.

The 2012 elections are coming. President Obama is staking his campaign on divide and conquer the only way he knows, community organizer style. His options are limited, and everyone knows it. He certainly can’t run on his job performance and continuing to blame Bush. Instead, he has to energize his base, his radical anti-military base (which he is and always has been part of) by gutting the military and weakening our national security.  Continue reading Playing Politics On The Backs Of Senior Citizens →