Florida, Pensacola, Politics

Trial Lawyers' Quid Pro Quo

Here comes the payback for the trial lawyers. When I say that taking away the tax hammer from the politicians in Washington, which is exactly what would happen if the FairTax were to become law, there is one other change for the better that the FairTax would do. It would end the manipulation of the tax code to favor special interests, like what Democrats in Washington are trying to do today for their most favored group of lobbyists, trial lawyers.

It’s about senate bill  S.437. Its purpose is to amend the Internal Revenue Code to allow attorneys a tax deduction in the current taxable year for reimbursable expenses and court costs which they pay or incur in connection with contingency fee cases.

It is not a coincidence that tort reform is not mentioned in Washington by Democrats when it comes to reducing costs of health care. Its absence in the health care bills, both real and imagined, is no accident. S.437 demonstrates just how much the administration is in bed with the slip-and-fall lobby.  And look who they get to sponsor it, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA).  Also note that Mel Martinez (R-FL) is one of eight primary sponsors.

Tough economic times are usually no problem for trial lawyers. Pain, suffering and liability abound even in a bad economy. Vioxx, defective products, bad hip replacement joints, video games that “cause” violence, perhaps even foods that “make” people fat — you name it.

Even so, the trial lawyer lobby is looking for a bailout of sorts. In exchange for the billion dollars that the legal profession has contributed to lawmakers since 1990 — the vast majority of it to Democrats — trial lawyers are gunning for a tax break that applies only to them, worth some $1.6 billion.

Their top lobbyist, Linda Lipsen of the American Association for Justice, remarked at a recent conference in San Francisco that the provision would have to be attached to another bill.

“You cannot have a stand-alone bill to help lawyers,” she explained, “so we have to tuck it into something.”{emphasis added}

So watch for the bill that they try to hide it in. It will most likely be a bill, like all others we’ve witnessed since January 20th of this year, that will be touted as an emergency. Another of those that won’t be read and shoved down America’s collective throat.

Everybody gets their payback in Obama’s administration. Especially the  lobbyists he said he would distance himself from when he was a candidate. You simply have to wait your turn. AIG, Freddie and Fannie, Wall Street, the UAW, and now the trial lawyers.

Where is the quid? Well, aside from the billion dollars of donations since 1990, there is this . . .

An Examiner analysis of National Law Journal’s “2008 Plaintiff’s Hot List ” shows that in the first six months of 2009, employees of the top 15 trial firms contributed $636,305 to federal politicians and political action committees.

Only $4,875 of that went to Republicans, meaning that trial lawyers at the nation’s top firms are giving more than 99 percent Democratic this year. Similarly, AAJ’s PAC gave Democrats 96 percent of its $627,000 in contributions in the first half of this year.

Trial lawyers are concentrating on the Senate, with the top 15 firms giving $236,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and $54,000 to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., a former trial lawyer who faces a potentially difficult re-election. Reid collected $978,000 from the legal industry as a whole between January and June.

You may have heard a lawyer joke or two. Like 99% of lawyers give the rest of them a bad name. It’s hard to engender any sympathy for the slip-and-fall, mass tort class of attorneys when . . .

Their political standard-bearer, former Sen. John Edwards, admitted to cheating on his cancer-stricken wife, and is being investigated for his presidential campaign’s $100,000 payment to his mistress.

Last spring, four senior partners of Milberg Weiss, formerly New York’s pre-eminent class action securities firm, were fined and imprisoned for bribing plaintiffs in cases that had netted them $250 million in fees. (The firm since reorganized, and its remaining partners and employees have made $36,537 in political contributions this year, all to Democrats.)

And Dickie Scruggs of Mississippi, a master trial lawyer and architect of the billion-dollar tobacco settlement in 1998, received a seven-year prison sentence earlier this year for bribing a judge.

related link:  Trial lawyers’ gun for their own loophole

Economy, Politics

Socialism Or Capitalism, Let's Decide

Socialized medicine is not a new concept of the 21st century, as this audio clip from 1961 will show.  There are no problems that exist in our health care or the health care delivery system that can not be solved in the private sector.

From the 1961 Operation Coffee Cup Campaign seeking to counter a proposed Democratic plan for socialized medicine, then private citizen and actor Ronald Reagan speaks out against socialized medicine.

Everywhere socialized medicine has been tried, it has accomplished government control over a population, under the presumption that the government making life choices for you, rather than yourself, is a freedom to be surrendered. That, and it has failed to live up to the promises of better and more affordable care.

As Americans, our Constitution and Bill of Rights define limits on the federal government in controlling the people. This is what President Obama refers to as ‘negative rights.’ These documents are what separates the United States from every other country on earth. That freedom, personal liberty, and a free-enterprise capitalistic system are the reasons we have become the greatest country in the world by any measure in less than 200 years.

In 1961, Ronald Reagan said this . . .

Now back in 1927 an American socialist, Norman Thomas, six times candidate for president on the Socialist Party ticket, said the American people would never vote for socialism. But he said under the name of liberalism the American people will adopt every fragment of the socialist program. One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people has been by way of medicine. It’s very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project. Most people are a little reluctant to oppose anything that suggests medical care for people who possibly can’t afford it.

Ronald Reagan’s quoting of Socialist Norman Thomas (grandfather of Newsweek reporter Evan Thomas) was as right on point nearly 50 years ago as it is today.

Sure, there are poor people in America. But compared to poor people in socialized countries, America’s poor are wealthy. America’s poor drive cars, have TV’s, indoor plumbing, electricity, and cell phones. They have free health care when needed most, not to be confused with a health insurance policy, free education, a free breakfast and a free lunch. They have free day care, after-school care, and food and housing assistance. And it is capitalism and hard working, caring Americans that pay for it all. Not socialism.

But, more importantly, and only in America, the poor have what the others do not. They have the opportunity to advance themselves based on their own application of their own God-given talents where there is no limit except those that they place upon themselves, or that the government places upon them. President Obama is a living testament to that fact.

The lessons to learn from history is that wealth and prosperity are not derived from government, but are derived from personal freedom and liberty of the people, two concepts that are antithetical to today’s batch of politicians in Washington. Democrats have learned long ago that keeping people dependent on government, rather than championing the individual and by getting out of their way, insures political power. And political power, rather than individual achievement, is their goal. Using people in this way may make political sense if political power is all you’re after. But it is also immoral. The other lesson to learn is that Democrats have not given up on the big government concept. Which reminds me of another Reagan quote. Government isn’t the answer to our problem. Government (too much of it) is the problem.

Uncategorized

aSide Order

Little known but deadly form of cancer for women

Whether for yourself, your wife, or your daughter, this is something every woman should know about. It can save their life.

endofstory

You’re Bob Dylan huh.  Well, you look like a rolling stone to me.

Oh what a difference a couple generations make.

Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood.

endofstory

L.O.C. Professional Association Not Very Professional

A lecture by the woman who became the public face of the Abu Ghraib scandal was canceled Friday at the Library of Congress after threats led to concerns about staff safety. And the ‘threats’ came from their own employees.

Liberal Talk Radio Host Re-defines Hate Speech

Who knows, this might be all she needs to be a guest on Air America Radio some day. She broadcasts on Sirius satellite radio’s Left Talk channel.

*** Content Warning *** Caught-on-tape: liberal firebrand Lynn Samuels continues to forge a path as an independent leftist, this time with a wild outburst triggered by a caller. After picking apart Barack Obama, Samuels agrees as the caller calls House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “a c–t”.

Economy

How Well Is Obama Doing On The Economy?

There is a poll that is sponsored by AT&T and Yahoo. You can participate in it if you wish. There is only one question and it concerns Obama’s performance on the economy. Remember ‘it’s the economy stupid?’ That slogan rings true today like never before.

Click this LINK to cast your opinion.

http://js.polls.yahoo.com/quiz/quiziframe.php?poll_id=46067

I just cast vote number 2501038, and here is the question and the results up to that point.

Q. The president’s progress with the battered economy has been both praised and criticized. How well are his efforts measuring up with you?

Extremely well. We are undoubtedly moving in the right direction. 9%

Fairly well. There’s still a long way to go. 9%

Not well at all. His plans are hurting more than helping. 80%

Not sure/No opinion. 2%

2501038 votes

Economy, Politics

Obama's Vaporous Health Care Plan

President Obama has a health care plan that he wants us to accept. It’s called single-payer. Single payer as in the government does all the paying, to doctors, hospitals, clinics, etc.

If the government controls the money, they control the health care industry. If they control the health care industry, they control you.

But try to find out what his plan for your health care is and you will hit a dead end. No pun intended. Apparently, it isn’t written. President Obama was interviewed on national TV last month and questions of cost came up.

MORAN: One of the concerns is cost. People are looking at the cost of this plan, the Congressional Budget Office. By the way, you invited the director of the Congressional Budget Office to the White House.

OBAMA: Right.

MORAN: He had given this report, which was very damaging to your plan. A lot of people thought that was improper, that you were trying to muscle an independent arbiter of this debate
OBAMA: Terry, first of all, he was remarking on the House bill, not my plan, right? So, I think it’s important to get that clear. Number two, I invited him to come alongside a whole range of other health care experts to tell me exactly what they thought the most effective ways to bend the cost curve would be. And in fact, there was a pretty broad consensus that the plans that we had put forward around the MedPAC proposal, for example, which is essentially a commission to deal with doctors and health experts finding the best ways to improve quality while lowering costs. That that, in fact, was one of the most important levers to drive health costs savings in the system.

So his ‘plan’ is to use a committee of bureaucrats to suggest how to cut costs. That way you don’t need anything in writing. Exactly where socialized medicine enters the picture is unclear. Just vote for a pig in a poke, and if you don’t like it, just shut up and let him ‘fix’ it. Coincidentally, after his meeting with the director of the CBO, the director made a statement that was opposite of his first statement. Saying that it would not add to the deficit. Remarkable.

MORAN: So you weren’t leaning on him?

OBAMA: Terry, we don’t lean.

He doesn’t lean. He threatens. It’s the Chicago way. Like when he told auto industry creditors that he was the only thing between them and people with machetes. During that meeting, they agreed to give up a significant portion of their ownership shares (30 cents on the dollar), and Obama then gave majority ownership to the UAW.

MORAN: Do you think one of them problems is that Americans use too much health care?

He does, and explains it by saying too many people abuse emergency rooms for visits that should be in doctor’s offices or clinics. And . . .

OBAMA: We’ll have a situation in which we take five tests when we know one test would be sufficient, as long as that one test would have been forwarded to the other doctors, and specialists, and nurses who needed it to help treat the patient. That doesn’t happen right now. But, we’re paying for five tests. So if we could get a system where that one test is properly distributed, we all save money.

I get it. Aside from cutting payments to doctors and hospitals even more, where he expects to save, er I mean steal, a half billion dollars from Medicare and Medicaid, he will also save by telling doctors to do less tests. He didn’t call it defensive medicine, but that’s what he meant. You can not mention defensive medicine without also mentioning tort reform. And he is not going there. Sharing tests would be a good idea of course, but you have to believe it is defensive medicine, a practice necessitated because of trial lawyers, that Obama was really talking about.

And by doing all the above, Obama will have a socialized medical system that not only provides better care, to more people, but is cheaper and, will not add to the deficit. Must be the pixie dust.

I get the picture now. Lets tie doctors to the whipping post and give trial lawyers the whip. There is no mention about tort reform in his plan (whatever it is) or the House plan. Yet, Obama’s stated goal is to reduce the cost of health care. And while you’re going to pay them less,  and pay them by the ‘quality’ of service, as determined by bureaucrats, instead of by services rendered, then you can expect a shortage of doctors and people going into the medical profession. It all sounds like a recipe for disaster with a history for it in Canada and Great Britain.

Bottom line is this. Obama says that his plan will not cause private sector health care to go away. When the truth is it will cause private sector health care to rot on the vine.

Obama also says that his plan will not increase the deficit. Can’t say that with the House plan.

Here’s my question for President Obama when he comes to Pensacola (more pixie dust).

Mr. President, the American people have seen politicians enact legislation that ended up exacerbating the problems they were supposed to fix. For most Americans, results matter more than good intentions. If it turns out that your health care plan does not fulfill what you promise, will you provide in the plan an exit strategy to terminate the plan and pursue a private sector solution before the end of your first term?

related link: Nightline’s Interview with President Obama

Media, Politics, Russia

A Diplomatic Smackdown In Russia

Correction: The video below is not what it appears to be. There was no diplomatic smackdown. I refer you to Snopes.

So do I delete the post altogether, or leave it as it is now to show that the video is a production of some dishonest folks out there (imagine that)?

The Lunch Counter is big enough to recognize when a mistake has been made and the truth should always be given the utmost respect. Therefore, the post will remain in its current form to shed the light on what is true.

Ross

Here’s an interesting 13 second clip of President Obama’s attempt at hitting the RESET button in Russian foreign relations. It amounts to nothing less than a political smackdown for the United States. Despite what The White House website has to say about it.


Looks like the Russians were not impressed with candidate Obama’s world tour during his campaign last year or with his apology tour following his election.

It is also the first time in my memory that our President was ever treated with such disrespect. The problem is, it wasn’t just a setback for him as President, it is a setback for us as a nation. He has his work cut out for him where Russia is concerned.

Unless you were watching it live, did you see this in the news?

Economy, Fair Tax, Politics

aSide Order

A FairTax Teaching Moment

The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation’s plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab.

The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion.

Other figures in an Associated Press analysis underscore the recession’s impact: Individual income tax receipts are down 22 percent from a year ago. Corporate income taxes are down 57 percent. Social Security tax receipts could drop for only the second time since 1940, and Medicare taxes are on pace to drop for only the third time ever.

The last time the government’s revenues were this bleak, the year was 1932 in the midst of the Depression. Is raising taxes the answer to the problem? Of course not.

Which brings me to this FairTax teaching moment.  The tax base shrinks every time a job is lost. 6.7 million jobs have been lost since December 2007. Over 5 million of those have been lost since January 2009. And everyone is saying that its going to get worse before it gets better.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how taxing income and investment leads to federal revenue losses in a big way during a recession. Revenue flow under the FairTax plan is not near as volatile during a recession. Under the FairTax, the tax base remains the same, which is about 30% larger (and growing) than under the current income tax plan. More importantly, a consumption based taxing system is more stable, more predictable, and less reactive to political actions.

In fact, if Washington could get their spending under control, and barring another ‘man made disaster,’ under the FairTax recessions would become a thing of the past.

endofstory

Rush on Obamacare

Mobfather Rush Limbaugh comments on Obamacare and the organizations behind and in front of it.

endofstory

Smallest microwave oven?

Did you know you’re carrying a microwave oven in your pocket.

Media, Politics

Obamacare Polling Questions You Won't See

Getting beyond the generic polling questions that appeal to the emotional aspect of the health care bill and who should be responsible for your health care, here are some polling questions that you probably won’t see anywhere else and which would, if asked, evoke a different result.

Keep in mind that anyone that questions the President’s plan is now labeled as un-American and part of organized angry mobs.

For a community organizer, President Obama isn’t acting very presidential by discounting over half the population he is supposed to represent. To put it another way, as President, he is acting more like a community organizer than  President of the United States.

The sad thing surrounding H.R. 3200 is that its opponents know more about what is in the bill than the President himself, most members of congress, and the mainstream media. Quoting the President himself, it’s what happens when bills get rushed through congress.

  1. Would you be strongly in favor of or strongly opposed to the provision on Page 59 in the health care bill that allows the government computer access to your bank records to transfer money from your account to their account to pay for whatever they think you owe?
  2. Are you strongly in favor or strongly opposed to the provision on Page 16 of the bill that would force you out of your private insurance plan?
  3. Are you strongly in favor of or strongly opposed to the provision on Page 30, Sec. 123  that sets up a Government committee, instead of you and your family and your doctor, to decide what treatments and benefits a person may receive?
  4. Are you strongly in favor of or strongly opposed to the provision on Page 50, Sec 152 that says that U.S. citizenship may not be used as a qualification for participation?

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Learn more about what is in the bill by looking at the bill.

Economy, Media, Politics

Is It Really About Health Care?

Polls show most Americans want lower health care costs. Polls also show most Americans are satisfied with the health care plan they currently have. That’s why the Obama administration has shifted the focus to health insurance instead.

This administration is hopping from one bogus justification for socializing nearly 20% or our private sector to the next, hoping that something will stick.

He started by saying that the economy can not recover unless his health care plan, H.R. 3200, is passed first. That the health care industry is the cause for our economic woes. A ridiculous assumption that the media never questioned. How serious could Obama be about reducing the cost of health care when tort reform remains conspicuously missing?

Then, the economy is in such dire straits that this bill has to be passed right away. Right away, as in before anyone finds out what’s in it.

And to a different audience he says Americas factories are ‘coming back to life.’  “We have stopped the freefall . . . [t]he market is up and the financial system is no longer on the verge of collapse. . . We’re losing jobs at half the rate we were when I took office six months ago. . . We may be seeing the beginning of the end of the recession.”

Playing both sides of the issue has been perfected in the Democratic party. While the Obama media sits by and marvels at it.

From what the President is saying, it sounds to me that the best thing he could do for the economy now is to stop the deficit spending.  Aside from seeking private sector solutions to reducing health care costs and increasing availability, saving 90% of  the ‘stimulus’ spending (only 10% of it has been spent so far) would be the best thing he could do to help the economy.

Florida, Politics

Bu Bye Mel

Considering the state of the Republican party these days, Mel Martinez did the right thing to resign. The Lunch Counter is fully supportive of his decision to get out of Dodge, although not for the reason that he articulates.

Martinez, 62, had already announced he wouldn’t seek re-election. He said Friday that the next phase of his life will be in the private sector, but he didn’t have any specific plans.

Martinez’s term in the U.S. Senate was a waste of a Republican senate seat. It is ironic too that he is leaving to go into the private sector. Then again, by the time he is ready to retire, there won’t be a private sector left (if the current trend in Washington continues), so what would it matter, to him?

link: Fla. senator to resign, clear path for Crist

Belly up to the counter. Politics are on the menu and Ross is on the grill.