Health Insurance Now Cost MORE Than a New Car - Every Year!!

"Health Insurance Costs More Than a New Car" is certainly a Drudge worthy headline.  He has a eye for the grabber headline that yields massive click-thrus.  And this one sure caught my eye.


But in this case the click through from Drudge leads you to an honest to goodness news story in POLITCO (not even an op-ed piece).  But it's still a scary story.  Family Health Insurance for the average family in America now exceeds $15,000.00 a year.  That's more than the cost of a new Ford Fiesta. Every single year!


You could have a Jay Leno sized garage full of cars in just a few short years if you simply stopped buying Health Insurance!!


How can this possibly happen?  The key is that the average American doesn't realize how much he is being charged.  His or her costs are partially paid by the employer and the balance is split up by paycheck, between 24 and 52 payments a year, so they seem smaller than they actually are.


The POLITICO article goes out of its way to make certain readers know that OBAMACARE (or the Affordable Care Act) is NOT the reason for these huge premiums, it's mostly actual increases in healthcare costs.  In fact the POLITICO article points out that Obamacare may hold back future cost increases.


But this is reality and the article makes clear that these costs are increasing much faster than the rate of inflation.  I believe the so-called Affordable Care Act is not part of any solution.  I'm sorry the bill became so politically charged that real compromise was never even considered.  Republicans and Democrats share the blame equally.  Although I feel Nancy Pelosi was primary the architect of this fiasco.


Market forces could reduce these costs, but only once the actual payer, the patient or the employee, understands how much he is really paying.  Our system of employer paid health insurance hides the real costs from the insured, while forcing the uninsured into certain bankruptcy.

Will We Destroy Our Country AND Our Health Care System?

A cornerstone of most Liberal Philosophies is the individuals right to good quality healthcare at affordable prices. I've no doubt that was one of the guiding principles Democrats hoped to follow in redesigning our Health Care Insurance System.

Sadly, every tiny bit of that goal was lost in the highly charged partisan process used in crafting the Rube Goldberg monstrosity that even I have come to call ObamaCare. Like Dr. Frankenstein, President Obama may have hoped to prolong life and improve its quality, but instead he did build a monster, one that will quickly destroy our entire nation.

What's worse is that the Congress continues to operate in the highly charged partisan atmosphere that birthed Obama's monster and therefore seem unlikely to fix the problem before it destroys us all.

To understand the depth and nature of the ObamaCare Mosnter problem you MUST DROP YOUR PARTISAN ATTITUDE and read Karl Rove's Op-Ed in today's WALL STREET JOURNAL.

Here is a small sampling of the key points Mr. Rove makes:

A kerfuffle was stirred up last week by a devastating McKinsey & Company study that concluded up to 78 million Americans would lose their current health coverage as employers stopped offering insurance because of President Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Simple economics is the reason. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation's Employer Health Benefits 2010 Annual Survey, the annual premium for an average policy last year was $5,049 for a single worker, with the company picking up roughly $4,150 and the employee the rest. For a family of four, the total cost was $13,770, with the company picking up $9,773.

Yet under ObamaCare, businesses can stop providing health-care coverage, paying a $2,000 per-worker fine instead. For small businesses, the trade-off is even more attractive: They are given a pass on the first 50 workers.

President Obama's plan estimated only 11 million people would ever be in the exchange. If the number tops 100 million, as seems likely, the entire system and the entire nation will collapse.

All real Liberals will demand Congress provide a major overhaul of this plan to create a workable alternative.

The Littlest Victims of Obamacare

I had hoped, and lobbied hard, to defeat every member of Congress who had voted to pass The Federal Health Care Reform Act, now often referred to as ObamaCare. Sadly while many were defeated, many gained re-election in spite of their complete betrayal of the American public, our health care system and, especially, senior citizens. We can only hope that the revised Congress can repeal parts of this horrendous act and repair other parts.


As Nancy Pelosi had promised, once we passed the bill we are now actually finding out what is in it. And, we are discovering, everything Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama promised about the bill was a lie.

But Michelle Malkin has discovered the ultimate irony. The massive labor union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has lost the very benefit they touted as the major reason for passage, insurance coverage for children. The SEIU paid millions of dollars in hard earned union dues lobbying for this bill. Today, that very same union cancelled all health insurance benefits for children BECAUSE they can no longer afford the price of that insurance under the ObamaCare mandatory guidelines.

READ THE FULL and very tragic STORY AT MICHELLE MALKIN'S BLOG:

Here's a tiny excerpt:

Late last month, the Service Employees International Union informed dues-paying members of its behemoth 1199 affiliate in New York that it was dropping its health care coverage for children. That’s right. A radical leftist union, not an evil Republican corporation, is abandoning the young ‘uns to cut costs.

More than 30,000 low-wage families will be affected, according to The Wall Street Journal. Who’s to blame? SEIU 1199 benefits manager Mitra Behroozi singled out oppressive new state and federal regulations, including the much-ballyhooed Obamacare rule forcing insurers to cover dependents well into their 20s:

“…(N)ew federal health-care reform legislation requires plans with dependent coverage to expand that coverage up to age 26,” Behroozi explained in an Oct. 22 letter to members. “Our limited resources are already stretched as far as possible, and meeting this new requirement would be financially impossible.”

Congress & President Obama Destroy Medicare for Millions

My mother received her notification in the mail yesterday. Secure Horizons Insurance is ending its Medicare Advantage Program in our area and, as it turns out, there is no replacement plan, even from another insurer, available. Mother, as you might guess, is furious. Her President, the man she idolized, the man she voted for, has betrayed her.
Ask my Mom. She has voted a straight Democratic Party ticket for the last 40 years. Not one single Democrat will get her vote this fall.

The Democratic Party has betrayed every single senior citizen. The party that is supposed to protect seniors has hung them out to dry.

Mom will need to buy a Medicare Supplimental Policy that will cost her thousands of dollars. But she absolutely cannot afford to go into Medicare barefoot.

UPDATE: 9/30/2010 - It appears a new Medicare GAP policy will cost MOM about $4,000.00 a year. Virtualy every senior who was on a Medicare Advantage program will pay at least $2,000.00 more when their current insurance is cancelled PLUS higher co-pays. Thank you again President Obama for destroying the American Health Care System on the backs of Senior CItizens. Several additional posts will follow in the next few days.

She is not alone. It's happening all across the nation. Only a few favored districts, mostly in Florida, were carved out and exempt from the insanely stupid changes in Medicare law that effectively destroy the Advantage program. So a few Florida Congress Persons have bought themselves an election or two. Even that is a traitorous act.

In case you would like to understand what is happening, there is an excellent article in today's Boston Globe about how 22,000 Massachusetts residents are losing their Advantage Plan: Harvard Pilgrim cancels Medicare Advantage plan

Nightmare on Main Street

If you toggle between CNBC and the Fox Business News Channel you quickly learn that business, investors and economists all really despise the Health Care Reform Bill, enacted six months ago today.

If you read virtually any of the polls you already know the public really hates the same health care reform, generally called ObamaCare. I believe that this single bill is the primary cause of the growth of the Tea Party movement and the unexpected Republican resurgence.

It is possible that Republicans will take control of the House, although I fear that is unlikely. But it is a moot point regardless, as without either controlling the Presidency or having a filibuster proof majority in the Senate (60 whopping votes), overturning the bill is virtually impossible.

It sure as hell needs to happen as the bill is quickly becoming the Freddie Kruger of legislation and it haunts our every dream, turning any hope of an economic recovery into a nightmare of recession and possibly depression.

Here, thanks to the editorial page writers of the Washington Examiner are a few bullet points of the current and impending disaster:

» Obamacare won't decrease health care costs for the government. According to Medicare's actuary, it will increase costs. The same is likely to happen for privately funded health care.

» Obamacare won't allow employees or most small businesses to keep the coverage they have and like. By Obama's estimates, as many as 69 percent of employees, 80 percent of small businesses, and 64 percent of large businesses will be forced to change coverage, probably to more expensive plans.

» Obamacare will increase insurance premiums -- in some places, it already has. Insurers, suddenly forced to cover clients' children until age 26, have little choice but to raise premiums, and they attribute to Obamacare's mandates a 1 to 9 percent increase. Obama's only method of preventing massive rate increases so far has been to threaten insurers.

» Obamacare will force seasonal employers -- especially the ski and amusement park industries -- to pay huge fines, cut hours, or lay off employees.

» Obamacare forces states to guarantee not only payment but also treatment for indigent Medicaid patients. With many doctors now refusing to take Medicaid (because they lose money doing so), cash-strapped states could be sued and ordered to increase reimbursement rates beyond their means.

» Obamacare imposes a huge nonmedical tax compliance burden on small business. It will require them to mail IRS 1099 tax forms to every vendor from whom they make purchases of more than $600 in a year, with duplicate forms going to the Internal Revenue Service. Like so much else in the 2,500-page bill, our senators and representatives were apparently unaware of this when they passed the measure.

» Obamacare allows the IRS to confiscate part or all of your tax refund if you do not purchase a qualified insurance plan. The bill funds 16,000 new IRS agents to make sure Americans stay in line.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: Examiner Editorial: Obamacare is even worse than critics thought

Keep an Eye on Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) as Health Care Evolves

Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon is deservedly making very big news this September with his very public break with the infamous ObamaCare bill. He is making all the right moves to insure his state and his constituents will not be taking part in the least popular parts of this Federal Government boondoggle.

Last Spring, when we all discovered that the President and the "powers-that-be" were not going to listen to the near brilliant common sense approach to health care reform being championed by Senator Wyden, he very quietly snuck an "state opt-out" provision into the 2,000 plus page bill. Of course nobody read the damned bill anyway, but that only made Wyden's move easier.

Now Wyden is helping Oregon use the very opt-out he provided to escape the most unpopular provision of the bill and to replace it with a sate bill that might actually work.

You can learn all about Senator Wyden's approach to health care and his recent efforts to opt-out Oregon in these articles:

Sen Ron Wyden writing in The Huffington Post: Missing The Point

The Hill: Wyden Makes His Case for Health Care Waiver

Wall Street Journal: Wyden Defects on ObamaCare

Wyden is in a tough re-election battle. I hope the (much needed and much deserved) Republican Sweep this November doesn't rob the Senate of one of it's brightest members.

The 2,000 Page Nightmare

Only now are accountants, government officials and government agencies like the IRS unraveling the massive Health Care Reform Law. And only now are we beginning to understand the consequences of taxation and regulation included in the bill.

In three short words: It's a Nightmare.

I genuinely believe that we must never allow Congress to enact to two thousand page bill again. And I believe that every single member of Congress who voted for this monstrosity should be removed from office.

We will spend months, if not years, undoing the damage this bill has done. But that's if, and only if, our country survives the interim damage.

Small business had feared the actual Health Care requirements would damage business and profits. As it turns out the most severe damage is coming from a new, massive ($$$$ 17 BILLION DOLLARS $$$$$) that will devastate all Americans earning LESS THAN $250,000.00 a year. And small business as we have long known it will likely cease to exist.

The small hidden regulations sound simple enough. Families and business have long been requires to report on an IRS Form 1099 any monies paid to workers or independent contractors. Money paid to nannies or yard workers for example had to be reported to the government. Many a politician has been tripped up by his or her failure to properly document such payments.
But, under new regulations in the Health Care Reform Act, all people and businesses must also file an IRS Form 1099 for and purchase of goods or material from a single individual that totals a mere six hundred dollars ($600.00) per year or more. For many businesses this could be tens of thousands of such forms (and taxes). Imagine a small restaurant who buys lettuce, tomatoes, fruits and vegetables from a variety of local farmers. Or a grocery store.

But similar situations apply to virtually all small businesses. The loudest complaints are streaming from Gold bullion and coin dealers who buy and sell from the public all day long.

In an article today on the ABC NEWS Website they report that "...every time a member of the public sells more than $600 worth of gold to a dealer the transaction will have to be reported to the government by the buyer (in this case the small business)."

Pat Heller, who owns Liberty Coin Service in Lansing, Mich., deals with around 1,000 customers every week. Many are individuals looking to protect wealth in an uncertain economy, he said, while others are dealers like him.

With spot market prices for gold at nearly $1,200 an ounce, Heller estimates that he'll be filling out between 10,000 and 20,000 tax forms per year after the new law takes effect."
Rep. Daniel Lungren, R-CA, has introduced legislation to repeal the section of the health care bill that would trigger the new tax reporting requirement because he says it's a burden on small businesses.

"Large corporations have whole divisions to handle such transaction paperwork but for a small business, which doesn't have the manpower, this is yet another brick on their back," Lungren said in a statement e-mailed to ABCNews.com. "Everyone agrees that small businesses are job creators and the engine which drives the American economy. I am dumfounded that this Administration is doing all it can to make it more difficult for businesses to succeed rather than doing all it can to help them grow."

That's an understatement, Mr. Lungren.

Democrat's Super Bowl Sunday

Like most Americans, I'm glued to the television and the Internet this weekend watching the Super Bowl of Politics, Congresses wrestling with Obama's Health Care Restructuring Bill. But I'm in the very strange position of rooting from the wrong teams and for the wrong reasons for most of the game.

Here's the key factor: the Health Care Restructuring Bill MUST FAIL. This is the most disastrous bill in the history of our nation, It is a bill so bad it will literally bring our country to it's knees with an unbearable burden of new, unfair and regressive taxes, drastically reduced health care and a bureaucratic morass that we will likely never untangle. It is simply impossible to predict just how very bad this bill will become.

So this morning I'm sitting on the wrong side of the field, rooting for my normal adversaries, Representative Bart Stupak and the other pro-life Democrats, to create a division among Democrats that will deny them the votes needed to pass the bill.

Normally I'm a strong pro-choice advocate. But today I need the Stupak group to somehow save the entire nation from the Health Care Destruction bill.

It does continue to appear that Nancy Pelosi will get the votes she needs to pass the bill. All I can hope for is a "Hail Mary Pass" into the end zone in the final minutes to save the hone team from defeat.

"Go, Bart, Go!"

Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics!

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

The very famous quote above is popularly attributed to Mark Twain. But Twain himself attributed the quote to British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881). Historians, however, can find no reasonable explanation for Twain to have attributed the quote to the equally famous Disraeli. Its real origins will probably never be known.

It is ironic and somewhat appropriate that many people today know the quote from the popular political television series, The West Wing. In today's hyperventilating political environment, it is certainly reasonable to think the quote applies to politicians.

Numbers are easy to misuse, misquote and misrepresent. Hide money here, move money there and you can get any result you desire. Sadly, that is exactly what Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are doing with the Health Care Restructuring costs.

Frankly, I think it's just a damned lie.

You can't cut Medicare by $500,000,000.00 and then say there will be no change in the program and no reduction in benefits. It is a lie. And if you're a senior on the excellent Medicare Advantage Program, it's a damned lie. It is mostly the very poorest seniors on Advantage and it saves them, literally, hundreds of millions of dollars each year.

Medicare IS NOT the wonderful medical insurance some might claim it to be, There is much Medicare doesn't cover and much more with often huge deductibles. Advantage almost eliminates all these deductibles and covers many procedures at a much lower cost.

Seniors can be forced into bankruptcy just covering Medicare deductibles or paying fro procedures Medicare doesn't cover. Thanks to Nancy Pelosi's damned lie, this is going to happen 500 million dollars more often than it did before.

What really pisses me off, as a Democrat, is that if some Republican President proposed gutting $500,000,000.00 from Medicare every Democrat would have stood in lock step to prevent it. Now Nancy Pelosi just pretends it isn't happening. And most Democrats will vote Sunday to kill the enormously popular Advantage progam.

By the way, Health Care Restructuring won't reduce he deficit one penny once Congress permits cost of living increases for Doctors as they have every single year since Medicare first began. The bill being voted on Sunday has doctor's reimbursements going down every year for the next 20 years. That is just another damned lie.

Lawrence O'Donnell and James Cramer Tag Team Against the Horrific Health Care Bill

When James Cramer, Ultra-Capitalist of Mad Money on CNBC agrees with Euro-Socialist Lawrence O'Donnell you know the Health Care Restructuring Bill being crafted by Congress is a complete disaster.

This is the most IMPORTANT 9 MINUTES you can possibly spend today. Watch it all.

Call Your Congress Person TODAY and demand they stop the current Health Care Legislation.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Disaster at 23.1%

The local radio station, WLIN, is just about the only source of news in Durant, Mississippi. Durant is located in Holmes County. Today the radio station had this somber news to report:

"Holmes County had a whopping 23.1 percent unemployed in January, according to figures released Wednesday. Meanwhile Attala County is well above the state average in jobless numbers, at 17 percent. Mississippi's unemployment rate stood at 12 percent in January, up from 10.3 percent in December and higher than the national rate of 10.6 percent. The state Department of Employment Security released figures Wednesday. Unemployment ranged from a high of 23.1 percent in Noxubee and Holmes counties to 8 percent in Rankin. MDES says 22 of Mississippi's 82 counties posted unemployment rates less than or equal to the state's rate of 12 percent and 74 counties reported double-digit rates for the month."


This isn't news to the folks who live in Durant. The Piggly Wiggly Supermarket closed as has every name brand gas station in the city. Only a few retailers are hanging on and a respected furniture store in a neighboring town is going out of business after 106 years.

The current recession is merely another nail in the coffin of this north central Mississippi county. NAFTA drove out the many, many small and medium size factories in this county that included some of the nations leading electrical companies. Those factories and jobs are now down in Mexico.

This heavily Democrat and heavily Black county has received surprisingly little Federal help in the last ten years. And, curiously enough, the Stimulus Package passed them over, too, in spite of the fact that one of the nations leading and most powerful Democrats in Congress, Rep. Bennie Thompson, Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, represents this county.

It seems to me that the gerrymandering that has carved out politically safe districts in every state has done much more harm than good. This district is safe. Representative Thompson will never face a challenge. Not even if unemployment reaches 50%.

So political plums, gifts and favors are going to the Blue Dog Democrats who's swing votes are critical to reaching the President agenda. Senator Ben Nelson and Nebraska can demand and receive huge bonuses. Joe Lieberman can extract what ever he wants to gain his vote.

A Democrat who faces a tough re-election can make sure extra construction, more police officers or a new highway goes through a town whose votes he needs. There is really nothing wrong with that system.

It's the safe towns, the politically safe counties that suffer. Why pay for the cow when the politicians can get the milk for free.

Health Care Reform, anyone?

Massachusetts Senate Race is Proxy War over Health Care

As public support for President Obama's Health Care Reform Bill craters (as it rightfully should), the race to fill the late Ted Kennedy's Senate Seat has become a proxy battle over the bill itself. Forces nationwide, both for and against the bill, are aligning themselves with the Democrat or Republican candidate in hopes of confirming or defeating the legislation.

The vast majority of the population oppose the bill as it has formed in Congress. I don't believe there is a single state where supporters outnumber opponents. And this includes the great state of Massachusetts.

The nation has determined, quite correctly, that this bill is a disaster that will likely destroy the budget, the struggling economy and, most assuredly, health care as we have known it in the United States. Liberal states have determined the bill harms Union contracts and threatens traditional Medicare, especially Medicare Advantage, which the bill virtually eliminates. Medicare Advantage is especially popular in Massachusetts.

So poor Democrat Martha Coakley, who ought to have been a shoo-in for Ted Kennedy's seat is facing the battle of a lifetime against ruggedly handsome and articulate Scott Brown, a Republican who only weeks ago had no chance of winning.

Coakley has fallen into line and supports Obama's Health Care Plan. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind she would win in a landslide if she only had the courage to oppose the bill. But, alas, she is stuck with supporting a bill no one with an ounce of integrity would ever endorse.

I don't care how good you are, you cannot do anything but look like a sock puppet when you support this bureaucratic nightmare of a bill.

Last night Scott Brown easily raised 1.3 million dollars on the Internet in just a few hours after his brilliant performance in a debate against Coakley. And national Republicans who wouldn't have bothered the answer his phone calls just two weeks ago and scrambling over each other to endorse him and campaign with him on the stump.

It helps that Brown is a moderate and not a reactionary conservative, but he still agrees with most Republican positions.

I still don't think he can win in Massachusetts but it helps that he is on the right side of the Health Care Debate.

The Bill Absolutely No One Likes

I've poured over the blogs this past weekend, reading literally hundreds of posts. And I watched every Network News show on Sunday from Meet the Press to Fox News Sunday. And I've searched and read analysis and editorials from dozens of newspapers.

And I've been nearly continuously on Twitter and followed the arguments from some of Twitter's finest 140 character pundits.

After all this reading of all the passionate posts I've made a startling discovery. ABSOLUTELY NO ONE LIKES THE HEALTH CARE INSURANCE RESTRUCTURING BILL EMERGING FROM CONGRESS THIS WEEK.

Really, NO ONE. Its Democrat supporters least of all.

You can read dozens of well written, well researched, well documented articles about just how really terrible this bill has become. The damage this bill will do to Health Care and to our economy is well documented. Opponents, both conservatives and Wall Street analysts, can give you extremely specific arguments detailing the problems with this bill. No generalities, no hyperbole. Just the facts.

You can also read political posts from Republican leaders and famous pundits giving passionate, but rather generalized arguments against the bill. From "Death Panels" to Medicare's demise, the hyperbole never ends. These folks are possessed.

I swear I've read a hundred posts titled something like "Ten Reasons to Defeat Health Care Reform'."

But you know what you can't find? Not one single similar post titled "Ten Reasons To Pass Health Care Reform."

Instead all the so-called supporters are really just apologists. They wax poetic about what might have been or what should have been or what, someday, might emerge from the fatally flawed bill that may or may not pass.

And the Democrats virtually NEVER MENTION A SINGLE FEATURE OF THE BILL! Their arguments generally revolve around just how mean spirited and evil the Republicans are. The number one argument on the blogs and on Twitter is "Republicans just want Grandma to Die!!!"

This debate alone quickly illustrates just how very bad this bill has become.

The question is will a single Democrat in Congress have the courage to stand up and tell President Obama, "Sir, this bill is bad for America."

You Vote Obamacare, We're Gonna Vote You Outta There...

This video has gone viral becuase the vast majority of the people identify with it. And agree with it. Why can't my fellow Democrats see the handwriting on the wall?



And, yes, we are playing this catchy little number on Wizard Radio.

C-SPAN Fights Dem's Secret Health Care Resturcturing

There really shouldn't be any debate. The Health Care Restructuring Plan being secretly negotiated by top Democrats can, should and must be defeated. Not one single ethical, honest, principled Democrat should support this betrayal. And the Republicans already won't support it. The damned vote should be a unanimous and resounding "NO!"

But, alas, President Obama has decreed that any bill, no matter how flawed, is better than no bill at all. And Nancy Pelosi never had any principles. She is a pure partisan who only cares about victory. Therefore, Pelosi, Harry Reid and members of the President's team are negotiating in secret to develop the final albatross to be hung around America's neck.

However, as more and more Democrats and all Americans realize the Barack Obama has consistently broken every campaign promise, there are the seeds of rebellion in the ranks. Today's domino falling is C-SPAN, the broadcaster of record for the United States Congress.

C-SPAN Challenges Congress to Open Health Care Talks to TV Coverage: "The head of C-SPAN has implored Congress to open up the last leg of health care reform negotiations to the public, as top Democrats lay plans to hash out the final product among themselves."

"C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb wrote to leaders in the House and Senate Dec. 30 urging them to open "all important negotiations, including any conference committee meetings," to televised coverage on his network."

""The C-SPAN networks will commit the necessary resources to covering all of the sessions LIVE and in their entirety," he wrote."

President Obama had specifically promised these negotiations would appear on C-SPAN as he campaigned for the Presidency. His silence is deafening now.

Why is this happening? Any daylight will most assuredly kill this bill. It stinks to high heaven. If the public were to get even a whiff of this putrid and poisonous concoction, they would demand its defeat.

So Obama and Pelosi and Reid will keep it top secret until mere hours (or even minutes) before forcing a vote, probably in the middle of the night, on a weekend.

The American Public has been lied to, and now betrayed.

Even C-SPAN has noticed.

Every Liberal SHOULD Oppose The Health Care Restructuring Bill

It is simply stunning to me that a single Democrat would vote for the convoluted, wasteful, bloated, complex and pork laden Health Care Restructuring Bill that is now in the early stages of reconciliation.

It is stunning to me that a President as bright and seemingly idealistic as President Obama would ever consider signing it.

This bill is a hopeless mess of bureaucracy that institutionalizes into law Sarah Palin's notorious death panels, fails to live up to President Obama's promise of being able to keep your current insurance, raises taxes through the roof and insures drastically higher insurance costs.

Worst, it will destroy the one part of Medicare that works so exceedingly well, the Advantage Program, that is a lifeline to many senior citizens.

It is literally a damned mess.

If we, as liberals, have any principles left, we cannot endorse a program that pays off the drug companies, actually prohibits or completely eliminates competition, rewards the insurance companies, taxes current health care programs, hides new taxes under every rock (most of which will hit low wage earners hardest), and fails to cover many Americans.

What the hell are the Democrats in Washington drinking. Virtually every American KNOWS this bill is a disaster that will completely destroy our current health care system, hurt the economy, hurt Medicare, raise prices, and ultimately ration health care. How is it that there are almost no Democrats in Washington that are as aware of the facts as the voters?

I am reminded of all this as I watch Senator Ben Nelson fight for his political life. Things are so bad in Nebraska that Nelson is going to be forced to air a political ad during the Nebraska-Arizona Holiday Bowl Game and, literally, beg his constituents for forgiveness.

I'm sorry to be the one to tell you Senator, but it ain't gonna work. When you sell out your principles for this load of crap, you will be punished by the voters who used to look up to you and used to respect you.

Nelson is just the first. You cannot vote for a bill so horrifically bad that every voter on earth knows is a failure and not pay the ultimate price.

Can The People Stop Health Care Restructuring?

With the last holdout, Senator Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, announcing he will finally support the massive Health Care Restructuring Bill now before the Senate, nothing stands in the way of this bill passing.

The American public have made it increasingly clear for many months they want nothing to do with the tax grab and benefits cutting monstrosity. But, under massive pressure from President Obama and his staff, Democrats have caved and are willing to defy the public wishes and pass the bill that could have and should have been the crown jewel of the Obama Presidency.

However, after months of buying off Senator after Senator, the bill is no longer a jewel, but just a pork filled bag of bacon larded up for the drug industry, the insurance industry and, rather curiously, the A.A.R.P., whose Medicare supplement insurance program (run by insurance industry giant, United Health Care) stands to make millions off Medicare cuts.

Certainly the worst feature of this bill is the disastrous cuts in Medicare which will result in denied benefits through the establishment of a health care panel to provide guidelines to Doctors on approved treatments Medicare will cover. This absolutely is Sarah Palin's famous "Death Panel." It will become a reality.

While Republicans make every effort to delay the passage of this bill, they have done a poor job of making every American aware of the massive tax increases we will face once the bill passes. Five Hundred Billion Dollars in tax increases will touch every American, even those who will supposedly receive aid in purchasing insurance.

Unions hard won insurance policies will be devastated by the proposed taxes on "Cadillac Plans" which are, in fact, not owned by the wealthy, but mostly by union workers won through years of hard negotiations. Benefits in these plans will be stripped.

But the fix is in, the backroom deals are done. Harry Reed will push the whale through the keyhole on Christmas Eve. Nothing can stop this from happening, except.......

Well, except the people. If all the Tea Party people, a disorganized lot if there ever was one, can somehow break out of their Christmas routine and mount a massive campaign to call their Senators, especially the Democrat Senators, they might just derail this process.

Here's the number: 202-224-3121. You need to call today! Saturday! Today!

Michelle Malkin is alerting her readers:

Now, make sure to take time out of your busy Saturday before Christmas and burn up the Capitol switchboard (202-224-3121) with a clarion message for your Senators:

No. Hell no.

Say it louder and often. Spread the word. Sound the alarm. They are pretending not to hear you yet.

A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo for evermore!

The Worst Bill Ever

The Worst Bill Ever.

That's how The Wall Street Journal characterized the House version of Health Care Restructuring introduced yesterday to a waiting world by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Last night on Bill O'Reilly's cable opinion show comedian Dennis Miller referred to Pelosi as "sub-reptilian." I couldn't agree with both characteristics more.

I've said before that Nancy Pelosi is the "worst Speaker of the House in United States history." I repeat that here again today. The woman, left unchecked, will destroy our country and never, ever realize what she has done.



I know I'm offending many folks and I usually don't get this emphatic, but the woman is a menace and this bill..... well, this bill is the worst bill ever.

Here are just a few of the key points from the journal article:

In a rational political world, this 1,990-page runaway train would have been derailed months ago. With spending and debt already at record peacetime levels, the bill creates a new and probably unrepealable middle-class entitlement that is designed to expand over time. Taxes will need to rise precipitously, even as ObamaCare so dramatically expands government control of health care that eventually all medicine will be rationed via politics.

All this is particularly reckless given the unfunded liabilities of Medicare—now north of $37 trillion over 75 years. Mrs. Pelosi wants to steal $426 billion from future Medicare spending to "pay for" universal coverage. While Medicare's price controls on doctors and hospitals are certain to be tightened, the only cut that is a sure thing in practice is gutting Medicare Advantage to the tune of $170 billion. Democrats loathe this program because it gives one of out five seniors private insurance options.

As for Medicaid, the House will expand eligibility to everyone below 150% of the poverty level, meaning that some 15 million new people will be added to the rolls as private insurance gets crowded out at a cost of $425 billion. A decade from now more than a quarter of the population will be on a program originally intended for poor women, children and the disabled.

All told, the House favors $572 billion in new taxes, mostly by imposing a 5.4-percentage-point "surcharge" on joint filers earning over $1 million, $500,000 for singles. This tax will raise the top marginal rate to 45% in 2011 from 39.6% when the Bush tax cuts expire—not counting state income taxes and the phase-out of certain deductions and exemptions. The burden will mostly fall on the small businesses that have organized as Subchapter S or limited liability corporations, since the truly wealthy won't have any difficulty sheltering their incomes.

This surtax could hit ever more earners because, like the alternative minimum tax, it isn't indexed for inflation. Yet it still won't be nearly enough. Even if Congress had confiscated 100% of the taxable income of people earning over $500,000 in the boom year of 2006, it would have only raised $1.3 trillion. When Democrats end up soaking the middle class, perhaps via the European-style value-added tax that Mrs. Pelosi has endorsed, they'll claim the deficits that they created made them do it.

Read the entire article.

Who Will Protect Us from Washington?

A POX on both their houses.

Universal Health Care was within easy reach. This was a "no brainer," a goal that should have been the crown jewel of President Obama's first term as President. Everybody wanted it, no one opposed.

And reduced health care costs were even easier. The formula for dropping health care costs was so simple that even our Congress could have figured it out.

Alas, the Health Care Restructuring we are about to get served is the absolute worst of all possible worlds. We will like not have any public option (not that I wanted one). And we will not have universal choice. We will be stuck with our current policies with lower benefits, less choice, more governmental controls (Sarah Palin's Death Panels, but with a kinder, gentler name) and costs that will quickly spiral out of control.

Thinking Democrats and liberals like MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan are protesting mightily, but it's falling on deaf ears.

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Now go ahead and read Matt Miller's complete article in the Wall Street Journal: A Real Employee Free Choice Act Although Miller didn't know this when he wrote the article, Sen. Ron Wyden's (D., Ore.) Free Choice Act was permanently shelved at 1 am last night by the Senate Finance Committee without a vote.

As Ratigan and others have said, Congress is being boxed in by the odd couple combination of Labor Unions, who don't want their members to be able to chose a different plan, and businesses who are too stupid to realize that they should be begging to get out of the Health Care Business, not lobbying to stay in control of a system that will surely bankrupt them.

So we will get higher health care costs, a massive tax increase and government controlled care. And, because no one is willing to consider tort reform, we will get fewer doctors, fewer hospitals and higher premiums to cover malpractice insurance.

Finally, we are not really getting universal coverage, instead most people will face stiff fines if they somehow fail to purchase insurance they might not be able to afford.

Who is Lying to Seniors?

I'm certain that you've heard that the Medicare Advantage Program is very controversial. If you are young and you are not caring for an elderly relative, the Medicare Advantage Program may mean nothing to you. But if you or a loved one is enrolled in one of the programs, you are likely very concerned about the debate raging in Congress today.

What is Medicare Advantage? Under today's Advantage programs private insurers like United Health Care or Humana take over the administration of Medicare including the interface with the United States Government. They standardize all fees and greatly reduce the paperwork and eliminate virtually all complications for seniors. They often pay more than Medicare for many services, saving seniors substantial amounts of money.

But, they do cost the government about 14% more per senior than standard Medicare enrollment. Many claim this just goes to fatten the bankroll of evil and greedy insurance company executives. And anecdotal horror stories, generally totally unsubstantiated, are flowing through the blogosphere about seniors being denied care. These are almost certainly false because the companies are highly regulated and must, by law, cover any expense Medicare itself would cover.

My mother is enrolled in an Advantage Program through United Health Care. It is stunningly excellent and has saved her a great deal of money and countless headaches. I cannot praise the program enough. So I am biased.

On the other hand, I have several close friends who are doctors and also get to hear their side of the story. While the bookkeepers like the amazing simplicity of Advantage Programs, the doctors and hospitals actually are paid less than they would receive under straight Medicare. You see, Insurance Companies actually negotiate lower prices from health care providers. And, doctors tell me, the payments are often much more logical under Advantage programs, fees are more in line with real world costs. Medicare vastly overpays for certain services.

It is important to note, before I continue, that Advantage programs are primarily used by the very poor who cannot afford traditional Medicare Supplemental Insurance programs. Advantage covers some expenses much more fully than traditional Medicare. And, as I've already mentioned, it's a lot easier to use.

Today's debate revolves around what Insurance Companies are allowed to communicate with their customers. The Obama Administration has DEMANDED that all insurance companies cease and desist all communication with customers about the impending elimination of the Advantage Program. Today, on a nearly straight party line vote, the Senate backed the Administration.

The claim by the Obama Administration was that some communication lied or attempted to frighten seniors. However, Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf seemed to back the insurance companies Tuesday testifying under oath that seniors in the private Medicare Advantage plans would likely see substantially reduced benefits under the Senate Finance Committee legislation now under debate.

President Obama and virtually all Congressional Democrats have all PROMISED that despite the massive reductions and other planned cuts to the Medicare program, seniors would not see their benefits reduced under the Obama Health Care Restructuring. That claim is the centerpiece of every Obama speech and his address to the joint session of Congress last week. The only thing is, as Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf testified, that simply isn't true!

In his attack on the insurance companies yesterday, Senator Max Baucus, Finance Committee Chairman, boldly declared, "It is wholly unacceptable to mislead seniors regarding any subject — particularly on a subject as important to them, and to the nation, as health care reform."

I agree completely. It's damned time Senator Baucus and his fellow Democrats STOPPED LYING TO SENIORS AS THEY ATTEMPT TO SECRETLY GUT A SUCCESSFUL AND IMPORTANT PROGRAM.