The Smoke Break

You want some brie with that whine?

Quote Of The Day

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Courtesy of James Taranto, writing at the Wall Street Journal:

“So, let’s review the arguments:

• Republicans are bad, they lost the last election, and they have partisan motives for wanting to stop ObamaCare.

• People who are angry about this are crackpots who display swastikas and other invidious symbols.  Also, their anger is insincere, and they are shills of the RNC.  They wear nice clothes, and this is not to their credit.

• Some of the arguments against ObamaCare are false, according to Obama.

• If ObamaCare is defeated, Obama would be hurt.

“Is there any argument for ObamaCare? In all the material we reviewed for this item, only this, from the Obama email:

“In other words, the “crisis” is so urgent that any thoughtful deliberation would entail intolerable delay. This is the same old argument that has already failed.

“If this is the best the president can do, he deserves to lose resoundingly.  If that hurts him, there’s always aspirin.”

  

The Fight Is Against Cowards

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With the exception of SEIU and ACORN members, the American people are angry.  And they are letting their unrepresenting representatives know this in rare, loud form.

Paul Wehner writes:

Obama and the Democratic National Committee have embraced a novel approach: attack the voters.  These voters are, a new DNC ad tells us repeatedly, a “mob,” an “angry mob,” engaging in “mob activity.”  Much of the anger, insists the president’ s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, is “manufactured.” There are hints of a conspiracy. And President Obama, in remarks yesterday, gripes and complains about “griping and complaining” by the American public.  (This from a man who, during the campaign, in counseling his supporters on what to do with his opponents, asked them to “get in their face” and celebrated properly channeled “anger” on the part of the American people.)

With public anger toward ObamaCare rising, the president and his allies have decided to pour kerosene on the embers and flames (and fearful Democrats have taken to canceling town-hall meetings).  It is an old and sad story we are seeing play out: rather than facing the rancor at town-hall meetings as a sign of growing frustration and unrest, the president and his team are outright denying it.  They are reacting defensively, bitterly, and aggressively.  And Barack Obama — the man of unsurpassed equanimity and a calm temperament, who praises Lincoln because he always understood the views of those with whom he disagreed, the man who would usher in a “new era” of politics and civility, of enlightened public discourse and comity among previously warring factions — is allowing his representatives to mock and demonize his critics.

And so it is.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said, “They have no interest in letting the negotiators, even though few in number, negotiate.  It’s really simple: they’re taking their cues from talk show hosts, Internet rumor-mongerers … and insurance rackets.”  The U.S. Community Organizer In Chief, through his Democrat handmaidens, has promised the party and allies would “punch back twice as hard” if they are openly criticized.  Nancy Pelosi tells tall tales of you and I, plain old regular Americans, walking around waving swastikas.

On Thursday, the AFL-CIO announced plans to mobilize labor activists to attend town hall meetings in 50 congressional districts during the August recess.  And the Center for American Progress, among other organizations, is drumming up Obamabots to “make sure that health care town halls aren’t hijacked!”

Some Congress critters are taking all this to heart and last night’s town hall meeting in South St. Louis, hosted by Democrat Representative Russ Carnahan, actually locked the doors against regular citizens who lined up to attend.  SEIU members were snuck in through the back door (a door ironically marked “handicapped”) and, in stereotypical union fashion, some of them became violent with the regular citizens in attendance, resulting in six arrests (including people taking pictures).

In Tampa, Florida, Democratic State Representative Betty Reed and U.S. Representative Kathy Castor set up a session on health care and insurance reform but were met by larger-than-expected crowds who didn’t want to hear just talking points.  Meeting organizers scuffled with regular citizens and it wasn’t long before Castor was escorted out of the town hall by police after Reed encouraged her to leave.   (Note to self:  one of the “most popular” articles next to this one is headlined “Woman accused of having sex with dogs “.  Cancel trip to Florida.)

It’s extremely encouraging to see the sleeping dragon, America’s silent majority, has begun to awaken.  But I take exception to those who would cross the line into outright rudeness and become physical with those who hold differing views, no matter how wrong they are.  That only gives validity to the Democrats’ agenda and, considering the mindset of Obama and those he has placed into positions of power in the federal government, give him flimsy reason to do something as stupid as attempt to declare marshall law.

We don’t need violence or – god forbid – bloodshed to wrest this country back from the leeches who are sucking the life out of her.  Cool heads must prevail.  The polls show confidence in the administration continues to drop like a rock.  The Rasmussen Report’s daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday, August 6, 2009 shows:

  •  
    • 32% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President
      38% Strongly Disapprove
    • 71% believe the President’s policies have driven up the federal deficit
      54% say that middle class tax cuts are more important than new spending on health care
      Only 33% now believe the country is heading in the right direction
    • Overall, 49% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance
      51% disapprove

Those in government know that for every phone call or letter they receive, there are at least 10 people who think the same way but just aren’t taking the time to say so, so we must continue to call and write Congress.  Continue to show up at townhall meetings and Tea Party protests because even if your Congress critter turns tail and locks you out of the dialogue, and even if the mainstream Obama-lapdog media won’t report on it, your presence counts.  But whatever you do, do so with polite resolve.  If confronted with bots and stupidity, meet them with stony silence.  Though the normal reaction is to argue, remember this – when you wrestle with a pig you both get dirty but only the pig enjoys it.  While the last thing they want is to be ignored (and in truth this is the best way to anger them), if you can’t manage to turn your back, laugh at them instead and let their reactions cause them to look the fool.  As more and more regular Americans take up the fight for freedom, more and more cameras will be rolling and, frankly, it’s the perfect opportunity to continue to flush out those with nefarious hidden agendas because when they go on tape saying or doing stupid things, it’s there forever and try as they may, they cannot deny it.

Never forget that although we surround them, this fight for freedom is a fight against cowards.  And cowards don’t play fair.   They won’t discuss facts but instead call names and try to force matters into a place of emotions.  The minute you go there with them, they’ve won.

And this is one fight we, the people, cannot afford to lose.

Single-Payer Health Care To Get House Vote

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This just in, courtesy of my uber-liberal progressive (read:  most misguided) friend.  The House is planning to amend HR 3200 and replace it with HR 676 to create a national single-payer health plan.

  

In this e-mail:

  1. Single payer to receive a vote on the floor of the U.S. House
  2. Media appearances by Obama’s doctor (and PNHPer) Dr. David Scheiner
  3. New Kaiser Comparison of Congressional Health Plans
  4. Invitation to PNHP’s Annual Meeting: Saturday, October 24

August 5, 2009

Dear PNHP Members and Friends,

Breaking News!

Last Friday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi committed to bringing single-payer to a vote before the full House of Representatives when the chamber reconvenes to debate national health care reform in September.

The vote will come in the form of an amendment to the House Leadership’s incremental health legislation. The amendment, offered by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), would effectively remove the entire existing health plan and replace it with the text of H.R. 676, Rep. John Conyers’ single-payer legislation. (click here to see the text of the amendment).

This vote presents a truly historic opportunity – the first time that single-payer will be voted on in the Congress. (See the news release below).

PNHP and allied groups are now marshaling our forces to win maximum support for the Weiner single-payer amendment. We’re launching a new national campaign staffed by Ali Thebert and Nicholas Skala to make sure that members of Congress hear from their physician constituents that single payer is the only solution to the U.S. health care crisis.
Here’s what you can do:

  1. Use PNHP’s online campaign tool: send a letter to your Representative supporting the Weiner single payer amendment (click here to send a letter!).
  2. Arrange a meeting with your Representative: and use Weiner Single Payer Amendment lobbying materials available on the campaign web site (click here for the campaign web site). Try to visit your Representatives during the August recess while members are still in their districts. If you need help or strategy advice, emailali@pnhp.org.
  3. Speak out to local media and / or publish an op-ed: Please forward the included press release on the Weiner Amendment to your local media and offer to speak to the local press on behalf of the Amendment. Editorial board meetings and op-eds are also helpful at this time. (Click here for tips on writing op-eds)

In other news, PNHPer Dr. David Scheiner has been appearing in the media nationwide. Dr. Scheiner was Obama’s personal physician for 22 years until Obama became president. He was also the medical partner of PNHP National Coordinator Dr. Quentin Young for 30 years.

Dr. Scheiner has criticized the Obama health plan and called for single payer instead in media outlets ranging from Forbes magazine to Lou Dobbs to FOX News. 
Watch Dr. Scheiner’s appearance on CNN: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb-OVHmhQFM

Dr. Scheiner will appear on “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday, August 7 at 10:00 Eastern on HBO. Be sure to tune in!

Other PNHP leaders have taken to the airwaves, including Margaret Flowers, Oliver Fein, Garrett Adams, Claudia Fegan and Andy Coates. Please exert every effort to speak out yourself, including through letters to the editor and op-eds.

For those of you who need help understanding the details of the various reform plans coming out of the House and Senate, the Kaiser Family Foundation has a side-by-side comparison tool for all proposals, including the House (HR 676) and Senate (HR 703) single-payer bills. (Click here for the Kaiser tool).

Finally, registration for the PNHP annual meeting on October 24 in Cambridge, MA is now open at www.pnhp.org/meeting. See our invitation letter reprinted below. We hope to see you there!

Cordially,

Quentin Young, M.D.
National Coordinator		 Ida Hellander, M.D.
Executive Director

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
 Contact:
Aug. 5, 2009 Quentin Young, M.D., (312) 782-6006, info@pnhp.org
  Mark Almberg, PNHP, (312) 782-6006, mark@pnhp.org
  David Lerner or Karmen Ross, Riptide Communications,
(212) 260-5000

 

House vote on single payer will be historic first, doctors’ group says

Physicians call on lawmakers to ‘do the right thing’ on health reform

Hailing last week’s pledge by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to hold a floor debate and vote on single-payer health reform this fall, a group of 16,000 physicians is launching an intensified campaign to educate lawmakers about the urgency of a “Medicare-for-All” solution to the nation’s health care crisis.

Leaders of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) say their campaign includes a stepped-up program of visits by doctors to House members in their home districts during the August recess.

Last Friday’s commitment by Pelosi (D-Calif.) to Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) to put hissingle-payer amendment to H.R. 3200, the House leadership’s health reform bill, to an up-or-down vote before the full House has set the stage for first-ever floor vote of its kind. The House debate on the amendment could begin as early as September.  

“Single payer has gone from being ‘off the table’ to ‘on the floor,'” said Dr. Quentin Young, national coordinator of PNHP. “This dramatic turn of events is a striking indicator of our success. It shows the House leadership recognizes the strong public support – including among doctors – for removing the wasteful insurance company middlemen from our health system and redirecting the resultant savings into care.”

Weiner’s amendment would delete most of the language of in the House bill and instead substitute language from H.R. 676, the single-payer bill introduced by Reps. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio).

The Weiner amendment, unlike the House leadership’s bill, assures universal, comprehensive, and high-quality coverage, free choice of doctor and hospital, and no co-pays or deductibles through a publicly financed system similar to Medicare. Young said that because of massive savings on private insurance overhead and paperwork, the amendment would entail no increase in U.S. health spending, in contrast to the House bill’s $1 trillion price tag over 10 years.“By recapturing the administrative waste associated with our present multi-payer, for-profit private insurance system, estimated to be $400 billion annually, a single-payer program would have more than enough resources to cover everyone who lacks insurance now and to upgrade everyone else’s,” he said.

“A single-payer system would also possess strong cost-control tools like bulk purchasing of drugs, negotiation of fees and global budgeting, controls that are notably absent in the House bill,” he said.

Young says many union, civic and faith-based groups will be watching how lawmakers vote with an eye to the 2010 election cycle. “Lawmakers now have a golden opportunity to stand up for the best interests of their constituents, to rebuff the private, for-profit health insurance industry, and assure the health of our nation,” he said.

He continued: “Many members of Congress – including Speaker Pelosi – have told constituents that they personally support a single-payer, Medicare-for-all approach, but claim they can’t vote for it because it’s not politically feasible. Yet polls that show they would have the public’s support for such a stand. Now we’ll be watching to see whether their votes match their words.”

Single-payer bills have been introduced in Congress repeatedly over the past 60 years – starting with the Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill in the 1940s, and including the Kennedy-Griffiths bill of the 1970s and the Wellstone, McDermott and Russo bills of the 1990s – but none has ever reached the floor of the House or Senate.

*****

Physicians for a National Health Program (www.pnhp.org) is an organization of 16,000 doctors who advocate for single-payer national health insurance.

Several leaders of PNHP have testified before congressional committees in the present health reform debate. (See links below). To interview any of these or other spokespersons, please call (312) 782-6006.

Testimony of Steffie Woolhandler, M.D., M.P.H., on medical bankruptcy and health reform before the Subcommittee on Administrative and Commercial Law
House Judiciary Committee, July 28, 2009:
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/july/testimony_of_steffie.php

Testimony of Dr. Woolhandler before the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, July 24
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/june/testimony_of_steffie.php

Testimony of Quentin Young, M.D., M.A.C.P., before the House Ways and Means Committee, June 24
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/june/testimony_of_quentin.php

Testimony of Margaret Flowers, M.D., before the Senate HELP Committee, June 11
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/june/testimony_of_margare.php

Testimony of David U. Himmelstein, M.D. before the HELP Subcommittee, April 23
http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/april/testimony_of_david_u.php

August 5, 2009Dear Colleagues,    We write to invite you to attend the Annual Meeting of Physicians for a National Health Program on Saturday, October 24, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It will be preceded by our popular Leadership Training course, starting at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, October 23, at the Harvard Faculty Club.Registration for the Annual Meeting is now on-line at www.pnhp.org/meeting. To register for leadership training (space is limited), please call Matt Petty at 312-782-6006. 

The theme of the meeting is “Evidence-based or market-based health reform? Health Policy in the Obama Era” with health economist William Hsiao, Dr. Marcia Angell (former editor, NEJM), PNHP co-founders Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler, PNHP President Dr. Oliver Fein, T.R. Reid (“Sick Around the World”), former Cigna executive Wendell Potter, and more.

The conference hotel is the Royal Sonesta (617-806-4200, $209 single/double reserve by September 23), with leadership training at the nearby Harvard Faculty Club.

PNHP is committed to promoting fundamental health care reform over the long term. Although proposals based on mandating that individuals purchase private insurance (like HR 3200) have the backing of the powerful drug and insurance lobbies (PhRMA alone has already spent $17 million on supportive ads), they certainly won’t solve the health care crisis. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that we’ve seen our single-payer proposal go from being “off the table” (Senator Max Baucus) to being “on the floor,” with a commitment from Speaker Nancy Pelosi to a full House vote on single payer in the form of the Weiner amendment after the recess (see press release, enclosed).

PNHPers have played a leading role in this historic development, testifying before committees in the House and the Senate on single payer, and before the House Judiciary committee on medical bankruptcy, and making numerous media appearances, including on Bill Moyers, Bill Maher, Fox News, CNN, Colbert, Ed Schultz, Democracy Now, and more.

This surge in media and congressional interest was almost certainly triggered by the courageous and dignified acts of civil disobedience before the Senate Finance Committee by PNHPers, nurses, and citizen activists in May. 

As the administration’s inadequate proposals are either enacted or rejected, our single-payer proposal takes on even more importance as the only remedy for the health care crisis.

Please join us as we assess the status of health reform and plan PNHP’s policy and strategy for the future.

Yours truly,

Quentin Young, M.D.
National Coordinator		 Ida Hellander, M.D.
Executive Director

P.S. Your membership in PNHP is more important than ever.  Please consider renewing your membership or making a special donation at this critical time: www.pnhp.org/renew orwww.pnhp.org/donate. 

 

 
 
Welcome to socialized medicine.  It is the end of the private health insurance sector, as stated in this section of the amendment:

SEC. 104. PROHIBITION AGAINST DUPLICATING COVERAGE.
(a) IN GENERAL.-It is unlawful for a private health insurer to sell health insurance coverage that duplicates the benefits provided under this division.

The CBO is going to have a field day, since little is mentioned beyond a “global budget” to pay all of the doctors, nurses, other staffs, and “capital expenditures” associated with providing the entire country with medical care.  Funding will come from:

  • Existing sources of Federal Government revenues for health care.
  • Increasing personal income taxes on the top 5 percent income earners.
  • Instituting a modest and progressive excise tax on payroll and self-employment income.
  • Instituting a small tax on stock and bond transactions.
  •  Money that would have been spent for Federal public health care programs, including
    • the Medicare program
    •  the Medicaid program
    •  the Children’s Health Insurance Program

So, punk, you feeling “extremist” yet?  You think your unrepresenting representative is going to vote “yes” for this?  There are those who just might.  Or it could be a ploy to incite so much anger that HR 3200 and whatever ends up coming out of the Senate committee appears almost reasonable in comparison.

Don’t be fooled.  Don’t let your guard down, no matter what kind of names the Democrats want to call us.

Facts ARE Stubborn Things

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It is quite apparent that President Obama and his staff really haven’t read HR 3200 or any other variation of the proposed “health care reform” that he insists is so desperately needed by the upwards of 80% of Americans who are actually quite satisfied with their current health insurance.  As regular Americans read the bill(s) and begin to understand what the various, lengthy sections really mean in terms of dollars, cents, and loss of freedoms they are becoming angry.

They are speaking out.

They are asking questions.

But their unrepresenting representatives aren’t listening.  And they aren’t answering the questions.

So the anger of the American people grows.  It acts as the spur to take a lunch hour, or an afternoon off of work, to go out and do something most of us have never done before. 

Protest.

Join up with others of like-mind (in some cases up to 10,000 of them) and march to make a clear and visible statement to the unrepresenting representaties who aren’t listening or are doing their damndest to avoid the questions.

The White House, at last realizing that while you can fool some of the people all of the time, you can’t fool all of the people all of the time, doesn’t know what to do with real, tangible, and logically-presented opposition.  Those tens of thousands of regular, hard-working Americans now find themselves on the receiving end of left-wing nut, radicalist tactics of cruel labeling and derision.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs:

“I think there is a lot of manufactured anger going on.”

The Democratic National Committee has now set out to round up its members through word-of-mouth and email:

There’s been a lot of media coverage about organized mobs intimidating lawmakers, disrupting town halls, and silencing real discussion about the need for real health insurance reform.

The truth is, it’s a sham. These “grassroots protests” are being organized and largely paid for by Washington special interests and insurance companies who are desperate to block reform. They’re trying to use lies and fear to break the President and his agenda for change.

Health insurance reform is about our lives, our jobs, and our families — we can’t let distortions and intimidation get in the way. We need to expose these outrageous tactics, and we’re counting on you to help. Can you read these “5 facts about the anti-reform mobs,” then pass them along to your friends and family?

5 facts about the anti-reform mobs

1. These disruptions are being funded and organized by out-of-district special-interest groups and insurance companies who fear that health insurance reform could help Americans, but hurt their bottom line. A group run by the same folks who made the “Swiftboat” ads against John Kerry is compiling a list of congressional events in August to disrupt. An insurance company coalition has stationed employees in 30 states to track where local lawmakers hold town-hall meetings.

2. People are scared because they are being fed frightening lies. These crowds are being riled up by anti-reform lies being spread by industry front groups that invent smears to tarnish the President’s plan and scare voters. But as the President has repeatedly said, health insurance reform will create more health care choices for the American people, not reduce them. If you like your insurance or your doctor, you can keep them, and there is no “government takeover” in any part of any plan supported by the President or Congress.

3. Their actions are getting more extreme. Texas protesters brought signs displaying a tombstone for Rep. Lloyd Doggett and using the “SS” symbol to compare President Obama’s policies to Nazism. Maryland Rep. Frank Kratovil was hanged in effigy outside his district office. Rep. Tim Bishop of New York had to be escorted to his car by police after an angry few disrupted his town hall meeting — and more examples like this come in every day. And they have gone beyond just trying to derail the President’s health insurance reform plans, they are trying to “break” the President himself and ruin his Presidency.

4. Their goal is to disrupt and shut down legitimate conversation. Protesters have routinely shouted down representatives trying to engage in constructive dialogue with voters, and done everything they can to intimidate and silence regular people who just want more information. One attack group has even published a manual instructing protesters to “stand up and shout” and try to “rattle” lawmakers to prevent them from talking peacefully with their constituents.

5. Republican leadership is irresponsibly cheering on the thuggish crowds. Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner issued a statement applauding and promoting a video of the disruptions and looking forward to “a long, hot August for Democrats in Congress.”

It’s time to expose this charade, before it gets more dangerous. Please send these facts to everyone you know. You can also post them on your website, blog, or Facebook page.

Now, more than ever, we need to stand strong together and defend the truth.

Thanks,

Jen

Jen O’Malley Dillon
Executive Director
Democratic National Committee

President Obama put his John Hancock on a message sent out by his very own community organizers:

“This is the moment our movement was built for.  There are those who profit from the status quo, or see this debate as a political game, and they will stop at nothing to block reform. They are filling the airwaves and the Internet with outrageous falsehoods to scare people into opposing change. And some people, not surprisingly, are getting pretty nervous.  So we’ve got to get out there, fight lies with truth, and set the record straight.”

And instead of addressing the facts of the matter, instead of discussing the facts set down in black & white in the proposed legislation, the White House has put a snitch program in place.  This means that if your friend emails you with their opinion about health care reform and you don’t like their argument or you read a blog and don’t like what it says, you can run squealing to Pater Obama.

There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care.  These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation.  Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.

“Flag” anyone who sees what Congress is proposing as being wrong for the country?  Just what will Obama and the administration do with the list of thousands upon thousands of names of Americans who disagree with their agenda for “change”?  What do they intend to do to all of those people?  How many names of those in Washington will go onto this list because their own words – as documented in writing and in numerous videos – are now proven by the legislation on the table to be both “fishy” and “disinformation”?

This is beyond sandbox squabbling.  It smacks of tactics used in Nazi Germany and the tactics recently used in Iran after their so-called presidential election.  The White House thinks that by putting the fear of being “outed” to the government into the general populace, they’ll shut down the opposition to their plans.

They couldn’t be more wrong.

Because by using such nefarious tactics to attempt to silence the voice of American people, silence the voice of the people who have given them the very job they hold, the American people rightfully see it as proof that the only “reform” in the Obama administration’s plans for “health care reform” is to eliminate their freedom.  Congress is putting it down word by word, in black and white. 

And it is YOUR right, it is MY right, to tell them we want no part of it.

We surround them.  We will not be silenced.  And as it finally dawns on them, they are now – at long last – afraid. 

 It’s a beautiful thing.

 

 

 

 

Know Thine Enemy

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Being one who prefers intelligent discourse and debate to playground ad hominems, the vitriol that spews from the political left is something I try to avoid.  But cliches endure because they contain truths; like, “Hold your friends close, your enemies closer.”  So I occasionally don my gas mask and make a speedy, stealthy forray into the dank, near-airless recesses of the left-wingnut insane asylum.

It’s not a pretty sight.  And it’s easy to walk away feeling both the need for a shower and very discouraged because, frankly, no one likes to be called names. 

But the truth will, indeed, set you free so take note if you intend on seeing your own personal unrepresenting representatives during this August recess.  The word on the left side of the street is that your wanting the government to keep their hands off your health care, your very presence at a townhall meeting, is being orchestrated and controlled by the Big, Bad, Evil health insurance industry. 

Yes, you are being characterized as nothing more than a pawn of Big, Bad Business.  You know, some of those people who create real jobs in America.

You see, the left think that everyone is like them:  unable to string together logical sequences of facts and then form an opinion; in their bubble-world it’s all about “feelings”.  They find it unimaginable that you or I might attend a townhall meeting because we feel it is our duty and it is our right to let our unrepresenting representatives know what we think about the issues facing us.  In their simple minds, we’ve become fired up because we’ve been lied to by greedy corporate entities, not because we’ve taken the time to read the legislation and understand the negative impacts it will have not only on our already-near-empty wallets, but on our very lives and the lives of those we love.

It must be painful to be so rigid and so blind.  I sometimes wonder just what purpose such people serve, except as a source of amusement (rather like watching someone trip over the garden hose and do a face-plant on the lawn right under the sprinkler) or as a stunning example of all those things about which our mothers warned.  I’ve never seen such blind adherence to “fairness” served up with such utter contempt.  A big example is seen with the mainstream media’s deafening silence over the fact that almost 10,000 people showed up in Columbus this past weekend to protest the current administration’s takeovers of the private sector and handing out rewards to incompetence with money we don’t even have.

I do fear many more townhalls are going to get ugly.  But not because we dare to show our faces or to politely voice our disapproval and frustration, but because there are those from the left who will use it as an opportunity to attack their sworn enemy:  the truth.  And do so by spreading spiteful lies and by standing shoulder-to-shoulder with those who will speak out against the government takeover of American medicine, doing this with only one thing in mind:  to shout them down.  Obama’s foot soldiers have been called to action and, robot-like, will do their duty.  But because they are the ones who are truly the sheep, the moment there is disagreement with the opinions they’ve been given, the moment dialogue veers from the script they’ve memorized, the odds of uncivil, if not borderline illegal, from-the-hip reactions are quite likely.

And being sucked into their game is the last thing this country needs.

Consider yourself warned, my friends.  Now is the time for cool heads to prevail.  Put forth truths and let the left reveal themselves through their insensible, incoherent reactions.

We surround them.

Quote Of The Day

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“Let the Hollywood crowd write those checks. Let academia write them. Let Acorn write those checks. Let members of Congress past and present write them. Let Mr. and Mrs. Obama, Mr. and Mrs. Clinton, and Mr. Carter write a few with their book royalties. Let checks be written by the faceless AND NOT SO FACELESS bureaucrat straphangers in DC and in statehouses whose jobs depend on deficits. Let the unions write them with dues rather than funding election campaigns. Let leftist bloggers write one as a rite of passage. Let the media write some. Let General Electric write checks. Let the Republicans who let us down write some as well. And let them be written by all who believe deficits should be funded with someone else’s money. Then we shall see what we can afford. I don’t have any more checks in my checkbook.”

(Dick Hough, Camarillo, CA, in response to the news that projecting the U.S. deficit out beyond the 10-year marker being used to sell increased debt through socializing American medicine shows the number nearing $10 trillion, or $214,000/person today.)

Meet The “Parenting Czar”

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We’ve already pointed out that intentions in the Obama administration’s plans to reform health care includes taking over your job of parenting.  If you think that’s out of line, consider just how far this kind of “for the common good” ideology (read:  socialist) has gone in Great Britain, who is well-experienced in the muck and mire of socialized medicine.

The “Children’s Secretary” has proposed $400million pounds-worth of plans to put 20,000 “problem families” under 24-hour CCTV supervision in their own homes.

Yes, you read that right.  The “Parenting Czar” has gone Big Brother on parents they deem to be unfit.

They will be monitored to ensure that children attend school, go to bed on time and eat proper meals.

Private security guards will also be sent round to carry out home checks, while parents will be given help to combat drug and alcohol addiction.

Around 2,000 families have gone through these Family Intervention Projects so far.

But ministers want to target 20,000 more in the next two years, with each costing between £5,000 and £20,000 – a potential total bill of £400million.

“This is pretty tough and non-negotiable support for families to get to the root of the problem. There should be Family Intervention Projects in every local authority area because every area has families that need support.”  (Children’s Secretary Ed Balls)

But Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling said:  “This is all much too little, much too late. 

“This Government has been in power for more than a decade during which time anti-social behaviour, family breakdown and problems like alcohol abuse and truancy have just got worse and worse.”

That last sentence sums up just how well socializing health care works when you take it out of its little Ivy League bubble and force it onto the real world.

Run away, America.  Run away.

Fear-Mongering Begins For Tax Increases

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We couldn’t afford what they spent then, and we’re not going to be able to afford what they want to spend now.  But despite all the song and dance about stimuluses and leaving the middle-class alone while we fix more things that aren’t broken, at some point something has to give and administration officials today have begun spilling the beans that tax increases are coming.

“We will not get this economy back on track, recovery will be not strong and sustained, unless we … can convince the American people that we’re going to have the will to bring these deficits down once recovery is firmly established,” Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said on ABC’s “This Week.” 

Asked point blank whether it was right to suggest it is a matter of when, not if, taxes will be raised, Geithner responded, “It is absolutely right.”

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned that even a deficit-neutral plan being touted by Democrats to fund government-run health insurance program won’t be enough in the long run. 

“We have to attack both the original shortfall and make sure we fund whatever new initiatives that occur in the health care area. It’s not adequate to be strictly revenue-neutral, because there’s a lot more to be done,” he said, noting the large number of baby boomers who currently are signing onto Medicare.

Personally, I’ve not asked the federal government to spend anything close to what it has been spending for years on various programs and entitlements and special interests.  I never asked them to let Wall Street trade in toxic assets or to force banks to loan money to people who can’t afford to pay it back.  I didn’t ask them to buy not one, but two car companies for me.  I didn’t ask them to try to take over American medicine and I certainly never asked them to try to turn C02 into a trading commodity that will raise the price of everything so they and a few of their friends can become the “evil rich” they speak of so derisively today.

Did you?

Pelosi Beats The Socialized Medicine Drum

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CSPAN taped House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talking about the status of the “health care reform” legislation.  In it she states that the “glory days are coming to an end for the health insurance industy in our country.  Their profits are obscene, they have increased enormously over the past few years at the expense of America’s consumers.”

She goes on to gush about how wonderful things will be when the government takes over the business of providing health insurance:

“Think of what that means for the vitality of our economy!  So we can encourage entrepreneurship while people have the confidence they will have health insurance and can take more risk.

“There will be a cap on what you pay to the insurance companies each year, but no cap on the benefits you receive.

“And this makes all the difference in the world.”

That “difference”, dangled like a carrot in front of numbnuts suffering from liberal entitlement-derangement syndrome, is between profit and loss, sustainability and bankruptcy.  If you pay someone a dollar and they give you back ten, they are immediately out nine dollars.  If a hundred people pay someone a dollar and are given back ten, that person is then out $900.  If 1,000 people pay one dollar and get back ten, that person is out $9,000.  And if 300 million people pay a dollar and get back ten, that someone is out $270 million.

It’s a difference that, with the “President leading the way, with us being a drumbeat, an echo chamber of the President’s message,” will kill not only people subject to the government’s control of medicine, but the American economy.

Government-Run Health Care Is Deadly Medicine

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Both the House and Senate are putting on their best Sunday-go-to-meetin’ faces and telling the media that work on “health care reform” is 80% complete.  This means that 80% of the endless laundry list of economic and personal-rights negatives in the bills in both House and Senate are in place and they’re not going to go anywhere.

This means that it is a sword of Damocles that hangs over the heads of the American people as the Obama administration prepares for a complete government takeover of the practice of medicine in the United States.

If that doesn’t frighten you to death, rest assured that with their kind of government “help”, you’ll be dead soon enough.  Especially if you look at who’s going to be making decisions about what kind of care the government is going to allow you.

One of them is Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and the health-policy adviser at the Office of Management and Budget and a member of Federal Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research.  His biography shows him to be a “bioethicist” and a  fellow at the right-to-die Hastings Center.  Here are some of his views about modern medicine.

“Vague promises of savings from cutting waste, enhancing prevention and wellness, installing electronic medical records and improving quality are merely ‘lipstick’ cost control, more for show and public relations than for true change.” (Health Affairs Feb. 27, 2008)

(It’s more efficient to start with the root cause:  reduce the number of people alive and needing treatment?)

Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath too seriously, “as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others.” (Journal of the American Medical Association, June 18, 2008)

(Remind that cancer patient whose treatment allowed them be around just long enough to see their son or daughter take their first steps, or graduate from college and their family about this, ok?)

Medical care should be reserved for the non-disabled, not given to those “who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens . . . An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia.” (Hastings Center Report, Nov.-Dec. ’96)

(But it’s all right with the Obama administration if dead people vote.)

“Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination; every person lives through different life stages rather than being a single age. Even if 25-year-olds receive priority over 65-year-olds, everyone who is 65 years now was previously 25 years.” (Lancet, Jan. 31)

(You’re already 52, Dr. Emanuel.  Ready to start moving to the back of the line?)

“Hospital rooms in the United States offer more privacy . . . physicians’ offices are typically more conveniently located and have parking nearby and more attractive waiting rooms” (JAMA, June 18, 2008)

(Heaven forbid that people who are sick might find some modicum of comfort in the place they receive treatment.)

“Every favor to a constituency should be linked to support for the health-care reform agenda. If the automakers want a bailout, then they and their suppliers have to agree to support and lobby for the administration’s health-reform effort.” (Nov. 16, 2008, Health Care Watch)

(So that explains why the UAW retirees now have to pay for their own Viagra!)

Maybe this is why Ted Kennedy has been keeping such a low profile.