Tea Party Texan

WHAT IS YOUR VALUE?

2009-07-06T13:22:00.002-05:00

What is your value?

There are a lot of folks that are approaching the Healthcare issue as a humanitarian gesture that will provide care for everyone. They feel that it is a God given right. I don't quibble with this sentiment. Life should have an equal value from inception to natural death. Life should be valued equal from unborn baby to the elderly or terminal patient. Each of us has a right to life. The right to life and thus equal treatment should be available to everyone but not punish anyone. How we get there is what we are now debating in this country. Boundaries and definitions will need to be defined. Access within the boundaries will be determined. Definitions of care will be debated.

In the end it has to be provided independent of Government control. If we have Government control then life will not have an equal value established on a equal basis. Definitions will be established where the value of life for an unborn or handicapped will be less then a productive 26 years old. The value of life for a terminally ill patient or an elderly person with little or no productivity left will be determined to have little or no value. Healthcare will be provided based on your value established by the government. We should be very afraid of this process.

To further the debate, take a look at the following article discussing some of the Government run programs in other countries.

July 1, 2009

"Better" Health Care?

By John Stossel

President Obama says government will make health care cheaper and better. But there's no free lunch.

In England, health care is "free" -- as long as you don't mind waiting. People wait so long for dentist appointments that some pull their own teeth. At any one time, half a million people are waiting to get into a British hospital. A British paper reports that one hospital tried to save money by not changing bedsheets. Instead of washing sheets, the staff was encouraged to just turn them over.

Obama insists he is not "trying to bring about government-run healthcare".

"But government management does the same thing," says Sally Pipes of the Pacific Research Institute. "To reduce costs they'll have to ration -- deny -- care."

"People line up for care, some of them die. That's what happens," says Canadian doctor David Gratzer, author of "The Cure". He liked Canada's government health care until he started treating patients.

"The more time I spent in the Canadian system, the more I came across people waiting for radiation therapy, waiting for the knee replacement so they could finally walk up to the second floor of their house." "You want to see your neurologist because of your stress headache? No problem! Just wait six months. You want an MRI? No problem! Free as the air! Just wait six months."

Polls show most Canadians like their free health care, but most people aren't sick when the poll-taker calls. Canadian doctors told us the system is cracking. One complained that he can't get heart-attack victims into the ICU.

In America, people wait in emergency rooms, too, but it's much worse in Canada. If you're sick enough to be admitted, the average wait is 23 hours.

"We can't send these patients to other hospitals. Dr. Eric Letovsky told us. "Every other emergency department in the country is just as packed as we are."

More than a million and a half Canadians say they can't find a family doctor. Some towns hold lotteries to determine who gets a doctor. In Norwood, Ontario, "20/20" videotaped a town clerk pulling the names of the lucky winners out of a lottery box. The losers must wait to see a doctor.

Shirley Healy, like many sick Canadians, came to America for surgery. Her doctor in British Columbia told her she had only a few weeks to live because a blocked artery kept her from digesting food. Yet Canadian officials called her surgery "elective."

"The only thing elective about this surgery was I elected to live," she said.

It's true that America's partly profit-driven, partly bureaucratic system is expensive, and sometimes wasteful, but the pursuit of profit reduces waste and costs and gives the world the improvements in medicine that ease pain and save lives.

"[America] is the country of medical innovation. This is where people come when they need treatment," Dr. Gratzer says.

"Literally we're surrounded by medical miracles. Death by cardiovascular disease has dropped by two-thirds in the last 50 years. You've got to pay a price for that type of advancement."

Canada and England don't pay the price because they freeload off American innovation. If America adopted their systems, we could worry less about paying for health care, but we'd get 2009-level care -- forever. Government monopolies don't innovate. Profit seekers do.

We saw this in Canada, where we did find one area of medicine that offers easy access to cutting-edge technology -- CT scan, endoscopy, thoracoscopy, laparoscopy, etc. It was open 24/7. Patients didn't have to wait.

But you have to bark or meow to get that kind of treatment. Animal care is the one area of medicine that hasn't been taken over by the government. Dogs can get a CT scan in one day. For people, the waiting list is a month.

Stop The Madness That's Killing Jobs

2009-07-03T12:52:00.001-05:00

Stop The Madness That's Killing Jobs
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Thursday, July 02, 2009 4:20 PM PT

Stimulus: More grim news — 467,000 jobs lost in June, with unemployment hitting a 26-year high of 9.5%. Some people are rightly starting to wonder: Where's that stimulus we were promised?

it all — with the major indexes plunging 2.4% to 2.9% on the news of a continued job hemorrhage. Despite some economic green shoots here and there, no one's sure when jobs will start growing again.

At this point in a normal downturn lasting 11 months, the economy should be booming — with big jumps in GDP and 300,000 new jobs each month coming mostly from the private sector.

But 18 months into this downturn, we're still losing jobs — with 2.7 million gone in the private sector just since January, when the Democrats took full control of the government.

Shrinking GDP has crushed investment. First quarter gross private domestic investment — a proxy for business investment — plunged 20%, or nearly $450 billion, annually. The outlook is grim.

Worse, the June jobs data mark a milestone of sorts: Our unemployment rate equals that of the no-growth Eurozone nations.

Why is this job decline happening? The private sector — the real engine of economic and job growth — won't hire because it's scared of what it sees coming out of Washington.

On the horizon, as far as the eye can see, are higher taxes, uncontrolled spending and layers upon layers of new regulations.

Who would hire new workers faced with that?

Also, the federal government is meddling in the private sector as never before — in essence, nationalizing two of the three major carmakers with $200 billion in subsidies and capital infusions, turning our banking system into a fourth branch of government through the $700 billion TARP program, spending $200 billion to take over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and put them back in the business of lending to people who can't pay their loans — which is how we got into trouble in the first place.

And that's only what's been done in the last half year or so. What really scares private businesses is what's in the pipeline.

• Health insurance reform: Estimates for reforming our medical care range from $1 trillion to $3.6 trillion, with much of the bill footed by businesses. All to take care of 46 million uninsured.

But 10 million of those aren't citizens. And according to former CBO chief June O'Neill, 43% of the total could afford to buy coverage but don't. So the problem is much smaller than people think.

As for current plans to take over our health care system, they'll barely help. According to Congress' own think tank, spending $1 trillion will only remove 16 million from the 46 million uninsured.

• Cap and trade: A major reshaping of our nation's energy policy will include massive new taxes, mostly on businesses, and cause our economy to crater. Most depressingly, despite taxing businesses and consumers to the hilt, the Waxman-Markey climate stabilization act will not remove one ounce of carbon from our atmosphere over the next decade.

It's nothing but a huge scam that will bankrupt any business that relies heavily on energy, boosting fuel prices by 22 cents a gallon and socking the average family with an $1,800 a year tax hike.

As Robert Zubrin of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies wrote last week, "(Waxman-Markey) proposes a massive and highly regressive tax on the U.S. economy, and could potentially cause not only extensive business failures, unemployment and privation within our own borders, but starvation among poorer populations elsewhere."

• Stimulus II: As if the first $787 billion tranche of "stimulus" wasn't enough, some in the Democratic Party are suggesting a second stimulus bill. Are they joking? The first stimulus has failed spectacularly. Personal incomes rose briefly after "stimulus" checks were handed out, but have since resumed their decline.

Meanwhile, hundreds of billions of dollars went to strapped state governments. But according to the National Governors' Association, states are still expected to show $183 billion in red ink in the next two years. Stimulus clearly hasn't worked. Why try another?

Taken together, all these new programs would mean sky-high new taxes, more regulations and the biggest expansion of government since FDR's New Deal.

That's not a good thing. Unemployment during the New Deal averaged 17%, and government meddling turned what should have been a garden-variety downturn into a 27% collapse in GDP — the Great Depression.

Washington seems desperate to duplicate that failure.

For some time we've heard we need to have "hope" for "change" to come. But hope is fast disappearing, and polls show that Americans reject the change the government has in mind for medical insurance and energy. The grand experiment of government control is failing, and people want their economy back.

As for more jobs, it may be a while. Shortly before the new administration opened for business in January, Americans were told by the incoming administration's advisers that without the stimulus, unemployment — then at 7.2% — would peak at 9% in 2010. If the stimulus was passed, they added, the peak would be 8%.

Well, it passed — and today unemployment is 9.5% and likely to go higher. A question arises: Given the obvious failure of the stimulus to stimulate anything, why not dismantle the whole thing?

This isn't so crazy. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the current stimulus plans will blow a $9.3 trillion hole in the nation's budget by 2019. That will boost taxes on us and our children for decades to come.

Won't it also boost the economy? Guess again. "The projection for nominal GDP has decreased (since the end of 2008) by more than $7 trillion, or 3.9%, over (10 years)," says the CBO.

In other words, all this spending and taxing will crater the economy — and the estimate doesn't include the spending planned for medical insurance reform and cap and trade.

Nor does it include the dizzying array of new taxes the White House and Congress are considering. They range from a European-style value-added tax, which helped turn the EU into a stagnant mess with virtually no job creation, to new taxes on health care, energy, incomes and a slew of other things.

In the coming weeks, we will tell you how we got into this mess — hint: Government played a key role — and how we can get out of it. It will take huge cuts in spending, a willingness to let bad businesses go bust, and broad tax cuts to get our economy moving again.

This, by the way, worked in the 1920s, it worked in the 1960s, it worked in the 1980s. It even worked after 9/11, and it'll work again.

America needs jobs, but its businesses can't create them as long as they remain under the thumb of a high-taxing, runaway-spending, overregulating, entrepreneur-smothering Big Government.

----------------------------------------------------

2009-06-29T18:34:00.001-05:00

Obama Care

2009-06-29T16:27:00.000-05:00

Is Obama Care similar to Massachusetts? The answer is yes and look what is happening in Massachusettes.

Rasmussen Reports: 37% say the reform effort has been a failure, while another 37% are not sure. Twenty-six percent (26%) of Massachusetts voters say their state’s health care reform effort has been a success.

Only 10% of Bay State voters say the quality of health care has gotten better as a result of the reform plan while 29% say it has gotten worse. Most (53%) say the quality of care has not changed.

As for cost, 21% say the reform has made health care more affordable in Massachusetts. Twenty-seven percent (27%) say health care is now less affordable while 44% see no change.

Sanford

2009-06-24T13:53:00.001-05:00

Power corrupting is bipartisan. Its looking more and more like all we will have left are the Tea Parties.

Voters Find Serious Vulnerabilities in Democratic Health Care Proposals

2009-06-24T13:24:00.007-05:00

Methodology

This survey consists of 1000 registered voters chosen randomly from throughout the country through random-digit dialing of both landline and cell phones. Calls were conducted June 15-18, 2009. Calling quotas were established by state, urban area, age, race, and gender. The sample is 6 points more Democratic than Republican: 32 percent Republican, 26 percent Independent, and 38 percent Democrat. The margin of error is 3.1 percent.

Democratic voters are on one side while Independents side with Republicans on the other.

Fiscal Concerns

Voters overwhelmingly agree (58%) with the statement “reforming health care is important, but it should be done without raising taxes or increasing the deficit,” with 41% in strong agreement. A majority of Republicans (75%) and Independents (62%) are on one side in agreement, while only 38% of Democrats agreed (versus 57% of Democrats who agreed instead that “reforming health care is so important that the government should invest new resources to make sure it is done right”).

Taxes

Raising taxes to ensure everyone has health insurance is a non-starter with voters. By a 13-point margin of 52-39, respondents preferred a health care reform plan that does not provide health insurance to all Americans but keeps taxes at current levels over a reform plan that raises taxes in order to provide health insurance to all Americans. Republicans preferred the plan with taxes at current levels by a whopping 60 percentage points, while Independents were close to the mean with a 16-point preference. However, Democrats favored a plan that raises taxes by a 27- point margin.

Voters reject paying taxes on health care benefits in general (71-22), paying taxes on employer-provided health benefits above $13,000 (69-25), and eliminating tax deductions for charitable contributions and mortgage interest for people who make over $250,000 per year (55-38). In every instance, a clear majority of Republicans and Independents were opposed, joined by a majority of Democrats on the first two.

Quality of Care

Arguments that a public plan will expand coverage, control costs and improve quality trump arguments that more government involvement will create long wait times, deny needed treatments and hinder quality by five percentage points (49-44), but again Independents (37-49) are more aligned with Republicans (28-69) than Democrats (74-20).

Independents, however, are closer to Democrats than Republicans in agreeing that “greedy insurance companies and drug companies” charge “way too much for the services they provide,” and “if the government regulated what they could charge, health care costs would be a lot more reasonable.” By an overall margin of 55-39, voters agreed with that statement versus agreeing with a statement that such “regulation of health care prices will lead to less innovative treatments, lower quality health care and fewer health care providers.” Democrats split 75-21 between the two statements, Independents 51-38 and Republicans 32-63.

Private Versus Public Insurance

Asked whether they would prefer a system where most Americans get their health care coverage through the federal government or a private insurance company, voters favored a predominantly private insurance system by almost exactly two-to-one, 60-31. The Republican margin was almost exactly 8:1 (87-11), and Independents 2½:1 (61-24). Democrats diverged, favoring a system where most Americans get their coverage through the federal government by 15 points (37-52).

Critics of the public option and employer mandates would do well to hammer away on three vulnerabilities: 1) These proposals will cost too much in higher taxes and federal deficits. 2) These proposals will raise the cost of health care for those with private insurance. 3) These proposals will make it very likely that if you have private insurance, you will end up in a government program.

"see article"

DID YOU KNOW

2009-06-21T09:04:00.000-05:00

Although 70 percent of insured Americans rate their health care arrangements good or excellent, radical reform of health care is supposedly necessary because there are 45.7 million uninsured. That number is, however, a "snapshot" of a nation in which more than 20 million working Americans change jobs every year. Many of them are briefly uninsured between jobs. If all the uninsured were assembled for a group photograph, and six months later the then-uninsured were assembled for another photograph, about half the people in the photos would be different.

Almost 39 percent of the uninsured are in five states -- Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, all of which are entry points for immigrants. About 21 percent -- 9.7 million -- of the uninsured are not citizens. Up to 14 million are eligible for existing government programs -- Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, veterans' benefits, etc. -- but have not enrolled. And 9.1 million have household incomes of at least $75,000 and could purchase insurance. Those last two cohorts are more than half of the 45.7 million.

Healthcare Reform Rebuild is less Popular then During Clinton

2009-06-19T14:26:00.006-05:00

In early 1993 the sense of a health care crisis was far more widespread than it is today – a 55% majority in 1993 said they felt the health care system needed to be “completely rebuilt” compared with 41% today. Health care costs were also a broader problem in 1993 – 63% of Americans said paying for the cost of a major illness was a “major problem” for them, compared with 48% currently. Click here on "Pew Research"

2009-06-12T16:57:00.001-05:00

I will be on vacation from June 12 thru June 23rd.

House Health-Care Bill to Include $600 Billion in Tax Increases

2009-06-12T14:30:00.000-05:00

It just keeps going up and up

Health-care overhaul legislation being drafted by House Democrats will include $600 billion in tax increases and $400 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said.

He also said the measure’s cost will reach beyond the $634 billion President Barack Obama proposed in his budget request to Congress as a down payment for the policy changes.

Asked whether the cost of a health-care overhaul would be more than $1 trillion, Rangel said, “the answer is yes.”

Vacation with some Abraham Lincon advice

2009-06-12T13:58:00.005-05:00

I think this is a cool picture.

I will be on vacation until June 23rd. I will not have my laptop with me so I will not be posting to the blog until I return. For your homework I would like you to think about what Abraham Lincoln said:

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.

You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.

You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.

You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.

A sad commentary as to where we are as a society.

2009-06-12T10:24:00.000-05:00

This has nothing to do with Tea Party stuff but I have 3 daughters and 4 Granddaughters and this stuff really makes me mad. You talk about a double standard. Why don't we wake up and see what is going on in America? Take a look at the title of the video. "Palin Continues to Distort Letterman's Jokes on the Today Show". Think about it, Letterman making a joke about Alex Rodriquez raping Sarah Palin's daughter at a baseball game is now okay as per the major media. What would they say if Letterman said this about about Chelsea when she was young, or President Obama's daughters, or Al Gores daughters? What would you say if it was made about your 14 year old daughter or granddaughter? BY GIVING A PASS ON THIS, CAN'T YOU SEE HOW FAR THE MAJOR MEDIA WILL GO TO KEEP CONSERVATIVES OUT OF POWER. IT HAS TURNED INTO PSYCHOSIS.

51% Say Cut Everybody’s Taxes To Stimulate the Economy

2009-06-12T10:06:00.000-05:00

Here is a unique idea that gets lost in the liberal hype by the major media. This is really what the American people want but our tax and spend liberal government wants you to be more dependent on them then on yourself.

Fifty-one percent (51%) of Americans favor an across-the-board tax cut for all Americans to stimulate the U.S. economy, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Thirty-four percent (34%) oppose such a tax cut, and 15% are undecided.

Fifty-nine percent (59%) of both Republicans and adults not affiliated with either major political party think an across-the-board tax cut is a good idea. Democrats are fairly evenly divided on the wisdom of such a tax cut.

There Are No Words To Describe This

2009-06-11T10:39:00.000-05:00

Keep in mind, this is our Children's and Grandchildren's debt. We are talking trillions here. If you could see me you would see me just shaking my head and saying, why do they think we are so stupid? Then again, how many of you are letting other folks know about this?

He is former prosecutor, House Democrat Alan Grayson; she is Elizabeth Coleman, Inspector General of the Federal Reserve.

HealthCare Trojan Horse.

2009-06-11T09:52:00.000-05:00

Defending the Obama administration’s government-run health insurance option, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said yesterday:

I think if you listen to the debate on Capitol Hill about health care you’re likely to hear two very important words: choice and competition. A public option that you’re referring to is nothing more than the ability to provide more choice through competition. Those, I think, are values that you’ll hear throughout this debate as being held near and dear to the hearts of not just people on Capitol Hill, but throughout the country. And the President and Congress are working to design health care reform that provides more choice and more competition.

Now listen to UC Berkeley professor Jacob Hacker talk about the political benefits of selling public option as “choice” and “competition”:Hacker explicitly says: “One of the virtues of it, though, is that you can at least make the claim that there is a competitive system between the public and private sectors.” But what is the ultimate goal of the government-run insurance option? Hacker explains: “Someone once said to me this is a Trojan Horse for single-payer, and I said, well its not a Trojan Horse, right? It’s just right there.”

The Conservative Alternative to Cap and Trade

2009-06-11T09:32:00.000-05:00

The American Energy Act

An “All-of-the-Above” Solution for Energy Independence

•Increase production of American-made energy in an environmentally-sound manner.
•Promote new, clean and renewable sources of energy such as nuclear, clean-coal-technology, wind and solar energy.
•Encourage greater efficiency and conservation by extending tax incentives for energy efficiency and rewarding development of greater conservation techniques and new energy sources.
•Cut red-tape and reduce frivolous litigation.

The American Energy Act is an “all-of-the-above” solution that offers more affordable energy, more well-paying jobs, energy independence, and a cleaner environment.
PROMOTING NEW, CLEAN AND RELIABLE SOURCES OF ENERGY

Nuclear: The 104 nuclear reactors in America today provide the United States with 20 percent of its electricity and 73 percent of its CO2-free electricity, yet no new reactors have been ordered since 1978. This bill establishes a national goal to bring 100 new nuclear reactors online over the next 20 years to strengthen America’s commitment to clean, reliable energy.

The bill reinforces a commitment to protect public health and safety while providing for an accelerated regulatory process for new nuclear applications where there is a design already certified by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC); a site already licensed for operating reactors; an operator in good standing with the NRC; and a full and complete Combined Operations and Construction License application. This bill also lowers construction costs by suspending import tariffs and duties on imported nuclear components for five years if there is no domestic manufacturer.

The bill also provides a long-term solution for spent nuclear fuel. The legislation allows the NRC to finish its review of the Yucca Mountain repository without political interference, and repeals its 70,000 metric ton limitation, letting science and technology dictate how much the repository can safely hold. The bill also provides for recycling of spent nuclear fuel, thereby decreasing the demand for storage space at Yucca Mountain and amounts accumulating at sites across the country. The NRC would have two years to establish a process to license such recycling facilities.

New and Expanded Technologies: The bill creates a Renewable and Alternative Energy Trust Fund to provide funding for energy programs authorized by federal law, such as biomass, hydroelectric, clean coal, solar, wind, geothermal and other forms of renewable energy. The fund will encourage the development of renewable, alternative and unconventional fuels, and new energy sources, using receipts from the new federal and oil gas leasing in the Arctic Coastal Plain and the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

Alternative Fuels: The bill spurs the development of America’s alternative fuels by repealing the “Section 526” prohibition on government purchasing fuels derived from sources such as oil shale, tar sands and coal-to liquid technology. The bill also encourages the use of clean coal-to-liquid technology by allowing federal agencies to enter into long-term contracts to buy coal-derived fuel and by authorizing the Secretary of Energy to enter into loan agreements with coal-to-liquid projects.

Tax Provisions for New and Expanding Technology: The bill encourages new and expanding energy technologies by making permanent tax credits for the production of renewable electricity, like wind, solar, and biomass. The bill also makes permanent investment tax credits for solar energy and for fuel cell properties and extends the biodiesel and renewable diesel tax credits.

AMERICAN_ENERGY

Outer Continental Shelf: The Interior Department estimates that the OCS holds up to 86 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Significant portions of the OCS remain unavailable because the current Administration continues to delay leasing activities.

The bill increases the supply of American energy by immediately moving forward with a leasing program on the already open OCS. The bill also simplifies and harmonizes the OCS mileage restrictions, expanding state territorial waters to 12 miles offshore (most state borders stop at three miles) and gives coastal states a share of the receipts from such energy exploration. A portion of the revenues created by OCS exploration would go to a renewable energy trust fund to pay for a variety of renewable, alternative and advanced energy programs.

Arctic Coastal Plain: The bill increases American energy by opening the Arctic Coastal Plain to exploration in an environmentally-sound manner, which could provide an additional 1 million barrels of oil per day. The bill requires timely lease sales, provides for revenue sharing with the State, designates a fund to mitigate the effects of exploration and development and provide for local community support, and devotes a portion of the revenues for a renewable energy trust fund to pay for renewable, alternative and advanced energy programs.

Oil Shale: It is estimated that more than 70 percent of American oil shale lies on federal lands which contain an estimated 1.23 trillion barrels of oil, more than 50 times the nation's proven conventional oil reserves. The bill codifies the oil shale lease program and restores leasing activities that were already underway prior to being halted in February 2009, by the current Administration. The bill mandates that a lease sale be held within 180 days of enactment.

CUTTING RED TAPE AND REDUCING FRIVOLOUS LAWSUITS

Legal Reform: The bill curtails dilatory lawsuits that are designed to obstruct American energy exploration. While ensuring people a day in court, it expedites judicial review by imposing a 60-day deadline on legal challenges and requires cases to be filed in the District Court for the District of Columbia, to prevent forum shopping.
Refineries: The newest significant refinery began operating in 1977. The bill increases American supplies of gasoline and diesel by encouraging greater refinery capacity by streamlining and accelerating the refinery permitting process. The bill also requires the President to designate at least three closed military installations as potentially suitable for construction of a refinery, including at least one suitable for refining biomass to produce biofuel.

Environmental Review: The bill reduces red-tape and cost to the Environmental Protection Agency arising from having to needlessly identify alternative locations for renewable energy projects, while ensuring a proper environmental review for the proposed action and no-action.

CONSERVATION AND EFFICIENCY

Tax Incentives and Prizes: The bill encourages American ingenuity by providing for competitive award cash prizes to advance the research, development, demonstration and commercial application of innovative energy technologies and new energy sources, including a $500 million prize to the first U.S. automobile manufacturer to sell 50,000 economically feasible, super fuel-efficient vehicles that get 100 mpg.

The bill provides tax incentives for businesses and homeowners who improve their energy efficiency. It also extends tax credits for using energy efficient appliances and energy efficient upgrades made to existing homes, a tax credit for individuals who purchase a new energy efficient home and a tax credit for energy efficient commercial buildings, home energy audits and smart meters.

15 things to know about the draft Kennedy-Dodd health bill.

2009-06-10T09:30:00.000-05:00

Here are 15 things to know about the draft Kennedy-Dodd health bill taken from an article written by Kieth Hennessey

The Kennedy-Dodd bill would create an individual mandate requiring you to buy a “qualified” health insurance plan, as defined by the government. If you don’t have “qualified” health insurance for a given month, you will pay a new Federal tax. Incredibly, the amount and structure of this new tax is left to the discretion of the Secretaries of Treasury and Health and Human Services (HHS), whose only guidance is “to establish the minimum practicable amount that can accomplish the goal of enhancing participation in qualifying coverage (as so defined).” The new Medical Advisory Council (see #3D) could exempt classes of people from this new tax. To avoid this tax, you would have to report your health insurance information for each month of the prior year to the Secretary of HHS, along with “any such other information as the Secretary may prescribe.”

The bill would also create an employer mandate. Employers would have to offer insurance to their employees. Employers would have to pay at least a certain percentage (TBD) of the premium, and at least a certain dollar amount (TBD). Any employer that did not would pay a new tax. Again, the amount and structure of the tax is left to the discretion of the Secretaries of Treasury and HHS. Small employers (TBD) would be exempt.

In the Kennedy-Dodd bill, the government would define a qualified plan:

All health insurance would be required to have guaranteed issue and renewal, modified community rating, no exclusions for pre-existing conditions, no lifetime or annual limits on benefits, and family policies would have to cover “children” up to age 26.

A qualified plan would have to meet one of three levels of standardized cost-sharing defined by the government, “gold, silver, and bronze.” Details TBD.

Plans would be required to cover a list of preventive services approved by the Federal government.

A qualified plan would have to cover “essential health benefits,” as defined by a new Medical Advisory Council (MAC), appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The MAC would determine what items and services are “essential benefits.” The MAC would have to include items and services in at least the following categories: ambulatory patient services, emergency services, hospitalization, maternity and new born care, medical and surgical, mental health, prescription drugs, rehab and lab services, preventive/wellness services, pediatric services, and anything else the MAC thought appropriate.

The MAC would also define what “affordable and available coverage” is for different income levels, affecting who has to pay the tax if they don’t buy health insurance. The MAC’s rules would go into effect unless Congress passed a joint resolution (under a fast-track process) to turn them off.

Health insurance plans could not charge higher premiums for risky behaviors: “Such rate shall not vary by health status-related factors, … or any other factor not described in paragraph (1).” Smokers, drinkers, drug users, and those in terrible physical shape would all have their premiums subsidized by the healthy.

Guaranteed issue and renewal combined with modified community rating would dramatically increase premiums for the overwhelming majority of those Americans who now have private health insurance. New Jersey is the best example of health insurance mandates gone wild. In the name of protecting their citizens, premiums are extremely high to cover the cross-subsidization of those who are uninsurable.

The bill would expand Medicaid to cover everyone up to 150% of poverty, with the Federal government paying all incremental costs (no State share). This means adding childless adults with income below 150% of the poverty line.

People from 150% of poverty up to 500% (!!) would get their health insurance subsidized (on a sliding scale). If this were in effect in 2009, a family of four with income of $110,000 would get a small subsidy. The bill does not indicate the source of funds to finance these subsidies.

People in high cost areas (e.g., New York City, Boston, South Florida, Chicago, Los Angeles) would get much bigger subsidies than those in low cost areas (e.g., much of the rest of the country, especially in rural areas). The subsidies are calculated as a percentage of the “reference premium,” which is determined based on the cost of plans sold in that particular geographic area

There would be a “public plan option” of health insurance offered by the federal government. In this new government health plan, the federal government would pay health care providers Medicare rates + 10%. The +10% is clearly intended to attract short-term legislative support from medical providers. I hope they are not so naive that they think that differential would last.

Group health plans with 250 or fewer members would be prohibited from self-insuring. ERISA would only be for big businesses.

States would have to set up “gateways” (health insurance exchanges) to market only qualified health insurance plans. If they don’t, the Feds will set up a gateway for them.

Health insurance plans in existence before the law would not have to meet the new insurance standards. This creates a weird bifurcated system and means you would (probably) be subject to a different set of rules when you change jobs.

The bill does not specify what spending will be cut or what taxes will be raised to pay for the increased spending. That is presumably for the Finance Committee to determine, since it’s their jurisdiction.

The bill defines an “eligible individual” as “a citizen or national of the United States or an alien lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence or an alien lawfully present in the United States.”

The bill would create a new pot of money for state gateways to pay “navigators” to educate people about the new bill, distribute information about health plans, and help people enroll. Navigators receiving federal funds “may include … unions, …”

For an update on this Kieth Hennessey article go here
Kieth Hennessey

Poll of what Party Do you trust

2009-06-09T11:23:00.001-05:00

Voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on six out of 10 key issues, including the top issue of the economy.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 45% now trust the GOP more to handle economic issues, while 39% trust Democrats more.

This is the first time in over two years of polling that the GOP has held the advantage on this issue. The parties were close in May, with the Democrats holding a modest 44% to 43% edge. The latest survey was taken just after General Motors announced it was going into bankruptcy as part of a deal brokered by the Obama administration that gives the government majority ownership of the failing automaker.

Voters not affiliated with either party now trust the GOP more to handle economic issues by a two-to-one margin.

Republicans also now hold a six-point lead on the issue of government ethics and corruption, the second most important issue to all voters and the top issue among unaffiliated voters. That shows a large shift from May, when Democrats held an 11-point lead on the issue.

2009-06-09T09:23:00.001-05:00

Cap and Trade

2009-06-08T11:22:00.000-05:00

The Left is pushing a bill that would drive energy prices higher.

They call it cap and trade, but it's just a new energy tax. They think tackling climate change requires regulating the energy use of every individual and business in America, and that if energy costs more, you'll use less.

Think about it - how would these added expenses affect you, and your family? This new energy tax would:

Raise inflation-adjusted gasoline prices by 74 percent
Raise electricity rates 90 percent after adjusting for inflation
Raise the cost of living of a typical household by $1,600 a year
Raise residential natural gas prices by 55 percent
Destroy 1-3 million jobs per year, every year until 2035

My Children and Grandchildrens Debt

2009-06-08T10:13:00.000-05:00

Federal Budget Deficits Will Reach Levels Never Seen Before in the U.S.

Obama's Budget Would Increase Debt by 26.3 Percent of GDP Compared to CBO Baseline

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projects that publicly held debt will reach 56.1 percent of GDP under current law. If President Obama's budget is implemented, CBO projects debt to reach 82.4 percent of GDP.
Debt Held by the Public as a Percentage of GDP

Under current law, the budget deficit is projected to grow to 24.5 percent of GDP by 2082, even if the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts are allowed to expire and the AMT is not fixed. This will be driven by , with deficits well above the 30-year historical average of 2.5 percent. Deficits of this size have never been seen in the U.S. and illustrate the need to reform these programs.

Did You Know

2009-06-05T09:30:00.000-05:00

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday shows that 34% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-four percent (34%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of 0. That’s the highest level of strong disapproval and the lowest overall rating yet recorded...

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Vice President Dick Cheney have little in common but Cheney wins in popularity. According to a May 29-31 Gallup Poll, 37% of Americans have a favorable view of Cheney and 34% have a favorable view of Pelosi

Since the recession began, 11 months after the dems took over congress, the economy has lost 6 million jobs.

You will never see any of this in the mainstream media.

10th Amendment Mulling

2009-06-03T10:30:00.000-05:00

The 10th Amendment:"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." The Articles of Confederation, was the first constitution of the thirteen United States of America. In this document they state, "Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this Confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled."

Texas - 10th amendment/state sovereignty legislation Bill submitted,

James Madison in The Federalist wrote: "The powers delegated to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, [such] as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce. The powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people.”

Here is what I want you to think about, it has become increasingly common for Congress to pass legislation which dictates policy to the states, but which comes without adequate federal funding and the expectation that the cost of these programs, which the states had no real say in approving, will come out of state budgets. This has been a long-term problem with Medicaid and Medicare.

What would happen if our all state Legislator, under the 10th Amendment, would assert the limits which the 10th Amendment places on federal authority, specifically as it applies to spending, the idea being that they don’t have to pay for federal mandates if their legislators choose not to.

Based on my research it looks like Oklahoma, Washington, Hawaii, Missouri, Arizona, New Hampshire, Georgia, California, Michigan and Montana will consider 10th Amendment bills this year. They could be joined by Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Alaska, Kansas, Alabama, Nevada, Maine and Pennsylvania where legislators have pledged to introduce similar bills. Twenty states toying with independence from the Federal government and demanding a return to constitutional principles is a start, but it remains to be seen whether legislatures and governors are brave enough or angry enough to follow through.

It is my opinion that we, The Tea Party Movement, ought to get behind this effort and not allow the Liberal organizations to denigrate this effort as they did with Rick Perry's effort.

The Federal Government spending is way out of line. The incumbents that sit in Washington have a vested interest in maintaining this mega spending binge because with it they solidify their positions as incumbents. Using the 10th amendment and bringing decision making on spending closer to the people (state level)we would be able to excert direct pressure on our Legislators simply because they live down the street.

Mull about it.

Surprise

2009-06-02T09:38:00.000-05:00

Sorry I just had to, my Aunt is 93 and has been a Nun since she was 18. She would get a kick out of this.

Decent into Marxism

2009-05-31T08:20:00.000-05:00

Taken from the Russian newspaper Pravda: "It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people."
Pravda English version,

Did you wonder?

2009-05-30T12:11:00.000-05:00

Did you ever wonder why our Congressional incumbents fight so hard to stay in office? Stop wondering because here is why.

Salary: Rank-and-file Members of Congress currently make an annual salary of $174,000 (more than double the median household income of about $80,000 for the Washington, D.C. metro area, including wealthy suburbs).

Expenses: House members get a government expense allowance of $1.3 million to $1.9 million a year. Senators get $2.9 million to $4.5 million.

None of these allowances include extra money for employee benefits, or considerable budgets for lawmakers' committee work.

Congressional pension benefits are 2-3 times more generous than what a similarly-salaried executive could expect to receive upon retiring from the private sector. A member of Congress with 20 to 25 years of service who retires in his 50s and lives into his 80s could collect $5 million or more, according to a study by the National Taxpayers Union. The more typical payment is between $1 million and $2 million, the study found.

Healthcare: Workers can choose from an array of plans offered by dozens of health care providers nationwide - from HMOs, to Blue Cross and Blue Shield, to even labor unions.

Premiums vary, depending on how much coverage is desired, and costs are shared by the government and individual workers. On average, the government pays 72 percent. Members of Congress end up paying anywhere from $100 to $300 a month.

Members of Congress have their own pharmacy, right in the Capitol. They also have a team of doctors, technicians and nurses standing by in case something busts in a filibuster. They can get a physical exam, an X-ray or an electrocardiogram, without leaving work.

The goodies are not part of their basic coverage. These are optional perks that cost about $300 a month for House members and about $600 a month for senators. Taxpayers kick in another $2-million.

Your Friday Mulling

2009-05-29T09:31:00.001-05:00

In case your wondering what the heck is he talking about when he says "mulling", here is the definition: "To go over extensively in the mind; ponder."

For your Friday morning mulling, do you think the major media will start creating a artificial hype of success for the economy in support of President Obama? I am hearing reporting all over the media about President Obama's comment from Hollywood regarding how the economy has moved back from the brink . Do you think if the economy continues to go down further the media will nail him for this comment as they did with Bush when he spoke under the sign "Mission Accomplished" ?

Your Household Commitment to the Federal Government

2009-05-29T09:25:00.000-05:00

According to an analysis by USA Today, American taxpayers “are on the hook for an extra $55,000 a household to cover rising federal commitments made just in the past year for retirement benefits, the national debt and other government promises.” Federal obligations now stand at a record $546,668 per household, quadruple what the average U.S. household owes for all mortgages, car loans, credit cards and other debt combined.

The Largest Expansion of Government Ever

2009-05-28T13:50:00.000-05:00

Since taking office, President Obama has:

Continued to fast-track government control of health care with a $33 billion expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) which isn’t even limited to children and only worsened our nation’s health spending problem.
Pushed through a $787 billion stimulus bill that essentially federalized the construction and renovation of public schools, began subsidizing health insurance for unemployed Americans regardless of income, created more than 30 new federal programs, effectively abolished the hugely successful 1996 welfare reform; and created a trillions dollars of new debt, to be dumped into the laps of our children and grandchildren.
Passed an Omnibus spending bill that raised discretionary spending by 8%, contained 9,287 pork projects costing $13 billion, and spent $123 billion on programs for which government auditors can find no evidence of success.
Used the $700 billion TARP slush fund to effectively nationalize General Motors, turn Chrysler over to the United Auto Workers union, and strong arm the nation’s banks into accepting taxpayer money and government control they did not want.

Near the end of his Beverly Hills remarks to the Hollywood elite, Obama promised, “Los Angeles, you ain’t seen nothing yet.” Unfortunately President Obama may be right again. His upcoming agenda includes a trillion dollar energy tax, the stealth nationalization of the health care industry, and an economy killing rewrite of our nation’s labor laws.

Excerpted from the Heritage Foundation Morning Bell

Did You Know

2009-05-27T10:16:00.000-05:00

Did You Know that those mean nasty bond holders at GM that won't negotiate to save the company (sarcasm off)are hardworking families, individual investors and retirees who purchased billions of these bonds in $25, $50 and $100 increments. Many bonds were bought directly and others are held in pension funds, 401(k) plans and other retirement programs.

The government's proposed restructuring plans benefit one class of retirees at the expense of another. Under the current plan GM's union retirees will receive 39% of the restructured company and $10 billion in cash in exchange for $20 billion in claims. Bondholders, however, receive a mere 10% for $27 billion in claims in the form of stock (and no cash).

2009-05-27T09:33:00.000-05:00

The Supreme Court Pick

2009-05-26T10:11:00.000-05:00

If you want to watch the confirmation process of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, this is a good site.
Link

http://www.judicialnetwork.com/

Do You Remember the Poppies?

2009-05-25T11:39:00.000-05:00

Do you remember the Poppies that we all used to wear? The vets would hand them out on Memorial Day and everyone would wear them. It was a symbol of appreciation for all they had done for our great country. I remember driving down the road and the vets would be standing along the road and handing them out. They were handing them out so that we did not forget their friends and family who had given the ultimate sacrifice. People were very aware then of the sacrifices our brave men and women had made so that we could keep the freedoms we currently enjoy. Not some much these days.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

John McCrae, 1915.

Memorial Day weekend Mulling

2009-05-23T10:23:00.000-05:00

This weekend, just for a bit, stop and think about those brave men and women who gave their life so that we can have the freedom and liberties given to us by our founding fathers. Pray for their families.

Did You Know

2009-05-23T09:49:00.000-05:00

It's been estimated that the Waxman energy tax bill (Cap and Trade) would:
* Reduce aggregate gross domestic product (GDP) by $9.6 trillion;
* Destroy 1,105,000 jobs on average, with peak years seeing unemployment rise by over 2,479,000 jobs;
* Raise electricity rates 90 percent after adjusting for inflation;
* Raise inflation-adjusted gasoline prices by 74 percent;
* Raise residential natural gas prices by 55 percent;
* Raise an average family's annual energy bill by $1,500; and
* Increase inflation-adjusted federal debt by 26 percent, or $29,150 additional federal debt per person, again after adjusting for inflation.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/EnergyandEnvironment/wm2450.cfm

Did You Know :-)

2009-05-23T09:30:00.000-05:00

Reporting from Tekamah, Neb. -- Walking through their lowing herd of several hundred cattle, Ali and Kenny Petersen were like two Gullivers on a Lilliputian roundup.

The half-sized cows barely reached Kenny's waist. The ranch's border collie stared eye-to-eye with wandering calves.

"Aren't they sweet?" asked Ali Petersen, 52, shooing Half-Pint, Buttercup and a dozen other cattle across a holding pen. "They're my babies, every little one of them."

The Petersens once raised normal-sized bovines on this stretch of Nebraska's rolling eastern grasslands, but with skyrocketing feed costs, the couple decided to downsize.

They bought minicows -- compact cattle with stocky bodies, smaller frames and relatively tiny appetites.

Their miniature Herefords consume about half that of a full-sized cow yet produce 50% to 75% of the rib-eyes and fillets, according to researchers and budget-conscious farmers.

"We get more sirloin and less soup bone," Ali said. "People used to look at them and laugh. Now, they want to own them."

Your Mulling For Today

2009-05-22T09:01:00.000-05:00

Read the post after this one to get context for this mulling for the day.

What if the the minority of the folks in the US were paying taxes and the majority were not paying taxes. What do you think would happen to our democracy?

Can a tax system premised on redistribution also be compatible with economic growth?

Is it realistic to assume that there will no behavioral change or will the higher rates encourage tax minimization strategies and reduced work effort, which will lead to lower tax revenues?

Tax Redistribution

2009-05-21T20:36:00.000-05:00

President Obama's budget proposes $989 billion in new taxes over the course of the next 10 years, starting fiscal year 2011, most of which are tax increases on individuals.

1) On people making more than $250,000.

$338 billion - Bush tax cuts expire
$179 billlion - eliminate itemized deduction
$118 billion - capital gains tax hike

Total: $636 billion/10 years

In Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact, No. 132, Tax Foundation president Scott Hodge uses revenue estimates from the Tax Policy Center to show that Obama's plan would greatly accelerate the decades-long trend toward a federal government that depends for tax revenue almost exclusively on a few high-income people.

"Under the Obama plan for 2009," explains Hodge, "more than $131 billion would be redistributed from the top 1 percent of taxpayers to all other taxpayers."

"In other words," says Hodge, "it is at this point a cautious estimate to say that in 2009, under Obama's plan, 1.13 million Americans would pay more in all federal taxes than 128 million of their fellow citizens combined."

Given the facts above and the reality that the federal Government is taking over various industries and controlling compensation, how long will it be before we run into the law of diminishing returns? How long will it be before we have more folks not paying taxes then paying taxes? How long will it be before we have a population so dependent on the Washington bureaucracy for their existence that they will never vote them out?

DID YOU KNOW

2009-05-21T10:42:00.001-05:00

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 21 May 2009 is:
$ 1 1 , 2 9 5 , 4 8 1 , 3 4 5 , 9 1 8 . 4 9 That is Trillion.

The estimated population of the United States is 306,222,468 so each citizen's share of this debt is $36,800.22.

DID YOU KNOW

2009-05-21T10:35:00.000-05:00

DID YOU KNOW: The average annual federal workers compensation, pay plus benefits, is $106,871 compared to just $53,288 for the private sector

DID YOU KNOW

2009-05-21T10:29:00.000-05:00

DID YOU KNOW. (DYK)At present we owe China and Japan $1.5 trillion combined. That's approx. $5,000 per every man, woman and child in the US

What is this Blog?

2009-05-20T13:28:00.000-05:00

Now that I have sent out the blog URL to a select number of folks, I wanted to give you a brief description of the purpose of this blog.

The Blogs purpose is to discuss areas of concern to many of the citizens of the US. These concerns center around how we reduce government spending, reduce the deficit, reduce the size of government, reduce government interference in our lives, bring power back to the states and stop the slide toward socialism.

The discussions should be independent of party affiliation and void of emotion.

I am affiliated with the Tea Party effort and inline with what their goals are.

I am not interested in name calling, badgering or unsubstantiated pronouncements.

I sincerely want a open dialogue that will add value to the efforts of the many dedicated folks who are motivated to pass on to their children and grandchildren the same freedom, liberty and opportunities to succeed as we had.

I have posted the talking points that I have put together that should be the beginnings of a roadmap toward our process of educating those concerned about the massive changes taking place in Washington. There are many folks out there that do not understand or do not take the time to research what is going on around us as we get further and further in debt and further and further dependent on government running our lives. Use the educational talking points as a back-up and substantiation for the "Pocket Points".

Let's interact and discuss for the purpose of adding value. I will be posting more comments and opinions for discussion. I will also be posting regularly a "Did You Know" statement that will be researched and substantiated. One example I have put on Twitter is, "Did you know that 46 cents of every dollar spent by the Federal Government today has to be borrowed."

Talking Points-Fiscal

2009-05-20T13:04:00.000-05:00

· Tea Party Talking Points-Fiscal

· Using information from the Heritage Foundation, American Solutions, FredoomWorks, other research sources as well as some creativity on my part, I am offering the following fiscal talking points:

· The historian Edward Gibbon wrote about ancient Athens, the first democracy and the fountainhead of Western culture. He wrote that when the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free.

· DON’T BORROW, SPEND, AND TAX AWAY OUR FUTURE

The president’s fiscal year 2010 budget proposal amounting to $3.55 trillion in spending was released on Feb. 26. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the president’s proposals will add deficits of $9,300,000,000,000 (trillion) over the next 10 years—many times more than the inflation adjusted cost of all of World War II. The budget proposal sets record levels of annual spending between a minimum of$3,556,000,000,000 (trillion) in 2011 and $5,139,000,000,000 (trillion)
Perspective: You could spend 1 million dollars per day for 2,000 years and still not reach 1 Trillion. A trillion dollars would make every man, woman, and child in the Austin metropolitan area a millionaire.
Increases Spending: After an $800 billion stimulus bill, the Obama budget increases spending by $1 trillion over 10 years and calls for a Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) law while astonishingly violating that rule by $3.5 trillion.

He orders his departments heads to decrease spending by $100 million. With 300 million people in the US a 100 million dollars work out to 33 cents a piece, and that is per year. It’s like buying your wife a $62,000 Lexus but telling her you’re going to return the $1.67 air freshener for a refund.
Here are the priciest parts:

A $65 billion-a-year health plan
$15 billion in green energy spending
$85 billion in tax cuts and credits
A $25 billion-a-year increase in foreign aid
$18 billion a year in education spending
$3.5 billion for a national service plan

Sen.Wayne Allard (R-Co.), “Some of the numbers around the federal budget are incomprehensibly large. How do you wrap your mind around a 5-year cost of $1.4 trillion?” Senator Allard offers some comparisons to help with that mental exercise:

This new spending, if enacted, would represent an almost 10% increase over the President’s FY 2009 budget.
This $300 billion spending proposal would cost more than 42 states’ budgets combined (general fund expenditures).
It is more than the United States spent last year on imported oil ($294 billion net). It is more than 60% larger than any one-year federal spending increase, ever.
“According to CBO, President Clinton’s 1993 tax increase raised taxes $240.6 billion over five years. The late Senator Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) called it the ‘largest tax increase in the history of public finance in the United States or anywhere else in the world.’ But this proposal will increase spending $300 billion in a single-year.”

Expands Government: The 25% spending increase in the Obama budget represents the largest non-war government expansion since the New Deal.

Billions to Agencies that Fund ACORN and other Community Organizing Groups.
The Budget makes a down payment on socializing Healthcare with the implementation of a medical record data base and the establishment of a reserve of $630 Billion. The actual cost could reach $1.6 trillion over 10 years. This is in addition to the trillions already spent on health care this year in the stimulus and SCHIP bills.
The budget increases HUD’s discretionary funding by $6.4 billion in addition to the $13.6 billion it received from the stimulus bill—a 50 percent increase over last year.

Leaves Deficits: The Obama budget leaves permanent deficits averaging $600 billion even after the economy recovers and doubles the publicly held national debt to over $15 trillion ($12.5 trillion in 2009 dollars). Taxing future generations to pay for our irresponsible spending is the epitome of “taxation without representation” which was precisely in line with the spirit of the Boston Tea Party in 1773.

Bush caused deficits, yes but….

President Bush expanded the federal budget by a historic $700 billion through 2008. President Obama would add another $1 trillion.
President Bush began a string of expensive financial bailouts. President Obama is accelerating that course.
President Bush became the first President to spend 3 percent of GDP on federal antipoverty programs. President Obama has already increased this spending by 20 percent.
President Bush presided over a $2.5 trillion increase in the public debt through 2008. Setting aside 2009 (for which Presidents Bush and Obama share responsibility for an additional $2.6 trillion in public debt), President Obama’s budget would add $4.9 trillion in public debt from the beginning of 2010 through 2016.

Cuts Defense: Obama Defense Budget – “Senator Inhofe R-OK). Says “From Supremacy to Adequacy'”, The Defense budget with Barney Frank (D-MA) leading the charge plan to eliminate most of the nation’s defense capabilities, including reducing U.S. submarines, decimating the budget for Iraq and Afghanistan, and eliminating the missile defense shield programs. The Obama budget fails to fully fund the core defense needs of the United States. About $30 billion more is needed in the base defense budget. Senator Joe Lieberman (I) Votes Democrat said “Moreover, sharp cuts would leave us and our friends around the world less capable of responding to the growing ballistic missile threat.” Carl Levin (D-MI), is the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and is seen as a moderate said “With North Korean launching rockets and the UN giving Kim Jong Il a virtual pass, now might not be the time to cut certain areas of defense, specifically our nuclear and missile defense programs.”
Puts Government in Charge: Rahm Emanuel, Obama Chief of staff, “never let a serious crisis go to waste”

GM bailout: “If both are successful, the government and UAW health care trust would own 89 percent of GM stock, with the government holding more than a 50 percent stake,” CEO Fritz Henderson said in a news conference at GM’s Detroit headquarters.
Chrysler Bailout. Chrysler will declare bankruptcy after the taxpayer invested over 4 billion dollars to save them. This was wasted because many economists were saying to let the natural dynamics of a capitalist economy work. Left alone we would be where we are now and we would not have spent the $4billion. We were told that car companies could not go into bankruptcy because “who would buy from a bankrupt car company.” The whole bailout deal is all about Government ownership to payback the unions for getting Obama elected.
Pay for Performance Act of 2009: In a little-noticed move, the House Financial Services Committee, led by chairman Barney Frank, is offering new legislation, the "Pay for Performance Act of 2009," would impose government controls on the pay of all employees -- not just top executives -- of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government. It would, like the tax measure, be retroactive, changing the terms of compensation agreements already in place. And it would give Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extraordinary power to determine the pay of thousands of employees of American companies.The $634 billion for health care reform in the Obama budget is only a “down payment” on an eventual government-run system.
If you look at our macro economy, with Obama the government control will be staggering—media, banking, finance, mortgage, automotive, health-care.

Increases Taxes

Energy Taxes: The Obama budget proposes a $646 billion cap-and-trade tax that White House officials admit could actually generate $1.9 trillion in tax revenue over eight years. This tax would cost each American household between $650 and $2,000 annually in new energy costs, even though President Obama promised that “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket” under this cap-and-trade program (January 2008).
Oil and Gas Taxes: The Obama budget would collect $31 billion in new oil and gas tax revenue. These industries are already taxed above the industrial average, and increasing the burden would be detrimental to increasing or even maintaining domestic supply.
Excise Taxes: The Obama budget would reinstate unnecessary Superfund excise taxes that expired in 1995.
Death Taxes: The estate tax is set to expire in 2010, but the Obama budget and liberals in Congress are proposing keeping it between 35 and 45%.
Tobacco Taxes: The largest tobacco tax in history is three times as likely to affect low-income Americans, who are more likely to smoke, as it is to affect high-income Americans.

Creates a Nanny State. Government Knows Better than Taxpayers about Their Retirement. The Budget increases discretionary funding for Social Security by $1,100,000,000 and a matching amount from the stimulus bill. The discretionary funding is not marked for Social Security checks, but instead can be used by the department in virtually any way it pleases.

The Liberals are strongly opposed to privatizing Social Security. This means that the liberals think the government can handle your retirement money better than you can.
The government owes $42.9 trillion on entitlements like Social Security and it is bankrupting the country. To put that in perspective, the total net value of all privately held assets in America is about $51.5 trillion.
Social Security should stop making promises it will not be able to fulfill, and instead allow us to fund our retirement in accounts we own and control.

Mortgages our Grandchildren. According to the CBO, the total national debt by 2019 will be equal in size to 82.4 percent of the economy. We are responsible to pay back the money overspent during past administrations, but we should be looking to reduce spending to cut back on the amount of interest we are paying in the future.

We are already paying $147 billion in interest on the debt for 2009. According to Obama’s budget, the interest on national debt will rise from $171 billion in 2010 to $391 billion in 2019. As of March 23, 2009, the entire national debt, accumulated since the founding of our nation, was $11,041,711,544,305.
The CBO forecasts an additional $9,270,000,000,000 added over the next 10 years. It took the country over 200 years to acquire the current level of debt; Obama’s budget would double the number in just 5 percent of that time.
Continuing to ramp up spending is not the solution. President Obama and Congress should cut programs and reduce taxes rather than wastefully spend even more. Government should be paying back the money that it owes rather than borrowing to spend even more.
Our children and grand children will be taxed indentured servants.

Creates Government run Universal Healthcare The White House Budget creates a reserve fund of more than $630 billion for healthcare reform. The President, in his budget summary, calls it a “down payment on reform.” If $630 billion is a down payment, taxpayers should be extremely concerned about the total cost of such a program.

Government run Healthcare in Canada and Britain created:

A flood of millions of new patients, including illegal aliens, creating a chronic caregiver shortage
Long waits to see specialists, resulting in deaths
Specialists quitting their professions because they were being paid the same as regular physicians,
Patients denied treatments their doctors recommend because government bureaucrat's said no.

Contain Welfare Costs through eugenics and euthanasia: We will become the abortion capital of the world, all paid for by our tax dollars. Abortion and mercy killings will be actively promoted by the federal government (”us”) as a way to contain welfare costs, since many children are born directly into poverty in successive generations and elder people have no economic benefit..
Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA): FOCA goes far beyond even Roe v. Wade in allowing and promoting abortion, and would lead to the elimination of informed consent laws, partial birth-abortion bans, abortion clinic regulations and conscience protection laws. Euthanasia could be demanded by the Government because conscience is no longer a criterion for providing medical services.

Simulate the Market in Education Rather than Unleash Capitalism:

Pell Grants are federal subsidies for post secondary education. The stimulus bill includes $15,600,000,000 for Pell Grants and Obama’s budget takes even more money for them. It increases the maximum award to $5,550, will have the amount adjust with inflation, and will make Pell Grants an entitlement. Entitlements like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are threatening to bankrupt the country, but Obama wants to create another one with increasing long term cost to future taxpayers.
Raising Taxes on Charitable Contributions: While the President is trying to increase government funding for education, his budget also mentions raising taxes on charitable contributions which might threaten private scholarships. The President and Congress should be cutting entitlements to save taxpayers money.
Voucher System: Obama will phase out the voucher system for poor D.C. residents. Now public school teachers and administrators in the District of Columbia do not need to worry about trying to improve, as the competition was wiped out by the stroke of a pen. The program has been operational long enough now for data to be in showing the effectiveness of the program. Only a liberal would need this explained. The DC taxpayers spend $14,400 per pupil each year to keep them in dangerous and inadequate schools. For half that amount, parents can send their children to schools that are not run by somnambulant bureaucrats and gang bangers. To put it in the language of euphemism so favored by the left: without vouchers, 80% of 1700 schoolchildren would be forced into public schools that have not made “adequate yearly progress” per the No Child Left Behind Act.
Serve America Act, The budget will spend $5.7 billion over the next five years to pay people, and in many cases force them, to volunteer. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-NC), “What makes America America is not our government or economy, but our civil society. It is those organizations, the “little platoons” of democracy, that really make our nation go: The Boy Scouts, United Way, church socials, food drives, and little leagues.” “Alexis de Tocqueville of France captured this essential American creed when he visited the young United States in the 1830s: “They [Americans] do not deny that every man may follow his own interest; but they endeavor to prove that it is the interest of every man to be virtuous." It is out of virtue, after all, that one leads a Scout troop, teaches Sunday school, or coaches a little league team. The virtue motivating these activities – and millions like them around the country – is like a stone thrown in a pond, whose wave ripples far and wide in every direction.

First, by paying people to “volunteer,” the government will poison the essence of genuine service and, inevitably, volunteers’ personal investment in their work.
Second, government money always has strings attached, which will unavoidably divert the allocation of time and money away from those causes deemed politically or morally “incorrect” by the government. (Do you think crisis pregnancy centers or the Boy Scouts will be high on President Obama’s list of “national service” priorities?)

Pocket Points-Fiscal

2009-05-14T18:28:00.000-05:00

Pocket Points-Fiscal

Using the original Education fiscal Talking points as source material here is your pocket point’s version.

1. Increases Spending: After an $800 billion stimulus bill, the Obama budget increases spending by $1 trillion over 10 years and calls for a Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) law while astonishingly violating that rule by $3.5 trillion.

2. Expands Government: The 25% spending increase in the Obama budget represents the largest non-war government expansion since the New Deal.

3. Leaves Deficits: The Obama budget leaves permanent deficits averaging $600 billion even after the economy recovers and doubles the publicly held national debt to over $15 trillion ($12.5 trillion in 2009 dollars).

4. Cuts Defense: Eliminates most of the nation’s defense capabilities, including reducing U.S. submarines, decimating the budget for Iraq and Afghanistan, and eliminating the missile defense shield programs.

5. Puts Government in Charge: Government will hold with the government holding more than a 50 percent stake in GM. Government prepares bankruptcy filling and dictates terms of Chrysler bailout. Pay for Performance Act of 2009," would impose government controls on the pay of all employees -- not just top executives -- of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government.

6. Increases Taxes: Energy Tax increase through Cap & Trade would cost each American household between $650 and $2,000 annually in new energy costs. Oil and Gas Taxes would collect $31 billion in new oil and gas tax revenue. Excise Taxes would reinstate unnecessary Superfund excise taxes. Death Taxes kept between 35 and 45%.

7. Nanny State: The Budget increases discretionary funding for Social Security by $1,100,000,000 and a matching amount from the stimulus bill. The discretionary funding is not marked for Social Security checks, but instead can be used by the department in virtually any way it pleases.

8. Mortgages our Grandchildren: According to the CBO, the total national debt by 2019 will be equal in size to 82.4 percent of the economy. Our children and grand children will be taxed indentured servants

9. Government run Universal Healthcare: The White House Budget creates a reserve fund of more than $630 billion as a down payment on healthcare reform.

10. Simulate the Market in Education Rather than Unleash Capitalism: Will make Pell Grants an entitlement like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Raise taxes on charitable contributions. Phases out the voucher system for poor D.C. residents. Will spend $5.7 billion over the next five years to pay people, and in many cases force them, to volunteer.