Today I see news releases in which B. H. Obama is bragging about “fixing” medicare. Looks like little more than window dressing to me. Many doctors are dropping medicare patients because they don’t make any money and it’s just not worth the paperwork and effort to comply with the regulations. So much for “affordable health care for all.”
When the government socializes services and then makes big promises, there is a good chance they won’t deliver on those promises when hard times are here. These cuts and the subsequent bragging about “eliminating waste” are just another example of this.
Obama, like most politicians, is a highly paid professional shill. He lied his way into office and he used his lies to crack open the treasury and rob the future generations of their freedom and prosperity. How about we get these leftist hacks out of office and put people in who give a damn about our inalienable Constitutional rights.
You can’t create new “rights” like the “right to health care” which violate existing basic human rights like property rights; because in order for the government to hand out services for free, they must take something from someone else.
What you end up with, after all of this welfare, is crappy health care for everyone, more poverty and a much more difficult life for future generations.
Doctors’ Medicare payouts to be cut 21% June 1
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — For the fourth time this year, doctors face a potential huge cut in the fees that the government pays them to treat Medicare patients.
Physicians will be hit with a 21% cut in Medicare reimbursements as of June 1, unless lawmakers decide to patch over the issue — as they’ve done for years. Congress is now debating the matter, and to stop the cut lawmakers would have to vote to pass a new patch sometime in the next two weeks.
If the proposed cuts go through, physicians are worried their practices will be so strapped that they’ll have to drop some of the 43 million Americans who are covered under Medicare.
But, of course, on the other side of the issue is cost to the government at a time when the federal budget is tight.
Federal law currently requires that the payment rates for doctors who accept Medicare be adjusted annually based on a formula that’s tied to the health of the economy.
“The current formula is absolutely broken,” said James Rohack, president of the American Medical Association. “Congress is in a hole, and instead of climbing out they keep digging deeper.”
That formula was established in 1997, and the law says rates should be cut every year to keep Medicare in the black.
But Congress has blocked those cuts in seven of the last eight years, setting up nine temporary patches often referred to as the “doc fix” — three of which were in 2010 alone.
“It’s hard to imagine this 21% cut actually being allowed to go through,” said Patricia Neuman, a vice president at the nonpartisan analysis group Kaiser Family Foundation. “A cut of this magnitude would have a chilling effect on physicians.”
‘Annual agony’
Of course, delaying cuts merely kicks an existing problem down the road.
“This annual agony must end,” said Lori Heim, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, in a statement. “Postponing a permanent solution is false economy.”
One possible outcome of the congressional wrangling is a five-year delay in the 21% cut in Medicare fees. That option, the most-discussed so far, would cost about $80 billion.
That spending would be exempt from a “pay as you go” law enacted in February that requires lawmakers to find ways to offset certain spending increases or tax cuts.
Other options include delaying cuts by a fewer number of years, but at higher reimbursement rates, provided that the cost is capped at $80 billion.
But the AMA’s Rohack says he wants “a new formula that actually reflects the true cost of care.” Lawmakers counter that repealing the current setup would cost $210 billion over 10 years.
The massive cost of retooling Medicare is the reason such a measure wasn’t included in the new health care reform law.
“Like so many things, this is a fiscal issue — it all gets down to money,” Neuman said. “There’s a lot of interest in changing the formula, but it’s not so straightforward, especially from a budgetary point of view.”
The AMA is pushing for a total Medicare overhaul because the years of temporary patches have created uncertainty for physicians and consumers alike, Rohack said.
“There will be letters saying, ‘Dear Mrs. Jones, I’m closing my practice because I can’t afford it anymore,’ ” Rohack said. “I’m worried they won’t even be able to recommend other physicians because no one else in the community is accepting Medicare either.”
A permanent fix would remove physician uncertainty, restore consumer faith and ultimately save money, Rohack said, adding that a permanent fix in 2007 would have cost just $49 billion.
“If they’d fixed this permanently years ago, it would have been a tadpole-sized problem,” Rohack said. “Now, it’s become a bullfrog — and eventually it’ll be Jabba the Hutt.”
Its interesting how BP created a high profile crisis, then a man whom they gave significant sums of campaign contributions to, B.H. Obama, tries to sell the solution as Cap & Trade, which BP has lobbied for; itself standing to benefit from Cap & Trade quite handsomely through various schemes it has devised to take advantage of government subsidies and incentives.
If you step back and look at who benefits here, you can see that Obama is and has always been a BP stooge; taking their campaign “contributions,” backing their legislation, brokering “deals” like the 20B dollar escrow fund (a move which has no precedent in our society — what ever happened to the rule of law?).
Sure it all looks good as a PR stunt for Obama and BP. Play BP as the bad cop, punish them with the escrow fund, making them seem as if they’ve somehow “paid their debt to society.” Read the rest of this entry »
There is a widely held belief in the mainstream that “the debate has been settled” regarding Global Warming. If, however, you look at the financiers, beneficiaries and the tactics used to push forth with the Global Warming research and the associated policy, it gives one reason to be suspicious of what is really going on here.
More attention needs to be paid to non-conventional views on Global Warming. While the government has shelled out nearly $80 billion U.S. dollars to scientists, in order to generate research indicating man-made global warming is real; only $23 million U.S. dollars have been given to scientists with a skeptical angle.
Give a large swath of scientists a momentous sum of money and they will publish papers showing just about anything is true, whether or not that is actually the case. When you have a massively dis-proportionate sum going to one side of the argument; you will likely have the illusion of consensus and most people will believe that your research proves something concrete.
I’d like to present a few alternative views for your consideration. Now I’m sure these aren’t the be all end all proof of anything in particular; but at least they show an alternative viewpoint and provide a window into the kinds of individuals and organizations involved, as well as the motives, behind the push for Climate Change taxation and regulation.
Global Warming Skeptics Handbook
It’s unthinkable. Big Government has spent $79 billion on the climate industry,
3000 times more than Big-oil. Leading climate scientists won’t debate in public
and won’t provide their data. What do they hide? When faced with legal requests
they say they’ve “lost” the original global temperature records. Thousands of
scientists are rising in protest against the scare campaign. Meanwhile $126 billion
turned over in carbon markets in 2008 and bankers get set to make billions.
Everything youve ever been told about Global Warming is probably untrue. From Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth to news reports from the popular media outlets and even public classrooms which, in chicken little fashion, seem to be screaming – the sky is falling. But is it really? This film blows the whistle on what may be the biggest swindle in modern history. We are told that Man Made Global Warming is the biggest threat ever to mankind and that it may even threaten our very survival; and, if we do not change our ways and reduce CO2 emissions – polar ice caps will melt, coastal areas will flood and hurricanes like Katrina will become common. With nearly Gestapo like tactics we are told not to question! There is absolutely no room for doubt because there is a “scientific consensus.” Anyone who questions the data or conclusion is an enemy of the state and humanity. Well, bring it on because this is exactly what this well documented film does. The Great Global Warming Swindle uses a plethora of leading scientists who will not bend to political or philosophical or ideaological pressure. So watch this film and make up your own mind.
In this eye-opening documentary viewers will discover how the most respected researchers from all over the world explode the doom and gloom of global warming.
Humans stand accused of having set off a global climate catastrophe by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The prophecy of doom is clear and media pass on the message uncritically.
Now serious criticism has arisen from a number of heavyweight independent scientists. They argue that most of the climatic change we have seen is due to natural variations.
There are many common threads between Liberals and Libertarians, such as the desire for personal liberties; but the areas where they differ are somewhat significant. In a nutshell, Liberals are passionate about personal liberties such as freedom of speech; but they tend to have little concern for our economic liberties. Generally they will turn a blind eye to the loss of property rights, if their ends are achieved in the process.
Liberals stood by while the health care bill was rammed through Congress, taking away our ability to choose how and where we spend our own money and forcing us to purchase health insurance from the very insurance cartels they claimed to be opposed to. All of this, despite the fact that, when implemented on a state level in Massachusetts, their program failed miserably; raising premiums and claim denial rates far above what they were prior to the reforms.
Liberals supported Cap and Trade legislation, which taxes and regulates virtually every single aspect of our lives, by attaching a tax to the generation of Carbon Dioxide. This also invites government inspectors into our homes, to make sure that we’re using “government approved” designs for everything from our appliances, to light bulbs, windows and insulation.
When faced with conflicting opinions on humanity’s contribution to climate change they parrot the Al Gore stance that the debate on climate change is finished; pretending that everyone who matters has voiced their opinion and they have all unanimously favored their position that humanity is the primary cause of changes in our climate.
They are even going so far as describing dissenters as “climate denialists,” using the same kinds of ad-hominem attacks used against individuals who have a critical view of the historical accuracy of the generally accepted view of the Holocaust.
One of the fundamental differences I find between Libertarians and Liberals, is the Liberals’ faith and trust in the national government to tax, redistribute wealth and regulate enterprise. All of which are based on enormously flawed social and economic theories, which history has shown, with countless examples, to create widespread poverty and destroy capital formation.
The financial reform bill is a wonderful example of Liberal “regulation” of problem corporations.
source: seeking alpha
I posted an 11-page summary of Senator Dodd’s financial reform bill yesterday.
After receiving input from one of the top experts on credit rating agencies and various other smart people, I have now formed an opinion about Dodd’s bill.
Specifically, Dodd’s bill – while sounding good – is really an all-out attempt to save the current, broken system.
Dodd’s bill contains a number of concepts and catch-phrases that sound like reform. But the bill would actually:
- Keep the current Federal Reserve system, even though it is a wholly-failed system (see this, this and this). True, the bill would take away some of the Fed’s regulatory oversight powers, but the Fed has never used them anyway, so it is really maintaining the status quo
- Keep the current NRSRO credit rating system – maintaining Moody’s, S&P and Fitch as a government-endorsed rating monopoly – even though that is a wholly-failed system
- While saying it “ends too big to fail”, the bill would actually make sure that attempts to immediately break up the giant insolvent black holes dragging our economy down – such as Senator Sanders’ bill – will be killed
We can go on and on, as the bill – while using a lot of nice language – attempts to prop up just about every aspect of the current system, while appointing (“trust us, we’re different”) regulators to oversee things. It does nothing to try to prevent future forms of looting (which Congressmen Grayson, Clay and Miller attempted to do in their bill).
But we cannot be sure that such regulators won’t be subject to the same regulatory capture as all of the current regulators have suffered. Or that Senator Dodd has suffered, for that matter.
Only by taking away monopoly power from the too big to fails, and the NRSROs, and the Fed can we ever have a stable economy.
In addition, the economy cannot recovery until trust is restored in the financial system, and trust will not be restored unless the fraud behind the financial crash is prosecuted. Dodd’s bill ignores past fraud.
I also find it interesting and even comical to see that Bill Maher fancies himself a libertarian.
source: lewrockwell.com
“…Ironically, Bill Maher claims himself to be a Libertarian. Smoking pot and bashing President Bush alone do not make you a Libertarian. It takes strong convictions and faith in the concept of Liberty to stick to Libertarian principles in a town like Ancient Rome (that I sometimes refer to as modern day Washington D.C). Dr. Paul has proven the mettle by proving his loyalty for Libertarian principles while surviving the cut-throat D.C atmosphere for over three decades…”
Here’s an interesting excerpt from a Bill Maher show, where he voiced his stance on others who do not share his views on Cap & Trade.
“Shut the fuck up while I slap your face for making noise! Now pass the cap-and-trade law, you stupid bitch, and repeat after me, ‘global warming is real.’” [applause]
Maher’s quote speaks volumes of the Liberal hubris associated with global warming. I have seen this sentiment echoed by a variety of liberal voices; few of which seem to be interested in having a genuinely scientific debate on this phenomena.
It’s very difficult to have a discussion with someone who is so violently opposed to even the notion of questioning their views. I’ve often found it quite difficult to discuss politics and often science with die-hard Liberals. They tend to fancy themselves the hero of the common man; but most of their solutions are superficial and actually hurt the common man whom they are so concerned with helping.
If more Liberals would just look into things, deeper than the phony partisan rhetoric, I think their movement would be much more effective at achieving their ends. They need to understand that there are more than two views to every issue; it isn’t just Democrat or Republican. There are often hundreds of possible solutions; while only two are seen as viable by the controlled left-right dialectic.
Getting caught up in the left-right dialectic is the road to folly; because it keeps you from realizing the wide range of alternative possibilities which are available to solve problems. Solutions which don’t necessarily require more government programs, rules and regulations. Perhaps, god forbid, solutions which are actually constitutional and preserve, not only personal liberties; but also economic liberties.
Source: Allegiance and Duty Betrayed
Ignorance, illiteracy, stupidity always have been relevant social factors. This has been the case in any historical human social organization one cares to name — from clan to nation-state.
In every civilization, there is a very thin upper stratum of the people who are concerned with questions of truth, justice, the good — in other words, with the life of reason, or of the human spirit if you prefer. Historically, such people have tended to believe these ultimate values have a claim on every man in terms of the constitution of the good order of his soul, and on the direction of his actions as they translate into the social sphere.
Such people are surrounded by a vastly larger mass of “stupid people” who simply do not see the world that way, generally because they are ignorant, thus personally disordered/disorderly, thus irresponsible — and (thus) ever needy. This mass of “stupid people” has been called: “slaves by nature.”
In Aristotle, we find the distinction between the mass of the people, the plethos — who basically function on the “stupid level” — and the spoudaioi — the prudent, virtuous, public-minded “mature men.” It is the latter class that actually maintains the civilization.
Nowadays, however, progressive educrats like Barack Obama’s old friend, Bill Ayers, teaches teachers to teach their pupils that these spoudaios characters are really nothing but a reactionary, usually male, usually white gang of fascist thugs who are selfishly trying to preserve their own interests against the just claims of disadvantaged people, who are usually either women or “people of color.” The spoudaioi are oppressors you see. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the attributes shared by many of Barrack Obama’s more fanatical supporters, is an acute form of Narcissism. It seems as if they enjoy Obama’s presidency so much, because he reflects the same kinds of personality disorders that are endemic in the supporters’ own minds.
The problem these individuals face, is the fact that neither Obama, nor his supporters, seem to realize what the administration’s policies may do to the country, if fully implemented. For the most part, they are not genuinely interested in hearing what anyone else has to say either, if it isn’t directly supporting the administration’s stance.
In fact, many of these supporters are unaware of the details of Obama’s policies; often they may not know more than the title of the bill, the abstract or some sound bytes they heard via the media. As anyone who has actually read bills knows, these tidbits rarely convey the true nature of the meaning and scope of a proposed bill.
It seems as if one of the main attractions to Obama is his rhetoric and his personality. Certain types of people are attracted to him like a magnet, regardless of the implications of his policy agenda. Some of them even admit that his policies don’t matter, and all that really matters is his “leadership.” This is one of the most fatally flawed viewpoints I can imagine driving an executive’s support base. Read the rest of this entry »
There is this popular idea, that earmark spending results in increased Federal Government spending; so it is thought that the government should be given the money to spend on whatever they please. As with most popular ideas, this one is wrong; it is likely propaganda from those who would be receiving the pork without accountability.
As Congressman Ron Paul describes, the amount of a particular budget is decided before any earmarks are put into place; so a particular earmark does not alter the amount of the overall budget. To remove earmarks would remove accountability and give them even more money in their slush funds; to do with as they please.
Earmarks Don’t Add Up
Earmarks seem to be the hot topic this week, and as a fiscal conservative I am dismayed so many people deliberately distort the earmarking process and grandstand to make political points. It is an easy thing to do with earmarks. It takes a little more time and patience to grasp the reality of what earmarks really are.
To be sure, if earmarks were the driving force behind explosive government spending as some have been led to believe, that would be a good reason for all the fuss. The misconception seems to be that members of Congress put together a bunch of requests for project funding, add them all together and come up with a budget. The truth is, it is not done that way. The total level of spending is determined by the Congressional leadership and the appropriators before any Member has a chance to offer any amendments. Members’ requests are simply recommendations to allocate parts of that spending for certain items in that members’ district or state. If funds are not designated, they revert to non-designated spending controlled by bureaucrats in the executive branch. In other words, when a designation request makes it into the budget, it subtracts funds out of what is available to the executive branch and bureaucrats in various departments, and targets it for projects that the people and their representatives request in their districts. If a congressman does not submit funding requests for his district the money is simply spent elsewhere. To eliminate all earmarks would be to further consolidate power in the already dominant executive branch and not save a penny.
Furthermore, designating how money is spent provides a level of transparency and accountability over taxpayer dollars that we don’t have with general funds. I argue that all spending should be decided by Congress so that we at least know where the money goes. This has been a major problem with TARP funding. The public and Congress are now trying to find out where all that money went.
The real issue is that the overall budget is too big, by far, which is why I always vote against it. But attacking the 1% that was earmarked solves nothing. The whole issue is a distraction from the real problems we face, which are that the Federal Government will absorb over 1/3 of our country’s GDP this year and taxpayers are forced to fork over more than half their income to fund government at all levels. On top of that, the national debt is $11 trillion, which is $36,000 per citizen. The recent increases in bailouts, government spending and money creation is going to hobble our economy for decades. We must curb the government’s appetite severely if this country is ever to thrive again. The noise over “earmarks” is a red herring and a distraction from the real issue of uncommitted spending.
It is time to attack the entirety of government spending. We especially need a full account of the activities of the Federal Reserve that spends and creates trillions of dollars with no meaningful oversight. This is a huge problem that needs immediate attention.
“I use emotion for the many and reserve reason for the few.”
— Adolf Hitler
“He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.”
— Adolf Hitler
“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.”
— Adolf Hitler
Obama has better rhetoric, he’s a slicker speaker and is more deceptive than his predecessors. He knows how to say exactly what you want to hear, and he will tell you that he is here to solve all of your problems; even if he changes his rhetoric, or does the exact opposite later-on. Whatever he says or does, or has said or done in the past; nobody seems to care.
Yes, Barrack H. Obama has yet to demonstrate genuine integrity, during his political career; nor does he have a willingness to change the status quo. He and his friends in the congressional black caucus were integral in causing the debacle which lead to the epic failure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Just have a look at this man’s history. Has he ever demonstrated genuine integrity? What has he ever accomplished? If you think the man is for “change” then find me examples of what he has accomplished.
The people love him and he will be given a few months, during which he will be able to ram through, whatever legislation he wants; but after this so-called “honeymoon” period, there may be violence and insurrection as the blacks, especially, realize that we’ve all been fucked, right up the ass, just like it has always been done since the assassination of JFK.
Obama is in the oval office, as we speak, lubing up his big black anal probe. You had better bend right over and spread out those cheeks, young ones; because you’ve been had. And I might add, it was like shooting fish in a barrel this time.
Barrack Heussein Obama, there is ample evidence to illustrate your contempt for the American people. You have refused to produce a certified birth certificate. You have deceived the American public into thinking that you will stop the warfare and fix what is wrong with this nation.
In point of fact, you truly plan on exacerbating what is wrong with this nation; and you plan on bringing socialist ideals and bigger government into an already bankrupt nation.
The politician you most closely resemble bears the name Adolf Hitler. One day, they may very-well call you the “Black Hitler” of our time. May the youth who’s minds you have in the palm of your hands realize what you are before it is too late.
What’s that Bunkie? You thought the Obamanation was here to help? You thought he was here to change the world so we could all be one big happy family? Believe it or not, the Obamanation has some surprises in store for you.
First off, Bunkie, Obama is a freshmen congressman who came out of no-where to take the nomination by a landslide. That sort of reminds me of how George W. Bush took office. Barely anyone knew about the man then, out of nowhere, he is the front-runner for president.
When you look into Obama’s history, review his backers, and read between the lines of the vague statements that he makes; you will see that he is a commu-fascist at heart. He wants to turn the united States of America into a Communist Obamanation.
Yes Bunkie, he wants to make it so dead-beats are just as important as innovative entrepreneurs. If you think I’m making this up, just read the article below.
Barack Obama’s Stealth Socialism
Election ’08: Before friendly audiences, Barack Obama speaks passionately about something called “economic justice.” He uses the term obliquely, though, speaking in code — socialist code.
During his NAACP speech earlier this month, Sen. Obama repeated the term at least four times. “I’ve been working my entire adult life to help build an America where economic justice is being served,” he said at the group’s 99th annual convention in Cincinnati.
And as president, “we’ll ensure that economic justice is served,” he asserted. “That’s what this election is about.” Obama never spelled out the meaning of the term, but he didn’t have to. His audience knew what he meant, judging from its thumping approval.
It’s the rest of the public that remains in the dark, which is why we’re launching this special educational series.
“Economic justice” simply means punishing the successful and redistributing their wealth by government fiat. It’s a euphemism for socialism.
In the past, such rhetoric was just that — rhetoric. But Obama’s positioning himself with alarming stealth to put that rhetoric into action on a scale not seen since the birth of the welfare state.
In his latest memoir he shares that he’d like to “recast” the welfare net that FDR and LBJ cast while rolling back what he derisively calls the “winner-take-all” market economy that Ronald Reagan reignited (with record gains in living standards for all).
Obama also talks about “restoring fairness to the economy,” code for soaking the “rich” — a segment of society he fails to understand that includes mom-and-pop businesses filing individual tax returns.
It’s clear from a close reading of his two books that he’s a firm believer in class envy. He assumes the economy is a fixed pie, whereby the successful only get rich at the expense of the poor.
Following this discredited Marxist model, he believes government must step in and redistribute pieces of the pie. That requires massive transfers of wealth through government taxing and spending, a return to the entitlement days of old. Read the rest of this entry »
There is a man named John McCain in Washington DC (District of Criminals), who has done a great deal of lying, to push the United States into war with Iraq and Afghanistan. If that weren’t enough bloodshed, he would also like to drag us into another war with Iran.
Perhaps, one of these days, we will see convened a special tribunal, for men like McCain. During the tribunal, it would be nice to show all of the contradictory public statements and fabrications, with a video much like the one below.
This video illustrates McCain’s many lies and contradictions better than any I have seen thus far:
John McNugget is a puppet, doing the bidding of oligarchs in the United Kingdom who want to see the end of America as we know it. If elected, the butcher of Baghdad will drag the nation into more wars, until it is utterly bankrupt (both morally and literally) and chaos descends upon the streets of the united States of America.
Let us pray that this psychopath’s delusions of grandeur and empire are cut short, and he is not allowed to become the next President.
If there really were any justice in this world, the tribunal would be convened sometime in 2009. It looks like he, and others like him, face an even worse fate. Their souls will bear the weight of their mis-deeds for all of eternity, as they burn in their own self-imposed hell-on-Earth. This is the hell that McCain dreams of creating each night, while he is asleep.
I firmly believe that this man works for interests, who are opposed to the evolution of human-kind. I would love to see the a grass-roots change in the minds of people everywhere that could stop this.
But alas, despite all of this man’s lies and inaccuracies, I still see McCain bumper stickers everywhere I go. There is an old saying, “In the Land of the Blind, the one-eye is king.”
Will this and other satanically inspired men rule the global war on humanity? The answer is yes, if we continue to do what we are doing.