Health Care Info Dump

Wow not a single post in 2010 yet? Getting back on the horse here after fighting for liberty in person over the last few months. Since the first battle of health care reform is over I'd thought I'd dump my links on this subject over the last few months to clean the slate for the next battle...I'm very confident we'll win this war on liberty.

Investors.com - States Show How Not To Fix Health Care

AMA Endorses Largest Denier of Health Care Claims

Obama's War on Specialists

Daughter saves mother, 80, left by doctors to starve - Times Online

UK universal health care bypassed by its own workers

Hoyer Says Constitution’s ‘General Welfare’ Clause Empowers Congress to Order Americans to Buy Health Insurance

FACT CHECK: Health insurers' profits 35th of 53

Massachusetts' Obama-like reforms increase health costs, wait times

Thousands of surgeries may be cut in Metro Vancouver due to government underfunding, leaked paper

Daniel Henninger: Obama and the Old Hat People

Committee Confirms: Comply With Pelosi-Care Or Go To Jail

Newsweek Editor Admits: Health Care Bill a ‘Fiscal Fraud’ But ‘I’d Still Vote for It’

Pelosi’s Health Care Bill Would Regulate Snack Machines at Estimated Cost of $56 Million the First Year

ObamaCare’s Cost Could Top $6 Trillion

Months to Live - U.C.L.A. Medical Center at Heart of End-of-Life Debate

Health plans on collision course

Tom Coburn: The Health Bill Is Scary

Video: Brokaw says we should emulate Oregon’s health-care system

Breitbart.tv » The C-SPAN Lie? See Eight Clips of Obama Promising Televised Healthcare Negotiations

Latin American Herald Tribune - Cuban Doctors Manage to Defect Via Venezuela

Medicare Fraud Costs Taxpayers More Than $60 Billion Each Year - ABC News

CNSNews.com - CBO: Health Bill Would Force Families to Buy Insurance Costing a Minimum of $12,000 Per Year--Whether Government or Employer Helps Them or Not

The Fix Is In by Theodore Dalrymple (U.K. NHS)

Leadership Aides Exempt From Bill?

The Associated Press: Health premiums could rise 17 pct for young adults

Health overhaul likely to strain doctor shortage - Yahoo! News

Newsmax - Obamacare Amounts to Ponzi Welfare Scheme

CNSNews.com - After ObamaCare, Only 38% Think America’s Best Days Lay Ahead

Job Recovery? Not So Fast

As much as I'd like to have my return to blogging after a long stint off to be on the subject of positive job recovery news I'm afraid I can't jump on this burning bandwagon.
Gains in Temporary Help Flattens Out Unemployment Numbers
"The unemployment rate edged down slightly to 10.0 percent in November from 10.2 percent in October, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. There was only a net job loss of 11,000 in October. In the prior 3 months, payroll job losses had averaged 135,000 a month."

Jobs To Get Temporary Boost From Census Hiring Spree
"The job market will receive a fleeting jolt next year when the U.S. Census Bureau hires more than one million workers for its 2010 count.

Every 10 years the bureau hires a large number of temporary workers to knock on doors, process data and publicize its once-a-decade headcount. The bureau opened its application process earlier this week and plans to complete hiring by late spring next year. Most will be on the government's payroll for several weeks."

Fighting Revisionist History One Fact at a Time

Jimmy Carter is not only one of the worst presidents this country has ever had but is winning the worst ex-president race hands down. Here's a blast from the past on the peanut farmer with the peanut brain.
Wash Examiner: Jimmy Carter's Racist Campaign of 1970

"Former President Jimmy Carter has created a stir today by alleging that those protesting and opposing President Obama's health care bill -- by some measures, up to 55 percent of the country -- are doing so because they cannot accept the idea of a black man in the White House. As The New York Times put it:"

Tribute to the WSJ on Health Care

The Wall Street Journal has done a fantastic job of covering the whole health care debate, this post is a tribute to their fantastic coverage over the past few months.

Parsing the Health Reform Arguments

"The health-care debate continues. We have now heard from nearly all the politicians, experts and interested parties: doctors, drug makers, hospitals, insurance companies, even constitutional lawyers (though not, significantly, from trial lawyers, who know full well "change" is not coming to their practices). Here is how one humble economist sees some of the main arguments, which I have paraphrased below:

- 'The American people overwhelmingly favor reform.'"

Budget Blow For Health Plan

"Congress's chief budget scorekeeper cast a new cloud over Democratic efforts to overhaul the nation's health-care system, telling lawmakers Thursday that the main proposals being considered would fail to contain costs -- one of the primary goals -- and could actually worsen the problem of rapidly escalating medical spending."

A Reckless Congress

"Say this about the 1,018-page health-care bill that House Democrats unveiled this week and that President Obama heartily endorsed: It finally reveals at least some of the price of the reckless ambitions of our current government. With huge majorities and a President in a rush to outrun the declining popularity of his agenda, Democrats are bidding to impose an unrepealable European-style welfare state in a matter of weeks."

Their Own Medicine

"In the health debate, liberals sing Hari Krishnas to the "public option" -- a new federal insurance program like Medicare -- but if it's good enough for the middle class, then surely it's good enough for the political class too? As it happens, more than a few Democrats disagree."

Obama Backs Health Surtax

"President Barack Obama, looking to pay for his ambitious health-care plan and shore up public support, endorsed a surtax on families earning $1 million a year for the first time Wednesday."

Apologies For My Absence

I will begin posting again very soon!

Beating the 47M Uninsured Dead Horse

Everything You Wanted to Know About Health Care but Were Afraid To Ask: Part 1

Hot Air: Statist Health Care By the Numbers
"0: The number of unrehearsed, unscripted questions asked of President Obama during his “Town Hall” on health care reform."

Manhattan Institute: In health bill, billions for parks, paths Supporters cite prevention, but add-ons’ critics see pork
"Sweeping healthcare legislation working its way through Congress is more than an effort to provide insurance to millions of Americans without coverage. Tucked within is a provision that could provide billions of dollars for walking paths, streetlights, jungle gyms, and even farmers’ markets."

Real Clear Markets: Trying to Cover the Unenthusiastic Uninsured
"But any government plan would have to confront and overcome a troubling characteristic of the uninsured that rarely gets discussed in reform debates: Many of them, perhaps nearly half of the 47 million Americans without coverage, earn enough to afford insurance, or qualify for existing government health programs, but still remain without coverage."
Cato: U.S. State Officials Need to Stop Micomanaging Care
"On Tuesday, stakeholders in the health care debate met at Northridge Hospital Medical Center to discuss the need for health care reform. Doctors lamented reduced Medicare and Medi-Cal payments.

Some said they were thinking about getting out of medicine. Primary care physicians noted that fewer and fewer doctors choose to specialize in primary care, preferring the more highly reimbursed medical specialties as career paths. Patients complained about reduced access to physicians."

Reason: Health Care Corporatism Arrives

"In the past few months, Americans have seen their government essentially seize control of one sector of the economy after another. Federal authorities now tell the automobile, banking, credit card, and insurance industries what products and services to offer, all while hiring and firing industry executives in order to implement government orders."

The Non-Scandal C.I.A. Scandal

I might be just spit-balling here but aren't secret programs designed to assassinate the leaders of our enemies what we want the C.I.A. to do?
CIA Program at Center of Congressional Controversy ‘Never Went Fully Operational,’ Says U.S. Intelligence Official
"A Central Intelligence Agency program that CIA Director Leon Panetta briefed congressional intelligence committees about on June 24 was an “on-again, off-again” project that “never went fully operational” and that Panetta had been informed about by a component of the CIA itself that recommended he in turn inform Congress about it, a U.S. intelligence official told CNSNews.com."

CIA Had Secret Al Qaeda Plan
"A secret Central Intelligence Agency initiative terminated by Director Leon Panetta was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill al Qaeda operatives, according to former intelligence officials familiar with the matter."

CIA’s super-secret plan: assassinate al-Qaeda leaders
"Let’s see. Democrats want to make hay over a program to kill Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the rest of the radical Islamist looney tunes? Best of luck with that. Show of hands: who in the US doesn’t want the heads of bin Laden and Zawahiri on a pike? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?"

From the Now It Makes Sense File

Politicians Share Personality Traits With Serial Killers

"What doesn't go unnoticed is the fact that some of the character traits exhibited by serial killers or criminals may be observed in many within the political arena. While not exhibiting physical violence, many political leaders display varying degrees of anger, feigned outrage and other behaviors. They also lack what most consider a "shame" mechanism. Quite simply, most serial killers and many professional politicians must mimic what they believe, are appropriate responses to situations they face such as sadness, empathy, sympathy, and other human responses to outside stimuli."

The Guts of a Massive Bureaucracy

Anyone Remember the Carter Years?

Hypocrisy Alert #2: Fishy Firing at AmeriCorps

D.C. Examiner: What's behind Obama's sudden attempt to fire the AmeriCorps inspector general?
"There are a number of unanswered questions today about President Obama's abrupt decision to fire the inspector general of the AmeriCorps program, Gerald Walpin. Obama sent letters to House and Senate leaders yesterday informing them that he was firing Walpin, effective 30 days from the date of the letter."

Hot Air: Obama cronyism: Going after AmeriCorps IG on behalf of contributor; Update: A Michelle Obama connection?
"David Freddoso tried to explain that the only change Barack Obama would bring to the Beltway would be an introduction of the Chicago Machine politics that made him successful to the Beltway. The Inspector General of AmeriCorps, one of Obama’s pet projects, has discovered this the hard way. The independent investigator got fired for peeking too closely at an Obama contributor:"

Hot Air: The curious firing of Gerald Walpin gets … curiouser
"Senator Charles Grassley has demanded records from the Obama administration over the dismissal of the Inspector General for Americorps and raises the possibility that Barack Obama broke a law he co-sponsored in the Senate that protects the independence of the IGs. The firing comes as the Obama administration cut a sweetheart deal with a major Obama backer that allows him to receive federal funding as mayor of Sacramento, and fails to repay taxpayers for the money Kevin Johnson admittedly took illegally:"

Doublethink Alert #4: Revisionist Economic History (it's not just the New Deal anymore)

One of the biggest revisionist history events in the history of man is that the New Deal brought us out of the Great Depression. Thank heavens this myth is being dispelled more and more as of late. Next up is revising our current economic downturn...let the doublethink begin...

Schumer: Stimulus prevented depression

By Bob Cusack

Posted: 07/13/09 08:45 AM [ET]

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Monday that the economic stimulus accomplished its first goal of preventing a great depression and cautioned against rush judgments about whether the $787 billion package is a significant job-creator. During an appearance on MNBC's "Morning Joe" program, Schumer said, "It's done job 1: prevent a depression. Now let's see if it does enough of job 2: create jobs." Schumer's comments come as Republicans seize on rising unemployment numbers as proof that the stimulus is a failure. House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) labeled the stimulus "a flop" during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday." Democrats have been on the defensive in recent weeks on the stimulus and their argument in defending the law has shifted over the last couple of months. Vice President Biden earlier this month indicated his administration "misread the economy" while also noting that many outside economists have been surprised by recent unemployment figures. Schumer maintains it's too early to assess the stimulus as a job-creator, saying, "The president came in in the worst economic times since the Depression. Financial markets were shut and we risked the Great Depression. We truly risked the Great Depression." He added, "The initial thrust of the stimulus package was to get some money out there into the economy quickly because if not you have a deflationary spiral. Now it's accomplished that goal. We don't risk the Great Depression. The second phase of the stimulus is job creation ... " Schumer said policymakers will see over the next three or four months whether the stimulus package is effective in creating jobs. The New York Democrat said, "Overall, I think you've got to give it a chance to work." Pressed on whether he believes another stimulus package is necessary, Schumer said there is not much of a political appetite for such a measure "at the moment." However, Schumer said, if unemployment gets worse, "it's something we'd have to look at." He praised President Obama's handling of the economy, but said he would have preferred a stimulus that was a bit larger and more focused on infrastructure spending.

The TRILLION Dollar Deficit

When did billions become chump change?....
"Nine months into the fiscal year, the federal deficit has topped $1 trillion for the first time.

The imbalance is intensifying fears about higher interest rates and inflation, and already pressuring the value of the dollar. There's also concern about trying to reverse the deficit—by reducing government spending or raising taxes—in the midst of a harsh recession.

The Treasury Department said Monday that the deficit in June totaled $94.3 billion, pushing the total since the budget year started in October to nearly $1.1 trillion."

Breitbart: Budget deficit tops $1 trillion for first time ever

Market Watch: U.S. budget deficit rises about $1 trillion

Happy Belated 4th: Remembering the Declaration

"When we celebrate the Fourth of July, we are celebrating one of the most important political documents in the history of the world. The Declaration is a statement to the world -- the people of the world was the audience -- about the very nature of government and its relationship to men. Sometimes we appreciate what this document was, but perhaps we need even more to appreciate what it was not."
American Thinker: Remember What the Declaration of Independence Was Not - Bruce Walker