Tag Archives: healthcare

Posted on by

richard grenell’s politico.com commentary on democratic whining

Democratic Whining

Most of us know that violence and threats are completely unacceptable. And law enforcement officials can and should deal with anyone who uses violence to make their point.

But the majority of Americans are ticked off and emotional about the Democratic healthcare take-over. And we aren’t going to be intimidated into backing down by members of Congress like Chris Van Hollen and James Clyburn who feign outrage but sound downright giddy with their new fundraising gimmick. “We are so outraged, so send us $5.”

I’ve never seen so much whining from a majority party. While Democratic lawmakers and members of the media climb on their new high horse to suddenly discover they have an intolerance for out of control and emotional political discourse, most Americans remember Code Pink’s and Moveon.org’s tactics and the Democrats’ silence. While no one should defend the alleged “fag” shout out to Barney Frank or the supposed spitting on members of Congress by emotional and out of control opponents of the health care hijack, the liberals seem new to the disgust-tion. Where was our caped politicians when Cheney was called a murderer and war criminal and Bush was burned as an effigy, called unprintable names or had a shoe thrown at him? The simple fact is they never spoke up during the Bush Administration when Code Pink shutdown most every capitol hill hearing, or Cindy Sheehan called all Bush appointees killers.

The idea that Sarah Palin can’t say re-load without Democrats suggesting she is telling her supporters to actually “reload their guns” is laughable and proves the majority party is too thin-skinned. Do we think that John Edwards’ “Two Americas” speech is suggesting a civil war? Or Barack Obama’s call to his supporters to “Get Fired Up” means they should start shooting? Please.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Posted on by

Rick Sanchez’s Show claims ‘technical difficulties’ in getting GOP Healthcare response.

Rick Sanchez’s Show claims ‘technical difficulties’ in getting GOP Healthcare response.

The day after the federal government hijacked 1/5 of the U.S. economy in order to give health insurance to unemployed 26 year olds was a giddy day for CNN’s Rick Sanchez. The 3pm EST host for the supposed cable news network in the middle couldn’t hold back his excitement for the healthcare hijack that had just taken place in Washington.

Sanchez gave us 25 minutes of non-stop gloating from supporters of the healthcare take-over. Sanchez gave us Obama, Biden, Pelosi, more Obama, Biden’s over-the-top and profane characterization that this is a really big deal, more Obama, Ted Kennedy’s widow telling us this is a really big deal, more Obama and a really long pen-signing ceremony to celebrate the occasion. We also got some yucking-it-up moments from Democratic members of Congress telling the President they had cast some tough votes on a really big issue. Then Sanchez gave us Analysis 101 with David Gergen and another reporter conversing with him on how the Republicans keep talking about over-turning the legislation but the reality is they won’t be able to do it. Sanchez assured us that he knew it was all talk – and that it couldn’t be done. When Gergen tried to bring up the fact that public opinion was on the Republicans’ side as evident by the most recent poll showing a large number of Americans were not pleased with the takeover, Sanchez jumped in to say that in his humble opinion “We shouldn’t even be talking about that poll because it was taken before the vote”. Huh? Why would that matter? Americans don’t want this healthcare hijack and all the pushing by Sanchez that this is a really big deal won’t change their minds. We know it’s a really big deal and that’s why we’re mad!

And then, 25 minutes into Sanchez’s show he tells us that in an effort to be fair, we will soon be hearing from the Republicans “to get their take” on the healthcare hijack. But after the obligatory commercial break, Sanchez tells us that we won’t be able to hear from the Republicans right now because CNN has a technical problem. Seriously? There is only one computer satellite available for the Republicans’ response in all of CNN? It’s hard to believe but Sanchez assured us it was true. After several minutes and several other non-stories, Sanchez tells us that we will get GOP reaction, “If we get the computer fixed “. And then Sanchez starts laughing in an obvious ‘I don’t care’ kind of way. “It’s not like it’s our fault, it’s a technical difficulty,” he tries to explain with a smirk on his face.

Whatever excuse Rick Sanchez comes up with, the simple fact is that his show had no Republican response 35 minutes into it on the day after the “really big deal” healthcare vote. For more than 35 minutes, Sanchez orchestrated a liberal diatribe in support of the bill.

When CNN finally “fixed” the technical problems, Sanchez’s highly anticipated GOP response turned out to be a twitter review of tweets from 6 members of Congress over the last 24 hours. The 6 tweets highlighted by Sanchez, trumpeted as CNN’s Republican response, weren’t from Republicans afterall. The first three tweets highlighted were from Democratic Senator Udall, Democratic Senator Specter and White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs. The last 3 tweets were from Republicans – Price, Jenkins and Meghan McCain. Hardly a GOP response. And hardly a show worth watching.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Posted on by

jane harman is MIA, nancy pelosi is facing her waterloo

politico.com Jane Harman is MIA

Nancy Pelosi is manipulating the legislative process away from an open and transparent one and into a secret system where her chosen few will be the only ones who know what is in a healthcare bill that will systematically change the way everyone in America receives and pays for their health insurance. Should this process really be a horse trade within the Democratic Party? And where is the Obama promise that the process would be completely transparent to the American people.

The American people are watching closely to see which members of Congress vote for this bill even though they won’t know the details of the bill and won’t have read it before the vote. This healthcare vote will be Nancy Pelosi’s Waterloo. She will find herself no longer the Speaker and her reputation ruined as an out of touch and elitist secret manipulator.

Even members of Congress that think they are in a safe district will be vulnerable. Jane Harman, for instance, has a large and active group of independents organizing to defeat her. Harman held no healthcare briefings for the public and has been completely quiet and hiding from her constituents. A multimillionaire afraid to speak with those she purports to represent is not the way our founding fathers envisioned the process.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Posted on by

the bill includes health insurance for slackers!

If President Barack Obama gets his trillion dollar healthcare bill passed this week by the Democrats in Congress, parents will be required to pay for their unmarried kids’ healthcare coverage until the age of 26. And Generation Y will be enticed to continue slacking, without a job, well past college graduation. While ski bums everywhere are cheering the news that the federal government will be forcing parents to pay for their health insurance through age 26, parents are questioning why the federal government is enticing a whole generation to stay unemployed.

America has always been a place where hard work is rewarded regardless of one’s age, family status or educational background. If you have an idea you are committed to and make sacrifices to further the idea, you can be wildly successful in our capitalistic system. In America, you can launch a multi-billion dollar computer company from your garage, you can grow up homeless and make it Harvard and you can create a world-wide social networking movement while still in college. But you can also be a slacker if you have the means to slack. Spending a year skiing, hanging out on the beach and surfing or traveling the world are options for the few lucky ones who have parents wealthy enough to pay for such endeavors.

But should the U.S. government encourage college kids to become slackers? Does Generation Y need any more encouragement to feel entitled? And should society guarantee a 5 year hiatus from responsibility after college graduation for millions of college kids? While it is true that many college graduates today will be self-motivated to find a career, make their own money and contribute to society, Generation Y has been the most entitled generation in history. Should the American taxpayer tempt these kids further into believing that the American dream is easy to fulfill?

Obama’s healthcare bill is being celebrated on the slopes of Colorado and the surf shacks of California but is a dangerous precedent for future generations. Here is the exact wording:

SEC. 2714. EXTENSION OF DEPENDENT COVERAGE.

`(a) In General- A group health plan and a health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage that provides dependent coverage of children shall continue to make such coverage available for an adult child (who is not married) until the child turns 26 years of age.

One could understand extending another entitlement program through age 26 in countries where the average work week is 30 hours per week and vacation time is guaranteed at 8-10 weeks per year. But is this new proposal anti-American? We aren’t supposed to reward people who don’t work hard and make sacrifices to get ahead. And we aren’t supposed to guarantee anything in America but a fair shot. America is a place where you prove your commitment to your family and your community through hard work and sacrifice. It is this ethic that we call American values.

But the American free-market system is under intense assault from President Obama and his partners in the overwhelmingly Democratic Congress. Obama has proposed massive new programs to give money, guaranteed jobs and entitlements to millions of Americans. In 2008, 36% of Americans paid no taxes. Think about the fact that more than 1/3 of our neighbors paid zero taxes. Did you pay any taxes last year? If you were part of the working group that paid for the slackers, do you really think they need another entitlement program that you will have to pay for?

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Posted on by

home healthcare on the chopping block

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/07/opinion/main5927600.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

Home Healthcare On The Chopping Block

In confronting healthcare reform, President Obama and his team have intellectualized a change that may seem to make sense on paper but doesn’t conform with the reality of our current system. President Obama continues to focus on cutting waste and fraud from Medicare while insisting that his budget cuts will not cut services to the millions of older Americans that rely on Medicare for their healthcare. “Nobody is talking about reducing Medicare benefits,” Obama recently said.

But the simple fact is that the President and The White House have no control over how Medicare service providers prioritize their spending or service delivery. The President can insist that he doesn’t want Medicare services to be cut but when he greatly reduces the amount of money the federal government will pay for Medicare; service providers alone get to decide how to deal with that revenue loss. It is the private sector service providers, not the President, that decide what to cut and how to cut. For example, Medicare providers will decide if they continue to pay their workers the same amount of money but cut services – or – if they cut the number of workers delivering the services – or – if they just take less profit. Obama has envisioned a free-market system that will just take less profit. The President is either intellectually naïve because of his lack of experience outside the classroom or strategically trying to manipulate our way of life.

But this is America and we have a free-market system that is more about supply and demand than it is about altruism. As much as the President has intellectualized a healthcare change that will act collectively, his plan is impractical in a capitalistic society. Obama’s healthcare reform efforts are, in fact, a dangerous assault on America’s current system. My Harvard Economics Professor taught me that whenever government mandates a price or manipulates the market the entire model gets flipped upside down. Professor Obama should know that any kind of government intervention in the free-market system causes the system to act irrationally, not collectively.

Home healthcare is the perfect example of Obama’s academic thinking. Over the last 10 years, home healthcare services have dramatically increased in an effort to decrease expensive hospitalization costs. Home healthcare has become a relatively inexpensive way to care for patients who do not need round the clock care from a hospital or nursing home. If we are trying to save money within the healthcare system we should be advocating for more homecare not less. However, the Congressional Budget Office says that the Democratic plan currently being debated drastically cuts homecare spending. Home healthcare services would absorb more than 13 percent of the proposed Medicare cuts to the tune of $43 billion.

If Obama and company want to keep healthcare costs down then home healthcare should be expanded not cut. If older Americans or active people want to recover in the comfort of their home rather than in a hospital or nursing home then we should encourage their decision.

But yesterday, the Democratically-controlled Senate followed President Obama’s plan and put home care on the chopping block. President Obama, however, continues to insist that Medicare services and patient options will not be diminished even though providers will have a $43 billion hole to fill.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post