The RNC has put out an ad it is calling the “dictionary ad” that addresses all the tax increases that Obama’s healthcare policies will raise. At least 8 new taxes according to the RNC.
Capitalism
Unions Threatened by New House Healthcare Provision?
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Democrat leadership of the House of Representatives now wants to pay for H.R.3200 — the House healthcare bill — by charging a tax on the so-called Cadillac healthcare plans. This surtax is something that has been talked about in the Senate and forms an integral part of the Baucus bill, but this is the first time that House leaders have broached this revenue idea for inclusion in H.R.3200.
The idea, a classic class warfare styled policy, would tax what Congress considers high-end healthcare plans, purportedly only hitting “the rich.” But it is highly possible that this “rich man’s” surtax might also apply to millions of union members that have traded pay raises for higher levels of benefits over the last decade.
This surtax idea is one of the reasons that many of the unions had been pushing for the public option. Unions chiefs felt that the surtax would unduly affect their membership and that the public option would give union members a “free” place to go if they had to cut back on benefits or what have you.
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Unions Threatened by New House Healthcare Provision?”
We Support Freedom for Iran!
Here at Publius Forum, we support the people of Iran in their quest to shake off the oppression of the religious Mullahs and their iron-fisted control of the Iranian government.
Dan Scott will be posting updates here about the developing situation in Iran as time goes on.
Iran’s Mousavi calls for new opposition demo – – 02/27/10
IRAN: Opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi calls 22 Bahman celebrations ‘engineered’ – – 02/27/10
Iran’s fight for press freedom – – 02/26/10
The truth about Iran’s campus attack – – 02/23/10
Heavy clashes continue in West of Tehran – – 02/11/10
Iran protests: live blog – – 02/11/10
Iran Arrests Activists Before 2/11 Rallies – – 02/10/10
Video Update: Lar residents clash with anti-riot police – – 02/05/10
Iran puts 16 protesters on trial – – 01/30/10
Infernal Iran; The Death Spiral Accelerates – – 01/28/10
Divisions in Iranian Police Forces Could Spell Trouble for Government – – 01/21/10
Majid Tavakoli sentenced to eight years imprisonment – – 01/21/10
Iran Leader Warns Opposition Ahead Of Revolution Day – – 01/20/10
Iran arrests 4 suspects over prosecutor’s killing – – 01/19/10
Iran’s top prosecutor wants action against opposition – – 01/11/10
Iran Supreme Leader urges firm action over riots – – 01/09/10
Five Iranians facing trial belong to exile group: report – – 01/08/10
Iran renews execution threat against protesters – – 01/05/10
High-ranking clerics undermining Iran government – – 01/04/10
Judiciary Says Speedy Punishment Awaits Iran Rioters – – 01/04/10
Spotlight on Iran Update – – 01/03/10
Iran cleric demands “force” against rioters – – 01/02/10
Opposition head Mousavi: Iran in “serious crisis” – – 01/01/10
Iran:Protesters chanting “Down with Khamenei” in Esfahan and Shiraz – – 12/31/09
Iranian authorities hold bodies to dampen riots – – 12/31/09
Students, militia clash on Tehran university campus – – 12/30/09
Iran opposition leader’s nephew buried after riots – – 12/30/09
Iran police still holding 300 over Sunday protests – – 12/30/09
Beginning of the end? – – 12/30/09
Ahmadinejad blames US, Israel for Iran protests – – 12/29/09
Iran arrests pro-reform opposition figures – – 12/29/09
Iran protests turn violent as demonstrators confront police – – 12/28/09
Iran unrest isn’t a riot, it’s an earthquake – – 12/28/09
Dubai TV journalist missing in Tehran riots – – 12/28/09
Amazing video of Iranian Protesters beating up a cop to free prisoners – – 12/27/09
Protests erupt at Montazeri funeral in Iran – – 12/21/09
Iranian Leaders Issues Stern Warning To Opposition – – 12/13/09
Iran: Student Day Demonstrations on Youtube – – 12/07/09
Iran Demonstrations Students – – 12/07/09
The Latest Round Of Iran Demonstrations – – 12/07/09
More Harsh Sentences in Iran Protests – – 12/01/09
Iran Tehran, five death sentences for anti-government riots – – 11/18/09
University Demonstrations – – 11/17/09
Dissidents Mass in Tehran to Subvert an Anti-U.S. Rally — 11/04/09
Suicide bomber kills 30 in attack on Iran’s Guards — 10/18/09
Iran will execute 2 for election protests — 10/11/09
Obama Cuts Off Funding for Iranian Human-Rights Documentation — 10/06/09
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center
Death to dictator; chanted demonstrators in Tehran — 10/02/09
Student Protests Against Ahmadinejad Continue In Tehran– 09/29/09
Website Cites Antigovernment Protest By Iran Students — 09/28/09
Iran’s nuclear stand-off reaches new heights — 09/28/09
Jews turn out for anti-Iran demonstrations in N.Y., D.C. — 09/24/09
Iranian Rally Leads to Violence — 09/22/09
The Death Spiral of the Islamic Republic — 09/21/09
Iran detains about 35 people over Quds Day protests — 09/20/09
Qods Day security forces. Tehran — 09/18/09
IRAN: Riots in Tehran and Other Cities — 09/18/09
YOUTUBE: ran protest , CNN report 1, sept 18 2009, 27 shahrivar
Mirdammad street Tehran Iran protest
YOUTUBE: News from Iran, Protest in Tehran Sep 18 part1
YOUTUBE: Iran Tehran Karimkhan St 18 Sep 09 Quds Protest
Iranian Opposition Protests Resurface During Anti-Israel Rallies — 9/18/09
Clashes erupt on day of dueling demonstrations — 9/18/09
Sen. Baucus Admits Haste and Lack of Planning on Healthcare
-By Warner Todd Huston
In a September 23 Senate Finance Committee Hearing Senator Max Baucus (D, Montana) was heard uttering a damning quote about the Democrat’s progress on Obama’s nationalization of our healthcare system. In fact it is a frightening quote that should give every single citizen pause whether he is for Obamacare or against.
“We’re doing this all on the fly,” Baucus was heard to say, “so it’s a little bit, makes me a little bit nervous.”
What is so telling about this short quote? Baucus has done no less than admit that the Senate is pursuing this massive enlargement of federal power “on the fly.” The Senator is admitting that they have not thought this through, that they are not taking the time needed to plan this out and consider all the alternatives. Baucus has admitted that Congress is flying by the seat of its pants.
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Sen. Baucus Admits Haste and Lack of Planning on Healthcare”
Michigan to Tax Doctors to Pay Doctors
-By Warner Todd Huston
Once again, welcome to fascism Friday. We’ve given story one about Canadian fascism, and now the first one from the U.S.A. And like the one that will follow, this one is from Michigan, the Wolverine State. This time we see Michigan authorities creating fatuous taxes..
Who said that government ever made any logical sense? The State of Michigan has lighted upon a brilliant plan. It has been suggested that the state tax doctors so that it can pay doctors more via its Medicaid expenditures. Yes, the Wolverine State wants to tax doctors so it can pay doctors better. No logic need apply.
This sounds like to sort of scam that normal people would get arrested for!
And talk about an unfair tax. Doctors already pay personal income tax and taxes through their businesses. And now, if the State legislature in Lansing has its way, doctors will be taxed just because they are doctors.
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Michigan to Tax Doctors to Pay Doctors”
Obamacare: It’s War on the Middle Class
-By Warner Todd Huston
Once again we see that Barack Obama cannot be relied on to tell America the truth. During the late presidential campaign, Team Obama attacked Hillary Clinton for having mandates for health insurance yet now he is himself touting forced mandates on the people.
In 2008 an Obama flyer slammed Hillary for her forced insurance purchase suggestion. That flyer told Obamaites that, “Hillary’s health care plan forces everyone to buy insurance, even if you can’t afford it.” This was bad, Obama thought.
That was then.
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Obamacare: It’s War on the Middle Class”
Keynesianism Loves the Total State
-By Thomas E. Brewton
Keynesian macroeconomics, the mythology favored by liberal-progressives ranging from President Obama to New York Times propagandist Paul Krugman, is a rationalization for massive expansion of deficit spending and socialization of the entire economy.
From the Mises.org website, John Maynard Keynes’s introduction to the 1936 German edition of his General Theory:
The theory of aggregate production, which is the point of the following book, nevertheless can be much easier adapted to the conditions of a totalitarian state [eines totalen Staates] than the theory of production and distribution of a given production put forth under conditions of free competition and a large degree of laissez-faire.
Keynes’s bete noir was individual savings, his so-called liquidity trap, which he identified as the cause of economic depression. His ideology thus calls for displacing individualism with collectivized power of the political state, evidenced by rampant creation of Federal agencies, deficit spending programs, and punishingly higher taxes. This is what the Obama administration is pushing to do today.
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Keynesianism Loves the Total State”
Obamacare is About Controlling Every Aspect of Your Life
-By Warner Todd Huston
Peter Fleckenstein spent a huge amount of time reading H.R. 3200 and found hundreds of provisions that do nothing less than give government complete control of our very lives. This is a stark list that should frighten any freedom loving American from any support for this anti-American president and his socialist Congressional majority. Aside from this frightening list, Fleckenstein has more at his site http://blog.flecksoflife.com.
Read on and be afraid… be very afraid of Obama’s un-American plans to control your life:
- Sec. 113, Pg. 21-22 of the Health Care (HC) Bill MANDATES a government audit of the books of ALL EMPLOYERS that self-insure in order to “ensure that the law does not provide incentives for small and mid-size employers to self-insure”!
- Sec. 122, Pg. 29, Lines 4-16 – YOUR HEALTH CARE WILL BE RATIONED!
Obamacare is About Controlling Every Aspect of Your Life”
A Doctor’s Deep Concerns About Obamacare
-By Warner Todd Huston
Woodrow Wilcox, a fellow that operates a Medicare advice and assistance website, was contacted not long ago by a local Indiana doctor that read the entire bill of H.R. 3200. Once he was done he had some deep and troubling concerns about Obamacare. The doctor, Stephen E. Fraser, M.D., then sat down and wrote Senator Evan Bayh about these concerns.
Here is that letter:
Dear Senator Bayh,
As a practicing physician, I have major concerns with the health care bill (HR 3200) before Congress. I spent the last week reading this bill, which at over 1000 pages is quite difficult to get through. Have you read it? I’m shocked by the brazenness of the government’s intrusion into the patient-physician relationship. I’m especially concerned about the creation of a central committee to decide medical coverage decisions.
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A Doctor’s Deep Concerns About Obamacare”
Union Rules: Teachers Paid Not to Teach
-By Warner Todd Huston
Here is yet another story where union members undergoing disciplinary procedures can sometimes spend years being paid their full salary to sit home and watch TV, doing nothing, working not a minute of their day. In this case it is costing a local school system at least $2.25 million to pay teachers that aren’t teaching.
This story focuses on teachers in Buffalo, New York but it is a story repeated in unions of all sorts all across the country.
The problem is that unions are allowed to become so meddlesome in member’s disciplinary procedures, the unions are allowed to block them so easily, that disciplinary procedures take an inordinate amount of time. All too often boards of review and other provisions to determine the culpability of bad teachers and arrive at a suitable punishment are opposed tooth and nail by unions. Unions especially fight the ultimate punishment: firings.
To be sure, no one thinks that unions should be so powerless that teachers can be fired on a whim. There certainly must be fairness for both parties, teachers and school administrations (the employer) alike.
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Union Rules: Teachers Paid Not to Teach”
Obama’s Gov’t ‘Non-Profit’ Insurance ‘Competition’ Idea is Uninformed
-By Warner Todd Huston
In his desire to slander capitalism and impugn the integrity of all insurance companies in order to play up his “public option” idea, President Obama’s main claim has been that those evil insurance companies need “competition” from a government sponsored plan. This purported competition is supposed to “keep them honest.”
Obama presents this idea as if there currently isn’t any non-profit health insurance group keeping those for-profits honest. He acts as if he has some sort of new idea, one that currently doesn’t exist. But the truth is many states already have non-profit health groups. On top of that one of these non-profits is usually one of the largest insurance groups around.
That group would be Blue Cross and Blue Shield. John Lott, economist and author of “Freedomnomics,” gives us some of the facts:
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Obama’s Gov’t ‘Non-Profit’ Insurance ‘Competition’ Idea is Uninformed”
Obama is ‘Concerned’ About Blogosphere
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Hill is reporting that Obama is now “open” to a newspaper bailout. Well, welcome to the state run media.
Not long ago Senator Ben Cardin (D- Md.) introduced S. 673, the Newspaper Revitalization Act. It is supposed to give news media tax breaks if they restructure as a non-profit corporation. So far, though, the bill has little support among his colleagues.
The Hill reminds us that in May Obama’s spokesman down played the possibility of government assistance to the media.
But in a recent appearance with the editors of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Obama seemed to say he’s open to the idea saying, “I haven’t seen detailed proposals yet, but I’ll be happy to look at them.”
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Obama is ‘Concerned’ About Blogosphere”
School Pensions Making Millionaires out of Retiring Employees
-By Warner Todd Huston
Bill Zettler recently submitted a Freedom of Information request on the pensions of 13 retiring public school employees from District 211 in Palatine, Illinois and he found that the people of Illinois are on the hook for over $50 million in pension benefits promised to people retiring at the average age of 58.
Zettler found that these school employees are seeing an average of $96,000 a year in pension benefits whereas the average Social Security benefit is $13,500 a year. SS recipients also don’t get their benefits until they’ve reached 63 at least while the average retirement age of these public employees is 58.
I’ll get right to Mr. Zettler’s pullout quote, one that really puts the whole situation in perfect focus. “If the purpose of taxation is to provide for the common good,” Zettler said, “we may ask what common good is provided by making public employees multi-millionaires in their fifties?”
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School Pensions Making Millionaires out of Retiring Employees”
Your House Is On Fire, Oh, I Didn’t Notice
-By Dan Scott
Liberals, their plans, veracity and activities have been under a lot of public scrutiny lately. They seem to be very uncomfortable with the light of public gaze upon them, even to the point of walking on eggshells. When they can’t find what they believe is an non revealing answer which they know will anger the public to some very straightforward questions they pretend to be obtuse on the issue at hand. Feigning obtuseness seems to be the best they can do to not come clean on the issues. The point of feigning obtuseness is to avoid the really uncomfortable questions of why they failed to respond to something, which so obviously is inappropriate. It’s the old, “what did you know” and “when did you know it” quagmire. The failure to respond appropriately is a very telling disconnect of “affect” which calls into question one’s competence, motives or agenda.
The disconnect of affect was raised to the ridiculous with the growing scandals involving ACORN. Charles Gibson, an ABC news anchor was asked why the media wasn’t covering the cut off of funds by Congress to ACORN. Gibson claimed he didn’t know anything about it. How likely was his answer? Let’s add some background context to answer that question. A person working for the media doesn’t know anything (to the point of cluelessness) about an organization squandering public funds engaging in clearly unethical activity caught on video tape, the story gone viral on the internet, talked about on the radio waves and reported on by at least one media outlet and one print outlet. Furthermore, the standard procedure for all media organizations is to monitor their competitors so they aren’t scooped which would cause a loss of ratings share. A loss of ratings share means a LOSS of advertising revenue, and that’s their lifeblood. Is it likely Charles Gibson didn’t know about the ACORN story? NOT LIKELY. Why did Gibson give such a lame response? To not answer the question what did you know, when did you know about it and what was your reason to not report on it? You notice Gibson never answered the question why he wasn’t reporting on it. It makes one wonder what else the media hasn’t covered and what were their reasons.
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Your House Is On Fire, Oh, I Didn’t Notice”
M-O-N-E-Y & Influence
-By Nancy Salvato
If you want that girl
Listen, son
Don’t you sit around and cry
Because, love
In this world
Ain’t nothing you can’t buy
— Lyle Lovett, Money
Money may not really buy love or make the world go round, but it certainly does help society to function efficiently. Money, which is assigned a value, is the item of exchange we use if we want to purchase something. The work we do to earn money is also assigned a value and the amount something costs reflects the value in producing or developing it. Most people would agree that the reward of money is the incentive they need to invest their time and labor into many of the tasks that demand their attention. While there may be additional reasons for applying ourselves to projects, a surplus of money allows us more freedom to devote our energy to additional pursuits.
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M-O-N-E-Y & Influence”
Was Insurance At Fault for Young Man’s Heart Disease Death?
-By Warner Todd Huston
Here is the latest Publius podcast about the New York Times article on the sad story of Mr. Eric De La cruz who died at 31 from heart disease. He was denied government healthcare from Social Security and Medicare and he died as a result. Yet the New York Times blames the insurance industry?
What Mandates Do To Our Insurance
-By Warner Todd Huston
There has been a lot of talk about mandates emanating from the federal government to force each of us to buy healthcare insurance but what do those mandates do to the insurance itself? And are they even Constitutionally justified?
First of all we need to remind everyone that these mandates cannot possibly be Constitutional. After all, the Constitution does not give Congress the power to demand that the citizens buy a certain product. The Constitution only gives Congress the power to tax, not to serve as an arm of any industry. These mandates will essentially make the federal government an insurance salesman and this is most certainly unconstitutional.
Still, even if we are unfortunate enough to be burdened with this new system, what will it do to our insurance companies?
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What Mandates Do To Our Insurance”
Is it American to be Forced Into a Union? In Obama’s America it is!
-By Warner Todd Huston
Welcome to Obama’s America where you are forced to become a union member even if you had no idea you were being inducted into one. In fact, in Obama’s America you won’t even know you are IN a union until you notice union dues are being withheld from your checks.
This is the case in Michigan where Sherry Loar and Dawn Ives work out of their home talking care of children for low-income families. One Friday the pair realized that union dues were being withheld from the checks they receive from the state for the subsidized daycare they perform for local families.
As it happens, neither woman voted to join a union nor even knew that they’d be forcefully inducted into one. They didn’t even know their job had a union.
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Is it American to be Forced Into a Union? In Obama’s America it is!”
Googleopoly IV: Monopsony Control over Digital Info Competition — New White Paper
-By Scott Cleland
My latest Google antitrust white paper, “Googleopoly IV: The Googleopsony Case,” is the first antitrust analysis which connects-the-dots between Google’s search advertising selling monopoly and Google’s information access buying monopoly or “monopsony” by explaining and documenting how Google is harming competition in digital: news, books, broadcasting, artwork, documents and analytics; and harming consumers seeking quality digital information that is not free.
(Googleopoly I was the first public analysis of why Google ultimately would emerge as a monopoly and Googleopoly II & III were the first public antitrust analyses why the DOJ should block the Google-Yahoo ad agreement, which the DOJ did block 11-5-08.)
Anyone trying to see-the-world-whole and and understand how the Internet’s digital information ecosystem fits together and is devolving– needs to read this white paper.
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Googleopoly IV: Monopsony Control over Digital Info Competition — New White Paper”
AFL-CIO Prez Tumka Asked a Few Tough Questions
-By Warner Todd Huston
So what about those union pensions, Mr. Trumka? Your union has severely underfunded your member’s pensions for years. Don’t you care if your members have enough to retire on? Isn’t that what your union promised to them?
Well someone is asking these questions, anyway. Unfortunately, it isn’t the bought-off Obama administration. It’s the Free Enterprise Alliance and they are starting with these billboards in Pittsburgh.
Too bad AFL-CIO bosses don’t care enough about their members to answer such pesky questions, eh?
Of course, the pensions for the bosses and union management are fully funded, so why should Trumka care? Boss pensions are juuuuust fine. As long as he’s getting his, why worry about those foolish, annoying, lowly members?
They are such a bother, youse guys know whot I’m talkin’ about?
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AFL-CIO Prez Tumka Asked a Few Tough Questions”
Brit Hasn’t a Clue About U.S. Politics
-By Warner Todd Huston
Many elitist American leftists like to go about claiming that it is only Americans that are dunces on foreign matters. There is some truth to the accusation that Americans are not knowledgeable about the rest of the world but if a column in the UK Telegraph is any indication it isn’t much better for Britain’s understanding of American politics. Worse, it is plain that even a British journalist hasn’t a clue what he’s on about when attempting to discuss the differences between a Democrat and Republican in today’s climate.
At issue is the incredibly garbled take on American Democrats and Republicans as posted by U.K. Telegraph writer David Lindsay, who claims himself to be a “freelance writer and tutor at Durham University.” One wonders why he doesn’t get a real job.
In “Why real American conservatives should register as Democrats,” Lindsay’s main point seems to be that Republicans really support what the Democratic Party supports and so GOP voters should resign from their party and join the left side of the aisle. But Lindsay’s reasons prove that he doesn’t know a thing about what he’s talking about.
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Brit Hasn’t a Clue About U.S. Politics”
Poll: 45% of Docs Would Quit Under Obamacare
-By Warner Todd Huston
Recently Investor’s Business Daily published the results of a poll that found that an astonishing 45% of doctors polled would rather quit the medical field than suffer under Obamacare.
This is in stark contrast to recent news that a majority of physicians support Obama’s healthcare “reform” policies. IBD disputes this poll and also points out that a recent L.A. Times story that trumpets the American Medical Association’s approval of the so-called public option is based on a group that only represents 18% of American doctors.
The major finds of the IBD poll are:
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Poll: 45% of Docs Would Quit Under Obamacare”
Charlie Rangel: Obamacare Doesn’t Spend Enough Money
-By Warner Todd Huston
Not enough money is being thrown around to “fix” things; that’s always the liberal’s lament. Representative Charlie Rangel (D, NY) doesn’t disappoint by shying from this big government, money wasting attitude where it concerns Obamacare, either.
Obama has announced his determination not to sign a bill that adds “one dime” to the deficit and he’s also said that “his” bill will feature a low, low $900 billion price tag. Both of these Obama points seem to be vexing Rep. Rangel because, well, it’s just not enough.
Rangel complained to reporters about Obama’s “restrictions” and said that the president’s policy druthers would reduce coverage for “poor and working people.” He complained that it would be “very difficult” to achieve Obama’s prescriptions and said that Obama’s cost estimate was $100 billion too low.
So, Rangel wants more money thrown at it. In a time when our economy is struggling, Rangel wants to throw hundreds of millions of dollars at Obamacare.
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Charlie Rangel: Obamacare Doesn’t Spend Enough Money”
Health Insurance is Not Like Auto Insurance
-By Warner Todd Huston
During his healthcare speech last week, President Obama tried to compare his idea of compulsory health insurance to the practice of mandatory auto insurance now in effect in most of the States of the Union.
But as a recent Fox News piece by Judson Berger proves, car insurance is nothing like forced healthcare insurance. The main reason the two do not compare well is that mandatory auto insurance covers other people, not the driver. But forced healthcare insurance covers the individual, not any indemnity against the individual’s actions against others.
Additionally, there isn’t anything truly compulsory about mandatory auto insurance. After all, it isn’t mandatory that one drive. If you don’t want to pay for the insurance, don’t drive. Additionally, there is no compulsion to pay for insurance that covers yourself or your car.
On the other hand, compulsory health insurance is far more intrusive than mandatory car insurance. It cannot be avoided without penalty of law, it is not a safety measure to cover others for your own negligence, it can’t be avoided even by moving to another state and it most certainly is un-Constitutional.
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Health Insurance is Not Like Auto Insurance”
“Systemic Risk Laundering” — Financial Crisis Root Causes — Part II
-By Scott Cleland
How could American taxpayers get stuck with a multi-trillion dollar tab that they weren’t even aware that they were running up? How could that huge tab still be allowed to run up unchecked today? For the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the sad answer is one of the biggest root causes of last fall’s devastating financial crisis and one of the biggest continuing systemic risks to the financial system and the economic recovery.
A decade ago, in what may prove to be the most expensive bipartisan legislative mistake in U.S. history, a bipartisan policy became law that effectively ensured that no Federal regulator had oversight or enforcement jurisdiction over derivative financial instruments. The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA) created “legal certainty for excluded derivative transactions.” That law allowed a shadow derivative overlay system to be built literally on top of the public financial system, with none of the inherent accountability of the underlying financial system. In other words, a deliberate bipartisan U.S. government policy change a decade ago unwittingly created an unaccountable “black hole” market that sucked enormous value out of public markets (Bear Stearns, Lehman, AIG, Fannie, Freddie, securitized sub-prime mortgages, etc.), while laundering the risk to the U.S. taxpayer.
Simply, in fostering an unaccountable marketplace that derived all its real value from public markets, the Government fostered systemic risk laundering from the unaccountable to the accountable, which ultimately left the U.S. taxpayer holding the bag. More specifically, with no accountability to fairly represent or disclose risk, too many did not. Too many figured out that they could launder huge financial risk with impunity, because most public investors assumed someone somewhere was ensuring that these derivative instruments were fairly represented, disclosed and accountable. Oops!
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“Systemic Risk Laundering” — Financial Crisis Root Causes — Part II”
Kirk Suddenly a “No” on Cap and Tax?
-By Warner Todd Huston
Rep. Mark Kirk (R, IL) has been getting hammered by conservatives and moderate Republicans alike for his “yes” vote on the Cap and Trade bill. But at a recent appearance Kirk suddenly said he now intends to vote against the disastrous bill.
The Obama administration admits that the Cap and Trade legislation will cost every American family and additional $1,761 a year and likely that is on the low side. Conservatives have slammed Kirk for supporting this economy killing carbon emissions capping legislation.
On the 5th at a suburban rally, Kirk announced his switcheroo amidst many loud boos and catcalls. “About cap and trade: I voted for it because it was in the narrow interests of my congressional district. But as your representative, representing the entire state of Illinois, I will vote ‘No’ on that bill coming up.”
Well, this sure seems like an opportunistic flip flop, doesn’t it? Now that he’s running for Senate he’s found that his cap and tax “yes” vote is proving to be an impediment to his campaign and suddenly he finds his principles again?
I guess Kirk should be congratulated for finally coming to his senses and actually representing his constituents’ desires, but the fact that he thought he could make a dash for the cash (he voted cap and tax because of donations by enviro-nazi groups) without bothering with principle or representing his constituents in the first place marks him as an opportunist of the worst sort.
Kirk’s reversal is at the three minute, ten second mark in the video:
Kirk Suddenly a “No” on Cap and Tax?”
Even AP Now Says Not Enough Docs to Serve Obamacare
-By Warner Todd Huston
This is a pretty stunning admission, but now even the left-wing Associated Press is admitting that if Obamacare gets passed there will be a major doctor shortage that won’t soon be resolved because of the crush of new patients.
The AP posted a piece Sunday that warns that Obamacare will make worse the national shortage of primary care physicians using experience of RomneyCare in Massachusetts as a cautionary example.
As Massachusetts’ experience shows, extending health care to 50 million uninsured Americans will only further stress the system and could force many of those newly insured back into costly emergency rooms for routine care if they can’t find a primary care doctor, health care observers said.
Naturally the AP gives Obama cover by reporting the many times he’s said how much he cares about primary care physicians. But the fact is that there will be a massive shortage of these doctors once Obamacare is passed.
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Even AP Now Says Not Enough Docs to Serve Obamacare”
Union Boss Admits to Using Members as Political Activists
-By Warner Todd Huston
An interesting admission by James A. Williams, president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades in Philadelphia, can be seen in an interview he did with the Philly Inquirer. It is an admission that conforms one of the things that anti-union folks have been saying for years, but one union officials are loath to admit.
While discussing the hard economic times, the Philly Inquirer asked how the recession was affecting the union. In his answer President Wilson admitted that his union uses out-of-work members for “political events.” Wilson mentioned that they lower dues to $1 a month after a member has been out of work for more than six months, but that isn’t just the kind hearted union looking out for its members. No, the union expects something in return for that lowering of dues.
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Union Boss Admits to Using Members as Political Activists”
Mayo Clinic Loses Millions Because of Medicare
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Anchorage Daily News has a very interesting editorial that reveals that the celebrated Mayo Clinic has lost millions because of Medicare over the last year.
In its editorial the ADN is warning that the public option is “as unhealthy as Medicare” because of the artificially low payments the government remits to healthcare providers, doctors and hospitals.
President Obama and the left love to point to the Mayo Clinic as one of America’s premier medical institutions and rightfully so. But the ADN reveals that the clinic lost $840 million on it’s $1.7 billion worth of Medicare work. ADN notes that the loses that doctors and hospitals are being hit with because the government refuses to pay market prices for services to patients, many doctors and hospitals are limiting new patients on Medicare.
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Mayo Clinic Loses Millions Because of Medicare”
Obama Dissembles Again About His ‘Responsibility’ For Healthcare
-By Warner Todd Huston
In a new 60 Minutes interview, President Obama made a big show about telling correspondent Steve Kroft that he “owns” healthcare if it goes wrong and that because of this he has “every incentive to get this right.”
But is this true? Will Obama face any real, personal consequences for any possible failures of Obamacare if it gets passed? I would say he doesn’t.
In the interview, Obama sonorously tells Kroft,
“I have no interest in having a bill get passed that fails. That doesn’t work. You know, I intend to be president for a while and once this bill passes, I own it. And if people look and say, ‘You know what? This hasn’t reduced my costs. My premiums are still going up 25 percent, insurance companies are still jerking me around,'” Obama explained.
“I’m the one who’s going to be held responsible. So I have every incentive to get this right,” he added.
This claim that he will face consequences if Obamacare becomes a mess later because he didn’t “get it right” is a bald-faced lie.
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Obama Dissembles Again About His ‘Responsibility’ For Healthcare”