Author Archive
Alan Grayson continues to disgrace himself and his party with childish outbursts and questionable behavior. Check out this video taken when Mr. Grayson, a Democrat, crashed a Republican private meeting, demanding to be heard. This is not an indicator of statesman-like conduct.
Excellent article discussing President Obama’s foreign policy and its shortcomings. In the first 15 months – NO PROGRESS!
Barack Obama’s Cowardly Foreign Policy
by Floyd and Mary Beth Brownin
TownHall.com (http://TownHall.com)
Check out Ben Shapiro’s Article Relating Obama’s Plans to LBJ’s Failed Great Society Programs in the Sixties:
“In short, LBJ's Great Society had two major short-term unintended consequences: First, the Great Society weakened us on the home front by foisting tax hikes and unsustainable debts on the American people; second, the Great Society weakened us abroad by sucking up cash needed to win the Vietnam War. The Great Society forced a choice between guns and butter, and the Democrats chose increasingly expensive butter, paid for by productive Americans.”
via Ben Shapiro : Obama’s Plan to Humble America – Townhall.com.
This is great analysis, using past liberal programs to disprove today’s “progressive” rhetoric.
As the nation focuses on the Congressional passage of “the health care bill,” with its thousands of constantly-changing pages, it’s easy to forget that the bill won’t affect anything except our pocketbooks until 2014. Yes, folks, we’ll be paying for the new “changes” long before we will see any benefits from them.
Why don’t we consider three areas that we can improve NOW?
- Eliminate Legal Incentives for Malpractice Suits. “Defensive” medicine is a costly problem in our health care system. Doctors and other practitioners order many unnecessary tests and procedures to protect themselves from law suits instituted by greedy plaintiffs and unscrupulous attorneys. Trial lawyers love the current system because it is a cash cow, allowing them to take up to 40% of a settlement as their fee. While experts disagree on how much the medical system will benefit from a more benign malpractice environment, most believable studies predict a 5-8% savings (WSJ Article), with some speculating that up to 20% could be saved. With health care spending in 2009 estimated to be $2.5 trillion, an 8% reduction would be $200 billion. That’s a big savings for changing a few laws, with no cost involved.
- Streamline Federal Programs. Just take the fat out! Congress needs to examine the current body of laws, and make changes to streamline the system, eliminating duplication, trimming bureaucracies, and eliminating government waste within the system. Every large organization needs to take a good look at itself every few years to make sure it is accomplishing its goals at the least possible cost. The federal government is no exception. How much would we save? It’s difficult to say, but it would be surprising if Congress couldn’t cut at least 2%, or $50 billion in health care costs through streamlining efforts.
- Reduce Fraud in Federal Health Programs. Some estimates claim that fraud accounts for up to $100 billion (CNN Money) in costs within government health care systems, primarily Medicare and Medicaid. It seems logical that our government, with all its law enforcement capabilities could do a little better with the money we’ve entrusted to it. It’s particularly disheartening to realize that the new health bill may authorize hiring thousands of new IRS Agents to ensure law-abiding Americans are buying health insurance or paying a fine (National Review). Wouldn’t it make more sense to devote those resources to discourage stealing from the current system? If we spent $200 million each year (much less than 1% of the amount lost) to increase law enforcement activities applied to health care fraud, could we eliminate at least half of the fraud? That would be another $50 billion saved, and the system would work more efficiently without all the extra load associated with fraud.
So, if we saved $300 billion, what could we do with it? Well, for starters, we could buy health care for 37,500,000 people. That’s assuming an average health care cost of $8,000 per person, which is slightly higher than the national average.
But wait, 37,500,000 is almost ALL the people in the US who don’t have health insurance, isn’t it? Could it be that we can save our way to providing health care for everyone? What would happen if we could realize larger savings from streamlining, or eliminate more than 50% of fraud? We MIGHT be able to provide a medical safety net for everyone! That’s not to argue that government should be providing free health care, but the possibilities stagger the mind…
Perhaps Congress should be considering these three improvements to our current system, instead of making plans to spend over a trillion dollars to implement unproven reforms.
Interesting article at RealClearPolitics.com by Stuart Rothenberg regarding my home congressional district (Florida District 8). Many of us have been appalled by Alan Grayson’s disgraceful behavior over the last few months. The article examines the effect of his conduct in the 2010 race. Excellent analysis.
Watch this video for a tongue-in-cheek view of the health care agenda and its proponents. Sarcasm at its very best… Very cleverly done!
PSA – Listen to Overpaid Celebrities from psamockery on Vimeo.
It seems that Joe Biden, a guy who never gives up the chance to use a microphone, is losing popularity. Check this article (and accompanying video) at Politico. com:
Wake up, Mr. Obama! The US is losing its competitive edge because you want to “lead the way” with questionable environmental standards. We WILL NOT create new jobs just because we’re playing by your environmental rules. Why do we allow China to impose regulations on us that it is unwilling to observe itself.
Folks, I don’t make this stuff up… Listen to his speech and tell me if you TRULY BELIEVE what he is saying. It is sad, truly sad, that a President of the United States has chosen to be such an activist for programs that will negatively affect our economy for so many years.
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President Obama Pushes Clean Energy from White House on Vimeo.
Here you go, folks… Joe Biden tells us that green jobs will save our economy. Joe, how many green jobs have appeared in the last nine months? We lost 571,000 jobs in September… How many green jobs were “created”? How many green jobs opened up in Michigan, where we have 15.3% unemployment? How long do we need to wait?
Sorry, Joe, green jobs just aren’t cutting it. Do you still believe in Santa Claus too?
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Vice President Biden Releases “Recovery through Retrofit” Report from White House on Vimeo.
“…federal agencies will, on average, receive a 57% increase in appropriated funds from 2008-2010. By contrast, real family incomes fell by 3.6% last year. There’s no recession in Washington.” Wall Street Journal (10/26/2009). Here is the link to the full article. Bottom line: the federal government is on an unprecedented spending spree.
Yes, folks, we’re marching right along, spending money belonging to the next generation. The galling part is that most of the money is being spent on pet political projects, and hasn’t made its way to Main Street where we could use a little recovery right about now. Even worse, we hear regularly that Mr. Obama and his friends in Congress “…are really trying to get a handle on balancing the budget and we’re making real efforts to do it.” (Quote attributed to Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY).
It’s particularly disappointing that the media is giving politicians a free ride on this issue. When is the last time a “hardball” question has been posed to the President or any Member of Congress regarding the rampant over-spending currently taking place? Sure, it happens on Fox News and in the Wall Street Journal, but the Democrats have been very quick to shut down any dissent to their spending.
Are “green jobs” just more excuses to gamble the taxpayers money on unproven theories?