Pelosi's District Awarded 38 of 204 Obamacare Waivers in April

Quote of the Day: "But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it…” – Nancy Pelosi, March 9, 2010, referring to obamacare

Counter Quote of the Day: "Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread."
-- Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, 1821

The Obama Administration's Department of Health and Human Services awarded 204 waivers from obamacare in April. 38 of these went to businesses in ex-speaker Nancy Pelosi's current congressional district. The unusual part of this story is the presence of luxury restaurants, hotels and boutiques in the winner's circle. One restaurant had entrees ranging from $15.00 to $60.00, definitely not a Mickey D's franchise. Usually, these waivers go to businesses with low wage jobs such as fast food restaurants and nursing homes. Most of the 38 winners did not return calls to the DailyCaller who reported this interesting coincidence. If memory serves me correctly, Nancy Pelosi was one of Obamacare's biggest supporters and called opponents of it astroturf and Nazis. Yes, folks, Nancy Pelosi, cheerleader emeritus for the 2500 pages of pork, earmarks and bribes known as Obamacare called people who objected to the nationalized and socialized aspects of this nightmare brought to our health care delivery system Nazis. Nazis were nationalist socialist led by Adolph Hitler in WWII. Maybe Pelosi meant it as a compliment. Maybe after reading the entire act Pelosi decided it was a mistake and was discretely cheering the TEA partyers on to victory. Right, Yeah!!

obamacare waiver 1001

Michael Weiner, U.S. rep for New York City, possible candidate for mayor of New York City, wants to grant yet another waiver for obamacare regulations.  Since over 1000 waivers have already been granted in the first 12 months of obamacare this should not seem too shocking.  Since most of these waivers were granted to obamacare's most ardent supporters, such as public employee unions, it still should not be shocking.  Since Mr. Weiner was one of the last left wing liberals to give up on the public option, it still should not be too shocking.  The shocking fact is Mr. Weiner wants to grant an obamacare waiver to the City of New York, population 8+ million (according to the 2008 World Almanac and book of facts).  Mr. Weiner is of the opinion that the big apple is so well versed in the practice of socialized medicine and government invervention into individual lives and liberties that the obamanation could take lessons from NYC on how to pave the road to socialism.  This is a change of heart from the Obama administration and his sock puppets czars who want to transform the USA into a socialist democracy like too much of western Europe.

The question of the day is how many demagoguescrats and other supporters of obamacare have got to label obamacare as the doormat to a single payer health care system??!!  People that think socialized/nationalized health care or even government in general should try living in one of these nations.  How many people think millionaire socialist documentary maker Michael Moore will request an air ambulance to Havana when he has a heart attack??  (Yes, I believe he has a heart, despite the fact that he fired one of his employees on Christmas Eve.  I do wonder how many chambers his heart has, though)

A Simple Method to Reduce Government Spending

I recently came across a website for the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention called MMWR,  the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.  It reports incidents of disease such as HIV, heart disease, cancers, salmonella and e-coli, to name a few.   My first impression was what a ghoulish report this must be, albeit a necessary one.  Then I had a real brainstorm.  Why not publish the report monthly and send out an alert to health officials and doctors if there is a sudden spike in a particular disease that warrants prompt investigation.  This would save taxpayers dollars on printing and production costs as well as spare health officials and doctors from having an information overload.  This is such a simple and straightforward idea it should be a cakewalk to implement as far government programs go.  The only problem is government's innate resistance to change, especially when brings about more productivity per worker.  As Jay Leno commented on the tonight show, President Obama asked the nation's small businesses to hire more people.  Obama forgot that only the Government hires more people than it needs. (not a verbatim quote, but you get the idea)  For more information on the MMWR click here.

Obamacare declared unconstitutional again

U. S. District Judge Roger Vinson ruled that Obamacare is unconstitutional because  of the individual mandate.   Since Obamacare did not carry a severability clause, this rendered the entire act  unconstitutional and therefore null and void.  Judge Vinson did allow the government to continue implementing the act until it was struck down by the U S Supreme Court or Congress.   Declaring the act unconstitutional was a cake walk.   The best part was his reference to one of the great constitutional legal minds of the day, then presidential candidate Barack Obama.  He was on one of the great forums for public policy and legal discussions, the Ellen Degeneres show February 28, 2008.   He faulted Hillary Clinton's campaign requiring universal coverage to pay for increased coverage while lowering policy costs.  Mr. Obama stated "She’d have the government force every individual to buy insurance and I don’t have such a mandate because I don’t think the problem is that people don’t want health insurance, it’s that they can’t afford it, .  .  .So, I focus more on lowering costs."  Mr. Obama also stated that if mandatory  health insurance would lower health insurance premuims, then mandatory home ownership would alleviate homelessness.  The home ownership remark struck me as odd coming from a politician who accepted $126,000.00 from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, merchants of sub prime mortgages. 

Halloween special rants

What better way to celebrate Halloween than a visit with the wicked witch of the west, the current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Here are a couple YouTube clips of her. She must be a narcissistic foot fetisher and a very limber lady to be able to put her foot in her mouth as she does.

Video clip 1



She states that without Obama'a economic recovery package, 500,000,000 Americans will lose their jobs. According to the CIA World Fact Book, the US population size was 310,232,863 (July 2010 est.) Now here's the truly scary fact of life. The US Presidential line of sucession goes first to the VP currently Joe Biden then to the Speaker of the House, currently the WWW, Nancy Pelosi. As much as I disagree with the President, I pray for his continuing health and safety.

Video 2



In this clip Speaker Pelosi ignores a reporter's question about the fairness of the Health Care bill's individual mandate to buy health insurance. She also evades his question about whether people who do not get health insurance can go to jail. Finally, she just ends the press conference and ignores the reporter.

Also, her defense of the insurance mandate is that without it, people will go to emergency rooms and pass the bill on to others. She said the mandate was fair because it provides subsidies for people who cannot afford health insurance. These subsidies are taxpayer funded, so the mandate will not spare people having to pay for other people's medical bills, it just changes the way the taxpayers subsidize the underinsured medical bills. That is just another redistribution of wealth scam on her part.

A few random rants and thoughts

One trend that disturbs me is health care overhaul zealots blaming opposition to obamacare on racism. This is not only absurd but completely unfounded by facts. Mr. Obama got 96% of the black vote. Big deal, so what. Even 100% of a minority is still a minority. Mr. Obama got elected President of the USA by not only black people, but white, hispanic & asian people as well. The only people using race as an issue are the Charley Rangels of the world. He told a predominantly black audience in his district over the august congressional recess that opponents to obamacare and the public option just could not accept the fact that a black man was the President of the USA. Mr. Rangel was probably just "playing the audience" to rally support for the misnamed public option. Again, do the math. Mr Obama was elected POTUS by 52% of all the American Voters.
People that say no other president has received so much criticism have not been in the USA very long or have the memory spans of a very brain damaged fruit fly. Criticism is part of the job for any president. To his credit, Mr. Obama has recognized this fact. Now if he will just recognize the fact that he has over 3 years to improve, not tear down the USA's health care system he will accomplish more than he could with his current strategies.

Congress attempts to rewrite preventive care study

The September 1, 2009 issue of the Washington Post reports a study of the cost effectiveness of preventive care is not going to generate the savings that have been promised by advocates of Obamacare. Entitled "Using clinical information to project health care spending," the study was published on the website of the journal of health policy research "Health Affairs." Michael J. O'Grady , one of 4 authors of the study, had this to say about the study. "There's no free lunch here. Prevention will not pay for everything. But it's not as expensive as it looks at first blush"

How did Obamacare supporters in Congress react to this. They have already requested the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan agency established by Congress to provide impartial evaluations of the cost effects of proposed legislation, to revise their studies to support their position. Donna Christensen, (D-US Virgin Islands) introduced a bill which would allow congressional leaders to request the CBO to alter their research methodology to a longer time period in hopes it would show more beneficial cost savings. I wonder what the Obamacare fans would say if the 25 year time frame still did not generate the savings they say preventive care will cause.

I say preventive care should be a major part of any health care reform. It doesn't matter to me if it generates savings or not, it will improve the quality of life for the chronically ill. The Hippocratic Oath requires Medical Doctors to do no harm or injustice to their patients. This is what preventive care is all about, providing the best care possible for the ill. The Obamacare fans seem to want their cake, eat it and lose weight at the same time.

More observations on the economy

Second, one of the first causalities of Obamacare was the "public option" provision. This would have set up a government run and funded insurance plan open to anyone. Its proponents said that the provision would provide a little healthy competition to private insurers to "keep them honest." Private insurers are not saints, but they do not need politicians and bureaucrats to "keep them honest." Insurers today are the referees of this game we call a health care industry. Health care providers want to be paid well for all their training and services given to their patients. Patients want the best care possible with minimal out of pocket expenses. Employers want low premiums. Guess who has to come up with a way to appease these demands and stay on a budget. That's right, the insurers. Imagine, if you will, that the health care providers, consumers and employers were all guests at a dinner party. The host is the insurers. A large strawberry cheesecake is placed on the table for dessert. Each of the guests demanded one half of the cheesecake as their well earned slice. Do you still think the insurers are as greedy and evil as our politicians claim?

Also, the public option was a mandate, which is politico-speak for legal requirement. Option means choice. If the public "option" is required by law, it is not a choice or option. The politicians should have called it a public mandate. I think they were afraid the mandate would give away their real intent, to let the taxpayer subsidized "option" be chosen by so many people it would become a single payer system. Under a single payer system, who do you think will control the system. If you said the politicians, move to the head of the class.

Look back at the end of the first paragraph and the dinner party cheesecake dilemma. Now imagine the same situation except the government is the host instead of private insurers. How do you think the government would have handled the dilemma? Based on their past performances in similar situations, I believe they would have ordered 2 more cheesecakes and put the bill on a credit card billable to the American Taxpayers, present and future generations.

Obama's unhatched chickens

We have the AARP on board because they know this is a good deal for our seniors. AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare.
-President Barack Obama at Portsmouth, N. H. town hall meeting August 11, 2009

AARP has been working with Democrats and Republicans to fix our broken health care system. While the president was correct that AARP will not endorse a health care reform bill that would reduce Medicare benefits, indications that we have endorsed any of the major health care reform bills currently under consideration in Congress are inaccurate
-Tom Nelson, COO, AARP August 11, 2009 AARP Press Center

Well, can you blame AARP for not endorsing Obamacare at this time? There are 5 different health care "reform" bills under consideration in Congress now. Nobody knows what the final bill will contain or even if there will be a bill to vote on this year. Another reason for AARP withholding endorsement is many seniors concern that Medicare benefits will be cut to help pay for insurance on the currently uninsured. Since AARP is the largest lobby for Americans age 50 and up, to endorse any of the bills at this point would cause an uproar from their membership base. The best thing AARP can do for Americans at this point is advocate what lots of Americans want. They do not want a complete overhaul of the USA health care system in less than 12 months. Maybe if AARP reminded President Obama that he was elected for 4 years he might finally get the message and stop trying to push 1000+ pages of legislation through Congress overnight as if it is emergency legislation. It's not an emergency!!

Three cheers for sensible and reasoned arguments

Quote of the Day:

"I suspect that once we get into the fall and people look at the actual legislation that's being proposed, that more sensible and reasoned arguments will emerge. And we're going to get this passed."
- President Barack Obama on his proposed 1000+ page health care reform bill. Yahoo News August 10, 2009

CounterQuote of the Day:

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what is will be tomorrow."
-James Madison Federalist no. 62 February 27, 1788. Italics added

President Obama has gotten me a little dazed and confused. I was in total agreement with this quote until the last sentence. I was hoping he meant that negotiation & compromise would prevail in a bipartisan effort to really trim this whale of legislation down to the size of a tuna, a walleye or even a trout. But no, my hopes are dashed. My interpretation of "and we will get this passed" means his wants the whole 1000+ pages. This quote was made in response of some of the more vocal citizens at the Town Hall meetings. Some were against Obamacare, some for it. It's definitely a political hot potato.

Take a lesson from recent history, Mr. President. Hillarycare was 1300 pages and it never made it to a single vote. Here's another quote from today's WashingtonPost.com to help illustrate this. This is from Susan Wells speaking to Perry Chang, a volunteer canvassing door to door urging people to call their representatives on behalf of Obamacare:

It's like one of those things where you'd like to try it before you buy it," Wells said. "But once we do it, there's no going back."

I'm not sure where she stands on this. She told Mr. Chang she was concerned about friends and relatives without insurance. She likes her insurance but is concerned that her employer, the Red Cross, is cutting benefits. She attributed her angst about Obamacare to "fear of the unknown". This made me realize what bothers me about Obamacare. It is close to fear of the unknown, it is fear of the unknowable, unfathomable and incomprehensible. I am reminded of an old Chinese saying, "We are living in interesting times." This fall will be very interesting inside the DC beltway.

P. S. Is it just me or is there a pattern developing. Whenever we elect lawyers as Presidents, Clinton then Obama, we end up with proposed legislation that no one in their right mind would want enacted.

More scare tactics on health care reform

This is from President Obama's weekly address to the nation today. You can read the entire text or watch the video at WhiteHouse.gov.

"Or whether we'll seize this opportunity -- one we might not have again for generations -- and finally pass health insurance reform this year, in 2009."(italics mine)

What is the basis for this?? What will happen 09/01/2009 that will prevent any form of legislation on health care for generations?! Congress is just taking their summer recess. They will come back and carry on as they always do. President Obama does not tell us the source of his urgency in his speech today or any other day that I am aware of. I sure hope he tells America why we can only act now, the suspense is killing me.

Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Az) delivered the Republican Weekly Address today and proposed a reason for President Obama's repeated warnings that it is now or never for health care reform.

"The President and some Democrats insist we must rush this plan through, why? Because the more Americans know about it, the more they oppose it. Something this important needs to be done right, rather than done quickly."

At first glance, it sounds like a conspiracy theory. But the more I review the rhetoric and the conspiracy theories of the President and the Democrats, his explanation becomes more and more plausible. You can watch his address here on youtube.