Non Socialist

July 23, 2009

By Jackie Kucinich

Roll Call Staff

Democrats are preventing Republican House Members from sending their constituents a mailing that is critical of the majority’s health care reform plan, blocking the mailing by alleging that it is inaccurate.

House Republicans are crying foul and claiming that the Democrats are using their majority to prevent GOP Members from communicating with their constituents.

The dispute centers on a chart (view PDF) created by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and Republican staff of the Joint Economic Committee to illustrate the organization of the Democratic health care plan.

At first glance, Brady’s chart resembles a board game: a colorful collection of shapes and images with a web of lines connecting them.

But a closer look at the image reveals a complicated menagerie of government offices and programs that Republicans say will be created if the leading Democratic health care plan becomes law.

In a memo sent Monday to Republicans on the House franking commission, Democrats argue that sending the chart to constituents as official mail would violate House rules because the information is misleading.

In their eight-point memo, which was obtained by Roll Call, Democrats identify a litany of areas where they believe the chart is incorrect.

For example, Democrats argue that the chart depicts a “Health Insurance Exchange Trust Fund” that is “simply a recipient of IRS funds, with no outflow. … This is false.”

The chart’s illustration of low-income subsidies is also “misleading and false,” Democrats argue.

Congressional rules for franked mail bar Members from using taxpayer-funded mail for newsletters that use “partisan, politicized or personalized” comments to criticize legislation or policy.

The dispute over Brady’s chart is being reviewed by the franking commission, which must approve any mail before it can be sent. No decision had been made on the matter by press time.

Brady adamantly denied that the chart was misleading and said Democrats are simply threatened by the content of the graphic.

“I think their review was laughable,” Brady said. “It’s … downright false in most of the cases. The chart depicts their health care plan as their committees developed it.”

“The chart reveals how their health care bureaucracy works, and people are frightened by it,” he added. “So this is their effort to try and discredit” the chart.

Republican Members have made 20 requests to mail a version of the chart to their constituents and have been told that the requests are being delayed while the commission reviews allegations that the chart is misleading.

“Hiding the truth about wildly unpopular policies is a Democrat specialty,” said one GOP aide. “I’d like to see the flow chart on how Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi plans on implementing the open and transparent government she keeps promising everyone.”

“We have initiated discussions with the minority to try and resolve current differences and are operating in good faith to achieve that goal,” said Kyle Anderson, a spokesman for House Administration Chairman Robert Brady (D-Pa.). The committee has oversight of the commission.

Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.), ranking member of the committee and a member of the franking commission, said through a spokeswoman that he is also aware of the situation and is working with the members of the franking commission to resolve the differences, but he added that he believed Democrats on the commission were overreaching.

“He strongly believes that the franking commission does not have the authority to deny Member communications based on partisan differences of pending legislation,” said Salley Collins, a spokeswoman for Lungren.

The franking commission is made up of three Democrats and three Republicans.

Republicans quickly embraced Brady’s chart, and over the past week about 50 Members have posted it on their Congressional Web sites or used it in a floor speech. It has also been posted on the home page of the Republican National Committee.

2009 © Roll Call Inc. All rights reserved.

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/55_12/news/37125-1.html?type=printer_friendly

Larry Schweikart

Take a look at what actually is in the Health Care bill. Obama makes disingenuous comments like "You’ll still keep your doctor" or "You’ll keep your existing health care." He is either lying to us or he has no idea what is in it. Take a peek at the full report, or look at some of the highlights here:

Pg 22 of the HC Bill mandates the Government will audit books of all employers that self insure. Can you imagine what that will do to small businesses? Every one will abandon “self insurance” and go on Government insurance. So when Obama says that there will still be private health care, it’s simply a lie: this mandate will force employers to abandon their private plans.

Pg 30 Sec 123 of HC bill – a Government committee (good luck with that!) will decide what treatments/benefits a person may receive.

Pg 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill – YOUR HEALTHCARE WILL BE RATIONED! (We all knew this, because health care is rationed in Canada and Britain, but Obama kept saying it would not be).

Pg 42 of HC Bill – The Health Choices Commissioner will choose your HC Benefits for you. You will have no choice!

PG 50 Section 152 in HC bill – HC will be provided to ALL non US citizens, illegal or otherwise.

Pg 58 HC Bill – Government will have real-time access to individual’s finances and a National ID Healthcard will be issued!

Pg 59 HC Bill lines 21-24 Government will have direct access to your bank accts for election funds transfer

PG 65 Sec 164 is a payoff subsidized plan for retirees and their families in Unions & community organizations (read: ACORN).

Pg 72 Lines 8-14 Government will create an HC Exchange to bring private HC plans under Government control.

PG 84 Sec 203 HC bill – Government mandates ALL benefit packages for private HC plans in the Exchange.

PG 85 Line 7 HC Bill – Specifics of Benefit Levels for Plans = The Government will ration your Healthcare!

PG 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill – Government mandates linguistic appropriate services. Example – Translation for illegal aliens.

Pg 95 HC Bill Lines 8-18 The Government will use groups, i.e. ACORN & Americorps, to sign up individuals for Government HC plan.

PG 85 Line 7 HC Bill – Specifics of Benefit Levels for Plans. AARP members – your Health care WILL be rationed.

-PG 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill – Medicaid Eligible Individuals will be automatically enrolled in Medicaid. No choice.

pg 124 lines 24-25 HC No company can sue Government on price fixing. No "judicial review" against Government Monopoly.

pg 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill – Doctors/ AMA – The Government will tell YOU what you can earn.

Pg 145 Line 15-17 An Employer MUST auto enroll employees into public option plan. NO CHOICE.

Pg 126 Lines 22-25 Employers MUST pay for HC for part time employees AND their families.

Pg 149 Lines 16-24 ANY Employer with payroll $400k & above who does not provide public option pays 8% tax on all payroll.

pg 150 Lines 9-13 Businesses with payroll between $251k & $400k who don’t provide public option pay 2-6% tax on all payroll.

Pg 167 Lines 18-23 ANY individual who doesn’t have acceptable HC according to Government will be taxed 2.5% of income.

Pg 170 Lines 1-3 HC Bill Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from individual taxes. (Americans will pay.)

Pg 195 HC Bill -officers & employees of HC Admin (the GOVERNMENT) will have access to ALL Americans’ finances and personal records.

PG 203 Line 14-15 HC – "The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax" Yes, it says that.

Pg 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill Government will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors, low income, poor affected.

Pg 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill – Doctors – doesn’t matter what specialty – will all be paid the same.

PG 253 Line 10-18 Government sets value of Doctor’s time, professional judgment, etc. Literally, value of humans.

PG 265 Sec 1131Government mandates & controls productivity for private HC industries.

PG 268 Sec 1141 Federal Government regulates rental & purchase of power driven wheelchairs.

PG 272 SEC. 1145. TREATMENT OF CERTAIN CANCER HOSPITALS – Cancer patients – welcome to rationing!

Page 280 Sec 1151 The Government will penalize hospitals for what Government deems preventable readmissions.

Pg 298 Lines 9-11 Doctors who treat a patient during initial admission that results in a readmission – Government will penalize you.

Pg 317 L 13-20 OMG!! PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. Government tells Doctors what/how much they can own.

Pg 317-318 lines 21-25,1-3 PROHIBITION on expansion – Government will mandate hospitals cannot expand.

pg 321 2-13 Hospitals have opportunity to apply for exception BUT community input required. Can u say ACORN?!

Pg335 L 16-25 Pg 336-339 – Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures which of course forces health care rationing.

Pg 341 Lines 3-9 Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Adv Plans, HMOs, etc., forcing people into Government plan.

Pg 354 Sec 1177 – Government will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs people!

Pg 379 Sec 1191 Government creates more bureaucracy – Telehealth Advisory Committee. HC by phone.

 PG 425 Lines 4-12 Government mandates Advance Care Planning Consultations. Think Senior Citizens end of life prodding.

Pg 425 Lines 17-19 Government will instruct & consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney. Mandatory!

PG 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3 Government provides approved list of end of life resources, guiding you in how to die.

PG 427 Lines 15-24 Government mandates program for orders for end of life. The Government has a say in how your life ends.

Pg 429 Lines 1-9 An "advanced care planning consultant" will be used frequently as patients’ health deteriorates.

PG 429 Lines 10-12 "advanced care consultation" may include an ORDER for end of life plans. AN ORDER from the Government to end a life!

Pg 429 Lines 13-25 – The Government will specify which Doctors can write an end of life order.

PG 430 Lines 11-15 The Government will decide what level of treatment you will have at end of life.

Pg 469 – Community Based Home Medical Services/Non profit orgs. (ACORN Medical Services here?)

Page 472 Lines 14-17 PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORGANIZATION. 1 monthly payment to a community-based organization. (Like ACORN?)

PG 489 Sec 1308 The Government will cover Marriage & Family therapy. Which means they will insert Government into our marriages.

Pg 494-498 Government will cover Mental Health Services including defining, creating, rationing those services. You’d better speak up now before you are on the "advanced care consultation" list.

Recently I had a talk with a colleague (one on my side of the aisle) about the increasingly dire threat posed to this country by the unholy trinity of Obama/Reid-Pelosi/ and the media. The upshot of this person’s question to me was, "What can you say that will give me some hope? Some optimism? Is there a way we can reach the kids, the students, and the younger people?"

We aren’t quite "done" yet, but the old thermometer is edging up by the day, and I don’t mean global warming. Cap and Trade (i.e., "cap and tax") has passed the House and our hopes of avoiding federal enviro-nazis swooping into our homes and clamping down "do not sell" restrictions on our houses until we comply with their inane regulations hangs on the votes of a few left-wing Democrat senators who in the past have shown no inclination to challenge Harry Reid. (You see, the Democrat Party has this habit of actually punishing so-called "mavericks" who criticize Dem leadership.) Real-life Gong-Show refugees such as Al Franken now will vote on your right to drive what you want and eat what you want. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

There is new twitter about the C02 pollution of computers. Once the computer becomes the next SUV, what sites, exactly, do you think will be deemed the most "polluting?" You got it: Drudge, FreeRepublic; Redstate; and a host of conservative sites. Guess which ones will be ok? Huffington Post, MSNBC, and Daily Kos.

But it gets worse: the National Socialist (that would be Nazi, if you were in Germany) Health Care system that is now about to come up for a vote will absolutely eliminate private health care options. Do not kid yourself: They are going to say that they aren’t going to interfere with your right to go to your "own doctor" or have your own "private health insurance." But there won’t be non-government doctors or private health insurance if the government mandates them out of existence.

Do not forget that this was a major goal of Hillarycare just 15 years ago. Once people found out, it caused a firestorm – but times have changed. The media was atrocious then, but it’s a 100 percent propaganda machine for the Left today. A few holdouts, such as Fox and Rush, remind me of the brave Dutch shouting at the storm troopers before they were gunned down. If Health Care or Cap and Tax fail, the media will see it as the failure of their guy, and in their view, Obama must not be allowed to fail.

Even still, I hear people who want to "get past all this partisanship." Sorry, but GROW UP.

Our system from the beginning has pitted one group against another out of fear of the very giant government that is metastasizing before our eyes. James Madison didn’t like "parties" or "factions," but he finally admitted that they were absolutely necessary to fragment power. In Washington today, however, we nearly have one political party: the Democrats, who march in lock step with Obama while the cowardly Republicans who, aside from a few heroes (John Kyl, Jeff Sessions, Jim DeMint come to mind in the Senate, and most of those remaining in the House), are merely "me-too Democrats."

For our system to work there has to be a clear choice, not a mushy middle, because the mushy middle always, always, always gravitates left. There is a "presumption of power" on the left –conservatives, by nature, do not like government, don’t trust it, and do not want to use it to advance their ends, which they see as advanced through liberty, individual achievement, and entrepreneurship.

If Republicans do not unite 100 percent –and soon – behind the idea that the unholy trinity must be stopped dead or we will not have the American Republic that we have all known all our lives, it may soon be too late. Maybe it’s time all of you got just a little mad.

 FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Larry Schweikart is the author o  48 Liberal Lies About American History: (That You Probably Learned in School) and A Patriot’s History of the United States: From Columbus’s Great Discovery to the War on Terror.   He blogs at patriotshistoryusa.blogspot.com.

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.3815/pub_detail.asp

by: Deidre Almstead, June 16, 2009

 

Katie Brickell’s new life as a twenty-five-year old newly-wed was all but completely halted when she discovered she had cervical cancer, with only a few years left to live. Her hope for survival was placed in receiving cancer treatments through the United Kingdom’s government-run health care system.

Katie claims that her cancer could have been prevented or at least identified at an earlier stage had she been allowed a pap-smear, a common screening test for cervical cancer. Now all Katie can do is to continue to fight for the health care she needs, and dream of the lost life where she and her husband could “have children naturally.”

Katie’s story as well as the testimonies of many others were documented in a film produced by Conservatives for Patient’s Rights, a non-profit organization pushing for the establishment of a free market health care system. Americans for Tax Reform played host to a June 3rd screening of this documentary, followed by a discussion of the current and future health care structures in the United States.

The Obama Administration, in its passage of the stimulus package, created many government organizations and programs similar to those present in the Canadian and British single-payer health care systems. The appointment of Dr. David Blumenthal as the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology assisted with the formation of a national, governmentally-run database housing the medical records of all Americans. In addition to this formation, the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (FCCCR) was established to “help coordinate research and guide investments in comparative effectiveness research funded by the Recovery Act.” …

(Excerpt) Read more at campusreportonline.net …

Senator Barack Obama’s health care plan would concentrate health care decision-making in Washington, while Senator John McCain’s would return many health care decisions to families, according to two in-depth analyses by Heritage Foundation health care experts Robert Moffit and Nina Owcharenko.

Senator Obama’s plan “would likely precipitate a rapid evolution toward a federal monopoly over the health care sector,” they explain.

In his top-down plan, there would be “standardized federal health benefits structure, a massive expansion of federal regulatory authority over health insurance, and an enlargement of federal regulatory power over health care delivery.”  

» Read more details about both candidates’ plans on MyHeritage.org

The McCain plan is likewise ambitious, they argue in their second analysis, but his measures “would advance greater personal choice and control in the health care system.”

Notably, his plan alters the way health insurance is taxed so that individuals aren’t penalized if they do not buy coverage through their employer. This plan takes “the first steps to realigning the incentives in the system to provide consumers with better quality care at lower cost.”

Senator McCain’s plan “is underscored by a principled commitment to personal freedom,” they conclude.

—David Talbot

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation. David Talbot contributed to this report.