The real problem with the healthcare system

If Congress is really interested in solving the healthcare crisis in this country they would stopped medical “scalping”. Recently on NBC Nightly News there was a report on third party companies that set themselves up as middlemen in the medical supplies game. They showed a cancer drug that the manufacturer charges $12.00 a vial for, that had been marked up by medical scalpers to over $900.00.

This is one of the many reasons that healthcare is so expensive in this country. There apparently are no regulations preventing this type of profiteering. Hospitals and other service providers routinely double-(or even triple)bill for services received. Or they charge for services that were not rendered. This is especially true in the cases of people who have insurance, Medicare or Medicaid. These service providers feel that if someone else is paying then no harm no foul. Most people with insurance don’t read the itemized bill to insure that they are being charged properly. They have insurance so the big companies will foot the bill. This of course drives up premiums for the rest of their customers.

When Congress passed Obamacare they did little if anything to stop these insane and immoral practices. Instead they simply tried to force everyone to drop their drawers and take it, spreading the same costs around. The problem with this mentality is that because it does nothing to address the underlying one of the causes of spiraling healthcare costs, medical scalping, it will only exacerbate the situation. Instead they passed a bill that will most likely be found unconstitutional. However we have laws against scalping and price gouging and they have NOT been found to be unconstitutional.

This lack of intelligence in lawmaking shows that the healthcare bill was really about vote buying and control of the American public. Both major parties receive campaign contributions from some of the companies and they certainly are not going to endanger their revenue streams by actually making good law.

We need a new Congress that’s smart enough and morally strong enough to say no, and yes when absolutely necessary.

Groveler-in-Chief

I don't need any more excuses to dislike the Obama administration but the president and his people seem to like coming up with excuses to mistrust them. Over the weekend the president darn-near snapped his spine while bowing to the Japanese emperor.

The article, cited below, tries to equivocate the gesture with other presidents trying to appear culturally sensitive. However, never has a sitting U.S. president ever bowed as low to another foreign leader as Obama did. The article also uses the standard foreign service protocols from the State Department for department officials as either a justification or an excuse for the back breaker that B.O. pulled. However, those protocols are for foreign service personnel, including ambassadors, not for the President of the United States of America.

What makes the bow even worse is that Dems are applauding it as a friendly gesture, respecting the culture of an ally nation. However, when George W. Bush held hands with the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah--which according to the AP is a traditional sign of friendship in the Middle East--liberals were positively apoplectic that the president would do such a thing. In fact, those bastions of "gay rights" even went so far as to make gay jokes about the gesture. But of course the Left is nothing if not hypocritical. And just so we are clear Obama did another bow to the Saudi king earlier this year.

But maybe it's inevitable that POTUS would eventually have to bow to other heads-of-state. We owe so much money to other countries that we have effectively been neutered as international power. This of course is not solely the fault of the Dems. The Republicans have a lot to answer for as well. And as long as so many Americans see it as their right to take money away from the people who earned it to give to themselves, by force of government, then our debt will continue to increase. It will not be long before we'll all be bowing before foreign masters.

SOURCE: Associated Press article

DNC attacks a patriot

The Democrat National Committee is attacking the Republican governor of South Carolina. Mark Sanford has said for weeks that he would not accept federal stimulus money for his state. he wants to use a quarter of that money to pay down the state's debt. He says that the stimulus would actually make the financial situation in the state worse in the long term.

However, being financially responsible and paying off an already existing debt doesn't sit well with them. Some Republicans have learned from the mistakes of the party's past. The Dems apparently didn't.

SOURCE: CNN article

Daily Lowlights

These are some of todays lowest political moments:

• 28 % of all giving is given by the top 2% of income earners. However, the Obama administration wants to cut out the deduction for charitable giving for these donors. Treasury Secretary Geithner says that he can think of no better way to improve charitable giving than to stimulate the economy. Of course the problem with that thinking is the money comes from the same taxpayers that they claim to be helping.
• Union bosses for the AFL-CIO meet in a $400.00 a night hotel for their meeting about taking away worker's rights. That means that they are using union dues to pay for the same type of extravagant accommodations for which they have repeatedly chastised CEOs.
• Congress wants to spend Millions of taxpayer dollars on tattoo removal for gang members and for keeping the stink of pig waste down.

Uncle Sam on life support (new cartoon)

The stimulus bill causes a hemorrhage that puts Uncle Sam in the ICU.

The sorry state of the Union

I didn't watch the State of the Union address last night. That means one down, three to go. The thing about the SOU is that you really know what the president is going to say beforehand especially in this day and age of 24-hour news and the internet. And quite frankly President Obama has nothing to say that I want to hear. The only reason anybody wants to see it is to bask in the warm glow of the Dem chosen one.

Today I was watching CNBC and I saw Rep. Spencer Bacchus from my state, Alabama. He said something that is going to become a battle cry for Conservatives for the next four years.

"The government never solved anything by throwing more money at it."

We have known this for years. Look at the government school system. Every time we get a liberal president and congress we see the budget for government education explode. And every time it's like throwing money down a bottomless hole. It makes liberals think good about themselves and it placates some voters. But when everything is said and done it's just a useless waste of time. It always will be as long as teacher's unions are allowed to set policy.

Another example is the nation's infrastructure. When tax money goes to states and local communities, ostensibly to improve roads, bridges and levees, politicians, conservative and liberal alike, spend that money on pet projects. There was the instance in New Orleans where the local government spent infrastructure money meant for the levees on a fountain. A few years later Hurricane Katrina slammed into NO and the rest is history.

Just a few years ago there was the bridge collapse that was caused by stress fatigue and age. The money that should have been spent repairing that preexisting bridge was instead spent on building new structures just so politicians could get their names placed on them. And again people died.

In other words you have to change what you are doing to improve, not just throw money at it.

The new "octomom" delivers (new cartoon)

Well most of you have heard of the welfare mom that recently had octuplets, bringing her brood to fourteen. Now that the imperial congress has passed the new stimulus bill and along with all of the other liberal spending that's going on, we now have a new "octomom": the federal government.

Atlas Screwed

With the massive debt that Obama's stimulus bill will incur, someone has to shoulder the burden.

All bank transactions now in Swedish

I read that Lindsey Graham and Alan Greenspan are supporting a move to a "Swedish model" for our banks. This means nationalization of the struggling banks in this country.

My question is this: "Does this mean we get a free member of the Swedish bikini team with each new account opening?" Because that's basically all the Swedish ever gave us. Well that and the Nobel Prize and we all see how valuable that is.

Moonpie over Mobile

I have a local story that illustrates a national problem. In Mobile, Alabama, Councilman Fred Richardson--a Democrat no less--has decided that the city needs a large object to lower from the top of our largest building ala-New York's Times Square ball.

But this won't be made of Waterford crystal. Oh no. It will be a giant moonpie.

"A moonpie", you say. "What's that?"

Well gather round kiddies and I'll tell you. A moonpie is a confection that appears once a year (usually) around these parts for the annual Mardi Gras celebration. The banana and the vanilla varieties are pretty good, but personally the chocolate takes like something that the parade horses leave behind.

But I digress. The point of this little missive is that in a time of recession and economic uncertainty, terrorist attacks and a liberal majority in Congress and Obama in the White House, this is just what we need. Major cities, several states, the auto industry and every Tom, Dick and Harry around is traveling to Washington, D.C. with their hand out to get bailout money. Yeah, we really need to spend good money on a giant googaw that will only be used once a year. Then it will probably sit there like a giant diaphragm so that all the visitors to our area can say that they saw the world's largest contraceptive.

The unnecessary spending is bad enough. Now the entire city will look like a trailer park at Christmas.

Well, Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez. And let's hope that the bloody thing doesn't fall on someone (unless it's the city council, of course).

The wolf stalks you

The federal government is a ravening wolf. It seeks out the producers in our country and seizes them by the jugular. If you don't pay due deference to it the wolf will rip out your throat. and there are people in the government--politicians, bureaucrats and functionaries—and those outside it, who stoke the blood lust of the beast.

The government has no remorse. When it attacks a person or business it doesn't care that they were trying to do the right thing, but simply misplaced a decimal or failed to file on time. Once it smells blood and fear it comes for its prey and no one can do anything to stop it. Some of its prey choose to end their own lives rather than let the wolf devour them alive.

We live in a time in our republic where the wants and desires of those people that the wolf's keepers determine are “needs”, overrule the needs, wants and desires of those that earned their wealth. Class and wealth envy are the sticks that the keepers use to stir up the wolf's pups. When the pups start whining and baying at the moon, Momma Wolf leaps in to “save” them.

It doesn't matter to these people how much of the country's gross domestic product that wolf consumes. It matters to them only that the “pups” are taken care of, whether they need it or not. But it's not only about caring for the pups. It's about controlling the pack.

With tax policy the keepers wave sticks and carrots at the prey to entice them into the trap. If you make too much they will tax you by a larger percentage of your income than someone that doesn't make as much. Then they will turn around and use your money to dangle as a carrot in front of those that don't make as much.

The keepers only want the wolf to grow up big and strong. They don't care whether they take the pay of honest workers for frivolous, and even unconstitutional things. So long as they stay in control and the wolf stays happy.

$53,000,000,000,000

$53,000,000,000,000. That's the current estimated amount of the U.S. Government's unfunded liability. That's Social Security, Medicare, etc. That's a lot of zeros my friends.

That's a lot of money.