Category Archives: 2010 Election

2010 Election, National Politics

What could be worse than the government paying for abortions?

6 Comments

Answer: The government mandating that ALL healthcare insurance pay for abortions.

That is precisely what H.R.3200 (aka Obamacare) will do. After the passage of the bill, although existing policies which did not include abortion coverage might be grandfathered for a while, they would not be allowed to enroll any new subscribers. New polices may only be issued by “qualified plans.” And “qualified plans” must provide coverage for a minimum level of services as determined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Abortion supporters have invented a clever shell game in which some of the premiums collected by enrollees in the public choice plan will be segregated and used to pay claims from abortion providers before they ever technically become government funds. But this is but a shell game and is fooling no one.

Of far greater concerns will be the government mandates that will require ALL health insurance plans to provide coverage for abortion services. Easy, cost-free access to abortion will undoubtedly cause the abortion rate to rise dramatically.

And it will matter very little that an accounting trick will allow the government to claim that no government funds will be used to pay for abortion. The reality will be far worse. ALL Americans will be forced to pay for abortion.

ALL health insurance plans will be required to cover abortion.

Everyone will be required to purchase health insurance

Anyone who does NOT purchse a health insurance will be fined by the IRS and involuntarily enrolled in a health insurance plan.

God help us!

Is this what a majority of Americans want?

If this is NOT what you want, tell your congressman and senators now, before it is too late.

2010 Election, National Politics

Self-evident truths

Leave a comment
  1. All men are created equal
  2. They are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.
    Among these are:

    • Life
    • Liberty
    • the Pursuit of Happiness
  3. To secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
  4. Whenever any government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.

The RIGHT of the people to alter or abolish the government becomes a DUTY when a long train of abuses discloses a design to impose an absolute despotism.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Class? class? anyone? Bueller?

2010 Election, National Politics

Obamacare will make the problems worse

7 Comments

Our healthcare system has a few problems.

It’s not in crisis, but there are some areas we could improve.

There are a number of people without health insurance, perhaps as many as 47 million, or 16% of the US population. It’s not clear whether that can be reduced to zero, or even if it should. Like the unemployment rate, the mobility of American workers will inevitably result in a bit of “friction” in the system.

There is some percentage of the US population which makes a conscious choice NOT to purchase healthcare. That number might be as high as 5%.

However, one of the most obnoxious elements of the healthcare bill now pending in congress has been the proposal to stigmatize, penalize, and forcibly enroll individuals who choose not to buy health insurance.

There’s been a charge that parts of the system are characterized by greed. There are for-profit healthcare providers, and for-profit health insurance companies, and they do seek to make a profit. This is not evil. The proper check on greed is competition, not government regulation.

In fact, it is impossible to eliminate greed by regulation. You can only temper, harness, channel, and control greed by creating a market in which there are incentives for efficiency. In short, the game must be structured so that greed impels competitors to seek to lower costs so they can increase their market share.

President Obama and the Democrats have set out to do just the opposite. They are about to replace a competitive market with a government-monopoly bureaucratic system.

The problems with the health care system are the result of too little competition, too much government regulation, and a structure that lets health care consumers spend other people’s money.

The solution proposed by the President will reduce competition, add government regulation, and allow health care consumers to tap and spend the resources of the federal government rather than their own.

It will make things worse, far worse, if it is adopted.

And the American people are beginning to realize it. Let us hope that Congress figures it out as well before they enact a system that would be a huge mistake that would likely wreck both our economy and the federal budget.

2010 Election, National Politics

Why are the town hall meetings so hot?

Leave a comment

There are at least three reasons:

  1. This is a manufactured crisis.
  2. Voters know they are being lied to.
  3. Voters know they were being ignored.

1. This is a manufactured crisis. Life expectancy is at an all-time high. Infant mortality is at an all-time low. The very small differences in infant mortality between us and certain Scandinavian countries may have more to do with the way we practice obstetrics than anything else. Defensive medicine, doctor convenience, and patient convenience have made the number of late pre-term births (between 34 and 38 weeks) skyrocket in the US. We need to change the way doctors practice medicine, especially the way they attend pregnancy. Adopting a national healthcare system will make these stats far WORSE, not better.

There was no crisis in healthcare. There are some problems. There are a few things that could be improved. We do need tort reform. We need greater portability. We need high-risk pools, and provisions for those with pre-existing conditions. But even taken collectively, these do not amount to a crisis. Democrats have talked themselves into believing that this is their issue and that delivering on national healthcare reform will make the grateful voters keep them in office for decades into the future. Dreams die hard.

2. Voters know they are being lied to. The President keeps asserting that he does not want a national health care system – while his advisors and those who crafted the bill have been candid that they INTEND to create a national health care system. Candidate Obama was candid a year ago in admitting that he favored a government-run, single-payer system. When this is pointed out, and the video of Obama stating his position is played, critics of the health care reform bill are accused of lying and distorting the president’s position. Note to the spin doctors: This only increases the outrage of voters. You’re not only lying to us, when we point it out, you accuse US of lying. And you’re puzzled why we’re angry?

3. Voters know they were being ignored. If Obama & Pelosi & Reid had gotten their way, there would have been NO opportunity for townhall meetings. Obama wanted this done by August 1st. Pelosi & Reid wanted this done by August 1st. They were ignoring the voters. They wish we would sit down, shut up, and let the central planners implement the most massive transformation of the American economy imaginable. We know what they were trying to do.

And now, the Democrats display a bit of faux outrage because they are being shouted at in a townhall meeting? And they’re puzzled because we’re angry?

Democrats who want to have a prayer of retaining their seat in congress will have to make a decision to buck their party leadership and the steamroller now. Those who don’t will face voters who are even ANGRIER in November, 2010.

PS: Here’s a link to the full-text of the bill (H.R.3200) online at the official US Government website, thomas.gov. The page I’m linking to has divided the bill up into sections with links that let you jump to a particular section without downloading the full 1,017 page .pdf file. Though I recommend that step to everyone as well. READ THE BILL.

2010 Election, English History

It would be no surprise to wake up in the morning and finding he had become an archbishop

2 Comments

Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Great Britain holds that office by succession to the head of his party when Tony Blair retired from politics. He has never led his party through an election and has no mandate of his own as Prime Minister. And it looks as though he never will have.

He’s also, increasingly had to juggle things to keep his cabinet under control.

Today, Tory MP William Hague (who will become the new Foreign Secretary when the Tories win the next election) mocked Prime Minister Brown’s actions in keeping one, LordMandelson in his cabinet:

“The unelected Prime Minister has managed to produce the most powerful unelected deputy since Henry VIII appointed Cardinal Wolsey, except Cardinal Wolsey was more sensitive in handling his colleagues that the noble Lord Mandelson…

“The Prime Minister, who lectures us all on democratic renewal, is appointing peers to positions of power on a scale unknown for decades. There are now more peers attending the Cabinet than at any time since the days of Harold Macmillan…

“And the Lord Mandelson, denied the opportunity to become the Foreign Secretary… has gone around instead collecting titles and even whole government departments to add to his name, now adding up to

The Right Honourable the Baron Mandelson of Foy in the County of Herefordshire and Hartlepool in the County of Durham, First Secretary of State and Lord President of the Privy Council and Secretary of State for Business and Secretary of State for Innovation and Skills.

It would be no surprise to wake up in the morning and finding he had become an archbishop…”

hat tip to the blog of Archbishop Cranmer, who blogs pseudonymously on British political and religious topics.

The video below is worth watching. The clever soundbite comes at about 1:50 into the clip. But stay for the end, and watch how a brilliant MP deftly deals with the questions from two Labor MPs.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geWERiWP7aA