Monday, June 1, 2009
Young Cons
You can check out their organization Young Conservatives on their website www.theyoungcons.com
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Do You Trust a Billionaire Convention?
A gathering including George Soros, Ted Turner, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett, makes me quite uncomfortable to say the least.
This meeting should also put to rest the idea that it is conservatives who are the wealthy elitists.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Pet Peeve
Taxpayers Beware
Hmmm where have I seen this before? I'm not thinking of "Benedict" Arlen Specter, although he was playing a game of self-preservation. We must look no further than the Wall Street and Detroit for vivid examples of entire industries selling their souls for self preservation. And the big loser in each debacle so far has been the American Taxpayer. We sunk trillions into the banking system to prop up failing institutions. We have been rewarded by mounting losses from AIG and Fannie and Freddy, yet have no idea where half the money went.
To make matters worse, Wall St. wasn't enough, so we bailed Detroit out too, despite the fact that conservatives were yelling from the rooftops that the American car companies needed to go bankrupt. But, because Obama said that the car manufacturers could not survive bankruptcy and he promised to ride in on his shiny green taxpayer purchased horse and save them, we threw billions down another black hole. Conservatives warned that we were throwing good money after bad, but nobody listened. And now to add insult to injury, after the inevitable bankruptcy (that Obama said they couldn't survive and swore he would never let happen) hascome to pass, it looks like Obama is negotiating to put Taxpayers on the hook to subsidize the bankruptcy agreements, whose only winners will be the unions, executives, and politicians who are responsible for the mess in the first place.
Like the Banking executives now wishing they they hadn't naively given Washington control over their industry, and the car executives who are no doubt beginning to come to a similar realization, the health care industry will one day find out the same thing. However, I'm not so sure that the damage of socialization can be undone too easily. Once freedom is given away, it cannot easily be taken back. Look at Social Security. Everyone knows it is a failed system, and everyone knows it going to wreak havoc on our nation when it finally goes belly up. but even as that day is barreling towards us at an ever quickening pace, nothing is being done to stop it. America is content with the false security of its indulgently self-imposed blindfold.
The True Cost of Socialized Medicine
The U.S. spends about $2.5 trillion a year on health care, more than any other advanced country. Experts estimate that at least one-third of that spending goes for services that provide little or no benefit to patients. So theoretically, there's enough money in the system to cover everybody, including an estimated 50 million uninsured.
But one person's wasteful spending is someone else's bread and butter.
The office visits, tests, procedures and medications that the experts question represent a lot of money for doctors, hospitals, drug companies and other service providers. Dialing them back won't be easy. Providers will resist. Patients might complain their care is getting rationed.
The clear point of this passage is to begin laying the necessary groundwork for socialism, portraying freedom as greed. The ability to choose what health care you want is now described as "wasteful spending." The message is clear, with socialized medicine you will not have the freedom to make your own choices about health care, Washington bureaucrats will be deciding for you, whether you like it or not. You will not be allowed to get the health care you want, so that the government can take your money and spend it on someone else. This is pure socialism, and it will have the same costs as any socialist program. Production and quality will decrease, costs will rise, and the system will eventually fail. The current cost analysis being publicized is a scam, because it does not include the costs from fundamentally altering the incentives that are involved.
The only hope is for conservatives to stand united and try to build a coalition with so called "blue dog" Democrats, if they really exist (emphasis added).
Economists and other experts say the $634 billion that Obama's budget sets aside for health care will pay perhaps half the cost.Obama is hoping the Senate comes up with a bipartisan compromise that would give him political cover for disagreeable decisions to raise more money, such as taxing some health insurance benefits. In the 2008 campaign, Obama went after his Republican presidential rival, Arizona Sen. John McCain, for proposing a large-scale version of that idea.
As usual, the politically savvy Dems, will try to push through their agenda, but still maintain political coverage for the negative repercussions by pulling "Republicans" into it. This approach demonstrates why I said that it is great for the country that "Benedict" Arlen Specter became a Dem, because the less so called Republicans available to be manipulated by the Dems on these types of ploys the better. If we ever hope to repel these plans, or reverse them, we need to make it clear to the electorate who is responsible for the plans that will cause the inevitable problems that will eventually arise from systematically dismantling the best healthcare system in the world. Lets pray our Congressmen have the fortitude to stand strong on this issue, and actually represent America's best interests for once.