This is Only the Beginning

Investor Business Daily has a marvelously excoriating piece of commentary and research on the soon-to-be impact of the FacistCare passed into law on 3/21.

A few of the nuggets of gold here, but the whole article is well worth reading and sharing.

"6. You must buy a policy that covers ambulatory patient services, emergency services, hospitalization, maternity and newborn care, mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment; prescription drugs; rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices; laboratory services; preventive and wellness services; chronic disease management; and pediatric services, including oral and vision care.
You're a single guy without children? Tough, your policy must cover pediatric services. You're a woman who can't have children? Tough, your policy must cover maternity services. You're a teetotaler? Tough, your policy must cover substance abuse treatment. (Add your own violation of personal freedom here.) (Section 1302).
...
13. If you are a physician owner and you want to expand your hospital? Well, you can't (Section 6001 (i) (1) (B). Unless, it is located in a country where, over the last five years, population growth has been 150% of what it has been in the state (Section 6601 (i) (3) ( E)). And then you cannot increase your capacity by more than 200% (Section 6001 (i) (3) (C)).
...
15. The government will extract a fee of $2.3 billion annually from the pharmaceutical industry. If you are a pharmaceutical company what you will pay depends on the ratio of the number of brand-name drugs you sell to the total number of brand-name drugs sold in the U.S. So, if you sell 10% of the brand-name drugs in the U.S., what you pay will be 10% multiplied by $2.3 billion, or $230,000,000. (Under reconciliation, it starts at $2.55 billion, jumps to $3 billion in 2012, then to $3.5 billion in 2017 and $4.2 billion in 2018, before settling at $2.8 billion in 2019 (Section 1404)). Think you, as a pharmaceutical executive, know how to better use that money, say for research and development? Tough. (Section 9008 (b))"

The best part?

When taxes are raised on the industries we pay for health care, who is that passed on to?

Consumers, the little guy, us, ect.

So the price goes up for the insurance companies making the payments on such taxes across the board, as does the price the government has to pay out for its medical welfare system.

Where does that money for the government come from?

Taxpayers, the little guy, us, ect.

So the price goes up for Americans on both ends, and the government has yet another civilization decaying arm to tattoo with the destroyed wealth of Americans.

1x1100, New Look

Well, its been a long voyage, but this fair blog has reached 1,100 posts.

Thats a lot of me pecking a keyboard, and a lot of ya'll reading these said pecks. I really appreciate your comments, they make it worth the time to run a blog of this sort.

In the words of Joel of Seventh Sola,

"Yikes, what happened to your blog template?"

Well, after 4 years of the same color scheme, and one that was starting to hurt my eyes, I decided it was time for a change.
Since Apple and Google seem to have great luck with White backgrounds, I'm trying that out. Orange is a pretty accent color, so thats the other one.
Any thoughts and critiques or complaints on it would be most welcome!

If you're interested in the further blogging adventures and a laugh, check out Grumpy Old Men, a co-oporative blog of Ect run by some crazy old timers and one youngin'.

Old man Dingell Comes Down From the Mt. With Wisdom

"The Honorable John D. Dingell" of Michigan, the longest serving congressman in the US house and the 3rd longest serving in US history.

Since 1955, he has taken his life to DC to represent western Detroit, crusading for nationalized health care as his calling card. At the beginning of every session, he has produced a bill that would lead to such a result, and this must be one blisteringly wonderful payoff for his years of slavish dedication to the facist ideal.

"It takes a long time to administer the necessary steps...to control the people"

Atlas Shrugs Once Again, Congress Harms America

AP: "Summoned to success by President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled Congress approved historic legislation Sunday night extending health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and cracking down on insurance company abuses, a climactic chapter in the century-long quest for near universal coverage.

Widely viewed as dead two months ago, the Senate-passed bill cleared the House on a 219-212 vote. Republicans were unanimous in opposition, joined by 34 dissident Democrats.

Obama watched the vote in the White House's Roosevelt Room with Vice President Joe Biden and about 40 staff aides. When the long sought 216th vote came in — the magic number needed for passage — the room burst into applause and hugs. An exultant president exchanged a high-five with his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel."

The fallout from this will be catastrophic in every sense imaginable. A balanced budget can go to hell. The constitution be damned. Every citizen of the United States can die in line at a government institution that has only yet begun to wallow in the mire of government bureaucracy. The kids we birth today will be raised in an nation where the rights of man are those granted solely at the discretion of society, a world where the government serves not the people, but its own ends.

A society where men and women are elected to govern the theft of labor and wealth to encourage and subsidize the parasites of nations. Those who prey upon the productive to survive in futility.

This is what we have once again come to, Fascism at the hands of a legislature. Fascism paid for by naught but borrowed and printed money in manner that is empirically and entirely untenable.

Mr. President, you have once again demonstrated your supreme, constant and overriding desire to ruin my country, and scar its face to a point where it is an insult to the United States to call this America any longer.

The Sword of Arrogance

Looking at the data from a recent Gallup Poll, the Obama administration is now surrounded by a nation rife with disapproval and steadily reducing approval rates, even to the unusual point of having more disapproval then approval.

For an elected official, this is untenable. To what end does the Democrat party and Barrak Obama persist in pushing this health care take over?

Unions? Campaign donations from the Medical establishment? The will of the voters? Personal vendetta? The animal spirits? Its baffling, but I am more sure now naught good will pass the legislature then before.

But in the long run? This may be the rock upon which the Democrat party shatters itself for the coming decade.

Pharmaceuticals to push Obama-Care

Politico: "The drug industry, which has held off running ads until officials sign off on the final reconciliation bill, is growing more comfortable with the emerging legislation and is preparing a substantial pro-reform ad buy in 43 Democratic districts, according to a senior industry source. The amount and timing of the buy have not yet been set and hinge largely on action in the House. Still, the development is a substantial step forward from Monday morning, when industry officials, coming off a tough weekend of negotiating with Democratic staffers, said there were no ads in the works. The movement should also help appease the White House, which has been leaning on the industry to provide Democrats air cover, according to industry sources."

History has witnessed this before, and it appears my generation will see this again.

When government muscles in on the private sector to improve things, only the biggest players in the market benefit. The Railroads and Airlines are beacons of warning in this regard.

Why would the drug companies be in favor of this kind of legislation?

A. They can set prices without competition. In the market place where a motley assortment of customers demand medication, there is at least a modicum of price competition. Reduced though it may be because of patent legislation, it is by far superior to a single payer government system. What this boils down to, do we want to pay through the ears in taxes for medication, or have some competition in drug prices?

B. With a government take over comes stalled innovation. Why spend money on Research and Development when a single payer does not demand it? Even if there is demand, there is no incentive to improve upon medication, because the wheels of federal bureaucracy move slowly, and the contracts are not fluid.

In essence, legislation like Obama-care is a gold mine for Pharmaceuticals. They can charge more for existing medications, and avoid the expensive and risky proposition of further research.

IRS Pursues Tax Evaders. The Really Big Ones.

Sacramento Bee: "Arriving at Harv's Metro Car Wash in midtown Wednesday afternoon were two dark-suited IRS agents demanding payment of delinquent taxes. "They were deadly serious, very aggressive, very condescending," says Harv's owner, Aaron Zeff.

The really odd part of this: The letter that was hand-delivered to Zeff's on-site manager showed the amount of money owed to the feds was ... 4 cents.

Inexplicably, penalties and taxes accruing on the debt – stemming from the 2006 tax year – were listed as $202.31, leaving Harv's with an obligation of $202.35."

Government priorities, obviously in the right order.

And to borrow a thought from a commenter,

'Why did they send 2 agents? So they could get their two cents worth!"

Still, I would like to see this man, our Secretary of the Treasury, visited by the IRS agents he controls:

WSJ.com:
"According to Mr. Geithner, he initially failed to pay payroll taxes on income he received from the International Monetary Fund in 2001, and then repeated the error in the three subsequent years, despite the help of an accountant. Apologizing to the committee, he took responsibility for what he called "careless" and "avoidable" mistakes while insisting they were unintentional. He acknowledged signing an IMF statement at the time that he understood he had been reimbursed to pay those self-employment taxes, adding that he should have read the statement more carefully."

1 Pixel = $1Mil

(Click to Embiggen)

(H/T to www.dvorak.org/blog)

"All of the sudden 100 billion doesn't seem like much, and Bernie Madoff looks like an angel compared to the people who approved this waste of taxpayer money"

Paper knows no bounds

AP: "President Barack Obama scolded Virgina Republican Rep. Eric Cantor for the stack of paper he brought with him to the health summit, calling it the type of political stunt that gets in the way of lawmakers having a serious conversation.

Cantor said he brought a copy of the 2,400-page Senate bill and the 11-page proposal Obama posted online earlier in the week."

What a leader!

Crowding Out the Market

Critiques of our Academic Financing System

Mises.org: "But economic theory has yet another lesson to teach us. Because the supply of students who can afford college is artificially inflated due to the subsidized loans, colleges and universities have found that they can get away with raising their tuitions to stratospheric levels.

"Because the supply of students who can afford college is artificially inflated due to the subsidized loans, colleges and universities have found that they can get away with raising their tuitions to stratospheric levels."
Nevertheless, the students keep on coming, both because the loans are so cheap and easy to obtain, and because the education establishment has an arsenal of statistics and slogans at the ready to describe the huge financial gains to be had from earning a college degree. "The huge debt is worth it," they say. "You'll make it all back after a few years."

At one time this was probably true for most students; but now an increasing number of students are finding that the crushing debt required to attend most four-year universities simply isn't worth it, especially in light of the abysmal job market.

To make matters worse, the recession has prompted many universities to raise their tuitions even higher. According to a new study by the Project on Student Debt,

"Data show that for the past few years, around two-thirds of students graduating from four-year colleges had student-loan debt. The average amount these students owe has grown about six percent per year since 2003–04, reaching $23,200 for the class of 2008. For comparison, in 1996, only 58 percent of students graduated with debt, and they owed an average of $13,200."

Currently, only 70% of those under 20 who want to be employed have a job. This is not counting those who do not seek a job, and thus are not a part of the labor market.

Those recent graduates who can't work usually go to school, because that's what every has advised since grade school. They go to school to find out what they want to do, and bandy about the system for a few semesters on entirely borrowed money, and may or may not have a career yielding degree by the end.

The average graduate will have over $23,000 in debt. In the past, its been get a job, got to school, get done. Now, we have a situation where borrowing to pay for school has become the norm, and my generation will be paying student loans off for nearly the next 2 decades. It is not unlikely that many people going to class will finish paying off their student loans when their kids are about to start high school.

The other option, historically, has been to get a job, get to work and get things done but that option is far less prevalent, and far less available, because the entry level jobs that are available to high school grads are disappearing. Employers will not loose money hiring people, and if a job is only worth $6 an hour, the employer cannot pay $7 and make a profit with that employee.

Thus, we have those who are academically inept and unable to get a scholarship, unable to find any variety of gainful employment, borrowing up to their eyebrows in quicksand to pay for school because that is what they have been advised to do. Or they just list aimlessly for years before acquiring the same job they could have had, at the same skill level at Jr year in high school.

The end result of subsidized student loans, government academic grants and minimum wage?

A rationally lethargic, debt saturated, unthinking generation of adults, exorbitant prices for higher education whilst simultaneously removing the incentive and option to be a producing member of the labor force

Solutions?

Cease subsidized Federal Student Loans, University grants, government scholarships (GI bill notwithstanding) and educational tax shelters. They inflated the system to begin with.

Abolish the minimum wage law, it only narrows the market place down to those who are already employed.

Patton Says....

Cost of Obama Spending

Here is a unique perspective on the proposed increase in the US Federal Debt limit by $1.9 Trillion to $14.3 Trillion.

Thats a lot of money.

I mean, a LOT of money.

Like, money being sprayed out the nozzle of Old Faithful, albeit far more regular and more expensive.

This is just the debt, not any variety of spending within the federal revenue.

So, without further ado...

This debt expansion is equivalent to more then 20 Hurricane Katrina's.
This Debt ceiling is equivalent to more then 150 Hurricane Katrina's.


Thats a lot. of. debt.
May our children forgive us.

Hitler's Reaction to Brown

"Rush Limbaugh swore a pact with the Devil, so he knew Obama would fail. True story."

This is a video put together by a fellow right winger, subtitling a clip from the German film Downfall.
Hysterical work.

Beam Me Up Scotty

We have found intelligent life in this state.

"“I never thought I’d see the day when a Republican replaces Ted Kennedy,” Mayor Thomas M. Menino told the Herald last night. “I think Scott Brown caught the wave of anger that’s out there, and the wave of anti-Obama.”

A Rasmussen Reports poll found one in five Democrats supported Brown, who benefited from high suburban turnout to beat Coakley by 52 to 47 percent."

Coupled with the New Jersey and Virgina elections in the recent past, the interim elections have become a surprising measurement of the discontent in the electorate.

So Kennedy dies while in the senate, after doing incalculable damage to my country over the years. His last dying wish is to pass the Bolshevik health care legislation. His seat is taken by an upstart republican, surging into the senate on the wave of a Boston Tea Party. There is a good chance the senate bill will stall, marking Kennedy's double defeat.

The Lord does work in mysterious ways.

A Fresh Take on Airport Security

NY Times: "“Meet Mikey Hicks,” said Najlah Feanny Hicks, introducing her 8-year-old son, a New Jersey Cub Scout and frequent traveler who has seldom boarded a plane without a hassle because he shares the name of a suspicious person. “It’s not a myth.”

Michael Winston Hicks’s mother initially sensed trouble when he was a baby and she could not get a seat for him on their flight to Florida at an airport kiosk; airline officials explained that his name “was on the list,” she recalled.

The first time he was patted down, at Newark Liberty International Airport, Mikey was 2. He cried.

After years of long delays and waits for supervisors at every airport ticket counter, this year’s vacation to the Bahamas badly shook up the family. Mikey was frisked on the way there, then more aggressively on the way home.

"Up your arms, down your arms, up your crotch, someone is patting your 8-year-old down like he’s a criminal," Mrs. Hicks recounted. “A terrorist can blow his underwear up and they don’t catch him. But my 8-year-old can’t walk through security without being frisked.”
...
Before leaving for the Bahamas on Jan. 2, she reached out to Congressman Pascrell’s office, which then enlisted a T.S.A. agent to meet the family at the airport. Even this did not prevent Mikey from an extra pat-down.

On the way home last Friday, Mikey’s boarding pass showed four giant red S’s at the airport in Nassau. “Oh, random screening,” Mrs. Hicks said. ... Mrs. Hicks said she wanted to take pictures of her son being frisked but was told it was against the rules.""

In the words of Paine's Common Sense, "Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one. "

The TSA has become naught but a ponderous, intolerable, unsustainable blight upon the world.

To wit,

Mandatory removal of shoes

Inhospitable 4oz of liquid limit

Exclusion of all blades, tweezers, ect...

Now, coming to you from the main stage...

Terahertz Scanners that provide full color nude images of each Human passing though,

Terahertz Scanners that have the potential to rend your DNA into base proteins.

Under the guise of security, we are being adjusted to a posture of acceptance of draconian checkpoints, invasive regulation of inconsequential items, and a violation of all claims to physical space, even regarding children.

All of this misses the real point however, and it is a simple one. Why should the government me operating a Transportation Security Administration? The principle is that because the transportation in air is public space, then the government must maintain its security.

To follow this to its logical conclusion, we should be subject to screenings for the purposes of driving, biking, walking, riding a bus or train as well. These are in public and often on public roads, yet we would consider the suggestion foolhardy and wasteful.

Yet, air travel is regarded differently, for reasons I have yet to fathom.

Perhaps the numerous government bailouts of the failing industry has lashed them so tightly together that no other option is weighed beyond the onerous force of centralized governmental control.

If the airlines want pre-screened security, let them provide it themselves. I have no doubt they could do no worse then my government is doing now.

The Real Question

Some questions ring eternal, echoing down the chambers of history with no reserve.

My president, Mr. Obama, has asked just such a question.

"“How many times is Biden gonna say something stupid?”"

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, told Missouri State Senator Chuck Graham to stand up. Graham is confined to a wheelchair.

NFL Wild Card Weekend

Picks:

Bengals over Jets

Eagles over Cowboys

Ravens over Patriots

Packers over Cardinals

EDIT:

Well, saturday did not go well for me.

Numbers that Speak Good News

Among other sites, I enjoy reading The American Blog, run by the American Enterprise Institute. I found this today, and it is one of those cases where the numbers speak for themselves, and neat little colored bars only help with that.

Look at 4 of the more influential particles of legislation in American history.

Now, look at the astronomically large bills passed by this congress.

(Hat tip to Nick Schultz)

Also interesting to note is the congressional approval rate of this current congress, especially when compared with congresses of yore.

Here's a helpful chart for that too!

As the hope of the right is that Obama will repeat the days of Carter & Reagan, so to the hope burns that this congressional election will be similar to the 1994 collapse of a democrat majority in Congress.

Mexico

Just came back from Mexico at 4am this morning, another successful trip to Iglesia Prince de Paz in Reynosa.

18 people, 1 completed house, 1 fully painted church, 1 expanded bathroom and breezeway, 1 girl in the ER, 12 sick people and 1 long haul road trip later, and yet another series of lessons from my Brothers in Christ.

And we didn't even get to the tacos.

Happy New Year, and may the liberties we enjoy today be expanded in the coming year.