Only a few people know what’s exactly in the new proposed Senate health care bill, but there are some things we do know. The only positive thing we know is that preexisting exclusions are prohibited. Everything else we know is undesirable.
Medicare will be cut by about 500 billion dollars. This will cause rationing and lower quality care for seniors and fewer doctors who are willing to accept Medicare. Seniors will be drastically affected. The government will not deem them “cost effective”.
Taxes will be raised. About one-half the funding for this bill will come from new taxes, fees, and penalties. Raising taxes in a recession is beyond foolish.
This bill will cost almost one trillion dollars. Health insurance is extended to only about thirty million more people. Using simple mathematics this means that it will cost over thirty thousand dollars per person. Might I suggest that the government provide ten thousand dollars to each person and let them select their own insurance? This would dramatically reduce the cost of this bill.
Medicaid will be extended to include about 15 million more people. This is one-half of the new people covered. States pay about half of Medicaid costs. The states can not afford these new mandates. This means new taxes on the state level or drastic cuts in other state services.
Insurance premiums will cost more. If Medicare further reduces the rate of reimbursement to hospitals and doctors, the private sector will have to pick up the difference and pay more. There will be new taxes applied to insurance and this will cause premium costs to rise even more.
For the first time in our history citizens will be forced to purchase an item – even if they do not want to do so. Car insurance is not the same as this requirement. Driving is a privilege not a right and drivers are required to carry insurance to cover the damage to other drivers. If you do not buy health insurance you are subject to a fine. If you do not pay this fine you can be jailed.
The fine is so low that it is not a deterrent. A young healthy person would pay the fine and only purchase insurance if they were injured or became ill.
Many new government bureaucracies are created by this bill. Controls over private insurance would be great. Our choices would disappear. How is this an improvement of health care? It is government control of our health care by another name. We do not want the government to control our health care and our very lives. Stop this bill! Vote NO!
Signed,
The Electorate
Monday, December 21, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Jobs and Recovery
The government is working under a flawed premise. The government does not create wealth. People create wealth. Businesses create wealth. This country’s wealth and prosperity has come from the ingenuity and industry of its citizens. The government can only provide an atmosphere conducive to wealth creation. Right now business is frozen. No matter which way business turns it faces new taxes and regulations. Money is not available. The government has sucked up available funds with its insatiable spending.
The solution to our economic problems is not complicated. History has proven, over and over again, that these solutions work. They work for Democrats and they work for Republicans. The federal government needs to exercise some self-control and reduce its spending. The federal government needs to offer a stable, business friendly environment. If the government reduced individual, small business, and corporate taxes and loosened regulations, business and the economy would recover. As businesses recover new jobs are created.
The government is a poor creator of jobs. Infrastructure jobs are temporary jobs and the cost of each job is astronomical. True job growth can only come from the private sector. Small business is the engine of job creation. Currently the government is standing in the way of small and large businesses. The government needs to get out of the way and let the people correct our economic problems.
Signed,
The Electorate
The solution to our economic problems is not complicated. History has proven, over and over again, that these solutions work. They work for Democrats and they work for Republicans. The federal government needs to exercise some self-control and reduce its spending. The federal government needs to offer a stable, business friendly environment. If the government reduced individual, small business, and corporate taxes and loosened regulations, business and the economy would recover. As businesses recover new jobs are created.
The government is a poor creator of jobs. Infrastructure jobs are temporary jobs and the cost of each job is astronomical. True job growth can only come from the private sector. Small business is the engine of job creation. Currently the government is standing in the way of small and large businesses. The government needs to get out of the way and let the people correct our economic problems.
Signed,
The Electorate
Monday, December 14, 2009
Appropriations Bill
You can not spend your way out of a recession. It has NEVER been done. The wasteful spending of Congress and this Administration is extending the recession. Washington tells us the recession is over. It’s not.
Friday the House passed a 1.1 trillion dollar spending bill filled with over 5,000 earmarks. Budgets were raised by over ten percent. The Senate passed this bill on Sunday. This bill was written behind closed doors – again – and passed with little debate. The country does not have this money! Is this really the time for more pork barrel spending?
Congress just doesn’t get it. What world does Congress live in? Obviously it is not the real world. This is not a difficult concept. Stop throwing away money we do not have! Stop wasteful spending! Stop earmarks! Stop pork barrel spending! Cut or freeze all discretionary spending! When this bill was passed, Congress spit in the eye of the American public.
Signed,
The Electorate
Friday the House passed a 1.1 trillion dollar spending bill filled with over 5,000 earmarks. Budgets were raised by over ten percent. The Senate passed this bill on Sunday. This bill was written behind closed doors – again – and passed with little debate. The country does not have this money! Is this really the time for more pork barrel spending?
Congress just doesn’t get it. What world does Congress live in? Obviously it is not the real world. This is not a difficult concept. Stop throwing away money we do not have! Stop wasteful spending! Stop earmarks! Stop pork barrel spending! Cut or freeze all discretionary spending! When this bill was passed, Congress spit in the eye of the American public.
Signed,
The Electorate
Sunday, December 13, 2009
The National Debt
The national debt ceiling is currently set at 12.1 trillion dollars. Congress is spending at such an alarming rate that they will soon exceed this limit. Congress now proposes raising the limit by 1.8 trillion dollars. This reckless spending has got to stop. The national debt is a stone around the neck of our economy and it is dragging us down. Stop spending money we do not have. Freeze or reduce discretionary spending. Do not pass new expensive programs. You are dooming this country and the future of our children. Be responsible or face defeat in your next election.
Adding insult to injury, Congress plans to attach this increase to the debt ceiling to a military funding bill. Congress plans to USE our servicemen and women so that they can waste more of our tax dollars. This is disgusting!
Signed,
The Electorate
Adding insult to injury, Congress plans to attach this increase to the debt ceiling to a military funding bill. Congress plans to USE our servicemen and women so that they can waste more of our tax dollars. This is disgusting!
Signed,
The Electorate
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Alternate Minimum Tax
The Alternate Minimum Tax was created by the Tax Reform Act of 1969. Its purpose was to prevent 155 high income households from claiming so many tax exemptions and credits that they would owe little or no income tax. It was not indexed to inflation. It has now become the bane of middle class America. Every year Congress passes a one year patch and kicks this can down the road.
The income level of the middle class has changed. Congress needs to correct this problem not postpone it. This could be done in a simple one page bill. Apply this tax to individuals who have an annual income of over $100,000 and to families with an annual income of over $150,000. Americans have enough to dread at tax time. We do not need this tax hanging over our heads.
Signed,
The Electorate
The income level of the middle class has changed. Congress needs to correct this problem not postpone it. This could be done in a simple one page bill. Apply this tax to individuals who have an annual income of over $100,000 and to families with an annual income of over $150,000. Americans have enough to dread at tax time. We do not need this tax hanging over our heads.
Signed,
The Electorate
Friday, December 11, 2009
Senate's New Health Care Proposal
Just when you think that Congress could not devise a worse health care bill, they prove you wrong. Now the Senate proposes expanding Medicare down to the age of fifty-five; expanding Medicaid ( SCHIP has already been expanded); and having the OPM oversee and regulate private insurance companies. How is this not a PUBLIC OPTION? It’s a public option on steroids. The American public does not want a public option in health care reform – Let’s just change the name. The public is stupid. They won’t know what we are doing. This proposal is bad in so many ways.
Medicare is going bankrupt in 5 – 8 years. Yet Congress proposes cutting 500 billion dollars from Medicare as more and more “baby boomers” enter the system. Now Congress proposes adding at least thirty million more people to the system. This can only make the system collapse sooner. Medicare, at best, is a flawed, inferior system. Medicare denies claims at twice the rate of private insurances. Half the doctors in this country currently will not accept Medicare patients, because the reimbursement rate is so low and it takes so long to pay reimbursements. Some areas of the country have no doctors that will accept Medicare. Medical care not accepted is medical service denied. The doctors, who do accept Medicare, will not be able to provide care to the increased number of patients. Care will be rationed. This health care proposal may bankrupt hospitals and doctors. Medicare only provides basic minimum health care to seniors. A secondary insurance is always needed to provide acceptable care.
Medicaid is worse than Medicare and the same arguments apply. States must pay about half the costs of Medicaid making this an unfunded mandate. Even if the federal government would fund it for a few years eventually the burden would fall on the states. When the states fail, they would be bailed out and fall under federal government control.
SCHIP was a travesty. Children from families making over eighty thousand dollars a year are eligible for SCHIP. Anyone who has an income this high does not need government help to pay for their children’s medical care.
The OPM would oversee private insurance. The devil will be in the details. It has been suggested that these private companies must be “not for profit”. What regulations would be forced on insurance companies? Would policies be required to meet minimum and maximum limits? This could stifle the quality and availability of our health insurance. This part of the proposed bill could go wrong in many, many ways.
I am still of the opinion that no health care reform would be preferable to the health care reform being proposed by Congress.
Signed,
The Electorate
Medicare is going bankrupt in 5 – 8 years. Yet Congress proposes cutting 500 billion dollars from Medicare as more and more “baby boomers” enter the system. Now Congress proposes adding at least thirty million more people to the system. This can only make the system collapse sooner. Medicare, at best, is a flawed, inferior system. Medicare denies claims at twice the rate of private insurances. Half the doctors in this country currently will not accept Medicare patients, because the reimbursement rate is so low and it takes so long to pay reimbursements. Some areas of the country have no doctors that will accept Medicare. Medical care not accepted is medical service denied. The doctors, who do accept Medicare, will not be able to provide care to the increased number of patients. Care will be rationed. This health care proposal may bankrupt hospitals and doctors. Medicare only provides basic minimum health care to seniors. A secondary insurance is always needed to provide acceptable care.
Medicaid is worse than Medicare and the same arguments apply. States must pay about half the costs of Medicaid making this an unfunded mandate. Even if the federal government would fund it for a few years eventually the burden would fall on the states. When the states fail, they would be bailed out and fall under federal government control.
SCHIP was a travesty. Children from families making over eighty thousand dollars a year are eligible for SCHIP. Anyone who has an income this high does not need government help to pay for their children’s medical care.
The OPM would oversee private insurance. The devil will be in the details. It has been suggested that these private companies must be “not for profit”. What regulations would be forced on insurance companies? Would policies be required to meet minimum and maximum limits? This could stifle the quality and availability of our health insurance. This part of the proposed bill could go wrong in many, many ways.
I am still of the opinion that no health care reform would be preferable to the health care reform being proposed by Congress.
Signed,
The Electorate
Thursday, December 10, 2009
End Run Around Congress and the Constitution
The Environmental Protection Agency now states that carbon dioxide emissions pose a danger to public health. It bases its “endangerment finding” on information provided by the IPCC. This United Nations agency bases its conclusions on data from scientists, who we now know have altered or destroyed any data that disagreed with their own preconceived theories. In short, these supposed scientists “cooked the books.” We know the information is tainted, but the EPA uses it as proven fact. This is not scientific or honest. The EPA proposes regulating carbon dioxide as an end run around Congress and the Constitution. The EPA is not comprised of elected officials.
Now members of the Administration are delivering the message to Congress that if Congress does not pass the Cap + Trade Energy bill, the EPA will regulate the bill into existence, but in a more draconian manner. It would affect the economy more adversely than the Cap + Trade Energy Bill would – even more jobs would be lost and prices would rise even higher.
This is not a choice. This is blackmail or gangster warfare. Al Capone would be so proud. This is true Chicago politics as usual. The public is getting very tired of having unwanted policies forced down their throats. Politicians need to wake up and see reality. This is not change that Americans want.
Signed,
The Electorate
Now members of the Administration are delivering the message to Congress that if Congress does not pass the Cap + Trade Energy bill, the EPA will regulate the bill into existence, but in a more draconian manner. It would affect the economy more adversely than the Cap + Trade Energy Bill would – even more jobs would be lost and prices would rise even higher.
This is not a choice. This is blackmail or gangster warfare. Al Capone would be so proud. This is true Chicago politics as usual. The public is getting very tired of having unwanted policies forced down their throats. Politicians need to wake up and see reality. This is not change that Americans want.
Signed,
The Electorate
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
TARP Funds
The TARP bill stated that any unused or returned funds would be applied to the national debt. That is the only way it is to be used. Our current debt can not be sustained or ignored. It must be addressed – now!
If Congress and the Administration want a new stimulus/jobs bill, they should use unspent funds from the first stimulus bill. It hasn’t worked anyway. Less than half of the 787 billion dollars has been spent. Let Stimulus Part I pay for Stimulus Part II.
The federal government can not continue to spend money that it does not have. Washington will turn us into a banana republic.
Signed,
The Electorate
If Congress and the Administration want a new stimulus/jobs bill, they should use unspent funds from the first stimulus bill. It hasn’t worked anyway. Less than half of the 787 billion dollars has been spent. Let Stimulus Part I pay for Stimulus Part II.
The federal government can not continue to spend money that it does not have. Washington will turn us into a banana republic.
Signed,
The Electorate
Friday, December 4, 2009
Please Represent Floridians
To Senator Bill Nelson:
You have to know that the majority of Floridians oppose this health care bill. They have told you this, time after time. What must we do to get you to listen? You have to know this bill would adversely effect the quality and availability of health care for Floridians. Yet you seem bound and determined to support the party line and vote for this BAD health care bill. You were elected to represent Florida - not the Democratic party. You ran as a moderate, but you vote as a liberal. We must judge you by your actions, not your words. I, for one, am not pleased.
Signed,
The Electorate
You have to know that the majority of Floridians oppose this health care bill. They have told you this, time after time. What must we do to get you to listen? You have to know this bill would adversely effect the quality and availability of health care for Floridians. Yet you seem bound and determined to support the party line and vote for this BAD health care bill. You were elected to represent Florida - not the Democratic party. You ran as a moderate, but you vote as a liberal. We must judge you by your actions, not your words. I, for one, am not pleased.
Signed,
The Electorate
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Redistribution of Health Care
Last month, Ex-President Clinton told Congress that Democrats lost so many seats in Congress in 1994 because they did not pass health care reform. This is absurdly incorrect. Democrats lost so many seats, because they tried so hard to pass bad health care reform that the American people did not want. If they had actually passed the bill, they would have lost more congressional seats.
More Americans now oppose proposed health care reform than opposed reform fifteen years ago. Why are Democrats now so determined to ignore the will of the people and pass this legislation? Democrats must know that voting for this unwanted legislation is the same as signing their letters of resignation. Politicians usually have a strong sense of self-preservation. Are they willing to sacrifice their careers for party agenda or do they think constituents won’t remember their bad actions? People will remember for they will have to face the ramifications of this bad bill almost every day. The more they deal with it; the angrier they will become.
Congress needs to scrap these bad bills. All these bills do is put the federal government more in control of our lives and increase the size and scope of government. The people want health care reform that will actually improve the quality of health care. These bills are simply a redistribution of health care. A few more people are covered, but they each receive less care.
Signed,
The Electorate
More Americans now oppose proposed health care reform than opposed reform fifteen years ago. Why are Democrats now so determined to ignore the will of the people and pass this legislation? Democrats must know that voting for this unwanted legislation is the same as signing their letters of resignation. Politicians usually have a strong sense of self-preservation. Are they willing to sacrifice their careers for party agenda or do they think constituents won’t remember their bad actions? People will remember for they will have to face the ramifications of this bad bill almost every day. The more they deal with it; the angrier they will become.
Congress needs to scrap these bad bills. All these bills do is put the federal government more in control of our lives and increase the size and scope of government. The people want health care reform that will actually improve the quality of health care. These bills are simply a redistribution of health care. A few more people are covered, but they each receive less care.
Signed,
The Electorate
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