Will Blue Dogs contain health care tab?
Nine months into the new fiscal year and five months into the presidency of Barack Obama, the federal deficit has hit $1 trillion for the first time in history. Take note, children, and stop goofing off in school, demanding feel-good, esteem-raising “A’s” for “C-minus” work. You’ve a heavy debt burden to finance over the course of your working lives, with a far heavier debt burden yet to come.
Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives add to that burden with a proposal expected today for national health care legislation. While politicians play games with cost and with financing schemes that are alleged to include $155 billion in future savings from payments to hospitals, the truth is that whatever they come up with will exceed another trillion dollars over a decade. President Obama says those costs won’t be borne by the middle class. The Nancy Pelosi Democrats propose to get financing from “the rich.” Fat chance. “The rich” can avoid taxes, in part by moving cash to government-favored enterprises. It’s the wage-earner and the owners of mom-and-pop businesses that get socked.
Democrats have full ownership of national government, so they’re prefectly free to be as irresponsible as they choose. This is a key test, however, for a group of about 40 Democrats like U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall of Macon and to a lesser extent U.S. Rep. John Barrow of Savannah. Marshall represents a Middle Georgia district that’s competitive. If he gets too deep into Pelosi politics, he’s gone. About three dozen or more of his colleagues are in the same boat.
Ordinarily, because Democrats own Congress, leadership and the so-called “Blue Dog Democrats” play a game. When Pelosi needs them, they’re there. When she has votes to spare, they walk, voting with the opposition. A trillion-dollar entitlement built on funny-money and pretend-savings has to be too much for the Blue Dogs to stomach.
Right now, they’re all that stands between the ambitions of this generation of liberal politicians and the quality-of-life stealing debt burden being shifted to our children and grand-children. So, young esteem-seekers, when school officials offer to erase incorrect answers on CRCT tests of subject competence and replace them with right answers, beg them not to. You actually need to know the classroom stuff to get a good job (in government or health care, the ones that will be available) to help finance the enormous debt burden coming your way.
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© 2009 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
153 comments Add your comment
jconservative
July 14th, 2009
7:55 am
Jim – I agree but you are 28 years to late. You should have hollered in 1981 when Reagan submitted the first of his deficit building bidgets to Congress. I hollered as loud as I could but I was all alone.
You and others failed to see that Reagan talked conservative but governed as a liberal. To date, Reagan left the highest debt after his administration until that other “conservative” George W came along.
As I said you are way to late.
Shameless
July 14th, 2009
8:12 am
The leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee don’t have the votes to strip from the defense authorization bill $1.75 billion for seven F-22 Raptor fighter jets, but they’re hoping the power of the presidency will sway some colleagues.
President Barack Obama took another swipe at the advanced fighter jet, reiterating his threat to veto any bill containing F-22 funds, in letters to committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and ranking Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona on Monday.
“Would the president veto the bill?” asked Levin. “That speculation is no longer out there.” Those who wind up supporting more F-22s will now jeopardize funding for the troops, Levin added.
And McCain said he’d “strongly recommend” that the president veto the bill if F-22 funding was included. A vote on the amendment to remove money for more F-22s could come as early as Tuesday.
Debate about the Raptor fifth-generation fighter jet won’t be limited to the Senate; the fiscal year 2010 defense appropriations bill is scheduled for a Thursday markup in the House
Copyleft
July 14th, 2009
8:41 am
Sorry, Mr. Wooten, but to quote the last admininstration, “Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter.”
As a staunch right-wing drone, you are obligated to IGNORE all deficits and simply complain whenever we ramp up spending on fellow Americans rather than overseas adventures. Them’s the rules!
jt
July 14th, 2009
8:57 am
Will Blue Dogs contain health care tab?
the answer is no because there are just as many yellow-bellied republicans that will vote for it.
Whatever the R & D party passes, middle-class Americans will see their medical services diminish and their medical expenses increase.
Dusty
July 14th, 2009
9:02 am
Jim Wooten, your strong voice in the midst of this financial chaos is good to read.
I see the “usuals” here are drifting back to bring up Reagan who has been dead these many years. So who cares about Reagan in current finances. We are NOW going into trillions and more in debt which will not be repaid in our lifetime. What a burden! How foolish! And Democrats want to add more.
Nobody is going to be healthy without a job or a home. Crushing debt will ruin the prospects of the young people of America. The blame will not be on Reagan. It will be “credited” to our one and only at present, President Obama, the seemingly mindless spendthrift.and his subservient Congress.
jokerman
July 14th, 2009
9:09 am
geez Dusty….”I see the “usuals” here are drifting back to bring up Reagan who has been dead these many years.”
Dead these many years? He died 4 years ago….!!!
Redneck Convert
July 14th, 2009
9:11 am
Well, we don’t need another guvmint boondoggle like this health care bill. I agree we got a problem with health care. But it’s nothing that paying for a couple aspirin for every man, woman and child in America won’t handle. I figure we can do that for about $100,000. If we get the aspirin at Sam’s Club.
Besides, I don’t want to wait in a long line when I go see a Dr. If everybody’s got health insurance every Tom, Dick and Harry will be showing up at a Dr. I went out and worked to get my health insurance. People that don’t have it can do the same.
We can do something about the high cost of health care right now. We’re paying more money because people that don’t have health insurance are showing up at hospitles and getting treated for free. The hospitles are just pushing the cost onto those of us that have health insurance. I say make the people getting the free care do something to earn it. It won’t hurt none to make a person on a hospitle gurney in a emergency room get up and sweep the floors or something to help repay the hospitle. This ain’t a Commie country.
That’s my opinion and it’s very true. Leastwise I know the good Conservatives on this blog will agree with me. Have a good day everybody.
Citizen of the World
July 14th, 2009
9:12 am
There are numerous ways to pay for health care reform, and it doesn’t need to be this or that, but this and that. The costs can be spread around.
And as a taxpayer, I am perfectly willing to do my share and pay premiums and co-pays for any government plan that’s made available.
I don’t know if Atlanta conservatives are aware of the groundswell of support that’s growing across the country among liberals and conservative citizens alike for significant health care reform, with a universal single payer system being the preferred choice. Of course, that’s not even on the table because our elected leaders are in the pockets of the medical industrial/insurance syndicate.
But the push for single payer illustrates that people are fed up with for-profit insurance companies getting rich off the backs of sick people.
The insurance companies add absolutely nothing to health “care.” All they do is syphon money — and a lot of it — off the top that could be spent to care for people.
Anyone who has a group plan may not know how lucky they are, and how vulnerable they are if they should lose that plan.
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 14th, 2009
9:47 am
Goldman Sachs on Tuesday said it earned $3.44 billion in the second
quarter, a much higher-than-expected figure that underscores how
quickly the Wall Street firm has bounced back from last fall’s
financial crisis and started to churn out huge profits again.
The company, led by Lloyd C. Blankfein, reported net revenue of $13.76
billion in the latest quarter, as its trading and principal investments
business roared into high gear.
“While markets remain fragile and we recognize the challenges the
broader economy faces, our second quarter results reflected the
combination of improving financial market conditions and a deep and
diverse client franchise,” Mr. Blankfein, Goldman’s chairman and chief
executive, said in a statement announcing the results.
“Our role as an intermediary focused on making markets for buyers and
sellers helped drive our performance,” he said.
Also on Tuesday, The Financial Times reported that Goldman executives
have sold almost $700 million worth of the firm’s stock since Lehman
Brothers collapsed last year.
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 14th, 2009
9:48 am
With business publications suffering from scarce advertising,
McGraw-Hill has hired Evercore Partners to sell BusinessWeek, The New
York Times reported, but analysts questioned how much interest there
would be.
Peadawg
July 14th, 2009
9:49 am
Hey CopyLeft, is this the change you believed in? Paying for Obama’s spending spree that he continues to do every day? All I remember during his campaign was “cut spending cut spending no earmarks cut spending”. That was the change I believed in…not this spending spree. Hope your grandkids have fun paying off the debt that you and other dems voted for!
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 14th, 2009
9:49 am
The United States has Budweiser, the self-proclaimed King of Beers. If
Suntory and Kirin go ahead with a merger, Japan could soon have the
Godzilla,
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 14th, 2009
9:52 am
Bank of America, which is trying to avoid paying billions of dollars in
fees for government guarantees against losses at Merrill Lynch, saying
the rescue agreement was never signed, ought to pay up,
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 14th, 2009
9:54 am
Marc S. Dreier, once a high-flying New York lawyer who orchestrated a
fraud scheme that bilked hedge funds and other investors of $700
million, was sentenced on Monday to 20 years in prison.
Big Bucks GOP doing the Lords work
July 14th, 2009
9:56 am
Bernard L. Madoff, convicted last month of orchestrating a massive
Ponzi scheme, was moved from his Manhattan jail cell to a prison in
Atlanta, the Bureau of Prisons said in the early hours Tuesday.
EVIL REPUBLICANS TIME IS UP
July 14th, 2009
10:17 am
REAGAN, BUSH SENIOR,BUSH JR. THESE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTS WERE IN POWER WHEN AMERICA LOST JOBS AND GAS PRICES WENT UP,NOTICE ALL OF THE DESTRUCTION THAT COMES WHEN A REPUBLICAN IS PRESIDENT,BOTTOMLINE THE GOP PARTY IS A PARTY OF LYING CHEATING STEALING AND KILLING MACHINE,ALL TRAITS OF SATAN,KILL STEAL AND DESTROY,SOUNDS JUST LIKE A REPUBLICAN,JESUS VALUES OR SATANS VALUES?
Churchill"s MOM
July 14th, 2009
10:18 am
Jim, I thought you had left. Gere is what our next president wrote in the Washington Post.
By Sarah Palin
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
There is no shortage of threats to our economy. America’s unemployment rate recently hit its highest mark in more than 25 years and is expected to continue climbing. Worries are widespread that even when the economy finally rebounds, the recovery won’t bring jobs. Our nation’s debt is unsustainable, and the federal government’s reach into the private sector is unprecedented.
Unfortunately, many in the national media would rather focus on the personality-driven political gossip of the day than on the gravity of these challenges. So, at risk of disappointing the chattering class, let me make clear what is foremost on my mind and where my focus will be:
I am deeply concerned about President Obama’s cap-and-trade energy plan, and I believe it is an enormous threat to our economy. It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage.
American prosperity has always been driven by the steady supply of abundant, affordable energy. Particularly in Alaska, we understand the inherent link between energy and prosperity, energy and opportunity, and energy and security. Consequently, many of us in this huge, energy-rich state recognize that the president’s cap-and-trade energy tax would adversely affect every aspect of the U.S. economy.
There is no denying that as the world becomes more industrialized, we need to reform our energy policy and become less dependent on foreign energy sources. But the answer doesn’t lie in making energy scarcer and more expensive! Those who understand the issue know we can meet our energy needs and environmental challenges without destroying America’s economy.
Job losses are so certain under this new cap-and-tax plan that it includes a provision accommodating newly unemployed workers from the resulting dried-up energy sector, to the tune of $4.2 billion over eight years. So much for creating jobs.
In addition to immediately increasing unemployment in the energy sector, even more American jobs will be threatened by the rising cost of doing business under the cap-and-tax plan. For example, the cost of farming will certainly increase, driving down farm incomes while driving up grocery prices. The costs of manufacturing, warehousing and transportation will also increase.
The ironic beauty in this plan? Soon, even the most ardent liberal will understand supply-side economics.
The Americans hit hardest will be those already struggling to make ends meet. As the president eloquently puts it, their electricity bills will “necessarily skyrocket.” So much for not raising taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year.
Even Warren Buffett, an ardent Obama supporter, admitted that under the cap-and-tax scheme, “poor people are going to pay a lot more for electricity.”
We must move in a new direction. We are ripe for economic growth and energy independence if we responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil. Just as important, we have more desire and ability to protect the environment than any foreign nation from which we purchase energy today.
In Alaska, we are progressing on the largest private-sector energy project in history. Our 3,000-mile natural gas pipeline will transport hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of our clean natural gas to hungry markets across America. We can safely drill for U.S. oil offshore and in a tiny, 2,000-acre corner of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge if ever given the go-ahead by Washington bureaucrats.
clyde
July 14th, 2009
10:23 am
It looks to me like my share of the deficit is payable so let’s all get together and pay the deficit off before Friday,then we can talk some sort of healthcare system.Unless we do that then I’m against any change at the moment.
Jackie
July 14th, 2009
10:25 am
I love the fact the Repubs are using Sen. Sessions (R-AL) to lead the questioning of Judge Sotomayor relative to her fitness to be a US Supreme Court Justice.
Jeff Sessions, with the temerity to question ANYONE about their perceived/real bias and discriminatory actions. Please, do not stop this public emulation of the Repubs.
Secondly, the Repubs are trying to have it both ways regarding the economy. When it is going well, Ronald Reagan is their hero; when it is not going well, Ronald Reagan is dead and there is no need to bring him into the argument.
Copyleft
July 14th, 2009
10:27 am
Peadawg: All I remember during his campaign was “cut spending cut spending no earmarks cut spending.”
I’m sure that WAS all you heard… of course, that’s not all that was said, but it was all you heard!
Chris Broe
July 14th, 2009
10:31 am
Grading Wooten: A+
How long will Wooten extend his sojourn from truth?
BRUNO
July 14th, 2009
10:34 am
WHY IS IT YOU CITE COST/DEBT ON MATTERS THAT BENEFIT THE NATION BUT YOU DON’T SAY ANYTHING WHEN WE BORROW FOR NATION BUILDING?
WHAT WAS THE NATION’S DEBT ON JAN19? WAS THE TRUE WAR COST INCLUDED?
Chris Broe
July 14th, 2009
10:36 am
Sarah goes from “You Betcha” to a pedanticly over-edited manifesto of economic woes in today’s Washington Post.
Now THAT’S funny.
bwa
Lovin’ Palin
jbmlaw
July 14th, 2009
10:46 am
As we are sure to find out, four years can seem an eternity.
Munch
July 14th, 2009
10:56 am
Wooten says: “Right now, they’re all that stands between the ambitions of this generation of liberal politicians and the quality-of-life stealing debt burden being shifted to our children and grand-children.”
As usual, Wooten is completely off the mark. More accurate would be:
Right now, the Blue Dogs are all that stand in the way of the establishment of a health care reform that is desired by the overwhelming majority of Americans.
or
Right now, they’re all that stands in the way of eliminating the non-productive skimmers and grifters of the health insurance industry from the health care equation.
Do the Math
July 14th, 2009
11:01 am
Don’t point at children becuase the fault is placed on baby boomers on up that have gotten fat and wealthy off of our children’s future.
Will taxes go up? No answer needed here.
We need a house clearing of all politicians. Zero base hiring. Period.
Chris Broe
July 14th, 2009
11:10 am
The AJC reported that a man fell in a vat of chocolate and died. The police rounded up the usual Oompa Loompas.
ron
July 14th, 2009
11:19 am
jbmlaw,
Is that actually you or an imposter.If it is you,welcome back.
Chris Broe
July 14th, 2009
11:22 am
Why didn’t someone think to give Gov. Sanford a drug test? He was obviously out of it. I think he was stoned. Would explain alot, no?
M. Poster
July 14th, 2009
11:25 am
It’s that same ol’ imposter, who had Ragnarlaw’s permission to impost him. Just seemed like something he’d write and I was feeling a little wistful for some of the old regulars who have moved on.
I could use a good cup of bile. Where’s tftt when you need him?
Mark Sanford
July 14th, 2009
11:28 am
I did not have inhale relations with that woman … Mary Jane.
PappyHappy
July 14th, 2009
11:41 am
A survey by the Physicians’ Foundation has uncovered what it calls widespread frustration and concern among primary care physicians nationwide, which could lead to a dramatic decrease in practicing doctors in the near future. The survey examined the causes behind the doctors’ dissatisfaction, the state of their practices and the future of care.
The resulting findings show the possibility of significantly decreased access for Americans in the years ahead, as many doctors are forced to reduce the number of patients they see or quit the practice of medicine outright.
An overwhelming majority — 78 percent — of physicians believe that there is an existing shortage of primary care doctors in the United States today. Additionally, nearly half of them — 49 percent, or more than 150,000 practicing doctors– say that over the next three years they plan to reduce the number of patients they see or stop practicing entirely.
“Going into this project we generally knew about the shortage of physicians; what we didn’t know is how much worse it could get over the next few years,” said Lou Goodman, PhD, President of The Physicians’ Foundation. “The bottom line is that the person you’ve known as your family doctor could be getting ready to disappear — and there might not be a replacement.”
To test the above, I have asked my local physicians their plans. The answers were shocking: one is planning on leaving practice and start operating equipment for other physicians — to rid himself of malpractice insurance, and bureaucratic paper work from the government. Another one is looking into leaving his medical practice for ‘moral reasons’ if ‘Obama Care’ comes about. He reminded me that a physician’s first obligation is “to do no harm’. None that I spoke to are recommending the medical profession to young students due to government interference; bureaucracy; possible use of a board of bureaucrats to determine cost effective treatment; and the lack of TORT reform from the politicians — many of whom are lawyers.
My sensing is that Obama is already having an ‘unintended consequence’ on our health care system: A SHORTAGE OF PHYSICIANS!! Now that is change we will believe in within a few years!!
HIS OWN DOCTOR IS AGAINST ‘OBAMA CARE’!!
http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/18/obama-doctor-knocks-obamacare-business-healthcare-obamas-doctor.html
Is this the kind of medical care you want in the future – from your ‘Friendly Government’??
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-us-va-hospital-error,0,2658719.story
Strongly suggest you get a copy of the August 2009 issue of ‘CONSUMER REPORTS’. There is an article entitled “A PRESCRIPTION FOR HEALTH CARE”. Great piece!! Members of Congress should have this as required reading, and put their pork projects and lobbyists aside on this issue!!
ASK YOUR OWN PHYSICIANS THEIR PLANS, AND THEIR MOTIVATIONS!! YOU ARE GOING TO BE SHOCKED AT WHAT YOU FIND!!
Look at our medical schools!! Are they filled? If not, why not???
Folks, the politicians HAVE NOT ACCOMPLISHED THEIR BASIC HOMEWORK!! With a looming doctor shortage – which will no doubt worsen if President Obama’s policies come to fruition – WHO WILL DELIVER HEALTH CARE? HENRY WAXMAN??????
Concerned? Call Sen Baucus’ office:
Committee On Finance
219 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-6200
(202) 224-4515
Solution
July 14th, 2009
11:42 am
I have got a solution to all of our problems. It will cut the price of health care, make people healthier, and make us a better country.
ALL FREELOADERS, GET OFF OF YOUR CAN AND GO TO WORK!!!!!!
alohagator
July 14th, 2009
11:44 am
The U.S. government rang up a $94.32 billion budget deficit in June, 2009.
By contrast, Bill Clinton – the last Democrat POTUS, in fiscal year 2000 ran up a $17.9 billion dollar budget deficit.
$94.32 billion deficit for one month versus $17.9 billion deficit for an entire year.
Bush was a terrible president but this a$$clown we have now is a total moron!
Elections have consequences… We need change even a styrofoam coffee cup can understand!
Solution
July 14th, 2009
11:51 am
Alohagator—I have to agree.
Gotta love the Obamanomics(or lack there of)
Please run Palin in 2012!s
July 14th, 2009
12:09 pm
Wooten, who has never had to provide a second of health care, nor had tobl worry about health care for himself or his family, has no understanding of the greater cost of the status quo. If the Blue Dog (Cowardly and essentially Republicans) stad in the way of a public option, they’ll be defeated.
Wooten has never had the experience of arguing with an insurance company who wanted to cut a patient’s benefits when they got very sick and needed a life threatening operation and treatment for cancer to save a patient’s life. Those of us who have watched insurance companies screw physicians and patients and who have battled them to save patients know a public option will happen. There are plenty of legitimate places to get the money to finance a health care plan that will save money that is hemorrhaging from the treasury.
Mr. Wooten seems not to be aware of the phony data bases that overbilled patients by billions and screwed physicians out of reimbursement that multi state task forces after proving they were based on false data are in the process of using to claw back this money for patients and doctors. These are available to Mr. Wooten on line and AG Cuomo of New York has led state AGs in clawing back this money.
The 1.5 billion that Chambiliss stupidly wanted to waste on an obsolete F22 will instead by saved and can be applied towards health care. Ceasing stupid operations in Iraq would provide money that can pay for health care, and basically the money will be provided by taxing those in the upper income brackets who make over 250 grand per year.
Myth: Health reform will be paid for by “cutting” Medicare and Medicaid
This is the latest line trotted out by conservatives and picked up by the media, that we’re going to cut Medicare and Medicaid to pay for health reform. We’re not cutting Medicare or Medicaid, if by cut you mean doing anything that will lower people’s benefits. We’re finding savings in the program. And that’s not just spin.
Here’s an example: Right now, Medicaid pays hospitals a sum of money (which varies geographically) to help make up the losses they incur for treating patients that show up in the emergency room without insurance (who hospitals are legally required to treat). After health reform is passed, the number of uninsured in this country will diminish. These payments will therefore become redundant and can be phased out, yielding savings without cutting anyone’s benefits.
Myth: We’re just waiting for reconciliation on health care so we only need Democratic votes to pass it
This one isn’t true…yet.
Right now, the Senate is still operating under regular order, which means we will need 60 votes to end a filibuster and cut off debate over a health care reform bill. (Aside: Which Senators are going to be the ones to filibuster health care? People should start asking them that.) There is, however, an October 15th deadline. If the Senate is unable to move a health reform bill under regular order, they must move one under reconciliation by October 15th. So, right now, Harry Reid and other Senate leadership are giving Republicans every opportunity to come on board and vote for real health reform. If they don’t come on board, that’s what reconciliation is for.
Myth: Health reform will cost too much and put a burden on families
This is the most insidious of the right-wing lies. In reality, the cost of doing nothing on health reform will bankrupt families, and reforming health care will save the average American family thousands per year.
If we don’t reform our health care system and bring down skyrocketing costs, the average family will be paying almost $10,000 more per year for health care by 2016 than they do now. Our government will be bankrupt. And we’ll spend one in every five dollars in our entire economy on health care, up from the already astronomical one in seven that we spend now. The cost of doing nothing is simply unacceptable, and those against reform are willing to bankrupt families, government and our entire country to serve their obstructionism.
Not to mention that reforming health care will reduce costs for families. According to the Commonwealth Fund [pdf], health care reform that puts everyone in, gives people affordable options, and includes a strong public health insurance option (like that proposed by the House of Representatives) would save the average family $2,228 per year.
Plus, health reform will be fully financed. In the House, it will be paid for by a combination of Medicare and Medicaid savings, a public health insurance option that saves money, and a 1% tax on those that make over a quarter of a million dollars per year.
Get Real
July 14th, 2009
12:21 pm
$1.35 Trillion dollars in tax cuts back in 2001 that were supposed to create millions of jobs and put more money in the hands of small business and citizens. Instead, this nation experienced its slowest growth in 50 years. Wooten and these lame, so-called ‘conservatives’ were grinning from ear to ear while Bush squandered Clinton’s surplus and put two wars on a credit card with his ‘fuzzy math’. Now after they’re sitting at the kids table, they want to yell and scream about deficits and fiscal restraint. What was the deficit on 1/19/09 Wooten?
Please run Palin in 2012!s
July 14th, 2009
12:24 pm
By the way, this 60 vote crap is a myth. I’d like to introduce the principle of Reconciliation in the US Senate into Mr. Wooten’s vocabulary. It’s never too late to learn, even in retirement. The dems only need to use the rule on reconciliation which requires 51 votes. Kennedy and Byrd almost never vote because they are very ill. Sanders from Vermont is an Independent who votes as a liberal Dem on many issues and is at the leading edge on not only a public health care plan but a single payer plan which most Wooten mousketeers don’t understand because they take a Palinesque approach to reading and education. Dumb and dumber is better. Think education in Georgia. Lieberman and Specter vote as Republicans on almost every issue.
Via Reconciliation which the Democrats stand ready to use to pass a public plan, we need only 51 votes and we have them easily.
Reconciliation Process – A process established in the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 by which Congress changes existing laws to conform tax and spending levels to the levels set in a budget resolution. Changes recommended by committees pursuant to a reconciliation instruction are incorporated into a reconciliation measure.
Get Real
July 14th, 2009
12:27 pm
Alohagator, how much debt did Bush run up in 2003?
Please run Palin in 2012!s
July 14th, 2009
12:31 pm
The Republcans, to whom reading is anathma, need constant reminding that this stat is genuine. When Bush left on Jan. 20, this country was losing 7,00,000 jobs per month. Right now, the latest figures are we are losing half that many jobs per month on the street in the real world. We were left on the cusp of a Depression on the scale of 1920 by Bush. Obama’s stimulus pulled this country back from the brink of another Depression even worse than the one in 1929.
Please run Palin in 2012!s
July 14th, 2009
12:35 pm
RECONCILIATION does not seem to be in the vocabulary of Ditz Brain in Wading Boots, or her blind disciples here (she of the dead fish stay in office, and live fish come out of the water to breath air and quit because the stress is too great for a borderline personality).
Alabama Doc
July 14th, 2009
12:43 pm
Yes it all started with LBJ, the government already controls much of health care spending, the “LBJ” rules allow hospitals to get paid more for private rooms than “wards”. It allows the capital cost basis to be paid plus profit. This means the private hospital with the large parking deck is paid more medicare dollars than the county charity hospital. Ie higher cost are reimbursed higher, so the game changed to increase cost and therefore profits. Ultimately their aint no such thing as a free lunch, the wage earners pay for all costs of health care, hidden taxes, hidden costs. Only a return to free market economics will work, if Kaiser P is the low cost option they get the subscribers! Charity is charity it will never change even if the taxes are mandated!
DebbieDoRight
July 14th, 2009
12:48 pm
Oh Wow……NOW Wooten wants to talk healthcare!!! When the repuglicans were in power for the last 8+ years, why didn’t they do something THEN??? Why NOW are they so indignant about little old things like budgets and healthcare? Why wouldn’t the repuglicans reform healthcare on their watch? I guess it’s because there was no PROFIT in it for them then and they could always pull out that flag and say that you were “unpatriotic” if you questioned anything that htey did…………..
Cindy
July 14th, 2009
12:51 pm
I just can’t understand how an American can be so hateful as in wanting to deny another American life saving medical treatment. Do these people really value a concept over human life?
Dimotard Wash, Rinse, & SPIN
July 14th, 2009
12:52 pm
The mindless dumbMasses on the moveon.moonbat.org crackpot left believes that we can just tax that small minority of tax payers (who ALREADY pay a disproportionally large portion of IRS revenue taken in), the rich, to pay for all their fairy tale socialist liberal agendas. Not the least of which is gov’t run health care, which is only really needed for about 8 million people who TRULY need assistance (NOT illegals, NOT those who CAN afford a health care plan but CHOOSE not to).
Then the news of the day is Sotomayor backtracking on what she has racially said in the past.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31904261/ns/politics-white_house
And on that note, you have to give it up for the Urinal Constipation headline today that effectively says Sotomayor will legislate impartially. Funny, did the Urinal Constipation give that benefit of the doubt to Roberts or Thomas? And you have to remember there weren’t even ON RECORD comments from Roberts or Thomas saying they were more capable of legislating than a black/white/latino/female, etc.
We now return you to the resident libtard blog troglodyte trash drooler with no life. Thanks.
alohagator
July 14th, 2009
12:55 pm
Get Real – It sure as hell wasn’t $94.32 billion in a single month!
One month …. $95 billion dollar deficit… That breaks down to $3,144,000,000 per day genius.
Instead of looking backwards and blaming Bush for all the world’s problems, why don’t you see what’s right in front of your eyes?
Would someone please explain how we as a nation can borrow and spend our way out of debt?
Even if both wars stopped today and we cancelled all defense spending and we raised taxes on the rich to 75%, the budget would still be out of balance.
Maybe we ought to consider Clinton’s famed slogan, “Pay as we go”.
If I need stuff I only buy what I have the money to pay for. Our illustrious leaders in Washington, D.C. should be forced to do the same.
Please run Palin in 2012!s
July 14th, 2009
12:56 pm
Let’s get much clearer than Jim Wooten who has no medical training whatsoever, has always had primo insurance coverage through his employers.
The health care bill that comes from the Senate may well be a piece of crap.
But it is possible via Reconciliation in the Senate (the principle not the word used in its dictionary definition)to pass a bill that isn’t a bailout for the insurance companies.
The lobbyists from the insurance industry have homeless people standing in line for them so they can fill the front row seats in the hearings, staring down members of Congress as they text their requests to staff members.
Health Benefits News » Blog Archive » Headlines 7-14
July 14th, 2009
12:59 pm
[...] Blue Dog Dems and Health Care [...]
jconservative
July 14th, 2009
1:21 pm
“I see the “usuals” here are drifting back to bring up Reagan who has been dead these many years. So who cares about Reagan in current finances.”
Dusty, what we have is a 28 year fire that has about consumed the house.
We are not going to put it out by spraying a little water on it.
We must do something more radical. For starters try never again voting for an incumbent. The people standing by watching the fire burn & throwing a little more kindling on it have been the incumbents.
We would be a lot better off if every elected official only served one term. So vote for the other guy and when he is up for re-election, vote for the other guy.
Going into fiscal year 2009 we had a 10 trillion dollar deficit.
I predict we will re-elect most incumbents & double the deficit in the next 7 to 10 years.
Atlanta Native
July 14th, 2009
1:26 pm
If you contracted to have two bridges built by a contractor and later found out that both were on the verge of collapse which would you do?
A) Hire that contractor to build a third bridge, or
B) Make the contractor repair the previous two before he/she gets anymore work from you, or
C) Ignore the issue completely?
Congress is the contractor. Medicare and Medicaid are the first two bridges.
For those who picked A) you support the healthcare intitiative, because, although Medicare and Medicaid are seriously in trouble but you want the new bridge so bad you do not care. Result – disaster
For those who picked C) you support the last administration’s approach of laissez faire and think what we have is a good idea. Result – disaster
For the few who pick B), people with conservative values but no blind allegiance to the Republican Party, you have chosen the correct option, though it is not out there. Reform is to make Medicare and Medicaid work and to create clinics for the poor, needy or shiftless to keep them out of the hospital emergency room with simple problems. Result – responsible solution.
The plan being touted is garbage. Doing nothing is also the poor choice. The third way requires admitting that Medicare and Medicaid need to be fixed and what is needed is a safety net for the disabled, those without the faculties to support themselves in a free market system and the lazy. That is what is needed, not throwing out everything, starting over and mortgaging our future without taking time to fix the existing system.
Pitiful that our politicians would rather mortgage our future or turn a blind eye rather than take a fiscally responsible approach to a problem.
Chris Broe
July 14th, 2009
1:46 pm
The AJC reported that there’s a nudist camp that will stage the world’s largest skinny dip. There’s no need to offer these people-gone-wild any New Orleans beads. In fact, who knows what they’d do with them. Better safe than sorry here. Just sayin’
Uninsured and Nervous
July 14th, 2009
1:58 pm
The only way we are ever going to get the health care plan we desperately need is if we can find a villain, someone the public can openly criticize. It’s the quickest way to move the argument from the abstract to a matter of morals, to make the public feel impassioned. http://thestimulist.com/it-takes-a-villain/
Disgusted
July 14th, 2009
1:59 pm
“We would be a lot better off if every elected official only served one term.”
That way we could be sure they would ignore us and do everything they could to enrich themselves at out expense. After all, there’s no need to worry about reelection, so why be concerned about the voters who put you in office?
DBB
July 14th, 2009
2:21 pm
I voted for Jim Marshall last time around, believing that he would place good judgement before self interest. Particularly when something as historically significant and of such huge impact as the stimulus came along. His vote for the stimulus and cap & trade sealed his fate for this voter during the next election. Forget I won’t, and if the measure of my friends who voted for him count for anything, it will be a tough go next time around. My kids have now inherited a disaster and it’s clear who contributed to that disaster and who did not. And they did it in only 6 months; it’s simply unbelievable.
Dan
July 14th, 2009
2:23 pm
Like many things in politics, and life in general, if you don’t properly define the problem or desire, it is unfixable. You want real discussion on social security? call it what it is retirement/welfare program. Tax rebates? some yes, most was welfare. Healthcare reform? Government “insurance” please, people don’t want insurance they want someone else to pay their bills in the name of “equality” yet they don’t dare criticize the medical profession (hey those guys may be holding a knife over you some day!) they criticize insurance, the industry that provides the ability to spread costs over the population but they do it voluntarily and people have a choice. If you want everyones medical coverage to go the way of medicare, public schools or even the DMV. By all means support gov “health care”
Base
July 14th, 2009
2:24 pm
Who cares what Wooten thinks.The AJC should cut the budget and you.
Chris Broe
July 14th, 2009
2:34 pm
Anyone notice how much healthier are children became after they ate all those vegetables at school in the form of Reagan Ketchup? I mean, who needs healthcare now? We’re in the pink!
Thank God for Obama, who is the first president since Lincoln who knows how to handle this country’s problems.
alohagator
July 14th, 2009
2:35 pm
jconservative @ 1:21pm – The actual national debt is approx. $11,500,000,000,000 dollars.
It increases by about $5.6 million dollars every sixty seconds.
Remember folks… We as a nation must pay interest on that ever increasing debt.
Aloha ya’all.
alohagator
July 14th, 2009
2:38 pm
Broe — You’re nuts!
alohagator
July 14th, 2009
2:46 pm
Before I leave this discussion here’s one more thing to consider:
I said this earlier but it bears repeating —–
In fiscal year 2000 we added $17.9 billion to our deficit for the entire year. At our current rate of spending that number equals 5.7 days.
Gimmie back Bill Clinton and a “do-nothing” Congress. Please!!!!!!!!
Chris Broe
July 14th, 2009
2:47 pm
For one thing, Obama is not capable of calling Ketchup a vegetable, not just because a tomato is a fruit, but because only a brain-dead vegetable would think that the sugar/vinegar base of ketchup could ever be construed as part of any food group.
You yellow-rat republicans are discredited, and you log-cabin conservatives are invisible, so you are effectually prevented from inventing another idiot scheme to poison innocent school children under the guise of “it’s good 4U.”
The GOP is dead. Long live the Democrats!!!
Shameless
July 14th, 2009
2:52 pm
Democrat Saxby Chambliss
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/14/AR2009071402251.html?hpid=topnews
James
July 14th, 2009
3:02 pm
As a young person, I would rather pay taxes to fix this country’s healthcare and environment than pay taxes for unnecessary wars in the Middle East.
I don’t understand how anyone can decry spending to improve the health of fellow Americans and at the same time think it was perfectly reasonable to spend trillions in Iraq.
Atlanta Native
July 14th, 2009
3:02 pm
Yo Broe,
I detested Reagan. But get over it. That was the 80’s. Take off your skinny leather tie and your Vans and welcome to the new century. I mean come on, Warren G. Harding was corrupt, let’s rail about that, why don’t we.
If you want to complain about Reagan do some research into appointments – that’s where the juicy stuff is.
But that does not help the debate here. And Ketchup contains concentrated amounts of Licopene, so it turns out it is good for you, though the administration did not know that.
alohagator
July 14th, 2009
3:30 pm
James – Here’s something to think about….
#1 – As a young person, I doubt you pay any taxes.
#2 – We haven’t spent “trillions” in Iraq… We’ve spent about $800 billion dollars for the war.
#3 – When you get a real job, start a family and look towards retirement I guarantee you will think differently.
Get Real
July 14th, 2009
3:36 pm
So alohagator aka genius, you’ve yet to answer the question I posed. You tea bagging repubs will do anything to bring up the deficit when a democrat is in office, but put your hands over your mouth while a republican ‘fiscally conservative’ president ran it up after he was given a surplus.
Atlanta Native
July 14th, 2009
4:02 pm
Repub or Dem – can any of you answer which bridge option you pick as per 1:37 pm.
Atlanta Native
July 14th, 2009
4:03 pm
1:26 pm, sorry, never do things from memory.
Jerry
July 14th, 2009
5:02 pm
The CBO projected 600 billion not 1 trillion for the latest version by HELP over a decade. Now we can help those in need or we can get into another war. The latest count has us spending 700 billion on Iraq over the last 7 years and we still aren’t done. It seems the Iraq war is far more costly than something that could help American citizens.
Please run Palin in 2012!s
July 14th, 2009
5:40 pm
Entertaining to see the bufoon Lindsay Graham yammering about the anonymous complaints of lawyuhs before the 2nd Circuit as to Sotamayor’s “temperamant” when he backed and was joined at the hip loose cannon McCain who had a running mate who is a sick borderline who has disintegrated in Alaska and now is reduced to debating Levi Johnston.
Ga Values
July 14th, 2009
5:41 pm
DBB 2:21 pm
Marshall voted AGAINST the cap & trade. I understand Saxby plans to vote for the Cap & trade so you might want to send him a big check to vote against it.
Please run Palin in 2012!s
July 14th, 2009
5:44 pm
My count and the one scholarly well referenced book has Iraq at 3 trillion dollars and pushing 4 trillion. And the cornball hick from JawJaw has been told his stupid attempt to piss away 1.5 billion for the obselete F22 will be vetoed. How’s that for a reversal–the black man smacks down the white sugar company pimp.
ron
July 14th, 2009
5:46 pm
There has been one thing said here this afternoon that I agree with.
“Bring back Bill Clinton and a do nothing Congress”.
Please run Palin in 2012!s
July 14th, 2009
5:53 pm
Pentagon tests: F-22 Flies LIke it’s Made of Balsa Wood
WASHINGTON — The United States’ premier fighter jet, the Lockheed Martin F-22, has recently required more than 30 hours of maintenance for every hour in the skies, pushing its hourly cost of flying to more than $44,000, a far higher figure than for the warplane it replaces, confidential Pentagon test results show.
The aircraft’s radar-absorbing metallic skin is the principal cause of its maintenance troubles, with unexpected shortcomings — such as vulnerability to rain and other abrasion — challenging Air Force and contractor technicians since the mid-1990s, according to Pentagon officials, internal documents and a former engineer.Skin problems — often requiring re-gluing small surfaces that can take more than a day to dry — helped force more frequent and time-consuming repairs, according to the confidential data drawn from tests conducted by the Pentagon’s independent Office of Operational Test and Evaluation between 2004 and 2008.
Over the four-year period, the F-22’s average maintenance time per hour of flight grew from 20 hours to 34, with skin repairs accounting for more than half of that time — and more than half the hourly flying costs — last year. The Air Force says the F-22 cost $44,259 per flying hour in 2008; the Office of the Secretary of Defense said the figure was $49,808. The F-15, the F-22’s predecessor, has a fleet average cost of $30,818.
Please run Palin in 2012!s
July 14th, 2009
5:58 pm
While most aircraft fleets become easier and less costly to repair as they mature, key maintenance trends for the F-22 have been negative in recent years, and on average from October last year to this May, just 55 percent of the deployed F-22 fleet has been available to fulfill missions guarding U.S. airspace, the Defense Department acknowledged this week. The F-22s, which are assembled in Marietta by Lockheed Martin Corp, has never been flown over Iraq or Afghanistan.
Sensitive information about troubles with the nation’s premier air-defense fighter is emerging in the midst of a fight between the Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress over whether the program should be halted next year at 187 planes, far short of what the Air Force and the F-22’s contractors around the country had anticipated.
“It is a disgrace that you can fly a plane (an average of) only 1.7 hours before it gets a critical failure” that jeopardizes success of the aircraft’s mission, said a Defense Department critic of the plane who is not authorized to speak on the record. Other skeptics inside the Pentagon note that the planes, designed 30 years ago to combat a Cold War adversary, have cost an average of $350 million apiece and say they are not a priority in the age of small wars and terrorist threats.
Please run Palin in 2012!s
July 14th, 2009
6:04 pm
America’s Affordable Health Choices Act
The House released its health care reform bill today — the America’s Affordable Health Choices Act — and will begin three simultaneous committee markups on different provisions later this week.
General Health Care Features:
A. Up to 97 percent of Americans will be covered with federal health care and/or health insurance.
B. Medicaid coverage will be improved and be expanded to allow people up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level. The Feds will pick up the added costs, not states.
C. Uninsured people with incomes above that 133 percent of fed poverty level (FPL) will receive federal credits (subsidies) to help purchase insurance in a new federal insurance Exchange. The feds will build the exchange, but states/regions can take over their regional operations if/when they’re ready.
D. A national health insurance plan (”public option”) will be one of the plans available in the exchange to individuals and small businesses that don’t have insurance
Please run Palin in 2012!
July 14th, 2009
6:25 pm
Meet the Republican Fakes on Senate Judiciary
Orin Hatch–as much federal litigation experience as my dog (none whatsoever).
John Kyle–as much federal litigation experience as my dog (none whatsoever).
Charles Grassley, farmer, —as much federal litigation experience as my dog (none whatsoever).
Lindsey Graham–JAG and as much federal litigation experience as my dog (none whatsoever).
John Corynyn–as much federal litigation experience as my dog (none whatsoever).
Arlen Specter (votes Republican–calls self Democrat to survive in his reelection campaign)–as much federal litigation experience as my dog (none whatsoever).
deegee
July 14th, 2009
6:56 pm
If we can’t have health care reform this time can we please agree to have health reform? There are approximately 58 million obese adults in this country. If we could get a Kennedy-era style national weight reduction and exercise program underway we could lower the estimated cost of health care. I would love to see an alternative to the employer based health care system but I do wonder how we are going to pay for insulin, hip and knee replacements, gastric bypass surgery, back surgery, lipitor, ACE inhibitors, heart bypass surgery, gall bladder surgery, etc. Maybe we should as a nation lose a billion pounds before we spend a trillion on health care for an obese and sedentary population.
Please run Palin in 2012!
July 14th, 2009
7:03 pm
It’s been my experience, and it’s reflected in the medical literature that knee and hip replacements, CABG and coronary ischemia, CVA,hypertension and cholecystitis are not diseases caused by obesity nor restricted to obese individuals. Far from it. It is true that metabolic syndrome which includes obesisty is a coronary risk factor. Those diseases are wide spread in people who are not obese. Their treatment outcomes are markedly different and depending on ethnicity and race.
Scott Greene
July 14th, 2009
7:28 pm
The product of health insurance is to provide you with medical coverage when you need it.
Unlike other businesses that need to provide you with their product in order to make any money, health insurance companies actually make more money for themselves when they restrict and do not pay claims.
In other words, they make more money when they do NOT provide the product that you have paid them for.
Read the 50 to 70 pages of your health insurance contract.
Pay particular attention to the section entitled “limitations and exclusions”.
People’s health is not a product that needs to be left to the whims of money motivated CEO’s and stockholders.
If that is your thinking, you might as well have your police and fire department protection based on insurance premiums you pay.
Then you can go to the police and fire protection insurance page for ‘limitations and exclusions’ on whether or not the police or fire department would come out to your house in the event of an emergency.
The point is, you would never think of discriminating against another citizen if he was the victim of a fire or crime.
So why would you be ok with health insurance companies discriminating against fellow citizens who have pre-existing medical conditions?
Michael H. Smith
July 14th, 2009
8:01 pm
One question deegee: would you also love to see an alternative to government run healthcare a.k.a. The so-called Public Option as well?
Robin Morris
July 14th, 2009
8:41 pm
Enter your comments here
Everyone should pay their own health care insurance, get it where is can be affortable The Drug Companies have gotten rich along with the Insurance Companies.
For god sakes lets pray that Palin is out of the picture, she has no clue to solve any problem.
By the time 2012 comes she will have had a PMS attacks
Please run Palin in 2012!
July 14th, 2009
8:42 pm
LOL your health care plan would be what Dr. Smith? The Rush Limpbaughs “ah don’t know no alternatives ah jist don’t want what 75% of this country wants”?
Michael H. Smith
July 14th, 2009
8:46 pm
Hmm… I don’t remember addressing question to nameless-YOU.
Chris Salzmann
July 14th, 2009
8:54 pm
Here some real experiences regarding Americans experiencing health care in other western countries from the Huffington Post. We keep hearing the same mantra about how US Heath Care is the BEST IN THE WORLD. Yes it is if you’re lucky enough to work for a company that provides insurance. A whopping 60% of all people who declare bankruptcy do so because of medical costs. Thousands of uninsured Americans DIE EVERY YEAR because of treatable illnesses that cannot be treated because they can’t afford it.
These conservatives will gladly pay $3-$4 Trillion for a war that should never have been fought but have the gall to complain about expenses to help fund health care for their own people??? I guess the “Christianity” they claim to practice stops when they walk out of their churches every Sunday. Their “Christianity” reminds me of what Mohattama Gandhi once said, “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ”.
alandkd:
I got pneumonia while in Germany for work. After seeing the doctor (she apologized for the half-hour wait because it was busy and she was the only doctor on call), within 10 MINUTES, she did an exam, an ultrasound, took blood for a test, and wrote an order for an X ray.
10 minutes to get the X ray, 10 more for it to be developed, and in another 10 minutes I was leaving with a prescription. They copied my US health insurance card and didn’t charge anything.
—
RAF3:
20 years living with the “inferior” Canadian system got me a knee reconstruction, an ankle reconstruction, a thumb reconstruction, 2 beautiful children born via C-section, multiple trips to the doctor and emergency room, etc. etc. etc.
Quality of care and surgery — at least as good and as prompt at I have ever gotten in the USA.
Never cost me more than my monthly premium ($70 per month, more or less, for the family and included dental) — lots of dental visits too, now that I think about it — and a few minor co-pays at the drug store.
—
Artemis34:
“Go home and call the doctor!” my colleagues said.
I was in Argentina, sick, and like all good American workaholics, at work!
“I”m American, we don”t go to the hospital unless we”re going to die [because then you don't have to pay the bill]” I said.
Story continues below
They explained that I could get care in Argentina and I needn’t worry about my pocketbook.
They sent me off to my apartment with a phone number. I called and shortly after a doctor and nurse ARRIVED AT MY APARTMENT!
They examined me, said it was going around my neighborhood, gave me medicine and a prescription if I needed more, and gave instructions for follow-up.
No bill, FOR A HOUSE CALL!
I lived in Argentina for four more years and was very satisfied with the public care.
We call countries like Argentina and Chile “third world” but they can deliver care to their people and the US cannot.
—
RuWii
some years ago my brother in law was vacationing in Madeira (an island of Portugal) where he had acute apendicitis and needed emergency surgery. He was operated on and had to be hospitalized for 4 days. His wife stayed with him in his room. Not being Portuguese citizen he had to pay for his treatment. Being American he was terrified. The bill came in under $200!
—
rextrek
A few years ago,I was on vacation in Costa Rico and got hurt…I had hurt my ankle/foot & by taxi went to the ER…got 2 xrays/and a RX for pain pills….with instructions to apply ice..but it was NOT broken! Whew….what a relief…sure,the rest of my week was spent with my foot up,ice packs – at the bar..and pool…at a total cost of $30…I can ONLY Imagine what it would have cost in America!
—
enilorac:
I was in a head on car collision accident in England a few years ago. My father, my mother and myself were wearing seatbelts, so we survived a bad crash. The most amazing aspect, however, was what Katharine experienced. An amubulance took us to the Emergency Room at the big hospital in York. We were x rayed, my mother spent the night under observation and my father and I were treated and then released.
The doctors and nurses, even the police, were professional, kind and very respectful. I filled out a number of forms with all our U.S, based addresses, etc. We never got a bill, just what I have described.
So I too, got treated to First World Health Care, and I know we would have been treated with the same respect and care for our health and safety, no matter our nationality, race or creed. Of course, as Katharine pointed out there are issues with the British system, but to its core it aims to care.
—
sodisenchanted:
I lived in Wales, UK for 16 months during 2007/2008. I have many health problems and won’t begin to go into the problems I’ve had with insurance over the years.
I had to see a Dr. for an emergency as soon as I arrived in the UK and expected a huge hassle since I wasn’t yet set up with NHS. I called the local surgery (Drs office) and had an appointment within 30 minutes. I saw a Dr. within 30 minutes of my arrival there. I tried to pay but was told they wouldn’t know what to do with payment. (This surgery became my regular Drs.) I walked across the street to fill my prescriptions and when I tried to pay was informed all scripts filled in Wales written by a Welsh Dr. were free. COOL!
This level of treatment continued for my entire stay and I miss my Welsh Dr. I did wait about 6 weeks for a first visit to a specialist. It takes 5 months to see the same kind of specialist here. I could always see my GP same day there. It’s a 3 day wait here sometimes just to see the nurse practitioner. My Welsh Dr. diagnosed and solved 2 problems I couldn’t get any of 4 Drs. here to acknowledge.
—
enzosmom:
My 70-year-old father was knocked down by a horse-drawn carriage in Florence, Italy this May. Although he didn’t lose consciousness, we were worried that he could have a head injury not unlike that which took the life of Natasha Richardson. We went to the closest hospital, which turned out to be the smallest, most crowded, and, according to our friends, the “worst.” He was triaged as a ‘green” patient (stable) upon arrival, received xrays and an MRI. Because he’s on anticoagulants for a heart condition, they wanted him to remain overnight for observation, but they didn’t have a room. He was given comprensive discharge instructions in English, by the English-speaking doctor, along with the xrays and MRI, so that he could follow up with his physician in America. My mother and I followed the instructions with respect to observing him for the next 24 hours, with no complications.
He was not charged for the treatment. The entire episode lasted four and one-half hours.
This was Italy. One of the (relatively) less affluent Western European nations regularly mocked for its inefficiency.
Please run Palin in 2012!
July 14th, 2009
8:54 pm
Besides getting the hell out of Iraq for good, seizing the Swiss accounts of the 52,000 plus that the US is battling to get from the Swiss would easily pay for the health care bill the house hatched today.
Who”s covered:
Around 94 percent of non-elderly residents (those not covered by Medicare, which kicks in at age 65) would be covered “” compared with 81 percent today. Nearly half of the 17 million non-elderly residents who remain uninsured would be illegal immigrants.
Cost: About $1.5 trillion over 10 years.
How it”s paid for: Revenue-raisers include: $544 billion from a new income tax surcharge on single people making $280,000 a year and households making $350,000 and above; $37 billion in other tax adjustments. About $500 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. About $200 billion from penalties paid by individuals and employers who don”t obtain coverage.
Requirements for individuals: Individuals must have insurance, enforced through tax penalty with hardship waivers. The penalty is 2.5 percent of income.
Requirements for employers: Employers must provide insurance to their employees or pay a penalty of 8 percent of payroll. Companies with payroll under $250,000 annually are exempt.
Subsidies: Individuals and families with annual income up to 400 percent of poverty level ($88,000 for a family of four) would get sliding-scale subsidies to help them buy coverage. The subsidies would begin in 2013.
Michael H. Smith
July 14th, 2009
9:01 pm
Mr. Wooten, have you ever noticed how far too easy it is to spend another person’s money?
Jerry
July 14th, 2009
9:07 pm
I’m not sure what you are trying to get at Michael H. Smith (as opposed to Michael W. Smith). Let’s be factual – govt takeover of health insurance IS NOT ON THE TABLE! The right side of the political spectrum throw it out as a red herring to scare people. Remember back a month or so ago when Republican wordsmith met with Republican House members to tell them how to defeat health care reform: First, you have to pretend to support it. Then use phrases like “government takeover,” delayed care is denied care, consequences of rationing and bureaucrats not doctors prescribing medicine (far better to have a bureaucrat at the health insurance company do that). I saw that later Frank Luntz admit it was a bunch of lies but washed his hands of it by saying he is a wordsmith and not a policy maker.
As far as the earlier discussion on the Iraq war, I guess the Republicans feel it is better to kill than heal.
Chris Salzmann
July 14th, 2009
9:10 pm
Michael H. Smith July 14th, 2009 9:01 pm SAID: Mr. Wooten, have you ever noticed how far too easy it is to spend another person’s money?
CHRIS SAYS: Yes, conservatives excel at it, especially when it comes to useless wars. They’re just loath to spend it in their own country
Michael H. Smith
July 14th, 2009
9:16 pm
First, Jerry is it, the name I use is my “full real legal name” given to me at birth NOT a nickname or a made-up name or the name of someone else. Second, you are totally clueless of what my healthcare agenda might be. Third, if you are so concerned about the Iraq war you should address those concerns to someone who can actually do something about them and that would be the CURRENT Commander N’ Chief.
Michael H. Smith
July 14th, 2009
9:19 pm
And I say what a lousy disingenuous reply, Chris Salzmann.
Chris Salzmann
July 14th, 2009
9:26 pm
Michael H. Smith July 14th, 2009 9:19 pm SAID: And I say what a lousy disingenuous reply, Chris Salzmann.
CHRIS SAYS: $3-$4 Trillion spent fighting a war of choice in Iraq and where were all these conservatives then??? If I recall, they were pretty much all in the GWB cheer leading section. Sorry Dude but It is what it is.
Jerry
July 14th, 2009
9:32 pm
First, Michael, I referenced the other name with tongue in cheek – my apologies for offending you. Yes you are correct – I am clueless on what your health care agenda might be but I am willing to be enlightened.
Please run Palin in 2012!
July 14th, 2009
9:55 pm
Whoever is the fake name Smith, I’d like to hear your health care plan. If you keep up these vapid meaningless commnets, we might have to make you travel with Borderline Palin who as op ed columnist in WaPo defined op ed as truth optional and revealed she doesn’t understand anything about the rather crappy Waxman bill that was full of pubtard pork.
Jerry
July 14th, 2009
10:20 pm
No I would actually like to see what Mr. Smith’s thoughts are. I have no intention of making denigrating comments but I would like to see his point of view. I am open to an open and honest debate and it just might turn out we have some common ground.
Michael H. Smith
July 14th, 2009
10:39 pm
Uh Dude, you need to keep it real. Both Democrats and Republicans have spent our money in the most unbecoming unseemly ways unimaginable to the sane mind, to which more often than not, is in very point of fact, against the will and best interest of we the folks back home that elected them. At present the national annual budget debt for the first time in the history of this nation has topped 1 trillion dollars. That’s real borrowed money, our money, which will have to be paid back to somebody at some point in time.
As for this beating of the war drum, Dude, I have spoken to that issue directly and very correctly previously. As you say, it is, what it IS and the present Commander N’ Chief has more control over events taking place in that regard than anyone else. Least of all someone else like me.
And Dude, don’t ask for political answers for wars. All wars come about because all political answers failed.
CHRIS SAYS: $3-$4 Trillion spent fighting a war of choice in Iraq and where were all these conservatives then??? If I recall, they were pretty much all in the GWB cheer leading section.
Again I say, what a lousy disingenuous reply, Dude.
OhioVoter72
July 14th, 2009
10:45 pm
“It’s the wage-earner and the owners of mom-and-pop businesses that get socked.” How so? Cite Examples in the bill, please? I agree with you that many (not all) of those who are supposed to see a tax increase in this legislation (those making $250K+) may find ways to dodge it. But where in the bill is there backup for your claim that “it’s the wage-earner and the owners of mom-and-pop businesses that get socked”?
I make $21K and I eagerly await your reply about exactly how a bill that specifically raises taxes on those making over ten times as much as I do is somehow going to raise my taxes.
Please be as specific as possible.
Jerry
July 14th, 2009
10:51 pm
Mr. Smith, I was honestly seeking your thoughts as I really did want to know to know what your health care. I tried to treat you with respect and you respond with venom. As far as the Iraq war several of us aren’t bringing it up as a complaint but merely comparing the logic of willing to spend major dollars for a war but unwilling to spend similar dollars for the good of American citizens. Perhaps you are comfortable with this but in my opinion I find it odd.
Michael H. Smith
July 14th, 2009
11:11 pm
I have no intention of making denigrating comments but I would like to see his point of view.
Thank you for your sincerity Jerry, to that I will give a respectable reply, to which I won’t give to a certain present obnoxious piece of non-sense.
There is only three possible answers to providing healthcare: 1) government 2) business 3) the individual. Government answer is socialized medicine, subject to change without notice and the recipients thereof possibly wishing it was gone as of yesterday. Which is basically the Democrat answer.
The business answer is for business as usual in catch as catch can healthcare, here today and possibly gone tomorrow. Which is basically the Republican answer.
The individual answer centers on individuals establishing, controlling and assuring their own healthcare. Which the Private Public option also referred to as a healthcare Co-Op of a more political bipartisan nature.
Now, there are many answers to funding. The least appealing of them being more taxation to bend the costs curve everyone knows must be done altered. This link should give you an idea at least of the concept. Ideally the further away from both business and government control of our healthcare the better off we shall all be is my firm belief. For we are the least likely among all three entities to cut our own benefits or cancel our own health insurance policies providing the funding questions can be resolved.
Please run Palin in 2012!
July 14th, 2009
11:12 pm
You don’t get an exchange of ideas with pubtards here Jerry. They have no comprehension that Bush and Republicans were the main causes of the economic clusterfook. They pretend never to have heard of Gingrich
They have no comprehension that an Iraq clusterfook has hemorhhaged trillions, and they have no concept of the fact that a large part of the economic crisis now is the crappy health care system we have.
They have no concept of the way insurance companies hasten death and deny care or that they cut tens of thousands of people from coverage in the past five years and decades before, because they got sick which was the reason for the coverage in the first place.
They have no concept of the fake data bases insurance companies used to bilk billions from patients and physicians.
And lastly they have an understanding of medicine equivalant to a rock–as in dumb as.