This Is The Republican Solutions To Health Care Reform And It Doesn't Cost Us A Dime

The American people have spoken. They oppose government-run health care. Republicans are on the side of the American people.

What Americans want are common-sense, responsible solutions that address the rising cost of health care and other major problems. In the national Republican address on Saturday, October 31, 2009, House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) discussed Republicans’ plan for common-sense health care reform our nation can afford.  Boehner’s address emphasized four common-sense reforms that will lower health care costs and expand access to quality care without a government takeover of our nation’s health care system that kills jobs, raises taxes on small businesses, or cuts Medicare for seniors:

• Number one: let families and businesses buy health insurance across state lines.
• Number two: allow individuals, small businesses, and trade associations to pool together and acquire health insurance at lower prices, the same way large corporations and labor unions do.
• Number three: give states the tools to create their own innovative reforms that lower health care costs.
• Number four: end junk lawsuits that contribute to higher health care costs by increasing the number of tests and procedures that physicians sometimes order not because they think it's good medicine, but because they are afraid of being sued.

For the full text of Leader Boehner’s address, click HERE.
For more information about some of the other common-sense health care reforms proposed by Republicans, please visit the links below:

• Empowering Patients First Act  (Republican Study Committee  Health Care Reform Bill, introduced July 30, 2009)
• Improving Health Care for All Americans Act (Shadegg Health Care Reform Bill, introduced July 14, 2009)
• Medical Rights & Reform Act   (Kirk-Dent Health Care  Reform Bill, introduced June 16, 2009)
• Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act   (Gingrey medical liability reform bill, introduced June 6, 2009)  
• Small Business Health Fairness Act of 2009   (Johnson small business health plans bill, introduced May 21, 2009)
• Promoting Health and Preventing Chronic Disease through  Prevention and Wellness Programs for Employees, Communities, and Individuals Act of 2009   (Castle Wellness & Prevention Bill, introduced July 31, 2009)
• Improved Employee Access to Health Insurance Act of 2009  (Deal auto-enrollment bill, introduced October 15, 2009)
• Health Insurance Access for Young Workers and College Students Act of 2009  (Blunt bill to improve health insurance coverage of dependents, introduced October 21, 2009)
  

Democrats have proposed the establishment of a public-option government-run health plan. Some of the consequences of this government take over of health care include higher costs, lower quality and fewer choices.

Government Control:
Government programs constitute nearly half of all health care spending, and further increasing government's clout may well limit patient care as a way to contain costs. The federal government already imposes price controls on doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. Controls on patient procedures are likely to follow.

Spending and Tax Increases:
Democrats proposed more than $850 billion in tax increases on small businesses and middle class families to pay for their health care reform plan. Health spending will jump from 16.6% to 17.6% of GDP this year alone. House Democrats are calling for an additional $1.6 trillion in new health spending - on top of the more than $150 billion in health spending in the "stimulus" bill.

Massive, Forced Dislocation of Currently Insured Individuals:
Analysis by actuaries at the independent Lewin Group found that nearly 114 million individuals could involuntarily lose their private coverage due to a government-run plan, and be forced into the public plan.

Reduced Revenue for Providers:
Other analysis by the Lewin Group found that a government-run plan reimbursing at Medicare rates would cause hospitals' total revenue to drop by nearly 5% ($36.5 billion), and physicians' total revenue to decline by nearly 7% ($36.4 billion).

Poorer Coverage and Access:
CBO Director Doug Elmendorf recently testified that traditional Medicare provides a benefit package 15% lower than the standard employer-sponsored plan which is one reason why more than four in five Medicare beneficiaries rely on supplemental health coverage. In Medicaid, low provider participation rates often lead to long waits for care, such that low-income Americans would prefer private insurance coverage to Medicaid by a more than two-to-one margin.

Fraud:
Reports by the Government Accountability Office and other watchdog groups have highlighted persistent problems with fraud in government-run Medicare - estimating tens of billions per year, at taxpayer expense.
For more information about the Democrats' government-run plan, please visit these links:

• Democrats’ Government Takeover Will Raise Medicare Premiums By 20%
• A “Trigger” for Destroying Americans’ Health Coverage
• Reading Guide - Democrat Health "Reform"

Libberman Is Digging In His Heels And Will Filibuster Health Care

The Wall Street Journal reports Joe Lieberman is digging in his heels. He will filibuster any health care legislation that contains a public option, even if the legislation allows states to opt-out.
Lieberman has been a thorn in the side of the left ever since they decided to challenge him back in 2006. In that year, the left beat Lieberman in the Connecticut Democrat Primary. Lieberman decided to stay in as an independent in the general election and won. With a number of his long time Senate friends endorsing the Democrat in 2006 because the man had a “D” next to his name, Lieberman has been his own man ever since.
Lieberman retains his Senate committee chairmanship and the privileges of being a Democrat member of the Senate. That may change soon as Harry Reid is staking his reputation on passage of the health care legislation.                                                                                                                                              This health care reform is bad for women,elderly and the sick and the Democrats want it that way. You will be paying for this bill for 5 years before it is viable. How does that make you feel knowing that the Democrats plan does nothing but underfund Medicare/caid for 5 years while you might need help now. Can you afford another tax? Can the country afford another tax without any immediate benefits? And the worse part is the Democrat bill doesn't cover everybody. So why are they trying to takeover 1/6 of the economy in such a hurry? I think it's because they are power hungry and this will feed the Democrats need for more govt power in their progressive agenda.

Global Warming Is A Lie The Conservatives Were Right Again

Tony Kane wrote of the recent email hack aimed at Britain’s Climate Research Unit, University of East Anglia. In today’s Huntsville Examiner, his article “ClimateGate emails provide unwanted scrutiny of climate scientists” describes the professional practices rampant among the Western World’s scientific elite.
On the surface, the emails seem to indicate scientists modified data to fit the anthropogenic global warming theory, tried to silence dissenting opinions and reflect a concerted effort to restrict access to climate data possibly by deleting it.
So other than that, we can all just relax and trust the gubbermint. This bill of particulars is damning if true. Kane cites specific emails describing or demanding unethical practices. Climate Research Unit Director, Dr. Phil Jones, appears particularly mendacious and culpable. Here, Dr. Jones discusses ways to thwart FOIA requests concerning the center’s academic research data.

“I think I’ll delete the file rather than send to anyone.” Jones apparently considered ways to stymie or limit FOIA requests by “removing station data” and “omit some other countries” because “it would annoy them [those requesting the data].”
This procedure is used when Dr. Jones is forced to acknowledge that the data exists at all. Otherwise; he executes The Fawn Hall option, and makes inconvenient data vanish from existence. Here he describes what correspondence he’d like to see flushed down the Orwellian Memory Hole.
“Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4? Keith will do likewise. He’s not in at the moment - minor family crisis. Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don’t have his new email address. We will be getting Caspar to do likewise.”
Inconvenient data, stuff that’s not truthy enough, that just gets left out of Climate Research Unit presentations. Scientist Mick Kelly describes how data sufficiency is currently defined in the Geophysics research community.
One scientist, Mick Kelly, discussed giving a presentation and rather than include the cooling he said, “I’ll maybe cut the last few points off the filtered curve before I give the talk again as that’s trending down as a result of the end effects and the recent cold-ish years.”
When journals printed articles that Dr. Michael Mann didn’t like, the climate cabal then colluded to have them discredited as valid sources of scientific knowledge. Dr. Mann describes his concern about some published material in the American Geophysics Union Research Letters.
Mann seemed particularly concerned about a ‘contrarian’ with the name Saiers, presumably James Saiers of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. “Apparently, the contrarians now have an “in” with GRL. This guy Saiers has a prior connection w/ the University of Virginia Dept. of Environmental Sciences [where Saiers completed his PhD] that causes me some unease,” Mann wrote.
Always open-minded and relentless to hear every point of view; Dr. Tom Wigley knew how to adjust Dr Saiers’ attitude. Nothing quite educates the rest of us like a good example. Wigley described how he intended to make Dr. Saiers into one below.
“If you think that Saiers is in the greenhouse skeptics camp, then, if we can find documentary evidence of this, we could go through official AGU channels to get him ousted.”
The data got edited, the data got deliberately misreported, and when “necessary,” it even got destroyed. Journals that published dissenters got threatened with interdict. The dissenters, themselves, got black-balled from the scientific community. This would be tantamount to professional ruin in their chosen avocations.
In a similar scientific environment, soon after the Medieval Warm Period, Galileo and Copernicus managed top-notch work. Yet few others even tried to publish their work. Human knowledge lagged behind societal needs and life was quite often what Hobbes would describe as “nasty, brutish and short.” This typically happens to cultures where scientific inquiry is forcibly muted or curtailed.
Behavior synonymous to that of the Climate Research Unit could usher in a new dark age. One where the words still get published, but only after censorious auditors denude them of verity and applicable wisdom. This new age would publish plenty of science, but would strive to educate and improve the lives of nobody.
The Journals would go unread. The authors would truly care less. The awards would go unearned, but always, like the now-laughable Nobel Peace Prize, be copiously awarded. Many would work as “scientists.” None would dare to disprove the null hypothesis. We would “understand” everything: or else, but it would avail us nothing of value or use.
Scientific knowledge, like genuine religious faith, is one of the few marked differences between civilized man and the apes that first climbed down from the trees and walked upright. It sets us apart, helps define our existence and drives us ever forward towards better life and a more decent society.
At least it does these things until it is censored. When the progression of learning is thwarted by fear, greed or mendaciousness, the societal base of knowledge can only crumble and rot. As the genius is lost, the innovation goes away. One less trait differentiates our society from the hidebound oligarchy imagined in the Planet of The Apes movies.
In these purloined emails, we see the cynical corruption and meretricious evil that these jackals have perpetrated at The Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University. A key motor that drives our progress and growth as human beings has been stilled to satisfy the transitory greed of a political elite. Rome eventually fell because of similar self-delusion. If our society is to survive, scientific inquiry must be retaken from the iniquitous emailers, revealed as malefactors by the Great Email hack of 2009.

The Manhattan Declaration

Christians, when they have lived up to the highest ideals of their faith, have defended the weak and vulnerable and worked tirelessly to protect and strengthen vital institutions of civil society, beginning with the family.
We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are:

1. the sanctity of human life
2. the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife
3. the rights of conscience and religious liberty.

Inasmuch as these truths are foundational to human dignity and the well-being of society, they are inviolable and non-negotiable. Because they are increasingly under assault from powerful forces in our culture, we are compelled today to speak out forcefully in their defense, and to commit ourselves to honoring them fully no matter what pressures are brought upon us and our institutions to abandon or compromise them. We make this commitment not as partisans of any political group but as followers of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.                                                                                                                                                        Go to http://www.manhattandeclaration.org/ and sign the Declaration. We need to come together as Christians. This is the beginning of the Christian conservative organizing. We must be willing to do what we need to to insure all religions have freedom to organize and make fundamental change within the political community. The liberals don't want us Christians to have a voice. But we need to make a joyful noise unto the Lord. As a Christian it is our calling to stand up for the same things God tells us to stand up for within the Bible. God bless you all.

The Way Forward From Here

Sixty Senators voted to proceed to debate health care. There will be another shot at stopping it through filibuster.
Mary Landrieu, after getting $300 million in the bill for Louisiana, voted for it.
Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas not only voted for it, but now favors a public option.
Voters will remember.
Along the way, there seems to be divisions shaping up within the Democratic Party. Amendments will be offered to try to patch up differences.
Republicans should exploit this. Drag out consideration of the bill as those divisions grow, then offer amendments to exploit the divisions.
As I have said before, if Republicans work to improve the legislation, they presuppose its passage. Instead, the GOP should plan for the destruction of the bill by offering amendments designed to divide and fracture the Democrat coalition.                                                                                                                                    How do you think we should move forward? And what should we do to give the power back to we the people?

Conservative Christians Give Warning

WASHINGTON, DC - Conservative Christian leaders are releasing a declaration and warning today on what they're calling "moral issues of great concern."


Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship Ministries, helped draft the Manhattan Declaration, which affirms the sanctity of human life, marriage as the union of one man and one woman, religious liberty, and freedom of conscience. Where those values are threatened, the document endorses civil disobedience under some circumstances.

Organizers of today's official release say the Manhattan Declaration sends "a clear and strong call to Christians" and "a warning to civil authorities."

They say it's been signed by more than 125 evangelical, Catholic, and Orthodox Christian leaders.  We conservative Americans have been standing on the sideline way to long. We need to organize and protest and right letters like the liberals did. We need to keep the peace but speak with boldness and without fear. You on the left better get ready because the Christians are coming.

The Left Wing Protesters Of Bush

 protest happened, and the Web site that originally hosted the report is now defunct.)

Two different pictures of the same sign saying “Bush — the only dope worth shooting,” at the March 15, 2008 anti-war rally in Los Angeles.
(Source: photo on the left from Ringo’s Pictures; photo on the right reposted on michellemalkin.com.)

A sign showing Bush being shot in the head, at the March 15, 2008 anti-war rally in Los Angeles.
(Source: Ringo’s Pictures.)

Remember the guy in our first picture? Here he is again, with another explicit death threat against the president, this time calling for “Death to…Bush” at the October 27, 2007 anti-war rally in San Francisco.
(Source: zombietime. Click picture to see the image in context with other pictures from that day.)

And here he comes again with a third message, this time brazenly calling for “Death to…Bush” at the March 18, 2007 anti-war rally in San Francisco.
(Source: zombietime. Click picture to see the image in context with other pictures from that day.)

A protester with a sign showing Bush being beheaded.
(Reposted on michellemalkin.com; original source unknown.)

Bush being beheaded by a guillotine, at an Obama campaign rally, Denver, October 26, 2008.
(Source: Looking at the Left.)

Bush’s head in a basket after being decapitated by a guillotine, at an Obama campaign rally, Denver, October 26, 2008.
(Source: Looking at the Left.)

A sign saying “SMITE BUSH” at the June 5, 2004 anti-war rally in San Francisco.
(Source: zombietime. Click picture to see the image in context with other pictures from that day.)

Protesters call for Bush to be beheaded with a guillotine, at a protest against Bush’s second inauguration, January 20, 2005, in New York.
(Source: Fred Askew Photography.)

An effigy of Bush being killed, at the April 10, 2004 anti-war rally in San Francisco.
(Source: zombietime. Click picture to see the image in context with other pictures from that day.)

Bush being burned in effigy, at a November 3, 2004 post-election anti-Bush rally in San Francisco.
(Source: zombietime. Click picture to see the image in context with other pictures from that day.)

There are literally hundreds of videos currently viewable on YouTube of Bush being burned in effigy. I’ve posted a screenshot of one above, but rather than clog up this post with several embedded YouTube videos (which slows down the page loading), I’ll simply post links to several of the videos here:
Bush getting burned
bush you liar we’ll set your ass on fire
Burning George Bush
George W Bush burns in effigy (Washington DC)
And for a little variety: Bush getting smashed
(On the “Related videos” sidebars for all of these you can find many additional burning-Bush-in-effigy videos.)
In case you feel that burning Bush in effigy “doesn’t count” — just imagine the outcry there would be if even a single instance of Obama being burned in effigy was filmed (claims of “lynching,” etc.).

Bush being lynched by an American flag at a rally in New York on September 19, 2006.
(Source: Fred Askew Photography.)

A protester with a shirt that said “Death to all posers” with a picture of Bush superimposed, at the October 27, 2007 anti-war rally in San Francisco.
(Source: zombietime. Click picture to see the image in context with other pictures from that day.)

This sign from a protest in Chicago says “Lee Harvey, where are you?” at the bottom, referring to JFK’s assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
(Source: Chicago Indymedia.)

A protester in Denver calls for Bush to the get the Louis XVI treatment — i.e beheaded by a guillotine.
(Source: Looking at the Left.)

Woman holding a puppet of Bush being hung by the neck, from a March 17, 2007 protest in Hollywood, California.
(Source: Ringo’s Pictures.)

Fantasy of Saddam Hussein killing Bush, from an October 27, 2007 protest in Los Angeles.
(Source: Ringo’s Pictures.)

A sign implying Bush should be killed for being a war profiteer. From an October 27, 2007 protest in Los Angeles.
(Source: Ringo’s Pictures.)

A child holding Bush’s tombstone, at the February 16, 2003 anti-war rally in San Francisco.
(Source: zombietime. Click picture to see the image in context with other pictures from that day.)

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Threats in other settings (i.e. not at protests)

Bumper sticker implying that Bush should be hanged.
(Photo by Last Mohican.)
As far as I can tell, no one was ever stopped or investigated by the Secret Service for displaying this bumper sticker. Compare that to what happened to a man in Oklahoma on February 12, who had a sign in his car saying “Abort Obama Not the Unborn” — which not only caused the police to pull him over and confiscate the sign, but which eventually led to the Secret Service searching his house looking for evidence that he was a threat to the president. Double standard? You decide.

Wider-angle shot showing the bumper sticker above in context, with a pro-Obama sticker on the same car, proving that the sticker was displayed by a Bush detractor, not a supporter.
(Photo by Last Mohican.)

The anti-Israel conspiracy site nogw.com hosts this pdf file which describes a mock trial and execution of George Bush for a bizarre litany of purported crimes; included in the document is this image of Bush being hanged at the trial.

A promotional photo from the mock-docmentary film “Death of a President,” showing Bush being killed. You can watch a short clip of the film’s assassination sequence here on YouTube.
(Source: USA Today.)

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Threats against Bush by celebrities which were never investigated
John Kerry

The picture above shows John Kerry as he was being interviewed by Bill Maher in October of 2006 on the HBO show Real Time. As can be seen in this video exclusively on the ongoodmove blog, starting at about one minute into the clip Kerry says what can only be interpreted as a threat to kill Bush:

Maher: You could have went to New Hampshire and killed two birds with one stone.
Kerry: Or, I could have gone to 1600 Pennsylvania and killed the real bird with one stone.

Full transcript of the interview here.
Was John Kerry ever questioned or investigated for making a threat against Bush? No.
(Source: National Review.)
Betty Williams (Nobel Peace Prize winner)

On July 11, 2007, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Betty Williams gave the keynote speech to the International Women’s Peace Conference in Dallas, Texas, and said (to laughter and applause from the audience):

“I mean right now, I could kill George Bush, no problem. No, I don’t mean that. I mean — how could you nonviolently kill somebody? I would love to be able to do that.”

You can hear the audiotape of her threat on Breitbart.TV. Despite the fact that threatening to kill the president is a crime, the Secret Service refused to question her or detain her; according to the Dallas Morning News, “Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren in Washington declined to comment, but a Dallas agent said Ms. Williams had not been questioned and there were no plans to do so.” However, the people who emailed the conference in anger about her threats — they were the ones investigated: “Conference organizers reported that a Dallas police detective was working with hotel security to review about 40 hateful e-mails received in response to Ms. Williams’ speech.”
Earlier, Betty Williams said essentially the same thing in a speech in Australia on July 24, 2006, proving that this was not just a slip of the tongue but something she thinks about frequently:

“I have a very hard time with this word ‘non-violence,’ because I don’t believe that I am non-violent…. Right now, I would love to kill George Bush…. I don’t know how I ever got a Nobel Peace Prize, because when I see children die the anger in me is just beyond belief.”

Was Betty Williams ever questioned or investigated for making a threat against Bush? No.
(Source: wikipedia.)
Craig Kilborn

On August 4, 2000, when Bush won the Republican nomination (but before he was president), Craig Kilborn on CBS’s The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn ran a graphic of the words “SNIPERS WANTED” under George Bush as he gave his acceptance speech. Although CBS belatedly apologized five days later, Kilborn was never investigated, questioned or punished, and continued to host the show for four more years.
Was Craig Kilborn ever questioned or investigated for making a threat against Bush? No.
(Source: The Smoking Gun.)
Also see:
New York State comptroller, Alan Hevesi said during a June 1, 2006 speech that Senator Charles Schumer “will put a bullet between the president’s eyes if he could get away with it.” Hevesi later apologized for the statement.

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Death threat t-shirts

Look at the two pictures above. Which do you find more offensive? Which is more obviously a threat to kill or disrespect a president?
.

For a while, CafePress allowed violent anti-Bush paraphernalia (such as this “Kill Bush” shirt) to be sold by users on its site, but after they were publicized by the Drudge Report, they were pulled offline; though, as far as I can tell, the designers were never investigated by the Secret Service.
(Source: Lifelike Pundits.)

New ACORN Video And Our Corrupt Government

Watch this Hannity video on ACORN. No one in our government is doing anything to Acorn about these videos. But they are coming after the kids that shot the video. I take it that our new admin. doesn't see anything wrong with ACORN help in the illegal trade of 13 year old girls into this country. They see nothing wrong with the rape and sale of 13 year old girls being treated like a commodity instead of being treated like humans. What Roman did to that 13 year old girl was no big deal to the liberals. They backed that guy too. And we thought that idealogy stopped at the grinding up of babies in their mothers womb. What the heck if they are Christian girls being inslaved for sex slavery it's a two for deal for the liberals in power. These kids exposed the inner workings of this criminal organization ACORN and they are the ones getting sued in court. They didn't go after the Black Panthers for intimidation or have they gone after the SEIU members that beat a black man while calling him a "fucking nigger". Justice isn't blind while the Democrats are in charge.

HANNITY EXPOSES ANOTHER ACORN CHILD SEX VIDEO - NOV 19th 2009

 

Health Care Open Debate

This is a open debate on health care reform and it's effects on our country. I would like to hear from many of the readers that don't post or haven't posted in the past. You don't have to attach your name to it if you don't feel comfortable doing so. It is important that we dialogue about this bill. Have fun and try and be nice to one another.