If it was republicans

Doing this, conducting business that affects us all and has massive economic impact on everyone, you can bet the left would be foaming at the mouth, and they would be right to do so. This is not any kind of national security issue - unless the fact that this stuff will bankrupt the nation is put into perspective - and this kind of secrecy is only necessary if you really want the American people to not find out how badly you are going to screw them over. The most ethical congress, owned by the party that promised to be the most transparent and forthcoming, as well as responsible and sensitive to the American people, has set a new record for secrecy. Hiding bills is now SOP for these criminals. Even the donkey shills seem to be catching on, and the crooks in DC are getting some pushback. The American people are about to get screwed hard, and the people doing so do not want us to know about it until we wake up at the camp with our behinds hurting and covered in vaseline.

It IS a patronage bill…

If you have any doubt that the stimulus patronage bill was nothing but more corruption and graft, take a look at this:

A new analysis of the $157 billion distributed by the American Reinvestment and Recovery act, popularly known as the stimulus bill, shows that the funds were distributed without regard for what states were most in need of jobs. “You would think that if the stimulus money was actually spent to create jobs, there would be more stimulus money spent in high unemployment states,” said Veronique de Rugy, a scholar at the Mercatus Center who produced the analysis. “But we don’t find any correlation.” The Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Virginia is one of the nation’s most respected economic and regulatory think tanks and has a Nobel prize-winning economist on staff. The econometric analysis was done using data provided by Recovery.gov—the government website devoted to tracking the stimulus data—as well as a host of other government databases.

Additionally, Mercatus found that stimulus funds were not disbursed geographically with any special regard for low-income Americans. “We find no correlation between economic indicators and stimulus funding. Preliminary results find no statistically significant effect of unemployment, median income or mean income on stimulus funds allocation,” said the report. The Mercatus Center analysis also found that Democratic congressional districts received on average almost double the funding of Republican congressional districts. Republican congressional districts received on average $232 million in stimulus funds while Democratic districts received $439 million on average.

So the stimulus bill that was supposed to create jobs, had the bulk of the money to democratic enclaves and not even the ones that needed job creation? No way! How could the geniuses over at the WH and Congress, the anti-Bushes, have gotten this wrong? One would almost be inclined to think this was nothing but the fleecing of tax payers to line the pockets of friends, activists, lobbyists, and campaign coffers by democrats! All kidding aside, it gets even better:

Finally, the Mercatus analysis shows that a majority of the funds allocated went to public rather than private entities—nearly $88 billion to $69 billion. While some of the money given to public entities may eventually filter down to the private sector, it’s much less transparent how money given to public entities is spurring economic growth and job creation.

So big government just told us we were in a crisis that required us to allow them to spend close to a trillion dollars without actually seeing how, then they used the bulk of those funds to increase the size of government, line their own and their friends pockets, and enrich their campaign coffers. Why no cry from the MSM? Remember the good old days of the “culture of corruption” talk? This is real graft on a scale that dwarfs the other crap, and yet we hear nothing. I am sure the usual idiots that want to pretend there isn’t any media bias will tell me this isn’t a story because there isn’t enough blood. The American tax payers, the American people, are all being bled and strangled, and yet, this isn’t a story. Go figure. And we are being told we need to let them do more of this, straddle us with crappy healthcare and punitive energy costs, all because they mean well. F them all.

Healthcare takeover redux.

By now, unless you were on some cloistered retreat, you know that our House has cowardly rammed through a disastrous healthcare bill in the middle of a weekend night when nobody was looking and have even had discussions about it here. Now I am not going to play with words, because the fact is that Pelosi got the leftists a “W” here, but there is a lot more to it:

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Democratic-controlled House has narrowly passed landmark health care reform legislation, handing President Barack Obama a hard won victory on his signature domestic priority. Republicans were nearly unanimous in opposing the plan that would expand coverage to tens of millions of Americans who lack it and place tough new restrictions on the insurance industry. The 220-215 vote late Saturday cleared the way for the Senate to begin a long-delayed debate on the issue that has come to overshadow all others in Congress. A triumphant Speaker Nancy Pelosi compared the legislation to the passage of Social Security in 1935 and Medicare 30 years later. Obama, who went to Capitol Hill earlier on Saturday to lobby wavering Democrats, said in a statement after the vote, “I look forward to signing it into law by the end of the year.”

With the massive majority that the democrats enjoy in the House and their claims this $1.2 trillion (projected number likely to be far, far, higher) government takeover of the healthcare dollars and decision making process is such a popular and good idea, the close vote is striking and significant. I admit I am surprised Pelosi got so many blue dogs that basically committed political suicide by signing on to this disaster in the first place, but I am left wondering how democrats think after the past weeks election result that going ahead with this stuff is good for them politically. That is, unless they are counting on the public’s anger to eventually be of no consequence to their political careers and ambitions?

So many have said that a loss in the House would have resulted in much more damage to democrats in 2010. I want to thank these people for making Pelosi and the donkeys push this thing through. I am betting, and I am not alone there, that their success will actually cost them a lot more than a failure would ever have had. This is going to keep this in the news. Especially as people get more and more details about how horrible, expensive, and detrimental the bill that these 220 tools voted for is. The donkeys simply can not keep the details hidden forever.

In the run-up to a final vote, conservatives from the two political parties joined forces to impose tough new restrictions on abortion coverage in insurance policies to be sold to many individuals and small groups.

The legislation would require most Americans to carry insurance and provide federal subsidies to those who otherwise could not afford it. Large companies would have to offer coverage to their employees. Both consumers and companies would be slapped with penalties if they defied the government’s mandates.

That’s all code for “in the end government will be the sole provider and have complete control of healthcare”. Why no mention of the drastic increase of costs to all of us with plans already? Or the fact that we do not have the medical personnel to make adding another 20 million (conservatively speaking because according to the tools the number is 47 million) thing work? That employers will have such strict regulation that they will simply shed healthcare and make government the sole provider? The death panels and rationing? The fact lawyers and the damage they do get to keep up what they are doing? An even more incredibly that we will all be charged for this thing for the next 6 years, and if we are lucky see some minor changes at some point after that?

Yeah, great and in-depth meaningful coverage indeed. No wonder so many people still think this is going to reduce their personal costs for healthcare and make the system work better. I wonder how they will feel once they see how bad things are going to get? The bureaucrats can not even get a vaccine for the flu our or the Postal system to work properly, and we are going to trust them with life & death decisions? Because the evil profit wanting private companies need to be thought a lesson. Do the people that think like this realize that unlike government that can change the rules at will and not only make itself immune to any repercussions of its actions, but punish others for pointing that out, that these private companies had more accountability and that we have given up a lot in order to frankly get very little if anything? WTF?

The bill drew the votes of 219 Democrats and Rep. Joseph Cao, a first-term Republican who holds an overwhelmingly Democratic seat in New Orleans. Opposed were 176 Republicans and 39 Democrats.

The usual tools in the MSM are calling this a bi-partisan vote because one misguided tool voted for it too. There is however a silver lining in all of this, and that’s the obvious problem that this monstrous rip-off bill faces in the Senate. Wait until the details of how bad the House bill is come out and people find out they have been had. It looks like the democrats remain intent on dragging us all with them off the cliff. Maybe they know something we don’t? Some guy with a Che T-shirt will be handing out some “special” flu shots soon…

The lowdown on what we get from healthcare reform

As Dirty Harry and the rest of the crime syndicate take the whole “healthcare reform” issue back behind closed doors in an effort to ram it through as soon as possible – those pesky 2010 elections and an angry populace they are hoping has a short memory or can be bought off with other goodies, you know – there are a couple of things you can be certain about.

First off, we should stop pretending this “healthcare reform” was about cutting costs. Unless you are one of the people that chose to be uninsured, despite the many options out there to help you get insurance, and are lucky enough to end up getting it “for free” from Uncle Sam, you are going to end up paying a lot more. If you are one of those lucky enough to own what they call a “Cadillac plan” – that means that you have an employer that pays a huge chunk of the bill, and hence pays you a lot less money to cover that cost, pay for the bulk of the cost plan’s yourself, or have something in between so that you can have a good healthcare plan – you are now going to get a 40% tax hit against that.

All those union people with the real sweet plans – including those working for the various states where the cost is likely to just be passed off to the tax payers again (talk about your double whammy!) – most, if not all, of us in the middle class, and quite a few seniors on some nice retirement plans, are going to see our premiums go up, and do so drastically. In many, if not most, cases you will also see employers, but doubly so when they are going to get whacked hard, simply opt to drop their plans and pay the 8% tax. You can then go join the government option or pay for your own plan at 2 to 10 times your current cost: that is if you can now get private coverage. That government option sure becomes unavoidable, huh? But of course we were told this was not the plan. Oh yeah, it looks like the politicians – but especially congress – which has a “Ferrari Plan” is still exempt from anything in this bill. Seriously, can we dispense with the “fix the out of control cost” lie yet?

As I already pointed out: unless you were already on the dole, your costs are going up. Government needs to, best case scenario, BTW, come up with anywhere from $500 billion to something over $1 trillion dollars in revenue to offset most of the cost and bring the deficit that exists between the real cost and the number they will tell you it will cost, to under $1 trillion. And based on past performance, my guess is that this massive theft won’t even cover a fraction of the real cost, and will need to be much higher. No need to explain how we will end up paying a lot more and getting a lot less, be it quality or quantity, than we have now either. Yay, us tax payers!

And then there are those other “cost savings” too. Talk is that they plan to get some $500 billion in savings from Medicare. If you buy their line it will be practically all from reductions in the system’s inefficiency and waste. As many much wiser people than me have asked when they heard this: why can’t we get those savings right freaking now? The ugly truth is that there will be no such savings. Period. Any inefficiency in the system will only likely grow bigger as the scope of how much government involvement in healthcare increases. The same applies to the waste. Anyone claiming otherwise is lying.

If those efficiencies and that waste could be addressed it should have already been fixed. But it never has been, and that’s not an accident. These inefficiencies and the waste are byproducts of government controlled systems. It’s like the stink you get when eggs rot: unavoidable. So that means that the only way that government will get that $500 billion in savings from Medicare, is to cut legitimate services. Guess who’s going to be banged, and banged hard, when that happens? If they want to keep the same level of coverage, they are now going to have to pay out of pocket for it. That’s if they can get alternative or supplemental coverage. Bet you they certainly will not feel that their healthcare has been fixed or that their costs have gone down.

So we are not getting any kind of cost savings. We are guaranteed to see a lot more government price fixing and control of access to care. The out of control tort system remains untouched. Quality of care and availability of care are going to both go down. You can’t add a couple of dozen new million people thinking they are getting “free healthcare” without any increase in the number of qualified healthcare professionals & facilities to the system and expect availability and quality to not drastically and negatively be impacted. If we are lucky, I have so far only seen that congress will write the law to prevent insurance providers from excluding people for preexisting conditions, and while they are trying hard to force everyone to buy healthcare I simply do not see that working out well. In the end that means we all will see a big bump in our premiums to cover the cost of that as well.

So if you do the down & dirty analysis, healthcare will cost all us shlobs more, result in a reduction of quality and availability for all but the elite, and really not fix either the cost issue either. What is being done really doesn’t do anything but funnel the trillions we spend on healthcare each year through congress, while at the same time moving the decision making capability and mechanism into congress’ hands. Healthcare reform indeed. After you find all that out, does what we have right now seem that bad?

Don’t forget Obamacare…

While most of the conservative focus has been on the exposure of ACORN, a democrat/progressive mover and shaker, as a crime syndicate, the rest of the MSM avoided this subject like the plague until the scandal simply could no longer be ignored, mostly paying lip service, excusing, and defending ACORN’s scandalous behavior, and continued with their effort to sell the American people Obamacare despite the stench coming from that too. While the ACORN scandal continues to unravel and the democrat machine and the MSM hurry to provide themselves with cover, we should not take our eyes off the healthcare debacle. In fact, another poll has come up with some real disturbing numbers we should pay close and careful attendance to.

Two of every three practicing physicians oppose the medical overhaul plan under consideration in Washington, and hundreds of thousands would think about shutting down their practices or retiring early if it were adopted, a new IBD/TIPP Poll has found. The poll contradicts the claims of not only the White House, but also doctors’ own lobby — the powerful American Medical Association — both of which suggest the medical profession is behind the proposed overhaul. It also calls into question whether an overhaul is even doable; 72% of the doctors polled disagree with the administration’s claim that the government can cover 47 million more people with better-quality care at lower cost.

Look, this Obamacare plan is a disaster in the making. We are told we have a crisis. As many as 47 million people - a number that includes illegals, those that qualify for existing government programs but have not bothered to sign up, many that are temporarily uncovered because of one reason or another, those that choose to get no insurance, and some few that have no coverage because of cost - have no coverage! Healthcare is falling apart! Crisis! Crisis! Crisis! Government must offer healthcare! Then these liars tell us that they will not only provide coverage for these 47 million new members under their plan - with no new doctors nurses, hospitals, or infrastructure to absorb them - but in the process, they will also lower costs, without affecting either access or quality of care! Freaking magic! And despite the obvious maneuvering and set up to basically destroy the private insurance market and put all the peasants on a government run plan – the elite will have their own, by law, in every proposed plan so far – they want us to also believe that’s not the end objective.

One would have to be insane to not understand that with this massive new influx of people – 47 million – that the demand will simply cripple the available supply. There is no way to come up with the thousands of healthcare providers and the hundreds of new healthcare facilities needed to absorb this new reality. Rationing will become the only means to control this catastrophe. And you can guess what that will also do to the cost. Now factor in that just a measly 25% of the four out of nine physicians that say they will quit if the democrats have government take over healthcare, and you can see that the problem only becomes even more pronounced. And for the doubters:

The IBD/TIPP Poll was conducted by mail the past two weeks, with 1,376 practicing physicians chosen randomly throughout the country taking part. Responses are still coming in, and doctors’ positions on related topics — including the impact of an overhaul on senior care, medical school applications and drug development — will be covered later in this series.

Keep an eye on this. None of this data will do anything but expose what the democrats want to do to healthcare as anything but a catastrophe in the making. What the democrats are counting on is that once they push this through, get their way and make government the big healthcare provider, and then have people beholden to bureaucrats which practically always lean democrat making life& death decisions, that not only nobody will be able to change anything, but that they end up in perpetual power. Maybe it’s not a coincidence that ACORN is turning out to be a crime syndicate.

Cross posted at Wasting time with Alex