Saturday, March 21, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
The Porkulus Bill Gives Obama the Power to Murder You
Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey
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Commentary by Betsy McCaughey
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama's stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy.
Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.
Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).
The bill's health rules will affect "every individual in the United States" (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.
But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and "guide" your doctor's decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis." According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and "learn to operate less like solo practitioners."
Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far.
New Penalties
Hospitals and doctors that are not "meaningful users" of the new system will face penalties. "Meaningful user" isn't defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose "more stringent measures of meaningful use over time" (511, 518, 540-541)
What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the "tough" decisions elected politicians won't make.
The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle's book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept "hopeless diagnoses" and "forgo experimental treatments," and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.
Elderly Hardest Hit
Daschle says health-care reform "will not be pain free." Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.
Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).
The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle's book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis.
In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its decision.
Hidden Provisions
If the Obama administration's economic stimulus bill passes the Senate in its current form, seniors in the U.S. will face similar rationing. Defenders of the system say that individuals benefit in younger years and sacrifice later.
The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined (90-92, 174-177, 181).
Hiding health legislation in a stimulus bill is intentional. Daschle supported the Clinton administration's health-care overhaul in 1994, and attributed its failure to debate and delay. A year ago, Daschle wrote that the next president should act quickly before critics mount an opposition. "If that means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it," he said. "The issue is too important to be stalled by Senate protocol."
More Scrutiny Needed
On Friday, President Obama called it "inexcusable and irresponsible" for senators to delay passing the stimulus bill. In truth, this bill needs more scrutiny.
The health-care industry is the largest employer in the U.S. It produces almost 17 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. Yet the bill treats health care the way European governments do: as a cost problem instead of a growth industry. Imagine limiting growth and innovation in the electronics or auto industry during this downturn. This stimulus is dangerous to your health and the economy.
(Betsy McCaughey is former lieutenant governor of New York and is an adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. The opinions expressed are her own.)
To contact the writer of this column: Betsy McCaughey at Betsymross@aol.com
Last Updated: February 9, 2009 00:01 EST
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Sunday, November 9, 2008
FresnoBee.com: Local: Valley Libertarian crusader Marshall W. Fritz dead at 65
Mr. Fritz, 65, a writer and adventurer, began his political life as a liberal in the 1960s but shifted to libertarianism in the 1970s and clung to it to the very end.
His belief in individual liberty prompted him to run unsuccessfully for Congress on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1982.
"He was larger than life. He was an ardent seeker of truth and goodness. If he saw the truth, he'd change his life and conform to it," said Alan Schaeffer, president of the Alliance for the Separation of School and State, which Mr. Fritz founded. "He had a passion for religion, cultures and geography."
Mr. Fritz developed a political quiz in the 1980s called the "World's Smallest Political Quiz." The 10-question quiz helps someone find out where they belong on the political spectrum and has been widely circulated, particularly in Libertarian circles.
Born in Inglewood, Mr. Fritz began his career as an IBM salesman but then turned to the nonprofit world.
He established Advocates for Self-Government in 1984, now based in Georgia, to promote Libertarian ideals. He also established the now-defunct Pioneer Christian Academy, a kindergarten-to-12thgrade school that challenged the existing educational system. The school had no formal curriculum, no tests, no homework and no separation based on age or grade. Students for the most part taught each other.
In 1994, he founded the Alliance for the Separation of School and State, a group that encouraged parents to pull their children out of public schools and educate them at home or in private schools. At his death, he was board chairman.
His friends described him as a devout Catholic, an intellectual and a world traveler who loved to eat.
"As he traveled all these different places, he was delighted to try the local food," said longtime friend Virgil Swearingen of Fresno.
"He loved to eat everything," Swearingen said.
Fritz was active in the Christian Businessmen's Committee, Serra Club, Toastmasters, a nonprofit that hones communication and leadership skills, and Overeaters Anonymous, a group that focused on eating habits. Fritz volunteered at a homeless shelter and coached youth soccer.
He was the publisher of two newspapers, The Educational Liberator and The School Liberator.
One of the biggest issues he opposed was allowing government to run public schools.
"He was for freedom from government tyranny, and he started three organizations in Fresno that were devoted to freedom from government tyranny," Swearingen said.
"Among freedom-oriented people he was probably as well known as anyone in the freedom movement. It seems they all knew and respected him," he said.
Fritz is survived by his wife of 44 years, Joan Fritz; his son, Eugene Fritz of Calwa; his three daughters and their husbands, Susan and Christopher Bethea of Clovis, Lucie and Tony Ruiz of Fresno and Ann and Kyle McKenna of Pittsburgh; 12 grandchildren; and his brother, Russell Fritz of Baja California, Mexico.
A Catholic Mass will be celebrated at Our Lady of Perpetual Help parish, 929 Harvard Ave., Clovis, at 5:15 p.m. today. A graveside service will follow at noon Saturday at the Holy Sepulcher Cemetery in Orange.
In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to the Marshall Fritz Lectureship Fund at 1071 N. Fulton St., Fresno 93728.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Scattershooting
First in July of 2008 he promised tax cuts to everyone making under $300K…
Next in September of 2008 he suggested it was for everyone making under $250K…
Then in October of 2008 he maintains its was for everyone making less than $200K…
Biden then said middle class constitutes those making under $150K…
Richardson now claims Obama will provide a tax cut for everyone making under $120K…
Is there a trend here?
It won’t be too long before we get back to the $42K and above he considered rich when he voted to raise taxes last year."
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Ace of Spades HQ
October 27, 2008
Surprise: CBS Spikes Audio of Obama's 'Redistribution of Wealth' Quote, Figuring It's Better to Just Call it 'Out of Context'
—Ace
Yeah, why let viewers hear the actual recorded evidence?
They might come to the wrong conclusions that way.
Better to tell them what they're supposed to think and send them on their way.
People aren't good at thinking. That's why we have the media. They do our thinking for us.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Dog risks life for kittens
Advertisement
A dog has risked its life to protect four kittens trapped in a house fire in Melbourne, Australia.
Firefighters found Leo guarding the kittens which were in a cardboard box in one of the bedrooms.
When the fire broke out inside the house, the family of four plus their other dog managed to escape.
However Leo paid the price for his bravery. He succumbed to the smoke and heat.
Firefighters rushed the dog to safety and revived the unconscious Leo with a heart massage and oxygen."