Archive for Government
Two Nights, one Hotel Room in Copenhagen Costs Taxpayers $4406.00
Posted by: | CommentsLet me get this straight: Americans are all being forced to: tighten their belts due to a recession caused by government interference with the housing market; warily watch the economy for the feared “double-dip” recession that, if it comes, will also have been caused by government interference in the Nation’s business; hold onto jobs that they don’t like for fear of being unable to find another one if they quit; take “stay-cations” because they can’t afford real vacations; and basically cut back on anything and everything.
Meanwhile, over 100 Representatives and government workers spent over $1.1 million dollars to attend the Copenhagen Summit. Not only did our Representatives spend 1.1 Million Tax-Payer Dollars to attend a summit based on fabricated evidence of Global Warming, (Climategate emails), but they also in no way accounted for the taxpayer money they spent while there. Furthermore, had the so-called leaders had their way, this Summit would have forced Americans to pay higher taxes and increased energy costs in order to subsidize third-world, emerging countries’ efforts to go “green”. So we go to a Climate Change Conference to pay countries like China to whom we already owe billions of dollars.
The recently released expense report lists each Representative and some staffers being reimbursed exactly $4,406.00. Nancy Pelosi claimed that $4,406.00 was the cost of the hotel (the Five Star Marriott Copenhagen):
Pelosi’s office did offer an explanation for the high room charges. Those who stayed just two nights were charged Read More→
A Form Letter Response from Senator Tom Harkin
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Senator Harkin, Let's put on the brakes and stop the internal destruction of these United States of America!
Here is the most recent form letter I received from Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) in response to a number of faxes I’ve sent him.
Pay careful attention to the twisting of information in an attempt to support his and President Obama’s agendas. It is worth noting that my responses from Republicans have been more detailed and have real content with factual details instead of containing agenda driven political spin.
Dear Friend:
I appreciate you taking the time to express your interest in health care reform. I am pleased to report that on December 24, 2009, I voted for, and the Senate passed, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which will lower costs, guarantee affordable coverage for all Americans, improve the quality of care, and reduce our federal budget deficit.
We can no longer settle for the status quo in our health system. Our current health care system leaves nearly 50 million Americans without insurance, including nearly 300,000 in Iowa. People can be denied coverage because of preexisting conditions, and can be dropped from their health insurance if they get a serious illness. They can be charged much higher rates if they are women, are older, or are sick, and can be cut from insurance entirely once they reach an annual or lifetime cap on payouts. Even those who have insurance can find that, due to coverage limitations or sky-high deductibles, it is woefully inadequate for their medical needs. A recent study of bankruptcy filings found that 62 percent of all bankruptcies were related to medical debt, and nearly 80 percent of those people actually had health insurance.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act contains critical reforms designed to overhaul our broken health care system. Among its immediate benefits, the bill prohibits insurers from imposing arbitrary and excessive limits on the benefits that they will pay out; bans insurance companies from canceling your insurance policy if you get sick; requires insurance companies to cover prevention and wellness services, with no co-pays or deductibles; requires insurance companies to permit children to stay on family policies until age 26; provides small businesses with tax credits of up to 35 percent of premiums, to help reduce the cost of providing health insurance to their employees; creates a re-insurance program for early retirees (before age 65), to help ensure they don’t lose health coverage before they are Medicare eligible; reduces the size of the “donut hole” in the Medicare drug benefit, and requires insurance companies to provide rebates to their customers if their administrative costs are too high.
When the bill is fully effective, the PPACA will guarantee a choice of quality, affordable coverage for all Americans. The bill will create new health insurance exchanges where people without access to affordable coverage will be able to easily shop and choose from a menu of quality health plans, much in the way members of Congress are able to do today. Tax credits and reductions in cost-sharing will further reduce the premiums and out-of-pocket costs that lower-income and middle-class Americans will have to pay. And, insurance companies will be barred from denying coverage, or charging higher premiums, because of a pre-existing conditions or gender.
Finally, of great importance to me, this legislation also places prevention and public health at the heart of our health reform efforts. As I have often said, currently in the U.S., we don’t have a health care system, we have a sick care system. If you’re sick, you get care. But we spend peanuts on prevention. The system and all of the incentives are focused on pills, surgery, hospitalization, and disability. This bill will give Americans access to a 21st century health care system – one that is focused on preventing disease, and helping us to live healthy, active, productive lives.
Among other things, the bill creates a Federal-level Prevention and Public Health Council, which will improve coordination among federal agencies in incorporating wellness into national policy, and will develop a national prevention and public health strategy. The bill includes a strong Prevention and Public Health Investment Fund, which will provide for expanded and sustained national investments in prevention and public health programs in communities across America. Communities will tailor programs to meet health challenges unique to their area. They can get creative; find out what works; and make a big difference.
At the clinical level, the bill will require reimbursement for proven, cost-effective preventive services such as smoking cessation, mental health screenings, cancer screenings, as well as obesity screening and counseling programs. And for essential screenings and annual physicals, our bill will eliminate the co-pays and deductibles that currently discourage many people from doing the right things to stay healthy.
From the beginning of this debate, my colleagues in the majority party and I have been committed to passing legislation that is fully paid for and does not add to the federal budget deficit. I am pleased to report that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that PPACA will actually reduce the federal budget deficit by $132 billion over the next ten years, and by $1.3 trillion in the ten years after that.
Currently, the Affordable Health Care for America Act and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which were passed respectively by the House and the Senate, are being melded together. Please be assured that as I continue my work on health reform, I will keep your views in mind.
To learn more about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, you can visit the Senate Democratic Policy Committee’s Website at http://dpc.senate.gov/dpcdoc-sen_health_care_bill.cfm. To view the Affordable Health Care for America Act, please visit the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Website at http://energycommerce.house.gov/. In addition, the White House has created a center where individuals can go to get the facts on the current reform effort. I encourage you to visit this information page, which can be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/realitycheck/.
Sincerely,
Tom Harkin
United States Senator
State of the Union Address Backpedal and Push
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Obama Receives the Backpedal Award
The Backpedal Medal aka Flip Flop until he drops! 1 hour and 10 minutes of swing in President Obama’s State of the Union Address.
Let’s keep the review short and sweet. He’s given up on “Hope and Change” and moved on (hmm?) to “Hopeful”. He lied, he whined, he blamed, he called out the Supreme Court, declared a deadline of August for troops to be completely out of Afghanistan, stated a freeze on spending to begin late 2011 (wow priority is not here!), announced a website for all pork/earmarks to be parked and viewed by the citizenry before a bill is passed, the crackpot several times called many other kettles black. He was pained as he delivered his speech. He didn’t even believe what he was saying.
He had an entire year with a Democratic Majority in the House, in the Senate and Oval Office and there were no positive accomplishments for an entire year. Don’t you dare attack the Republicans while your Liberal agenda has been pushed via Pelosi/Reid, or chastise the fast fleeing Democrats. Everyone knows what’s been going on and if they can’t support the administration, they are making their stand or retreat as needed.
He appears to want to continue beating the dead horse of health care, he appears weak on terrorists and no mention of Gitmo. And it seems the issue he wants to address most is Gays and Lesbians mainstreamed without “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” edict to be lifted. Was there nothing else more critical to be decisive on with this blathering speech?
How will the American Citizenry really feel about POTUS delivering the State of the Union Address? Find the answer below.
What will the State of The Union Address be about?
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Another carefully crafted speech from President Obama
With the State of the Union address being highly anticipated by many Americans, there are a number of us expecting to see a well scripted line of excuses and passing the blame onto President’s who are no longer running this country.
The issues expecting to be discussed in tonight’s address will most likely follow President Obama’s typical finely tuned lines of a campaign strategy speech, provided to him via a teleprompter, while filled with many empty promises for creating jobs, solving health care issues, and using cap and trade to fix the global warming issues that we all know don’t exist. Being a citizen of Iowa, I have spoken with many Iowans who would love to have some of that global warming right about now. The people of America are beyond the excuses and beyond the blame Bush practices, and simply want real solutions that will work to bring the U.S. economy back to a point of stabilization.
With expectations boiling, Paul A. Rahe, offers President Obama his version on BigGovernment.com, of what the State of the Union address should look like:
My fellow Americans, let me begin by stating the obvious. The state of our union is not good. We seem to be – we may be – coming out of a recession. But, if so, the recovery is not only jobless; it is accompanied by an increase in unemployment.
This is contrary to my expectation. When I became President, my economic advisers told me that the rate of unemployment would be considerably lower now than it is. They were mistaken, and I erred in taking their advice. The fault is mine. I may not have gotten us into a severe recession, but I advanced proposals and I pursued policies which have prolonged and deepened it. I am at fault.
To be precise, I signed into law a so-called stimulus bill that has thus far retarded economic growth by greatly increasing the size of the federal bureaucracy, the expense of supporting it, and the national debt. I urged Congress to pass cap-and-trade legislation that, had it become law, would have greatly increased the cost of energy, and I encouraged Congress to pass a healthcare reform that would have increased not only the cost of medical care but the burden on employers attendant on hiring. Everything that I did in my first year in office contributed to economic uncertainty and made employers less likely to hire and investors wary of investing. I am at fault.
Read more on Paul’s version…
When asked for a statement about tonight’s address, Congressman Steve King (R-IA) had this to say,
“President Obama has had so many things that have gone wrong. His popularity has gone down substantially and some of it for good reason. So the argument that he would put a cap or a freeze on discretionary spending is something that had been leaked out that I think he intends to say, but that doesn’t do much and I don’t think it changes the political tide.”
While searching for to see what others are writing about the State of the Union address, I found that many of the main stream media sources, who use to support President Obama, are now offering up back-handed views of what they expect to hear tonight.
Obama to Seak Spending Freeze – Really?
Posted by: | CommentsPresident Obama is apparently seeking a spending freeze for the 2011 Federal Budget. The report comes from comments by senior administration officials.
The freeze being proposed by the President’s would apply to annual spending on day-to-day government programs that does not involve mandatory spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. According to reports, the spending freeze will not include defense programs that include the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, foreign aid, budgets of Veteran’s Administration, and Department of Homeland Security.
As much as I like the idea of a Federal Budget spending freeze, I am left wondering what took them so long? And, because of the many questionable tactics of this administration Read More→
What will Democrats Strategy Involve After Scott Brown Win?
Posted by: | CommentsShortly after it was announced that Scott Brown won the Massachusetts election many Democrats came out to make a number of statements about what their strategy might involve.
Jim Webb (D-VA) suggested, “only be fair and prudent that we suspend further votes on health care legislation until Brown is seated.”
Yet, many of us are already aware of Democratic discussions to fast-track the health care bill in an attempt to ram it through before Scott Brown is seated into office. Interestingly enough, these are not the only discussion taking place right now.
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) commented that it might not be a bad thing to take a step back from the health care legislation to concentrate on the creation of jobs (I’m wondering what took them so long?) while trying to add some health care into any bills relating to jobs. This idea is precisely why we need to have laws for legislation to only include amendments that directly relate to the bill they are being attached to.
There have been a number of other ideas suggested, including an option called “reconciliation”.
Harry Reid has made the statement that Scott Brown would be seated as soon as the proper paperwork is done.
Another statement by Reid reads, “Regardless of the size of their minority caucus, Senate Republicans have always had an obligation to join us in governing our nation through these difficult times. Today’s election doesn’t change that. In fact it is now more important than before for Republicans to work with us rather than against us if we are to find common ground that improves Americans’ lives.” Apparently, he is now trying to blame the Republicans for not wanting to work with Democrats when it has been the Dems who have been locking opposition out of a number of meetings. This is an issue that has brought many to believe there should be rule changes to prevent opposition from being locked out of meetings involving legislative talks. This serious issue could easily be used to block opposition on both sides of the fence and has been issue drawing concern by many concerned citizens and legislators.
Truth be known, only time will tell what the Democrats will actually do about the huge upset for Dems. in the Massachusetts Senate election.
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