Stimulus Spending on Art to Improve Outdoor Aesthitics in Clare Michigan

While I was in Clare Michigan a few weeks ago to haul steel for Alro Steel, I noticed a peculiar looking bicycle rack inside the plant of JD Metalworks (one of Alro's customers) where I was delivering a truckload of steel. upon closer inspection and some questioning, it was revealed to me that it was actually part of the economic stimulus money from the ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act). The project arrived there at their plant as a coil of tube steel and some flat peices. They worked the steel and welded it together according to the plans that came with it and then painted it to specifications.

The area around central lower Michigan, where Clare is located is fairly sparsely populated and remote. Sprinkled throughout the cornfields there rises an occasional corrugated steel building with lots of SUV's parked nearby. Some of these shops are just outbuildings close to a farmhouse itself! The predominate industry in the region is steel working and fabricating in support of building industrial grade wood chippers. Three world renowned brands are manufactured there; Woodsman, Morebark, and Bandit. These wood chippers are so big that semi-tractors must pull them! They can devour entire trees in seconds. They are used by developers who clear land for construction here and abroad. Nothing is wasted. The entire tree can be turned into mulch, packaged and sold in stores.

But this little curious project caught my eye as we were unloading the steel from the truck, and I inquired about it. I was told that it was an art project that was funded by the stimulus money of taxpayers.

As I said it looked like a bicycle rack at first, but upon closer inspection it turned out to just be a work of art. Notice the Obama Administration's "going green" theme is promoted here by the form and color. If you are ever in Clare Michigan I hope that you get the chance to see this in person, but if not, you can enjoy this cell phone photograph below!

 

Your tax dollars hard at work in Clare Michigan!

 

The Ethics of Cost Shifting as Related to Liberty and Freedom

The current driver at the heart of the health care issue today is the ethics behind cost shifting behavior. To understand this we must first look at the definition of 'cost shifting'. "Cost Shifting is the moving of the costs of services or goods from the person who actually incurred the costs to another person or entity that is in a better position to pay those costs". This is also known as the Robin Hood effect and it frequently occurs in the health care industry and other government regulated industries.

The statement that the President has repeatedly made regarding "bending the cost curve" illustrates that they (liberals in power) just do not understand that the government's lower than market payments for health services have caused the very problem of cost shifting in regards to pricing. In other words, the government has caused the runaway inflation in health care costs. The under payments within all government run insurance systems (Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, and others) are exactly what has driven up health care costs. Government has caused the spiraling health care costs!

Let's take a look at the Massachusetts system as an example of what our government is determined to foist upon us all. Since it instituted the "universal coverage" system that covers everyone in Massachusetts, the cost of private insurance has fallen steadily. In and of itself, that is a good thing, but during the same period, payments from Medicare and Medicaid have also fallen. The reduced market power of hospitals as a result of the system structure has produced an inability for providers to shift costs, along with a corresponding precipitous dip in profit margins^[1]. This situation has caused the providers to either lower the standards of care in order to maintain profitability (viability as an entity in the communities that they serve is dependent upon showing a profit), or file for bankruptcy, or simply close the doors and go out of business. So the wonderful system of Romneycare for everyone is driving up unemployment as clinics either fold or leave the state for better economies elsewhere. This type of invasive government intrusion into any market has this effect as a predictable outcome. The outcome will not be any different if our Federal Government attempts this same scheme.

And it was recently reported that the Massachusetts government was proposing to drop over 30,000 legal immigrants in order to cut costs because of a serious shortfall in funding for the program! Is this what we really want for the entire United States?

While the employer based system certainly has a few minor flaws, it is by far a better framework within which appropriate cost shifting can occur. Cost shifting enables our system to treat individuals who have no insurance, or who are under-insured to receive prompt medical treatment. Could our system be tweaked to help contain spiraling costs for the "haves"; yes. Does it need to be totally redone to accomplish this; no.

As Ronald Wilson Reagan said, "More government is not the answer, because government is the problem". There are simpler ways to affect the changes that would be welcomed by everyone. Legislation to allow individuals and small companies to pool risk, portability of policies, tax credits for those who are below the poverty level. Modification of the laws regarding how health care savings accounts are administered and treated for tax purposes (allow year over year rollover of unused funds tax free rather than the current forfeiture scheme). Tax incentives for employers to contribute to employees individual HSA's. Modification of the McCarran-Ferguson ACT of 1945 to allow for interstate sales of health insurance policies which would foster real competition within the industry nationwide and therefore drive down costs. Allow for temporary coverage for transients (those between jobs not of their own volition).

Would any of these solutions have a deleterious affect on cost shifting? certainly, but in a positive way for all! None of those methods mentioned above would drive the level of care down as has happened in Massachusetts. The real question at the heart of the issue; "is cost shifting ethical?" Yes it is. it is the most fair system that has ever been devised. It automatically maintains a high level of care for all participants. Whereas the system that congress is considering would produce a two tier system; public for the serfs and private for the wealthy elite. Think that is not possible? Look no further than just north of the border to Canada where the public system is coming apart at the seams because it isn't working. The Canadian doctors have started to open private clinics in defiance of the government because the demand for care is so high and the tightly controlled government supply of services has caused a vast gulf within the societal structure that can only be addressed by the free market! By the way, the doctors readily admit to advancing their family and relatives up to the top of the waiting lists for services! And government officials have access to private physicians and hospitals that regular citizens do not.

Is it ethical to require every citizen to carry health insurance? No! That is a direct assault upon our liberty. It was a direct assault on our liberty to require everyone who drives to carry automobile insurance (especially since we live in a "no fault" state in which every policy issued has an "uninsured motorist" clause in it)! How can there be uninsured motorists in a country where everyone who drives is required to carry automobile insurance? Yet we all pay for the clause anyway! This is not about health care. It is all about power and control over the population. What better way to enslave the public is there than to make them dependent upon the government for health care? None!

While there are legitimate small issues that could be addressed within American Health Care, the liberals are merely using it as a vehicle to make the population dependent upon a massive, bloated and all powerful government. That is the antithesis of the principles that our country was founded upon. Smaller and less intrusive government is what America was all about at the beginning and what it is still about today. Keep the faith my friends. We must not relent in our opposition to this socialistic dragon that is embodied by the liberals. We must not fail to defeat this vile threat to our liberty and freedom. I will not rest until this assault is crushed. Join me in this fight, call your representatives, go to a town hall and demand to be heard, write emails to your representatives and engage friends, family, acquaintances and strangers in a constructive dialogue that empowers them to see this for what it is; an all out assault upon their freedom and liberty!

^[1] AcademyHealth report on Healthcare Financing and Organization as commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, charts and notes on pages 15 and 16.

Lies, Spies and Hypnotyze; The Real Obama Plan.

Well, the "Agitator in Chief" has felt the need to roll up his sleeves and show the hapless liberal Democrats is congress just how to schmooze and wow the crowd. He is, at long last, leading by example. Showing them just how to steamroller and bamboozle all the lowly serfs that are turning out at Town Hall meetings across the country. Using his cult of personality along with intense focus groups and hand picked attendees to his so called public town hall meetings, and of course liberal coverage by the Pop-Tart media he has attempted to quell the growing tide of public revolt against the plethora of bad legislation that has recently slithered out of the halls of Congress.

But lets take a look at the real facts here compared against what the President claimed yesterday. The President has said repeatedly that you can keep your current insurance and doctors if you are happy with them, but the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that up to as many as 10 million people would loose their employer based coverage and be forced into the public option plan. (And that is most likely a very conservative number, the true number may be as high as 83 million as estimated by The Heritage Foundation).

The President said that "Insurance companies basically get $177 Billion of taxpayer money to provide services that Medicare already provides". But according to Robert Zirkelbach at America's Health Insurance Plans, a trade association, about 10.2 million Medicare recipients are in Medicare Advantage. Under that program, the government pays insurers a set amount per Medicare beneficiary. Obama ridiculed it as costly and redundant, but the plan provides benefits such as vision, dental, and hearing to seniors and helps coordinate health care for those with chronic conditions.

The President asserts that there is no death panels, but the fact is that the house bill (HR3200) would require that Medicare pay for end-of-life counseling sessions for seniors every five years starting at age 65 (read the bill section 1233). It would not require anyone to act, but this is a macabre and repulsive section in the legislation that counsels the vulnerable elderly, many of whom already feel as if they are a burden to remaining family members. The very idea that one would push them towards a Kevorkian decision with "counseling" is absolutely abhorrent to anyone who has a conscience.

The President has also asserted that the AARP has endorsed the plan. The AARP has issued a press release to make it clear that it has not endorsed any particular health care proposal. "Indications that we have endorsed any of the major health care reform bills currently under consideration in Congress are inaccurate".

So you see, the Community Organizer in Chief is himself, agitated at the fact that he is losing the PR battle here over his massive power grab, his socialistic agenda, his baby. In the words of an unknown soldier, "He has chosen this hill to die on" and he is fighting for his political life. He may well take the Democratic Party with him to the grave. And we can only hope so because of something that Norman Mattoon Thomas said in 1944. Norman was a leading American Socialist and a six-time Presidential Candidate. While campaigning in 1944 he stated that; "The American People will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." he went on to say that, "I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democratic Party has adopted our platform."

Friends, let me be clear here, the people have read the bill, they do not like it because it is characteristically un-American in nature. And the demonizing and name calling from the left is not helping their cause here. There is no Democracy without public dissent. Public dissent can not be parsed from passionate emotions. This is a representative democracy, what is also known more accurately as a republic. This public unrest that you are witnessing is the normal state of our republic as it was designed by the founding fathers who framed the Constitution which guarantees each individual the right to voice their concerns. Intimidation against such is what is un-American.

The left is worried because they have underestimated the willingness to become involved, the intelligence, passions and depth of engagement of the public. The backlash that they are witnessing is organic, not organized. This is personal to each and everyone involved, just as the topic of abolition was years ago. And we all know what happened with that issue; it divided the country into north and south, Yankees and Rebels, and ultimately resulted in a very bloody civil war to end slavery in this country. Over 620,000 men lost their lives in those four years.

Now to combat what it deems as "misinformation", the Administration plans to collect email addresses and names from volunteer spies, so that it can target and harass citizens who dared to read the bill and voice their concerns about it! John Solas, who confronted Congressman John Dingle at the Town Hall Meeting while pushing his 39 year old son who has Downs Syndrome in his wheelchair, was visited by Obama's union thugs in the middle of the night at his home in Milan Michigan that very night! Friends, this is not about health care, it is about power and money, and they do not care who they step on or maim in the process of the acquisition of it! This is just bad legislation, bad politics, and very un-American behavior from the radical leftist liberal Democrats now in power. They must be defeated in 2010. They must be routed from office, before they can inflict any more damage on our precious republic. Act now, decide to vote them out as soon as possible. Go to a town hall meeting and voice your concerns; Beat back their rhetoric with truth and sound reasoning, send out emails, make phone calls. Become an involved and engaged American; be Patriotic. The time to act is now!

On A Personal Note..

This past weekend was a good one for me. I attended my Half Sister's wedding and reception on Saturday afternoon and evening. The happy couple (Donald and Erica) will have a wonderful honeymoon in Paris. I had lots of fun catching up with family members that I had not seen in as much as 30 years! Had a few drinks, and even danced a little bit too! But not too much, living with heart failure can really be a bummer sometimes. I had a lot of fun regardless.

It was good also to visit with my Dad a little bit. He had a really good time at the reception, we will eventually download the video from youtube and post it here!

I also got to visit with my Mother at her house. I had not been there in almost two years. It was a very nice visit. (she even remembered to not smoke in the house while I was there!) I do wish that she could kick that habit. I am sure that she will soon because she is retiring this year. She only is going to go back for 28 days when school starts and then she is done. 29 years after she started, and a Masters degree plus 16 credits later, she is retiring with a very good pension for a teacher. She told me that she will receive only $200 less per month than she now gets for working! That is pretty darn good if you ask me. She is truly the last of a dying breed; hard workers that earned a defined benefit from a government entity.

However, the very best part of the weekend for me personally was that I got to catch up with my best friend Scott, whom I had not seen in over three years. We went out for a bite to eat for lunch on Sunday at Arthur Treachers. I got out of the car and walked over to the door of his pickup truck as he got out and I reached out to shake his hand and he grabbed my shoulder with his left hand and pulled me close for a hug. I responded in kind immediately, and we started talking about everything as if it were just yesterday when we last got together.

Like two chatty Kathy's we went on for about a two hour piece of time as we polished off our lunches together. We talked about how the economy and the landlord for his business were forcing him to close the doors for good after 18 years. It was just him and I that started it back then. I was his second employee, the first besides him. He looked good, but told me that he was stressed and burdened by the overwhelming struggle to keep the doors open at his shop. He has determined that he will be out of the building for good within 3 weeks.

But as one door shuts, another one invariably opens within view. He has good ideas all the time, and he is seeking out patents for some of them. That will help produce royalty income for him as he transitions into different income producing ventures.

I was glad to hear all of that especially since he hasn't been sleeping well or eating right of late. He is already handicapped by physical disabilities with plates in his head and rods and screws in his lower back, and a buggered up right knee (he was beaten severely and left for dead by five gang members five years ago this month). The cartilage of his right knee was destroyed and the entire meniscus had to be removed. So that knee is bone on bone and is a constant source of pain to him. Still he refuses to take anything stronger than over the counter Alieve for pain because he does not want to become dependent upon or addicted to pain pills, in addition to having drug allergies. So, like me on the dance floor, we both have to pace ourselves for the long haul of getting through each day.

He showed me pictures on his blackberry of all his MRI's and Xrays of all the hardware that he has in his body. I told him that when I got off the phone with his wife Tracy, the day that she told me what happened to him, I just cried for a while, and then I prayed for them. For him, his wife and their two girls I prayed every day till he returned home from the hospital. He thanked me for the sentiment. I just could not imagine loosing a loving husband, a doting father and a best friend in that way.

It was a very good visit. I will not wait so long before going to see him again. And he would like to come and visit us here in Michigan soon as well. It just does so much good for the soul to really connect with a good (especially a "best") friend every so often. Life only gives you a handful of them if you are lucky so they are very precious indeed! May God continue to bless you and your family until our next visit Scott.

Love, David.

The New Liberal Tactics For Town Hall Meetings

Well I attempted to attend the Town Hall Meeting that Congressman John Dingle held in Romulus Michigan last night. But instead of getting in to see and hear him, and participate by being heard by him, we stood outside in line for over an hour and a half while the meeting went on inside. The newest tactic employed by the liberal Democrats is that in order to appear to actually care what the public's true opinion is, (they cannot just cancel these meetings, or change it to a phone meeting), but instead the tactic is to hold it in a venue that is way too small to accommodate all who wish to attend. So John Dingle chose to hold this meeting at the Romulus Athletic Club, which has a maximum capacity of just 200 people in the meeting room!

Let me be perfectly clear, there were well over 500 citizens that showed up to participate, and "Team Dingle" knew full well how many were expected to show up. They not only deliberately chose a venue that was too small, but they also bussed in their own astro-turf. While we were standing in line at the main entrance to get in, the busloads of SEIU and ACORN members along with the state run, Obama worshiping, Pop-Tart media, and a few token planted citizen drones were ushered into the back door! They filled the room and effectively shut out the real public, just like they have shut out the conservative Republicans on the hill when it comes to authoring important legislation.

His wife, Debbie Dingle did come out and feigned concern that there would be a second session. She was being asked questions about the bill that she could not answer. Over 90% of the people waiting to get in were against this legislation. There were police everywhere inside and out. And of course the local Obama Mania Media was there to put the spin on it that we were just a bunch of angry mobsters. The people were civil towards each other, albeit loudly protesting at times. I started a chant a few times "Just say no" and "Read the bill".

Saul Alinsky would be proud John. You executed the rules for radicals verbatim. Pick the target (the real citizens), Isolated it (left it outside the meeting), froze it (out of the process), and effectively marginalized it (had the media spin us concerned citizens as far right mobsters). Good job John, you should be damned proud. Be sure and score yourself high marks with the head Marxist, Obama. You are a sell out. You are out of touch. You, the longest serving member of the House of Congress (50 years now) are a career politician, which is exactly why you will never understand just how far out of touch you are. You haven't lived in the real world in half a century! The people that you are supposed to represent love liberty, freedom, and the right to exercise free speech and personal responsibility, to be able to choose for themselves if or what coverage is right for them and not to have the government dictate what it thinks is best for them!

It is time to retire your crusty butt from public service John. You have outlived you usefulness to the people whom you are supposed to represent in this country.

This monstrosity of a bill will bankrupt our country, our grandchildren, and it will mete out care by rationing on some macabre scheme sanctioned by Obama and his henchmen; the brothers Emmanuel. Dr. Ezekiel "Mengele" Emmanuel's perspective is despicable concerning who warrants care and who doesn't. He would deny care for those who are disabled or are elderly or who have chronic diseases that cost too much to treat. And he is Obama's top go-to guy on the board of effective comparative care research!

Dingle, you sir are a traitor. The true tactics of the liberal far left Democrats is plain to see here. This is not about health care, it is a pure power grab. A consolidation of power over the people of this great country. Shame on you for participating in it John.

True Healthcare Reform

If you think that our government is not pushing for a single payer system like they have in Canada and the United Kingdom, you need to watch the video posted below this article.

There are two resons that businesses exist. First they serve a need within the community, and secondly they provide income for the employees and owners of the business. Even Not for Profit busiensses like charities still meet these two requirments. When the government starts dictating profit levels within any business, it is distorting the market, not controlling it!

The free market system is the system that can most efficiently allocate resources within any market. Profit is a noble and legitimate desire for any business. In order to maximize profits a company allocates its resources as the market dictates. When the government inserts itself into business and dictates executive pay, a doctors pay, a clinic or hospitals fees, or which services should be rendered, it is distorting the entire market.

The best thing that government can do is to get out of the way! The market can do a much better job of regulating industries and busiensses. To understand this consider that if business 'A' and business 'B' both sell widgets. Company 'A' is gouging its customers while company 'B' treats its customers well. Word gets around and eventually people stop patronizing company 'A'. Company A will either fold or change its behavior, either way the market has regulated itself. That's right, governments do not regulate, markets do! Governments merely interfere with and distort markets. Treating customers poorly or gouging them is counter intuitive to good business practices. When the government over-regulates any particular industry, it sets the stage for all companies to treat customers poorly (usually by unintended consequences) which distorts the entire market. Any monopolistic approach, either through lack of competition or by overzealous governmental regulation (no matter how well intentioned) results in severe market distortion.

Market distortion is a hallmark of dictatorships, and regimes that are socialistic or communistic. It is not the idea that the United States was founded upon. Understanding this concept is key to understanding why the single payer health care system that our government wants to institute is a really bad idea. It will set the stage for rampant abuse, fraud, and very poor outcomes for consumers. It is very desirable for doctors, hospitals and clinics to make a profit for their services, because it is secondary to providing good services for consumers. No doctors get up in the morning thinking about how to make money that day! They are thinking about producing the very best outcomes for the patients that they will serve.

Why some services cost so very much is precisely because of market distortion. Market distortion in this case comes from governments lack of regulation in another industry. Lack of regulating tort-awards. Frivolous lawsuits with outrageous awards have driven up malpractice insurance costs, which impacts the costs for insurers and consumers. John Stossel did a report for the acclaimed television show 20/20 several years ago that chronicled how some doctors were driven out of the states that they were practicing in because of how expensive malpractice insurance was. This was producing a severe shortage of general practitioners and several specialists (like gynecologists) in those areas.

Now the Federal Government wants to shoot a mouse with an elephant gun by doing a complete takeover of the entire health care system! rather than just addressing the issues that they have created, they presume to "fix" the entire system! That is just ludicrous!

The best way for them to actually help in this instance would be first to implement true tort reform. Secondly allow doctors and hospitals to purchase malpractice insurance across state lines. Thirdly, change the way that HSA'a are administered by allowing pre-tax dollars that are put into them to roll over from year to year instead of forfeiting what is leftover in them at the end of the year. And allowing a 7% or $14,000 (whichever is more) employee contribution. Also encourage employers to contribute towards individual employees HSA's with a tax incentive as well. Treat unused HSA funds as a retirement supplement for employees (tax defered until death). Fourth, route out the existing fraud, waste and abuse within the Medicare and Medicaid systems. Fifth, scrap the Veterans Administration and allow our heros to participate in the best medical system in the world; the existing health care system! Better outcomes, less paperwork, less waste and fraud comes from free markets. Sixth, stop allowing illegal immigrants and convicted fellons access to our system and paying for the services that they consume! Bill the country of origin, or the families for God's sake! stop leaving the taxpayers holding the bag. Seventh and finally, cover the true number of uninsured and underinsured with tax incentives.

Notice that none of the seven real ways to actually "fix" the problems with our health care system today include a complete takeover of the system by a government run single payer plan. None of those seven fixes would distort the market either. And all seven of them combined would not cost anywhere near the outrageous money that they are want to squander now!