The Conservative Ascendency

How is it that our government has become so far removed from the people? I mean, everyone that I talk to has a very hard time squaring the venomous bills being penned in the halls of congress with the will of the people. If you read any one of them, it quickly becomes apparent that the administration has a private agenda that it is desperately trying to enact, despite the will of the people. Obama promised hope and change. He is denying the former, and delivering the later. Where are the jobs? Only jobs can restore the hope. But Obama does not seem too concerned with restoring hope. He keeps blathering on about fundamentally transforming our economy, but what he really means to transform is our society as a whole by changing the fundamental relationship between the people and government.

Instead of receiving power at the behest of the people, he seeks to usurp it because he feels entitled to it. He knows what is best for our society. There is no need for discussion. There is no need for public discourse. That would only get in the way of progress. He has said "stop all the talking. I don't mind cleaning up the mess". He is so damned full of himself. He raised all kinds of campaign money from both inside and outside the country over the Internet, purchased his way into the White House. And now thinks that he can force his will on the entire population. He didn't count on meeting up with any resistance from conservatives. He failed to comprehend the sheer number of conservatives in this country and the magnitude of their outrage over his animus towards our Constitution, and the values and traditions upon which it is built.


Rush Limbaugh has said that the Conservative movement is on the ascendancy and he is right. Witness the Congressional race in N.Y. district 23 where there was a three way between a liberal Democrat, a moderate Republican (incumbent) and a Conservative. Today the incumbent Republican withdrew from the race and endorsed the Conservative candidate! her record was tainted with several inconsistencies regarding conservative positions, and by the latest polls she could not have won re-election anyways. But the real thing that is noteworthy about this is that the National Republican Congressional Committee which had poured over $900,000 into Dede Scazafava's campaign is now suddenly left without a candidate in the race. This district has been a solidly red district since the beginning of the Civil War. Instead of it switching to blue, the republican incumbent has dropped out of the race and endorsed the Conservative party candidate. Simply stunning! The NRCC and the RNC should take notice here. The base will find a party that best matches their values, and in New York that party is the Conservative Party.


I believe that this is the start of something that will spread faster than H1N1 across the entire country. It is high time that the values of the majority of the people in our country hold dear are given face in Washington D.C. The Republicans will be marginalized by their own ineffectiveness at recapturing their base. Their base has moved on, and found a new voice in the Conservative movement. We are not lost; we just found a new voice.

Sewage by any other name, still stinks!

Now, in eleventh-hour secret deliberations behind closed doors over a complete socialistic takeover of one-sixth of our economy (the health care industry), Nazi Pelosi has a "flash of Genius"; to rename the distasteful "Public Option" as the "Consumer Option". As if it will magically become more palatable to the public at large, and therefore become easier to ram through their holy grail of power grabs and enslave the public to government. She must have revisited her marketing 101 book from community college for that stroke of genius!


No matter what they decide to call it, it still can't pass the smell test. They should just incinerate the rotten corpse of an idea and start over by actually sitting down and talking with the conservative Republicans in Congress.

I spoke with one of my doctors today at the Infectious Disease Clinic at the hospital about the whole debacle.  I lamented that the same government that can't even grow a damned virus competently (H1N1 shortage anyone?) desires to take over our entire health care system. She countered that it was private companies that actually are manufacturing the virus. I didn't correct her, but I have heard otherwise. Or at the very least, the government sets all the standards for the manufacturing of flu viruses. So in one way or another, the government is ultimately responsible for the failure of the system to produce mass quantities in a timely manner. As is usually the case, government "regulations" create barriers to creativity, and hamper the natural process of creative destruction that is required for any economy to grow and thrive.


When government controls the means of production and distribution, that is by definition, statism also known as socialism. Where is the "choice and competition" in that?


In late breaking news today, independent Joe Leiberman, and even Olympia Snow have announced that they are not backing Harry Reid's push for a government option! Way to go Joe! Now the only bi-partisan action regarding the whole health care debate is with the opposition! LOL.


The thousand plus page legislation is becoming more and more gangrenous by the minute, and the putrefied stench of decomposition hangs heavy in the rarefied political air on Capitol Hill. The liberal horde should smell defeat and cut its losses, but instead they may just be lurching in the death throws, posturing in that telltale fetal position; one can only hope!

Rush Limbaugh on Leno

The Rush Limbaugh appearance on the Jay Leno show the other night was something to see. Rush looked great as ever having lost 85 pounds on his diet. He was like a conservative machine gun, cramming in as much as possible in the nine minutes that his interview was given. His appearance as a guest was capped off by a visit to the eco-challenge track outside Jay's new studio where guests try to get the best lowest score by driving the electric Ford car around a track while avoiding obstacles. the obstacles included cardboard cut-outs of such green people as Al Gore and Ed Bagley Jr. and also streamers that shoot out of cannons. Now I listen to Rush just about every day, and I knew that he would be on Jays show that night, and I knew what he was intent upon doing for this eco-challenge. He was going to attempt to get the worst score possible by hitting every one of the obstacles. And he did it in spades! Not only did he hit every obstacle, but when Al Gore jumped out in front of him, he put the car in reverse, and hit him a second and then third time! He did the same with Ed Bagley Jr. What a hoot! I was howling with laughter at the entire segment.

But what was really great about his appearance, besides being funny and entertaining, was that he was on prime time television with as many as 40 million viewers! Now that is some serious coverage. Rush Limbaugh, the undisputed king of conservative talk radio has a three-hour per day show that starts at noon eastern time for five days a week. His show has over 20 million loyal listeners like myself. So his appearance on Jay's show, doubled his audience during prime time and his conservative viewpoint was teased to many who have never tuned in to Rush's show.

Our current President has had no real world experience running anything other than campaigns which is why he is in perpetual campaign mode. He does not have any plans, just talking points. He has not produced any plans for anything be it the stimulus, financial industry mess, energy policy, foreign policy, Wall Street mess, manufacturing mess, or even health care. He has no plan. he is just winging it with campaign style rhetoric, staying on point with his talking points. And he looks so good on camera, plus he reads a mean teleprompter. But he has fails to drill down to the details every time. It is getting old. I for one am tired of all the positive campaign like exposure that the mainstream media is giving him. It is a little like an old worn out record with a deep scratch that keeps skipping back to the same groove; annoying.

And then there are the constant put downs of America itself which are also just as annoying. He has stated that he does not like the Constitution, he thinks that it is flawed, and our society is just as flawed so he takes every opportunity to point to everything that he feels is wrong with America on the world stage; annoying and dangerous. Dangerous because it emboldens our enemies who view him as weak. They (our enemies) praise Obama publicly for his apologetic attitude while privately plotting their next move against us.

I for one am so glad that Benjamin Netanyahu stood up at the UN and called the President of Iran a Holocaust denier, anti-Semite and admonished those leaders that did not walk out during Mamouds rant. He asked "Have you no shame?"

Everything about Obama as President is backwards; his positions on all the things previously mentioned. What would make us stronger as a nation, he attacks. He is hampering the recovery that is already been underway. If he would just shut up and get the hell out of the way, we the people could get on with recovering already. But Obama is all about himself; building monuments to his ego. Did you know that every single one of those road construction signs for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act with the Obama 'O' logo on it costs the taxpayers $1,300? and there are at least two of them for every site. How many sign makers do you know? At least they are staying busy. His shameless self promotion is unending and disgusting. 

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.