The Velvet StraitJacket

It’s difficult to figure out amidst all of the swirling mess that makes up “health care reform” just what exactly is getting reformed.  President Obama learned the lesson of the Hillarycare debacle and has been pretty cagey on specifics, even when he is expecting to sign a bill on it by the end of the summer.  Of course, Hillarycare was a full blown plan that could be analyzed and picked apart.  Obama is not interested in having the same result so the few real details that have been leaked have been rather limited.  Of course, with this Congress, who needs details?  They’re more than willing to vote for a bill unread and fresh off the presses.  After all, as Congressperson Malibu Stacy might say, “Thinking too much gives you wrinkles.” 

But one thing is clear, if it’s going to be reform in any way that Obama and the far left of the Democratic Party care about, it’s got to have the “Public Option.”  Right now the administration is having it both ways.  On the one hand it’s saying that it has no intention of driving private insurers out of business, but on the other hand, reassuring Congressional Democrats that the President is still committed to having a public option as part of his vision of health care reform. 

Why the Public Option?  The formal answer was included in Obama’s letter to Senators Kennedy and Baucus:

“I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans. This will give them a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest.”

Competition?  There are approximately 1300 health insurance providers in the US.  Really, will 1301 really make the difference and suddenly lead to “a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest?”  That’s all it would take, just one more provider?  The idea is so ridiculous that you would have to be a White House journalist to buy it.

What makes the public option the crown jewel of any health care reform plan?  It’s the camel’s nose under the tent for single payer government healthcare.  No, this isn’t just Republican scare-mongering.  I can hardly imagine any other conclusion for the insistence on a government healthcare plan.  And it’s easy to see how it would happen.  The logic is this:  One of the keys of health care reform is an individual mandate, but you can’t very well have one if people cannot afford to buy health insurance, so you have to provide an option for people too poor to pay.  Enter the public option.  An analysis of several public option scenarios shows that premiums could be 30 to 40 percent less than comparable private plans.  That of course hinges on the government paying reimbursement rates comparable to Medicare, which are 70-80 percent of what private insurers pay. 

So one of the ways the Obama plan controls costs is just by paying the doctors and hospitals less.  I’m sure that will make a great incentive for people to go into the medical field.  And who wouldn’t want to be taxed to subsidize their competitor?

But that’s not the fiscal time bomb.  First, the same analysis shows that depending on the premium rate for the public option, 119 million people could lose their private health insurance.  Some of course, would voluntarily flee.  If the public plan has lower premiums, what do they care what rate their doctor gets paid at?  Others would find themselves dumped.  Why would companies want the expense of maintaining their own health insurance coverage when a public plan can offer lower premiums?  Private plans of course have to have doctors and facilities join their networks voluntarily. Not an issue for the government.

Another issue is that the Obama administration, in order to help finance their reform schemes, wants to make it more difficult for employers and employees to pay for health care benefits.  One plan is to tax the employee health care benefits by capping the employee health care exclusion.  That excludes company health care benefits from an employee’s taxable income.  Another actually violates one of Obama’s campaign promises, not to tax health care benefits.  Obama criticized John McCain’s plan to tax employer health care benefits during the campaign, but at least McCain was going to transfer the tax benefit to individuals to enable them to purchase health insurance with a tax credit.  Obama is just keeping the money for the federal trough. 

Driving Private health insurance out of the market has happened before.  TennCare was supposed to be Tennessee’s version of “the public option.”  The goal was to reduce health care costs by covering a larger group of lower income people than were normally covered by Medicaid guidelines.  Many features of TennCare mirrored some of the Obama health reform proposals.  The few remaining insurance companies have dumped their most expensive members onto the public plan, and the cost has far exceeded projections.  Closed hospitals, doctors fleeing the state, uncontrolled spiraling cost… that’s our future.

It’s fairly easy to see how this will play out if we get the public option.  First it will cover a few of the lower middle class, and then the taxes on both employers and employees will push some companies that are in marginal fiscal health (a rather large number since we are in a recession) to drop their plans.  Eventually, it will make no sense to provide a health insurance benefit when it no longer provides any tax benefit to the company or to the employee.  As the companies in Tennessee discovered, it was easier and less hassle to pay the extra penalty tax for not providing health insurance to it’s employees.  Eventually, a health insurance benefit will be as uncommon for the average American worker as a defined benefit pension plan now is.  The government will end up with the healthcare costs of most of the American workforce.

At that point, the rationing will begin, but that’s another story.

What I can’t figure out, is why the government would want to take up an open ended financial liability that it does not currently have, to provide a service that is currently being provided by the free market, and in doing so destroy large segments of the economy that is now providing that service?  Anyone?   Bueller?  If there is a better reason than just runaway statism that wants to make dependent charges of its citizens, I would love to hear it.

Now does President Obama know what he’s doing, or does he sincerely not see how his plans would destroy the private insurance market?  He gave a little clue during his June press conference on health care.  When asked by ABC’s Jake Tapper how he could guarantee that cheaper public plans wouldn’t drive out employer funded private care.

“When I say if you have your plan and you like it,…or you have a doctor and you like your doctor, that you don’t have to change plans, what I’m saying is the government is not going to make you change plans under health reform…”

That’s a change from earlier comments on the same issue:

“If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.”

OK now I guess you can lose your health plan.  Period.

At that point, I wouldn’t have been surprised if President Obama had turned to the camera and winked.

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Many moons ago I wrote  a blog  about Sarah Palin and her ties with AIP, the Alaskan Independent Party, whose sole mission in life is to secede from the union and become their own country.

President Palin do you do solemnly swear that you will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of your Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States?

Sure, it could happen. John McCain isn’t as young and healthy as he once was. Chances of him becoming incapacitated or dying while in office are exponentially increased because of his age. I’m not saying anything that we all haven’t thought. So yes, President Palin could be standing along Pennsylvania Ave with her hand on the bible taking the oath of office and leading this country with all her wisdom and vast political experience, before any of us, including and especially her, are ready for it.

The right wants to point to the fact that this is a make-believe fairy tale. They counter that there is also a chance that McCain will live and she will learn while on the job, but Barack, well Barack will be the one who is actually in driver seat on day one if he gets elected.

Fair enough. I can’t argue that.

Palin is the only one on either ticket who actually Governed.

Fair enough. I can’t argue that.

It’s also fair enough that Palin is a beautiful, charming, no nonsense, tough as nails woman who took on her own party when she saw corruption. By all accounts she’s a down to earth, full-on red-blooded American sweetheart. A true-blue patriotic American sweetheart who was once part of a party that since 1970, has been pushing for a legal vote for Alaska to secede from the nation.

Whoa… Whoa.. Whoa…… What?!?

The Alaskan Independence Party (AIP) is a party that was founded by a goldminer who was fiercely proud of his state, doesn’t want to be buried under the American flag and wants Alaska to secede from the United States. From October 1995 through July 2002 Todd, Palin’s husband, was a member of AIP. In 1994 Sarah Palin was also a member and they of even attended the state wide AIP convention in her hometown of Wasilla.

Now that’s my kind of patriot. That’s the person I want standing on the lawn of the White House, in a pretty dress-suit, with her beautiful family surrounding her and looking on as she takes the oath of office. I wonder how that works though. Is she taking the oath of office for this country? Or for the country the AIP wants to create when Alaskan leaves the Union.

The man who founded the Alaskan Independence Party, Joe Vogler had this to say about America

“I’m an Alaskan, not an American. I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions.” …

“The fires of Hell are glaciers compared to my hate for the American government.”

AIP’s leader is also on record as saying that members “must infiltrate the other two party’s” and “push for ‘Alaskan independence‘”. Well, I guess you can check that off the “To do” List.

If Jeremiah White’s words and actions painted Obama as unpatriotic, then what does the Palin’s own action paint her as?

There are other things in Palin’s past that are sure to come out in the coming days. But with the allegations of her abuse of power, her teenage daughter pregnancy and marriage, her ultra-short time in office, the republicans have been stripped of running on experience, family values, ethics and now patriotism. How can they give any speech on any of these issues with Palin waiting in the wings?

On the other side is a controversy that if proven could rock the chance of Obama to enter the White House. On the Republican side, the Vice Presidential candidate was a member of a group that doesn’t want or even like, the United States of America.

Only in America..

To be fair, The McCain camp has since denied this whole thing. But of course they would have to. Imagine the judgment issues had he not known about this and the teen pregnancy issue. Of course he is the maverick, maybe he did know about both and went for it anyway.

But whether he knew about it or not, AIP members do know and they say that the McCain campaign pushback that Pain was never part of the AIP is “hooey.” and “..like a cat covering up crap in its litter box”

It will be disputed whether she was an actual member or not. Since her husband was for 7 years though, does it make it any better if she wasn’t? It didn’t matter that it was Barack’s pastor who said those awful things. His judgement and his patriotism were called into question for his association with Rev Wright. So can we use this against Sara Palin the same way? In and of itself, I don’t think so. My husband and I have very different political views so I wouldn’t want to be judged by his. But we also have her judgment for not supporting those explicit sex-ed programs. For not supporting abortion even in the extreme case of rape or incest, and then bad judgment call of trying to get her low-life brother in law fired when she became governor.

In and of themselves, none of those things are enough to disqualify her from the 2nd most powerful job in the world. But taken as a whole… they should give one pause. The also all beg to question, if John McCain knew about all of this, what was he thinking and if he didn’t, why the hell not! If he would put such a person on his ticket who the MSM has uncovered more dirt on in the last 5 days than they were able to for the last 18 months on Barack, why in the hell would anyone trust him to run the oval office? How could you trust any person he would pick to serve at his pleasure?

We had a maverick in office who put people in jobs as he saw fit, whether they were qualified or not and we saw how that work out, (heck of a job, Brownie)… So do we really want another one?

What a bizarre political crossroad we find ourselves at this year.

Back then, everyone from the McCain camp to posters on the muchedumbre politikal gossip  forum argued that this was simply not true, Sarah was not part of the party and even if her husband was.. it didn’t really mean anything…

“Clearly irritated by what he saw as Palin’s

attempt to mislead her own campaign”

Today, victory is mine and Howie’s.. for we tried to tell those who wear blinders that while Obama was wrong to socialize and sit in a church with the likes of Rev Wright preaching to him, he atleast condemned Wright when confronted with evidence of his hate-speech… but when sweet, sweet Sara’s dark history was found… well, she ordered the McCain camp to lie about it…

Pls get in front of that ridiculous issue that’s cropped up all day today – two reporters, a protestor’s sign, and many shout-outs all claiming Todd’s involvement in an anti-American political party,” Palin wrote. “It’s bull, and I don’t want to have to keep reacting to it … Pls have statement given on this so it’s put to bed.”

Palin said in an email to McCain campaign’s chief strategist, Steve Schmidt., obtained by CBS News. Schmidt replied “Ignore it.. He was a member of the aip? My understanding is yes. That is part of their platform. Do not engage the protestors. If a reporter asks say it is ridiculous. Todd loves america.”
Yes, he loves America as much as anyone who wishes to secede from it does..

“Palin was attempting to bend the facts

ever so slightly to fit neatly into her version of events…”

Anyway, this is where is gets good..Sarah wasn’t happy with  a lowly presidential campaign’s chief strategist telling her what to do, and to make sure he knew who was boss the Diva CC’d her replies to her own people in the hopes of showing who was really the boss.. She wanted McCain’s people to fix what her husband had been a part of for 7 years .

from CBS.Com

“That’s not part of their platform and he was only a ‘member’ bc independent alaskans too often check that ‘Alaska Independent’ box on voter registrations thinking it just means non partisan,” Palin wrote. “He caught his error when changing our address and checked the right box. I still want it fixed.”

Palin was attempting to bend the facts ever so slightly to fit neatly into her version of events. In truth, the box that Alaskans have the option of checking when registering to vote states the full name of the party, “Alaskan Independence Party,” not “Alaska Independent,” which would make an error by uncommitted voters more plausible.

Clearly irritated by what he saw as Palin’s attempt to mislead her own campaign and apparently determined to demonstrate that the ultimate authority rested with him, Schmidt put the matter to rest once and for all with a longer response to everyone in the e-mail chain.

“Secession,” he wrote. “It is their entire reason for existence. A cursory examination of the website shows that the party exists for the purpose of seceding from the union. That is the stated goal on the front page of the web site. Our records indicate that todd was a member for seven years. If this is incorrect then we need to understand the discrepancy. The statement you are suggesting be released would be innaccurate. The innaccuracy would bring greater media attention to this matter and be a distraction. According to your staff there have been no media inquiries into this and you received no questions about it during your interviews. If you are asked about it you should smile and say many alaskans who love their country join the party because it speeks to a tradition of political independence. Todd loves his country

We will not put out a statement and inflame this and create a situation where john has to adress this.”

Ahh yes.. when your spouse says this is the 1st time in her adult life that she’s proud to be an American.. well that makes you a terrorist who hates your country.. but when your husband is a member of a party who’s founder really did hate America and the party wants to secede from the Union.. and you want other, more powerful than you to cover that tid-bit up.. that makes you nothing but a good ole’ hockey mom without a shred of any American, real or other wise, values.

She since has now resigned can we please drop this woman from our vocabulary ?

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