Budgetary Magic: Funding of Obamacare

From reading and listening to all the learned pundits it seems remarkable that no one has really ever tried to show in some concrete way how the 111 Congress and the Obama Administration were able to say with a straight face that they passed ObamaCare and balanced the budget all at the same time.  Remember they wanted to give 43 million people health insurance and not increase the federal deficit...  the problem was how to pay for it.

Here is how they were able to do it:

• Make the drug companies reduce the prices of their drugs by $80 billion (coercision?)
• Take $500 million from Medicare and Indian health service (deception?)
• Force 300 million buy health insurance for $900 million (constitutional?) (tax)
• Increase payroll taxes
• Force 50 states to use Medicaid to subsidize the future regional health pools (constitutional?)
• Regulate the insurance industry to force them to reduce costs 
• Force the insurance industry to accept more people

The CBO was able to certify that the budget would not be busted because ObamaCare was going to push all the costs to the states and citizens of this country which meant the cost to the federal government would not result in a deficit..  The only thing that the federal government will now pay is the cost of regulating the insurance industry and the enforcement efforts by the IRS.

The consequences of this White House and Congressional shell game was to shift the cost burden onto the shoulders of the citizens and the states.  They did not reduce costs -  they just rearranged the cost pools until the burden was off Uncle Sam.  We will either pay for this legislation through payroll taxes, income taxes, or being forcibly required to pay for federally mandated health insurance's coverage which the consumer will have no choice except to write the check.  The federal government will dictate everything - the cost of insurance, what will be covered by insurance policies, etc.

Eventually the insurance industry will no longer exist; we will be left with only the federal government selling us our insurance policies.  I am not looking forward to the day that we have to stand in line to buy insurance policies like we have to purchase car tags.

Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

OBAMA before and after

Compare Obama the candidate versus Obama the President - we deserve better!


  As Candidate (promised)                      As President (delivered)

1. Pacifist                                   Libya 
2. against raising debit ceiling       raise debt ceiling 
3. against Bush foreign policy      endorsed Bush foreign policy
4. immigration reform                  sue Arizona 
5. inclusion of all citizens              polarization by race, by religion
6. pro-business                           anti-business
7. equal opportunity for all           increase in food stamps & redistribution of wealth
8. cool under fire                         arrogance and condescension
9. full employment                       inflation and more unemployment
10. balanced budgets                    $&$%@^%*$**&^*
11. transparency in government      $&$%@^%*$**&^*
12. economic growth                    bureaucratic regulations
13. hope and change                     fear and worry 
14. defeat of Patriot Act                extended without comment
15. leadership                               follower
16. Constitutionalism                     Regulations
17. national energy policy               *&(**&%%^&###@%$#^%^$#
18. global respect of USA              Apologizing for USA
19. Christain                                  pro-Muslim
20. economic prosperity                 economic misery 
21. accountability                           $&$%@^%*$**&^*            

Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

Breitbart.tv » Doctors Continue to Fraudulently Hand Out ‘Sick Notes’ to Help AWOL Union Members Play Hooky

Breitbart.tv » Doctors Continue to Fraudulently Hand Out ‘Sick Notes’ to Help AWOL Union Members Play Hooky: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"






Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

You have Got to Be Kidding!

Buzz Kill: LA County Wants You To Take Ecstasy Safely « CBS Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (CBS) —The glow-stick industry may be buzzing over the latest public service announcement from Los Angeles County, but some say it amounts to an backhanded endorsement of illicit drug use. Amid ongoing debate over safety and security measures at rave dance parties held at the Los Angeles Coliseum, county health officials have quietly launched a campaign to offer guidelines for safe use of MDMA, more popularly known as "ecstasy".

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Woman fights bank fees, missed final house payment - Yahoo! News

Woman fights bank fees, missed final house payment - Yahoo! News: "PHILADELPHIA – An elderly New Jersey woman billed $5,800 after missing the final payment on her 30-year mortgage can pursue her lawsuit against the debt collectors.

Lawyers for 85-year-old Dorothy Rhue Allen say the fees charged by two banks and a law firm violate consumer-protection laws.

The suit says LaSalle Bank and Cenlar Federal Savings Bank started foreclosure proceedings in 2007 after the hospitalized Allen missed the last $432 payment on her Deptford, N.J., home.

The banks advised her lawyers she could pay $5,800 to avoid foreclosure. But her lawyers instead sued over the fees, and the foreclosure action was dropped.

A U.S. appeals court this week says Allen can pursue her case, reversing a federal judge who threw it out.

A lawyer for the Trenton, N.J.-based banks declined to comment.

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Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

Torture to gain a confession

Sharia Law

Woman sentenced to stoning death ‘tortured’ before TV ‘confession’: lawyer: "LONDON — A lawyer for an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning has told a British newspaper she was tortured for two days before confessing on state TV to being an accomplice to her husband’s death.

Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani’s lawyer told the Guardian on Thursday that his client, a 43-year-old mother of two, was forced to give the interview, which was recorded in Tabriz prison where she has been held for the past four years.

“She was severely beaten up and tortured until she accepted to appear in front of camera. Her 22-year-old son Sajad and her 17-year-old daughter Saeedeh are completely traumatised by watching this programme,” lawyer Houtan Kian said on the newspaper’s website.

The lawyer said he feared the Iranian authorities would act quickly to carry out the death sentence, which was reportedly commuted to hanging after an international outcry against her sentence last month.

The Guardian gave no details of where the lawyer was speaking.

Another of her lawyers, Mohammad Mostafaie, fled Iran this month and is now in Norway after Iranian officials issued an arrest warrant for him and detained his wife.

The sentence against Mohammadi-Ashtiani was initially for “having an illicit relationship outside marriage”, which drew condemnation from many countries.

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Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie Commutes Sentence of Man Sent to Jail for Owning Guns Legally - FoxNews.com

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie Commutes Sentence of Man Sent to Jail for Owning Guns Legally - FoxNews.com: "A man given seven years in prison after being found with two guns he purchased legally in Colorado has had his sentence commuted, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced Monday.

The case of Brian Aitken, 27, had become a cause célèbre among gun-rights advocates. On Jan. 2, 2009, Aitken, an entrepreneur and media consultant with no prior criminal record, muttered to his mother that life wasn't worth living after a planned visit with son was abruptly canceled at the last minute. Aitken then left his mother's home in Mount Laurel as she called police, who later found two locked and unloaded handguns in the trunk of his car.

Aitken had purchased the guns legally in Colorado, and he passed an FBI background check when he bought them, according to his father, Larry Aitken. Brian also contacted New Jersey State Police before moving back back to the Garden State to discuss how to properly transport his weapons. But despite those good-faith efforts, Larry Aitken said, Brian was convicted on weapons charges and sent to prison in August.

Judge James Morley would not allow the argument in trial earlier this year and Christie later declined to reappoint the judge due to an unrelated case.

According to an order for commutation of sentence released by Christie on Monday, Aitken was to be released from custody as soon as administratively possible. The order is subject to revocation at any time.

Prior to Monday's announcement, Larry Aitken, who could not be immediately reached for comment on Tuesday, said he would not stop advocating for his son's release.

'I don't think there are words yet invented that could characterize the -- I guess anger would be one word, but it's a lot deeper than anger,' he told FoxNews.com this month. 'Whatever the word is that's a combination of anger, shock, disbelief, horror and a desire to expose all of this -- that's the word.

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Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

Venezuela tightens Internet regulation | Reuters

Venezuela tightens Internet regulation | Reuters: "(Reuters) - Venezuela's parliament approved tighter regulation of the Internet on Monday in the latest of a package of laws to entrench President Hugo Chavez's socialist 'revolution' before a new Assembly is sworn-in next month.

Members of his ruling Socialist Party say the move brings South America's top oil producer into line with international norms for policing the Web. But opposition politicians say it is aimed at stifling dissent.

It followed a more controversial vote by the National Assembly last week that will allow Chavez to bypass the next parliament and rule by decree for 18 months.

The former paratrooper turned populist leader says he needs the wide-ranging powers to deal with a national emergency caused by floods that have killed 40 people and driven nearly 140,000 more from their homes.

But the decision was denounced by furious opposition parties due to take 40 percent of seats in the Assembly beginning on January 5, as well as by the U.S. State Department, which accused Chavez of finding 'creative ways' to justify autocratic powers.

The Internet bill approved on Monday prohibits online content attacking 'good customs,' disrespecting public officials or inciting violence against the president.

Many of Venezuela's lively news forums operate without a moderator or editor filtering out extremist or vulgar content. But the bill has concerned some free speech activists, who have drawn comparisons with how China and Cuba police the Web.

Under the new regulations, all Internet traffic is supposed to pass through a single, government-controlled access point, stoking opposition fears about surveillance and censorship.

Lawmakers who promoted the bill had argued that it would make the Internet faster. But it was not clear how the government planned to undo the communications architecture already in place, or even whether it was technically possible.

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Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

Obama's mystery proposal to regulate the Internet | Washington Examiner

Obama's mystery proposal to regulate the Internet | Washington Examiner: "If President Obama wants his executive branch to resemble the opaque, power-hungry political machinations in Chicago, he seems to be succeeding in the area of Internet regulation. Last April, a federal court told the Federal Communications Commission that it has no business regulating the Internet. Unfortunately, judicial rejection of the commission's first swing at the 'net neutrality' ball -- the idea the FCC must regulate the Internet to insure everybody has equal access -- didn't deter Obama's FCC chairman, Julius Genachowski, from taking another whack. He's bringing a new set of proposed net neutrality regulations to the five-member panel Tuesday. Unfortunately, nobody knows any details of the new proposal because Genachowski has kept them secret until the last possible minute even as he rushed them forward for a vote. How ironic that the Internet, the great and empowering liberator of information that 'wants to be free,' is being chopped up behind closed doors by an unelected panel. Note, too, that this is being considered by the FCC on the winter solstice, the darkest day of the year.

In their net neutrality quest, Genachowski and two of his fellow Democratic appointees are working to expand government power into an area where the commission has no jurisdiction, under the guise of solving a problem that does not exist. Meredith Baker, a Republican FCC appointee, summarized the situation well: 'We have two branches of government -- Congress and the courts -- expressing grave concerns with our agency becoming increasingly unmoored from our statutory authority. By seeking to regulate the Internet now, we exceed the authority Congress has given us and justify those concerns.' Incoming House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., has called on the FCC to 'cease and desist.'

This exercise in government opacity and overreach is already damaging the economy. As major telecommunications and Internet service companies prepare to roll out new fourth generation (4G) wireless service for millions of customers, these unelected bureaucratic commissars are recklessly creating doubt about the future value and profitability of those companies' investments. They are also discouraging future investments that need to be made for the Internet to continue its phenomenal growth.

Federal courts will almost certainly strike down anything the FCC adopts Tuesday, just as they did earlier this year. Congress will also have its chance to undo Genachowski's handiwork through the Congressional Review Act. But why should we have to go this far to rein in a government agency supposedly run by people who took an oath to 'support and defend' our Constitution? Is Obama unable to make his own appointees obey the law? Either way, the new Congress should hold Obama accountable for what the FCC is now doing in his name.

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Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

Robert M. McDowell: The FCC's Threat to Internet Freedom - WSJ.com

Robert M. McDowell: The FCC's Threat to Internet Freedom - WSJ.com: "By ROBERT M. MCDOWELL

Tomorrow morning the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will mark the winter solstice by taking an unprecedented step to expand government's reach into the Internet by attempting to regulate its inner workings. In doing so, the agency will circumvent Congress and disregard a recent court ruling.

How did the FCC get here?

For years, proponents of so-called 'net neutrality' have been calling for strong regulation of broadband 'on-ramps' to the Internet, like those provided by your local cable or phone companies. Rules are needed, the argument goes, to ensure that the Internet remains open and free, and to discourage broadband providers from thwarting consumer demand. That sounds good if you say it fast.



Nothing is broken that needs fixing, however. The Internet has been open and freedom-enhancing since it was spun off from a government research project in the early 1990s. Its nature as a diffuse and dynamic global network of networks defies top-down authority. Ample laws to protect consumers already exist. Furthermore, the Obama Justice Department and the European Commission both decided this year that net-neutrality regulation was unnecessary and might deter investment in next-generation Internet technology and infrastructure.

Analysts and broadband companies of all sizes have told the FCC that new rules are likely to have the perverse effect of inhibiting capital investment, deterring innovation, raising operating costs, and ultimately increasing consumer prices. Others maintain that the new rules will kill jobs. By moving forward with Internet rules anyway, the FCC is not living up to its promise of being 'data driven' in its pursuit of mandates—i.e., listening to the needs of the market.

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Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

Fed aid in financial crisis went beyond U.S. banks to industry, foreign firms

Fed aid in financial crisis went beyond U.S. banks to industry, foreign firms: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

What is your opinion about the Federal Reserve (FED) bailing out Europe?

Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

Smithsonian Christmas-Season Exhibit Features Ant-Covered Jesus, Naked Brothers Kissing, Genitalia, and Ellen DeGeneres Grabbing Her Breasts | CNSnews.com

Smithsonian Christmas-Season Exhibit Features Ant-Covered Jesus, Naked Brothers Kissing, Genitalia, and Ellen DeGeneres Grabbing Her Breasts | CNSnews.com: "(CNSNews.com) -- The federally funded National Portrait Gallery, one of the museums of the Smithsonian Institution, is currently showing an exhibition that features images of an ant-covered Jesus, male genitals, naked brothers kissing, men in chains, Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts, and a painting the Smithsonian itself describes in the show's catalog as 'homoerotic.'

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Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

Government Licensing Internet News Report

Government Licensing Internet News Report: "New offer from Microsoft executives would open the door for state licenses to access the Internet, authorities have the power to block individual computers connecting to the world wide web under the pretext of preventing malicious attacks.

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Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness

Signs in Arizona warn of smuggler dangers - Washington Times

Signs in Arizona warn of smuggler dangers - Washington Times: "The federal government has posted signs along a major interstate highway in Arizona, more than 100 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, warning travelers the area is unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers, and a local sheriff says Mexican drug cartels now control some parts of the state.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, whose county lies at the center of major drug and alien smuggling routes to Phoenix and cities east and west, attests to the violence. He said his deputies are outmanned and outgunned by drug traffickers in the rough-hewn desert stretches of his own county.
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This is a disgrace by any standard.

Wealthy lawmakers increased their riches as U.S. economy sputtered in '09 - TheHill.com

Wealthy lawmakers increased their riches as U.S. economy sputtered in '09 - TheHill.com: "The wealthiest members of Congress grew richer in 2009 even as the economy struggled to recover from a deep recession.

The 50 wealthiest lawmakers were worth almost $1.4 billion in 2009, about $85.1 million more than 12 months earlier, according to The Hill’s annual review of lawmakers’ financial disclosure forms.

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It is disgraceful for any elected official to become wealthier while conducting business for the people. You know they received inside information, preferential treatment, and benefits that the average citizen would never be able to attain. They should be ashamed.

U.N. Human Wrongs - IBD - Investors.com

U.N. Human Wrongs - IBD - Investors.com

United Nations: The U.S. State Department is holding up Arizona as America's human rights problem, fishing for applause from the likes of Cuba and Libya. But Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer isn't taking it lying down.

Print Story: Brewer condemns report to UN mentioning Ariz. law - Yahoo! News

Print Story: Brewer condemns report to UN mentioning Ariz. law - Yahoo! News: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Talk about tawdry behavior by the Obama Administration.........

BBC News - Mexico challenges Arizona's immigration law

BBC News - Mexico challenges Arizona's immigration law

I find this development troubling. We have Mexico interfering in domestic issues of national importance. I conclude that we MUST let this law stand if for no other reason than Mexico's interference in our affairs.