3 Lumps of Coal in Our Stockings

Lump #1: HEALTH CARE REFORM SELL OUT BRIGADE

The following senators sold their votes for this healthcare crapheap for money and special deals. They should be charged with a crime. Getting money and concessions for their states costs the rest of us more money.

1. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), sold her health care reform vote for $300 million.
2. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) sold his vote for $100 million.
3. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT.) sold his vote for $100 million.
4. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) exempted his state’s insurance companies from a new $7 billion dollar tax.
5. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) got a $10 billion grant for community health centers that could perform abortions.
6. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) got an increase in Medicare payments to hospitals in his state.
7. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) got money for his state’s health care system.
8. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) got concessions for insurance companies in his state.
9. Pennsylvania, New York and Florida got protections for their Medicare Advantage.
10. Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming got “FrontierFreebies” an increase in Medicare Payments to rural hospitals and doctors.
11. Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) said “I didn’t get the money for my state. I was too stupid.”

Here’s a great article with in-depth details on exactly who got what:

http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/if-health-care-reform-is-right-for-america-why-did-15-senators-need-bribes-who-exactly-got-what/blog-220861/

Please also note there’s language in the bill that binds future Congresses from changing it. See this write up for further details: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/12/23/beyond-the-constitution-the-healthcare-bill-violates-the-rule-of-law/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

 And, here’s one of the major Democrats pushing for the legislation, Max Baucus, apparently drunk on the Senate floor while debating it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5Y9X5ggxzA&feature=player_embedded

In the end, it sure seems clear to me that this bill has nothing to do with reforming healthcare (the left and the right are furious about it), and everything to do with putting an additional 1/6 of our economy under the control of the government (in addition to the financial services sector and auto manufacturing). Speaking of financial services, please see coal lump #2 below:

Lump #2: Surprise Gift from Tax Cheat Tim Geithner!

The Treasury announced Thursday it was removing the caps that limited the amount of available capital to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to $200 billion each.

Unlimited access to bailout funds through 2012 was “necessary for preserving the continued strength and stability of the mortgage market,” the Treasury said.

Fanny and Freddie have essentially been given a blank check. The new package that will also pay Fannie Chief Executive Officer Michael Williams and Freddie CEO Charles Haldeman Jr. as much as $6 million a year, including bonuses. Remember that “Wall Street Fat-Cat” remark Obama made in his scolding speeches about the greedy financial services sector? Clearly a bunch of baloney.

More info on this story here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126168307200704747.html

Lump # 3: International Police Operating in US Now Exempt From Our Laws

On 12.17, President Obama issued an executive order removing the Reagan limitations. That is, Interpol’s property and assets are no longer subject to search and confiscation, and its archives are now considered inviolable. This international police force (whose U.S. headquarters is in the Justice Department in Washington) will be unrestrained by the U.S. Constitution and American law while it operates in the United States and affects both Americans and American interests outside the United States.

Why would we elevate an international police force above American law? Why would we immunize an international police force from the limitations that constrain the FBI and other American law-enforcement agencies? Why is it suddenly necessary to have, within the Justice Department, a repository for stashing government files which, therefore, will be beyond the ability of Congress, American law-enforcement, the media, and the American people to scrutinize?

Remember, Obama has said in several speeches he wants a civilian national security force as large, and as well funded, as the military. I guess an international police force operating in America is close enough for him.

 http://www.examiner.com/x-3704-Columbia-Conservative-Examiner~y2009m12d26-US-placed-under-international-policestate

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/executive-order-amending-executive-order-12425

So while the Obama’s decided once again to skip church services (for Christmas), take heart that “gift giving” is still an integral part of their holiday celebration.

One Last Thing…

While our elected employees are running around enacting legislation and executive orders that do more harm than good to we average citizens, please review the attached link to see how terrible they also are at protecting the homeland: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/12/28/morning-bell-the-system-failed/

Feels Like An “A”

Meet the Mob

With 4 kids, helping to plan Recess Rally protests, and volunteering for Dan Proft’s campaign for Illinois governor, I haven’t had time to post much lately. However, I will link to a wonderful post here in preparation for any townhalls and other protests upcoming. I will also be linking to this blog regularly. Enjoy the laugh before we hit the streets!

http://thedanashow.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/meet-the-mob/

Kick ‘Em To The Curb

While everyone should be deathly afraid of the healthcare reform business being negotiated within the halls of our legislative branch, anyone who is or is approaching AARP eligible age should be shaking in their proverbial boots. Let’s review a few bullet points:

• Our MD in Chief has indicated that after a certain age we need to advise our elders that costly procedures aren’t going to work and perhaps it’s better to take a painkiller.
• Our MD in Chief has suggested that we eliminate Medicare Advantage, which effectively goes back on his commitment of “if you like your current insurance, you can keep it”.
• “One of the most shocking things is page 425, where the Congress would make it mandatory absolutely that every five years people in Medicare have a required counseling session,” Betsy McCaughey, former Lt. Governor of NY, said. “They will tell [them] how to end their life sooner.” The proposal specifically calls for the consultation to recommend “palliative care and hospice” for seniors in their mandatory counseling sessions. Palliative care and hospice generally focus only on pain relief until death.

Let’s face it, a group with an ideology that openly accepts, and encourages late term abortions and refusing care to babies born alive as a result of botched abortions isn’t going to give a rat’s butt about some senior citizen that needs care to extend their life when they “need” to ration care for the “community” at large. At that point, seniors are just a liability to the “greater good” and the costs outweigh the benefits.

Just Who Do They Think They Are Working For?

“I’m disappointed of course because I really hoped that we could have gotten a bill out of here by the end of this month,” said Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and chairman of one of the three committees at work on the measure.

“The issue is critical. Whether we do it at the end of July or not, I don’t think that’s critical except the perception in terms that the Congress didn’t respond to the request of the president.”

Didn’t respond to the request of the president? Last time I checked, the members of the House and the Senate, as well as the president, work for us. And, the last time I checked, the majority of American citizens don’t want this healthcare fiasco. Speaking of “American citizens”, I understand that a minimum of 12 million of the 45 million uninsured (a squirrely number unto itself) that Obama continually references as the ones who need coverage aren’t American Citizens, they’re illegal immigrants. It’s bad enough that the liberals try to sweep under the rug the amount of freebies these freeloaders get right now without any legislation. I guess now they want to make it more formal. But no matter. Most Americans probably won’t know about this thanks to the Franking Commission. The Franking Commission is supposed to be a bipartisan commission on Congressional Mailing Standards. Instead, they are acting as a censorship machine. They have started demanding to Congresspeople, who want to expose the truth to their constituents about this horrible healthcare legislation, that they omit graphics and language that might make the American people learn more about it and actually question it. If the Congresspeople don’t follow their orders, the government refuses to pay for the mailing. Elections truly have consequences. Like representatives who don’t even believe in reading the bill, such as Bill Conyers (D-Mich), who said, “What good is reading the bill if it’s a thousand pages and you don’t have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?” Way to stick it to us! Speaking of not reading…if no one is reading the thing, who’s writing it?