ObamaCare Just Touched the Third Rail: It Pays for Abortions?

Now this thing is going to blow right open because abortion is always a powder-keg issue.

A compromise approved by a House committee last week attempted to balance questions of federal funding, personal choice and the conscience rights of clinicians. It would allow the public plan to cover abortion but without using federal funds, only dollars from beneficiary premiums. Likewise, private plans in the new insurance exchange could opt to cover abortion, but no federal subsidies would be used to pay for the procedure.

"It's a sham," said Douglas Johnson, legislative director for National Right to Life. "It's a bookkeeping scheme. The plan pays for abortion, and the government subsidizes the plan."

This guy is right about it being a bookkeeping scheme. If you think about it this so-called "bookkeeping scheme" is almost worse because those beneficiary premiums are paid by everyone who is part of the public plan. Also some of this money is subsidized by the federal government up to 4 times (8 times?) the poverty level.

So it would be safe to say that if you choose the public plan you are choosing to support abortions with your beneficiary premiums. In other words if you are on the public plan you will be paying for some other persons abortion. It doesn't matter if you are morally opposed to it or not you are still forced to pay.

I think ObamaCare might have just got its plug pulled as the issue devolves into an abortion debate instead of talk of a public plan vs. private plans or the bending the cost curve or other germane issues. I would hate to be defending this issue when the anti-abortion people and Catholics get involved.

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National Pep Talk? You have to Be Joking

It seems that we have to hear more about how the Stimulus hasn't failed and other nonsense.

That tied into his news nugget of the day: the awarding of $2.4 billion in grants toward the production of electric and hybrid cars, part of the stimulus plan. Obama delivered the news in the border region of Indiana and Michigan � the two states benefiting the most.

Too bad these aren't tax incentives for Toyota to build a Prius plant in this 17% unemployment ravaged part of Indiana called Elkhart-Goshen. I mean these plants are dotted throughout the South and those states have nowhere near the unemployment of this part of Indiana. Tax incentives are a very powerful motivator.

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Obama Promises to go it Alone on ObamaCare

It seems that this thing will be rammed through by any means necessary.

"Sometime in September we're going to have to make an assessment" about whether to keep trying to negotiate with Republicans, he told MSNBC.

Obama said he "would prefer Republicans working with us" but that getting his main priorities for a health care overhaul are more important. It represents a marked change from the emphasis Obama placed on bipartisanship when he launched his campaign for a health care overhaul at a White House summit in March.

I think he needs to understand that if this thing fails it will be his fault entirely. I guess he is willing to stake his second term on what the Senate produces or fails to produce. My guess is it will be very watered down and Obama will still claim whatever it is as a milestone.

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Town Halls Become Town Hells

Well it seems that the ObamaCare boosters are starting to sweat when they are taking their concerns to the people.

For Democrats, that�s precisely the problem: Their ability to make their case on health care at public events during the August recess is mostly in the hands of the people who turn out for the events. And if those people want to be disruptive � especially en masse � there�s not much the Democrats can do about it.

�Town halls have become town hells,� said Mark McKinnon, a former adviser to President George W. Bush. �Special interests and opponents have figured out how easy it is to disrupt town halls and get their own message out. The days of the truly free-form town halls may be over.�

The problem also is that embarrassing public officials is great fodder for the news media and YouTube. The idea that "people power" is trumping the "powerful" is always pretty potent. If the Dems are so concerned with what Gibbs calls AstroTurfing Brooks Brothers Brigade then bring in the tax-payer sponsored ACORN goons to shout back. Then the so-called health care debate can really get surreal.

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Prediction of What Will Happen if Public Option Passes

Unless the public option outlaws private health insurers I will be willing to bet that there will be a two tier system in place like this IBD article suggests.

Under ObamaCare, the rich would continue to get the care they want � whether here or abroad � by paying for it out of their own pockets. The rest of us would stand in line and wait for rationed care.

What I envision is that private insurers will consolidate and then turn into Medicare Advantage style value added companies. What I think will happen is that these plans will be priced mostly for the rich and cover anything that ObamaCare does not and will jump the line when it comes to certain care. They will probably reimburse doctors and hospitals at a higher rate then ObamaCare and thus entice them into the plan.

What this will create is a two tier system where the rich will pay for added care while the middle class and poor will be stuck with long wait times and the AmTrack level conditions created by ObamaCare.

These insurance companies are not dumb and they will be able to compete with the public plan but only for the highest premium payers. Taxpayers will instead be stuck paying for everyone elses health insurance including the rich. Such are the laws of unintended consequences.

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Bill Clinton Frees Out Hostages

As Obama dawdles with ObamaCare and Hillary tours Africa we have to send in Slick Willie in there to do the diplomatic heavy lifting.

Following Bill Clinton�s meeting with Kim Jong-Il, news is just coming over the wires that the two US journalists arrested by North Korea, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, are being freed.

Li�l Kim is giving them a �special pardon,� and they�ll be returning to the United States on Clinton�s private plane.

It seems that Bill Clinton has a knack for showing up his wife and Obama. Now he can head over to Iran and get those people released as well.

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Obama Spouts the Single Payer Health Plan in 2003

It seems that all of Obama's talk about "you like your health care you will keep it" and "if you like your doctor you will keep them" is just rhetoric because it seems his own words are contradicting it.

�I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that�s what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that�s what I�d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House.�

In other words the "public plan" that competes with private insurance is simply a smoke screen to get to a fully socialized plan. It seems that Obama 2009 and Obama 2003 seem to totally disagree on this issue. I would love to see the real Obama stand up.

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Interesting Take on the Liberal News Media

This should come as no surprise but many journalists are liberal but this is a very interesting article asking why that is so.

Most journalists take a number of psychology, sociology, political science, and humanities courses during their early years in college. Unfortunately, these courses have long served as ideological training programs�ignoring biological sources of self-serving, corrupt, and criminal behavior for a number of reasons, including lack of scientific training; postmodern, antiscience bias; and well-intentioned, facts-be-damned desire to have their students view the world from an egalitarian perspective.

In other words they are indoctrinated as soon as they enter college. So they either become true believers or "get along to get along" in order to pass their classes. That is why I am taken aback by reading some liberal blog comments that say that the press is not liberal at all because they are corporate controlled. The evidence is right there in black and white but they are so indoctrinated into the idea that the corporation is evil that they can't see past that.

The press has been liberal for decades just like the majority of academia in the non-hard sciences or business school. So this article basically proves the point that a liberal journalism curriculum creates more liberal journalists. In other words the idea of the press with no biases should be scrapped and we should just go back to the yellow journalism days of the 20s.

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Government Revenue the Lowest Since 1932

I think these should be some sobering numbers.

The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion.

The problem is that Obama and Pelosi what to dump even more taxes on people even though they aren't getting too many revenues in the first place. The more I look at it the more I think Obama might just put us into a double dip recession.

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ObamaCare Should Give up this Savings Fallacy

I think the ObamaCare supporters should give up this line of defense because it makes no sense.

The White House stands by its claims. Its allies claim that CBO forecasts, for instance, don't reflect potential future cost savings that might be expected from the prevention of illness achieved from wider health care coverage.

I think they need to understand that health insurance and health care are two totally different things. When more people sign up for a service that didn't have it before it consumes more of that service. You are increasing the demand side without decreasing the supply side.

Also I'm not convinced that if everyone had health insurance they will all rush out to the doctor. The only way they could get these savings is by the government forcing mandatory checkups. If this money instead went to free or tax subsidized mini clinics then I can see it making a dent. However, obesity will still be rampant and no amount of health insurance will magically cure that.

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The Top 1% Now Pays more then 95% of All Tax Payers

Now is the time to bury all of the talk about the "rich" not paying their fair share.

Indeed, the IRS data shows that in 2007�the most recent data available�the top 1 percent of taxpayers paid 40.4 percent of the total income taxes collected by the federal government. This is the highest percentage in modern history. By contrast, the top 1 percent paid 24.8 percent of the income tax burden in 1987, the year following the 1986 tax reform act.

Remarkably, the share of the tax burden borne by the top 1 percent now exceeds the share paid by the bottom 95 percent of taxpayers combined. In 2007, the bottom 95 percent paid 39.4 percent of the income tax burden. This is down from the 58 percent of the total income tax burden they paid twenty years ago.

And people wonder why there will be a jobless recovery.

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GDP Drop Starting to Ease

Well, we are coming close to the end of the recession and we might eventually see growth in the later part of this year.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported that GDP, or the total output of goods and services produced in the U.S., dipped by an annual rate of 1% in the spring. The advance estimate bettered most forecasts, as many economists expected a 1.5% slide.

The only problem is that consumer spending is still in the doldrums

However, consumer spending, or the lack there of, remains a nagging weight on the economy. The report noted that consumer spending slid 1.2% during the quarter, as compared to a 0.6% upswing during the first quarter. Consumers are likely to keep their wallets tucked in tight as unemployment figures continue to falter.

Too bad the failed stimulus did not have some more things in it similar to "cash for clunkers" that gave people financial incentives to buy things. If the Dems are serious about Stimulus 2 they should call it the "tax cut for everyone" and cut payroll taxes for 1 year or something like that. I think Americans will sign on for substantially more money in their paychecks.

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Beer Summit Goes Off Fairly Well: Now Fix the Economy!

I think Obama has had enough distractions it should be time to start thinking about getting Americans back to work. I think the silly season in Washington should be winding down right about now. In fact I hope this doesn't have to happen again:

The White House meeting drew such media interest that press secretary Robert Gibbs said he looked forward to facing no more questions about what beers each man would drink. For the record, it was Bud Light for Obama, Sam Adams Light for Gates, Blue Moon for Crowley and nonalcoholic Buckler for Biden.

Yes Gibbs is fielding questions about beer choices instead of on what the White House has to say about them beating people in the streets of Tehran yet again. Or how they will solve double digit unemployment or what are they going to do now that the stimulus failed. In other words the actual work of the country not some silly racial crap.

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Congress Suspends Cash for Clunkers

Yup, the government underestimated the demand and thus didn't have enough money set aside to cover the plan.

The Transportation Department called congressional offices late Thursday to alert them to the decision to halt the program, which offered owners of old cars and trucks $3,500 or $4,500 toward a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle.

And they want to run everyone's health insurance? Anyone that believes that the government run plan can actually reduce costs should just look at Cash for Clunkers. A good idea but poorly executed and then ultimately suspended when costs ran up too quickly.

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Senate ObamaCare Bill May be Pushed Back to December?

Wow, anyone who thought they could get this done by August was absolutely nuts.

"The president wanted to have it on his desk in October," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa. "He'll probably have it in November now. But I'm very hopeful we'll get it done at least by that time."

Senior aides and lawmakers said privately they thought Harkin was being overly optimistic, and warned of work spreading late into December on the highly controversial issue.

Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., one of six lawmakers involved in bipartisan talks, said the legislation wasn't "ready for prime time."

What is funny is that some far-left liberals say they should just shove it through with 50 Democrat votes and damn the torpedoes. I think that would be political suicide because that bill will be hung on Democrats forever. If it fails (and it probably will) the GOP can use it as a big club to hit them with for perpetuity.

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