If anyone thinks that given the current economic crisis, Universal HealthCare is a long way off…think again.

Tucked deep into this “Stimulus Package” is a bill, courtesy of the Ex-DHHS Secretary Nominee, Ex-Senator Tom Daschle, which establishes an “Office of National Coordinator of Health Information Technology,” where the DHHS shall “allow for and promote the electronic exchange and use of health information for each individual in the United States.”

You got that?…each individual.

This is the beginning of nationalized healthcare as is evidenced by the stipulation that the office’s  “annual operating plans shall be provided not later than November 1 of each year”.  These plans shall describe “how expenditures are aligned with the specific objectives, milestones, and metrics of the Federal Health Information Technology Strategic Plan”.

Further, the bill allows “at least” for the following:

1. Health information technology architecture that will support the nationwide electronic exchange and use of health information in a secure, private, and accurate manner, including connecting health information exchanges, and which may include updating and implementing the infrastructure necessary within different agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services to support the electronic use and exchange of health information.
2.  Integration of health information technology, including electronic medical records, into the initial and ongoing training of health professionals and others in the healthcare industry who would be instrumental to improving the quality of healthcare through the smooth and accurate electronic use and exchange of health information as determined by the
Secretary.

This is such a violation of State’s rights, contract law, free-markets…and most of all, individual privacy rights.  If the first three don’t concern you, the latter should.

(You see this is where any of you who are Pro-Choice on the grounds of individual privacy rights, your outright hypocrisy will show through if you are a fan of Universal HealthCare in general and this brand of Government overreach in particular.)

Now there are rumors that the FULL GAMUT of Daschle’s ideas (laid out in his book, Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis) are in this provision, but the truth is…all of these things (the wholesale universalization of HealthCare DECISIONS being the most “critical” to Mr. Daschle, decidedly less emphasis on “new” medical treatments and medicines, and penalties for Doctors’ not participating in the system) are NOT in the bill.

However, the bill creates the TOOLS NECESSARY to add these provisions at a later date–for very little money.  All of the infrastructure and technology, back office, and most of the personnel necessary to grant the DHHS complete operational control over all of our HealthCare decisions will be firmly in place courtesy of a few billion dollars, a portion of which will be carefully utilized as bribes given to Doctors to participate.

No offense to all of you who have supported the current President, but President Obama has made his career on incrementalism.  He was a genius at it in the Illinois Senate, and he’s making a genius move at it here (OK, yeah…now would be an OK time to go back and look at his actual record…no really…go ahead).

Some of you may know that as of about 3 minutes into the second Presidential debate (around the time that McCain started blabbing about $300 billion in mortgage restructuring), I transformed from political philosopher to political activist, so a couple of suggestions for those who want to do something about this nonsense:

1. Call your Representative and both of your Senators and tell them you will fight day and night to make sure they do not get reelected if they vote for this nonsense (and follow through on that promise)–PARTICULARLY if it contains the “National Healthcare Coordinator” provision.
2. Call your Doctors and your Pharmacists and tell them you will not be using a medical service which uses this system.  You might not have a choice with hospitals, but with your doctors and your pharmacists, you have a choice.
3. Tell EVERYONE YOU KNOW TO DO THE SAME.

My wife has already said to me the following:

As God is my witness, neither my health information nor my family’s health information will be in the hands of the government…ever!

So there you go.   If it becomes required that in order for me or my family to get medical care, my doctor has to run a cost/benefit analysis by the Government, then I will find a doctor who is willing to operate outside of that system.

Furthermore, and perhaps just as importantly, the measure WILL NOT WORK at getting “costs” down.  The way it is designed to save money is (eventually) by RESTRICTING and RATIONING healthcare.  This doesn’t “bring costs down” it will actually make costs for a given procedure go UP because they will be LESS AVAILABLE (only through Doctors who are willing to operate outside the system).  And if you assume that unintended consequences have been thought through here, you probably haven’t read the news lately (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?).

This is the worst version of a solution for our HealthCare problems, and is nothing more and nothing less than a Federal takeover of the system.

To whom it may concern:

Now you have two (that’s two out of two) Senators who apparently get out of bed every morning and make a conscious decision that above all else they will be “Moderate” first, Republican second, and Conservative–dead last.

We’ve known this about Senator Snowe for quite a while, but maybe Senator Collins is a new convert to the “don’t think, just be moderate” wing of the Republican Party.

Please ask your Senators to clearly lay out either a) what they were offered by Senator Reid that was so tempting as to “reach across the aisle” and pass YET ANOTHER crap sandwich “stimulus” bill, or b) where is the gaping hole in their lives that has to be filled by abandoning reason in order to appear…”bi-partisan.”

Sincerely,

LogiPundit

Thank God Al Qaeda doesn’t represent the Muslim world, I guess.

You know this isn’t the first time I’ve seen the phrase (or a reasonable facsimile):

…[P]olls show [Obama] is well liked throughout the Muslim world.

First, where are these polls? And second, what do any of these “Muslim World” respondents really know about Barack Obama, other than he has a name that more closely resembles theirs.

It would be almost like, if ten months ago, someone did a poll in the U.S. which said:

Whom do you prefer?

* Osama bin Laden
* Joe Smith

Who would win that poll, you think?

If anyone yet doubts that Fascism comes from the left and not the right, one need look no further than the new Chief of Staff appointee for President-Elect Obama.  Rahm Emmanuel was quoted in 2006 as pushing for the same sort of “Civilian Force” that Barack Obama mentioned a couple of weeks ago that should be “just as well funded” as the military.

“Somewhere between the age of 18 to 25 you will do three months of training. You can do it at some point in your college time,” he said. “There can be nothing wrong with all Americans having a joint, similar experience of what we call civil defense training or civil service.”

Now those of you who think this is “fear-mongering” I will quote a prominent Democrat who recently said something along the lines of: “If it walks like a duck, and it talks like a duck…then it’s a Duck.”  And then please recall how this author’s position on the William Ayers’ association had nothing to do with Terrorism but instead with a radical view of the purpose of public education.

REQUIRING civil service from the youth of a country is a CORE TENET of Fascism, in EVERY CASE. Here’s the video:

Obama is of course “softening” the requirement on his “change.gov” website.  It used to read:

Originally, under the tab “America Serves,” Change.gov read, “President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in under served schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year,” the site announced.

But now the end of it instead reads:

“…developing a plan so that all college students who conduct 100 hours of community service receive a universal and fully refundable tax credit ensuring that the first $4,000 of their college education is completely free.”

So now instead of legally requiring students to participate, the Government would simply bribe them with cheaper education to participate.

Meanwhile, the FEATURED ARTICLE on Wikipedia today is the “anti-tobacco movement in Nazi Germany”.  This, of course, was the number one progressive chink in Mike Huckabee’s armor, so perhaps if he was the President-elect and started pushing for a no-smoking ban, then someone somewhere would be drawing similar comparisons, but nevertheless…there is no conceivable way for any Federal Agency to develop or enforce a “Civilian Defense Corps” without a MONUMENTAL and…yes…Fascistic, overreach in Government power and influence.  The obvious question is: what are they going to learn, and who is going to teach it to them.

Should we be scared?  Yes.  We should be.  This is where we have to start asking, “What kind of change?” A question that might have been asked more appropriately about 10 days ago.

I’ll be brief as possible:

I’m astounded at the “hope and optimism” line from the left on this.  It’s as if everything was riding on it.  Our whole existence depended on the ascension (and I do mean ascension) of ONE MAN.  If the old white guy had gotten elected–a thousand years of darkness.

The biggest difference between the majority of people supporting McCain this election and those supporting Obama is this:

Obama wins, crying and laughing and cheering in the streets…all over the world.  If McCain had won, all you would have heard was a huge sigh of relief all over America.

Don’t get me wrong, Obama won and he won big, and there are reasons for his winning big.  And as Johnny pointed out, there was only reasons to vote AGAINST him fewer reasons to vote FOR the other guy.  But Obama didn’t win on “the issues” and anyone who thinks so is in a dream world.  The next time I hear a “Progressive” tell me that we need to stop the evil politics and focus on “the issues” might simply get a punch in the face.  This is evidence, case in point, that issues do not matter anymore.  Even his acceptance speech had NO policies in it.  It was all about hope, change, optimism, love and happiness.

One thing is for certain.  The ‘Pundit has just upgraded himself from political philosopher to political activist.

More to come on that…

This is how the referendum will be worded:

QUESTION:  Shall Loudoun County, Virginia, be authorized to levy a tax, pursuant to Virginia Code Section 58.1-3833(A), on food and beverages sold for human consumption by restaurants and on prepared foods sold ready for human consumption by grocery stores and convenience stores, in an amount not to exceed 4% of the amount charged for such food and beverages, to be used exclusively for school construction projects and school construction debt service?
(     )  YES

(     )  NO

The way it should read is this:

Question: Shall Loudoun County while facing a downturn in our economy, make that downturn even worse by a) making Loudoun County residents and visitors to our county pay MORE for their meal out and b) making sure that restaurants have less money in their pockets to pay their employees. This money is to be used “for the children” though, so even though there really won’t be any extra money, and could potentially make our debt even worse with the added possibilities of closing restaurants, you should feel better that we “care” enough to raise taxes on the hospitality industry in Loudoun.
( ) YES
( ) NO

Anyone that thinks that our Real Estate taxes are going to somehow be miraculously lowered by creating a meals tax is in a dream world. It doesn’t work; it’s never worked. Look at Maryland.

Vote “NO” for the love of God, and for more information please the site for Loudoun Taxpayers for Accountable Government.

Are you kidding me? If ever there was a case for homeschooling…:

Several sixth-graders from suburban St. Louis are being disciplined for creating “Hit a Jew Day” and then hitting Jewish classmates.

Four or five students at Parkway West Middle School in Chesterfield could be suspended and undergo counseling for last week’s incident, school officials told the Associated Press. Others who taunted Jewish students or encouraged others to participate face lesser punishment.

Officials said fewer than 10 of the school’s 35 Jewish students were hit. One was slapped in the face and the others were hit mostly on the back of their shoulders.

“There is a mix of sadness and outrage,” said district spokesman Paul Tandy. “The concern is a lot of kids knew about it and they didn’t take action or say anything.”

Kids these days.

Nancy Pelosi wrote last week in the USA Today that “we” (meaning the Congress, of course–she certainly doesn’t mean “We the People”) need to do more.  Another stimulus package.  And it appears that Bernanke is going to support it, even though the Bush Administration has been “cool” to the idea (meaning they will eventually support it, but only after trying to sound like Fiscal Conservatives).

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP!!!

There is NO evidence that the economy will even be slightly “stimulated” by more action by the Fed or Congress.  Their meddling has INCREASED uncertainty, not decreased it, and everything looks obviously like it’s been thrown against the wall to see what’ll stick.

The dirty little secret here, and the thing that noone is willing to say out loud:

“Middle Class” stimulus does not “stimulate” the economy.  The “trickle up” theory has WAY less evidence behind it than the “trickle down” theory.  Tax cuts on the top 1% increase revenues to the government and create jobs.  Tax hikes on the top 1% do the opposite.  Tax cuts to the Middle Class decrease revenues to the Government and have little effect on jobs.

Maybe it’s not “fair” but it’s the facts.

Bernanke’s support of a fiscal stimulus package further proves that he has no confidence that a monetary stimulus package will have any effect at all.  And of course it won’t.  One commentar on MarketWatch called a Bernanke speech, “The ULTIMATE sell signal.”  He’s not far from the truth.

A brief article on the history of why the healthcare system got to where it is, and why the McCain plan is actually the only one of the two (between his and Obama’s) that can truly accomplish anything:  by putting more control back in the hands of the consumer instead of simply shifting control from EVIL Insurance companies to the ALL-LOVING Federal Government.

Mr. Jacoby is very explicit in explaining the history of the problem:

During World War II, federal wage controls barred employers from raising their workers’ salaries, but said nothing about fringe benefits. So firms competing for employees at government-restricted wages began offering medical insurance to sweeten employment offers. Even sweeter was that employers could deduct those benefits as business expenses, yet employees didn’t have to report them as taxable income. For a while the IRS resisted that interpretation, but Congress eventually enshrined the tax-exempt status of employer-based medical insurance in law.

Result: a radical shift in the way Americans paid for medical care. With health benefits tax-free if they were employer-supplied, tens of millions of Americans were soon signing up for medical insurance through work. As tax rates rose, so did the incentive to keep expanding health benefits. No longer was medical insurance reserved for major expenditures like surgery or hospitalization. Americans who would never think of using auto insurance to cover tune-ups and oil changes grew accustomed to having their medical insurer pay for yearly physicals, prescriptions, and other routine expenses.

Now, I actually don’t agree with the part of McCain’s proposal that taxes employer-based coverage.  I’m more interested in parity (making sure that individuals get the same tax cut), than I am a punitive approach.  But it at least cuts at the core of the problem: the individual has been left out of the process for far too long.  It’s actually just a little too harsh.

I preferred the plan that President Bush proposed in a State of the Union address a few years ago (seems like so long ago), and that was a tax-credit (and a pretty sizable one, if I recall) for those participating in Consumer-Driven (High-Deductible) Health Plans.  That would have accomplished a lot as far as getting more control of costs back in the hands of the consumer without giving a Democratic contender ammunition to call the Republican contender a tax-hiker.

(Mirrored on gcfin.com.)

In case you guys haven’t seen it, here is the entire exchange between Joe the Plumber and Barack Obama. Watch the whole thing and listen carefully as Obama explains to Joe why he had to work too hard to get where he is, but because of where he is Obama has to make sure that the businesses coming behind him (his competition, for instance) shouldn’t have to work so hard:

Then Obama adeptly (God he’s good) leaves the audience with the impression that “Hey, he might even pay LESS in taxes because he’ll get that Capital Gains tax break.” What a bunch of poppycock. It’s a plumbing company. The odds of his having any real capital gains (other than possibly real estate) is almost NILL until he sells the company. Obama knew better than to think he’d convince Joe with this shell game (”Think back ten years ago”–HA), but he did manage to convince the sycophants in the audience.

And again, I’ll say, neither Obama nor McCain has any real economic acumen, but it’s obvious from this little exchange that Obama feels that the Government should be the arbiter of how much money is too much money, and how successful is too successful, and how much hard work is just too much hard work. Punish ability and reward need. It’s Marxism at its best, and as Mr. Marx himself said, it all starts with a heavily progressive income tax.

To further illustrate the point, listen to Joe Biden tell us that he doesn’t have any Joe the Plumbers in his neighborhood:

The only people that are important to Joe the Biden is Joe the cop, Joe the teacher, Joe the whatever. Joe the Plumber is not important, because Joe the Plumber can create his own job. Joe the Plumber should be taken for all that he is worth (I can hear it now, “it’s only a few thousand dollars–he can afford it!”), so Joe the whatever else can feel that much more grateful to Uncle Sam for his well being.