A Conservative's Concern About Health Care Reform A Conservative's Concern About Health Care Reform

To begin, I am not opposed to health care reform, as long as it utilizes sound economic principles and does not involve any control by the government. Here is my opposition to government control of health care. We can't afford it.
As a country we now spend more than the amount of money realized in revenue by our poorly formed tax system. How does that translate to main street America? On main street we have a word for it; bankrupt. This country has been, and still is, in a depression. Why a depression? Depressions typically begin with a bubble in the securities and commodities sector and involves several rapid hitting recessions affecting every sector of the economy. That happened in the late twenties and thirties. FDR had a response similar to the response today, allow government spending to get America out. The result was that the great depression lasted far longer than it would have if sound economic policies of controlled spending and sound tax reform had been implemented. America did not exit the great depression until the war industry ramped up during World War II when there was controlled government spending and sound tax reform in order to spur our industrial base. During a depression the last thing a sound economic plan calls for is adding to national debt. That has a prolonging effect.
How can we have meaningful health care reform without government control? It involves a staggered approach.
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1) Remove the anti-trust exemption of health insurance companies
I would like to point out to every member of congress that complains about the big health insurance companies that they allowed their power and uncontrolled growth by making them exempt from anti-trust laws allowing the monopoly of territorial markets. Lifting those restrictions would force companies to trim down and cut expenses because the consumer would have more choices and could fire their company if performance fell below their standards.

2) Government Provided Catastrophic Care Insurance
This is the least used health insurance, the cheapest, and yet the largest expense on the books of most insurance companies. This would be a reasonable expense for the federal government because it would not add a significant amount to the size of the federal budget. Taking this expense off the insurance companies books would cut the cost of a typical insurance policy by 40%

3) Tort Reform
End needless lawsuits. It is time to be realistic. If a loved one dies and their earning potential for a lifetime is $1,000,000.00, their death is not worth $10,000,000.00. Much of the cost of doctor's visits and health care cost from providers is the cost of liability insurance coverage. As with anything in the economy, those cost are passed to the consumer.

4) Tax Exemption for Health Care
Eliminate all taxes paid in the health care industry. Again, the health care industry does not pay their taxes, those cost are passed on to the consumer, the largest being the federal government. Can you see the irony, the government is paying the taxes that they levy. That is a shell game that must stop.

5) Re-Writing the Tax Code
Eliminate the income tax and institute a fair tax based on consumption that promotes savings and allows all Americans to pay their fair share based on what they consume. This will double the revenue to the federal government, and the fair tax calls for a prebate monthly for every American to cover the cost of essential services (i.e. utilities, etc). Even with the prebate factored in the revenue to the government almost doubles. This puts more money in the pockets of Americans to afford insurance and spur economic growth to produce jobs.

6) Health Savings Accounts for All Americans
All with reforming the tax code take a portion of the economic surplus and provide $1,000.00 per year for each American in a free health savings account to cover non-covered expenses, and allowing unused amounts to roll over to the next year and be an addition to the yearly contribution. A family of five for instance would have a $5,000.00 yearly savings
contribution.

These are sound ideas that would completely restructure, not only health care, but revenue collection and it would make health care affordable for every one without adding to the national debt. The restructured tax code would be a buffer against economic recession. These are the sound, common sense conservative principles that should be being put forth by so called conservative leaders instead of the game of politics as usual that has neutered the effectiveness of every area of our government.

How Big Does A Health Care Have to be In Order to be Big Enough

The new House health care bill is now in the neighborhood of 1990 pages.  The most important question for Nancy Pelosi and the house Democrats is how big must this beast be in order to be big enough.  The projected cost of this bill is $894 billion dollars over the past ten years.  The red tape and bureaucracy of past bill is still here.  One might wonder to whom members of the house were listening to during the heated town hall meetings this past summer.  The true danger of this bill is the same as in the past, the need to raise taxes in order to pay for this bill as it kills competition that controls cost in an open market place.

In the end many house members will again vote on a bill that they do not read because of the sheer size of the bill.  Hidden in the fine print are the true evils of a bill that will eventually turn the American medical system from one of the premier systems in the world to a sub par system that takes the control of medical care away from doctors and individuals and puts it in the hands of bureaucrats.  One can only hope there are enough representatives in congress that will vote against this monster and send it where it really deserves to be, in the trash can.

A New Kind of Worship

Republicans, Stand Up and be Proud of Your Record on Race.

Republicans, Stand Up and be Proud of Your Record on Race.

I am sick and tired of being labeled a racist by liberals simply because I happen to be a conservative. It is the height of arrogance and downright stupidity, and it happens all the time. It is time that we as conservative, and republicans especially, stand up and support our record on race in this country and point out that it was we who brought the Democrats kicking and screaming to the table and we are still to a large degree holding them to task as their racism now is clouded in the shadows of low expectation and dependency.

he following is a excerpt from an article by BRUCE BARTLETT from July 2008



After the war, it was the Republican Party that rammed through the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution over Democratic opposition. Republicans also enacted a series of civil-rights laws that culminated in the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which basically did what the Civil Rights Act of 1964 accomplished.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court struck down the Civil Rights Act of 1875, as well as a number of other civil-rights measures enacted by Republicans to protect the freed slaves. In Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the court gave constitutional cover to segregation, effectively prohibiting federal efforts to tackle racial inequality until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. And any federal civil-rights laws left on the books were repealed by Democrats once they got control of Congress and the White House in 1893.

Nevertheless, Republicans continued to make strenuous efforts to aid African-Americans. In 1890, they passed a force bill in the House of Representatives to send federal troops into the South to protect the voting rights of African-Americans. These rights were being violated everywhere in that region by laws, practices and violence perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klan and similar groups allied with the Democratic Party.

In 1900 (under President McKinley) and again in 1922 (under Harding), Republicans tried to enact an antilynching law. Coolidge asked for legislation again in his 1923 State of the Union message. Unfortunately, Southern Democrats in the Senate routinely filibustered every Republican effort to aid African-Americans.

Even Franklin Roosevelt wouldn't challenge the Senate's Southern caucus. Despite a landslide re-election victory in 1936, including overwhelming majorities in every Southern state, he refused to lend any support to another antilynching bill. Nor would he end the segregation of the armed forces established by Democrat Woodrow Wilson during World War I.

While Harry Truman deserves great credit for ending racial segregation in the military and the civil service, his efforts to pass civil-rights legislation also died from Southern Democratic opposition despite strong support from Republicans, who controlled Congress in 1947 and 1948. This makes Dwight Eisenhower's success in passing civil rights bills in 1957 and 1960 all the more remarkable, since Democrats then controlled both Houses of Congress.

Lyndon Johnson consistently opposed civil-rights legislation while he was in Congress, but as president worked hard to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Neither would have passed without the strong support of congressional Republicans, who provided the margin of victory.

Richard Nixon is said to have developed a "Southern strategy" of using racial code words like "law and order" to gain votes in the South. Yet he did more to desegregate southern schools than any president in history. Nixon also created affirmative action to help break the power of racist labor unions, and minority set-asides for government contracts to aid black entrepreneurs.

Historically speaking, the Republican Party has a far better record on race than the Democrats.

Note to Obama, Please, Please Have Them Hit Back Here.

 This is the opinion of an angry conservative that The Conservative Majority proudly supports.

 

The President and the and the Democratic leadership have asked the "dumb masses" to hit back twice as hard at those of us that oppose the government take over of the medical system.  The only reply from "The Conservative Majority" is "bring it own".  I say that mainly because I am tired of the Chicago thug politics out of the White House.  The only reason such a declaration has been necessary is because honest, hardworking Americans are seeing through the BS being spewed out by this President and Democratic leadership and we do not want the bill of goods you are selling.  I am fully prepared to defend my position here and hope that the masses of people who have already spoken out are willing to do the same.  No, we are not being placed at the town hall meetings and tea parties by special interests; we are going as a result of our own interest and the interest of this great country.  I have defended her proudly on many fronts and often times at my own sacrifice and, damn it, I will defend her against this.  This is still my America, the bright shining city on a hill that President Reagan gave us such a brilliant vision of and by God I dare you, President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, or any of the rest of you to try and take her away.  Stand up Conservatives, Republicans, and Libertarians and get into the fight.

What Did We Learn From the "Beer Summit"?

As the whole world has now heard, President Obama had Henry Louis Gates and Sgt. James Crowley over to the White House Thursday for the now infamous "Beer Summit".  What did we learn from this summit.  Was it a "teachable moment" on race relations in this country?  Yes, if you didn't already know how quickly Obama will pull the race card from his deck.  Was it a commentary on the conduct of police officer? No. What we learned was what happens when a President, who is not exceptionally bright, goes off script from what the tel-prompter tells him to say.  What we learned was what happens when a President, who has no real ideas on an issue, wants to distract people from his failure.

There were a hundred things that Obama could have done Thursday beside knocking back a cold one with Gates and Crowley.  Things like working on real ideas to help the economy and real ideas to work on health care, but Obama has no real ideas.  That led him to go back into the Democrat playbook, like he has done with every failed policy he has proposed, and pull an oldie but goody from the pages.  When in doubt, stir up a hornets nest by fanning the race issue debate even in an incident that has nothing to do with race.  The arrest of Gates was the gift that was laid at the feet of Obama and the media used it to cover the fact that the President is losing the debate on health care.

So Mr. President, we hoped you enjoyed your beer and the great press you received from the media that is so much in your hip pocket.  Now, will you please get to work trying to provide real answers for the issues that face this country instead of trying to destroy our economy and way of life with your socialist agenda.  Mind the business of being President instead of butting into things that are of no concern to you.  If you want a "teachable moment" read a book on basic, fundamental economics and at least act like you are the intellectual that you have fooled the "dumb masses" into believing that you are.

She's At it Again. Nancy Pelosi Now Attacking Insurance Companies

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Thursday went off on one of her now famous rants attacking insurance companies accusing them of trying to derail health care reform and prevent.  Rep. Pelosi told reporters the following Thursday.

"It's almost immoral what they are doing.Of course they've been immoral all along in how they have treated the people that they insure.  They are the villains. They have been part of the problem in a major way. They are doing everything in their power to stop a public option from happening."

Nancy Pelosi has never been known for her intelligence or her willingness to tell the truth.  Her attack on insurance companies is just a ploy to take the attention of the people away from the real problem, which is a health care reform bill being pushed through Congress that the American people do not want.  The American people do not trust Washington to run a government health care plan.  If the government handles health care the way that it has the "cash for clunkers" program they have a reason to be nervous.  Lets face it, if the government can't run a used car lot, how can they run a hospital.

The fact that Nancy Pelosi can stand before the American people and accuse anyone of unethical behavior is the height of hypocrisy.  Again, here is another Democrat attacking an American business that provides jobs to citizens and adds to our economy.  The medical insurance industry is not perfect, but this is due in part to having to work within the tightening hands of government regulation.  And that is the issue.  Pelosi and the Democrats do not care about providing insurance coverage to all Americans, they care about the power that universal health care gives them over our lives.  That is immoral.

If the Democrats really wanted a real health care plan that would protect Americans against the cost of health care they would present a universal catastrophic care plan.   That would protect Americans against the expense of hospital bills and we would in turn be responsible for our general health care coverage.  Insurance cost would go down because the insurance companies would not have huge pay-outs to cover hospital expenses and the cost to the government would only be a fraction of the behemoth bill being endorsed by Democratic leadership.

Nancy please, do us all a favor.  When you see a pet project blowing up in your face because you are trying to pull something over the American people, don't blame insurance companies, oil companies, or whoever you are targeting this week.  Be honest and tell us that you want your way no matter what we think.  Better yet step away from the microphone and, as Tyler Perry's Mabel "Madea" Simmons character would say, "put the shut to the up".