Liberty Maven

Today The Heritage Foundation published their Top 10 negative ramifications of the health care bill signed into law the other day:

1. New Spending Grows the Federal Deficit
2. Bending the Cost Curve in the Wrong Direction
3. New Taxes and Mandates Hinder Economic Growth
4. Regulations Grow Government Control over Health Care
5. Expanding Broken Entitlement Programs
6. Burdening State Budgets
7. Neglecting Medicare
8. Creates Discrimination Against Low Income Workers
9. Exchange Eligibility Creates Inequity
10. Questions of Constitutionality

Read the full article here.

by John Browne,  Senior Market Strategist, Euro Pacific Capital

Be of good cheer. There are many silver linings in what may seem to be a completely dark cloud. Let’s think about what just happened . . .

* Statist Democrats have waited three decades to take over healthcare
* Their last attempt, in 1993-94, was a bust
* And aside from those two years, they haven’t controlled Congress and the White House since the Carter years
* Now, it’s already fairly obvious that their current control won’t last long

After all . . .

* The American electorate leans conservative/libertarian and libertarian/liberal, NOT Statist Liberal
* Public dislike for Statism is why the Statist Republicans got fired in 2008, and it will likely cause many Statist Democrats to be fired too, starting this year

We think this explains the Democrats’ suicidal determination to pass their healthcare bill now, at all costs, in spite of the massive public opposition . . .

It was now or never!

Even so, public pressure, including tens of thousands of letters from DC Downsizers, forced the Statist Democrats to make major changes . . .

They had to drop their “deem and pass self-executing rule,” by which they hoped to make the Senate healthcare bill the law of the land, without ever voting for it.

You made the House Democrats do something they didn’t want to do. You made them cast a direct vote for the hated Senate bill.

Tax-funded bribery is also becoming a major issue. Witness the furor over the Cornhusker Kickback and the Louisiana Purchase. Public pressure made the Statist politicians retreat on this issue as well.

You also killed the so-called “public option,” which would have put us on the fast track to fully Socialist healthcare. As it stands now, the bill Congress actually passed more resembles Socialism’s kissing-cousin, Corporate Fascism. This is why . . .

Read More »

The more ignorant, reckless and thoughtless a doctor is, the higher his reputation soars even amongst powerful princes. -Erasmus

Apparently there are going to be a series of votes today on further nationalizing health care in American society. It is still up in the air whether or not it will pass. However, many have stated that if it comes to the floor then it will pass and the Democrats are planning on bringing it to the floor today beginning at 2pm Eastern.

David Dayen at Firedoglake writes:

The session tomorrow will begin around 2pm Eastern. Three votes – potentially four – will be taken. First there will be a vote on the rule, with an hour of debate on it. Expect a vote around 3:00 ET. Then there will be two hours of debate on the reconciliation bill. That will get a vote around 5:00 ET. There would be no debate in between the reconciliation bill and the Senate bill, which would happen around 5:30 ET. If there is a motion to recommit, that would get sandwiched in before the vote on the reconciliation bill.

Many Americans may be busy watching NCAA tournament basketball players jacking up shots while their elected lawmakers take measures to jack up their health care costs and taxes.

Read More »

Will your doctor quit his or her practice? See the sample letter below to get an idea of what the chances may be . . .

Congressional leaders want to hold their vote on the healthcare bill soon. This means that, tedious though it may be, we must continue doing the following . . .

1. If your House Rep is a Democrat, and you haven’t called this week to tell him or her to oppose the healthcare bill, please do so today. We got numerous reports, yesterday, that the Capitol lines were ringing busy. That’s a very good sign.
2. If you haven’t yet asked a friend to use our system to send Congress a letter, please do so today. You can forward them this message.
3. Send another letter of your own.

You can borrow from the following sample letter, or copy all of it . . .   Read More »

Can the House pass the Senate healthcare bill without voting on it? If Speaker Pelosi has her way then that may be what happens. It’s hard to know whether to laugh or cry, and we keep wondering, can they really get away with it?

For one thing, there’s a 1998 Supreme Court ruling that says each chamber of Congress must approve the exact same wording of a bill before that bill can become law.

You wouldn’t think Congress would need a court ruling to determine this, but they are politicians, so they need lots of remedial assistance with simple logic.

We really don’t think this pig can fly. If the Democrats try to launch it, the courts will sink it. And a differently constituted Congress may also repeal it after the November election. But you never know, so we need to keep pressuring Congress to drop this bill. Please write them another letter. Remember . . .

These people work for you. They also have the power of coercion over you. You have the right to tell them what you think, as often as you want, day after day, or even several times a day. Use this right.

Every letter you send gets counted and reported up the chain of command. And some of these letters will be read by the top staff in each Congressional office. Even President Obama reads 10 letters per day. So your letters DO count. They do matter. Keep sending them. Specifically, today . . .

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To put you in the proper frame of mind, consider the following bits of history . . .

* American Revolution: The British won all the early battles, but lost the war
* Napoleon: He won battles for years and years, but he ended up imprisoned on a rock in the Atlantic ocean
* American Civil War: The Confederates won constantly in the early years, but they lost the war
* World War II: The Nazis and the Japanese ran wild at first, conquering vast amounts of territory, but they both lost in the end
* The Cold War: The Soviets conquered half of Europe during World War II, and the CIA even ended up thinking the Soviet economy would eclipse our own, but the Soviets collapsed in the end, without a shot being fired

We predict the same pattern for our own fight. The Statists have won a lot of battles, but they aren’t going to win the war.

We firmly believe that the Statist mindset — which conjures monstrosities like the current healthcare bill — has no future.

Coercion, and top-down social engineering, do not work. They harm people. They are mistakes. And in the long run, people learn from their mistakes. Thus . . .

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Rand Paul and Andrew Breitbart appeared last night on Fox Business News’ “Nightly Scoreboard” with David Asman to discuss health care reform.

Don’t forget to pledge and donate on March 23rd for Rand Paul’s next money bomb. He went over $2 million dollars last night and needs a lot more to continue to compete and hold his lead in the primary and general election.

The interview is in two parts.

I may be able to get behind this Democratic health care over-reach plan if they adopt an “If we are wrong we pay” approach to it.

In other words, if every lawmaker who votes for health reform agrees to personally pay for everyone else’s health care for any amount health care costs rise above the CBO estimates in the future I could support it.

This would include their “estate” continuing to pay after they die, perhaps from sub-standard government-run health care. If Obama and company really honestly believe that their plan would reduce costs why would they not stand behind that belief?

Oh, that’s right, they aren’t very big supporters of personal responsibility are they?

Blame-shifting is an art in DC, and our representatives are master artists.

Nevermind. Once health costs sky rocket under this plan, they would likely just raise their own salaries enough to cover the costs, thereby sticking it to the taxpayers anyway.

Later this week, the House leadership intends to . . .

* pass the Senate 2,700 page healthcare reform bill, clearing it for President Obama’s signature
* but pretend that they didn’t

It’s a mind-boggling process suggested by Rule Committee Chair Rep. Louise Slaughter. To summarize . . .

* before Congress can pass a reconciliation bill “fixing” the Senate’s bill, the House must first pass the Senate bill and the President must sign it into law
* but the House doesn’t want an up-or-down vote on the unpopular Senate bill
* so instead the House will tie the Senate bill and the reconciliation bill together in a Rules Committee resolution
* which says that if the reconciliation bill passes, then the original Senate bill will be “DEEMED” to have been passed
* the Senate bill can then be signed into law, after which the Senate will (supposedly) proceed to consider the reconciliation bill

How can they do this? Because the House Rules Committee can propose anything that it pleases.

Fortunately, this procedure will require majority approval in the House. Which means . . .   Read More »