BY: MIKE PORTER

I find it ironic that healthcare, the strongest campaign message by the Democrats in 2008, has today become the party’s largest thorn. During the campaign, healthcare reform was a clear and concise message that struck a nerve with liberals, independents, and some disgruntled Republicans. Obama and Clinton continued to banter back and forth during the primaries on health care reform which registered with voters and showed America the Democrats owned this issue. Healthcare for everyone was the campaign slogan and nobody would have to pay extra for it - except for a few wealthy people who should buy it for you anyway, right? If you like your current plan you can keep it. If you are down on your luck there will be a public option for you. President Obama rode into Washington with an approval rating just shy of 70 percent on the heels of many promises; the most important being health care.(1) A badly beaten Republican party, who already lost Congress back in 2006, turned the White House over to the Democrats. America today is being lead by the country’s most liberal leaders in our history. Liberal Democrats have majority control in every branch of government – Executive, Judicial, and Legislative.

How could something so good go so wrong for the Democrats? Months after the health care bill has been drafted, many Americans do not fully understand what he is trying to reform. Obama has completely lost control and has failed to lead during this process. Back in 1993 when Bill Clinton was pushing “Hillary Care,” he addressed the nation and explained the plan to the public. Obama has had several opportunities to explain this and to this day all of his addresses have lacked specifics. That leaves one to conclude our President doesn’t understand the plan himself, or he does not feel comfortable talking about the plan with us. I tend to believe the latter, and as long as the media fawns over this man, nobody will put him on the spot with difficult questions that will force him to explain anything. This tactic has not worked, and it has been detrimental to the Democrats.

While our President has failed to communicate with the American people, our government has ignored the concerned citizens who have flooded town hall meetings expressing their concerns. Thepublic option and cuts in medicare have been among their primary concerns. Most people do agree the system needs reform, however many statistical polls show that 75 percent of the people in America are happy with their current plan. Many of these people do not believe the entire system needs to be overhauled in order to provide reform. The current bill, H.R. 3200, does nothing to address the costs that go into why doctors charge so much. Instead, it just tries to “bandaid” the issue by extending insurance to everyone. Many of the so called “uninsured” today already have access to some kind of plan, either private or governmental. Government mandates on insurance and tort laws are the primary reasons why medical costs are so high, yet the bill does nothing to address these costs. Instead, the bill contains more mandates on companies who already provide insurance and individuals being forced to purchase plans. Many are concerned about whether a public option will eventually lead to single payer, and rightfully so. Obama has yet to answer how this can work without adding any new doctors to provide this additional level service. No one has ever explained how illegal aliens will be treated with the public option.

Citizens of this country are storming the town halls and burning up the phone lines calling their representatives frantic for answers. Meanwhile the White House and many of the elite in Congress simply brush this off as a Fox News initiative driven by far right radicals, or people being sent by insurance companies. I cannot think of anything more devastating than public officials ignoring concerned voters in their constituency. Downplaying, and in some cases, insulting Americans who are executing one of the most essential rights of liberty is not going to help the cause. Americans are rightfully angry at the bill's contents. They should be heard and taken seriously by everyone. The people voicing their concerns have damaged the possibility of a public option and the passage of this bill in general. Many "blue dog" Democrats opposed this bill from the start. Meanwhile, some in Congress support an even more liberal version of this bill and do not believe this goes far enough. Many argue the President let the far left have far too much influence in the writing of this bill, which today is over 1,000 pages.

What has happened here is a perfect example of “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” Today, healthcare costs are about 17 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP). The Democrats have decided to quickly push through healthcare without any bipartisan support or debate. The great uniter has quickly become the great divider. America has already seen an expensive and urgent stimulus package which almost all economists agree will never work. Cap and Trade was next, and now healthcare. All of these bills have been enormous making it impossible to read. Bills of this size are in itself an exploit of our entire government model. Americans are seeing spending and deficits that were once unthinkable – despite the outrageous spending from the previous administration. Americans have simply had enough. This is not the change that drew moderates and independents to vote for Barack Obama - that much is clear. America is still a center right nation, and I am proud to say that is not going to change anytime soon. No one in Washington is going to force us to change the way we live so we can be more like Sweden or France. Both are wonderful places to visit and the people there are great, but no one can expect anything there will ever work over here without a drastic change in our lifestyles. It will not happen and outraged Americans are speaking out against this nonsense.

Congratulations to everyone out there who has let their voices be heard. This is how our government is supposed to work. Polls show support for the President and the Democrats are in a free fall. The latest Rasmussen poll shows the President is at a 47 percent approval rating and falling – down from almost 70% only nine months ago!(2) Even George W. Bush, who left office with the lowest approval ratings ever, fared better than this through his first eight months as President. Without a drastic change by this administration, the Democratic party stands to be in a lot of trouble in the 2010 elections.

(1) http://www.gallup.com/poll/113962/obama-starts-job-approval.aspx
(2) http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

Moments of change happen to people every single day. Babies are born. Parents die. Children die. A house burns. A theft. A rescue. An opening. A closure. These things come in the billions everyday. Moments crashing into another over and over in towns, cities, farms and forests. Everywhere. There wasn't an iota of human existence that hasn't been touched by the forces of the world.

There's always been a mystic feelings to watching history. I can never place my finger on it, but it was there. It's there like the sun each morning, even through the smoke of the brushfires or the black cover of a mountain storm. It took a normal day that was blue and calm and transported me to a place out of step with what came before it. The sun didn't look right. The air had a tinge of uncertainty. The world that I saw wasn't the world that I experienced just moments before.

And yet, the world had never changed, not in the sense we short-lived intelligent animals think of as change. Not in the sense of the creation of the solar system or the destruction of the dinosaurs. Those things are real, forever change. Change that utterly ended the world without destroying it. I've been alive twenty four years and what I've been alive to see has simply been the reiteration of the natural truths of human existence in new and interesting forms. The events themselves are new, no doubt, as, for example, the Romans never put a man into space (nor did they do it in a race against Carthage), but the basic reason behind the events have never, ever lost their force.

These forces are so primal, so natural, that we dress them up in new words to disguise what they really are. When you talk about the Final Solution, you are not just talking about the genocidal dictates of a race-oriented national socialist dictator, but you are also talking about a hatred. Pure, deep tribal hatred. Something that repeated itself dozens of times 20 years before the Nazis and dozens of times 20 years after them. When you talk about the fall of the USSR, you are not just talking about the fall of communism, but you are talking about the felling of a single empire which took the place of a previous empire, which in turn took the place of the empire before it. During those empires, the Russian people never tasted freedom, nor do they taste it today. Before the Suffrage Movement, oligarchical Sparta had equal rights for women while democratic Athens shunned the gender. Where the first human and civil laws were created thousands of years ago now lays the bloody print of a dead dictator, one who took from another bloody dictator, who was given his patch of land from an empire that spanned the globe.

If you talk to those who dream of the future of progress and push for our civilization to reach for social perfection, they seem to think what they're doing has been done before. Our leaders, past and present, the ones with the vast visions and the big plans, they saw history as progressive. They saw the moments of humanity individual and apart from other moments. What they didn't know is these things they pine for are not new nor are they special if you put them up against the rest of history. The tale of human civilization shows we human beings, and our human nature, is consistent in its ability to bring us to greats highs like Babylon and its laws, Sparta's equality among the sexes, Athens' experiment with democracy, the Bill of Rights, the liberation of Europe from Nazi, then Soviet tyranny; and in its ability to bring us people like bloody Nero, the Athenian mob, Spartan infanticide, Persian tyranny and murder, the antebellum slave trade, the Islamist terrorist blowback of the Cold War. And all these things are just customs or events in the life time of our modern nations. Dare we think of what could come in our lifetime that may rival the fall of Rome, the Spartan-Athenian War or the Second World War?

When the television told me change is on the way, or a spry newborn revolutionary wanted me to ride the tide of liberation, I followed. When the bombs dropped on Belgrade in 1999, I thought it was new. When the towers fell, I thought it was new. Even when our President was elected last November, I still had that feeling of history. And yet, it wasn't truly there. There was something repetitive about it. Something old. His name was different, his voice was different, even his skin was different, but I'd be damned if I didn't think I saw a tinge of our past, let alone the past of Western civilization, in it. This is why we can't ignore the clues of our past and the words of our Founders. They saw the past, they read the histories and they knew the follies of narcissistic peoples. They enshrined the highs and build walls to prevents the lows. There's a reason they talked and wrote of God-given rights and of human nature and not of the rights we may have later or of the need to implement social justices and save humanity. It's not because they wanted to inspire us to run headstrong into the future, spreading the gospel we think we read in our nation's events, taking for granted that we are safe in our democracy (nay, republic). It's because they wanted to warn us against thinking our future was new, that our actions are unique and that our choices are impossible to fathom from so far in the past.

I don't know what will happen in the future, but what I know is I see the signs of human consistency. It could be before I die or after I die, but if we do not heed to the histories of our human nature, we shall become an example to the future republicans of some lucky, distant nation.

Cross-posted at Generation Patriot

He's going to fall out of the sky as fast as his poll numbers.

Since this bill seems to be getting completely ignored by just about everybody in the media and on Capitol Hill, I figured it was probably something worth looking into. Its stated purpose is to provide for incentives to encourage health insurance coverage, and for other purposes.

Download a copy of the bill:

http://www.box.net/shared/d2j4xpsak5

It's 268 pages long, which as an improvement over the 1000+ pages of the current health care reform bill. Still a long read, though.

The Table of Contents seems to be a pretty good way to summarize it:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.

TITLE I—TAX INCENTIVES FOR MAINTAINING HEALTH
INSURANCE COVERAGE
Sec. 101. Refundable tax credit for health insurance costs of low-income individuals.
Sec. 102. Advance payment of credit as premium payment for qualified health
insurance.
Sec. 103. Election of tax credit instead of alternative government or group plan
benefits.
Sec. 104. Deduction for qualified health insurance costs of individuals.
Sec. 105. Limitation on abortion funding.
Sec. 106. Non-discrimination on abortion and respect for rights of conscience.
Sec. 107. Equal employer contribution rule to promote choice.
Sec. 108. Limitations on State restrictions on employer auto-enrollment.
Sec. 109. Credit for small employers adopting auto-enrollment and defined contribution
options.
Sec. 110. Require employers to disclose amounts paid for employer-provided
health plan coverage.
Sec. 111. HSA modifications and clarifications.

TITLE II—HEALTH INSURANCE POOLING MECHANISMS FOR
INDIVIDUALS
Subtitle A—Safety Net for Individuals With Pre-Existing Conditions
Sec. 201. Requiring operation of high-risk pool or other mechanism as condition
for availability of tax credit.
Subtitle B—Federal Block Grants for State Insurance Expenditures
Sec. 211. Federal block grants for State insurance expenditures.
Subtitle C—Health Care Access and Availability
Sec. 221. Expansion of access and choice through individual membership associations
(IMAs).
Subtitle D—Small Business Health Fairness
Sec. 231. Short title.
Sec. 232. Rules governing association health plans.
Sec. 233. Clarification of treatment of single employer arrangements.
Sec. 234. Enforcement provisions relating to association health plans.
Sec. 235. Cooperation between Federal and State authorities.
Sec. 236. Effective date and transitional and other rules.

TITLE III—INTERSTATE MARKET FOR HEALTH INSURANCE
Sec. 301. Cooperative governing of individual health insurance coverage.

TITLE IV—SAFETY NET REFORMS

•HR 3400 IH
Sec. 401. Requiring outreach and coverage before expansion of eligibility.
Sec. 402. Easing administrative barriers to State cooperation with employersponsored
insurance coverage.
Sec. 403. Improving beneficiary choice in SCHIP.
Sec. 404. Liability protections for health center volunteer practitioners.
Sec. 405. Liability protections for health center practitioners providing services
in emergency areas.

TITLE V—MEDICAL LIABILITY AND UNCOMPENSATED CARE
REFORMS
Sec. 501. Short title.
Sec. 502. Findings and purpose.
Sec. 503. Encouraging speedy resolution of claims.
Sec. 504. Compensating patient injury.
Sec. 505. Maximizing patient recovery.
Sec. 506. Additional health benefits.
Sec. 507. Punitive damages.
Sec. 508. Authorization of payment of future damages to claimants in health
care lawsuits.
Sec. 509. Definitions.
Sec. 510. Effect on other laws.
Sec. 511. State flexibility and protection of States’ rights.
Sec. 512. Applicability; effective date.
Sec. 513. Sense of Congress.
Sec. 514. State grants to create administrative health care tribunals.
Sec. 515. Affirmative defense based on compliance with best practice guidelines.
Sec. 516. Bad debt deduction for doctors to partially offset the cost of providing
uncompensated care required to be provided under
amendments made by the Emergency Medical Treatment and
Labor Act.

TITLE VI—WELLNESS AND PREVENTION
Sec. 601. Providing financial incentives for treatment compliance.

TITLE VII—TRANSPARENCY AND INSURANCE REFORM MEASURES
Sec. 701. Receipt and response to requests for claim information.

TITLE VIII—QUALITY
Sec. 801. Prohibition on certain uses of data obtained from comparative effectiveness
research; accounting for personalized medicine and differences
in patient treatment response.
Sec. 802. Establishment of performance-based quality measures.

TITLE IX—STATE TRANSPARENCY PLAN PORTAL
Sec. 901. Providing information on health coverage options and health care
providers.

TITLE X—PHYSICIAN PAYMENT REFORM
Sec. 1001. Sustainable growth rate reform.

TITLE XI—INCENTIVES TO REDUCE PHYSICIAN SHORTAGES

•HR 3400 IH
Subtitle A—Federally Supported Student Loan Funds for Medical Students
Sec. 1101. Federally Supported Student Loan Funds for Medical Students.
Subtitle B—Loan Forgiveness for Primary Care Providers
Sec. 1111. Loan forgiveness for primary care providers.

TITLE XII—OFFSETS
Subtitle A—Enforcing Discretionary Spending Limits
Sec. 1201. Enforcing discretionary spending limits.
Subtitle B—Repeal of Unused Stimulus Funds
Sec. 1211. Rescission and repeal in ARRA.
Subtitle C—Savings From Health Care Efficiencies
Sec. 1221. Medicare DSH report and payment adjustments in response to coverage
expansion.
Sec. 1222. Reduction in Medicaid DSH.
Subtitle D—Fraud, Waste, and Abuse
Sec. 1231. Provide adequate funding to HHS OIG and HCFAC.
Sec. 1232. Improved enforcement of the Medicare secondary payor provisions.
Sec. 1233. Strengthen Medicare provider enrollment standards and safeguards.
Sec. 1234. Tracking banned providers across State lines.
Sec. 1235. Reinstate the Medicare trigger.

President Obama’s timing of announcing Ben Bernanke’s reappointment as Chairman of the Federal Reserve may not have caused the distraction from the news regarding the federal deficit in which he had hoped. As the federal deficit approaches $1.6 trillion and the debt draws near $12 trillion, Obama has decided to stick with the man who played a significant role in causing this financial turmoil. The starting quarterback has thrown three interceptions, and the score is 21-0 in the first quarter. With no viable backup, the Obama Administration is sticking with their “starter.” However, it is clear that there must be a change in the game plan.

It’s too early for “Hail Mary” passes, and Ben Bernanke is not Roger Staubach. Bernanke’s panicked approach to monetary policy indicates he is afraid of “the bear”…the bear market that is, which is not to be confused with the legendary Chicago Bears’ “46 defense.” Perhaps it is time to slow the tempo of this game down, manage the clock and run the ball. This is not an impossible feat as any member of the 1992 Buffalo Bills who played in the famous “comeback game” will attest. In addition, a one-dimensional offense does not work on the football field or the playing field of economics. Dan Marino was one of the greatest passers in NFL history, but he does not own a Super Bowl ring. “Helicopter Ben”… take a lesson from “Air Marino.”

If Ben Bernanke does not wish to go down in history as the worst Federal Reserve Chairman, he must incorporate a multi-dimensional offense and tough defense in his strategy. When asked about managing asset bubbles, he once said “even if the Fed could identify bubbles, monetary policy is far too blunt a tool for effective use against them.” Bernanke believes that it is easier to clean up the mess after the bubble bursts. It is safe to say that Marv Levy would have preferred to be ahead 35-3 in that famous 1993 playoff game, as the odds for winning would have been much better.

Catch-up football and the Federal Reserve’s strategy of printing money to keep up with government spending have an interesting parallel. Both have very long odds for success. Bernanke is considered to be an expert on the history of the Great Depression, yet his policy does not take into consideration history’s greatest lesson – a nation cannot spend itself into prosperity.

Perhaps Bernanke should seek out a new nickname. How about “Deflator Ben” instead? One of the main reasons why the nation is in perilous financial shape is due to appalling economic policy that does not focus on production and does not use deflation as a remedy to a recession. Bernanke’s predecessor, Alan Greenspan, played a huge role in the crash of 2008 by using low interest rates to induce spending and borrowing whilst outsourcing much of that debt to China and Japan. This policy may have lessened the impact of the previous recession; however, it greatly sharpened the impact of the current demise.

Production is the way out of a recession. The Federal Reserve’s giveaways to induce borrowing and spending will only lead to inflationary nightmares and will make the U.S. dollar worthless. The average American need not plunge farther into debt on account of weak purchasing power.

The price of capital and labor must fall, which will lead to lower prices for goods. When the price of producer goods begins to fall faster than prices for consumer goods, the wheels of the correction process will be rolling. In due time, consumer spending will pick up and market equilibrium will be achieved.

If the answer is so simple, then one must wonder why Ben Bernanke and politicians do not see such a simple solution. Elected officials fear deflation because it is self-correcting. Politicians must sell the illusion that they are needed to “fix” things for people. After the housing bubble burst, prices fell and banks contracted lending. The government responded with financial bailouts which not only prolongs the misery, but stifles the opportunity for capital to be deployed to more opportunistic sectors of the economy. Bailouts, tax credits and all of the other “goodies” politicians give away curtails deflation, and doing so opens the door to more catastrophic consequences in the future.

If Bernanke does not wish to see a repeat of the crash of 2008, he will not repeat the mistakes that were made in “correcting” the recession in the early 2000s. This time, it may not take five years to see an explosion. Economists who are predicting positive GDP growth and cheering over the fact that this ugly recession may be coming to an end is a very hazardous, short-term view. The concern should be on the inflationary impact of the actions taken to “soften the blow” which poses the possibility of a double-dip recession. Will “Deflator Ben” come to the rescue?

Aren't these helpful?