Tag Archives: Obamacare

Strictly Right Radio episode 75

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Strictly Right is back for a new year of cutting edge conservative analysis. On this episode, Ari takes a look at the incoming House GOP, the move to repeal Obamacare, the failures of big government, and some acts from the theater of the absurd. All that and more on the first Strictly Right of 2011.

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A Year of Regulatory Abuse: The 10 Worst New Rules of 2010

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Diane Katz of the Heritage Foundation profiled the 10 worst new rules of 2010.

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The year 2010 will stand as a watershed in regulation. In all likelihood, government at every level imposed more dictates on more facets of citizens’ lives than ever before, from the timing of stock trades to the proper size of showerheads. Lawmakers and regulators construct complex cost–benefit calculations to justify the rules, but they never account for the erosion of liberty inherent in each and every one. Some regulations are far worse than others, of course, exacting disproportionate costs—fiscal and otherwise. The 10 listed below rank as particularly egregious, and all deserve a swift demise in the year to come.

1. There hardly could be a more inapt title for the Obamacare legislation than the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” Neither protection nor affordable describes the federal government forcing Americans to buy specific types of health care coverage from particular types of insurers. For sheer constitutional insult, the individual mandate ranks among 2010’s worst regulations.

2. The Dodd–Frank financial regulation will ultimately encompass some 243 new formal rule-makings by 11 different federal agencies. Most every sector of finance will be hit by rules that will inhibit product innovation and availability of credit. Creation of the “Consumer Financial Protection Bureau” to regulate all manner of financial products and services—including mortgages, credit cards, even student loans—constitutes regulatory overload of the highest order. For its vaguely defined powers and sweeping mandate, the bureau belongs among the year’s 10 worst regulatory exploits.

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SPEAKER Boehner to Dems: You’re Welcome.

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What will the incoming GOP majority in the House bring? Some on the Right are already worried that Republicans still don’t get it. Will the GOP be conservative, or will they ‘compromise,’  and sell-out to the Left?

If Speaker(!) Boehner’s letter to Senate Democrats is any indication, it would appear as though the GOP has adopted a ‘new tone.’ House Republicans have promised a vote to repeal Obamacare. In response, Senate Democrats publicly sent a letter to Speaker Boehner, promising to block a bill that would repeal the Left’s crowing achievement. Boehner’s response is exactly what is needed from the GOP:

Senators Reid, Durbin, Schumer, Murray and Stabenow:

Thank you for reminding us – and the American people – of the backroom deal that you struck behind closed doors with ‘Big Pharma,’ resulting in bigger profits for the drug companies, and higher prescription drug costs for 33 million seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D, at a cost to the taxpayers of $42.6 billion.

The House is going to pass legislation to repeal that now. You’re welcome.

- Speaker-Designate John Boehner’s Press Office

The GOP is geared up for a serious fight for the soul of the country. Republicans were not elected because people were enamored with the Party brand. Rather, the voters wanted, and still want, a party that will stop Obama and the Democrats from imposing their socialist vision on the country.

Speaker Boehner’s letter sets the right tone; a fighting tone. The next two years have to be about repairing the damage Obama and his ilk have inflicted on the country. In that struggle there can be no compromise, no retreat and no surrender.

Disastrous Changes to Healthcare – Effective Now

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Do you think that you will be better off in 2011 than you were in 2010? If you answered yes, you must not be a doctor, insurance company, or any sort of user/provider of healthcare.

On January 1, 2011, several new elements of Obamacare came into effect. These measures lay the groundwork for higher premiums and the eventual government takeover of healthcare.

Your HSA and FSA is a lot less valuable

In the past, you could purchase over the counter medical supplies – such as Advil, allergy pills, and cold medicine – using your Health Savings Account (HSA) or Flexible Savings Account (FSA). No income tax was paid on the money that you saved in either of these accounts.

Thanks to Obamacare, you can no longer purchase over the counter medications using these accounts unless you get a doctor’s prescription.

This will have two big effects:

1. Increase the real cost of over the counter drugs because you cannot easily purchase them with pretax dollars

2. Waste doctors’ time and increase the price of health insurance because doctors will be asked to write prescriptions for over the counter drugs just for the tax benefits.

A Provision Now Limits How Insurance Companies Use your Premiums

This one is unbelievable – a game changer in the insurance business. This is a leap towards the government takeover of healthcare.

Insurance companies now are forced to spend at least 80% of the insurance premium on patients. If a company or group purchases a healthcare plan, this number jumps to 85%.

The remaining 15%-20% of your premium may be spent on advertising, sales, administrative salary, profit, etc..

This provision will have numerous effects – some of which are:

1. It will force insurance companies out of states where administrative costs are higher – simply because these states will be unprofitable.

2. It changes the insurance business model – typically your insurance company will take big profits from healthy patients (who consequently, don’t make large insurance claims) and lose money on customers who get sick. Obviously, insurance companies want their customers to stay healthy (fewer claims). Now, they need their customers to get sick to meet this government requirement.

This will drive ‘cadillac’ plans out of existence. Insurance companies have no benefit from high margin plans – the only way to increase profit is to cover more people (you can no longer increase margins). Plans will be designed to fit the needs of large groups of people - individually tailored plans designed to fit your specific needs are a thing of the past.

Claim service and doctor payments will all be affected too. Companies will reduce their administrative staff to the bare minimum (one of the few ways to affect profit margin). Be prepared to sit on hold for several hours only to talk to someone in India when you call your insurance company.

This provision sets up an incredible moral hazard that should be unimaginable in America – the government telling a private company what its profit margin must be. If the company is charging too much, competitors will take advantage of the situation by offering lower prices. Perhaps the government should limit grocery store margins too – we all need food. This is the absurdity of big government.

3. The new model is impossible – companies can only use 15%-20% of their margins on advertising, administration, and profit – so they need as many customers as possible. Yet they need to spend more on advertising and administration to pay for all of the new customers. This will inevitably decrease profits and the number of companies participating in the health insurance market.

Don’t worry – once provisions like these eliminate all of the private insurance companies, I’m confident that President Obama and the Democrats will have a solution – government run healthcare.

If you don’t want the government running healthcare, there is only one option: REPEAL.

2011 GOP Battle Cry: Undo Obama

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The media is atwitter over the fact that incoming GOP Congressmen have selected Carrie Underwood’s hit “Undo It” as their anthem.

Liberals in Congress and the media are worried that the GOP actually plans on fighting the Democrat socialist agenda.

Jennifer Steinhauer and Robert Pear lamented in the New York Times:

The health care law, entitlement programs, new limits on emissions of greenhouse gases from oil refineries and power plants, and other legislation that Republicans say cannot be justified by a strict interpretation of the Constitution — a document the new leaders plan to read on the House floor on Thursday — are all in the cross hairs.

While President Obama and Republicans were able to work together during last month’s lame-duck session — to the vocal consternation of the most partisan ends of each party’s base — to pass a tax package and a variety of last-minute legislation, including the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and the ratification of the anti-nuclear proliferation treaty with Russia, such bipartisan consensus seems unlikely at the outset of the new House session.

Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, who is in line to succeed Ms. Pelosi, has said that this time around he would lead efforts to revive the private sector by reducing the size of government — cutting federal regulation, taxes and spending, including the budget of Congress itself.

Mr. Boehner also said Republicans would alter House rules to make it easier to curb government spending and to require more public disclosure about the work of the House.

House Republicans plan on passing a full repeal of Obamacare as a symbolic act, acknowledging that it will be stopped in the Senate, or vetoed by the President. However, after setting the tone, the GOP plans on defunding and dismantling Obamacare piece by piece. Additionally, with Paul Ryan’s Road Map the GOP is finally starting to talk about realistic entitlement reforms.

Fueled by a reverence for the Constitution and an acknowledgment of reality, Republicans won in 2010 by representing the alternative to Obamunism. If the Grand Old Party wishes to remain in power surrender is not an option.

Mitch McConnell stated that his foremost political priority is ensuring that Barack Obama is a one-term president. Republicans are openly stating that they plan on using Obamacare as an albatross to hang around Democrats in 2012. The only way to fix the economy, and the country, is to get government out of the way. The only way to get government out of the way is to defeat Democrats. The GOP, at long last, is ready to play hardball.

On the other side of the aisle, Democrats believe that a renewed debate over Obamacare will actually help them. The Left believes that the only problem with Obama’s government takeover of healthcare is the branding. If only the American people really understood how great Obamacare is, they’d support the monstrosity.The fights over Obamacare, and liberty, are fights the GOP should welcome, and decisively win.

The legislative plan for the GOP is quite simple; Barry Goldwater spelled it out in 1960:

I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is `needed’ before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents “interests,” I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can.

For a modern interpretation “Undo It” works:

“Most Productive” Congresses are the Worst Kind of Congresses

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With the 111th Congress finally out of Washington, the Left’s toadies in the media are all pushing the same talking point: that the ousted Congress was the “most productive Congress since the Great Society”:

Is a productive Congress supposed to be a good thing? The 111th Congress was very busy, passing horrendous legislation that the vast majority of people opposed – that is why Nancy Pelosi is no longer the Speaker of the House.

‘Productive’ Congresses have been the greatest bludgeon used against liberty. The Hundred Days of the 73rd Congress, often cited as the most ‘productive’ Congress in history, was quite possibly the most harmful 100 days in American history. In just 100 days, Congress rammed through much of President Roosevelt’s New Deal, among the worst and most damaging legislation ever passed.

Likewise, the 89th Congress, which passed the bulk of President Johnson’s Great Society, is often praised for their ‘productivity.’ Is the government ever going to read us the score from the Great Society? Instead of ending poverty, the government scheme fostered dependence degradation. In fact, the Great Society played a seminal role in the destruction of minority families.

In contrast, the 52nd United States Congress, which sat for 13 months in their two year term, passed little of note. They weren’t concerned with “spreading the wealth around,” there was no imposition of “fairness,” and there was no debate over “tax cuts for the rich” because there was no income tax (and the sky didn’t even fall).

In the 1920s the government controlled 2 per cent of Gross Domestic Product. A law was passed limiting the height of buildings in Washington D.C. because government officials were worried that tall buildings would emphasize the irrelevancy of the government. If only we still had that ‘problem.’

With Obamacare passed, the government is poised to takeover 6 per cent of the economy in one fell swoop. ‘Productive’ should not be a compliment when applied to Congress. In fact, ‘productive’ is probably the worst thing a Congress can be. The last thing a Congress should do is hurry through masses of legislation, especially bills that no one has read.

Rather than ‘productive,’ Congress should be prudent. Every bill should be carefully considered, with arguments from all sides given voice. Elected officials should only vote on a bill when all alternatives have been considered. If that means less legislation is passed, all the better. Bring on a ‘do nothing’ Congress – for about the next hundred years.

UK Riots: A Glimpse into the Future

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By a vote of 323 to 302 the British parliament voted to increase student fees from £3,290 to £9,000. The vote was an acknowledgment of reality. Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister and ardent socialist, branded opponents of the plan “dreamers,” claiming that he has to deal with “the way the world is.”

In reaction to fee hikes, British students waged a violent protest, physically attacking the Royal Family, destroying private and government property, and asaulting police officers. The following pictures of the riots are from the UK Daily Mail:

Meanwhile, in France workers conducted a violent strike because the government dared to raise the retirement age by two years – from 60 to 62.

In Greece, civil servants and students joined forces to riot over new austerity measures put in place after the deadbeat country was bailed out. In the mêlée at least three people were killed.

This is the end of the socialist path. Margaret Thatcher used to say “the trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” Europe has run out of other people’s money. Countries that have enjoyed grandiose welfare states are insolvent. The Iberian peninsula is next on the chopping block, with both Spain and Portugal poised to go bust.

The trouble is, generations (at least 2) of people have become dependent on the welfare state. They trust that the government will be there to take care of them. They have been raised to believe that the insidious rich, defined as anyone that makes more than you, will be cut down to size in the interest of “fairness.” With more people retiring, and fewer young people to pick up the slack, welfare programs have become insolvent.

The problem of insolvency, and of a dependent class, is not unique to Europe. California and Illinois face $25 billion and $15 billion deficits. In fact, Illinois’ credit rating is weaker than that of Iceland (which went bankrupt in 2008) and only slightly higher than that of Iraq. New York, New Jersey, Michigan and other heavily Democratic states are in similarly tenuous positions.

Of course, there is also the federal government, running enormous deficits, and unable to fund entitlements like: Social Security, Medicare, Medicade, Obamacare and so on. People have put money and trust in a government that has squandered both.

The issue is, what can be cut? Politicians do not like taking away entitlements. While it may be necessary, there will always be class warriors who promise that the ‘rich,’ or “economic royalists” will have to take on their “fair share” of the cost of government. “Fair share” invariably translates to the entire cost.

With nearly half of all people on the receiving end of the government dole, the case for limited government can be difficult to make. What interest does someone who is a net beneficiary have in reducing the size of the state? That is the situation in Europe. If class warrior Obama has his way, that will be the case in the united States and the results will be equally as miserable.

You reap what you sow.

The GOP DOES Have a Mandate

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The narrative being perpetuated by the Left and the media from last night’s resounding GOP victory is that it was a referendum on incumbency. According to the Left, the thumpin’ Obama’s party took is in no way a reflection on the policies the Democrats have passed over the last two years. Rather, the Left claims that the pressing issue this election was an overriding dislike of incumbents. The ‘anti-incumbent’ canard is essentially the same storyline that was used to delegitimize the 1994 Republican Revolution. The logical follow-up question to that theory is: why were voters angry at incumbents, specifically Democrat incumbents?

The fact that last night’s election was a referendum on Obamunism is so obvious only the mainstream media could miss it. In 2008, Americans were duped into voting for someone who claimed to be a centrist. Candidate Obama promised to end the partisan divide (remember “no red-state America, no blue-state America, only a United States of America?”) Since his ascension to the Presidency, Barack Obama has been the most bitterly partisan president in American history. In his first two years in office, President Obama passed his failed Stimulus bill and Obamacare. Both bills were passed on a near strict party line vote.

Last night was the first opportunity the American people had to vote on the real, deeply partisan, socialist, Barack Obama and the voters overwhelmingly rejected Barack Obama’s radically partisan socialistic agenda. The GOP was elected to stand athwart Obama and yell “stop!” Republicans picked up over 60 seats in the House yesterday. That is the single biggest gain any party has achieved in over half a century. Obama’s socialism has been rebuked. People did not elect the GOP to get along with the President. Voters do not want the GOP to offer the lite version of Obamunsim; they want the complete and total opposite of out-of-control spending and a metastasizing federal leviathan.

The Republican Party has been given chance; a chance to stop Obama’s radical agenda. Regardless of what the media says, this election was a referendum on the policies of the last two years. The worst thing the GOP could do is moderate and compromise. Republicans have been given a mandate by the American people to obstruct Obama’s radical socialist agenda.

Really, Mr. President?

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Hoping to re-engage his base of “the young, the Left and the thoughtless,” President Obama told attendees at a rally of university students to stick with him because “change is gonna come.” If “change is gonna come” what has the last 2 years been? You can run against the status quo when you have no record and chose the path of political least resistance, as Obama did in 2008. However, when your party controls both houses of the Congress and you are the president you can’t run against the existing state of affairs – you created them.

Obama’s real problem is that change has come. His change has put the country on the brink. The debt is growing at an unsustainable rate. Official unemployment has remained stagnant at nearly 10%, real unemployment has remained closer to 20%. Students, who put so much (false) hope in Obama, have been hit the hardest. The unemployment rate for Americans age 16-19 is 26.3%. For Americans 20-24 years of age 14.9% are out of a job. Obama’s change has come, and it is wiping out the American economy.

The Democrat axis of Obama-Pelosi-Reid have been defined by dishonesty, corruption and radicalism. The president has repeatedly raised taxes on people making under $200,000 and has had a revolving door for lobbyists to serve in the administration. At the same time, the House Democrtas are mired in corruption, while legislation has been passed by ignoring and abusing the Constitution in the dead of night. That legislation has been far-reaching and detrimental to the country. The $787,000,000,000 Stimulus bill has had one measurable result: it added $787 to the national debt. Obamacare is a gargantuan unfunded entitlement boondoggle that was rammed through Congress and signed into law by the President, irrespective of the overwhelming opposition voiced by the American people. All the while, President Obama has shunned America’s allies while coddling the world’s most odious regimes. The Obama administration is in the process of allowing the Hitler of the Middle East to acquire nuclear weapons, the most devastating foreign policy blunder in American history. The Democrat regime has most assuredly brought change – and that change been an unmitigated disaster.

But now the President is pledging that if Democrats are reelected then finally, “change is gonna come.” By reelecting the people that created this mess the President plans to “change” the country even more. The country cannot survive any more of the “change” that the President is selling. Thankfully, change “is gonna come” this November – and it had better say ‘NO!’ to every “change” the President tries to impose.

Paychecks to Shrink due to Obamacare

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Remember all the talk about how Obamacare would make healthcare more affordable?

Turns out, its having the opposite effect.

As reported by Bloomberg:

About 63 percent of businesses plan to make employees pay a higher percentage of their premium costs in 2011, said the Washington-based National Business Group on Health, which surveyed 72 companies that employ more than 3.7 million people. The survey showed 46 percent plan to raise the maximum level of out-of-pocket costs that workers must bear.

Obamacare shifts the power from patient/doctor to the government, is widely opposed by doctors, and takes money out of Americans’ pockets when they need it most. It’s no wonder that 60% of Likely Voters now favor the repeal of Obamacare.

It’s scary to imagine how much more Americans will be paying for healthcare if this legislation is fully enacted in 2013.

It’s time the government starts respecting the will of the American people.