Tonight may be an uneventful night; it could also be the eve of another earthquake/volcanic event that will further rattle a global community that is becoming fatigued with one disaster after another. After you read the above paragraph, it would appear that we are close to a “perfect storm” where several variables have come together that could spell an exacerbated period of weather related and geological disasters. I am writing this synopsis of pertinent earthquake/volcanic facts with the goal of avoiding another Haiti type of disaster. With roads almost impassible and the the port suffering massive damage, the global community is still having a great deal of difficulty supplying food and water to starving Haitian’s. No matter where in the world a disaster might occur, supplying the needs of 1.5 million people is a daunting task even if the roads and port had been left intact.
Now, imagine that an 8.0 quake were to strike on the southern portion of the San Andreas fault in the greater Los Angeles area. An earthquake of that magnitude would likely cause highway overpasses and bridges to collapse; water and gas mains would burst, and supermarkets and store shelves would be bare in a matter of a few hours. The Los Angeles–Long Beach–Santa Ana metropolitan area is home to nearly 12.9 million residents. How long would it take to provide this many people with the bare necessities of life? While none of us know, it’s obvious that it would take far too long… that said, those who live in dangerous earthquake areas should learn from Haiti’s grief and store enough food and water to last at least two weeks. You don’t need anything fancy, just enough to last your family until help arrives. Those that live in the most densely populated areas are likely to be among the hardest hit and least likely to receive aid in a timely manner.
The activity of the world’s most dangerous “supervolcano” is still experiencing a long series of earthquake swarms that were announced by the Mainstream News Media on January the 17th of this year. There has been almost no mention of these continuing earthquake swarms, and I believe that where these quakes are occurring is of greater significance than the U.S.G.S. is admitting. The caldera at Yellowstone has been rising and most of that bulge has been evident in the northwest area of caldera. There was a short story in the Little Chicago Review that was published today which stated:
The U of U Seismograph Stations (UUSS) reports that there have been more than 900 earthquakes in the swarm, ranging from magnitude 0.5 to 3.8. There have been multiple personal reports of ground shaking from observations inside the park and in surrounding areas for some of the larger events.
UUSS reports that the swarm is likely the result of slip on pre-existing faults rather than underground movement of magma. LINK
To understand how fragile the earth’s crust is, picture the earth as the same size of a basketball; using this representation and keeping it to scale – the thickness of the earth’s crust would be that of a single piece of paper wrapped around the globe. Earthquakes and volcanoes represent many of the most horrific disasters that have plagued mankind since the beginning of time. We know that we are in an increased period of seismic and geological hazards. Disasters on the scale we have recently witnessed are bound to cause a huge loss of life, but, knowing that the danger is there – the multitude of after-event deaths can be mitigated by proper disaster preparedness. It doesn’t cost much to increase your odds of survivability, so if you live in a hazard zone, don’t believe it always happens to someone else. Store adequate food, water and medicine, and in doing so, you might avoid the heartache of watching your own family suffering from thirst and starvation.
Seismic events that are correlated to a full moon often occur two or three days before or after the actual date of the full moon. There will be more disasters on the horizon; whether they happen today, tomorrow, next year or a decade from now – they will likely strike without warning. In this matter, an ounce of prevention is certainly more valuable than a pound of cure.
All of us need to remember Senate Bill S-1959 and House Bill 1955. The “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007″ was one of the most egregious assaults on the freedom and liberty of Americans that had ever been presented to Congress. (Notwithstanding the Patriot (Sic) Act.) It took hard work, and as people began to grasp the impact of this bill we can now state that overall, it was one of those rare times that public outrage and calls to our Congress were actually successful.
Both of these bills were under a press blackout which made our fight even tougher than it should have been; after passing the House with only six “nay” votes, the bill was “”Fast-Tracked” for what those in Congress thought was a sure win. But on this issue, people understood that the very essence of freedom and liberty were being challenged and we arose to the challenge. The switchboard(s) at Capitol Hill was literally swamped with calls and Senators/Representatives found their email clogged with petitions and countless emails from their constituents.
HR 1955 and S-1959 demonstrated loud and clear that when the public bands together for the common good and we stand together in solidarity, the government has no choice but to heed the will of the of the American people. Our Congress attempted to pass this egregious bill under the radar, refused to comment publicly on the bill, and the MSM was subjected to a press blackout. Our fight against this assault on our democracy was defeated largely by the segment of the population that received their news from the Internet. The bill was sent to committee from the House of Representatives where it languished and was eventually shelved with little or no fanfare. Unfortunately, because of the press blackout on this bill, the public never celebrated nor fully understood the significance of our ability to change the course of our history – and that’s the way the government wanted it! If the public woke-up and comprehended the power of the people when we stand together, it might have empowered us to tackle bigger and better things. For all practical purposes, our victory in the face of tyranny was forgotten, shelved along with the bill in the hopes that a wakening electorate would yawn and go back to their slumber – and it worked.
Now we are faced with another issue that strikes at the heart of our democracy. There have been thousands of articles and Op-Ed’s written on this decision, and the majority of them agree that this ruling, if allowed to stand, will forever alter the course of our struggling democracy:
A “Massive Tilt in Our Democracy”
Michael Waldman, the executive director of the Brennan Center of Justice at New York University School of Law, which filed amicus briefs in the case, said the ruling means that “Exxon could spend Bloomberg-level money in every Congressional campaign around the country.” Waldman was referring to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who tapped into his vast wealth and spent more than $70 million of his own money on his first mayoral campaign.
Waldman added that the Supreme Court justices “chose to intervene in the political process in a way they didn’t have to,” which will now result in a “massive tilt in our democracy.” He warned that the “impact of this case could dwarf the impact of this election.”
Burt Neuborne, a law professor at NYU and a Supreme Court litigator, agreed.
“[The decision] gives a green light for a massive flow of corporate treasury money into our democracy,” he said, adding that the decision “changes the ground rules [of] our democracy.” Link
President Obama and several members of congress have vowed to pass legislation to neuter the SCOTUS decision, however, attempting to pass legislation is time consuming at best, and with Republican obstructionism – it is extremely unlikely this matter will be resolved in time to mitigate its effects on the upcoming Congressional elections. With corporations allowed to spend whatever is necessary to elect shills that favor fascism rather than democracy, there is an extremely high probability that November’s election will be tainted by corporate influence, effectively changing the course of an election through deceit and subterfuge.
The principles and heart of our democracy is being attacked. In the few short days since this odious decision by SCOTUS was rendered, there have been more than three thousand articles and Op-Ed’s that have evaluated and opined this decision; there is no press blackout on the issue and the American public is well aware of the threat that we now face. The public has a moral duty to uphold and protect the Constitution and the Bill of Rights of the United States. If we allow Congress and President Obama to drag their feet, there is little doubt Corporate America will negatively impact the upcoming election, forever altering the course of our nation and are likely to move our country towards the abyss of fascism – but working together, we can again alter the course of history! We cannot allow this coup against the people to stand!
If you believe that Justice Roberts should be impeached, call the White House and your Congressional representative and demand that impeachment proceeding begin immediately; not tomorrow, not next week, but now!
If you believe that legislation is the best way to resolve this issue, call the White House and your Congressional representative and demand that legislation begin immediately.
If you believe that Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito should be arrested for treason, call the White House and your Congressional representatives and demand that both of them be arrested immediately.
If you don’t know what to do, call the President and Congress and demand that they make this matter their number one priority, and do it now so we will have as close to a fair election in November as possible.
Remember HR-155 and S-19589! We know that we can move mountains when we band together for a common cause. We fought and won against a Congress that was hell bent on depriving the people of our nation their basic constitutional rights. Even though this may seem to be an insurmountable task, we have taken on tasks that also seemed impossible to win, but the perseverance of our activists and the participation of hundreds of thousands of Americans change the course of history in 2007 – and we can damn sure do it again!
These are two phone number for the White House:
(202) 456-1111 202-456-1414
This is the main switchboard for Congress, and several alternate numbers:
(202)224-312 (Main)
1-800-828-0498 1-866-340-9281
1-866-338-1015 1-866-220-0044
1-877-851-6437 1-800-459-1887
1-800-614-2803
No matter which course of action you believe will solve this crisis as quickly as possible, all roads, no matter which option you choose, lead to democracy and freedom. We didn’t make history in one day on HR-1955 and S-1959. Our phone and email campaign lasted days and weeks – and if we understand that now is the time for action – we can do it again! In this author’s opinion, freedom and democracy are firmly in the hands of the people, and only by exercising our right to free speech and being persistent in our efforts will we again defeat the forces of tyranny and fascism. Doing nothing will forever destroy the last vestiges of freedom and democracy in the United States. Pick up your phones…
Well, I’m sitting at my computer in Germany with my wife about 15,000 kilometers away in the Philippines .
On Democracy Now, I’m listening to the wife of Daniel Ellsburg, Patricia Ellsburg, speak of how U.S. government officials had spoke in terms of torture in terms of bombing whole populations in Laos and South East Asia in the late 1960s. She learned this all just a few days before her husband, Daniel Ellsburg sent the Pentagon Papers to many American newspapers.
Today, Amy Goodman was interviewing PatriciaEllsburg on her memories. Mrs. Ellsburg responded“it really struck—the pivotal moment, perhaps, in my adult life was the time when Daniel said, I think that I want you to read the papers.’ He had protected me, because it was top secret. He didn’t want my fingerprints on the copies. And I’m considering putting out the papers,because he knew that Nixon was going to expand the war and that the peace—the peace plan was not going to work. So this is our first year of marriage, first few months of marriage. And I was thirty-two, and I had spent a lot of years looking for Mr. Right. I had not been married before. And I’m reading documents that are horrifying to me.
THE LANGUAGE OF TORTURERS
Mrs. Ellsburg stated, as she read through these documents, “Amy, I saw something that Dan hadn’t seen, that in the language that was being used by the leaders of our country, they were using words like one more turn of the screw, ratchet up the water-drip technique, and much phrasing, much, much language of torturers. And I was horrified at the indifference to human suffering of both Americans and Vietnamese, their indifference to Congress, to the American public, the manipulations. And so, Dan said, Should I put these out? And I said, with tears in my eyes, These have to get out to the American public, knowing that my beloved husband, who I still love after forty years—he’s still my hero—might go to prison for the rest of his life. And I look back at that, and I am really proud. I’m really proud of—I was not groomed to be chopping top secrets off documents as we were about to publish—to copy them so that they could be given out to more newspapers.”
Daniel and Patricia Ellsburg are out doing interviews at this time, 40 years after the release of the famous Pentagon Papers, because they see a big ferocious repeat of what they witnessed in misguided war-making in Afghanistan today.Moreover, a new film about their lives in the times of the Nixon-Johnson-Kennedy-Eisenhower cover-ups is coming out soon.The film is called, “THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA”.
On Democracy Now, Daniel Ellsburg said, “I look at this film, and I watch the bombs falling, and all I can see in my mind are the bombs, the same bombs, falling over Afghanistan , or Vietnamistan, and Iraq right now. And we’re really facing, at this moment, a crisis of decision that’s just like the one that’s in the film, which I failed at the time, where the President is doing something that I feel will be a disaster, and I kept my mouth shut about it, the change from 70,000 men in the spring of ‘65 to an open-ended commitment, starting with another 50,000, which I knew was on the way to hundreds of thousands. I didn’t tell about that, and nor did anyone else. There was a lot of dissent in the administration about that, but we were overruled. We saluted Clark Clifford, Vice President Humphrey. Again, we have a vice president who apparently is against the application, another parallel. James Jones, the military man, can see what I can see and anybody can see, who has memories of Vietnam : there is no success at the end of this tunnel. There is only a stalemate, which could persist indefinitely.”
In short, after 40 years of mediocrity, the city of Washington DC needs to see that whistleblowers are needed more than ever, right now, Americans!
Daniel Ellsburg said he wished the film was out in the theaters of Washington , D.C. already.“We need people to put out, to tell the truth, and to do it, not the way I did, not after the escalation, not after the bombs have fallen, but right now. Right now. And for the Congress to hold the hearings that will entertain those people.”
Good luck America , you need more and better whistle blowers who can turn the country around.
http://the-teacher.blogspot.com/
KEVIN STODA has been blessed to have either traveled in or worked in nearly 100 countries on five continents over the past two and a half decades. He sees himself as a peace educator and have been a promoter of good (more…)
NOTE: Please note this article was and is posted on Op-Ed News and is reprinted here with the explicit permission of the author. If you haven’t visited Op-Ed News, I suggest you do and you will find a huge amount of hard hitting articles that delve into some of the most pressing issues facing the United States today. Op-Ed News has become one of the top Liberal/Progressive sites in America, and while I don’t usually request permission to reprint an article – I felt this information deserved wide publication, and if I can reach a few of those who are not reading Op-Ed News and have access to this important Op-Ed, then I feel that I have served my country by publishing articles that unveil the corruption in Washington that has been chipping away at our democracy.
I imagine the “You Tube” videos by a John C Crawford speaking out on the Health Care bill have been making the rounds lately. I became familiar with them through another website Keep America at Work (KAW) which had featured them in two separate postings on September 13th the first posting was titled:
In this video, following his introduction, Mr Crawford at about the 6.05 minute mark states the following:
“Now I am going to read a few lines that are exact excerpts from the house bill”
Mr Crawford does not specifically name the house bill he is referring to but based on the titles of his videos I assume he is referring to the Health Care Bill accessible here and have utilized this document for my critique:
I list below each of these “exact excerpts” as he has read them and follow with the text from the Health Care Bill pdf document and following this with my assessments. As a safety of margin for any potential error or oversight on my part I have included pages that proceed and those that follow the specific pages he references for his excerpts.
Referencing pg 29 he reads the following:
“All health care will be rationed based on age, present health condition of any patient, and availability of health services and supplies”
Referencing pg 30 he reads the following two exact excerpts:
“A government committee will decide what treatment or benefits will be made available under health care that will be provided”
“It will be illegal to provide any medical benefits to anyone that haven’t been pre-approved by the committee”
The following is the text from the bill beginning with the last sentence on pg 26 thru pg 32:
(Because the pages and subjects overlap with the three excerpts above, I have combined them together)
(Beginning with page 26):
SEC. 122. ESSENTIAL BENEFITS PACKAGE DEFINED.
(a) IN GENERAL. – In this division, the term ‘‘essential benefits package” means health benefits coverage, consistent with standards adopted under section 124 to
(continuing with pg 27):
ensure the provision of quality health care and financial security, that-
(1) provides payment for the items and services described in subsection (b) in accordance with generally accepted standards of medical or other appropriate clinical or professional practice;
(2) limits cost-sharing for such covered health care items and services in accordance with such benefit standards, consistent with subsection (c);
(3) does not impose any annual or lifetime limit on the coverage of covered health care items and services;
(4) complies with section 115(a) (relating to network adequacy); and
(5) is equivalent, as certified by Office of the Actuary of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, to the average prevailing employer-sponsored coverage.
(b) MINIMUM SERVICES TO BE COVERED. – The items and services described in this subsection are the following:
(1) Hospitalization.
2) Outpatient hospital and outpatient clinic services, including emergency department services.
(continuing with pg 28):
(3) Professional services of physicians and other health professionals.
(4) Such services, equipment, and supplies incident to the services of a physician’s or a health professional’s delivery of care in institutional settings, physician offices, patients’ homes or place of residence, or other settings, as appropriate.
(5) Prescription drugs.
(6) Rehabilitative and habilitative services.
(7) Mental health and substance use disorder services.
(8) Preventive services, including those services recommended with a grade of A or B by the Task Force on Clinical Preventive Services and those vaccines recommended for use by the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(9) Maternity care.
(10) Well baby and well child care and oral health, vision, and hearing services, equipment, and supplies at least for children under 21 years of age.
(c) REQUIREMENTS RELATING TO COST-SHARING AND MINIMUM ACTUARIAL VALUE.-
(1) NO COST-SHARING FOR PREVENTIVE SERVICES.-There shall be no cost-sharing under the essential benefits package for preventive items and
(continuing with pg 29):
services (as specified under the benefit standards), including well baby and well child care.
(2) ANNUAL LIMITATION.-
(A) ANNUAL LIMITATION.- The cost-sharing incurred under the essential benefits package with respect to an individual (or family) for a year does not exceed the applicable level specified in subparagraph (B).
(B) APPLICABLE LEVEL. – The applicable level specified in this subparagraph for Y1 is $5,000 for an individual and $10,000 for a family. Such levels shall be increased (rounded to the nearest $100) for each subsequent year by the annual percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index (United States city average) applicable to such year.
(C) USE OF COPAYMENTS. – In establishing cost-sharing levels for basic, enhanced, and premium plans under this subsection, the Secretary shall, to the maximum extent possible, use only copayments and not coinsurance.
(3) MINIMUM ACTUARIAL VALUE.-
(A) IN GENERAL.- The cost-sharing under the essential benefits package shall be designed to provide a level of coverage that is designed
(continuing with pg 30):
to provide benefits that are actuarially equivalent to approximately 70 percent of the full actuarial value of the benefits provided under the reference benefits package described in subparagraph (B).
(B) REFERENCE BENEFITS PACKAGE DESCRIBED.-The reference benefits package described in this subparagraph is the essential benefits package if there were no cost-sharing imposed.
SEC. 123. HEALTH BENEFITS ADVISORY COMMITTEE.
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.-
(1) IN GENERAL.-There is established a private-public advisory committee which shall be a panel of medical and other experts to be known as the Health Benefits Advisory Committee to recommend covered benefits and essential, enhanced, and premium plans.
(2) CHAIR.-The Surgeon General shall be a member and the chair of the Health Benefits Advisory Committee.
(3) MEMBERSHIP.-The Health Benefits Advisory Committee shall be composed of the following members, in addition to the Surgeon General:
(continuing with pg 31):
(A) 9 members who are not Federal employees or officers and who are appointed by the President.
B) 9 members who are not Federal employees or officers and who are appointed by the Comptroller General of the United States in a manner similar to the manner in which the Comptroller General appoints members to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission under section 1805(c) of the Social Security Act.
(C) Such even number of members (not to exceed [eight]) who are Federal employees and officers, as the President may appoint. Such initial appointments shall be made not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.
(4) TERMS. – Each member of the Health Benefits Advisory Committee shall serve a 3-year term on the Committee, except that the terms of the initial members shall be adjusted in order to provide for a staggered term of appointment for all such members.
(5) PARTICIPATION. – The membership of the Health Benefits Advisory Committee shall at least reflect providers, consumer representatives, employers, (continuing through first section on pg 32); labor, health insurance issuers, experts in health care financing and delivery, experts in racial and ethnic disparities, experts in care for those with disabilities, representatives of relevant governmental agencies. and at least one practicing physician or other health professional and an expert on children’s health and shall represent a balance among various sectors of the health care system so that no single sector unduly influences the recommendations of such Committee.
Assessments
Pg 29 excerpt:
I did not find an exact excerpt in the bill as read by Mr Crawford.
Nor do I find any specific verbiage that states anything about the rationing of health care based on age, the health condition of the patient, or the availability of services and supplies.
Pg 30 excerpts:
I did not find exact excerpts in the bill for either of the two as read by Mr Crawford.
Pgs 30 – 31 of the bill does outline the establishment of a “private-public” committee; in this section it only discusses the formation, member composition, terms, and structure of the committee but makes no references as to what they decide, and for whom, nor even how such decisions are made.
There are no statements in the bill on pages 26 – 31 that states what is legal versus illegal nor any statement that specifically states “it will be illegal to provide any medical benefits to anyone that haven’t been pre-approved by the committee.”
Referencing to pg 179 he reads the following:
“Any non-resident alien is exempt from individual health care taxes”
The following is the text from the bill beginning with page 178 thru 180:
(c) RETURN REQUIREMENT.-Subsection (a) of section 6012 of such Code is amended by inserting after paragraph (9) the following new paragraph:
(10) Every individual to whom section 59B(a) applies and who fails to meet the requirements of section 59B(d) with respect to such individual or any qualifying child (as defined in section 152(c)) of such individual.”.
(d) CLERICAL AMENDMENTS.-
(1) The table of parts for subchapter A of chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new item:
‘‘PART VIII. HEALTH CARE RELATED TAXES.”.
(2) The table of sections for subpart B of part III of subchapter A of chapter 61 is amended by adding at the end the following new item:
‘‘Sec. 6050X. Returns relating to health insurance coverage.”
(e) SECTION 15 NOT TO APPLY. – The amendment made by subsection (a) shall not be treated as a change in a rate of tax for purposes of section 15 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
(f) EFFECTIVE DATE.-
(1) IN GENERAL. – The amendments made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2012.
(continuing with page 179):
(2) RETURNS. – The amendments made by subsection (b) shall apply to calendar years beginning after December 31, 2012.
PART 2-EMPLOYER RESPONSIBILITY
SEC. 411. ELECTION TO SATISFY HEALTH COVERAGE PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS.
(a) IN GENERAL. – Chapter 43 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
‘‘SEC. 4980H. ELECTION WITH RESPECT TO HEALTH COVERAGE PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS.
(a) ELECTION OF EMPLOYER RESPONSIBILITY TO PROVIDE HEALTH COVERAGE.-
(1) IN GENERAL.-Subsection (b) shall apply to any employer with respect to whom an election under paragraph (2) is in effect.
(2) TIME AND MANNER. – An employer may make an election under this paragraph at such time and in such form and manner as the Secretary may prescribe.
(3) AFFILIATED GROUPS.-In the case of any employer which is part of a group of employers who are treated as a single employer under subsection (b), (c), (m), or (o) of section 414, the election under paragraph (2) shall be made by such person
(continuing with pg 180):
as the Secretary may provide. Any such election, once made, shall apply to all members of such group.
(4) SEPARATE ELECTIONS. – Under regulations prescribed by the Secretary, separate elections may be made under paragraph (2) with respect to-
(A) separate lines of business, and
(B) full-time employees and employees who are not full-time employees.
(5) TERMINATION OF ELECTION IN CASES OF SUBSTANTIAL NONCOMPLIANCE. -
The Secretary may terminate the election of any employer under paragraph (2) if the Secretary (in coordination with the Health Choices Commissioner) determines that such employer is in substantial noncompliance with the health coverage participation requirements.
(b) EXCISE TAX WITH RESPECT TO FAILURE TO MEET HEALTH COVERAGE PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS.-
(1) IN GENERAL.-In the case of any employer who fails (during any period with respect to which the election under subsection (a) is in effect) to satisfy the health coverage participation requirements with respect to any employee to whom such election applies, there is hereby imposed on each such failure
(continuing with pg 181):
with respect to each such employee a tax of $100 for each day in the period beginning on the date such failure first occurs and ending on the date such failure is corrected.
(2) LIMITATIONS ON AMOUNT OF TAX.-
(A) TAX NOT TO APPLY WHERE FAILURE NOT DISCOVERED EXERCISING REASONABLE DILIGENCE. – No tax shall be imposed by paragraph (1) on any failure during any period for which it is established to the satisfaction of the Secretary that the employer neither knew, nor exercising reasonable diligence would have known, that such failure existed.
(B) TAX NOT TO APPLY TO FAILURES CORRECTED WITHIN 30 DAYS. – No tax shall be imposed by paragraph (1) on any failure if -
(i) such failure was due to reasonable cause and not to willful neglect, and
(ii) such failure is corrected during the 30-day period beginning on the 1st date that the employer knew, or exercising reasonable diligence would have known, that such failure existed.
Assessment:
Pg 179 Excerpt:
I did not find an exact excerpt as read by Mr. Crawford
Pg 178 of the bill does discuss taxes and continues through pg 179 as they relate to employer responsibility but I did not find any specific references or any verbiage regarding “non-resident aliens” or any statements exempting such individuals of such taxes.
The second KAW posting featuring Mr Crawford’s second video is titled:
Mr Crawford opens with reading additional exact excerpts:
Referencing to pg 239 he reads the following:
”The government will reduce physician’s services for Medicaid thereby rationing medical support for the poor”
The following is the text from the bill beginning with pg 238 thru pg 239:
Subtitle B-Provisions Related to Part B
PART 1 – PHYSICIANS’ SERVICES –
SEC. 1121. SUSTAINABLE GROWTH RATE REFORM.
(a) TRANSITIONAL UPDATE FOR 2010. – Section 1848(d) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395w – 4(d)) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
(10) UPDATE FOR 2010. – The update to the single conversion factor established in paragraph (1)(C) for 2010 shall be the percentage increase in the MEI (as defined in section 1842(i)(3)) for that 16 year.”
(b) REBASING SGR USING 2009; LIMITATION ON CUMULATIVE ADJUSTMENT PERIOD.-Section 1848(d) (4) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 1395w-4(d)(4)) is amended-
(1) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘subparagraph (D)” and inserting ‘‘subparagraphs (D) and (G)”; and
(2) by adding at the end the following new subparagraph:
(continuing with pg 239):
(G) REBASING USING 2009 FOR FUTURE UPDATE ADJUSTMENTS. – In determining the update adjustment factor under subparagraph
(B) for 2011 and subsequent years-
(i) the allowed expenditures for 2009 shall be equal to the amount of the actual expenditures for physicians’ services during 2009; and
‘(ii) the reference in subparagraph (B)(ii)(I) to ‘April 1, 1996′ shall be treated as a reference to ‘January 1, 2009 (or, if later, the first day of the fifth year before the year involved)’.”
(c) LIMITATION ON PHYSICIANS’ SERVICES INCLUDED IN TARGET GROWTH RATE COMPUTATION TO SERVICES COVERED UNDER PHYSICIAN FEE SCHEDULE.-
Effective for services furnished on or after January 1, 2009, section 1848(f)(4)(A) of such Act is amended striking ‘‘(such as clinical” and all that follows through ‘‘in a physician’s office” and inserting ‘‘for which payment under this part is made under the fee schedule under this section, for services for practitioners described in section 1842(b)(18)(C) on a basis related to such fee schedule, or for services described in section 1861(p) (other than
(continuing with first line on pg 240):
such services when furnished in the facility of a provider of services)”.
Assessment:
Pg 239 Excerpt:
I did not find an exact excerpt as read by Mr. Crawford
I did not find any specific statements in the bill that states “the government will reduce physician’s services for Medicaid thereby rationing medical support for the poor.”
There are no specific statements or verbiage regarding “rationing medical services for the poor”
Referencing to pg 241 he reads the following:
”All doctors will be paid equally with no regard to specialties of training required”
The following is the text in the bill beginning with pg 240 thru 242:
(d) ESTABLISHMENT OF SEPARATE TARGET GROWTH RATES FOR CATEGORIES OF SERVICES.-
(1) ESTABLISHMENT OF SERVICE CATEGORIES.-Subsection (j) of section 1848 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C.1395w-4) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
(5) SERVICE CATEGORIES. – For services furnished on or after January 1, 2009, each of the following categories of physicians’ services (as defined in paragraph (3)) shall be treated as a separate ‘service category’:
(A) Evaluation and management services that are procedure codes (for services covered under this title) for
(i) services in the category designated Evaluation and Management in the Health Care Common Procedure Coding System (established by the Secretary under subsection (c)(5) as of December 31, 2009, and as subsequently modified by the Secretary); and
(continuing with page 241):
(ii) preventive services (as defined in section 1861(iii)) for which payment is made under this section.
(B) All other services not described in subparagraph (A). Service categories established under this paragraph shall apply without regard to the specialty of the physician furnishing the service.”
(2) ESTABLISHMENT OF SEPARATE CONVERSION FACTORS FOR EACH SERVICE CATEGORY. -
Subsection (d)(1) of section 1848 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395w-4) is amended-
(A) in subparagraph (A) -
(i) by designating the sentence beginning ‘‘The conversion factor” as clause (i) with the heading ‘‘APPLICATION OF SINGLE CONVERSION FACTOR. -” and with appropriate indentation;
(ii) by striking ‘‘The conversion factor” and inserting ‘‘Subject to clause (ii), the conversion factor”; and (iii) by adding at the end the following new clause:
(continuing with first section on page 242):
(ii) APPLICATION OF MULTIPLE CONVERSION FACTORS BEGINNING WITH 2011. -
(I) IN GENERAL.-In applying clause (i) for years beginning with 2011, separate conversion factors shall be established for each service category of physicians’ services (as defined in subsection (j)(5)) and any reference in this section to a conversion factor for such years shall be deemed to be a reference to the conversion factor for each of such categories.
Assessment:
Pg 241 Excerpt:
I did not find an exact excerpt as read by Mr. Crawford
On pg 241 the bill does state after outlining the establishment of service categories the following:
“(B) All other services not described in subparagraph (A). Service categories established under this paragraph shall apply without regard to the specialty of the physician furnishing the service.”
This statement appears to a proviso type of statement covering general areas not specifically categorized in the proceeding sections.
In conclusion:
After carefully reviewing the text on these pages of the Health Care Bill and having not found any of the “exact excerpts” as read by Mr. Crawford I conclude he is either mistaken as to which pages he pulled his “exact excerpts” from or he was actually giving us his interpretations of these pages.
It is my conclusion Mr Crawford is giving us his interpretations and he is most certainly entitled to do so.
Sorry, but a personal interpretation is NOT the same as an “exact excerpt.”
My interpretation of these pages differs greatly from that of Mr Crawford and it is my opinion he has misinterpreted them and of course we each are entitled to our interpretations.
I want to close with a final thought on this. And I have stated this before. There are forces that are working overtime to defeat any form of health care reform. There are industries that profit from how things work today and these entities don’t want the terrain changed for obvious reasons. They in essence decide policy in Washington. They know policymakers rather than be agents of balance in policy will cater to party and corporate favors. They know most Americans lack the basis to judge the relative merits on the arguments of an issue of this magnitude and will stir up emotions in any manner possible to confuse us and are betting we will not do our OWN due diligence to become more informed but instead take the lazy way out and listen to 30 second sound bites delivered in a video or through the corporate owned MSM pertaining to a very important life quality issue covering a document that is 1018 pages in length. Once passed it will determine our fate for years to come and vested special interest will have protected its turf and carved out their piece of the pie in order to better pick our pockets for profit.
I mean no disrespect to Mr Crawford who states he is acting on his own and he may be but my suggestion is not to take my word for this or his or anyone else’s for that matter. Read the DARN document yourself and develop your own interpretation, do not take the lazy way out. I have taken the time to copy the text from the bill to enable you do so or you may go the actual document itself and review the respective pages in question. I have included the link above.
Mitch Gurney
Addendum:
Since posting this critique on the KAW site it has been suggested there may be multiple bills floating about that may differ from the one I used for my critique and made available above. I recognize text might get inserted into a bill like this as it works its way through Congress. Changes and last minute inserts have happened with other bills in the past right up to the last minute when a vote is due. We can only speculate on the political intrigue and games that are playing out right now with something of this nature where profits and industries are wrestling over control and striving to protect their turfs.
If there are multiple versions of this bill floating around my suggestion for any one posting some commentary on this is to provide the link or document from which they are basing their commentary so their audience can cross reference the data. For now until some one can produce an alternate document or documents all I can go on is what I have found and made available here.
I think it is important to point out that in my assessments of the presentations by Mr. Crawford that I have given my findings based on what we were told are exact excerpts. When someone tells me they are providing exact excerpts from a document it is my expectation that if I go to that document and pages given as the source for those exact excerpts I will find them. Other than to express my opinion that I believe we have been given his interpretations and not exact excerpts and that I think we need to do our own due diligence and not take any ones word on this I have not given my interpretations of these documents or my opinion of health care reform in general.
I have provided the sources for my data and my findings as it relates to the statements given by Mr. Crawford who did not provide the source except by reference only. I leave it to each reader to review the sources of my data and invite the reader to make their own determination.
Make no mistake, the automobile business is the United States largest industry. This covers new car as well as used car sales. The auto parts industry thrives off of used car sales and private customers as well. Drive down any street, and you see oil change businesses, tire vendors, auto parts stores, and dealership after dealership selling new as well as used cars. President Obama used taxpayer money to bailout corporate America’s financial sector and refused to include the poorest of Americans in his strategy, a mistake that will likely make him a one-term President.
Now we face the closure of auto dealership throughout the United States because banks won’t floor- plan their inventory and refuse to lend money so they can sell cars even though the government is guaranteeing most of the loans. This is the planned destruction of our economy, compliments of the very banks that Obama bailed-out. From my perspective, it seems as if the banking community is attempting to destroy the American economy while holding on to their money – refusing to loan it despite government guarantees:
Credit lines dry up for auto dealers
To help ailing auto dealers, the Small Business Administration launched new loan offerings — but so far, few banks are playing along.
By Emily Maltby, CNNMoney.com staff writer
August 31, 2009: 4:17 AM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Most small businesses are having trouble finding loans and credit lines these days, but auto dealers are in their own special financing hell. Their inventory is expensive, their industry is in shambles, and their largest lenders are in tatters.
Recognizing that dealers need help, the Small Business Administration began rolling out new programs tailored for them. Four months in, the new programs are drawing a tepid response from lenders. A pilot project launched in July to back inventory loans to auto dealers has so far approved just one loan, according to the SBA.
“There’s been no progress in freeing up credit,” says Scott Gorden, principal in charge of dealerships at LarsonAllen, a Minneapolis-based accounting firm that works with 600 dealers across the country “Far and away, it’s still the biggest issue faced by dealerships today. If you cut credit to them, they’ll be closing. If they can’t get the floor plan financing, they will shut down.”
Todd Gayle, owner of AutoMax in Greenville, N.C., is among those who had his financing cut off. Gayle’s independent, used-car dealership has sold a variety of brands in the past 10 years, using a $3.1 million credit line from New South Federal Savings Bank, a regional bank based in Birmingham, Ala. On January 27, Gayle received a letter notifying him that his credit line was on “cease and desist” status. The bank gave him 60 days to find an alternative credit source.
“Even though I’ve had eight previous, perfectly paid loans and I’m the number-one retailer of pre-owned vehicles within 50 miles, I can’t get floor plan financing,” he says. “They think the loans are toxic, and with all the audits going on, they’re not willing to take on that kind of loan.” MUCH MORE
As bad as the economy is, the banks are making it worse, and shutting down auto dealerships by refusing them the credit they need is counter-productive to stabilizing our economy. We all need to ask ourselves what the hell is going on? Our the banks, now flush with cash, attempting to destroy our economy so they can buy-up the what’s left for a fraction of what its worth? When you read the entire article and see how the SBA has attempted to solve this problem – with absolutely no takers from the banks.
From a practical viewpoint, if small businesses in the United States cannot get financing, this recession is guaranteed to turn into a full-blown depression. It also appears that the financial sector, which President Obama bailed-out is turning our to be America’s worst enemy. The banks must know something that we don’t, and when the elites of the nation stop lending money to dealerships that have never been late on their loans – it doesn’t speak well for the future of America. I recently received an email which I shrugged-off as a marketing tool – but now I’m having second thoughts and will re-print some of its content:
“The entire U.S. financial system recently came within 3 hours of total and complete collapse.
Our new president – faced with a depression-level
economic collapse – has set aside 80,000+ returning
troops from Iraq for “domestic emergencies.”
Here’s why savvy Americans are urgently rushing
to become more self-reliant before the
“you-know-what” hits the fan.
Dear William,
This briefing is a critical, time-sensitive warning. Please read what I am about to say carefully, because your very life may depend on it.
A whole lot of already shell-shocked people are going to learn the hard way that the veneer of “civilization” is far thinner than most realize.
U.S. Preparing a Military Response
to Coming Social Chaos
As the shocking confidential information contained in this briefing shows, the threat of social meltdown and chaos is so large a domestic law-enforcement arm of the U.S. military (referred to by The Army Times as the “Consequence Management Response Force”) has been created to deal with what U.S. officials believe to be a coming, unprecedented wave of massive social chaos.
Later I’ll show you why many Washington insiders (including officials directly involved in homeland security) are personally making emergency preparations for social chaos. In addition, outgoing Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson told Sen. James Inhofe and Rep. Brad Sherman that so much financial mayhem lies ahead U.S. troops may have to impose martial law to deal with social unrest.
Yes, U.S. Officials Are Quietly Preparing
for BIG Trouble Ahead
A new report by the Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute states flatly the U.S. military must prepare for “a violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States” that could be provoked by “unforeseen economic collapse” or “loss of functioning political and legal order.”
Late last year, The Washington Post noted the incoming Obama Administration is going to “earmark” at least 20,000 troops returning from Iraq to deal with “domestic emergencies.” Since then, the Army Times has broken the story that the domestic emergency army unit has been increased to 80,000 troops, who are being trained right now in Georgia.
In short, U.S. officials expect big trouble ahead — but they are not warning the general public about the danger (much less urge the unsuspecting masses to make basic preparations).
A rare critic of the government’s keep-the-public-in-the-dark mentality is former head of the U.S. Commission on National Security, Stephen Flynn. He noted in a recent Wall Street Journal editorial: “Too many officials believe telling the truth to Americans about the risk would set off a nationwide panic. Thus, they keep us sheep in the dark for our own good.”
Boiled down, you need a real plan to deal with massive social dislocations that are headed our way. And you need to get started right now, because the government isn’t going to give you a heads-up.
My name is Lee Bellinger, publisher of the monthly financial, health, and taxation intelligence advisory Independent Living. In my two decades of publishing discreet information about threats to your liberty, health and prosperity, never before have we produced as important a document as my best-selling Social Chaos Survival Guide: Smart, Savvy Precautions To Make You Self-Reliant in These Dangerous Times.”
The above message appeared to be a little shrill for me, but if the banks are refusing to loan money to legitimate businesses, something is wrong – and we need to find out why the banking industry appears hell bent on turning this recession into a depression. Without financing, America’s small businesses will shrink and eventually go broke, and that’s a fact, not speculation! This is wrong, dangerous to the survival of our nation, and President Obama had better do something about it – and now! Send a copy of this article to Whitehouse.gov, I don’t care, I’ve stuck my neck out before and I’ll do it again. Be a patriot and protest in regard the banking sector refusing to loan money, when it was taxpayer money that guaranteed their survival – and now they are spitting in our face. If you don’t react now, that email I received may well be true – and none of us want that!
Now that people are murdering ACLU activists, what’s next, Bloggers that don’t agree with the government? I don’t know what’s happened with society these days, but those of us on the left had better arm ourselves and be prepared to use deadly force against anyone that attempts harm to us or our families.
The premise that Liberal/Progressive Bloggers are “easy targets’ is not true, and bullets can fly both ways. I will fiercely defend myself and my family, not necessarily in that order. I would advise others who maintain a high profile on the Internet to do the same. I write under my own name, so I doubt I would be hard to find. I’m getting tired of seeing good people that fight for the rights of other being murdered or beaten to a pulp. There’s an old saying; “If you intend on murdering someone, bring two body bags; one for the intended victim, and one for yourself.” Truer words may have never been spoken, however, cowards often use high powered rifles and shoot from a distance rather than facing their target themselves. Yeah, I’m angry, and rightfully so. We all should be outraged, and because he was gay means nothing to me except that it stinks of a hate crime as well as a political crime against America itself. I’m guessing the DC police may try to cover this up so there won’t be any outrage – but I don’t believe it, and you shouldn’t either!
ALCU Counsel and Gay Rights Champion Found Dead In DC Park
8/30/09-by Paula Brooksl
Washington DC police sources are telling Lez Get Real, that a body found Friday in a wooded section of Rock Creek Park is that of ACLU State Legislative Counsel Larry Frankel.
Rock Creek Park is located in Northwest DC.
Police say that a jogger running along a path in the park just south of Beach Drive and north of Massachusetts Ave NW, about 11 a.m. Friday saw something floating in the water that later turned out to be Frankels body. Much More
Hugo Chavez recently stated “I’m fulfilling my moral obligation to warn you that the winds of war are beginning to blow,” concluding that the situation could end tragically, referencing the situation in Columbia and the United States significantly increasing their military presence in Central and South America. Unfortunately, he may be right.
In a recent Op-Ed posted on this site, The Wealthy Begin Tumbling Down With No End In Sight, please read this paragraph and contemplate the significance of our economy and how we have settled similar issues in the past:
“As much as many of us believe it’s poetic justice, think long and hard before you rejoice in their demise. History has shown, time and time again, that when our economy falters, the winds of war are awakening – a sure fire fix to an economy which was often called a “War Economy” in the 1960’s. We no longer use that description, but it’s still there, lurking in the background – and to fix this ailing economy, history suggests that a wide-ranging conventional war will be the answer, and if our war planners choose the wrong target, it could easily escalate into thermo-nuclear war where there are no winners – only death and destruction.”
I constantly monitor the Middle-East and Far East, but have not been keeping an eye on Central and South America, and was caught off-guard when I read an explosive article on Op-Ed News that was well researched and demonstrates that Central and South America could very well be the next theater of a massive conventional war – a war that would unify the American people against what our MSM propagandists will lead us to believe is a common enemy, and in doing so, will help to pull us out of the grip of a major Recession/Depression that could easily rival The Great Depression in it’s length and severity.
Promoted to Headline (H3) on 8/24/09: America Prepares for Its Next War
Ever wonder why we Americans keep fighting all these wars & losing them, Reagan’s triumph over Granada notwithstanding? Why does it seem irrelevant whether we win or lose? Might the answer be that war profiteers haul away train loads of cash correlated to body count regardless of the outcome of the war? Might it be that a sizable sector of our economy is completely dependent on waging off shore wars?
Central & South America are in the crosshairs of the Pentagon & America’s war industry. With the economy on its knees & the Iraq war a settled loss & winding down, with Afghanistan stumbling from mess to disaster to mess, the sense that Lockheed-Martin, Raytheon, Northrop-Grumman, Boeing, GE, et. al., are drooling down the necks of war planners at the Pentagon for another war is palpable.
With the surprise announcement on July 15, by right wing PresidentÁlvaro Uribe Vélezthat the U.S. Government would station American military personnel & equipment in seven Colombian bases, the response was predictable & dark. Openly moving American troops to bases the U.S. military calls Forward Operating Locations (FOLs)*, in Colombia is pure belligerence & a provocation for war & everyone but the main stream American media seems to know it. That Colombia is a corrupted narco-state & the region’s most repressive death squad democracy changes nothing whatsoever.
Yang Qingchuan, in an article forGlobal Research, writes, “After the U.S. military withdrawal from Panama in 1999, the Pentagon has been expanding the ‘cooperative security locations’ in the region. The U.S. Southern Command also operates some 17 radar sites, mostly in Peru and Colombia. All of the above is in addition to existing U.S. bases in Latin America, including a missile tracking station on Ascension Island in the Caribbean, and Soto Cano in Palmerola, Honduras. Furthermore, the United States has small military presences and property in Antigua, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, and on Andros Island in the Bahamas.”
President of Venezuela,Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, warned that all these bases pose a threat to the region. “I’m fulfilling my moral obligation to warn you that the winds of war are beginning to blow,” concluding that the situation could end tragically. At the Quito summit of the Union of South American Nations, President Chavez, with the strong support of Ecuador & Bolivia, warned that Colombian soldiers had been placed under the command of U.S military forces. Under laws mandated by the Organization of American States (OAS), the world’s oldest regional organization, that decision should be understood as aggression & clearly illegal. It should be noted that prior to being elected in 1998, Hugo Chavez attempted his own coup d’état. He knows what he’s talking about.
Significantly, Venezuela recently purchased 24 Russian and Chinese-developed Su-30MK2s, a modern fighter considered to have superior performance over the 1980’s US F/A-18.
Monsenior Juan Cordoba, secretary of the conference of Catholic bishops in Colombia told Caracol Television, “This was a bit abrupt and we felt invaded, we felt like we were surrounded by ‘gringos.’” THIS IS A MUST-READ ARTICLE
The excerpts I quoted above are from a lengthy article that details our march southward, our continued provocation and constantly meddling in the affairs of other governments in what appears to be a prelude to an extremely costly and lengthy conventional war – exactly what our economy needs to pull the United States out of an impending depression. When you read the definition at Wikpedia and factor it in to our failing economy and our provocations in Central and South America, you should feel the cold chill creeping up your spine when you connect the dots and understand that our calling the United States’ actions in Viet Nam as that of a “War Economy” have proven to be true and correct:
Franklin D. Roosevelt said that if the Axis Powers win, then “we would have to convert ourselves permanently into a militaristic power on the basis of war economy.”[1]
In what is known as total war, these economies are often seen as targets by many militaries. The Union blockade during the American Civil War is regarded as one of the first examples of this.
On the supply side, it has been observed that wars sometimes have the effect of accelerating progress of technology to such an extent that an economy is greatly strengthened after the war, especially if it has avoided the war-related destruction. This was the case, for example, with the United States in World War I and World War II. Some economists (such as Seymour Melman) argue, however, that the wasteful nature of much of military spending eventually can hurt technological progress. MORE
One of the problems with Venezuela is the flow of information to the outside world. Even in Iran, we hear from Bloggers and people using Twitter to update us on important facts of what’s really happening on the ground, and the information often reaches us quite swiftly. Venezuela is another story altogether; perhaps it’s the education level of the ordinary citizens and possibly government suppression of Free Speech, our information is a patchwork of anonymous reports and what our MSM reports here in the United States – and we know they report what their corporate Master’s want us to hear which very often is light years from the truth as they spin events that easily rival Pravda’s propaganda in Russia. As the situation appears to be rapidly deteriorating in the South America’s – it’s essential that the American people find out what is truth and fiction so we can raise our voices if our government is planning on another major war that would cause our lawmakers to reinstate the draft and more of America’s sons and daughters die to satisfy the needs of our Military Industrial Complex:
Military-industrial complex (MIC) is a concept commonly used to refer to policy relationships between governments, national armed forces, and industrial support they obtain from the commercial sector in political approval for research, development, production, use, and support for military training, weapons, equipment, and facilities within the national defense and security policy. It is a type of iron triangle.
The term is most often played in reference to the military of the United States, where it gained popularity after its use in the farewell address speechof President Dwight D. Eisenhower, though the term is applicable to any country with a similarly developed infrastructure. It is sometimes used more broadly to include the entire network of contracts and flows of money and resources among individuals as well as institutions of the defense contractors, The Pentagon, and the Congress and Executive branch. This sector is intrinsically prone to principal-agent problem, moral hazard, and rent seeking. Cases of political corruption have also surfaced with regularity. A similar thesis was originally expressed by Daniel Guérin, in his 1936 book Fascism and Big Business, about the fascist government support to heavy industry. It can be defined as, “an informal and changing coalition of groups with vested psychological, moral, and material interests in the continuous development and maintenance of high levels of weaponry, in preservation of colonial markets and in military-strategic conceptions of internal affairs” [1]
Sadly, the only investigative journalism going on in the United States right now appears to be Democrats and Republicans investigating each other for political gain. The real news that Americans want to know about is taboo in the MSM, so in order to get a glimpse of the truth, our only method of finding out anything substantial is from alternative news sources or Bloggers that sift through mountains of data attempting to find answers. Finding news that isn’t censored by our own MSM or attempting to connect with Venezuelan Bloggers is turning out to to be extremely difficult. There are always two sides to every story, and if the Winds of War indeed are beginning to blow – then it’s imperative that we find a source for the truth, or at least a method of obtaining valid opinions from the people of Venezuela.
If Hugo Chavez wants an non-biased assessment of the situation, perhaps he should invite one of our prominent Progressive/Liberal Bloggers to visit Venezuela and allow that individual to speak with the people unimpeded and interview President Chavez to ascertain what his views are, evidence that he has which implicates the United States to the recent Coup in Honduras and other areas of interest that would give the American people a real sense of what our South Americans neighbors feel is happening, why and on what basis are they making their allegations – and while I doubt anyone who went would write exactly what President Chavez wanted, whatever was written would be representative of the truth as perceived by the individual who was chosen to represent the Liberal/Progressive Blogging community.
Yes, I stated Liberal/Progressives, as we know the right-wing Bloggers subscribe to a Fox Style view of the news, and that’s the last thing we need when searching for the truth. If we could begin to have governments who claim to have grievances against the United States host some of our best investigative Bloggers, perhaps we could reinvigorate some semblance of investigative journalism in the United States. President Chavez, this is an area that you might want to consider, as Americans hunger for the truth and our Mainstream News Media refuses to print anything but propaganda while alternative news sources do their best to print what we believe is the truth. With the situation in the South America’s apparently deteriorating, it is essential that the truth is uncovered – even if it’s by unconventional methods. Obviously because of my financial situation, I can’t afford the trip to Venezuela, but I feel sure that others could – and would welcome a chance at attempting to discover the truth which would then be relayed to our fellow Americans through our Progressive Blogosphere. If the Mainstream News Media refuses to inform our citizens of important events that will affect our national security and the future of the United States, then it’s up to us, citizens who have a voice that are unafraid to publish “Truth to Power!”
You have to read this to believe it. The Health Insurance Lobby admits they have 50,000 people lobbying Congress – and they are supposed to act like everyday citizens, not employees of insurance companies:
Healthcare insurers get upper hand
Obama’s overhaul fight is being won by the industry, experts say. The end result may be a financial ‘bonanza.’
Reporting from Washington – Lashed by liberals and threatened with more government regulation, the insurance industry nevertheless rallied its lobbying and grass-roots resources so successfully in the early stages of the healthcare overhaul deliberations that it is poised to reap a financial windfall.
The half-dozen leading overhaul proposals circulating in Congress would require all citizens to have health insurance, which would guarantee insurers tens of millions of new customers — many of whom would get government subsidies to help pay the companies’ premiums.
“It’s a bonanza,” said Robert Laszewski, a health insurance executive for 20 years who now tracks reform legislation as president of the consulting firm Health Policy and Strategy Associates Inc.
“The insurers are going to do quite well,” said Linda Blumberg, a health policy analyst at the nonpartisan Urban Institute, a Washington think tank. “They are going to have this very stable pool, they’re going to have people getting subsidies to help them buy coverage and . . . they will be paid the full costs of the benefits that they provide — plus their administrative costs.” (Emphasis added.)
Consumer advocates argue that a lower government minimum might quickly become the industry standard, placing a greater financial burden on patients and their families.
“These are a bad deal for consumers,” said J. Robert Hunter, a former Texas insurance commissioner who works with the Consumer Federation of America. MUCH MORE
WTF? Health Insurance Companies would “be paid the full costs of the benefits that they provide — plus their administrative costs.” If that’s the case, they get paid enormous amounts of money for doing the paperwork – and we all know that Medicare can do that! This is Bullsh#t! If a Health Care Bill passes in this fashion, it will be the final nail in our government’s ongoing spiral to bankruptcy – and the health care we will receive will be the most expensive in the world – bar none!
To add insult to injury, health care providers are using their own employees in their lobbying efforts as well as supplying “talking points” for them at Town Hall Meetings, all the while urging them to keep a low profile. This is absolutely outrageous to pervert the political process with what is essentially 50,000 paid lobbyists:
Insurers admit 50,000 employees lobbying Congress to claim profits fair
A spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s trade group, admitted in an article published Monday that as many as 50,000 industry employees are involved in an effort to fight back against aggressive healthcare reform.
The admission, published in the last sentence of a Wall Street Journalarticle, highlights the stakes of potential healthcare reform for the private health insurance industry. Insurers and investors alike are terrified at the prospect of a so-called “public option,” which would create a government-run health insurance program to compete with private insurers. Because the government plan wouldn’t have to earn a profit, the plan would be able to undercut the premiums of private firms, pressuring profit margins.
“The health-insurance industry is sending thousands of its employees to town-hall meetings and other forums during Congress’s August recess to try to counter a tide of criticism directed at the insurers and remain a player — and not an outsider — in the debate over the future of the health-care system,” the Journal’s Vanessa Fuhrmans and Avery Johnson wrote Monday.
Employees of the health insurers have also been given talking points that encourage them to keep a low profile and avoid taking “the bait” when the industry is criticized in public, the reporters say. The industry’s trade group drafted a “Town Hall Tips” memo that instructs employees to stay calm and not to yell at members of Congress. MUCH MORE
Give me a damn break! How do the employees know that a health insurance carriers profits are fair? This is nothing more than protecting their job security – something that millions of Americans working in other industries couldn’t do. So far this year, the health care industry has already spent $35,000,000.00 in lobbying fees, and they expect to pay more, essentially all that it takes to bribe our own Congress! Remember, these are the same bastards that host the real “death committees” and refuse to grant transplants and other life saving measures as CIGNA did when:
Many C&Lers have followed the horrifying story of Nataline Sarkisyan. She was denied a liver transplant by health care giant CIGNA because they called it “experimental.”
CIGNA has ignored this medical decision and calls the transplant “experimental” as justification for denying the treatment. CIGNA’s refusal of Nataline’s liver transplant—overruling the urgent appeals of an array of doctors and nurses—is indicative of the failures of the new healthcare plan sponsored by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Fabian Nunez. That plan, which is actively supported by CIGNA, requires every single Californian to purchase insurance products from companies like CIGNA, but does not address the problem of denial of care evident in this situation.
In a stunning turn around, insurance giant CIGNA has capitulated to community demands, and protests that the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee helped to generate, and agreed to a critically needed liver transplant for Nataline Sarkisyan, a 17-year-old girl in the intensive care unit at UCLA Medical Center…
Are we as a nation going to allow these mobsters to make billions of dollars off health care reform, when for decades, it’s been the health insurance industry that has been hosting the real “death panels” that Sarah Palin and other “Talking Heads” are screaming about??? Here we go again, rewarding the very people that have jacked-up health care prices so they can increase their bottom line, and when it suits them, make a cognizant decision to allow a person to die and face no retribution at all, laughing their butts off all the way to the bank!
I remember 25 years ago when my Step-father had colon cancer, and Blue Cross of Minnesota raised his monthly health insurance premium to over $600.00 per month, and that long ago, that much money per month was impossible to pay, so he died. There’s were your real “death panels” exist, and now the government is going to allow these parasites to make billions of dollars off the American taxpayer? These revelations should kill the Health Care Bill unless it is government operated somewhat like Medicare, and if we don’t demand it through massive protests, then it’s time to kill this Bill that will allow these crooks to get their way just because they are spending massive amounts of money on Lobbyists and camouflaging their employees – advising them to act like they don’t work for the health care industry while disrupting Town Hall Meetings.
Why does this taste and feel like extortion?
William Cormier
NOTE: Knowing that they are 50,000 people throughout the healthcare industry acting in behalf of their employers, if you agree with this article, please make sure and give it an up-vote on Reddit, because you can bet your bottom-dollar they will descend on this article like flys on Sh*t, doing their best so it won’t get read.
As much as I’ve researched earthquake data, and provided conclusive evidence that earthquakes and volcanic activity is on the rise, the residents of the West Coast, primarily Seattle, are being warned in the below video that appeared on CNN.com this date. Why has it taken the scientific community so long to publish the obvious? Quake activity on the West Coast during the last five years has increased significantly – yet it’s only now, hopefully not too late for people to take notice and stock-up for an eventual earthquake that will severely hamper the delivery of food and water to those most affected in the aftermath of such an earthquake.
It’s also significant they haven’t mentioned the “Cascadia Subduction Zone” and the Tsunami that would occur if a “Mega-thrust” quake hits the area, which in my opinion, is a distinct possibility.
Previous articles that have forecast this and other events:
It was bound to happen – only a matter of time until the greed of the elites began to reverse itself and their money flow is dwindling for the first time in decades. Those who were complicit in outsourcing American manufacturing are now feeling the pinch, and it’s because they forgot one sobering fact that now is becoming evident as the wealthy begin their spiral into the necessity of watching every penny they spend, and many are selling off assets to pay bills. Tisk, tisk, what a shame as they begin to reap what they have sown…
Their arrogance and greed was mind-numbing as they outsourced America’s light and heavy manufacturing to increase their bottom lines, but they forgot to factor the American consumer into their quest for money – and instead of acknowledging that the United States was the largest consumer of goods in the world, it takes money to purchase those items, necessities and luxuries alike – and in order to keep on buying, our country had to give them well paying jobs to sustain their growth. Instead, awash with power and greed, the forgotten American had to quit buying anything more than the barest of necessities, and whether it’s cheap junk from China or quality American made goods, both take money to purchase, and the bulk of Americans are almost flat-out broke!
Now that reality may be dawning on the wealthiest of Americans, digging themselves out of the hole they created may be harder than they might have thought. It takes money to bring back our manufacturing sector – and there is far too little of that available – and those that do have it are holding on to it for dear life, further complicating the situation. The old adage that “It takes money to Make Money” has never been more of a truism – and like us, the wealthy are now beginning to face the reality of their folly.
They began to pull away from everyone else in the 1970s. By 2006, income was more concentrated at the top than it had been since the late 1920s. The recent news about resurgent Wall Street pay has seemed to suggest that not even the Great Recession could reverse the rise in income inequality.
But economists say — and data is beginning to show — that a significant change may in fact be under way. The rich, as a group, are no longer getting richer. Over the last two years, they have become poorer. And many may not return to their old levels of wealth and income anytime soon.
For every investment banker whose pay has recovered to its prerecession levels, there are several who have lost their jobs — as well as many wealthy investors who have lost millions. As a result, economists and other analysts say, a 30-year period in which the super-rich became both wealthier and more numerous may now be ending.
The relative struggles of the rich may elicit little sympathy from less well-off families who are dealing with the effects of the worst recession in a generation. But the change does raise several broader economic questions. Among them is whether harder times for the rich will ultimately benefit the middle class and the poor, given that the huge recent increase in top incomes coincided with slow income growth for almost every other group. In blunter terms, the question is whether the better metaphor for the economy is a rising tide that can lift all boats — or a zero-sum game. MUCH MORE
As much as many of us believe it’s poetic justice, think long and hard before you rejoice in their demise. History has shown, time and time again, that when our economy falters, the winds of war are awakening – a sure fire fix to an economy which was often called a “War Economy” in the 1960’s. We no longer use that description, but it’s still there, lurking in the background – and to fix this ailing economy, history suggests that a wide-ranging conventional war will be the answer, and if our war planners choose the wrong target, it could easily escalate into themo-nuclear war where there are no winners – only death and destruction.
President Obama was warned not to bail-out the financial sector, to make it a bottom-up bailout that included the people who would have to spend their money on American made goods, thus providing the stimulus needed to bring back our manufacturing and the pride of American made goods – but he chose to save the bankers and financial sector, the very people that drove us into this recession. Reward the criminals and hope for the best was his philosophy, and now we can all see where that has brought us to – and it doesn’t bode well for his Presidency – and certainly not the nation.
I do have a solution; sit yourself firmly on the nearest chair, bend-over and kiss your financial A@@ goodbye, because it will take decades – if ever, for the United States to recover from the greatest theft of our wealth in recorded history, and unfortunately, even though this pillage of our economy began in the Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush years – it was brought into its last phase by America’s first Black President who has turned out to be a monumental failure to his people and the nation alike.
