Gerry Charlotte Phelps

The New Underground China

This stunning account of the size and strength of Christian China is potentially a world-changer.  It appeared as  comment #46 on December 29, 2009, at The Belmont Club:

46. Dick Matern:

A reply for Doodslag (#5)

Thanks for the thoughts but be certain that life today is far more than we assume it is – much,much more complex, and still solutions will arise. I throw in the Christian Church of China which without hierarchical leadership has never for a moment considered the Muslim faith as something to be avoided. Their mission program is currently rather unified (you have to consider how they can do these things without a central directorate, but they do – and we must remember that they are now 165,000,000 in number or thereabouts and are beginning to impact the world in ways unimagineable less than a generation ago). Their mission endeavor is commonly called “Back to Jerusalem”. The direction and aim is to convert the Muslim world beginning from China “back to Jerusalem” back to the Christian faith. They take this idea very, very seriously and its beginnings have been and are now being experienced by the Uighurs but there is a vanguard to the movement much farther west than that. The first Chinese Christian to start Christian evangelism among the Uighurs is still in prison, some 40 years now. No overt attempts are aimed at his release. Instead, once you devote your life to the mission of the Chinese church you go visit that person in prison, receive his blessings and prayers and head on further west. This is much in the spirit of the Iona missionaries who first intentionally missionized northwestern Europe. They take the problems you mention for granted, but they are certain their work is more durable than Islam.

They have already caused Hu Jintau, during the time of his premiership in China, to call a halt to a meeting of their politburo, to give vent to his severe remonstrations for the much too irenic directions of that body towards the USA -this after GWB’s spy plane debacle in the first year of the latter’s presidency – Hu pressing for a more permanent attitude of opposition toward USA. He blamed this on the Christians who were weaseling into their highest echelons of authority.

The new church in China will simply not even recognize all the Muslim antipathies as a problem. They will simply recognize W’s thoughtful piece as portraying the response that reality dictates, go with it and get on with it. No nonsense.

I have been a medical missionary in Asia most of my adult days and the astounding reality that the people of Nepal and even Vietnam bring to their lives, especially in realistic growth is a force that most Americans have no feeling or understanding for.   (Emphasis added.)  The church in China has come up from ca. 40,000 souls when I was back in school to the figure of 165,000,000 today. Nepal when I first went there from Vietnam had a Christian presence of a few hundred, but it was all very hush-hush. Today in less than 2 generations there are well over 1,600,000. And the impact is tremendous. I was very anxious about a lady with rheumatic heart failure when I came home last fall. I simply said she would need meticulous care til I got back and we prob needed to consider heart surgery when I returned. With no fanfare they simply mentioned my concerns for the lady and when I got back they had taken a collection, got the surgery done for her elsewhere. Imagine my feelings on calling her to get back in right away when I returned – and found they had just taken care of the problem all on their own.

I will make a wager that in less than one generation there will be lawyers from mainland China defending Christians from the ACLU before the Supreme Court of the USA. In America we have become a nation of handwringers. Watch as unheard of realities begin to set in, as Asians, especially Christian ones, begin doing their stuff. I had a fellow bring his 4 yr old son in from a commune in Tibet on his shoulders over a Himalayan pass where he wouldn’t be seen to get the boy’s cleft lip repaired. When I wanted him to stay a couple days till I got the sutures out, he explained to me that no one in his commune will be allowe3d out of their house (i.e.no market or food) till he and the boy are returned. He will be beaten; meant nothing to him. But he must return with the boy for everyone else’s sake SAP.

Less hand wringing from Americans,please. We lost one in the battle to retake Trenton. He’d been placed as a guard to make sure no one learned of Washington’s advance on T-town. He froze to death in his wet shirt. We can do all the stuff we should. And more. If we want to.

Dec 29, 2009 - 8:12 pm

Why So Much Corruption?

Corruption originates in basic human moral weakness, and is transmitted, not genetically, but through the culture. Cultures arise from their religions and are shaped by them. Of all cultures, those based on Protestant Christianity are the least corrupt.

Here is a list of the most and least corrupt countries from Real Clear Politics: Most Corrupt: Somalia, Afganistan, Mayanmar, Sudan, Iraq, Chad, Usbekistan, Turkestan, Iran, Haiti.  Least Corrupt: New Zealand, Denmark, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Iceland.  In the list of the 10 least corrupted countries, 9 were countries with cultures based on Protestant Christianity. Of the 10 most corrupt countries, 7 were countries with cultures based on Islam.

Countries affected by Islam seem especially prone to severe corruption. The Spanish culture was also heavily influenced by Islam during the 800 years of occupation by the Muslims. The Spanish language is full of Arabic words, for instance. Latin American Spanish culture, begun about the time the Muslims were ejected from Spain, still retains things like some of the Arabic treatment of women. The chaperone system was still common in Mexico City in the 1960s, for instance, when I was doing research there. Latin American cultures also have some of the dysfunction of the “honor” systems reminiscent of those of the Arabs, more cruel, vengeful and volatile than Anglo cultures. But more hopefully, also more centered on the extended family.

There is also the fact that countries based on Catholic cultures are notably more corrupt than those based on Protestant Christian cultures. That reflects their attitudes toward the Bible in the 15th century. Catholics did not encourage ordinary people to read the Bible. But Protestants did. They promoted literacy too, so more people could read the newly-available cheap printed Bibles. So Protestants had the advantage of more wide-spread literacy, especially in the Bible. More Bible-reading caused ordinary Protestants to try harder than ordinary Catholics to be more moral people. The result was less than normal corruption in Protestant cultures. That was good for business and for more-democratic government. But it came from the inside of individuals rather than arising from any form of government.

The Christian-based culture of the West is the foundational determinant of its being less corrupt. The founders of the American republic did warn us that without “a religious and moral people” their republic would not work. That makes sense. If something on the inside of people does not tell them corruption is wrong, there can never be enough policemen in the world to diminish or stop corruption.

Many efforts have been made to transplant the less-corrupt democracy of the Anglo cultures to non-democracies. Whether it can be done on a permanent basis is still to be seen. Without also transplanting Protestant Christianity, the basis for transplanting a lasting democracy may be doubtful.

It may well be that what is needed to spread non-corrupt democratic governance is more missionaries and more domestic evangelists in the long run. Without that, the transplants may not survive.

In fact, the question for the West is whether having lost so much of its own Christianity, can it hold onto its own waning relatively non-corrupt democracies, or even survive?

Modern Men and Women Are Wimps Says Anthropologist

At Rueters today, by John Mehaffey.  (Look it up, just to see the illustration.)

Australian anthropologist Peter McAllister's new book "Manthropology: the Science of the Inadequate Modern Male" has just made these assertions, based on his studies:

Many prehistoric Australian aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 200 meters record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions.

Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the current world high jump record of 2.45 meters during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood.

Any Neanderthal woman could have beaten former bodybuilder and current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an arm wrestle.

McAllister opens by saying:

"If you're reading this then you -- or the male you have bought it for -- are the worst man in history.

...As a class we are in fact the sorriest cohort of masculine Homo sapiens to ever walk the planet."

He offers evidence about running and jumping, in comparison with the best Olympic athletes. 

His conclusions about the speed of Australian aboriginals 20,000 years ago are based on a set of footprints, preserved in a fossilized claypan lake bed, of six men chasing prey.

An analysis of the footsteps of one of the men, dubbed T8, shows he reached speeds of 37 kph on a soft, muddy lake edge. Bolt, by comparison, reached a top speed of 42 kph during his then world 100 meters record of 9.69 seconds at last year's Beijing Olympics...

...with modern training, spiked shoes and rubberized tracks, aboriginal hunters might have reached speeds of 45 kph...if (ancient aborigines) can do 37 kph on very soft ground...there is a strong chance they would have outdone Usain Bolt if they had all the advantages that he does.

..."We have to remember too how incredibly rare these fossilizations are," he said. "What are the odds that you would get the fastest runner in Australia at that particular time in that particular place in such a way that was going to be preserved?"

McAllister also offered photographic evidence that young African men jumped heights of up to 2.52 meters in the early 1900s, as part of initiation into manhood.

Then he claimed a Nealderthal woman could have out arm-wrestled Arnold Schwarzenegger.

...a Neanderthal woman had 10 percent more muscle bulk than modern European man. Trained to capacity she would have reached 90 percent of Schwarzenegger's bulk at his peak in the 1970s.

"But because of the quirk of her physiology, with a much shorter lower arm, she would slam him to the table without a problem," he said.

Some of his other examples:

* Roman legions completed more than one-and-a-half marathons a day carrying more than half their body weight in equipment.

* Athens employed 30,000 rowers who could all exceed the achievements of modern oarsmen.

* Australian aboriginals threw a hardwood spear 110 meters or more (the current world javelin record is 98.48).

Why the difference between then and now?

"We are so inactive these days and have been since the industrial revolution... "These people were much more robust than we were...there are statistics about how much harder people worked then

"The human body is very plastic and it responds to stress. We have lost 40 percent of the shafts of our long bones because we have much less of a muscular load placed upon them these days.

"We are simply not exposed to the same loads or challenges that people were in the ancient past and even in the recent past so our bodies haven't developed. Even the level of training that we do, our elite athletes, doesn't come close to replicating that.

I'm Supporting Rick Perry for Governor

Under Governor Perry's leadership Texas leads the nation in job creation. In fact, in 2008 Texas created more jobs than the other 49 states combined.

And unlike nearly every other state in the nation Texas has a balanced budget, actually cut taxes on small businesses and believe it or not still has more than $9 billion in the Rainy Day Fund.

To support Governor Perry for re-election, go to http://hq.rickperry.org/join/t64mj

Energy Crisis Postponed - New Gas Rescues World

At The Telegraph, UK , Evan Ambrose-Pritchard writes:

"America is not going to bleed its wealth importing fuel. Russia's grip on Europe's gas will weaken. Improvident Britain may avoid paralysing blackouts by mid-decade after all."

Why?  Because of new technology for extracting gas from shale and methane beds.  And because proven natural gas reserves around the world have risen to "1.2 trillion barrels of oil equivalent, enough for 60 years supply - and rising fast."  Much of this is in the U.S.

 

"The breakthrough has been to combine 3-D seismic imaging with new technologies to free "tight gas" by smashing rocks, known as hydro-fracturing or "fracking" in the trade."

 

"The US is leading the charge. Operations in Pennsylvania and Texas have already been sufficient to cut US imports of liquefied natural gas (LGN)...to almost nil..."

 

Needless to say, Russia, which has been blackmailing the EU with threats to cut off its gas supply,  is not happy.  

"If the new forecasts are accurate, Gazprom is not going to be the perennial cash cow funding Russia's great power resurgence. Russia's budget may be in structural deficit."

 

As for the US, we may soon be nearly energy self-sufficient.  Since 2/3 of the US trade deficit is for foreign oil, this would go a long way toward getting us out of debt, and back to prosperity.  If would also affect the health of the dollar.

"This has currency implications. If you strip out the energy deficit, America's vaulting savings rate may soon bring the current account back into surplus – and that is going to come at somebody else's expense, chiefly Japan, Germany and, up to a point, China."

What Should Obama Do About Peace Prize?

Did Obama deserve the Peace Prize?  Friedman thinks not.  He said:

"The Nobel committee did President Obama no favors by prematurely awarding him its peace prize. As he himself acknowledged, he has not done anything yet on the scale that would normally merit such an award — and it dismays me that the most important prize in the world has been devalued in this way."

But Friedman adds that is not Obama's fault:

"It is not the president’s fault, though, that the Europeans are so relieved at his style of leadership, in contrast to that of his predecessor, that they want to do all they can to validate and encourage it."

Then Friedman tells how Obama can remedy the mistake made by the Nobel Committee.  He should accept the Prize: on behalf of the men and women in the U.S. Armed Forces, who are the main peace-keepers in the world.

"Here is the speech I hope he will give:"

“Let me begin by thanking the Nobel committee for awarding me this prize, the highest award to which any statesman can aspire. As I said on the day it was announced, ‘I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize.’ Therefore, upon reflection, I cannot accept this award on my behalf at all. 

“But I will accept it on behalf of the most important peacekeepers in the world for the last century — the men and women of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. 

Then after a long listing of many of the specific ways the U.S. Military has kept the peace in the last 100 years, Friedman has President Obama ending by saying:

“Members of the Nobel committee, I accept this award on behalf of all these American men and women soldiers, past and present, because I know — and I want you to know — that there is no peace without peacekeepers."

But read the whole article, at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/opinion/11friedman.html?em. 

The Peace Prize - EU's Bid to Re-Colonize U.S.

By Dick Morris, at http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/2009/10/09/the-nobel-prize-to-obama-europes-bid-to-re-colonize-america/ :

Whether it was rewarding Jimmy Carter for criticizing the Iraq War or supporting Al Gore in his crusade against global warming, the Norwegian Parliament - which chooses the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize - has sought to use the award as a political tool to influence American politic s.   Its prestige and moral power make the prize a potent weapon with which to help steer the direction of the colossus beyond the seas that controls a quarter of the world's economy and most of its military power.

Now, the Norwegians have weighed in to support Barack Obama in his bid to reshape America so it looks more like, well, Norway, or at least like Europe.

European socialism cannot succeed without conquering the United States. 

If the European Union has high taxes and the US keeps its levies low, business and brains will flow to America.  If the EU's labor standards require long vacations, high benefits, and proscribe layoffs and ours' do not, employers will migrate across the ocean to do their business in the States.  If the Old World curbs ambition by taxation, regulation, and social opprobrium, the ambitious will flock to the New World as they have done for four hundred years.

So, Lenin was right.  Socialism cannot exist in just one country - or one continent.  It must dominate worldwide or wealth and power will flow to those who remain committed to the free market.  Europe realizes this reality and it makes Obama's election as president of the United States all the more welcome.

The Nobel Prize is really Obama's payback for disciplining the unruly United States and taming it to be a member of the European family of nations.  Europe wants to reverse the American Revolution and re-colonize us and it sees in Obama a kindred spirit willing to do its bidding.

Does the United States let its entrepreneurs run wild, coming up with fanciful new ideas and making billions from them?  Obama will regulate and subdue business just like they do in Europe.  Do U.S. businesses compete by slashing prices, aggressively pursuing markets, and jockeying for market share?  Obama will make them behave themselves and stay in line just like European companies do.  Do Americans work hard and push aggressively to make as much money as they can?  Obama will raise taxes, emphasize community values, and narcotize their ambition by offering government largesse. 

And does the United States still believe in a sloppy, contrarian democracy in which ordinary people can directly affect their government, states have powers, and courts can reel in executive authority?  Obama will use his rubber stamp majority in Congress to pass new laws regardless of public opinion and make us obey.

In foreign policy, is the United States still willing to stand up, alone if necessary, to protect human rights in Bosnia, in Iraq, and in Afghanistan?  Obama will curb this unruly independence and mold it within the fabric of appeasement that has dominated Europe for the past half a century.      

All this heavy lifting, this conversion of America into a European state, deserves a reward.  And what is a more fitting one than to give Obama than the Nobel Peace Prize?  He obviously doesn't deserve the award for economics or, given his health care ideas, for medicine.  But the Peace Prize expresses Europe's longing:  to take back the nation its overly ambitious and uppity children founded.

Doing Well After Knee Replacement Surgery

It has been 4 weeks today since the surgery, and I'm doing very well.  Walking well - no longer limping - and exercising a lot.   Also still very busy with rehab - and will continue to be for about 6 more weeks.  But I hope to get back to blogging very soon.

Many thanks for all the good wishes!

Gerry

I Will Not Be Posting For Awhile

Tomorrow at 7 a.m. I will be having knee replacement surgery (left knee, unless there is a major goof-up!)  Then 9 weeks of intensive rehabilitation.  During that time I may not be posting here.  While I would like to be posting, you will understand that I might not be able to.

This is surgery that I very much want and am looking forward to.  I hope to be dancing by Thanksgiving!  Meanwhile, for those of you with a little space open on your prayer list, please add my name for a bit.  And take good care of yourselves until I get back.

Gerry

4000 UK Women Give Birth In Hallways

The Daily Mail, today tells of the plight of UK women who have so few maternity beds available that over 4000 have had to give birth in hallways, restrooms, closets and offices in England.  A good story that cautions us against the drawbacks of government-controlled healthcare systems.

Mark Steyn comments on the UK "10-month waiting period for a maternity bed" by calling for "Birth Panels."

Cheney on CIA Documents/Investigation

Statement from former Vice President Dick Cheney to the Weekly Standard Monday night:

The documents released Monday clearly demonstrate that the individuals subjected to Enhanced Interrogation Techniques provided the bulk of intelligence we gained about al Qaeda. This intelligence saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks. These detainees also, according to the documents, played a role in nearly every capture of al Qaeda members and associates since 2002. The activities of the CIA in carrying out the policies of the Bush Administration were directly responsible for defeating all efforts by al Qaeda to launch further mass casualty attacks against the United States. The people involved deserve our gratitude. They do not deserve to be the targets of political investigations or prosecutions. President Obama’s decision to allow the Justice Department to investigate and possibly prosecute CIA personnel, and his decision to remove authority for interrogation from the CIA to the White House, serves as a reminder, if any were needed, of why so many Americans have doubts about this Administration’s ability to be responsible for our nation’s security.

Health Care Bill Allows No Appeals to Rulings

From a commenter at Belmont Club

71. Mad Fiddler:

My brother has been applying his obsession for detail to the Health Care bill HR 3200, after tracking down a pdf file. One thing that he’s finding throughout is that there are numerous explicit passages which deny any possibility of appeal to any other authority whatsoever for the decisions handed down by the panels, bureaucrats, officials, clerks, commissioners, et cetera. This stinking hogwallow of a document creates a swarm of new bureaucracies not answerable to anyone in the public, with absolute powers to make life and death decisions on your health, and sets the whole thing up so that there is NO APPEAL  (Emphases added)

Aug 18, 2009 - 2:20 pm

The Plain Truth About Medical Insurance

From a commenter at Belmont Club:

22. Tcobb:

Please–the whole thing about health care is distorted by warped expectations.

For most working people the plain fact is that they could afford medical insurance that would live up to their expectations, but it would mean they would have to cut back on their current lifestyle to afford it.

The poor, contrary to misrepresentations, do get health care. Its illegal to turn anyone away from an emergency room in the US, and an “emergency” is pretty much whatever the person coming into the ER claims it to be.

The national shame is that everyone expects “someone else” to have to pay for their health care. What the middle class doesn’t seem to get is that if there is any shift in the payment arrangement that creates jobs for a multitude of (oxymoron) federal workers, they are still going to be stuck with the bill, and it will probably be a lot higher than anything they have now.  (Emphasis added.)

Aug 17, 2009 - 8:45 pm

_____

(See "Fed. Govt. Wastes More Than Business, Charities", the post right before this one.)

Stopping By

The evening after their wedding, which was also the night before leaving for their honeymoon in France, Whet and LyAnna stopped by.  They wanted me to have appropriate clothing for the rehab facility after my upcoming knee-replacement surgery.  So they came by with shorts for me to wear in the pool at the rehab center.  LyAnna and her delightful mom, Connie, had already shopped for tank tops and shorts for me to limp around in on my crutches.  Wanted Granny to look good!. 

In the heat of the early Texas evening, they were in "Austin evening casual" mode -Whet relaxed in a long-sleeved T-shirt, and LyAnna looking lovely in a long strapless aqua dress.  Looking very comfortable together as always.  A remarkable couple!  Also a very, very thoughtful one.

Happy honeymoon!

The "Surprise!" Wedding

                             Whet and LyAnna Smith

                   ------ And then they were one

It was to be an Engagement Dinner for LyAnna Johnson and Whet Smith - both my "adopted grandkids.".  At the last minute Whet came to transport me.  As he ran around the car, I saw his tuxedo, gasped and said "I'm under-dressed!"  There had been no hint that the dinner was to be tuxedo-formal.  "Nope," he said, "It's a wedding.  We're getting married tonight, right now.  No engagement dinner."

Bless them.  They had great motives, and a lot of fun too, in having a "surprise wedding."  Except for LyAnna's mom, the pastor, organist and photographer, no others knew until that day.  No maid of honor or best man.  Only about 30 of their closest family and friends.  But it was a classic wedding, in the lovely little chapel beside our church.  The bride was breath-taking in a long white strapless "mermaid" gown of white lace with a sprinkle of clear sequins.  She carried a small bouquet of massed soft-yellow roses.  Whet was tall and handsome.  Anna, the young Downs-Syndrome girl they had been visiting weekly for two years, threw rose petals on the carpet in front of the bride.  Anna's little brother Jordan carried the rings.  The couple was so happy, making their vows as they stood in front of the stained glass window that blazed with sunlight.  It was a small, intimate, elegant and sumptuous wedding.

Dinner was in an old one-room house, primitively built of local white limestone in the 1830's, when the City of Austin was young.*  After the dinner, the couple left.  When LyAnna threw her bouquet, she made sure our ecstatic 12-year-old Anna caught it.   Then LyAnna and Whet drove off in a horse-drawn carriage as we tossed white rose petals after them.   An indelibly memorable, authentically traditional wedding.  Yet also - high tech!

The wedding has a website   There are photos from their courtship and engagement, with photos yet to come of the wedding and honeymoon in France.  There are parts of their story, and a page to leave our best wishes.  Also a page where we can give a wedding gift by donating to their favorite charity - a great charity that helps poor people in other countries start their own micro-businesses.

Their "Surprise Wedding" worked for me.  When I got home, I just sat around smiling, laughing and shaking my head.  It was wonderful. 

I wonder if it is going to start a trend?

_____

*The" Sunday House" at the Moonshine Grill in Austin

Fed. Govt. Wastes More Money Than Business or Charities

This is based on a comment from a long-time federal government employee.  It was his job to know the "cost" of government programs.  When Congress allocated money to any purpose, he had to know how much of the money actually got to that purpose, and how much stayed behind in bureaucracies as "administrative costs."  That was called the "burden" of the money.

He found that the "burden" or administrative cost was from at least 35% to 55% for most federal government programs.  So if Congress allocated, say, $40 billion for a new airplane, only $18 to $26 billion would actually go to make the plane.  The other $14 to $22 out of that $40 billion would go to the government bureaucrats who would oversee, mandate, make rulings, enforce compliance and do any other kinds of paperwork.

How does that compare to administrative costs for private business?  The business average is 20%.

What about the administrative costs of private charities?  The charities average 13% to as low as 0.5%! 

(Hint - but the more government grants charities apply for or get, the more their administrative costs go up.  Applying for, and compliance with, government grants can be very expensive.)

What does that mean for some legislation such as, say, the Health Care bill?  Just that for every $100 billion allocated for health care, only $45 - $65 billion will ever actually get to consumers.

But if the same $100 billion went through private business providers instead of the government, at least $80 billion of health care would actually reach consumers.

And if that $100 billion went through charities, some $87 - $99.5 billion would actually reach consumers.

That means sending any money through the federal government for any purpose costs 15% - 99.5% more than sending it through private business or a private charity - to buy the same thing! 

The cost-savings alone could be the very best reason to get our health care from private business or charities, not government. 

_______
See original comment at Belmont Club .  Also see linked article by the same commenter at The Jacksonian Party .

Problems With Long-Term Care

Half of the proposed Health Care Bill is financed by gutting Medicare by some $500 billion.  So we need to look again at the health care of older people.  What about when full-time care becomes necessary?  Here is one comment at the Belmont Club:

6. Sara (Pal2Pal): 

For those of you who do not know me (hard to believe, but surely there are some), I was my Mother’s full time caretaker the last 5 years of her life.

She was living independently, traveling, even to China, and generally having fun, when she was felled by a stroke which took all of her left side vision and awareness and leaving her with peripheral vision only on the right side. Physically she was as strong as an ox, mentally as sharp as ever. But the loss of vision meant she could not live alone anymore, so we sold her small retirement home and together bought a larger home where we could live together and have her grandson there too.

Here are my observations of problems in elder care. I don’t really have solutions, but these are the things that made her furious or affected me negatively as her caretaker.

First, because she was 90 when they took her to the hospital, it was automatically assumed she was incompetent and incoherent. She was neither and this treatment and dismissal of her infuriated her.

Second, the first course of action after the CAT scan and a couple of days in the ICU was to begin to drug her into oblivion, thereby proving to themselves that she really was incoherent and therefore incompetent.

Third, they tried like hell to run roughshod over me. I had all the required legal documents (my Mother was well prepared) and since my Mother was able to coherently tell me her day to day wishes, I was constantly trying to fight her battles for her and being stonewalled at every turn. When she begged me to “get me out of here before they kill me,” I took action to get her released from the hospital and they even tried to stop us with the police. To their credit, the police looked at my legal documents, then talked to my Mother and told the hospital to step back, she could leave if she wanted.

Fourth, once home, there is no avenue for reimbursement. I took over all the care the hospital was doing, provided lodging, food, clothes, transportation, daily business, and all her medical supply needs, but since she had retirement income, I could not claim her or her medical expenses on my taxes. In the meantime, I had left my own job, lost my own health insurance, and lost all the quarters I would have been paying into social security for my own retirement. In other words, there was a big penalty for taking her out from under Medicare paying high cost hospitalization. Not for my Mother necessarily, but certainly for me as the caretaker.

I have not recovered yet from those expenses and I’m still without health insurance. Also, when you leave the job market for five years and are well over 50, it is near impossible to come back in, even if you’d take almost anything, even at min. wage.

There are many elderly who are warehoused in nursing homes or under expensive hospital care who could be at home with full time help. We give incentives to families to become foster parents, why not incentives for those who are willing to give up their own lives to care for a parent they love and respect?

My Mother had Medicare plus Supplemental Blue Cross/Blue Shield and yet hardly any of the expense for her care, save a few doctor’s visits, were billed to either of these entities. I paid out of pocket since she preferred to live at home rather than be tied into a wheelchair, put in diapers, and drugged to keep her docile so a nursing home could rake in the Medicare bucks.

Aug 17, 2009 - 3:42 pm

It's All A Death Panel

President Obama derides the idea that his health-care reform calls for them; the Senate is stripping "end of life" counseling language from its bill -- and last Friday the voice of the liberal establishment, The New York Times, ran a Page One story "rebutting" the rumor that ObamaCare would create such boards to decide when to pull the plug on elderly patients.

But they all miss the point.  Even without a “death panel”, Obamacare will still ration care to the point that it would lead to the same result.  That is because of 2 of Obama’s decisions:

(1) pay for reform with vast cuts in the Medicare budget

(2) grant insurance coverage to 50 million new people.

Simply put, Obama plans to pay for insuring the 50 million new people with money taken from Medicare for the elderly – and at a time when the number of retired people is growing sharply.

 Whether or not he admits it even to himself, Obama's talk of cutting "inefficiencies" and reducing costs translates to less care, of lower quality, for the elderly. Every existing national health system finds ways to deny state-of-the-art medications and necessary surgical procedures to countless patients,

"Reform" would cut care to the elderly in several ways:

 * Expanding the patient load by full coverage for 50 million more (including "Americans" like illegal immigrants) 

 * The Federal Health Board will set standards and protocols for the system.  All insurers and providers will have  to follow the FHB's advice on limiting care to the elderly -- a de facto rationing system.

 * The Quality-Adjusted Remaining Years system will be fostered. Under QARY, they would try to "amortize"        the cost of treatment over the remaining "quality years of life" likely for that patient.

Imagine a hip replacement costing $100,000 and the 75-year-old who needs it, a diabetic with a heart condition deemed to have just three "quality" years left. That works out to $33,333 a year -- too steep! Surgery disallowed! (Unless of course, the patient has political connections . . . )

Younger, healthier patients would still get the surgery, of course. The QARY system simply aims to deny health care to the oldest and most infirm, "scientifically" condemning them to infirmity, pain and earlier death than would otherwise be their fate.

In short, ObamaCare doesn't need to set up "death panels" to make retail decisions about ending the lives of individual patients. The whole "reform" scheme is one giant death panel in its own right.

___________

*from the New York Post: "The Truth About Obamacare", Dick Morris, Eileen McGann, 8-17-09

Corruption In the U.S.

From a commenter at Belmont Club:

11. luddy barsen:

tossing this in as an aside;
i saw a mind-boggle yest w/ Glenn Beck & Democratic pollster Pat Cadell. Wanting to link to it, i found a transcript on a website. Here below that is, plus the link to the video:

(open quote)

Glenn Beck Exposes Rahm Emanuel’s Root and Corruption in the Obama Administration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAkePgf8hkA

So, I took pity on those of you who have dial-up, and sat there with DVR remote in hand and painstakingly played, rewound, and wrote over and over again. Here goes:

Glenn has on Pat Caddell – former Democratic Pollster and Fox News contributor.

Pat tells Glenn- Rahm, after leaving the Clinton administration as their “bag man,” Bill Clinton gets him a job – puts him on the board of Freddie Mac. Salary $250K.

Glenn asks what qualifications did Rahm have for this job.
Pat says, he had no qualifications for this – he studied BALLET in college.
(You can see Glenn holding back a wise-crack on this). Pat says, “Rahm was there when they were cooking the books at Freddie Mac.”

His second job was with Wasserman-(Pearl or Perla ??) (I couldn’t understand the last half of the name), in their Chicago office and made $16M in less than 2 years.

He made the $16M on one large deal. He was advising SBC (which Edmund Whiteacre was the Chairman) which later grew into the new AT&T. The guy who helped make the SBC deal, took a loss. (They had to sell because they bought another phone company – Ameritech. They had to get rid of a security company called Security Link – it was a billion-billion and a half dollar investment.) He sold it to an investment group being led by Emanuel for about $500M. 6 months later, the investment bank that bought it, sold it for a billion dollars.

The current administration appointed Edmund Whiteacre as the new Chairman of GM – who announced the day of his appointment, “I know nothing about the car business.”

Bill Daley, brother of the Mayor of Chicago, was the person pulling the strings in the Obama campaign. One of Bill’s closest firends/enemies is a person named Jim Johnson. Jim Johnson was the Chairman of Fannie Mae. His qualifications to manage one of the largest mortgage companies in the world was that he was Walter Mondale’s campaign manager.

Glenn asks: WHY IS NO ONE CONNECTING THESE DOTS?

Pat says: That’s what drives me crazy. Corruption is killing this country. There is corruption on the Republican side and there is corruption on my side of the aisle with the Democrats. It is a cancer on society. NO ONE WILL TOUCH THIS STORY! Nobody has made this connection in the media because they’ve decided they have a new role. Both these parties are in deep trouble.

End

Kudos to Glenn for having the kahonas – amid threats to him and his family, as well as having sponsors bullied into pulling their advertising from his show, – to shine a light on the gutter rats that helped layer on corruption.

(end quote from tree of liberty)

Aug 14, 2009 - 8:21 am

And:

16. luddy barsen:

gaffe, if you missed this, it’s still excellent.

An update would include that among the vulture investors who bought up shattered Wachovia assets (and have already scored fat on ‘em) was George Soros, friend of the Sandlers at Golden West, the designers of the worst of the garbage mortgages.

Another update would be that the Wachovia CEO who made the wacovia-suicidal 2006 (’top o the market’) deal with Golden West was sent packing as soon as the shareholders caught on to what had been done to their property. Soros has always made his big scores by placing, or recruiting, “moles at the controls” of his targets.

This Wachovia swindle is small potatoes now as far larger government/corporate attacks upon the resources of the middle class begin to emerge –but it is instructive on several levels:

One, it’s tight enough to understand, and small enough to see whole. Two, that these crimes –the dreams of investigative journalism as recently as, uh, the previous admin –have been simply buried if there’s any hint at connection with the Obama admin.

the MSM ignoring a story like this (and the dozens of other stories like this) is far worse than a naughty party-line shenanigan.

on the basis of the MSM’s ‘understood’ deal with the people, it amounts to a conspiracy to defraud the entire nation –and world. An immorality almost too massive to comprehend. A financial demi-Holocaust.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/how_allies_of_george_soros_hel.html

Aug 14, 2009 - 10:25 am

8 Ways to Reform Health Care Without More Deficit

"The Whole Foods Alternative to Obamacare" by John Mackey. at Wall Street Journal , August 11, 2009.

"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

—Margaret Thatcher

 Whole Foods CEO John Mackey says:

With a projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, several trillions more in deficits projected over the next decade, and with both Medicare and Social Security entitlement spending about to ratchet up several notches over the next 15 years as Baby Boomers become eligible for both, we are rapidly running out of other people's money.

While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. 

Here are Mackey's 8 ways to reform health care better:

1.  Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs).  That is how they do it for Whole Foods employees.

2.  Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health insurance and individually-owned health insurance have the same tax deductibility.  It is unfair not to tax individuals the same as businesses on health insurance.

3.  Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state ines.  We should have the legal right to buy our insurance from any state.

4. Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover.  What is or is not insured should be determined by consumer preferences, not lobbying.

5.   Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of 100s of 1000s of dollars per year.  These costs are passed back to us through much higher health care costs.

6.  Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health care treatments costs.   How many other things do we buy without knowing how much they will cost us?

7.  Enact Medicare Reform.  Medicare is heading toward bankruptcy.  We need reforms that create greater patient empowerment, choice and responsibility 

8.  Revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help those who don't have insurance and aren't covered by Medicare, Medicaid or SCHIP.

Many promoters of health-care reform believe that people have an intrinsic ethical right to health care—to equal access to doctors, medicines and hospitals. While all of us empathize with those who are sick, how can we say that all people have more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have to food or shelter?

Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges. A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter.

How do they do it in other countries like Canada and the U.K.?

Even in countries like Canada and the U.K., there is no intrinsic right to health care...All countries with socialized medicine ration health care by forcing their citizens to wait in lines to receive scarce treatments.

...830,000 Canadians are currently waiting to be admitted to a hospital or to get treatment, according to a report last month in Investor's Business Daily. In England, the waiting list is 1.8 million.

What do Whole Foods employees in Canada and the U.K. prefer?

At Whole Foods we allow our team members to vote on what benefits they most want the company to fund. Our Canadian and British employees express their benefit preferences very clearly—they want supplemental health-care dollars that they can control and spend themselves without permission from their governments. Why would they want such additional health-care benefit dollars if they already have an "intrinsic right to health care"? The answer is clear—no such right truly exists in either Canada or the U.K.—or in any other country.

Mackey says we all have some responsibility for our own health:

Unfortunately many of our health-care problems are self-inflicted: two-thirds of Americans are now overweight and one-third are obese. Most of the diseases that kill us and account for about 70% of all health-care spending—heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and obesity—are mostly preventable through proper diet, exercise, not smoking, minimal alcohol consumption and other healthy lifestyle choices.

Mackey adds that health-care reform is very important.

But it is essential that it be financially responsible, and that we have the freedom to choose doctors and the health-care services that best suit our own unique set of lifestyle choices.  (All emphases added.)

Will Obamacare Mark U.S. End?

From a comment at Belmont Club :

81. Mongoose:

Well, the bottom line is simple: will America reject socialism, or not? If we will reject it, then the next question is when? Then the next question is one of by how much we will reject it?

I rather doubt that there will be a flat-out rejection at the ballot box next year. There are just too many of the State’s clients around, there is literally no major opposition to it at the level of the national parties and the whole intellectual and propaganda machinery of the Left will have this.

So the question becomes one of what will it take to undo it all once it is in? Given that we are still struggling with the New Deal programs yet today, It does not look good for the opponents of socialism. I think that the fate of social security is the model. I should point out that CRA is still in place and Fannie and Freddie are still in business. Eventually if this path is taken the USA must decline as a power and a force for light, liberty and freedom. That would seem to be the point. I personally believe that that is a very real intent of the Democrat Party.

It is a much more complicated issue than health care: The root of it is the monstrous intrusion of government into our lives. Either the state is beholden to us, or we are to them. Either we are a nation where individuals struggle to be free–and this of course means economic freedom, and self employment–or we are a nation of serfs beholden to the State. There are no two ways about it.

I imagine that it cannot be turned around until the last Baby Boomer is in her grave. If the 1960’s was the first “boomer revolution” this is the second. As this cadre ages it will just get worse.

All this may seem so obvious that it's like beating a dead horse, but this is really the truth of the matter.

They will get their health care “reform”, it will be a disaster. It will be hard to undo. Conservative must be in it for the long haul, as it will take many years and much national humiliation and ruin to turn it around.

America could well look like Mexico, Brazil or the UK in a handful of years.

I have to wonder if we could even magically place the electorate in some sort of time machine and momentarily transport them to this future, if they would turn from it upon their return.

Perhaps. Of course the politicians have to move fast. It is as clear as it could be, as is their treason.

We live in a time when the vast majority of “people in power” are wholly irresponsible, and willfully so. They mean to undo all that this country has been, is and should be. The greatness of America is too much for them; it humiliates them.

They must destroy it. They cannot live up to its great history.

What is to stop them?

“The People”. Well one has hopes, but the tea party people better get ready for some real oppressive tactics and not just misrepresentations and slander by the likes of CNN. “Our betters” mean to rule us as a new “Nomenklatura” and a new “Ancien Regime”. Have no doubt about it.

For a great many of us the future will be one of returning to 19th century conditions (or even earlier) but this time without the traditional American frame work there to facilitate self improvement.

Historians generations hence will just be befuddled by this all. How did a nation at the height of her success come to decide to immolate herself? Why did we choose suicide when faced with the best of worlds?

Why are we doing this to ourselves?

The answer is buried somewhere in the New Deal, the Cold War and the boomer generation.  (Emphases added.)

Aug 4, 2009 - 4:05 am

U.S. Deficit Soars $181 billion in July. Why?

From "Deficit Grows by $181 Billion in July" by Walter Alarkon for The Hill, 08/09/09*

Due to the recession, tax receipts are down by 17%.  Meanwhile bailouts and the stimulus packages added to the deficit.  These

...drove the deficit to a record $1.3 trillion in July, according to the independent Congressional Budget Office (CBO)... Falling tax receipts and increased spending on bailouts for auto companies and the financial sector and for the economic stimulu*s package added to the deficit, according to CBO.

Spending through July has grown by $530 billion.  Half of this increase came from bailouts of banks, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

Unemployment benefits have more than doubled, Medicaid spending has grown by a quarter and Medicare spending has increased by 11 percent.

Tax revenue for the first three quarters of 2009 has fallen by approximately $350 billion, or 17 percent compared to the same period last year, due mostly to the effects of the recession.... A third of the decline is due to tax breaks in the stimulus, including the middle-class tax cut that President Obama campaigned on during last year's election.

The deficit is projected to reach $1.8 by the end of the fiscal year on September 30.  The 2008 deficit was $455 billion, a record.  

Meanwhile,

...Democrats in Congress and the White House are pushing for healthcare reform criticized by Republicans as too costly... Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), the top Republican on the Budget Committee, said that Democrats in Congress aren't doing anything to address the record deficit and are instead pushing ahead with “wildly expensive” healthcare legislation.

____________

* At http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/deficit-grew-by-181-billion-in-july-2009-08-09.html

Time for Negative Thinking

From J.R. Nyquist at Investor's Business Daily on 7-31-09 in "The Power of Negative Thinking."

We seem to have come to the logical end of Dr. Benjamin Spock's reasoning.  He told the Greatest Generation how to raise their kids, today's Boomers who are the former Hippies of the 60s.  What did he tell them?  To say "Yes" to their kids at every opportunity, so as not to damage their little psyches.  They did, and manufactured a generation of Hippies in the process.  Now we seem to be viewing the end of that process as we view the culture after they worked it over.  What did it bring us?  Nyquist has his usual unique view.  All wrong, he says.  We need to get back to "No!"

Here are Nyquist's major points:

1.  If you don't want socialism, your answer is "No we can't!"
2.  "Shut up and sit still."
3.  Guilt is a virtue
4.  You're Not So Special
5.  Fear and Worry Can Save You
6.  Suffering Can Save You
7.  Realize What an Idiot You Really Are  ("The more clever you seem to yourself, the more likely you are nearing some hard object about to strike you upside the head.")

Nyquist concludes: "The power of negative thinking is real power.  And remember, the magic word is 'No.'"

 

Why No Health Care "Grandfather Clause"?

The Obama Health Care plan is in big trouble.  As senior citizens become aware that it will be paid for by taking $500 billion annually from Medicare, they are deserting the Democrats in droves.  But they are an important part of the coalition that keeps the Dems in power - blacks, latinos, single women, young people, gays and seniors.  Without them, the possibility of rule by the Democrats would probably be gone.

Yet there is a way to neuter much of the hostility of seniors to Obamacare.  The Dems could simply do what Bush did when he tried to reform Social Security.  He offered a "grandfather clause" to the seniors.  He pledged that his new Social Security changes would not apply to anyone who was then 55 or older.

That made a lot of sense.  Those 54 and younger would have had 12-13 years or more before retirement to build up retirement funds.  Those 55 or older - who notoriously have a lot of trouble getting jobs after all - could still have the old retirement system.  They would be "Grandfathered In."

If Obama made a similar Grandfathered-In pledge to those 55 or older, that however much government-controlled health care systems might change, that their group would not be affected, but would continue on as before, it could make a huge difference.

It would mean the system would cost more at first, true.  But it would also keep the costs from falling mostly on those who are already elderly.  And it would give younger people more time to prepare for whatever a new system might be like.

The proposed Obamacare is already so unpopular that it might not be saved even with such a change.  But it would doubtless have a much better chance.  And the Democrats might have a better chance to get back into the good graces of senior citizens and keep their coalition together.

Kaiser Permanente as Health Care Model

From a comment at the Belmont Club:

39. Batman:

Sythianeedle @ 38 The Kaiser system initially worked because they were living in a “fool’s paradise” in which all their subscribers were employed and therefore among the healthier part of the population. As their population aged, and as they opened enrollment to others, their balance sheet stopped looking so great.

They make money by denying or delaying care. For years they did not offer epidural anesthesia for child birth because it was too expensive. Now they have a system in which you have to go through your primary doctor to get referred to specialists, frequently with a long waiting period.

On the other hand, things got better at Kaiser because starting about a decade ago, their physician salaries were equal or greater than what many doctors could earn in PPO medicine. So whereas it used to be that the best doctors went into private practice, lately many excellent doctors prefer to work at Kaiser. Furthermore, life style for the Kaiser doctor is easier. When you walk out the door you hand responsibility over to the next doctor, unlike the way things used to be with private practice.

Kaiser monitors each doctor’s utilization of services. If you are deemed a renegade physician who does too much for your patients, you can get in trouble with the administration. Just imagine how things would be if it were the government that was in charge of monitoring all services rendered and disciplining doctors who do “too much” for their patients.

And regarding the general topic of this post, yes, I believe Obama is trying to move us to a single payer system. And yes, some diluted version of his plan will probably pass this calendar year. And yes, in the years to come we will slide slowly but surely into the quicksand of single payer. (Emphasis added.)

Aug 3, 2009 - 11:12 am

Obamacare As Spoils for Obama Coalition

This comes from a comment at the Belmont Club , below:

60. whiskey:

The goal of the Obamacare proposals is to:

1. Provide political patronage, particularly to the “talented tenth” (per WEB Dubois) and Hispanic elites, via Affirmative Action pressure to vastly increase the number of Black and Hispanic Doctors. [Currently, according the AMA website, 4% of all US Doctors are Black.]

This patronage will not help, say, Joe Average in South Central LA, but will allow, say, Henry Louis Gates daughter to attend Medical School in a free ride, with lower standards for grades, MCATs, and of course board certification.

2. Provide pork patronage by creating lucrative middle-men positions for oversight, and so on, keeping a vast amount of Democratic interest groups (ACORN, etc.) employed to “oversee” (i.e. dole out care to political specifications to politically connected groups i.e. Blacks, Hispanics, etc.) and thus provide a permanent financial advantage for the racially-based hard left. Ayers, Obama, and Axelrod, in other words. Plus a heaping helping of Farrakhan and Wright, who no doubt will be in on the pork.

What is interesting is that Keith Ellison, aka Keith X, a protege of Farrakhan and the only (Black) Muslim in Congress, faced a hostile and nearly all-Black crowd in Minnesota when he returned post-Break to address the (supposedly friendly) crowd. He was asked directly if he would enroll his family and himself in the public plan instead of his “Cadillac” plan. He evaded the question (No). That got a very hostile response.

Poor Blacks receive no patronage opportunities. Even ACORN types need a middle class background to take advantage of the traditional spoils that Obama plans. What we are seeing, as we saw with White Women (who figure Obamacare = greatly increased probability of death by Breast Cancer), is the fracturing of the spoils-coalition that existed from around 1965 to 2008.

Just like the thieves in “the Big Knockover” by Dashiell Hammett, the coalition succeeded in looting the treasury (by winning the election.)  But the fact remains the same.  The fewer the people in the cut, the more money for the rest.

Since Dubois’ Time, back in the early 20th Century, Blacks have embraced his arguments that “the talented tenth” i.e. a Black Aristocracy, will act as their tribunes, agitate for concessions and wealth transfers to Blacks, from a racially oppressive White society (which in fact, it was, and then some) and provide both political and economic power. That model has broken down: Whites are by and large no longer racist (it’s taboo to even express such sentiments in public among an all-White group.)  They don’t feel guilt, are tired of accusations and finger-pointing, and just as importantly, with capture of the White House by a member of the Talented Tenth, poor Blacks feel they are getting the shaft in the cut. This does not mean that Blacks will vote Republican (ever), but does mean diminished support. Obama’s coalition was fragile, as Joel Kotkin suggested.  It was constructed mainly on the very explicit notion of transferring wealth from Red to Blue America. To the extent it’s occurring, only the Talented Tenth and Ayers-like allies are getting a taste of the money.

This is basically why Obama’s power and polling is collapsing.

Aug 3, 2009 - 3:22 pm

Who Is Pushing This Health Care Reform

Here is what a doctor says about that, at Belmont Club.    Here is his comment there:

53. Blindman:

I am a physician. I would like to add to this post and enlighten the debate. I would like to be able to say what the problem is. I would like to tell you how it can be fixed.

Alas it is not really about medical care but more so about the best way to pay for medical and social problems that are lumped together under the rubric ” Health and Human Services”. As such it is a political debate. This is what it should be and always has been.

It’s OK to characterize the poles as big government and small government. It’s OK to define one’s moral high ground as the right choice. In the end though it’s about your money and somebody else using it or your money and you using it.

You should be able to buy reasonable insurance but you can’t buy a ticket to the moon for 4,000 dollars. You should not have to buy insurance for someone else. A modest safety net should do the trick.

Most of us buy into equal opportunity but draw a line at the right of equal income. That is the goal of those who push these health agendas. It isn’t about health care but health care is a wedge. It is a potent intellectual weapon for the vanguard of those who want to take us to their vision of the society that the 1960’s painted in their radicalized prophecies.

Sorry but I don’t want to get on their bus. At least I know who they are and what they want. They are not patients,physicians,or families; but like Hamas they hide behind the innocents and naively misguided. They are lawyers, politicians,and bureaucrats of all stripe and make. They are just continuing their game of the culture wars. They are now on level 5 and want to get to level 6. It’s a game to the worst of them and the worst of them are those who are the most desperate to win at any cost.  (Emphasis added.)

Aug 3, 2009 - 12:40 pm

A Top Summary of Health Care Situation

If you are not confused about the Health Care legislation before Congress, you must not be paying attention.  There is a bill of over 1000 pages.  No member of Congress has read all of it.  Many have read none of it.

Now Congresspeople are going home to explain to their Districts what is in the bill.  But they don't know.  Or if they do know, some would rather not say.

So they must face people who know things about the bill and are angry about it.  Mostly all they can say is "I haven't read it" but "trust me."  Or they may deny that what is actually written in the bill is there.  The public is losing patience with that approach.

What Americans need to know is what the situation is in regard to health care in the U.S., now and in the future.  They want the truth, not propaganda, not lies, and not being lectured by people who don't know.

Here is an excellent article by an intelligent doctor, at daylights mark .  He hits all the bases - insurance companies, the uninsured, medicare, medicaid, government mandates, socialized medicine, what other countries do, plans that would work better than what the government wants, the Daschell-Dole plan, and more  

(Sorry about any problems.  We were affected somehow by the massive Twitter crash.)

Health Care Bill - What It Has, On What Page

Here is the list of what is in the Health Care Bill, and the page number where each one is found.

Obama Health Care Plan Details

HR 3200 currently under consideration in the House of Representatives

  
Pg 22 of the HC Bill MANDATES the Govt will audit the books of ALL EMPLOYERS that self insure!!

Pg 30 Sec 123 of HC bill - THERE WILL BE A GOVT COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benefits you get

Pg 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill - YOUR HEALTHCARE IS RATIONED!!!

Pg 42 of HC Bill - The Health Choices Commissioner will choose your benefits for you. You have no choice!

Pg 50 Section 152 in HC bill - HC will be provided to ALL non US citizens, illegal or otherwise

Pg 58HC Bill – Gov’t will have real-time access to individual’s finances & a National ID Health care card will be issued!

Pg 59 HC Bill lines 21-24 Govt will have direct access to your banks accts for electronic funds transfer.

Pg 65 Sec 164 is a payoff subsidized plan for retirees and their families in Unions & community orgs (ACORN).

Pg 72 Lines 8-14 Govt is creating an HC Exchange to bring priv HC plans under Govt control.

Pg 84 Sec 203 HC bill - Govt mandates ALL benefit packages for private Health Care plans in the Exchange

Pg 85 Line 7 HC Bill - Specs for of Benefit Levels for Plans = The Govt will ration your Healthcare!

Pg 91 Lines 4-7 HC Bill - Govt mandates linguistic appropriate services. 

Example - Translation for illegal aliens.

Pg 95 HC Bill Lines 8-18 The Govt will use groups i.e., ACORN & Americorps to sign up individuals for Govt HC plan

Pg 85 Line 7 HC Bill - Specs of Ben Levels 4 Plans. #AARP members - Your Health Care WILL be rationed

Pg 102 Lines 12-18 HC Bill - Medicaid Eligible Individual will be automat.enrolled in Medicaid. No choice.

Pg 124 lines 24-25 HC No company can sue Govt on price fixing. No “judicial review” against Govt Monopoly.

Pg 127 Lines 1-16 HC Bill - Doctors/ #AMA - The Govt will tell YOU what you can make.

Pg 145 Line 15-17 An Employer MUST auto enroll employees into public opt plan. NO CHOICE

Pg 126 Lines 22-25 Employers MUST pay for HC for part time employees AND their families.

Pg 149 Lines 16-24 ANY Employer w/ payroll 400k & above who does not prov. pub opt. pays 8% tax on all payroll

Pg 150 Lines 9-13 Biz w payroll btw 251k & 400k who doesnt provide public opt pays 2-6% tax on all payroll Pg 167 Lines 18-23 ANY individual who doesnt have acceptable HC according to Govt will be taxed 2.5% of income.

Pg 170 Lines 1-3 Any NONRESIDENT Alien is exempt from individual taxes. (Americans will pay).

Pg 195 Officers & employees of HC Admin (GOVT) will have access to ALL Americans financial and personal records.

Pg 203 Line 14-15 HC - “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax” Yes, it says that.  Pg 239 Line 14-24 HC Bill Govt will reduce physician services for Medicaid.  Seniors, low income, poor affected.

Pg 241 Line 6-8 HC Bill - Doctors, it does not matter what specialty you have, you’ll all be paid the same.

Pg 253 Line 10-18 Govt sets value of Dr’s time, prof judg, etc. Literally value of humans.

Pg 265 Sec 1131Govt mandates & controls productivity for private HC industries.

Pg 268 Sec 1141 Fed Govt regulates rental & purchase of power driven wheelchairs.

Pg 272 SEC. 1145. Treatment of certain cancer hospitals – Cancer patients - welcome to rationing!

Page 280 Sec 1151 The Govt will penalize hospitals for what Govt deems preventable readmissions. (Incentives for hospital to not treat and release.)

Pg 298 Lines 9-11 Drs, treat a patient during initial admission that results in a readmission-Govt will penalize you.

Pg 317 L 13-20 PROHIBITION on ownership/investment. Govt tells Drs. what/how much they can own.

Pg 317-318 lines 21-25,1-3 PROHIBITION on expansion- Govt is mandating hospitals cannot expand.

pg 321 2-13 Hospitals have opportunity to apply for exception BUT community input required. Can you say ACORN?!!

Pg335 L 16-25 Pg 336-339 - Govt mandates established of outcome based measures. HC the way they want. Rationing.

Pg 341 Lines 3-9 Govt has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans (Part B), HMOs, etc. Forcing people into Govt plan.

Pg 354 Sec 1177 - Govt will RESTRICT enrollment of Special needs people!

Pg 379 Sec 1191 Govt creates more bureaucracy - Telehealth Advisory Committee. HC by phone/Internet?

Pg 425 Lines 4-12 Govt mandates Advance [Death] Care Planning Consult. Think Senior Citizens end of life.

Pg 425 Lines 17-19 Govt will instruct & consult regarding living wills, durable powers of atty. Mandatory!

Pg 425 Lines 22-25, 426 Lines 1-3 Gov’t provides approved list of end of life resources, guiding you in death.

Pg 427 Lines 15-24 Govt mandates program for orders for end of life. The Gov’t has a say in how your life ends.

Pg 429 Lines 1-9 An “adv. care planning consult” will be used frequently as patients health deteriorates.

Pg 429 Lines 10-12 “adv. care consultation” may incl an ORDER for end of life plans. AN ORDER from GOV

Pg 429 Lines 13-25 - The govt will specify which Doctors can write an end of life order.

PG 430 Lines 11-15 The Govt will decide what level of treatment you will have at end of life

(NOTE FROM RJ: The above really does give the government the authority to determine who lives and dies, and when. A government bureaucrat really will be making this decision for you and your loved ones.) 

 

Pg 469 - Community Based Home Medical Services=Non profit orgs. Hello, ACORN Medical Svcs here!!?

Pg 472 Lines 14-17 PAYMENT TO COMMUNITY-BASED ORG. 1 monthly payment to a community-based org. Like ACORN?

Pg 489 Sec 1308 The Govt will cover Marriage & Family therapy. They will insert Government into your marriage.  Pg 494-498 Govt will cover Mental Health Svcs including defining, creating, rationing those svcs

PG 502 Sec 1181 Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research Established. – Hello Big Brother – Literally.

Pg 503 Lines 13-19 Gov’t will build registries and data networks from YOUR electronic med records.

Pg 503 lines 21-25 Gov’t may secure data directly from any depart or agency of the US including your data.

Pg 504 Lines 6-10 The “Center” will collect data both published & unpublished (that means public & your private info)

PG 506 Lines 19-21 The Center will recommend policies that would allow for public access of data.

PG 518 Lines 21-25 The Commission will have input from HC consumer reps – Can you say unions & ACORN?

PG 524 18-22 Comparative Effectiveness Research Trust Fund set up. More taxes for ALL.

PG 621 Lines 20-25 Gov’t will define what Quality means in HC. Since when does Gov’t know about quality?

Pg 622 Lines 2-9 To pay for the Quality Standards, Govt will transfer $$ from to other Govt Trust Funds. More Taxes.

PG 624 “Quality” measures shall be designed to assess outcomes & functional status of patients.

PG 624 “Quality” measures shall be designed to profile you including race, age, gender, place of residence, etc

Pg 628 Sec 1443 Gov’t will give “Multi-Stake Holders” Pre-Rule Making input into Selection of “Quality” Measures.

Pg 630 9-24/631 1-9 Those Multi-stake holder groups incl. Unions & groups like ACORN deciding HC quality.

Pg 632 Lines 14-25 The Gov’t may implement any “Quality measure” of HC Services as they see fit.

PG 633 14-25/ 634 1-9 The Secretary may issue non-endorsed “Quality Measures” for Physician Services & Dialysis Services.

Pg 635 to 653 Physicians Payments Sunshine Provision – Gov’t wants to shine sunlight on Docs but not Govt.

Pg 654-659 Public Reporting on Health Care-Associated Infections – Looks okay.

PG 660-671 Doctors in Residency – Gov’t will tell you where your residency will be, thus where you’ll live.

Pg 676-686 Gov’t will regulate hospitals in EVERY aspect of residency programs, incl. teaching hospitals.

Pg 686-700 Increased Funding to Fight Waste, Fraud, and Abuse. You mean like the Gov’t with an $18 million website?

PGs 701-704 Sec 1619 If your part of HC plan isn’t in Gov’t HC Exchange but you qualify for Fed aid, no payment.

PG 705-709 SEC. 1128 If Secr gets complaints (ACORN) on HC provider or supplier, Gov’t can do background check.

PG 711 Lines 8-14 The Secretary has broad powers to deny HC providers/ suppliers admittance into HC Exchange. Your doctor could be thrown out of business.

Pg 719-720 Sec 1637 ANY Doctor who orders durable med equip or home med services MUST be enrolled in Medicare.

PG 722 Sec 1639 Gov’t MANDATES Doctors must have face to face with patient to certify patient for Home Health Svcs.

PG 724 23-25 PG 725 1-5 The same Gov’t certifications will apply to Medicaid & CHIP (your kids)

PG 724 Lines 16-22 Gov’t reserves rt to apply face to face certification for patient to ANY other HC service.

Pg 735 lines 16-25 For law enforce. proposes the Secretary-HHS will give Atty General access to ALL data.

PG 740-757 Gov’t sets guidelines for subsidizing the uninsured (Thats your tax dollars people)

Pg 757-762 Fed gov’t will shift burden of payments to Disproportionate Share Hospitals (DSH) to States. (Taxes)

Pg 763 1-8 No DS/EA hospitals will be paid unless they provide services without regard to national origin

Pg 765 Sec 1711 Gov’t will require Preventative Services including vaccines. (Choice?)

Pg 768 Sec 1713 Gov’t – Nurse Home Visitation Svcs (Hello union paybacks)

Pg 769 11-14 Nurse Home Visit Svcs include-economic self-sufficiency, employ adv, school-readiness.

Pg 769 3-5 Nurse Home Visit Services - “increasing birth intervals between pregnancies.” Govt ABORTIONS anyone

Pg 770 SEC 1714 Fed Gov’t mandates eligibility for State Family Planning Services. Abortion & State Sovereign.

Pg 789-797 Gov’t will set, mandate drug prices, controlling which drugs brought to market. Bye innovation.

Pgs 797-800 SEC. 1744 PAYMENTS for graduate medical education. The government will now control Drs’ education.

PG 801 Sec 1751 The Govt will decide which Health care conditions will be paid. Say RATION!

Pg 810 SEC. 1759. Billing Agents, clearinghouses, etc req. to register. Gov’t takes over private payment sys.

Pg 820-824 Sec 1801 Govt will identify individ. ineligible for subsidies. Will access all personal financial information.

Pg 824-829 SEC. 1802. Govt Sets up Comparative Effectiveness Research Trust Fund. Another tax black hole.

PG 829-833 Gov’t will impose a fee on ALL private health ins. plans incl. self insured to pay for Trust Fund!

PG 835 11-13 fees imposed by Gov’t for Trust Fund shall be treated as if they were taxes.

Pg 838-840 Gov’t will design & implement Home Visitation Program for families with young kids & families expect kids.

PG 844-845 This Home Visitation Prog. includes Gov’t coming into your house & telling you how to parent!!!

Pg 859 Gov’t will establish a Public Health Fund at a cost of $88,800,000,000. Yes that’s Billion.

Pg 865 The Gov’t will MANDATE the establishment of a National Health Service Corps.

PG 865 to 876 The NHS Corps is a program where Drs. perform mandatory HC for 2yrs for part loan repayment.

PG 876-892 The govt takes over the education of our Med students and Drs.

PG 898 The Govt will establish a Public Health Workforce Corps to ensure supply of public health prof.

PG 898 The Public health workforce corps shall consist of civilian employees of the U.S. as Secretary deems.

PG 898 The Public health workforce corps shall consist of officers of Regular & Reserve Corps of Service.

PG 900 The Public Health Workforce Corps includes veterinarians.

PG 901 The Public Health Workforce Corps WILL include commissioned Regular & Reserve Officers. HC Draft?

PG 910 The Govt will develop, build & run Public Health Training Centers.

PG 913-914 Govt starts a HC affirmative action program thru guise of diversity scholarships.

PG 915 SEC. 2251. Govt MANDDATES Cultural & linguistic competency training for HC professionals.

Pg 932 The Govt will estab Preventative & Wellness Trust fund- initial cost of $30,800,000,000-Billion.

PG 935 21-22 Govt will identify specific goals & objectives for prevention & wellness activities. Control YOU!!

PG 936 Govt will develop “Healthy People & National Public Health Perform.  Standards” Tell me what to eat?

PG 942 Lines 22-25 More Gov’t? Offices of Surgeon General -Public Health Svc, Minority Health, Women’s Health

PG 950- 980 BIG GOV’T core pub health infrastructure including workforce capacity, lab systems; health info sys, etc

PG 993 Gov’t will establish school based health clinics. Your kids won’t have a chance.

PG 994 School Based Health Clinic will be integrated into the school environment. Say GOVT Brainwash!

PG 1001 The Govt will establish a National Medical Device Registry. Will you be tracked?


 

Mathew D. Staver*                           
Founder and Chairman Dean and Professor of Law
Liberty Counsel  Liberty University School of Law
Offices in Florida, Virginia and the District of Columbia, Lynchburg, Virginia
(800) 671-1776 - Telephone      (434) 592-5300 - Telephone
www.LC.org                                                                            
www.law.liberty.edu 

*Licensed in Florida and the District of Columbia

(Hat Tip to Fred and Gene Hannah)

Following Jesus...Really

What would that look like?  How would it be different?  

One answer lies in this recording of an address I gave at the 1987 UMC Conference on Evangelism at Portland, Oregon.  

That address was just a couple of days before the charity I headed had an important hearing in San Jose, California, to get permission to open a large homeless shelter.*  When I asked those 2000 people if they would pray for our success at that hearing, they roared back that they would.  

Their prayers worked. While we did not win at that hearing, we did win a couple of weeks later, in talks with the Mayor and Vice-Mayor.  That shelter, with 143 beds for homeless families with children, was opened.  A month ago, it celebrated its 21st anniversary.

I'm not good with technical stuff, but if you click on the word "download" below, you should be able to hear the address.**  

GerryCharlottePhelps-UMCong87-Portland.mp3 10713K   Play   Download

(I should add that when I gave this address, though I was theologically conservative, I was still pretty far left politically - which shows.  It was not until the Berlin Wall fell two years later, in 1989, and we got our first clear look at the disaster that was communism in the old USSR, that I finished moving fully to the right politically.)

_______

* This is in Chapter 28 of my book about my life in prison and after, "Out of the Iron Furnace" at www.outoftheironfurnace.blogspot.com  . 

** Many thanks for this recording to Joseph Slife, who found it and very kindly sent it to me.  His excellent blog is at www.methodistthinker.com .