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EDITORIAL
Catastrophe
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Far-reaching federal controls on the health insurance industry, passed Sunday by the House of Representatives, were conceived in a political fantasy land and sold to an outraged public with bald-faced lies.
Now the worst piece of legislation in generations needs only the president's signature to become law.
A majority of Americans hate this blatant attack on individual freedoms and health care choices, this instrument of class warfare, this job-killing expansion of federal authority. Democratic Party lawmakers, when forced to choose between the wishes of voters and the wishes of liberal elitists, threw in their lot with the latter. And then they had the gall to celebrate the abomination as "history" of the good kind.
How power-hungry is this band of social engineers? They attached a multibillion-dollar federal takeover of college financial aid. Now not only is health care a "right" in the eyes of Democrats, but higher education is, too.
When you increase demand for a particular service, you inevitably will increase costs. Yet Democratic leaders continue to insist their schemes will reduce costs.
What a joke. The bill requires health insurers to charge no co-payments for preventive care. Contrary to Democrats' claims, that doesn't make those office visits "free." The costs will be recovered through higher premiums. Same for the provision that prohibits lifetime claim caps on policies. Higher premiums. No coverage denials for pre-existing conditions? Higher premiums. Dozens of coverage mandates in full force? Higher premiums.
Worse, Americans must buy this more expensive coverage or face financial penalties. Higher-income earners -- those with the resources to invest and create the jobs this economy so desperately needs -- will face higher payroll and capital gains taxes to subsidize less-productive citizens.
Democrats have insisted that their bill will increase access to care, not cause the rationing of it. But when doctors face a glut of new patients seeking their "free" preventive care and see already-paltry Medicare reimbursements slashed, expect appointment times to dry up.
Eventually, private health insurers will go bankrupt and leave the debt-addicted federal government as the sole payer for health care. This is the end game that President Obama can tout as his legacy: an all-new insolvent entitlement.
Reps. Dina Titus and Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., did the bidding of Sen. Harry Reid and voted for this pox on the republic. The disastrous consequences for Nevada are on them.
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"...it’s up to the government of the country to provide or facilitate to their people the corresponding access to good health."
Says who? What happened to your responsibility to provide health care for yourself and for your family? It's your life, not the government's. Or are you comfortable giving your life to the government?
To Jubal Harshaw:
You make perfect sense to me, but the left does not see it that way. They somehow justify making every private good a public good. In their thinking, it is so important to the public good that everyone have their private needs met. Admirable, but they don't trust people or the free market enough to provide private goods to all, so they feel compelled to command and control the economy, which ironically winds up making us all suffer. But at least we can all suffer equally.
Liberals are perfectly free to share their own wealth, but apparently this is not enough. They are not interested in sharing THEIR wealth. They are interested in sharing YOURS and MINE. They do not like helping the poor as much as sticking it to the rich, or even the middle class. That is called envy, and is at the very heart of the original problem of inequality. Greed is only one side of the coin. We can attack greed by taxing everyone. But we will never be truly equal until we address the other side of the coin: Envy.
In the famous picture of the dems walking thru the tea partiers, did anyone else notice Steny Hoyer holding a purse in one hand, and John Lewis' hand, all lovey dovey? What's up with that? And what is George Soros doing there (his head is seen in between the two love birds, John and Steny)?
Japan was the first country to embrace social welfare 100 years ago. The Emperor wanted to prepare his people for war but found them to be both malnourished and uneducated. He ordered all the people of Japan to be well fed and well educated. This renaissance gave rise to some of the most powerful and lucrative companies in the history of mankind. Most of the products that you see today that are made in Japan were formed during that period.
Health and education are the least on par with roads, bridges and defense.
Jubal,
a private issue can become a public issue depending on circumstance. It is in the best interests of the nation to have healthy robust people. This requires access to affordable health care. With half the country suffering from some type of chronic illness and health care being a major cause of poverty and welfare expenditures it has become a public issue. Over 1 trillion taxpayer dollars went into healthcare last year.
There are approximately $700 million a day in medical bills that aren't being paid. This is causing major problem for hospitals across the country. Many, like King Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles, are on the brink of closing down or have close down. Having adequate hospitals is also a public issue.
there should be bid letting amongst the big time bk lawyers to handle the u.s. bk.
just like the "change" oaf and harry osama reid will "solve" the illegal infiltrator infestation by declaring them all legal, so should the u,s, default on all that debt paper. thus with a wave of the hand or a middle finger salute, the "change" oaf could eliminate all federal debt. that'd teach those chinese, oil sheiks, and u.s. capitalist oppressor citizens with bloated pension accounts !
and just like after a citizen's personal bk, in a short time lenders will be back since the insurmountable debt load will be history.
then to solve the prison over-population, why shouldn't the oaf just open the prison doors ?