To the Honorable Charles Gonzalez:
Sir I am writing this message to implore you to make every effort to reinstate one thing into the health care reform bill during the reconciliation process. The one thing is to remove the exemptions the insurance companies enjoy from our anti-trust laws.
I believe this single change will do more to lower costs and improve coverages than any other provision in the bill.
The fact that one Senator sold his vote to remove this important section is appalling to me. It appears that one person has affected all of us to gain favor from the insurance companies. I don’t know if it is the case, but it certainly appears that way. Regardless this section must be reinstated.

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Ambler

Judging from news reports that Jared Loughner was dismissed from community college and told not to return until he was evaluated for mental illness, and looking at his web postings, which appear very delusional, it’s likely he has a psychotic disorder.

Here is a college student, not in school because of untreated mental illness, who has spiraled downward and allegedly committed an atrocious act of violence. While most patients with serious mental illness do not act violently, there is a minority of individuals who, in the throes of psychosis or other mental derangement, have access to weapons and turn these on innocent people.

I hope that rather than call Loughner “nuts” and further stigmatize people with mental illness, we look at this as a tragic missed opportunity. A quiet and normal kid became very sick and apparently didn’t get the help he needed. We need to prevent this from happening to others.

Dr. Anthony L. Rostain

Director of Education

Department of Psychiatry

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia

A former vice presidential candidate posts images of congressional districts she deems subversive in the crosshairs of a rifle and urges her faithful followers not to retreat but to reload. A candidate for the Senate rallies crowds with cries of “Second Amendment solutions” against her opponents, and foes of health-care reform bring weapons to town meetings. Yet the right wing “guns for all” crowd is shocked that violence is unleashed against Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others by someone as unstable and susceptible to their venom as Jared Loughner. Spare us the feigned outrage when the results of your incendiary and reckless shouts for violence become reality.

James F. Davis

Gulph Mills

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It started with hope and change during the 2008 elections. He was a bright star rising out of nowhere, his speeches inspiring to millions of people. He convinced independent voters he was a moderate. He was elected to the Presidency of the United States of America. His popularity extended past Americas borders.

Around the world he was seen as changing America.The perfect storm was already hitting the shores of America. Years of special interests concessions, Representatives and Senators “helping” citizens get loans for homes they could not afford, bank regulators looking the other way and on and on. The previous administration had left with the economy on the brink of collapse and America involved in two wars that were not going well. The American voter had already voiced its displeasure with the Republican party and the Democrats controlled the Congress.

The main stream media appeared to be basically an extension of the Campaign during the elections and afterwards an extension of the White House. The majority of Americans were just plain disgusted with all things Washington. This man said he had a plan, he offered hope and change. He had his filibuster proof majority in the Senate and a major majority in the House, what more could he ask for?

The left wing of the Democrats appears to see his election and their control as a mandate by the people to implement every program they ever envisioned to make America into their vision of what is fair and better. They called his election further proof of this mandate. He did win the popular vote by about 9 million votes.

During the first months of his administration the economy was a mix of confusion, some said improving as the stock market began to climb and the GDP went up a bit, but unemployment was at 10% and climbing. Mircosoft laid off over 5000 employees for the first time in the history of the company.

What are our expectations of this President? In a divided country it becomes very difficult to define what the majority really wants. We as a people are driven by many different concerns and beliefs. We span the political spectrum from extreme left to extreme right. I do believe most Americans live more to the middle of the scale than in either direction.

The Democratic majority in both houses is moving forward with several bills “designed” to help the American citizen. Health care and clean energy are currently moving through the legislative process. We are still waiting for Card-check and the financial reform bill.

The Senate version of health care reform is currently being debated and as I watch, it struck me that both sides have very convincing arguments and it is very hard to discern what is accurate or what is misleading.

I don’t have an answer to the worlds problems. As I watch the debates, listen to the news, watch the Presidents speeches and read what information is available on these matters it becomes clearer to me the we are heading towards more government control of our daily lives and higher taxes. What is not clear to me is why.

I don’t believe that the TARP by was a take over of the financial system of this country by the Obama administration, I do believe that it was mishandled from the start by the Bush administration and Congress. The major financial entities should have had many restrictions placed on the public dollars they received. It struck me that every piece of legislation concerning any expenditure of public dollars typically  comes with many pages of law governing how the money can be used and very harsh penalties for non compliance. The TARP did not appear to have many if any controls. It seems the Obama administration is continuing down the same path as his predecessor, wonder why?

While I think the auto companies should have left to succeed or fail on their on and let the bankruptcy court sort it out, I don’t believe this was a take over by the Obama administration either. I do believe it was a waste of money. I don’t understand how the auto unions got a piece of ownership in the companies but they did. That will make for some interesting contract negotiations won’t it?

The stimulus is an interesting subject. I read the Summary American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. This is a very interesting document, I referenced it in a previous blog, Government Stimulus: “Political or real” http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/PressSummary01-15-09.pdf. This document clearly defines how the stimulus money was to be spent. If you read this document or the actual bill you will wonder how this administration can claim any of the stimulus has contributed to improving the economy. Yet they do and the claim is just ridiculous, it’s really to soon to make that claim. What are jobs saved? Why are most of the funds for government projects that are typically funded via the general fund?  Here are some examples of questionable job creators from the stimulus bill , DTV Conversion Coupons:  $650 million to continue the coupon program to enable American households to convert from analog television transmission to digital transmission. Medicaid Coverage for the Unemployed: Provides 100 percent federal funding through 2010 for optional. State Medicaid coverage of individuals (and their dependents) who are receiving unemployment benefits or have exhausted those benefits and have no health insurance coverage.  Other optional coverage groups are individuals (and their dependents) who are involuntarily unemployed and uninsured and whose family income does not exceed 200 percent of poverty, and unemployed uninsured individuals who are receiving food stamps.”  Compassion Capital Fund:  $100 million for grants to faith- and community-based organizations to provide a critical safety net services to needy individuals and families. Most of the Recovery act job creators do have the potential to improve the infrastructure and will employ folks for perhaps a few years, none will create any permanent or lasting public sector jobs.

The money is being spent, contracts are be awarded and one would assume some folks are going to be employed to perform the tasks specified in the recovery act bill, so I guess you could say jobs will be created. I wonder why we are hearing rumors of another stimulus bill, what is left for the government to fix and how will we pay for it?

It has become clear to me that our country has diverse opinions and beliefs on many of the subjects we have been discussing. I firmly believe that the best form of government is the one that governs the least, to paraphrase a one of the founding fathers. We seem to have a segment of our population who believe the rich are evil, corporations are evil, insurance companies are evil, and anyone with millions of dollars made it off the backs of labor and should give back to labor. They also believe that the government is better qualified to provide them with the basic things in life they need.

This segment of the population also believes everything that the government has done wrong is a republicans fault, mostly a republican president. The following is taken from a comment to one of my blogs. It is typical of what I described in the previous paragraph.

“As for the economics, under “Reaganomics” we had an increase of trade and a loss of jobs in America. The workers got poorer and the business people got richer. Since WW II we have gradually, but steadily, lost our standing in the world as a nation that produces things that can be sold. (The one area in which we still excel is agriculture – thanks to foreign workers.) We are no longer the leader in steel production, textiles, automobiles, TV’s, etc., etc.. Part of the problem is our long-standing trade policies and part of it is the American proclivity to buy what is cheaper – not what is better. As a consequence, America produces less steel than Japan and about 20% of what is produced in China. There are no TV’s, stereos, or Levi’s produced by Americans. It has nothing at all to do with a free market. As for the energy suppliers of the world, you tell me what Saudi Arabia is going to sell us when their oil runs out. Sunshine?

What I find interesting is that the commenter never mentions Clinton and NAFTA, what’s more is his concern for Saudi Arabia. I would ask him what will Saudi Arabia sell when we have converted to alternative energy? Does he support a country who treats women as property, is a monarchy and has a court system that no way resembles the one we have and has punishments that he considers torture or inhumane?

It is clear to me that many people believe that this country should be changed to resemble the european model of government. I disagree and ask once again, Why would we want to be like the rest of the world when we have set the standard. It seems to me that the immigrants who are coming into this country are the new entrepreneurs. They are doing the jobs some Americans won’t do and then finding a way to succeed, start a business or get an education and excel. A lot of these folks left a place where the government was in charge of their lives so they came here and took charge of their own lives.

The segment of our population that wants all this government sustained entitlement also seems to believe that if you earned something they should be entitled to it also, but of course it should just be given to them. If they cannot have it you join the evil or lucky group of people they hate.

I guess my biggest concern is that we are amassing an unbelievable amount of debt to support all these programs. At some point I want the leadership to wake up and stop writing checks we can’t cash.

We started Yes-23 as a forum for discussion and it has achieve that end. We publish all comments to our opinions and enter into discussions with most of the commenters. It is an interesting exercise. I have learned that we as a people are more than simply disagreeing on issues, we are angry, both sides are very angry. There can be no civil discussion or compromise when both sides are out to discredit and destroy one another simply because they disagree on certain issues.

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Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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I’ve been sitting back watching the debacle of this so called reform bill and have been wondering what the consequences will be. I think we are starting to see the big sales job and a lot of intimidation from our government. I would like to think that Henry Waxman is calling the CEO’s in to see where the Congress went wrong with their numbers, but I am more suspicious of him than that. I really think he is going to challenge them. The Administration is already saying that it is just a bunch of Republican CEO’s trying to scare the American people. While it seems that all but one of the CEO’s is a Republican it is also true, that by law they must report the financial impact of any legislation to their bottom line. If they don’t then the FTC is all over them and they risk a legal situation and fines. I think the effects of this bill are going to be far reaching and will impact American business and the average person in extremely negative way.

This Administration and the leadership in Congress have put into effect a law that by all accounts is going to be very costly. I’ve been against this bill from the beginning simply because I believe the cost of entitlements are way to high, have a tendency to grow exponentially over time and once in place are almost never repealed or replace. When the full effect of this bill is felt several years from now people will be surprised at how it will affect the bottom line of their own budgets.

I don’t believe for one minute this bill will be repealed, we are going to have health care reform and will see the consequences of rushing a bad bill through the legislative process on a straight party line vote. I also believe their success will cause them to push several other big ticket bills through in the same manner further increasing the deficit and the debt. Representative Charles Gonzales of the 20th district in San Antonio TX. tells me this is a mortgage he is willing to live with, well it’s easy to incur debt with other peoples money.

I guess we will just have to wait and see who is right about the effects and benefits of this bill. I suspect it will not improve the health care delivery system nor lower costs for the average American.

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I wonder why with all the controversy about the health care reform bill are they attaching student loan reform/government takeover to this health care bill. It seems to me that our politicians never miss a chance to get the extra mile/dollar out of  us.  I wonder what this education reform is going to cost us. Why do the politicians, in this case the Democrats insist on sneaking legislation through on the back of other legislation? Why does the student loan program need reformed? Why does the government need to run it? Aren’t the guarantees enough? Seems to me that the liberal/progressives just cannot help themselves, they have to shove every social program down our throats that they can think of.

I think the constant chant of we won the election from the extreme left of the party is not a valid reason to implement all the social programs on their agenda. Yes, you won based on folks being mad at Bush and the Republicans. The constant chant of fundamental transformation does not mean the same thing to the average American as it does to the progressives.

Let’s look at some definitions:

Transform: To change in form, appearance, or structure; metamorphose. To change in condition, nature, or character; convert.

Change: To make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone

Fundamental: Serving as, or being an essential part of, a foundation or basis; basic; underlying: fundamental principles; the fundamental structure.

My opinion is that the progressives in Washington want to “fundamentally change” this country from a free society, based on a constitutional representative government into a society in which the collective is more important than individual freedoms. I believe the current people in charge, Obama, Pelosi and Reid and a large number of House and Senate Democrats do want to change this country into something that will no longer represent individual rights and freedoms and will enlarge government control over the people of this country.

I believe the average American voter thought that Obama meant he was going to change Washington into a transparent and ethical entity  with the American people’s needs and safety first. What I think we have found is what I suspected all along, Obama is very liberal and his definition of fundamental transformation is far different than that of the average American.

The way the Democrats are moving the health care reform bill towards becoming law is clear evidence of their total disregard for the American people’s desires. We want a straight up or down vote on the floor in front of us, we want all the arm twisting, and threatening to stop. If your bill had our support and had not been written in secret you probably would not have to be whipping up you own house Democrats to support it. I find it is interesting that those in charge who are fairly secure in retaining their seats are willing to throw the rest of the representatives under the bus.

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Ok folks let’s look at the health care reform bill. What do we know? We know that it was created behind closed doors, in secret, it will cut Medicare benefits, it counts dollars spent twice, the poverty level base line is raised to accommodate more folks in Medicaid, it will supposedly insure 30 million folks currently without coverage at great expense to all of us. We know that sweetheart deals were made to get votes, we will pay for 10 years to get 6 years of coverage, we know our taxes will grow exponentially, we know that when the exchange is created the government will control health care coverage, we know that we all will be forced to buy coverage or pay a fine, and on and on, show me the benefits.
Nancy Pelosi says we need to pass this so the American people will know what it contains. She and Harry Reid think we are stupid and don’t know what is good for us. I say we know what is good for us and this bill is not.
The Democrats keep saying that we the people are not concerned with the process and dismiss anyone who brings it up. I know I am concerned that this Administration and the Democratic leadership keep find ways around what used to be the constitutional process to get what they want, regardless of what the American people want. Go to Glenn Beck’s website or listen to his TV program today, he has a matrix he is going to publish that shows all the circumvention methods that these people have used, it is eye opening. I will try to repost it here when it becomes available.
We must continue to call and write these people in charge and let them know this is a Democracy and just because you won an election doesn’t mean it suddenly became a dictatorship.

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They White House has posted the Presidents plan for reform online at whitehouse.gov. I have been reading through the post this morning. This plan is just another version of the existing bills. As I read this document I am finding that the position of the administration has not changed nor has the core elements of the bills put forward by the House and Senate.
I admit I could not read the 2000 plus page bill produced by the Senate, but I did scan through it. I did read the House bill, but I admit it is very confusing and as a layman I had trouble understanding much of the content. There are somethings that I did read and strongly object too and I have discussed them in previous postings on Yes-23.
One thing that I missed in the proposed bills has something to do with bio-fuels. I wonder what that has to do with health care reform. The following is copied from the whitehouse.gov page:

Close Tax Loopholes.
Adopts two House proposals to close tax loopholes: (1) Current law provides a tax credit for the production of cellulosic biofuels. The credit was designed to promote the production and use of renewable fuels. Certain liquid byproducts derived from processing paper or pulp (known as “black liquor” when derived from the kraft process) were not intended to be covered by this credit. The President’s Proposal adopts the House bill’s policy to clarify that they are not eligible for the tax credit. (2) The President’s Proposal helps prevent unjustified tax shelters by clarifying the circumstances under which transactions have “economic substance” (as opposed to being undertaken solely to obtain tax benefits) and raises the penalties for transactions that lack economic substance. In so doing, it adopts the House’s policy, with minor technical changes.
I find that this is typical of the Congress, put in something not relevant to the bill, fund it to the tune of a few billion dollars and hide it from the American people. This is a costly practice and causes the cost of the health care bill to balloon. In this time of economic crisis I think it would be better if our Congress and President refrained from this practice, in fact I think it should be illegal at anytime. Pass each bill on its own merit.

It looks like the President is going to postpone and not eliminate the Cadillac tax but postpone it. The following is from the posting on whitehouse.gov:
Delay and Reform the High-Cost Plan Excise Tax.
Part of the reason for high and rising insurance costs is that insurers have little incentive to lower their premiums. The Senate bill includes a tax on high-cost health insurance plans. CBO has estimated that this policy will reduce premiums as well as contribute to long-run deficit reduction. The President’s Proposal changes the effective date of the Senate policy from 2013 to 2018 to provide additional transition time for high-cost plans to become more efficient. It also raises the amount of premiums that are exempt from the assessment from $8,500 for singles to $10,200 and from $23,000 for families to $27,500 and indexes these amounts for subsequent years at general inflation plus 1 percent. To the degree that health costs rise unexpectedly quickly between now and 2018, the initial threshold would be adjusted upwards automatically. To ensure that the tax affects firms equitably, the President’s Proposal reforms it by including an adjustment for firms whose health costs are higher due to the age or gender of their workers, and by no longer counting dental and vision benefits as potentially taxable benefits. The President’s Proposal maintains the Senate bill’s permanent adjustment in favor of high-risk occupations such as “first responders.”
Going to delay this tax not remove it. If you read the Presidents plan you will find all sorts of delays like this when it comes to tax increases.

The following is the Presidents plan for Medicare Advantage: Improve Medicare Advantage Payments.
Medicare currently overpays private plans by 14 percent on average to provide the same benefits as the traditional program and much more in some areas of the country. The Medicare Advantage program has also done little to reward quality. Moreover, plans have gamed the payment system in ways drive up the public cost of the program. All of this is why Medicare Advantage has become a very profitable line of business for some of the nation’s largest health insurers. The Senate bill creates a bidding model for payment rates and phases in changes to limit potential disruptions for beneficiaries. The House proposal phases payments down based on local fee-for-service costs.

The President’s Proposal represents a compromise between the House and Senate bills, blending elements of both bills, while providing greater certainty of cost savings by linking to current fee-for-service costs. Specifically, the President’s Proposal creates a set of benchmark payments at different percentages of the current average fee-for-service costs in an area. It phases these benchmarks in gradually in order to avoid disruption to beneficiaries, taking into account the relative payments to fee-for-service costs in an area. It provides bonuses for quality and enrollee satisfaction. It adjusts rebates of savings between the benchmark payment and actual plan bid to take into account the transition as well as a plan’s quality rating: plans with low quality scores receive lower rebates (i.e., can keep less of any savings they generate). Finally, the President’s Proposal requires a payment adjustment for unjustified coding patterns in Medicare Advantage plans that have raised payments more rapidly than the evidence of their enrollees’ health status and costs suggests is warranted, based on actuarial analysis. This is the primary source of additional savings compared to the Senate proposal. Look like this is still target, eventually it will no longer be available.

There is much more to be discussed about the Presidents proposal, It does contain some very good things that we can all agree are needed for reform, but I feel they are simply a few “bones” being tossed as part of political game in order to get the big change passed. Here is a the public option, back in its full glory.

More Choices, Greater Competition — Health Insurance Exchange
The proposal creates a new insurance marketplace that lets individuals and families without coverage and small business owners pool their resources and increase their buying power to make insurance more affordable. Private insurance companies will compete for business based on cost and quality and they’ll have to follow common-sense rules of the road that rein in the worst insurance industry abuses.

For the first time ever, Americans who lose their jobs, change jobs, move out of state, get divorced or get sick will have the peace of mind and security of knowing they will always have quality affordable health care they can rely on. For Americans who get coverage through their job but can’t afford it, the exchange will give them new choices. For small business owners, the exchange will level the playing field with big businesses and lower their costs.

And here is the big selling point, the one thing that makes this ok for the American people: Same Coverage Choices as Members of Congress.
Every member of Congress will be required to purchase their insurance from the new health insurance exchange.

This whole thing is an attempt to push the current bill through because the Democrats know they are probably going to losing their majority. The so called bipartisan meeting with Republicans is an attempt to justify using reconciliation to push the bill through. The Administration will say the party of no was unwilling to compromise and we put in their ideas so we have no choice but to move the bill to law via reconciliation.

The American people have clearly stated that they want reform, but do not like these bills. Why not actually sit down and have a real meeting, exchange ideas and develop a bill that benefits all of us and doesn’t break the bank.

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119 Congressmen have signed a petition to promote and pass a public option, the Democratic leadership is still pushing for reconciliation to move the bill to the Presidents desk for signature, the proposed bipartisan meeting scheduled by the President to discuss health care reform appears to be more of an ambush than a true productive meeting.
I suggest to you that the lesson of Massachusetts has been discount by the Democrats and they think the American people will “get over it” once the bill is passed and we see how wonderful it is to pay more for our coverage and get less for it. (For those of you who don’t recognize it, that was sarcasm.) I subscribe that this is just another Washington slap in the face to the American people. We are concerned with the unbelievable debt this Administration and Congress is amassing. We are concerned with the coming crash of our economy because of that debt. We are concerned that a government that cannot manage their current health care programs wants to expand and control more heath care programs. Do they care, hell no!
I am also concerned that there is a Cap and Trade bill still waiting for the same process to completion. This bill will put this country at a serious disadvantage in the world economy and is base on questionable science.
I don’t think there is a way out. I don’t think that a shift in power in Washington will fix these problems. It seems to me that power still corrupts and absolute power still absolutely corrupts. These folks cannot relate to the common man nor do they want to. One cannot live the lifestyle they live and understand what middle Americans want or need.
The purpose of our government is to protect us not care for us. The purpose of our government is to govern not rule.

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