10 Facts Every American Should Know

10 Facts Every American Should Know About Speaker Pelosi's 1,990-Page Gov't Takeover of Health Care, By Representative and GOP House Leader John Boehner



Washington, Oct 29, 2009



Members of Congress and the American people are just beginning to look at Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) 1,990-page government takeover of health care, but it’s already becoming clear just how costly and unsustainable this proposal is. From higher taxes on middle-class families to job-killing mandates on small businesses to cuts in Medicare benefits for seniors, here are 10 facts every American should know about Speaker Pelosi’s 1,990-page government takeover of health care:



1. RAISES TAXES ON MIDDLE CLASS FAMILIES. Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill imposes a range of tax increases on families with income below $250,000, breaking a promise made by President Obama. Tax increases on middle class families include: an individual mandate tax of up to 2.5 percent of income for taxpayers earning as little as $9,350; repeal of a tax break on medicine purchased with funds from an HSA (health savings account); limits to tax relief through FSAs (flexible spending accounts); taxes on medical devices that will inevitably be passed on to consumers; and a new tax on all insurance policies.



2. MASSIVE CUTS TO MEDICARE BENEFITS FOR SENIORS. Despite grave warnings from CBO, FactCheck.org, and the independent Lewin Group that cuts to Medicare of the magnitude included in Speaker Pelosi’s bill would have a negative impact on seniors’ benefits and choices, Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill stays the course and cuts Medicare by hundreds of billions of dollars.



3. NO PROTECTIONS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES. Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill claims to exempt small businesses from the steep eight percent ‘pay or play’ employer mandate. The facts tell a different story. Using Census data compiled by the Small Business Administration, this so-called ‘exemption’ hammers small employers with only, on average, 17 or more employees to new taxes and mandates. The outfits affected employ 70 percent of all small business employees, or 42.3 million workers. Adding to the assault on small businesses, the bill does not index the small business “exemption” amounts, meaning more and more small businesses will be ensnared by this job-killing employer mandate each year.



4. INCREASES THE COST OF HEALTH INSURANCE. Imposing a new $2 billion tax on insurance policies will be passed on to patients in the form of higher premiums. Changes to the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit will, according to estimates by CBO, will raise Medicare Part B premiums by $25 billion and Part D premiums by 20 percent. And imposing an unfunded mandate on the states to pay for the bill’s Medicaid expansion will shift the burden of this expansion on state taxpayers who may experience tax increases to cover the cost.



5. USES GIMMICKS TO HIDE BUDGET-BUSTING COST, PILES UP DEBT ON FUTURE GENERATIONS. Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill claims to be deficit neutral, but uses budget gimmickry to hide its massive total cost. Working families across America know they cannot simply decide that a bill they get in the mail doesn’t exist, but that’s exactly what congressional Democrats are doing. In order to meet the President’s ‘target’ spending total of $900 billion, Democrats have simply swept costly provisions under the rug, including the $245 billion ‘doc fix.’



6. IMPOSES JOB-KILLING EMPLOYER MANDATES. Additional taxes on employers and new government mandates that dictate acceptable insurance will place new and crushing burdens on employers. These are burdens that will ultimately fall squarely on the backs of workers in the form of reduced wages, fewer hours or lost employment. CBO agrees that "[e]mployees largely bear the cost of... play-or-pay fees in the form of lower wages." According to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s largest small business association, an employer mandate of this magnitude will disproportionately impact small businesses, triggering up to 1.6 million lost jobs. Two-thirds of those jobs would be shed by small businesses.



7. TILTS THE PLAYING FIELD IN FAVOR OF THE GOVERNMENT-RUN INSURANCE COMPANY. Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill promises not to give the government-run plan advantages over private insurers in the market, but the opposite is true. The bill provides billions in start-up funding for the government-run plan, and while it requires the plan to repay the money over time it does not require the plan to pay interest on this “loan.” This interest-free, taxpayer-subsidized loan is potentially worth millions of dollars and tilts the playing field in favor of the government-run plan.



8. THREATENS CASH-STRAPPED STATES WITH UNFUNDED MANDATES. Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill swells the number of Americans on the government rolls by expanding Medicaid eligibility. Medicaid is financed through a federal-state partnership, but the bill dumps nearly ten percent of the mandated expansion included in the bill onto the states. States, already struggling with fiscal constraints, would be left on the hook for billions of dollars due to this unfunded mandate.



9. CREATES A NEW MONSTROSITY IN THE TAX CODE. Starting in 2011, Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill imposes a 5.4 percent tax on adjusted gross income above $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for married couples. Yet, the dollar amounts for which the tax kicks in are not indexed for inflation. We’ve seen this horror film before: the Alternative Minimum Tax, another Frankenstein’s monster of the tax code, also wasn’t indexed for inflation and now affects millions of middle class families with incomes below the Democrat’s surtax.



10. MISSES AN OPPORTUNITY TO CURTAIL JUNK LAWSUITS. Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill misses a critical opportunity to rein in junk lawsuits and costly defensive medicine. The bill includes only a voluntary grant program to deal with the medical liability crisis instead of including real reform, which would produce tens of billions of dollars in savings, improve efficiency in our health care system and reduce costs for patients and providers.



BONUS: Republicans have offered better solutions to lower health care costs and expand access to quality, affordable coverage at a price our nation can afford. Learn more by visiting healthcare.gop.gov.

Accuracy In Media article by Cliff Kincaid

Obama’s Media Control Strategy

AIM Column | By Cliff Kincaid | October 27, 2009

The idea of the federal government telling people how to “differentiate between authentic and inauthentic information” is frightening.

You may not have noticed that the Obama Administration, in addition to trying to seize control of the health care and energy sectors, is implementing a national "broadband plan" to redefine the media and transform America's system of government. It's designed, they say, to provide "open government and civic engagement." But it looks increasingly like an excuse for the federal government to control the Internet and access to information and even tell us what is truth.

Be sure to read the rest of the article HERE.

Give Thanks With A Grateful Heart

What do these two Presidents have in common?

Republicans Do As They're Told??? When?

Hey, Michael Steele, WHERE is the GOP Agenda so we know what to do? ROFLMAO. Mikey, You're a Vichy RINO aren't you? Admit it. If you're not, set the GOP Constitutional Conservative Agenda.

Obama Poised to Cede US Sovereignty !!!

The Entire Lecture:

Make Mine Freedom [cartoon from 1948]

Congressman Mike Rogers' opening statement on Health Care reform in Washington D.C.

A few articles for your reading education

Obama's Shame

Obama's Hubris

Obama's Bow [to the Chinese]

Obama's Unemployment Rate at 17%

Freedom of Speech Attacked in Montana

Obama's Eligibility: Birthers 1, Obama 0

Grade The Government!

Are You A Mom? Do You Have a Mom?

Shocking Video Unearthed Democrats in their own words Covering up the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac Scam that caused our Economic Crisis

Be Sure To Pass This Video On To Your Friends. This Video Documents the Corruption in Congress!

BIG BIRD Calls Out Michelle Obama On Barack's BIRTH CERTIFICATE & PLACE OF BIRTH!!

Big Government Health Care PSA

What The Progressives Plan To Do

If you wanted it in black and white and on video tape, here it is. The unvarnished TRUTH.




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Undercover agent Larry Grathwohl discusses the Weather Underground's post-revolution governing plans for the United States:

Larry Grathwohl:

"I asked, 'well what is going to happen to those people we can't reeducate, that are diehard capitalists?' and the reply was that they'd have to be eliminated. And when I pursued this further, they estimated they would have to eliminate 25 million people in these reeducation centers. And when I say 'eliminate,' I mean 'kill.' Twenty-five million people. I want you to imagine sitting in a room with 25 people, most of which have graduate degrees, from Columbia and other well-known educational centers, and hear them figuring out the logistics for the elimination of 25 million people. And they were dead serious."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWMIwziGrAQ
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"It was at the Chicago home of [Bill] Ayers and [Bernardine] Dohrn that Obama, then an up-and-coming 'community organizer,' had his political coming out party in 1995. Not content with this rite of passage in Lefty World — where unrepentant terrorists are regarded as progressive luminaries, still working 'only to educate' — both Obamas tended to the relationship with the Ayers."
Article: The Company He Keeps:
Meet Obama’s circle: The same old America-hating Left
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YThjYTU1ZDBjNmQ2YzcwNzU1MmYwN2JiMWY0ZGI0NDA=&w=MA==
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"Dig It. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, they even shoved a fork into a victim’s stomach! Wild!"
-Weather Underground leader and wife of Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, referring to the Manson murders

Article: Allies in War -by David Horowitz
FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, September 17, 2001
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=63512670-BF7C-42A0-B41D-5D0FB9E09C09
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"Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at"
--Bill Ayers (1970), quoted in New York Times, September 11, 2001:

Article: "No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen"
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F02E1DE1438F932A2575AC0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
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The Center for Public Intellectuals & The University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC)
April 19th-20th, 2002, Conference
[Participants include: William/Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Sen Barack Obama]

April 19th-20th, 2002
Chicago Illini Union
828 S. Wolcott

This conference is part of the Center's mission of helping to create a more engaged civil society, working towards social change, fostering coalitions between theorists and activists, and combating anti-intellectualism in contemporary culture. It will be both a celebration of ideas and a rigorous examination of the roles and responsibilities that intellectuals play in society.

I. Why Do Ideas Matter? (a keynote panel)

We introduce the “meta” theme of the conference by hearing “success stories” from diverse voices discussing their experiences intervening intellectually.

Timuel Black, Chicago activist; Prof. Emeritus, City Colleges of Chicago
Lonnie Bunch, President, Chicago Historical Society
Bernardine Dohrn, Northwestern University Law School, Children and Family Justice Center
Gerald Graff, UIC, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Richard Rorty, Stanford University, Philosophy

III. Lunch and Public Encounters

Alternative breakout tours led by Chicago activists. Tours of Bronzeville and other communities, and visits to organizations that are working on partnering theorists with activists.

IV. Intellectuals in Times of Crisis
Experiences and applications of intellectual work in urgent situations.

William Ayers, UIC, College of Education; author of Fugitive Days
Douglass Cassel, Northwestern University, Center for International Human Rights
Cathy Cohen, University of Chicago, Political Science
Salim Muwakkil, Chicago Tribune; In These Times
Barack Obama, Illinois State Senator
Barbara Ransby, UIC, African-American Studies (moderator)

The Center for Public Intellectuals
University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC):
http://www.uic.edu/classes/las/las400/conferencealt.htm

The Day Obama-Care Died . . . sung by Obama

Add Your Own Verse to Mmm. . . mmm . . . mmm . . . Barack Hussein Obama

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will not name his true papa;

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claims he was born in hawai-i-a . . . mmm ... mmm ... mmm

not canada nor kenya;

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lived in indonesia . . . mmm ... mmm ... mmm

and memorized the sallah;

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loves to face the camera . . . mmm ... mmm ... mmm

to read from his teleprompta;

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he reads the propaganda . . . mmm ... mmm ... mmm

like a third-rate rappa;

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thinks he is so dappa . . . mmm ... mmm ... mmm

he's told so by the media;

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Joe called him a lia' . . . mmm ... mmm ... mmm

'cause 0bama is a scamma;

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send him to the slamma . . . mmm ... mmm ... mmm

or a camp named FEMA.

ADD YOUR OWN VERSES in the Comments!

The Case Against Barack Hussein Obama

A Comment about Sarah Palin

We cannot allow the Media to choose our candidate. I have changed my opinion of Ron Paul, but he's still not Presidential Material . . . for a number of reasons, some of which I'll state here. My first reaction to him was that he was a kook. My second reaction was to ask a Texan what she thinks of him . . . and it was negative. If he can't win his home State can he win in a general election? I admire him for fighting to AUDIT THE FED. But he's just not got that "Reaganesque" quality about him as a Republican/Conservative MUST have to win the hearts of the people.

The one person that the Media hates with an all consuming vengeance and who has that Reaganesque quality is none other than Governor Sarah Palin. Her latest book isn't even on the shelves and she's #1 at Barnes and Noble and was #3 at Amazon yesterday. The first printing will likely be sold out before the book comes out on Nov. 17. Sarah Palin is not a "novelty," she is a "real" person who many people relate to. The Media have painted her as anathema and unfortunately some Conservatives have allowed themselves to be influenced by the Media instead of doing their own research to learn about her. There are similarities between Sarah Palin and Ronald Reagan. But Sarah is no Ronald. And anyone who tries to force her into a Reagan-mold will be disappointed.

Sarah Palin is "every woman." Not every Liberal Woman, but definitely "every woman" who has tried to raise a family while working. Real women (vs Fake Liberal Women) relate to her; they've had some of her struggles or know someone who has; many women have balanced working and raising a family; many families have had teen daughters who became pregnant out of wedlock and have admired her for standing with her daughter, no matter what. And many women have been reviled in some way similar to what has happened to Sarah Palin. Women who admire her have become a sisterhood who share unspoken similarities with her and with each other. When you have Solidarity, you don't even have to verbalize it.

One essence of Ronald Reagan and Sarah Palin is "no matter what" ~~ No Matter What has gone on before, it can be fixed, it can be re-worked, it can be made into less of a burden on taxpayers, it can be used to create more jobs. The "can do" effort "no matter what." Reagan and Palin were not tied to an ideology, the ideology became their instrument for making things better. And I think that is something that Liberals and the Media cannot comprehend. They are joined at the hip with Liberal ideology. Reagan used the Conservative Agenda and created his own Agenda to make this Country a better place. And he did and many of us love him for it. I believe Sarah Palin is capable of the same kind of Leadership. She will not blindly follow an Agenda that doesn't do what's best for the Country any more than she did in Alaska. She will buck the system where the system is corrupt and just plain wrong-headed. And she is unafraid! She's not "owned" by the banks or lobbyists or labor unions or ACORN or Saudi Princes or anti-American ideology. Her allegiance is to God and Country . . . very much like the Founding Fathers . . . and I believe she is the best candidate to return this Nation to its roots and its foundation . . . The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America.