Fire Congress?

I recently came across www.GOOOH.com. I think it is worth your time to check them out. Very interesting concept.

Is it time for Constitutional Amendments for congressional term limits and a balanced budget? Is that the only way to keep Washington from destroying this country?

Below is part of their most recent press release. While I do not agree that the Republicans "ignored the looming Social Security crisis", I still think the idea is worth your consideration:

Neither party has offered a remedy for what ails our nation; neither comprehends fiscal responsibility. The Republicans are begging to be put back in power, but what have they done to deserve it? They ran up the deficit and refused to put an end to earmarks. They did not seal our borders. They did not improve the education system. They did not decrease our dependence on foreign oil, or prevent the collapse of the housing market. They argued about steroids in baseball and the minimum wage, while managing a mere and temporary 3% cut in the top tax rate. They ignored the looming Social Security and Medicare crisis, and will continue to do so. What exactly have they done to deserve your vote other than vote against the “other” party? It is dishonorable for us to pass this debt, these problems, to our children. It is our duty to fix it, and we need to fix it now!

We cannot continue to vote for the lesser of two evils, regardless of the party you prefer. It is time to raise our voices and tell the politicians we are going to do things differently. It is time to redirect the course of our nation before the politicians of both parties destroy her. It is time to tell the politicians to Get Out Of OUR House.

Pay for Your Own Damn Health Care

A friend of mine was sick recently for over two weeks. When we spoke, I asked him what the doctor said. He said, "I didn't go because I don't have insurance". I lost my cool and asked him, "what do you do when your car breaks down?" He said, "I take it to the shop". I said, "so you allowed your body to get run down and lost two weeks from work instead of spending $100 going to the doctor and getting an antibiotic?" His response, "yes".

Given that scenario and given the debacle of the health care bill that was just shoved down our throat, I ask you to consider this:

• When YOUR car needs new brakes, do you keep driving it until the rotors burn up? Do you go to you local repair shop and pay a $15 co-pay? Or do you pay out of pocket after shopping around in a competitive marketplace?

• How much do you spend every year for your cell phone? Do you make a co-pay or do you shop around for the most competitive service given your needs?

• How much do you spend every year for your cable TV or satellite TV? Do you look to the government to pay for it? Do you make a co-pay and a third-party pays the rest of the bill?

• When your dog or cat gets sick, do you go to your local vet and make a co-pay or do you call around and get a referral to a competent vet and pay out of pocket?

• How much do you spend every year eating out? Maybe you should spend less at restaurants and save some of that money to pay for your health care. Just a thought?

• How much do you spend at Starbucks every year?

• How much do you spend on vacations, travel, entertainment, your boat, your lake house, beach house, your motorcycle, etc?

• How much do you spend on lawn care?

I have two points:

#1 – None of the things I listed above – car, entertainment, pets, cell phones, etc are more important than your health yet, for some reason, this country does not think that we should pay for our own health care. How the hell did that happen?

#2 - WE ARE NOT ENTITLED TO HEALTH CARE! The Constitution does not state it. The Bible does not state it. There is nothing in The Federalist Papers, the Magna Carta or The Articles of Confederation. The only place this entitlement exists is in the minds and doctrines of socialists and communists.

It's a slippery slope folks! What comes after health care? Mortgage assistance (my fault, we already have that)? Prescription drug benefit (already there)? Food Stamps (damn!)? Car care? Entertainment? Pet care? Vacation assistance?

Health care IS NOT a right! Don't be fooled or sucked in to thinking that it is. The federal government has no Constitutional authority to mess with health care. The Tenth Amendment states, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Therefore, if any of the fifty states want to offer universal health care, they can do it (i.e. Massachusetts). Let a state go bankrupt but don't bankrupt the whole country. You can move out of Massachusetts if you don't like what they are doing but you can't easily leave the country.

You are not going to get anything for free. We will all eventually suffer through higher rates and rationed care. The reason I can make such a statement is because, without exception, everywhere socialized medicine has been instituted, rationing has ensued and the quality of care has declined. EVERYWHERE!!!! Canada, Europe, Scandinavia, Cuba!!!! That's all the proof I need to know that what was just passed is going to be a disaster.

I am not even going to dive into some of the more obvious issues with the bill:

1. The manner in which it was passed
2. The fact that it was almost 3,000 pages
3. The fact that it established countless new government bureaucracies and unrelated earmarks
4. The fact that it was NOT READ by the people who voted for it INCLUDING THE PRESIDENT
5. The fact that the Speaker of the House told us that we must pass it in order to see what is in it
6. The fact that 60%+ of Americans disapprove of the bill
7. The fact that Pelosi and Reid have an 11% and 8% approval rating respectively
8. The fact that Congress' approval rating is 18% or 20%
9. The fact that the President blatantly lied about putting the debate on C-SPAN
10. The fact that the President blatantly lied about putting the bill online for us plebeians to read before it is voted on
11. The fact that we get to pay for the program for the next 3 years via higher taxes before seeing any of the, so called, benefits.
12. The fact that buried within the bill is a takeover of the student loan industry (what does that have to do with health care?)

And for my liberal readers who want me to articulate an alternative, here you go:

1. Tort Reform
2. Remove the 2,100 mandates currently imposed on health insurance companies which will allow a la carte purchasing of insurance
3. Allow the purchase of health insurance across state lines which will instill competition
4. Create a pre-existing conditions pool to lower the cost for those of us with pre-existing conditions. And YES, health insurance for people with pre-existing conditions will be more expensive. That's why it is called insurance because we are a higher risk to the insurer.
5. Read The Patients' Choice Act (look it up!)

Wake up America!

100% Failure Rate - Part II

Consider this further evidence of my post back in September:

I don't know about you but the news out a few days ago about Social Security just proves that our federal government is unable to do anything right; especially with our current administration.

You didn't hear the news? You must watch the mainstream media who refuses to report anything that may make Obama look bad and, if they do, they blame Bush.

The disturbing news is that projections for Social Security are significantly off. Social Security was supposed to remain in the black for at least another six years. We found out a few days ago that it is already in the red; in other words, it is paying out more than it is taking in right now. (You mean to tell me that the government, which publishes its own projections for its own programs was wrong? I'm shocked!).

DO ANY OF YOU REMEMBER WHEN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION TRIED TO OVERHAUL SOCIAL SECURITY?

WHO STOOD IN THE WAY? WHO DEMONIZED THE EFFORT? WHO SCARED SENIOR CITIZENS? ? ? ? ? ?

The answer is the same party that is trying to "fundamentally change America". The Republicans aren't much better but at least they would not have taken the country on a kamikaze mission. They could never get away with it because the loony left and the mainstream media would have screamed day after day like they did for eight years under Bush.

Back to the point of this post: We have commitments that we already cannot meet, and we are saddling ourselves with massive new expansions and more commitments (i.e. health care, stimulus bills/jobs bills, corporate bailouts, massive earmarks, mortgage bailouts, etc).

Where is it coming from?

• It will come FROM debt spread out over generations.

What does it come with?

• It will come WITH a lower standard of living as a result of massive new taxes heaped upon the citizens of the United States and the higher interest rates we will be forced to pay.

Until there is a commitment to MASSIVE spending cuts at the national and state level and MASSIVE tax cuts to stimulate small business owners to create jobs, we are screwed!

Ask yourself why the Obama Administration is not cutting taxes or reducing spending in the midst of the worst economy since The Great Depression???? Why are they piling on with more and more policies that have been proven over time NOT to work????

Power and control!!!!!

HOW'S THAT 'HOPE AND CHANGE' WORKING OUT FOR YOU?????

Please wake up America!

Corporate Debt Viewed More Favorably Than US Debt.

From Jon L. Johnson's Technical Trader Market Update for March 22, 2010:

How pathetic is this?

In a very, very rare circumstance, the debt issued by corporations, i.e. corporate bonds, is worth more than comparable term US treasury bonds. How do you tell? Look at the yield. Corporate bonds issued by Berkshire Hathaway, PG, JNJ, and LOW just to name a few, sport yields 3.5BP less than US treasuries of comparable terms.

As noted, this happens very rarely. It happens when the US outlook is viewed as less safe than that of corporations. The driver? The US debt and the debt to come. Moody's has already said if the US stays on this debt course it is going to lose its AAA credit rating.

The budget deficit is now 10% of the GDP, a post-WWII high. The US has the highest debt service cost (debt as a percent of revenue) of any top rated country with the exception of the UK. In 2010 it is 7%. By 2013 it will be 11%. That is not including the healthcare plan that will, despite absolutely bogus projections that count as savings money to be used elsewhere, don't count over $200B in increased doctor payments under Medicare, and that don't count $150B in administrative costs, balloon the spending. If you doubt, look to Massachusetts and its plan that cost 40% more than expected in just three years, Medicare that cost 10 times as much as projected, and Medicaid that cost 100 times as much as projected. The US won't save money by creating entitlements. When each has been passed it was going to save money over the private system. Each time it has taken us several steps toward breaking the bank.

This one will do it. That is why before passage corporate bond rates were lower than US Treasuries (indicating less risk and thus they had to offer less to attract buyers) and they are going to be an even better bargain as these costs become more apparent.

Sheer Lunacy

Did any of you see the Obama interview with Bret Baier at FoxNews yesterday? http://drudge.tw/ago8fD.

THIS GUY IS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES! If you missed it, here is a synopsis:

#1 - He never answers THE QUESTION! He is a tyrant at best, a dictator at worst!

#2 - Did you catch that???? “we’re not transforming one-sixth of the economy in one fell swoop”

#3 - "Bret, Bret stop interrupting me from NOT answering your questions!”

#4 - ‘If I say his name enough, he will stop asking me questions that I refuse to answer’

#5 - 'If I keep talking and not saying anything, my handlers will tell Bret that time is up'

WAKE UP AMERICA!