This article was authered by Richard McDonald. You can read his other article at http://www.riseupforamerica.com/theoutlineforaction.html
The jury is out. Barack Obama and many Democrats are socialists which as Lenin said is just the final step to communism. The age-old collectivist poison that society should have equal economic outcomes for all its citizens has failed throughout history because genetically as well as environmentally one man is never equal to another. One always is more capable than the other and will not endlessly work to fund the difference.
Barack Obama is essentially a communist. He wants to “redistribute wealth” and that sits well with those millionaire liberals in Congress all of whom have privatized investment accounts they deny their constituents (the “Thrift Savings Plan”) because they have convinced the people they can deliver the “common good” which enables them to control the media, academe, unions, government workers, blacks and half the population.
The Tea Party Movement is a powerful revolt against the Democrats and Barack Obama’s assault on free enterprise, capitalism and the freedom and liberty guaranteed to each individual American by the Constitution. It is more than likely that Obama and his Democrats will suffer a great loss in November mid-terms because America is center-right not a radical leftist commune-in-the-making.
Unfortunately Obama is not up for re-election in November and he poses another serious problem Americans will have to face for the next two-and-a-half years – he is a Muslim. If you doubt he is their front man catch the video - http://www.oilforimmigration.org/facts/ on You Tube. He is using America’s religious tolerance, political correctness, multiculturalism and a myriad of other devices to slip the Muslim “political organization” right past our noses.
Make no mistake that unlike America their religion dictates their politics and governmental policies. Muslim countries have adopted the barbaric Sharia law that dictates beheadings, vaginal mutilation, dismemberment, honor killings, genocide for homosexuals and non-Muslims because the Koran, Hadith and their other religious texts are considered to be the actual word of God which no government or people can dispute.
These people are so primitive they have a center in most cities for the public to view amputations and beheadings. They haven’t progressed from the days Rome set lions loose on the Christians in the Coliseum. The have a military arm called al Qaeda that is running around the world killing non-Muslims. They use terror as the fear-inducing technique and the principle that any means justifies their end to create a world-wide Caliphate where everyone is a Muslim.
It is that “any means justifies the end” that Obama is using to infiltrate Muslims into America and their rule into our culture. If you have any doubts – just view that video – Obama tells that story in his own words and deeds.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
How To Improve America’s Healthcare
Healthcare in America could use some restructuring. The main issue is cost. Across the board, costs have been increasing at an alarming rate. Some costs are controlled by outside factors (rising prices of oil, etc.) that cannot be controlled by changes to the healthcare industry. However, there are some changes that would not only curtail the rate of increase in costs but actually reduce current costs.
First, we need to look at healthcare just like anything else we purchase where the cost is controlled by supply and demand. Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers choose the field as a career job and expect to be paid a fair wage. A wage to be determined by consumer willingness to pay for it. This gives value to the service. Mandated costs by government are not based on demand, negating any value. This causes indifference by supplier and dissatisfaction by the consumer.
Any enterprise run or tightly controlled by government always adds additional costs to the goods or services provided. Invariably these costs out distance the revenues causing a decrease in value of goods and services provided. A system like this cannot sustain itself and eventually will need subsidization by taxes. Taxes collected for other purposes causing them to suffer lack of funds, as is the case with the Social Security System.
Just like not everyone can afford their own house or designer items, not everyone can afford optimum healthcare services. This is a fact of life. No government has been able to circumvent this concept. If the government mandates that a car costing $30,000.00 to build be sold for $10,000.00, future production of that car will not be worth even $10,000.00. The same is with health care. When the government sets the amount of money that a hospital is to receive, the hospital cannot perform the number of consumer demanded services required. It can only perform those that will be paid for within a specific period of time, leaving patients requiring these services waiting until the next period. Some patients will invariably die before required services are provided.
There are two main reasons for the continuous rise of healthcare, the looming threat of lawsuits and lack of competition within the insurance industry.
Many doctors and other healthcare providers must double and even treble their fees in order to pay for malpractice insurance. These costs are constantly being driven higher by lawyers encouraging lawsuits and well meaning jurors awarding outrageously high monetary awards. Imagine that you were ordered to pay millions of dollars to a plaintive for a mistake you made at your job. True a misplaced decimal point or not matching the color of the carpet to the paint for the walls does not carry the consequences of surgical mistake. An award of $100,000,000.00 does not correct a surgical mistake either. It does however increase the cost of healthcare across the nation. National tort reform would keep these awards to a reasonable level. Awards should be made in full for out of pocket expenses incurred by the plaintive, legal fees of the attorneys need to be regulated to a reasonable amount for services rendered, and punitive damages need a ceiling.
By reducing the risk of Malpractice Insurers, healthcare costs could be cut by half or more.
The cost of individual medical insurance (whether paid individually or through employer) is also a large part of healthcare costs in America. This cost is driven partially by the same circumstances as discussed previously but more so by lack of competition. Medical insurers are regulated by individual states. Each state has a small fraction of the number of insurance companies in America. In many instances the same company operating in more than one state is actually operating differently in each state. That is because they have to adhere to different rules and regulations. This curtails competition. Insurance companies are operating according to the dictates of the states rather than in the most efficient way possible. The consumer is dustily short changed and over charged.
By standardizing insurer requirements and liabilities nationally, every insurance company could compete for business in each state. Restrictions on forming monopolies would be needed to keep competition open and one company from dominating the industry. Government is never an equal competitor with private business. It can run deficits and have an unfair advantage since it has the use of tax funds to operate at a loss.
Competition in the market has always been the major factor in keeping costs down. Competition will do the same in health insurance that it has maintained in all industries.
This brings us to pre-existing conditions. No logical person would expect an insurance company to write a policy on a house that has burned down or a car mangled in a crash. Yet many of these same people see nothing wrong in expecting an insurance company insuring someone with a possibly fatal condition. Rather than making insurance payments while they are healthy and getting regular medical checkups, they decided to spend their money on other things, makes no difference whether this is by necessity or just plain self-indulgence. This is not the same as if a person with insurance for a number of years and then changing jobs where there is a different insurance company. But the new insurance company might now be burdened with high medical costs without the benefit of collecting payments that it can use to obtain interest from. Those were collected by the previous insurance company during the healthy period of the insured. This too can be taken care of. Every insurance company must keep a healthy ratio of assets to liabilities. By creating a national asset pool that all insurers contribute to. A company picking up a new insured with a pre-existing condition can claim some of those assets built up with premium payments and interest.
What about the many uninsured (estimates range from 30 to 45 million)? We first must define them. Few of these are in a position to pay for most medical needs they may have. A large portion of the uninsured are fairly young people believing to be healthy and not needing insurance. Without insurance they are very likely to join the balance of uninsured with no means to pay for needed medical care later in life. These people will in evidently become a burden on society one way or another. As a nation based on Judeo-Christian values there is a moral obligation to help. It should not be a government mandate.
There is a way to overcome this also. Nationally, the education system is grossly lacking in teaching self reliance and responsibility. In addition to the various math and other courses, the subject of preparing for the future must become mandatory. They must include money management stressing the importance of having health insurance, providing for retirement, and budget management.
In all the years I attend various educational institutes across America (grammar school, middle school, high school, and various colleges) few offered them and none had them as required courses. Lack of education has created a large group demanding new and more entitlements.
This nation cannot long endure an ever growing consumption of the earnings of others. If this trend continues, America will end up a nation of poor, uninspired, and miserable people living in a socialist state with no prospects for a better future.
When the government provides all, it takes away all freedom and liberty. Freedom and liberty is what made this the greatest country of all time.
First, we need to look at healthcare just like anything else we purchase where the cost is controlled by supply and demand. Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers choose the field as a career job and expect to be paid a fair wage. A wage to be determined by consumer willingness to pay for it. This gives value to the service. Mandated costs by government are not based on demand, negating any value. This causes indifference by supplier and dissatisfaction by the consumer.
Any enterprise run or tightly controlled by government always adds additional costs to the goods or services provided. Invariably these costs out distance the revenues causing a decrease in value of goods and services provided. A system like this cannot sustain itself and eventually will need subsidization by taxes. Taxes collected for other purposes causing them to suffer lack of funds, as is the case with the Social Security System.
Just like not everyone can afford their own house or designer items, not everyone can afford optimum healthcare services. This is a fact of life. No government has been able to circumvent this concept. If the government mandates that a car costing $30,000.00 to build be sold for $10,000.00, future production of that car will not be worth even $10,000.00. The same is with health care. When the government sets the amount of money that a hospital is to receive, the hospital cannot perform the number of consumer demanded services required. It can only perform those that will be paid for within a specific period of time, leaving patients requiring these services waiting until the next period. Some patients will invariably die before required services are provided.
There are two main reasons for the continuous rise of healthcare, the looming threat of lawsuits and lack of competition within the insurance industry.
Many doctors and other healthcare providers must double and even treble their fees in order to pay for malpractice insurance. These costs are constantly being driven higher by lawyers encouraging lawsuits and well meaning jurors awarding outrageously high monetary awards. Imagine that you were ordered to pay millions of dollars to a plaintive for a mistake you made at your job. True a misplaced decimal point or not matching the color of the carpet to the paint for the walls does not carry the consequences of surgical mistake. An award of $100,000,000.00 does not correct a surgical mistake either. It does however increase the cost of healthcare across the nation. National tort reform would keep these awards to a reasonable level. Awards should be made in full for out of pocket expenses incurred by the plaintive, legal fees of the attorneys need to be regulated to a reasonable amount for services rendered, and punitive damages need a ceiling.
By reducing the risk of Malpractice Insurers, healthcare costs could be cut by half or more.
The cost of individual medical insurance (whether paid individually or through employer) is also a large part of healthcare costs in America. This cost is driven partially by the same circumstances as discussed previously but more so by lack of competition. Medical insurers are regulated by individual states. Each state has a small fraction of the number of insurance companies in America. In many instances the same company operating in more than one state is actually operating differently in each state. That is because they have to adhere to different rules and regulations. This curtails competition. Insurance companies are operating according to the dictates of the states rather than in the most efficient way possible. The consumer is dustily short changed and over charged.
By standardizing insurer requirements and liabilities nationally, every insurance company could compete for business in each state. Restrictions on forming monopolies would be needed to keep competition open and one company from dominating the industry. Government is never an equal competitor with private business. It can run deficits and have an unfair advantage since it has the use of tax funds to operate at a loss.
Competition in the market has always been the major factor in keeping costs down. Competition will do the same in health insurance that it has maintained in all industries.
This brings us to pre-existing conditions. No logical person would expect an insurance company to write a policy on a house that has burned down or a car mangled in a crash. Yet many of these same people see nothing wrong in expecting an insurance company insuring someone with a possibly fatal condition. Rather than making insurance payments while they are healthy and getting regular medical checkups, they decided to spend their money on other things, makes no difference whether this is by necessity or just plain self-indulgence. This is not the same as if a person with insurance for a number of years and then changing jobs where there is a different insurance company. But the new insurance company might now be burdened with high medical costs without the benefit of collecting payments that it can use to obtain interest from. Those were collected by the previous insurance company during the healthy period of the insured. This too can be taken care of. Every insurance company must keep a healthy ratio of assets to liabilities. By creating a national asset pool that all insurers contribute to. A company picking up a new insured with a pre-existing condition can claim some of those assets built up with premium payments and interest.
What about the many uninsured (estimates range from 30 to 45 million)? We first must define them. Few of these are in a position to pay for most medical needs they may have. A large portion of the uninsured are fairly young people believing to be healthy and not needing insurance. Without insurance they are very likely to join the balance of uninsured with no means to pay for needed medical care later in life. These people will in evidently become a burden on society one way or another. As a nation based on Judeo-Christian values there is a moral obligation to help. It should not be a government mandate.
There is a way to overcome this also. Nationally, the education system is grossly lacking in teaching self reliance and responsibility. In addition to the various math and other courses, the subject of preparing for the future must become mandatory. They must include money management stressing the importance of having health insurance, providing for retirement, and budget management.
In all the years I attend various educational institutes across America (grammar school, middle school, high school, and various colleges) few offered them and none had them as required courses. Lack of education has created a large group demanding new and more entitlements.
This nation cannot long endure an ever growing consumption of the earnings of others. If this trend continues, America will end up a nation of poor, uninspired, and miserable people living in a socialist state with no prospects for a better future.
When the government provides all, it takes away all freedom and liberty. Freedom and liberty is what made this the greatest country of all time.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Is a New Cold War Looming on the Horizon?
The Soviet Union was at the brink of its resources trying to keep up with US. Ronald Reagan’s, not so gentle shove, pushed it over the edge. Unable to pay its military, continue to operate, the Soviet Union went bankrupt. The Communists death grip on the many states conquered by Russia to form the Soviet Union and others behind the Iron Curtain was broken. The Soviet Union fell apart as one by one they declared their independence from Big Brother Russia. The states not part of the Soviet Union but were controlled by it, ran as fast as possible away from Communist Socialism, instituting what resembled (as much as possible for countries under the yolk for decades ) democratic states. The world felt that Russia was not ever going to be a major player on the international scene again.
Like a cancerous growth, ambitions of past hard line leaders were not removed but allowed to grow strong and powerful again. Under the guise of removing criminal elements (Russian Mafias became a real threat worldwide) the elected leaders usurped more and more power to the point that brought back a government more like a dictatorship than a democracy. To be fair this move probably saved Russia from rampant lawlessness and subjugation by criminal elements.
During the brief unrestricted capitalistic surge, private companies developed a petroleum industry and a banking system that improved the country’s financial situation. Now the leaders had enough fiscal stability to begin asserting more power, domestically and internationally. They took over much of the (mostly) free enterprises (many were run criminally) and built up their bankrupt military complex. Although the world economic downturn has had a dramatic effect on Russia’s economy, it has already established a large power base. Russia has established naval/military bases in Syria and Venezuela. Venezuela purchased billions of dollars worth of tanks, jets, missals, and other hardware, using cash obtained from oil revenues acquired mostly form sales to the U.S. Iran has been a client of Russia for a long time, buying equipment and expertise. Russia is a partner in Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
For all practical purposes, the Ukraine is under the control of Russia. In the waning second term of the Bush administration, Putin instigated unrest in part of the Ukraine, used its military power to overcome Ukraine’s meager armed forces, and now with the Obama administration’s lack of concern has full control of the country. Other former Soviet States are under the control or great political pressure from Russia.
In January of 2010, Russia made a deal for Libya to buy a $2.6 billion military arsenal. Not only does this bring much needed cash flow to Russia, this gives Russia another area of great influence. The Russian tentacles are reaching far and wide. This presence is a huge problem to America, not recognized by the Obama Administration.
The last cold war was not as cold as some would think. It was a hot war with both sides using surrogates. American and Soviet jets with other country’s markings engaged in aerial combat. Weapons of various new designs competed on the battlefield, each country trying out new war strategies. The Soviets did not take America’s lesson of fighting a determined, passionate, and dedicated gorilla enemy to heart, evident by their attempts in Afghanistan. This was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Empire.
The reason why both countries used surrogates was that they realized a direct conflict between them would most likely destroy most life on earth. Neither country was willing the take that chance since each wanted to survive.
A new cold war will be much more risky to the whole world. Russia is doing business with rouge nations whose leaders either welcome destruction, don’t care if it happens, or are oblivious to the possibility of world destruction. These nations are unpredictable and cannot be trusted. They have a long history of not sticking to agreements. They do business with groups that have no national allegiance and given the opportunity will use weapons of mass destruction with impunity.
This is becoming more and more of a danger to the civilized world. Iran, a client of Russia, China, North Korea, and even some western nations, has many time expressed its desire to eradicate a whole nation (Israel) off the face of the Earth. This would present the world with a huge conundrum. Will it allow the total destruction of a nation and its people? Will the world retaliate and attack whoever perpetrated this destruction? Whom will America consider its enemy? If Iran’s surrogates, Hamas and Hezbollah use a nuclear device on Israel, would we attack Iran. Russia, China, and North Korea are all accomplices to any success Iran will have in developing nuclear weapons. Would we attack any or all of these nations?
Europe and more so Middle Eastern nations would feel even more threatened then they are now when Iran succeeds in developing nuclear warheads. Nuclear weaponry and other WMD’s would be in demand by many more countries, increasing the possibility of a nuclear war of total destruction.
The Obama Administration has no plans or even desire to maintain military strength that would deter let alone put a stop to this new “cold war”, a war of great peril to us all. It is imperative we institute some major changes in America’s foreign policy and our development of current and future military strength.
The only way to accomplish that, is to change the balance in our congress this November and remove Obama in 2012. We need to vet new candidates, pick the right ones, and work hard to elect them.
Like a cancerous growth, ambitions of past hard line leaders were not removed but allowed to grow strong and powerful again. Under the guise of removing criminal elements (Russian Mafias became a real threat worldwide) the elected leaders usurped more and more power to the point that brought back a government more like a dictatorship than a democracy. To be fair this move probably saved Russia from rampant lawlessness and subjugation by criminal elements.
During the brief unrestricted capitalistic surge, private companies developed a petroleum industry and a banking system that improved the country’s financial situation. Now the leaders had enough fiscal stability to begin asserting more power, domestically and internationally. They took over much of the (mostly) free enterprises (many were run criminally) and built up their bankrupt military complex. Although the world economic downturn has had a dramatic effect on Russia’s economy, it has already established a large power base. Russia has established naval/military bases in Syria and Venezuela. Venezuela purchased billions of dollars worth of tanks, jets, missals, and other hardware, using cash obtained from oil revenues acquired mostly form sales to the U.S. Iran has been a client of Russia for a long time, buying equipment and expertise. Russia is a partner in Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
For all practical purposes, the Ukraine is under the control of Russia. In the waning second term of the Bush administration, Putin instigated unrest in part of the Ukraine, used its military power to overcome Ukraine’s meager armed forces, and now with the Obama administration’s lack of concern has full control of the country. Other former Soviet States are under the control or great political pressure from Russia.
In January of 2010, Russia made a deal for Libya to buy a $2.6 billion military arsenal. Not only does this bring much needed cash flow to Russia, this gives Russia another area of great influence. The Russian tentacles are reaching far and wide. This presence is a huge problem to America, not recognized by the Obama Administration.
The last cold war was not as cold as some would think. It was a hot war with both sides using surrogates. American and Soviet jets with other country’s markings engaged in aerial combat. Weapons of various new designs competed on the battlefield, each country trying out new war strategies. The Soviets did not take America’s lesson of fighting a determined, passionate, and dedicated gorilla enemy to heart, evident by their attempts in Afghanistan. This was the beginning of the end of the Soviet Empire.
The reason why both countries used surrogates was that they realized a direct conflict between them would most likely destroy most life on earth. Neither country was willing the take that chance since each wanted to survive.
A new cold war will be much more risky to the whole world. Russia is doing business with rouge nations whose leaders either welcome destruction, don’t care if it happens, or are oblivious to the possibility of world destruction. These nations are unpredictable and cannot be trusted. They have a long history of not sticking to agreements. They do business with groups that have no national allegiance and given the opportunity will use weapons of mass destruction with impunity.
This is becoming more and more of a danger to the civilized world. Iran, a client of Russia, China, North Korea, and even some western nations, has many time expressed its desire to eradicate a whole nation (Israel) off the face of the Earth. This would present the world with a huge conundrum. Will it allow the total destruction of a nation and its people? Will the world retaliate and attack whoever perpetrated this destruction? Whom will America consider its enemy? If Iran’s surrogates, Hamas and Hezbollah use a nuclear device on Israel, would we attack Iran. Russia, China, and North Korea are all accomplices to any success Iran will have in developing nuclear weapons. Would we attack any or all of these nations?
Europe and more so Middle Eastern nations would feel even more threatened then they are now when Iran succeeds in developing nuclear warheads. Nuclear weaponry and other WMD’s would be in demand by many more countries, increasing the possibility of a nuclear war of total destruction.
The Obama Administration has no plans or even desire to maintain military strength that would deter let alone put a stop to this new “cold war”, a war of great peril to us all. It is imperative we institute some major changes in America’s foreign policy and our development of current and future military strength.
The only way to accomplish that, is to change the balance in our congress this November and remove Obama in 2012. We need to vet new candidates, pick the right ones, and work hard to elect them.