It looks as if Harry Reid will get his Christmas wish. Senator Ben Nelson compromised his principles last night and agreed to support the unconstitutional takeover of 18% of our economy. I detailed yesterday some of the pressure that was being placed on Senator Nelson to get him to cave in. The pressure must have worked because he did cave. The worst of the pressure was the threat to close the Strategic Command base in Nebraska. That threat bordered on treason because our national security is not a bargaining chip in negotiations. I am sure that there was a lot of other pressure put on Senator Nelson. I guess he wants this to be his last term as Senator.

My guess on how they got him to cave is that they agreed to think about removing the abortion funding from the bill. Even if it is removed, it is in the House bill. That means the House and Senate bills are different. So, after the Senate bill gets passed the bills go to a conference committee. In the conference committee the abortion funding will be put back in the bill. That will get Senator Nelson upset and he might not support the final bill. But, the damage will have been done. This conference bill only has to get 51 votes to pass. The conference bill cannot be filibustered like a regular bill. That means all the bad things that are in the House bill will almost surely be in the final conference bill and sent on to the President.

That this entire exercise is unconstitutional seems to be lost on the Democrats. When they are confronted with that idea, they dismiss it with the thought that the questioner must be stupid. But, nowhere in the constitution does it give the government any authority to require the public to purchase anything. That the bill will be found unconstitutional will be a lead pipe cinch. The only question is how long it will take before that happens. If it happens quickly, then the entire monstrosity can be thrown out and nobody will be harmed. If it takes years, then the process will have been implemented and it will be a disaster. There has to be a way to get people with standing to challenge the bill in court. The quicker it happens the better it will be for the country.

Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama will get their victory on this issue. The victory will be at the expense of the country. The country will suffer because these three court jesters had to have their victory. Instead of working for what is best for America, they are working for how to harm America the most. The America I knew growing up will cease to exist when the Democrat health control plan takes effect. The fact that no country in the world has been able to successfully make it work does not seem to cause these people to take a second look at what they are doing. They just seem to say that they know what is best and it does not matter that everyone else in the world hates this plan.

In 2010, any Democrat that voted for this monstrosity will, at best (for them), have a tough re-election. At worst, they will be defeated in their re-election. Many Democrats see the handwriting on the wall and are deciding not to run in 2010. That way they do not have the albatross of the health control bill hanging over their head. Democrats believe that by passing this monstrosity that it will insure Democrat majorities as far as the eye can see. They are willing to take the hit in 2010 and 2012 to achieve that goal. My hope is that there will be a way to not fund the monstrosity and defang the monstrosity. The best thing would be for the Congress to repeal the bill in January 2011 as their first item of business. That would minimize the harmful effects of this bill. The only way that would happen is if Republicans win huge majorities in both the House and Senate in the 2010 elections. That is possible. I pray that it happens. It is our last best hope for salvation from this disaster.

The news is reporting that the AARP is selling out Senior Citizens today. They are supposed to endorse one of the Obamacare bills that are floating around Washington. Since all of the Obamacare bills contain provisions to restrict care to Americans that are past 60 years of age and have an illness that will cost a lot of money. Each bill is slightly different in its treatment of these Americans, but the net result will be a similar removal of care for these patients. The AARP is supposed to represent Senior Citizens over the age of 55. They obviously are not concerned about the effects of these Obamacare bills on the Senior Citizens that make up the membership of the AARP.

There is a reason why the AARP is endorsing Obamacare. That is because the Obamacare bills are reducing Medicare. Medicare has a program called Medicare Advantage that is very popular with Senior Citizens. It covers them when Medicare does not. The Obamacare bills will effectively eliminate this program. It does not actually eliminate it, but guts it so much that it might as well put it out of its misery. AARP sells a competing Medicare gap coverage that is not as popular with Senior Citizens. With the Medicare Advantage program effectively eliminated, the AARP insurance program will be the only one selling Medicare gap insurance. That would be a windfall for AARP. That is why they are endorsing Obamacare. They are selling out Senior Citizens for the almighty dollar. The leadership of AARP is also composed of far leftist types. That also comes into play on the issue.

Another event is happening today that is far more important than AARP selling out Senior Citizens. That is the Tea Party rally at the Capitol Building at noon eastern time. This idea is the brainchild of Michelle Bachman, Republican from Minnesota. She has invited Mark Levin and Jon Voigt to come and give speeches. After the talks, the crowd is supposed to enter the office buildings and find members of Congress to talk to. The idea is that thousands of people coming to Washington and showing up to talk to Senators and Representatives in person will bring a powerful message. Nancy Pelosi is waiting with baited breath for this to occur, in her secret meeting.

If they get enough people to the event, it can be impressive. Members of Congress are already soaking up the idea that Obama does not have coat tails to rescue them if they vote against the wishes of the public. With large numbers of people on their doorstep, that reinforces the idea that the public is interested in this issue and they better watch what they do. Those that have Democrat Kool-aid in their veins will not be moved. Those that are the least part insecure will be moved by the demonstration. This is a great opportunity for Republicans to make the Tea Party protests part of the Republican platform. They just have to remember not to fumble the ball when it is served up on a silver platter.

As I got home last night, Michael Savage had a guest on who was talking about the impact of the votes in Virginia and New Jersey on Democrats. I did not get to hear everything he had to say, but I did understand that he felt that Democrats were shaken by the magnitude of the defeat in Virginia and that they lost in New Jersey at all. Barack Obama won both Virginia and New Jersey by hefty margins in 2008, just one year ago. To lose by 18% in Virginia after only one year, must cause Democrats to wonder what is going on. Also losing New Jersey had to shake them to their core. New Jersey is one of the very bluest of the blue states, so that it elected a conservative Republican must be troubling. Electing a moderate (liberal) Republican like Christie Todd Whitman was not so much of a stretch. Doug Christie is a conservative Republican. He has very few moderate or liberal tendencies at all. Christie must have been outspent by about 10-1. There is no way that Jon Corzine should have lost. Christie won because of the Obama factor. People are afraid of the way Obama is steering the country. This is a way they could voice their opinion and get Democrats to listen.

This next year will be very interesting. Will Obama, Reid and Pelosi remain tone deaf and try to lead us off of a cliff? Will the Republicans plug into the energy of the Tea Party movement and become the true conservative party that it should be? All this and more will play out over the next 12 months. Election Day 2010 should be every bit as interesting as Election Day 2009 has turned out to be. That would then set the table for 2012 and who will replace Barack Obama. I can hardly wait!

The fringe press has been boosting and supporting Obama so much that they cannot see what is happening in this country. They continually report polls inaccurately so that they give the impression that the majority of the American people want socialized healthcare. When you look at the polls in question, it is obvious that the poll was more of a “push poll” than a real poll. A real poll asks real questions to get real answers. A push poll asks leading questions to get pre-determined answers. Real polls are valid. Push polls are not worth the cost of a match to burn them up.

That the Obamacare socialized medicine plan is in trouble is obvious. They are trying trick after trick to get the people to support their socialized medicine. None of their tricks have had any lasting effect. The public is too locked in on the issue and too informed. The latest trick is to rename the original government option, then public option and now consumer option or competition option. The hard core leftists are grasping at straws if they think that changing the name of a stupid idea will make it a good idea.

If Democrats were serious about reforming healthcare, they could do it in a couple of days. That is allowing for the slow legislative process. It would take me about 15 minutes to write it up and then they could have their debates and pass it.

My plan is very simple. It is to remove government from health care as much as is possible. Removing it entirely is not a good idea as it is a good idea to have doctors and other healthcare workers that are certified. Having an agency check on minimum standards of cleanliness and such is also a good idea. But other than that, government should get out of the way. Government should be out of the health insurance business except to license those that sell the insurance. People should be able to select plans from any state and tailor a plan that suits them. For example, right now my wife and I are paying for maternity care. We are both past age 60. The odds on our ever needing maternity care are zero. Therefore, if we could choose a plan without maternity care it would be cheaper. I could go down the list, but I think you get my point. Tailoring a plan to suit every individual would reduce costs, even with the current government involvement.

Once the costs were reduced and true market forces were at work in the health industry, you would see costs go down and the quality would go up. A perfect example of what I am talking about is Lasik eye surgery. When it was first introduced it cost about $1000 per eye and the surgery was very risky. Now it costs about $300 per eye and the risk is very low. The quality of the surgery has increased by a tremendous amount and the cost has gone down at the same time. How has that happened? The answer is very simple, competition drove those costs down. As doctors got into the business, they realized that if they lowered their costs, they would get more patients. As they got more patients their income went up. But, to get those patients they had to have the latest technology available.

Under Obamacare, none of that will happen. Quality will be something that people will hear about and wonder what it was. The costs will continually go up as nobody has any interest in controlling them. As the costs go up, rationing will occur because the government will only have so much money. The patients with the highest need will not get the services because they would cost the most money. Those that had the lowest cost services would get first choice of services. If there was anything left, those with high cost services would be taken care of. The rationing would be the “Death Panels” that Sarah Palin talked about and the left said would not happen.

We have to stop this monstrosity called Obamacare. There is still a chance to defeat it. I heard an expert this morning say that it had a 50-50 chance of passing. That is much too high for me. Until that number is zero, I will not be happy. Also on Glenn Beck, he said that as the age goes up, the support for socialized medicine goes down. If politicians remember, older voters vote in a higher percentage than younger ones. Voting for this unconstitutional bill would mean a massive turnover in Congress. There probably will be a massive turnover even if it does not pass, just because of all the other terrible things that Obama is making Congress pass. But, passing this one would mean certain political death for a huge number of people who voted for the bill. Since it had not been implemented, it might still be dismantled before implementation. At least that is what I hope for.

Over the weekend, I heard about numerous plans Democrats have to modify the existing 5 plans to make them more palatable to the American People. The reason they are willing to modify their plans to say almost anything, is that after enacted they can change it to fit what they want. At that point they will have breached the wall and it is all over.

Democrats with their grandiose plans are like a disease or an invading army. They are like a disease in that as long as you keep them out, they are basically harmless. You can identify them as dangerous, but outside your body, they do no harm to you. Once one bacteria or virus gets inside your body, then the infection can occur and you get sick. That is just like a Democrat plan to “fix” something. Once it is enacted, they will keep adding to it until it bankrupts us.

The Democrats are like an invading army, much like a disease. As long as the army is outside your city they are contained. Once they create a breach in the walls, it enables their army to invade and destroy your city.

A saying that I remember from some source is, “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.” We could modify that saying to be, “Beware of Democrats with a plan to ‘fix’ a problem.” Every time the Democrats “fix” a problem, their fix is around forever. We have federal programs that were put in place in the 1930’s to combat the depression that are still there. Every Democrat plan to “fix” something should have a very short shelf life before it is reviewed to determine if it is good. I would suggest a maximum shelf life of 5 years. If the Democrat plan does not solve the problem in 5 years, it is not going to solve the problem. At least that has been the track record of all Democrat programs put on the books since 1791. I realize that is a short span of time, but it is all that were available at the time of this writing. Also, records from United States sources are unreliable before 1791 and the inauguration of President George Washington.

My point is that we have to beware of people like Harry Reid coming out with a “public option” that an individual state can decide not to participate in. This sounds like a great compromise on whether a public option should be present at all. The problem is that all that would have to happen to destroy this seemingly wonderful idea is for the Congress to pass legislation requiring that all states have the “public option” available to their citizens. Also, the Congress will make sure that the public option will be so cheap that people will be asking for it over traditional plans that are burdened with regulations.

I am sure that there are other reasonable sounding plans out there. They are all Trojan Horses. They are designed to get you to lower your defenses and allow the Democrat Universal Healthcare plan (Obamacare) to pass. Once it has passed and is firmly in place, the Democrats would begin tinkering with it until it resembled the worst of the plans already submitted. Also, the cost figures are wildly lower than would actually occur. An example of government misjudging cost is Medicare. When Medicare was passed, it was estimated that it would cost $12 billion after 10 years. After 10 years, Medicate was costing taxpayers over 10 times that amount. We can expect similar results with all these Obamacare bills being adopted by the Democrats.

The best way to handle the situation is to take a step back. First we should kill all the current plans that are out there. Second, we should identify exactly what the problem is in the first place. Third, we should devise a plan that will solve the problem or problems identified in step two. Also, Congress should be required to live under any plan that they pass for the country. That would mean giving up on their Congressional perks, but that would be the price they should pay to pass the bill on healthcare. The things that are not problems should be left alone because they work well. The doctor/patient relationship is one of the items that is working well.

We are in danger of losing what made this country great. There may be a country that has the name, United States of America, but its heart will have been ripped out. I am talking about all of the assaults on American values by the Obama administration. Part of this is shown by the fact that it appears that it is a requirement that you love “Chairman Mao” in order to be selected as one of the Czar’s. As Glenn Beck said on his show this past week, he always thought that Chairman Mao was one of the worst people that had ever lived.

The worst assault on our values has to be the attack on Fox News. I say it is the worst because it is attacking the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. That first amendment gives us protection from government doing anything to inhibit the free press in this country. The Obama administration is trying to say that Fox News is not part of the free press and is therefore not entitled to protection under the first amendment. That is the crux of their argument that Fox News is not really a news organization. This assault on Fox News has to stop. We, the people, have to demand that the government keep its hands off of the free exercise of the free press. The other news organizations have decided to go into the tank and not be a “free press”. That is no excuse for now attacking any member of the free press to get them to change or shut down.

The next two assaults are on the economy. One is the Obamacare bill that is still in the House and Senate. The other is the Cap and Tax bill that is being debated. The worst of these two is the Obamacare bill. That bill would socialize our healthcare system in this country. Once the medical system is socialized, it would be extremely difficult for us to change it back to a privatized health care system. There would be a window of opportunity between now and 2013, but Obama is President during that entire time. He would veto any bill trying to repeal his crown jewel in the destruction of the US. The fact that the Obamacare bill would destroy the economy is bad enough. The fact that it is unconstitutional is also bad enough. The worst part of Obamacare is that it would destroy the American spirit. That is something that other countries do not have. If we lose that, we are just another country. With the American Sprit, we can do anything. Without it, we become like Europe today, weak and unwilling to fight for our lives. Obamacare would end up being the cause of our destruction by weakening our ability to defend ourselves.

The Cap and Tax bill is trying to solve a hoax. Since the problem it is trying to solve is a hoax, the problem is already solved. The real reason that the Democrats want to pass this bill is the massive tax increase on the country. They look at the increased revenue stream and think of all the social programs they can start (even though they would all be unconstitutional). This Cap and Tax bill would just destroy the economy of the US. It is easily solved by passing a bill repealing all of its provisions. It is not like the Obamacare bill where it would be almost impossible to end the disaster.

As side notes, Moody’s Bond Service has estimated that our bonds will need to be devalued within the next 3-6 years. That is much shorter than the last estimate under George Bush of 10-12 years. That is because Barack Obama and the Democrats are spending like drunken sailors on steroids. If we cut spending and eliminated the programs started under Obama, we could get our spending under control. That would lengthen the time period once again. Then, we could start eliminating programs that were unconstitutional and get to the point where we could actually pay off our debt. As it is today, paying off the debt is impossible and becoming more impossible as each day goes by.

This week, I found out that I need surgery to correct a problem in my back. It is fairly major surgery to correct the fact that I have started leaning to the right. I have also started leaning forward, though not as bad as I lean to the left. Before I can have surgery, I have to have an MRI and a CT scan. I also have to have clearance from my personal physician and a cardiologist. Under our current medical system, there are no problems getting in to get an MRI or a CT scan. I have those on Monday. There will be no problem getting in to see my personal physician or a cardiologist. I should be able to clear all the hurdles and have the surgery just before the end of the semester. Under Obamacare, the surgery would be put off for a minimum of one year and probably two or three, if it is scheduled at all. I am 60 years old, so I am at the end of the working life span. According to Ezekiel Emanuel, I would have less call on whether I can use medical services than someone who is 20.

One of the inevitable consequences of Obama care will be rationing. No matter how much the Democrats say that rationing will not happen, it will. You cannot add millions of new patients without adding doctors and not have rationing. Plus, a recent poll said that 45% of doctors practicing medicine today would retire if Obamacare were put in place. So, that would mean millions of new patients and fewer doctors. If rationing did not occur with that scenario, I would be shocked.

With rationing comes the inevitable decision on who gets to the top of the line. Does the person who got there first, get to be first? Or is it the person that has a more life-threatening disease? Should the younger patient be placed ahead of the older patient? All these questions and more will come into play when Obama care gets put in place. No matter what is decided, people will be upset with the decision made. Each person would feel that they should be put ahead of someone else in the line. With our current system, these questions never are brought up. With Obamacare, they become the primary problem.

Right now, we have access to the latest technology all of the time. Our scientists and engineers are developing new ways of treating medical conditions resulting in more patients getting better. There is a higher cost to new technology and procedures, primarily because they are new. The companies have to recoup the cost to develop the technology and procedures. Once that has happened, the prices tend to drop somewhat. One thing that is not happening, but should, in our medical system is competition. Competition drives down costs to their lowest level. It also drives up satisfaction. With the government involvement in healthcare, we lose the competition and satisfaction goes down. That is how we got where we are today.

There are uninsured Americans. Some are uninsured because they cannot afford health insurance. Some are uninsured because they would rather spend their money on other things, because they feel the risk of getting sick is low. Some people are uninsured because they are illegal aliens. Democrats propose to insure all three, while denying that they are insuring the illegal aliens. We could reduce the cost of health insurance immediately and with almost no cost. We could just rule that all medical insurance can be purchased across state lines. If we removed government requirements on what has to be in the health insurance plans, we could reduce the cost even more. Then, health insurance costs would be within the reach of almost every American. We could set up some kind of fund to help those that still cannot afford health insurance. These numbers should be extremely low. This plan will never happen because it would reduce government involvement and Democrats never, ever reduce government involvement in anything.

So, with our current medical system, I can be diagnosed with a need for surgery. I can schedule all of the tests and medical clearances within a month. I can then have the surgery six weeks after being diagnosed as needing the surgery. If the surgery was life-threatening, the pre-surgery schedule could have been sped up. Under Obamacare it would take years, if it happened at all. Americans deserve the best medical system. Why should we saddle ourselves with some second rate system, just because politicians in Washington want to control your life? We should demand the best. We should be able to get the best. We already have it, so why should we give it up voluntarily? It makes no sense to give up the best for a third rate system.

Olympia Snowe sold out the country yesterday and doesn’t even realize it. I am not sure which is worse, selling out the country or not knowing it. She has been a Senator for many years. As a Senator, she is expected to know the Constitution of the United States. Since the Constitution is silent about providing healthcare for all citizens, she should know that the bill is unconstitutional. If the bill is unconstitutional, she should vote against it. That she voted for it and did not know it was wrong is mind boggling.

The other item that I could not believe in the first news report is that the bill does not really exist. All they voted for was the idea of a bill. They will fill in the details later. With Democrats, you cannot allow them the opportunity to fill in the details later. They will put things in the bill later that they never talked about or even said would not be there. So, voting on the idea of a bill is asking for a disaster to occur, thereby adding to the stupidity of voting for the bill.

Another sign that it was a stupid idea to vote for the bill is the fact that Democrats are heaping praise on Olympia Snowe for her courage. It did not take courage to vote for this bill, it took cowardice. Courage would have enabled her to stand her ground and say that she was not going allow the Democrats to take over 18% of the country’s output. That would have been courage and Americans for generations would come to thank her for that stand. This vote was one of cowardice. Generations of Americans will curse her for her giving Democrats cover to vote for this terrible bill.

The one thing the Democrats needed in the process of approving the bill was at least one Republican to weaken and vote with them. That would give them cover by allowing them to trumpet the bill as “bi-partisan”. The bill is not “bi-partisan” at all. It is strictly out of the far, far left of the Democrat party. Not even all parts of the Democrat Party support this bill. That is why it is having such a hard time moving forward. It is not the Republicans holding things up. The Republicans do not have enough votes to stop this bill from becoming law. It was Democrats getting cold feet after the unprecedented backlash from the American people. Democrats were hoping and praying (if Democrats pray) that one Republican would break ranks and give them cover.

Having one Republican give the Democrats cover is enormously helpful to those Democrats up for re-election. They can claim that even Republicans supported the bill. Technically they would be right as one Republican did support the bill. She is hardly representative of main stream Republicans, but she is a Republican, just the same. By claiming Republicans supported the bill and they were persuaded by the Republican support might convince some people that do not follow the news. If they can convince just enough of them that they are correct, they could win re-election. Since a lot of people do not pay attention to politics, except just prior to elections that is a distinct possibility.

The trick to winning this thing now, is to keep the pressure on. We have to keep the Republicans on board and have to convince some Democrats that they will lose in November 2010 if they vote to socialize medicine. That can be done by phone calls, cards, letters and emails. I heard Michelle Bachman tell Mike Gallagher that it is important to call your House member and two Senators each day. You should also send them emails. She said that they do respond to the contacts. If the number falls heavily in one category, they tend to follow that path, especially in election years. Mike Gallagher said there is a link on his site to send emails to your Representative and two Senators. They do it by zip code. Get involved in contacting people to stop this Obamacare bill in its tracks. It has passed its first hurdle with the Republican support the Democrats so desperately needed. They did not need the vote. They had plenty to pass the bill. They needed the vote for cover. Let’s not let that happen in its other hurdles. Get involved, do something positive for America. Your children and grandchildren will thank you for your efforts. Your efforts will not be publicized, but will still be of immense service to our country.

This morning, I was gratified to see that Barack Obama met with General McChrystal for 25 minutes in Copenhagen. Since Obama has stated that the Afghanistan Theater of the war is the most important part, you would think that he would give it a little bit of his time. I can understand that he ignores Iraq and the rest of the war against Islamo-Fascism. He has said that those actions are not important. But, Afghanistan is supposed to be important. When things are important, you give them some of your time.

I think that Barack Obama is not giving time to Afghanistan because he is caught between a rock and a hard place. The radical left is after him to get this Obamacare bill passed. He needs their votes to get it done. The radical left does not believe that we belong in Afghanistan or any place outside of the US, unless it is not in our interest to be there. So, if Obama gives Afghanistan the time it deserves he will tick off the radical left and make it more difficult to pass his Obamacare bill. If he ignores Afghanistan, he might get his Obamacare bill passed, but more of our brave soldiers will die unnecessarily. As a result, he does not really know how to act. He is tending toward not doing anything, which is his default position.

Barack Obama desperately wants this Obamacare bill to pass so he can have a lasting legacy. Obama thinks that people will look to him as some sort of savior for getting the Obamacare bill passed. He does not understand that people will hate Obamacare.

Right now, Barack Obama is in Copenhagen to try and get the Olympics for Chicago. If he manages to pull that off, he will be paying back the people that put him in office. Those people stand to make millions upon millions out of this deal. They all own slum property right where the different Olympic sites will be built and where the Olympic village will be built. That will mean millions in graft money for each of those involved. It will also mean millions in contracts for the different Chicago unions. The regular people of Chicago will not benefit very much from the Olympics, except for the couple of weeks that the events are held. It is the corrupt Chicago government that will benefit. That is all documented very well by Michelle Malkin. When I saw her documentation, I was blown away by the potential corruption that is there if the Olympics are in Chicago.

Barack Obama has brought Chicago style politics to Washington. Chicago style politics is the dirtiest sort of politics. Right does not matter. Only who you know matters. Corruption is rampant among most of the people that surround the White House. Glenn Beck is having a field day documenting all the corruption in and around the White House. He also asks the question that needs to be answered, “How could this person get access to the President?” When we find the answer to that question, we will unlock the door to the secrets in the White House. Of course, in Chicago style politics, if you find out the answer to that question you may not see the dawn.

Electing Barack Obama to the White House was a historic event. Unfortunately for those who voted for him, it was not the historic event they wanted. They were hoping that electing Barack Obama would lead to an end of racial politics. Instead it leads to an increase in racial politics and a dramatic increase in corruption. I am not saying that there was no corruption under George Bush. I am just saying that the corruption is so rampant under Barack Obama that it is impossible to hide for any length of time.

The latest outrage on the Obamacare debate is the requirement that everyone have Obamacare insurance. If you do not have Obamacare insurance you can be fined (taxed) $1900. If you do not pay the fine you can be charged with a misdemeanor and fined (taxed again) $25,000 or go to jail. Since Obamacare insurance is undoubtedly going to be more than the $1900 tax, you should not get Obamacare insurance. When they come after you, pay the $1900 fine (tax). But, do not purchase Obamacare insurance. That way you only pay a $1900 tax per year for no insurance instead of $4000 for insurance. But, always comply and pay the initial $1900 fine (tax) or you could be charged with a crime. You do not want that to go on your record, mainly because the next fine is really stiff and jail is no fun.

I am being sarcastic in the preceding paragraph. They would undoubtedly have some provision that would require compliance upon paying the $1900 fine (tax).  The Republicans almost killed the requirement in committee, but Olympia Snowe (RINO – ME) came to the rescue and voted with the Democrats. You can always count on Olympia Snowe to come in and stab you in the back when you think you have a hard fought victory in the bag.

In this Obamacare debate, we are not starting at the right place. The debate always starts with the supposed agreement that we must “fix” our damaged healthcare system. We never start where we should start. That is: Should we “fix” the healthcare system at all? After all, we have the best healthcare system in the world. Thousands of people come here from socialist countries to get healthcare that is unavailable in their countries.

Everyone talks about how expensive healthcare is in this country. That is true that healthcare costs are out of control. But, even so, our healthcare costs are less than in any socialized medicine country and we get better medical care for that reduced cost. If you want the truth, the reason our healthcare costs are increasing as fast as they are is the government is too involved in the system. The fastest way to reduce our healthcare costs would be to reduce the government’s involvement in healthcare. Big government types would hate to see that last statement. They like socialized medicine as it gives government total control over the lives of every citizen in the country. Removing government from healthcare would promote freedom and individual responsibility. That is something a statist would hate to have happen. A statist wants a nanny state governing our lives from cradle to grave.

The other night, I was talking to some students before class. I made the statement that in general, less government is better than more government. In reading the “5000 year miracle” by Cleon Skousen, he said that the Founders were trying to find a balance between no government and total government. We have moved the ball far toward total government. We need to get the ball back toward the center of the chart. That means removing government involvement from a whole host of things. Ronald Reagan said it best when he said, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problems. Government is the problem.”

In looking at everything proposed by the Democrats and the Obama administration, their solution to every problem is to inject more government into a government caused problem. That will not solve anything. It will cause the problem to get worse. If government caused the problem in the first place, more government will not solve the problem. Less government will solve a problem of too much government involvement.

Glenn Beck said the other day that the older he gets the more Libertarian he gets. I feel the same way. I started out as a Democrat and became more conservative. So I became a Republican and a conservative. Now, I wonder about the big government Republicans that have so much power in the party. We need small government Republicans to lead the party. Then we can have the revolution that is long overdue in this country.

On the way to work, I was listening to KFYI. They were talking about Obamacare when I first got in the car. Then, they switched to the case of the children taken from their parents in Arizona because of photos. These two things are seemingly unrelated, but they are not unrelated at all. They are very much related.

The common thread between Obamacare and the case of the children is the nanny state. Or in other words, the government will take care of you and make sure everything goes just like the government wants it to go.

For those who are unfamiliar with the case in Arizona involving the children, Wal-Mart and the City of Peoria, AZ, I will provide a short recap. I am leaving out names on purpose. A married couple has three children ages 5, 3 & 1. All of them are girls. As all proud parents, they like to take pictures of their children. They decided to get some of these photos developed at Wal-Mart. The Wal-Mart technician decided that 8 of the photos were inappropriate and called the police. The police investigated, called Child Protective Services (CPS) and eventually took the children from the home. While the children were gone, they underwent tests to determine if they were sexually abused by the parents. Five weeks later they had a court hearing where the judge threw out the case. As a result, the parents have filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart, the City of Peoria and Child Protective Services. It has gone national, as it should.

How is this related to Obamacare? Obamacare is all about control over you and your life. In other words, if Obamacare gets enacted we will be on a fast track to have a nanny state government. Nanny state governments sound great as everything will be handled by the government. But that is exactly the problem with nanny state governments, they take care of everything. There is no freedom in a nanny state society. I do not want to live in a nanny state society. The Soviet Union, Cuba and Communist China are some examples of nanny state governments. You do not have people trying to get into nanny state countries. People try to leave nanny state countries. That is a testimony to the lack of freedom and what it does to the soul of man.

Michelle Obama was unveiled yesterday to speak in behalf of Obamacare. She tries to depict the current healthcare system as oppressive to women. That is far from the truth. Obamacare will be oppressive to women. The current system allows women the freedom to choose what they want, when they want in regards to their health. Under Obamacare, women will be forced into a government rationing plan on what they will get, not what they want. For example; if you need a mammogram with the current system, you call up, make an appointment and get it done. Under Obamacare, you talk to your doctor after waiting a few months, then you wait a few months to make an appointment, then you wait another few months to get the mammogram. You decide which program gives women more freedom? Is it the one where you have to wait months and months to get care or the one where you get care right away? In my humble opinion, getting care when you want it gives women more freedom than a system where you have to wait in line for everything.

Obama is trying to sell us a pig in a poke. He has a bad idea and knows it is bad. If it was a good idea, he would be telling us the truth about the plan. He only tells us things that are technically true, but in practice, not true. Like when Obama says illegal immigrants will not be covered under his plan. That is true, the plan says just that. The problem is there is no way to verify if someone is here illegally or not because nobody can check. That will insure that illegal aliens get covered under Obamacare, even when Obama says they will not get covered.

We need to work for a system where freedom is the default option. Right now, the default option seems to be the nanny state. We need more freedom in this country. There are a couple of laws I would like passed. The first is that any law would have to repeal at least twice as many laws as it is implementing and they would have to be of equal value. The second law would be that each law would have to have an attachment on where in the Constitution it says specifically that Congress can do this thing. I realize that both are probably impractical, but they would at least make a dent in the nanny state takeover.

On the way to work today, there was some disturbing news. Nobody else seemed disturbed by the news that the gang of 6 seems to be reaching some kind of agreement on a health care bill. That is exactly the wrong thing that should happen. The healthcare bill should go down in flames and then you start over with realistic ideas. You don’t try to pull Obama’s bacon out of the fire at the last minute. Obama needs a healthcare bill to sign into law. Any bill that gives the government authority over healthcare is a win for him. Since Max Baucus (D-MT) is happy about the bill, you can bet that the government will have lots of authority over healthcare. It would be a fantastic win after the long series of defeats in July, August and September.

The tendency of Republicans in the Senate is to roll over and play dead when negotiating with Democrats. The Democrats always get what they want and the Republicans never get anything more substantial than it will be considered at some future time, to be determined. Democrats get concrete things they can count on today. Republicans never get anything more than promises. With the reaction of Max Baucus, that would seem to be happening again.

Didn’t the Republicans see all the people that showed up in Washington over the weekend? Maybe they thought it was just a coincidence that they all showed up at the same time to protest about something. They obviously could not be serious or the Democrats would be calling them racists or something like that.

Barack Obama is in a “Take No Prisoners” mood. His talk last week to Congress was full of “My way or the highway” talk. For someone who is being actively opposed by large numbers of people, that is not the way to talk. If he persists in talking that way and forcing his minions in the House and Senate to vote that way, 2010 will be a bloodbath for the Democrats that they will not soon forget. The upshot of that is that it might make Obama into a halfway decent President. That’s what happened to Bill Clinton in 1994. After his Democrats got their clock cleaned, he learned and adapted and became an almost decent President, scandals aside. The same could happen with Obama, except I do not think he has it in him. I do not think that he is one who learns from mistakes. He has always had things handed to him, so he would expect that to continue.

Since the Obamacare bill will not take effect until 2013, nobody will be impacted by Obamacare until then. That would give people time to forget about all the promises that were made to get the bill passed. People will forget about Obamacare until it bites them in the behind. Then it will be too late to do anything about it. That is why action now is so important.

Barack Obama gave his highly touted speech last night to both Houses of Congress. I was unable to hear the speech live because I work evenings and could not turn in a radio to listen. So, I had to wait until after work to find anything out.

In reading the speech, he starts telling whoppers at the beginning and continues until the end. He said nothing in this speech that he has not been saying in speeches around the country for the past couple of weeks. The highlight of the night came when Obama made his usual lie that the bill will not cover those here illegally. That was too much for Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina. He yelled out that Obama was lying. Everything came to a screeching halt for a few seconds while everyone caught their breath. Democrats were livid. Republicans were privately cheering him on while appearing uncomfortable.

Today, all the talk is about the fact that Representative Joe Wilson yelled that Barack Obama lied during the speech. To hear Democrats talk, you would think that this is the first time in the history of the Republic that this has happened. They conveniently forget speeches President Bush gave to Congress where the Democrats accused him of lying. The Democrats even went to the fuss of walking out on the President. Joe Wilson just yelled out that Obama lied when he could not take it any longer. He did speak out of turn and he did apologize for that mistake. He did not apologize for saying that Obama lied. He still insists that is true.

Let’s look at the facts on whether Obama or Wilson is correct. Obama said that under his plan no person who is here illegally will be covered by the plan. The bill actually says that in the language included in the bill. But, there is no way to know whether someone is here legally or illegally under the bill and you cannot check to see. In other words, the bill does not cover those here illegally, but if they happen to apply to be covered there is no way for Obamacare to know whether he can be covered or not. So, he would be covered under Obamacare if he asked to be covered. That would mean that a person here illegally could be covered under Obamacare if they took the time to come down and apply for it. So, technically Obama was correct that the bill does not cover illegal aliens. But, Joe Wilson is correct that illegal aliens will be covered under the bill as written. When the Republicans tried to put enforcement into the bill, the Democrats voted it down under a party line vote. In other words, the Democrats intend for illegal aliens to be covered under the bill. They just put the language that they will not be covered into the bill to make people think that illegal aliens will not be covered. Joe Wilson was correct. Barack Obama was wrong.

There was no reason to call a joint session of Congress to listen to this speech. Nothing was said in this speech that had not been said many times over during the past few weeks. Obama added nothing to the information available for the public to use to know where the discussion is on the merits of the bill.

Every reason the Republicans had for not supporting the bill before last night are still there this morning. Barack Obama did not move the ball in any direction. All that happened was a lot of publicity for a regular campaign speech that may or may not have added to the debate over healthcare today. When you add it all up, Obama gave us nothing at all last night in his speech except more of the same old rhetoric that we have heard before and will hear again. With all the build-up you would have thought he could have come up with something new to break the ice. He came up with nothing. That means in the debate, he is a cipher. That is not a good place for the President of the United States.

Tonight, Barack Obama is going to try and rescue his Presidency. I know the talk is about healthcare, but it really is about saving his Presidency. He has staked everything on getting HIS version of healthcare passed by the House and Senate. Right now, there is a lot of opposition to his version of healthcare. He is going to try and change minds tonight during his speech.

The talk show hosts from the Salem Radio Network (Mike Gallagher, Dennis Prager and Hugh Hewitt) will be presenting about 1.3 million signatures to Capitol Hill. They will be received by Republicans in the House and Senate. The Republicans will then deliver the petitions to the leadership of the House and Senate. That is the largest number of signatures delivered on a single topic on Capitol Hill. My wife and I signed the petition and will definitely vote against any Senator or House member that votes for the bill. I would hope that other signers would have the same commitment. This petition puts a lot of voters on record as opposing Obamacare. This is a big hill to climb.

Barack Obama has a lot to overcome tonight. We shall see if he even tries to overcome this built in opposition. My guess is that he will assume that everyone is on board, at least a little bit. He will most likely repeat the things that we have been hearing for the past few weeks. Most of the statements that he uses to promote the healthcare bill have been determined to be false by logic, if nothing else. He will probably bring the government option back on the table for discussion. The government option gives Obama the quickest and easiest way to get to the “single-payer” Healthcare system. Since that is the goal of the Democrats, the government option is most likely the path he will choose.

The main goal is to get the Obamacare bill passed, period. The second goal is to pass the bill with at least one Republican vote. If they get 1 Republican to vote for the bill (Olympia Snowe, that is you I am talking about), they can call the bill bi-partisan. A bi-partisan bill gives Democrats cover. If they are given cover by the Republicans, the debacle predicted for them in 2010 will be blunted. Democrats need the cover. Republicans should not give it to them by voting for Obamacare. If Obamacare is as bad as predicted, the Democrats will be severely punished. If it is the best healthcare system in the world, then they will be able to reap the rewards. Since every politician knows that it will be a disaster, Democrats want the cover very badly. They may even be willing to compromise, but the compromise would be just for show. It would go back to the worst of Obamacare as soon as the Democrats felt that they could get away with eliminating the compromise.

There are a lot of quick and easy things that could be done that would make health insurance more affordable. But this debate is not about making health care more affordable for all Americans. It is about giving Democrats more power.  The words used make it seem like Democrats are concerned about the cost of healthcare. If that was the case, the Democrats would have proposed fixes to the healthcare system that would have saved everyone money. The Democrats want power. They will use and/or abuse anything to get more power.

The Republicans have proposed the fixes to the system that will reduce the cost for everyone. The Republican proposals get the government out of the healthcare system. That is always a good idea. President Reagan had it right when he said, “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.” If you use that idea you can solve any problem the federal, state and local governments have. It will always result in lower cost and more freedom. Since our goal should always be more freedom, we should try and reduce the government in our lives. Unfortunately, that is not what we will hear tonight from Barack Hussein Obama.

Barack Obama is caught between a rock and a hard place. The public outcry over his “teaching” the children has caused him to revise his plan. It most likely will make the address very bland and uninteresting. If he tried any tricks, he would be called on it and roasted on a stick. He most likely will just say the usual platitudes when dealing with students. There is still the problem of his face in front of children. I have an objection to that because I do not trust the man. I would not have said that about any other President in our country’s history, including Bill Clinton.

Wednesday, Obama will address Congress in an attempt to change the debate on the healthcare bill. Democrat Senators and Congressmen have been hammered by protesters over their recess meetings. The Obamacare bill is withering rapidly and it is in great need of some help. Unfortunately for Obama, the objections to the Obamacare bill are specific and targeted. The objections are about specific things in the bill that the Democrats have invested a lot of their prestige. This will be a hard thing to reconcile.

The biggest problem with the Obamacare bill is that it asks every American to sacrifice except for the Trial Lawyers. The Trial Lawyers are primarily responsible for the high cost of health care in this country because of lawsuit abuse. But, they give huge amounts of money to Democrats to fund their campaigns. Obama got a large portion of his campaign cash from the Trial Lawyers. That is why he will not ask them to sacrifice. If they have to sacrifice, they will not give as much to Democrats, especially Obama. Without Tort reform, Obama is not serious about fixing healthcare problems in this country. With Tort reform in the bill, Democrats will not get funding for their campaigns from Trial Lawyers, so many will go down to defeat. That is the box Obama is in regarding healthcare. It will be interesting to see what he does on Wednesday. My guess is that meaningful Tort reform will not be part of the Obamacare bill. That will mean he is not serious.

There are rumors that the Afghanistan portion of the War on Terror is not doing well. I have heard that we need a surge like we had in Iraq. I have heard that we are losing the hearts of the Afghanistan people. I am not sure if any of that is true. I do know that Obama has sent a lot of troops to Afghanistan and the casualty lists for this year are the highest they have been. Afghanistan is now Obama’s war to win or lose. It is interesting that the people that were demonstrating against Iraq and Afghanistan are now silent. The protesters had maintained that they were against all war, not just the war in Iraq or Afghanistan. Just like I thought, they were not telling the truth.

We have Van Jones causing a ruckus by just being Van Jones. He is on tape telling everyone he was a communist at the time of the taping. He also evidently became part of the “Truther” movement in the Democrat party. The Truther movement are people that demanded to know the truth about 9/11. They insist that George W. Bush and the government knew about the attacks before they occurred and demanded to see the paperwork that verified their claims. Van Jones has denied he was a “Truther”. The leader of the movement said that nobody had their name on the list that did not authorize their name be put there. Either Van Jones is not telling the truth or the leader of the Truther group is not telling the truth. My guess is that Van Jones is the one not telling the truth. There is no real reason for the leader of the Truther movement to lie. There is a great incentive for Van Jones to not tell the truth. My guess is that Van Jones is let go within the next couple of weeks. Van Jones is causing too many problems for Barack Obama. He wants people in those positions that are obscure so nobody will shoot at them.

It will be an interesting week ahead for the gang that couldn’t shoot straight and their leader Barack Obama. If things continue as they have been for the past month, Obama may lose control entirely.

Barack Obama and other Democrats have been telling us since the House bill was introduced that Obamacare will not cover illegal aliens. Obama even devoted part of his Saturday address to repeat that illegal aliens will not be covered by the Obamacare bill. Today, that has been refuted by the Congressional Budget Office. They report that the bill will include illegal aliens.

The way it would work is that everyone living in the country will be covered. There are no provisions to check the immigration status on anyone. So, if an illegal alien signed up for Obamacare, they would be covered and nobody would check to kick them out. The bill does state that undocumented immigrants will not be covered. That means that illegal aliens will be covered because nobody will check their paperwork to discover that they are illegal.

The other insidious nature of Obamacare is that as the plan is introduced, the limits on what can be done will not be reached. After Obamacare has been used for a couple of years the shortages will start. At that point we can either give up this benefit or endure rationing. We will be just like every other country that has introduced socialized medicine; we will endure rationing over giving up the benefit. That means the time to fight Obamacare is now, not after it is passed.

Mike Gallagher from KKNT and the National Center for Policy Analysis will be delivering a petition to Congress next week. The petition is in opposition to Obamacare. Currently there are 1.2 million signatures on the petition. The original goal was 1 million signatures. They are now hoping that they make it to 1.5 million signatures before next week. My wife and I have signed the petition. I signed in the first 100,000. My wife signed when the number reached 500,000. Here is the link: Free Our Health Care Now Online Petition

The Democrats keep saying that we should keep the debate open and honest. They are strongly hinting that it is the people opposing the Obamacare bill that are not telling the truth. But, whenever anyone checks on the facts, Barack Obama and the Congressional Democrats are wrong and the people opposing the bill are right. We would love an open and honest debate on the issues of this bill. What we get from the supporters are lies and attacks. What we get from the people opposing the bill is passion on the prospect of losing their current healthcare coverage and facts. We do not get personal attacks from the people opposing the bill.

You might get some that will say that when you say that Barack Obama lied to us that is a personal attack. No, that is not a personal attack. It is a fact. There is a huge difference between an attack that falsely accuses someone of something and giving facts about someone. When you tell facts, you are not attacking. You are just clearing the air. Just to make sure we all are on the same page, if you know something is false before you say it that is a lie. An error is if you believe something to be true and it turns out to be false. Since the Democrats supposedly wrote the bill, they are expected to know what is in the bill before they come out and discuss it with the public. The people opposing the bill only know what has been published, not what is behind closed doors. It is a pretty sad commentary that the public knows a bill better than the people that supposedly wrote it.

Democrats may ultimately get this bill passed. It does not take effect until 2013. So, if we elect enough people that oppose the Obamacare bill we might be able to get it killed through the back door. That is a long shot. Democrats that vote for this bill will have a difficult time getting re-elected come 2010. That fear might be enough to keep this bill from being actually voted on in the Senate. The best thing right now would be for Harry Reid to bury the bill where the sun doesn’t shine. Hugh Hewitt has a plan to donate money to Danny Tarkanian, Harry Reid’s opponent in the Nevada Senate race. Hugh has also targeted a Colorado Congressional seat. To get the links go to Hughhewitt.townhall.com.  I participated in the plan to donate and then write to the target and tell them why. Hopefully it is having some impact.

We can stop Obamacare, soon to be Kennedycare. But it will take strength from people like us to give Republicans with noodles for spines a chance to stand tall. We have to rely on notoriously unreliable Republicans to stand against the onslaught of Democrats. It can be done, but the Republicans need to know that you are there.