Healthcare Takeover Bill Passage: A Thief In the Night

The fact that a bill like this is passed in the House late on a Saturday (with greatly decreased news coverage and less people watching news) shows how little regard Congress has for the American people and that they know most Americans on the whole wouldn’t approve of the bill if they fully understood its details.

Details such as felony penalties for noncompliance, including massive fines and prison time. And details such as an individual mandate tax for anyone that does not obtain qualifying coverage. It looks like there’s the possibility of obtaining a religious exemption for this, although it would probably be hard to obtain (there should be religious exemptions for all income taxes). So much for Obama’s promise of no new taxes for the middle class.

The taxes certainly don’t end there and it seems that small business owners have the most to lose with this bill, during a time of deep recession and the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression. But probably worst of all is the loss of individual choice and health freedom–another dagger to the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

On Opencongress.org 80% of users are opposed to the House bill 3962 — which one would expect to be a more informed group. A Gallup poll a few weeks ago showed that only 1 in 4 people supported the bill, and another poll showed that half of Americans expect their healthcare costs to get worse with the passage of this bill.

Read the full text of the bill at OpenCongress.org.

More:

[The End of America happens in the middle of the night, Freeman Institute ]
While normal everyday oblivious Americans were preparing their beds to sleep Saturday night their elected officials quietly passed H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act. Indeed, the passage of this act deals one of the final death blows to the Constitution and with it our liberties.

…It is the everyday middle class American that will suffer the consequences of this travesty. Indeed, while the economy is reeling and unemployment pushes depression-era levels the arrogant Congress has decided to pass the biggest expansion of government in the history of the United States. It will create a new tax that will primarily be felt by the middle class, the ones most likely affected by the current depression. This is because as Americans are forced to purchase health insurance, the wealthy will have no problem paying for escalating costs. Nor will the poor feel the burden as they will receive government health insurance subsidies. Yet, the forgotten man will be the middle class working American who now already struggling against the burden of economic ruin will be forced to pay fines or even face possible jail time for not complying with our government’s take over of his/her health care. As this tax sinks in, the middle class will be forced downward into the ranks of the working poor and therefore into the ranks of government rationed medical care. Inevitably, government healthcare will swallow the whole of the medical insurance world and there will be no escape.

This dystopian vision will consist of patients waiting in long lines and when they are finally permitted to see their doctor there will be much fruitless begging and pleading for the treatment that they desperately need. But no mercy will be given because the doctor will have become nothing more than a desk-clerk, simply following the government treatment protocols.”

Healthcare Reform Assumes Millions Will Pay Fines

Though the bill is estimated to expand coverage from the current 83 percent to 96 percent of legal U.S. residents, the windfall of projected penalty payments also exposes a potential contradiction in reform. A significant part of the plan to expand coverage relies financially on fines from the uninsured.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated in its study last week that the House bill would bring in $167 billion over 10 years — $33 billion from fines paid by individuals who decline to buy insurance, and the rest from employers who don’t offer insurance to workers or contribute enough toward premiums.

Ernest Istook, a former Republican congressman from Oklahoma who is now a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, calculated that anywhere between 8 million and 14 million people would end up paying the fines.

This raises a few problems, he said. First, if those millions somehow get covered and don’t pay the fine, then the health program is faced with a budget hole.

Second, he said, it speaks to a flaw with the insurance packages that are being offered. “If you say people would rather pay $167 billion in penalties rather than buy insurance under your new plan, what’s wrong with your new plan?” he asked.

The answer, Istook said: “It’s expensive.”

11/9/09 Ron Paul: Healthcare “Reform” Will Make a Flawed System Immeasurably Worse

…Government By and For the Bankers

Here’s an answer to a previous post re: Mel Watt and his watered-down version of HR 1207.

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Currency Crisis, Carbon Credit Billionaires and More

Just get your shots and go back to sleep.

Be Prepared For The Worst, Ron Paul, Forbes Magazine

“Can anyone realistically argue that a few small upticks in a handful of economic indicators are a sign that the recession is over?

What is more likely happening is a repeat of the Great Depression. We might have up to a year or so of an economy growing just slightly above stagnation, followed by a drop in growth worse than anything we have seen in the past two years. “

Gold Hits Record High on India Purchase

Gold prices on Tuesday surged to an all-time high after India’s central bank bought 200 tonnes of the precious metal, swapping dollars for bullion as the country’s finance minister warned the economies of the US and Europe had “collapsed”.

INDIA BUYS GOLD – UK BUYS BANKS

Al Gore Set To Become First “Carbon Billionaire”

“The New York Times has lifted the lid on how Al Gore stands to benefit to the tune of billions of dollars if the carbon tax proposals he is pushing come to fruition in the United States, while documenting how he has already lined his pockets on the back of exaggerated fearmongering about global warming.

…The Times report notes how Gore “has a stake in the world’s pre-eminent carbon credit trading market.” As we reported back in March, before he became President Barack Obama also helped fund the profiteers of the carbon taxation program that he is now seeking to implement as law.

The Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) has direct ties to both Al Gore and Maurice Strong, two figures intimately involved with a long standing movement to use the theory of man made global warming as a mechanism for profit and social engineering. Gore’s investment company, Generation Investment Management, which sells carbon offset opportunities, is the largest shareholder of CCX.”

See also:

Groups Positioned to Make Big Money Off of Carbon Credits

Curry spice ‘kills cancer cells’

Klaus Signs Lisbon Treaty

Ron Paul Not Afraid To Criticize Obama’s Wars

The always consistent Ron Paul vs. the always inconsistent Michael Moore.

Audit The Fed Bill “gutted” While Moving Toward House Vote

Who is Mel Watt representing?

Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) — Representative Ron Paul, the Texas Republican who has called for an end to the Federal Reserve, said legislation he introduced to audit monetary policy has been “gutted” while moving toward a possible vote in the Democratic-controlled House.

The bill, with 308 co-sponsors, has been stripped of provisions that would remove Fed exemptions from audits of transactions with foreign central banks, monetary policy deliberations, transactions made under the direction of the Federal Open Market Committee and communications between the Board, the reserve banks and staff, Paul said today.

“There’s nothing left, it’s been gutted,” he said in a telephone interview. “This is not a partisan issue. People all over the country want to know what the Fed is up to, and this legislation was supposed to help them do that.”

..Paul, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, said Mel Watt, a Democrat from North Carolina, has eliminated “just about everything” while preparing the legislation for formal consideration. Watt is chairman of the panel’s domestic monetary policy and technology subcommittee.

…Paul said he intends to introduce an amendment to the bill when it comes to the House floor for a vote restoring the legislation’s original language.

Full Article…

Ron Paul says “Its Not Over Yet”

Public Option Healthcare Unveiling Not Open to Public

“House Democrats blocked the public from attending the unveiling ceremony of their health-care bill Thursday morning, allowing only pre-approved visitors whose names appeared on lists to enter the event at the West side of the Capitol.

…Democrats repeatedly touted the openness of the development of their health care bill, which House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer called “the most deliberative, transparent and open process” he had seen in his career on Capitol Hill.” (from: House health-bill event closed to public, Washington Times)

How long has Hoyer worked on Capitol Hill? This healthcare bill development process has been anything BUT transparent. Wouldn’t expect anything less from the District of Criminals though. The bill hasn’t even passed yet and they’re already giving preferential treatment and rationing access.

See also: Lawmakers Refusing to Provide Details of Healthcare Bill

Ron Paul On CNN 10-14-09

After all these years of Ron Paul being proven correct, principled, and true to the Constitution, and one who is able to reach and energize the youth into promoting personal responsibility and integrity in government, its ridiculous that Paul still gets asked questions by so called “political experts” about superficial things like “image” and why does he oppose so many bills. Its pure ignorance or pure propaganda, you decide.

Orwell’s Wildest Dreams Coming True?

There’s no question anymore, rational thought has been turned completely upside down, just like the “Party” slogan in Orwell’s 1984, “War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength,” there is a massive campaign to paint good as bad, lies as truth (and vice versa). And we’re being taught to love it and cheer it on.

- Obama wins the Nobel peace prize (having registered for it 12 days into his term in office) and hours later convenes a war council.

- Major news articles for months have repeatedly been announcing that the recession is over all the while admitting that the unemployment numbers continue to rise nationwide and will stay high for at least the next year . Is there such thing as a jobless recovery? (Not to mention the rapidly plunging dollar).

- The long-time, extremely outspoken opponents of Bush-era wars, leftist group Code Pink is now pro-war with Obama in office.

- 6 year-old sentenced to 45 days in reform school after bringing a cub scouts camping utensil to school that he was exciting about using for lunch.

- Homeowner subdues an armed man who broke into his home threatening his family, the homeowner then gets shot 6 times by police after calling 911 for help.

The G-20: a guest with an iron fist

By Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Last week, authoritarianism came back to Pittsburgh. Like any long-lost uncle, it came bearing gifts: national and international media exposure that would take $100 million to achieve, $35 million in cash injected into the local economy and a cavalcade of world leaders who took time from their oligarchies back home to admire the solidity of our fences and barriers Downtown.

All authoritarianism wanted in exchange for these goodies was our soul — starting with our civil liberties. Our civic leaders, flattered by the “prestige” that comes with hosting a G-20 summit, quickly obliged. Who would miss a little thing like civil liberties, anyway?

For three days, Downtown was emptied of four-fifths of its population and replaced with 4,000 cops who spread out to different parts of the city when ordered to do so by some invisible democracy-hating high command.

The cops given the task of imitating Darth Vader’s stormtroopers were a grim bunch. They volunteered to come here from other parts of the country, attracted by the mercenary pay and the opportunity to exert the kind of force on a civilian population their own civic leaders would never let them get away with. Pittsburgh now has the dubious distinction of being the only place outside Russia where sonic weapons were used on a civilian population.

…We proved we were willing to give up something very precious to us for a few days in the international spotlight. We invited authoritarianism into our homes and promised not to whimper while it danced on our necks. This is truly pathetic.

Read Full Article…

Rand Paul Covers The Issues

Rand Paul on WYMT:

Rand Paul Speaks at a town hall meeting in Kentucky:
http://conceivedinliberty.org/home/productions/marcus-carey-perspective/

Donate at randpaul2010.com.

Lawmakers Refusing To Provide Details of Healthcare Bill

The healthcare bill is proving to be another “conceptual” unread bill that sold-out legislators will attempt to ram through Congress. Lawmakers are refusing to provide the text of the actual bill, leaving it’s cost and other details completely unkown to all except those who are writing it. Idaho Congressman Mike Crapo has so far been unable to obtain the text of the bill.

Riot Police Trample Over American’s Rights and The Voice of Reason During Pittsburgh G20

Luke Rudowski schools the police on the Constitution and Bill of Rights during a peaceful G20 protest in Pittsburgh:
More Coverage of the Police State


Luke explains that he is there to peacefully protest, expose the provocateurs, and help keep the protests peaceful. He is later beaten, arrested, and strip-searched while being held at the state penitentiary.

From WeAreChange.org:

Legal defense funds are now desperately needed for We Are Change reporters While reporting from the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania this 24-25th of September, We Are Change were specifically targeted during their efforts to report accurately while observing the wrong doings of both police and provocateurs whose actions were not only highly illegal but immoral and cancerous to a free society.

Facing tear gas, LRAD sound weapons, heavily armored, black ski-masked thugs, and the military working in tandem against the American people with the police, these brave reporters stood their ground to defend the Constitution and Bill of Rights. They suffered arrest, physical abuse (batons, mace, constrictive plastic wrist cuffs, and jarred shoulders and arms) intimidation, and finally baseless and costly legal charges.

Luke needs help covering legal fees due to the click here to donate to the WeAreChange legal defense fund.

Student Bystanders Trapped & Pepper Sprayed By Riot Police During G20 Protests

Update: Protesters blast police response, Oakland arrests

Tough guy riot cops trap, tear-gas and pepper spray college student bystanders on the University of Pittsburgh campus during the G20 protests. Pretty sickening, likely won’t find it on the evening news.

Here’s an excerpt from a reddit article today written by a student in the middle of the storm trooper invasion:

…Here is the part where I felt most violated — The riot cops then ENTERED our dormitory and shouted that students needed to return to their rooms immediately. Anyone arrested, they said, would be expelled from the University of Pittsburgh, no questions asked.

Reddit, is that legal? Would police be able to force someone on the sidewalk back in their home and make them barricade themselves in their basement?

Here’s another part that got me — I saw students try to get in the doors closest to their dorm building (there are 3 towers), and the door was LOCKED. These students did not have time to run around the building. And they were grabbed.

We don’t know what to do. We’re shocked. BECAUSE THE DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF RELEASED A STATEMENT CLAIMING THEY WERE SECURING THE AREA FROM ANARCHISTS AND THAT “SOME” STUDENTS “PROBABLY GOT CAUGHT UP” IN WHAT HAPPENED.

So, in the news, you’ll hear that police secured the campus from anarchists. Not that students were attacked by security forces supposedly there to protect them. PLEASE, help me get the word out. I’ll be around all day tomorrow for questions.

[Read full article "Armored Police Seize University of Pittsburgh Campus, Attack Students, Then Claim They Were Stopping Anarchists @ G20"]

Sickening account of a woman attacked for helping students escape brutality

The lone AP article of course starts out with info about “anarchists”. From the other video footage I saw there were definitely some idiotic “anarchists”/provocateurs there but the majority of people and students there were peacefully assembling and had their rights violated by the Pittsburg police:

G-20 opponents, police clash on Pittsburgh streets

*****Riot Police Trample Over American’s Rights and The Voice of Reason During Pittsburgh G20*****

Provocateur Cops Caught Disguised As Anarchists At G20

Police say Californian did most of damage at G-20 So the justification for downtown Pittsburgh basically being placed under martial law and terrorized by 4,000 Darth Vader-like storm trooopers comes mostly from the actions of one guy?

Video: Activists rail against the “military-style occupation” that resulted in the gassing and arrest of dozens of bystanders, including students and journalists.
http://www.post-gazette.com/multimedia/?videoID=102382

Police actions in Oakland dominate Pittsburgh’s G20 discussion

Many of the 110 people arrested that night were trying to follow a dispersal order, but they were encircled by police near the Cathedral of Learning on the University of Pittsburgh campus, many activists said.

“It was not a failure to disperse that I was charged with. It was a failure to escape,” said Keith DeVries, 23, a Pitt student who was among those arrested.

I just wanted to say that my daughter Martha, a 19 year old sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh, on Thursday night was rousted by police from the school library where she was studying, ordered to leave her belongings behind and herded into the street where she was tear-gassed, sound cannoned and hit by a plexiglass shield for exercising her right to be a young person outdoors on her campus on a pleasant fall night. I suppose I should be grateful because other kids were roughed up much worse by the police that night. This is just one aspect of the G20 that will never receive the attention it deserves. You have no idea how bad it was here.

Also, you might be interested in the linked article in which Pitt’s police chief pats himselfs on the back for his handling of the situation and cynically refers to the victims as “innocents” who chose to put themselves in harm’s way. Note the Chief’s presumption that the police have the right to break up any assembly. Very disturbing.

from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Who Controlled the Black Bloc Anarchists during Britain’s G20 protest in April of this Year

Ron Paul on G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh

Rand Paul on Healthcare, Inflation, & True Free Markets

Good interview with Rand Paul on CSPAN, Sept 16th, 2009. Rand makes some very important points about healthcare, the increasing price inflation, and the need for price mobility and true free markets instead of government price controls. Rand is very articulate and succinct here. Rand’s response (at the end of part 2) to the woman’s claim that ‘healthcare is a right’ was great.

Rand is bombarded with a suspiciously one-sided batch of callers all wanting socialized healthcare handouts, some of them quite belligerent, and yet he still keeps his cool while carefully explaining what is really happening with healthcare access and expenses. Get this guy elected!

Rand Paul raised over a million dollars today for his Kentucky senate run… You can donate here.