Voice For Voters

By Elois Zeanah

Ah, the blessings of free enterprise!  Once again innovation American style sprints its Olympic mettle over sluggish disincentives of taxation, regulation and government takeovers when it comes to cleaning up environment pollution and creating green jobs. 
     To build a great green machine in America, Obamanomics would destroy American enterprise and jobs through proposed cap-and-trade taxes.  Americanomics, on the other hand, allows innovators to take risks and fund their own ideas with their own money to solve environmental problems and create jobs.  Take the latest discovery of how to use the environmental pollution byproduct of coal-burning plants to “make coal the cleanest, cheapest energy source by turning its carbon-dioxide emissions into bricks to build” houses.[1]  This invention promises clean technology and new jobs. 
      Obamonomics would use big government to bully and close down coal-burning plants, force Americans to import more foreign energy and pay more for it.  Americanomics allows inventors to risk their own capital to wean America off foreign energy sources, capitalize American natural resources and keep jobs in America.
      President Obama needs to use this example and others to lead our nation out of the recession and stop bullying free markets.  Can Obama change?  Or is ideology more important?  So far his track record to fix what ails America, including destroying the best health care system in the world, suggests the latter. 

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[1] “Dreaming the possible dream” by Columnist Thomas Friedman, March 8, 2010

 By Elois Zeanah

 President Obama continues to blitz the airwaves.  My message is not breaking through,  the President of the United States complains. 

 Mr. President, the problem is not that we aren’t hearing you; it’s that you’re not hearing us!  Let’s see if we can clear communications over this land-line.

 When asked about why your message is not resonating, you say:  The opposition has made a decision.  They are just not going to support anything, for political reasons.

 Mr. President, concern that you’re wrecking health care for 97% of Americans to subsidize insurance for 3%  more Americans is not political.  Pardon me, but it’s irrational!   The realization that you over-exaggerate the number of “uninsured Americans” makes us cynical.  Our concern that your “reform” is a calculation to grab more power and more of our money to spread around is not political.  How many times have Republicans, Independents and Democrats explained that we ran your numbers?  They don’t add up.   In case our message did not get through, here’s a rundown of your numbers:

#1 UNMET PROMISE:  PROPOSED BILLS DO NOT COVER EVERYONE

 The 47 million “uninsured Americans” is a fabrication.  The number is closer to 10-16 million.  A close analysis of the same Census Bureau data you used reveals:

• Millions of citizens covered by Medicaid and S-CHIP were undercounted.
• Millions who have access to Medicaid and S-CHIP but choose not to take it until they are sick were counted as “uninsured”. 
• Millions who earn $70,000 and over and can afford insurance were included as “uninsured”.
• Millions of illegal aliens were counted as “uninsured Americans”.

 The real number of “uninsured Americans” is about 3% of the total population.  Opposition is not political!  Your proposal seems reckless.  Further, analyses show that despite spending over a trillion dollars in start-up costs, the House and Senate bills would still leave about 16 million Americans uninsured.  So promise number one that everyone will be covered is not met.  

 Do I hear static, sir?

#2 UNMET PROMISE:  PROPOSED BILLS DO NOT LOWER COSTS

 Then there’s that troublesome little issue of affordability.  Your premise that you must overhaul the health care system to curb unsustainable costs so that everyone can afford insurance seems to have fizzled. 

 Mr. President, concern that your own Congressional Budget Office says your plan will not lower insurance costs and the assessment by the non-partisan Heritage Foundation that private coverage for the typical American could go up as much as $460 per year due to new price controls set in the legislation – well, somehow our confidence crumbles.  This is not political.  It’s grave concern that Americans will pay more for less, have less choice and less competition, and be burdened by more onerous taxes and deeper deficits.

 #3 UNMET PROMISE:  AMERICANS CAN’T KEEP INSURANCE

 And all that talk about how you will make sure that every American who likes their insurance and doctors can keep them?  Well, Mr. President, that isn’t true either, is it now?  The non-partisan Lewin Group reports that almost 50% of private insurance holders will lose their coverage and be shifted to the public plan.  That’s just to start.  How many more of us will fall like dominoes behind those?

 And, oh, Mr. President, there’s that thorny issue about Americans being able to choose a plan like Congress.  Remember what you said at a town hall meeting on August 11^th?  You stated, “That’s what the health exchange is all about, is that you – just like a member of Congress – can go and choose the plan that’s right for you.” 

 That warms our heart.  But when I checked, your plan for typical Americans is nothing like the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program that only you, Members of Congress and federal employees get.   Mr. President, surely you wouldn’t mislead us.  Did you know that the FEHBP system has no government-run public option competing with private plans? 

 Is that stuttering or static on your end, Mr. President?

#4 UNMET PROMISE:  WE CAN’T TRUST GOVERNMENT MORE

 Mr. President, Americans want true health care reform.  We have a problem.  Americans pay 18% GNP for health care while most other advanced countries pay 10% and have a longer life expectancy.  Yet medical costs in the U.S. continue to rise rapidly.  Something must be done.  But before we give up the best health care system in the world, we have a few questions:

 Why should we trust a president and bureaucrats, who have never had to meet a payroll, more than we trust free market enterprise?

 Why should we trust a president and bureaucrats to takeover the health care system when fraud in government health care programs runs 15% and fraud in the private sector is 1%? 

 Why should Americans trust a president and bureaucrats to keep the private sector honest when government will not hold itself accountable?  For example:

• Social Security is a great program, but Congress couldn’t keep its hands off our trust fund.  Congress has stolen over $11 trillion from our Social Security trust fund and now seniors are scared about its future. 
• Medicare is another program that works well, but once again Congress couldn’t keep its hands off our money and Medicare now has $38 trillion in unfunded liabilities.  
   
• Government has been unable to stop the estimated $224 billion in fraud every year in Medicare and Medicaid.  Criminals live high-faluting lifestyles while seniors worry that Medicare may go bankrupt. 

 Mr. President, if you’re sincere about cleaning up the fraud mess, why are you waiting?

 There are so many other examples of how the President and Congress have been unwilling to use current laws on the books and their oversight authority to rein in abuses in government and in the private sector.  Instead, government declares emergencies and uses our tax dollars for bailouts for private industries that use the same accounting gimmickry that government uses.  This does not breed trust.

 Bottom line, Mr. President, why should Americans trust you and unaccountable bureaucrats with one-sixth of our economy when you haven’t proven that you are trustworthy? 

 I’m listening for your answer, Mr. President.  What’s that?  How this line been disconnected?

By Elois Zeanah

Independent analysts and the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the watchdog of Congress, have for years repeatedly warned that federal and state budgets will collide with taxpayers’ ability to pay the rapidly rising costs of health care entitlement programs.  Yet not only did Obama vote against reform bills as a Senator, his unsustainable proposals as President accelerate the pace toward collision. 

 The notion by Obama that he can expand Medicare and Medicaid and give all Americans affordable health care is quickly dispelled by highly respected GAO analysts.  Obama’s plan to broaden the pool of these two programs will not alleviate but aggravate the current fiscal crisis.

 THE FISCAL NIGHTMARE

“The official projections for current entitlements show that the American people will be confronted with a series of unpleasant options: savage benefit cuts, massive tax increases, or a combination of both.  Heritage Foundation analysts, among many others, have amply documented the long-term economic catastrophe that lies ahead without comprehensive entitlement reform.[1]

GAO:   76% of every $1 will go to Health Care and Debt Interest

GAO has candidly told Congress:

• “Just ten years from now in this simulation that is based on historical trends and recent policy preferences, 76 percent of every dollar of federal revenue will be spent on retirees and their health are providers, health care providers for the poor, and our bond holders.  This leaves little room for other priorities, such as national defense and investment in infrastructure and alternative energy sources, and threatens the government’s fiscal ability to respond to emergencies, both natural and manmade.”[2]
• “The GAO estimates that it would take a 39 percent increase in revenue, or a 37 percent decrease in non-interest spending, to close the federal fiscal gap.”[3]
• “Further, the GAO points directly to health care spending as the major cause of the fiscal gap: “Rapidly rising health care costs are not simply a federal budget problem; they are our nation’s number-one long-term fiscal challenge.”[4]

President Obama uses these dire warnings to make his case to Americans.  Yet, interestingly, his plan does exactly the opposite of what economic experts tell us reform must do:  Cut health care entitlement expenses!  Obama ignores these warnings and instead of cutting Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP, Obama expands these three health care programs in the name of reform and magnifies problems as a consequence.  His proposals will not only lead to more expensive programs and greater deficits but higher taxes at both the federal and state levels.

Government Health Care Costs Will Force States to Raise Taxes

• GAO’s warnings include that “Health care costs, principally Medicaid costs,[5] even at current levels will force states to raise revenue or reduce spending by 7.6 percent every year in order to close the fiscal gap faced by state and local governments.”
• “It is ironic that just as Senator Baucus and others propose to add millions of additional beneficiaries to the fiscally troubled Medicaid program, Congress is on the threshold of passing a temporary increase in the Medicaid Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP), the federal Medicaid match, in order to provide urgent economic relief to states.”[6]

WILL OBAMA CAUSE PRIVATE HEALTH CARE TO CRASH TO GET CONTROL OF HEALTH CARE?

“Adding more people to Medicaid when states cannot even afford their current programs makes no sense – unless the real object is to crash the program in order to force the states to support a single-payer system, under which the federal government would take over the entire health care system.  Congress’s own analysts have demonstrated that the current path for Medicare and Medicaid is unsustainable.”[7]

• “The Obama and Baucus proposals…directly undermine the historic accomplishments of the 1990s welfare reform, which was designed to get Americans off of dependence on government programs.  Indeed, expanding the private health insurance pool and spreading risk over a larger population would help to stabilize health insurance premiums and slow the growth in health care costs.”[8]
• “The President and Senator Baucus would also undertake a major expansion of existing government health care programs and entitlements, including Medicare, Medicaid, and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).”
• “Medicaid is already unsustainable for states and is already threatening state budgets”
• “Expanding Medicaid discriminates against low-income families and provides limited access to health care.”

“EXPANDING MEDICARE AND MEDICAID AND INCURRING NEW LIABILITIES IS, TO PUT IT MILDLY, UNWISE

“Congress, in launching a recent series of massive bailouts, an unprecedented splurge in federal spending, has just created a record deficit of $1.6 trillion.  At the same time, Congress has avoided the tough but vital decision about how to pay for the massive entitlement obligations that have already been incurred in Medicare and Social Security, let alone how to finance new ones.

• Medicare’s unfunded liabilities stand at $38 trillion currently.  “Medicaid’s long-term unfunded liability will be even greater than Medicare’s because Medicaid is funded entirely through general funds on a pay-as-you-go basis, with no trust funds or dedicated payroll tax available for its use.
• “Given the unsustainable cost of the current programs and the utter failure of Congress to address these issues, it is hard to imagine how Congress would plan to finance additional entitlement costs.  The current approach on Capitol Hill is to avoid such accountability.”[9]

 

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[1][1][1] Ibid.  (See Heritage entitlement spending charts, “Entitlement Spending Will More than Double by 2050,” “Entitlements Alone Will Eclipse Historical Tax Levels by 2052,” and “Mandatory Spending Consumes Growing Share of Total Spending,” at http://www.heritage org.  See also: U.S. Government Accountability Office, “The Nation’s Long-Term Fiscal Outlook: September 2008 Update, GAO-09-94R, at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0994r.pdf (Feb. 6, 2009), and “State and Local Fiscal Challenges: Rising Health Care Costs Drive Long-Term and Immediate Pressures, GAO-09-21-OT, Nov. 19, 2008, at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0921t.pdf (Feb. 9, 2008)

 

 

[2] U.S. Government Accountability Office, “The Nation’s Long-Term Fiscal Outlook: September 2008 Update, p. 2.

[3] Ibid., p. 10

[4] Ibid., p. 8

[5] Ibid., p. 5

[6] The Heritage Foundation: “Note to Congress: Expanding Health Care Entitlements is Bad Policy,”, by Dennis G. Smith, Feb. 12, 2009

[7] Ibid.

[8] The Heritage Foundation: “Note to Congress: Expanding Health Care Entitlements is Bad Policy,” by Dennis G. Smith, Fe. 12, 2009

[9] The Heritage Foundation, “Note to Congress: Expanding Health Care Entitlements is Bad Policy,” by Dennis G. Smith, February 12, 2009

By Lucy Kubiszyn

          

At first, I didn’t believe what I heard on the radio. Listening to Rush Limbaugh discuss the section of Obama’s government health care plan now in Congress, I thought, this is America, and we don’t do things like that. But as I continued to listen, I actually became fearful. These people in power are serious about change, change in our values, our ethics, and yes, our country.

            Under Democrats, the future doesn’t look  bright for grandma and grandpa. As part of the pending legislation, senior citizens must submit to government counseling on “end-of-life issues” at least once every five years. If seniors have health problems or are in assisted living or nursing homes, they must be counseled more often on these issues. Combine this part of the legislation with the section that says under Obama’s plan older citizens may be denied more health services in the future because of their age, and it really doesn’t look good for seniors.

             According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the global population of seniors will double from seven to 14 percent over the next 30 years. Obviously, this population is taking up too much of the nation’s resources and therefore, has become disposable. Yet, this is the group of people who have worked hard  their entire lives, paid their taxes, supported their schools, churches and communities and served in our military. Now in their golden years, these seniors find Obama and his cohorts turning their backs on them.            

          Maybe most upsetting to me is the fact that I am one of their number, and I’m not ready to be shipped out to sea on Obama’s boat. I may be pushing 74, but I still have a pretty good life. I enjoy my husband, five children and 13 grandchildren. We work and bring money into the economy. We pay our taxes, support our church and community organizations. Bottom line, we are still active and productive citizens.            

          So, take your boat, Obama, and shove it!  I’m not being shipped out anywhere right now.   

“Each person has a Mission. God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission – I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.” 

by Cardinal John Newman, Echo of Mary Queen of Peace, 1995 

Lucy Kubiszyn is a writer, retired public relations professional, and a wife, mother and grandmother with very conservative views.