Posts Tagged ‘Gov’t Waste’
Something to keep in mind when President Obama talks about a “spending freeze” during his State of the Union speech tonight.
(From the Wall Street Journal)
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously envisioned the states serving as laboratories, trying “novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.” And on health care, that’s just what they’ve done.
Like participants in a national science fair, state governments have tested variants on most of the major components of the health-care reform plans currently being considered in Congress. The results have been dramatically increased premiums in the individual market, spiraling public health-care costs, and reduced access to care. In other words: The reforms have failed.
New York is exhibit A. In 1993, the state prohibited insurers from declining to cover individuals with pre-existing health conditions (“guaranteed issue”). New York also required insurers to charge those enrolled in their plans the same premium, regardless of health status, age or sex (“community rating”). The goal was to reduce the number of uninsured by making health insurance more accessible, particularly to those who don’t have employer-provided insurance.
Here’s a list of the titanic spending bills the Senate has passed since January. Click on the links to see how your Senators voted.
$350 billion Wall Street bailout extension
$400 billion, earmark-infested omnibus spending bill
$6 billion to federalize charities and pay volunteers
$109 billion loan to the International Monetary Fund
$3 billion for cash for clunkers
$400 million in corporate welfare to help tourism corporations advertise overseas
Read all about it at HotAir.com.
Was there any doubt? I mean, really, was there any doubt that Cash for Clunkers was a STUPID idea that was going to waste billions of dollars and probably harm the automobile industry?
We spent $3,000,000,000 to save roughly $375,000,000. That puts us in the hole for about $2,625,000,000. But what do you expect of people who engineered the sub-prime mortage debacle?
(From GlennBeck.com)
August 24, 2009 – 18:05 ET
Am I hateful if I ask:
- Our unfunded liability for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is close to $100 trillion. Is there any way to pay for these programs without bankrupting America?
- We are in so much debt, why spend more borrowed money on cap-and-trade and healthcare programs before we stop the flow of red-ink?
- The stimulus package funneled billions of dollars to ACORN. How does giving billions of dollars to ACORN stimulate the economy?
Incredible, isn’t it? Trillions of dollars, gone. Say it: “TRILLIONS.”
T-R-I-L-L-I-O-N-S.
Thanks to the Fed, we each owe over $30,000. Each of your kids also owes $30,000. Each illegal alien owes $30,000. Every single person between the Canadian and Mexican borders and between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans owes $30,000.
How’s that hope and change workin’ for ya?
(From American Thinker)
August 14, 2009
By Lee Cary
Obama and Democrat Congressional leaders uncorked the bottle and the peoples’ Genie is out.
He’s not happy, this Genie. In normal times, he sits there quietly inside the bottle. Sometimes watching. Mostly not. He finds politics boring, if not disgusting.
He sat and watched in silence as the TARP bill passed. Told the sky was falling, he looked up and saw it wasn’t. But he shrugged, trusting the bipartisan nature of the effort. Then, as TARP rolled out, he stood up. The bailouts plowed a furrow across his forehead; his eyebrows lowered; his gaze intensified. But he stayed inside the bottle.
Along came the Stimulus Bill. Or, in the language of the big spenders, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Genie smelled the bacon through the glass bottle. He heard the squeals coming next from the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009. Another stampede of pigs.
Inside the bottle, the Genie’s leaned forward, pressing his hands and nose flat against the glass. As he watched banks and car companies yield to government control, his jaw slid up. His lips pressed tight. His breathing shortened. But he stayed inside the bottle.
Here’s the full Health Care bill that sits in the House
• Page 16: States that if you have insurance at the time of the bill becoming law and change, you will be required to take a similar plan. If that is not available, you will be required to take the gov option!
• Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!
• Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed!
• Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)
• Page 42: The “Health Choices Commissioner” will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.
• Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services.
• Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard.
