![The Senate’s Health Care Reform Is Abysmal]()
by Art Smith
We are going to try and keep it simple on this one.
The bill stinks.
Put aside the fact that it expands Medicare.
Put aside the fact that it establishes coverage mandates (you will be forced to buy health insurance somehow).
Put aside the fact that it is a colossal power grab for an industry that has been well managed by the states for a long time.
Put aside the fact that it will increase taxes.
Put aside the fact that it will dramatically increase the cost of insurance for everyone (and they sold this to us originally as being needed to stop the soaring cost of insurance!).
Put aside the fact that it will wreak havoc on the tax code, balloon the size of the IRS and increase the size of corporate tax management teams (which will increase consumer costs in all industries).
Put aside the fact that this bill is overloaded with earmarks... in a bill that was intended to bring equality in health care.
Put aside all of those issues and focus on the one true deception that will be broadcast throughout the weekend and coming weeks: that the Congressional Budget Office has determined that the bill will have a reducing impact the deficit.
The lie here is that although the Federal deficit will [...]
![The Senate’s Health Care Reform Is Abysmal]()
by Art Smith
On The Conservative Reader Report today we will have Kim Lehman, President of Iowa Right To Life and Iowa's Republican Committee Woman to the RNC, on our show along with Shane Vander Hart, conservative uber-blogger from Caffeinated Thoughts and guest blogger on The Des Moines Register's political web page. Our focus today will be all about the Health Care Reform Massacre about to be perpetrated by the United States Senate. The show starts at 3:00 Central on Des Moines Local Live Internet Radio.
![The Senate’s Health Care Reform Is Abysmal]()
by Art Smith
Today is the anniversary of the day that Rosa Parks made waves in Montgomery Alabama in 1955 by refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. What Rosa did that day sparked a movement resulting from pressure that had been building for almost 100 years.
African Americans, who had been freed from slavery by Abraham Lincoln, were forced to endure a century of contempt, disdain and abuse from white Americans. Our society, although founded by men who rejected the concept of social classes, was maintaining a dual class existence and legally forcing people of color to live a servile existence.
This was wrong.
By the power and grace of God, this finally changed in America as a result of the boycotts, rallies, legal wranglings, and efforts of the Federal Courts and finally Congress. Although one may believe strongly in the sovereignty of the states, clearly the rights of United States citizens was being abridged by the actions and/or inaction of many of those states, and the Federal government needed to act.
When I contemplate these events, it always amazes me that human beings can be so incredibly dysfunctional. It certainly makes greater sense to me to see an individual here or there who is so stupid that they actually think they are superior to others. But to think that large swathes of our society would actually continue to look down on others because of a history that is over two generations old, and especially in a time following the horrors of Nazi Germany, that they could continue to look upon other humans as just wild cattle that had been let loose and whose status as free men and women had to be tolerated. How could our country reach this point?
I think the answer to [...]
![The Senate’s Health Care Reform Is Abysmal]()
by Linda Morgan
George Monbiot, who is likely the biggest global warming propagandist in the press today, looks at the Global Warming emails that have been the topic of so much discussion lately and admits:
It’s no use pretending this isn’t a major blow. The emails extracted by a hacker from the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia could scarcely be more damaging. I am now convinced that they are genuine, and I’m dismayed and deeply shaken by them.
The trouble is, he’s still playing the party line:
Yes, the messages were obtained illegally.
As I told you yesterday and Friday, as well, I suspect this was an inside job, and there is no credible evidence that suggests that the messages were illegally obtained. Rather, they were distributed by someone who had legal access to them. If you’re going to claim then that illegality was involved say they were illegally distributed rather than illegally obtained. Unless, of course, that is , you’re trying to project yourself in the public eye as the victim.
The fact of the matter is that this is damaging to the global warming religion, because of the pattern which has already been laid down over a period of decades. The misbehavior of the scientists being [...]
![The Senate’s Health Care Reform Is Abysmal]()
by Fersboo
Nine months ago, Congress passed and President Obama signed an economic stimulus package totalling $1.8 trillion. Hastily designed and implemented, the legislation was highly criticized because it was virtually impossible for anyone to have actually read the bill (much less understand it) prior to implementation. The President himself told us that it was imperative we pass these bills in order to restore economic stability. Conservatives, especially fiscal conservatives, howled, claiming the bill was inappropriately designed, that the money being spent could not possibly generate economic growth because it would take too long to move through the system, with the added concern of driving up an already astronomical deficit. The Administration insisted that the spending was necessary to keep unemployment from exceeding 10%. We were being deceived, and we knew it.
It generally takes about six months for changes in fiscal or monetary policy to be felt throughout the broader economy, so after nine months we should be seeing some signs of economic improvement. That is, the weekly economic statistics [...]
by Art Smith
Today will be the third (and final) week sitting in for Tim Albrecht at The Bean Walker Live on Des Moines Local Live/Mac's World Live. I have a number of interesting topics to share today, including the news about the possible Democratic opponent to Chuck Grassley, the Iowa Attorney General's plans for staff cuts, oddities, and of course we'll talk about Health Care Reform.
I'm hoping to have a local heart surgeon join us to discuss some of the costs embedded in the current system, and talk about ways we can address those costs.
by Art Smith
This week, once again, I will be hosting the internet rafio show The Bean Walker Live at Des Moines Local Live! The show airs Tuesday from 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM. During the first hour we will be talking about the Iowa Gubernatorial Candidate Forum this past weekend, the situation with the Iowa state budget, and Friday's CBO report on the benefits of Tort Reform. During the second hour, we will have Pastors Quintin Stieff and Dan Wentworth from Valley Church in West Des Moines to talk about a new program at Valley Church called "Love You Des Moines!".
Join us!
by Art Smith
Update! Link to podcast of today's show!
Last Tuesday (September 29), I hosted the second half of Tim Albrecht's program "The Bean Walker Live!" on Des Moines Local Live, and today begins 3 weeks of hosting the program in full while Tim concentrates on getting married!
On today's show, during the first hour I will have Shane Vander Hart from Serve Our Youth Network to share about the volunteer opportunities they have and how they cooperate with local government to impact the lives of high-risk kids in the Des Moines Metro area.
During the second hour [...]
![The Senate’s Health Care Reform Is Abysmal]()
by
We've had a number of great opportunities to interact with our Congressmen in townhalls, the President speaking anytime he gets within 50 feet of a camera, and Kathleen Sebelius criticizing a reporter for not sneezing into his elbow. What's really interesting is that none of these folks really know anything about providing medical care for, well, anybody.
Here's an opportunity for those of you that are interested in the perspective of a (Christian) Physician's organization with regard to the Healthcare Reform currently being discussed in Congress. Granted, the world view of Christians in the medical field will be skewed toward Christ's admonitions to feed the poor and heal the sick, but perhaps we can put up with that kind of crazy talk (wry smile).
BRISTOL, Tenn., Sept. 28 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA, www.cmda.org), the nation's largest faith-based organization of doctors announced they will hold a free Webcast on healthcare reform, "Health Care Reform - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" on Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009 at 8:30 PM/EDT. The Webcast can be accessed by going to www.livestream.com/cmda. Freedom2Care, an ad-hoc coalition of conscience-affirming organizations is a sponsor of the event.
Dr. Gene Rudd, Sr. VP for CMDA will moderate the event. New Jersey Congressman Christopher Smith; David [...]
![The Senate’s Health Care Reform Is Abysmal]()
by Art Smith
Term limits have lately become a popular topic of conversation. When a lot of folks start getting fed up with what's happening in Washington, term limits are sometimes becomes strategy #1 for solving the problem. But it's like the idea of a flat tax or domestic drilling... it sounds good as a sound bite, but what does it really end up meaning, and why do we really think it's going to help?
Frankly, I was a big supporter of the idea some years ago (back when Neal Smith represented my US House district in Congress), but I have figured out that the reason I was such a big supporter was specifically because of Neal Smith. That is, I wanted him out of office, and term limits sounded like an easy way to accomplish it. It was a specific, tactical, selfish reason.
I certainly recognize that there are other reasons, some of which are compelling. Let's make a list, shall we?
I don't like the person who's currently my (legislator, governor, etc.). From my own party, I've heard activists actually say "How else do we get rid of Tom Harkin (Senator from Iowa)?". Wow, so then what happens when we get someone in office who we actually like? You can't have it both ways... implementing term limits is not the way to move your agenda forward. Term limits will likely cause us more difficulty in moving the agenda forward. What you need is to bring candidates who can win elections.
Two terms (or one, or three, whatever the number of the month is) are enough for anyone to accomplish what they need to accomplish. If the purpose of sending someone to represent us in Washington or our state capital is to accomplish some singular thing, this might actually make sense. But the purpose of the legislatures includes doing a good deal of work that must be [...]
