Oppose the Baucus Health Care Bill: Privacy

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Senator Max Baucus' health care bill is the current star in the Senate and is currently in markup in the Senate Finance Committee. While they rejected an amendment today to add a public option to the bill, there is still a lot to dislike in its current form. For instance:

Invades Your Privacy - The Baucus bill enforces both its individual and employer mandates by deputizing the Internal Revenue Service. To enforce these provisions, the bill would therefore require individuals, health insurers, employers, and government health agencies to report detailed health insurance information on all Americans to the IRS, adding significant administrative costs and reducing privacy protections. The IRS would also be required to report personal income data to state exchanges, insurance companies, and employers because premium credits and out-of-pocket limits would depend on income.

I'm Sorry I Missed It

Looks like it would have been good fun to join Saturday's 9/12 rally in D.C. You may not have seen much coverage of the event because most media outlets have been trying to ignore or misrepresent this grassroots movement. It was hard to ignore the number of people that turned out.

Good article over at American Thinker about the event:

Most significantly of all, those in attendance had not relied in any way on members of the current political class to get them there, nor had they showed up because their livelihood would be in jeopardy had they not agreed to demonstrate, as is the union way.

Why National Debt Matters

Benjamin Franklin wrote: "...think what you do when you run in debt; you give to another power over your liberty."

The Founders considered public debt a necessary evil. They found it necessary to borrow to finance war-time spending and establish a brand new nation. Then they went to work trying to pay it off before it was passed to the next generation. Thomas Jefferson stated, "I, however, place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared." One of Andrew Jackson's greatest personal triumphs was to pay off the public debt in 1835. Although short-lived he was the only one to do so, but not the only one that worked towards that end. Modern attitudes towards public debt and deficit spending have changed.

Warren Buffet wrote about grave concerns over deficit spending in his recent op-ed The Greenback Effect in the August 18th NYT *(free registration required). Key observations that he makes:

To understand this threat, we need to look at where we stand historically. If we leave aside the war-impacted years of 1942 to 1946, the largest annual deficit the United States has incurred since 1920 was 6 percent of gross domestic product. This fiscal year, though, the deficit will rise to about 13 percent of G.D.P., more than twice the non-wartime record. In dollars, that equates to a staggering $1.8 trillion. Fiscally, we are in uncharted territory...

Legislators will correctly perceive that either raising taxes or cutting expenditures will threaten their re-election. To avoid this fate, they can opt for high rates of inflation, which never require a recorded vote and cannot be attributed to a specific action that any elected official takes. In fact, John Maynard Keynes long ago laid out a road map for political survival amid an economic disaster of just this sort: “By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.... The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”

Please go learn a little bit about the national debt, what it means, and the implications for you as an individual. If you go to the website for the Bureau of Public Debt you can do a little research on where we currently stand. Wikipedia, as flawed as it is, has a decent article on United States national debt with plenty of external links to flow.

High debt carries repercussions for nations just as it does for individuals and families. Take for instance these headlines all appearing on a single day, 9/8:
UN wants new global currency to replace dollar
Senate must raise debt ceiling above $12T
China alarmed by US money printing
Barack Obama accused of making 'Depression' mistakes
U.S. no longer most competitive economy

We may be in for a roller-coaster ride.

*You can bypass annoying compulsory registration for this site and others by searching bugmenot.com.

For A Laugh

I'll be practicing some of those dance moves over the weekend.

That Creepy Video

One of the videos I linked to in my last post caught the attention of a few family members who were understandably creeped out by its message. I found the video to be puke-inducing and didn't quite make it to the end the first time through. If you have a strong gag reflex, I suggest you grab a suitable receptacle (sick bag, trash can, briefcase, etc.) just in case.

I pledge alligience to Obama

And to the social causes for which he stands.

One nation under his care,

Unquestioning with obedience,

And entitlements for all.

I'll give you a minute to mop up the mess...There, feeling better? If you don't share my reaction to the message then there is probably a lot we don't agree on.

PS - Apparently the propaganda was directed and edited by Demi Moore and presented to their Great Leader in honor of his inaguration. So it's a little old, but has hit the news again because school officials have been showing this to students.

No Thanks Mr. President--I'll Indoctrinate My Own Kids

Next Tuesday, September 8th, President Obama will address students nationwide as described at the U.S. Department of Education's home page. This has never happened before.

It's fully possible that the message is innocuous enough. If he sticks to the message sent to school administrators that would be great. I would hope for a message stressing the importance of education with a challenge to students to excel in areas of math, science, engineering, and medicine. These are key skills the economy needs in order to expand, innovate, and create.

I have a natural inclination to suspect ulterior motives. I'll admit that I don't trust the current federal government. Let's face it--adults are just too difficult to re-educate. The younger generations are much more malleable. I have a hard time not picturing some left-leaning suggestions creeping into the text of the speech. What's the over/under on how many times the word "green" will be in the speech?

Educators have been sent suggested activities for this speech including:

Grades 7-12
Guided Discussion:
What is President Obama inspiring you to do? What is he challenging you to do?
What do you believe are the challenges of your generation?
How can you be a part of addressing these challenges?

PreK-6
Students could discuss their responses to the following questions:
What do you think the President wants us to do?
Does the speech make you want to do anything?
Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us?

I emailed the principal of my son's school to just ask if she has heard about the broadcast or had plans to participate. She responded that she didn't know anything about it, but would ask the teachers. Nationwide this event has parents prepared to pull their kids from class for the day. I don't think I'll go that far. At least for now, I'm still confident that I'm more of a hero to my son than the POTUS. I'm more concerned about biased teachers brow-beating progressive activism into kids in the classroom. What I don't need is someone committing my children to serve Barack Obama.

Healthcare Takeover Has Been Tried Before

I ran across this speech from Reagan today. Watch the clip after the jump. There is also an abridged (and 'hip') version that Glenn Beck has put out there. I recommend listening to the whole thing because of how familiar the arguments are and how well he exposes the motivations behind government controlled healthcare. This recording (it is audio only) was apparently released in 1961.

"What can we do about this? Well, you and I can do a great deal. We can say right now that we want no further encroachment on these individual liberties and freedoms and that you demand the continuation of our traditional free enterprise system. You and I can do this. "

The currently proposed version of healthcare reform may not survive thanks to all those that have joined the debate during this August recess. Charles Krauthammer writes that the next version will surely come, may garner wide bipartisan support, and still accomplish the goal of socialized medicine--only delayed a little longer.