Super Committee Not So Super

The debt ceiling agreement requires the formation of a “super committee” of twelve Senators and Congressmen, who will be charged with finding $1.2 trillion in additional deficit reduction. To approve anything, the committee needs 7 out of 12 votes. If it fails, or if Congress does not approve its recommendations, automatic cuts will kick in to make up the difference between what the committee approves and $1.2 trillion. So, how is the committee stacking up? It’s not horrible.



The Good

● Tax Pledge: Every Republican member has signed Grover Norquist’s pledge not to raise taxes.



● Leftist Anger: Leftist bloggers like the Daily Kos are furious at Harry Reid’s picks, which they consider unwilling to defend entitlements.



● Defense Sec. Leon Panetta: Democrat Leon Panetta just undermined the Democratic plan by saying that the super committee should not cut anything else from the defense budget. This will make it hard for Democrats to sell further defense cuts.



● Pat Toomey (R) (McConnell appointee): Toomey is the ultimate Tea Party guy. He’s the former head of the conservative Club for Growth and a Tea Party favorite. In fact, he tried to unseat Arlen Specter before there even was a Tea Party. He’s a solid conservative. Interestingly, he says he would be willing to eliminate deductions and subsidies in exchange for lower income tax rates, but will oppose any sort of “big tax increase.” That puts tax reform on the table.



● Jeb Hensarling (R) (Boehner appointee): Hensarling is a former chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee. He is also a member of the Budget Committee and works closely with Paul Ryan, who asked not to be appointed to this commission. His views are fairly similar to the Tea Party Republicans.



● Fred Upton (R) (Boehner appointee): You might recall Upton from the lightbulb debate. At the time, we weren’t sure if he would be willing to cast off his moderate environmentalism and do a good job of shifting the Energy and Commerce Committee to the right. He has. And he should be a good player here. He seems interested in ending energy subsidies, particularly for wind and solar: “Since I am sure that the industry will never give up its free money voluntarily, now is the time for us to slash it on our terms.” This has freaked out environmentalists.



● John Kyl (R) (McConnell appointee): Kyle is retiring at the end of the year, and wants to be Vice President. He has been a reliable conservative during his time in the Senate. He has a long record of pushing tax cuts and he walked out of the Biden talks because he felt the Democrats only wanted “job-killing tax hikes and new spending.” He also has suggested cutting deductions in exchange for lower rates.

The Bad

● Dave Camp (R) (Boehner appointee): Camp is the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. I know nothing about him (which is a bad thing) except that he is a member of both the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership and the conservative Republican Study Committee. Being a member of the RSC is a good thing and he describes himself as a conservative on fiscal policy, but he has favored extending unemployment benefits and the auto bailout.



● Rob Portman (R) (McConnell appointee): Portman is a former Bush budget director, which is not a good thing. He’s a freshman Senator from Ohio and I know little about him, except that he’s considered the weak link on the Republican side. He too has signaled a willingness to reduce tax breaks, but says that those cuts should be used to lower rates.

The Ugly

● Max Baucus (D) (Reid appointee): Finance Committee Chairman Baucus is a wild card. He has shown an ability to act in a bipartisan manner when he worked with Chuck Grassley on a jobs bill which the Democratic left flank hated because it included tax cuts. But he also came up with Obamacare. He is likely to fight to protect farm subsidies and Obamacare. Interestingly, former Republican Senate Alan Simpson, who chaired Obama’s deficit reduction committee of which Baucus was a member, call him an awful choice. He described Baucus as being lazy, unhelpful and out of touch.



● John Kerry (D) (Reid appointee): Kerry is a troubling pick. First, he lobbied to get on the committee because he’s looking for a legacy. That’s always a bad sign. Secondly, he has proved to be a standard liberal ass. Third, he just accused the Tea Party of being the cause of the downgrade and he made the Orwellian suggestion that the media should ignore the Tea Party. That said, he was one of the first to attack Obama’s Afghanistan policy, claiming that we should not stick with a policy just because it exists. And Alan Simpson strangely suggests that: “Kerry will do good work, he really will. I know him well.” If he wants a genuine legacy, then he will need to move right, but we'll see.

The Ugliest

● Patty Murray (D) (Reid appointee): Patty Murray is the most cynical choice. She is the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. This means that her job is to protect the 22 Democratic senators who are up for re-election in 2012. Their current campaign strategy is to scare old people by slandering the GOP by claiming Republicans are trying to destroy Medicare. Of this pick, one Republican official said: “It is shocking that Harry Reid appointed his chief fundraiser to a committee that will be the central focus of every lobbyist in town.”



● Pelosi: Pelosi has yet to appoint her three clowns, but you can pretty much guess they will be total losers.

At this point, Baucus and Kerry are where we will need to look to get a good deal. At the same time, we will need to watch Portman. My guess is that we end up with a little tax reform, the ending of some deductions and subsidies, a reduction in rates, a trimming of entitlement numbers without an actual plan to cause the cuts, and some minor discretionary cuts.



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Democrats Kill Bipartisanship

Bipartisanship means many things to many people. To some, it means trying to work together. To Obama it means the Republicans should accept the blame for his failures. To Harry Reid, it means killing any bill which the Republicans might like. So much for the new era of bipartisanship. Rest in peace dear friend, two days was too young to die.

When Obama met with the Republicans on Tuesday, his lips moved a lot and the word “bipartisan” kept falling out, but so did a lot of other nasty words. Still, we were supposed to believe that Obama wanted a new era of bipartisanship, and he particularly urged the Republicans to work with the Democrats on a jobs bill. But that was Tuesday and yesterday was Thursday, and two days is a long time in politics.

Thursday morning, Sen. Max Baucus and Sen. Chuck Grassley unveiled their long-awaited bipartisan jobs bill. But within minutes, the Democratic Party’s left flank was up in arms.

“Waaaaaah, this includes tax cuts,” sort of whined Dianne Feinstein. Actually, what she said was:

“It is my belief that tax credits only go to people who are making money, and they generally keep it. That’s the way I feel, I don’t know that anyone else agrees with me.”

Wow, that’s stupid! Note the use of the word “feel” rather than “think,” indicating the disuse of her brain -- and the lack of any research. But then, she may know what she’s talking about. . . considering that she apparently uses her Senate seat to benefit her husband financially:

1. She served on the Senate’s Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee, while companies owned by her husband won extensive government contracts (worth more than $1 billion) without competitive bidding -- the same procedure Barack promised to halt until he found out he could reward his own friends using this practice; and

2. She requested $25 billion in extra federal funding for the FDIC, which three days later granted a huge contract to a real estate company on whose board her husband sits to sell foreclosed homes for the FDIC.

But DiFi wasn’t alone. No, where there is one rich socialist howling at the moon, there are more. Enter Tom Harkin, a man who "mistakenly" claimed to fly combat missions over North Vietnam when he was really in Japan. Rich farm boy doesn’t like the bill either, it doesn’t extend unemployment benefits far enough. . . here piggy piggy.

Sen. Byron Dorgan (SBD for short), who did not take campaign contributions from Jack Abramoff while his committee was investigating Abramoff. . . but did take them from Abramoff clients (that’s called a “bag man” in the criminal parlance), worries that “this has morphed into something different than just a jobs bill.” Oh no! You mean it’s become a regular Democratic bill? Liars and spenders and bagman, oh my!

And there are more: Sherrod Brown, who flosses his teeth with his underwear, and Jay Rockefeller, who flosses his tooth with Brown’s underwear, don’t like the bill either.

Thus, confronted with a wave of socialist anger, Dingy Harry Reid killed the bill. But not only did he kill it, he killed it only a couple hours after it was introduced, without even a chance to fix the bill. This was considered a major rebuke to Max Baucus for his misjudgment in trying to work with the Republicans. What were you thinking Max? Don't you know that bipartisanship doesn’t mean actually working with the Republicans!! Don't make me go all Rahm Emanuel on you!

So there you have it. We now know exactly what the Democrats mean when they say “bipartisan.” They mean they would rather do nothing than do anything the Republicans might like. . . funny, that sounds like spite? Oh well. And I guess we also know what Obama’s appeals for bipartisanship mean to his party.

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Top 10 Scandals of 2009

Every year has its share of scandals. It might surprise you that 2009 was no different. In fact, there were dozens of scandals. But I've picked out the ten biggies of 2009. So without further adieu, here are the top ten scandals of 2009. . . in no particular order.

1. Fake Stimulus Jobs

Democratic President Obama’s sole “achievement” to date has been the massive “stimulus” package. But the stimulus didn’t create any jobs. So Obama came up with the idea that it would “save OR create” jobs. That still didn’t work. So they put together a list of nearly 700,000 jobs that they claimed were saved. But an examination of that list quickly found that many of the jobs did not exist. Then it was discovered that stimulus money was spent in Congressional districts that did not exist. And sometimes, it was spent on people who were owed money by members of Team Obama. At this point, at least 20% of the 700,000 have turned out to be fake.

2. Taxes Are For Little People

Democratic President Obama came to office promising a higher level of competence and ethics. But five of his nominees were blasted right out of the gate for not paying their taxes. Tom Daschle was forced to withdraw his nomination after it was discovered that he failed to pay $140,000 in back taxes, as was appointee Nancy Killefer.

Tim Geithner managed to get confirmed despite not paying his taxes, though he’s now involved in a new scandal. Apparently, Geithner directed AIG to delay publicly disclosing that tax dollars were used to pay $62 billion in insurance-like bets owed to major American and foreign banks, so that the disclosure would not interfere with his nomination.

But taxes weren’t the only problems for Obama nominees. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew his nomination after it was disclosed that Richardson was involved in pay-to-play allegation related to bonds issued by the state of New Mexico. According to Bloomberg, a federal grand jury was investigating the relationship between Richardson and a company called CDR Financial Products, Inc., which received almost $1.5 million in fees from the New Mexico Finance Authority after donating $100,000 to Richardson.

3. ACORN

Democratic ally ACORN first came to public attention in 2008, when its workers registered a whole lot of fake people to vote. In 2009, ACORN was exposed as an all around criminal organization that used Federal funds for who knows what. The final straw came when ACORN volunteers around the country advised two reporters, posing as a prostitute and her pimp, how to get away with human trafficking and tax evasion. This caused the Census to drop ACORN’s involvement in the 2010 Census and Congress to cut off their funding, an act ACORN is now challenging in court.

4. Hiking the Appalachian Trail

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, seen by many as a strong candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2012, gave us a new euphemism: hiking the Appalachian Trail. In our coarsened culture, there are affairs and then there’s just plain stupid, and Sanford gave us stupid in spades. The scandal began when people realized that no one knew where Sanford was, including his staff. He told them he was hiking the Appalachian Trail, but in reality he was getting busy in Buenos Aires, Argentina with his mistress. . . sparking a national game of Where’s Waldo and killing any aspirations he had for higher office.

5. Max Baucus Falls In Love

Democratic Sen. Max Baucus too hiked the Appalachian Trail this year. He then recommended that his mistress and former campaign worker, Melodee Hanes, be appointed as the United States Attorney for Montana. This was after Baucus gave her a $14,000 raise after they became romantically involved.

6. Chris Dodd’s Sweetheart Deal

Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, the creature from Connecticut and Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which regulates the financial industry, was discovered to have gotten a sweetheart deal on a loan for a Capitol Hill townhouse from subprime lender Countrywide Financial. Dodd claimed he didn’t know he got a sweetheart deal.

Dodd also claimed he had nothing to do with the AIG bonusgate, though he later acknowledge that he had added the language to the stimulus bill that allowed AIG to pay those bonuses. Dodd also became infamous for insisting that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were sound and for refusing to reign them in. Not coincidentally, Dodd received more contributions from Fannie and Freddie than anyone else on earth.

All of this has caused Dodd to give up his re-election campaign.

7. Gov. Rod Blagojevich, Salesman of the Year

Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was impeached in 2009 after it was discovered that he tried to sell Obama’s seat in the Senate -- he had the power to appoint a successor. Obama initially claimed to have never heard of Blagojevich, but photos soon surfaced of the two doing everything together except hiking the Appalachian Trail. Even for a place as hopelessly corrupt as Illinois, this was a little too much.

8. Climategate

Perhaps the most important scandal of our time began when a hacker exposed a trail of e-mails between a small group of scientists who appear to have been manufacturing the global-warming crisis. (I will finally provide my long-promised article on this on Monday.) This scandal seems to have finally exposed the socialist/climate-change lobby.

9. Charlie “RICO” Rangel

Democratic Representative Charlie Rangel’s problems began years ago, but they really hit their stride in 2009. At the end of 2008, we learned that Rangel, who writes the United States tax code as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, failed to pay his taxes on various properties and that he took improper exemptions. He claimed ignorance. In August 2009, Rangel disclosed that he had previously failed to disclose $500,000 in assets and income, effectively doubling his declared net worth.

It was then discovered that a company called Nabors Industries was using a loophole Rangel was protecting (after fighting to close it for years) to avoid paying tens of millions of dollars in taxes by opening a small outlet in Bermuda and calling themselves a foreign corporation. Nabors Industries, coincidentally, donated one million dollars to the Rangel Center at the City College of New York. Only four companies in the USA benefit from this loophole.

Then it was discovered that Rangel gave $80,000 in campaign funds to a company founded by his son that may not do anything.

In September, it was discovered that Rangel had prevented a bill from coming to a vote that would have prevented $2.8 billion in U.S. taxpayer funds from going to British alcohol giant Diageo to make rum in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Rangel received significant campaign contributions from Diageo.

10. Bonusgate

After blowing trillions of dollars bailing out huge banks that over-extended themselves, it was revealed that team Obama allowed AIG, which taxpayers had bailed out to the tune of $170 billion, to pay out nearly $1.2 billion in bonuses, even though the company lost $61 billion. Team Obama initially tried to blame Bush, but this fell apart when somebody remembered that Geithner and Dodd made the decision. In fact, Dodd specifically changed the TARP bill to allow these bonuses, something Dodd claimed he did at the insistence of Obama and Geithner -- a claim he made after initially stating that he knew nothing about the issue. This caused the New Haven Register to refer to Dodd as “a lying weasel.”


And there you have it: 2009 was truly a scandalous year. We could hope that 2010 will be better, but with a less intelligent version of Al Capone in the White House there isn’t much hope for improvement. Soooooo grab some popcorn and enjoy the ride.

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Repealing Baucus

Having examined the Baucus bill and explained why it might not pass (and now seen the opposition grow), it’s time to talk about repealing this bill if it does pass. Can this bill be repealed. Yes. . . and I would think surprisingly easily. Here’s why.

From A Technical Standpoint, Repeal Would Be Easy

Technically speaking, repealing a law is simple: you just pass another law that repeals the first one. The government speaks through the United States Code. If you want it to shut it up, or change the way it speaks, you just pass a law that deletes or amends the relevant portion of the code.

Yet, this is often not as easy as it sounds. Some laws work their way into the system like weeds, intertwining themselves with dozens of others. This makes it difficult to repeal the law because of the disruption that would be caused the intertwined laws. Consider, for example, social security. Tax law, identification laws, disability law, employment law, medical record privacy laws, and many others rely on the Social Security Act to make their components work. If Social Security were to be repealed, each of those other laws would need to be amended as well.

The Baucus bill, however, is not like social security. The Baucus bill creates stand alone requirements that can easily be removed without causing significant disruption to any other laws or programs.

From A Political Standpoint, Repeal Should Be Easy As Well

As repeal is technically possible, we must next ask whether repeal will be politically possible. To determine that, one must examine who will fight to save the law and who will fight to repeal it, and then determine whether enough legislators will decide that repeal is in their best interests. In this case, few will defend the law and many (both interest groups and the public) will favor its repeal.

If we assume that Baucus passes largely along the lines of what has been proposed (instead of the harder left version proposed by the House), here are the likely consequences:

First, right out of the gates, the public is going to get rather angry because. . .

• Misled Supporters. This bill’s supporters have been misled. Most of the bill's supporters will be shocked to discover that almost none of them will qualify for free health care under the bill. In fact, if you make more than 133% of the poverty level, not only won’t you get coverage, but you will be forced to buy insurance or be fined. Some recent polls suggest that 60% of supporters expect to get free health care from this bill. In reality, less than 1% of the public will qualify for this. That's called disillusionment, a powerful force for killing support.

• All Pain, No Gain. Baucus has written this bill in a way that all of the “bads” (tax increases, cuts to Medicare) kick in right away, but the “goods” (subsidies, limits on insurers) don’t kick in for years. For three years, this bill be all pain and no gain to the public.

• Increased Costs for Everyone. The portion of the public that has private insurance, 60%, will find their insurance costs going up almost immediately. The insurers have estimated that the new requirements will increase the cost of a typical policy by $3,000 to $4,000 per year.

• Benefits Tax. Many members of the public will suddenly find their benefits being taxed at a 40% rate. This is the excise tax on so-called “Cadillac benefits” plans. This will apply to approximately 14% of families and 19% of singles in 2013 (despite indexing, this will increase to 31% and 34% by 2019).

• Doctor Shortage (Phase I). Seniors are going to find that the low rates paid under Medicare/Medicaid continue to force more and more doctors out of the system -- the rest will complain bitterly about cuts, as they do now. With further cuts of 21% and another 40% planned, this could drive out a great many more. Also, with the addition of several million freeloaders to the system, seniors will find the system suddenly becoming very crowded and grievance ridden.

Then, the law of unintended consequences is going to kick in as the plan’s elements slowly take effect. These will convert the public’s anger to rage:

• Failing Insurers. Profits in the insurance industry average about 6% a year, with last year’s profits being around 2%. Those margins are too low for small insurers to continue under the pricing limits imposed by Baucus. Thus, as Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) observed, most of the nation’s 1300 insurers will go out of business. So what you ask? Well, chances are that the insurance that you currently have -- the insurance the Democrats promised you could keep -- comes from one of these 1300 insurers. Whoops.

• Doctor Shortage (Phase II). Wherever the government becomes responsible for paying for health care, it will pay only the current Medicare rates, which are already causing a revolt among doctors. Expect that doctors will refuse to participate in such plans, causing a serious shortage of available doctors. Essentially, you will have a two tiered system -- one for the rich, with doctors, and one for the rest of us, without doctors.

• Doctor Shortage (Phase III). The more the government takes control of the medical profession, the fewer people will go to medical school. This will slowly lead to a doctor shortage, which might become apparent within a few years. Watch medical school entrance exam scores for a drop in quality of applicants.

• Hospital Bankruptcies. Hospitals have been going broke all over the country, in no small part because of Medicare/Medicaid rates. The government will now withhold another $155 billion from hospitals under those programs. It will also continue to refuse to provide full reimbursement for illegal aliens. Expect this to result in a significant increase in the number of hospital bankruptcies.

• Job Market Changes. As the employer mandates kick in, employers will switch to more temporary workers (in place of permanent workers) and will reduce part time workers’ hours to below 30 hours per week to avoid fines and the need to provide insurance.

Then, right when the effects of the bill are starting to become obvious, the new programs will break the Federal budget. While the Democrats claim the budget can absorb one trillion dollars over ten years, this bill far exceeds that.

Right now this bill extends insurance to 12 million more people -- five million of whom fall into the highest cost range (uninsurables). Applying the 2007 Medicare rates, this will cost at least $133.2 billion per year. It also provides subsidies to 67% of Americans. How much is not clear because the formula depends on the cost of the policies -- they’re capped at 10% of the cost of the policy. This could be as high as $2,000 per person, but realistically will be only a fraction of that. Let’s assume an average of $200 per eligible person, all 210 million of them. That works out to a yearly cost of $40.2 billion.

Even ignoring all other costs and the inevitable increase in costs that will arise from forcing another 25 million people into a system that has no capacity to take them, these two costs alone come to $173.2 billion per year, or $1.7 trillion over ten years -- double the Democratic estimates. That’s also more than the budget deficit in 2007 ($162 billion) for which Bush was so roundly (and rightfully) criticized.

To offset this, the Democrats have proposed a $12.1 billion per year tax on drug makers, device makers, and insurers. However, most of that will be passed right back to the government in increased costs. Beyond this, the Democrats are still looking for ways to pay for this.

If you want proof of the likelihood of budget disaster, look at the experience of various states that have tried to do what the Democrats are doing now. Hawaii, Oregon, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Maine have all created some version of government-run health care, and all are a mess. Hawaii’s Prepaid Healthcare Act resulted in higher costs, fewer insurers, and doubled the number of uninsureds. Moreover, the program was so expensive, it had to be discontinued for children.

Maine’s six year old “Dirigo Health” plan has managed to cover only 18,800 of the state’s 130,000 uninsured, has cost many people their private insurance, and has run away premium costs.

After three years, Massachusetts’ “universal coverage plan” caused costs to explode, resulted in waiting lists, and still left thousands uninsured. Tennessee’s plan for low-income people, caused insurers and doctors to leave the state and has repeatedly flirted with insolvency. Oregon creates an annual list, based on budget constraints, that identifies which treatments it will cover and which it won’t.

What Should The Republicans Do

Based on all of the above, the public should be quite happy to see this plan repealed. Moreover, there is no constituency to lobby to keep this thing alive. Indeed, the biggest mistake the Democrats made was not merging Medicare into this new program. Thus, opponents cannot be charged with trying to destroy Medicare by trying to destroy Obama/PelosiCare.

But this alone is unlikely to lead to a repeal, the Republicans will need to generate sufficient pressure that even Democrats support repeal. Here’s how to do that:

1. Set up the criticism now. Tell people what is going to happen so that they know where to lay the blame when their health care costs go up, their taxes go up, they lose their insurance because their insurer goes broke, their doctor refuses to take their new insurance, they are told their jobs will be made temporary positions, their part time hours are cut, the budget deficit skyrockets, and they experience massive delays and incompetence in their dealings with the health care system. Pointing this out now, lets people attribute a cause, which focuses anger and will go a long way to selling the arguments to be made later.

2. Don’t talk about repeal, talk about replacement. Come up with a real plan, not the usual Republican garbage about giving more subsidies to insurance providers, and tell people that you intend to replace Obama/PelosiCare with a plan that will work. Start talking about this now, so that Republicans can claim they tried to change this horrid system before it took effect, and keep talking about it.

3. Generate the proof. Don’t rely on the media to investigate the effects of Obama/PelosiCare or on people to come to their own conclusions. Work with the interest groups to do the studies that back up what is happening and attribute it to Obama/PelosiCare. Do studies pointing out how health care costs go up. Point out permanent jobs lost, reductions in the number of doctors or hospitals or nurses or numbers of insurers. And most importantly, keep pounding away at how many people remain without insurance so that people understand that this was all done for nothing. Indeed, point out that Obama/PelosiCare is spending $1.7 trillion to cover 12 million people, whereas we could have bought them all private insurance for $54 billion a year without destroying every else’s health care.

4. Sell the problem. Finally, Republicans need a unified, continuous attack on the program. They need to run on a visible platform of replacing Obama/PelosiCare. And they need to focus on the key themes:

• Obama/PelosiCare is all pain, no gain. Are you better off? Is your health care better or cheaper?

• Obama/PelosiCare was futile: 30+ million people remain unemployed.

• Obama/PelosiCare was an incredible waste of money. Rather than spending $1.7 trillion to cover 12 million people, we could have bought them all private insurance for $54 billion a year.

• Obama/PelosiCare is bankrupting Medicare.

• Obama/PelosiCare is bankrupting the country. Every other government function is being squeezed or ignored to pay for this turkey. And we’re going deeper and deeper into debt every day because of this plan.

With no one supporting this bill, an angry public, and active interest group opposition, Obama/PelosiCare will become an albatross that hangs around every Democratic neck -- particularly if Obama loses in 2012. This will guarantee ever increasing Republican majorities until they either have the numbers to repeal the bill or the Democrats decide to stop standing in the way. Using the “replace not repeal” plan should hasten their abandonment of Obama/PelosiCare.


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Why The Baucus Bill Probably Won't Pass

For some time now, I have doubted that Obama would get ObamaCare. I did think, however, that he would get some face-saving version. The Baucus bill is that face saving version. But now I’m not so sure even that will pass. And even if it does, a Republican majority should be able to repeal it fairly easily. Let’s take this in two parts. Today is part one: why the Baucus bill might not pass.

There are five primary reasons that the Democrats might not be able to garner the support they need to pass this bill: (1) the lack of a natural constituency supporting the bill, (2) the cost, (3) disputes over how to pay for the bill, (4) disputes over the public option and (5) abortion.

1. The Lack Of A Natural Constituency Supporting The Bill

Before we delve too deeply into the Democrats’ errors, it is important to point out that legislation does not pass on its merits. Legislation passes when enough Congressmen/Senators think it is in their interests to support it.

It is difficult to support a bill that the public hates, and the public hates the Baucus bill: only 42% support the bill. Yet, widespread public opposition can usually be overcome in the legislative process by a motivated constituency. The Baucus bill, however, has no such constituency. Indeed, each of the attempts to create a constituency have failed:

(1) The Public. From the beginning, the Democrats promised to subsidize the cost of health care for nearly everyone in the country. They intended to undercut the public’s fears that this legislation would increase the cost of their health care. But they made two mistakes. First, while the Baucus bill promises subsidies to approximately 67% of Americans, individuals won’t see that money -- it will go directly to the insurers. That makes this a meaningless bribe because the public doesn’t know they will be getting it.

Secondly, the public does not believe this will help. They believe the subsidy (likely less than $200 a year) will not offset the increase in insurance cost (several thousand dollars a year). In fact, they don’t believe any part of the bill will be good for them.

If you examine the chart below, from Gallup, you will see that only 19% of the public believes this bill will improve the quality of the health care they receive, whereas 39% think it will make it worse. Only 22% think it will control the health care costs they pay, whereas 49% think it will make them worse. And only 20% think it will improve their coverage.

Even the bill’s supporters don’t think it will work:

Those numbers are guaranteed to scare every Democrat who faces reelection in the next cycle -- most of whom are already skittish.

(2) The Insurance Lobby. The Democrats blamed the insurance lobby for killing HillaryCare in 1992. So this time, they set out to make the insurance lobby an ally by promising insurers they would get to write policies for another 46 million Americans. This worked at first, until it became clear that the Democrats intended to create a public option or health care co-ops. This would be a disaster for most insurers.

Indeed, according to Republican Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), who gave an impressive interview about this bill, this bill is likely to lead to the collapse of all but the largest insurers. He notes that the Baucus plan prevents insurers from using underwriting techniques to set rates (e.g. they can’t adjust policies to account for certain conditions). Because insurers need that flexibility to account for different expected costs, he reasons that most of the nation’s 1,300 insurers will be unable to issue profitable policies. Thus, they will be forced out of the business, leaving only a handful of large insurers to occupy the field.

Because of this potential disaster, the insurance industry has now abandoned their support and turned against the plan. Consequently, the Democrats are now threatening to attack the insurers with anti-trust laws, thereby guaranteeing the vehemence of the insurers’ opposition.

(3) Hospitals. The Democrats wanted to get hospitals on board (i) by increasing federal reimbursement for the “unreimbursed expenses” hospitals incur in treating the poor and illegal aliens and (ii) by cutting hospitals’ medical malpractice costs.

In 2008, hospitals provided $35 billion worth of uncompensated care (for the uninsured); 80% of this was reimbursed by the government. Most of this went to cover illegal aliens. But illegal aliens won’t be covered by Baucus, thus nothing will change for the hospitals. What’s worse, in July 2009, the White House announced (supposedly after reaching an agreement with hospitals) that it would be cutting the amount it reimburses hospitals under Medicare/Medicaid by $155 billion, to pay for ObamaCare. That’s a $190 billion loss from what hospitals had expected.

Moreover, while the GAO now confirms that medical malpractice reform could save $54 billion over 10 years, and while hospital groups including the American Hospital Association have been shopping malpractice reform plans, the Democrats have offered nothing more than a minor “demonstration project” to study the issue.

(4) Doctors. Democrats hoped to get doctors on board by promising increased reimbursements. But that has turned into a disaster. Here’s why. Medicare/Medicaid do not pay doctors enough to make it worth their time to treat those patients. Indeed, there are thousands of stories of doctors literally going broke trying to treat Medicare/Medicaid patients, and many now refuse to take such patients. In 2003, Congress tried to fix this by providing a temporary boost in the payment amounts until the system could be reworked. That boost runs out next year. If nothing is done, doctors (who already can’t afford to take such payments) will have their reimbursements cut by 21%, with a 40% cut following the year after. To prevent this happening, i.e. not fixing the problem but merely keeping the current reimbursement scheme, Congress must spend another $247 billion over the next 10 years.

However, if that amount is added to the bill, the budget promises made by the Democrats will collapse. So the Democratic leadership tried to sneak this change through as a separate bill. But that was voted down last week. It is not clear whether or not the Democrats will be willing to include these amounts in the current bill. Either choice could kill the bill.

(5) Old People. The Democrats proposed increasing the prescription drug benefit in Medicare to win over seniors. But they ended up scaring the heck out of seniors instead. And things are only going to get worse. Obama and Baucus have proposed cutting Medicare Advantage to save $10 billion. But this would cut the benefits of nine million seniors. Moreover, to pay for this bill, the Democrats are proposing an estimated $250 billion in Medicare/Medicaid cuts, which threatens the existence of both programs. Seniors remain very angry. . . and they vote.

(6) Big Business. The Democrats wooed employers, particularly big business and their union friends, by promising that the cost of employee health care would suddenly be covered by the government and that their smaller, more nimble competitors would be required to pay for benefits. None of that happens in the bill. At best, this bill will be neutral for employers.

(7) Illegal Aliens. This group was treated like a punching bag by the Democrats and gets nothing out of the bill. They are annoyed.

(8) The Hard Left. The hard left has been agitating for the Democrats to socialize medicine since forever. This bill doesn’t even come close to making them happy. In fact, this bill isn’t even a down payment on that. They are very upset.

(9) The Winners. There are only two groups that win under this legislation. The first group are people in the income range between 100% and 133% of the poverty level. They will now be eligible for Medicaid. This is approximately seven million people. The other group are the nation’s five million uninsurable persons. However, these groups lack financial muscle and already are loyal Democratic voters. Thus, their support is not comforting to the Democrats -- it’s like having your mom tell you that she likes your bill.

With no real constituency to support this bill, it will be difficult to pull together the votes needed to pass it.

2. The Cost

In addition to a lack of support among the rank and file, the bill is hemorrhaging support in Congress. The first cause of this falling support is the cost of the bill.

To get political cover, the Democrats have been working to convince everyone that the bill will cost less than one trillion dollars. Obama even set that limit in his daffy health care speech. But the Democrats now admit privately that the bill is understated by at least $150 billion. Moreover, the bill includes assumptions about cost cuts that won’t occur -- particularly the $247 billion in cuts to reimbursements to doctors under Medicare/Medicaid mentioned above. If these things are added back in, the bill will cost $1.268 trillion.

Going above the $1 trillion figure will lose the Snowe Rino and may lose many of the Blue Dogs.

More importantly, the bill was priced using the new (post-$247 billion cut) Medicare/Medicaid rates. Factoring those back out will cause the price tag to creep toward $2 trillion as the Republicans have been claiming. That would be a public relations nightmare, as it would have been cheaper just to buy everyone in the country private health care.

3. Disputes Over How To Pay For The Bill

In addition to the problem with the bill’s cost, there is a serious dispute among Democrats over how to pay for the bill. There is a currently a $200 billion shortfall, even in the fantasy numbers. To cover this, the House wants an income tax surcharge on the rich. The Senate, on the other hand, wants an excise tax on “Cadillac” benefits. And according to Paul Ryan, this could be the biggest problem for the bill because the surcharge “cannot” pass the Senate and the excise tax “cannot” pass the House.

Moreover, neither of these plans has strong support. In the House, the Democrats kept having to cut the rates to keep nervous Democrats in line. In the Senate, Baucus had to carve out exceptions to the excise tax for coal miners to get the support of Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-Deliverance), unions to get the support of Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-UAW) and John Kerry (D-Masshole), and for people in certain “hard hit states” to get the support of Sen. Chucky Schumer (D-Wall Street), Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Forrest Industry), and Harry Reid (D-SEIU), with others now demanding their own exemptions.

This could become the greatest challenge.

4. Disputes Over The Public Option

The most public dispute between the Democrats is whether or not (and to what extent) to include a public option. The Democrats furthest left have stated that they will not vote for a bill that does not include a public option. The Snowe Rino will not support a full public option, but will support a triggered public option. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb) strongly opposes the public option. A few others have refused to commit.

This issue is significant because of the 100% (minus 1) Republican opposition, which means that Democrats will need Snowe and 59 of 60 Democratic Senators to pass this thing. It is unclear whether the current proposed solution of a public option that states could opt-out-of will satisfy enough Democrats to get that. I suspect it ultimately will, but it will be close.

5. Abortion

The Democrats also need 217 of the 256 Democrats in the House to support this bill. That’s where abortion comes in. Apparently, House Democrats have hit a wall on the issue of abortion. Rep. Bart Stupak (D.-Mich.) claims that he has organized a group of “about 40 likeminded Democrats” who will vote to kill the health-care bill over the issue of abortion. He says that the bill’s language that specifies that someone obtaining an abortion must use their own money, not money from federal subsidies, does not go far enough because it is impossible to segregate funds in that way. He wants to bar federal money from going to insurers who cover abortion. But other Democrats say they will not compromise any further on this issue. This standoff could kill this bill.


CONCLUSION

This bill faces widespread opposition in the public. There is no interest group left that supports this bill, most now angrily oppose the bill. The bill costs more than the magic number stupidly established by Obama, and the Democrats can’t agree on how to tax us to pay for it. All of this may make this bill impossible to pass. Add in the dispute over the public option and the abortion standoff, and this bill is rife for a surprise failure. The only question is, will the Democrats be more afraid of not passing this bill than they will be of passing it? Right now, I suspect they gut it deeply before passing it, i.e. they will pass a face saver version of the face saver bill.

Next time, why this bill can be repealed.

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The Baucus Bill Decoded

This is a long one, but probably kind of important to you. During the Bronco/Charger game on Monday night, the Senate Finance Committee finally released its health care bill (S 1796 -- the “Baucus Bill”) for public review. It’s 1502 pages, but I reviewed it. . . every twisted, confused word. In all my years of reading legislation, I’ve never seen anything as hopelessly complex and bizarrely written as this little ditty. Nevertheless, I think I broke the code. Here’s what you need to know.

Before we begin, remember that this turdburger still needs to be merged with the Health Committee version, no doubt behind closed doors. That could change this bill significantly, particularly by adding more goodies for Harry Reid’s vassals in Nevada and for whoever else is up on their bribes. . . er, campaign contributions.


1. General Impressions

Here are some general impressions:

(1) MicroMax Baucus

First, like all good socialists, Max Baucus loves micromanagement. He dedicates page after page to mind-numbing minutia, everything from coding for wheel chairs to ordering studies of how much medication is given in long term care facilities.

(2) Non-Solution Solutions For Cost Control

Baucus has clearly been reading CommentarmaCare. Yep. He didn’t understand it, but he’s been reading it. At various points, Baucus mentions many of the thing that we pointed out as needing to be fixed to get costs under control. Sadly, rather than fixing them (or changing the incentives as we suggested), Baucus punts to the Comptroller General or the Secretary of Health and Human Services to study how to fix them.

Indeed, this bill is full of non-solution solutions. For example, it proposes:

• Implementing a “hospital value-based purchasing program,” once HHS figures out how to do that. (§ 3001)

• Improving the “physician quality reporting system,” once HHS figures out how to do that. (§ 3002)

• Creating “incentives for healthy lifestyles,” once HHS figures out how to do that. (§ 2103)

• Funding a childhood obesity demonstration project, presumably to figure out how to cut childhood obesity. (§ 2105)

• Studying “barriers to appropriate utilization of generic medicine,” with the idea of switching to generics some day. (§ 1654)

FYI, there’s not a peep about medical malpractice reform.

I am concerned that some of these reports require recommendations by the Comptroller General, which will be considered by the committee -- then acted upon outside the normal Senate rules, i.e. no filibuster.

(3) Harm To The Job Market: Temporary Workers

This bill has the potential to do some serious harm to the job market -- enter the law of unintended consequences. To avoid destroying small business, Baucus creates a scheme that allows employers to avoid the damaging consequences of his bill by eliminating permanent jobs and replacing them with temporary or part time positions. . . as they do in Europe. Moreover, the part time work will need to be cut off at less than 30 hours, as compared to less than 40 as is currently done.

Thus, it is likely that employers will replace permanent jobs with temporary jobs and reduce the number of hours given to part time workers.

FYI, in 1997, about 33% of workers in Spain and 37% in Denmark were temporary workers, compared to 2.2% in the USA. Companies in those countries did that to avoid the hassle of workplace laws. Expect that to happen here.

(4) This Bill Is Made For Sellin’

Baucus wrote this bill to reduce political resistance, not to be effective. He chose key constituencies and took out the things they might disagree with, e.g. no fine on small businesses, subsidies for “the poor” (67% of Americans), no illegal aliens, etc. However, by doing this, he’s set up the incentives just mentioned that will warp the job market and he’s jamming a time bomb into the heart of the federal budget.

Incidentally, nothing really applies until 2013, except for the taxes, which begin immediately. Maybe the Mayans were right?


2. Your Obligation To Get Coverage

Beginning on June 30, 2013, after Obama is safely re-elected, you will be required to obtain “essential health benefits coverage.” (§ 1301)

“Essential health benefits coverage” means (1) your current health insurance (“grandfathered health benefits”), (2) an employer sponsored plan, (3) a qualified health benefits plan, (4) Medicare/Medicaid or military coverage, or (5) federal employees coverage.

There does not appear to be any prohibition on you obtaining additional non-qualified coverage, but it will not count to satisfy your obligation under this bill.

(1) Existing Forms of Coverage

As noted, you can keep your current plan as a grandfathered plan. (§ 2221)

Federal employees also get to keep their plans. . . of course.

Medicaid coverage will be expanded to cover anyone with incomes as low as 133% of the poverty level. However, anyone between 100% and 133% of the poverty level can instead elect to get coverage from the “Exchange” (see below) rather than Medicaid.

(2) An Employer Sponsored Plan

Coverage can also come from an employer plan.

Baucus has dramatically changed the requirements on business from those in the House bill. Unlike the House bill, which requires all employers to provide health insurance, Baucus seems to have limited that requirement to any company with 50 or more full time employees. There is a $400 fine per employee if coverage is not offered. (§ 1306) (The employer must report your coverage to the IRS. (§ 1307)).

When it comes to small business, I cannot find a requirement that they provide you with health care, nor can I find a fine if they fail to provide such health care. Hence, you can see the incentive to reduce the number of full time employees. A small business has fewer than 50 full time employees. “Full time employees” includes any employee who works 30 or more hours per week, but does not include temporary workers or seasonal workers (which may include construction workers and farm workers).

For small businesses with fewer than 25 “full time equivalents” (any employee who works 30+ hours a week), there will be a subsidy to provide health insurance. (§ 1221) This subsidy will equal 50% of the employer’s contribution less (1) the amount of the credit multiplied by the number of full time equivalent employees above 10 divided by 15; and (2) the amount of the credit multiplied by the average annual wages of the employer above $20,000 divided by $20,000. Simple huh?

(3) A “Qualified Health Benefits Plan”

If you aren’t offered employer coverage, you can buy health care directly from an exchange.

The exchanges will be set up by the states, which remain responsible for regulating the insurance industry. (§ 2225) Exchanges can be set up within states or within regions by groups of states.

The exchanges must offer coverage in four levels. Each of these levels is designed to provide a level of benefits equal to a certain percentage of the actuarial value -- basically, the percent they intend to pay: Bronze (65% of actuarial value); Silver (70%), Gold (80%) and Platinum (90%). (§ 2241, § 2243)

There can also be a catastrophic plan, but only for people under the age of 26.

(4) Fines On You For Non-Compliance

If you fail to get the required coverage, you will owe a tax, which you must include with your income tax return. (FYI, you will also be fined for dependents and for spouses who file jointly.) Though, interestingly, the government cannot take collection action against you for not paying, except to offset tax overpayments or benefits payments. There can be no penalty or interest charged for non-payment.

This tax will be equal to $200 per person without insurance in 2014, but will rise to $750 per person who lacks insurance by 2017, and will thereafter increase using a cost-of-living adjustment. (§ 1301)

Thus, unlike the House version of this bill, the fine is significantly lower and there are no criminal penalties.

For those who can’t afford the premiums, there is a hardship exemption. If the premiums charged by your employer’s plan or the premiums charged by the cheapest plan in the state exchange exceed 8% of your income, then you are excused from the requirement to get health care. Of course, you won’t have coverage, but at least you can rest assured that your higher taxes are delivering health insurance to people who can afford to buy it now, but have refused to do so.

(5) Subsidies To You: “Premium Assistance”

There is also a subsidy (“premium assistance”) for people in certain income groups (§ 1205) -- this will be paid directly to the insurers (§ 2247).

The amount of the subsidy is determined using a ratio of the portion of your income that exceeds 100% of the poverty level divided by 200% of the poverty level. That is multiplied by 10% and added to 2% and then the whole thing dissolves into gibberish. If I read this correctly, the subsidy will cover most Americans, making it unsustainable. The amount of the subsidy seems to be capped at 10% of the cost of the policy.

Illegal aliens don’t qualify for the subsidy.

Low income persons (read: 67% of Americans) also can expect some reduction in their co-payments as follows 2/3 reduction for anyone at 100-200% of the poverty level; 1/2 reduction for anyone between 200-300% of the poverty level; and 1/3 reduction for anyone between 300-400% of the poverty level. (§ 2247)


3. Requirements To Be Considered “Qualified Health Benefits Plan”

To be considered a qualifying plan, the insurer/plan must agree to the following rate restrictions, must provide the following benefits, and must comply with certain restrictions/requirements.

(1) Rate Restrictions

The Baucus bill limits the factors that insurers may use to adjust the rates charged under the plan. Under Baucus, insurers can only adjust your rate for the following factors (§ 2204):

• Family size. Two adults may be charged twice what one adult can be charged. An adult with a child may be charged 1.8 times what a single adult may be charged. A family of any other size may be charged a maximum of three times what a single adult may be charged.

• Age. The highest-charged group may be charged as much as four times what the lowest-charged group gets charged.

• Tobacco use. Tobacco users may be charged up to 1.5 times what a non-user gets charged.

It is not clear if these can be cumulative, e.g. can you charge an old smoker four times as much as a young non-smoker or six times as much? In any event, these can still lead to significant differences in premiums.

(2) Required Benefits

The Baucus bill also requires that any qualifying plan provide the following “essential benefits package” (§ 2242):

• Hospitalization
• Outpatient clinics and emergency services
• Professional services (physicians and other health professionals)
• Surgical care
• Services, equipment, supplies incident to providing health care at hospitals, physicians offices, or patient homes
• Prescription drugs
• Rehabilitation services
• Mental health and substance use disorder services
• Preventative services, including vaccines
• Maternity benefits
• Well baby, well child, oral health, vision and hearing for children under 21

However, what this means is left up to the insurer, so don’t expect that there won’t be huge variances between policies or fights over what is and what isn’t covered.

(3) Limitations On Insurer

Insurers must also accept the following limits/requirements:

• There can be no co-pays or other “cost sharing” on preventative medicine.

• Deductibles will be limited to $2,000 per person and $4,000 per plan.

• Insurers may not impose annual coverage limits.

• Insurers may not impose lifetime coverage limits.

• Insurers may not impose pre-existing condition exclusions. (§ 2202)

• Insurers may not impose health status limits or terminate coverage because you get sick. (§ 2202)

• Insurers must accept all applicants, without discrimination, up to the capacity limits (i.e. the total number of people the insurer has offered to cover each year). (§ 2203)

• Insurers may not refuse to renew a policy or rescind a policy. (§ 2203)

None of these are particularly surprising.


4. Hot Button Issues

Next we come to the hot button issues. These are surprising.


• Illegal Aliens. Baucus forbids covering illegal aliens. (§ 2232) BUT, he knows that they will continue to do what they do now, which is to appear at hospitals without coverage. Thus, the federal government will continue to reimburse those costs through other programs. Basically, this is misleading.


• Abortion. (§ 2245). Oh boy. This one is confusingly written, I suspect intentionally so. Let’s cut to the chase. No insurer will be forced to provide abortion services, but they all can.

When it comes to funding, it appears that insurers will fall into one of two categories. In the first category, the use of any federal money for abortions will be prohibited. Thus, you will be able to join an insurer that is prohibited from using federal money to provide abortions. BUT, the insurers in the second category apparently will be allowed to use federal money to provide abortions.

HHS will be required to make sure that there is at least one of each plan available to everyone.

I suspect this is set up so that both groups can be told that they have won this debate.


• Abstinence Education. (§ 1804) For reasons unknown, Baucus wades into the abstinence debate, restoring funds for abstinence education. Keep it in your pants kids. . . oh, and stay in school.


• Assisted Suicide. (§ 1921) This one is confusing as well. Baucus very clearly states that no provider or insurer who receives funds under this act may participate in assisted suicide in any way. BUT then Baucus says that this prohibition doesn’t apply to withholding or withdrawing medical care, withholding or withdrawing nutrition or hydration. So I guess you can let people die from neglect, but you can’t kill-kill them.


5. No Public Option

There does not appear to be a public option in this bill. It does require HHS to establish co-op plans (of multiple insurers) to make sure that enough plans exist in each market to satisfy the obligations set forth within the bill, i.e. so that there are four levels of plans and/or plans that provide the required benefits. (§ 1401). But as currently written, this does not appear to be a public option.

FYI, Deranged Nancy Pelosi told CNBC today that, "according to the polls", support for the public option "continues to grow, into the 60%" range. Whether she's just lying or deluded, expect her to demand that a public option be added to the Baucus bill.


6. How Do We Pay For This?

Finally, how do we pay for this plan? Baucus imposes a number of taxes that will increase all aspects of the costs of health care:

• A yearly tax on manufactures and importers of branded prescription pharmaceuticals. (§ 6008)

• A yearly tax on manufacturers and importers of medical devices. (§ 6009)

• An annual fee on health insurance providers. (§ 6010)

• Health care providers may no longer deduct certain high salaries. (§ 6014)

Every one of these taxes will be added to the price of the product, which means that most of this tax (at least half) will be charged right back to the government. Stupid huh? The other half will be paid by . . . you.

There are also tax changes aimed at individuals:

• A 40% tax on any “excess benefits” you get from your employer. Excess benefits are benefits that cost your employer more than $8,000 for an individual plan or $21,000 for family coverage (these amounts go up to $9,850 and $25,000 in certain blue states. . . er, high cost states, and for certain “high risk professions” including emergency responders, construction workers, miners, farmers, forestry workers and fishing industry workers ). (§ 6001)

• An increase in the tax penalty on unqualified distributions from your HSAS from 10% to 20%. (§ 6004)

• Further limits on the deductibility of unreimbursed health care expenses when you itemize. You must now exceed 10% of gross income rather than 7.5% to deduct. (§ 6013)

Right now, I can’t price how much these taxes will bring in or what the bill will actually cost. But it's clear that the figures are so false that Baucus should be charged with fraud. My guess is that these taxes will cover the cost of the program until the bill actually kicks in four years later, then all hell will break loose in the budget.

That’s it for now. Go forth and medicate.


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Obama"Care" Update

Ever since the Obamacrats produced their health care bill, I’ve been trying to get my hands on it. They won’t release it, because they’re afraid of you. Indeed, despite demands that the bill be available for viewing before it is voted upon, Sen. Baucus (D-Marx) has held this bill tighter to his chest than photos of himself sodomizing a poodle. But details have slipped out. . . this poodle talked.

Here are some of the recent nuggets of which you should be aware. First, my little Obama supporters, don’t expect to get coverage. Secondly, the amount of pain you and your state experience will depend on who your Senator is:

Coverage? You Don’t Get No Stinking Coverage

Most of Obama’s supporters are in for a shock on health care. Like greedy children staring at the big box under the (non-denominational) Christmas tree, they think that with the stroke of a pen, their Lord and Master Obama will provide them with government provided health insurance. Suddenly, keeping that second SUV doesn’t seem like such a hardship!

But guess what children, the box is empty. The Baucus bill provides government coverage by expanding Medicaid. But it doesn’t expand it very far. Under the Baucus bill, anyone making 133% or less of the poverty level will become eligible for free coverage. That’s anyone making $14,440 or less per year. The rest of you have to buy your own.

Yes, you read that right. If you make $14,441 or more, you don’t get coverage! What? That's not what you were promised? Just wait. . . there’s more. You will be required to buy your own coverage. Yep. No more skipping that cost just because you think you’re healthy. If you don’t buy insurance, you will be fined up to $1,900. And if you continue to refuse, you will be sent to jail and fined $25,000. You dirty, disloyal criminal.

But don’t worry, the Democrats feel your pain. They understand this could be a hardship: “For some people it's going to be a heavy lift,” said Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del. They just don’t care. Now that’s tough love!

By the way, ever wonder who will turn you in for not having insurance? Doctors. Isn’t it interesting that the Democrats don’t want doctors turning in illegal aliens because they don’t want to discourage them from getting needed medical treatment. . . but, somehow, that concern goes away when it comes to you?

So how will this play out? Let’s assume you make $15,000 a year. If you can find health insurance at the current private sector rates, you will now need to cough up $4,700 just for the insurance (on average, people spend another $2,500 out of pocket if they actually use it -- so we’ll just assume you can’t afford to use it. . . though you still need to buy it). Sounds like a great deal huh? Oh, it doesn’t? Well, fortunately, you have an out. Just pay the fine rich boy.

So what will Obamacare mean for you? It means that you will get to pay $1,900 of your $15,000 income to Obama so that others can have insurance. Aren’t you glad you voted for this clown? Make sure you write “Yes We Can” on your check. :-)

But don’t worry, at least you’ll get plenty of schadenfreude out of it. The Obamacrats are promising 15 new taxes on health care providers -- because nothing controls costs and encourages innovation better than tax hikes. The insurance industry now is also claiming that the cost of private insurance will go up 49% within 10 years -- that’s another $6,000 a year for a family of four.

Oh, and if your employer does decide to provide health insurance, as unlikely as that may seem, you will be required to enroll in that plan no matter what the cost. At least, you’ll get a tax credit to the extent the cost of the insurance exceeds 13% of your income. . . up to that, you’re on your own.

That's Democratic solutions for you. . .

(Not)Spreading The Pain: Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others

And there is one more really fascinating detail about which you should be aware (thanks to Cheryl for pointing this out). According to the Wall Street Journal, some groups are being exempted from the pain. . .

As mentioned above, ObamaCare works by expanding Medicaid (and by forcing the rest of you to help yourselves). Medicaid is paid for largely by state government, though they do receive some blockgrants from the feds.

According to the Journal, four states will have the federal government pick up the tag: Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island and Michigan. According to Harry Reid (D- NEVADA), these are the states that “are suffering the most.” Did I mention that Harry Reid, who is losing his re-election campaign in a big way in Nevada, represents Nevada? Perhaps that’s just a coincidence? Perhaps it’s also just a coincidence that Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) and Ron Wyde (D-Oregon) sit on the Finance Committee, which drafted this bill?

But wait, there are more coincidences:

• Debbie Stabenow (D-UAW) and John Kerry (D-Masshole) got $5 billion dollars included in the bill to defray the costs of medical insurance for union members. How nice.

• Chucky Cheese Schumer (D-Wall Street) got a higher threshold for New Yorkers and Massholes before the feds start taxing your insurance benefits. So if you live in Kentucky, you get taxed on any plan that costs more than $21,000 a year. Chuck’s friends don’t get taxed until their plans cost $25,000 a year. Strangely, this increased threshold (which applies to only 17 states) applies almost entirely to blue states.

• Bob Menendez (D-Pfizer) of New Jersey got $1 billion in tax credits for New Jersey drug makers, to offset the taxes that Baucus is imposing on. . . drug makers.

And there’s more to come when this sucker hits the floor of the house!

So the next time you hear some self-righteous leftist whine that they are finally going to get theirs or that the Democrats somehow represent the little guy or are somehow ethical, you laugh in their dirty little face and you assure them that they are indeed about to get theirs. . .


Finally, let me state officially that it's time to throw Sen. Olympia Snowe (RINO-Traitorville) out of the Republican Party. Despite the utter immorality, stupidity, and futility of this bill, Snowe decided to betray America because: "when history calls, history calls." Ah yes, the logic of serial killers, dictators, quislings, and RINOs.



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