Paul And Carol Screw Seniors

Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter we're cheering Saturday after the Pelosi-Care bill passed, but before they voted in favor of that abomination, they tossed seniors under the bus in exchange for future favors (and no doubt campaign contributions) from trial lawyers.

Prior to the final vote the minority party offered up the traditional motion to recommit with instructions, which provided an opportunity to make sure that seniors would not have to suffer plans to gut Medicare as part of what Paul and Carol and Nancy (and the rest) like to call reform.  This comes courtesy of RedState.

The Republican Motion to Recommit H.R. 3962, Speaker Pelosi’s Government Take-Over of Health Care, would amend the bill to add medical liability reform (savings of $54 billion) and use the savings achieved to create a “Seniors Protection and Medicare Regional Payment Equity Fund.”

The fund would require the Secretary to prioritize funding to protect those seniors hit hardest by the cuts to Medicare under Speaker Pelosi’s bill.  Specifically, the purpose of the fund would be to:

• Preserve seniors’ access to Medicare Advantage,
• Protect seniors’ access to medically-necessary care (including seeing doctors and hospitals without waiting in lines, and preventing coverage determinations based on cost), and
• Address payment inequities and geographic variations in Medicare that hurts seniors who live in areas with high-quality, low-cost services.

The Pelosi Government Take-Over of Health Care cuts more than $500 billion from Medicare, leaving seniors with reduced benefits and fewer choices.  While at the same time, the Pelosi bill protects trial lawyers by not addressing real medical liability reform, a critical reform that would reduce health care costs for all Americans.  The Republican motion to recommit offers Members a choice on who to protect: seniors or trial lawyers.

The vote to preserve care and choice for people who probably need it most went down in smoke.

The "Distinguished" Gentleman and Lady from New Hampshire, Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter got their instructions and marched, voting to kill the motion.  So Paul and Carol screwed seniors to protect trial lawyers.    And while the tyrannical abomination known as Pelosi-ObamaCare will probably never survive to see the light of day, the vote is very real, and votes last forever.

Carol And Punishment

From Big Government.com.  Apparently there are criminal penalties (not just taxes) for refusing to participate in Carol's Health Care swindle.

(Link to Original Article)

 

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail.  The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years. 

In response to the JCT letter, Camp said:  “This is the ultimate example of the Democrats’ command-and-control style of governing – buy what we tell you or go to jail.  It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately.” 

Key excerpts from the JCT letter appear below: 

“H.R. 3962 provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax.” [page 1]

- – - – - – - – - –

“If the government determines that the taxpayer’s unpaid tax liability results from willful behavior, the following penalties could apply…” [page 2]

- – - – - – - – - -

“Criminal penalties

Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses.  Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:

• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.

• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]

When confronted with this same issue during its consideration of a similar individual mandate tax, the Senate Finance Committee worked on a bipartisan basis to include language in its bill that shielded Americans from civil and criminal penalties.  The Pelosi bill, however, contains no similar language protecting American citizens from civil and criminal tax penalties that could include a $250,000 fine and five years in jail.

“The Senate Finance Committee had the good sense to eliminate the extreme penalty of incarceration.  Speaker Pelosi’s decision to leave in the jail time provision is a threat to every family who cannot afford the $15,000 premium her plan creates.  Fortunately, Republicans have an alternative that will lower health insurance costs without raising taxes or cutting Medicare,” said Camp.

Way to protect us from the government Carol.  You go Girl! 

Carol's Health Care Reform Update

What graced my mail box recently but a taxpayer funded mailer from the office of Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter.  It was a thing to behold, in warm neutral colors, with a pretty health care worker (see Evil greedy doctor) and a cute and curious baby on front. (Victim of a Capitalist system designed to reward fat cat republican insiders) 

“A Health Care Reform Update” 

But inside it was..well, stupid is the first word that comes to mind.  There's nothing new in it.  There's no "Update" of any kind.  So when I say stupid I mean what rock are you living under that you don't know any of this and if you do live under a rock, why hasn't Carol just wriggled over to you and lied directly to your face?

It’s heavy on old rhetoric and weak on substance.  Carol risks providing only two figures for us to chew on.

The first number claims that there are ‘currently’ 67,000 people in Carol’s district without insurance.  Carol does not provide any sources in the mailer so my first thought was that Nancy Pelosi’s office wanted to remain anonymous.   But more likely she just didn’t want anyone to know where these numbers came from because they cant’ be linked to anything tangible.  It's hard enough being Carol and voting for things she's never read--how could we ever expect our member of congress to rely on facts we can actually verify?

So I took this as a challenge and went looking for evidence of Carol’s missing link.  It looks as if they took the district population—presently estimated at around 640,000 (639,924)--and divided it by a flat formula percentage.  So I’d suggest she--or one of her lackeys--come up with a hard source for us to check out, because my plan is to keep telling people she made it up out of thin air until they do.

I'd like to suggest that it's a by product of assumptions about unemployment trends, but as much as she'd like to say that she can't because she's culpable.  (More on that in a moment)  If it's something else we have no details. We are supposed to take it on faith that a woman who votes away trillions in spending without looking at what she is spending our money on is trustworthy.  Um, no.

So might this number include those who have opted out intentionally; how many are children or young adults who are eligible for SCHIP but are not enrolled; does it include people who were off insurance and then on again, and so on.  We are left to wonder because these would water down the goal of making this look like a crisis for us, right here, right now.  But it is not a real crisis without evidence we can deconstruct, and none is likely forthcoming.   

The second number can be easily traced but the source reflects badly on the first number.  

Carol suggests that “…14,000 Americans are losing their insurance every single day..”  This number comes from The Wonk Room at Think Progress.org.  Think Progress.org is an extension of The Center For American Progress, a substantial ultra left wing progressive wind machine funded by Herr Soros.  And Think Progress was voted the number one Liberal Blog in 2008.  Nice source eh?  It gets better.

The Center For American Progress has a lead role in Obama’s Health Care for America Now (HCAN), along side ACORN, MoveOn.org, the Children’s Defense Fund, La Raza, and the SEIU.  Talk about a partisan peer group. [link] 

But the number quoted 14,000/day, comes with even more baggage.  It is actually an estimate based on job losses if we do not pass the Obama stimulus.  That would be the 787 billion dollar emergency bill meant to keep unemployment below 8% and "create or save 2-3-4 million jobs."  That’s "the bill that would have an immediate impact." (On Obama supporter’s wallets) 

Carol voted for that bill.  It failed to create or save enough jobs to keep unemployment from hitting 9.8%.   It has created 600 million American’s who have stopped looking for work entirely becasue there is none.  It has pushed 38% of the remaining work force into the “marginally connected to the work force” category.   And now all of a sudden 14,000 Americans losing health care per day is a viable statistic to justify another massive government intervention?   We’d have to ignore the failed policy upon which it was originally based and which our dear Carol promised us would have us rebounding in no time, to accept it in its new and improved application. 

I’m not inclined. But wait there’s more.

This is a very popular and well connected number.  The AFL-CIO has used it.  It even showed up in a Families USA piece.  Who are they?  Well, you may have recently heard of them.  Families USA just released some numbers to the media (as Stand Up For Health Care .org) on how many uninsured there are and how these numbers are growing.   Families USA is a left wing outfit that lobbies for government run health care and generally supports the left wing screed disguised as a non-partisan non-profit.  It was founded by Bill Pollack who was appointed by then President Bill Clinton as the sole consumer representative on the Presidential Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry, where he worked on the Patients’ Bill of Rights.

He’s a real non-partisan, just like ACORN, the SEIU, and La Raza. 

And part of his being non-partisan must have been what connected him and his little families USA groups to PhRMA.  Who is PhRMA?  Well you should have heard of them as well.  They are a huge Pharmaceutical lobbying firm that signed an 80 Billion dollar closed door deal with Obama at the White House in exchange for their supporting Obamacare. See here, or here.

Correct me if I’m wrong but that might be one of those government big business insider things Obama was going to hope-and-change away as part of his transformative administration.  All he’s doing is transforming 80 billion in tax payer fun money into a payoff to an entire industry so he can get his socialist agenda past GO.   Big Pharma and Families USA (the socialist health care group started by a Clinton Health Care hack) formed an alliance to advance “the cause” to ensure affordable quality health care for all.  Now I’ve heard that before….somewhere. 

So Carol's 14K is actually a self inflicted wound caused by her support of a failed policy whose real goal may have been to make government health care a necessity as a result of federal meddling.  So it's not a failed policy unless you're not with the government. 

Everything else in Carols tax payer funded mailer is partisan hackery and worth less than the expensive heavy paper we just paid to have it printed on. 

There is not one thing she is selling that is a reliable truth, and most of it is an outright lie.  Now that’s not to say that Carol knows it’s a lie.  In fact I’m sure she believes everything she’s been told about the "reform."   But isn’t that just the biggest problem of all.

Carol buys into all of it without as much as a suggestion that it's not on the up and up.  It's as if there is no debate.  The science is settled.  So once again Carol chooses the government first over her own constituents, and our reward is this Reform Update on how we should feel good about her selling New Hampshire out to the US government.

Thanks Komrade Karol.  You're just the best.

More Fun With Paul And Carol

The Taxsome twosome have already supported legislation that will make everything more expensive with the Super Massive Tax on Energy called Cap and Trade.  They supported a House Health Care Bill that will raise taxes.  They voted for Stimulus spending that will raise taxes.  They supported the largest budget in history—and that will raise taxes.  They supported TARP spending that that despite tilting at oversight sent billions of our tax dollars to bail out foreign banks.  We had the Clunkers spending, and the New Home credit , both of which created artificial bubbles that are now popping, all of which we will have to pay for.  Hodesheaporter’s record on trade policy is even checkered with job loss and domestic wealth destruction which will reduce revenues and create the need for more taxes.  And now Frau Pelosi has her eye on a VAT Tax, which is another tax on everything.  One guess whose side Hodesheaporter will come out on for that tax?

Makes you wonder, “When is it going to be enough?”  Never.  It’s never going to be enough.  Even when there is no revenue they spend more, so they must tax more, just like in New Hampshire.  So let’s cut to the chase. 

You send someone to the US House of Representatives to protect your interests from the government, not the other way around.  But Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter took Big governments side the minute they arrived in DC and have no intention of defecting to yours.  They are from the Grow Government First Party and the always will be.

Or will they...?

I was thinking the cap and trade bill was so onerous and rife with bad horse trading that even Carol would avoid mentioning her own complicity in the largest tax every perpetrated.  But I was wrong. Carol has a nice Press release on the "Energy Bill," in which she says the following.

“This bill represents fundamental changes in our nation’s energy policy that are long overdue,” said Congresswoman Shea-Porter. “We cannot continue to deny the impact climate change is having on our environment and must act now to reduce global warming. In doing so, this bill will also create millions of new clean energy jobs, strengthen our national security, and protect our environment.”

The American Clean Energy and Security Act will significantly reduce dangerous pollution by limiting emissions from electric utilities, oil refineries, and other major sources. It also promotes all forms of American clean energy, including wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass. It supports private investment in nuclear power, cleaner coal technology, and new efficient American vehicle technology. The legislation also creates an opportunity for farmers and ranchers, allowing them to earn carbon offsets in exchange for planting trees, preserving existing forests, practicing sustainable farming methods, and other stewardship activities.

Well. The fundamental changes part is right, but everything after that is the stuff that comes out the back side of the bull.

Let us parse.

“We cannot continue to deny the impact climate change is having on our environment and must act now to reduce global warming. In doing so, this bill will also create millions of new clean energy jobs, strengthen our national security, and protect our environment.”

We will actually make the environment worse by driving commerce and industry to countries like India and China that have miserable environmental controls but cheap energy.  So if you believe in AGW this is a big loser.  Even global pollution will suffer long term.  And there are no net increases in green jobs as proven by Spain, most of Europe, and the destruction and loss of local jobs in excess of any number of green jobs created.

And since we get most of our foreign oil from Canada and Mexico, (no one really talks much about evil Canada) even a slight unpick in cheap, reliable, available (American job creating) domestic production would begin to leverage out unpleasant suppliers as we developed cheap reliable alternatives.

"...will significantly reduce dangerous pollution by limiting emissions from electric utilities, oil refineries, and other major sources. It also promotes all forms of American clean energy, including wind, solar, geothermal, and biomass. "

Still "no" for the same reasons noted above. And it forces more expensive alternatives by government mandate.

It supports private investment in nuclear power, cleaner coal technology, and new efficient American vehicle technology.

I'm sorry, congresswoman but why do we need a 1200 page bill to support private investment? That actually happens on its own.   So the only way to legislate 'support' is to either finance it, regulate it, or pick the winners and losers. So which is it exactly that you supported?

The legislation also creates an opportunity for farmers and ranchers, allowing them to earn carbon offsets in exchange for planting trees, preserving existing forests, practicing sustainable farming methods, and other stewardship activities.

Well..It's actually written like a subsidy that allows the Farm lobby to suck on the federal teat of cap and trade so their cows can keep farting.  Carol must think animal farts are a new global problem--I guess prior to the industrial revolution animals never farted.  So to fix this the government forces energy prices up, takes a share, and then gives some of it to commercial farmers who already make significanlty more than the average American, to plant stuff that will offset--cow farts.

Lord knows they have zero incentive to be good stewards of their livlihood without Carol and a 1200 page House Bill.

Thanks Carol.

Maybe next time Carol, you can read the bill instead of the Pelosi-digest Condensed talking points memo.   And if for, some reason, you don't actually have time, or don't understand something in the bill, instead of assuming its good for New Hampshire vote against it, even as a matter of principle.

You have that, yes?  Principles?