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Title: The Patriot Post Digest 1-23-2014 Post by: nChrist on February 15, 2014, 03:26:27 AM ________________________________________ The Patriot Post Digest 1-23-2014 From The Federalist Patriot Free Email Subscription (http://patriotpost.us/subscription/new) ________________________________________ Daily Digest Jan. 23, 2014 THE FOUNDATION “If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted. … If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws.” –Noah Webster TOP 5 RIGHT HOOKS Abortion ‘Fulfills Dreams’ Celebrating the most tragic Supreme Court decision in history1, Barack Obama urged his cadres to “recommit” themselves to the “guiding principle” of abortion on demand. Why? “Because this is a country where everyone deserves the same freedom and opportunities to fulfill their dreams.” Well, not everyone – 56 million dead Americans would certainly object to that characterization. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, tweeted something perhaps even more mindless: “Happy 41st birthday, Roe v. Wade.” Did they really just use the word “birthday” to celebrate a decision that prevents birthdays? What a gruesome thing to celebrate. What Does NAACP Stand For? North Carolina NAACP president William Barber II reflected on Martin Luther King Jr. Day by slamming one of the Senate’s only two black members, Tim Scott. “A ventriloquist can always find a good dummy,” Barber said of Scott. “The extreme right wing down here [in South Carolina] finds a black guy to be senator and claims he’s the first black senator since Reconstruction and then he goes to Washington, DC, and articulates the agenda of the Tea Party.” On the contrary, Scott is no dummy. He thinks for himself, unlike too many blacks on the Democrat Poverty Plantation. And say, isn’t it supposed to be the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People? (Don’t miss Scott’s outstanding reply2.) 20% Receive Food Stamps The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as food stamps, should be just that – supplemental. Under Barack Obama, however, the number of people on the dole has skyrocketed to a full 20% of the population. According to the USDA, in an average month in 2013 there were 47,636,084 individuals who received food stamps, up 1,027,012 from the previous year. The program clocked in at just under $80 billion, an increase of 164% over the last 10 years. The question is, why are so many people in such dire need during the Obama “recovery”? Well, as Mark Alexander argued Wednesday, Obama’s economic plan is income inequality3. Cost of Cutting Red Tape Barack Obama loves to brag about how he’s running a smarter government, but Executive Order 13563, which was ostensibly designed to “cut red tape” by eliminating “redundant, inconsistent, or overlapping” regulations, has actually added $10.2 billion in regulatory burdens to the already sluggish economy. That comes largely due to 1.5 billion additional hours of paperwork – a 17% increase – necessary to comply with regulations. “It would take more than 750,000 employees working full-time to complete the new annual paperwork added since 2010,” said Sam Batkins, director of regulatory policy at American Action Forum. Uninsured Not Enrolling The purpose of ObamaCare, we were told, was to provide millions of uninsured Americans easy access to affordable health coverage. What consumers have found instead are subpar plans that cost more – a side effect that explains this astounding statistic: According to Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, “Right now we only see that 11% of the population is people that were formerly uninsured are now insured, so we didn’t really eat into the uninsured population.” Put another way, a whopping 89% of enrollees so far already had insurance before the overhaul (don’t forget that a large percentage of signs ups were tossed onto the exchange by their employers). Score one for big government. For more, visit Right Hooks4. Don’t Miss Alexander’s Column Read Obama’s Class Warfare Deception3. If you’d like to receive Alexander’s Column by email, update your subscription here5. RIGHT ANALYSIS A Conservative Health Plan Obviously, ObamaCare’s federal takeover of the American health care system was a bad solution and unconstitutional power grab. But what is the solution to a system that was broken before ObamaCare expanded that system? That’s the question Manhattan Institute senior fellow Avik Roy attempts to answer6. First, we evaluate the problem. In 2010, the U.S. spent more per person on health care than all but three other nations, and much of that was already government spending. Roy points out, “Although the quality of care in the U.S. is high, it is not meaningfully higher than that of its industrialized peers.” That high cost is also due to the health insurance system, which Roy says is “too expensive because of decades of unwise government policy,” leaving millions of Americans uninsured. Second, we set the goal. But the problem there, Roy writes, is that “the Right shares no vision of what a conservative health care system should look like. As a result, health care policymaking has fallen mostly to the other side, with disastrous results.” We could start by saying that “universal coverage is a morally worthy goal.” The question is how we get there. Roy points to Switzerland and Singapore as examples of policies that ensure universal coverage at far less cost. “Switzerland has a system of universal, subsidized private insurance exchanges that look much like Paul Ryan’s Medicare-reform plan and Obamacare’s exchanges,” Roy writes. However, “From a fiscal standpoint,” Roy adds, “Singapore is far better than even Switzerland. Singapore’s public spending on health care as a fraction of GDP is 86 percent lower than America’s. That’s because every Singaporean has a health savings account, which is used to pay for non-catastrophic medical expenses. Singaporeans pay a payroll tax, which is then redirected into the HSA in a manner similar to our Social Security system. But unlike Social Security, the Singaporean HSA is controlled by the individual and supplemented with a government-sponsored catastrophic coverage plan.” Since health savings accounts were enacted into law in 2003, more Americans have enrolled in them every year and the cost savings are evident7, despite the cost increases caused by ObamaCare. HSAs are desirable because they put the consumer in charge of their own spending, and people are inclined to compare prices when the cost of care comes out of their own pocket instead of being provided “free” by the insurance company. That said, Roy argues that while the Singapore model is more conservative, the Swiss model is more “politically feasible,” not least because reforms to Medicare and Medicaid could be incorporated. Certainly, if conservatives ever do succeed in repealing ObamaCare, replacing it with true reform is just as essential. Are the ideas above perfect? No, but they represent a starting point. Title: The Patriot Post Digest 1-23-2014 Post by: nChrist on February 15, 2014, 03:27:12 AM ________________________________________ The Patriot Post Digest 1-23-2014 From The Federalist Patriot Free Email Subscription (http://patriotpost.us/subscription/new) ________________________________________ Syrian Talks: A Chaotic 24 Hours In the space of a day, the ongoing talks to settle the Syrian civil war were roiled by the extension and subsequent rescinding of an invitation to Iran to participate in a new round of peace talks to be held this week in Switzerland. Iran’s participation was announced by UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon on Sunday, with the assurance that Iran was now committed to the precondition that a transitional government be formed to replace the regime of Bashar al-Assad. But on Monday, Iran responded that “we do not accept any precondition to take part,” leading to the invitation being revoked. To do otherwise would have jeopardized the participation of Syrian rebels, who reluctantly agreed to talks provided Iran doesn’t take part. Syria has been caught over the last three years in a proxy war between Iran, which supports al-Assad, and Saudi Arabia, which has given financial backing to rebel groups attempting to oust the Syrian leader. Over 100,000 have perished as a result of the ongoing strife. While the United States is a participant in the proceedings, the Obama administration’s surprised reaction at the invitation to Iran was rebutted by the UN assertion that the White House had been “kept completely in the loop.” But the task of John Kerry’s State Department seems to be that of walking on eggshells, trying not to affect simultaneous negotiations with Iran over their nuclear ambitions while talking out the Syrian situation. Iran is also participating in the World Economic Forum in nearby Davos, Switzerland, where they are trying to attract foreign investment in light of reduced sanctions on the country, and there is a possibility Kerry may meet there with Iranian President Hasan Rouhani. With all the confusion over the Syrian situation, we’d like to hope Kerry doesn’t make the problem worse, but let’s be realistic – it is John Kerry. For more, visit Right Analysis4. TOP 5 RIGHT OPINION COLUMNS Tony Perkins: Standing Strong to Right What's Wrong8 Arnold Ahlert: America's Dying Economic Freedom9 R. Emmett Tyrrell: Bike Lane Indignados10 Cal Thomas: Cuomo to Conservatives: Leave New York11 George Will: For Judges: Throw the Flag12 For more, visit Right Opinion13. OPINION IN BRIEF Columnist Ann Coulter: “The reason Wendy Davis' apocryphal story was impressive is that single mothers have to run a household, take care of kids and provide for a family all by themselves. But Wendy was neither supporting her kids, nor raising them. If someone else is taking care of your kids and paying your tuition, that’s not amazing. Hey – maybe Jeff Davis should run for governor! He’s the one who raised two kids, including a stepdaughter, while holding down a job and paying for his wife’s law school. There’s a hard-luck story! Mr. Davis told the Dallas Morning News that Wendy dumped him as soon as he had finished paying off her Harvard Law School loan. … Wendy boasted to the Dallas Morning News: ‘I very willingly, as part of my divorce settlement, paid child support.’ Would a divorced dad get a medal for saying that?” Economist Thomas Sowell: “Both President John F. Kennedy … and his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson … were very explicit as to what the ‘war on poverty’ was intended to accomplish. … What the war on poverty was intended to end was mass dependency on government. President Kennedy said, ‘We must find ways of returning far more of our dependent people to independence.’ The same theme was repeated endlessly by President Johnson. The purpose of the ‘war on poverty,’ he said, was to make ‘taxpayers out of taxeaters.’ Its slogan was ‘Give a hand up, not a handout.’ When Lyndon Johnson signed the landmark legislation into law, he declared: ‘The days of the dole in our country are numbered.’ Now, 50 years and trillions of dollars later, it is painfully clear that there is more dependency than ever.” Eric Hoffer (1902-1983): “Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.” Cal Thomas: “Where are the liberals who are so dedicated to preserving the First Amendment that they defend pornography, offensive language on television and in films and even the burning of the American flag as a price we must pay for all to enjoy freedom of expression?” Comedian Jay Leno: “President Obama is getting serious about this NSA spying scandal. He told the nation that the NSA will not be used ‘for the purpose of suppressing or burdening criticism or dissent.’ You see, that’s what the IRS is for.” Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis! Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform – Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen – standing in harm’s way in defense of Liberty, and for their families. Links 1 - http://patriotpost.us/articles/22801 2 - http://dailycaller.com/2014/01/21/tim-scott-responds-to-naacp-insult-reminds-me-and-others-of-what-not-to-do/ 3 - http://patriotpost.us/alexander/22892 4 - http://patriotpost.us/ 5 - http://patriotpost.us/manage/ 6 - http://washingtonexaminer.com/a-conservative-case-for-universal-coverage/article/2542091 7 - http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2014/01/21/obama-should-stop-taking-credit-health-savings-accounts-are-driving-down-costs/ 8 - http://patriotpost.us/opinion/22902 9 - http://patriotpost.us/opinion/22900 10 - http://patriotpost.us/opinion/22897 11 - http://patriotpost.us/opinion/22896 12 - http://patriotpost.us/opinion/22870 13 - http://patriotpost.us/opinion |