The Patriot Post Chronicle 3-27-2013

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The Patriot Post Chronicle 3-27-2013
From The Federalist Patriot
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A Healthier Alternative to ObamaCare

March 27, 2013

The Foundation

"In the first place, it is to be remembered, that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administering laws: its jurisdiction is limited to certain enumerated objects, which concern all the members of the republic, but which are not to be attained by the separate provisions of any." --James Madison

Editorial Exegesis

"The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is no more popular now than when it was passed, as Americans have come to realize that it will neither protect patients nor provide for affordable care. While full repeal of the law is not within the realm of short-term political reality ... repeal should nonetheless remain the end goal, either one piece at a time for now or root and branch. The price tag for Obamacare has gone from shocking to preposterous. In March 2010, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the ten-year cost of the law at $898 billion; by February 2013, that number had climbed to $1.6 trillion, and it is likely that further revisions will be in the upward direction. ... As mind-boggling as its price tag is, expense is not the main reason to repeal Obamacare. What is not sufficiently understood is that Obamacare does not reform or regulate health insurance: It effectively abolishes health insurance. ... In short, the system created by this ill-advised law would prevent the emergence of normally functioning markets in medical services and health insurance. Instead, it establishes a top-down system of price controls and subsidies that will discourage healthy people from buying insurance in the first place, reward those who exploit the system's defects, and discourage doctors and other health-care providers from extending their care to those who most need it. ... Republicans made a critical error during the debate over Obamacare when they left the impression that they approved of the U.S. health-care system. In truth, that system was deeply defective before Obamacare was passed.... With a functioning market in place, offering assistance through tax benefits or direct subsidies becomes a much simpler set of challenges, as does enacting targeted, narrow regulation to curb the abusive practices toward which the health-insurance industry is occasionally inclined. ... Republicans can and should begin taking it apart and building something better on the ruins." --National Review1

Upright

"OK, Obamacare. Up on the table. It's time for your annual physical. Three years old, eh? ... I can see one problem already. Have you seen these tax hikes? Let's see -- five, 10, 15, 18 tax hikes in all. ... It all adds up, Obamacare. It's not healthy. Hate to tell you this, but it gets worse. See this? That's the number of people who are going to lose their current health insurance because of you. Not thousands, but 7 million, according to the Congressional Budget Office. ... Wait. Obamacare, didn't you say that nobody who liked his current plan would lose it? Yes. You promised it, in fact -- repeatedly. I'd better note that in your chart. You may be getting uncomfortable, but we're not done yet. Over here, there's another serious problem: You're hurting hiring.... There's more. It's a good thing you're sitting down. It turns out you're making it more difficult to access Medicare services. ... Finally, I see that insurance premiums are going to skyrocket under you. It's those coverage mandates you put in place; they're the culprit. ... You can pay the receptionist on your way out. No, I'm afraid we don't accept that insurance plan anymore." --Heritage Foundation president Ed Feulner

"We could improve America's future just by recognizing what so-called 'public choice' economists started to realize around the time of World War II: that government isn't just a 'public servant.' It's not a demon, either. But government and its employees are selfish, like anyone else. That explains most of their behavior better than occasional shifts to the political left or right. We all tend to overspend and act lazy when we can get away with it. In the private sector, though, that eventually means that you get fired or realize you're depleting your bank account. In Washington, the Fed just prints more money. As long as Washington spends other people's money, there will be little incentive for them to be prudent -- or humble." --columnist John Stossel

"Three weeks ago we gave Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood government a $250 million economic stimulus package, and this week we decided to double-down in our national support for anti-Semites by giving the Palestinian Authority its own $500 million bonus. ... It is beyond strange how a Western elite so carefully attuned to racism or even racial insensitivity allows itself to not just turn a blind eye to the avalanche of anti-Semitic hate pouring out of the Muslim world, but then denigrates its critics as 'Islamophobes' and subsidizes some of the worst offenders. ... I'm reminded of the scene from the movie adaptation of The Two Towers when King Theoden observes the approaching army of Saruman and asks, 'What can men do against such reckless hate?' Apparently the American answer is, 'Give it lots of money.'" --National Review's David French

Insight

"Nothing just happens in politics. If something happens you can be sure it was planned that way." --President Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 - 1945)

"There should be a tax on every man that wanted to get a government appointment, or be elected to office. In two years that tax alone would pay our national debt.'" --humorist Will Rogers (1879 - 1935)

Demo-gogues

"[ObamaCare] helped us honor our promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to the American people. ... And just think, if you could be a photographer or writer, start your own business, be self-employed, as well as change jobs or start a business and not have to be constrained by whether you had affordable and accessible quality health care. Well that's what this legislation does." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

"[Sequestration] will cause pain. It will cause economic dislocation. And then, the wailing will begin. ... And they'll say, 'Well, okay, instead of the sequester which is causing all this pain, let's cut Social Security. Let's cut Medicare. Let's cut medicaid.' This is the first step down a slippery slope toward 'you work until you die.' And that's why this has to be fought so vigorously." --Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL)

"We're talking about millions of kids dying -- being shot down by assault weapons. This is not just a political issue, it's a moral issue." --Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) (Fact is, of the 12,664 murders in 2011, the most recent year for complete FBI statistics, there were 323 homicides committed with a rifle of any type, and likely fewer than 50 children (those under age 18 ) killed with rifles. By comparison, there were 496 murders committed with hammers in the same year.)

“Think about what happened out in -- where Gabby Giffords, my good friend, was shot and mortally [sic] wounded. Think about when that young man had to try to change the clip. Had he only had a 10-round clip when he changed the clip and fumbled and had it knocked out of his hands, how many more people would have been alive? And tell me, tell me how it violates anyone's constitutional right to be limited to a clip that holds 10 rounds instead of 30, or in Aurora, 100." --Joe Biden