Our lives are in the balance

Currently on the floor of the Senate sits a 2074 page Health Care Bill euphemistically called The Reid Bill. You need to remember a lot of what is said here in my opinion.

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My thoughts are, it brings us to the path of a one payer system, in this case, Socialized Medicine. Raising Medicare taxes, altering the current Medicare coverage by removing funds and services (Medicare is already scheduled to be insolvent in the near future) and expanding the current broken system of Medicaid which shares funding with State treasuries increasing our cost, the Democrat Senate still says in spite of Republican claims to the contrary, that removing $1/2 Trillion from Medicare would not increase Health Care premiums or cut Medicare services. Although both Democrats and Republicans have ideas that purport improvement to our system and lower cost, the only soliloquy I make are on the version as it evolves from the Democrat controlled Senate as the Republicans, are frozen out. The Democrat Senate says in spite of Republican claims to the contrary, that removing $1/2 Trillion from Medicare would not increase Health Care premiums or cut Medicare services. Along with Medicare tax rate and cap increases, the Democrat Senate wants to use those funds to start new entitlement programs. The cost is said to be $2.5 Trillion over the next 10 years. The CBO (Congressional Budget Office) has finally come out with their report on projected result. Now the CBO is very busy as it projects unbiased cost on all Bills. The CMS which only has the responsibility of Medicare and Medicaid has come with their report. Both results are essentially the same with increased medical premiums, increased taxes and cuts in Medicare services. Senator Harry Reid in a try to obtain enough votes on the Senate floor to pass a Health Care Bill has a revision but not all the details have been released. The new plan does include a “Buy in” to Medicare plan for those from 55 to 64 years of age. But even if enrollees were to pay for every dime of cost the Doctors would not accept the added cost burden on their practice because Medicare most of the time, doesn’t pay the actual cost of service. The make up income to their practice is born by inflated cost to private insurers. Could this mean that Doctors won’t accept Medicare patience? The medical profession has already answered that question with Medicaid and some Medicare. Checking in published reports on age demographics, (2000 U.S. Census Bureau statistics) there are 37.8 Million citizen 65 years of age or older. That amounts to 12.5% of the total population of the United States. The same census indicates 67.5 Million people, age 55 to 64. Approximately 105,300,000 could possibly be on Medicare. This does not include the increased role of Medicaid. That brings the possibility from where it is now at 12.5% to as much as 34.4% on “Medicare”. In a world where communications is important, “WORDS” mean everything, so we were told during the political campaigns of the 2008 elections. With fervor and conviction, since leading his party and himself to the highest office in the land, I do believe the President believes in the use of words. I’ll give you two. Definitions of a word “Hyperbole” is , a noun (from the Greek huperbolē) “An obvious and intentional exaggeration” as “A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in” I could sleep for a year” or “This book weighs a ton”. Another word is “Lie”-a verb to speak falsely or utter untruth knowingly, as with intent to deceive” as “He flung the lie back at his accusers”. You would never equate a word as a “lie” in a congressional setting since that wouldn’t be PC. (Rep. Joe Wilson-Ohio on “Health Care”) The daily talk shows, as usual, pick up snippets of speeches or interviews given to the press. This particular one although started from the White House most frequently is from Senator Harry Reid. He indicated that there had been, (I’ll paraphrase) 754,000 bankruptcies so far this year in the United States, and more than half were medical bankruptcies. Repeated as best he could, President Obama’s mantra of last March 5th at his White House Health Care Summit, quote, The President "The cost of health care now causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds. By the end of the year, it could cause 1.5 million Americans to lose their homes," This talking point has been one of the most pushed bellowing since this Congress started driving Socialized Medicine. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Representative Steny Hoyer, Senator Arlen Specter, Senator Harry Reid and it seems mouthed by every other liberal in Congress. I scratched my head and took approximately 20 minute of my time to pull as accurate a number of facts that any individual could easily find. The data from the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts show that in the year 2008, ending just 20 days before President Obama was sworn in, there were 1,086,130 Personal bankruptcies in the U.S. Only 17% claimed as a contributing factor, Health Care. Even that is a lot however when checking what The Department of Justice findings were that 12 to 13% percent of the total debt were claimed for health care. Similar findings are also found by The Journal of American Enterprise Institute. Although some of the percentages are extrapolated from 2005 and 2006, we already know that a large percent of the increase in 2008, 33% from the previous year is in reality the sub-prime adjustable mortgages showing in late 2007. Make that final selection. Is it “Hyperbole” or “Lie”? Take the time NOW to let your Senators and Representative know. Your words do matter whether Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian or just a-political. It’s free for the contact e-mail on any subject, “Pro or Con” at Congress.org Use of appropriate language and keeping it short and to the point, helps.