3 November 2009

Chicago Daily Observer

Nancy Pelosi's H.R. 3962 could be voted on as soon as Thursday this week.  Eagle Forum has scoured the pages and found it contains the following provisions:

1. Permits federal taxpayer funding of abortion services, above and beyond the status quo of current law.

2. Provides for a "health care czar" called the Health Choices Commissioner, who could forcibly enroll individuals in government-run insurance and whose tasks include requiring random compliance audits on Americans' health benefits plans.

3. Allows for "community organizations" like ACORN and Planned Parenthood to assist the Health Choices Commissioner in enrolling individuals in the Health Insurance Exchange.

Need more?

4. Encourages identity fraud for illegal immigrants seeking to gain taxpayer-subsidized health benefits through inadequate citizenship and legal status verification standards. Page 255, Section 345 of H.R. 3962 includes language requiring verification of income for individuals wishing to receive federal health care subsidies, and while the bill currently does include a requirement for applicants to verify their citizenship, it does not include a similar requirement to verify that person's identity, a key component of effective verification.

5. Provides for 13 new and different tax increases, including an employer mandate excise tax.

6. "Grandfathers" out of existence individual health insurance coverage.

7. Retains the "death panels" by providing for bureaucrats working for a new comparative effectiveness institute funded by a tax on health benefits. The institute could publish the protocols needed to deny patients access to life-saving treatments on cost grounds.

8. Contains NO ban on federal promotion of assisted suicide and/or health care rationing of treatments.

9. Facilitates leftist, social engineering policies such as rewriting current tax law to allow domestic partners to be treated as "spouses."

10. Retains both the individual and employer mandates to purchase health insurance or else face a financial penalty, and compliance to this mandate will be enforced by the IRS.

11. Imposes a 2.5% tax on an individual's modified adjusted gross income if they fail to purchase "acceptable" health care coverage.

12. Imposes a surtax, starting in 2011, on "high"-income people - that is, couples with adjusted gross income over $1 million and individuals over $500,000.

13. Fails to hold Members of Congress to the same health care system requirements that Americans will have to live by under the public health insurance option.

14. Prohibits states from using tort reform to reduce health care costs.

15. Mandates that all health insurance companies accept all applicants, that they cannot deny anyone for pre-existing conditions, and that they cannot increase the monthly premiums for less healthy, more costly consumers.

16. Accommodates "whistleblower" provisions for trial lawyers to bring suit against employers.

17. Slashes Medicare payments to providers by more than $400 billion.

18. Creates dozens of new bureaucracies (111 to be exact) including the Health Benefits Advisory Committee and the Health Choices Administration.

19. Encourages people to drop their insurance in favor of the public option as it provides for underpaying medical providers, who will in turn jack up their rates for those patients who have private insurance, driving more people to the cheaper, government plan.

20. Authorizes Medicare to pay doctors for providing advice to patients on end-of-life care.

21. Grants the authority to negotiate drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries to the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

22. Considers individuals to be treated as "children" up to the age of 26 for the purpose of remaining on their parents' insurance plan.

23. Imposes an excise tax on medical devices.

24. Cuts $170 billion from the Medicare Advantage program.

25. Institutes $729.5 billion in job-killing tax increases on all Americans, fines those who can't afford to purchase government-forced insurance, and cripples businesses by taxing health benefits.

26. If all of this weren't enough, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) even predicts that the public option's premiums will end up being quite high because it will attract less healthy people, who are more costly to the insurer. But, with a government-run plan, the government is the insurer, so higher cost projections for the government really means higher costs to American taxpayers.

In addition to all of this bureaucracy, taxation, and theft of individual liberty, the very same CBO has estimated the 10-year cost of H.R. 3962 to be a whopping $1.1 trillion, and that doesn't even include the "Doc Fix" legislation, which seeks to lump $245 billion of Medicare reimbursement payments into the national debt.  The exclusion of the healthcare-related "Doc Fix" legislation into the overall pricetag of H.R. 3962 is nothing more than a Washington numbers gimmick, intended to deceive the American people about the true cost of the liberals' plan.  So, now is the time to pick up the phone and demand the defeat of a government takeover of health care!

Continued -

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TAKE ACTION!
 
The clock is ticking.  The vote WILL occur at the end of this week.  We will keep you updated everyday with the latest details, but there are only a few short days to do all you can to contact your Representatives and to make your voice heard in opposition to this bill.  Phone calls are best, so please try to phone both your Representative's Capitol Hill office and his/her district office at least once a day, everyday this week.

For your convenience, here is our list of crucial target Members of Congress.  These Members need extra pressure to stand up to Nancy Pelosi and vote NO on H.R. 3962 this week. If your own Representative is solidly opposed to this bill, please phone one of your friends or family members who lives in a district who has a Representative on the fence or who may be leaning toward supporting it, and encourage them to get involved in this fight!
You stopped Congress from steamrolling forward on this legislation last summer, so it's time to do it again this week!
 
Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121

http://www.cdobs.com/archive/syndicated/26-reasons-to-oppose-pelosis-hr-3962,85665

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Good Job Candace!

I am going to reference this thread to another thread as well for the purpose of using the phone number above before the 5th!

Everyone call your Congress and Senate - Regardless if they are on Obama's side... We must make sure that our voice is heard... If they go against it, that is on them come 2010 and 2012~

If all we can do is send an email or make a phone call, let's do it! Look what happened yesterday in NJ of all states and of course in VA.

We  have momentum let's keep it.

PS - We took NY too, but Scabufafa (sp) ruined it for Hoffman and the GOP...

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Cross Ref threads for phone information - Want the "real" truth about the HealthCare Bill? - http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=555&pst=1398123

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Made a bunch of calls this morning. Amazingly there are many I don't know how we're going to vote on this repsonses.  Will keep pushing forward  

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I am looking into seeing what can be done to making sure that Dede Scozzafava is sent to political oblivion... shame on her. I cannot believe that in times like these that she would sacrifice all for six percent of the votes that would have elevated Hoffman to win at 51%...

I read this article this morning... I am not the only one who is upset with her. I am upset with Gingrich too because he supported her nonsense. Shame on them both. We won't forget...

NY23 endorsement from amoral Dede Scozzafava will rebound on Democrats

If Dede Scozzafava had a shred of political integrity about her she would have backed Doug Hoffman or declined to endorse anyone. The fact that she took the Republican party’s cash, failed miserably as a candidate and then vented her spleen by trying to torpedo the new de facto Republican candidate (the one who would have beaten her in a primary had there been one) underlines what a losing bet she was right from the start.

There’s been a lot of claptrap written about this race, the most hysterical and hilarious example being Frank Rich’s wishful oped. Liberal Democrats desperately want the Republicans to be a party of lunatics, a gibbering fringe of Christianist militia members bowing down before idols of Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. But saying it’s happened so doesn’t make it so.

The first thing that has to be remembered is that, leaving ideology aside, Scozzafava was a shockingly bad candidate. Any candidate whose campaign call the cops on a reporter asking persistent  questions should resign from the race immediately – and be charged with wasting the time of police who could be solving real crime.

Doug Hoffman does not live in the district, seems to have a tenuous grasp of local issues and is a far from smooth candidate. None of that mattered, however, because Scozzafava was so dreadful – and sometimes (especially when distrust of politicians is so acute) a plain, unpolished man of principle has a certain appeal to voters.

Scozzafava ran as a Republican, protesting that she was a loyal party member. Clearly, she was lying – no proper Republican, even a liberal (aka moderate) one would so cravenly flip over to the Democrat in that fashion. The one thing she was supposedly trustworthy on was that she would not vote for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker. Yeah, right.

There seems to be a widespread supposition that Scozzafava supporters will now flock to Bill Owens, the Democrat who she’s now anointed. Why would they do that? Many of them, one assumes, were loyal Republicans who would back the GOP ticket no matter what.

So they’re about to switch to the Democrats en masse? I would guess that more than a few of them will feel utterly betrayed by her and either stay at home in disgust or vote for Hoffman – whose claims about Scozzafava have been proved correct by her very own actions.

The Scozzafava debacle underlines how badly the 11 local Republican honchos who chose her screwed things up. That’s what happens when an arrogant party imposes an inappropriate candidate. That’s why the primary system in the US tends to work so well – it’s democratic.

This all underscores the potential depth of popular anger against Barack Obama and Obama-lite Republicans.
While the whole thing is being portrayed as Right-wing nutters hijacking poor Dede’s candidacy, the reality is that this is local democracy in action – despite the backing of a major party, ordinary voters, including a substantial number of independents, were rejecting her. Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin didn’t fix the polls.

We’ll see how the election pans out tomorrow. All politics is local and there may be 23rd district factors that somehow deliver an unlikely victory for Owens, though the latest poll suggests a wipeout victory for Hoffman.

Either way, my hunch is this will rebound on Democrats and the Conventional Wisdom about all this pushing the GOP to the Right and making it unelectable will be dead wrong, as the CW so often is.

There is an angry electorate out there and the Democratic attempts to smear Hoffman as some kind of crazy zealot and their embrace of the politically amoral Scozzafava will only underline the growing feeling that Obama and Co they will do or say anything to cling to power.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyharnden/100015454/ny23-endorsement-of-amoral-dede-scozzafava-will-rebound-on-democrats/

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I contacted each of New Jersey Congressman's offices today and also our two Senators.   I discussed with them the penalties and taxes on small business and individuals.  I discussed cutting Medicare Advantage.  I discussed Tort Reform, Waste in medicare, across the state competition.  I expressed those that will be hurt by this are hard working middle class individuals/families, small business and the elderly.  Below is where they stand on this today.

Congressman Andrews, Democrat, Reviewing Congressman LoBiondo, Republican, Not Sure Congressman Saxton, Republican, Not Sure Congressman Smith, Republican, Against Congressman Garrett, Republican, Against Congressman Pallone, Democrat, FOR IT ( His Staffer before I even got to speak said he wrote it and understands it (loudly to me). I said he didn't need to get loud and he hung up on me. Congressman Lance, Republican, Against Congressman Ferguson, Republican , Against Congressman Pascrell, Democrat, Staffer could not speak on his behalf to his position. Congressman Rothman, Democrat, No decision Congressman Payne, Democrat, Thinking about it Congressman Holt, Democrat, Still reading Congressman Sires, Democrat, Not Sure of his position I will say I was treated with civility and respect by all I spoke to with the exception of Congressman Pallone's office. I contacted Senator Lautenberg and Senator Menendez and was treated with respect and assured my concerns would be relayed. That's my update.

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I am sorry for the mess of the above post, my breaks did not come through and I can not edit. Hope you can read it. 

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I've seen worse -- mostly posts of mine. 

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Thanks

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As you may know the House of Representatives is slated to debate and vote on the 1,990 page, $1.055 trillion Democratic health care proposal unveiled last week by Speaker Pelosi.

I recently spoke on the floor of the House of Representatives in opposition to this bill.

Click HERE to view my speech.

I also recently penned a short opinion piece highlighting my fiscally responsible alternative that medical liability reform, small business insurance pooling and letting families and businesses buy insurance across state lines — ideas that have strong, bipartisan support but are absent from the Democrats’ new reform legislation.

Click HERE to read about my health care reform alternative.

Rest assured as your Congressman I will continue to oppose any health care legislation that is harmful to New Jersey’s taxpayers, seniors and businesses.

Best personal wishes,

Congressman Leonard Lance

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