10 points on Health care

1. A Massively Engorged Government, to the tune of $2.5 trillion in new entitlement spending. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), new entitlement spending in the plan would cost $216 billion by 2019, then increase by 8 percent every year thereafter.
2. A Cornhusker Kickback for All. No, special deals aren’t removed from Obamacare this time around. Instead, the House bill extends new federal funding for Medicaid to all states. Incidentally, you’re paying for it.
3. A Freight train of taxes, slamming the American people in 2018. You’ve heard of the “Cadillac” tax on high-cost insurance plans? It will be pushed back to 2018, and given the way “high-cost” plans will be defined, a large segment of the middle class would get hit with the tax over time.
4. Beware the shape-shifting tax monster. New taxes will take many forms, including taxes on prescription drugs, medical devices (like wheel chairs), and health insurance.
5. Unconstitutional mandates, courtesy of Congress. Don’t want to buy health insurance? Congress will penalize you if you don’t, regardless of income.
6. Lock your back door. Higher health care costs will be sneaking in. The plan gives subsidies to low-to-moderate wage families, but the subsidies will increase at a lower rate than the rate at which premiums increase. In other words, those families will pay more every year.
7. Lights out for small businesses? Companies that hire certain low-income Americans will have to pay $3,000 per employee, per year, even if the company offers insurance.Oh, and if a company employs 50 or more workers, they’ll face higher tax penalties to the tune of $2,000 per full-time employee.
8. Abortions. You will pay for them, like it or not. The House bill includes major funding for community health centers with no restrictions on federal taxpayer funding of abortions.
9. Want to play the stock market? Maybe not, after you hear this. The House bill slaps a 3.8% tax on investment income.
10. It’s not a federal system, after all. States will have less power. They’ll no longer have authority to regulate health care premiums. Instead, the federal government will take on the job. States and local governments won’t be able to control their own employee health plans; they’ll have to abide by new federal regulations.

Remember that health care is 1/6 of our economy and this 2000+ page bill could fundamentally change the United States forever.  What we should be doing is taking our time, listening to the people, and coming up with REAL solutions to health care reform.  Because lets face it, people need health care.  However, we shouldn't be trying to rush a bill that no one can understand to the Presidents desk.  I would also like to remind you that health reform is not going to take affect until 2014.  If we are in such a rush to give people care then the bill should take affect immediately.  

The bill is full of kickbacks, and shady deals.  Here are a few:

*Nebraska’s Hospital Helper. Via Rowan Scarborough at the Washington Times:

The Obama administration has delivered another budget plum to Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson and the state of Nebraska, adding more than a half-billion dollars for a new veterans hospital in Omaha.

The move reverses a decision by Mr. Obama’s own Veterans Administration of a year ago, which called for repairing an existing hospital.

The Veterans Administration made the budget switch during internal deliberations in 2009 at a time when the White House was wooing the moderate Democrat to vote for President Obama’s health care overhaul bill.

Mr. Nelson was among the last of the Senate Democrats to sign on to the health bill, deciding to vote “yes” after securing special Medicaid payments for Nebraska in a deal known as the “Cornhusker Kickback.” Health care reform opponents have widely panned that deal.

At the time that deal was being made, Mr. Nelson was getting another boost from the VA as it formulated its next budget.

Jake Thompson, a spokesman for Mr. Nelson, rejected the idea the new hospital was awarded in exchange for the senator’s health care vote.

Deny, deny, deny.

*Tennessee’s Hospital Helper. Via the Tennessean:

Bye bye, Cornhusker Kickback. Hello, special treatment for Tennessee and North Dakota.

Democrats unveiling revisions Thursday to their health-care overhaul bill decided to kill the extra $100 million in Medicaid funds for Nebraska that has become a symbol of backdoor deal making. But the 153 pages of changes to the package include an additional $99 million in 2012 and 2013 for Tennessee hospitals that treat many poor people.

Retiring Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., has fought for the funds for years to bring the state’s aid up to par with the rest of the country, spokeswoman Emily Phelps said. She said their inclusion had nothing to do with his announcement Thursday that he will vote for the final health legislation after opposing an earlier version in November.

Deny, deny, deny.

Tom Bevan notes the irony of Gordon’s little deal and a NASA slot rumor.

*North Dakota’s Student Loan Loophole. With a sick stomach, Scott Johnson at Power Line reports:

Although the package nationalizes the student loan system, one bank — the state-owned Bank of North Dakota — would be allowed to continue making student loans. Such a deal for North Dakota’s Democratic congressional delegation facing massive opposition to Obamacare back home.

North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan has already announced his retirement rather than try to defend Obamacare to his constituents. Kent Conrad — North Dakota’s other Democratic senator — is employing the full Nelson, declining the bribe. Referring to “an overly heated partisan environment,” he asked the House to remove the buyoff from the legislation.

We await word from Rep. Earl Pomeroy, the state’s lone member of the House. Before the package was announced, Pomeroy was an enthusiastic advocate of the buyoff. “We want what’s taking place in North Dakota protected,” Pomeroy said. It is not clear whether Pomeroy shares Conrad’s second thoughts

And Congress will now expressly fund racial discrimination in higher education:

The new package also promises new aid for colleges serving minority students, using money the government is supposed to save by no longer paying banks to make student loans. Included are annual payments of $100 million for schools with large numbers of Hispanic students, the same amount for colleges with many black students, and millions more for schools with large numbers of native Americans and other minorities.

Newspapers running stories on these deals such as the Washington Post’s “Cornhusker Kickback gets the boot in health bill” really ought to provide nausea warnings and motion sickness bags.

*The La Raza Lollilop. Open-borders congressional reps made a show of protesting the phony immigration enforcement provisions in Demcare. But purported opponents of the bill led by Illinois Democrat Rep. Luis Guiterrez are falling in line. Just as the congressional Hispanic Caucus announced it support of Demcare, Obama announced his vow of support for their new shamnesty push.

All they needed was a cheap and easy promise from Obama. Chumps.

*Water Wheeling & Dealing. IBD editorializes today:

On Tuesday, the Department of the Interior announced it was increasing water allocations for the Central Valley of California, a region that depends on these water allocations for local agriculture and jobs. The timing adds to our suspicions.

According to the Interior announcement, “Typically (the Bureau of) Reclamation would release the March allocation update around March 22nd, but moved up the announcement at the urging of Senators (Diane) Feinstein and (Barbara) Boxer, and Congressmen (Jim) Costa and (Dennis) Cardoza.”

Blue Dog Democrats Costa, who represents California’s 20th Congressional District (Fresno), and Cardoza, who represents the 18th (Stockton to Modesto), are both listed as “undecided” in the upcoming vote on health care reform, whether it be on the Senate bill itself or the “deem and pass” resolution known as the Slaughter rule, after Rules Committee Chairman Louise Slaughter.

The rule subverts the Constitution by allowing the bill to pass without members actually having to vote on it. Interior’s announcement gives Costa and Cardoza something to assuage the wrath of angry constituents just in time for any vote. They chose what was behind door number one.

This isn’t the first time. To get them out of the “undecided” column in last December’s House vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership promised $500 million for a new University of California-Merced Medical School. Costa and Cardoza then voted “aye.”

Taken from MICHELLE MALKIN