Obama: "Teabaggers" not FT Hood Shooter are Extremists

I couldn't help not noticing that Barack Obama couldn't bring himself to pass judgement on the Muslim extremist who killed 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas. But he has no problem labelling citizens who are against his out of control spending sprees as such (from the Corner on National Review):

President Obama, in his pitch to Democrats on the Hill today (from the New York Times):

Mr. Obama, during his private pep talk to Democrats, recognized Mr. Owens election and then posed a question to the other lawmakers. According to Representative Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, who supports the health care bill, the president asked, “Does anybody think that the teabag, anti-government people are going to support them if they bring down health care? All it will do is confuse and dispirit” Democratic voters “and it will encourage the extremists.”

This man has some serious issues.

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Announcement: North Jersey Tea Party Event - September 3

From our friends at the North Jersey Tea Party Group:

Fellow Tea Partiers,

*** BIG NEWS!!! The North New Jersey Tea Party Group will host a TEA PARTY PROTEST at Montclair State University (in Montclair, New Jersey) on Thursday, September 3 starting at 3:00 PM!!! ***

This date and time were chosen because on September 3 from 4-6 PM, U.S. House of Representatives member Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-NJ) will be hosting a Town Hall Meeting at Montclair State.

Please read all of the following important details:

* The Pascrell Town Hall Meeting -- which we urge you to attend immediately after our tea party protest -- will be held on Thursday, September 3 from 4-6 PM. The location is the Conference Center at Montclair State, 1 Normal Avenue, Montclair NJ 07043.

* For driving and parking directions, most definitely refer to:

http://www.montclair.edu/conferencecenter/campus_parking_directions.pdf

(Note: scroll down on that link to obtain a visual of exactly where the Conference Center is located on campus.)

* Parking at Montclair State is LIMITED, so we suggest you plan accordingly (taking public transportation is highly encouraged). If you can't park on campus, find a legal place to park off-campus, and walk from your parking spot to campus. ARRIVE EARLY to the extent you can, and you probably won't regret it. If you arrive before 3 PM, GREAT! Feel free to kick off the protest prior to 3 PM!

* We are starting our protest at 3:00 PM, ONE HOUR BEFORE the Pascrell Town Hall Meeting begins. This is in part to encourage you to come early, because many folks showing up at various town hall meetings on time are finding no seats available due to capacity already being reached.

* ***BRING A PROTEST SIGN!!!*** Homemade signs are GREAT, store-made signs -- for example at FedEx Office, formerly known as Kinko's -- are GREAT. (I will be bringing my 2' x 2' sign.)

* You can search the internet for suggested sign slogans. For example, Google the term "tea party slogans healthcare" and that will bring up several websites that have dozens -- hundreds -- of suggestions each.

* Our protest will take place just outside the main entrance to the Conference Center. Just look for our signs and join us!!!

* Bring a camera, and especially if you are able, bring a digital recording device. This will help us document the event, and also, these devices serve as great deterrents to any thugs who might wish to infringe upon OUR UNALIENABLE MORAL RIGHT TO SPEAK FREELY.

* I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you check out the following "20 Questions for Your Congressman" by our Facebook group member Robert W. Tracinski (thank you Robert!).


* We are a PEACEFUL organization. We do not expect this Tea Party Protest to be anything but peaceful. Please conduct yourself accordingly at all times (unless self-defense becomes necessary). Should anybody threaten you physically during our protest -- not that we expect this to happen, although we always want you to be prepared just in case -- please do your best to defuse the situation peacefully (which often means simply walking away, and sometimes means simply calling the police).

* Pascrell's campaign website shows his belief that "health care is a right." Pascrell is wrong; health care is NOT a right. If it were a right, then any individual could FORCE a health-industry worker (doctor, nurse, etc.) to provide the care, and FORCE somebody else (for example, peaceful and economically productive citizens -- a.k.a. taxpayers) to pay for it. Doctors, nurses, and taxpayers ARE NOT SLAVES. There is no such thing as the "right to health care" because there is no such thing as the "right to enslave" those who provide it and those who pay for it.

http://www.pascrellforcongress.com/healthcare
* Although free speech includes angry speech, please DO NOT disrupt the Town Hall Meeting in any way that prevents peaceful discourse (for example, joining in a multi-person chant which drowns out whomever is speaking).

* Please be aware that the Town Hall plans could change at any time -- particularly if Pascrell decides he lacks the courage to face pro-liberty Americans like you and me. If you become aware of any changes, please let us know, so that we can change our Tea Party Protest plans accordingly.

*** FORWARD THIS INVITATION ON TO ALL OF YOUR PRO-LIBERTY FRIENDS AND FAMILY!!! ***

I look forward to seeing you -- and your pro-liberty friends and family! -- at Montclair State on Thursday, September 3!

Mark Kalinowski
Founder
North New Jersey Tea Party Group
Liberty, Free Markets, and Individual Rights!

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Healthcare: Alternative ideas but the White House and Democrats aren't listening!

Whenever you read in the paper that Republicans are obstructionists and the people are just complaining at town hall events, there is a common thread in the story. And it is that no one is offerring alternative ideas to the load of garbage being put forward by House Democrats and the White House. The sad thing is that there are a lot of ideas suggested to fix both the cost and the coverage aspects of healthcare that our current crop of politicians absolutely refuse to comprehend.

And all while Obama insists on demonizing insurers. The unfortunate thing is that the industry is far from healthy and is hurting in a major way. In my business, we work with all kinds of organizations and the insurance companies have been shedding employees for the past 5 years. They are not making massive profits. As a matter of fact, if you graph Barack Obama's and Chris Dodd's last eight years revenue against individual companies in the insurance industry, you will find that both Obama and Dodd fared far better in terms of growing their revennue base. The insurance industry in fact makes less than 1 penny for every dollar in premium received (Forrester research).

We have the Obama and Democrat narrative:

- Insurance companies are evil and healthcare unions are good
- Companies that provide insurance are bad and government providing insurance is good
- Competition is bad when private companies do it, good when the government fixes it
- People that speak at town halls are astroturf while union thugs beating them up are good
- Anyone questioning Democrats is fake while paid protestors are good
- Old people are bad but illegal immigrants are good
- Doctors are bad but Tort lawyers are good

It's no wonder people are fed up.

Here are some ideas that will never find their way into the debate despited being offerred up by Republicans, the insurance industry and free market advocates:

Controlling cost and adding flexibility

1. Insurance Portability. Make it a requirement that all insurance it portable. If every firm needs to accept the rule, it will be so. The insurance industry has already agreed to do this early into the debate.
2. Tort Reform. I know I know. The Democrats need to protect poor Dicky Scruggs so that he can own ten airplanes while filing bs lawsuits against doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical firms. But you cannot control costs without addressing frivilous lawsuits.
3. Drop interstate limitations on competition for insurance. Right now we have 50 different states plus the Federal government regulating insurance and blocking competition. Remove these barriers and then maybe Joe Smith in New York will stop paying 5 times what Jim Smith in Tennessee is paying.
4. Have a discussion about moving the responsibility for insurance from the employer to the employee. And help provide a transition from the business entity which will gain long term in cost control to the employee. Then the employee will be free to take advantage of the increased competition to buy the kind of coverage that will be optimal for their family.
5. Health savings accounts. Cash is king even in the healthcare marketplace. Remove the requirement to submit claims for insurance completely and the doctor can perform certain care much more efficiently and cost effectively.
6. Eliminate government based care and hospital mandates so that the private sector can stop underwriting goverment programs and citizens are not paying twice for the same thing. For example, we all pay for medicare at both the state and federal level. Then the goverment only pays the hospital 5 dollars for a 20 dollar procedure. Who pays the rest? We do through private insurance as we will get charged 35 dollars to make up for it. This is goverment competition and is contributing to our current damaged system. Obama and Democrats just don't talk about it.
7. A national fraud database to track both doctors patients who abuse the system and real penalties when they are caught.

Once costs are brought under control, we can have the discussion about insuring the 12 million people who legitimately may need assistance. Not the illegal aliens. Not people who can afford insurance but choose to keep their money in their pocket. And not the fictitious people who cannot get insurance until you really investigate their story and find out they really do have coverage.

All of these things would add to the debate but you will never hear them proposed. Why? Because they don't add power to the unions and Democrats in congress.

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Healthcare Bill - Why are people so angry?

Many on the left trully do not understand why people are so angry about the healthcare legislation. And because they do not understand, they assume that the protestors are ginned up by insurance company and lobbyists. The sad thing is that their lack of understanding contributes to their ignorance and in a spiral to anger generated by their comments.

Reason 1. The holier than thou claim that they are the only ones who want to fix healthcare.

Perhaps the problem with this reasoning is that not everyone is trying to fix the same thing. Most people are happy with the current healthcare ranging from 54-80 percent agreeing depennding on the poll. The rub for many is the rising cost as a percentage of personal expenses that health insurance consumes (even if your company pays for most of it). To fix this problem you need to have a serious discussion of the subsidization of government Medicare and Medicaide patients by private health insurance patients. You also need to discuss torts and their impact on Doctor behavior, insurance company allocation and Pharmaceutical firm pricing policies. You also should add to the mix the growing number of illegals being treated for free at emergency rooms around the country.

But very little of the items above have been discussed. In addition, Barack Obama wants to fix the "50 million uninsured". We will discuss that below. Nancy Pelosi wants to penalize health insurance companies. If you cannot agree on the nature of the problem, you cannot take corrective action.

Reason 2. No one believes the 50 Million Uninsured number.

And the President keeps repeating it as fact. Lets take some facts from the Business Media Institute study on this number:

Myth: There are between 40 million and 50 million uninsured Americans. President Obama referred to “46 million uninsured Americans” in May 2009.

Fact: Anyone who reports that there are more than 46 million uninsured is exaggerating since the Census Bureau puts the number of uninsured at 45,657,000 people.

Fact: Nearly 10 million (9.7) of the 45.7 million uninsured are “not a citizen.” That makes every media claim of uninsured Americans higher than 35.9 million is wrong.

Myth: The 40 million to 50 million uninsured cannot afford health insurance.

Fact: More than 17 million of the uninsured make at least $50,000 per year (the median household income of $50,233) – 8.4 million make $50,000 to $74,999 per year and 9.1 million make $75,000 or higher. Two economists working at the National Bureau of Economic Research concluded that 25 to 75 percent of those who do not purchase health insurance coverage “could afford to do so.”

Myth: The 40 million to 50 million uninsured do not get health care.

Fact: The National Center for Policy Analysis estimates that uninsured people get about $1,500 of free health care per year, or $6,000 per family of four.

Fact: An Urban Institute study found that 25 percent of the uninsured already qualify for government health insurance programs.

Myth: People will remain uninsured without government assistance.

Fact: The Congressional Budget Office says that 45 percent of the uninsured will be insured within four months. CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin also said that the frequent claim of 40+ million Americans lacking insurance is an “incomplete and potentially misleading picture of the uninsured population.”

Fact: Liberal non-profit Kaiser Family Foundation put the number of uninsured Americans who do not qualify for government programs and make less than $50,000 a year between 8.2 million and 13.9 million. (The 8.2 million figure includes only those uninsured for two years or more.)

Fact: CBO analysis found that 36 million people would remain uninsured even if the Senate’s $1.6 trillion health care plan is passed.

Reason 3. Democrats desire to ram the legislation through congress.

We have commented here many times on the "rush to bad legislation" technique perfected by this congress. Haste makes waste and this Congress and President are experts at waste. And the citizens have caught on. The know their legislators are not reading the legislation and are wondering why. They are also wondering who is really writing the legislation and suspect that there is far more influence coming from lobbyists than from many representatives. They KNOW that they do not have a seat at the negotiating table yet George Soros does and they don't like it.

Reason 4. You reap what you sow.

Democrats have long espoused that dissent is important to the democracy and they are correct. But once normal people start dissenting, all of a sudden they don't like it. For years they have dispatched unions, Code Pink, Al Sharpton, Jessie "extortion" Jackson and a variety of other organnized protestors to events to put pressure on various entuities and lawmakers. Regular people have woken up and after 7 years of watching these organnized groups protest George Bush, they have decided not to stand up for themselves.

Reason 5. Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have disdain for the citizens of this country.

We all know when we are being talked down to and mocked. Barack Obama tries to demonized those who do not agree lockstep with everything he espouses. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid declared in the USA Today that the protestors are fake and un-American. Here is a statistic for you. Since I work in New York City, I know a lot of people who are very left of center. I also have numerous conservative friends. I do not know one single person who has attended a peace demonstration during the Bush years. And I know at least 10 who have attended tea parties or town halls on healthcare. And they didn't get bussed in-the drove their SUV's.

Astroturf. I don't think so. All of this is pissing people off. Assuming the Democrats continue on their current course, it will get worse long before it gets better.

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