We’ve heard it all before. What good will my vote do? Why bother emailing or calling my congressman? Who cares about one man’s voice? What good will all these Tea Parties and protest groups accomplish against the money and resources of the government and those currently in control of which direction the country is headed?
Sounds like surrender to me. Take a step back from the big picture and focus in on the details. Tip O’Neill was right when he said “All politics is local.” Each and every member of the House and Senate, every governor, mayor and local official has one primary objective which influences every vote he takes, his ultimate reelection. To that end, they will listen to every opinion and complaint from their constituents, weigh the pros and cons and evaluate how to vote to maintain their office.
Those who favor entitlements, government largesse and intervention into life’s minutia, indiscriminate spending and the class envy proposition of punishing those who succeed on their own, have made their voices heard and have allowed our representatives to safely follow the new administration as it reverses American tradition and tramples free market capitalism.
The voice of the opposition, those who cherish the opportunities available in this country, those who want to keep more of their hard earned income, those who believe in individual reward and failure, unimpeded by government intervention, has only recently begun to be raised. It is being heard but is being evaluated as to its strength and its staying power. Is it just an aberration, a momentary fad, or is it the beginning of an uprising which will oust those politicians who choose to ignore it? If our voices are to make a difference they must be persistent, ever-growing and relentless. We have only to look to nature to see the picture of all that can be accomplished if we remain vigilant and outspoken.
A foreign object invades the host oyster and settles in, refusing to let go. Try as it might, the oyster cannot dislodge the particle, so in order to protect itself against the invader the oyster continuously coats the intruder with a substance called nacre.
Over the course of time the oyster will be discovered, its defenses broken down, and pried open to reveal the invader which has manifested itself as a pearl.
The voice of each individual can become, as all the grassroots movements across the country are likely to become, an intruder beneath the veil of our elected officials. If our efforts continue, despite the constant attempts to marginalize them and cover them up, the usurpers of our government will be revealed for what they are, and we will be left with the pearl formed by the spirit of Americans like yourself who will not go silently into the night.
Nico
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Health Care Reform - Obama's Trojan Horse
Health Care Reform – Obama’s Trojan Horse
The Obama administration, in its mad dash to transform America, is conducting another bum’s rush to pass its version of Health Care Reform legislation, which will devastate this country’s health industry and push the American economy another step closer to collapse, while ratcheting up the inevitable tax hikes looming over the American people.
Please take a moment to read the following passage, concerning Health Care Reform, and also the Long Term Budget Outlook by the CBO (which will only get worse at the breakneck pace of escalating government spending.) Then call and email your congressman, demanding a vote against ObamaCare and a stop to the undisciplined spending going on in Washington.
Your comments are welcome at www.aramisamerica.blogspot.com.
Nico
(The following was sent by an old friend, Frank S. who is the driving force behind a Tea Party organization in Staten Island. To read his excellent articles visit www.teapartysi.com.)
“Ladies and Gentlemen, socialized medicine is about to be rammed down our throats, and the greatest health care system in the world is going to be dynamited at its foundations.
Obama, Pelosi and their Congressional minions are blasting this UNCONSCIONABLE bill through the committees, because they know that if they wait too long, and the truth about this bill comes out, the American people will never swallow it. Just as with the "Stimulus" bill and Cap and Trade, transparency scares them to death.
On today's show, Rush Limbaugh said that the passage of this bill would be the death knell of the American economy….
This is from an editorial from Investor's Business Daily. It was not investigated and reported by ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, or anybody else - just little ol' IBD. Read it and weep for your country.”
It's Not An Option
It didn't take long to run into an "uh-oh" moment when reading the House's "health care for all Americans" bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal.
When we first saw the paragraph Tuesday, just after the 1,018-page document was released, we thought we surely must be misreading it. So we sought help from the House Ways and Means Committee.
It turns out we were right: The provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of "Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage," the "Limitation On New Enrollment" section of the bill clearly states:
"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law.
So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won't be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.
From the beginning, opponents of the public option plan have warned that if the government gets into the business of offering subsidized health insurance coverage, the private insurance market will wither.
..... What wasn't known until now is that the bill itself will kill the market for private individual coverage by not letting any new policies be written after the public option becomes law.
..... The public option won't be an option for many, but rather a mandate for buying government care. A free people should be outraged at this advance of soft tyranny.
*********************************
Congressional Budget Office
Director’s Blog
The Long-Term Budget Outlook
Today I had the opportunity to testify before the Senate Budget Committee about CBO’s most recent analysis of the long-term budget outlook.
Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, because federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run. Although great uncertainty surrounds long-term fiscal projections, rising costs for health care and the aging of the population will cause federal spending to increase rapidly under any plausible scenario for current law. Unless revenues increase just as rapidly, the rise in spending will produce growing budget deficits. Large budget deficits would reduce national saving, leading to more borrowing from abroad and less domestic investment, which in turn would depress economic growth in the United States. Over time, accumulating debt would cause substantial harm to the economy. The following chart shows our projection of federal debt relative to GDP under the two scenarios we modeled.
Keeping deficits and debt from reaching these levels would require increasing revenues significantly as a share of GDP, decreasing projected spending sharply, or some combination of the two.
Measured relative to GDP, almost all of the projected growth in federal spending other than interest payments on the debt stems from the three largest entitlement programs—Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. For decades, spending on Medicare and Medicaid has been growing faster than the economy. CBO projects that if current laws do not change, federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid combined will grow from roughly 5 percent of GDP today to almost 10 percent by 2035. By 2080, the government would be spending almost as much, as a share of the economy, on just its two major health care programs as it has spent on all of its programs and services in recent years.
In CBO’s estimates, the increase in spending for Medicare and Medicaid will account for 80 percent of spending increases for the three entitlement programs between now and 2035 and 90 percent of spending growth between now and 2080. Thus, reducing overall government spending relative to what would occur under current fiscal policy would require fundamental changes in the trajectory of federal health spending. Slowing the growth rate of outlays for Medicare and Medicaid is the central long-term challenge for fiscal policy.
Under current law, spending on Social Security is also projected to rise over time as a share of GDP, but much less sharply. CBO projects that Social Security spending will increase from less than 5 percent of GDP today to about 6 percent in 2035 and then roughly stabilize at that level. Meanwhile, as depicted below, government spending on all activities other than Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and interest on federal debt—a broad category that includes national defense and a wide variety of domestic programs—is projected to decline or stay roughly stable as a share of GDP in future decades.
Federal spending on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will grow relative to the economy both because health care spending per beneficiary is projected to increase and because the population is aging. As shown in the figure below, between now and 2035, aging is projected to make the larger contribution to the growth of spending for those three programs as a share of GDP. After 2035, continued increases in health care spending per beneficiary are projected to dominate the growth in spending for the three programs.
The current recession and policy responses have little effect on long-term projections of noninterest spending and revenues. But CBO estimates that in fiscal years 2009 and 2010, the federal government will record its largest budget deficits as a share of GDP since shortly after World War II. As a result of those deficits, federal debt held by the public will soar from 41 percent of GDP at the end of fiscal year 2008 to 60 percent at the end of fiscal year 2010. This higher debt results in permanently higher spending to pay interest on that debt. Federal interest payments already amount to more than 1 percent of GDP; unless current law changes, that share would rise to 2.5 percent by 2020.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Budget Projections, Long-Term Budgetary Issues.
The Obama administration, in its mad dash to transform America, is conducting another bum’s rush to pass its version of Health Care Reform legislation, which will devastate this country’s health industry and push the American economy another step closer to collapse, while ratcheting up the inevitable tax hikes looming over the American people.
Please take a moment to read the following passage, concerning Health Care Reform, and also the Long Term Budget Outlook by the CBO (which will only get worse at the breakneck pace of escalating government spending.) Then call and email your congressman, demanding a vote against ObamaCare and a stop to the undisciplined spending going on in Washington.
Your comments are welcome at www.aramisamerica.blogspot.com.
Nico
(The following was sent by an old friend, Frank S. who is the driving force behind a Tea Party organization in Staten Island. To read his excellent articles visit www.teapartysi.com.)
“Ladies and Gentlemen, socialized medicine is about to be rammed down our throats, and the greatest health care system in the world is going to be dynamited at its foundations.
Obama, Pelosi and their Congressional minions are blasting this UNCONSCIONABLE bill through the committees, because they know that if they wait too long, and the truth about this bill comes out, the American people will never swallow it. Just as with the "Stimulus" bill and Cap and Trade, transparency scares them to death.
On today's show, Rush Limbaugh said that the passage of this bill would be the death knell of the American economy….
This is from an editorial from Investor's Business Daily. It was not investigated and reported by ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, or anybody else - just little ol' IBD. Read it and weep for your country.”
It's Not An Option
It didn't take long to run into an "uh-oh" moment when reading the House's "health care for all Americans" bill. Right there on Page 16 is a provision making individual private medical insurance illegal.
When we first saw the paragraph Tuesday, just after the 1,018-page document was released, we thought we surely must be misreading it. So we sought help from the House Ways and Means Committee.
It turns out we were right: The provision would indeed outlaw individual private coverage. Under the Orwellian header of "Protecting The Choice To Keep Current Coverage," the "Limitation On New Enrollment" section of the bill clearly states:
"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law.
So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won't be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.
From the beginning, opponents of the public option plan have warned that if the government gets into the business of offering subsidized health insurance coverage, the private insurance market will wither.
..... What wasn't known until now is that the bill itself will kill the market for private individual coverage by not letting any new policies be written after the public option becomes law.
..... The public option won't be an option for many, but rather a mandate for buying government care. A free people should be outraged at this advance of soft tyranny.
*********************************
Congressional Budget Office
Director’s Blog
The Long-Term Budget Outlook
Today I had the opportunity to testify before the Senate Budget Committee about CBO’s most recent analysis of the long-term budget outlook.
Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, because federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run. Although great uncertainty surrounds long-term fiscal projections, rising costs for health care and the aging of the population will cause federal spending to increase rapidly under any plausible scenario for current law. Unless revenues increase just as rapidly, the rise in spending will produce growing budget deficits. Large budget deficits would reduce national saving, leading to more borrowing from abroad and less domestic investment, which in turn would depress economic growth in the United States. Over time, accumulating debt would cause substantial harm to the economy. The following chart shows our projection of federal debt relative to GDP under the two scenarios we modeled.
Keeping deficits and debt from reaching these levels would require increasing revenues significantly as a share of GDP, decreasing projected spending sharply, or some combination of the two.
Measured relative to GDP, almost all of the projected growth in federal spending other than interest payments on the debt stems from the three largest entitlement programs—Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. For decades, spending on Medicare and Medicaid has been growing faster than the economy. CBO projects that if current laws do not change, federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid combined will grow from roughly 5 percent of GDP today to almost 10 percent by 2035. By 2080, the government would be spending almost as much, as a share of the economy, on just its two major health care programs as it has spent on all of its programs and services in recent years.
In CBO’s estimates, the increase in spending for Medicare and Medicaid will account for 80 percent of spending increases for the three entitlement programs between now and 2035 and 90 percent of spending growth between now and 2080. Thus, reducing overall government spending relative to what would occur under current fiscal policy would require fundamental changes in the trajectory of federal health spending. Slowing the growth rate of outlays for Medicare and Medicaid is the central long-term challenge for fiscal policy.
Under current law, spending on Social Security is also projected to rise over time as a share of GDP, but much less sharply. CBO projects that Social Security spending will increase from less than 5 percent of GDP today to about 6 percent in 2035 and then roughly stabilize at that level. Meanwhile, as depicted below, government spending on all activities other than Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and interest on federal debt—a broad category that includes national defense and a wide variety of domestic programs—is projected to decline or stay roughly stable as a share of GDP in future decades.
Federal spending on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will grow relative to the economy both because health care spending per beneficiary is projected to increase and because the population is aging. As shown in the figure below, between now and 2035, aging is projected to make the larger contribution to the growth of spending for those three programs as a share of GDP. After 2035, continued increases in health care spending per beneficiary are projected to dominate the growth in spending for the three programs.
The current recession and policy responses have little effect on long-term projections of noninterest spending and revenues. But CBO estimates that in fiscal years 2009 and 2010, the federal government will record its largest budget deficits as a share of GDP since shortly after World War II. As a result of those deficits, federal debt held by the public will soar from 41 percent of GDP at the end of fiscal year 2008 to 60 percent at the end of fiscal year 2010. This higher debt results in permanently higher spending to pay interest on that debt. Federal interest payments already amount to more than 1 percent of GDP; unless current law changes, that share would rise to 2.5 percent by 2020.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Budget Projections, Long-Term Budgetary Issues.
Friday, July 3, 2009
How Could It Get So Bad, So Fast?
What happened in America?
One day we stand as a free market, entrepreneurial prosperity machine. Businesses rise, prosper, and expand. Occasionally poor decisions cause failures, businesses collapse, and some new idea, some new phoenix, rises from the ashes with a better plan, a more efficient model, and the internal fortitude to take a gamble, to risk it all, for the boundless opportunities that are there for the taking.
One day we elect statesmen who take moral stands, who make us proud, who are honored to serve their nation, yet humbled by their awesome responsibilities. We stare down oppression on the global stage, defeat our enemies while sacrificing our sacred treasure, and then rebuild the ravages left behind out of our boundless prosperity.
One day we are a nation of self reliant individuals, making our own way, content that the sweat of our brow brings sustenance to our families, and allows us to provide some relief for the unfortunate through that charitable virtue that is part of America.
One day we awaken and realize that the America we knew and loved has been turned asunder, raped and pillaged, not by an external enemy, but from within, by those we entrusted with the stewardship of our republic.
The beefy paw of government now intrudes throughout our society, promising precision, surgical corrections of our economy, our social structure, our core being as Americans, while wielding a mighty club, and striking out with abandon.
No longer are market forces allowed to make corrections, nor risk takers to find reward or failure. In lieu of statesmen, we find headlines reeking with news of corruption, scandal and infidelity. Sham legislation awards benefactors, hacks, and special interest groups, in a shameless redistribution of wealth, taken from the producers and doers via an endless mill of taxation.
Now we find our elected leaders apologizing for America’s deeds and actions, coddling our enemies, and inviting those who would do us harm to probe what is perceived as the soft underbelly of a once mighty beast. Only the presence of the brave men and women of our armed forces keep us safe, but even that great deterrent is subject to the misguided leadership of its commander.
The strong, silent individual, emblematic of America, has been pushed aside by groups demanding entitlements, professing grievances, and fighting for a place to be suckled under an all-encompassing, ever-expanding federal bureaucracy.
Who is to blame for the metamorphosis of America?
Front and center, the Obama administration must shoulder the blame for the rapid, widespread disintegration of American values, traditions, economy, and respect on the world stage. The far-left liberal agenda, the embracing of socialist ideology, the demonization of capitalism and the shameless vitriol leveled at those who would strive to achieve success outside the umbrella of Obama-sanctioned programs have, and will continue to, fundamentally change the lives of Americans now, and in the foreseeable future.
While the administration and the democrat party are at the apex of the problem, there is sufficient blame to spread around. The republican party, by embracing bigger government, participating in uncontrolled spending, miring itself in scandals, and marginalizing its conservative base, has forfeited its fiduciary trust with the American people. Furthermore, it has failed to produce a salient, sustainable, alternative policy platform, nor a charismatic, strong-willed, media-savvy, representative to serve as a rallying point for the grassroots uprising that is bubbling up throughout the country. Until it finds itself, and its figurehead, it offers little as the opposition party.
Finally, the blame must be shared by the electorate. The American citizens of today are too focused on immediate gratification and personal needs and wants. The country is bereft of civic education, responsibility, and self sacrifice for a greater good. The uneducated citizen falls prey to slick campaign promises, lies, and the cult of personality. Freedom is sacrificed for convenience, self respect for handouts, and love of country for the empty promises of Hope and Change.
Wake up America. Speak out, write, petition, and demonstrate, lest we wake up again to greater changes, less liberty, and an America we hardly recognize.
One day we stand as a free market, entrepreneurial prosperity machine. Businesses rise, prosper, and expand. Occasionally poor decisions cause failures, businesses collapse, and some new idea, some new phoenix, rises from the ashes with a better plan, a more efficient model, and the internal fortitude to take a gamble, to risk it all, for the boundless opportunities that are there for the taking.
One day we elect statesmen who take moral stands, who make us proud, who are honored to serve their nation, yet humbled by their awesome responsibilities. We stare down oppression on the global stage, defeat our enemies while sacrificing our sacred treasure, and then rebuild the ravages left behind out of our boundless prosperity.
One day we are a nation of self reliant individuals, making our own way, content that the sweat of our brow brings sustenance to our families, and allows us to provide some relief for the unfortunate through that charitable virtue that is part of America.
One day we awaken and realize that the America we knew and loved has been turned asunder, raped and pillaged, not by an external enemy, but from within, by those we entrusted with the stewardship of our republic.
The beefy paw of government now intrudes throughout our society, promising precision, surgical corrections of our economy, our social structure, our core being as Americans, while wielding a mighty club, and striking out with abandon.
No longer are market forces allowed to make corrections, nor risk takers to find reward or failure. In lieu of statesmen, we find headlines reeking with news of corruption, scandal and infidelity. Sham legislation awards benefactors, hacks, and special interest groups, in a shameless redistribution of wealth, taken from the producers and doers via an endless mill of taxation.
Now we find our elected leaders apologizing for America’s deeds and actions, coddling our enemies, and inviting those who would do us harm to probe what is perceived as the soft underbelly of a once mighty beast. Only the presence of the brave men and women of our armed forces keep us safe, but even that great deterrent is subject to the misguided leadership of its commander.
The strong, silent individual, emblematic of America, has been pushed aside by groups demanding entitlements, professing grievances, and fighting for a place to be suckled under an all-encompassing, ever-expanding federal bureaucracy.
Who is to blame for the metamorphosis of America?
Front and center, the Obama administration must shoulder the blame for the rapid, widespread disintegration of American values, traditions, economy, and respect on the world stage. The far-left liberal agenda, the embracing of socialist ideology, the demonization of capitalism and the shameless vitriol leveled at those who would strive to achieve success outside the umbrella of Obama-sanctioned programs have, and will continue to, fundamentally change the lives of Americans now, and in the foreseeable future.
While the administration and the democrat party are at the apex of the problem, there is sufficient blame to spread around. The republican party, by embracing bigger government, participating in uncontrolled spending, miring itself in scandals, and marginalizing its conservative base, has forfeited its fiduciary trust with the American people. Furthermore, it has failed to produce a salient, sustainable, alternative policy platform, nor a charismatic, strong-willed, media-savvy, representative to serve as a rallying point for the grassroots uprising that is bubbling up throughout the country. Until it finds itself, and its figurehead, it offers little as the opposition party.
Finally, the blame must be shared by the electorate. The American citizens of today are too focused on immediate gratification and personal needs and wants. The country is bereft of civic education, responsibility, and self sacrifice for a greater good. The uneducated citizen falls prey to slick campaign promises, lies, and the cult of personality. Freedom is sacrificed for convenience, self respect for handouts, and love of country for the empty promises of Hope and Change.
Wake up America. Speak out, write, petition, and demonstrate, lest we wake up again to greater changes, less liberty, and an America we hardly recognize.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
