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July 29th, 2009Dear Liberty Activist, Nancy Pelosi is losing control of the House of Representatives. According to The Hill, the Energy and Commerce committee is now set to resume its markup on the ObamaCare abomination: "In exchange for putting off a floor vote until after Labor Day, the Energy and Commerce Committee may be allowed to continue its markup of the healthcare bill this week even if an agreement has not been reached between committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and seven Energy and Commerce Blue Dogs over the content of the bill." It's now or never in the House of Representatives for Nancy Pelosi to shove ObamaCare down the throats of the American people by the August recess. Which means this is where the rubber meets the road for us. Said ALG President Bill Wilson, "The only concession the Blue Dogs made was not even much of a concession—to resume committee work on the bill, which includes their own slate of amendments that committee chair Henry Waxman has not agreed to." According to the Blue Dog chief negotiator Congressman Mike Ross (AR-CD4), "All I can say is that if he begins a markup without an agreement, we're certainly prepared to move forward and offer our amendments." "This is a stare-down between Mike Ross and Nancy Pelosi," Wilson said, "and Nancy Pelosi is the one who just blinked." This followed threats by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Energy and Commerce committee chairman to bypass the committee. Waxman had said "we are going to have to look at perhaps bypassing the committee" if no agreement could be reached with at least seven Blue Dog Democrats on the committee that to date have held up the legislation because of its high price tag, which will cost more than $1.5 trillion according to Kaiser Health News. "This is inside baseball," said Wilson. "Pelosi and Waxman overplayed their hand, the Blue Dogs smacked them down hard, and now the appearance of a 'compromise' to resume a committee markup they threatened to bypass is merely a face-saving campaign where the Blue Dogs politely agree to pretend that the Speaker is still in charge of the House on this issue, when in fact she is no longer calling the shots." Currently, there are 52 members of the Blue Dog Democrats in the House of Representatives, more than enough votes to defeat the proposal should they vote with the 178 member House Republican caucus. And that is where the pressure must continue to be applied. Because, in the end, this is not about helping Blue Dogs and House leadership to reach a compromise, it's about defeating this legislation. In the end, no government-run health care is acceptable. And that's the message to the Blue Dogs. Again, click here for the list of 40 Blue Dogs who signed a letter against ObamaCare earlier this month, promising not to support a proposal that was not deficit-neutral. Thank them for the gift they have given the American people: a month make it crystal clear that this legislation is a monstrosity that must never be passed. And keep up the heat on your own representatives in the House and in the Senate. Tell them that when they return home, they must listen to opposition to Obama's radical government takeover of health care. The switchboard number is (202) 224-3121. In today's Liberty Action Report, some things money can't buy, but for everything else there're taxpayers, there is more to "card-check" than meets the eye, ALG has produced a video outlining opposition to ObamaCare, why third-party payments for health care drive up the price. Plus, Political Mafioso picked up ALG News Executive Editor Carter Clews' piece on health care rationing in the style of "Soylent Green." Please send your letters to the editor at Robert@getliberty.org. We publish all points of view! Today, Marie Williams writes, "Thank you for the updates as I follow them all the time and have and are calling every day to help stop this insanity... Do you have AARP's email address as I and all my friends want to barrage them with emails to tell them not to back this program as it is a death sentence for us seniors, and nobody is talking about what this really means to us. I guess it's okay to cover illegal aliens but seniors who have labored all their lives, paid taxes, given to charity, and helped the poor are now going to be told no to treatment, just go home and die. Sounds like Nazism to all of us... What else can we do to stop this?" Keep fighting, Marie! You can give AARP a piece of your mind for supporting this garbage at their general number: 1-888-OUR-AARP or 1-888-687-2277. And also contact their Public Policy Institute, which undoubtedly helped to formulate AARP's support for this monstrosity: ppi@aarp.org and 202-434-3840. Give em' Hell! For Liberty, Robert Romano P.S. Preserve free markets, the natural
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Everything Else Big
Labor's Bait and Switch ALG
Video: Socialized Medicine Is Coming Barstool
Economist: The "Invisible Hand" … or the Hand of Death? ALG
in the News: Barack Obama's Soylent Green Rationing Rooms By Carter
Clews For Everything Else
ALG Editor's Note: William Warren's award-winning cartoons published at GetLiberty.org are a free service of ALG News Bureau. They may be reused and redistributed free of charge. http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=1415 Big Labor's Bait and SwitchBy Isaiah Stegman Rumors are circulating that Democrats may drop the "card check" provision from the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). "Card check" would strip workers of their right to a secret ballot in union elections. Before supporters of free enterprise even think about celebrating a victory, however, read what comes next. Even if this bill is stripped of "card check" it is dangerous. It still requires labor disputes to be resolved by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) soon to be headed by career union aplogist George Cohen. For the past 49 years, Mr. Cohen has worked in labor law, first with the National Labor Relations Board and then, starting in 1966, with the firm Bredhoff and Kaiser, LLP. He spent his 42 years with Bredhoff and Kaiser advocating and negotiating for organized labor, representing such clients as the United Steelworkers of America, the AFL-CIO, the NBA Players' Association and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. On June 29, 2009, President Obama nominated him to be director of the FMCS, a post that the EFCA is poised to make considerably more powerful. The bill gives employers and new unions 90 days to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement. If no agreement is reached within this timeframe, either party can request mediation from the FMCS. If there is still no agreement after 30 days, FMCS will refer the dispute to an arbitration panel set up by the FMCS. The decision of the panel is binding on both parties for two years. So, in essence, the federal government, through the FMCS, will be in a position to mandate wages, benefits, work rules, and other subjects normally found in collective bargaining agreements. According to the FMCS website, it is supposed to be a neutral third-party providing mediation in the bargaining process between labor and employers. Cohen's record as a 40-year union advocate, however, gives cause for concern that he would not be a neutral third party. So with the passage of EFCA and the confirmation of Big Labor's long-time ally George Cohen as the head of FMCS, labor unions would need only pretend to negotiate with employers and wait for their allies at FMCS to rule in their favor. Employers, on the other hand, will have the government mandating wages, benefits, and work rules, further complicating their efforts to dig themselves out of the worst recession in decades. So, no cry of victory yet. Rather, "Once more unto the breach, dear friends!" Isaiah Stegman is the ALG Senior Research Analyst. http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=1414 ALG Video: Socialized Medicine Is Coming
ALG Editor's Note: This video created by ALG News shows that Obama and the Congressional Democrats next target in taking over the economy is health care. http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=1413
The "Invisible Hand" … or the Hand of Death?By Justin Williams While the two parties falsely stage a contrived debate on the "desirable" degree of socialized medicine in the market place and what should and shouldn't be taxed, one myth that is not being discussed in the news must be busted: The current health care system is not a market. A competitive market consists of various buyers and sellers voluntarily exchanging goods and services within a price system, either with currency or other goods. While health care has many buyers, it has few sellers, and no price system. The lack of prices in any industry throws market coordination off, which creates many of the problems America is facing today. In a pure competitive market-based system, buyers and sellers, working tandem, would not be faced with rising costs and lower coverage. Simply put, if the prices were to high for buyers to afford, sellers would do everything in their power to lower their prices so that they would not go bankrupt. Instead, under today's non-competition price-fixing system, health care expenses keep going up causing insurance companies to up their rates. This is when the last remnants of a market kicks in and more costs taken out of employees checks translates into less people willing to pay. But isn't this a price? No, it is one fixed amount taken out of the employee's check every month regardless of whether he or she goes to the doctor every day of the month, or not at all. And for most private health insurance plans, when the person visits the doctor they only pay a fixed co-pay (usually $10 or $20) regardless of how many tests they did or did not have. This would be like joining grocery store with a flat membership fee in which the person had to pay the same price whether they were buying a Thanksgiving feast or running in to grab a gallon of milk. For obvious reasons, no grocery store has ever set up their business model this way. This is because customers would only buy the most expensive items. If the choice were between filet mignon and scrapple as your meat for dinner and cost was not an option, the choice would be fairly obvious. In fact, since the cost is not associated with the item at all, there is only an incentive for the producers to raise the price on the grocer. This slowly trickles into higher membership rates, meaning less people will be members as expenditures will rise higher than consumer price index (see below). In the case of health care, this means fewer people being able to afford insurance, while those who do have it live with a false sense of security, blithely unaware that the roof will inevitably fall.
So we know why over the past 60 years, the third-party-payer system has perverted the health care market place. But the question remains, how did we get to this point? After World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt worried that the transition of millions of soldiers back to the workforce would drive down current wages. So Roosevelt froze wages. This put business owners in a position where they could not attract better skilled labor with more money. So, of course, they offered benefits, and third-party pay was born. After this, it would be near impossible for businesses to stop offering employees those benefits and go back to a true market price system. Without prices, there is no market information. And with flat rates for everything, there is only one preference, which equals higher costs. The Republicans have not offered any solutions and will lose the debate if they stick with the status quo argument. The status quo and the Democratic plan to socialize health care both lack the necessary price mechanism to make health care affordable and viable for everyone. It's simple, the constant increase in costs is due to the lack of a market price structure. And if the situation, whether the statue quo or the proposed plan, continues to lack market price competition then health care costs will continue to rise. And if businesses cannot reduce costs, they will be forced to reduce quality. In short, the Obama health care scheme offers, the worst of both worlds: higher costs and lower quality. Not to mention euthanasia for those sentenced to the rationing rooms. Justin Williams is the Senior Commentary Editor of ALG News Bureau and as always accepts any comments or questions for the Barstool Economist at justin@getliberty.org. http://blog.getliberty.org/default.asp?Display=1412
Barack Obama's Soylent Green Rationing Rooms By Carter ClewsThe latest figures from James Carville's Democracy Corps polling firm cannot be good news for Barack Obama and his head-strong, headlong push for government-run socialized medicine: A full 54 percent of senior citizens oppose the scheme. And 40 percent oppose it "strongly." Perhaps they have figured out what Obama is covering up and the mainstream media is refusing to reveal: "Obamacare" is the ultimate redistribution program. Only in this case, it's far worse than the mere "redistribution of wealth," candidate Obama proposed in his campaign. With "Obamacare," the president proposes "redistributing the health" – from the old who have worked hard all of their lives to provide for their "Golden Years" to the younger members of the welfare culture who have come to believe that everything they receive from the hand of government is an "entitlement," and that universal health care should now be loaded onto the Gravy Train. In short, the Obama government-run "health care" plan is actually a not-so-veiled attempt to take from those who have worked hard and – once again – give to those who have hardly worked. Need proof? Asked where he would get the funds to provide free universal health care coverage for all 43 million uninsured Americans – including the full 40 percent of whom simply did not bother to work last year -- he boasted that he would cut Medicare and Medicaid by more than $500 billion, completely gutting those long-established programs… |
