Joe Fairbanks, put this one page explanation together. It is very informative.
NATIONAL HEALTH CARE REFORM:
WHAT IT MEANS AND WHAT’S NEXT
WHAT SENATE FINANCE BILL DOES…
• Expand Medicaid to all Americans under 133% of FPL (~$30,000 for family of 4)
• Requires all individuals to have health insurance or pay a penalty
• Public Option included with states having option to opt-out
• Community Rating (no premium variation) and Guaranteed Issue (if you apply, you get it—no pre-existing condition exclusion) of all health plans
• Creates a National Exchange on which all private, group, and public plans must be listed. Individuals and employers would purchase health plans from the exchange.
• Employers with more than 50 employees are required to provide coverage or pay a fee
• Tax Credits available for individuals and families between 134-300% of FPL
HOW THEY PAY FOR IT…
• Congressional Budget Office estimates plan will cost $829 billion over 10 years and reduce deficit by $81 billion (News taxes and fees are collected immediately, while expenditures aren’t made until 2013, so it’s 7 years of the program paid for with 10 years of tax revenue)
• Cut approximately $200 billion from Medicare provider rates (Congress will re-instate rates after bill passes, thereby eliminating any savings)
• Tax imposed on all “gold-plated” plans
• Non-Compliance fees and taxes
WHAT’S WRONG WITH IT…
• Leaves approximately 25 million uninsured
• Fails to address quality and cost aspects of health care.
• Obliterates state budgets, as states must pay for part of Medicaid expansion
• Fails to foster competition
• Will explode health costs through Community Rating and Guaranteed Issue• No provisions to provide for more physicians
WHAT’S NEXT…
• Bill must be merged with Senate HELP Committee’s bill, then voted on by full Senate. Must receive at least 60 votes. (Republicans that could be for: Snowe, Collins, Voinovich; Democrats that could be against: Bayh, Nelson, Lieberman, Lincoln, Landrieu, Dorgan, Baucus)
• Once the bill passes the Senate, it will go to a conference committee with the House.
• Conference bill must once again garner 60 votes in Senate.
• Alternative: Reconciliation Budget Maneuver. Only 51 votes required in Senate. Bill sunsets in 10 years and may only address budget issues.
Four letters to the Editor at the Norman Transcript for the Sunday paper. Every week the Transcript is full of letters from liberals bashing conservative and some times even Christians. Now let’s see how many letters the Transcript prints from conservatives. The interesting thing about these letters is that they were not an organized campaign. It seems as though everyone is feed up with the Transcript’s liberal agenda. Glad to see the silent majority come alive!
BC
Dear Editor
I’m happy to see the American people finally coming back to reality. Last
year we elected Barack Obama because he promised a new kind of politics that
would end the partisan divisions that plagued Washington. Instead, he only
made the problem worse. Now any criticism of the president is met with
cries of racism-a disturbing trend that evinces the intellectual weakness of
his supporters.
Obama also promised to cut the deficit by cutting net government spending.
Instead, we got deficits as large as you can imagine. In less than one
year, he’s increased the deficit by trillions of dollars-giving away
taxpayer money to private corporations and spending it on unnecessary
projects. Worse: Mr.Obama’s budget doubles the national debt to $23.1
trillion, which will equal our entire GDP, in just ten years.
Obama and the Democrats told us that this spending was necessary to grow the
economy and keep unemployment below 8%. Funny how they didn’t think that
when the last president was running up the deficit. Apparently intellectual
consistency isn’t their strong suit. Nevertheless, our economic situation
continues to deteriorate as hundreds of thousand of Americans lose their
jobs each month. The unemployment rate stands at 9.7%, well above the 8%
ceiling Obama and his economic advisers promised. And it’s only going to
get worse.
Now the president and his allies in Congress want to ram a new trillion
dollar spending bill down our throats in the guise of health care reform, an
effort that will raise our taxes and the costs of everyone’s medical care
and insurance. Only in Washington can spending a trillion be considered
saving money. No wonder Obama’s approval ratings have plummeted by 18
points and only 21% view Congress favorably. The people have come back to
reality and realized Obama is just a politician that offers more of the
same.
Bobby Cleveland
Slaughterville
Dear Editor Rieger,
Much as I respect the opinions expressed by Larry Steele’s letter appearing
on the editorial page last Monday, the health care debate gets down to
whether or not you trust federal government solutions to be the best way to
do health care. If you like federal fixes, look at the Indian health care
system (and about just anything else the US Government has done to “protect”
Native Americans!) Or look at the VA health care system. How well does it
work? Ask a veteran- just don’t ask the veteran who appeared on the front
pages of the Transcript when that decorated but disabled veteran fought to
not get kicked out of the local VA facility. Without Judge Hetherington’s
order for a stay, he would have been evicted! (Thank you Judge!) But do we
want to have to go to court each time a government health employee decides
against us?
According to Steele’s world view, we would already have health
care reform if those power-lusting Republicans would just shut up and row
the boat. While Larry cracks the whip on those he wants to row harder in
the gallery, let’s remember that there are more than enough Democrats to
pass this or any other health plan because Democrats hold comfortable
margins in the Senate and House. But thanks to our own Oklahoma Congressman
Dan Boren, and some other Democrats who do not believe all Obama claims, the
President’s version of reform has been turned back!
Others who do not believe all of President Obama’s claims
include the Congressional Budget Office. Obama says his plan is
revenue-neutral and its savings will off-set its cost, even while he adds 43
million uninsured people to the health care plans. The CBO says otherwise.
Not because they are evil. But because they crunched the numbers, as
evidently Boren has done as well.
Is Obama telling the truth? You decide. While I am among those
who don’t believe him, I do believe he thinks what he is saying is close to
the truth, if not the gospel truth itself. Congressman Joe Wilson says the
President is lying about illegal aliens being eligible for coverage. Read
the bill. It has no provisions to enforce compliance, and no provision
calling for proof of citizenship. So it’s pretty much like a speed limit in
a town that has no police force.
As expressed in an editorial reprinted in the September 15th Transcript,
(“Civility is dying, and that’s no lie”) we all lose when those we respect
behave like charm-school drop-outs. But the obituary for civility should
have been printed much earlier, perhaps when Democrats booed President
Bush’s 2005 State of the Union Address, or when Nancy Pelosi (now Speaker of
the House) called President Bush a liar, or when Senate Leader Harry Reid
called President Bush a “loser and a liar.” So should have Congress voted
to reprimand Congressman Joe Wilson for calling President Obama a liar? You
decide. I have: Congress should have rebuked Republican Congressman Wilson
“for behaving like a Democrat!”
Respectfully,
Jim
Jim Helm
Letter to the Editor,
I am shocked that the Norman Transcript has become so partisan. I opened the paper this morning and found nothing about Acorn being disfunded by the House of Representatives. Earlier you omitted the story about the US Senate doing the same. You’ve censored any news reporting on the discovery of the Acorn scandals in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and San Bernardino and any story about the radical communist Van Jones being dismissed from his position as Obama’s Green Jobs Czar.
This country is split between conservatives and liberals. You choose to promote only stories favorable to the liberals. Your paper is the print version of MSNBC. The only thing worth reading in your paper is the Pickles cartoon strip and the sports page! Have you ever considered being fair and balanced?
We need a second newspaper in Norman.
Prof. Edward F Blick
Dear Editor:
How does the Transcript claim to be “Trusted. Tested. Timeless” and
completely ignore coverage of the Solidarity March and Tea Party Rally last
Sunday? Over 3000 Oklahomans, including many Cleveland County residents
participated in the event, which was part of a nation-wide movement
involving over a million people expressing their concern about the policies
of the Obama Administration and Congress. Most of the local television
stations covered the event as did the biggest newspaper in the state. Yet a
review of both the Transcript’s print and online editions reveals that there
is not a single story covering the event!
Instead, Monday’s edition gives front page treatment to yet another
rehashing of US Representative Joe Wilson and the House Democratic
Leadership’s calls for a second apology – 5 days after he apologized to
President Obama.
It’s ironic that on Page 2 of Monday’s Transcript is a story reporting that
more Americans than ever believe that the media is politically biased. Look
no further than this very newspaper for explanation.
Sincerely,
Mike Milligan
Press Release
Bob Cleveland
Chairman cleveland County Republican Party
Over 300 people signed a “Free Our Health Care Now” petition urging Congress “to stop any increased role of the government in [personal] health care decisions” during this past weekend’s Cleveland County Fair. The petition,circulated at the fair by the Cleveland County Republican Party also states,
“I also petition the U.S. Congress to protect my right to choose my own doctors and hospitals without delay or denial, to obtain care that is patient-centered, and to have health insurance that is personal, portable
and best suits my needs.” The petition is also available online and is being sponsored by The National Center for Policy Analysis, a nonprofit,
nonpartisan public policy research organization,established in 1983. To date, over 1.3 million people have signed the petition.
GOP County Chairman Bobby Cleveland credits the County Party’s efforts to educate fairgoers about the health care proposal for its success in getting
over a dozen new residents to register as voters, and several who changed their party affiliation from Democratic or Independent to Republican during
the Fair. “The Obama-Kennedy health care plan has grabbed people’s attention and we are seeing a lot of interest in the Republican Party as
more and more people are concerned about the rapid expansion of government power.” “We printed out a copy of the Congressional Health Care version of
the bill and had it bound so fairgoers could see just how monstrous this 1000+page document is. People were shocked to learn that the bill calls for
huge amounts of new government programs and employees and erodes personal liberties and choices. We will be forwarding on the signed petitions to our
Congressional Delegation and we intend to hold them accountable for their votes on health care reform.”
President Obama told the American people in his weekend address he wanted to “start dispelling the outlandish rumors” about the Democrats’ risky health care experiment.
I couldn’t agree more with the President.
There is no place for outlandish rumor or outrageous rhetoric in the debate for the affordable and accessible health care reform we all want.
Below are some facts that will help you counter the dishonest rhetoric Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and liberal special interest groups are disseminating in their attempt to silence dissent:
Rhetoric: President Obama Promises Americans Can Keep Their Current Health Care Coverage. “You know, the interesting thing is we’ve actually been very clear on what we want. I’ve said I want to make sure if you have health care you are going to keep it…” (PBS’s “The Newshour With Jim Lehrer,” 7/20/09)
FACT: Analysis Shows Over 88 Million People To Lose Current Insurance Under Government Health Care Takeover. “Under current law, there will be about 158.1 million people who are covered under an employer plan as workers, dependents or early retirees in 2011. If the act were fully implemented in that year, about 88.1 million workers would shift from private employer insurance to the public plan.” (John Shelis, Vice President, Lewin Group, “Analysis Of The July 15 Draft Of The American Affordable Health Choices Act Of 2009,” 7/17/09)
Rhetoric: President Obama Pledges Americans Can Keep Their Doctor. “If you like your plan and you like your doctor, you won’t have to do a thing. You keep your plan. You keep your doctor…We’re not going to mess with it.” (President Barack Obama, Remarks At White House Press Conference, The White House, 6/23/09)
FACT: Mayo Clinic Says Government-Run Health Care Will Force Doctors To Drop Patients. ‘[L]awmakers are on track to approve across-the-board federal payment reductions of $155 billion over 10 years for hospitals … Mayo and similar health systems object to the sweeping cuts. ‘Across-the-board cuts will be harmful to everyone and we think it is particularly bad to penalize the high-value organizations,’ said Jeff Korsmo, executive director of the Mayo Clinic Health Policy Center. ‘We will have to violate our values in order to stay in business and reduce our access to government patients.’” (Phil Galewitz, “‘Model’ Health Systems Press Case For Medicare Fix In Reform,” Kaiser Health News, 7/20/09)
Rhetoric: President Obama Promises No Additional Taxes On Middle Class. “What I’ve said is, and I have stuck to this point, I don’t want to see additional tax burdens on people making $250,000 a year or less.” (NBC’s “Today Show,” 7/21/09)
FACT: Democrats’ Plan Imposes 2.5% Tax On Uninsured Individuals. “The penalty assessed on people who would be subject to the mandate but did not obtain insurance would equal 2.5 percent of the difference between their adjusted gross income (modified to include tax-exempt interest and certain other sources of income) and the tax filing threshold …” (Douglas W. Elmendorf, “Preliminary Analysis Of The Insurance Coverage Specifications Provided By The House Tri-Committee Group,” Letter To Chairman Rangel, 7/17/09)
The Republicans want an honest and open debate about how to reform health care, but it is the Democrats who do not want to have a legitimate discussion on the issues. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and their liberal special interest cronies are resorting to calling concerned citizens who have questions about their health care schemes “astroturf,” “un-American,” and even “political terrorists.”
One White House aide went so far to say “if you get hit, we will punch back
twice as hard” when coaching Senate Democrats on the ways of “Chicago land politics.”
It’s time for the President to practice what he preached on the campaign trail and respect all voices in the health care debate.
Help the RNC spread the facts about the Obama Democrats’ dishonest rhetoric and stop their efforts to silence dissent by forwarding this email to your friends, and if you can, make a contribution of whatever you can afford to the RNC today.
And for more information about Obama’s government-run health care experiment, go to www.BarackObamaExperiment.com. there’s too much at stake for Democrats and their left-wing allies to dominate the debate on health care reform with misinformation, name calling and scare tactics. Please help Republicans fight back today!
Sincerely,
Michael Steele
Chairman, Republican National Committee
