Bogus AP Report

Today in the Maine Sunday Telegram is a story by AP reporter Darlene Superville with the headline "Report: Senate health bill would raise costs slightly". The story goes on to say that Americans would pay slightly more according to "government economic experts."

First, stop and think who those "government experts" are. They are the same "experts" who said the stimulus bill would result in 3,000,000 new jobs, which never happened. They are the same "experts" that said unemployment would not rise above 8%.

These so-called "economic experts" are people chosen by the current administration - the same people pushing the health care bill! Talk about a conflict of interest. That's like asking Susan Collins if Susan Collins is a good senator.

The real economic experts - including the ones at the CBO, which is the non-partisan group the Congress uses to determine costs - all say the costs on Americans will rise substantially, and permanently.

The point is this: the liberal media (including Associated Press and Maine Telegram and Portland Herald) will not tell you the truth, simply because they have an agenda that includes helping to push health care.

I am not opposed to health care reform, but the plans offered by Congress have nothing to do with reform. Their plans are political footballs that have two purposes - to control the people by controlling their lives, and to raise taxes on everyone to pay for all their liberal ideals.

If the Democratically controlled Congress, and Obama, truly were interested in actual reform, they would have made this a bipartisan bill by inviting Republicans to bring their input into the discussion, and would consider important issues such as tort reform, and allowing competition by letting the folks shop across state lines for insurance. But Congress has locked all Republicans out of the process - they are not permitted to bring anything to the table. They are shut out of the process, and then because they are not allowed to participate, they are accused of being the party of "no". And that is BS. They are not saying "no" - they are saying "Let us be part of the process so we can get a good bipartisan bill." And it is the Democrats who are saying "no". Republicans simply are not allowed to be part of the process.

And any sane person would have to wonder, why not?

Meanwhile, don't get sucked in by the liberal BS that the media, like the above example proves, is trying to foist upon you. This health care plan is going to cost you big time. This is not reform - it is political highway robbery of both your money and your freedoms. It reforms nothing, guarantees bigger profits for insurance companies (because everyone will be required to buy insurance) and will reduce the quality of care (try adding 34 million people without increasing the number of doctors and facilities).

And even the Mayo Clinic has begun closing their doors to Medicare and Medicaid patients. Under this health plan, many more will follow suit. What good is it to have inexpensive medicare if no doctor or hospital will see you because they don't get paid a fair price from medicare? Have you noticed - it is already difficult to find a doctor who takes new medicare patients. It will get much, much worse.

The government has never been successful in any business venture - Social Security is broke. Medicare is broke. The Postal Service is broke. Amtrak is broke. Now I ask you - why would any sane and reasonable person expect that the government can run health care effectively? If everything you touched were to turn to crap, do you think your boss would put you in control of 1/6 of the company's budget?

Frankly, the entire premise of the Democrats - that our health care system is broken - is bogus at the start. America undeniably has the best health care in the world. The problem is not the health care - it is the cost of that care. America's health care is not only the best, but also the most expensive. So the answer to the problem is not to tear everything down and start over. The answer is as simple as making it less expensive. But even in the AP article today, that will not happen in the Senate plan, in spite of its multi-trillion dollar cost.

I say, let us do only those things that decrease the cost of health care. Effective tort reform would not cost taxpayers one dime, but is estimated to reduce costs of health care by as much as 12-18%. And it would save additional taxpayer money by reducing court cases. Tearing down the laws that allow states to determine which policies you can and cannot buy would increase competition and reduce costs by at least another 8-12%. Those two simple things, alone, would cost taxpayers nothing, but would reduce costs by a minimum of 20%.

The only thing wrong with such common sense changes - they are part of what the Republicans want to include, but the Democrat Congress will not permit it.

Why not?

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