Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. - Albert Einstein

Thursday, August 26, 2010

The usual Lame Stream Media propagandists must be desperate to try and defend the close to $1 trillion dollar stimulus patronage bill known as the “The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009” as this desperate and transparently vain attempt by Time tries to make this pig pretty proves.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus — has been marketed as a jobs bill, and that’s how it’s been judged. The White House says it has saved or created about 3 million jobs, helping avoid a depression and end a recession. Republicans mock it as a Big Government boondoggle that has failed to prevent rampant unemployment despite a massive expansion of the deficit. Liberals complain that it wasn’t massive enough.

Monday, August 16, 2010

You know I do sometimes get tired of being right all the time:

Federal regulators are considering taking the highly unusual step of rescinding approval of a drug that patients with advanced breast cancer turn to as a last-ditch hope.

The debate over Avastin, prescribed to about 17,500 women with breast cancer a year, has become entangled in the politically explosive struggle over medical spending and effectiveness that flared during the battle over health-care reform: How should the government balance protecting patients and controlling costs without restricting access to cutting-edge, and often costly, treatments?

The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing the recommendation of influential scientific advisers to revoke authorization of the drug to treat metastatic breast cancer. Contrary to initial research, new studies indicate that the benefits of the drug, which costs $8,000 a month, do not outweigh its risks, the advisory panel concluded.

Now there may be good reasons for rescinding the Avastin approval.  The recent studies have muddied the waters considerably as to whether this drug is a benefit or a hazard.  Avastin is also extremely expensive, running from $50-100,000 to extend life by a few months.

In a consumer-controlled healthcare system, it would be up to patients to decide whether to spend a lot of money on it (although, even in the major medical insurance scenario that I envision, Avastin costs would still be mostly, if not entirely, born by insurers).  In our insurance-company-controlled and increasingly government-controlled system, Avastin becomes a political football.  It was approved because of political pressure.  And this repeal is running into a firewall of political pressure from the government and private insurance companies that don’t want to pay for it on one side and congressmen and patients who think there should be no limits on healthcare spending on the other.  In short, science has become the least of the concerns here.

This is going to happen more and more.  As more expensive treatments come down the pipe, every one is going to become a political war between those who want the treatment and those who are paying for it.  Because those two groups are not the same people, it will be fought out in the FDA, in the halls of Congress and almost certainly in an eventual federal agency that will do cost-benefit analysis.

Welcome to the future.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

The government take-over bill recently rammed downour throats by a partyline vote and some of the skankiest and questionable manuevering in Congress by demcorats better known as “Obamacare” took yet another hit when Missouri voters overwhelmingly voted against it yesterday.

Missouri voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a federal mandate to purchase health insurance, rebuking President Barack Obama’s administration and giving Republicans their first political victory in a national campaign to overturn the controversial health care law passed by Congress in March. “The citizens of the Show-Me State don’t want Washington involved in their health care decisions,” said Sen. Jane Cunningham, R-Chesterfield, one of the sponsors of the legislation that put Proposition C on the August ballot. She credited a grass-roots campaign involving Tea Party and patriot groups with building support for the anti-Washington proposition. With most of the vote counted, Proposition C was winning by a ratio of nearly 3 to 1. The measure, which seeks to exempt Missouri from the insurance mandate in the new health care law, includes a provision that would change how insurance companies that go out of business in Missouri liquidate their assets.

Emphasis mine. Enough Americans get it that government, especially the federal government, forcing you to do this is unconstitutional and wrong. I wish more of them also understood that there is no such thing as free healthcare, because way too many Americans still want that. Let’s hope this is just one of the many defeats that these bastards and their attempt to have government hijack 1/6th of the economy, usurp our freedoms, and turn us into serfs dependant on the goodwill of government for our care, will suffer on a quick road to the repeal of this monstrosity.

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

That’s Tim Geithner providing cover for the failed collectivist policies now driving the country:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner acknowledged that it is still a “tough economy” for most Americans, and warned it’s possible the unemployment rate will go up for a couple of months before it comes down as more people enter the labor force.

“When they see a little hope that there may be jobs out there, they start to come back in again. And that can cause the measured unemployment rate to go up — temporarily,” Geithner told “Good Morning America’s” George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview. “But what we expect to see, and I think most forecasters expect this…is an economy that’s gradually healing, gradually strengthening, businesses starting to add people back.”

The economy is not rebounding as quickly as Geithner and the Obama administration would like, he said. Last week’s economic report card showed the Gross Domestic Product grew at a rate of 2.4 percent, slower than it had earlier this year. But amid that bad news, Geithner said, were signs of growth in the private sector.

Talk about your snow job. The economy is not rebounding because collectivist wishful thinking and government funneling trillions to democrat operatives, friends, donors, lobbyists, and causes, while growing fat and large, contrary to all the fantasies, is never going to create any productive jobs. Private sector jobs produce wealth because those jobs provide net revenue to the economy and government. Government jobs destroy or shuffle wealth, and then inefficiently too, as they take private sector cash and reallocate it or simply burn it up. The morons in charge right now have done a ton of burning, and their agenda is set to burn even more, far beyond the capacity of any private sector to keep up with, in the future.

Anyway back to Geithner, and the excuse making for why these collectivists in government think they should get even more of our money, and have no doubt that this is about them feeling entitled to our money and being pissed we don’t want to go along.

“If you extend all these tax cuts just for two years or so, you’re going to leave the vast bulk of Americans…with uncertainty about what the rules of the game are going to be,” Geithner said. “What we’re proposing is to extend those tax cuts for the middle class. Extend those tax cuts for small businesses. Make clear that we’re going to keep dividends and capital gains rates, the taxes that go to business, to capital investment, at a modest rate going forward. That’ll give people more certainty.”

Get that? He is talking about the economic uncertainty Congress’ refusal to take a firm stance on the Bush tax cuts that expire at the end of this year. His take is that letting the tax cuts stay in place for an undetermined term will just keep people uncertain. So instead of saying, lets make them permanent and restart the economy, his genius solution is to just let them expire already, and hammer the people with more taxes. After all, big government needs cash to keep living large & in charge, baby! Want to see some more genius?

Geithner: ‘The Business Community Always Wants Their Taxes Lower’ Before businesses begin to use the estimated $1.8 trillion they have set aside, they want a commitment that their taxes will not increase over the next two years. Geithner did not make that promise, instead saying “the business community always wants

Evil and stupid businesses want to have low taxes! Don’t they know their sole purpose, like that of the serfs, is to feed big government cash so it can farm it out to those it favors? How dare they! Profits are evil! From each according to his ability, and to each according to his needs! And government needs!

OK, enough making fun of these morons and showing the obvious flaws in their ideology. Here is the deal. These losers know they have crashed the economy. This article, for a change, didn’t simply try to blame Bush, and hope the people stayed distracted, but they are still trying to make like the reason we are where we are and heading downwards fast, still isn’t their fault. This whole “we are going to lose more jobs before we get new ones” meme, is a demanded lie. If they keep doing what they are doing we will lose the jobs alright, but they are never coming back either.

Don’t worry though! Big government will cut you a monthly check that will provide you a standard of living at what will be considered right above the new poverty line – it will be far lower than it is now too – and like the majority of people, you won’t have to worry and covet what your neighbor has, since nobody will have anything. And although they got but a short line to show it, in this MSM article, even the Cubans have figured out government can’t create wealth: just steal it. Sad times. Get ready to have more unemployment.

Monday, August 02, 2010

The democrats and the left went a long way during the 8 years of George Bush to fool Americans into thinking that he was and ran a fascist government that was deprived people of their freedoms. That, of course, was primarily because GWB, unlike so many others, fought the attempt of demcorats to steal the 2000 and prevented them from keeping power. Liberals went batshit after Al Gore’s lawyers and the Florida Supremes were blocked from stealing the election for Gore, by allowing demcorats to create arbitrary and varying counting standards, suppress military ballots, and a slew of other shenanigans, by the SCOTUS. Couple that with the fact that, as Bill Clinton lamented, 9-11 happened and gave Bush the chance to look presidential – sounds to me like he was hoping it could have happened when he was lying his sorry ass off under oath about his lack of zipper control – and most Americans knowing by now Al Gore is a crazy bastard. The wars that followed the 9-11 attacks, and the fact that Americans rejected yet another elitist lefty loser – John “Did I tell you I won 3 Purple Hearts, even if I wrote them up for myself” Kerry - in 2004, and you can see the slide into madness. They were in fact so batshit that they conspired to elect what will go down as one of America’s weakest and most destructive presidents in 2008.

Ever since then however, we have seen real government abuse, a drastic decrease of our freedoms, and all the stuff they falsely accused Bush of happening. We hear daily accounts, not from the colluding MSM that I has become nothing more than an echo chamber, propaganda outlet, and an apologist machine for these collectivist, of how this government chooses to arbitrarily enforce or not to enforce laws by race, class, or political expediency.  In fact, we even have admissions from one them now, in what appears to be a candid moment, that they think they pretty much can do whatever they want, whenever they want to. That kind of attitude is frightening, but remember, only conservatives are evil fascists and don’t care much for either the constitution or the law! These bastards are playing for keeps, and unless we want to wake up one day in a country that is modeled after Fidel’s Cuba or Chavez’s Venezuela, we better give them their pink slips in November. And Republicans better beware too. If they are going to bring us more of the same, then we will just have to get rid of both parties.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Guess what is slithering back into public discussion:

At a time when both political parties are worrying about the federal deficit, an unexpected and unorthodox proposal is coming back from the shadows of last year’s health-care debate the “public option.” The idea of creating a major government health insurance program was roundly rejected last year, but the 128 House Democrats pushing to reconsider the idea are now advancing the argument that it would help hold down federal spending.

Their bill, which faces long odds, would allow Americans who do not get insurance at work to choose a government plan for their health coverage starting in 2014.

“There is all this concern about the deficit,” said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., a leading champion of the proposal. “Well, guess what, this would reduce the deficit because it saves so much money.” Woolsey and her allies, including Reps. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and Fortney “Pete” Stark of California, are armed with a new analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. It projects the public option could save the federal government $68 billion between 2014 an 2020, according to Democrats.

First thing’s first.  The CBO projections, as I have noted about a million times, are based entirely on the bill that is presented to them.  The Democrats demonstrated convincingly that they know how to game the system and force the CBO to produce whatever number they want.  In reality, the long term cost would be enormous.  Faced with competition from a socialized competitor that is—overtly or covertly—subsidized by government, there will be a stampededof employers dumping people on the public option, a reality the CBO can not really consider.

Second, I fucking told you so.  One of the arguments made in favor of the healthcare bill was that it was “moderate” and that we could fix it after it was passed.  As I and everyone with their head not three up their ass argued, this was absurd.  Any “fixes” to the bill were almost certain to be on the side of eating freedom and making it more expensive.  You need to have looked no further than Medicare Part D, which Obamacare changed to make far more expensive (by eliminating tax breaks for retiree drug plans and closing the “donut whole").

Third, are the Democrats really this stupid?  The elimination of the public option is the only reason they got this passed and the only thing keeping their hopes alive in November.  Now they want to bring it back.

We can’t have these assholes out of Washington fast enough.  I just wish there were a way to do it without putting the Republicans back in.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Unless you live under a rock, you have heard about this story where some government bureaucrat from the Agriculture Department admitted on camera during an NAACP meeting that she had shafted a honkey farmer. While many are now coming out to condemn her for this, others are defending her, and even have the temerity to claim that it is the people that are pointing out how wrong what she did are at fault, thee real big deal that is going unsaid, is that this isn’t anything new for people working in government.

The people in government, at least the ones I have had to deal with, are with a few exceptions not even close to being as clever or unbiased as they would like you to believe they are. Your usual lefty has a lot of trust in these people, and maybe they are justified considering they share the same world view and ideas, but those of us that know better are not surprised to see these employees abusing their powers and office. In fact, I would be surprised if the opposite was the case. For every one you have on tape, I am betting there are hundreds of other that have done the same, but simply have not been caught or exposed. Heck, I dealt with such petty and vindictive losers with inferiority complexes and a giant chip on their shoulder practically every damned time I had to deal with government people. From the DMV to the IRS, they are smug and drunk with their own power. And they want you to know you have to go through them and are at their mercy.

While we should not ignore the racial component of this case, it is important to keep in mind that it is not just the only motivator of these kind of petty people. And just think how wonderful our healthcare coverage will be when these same types of people are in charge of it? That guy needed a heart transplant, and I just didn’t give him the full force of my abilities, cause I hate his guts. Of course, the only bad people are in the private sector and working for the insurance companies. Heh, our tax dollars at work.

Update: There might be a lot more to this story and we are being adviced to not let this quick resignation fool us. This story is going to get better.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Man the freak show is getting even funnier! Looks like the house democrats are all pissed at the WH for throwing them under the bus after they carried Obama’s water. And they have good reason to complain seeing they are looking at Armageddon come November.

House Democrats are lashing out at the White House, venting long-suppressed anger over what they see as President Obama’s lukewarm efforts to help them win reelection—and accusing administration officials of undermining the party’s chances of retaining the majority in November’s midterm elections.

In recent weeks, a widespread belief has taken hold among Democratic House members that they have dutifully gone along with the White House on politically risky issues—including the stimulus plan, the health-care overhaul and climate change—without seeing much, if anything, in return. Many of them are angry that Obama has actively campaigned for Democratic Senate candidates but has done fewer events for House members.

The boiling point came Tuesday night during a closed-door meeting of House Democrats in the Capitol. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) excoriated White House press secretary Robert Gibbs‘s public comments over the weekend that the House majority was in doubt and that it would take “strong campaigns by Democrats” to avert dramatic losses.

After they sold their souls to push the Obama agenda, they are now literally being abandoned by the WH, which knows that the house donkeys are going to take the hit for the Obama agenda and the utter failure and disastrous future it represents.

Frankly I think Pelosi and these other moonbats should be thankful Obama isn’t showing up to help them. Helping get Obama’s policies enacted IS why they are going to get hammered come November. I am not sure I understand what they hope Obama can do for them short of telling Holder to turn away from rampant fraud most of them would need to make it a close race.

Pascrell and Pelosi were the only Democrats to address the meeting. But interviews with more than 10 lawmakers and senior aides, from liberal and conservative districts, made it clear that scores of House Democrats at the gathering shared Pascrell’s and Pelosi’s dissatisfaction. Most of those interviewed did not want to be quoted by name criticizing the president.

Heh, guess having a Chicago thug Prez does have its drawbacks. Piss him off and you pay the prize. Priceless.

One House Democrat compared their relationship with the White House to the 1970s Life commercials starring “Mikey,” the kid whose brothers trick him into eating the cereal. “There’s a sense that’s the White House’s attitude toward us,” the lawmaker said. “And now, Mikey ate it and he’s choking on it, and there’s no appreciation.”

At least Mikey was given a cereal that wasn’t toxic, like all the crap these democrat went to bat to pass for Obama was, in that commercial. Choke on it you bastards! The American people were given a ginat shit sandwich from Obama and you, so it is well deserved.

Monday, July 12, 2010

You absolutely must read this article about the failed attempts of a man to get hospitals to use a new medical device that could save thousands of lives at very little cost.  This is the second time he’s been stymied; the first was after inventing a needle that would cut HIV infections.  Despite enthusiasm in the medical community, he couldn’t get anyone to buy it.  They profile another entrepreneur who invented surgical towels that can be detected on X-rays and a wand that detect medical instruments left inside patients.  He too has made no headway getting them purchased.

The reason? It’s complicated, but it essentially involves a federally-created monopoly on medical supply purchases.  The exemptions to anti-trust law allow big medical device makers to control the market, locking in hospitals to long-term contracts with massive kickbacks to their Group Purchasing Organizations.  It is claimed that GPOs save money but there is actually evidence that they drive up costs by eliminating competition.

Strangely, this did not come up when our uber-intelligent Congress considered healthcare reform.

And yet, despite all the talk about “bending the cost curve down” in the runup to health care reform, GPOs barely entered the conversation. Critics of the system find this baffling, especially since most believe that if GPOs are driving up prices, the problem could be fixed by simply getting rid of the anti-kickback protections. Nevertheless, lawmakers appear to have limited appetite for taking the issue on. Last August, Congress launched an investigation into GPO contracting practices, and the Government Accountability Office followed suit. But Senate staffers now say that hearings on the subject are unlikely to be held this year, and may not be held at all.

Part of the reason interest has waned seems to be that those who know enough about the system to care aren’t eager to change it. “Hospitals are a big constituency in every district,” explains one senior Senate staffer involved in the ongoing GPO investigation. “And hospitals support GPOs. Reform, on the other hand, doesn’t really have a lobby, which can make it difficult to take action.”

Wait, you mean the Congress that passed a healthcare reform bill crafted by insurance companies and loaded with bribes to the AMA and drug companies wasn’t interested in real reform?  Why, I’m shocked, shocked to find out that there is influence-peddling going on here.

It gets worse.  Notice this coda to the story:

Because his company is in the red, he has been unable to pull together the financing he needs to expand his factory in Little Elm. So he has partnered with Chinese companies, which put up money to build assembly lines in China in return for permission to produce his syringes for the Chinese market. When his patents do run out, the Chinese manufacturers will be the ones poised to bring his technology to the world market, meaning all the jobs and economic benefits that could have gone to the local residents will instead go to the people of Gansu Province.

And people wonder why manufacturing jobs are leaving this country.  They look to evil CEOs and vile free marketers. But it never occurs to them to look at a government that is invested in maintaining big industries over small businesses.

And it could get worse. Obama just made a recess appoint of Donald Berwick—yes, yet another Harvard guy—to head up Medicare and Medicaid. Reason has been beating the drum on this asshole worshipper of Britain’s NHS for some time.  Here’s a typical quote:

“Please don’t put your faith in market forces,” he said.  “It’s a popular idea: that Adam Smith’s invisible hand would do a better job of designing care than leaders with plans can. I find little evidence that market forces relying on consumers choosing among an array of products, with competitors fighting it out, leads to the healthcare system you want and need. In the US, competition is a major reason for our duplicative, supply driven, fragmented care system.”

Competition?  In our system?  With a government-supported medical supply monopoly that may be costing us billions a year? And an employer-based comprehensive insurance system that insulates the consumer from any contact with the cost of healthcare?

Berwick argued that purposely provided an inadequate supply of health-care—as Britain’s health-care system does—is superior to allowing the market to provide an excess.

“In America, the best predictor of cost is supply; the more we make, the more we use—hospital beds, consultancy services, procedures, diagnostic tests,” Dr. Berwick wrote.  “… Here, you choose a harder path. You plan the supply; you aim a bit low; you prefer slightly too little of a technology or a service to too much; then you search for care bottlenecks and try to relieve them.”

Savings through deprivation.  That’s the key.  Berwick seems to have latched onto the fundamental truth of healthcare: it’s cheap to die.  It’s living that’s the expensive part.  And it’s government stupidity—such as mandating the most cost-inefficient insurance for everyone and protecting monopolies—that makes living even more expensive than it needs to be.

Update: Speaking of the AMA, it looks like they may get stabbed in the back.  Again.

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Remember all the times I have pointed out that when you need to buy a politician or get favors from the government you go for a demcorat? Well, the pharma industry sure knows where their bread is buttered. When you have the “enemy” - Reid was amongst the top donkeys calling insurance & pharma companies the enemy - shilling for you, you can bet that the stank is because something is rotten. Guess when the US government is in the business of choosing winners & losers you got to buy those wins, huh?

The democrats are in a world of hurt come the November elections. They won huge in 2008 by having the MSM help them overinflate the fact Bush was a wet noodle and that republicans were somehow fiscally less responsible than them. As if the Carter years and the demcorat controlled congress tripling spending while the Reagan tax cuts doubled revenue, never happened. Of course, as soon as they won they proceeded to make sure everyone knew that demcorats being fiscally responsible or able to actually lead us into any kind of prosperity was a myth, on par with the one about demcorats caring about individual freedoms. They took the low bar the stupid republicans let the demcorats set for them, and plunged it to new lows.

For a while there they were able to blame Bush for everything they did wrong. We passed a nearly trillion dollar stimulus patronage bill that served to only “stimulate” the growth of government, fill our campaign coffers and the wallets of our donors, operatives, lobbyists, and friends, at the expense of those working in the private sector? Bush’s fault! A democrat controlled congress first pushed TARP up to $750 billion, despite objections from the not insane during an election campaign nevertheless – and so they could blame “you know who” – and then when they won, literally made TARP a no limit slush fund for all things collectivist government expansion related. Blame Bush! Cap and Tax was not popular and temporarily had to be put on the back burner. But PB, a top Obama donor and well connected to their WH and green efforts, blows a well out in the Gulf, and the same people that accused Bush of conjuring up Katrina to kill blacks in NO, now have let months go bye without doing anything of significance – can’t piss off the unions or let this crisis go bye without taking advantage of it and all that – because now they can bring this economy killer back again. Blame Bush! Passed the most intrusive and massive government expansion program ever, masquerading as healthcare reform, but really intended to recreate something like the Cuban healthcare system over here, against the will of the American people, nevertheless, guaranteeing that the massive cost of this boondoggle will fiscally bankrupt the nation. Blame Bush! Can’t pass a budget because it would show that demcorats lied about being fiscally responsible and have already broken last years record deficit spending and debt growing budget busting shenanigans? Blame Bush! We are being overrun by an invasion from our “neighbor” to the south? Blame Bush! Ok yeah, Bush was a moron on this one too, so he does deserve some blame. Of course, he didn’t succeed at his amnesty attempt, and the ones trying now aren’t doing it because Bush is making them, for sure. The surge worked in Iraq? Blame Bush! Oh wait. Biden says Obama, whom I should remind people because the MSM won’t, was against the surge, gets credit for that one now.

You get the picture right? Everything bad they do is Bush’s fault. Of course, that has now worn thin, and is falling on deaf ears, as the polls showing a massacre come November make clear. Remember the collectivists telling us that it was the end of the age of American greed – because making money and wanting prosperity for yourself, is you know, evil – was dead and the right was gone for the next 50 years? Took them less than 18 months to squander away the support their well orchestrated campaign of lies garnered them, by actually doing what they believe in! As many of us predicted: once the left showed what they were all about, the American people would turn on them. Yeah, I am rubbing it in. Anyway, back to the point of this post: the demcorats are desperate. So what’s the new tactic they hope will help show the American people that they are better suited to be in charge?
More of the same:

The Democratic Party is moving faster and more aggressively than in previous election years to dig up unflattering details about Republican challengers. In House races from New Jersey to Ohio to California, Democratic operatives are seizing on evidence of GOP candidates’ unpaid income taxes, property tax breaks and ties to financial firms that received taxpayer bailout money.

Sounds solid. When you have zero successes to campaing on, all you are left with is demonizing the opposition, and hoping the people are too stupid to figure out that’s all you have. You aren’t fit to lead anyone, fiscally irresponsible, drowning the country in debt, destroying the economy, healthcare system, and the lives of millions, and looking like you are going to be hammered in the election for it – all because people have wised up and no longer buy the “Blame Bush!” meme, dang it! – so what you do isn’t square this stuff away. Nah, you go dig up dirt on those that are going to have you for breakfast, hoping the American people are stupid enough to leave you in charge. After all, as this WaPO post does, the MSM will repeat the talking points you want to get out there even as it is pretending to tut-tut at you for doing this idiotic stuff.

And if you can’t find enough dirt? Well, go make some up:

Democratic officials are advising campaigns to hire trackers to follow their Republican opponents to public events with video cameras, ready to catch any gaffe or misstatement. And the Democratic National Committee last week issued a call to the public to submit any embarrassing audio or video of Republicans, as well as copies of their direct-mail advertisements.

Party officials would not say how many staffers are working on opposition research. Such work used to be farmed out to campaign consultants, but the DCCC brought research operations in-house in 2008 to be more nimble. “It may appear to be more aggressive this cycle because what we’re finding on Republicans is so rich,” Vogel said.

Good luck you morons. If these bastards put in a fraction of the time they would doing this kind of stuff in actually doing their jobs to benefit the American people instead of themselves, I guarantee you they would not need to do this stuff. Like I said: I can’t wait for November.

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

Yet another triumph for the medical system that the Democrats insist is a model for the nation:

The Democratic chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee lambasted the Obama administration over its handling of an incident at a St. Louis VA center in which more than 1,800 veterans were told they may have been exposed to HIV.

“It’s outrageous, one, that this happens, but even worse is this secretive, almost cover-up mode that they go into when something like this happens,” Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.) said on CNN Monday.

The Department of Veterans Affairs last month sent a letter to 1,812 patients informing them that they could have been exposed to HIV and other deadly viruses because of dental equipment that was insufficiently sterilized over a period of 13 months. The agency said the risk of infection was “extremely low,” but urged patients to return for blood tests.

Now this sort of thing could happen and probably has happened in a private hospital.  But you would not have a systematic cover-up plus a court system that essentially shields the VA from liability (you can sue them as the US government, but it’s a much stricter process than the standard tort courts).  This follow last year’s cover-up of a rogue cancer unit that botched 92 of 116 prostate cancer treatments.

Saturday, July 03, 2010

Reason TV had a great interview earlier this week with David Walker on our fiscal future. Pay particular attention to what he says about healthcare starting at about 6:45.

Obamacare was praised for "standing up to special interests" and making the tough choices.  But in reality, all it didn't make any choices.  It was all gain and no pain, all big promises and benefits with little in the way of taxation or cost control.  It's never a tough choice when a politician spends money he doesn’t have, then hides it with budget gimmicks.

And it’s never a tough choice when the real cost is imposed elsewhere.  The Obama Administration is now working overtime to keep people from finding out that their insurances rates will increase to pay for all these goodies; just as Massachusetts has fought against the laws of mathematics.  I’m sure that when the real costs come, they will blame the usual villains—Republicans, free marketers and evil insurance companies.  The important thing is that the Republican Party sober up enough to fix the problem by moving people toward catastrophic, rather than comprehensive, insurance.  Right now, they’re too drunk with feigned anger and the prospect of electoral victory to be of much use.

(That is, of course, not the only news from This Week in Obamacare.  You know how we were told that universal care would save us money by keeping people out of expensive emergency rooms?  Complete bunk:

Rand Corp. researcher Dr. Arthur L. Kellermann predicts this from the new law: “More people will have coverage and will be less afraid to go to the emergency department if they’re sick or hurt and have nowhere else to go.... We just don’t have other places in the system for these folks to go.”
Kellermann and other experts point to Massachusetts, the model for federal health overhaul where a 2006 law requires insurance for almost everyone.

Reports from the state find ER visits continuing to rise since the law passed — contrary to hopes of its backers who reasoned that expanding coverage would give many people access to doctors offices.

Massachusetts reported a 7 percent increase in ER visits between 2005 and 2007. A more recent estimate drawn from Boston area hospitals showed an ER visit increase of 4 percent from 2006 to 2008 — not dramatic, but still a bit ahead of national trends.

Yes, when people are insured—especially insured by government—they demand more healthcare, including emergency care.  It boggles the mind that anyone can think utilization will go down when someone else is paying the bills.

And yet, that’s not the most draw-dropping thing in healthcare news.  That honor would go to this article, in which the NYT waxes rhapsodic about Rwanda’s universal healthcare plan.  Cato pounces, taking the article apart here and here.  What’s especially hilarious—and relevant to this post—is that Rwanda doesn’t pay for its universal coverage; foreign aide picks up about half the tab.  I’m not sure that China will be willing to give us any more foreign aide.

You will rarely see such a stark example of the liberal mind in action as you see in that article.  It’s not important that the healthcare is shitty.  It’s universal!)

Friday, July 02, 2010

Well, it looks like some more truth about how disastrous and unlikely to really be possible the promises made by the left to push for the new government healthcare takeover will be is trickling out:

The Obama administration has not ruled out turning sick people away from an insurance program created by the new healthcare law to provide coverage for the uninsured. Critics of the $5 billion high-risk pool program insist it will run out of money before Jan. 1, 2014. That’s when the program sunsets and health plans can no longer discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions. Administration officials insist they can make changes to the program to ensure it lasts until 2014, and that it may not have to turn away sick people.

So let me get this straight. First off, these collectivist are admitting that in order to keep the existing programs solvent and viable till 2014 when the big daddy takeover goes into high gear, they will need to likely deny care to “some” sick people? That is unless they can make some changes to the $5 billion high risk pool program to make it viable until 2014? Care to guess what the changes will be? Don’t need to man. It’s right there:

Officials said the administration could also consider reducing benefits under the program, or redistributing funds between state pools. But they acknowledged turning some people away was also a possibility.

So, in order to not have to turn away the expensive sick, the rest will have to do with less, subpar being the more likely case, coverage. Bet you get both. Less coverage, and people turned away. Of course, since government will do it now, it is still better than getting better care and less people turned away from the private insurers! Don’t worry though! The collectivists are coming to the rescue!

Leading health reform advocate Ron Pollack, founding executive director of Families USA, said the pools were a “very imperfect tool that could be implemented quickly” but were the best option available for the interim period before 2014.“The pools are going to be helpful for a significant number of people,” he told The Hill, “but nobody thought they’re the ultimate answer for helping people with pre-existing conditions.” Still, he didn’t rule out that Families USA could press lawmakers to allocate more money in a few years if it looks like the program needs it.

Well DUH! Just demand more cash! So, since there simply isn’t enough money to go around and pay for all of this, no matter what these bozos pretend otherwise, what we will get is this program costing twice, or more, as much as the allocates $5 billion, the coverage being piss poor, AND people still being turned away.

Not bad. Here is the kicker, though. Nobody seems to point out the obvious: that come 2014 when the big government healthcare takeover takes place, we will be left with a lot more of the same – they won’t turn people away, just drag their feet until they die and then save money – we are seeing here. Only then it will cost trice, if not more, as much to the same effect. Ain’t we lucky the collectivists managed to get government to take over healthcare? Fun, fun!

And he has done so by torpedoing the election prospective of something around 75 House demcorats and a big enough number of Senators that now have to return to their republican leaning and heavily anti-illegal immigration districts, and defend his plan for amnesty. And he is doing this when poll after poll shows the majority of Americans against amnesty of any kind and supporting Arizona’s attempt to do what the feds won’t. This umpteenth attempt by Obama to ride roughshod over the will of the people, to keep a campaign promise, shows that basically Obama has decided that his current drop in popularity is easier to reverse for the 2012, than the coming slaughter at the polls that the democrat party faces in the coming November elections.

So, Obama’s focus is now on repairing the damage that people actually getting a first hand look at what “Hope & Change” really meant, leading to a plunge in his popularity. He is banking on help from what democrats consider to be natural born democrat constituents, which as usual involves those that are bad for everybody but democrat politicians. Anyway, the collectivists and their policies are destroying the economy - spare me the “it’s Bush’s fault cop-out, because it has gotten real old, and even the dumbest of the dumb out there knows that’s a weak excuse even if the apparatchiks keep spouting it – and it is pissing off the American people. This kind of genius only makes things worse. Trillions have been flushed down the toilet because of the Keynesian “big government deficit spending tax dollars can fix any economic downturn” collectivist economic model, and things are still getting worse. Much worse. Despite government subsidies to artificially stimulate sales – that tax break for home buyers - the numbers continue to suck. Heck, we even have a DOJ that selectively applies the laws in the new “Hope & Change” America. Even more interesting are all the games being played so the demcorats controlling Congress can avoid showing they are setting new deficit spending records. And we have not even had them screw us tax payers hard yet! Don’t worry though, soon we will all be getting the same level of care the Cuban people get at a hundred times the cost. All is well!

Can’t wait for November though. It’s going to be a blood bath. Maybe we can get most of the damage done by these people reversed. Let’s hope the republicans that do go to Congress buck the establishment and do what is right for the country. The one good thing is that it took a measly 2 years for the whole “progressive” revolution to strangle itself and piss off Americans.