Tag Archives: Obama Care

15 Ways to Actually Balance The Federal Budget

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Americans at Defund Obama Care Rally

Americans at Defund Obama Care Rally

Many Republican and conservative politicians talk about balancing the federal budget. (Democrats don’t because their party is too busy spending more to care about spending less), but very few have specific details on how to get it done. In the case of Donald Trump, the discussion centers on:

Significant tax cuts to dramatically grow the economy (well above OMBs projected 2.2% long term GDP growth rate) to outpace the cost of current government programs, and an increase to the Department of Defense.

Some people, like conservative radio host Sean Hannity, advocate the Penny Plan. The penny plan calls for reducing one penny out of every dollar that the federal government spends. Over a 5 to 6 year period the budget balances.

The devil, however, is always in the details. Specifically how do you reduce one penny out of every dollar that the federal government spends?

I spent 10 years building and balancing budgets in the Department of Defense and the details matter. The following list of ideas are the foundation of, and principles upon which, one penny out of every dollar, for example, could be found over six years in order to shrink the federal government, reduce the burden on American taxpayers, and balance the budget!

First, and a lynchpin to balancing the budget, the economy must be energized and grown beyond historic growth and current CBO projections of 2.2%. While this is well above the average for the Obama Administration, it isn’t nearly good enough.

Spur Economic Growth:

Growing the economy starts by eliminating laws and regulations that strangle small, medium, and large businesses instead of enabling their expansion and competitiveness. Minimum wage laws, Obama care, energy mandates, and oppressive tax laws, for example, should be repealed outright or dramatically simplified to unshackle America’s economy.

  • Minimum wage laws not only hurt small businesses and entry-level workers, they cost the taxpayers as well since the federal government also pays those higher wages.
  • Obama care is a well-documented job killer, massively expensive and the gateway program to institute socialized medicine.
  • Taxes must be reduced to spur business creation, expansion, and innovation. Letting the American people keep more of their own money is also a moral imperative.

We must enact an all the above energy policy and repeal penalties instituted by the Obama administration and the EPA upon nonrenewable sources like coal. Democrat policies drive the costs of energy up, and the federal government uses a lot of it. Cheaper energy means cheaper government. Reducing energy costs results in a net savings not just to the federal government but also to Americans and businesses. With reduced cost comes greater competitiveness, profitability and prosperity both at home and abroad. The United States has enough energy to lead the world for 100+ years. We will need it to balance our budget, pay back our national debt, and posture America for another hundred years of prosperity.

Growing the economy is critical, butwe must cut the budget.

Macro Level Reductions.

  1. Freeze hiring on all civilians within the federal government. There could be exceptions made in areas that are considered strategically important, such as the Department of Defense or Customs and Border Patrol, but on the whole the effort would be a freeze to further hiring across the federal government. A slightly less contentious option would be to institute something like a 3 to 1 hiring policy. In this case for every three people who naturally leave the federal government, such as to retire, one civilian hire would be allowed to replace them.
  1. This policy would reduce manpower in agencies across the federal government. There are duplication of missions and programs throughout our government. As personnel decline those duplicative organizations, agencies and programs should be collapsed into one another. As the organizations are collapsed into one another, the management overhead should be trimmed as well, effectively cut in half and taken as additional savings.
  1. Another benefit of smaller and simpler government is that the oversight and management of government itself becomes less complex, and more effective. The potential for savings and reductions in watchdog organizations like OMB (which oversee the federal government’s budget and budget building process) could be further reduced.
  1. The federal government, including the Department of Defense, owns or leases over 361,000 buildings, office spaces, and warehouses, with an annual operating cost of over $33 Billion.

Much of this infrastructure is excess to need, and should be sold or disposed of now. As the federal government is reduced through manpower reductions, even more excess office space and facilities will be exposed. Those facilities need to be returned to state and local governments or sold outright to businesses and the American people freeing taxpayers from the burden of maintaining them, paying utilities such as water, electricity, etc.

There is significant excess infrastructure and basing across the DOD. The Air Force, for example, constantly states that it has 30% access infrastructure and desperately needs a BRAC in order to cut excess bases down to the proper size to support the diminished Air Force. Done properly, a BRAC could save the Department of Defense billions every year without any adverse impact to our nations military capabilities.

Micro Level Reductions:

  1. There is waste in the Department of Defense when it comes to the military’s energy spending. The Obama administration turned the Department of Defense into a research and development arm of the renewable energy industry.

Untold billions of dollars, hidden within the Service budgets, are being spent every year by the Department of Defense on windmills, solar farms, development of renewable biofuels, and testing of biofuels on military equipment from aircraft to ships. Unfortunately biofuels are far more expensive than the fuels they’re replacing. They’ve also proven to be corrosive, contain less energy per pound of fuel than what the replacing, and effectively reduce the range and capabilities of the equipment in which they are used. They increase the cost of maintenance, wear and tear on assets, and decrease the longevity of jet engines and other components such as seals that are exposed to the more corrosive biofuels. All of this R&D should be stopped and the Department of Defense should no longer be used as an experimental arm for the progressive anti-global warming movement.

  1. Agencies and programs across the federal government need to be eliminated or drastically reduced. The list includes the EPA, the Education Department, Health and Human Services, the IRS, the Public Broadcasting System, and support for the Federal Reserve as a good start.
  1. Tax laws need to be simplified so that businesses can free themselves from the wasted cost of dealing with a tax code that’s become so burdensome no single person can possibly understand it.
  1. Reductions of the types listed above would shrink the federal government to the point where Congress could once again manage it. After all, Congress’s prime responsibility is to pass laws including those funding the federal government. They failed year after year to pass budgets because its become far too big and far too complex. With the reduced size comes an increased ability to manage. When Congress is able to properly manage agencies and their budgets further waste, duplication and costs can be found.
  1. We commonly hear the term too big to fail. In the case of government it’s failing because its too big.

The federal government needs to prioritize its constitutionally mandated responsibilities first. All other missions are secondary and subject to reduction.

  1. The border must be sealed! Illegal immigrants who are committing murders, rapes, robberies, dealing drugs, involved in human trafficking, to gang warfare must be caught, jailed or sent back to their home countries for jailing. Penalties must be stepped up as an effective deterrent to these brutal thugs ever returning to the United States.
  1. The wall must be built and America’s border controlled. We must significantly reduce the number of illegal aliens, and know who enters and stays within our borders. You wouldn’t let strangers into your house, and we should not let them into our country. Fewer illegal aliens will reduce burdens on local, state and federal governments. The costs to America’s schools and law enforcement alone would be a significant savings.
  1. Energy subsidies must be stopped. Let companies and technologies compete on an equal footing. The strong will survive and the inefficient will not.
  1. Waste, fraud and abuse of government welfare programs must stop. Welfare should be tied to work for the able minded and able bodied. The goal is to use the social safety net as a temporary support system, not a way of life.
  1. Finally, we must reform programs like social security, in order to ensure they exist for the long term. Without reform, costs will continue to eat the budget, and our children will see nothing but the bills.
  1. Balancing the budget is a national imperative, and should be codified as a Constitutional Amendment. It wont be easy, and will require courageous politicians with the insight to see, analyze and solve Americas spending problems. No such leadership exists in the Democrat Party. It’s GOP or Bust…literally.

One Promise That President Obama Did Keep

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President Obama made, and broke many promises to the American People. Most notably that “If you like your plan you can keep your plan”, but there is one promise that he did keep. Obama and the Democrat Party campaigned in 2007 on the promise of fundamentally transforming America.

A recent Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) paper shows measurable evidence of one tragic impact that promise is taking. Vernon Brundage produced several charts in his paper titled “Trends in unemployment and other labor market difficulties”.

Two of those charts, below, clearly show the fundamental damage being caused by Democrat policies. Both charts show US economic statistics dating back to 1994. They also both show how historic trends changed after President Obama was sworn in back in January 2009. More precisely, both charts clearly prove that part time unemployment began to grow as a percentage of U6* in early 2010. Something else also happened in early 2010.

Unemployed 15 Weeks or Longer (U1) now equals Job Losers and people who completed temporary jobs (U2). This "Fundamental Change" corresponds with the passage of Obamacare.

Unemployed 15 Weeks or Longer (U1) now equals Job Losers and people who completed temporary jobs (U2). This “Fundamental Change” corresponds with the passage of Obamacare.

The “Affordable” Care Act, a.k.a. “Obamacare” was signed into law on 23 March, 2010. Many of us argued that one of the law’s expected impacts would be to increase part time employment, as it encouraged employers to avoid the Obamacareby reducing their worker’s hours below 30 hours per week. The second chart, below, clearly proves that part time employment, light blue, did not decrease with improving unemployment rates, which violates historic trends. The fundamentals of the economy were changed, and widening part time employment is here to stay.

Components of U-6 Unemployment Measure Prove Part Time Work Is Growing As Democrat Party "Fundamental Change" Takes Root

Components of U-6 Unemployment Measure Prove Part Time Work Is Growing As Democrat Party “Fundamental Change” Takes Root

This third chart adds another dimension to the second chart. It also plots Part Time For Economic Workers, in yellow, as a % of total Unemployment. The part time component of our economy is growing as Obama care gets implemented.

% Part Time Workers (Involuntary) for Economic Reasons Greatly Increased After Obama care's Passage

% Part Time Workers (Involuntary) for Economic Reasons Greatly Increased After Obama care’s Passage

Thanks to the BLS for the proof of President Obama and Progressive Democrat’s Fundamental Transformation in action, no surprise that it’s bad for Americans and bad for America.

*U-6: Total number of people who are unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force.

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Caveat Emptor America!

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Washington Monument, Washington D.C.

Washington Monument, Washington D.C.

Let the buyers beware! What would America look like if the Democrat Party were unchecked to enact every policy that it fights so hard to institute? The first places to look for answers are in the American cities that democrat politicians owned lock, stock, and barrel for decades.

According to the 2010 census, the top 10 poorest cities with greater than 250,000 people,

and the last year that they had a Republican mayor are:

  1. Detroit, MI. 32.5% below poverty level. (1961)
  2. Buffalo, NY. 29.9% below poverty level. (1954)
  3. Cincinnati, OH. 27.8% below poverty level. (1984)
  4. Cleveland, OH. 27.0% below poverty level. (1989)
  5. Miami, FL. 26.9% below poverty level. Never.
  6. St. Louis, MO. 26.8% below poverty level. (1949)
  7. El Paso, TX. 26.4% below poverty level. Never.
  8. Milwaukee, WI. 26.2% below poverty level. (1908)
  9. Philadelphia, PA. 25.1% below poverty level. (1952)
  10. Newark, NJ. 24.2% below poverty level. (1907)

Source: www.examiner.com

All of these cities owe their poverty to Democrats. Pictures of Detroit, for example, show the totality of the betrayal to both the citizens of these cities, and the rest of America, for their decay weakens us all.

Now that the Detroit visual is clear in your mind, what other “wonderful” Democrat Party, America transforming policies would we suffer from?

  • America’s borders would remain wide open to anybody, from any country, with any intent who wished to enter.
  • Democratic politicians would continue to welcome illegal immigrants onto America’s welfare rolls, enabling them to illegally vote (6.4 percent of non-citizens voted in 2008 and 2.2 percent of non-citizens voted in 2010), and eventually grant them citizenship. America is, after all, responsible for stealing the rest of the world’s wealth, Democrat political ideologues say.
  • America’s energy wealth would be locked up in favor of expensive imported energy, and anemic renewables.
  • American wealth would be sent to other countries as carbon tax penalties.
  • In order to become more efficient, Americans would be crowded into major urban centers, as most of our land would be turned over to mother nature. These desires are engrained under the name Agenda 21.
  • Government intrusion into every facet of life would go unchecked. So many are already here (from government salt bans to mandating your light bulbs and how much your toilet can use).
  • Obama care would quickly give way to socialized medicine. Quality medical care would be a thing of the past, in favor of equally poor, VA style medical treatment for all.
  • Christianity would be relegated to a back room religion, in favor of statism, along the lines of every communist country on earth.

These are just the beginning, unfortunately. At it’s fullest, and completely unchecked level, progressive Democrat policies would create an America that looked like Cuba, Venezuela, or any other communist country. This may sound extreme to some, but that doesn’t change the facts. Look at who controls the money flowing into the Democrat Party, and you’ll see the ones calling the shots, and setting their agenda.

Trevor Loudon’s nearly 700-page book, The Enemies Within, details the growing Marxist, communist and progressive influences in the Democrat Party. View videos of Mr. Loudon making the case agains the Democrat Party. Elections in America are no longer a question of policies; they are a question of liberty vs. statism. We now see Sen Bernie Sanders, Socialist, running for the Democratic presidential nomination. The fact that he can even run shows how dramatically the Democrat Party moved to the left!

Obamacare – Exploding Costs, Crashing Results

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The Changing Face of Obamacare Costs, and Failing Promise of #s Insured

The Changing Face of Obamacare Costs, and Failing Promise of #s Insured

A recent weekly standard blogpointed out Obamacare’s exploding cost estimates, see blue bars in the chart, contrasted with the crashing estimate of numbers of Americans who will get insured, shown by the dropping red line. From CBO’s March 2010 estimate, Obamacare costs to taxpayers have more than doubled, to over $2 Trillion over the first decade.

Those cost estimates would surely keep climbing, but the CBO announced after its last assessment in Feb 14, that President Obama made so many unilateral changes to the law that it can no longer score the ACA’s costs. This certainly helps the Administration, since it keeps the severely troubled law out of the news, but stymies the American people, who deserve to know the truth about what their taxes are paying for.

So many problems have been reported on, but the end result, if we don’t repeal Obamacare entirely, is declining health care for all of us, along the path of the chart’s red line and the appalling treatment veterans receive through the VA. What’s the solution once we pull the plug on Obamacare, and it flat lines? Many solid solutions exist, but Dr. Ben Carson endorsed a program that looks very promising. Obamacare didn’t have any brain surgeons involved in it’s creation, but thankfully, Dr. Carson’s plan does. It consists of 5 parts, as explained here.

Latest Obama Care Bad News:

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America’s Breaking Point?

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America Struggles Under Mounting Weight

America Struggles Under Mounting Weight

The recent flood of immigrants across America’s southern border is sparking heated discussions about what to do with the tens of thousands of children and other illegal immigrants swamping our border enforcement. Some say we should send them home, others say we should care for them, grant them amnesty, and welcome them as American citizens. The critical question that must be answered first is where is America’s breaking point?

Certainly the left would answer that the United States is the most powerful country on earth. Certainly we can care for a few tens of thousands or over time hundreds of thousands but starving helpless children. Taken as an isolated problem, the answer is of course yes, America could afford to care for them. The problem is, that this is not an isolated problem. Deciding to care for hundreds of thousands of new indigents is not America’s only burden. Collectively, they are becoming insurmountable.

This discussion requires an analogy to bring it into focus. Michael Phelps is the most decorated athlete in the history of Olympic sports. He currently has a total of 22 Olympic medals: 18 gold, 2 silver, and 2 bronze. His strength power and speed in the pool is legendary.

Let’s take Michael Phelps and say that he was in a lake surrounded by people struggling to stay afloat. Each one of them was carrying a small weight some the size of the BB, others a small rock, and still others weighing several pounds. In order to save their lives let us assume that Michael Phelps began to take on their burdens. From some he would take a BB, and the impact would be nearly unnoticeable at first. His ability to swim to the next struggling person and take on their weight unhampered. As Michael moved from drowning person to drowning person one can see a time when he would shift from being the rescuer to being in danger of drowning himself. At some point the weights that Michael Phelps would be forced to carry would drag under the greatest swimmer in the history of mankind.

This analogy is meant to show what many don’t understand. America does have limits. How many burdens can we take on before like Michael Phelps we would succumb to their combined weight and sink below the surface? America is $17.6 trillion in debt and climbing. The “War on Poverty” has cost the American tax payers $22 trillion so far. We’ve gone from adding BBs every year to adding large rocks as the weight of the interest on that debt mounts. Every month the percentage of people working in this country, acting as Michael Phelps, declines. Regulations, terrible burdens on businesses of all sizes, pour from nearly every federal agency. Obama care alone is responsible for tens of thousands of pages of regulations. America’s social safety net is at the point of collapse adding even more weight to a crop and economy struggling to stay afloat. The world is becoming ever more dangerous with a resurgent Russia, aggressive China, and spread of radical Islam. With all of these burdens, the cumulative affect of adding hundreds of thousands of more illegal immigrants to this country comes into focus. Where is America’s breaking point? All American’s should be frightened to face this question. America is the greatest force for freedom in the history of mankind, and yet now we must question how long she can stay afloat?

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Do No Harm!

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America's Obamacare Future

America’s Obamacare Future

I’ve written blogs that discuss Obamacare, and recently talked about the Republican need to change the discussion away from the ridiculous metric of how many people are signed up to one of “how many have been or will be harmed”.

Another element of this refocused message involves a very simple principle premise: “do no harm”.  No legislation should have harming a certain portion of the American population in order to “benefit” another as its founding principle.  (My previous blog showed that any “benefit” is short lived at best).  Obamacare, by its very design, is meant to harm a significant portion of the country before it ever begins to “help” anybody else.

President Obama is now telling Republicans to get over it and accept the ACA scheme, and it should be called a scheme.  The GOP must up the ante and continue the attack on Obamacare by changing the debate away from a rigged enrollment discussion to one of harm.  The law should “do no harm”.  The trade-off between harming some Americans to provide minimal short-term support to another is morally bankrupt.  In the end, this law will harm all Americans if it is not repealed.

“Do no harm” should be the rallying call of Republicans, and doing harm is precisely what Obama care is and will continue to doing until the democrats replace it with socialized medicine.

315 Million Americans Hurt Or Will Be Hurt

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rp_01311102558_earnincomefromhome.jpgIn my last blog I went through a progressive’s assessment of Obama care and laid out the logic that they would use to attack the credibility of 7 million enrollees had Republicans been the ones so foolishly passed Obamacare.  In this blog want to take another angle and argue that perhaps the number should be even larger and in fact include the entire population of the United States.  The number should really be 315 million Americans hurt or who will be hurt by Obamacare.  Let’s walk down the path of how we get there.

First off are Americans who lost their insurance (some while they were receiving chemotherapy) or who will lose their insurance or have it dramatically altered as a result of the “Affordable” Care Act, or have their rates increased.  Next we have Americans who were promised by the president and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and the rest of the Democrats who passed this bill that if they liked their doctor they could keep their doctor.  Others will be impacted because they can no longer go to the hospital of their choice.  A much larger number will be Americans who don’t get the quality treatment that they would have received had Obama care not been passed.

I encourage you to watch this attached video of noted author Trevor Loudon speaking on the implications of government run healthcare in his country of New Zealand.  All Americans should heed his warning.  Click Here!

In many cases this quality treatment will result in, as Pres. Obama said, telling someone who otherwise could’ve been helped that it’s too expensive and they should just take a pain pill.  This is the dreaded “death panel” aspect of Obama care were government bureaucrats will decide what’s best for you, your spouse, your children, and your grandchildren.  Every American will be hurt by the loss of liberty, and freedom of choice to make their own health decisions.

If the law somehow managed to avoid hurting every American by now, we need to account for the American taxpayer.  This monstrosity of a law consumes 1/5 of the US economy and drains $200 billion per year out of our pockets.  It’s likely that the costs will be far more. Sooner, rather than later, America’s enormous debt burden roosters, amplified by this unaffordable program, will come home to roost.

Yes, the real number is 315 Million.  Stop talking about 7 Million, it’s a sham, and plays into the progressive strategy.  Change the debate and talk about those hurt or who are going to be hurt by Obamacare.  Force the discussion beyond the superficial to the real measures of failure.

Update:

– Watch out for electronic medical record theft

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Obamacare A Success? Alas, Not Even Close!

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medicine_and_StethoscopeThe mainstream media is abuzz with the latest Obama care enrollment numbers as the last “official” enrollment day comes to a close. The administration touts that over 6 million people have now enrolled in Obama care and as a result the program is a success and should be claimed such by everyone involved, especially Democrats running for reelection. An interesting thought occurred to me as I listened to these numbers.

If the ACA shoe were on the other foot, what would the Democrats be saying was the real result of the healthcare law? We’ve been treated to so much deception regarding the number of “jobs saved or created” by Obama’s stimulus, unemployment figures, annual deficits and the national debt for instance that democrats would surely use more creative math to counter the 6 million figure. I suspect that they would argue the following.

The number of enrollees is only a very superficial measure to grade its success. Sadly this law was doomed from the beginning and its disastrous implementation has only been kerosene thrown onto a fire.

Note: Many people actually predicted that this would happen, but none of them were democrats.

Here’s the reality of that 6 million number and what’s missing in all the discussion, Democrats would say. Nearly 6 million people lost their insurance policies immediately after Obamacare was implemented. By those figures if we were to use Democrat math we have a net zero sign-up they would argue. The cost to sign up ZERO net people is $2 trillion across 10 years, or $200 billion each year. Democrats would say that some of those people who signed up are likely illegal aliens who are not eligible to sign up. In fact the administration has actively recruited the illegal alien population to sign up in order to bolster the numbers. They should be subtracted, and dis-enrolled we would be told! They’d also say that of the 6 million enrollees at least 20% have not paid. Subtracting that number out and we have a net of 1.2 million people who’ve lost their insurance.

Now here’s where the Democrats would focus the fight. They’d say “All of the experts report that there’s an eventual 100 million people who have yet to be impacted by this law because of the delays enacted by the President.”

Note: These delays were of course made by President Obama to protect democrats up for reelection. Many argue that he had no constitutional authority to do so.

Sorry for stating the obvious; now back to what the democrats would argue. Of those 100 million people who get their insurance through their employers, impacts will range from changes to their plans and providers to outright insurance cancellation. We must account for them and using democratic math, the real impact is a net loss of over 101 million people signed up for insurance or able to keep their policies. This is not quite the success story that the White House is touting, nor does it solve the problem of the 30 million uninsured that we were told was the reason to pass Obamacare in the first place.

Yes, they would say, the number that matters is 100 million Americans hurt by the ACA. Repeal the law and do the fair thing for the American people. If the situation was reversed, the Democrats would be right, just as Republicans are right to make, and keep making these points. Obamacare needs to be repealed, before it’s too late.

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Rising Fear

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There’s an ominous new phenomenon in the United States and it is fear of our government. The world is being turned upside down by the progressive and ever more authoritarian Obama administration.  The double tragedy is that as we begin to fear the federal government here at home, our enemies have begun to laugh at us abroad.

We should be feared by oppressive regimes such as North Korea, Iran, Russia, and China, but instead they realize that they can effectively operate throughout the world without American opposition.  In a similar tragedy, there are many that are breaking the laws here in America that also no longer fear the United States.  Illegal aliens, who broke our immigration laws freely to come here, roam across the United States without fear that they will be held accountable for breaking those laws.  Not only are they no longer afraid, but they are even emboldened.  In rising numbers, they demand things from our government and the American people.  Despite promises to the contrary, illegal aliens are actively being sought by Covered California to sign up for Obama care, a program that legally they cannot participate in.  As an aside, I wonder how many of the enrollees that the Obama administration reports are actually illegals who should not be signing up at all?  We will probably never know.  Even if the government does, they certainly won’t tell us.  And that brings us back to fear.

Those of us who are American citizens have seen the erosion of our God given liberties and our protection under the Constitution.  We now have reason to fear the federal government! From IRS intimidation, proposals of new regulations that would institutionalize those intimidations and crush free speech, suggestions of FCC meddling in what stories the media is able to present, each day brings new examples of why we have reason to fear our government.  How long will this go on?  How many more liberties will we lose?  Is there a turning point where the American people will stand up with one united voice and say enough? We all need to pray that the path President Obama and the Democrat Party put us on is reversible.  We all need to pray that the Republican Party will stand against it and not surrender as they often do.

Since its inception the United States of America has been the single greatest defender of and hope for liberty here and around the world.  America’s form of government is the “exception” in the history of mankind.  I pray, as should you, that American “exceptionalism” doesn’t perish under this growing cloud of authoritarianism, intimidation and fear.

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Obama Care and the Sochi Winter Olympics

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What do Obama care and the Sochi Olympics have in common?  On the surface you would think nothing at all, however you’d be mistaken.  In fact there are many commonalities between Obama care and the Sochi Olympics, and their foundation is government control.

It was at roll out when Americans learned that Obama care’s website was a complete disaster.  Despite the taxpayer cost of over $500 million to develop the website, it’s fraught with problems, not the least of which is a complete lack of security.  Experts warn that anyone who puts their private information into the site is risking the loss of all of their personal information.  In addition the site has no back end able to transmit data to confirm payments were made, nor can it give anyone who signs up assurance that they will in fact be insured when they show up at a doctor’s office.  New failures pop up each day, but President Obama and Democrats call them glitches, and “all is well”.  Reality check – big government doesn’t work.

Canadian Olympian, Sebastien Toutant, tweeted this picture of Sochi toilet rules.

Canadian Olympian, Sebastien Toutant, tweeted this picture of Sochi toilet rules.

At the start of the Olympics we are all just now learning of the problems in Sochi. Despite assurances from Putin that “all is well”, people are getting surprised when checking into rooms.  Some when told that they are still under construction. Some rooms have no water.  Some visitors are told not to allow the water to touch their faces because of its dangerous contents. Many rooms were missing combinations of furniture, curtains, light bulbs, TVs and shower curtains.  Locals were told to surrender their pillows to athletes whose rooms didn’t have one.  Hotel lobbies are missing as are floors.

It’s been interesting so far to see the fawning coverage given to Putin, and Sochi by Bob Costas and NBC.  I guess the mainstream media has so much practice spinning for big government progressives in America that it’s a natural transition to praise a full-blown totalitarian.

Another link is traffic.  Very few tourists are showing up to actually see the Olympics so far.  Many are likely scared away by the threat of terrorism, just like very few previously uninsured Americans are signing up for Obama care.  Many of them are likely afraid of the threat of personal data theft.

Sadly, both the ACA (not just the website) and Sochi are well over budget.  The Sochi Games cost Russia an estimated $51B, the most expensive games in history.  Obama care will cost U.S. taxpayers over double its original estimate of $900B over ten years, and that doesn’t account for the increased cost to Americans of insurance plans, co-pays and deductibles.

The lack of preparation of the Obama care website, it’s roll-out and the entire so called “Affordable Care Act”, for that matter, and the Sochi Olympics have another common feature:  they were the by products of massive, intrusive government.  In the case of Sochi, it’s Putin, an ex-KGB officer who wants to return Russia to its former glory.  He’s is an authoritarian, a communist “once KGB-always KGB”, and it’s clear to see that despite the fall of the Iron Curtain, the failures of the old communist system are still in effect.  In the case of Obama care it’s an unprecedented level of massive, intrusive government led by Barack Obama and the Democrats intent on expanding the role and power of our government.  Don’t forget that Obama care gave the federal government control of over 20% of the US economy.  Government’s gain is liberty’s loss.

Hopefully, the athletes at the winter Olympics won’t be distracted from achieving their dreams, despite the situation in Sochi.  Sadly for America, the reality of Obama care is quite different for it’s doomed to fail.  The Law was fundamentally flawed, rushed through in the dead of night without a single Republican vote.  It’s real objective is to fail SLOWLY and move the USA into a government controlled and dictatorial health care system.  One major difference between the Olympics and the “Unaffordable Care Act” does bear highlighting though:  the Olympics will end in a few weeks, but to stop Obama care, we must repeal it!