Welfare & Poverty

Of NICE and Men – WSJ.com on Obamacare (or lack thereof)

The NICE precedent also undercuts the Obama Administration’s argument that vast health savings can be gleaned simply by automating health records or squeezing out “waste.” Britain has tried all of that but ultimately has concluded that it can only rein in costs by limiting care. The logic of a health-care system dominated by government is that it always ends up with some version of a NICE board that makes these life-or-death treatment decisions. The Administration’s new Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research currently lacks the authority of NICE. But over time, if the Obama plan passes and taxpayer costs inevitably soar, it could quickly gain it.

via Of NICE and Men – WSJ.com.

Morning Bell: The Left’s Assault on the Declaration of Independence » The Foundry

But denying the truth of America’s principles for the sake of “change” can make no claim to progress at all—a point made with unsurpassed clarity by Calvin Coolidge learn more here on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 1926: “If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions.”

We don’t need to remake America, or discover new and untested principles. The change we need is not the rejection of America’s principles but a great renewal of these permanent truths about man, politics, and liberty—the foundational principles and constitutional wisdom that are the true roots of our country’s greatness.

Read the full article here…  Morning Bell: The Left’s Assault on the Declaration of Independence » The Foundry.

White House Stands by Obama’s Claim That Single-Payer Health Care Works In Other Countries–It’s Just Not Sure Which Countries Obama Meant

“I don’t know exactly the countries. I think if you talk to the people in the countries that have that system, they think their health care is pretty good,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told CNSNews.com Wednesday during the daily press briefing.

Asked again if he knew specifically which countries, Gibbs replied: “I assume Canada, Britain, maybe France. I don’t know the exact countries, but again, I don’t think the president is going way out on a limb that some people in other countries have a health care system that they like. Just as some Americans like the health care system that they have.”

The criticism of single-payer health care – primarily as practiced in Canada and Europe – has been that operations and procedures are long-delayed or denied and health care is rationed to control costs. For example, in Canada, the average wait for a 65-year-old man to get a hip replacement is six months, according to the Freedom Works Foundation.

The average wait time in a Canadian emergency room is 16 hours and 18 minutes. Also, “the average cancer test and radiation treatment cycles vary between 6 to 8 weeks,” the foundation reported.

John Goodman, director of the National Center for Policy Analysis and author of the book, “Lives at Risk: Single-Payer National Health Insurance Around the World,” has reported that in Britain, “at any one time, there are about a million people waiting to get into hospitals. According to the Fraser Institute, almost 900,000 Canadian patients are on the waiting list at any point in time. And, according to the New Zealand government, 90,000 people are on the waiting lists there.”

via CNSNews.com – White House Stands by Obama’s Claim That Single-Payer Health Care Works In Other Countries–It’s Just Not Sure Which Countries Obama Meant.

The ‘Paygo’ Coverup – WSJ.com

But Mr. Obama must think the press and public are dumb enough to buy it, because there he was Tuesday re-selling the same “paygo” promises that Democrats roll out every election. Paygo is “very simple,” the President claimed. “Congress can only spend a dollar if it saves a dollar elsewhere.”

That’s what Democrats also promised in 2006, with Nancy Pelosi vowing that “the first thing” House Democrats would do if they took Congress was reimpose paygo rules that “Republicans had let lapse.” By 2008, Speaker Pelosi had let those rules lapse no fewer than 12 times, to make way for $400 billion in deficit spending. Mr. Obama repeated the paygo pledge during his 2008 campaign, and instead we have witnessed the greatest peacetime spending binge in U.S. history. As a share of GDP, spending will hit an astonishing 28.5% in fiscal 2009, with the deficit hitting 13% and projected to stay at 4% to 5% for years to come.

The truth is that paygo is the kind of budget gimmick that gives gimmickry a bad name. As Mr. Obama knows but won’t tell voters

via The ‘Paygo’ Coverup – WSJ.com.

How to Stop Socialized Health Care – WSJ.com

In other words, the public option is just phony. It’s a bait-and-switch tactic meant to reassure people that the president’s goals are less radical than they are. Mr. Obama’s real aim, as some candid Democrats admit, is a single-payer, government-run health-care system.

via How to Stop Socialized Health Care – WSJ.com.

Canada’s ObamaCare Precedent – WSJ.com

This is exactly what I’ve been saying. The Obama administration’s health care plans are a nightmare and a noose around the necks of the taxpayer in more ways than one.

Canada’s ObamaCare Precedent – WSJ.com.

NYC 7th Grades Receive Cash Rewards For Good Grades

NYC 7TH GRADERS RECEIVE CASH REWARDS FOR HIGH GRADES ON STANDARDIZED TESTS – New York Post.

Oh, and the Obama/liberal camp still don’t know that the “share your hard-earned money with someone less motivated, out of civic duty” program will fail completely and has failed completely each time it’s been tried. Silly liberals.

American Thinker: Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis

American Thinker: Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis.

Cloward-Piven Strategy to force national income by redistribution of wealth. Obama is an aherent and student of it.

PETER FERRARA: Obama Is So Clueless About Federal Taxes « FOX Forum « FOXNews.com

Before Obama became president, the top 1% of income earners already paid 40% of the total federal income taxes. The top 5% of the population the president is targeting for tax hikes already paid 60% of federal income taxes.

By contrast, the bottom 40% of income earners, who lefties like Obama often refer to as “working people” or the “working class,” as a group already paid no income taxes. Instead, they received net payments from the tax system equal to 3.8% of total income taxes. In other words, the bottom 40% paid negative 3.8% of total federal income taxes.

In addition, the middle 20% of income earners, the actual middle class, paid just 4.7% of total federal income taxes, before Obama even won the election.

via PETER FERRARA: Obama Is So Clueless About Federal Taxes « FOX Forum « FOXNews.com.

Mary O’Grady Says Latin America Needs Economic Liberalization and Property Rights, Not Foreign Aid – WSJ.com

Exactly! I am so tired of these bureaucrats who perpetuate poverty, not cure it, because it gives them a job.

Mary O’Grady Says Latin America Needs Economic Liberalization and Property Rights, Not Foreign Aid – WSJ.com.