Most studies indicate that Americans self-identify themselves as:
45% Conservative
35% Moderate
20% Liberal
Of course there are small variations (a couple of % at most) between categories, but this is reasonable and it has remained fairly constant over the past couple of decades.
The Main Stream Media is overwhelmingly Liberal to Progressive: print, radio and TV, except of course FNC, WSJ and a handful of others.
I realize just saying “Fox” is like waving a red flag at a bull, but please bear with me. According to media watchers, Fox viewership in many prime segments exceeds that of all of the Liberal to Progressive (CNN, MSNBC, etc.) cable channels combined. Of course, viewership is purely voluntary since none of the media outlets can compel viewers to watch. What that means is that the media can’t dictate anything to anyone. As is proven with the Progressive media, if people don’t believe what you are pushing, they simply don’t watch.
Given that there are 4 times as many self-avowed Conservatives and Moderates (those most likely to watch FNC) as there are Liberals, these viewership numbers are reasonable.
If in fact Conservatives and Moderates compose 80% of America how is it that they are continually referred to as “the fringe” by the MSM? 70% reportedly object to ObamaCare and want it repealed and replaced: how is it that these can be the “lunatic fringe” or those who just don’t understand how good ObamaCare is? Isn’t 20% more of a ‘fringe’ than 80%?
Media in this country is allegedly free enterprise, and if the market for Moderate/Conservative viewpoints is 80%, why are media promoting a Liberal/Progressive agenda that 80% don’t want implemented? Could this explain why Fox is growing explosively while the MSM are collapsing on themselves? Newsweek magazine, a staple, recently sold for $1 (and it’s sizeable debts).
If 70% of the population objects to ObamaCare, why does the president continue to promote it rather than find a different solution that accomplishes basically the same objective but in a manner acceptable to the 70% (rather than try to drive his solution down our throats)? Does he not understand that the president exists to serve the Citizen, not the other way around? Is he so presumptuous that he thinks that he knows what is best for us better than we do?
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Why the Obama administration is in trouble
Had the elitists in DC been paying attention on any level, the incumbents would not be in the position they now find themselves in. There has never been sufficient Citizen demand for HCR to justify the political effort, but Congress chose to ignore that and instead told us to shut up and sit down because they knew what was
best for us.
best for us.
They lied to us about costs; they lied to us about coverage; they lied to us about choices; they lied to us about rationing; they lied to us about the impact on deficits; they lied to us about availability; they lied to us about who makes treatment decisions; they lied to us about posting the act on the Internet for our review before it was passed and before it would be
signed by the president; they lied to us about special interests crafting it; they lied to us about transparency; they used faulty logic to cost justify it as though we were too dumb to notice; they lied to us about federal funding for abortions; they broke major pieces of the legislation into separate acts to make it look more affordable: as if we were too blind or too dumb to
notice: and for this we should be thankful? For this we should return them to office?
signed by the president; they lied to us about special interests crafting it; they lied to us about transparency; they used faulty logic to cost justify it as though we were too dumb to notice; they lied to us about federal funding for abortions; they broke major pieces of the legislation into separate acts to make it look more affordable: as if we were too blind or too dumb to
notice: and for this we should be thankful? For this we should return them to office?
They took a Trillion dollars we don’t have, allocated 91% of it to sustain or expand governmentand government; scheduled it’s disbursement for maximum impact at the mid-term elections; and lied that it was going to stimulate the restoration of our economy. They made up asinine numbers of ‘jobs saved or created’ and when that didn’t flush changed
it to ‘jobs impacted’ whatever that is supposed to mean. They lied that spending this borrowed money ould prevent unemployment from going over 8%. We told them they were lying and they called us racists for our efforts.
it to ‘jobs impacted’ whatever that is supposed to mean. They lied that spending this borrowed money ould prevent unemployment from going over 8%. We told them they were lying and they called us racists for our efforts.
To advance their progressive agenda they manipulated our financial system removing long-proven qualification safeguards for borrowers; they foolishly made capital abundant and nearly free to create a predictable and devastating real estate bubble that nearly destroyed the global financial system and then blamed everyone but themselves (Barney Frank and Chris Dodd we know who you are): they broke the chain of accountability and responsibility by permitting bundled derivatives; they eliminated risk from the irresponsible
profit takers and transferred it to the American taxpayer via Freddie, Fannie
and AIG. They restructured the American financial structure to punish their enemies and reward their friends; they stole Chrysler and GM from the lawful shareholders without just compensation; they extorted the bondholders; they suborned the bankruptcy laws of the US;
they gifted the auto manufactures to their Union supporters and foreign competitors; and then accepted millions of dollars in political contributions from these companies that are still surviving solely on taxpayer bailouts.
profit takers and transferred it to the American taxpayer via Freddie, Fannie
and AIG. They restructured the American financial structure to punish their enemies and reward their friends; they stole Chrysler and GM from the lawful shareholders without just compensation; they extorted the bondholders; they suborned the bankruptcy laws of the US;
they gifted the auto manufactures to their Union supporters and foreign competitors; and then accepted millions of dollars in political contributions from these companies that are still surviving solely on taxpayer bailouts.
The Fed has been running the currency printing presses since January 2009 around the clock; they threatened the bankers and financiers that if they made risky investments (like cash flow bridge loans to small business) that they would be punished to the full extent of the law, essential shutting down the small business job incubators; they lent money from the Fed to banks at near zero interest so the banks could buy Treasuries and thereby monetize the debt (immediately after promising not to do so); they publically castigated private sector
financial institutions but ignored identical behavior at Freddie and Fannie. They took absolute control of government education loans and in the process gave themselves the power to direct those funds to students of their choosing without oversight or appeal. They crafted unknowable legislation to ‘reform’ our financial system and in the process granted themselves absolute power over any privately-owned business: to modify it, destroy it, disembowel it again without oversight or appeal. The same deviants Barnie Frank and Chris Dodd, who destroyed the financial system, were entrusted to reform it.
financial institutions but ignored identical behavior at Freddie and Fannie. They took absolute control of government education loans and in the process gave themselves the power to direct those funds to students of their choosing without oversight or appeal. They crafted unknowable legislation to ‘reform’ our financial system and in the process granted themselves absolute power over any privately-owned business: to modify it, destroy it, disembowel it again without oversight or appeal. The same deviants Barnie Frank and Chris Dodd, who destroyed the financial system, were entrusted to reform it.
They gave us a disaster in the Gulf when they sold a lease that netted the federal government $2.3 BILLION but failed to provide any oversight to assure and verify compliance with Federal laws in place since March 2009 even though candidate Obama in 2007 acknowledged terminal deficiencies in MMS. Those regulations require the federal government to have spill containment and correction resources on site when drilling is under way; but there was none. To add insult to injury, the president denied permission for assistance offered by the world’s most qualified and experienced crews and equipment from 35 different countries rather than temporarily suspend the Jones Act and theoretically threaten a handful of Union jobs of his 2008 political contributors; giving the oil pollution time to reach the ecologically fragile rookeries and shell fish habitats. Then, over the advice of his ‘panel of experts’ the president slapped a moratorium on deep water drilling in the Gulf pending an investigation, knowing that it would send 12,000 high paying oil platform workers from the Gulf that needed that income to recover from the disaster- off to Brazil to sites funded by the IMF at Obama’s request and partially owned by one of Obama’s wealthiest
and most powerful political contributors: George Soros.
and most powerful political contributors: George Soros.
In 2008 a sufficient number of voters decided to vote for ‘change’ thinking that it couldn’t get any worse, only to learn that it could (and did) get infinitely worse. Not only did we elect a president with no leadership experience, but he lacked respect for and any comprehension of the Constitution, free enterprise, free markets, job creation, finance, American history and the fact that free people anywhere in the world enjoy freedom solely at the expense of American blood, sweat, and treasure. And for that he thinks he should apologize. What an insult to all Americans past, present, and future!
replace them with humble, honest, public servants who do. Otherwise we will be no better off than before.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Gerrymandering violates the COTUS
According to the COTUS, representation is solely a function of population. There are no valid political party considerations, there are no valid social considerations. To grotesquely configure districts to accomplish political or social objectives (as is now considered the ‘normal’ spoils of politics) is a gross perversion of the electoral process. It is no different than stuffing the ballot box or otherwise attempting to pre-determine election results. Anyone attempting gerrymandering should be subject to the strictest penalties available under law because it undermines the very foundation of our Constitutional Republic.
Any effort at redistricting should be to adjust for gross population shifts and should be absolutely blind to any other considerations. ‘Equal justice under law’ requires that every Citizen be afforded equal representation in Congress. Elected representatives should be focused on the needs of every constituent according to the COTUS, not some artificial or personal political agenda. The COTUS defines the authorities and responsibilities delegated
to the federal government. We elect a government to meet those responsibilities within the strictly limited delineated authorities; and to ‘preserve, protect, and defend the COTUS’: only this and nothing more.
to the federal government. We elect a government to meet those responsibilities within the strictly limited delineated authorities; and to ‘preserve, protect, and defend the COTUS’: only this and nothing more.
The COTUS does not validate any concept of ‘popular mandate’; ‘political mandate’; or ‘elections have consequences’. These are simply perversions of the administration of our Constitutional Republic. It is time for Citizens to demand an end to gerrymandering; and to demand an end to the abuse of the COTUS by power-mad, elitist representatives who manipulate our political processes for their personal gain and personal aggrandizement.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Why Healthcare costs keep rising
Healthcare in the US is so expensive.
MLR: Medical Loss Ratio may just explain why medical costs are skyrocketing in America. MLR is the ratio of claims expense paid to premiums revenue received. The State and federal governments require the ratio to be in the 80% to 85% range: ostensibly to ‘prevent insurance companies from making too much money” by effectively mandating how much premiums can exceed costs.
So, if a procedure costs $100, it means the insurance company has $15 to cover overhead and profit. If a procedure costs $1000, they have $150 to work with; and for a $10,000 procedure, it’s $1500. Are you beginning to see how we get $1 tissues?
Under this system, who is motivated to keep costs down? It isn’t the insurance company because for them, 15% of a big number is better than 15% of a little number. It isn’t the healthcare facility, or the doctor for the same reasons. The patient doesn’t particularly care as long as their insurance covers it; and most don’t have a clue how much their medical insurance costs when it is employer-provided (60%) or government provided (28%). Less than 10% buy their own. As long as the insurance company is able to pass the costs on to the patient, they don’t care how much it costs.
In a free market, the scope and the cost of healthcare would be determined by fair and open competition. Insurance companies and healthcare providers would derive their profit by constantly driving costs lower. Lazik eye surgery is an excellent example because it is not covered by insurance. As more practitioners get into the business, competition drives the price down even as quality is continuously improved to differentiate one supplier from another in order to attract paying patients.
Without collusion between the government, healthcare and insurance interests to continually increase costs, the free market continually reduces costs while increasing quality and convenience. Because the buyer is paying for the service out of his own pocket, he is
motivated to find the best value; and as is always the case it is that which creates competition. Unfortunately this is NOT how the majority of the healthcare industry works.
How did we get to this point? Insurance companies are highly regulated by State and Federal authorities. Clearly there has been collusion between the regulators and the regulated to take advantage of the sick and infirm at their weakest and most vulnerable. The genius stroke is to do so in such a manner as the victim is duped into believing that the metric that exploits them is the vehicle by which they are separated from their funds.
It’s the classic con: fleece the pigeon but make them feel good about it.
The Medical Loss Ratio epitomizes the state of the healthcare industry in America today: runaway costs, enriching everyone but the patient while making it appear that a benevolent government is protecting their interests even as it exacts it’s share of the spoils in the form of generous political contributions to keep the con working.
Government mandated healthcare is simply a heavy-handed effort to force the entire populace to participate while simultaneously changing the rules to give the government, not insurers or the providers, the upper hand and thereby take control of this con.
This is what happens when Citizens trade liberty for the appearance of security. This is what our Constitution was originally crafted to protect us from. And this is just one example of why we must restore Constitutional governance in America.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Privatization of Social Security
1. Some folks don’t want Social Security to be privatized, which means they are responsible for their own retirement savings (though they must participate by government mandate and there would be regulations and controls on the individual (to guarantee their mandatory contributions) and the investment broker (to limit the riskiness of investments, administrative costs, etc)).
2. Don’t people realize that Congress has stolen every penny paid into Social Security over the past 70 years?
3. Don’t people realize that therefore the government doesn’t have any money to pay Social Security benefits that have accrued and are due?
a. The Fed is simply printing worthless script to cover Social Security benefits now, but that can’t continue as more and more Baby Boomers become eligible to draw on the benefit that they have paid into all their working lives.
b. Sooner or later the worthless script being printed to cover the exploding federal debt; and the exploding federal entitlement will become just that: worthless script.
I don’t have a solution, but if insanity is ‘continuing to do the same thing, but expecting a different results’, it seems to me that leaving Social Security in the hands of those who have stolen every penny of it, qualifies as insanity.
I’m guessing that folks who don’t want Social Security privatized are afraid that bankers might do what the government has already done.
Those who argue against privatization of Social Security are refusing to acknowledge that Social Security doesn’t exist anymore and hasn’t since the mid-1960’s when Congress took all the money out of the Social Security Trust Fund and moved it to the General Fund so they could waste it on their pet projects (which most likely assured their comfortable retirement income).
Those of us trying to live on the false image of Social Security are doing no more than “whistling past the grave yard”; praying that the inevitable destruction of the dollar, (due to years of printing worthless script), won’t hit until after we die and no longer need the benefits that we have paid so dearly for our entire lives.
Will those who hate business ever get to the realization that what they hate about business is not from the conduct of business itself, but the abuse that business is able to accomplish as a result of unfair advantage purchased through political contributions? They may not care about the difference, but business is what has brought mankind the kind of prosperity and ease that subsistence farming and hunter-gathering could never accomplish. Government corruption is what enables businesses to exploit people and to take taxpayer money unfairly through government subsidies, worthless grants, useless foreign aid to despots, senseless wars, excess, non-competitive compensation to unions; excessive cost for healthcare (that has existed and expanded on government subsidy for more than 50 years): the list is endless.
Any business that relies on government subsidy to exist obviously does not warrant existing on it's own merit. The beauty of the free market is that such businesses are permitted to perish. When one has poison-ivy growing in the yard, no sensible person attempts to pluck each leaf to protect themselves: they find the root, up-root the plant and the problem is permanently eliminated.
Our Founders understood human nature: they realized that delegated authority will always be abused (it’s Man’s sinful nature [that liberals hate to acknowledge]). Because human nature guarantees that delegated authority will always be abused the Founders specified in the Constitution that the federal government would have very strictly limited authority; and NO authority to directly tax Citizens.
If we limit our elected representatives to the authorities and responsibilities originally delineated in the COTUS; the rape of the American people; and the destruction of the American Dream will be stopped.
2. Don’t people realize that Congress has stolen every penny paid into Social Security over the past 70 years?
3. Don’t people realize that therefore the government doesn’t have any money to pay Social Security benefits that have accrued and are due?
a. The Fed is simply printing worthless script to cover Social Security benefits now, but that can’t continue as more and more Baby Boomers become eligible to draw on the benefit that they have paid into all their working lives.
b. Sooner or later the worthless script being printed to cover the exploding federal debt; and the exploding federal entitlement will become just that: worthless script.
I don’t have a solution, but if insanity is ‘continuing to do the same thing, but expecting a different results’, it seems to me that leaving Social Security in the hands of those who have stolen every penny of it, qualifies as insanity.
I’m guessing that folks who don’t want Social Security privatized are afraid that bankers might do what the government has already done.
Those who argue against privatization of Social Security are refusing to acknowledge that Social Security doesn’t exist anymore and hasn’t since the mid-1960’s when Congress took all the money out of the Social Security Trust Fund and moved it to the General Fund so they could waste it on their pet projects (which most likely assured their comfortable retirement income).
Those of us trying to live on the false image of Social Security are doing no more than “whistling past the grave yard”; praying that the inevitable destruction of the dollar, (due to years of printing worthless script), won’t hit until after we die and no longer need the benefits that we have paid so dearly for our entire lives.
Will those who hate business ever get to the realization that what they hate about business is not from the conduct of business itself, but the abuse that business is able to accomplish as a result of unfair advantage purchased through political contributions? They may not care about the difference, but business is what has brought mankind the kind of prosperity and ease that subsistence farming and hunter-gathering could never accomplish. Government corruption is what enables businesses to exploit people and to take taxpayer money unfairly through government subsidies, worthless grants, useless foreign aid to despots, senseless wars, excess, non-competitive compensation to unions; excessive cost for healthcare (that has existed and expanded on government subsidy for more than 50 years): the list is endless.
Any business that relies on government subsidy to exist obviously does not warrant existing on it's own merit. The beauty of the free market is that such businesses are permitted to perish. When one has poison-ivy growing in the yard, no sensible person attempts to pluck each leaf to protect themselves: they find the root, up-root the plant and the problem is permanently eliminated.
Our Founders understood human nature: they realized that delegated authority will always be abused (it’s Man’s sinful nature [that liberals hate to acknowledge]). Because human nature guarantees that delegated authority will always be abused the Founders specified in the Constitution that the federal government would have very strictly limited authority; and NO authority to directly tax Citizens.
If we limit our elected representatives to the authorities and responsibilities originally delineated in the COTUS; the rape of the American people; and the destruction of the American Dream will be stopped.
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