Category Archives: Throw Da Bums Out

Throw da Bums Out

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I have mentioned Radio Guy Josh Mothner on these pages before. Mr. Mothner hosts the Morning Mix on WGMX-FM here in the heart of the Florida Keys. In real life, he is a banker and mortgage broker. He is also a community volunteer and a serious, big-D, Demorat. He often rants about one or another of my pet peeves; sometimes he even comes down on the right side of an issue.

Mr. Mothner was in full rant this morning with pretty much the same message I’ve sent for a year: Throw da Bums Out . All of them. Every single elected official in Washington. Even yours. And yours. His is the first media commentary I’ve heard outside the blogosphere with that message.

Pick any issue of import, Mr. Mothner said this morning. Congress has bumbled it either because they act sooooooooo sloooooooooowly or because they simply get it wrong. Usually they get it wrong and it takes forever to do so.

Consider, for example, ObamaCare. If you recognize Senate Bill S.4 (the Comprehensive Health Reform Act of 2009) or House Bills HR3200, HR3962, and HR3590 (Affordable Health Care for America times two and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Acts), you’ll understand that Congress has been diddling while America burned.

Sadly it matters not at all whether you fervently believe that

(a) government is incapable of filling potholes let alone managing a process as big and complex as your health care; or
(b) only government is able to manage a process as big and complex as your health care.

Whatever your core beliefs, the Congress We the TaxedPeople elected has managed to assure none of us are well served by any of the more than 10,000 pages of “affordable” health care proposals now papering Washington D.C.

Have you noticed? Congress lurves the word “affordable.” They plan to force a baker’s dozen affordable issues on We the TaxedPeople this year alone. So far. Have your taxes gone down? Did your rent get cheaper? Your life must be more affordable, right? Congress says it is. Here are the baker’s dozen “affordable” bills from thomas :

  • Affordable Access to Prescription Medications Act of 2009
  • Affordable Care for Women Act
  • Affordable Food and Fuel for America Act
  • Affordable Footwear Act of 2009
  • Affordable Gas Price Act
  • Affordable Health Care Expansion Act of 2009
  • Affordable Health Care for America Act
  • Affordable Health Choices Act
  • Affordable Housing and Community Development Act of 2009
  • Affordable Housing Preservation and Revitalization Act of 2009
  • Affordable Housing Preservation Tax Relief Act of 2009
  • Affordable Reloaded Munitions Supply (ARMS) Act of 2009
  • Affordable Tutoring of Our Children Act

Affordable, huh? That would be the same Congress that just passed a 12% bump in their spending budget at the same time they ruled the Cost of Living flat for senior citizens. The flat Cost of Living we see at the pump, no doubt. After all we do have the Affordable Food and Fuel for America Act and the Affordable Gas Price Act.

Perhaps Hillary Clinton summed it up best: “A camel (that would be a race horse designed by Congressional Committee) is a well-designed animal,” she told Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) in recent hearings.

Throw da Bums Out! You go, Josh.

But first, throw out the Congressional Rules that allow them to pass laws that do not apply to, well, Congress Critters.

Then Throw da Bums Out, indeed. We can’t afford them.

Sleight of Something

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The Congressional Budget Office said Monday that the Senate health bill could significantly reduce costs for many people who buy health insurance on their own, and that it would not substantially change premiums for the vast numbers of Americans who receive coverage from large employers.

That’s good news, right?

But wait. There’s more! Before taking account of federal subsidies to help people buy insurance on their own, the budget office said the bill would tend to drive up premiums. But as a result of the subsidies most people in the individual insurance market would see their costs decline.

So We the TaxedPeople will be on the hook for $450 billion of subsidies so Congress can say your insurance premiums and mine will be lower.

Cool. I LOVE ObaMathematics.

F.D.A. Fell to a Push by Lawmakers

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Here’s a surprise. The FDA said that Democratic Senators Menendez and Lautenberg and Representatives Pallone and Rothman and its own former commissioner pushed the FDA to “politically” override the scientists. All four legislators sold out for peanuts–they received a total of $26,000 in “campaign contributions” from the manufacturer–shortly before leaning on the FDA.

These are the guys making Health Care Reform law, right? Jeezum, they’re not even good at being crooks.

Mark Twain wrote, “There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.“

Campaign finance “reform,” like health care “reform” will have quotes around it until we not only throw da current bums out but we also throw out all da little rules and perks they have passed for themselves over the last few decades.

Senator Tries to Allay Fears

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A Senator “tries to allay fears”?

You gotta be kidding me. We ought to be far more afraid of what the pariahs in Washington do than anything else in the news this year.

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) doesn’t like the Baucus bill.

The Baucus bill (along with HR3200) cuts the projected growth in Medicare by $4-500 billion over the next 10 years. Senator Nelson is afraid of one part of the biils, the one that cuts Medicare payments to insurance companies providing Medicare Advantage policies. That’s about $40 billion over those 10 years.

Cutting government spending is a good thing, right?

Adding (or keeping) government spending is a bad thing, right?

Not so fast.

The pariahs of Washington have balanced the Health Care Takeover by cutting the one place (Medicare) that already shifts some 75% of the cost of health care to Somebody Else. Cutting another $40 or $50 billion out of Medicare sounds like a great plan. Until you notice that it is the usual political sleight of hand. Cutting another $40 or $50 billion out of Medicare just shifts some $40 or $50 billion more of the cost of health care to Somebody Else.

I fear being Somebody Else.

Allay allay in free.

Senator Nelson is right not like the Baucus bill. But he is right for the wrong reasons.