In the rush to bring sexual preference equality to our military it seems to have been overlooked that many countries in the world do not share our government’s liberal views on the subject, particularly the Muslim ones in the Middle East where we have a number of key bases to protect out vital interests. Some religious hardliners in the region are of the opinion that homosexuality is a crime punishable by death:

The death penalty is currently in place in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Mauritania, northern Nigeria, Sudan, and Yemen. In Afghanistan it is a crime that  that is punished with fines and a prison sentence. The legal situation in the United Arab Emirates is unclear. In many Muslim nations, such as Bahrain, Qatar, Algeria and the Maldives, homosexuality is punished with jail time, fines, or corporal punishment. -Wikipedia

The Saudis in particular walk a very tight line with religious hardliners and this may well be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Saudi leaders are still reeling, arguably more than is publicly known, from the WikiLeaks disclosures.  Any ‘private’ talks between the US and the Saudis or other Muslim nations on this issue seem unlikely.

It will be interesting to see how the gay rights policies of Washington liberals play out in the real world on this matter.

This is written by a practicing physician, a member of a profession seldom heard from during the current healthcare debate:

By: Larry G. Goss, M.D.

COSTS OF MEDICAL CARE HISTORICAL AND PROJECTED:

· Since Medicare was instituted most of the current cost of medical care has been driven by Medicare (Government) mandated regulations and bureaucratic requirements that Medicaid and private insurers also adapt.

· These burdensome requirements account for at least 75% of every health care dollar spent today in America!

· As just one example of current mandated costs imposed on physicians and other health care providers, ask any practicing physician about the costs of “Prior Authorizations” requirements in their offices today. Then multiply this cost by the thousands of physicians practicing in the United States today!

· 40 years ago in Oklahoma, an office call was $3.00, and a busy physician could have a large practice with just one full time nurse, and perhaps a part-time receptionist/bookkeeper. Now a physician is hard pressed to run his office with at least 4-6 full time employees and several more part-time employees/consultants! These employees have little to do with direct patient care and all of these people have salaries and benefits that must be paid.

· That the proposed Obama Health Care Plan (Socialized Medicine) is an improvement is ludicrous, and flagrantly dishonest. This absurd legislation is going to increase the bureaucratic costs even more astronomically! (Please see Organizational Chart of the House Democrat’s Health Plan at www.orlytaitzesq.com/images/DemocratHealthCarePlan,.jpg)

· HR 3200 mandates a new 8% payroll tax on employers with 10 or more employees and a payroll of $400,000 or greater; there is a lesser tax on employers with a $250,000 payroll.

· This new tax also applies to employers who do provide health insurance, but pay less than 72.5% of premiums.

· This new tax would, in effect, force lower income employees to take an 8% pay reduction: $1,600 yearly for a $10/hour employee.

· HR 3200 attempts to fund this draconian program by fining any individual (i.e. small businesses) with before deductions income of $280,000.

· Remember most American small business owners are not incorporated and file tax returns as individuals!

· It is planned to increase this tax/fine in 2013, if there is not enough funding for this estimated over $1 trillion program through costs savings.

· Political appointees would make “Comparative Effectiveness” determinations to deny medical care recommended by a patient’s physician. These bureaucrats would be paid based on these denials.

· It is planned to reduce physician payments by 21% in 2010 in order to save $240 billion from the government’s already astronomical budget deficit.

· This will have an extremely detrimental effect on access to medical care in rural and inner city areas, and on small struggling physician’s offices.

· Patient choice in health plans would become terminal as over 88 million workers would be shifted to the public plan from private insurance coverage. Those remaining individuals with private insurance will see substantial increase in their premiums as a result.

ILLEGAL ALIENS COVERED UNDER OBAMA CARE:

· HR 3200 also does nothing to address another of the most significant engines driving health care costs: tort reform to control frivolous lawsuits. Malpractice insurance costs are another considerable factor driving up the costs of medical care for all Americans.

· Section 246 of HR 3200 states: “NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS. Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.” However, there is no enforcement provision in this section. This means that US taxpayers will be paying for the free medical care of illegal aliens!

· Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., offered an amendment that would have required the Federal Government to use the same database, already in existence, to check eligibility for welfare recipients to ensure illegal aliens are not in the proposed health care plan.

· The House Ways and Means Committee rejected the Heller amendment on July 17th in a straight party line vote!

· According to a Center for Immigration Studies report, about 15 million of the “46 million un-insured are illegal aliens and their children!

OBAMA CARE TO SENIORS: JUST GO LAY DOWN AND DIE!

· Section 1233 of HR 3200 mandates a government requirement for “Advance Care Planning Consultation.” This is required “end of life” counseling for senior citizens.

· Betsy McCaughey, former lieutenant governor of New York, and a health policy expert, states the “consultation” is “no more or less than an attempt to convince seniors to die.”

· “One of the most shocking things is page 425, where Congress would make it mandatory absolutely, that every five years people in Medicare have a required counseling session,” she said. “They will tell (them) how to end their life sooner.”

· “Palliative care and hospice” is to be recommended to seniors in their mandatory “counseling” sessions. This kind of care generally means only pain relief until death!

· Incredibly, it also includes a suggestion for euthanasia: withholding the “use of artificially administrated nutrition and hydration”!

· This section sets out reporting requirements for doctors to monitor how end-of- life orders are complied with!

· Such counseling sessions must be administered every 5 years and sooner if there is a change in the person’s health status or even an ordinary admission to a nursing home.

· The message is clear: “Do what is in society’s best interests, and cut your life short!”

· Obama Care suggests that medical care be withheld from a person based on the expected years they may have left to live. This is blatantly unethical and a total violation of a physician’s Hippocratic Oath!

NATIONAL HEALTH CARE WILL DENY YOU MEDICAL CARE:

· Health sections in the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act demands that all health care records be put into electronic format. This gives government bureaucrats access to your personal health records.

· Allows these bureaucrats to make health care decisions for you!

· Allow authorization of the “Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.”

· “The National Coordinator shall perform the duties under subsection (c) in a manner consistent with the development of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure that allows for the use and exchange of information and that among other functions provides appropriate information to help guide medical decisions at the time and place of care.” (Emphasis added.)

· National Coordinator will monitor treatments to make sure the doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective!

· The federal plan is to reduce costs and “guide” physician’s decisions.

· This language is virtually identical to former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., wrote in his book “Critical, What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle:

· “doctors have to give up autonomy and learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”

· “The National Coordinator will be able to enforce his decision as to what is appropriate treatment through sanctions against health care providers!”

· Doctors who are not “meaningful users” of the new system will face penalties. “Meaningful user” is not defined in the Stimulus Act. This is left to the arbitrary whim of the HHS secretary who is empowered to impose “more stringent measures of meaningful use over time.”

· Penalties could be imposed against doctors that would “deter health care providers from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols.”

· Stimulus Law appears to set a requirement for all medical records to be on line. Thus, government bureaucrats in Washington could review the diagnosis and treatment of a person and apply pressure or penalties against doctors if they didn’t like the cost or treatment

· The Stimulus Law calls for a single electronic medical record for every U.S. resident by the year 2014 and provides access to those records to “providers, health plans, the government, and other interested parties.

· The Stimulus Law appears to eliminate the right of a state to impose stricter privacy standards! This law attempts to render the medical privacy under federal law, state law, the Hippocratic Oath, and HIPPA null and void.

KISS YOUR PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE (AND THE INDUSTRY!) GOODBYE!

· In HR 3200, is a “Limitation on Enrollment” section on page 16 which states:

· “Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day” of the year the legislation become law.

· This means that those who currently have private individual coverage won’t be able to change it and those who change jobs, or become self employed will not be able to obtain private medical insurance!

· Government-subsidized (socialized medical care) coverage will mean the death of the private insurance market/industry.

· Employers will probably stop providing employees private plans and go with Washington’s socialized medical plan when the premiums are 30-40% cheaper than any private premiums existing now.

· It is estimated that 120 million or more will lose employer group coverage and be forced to accept the government plan. This may leave the private insurance companies with less than a 50 million customer pool. This small pool is untenable in the insurance business and will be the death of any private insurance availability.

· This will also likely mean the end of health savings accounts, thus giving final and total control of healthcare to government bureaucrats.

· The federal government does not have the constitutional or moral authority to outlaw private markets in which private parties voluntarily participate.

· HR 3200 contains 1,018 pages of new regulations that will require a person to buy whatever insurance the government demands before any other necessities of life. If you don’t you will be taxed or fined!

· HR 3200 imposes the following additional income tax surcharges: 1% for individuals making more than $280,000 or families earning more than $350,000; 1.5% for individual incomes over $400,000 or families over $500,000; 5.4% for individuals over $800,000 or family income over $1,000,000. The plan will push top tax rates over 50% in 39 states.

· If the “Federal health reform savings” have not saved at least $150 billion per year by the end of 2012, the first two tax surcharges will increase to 2% for families making over $350,000 and 3% for families making over $500,000.

· Keep in mind, the above income levels represent the before expenses gross income of most American small businesses, not the taxable income after deductions of actual persons or families! This is because 68% of small businesses in America are not incorporated and their owners file as individuals!

· HR 3200 will penalize employers 8% of average paid wages if the employer does not offer acceptable (to the federal government) coverage. There is an exemption for employers with annual payroll under $250,000, but increase by 2% every $50,000 reaching 8% at $400,000. This alone has been estimated to kill 5 million American jobs!

· HR 3200 subsidizes up to $88,000 of income for a family of four. This is up to 400% of the Federal Poverty Level.

· Offers these subsidies to most if not all non-citizen legal immigrants.

· HR 3200 is expected to cost over $1.6 trillion over the next 10 years, but this may be an underestimate.

· By 2019, it is estimated by CBO that HR 3200 will cost over $200 billion in penalties assessed against employers, with an annual subsidy of $6,000 per enrollee.

· The latest bill reported out of committee would “cover 97% of Americans” and would “only cost $600 billion” over 10 years.

· The $600 billion is still $600 billion more than current health care costs.

· If 97% are covered that means that almost 10 million Americans (3% x 304 million Americans) are not covered at an additional cost of $600 billion!

· How is the $600 billion saved in the latest version of the bill? By cutting payments to doctors, hospitals, pharmacies and drug companies! And, by taxing employers if they don’t have their own employee health insurance plan. This is supposed to raise $52 billion over 10 years, but will be the end of many small businesses.

· The new Government Insurance Company will not be subject to lawsuits, malpractice or otherwise, will not be subject to state regulations, not subject to federal or state taxes, OSHA regulations, EPA regulations, and on and on!

· There is simply no way any private insurance industry can compete with the planned government behemoth. And so Obama gets what he wanted all along, complete control. Is that what we really want? For ourselves? For our children? For our grandchildren?

Larry G. Goss, M.D. 2009

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

“ObamaCare harms low-income workers” Linda Hartman, M.D.

“Loophole for illegals in ‘Obamacare’” Chelsea Shilling

“Obamacare for old folks: Just ‘cut your life short’” Bob Unruh

“Obama’s plan to save money: Deny you medical treatment” Bob Unruh

“Uh-oh! Say goodbye to your private health insurance?” Chelsea Schilling

“’Frankenstein’ of all health care reforms” Roger Hedgecock

“ORGANIZATIONAL CHART OF THE

HOUSE DEMOCRATS’ HEALTH PLAN” Dr. Orly Tiatz

While the media has been focused on the daily barrage of Obama news items the greatest threat in history to the well being of those in the middle class is warming up in the bullpen.

On Friday, April 17 the EPA announced “that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions pose a danger to the public’s health and welfare” and are now identified as pollutants under the Clean Air Act. To make matters even scarier:

If Congress doesn’t act, the Obama administration is likely to press ahead with at least some curbs on carbon dioxide and other pollutants blamed for global warming. While White House spokesman Ben LaBolt emphasized yesterday that “the president has made clear his strong preference that Congress act to pass comprehensive legislation,” he indicated that the new scientific finding may leave regulators little choice.

So, as Glenn Beck puts it, we’ll have the choice of poison (EPA regulations), or poison lite (the liberal substitute). Either way the middle class comes out a big loser.

Currently, the most popular “green solution” is cap and trade:

“The purpose of the cap, the way it works, is that you are capping fossil fuel energy–you’re limiting the supply to a lower level than would otherwise be used,” Robert Greenstein, executive director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, told CNSNews.com last week. “Demand then has to fall to meet that level of supply at the cap level and demand falls by virtue of prices rising–this is basic economics.”

The immediate effects of cap and trade, of course, would be a sudden increase of the cost of every kind of fuel, from gasoline to electricity. While there are plans for lower income persons to be compensated by the government for rising utility costs, the picture for middle income folks is not quite so bright:

The Climate Equity Alliance focuses on promoting climate legislation that caters to low- and moderate-income energy consumers-and believes that funds collected from cap-and-trade proceeds should go to curb high energy costs for those consumers and for other green projects.

Greenstein said a 15 percent reduction in emissions would increase the average energy cost on a household with income around $15,000 by about $750 per household, he said.

According to the alliance, help could come in several different ways.

“We (Climate Equity Alliance) do believe consumer relief can be provided in part through the tax code for low-income working families, in part through the Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) system that every state in the country already uses,” he said.

However, the Climate Equity Alliance had this vague statement concerning the middle class:

“The alliance has called for adequate rebates to fully offset the impact on the budgets of low- and moderate-income consumers,” he said. “The alliance has not taken a position–and I’m not sure it intends to–on the middle-income issue.”

What the Climate Equity Alliance and others do not factor in, however, is the increase in the cost of goods and services caused by higher fuel and compliance costs. In the end, lower income Americans will have to bite the bullet to some extent, since aid to them will apparently be in the form of utility bill assistance and possibly bus tokens

Whichever acts, the EPA or Congress, the end result will be that the disposable income of the middle class will be greatly reduced, causing less demand for products and services which in turn will generate more layoffs and unemployment.

To add upon the burden of the carbon tax, the middle class has more to fear in the near future. In 2010 the Bush tax cuts expire, plus whatever new taxes are imposed in the 2010 budget. And then there’s the possibility that Obamas’s fantasy economics could spawn hyper-inflation in the near future and push what’s left of the middle class above the $250,000 threshold.

The EPA’s finding is subject to a 60-day comment period, presumably commencing on April 17. Perhaps something could be done to nip this in the bud. At the very least there’s quite a number of scientists who oppose this regulation and could throw in their two cents worth. Surely the EPA cannot ignore thousands of scientists .

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has succeeded where the Japanese failed, or in the words of former sailor Bob Smith, who served on Midway in 1961-1962, “FWS is destroying Midway, trying to ‘restore’ it to it’s pre-human condition” (a bird habitat).

Midway last operated as a Naval Air Facility (NAF) until Septmeber 30, 1993, when it was closed. When the Navy officially left on June 30, 1997 legal administration of the island was transferred to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) per executive order dated October 31, 1996.

In 1996, Midway Phoenix Corporation, based in Georgia, entered into a cooperative agreement with the USFWS and took over managing the airport, providing power and maintaining buildings, and proceeded to turn the island into a tourist resort. The arrangement was to cost the government almost nothing; the company, which invested millions, planned to turn a profit by bringing small numbers of tourists to the bird sanctuary and refueling planes and ships.

The uneasy relationship between Midway Phoenix and USFWS continued until 2002 when the company reached an impasse with the USFWS citing “irreconcilable differences”:

The company walked out of the deal complaining that the wildlife agency had not been flexible enough in letting tourists use the beaches and reefs. ”They are not visitor friendly,” [Midway Phoenix VP Robert F.] Tracey said of the agency. ”They are self-appointed stewards of nature, but if they had to look at a profit and loss statement, as we do, they would have to be flexible.” Most beaches were closed, ocean-going tugs were not allowed to visit for refueling, and ”we had to fight like hell for a couple of cruise ships to visit,” he said.

Since the departure of Midway Phoenix the island’s facilities and buildings have deteriorated rapidly. The termite contract was canceled by FWS, flagpoles, trees and even street signs have been cut down because they are “flight hazards” for the birds. Some of the damage to building and equipment on the former base borders on outright vandalism, or at the very least planned dismantlement and abondonment. Before and after pictures, taken in 2002 and 2005 really tell the tale, leaving one to wonder what present day photographs would reveal.

It is quite obvious that the US Fish and Wildlife Service has never had any intention of carrying out its Congressional mandate:

In 1999, in recognition of the atoll’s historical significance, Congress directed the Secretary of the Interior to develop Midway as a National Memorial and establish a preservation program for its historic military buildings and gun emplacements. This was to include interpretative displays and promotion of tourist visits.

And, in fact, appears to be committed to doing quite the opposite. In a 2005 editorial Gary Randall of MidwayIsland.com wrote that:

The FWS has hired a consultant to study the feasibility of a public visitation program, even though precedence has been set in the last visitation program. Much can be learned by an analysis of the workings, successes and failures of the previous cooperative agreement. Visitation can be profitable, and was proven just prior to the breakdown of the agreement. It is my understanding that the company that was hired by the FWS has not contacted the last cooperator to gain information that would be invaluable to their study. Who are they contacting, and whose information are they using? If the FWS has hired them, and is giving them the information that they are using in their study, the study is destined to be flawed. I am convinced at this point in time that the FWS has hired this company to provide them with an unfavorable assessment of a visitation program to prove that it is impractical. I am also convinced that the FWS would much rather close Midway Island to the public. This would be easiest for them. They would love to close down the airport, as it’s a real pain in their butt. They could raze the buildings that are left, and finish cutting down the ironwood trees. They could do their work according to their own agenda, without public scrutiny.

News concerning Midway has been sparse since 2005, except for a token visit by First Lady Laura Bush, in 2007.

It should be noted that all of this occurred while Bush was President. Now with Obama in office and Salazar at the helm of the Department of the Interior (Parent of USFWS) the outlook for any kind of memorial or public visitation at Midway looks grim indeed.

Crossposted to http://www.obamastantimes.com/blog/2009/04/12/2nd-battle-of-midway-apparently-lost” target=”_blank”>The Obamastan Times

We seem to heading back to the days of yesteryear when it comes to International crises. There is now much clamor for an “International” solution to piracy.

The only solution to the piracy problem is military action. There are no UN sanctions that can be imposed against the pirates, and UN resolutions condemning their actions are totally meaningless.

This bring us to the scary proposition of some sort of UN military action. This was tried a few times during the Clinton era and two movies resulted: Behind Enemy Lines and Blackhawk Down.

Now we have Secretary of State Hillary Clinton telling us that “These people are nothing more than criminals”. This brings back shades of Mogadishu when we sent in a few Rangers to “arrest” Somali warlords.

According to an article in the New York Daily News:

U.S. military commanders have already prepared battle plans for ending the scourge of piracy on the high seas off Somalia if President Obama pulls the trigger…

Unfortunately any sort of unilateral action by the US would probably be considered American “arrogance” by the Obama Administration.

Crossposted at The Obamastan Times