The worst perils are twofold. First, it is not the caregivers, lab techs, nurses and other support staff who are at fault, but rather a system and society that prejudges an older person by cookie cutter parameters. The skyrocketing costs of care, and those looking to protect their profit margins, create the need to rush someone out of a hospital bed before they are sufficiently healed. This act of “turfing” a patient out early creates the second and most dangerous peril, which can only lead to relapse stemming from a ridiculous but all too common penny wise and pound foolish mentality.

After a fall last year, my mom was badly shaken, disoriented and barely able to walk. I knew this to be a temporary condition but could barely convince any and all caregivers at both the hospital and skilled nursing facility that my mother did not belong in a wheel chair. She had been living independently prior to this incident – a vital, independent woman. They made an assumption based upon age and did not want to be talked out of their mistaken thinking. These “healthcare professionals” were ready to dump her into a sort of nursing home, otherwise known as a “board and care,” saying that she had progressed as far as they could take her – in two days…

Her medical group, a Medicare HMO, was unwilling to offer even half the time her coverage entitled her to so that she might obtain the proper therapy and be healed.

Needless to say, after much pounding on the desk and winning two appeals against her medical group, I was able to change minds, secure her bed a while longer and obtain more therapy for her. Two weeks later, the result was a woman able to return to her home, ambulatory and self-sufficient once again.

I have spent several years writing about the damaging effects of sexism and misogyny on this board. Ageism is no less a sin. No emergency room doctor or admitting physician can look at an elderly person who has just experienced a trauma and have any understanding of that person’s abilities going forward or their lifestyle two days before the intervening incident. Yet, all too often we allow doctors – authority figures – to set false limits, showing their bias, lack of caring and no matter how unintentional, their disrespect.

My mother’s experience in the health care system led her on one occasion to be administered too much medication that almost led to a stroke. On another occasion she got too little of her prescribed medication and what was administered was offered at the wrong time of day, despite the fact that the staff had been given precise details about her regimen on several occasions. As a result of their mistakes, her condition led to a dangerous misdiagnosis by an attending physician too lazy to look at my mother’s medical history.

It was horrifying to imagine what might happen to some elder patients who did not have a responsible advocate showing up daily to monitor and double check those ministering to them. I am sure the few examples I have offered merely scratch the surface of health care nightmares of so many others.

Medical professionals are overtaxed as it is. Making matters worse, they have to follow the orders and arbitrary protocols of bureaucrats who often have no knowledge of patient care. With half a trillion dollars to be cut from Medicare in the coming years and millions more added to the patient rolls, this situation can only get worse.

80% of healthcare costs in our country go toward elder care. Deservedly so. In my mother’s case, for example, how is it possible that a vital member of society who has paid taxes and injected money into the system for 50 years should get such short shrift on her medical care when she needs it the most?

Our mothers, fathers and grandparents deserve our respect for all the caring, contributions and wisdom they have offered us. They, and we, deserve better than someone sitting behind a desk reading from a dispassionate and disconnected list of diagnostic protocols that condemns the patient to less than adequate care, or decides that our elders are now of less value and therefore, can be easily cast aside without a backward glance.

Most people know about the individual mandate in the new health care bill, but the bill contained another mandate that could be far more costly.

A few wording changes to the tax code’s section 6041 regarding 1099 reporting were slipped into the 2000-page health legislation. The changes will force millions of businesses to issue hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of additional IRS Form 1099s every year. It appears to be a costly, anti-business nightmare.

Under current law, businesses are required to issue 1099s in a limited set of situations, such as when paying outside consultants. The health care bill includes a vast expansion in this information reporting requirement in an attempt to raise revenue for an increasingly rapacious Congress.

The Tax information firm RIA explains the “types of transactions covered by the new 1099 rules”:

The 2010 Health Care Act adds “amounts in consideration for property” (Code Sec. 6041(a) as amended by 2010 Health Care Act §9006(b)(1)) and “gross proceeds” (Code Sec. 6041(a) as amended by 2010 Health Care Act §9006(b)(2)) to the pre-2010 Health Care Act categories of payments for which an information return to IRS will be required if the $600 aggregate payment threshold is met in a tax year for any one payee. Thus, Congress says that for payments made after 2011, the term “payments” includes gross proceeds paid in consideration for property or services.

I found this piece of information particularly surprising. How cumbersome and time consuming will this be:

Basically, businesses will have to issue 1099s whenever they do more than $600 of business with another entity in a year. For the $14 trillion U.S. economy, that’s a hell of a lot of 1099s. When a business buys a $1,000 used car, it will have to gather information on the seller and mail 1099s to the seller and the IRS. When a small shop owner pays her rent, she will have to send a 1099 to the landlord and IRS. Recipients of the vast flood of these forms will have to match them with existing accounting records. There will be huge numbers of errors and mismatches, which will probably generate many costly battles with the IRS.

Tax CPA Chris Hesse of LeMaster Daniels tells me:

Under the health legislation, the IRS could be receiving billions of more documents. Under current law, businesses send Forms 1099 for payments of rent, interest, dividends, and non-employee services when such payments are to entities other than corporations. Under the new law, businesses will be required to send a 1099 to other businesses for virtually all purchases. And for the first time, 1099s are to be sent to corporations. This is a huge new imposition on American business, costing the private economy much more than any additional tax that the IRS might collect as a result.

So I guess new jobs will be created by this Administration. Jobs in the IRS.

Mr. Edwards tells us this bill was enacted with little prior debate. He quotes the Air Conditioner Contractors of America, who said:

The House bill would extend the Form 1099 filing requirement to ALL vendors (including corporate) to which they pay more than $600 annually for services or property. Consider all the payments a small business makes in the course of business, paying for things such as computers, software, office supplies, and fuel to services, including janitorial services, coffee services, and package delivery services.

In order to file all these 1099s, you’ll need to collect the necessary information from all your service providers. In order to comply with the law, you would have to get a Taxpayer Information Number or TIN from the business. If the vendor does not supply you with a TIN, you are obligated to withhold on your payments.

Private transactions are the core of a market economy, and the source of America’s growth and prosperity. Now the federal government is imposing a vast new web of red tape on perhaps billions of these growth-generating private exchanges.

I have the same question Mr. Edwards has regarding this legislation and wonder what the purpose could be. He concludes:

If [this rule] goes into effect, it will waste vast quantities of human effort in filling out forms, reworking computer systems, collecting and organizing data, and fighting the IRS. The struggling American economy can’t afford anymore suffocating tax regulations. This mandate is a giant deadweight loss. It should be repealed.

Will this serve any productive purpose? Is this a way for government to collect more money from small business? As Mr. Edwards points out, won’t this be more costly to struggling businesses than any monetary gain the government could make?

What say you?

The last thing I will say, though — let me say this about health care and the health care debate, because I think it also bears on a whole lot of other issues. If you look at the package that we’ve presented — and there’s some stray cats and dogs that got in there that we were eliminating, we were in the process of eliminating. For example, we said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your — if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you’re not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge.

Bevan goes on to state:

If we take this statement at face value, President Obama is admitting the the health care bills passed by either the House or Senate (or both) contained provisions which were “snuck in” – presumably by Democratic members and perhaps on behalf of certain lobbyists – that would have in fact prevented people from keeping their current insurance and/or choosing the doctor they want.

This was one of the core debates on health care throughout last year: Would President Obama and the Democrats’ legislation allow government to come between citizens and their choice of doctors and insurers? Obama promised it wouldn’t. Republicans said it would, and this was one of the aspects of the legislation that led them to characterize it as a government takeover of health care – the same characterization that Obama chastized the GOP for today.

So even the President is admitting to this. Anyone protesting this debacle was called the dirtiest of names by the likes of the arrogant Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Steny Hoyer because we dared to question their 2,000 page health care monstrosity. The Dems may have snuck it in? Why would they try to do that? Don’t they have our best interests at heart.

I do not recognize this party anymore. Even Dianne Feinstein made the comment that we just couldn’t understand the depth and breadth of this legislation. Apparently, we understood it a lot better than certain folks would have liked us to.

Though the President brazenly behaves as though the American people trust his every utterance, the latest Rasmussen Reports polling on the President’s SOTU speech show just how deep that trust deficit has become.

The president in the speech declared that his administration has cut taxes for 95% of Americans. He even chided Republicans for not applauding on that point. However, just 21% of voters nationwide believe that taxes have been cut for 95% of Americans. Most (53%) say it has not happened, and 26% are not sure. Other polling shows that nearly half the nation’s voters expect their own taxes to go up during the Obama years.

The president also asserted that “after two years of recession, the economy is growing again.” Just 35% of voters believe that statement is true, while 50% say it is false.

Obama claimed that steps taken by his team are responsible for putting two million people to work “who would otherwise be unemployed.” Just 27% of voters say that statement is true. Fifty-one percent (51%) say it’s false.

Perhaps trust might be reclaimed by realizing one basic principle. The time for transparency is before and during negotations on important legislation — not after the fact, when someone has spent the better part of a year trying to shove it down the American gullet, while denying the very thing they now admit to be true. Further, what assurances do the American people have that as health care legislation continues to morph in Congress, more of these types of dangerous provisions won’t be “sneaking in.”

Health care reform is necessary. Congress first needs to prove they can be trusted to repair and improve the current system before we hand them the reins to gut it altogether.

Here’s a hot flash, Mr. President. I like my doctors. I like my health care plan. I don’t want anyone messing with it, especially if what they are offering will degrade the level of care my family and I now receive.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will be endorsing Rep. Michael Capuano in the Massachusetts Senate special election, choosing her House colleague over Attorney General Martha Coakley, who is seeking to become the first female senator in the state.

Pelosi will be heading to Boston tomorrow morning to make the formal endorsement.

In her statement, Pelosi noted Capuano’s support for the historic health care legislation that she shepherded through the House. Coakley said she opposed the legislation that passed through the House because it contained a provision restricting federal funds from going to abortion providers.

“Saturday the House of Representatives passed a historic health care bill that was a great victory for the American people,” Pelosi said. “Mike Capuano not only cast a courageous vote for this historic legislation, but was a constructive force in improving this bill and moving it to the Senate.”

This would be the “historic” bill featured the Stupak amendment which has pro-choice legislators, feminists and organizations like NOW and NARAL furious. And here’s why. According to Planned Parenthood:

“…This amendment would violate the spirit of health care reform, which is meant to guarantee quality, affordable health care coverage for all, by creating a two-tiered system that would punish women, particularly those with low and modest incomes…

“While Rep. Stupak claims that his amendment simply applies the Hyde amendment to health reform, nothing could be farther from the truth. The Stupak/Pitts amendment would result in a new restriction on women’s access to abortion coverage in the private health insurance market, undermining the ability of women to purchase private health plans that covers abortion, even if they pay for most of the premium with their own money…

“Rep. Stupak’s amendment would dramatically shift current federal policy related to abortion coverage and would undermine the principle of abortion neutrality in health care reform. A vote for Rep. Stupak’s amendment is a vote to weaken women’s access to comprehensive reproductive care and to take away private benefits that women currently have.”

Once again, women are the first to be asked to make “compromises” so the man can get his “historic” legislation passed. Where have I heard that before?

And let me get this straight – Capuano’s payback for voting for this thing is the endorsement of the Speaker of the House?

Attorney General Martha Coakley is a fierce advocate for women, children and working families. She’s squeaky clean, tough, and principled but that’s not good enough for Ms. Pelosi? Is she so threatened by having another tough woman in a position of power in government? Could this be more payback for the fact that Martha Coakley endorsed Hillary and refused to give up her vote at the Convention? Or that Coakley has her own ideas about health care and refused to endorse Pelosi’s 2,000 page monstrosity because of the Stupak amendment?

Here is AG Coakley’s statement regarding her opposition:

The House’s vote is in many ways a significant step toward the goal of health care reform. However, I am deeply disturbed that the House adopted the Stupak/Pitts amendment, which would deny millions of women access to reproductive services. The inclusion of the Stupak/Pitts amendment violates the very intent of health care reform, which is meant to guarantee quality, affordable health care coverage for everyone. I believe that the Senate has a responsibility to fix this by eliminating the provision in whatever reform legislation moves forward.

Boston Globe weighed in on the issue pointing out that Capuano is mired in the typical Washington wheeling and dealing, supporting the Stupak Amendment but now that Pelosi is taking a great deal of heat for her action, Capuano now looks to be waffling:

…Capuano’s message to voters quickly became mired in inconsistency.

“You deserve leaders that don’t try to thread the needle,’’ he said at his Monday night rally. Yet, in this case, he threaded it, and then blasted Coakley for saying she wouldn’t do the same. Then, instead of sticking with the principle he said he believed in, Capuano shifted. He said he would vote against health care legislation if a final version included the restrictive amendment.

So he was ‘for’ it before he was ‘agin’ it? I prefer Coakley, who did not feel the need to equivocate and stated, “I do not believe we have to take a step back on women’s rights to get health care reform.”

In the Boston Globe, Ellen Goodman stated:

“We now have pro-life Republicans and Democrats — most notably Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan — demanding that any health plan offering abortion be banned from the newly created health-care exchange. And guess what that will mean? More than 80 percent of private insurance plans cover abortions. But any insurance plan that wants to be eligible for the huge wave of new clients would have to drop the abortion coverage it offers.”

Guess Capuano doesn’t care to thread the needle on that one.

Pelosi led the charge last year saying Republicans would overturn Roe v. Wade if elected, thereby threatening Hillary’s Democratic holdouts if they failed to fall in line and support Barack Obama. The DNC made a big show of how they were the only party to protect women. Yet in order to pass this health care behemoth that most in Congress did not have the time to read, Pelosi’s first act was to throw pro-choice women under the bus. Here’s hoping Pelosi’s endorsement will not help Capuano’s sagging primary bid.

Capuano is lagging behind in the four-way Democratic primary against Coakley, according to public polling. A Suffolk University poll released today showed Coakley leading with 44 percent of the vote, Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca in second with 17 percent, and Capuano in third with 16 percent.

The special election primary will be held December 8 and the winner will be the favorite to fill the Senate seat held by the late Ted Kennedy. Sen. Paul Kirk (D-Mass.) is holding the seat on an interim basis.

Ultra liberal Massachusetts has never had a woman Senator. Now that we have a chance at someone who would really stand up for the working voter and for women, Pelosi says no deal?

What say you?

Ironic that yesterday, NY Times columnist Charles Blow, certainly an Obama cheerleader from way back, penned a column entitled Obama’s to Fix, in which he cautions the President to stop blaming George Bush for the “mess” he inherited. Clearly, our President, far from undoing such a mess, is daily making a bigger one of his own. Mr. Blow begins with this ominous phrase:

What a difference a year makes.

In October 2008, the candidate Barack Obama delivered a major economic speech in Toledo, Ohio. In it he said: “Right now, we face an immediate economic emergency, and that requires urgent action. We can’t wait to help workers and families and communities who are struggling right now — who don’t know if their job or their retirement will be there tomorrow; who don’t know if next week’s paycheck will cover this month’s bills. … We need to pass an economic rescue plan for the middle-class, and we need to do it not five years from now, not next year, we need to do it right now.

“So today I’m proposing a number of steps that we should take immediately to stabilize our financial system, provide relief to families and communities and help struggling homeowners. It’s a plan that begins with one word that’s on everybody’s mind, and it’s easy to spell: J-O-B-S.”

“Right now,” “immediate economic emergency,” “requires urgent action,” “can’t wait.” Wow! He gave the impression that job creation would be his top priority, that action would be swift and effective, that his solutions would not only stanch the hemorrhaging, but reverse the trend.

He has not made jobs his top priority. This health care debacle, bailing out Wall Street, getting into the car business and generally putting money into the pockets of everyone except those who need it have all taken priority over putting Americans back to work. And, no, putting an extra $13 a week into people’s paychecks is not going to do the trick when as Mr. Blow points out the new official labor statistics have us at 10.2 unemployment, which is an increase of “more than 50 percent from the time Obama gave that speech.”

“(By the way, the underemployment rate, which includes part-time workers who want to work full time and those who’ve given up searching, is a staggering 17.5 percent.)”

I am still at a loss to understand why there was such a great urgency to pass health care legislation that is not supposed to go into effect for more than three years. Someone on another blog made the observation that Obama and Pelosi et al are using the economic crisis and joblessness as a weapon to pass their agenda. As people are panicked at losing their jobs and their healthcare, they are more likely to look to government to bail them out – and more amenable. As Rahm Emanuel said, “never waste a good crisis.” What better time to ram this through. Mr. Blow continues:

Job creation has dropped from top priority to one of many, and President Obama has been remanded to pandering for patience and offering excuses. On the one hand, he argues the tortured rationale that there is good news in the awful numbers: Things are still getting worse but at a slower pace. On the other, he incessantly reminds us that he inherited the crisis. The implication: Don’t blame me, blame Bush.

But this president can’t keep deflecting to the last one. Pain is presently felt. The crisis that took form on Bush’s watch is being experienced on Obama’s. Fair or not, finger-pointing is not effective policy.

This is now Obama’s crisis, and it carries political consequences. During Tuesday’s gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, nearly 9 in 10 voters said that they were worried about the direction of the nation’s economy in the next year. And the majority of those who held that view voted for the Republican candidates. This could portend a flashback to 1994.

It isn’t President Obama’s fault that he inherited this mess, but it is his to fix, and he must make haste. To paraphrase his Toledo prelection: you need to do it not five years from now, not next year, you need to do it right now. J-O-B-S.

There were many options to put people back to work this year if that was really the priority. Clearly it was not. This President spent almost a billion dollars to get his job. I don’t want to hear complaints now. Obviously, he inherited a mess, which he has made worse with reckless spending. No one expects him to fix everything in the space of a year, but I thought his “good judgment” meant he knew how to prioritize. We need leadership and part of that involves sacrificing one’s ego to help those who need it most. That is far more important than pushing legislation just for the purpose of putting a check mark next to one’s name. You don’t not spend billions, even trillions, you don’t have at a time like this. Since this bunch so miscalculated on their $787 billion stimulus package, I am not inclined to trust them now by handing over 1/6 of the economy to their stewardship.

It is interesting that Mr. Blow, who played the race card on Mr. Obama’s behalf last year, is now joining the ever increasing number of his pundit supporters who are having problems with his endless campaigning, blaming and wrongheaded focus.

As to the health care debate, I called my Congressman’s office Friday morning to complain about the bill and his assistant debated the merits with me. At least she took the time to do so. It was a shame she was wrong on the facts. I told her to go back and read the thing. Now we have a 2,000 page beast that the Senate must contend with and we are told it will never pass in its current form. So why the rush? Why wouldn’t this Administration be in the same kind of rush to help get people back to work?

There are 237 millionaires in Congress. Perhaps that explains why they have difficulty relating to the urgent need to put millions of Americans back of work, instead manufacturing an urgent need to pass labrynthian legislation for the mere purpose of saying “Mission Accomplished.”

Hmm. Where have we heard that phrase before?

Um, it seems to me that if you happen to be the President of the United States, maybe you could appoint a Fact Checking Czar to go with the other Thirty-One – make a nice even number of it. I’m just saying – when you are giving a speech before Congress, televised all over the nation, it seems the very least he could do is MAKE SURE HIS FACTS ARE CORRECT.

Hey – maybe THAT’S when Rep. Wilson called him a liar! He KNEW Obama was lying about the cancer-stricken patient he was using for political gain. Just a thought.

Not for nothing, but they are using their own daughter to further this debate? Interesting. Funny how they don’t seem to make the connection that they are MILLIONAIRES, most people in this country are NOT, and the illness wasn’t serious (according to Michelle, anyway). Or that they both had jobs at the time – really, really, good jobs. Or that those jobs provided excellent health coverage, the very kind that 87% of employers would work to reduce if this Health Care Reform goes in as defined now. I know, picky, picky, picky…

Anyway, you know, there are plenty of REAL examples from which Obama could choose, I am sure, but honestly – why lie? ABOUT HIS OWN DAUGHTER? Is it just that he hasn’t met a truth he couldn’t corrupt? What’s the deal?

Oh, well. I am sure there will be plenty more examples to examine as his time in office goes on. But for now, I will leave you with this peppy little tune. I’m sure it will stick with you for the next 3 yrs and 4 months:

Um, aren’t these EXACTLY the same things OBAMA is planning on doing? Let’s see – he attacked Hillary Clinton during the Primaries by claiming she would fine people who didn’t have insurance. She never said that, but now Obama is. Obama claimed in the campaign that McCain was going to cut money from Medicare and tax people on their insurance, and now Obama is planning on doing both! WTF???

Oh, wait – Obama was emphatic with George Stephanopoulos that it is NOT a tax on insurance. Heck, no, no way, could this exchange make anyone think this is a tax:

OBAMA: What — what — if I — if I say that right now your premiums are going to be going up by 5 or 8 or 10 percent next year and you say well, that’s not a tax increase; but, on the other hand, if I say that I don’t want to have to pay for you not carrying coverage even after I give you tax credits that make it affordable, then…

STEPHANOPOULOS: I — I don’t think I’m making it up. Merriam Webster’s Dictionary: Tax — “a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes.”

You can watch the exchange here to get the fuller picture, and new definition:

No disrespect or anything, President Obama, but you make shit up all the time! Jeezum crow! And you’re going to get all testy with George? I reckon you forgot that you are trying to WOO people over to your plan, not antagonize them. Oh, wait, I forgot – this is upside down world. A world in which people who have the audacity to actually question you are rude, but one in which you can flat out lie about people who disagree with you. I got it. New definition of rude – check!

Well, that was the whole tax issue. How about cutting Medicare? Uh huh:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let’s go to Medicare then…

OBAMA: Good.

STEPHANOPOULOS: …because you also said that no one will lose what they have. And Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat, says that the cuts you’re looking at in Medi — the Medicare Advantage program…

OBAMA: Right.

STEPHANOPOULOS: …are going to force people to lose coverage they now have.

OBAMA: No. Here — here’s what’s going to happen. These are essentially private HMOs who are getting, on average — and this is not my estimate, this is Democrats and Republicans, experts have said — they’re getting, on average, about 14 percent more over payments, basically subsidies from taxpayers for a program that ordinary Medicare does just as good, if not better, at keeping people healthy.

Now, they package these things in ways that, in some cases, may make it more convenient for some consumers, but they’re overcharging massively for it. There’s no competitive bidding under the process.

And so what we’ve said is instead of spending $17 billion, $18 billion a year, $177 billion over 10 years on that, why wouldn’t we use that to close the donut hole so the people are actually getting better prescription drugs…

STEPHANOPOULOS: But Senator Nelson says it’s going to…

OBAMA: …Why don’t we make sure that we’re using some of that money to actually make people healthier?

STEPHANOPOULOS: But he said it’s going to cause beneficiaries right now to lose what they have.

OBAMA: Look, I understand that change is hard. If what you’re saying is that people who are currently signed up for Medicare advantage are going to have Medicare and the same level of benefits, but they may not be having their insurer get a 14 percent premium, that’s absolutely true and will the insurers squawk? You bet.

STEPHANOPOULOS: They may drop the coverage.

OBAMA: No, these folks are going to be able to get Medicare that is just as good, provides the same benefits, but we’re not subsidizing them for $18 billion a year.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So Senator Nelson, he wants to pass an amendment that shields anyone currently on Medicare advantage from any cuts. Do you support that?

OBAMA: George, I’m not going to be negotiating a particular provision of the bill, sitting (ph) down with you here right now. What I am going to say is this: the basic principle that is indisputable is that we are wasting hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicare that is not making people healthier. I want to make sure that we’re using that money to actually make people healthier.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But if people lose their Medicare advantage?

OBAMA: What I have said is we’re not going to take a dollar out of the Medicare trust fund. We’re going to make sure that benefits are just as strong if not stronger. We’re not going to subsidize insurance companies in ways that end up creating a situation that Medicare is actually weaker and has a less financial foundation, because right now, we’ve got eight years from now potentially Medicare going into the red.

If you get a chance, go watch the video. It seems to me that Obama gets JUST a tad testy…

One itsy, bitsy problem. The Health Care bill does say tax. Page 29 of the bill:

Excise Tax. The consequence for not maintaining insurance would be an excise tax. If a taxpayer‘s MAGI is between 100-300 percent of FPL, the excise tax for failing to obtain coverage for an individual in a taxpayer unit (either as a taxpayer or an individual claimed as a dependent) is $750 per year. However, the maximum penalty for the taxpayer unit is $1,500. If a taxpayer‘s MAGI is above 300 percent of FPL the penalty for failing to obtain coverage for an individual in a taxpayer unit (either as a taxpayer or as an individual claimed as a dependent) is $950 year. However, the maximum penalty amount a family above 300 percent of FPL would pay is $3,800.

And here’s a little bit of advice for President Obama, if it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, it’s a safe bet that it’s a duck. But when the duck is clearly labeled as a duck (or in your case, a tax, or a cut in services, or a lie) it is a duck. So stop pretending a tax is not a tax, especially when it is labeled a tax. Just as folks understood that fellatio was a sex act they also are able to figure out that having to give the Government more money out of their pockets is a tax no matter what it is called. You may not understand what an “excise tax” is but some of us are actually able to tell the difference. But thanks for playing.

One other issue that has just arisen was detailed in my local paper recently,”Millions TO Face Shrinking Checks; Trustees: No Cost Of Living Adjustment For Two Years.” It details how Social Security checks, for the first time since 1975, will get no “Cost of Living Adjustment.” None. Here are some of the more salient points:

By law, Social Security benefits cannot go down. Nevertheless, monthly payments would drop for millions of people in the Medicare prescription drug program because the premiums, which often are deducted from Social Security payments, are scheduled to go up slightly.

“I will promise you, they count on that COLA,” said Barbara Kennelly, a former Democratic congresswoman from Connecticut who now heads the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. “To some people, it might not be a big deal. (Emphasis is mine.)

But to seniors, especially with their health care costs, it is a big deal.”

Cost of living adjustments are pegged to inflation, which has been negative this year, largely because energy prices are below 2008 levels.

Advocates say older people still face higher prices because they spend a disproportionate amount of their income on health care, where costs rise faster than inflation. Many also have suffered from declining home values and shrinking stock portfolios just as they are relying on those assets for income.

“For many elderly, they don’t feel that inflation is low because their expenses are still going up,” said David Certner, legislative policy director for AARP. “Anyone who has savings and investments has seen some serious losses.”

No kidding. But that sums it up nicely.

As does my fellow NQ writer, Bronwyn’s Harbor, in this post, “I’ve Changed My Mind About ‘Death Panels,‘” in which Bronwyn’s neighbor’s travails of the effects of no COLA are laid out in stark relief. The neighbor is being forced to choose between medicine and food, a horrible choice for any person, but especially one who has no other source of income.

It makes my head just swirl. Representative Mike Rogers details some other choices Americans will have to make. Or rather, choices that will be made for us, in one of the most common sense statements I have heard yet about the health care policy the Obama Administration is trying to institute, along with some actual provisions of the bill:

I don’t know to which party this man belongs, and I don’t much care. What I DO care about is that he seems to care about US, the average U.S. citizen. And I appreciate his calling out the Congress for its desire to over-function. That is to say, when the functional people have to work extra hard to compensate for the dysfunctional (as in not fully functioning, not mentally unstable or physically disabled) people. It does not bring up the dysfunctional people. On the contrary. All it does is pull down the fully functioning people (Rabbi Dr. Friedman discussed this issue frequently in his practice). It sounds like that is exactly the same thing Abraham Lincoln was saying, as quoted by Rep. Rogers noted above.

Choosing between food, shelter, and medicine as a result of government run programs sounds to me like programs that are not run to the benefit of the people. And that will bring all of us down. There has got to be a better way…

I am stunned that the Obama administration has the nerve to refuse to give senior and disabled citizens a cost-of-living increase for the first time in a generation.

This, coupled with the $500 billion cut to Medicare to finance Obama’s proposed health care plan, confirms my suspicions that Obama is creating his debt-riddled programs by squeezing the pittances given to seniors and disabled people.

I am a die-hard Democrat who votes a near-straight Democratic ticket, but I will not vote for Democrats any more if they do not stand up to Obama’s destructive measures to steal from those of us who’ve worked the longest and hardest to support this nation.

WHY — WHY??? — ISN’T THIS THE TOP STORY IN THE NEWS?

The woman who answered the phone at my friend’s representative’s office told him that they’d been inundated all day by calls from seniors who are frantic about the cancellation of the COLA (Cost of Living Allowance) that every Social Security check recipient depends on, every January, in order to keep up with increasing costs for groceries, drugs, insurance, and more.

By the time he’s done paying his rent, utilities, and car repairs/insurance, my friend can’t afford to buy anything else but groceries and laundry soap. Forget about buying new clothes! Forget about subscribing to magazines or buying books! Forget about going to the movies or even renting a movie! Forget about doing anything the least bit unconnected with his survival, literally. Every spare penny has to be used to buy items like Benadryl, which is one of many, many drugs not covered by Medicare Part D.

Then there are drugs like Nexium, which Roger must have because he has GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease) due to his hiatal hernia, and Roger “upchucks” for hours after every meal, no matter how small the meal. The cheaper drugs for GERD, like Prilosec, do not work for Roger. Nexium is the one drug that works perfectly, but Nexium’s co-pay cost is nearly $70 per month.

Roger also has severe anxiety attacks and not one single Plan D insurance plan — Roger checked every plan available — covers the medicines he must take to treat his anxiety. There’s not even a co-pay. Roger has to pay the full price for the two anxiety drugs, which cost him $40-65 per month, depending on the dosage and number prescribed.

Because of the costs of his anxiety medications and the many other medication co-pays for additional conditions which include high blood pressure and arthritis — plus his $45 monthly premium to the Plan D insurance company — Roger cannot afford to take Nexium at all. So Roger endures constant “upchucking” and heartburn all day, every day, and he faces the danger that his GERD will lead to esophageal cancer.

Then there’s what Roger pays for Medicare. He pays $95+ for Part B. He pays $149/month for Part C. He pays $140-200 for Part D (drugs), which includes the monthly premium and co-pays and the drugs that not one drug insurance plan covers.

Let’s be clear about one thing for all of the folks who keep equating Medicare with Universal Health Care: Medicare is NOT free. Roger pays at least $400 per month for the supplemental policies, procedures and drugs to make up for everything that basic Medicare does not cover. It is not the perfect coverage everyone is now depicting it to be. There are many problems with it, not the least of which is the issue that spurred Roger’s calls and emails.

My friend remembers his younger years, when he used to dread the month of January since it’s one of the coldest months of the year and it’s a time of post-holiday letdown.

But the last few years, he has waited with great excitement for January to arrive because it meant that his check from Social Security would arrive with a small increase that would let him buy 4 apples per month instead of 2 apples per month. And January’s check meant that he could buy a chicken breast once a month instead of just chicken backs and wings.

But January 2010 will be the most depressing month he’s suffered. He won’t buy those 2 extra apples, and he will buy beans instead of chicken.

Those precious treats — those 2 apples and that piece of chicken — won’t brighten his meals.

He’ll add more water to the bean soup to make it last longer — he’d like to add a can of broth but that’s too expensive, so the extra water will have to do.

And he’ll wonder why there’s any point in going on when he won’t even be able to afford the most modest treats.

It is hard to fathom having to watch one’s pennies so closely – not in a metaphorical sense, but in an honest-to-goodness reality of not being able to buy but the barest necessities.

My friend used to joke with me about the “death panels” and he suspected that Sarah Palin was exaggerating the problem. He doesn’t laugh anymore. He is certain that Barack Obama does not care about people his age and that Obama wishes that people as old as he would just die sooner because keeping them alive costs too much.

I wish you could see his face like I can. His mouth is tight, his lips fixed in a grim downturn. His cheeks are pale and drawn. His eyes have lost their sparkle. His forehead is wrinkled more than ever before. He is too young to look like that.

Worst of all, his spirit is broken. He knows that Obama’s plan to cut $500 billion from Medicare means that everyone who depends on Medicare will get less care and will wait much longer for appointments and tests.

He expects that his Medicare supplemental insurance premiums will go up, even though he will get no more money from his Social Security check. And he has no idea how he will pay for those necessary supplemental premiums, so he has plans to cancel them all. Which means that he is gambling that he will not need hospitalization, let alone blood tests, for the next year. A dangerous game of roulette, to be sure.

And he knows that January 2011 will be just as bad since the Obama administration has announced that there will be no cost-of-living increase in 2011 either.

He’ll have to add more and more water to his bean soup. It won’t nourish him but he hopes it will make him feel full and that the hunger pangs won’t be too painful. He has no choice.

I don’t know what to say to him. When going to the food bank is mentioned, he has his pride, but even more than that, he knows the food banks in his area have less food to give out now and are all overwhelmed by mothers with children to feed. Those children, he believes, have more right to that dwindling amount of food than he does. And he believes that Obama feels that way too.

Roger confessed to me that he hopes that the “Death Panels” are indeed part of Obama’s health care legislation because he expects that death will be a welcome relief from a life that doesn’t permit him the simplest joys like an apple or a piece of meat.

He knows that his president considers him the unworthy, and he wonders if the president is right, this president whose stepfather was an oil man, who went to the most exclusive private school in all of Hawaii, and who went to an Ivy League university. Is that man right? If so, he hopes that the least the president can do is to provide him with an “exit plan.”

I still don’t know what to say to him. But I do know that this president promised him hope. Instead, he has given him despair…

Postscript: I bet some of you think that Roger should swallow his pride and apply for Medicaid. He can’t. He gets $50 too much per month from Social Security to qualify for Medicaid. Fifty dollars. Even though his medical costs make quick work of that additional money, it doesn’t matter. Once again, this is not a perfect system, no matter how much the new party line wants to push that it is. Reading the fine print — reading the print at ALL — exposes a lot of those lines to be just that, lines.

The question is asked, and answered. The answer is a resounding YES. Yes, Obama has sold out. Long before he ever ran for US Senate, too, I might add. But why quibble, right? At least it is finally starting to let a little light of truth filter through the Obama’s followers Kool Aide induced haze. Though attacking Republicans and blaming them for ALL of our woes is still fair game for TYT, with only peripheral acknowledgment that the Democrats are right there with the Republicans. Never mind that the Democrats have been in power for over two years now. Pesky details – who needs them?

I was like that, too, about the Republicans not so long ago, so I reckon I shouldn’t be too judgmental. Perhaps TYT will realize at some point in the near future that the Democrats are acting pretty much like everything many of us said we hated about the Republicans as we listened to Air America. For instance, remember how ballistic we all went when the Republicans threatened the “Nuclear Option”? We were livid that they would dare do something like that. And now look who, in just 6 short months of having a Super Majority, is threatening the very same thing, even if it means running over some of their own members with reckless abandon? Yep. That would be the Democrats. Oh, but only for the most expensive part of the health care plan – nothing to worry about there! Lalalalalala…

You know, it’s a shame these blowhards out there didn’t bother to do their JOBS and vet this guy, maybe taking a little look-see into who his donors were, for instance. Maybe if TYT had BOTHERED to do that, he would have seen that Obama got close to $1.5 MILLION dollars from the HMOs and Health Services. Surely TYT didn’t expect they gave him all that money for nothing, did he?

Nothing, actually, worse than nothing, is what WE will be getting as a result of these faux journalists and commentators not bothering to actually look behind the curtain of Obama’s rhetoric to see if there was any reason on this Green Earth to BELIEVE HIM!!!!!! For cryin’ out loud, already! Sheesh!

Heck, even investigative journalist Greg Palast, whose article I reported on the other day regarding the whopping 2% the Big Pharma MIGHT give up, as TYT reported above, threw all of his training away for Obama. Glad he’s regained some of it, but it is way too late for us/US now. We’re stuck with Obama for 3 1/2 more years, thank you all so very much for that. (That is sarcasm, in case anyone missed it.)

By the way, did you notice that TYT guy above still cannot quite get out the words that HE has been had? That he didn’t bother to look under the surface? Nope. Not one bit – he bought that stupid “Hope!” and “CHANGE!” crap all the way to Obama being in the White House. Thanks shitloads. Sure would have been nice if you had maybe asked some pertinent questions like, “Why does Obama have NO records available from his time in the IL Senate? How can that be?” Or, “Why DOES Obama have close ties to Tony Rezko/Bill Ayers/Jeremiah Wright/Khalid Rashidi (pick one)?” Or how about this one, “Why does everyone say he has made so much of himself from his “humble” beginnings when he went to the most prestigious school in all of Hawaii and his grandmother was the VP of the biggest bank in Hawaii?” Or maybe, “Isn’t it pretty sexist of Obama to say that Hillary Clinton was only going to tea parties whenever she went abroad as First Lady? Especially since we know she helped to foster some amazing programs?” Obviously, I could go on and on and on. Feel free to add your own.

The problem is, people like TYT and Greg Palast and just about EVERYONE at Huffington Post (since TYT mentioned it) DIDN’T ask questions like that. No, their questions were more like, “Gosh, isn’t it hard to tear yourself away from the mirror when you are SO good looking??” Blech. Or, “Just how much time do you spend practicing your three-pointer?” Or any number of insipid questions like the ones Charlie Gibson asked Obama (while hammering Sarah Palin, even using made-up concepts to try and make her look bad). Pathetic for alleged professionals to act that way, if you ask me.

As I mentioned to Kathleen (Wynne, of HCPBNow.org, who was kind enough to send me this video), most of our elected officials, by the time they are bought by special interests have been there a while. Obama was hardly in there for any time at all, which makes me think he CAME this way. Huh – maybe THAT was the “Change!” to which he was referring?

In any event, if TYT is right, and this is already a done deal, it doesn’t just speak to how badly Obama screwed over his followers, and the rest of us, but how screwed DEMOCRACY is. And that is the biggest problem of all…So, yeah, I would be up for a revolution, TYT, since you mentioned it. Anyone else?

We must have misunderstood. We actually thought the whole point of reforming health care was to help the american people have better, more affordable health care. We thought the promise was:

BARACK OBAMA’S PLAN FOR A HEALTHY AMERICA:
Lowering health care costs and ensuring affordable, high-quality health care for all

We must have missed the fine print that explained the caveat:

Did the American people not get the memo that explained this? Or was our copy of Obama’s plan smudged? The media and politicians must have got the fine print copy. What else would explain why all the politicians and media hacks are morally outraged at seeing townhall anger, but those selfsame politicians and media hacks are apparently not even shocked to learn of this administration’s sell-out backroom deals with the health care industry?

And why the continued, almost obsessive focus on painting protesters as un-American? While these sweetheart deals, that are truly un-American and so beautifully depict why Americans no longer trust their government, are received in blissful willful silence.

From Miles Mogulescu at HuffPo:

The first hint of the real story came when Rahm Emanuel summoned leaders of liberal organizations to the White House and reamed them out for criticizing Blue Dogs who were trying to gut the public option, telling the liberals that they were “f..king stupid” and ordering them to stop…

Gutted: The public health care option – bad for health care and insurance industry profits!

The next hint was a New York Times story in which the White House confirmed it had cut a back-room deal with Billy Tauzin, chief lobbyist for Big Pharma, to block any Health Reform bill that would allow Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices. …

Blocked: The negotiation for or importation of lower priced drug – bad for health care and insurance industry profits!

A few days later came Business Week’s cover story entitled “The Health Insurers Have Already Won: How UnitedHealth and rival carriers, maneuvering behind the scenes in Washington, shaped health-care reform for their own benefit”. …

Encouraged: Behind the scenes maneuvers in Washington to shape reform – good for health care and insurance industry profits!

Thursday’s New York Times confirmed Business Week’s analysis, reporting that the White House, in conjunction with Sen. Baucus, has made a deal with hospital lobbyists limiting reductions in hospital costs to $155 billion over 10 years and crippling the public option by agreeing “that the final legislation would not include a government-run health plan paying Medicare rates — generally 80 percent of private sector rates — or controlled by the secretary of health and human services“. According to Chip Kahn, a top industry lobbyist, “We have an agreement with the White House that I’m very confident will be seen all the way through conference”. …

Limited: The reducion of hospital costs – bad for health care and insurance industry profits!

Crippled: A government-run health plan with Medicare rates or controlled by the secretary of health and human services – bad for health care and insurance industry profits!

Which leaves one to wonder what exactly is the point of these town hall meetings with the American people. Why even go through the motions when as the extensively detailed, must read Business Week article on the health insurance giants points out:

… much more of the battle than most people realize is already over. The likely victors are insurance giants such as UnitedHealth Group (UNH), Aetna (AET), and WellPoint (WLP). The carriers have succeeded in redefining the terms of the reform debate to such a degree that no matter what specifics emerge in the voluminous bill Congress may send to President Obama this fall, the insurance industry will emerge more profitable.

And these companies will not just maintain or increase profits, but could very well realize a windfall.

What people in Washington tend not to discuss, at least on the record, is the open secret that insurers are minimizing their forecasts of the eventual windfall they will enjoy from expanded coverage for Americans. UnitedHealth has given certain key members of Congress details about its finances and tax liability—both historical numbers and figures projected under various cost-sharing scenarios. But some on Capitol Hill are skeptical. “The bottom line,” says an aide to the Senate Finance Committee, “is that health reform would lead to increased revenues and profits [for the insurance industry]. … There will be [added] costs [to the companies], but we’re not sure the revenues and profits will be as low as they say.”

So when do we start discussing the fine print of this “reform” honestly. We are not reforming health care for the benefit of the American people. Our government is not interested in providing for the health and well being of the Americans so we can be better functioning members of our society. No, our supposed moral imperative to pass health care reform is to ensure the health and well being of the health care and insurance industries so they can be even more profitable members of our society.

When will the media finally realize, as Miles Mogulescu has that:

…The real story should be about the back room deals reportedly being negotiated between the Obama administration and Blue Dog Democrat Max Baucus, on the one hand, and Big Pharma, for-profit hospitals, and the private insurance industry, on the other hand. This is where the real action is taking place and it’s looking increasingly likely, as a result, that the Health Care bill which ends up emerging from Congress could represent a massive public subsidy to the private health care industry. …

Our government may not be calling this a bailout, but by creating another entitlement to support and protect a few large, for profit, public entities at the expense of the American people it sure sounds eerily similiar to what our government is still doing for Wall Street.

And don’t forget, the powers that be want to “reform” Social Security and Medicare next.

**Update** Somehow I missed this great video from Dylan Ratigan’s Morning meeting.

I know this isn’t much of a cartoon. But it’s the look that I needed to illustrate what I think you will find much more interesting in my story.

When I was doing health care research for General Wes Clark’s team a few years ago, I gained some fascinating insights into what it would take to get health care reform. It boiled down to a list of factors that should be aligned at a single point in time for it to work, given the complex way we do business in our country.

I think I see why Obama’s team gave it a big push now, but I also believe that they jumped the gun with a too-hasty and risky proposal. See what you think.

Here is what should be lined up in order for a health care reform bill to pass easily through that little window of time. Notice that some are currently in place, but most are too bulky to wiggle through right now. (My comments in italics.)

1. The political landscape needs to be dominated by one party (i.e. who controls decision-making, primarily Congress and the Executive Branch). This one Obama has solidly on his side.

2. The President has the ability to pull people together (“a uniter”). Well, he has a lot of fans and a lot of detractors. And his poll numbers are slipping, which may be part of the reason a premature, ambiguous plan was pushed before the numbers sank any lower.

3. The people are willing to give government a chance to do something right and competently. Awful timing here. People are now watching helplessly as our treasure depletes with no major observable results while also witnessing gross corruption coupled with governmental ineptitude to even detect it.

4. The medical establishment realizes that health reform is inevitable, so it is best to join the team to help shape it than to fight it. (This happened in Canada.) The American Medical Association has endorsed the plan, but the AMA is no longer representative of practicing doctors. Furthernore, Obama’s several recent suggestions that doctors care more about lining their pockets than helping people has not gone over well–at least not with my wonderful and compassionate doctor.

5. A resurgence of working class organizations and unions. This seems to be on Obama’s side. Organizing groups continues on the heels of the stunning organizational capabilities of Obama’s campaign.

6. Our foreign affairs concerns, if not solved, must be stabilized. This depends on who you ask, but a lot of turmoil remains in the Middle East and we are still right in the thick of it.

7. The economy must appear to be on the mend (more jobs, less reliance on foreign oil, etc.). I don’t see many green sprouts yet, and people are still losing homes and jobs.

8. Demands for health reform from powerful social or political groups. Obama has powerful allies here. And powerful opponents.

9. A weakening of current health care markets, such as an increase in “high profile” criticisms of for-profit HMOs. Well, people are pretty fed up, and yet the majority of Americans like the devil’s insurance they have more than the devil’s plan they don’t know.

10. A rise (or resurgence) in national pride and a return to the exercising of fundamental values such as caring for others. Well, I don’t see it yet. Maybe people are too busy trying to survive.

11. A savvy social marketing campaign for health care reform. Given that Obama won the election despite a thin resume, satisfying this factor should have been a piece of cake. But a goofball decision to ask people to report those sending out information that disagrees with Obama on health care directly to the White House, and the more recent unsolicited White House emails from spinmeister David Axelrod, have many people more worried about violations of their privacy. In the meantime, the opposition is spending a small fortune of its own to promote its agenda.

12. A mechanism for rapid communication of ideas/programs that the public views to be in its own best interests and that successfully counters the fear tactics by opponents. We are watching this play out now. It’s quite an ugly (and expensive) spectacle.

13. Ideally some substantial degree of healing between Democrats and Republicans or at least a strong bipartisan agreement that health care must be enacted. Bipartisanship remains as feeble as a newborn calf.

14. Meaningful lobby reform, cutting off to some extent powerful interest-group access. A big Obama promise that has been badly broken is coming back to poke him in his privates. Deals seem to have been made with corporate entities that have a lot more to gain from the plans floating about than do our people.

15. Public financing of elections, again, reducing the influence of powerful interests. Maybe someday, but not even on the horizon. One gets the sense that incumbents care more about retaining their jobs than adjusting our system to make for a more level playing field.

16. Agreement on the shape/scope of a health plan from among various health care reformers. So far the majorities favoring health care reform have been unable to coalesce around a single plan.

17. A significant external shock (e.g., skyrocketing health care costs threatening the collapse of our economy, a major health care scandal, a plague or natural disaster or terrorist attack that injures large numbers of young and healthy middle and upper-income Americans, or other unfortunate occurrences that force change). Well, health care costs are skyrocketing, but the problem with what is being put forth is that no one quite understands it or how it will be funded.

So, out of 17 factors I see no more than a handful that are adequately met at this time. I am one who agrees we need health care accessibility reform, but this time around seems to be way too little way too fast.

Anyway, the article, Obama on Drugs: 98% Cheney?, is a very good piece on Obama’s Drug Deal. I mean, about the deals cut for big Pharmaceutical companies in the current health care bill. And here’s there thing – Palast actually has some background in this area. From his site: Palast studied healthcare economics at the Center for Hospital Administration Studies at the University of Chicago. Here’s what Palast has to say:

Eighty billion dollars of WHAT?

I searched all over the newspapers and TV transcripts and no one asked the President what is probably the most important question of what passes for debate on the issue of health care reform: $80 billion of WHAT?

On June 22, President Obama said he’d reached agreement with big drug companies to cut the price of medicine by $80 billion. He extended his gratitude to Big Pharma for the deal that would, “reduce the punishing inflation in health care costs.”

Hey, in my neighborhood, people think $80 billion is a lot of money. But is it?

I checked out the government’s health stats (at HHS.gov), put fresh batteries in my calculator and totted up US spending on prescription drugs projected by the government for the next ten years. It added up to $3.6 trillion.

In other words, Obama’s big deal with Big Pharma saves $80 billion out of a total $3.6 trillion. That’s 2%.

Hey thanks, Barack! You really stuck it to the big boys. You saved America from these drug lords robbing us blind. Two percent. Cool!

Wowie zowie – what a GREAT job Obama did as “Haggler-in-Chief”!! A whole whopping 2%? Over TEN YEARS????? Great, Obama – thanks!! Sheesh:

For perspective: Imagine you are in a Wal-Mart and there’s a sign over a flat screen TV, “BIG SAVINGS!” So, you break every promise you made never to buy from that union-busting big box – and snatch up the $500 television. And when you’re caught by your spouse, you say, “But, honey, look at the deal I got! It was TWO-PERCENT OFF! I saved us $10!”

But 2% is better than nothing, I suppose. Or is it?

The Big Pharma kingpins did not actually agree to cut their prices. Their promise with Obama is something a little oilier: they apparently promised that, over ten years, they will reduce the amount at which they would otherwise raise drug prices. Got that? In other words, the Obama deal locks in a doubling of drug costs, projected to rise over the period of “savings” from a quarter trillion dollars a year to half a trillion dollars a year. Minus that 2%.

We’ll still get the shaft from Big Pharma, but Obama will have circumcised the increase.

Well, that’s a nice turn of phrase. And accurate. Here’s what the Great Haggler got for that:

And what did Obama give up in return for $80 billion? Chief drug lobbyist Billy Tauzin crowed that Obama agreed to dump his campaign pledge to bargain down prices for Medicare purchases. Furthermore, Obama’s promise that we could buy cheap drugs from Canada simply went pffft!

What did that cost us? The New England Journal of Medicine notes that 13 European nations successfully regulate the price of drugs, reducing the average cost of name-brand prescription medicines by 35% to 55%. Obama gave that up for his 2%.

The Veterans Administration is able to push down the price it pays for patent medicine by 40% through bargaining power. George Bush stopped Medicare from bargaining for similar discounts, an insane ban that Obama said he’d overturn. But, once within Tauzin’s hypnotic gaze, Obama agreed to lock in Bush’s crazy and costly no-bargaining ban for the next decade.

What else went down in Obama’s drug deal? To find out, I called C-SPAN to get a copy of the videotape of the meeting with the drug companies. I was surprised to find they didn’t have such a tape despite the President’s campaign promise, right there on CNN in January 2008, “These negotiations will be on C-SPAN.”

This puzzled me. When Dick Cheney was caught having secret meetings with oil companies to discuss Bush’s Energy Bill, we denounced the hugger-muggers as a case of foxes in the henhouse.

Cheney’s secret meetings with lobbyists and industry bigshots were creepy and nasty and evil.

But the Obama crew’s secret meetings with lobbyists and industry bigshots were, the President assures us, in the public interest.

We know Cheney’s secret confabs were shady and corrupt because Cheney scowled out the side of his mouth.

Obama grins in your face.

See the difference?

The difference is 2%.

Ah, yes – that would be the difference alright. A paltry 2% with a Cheshire Grin to go with it. Perfect. That’s the “Change” for which I was “Hoping.” Seems to me that someone has been hitting that “Hopium” pipe if he expects us to accept THIS gift to the big Pharma Companies. I wonder if there is coverage for THAT under his new plan?

Oh, and Palast had this attached to his post:

ALERT

Now it’s Let’s Make a Deal with hospital lobbyists.

First, the President was caught with his principals down, cutting a scuzzy back-room deal with pharmaceutical lobbyist Billy Tauzin to limit drug price savings to just 2% over 10 years (see attached, “Obama on Drugs: 98% Cheney?”), the New York Times today reports that another deal was sealed by lobbyist Chip Kahn of the American Hospital Association.

Here are the numbers they don’t want you to see: Hospitals will be allowed to hike their prices and revenues by six trillion dollars ($5,853 billion) over the next ten years, only $155 billion less than they had projected before the Obama “reform.”

In all, the Obama back-room deal will “reduce” our $26 trillion total hospital bill over the next decade by one-half of one percent.

Once again, the lobbyists got the gold mine, the public got the shaft.

Say it ain’t so, Mr. President.

Great. More smoke and mirrors from the Great Concessioner (is that a word?) – in – Chief on our behalf. That’s just jake, Mr. Obama.

One last thing, I don’t know this for sure, but my guess is that Huffington Post isn’t gonna be publishing any more of Greg Palast’s work. Just a hunch…

Was I ever misled by my civics teachers and the Bill of Rights itself! Thank heavens we have two Democrats, the top two in Congress, mind you, to set us straight (so to speak) on that misunderstanding.

Yes, indeedy, Pelosi and Hoyer call protesters of the Health Care Bill “Un-American” in a USA Today op-ed. How do you like them apples?

Here’s a video discussing their charge:

Evidently, neither one of these alleged Democrats has read word one by Thomas Jefferson or any other of our Founders who, themselves, rebelled against their government. Here’s a little reminder Speaker Pelosi and House Majority Leader Hoyer: This country was founded by people rebelling and revolting against their own government because of its abuses of them.

Oh, wait – the phone is ringing, and it’s for you – it’s from the Get A Clue Department suggesting you get one.

The father of a handicapped child tried to ask his representative a question about how the Health Care plan will do away with any care for his son. Wait until you hear what happened to him:

Can you believe that? He had someone show up in the dead of night to deliver a “message” to him and his wife, terrifying them. Read that again: he had someone show up in the dead of night to deliver a “message” to him for speaking up for his son, and asking a question of his representative.

Wow. Which country is this again?

Well, you’ll be glad to know that political pundit, Michael Barone, has cleared up the record – it is NOT “Un-American” to protest against one’s government:

This is, by far and wide, my FAVORITE sentence in the entire video: “Kinda ridiculous for a former Community organizer to denounce community organizing…” Uh, yeah.

And I am relieved, too. As someone who has been in her fair share of protests, being photographed by the F.B.I. for participation in some of them, I am relieved to hear that our Democratic leaders have it all wrong. That we do, in fact, have the right to protest, to ask our representatives to answer to US, to make policies that benefit US, and that is what being an American MEANS, Speaker Pelosi and House Majority Leader Hoyer. How in the world can you possibly not know that, given your positions, and the very name of your party?? Dang. I tell you what – here’s a link to the Bill of Rights. Maybe you oughta take a little look-see and refresh your memories of just what it our Constitution actually says, especially since you swore to uphold it. I’m just sayin’.

Oh, one last right in there I should point out: we have the right “to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” And that’s just what we are doing. You can’t get more AMERICAN than that.