19,600,000,000,000.

That is a terrifying number.

That is the new debt that we could be hitting as of 2015.

Where are the people who were screaming at Bush II for a debt of 500 billion by the end of 8 years?

Excuse me – this deficit was 10 trillion dollars in 2008. Barring spending (though reckless on both sides of the aisle for TARP – which has for a large part been repaid making Bush’s “black hole” be more of a loan that is paid back – and the Stimulus plan – which hasn’t paid anything back or created jobs for that matter) to try and stem the bank failures and the failing economy – Barack Obama is now looking to easily eclipse 7 trillion in excess spending in 7 years.

Doesn’t it bother the people who are still pounding their chests and saying “Bush spent too much”?

Doesn’t it bother the people in the center and on the left side of the aisle that very shortly, our debt ceiling will actually overshadow the entire income of EVERYONE and EVERY BUSINESS in this country?

Folks – here is the long and the short of it.

Shortly, we will lose our bond rating as a nation.

Once that happens, it will cost us more to borrow and hold debt as a country – making the interest a higher percentage of the national budget every year. Right now, conservative estimates had that number at 880 BILLION dollars (remember – the country takes in 2 trillion a year in taxes – this is more than a THIRD of our budget) in interest payments on our debt alone by 2020.

That was when it was expected that the costs of the budgets that were being proposed were only going to hit 20 trillion dollars by 2020. Check out the chart from a leading economist up above. He didn’t have it figured nearly so high when he drew it up – it didn’t approach 100% of GDP for a while and yet we are there now. The debt ceiling has been raised higher than our GDP is at this time.

Never to be outdone by any idea that could be spent on, the progressive left in their “we control everything so we are passing anything now no matter the cost to you because we’ll be dead by the time the consequences come due” attitude has sped up their spending agenda.

We continue to warn our readers of this because, like the ObamaCare act, the cost overruns are just beginning. The revisions by their OWN departments show that right now, the costs are most likely almost doubled. And please, don’t forget that this is without the costs that were defrayed by moving costs to other bills.

Like the cuts to the doctors payments, which were added back in to another bill. To the tune of tens of billions that were being touted as “saved” by the Congress and ignored by the CBO, who had to have heard about this maneuver and didn’t add it in to their estimate out right before the bill passed.

Like trying to say that the 550 billion in medicare cuts doesn’t go at odds with the part D “closing of the doughnut hole” that economists are saying is unsustainable because you can’t add at least 100 billion a year in costs and subtract 550 billion in 10 years and call it a “net gain”.

I would love to have someone explain how double counting numbers makes good accounting sense.

The point to the ramble is – this isn’t the end of it.

The upward trend in these debt figures is going to skyrocket if spending isn’t halted and then cut. This is going to grow in a major way if we don’t stop the trend that is going to cost us interest points on our debt.

Think about a credit card and the payments that escalate in a huge way if you don’t make your payments. Your interest is almost at usury rates and your payments are through the roof on a relatively small amount of debt.

That could very well, as it happened in Greece, happen to us.

Probably sooner than later.

I am starting to seriously think about 2012 now, and one of the first people that comes to my mind is Mitch Daniels from Indiana – he took his state from debt to 1.3 billion in surplus even now, with the state bond ratings with three agencies moving up to AAA.

His state is one of 9 to have an AAA rating, and one of 2 to have three AAA ratings.

All while improving services and cutting waste.

Keep an eye on that man. God knows, we could use someone like him in 2012.

Great shout out to Stanford economist John B. Taylor – where I referenced the charts from.

Originally posted at: DRScoundrels Blogsite

That’s right, we called it.

I wrote about it in an article you can see on here a couple of days ago.

You can listen to it on my last radio show – the whole first hour.

100 million dollars to democrats from just 2 key unions to get their lapdog democrats elected in a midterm election.

Now we see the payoff.

On top of all of the other debt that we see piling up in this country, on top of the ponzi schemes that Welfare, Medicare, Health Care and Social Security are – we now see a new ponzi scheme emerging.

Democrats are proposing 165 billion in union pension fund bailouts.

Why?

Because they promised too much.

They spent too much on other things – politics, wages for administrative people, and other items that drained from the pension funds.

They didn’t invest the money, and in many cases it was mismanaged.

So let me ask a few questions.

Why didn’t we bail out people from Enron?

Why didn’t we bail out people from Worldcom?

Didn’t they lose billions in their pension funds?

What makes the union people a higher class of people than the folks who invested in a company they worked for and lost?

How about the trillions in wealth that has been lost due to the scandalous mismanagement brought about by Bill Clinton, Henry Cisneros, Andrew Cuomo, Barney Frank, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd and the managers of Freddie and Fannie?

How about the fact that they wrapped good loans around loans that didn’t require people to validate jobs, income, or the amount of money they had on hand before buying homes WELL outside the reach of their income – and then sold it to Wall Street as good paper KNOWING it was rotten to the core and ready made to fall apart?

Are we saving the people that have lost everything due to this? I know they aren’t saving me – and I didn’t over spend on my home – I just lost my job due to the economy falling apart due to those liars and thieves.

But I’m losing my home and car due to the economy created by the Democrats and their reckless, feckless, crooked social programs to do good no matter the cost.

Have I seen an ounce of support from my government? No – we’re well past 60 days since we filed for help on our mortgage – and I used to have a tax bill of 18,000 a year.

So please explain to me – in small, slow, clear words – what makes a GM worker or a teacher so superior to me or anyone else in this country?

I make very little now, but the amount that I do make gets taxed for social security and medicare and what not. I might not end up paying income taxes this year – but I guarantee that the payroll taxes that NEVER make it to that lock box that is so talked about, LIED about on the left, go to fund some person who makes 40-70 dollars an hour pension fund that was a smoke and mirrors game to begin with.

Bernie Madoff would be ever so jealous.

Read the SEIU site and their touting of their “bailout watchdogs” – how they raided meetings and had “bailout crime scene tape” and people running around with “taxpayer” on the name tags. Bet the BAILOUT WATCHDOGS won’t go to hunt the SEIU meetings down.

And guess what? It doesn’t matter about paygo – this is “a financial emergency”. It can circumvent paygo.

So think about this – when you pay 23000.00 for an ECONOMY car most “workers of the world” CAN’T AFFORD:

You are paying people 40-70 dollars an hour
They get benefits God would be jealous of
They get vacation benefits that would rival 5 normal workers put together
They get MANDATORY overtime
They end up with compensation averaging 175000.00 a year

AND

As part of that package deal – you know – the bennies? You have ALREADY paid for this.

BUT- since they didn’t plan OR execute the pensions right  -

You get to pay for it again. Out of your taxes.

I say No!

Stop this now.

Under [the Create Jobs & Save Benefits Act of 2010] the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation would, at the request of the plans, have the authority to take over the pension obligations of employers who have withdrawn from the plans, and pay the benefits out of taxpayer dollars. Once the PBGC shoulders that obligation, it would keep making payments until the last retiree or designated survivor dies… Since many multiemployer plans are in financial difficulty, this legislation, if enacted, could dramatically increase the federal deficit, putting even more pressure on the American taxpayer and the economy. Depending on events, it might add billions to government spending-current underfunding levels are estimated at $165 billion-bumping up future deficits.

Why do they need this bailout? Because union bosses’ have been padding their pension plans at the expense of their members, the Daily Caller website notes:

Union officers’ pension plans are significantly better funded than the plans they negotiate for their rank-and-file counterparts, raising questions about whether union members have been manipulated by those they trust to bargain for them.

The average union staff plan is funded at over 95 percent, while the average funding percentage of a rank-and-file member’s pension plan is 79 percent, according to a September study by the Hudson Institute. None of the staff pensions are on the Department of Labor’s list of critically underfunded pension plans, while more than half of rank-and-file pension plans are endangered.

Read more: http://www.gop.com/index.php/research/comments/the_union_bosses_165_billion_bailout/#ixzz0ou6u5QIy

100 million plus.

That is the price tag that the unions have place on getting their pets re-elected.

The people who will kiss their ass and pass laws ensuring that the people who are “for the workers” can continue to make inflated wages. This in turn ensures that the REAL “working class” making 7-15 dollars an hour can’t afford the homes, shipping, cars or other union built items.

Of course that’s ok – as long as the fat cat union workers have their 3 cars, big home and boats, who cares – right?

Isn’t this the same kind of argument the unions use against the CEOs or salaried workers?

I guess they don’t really care unless someone might be making more than they are – or maybe that is just a pious load of crap they dole out as class warfare to gain supporters in the uneducated class of people.

The union bosses don’t care that the pension schemes – the ponzi schemes that in so many cases are getting ready to collapse – you know, the ones that the unions are REALLY hoping that the taxpayers will support and take over in case their scheme fails – are getting short shrift from spending almost a billion dollars in buying their pet politicians over the last 20 years. Now this – over 100 million on pets in a midterm election.

Maybe the members who are paying the dues who aren’t in tune with watching their pension and benefit money pouring into politics might want to actually step up, quit being cowed and do something about it.

100 million.

And the number is going to be much higher because the AFL-CIO wouldn’t release their numbers on how much they are going to spend.

The unions are afraid. They are horribly afraid that people will continue to wake up, realize they are paying dues for things that are prevented by law now and that unions aren’t necessary. They are horribly afraid that if they lose their pets that they will lose a lot of protection that helps them blackmail companies into paying extreme wages for jobs or risk having their company shut down.

They should be.

I hope every time you see a commercial paid for by union labor and union sweat – the money that should be ensuring benefits and pensions – you remember how that money is being stolen from the “workers” and paid to the political class.

That Presidential order requiring folks not union working on government jobs with union labor to pay into union pension funds really paid major dividends. We wrote about that in another article earlier in the month – check it out!

I hope you get mad and remember in November.

Posted originally at: DRScoundrels

We told you it would happen.  We warned you that if they got their paws on our health care they would start telling us how skinny or how fat we could or should be.  Now, Mrs. Obama, the epitome of perfection in all things has started the ball rolling with her Fat Kids are a National Security Risk and it has snowballed into The Healthy Choices Act, which was introduced by introduced  Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

According to a CNSNews.com article from May 13:

States receiving federal grants provided for in the bill would be required to annually track the Body Mass Index of all children ages 2 through 18. The grant-receiving states would be required to mandate that all health care providers in the state determine the Body Mass Index of all their patients in the 2-to-18 age bracket and then report that information to the state government. The state government, in turn, would be required to report the information to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for analysis.

The Healthy Choices Act–introduced by Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee–would establish and fund a wide range of programs and regulations aimed at reducing obesity rates by such means as putting nutritional labels on the front of food products, subsidizing businesses that provide fresh fruits and vegetables, and collecting BMI measurements of patients and counseling those that are overweight or obese.

I’ve mentioned the idea of putting the labels on the front of food products before; because obviously we’re all too stupid to pick up a package and turn it around.  And it is absolutely terrifying to me to have the government mandating regulations and programs aimed at reducing what THEY determine to be obesity in children.  What criteria are they going to use?  Why my daughter was born, she was 24″ long and weighed 13 pounds, 6 ounces.  The doctors never figured out what caused her weight to be so large; she never ever over ate as an infant either.  I shudder to think what Madame Obama and her little group of representatives would have done with my daughter; considering she remained in the upper 95th percentile or higher for the first 2 years of her life; regardless of what she ate or didn’t eat.  It was metabolic.  But, will Obamacare take this type of thing into consideration?  I just don’t know.

The article goes on to say:

Section 101 of the bill amends the Public Health Services Act by stating that health care providers must record the Body Mass Index of all children ages 2 through 18.  “The provision relates to all children in states that accept grants under the bill,” a spokesperson for Rep. Kind told CNSNews.com. “However, it is important to note that no one is forced to come in for a doctor’s visit to get their BMI tested.  BMI will be taken at times when the child makes an otherwise scheduled doctor’s visit.”

Okay, great!  We take our kids in every 6 months to a year when they’re little.  So now the Obamadocs will take out their little calipers and pinch inches on our kidlets and report to the government that we’re unfit parents, right?

To pay for implementing BMI data gathering, Sec. 102 of the bill states that the federal government will give grants to states that meet certain criteria, including having “the capacity to store basic demographic information (including date of birth, gender and geographic area of residence), height, weight, and immunization data for each resident of the state.”

The grants also will pay for personnel and equipment necessary to measure patients’ BMI.

The grants also require that if a child’s BMI is greater than the 95th percentile for the child’s age and gender, the state will provide “information on how to lower BMI and information on state and local obesity prevention programs.”

That part really creeps me out.  I get visions of Big Brother, with a monitor in every residence, and a voice intoning, “Comrade, take that piece of bread away from junior.  He needs a big piece of tofu….CAKE!  NO CAKE! BEEEP-BEEEP-BEEEP”

Rep. Kind’s spokesperson did say that any reporting of the data generated from the information gathered would not include patients’ names.  ‘Syeah, like I believe THAT.

The bill also requires HHS to share with Congress and other government officials, including the secretaries of education and agriculture, its analysis of the BMI data collected not more than one year after it gathers all of the data from states.

This analysis, the bill states, would attempt to identify obesity trends in regions of the United States and how those trends vary according to gender and socioeconomic status–although the bill does not spell out how socioeconomic status of patients would be determined.

On May 6, the bill was referred to the House subcommittee on Highways and Transit.

Of course the bill is not specific; it has to leave room for interpretation; ie. for the government to be able to grab more and more control.  And why EXACTLY was the bill referred to the House subcommittee on Highways and Transit?  Can anyone tell me that?  This whole thing; this whole Obamanation is really starting (starting, I say with tongue firmly planted in my cheek) to give me the mega-willies.  I think it will be within a year that we will look back at today and think, “Ahh, yes… back then we had it so good.  We had so many freedoms that we took for granted.”

You might think I’m kidding, folks.  Don’t.  One final parting paragraph from the article I will leave you with:

At a press conference last week to announce the introduction of the bill, Kind emphasized it would help “busy American families.”

“Making the healthy choice the easy choice for our families is essential to ensuring our quality of life,” Kind said. “I am pleased to work on legislation that helps provide the opportunities that meet the needs of busy American families.”

My ass.  If you’ll pardon the expression.  They could not care less about the needs of busy American Families.  If they cared about busy American families, then they would simply BUTT OUT.

Crossposted in DRScoundrels and Veritas & Libertas by Ladybug4Freedom

As we all know, Andy Stern is no longer president of the SEIU (Service Employees International Union); one of, if not THE most politically important union in America.  On Saturday, May 8, 2010 a new president was named.  Mary Kay Henry was elected by the union’s internation executive board in an uncontested election when her opponent, Andy Stern’s hand picked replacement, SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger  bowed out.

According to The Hill May 12:

The new president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) said Tuesday that her group will not support Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) even if she wins her contested primary race next week.

Mary Kay Henry, elected on Saturday by the union’s international executive board, said her union members will back candidates not based on their party label but on their positions on “working people’s issues.”

“Our belief is Blanche Lincoln has been on the side of Wall Street and insurance companies and that she does not stand to protect and defend working people,” Henry said. In turn, SEIU and other labor groups have gotten behind Lincoln’s Democratic primary opponent, Bill Halter.

However, it should be noted that when Ms. Henry was asked that if Halter was to lose in the primary to Lincoln, would the SEIU then support her, Henry answered with a succinct “no”.

The Hill goes on to report:

Her response is reflective of a new, more aggressive tack by SEIU that has left an increasing number of Democratic candidates targets of the politically powerful union. On Tuesday, SEIU released an ad accusing Lincoln of siding with insurance companies during the healthcare reform debate, part of a $1 million independent expenditure campaign in Arkansas alone.

Henry said the effort against Lincoln and other Democrats was a continuation of SEIU’s long-held belief that politicians of both parties must be judged on their support of workers’ rights, including letting people organize into unions.

Actually, this is only a minor issue the SEIU is targeting.  They have big plans.  BIG PLANS.  They are looking at the Health Care industry now that the Healthcare reform bill has been passed.  Also, Immigration reform is a big ticket item for them now.  The SEIU is looking to get their hooks into virtually every aspect of American life.

Henry said her three priorities would be renewing SEIU’s commitment to union organizing, refocusing the group’s political programs at the national and grassroots levels to work together and restoring its relationships with the rest of the labor movement.

The new SEIU president said she wants to continue the union’s organizing efforts in the healthcare and property service sectors — such as security guards and janitors — and is working on launching a new union of early education professionals. With a heavy SEIU presence on the coasts, Henry said she will invest more to expand the union’s membership in the Midwest and Southwest.

[snip]

With the healthcare reform bill now signed into law, Henry said the union’s top legislative priority is moving comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

Calling SEIU a “union of immigrants,” Henry said passing immigration reform would boost the economy by allowing more people to contribute to the U.S. economy and stop exploitation of immigrant workers by employers. In addition, Arizona’s new immigration law, which requires that police question anyone they suspect may be in the state illegally, has lit a fire with union members.

The SEIU was a very dangerous entity under Andy Stern.  Mainly due to his friendship with Barack Hussein Obama (mmm mmm mmm).  I think it is highly possible that ‘we ain’t seen nothin’ yet’.  Mary Kay Henry is a woman with a mission and America be damned, she WILL see it through.

Hark!  Is that a goose step I hear in the distance?

Cross posted in Veritas & Libertas and DRScoundrels by Ladybug4Freedom

Let’s offer a small piece of evidence for why we don’t like illegals. We’ll even offer the information in their own words. Watch the whole damn thing – ok?

This man is preaching sedition, not only against your country people, but against your whole way of life.

To be substituted for what? Gang style neighborhoods and barrios?

Such wealth, social programs, medicine, science, and of course green power and clear skies and water like south of the border?

This is the revolution that this man is calling for?

Che Guevara was a murderer. Castro was a dictator and murderer and the majority of the peoples this teacher mentioned are living if not in abject misery, hunger and destitution caused by their own power wielding tyrants taking all the money and freedoms then they are on the edge of it.

This man isn’t a teacher.

He is a seditionist. Period. That is a crime that is explained in the Constitution.

Enforce it.

He is spreading sedition which will in turn foment anger, fighting and destruction which will solve nothing. It will solve nothing for the white race or the Hispanics.

La Raza President – where are you? Do you truly want a revolution to OVERTHROW what your people are fleeing from to replace it WITH what they are freeing from?

This thuggery needs to be stopped. Now.

This wasn’t brave or good oratory. This was sedition and treasonous against the nation he has chosen to call home. If he likes what all these other countries have, there’s the damn border – drop your American passport in the trash on the way out of the place.

If this place sucks so badly, why do you WANT it? Are you just another tinhorn little prick trying to stir up his own delusions of Guevara-hood? Leading your oh so powerful little group of students down the street to cause mayhem and mischief until some of them get hurt? Then it’s on your conscience, oh mighty leader, oh mighty Chavez-wanna be.

If they were so great, why are their people living in fear of them? Why do or did they have to resort to torture and imprisonment and banning of the opposition message?

Because they were or are cowards with guns and enough bully boys to keep their opinions enforced and made into law.

Those people aren’t “great leaders”. They are or were bullies with guns who mass enough force to cow their people into living in slums with little food, clean water or education.

You’re oh so right, mighty leader of little kids. You’re oh so right, you standing on the schoolhouse steps trying to light the fires of unrest and HATE in people.

Capitalism is what got you what you have, your job, your pay, that school you’re in front of and that leather jacket you had on, stupid.

What a lousy teacher you must be to imagine that without capitalism, your life would be better. Ask the folks in most countries without capitalism and middle class society. Most Spanish speaking countries in fact. Go check out the slums and the barrios south of the border.

Go back south if you want to. What you are encouraging is stupidity, ignorance, poverty, hunger, pain, fighting, blood, death, burning, looting and more.

What a model citizen.

I hope LA decides to do the right thing and fire him.

Originally posted at: DRScoundrels

President Obama came out at the Hampton University graduation commencement to let us know EXACTLY what he thinks about this digital age.

He doesn’t understand it.

He doesn’t like it.

He believes that you should get your information from the mainstream media and from schooling run by, surprise, folks who believe as he does to a large extent.

This is the system that has largely made sure you don’t understand how politics works, how government works, who your representatives are and what not.

How did they do that? Simple. First – as in many schools, many of the teachers that I had that taught politics, civics, history and what not were people who weren’t, for lack of a better term, stellar and exciting teachers. Many were coaches who would just have you read a chapter a week in class and occasionally have quizzes.

People who get bored with things like this don’t learn.

People who don’t understand something either blow it off or fear it’s complications.

It is really simple. True – there needs to be a personal level of responsibility to learn about this as well – but if the schools don’t help teach it or play it down or gloss over it – why should citizens care? It isn’t important enough to learn about in our school system – who understands it anyway? It’s not that big a deal – they’re all dirty anyway. Right?

Now – here we have a President who is attacking the digital generation, and in a large part it seems he is proving my point about fearing something you don’t understand:

“You’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t always rank all that high on the truth meter,” Obama said at Hampton University, Virginia.

“With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation,” Obama said.

Emancipation from what, my dear Mr. Obama? Capitalism? Liberty?

How about freedom from being spoon fed what certain groups want us to hear – from the big three media, the newspapers, the teachers unions, the unions in general, PBS and NPR?

See – that’s what they don’t want. People turning over rocks and learning. What is under there? What happens if we do this versus that? Does the light go off when you shut the door? How does the magician do that trick? What is the truth behind what will happen if we keep spending this much money? How are people affected by this bill? Why do you write legislation so convoluted?

They forget that they were using the internet for this before we were – but now the conservatives and Republicans and right centrists are learning more and more at a fearsome rate. The left, the true progressives, fear the questions being asked. That’s the problem.

Here is another point of contention for the President:

He bemoaned the fact that “some of the craziest claims can quickly claim traction,” in the clamor of certain blogs and talk radio outlets.

“All of this is not only putting new pressures on you, it is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy.”

The craziest claims, like detention camps and things like that? How about your truther friends trying to prove that a plane disappeared right around the time something hit the Pentagon – the radar from everywhere in the area saw it happen, but no – your friends think it was a missile fired by the military into the wall of the Pentagon to incite the country to invade Iraq for oil costs to go down that have instead gone up? All the different secret society questions? Most of these are shot down in two minutes or two days.

If you knew how to work it instead of just hearing briefings about “those crazy teabaggers” you might understand. But, as people made fun of Bush for being isolated, you’re feeling it now too, aren’t you?

Or crazy things like learning about your czars, your friends, political information that is questioning YOU and your views rather than being led around like sheep?

The information superhighway is just that – and the neat thing of it is – most people who are whacked  are already that way and don’t need the net to get their voice out. On the left or the right. There are extremists everywhere. Though, unlike the right, you choose to paint all of us trying to examine what we see as bad policy and bring facts and math to the table for explanations from you as extremists who are loons of the internet.

Some of us do our research or learn about things like health care and the facts behind the issues without just trying to pass an ideology for no better reason than political control, sir. Some of us aren’t trying to ram things down the throats of the American people when polls consistently show that you didn’t have the support of the people, all just to garner more support for your party and ideology by buying votes with other people’s money.

What makes me chuckle was the part of the speech I appreciated, though I think you’ll see the irony in two things:

1) he argues his own point down

2) I did the research and put both the good and bad in

Check out this very wise statement:

“What Jefferson recognized… that in the long run, their improbable experiment — called America — wouldn’t work if its citizens were uninformed, if its citizens were apathetic, if its citizens checked out, and left democracy to those who didn’t have the best interests of all the people at heart.

“It could only work if each of us stayed informed and engaged, if we held our government accountable, if we fulfilled the obligations of citizenship.”

So staying engaged, becoming informed – that’s a good thing.

I don’t understand how he can take the first part and the second part of the speech and rationalize how they tie together, unless it is due to this:

“We can’t stop these changes… but we can adapt to them,” Obama said, adding that US workers were in a battle with well-educated foreign workers.

“Education… can fortify you, as it did earlier generations, to meet the tests of your own time,” he said.

So – as I stated above, information, as long as it is spoon fed from the colleges and teachers is o.k.? Is that what you are saying Mr. President? What if, sir, they are leaving out information or tailoring it poorly to keep people in the dark?

Self examination, self exploration, self education is not a good thing?

Make up your mind Mr. President.

Originally posted at: DRScoundrels

Nancy Pelosi – one of the world’s leading trending topics.

She’s come out with a real stinker on this one.

Quoting the Rand Institute, our brilliant House Leader has come out stating that it would be far less costly to treat your teens for their drug use than to stop the damn drugs from coming into the country.

Now if that isn’t San Franciscoan of her.

I bet the folks from back in the day are cheering that sentiment.

Don’t interdict – let them get on drugs, and then, once that demon has it’s claws sunk into the flesh and blood of your children, THEN do something about it.

Um – I don’t care if the facts are true as far as the cost of closing the border versus treating a child.

And the costs of a human addicted to drugs is far worse than a dollar amount in the first place.

Have you known a person who has had to fight this horrible monster? This thing that ravages their soul on a daily basis, constantly clawing, scratching and fighting to be fed again? This thing that destroys lives, futures and families?

This is the callousness that was shown when Nancy Pelosi led her stalwart friends through the crowd, arrogantly sneering at people with the sledgehammer of progressivism in her hands. This is the callousness that is so pervasive of the “caring” left as they enslave people to government handouts. This is the nature of their beast that shows so well in their pervasive and egregious attacks of hate and bile while they claim to be victimized.

This is what she doesn’t mind – the senseless thoughtlessness that leads her to say, screw it – it’ll cost less dollars to put ‘em in rehab.

Wonder how many detoxing people Nancyiful has seen in her life? Does she remember them at all?

The shakes, the chills, the spasms, the vomit, the pain, the fevers, the racking coughs and the screams for release?

I wonder if she has tears in her eyes for the likes of them as well as for Harvey Milk?

Apparently not. She’d rather have your kids go through that than to spend the money to stop the flow from Mexico.

Ah well.

Don’t worry – we know San Francisco will most likely re-elect her.

The question is – will the rest of the country give her another majority?

Originally posted at: DRScoundrels

Thanks to CNS News for a great story

I have become quite the Medicare expert.

How?

Training for where I work.

I have undergone many hours of training on how to explain to people how Medicare works, how the coverage gap works and how you get into and out of the gap. I can tell you a little of what goes on – the stories the left doesn’t want you to hear about government run health care that is about to get far worse due to the new bill.

I have many customers who ask me when I am on the phone with them what I think of the new law and what it will do to them. I have many customers who are complaining about the skyrocketing costs they faced this last year.

Unfortunately I can’t explain my feelings to them when I am at work since that would be unprofessional.

The people who do understand what is coming are not happy campers by about 10:1 from all I am hearing from my fellow co workers.

Understand, I won’t go into details since that would be a violation of privacy that I won’t do.

One thing I CAN tell you is that there are a lot of people who have faced major increases this year that ain’t seen nothing yet.

The first thing the companies who work with Medicare did the moment they heard this health care talk? Jacked up their rates in expectations of higher costs and lower returns due to Oblahma’s talk about capping costs. Of course they tried to get their dollars in now before the government steps in and takes completely over. They want to SURVIVE.

One company we are dealing with went up about two fold, and boy are we hearing it. Too bad I can’t explain why their monthly rates went up along with huge increases in their copays.

The insurance companies knew this was coming, saw the writing on the wall, and the ones who had to deal with Medicare because they had invested heavily in it? Their rates have gone way up.

This is the future of “free” health care.

Don’t be surprised if you end up paying 40-50 dollars a month on a fixed income, and have your copays be FAR worse than they ever were. Even generic 90 day copays are higher than ever due to the companies bracing for the impact.

Obama and his cronies have already put into play a plan that is supposed to cut Medicare over 500 billion in the next 10 years while, oh by the way, not cutting it – which several accounting offices are already reporting as unsustainable. They are also going to raise taxes while cutting the benefits of your elderly relatives and friends.

I could tell you stories that I hear my friends. Every single one of these that has actually been harmed by Medicare and the lousy programs that it is spawning. The insurance plans that cost relatively close to regular plans and give 1/3 of the benefits to the people who need them the most. Instead of 1/2 or 1/3 off the meds, they are routinely a few dollars off.

The fact remains that in order to help the people we need to be helping, we have spawned a system so reckless and feckless that it helps very few very much. And we have RINOs and Progressives to thank for Part D in particular.

What a waste of  legislative time and paper.

Here we have many drugs not allowed under Part D law, copays ranging from 3-5 times as much as normal plans, and the coverage gap. Who’s bright idea was that? (And before the libs jump on it – yes I know it was under Bush and I have thwapped him soundly for this many times)

How does this plan work? Simple really, though many don’t explain it well so there is confusion.

You usually have 4 stages -

1. Initial Out of Pocket/ Deductible – usually 100% of drug cost UP TO 310.00 (usually sits around 100.00)
2. Initial coverage – this is the copay stage – good to 2830.00
3. Coverage Gap – this is where you pay 100% of your drugs again – from 2830.01 – 4549.99
4. Catastrophic Coverage – this is where you pay 5% of drug cost from 4550.00 on

Here’s the fun part.

If you pay 10.00 for a prescription, and your insurance pays 100.00 – the total drug spend is 110.00

Got that?

That is the number that counts against you going to the coverage gap.

110.00 – the drug spend.

The out of pocket or what is known as Troop – or true out of pocket is the 10.00.

Ok?

Now -  the drug spend is what gets you to the coverage gap – and there are drugs that you might pay 40.00 for and the drug spend is 500.00. Ok?

Here is the fun part.

You can actually get to the coverage gap in a few months while only spending a few hundred of your own dollars. Sounds good right?

Kinda.

Here’s the tricky part.

If you get into the coverage gap using the drug spend, only what you have spent yourself – the TrOOP actually gets you out of the coverage gap.

So if you have hit 2830.00 in drug spend while spending 900.00 of your own money – you will end up needing to spend 3650.00 to get back out of the coverage gap. So that coverage gap that looks like it is a smaller amount actually ends up being a couple of thousand more than you thought.

I can’t tell you how many people I have heard say they do without when it comes time to their coverage gap.

“But Obama says he is going to do away with it…. sometime”

Yep – sometime in the next 10 years or so.

And – two things to think about:

1.  Where is the money to close that 3000+ dollar gap for 34+million (and growing rapidly as the baby boomers START to hit comes into play – wait until the tidal wave hits in a few more years) going to come from? Have you done the math on this?

34,000,000 x 3,000 = 34,000,000,000 x 3 or 102,000,000,000 per year? At least? All this while cutting 500,000,000,000 out of the benefits?

Who is going to pay for that? Taxpayers and the elderly and disabled who will end up paying more for meds they need. As the progressives like to chant “Rent or meds” or “Food or meds”. But the trick is, they don’t really care that the next ten years will see ever escalating COST (that thing that was supposed to DROP right Mr. President?) as copays and monthly premiums skyrocket. Don’t forget things like taxes on prosthetic devices and diabetic supplies.

Heck the first is mostly used by vets and they suck, right libs? The second? The eldery and the FAT. And they’re bad too, at least according to the attitude from the left. We know what the First Lady thinks about FAT people. They suck.

2. If we are cutting 550,000,000,000 from Medicare to help pay for the new 30+ million people who are going to get “free” health care, who is going to suffer from this?

Hey, according to Med D law, you can’t have prescription vitamins or debrining agents. You can’t have ED meds or in many cases urological meds to help with incontinence for women.

BUT that will change under Obamacare right?

Wanna bet?

And who helped lead the charge into this? AARP who is bound to profit mightily with their Medicare supplement insurance that they will market as more and more necessary due to the program they helped ram through.

News flash: Projected 150,000 doctor shortage in a few years

News flash: People are going to lose benefits to give others benefits – equation equals a wash

News flash: People are going to get taxed and lose benefits to pay for a plan that won’t return benefits for over 4 years

News flash: People are going to get taxed and lose benefits and the government has given itself a year just to FORM the commission to start putting together the framework to build this nightmare

Thanks AARP. Thanks Progressives. Thanks Nancy and Harry. Thanks Oblahma.

39% would re-elect Obama in 2012. Wanna bet that number falls by January first of 2011 when the Medicare costs hit the elderly?

The thing is, Obama doesn’t care – he just won 30 million votes for his party at the loss of 30 million. But the fact is, with the quality of life being cut off from the elderly and their meds being cut due to fixed income from a failed ponzi scheme called Social Security, the harsh reality is that the President is wagering on a new class of voters replacing a class that won’t be around much longer.

Think about it and tell me that’s really not true – especially when there are a lot of folks who are in their 70′s and 80′s and dealing with issues that their meds help stave off so they can live.

Harsh truth, but truth nonetheless.

The Progressives are counting on the new class of medical welfare and amnesty to overcome the political unrest in the elderly.

Remember in November.

Originally posted at: DRScoundrels

Here is something interesting – something I bet a lot of people didn’t know.

Financial aid, even for students over the age of 23 who haven’t been living at home can require you to give out your personal information.

If your child wants, at age 23 3/4, to return to school, you can be required to turn over personal information to the school in question, including tax returns, income information, etc.

Why? Because unless the student is born before January 1, 1986, they can still be considered dependent even if they aren’t on your taxes, haven’t lived in your home, have their own income, etc.

How bout them apples?

If they don’t meet a seriously stupid stringent set of standards – they in fact ARE dependent. If you don’t want to start having to dish out all sorts of information, including your social security number, you can be accused of “screwing” your child. Imagine, getting a call from a child of yours who starts asking all sorts of personal information as they fill out their documentation online.

Why are you asking about this? Because in order for me to go to school, I have to have this.

What?

Turns out, the child isn’t lying when they tell you this.

The federal definition of an independent student is one who can answer yes to any of the following questions, for the 2009-2010 filing year:

1. Were you born before January 1, 1986?
2. As of the date you will be submitting the FAFSA, are you married? (Answer yes if you are separated, but not divorced.)
3. Will you be working on a degree beyond a bachelor’s degree, such as a master’s or doctorate, in school year 2009-2010?
4. Are you currently serving on active duty in the Armed Forces for other than training purposes?
5. Are you a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces?
6. Do you have children who receive more than half of their support from you, or do you have dependents (other than your children or spouse) who live with you and receive more than half of their support from you, now and through June 30, 2010?
7. At any time since you turned age 13, were both your parents deceased, were you in foster care or were you a dependent or ward of the court?
8. Are you, or were you an emancipated minor as determined by a court in your state of legal residence at the time you received the determination?
9. Are you, or were you in legal guardianship as determined by a court in your state of legal residence at the time you received the determination?
10. At any time on or after July 1, 2008, did your high school or school district homeless liaison determine that you were an unaccompanied youth who was homeless?
11. At any time on or after July 1, 2008, did the director of an emergency shelter or transitional housing program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development determine that you were an unaccompanied youth who was homeless?
12. At any time on or after July 1, 2008, did the director of a runaway or homeless youth basic center or transitional living program determine that you were an unaccompanied youth who was homeless or were self-supporting and at risk of being homeless?

Got that?

Even if they are earning an income, living on their own, have a car and an apartment as well as a credit history or whatnot – YOUR kids can suddenly have some stranger calling you and telling you that you have to give up your information or the child can’t go to school. This is up to the age of 24 at this point and with the new law that Oblahma just signed, it’s going to get worse.

Imagine if you don’t like government intrusion, hate the violations of privacy that doesn’t seem to be guaranteed unless it is a lefty trying to defend a special interest, you’re laying on the couch, sick as a dog and have some slick scumbag telling you that you “HAVE” to tell financial aid that you’re unwilling to give up your information.

Keep in mind, this is a college pulling a muscle-down on a person. He might be polite, but the tone is clear. You have to give up adjusted gross income, tax info, social security, investment info, etc for a person who left home at the age of 17. And 18. And 19. Hasn’t been claimed in years.

Why?

Independent Students

A common misconception is that by virtue of not being claimed on your parent’s income tax for two years, you can become an “independent” student.

In unusual circumstances, a student may be able to make a compelling case for their inability to provide the necessary information on the FAFSA. Such examples are:

• The parents reside in a location where mail delivery does not exist.
• The parent is mentally handicapped.
• The student suffered documentable parental abuse and contact with the parent would put the student in danger.
• The student was abandoned by parents
• Both parents are incarcerated or institutionalized.
• Both parents lack the physical or mental capacity to raise the child
• The parents whereabouts are unknown or the parents cannot be located
• The parents are hospitalized for an extended period
• The student was living in an unsuitable household (e.g., child removed from the household and placed in foster care)
• A married student’s spouse dies or student gets divorced.

Reasons that are NOT considered for changing status are:

• The student has been supporting his/herself for a time.
• The student has been supported by other relatives or friends for a time.
• The student does not live with his/her parents.
• The student is angry with his/her parents and wishes not to speak to them.
• The parents are able but unwilling to provide their information.
• The parents are living in another country.
• The parents refuse to contribute to the student’s education.
• The parents do not claim the student as a dependent for income tax purposes.

What if the person hasn’t ever stuck to anything, paid back anything or what ever? Does that matter in the slightest? Nope.

Does the adult in question want to be “independent”? Yes. Don’t get me wrong – it’s great, even if you’re ambushed, to find out that a person who has had issues wants to make themselves better.  Would a parent, were they not taken by surprise, stealth questioned and then strong armed be willing if they were able to go meet the financial aid folks and talk with them, knowing that this wasn’t a scam because they were seeing proof of what was going on possibly be willing to surrender PERSONAL information. Possibly.

In the meantime, this plays out with the person trying to come the shyster, be all soothing and still telling you that this information is required by the same government that already has this information? On a conference call with the adult who is trying to tell the man themselves that they DON’T want to be considered dependent?

In defense, I do understand that the person on the phone is doing what he is required to do, but some unfortunate slips of words like “required” and “have to” make for a VERY unpleasant conversation with a Constitutionalist. Trying to explain how a mother of three, living on her own is dependent is a job I would want only slightly more than explaining medicare to 85 year olds who are going into the doughnut hole. (That sounds familiar – I wonder who has THAT job)

Keep this in mind folks when you start hearing things like the health care and new financial aid laws have been passed with these kinds of standards in there. That’s right. You thought the Progressive Socialists were about liberty and freedom only to find out that they aren’t – they want to know and monitor EVERY little scrap of info about you. And they’ll use your kid’s schooling opportunities to blackmail you into surrendering information to the adult in question, even if the child (adult) in question shouldn’t have that information revealed to them due to exigent circumstances of behavior or attitudes from the past. But, in the forms they fill out for FAFSA, they are told it is required and they have to get the info from you to put on those forms. Have to. Must. Get Mommy and Daddy’s info and supply it to us.

And guess what. The new laws? Makes your kids your dependent until the ripe young age of 26.

Lovely isn’t it.

Originally published on: DRScoundrels