TELLING IT LIKE IT IS !

Questions To Ask Your Senators And Representative About ObamaCare

Here are some proposed questions for you to ask your Senators and Representative about ObamaCare. Get a group together and go to your Senators and Representative offices and ask these questions. Most Senators and Representatives have Townhall meetings in their district during their August break. Get the schedule and attend the meetings. Urge others to do the same. Have different groups at different locations to ask these questions to make sure the Congressman is consistent.

Yesterday, President Obama conceded that there probably won’t be a vote on healthcare reform until “the end of September or the middle of October.” That means you have August to attend town hall meetings with your representative and senators, stop by their congressional offices, write letters to the editor and educate your friends and family members about the dangers of socialized medicine. To help you in that effort, we’ve produced a short list of key concerns and questions, which are copied below. Please share this report with like-minded folks and those who may be undecided and willing to listen. Thank you for everything you do to defend our shared values in your community!

1. ABORTION

Pro-choice groups, like NARAL and Planned Parenthood, are demanding that abortion be covered in any healthcare reform bill. In a recent interview with Politico, Laurie Rubiner, vice president for public policy and advocacy at Planned Parenthood, defends this demand by saying, “the alternative would be slashing benefits for millions of women who currently have [private] coverage for abortions…” In addition, key administration officials refuse to rule out abortion coverage. When asked on Fox News Sunday whether taxpayer money would go to pay for abortions, White House Budget Director Peter Orszag replied, “I am not prepared to say explicitly that right now. It’s obviously a controversial issue, and it’s one of the questions that is playing out in this debate.”

Pro-life senators on the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee forced a roll call vote on the issue when Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) attempted to add an amendment to the healthcare bill that would, in her words, “include women’s health clinics that provide comprehensive services…deemed medically necessary or appropriate.” She admitted that such “health clinics” would include Planned Parenthood. The pro-life amendment to prohibit funding of abortion lost 11-to-12.

Question for your Congressmen: Will you oppose any healthcare reform bill that uses my tax dollars to pay for abortions?

2. EUTHANASIA

In a recent New York Post column, Betsy McCaughey, a former lieutenant governor of New York and health care expert, wrote:

“One troubling provision of the House bill compels seniors to submit to a counseling session every five years (and more often if they become sick or go into a nursing home) about alternatives for end-of-life care (House bill, p. 425-430). The sessions cover highly sensitive matters such as whether to receive antibiotics and ‘the use of artificially administered nutrition and hydration.’ This mandate invites abuse, and seniors could easily be pushed to refuse care.”

Question for your Congressmen: Will you oppose any healthcare reform bill that in any way promotes euthanasia?

3. COST

The United States faces a debt crisis. According to many analysts, including Senator Judd Gregg (who is so respected by President Obama that he offered Gregg the post of Secretary of Commerce), the Obama budget will give us $11 trillion of debt at the end of five years and $17 trillion of debt at the end of ten years. (Source: PolitiFact.com)

Question for your Congressmen: Why is Congress and the president pushing through a healthcare bill that would cost another trillion dollars over the next ten years? Shouldn’t we concentrate on getting the debt under control first?

4. RATIONING CARE

According to a July 15th report by The Hill, “The House bill would be paid for by roughly $500 billion in Medicare and Medicaid cuts…” These “cuts” would come as millions of Americans are retiring. Logic suggests that if we are “cutting” hundreds of billions of dollars healthcare would have to be limited or rationed in some way to accommodate more people. And seniors would be most affected by Medicare cuts.

In addition, advisors to President Obama, such as Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, have suggested that healthcare should be rationed to certain individuals. Dr. Emanuel once wrote that “services provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens…should not be guaranteed. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia.”

(Source: http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/Where_Civic_Republicanism_and_Deliberative_Democracy_Meet.pdf)

Question for your Congressmen: How can government promise to do more with less? Will you oppose any healthcare reform bill that in any way limits my access to healthcare or medicines recommended by my doctor?

5. MORE BURDENS ON SMALL BUSINESSES

Despite a 9.5% (and rising) unemployment rate, the healthcare bill in the House imposes a new 8% payroll tax on small businesses with payrolls of $400,000 or more that don’t provide health insurance for their employees. This is in addition to the current 15% payroll tax. What this means is that any employer with a payroll of $400,000 dollars or higher will have to pay at least 25% above the salary just to hire someone. Common sense tells you that any struggling small business will likely lay off workers to avoid this additional tax. On the other hand, if the tax is cheaper than the cost of health insurance, larger businesses may opt to cancel their health insurance, forcing employees into the government’s “public option,” and simply pay the 8% fine. (Source: Wall Street Journal, July 15, 2009)

Question for your Congressmen: Why are you imposing additional mandates and taxes on small businesses, which create the overwhelming majority of new jobs, in the middle of a severe recession?

6. QUALITY CARE

American healthcare is better than that in European countries with socialized medicine. The German breast cancer mortality rate is 52% higher than in the United States. Prostate cancer mortality is 604% higher in the United Kingdom and 457% higher in Norway than in the United States. Canadian healthcare lags behind the United States too. Canadian patients wait twice as long to see a specialist for hip surgery or cancer than we do in the United States. Most Americans say they are satisfied with the U.S. health care system, but more than 70% of Germans, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and Britons say that their systems need “fundamental change” or “complete rebuilding.” (Source: National Center for Policy Analysis.)

In an editorial on July 26th, the Washington Post criticized President Obama for not “leveling about the consequences of change” when it comes to healthcare costs versus quality. Here’s what the Post wrote: “The Congressional Budget Office estimates that new technology accounts for about half the increase in health-care costs over the past several decades. This, for the most part, is a good thing. Adjusted for inflation, health-care spending per person is six times what it was 40 years ago. But no one today would settle for 1960s-style medicine.”

Question for your Congressmen: Why are you trying to force us in the direction of more government involvement in healthcare when everywhere government-run healthcare has been tried, quality declines and care is rationed?

7. THE PEOPLE ARE BEING IGNORED

According to a recent poll, just 23% of voters believe healthcare reform legislation will lower costs, while 53% believe it will lead to more expensive care. By a margin of 50% to 23%, voters believe that “reform” legislation will make the quality of care decline. And while voters believe they will get worse care at higher costs, 78% also believe that healthcare reform will result in middle class tax hikes. In addition, a recent Fox News poll found that 91% of those surveyed have health insurance, 84% said that the quality of their health insurance was either excellent or good and 83% said the quality of health care they receive from their private insurance is either good or excellent. And only 12% of those surveyed said reforming health care was the most important issue Congress should be working on right now. (Source: Rasmussen Reports, July 28, 2009 and Fox News poll July 23, 2009.)

Question for your Congressmen: Why are you and the White House rushing this bill through Congress and ignoring the concerns of the American people?

8. LOSS OF FREEDOM

The healthcare reform legislation under consideration in the House will eventually force all Americans into a government-approved plan. After a five-year grace period, every new insurance policy will have to comply with government mandates, and any policy changes – “altering co-pays, deductibles, or even switching coverage for this or that drug” – invalidates your previous coverage and forces you to choose a government “qualified” plan. In addition, the House plan mandates coverage for every individual. If you are self-employed or choose not buy insurance for whatever reason, the bill imposes a “healthcare tax” of 2.5% of your income. (Source: CNNMoney.com, July 24, 2009 and Bloomberg.com, July 15, 2009)

Question for your Congressmen: Why do you believe bureaucrats can make better decisions than me about what kind of health insurance I should have? And will you guarantee that any healthcare reform bill passed by Congress will always allow me to choose my own doctor?

9. RACIAL PREFERENCES

Do you care about the race of a doctor who is getting ready to operate on you? Of course not. Most Americans want their doctor to be the best professional available regardless of race or ethnic background. But congressional liberals have a different idea. On page 909 of the House bill, grants to medical schools will be awarded “to entities that have a demonstrated record of the following…training individuals who are from underrepresented minority groups or disadvantaged backgrounds.” (Source: Investors Business Daily, July 27, 2009)

Question for your Congressmen: Why are you throwing affirmative action/racial set-asides into a healthcare reform bill that are discriminatory against whites…that is racism?

10. PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS

President Obama has repeatedly said that “no insurance company will be allowed to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing medical condition.” That sounds wonderful until you apply common sense, which is in short supply in Washington. What if we made a law that allowed you to buy car insurance after you got into an accident and that required the insurance company to pay for the damage? Wouldn’t many people just wait for an accident before buying insurance? Why wouldn’t many Americans wait until they were sick to buy health insurance?

Question for your Congressmen: Isn’t it clear that this provision would drive up the cost of health insurance for everyone?

This is a start. Please feel free to add your own questions.

The left really does plan to outlaw your private insurance … just read the bill. Something that many Members of Congress haven’t done … not just this bill.

The legislation in question is H.R. 3200 (America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 or AAHCA) which was formally introduced by John Dingell, a leading Democrat in Congress.

Here is some of the actual language:

“Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day of Y1.”

You read that right. If you are not insured on day one of the effective date of this legislation you are involuntarily forced into the government plan.

If you are not insured on day one of the effective date of this legislation you are involuntarily forced into the government plan.

But there’s more. If you ever have to change insurance (i.e. you switch jobs), you won’t be able to obtain private insurance … that you will be involuntarily forced into a government plan.

If you ever have to change insurance (i.e. you switch jobs), you won’t be able to obtain private insurance … that you will be involuntarily forced into a government plan.

Think about it … how many people switch jobs at least once in their lives?

Answer: Everybody

“The Commissioner shall establish a grace period whereby, for plan years beginning after the end of the 5-year period beginning with Y1, an employment-based health plan in operation as of the day before the first day of Y1 must meet the same requirements as apply to a qualified health benefits plan under section 101, including the essential benefit package requirement under section 121.”

No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. Those who are ‘grandfathered’ and allowed to keep their private coverage … those who are fortunate enough not to have the need to switch carriers or plans are going to be left out in the cold anyway because the private carriers will be forced to dance to the government’s tune.

Does this sound like a repeat of what Barack Hussein Obama and the Pelosi liberals in Congress did to the housing industry and General Motors?

There’s no doubt; Barack Hussein Obama is rushing to totally socialize America’s healthcare system before the end of summer.

No time to read the bills …. No time to study the effects … No time to consider the costly deficits for as far as the eye can see …. Just demands to pass it now ….

That is why Barack Obama used his weekly radio address to declare that “healthcare reform cannot wait.” Barack Hussein Obama is pressuring your Congressman and Senators.

Barack Obama has repeatedly lied about his healthcare reform plans.

Lie #1, Obama says: “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.”

But according to Robert M. Goldberg, vice president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, writing in the American Spectator: “Now you might be wondering, how the government plan recruits doctors and providers to this exciting new enterprise? Actually, it forces any provider getting paid by Medicare to join the plan. Do doctors have a ‘choice’? Of course. They can ‘opt out in a process established by the Secretary.’ Translation: No public option patients, no Medicare patients.”

So keeping your doctor will depend on lots of factors, but don’t hold your breath.

Lie #2, Obama Says: “I will not sign on to any health plan that adds to our deficits over the next decade.”

But according to the Congressional Budget Office’s current chief, Douglas Elmendorf, Obamacare will lead to substantially higher costs in the future – costs that will be “unsustainable.”

Other expert estimates for reforming health care range from 1 trillion to 3.6 trillion. Much of this money will be spent on subsidies to the so-called “public” option that would lead to higher rates on the private plans most of us have now.

Lie #3, Obama Says: “They change incentives so providers will give patients the best care, not just the most expensive care, which will mean big savings over time.”

But according to Robert M Goldberg again: “In fact, both bills cover the cost by making people wait for needed tests and treatments and forcing doctors to skimp on care to meet a government standard of ‘quality.’ AAHCA uses price controls. And there is no room for discussion: The bill states: ‘There shall be no administrative or judicial review of a payment rate or methodology established under this section or any other section.'”

Don’t let Obama continue to lie to the American people. This plan will hurt your health care.

It is frightening that Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are rushing the overhaul of the entire system without adequate debate and deliberation. Pelosi is disregarding the deliberative process. When questioned about the way the House of Representatives leader has repeatedly railroaded over Republican objections, she simple says: “Now, we had an election that was about our different views and the direction our country was going in. We had a different point of view. The American people agreed with us.”

Barack Obama also wants to do away with committee hearings, expert testimony, study and discussion. At a hastily called news conference, Obama was frantically pushing the bill: Obama continued, “now is the not the time to slow down.”“We are going to get this done. We will reform health care. It will happen this year. I’m absolutely convinced of that.”

This gestapo of leftists that are currently in control of America are blocking the torpedoes and pushing ahead because they don’t want key questions asked … questions that deserve answers.

Stand and demand that Members of Congress do the right thing.

The goal is clear. This is the next step before a complete takeover of the American private medical system. Socialized medicine will lead to limits on care, limits on tests, and limits on doctors, leading to premature death for you or your loved ones.

Look what socialized medicine has done to the healthcare industry in other countries around the world, according to Investor’s Business Daily it is a story of care deferred and higher death rates:

“In countries with nationalized care, medical outcomes are often catastrophically worse. Take breast cancer. According to the Heritage Foundation, breast cancer mortality in Germany is 52% higher than in the U.S.; the U.K.’s rate is 88% higher. For prostate cancer, mortality is 604% higher in the U.K. and 457% higher in Norway. Colorectal cancer? 40% higher in the U.K.”

But what about the health care paradise to our north? Americans have almost uniformly better outcomes and lower mortality rates than Canada, where breast cancer mortality is 9% higher, prostate cancer 184% higher and colon cancer 10% higher.

Then there are the waiting lists. In Canada, which has a population of just over 33 million, just under that of California, 830,000 Canadians are waiting to be admitted to a hospital or to get treatment. In England, the list is 1.8 million deep.

Rationed care that increases deaths is not my idea of improvement, and I know you don’t think so either.

Let’s make sure our representatives and senators know what we think.

Stop this runaway train before it is too late!

Here is a link to the ObamaCare health plan. You better read it because you will be forced to live with it unless you do something about it!

Here is an overview of the ObamaCare health care bill (HR 3200) which Congress is about to force every citizen to live under, except members of Congress.

Members of Congress will be exempt from being forced into this plan. They will have their own. The liberals, Democrats and some Republicans – while forcing you to join the plan – refuse to include themselves. Members of Congress will have a better plan which gives these elitists the freedom you will be denied.

ObamaCare will include abortion, healthcare rationing (especially seniors and special needs care no matter what age), doctor choice elimination, increased taxes in many ways and areas, the equivalent of family police where government comes in and tells you how to raise your children, and much more you need to be aware of.

ObamaCare is a nightmare. It is Marxist in its approach and application.

You can read the attached updated and revised overview file of HR 3200 as compiled by Liberty Counsel.

Or, go to the full text of HR 3200 and read directly from the government website what this bill does! It is true you will probably need a lawyer to understand it but thankfully the Liberty Counsel took time to translate some major portions. Most of the politicians haven’t even read it!

Your Senators and Representative will soon be home for the August recess of Congress. Get a car load of friends and go meet with your Senators and Representative. Find out where he or she is holding Townhall meetings. Go to those meetings and ask for some answers! Some of them may try to avoid discussing ObamaCare. Don’t let them!

Find your Senators and Representative local offices here through the American Family Association website.

Take Action!

• E-mail your Senators and Representative,asking for a schedule of their Townhall meeting during the month of August. Once you get the information, get a carload of friends and attend the Townhall meeting.

• If your Senators or Representative is not holding Townhall meeting, ask why not.(We have been told that many of those favoring ObamaCare aren’t holding meeting because they don’t want to answer questions about ObamaCare.) Then ask for an appointment at his or her district office nearest you.

THIS MUST NOT PASS !

I know socialized medicine as I was under it for over 30 years and continue to see how it has deteriorated since I moved to America and watch the poor care my relatives receive back in Canada, which is rife with rationing and lack of services, let alone doctors. It does not work in the long haul … health care in America will be so much worse if this is adopted! And, it is far from free for those who work.

I understand the system needs to be reformed but this is NOT the way!

The Obama administration is finally hitting its biggest roadblock in the debate over health care: the facts. Despite his best attempts to gloss over the real cost, the President continues to lock horns with the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), whose unflattering analyses are cutting significantly into the administration’s efforts to sell this as reform. Much to this administration’s displeasure, the CBO continues to provide an honest assessment of the bill’s price tag, which has rocketed well above $1 trillion.

Unlike other entities, the CBO is supposed to be above partisanship–but in the eyes of the Obama administration, that’s a problem. For an administration so accustomed to having its way with Congress, the press, and the American people, the CBO’s independence has been a powerful annoyance. Frustrated by his inability to control how CBO scores his proposal, President Obama took the unprecedented step of calling CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf into his office for a heart to heart. The White House was particularly angry over Elmendorf’s estimate that the House version of “reform” would “result in a net increase in the federal budget deficit of $239 billion over the 2010-2019.” Obviously the President didn’t take kindly to the CBO for interrupting his public spin with the bottom line.

But calling in Elmendorf to “discuss” these costs is highly unusual – even by liberal standards. To the best of anyone’s knowledge, this is the first time an administration has tried to directly intervene in how the CBO appraises legislation. More than a few people speculated that the administration was trying to strong-arm the Office into releasing more budget-friendly numbers in their scores. There would be no other motivation for the meeting, particularly since (as both Ed Morrissey and John Fund point out), the White House has its own budget office.

If President Obama were earnestly looking for ways to cut costs, he could have picked up the phone and called the OMB, the Office of Management and Budget. Instead, he reached across the entire Executive Branch to strong-arm a congressional appointee, a move that shows this President isn’t willing to fight fair in the most expensive policy initiative of his term.

As Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell described it, “that’s like asking the umpires to come up to the owner’s box…. I mean, if the CBO is to have credibility, they’re the umpire.” To his credit, Elmendorf said that the meeting with President Obama would not impact how the CBO scores health care reform. And to prove it, the CBO released an assessment on Friday afternoon that disputed the Democrats’ claim that a few changes to the plan would result in big savings. On the contrary, the proposed cuts would only skim a measly 0.2% off the bill’s total price.

No one denies that in an affluent country such as our own, it borders on tragic that millions do not have some form of health care, some by choice and some not. I feel for those Americans. I agree that health care reform is needed badly in America, but I don’t believe the bill of goods called “universal health care” that is being pitched presently by our president contains the solution. In fact, it is bad medicine for America.

1. Universal health care is being recklessly rushed.

Just like the stimulus packages and bogus bailout baloney, Obama-care is being shoved downed America’s throat (without explanation) and propelled like a ramrod through Congress (without being totally read and examined). This Obama blitzkrieg: create crisis; crunch numbers; and cram legislation is getting old fast.

2. Universal health care clearly would drive our country dangerously deeper into debt, which is being progressively purchased by foreign powers without any concern by Washington to stop it.

Obama said in his nationally televised news conference, “Health care reform is not going to add to that deficit; it’s designed to lower it.” How can he say that when he doesn’t know the far-reaching implications of offering it across the nation? What about the countries where socialized medicine are failing their people?

The president is struggling to base his rhetoric in fiscal reality. Even according to the Congressional Budget Office, the Senate version of the health care legislation “would result in a net increase in federal deficits of about $1.0 trillion for fiscal years 2010 through 2019.” Is that what you call good fiscal responsibility within an economy and government that already is bordering on bankruptcy?  Even worse with the addition of up to 20 million illegal immigrants on this system.

3. Uuniversal health care would impersonalize health care and ration medical services.

Government takeover of health care also would allow Washington to use “comparative effectiveness research” to dictate to doctors which treatments they should prescribe and how much they should cost. That in turn would lead to rationing of health care services.

Canada and Europe already have proved that national health care translates into national nightmares, with a plethora of new government regulations and new systems of rationing medical attention. Under government-run services, personal health care would transform into more impersonal harassment. More government means more bureaucrats running our lives.

4. Universal health care ultimately would limit the competitive market of health care.

You don’t create competitive markets by creating monopolies, yet that is exactly what government-run universal health care would prevent: competition. If government should do anything, it should crack down on medical insurance monopolies. If government wants to regulate one more thing, it would be better to regulate the medical insurance companies, not the American people.

5. Universal health care ultimately would transform legislators into quasi health care practitioners.

With government-sanctioned universal health care, legislators would become quasi medical practitioners because they would lead and guide the government-controlled medical boards, personnel and policies that would oversee the program. That would include abortive and end-of-life counsel and services. Federal politicians would rely upon relatively few chief physicians (appointed mostly by them), who in turn would oversee and implement the medical policies and procedures that they felt were best for the country. American choice and freedom would be passé.

6. Universal health care would increase big government, and America would continue toward socialism.

The nanny state is not our solution to better health. Our government already provides two medical coverage programs: Medicare (for senior citizens) and Medicaid (for low-income citizens). The president mentioned in his speech last week that those two programs are the greatest contributors to our skyrocketing deficit. So why not reform, improve and enhance those programs rather than create a third (or fourth or fifth) government medical bureaucracy called “universal health care”?

What is needed in Washington is a truly bipartisan group that is allowed an ample amount of time to work on a compromise health care program that wouldn’t raise taxes (for anyone), nor regulate personal medical choices or ration health care.

Don’t wait for Washington! Go to http://PatientsUnitedNow.com to learn more about how you and your local community can reform health care and keep your options for doctors and medical care. And mostly, go to the Web site of Dr. Betsy McCaughey at http://www.DefendYourHealthCare.us. She is a health policy expert and former lieutenant governor of New York and actually has read the entire Senate bill on universal health care. She is disclosing many hidden details within it that are not being discussed with the American public.

The ranking Republican on the House Subcommittee on Immigration says Democrats have refused to pass an amendment that would prevent illegal aliens from being covered in the Obama healthcare plan.

Democrats recently defeated a Republican-backed amendment offered by Rep. Dean Heller (R-Nevada) that would have prevented illegal immigrants from receiving government-subsidized healthcare under the proposed plan backed by House Democrats and President Obama.

Congressman Steve King (R-Iowa), the ranking member on the House Immigration Subcommittee, finds it outrageous that Democrats want to force hardworking Americans to foot the healthcare bill for those who are in the country illegally, complete with all the pre-existing conditions that would require treatment.

“The Democrats will not even allow an amendment to be debated on the subject matter. They have shut down the debate process here, and they have pushed any discussion – however minimal it is – up to the secret room up in the Rules Committee. They’re not going to debate it,” he points out. “They are determined to fund health insurance and healthcare for illegals – and the number turns out to be 5.6 million that would be insured under this bill. [Those are] Congressional Budget Office numbers.” That is even a low ball estimate as it is pushing 20 million from other reports.

Despite the questionable impact of the first stimulus package, there is actually discussion of a second stimulus package. So far, the states have spent roughly 10% of the $787 billion package, but it has yet to register on the “recovery” radar. In fact, the only thing that seems to have changed is the unemployment rate – and not in the direction the President had hoped.

Given where the money’s been directed, maybe none of us should be surprised. Mark Kelly of the Heritage Foundation did some digging on where the House Speaker funneled her District’s dollars, and the list of projects is enough to send taxpayers through the roof. Let me put it this way: Nancy Pelosi is trying to stimulate a lot more than San Francisco’s economy. While the average American is worried about losing his shirt, Congress is funding actors who aren’t wearing any!

According to Kelly, $50,000 was sent to an initiative called CounterPulse in San Francisco that just sponsored a “Perverts [Sleep Around]” event on July 25, urging people to “Join your fellow pervs for some explicit, twisted fun!” Another $50,000 went directly to an entertainment group called Frameline that concentrates on promoting the “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community” in the arts.

Over at “San Francisco Cinematheque,” organizers raked in $25,000 to promote documentaries like “Thundercrack,” of which a reviewer writes, “Witness if you dare, the world’s only underground kinky art porno horror film, complete with four men, three women and a gorilla.” A company called Jess Curtis/Gravity, Inc. will receive $25,000, presumably to help boost their Symmetry Project, which features nude couples in compromising positions.

Other programs are too crude and embarrassing to even mention. But shouldn’t that say something to the third most powerful leader in America? If these projects are too obscene to talk about, what business does the U.S. government have funding them? This isn’t just waste – It’s reckless, indecent garbage sponsored by Congress and paid for by you. If these are the priorities of America’s new leadership, then we should definitely get a second opinion on their vision for an issue as significant as health care. For more on Pelosi’s “waste” line, visit Mark’s blog at markkelly.posterous.com.

Michelle Malkin Reveals How Obama’s “Unprecedented”

Presidency Breeds Corruption and Kills Change

When Barack Obama launched his presidency, he pledged to “build a more hopeful America.” On the campaign trail he promised to do away with Washington politics as usual.

But in the first six months of his term, Obama has indulged in a breath-taking campaign of nepotism, self-dealing, back-scratching, corporate lobbying, government favors, entrenched incumbency, and hypocrisy.

Obama’s government is not exactly the change people were hoping for.

In her devastating exposé, Culture of Corruption, bestselling author and investigative reporter Michelle Malkin cites example after example of Team Obama’s corrupt dealings and abuses of power. Malkin shows how Obama has hand-picked a team that will do his dirty work for him and exposes dozens of corrupt dealings—all of which the liberal media would rather keep hidden.

From power broker Rahm Emanuel, to pay-to-play tainted Michelle Obama and Joe Biden, to ethically challenged Tim Geithner, to crime-coddling corporate lawyer Eric Holder, Obama’s cabinet is all about increased government power and very little about helping Americans get ahead.

In Culture of Corruption you will learn:

• How the Obama White House has circumvented the pesky approval process by simply appointing unaccountable, unqualified, scandal-ridden “czars” to key posts—16 and counting

• How Obama asserted he “never organized with ACORN,” but Federal Election Commission records show he paid more than $832,000 to CSI “ACORN’s Campaign Services Entity” and then lied about it

• How Obama promises low-cost healthcare for everyone, yet his wife, First Crony-In-Chief, championed a University of Chicago healthcare program that was accused of “patient dumping” and “cherry picking” wealthy patients over poor

• How “Average Joe Biden” has benefited from the former credit card giant MBNA’s wealth, enjoying sweetheart real estate deals and lining his lobbyist son’s pockets

Culture of Corruption proves that this is the government of the crony, by the lobbyist, and for the well-heeled. Obama lacks the will to change Washington politics, and Culture of Corruption reveals what his agenda will mean for his presidency—and America.

An interesting article by Ben Stein in The American Spectator on July 24, 2009 says, our freedoms are on the line.

We’ve Figured Him Out

Why is President Barack Obama in such a hurry to get his socialized medicine bill passed?

Because he and his cunning circle realize some basic truths:

The American people in their unimaginable kindness and trust voted for a pig in a poke in 2008. They wanted so much to believe Barack Obama was somehow better and different from other ultra-leftists that they simply took him on faith.

They ignored his anti-white writings in his books. They ignored his quiet acceptance of hysterical anti-American diatribes by his minister, Jeremiah Wright.

They ignored his refusal to explain years at a time of his life as a student. They ignored his ultra-left record as a “community organizer,” Illinois state legislator, and Senator.

The American people ignored his total zero of an academic record as a student and teacher, his complete lack of scholarship when he was being touted as a scholar.

Now, the American people are starting to wake up to the truth. Barack Obama is a super likeable super leftist, not a fan of this country, way, way too cozy with the terrorist leaders in the Middle East, way beyond naïveté, all the way into active destruction of our interests and our allies and our future.

The American people have already awakened to the truth that the stimulus bill — a great idea in theory — was really an immense bribe to Democrat interest groups, and in no way an effort to help all Americans.

Now, Americans are waking up to the truth that ObamaCare basically means that every time you are sick or injured, you will have a clerk from the Department of Motor Vehicles telling your doctor what he can and cannot do.

The American people already know that Mr. Obama’s plan to lower health costs while expanding coverage and bureaucracy is a myth, a promise of something that never was and never will be – a bureaucracy lowering costs in a free society. Either the costs go up or the free society goes away.

These are perilous times. Mrs. Hillary Clinton, our Secretary of State, has given Iran the go-ahead to have nuclear weapons, an unqualified betrayal of the nation. Now, we face a devastating loss of freedom at home in health care. It will be joined by controls on our lives to “protect us” from global warming, itself largely a fraud if believed to be caused by man.

Mr. Obama knows Americans are getting wise and will stop him if he delays at all in taking away our freedoms.

There is his urgency and our opportunity. Once freedom is lost, America is lost. Wake up, beloved America.

Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and lawyer living in Beverly Hills and Malibu. He writes “Ben Stein’s Diary” for every issue of The American Spectator.