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Insure TN is Obamacare, period!

In Uncategorized on February 3, 2015 at 8:11 AM

Insure Tn is  Obamacare, period!

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Dress it up anyway you want!

Call it whatever you want!

Lie and deceive your constituency all you want.

Insure TN is Obamacare.

Congressman Scott Dejarlais, TN 4th District had this to say about Insure TN recently. He is a Doctor in the state of Tennessee and I would call him an expert on the subject.

“Governor Haslam’s Insure Tennessee proposal accepts federal funds in exchange for adopting Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.”

” And while both the governor’s office and the Tennessean editorial board would like to claim Insure Tennessee is not Obamacare, that is simply not true.”

“Think about it: without Obamacare there would be no funding source for Insure Tennessee.” “The two programs are inextricably intertwined.”

“The governor’s proposal relies on the federal government to provide funding through the Affordable Care Act for 100 percent of the program until 2020, when Tennessee will be required to pay for 10 percent.”

“To complicate matters further, our debt is not the only threat to the future of this funding. ”

“My conservative colleagues in Congress are desperately working to abolish the Affordable Care Act – the very program the governor is relying on to subsidize INSURE TENNESSEE.”

“This sets up a situation where if Obamacare is repealed it will essentially be putting our state’s finances in jeopardy.”

“The governor is quick to say INSURE TENNESSEE is merely a pilot program and after two years HHS has assured his administration Tennessee will be able to end the program if we find it is not right for our state.”

“First, HHS is not an agency we should put much faith in as was seen in their complete mishandling of Obamacare’s rollout.”

“Second, it is extremely difficult to name a single government program that once established was eventually repealed.”

“The general rule is that once government establishes a program, it is usually here to stay.” he concluded in a recent interview. (Source below)

Haslam, Kevin Brooks and others have repeatedly said Insure TN is not Obamacare!  

This is a lie!

In an interview Q and A with the Cleveland Daily Banner recently State Representative 24 District Kevin Brooks talked about Insure Tn, defending claims by the Koch Brothers and AFP that he has betrayed Tennesseans by now supporting Obamacare in our state, a claim he denies.

His statements below sure sound like he is sold on Insure Tn, ie, Obamacare. But a vote occurs today and we will see.

Brooks says “I would not be surprised if this is one of at least two special sessions — one to turn the switch on and another to see if we want to continue or flip the switch off,” Brooks said. “That’s why I can say this is not Obamacare. Yes, there’s care, but it’s an attempt to ensure that Tennesseans have a healthy future and it won’t be costly.”

He went on to deceptively say ““This plan is Tennessee-unique and Tennessee-specific. It is not Obamacare,” Brooks said. “You cannot call it Obamacare; it is a health care plan to help these 200,000 Tennesseans that currently do not have health insurance. It is not going to cost Tennesseans any of their state tax dollars.” 

Brooks went on to say support has been overwhelming for him and is taking the AFP/Koch Brothers  attacks on him as personal, like a David and Goliath epic biblical struggle. 

I can assure you this is strictly political. A personal attack makes no sense. What benefit would it be to the Koch Brothers for this to be personal? He voted he did not want Obamacare in the state a few months ago and now it appears he does want Obamacare in the state. This isn’t personal, it’s political. This is strictly a discussion of your voting record.

I predict Brooks will probably go with Haslam and vote for the measure and the deceptive delays and avoidances will be just that.

What does the 24th District Tn State Representative expect will happen to his constituency when and if it passes and then “we” decide we do not “like” it? 

Those 200,000 plus you insured through Obamacare gets dropped and are returned to their previous uninsured status. This will leave veterans, disabled, elderly and poor people without insurance again. Wanna talk about “injury?” Giving, then taking away is pretty harmful to a group of constituents if you ask me. Then let’s not even discuss what it will cost those constituents in the form of higher taxes or what it could do to our budget.

Why not take our state back and find a workable situation to provide healthcare without a 1.4 billion price tag per year? Why not give them some longevity with their care? How about putting a think tank together and come up with solutions outside of Obamacare and the federal government?

To continue to say this is not Obamacare is irresponsible and puts  hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans at a disadvantage.

Attorney General Herbert Slattery was recently asked to give his opinion of the Haslam/Obama Insure plan. I understand Mr Slattery to be a friend and ex co-worker of Bill Haslam. He had this to say about Insure Tn, although, I doubt he knew he was not helping Haslams argument for Insure Tn. With that said, I doubt you will hear Haslam or Brooks reciting this opinion recently provided by Slattery.

In his opinion, Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery says “the state can expand health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act and eventually revoke that coverage if it follows correct procedures.”

“Tennessee may expand its Medicaid program through the Affordable Care Act — also known as OBAMACARE — and discontinue that program in the future.”

He continues on page 5, paragraph 3, Slattery confirmed, although Haslam/Brooks has been denying:  Medicaid expansion as that proposed in Insure TN is, in fact — Obamacare.  

“The authority to create Insure TN is authorized and paid for by the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and is administered under the rules as laid down by the ACA”(Obamacare).

“All states looking to expand their Medicaid coverage in any way using funds made available by the Affordable Care Act must submit a proposal to federal health officials”

“The opinion clearly notes the plan expands coverage through the Affordable Care Act….”the state can expand health care coverage through the Affordable Care Act and eventually revoke that coverage if it follows correct procedures.”

This AG opinion sheds no doubt that this plan expands coverage through the Affordable Care Act, ie, Obamacare.

INSURE TN IS OBAMACARE!!!

Let’s pretend a Doctor who happens to be a Congressman in the 4th District and  true conservative is lying when he says Insure Tn is Obamacare.

Let’s also pretend that AG Slattery who also happens to be a friend and ex coworker of Haslams is also wrong.  We e are left with few options but to look at the plan and see it’s reliance upon Obamacare for it’s existence.

Remember, even Haslam or Brooks doesnt fully know what is in the plan but lets look at what we do know.

 Is this beginning to sound familiar? Let’s vote on it then we read it? Can we channel a little Pelosi anyone?

1) It encourages enrollment of able bodied, childless healthy young people that can sustain health and to focus on preventative health. Basically to consume little healthcare and to pay for those that are sick, just like Obamacare.

2) The Governor cannot unilaterally say Insure Tn can happen, he must have the legislatures approval.

3) “Haslam touts his “verbal agreement” with the Obama administration as a “market-based Tennessee solution”

4) The plan details are not easily accessible.

5) The majority would consume healthcare as a regular Tn Care patient but many could receive federal subsidies to offset employee sponsored healthcare coverage, just like Obamacare.

6) individuals below the poverty line would pay no premium and would pay a nominal co pay for prescription drugs. Sounding familiar?

7) Those above the poverty line would pay nominal co pays. A 20-25 dollar suggestion premium with no teeth or penalty if you don’t pay. Sound like socialism?

8)  Haslam offers a benefit package for those in good health just like managed care organizations have done for years and yes like Obamacare. The real challenge do those at the poverty level have the motivation or means to practice “healthy practices” or do they as witnessed continue to consume non frugally because it’s basically “free healthcare”, like Obamacare?

9) It is subject to the same cost sharing limits as traditional Medicaid, utilizes the same existing Medicaid system to deliver the same services and benefits as Medicaid.

10) The plan would operate under a Medicaid waiver, require an amended state Medicaid plan to implement and would be funded through the Medicaid plan, just like Obama intended from the beginning.

11) Is 100 percent funded through the federal government via the ACA, Obamacare till 2020. What if Obamacare is rescinded, I don’t wanna discuss those ramifications and cost to the state. This is a 100 percent cost to you the TN taxpayer. 

Remember Medicaid expansion in the early 1990s resulted in 300 percent debt above expected costs and enrollment shoving the state into near bankruptcy, a failing credit rating, a near state income tax and consumption of nearly 40 percent of the states total budget? 

The trouble with “free healthcare” under a state plan via Obamacare is exactly that, it’s free!

If you throw out a free state program via the federal government to those who unfortunately have very little, it will be ravenously and uncontrollably consumed. Consumed much like a wild animal being thrown a steak.

Costs will sore, few will restrain. At this point we may very well pull coverage from those who truly need it because we have a plan that does not reward low consumption, but encourages consumption. 

The corporations involved only make money when resources are consumed and believe me this will be encouraged. There is no incentive not to consume or penalty for doing so. The free fall begins!

The recipients of free healthcare see this as an entitlement and under these conditions cost control will not happen nor will over consumption be squelched. Costs will inevitably be beyond state budget restraints.

This formula being devised by Haslam and with the action oriented support of State Representative Kevin Brooks is a recipe for disaster and begs one to ask why would you want Obamacare in TN when just a few months ago you didn’t want it? My guess is follow the money, it may make all this very clear.

Regardless if you believe this blog and it’s culmination of facts, whether you believe Obama, Haslam or Brooks, INSURE TN, ie, OBAMACARE is bad for Tennessee.

INSURE TN IS OBAMACARE!!!

The opposite is being echoed by Haslam and Brooks!

Sources of info: 

I want to thank Forbes, the Cleveland Daily Banner, The Tennessean, all web solutions, Congressman Dejarlais, Rocky Top Politics and all others for their excellent coverage of this subject and the most excellent resource for my talking points. Please support these media outlets and visit their sites frequently. 

http://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/contributors/2015/01/31/insure-tennessee-funds-linked-obamacare/22596057/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2014/12/18/insure-tn-will-assure-more-obamacare-in-tennessee/

AG Slattery opinion “it is Obamacare”
http://www.allwebsolutions.net/politics/ag-state-can-expand-medicaid-through-insure-tennessee/

http://rockytoppolitics.com/

Insure TN: To vote for Obamacare or not?

In Uncategorized on February 1, 2015 at 9:21 AM

Insure TN: To vote for Obamacare or not?

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Will our legislators and elected officials vote for Obamacare or not?

Medicaid expansion, Obamacaid, Haslamacaid, or Insure TN. Regardless of the name, it still requires a vote and it will receive the majority of it’s funding via the Affordable Care Act, ie, Obamacare.

Tn Governor Bill Haslam is touring the State attempting to draw support for his version of Obamacare where all able bodied subjects sign up for “free” healthcare and the Tn taxpayer gets to pay for it via Federal funds, higher taxes or skyrocketing premiums.

It has been said that Haslam has back doored a deal with the Obama administration to expand Medicaid, Obamacare into Tennessee. This is the most disturbing part of this story. It even appears that the GOP has even stepped and said ” if republicans want to vote for Obamacare, we, the GOP elite will have your back when the people strike back against you for inching us further into socialism.” Where are we when the “opposing” party is acting like this?

Does anyone recall what happened when Medicaid was expanded in 1990 and in 1994? We nearly bankrupted the state. By 2000 Medicaid was consuming about 36 percent of the states budget prompting the state legislature to propose a state income tax to cover costs. Of course this measure didn’t pass and we ended up dis-enrolling 170,000 to make ends meet.

The current Medicaid system has very few checks and balances. The poor basically have free reign of the healthcare system and are not shy about consuming frequently and without restraint they boast about abusing it. Costs will soar because there are very few restraints or limits on its use. Just ask any caregiver what a “regular” is. 

Wanna make a difference? Put limits on Medicaid on the consumption end! Problem solved. Patients are abusing it like a crackhead on the pipe. It’s the if it’s  free I’m gonna use it mentality. We will never be able to control costs for hundreds of thousands of new enrollees. Our healthcare system is not built for restraint. Patients seek it and caregivers give it in hopes enough bad debt write offs will balance the budget.

Critics and the left say “If we don’t accept the terms of Obamacare someone else will get the money or we will have to pay for it out of our own pocket!” Guess what? We will not lose any money nor will anyone else get it. And we are already absorbing the poors costs and taking real good care of the indigent population regardless of their ability to pay. This measure will only encourage the poor populace in TN to knock other people down getting to that “free” healthcare. Costs soar and we are left with the bill. To think this will help anyone is absurd.

With expansion of Obamacaid to an estimated 200,000 poor Tennesseans, where will the work force go? It is estimated that 60-70, 000 will simply drop out of the workforce because they don’t have to work as hard, as long as Uncle Sam is providing their bread and butter.

Not too long ago Haslam and his band of loyal lap dogs fought to not have federalized Obamacare expansion in our state sayin no way, not in our state. This was a great stance that symbolized victory and solidarity against Obamacare.

Today, Haslam brokers a  deal with Obama to do exactly what Obama intended. Haslam has become the messenger and deliverer of Obamacare to Tennesseans.

The Koch brothers and AFP, Americans For Progress are spending alot of money on radio ads to attack local legislators for trying to hide the fact that Insure Tn is just another Medicaid/Obamacare expansion. This was going virtually unnoticed till attention was drawn to the deception by our elected officials.

Incidentally, State Representative Kevin Brooks 24th District, has drawn the ire of the billionaire brothers and their political organization and they have him firmly in their sites.

Brooks, according to the ads has been parading around the state house drumming up support for Haslams Obamacare plan. An allegation Brooks has not owned stating he hasn’t even declared a position one way or another on the issue. But some argue that his action is his statement. He will be voting soon and we will be watching.

Recently Brooks and a host of others stood against Obamacare making the constituency proud. But those in the know knew something was brewing. Often, politicians will allow the Trojan horse to slip through the gate, appear conservative then when they think no one is looking baaaam they try to slip Obamacare or a leftist issue through the gate and fool the peasants. Not this time it appears. The People have their eyes wide open.

One thing for sure is the Koch Brothers and AFP saw the soldiers dismounting from the trojan horse and spoiled their plan calling them out in radio ads all over the state, especially in Bradley County Tn. Like them or not they are spot on with this issue.
 
With Haslam dressing Obamacare up like a Thanksgiving turkey it will be interesting to see how those healthcare fighting marauders will vote in the near future.

Will they do the flip flop or appear hypocritical just to appease King Haslam.

Will Insure Tn, ie, Obamacaid be the Achilles heel that divides the men from the liberals? 

Regardless of the outcome it will send a strong message to voters and will separate the true conservatives from the RINO.

Do we vote the way King Haslam wants us too or do we vote against Obamacare?

Rest assured if they vote to expand Obamacare in TN, conservative types all across TN will be lined up down the street ready to vote them out of office.

Its Haslam, Obama or the people?

The line in the sand is drawn. 

February 3rd, 2014 we will see where they stand.

Sources of info:

http://www.clevelandbanner.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Legislators+cautious+on+Haslam+proposals%20&id=26246533

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/23/anti-medicaid-expansion-lawmaker-criticizes-radio-/

http://www.politico.com/playbook/0114/playbook12615.html

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/politics/state/story/2015/jan/23/radio-ads-target-health-care-plan/284144/

Insure Tn costs 
http://www.tennessean.com/story/insession/2015/01/28/5-takeaways-insure-tennessee-presentation/22478059/

2016 Tn Care budget

Click to access HCFAbudgetFY16.pdf

AG opinion
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2015/01/27/ag-opinion-says-state-can-proceed-with-insure-tennessee/22398717/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2014/12/18/insure-tn-will-assure-more-obamacare-in-tennessee/

How could a conservative ever vote for Trump, glad you asked.

In Uncategorized on September 14, 2015 at 10:41 AM

How could a conservative ever vote for Trump, glad you asked.

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How can I support Trump? Dont you know he sent money to Democrats? Been divorced 3 times? Bankruptcy? A Government shill? Etc, etc, etc.

Gaaaah! These questions day in and day out get so tiring! I get these questions almost daily and my reply each time  is almost the same everytime. 

I long for the day when everyday Americans will wake up and see who is frying their coffee. 

True conservatives and you know who you are make up the majority of the support for Trump. 

Somehow in the scope of this political arena we have accepted the faults of a Presidential candidate and traded it for bringing the fight to the Republican party. The party that left us is being co opted by a man and his people that are willing to fight the establishment.

Go about 14 from the bottom of the GOP field and you have about 3 that are willing to stand and fight the establishment that has done nothing the last 4 years to pave away for this day. We have an anti establishment candidate forging new roads and setting records in the polling so early from the first primary. 

Many have been left shaking their head and frustrated that Trump, Carson and Cruz are leading the pack. This result sends a strong message to the GOP that what they are presenting and packaging is not the desired recipe. People like Reince Priebus and Carl Rove are left sucking for air as their leadership has failed and are still trying to explain away the phenomena that is the anti establishment vote. 

The fathers or leaders of the GOP made a deadly mistake in 2012 and 2014! They made promises they did not or even attempt to keep. Their fodder, their lies were very evident in spite of their voice otherwise. It’s sickening to see these leaders squander away an excellent opportunity to take over the White House for the opportunity to coexist with the DEMs in their own world. The people have seen this fake representation of establishment knighthood and have said enough is enough. It’s time to make America Great Again and the GOP or the DEMs have been bypassed for genuine and deliberate effort by non establishment candidates sticking their head out as the voice of the people.

Fake conservatives, establishment types, RINOs and even DINOs are so left behind in the debate for the next president that they are left looking for answers that to date only true conservatives can answer.

First off, in the current political environment I see no difference right and left now in the two main parties. Nothing. The Republicans are Democrats and Democrats are Republicans. This very public display of affection for each other is so prevalent and fueling the debate to seat a candidate in the White House that is not willing to see the country slide into it’s final demise. Thank God the people are still in control and lifting their voice to assure control of a party that had left control to the people’s  voice. This is the sadness of a party that had lost control and has been unable to read the emotions of it multiple branches.

Meanwhile, I have yet to meet that perfect candidate with no faults or sins. And if I do I’m pretty sure his name will be Jesus Christ. And Trump may argue this point.

The GOP has left me the conservative. I have no meaningful relationship with the GOP because not too long ago the GOP kicked me out of it’s ranks. Even called me a racist and a terrorist. This arrogance and lack of sympathy for a huge voting block has created the dilemma the GOP has created. You see GOP robots like McConnel, Boehner and McCain are out of touch RINOs willing to sacrifice party for the people they represent. Talking heads like Rove and Priebus have created an environment where a large portion of their party has been isolated and left angry and willing to vote for anyone other than the mainstream establishment middle of the road RINO! The one they represent. Quite frankly, the GOP has been taken over by the right within their own party, by default, by design and the direct result of a ship misguided and run ashore. Suck it up butter cup, you built this resistance with your own petty thoughtlessness and ability to see beyond you selfless pitifulness!

 Cruz and Carson  are the exceptions to the same ole same ole.Carson is brilliant, but lacks pizzaz and enthusiasm but is surging in the latest polls. 

Cruz despite his big GS banking background spouse and admitted lack of enthusiasm for the race, with the occasional bout of depression, is a brilliant man with far too little money plus he has a hit on him by the GOP Cartel that will not give him their blessing and will fail miserably on his own. He will ultimately suffer the same tract as Bush but has quite possibly won the VP slot for Trump because he has aligned with him on certain issues.

Then Trump steps into the picture. Please allow me to make my argument as if to answer your simple question of ” How can a conservative like or support Donald Trump. Allow this one disclaimer before I start. Please separate what the establishment RINO type want you to believe and what is actual fact. Go with your own gut and completely forget what Rove and company pretend to believe what is right for a party in disarray ‘

Donald Trump has said he has changed his ways because he didn’t like the direction the country is going. That to me answers alot of doubt, because, I too do not like the direction it is going roughly.

 Like or loathe him, enough true conservatives are polling for him to give him a significant lead with only months left to go till the 2016 elections. This is my frontrunner and why I support him.

He is saying everything I wanna hear and doing everything I wanna do. When he speaks its as if he just read my mind, dug into my brain and rattled out dice onto a table in Vegas. Few candidates have ever done this and I am very confident few others aside from Cruz are able to do that on a regular basis.

This guy, reminiscent of Reagan, who was a staunch Democrat with a big mouth and from Hollywood, Trump from NY.  Heck even Reagans wife dabbled in witchcraft, despite this Reagan became arguably the best President in our history. Few thought Reagan would win, let alone succeed. It just shows how wrong the establishment can be when dealing with the unknown and the power of the people.

I’ll start laying down my case for Trump and ill be most glad to field your comments. Heck, I may even pull some RINOs or some moderates over to board the Trump Train to DC., Then again, we don’t need those types, enough of “the people” are surrounding him. Never mind, do as you please. Then again I may offer a swift kick to their behinds, then again, I don’t wanna dirty my shoes.

The list below could go on longer but I’ll save you from having to think outside the establishment box for an extended amount of time, I know you are not comfortable there and I’ll consider this as I continue.

Reasons I support Trump,

Number 1: 

Trump can speak without a Teleprompter and can put two sentences together and handle adversity with heavy handed questioning and survive. 

2:

He is super tough on immigration which is a problem left unchecked will launch us into 3rd world status with super cheap illegal wages and a working class capable of keeping many people out of work who want to. 

3:

He wants Build a wall to stop the flow and have Mexico pay for it? Wow! Nuff said!

4:

He has pledged to put troops on the ground and attack ISIS and take their seized oil fields and make them ours to assist with paying down the debt. 

5:

He is a smart businessman with tough negotiating skills to decrease our severe trade deficits and would apply tools of the trade to stop the huge leak in our economic world.

6:

He wants to negotiate with other countries to bring jobs and companies back home. 

7:

The businesses are leaving the US because of excess taxes under a system designed to halt the free market. He wants ZERO taxes on businesses so they have incentive to be here. OREOs are now made in Mexico, that should be an unforgivable sin alone and enough reason just to get OREOs back to America in a timely manner. OREOs  made in Mexico…..yuck! It’s un-American !

8:

He sees a 20 trillion dollar debt and is in his own words “can’t wait to bring that down and if we wait any longer we may miss the opportunity to fix it “-Paraphrased. 

9: 

He is hinting or at least the rumor is he may be choosing Cruz or Carson as his VP. This would assure us of at least 16 years of production and a move in the right direction.

10:

He is confident yet humble.  Last night in a town hall meeting he joked about his book “Art of the deal” as being the greatest book of all time, then corrected himself mid sentence and said I apologize, the BIBLE is the greatest book of all times, bar none. 

11: 

He is tough and chisled enough to be a strong and relentless professor of all he exudes. He has admitted to seeing the err of his earlier days supporting the left. Heck my family was Democrat at one time and if you look back far enough, yours too. 

12:

He knows we are one election from losing all our freedoms. There is a sense of urgency in him that is contagious and has left many wanting his proposed changes quickly.

13: 

His cabinet will be filled with those that share his vision. Cruz, Carson, Dowdy………need I say more.

He has received  ire from groups like the Club for Growth, which immediately—and foolishly—called for Trump to be banned from the Republican presidential debates. That alone makes me smile heavily.

Breitbart News recently remarked about the Club for Growths call to strike him from GOP political activities when they were quoted as saying, “perhaps more than any other presidential candidate, (Trump) has already laid out his conservative plan for “making America great again” with crystal clarity, backed up with serious policy prescriptions.

“In his 2011 bestseller, Time to Get Tough: Making America #1 Again, he explained in great detail the bills and reforms he says will revitalize the American economy, generate jobs, and strengthen and restore America’s standing on the international stage.”

Breitbart News went on to describe 5 more stances that will make their way to policy for Trump in the near future.

14:

Foreign Interventions Must Require Cost-Sharing Plans to Reduce U.S. Costs and Guarantee Veterans and Their Families Are Protected
“Money is itself a weapon,” writes Trump.

15:

Before spending trillions,Trump says the U.S. should implement cost-sharing agreements similar to the one advocated in a September 2010 Government Accountability Office (GAO) study to reduce the cost burden on U.S. taxpayers and provide funds for the families of fallen or wounded soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines. “It’s hardly a radical idea,” writes Trump. “In September 2010, our own GAO and others studied the issue in depth and concluded that a cost-sharing plan is feasible and wise. The report, titled “U.S. Cost-Sharing: Iraq Has a Cumulative Budget Surplus, Offering the Potential for Further Cost-Sharing” noted that the Iraqi government is running a $52.1 billion surplus.  

16:

Trump also pointed out that the Director of the Defense Department’s Office of Net Assessment Andrew Marshall, pointed out that oil revenues could also be used to offset the sticker price for U.S. intervention. “Why are we footing the bill and getting nothing in return?” writes Trump. “I’ll give you the answer. It’s because our so-called ‘leaders’ in Washington know absolutely nothing about negotiations and dealmaking.”

17:

Pass NOPEC Legislation to Break OPEC’s Grip on Energy Prices
In Time to Get Tough, Trump advocated passage of the “No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act (NOPEC—S.394) which would amend the Sherman Antitrust Act to allow the U.S. government to sue OPEC for violating antitrust laws. Trump notes the bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee four times with bipartisan backing, “and in May 2008, the NOPEC bill passed the House” before “President George W. Bush got spooked and threatened to veto the bill” over fears of “retaliatory action” with wars raging in Iraq and Afghanistan.

18:

He wants to bust up the OPEC Cartel. ” Passing NOPEC would have allowed the U.S. to bust up the OPEC cartel.” Trump went on to say, “Imagine how much money the average American would save if we busted the OPEC cartel. Imagine how much stronger economic shape we would be in if we made the Iraqi government agree to a cost-sharing plan that paid us back the $1.5 trillion we’ve dropped on liberating Iraq.”

Trump added, “Just those two acts of leadership alone would represent a huge leap forward for our country.”

19:

“Crack Down on China’s Currency Manipulation by Calculating Taxes on Imports Based on How Much a Manufacturing Country’s Currency is Undervalued”

20: 

Trump believes passionately in free trade, but only when the rules are fair and currency is properly valued. He cites a study by the Peterson Institute for International Economics that finds that even a 20 percent revaulation of Chinese currency would create 300,000 to 700,000 American jobs.

“Getting China to stop playing its currency charades can begin whenever we elect a president ready to take decisive action,” writes Trump. “[Obama] could start by signing into law a bill the U.S. House of Representatives approved on a 348 to 79 vote in September 2010. It would allow our government to calculate taxes on imports based on how much the manufacturing country’s currency is undervalued.” 

21: 

He speaks tough and with facts. “It’s the utter weakness and failure to fight for American interests from Geithner and Obama that have left us underwriting China’s economic rise and our own economic collapse,” writes Trump. “It’s a plain fact: free trade requires having fair rules that apply to everyone.” he has repeatedly said the Chinese negotiators are smarter than ours, he say he has dealt with them and won, “I have made a living off the Chinese.” 

22:

He has proposed a 5-Point Tax Plan to spawn Job and Wealth Creation.

     1) Trump says the U.S. must repeal the death tax. He cites a CBO study that found the death tax is a proven jobs killer that “will strip $1.6 trillion of small business capital out of the hands of job creators” and will result in a loss of 1.5 million new jobs.

     2) Trump says smart tax policy includes lowering the tax rate on capital gains and dividends. “Capitalism requires capital,” writes Trump. “When government robs capital from investors, it takes away the money that creates jobs.”

     3) Trump would reduce the corporate tax rate to zero. “How can we expect companies to hire American workers and locate their businesses in America when our government taxes them at exorbitant rates for doing so?” writes Trump. “I want to encourage American companies to stay here and hire American workers, and I want foreign companies to relocate their businesses to the United States and create jobs here.”

     4) Trump says he would impose a 20 percent tax on those who outsource jobs overseas. Trump says “for those companies who made the mistake of sending their businesses overseas but have seen the light and are ready to come home and bring jobs with them, they pay zero tax.” This would leave the Chamber of Commerces with little option to leave American companies in the US instead of encouraging outsourcing as the norm.

     5) Trump says its time to implement a fairer and simpler income tax:
     A)  Up to $30,000, you pay 1 percent
     B) From $30,000 to $100,000, you pay 5 percent
     C) From $100,000 to $1 million, you pay 10 percent
     D) On $1 million or above, your rate is 15 percent

23:

Finish the Border Fence and make Mexico pay for it. Done! Let’s do it!

24: 

Boot Out Criminal Illegals, and Reform America’s Legal Immigration System, if they want to re-enter they do so legally. Trump cites a 2011 GAO study that found America’s prisons house 351,000 criminal aliens who committed crimes after illegally entering America. “The GAO says that the annual price tag to incarcerate these thugs is $1.1 billion. And get this: criminal aliens have an average of seven arrests.” He says criminal illegal aliens must go.

25: 

Trump says the Commander-in-Chief must enforce existing immigration laws and finish the border fence with illegals building it as one of the conditions of their citizenship.

26:
 
He has vowed to crack down on entitlement fraud. If only !

27:

Says he will end and repeal every word of Obamacare. He has advocated for a single payer system but has hinted at a more conservative approach which I have written a book about titled “WTP, A Healthcare Revolution” a book that will be on the market soon.

28:

Vows to reforming America’s ever-growing welfare state. As he puts it, America needs “a safety net, not a hammock.”

29:

He will take on ISIS head on and said they will be defeated. Trump has said, “he will take back the oil hubs that ISIS controls in Iraq and Syria.”
“[I will] blast the hell out of that oil,” Trump said, and “kill the devil at its head.” And then take their money and apply it to offset our debt.

30:

On Healthcare :
Lets establish competing private plans across state lines. Prices vary greatly between states and the reason is there is no state to state competition. He gave an example of an” HMO plan for a 25-year-old male in California that costs $260 a month while a similar plan with equivalent benefits in New York at the time cost about $1,228.”

31:

Protecting hospitals from catastrophic events. Obama will begin taking DSH, Disproportionate Share Hospitals money away from hospitals very soon. This will injure hospitals by cutting back on the money hospitals rely upon to reimburse them for delivering care to the indigent. This is one big reason Insure TN is being pushed so heavily in our state.

32:

Establish and enhance Government  plans for low-income people, giving them some skin in the game. Contribute a percentage toward their healthcare costs. Perhaps take a co pay from their government assistance for a costly visit to the ER or hospital. Remember the GOP in 2014 ran 35,000 television adds to overturn Obamacare if elected and they did nothing. McConnel and Boehner actually took steps to help to fund Obamacare at the guidance of Democrats.

He said Obamacare was a “job-killing, health care-destroying monstrosity,” and posted “it can’t be reformed, salvaged, or fixed. It’s that bad.”

33:

“Obamacare has to be killed now,” he maintained, “before it grows into an even bigger mess, as it inevitably will.”

34:

He urged Congress to use its constitutional authority over interstate commerce to pass bills allowing citizens in every state to purchase healthcare from providers nationwide. He went on to say increased competition makes sense. 

35:

He has advocated for ACO to become mainstream, Accountable Care Organizations, where a group
of patients direct their care with the undersight of a physician. You gotta read my book addressing this dilemma.

36: 

He has said “Let the patient set pricing for a visit to the hospital.”

Imagine if you will a patient needing XYZ procedure going to ABC Hospital and demanding they do the procedure at LMN price. Or give the patient the ability to shop around for the cheapest yet highest quality of care. Patient choice. Oh my! He had me at hello!

37:

HSA: Health Savings Account, a rainy day savings account to funnel healthcare dollars into then withdrawal as needed and make it tax deductible.

38:

TORT Reform:  To prevent frivolous lawsuits that, Trump argues, has resulted in doctors practicing “defensive medicine.” He said doctors were usually ordering excessive testing and procedures to avoid being sued, citing a Pricewaterhouse Coopers study finding such defensive medicine accounts for at least 10 percent of all medical costs.

39:

Capping lawsuits:  Trump describes his plan further “pain and suffering” damages at $100,000 and the enactment of “loser pays” laws in which the loser pays the winner’s legal bills if the suit is determined to be baseless. Interestingly enough, Texas has passed such laws already.

40:

I can’t be bought:

This alone should make you vote for him. He has repeatedly said “I have my own money.” He recently said he turned down a lobbyists gift of 5 million dollars citing that he couldn’t be bought and he didn’t want to hurt his feeling when in 2 years he wanted me to pay back the favor to support his efforts with another country or special interest group.

41:

Speaking to the Military. His simple
Fix is “strengthen it!” To strengthen it in my opinion means to support strong leaders and make it a force to reckon with where our enemies fear us, don’t wanna mess with us and our allies love us.

42:

Funding for countries that hate us: Cut them off! 

The mamsy pansy ways of most politician types has gotten us nowhere. 

With those extremely loyal to Trump, nearing 50 percent in some polls I can’t see how a “consecutive” could not support him. 

His message is resonating with many. I have a hunch many more want to support him but because the machine is slapping their hands they stick to the candidates of their choice not the people’s. 

It is obvious to me that this cycle,the people, the right, the conservatives, the real tea party types, that 45 percent or so that were knocked down by the left and the so called right at the height of their popularity. The GOP made a huge mistake by isolating a huge portion of their base. Now they pay for that betrayal and as far as Im concerned they can wallow in the bed they made and bite the derrière that now wages war with the voice of the people.

43: 

Planned Parenthood, he said he would defund it and shut it down.

Conclusion: You show me a candidate that has said he or she will do 1/4 of what he said he would do and I will seriously consider changing my vote. 

Otherwise, I dont feel it will happen. 

True Conservatives stand your ground! Make your wishes visible. We are in too deep to not speak our mind and direct our vote. 

Hold on as long as you can, we have a country to save and make great again. 

Vote Trump about 50 percent are not listening to the establishment, I think you should too.

Sources of info:

http://mobile.wnd.com/2015/08/trumps-plan-to-get-tough-on-obamacare/

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/17/the-man-with-a-plan-donald-trumps-5-part-strategy-to-make-america-great-again/

Medicaid expansion higher than expected, spells doom for enrollees 

In Uncategorized on July 21, 2015 at 3:30 PM

Medicaid expansion higher than expected, spells doom for enrollees 

07/21/15
0130 am

Who could have seen this one coming? 

Medicaid expansion under Obamacare is 91 percent higher than states expected. 

Of the states initially choosing to expand Medicaid under Obamacare have seen enrollee numbers explode from an estimated 3.6 million to nearly 7 million, a whopping 91 percent increase.

Remember the Tennessee Medicaid expansion in the early 1990s that resulted in 300 percent debt above expected costs and enrollment shoving the state into near bankruptcy, a failing credit rating, a near state income tax and consumption of nearly 40 percent of the states total budget? 

The end result in TN, the Governor had to cut 10s of thousands of enrollees from the roster of TNCARE enrollees just to stop the bleeding.

The trouble with “free healthcare” under a state plan via Obamacare is exactly that, it’s free!

If you throw out a free state program via the federal government to those who unfortunately have very little, it will be ravenously and uncontrollably consumed. Consumed much like a wild animal being thrown a steak. 

You can stand at any Emergency Room in the nation and see the waste and over utilization inside a free, expanded healthcare program. The doors are brimming with consumers trying to get a chunk of that free healthcare pie.

The continual rotation of these patients night after night, day in and day out is only understood by a caregiver that works in this environment. 

The system has no checks and balances and does not encourage frugality nor discourage habitual practices and use of the ER as the main source for their primary care.

Costs will continue to sore and few will restrain. At this pace it is easy to see private healthcare premiums will continue to rise and their benefits dwindle because free healthcare will consume all the resources. 

This allowance for overspending seems purposeful. This seems to stimulate the record high healthcare CEO salaries among Insurance executives. This would explain loads and would definitely explain the lack of oversight of such a massive expansion.

The hospitals are at an advantage here and are calling for expansion to tap into the steady stream of federal tax revenue to protect their bottom line. Sadly, this only kicks the can down the road and doesn’t solve our current problem the one we initially set out to fix. 

Hospitals are reluctant to discourage utilization instead preferring to overutilize to maximize a return on the care rendered while never really expecting to get 100 percent of their costs recovered. They are simply tossing out the net and recovering as much revenue as possible to stay alive.

Our healthcare system will never be fixed by encouraging frugal utilization because lower billable costs will result in lower income streams, thus our dilemma and conclusion that healthcare cost will never be reduced because to reduce or manage costs downward will spell financial disaster for those delivering that care.  We have to lower costs inside the machine and decrease that demand which would offer incentive to restrain spending. Attacking Big Pharma costs for medication cost crimes would also be a sensible maneuver if we truly want to knock down escalating costs.

There is no incentive not to consume or penalty for doing so inside our healthcare system for the reasons aforementioned. 

The free fall begins and will continue if certain legislator have their way. 

We are not fixing anything by expanding Medicaid or introducing INSURE TN, ie, Obamacare to the masses we are only perpetuating the delivery of 100s of million of new federal tax dollars and dumping them on a huge healthcare sponge that has no restraint nor does it encourage restraint. 

It’s paradoxically the same as giving a heroin addict a syringe and endless supply of cash and telling him to be thrifty with it’s use. 

The recipients of free healthcare see this as an entitlement and under these conditions cost control will not happen nor will over consumption be squelched. 

Costs will inevitably be beyond state budget restraints and many will eventually receive benefits and then have them taken away when states realize they can’t support the weight of a continuous drain on it’s resources.

Remember the Affordable Care Act, Insure TN, Medicaid expansion was to be sexy beast designed to entice 100s of thousands into free healthcare with the promise of federal aid to cover 100 percent of the costs of the new enrollees. The ugly, not so sexy side is, the federal government is not refunding 100 percent as promised.

In 2017, the federal government’s portion of the bill will start scaling back, eventually down to 90% and then as if to add insult to injury, the states are on the hook for 50% of the administration costs incurred in signing up new Medicaid enrollees.

For example, In Kentucky, they had 311,000 new Medicaid enrollees in fiscal year 2014, doubling their original estimates. 

Kentucky is now being forced to revise its Medicaid cost estimate from $33 million to $74 million for fiscal year 2017, and the projection for 2021 is now a staggering $363 million. 

Kentucky will be forced soon to remove many from it’s enrollees from their insurance plans as Tennessee did in the 90s after over enrollment and cost factors proved too much for the states budget.

Please see the graph below provided by FGA, the Foundation for Government Accountability.

As per the graph above it shows “17 states were over their projected 2014 enrollment, and 16 states had already enrolled more than they projected for the lifetime of expansion.”

As per uncoverobamacare.com, “According to an AP analysis of state budget projections, at least 14 states have new Medicaid enrollments that have exceeded their original projections, Medicaid enrollments, and cost details in the expansion states. At least seven have increased their costs estimates for 2017 like Kentucky had to do.”

The AP report continues, “California had enrolled nearly 2.3 million people, almost three times what they estimated. Washington’s enrollment more than doubled. Oregon’s enrollments are 73% higher than projected. Michigan’s estimated costs increased by 50%. Ohio’s projected costs more than doubled!” 

As you can see we are fixing nothing by expanding Medicaid, implementing Insure Tn or Obamacare.

We are only enabling the demise of a system crippled by many years of overspending inside an anemic reimbursement structure. 

We have created the monster, now it’s time to tame it, if we dare.

Thanks to the following sources for their most excellent facts and statements. I would encourage my readers to consume from these sources regularly. They have many more fantastic articles to view.

http://uncoverobamacare.com/state-budgets-bursting-after-medicaid-enrollments-under-obamacare-surge-far-beyond-estimates/

https://bradleycountynews.wordpress.com/?s=Insure+Tn&submit=Search

http://www.allwebsolutions.net/politics/ag-state-can-expand-medicaid-through-insure-tennessee/

Health insurance premiums skyrocket as industry scrambles for answers.

In Uncategorized on June 1, 2015 at 2:58 PM

Health insurance premiums skyrocket as industry scrambles for answers.

06/01/15
1434 pm

Blue Cross announced recently that it lost 141 million dollars last year under the Obamacare Health Care exchanges.

The deficit in this category of insurance, under the Silver plan, was grossly underestimated as to cost and total claims by this population. 

BCBS serves nearly 2/3 of the 231, 000 total people in TN seeking insurance through the exchanges.

BCBS because of this population’s over usage and a disproportionate share seeking care at inappropriate portals of entry have requested a 36 percent increase in premiums. Of course this will have to be decided upon by the state insurance regulatory body.

“We don’t have prior claim status information” is being used as an excuse for the premium increases.

“It’s a fairly new program.” Insurance officials keep spewing as a reason to further the conversation toward future increases and unanswered questions about overutilization, fraud and abuse.

I would venture to say that if you used the TennCare program as your template for prior claim data you may obtain a wealth of information on how this pool of patients will utilize their insurance options and their spending and use habits, to influence your bottom line.

The main problems lies in the main areas below with subsets stemming from these as generators of continued high costs and a resultant higher premium. 

For the most part, from my observations, we are putting our dollars in the wrong places and not promoting proper access to care.

Let’s attempt to bridle this non frugal population that relies largely on LIP, Low Income Pools to fund or  compensate inside a broken system. One can see that if you restrain and properly train this population in a complementary setting with adequate providers hospitals across the land will see a difference in their bottom line. 

For so long hospitals, mainly ERs have promoted seeking care at their place, relying heavily on those LIPs or DSH, Disproportionate Share Hospital money to pick up the slack. 

Now that federal money is being threatened to be taken away hospitals are now clamoring for a way to survive. 

I think if we took a minute to look at our system based on the suggestions in the section below, a great impact could be made in our fight for healthcare dollars inside a dwindling reimbursement scenario.

We are currently seeing about 45,000 ER visits at an average cost of about $1300.00 for an ER visit. With 1.2 million uninsured in TN you can easily see the impact on our hospitals.

In one study at a hospital in Texas they showed that 6,000 patients to their ER had 10 or more visits. The breakdown for this population cost the hospital on average about $134,000.00 per person per year. If we dared look, I am convinced you would see similar numbers in every state in the US.

There is an irresponsible and overwhelming pattern of use among this population that must be broken. 

Just as those who pay high premiums and even greater deductible and out of pocket expenses we must exercise frugality and promote accountability at all levels. On a large scale, this is not being done.

My assessment of where our healthcare dollars are being wasted that is resulting in these higher premiums.

There is a lack of education as to when and where resources are to be consumed appropriately.

There is a serious shortage of middle level providers in our state and across the US.

We also have a significant portion of providers that see reimbursement too low to continue seeing these patients, thus bouncing them to inappropriate care areas.

There are too many providers protecting their tales and over utilizing the resources available, a serious question arises here about tort reform.

There is very little oversight controlling and directing care and suggesting or providing the proper setting for that care defined.

Overusers and repeat offenders are posting record numbers visiting our ERs, our most costly entry point. Many are seeking drugs to fuel their habits. It is estimated that 4 to 8 percent of Medicaid/TennCare patients represent 21 to 28 percent of all ER visits.

Current federal law states our most expensive easiest access portal to healthcare, the ER, can be used regardless of your ability to pay and we must see you if you show up for any reason.

Over prescribing and fueling drug addiction is leading patients to enter the ER for their drug needs. Currently in conjunction with Joint Commission, a private entity, has joined with Big Pharma to prescribe via a completely subjective pain scale that  encourages over prescribing and threatens fines if not followed. 

We must issue Providers higher reimbursement and incentives to see Medicaid and exchange patients. In one study, 45 percent of Medicaid patients didn’t know who there Primary Care giver was.

In the same vein, primary providers need to reprimanded for referring everyone seen as underinsured or uninsured to go to the ER for care. Especially during office hours.

There needs to be after hour care clinics equipped with dental services to absorb a large portion of this population that uses the ER for primary or dental concerns after hours as well as for primary care issues.

Make the underinsured aware that if they seek care outside of a specified  more costly portal of entry they will be asked to put some skin in the game, or foot a proportionate share of the cost at the door. We used to be able to do this and it was very effective.

Encourage after hour care seekers to pay a co pay at the door of an unauthorized care area. 

And,

Repeat offender, overutilizers and abusers must be limited in their visits. Place limits on use aside from emergencies and reward those that use restraint.

It’s a start, certainly not a complete plan but one that will definitely set a precedent for future utilization of resources.  

I will contacting my reps soon. How about you.

I don’t know about you, I’m frankly tired of talking about these problems. It’s time we act.

Also, I will be releasing a book soon that elaborates more on these subjects and will even point you in a direction to make a difference.

It is in the We the People Books series called “Creating a Health Care Revolution.”

You can follow the book and the series to follow on Face Book called “We the People Books” like and follow if you desire.

Sources of info! Please visit these sights regularly. 
 
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2015/may/31/insurers-proposehefty-rate-increases/307112/

http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/industries/health-care/2015/05/15/health-insurance-rate-filing-requests-vary-insurer/27363437/

Ebola outbreaks in the US have mostly gone unnoticed

In Uncategorized on September 30, 2014 at 5:20 AM

Ebola outbreaks in the US have mostly gone unnoticed

9/30/14
0507 am

Long before our government started using scare tactics to prepare Americans to be herded into quarantined villages from EBOLA there was 3 pretty serious EBOLA outbreaks in the US.  Many cities near you in differing states all over the country were exposed to the EBOLA-R virus..

Americans have very poor historical recall and tend to not believe or remember things when it comes to events not directly involving them. We, as a nation are very forgetful.

100s of Americans were exposed
in the early 1990s and again in 1996. 

Around 20 seroconverted positive for what is now known as the EBOLA-R virus. Fortunately for those people  infected with the EBOLA-R virus, the monkeys that were  brought into the US from the Phillipines in the 90s, did not drastically affect people only the primates. This doesn’t lessen the punch but because of this the outbreak was largely underreported and forgotten.

Who knows what will happen or did happen to those infected with this virus to date. Possibly a large swath of Americans are being infected today by carriers of this virus today unbeknownst to us. The CDC has said they don’t think the EBOLA-R virus will make you sick.

Source of the following content.
http://web.stanford.edu/group/virus/filo/ebor.html

“The outbreak of EBO-R in the United States caused by infected monkeys in the United States prompted the Philippine government to investigate whether the workers in the primate facilities were at risk for contracting EBO-R, and, if so, to what degree they were at risk. The investigative team studied 186 people, 48 of whom were from wildlife collection areas and the remaining 138 were from the four primate export facilities in the area (Ferlite Farms being one of the four). Twelve of the 186 people tested had serological evidence of infection with EBO-R. 22% of the workers at Ferlite Farms had positive IFAT (indirect fluorescent antibody test) titers, which was significantly higher than at the other three export facilities. Of the five employees in Ferlite’s animal hospital, four had positive IFATs. Workers in the hospital had more positive titers than the rest of the workers at Ferlite Farms.
All of the monkeys at Ferlite were killed after this outbreak of EBO-R in 1989.”

“Ferlite Farms
Ferlite Farms is located in a 2.5 to 3-hectare area in Calamba, Laguna, Philippines, which is approximately 40 km South of Manila. Ferlite uses open cages as their holding facilities. Individual cages are used in their quarantine facility. Until 1996, Ferlite exported 1500 monkeys annually to the United States. The monkeys used for breeding come from Zamboanga and Iligan City. Supposedly, Ferlite quarantines the monkeys 30 days prior to shipping.”

The Reston, Virginia Outbreak 

“On October 2, 1989, 100 cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis) from Ferlite Farms in Mindanao Island, Philippines were flown from Manila, through Amsterdam to New York, and then transported by truck to Hazleton Research Products’ (HRP) Reston Primate Quarantine Unit in Reston, Virginia. These monkeys were placed in Room F of the Reston Unit on October 4. HRP’s Reston Unit already had approximately 500 cynomolgus monkeys when this shipment arrived. There had not been any African species quarantined in the Reston unit for many years, ergo it is not possibile that the monkeys contracted Ebola from fomites contaminated by a prior shipment of monkeys. Because of the 1976 Marburg incident, all primates imported into the United States must be quarantined for 30 days to insure that they are disease free before they are released. In any transcontinental shipment of animals, a high attrition rate is to be expected due to this experience. However, this particular shipment of nonhuman primates had a far larger number of deaths in Room F than would normally have been expected. The HRP veterinarian conducted a few necropsies of the dead monkeys from this shipment in Room F and, based on the clinical symptomatology and on gross anatomy, made an initial diagnosis of simian hemorrhagic fever (SHF). SHF is a terrible disease in monkeys (fortunately it does not infect humans) and is easily transmitted amongst them. The HRP vet sent samples of the dead monkey tissue to United States Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) for conclusive diagnosis. SHF was isolated in the tissue cultures that HRP sent to USAMRIID. Before USAMRIID finished their diagnosis, HRP made the decision to euthanize all of the remaining monkeys in Room F to prevent possible further spread. During the 10 days following the euthanization of the monkeys in Room F, there were sporadic deaths in the remaining monkey population at Reston. The pattern of the deaths nor the pathology in the dead monkeys was indicative of SHF. The HRP vet became alarmed by this. Meanwhile, USAMRIID was conducting additional tests on the monkey tissue cultures and discovered that Ebola was also responsible for the Reston monkey deaths from an electron micrograph of damaged tissue from one of the dead Reston monkeys. Unfortunately, the pathogen was not contained by the euthanization of the monkeys in Room F. 29 additional monkeys in Room H had also died. The monkeys in Room H were from a separate shipment (but from the same supplier, Ferlite Farms) that had arrived at the Reston Unit on November 8. ”

“Were the Room H monkeys contracting the pathogen from the Reston Quarantine Unit or were they infected with the pathogen back in the Philippines? The Room F monkeys were euthanized on November 16. The Room H shipment of monkeys arrived on November 8. Both the Room F and Room H cynomolgus monkey shipments came from Ferlite Farms in the Philippines. Ferlite Farms was experiencing a hemorrhagic disease outbreak concurrently. It is likely that the Room H monkeys were sub-clinically harboring EBO on arrival. EBO has an incubation period ranging from five to seven days in nonhuman primates (personal correspondence, Anderson). The Room H monkeys arrived at the Reston unit while the Room F monkeys were still alive.”

“On November 29, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Virginia Department of Health met with USAMRIID, and a coherent plan of action was formulated to insure the safety of the community and the humane treatment of the Reston primates. Because of the threat that Ebola might spread to the remaining animals in the quarantine unit and that it might infect the staff, the remaining animals (~500) in Room H were euthanized on November 30, 1989. On November 28, 1989, Ferlite Farms, unknowingly, sent a shipment of EBO-infected cynomolgus monkeys to Philadelphia. ”

“Six of the 178 people who had contact with the infected monkeys at the Reston Quarantine Unit seroconverted. All six of the individuals worked with the primates. None of the six who seroconverted developed a filovirus-related illness. Of them, four (all of whom were animal handlers at one quarantine facility) had serologic evidence of recent infection with Ebola-Reston. It is likely that one of the four infected himself when he cut his finger while performing a necropsy on an infected monkey. The mode of transmission for the other three handlers is not known. The remaining two people were seropositive at low titer and had evidence of past infection. One of these two people is a worker at a facility that temporarily houses nonhuman primates before delivery to U.S. quarantine facilities and had had regular contact with quarantined nonhuman primates for three years. The second person was an employee at Hazleton’s Texas Primate Center.”

“CDC researchers conducted an additional study on the prevalence of seropositivity to filoviruses. They tested 550 people with varying levels of exposure to monkeys (or monkey tissues or body fluids) with an indirect immunofluorescence assay test (IFAT) and confirmed the results using Western blot. 42 of the 550 (7.6%) people tested were positive to at least one of the filoviruses (EBO-Z, EBO-S, EBO-R, EBO-CI, MBG). 26 of 266 (9.8%) import quarantine facility staff members were seropositive; 16 of the remaining 284 (5.6%) persons having contact with monkeys (or with monkey tissue or body fluids) outside of import quarantine facilities were seropositive. None of the 42 who tested seropositive reported having any illness believed to be caused by a filovirus.”

“In order to assess the significance of the prevalence of the seropositivity in people who have contact with monkeys and their bodily fluids/tissues, the CDC conducted a cross-sectional study on the seroprevalence of filovirus on the serum from 449 adults in outpatient primary care facilities throughout the United States. Using the same IFAT and Western blot assays, of theses 449, 12 were positive (2.7%) (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 39(24): 404-05, 1990).”

EBOLA outbreak in Alice Texas

” On January 31, 1990, Ferlite Farms, a farm  sent a shipment of 100 macaques to Hazleton’s Texas Primate Center (TPC) in Alice, TX. A day later, 100 monkeys from Ferlite were also sent to HRP’s Reston Unit. Within the first week of arrival, the monkeys at both facilities had clinical signs that were identical to the signs during the first Reston outbreak. The two separate shipments of monkeys from Ferlite to Reston and Alice had no contact after they left Ferlite Farms. From February 1 through March 15, 46 of 52 animals in one of the quarantine rooms died. The surviving six tested positive for filovirus. Necropsy samples from the TPC monkeys were sent to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) for conclusive diagnosis. The CDC determined that the monkeys were co-infected with SHF and Ebola. The cages at TPC were numbered horizontally and stacked in two tiers. In this quarantine room at TPC, monkeys had a 40% chance of dying if they were horizontal from a neighbor who had EHF, and if they were vertical from a neighbor who had EHF, they had a 26% chance of dying. “Because animals were consistently fed, handled, and treated in ascending order by cage number, these data suggest that handling procedures may be implicated in transmission” (Hendricks, KA et al. Filovirus Outbreak Among Philippine Nonhuman Primates in South Texas).”

“Texas outbreak, number 2. In March of 1996, 100 colony raised macaques from Ferlite Farms were shipped from Manila to Houston by way of Hong Kong and Rome. These monkeys arrived to TPC on March 21. On March 27, one of the monkeys from this shipment showed signs of illness and died on March 30. Necropsy of this dead monkey indicated a pneumonic process, and the liver tested positive for Ebola. On April 10, a second monkey that was housed at the opposite end of the block of cages from the index case became ill. On April 13, this monkey’s serum tested positive for Ebola and was sacrificed. (20 days after the monkey arrived and 13 days after the incubation period was over if it contracted EBO from the Philippines).”

“If the monkeys were quarantined for 30 days prior to being shipped to the US, how come they developed EBO-R once they reached the US? The incubation period of EBO in nonhuman primates is 5-7 days.”

Oh well! We await the next outbreak.

Interestingly, at the “Monkey House” address where monkeys were housed and quarantined now sits a daycare for children in a gated community.

Sources of info and other interesting reads.

http://web.stanford.edu/group/virus/filo/ebor.html

http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2014/07/americas-near-miss-with-ebola.html?m=1

Monkey house now a kindergarten
http://www.kindercare.com/our-centers/reston/va/303031/

Noted testing in Dekalb County Georgia.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reston_virus

Philadelphia, New Mexico?

Philadelphia man died of Ebola frequently visited family in Minnesota.
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Philadelphia-Woman-Loses-2-Children-to-Ebola-Virus-270633421.html

References:
Miranda, M.E.G., et al. Seroepidemiological study of filovirus related to Ebola in the Philippines. The Lancet 1991; 337:425-26.
Philippines bans export of monkeys over U.S. scare. N and O Times.
WHO Ebola-Reston Investigation, Philippines – Update
Breeder wants his monkeys spared. CNN Interactive. April 18, 1996.

Large Western African population traveling from the states to Africa assume great risk of spreading Ebola
http://www.mprnews.org/story/2014/09/07/ebola-minnesota

http://news.yahoo.com/ebola-virus-victim-american-patrick-sawyer-135554312.html

Recent EBOLA R outbreak in Alice Texas. 
http://m.deseretnews.com/article/484635/EBOLA-OUTBREAK-IN-TEXAS-UNLIKELY-TO-SPREAD-CDC-SAYS.html?pg=all&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Doutbreak%2BEbola%2BAlice%2BTexas%26a%3Dresults%26MID%3D2500%3Fref%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Doutbreak%2BEbola%2BAlice%2BTexas%26a%3Dresults%26MID%3D2500

Can’t be 100 percent sure you can’t get the Ebola Reston version
“This is not the Ebola-Zaire strain,” Texas Health Commissioner David Smith told a news conference in Alice, the south Texas town where the privately owned Texas Primate Center is located.

Although the Ebola diagnosed in Texas killed the monkeys, that particular strain “has not caused, in the past, any problems with humans,” Smith said.

“We cannot be 100 percent sure that humans can’t be infected . . . but we never saw any (evidence) of this,” added Pierre Rollin, one of several Ebola experts from the Centers for Disease Control sent to assist Texas health authorities.
http://www.mcb.uct.ac.za/ebola/ebocnn1.htm

“For further information on the EBO-R outbreak in Reston, Virginia, please see: 
Peters, C.J. Virus Hunter: Thirty Years of Battling Hot Viruses Around the World. 1997.
Miller, RK. Update: Filovirus Infections Among Persons with Occupational Exposure to Nonhuman Primates. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report April 27, 1990:39(16);266,273. 
Jahrling, P.B. et al. Preliminary report: isolation of Ebola virus from monkeys imported to USA. The Lancet 1990;335:502-05.
Dalgard, D.W. et al. Combined Simian Hemorrhagic Fever and Ebola Virus Infection in Cynomolgus Monkeys. Laboratory Animal Science 1992;42(2):152-57

Up to 80 million may lose healthcare coverage beginning January 14th, 2014

In Uncategorized on November 26, 2013 at 9:15 AM

Up to 80 million may lose healthcare coverage beginning January 14th, 2014

Up to 80 million or roughly 55 percent of all Americans may lose their current healthcare coverage beginning January 14th, 2014.

You have heard this following statement dozens of times from president Obama, “If you like your plan you can keep it!”  As this lie was being spewed  reports are now surfacing, based on cost projections from 2009 that the president was aware of this deception even as he spoke of it and lied to millions who looked to him for reliable information.

There are approximately 157 million working insured in this country of that 16 million are receiving an individual insurance plan and are seeing some plan premiums increase by up to 150 percent and as little as 50 percent. The majority currently covered under an employer mandate which relies on corporations to share the cost burden while spreading the healthcare risk across a large base will see their healthcare plans cancelled in the coming weeks.

The Affordable Healthcare Act, or Obamacare was slated and understood from the beginning to be “free” healthcare or reduced priced healthcare and a great plan with many benefits, enough to take care of all your needs. The plan as we were told does not exist it rolls out and the many costly intricacies within are being revealed.

Instead of the picture perfect plan being painted in the beginning we now see it as it really is. The burden of cost is being shifted to the young people in recent months who are expected to be “healthy” and not a large consumer of a healthcare product to bare the greatest portion of this cost for the rest of us. This has been a huge surprise to this block of consumers, many of which voted for Obama looking for positive hope and change.

What Obama and his cronies didn’t expect or perhaps they did, that is debatable, is they didn’t expect the health registry  website to not work, young people to not buy this insurance opting to pay penalties instead of coverage, americans demanding answers and the insurance companies pulling out the way they are doing.

The private insurers pulling out in droves is  leaving the healthcare system and our economy in jeopardy and at an extreme risk of collapse or at the very least vulnerable and chaotic.

As many as 76 percent of small businesses, 55 percent of large businesses and 63 percent of all businesses are expected to cancel coverage come January 14th! 

This will leave many with the option to either buy mandated coverage from the government that is substandard, expensive and unwanted with many products that are not wanted or needed, keep and re-register with your current adjusted plan and pay inflated premiums or opt out all together and pay a fine at the end of the year saving 10s of thousands in premiums that are placing huge burdens on middle income families, quite frankly most families.

The NY Times this week, eluded to Obamacare as no more than a redistribution of wealth, a huge step toward Socialism. The shift of costs across the spectrum of households, insurance companies backing away from coverage, inflated premiums and expensive, expansive and sub par government coverage is driving all these factors and indeed spreading the wealth or cost burden across the spectrum affecting 10s of millions of Americans in their pocketbooks, tightening their family budgets. This is causing many to panic as they see their incomes diminish and net worth and expendable income whither away at a time when most will not survive with many more insults to their incomes.

Some are beginning to question if all this confusion is purposeful! Is all this burden and added debt a well thought out plan. If you believe the Cloward-Piven strategy, of which Obama is a student and was indoctrinated from an early age with, then you will fully understand that by overwhelming and bombarding the system, it will collapse leaving most totally dependent on the government for every need. This socialism perfected folks and it is no secret this may be the presidents intent and if so he is actively and cleverly making this a reality.

The debate is still out there and it’s seeing day light as the presidents obvious attempts to socialize our country is underway and being revealed.

There are many things that need to change. Private insurance costs are way too high, there is great fraud, waste and duplication inside our current system, that is a given and should be fixed. This does not call for another plan, it just needs to be changed with less a focus on profit for large insurance companies.

Americans losing their individual and work related insurance plans are being blamed on the basis that your current  insurance plans do not meet Obamacare guidelines. I’m not so sure this is the only reason but the private insurance plans could make easy tweaks to your plans to make them compliant to Obamacare guidelines. They could do this, but currently their is no incentive to do so. What I believe is really going on is the large insurance companies are now considering the costs and are figuring out that Obamacare and the decisions the president is making is cutting into their bottom lines, greed and wealth are now driving healthcare decisions and that’s where you the consumer are being left out in the cold.

What I don’t agree with and I have personally challenged the Constitutionality of Obamacare  as it relates to the individual mandate and the commerce clause is that the government and their mandated tax is not the answer to our current healthcare woes.

The events unfolding this morning till January 14th, 2014 give me great angst and uncertainty for the vast majority of Americans and makes me doubt we as a nation, a band of families, united in our pursuit of happiness and a quality of life unlike most of the world will survive this impingement on our budgets and our national form of healthcare.

Hopefully Americans will wake up to
this reality, and they are, and starting to realize these purposeful cancellations of your health plans are purposeful,  intentional, and very well planned and will demand change at mid term elections in 2014 and make the needed changes to create the needed changes.

A parting shot at this healthcare debacle and I’ll close this debate. Personally, I have about 35 years of healthcare experience, have seen many changes, witnessed loads of duplication and perhaps fraud, worked at many levels inside the provider beast and I have never been asked what could be done to fix the problems with healthcare nor do I knowingly know of anyone that has ever been asked to solve our healthcare issues or at least ask my opinion of how it may be made better. This scenario really perplexes me and if any of my readers read this that could influence the healthcare debate may learn from this omission.

Sources of info:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/11/26/evidence-shows-obama-administration-predicted-tens-millions-would-lose-plans/

http://m.weeklystandard.com/blogs/millions-americans-are-losing-their-health-plans-because-obamacare_764602.html

Hospitals forced to not see non-emergent patients under Obamacare beginning January 2014

In Uncategorized on November 13, 2013 at 12:14 PM

Hospitals forced to not see non-emergent patients under Obamacare beginning January 2014

Hospitals and Emergency Centers are being forced to stop rendering healthcare to non-emergent patients beginning January 1, 2014  under the Affordable Healthcare, Obamacare guidelines.

The DSH or Disproportionate Sharing Hospitals will start seeing a large decrease in reimbursement rates to hospitals currently treating indigent, non insurance bearing patients.This action will force hospitals to seek alternatives to delivering “free” or “uncompensated” care just to survive.

Hospitals across America are starting to either opt to not see uninsured patients in an emergent setting, demand payment up front, link payment to a bank account (as reported by BCN in previous blogs) in order to survive.

DSH Reductions will force Emergency rooms, hospitals and providers to resort to third world tactics to survive in a post Obamacare reimbursement world.

Shadac reports; “A national total of Medicaid DSH money is allotted across the states each year, with a 2011 total of $11.3 billion (closer to 20 billion in 2013). ”

“The ACA (Obamacare) reduces the annual Medicaid DSH total by $500 million in 2014; $600 million in 2015; $600 million in 2016; $1.8 billion in 2017; $5 billion in 2018; $5.6 billion in 2019; and $4 billion in 2020.”  

“In implementing these reductions, the statute requires HHS (Health and Human Services) to develop a “DSH Health Reform methodology” that imposes the largest percentage reduction on states with the lowest percent of uninsured or on states that currently do NOT target their DSH payments to hospitals with high volumes of Medicaid patients or high levels of uncompensated care.”

Uncompensated care, decreased allotments to hospital and providers will tip the scale to the patient placing the burden of payment upon them. Those who wish to remain uninsured and reporting to a hospital with a non emergent condition will begin to be turned away. There is no other viable scenario at this juncture.

If you work in or are associated with providing care in an Emergent Center you know that a great percentage of what presents to the Emergency Room, the entry point of any hospital, is either non emergent or uninsured. This population, presently and in the past, was pretty much taken care of by the DSH allotment now being taken away by the Affordable Healthcare Act or Obamacare. 

This action will leave millions vulnerable and seeking a setting where healthcare is delivered by a cash only scenario with very little regulation, a black market approach if you will. The underground provider or nurse with the ability to diagnose and treat on the spot for cash, bypassing the whole system. Think it will not happen?It’s already happening.

The Patient Affordable Care Act was intended to catch those patients or provide the net that was previously cast by hospitals under the Disproportionate Sharing Hospital plan. That safety net is now being removed and many are not going to like the outcome. The  net now has a wide hole in it and patients will be falling through rapidly.

Obamacare was ideally supposed to be the safety net pulling in some 40  million plus uninsured, give them “free or a terrific deal” on an insurance policy that would fix all their healthcare needs, off setting the total cost of healthcare, leaving “all” to share the load, so to speak.

What the “healthcare system” and the patient population system failed to see coming was the disastrous roll out of Obamacare and the many unexpected costs and high premiums associated with it and the amount of people running from it!

With premiums as high as several thousands of dollars a month for a family plan, three to five hundred  for a single young adult you can easily see why those this bill was intended to help will only hurt.

The recent ACA website rollout with it’s whopping 6 patients enrolled and ballooning premiums has left many seeking healthcare seeing a bad case of sticker shock as hospitals and providers look for survival measure to mediate the losses, to balance their budgets.

The proportional shift of most of the cost to young people is forcing millions to reevaluate the “need” to purchase healthcare instead opting to pay the relatively small fine at the end of the year. This leaves many with the inability to seek non emergent healthcare.

A dilemma has surfaced with no quick fix in site and only surmounting issues. 

Millions of Americans and financially strapped families choosing to not participate in Obamacare are facing yet another hurdle. 

Higher premiums, cancelled policies, opting to not purchase government insurance has left many in a quandry with few options leaving many financially strapped individuals to choose between purchasing a bad government forced  insurance, not seek medical treatment or ultimately choosing to say the heck with it all, Im putting food on the table for my family. The latter is the dignified approach and probably the preferred alternative.

This shifts most of the cost now to the employer, small businesses, the middle class and the everyday citizen……you, John and Jane taxpayer.

Higher taxes, up to 20 new taxes in all, higher premiums, increased shared costs with fewer participants  leaves hospitals with no other viable choice but to cease treating patients ie; the uninsured, the immigrant and the non emergent.

EMTALA, a regulation that forces hospitals and providers to care for patients regardless of their ability to
pay will be challenged under new Obamacare guidelines. 

The challenge will now be if you want healthcare in my hospital, you must purchase the insurance that your government is forcing upon you or we cannot see you!

Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act has created a major “boondoggle” of sorts.

It has offered unaffordable, unreliable care, a poor payment structure, reduced reimbursements for hospitals, higher premiums while forcing you to participate and not doing so will result in higher taxes and fines for you not doing so. 

Obamacare has forgotten to close or mend the hole in the safety net. That proverbial hole being hospitals have now trumped the administration using their own rules closing the door to healthcare by opting out of your health care if you don’t buy the mandated government insurance. 

What does a patient do? What does a hospital or provider do?

Well, simply put, patients will continue out of neccesity to not purchase this high premium government insurance forcing hospitals and providers to shut their doors till you purchase the insurance for your non emergent needs?

Will the government now say to the hospitals you must treat these patients regardless of their ability to pay per EMTALA regulations or force you to buy the insurance that the hospitals are now both saying you must buy to dart the door of our emergency room?

 Nothing would surprise me but a simple statement like that would not support the governments plan of forced or mandated healthcare for everyone, this rendering EMTALA non-existent.

Obamacare has contributed to this boondoggle by introducing the Individual Shared Responsibility plan and has placed upon you yet another way to make you pay for your healthcare.

Introducing the Individual Shared Responsibility plan under the  Affordable Care Act directly from the ACA healthcare exchange site.

Beginning January 2014, the Individual Shared Responsibility provision calls for each individual to either have minimum essential coverage (whatever that is) for each month, qualify for an exemption, or make a payment when filing his or her federal income tax return. 

On Aug. 27, 2013, the Department of the Treasury and the IRS issued final regulations on the Individual Shared Responsibility provision, Notice 2013-42….

The open enrollment period to purchase health insurance coverage for 2014 through the Health Insurance Marketplace runs from Oct. 1, 2013, through March 31, 2014.

The American Emergency Physician Association has prepared a statement regarding reimbursement under the ACA or Obamacare and I summarize. (See link below for full statement)

The ACA forces doctors, hospitals and providers to treat every pt under EMTALA while reimbursement rates go down. 

The ACA forces non good faith reimbursement scenarios where the hospital is forced to take care of patients with shrinking reimbursement from the government while private insurers reap the benefit of taking advantage of a low loss scenario having the distinct advantage of bypassing the benefit of a high cost uninsured patient population.

This has left hospitals, mainly Emergency Centers to force payment up front or stop treating non emergent patients.

Recently information was passed to Bradley County News from a social media website that depicts the following,

The Appalachian Regional Healthcare system in Kentucky has made the unprecedented move to opt out of treating non-emergent patients. 

A flyer or memo has  recently been sent out to patients and posted in their ERs which states, “Attention patients: Consistent with the Affordable Care Act, we will no longer be able to see  non emergent patients without healthcare coverage beginning January 2014!” The saga begins!

Can you see what is happening here? 

The government is saying you must purchase insurance, the hospitals must provide care  regardless of ability to pay under EMTALA, decreasing reimbursement to those providing care and now the hospitals are taking the desperate steps to say NO, we can no longer see you unless you purchase mandated insurance by the Federal government.  

The end scenario: 

Patients will be unable to enter the ER for non emergent care. They will be unable to pay for a Doctors office visit. This will leave millions without a portal of entry and forced to stand outside hospital doors begging for care and access or seek alternative, perhaps underground behind the scenes treatment inside a newly developed black market.

This is reminiscent of third world country healthcare, then again this end product is intentional isn’t it?

 It is about control of the populace?

Right?

Sources of info:

Disproportionate hospital share is going down!

Click to access PatientProtectionsandAffordableCareAct_PPACA_Position_Statement.pdf

http://www.shadac.org/blog/aca-data-note-hospitals-medicaid-expansion-and-disproportionate-share-hospital-dsh-payments

DSH Hospital Allotments through 2011. TN included.

Click to access DSH%20summary.pdf

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/27/nyregion/affordable-care-act-reduces-a-fund-for-the-uninsured.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Click to access 2013-21157.pdf

Click to access media.352.pdf

New OBAMACARE taxes, not the change we hoped for

In Uncategorized on January 7, 2013 at 8:41 AM

As a host of new OBAMACARE taxes are being levied on 10s of millions of Americans, they remain for the most part passive and willing to let it happen. Listening to the numerous lies of a fake president, our silence gives him the leverage to do as he pleases.

We are in the middle of a transformation of our country into a socialist entity and we lay in hiding as this president bestows many burdens upon this society.

We hold our silence as if a gift from Washington DC is going to land in our laps with a great reward enclosed. As we prepare for that hope, the fake president tightens the vice that strangles your productivity and ability to remain free.

The OBAMACARE taxes will not be the hope and change you were looking for instead it will the rope and strain that will be applied to you and your family.

While reviewing the information below complied by ATR, look and see how you will be affected in the next 6 years, remember all the stump speeches where the president promised no new taxes on the middle class with the OBAMACARE healthcare plan. You will quickly realize that you were dazzled by his pizazz and failed to realize he just shoved the largest tax increase in the history of our country down your throat and convinced you to swallow it!

Below is a comprehensive list of the two dozen new or higher taxes that pay for Obamcare’s expansion of government spending and interference between doctors and patients.
Individual Mandate Excise Tax(Jan 2014): Starting in 2014, anyone not buying “qualifying” health insurance must pay an income surtax according to the higher of the following

The graph below depicts costs for 1 to 3+ adults by year of inception:
2014

1% AGI/$95

1% AGI/$190

1% AGI/$285

2015

2% AGI/$325

2% AGI/$650

2% AGI/$975

2016 +

2.5% AGI/$695

2.5% AGI/$1390

2.5% AGI/$2085

Exemptions for religious objectors, undocumented immigrants, prisoners, those earning less than the poverty line, members of Indian tribes, and hardship cases (determined by HHS)

Employer Mandate Tax(Jan 2014):  If an employer does not offer health coverage, and at least one employee qualifies for a health tax credit, the employer must pay an additional non-deductible tax of $2000 for all full-time employees.  This provision applies to all employers with 50 or more employees. If any employee actually receives coverage through the exchange, the penalty on the employer for that employee rises to $3000. If the employer requires a waiting period to enroll in coverage of 30-60 days, there is a $400 tax per employee ($600 if the period is 60 days or longer).
Combined score of individual and employer mandate tax penalty: $65 billion/10 years
Surtax on Investment Income ($123 billion/Jan. 2013):  This increase involves the creation of a new, 3.8 percent surtax on investment income earned in households making at least $250,000 ($200,000 single).  This would result in the following top tax rates on investment income
 
Capital Gains

Dividends

Other*

2010-2012

15%

15%

35%

2013+ (current law)

23.8%

43.4%

43.4%

2013+ (Obama budget)

23.8%

23.8%

43.4%

*Other unearned income includes (for surtax purposes) gross income from interest, annuities, royalties, net rents, and passive income in partnerships and Subchapter-S corporations.  It does not include municipal bond interest or life insurance proceeds, since those do not add to gross income.  It does not include active trade or business income, fair market value sales of ownership in pass-through entities, or distributions from retirement plans.  The 3.8% surtax does not apply to non-resident aliens.

Excise Tax on Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans($32 bil/Jan 2018): Starting in 2018, new 40 percent excise tax on “Cadillac” health insurance plans ($10,200 single/$27,500 family). For early retirees and high-risk professions exists a higher threshold ($11,500 single/$29,450 family).  CPI +1 percentage point indexed.
Hike in Medicare Payroll Tax($86.8 bil/Jan 2013): Current law and changes:

 First $200,000
($250,000 Married)
Employer/Employee

All Remaining Wages
Employer/Employee

Current Law

1.45%/1.45%
2.9% self-employed

1.45%/1.45%
2.9% self-employed

Obamacare Tax Hike

1.45%/1.45%
2.9% self-employed

1.45%/2.35%
3.8% self-employed

Medicine Cabinet Tax($5 bil/Jan 2011): Americans no longer able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin)
HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike($1.4 bil/Jan 2011): Increases additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.

Flexible Spending Account Cap – aka“Special Needs Kids Tax”($13 bil/Jan 2013): Imposes cap of $2500 (Indexed to inflation after 2013) on FSAs (now unlimited). . There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children.  There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education.  Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education. 

Tax on Medical Device Manufacturers($20 bil/Jan 2013): Medical device manufacturers employ 360,000 people in 6000 plants across the country. This law imposes a new 2.3% excise tax.  Exemptions include items retailing for less than $100. 

Raise “Haircut” for Medical Itemized Deduction from 7.5% to 10% of AGI($15.2 bil/Jan 2013): Currently, those facing high medical expenses are allowed a deduction for medical expenses to the extent that those expenses exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI).  The new provision imposes a threshold of 10 percent of AGI; it is waived for 65+ taxpayers in 2013-2016 only.

Tax on Indoor Tanning Services($2.7 billion/July 1, 2010): New 10 percent excise tax on Americans using indoor tanning salons
Elimination of tax deduction for employer-provided retirement Rx drug coverage in coordination with Medicare Part D($4.5 bil/Jan 2013)

Blue Cross/Blue Shield Tax Hike($0.4 bil/Jan 2010): The special tax deduction in current law for Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies would only be allowed if 85 percent or more of
premium revenues are spent on clinical services

Excise Tax on Charitable Hospitals(Min$/immediate): $50,000 per hospital if they fail to meet new “community health assessment needs,” “financial assistance,” and “billing and collection” rules set by HHS

Tax on Innovator Drug Companies($22.2 bil/Jan 2010): $2.3 billion annual tax on the industry imposed relative to share of sales made that year.

Tax on Health Insurers($60.1 bil/Jan 2014): Annual tax on the industry imposed relative to health insurance premiums collected that year. The stipulation phases in gradually until 2018, and is fully-imposed on firms with $50 million in profits.
$500,000 Annual Executive Compensation Limit for Health Insurance Executives($0.6 bil/Jan 2013)
Employer Reporting of Insurance on W-2(Min$/Jan 2011): Preamble to taxing health benefits on individual tax returns.
Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting($17.1 bil/Jan 2012): Requires businesses to send 1099-MISC information tax forms to corporations (currently limited to individuals), a huge compliance burden for small employers

“Black liquor” tax hike(Tax hike of $23.6 billion).  This is a tax increase on a type of bio-fuel.
Codification of the “economic substance doctrine”(Tax hike of $4.5 billion).  This provision allows the IRS to disallow completely-legal tax deductions and other legal tax-minimizing plans just because the IRS deems that the action lacks “substance” and is merely intended to reduce taxes owed.

Most of the information above is from the ATR (American for Tax Reform) website. Please visit the site and support their efforts. We need more exposure of this huge tax burden on middle income America called OBAMACARE and this organization is leading the way.

http://m.atr.org/article.php?id=5758

RINO/Conservative Analysis of Corker and Poskevich provides many answers

In Government on July 13, 2012 at 11:19 AM

In a political landscape where everyone just right of the middle wants to be a conservative. Everyone claims to love the Constitution and in some way speak of an admiration for the founding fathers.

We laud politicians for these values because we tend to believe what they say or allow a liberal press to place the tag on them to cover up the more progressive side of a candidate to make them more palatable to a growing “conservative” citizenry!

One true mark of a real conservative is his actions once in office and that is his or her voting record. You can boast all day but the proof is often in the pudding. A RINO, a Republican In Name Only is identified and exposed as non conservative with their voting record, regardless of how loud they yell they are. That voting record is the tell tale sign that labels them forever.

Recently, I was asked to evaluate and compare US Senator Bob Corker, the incumbent and Zack Poskevich, the challenger. I said great! I will just pull their voting records and see how they have voted in the past. The dilemma is one has ever ran for office and currently holds the US Senate seat in Tennessee the other has never held an office and has never been on the DC stage. So how could I compare the incumbent Bob Corker and the challenger Zack Poskevich?

I beat my noggin on a wall for a few minutes, I came to this conclusion. Besides a headache, let’s look at Bobs voting record and then ask Zack to give us honest answers as if in office and pseudo cast a vote on the same issues as Mr Corker.

I sent a sample of key issues and personal questions to Poskevich campaign and asked him to answer them accordingly and then compare and see how they measure up side by side! This turned out most interesting.

The Corker camp did not respond to many questions, just replied with a campy form letter briefly explaining to me what he thought the bill meant. Regardless, I figured the survey to Zack and Bobs voting record would be ample enough to draw the comparison I desired.

WWZD or WDBD? What would Zack do or What did Bob do? Ok, I did claim I would have fun with this. Now follow me cause I think I’m going somewhere! Where? Oh yeah, to see if Bob or Zack can call themselves a true conservative and fairly represent Tennessee in a US Senate seat and give you sufficient information to make an educated decision of who should be representing us in DC. Simple enough?

What to ask? What to pull out of the voting records? You think writing a blog is easy!

Let’s ease into this like a snake shedding its skin, slow and deliberate with the act and feeling prettier on the other side.

Healthcare? A topic on every bodies mind. A huge tax burden placed on every business and person in the US and get rid of one of the most effective healthcare systems in the world! Who would vote for that? Right?

Repeal Obamacare?
Poskevich: Yes, Full Repeal and Defund until it is repealed, would be a top priority.
Corker: Several emails over the last few months have dodged the question and a patented cookie cutter response given. I understand in the last few days he has said he would repeal the bill.

Answer the question already Corker! The answer is YES because its the right thing for Tennesseans!

Vote against LOST treaty?
Posekevich: Would vote NO on L.O.S.T., states would be a top priority.
Corker: Has dodged this question numerous times by email and documented on video many of which is posted on You Tube.

Why would we hesitate on the largest bill ever promoted by the United Nations to give away our sovereignty and not to mention trillions in fuel reserves to a foreign entity? Why not just say NO and quickly? No brainer!

NDAA?
Poskevich: No
Corker: Yes

Wow! The Bill of Rights just voted away by Mr Corker! This bill does it for me and makes my decision on who to vote for very easy! He gave the US GVT the authority to detain any citizen for any reason!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/02/1041911/-National-Defense-Authorization-Act-Detention-of-US-Citizens-Feinstein-Amd-Text-Debate

Stance on abortion?
Corker: Was for it and then against it!
Poskevich: 100% Pro-Life, No tax dollars for abortion or for abortion providing facilities such as Planned Parenthood; would sponsor or co-sponsor an Amendment to the US Constitution making abortion illegal

An analysis of Bob Corkers voting record on abortion:
Abortion: In the 2006 primary campaign, Corker’s opponents said that he has changed his view on abortion since his first Senate campaign in 1994.[54] Corker responded that he “was wrong in 1994” when he said that the government should not interfere with an individual’s right to an abortion, stating that he now believes that life begins at conception.[54] Corker now says he opposes abortion rights except when the life of the mother is endangered or in cases of rape and incest.[54] In the 2006 general election, Corker received the endorsement of the National Right to Life Committee, but the state branch of the group, Tennessee Right to Life, refused to endorse him, calling him a “pro-abortion” politician.[55]

Any real estate issue or controversies outstanding?
Poskevich: No
Corker: Yes
 
Any ongoing lawsuits?
Poskevich: No
Corker: Yes
 
Would he ever use a gvt position for personal gain?
Poskevich: No
Corker: Yes and he did!

An analysis of Bob Corkers problems as mayor and now as a US Senator:
On September 18, 2006, a Memphis, Tennessee newspaper, The Commercial Appeal, reported that Corker’s attorneys acquired city authorization to cut a road through the protected property owned by Corker in July 2003 while Corker was mayor.[68] City records show that Corker’s attorneys won concessions from the city as details of the deal were worked out, much of which was done in private.[68]

Corker’s campaign manager has said that a blind trust kept Corker from the details of the project.[68]

On October 13, 2006, lawyers involved in the case announced a settlement agreement. Details of the settlement were not announced, but court records indicate that a portion of the settlement involved a 45-day option for the Tennessee Environmental Council to purchase over 13 acres (53,000 m2) of the land in dispute that the Council hopes to dedicate for public use.[69]

Has Zack ever hid any papers to hinder an investigation?
Poskevich: No
Corker: Yes

Missing papers

On September 9, 2006, The Commercial Appeal reported that official records from both Corker’s 2001 to 2005 service as mayor and his 1996 service as state finance commissioner are missing.[70] The missing records include letters written and received by Corker during a six month period in 1996 and e-mails written and received by Corker in his official capacity as mayor between 2001 and 2005.[70]

Some of the e-mails were discovered on his former assistant’s computer by The Commercial Appeal in October 2006.[71]
 
Any blind trusts that we don’t know of?
Poskevich: No
Corker: Yes

Blind trust
On October 11, 2006, The Commercial Appeal reported that the blind trust that Corker set up to run his businesses to avoid conflicts of interest while he was mayor “may not have been all that blind”.[71] According to e-mails discovered by the Appeal (some of which had previously presumed to be lost):

“Corker met often with employees from his private companies while mayor from 2001 to 2005, and he shared business tips with others. Corker also got help organizing his 2001 mayoral campaign from City Hall, where a government secretary passed on voting lists and set up meetings for the millionaire commercial real estate developer.”[71]

The e-mails show that Corker often met with officials from his private company, the Corker Group, which was part of the blind trust, while he was mayor.[71] When asked about these e-mails by the Appeal, Corker said that he thought the blind trust had “worked very well” and that he had sold most of his business holdings so that he could avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest in the Senate.

Corker supports broad Second Amendment rights and “appointing Federal judges who practice judicial restraint.”
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Corker#section_7

Arms Trade treaty?
Corker: has avoided the question!
Poskevich: No on the Small Arms Treaty, he will always vote No on any treaty that is unconstitutional or destroys American sovereignty
 
Corker analysis:
Why can’t he just say no! Hesitation tells me he sees something he likes and wants to take advantage of it!
Senator Moran and his co-signatories have made an important and serious contribution to the debate over the Arms Trade Treaty. As the treaty moves forward in 2012, the Administration and the other nations negotiating it will have to bear these concerns in mind.
http://bobcorker.com/news/?id=217

Would you vote 61 percent of time with OBAMA?
Corker: Yes and he has.
Poskevich: Me and Obama are polar opposites; I will never compromise Constitutional Principles to reach across the aisle, it would be Obama who would have to compromise if the two end up voting the same
 
Voted down the line with Obama 61 percent of the time! RINO? duh!
http://m.bizjournals.com/nashville/#/articles/view/page_7227481
 
TARP?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No

Corker voted for TARP, Cash for Clunkers, raising the debt ceiling
Corker voted to ratify the START Treaty with Russia and so far has not committed one way or the other on how he stands on the LOST Treaty. 

Bob Corker also voted to confirm Eric Holder and recently confirmed Jesse Furman and anti-2nd amendment judge to the federal bench
Corker has voted with Obama 61%.
His rhetoric just doesn’t match with his record.  He also co-sponsored a bill with Lamar Alexander to designate more of the Cherokee National Forest as Wildlands.  

Cash for Clunkers?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No

Cash for Clunkers Funding.
H.R. 3435 would authorize an additional $2 billion for the “Cash for Clunkers” vehicle trade-in program. Under the “Cash for Clunkers” program, consumers would trade in their old cars for more fuel efficient vehicles. (Congress passed the original Cash For Clunkers in June (see our July 20, 2009 issue). After running out of funds almost immediately, Congress quickly introduced yet another bill (H.R. 3435) that would provide an additional $2 billion for the “Cash for Clunkers” program. Under the program consumers were offered rebates of up to $4,500 if they traded in their old cars for more fuel-efficient ones. The vehicles traded in were destroyed, meaning cars not ready for the junkyard would be taken off the road, reducing the stock o
used vehicles and inflating the prices of used cars.) The Senate passed H.R. 3435 on August 6, 2009 by a vote of 60-37 (Roll Call 270). The federal government should not be subsidizing the car industry and because it is unconstitutional and wasteful.
Bob Corker voted YES.
 
START treaty with Russia?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No

With Russia? Need I say more?
 
Vote to confirm Eric Holder?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No
 
Hello? Fast and Furious?

Would Zack confirm a federal judge that is a known anti second amendment advocate?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No, Zach would have never voted to confirm Jesse Furman, or any activist judge

Maybe the hesitation on the Arms Trade Treaty?
 
Would Zack authorize war without approval of Congress?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No

Funds for War, Welfare, Etc.
The Supplemental Appropriations bill (H.R. 2642) was agreed to 92-2 (Roll Call 162) on June 26, 2008. Such bills fund unforeseen needs after an annual budget has been approved. However, regular use of emergency supplemental bills to pay for never-ending wars, domestic welfare, and infrastructure programs has made the annual budget a misleading indicator of spending intentions. This $186.5 billion measure includes $161.8 billion of additional funding for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The remaining $24.7 billion is for domestic programs including tornado, flood, and hurricane relief efforts. It would also expand veterans’ education benefits, expand unemployment benefits, and delay shifting some Medicaid costs to the states. Congress continues to fund a war it never authorized under Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution. Also, the federal government is unconstitutionally involved as an individual and corporate insurer at taxpayer expense.
Bob Corker voted YES.

Authority for Military Action.
During consideration of a small-business bill (S. 493), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) moved to send the bill to the Foreign Relations Committee with instructions to insert his amendment expressing the sense of the Senate that “the President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” Paul’s amendment was in response to President Obama undertaking U.S. military action in Libya without congressional authorization. The Senate tabled (killed) Rand Paul’s motion on April 5, 2011 by a vote of 90 to 10 (Roll Call 50). The U.S. Constitution assigns to Congress the power “to declare war.”
Bob Corker voted YES  ( To Table or Kill the bill)
 
Peru Free Trade Agreement?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No

Peru Free Trade Agreement.
The Peru Free Trade Agreement (H.R. 3688) is another in a series of free-trade agreements to transfer the power to regulate trade (and other powers as well) to regional arrangements. A prime example is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). However, as noted by the House Ways and Means Committee report on H.R. 3688, the Peru Free Trade Agreement is the first U.S. FTA to include “in its core text fully enforceable commitments by the Parties to adopt, maintain, and enforce basic international labor standards, as stated in the 1988 ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.” The ILO, or International Labor Organization, is a UN agency. The Senate passed the Peru Free Trade Agreement on December 4, 2007 by a vote of 77-18 (Roll Call 413). So-called free trade arrangements threaten our national independence and harm our economy.
Bob Corker voted YES.

Warrantless searches FISA?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No

Warrantless Searches.
S. 2248, the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, passed 68-29 on February 12, 2008 (Roll Call 20). The bill would amend the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to effectively give the executive branch of the federal government a blank check to eavesdrop on telephone calls and e-mail messages between people in foreign countries and those in the United States. The bill includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies that have collaborated with federal agencies in the warrantless surveillance of American citizens. Warrantless wiretaps are a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures, and requires that any searches be conducted only upon issuance of a warrant under conditions of probable cause. Moreover, Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution forbids “ex post facto laws” – laws having a retroactive effect.
Bob Corker voted YES.

Warrantless Searches.
H.R. 6304, the bill to revamp the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), would allow warrantless electronic surveillance, including monitoring telephone conversations and e-mails, of foreign targets, including those communicating with American citizens in the United States. The final version of the bill would not explicitly grant immunity to telecommunications companies that have assisted President Bush’s warrantless surveillance program. But it would require courts to dismiss lawsuits against such companies if there is “substantial evidence” they were insured in writing the program was legal and authorized by the president. The provision would almost certainly result in the dismissal of the lawsuits. The Senate passed H.R. 6304 on July 9, 2008 by a vote of 69-28 (Roll Call 168). Warrantless searches are a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures, and requires that any searches be conducted only upon issuance of a warrant under conditions of probable cause. Moreover, Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution forbids “ex post facto laws” laws having a retroactive effect.
Bob Corker voted YES.
 
Min wage?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No

Corker analysis of Minimum Wage.
The minimum wage bill (H.R. 2) would raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 an hour over the course of two years. The bill would also provide $8.3 billion in small-business tax incentives. The House passed its version of H.R. 2 on January 10. The Senate passed the minimum-wage increase by a vote of 94-3 (Roll Call 42) on February 1, 2007. It is unconstitutional to prohibit citizens from working for less than a government-set wage.
Bob Corker voted YES. 

COPS funding?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No

COPS Funding.
Joseph Biden (D-Del.) offered an amendment to the fiscal 2008 budget resolution (Senate Concurrent Resolution 21) that would authorize a $1.2 billion increase in federal funds to support the Community-Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program. The Senate passed the Bide amendment by a vote of 65-33 (Roll Call 110) on March 23, 2007. Providing federal aid to local law enforcement programs is not only unconstitutional, but it also further federalizes the police system.
Bob Corker voted YES. 
 
UN funding increase?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich:No, “We need to get the UN out of the US and the US out of the UN.” Zach Poskevich http://youtu.be/04mm1MqqoCA
 
UN “Peacekeeping” Increase.
During consideration of the foreign-aid appropriations bill (H.R. 2764), Senator John Ensign (R- Nev.) introduced an amendment to strike a provision in H.R. 2764 that would increase the limit on the U.S. share of UN “peacekeeping” operations from 25 percent to 27.1 percent. The Senate rejected the Ensign amendment to H.R. 2764 on September 6, 2007, by a vote of 30-63 (Roll Call 317). The United States should not be funding UN “peacekeeping” period — let alone increasing the amount.
Bob Corker voted NO.

Protect America Act?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No

Protect America Act.
The Protect America Act (S. 1927) would amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to allow warrantless electronic eavesdropping on communications where at least one individual is based outside of the United States. The Senate passed S. 1927 on August 3, 2007, by a vote of 60-28 (Roll Call 309). Warrantless surveillance of American citizens is a violation of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition “against unreasonable searches and seizures.”
Bob Corker voted YES. 
 
Debt limit increase?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No

Debt Limit Increase.
This bill (House Joint Resolution 43) would increase the national debt limit to an astronomical $9.8 trillion, an $850 billion increase. This increase would be the fifth time the national debt was raised since 2002, representing about a $3 trillion increase in just the last five years. The Senate passed House Joint Resolution 43 on September 27, 2007, by a vote of 53-42 (Roll Call 354). Raising the public debt limit by $850 billion facilitates continued, gross fiscal irresponsibility.
Bob Corker voted YES. 

Bail out wall street?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No

Bailout Bill.
The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (H.R. 1424) passed 74-25 (Roll Call 213) on October 1, 2008. (This bill authorizes the Treasury Department to use $700 billion of taxpayer money to purchase troubled mortgage-related securities from banks and other financial-related institutions, on terms set by the Treasury Secretary, who now has authority to manage and sell those assets. The bailout plan also expands FDIC protection from $100,000 to $250,000 per bank account, extends dozens of expiring tax provisions, expands incentives for renewable energy, provides a one-year adjustment to exempt millions of Americans from the alternative minimum tax, and requires health insurers who provide mental-health coverage to put mental-health benefits on par with other medical benefits.) The bill establishes an unconstitutional merger of government with big business — in other words, fascism — and greatly increases the national debt and monetary inflation by forcing taxpayers to pay the price for the failures of private financial institutions.
Bob Corker voted YES.

Farm Bill?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No

Farm Bill.
The version of the five year, $289 billion farm bill is considered here. (H.R. 2419 would authorize the nation’s farm programs for the next five years, including crop subsidies and nutrition programs. The final version of this legislation worked out by House and Senate conferees (known as a conference report) provides $289 billion for these programs, including a $10.4 billion boost in spending for nutrition programs such as food stamps.) The Senate passed the final version of H.R. 2419 by a vote of 81-15 (Roll Call 130) on May 15, 2008. Federal aid to farmers and federal food aid to individuals are not authorized by the Constitution.
Bob Corker voted YES.

Farm bill override?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No

Farm Bill (Veto Override).Flip Flop Bob?
H.R. 6124 would authorize the nation’s farm programs for the next five years, including crop subsidies and nutrition programs. The final version of the legislation provides $289 billion for these programs, including a $10.4 billion boost in spending for nutrition programs such as food stamps.  After this five-year, $289 billion farm bill was vetoed by President Bush, the Senate passed the bill over the president’s veto on June 18, 2008 by a vote of 80-14 (Roll Call 151). A two thirds majority vote is required to override a presidential veto. Federal aid to farmers and federal food aid to individuals are not authorized by the Constitution.
Bob Corker voted YES.
 
IMF funding?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No

IMF Funding.
During consideration of the Fiscal 2009 Supplemental bill (H.R. 2346), Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) offered an amendment to delete $5 billion provided by the bill for the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF is an adjunct of the United Nations and grants foreign aid to qualifying countries. The Senate rejected the DeMint amendment on May 21, 2009, by a vote of 30-64 (Roll Call 201). Foreign aid is unconstitutional, and this is deficit spending.
Bob Corker voted NO against the amendment to delete funding.

Bernanke confirmation?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No

Bernanke? Really? Bernanke Confirmation.
On January 28, 2010, the Senate voted 70 to 30 to confirm Ben Bernanke to a second four-year term as Federal Reserve Chairman (Roll Call 16). With Bernanke at the helm, the Fed, which can create money out of thin air, has pumped trillions of newly created fiat (unbacked) dollars into the economy, even though this reckless expansion of the money supply (inflation) will diminish the value of the dollar and further hurt the economy in the long run. Bernanke’s Fed has also kept interest rates artificially low, encouraging excessive borrowing and malinvestments. And Bernanke has called for the Fed — which already possesses the power to create booms and busts through its control of the money supply and interest rates — to be given new powers to manage the financial sector. Bernanke is accountable for the economic havoc at the Fed; which is a central bank that should not even exist.
Bob Corker voted yes!

Audit the fed?
Corker: No
Poskevich: Yes

Audit the Fed.
During consideration of the financial regulatory reform bill (S. 3217), Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) offered an amendment to audit the Federal Reserve. The Senate rejected the Vitter amendment on May 11, 2010 by a vote of 37-62 (Roll Call 138), after unanimously adopting a watered-down audit-the-Fed amendment offered by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Sanders had much earlier introduced legislation in the Senate that mirrored the audit-the-Fed legislation in the House championed by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). When Sanders caved and offered his watered-down amendment, Vitter stepped in and offered an amendment for a full Fed audit along the lines of Paul’s (and Sanders’ earlier) proposal. The Sanders amendment allows for a onetime audit of the Fed’s emergency actions taken in response to the 2008 financial crisis. However, unlike the Vitter amendment, the Sanders amendment (in Paul’s words) “exempts monetary policy decisions, discount window operations, and agreements with foreign central banks from [GAO] audit.” The vote on the Vitter amendment is used here to rate Senators on their position on auditing the Fed.
The American people need to know what the Fed is doing and because this may represent a first step in eliminating the unconstitutional Federal Reserve.
Bob Corker voted NO.

SOPA?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No

Patriot Act?
Corker: Yes
Poskevich: No

Patriot Act (Firearms Purchase Records).
During consideration of the Patriot Act extension bill (S. 990), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who opposes the Patriot Act on constitutional grounds, offered an amendment that would have banned the use of Patriot Act searches for American citizens’ firearms records without the Fourth Amendment’s protections of probable cause, warrants, and particularity. Gun Owners of America, which supported this amendment, warned: “Without Paul’s exemption, it is possible that the BATFE could go to a secret (FISA) court, and, in a one-party (ex parte) proceeding, obtain an order to produce every 4473 [firearms transaction record] in the country, ostensibly because a ‘terrorism investigation’ requires it. If such an action were taken, the government would have a list of every gun buyer in the country going back decades.” The Senate tabled (killed) Rand Paul’s amendment on May 26, 2011 by a vote of 85 to 10 (Roll Call 82). Paul’s amendment would have prevented the Patriot Act from being used to violate the rights of gun owners.
Bob Corker voted YES  ( To Table or Kill the bill)

Patriot Act Extension.
This legislation (S. 990) extended for four years three provisions of the Patriot Act that were set to expire: the “roving wiretap” provision that allows the federal government to wiretap any number of a suspect’s telephone/Internet connections without specifying what they will find or how many connections will be tapped; the “financial records” provision that allows the feds to seize “any tangible thing” that has “relevance” to an investigation; and the “lone wolf” provision that allows spying on non-U.S. citizens without a warrant. These provisions violate the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which requires that no warrants be issued “but upon probable cause” (a much higher standard than “relevance”), and that warrants must contain language “particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” The Patriot Act even allows the FBI to issue warrants called “National Security Letters” without going to a judge, though this provision was not set to expire and therefore was not part of this legislation.  The Senate passed S. 990 on May 26, 2011 by a vote of 72 to 23 (Roll Call 84). The extended provisions, and the Patriot Act as a whole, violate the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

Other non conservative votes by Bob Corker!

Guest-worker Program.
Senator Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) introduced an amendment to strike the guest-worker provision of Ted Kennedy’s substitute amendment (S. Amdt. #1150) for the immigration reform bill of 2007 (S. 1348). Kennedy’s so-called guest-worker provision would create a renewable two-year guest-worker program, issue a guest-worker visa, and set an adjustable annual cap on the number of guest workers permitted in this country. The Dorgan amendment was rejected by a vote of 31-64 (Roll Call 174) on May 22, 2007. The guest-worker program would constitute a large increase in legal immigration for our country, which would ultimately displace more American workers from their jobs and depress wages.
Bob Corker voted NO.

Mukasey Confirmation.
When Michael Mukasey testified at his confirmation hearings for attorney general, he repeatedly refused to say that waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques reportedly practiced by the CIA constituted torture and were therefore illegal. (Waterboarding is a form of controlled drowning.) He also stated, incredibly, that the president could operate outside laws passed by Congress if “what goes outside the statute lies within the authority of the president to defend the country.” The Senate confirmed Michael Mukasey as U.S. attorney general on November 8, 2007, by a vote of 53-40 (Roll Call 407). In so doing, the U.S. Senate demonstrated its willingness to tolerate torture — which is anathema to American values — and its willingness to allow the president to trump laws passed by Congress in the name of national security.
Bob Corker voted YES. 

SCHIP.
H.R. 976 would reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to the amount of $60.2 billion for five years. The proposed amount would expand the program by $35.2 billion and cover an addition 6.1 million children. The Senate passed H.R. 976 on August 2, 2007, by a vote of 68-31 (Roll Call 307). Taxpayer-financed federal health insurance is unconstitutional. After successful passage of H.R. 976 in both the House and Senate, President Bush vetoed the measure on October 3, 2007.
Bob Corker voted YES. 

Amtrak Reauthorization.
This bill (S. 294) would authorize $11.4 billion for Amtrak funding over the next six years. That amount would include monies for operating subsidies ($3.3 billion) and capital grants ($4.9 billion). If passed, states would be required to provide a 20 percent match of funds. Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) opposed the reauthorization of federal funds to Amtrak. According to DeMint, Amtrak routes are so unprofitable that each ticket is federally subsidized by hundreds of dollars. Amtrak was created in 1970 and has been operating under annual federal appropriation funds since 2002. The Senate passed S. 294 on October 30, 2007, by a vote of 70-22 (Roll Call 400). Spending billions of tax dollars for federal grants and subsidies for Amtrak transportation is unconstitutional.
Bob Corker voted YES. 

Fiscal 2009 Supplemental Appropriations.
The Senate version of the Fiscal 2009 Supplemental Appropriations bill (H.R. 2346) would provide an additional $91.3 billion in “emergency” funding for the current fiscal year over and above the regular appropriations. The spending would include $73 billion for the Defense Department (including the ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan), $1.5 billion to address potential pandemic flu, and $5 billion for the International Monetary Fund, a UN agency that lends to qualifying countries. The Senate passed H.R. 2346 on May 21, 2009, by a vote of 86-3 (Roll Call 202). The spending is over and above what the federal government had already budgeted, Congress never declared war against Iraq and Afghanistan, and some of the spending (e.g., foreign aid) is unconstitutional.
Bob Corker voted YES.

Children’s Health Insurance.
H.R. 3963, the five-year, $60 billion SCHIP Extension bill, passed 64-30 on November 1, 2007 (Roll Call 403) and then went to the president, who vetoed it. (H.R. 3963, a bill to reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program, was rejected in the House, 260-152 on January 23, 2008 (Roll Call 22) when the House failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority of those present to override President Bush’s veto. The bill would have authorized the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) at nearly $60 billion over five years, expanding the program by $35 billion. It also would have put an additional tax on cigarette manufacturers, would have undermined private insurance plans, and would have pushed us further down the slippery slope to socialized medicine. ) The Constitution does not authorize federal involvement in healthcare, even for children.
Bob Corker voted YES. 

Head Start.
H.R. 1429, a bill to reauthorize the Head Start program through 2012, was adopted 95-0 on November 14, 2007 (Roll Call 409). (Head Start provides educational activities and social services for children up to age five from low-income families. The program received $6.9 billion in fiscal year 2007. $7 billion was authorized in the fiscal 2008 omnibus bill, but H.R. 1429 increased funding to $7.4 billion for fiscal 2008, $7.7 billion for 2009, and $8 billion for 2010. The income level at which families are eligible to participate was raised from 100 percent of the poverty level to 130 percent ($26,728 for a family of four). Some members opposed the bill because Head Start grants will not be allowed to faith-based organizations that hire employees on the basis of religious preference.) Having been adopted in both the House and the Senate, this legislation was cleared for President Bush, who signed it into law. Federalized educational system is an unconstitutional and wasteful bureaucracy. (there were no “nays”)
Bob Corker voted YES.  

Global HIV/AIDS Program.
This legislation (H.R. 5501) to authorize $48 billion to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria overseas.  (The bill would authorize $48 billion for fiscal 2009 through 2013 to combat AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis overseas. Currently one third of the funding for HIV prevention is required to go to abstinence education. The bill would change that allocation to balance funding between condom, fidelity, and abstinence programs. It would also authorize $2 billion to fund programs for American Indian health, clean water, and law enforcement.) The Senate passed H.R. 5501 on July 16, 2008 by a vote of 80-16 (Roll Call 182). We have assigned pluses to the “nays” because foreign aid is unconstitutional.
Bob Corker voted YES.

SCHIP.
H.R. 2 would reauthorize the “State Children’s Health Insurance Program,” commonly referred to as SCHIP, for over four and a half years and increase the funding for the program by $32.8 billion. (H.R. 2 would reauthorize the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, commonly referred to as SCHIP, for over four and a half years and increase the funding for the program by $32.8 billion. SCHIP is designed to provide health insurance to children of families whose incomes are up to four times above the poverty level (and therefore would have too much income to qualify for Medicaid), yet would have little income to buy private insurance. Often SCHIP crowds out private insurance: the Congressional Budget Office found that between 25 and 50 percent of children who enroll in SCHIP dropped their private insurance to get “free care.” Because SCHIP, like Medicaid and Medicare, pays doctors and hospitals only a fraction of the actual cost of care, the unfunded costs get passed to holders of private insurance. Additionally, SCHIP would apply to 400,000 to 600,000 children of legal immigrants whose sponsors had agreed to cover the children’s healthcare needs for at least five years after arriving to the United States. ) The Senate passed H.R. 2 on January 29, 2009, by a vote of 66-32 (Roll Call 31). Federal healthcare programs are unconstitutional and would likely lower the quality of healthcare.
Bob Corker voted YES.

Supplemental Appropriations.
The final version (conference report) of the fiscal 2009 supplemental appropriations bill (H.R. 2346), would provide $105.9 in “emergency” funding. (This final version (conference report) of the fiscal 2009 supplemental appropriations bill (H.R. 2346) would provide an additional $105.9 billion in so-called emergency funds over and above the regular appropriations for 2009. This outrageous supplemental package would include $79.9 billion for defense funding (including for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan), $10.4 billion for foreign aid programs, $7.7 billion to address the national flu scare, and $5 billion for International Monetary Fund activities. This supplemental bill would also include $1 billion for the Cash for Clunkers program. A day prior to the House vote, Representative Ron Paul (R-Texas) urged his fellow lawmakers to reject the bill, stating, “I continue to believe that the best way to for discretionary spending for the two departments and their related agencies, a 25-percent increase from fiscal 2009 levels. The bill would provide $1.5 billion in federal grants for Amtrak and $18.2 billion for the Section 8 Tenant-based Rental Assistance program.) The Senate adopted the conference report (thus sending it to the President) on June 18, 2009 by a vote of 91-5 (Roll Call 210). The spending is over and above what the federal government had already budgeted, the United States never declared war against Iraq and Afghanistan, and some of the spending (e.g., Cash for Clunkers and foreign aid) is unconstitutional.
Bob Corker voted YES.

Energy-Water Appropriations.
The final version (conference report) of this 2010 spending bill (H.R. 3183) to appropriate $34 billion for energy and water projects ( The final version (conference report) of H.R. 3183 would appropriate $34 billion in fiscal 2010 for energy and water projects. The funds would provide $27.1 billion for the Energy Department, $5.4 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers, and $1.1 billion for the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation.). The Senate adopted the conference report (thus sending it to the President) on October 15, 2009 by a vote of 80-17 (Roll Call 322). The Department of Energy is not authorized by the Constitution.
Bob Corker voted YES.

Do you really even need to read further? The RINO and the NON Conservative is very evident. I don’t need to research this any further! My vote is clear, we need change to protect our constitution and to clearly send someone to Washington that represents the people and will secure their rights!

Sorry Bob Corker but you gotta go. The above results are making me feel like our state and country has suffered because you are in office!

Get out there and vote starting today Tennessee!

The true Conservative in this debate is Zack Poskevich!
 
5 reasons we should vote for Zach Poskevich

1) Zach Poskevich is a man of principle, integrity and conviction.

2) Zach Poskevich has already put his life on the line to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States when he joined the Army at age 17; he will continue to do so while serving as our US Senator.

3) Zach Poskevich is a highly intelligent individual who understands our history, how we got to the place we are in as a nation, and how to get back on the right path.

4) Zach Poskevich has no desire to be a career politician and will return home after fulfilling his service to our country as a US Senator.

5) Zach Poskevich is one of ‘We the People,’ not a political player who is beholden to lobbyists or donors; he will take our fight to Washington.

Zack Poskevich is the easy choice in this debate! Didn’t you feel dirty witnessing the votes by Bob Corker…….yeah made me feel dirty too and much less of an American.

No more comparison needed! There is only one true conservative/Non RINO in this race and he ain’t the one that currently holds the office! Look at the votes by both and you can clearly see that our state could be going in another direction.

Thanks to these sources who made this analysis more thorough! These sites are chocked full of great information and I would suggest you visit them frequently!

MickeyWhite: source of info, http://mickeywhite.blogspot.com/2010/12/senator-bob-corker-voted-poorly.html?m=1

Why we should vote for Bob?
http://bluecollarmuse.com/2012/07/09/why-tennessee-should-re-elect-bob-corker-to-the-senate/