Thursday, March 31, 2011
Insanity is a mild statement
Foreign doctors work in Britain without speaking English
Foreign doctors whose English is so poor that they need interpreters are being allowed to operate on patients in Britain, the medical regulator has warned.
Cut their government funding now
The American Association for Retiree Plunder
By David Catron
For those of us who toil in the vineyards of health care finance it has long been obvious that the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) is, for all intents and purposes, an insurance company disguised as an advocacy group. Thus, it was something of surprise when AARP announced its support for ObamaCare in the fall of 2009. Why would a financial conglomerate so dependent on insurance-related revenue endorse a bill that promised to wreck the health insurance industry? Then, the penny dropped. One of the ways the Democrats proposed to "pay" for their health care law was by cutting the Medicare Advantage (MA) program by $200 billion. This would inevitably drive many carriers out of the MA market and herd millions of seniors back to the more expensive coverage of traditional Medicare.
How would that benefit AARP? Traditional Medicare imposes much higher deductibles and co-pays on its beneficiaries than does MA, and the vast majority of AARP's revenue derives from sales of "Medigap" policies that purport to cover those out-of-pocket expenses. In other words, the AARP endorsed a law that does real financial harm to seniors in order to reap a crop of new customers when ObamaCare guts Medicare Advantage. And it gets worse: Most of the victims of this cynical strategy will be low-income and minority seniors. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), nearly 60% of MA beneficiaries have annual incomes of $10,000 to $30,000. Moreover, nearly 30% of Medicare Advantage enrollees are minorities, compared to about 20% for traditional Medicare.
The unholy alliance between AARP and the Democrats on ObamaCare has not been lost on the new Republican majority in the House. Two members of the Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Wally Herger (R-CA) and Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA) have announced a hearing to be held this Friday: "AARP is known for being the largest and most well known seniors' organization in the country. But what Americans don't know is… that the AARP brand dominates the private Medicare insurance market." As Rep. Boustany phrased it, "In light of AARP's dependence on its income from insurance products, there is good reason to question whether AARP is primarily looking out for seniors or just its own bottom line."
Indeed there is. Only about 20% of its $1.3 billion in annual revenue comes from membership dues. In other words, AARP earns nearly $1 billion per year by endorsing various products and services sold to its members. More than 65% of that tsunami of cash arrives in the coffers of this "seniors' lobby" in the form of royalty payments "for lending its name to policies sold to its members by private insurers." Thus, it seems reasonable for the members of the Ways and Means Committee to ascertain how AARP's financial interests affect its ostensible mission of "enhancing seniors' quality of life." Curiously, when Charlie Rangel (D-NY) was the Chairman of the committee, neither he nor his fellow Democrats showed any interest in such apparent conflicts of interest.
In fact, when they held the majority in the House, the Democrats were so sanguine about AARP's motives that they awarded the organization a huge grant in their infamous "porkulus" legislation. AARP received "an $18 million grant in the economic stimulus package for a job training program that has not created any jobs." More to the point, the Democrats granted AARP a long list of special dispensations from the most onerous features of ObamaCare. As Chris Jacobs of the Republican Policy Committee has noted, AARP received exemptions from the prohibition on pre-existing condition exclusions and the $500,000 cap on executive compensation for insurance industry executives.
Jacobs also points out that the Democrats exempted AARP from the tax they imposed on insurance companies in general, "even though according to its own financial statements AARP generated more money from insurance industry 'royalty fees' than it received from membership dues, grant revenues, and private contributions combined." And, although ObamaCare requires MA plans to spend 85 percent of premium revenue on medical claims, the Democrats lowered the bar for AARP's Medigap policies to a mere 65 percent. This is perhaps what the "advocacy group" was getting at when, in response to the announcement of the upcoming hearing, it posted the following statement on its website: "AARP has a long-standing and good working relationship with Congress."
AARP has also enjoyed a "good working relationship" with the "news" media. Stories about the organization almost invariably refer to AARP as "the nation's leading seniors' lobby," with no mention of its billion dollar endorsement racket. And, predictably, MSM coverage of the upcoming Ways and Means hearing portrays it as a partisan attack on a GOP enemy. TheNew Republic, for example, covers the story in an article subtly titled "Republicans to AARP: Payback Time." Its author implausibly claims to be unable to see "that the Affordable Care Act means better sales of AARP plans," then devotes the rest of his column to red herrings involving the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and President Bush's Medicare drug law.
But the usual progressive weapons of mass distraction won't be sufficient to obscure AARP's brazen conflicts of interest. The organization's press release says it is "committed to transparency," but it has historically resisted congressional attempts to acquire details about its multifarious insurance deals. And little wonder. If America's seniors ever figure out that AARP's endorsement of ObamaCare was a cynical strategy to bilk the elderly, the seniors' group will begin hemorrhaging members as quickly as its fellow Quisling, the AMA, has lost physicians. So, Friday's hearing should be an interesting study in evasion.
A duct tape moment or two
Anarchists: The violent anarchist protests in London the other day were enlightening for anyone who remembers the anarchists of the early 20th century. Those anarchists were anti government. But, the London anarchists, were big government supporters fighting on the side of those who want to see more government spending.
The Libya war (oops, I understand that the WH Press Secretary has said we're not supposed to call this a war) has not been approved by the Congress but the WH proudly announces that it has been approved by the Arab League. Oofdah.
The Obama administration has now come out and said that the Libyan revolutionaries, those they want top talk about anyway, are professional people like lawyers and doctors. So let's look at some of the professional revolutionaries of the past: Castro, lawyer; Che, doctor; Bashir Assad,; Ophthalmologist; Major Hassan, psychiatrist. Got any of your own?
A question I bet you never asked...
Rolls Royce 102EX
With over 1400 pounds of battery over the front wheels this must be the definition of "handles like a pig". Can you say massive understeer.
This leads me to the government silliness of the Fisker Karma. The Fisker car company produces the hybrid-electric Karma sedan. It's sells for $96,000. The investors in Fisker put up around $496,000. But, did you know the Obama administration gave/invested well over $500,000 in the company. I actually like the car but have no clue as to how it drives.
But, here's the rub the same people who do not believe in trickle down economics believe in trickle down technology. Otherwise there would be no justification in giving this company half a billion dollars.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
It's not easy being green
A green eco-nut lists 366 things she intends to do to become more green.
Good Lord! You would think that killing herself would've been quicker and easier:
http://greenasathistle.com/green-listed/
Some of the gems:
#92 Turning off my air-conditioning during the summer (does she leave it on in the winter?)
#75 Using matches instead of lighters (with the horrible phosphorous and sulpher compounds? and what does she use them for since I assume she doesn't smoke or, heaven forbid!, use a fireplace)
I guess she does light fires, isn't that a green no-no:
#343 Using real, leftover wood for fires instead of artificial ones
I would approve of these:
#96 Sleeping naked
#356 Going skinny dipping
if it weren't for these:
#98 Not having any more baths
#63 Switching to natural deodorant
#277 Not shaving my legs anymore
#49 Only local and fair-trade chocolate (She's from Ontario, how are the chocolate plantations in Canada)
#292 Using up my change at the cash register (Why is that green?)
#273 Keeping my addresses on my computer rather than buying a paper notebook (Save tree, but uses horrible electricity - oh no, maybe she should just memorize addresses)
#140 Only drinking organic hard liquor (what the hell is organic hard liquor?)
#162 No more gift cards unless they’re homemade from scrap paper (I don't think Amazon accepts those)
#61 Using stainless steel rather than non-stick frying pan (takes less time to heat up) (Yes, but takes more hot water to clean - oh no!)
#219 Only buying wooden hangers, preferably used (but doesn't that kill trees?)
#240 Setting my desktop wallpaper to black, which uses less energy (er, no, if you use an LCD it uses more energy.)
Good Lord! You would think that killing herself would've been quicker and easier:
http://greenasathistle.com/green-listed/
Some of the gems:
#92 Turning off my air-conditioning during the summer (does she leave it on in the winter?)
#75 Using matches instead of lighters (with the horrible phosphorous and sulpher compounds? and what does she use them for since I assume she doesn't smoke or, heaven forbid!, use a fireplace)
I guess she does light fires, isn't that a green no-no:
#343 Using real, leftover wood for fires instead of artificial ones
I would approve of these:
#96 Sleeping naked
#356 Going skinny dipping
if it weren't for these:
#98 Not having any more baths
#63 Switching to natural deodorant
#277 Not shaving my legs anymore
#49 Only local and fair-trade chocolate (She's from Ontario, how are the chocolate plantations in Canada)
#292 Using up my change at the cash register (Why is that green?)
#273 Keeping my addresses on my computer rather than buying a paper notebook (Save tree, but uses horrible electricity - oh no, maybe she should just memorize addresses)
#140 Only drinking organic hard liquor (what the hell is organic hard liquor?)
#162 No more gift cards unless they’re homemade from scrap paper (I don't think Amazon accepts those)
#61 Using stainless steel rather than non-stick frying pan (takes less time to heat up) (Yes, but takes more hot water to clean - oh no!)
#219 Only buying wooden hangers, preferably used (but doesn't that kill trees?)
#240 Setting my desktop wallpaper to black, which uses less energy (er, no, if you use an LCD it uses more energy.)
Leftist liars, but I repeat myself
Planned Parenthood CEO’s Mammogram Claims Are False
In the wake of undercover evidence [1] revealing Planned Parenthood’s abusive and illegal activity, the America’s biggest abortion business unrolled a massive PR campaign to defend its $363-million-a-year taxpayer subsidies. The campaign included TV, print, radio and online ad buys, a big pink bus rolling
across the country, and numerous appearances and opinion pieces by Planned Parenthood spokespersons and supporters (including this gem [2] by PP vice-president of communications Stuart Schear.
Planned Parenthood has been insisting that they provide invaluable health services to “millions” of America women.
Just a few weeks ago, on national television, Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said this [3]about Rep. Mike Pence’s amendment to defund Planned Parenthood:
“If this bill ever becomes law, millions of women in this country are gonna lose their health care access–not to abortion services–to basic family planning, you
know, mammograms.”
Yet this is blatantly false.
We got a tip from former Planned Parenthood director, Abby Johnson, that Planned Parenthood does not provide any mammogram services. Just to be sure, our investigative team called up 30 Planned Parenthood
clinics in many major metropolitan areas. Every single one of the clinics told our actor that no, they do not provide mammograms. “We don’t provide those services whatsoever,” one staffer in Arizona said.
Another in Wisconsin remarked, “We are just a surgical center, we don’t really do health services.” In Overland Park, KS, at Planned Parenthood’s “Comprehensive Health Center,” they said, “We don’t
actually have a, um, mammogram machine, at our clinics.”
We called 27 states total. In none of those states does Planned Parenthood provide mammograms.
We challenge Planned Parenthood to provide evidence that they provide mammograms to “millions of American women”–or to any at all.
Almost everyone has a loved one affected by cancer. It is reprehensible to play on the fears of women and their families with lies, in an attempt to extort more money from taxpayers.
Sadly, such deception and manipulation should not surprise us.
This is only the latest in Planned Parenthood’s abusive and deceptive activity. Planned Parenthood claims to provide “pregnancy options” to women, yet over 97% of their services [4] to pregnant women are abortions. The corporation aborts 332,278 unborn boys and girls each year, gives false medical information and manipulative counseling to women, covers up the sexual abuse of young girls, and cooperates with the sexual trafficking and commercial exploitation of children.
Because Google has become an arm of the Obama administration
By Sara Jerome
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski will face tough questions about his investigation into a privacy breach by Google during a House hearing on Wednesday, according to a House aide.
The aide said Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) is expected to question Genachowski on an apparently-lagging FCC probe into the infamous Google Wi-Fi data breach. The FCC probe was announced to great fanfare in November but has yet to produce any publicly available results.
During what privacy groups dubbed the "Wi-Spy" breach, Google collected and stored private data from unencrypted Wi-Fi networks, including passwords and e-mails.
The company has since apologized and boosted its privacy settings, persuading the Federal Trade Commission against fining it during a probe at that agency.
Genachowski, who is testifying Wednesday on the FCC budget, is also expected to take questions on whether the government should fund the implementation of net-neutrality rules. Republicans say the agency overstepped its authority when it passed the controversial rules last year.
Graves and Appropriations colleague Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), along with members of Energy and Commerce, led the charge to defund the rules.
Another reason Congress is held in such low repute
Members Collect Many Unpaid Tickets
By Jennifer Yachnin
- Roll Call Staff
Members of Congress have immunity from many routine parking tickets in the District of Columbia, but that doesn’t mean they can’t try to rack up fines.
According to a Roll Call survey of vehicles parked on Capitol Hill and at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, as of mid-March, lawmakers were carrying at least $15,000 in outstanding tickets — ranging from expired meters to speeding camera violations — and potentially thousands of dollars more.
Three-quarters of those tickets, worth about $11,500, were in default at the time of the survey, having gone more than 60 days, and in some cases years, without payment.
Roll Call canvassed Congressional parking facilities, as well as a special Members-only parking lot at the airport, and reviewed about 300 vehicles displaying a House- or Senate-issued Member parking tag.
Information on parking violations was obtained from the District of Columbia’s public ticket database, which is searchable by license plate and includes information on minor violations.
While many vehicles registered a single ticket, valued at as little as $20, a handful of automobiles reported several hundred to thousands of dollars in unpaid tickets.
Roll Call’s inquiry appears to have led some offenders to pay up.
Aides to Reps. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) and Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said the lawmakers repaid their respective tickets after being contacted by Roll Call.
The District’s database showed Weiner received nearly $2,180 in tickets from 2007 to early March, including some instances in which he appears to have incurred multiple violations at the same time, such as failing to display current tags while parked in a taxi stand zone.
“All of the Congressman’s parking tickets have been paid. He is pleased to have helped decrease the D.C. budget deficit,” Weiner spokesman Dave Arnold said.
Thompson spokesman Lanier Avant likewise said the Mississippi lawmaker repaid $610 in outstanding tickets that his vehicle received from 2004 to 2010. During Roll Call’s survey, a second vehicle displaying Thompson’s Member parking permit also returned $250 in parking tickets, which Avant said were his own and were also repaid.
According to the House Administration Committee, Members must pay their own parking tickets and are not permitted to use official funds.
The D.C. registry showed California license plates used by Rep. Mike Honda (D) received $640 in tickets from 2007 to 2010.
“Thanks for bringing this to the Congressman’s attention. It’s being sorted out now (there appears to be some errors in past processing). Either way, it will be taken care of immediately,” Honda spokesman Michael Shank said Monday.
Shank said Honda thought he had previously paid some of the tickets.
In the House, Members are issued lawmaker-specific parking permits, identifying each lawmaker and the Congress in which he serves. Staff are eligible to use the parking permits in certain circumstance. Senators are issued similar parking permits.
Some Members also drive vehicles bearing state-issued Congressional license plates — which vary, but typically correspond to a lawmaker’s district and chamber — but the majority of vehicles identified by Roll Call with House- or Senate-issued parking permits displayed license plates issued by Maryland, Virginia or the District of Columbia.
Roll Call identified several vehicles with House- or Senate-issued parking permits and locally issued license plates that could not be matched to a specific Member.
The federal Drivers Privacy Protection Act limits the use of state vehicle records and prevented Roll Call from accessing information based on license plates.
Among the unidentified vehicles, one with Maryland plates parked in the Congressional lot at the airport racked up $1,140 from eight parking tickets, which D.C. records indicate were issued in November and December 2010.
Another vehicle with Maryland license plates parked in the Rayburn House Office Building has received $1,315 in tickets from 2007 to 2010, according to D.C. records.
In addition, D.C. records indicate that state-issued Congressional plates for Alaska, California, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina and Texas have a combined $4,000 in outstanding tickets. It is not clear, however, whether those plates are currently in use by any Members. D.C. records do not identify the owner of a vehicle.
Under a provision in D.C. law, Members of Congress, along with the city’s own councilmembers, are exempt from parking tickets when on “official business.”
While the exemption allows Members to park in any “available curb space,” lawmakers must still obey restrictions for rush hour parking, loading zones and fire hydrants. The exemption also does not protect Members from receiving tickets for speeding or running red lights.
To qualify for the parking exemption, Members must use vehicles with license plates issued by the state that they represent, and not the House- or Senate-issued parking permits.
According to the D.C. Department of Motor Vehicles’ website, any individual who receives a “parking, minor moving or photo enforcement ticket” must pay the related fine within 30 days, or the penalty is doubled. If a driver does not pay the fine or contest the ticket within 60 days, the District classifies the ticket as delinquent and may add additional penalties, depending on the type of violation.
Vehicles that receive two or more parking tickets, for example, may be “booted,” or equipped with a device that prevents the vehicle from being driven.
Budget Idiocy
I couldn't agree with Mish more (except instead of 300b they should have started with Rand Paul's proposed $500b in cuts):
Democrats and Republicans are horn-locked in a debate about whether budget cuts should be $30 billion or $60 billion.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, says President Barack Obama’s offer to accept a total of $30 billion in spending cuts for 2011 is “clearly in the same ballpark” with what House Republican leaders asked for.
The pathetic debate lingers on.
Please consider Budget Negotiations Stall Amid Charges of Inaction as U.S. Shutdown Looms
Republicans and Democrats in Congress traded charges over which party is stifling agreement on budget cuts needed to avert the first U.S. government shutdown in 15 years.
With no accord in sight on legislation to extend government spending past April 8, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, accused Republican leaders of trying to placate an “extreme minority” of their party by spurning an offer to reach a deal.
President Barack Obama’s offer to accept a total of $30 billion in spending cuts for 2011 is “clearly in the same ballpark” with what House Republican leaders initially sought before their rank-and-file demanded deeper reductions, Reid said.
“Are they afraid to tell the extreme Tea Party members of their caucus that they’re trying to find common ground with Democrats?” Reid asked yesterday at his weekly news conference.
Pathetic Performance by Both Parties
Quite frankly this is a pathetic performance by both parties. Moreover, I will flat out state the Republicans have only themselves to blame.
By offering a piss poor budget reduction of a mere $60 billion, they now look like the bad guys for not meeting the Obama half-way at $30 billion.
Just the Math Maam
Please do the math. $30 billion is a mere 1.875% of the budget. That is what everyone is pissing and moaning over.
If Republicans had any balls, and they clearly don't, they would have proposed cutting the budget by $300 billion. Then, a compromise at $150 billion would have been a mere 9.375% of the deficit.
It is is bad enough to argue over 9% of the budget, so what does it mean to bicker over 1.875% of the budget?
What it means is that neither party has the balls to fix a damn thing. It also means the Republicans can blame themselves for being placed in this absurd position.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Just wait for Obamacare
Fraud contaminating free health-care pool
Gaping loopholes in the program that covers poor uninsured Bay Staters have cost taxpayers tens of millions in bogus claims from out-of-staters and foreigners —not to mention gynecological bills for men and foot X-rays for headaches, according to the commonwealth’s inspector general.
“We’re finding overpayments, double payments and medically unnecessary payments,” Massachusetts Inspector General Gregory Sullivan said of his office’s scathing review of the state’s so-called Uncompensated Care Pool obtained by the Herald. “When the state set up the free-care pool, it was supposed to have the most cutting-edge anti-fraud system to go along with it, but it’s not up and running, and because of that, many millions of dollars are being wasted.”
The fund spent $414 million on emergency health care for nearly 1 million claims in 2009, Sullivan told the Pulse, including:
• $7 million on care for non-Massachusetts residents. Even though the law limits free care to Bay State citizens, claims were paid out for patients with home addresses in 48 other states, Ireland, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom.
• $17.8 million for more than 60,000 “medically unlikely” or “medically unnecessary” claims, such as foot X-ray charges for patients suffering from headaches.
• Suspicious claims for gender-specific procedures for members of the opposite gender.
• $6 million for 13,000 duplicate claims.
A spokeswoman for the Patrick administration acknowledged problems with the free-care pool and vowed to fix them.
“We share the inspector general’s commitment to finding ways to enhance and improve the integrity of the claims adjudication systems at the Health Safety Net,” said Paulette Song, a spokeswoman for JudyAnn Bigby, secretary of the state’s Executive Office and Health and Human Services, “and are reviewing the 2011 report thoroughly to find opportunities to help increase efficiencies.”
Perhaps the report’s most troubling finding is that the state relies on the honor system when determining who is eligible for free care — and does not review an applicant’s assets, or even require a Social Security number to verify income, citizenship or address, Sullivan said.
“It’s hard to say how much this is costing us, but we did see thousands of examples of people who are receiving free care who have Social Security numbers, but didn’t give them to the state,” Sullivan said.
The Health Safety Net’s policy is to deny coverage to out-of-staters and citizens from other countries, Song said.
The IG’s office also found that 45 percent of the free-care recipients told the state they had no income at all, although Sullivan points out that “any form of public assistance must be reported as income.” Under law, a single person who is covered by the free-care pool must have no more than $2,000 in assets and earn less than $32,586 a year.
The Uncompensated Care Pool fund, also known as the Health Safety Net, was established in 2006, under then-Gov. Mitt Romney’s health-care reform law. It is designed to reimburse hospitals and community health centers for treating uninsured people for medical emergencies — as they must under federal law — and is funded by taxpayers, health insurers and hospitals.
Earlier this year, Gov. Deval Patrick ordered government agencies to conduct a more thorough review of people’s assets before doling out any state benefits.
“The taxpayers’ interest,” said Sullivan, “must be protected.”
Ivy League colleges???
Deputies: 17-year-old girl assaults mother with gun to get new vehicle
A 17-year-old girl was charged Friday with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm and battery after deputies say she pulled a gun on her mother during an argument.
Rachel Anne Hachero was upset because her mother wouldn't co-sign on a vehicle purchase, according to a Lee County Sheriff's Office report.
The teen's mother told investigators Hachero threatened to kill her when she refused to co-sign for the vehicle.
Hachero then confronted her mother at home with a gun and pistol-whipped her head, according to the report.
After pistol-whipping her mother, Hachero pointed the gun at her mother's head and stomach and told her she was going with her to sign for the car, according to the report.
The mother told investigators Hachero ordered her mother into the vehicle and demanded she drive to the dealership to sign for the car or she would shoot her.
Hachero and her mother then went to Sutherlin Nissan on South Tamiami Trail, where she had her mother sign for a 2004 black Nissan 350Z. Hachero left the dealership in the vehicle.
The mother told investigators she went through Hachero's purse Friday while Hachero was at school and located the gun, drugs and drug paraphernalia.
The mother told investigators she did not want to press charges against Hachero, because she had recently been accepted to several Ivy League colleges.
Deputies decided to charge Hachero due to the nature of the incident.
The gun allegedly used by Hachero in the assault was reported stolen from the home of a Lee County Port Authority officer in Fort Myers in July of 2010.
Five guns and several other items were taken during that burglary.