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Tag: Obamacare
A new study from the Brooklyn Institution states that more US businesses are being destroyed than are being created. This trend has been most striking over the Obama administration, culminating with the worst numbers since the beginning of 2009.
There is no states or regional localization for these numbers. The poor business growth and the destruction of businesses are seen throughout the entire 50 state union. The only valid conclusion when looking at these statistics is that the problem arises from a central source and not on the local level. When I write of a central source, I am, of course, referring to Washington DC.
Since Obama has taken office, there has been an attack on the middle class. Despite Obama’s rhetoric and the media’s confirmation of his lies, the wealth gap between the rich and poor is widening by the day, while squeezing out the middle class in the process.
Remember, small business is the spine which makes America’s economy and creates most of the jobs in this country. However, as any small business owner will tell you, it has become more difficult by the year to maintain that business. Higher taxes, no incentives, new laws and an unfriendly central government has made business ownership increasingly more difficult. Also, it deters the entrepreneurial spirit and discourages anyone from wanting to create their own business.
Despite the lower unemployment rate, it clearly explains why the nation’s workforce shrank by more than 800,000 workers in April, sending the labor force participation rate plummeting 0.4 percentage points to 62.8 percent.
Despite what you hear on the news, America’s economy remains in a downwards spiral. Many have given up looking for work and are now on the government doll, or they just decided to retire due to the bad economy. As this trend continues, America’s competitive edge will soon be lost.
Don’t let this happen.
People ask me as a physician if a new, incurable virus or bacteria could spread across the world, causing a massive pandemic. Unfortunately, I tell them the answer to this question is “When, not if.”
The truth is that bacterial and viral pathogens have been around for millions, if not billions of years. While modern antibiotics, on the other hand, have only been around for around for less than a measly hundred years. Plus, with worldwide travel, people not taking their full prescription of antibiotics, and the rapid mutation rate of diseases, it is just a matter of time before one of these bugs causes real problems.
In my book The New Reality, I write of such a scenario. Unfortunately, this situation may be more plausible than fictional in nature. With the recent disassembly of the American healthcare system, rising national debt, and deteriorating research grant funds, we may be financially unable to handle a massive pandemic—making this scenario more likely by the day.
I’m not a fear monger, but a recent article caught my attention about a deadly virus that was brought back from Saudi Arabia. It is called the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and carries a 25-30% mortality. The virus comes from the same family as the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, coronavirus, which killed almost 800 people worldwide in 2003. The incubation period of the virus — the time between exposure and development of symptoms — is about five days, similar to SARS.
The patient who contracted MERS was returning home to Indiana. Upon arrival, he began to have shortness of breath, coughing and fever. Officials do not know the origin of the virus or how it spreads. The MERS virus has been found in camels, but officials don’t know how it is spreading to humans. There is no vaccine or treatment available. In some countries, the virus has spread from person to person through close contact, such as caring for or living with an infected person. However, it is unknown how the patient became infected.
“MERS is now in our heartland,” said Anne Schuchat, assistant surgeon general and director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases, during a briefing Friday.
The scary thing is what happens if this MERS virus mutates into something more deadly. By nature, virus routinely mutate—making treatment of such illnesses as the common cold and HIV very difficult to treat. So what happens if it mutates into something more deadly or possibly something more easily spread?
It is certainly a reasonable question to ask. And the only true answer is to be prepared. But as our ability to prepare is under serious jeopardy as a direct result of Obama’s new domestic policies and the Affordable Care Act, we may all be caught someday off-guard for such an event.
For more information please refer to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/cdc-confirms-first-case-of-deadly-mers-virus-in-indiana-man-who-traveled-to-saudi-arabia/2014/05/02/b27673b4-d233-11e3-a6b1-45c4dffb85a6_story.html
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Journalism is Dead
Are there no good, honest reporters left on the planet? Where are the Edward Murrows or Walter Cronkites? No, I’m not saying journalism is completely dead, but in the 21st century, just about all of them have lost their credibility. Instead of asking the hard hitting questions or seeking the truth, they are bound now not to their journalistic morals but to their political agenda.
Take for instance the recent coverage of Obamacare. The basic truth is that Obama lied about everything in the law in order to get reelected. “You will keep the same doctors.” “Your rates will go down by 2500 dollars.” “Healthcare for everyone.” Lie, lie and another lie. There is not a shred of truth to any of these statements, and few to no reporters are calling him out on these blatant lies. If President Bush did the same, he would be crucified over the air waves.
People are losing their health coverage, losing their jobs and having their salaries cut all around the country as a result of this law. Yet, where is the press outrage? Where are the hard questions? No one is calling the president out on either of his lies or his failed policies. Remember the hard hitting questions during Watergate? Those days are long gone.
We are at the brink of a new cold war or worse yet, war with Russia and what are the latest questions for Obama on his Asian tour? “Did you like the green tea ice cream?” “How did you like the ice cream dessert in the shape of Mt. Fuji served at the state dinner?” Am I crazy but shouldn’t the press be asking about the devaluation of the yuan, North Korean nuclear tests, the imminent invasion of the Ukraine or the inefficacy of NATO?
The days of when real reporters covered the news are long gone. Now we have a presidential cheering squad that pollutes the American mild and hides the truth under a smokescreen of political correctness and progressive ideology.
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Obama Prolongs Recession
The best way to prolong a recession and stifle the economy is by continually raising taxes. Unfortunately, this self-destructive policy has been Obama’s disastrous domestic policy ever since taking office. Under Obama’s recent proposal, taxes would rise from 17.6 percent of Gross Domestic Product in 2014 to 19.2 percent in 2024. During the ten years from 2015 to 2024, federal taxation would average 18.7 percent GDP. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said this would be the highest level of sustained taxation ever imposed on the American people. And you all thought Jimmy Carter was a disaster.
Plus, under Obama’s budget proposal, according to the CBO, the budget will never balance. But over the next ten years, the federal government would add $7.183 trillion to its debt held by the public. And in my opinion, that is a conservative number that does not account for the trillions of dollars of mounting debt accrues from Obamacare.
The problem now in America is that he job market has stagnated considerably under Obama. With full-time work hard to find, workers have built temping into a de facto career, minus vacation, sick days or insurance. The assignments might be temporary — a few months here, a year there — but labor economists warn that companies’ growing hunger for a workforce they can switch on and off could do permanent damage to these workers’ career trajectories and retirement plans. In March, the temp industry added 28,500 jobs. As these numbers grow on a monthly basis and as more people are just simply giving up looking for work because the jobs aren’t there, America’s full time labor force dwindles by the day. Plus, as incentives to stay home and live under the government dole continue their insurmountable rise under Obama, there is no longer incentive to look for work for many people.
A recent story I came across I think nicely sums up the current state of the American work force. For seven years through 2012, the number of Californians aged 50 to 64 who live in their parents’ homes swelled 67.6% to about 194,000, according to the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the Insight Center for Community Economic Development. The jump is almost exclusively the result of financial hardship caused by the recession rather than for other reasons, such as the need to care for aging parents, said Steven P. Wallace, a UCLA professor of public health who crunched the data. Plus, the number of Americans 55 and older who have been out of work for a year or more was 617,000 at the end of December, a fivefold jump from the end of 2007 when the recession hit, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Any economist can realize that these numbers and trends all stink and are hazardous to a solvent American economy. Plus, if you think the national unemployment numbers disagree with my statements or is an accurate barometer of the health of our economy, you are sorely wrong. These numbers reflect only those who are actively seeking work. Most have simply given up or settled on part time employment—both of which artificially pads the unemployment numbers.
America is heading in the wrong direction, and if we don’t do anything now, the consequences will be dire.
When I conjure up a vision of total failure, many things come to my mind including the Dodge Pinto, Kathleen Harding and now appropriately the health and human services secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Though my criticism may seems harsh, I think it’s certainly apropos when looking at the facts. Though I don’t directly blame her for the heavy-faulted and crony capitalistic law, she along with Obama will forever will forever bear the scar of this ignominious Scarlet Letter.
Here are the Facts:
1. Insurance Costs Continue to Rise: One of the central claims made by the “central planners” was that insurance premiums would go down for buyers. However, the law actually mandates plans to cover more and more (“children” must be covered to age 27, “free” “women’s health” services), adds new taxes and fees, raising the minimum requirements and force high-risk patients into pooled-plans. So where does this money come from? That’s right, the consumer. Most with private plans have been hit with over a 100% increase!
2. Too Many Loopholes to be Effective: One of the problems with a bill written by lobbyists and bureaucrats, passed by people who never read it, and numbers in the 2,000s of pages is that it is too complicated and has too many loopholes. Take for example, employers have cut back hours or reduced staff to avoid hitting certain requirements—raising the unemployment numbers.
3. Leaves 31 Million Uninsured by 2023! How does this help our country? With 40 million already uninsured and many by choice, did we really have to disassemble almost 20% of the economy for these underrated, dismal numbers?
4. Program Costs Continue to Blow Past Initial Estimates: The CBO already conservatively estimates the 1 Trillion dollar allocated budget is almost another trillion dollars over budget.
5. The Program is Run by Government: This point speaks for itself. Plus, to make the matter worse, the IRS is implementing it. That’s like the Gestapo running the healthcare system of Nazi Germany.
6. The Web Site is a Failure: Don’t forget, the web site was and still is a failure. Plus, it cost over 3 billion dollars to create. That’s both grossly inefficient and absurd at the same time.
7. True “Benefits” Unclear: If you haven’t seen all the benefits promised since the passage of Obamacare, you are not alone.
8. Negative Employee Repercussions: In order to escape the heavy hand of government, businesses have been forced to follow the law as passed and find ways to avoid being negatively impacted. As a result of the law, businesses have been forced to drop full-time employees to part-time status, stop hiring altogether, and scrap plans for expansion.
9. You Don’t Get to Keep Your Doctor: Remember this flagrant lie by the president? Also remember how he promised premiums would go down by 2500 dollars? Lie and double lie!
10. 7.5 Million Sign Up: Obama is celebrating about the 7.5 million enrollees. However, when you look at these numbers most of them are from people who lost their insurance due to the law. And worse yet, most have not actually paid for the coverage. Lastly what about the other 32.5 million people?
Unfortunately, this list of failure will grow as our country’s economy shrinks.
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Healthcare Systems Going Bust
There is a growing and disturbing trend occurring now across the country as Obamacare implementation takes hold. It is like a domino effect that will eventually lead to both the disembodiment of our healthcare system and its eventual economic collapse. With Medicare reimbursements declining, uninsured patients rising, and high Obamacare deductibles going unpaid, hospitals are hanging on for dear financial life.
I’ll go further into some basic economics but first one of the scary trends going on in medicine is that hospitals are laying off employees. About 250 Crozer-Keystone Health System employees, including physicians and managers, were laid recently following the announcement that the health system has lost almost $16 million in the last seven months, according to system officials. This statistic may seem almost unbelievable or just to be an anomaly, but the truth is that most hospitals are watching their profits disappear.
You may ask how is that possible. Even on the Mike Church show, he was talking about the greed of the hospitals and some physicians. The simple truth is that because a large portion of patients entering a hospital are elderly and on Medicare and due to significant Medicare reimbursement cuts, an inpatient admission for a Medicare recipient is a money losing endeavor the the hospital. Plus, if the Medicare patient returns for any reason within 30 days, the hospital does not get paid for that admission.
Secondly, there has been a definite rise in the uninsured patient. Whether they are illegal aliens or just people down on their luck because of the bad economy, the numbers are rising. Again, the hospital ends up losing money for each of their admissions. Lastly, with the initiation of Obamacare, the hospitals are collecting even less. Because of the high deductibles, patients with this insurance are unable to pay for their hospital bill, creating another loss in the hospital’s overall revenue.
Taken together, hopefully you understand why we are now witnessing hospitals either going bankrupt or having massive layoffs. It’s not because the business isn’t there. As the population grows older, there is in fact a greater need for both hospitals and physicians. However, in a few years, will there be any physicians or hospitals left to take care of anybody?
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The Truth About Obamacare
Obamacare is a complete affront to each of our Constitutional civil liberties. With over 2000 pages of new laws, stipulations and intrusions into our rights the bill essentially gives the United States government a mandate to take over our economy. How could the most successful country in the world knowingly give away everything that our soldiers fought so hard to preserve? It spits not only in their faces but also in the faces our Founding Fathers. I think this video above nicely sums up the intrusive nature of this bill.
Ronal Reagan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
Where is the ACLU in all of this? If they really cared about our civil liberties they would have organized mass marches against it and not slept until it was repealed. This bill takes away more of our civil liberties than anything ever passed before in the United States, yet they do or say nothing. I guess the only thing they really care about is their own political agenda, and if something doesn’t fit into it, then it doesn’t matter to them. Well, it matters to me.
As a physician it is my hope that everyone receives proper medical care. Every week I either donate my time to the free medical clinic or provide care to the uninsured, underinsured or illegals for free in this country. However, I don’t believe the government has a right not only to mandate healthcare for everyone but also oversee such a massive economic goliath. Plus, where are the funds for such plan. Every day I learn the cost of it is rising. No matter what news station you listen to they all agree that the plan is over budget and that there is no way to pay for it. The plan both underestimated the amount of people who would be covered and also the funds needed to support it. I don’t know about you but this is a recipe for disaster. And the worst part about it is that Obama wants to proceed, despite the economic devastation it will create for America’s economy.
Capitalism has made America great. It won us the Cold War and continues to make our country great. Why? Capitalism allows the people to take charge of their destiny and gives them the opportunity to make a better living for not only themselves but their children. It allows for initiative and creates an environment so that anyone has the potential to succeed. That is why Capitalism has proven to be the greatest economic system the world has ever seen. I’m not saying it’s perfect, but has there ever been any socialist, communist or fascists utopias? Just look at North Korea, where the government runs everything. How are they doing? Their people are starving and they are living in complete poverty. Now look at South Korea.
Have we not learned anything from history? Obamacare needs to be repealed for our sake and the sake of our children.
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