Why conservatives oppose the expansion of Obamacare
The battle over the Arizona expansion of Obamacare resembles the fight between David and Goliath. The pro-expansion team has millions of dollars, powerful lobbyists, support from all Democrat legislators, most if not all of the media and a few Republicans who have defected to their cause. You’ve probably heard radio ads, watched commercials on ESPN or received a full page glossy mailer promoting their “conservative plan.” The only problem is conservative legislators do not support it.
Here are a few reasons why:
We don’t fall for optical illusions. When the pro-expansion team bussed in 300 people to their last rally, we knew their support was a charade. When they say 63,000 people will lose coverage, we knew it was not true. Those currently on Medicaid will still have coverage with or without the expansion. Even if it was true, they could get insurance from exchanges with any minimum wage job. We know it is money and not compassion that is driving this train. A train Harry Reid said will wreck without the appropriation of more federal funds.
We stick to the facts and know the budget put forth by President Biggs will not drain the rainy day fund or kick people off of Medicaid. It does, however, include a request to renew our federal waiver. The pro-expansion team has said the waiver has been denied when, in reality, it has not. Cutting and pasting a web FAQ directed to 50 states is not the same as formally submitting your plan and receiving a denial letter. Ironically, this is the same argument the Democrats made when we last requested a waiver. They said we couldn’t get it, but we did. Will they deny the Supreme Court has ruled you can’t coerce people into expansion?
Another fact is expansion doesn’t deal with health care of poor children. We are talking about a select group of adults of whom many have incomes above the poverty level. We are not talking about disabled people that cannot work. They have and will continue to have Medicaid coverage.
We have learned from history we can afford to wait a year with or without the waiver as Arizona was the last state to implement Medicaid. We waited about 20 years and now it consumes one of every four dollars we spend. Obamacare is going to implode which even the pro-expansion team admits. When it does, the expansion will go with it. It would be foolish to add onto something that is unraveling prior to implementation.
We know the numbers don't add up. Conservatives don’t raise taxes on hospitals as a gimmick to draw down federal funds and they don’t put hundreds of thousands of people on a welfare program that will cost billions. Billions will be added to the national debt of which some will be used to fund abortions. Fortunately, half of the states have now refused the expansion. They took advantage of this rare opportunity to cut federal spending.
We believe in the American dream which depends on every able bodied American to contribute and work. As mentioned before, a minimum wage job qualifies a person for health care exchange coverage. This will increase wealth and allow further contributions to society. Ours is a society that has been the most prosperous in the world because it promises people can keep what they earn. Nations that guarantee benefits others have earned fail. Conservatives understand that and know expansion is nothing more than massive growth of the welfare state and a direct threat to our long term economic health.
Warren Petersen
State Representative, District 12
The teleprompter president
It was a joke, right?
Nothing more than a way for those, like me, who oppose President Obama's policies to make light of his seeming dependency on a teleprompter to speak publicly. The teleprompter was almost Garry Trudeau-esque in the ease which it could be substituted for an image of Obama.
YouTube video footage abounded of Obama getting all confused in speeches as his teleprompter failed to provide him the right words. The dependency became so bad that the teleprompter even showed up at an Obama speech to elementary school kids? What were his handlers afraid of, that he was going to try to spell potato?
All the while, Obama took fire for his apparent nonchalance in performing the duties of his job. Little things like his seeming non-stop playing basketball or golf were mocked, but in people's hearts they still believed that Obama was just breaking the tension in the world's hardest job.
But some eerie warnings started cropping up.
In 2010, it was reported that a highly tenured professor at the University of Chicago School of Law laid the smack down on Obama's time there teaching constitutional law saying, "The other professors hated him because he was lazy, unqualified, never attended any of the faculty meetings, and it was clear that the position was nothing more than a political stepping stool."
Not exactly glowing words of endorsement, but at the time it sounded more like sour grapes than a gigantic red flashing warning sign.
Even when the White House was trying to show an engaged Obama, it caused people to wonder. In the famous picture released by the White House showing the situation room when Osama bin Laden was killed, Obama appears to have pulled up a stool to the big boy table, no computer like everyone else, and a General sitting at the head of the table in what should have been his seat.
Disquieting how in this moment that he would use to great political advantage, the official White House photo shows that Joe Biden had a seat at the table, and Obama did not.
But the questions about whether Obama is actually performing even the most rudimentary elements of his job as President did not really gain respectability until a debate erupted in the wake of Benghazi over whether he was even paying attention to daily intelligence briefings.
Now, with Obama's claim that he did not find out about the IRS targeting of tea party groups before he saw it on television, even though his White House staff knew about it at least weeks before the news came out is at best an indictment of his management style. At worst, it reveals a White House where the staff knows the guy in the Oval Office doesn't care and doesn't want to know about what is happening.
Rick Manning
NetRightDaily.com
Americans for Limited Government
Transgression
Our laws are meant to stop people from doing something unlawful and to penalize those who disregard them. Our immigration laws however are enforced differently because the focus is not on the transgression but on the plight of those who have broken the laws (What can be done to lift the stigma they feel so they can “normalize” their lives?).
Reporters have been advised not to use the words “illegal immigrant” when referring to those who sneaked into this country in violation of American immigration laws because this description is considered to be mean-spirited, if not racist.
No one cares if ordinary American citizens break the law and have to live in the ”shadows” nor are there attempts to conjure up euphemisms for their illegal acts. There are no “sanctuary” cities protecting American shoplifters or jay walkers from the long arm of the law. In some places illegal immigrants are treated as if they were in a witness protection program.
We are told it is impossible to find all the people who crossed the border illegally and violated our laws. Does anyone think because we can’t find all embezzlers, bank robbers, and drunk drivers, we should stop trying to enforce the laws they violated? Should we instead let them “come out of the shadows” and “normalize” their lives?
Ed Konecnik
Flushing, New York
Did the last journalist go extinct?
Since killing 13 soldiers and wounding 32 more, Nidal Hasan has been paid $278,000 while his victims will not receive the same pay and medical benefits given to those wounded in combat. Despite Hasan communicating with known terrorists and screaming "Allahu Akbar" as he mowed down his fellow soldiers, Obama has deemed this a work place violence incident! But then Obama claims that the Muslim call to prayer is the sweetest sound he has ever heard!
It is amazing how Obama took credit for the death of Osama bin Laden and yet is funding Al Qaeda rebels to topple the legitimate government of Syria! One such Al Qaeda group calls themselves the Osama bin Laden brigade! How long did Obama and Hillary blame the attack on our personnel in Benghazi on a Mel-Brooks-like satire on Mohamed? We had to get the truth from the president of Libya!
Sincerely,
Joseph DuPont
Towanda, Pennsylvannia
No peace for Israel
I take exception to the two state solution proposed for Israel and Palestine. Some people, including world leaders, are proposing setting borders for a Palestinian state in the West Bank, a conditional Israeli settlement building freeze, a Jerusalem agreement and a Palestinian relinquishment of the claim for the right of return for millions of Arabs.
All these proposals sound like wonderful ideas when sitting around a table negotiating so-called peace for Israel and the Palestinians, but there is a major fallacy associated with a peace agreement.
The Palestinians, like other Arabs and the Persians, cannot be trusted to honor any documents they might agree to and sign with Israel. They hate the Israeli Jews and will tear up a peace treaty and attack Israel when the opportunity arises.
Israel can negotiate with the Palestinians and others in the Middle East, but must realize peace is not possible with its neighbors. War might not come next week or next year, but it is inevitable, and Israel has to prepare for it.
Peace in the Middle East is an interlude for Israel to prepare for the next war ad infinitum.
Israel’s wars might be preludes to future warfare around the globe.
Donald A. Moskowitz
Londonderry, New Hampshire
Fair Tax eliminates the IRS
Recent news regarding the IRS targeting certain political groups and their members for harassment via tax exempt applications and tax return audits provides further reason why we the people should vote to disband the IRS. Legislation in the form of HR25 and S122, titled The Fair Tax Act, does just that and awaits hearings in the U.S. House of Representative's Ways and Means Committee and the U.S. Senate's Finance Committee respectively.
The Fair Tax eliminates the IRS, all income taxes, the Social Security payroll tax, corporation taxes, estate taxes, and taxes on interest, dividends, and capital gains, and Medicare premiums. All of these are replaced by a tax on consumption, configured in such a way as to provide relief for low income families and to progressively increase the amount of taxes paid as spending above the poverty level increases. It enlarges the tax base so current taxpayers will pay less taxes on average, rewards saving and investments, and stimulates the economy by encouraging businesses to remain in America. Please go to www.taxreform.gov or tweet @simplertaxes and urge passage of The Fair Tax Act to put the IRS out of business and lower our taxes.
Patrick R. Burkett
Bend, Oregon
Sincere
If they are so sincere about wanting to be U.S. Citizens ... why do they speak in Spanish and wave Mexican flags ... just another attack by the cartels in the war to retain our sovereignty.
No amnesty … No citizenship!!
Is the Fence finished?
Sincerely,
M.E. Goodwin
Los Angeles, California
City abusing sewer plant neighbors again!
First they were extremely annoying building the plant and disrupting our lives for a year. Then we had to deal with all the problems it caused. When it was torn down, they disputed life again for more than a year.
That hasn’t stopped the town from continuing to abuse the neighbors of this eyesore.
Starting yesterday, there has been construction equipment and materials entering and leaving non-stop. This is causing a LOT of noise and mini-earthquakes. The smell of the tar is in the air as is a much higher-than-normal amount of dust. The tar trucks are even nice enough to leave little tar pebbles up and down Rancho Manana to stick to our vehicles.
NOWHERE is a construction permit posted. This construction has NOTHING to do with this location, it is for “chip sealing the town roads” according to one of the workers. When will the town get the hell out of our neighborhood?
Foster D. Coburn III
Cave Creek
