In the end, there was one back and forth early on that got some news coverage.   It was the “discussion” between the President and Lamar Alexander.   Mr. Alexander stating that insurance costs would rise 14% and the President stating that they would drop 20%.  Was this a simple disagreement?   You can dig into the details behind the two numbers (FactCheck.org has it here).    And almost all research you do you will bump into this statement in some way, “CBO said well over half of those buying individual policies would get government subsidies that would reduce their costs well below the premiums that would be charged for such policies under current law.”  So does this prove the President’s point?

Only is so far as the raw numbers.   And in this is the teachable moment, “get government subsidies that would reduce their costs.”  Just where did that “government money” come from?   Taxes on others, including Cadillac plans.   This is simply redistribution of wealth, nothing else.   You may agree with it but Paul Ryan was right that they are hiding socialist plans behind capitalist words and using tricks to hide the facts.

No matter how you read the numbers you need to also come away with this simple fact.  They are both talking about insurance costs.  Health care costs are not being reduced.  The cost curve continues to go up.   The only way to control costs of insurance is to control the costs of services.   [Insert typical complaint about corporate profits here.  L. Alexander put it in context... 100% of the profits from all Health Insurance would pay for 2 days of services.] You simply cannot create a edict to limit profits within a specific industry.   Unless you take it over, which is again the single payer model with price controls.

Add to this that the subsidized government plans will continue to be funded from taxes on the private sector and on private health plans.  This will cause the private plans to offer reduced coverage to compete in a unfair market.  This will cause a larger and larger shift towards the public plans, destroying the private industry in just 5-10 years.

What this summit showed clearly is that Single Payer is the goal.  This redistribution is intentional and was on full display during the summit.  Paul Ryan put in well in the Summit that “there really is a difference between us.  We do not think the government should be in control of all this.”     He hits this point head-on on in an MSNBC interview.

Much is being made of this on the right and the left.  Does it prove the Canadian system is flawed?  Does it prove the excesses of the rich?  You can read the original Canadian Press article here and the few more points from Hot Air here.

What is continually missing from these health care conversations is the basic understanding that the procedure is available because of the free market US health care system.   Those that do this in Canada were likely trained by US doctors (maybe even this one) or doctors trained by Dr. Lamelas.    Premier Williams wanted the best care possible and went to the US, this hospital and this doctor by choice.

Exerpt from the Mt Sinai Web Site: http://www.miami-cardiology.com/resources.php
Great advances have been made in minimally invasive valve surgery, and Dr. Joseph Lamelas, chief of cardiac surgery at Mount Sinai, is on the leading edge. Board-certified in cardiac and thoracic surgery, as well as surgical critical care, Dr. Lamelas he pioneered an advanced one-man surgical technique for minimally invasive valve procedures. He teaches this method to surgeons across the United States and around the world.

Dr. Lamelas consistently has had one of the lowest morbidities and mortalities in Florida and the United States. He has completed almost 8,000 cardiac surgeries and more than 800 minimally invasive procedures, making him South Florida’s most experienced surgeon in his area of expertise.

What if the US health care system did not exist?   What if it were socialized and no private payment existed?  What would a non-citizen do?  Even worse..forgive me my Atlas Shrugged moment…What if Dr. Lamelas; like so many from his profession; had decided that the bureaucracy, paper work and law suits were just not worth trying to advance the science and he retired early?   Where would we all be had “John Galt” found Dr. Lamelas before he advanced the surgery and trained 100s of others?   That is the true risk in the socialization of the US system: stifling rapid advancement and ground-breaking research.

I am sure the 8000 surgeries Dr Lamelas performs (800 of these advanced forms) make him and his hospital a tidy sum of money… how dare he make money off advancing the entire practice of medicine and saving 1000s of Americans (and a Canadian or two it seems)…Damn him…

Today…LA Times: The unemployment rate unexpectedly fell…At the same time, however, employers cut 20,000 jobs, more than the 5,000 economists expected…

From 50 years go…Atlas Shrugged [paper back page 1063] as spoken by John Galt.

“Only when men discovered that nature was a firm, predictable absolute were they able to rely on their knowledge, to choose their course, to plan their future and, slowly, to rise from the cave. Now you have placed modern industry, with its immense complexity of scientific precision, back into the power of unknowable demons-the unpredictable power of the arbitrary whims of hidden, ugly little bureaucrats. A farmer will not invest the effort of one summer if he’s unable to calculate his chances of a harvest. But you expect industrial giants-who plan in terms of decades, invest in terms of generations and undertake ninety-nine-year contracts-to continue to function and produce, not knowing what random caprice in the skull of what random official will descend upon them at what moment to demolish the whole of their effort. Drifters and physical laborers live and plan by the range of a day. The better the mind, the longer the range. A man whose vision extends to a shanty, might continue to build on your quicksands, to grab a fast profit and run. A man who envisions skyscrapers, will not. Nor will he give ten years of unswerving devotion to the task of inventing a new product, when he knows the gangs of entrenched mediocrity are juggling the laws against him, to tie him, restrict him and force him to fail, but should he fight them and struggle and succeed, they will seize his rewards and his invention.”

50 years ago Ayn knew it.  Today the “experts” can’t seem to figure out such a simple concept.    Or is it more likely that they know it and use such stories to keep you confused and in the dark?  Are they they experts or are they trying to convince you that they are the experts?

George Clooney would have to have that telethon every day for 158 years to raise enough money to pay for Obama’s latest budget proposal.

Just to put it in perspective.

Part 1 | Part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5

His point is that following the pattern of the group gives a false impression of the movement of individuals.   If median income goes down the goal is to convince you that people are losing money.  But in point of fact, if you follow a single individual you will find that they have moved up into higher brackets.   It is statistically more likely for someone in the top 5% to drop down then it is for someone to move up.   Income of that level simply cannot be maintained consistently.

This generally supports my argument that newer and less skilled workers are entering the work force and bring down the averages.  The supporting facts the single individuals move up the brackets (until the top) only ads additional strength.

I believe that Glenn Beck hits on this point in his new book Arguing with Idiots, as well.

Note:  Part 3 is great as well and hits on one of my favorite points.   The intellectual superiority complex.

Elements of this first conversation (cigarettes as a metaphor) have been quoted.  But I have not found this part restated.

“I don’t like the thing that’s happening to people…I’ve watched them here for twenty years and I’ve seen the change.  They used to rush through here, and it was wonderful to watch, it was the hurry of men who knew where they were going and were eager to get there.  Now they’re hurrying because they are afraid.  It’s not a purpose that drives them, it’s fear.  They’re not going anywhere, they’re escaping.  And I don’t think they know what it is that they want to escape.  They don’t look at one another… I don’t know what it is that happening to the world.”

Simple truth written over 50 years ago and the State of the Union.

Legislative inaction

The first was when the President scolded congress.  “Yesterday, the Senate blocked a bill that would have created this commission. So I will issue an executive order that will allow us to go forward, because I refuse to pass this problem on to another generation of Americans,” Obama said.

Made my eyes open wider.  He slapped down a congress run by Democrats.  This was surprising, but even greater impact was the direct statement and action of the Executive branch telling the Legislative branch that they are impotent and that he will move forward without them.   This direct assault should give us all pause.  Couldn’t he have said…“Yesterday, the Senate failed to pass a bill that would have created this commission.   I am disappointed in this action and will continue to work with Congress to address this issue and give it the power of law.  I refuse to pass this problem on to another generation of Americans,”

Judicial Action

The second moment was when the President decided to chide the Supreme Court for overturning campaign finance reform laws as Unconstitutional.

“Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign companies — to spend without limit in our elections,” Obama said. “Well, I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, and worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that’s why I’m urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong.”

The rest of the press will jump all over Judge Alido for shaking his head and mouthing “That is not true.”   It will likely get the same press as “You Lie.”  But the fact that the President felt that he would use this stage to tell the American people that the Supreme Court is wrong and state that we should move forward in opposition to their decision.

The lack of respect is not in Alido’s head shake but Mr. Obama’s direct assault on the Judiciary sitting in the front row.  Alido’s actions were instinctive and responsive.  The President’s were premeditated and directed.

Again, if he felt is necessary to raise this issue to the level of the State of the Union.  A more respectful response would have been to “find a way to work within this decision to constrain undue influence on campaigns without impacting the first amendment rights of citizens”.  What is obviously missing in the President’s comments is any linkage to the unions and PACs which are some of “America’s most powerful interests.”   Corporations are entities that deserve the same rights granted to these organizations and citizens.  What is obvious in these comments is disdain for the third and equal branch of government, created specifically to correct imbalances created by act of law.

The president’s supporters will ignore and rally behind these actions.  All of us should get control of our emotions and think about where these actions take us.  Separation of powers is a fundamental tenant of our Constitution.  Ignoring it for political activism harms us all.

But there was an AH HA moment that came from something very different.   Within the discussion of Hitler and Marx there was a mention of the fact the Marx wrote that Socialism is a step along the evolutionary path to Communism (not new) and that both were a societal step above Capitalism.   That I did not know.   Not that it was true but that Marx and his ilk believed it to be so.   Capitalism was a step beyond other forms of government but only a lesser step onward towards the ultimate goal of Communism.

What is so groundbreaking here?   You would expect Marx to think his form of government is superior.  I guess I always thought that capitalism and communism where opposites on a completely different plain of existence.  One for freedom and individuals and one for government control and serfdom.   I would have never put them on a continuum.

It goes beyond the simple belief by Marx and to the philosophy on which it lies and explains so very much.   Liberals that dominate academia consider themselves the thinkers.  They look upon the rest of society as inferior and flawed.   Those in the political arena would study Marx and find his desire to move “beyond” capitalism intriguing.   Glossing over the desire to murder all inferior minded within the citizenry, they would gravitate to the evolutionary aspect of the philosophy.     It explains the lefts distaste for corporations and profits, the sneers they give to those in fly over country, and this disrespect for the limits placed on them by the constitution (written by imbeciles that never understood Marxist philosophy (Karl Marx 1818-1883)).

That little segment and the connections it fired, so rapidly explained so much of the political landscape, I believe I let out a breath, followed a few moments later by a sigh.

As you know [or maybe not] I have just come back from England and the Labor Government is just as shameful as our Democratic one.   The MP’s are currently enjoying a scandal of padding expenses, including prime minister Brown, to levels you would not believe and they are bending over backwards to give illegal aliens benefits, money and civil rights, etc., without their earning it, just as here and their National Health program and economy is already a disaster.

These problems are causing the rise in popularity of the British National Party [BNP] likened to Hitler’s Nazi’s of the past who have already gained two seats representing Britain in the European Parliament and it looks like they are gaining momentum to such an extent that they will be seating MP’s directly into the British Parliament; after the horrors of World War II, who would have imagined such a thing.  They [the BNP] want to control [stop and reverse] immigration, kick out illegal aliens and establish very racially unacceptable laws, etc., and not necessarily in a civil manner; you should see the hooligans that walk around protecting their leader!     They are prepared to do what Hitler and his brown shirts did!  The people voting for the BNP generally, I believe, don’t really believe in the policies of the BNP, but they are simply fed up, as we are here, with what is happening and what the stupid government is letting happen.   Can this happen here?

What is happening here, it seems,  is the destruction of our country from within.    Look at what Obama has done so far, look at the people we have in high places helping him, including his gang of friends, people who are not even qualified or were elected, etc.   Do these people understand what is happening, are they doing it deliberately?   Or is it simply,” pull up the ladder Jack I’m alright?”

However, if you think it can’t get any worse, take a look at the attached; something that will be showing in your neighborhood very soon!   From my perspective, this is nothing less than treason and they should be arrested and deported or worse.

Heaven help us; please!

…Think this can’t happen here?  Remember that Europe is a decade “ahead” of us on these social issues (i.e Healthcare) and we are running full speed in that direction.   We need to learn from their mistakes.  Use this Google search to keep up with the articles and stay informed .

Both have served to show, that when it comes down to it;  Democrats, Republicans and Independents, there is a lot we share as Americans.   The media, in pursuit of the every important rating point (dollars but the Liberals don’t like to admit it), will continue to accentuate the differences and polarize the American people.   Politicians, in pursuit of reelection (let’s not kid ourselves that is money and power as well) try to convince us that crossing party lines and.or that “other guy” will destroy the country.   Haiti and Scott Brown tell us otherwise.   They tell us that we as Americans have far more in common.

A disaster in a foreign country, during a global recession, cannot stop the American people from donating millions of dollars or their ever-shrinking savings.   Thousands give even more through their time and sweat.   No political lines, no borders, just people helping people in need.   It is what makes America (and the free world) special.  It is what many fear is hampered by government control, mandates and heavy tax burdens.    Haiti shows us that even with all that is against us; keeping us from buying a new car or a new TV; cannot kill our spirit and love of our fellow man.   It took a disaster in a foreign country to break through the media and political spin and remind us of it.

That spirit lives on in all us, even in Massachusetts.    Even there where a Republican public official is a rare as a Yankees fan, people came together.  They came together to shatter the political spin and media love affair with all things Obama.   They came together to tell Washington and the rest of the country that we are all Americans, we are still in charge and we are still  free.

Those whose livelihood depends on their power in Washington will continue to fight.    But I am heartened today.  Today is a new day.   We have taken two great steps in the direction of our founding and begun anew to walk the path destined to us.   2010 has indeed brought us a new beginning and Washington can definitely hear us now.