Rep. Wilson is Right – Government Will Provide Obamacare to Illegals

Kurt Nimmo
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, September 10, 2009

Last night, in the middle of Obama’s corporate media prime-time address on health care, South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson accused Obama of lying about illegals and health care. Wilson made his accusation after Obama pointed at the Republican side of the aisle and criticized them for opposing the government plan during his speech to a joint session of Congress.

Democrats have called for disciplinary action against Wilson, even though he quickly backed down, apologized for his outburst, and went so far as to scrape and grovel before White House Chief of Staff and political enforcer Rahm Emanuel.

For Democrats, this was not enough. “There’ll be time enough to consider whether or not we ought to make it clear that that action is unacceptable in the House of Representatives,” said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

“It’s time for us to talk about health care, not Mr. Wilson,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Indeed, it is time to talk about the government’s plan to take over health care, as Pelosi suggests.

Early last month, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee defeated an amendment which would have excluded illegal aliens from Obama’s totalitarian health care bill. The Democrat-dominated committee voted 23-18 to defeat the measure introduced by Rep. Dean Heller (R-NV), which would have required the use of the existing Income and Eligibility Verification System and the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements System before care is dispensed.

In other words, there would be no way to verify the citizenship of those seeking care under Obama’s government plan.

CNN reported last month the Congressional Research Service, the nonpartisan policy research arm of Congress, found that without a citizenship verification system illegal aliens would receive subsidies. Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, told CNN the report “undermines the claims of the president and others that illegal immigrants would not be covered under the House version of the bill.”

“Democrats can keep claiming all they want that illegal immigrants will not be covered in this bill. But their actions speak louder than their words. Democrats have rejected opportunities to close the gaping loopholes in this health care bill that will allow illegal immigrants to participate,” House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith said after the CRS report was released. “If President Obama is committed to ensuring that illegal immigrants do not benefit from the bill – as he says he is – why not include the same verification mechanisms in this bill as already exist for other federal benefits programs?”

In addition, undocumented immigrants who live in the United States for a certain period of time during the year would be classified as residents and would meet the substantial presence test required under HR 3200 to have health insurance, according to the report.

Pelosi said Wilson’s outburst during Obama’s speech shows the “bankruptcy” of Republicans’ ideas on health care, the Washington Post reports.

In fact, it shows how the Democrats in league with the corporate media are attempting to ram Obama’s totalitarian health care plan down the throat of the American people and stifle opposition.

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It’s also worth noting that, according to Raw Story, congressman Joe Wilson got $240,000 from the health industry http://rawstory.com/08/news/20…..y-darling/

Damned if you do… damned if you don’t

Federal government only does 2 things well: Kill people and steal money

Yesterday I was in line for 45 minutes at the post office, around 3pm. It wasn’t even rush hour.  When I got to the counter, the lady told me “Oh we don’t print shipping labels here.” Well fine, I wrote the address on a scrap of paper and taped it with my own tape that I brought from home, because I already knew they don’t provide tape either.

The whole time in line I was thinking to myself  “And they want to take over our health insurance industry?”

Post Office counter employees move at a snail’s pace. It’s basically a charity organization to employ the clinically lazy.

USPS costs only slightly less than UPS, but has a dramatically longer wait times.   I don’t even know what possessed me to go to the post office in the first place but I’d gladly pay an extra few dollars not to wait for 45 minutes in line.

It’s almost impossible for someone to be fired from a government job. Government industries are the ultimate monopoly businesses and their employees have no incentive to work efficiently.

Under government health insurance, lazy bureaucrats who answer to no one will decide what medical procedures you can and cant have.  At least in the private insurance sector there is still some amount of competition and profit motive.

There is no denying that there are many people with sub-standard health care in this country.  The insurance companies are ruthless and profit-driven.  They only care about the health of their subscribers as it pertains to reducing payouts on claims… but at least we have that.

Currently you can walk into any hospital in this country and be treated for an illness, regardless of insurance status or citizenship.  The taxpayers and doctors already pay the bills for indigent patients.  Most of the time Medicaid will pay for it.  If you do run up a huge bill and can’t pay it, you can file bankruptcy.  If a payment is denied in violation of your insurance contract, you can file a civil suit against the insurance company.

The US Federal Government only does 2 things well:  Kill people and steal our money.  They specifically have the stated goal of reducing population. Do we really want a bunch of killer eugenicists making decisions about what medical procedures and drugs are going to be paid for?

If our federal government can’t handle Medicaid and the VA Hospital system, what makes anyone think they should take over the entire health insurance industry?  Would you want to be treated at a VA or county hospital?

Where in the constitution does it say our federal govenment has any business doing this kind of thing?  Have we forgotten about the 10th amendment?

The idea of our federal government taking over the health insurance industry is pure idiocy.

Related: Whole Foods CEO John Mackie’s op ed piece on health care reform. (The real version, not the one the WSJ edited without his permission)

This makes a lot of sense, actually: Whole Foods CEO John Mackie’s op ed piece on health care

Health Care Reform – Full Article

by John Mackey, August 14, 2009 | Permalink

As you are probably aware, I wrote an Op/Ed piece that was published in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week on health care reform, one of the biggest and most emotional issues facing our country. I was asked to write an Op/Ed piece and I gave my personal opinions. While I am in favor of health care reform, Whole Foods Market as a company has no official position on the issue.

In answer to President Obama’s invitation to all Americans to put forward constructive ideas for reforming our health care system, I wrote this Op/Ed piece called simply “Health Care Reform.” An editor at the Journal rewrote the headline to call it “Whole Foods Alternative to Obamacare,” which led to antagonistic feelings by many. That was not my intention – in fact, I do not mention the President at all in this piece.

I fully realize that there are many opinions on the healthcare debate, including inside my own company.  As we, as a nation, continue to discuss this, I am hopeful that both sides can do so in a civil manner that will lead to positive change for all concerned. You are welcome to share your thoughts in the comments section below. (Just remember our comment guidelines prohibit vulgarity and personal attacks.)

Here is the original unedited version that I submitted.

Health Care Reform

“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money” -Margaret Thatcher.

With a projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, several trillions more in deficits projected over the next decade, and with both Medicare and Social Security entitlement spending about to ratchet up several notches over the next 15 years as Baby Boomers become eligible for both, we are rapidly running out of other people’s money.  These deficits are simply not sustainable and they are either going to result in unprecedented new taxes and inflation or they will bankrupt us.

While we clearly need health care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and moves us much closer to a complete governmental takeover of our health care system.  Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the exact opposite direction-toward less governmental control and more individual empowerment.  Here are eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone:

1.    Remove the legal obstacles which slow the creation of high deductible health insurance plans and Health Savings Accounts.  The combination of high deductible health insurance and Health Savings Accounts is one solution that could solve many of our health care problems.  For example, Whole Foods Market pays 100% of the premiums for all our team members who work 30 hours or more per week (about 89% of all team members) for our high deductible health insurance plan, and provides up to $1,800 per year in additional health care dollars through deposits into their own Personal Wellness Accounts to spend as they choose on their own health and wellness.  Money not spent in one year rolls over to the next and grows over time.  Our team members therefore spend their own health care dollars until the annual deductible is covered (about $2,500) and the insurance plan kicks in.  This creates incentives to spend the first $2,500 more carefully.  Our plan’s costs are much lower than typical health insurance, while providing a very high degree of team member satisfaction.

2.    Change the tax laws so that that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have exactly the same tax benefits.  Right now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible for employers but private health insurance is not.  This is unfair.

3.    Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines.  We should all have the legal right to purchase health insurance from any insurance company in any state and we should be able use that health insurance wherever we live.  Health insurance should be portable everywhere.

4.    Repeal all government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover.  These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance many billions of dollars.  What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual health insurance customer preferences and not through special interest lobbying.

5.    Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors into paying insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.  These costs are ultimately being passed back to us through much higher prices for health care.

6.    Make health care costs transparent so that consumers will understand what health care treatments cost.  How many people know what their last doctor’s visit cost?  What other goods or services do we as consumers buy without knowing how much they will cost us?  We need a system where people can compare and contrast costs and services.

7.    Enact Medicare reform: we need to face up to the actuarial fact that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and move towards greater patient empowerment and responsibility.

8.    Permit individuals to make voluntary tax deductible donations on their IRS tax forms to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren’t covered by Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP or any other government program.

Many promoters of health care reform believe that people have an intrinsic ethical right to health care-to universal and equal access to doctors, medicines, and hospitals.  While all of us can empathize with those who are sick, how can we say that all people have any more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have an intrinsic right to food, clothing, owning their own homes, a car or a personal computer? Health care is a service which we all need at some point in our lives, but just like food, clothing, and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually-beneficial market exchanges rather than through government mandates.  A careful reading of both The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter, because there isn’t any. This “right” has never existed in America.

Even in countries such as Canada and the U.K., there is no intrinsic right to health care.  Rather, citizens in these countries are told by governmental bureaucrats what health care treatments and medicines they are eligible to receive and when they can receive them.  All countries with socialized medicine ration health care by forcing their citizens to wait in lines to receive scarce and expensive treatments.  Although Canada has a population smaller than California, 830,000 Canadians are waiting to be admitted to a hospital or to get treatment. In England, the waiting list is 1.8 million citizens.  At Whole Foods we allow our team members to vote on what benefits they most want the company to fund on their behalf.  Our Canadian and British team members express their benefit preferences very clearly-they want supplemental health care more than additional paid time off, larger donations to their retirement plans, or greater food discounts; they want health care dollars that they can control and spend themselves without permission from their governments.  Why would they want such additional health care benefit dollars to spend if they already have an “intrinsic right to health care”?  The answer is clear-no such right truly exists in either Canada or the U.K.-or in any other country.

Rather than increase governmental spending and control, what we need to do is address the root causes of disease and poor health.  This begins with the realization that every American adult is responsible for their own health.  Unfortunately many of our health care problems are self-inflicted with over 2/3 of Americans now overweight and 1/3 obese.  Most of the diseases which are both killing us and making health care so expensive-heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, and obesity, which account for about 70% of all health care spending, are mostly preventable through proper diet, exercise, not smoking, minimal or no alcohol consumption, and other healthy lifestyle choices.

Over the past two decades, breakthrough scientific research by Colin Campbell, as documented in his book The China Study, and clinical medical experiences by many doctors including Dean Ornish, Caldwell Esselstyn, John McDougall, Joel Fuhrman, and Neal Barnard have shown that a diet consisting of whole foods which are plant-based, nutrient dense, and low-fat will help prevent and often reverse most of the degenerative diseases that are killing us, and becoming more and more expensive to treat through drugs and surgery.  We should be able to live healthy and largely disease free lives until we are well into our 90’s and even past 100 years of age.

Health care reform in America is very important.  Whatever reforms are enacted it is essential that they be financially responsible and that we have the freedom to choose our own doctors and the health care services that best suit our own unique set of lifestyle choices.  We are responsible for our own lives and our own health.  We should take that responsibility very seriously and use our freedom to make wise lifestyle choices that will protect our health.  Doing so will enrich our personal lives and will help create a vibrant and sustainable American society.

No, really… READ THE BILL

Is it just me or does this man appear to be heavily sedated?

Yes Conyers, we do expect you to read the bill. Hire the lawyers. Figure it out.  Thats why you were elected.