Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model:
We can't continually see health spending growing above and beyond the growth rate in the economy because, at some point, it means crowding out of all the other
government services.
[You don't say!]
Healthcare in Canada is delivered through a publicly funded system, which covers all "medically necessary" hospital and physician care and curbs the role of private medicine. It ate up about 40 percent of provincial budgets, or some C$183 billion ($174 billion) last year.
Spending has been rising 6 percent a year under a deal that added C$41.3 billion of federal funding over 10 years.
But that deal ends in 2013, and the federal government is unlikely to be as generous in future, especially for one-off projects.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100531/hl_nm/us_health_3
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From American Spectator: President Obama has nominated Donald Berwick to head CMS. Berwick is a blinkered ideologue with an abiding admiration for Britain's National Health Service (NHS), and the significance of this for the future of U.S. health care can hardly be overstated. The NHS is no public-private hybrid. It is a full-fledged socialized medical system. Yet Berwick has
written, "I am romantic about the National Health Service; I love it... All I need to do to rediscover the romance is to look at healthcare in my own country." That the President has nominated a man with such views to run CMS is a clear signal that he intends to lead us out of what Berwick calls "the darkness of private enterprise."
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/06/01/an-incurable-romantic
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The Daily Caller writes: Critics say missed deadlines and other signs show the Obama administration is stumbling out of the gate on its early steps to implement the president’s health-care law.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has already missed as many as four deadlines under the law – not on any major regulations — but still a worrying trend, critics say.
Congressional staff and industry representatives have also been asking HHS for a timeline specifying when it will issue the numerous regulations required by the law.
[I remind us that many times in this law are the words giving the Secretary of Health and Human Services the power to set law.] They were shocked to find the agency has not produced such a document, one aide said. The issue is important because vast industry sectors are trying to plan their own implementations of the health-care law and most of the details remain in bureaucrats’ hands, leaving a vacuum of uncertainty about the final burdens the law will impose.
While missing the deadlines, the administration has found time to send promotional material touting the law’s benefit, including
a brochure for senior citizens and
post cards from the IRS advertising tax breaks under the law.
[So - how much taxpayer money was spent on this indoctrination? And why did we receive two of them - to the same address? It's just money, I guess.]
One example of this is a deadline for an advisory committee to issue a progress report on deciding what counts as “medically underserved populations and health professional shortage areas” that receive extra federal money.
The progress report was due April 1, nine days after the president signed the health-care bill into law. But HHS is also required to give the public 30 days to comment on the membership of the advisory committee. The comment period ends June 10, until which the advisory committee cannot exist.
In other words, it was legally impossible for HHS to meet the deadline.
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Washington Times: With his party's poll numbers flagging and crises testing his own leadership, President Obama said Wednesday that November's elections will amount to a referendum on whether voters want to go back to the policies of the Bush administration or stick with his vision of change.
[Exactly, Mr. President.] http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jun/2/obama-tells-voters-remember-bush/
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From the NYT: Mr. Obama had hoped to spend his summer creating jobs, passing financial reform, promoting his health care program, getting a Supreme Court justice confirmed and an arms control treaty with Russia ratified, pressing for international sanctions against Iran and jump-starting the troubled Middle East peace process. While not abandoning any of those goals, Mr. Obama now must find ways to continue pushing them while demonstrating to the nation that he is concentrating on a spill he has called “our highest priority.”
“This has hijacked his entire legislative agenda,” said
Douglas Brinkley, a historian at
Rice University who has written about
Jimmy Carter, whose presidency was consumed by the Iran hostage crisis. “The White House felt they were on a roll. They were looking to be a new New Deal or new Great Society and they were just getting momentum going. Something this awful has sidetracked the agenda.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/us/politics/03memo.html
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http://www.wsbtv.com/video/23438021/index.html [So - you think only Mexicans are invading our country through our borders? Check this out - Other Than Mexicans....]
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Breitbart says: He [Barack Obama] didn’t endorse the boycotts [of Arizona] either, as you’ll see, so it’s a classic case of Obama voting “present.”
[In discussing the various attempts to boycott the state of Arizona for their illegal immigration law, Obama said, " I am President of the United States. I don't endorse boycotts, or not endorse boycotts. That's something that the private citizens can make a decision about." First of all, I think Obama did a pretty fair job of boycotting Las Vegas with his derogatory words about those who would vacation there during a recession. More importantly, he has once again shown us either how empty his suit really is, or he has declared that he really is abetting the destruction of our country, as well as pitting Americans against each other... Has he never heard of the Commerce Clause? According to Cornell University Law School, the Commerce Clause "has historically been viewed as both a grant of congressional authority and as a restriction on states’ powers to regulate. The “dormant” Commerce Clause refers to the prohibition, implied in the Commerce Clause, against states passing legislation that discriminates against or excessively burdens interstate commerce." Perhaps he needs an informed Attorney General at his side. Oh - he doesn't have one, I guess.]
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/05/27/one-more-clip-obama-refuses-to-criticize-boycotts-of-arizona/
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The crowd pushing
President Obama to close the prison at
Guantanamo Bay posthaste, as he so prematurely promised, should acquaint themselves with a stunning recommendation by his own task force:
Of the 240 detainees there, 48 should be held indefinitely, without trial, under the laws of war.
Why? Because they are believed to be members of
Al Qaeda, the
Taliban or another enemy force - but those charges cannot be proven in either civilian or military court.
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Forbes Magazine opines: The Obama administration is pushing for an internationalized investigation of Israel's recent effort to preserve its naval blockade of Hamas-run Gaza. In an extraordinary interference with the sovereignty of a democratic society and its right of self-defense, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said Wednesday that the United States wants "a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation. ... We are open to different ways of assuring a credible investigation, including international participation ... " (Snip) That would be the same international community which has condemned Israel without the facts... http://www.forbes.com/2010/06/03/israel-gaza-blockade-obama-opinions-contributors-anne-bayefsky.html?boxes=Homepagechannels
PEACE activists are people who demonstrate nonviolently for peaceful co-existence and human rights. The mob that assaulted Israeli special forces on the deck of the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara on Monday was not motivated by peace. On the contrary, the religious extremists embedded among those on board were paid and equipped to attack Israelis. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/opinion/03oren.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Love that with our ailing economy, environment, and national security, B.O. has the time and money to continue hosting lavish events at the White House. Oh, and that his guests (Paul McCartney) are made to feel so at ease as to insult a former U.S. President (Bush) while there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcLEfMhTkHs&feature=player_embedded. How is this sort of behavior productive or admissible?
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