Today was the health care summit. I watched most of it. As a practical analysis, there was no significant intellectual intercourse between ideals, principles and values. None. It was nothing more than a talking points event with this exception; the Republicans identified legitimate concerns about the impact of such a proposal, if implimented. Congressman Paul Ryan did a great job. He was articulate, on point, and his concern was righteous. Others did too.

But here’s the telling point. Obama accused Paul Ryan of using a prop. The prop he was accused of using was, and this is amazing, the Senate bill which is Obama’s bill. So let me get this straight, the President accused a representative of using a prop and the prop that he accused him of using was the bill that the President is pushing? Weird! So let’s go through this again; A guy, our president is pushing a bill, a counter-voice reads the bill and questions our President on the bill, and the President calls his own bill a prop? Again, weird.

Not really. Here’s a truth. It’s mostly right. When people accuse, blame, complain, tell you about someone who did something wrong, keep going; let me sum it up. When people bitch, they are oft times talking about themselves. True. Listen to complainers and I swear, more often than not, their complaints actually explain their personal failings. Their complaints reveal. That’s what happened today.

When President Obama accused Paul Ryan of using a prop, the President’s own bill, he was revealing himself. It WAS a prop. But it is Obama’s PROP. It is a PROP couched in faux compassion for folks, couched in taking care of the needy, stuff that is hard to debate. However, and this is a big however, what it really is is a prop for is Obama’s agenda to socialize our nation. It is a prop for more government control and seizure of our freedom. He actually hesitated before he used the term “prop.” Why? Because, in his heart of hearts he realized it was his prop, not Paul Ryans. That’s why.

And it is a PROP! He has hidden his true agenda under a cloak of health care and his true agenda is government control. He could give a rat’s arsh (edited based on relative class) about health care. Disagree? How’s his brother or his aunt doing on their health care? If health care is so important, why isn’t he taking care of his own family. Because he doesn’t care about health care, he cares about government control, and, and this is scary, he cares about destroying our nation. Thus, I’m right. It’s not about health care. If it was, his own family would be cared for; they’re not.

And from his perspective, what a great thing. From his perspective it is great that he can expand government and crush the country he has contempt for in one fell swoop, with health care. Marvelous.

So folks, don’t fall for it. Don’t start crying because some old lady had to borrow her dead sister’s dentures. (This was actually a democratic pitch which I question; Am I supposed to take from my children to buy an old lady dentures?) Fight it. Don’t get seduced by the sob stories, get enlightened by the principles. Freedom. It is imperative, if we want to save this country, that we stick to our principles, our nation, then we have to reject the shallow rhetoric, the illogical talking points spewed by the left. We must. Do it friends.

That’s my Reetzality for the day.

Thanks for the read.

Brett Reetz

Today, although I’m writing this at 10:34 p.m. Wednesday night, there will be the health care summit. What in the hell is a summit anyway? I’ve never yet seen one that wasn’t a collective effort to shed blame, responsibility, accountability, and truth. So be it. Tomorrow, today actually (as you read this) Obama has his summit on health care. So what would be the best outcome? Here are my thoughts.

Obama has no respect for alternative thoughts. It’s not his style. It is not who he is. He has been a spoiled child for most of his life. He didn’t think of this event, somebody else did. He will be well prepped and the powers that are, will be in control.

So now, it’s up to the Republicans, better folks, but in no way as pure as the driven snow. I mean come on, they had control of the house, senate, and the executive branch for two years and they failed to shrink government or get us a flat tax. They are not as pure as the driven snow. Still, it’s up to them to save our country. So what do they do?

Here’s what they do:

Don’t back down. Stick to the principles of freedom and choice. It’s rather amazing that the left pro-choice movement rallies around choice and in contrast, the current bill denies choice. What a beautiful oxymoronic position? Really, you can chose to end a future life but you don’t have the ability to chose your provider and the terms under which you pay for the provider and take care of your present life? You can chose to end an unborn life but can’t chose about your health care? Reconcile that! To me, it makes no sense. But I digress.

Are there really folks, like Obama, who would socialize one sixth, actually more, of our economy because thirty one million folks don’t have health insurance? Yes there are! Make note, we have three hundred million people in this nation. Thirty one million is basically ten percent of the nation. Are we really going down a path to fundamentally change that which makes us great for one tenth of our population. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Come on folks, there is a right to get the best health insurance, but a right is not an entitlement. Is anybody asking the question, “why don’t these folks have health insurance?” No. But I am. They are folks who didn’t put in the effort to get it or folks who are illegal or folks who simply don’t want it. Sure, there are folks with pre-existing conditions, but I’m all for taking care of those folks. But that’s not the mass. That’s not the heart of the problem. Let’s face it, most folks who don’t have health insurance brought it on themselves. They chose not to have it. Their priorities are askew. They chose smokes or booze or the absence of self improvement, something, but they just chose not to have health insurance. And my objectionists, don’t insult my intelligence by telling me about the poor soul who just couldn’t afford it; unless you have an affidavit that says, no cigs, no booze, high school degree, no crime, no vacations, no big screen TV . . . get my point? Where is your poster child? You know, the one who legitimately suffering from the lack of health care? I’m waiting.

And the bigger question, why is Obama and the left doing this? Why would they crush our economy with this extreme government control, this take over of our freedom, this condemnation of free enterprise, this assault on liberty and most importantly, this assault on what makes our nation great?

I’ve thought long and hard on this issue. The big why? question. I’ve been unable to reconcile their intent with much of anything other than one thing. Evil.

Let’s face it folks. Their policies hurt us. Their policies discriminate. (They claim to be un-racist but routinely they identify folks by race). Their policies take. (Obama told Joe the Plumber he was into some redistribution) Their policies deny individualism. Their policies contradict our God given principles, the Bill of Rights. Their policies hurt folks. Their policies stymie the economy. Their policies retard personal responsibility. Their policies don’t work with the exception of keeping them in power.

These guys want to be on top of the pile but they are ill equipped to be on top of a righteous principled pile, so they destroy the mass and they get to be king of the dredges. How do they destroy the masses? They addict as many people to need for one. For two, they skew public opinion by focusing on need rather than principle and responsibility. That’s what they do. Historically, and history is important, it gives us a window into the future, their policies always hurt folks. They always fail.

So what is it that causes people to strenuously push an agenda that hurts folks? I’ve thought about it a lot. What is it? Is it that they care about people? History proves that their policies (big government) don’t help people. Is it that they think their system is better? Check out Russia and Cuba. Nope. The only thing I can come up with to reconcile, find a purpose behind their agenda, an agenda that hurts folks, denies freedom and liberty, is this: They are possessed by evil.

And tomorrow, today, we are going to witness the fight between good and evil. Think I’m being extreme? The President’s proposal on the table will take over one sixth of our economy. It will deny freedom. It will institute government control. It will crush liberty on the most fundamental level, our ability to take care of our own bodies. That sounds evil to me. Hopefully the Republicans will arrive without their evil. Hopefully, they will have shed it for tomorrow.

And more hopefully, having shed their evil, they will throw the holy water on the president, meaning they will, in an articulate manner, expose the President as an anti-American, un-freedom loving, big government adoring, guy. They will cut through the faux respect and be honest. We are fighting evil, plain and simple.

If they don’t, we should all be worried. We should go to church. You know, the place where God resides, the place where the entity resides that gave us our freedoms. Because there is no way that I will ever accept the principle that my freedoms come from the tolerance of Harry Reid, Obama, and government over all. God gave me, us, the freedom, not government. Let’s pray for an exorcism tomorrow. Let’s pray that the Republicans do the right thing and go there baring arms. Let’s pray that they have the strength to be honest, stick to the principles, and be Americans. We’ll see.

Because if tomorrow is done right, it will be an exorcism. The good guys, if they show up as Republicans, will shun and condemn and out the evil of the bad guys.

I’ve watched Obama. The devil is nervous. Not that Obama is the devil, he’s only a minion of the devil. He’s possessed, I’ll forgive him, I’m Christian. But right now he is the spokesperson of evil Wow Brett! You’ve gone off the wall! Really? Then explain to me what could motivate a person to injure a nation, defy reason and logic, and pursue an agenda that will decimate the greatest nation on earth?

Evil is the absence of logic, reason and truth. This pretty much sums up the current agenda in Obama controlled Washington. Sorry to bring it on, but it is time.

That’s my Reetzality for today.

Thanks for the read.

Brett Reetz

In my career as a lawyer, I have been granted the ultimate back stage pass to the lives of folks. I’ve used this pass to develop my sense of people. I am a good judge of character, not because of any special abilities, but because of experience. And I can smell a con. I can feel it in my gut. And a con is a coming, care of Obama. Where? In “his” health care proposal, that’s where. I’ve read it. You can too on www.whitehouse.gov. It is nothing more than a cheap pitch. Picture a used car salesmen in the fifties. It is not a plan. Read it. Repeat: IT IS NOT A PLAN. It is a list of ideals and impossible to accomplish goals with a complete vacancy of actual plans. It is akin to the Christmas list of a delusional seven year old. It’s akin to me saying this to you: “I’m going to make you a billionaire! You in?” Now, you might ask, “how are you going to do that Brett?” Good question. It is the question that the President’s proposal fails to answer. He doesn’t answer the question, “Hey Pres? How are you going to do that?”

Want proof? Here’s what I’m going to do for you. I’m going to list what the President says he’s going to do. Then, I’m going to list the strategies the President’s Proposal sets forth to accomplish his Christmas list on www.whitehouse.gov.

WHAT THE PRESIDENT’S PROPOSAL WILL DO? (It’s a long list, so feel free to cursor down. There are some redundancies too. This is because there are redundancies in the pitch. Pitchmen so often repeat themselves.) Ready? Here I go:

1. Make health care more affordable.
2. expand health care coverage.
3. Make health systems sustainable.
4. Stabilize family budgets.
5. Stabliize the federal budget.
6. Stabilize the economy.
7. Make insurance more affordable.
8. Provide the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history.
9. Reduce premium costs for tens of millions of families.
10. Reduce premium costs for tens of millions of small business owners.
11. Help over 31 million Americans afford coverage who can’t today.
12. Make health care coverage more affordable for many more.
13. Sets up a new competitive health insurance market.
14. Give Americans the same choices as congressman.
15. Bring greater accountability to health care.
16. Lay out commonsense rules of the road to keep premiums down.
17. Prevents insurance industry abuses.
18. Prevent denial of care.
19. End discrimination against pre-existing conditions.
20. Puts the budget and economy on a more stable path.
21. Reduces the deficit by 100 billion over the next ten years.
22. Reduces the deficit by a trillion over the second decade.
23. Cuts government overspending.
24. Reins in waste.
25. Reins in abuse.
26. Reins in fraud.
27. Bridges differences between the house and senate bill.
28. Incorporates Republican provisions.
29. Provides significant additional federal financing to all states for the expansion of medicaid.
30. Close the drug “donut hole” for seniors.
31. Strengthens the senate bill.
32. Raises the threshold from $23,000 to $27,500 for a family plan which will start in 2018.
33. Improve insurance protection for consumers.
34. Create a new Health Insurance Rate authority.
35. Review and rein in unreasonable rate increases.
36. Review and rein in other unfair practices.
37. Lowers premiums.
38. Increases competition.
39. Increases oversight.
40. Creates new accountability standards.
41. Creates insurance exchanges.
42. Provides tax credits.
43. Provides reduced cost sharing for lower income families.
44. Provides extra assistance to families with income below $55,000.00.
45. Provides additional funding to insurers which will cover between 73% and 94% of health care costs to lower income families.
45. Provides cost sharing assistance to families with incomes between $77,000 and $88,000.
45. Invest in community health centers.
46. Provide 11 billion in funding for community health care centers.
47. Require health insurers to submit their proposed premium increases to State authority.
48. Allows government to determine if a rate increase is unreasonable.
49. Allows government to order health insurers to lower their premiums.
50. Allows government to order health insurers to provide rebates.
51. Allows government to take other actions to make premiums affordable.
52. Provides for a Health Insurance Rate Authority to provide need over sight.
53. Provides for a Health Insurance Rate Authority to help States determine how rate review will be monitored.
54.. Provides for a Health Insurance Rate Authority to monitor insurance market behavior.
55. Provides for “grandfather” clauses to protect existing plans.
56. Requires plans to cover adult dependents up to 26 years old.
57. Prohibits rescissions.
58. Mandates that plans have stronger appeals processes.
59. Requires states insurance authorities to conduct annaul rate reviews, overseen by the HHS Secretary.
60. Provides new protections that prohibit annual and life time limits.
61. Bans pre-existing condition exclusions.
62. Prohibits discrimination in favor of highly compensated individuals.
63. In 2018 requires “grandfathered” plans to cover preventive services with no cost sharing.
64. Provides a “hardship” exemption for people who can’t afford insurance.
65. Protects those who would face premiums of more than 8% of their income.
66. Provides a low cost catastrophic exchange for those whose premiums are greater than 8% of their income.
67. Raises the percent of income assessment that individuals pay if they don’t buy insurance.
68. Provies a $40 billion in tax credits to small business.
69. Exempts businesses with less than 50 employees from employee responsibility policies.
70. Requires employers to help defray the costs if tax payers are paying for their employees health care coverage.
71. Provides an unprecedented array of aggressive new authorities to fight waste, fraud, and abuse.
72. Incorporates a number of additional proposals to fight waste, fraud and abuse.
73. Creates a comprehensive Medicare and Medicaid sanction database.
74. Provides for a central storage location.
75. allows law enforcement access to information related to past sanctions on health care providers, suppliers, and related entities.
76. Will assist in reducing the number of individuals and agencies with a history of fraudulent activities participating in Federal health care programs.
77. Ensures that entities that bill for Medicare on behalf of providers are in good standing.
78. Increases access to health care integrity data.
79. Improve coordination and information sharing in anti-fraud efforts.
80. Broadens access to the data bank to quality control and peer review organizations and private plans that are involved in furnishing items or services reimbursed by Federal Health Care programs.
81. Creates criminal penalties for misuse.
82. Holds Administrative contractors accountable for Federal payment for individuals or entities excluded fromt he Federal programs or itmes or services for which payment is denied.
83. Ensures individuals have access to comprehensive mental health services in the community setting.
84. Strenghtens standards for facilities that seek reimbursement.
85. Ensures that facilities don’t take advantage of the tax payers or Medicare patients.
86. Assists in recovering over payments to providers.
87. Prevents fraudulent health care providers from discharging through bankruptcy.
88. Speeds access to claims data to identify potentially fraudulent payments.
89. Establishes a system for using technology to provide real time data analysis of claim and payment under public programs.
90. Adds strong sanctions, including jail time, for individuals who purchase, sell or distribute Medicare beneficiary identification numbers or billing privileges under Medicare or Medicaid.
91. Requires HHS to study and issue a report to congress that examines costs and benefits of assigning universal product numbers to selected items and services.
92. Requires States to monitor and remediate high risk billing activity.
93. Requires States to monitor high risk billing activity to identify prescribing and utilization patterns that may indicate abuse or excessive prescription drug utilization.
94. Save taxpayer dollars.
95. Requires in statute that the HHS Secretary to extrapolate the error rate found in the risk adjustment data validation (RADV) audits to the entire Medicare Advantage contract payment for a given year when recouping payments.
96. Requires the extrapolation of risk score errors in MA plans.
97. Modifies statutory provisions that currently limit random medical review.
98. Places statutory limitations on the application of Medicare repayment review.
99. Modifies certain medical review limitations.
100. Gives Medicare contractors better and more efficient access to medical records and claims.
101. Authorizes the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid to work collaboratively with the IRS to determine which providers have seriously delinquent tax debt.
102. Help identify potentially fraudulent providers sooner.
103. Targets high risk providers types in high vulnerability areas.
104. Enables both the IRS and Medicare to recoup monies owed to the Federal government.
105. Requires the IRS to disclose to CMS those entities that have evaded filing taxes.
106. Matches data against provider billing data.
107. Enable CMS to better detect fraudulent providers billing Medicare programs.
108. Adopts a provision from the bipartisan legislation that gives the FTC enforcement authority to speed up the introduction of generic drugs.
109. Makes anti-competitive and unlawful any agreement in which generic drug manufacturers receive any value for limiting research.
110. Requires chief executive officers of brand name pharmaceutical companies to certify to the accuracy and completeness of any agreements filed with the FTC.
111. Creates a set of benchmarks payments at different perecentages of the current average fee-for-services costs in an area.
112. Provides bonuses for quality and enrollee satisfaction.
113. Adjusts rebates of savings between benchmark payment and actual plan bid to take into account transition.
114. Requires a payment adjustment for unjustified coding patterns in Medicare Advantage plans that have raised payments more rapidly than the evidence of their enrollees’ health status and costs suggest is warranted, based upon actuarial analysis.
115. changes the effective date of the Senate policy from 2013 to 2018 to provide additional transition time for high-cost plans to become more efficient.
116. Raises the amount of premiums that are exempt from the assessment from $8,500 for singles to $10,200 and from $23,000 for families to $27,500 and indexes these amounts for subsequent years at general inflation plus 1 percent.
117. Adjusts the initial threshold upwards automatically.
118. Ensures that the tax affects firms equitably.
119. Includes an adjustment for firms whose health costs are higher due to the age or gender of their workers.
120. No longer counts dental and vision benefits as potentially taxable benefits.
121. Maintains the Senate bill’s permanent adjustment in favor of high-risk occupations such as “first responders.”
122. Adopts the Senate bill approach and adds a 2.9 percent assessment (equal to the combined employer and employee share of the existing HI tax) on income from interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents, other than such income which is derived in the ordinary course of a trade or business which is not a passive activity (e.g., income from active participation in S corporations) on taxpayers with respect to income above $200,000 for singles and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly.
123. Credits to the HI trust fund the revenues from the tax on unearned income to the Supplemental Medical Insurance (SMI) trust fund.
124. Closes the Medicare “donut hole,” ensuring that seniors do not skip or cut back on needed prescriptions.
125. Creates new revenue for the pharmaceutical industry.
126. Increases the revenue from the assessment on this industry which is $23 billion in the Senate bill by $10 billion over 10 years.
127. Delays the implementation of these fees by one year, until 2011, and makes changes to facilitate administration by the IRS.
128. Adopts the House bill’s policy to clarify that they are not eligible for the tax credit.
129. Prevents unjustified tax shelters by clarifying the circumstances under which transactions have “economic substance” (as opposed to being undertaken solely to obtain tax benefits).
130. Raises the penalties for transactions that lack economic substance.
131. Replaces the variable State support in the Senate bill with uniform 100% Federal support for all States for newly eligible individuals from 2014 through 2017, 95% support for 2018 and 2019, and 90% for 2020 and subsequent years.
132. Increases States’ matching rate on certain health care services by 8 percentage points beginning in 2014.
133. Provides additional assistance to the Territories, raising the Medicaid funding cap by 35% rather than the Senate bill’s 30%.
134. Simplifies eligibility rules for various existing programs as well as for the new tax credits.
135. Conform income definitions to make the system simpler for beneficiaries to navigate and States and the Federal government to administer by: changing the definition of income used for assistance from modified gross income to modified adjusted gross income.
136. Creates a 5% income disregard for certain Medicaid eligibility determinations to ease the transition from States’ current use of income disregards.
137. Streamlines the income reconciliation process for determining tax credits and reduced cost sharing.
138. Clarifies the tax treatment of employer contributions for adult dependent coverage.
139. Delays and Reforms Fees on Health Insurance Providers.
140. Delays the senate proposal assessment until 2014 to coincide with broader coverage provisions which will substantially expand the market for health insurance providers.
141. Provides limited exemptions for plans that serve critical purposes for the community, including non-profits that receive more than 80 percent of their income from government programs targeting low-income or elderly populations, or those with disabilities, as well as for voluntary employees’ beneficiary associations (VEBAs) that are not established by employers.
142. Delays and Converts Fees on Medical Device Manufacturers to Excise Tax.
143. Provides the medical device industry expanded health insurance coverage.
144. Replaces the medical device fee with an excise tax (yielding the same revenue) that starts in 2013 to facilitate administration by the IRS.
145. Makes a series of changes to the Senate bill to improve the CLASS program’s financial stability and ensure its long-run solvency.
146. Protects the Social Security Trust Funds.
147. Provides that, if necessary, funds will be transferred to the Social Security Trust Funds to ensure that they are held harmless by the Proposal.
148. Requires careful, effective, deliberate, and transparent implementation.
149. Appropriates $1 billion for the Administration to implement health insurance reform policies.
150. Delays several of the policies to ensure effective implementation and improve transitions.
151. Delays the therapeutic discovery credit.
152. Eliminates the deduction for expenses allocable to the Medicare Part D subsidy, the pharmaceutical and medical device industry fees, and the health insurance industry fee.
153. Puts individuals, families and small business owners in control of their health care.
154. Reduces premium costs for millions of working families and small businesses by providing hundreds of billions of dollars in tax relief.
155. Provides for the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history.
156. Reduces what families will have to pay for health care by capping out-of-pocket expenses.
157. Requires preventive care to be fully covered without any out-of-pocket expense.
158. Provides that Americans with insurance coverage who like what they have, can keep it.
159. Provides that Americans without insurance coverage will be able to choose the insurance coverage that works best for them in a new open, competitive insurance market.
160. The insurance Exchange will pool buying power and give Americans new affordable choices of private insurance plans that have to compete for their business based on cost and quality.
161. Small business owners will not only be able to choose insurance coverage through this exchange, but will receive a new tax credit to help offset the cost of covering their employees.
162. Keeps insurance companies honest by setting clear rules that rein in the worst insurance industry abuses.
163. Bans all insurance companies from denying insurance coverage because of a person’s pre-existing medical conditions.
164. Gives consumers new power to appeal insurance company decisions that deny doctor ordered treatments covered by insurance.
165. Provides that American families and small business owners will begin to experience the benefits of this common-sense reform:
166. Provides that Americans with pre-existing conditions will have the choice of quality, affordable insurance through a new insurance pool.
167. Small business owners will be eligible for billions in tax credits to help offer insurance coverage to employees.
168. Paperwork reduction and simplified forms will reduce costs for doctors, employers and consumers.
169. New plans will have to offer preventive care and immunizations at no cost.
170. New plans will have to cover an enrollee’s dependent children until age 26.
171. Creates a re-insurance program for employers that offer health insurance to their early retirees.
172. Will save as much as $1,200 for every family enrolled.
173. Creates a new website to help consumers compare different insurance coverage options along with state-by-state health care consumer assistance and ombudsman for any of their health insurance questions.
174. Requires Public disclosure by insurance companies of the amounts they spend on administrative expenses including advertising, profits and salaries compared to what they spend for care.
175. Requires clear and easy-to-understand insurance documents to help Americans make decisions when shopping for health insurance.
176. Creates a new independent appeals process so consumers and patients can appeal insurance company decisions.
177. Makes it illegal for insurance companies to deny coverage for children because of a pre-existing medical condition.
178. Provides rebates to consumers from insurance companies when they spend a large percentage of consumers’ premiums on advertising, bonuses and other administrative expenses instead of patient care.
179. Reviews unreasonable insurance premium increases and rebates if unjustified.
180. Reviews health insurers with a pattern of excessive rate increases.
181. Removes arbitrary lifetime or yearly limits on coverage
182. Prevents insurance companies from dropping insurance coverage when a person gets sick and needs it most.
183. Imposes common sense reforms in a step by step fashion so that families and small business owners have the information they need to make the choices that work best for them.
184. Creates a new insurance marketplace that lets individuals and families without coverage and small business owners pool their resources and increase their buying power to make insurance more affordable.
185. Requires private insurance companies to compete for business based on cost and quality. 186. Requires private insurance companies to follow common-sense rules of the road that rein in the worst insurance industry abuses.
187. Provides that Americans who lose their jobs, change jobs, move out of state, get divorced or get sick will always have quality affordable health care they can rely on.
188. Provides new choices for Americans who get coverage through their job but can’t afford it.
189. Provides a level playing field with big businesses for small business owners.
190. Lowers the costs for small business owners.
191. Requires every member of Congress to purchase their insurance from the new health insurance exchange.
192. Provides the largest tax cut for health care in American history.
193. Provides millions of families with hundreds of billions of dollars in tax credits to help them pay for insurance in the new exchanges.
194. Will make insurance more affordable for those who can’t get it through work or whose employer insurance is too expensive.
195. Provides financial assistance to reduce out-of-pocket costs for moderate and low-income eligible Americans.
196. Provides tens of billions in tax credits for small business owners to make insurance coverage more affordable.
197. Provides small businesses with a new option of purchasing insurance through the exchanges.
198. Provides that small business owners will lower their costs and have the same choices that big corporations and unions enjoy.
199. Requires insurance companies to abide by new consumer protections.
200. Keeps insurance companies honest.
201. Reins in some of the worst abuses of the insurance industry.
202. Bans insurance companies from denying coverage or setting premiums based of your health status.
203. Bans insurance companies from denying coverage or setting premiums based upon medical history.
204. Bans insurance companies from denying coverage or setting premiums based upon genetic information.
205. Bans insurance companies from denying coverage or setting premiums based upon evidence of domestic violence.
206. Bans insurance companies from setting different premiums based on gender.
207. Bans insurance companies from setting different premiums based upon salary.
208. Bans insurance companies from dropping coverage when someone gets sick.
209. Bans insurance companies from refusing to renew someone’s coverage because of an illness.
210. Prevents insurance companies from discriminating against older Americans.
211. Requires insurance companies to limit the amount they can charge based on age.
212. Makes sure that insurance is there when you need it.
213. Requires insurance companies to cover minimum benefits that every American can count on.
214. Prevents an illness from ruining a family financially by limiting out-of-pocket expenses that individuals and families have to pay for treatments they need.
215. Asks everyone to take responsibility for improving America’s health care.
216. Requires all Americans who can afford to purchase insurance to do so.
217. Requires those who can afford insurance to purchase it to cover emergency room care for Americans without insurance.
218. Provides individuals and families eligibility for a waiver from the requirement to purchase health insurance if coverage is unaffordable, if premiums exceed 8 percent of income.
219. Provides exceptions for religious objectors.
220. Provides exceptions for taxpayers with incomes below the tax-filing threshold ($9,350 for a single or $18,700 for a married couple in 2009), and Indian tribe members.
221. Provides that Americans under the age of 30 and other Americans who are exempt from the requirement to purchase insurance eligibility for a low-cost catastrophic plan that covers serious illness and injury.
222. Requires larger companies that offer coverage to automatically enroll any new eligible employees.
223. Requires any company with 50 or more employees that does not offer coverage and whose employees access taxpayer supported health programs to help offset the costs to the American taxpayer.
224. Provides that no small business owner will be required to enroll an employee or to offset health costs to taxpayers.
225. Provides small business owners with incentives to cover employees through tax credits.
226. Provides small business owners the ability to enjoy greater buying power and insurance choices in the exchanges.
227. Extends Medicaid to more working families while treating all States equally.
228. Preserves CHIP, the children’s insurance plan.
229. Simplifies enrollment for individuals and families.
230. Enhances community-based care for Americans with disabilities.
231. Provides States with opportunities to expand home care services to people with long-term care needs.
232. Gives flexibility to States to adopt innovative strategies to improve care.
233. Gives flexibility to States to coordinate services for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.
234. Saves taxpayer money by reducing prescription drug costs and payments to subsidize care for uninsured Americans.
235. Gives more Americans insurance under reform.
236. Allows states to expand Medicaid eligibility to more individuals.
237. Allows all low-income, non-elderly and non-disabled individuals will be eligibility for Medicaid.
238. Provides Medicaid for all unemployed adults and working famlies.
239. Provides Medicaid for all people with income below $29,000 for a family of four (133% of poverty).
240. Requires the Federal Government to support States by providing 100% of the cost of newly eligible people between 2014 and 2017, 95% of the costs between 2018 and 2019, and 90 percent matching for subsequent years.
241. Requires all states to be treated equally.
241. Precludes any special matching rates for Medicaid.
242. Preserves the CHIP program.
243. Requires States to maintain income eligibility levels for CHIP through September 30, 2019 with funding extended through FY2016.
244. Provides states, in FY2016, to receive a 23 percentage point increase to their CHIP matching rate to help them cover children under the program.
245. Provides Individuals streamlined, easy to use, State-by-State websites to participate in Medicaid or CHIPS programs.
245. Coordinates procedures to provide seamless enrollment, save time and lower administrative costs.
246. Provides Medicaid beneficiaries with disabilities who would otherwise require care in a hospital, nursing facility, or intermediate care facility with a new option offered by States for community-based attendant services and supports.
247. Requires the Federal government to offer increased assistance for States who offer these community-based services.
248. Allows States to provide home and community-based services and full Medicaid benefits to people with long-term care needs.
249. Allows States to extend the “Money Follows the Person” rebalancing demonstration.
250. Protects recipients of home- and community-based services against spousal impoverishment.
251. Increases funding for State Aging and Disability Resource Centers.
252. Improves coordination between the Federal and State governments for dual-eligibles who are low-income and have high rates of chronic diseases and disabling conditions.
253. Improves care and saves money.
254. Saves money with increased rebates on prescription drugs furnished under Medicaid.
255. Increases rebates from 15.1 to 23.1 to more accurately reflect market prices and discounts typically provided by drug manufacturers to large volume purchasers.
256. Requires Drug manufacturers to extend these same rebates to new drug formulations and Medicaid managed care organizations.
257. Saves State governments money as their Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments to cover the costs of the uncompensated care will be reduced as more Americans get insurance coverage under the Act.
258. Provides States with the option to undertake a number of reforms to improve the quality of how care is delivered.
259. Provides demonstration projects in each state to help to identify the most innovative care models that can be replicated throughout the country.
260. Protects and preserves Medicare as a commitment to America’s seniors.
261. Saves thousands of dollars in drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries by closing the coverage gap called the “donut hole.”
262. Incentivizes Doctors, nurses and hospitals to improve care and reduce unnecessary errors that harm patients.
263. Enhances access for rural America to health care services in underserved areas.
264. Takes important steps to make sure that we can keep the commitment of Medicare for the next generation of seniors by ending massive overpayments to insurance companies that cost American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars per year.
265. Saves taxpayer dollars by keeping people healthier before they join the program.
266. Reduces Medicare’s need to pay to hospitals to care for the uninsured.
267. Makes sure that the quality of care for seniors drives all decisions.
268. Requires a group of doctors and health care experts, not Members of Congress, to come up with their best ideas to improve quality and reduce costs for Medicare beneficiaries.
269. Save seniors on Medicare thousands of dollars.
270. Rewards the highest quality of care for America’s seniors.
271, Provides incentives for doctors, and hospitals that improve quality while providing for better coordination that helps to reduce harmful medical errors and healthcare-acquired infections.
272. Provides innovative payment reforms so providers are rewarded for the quality of care they provide.
273. Rewards innovative practices where doctors and nurse practitioners provide more primary care that is coordinated with every doctor or specialist involved with a patient’s care.
274. Allows Doctors, nurses and hospitals throughout the country to learn from innovative practices to improve the quality of care for seniors throughout the Nation.\
275. Strengthens Medicare for seniors in rural areas by enhancing access to health care services and increasing payments to providers in underserved areas.
276. Levels the playing field with doctors in other parts of the country by making sure that rural doctors and hospitals have incentives to provide care in America’s rural communities.
277. Improves the financial health of Medicare.
278. Improves guaranteed benefits and ensures that they will be preserved by ending the 14% average overpayment to private insurance companies under the Medicare Advantage (MA) program.
279. Requires insurance companies to offer Medicare Advantage plans at reasonable rates so that seniors are guaranteed the best benefits at the best price for all Medicare beneficiaries.
280. Rewards insurance companies if enrollee satisfaction and quality of care are high.
281. Prohibits MA plans from charging seniors more than they would pay for services delivered under the traditional Medicare program.
282. Reduces Medicare payments.
283. Improves the financial health of Medicare.
284. Strengthens the Medicare program.
285. Helps Medicare beneficiaries.
286. Makes sure that doctors and health care experts, not members of Congress, have the primary responsibility of finding ways to protect Medicare benefits for America’s seniors.
287. Creates an independent group of doctors and health care experts tasked with presenting their best ideas to improve the quality of Medicare and reduce costs for Medicare beneficiaries.
288. Bans all ideas that ration care.
289. Bans all ideas that raise taxes.
290. Bans all ideas that raise beneficiary premiums.
291. Bans all ideas that change Medicare benefits.
292. Bans all ideas that alter eligibility.
293. Bans all ideas that alter cost-sharing standards.
294. Transitions from a system focused primarily on treating the sick to one that helps keep people well throughout their lives.
295. Promotes prevention, wellness, and the public health.
296. Provides a funding commitment prevention, wellness, and the public health.
297. Directs the creation of a national prevention and health promotion strategy that incorporates the most effective and achievable methods to improve the health status of Americans.
298. Reduces the incidence of preventable illness and disability in the United States.
299. Saves lives and money in the long run for American families, small businesses, and the Nation.
300. Requires small businesses to compete for grants to develop their own workplace wellness programs that promote better health for employees.
301. Requires the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop and conduct an educational campaign and provide technical assistance to promote the benefits of worksite health promotion to employers, including small businesses.
302. Gives local and state governments the flexibility to develop strategies to prevent the onset of chronic diseases, including those associated with obesity and tobacco use.
303. Provides a new competitive grant that allows communities to tailor programs that make sense for them.
304. Saves money for states by allowing them to purchase vaccines under CDC contracts.
305. strengthens our Nation’s ability to respond to infectious diseases and other threats to public health.
306. Supports the delivery of community prevention and wellness services.
307. Establishes a competitive grant program at the CDC to improve surveillance for and responses to infectious diseases and other public health threats at the State, local, and tribal level.
308. Helps put American families in control of their own health decisions with nutrition and prevention information based on the best science.
309. Requires that certain restaurants and vending machines post calorie information.
310. Provides States and health care providers with additional tools and science-based information to help them develop preventive and obesity-related services for Americans on Medicaid.
311. Strengthens America’s capacity to respond to public health emergencies.
312. Empowers families by giving them tools to find the best science-based nutrition information.
313. Makes prevention and screenings a priority by waiving co-payments for America’s seniors on Medicare.
314. Improves health.
315. Saves lives.
316. Avoids costly complications.
317. Increases prevention and wellness services for Medicare beneficiaries by waiving co-payments for most preventive services.
318. Fully covering an annual wellness visit and personalized prevention plans for American seniors on Medicare.
319. Provides incentives for States to enhance prevention and wellness services for Medicaid beneficiaries.
320. Improves people’s health and saves money.
321. Provides funding for innovative demonstration projects to develop comprehensive models for reducing childhood obesity.
322. Improves data collection and analysis.
323. Facilitates better data sharing.
324. Requires the development of standards for the collection of data regarding the nation’s health and the performance of the nation’s health care, including health disparities.
325. Supports and expands our Nation’s health care workforce.
326. Funds scholarships and loan repayment programs.
327. Funds the increased number of primary care physicians.
328. Funds the increased number of nurses.
329. Funds the increased number of physician assistants.
330. Funds the increased number of mental health providers.
331. Funds the increased number of dentists.
332. Increases the areas of the country that need them.
333. Provides a comprehensive approach focusing on retention and enhanced educational opportunities.
334. Combats the critical nursing shortage.
335. Provides through new incentives and recruitment, the increased supply of public health professionals so that the United States is prepared for health emergencies.
336. Invests in grant programs that support the training of primary care providers, including family medicine, pediatrics, general internal medicine, and physician assistantship.
337. Provides payment bonuses to primary care physicians.
338. Provides state and local governments flexibility and resources to develop health workforce recruitment strategies.
339. Expands critical and timely access to care by funding the expansion, construction, and operation of community health centers throughout the United States.
340. Increases the number of primary care providers, including doctors, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and dentists in the areas of the country that need them most.
341. Provides, through a National Health Service Corps, significant funding for scholarships and loan repayment for doctors, nurses and other providers who provide medical, dental, and mental health care in urban and rural areas that have a shortage of health professionals.
342. Increases the loan repayment amount and enables additional flexibility for providers to meet their service requirements.
343. Creates a loan repayment program for pediatric, mental and behavioral health specialists who provide services to children and adolescents in underserved areas or with underserved populations.
344. Supports scholarships and loan repayments for disadvantaged students who commit to work in medically underserved areas and who serve as faculty in participating institutions.
345. Increase the number of nurses in the Unites States.
346. Retains nurses.
347. Addresses financial barriers that nurses and nurse faculty face today.
348. Rewards competitive grants to nursing schools to strengthen nurse education and training programs.
349. Improves nurse retention programs throughout the country.
350. Increases the student loan amounts for nursing students.
351. Addresses critical nurse faculty shortages by making nursing faculty eligible for loan repayment and scholarship programs.
352. Addresses critical public health workforce shortages.
353. Supports the training of the public health workforce and physicians specializing in preventive medicine.
354. Establishes a Ready Reserve Corps to respond in times of national emergency.
355. Supports fellowship training in public health.
356. Provides grants to promote the community health workforce.
357. Creates a competitive program that awards grants to States to develop effective and comprehensive health care workforce development strategies at the State and local levels.
358. Increases the pipeline of health professionals by supporting the development and implementation of health sciences programs in public secondary schools so that students can prepare for careers in health professions.
359. Creates education and training grants to meet the critical needs of Americans who require mental and behavioral health care.
360. Increases funding for geriatric education and training.
361. creates scholarships and loan repayment programs for allied health professionals, including radiology technicians and physical therapists.
362. Provides $11 billion in funding for the operation, expansion, and construction of community health centers throughout the Nation.
363. Helps patients take more control of their health care decisions by providing more information to help them make decisions that work for them.
364. Strengthens the doctor and patient relationship by providing doctors access to cutting edge medical research to help them and their patients make the decisions that work best for them.
365. Brings greater transparency to nursing homes to help families find the right place for their loved ones.
366. Enhances training for nursing home staff so that the quality of care continuously improves.
367. Promotes nursing home safety by encouraging self corrections of errors.
368. Requires background checks for employees who provide direct care.
369. Encourages innovative programs that prevent and eliminate elder abuse.
370. Reins in waste, fraud and abuse by imposing tough new disclosure requirements to identify high-risk providers who have defrauded the American taxpayer.
371. Gives states new authority to crack down on providers who have been penalized in one state from setting up in another.
372. Gives states flexibility to propose tort reforms that address several criteria, including reducing health care errors, enhancing patient safety, encouraging efficient resolution of disputes, and improving access to liability insurance.
373. Requires doctors with financial interests in imaging services, like MRI services, to inform the patients in writing that they can obtain the recommended imaging service from a person other than the referring physician, and provide a contact list.
374. Prevents conflicts of interests and insures full transparency and information for patients.
375. Requires all drug companies, device, and medical supply manufacturers to fully disclose and report any gifts they make or financial arrangements they have with doctors, a physician practice or group.
376. Requires all pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) that manage the prescription drug portion of health plans under Medicare or the Exchange to report information regarding any rebates, discounts, or price concessions they negotiate for prescription drugs.
377. Requires all pharmacy benefit managers (PBM) that manage prescription drug portion of health plans under Medicare of the Exchange to report how often they use generic drugs rather than more expensive brand name drugs.
378. Ensures more accurate payments for services and keep health care costs down.
379. Provides doctors and other providers with access to cutting-edge medical research to help them and their patients make the medical decisions that work for them.
380. Precludes findings from this research from being interpreted as a mandate for medical practice guidelines or coverage decisions.
381. Provides patients and doctors with additional control over their medical decisions with important patient safeguards that protect against discriminatory coverage decisions based on age, disability, terminal illness, or an individual’s quality of life preference.
382. Provide Americans with more information so they can make better choices about nursing facilities under the Act.
383. Create a “Nursing Home Compare” Medicare website that will be updated with information about: staffing, links to State internet websites concerning State nursing facility surveys and certification, a model standardized complaint form, a summary of complaints for facilities and the number of instances of criminal violations by a facility or its employee.
384. Require skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) under Medicare and nursing facilities (NFs) under Medicaid to make available all of their information concerning the facilities’ ownership.
385. Require facilities to include dementia management and abuse prevention training as part of pre-employment training for staff.
386. Creates incentives to correct deficiencies and improves independent monitoring.
387. Establishes a demonstration project to test and implement a national independent monitoring program to oversee inter-State and large intra-State nursing home chains.
388. Makes sure that families and residents have the chance to prepare and plan.
389. Requires the administrator of a facility preparing to close to provide written notice to residents, legal representatives of residents and the State in advance of closing the facility.
390. Requires background checks for employees who have direct access to patients of Long Term care facilities.
391. Prevents and eliminates elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation.
392. Creates a competitive grant program to innovative entities who carry out activities to protect individuals seeking care in facilities that provide long-term services.
393. Requires owners, operators, and employees of long-term care facilities to report suspected crimes committed at a facility.
394. Cracks down on high-risk providers and suppliers who defraud the American taxpayer in the Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP programs.
395. Requires providers and suppliers enrolling or re-enrolling in these programs to be subject to a new compliance program.
396. Subjecting providers and suppliers or re-enrolling in these programs to tougher standards and criminal background checks.
397. Requiring providers and suppliers or re-enrolling in these programs to disclose all affiliations with any provider or supplier that has uncollected debt, has had their payments suspended, has been excluded from participating in a Federal health care program, or has had their billing privileges revoked.
398. Providing that the Inspector General of HHS will oversee a new comprehensive data base including any provider or practitioner who has been sanctioned under Medicare or Medicaid to help law enforcement keep fraudulent providers out of these programs.
399. Provides new authority to deny enrollment in any of these programs if these high-risk affiliations pose an undue risk to the program and the American taxpayer.
400. Creating new sanctions on individuals who purchase, sell, or distribute Medicare beneficiary identification numbers or provider billing numbers, including jail time.
401. Imposes tough new penalties to prevent waste, fraud and abuse in the Medicare and Medicaid program.
402. Holds Medicare administrative contractors liable for payments to excluded providers.
403. Precludes health care providers from discharging their debts to Medicare or Medicaid through bankruptcy proceedings.
404. Medicare will adopt new “credit card” technology that provides real time information to determine in advance of payment whether a claim meets program coverage and other requirements.
405. Require the Secretary of HHS to study and report to Congress on the costs and benefits of assigning universal product numbers (UPNs, or bar codes) to items covered under Medicare to more effectively track and evaluate covered drugs, devices, and supplies.
406. Create new conditions of participation in Medicare on community mental health centers to ensure they are providing necessary and high quality care.
407. Create new penalties on any person who makes false statements on applications or contracts to participate in a Federal health care program or who know of an overpayment and did not return the overpayment.
408. Allows payments to be suspended during a fraud investigation of providers or suppliers. 409. Provide that new data will be available on the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) regarding corrective actions taken against health care providers, suppliers, and practitioners.
410. Require information in the Healthcare Integrity and Protection Data Bank to be accessible to private plans when they are reviewing provider credentials.
411. Imposes tough new rules for the Medicaid program that will reduce fraud and save money for cash-strapped states.
412. Sets up new rules to prevent individuals or entities that were terminated from Medicare or Medicaid in one state from setting up practice in another state.
413. Requires Medicaid agencies to exclude individuals or entities from participating in Medicaid for a specified period if it (1) has failed to repay overpayments; (2) is suspended, excluded, or terminated from participation in any Medicaid program; or (3) is affiliated with an individual or entity that has been suspended, excluded, or terminated from Medicaid participation.
414. Establishes a competitive grant program for States to develop, implement, and evaluate innovative medical malpractice reforms that help resolve disputes over injuries allegedly caused by health care providers or organizations and promote a reduction in health care errors.
415. Gives states the resources they need to test out reforms, measure the results, and build on what works.
416. Promotes innovation and saves consumers money.
417. Ends anti-competitive behavior by drug companies that keep effective and affordable generic drugs off the market.
418. Extends drug discounts to hospitals and communities that serve low-income patients.
419. Creates a pathway for the creation of generic versions of biological drugs so that doctors and patients have access to effective and lower cost alternatives.
420. Saves money for consumers and taxpayers by ending the collusion between pharmaceutical companies where companies with brand name drugs pay companies who make generic drugs to keep the generic drug off the market.
421. Extends discounts on drugs to hospitals and communities that serve low-income patients.
422. Creates a new pathway to create generic versions of biological products so that Americans have access to effective, lower-cost alternatives.
423. Provides Americans with a new option to finance long-term services and care in the event of a disability.
424. Creates a daily cash benefit in exchange for a premium paid by workers.
425. Precludes taxpayer funds from being used to pay benefits under this provision.
426. Reduces Medicaid spending.
427. Allows people to continue working and living in their homes and not enter nursing homes. 428. Provides safeguards to be put in place to ensure its premiums are enough to cover its costs.
429. Makes health care more affordable for families and small business owners by providing the largest middle class tax cuts for health care in American history.
430. Cuts taxes on families making less than $250,000 by hundreds of billions of dollars.
431. This bill will completely pay for health reform.
432. This bill will reduce the deficit by more than one hundred billion dollars in the next ten years.
433. Improve enforcement and close loopholes in the tax code.
434. Create corporate information reporting requirements.
435. Close the loophole that allows certain byproducts of paper production to be eligible for the cellulosic biofuels producer credit.
436. Help prevent tax shelters by clarifying the definition of when activities have true “economic substance” beyond evading taxes.
437. Imposes an additional 0.9 percentage point Hospital Insurance tax for households with incomes exceeding $200,000 for singles and $250,000 for married couples filing jointly.
438. Adds a 2.9 percent tax for such high-income households to unearned income including interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents (excluding income from active participation in S corporations).
439. Imposes an excise tax on insurance companies to help finance the tax credits and other portions of comprehensive health reform.
440. Reduces the long-term cost growth of health care.
441. Helps increase workers’ after-tax wages as insurance companies respond to increased competition by offering more cost-effective insurance plans for employers.
442. Limit the excise tax only to premiums above $27,500 for families and $10,200 for singles in 2018 and would be adjusted at the consumer price index plus one thereafter.
443. Include in the excise tax new permanent reforms that will focus its impact on plans that provide the highest-cost benefits.
444. Provide permanent adjustments based on age, gender and high-risk professions.
445. Impose fees on various sectors of the health industry.
446. Impose a fee on branded prescription drug pharmaceutical companies in proportion to their federal sales.
447. Impose an excise tax on medical devices.
448. Impose an annual fee on health insurance companies.
449. Impose an excise tax on indoor tanning services.
450. Impose an additional 10 percent penalty on non-health withdrawals from HSAs.
451. Impoose an additional 10 percent penalty on Archer MSAs.
452. Limit Flexible Spending Accounts under cafeteria plans to $2,500.
453. Eliminate, starting in 2012, the deduction for employer subsidies for retiree drug coverage under Part D.
454. Raise the floor on the itemized deduction for major medical expenses to 10 percent of AGI for the non-elderly and non-disabled.
455. Limit excessive compensation paid by certain health insurance companies.
456. Establish a number of new tax benefits, beyond the ones for individuals and small businesses contained in Title I.
457. Exclude from income of certain health benefits provided by Indian tribal governments.
458. Establish simple cafeteria benefit plans for small businesses.
458. Establish a qualifying therapeutic discovery project tax credit.
459. Exclude from income of assistance provided to participants in State student loan repayment programs for certain health professionals.
460. Expand the adoption credit and adoption assistance programs.
461. Reauthorizes the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (ICHIA).
462. Modernize the Indian health care system and improve health care for 1.9 million American Indians and Alaska Natives.

WOW! There it is. 462 promises, commitments, claims, call them what you want. It’s a truck load for sure. But gosh, it all sounds so great. So how is he going to accomplish all of this? What is the plan of attack? Let’s go to the plan as set forth on www.whitehouse.gov. Here’s how the President’s plan is going to accomplish all this:

“HEY PRES? HOW YOU GOING TO DO THAT?”

ANSWER PLEASE. DRUM ROLL. READY? ANY TIME NOW?

1. I DO NOT KNOW.
2. Go to answer number one.
3. The end.

THAT’S THE ANSWER. WHY? BECAUSE IT IS NOT IN THERE. Nothing. Nada. Zippo. Butkus. Zero. Nothing. The President’s proposal as set forth on his website is entirely vacant of mechanics with the exception of the tax increases which conveniently are pushed to the end. (There are volumes of hidden tax increases which I will address in subsequent postings) His pitch is nothing more than a shallow attempt to sell us on a government take over of one sixth of our economy. It is insulting. It is unadulterated tripe. His plan reeks of immense bureaucracy, redundancy, rampant inefficiency and government control. It is vile. It is a license to control – everything! It is ridiculous. And it’s all there for you to read. At last, some transparency. Thank you Mr. President. I greatly appreciate your efforts to educate Americans on your unconstitutional un-American agenda. We could not have done it without you.

That’s my Reetzality for the Day.

Thanks for the long read.

Brett Reetz

WASHINGTON — President Obama acknowledged the deep partisan divisions gripping Congress, but he urged Republican and Democratic leaders Tuesday to cooperate on legislation that creates jobs.

Amazing. Obama actually believes that Washington creates jobs. Techically it can create a job, meaning that Washington can spend money and create “a” job. However, also technically, it costs more jobs than the one created to create the government job. This truth is based upon the negative multiplier effect that government spending has, at best about a .8. I’ve gone through this before but I’ll go again, every dollar the government spends shrinks the economy by twenty cents. Thus, every job the government “creates” takes away more than one job in greater economy. It’s basic economics folks, proven over and over again in history.

And yet, Obama thinks the absence of bi-partisan cooperation is the cause for the shrinking job market. No Mr. Obama, you are once again wrong but you do have a great excuse given that you never worked in the private sector, never made a bottom line, let affirmative action rather than your ability lift you through life, and your “caused by others” narcisism. But, excuse or no excuse, you are still wrong. In fact, it is the opposite of what you are thinking. The absence of bipartisanship is saving jobs and serving, at least a little, as a sea anchor to the free fall of our economy. Those in the private sector (the ones that pay for your fantasies) are relieved that health care failed. They are relieved that cap and trade is a long shot. They are relieved that conservatives are likely to take back the house and senate in November. They are relieved but not thrilled. They are not thrilled because your plans and policies continue to loom on the horizon like a bad storm.

Mr. Obama I would strongly suggest that you open a lemonade stand and work it on weekends. I believe you will have time to do so since you don’t write or read the bills that you telemarket and infomercial. But in truth, it would serve you well to learn the basics of private enterprise and business and a lemonade stand is great start. You’ll have a bottom line, the cost of the stand, the lemonade, cups, and labor. You’ll have income from the sales. And if you do it right, you will learn that increasing costs decreases profitability. And that’s what your missing Mr. Obama. The agenda that you telemarket and infomercial sends the message that costs are going up, that government is going to be doing a lot more “taking.” In response to your messages, the private sector tightens its belt, stops spending, stops hiring, stops lending, stops risking. Picture you lemonade stand Mr. Obama. What if you we’re going to expand and build a second lemonade stand but lemons were going to be taxed? Further, what if the tax would increase the price and the increased price would decrease sales? Decreased sales would decrease income which would certainly decrease your appetite for expansion and risk. See my point Mr. Obama. You need to work in a lemonade stand. Working in a lemondae stand would educate you on why your agenda is so inconsistent with a growing economy. I swear, I’m serious. And don’t feel bad, all work is noble for the most part. I worked in one and taught me a ton about the realities of business and the economy. I think I was six years old when I learned it. It’s never too late to start Mr. Obama. Go for it. Get out there and sell some lemonade, learn the ropes of the private sector and then go back to your employer, us, and do the right thing based upon your new higher education. And indeed it is a higher education because it taught me way more than your “poison” Ivy league farce taught you.

You know what they say Mr. Obama, “If it rains lemons, make lemonade.” Go for it Obama. It will do us all a bunch of good.

That’s my Reetzality for the Day.

Thanks for the read.

Brett Reetz

Obama told CBS News’ anchor Katie Couric in an interview taped before the Super Bowl that “I want to ask them [the Republicans] to put their ideas on the table, and then after the [congressional] recess, which will be a few weeks away, I want to come back and have a large meeting, the Republicans and Democrats, to go through systematically all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward.”

The Washington Post reported that Obama had invited Republicans to take part in a half-day summit that would be televised live later this month, just as his meeting last week with House Republicans at their Baltimore retreat was open to cameras.

Obama’s offer reflected both the political reality that health care reform is in jeopardy after the loss of the Democrats’ 60-vote majority in the Senate, which allowed them to shut down filibusters. It also reflected Obama’s sensitivity to the criticism that the shaping of the legislation had not met his promise of transparency, something that he acknowledged at the Republican retreat.

DO NOT FALL FOR IT REPUBLICANS! Summits don’t work. Nor do committees. Summits, committees, panels, pick a name, they serve as nothing but a forum to point fingers, spread blame, and escape responsibility. How many times have we heard as a response to an attack on a political position that “so and so on the panel agrees with me.” Too many. Obama is the president, he’s responsible. Make him so. Let him fail on his own rather than joining him in his failure. I’ve read the bills, they are both a disaster for our nation, for our liberty. They both fail the fundamental American constitutional test, so again, don’t join him in his attack on our liberty.

So do not attend his summit. He will use the attendance to accomplish one of two things. He will either use it to claim he has bi-partisan support or use it to attack Republicans as the “say no” guys.

Obama will not use the summit to accomplish anything other than putting Republicans in a bad light. He will use it to shift the middle ground to the “left.” Don’t fall for it. Don’t go. This guy isn’t into compromise and neither are most Americans. We want our freedom. We demand it. His beliefs are different than ours. Don’t let us down by reaching across the aisle. Reach for American Principles of which both the pending House and Senate bills are vacant. But don’t be uninvolved. Here’s what you should do:

Draft a comprehensive health care proposal that does the following:

1. Allows inter-state competition.
2. Makes health insurance policies portable.
3. Provide tax benefits that subsidize the cost of insurance companies providing coverage for pre-existing conditions.
4. Propose tort reform.
5. Expand medical health care savings accounts. Allow folks to get more than a dollar for dollar tax break on money they put into their medical savings account.
6. Provide liability protection for nurses and physicians’ assistants so that they can increase the supply of medical services without the need for a supervising medical doctor. Increased supply over demand drives prices down. You’ll have to use simple words when explaining this principle to the Obamanomics followers.
7. Provide tax incentives for attending medical schools for doctors and nurses.
8. Provide tax incentives through medical savings accounts that will allow the eventual discontinuance of entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid. We can’t afford them, period. They will end one way or the other. Take some responsibility and wean America from them rather than collapsing America with them.
9. Propose that all government workers, including congress, will be placed in the same circumstances as all other Americans.
10. Do the numbers. Provide hard accounting of the facts of your proposal. Have specific numbers based on reality and not fantasy as to how much it will eliminate government bureaucracy and governments costs.

And send it in a memo to Obama. Come on guys, aren’t you a bit embarrassed to be participating in an Obama Summit? You should be so don’t participate, just send a memo. He can send one back so you have his response in writing. Although, he might just send over his teleprompter. What’s the difference?

That’s my Reetzality for the Day.

Thanks for the read.

Brett Reetz