WHO ARE THE REAL MEN, LIBERALS OR CONSERVATIVES?

Foremost, I am not a chauvinist. I do not see much difference in male and female abilities other than physical ability and even when considering physical abilities, there are thousands of women who ski better than me, can kill me in tennis, swimming, certainly karate, running, ice skating, surfing, the list is endless. So when I use the term “men” I am not being “politically correct” because I find political correctness oft times to be offensive and dishonest. If a person is short, they are short. If discussing height and you use another term, i.e. “stature challenged,” aren’t you really skirting the truth? Sure you are. But, if I was to be politically correct, I would have written the title this way: WHO ARE THE REAL PEOPLE, LIBERALS OR CONSERVATIVES? Let’s check it out.

Before we do, let us hit Webster’s for a definition of “real.” Here it is: “True, not merely ostensible, nominal, or apparent.” Let’s go the whole nine yards. The definition of “merely” is “being nothing more nor better than what is specified.” The definition of “ostensible” is “outwardly appearing as such.” The definition of “nominal” is “being such in name only.” The definition of “apparent” is “readily seen; open to view.” Houston, we have a measuring stick. Let’s take a look at the basic tenants inherent in the beliefs of Liberals and Conservatives. Here they are:

CONSERVATIVES – believe in personal responsibility, limited government, free markets, individual liberty, traditional American values and a strong national defense. Believe the role of government should be to provide people the freedom necessary to pursue their own goals. Conservative policies generally emphasize empowerment of the individual to solve problems.

LIBERALS – believe in governmental action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all, and that it is the duty of the State to alleviate social ills and to protect civil liberties and individual and human rights. Believe the role of the government should be to guarantee that no one is in need. Believe that people are basically good. Liberal policies generally emphasize the need for the government to solve people’s problems.

Let’s break it down:

Personal Responsibility: Conservatives, Yes. Liberals, No.

Limited Government: Conservatives, Yes. Liberals, No.

Free Markets: Conservatives, Yes. Liberals, No.

Individual liberty: Conservatives, Yes. Liberals, Sometimes.

Traditional American Values: Conservatives, Yes. Liberals, No.

Strong National Defense: Conservatives, Yes. Liberals, No.

Government to Provide Freedom: Conservatives, Yes. Liberals, No.

Individual Solve Their Problems: Conservatives, Yes. Liberals, No.

Government is The Solution: Conservatives, No. Liberals, Yes.

Government Solves Social Ills: Conservatives, No. Liberals, Yes.

Government Protects Civil Liberties: Conservatives, Yes. Liberals, Depends.

Government Protects Human Rights: Conservatives, Yes. Liberals, Depends.

Government Guarantees No-one in Need: Conservatives, No. Liberals, Yes.

Believes People Are Basically Good: Conservatives, Yes. Liberals, Questionable.

Now, back to the analysis. Who is the real man? Who is “true, not merely ostensible, nominal or transparent?”

Conservatives believe in personal responsibility. Liberals don’t regardless of what they say. They are constantly not holding persons responsible for their status, whether it is financial, health care, housing, eating, education, drug addiction, and on and on and on. So, the liberals are not being real, no matter what they say.

Conservatives believe in limited government. Liberals don’t. Yet, liberals endlessly talk about cutting deficits, ending waste and increasing efficiency. If you don’t believe me, Google a few of the speeches in support of health care. Yet, their programs do not cut the deficits, do not end waste and are inefficient. Again, the liberal is not being real.

Conservatives believe in free markets. Liberals don’t, again, regardless of what they say. Obama has said he believes in the free market while he, at the same time, has an endless love affair with unions, regulation and government control. Not to real Mr. President.

Conservatives believe in individual liberty. Liberals only do so if the individual liberty is exercised consistent with the liberal philosophy. Want an example. How about two. We’ve just lost our individual liberty to “not” buy health insurance or buy health insurance of our choice. Number two. The current administration is desirous of implementation of the Fairness Doctrine which will limit the individual freedom to speak by taxing the popular view to subsidize the liberal view. Here’s a third example of the non-belief of individual freedom; card check. The liberals want the secret ballots in union votes to no longer be secret. Yet, they profess that they are huge supporters of individual freedom. They are not being real. In fact, as a collateral point, liberals will scream individual freedom when it comes to an abortion or when it comes to pooping on an American Flag. I guess they’re for specified individual liberty as long as they are the ones specifying.

Conservatives believe in traditional American Values. Liberals don’t. Just check out same sex marriages, diversity, and our President fawning over never ending anti-American cultures. Yet, and again, liberals say they are all in favor of traditional American values. This is not true, and therefore not real.

Conservatives believe in a strong national defense. Liberals don’t. Yet, liberals claim to have national security in their hearts. They don’t. They favor appeasement, see Iran, Russia, Venezuela. They cut military spending. They attack the military with words and budgets. Once again, they are not being real.

Conservatives believe it is the government’s role to provide freedom. Liberals don’t. What is the best way to take away freedom, well next best to imprisonment? Taxation. And liberals love taxation. Taxation literally enslaves a portion of an individual’s productivity. Freedom to a liberal is to classify a person by race, creed, color, sexual orientation, or age, and then to take away freedom in the free market, i.e. affirmative action and quotas. They also take away the freedom to fail, freedom to compete, freedom to make a student loans, freedom to profit, see Obama on the insurance industry, etc. Not a very real endorsement of freedom.

Conservatives believe that an individual is best suited to solve his or her problems. Liberals think the government is while at the same time arguing that they have nothing against the individual. Get real Liberals. Your endless mantra is that government is the solution notwithstanding the fact, yes the fact, government has a monopoly on failure. Our federal government is breaking the world record every day on being “up-side down” on it’s debt to equity ration. Liberals are not in the universe of reality on this one.

Conservatives believe that the Government is not the solution. Liberals do. See above paragraph. No reality here with the liberals.

Conservatives do not believe that government solves social ills. Sure, conservatives believe in civil rights, like don’t discriminate based upon race, creed, religion, or color, But liberals, those naïve folks, think government does solve social ills. Have they checked out the condition of the under-class since Johnson’s Great Society went into play. Have they looked at drop out rates, out of wedlock birth rates, crime statistics? I’ll give them a pass and determine they haven’t because Government doesn’t solve social ills, it creates them. Is there anything real about liberals?

Conservatives do believe that government should protect our civil liberties. Liberals say the same thing, but then expand the definition of a civil liberty to include the mandate that a private employer must hire a transvestite dressed in drag so as not to violate the transvestite’s civil liberties. Liberals also use “civil liberties” to support religious segregation, i.e. no manger at the town hall at Christmas. So, in effect, liberals use the guise of civil liberties to accomplish the limitation of civil liberties. Not real at all.

Conservatives believe government should protect human rights. Of course they do. However, once again the liberals have used the “expanded definition tactic” to define such things as free health care as a human right. It’s not. It’s not in the constitution. Even more ironic, hypocritical if you will, is that within the Liberal agenda to take care of the human right to free health care, are massive seizures of a person’s right to choose his or her own health care. Go ahead, attack me on this one lefties, but bring some ammunition with you, for example a day of reading the Obama-care bill. Liberals are not really for human rights. How could they be with their endless embracing of regimes and cultures that absolutely violate the very basics of our culture. Last time I checked, we don’t stone rape victims. Is it a human right not to be stoned to death after you are raped? (See fundamental Muslim culture, Saudi Arabia) By the looks of the Presidential’ genuflecting of late, apparently it is not. And hey Mr. President, how are you handling Darfur? You know that Genocide in the Sudan. See? No reality in the liberal human rights agenda.

Conservatives believe that we the people, through private, and public charity should take care of the truly needy. The liberals, once again, use the “expand the definition tactic” to take care of millions of folks who aren’t truly needy. On the top side, there are the banks, GM, Chrysler, the Unions. On the bottom side, there are the disgustingly large number of folks who get subsidized for housing, food, medical, etc. that simply don’t apply themselves to personal problem solving. They are perfectly healthy individuals who would find a way without the government if they had to do so. But why worry when you got your rich Uncle Sam? I’ll tell you why, Uncle Sam is broke folks. The party is over, at least it is soon to be. So they say they want to take care of the needy, but then they use government to addict folks, to make them needy, folks who aren’t. So they aren’t being real.

Conservatives believe most people are basically good. Liberals say they do, they say, “look, I care about the down-trodden, you know those folks that we’ve addicted to welfare and subsidies. These are good people. You conservatives shun the poor. They vote for me because I give them money. Wait, I wasn’t supposed to say that last part.” The reality is that I don’t think liberals think most people are good people if the definition of a “good person” includes a person who is personally responsible. Can we truly say this, “Yeah, Joe’s a good guy, on welfare, hasn’t worked in three years, spends his money on booze and cigarette’s, can’t even keep a roof over his three kids and the three baby’s mama’s heads without government assistance, but still, he’s a good guy?” Not if we’re being real. Liberals do though, because they’re not real. Conservatives do not think old Joe is a good guy. We think he’s a capable guy though. Liberal analysis, by design, doesn’t even get close to the issue of capability or culpability, they’d lose the vote.

Well, there’s the analysis folks. Now here will be the response. It will be the “two wrongs make a right” response. What did Bush do about Darfur. Bush passed Tarp. What about corporate welfare? Let me stop you right there. This is about conservative versus liberal philosophies, not politics, not Republican versus Democrat. The Republican Party reeks of liberalism. It’s what destroyed it. So don’t go there, because I’ll agree with you.

So who’s the real man, the liberal or the conservative? Who is “True, not merely ostensible, nominal, or apparent?” Sorry folks, it’s the conservative. My analysis accurately demonstrates that liberals are merely ostensible, nominal, or apparent. Thus, they are not real. The conservative believes in the right things, the things that actually work. Liberals don’t, unless their agenda is to addict the nation’s citizens to government and to insure that, as the nation cascades downward into the abyss, their chosen people are on top of the ever depreciating pile of ruination. If that’s the liberals’ agenda, then my hat is off to them. They are doing a great job. Just think, in a couple of generations we could conceivably have a president bowing to the president of Zimbabwe.

That’s my Reetzality for the Day.

Thanks for the read.

Brett Reetz

Note: In a future posting I am going to consider why it is that folks become liberal. I haven’t figured it out yet, certainly not to enhance their masculinity, to be a real man. Uh oh, there goes my political incorrectness again.

WELCOME TO EUROPE!
America has changed its course, perhaps forever.
By PETE DU PONT

Late Sunday night America made its largest public-policy course change since the 1930s: Congress moved 17% of our national economy from the market place to full regulation and control by the federal government. The vote in the House was close, 219-212, but our country’s health care system will now be organized, operated and regulated by the federal government.

Tens of thousands of new employees, supervisors and investigators will be in charge of our health-care system’s day-to-day operations. And the Heritage Foundation estimates the original Senate bill will retard economic growth to the tune of 620,000 lost jobs.

Add to that the new income-tax increases that will soon be with us. The Bush tax-rate reductions expire at the end of this year, so that the top personal income tax rate will go from 35% to 39.6% and the dividend and capital gains tax rates will rise from 15% to 20%.

Then will come the ObamaCare tax increases. There will be a new 3.8% Medicare tax increase on investment incomes–interest, dividends, capital gains, annuities, royalties and rents–for individuals with annual adjusted gross incomes over $200,000. Those increased rates are estimated to reduce disposable income by $17.3 billion a year. A second Medicare tax increase will take 0.9% of upper-income workers’ earnings.

Soon the government will fully regulate health care. As The Wall Street Journal pointed out last weekend, “ObamaCare is really about who commands the country’s medical resources. It vastly accelerates the march towards a totally state driven system . . . [and] government rationing will become inevitable [while] . . . doctors, hospitals, and insurance companies will over time become public utilities.” Even worse, the government will begin to decide “what kind of treatment options patients are allowed to receive.”

And a Republican House Ways and Means Committee report estimated that 16,500 IRS agents will be employed to make sure that people sign up–and pay for–the health insurance they will be forced to purchase.

Consider the impact these policies will have on our country and all of us.

First, tax rates will continue to increase for most everyone as the federal government needs more revenue to cover ever-expanding expenditures. Economist Stephen Entin estimates that the investment taxes discussed above would depress gross domestic product by some 1.3%, reduce capital formation by 3.4%, and thus reduce the after-tax incomes of everyone not paying these taxes by perhaps 1.2%. In other words, federal taxes will rise and personal incomes will fall.

Second, our national debt will continue to mount. From about 1970 to 2008, the U.S. government debt was between 33% and 69% of GDP. The Obama administration projects the national debt will increase to 100% by 2012 and to over $25 trillion by 2020. This will result in fewer jobs and less income for many years as it suppresses our economy.

Third, the federal government’s massive interventions, from the General Motors bailout to a prospective cap-and-trade policy, command and control of national health care, and the large increases in the size and scope of government, will slow our growth and depress our economy even more.

Finally there comes the growing loss of trust in America’s government. We have seen the national disbelief in the huge government expansions, spending and control over our society. In the health-care debate people figured that the whole bill was some sort of scam to help senators and congressmen in their home districts. There was the Cornhusker Kickback for Nebraska, special dollars for Tennessee, North Dakota, Louisiana, Connecticut, and other states and districts.

As a result of last Sunday’s vote, the Europeanization of America is coming to pass, for individual choice and opportunity are being replaced by statism.

Contrast this new American policy direction with our country’s history, and it leads to an even worse conclusion. We held our country together in the Civil War, fought two wars in Europe to keep its nations free, won the Cold War, survived the social upheavals of the 1960s and the economic challenges of the ’70s, and built a greatly expanded American economy and opportunities in the 1980s.

But now, for the first time in our history, we are becoming just another European nation, with bigger government, higher taxes, more regulation of almost everything, and the basic public-policy preference that the government, not we the people, should be in charge of the nation’s choices.

So America has indeed changed, perhaps forever, as the White House and brazen congressional leadership nationalized 17% of our economy, replacing individual choices with governmental regulation. The sunset of the American belief in economic growth and individual choice and responsibility is now with us. If we do not change our course, that will be a shame.

That, thanks to Mr. Du Pont, is my Reetzality for the day.

Thanks for the read.

Brett Reetz

With the impending passage of Obama-care, we as a nation, through our incompetent non-representative elected officials, have castrated ourselves. “Castrate,” as defined by Webster’s, means “to render impotent by psychological means, as disparagement. To deprive of strength, power or efficiency; weaken.” And that, my readers, is what we are about to do to ourselves. Make no mistake, today will just be the surgery. This operation has been planned for a century. Our government and its cancerous growth, fueled by control and power hungry politicians with little ability to function in any environment other than government, have progressively weakened Americans. How have they accomplished this? By perpetually creating new government programs that addict folks to them, folks who vote by the way. And when these folks get addicted, their wet nurse becomes the government. The government becomes their salvation, their wet nurse. Those of us, the remaining Americans, call our wet nurse Principle, not government.

Government has now become indigenous to every aspect of our lives. Think about this; Congress and the President are now considering changing the way the NCAA basketball tournament is operated! I have reviewed the Constitution and find nothing in it which empowers the government to do it. Unfortunately, I have reviewed Supreme Court Case law and have found absolute support for the government intervening in “March Madness.” Now why is that? Here’s why. Judges work for the government and notwithstanding their oath to the Constitution, they go native. Not all Judges. There are some great fundamental American Judges, and a few fundamentally American Politicians too, see Paul Ryan, but more often than not, Judges and politicians, see Bart Stupak, John McCain, George Bush, etc., etc., etc., go native. They work for the government. They fraternize with government employees. They go to a government building every work day. And in the end, most go native. They are co-conspirators in government’s desire to create need. Need equals votes. So, we have the Commerce Clause in the Constitution which allows Congress to regulate anything that affects inter-state commerce. The Courts have decided that just about everything is related to inter-state commerce, thus everything is within the government’s control. “March Madness” will be “reformed.”

And today, the government is taking over one-sixth of our economy. Mind you, this is a government that with the exception of World War II and NASA, always fails.

Back to the castration. Obama-care makes clear that Washington does not view Americans as self-reliant and independent. Washington views Americans as serfs who should go to work, pay most of their productivity to the tax man, defer to government for their health care choices, and basically, just too plain stupid to take care of themselves.

But Washington is missing something here. They are ignoring the invisible hand. The invisible hand was a term Adam Smith used. Adam Smith was a Scotsman and a famous intellectual who died in 1790. He wrote two books, The Theory of Moral Sentiments and On The Wealth of Nations. In his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith first referred to the “invisible hand” to describe the apparent benefits to society of people behaving in their own interests. Smith opposed any form of economic concentration because it distorts the market’s natural ability to establish a price that provides a fair return on land, labor, and capital. He advanced the idea that a market economy would produce a satisfactory outcome for both buyers and sellers, and would optimally allocate society’s resources. The image of the invisible hand was previously employed by Smith in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, but it has its original use in his essay, “The History of Astronomy”. Smith believed that when an individual pursues his self-interest, he indirectly promotes the good of society: “by pursuing his own interest, the individual frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he intends to promote it.” Self-interested competition in the free market, he argued, would tend to benefit society as a whole by keeping prices low, while still building in an incentive for a wide variety of goods and services. Nevertheless, he was wary of businessmen and argued against the formation of monopolies.

Here’s the quote I adore: “by pursuing his own interest, the individual frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he intends to promote it.” Wow. Right on Smith.

Now back to the present, and back to the future too. Our government’s long term castration, defended by “intending to promote” a better society, has wreaked havoc on our society. And today they have begun the actual surgery. The prep work was completed over the last century, but today, this day, our government has hi-jacked our rights to pursue our own self interest and replaced it with its agenda shrouded in a claimed intent to promote good. Have they checked out all the other nations’ with their socialized medicine? Sure they have. It doesn’t phase them because they don’t believe in self interest, they believe they know better, and although all other socialized health care is terrible, they think they can do it better. They are ignoring the power of the invisible hand.

And they’re ignoring it in another way. The invisible hand can be corrupted. Humans are self interested, that is a fact of nature. Why? Here’s why. Self interest allows us to survive and prosper. But, and here’s a big “but,” self interest plays differently in a country of entitlements and absent foregone freedoms than it does in a country of principles, freedom and liberty. I said they’re ignoring “it.” I didn’t say that they weren’t aware of it. They are. They understand that if a person is undereducated, un-principled, and just plain disgusted with how their life has turned out, that person’s invisible hand will lead them to do what works for them. And how convenient that the government that caused them to be under-educated, unprincipled and just plain disgusted with the way their life, is there with the answer, the salvation. Is it a mystery that Obama had a phalanx of hysterionic supporters at his rallies? Of course not. These were self interested folks in great need because their lives hadn’t turned out the way they expected. So their invisible hand led them to Obama, to government. THAT WAS THE GOVERNMENT’S PLAN.

But here’s the problem with our current government. They truly do not care that when you castrate liberty and freedom, when you castrate us, when more and more folks’ invisible hand leads them to government rather than principles of self-reliance, independence and individual responsibility, you kill the host. And those remaining Americans, the one who are still principled, self-reliant, independent and responsible, pay the bills. Take them away, castrate them, and everything fails. Don’t believe me? Try this exercise: Let’s divide the country into three categories.

1. Americans who are independent, self-reliant and responsible for themselves.

2. Americans who are dependent on the government, include the pharmaceutical industry after tonight’s vote.

3. Government.

Now think of our country as a patient in a hospital and you want to kill the patient. Here’s the catch. You can only surgically remove one of the above three. See my point. If you remove number one, the patient dies. Want more proof. Take out number two or three, pick, and, unless we’re invaded, number one would figure it out. Our country would survive.

Here’s the scariest truth. Obama and his minions want us to fail. Now I’m not saying that he wants a world without the United States. But the United States is just a name. What it really is, or at least what it’s supposed to be, is a series of principles set forth by our Founding Fathers. That’s the patient that is in critical condition. That’s the patient that our government is trying to euthanize. That’s the patient that got castrated today.

There is a recording of the last castrato. Way back, there were not only sopranos and tenors in operas, there were castratos. These were men who were castrated as boys to preserve their young boyish voice but gaining the strength of an adult voice. One actually existed when a recording could be made and there is such a recording. I’ve heard it on NPR. See, I’m not all Fox News. Mostly, but not all. Here’s the poignant metaphor. Castratos never had kids, of course they didn’t. Castratos didn’t have what it took to continue their genetics. And that my Readers is what our government did today, at least in their minds. They castrated us with a huge shroud of government control laid over everything America, everything us.

Don’t get worried. It is only a metaphor. We have not actually been castrated. But, and another big, “BUT,” we’re close. Even with a sixth of our economy being taken over, even with the explosion of entitlements, we have to fight like hell to reinstall our principles. We have to take back America. We can do it. And since it is only a metaphor, even those who are dependent upon government can be given the medication of freedom, liberty and opportunity and once again pursue and obtain a life of triumph which I am fairly certain is impossible when suckling up to the harpy wet nurse named government.

I have faith that we will. But for tonight, we should all be sad, maybe even cry. If you do cry, cry like a baby with undeveloped genitalia. Washington loves that. And remember this, today there was a set back to what made this country great. The principles are still alive and well and we can and will use them to save the United States.

That’s my Reetzality for this sad un-American day.

Thanks for the read.

Brett Reetz

Note: Thank you Wikipedia for your information on Adam Smith.

Nancy Pelosi, without protest from Harry Reid, threatened to use the “Deeming Rule” to pass the Obama-Care bill which is, in and of itself, an oxymoron because the Deeming Rule actually side steps actual passage of a bill. The Deeming rule “deems” the House of Representatives to have voted for the Senate version of the Bill even though no such recorded vote was actually taken. It is currently being referred to as the “Slaughter Solution” because the House Rules Committee Chairman Louise Slaughter of New York suggested its use. It is also referred to as the “Self-Executing Rule” and the “Deem and Pass Rule.” The Rule, pick a title, sidesteps Article I of the United States Constitution.

Article I of the United States Constitution requires that before proposed legislation may “become[] a Law,” U.S. CONST. art. I, § 7, cl. 2, “(1) a bill containing its exact text [must be] approved by a majority of the Members of the House of Representatives; (2) the Senate [must] approve[] precisely the same text; and (3) that text [must be] signed into law by the President,” Clinton v. City of New York, 524 U.S. 417, 448, 118 S.Ct. 2091, 141 L.Ed.2d 393 (1998). (This is legal citation referencing the Supreme Court Case of Clinton v. City of New York).

In Public Citizen v. United States District Court For The District Of Columbia, 486 F3rd 1342, Public Citizen, a not-for-profit consumer advocacy organization, filed suit in District Court claiming that the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, Pub.L. No. 109-171, 120 Stat. 4 (2006) (“DRA” or “Act”), is invalid because the bill that was presented to the President did not first pass both chambers of Congress in the exact same form. (SOUND FAMILIAR?) In particular, Public Citizen contends that the statute’s enactment did not comport with the bicameral passage requirement of Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution, because the version of the legislation that was presented to the House contained a clerk’s error with respect to one term, so the House and Senate voted on slightly different versions of the bill and the President signed the version passed by the Senate.

This is what Slaughter and Pelosi have threatened to do using the “Deeming Rule.” They have threatened to “Deem” passed a bill which wasn’t passed. The argument against it’s use is that it denies bicameralism which means it denies the requirement that both the House and Senate pass the same bill as set forth in Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution. Please know, in Public Citizens the distinction between the two bills was a clerical error with respect to a single term, thus the House and Senate voted on slightly different versions of the bill.

The District Court held that Public Citizen’s bicameralism claim is foreclosed by the Supreme Court’s decision in Marshall Field & Co. v. Clark, 143 U.S. 649, 12 S.Ct. 495, 36 L.Ed. 294 (1892). The Court held that the judiciary must treat the attestations of “the two houses, through their presiding officers” as “conclusive evidence that [a bill] was passed by Congress.” Marshall Field, 143 U.S. at 672-73, 12 S.Ct. 495. Under Marshall Field, a bill signed by the leaders of the House and Senate—an attested “enrolled bill”—establishes that Congress passed the text included therein “according to the forms of the Constitution,” and it “should be deemed complete and unimpeachable.” Id. at 672-73, 12 S.Ct. 495.

What does this mean? It means that the court held that “enrolled bill rule” prohibited it from questioning the congressional pedigree of the bill signed by the Speaker and President pro tempore. A bill is enrolled when it is entered in the Congressional Journals. Here’s some more legal jargon for you:

“Engrossed Bills” and “Enrolled Bills” in the House and Senate:

Every bill . . . in each House of Congress shall, when such bill . . . passes either House, be printed, and such printed copy shall be called the ENGROSSED BILL. Said ENGROSSED BILL . . . shall be signed by the Clerk of the House or the Secretary of the Senate, and shall be sent to the other House, and in that form shall be dealt with by that House and its officers, and, if passed, returned signed by said Clerk or Secretary.

When such bill . . . shall have passed both Houses, it shall be printed and shall then be called the ENROLLED BILL, . . . signed by the presiding officers of both Houses and sent to the President of the United States

Thus, an “engrossed bill” is a bill passed by either house. An “enrolled bill” has passed both Houses, it is an “enrolled bill.” Here’s some more law: U.S.C. § 106. An “engrossed bill” is thus one that has passed one chamber of Congress, while an “enrolled bill” has passed both the House and the Senate.

The Deeming Rule by-passes the Constitutional requirement that the same bill passes both Houses.

So what happens when the “Deeming Rule” is invoked? Here’s some more law: “Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.”), enshrines congressional journals—not the enrolled bill—as “the best, if not conclusive, evidence upon the issue as to whether a bill was, in fact, passed by the two houses of Congress.” Marshall Field, 143 U.S. at 670, 12 S.Ct. 495.

What does this mean? Here’s what it means: even though the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate have endorsed the bill as having passed the bodies over which they presided, if shown by the Congressional record of proceedings, reports of committees of each house, reports of committees of conference, and other papers printed by authority of Congress” that part of the bill passed was missing in the version enrolled, it is still “deemed” as passed.

In lay terms please: Even though the actual enrolled bills don’t match up, and in the present House and Senate bills they definitely don’t match, the journal entry rules and it only takes one fifth of those present to enter it in the Journal. Wala! We have an “engrossed bill,” ready for Presidential signing. Let’s be more on point. Wala! The Senate Obama-Caere bill is up for signing notwithstanding the fact that it wasn’t passed by the House, notwithstanding that the House bill is different.

Here are some problems with the Slaughter Rule’s application.

1. The object of the Journal Clause is to ensure transparency in legislative activities. Wait, we don’t have transparency going on here. We’ve got back room politics. Thus, Pelosi and Slaughter are contravening the spirit of the law.

2. Congress had long chosen signing of the enrolled bill by the presiding members of both houses as its method of authentication. The problem? There is an inherent trust in the Journal Clause that the “authentication” is actually that, an honest “authentication.” But the fact is, the House and Senate Bills aren’t even close, they’re barely “Dutch Uncles” of each other. And still, the Presiding members of the House and Senate are going to “authenticate” that they are the same. Again, contrary to Constitutional Law. (Note: In the Public Citizens Case, the difference between the two bills was a Medicare provision for duration of payments. One bill had thirteen (13) months, one bill had twenty-six (26) months. That’s it.)

Here’s the good news. In Public Citizens, the court held, relying upon a prior case, Marshall Field, 143 U.S. at 670, 12 S.Ct. 495. “Nothing in the Marshall Field opinion purports to limit application of the enrolled bill rule to journal-based challenges. And neither of the Court’s rationales applies solely to impeachment by journals. No less “uncertainty in the statute laws” upon which “depend public and private interests of vast magnitude, would result from allowing collateral attack of the enrolled bill by congressional documents other than journals. And “the spectacle of examination of journals by [the courts]” no more “subordinates the legislature,” than does inspection of other materials. Marshall Field’s plain language and justification cannot be read to create a rule of dismissal limited to the claims of plaintiffs who rely primarily upon journals to rebut an attested enrolled bill

In lay terms please. The Court isn’t limited to only the journals to decide whether there was a violation of Constitutional law. The Court can look at the actual two bills. The Court can look at at almost anything else they so chose. And in the case of health care, when the Court does look at the actual House and Senate Bills, they will recognize the violation of the Law and they will recognize the fraud in the authentication in the Journal. And, In accordance with Marshall Field, the Court can and should examine the evidence that the authentication in the journal was a travesty of dishonesty. Thus, not only will the Court look at both bills, the law says they should look which legally means “they must look.” And when they do, look out Pelosi!

So have faith. Pelosi and Slaughter are mis-reading the law. Ironically, Pelosi has filed a brief protesting the use of the Deeming rule, the very rule she is now threatening to use.

Here’s some more law: There is nothing that prohibits the Court from looking into a bicameral violation such as the one that Pelosi and Slaughter are proposing. In fact, the law specifically holds that the Journal Entry alone does not dictate the legal analysis. It is my position, and this is Reetzality, not Supreme Court law, but it is based upon Supreme Court law, that given the monstrosity of the differences between the House and Senate Bill, a bicameral challenge will succeed. More lay law: A bicameral challenge will reveal the abusive and unconstitutional use of the “deeming rule” and the fraud in Pelosi’s proposed journal authentication.

So Pelosi, go for it. Deem it passed. And then watch as the whole thing gets thrown out because I assure you, the Court is not going to spend the time figuring out what was passed and what wasn’t passed. They’ll simply find it un-Constitutional based upon your violation of Article I, throw it out, and tell you to start over. What the Court will affirm though is your and your minions’ tyrannical personalities.

Boy, you’d think they’d know this given Obama being a Constitutional Law Professor. But who am I to question.

Again, go for it Pelosi. Deem yourself, Obama, Reid, and the rest of you scoundrels the tyrants that you are.

And that is my long winded technical legal Reetzality for the Day.

Thanks for the Read. I hope I taught you something.

Brett Reetz

Note: Contact as many representatives as you can and tell them to vote no on Health Care. Tell them to leave America alone. On second thought, tell them just to leave.

Does Obama despise America? Now there’s a question worth asking. I didn’t vote for the guy but I had hope that he would prove me wrong and be a moderate, like Bill Clinton ended up being. He didn’t. Let’s do a run down on Obama’s policies and see if he likes this country or not.

1. Health Care. He is vigorously pushing health care reform which will embody the government controlling one sixth of our economy, taking away freedom and liberty. It will also embody the taking of one person’s productivity and giving it to another, the redistribution of wealth. It will, by rudimentary economics, impose rationing. It cripples the free market. Thus, health care reform, according to Obama, takes away freedom, liberty, choice, redistributes wealth, limits the freedom to take care of oneself by rationing, and cripples, retards, pick, the free market. The ruling? Obama Health care is un-American.

2. Taxation. Obama wants to raise taxes to further his agenda of redistributing wealth. The ruling? Again, un-American.

3. Immigration. Obama wants to legalize illegal aliens with no agenda to secure our borders. The ruling? Again, un-American.

4. Financial Industry. Obama wants to impose drastic regulatory regulation that will limit credit, impose costs on the industry that will not just trickle down, they will fall down on the regular Joe like a tidal wave, hurting the average American. The ruling? Un-American.

5. Privacy. Obama has continued the Bush doctrine of warrantless searches and is encouraging the government monitoring of the internet. The ruling? Un-American.

6. Foreign Affairs. He has spent more time apologizing for America than praising its excellence. The ruling? Un-American.

7. Economic Policy. Obama has used the “stimulus plan” to reward political allies. He has used the money, debt rather, to give back to those who supported him, meaning government employees, unions, and state bureaucracies (Government Universities). He has burdened our off spring with massive debt that, if they chose to stay and participate, will thwart our offspring’s freedom and prosperity. The ruling? Un-American.

8. Freedom of Speech. Obama favors the Fairness Doctrine which would mandate equal time for all views regardless of market forces and popularity. It would mandate that for every Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, there was an Al Franken on the air with equal time. The fairness doctrine would do this by taxing media and redistributing the resources to subsidize the contrary and opposite opinions. The ruling? Un-American.

9. Voting privacy. He favors “card check” which means that union votes would no longer be private. If you voted non-union, the union would know. His Attorney General dropped the suit against the Black Panthers for intimidating voters. The ruling? Un-American.

10. Free Market Principles. Obama has bailed out, taken over, GM and Chrysler. He has bailed out and taken over AIG. He is, through bail outs and regulation, attempting to take over the financial industry. He wants to publicize student loans, taking them out of the public sector. He believes that government is the only solution to our economic woes which were caused by government. He has expressed vitriolic contempt for the insurance industry which make less of a profit percentage than the top twenty-five industries. He loves Unions which fix prices and wrench power from the owners of businesses. The ruling? Un-American.

11. The Constitution. He himself said it was flawed in that it didn’t contemplate redistributive justice which, by the way, Mr. Constitutional Law professor, rocket scientist; redistributive justice contradicts the very core, the very fundamentals, of our constitution. The ruling? Un-American.

12. Fiscal Responsibility. Obama is making a drunken sailor look frugal. The ruling? Un-American.

13. The Second Amendment. Obama’s voting record and writings show that he is against the Second Amendment. The Ruling. Obama’s view on the Second Amendment is blatantly un-American. He fails.

Enough already. It took me all of five minutes to list the aforementioned un-American policies of Obama. Well, maybe eight minutes, but I can type as fast as I think which may be an indictment of my thinking rather than an accolade for my typing.

But let’s look at the core of an American and run Obama through this gauntlet. Here’s what I know Americans are: They are for independence. They are brave. They stand on their own. They are creative and innovative. They reject charity as a way of life. They are responsible. They are hard working. They are loyal to the Constitution. They are traditional. They are proud. O.K. Now to the second analysis of Obama:

1. Americans are for independence. Obama is against independence. He supports deference to other nations’ laws. He wants to join the world on cap and trade. He is for world solutions that depreciate our independence. The ruling? He is not independent. He fails.

2. Americans are brave. Obama does not speak from the heart, he speaks from the teleprompter. He’s never been in the military. He endlessly sheds responsibility and blames others. He is afraid to take responsibility for anything that shines poorly on him and his past. The ruling? He is not brave. He fails.

3. Americans stand on their own. Not Obama. Present was his most popular vote in the Illinois legislature. If things are going bad, he blames his predecessor. He defers to others, i.e. congress, to draft bills, i.e. health care. (His bill was nothing more than a collection of ideals with no meaningful merit.) He supports unions which contradict independence in the work place. The ruling. Obama does not stand on his own. He fails.

4. Americans are creative and innovative. Obama’s philosophies have been spoon fed to him by his mentors. His book was ghost written. He has not created a thing. The ruling. Obama is not creative. He fails.

5. Americans reject charity as a way of life. Obama was a community organizer where his passion was to shake down the system for the transfer of wealth. He is for the abject transfer of wealth, taking from a producer and giving to a non-producer. The ruling? Obama is in favor of charity as a way of life. He fails.

6. Americans are responsible. Obama blames his predecessor whenever in a pinch. He dodges questions, i.e. telling John McCain that “election is over.” He abhors any responsibility for the condition of our nation as caused by too much government. He spends like, I’ll use the term again but hype it a bit, a drunken sailor on crack cocaine. He is burdening our off spring with monumental debt, destroying our very fundamentals, and taking no responsibility. The ruling? Obama is not responsible. He fails.

7. Americans are hard working. Obama didn’t break from a golf game when the crotch bomber attempted to take down a jet. Obama hasn’t read a bill, maybe not even his own pseudo bill. Apparently he drinks too much and smokes too much. He has never held a private sector, bill paying job. He doesn’t respect one’s accomplishments for working hard. See redistributive justice opinion. The ruling? Obama is not hard working. He fails.

8. Americans are loyal to the Constitution. Obama says the Constitution is lacking in that it fails to address redistributive justice. Enough said. The ruling. Obama thinks he knows better than our founding fathers. He fails.

9. Americans are traditional. Obama said over and over again that he is going to change the fundamentals of our nations. Fundamental is defined as the origin of existence. Well if you are going to change the origin of one’s existence, you certainly are not traditional. The ruling? Obama is not traditional. He fails.

10. Americans are proud. Obama rejects American exceptionalism and continues to degrade our nation with his apologies. The ruling. Obama is not proud of America. He fails.

So face it folks, regardless of who you voted for, we’ve got us an un-American running the country. He’s not like us, nor does he even like us, assuming his policies are consistent with his likes and dislikes. So get your head out of the sand and speak out. Reject his policies. Call your congressman and let them know that you are independent, brave, that you can stand on your own, that you are creative and innovative, that you reject charity as a way of life, that you’re responsible for your own life, that you are hardworking, loyal to the Constitution, traditional, and damn proud of who you are.

Well unless you are with him in his anti-American Agenda, then I suggest you see a shrink. You need it. For a variety of reasons, to start: Self deprecation (destroying your nation), self loathing (despising your nation), child abuse (burdening your children with your debts), dependency (relying on government), anger management (control your loathe for our nation), sociopathy (ignoring the impact of your views upon others), and ultimately for depression (You won’t like your stated destination. See all socialist nations).

And 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

Captain Obonga, I mean President Obonga, has just completed his State of the Union Address. (He was rambling again and saying crazy things so I’m sticking with the Obonga nick name) I’m relieved. I have nothing to worry about now. Captain Obonga has got it under control. He’s going to fix the economy, government transparency, health care, the environment, the energy crisis, the nuclear power industry, education, bi-partisanship, government secrecy, foreign affairs, terrorism, actual government, the deficit, the Supreme Court decision of last week, ear mark abuses, the American spirit, both parties in congress, HIV, foreign relationships, the nuclear arms race, carbon emissions, the middle class, small business, protect us from the banking industry by punishing Wall Street and has already done so much. How can a person not be in awe of Captain Obonga. Especially when, according to his State of the Union address, he told us little guys, (he called us “they” and called Washington folks “we”) what he had accomplished so far. I didn’t know that he saved us from a second Great Depression? Boy, I am so unappreciative. I didn’t know that he saved millions of jobs. I had no idea that 300,000 teachers were ready to be laid off but for Captain Obonga’s rescue efforts. I had no idea that he hadn’t raised my taxes. Of course I’m one of the “they” and am so naive that I believe that I will never have to pay off the national debt, not a penny of it Captain Obonga, right? And of course, he said “hadn’t” raised my taxes and although us “they” people are naive, we’re not illiterate. We know the difference between “raise” and “raised.” And I’m definitely not not so illiterate to suggest that trying to raise my taxes through the health care bill, the proposed banking fee and Cap and Trade, is actually raising my taxes. You got me there Captain Obonga. You’re right, you didn’t raise my taxes-YET. By the way, can I get Scott Brown’s address to send him a thank you card?

I am so relieved. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Captain Obonga. I had no idea that the government, that failed to prevent a terrorist on the watch list whose father reported him as a radical without a passport from getting on a plane headed to Detroit with a bomb hidden in his underwear, no idea whatsoever that that government could fix everything else. The next thing you know they’ll be joking that the government can’t even keep strangers out of White House dinners? But you set me straight Captain Obonga. Thank you.

O.K., on a more serious note (although the first note was serious, I just utilized humor to demonstrate the seriousness, now I’ll get rid of the humor) was that a speech or what? Shoot, here comes the humor again. Captain Obonga is going to do everything. Pheewww! Say good bye to worries my little friends, I mean you American People. You “they” people.

O.K., O.K. O.K., I took a serious pill, so here goes, firm, fair and frank. The State of the Union address was a rambling cacophony of lies, misrepresentations, false promises, insincerity, rewriting of recent history, bragging, blaming, arrogance, ignorance, condescension, and otherwise consistent with a complete ripper of a marijuana fest. Thus, the “Obonga” nick name. We’ll call it a “BS”-afest instead.

Folks, he’s going to raise our taxes either directly or indirectly and has already done so with his deficit spending. Wait, small correction-maybe. He may have only raised our childrens’ taxes. Folks, he’s not going to endorse nuclear energy or off shore drilling. Folks, he has no desire to assist small business. He doesn’t even respect business for what it does. He said that all student loans would be forgiven in twenty years but in ten years if a graduate goes into public service. That’s right, we need more social workers and bureaucrats in our future than business people because social workers and bureaucrats are just so damn critical. See folks, this is another window into Captain Obonga’s soul. He values government more than the private sector. And he doesn’t understand basic values either; like paying off your debt. What in the world would justify a person to stop paying a debt if it’s not paid off? Shoot, that’s that pesky “keep your word” stuff. God that’s irritating. So what’s the big deal? I cut a deal, borrow some money for a four year degree which I actually spend six getting, drag the payments out for twenty years and then tell the lender that Captain Obonga told me I didn’t have to pay anymore after twenty years. Wait, wait, wait. I thought of something. Why don’t I just grab a public sector job in let’s say year nine, work it for a year, stop paying which is absolutely justified since I’ll be doing something so critical to America, actually serving the public for America, like for example, collecting tolls on a turnpike, and then, when I’m free of my promise to re-pay my student loan, I quit my cherished public sector job and go into the private sector and stick the tax payer with the rest of my debt. So many possibilities.

O.K. Folks, now I’m really going to be serious, actually I have been. I was just using humor to exemplify how much of a joke the State of the Union Address was. Our president has never made a bottom line, hangs out with communists and terrorists, loves Government, big government, is a progressive democrat, wants to socialize medicine, (He said he’s not quitting in his pursuit of his anti-American Agenda (He didn’t say “anti-American” but it is)), has no understanding of the economy, nothing is his fault, and after listening to his speech, wants to run everything.

Prior to his address, it was suggested that the Obama Administration was going to do a “re-set” on its agenda due to the rapidly growing trend against them. The pundits got it half right. Obama did do a reset but not on his agenda. He did a reset on the focus button so that the picture we see is different than before, blurred; but the content, the actual content, is exactly the same.

Beware folks, this guy does not like us “they” people. But he’s afraid of us and that’s why he reached out last night and spun the focus button. He changed the focus to hide. What he didn’t change was the content of his ambitions which are very un-American. Only our ability to see it was changed. But folks, you need not worry. I know this guy and his ambitions will come back into focus sooner than you think, definitely by November.

That’s my Reetzality for the day.

Thanks for the read.

Brett Reetz

NOTE: I use the “Captain” title to remind folks of the Titanic, you know that unsinkable ocean liner that sank on its first voyage. Of course, America could never be like the Titanic.