Obama's Health Care Rationer-in-Chief

My posting on Tuesday August 11, 2009, discussed the plan from Obama's Health-Care Rationer-in-Chief, Dr. Zeke Emanuel (brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel) for who will get health care and who will not under ObamaCare. A full article on this same subject, showing Zeke's actual curve for who will get how much health care, was published in the Wall Street Journal, on Thursday August 27,2009 page A15. The discussion in the WSJ is naturally much more extensive than in my posting, but it makes many of the same points. However, three important new points are revealed in the WSJ article:
1. Zeke wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association in February, 2008: "Vague promises of savings from cutting waste, enhancing prevention and wellness, installing electronic records are merely 'lipstick' cost control, more for show and public relations than for true change". AT THE TIME, ZEKE DIDN'T KNOW THAT OBAMA'S SPEECHES IN 2009 WOULD EMPHASIZE THESE 'LIPSTICK' PROMISES. Even Obama's top advisor on a new health care system recognized that Obama's promises were phony.
2. Zeke has been fighting for a GOVERNMENT TAKEOVER OF HEALTH CARE and for HEALTH CARE RATIONING for over a decade. Clearly, OBAMA KNEW this background on Zeke and yet he appoints Zeke as his top advisor on the overall philosophy of a health care system. Thus can be NO DOUBT THAT ZEKE IS IN LOCK STEP WITH OBAMA on the end game for health care, sneaking up to it through the "public option" or "government supported cooperatives". As in my earlier posting, the WSJ article shows that the ZEKE-OBAMA PLAN will call for RATIONING FOR ALL, but the worst hit will be the very young (under 10 years of age) and those over about 50 to 55 years of age.
3. Zeke's has written that medical school education is on the wrong track; Doctors are trained to "emphasize thoroughness" and in the Doctor's Hippocratic Oath they are trained to use their power to heal the sick to the best of their ability and judgment. Instead, Zeke thinks that doctors should be trained to control cost even if it means withholding certain drugs, tests and procedures and to consider the age and health condition of a patient before providing health care to the best of their ability. If you have been a patient for any serious illness or injury, or are related to some one who has, then I think you would prefer the approach that doctors are now trained to take rather than the Zeke-Obama philosophy of rationed health care.

ObamaSpeak

When Obama says "I just want to be clear about...." or "let me be clear about..." or "I just want everybody to be clear", then you can be sure that you are going to get some convoluted explanation that makes no sense and is just meant to distract from giving a "clear" answer to a question or a "clear" position on an issue.
When Obama says "we would be willing to consider ....", you can be sure that he has no intention of considering an alternative proposal but is trying to sell his image of being open-minded and bipartisan.
When Obama says he "misspoke" or he needs to " reset" or "calibrate his words" you can be sure he got caught either totally lying or distorting the truth or contradicting one of his previous statements. He is trying to get you to remember the "recalibrated" words rather than the original words.
When Obama refers to a "teachable moment" you can be sure that he got caught speaking without the facts and was wrong. Rather than admit he was wrong, he wants you to believe that there is an academic issue at hand whereby we all have the opportunity to learn.
When Obama gets a question he doesn't want to answer, he might use the term "brief" or "briefly" in prefacing his remarks, then you can be sure that you will get a long-winded speech that never answers the question but which goes off on various tangents to repeat a standard set of talking points that he has memorized.

What Happened to the Cry of "Eight Years of Failed Economic Policies?"

Remember the campaign slogan of " eight years of failed economic policies" (of the Bush administration) which was repeated hundreds of times by Obama and every Liberal Democrat. this same slogan also was used to stampede Congress and the public into accepting the $787 billion Stimulus bill which isn't stimulating anything according to every economist. Ben Bernanke was one of the key architects of the Bush economic policy.
Bush appointed Bernanke in 2002 as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.
Bush appointed Bernanke in 2005 as Chairman of his council of Economic Advisors.
Bush appointed Bernanke in 2006 as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Now, two-faced Obama reappoints Bernanke as Chairman of the Federal Reserve for 4 more years.
What happened to all of those "eight years of failed economic policies"?
Those eight years under Bush look pretty good compared to the first eight months of Obama's and the Democratic Congress' disastrous economic policies.

Afghanistan and Iraq Numbers

In the final month of the Bush administration (December 2008), the United States had about 160,000 military and 220,000 contractors in Afghanistan and Iraq combined. The surge had worked in Iraq and we were making great progress in Afghanistan although more troops were needed.
In June 2009 (the most recent month for which numbers are available), the Obama administration had 185,000 military and 195,000 contractors in Afghanistan and Iraq. We are now losing ground in both wars.
This is the "change you can believe in".

Just Hope He Never Pledges To Protect Your Interests.

Obama to CIA in April 2009: "so I need everybody to be clear: we will protect your identities and your security as you vigorously pursue your missions".
Now in August 2009, the Attorney General Eric Holder, who was appointed by and serves at the pleasure of Obama, decides to renege on his and Obama's previous decision to close the files on CIA operatives and others who were involved in enhanced interrogation of Islamic Terrorists. Obama tries to make this sound like an independent decision by Holder; this is a fake, Holder will do what Obama wants him to do.
At the same time, documents have been released that prove that the enhanced interrogation techniques, including water boarding, clearly obtained information on terrorist plans for future bombings and other activities, not just information on past actions as the far left would have us believe.
So, why is Obama and Holder doing this? The best guess is that there are two reasons: first to appease Obama's base, the left wing of the Democratic Party, and second, to divert some attention from Obama's slide in the public's confidence and popularity due to the huge deficit spending that keeps piling up and the revolt against ObamaCare with its single-payer public option.
Bush-Cheney bashing worked so well in the campaign, that Obama is trying to revive it when other things are not going so well.
Let's not forget that the Obama-Holder team that now wants to prosecute some in CIA are the ones who recently dropped all charges against members of the Black Panther Party for intimidating and threatening voters in Philadelphia this past November.
The Obama-Holder vindictive pursuit of CIA rather than of terrorists is making this country less safe to future attacks.

Warren Buffett Warns of Huge Inflation From Excessive Deficit Spending

Warren Buffett, using a play on words from the carbon-dioxide global warming debate, noted “unchecked greenback emissions will certainly cause the purchasing power of currency to melt” (inflation). Buffet also noted the record deficits being created (by Obama and the leftist Democrats), unlike anything except for the war years of 1942-1945. Speaking about Obama's huge deficit spending plans, Buffett said: “their threat may be as ominous as that posed by the financial crisis itself.” Buffett said: Congress must end the rise in the debt-to-GDP ratio and bring U.S. growth in obligations back in line with U.S. growth in resources. “We don’t want our country to evolve into the banana-republic economy." (Several countries in South and Central America have at times incurred years of double-digit inflation by spending money they actually didn't have; these were labeled 'banana republics').

Where Are All The Obama-ites Now?

A column in the Washington Post this week lamented about where are all those Obama supporters who showed up at campaign rallies with signs saying "change" and chanting "yes we can"? Well, some of them are wising up to what Obama really represents.
The vast majority of these Obama-ites didn't know what the word "change" would actually involve; it just seemed like fun to wave one word signs and chant at rallies with all your buddies, and Bush-bashing was a cool thing to do particularly if you:
were on a college campus (and had leftist professors filling your head with socialist ideas) or
were a minority of any kind (and could get a minority elected it didn't matter what he really represented) or
were already dependent on governemnt for your living (and believed that the bigger Obama government would give you even more of other people's money) or
were a union member (and had the promise of a "card-check" voting system to pressure non-union members to join a union)
They didn't know why they were screaming "yes we can".
"Can" what?
"Change" to what?
Most didn't have a clue as to what socialism would actually mean to their lives!
It just seemed "cool" to fawn over the American Idol-like candidate because he was so young, so handsome, so articulate (at reading speeches off teleprompters) and he was a master at talking a lot and saying little.
The Obama-ites had no clue about huge deficit spending by Obama because Obama promised otherwise; to cut the Bush deficits. Inflation was an abstract concept or maybe not something they could even define.
They had no clue about a future $787 billion Stimulus Bill which Obama would say was "critical" to cap unemployment at 8%, but failed as unemployment rose to 9.5% and only about 10% of that "critical" money would be spent after 7 months.
They had no clue about taxpayer money being used for a $60 billion bailout and takeover of GM, or continuing bailouts up to $170 billion for AIG and hundreds of billions for various banks. Who is eventually going to pay for these bailouts? The clueless Obama-ites through taxes or inflation!
They were generally all bubbly and self-righteous about saving the environment but had no clue that Obama's "Cap and Trade" plan that would cost American manufacturing jobs and raise the price on just about everything due to huge increases in energy costs, while cronies like Al Gore get rich by betting on carbon credit trading. The clueless unions, poor and middle class will be hit he hardest by Cap and Trade. could any Obama-ites explain "Cap and Trade". Very few!
They had no clue that the vague campaign promise of covering all Americans with health insurance would include covering 9 million non-American illegal aliens and covering those 21 million that could afford insurance but just wanted to gamble and not buy it or that ObamaCare would involve rationing of their own health care through a total government takeover of the health care system with even more trillions in deficit spending. The tens of millions of Obama-ites with health insurance will all see their health care go down.
They had no clue that Obama was lying about closing GITMO; that he had no plan on how to do it. Whose town in the U.S. will the new GITMO be located?
They had no clue that at this time last year, when they were chanting "change", that under Bush the U.S. was winning two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq while now under Obama we are losing ground in both wars with the same total number of U.S. troops and contractors.
They really thought, or just chose to ignore, that Obama's lack of experience, total lack of accomplishments and inner circle of criminals, tax cheats, socialists and bigots would not matter when he was in office.
Except these sleazy associates shaped his thinking and he even appointed many to high office.
But, never fear, Obama forces are mobilizing and giving instructions to SEIU, ACORN and AFL-CIO members for "spontaneous" counter protests at town hall meetings about health care.
Now let's all chant: "change you can believe in".