Back to Basics

Team Obama is playing the “private citizen” card again to create a bubble of political protection around the profligate, policy activist First Lady.

We’ve seen it before.

When conservatives challenged Mrs. O’s caustic 2008 campaign trail statements disparaging America and fear-mongering for votes, her hubby invoked the “civilian” shield. He threatened Republicans to “lay off his wife”, arguing that political spouses should not be subject to public scrutiny because they didn’t choose public life.

Horse-hockey.

Obama’s outspoken bitter half conscientiously and deliberately inserted herself into the public square long before the family moved to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — whether it was organizing a Woods Fund panel with her husband and Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers, taking a publicly-subsidized government job with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, parlaying her relationship with political mentor Valerie Jarrett into a cushy public job at the University of Chicago Medical Center, where she oversaw a patient-dumping scheme that benefited her political cronies, leveraging her hubby’s Senate victory to snag a lucrative seat on the corporate Board of Directors of TreeHouse Foods, Inc. despite having zero experience in the industry, publicly begrudging other Americans’ choices in how they earn their money, using her East Wing power to push Obamacare, or exploiting the bully pulpit to restrict food advertisers’ speech and serve the SEIU’s legislative agenda under the guise of fighting child obesity (more on this in the paperback version of Culture of Corruption).

She wants all of the cake of public and political life — and all the unfettered entitlement to stuff her face in front of us while we sit silently, respecting her “rights” as a “private citizen” to immunity from criticism.

I believe it was Freud who was first got credit for saying he didn’t know what women wanted. Frankly, I don’t think he was half-trying. Quite simply, women want a man who is rich, handsome, sexy, is as interested in fabrics and color as they are, who can get weepy at sunsets, tear up at Judy Garland singing “Over the Rainbow,” and whose favorite movie is “The English Patient.” In short, they’re looking for a very successful interior decorator. I say, good luck to them. But it’s no wonder that so many married women feel they wound up settling.

The folks who mystify me are liberals. For instance, consider the way they speak. Without even blushing, they refer to the “peace process” whenever they’re slapping down Israel. No matter what that little tiny country does — be it defending itself against missile attacks and suicide bombers or building houses in Jerusalem — the lunkheads on the left will insist the Jews are jeopardizing the peace process.

And just what exactly is the peace process to which Arabs, Muslims and just about every U.S. president since Carter pay lip service? When you get past the P.R. spin, it’s the extinction of Israel!

Another term the leftists toss around is the “international community.” That has a high-sounding ring to it, which is why the nincompoops love it so much. In fact, if by that particular community, one is referring to the members of the U.N., one is referring to a gang of chiselers, cowards and incompetents, representing the interests of gangsters, rogues and butchers.

Frankly, I wouldn’t trust the creeps at the U.N. to run a 7/11, let alone the world. Only a mushy-headed liberal would endow the organization with moral authority. In fact, between the two groups, if I had to pick one, I’d vote for the Mafia, if only because it doesn’t rely on American tax dollars to survive.

Another term liberals like to use is “misspeak.” Recently, Richard Blumenthal, candidate for the U.S. Senate, claimed he misspoke when he went around claiming he’d served in Vietnam. It seems he’d never even been there for a vacation, let alone a war.

When a person says, “They is coming over for dinner,” he has misspoken, using “is” for “are.” What Blumenthal did was lie. Then to compound his sin, he held a press conference after his lies were uncovered by the NY Times, and claimed he was taking complete responsibility. Yet another lie. If this schlimiel was taking complete responsibility, he would have said, “I have lied to all of you. I have shamed my friends and family. At no point in my life have I possessed even an ounce of the courage displayed by the men who actually served and suffered in Vietnam. If I stood on my tiptoes, I couldn’t reach their shoelaces. I stand here today completely disgraced by my past words and actions in order to announce that I have tendered my resignation as attorney general of Connecticut and to withdraw from the Senate race.”

Under the title of Public Health & Workforce Development are a number of grants, scholarships and other programs, providing training, services and a whole new array of studies relating to health care – a lot of money being spent to support the expansion of government, special interests, illegal immigrants and labor unions, but little to help solve the health care issues.

The first expansion is the establishment of the Public Health Investment Fund, which requires deposits from the revenues of the Treasury in the amount of $88,700,000,000 over 10 years. This money is authorized to be appropriated by the Committee on Appropriations of the House and Senate for carrying out the activities under the designated public health provisions. These areas include Community Health Centers, National Health Service Corps Program, National Health Service Corps Scholarship and Loan Repayment Programs, Primary Care Loan Funds, Primary Care Education Programs, Nursing Workforce Development, The National Center for Health Statistics and the Agency For Healthcare Research and Quality.

To make these programs even more appealing is the stipulation that “Amounts appropriated under this section, and outlays flowing from such appropriations, shall not be taken into account for purposes of any budget enforcement procedures including allocations under section 302(a) and (b) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act and budget solutions for fiscal years during which appropriations are made from the fund.” More spending without any concern for balancing the budget or controlling the country’s deficit. We don’t have it, but let’s spend it!

The first program – Community Health Centers – will obtain increased funding in the amount of $38,800,000,000.

The National Health Service Corps is being amended allowing the Secretary to issue waivers to individuals who enter into a contract for obligated service to pay for their education. It further raises the loan repayment amount from $35,000 to $50,000 and will be adjusted thereafter to reflect inflation. Additional appropriated funds for this program are $796,000,000 over the next 10 years. Additional funding is authorized in the amount of $3,171,000,000 over 10 years to cover the National Health Corps Scholarship and Loan Repayment Programs.

The Frontline Health Providers Loan Repayment Program will be established to address unmet health care needs in certain areas, populations, or facilities as designated by the Secretary. Individuals participating in this program must agree to serve for a period of 2 years in a health professional needs area specified in the program. This program has a clause that if there are an insufficient number of applicants for the program, then all excess funds from the program will be transferred to the National Health Service Corps to recruit more people to take advantage of this fund.

The Secretary shall establish a primary care training and capacity building program consisting of grants and contracts to plan, develop, operate or participate in accredited professional training in the field of family medicine, general internal medicine, general pediatrics or geriatrics. Funds for this program are from the Public Health Investment Fund in the amount of $3,023,000,000 for 10 years and will include the following:

• Capacity Building in Primary Care – grants to specialties of family medicine, general internal medicine, general pediatrics or geriatrics, with preference given to entities that train individuals who are from underrepresented minority groups or disadvantaged backgrounds.
• Training of Medical Residents in Community-Based Setting – a program established for the training of medical residents in community-based settings, with preferences given to entities that support teaching programs addressing the health care needs of vulnerable populations or are a Federally qualified health center or rural health clinic, as well as preference to those training individuals from underrepresented minority groups or disadvantaged background.

• Training for General, Pediatric or Public Health Dentists and Dental Hygienists – grants and contracts to plan, develop, operate or participate in an accredited professional training program or oral health professionals, with preference given to individuals who are from underrepresented minority groups or disadvantaged backgrounds.

Grants for Health Professionals Education – Advanced Education Nursing Grants is being amended, including increases in dollar amounts for the Nurse Faculty Loan Program. Funding for this program is $1, 450,000,000 over 10 years.

Five surgeons are discussing who makes the best patients to operate on. The first surgeon says, “I like to see accountants on my operating table, because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered.”

The second responds, “Yeah, but you should try electricians! Everything inside them is color coded.”

The third surgeon says, “No, I really think librarians are the best; everything inside them is in alphabetical order.”

The fourth surgeon chimes in: “You know, I like pipefitters …those guys always understand when you have a few parts left over at the end, and when the job takes longer than you said it would.”

But the fifth surgeon shut them all up when he observed: “You’re all wrong. Politicians are the easiest to operate on. There’s no guts, no heart, and no spine, and the head and butt are interchangeable.”

Just a little humor to brighten your day!

Health Care Reform – Back to the Basics

All this talk and debate over healthcare reform, government taking over – what next?  If we get back to basics it could be simple.

1. Remove all the illegal immigrants from getting free or subsidized services.  If they don’t like it then they can go back to where they came from.  If they need medical treatment they pay for it.

2. Offer affordable healthcare insurance to every legal American.  Make the healthcare packages the same as those offered to large corporations, and at a competitive price so everyone can get the same type of coverage.

3. Put all government employees and elected officials on the same medical plan.  If it is good enough for the general public it should be good enough for them!

4. Give tax incentives to those people who do not have employer paid plans to help offset the cost of purchasing healthcare insurance.  Give incentives to those employers who do offer insurance coverage and pay or help pay the premiums.

5. Do not make it mandatory for everyone to have to purchase insurance, but if an individual does not have insurance they must pay for their medical treatment.