Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Great Comparison of Left and Right

Pajamas Media has a wonderful comparison article up about two very different political rallies held recently. One rally was held in LA and featured a more "progressive" crowd. The other rally was held in Searchlight, NV and included a "conservative" group.

Look at some of the pictures below and ask yourself, "Where would I feel more comfortable?"

Conservative rally, Searchlight, Nevada, March 27, 2010

(Photos by El Marco)





Left-Wing rally, Los Angeles, California, March 20, 2010

(Photos by Ringo)












By the way, I love the irony of this image. Guess where it was taken?

Please visit the Pajama's Media web site to see more, and to link to reports about each rally.

Hat Tip - Hot Air

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Well, Now We're Stuck With It

At least until the Supreme Court can weigh in and save us from this mess. Either that or we get the bill repealed.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Health Care Procedural Shenanigans

To pass an unpopular bill through the Legislature, the House and Senate are conspiring together to use some procedural hi-jinks in an attempt to help protect the "voting record" of Democrats who face re-election this November. Sounds boring, right? Not really.



And there you have it. In 91 seconds, we see how the Democrats in the Legislature will push through a bill that will add almost a Trillion dollars to the National Debt in the first 10 years of funding (note page 8 of the PDF).

Can we please stop spending my daughter's money now? I mean, she's only 7 and doesn't even have a job yet!

Hat Tip - Hot Air

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Obama and the Health Care Bill

Make sure to check out the button.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

CNN Provides the Answer to Saving Money on Health Care

And the answer they come up with should surprise no one. Do they espouse a state-sponsored solution, with more government controls on pricing? Nope. Instead, the answer in the CNN health care article is more competition, through comparison shopping. This makes total sense.

The key to affecting any behavior in America is to aim at the wallet or pocketbook of the individual. When you make people more individually responsible for paying for their own care, people will start making better decisions. Thus, removing obstacles between the cost of care and the individual making the decision will help people make more cost efficient decisions.

The key, of course, is knowing what the price of something will be at different locations. The CNN article mentions several resources you can expect to provide information on the cost of different medical procedures. This includes insurance company web sites and social network sites dedicated to the health care industry. So, the more information you have, the better decision you can make regarding your health care.

Lowering the cost for health care consumers should be what any "reform" in Washington is about. To lower the cost, you need to provide more information to people about their options. The internet is a great resource, allowing people to quickly and easily compare providers. In the article, a woman even picks the ER for her daughter based on a web site that provides information about health care facilities.

You also need to foster real competition in the health insurance industry. You can do this by allowing health insurance companies to compete across state lines, similar to car insurance companies. This means businesses would have to offer a better plan than their competitor or risk losing their clients. It also opens the door for people with pre-existing conditions to get a health insurance plan, though this population will probably never get as cheap a rate as a healthy person for the simple fact that they are a higher business risk.

The idea of a 'public option' as the best way to foster competition has some major flaws. Yes, it would provide another health insurance choice for individuals, especially people who cannot get a "high risk" private insurance plan. Unfortunately, the down side to a Federal public option is that every tax payer pays for the plan, not just the individuals enrolled in the plan. Thus it decreases the motivation for people in the plan to price shop services.

The public option idea also duplicates something we already have, Medicare and Medicaid. Both of these medical coverage plans offer services to people who cannot get private insurance. Both of these plans, though, cost a large amount just to support the bureaucracies for each agency. As government run organizations, they have no business need to keep these costs down for the simple fact that they're not trying to earn a profit.

Studies have shown that our current health care system costs too much because we've placed intermediaries, both government and insurance companies, between the patient and the service. We simply need to open the health care market again to bring costs down.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Healthcare Summit Video

I didn't watch all of the Healthcare Summit. I have a job that requires me to actually work. However, I did catch a couple of clips from the discussion. One that I particularly like explains my feelings quite well.



I agree with Representative Ryan's points. Healthcare is hugely expensive and is overly burdensome on our State and Federal governments (remember, much of the money for Medicaid comes directly from the states). Lowering the overall cost of healthcare would help both the governments and individuals. However, as Ryan pointed out, giving government more control over the healthcare industry, which is what the current bill would do, is not the answer.




Hat Tip to Power Line for the video.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

When to Cooperate... and When to Debate

Michael Ramirez has a great image that illustrates the Republican side of the Healthcare Debate.



The Democrats keeping saying they want the Conservatives to help pass healthcare reform and stop slowing the process. However, I think the Republicans are doing what their constituents want them to do, block a bad piece of legislation.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Great TARP Infographic

This is a wonderful infographic about TARP funds and where they've gone. I'm not sure we can ever say that this was a successful use of American taxpayer dollars. The infographic provides some sense of scale for the massive bailout for businesses from the Obama administration.

How can we convince them to stop wasting our taxes?

What Democrats Had to Say About the Filibuster

When the Democrats were in the minority, they had a definite opinion about the importance of the filibuster. Now that the Democrats are in power, we can only assume they feel the same way, right?

See the Power Line blog post for the video.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

How to Be Successful!!!

This video is a pretty succinct presentation on what it takes to succeed. With these 8 things, you can be what you want to be.



As a follow up, check out his ideas that success is a journey and a "two way street." This means that, to be successful, you have to continually refine what you're doing and continue to work at your success.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

"Failure is a God Given Right"

I'm not really a Glenn Beck fan, but during his speech at CPAC, he  made some strong statements about personal freedom and liberty I strongly believe in. In Gleen Beck's CPAC speech, He talked about the right we have to pursue happiness, to pursue success. However, if you find success during the pursuit, you shouldn't be punished for it.


In this country, there is no real thing like "too big to fail." Your success of failure should be of your own making. The men running GM and Chrysler have simply figured out a way to finance their risks with the public dollar.

Our country was built on the idea that the effort of the individual brings its own rewards. No one owes you success. If you want to find success, you have to work for it and earn it yourself.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Can Our Republic Survive?

We must remember that our Representative Democratic Republic was formed with the idea that those voting for representatives to go to Washington actually knew:

A) What the important issues are for the country.
and
B) Where the different candidates stand on the different issues.

Sadly, more and more research shows the general American populace does not know enough to make informed decisions.

This is important because, without focusing on real issues and having a modicum of understanding concerning the candidates' position, we end up with demagoguery as the deciding factor in almost any political race. And even if appealing to the masses will get you elected, governing based on poll numbers will never be good for the country. Sometimes, to do what's best for the country, you have to buck the polls. Just ask G.W. Bush, who stuck it out in Iraq, knowing that a surge would bring more peace than retreat.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Awesomely Funny Video

The song is catchy, but the point is... guns are not evil. It's not the guns, it's the people who are using the guns that are the problem.

This is from Australia, which has tighter gun laws than the US.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

This is What Happens When you Have a Policy, but not a Conscience

The story reported on CNN is unbelievable. Aid workers are blocked from taking vital medicines to Haiti because... wait for it... they're taking too many bags. Are you kidding me?

Instead of rigidly sticking to some policy, you would think American Airlines would have the wisdom to do the right thing. Sadly, no. Instead, American Airlines limited the number of bags the passengers/aid workers were allowed to take. "A wise person knows when to make the exception to every rule." Sadly, no one at American Airlines was wise enough to know that breaking the rules is necessary once in awhile.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

A History Lesson from Detroit

This video is an amazing object lesson, with Detroit as the example used to illustrate about what happens when you let the Left (and Big Labor) have their way.