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Socialized medicine?

A little unfinished business from last episode about the troubles with veterans getting health care from the VA. In an opinion piece at the Huffington Post by H. A. Goodman, he argues that Republicans have been complaining about how bad the VA is, but hypocritically voted against a bill for various funding for the VA back in January. But there’s a problem with that, and it’s not something you’ll hear on most newscasts.

I’ll be discussing a human rights article written by the Hoover Institution, which asks the burning human rights question of our time.

One of the alternatives to ObamaCare that the Left suggested is that Medicare should just be expanded to cover everyone. It “worked”, so they said, and thus that would be a simpler way to get health care coverage expanded. But what do you mean by “worked”, actually? I’ll talk about what taking Medicare nationally might mean.

Mentioned links:

41 Republican Senators Voted Against a Landmark Veterans Bill in February, Today They Blame the VA

VA expects to have more medical-care funding than it can spend for the fifth year in a row

Poverty Rate was falling…Until the War on Poverty began

Do Chimps Have Human Rights?

CMS Won’t Review Billings Despite IG Report That It Overpays Doctors Read the rest of this entry

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Government health care (Gary Varvel)

Keep an eye on Matt Sissel and the Pacific Legal Foundation’s lawsuit against ObamaCare. They are taking a tact that’s not been used before, that ultimately the Supreme Court will likely have to look into. Listen in for details.

The problems with the Veterans Administration health care system may not be solved just by more money. (That’s usually the case, isn’t it?) The issue may be the very socialized medicine framework that it uses. And what does that have to say for the results of ObamaCare?

Mentioned links:

Obamacare’s doom

Remarks in Kansas City, Missouri: “A Sacred Trust”

He KNEW! Obama told of Veterans Affairs health care debacle as far back as 2008

MSNBC Guest Repeatedly Breaks Hosts’ Hearts by Insisting VA Scandal Not About Funding

SHAPIRO: Left’s VA-Worship Comes Back to Bite

Veterans are dying, but at least this criminal still gets his sex change

Comedian Argus Hamilton

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Escaping socialism

I knew that many Canadians were leaving their borders to come to the US to avoid the long waits they have to endure up there. I just didn’t know how many. Well a free-market think tank, the Frasier Institute, has published the numbers for 2013.

One of the big promises of ObamaCare was that, with a much larger pool of insured people, the cost to the average individual or family would go down. That’s how insurance works, right? You spread out the risk over a bigger population, and the required payouts become less than the premiums taken in. More people, less risk, lower costs.

You’d think so. But as it turns out, the insurance offered by one of those eeevil corporations, Wal-Mart, beats the equivalent ObamaCare plan handily.

Since the Scott Walker recall attempt, he and the Republicans in his state legislature, have been busy cutting taxes and balancing their budget. The result has been that, over 3 years, they’ve cut taxes by about a billion and a half dollars, and the economy is chugging along a good clip, such that just this year they have almost a billion dollar surplus.

We ought to be asking our federal government to look at this. How did they do it?

Mentioned links:

Report: Tens of thousands fled socialized Canadian medicine in 2013

Surprise! Walmart health plan is cheaper, offers more coverage than Obamacare

Gov. Scott Walker reveals the secrets to Wisconsin’s $1 billion surplus

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To bail out banks in Cyprus (who had loaned a lot to Greece, hence the need for a bailout), the Eurozone suggested confiscating money in those banks to partially pay the banks. Sweet deal if you’re a banker, panic-inducing if you’re not. Socialism is destroying Europe.

The Democrats in the Senate managed, after 4 long years, to produce something it seemed they’d forgotten about; a budget! It is, of course, more of the same taxing and spending (and spending more than they’re taxing). And it remains to be seen if they’ll even vote for their own budget, since they unanimously voted against Obama’s budget last year.

And Paul Thacker of the Slate website lets Slate readers in on the worst-kept secret evah; the media has a liberal bias! Who knew! (No, I didn’t mean for a show of hands. That was rhetorical.)

Mentioned links:

Cyprus deal shock sends shares tumbling, gold up

After Cyprus Bank Bailout, Depositors Race to Withdraw Their Cash. Is the Rest of Europe Next?

SENATE DEMOCRATS FINALLY UNVEIL BUDGET

Confirmed: Senate Democrats’ Budget Accelerates Spending, Never Balances

Flashback: Obama: Adding $4 Trillion To Debt Is Unpatriotic

Slate Slams Obama On Transparency, Credits Fox News, Wash. Times For Fast and Furious Reporting

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Hugo Chavez died recently. He took a country rich with oil money and turned it onto a socialist paradise, complete with high inflation, shortages of food and electricity (to name just a few items), and soaring crime rates. Only in Venezuela.

Except perhaps, not only there. It just seems like President Obama, in trying to (as he said) “spread the wealth around”, he’s doing a lot of what Chavez was doing. As a result, we’ve had one of the most anemic recoveries in history. Soaking the rich to give to the poor only lasts as long as the rich stick around; it’s not a long-term solution. A job is the best social program, but that’s not been working out so well here. Instead, crippling debt from government borrowing and spending have led us to a place that is looking more and more like Chavez’s socialist “paradise”. Listen in for more details.

The Obama administration said the sequester cuts would hurt, and by golly, they’ll make sure they do. If a department tries to ease the pain, well, they’ll just have to set them straight. Just ask Charlie Brown. (Really.)

Mentioned links:

 Heart attack killed a suffering Hugo Chavez, head of Venezuela’s presidential guard says

Loved Or Loathed, Hugo Chavez Was The Ultimate Showman

Chavez death blamed on U.S.

Email tells feds to make sequester as painful as promised

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