http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/13/obama-wants-health-reform-week/

Despite objections from conservative and moderate Democrats, prospects for House action along the president's timetable are better than in the Senate.

There, majority Democrats are readying legislation, to be introduced as early as Tuesday, that would prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage or charging higher premiums on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions.

The measure would spend billions of dollars subsidizing lower income individuals and families who cannot afford coverage, in an attempt to cut dramatically into the ranks of the uninsured.

To comply with another presidential priority, it would rely on cuts in Medicare and Medicaid to begin slowing the rate of growth in health care spending overall.

The measure is expected to impose a fee equal to 8 percent of a worker's salary on large companies that fail to offer insurance or do not subsidize it at a high enough rate.

Individuals also would have to pay a penalty if they refused to purchase affordable insurance.

Officials announced last week that the measure would include an income tax surcharge on the wealthy, estimated to raise more than $500 billion over the next decade.

I thought that the government was going to provide competition for private insurance companies? What is this about imposing regulations which will drive up health insurance premiums? Remember Obama said that he is open to the idea of taxing health insurance premiums.

There, majority Democrats are readying legislation, to be introduced as early as Tuesday, that would prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage or charging higher premiums on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions.

The devil is in the details. The legislation states that it will prohibit denying coverage or charging higher premiums on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions. This means that people WITHOUT pre-existing medical conditions will be susceptible to premium increases. Which means that premiums will go up. Rates will have to go up once the insurance companies are FORCED to insure people with such high risk factors. Remember, auto insurance companies and property insurance companies can refuse to insure based on risk assessments. This isn't because they are greedy, this is because they are a business, in business to make money, not loose it.

Consider this; you insure your house and then purposely burn it down the next day. This would be considered insurance fraud. You would go to jail for burning your own house down to collect money. The government is forcing insurance companies to insure human beings without assessing the possibility that the insured may never contribute towards the policy premium. The insurance company must ignore all risk factors. How is this going to help make health care more affordable?

How is imposing cuts in Medicare, and Medicaid supposed to slow the rate of growth in health care spending? Did the "stimulus bill" not have 460 BILLION dollars allocated for health care? Remember as Obama said the 460 Billion is just a start. These "cuts" are complete nonsense.

The government is going to impose a fine on individuals if they refuse to purchase "affordable" insurance. How exactly do you define "affordable"? How do you determine what is affordable for each and every individual?

Did any democrat voter think that they were going to pay a penalty for NOT buying insurance?

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Now we know who to vote out in 2010! Are you ready for an increase of up to 3000.00 dollars a year for your power bill?

This is not what people think it is. check out the link bellow.

http://winduprubberfinger.com/blog1.php/2009/03/04/cap-and-trade-your-life-away

More good news coming out of China!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8120835.stm

The report from the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said a "super-sovereign" currency should take its place.

Central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan has loudly led calls for the dollar to be replaced during the financial crisis.

"An international monetary system dominated by a single sovereign currency has intensified the concentration of risk and the spread of the crisis," the Chinese central bank said.

The dollar fell after the report was released. The US currency dropped 1% against the euro to $1.4088, and declined 0.8% versus the British pound to $1.6848.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev recently joined Mr Zhou in saying it was time to consider an alternative benchmark currency for international debt.

This is much less a political issue, and an issue of survival for the United States. Our current stance on spending is not going to help with this issue.

The United States dollar has long been the majority currency of Global trade. The dollar is used as the reserve currency by a majority of the worlds governments. Because of this the Dollar is the "unit of world trade" items traded globally are priced in dollars. If the United States is in a position where its debt exceeds what the country can produce or pay out, then the United States becomes insolvent, and with it all of the currency which is gauged on the value of the dollar. China is making a valid point.

China is voicing concern that the U.S. dollar might fall too low, and offset the values of currency worldwide. What should the United States do to address this issue? What can the United States do to decrease its deficit?

I can't say that I have the answer, but I know that the answer doesn't involve borrowing more money. The debt currently being racked up by the U.S.is unimaginable. There is no logical reason for this acquisition of debt. There also is no historical justification to make such large spending increases - with the hope of buying our way out of a recession.

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Today is a sad day, as we say goodbye to Rabbit Ears. For nearly 100 years analogue television was the standard. Now analogue is considered outdated.

I remember when that was the only way to get television. There was always that kid down the street whose parents had cable. Of course that was back when we had those old slider boxes.

The first TV I had in my bedroom was one I found in a neighbors trash. The neighbor had thrown it away because it had no picture. I checked it out. There was sound, but no picture, so I checked the adjustments. I found that someone had turned the brightness all the way down. There was nothing wrong with the TV at all. So that became my first TV. Of course it was analogue, it was also black and white. It was a TV though, and I could play Nintendo on it, so that was all that mattered.

Up until about one year ago I was watching TV using rabbit ears. My wife and I didn’t watch enough TV to warrant the cost of cable, or satellite TV, so rabbit ears it was. As a matter of fact I recorded episodes of “House” using my old VCR. BigLots was the only place that had VHS tapes!

I think the impact of the switch will be minimal, because of the number of people now using cable or satellite TV. Any of the TV services, which require a converter box, will see no change. So we’ll just have to see what chaos ensues.

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I was thinking the other day; if there were some way to raise awareness, as to the impact of taxes on gasoline prices. I have come up with an answer.

Wouldn’t it be nice if instead of only seeing the total cost of the fuel with tax included; we could see the tax and the cost of the fuel separate. Have the pump show the amount of fuel being pumped, cost of fuel, and added taxes.

If you think about it; the receipts for items you purchase will list some embedded taxes. Gas receipts don't show any added tax, even the sales tax is hidden.

Most people only pay attention to how much money they take home after taxes. Perhaps if gas pumps would give some indication of where the total cost is derived; more people will pay attention to how much money they are spending on taxes. I think showing the taxes would open the eyes of many people.

Just a thought...

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