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I went through Obama’s Townhall video, and I did some research on some of the things he said. Here’s what I found: What Obama said: About 2/3 of the cost of the reform that we're proposing is just re-allocating the money that's already in the system. You, the taxpayer is already paying for it. Now, 1/3 of it, we're going to have to pay for it by increased revenues. What I've proposed is that if we capped the itemized deductions, that very wealthy people, the top 2% use on their income tax so that they're getting the same tax breaks...

Canada's in the spotlight as debate on health care reform rages in the U.S.Published Thursday July 2nd, 2009 Lee-Anne Goodman, THE CANADIAN PRESS WASHINGTON - It's rare that anything to do with Canada is front and centre in the minds of Americans, but the Canadian health-care system has been a hot topic of discussion over the past few weeks as Capitol Hill legislators work on a massive health-care overhaul. From hair salons to hospital waiting rooms and Georgetown dinner parties, Americans have wanted to know: "What's health care really like in Canada?" "Is it true no one can get a...

President Obama struggled to explain today whether his health care reform proposals would force normal Americans to make sacrifices that wealthier, more powerful people -- like the president himself -- wouldn't face. The probing questions came from two skeptical neurologists during ABC News' special on health care reform, "Questions for the President: Prescription for America," anchored from the White House by Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson. Dr. Orrin Devinsky, a neurologist and researcher at the New York University Langone Medical Center, said that elites often propose health care solutions that limit options for the general public, secure in the knowledge...

Bills structured to improve health care for Americans are currently being drafted in Congress. The President will address the American people on ABC tonight to discuss why an expansion of Medicaid is needed. Many believe that these efforts will bring the U.S. one step closer to socialized medicine, others contend that the government should provide health care. So far no discussion has been set forth explaining how it will be paid, nor what kind of impact it would have on the already struggling private sector. With many industrialized nations providing universal health care to its citizens, many in the U.S....

Obama has a new online course he's offering for free. It is called How to Make Yourself Look like a Lying, Hypocritical Horse's A$$ in 30 Seconds. Maybe you recall this little gem from our illustrious leader during the campaign....

Dodd, Graham spar over health careThe Associated Press Last Modified: Sunday, June 21, 2009 at 9:24 a.m. WASHINGTON — Sen. Lindsey Graham says the Senate will not let the U.S. "go down the government-run health care road." The South Carolina Republican was on a Sunday morning talk show repeating the charges of those opposed to President Barack Obama's attempts to overhaul the health care system. Graham said Obama's plan would let a government bureaucrat stand between people needing treatment and their doctors. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., who is heading the reform effort in the Senate, reminded Graham that a new...

DEMS PRESENT DRAFT OF HEALTH CARE BILLCLAIM IT COVERS ALL UNINSURED PEOPLE IN US ASSOCIATED PRESS Last updated: 5:08 pm June 19, 2009 WASHINGTON -- Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives presented draft health care legislation Friday that they said would cover virtually all the nation's nearly 50 million uninsured, as President Barack Obama has promised. They offered few details on how to pay for its trillion-dollar-plus price tag. The president welcomed their action as "a major step toward our goal of fixing what is broken about health care while building on what works." Meanwhile, in the Senate, two...

Who Killed Health Care (This Time)?Upset of the year By ROBERT A. GEORGE Updated 8:16 PM EDT, Sat, Jun 20, 2009 Can this be happening before our very eyes? Can it truly be possible that despite the most popular Democrat in the White House in 45 years and commanding Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate (the latter nearly filibuster-proof), that the quest for the Holy Grail of politics -- a national health-care insurance program -- is likely to fail yet again? For the Nth time since Harry Truman first suggested the idea in 1945? That seems to be...

Canadian Health Care We So Envy Lies In Ruins, Its Architect AdmitsBy DAVID GRATZER Posted Wednesday, June 25, 2008 4:30 PM PT As this presidential campaign continues, the candidates' comments about health care will continue to include stories of their own experiences and anecdotes of people across the country: the uninsured woman in Ohio, the diabetic in Detroit, the overworked doctor in Orlando, to name a few. But no one will mention Claude Castonguay — perhaps not surprising because this statesman isn't an American and hasn't held office in over three decades. Castonguay's evolving view of Canadian health care, however,...

Prepare for Canadian Health CareJune 17, 2009 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Windsor, Ontario, Ed -- this is in Canada -- great to have you on the program, sir. Thank you for waiting. CALLER: Yes. Thank you for taking my call. RUSH: Yes, sir. CALLER: I have a concrete example of the effect of the Ontario, Canada, health care system on one family unfortunately. Today's Windsor Star newspaper, page five, this gentleman, he's 30 years old, husband, father, has been in the system treated for cancer, but it's come back. He has stage four melanoma. He has inoperable tumors on his heart...

ABC News to air Obama interview on health carePublished: Tuesday, June 16, 2009 NEW YORK (AP) — ABC News will present a prime-time interview with President Barack Obama on health care issues next week. **SNIP** Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer will moderate the White House discussion with a live audience, also taking questions submitted by viewers. After a break for local news, the discussion will continue on "Nightline." That morning, Sawyer will interview Obama for "Good Morning America." Gibson will anchor that evening's edition of "World News" from the White House Blue Room. Obama has been carefully doling out access...

National Health Care and the UAWJune 10, 2009 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Here's Mike in Darien, Connecticut, as we go back to the phones. Great to have you with us today on the EIB Network. Hi. CALLER: Rush, it's a pleasure to speak with you. RUSH: Thank you, sir. CALLER: One of the things I wanted to point out, I've been an auto analyst for 25 years and one of the things that's been missed by the media -- RUSH: Wait, wait, wait just a second. What is an auto analyst? Like, where do you work, what's your job? CALLER: I'm...

Health care reform has a long history of failureJune 9, 3:52 PM Health care reform is on everyone’s mind. It’s an idea, they say, whose time has come. The cost of health insurance is out of control. 40 plus million Americans cannot afford or cannot qualify for health insurance. But health care reform has been here before. Actually, about every 15 years there is a push for reforming health care in America. It started way back in 1912 when Theodore Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party introduced a platform calling for national health insurance for industry. In 1934 as part of the...

"The purpose of the meeting wasn't to discuss policy," the group leader tells me -- in the world of Organizing for America, the most intense debate is among those who want Obama to seek a single-payer government plan now and those who prefer such a plan but believe it is not politically possible at the moment.

As Stimulus Fails, It's Time For Plan BPosted 06/05/2009 07:06 PM ET Economy: Businesses shed another 345,000 jobs in May, about half the number expected. Meanwhile, the stock market has risen in 12 of the last 13 weeks. It looks like the "green shoots" are here — no thanks to the stimulus. As we've been saying for months, the economy was due to turn around — with or without the stimulus package that was passed Feb. 17 amid much hoopla. Recall that, at the time, the main selling point for the $787 billion stimulus package was that it would rapidly...

This video is an entry for the Galen’s Institute’s “Do No Harm” contest.

Nearly four weeks after President Obama met with health-industry officials touting a "watershed" cost-cutting agreement, the goal of slowing the sharp rise in medical-care spending is elusive as ever. Appearing with executives of six industry groups on May 11, Obama announced what he called a "historic" and "unprecedented commitment" by the medical-care industry to "cut the rate of growth of national healthcare spending by 1.5 percentage points each year" that would yield $2 trillion in savings over 10 years. The story got front-page play and nightly news coverage across the country. However, after American Hospital Association president Richard Umbdenstock returned...

Obamaphile -- Remember this date: Saturday, June 6th, 2009. We will look back on that day as the moment when the fight for real health care reform began in your neighborhood -- perhaps even in your own living room. On June 6th, in thousands of homes across the country, we'll gather to launch our grassroots campaign for health care. We'll watch a special message from the President. We'll build the teams and draw up the plans for winning health care reform the same way we won the election: Building support one block, one neighbor, one conversation at a time....

Dear Obamaphile -- We knew healthcare reform would face fierce opposition -- and it's begun. As we speak, the same people behind the notorious "swiftboat" ads of 2004 are already pumping millions of dollars into deceptive television ads. Their plan is simple: torpedo healthcare reform before it sees the light of day by scaring the public and distorting the President's approach. We need the resources to take them head on with an urgent, grassroots campaign to pass real healthcare reform in 2009. When the swiftboaters flood the airwaves with distortions, we'll flood the streets with volunteers armed with facts....

Not a Good Time to Be Middle-AgedBy FLOYD NORRIS Published: May 15, 2009 IN this recession, it is better to be old. Being young has some advantages, too. But being in the middle of the spectrum — in your 30s or 40s — seems to be the worst place to be. The Pew Research Center released a poll of Americans this week that found people over 65 were generally suffering less from the recession. Fewer of them reported being forced to cut back on household expenses or said they had trouble meeting rent or mortgage obligations. “The most vivid finding...

But . . . but . . . Mexico has socialized medicine! This is a Bicentennial Minute. Eleven Americans, ranging in age from 9 to 50, have come down with swine flu, the Associated Press reports: "All those people either recovered or are recovering; at least two were hospitalized." In Mexico, however, the toll has been much worse. "About 70 deaths out of roughly 1,000 cases represents a fatality rate of about 7 percent," the AP notes. This is far higher than the 2.5% fatality rate from the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19, although the latter was many orders of...

An Iraqi medical professional from the Tikrit General Hospital explains the procedure of evaluating casualties to Staff Sgt. Grace David during pre-hospital care training. Photo by Spc. Jazz Burney, 25th Infantry Division. COB SPEICHER — U.S. Soldiers recently partnered with the Iraqi Ministry of Health to provide a series of training events geared toward creating an emergency medical system program and improving efficiency in pre-hospital care for civilian health professionals from the Tikrit General Hospital and 4th Iraqi Army Division.“Our focus of pre-hospital care will definitely save a lot of lives and give our medical professionals a lot of help...

WASHINGTON, March 31, 2009 – Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus recently presented a $12,636 check to American Recreational Military Services to help the troop-support group ship care packages overseas to deployed servicemembers. The check included a $10,000 donation and a portion of the circus’s four opening-night proceeds from performances in New Jersey and New York earlier this month. “We had been scrambling for months to cover costs as donor fatigue and the economic decline had cut into our donations,” Ronnie Micciulla, executive director at American Recreational Military Services, said. “The average cost for shipping an individual box...

“Systems” appeal to politicians and paper-pushers. Patients need care from human beings. But if you want to know what a government-controlled, monopolistic “system” is like, just visit the DMV − and imagine that not your driving privilege but your life depended on the wisdom and empathy of bureaucrats.

Did the fact that Canada has a socialist, government-run healthcare system --similar to the kind that President Obama wants to ram down the throats of Americans-- kill acclaimed actress Natasha Richardson?

A damning report form the Healthcare Commission yesterday detailed a catalogue of failings at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Stafford and Cannock Chase hospitals. Dehydrated patients were forced to drink out of flower vases, while others were left in soiled linen on filthy wards. Relatives of patients who died at Staffordshire General Hospital told how they were so worried by the standard of care they slept in chairs on the wards. ... Among the findings of the report were: Two clinical decision units - one unstaffed - used as 'dumping grounds' for A&E patients to avoid missing waiting...

Leftist Obama’s threat to military retirees, VA disabled, AND active duty. Got to pay for his welfare daddy programs somehow. Why not start by screwing with the military. After reading this, if you have any doubts go to the link Budget, Options, Volume 1: Health Care (http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=9925 Either search for TFL, “Tricare for Life” or go to page 175 and read the next 8 pages. Gotta find some way to provide free health care for all the “victims” of the great society of change. Ken Here is something that all veterans and active duty military should know about. Pass it...

KABUL, Afghanistan, March 2, 2009 – The hope for a healthier life is growing stronger in Afghanistan’s Oruzgan province, thanks to the care of health care workers from around the world. Medical professionals from the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force Afghanistan, U.S. police mentoring team, Danish Provincial Reconstruction Team, the French military and Afghanistan are working together to operate clinics in the province’s Deh Rawod district. For basic medical treatment, patients are treated at a centralized clinic, which sees about 300 to 400 people a week, officials said. Some of the ailments treated include body aches, colds, flu, nausea,...

Buried in the bowels of the stimulus plan the Senate passed Tuesday are key healthcare provisions that will set America on the road to socialized medicine, involve the government in your choice of a doctor, and inevitably trigger another funding crisis that will be used to justify still greater federal intervention in America’s healthcare industry, experts tell Newsmax. Among the most controversial parts of the bill are new federal guidelines that will require the government, rather than a doctor, to decide whether a patient should get medical care. Ironically, the stimulus bill that will cost more than $1 trillion will...

Many question how doctors and hospitals can ignore performing emergency medical care on people by turning them away from hospitals. Didn't they take an oath? The paramedics perform emergency medical care on their patients and the 69 year old man was stabilized. They just could not find a hospital willing to take the man in and give him emergency medical care.

Arizona Sen. John McCain may not get the chance to implement the health care reform plan he envisioned, but he intends to be a part of the solution that comes out of Washington. McCain now sits on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee where he will work with Committee Chairman Sen. Ted Kennedy and ranking republican Sen. Orin Hatch of Utah to help draft the health care reform bill put forth by the Senate. Some points of the healthcare plan McCain proposed during his presidential bid differed sharply from then Democrat nominee Barack Obama. McCain supported tax credits...

It was in Kiev, Ukraine, at the main railway station, and it was winter 1996, that I encountered a human monstrosity. I didn't actually encounter him; he was carried on a litter past me, over the heads of the teeming mobs milling through the station. To say the station was jampacked is to say that sardines have plenty of elbow-room in cans, and it being winter, even more so. Ukrainians tended to be small people, and hunger was abroad in the land, but their unwashed padding gave the impression of roly-poly tumbling balls of cloth and fur, and fierce ones...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18, 2008 – Actor and director Ben Affleck and other celebrities joined more than 1,000 volunteers over the weekend to put together care packages for deployed troops at the National Guard Armory in Van Nuys, Calif. Actor and director Ben Affleck helps Operation Gratitude volunteers assemble care packages for deployed troops in the National Guard Armory in Van Nuys, Calif. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Operation Gratitude, a California-based troop-support group, organized the event that also included actress and model Kathy Ireland and “Days of Our Lives” soap opera stars Deidre Hall, Jay Kenneth...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17, 2008 – While deployed to Iraq, Jacob Fletcher wrote to his mother, Dorine Kenney, asking her to send one of his buddies a care package, as his friend hadn't received anything from home since he arrived overseas. Jacob's Light Foundation volunteers pack care packages for deployed servicemembers at the Brentwood American Legion Hall in Bay Shore, N.Y. The New York-based troop-support group sends care packages and letters to soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan each month. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The next week, Kenney sent the package out and, soon after, started...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2008 – Wounded servicemembers are finding an unlikely resource for care at Arkansas State University in a new program officials there hope will catch on at other college campuses. Susan Tonymon, director of the Beck Pride Center at the university’s Jonesboro campus, described the program in an “ASY Live” interview on BlogTalkRadio.com. The university opened the center in October 2007 as a supplement to Veterans Affairs programs, Tonymon said. The campus is an ideal place to reach out to wounded troops, she said. “Arkansas State University is a very military-friendly campus,” Tonymon said. With a National...

12/3/2008 - ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) -- For National Guard members who are about to deploy, there is a lot to think about before heading overseas. Changes have to be made to school and work schedules, arrangements have to be made for routine household chores, but for many, child care is one thing that weighs heaviest on their minds. For Guard family members, there is help. The National Guard's Child Care Subsidy Program works to assist spouses and family members with the costs of child care during deployment. The program, which has been around for about five years, grew out of...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 2008 – The Air Force Warrior and Survivor Care Program is reaching out to wounded airmen from the point injury on the battlefield and throughout their rehabilitation and reintegration and beyond, the program’s manager said yesterday. The program’s success relies largely on family liaison officers and community readiness consultants, John Beckett said in a “Dot Mil Docs” radio interview on BlogTalkRadio.com. “The backbone of that entire program is what we call the family liaison officer,” he said. “The family liaison officer is assigned to a family to be their personalized assistant, if you will, to help...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 20, 2008 – Marine Lt. Gen. Ronald S. Coleman, deputy commandant for manpower and reserve affairs, spoke with American Forces Press Service about the Marine Corps’ wounded warrior care program and the Corps’ policy of allowing seriously injured Marines to return to active duty. The following questions and answers were taken from that interview. Q. The Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Regiment is the only wounded warrior program of the services set up so that the regimental commander, an 0-6 (colonel), answers directly to a three-star general. Why is your program set up that way and does it...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2008 – In January 2006, as Marine Lt. Ray Baronie was lying in a hospital bed recovering from wounds he suffered in Iraq, a Marine lieutenant colonel in his dress uniform, sporting a question mark-shaped scar on the side of his head, paid him a visit. Marine Capt. Ray Baronie, commander of Company A, Wounded Warrior Battalion East, Camp Lejeune, N.C., walks through his barracks inspecting renovations. Baronie was injured when an anti-tank round struck his vehicle in Iraq in 2005. DoD photo by Fred W. Baker III   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Remarkably,...

PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 17, 2008 – Navy Senior Chief Jim Pitts was not exactly what the doctor ordered when the leaders of Safe Harbor called and interviewed him for a job to be an advocate for wounded warriors. Navy Senior Chief Jim Pitts made the unlikely move from cook to wounded sailor advocate. Now his colleagues call him a "super star" in his field. U.S. Navy courtesy photo.   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Pitts had none of the experience to make him a likely candidate. He had no medical background. No psychiatric background. Not even a...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11, 2008 – The Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Regiment’s Call Center is dedicated to helping wounded Marines and their families with various issues and referral assistance. Navy Cmdr. William Tanner, the Wounded Warrior Regiment’s regimental surgeon, said the call center is operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “Any Marines [or] sailors that have served with Marines, and their families, [and] have questions and need help can call into the center,” Tanner said Nov. 6 on the “DotMilDocs” radio program on BlogTalkRadio.com. The call center’s mission is to provide support through distribution of information, resources, advocacy...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5, 2008 – Navy Adm. Mike Mullen didn’t like the way wounded Vietnam veterans were treated when he first entered the service in 1968, and he is working to ensure that America’s wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan get the care and help they need and deserve. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said during a Pentagon Channel podcast interview yesterday that as one of the leaders of the U.S. military, he is passionate “about seeing to the needs of those who are wounded – who have sacrificed so much, whose lives have been changed so...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27, 2008 – Whether you are a young soldier leaving boot camp for a tour in Germany or a seasoned military police officer working in Iraq, receiving a care package from home can be a huge pick-me-up. A Web site launched in September provides many ideas to families and friends wanting to send care packages to love ones stationed abroad. Abby Tymchak of Wayne, N.J., was inspired to create the site, called “The Soldiers Family,” when she found out her husband, Army Sgt. Scott Kowalski, was being deployed overseas for at least a year. Initially, she said,...

John McCain´s health care reform proposal was pretty impressive until he demonstrated his complete inability to defend it against a very weak attack. It sort of makes you wonder if McCain really knows how his own proposal works. Barack Obama is running around saying – and running ads to the effect – that McCain wants to institute a tax on employer-provided health insurance. This is what we used to call a Clinton truth. It is technically true, but designed to mislead. McCain´s plan recognizes that people´s reliance on their employers for health care benefits is the root of all kinds...

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WASHINGTON, Oct. 9, 2008 – The Defense Department, in conjunction with the military services and the Department of Veterans Affairs, has created a framework to help wounded, ill and injured servicemembers not only survive, but also thrive as they transition from military service back into their communities. “We want them to really not only survive their injuries, but now thrive in what’s called oftentimes ‘the new normal,’” said Lynda C. Davis, DoD lead for case/care management reform for wounded, ill and injured servicemembers and their families. “We’ve been able to, jointly with the services and [Veterans Affairs], develop a framework...

KARMAH — Approximately 500 Iraqis were treated during a combined medical engagement (CME) here, Sept. 15. Iraqi doctors and a surplus of primary healthcare medicine were made available to citizens during the CME, which was held by Marines of Regimental Combat Team 1. “The goal is to reach out to men and women in the area, see what they need medically and try to provide them for their needs,” said 2nd Lt. Mark Beaudette, a platoon commander with Weapons Co., TF 1st Bn., 3rd Marines, RCT-1. A CME brings local physicians and medicine to an area that doesn’t necessarily have...

I can't believe what I just saw a cop do...