Free Republic

Health Reform: As major businesses lay out the impact of ObamaCare in dollars and jobs, two things are clear: the costs will be enormous, and the president's vow to focus on "jobs, jobs, jobs" can no longer be believed. Early returns on ObamaCare are coming in, and they belie proponents' claims of job creation and cost reduction. The costs will increase. They are merely being shifted to the states and to America's businesses, large and small. AT&T, the country's largest telephone company, announced Friday it will take a $1 billion first-quarter charge related to the new health care law. The...

Repeal: Some say trying to repeal ObamaCare is a futile dream once people get used to its benefits, such as covering kids with pre-existing conditions. Once before, government was slapped down. It can be done. Entitlements can be addictive, and it's certainly the purpose of this administration to make as many Americans as possible as dependent on government as possible. That's partly why a health care bill put student loans under the Department of Education. The government needed the revenues, but it also needed the power over yet another class of citizens. Unlike Medicare and Social Security, this nationalization of...

Health Care Reform: The Senate parliamentarian dims GOP hopes on a reconciliation bill that contains even more onerous taxes and even a financial incentive to lay people off. No wonder Speaker Pelosi is laughing. We'll acknowledge that the signing of ObamaCare into law is a historic event, but we think the Weather Channel broadcasting the signing ceremony was a bit much. On the other hand, stormy political weather and more dark clouds lay ahead. The cries of "repeal" and "remember in November" are rising, and state attorneys general are taking the feds to court over the unconstitutional mandates and usurpation...

The Vote: Conned by the promise of an ephemeral executive order, the last holdouts cave and ObamaCare advances. It doesn't add a single doctor or hospital room, but needs 17,000 new IRS agents to enforce it. Congressman Bart Stupak, D-Mich., spent months spelling out in minute detail how the Senate version of the health care overhaul permitted federal funding of abortion through its failure to expressly prohibit it. In the end, he cashed in his principles for an unenforceable executive order that is trumped by the Senate bill he voted to pass. An executive order is not the law of...

States' Rights: Idaho requires its attorney general to sue the feds if ObamaCare passes while Virginia, the cradle of liberty, heads the line of states in front of the federal courtroom. Somewhere Patrick Henry is smiling. As the second coming of King George III seeks to impose the leftist mandate of national health insurance on the unwilling American people, the states are once again in revolt. This time they're unwilling to be the colonies of an imperial federal government determined to spend and tax us into bankruptcy while treating the Constitution as if it were bird cage liner. Is this...

There is no fixing President Obama’s healthcare takeover that was jammed through on a partisan vote with secret deals, kickbacks and carve-outs. This Mediscam bill must be repealed. The Democrats promised their bill would reduce the deficit, decrease healthcare costs and lower insurance premiums. It does the opposite by exploding our national debt and raising $569.2 billion in new taxes in their quest to control one-sixth of the economy. Worse yet, it imposes an unconstitutional mandate on Americans and permits the government funding of abortion. All of this was done in the face of overwhelming public outrage and bipartisan opposition...

WASHINGTON -- As noted by recent cover stories in Newsweek and Business Week, the first of the roughly 77 million baby boomers turn 60 in 2006. J. Walker Smith of the polling firm of Yankelovich Partners told Newsweek that many boomers ``think they're going to die before they get old'' -- a reference to one survey in which boomers defined old age as starting around 80. Business Week asserted that fifty- and sixty-somethings consider their ``middle age a new start on life'' to indulge hobbies, begin new careers or remarry. These portraits of vigorous baby boomers clash with another reality:...

It hurts me to admit this, but I'm one of those people that I'd never want to sit next to aboard a Saab Turboprop. It's not like I'm Michael Moore fat, but there's enough there there so that I won't be freezing if my bosses send me TDY to Alaska. I can feel better now. Those bombing runs at Cici's Pizza and Ryan's Steakhouse are not my fault. I'm no longer a reprobate according to the people administering The Prescription Drug Panderation Act. I have a medical condition, and it's not an abnormal failure of the vital self-discipline gland. I...

Did top Republicans, desperate to adopt a Medicare drug benefit, actually solicit a congressman's support by attempting bribery and blackmail? The Justice Department says it is reviewing this matter, even as the media have moved on. This is serious business, worthy of the close attention of prosecutors, journalists, and citizens alike. The House of Representatives' Medicare deliberations were unprecedented. At 3:00 A.M. on Saturday, November 22, House members were given 15 minutes to vote on the new, 20-year, $2 trillion drug entitlement. Two votes shy of passing the bill, GOP leaders abused House rules and kept the vote open for...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — HealthSouth Corp. said Tuesday it would cut as much as 2 percent of its work force to save money because of Medicare changes that were cited for a sharp reduction in earnings. A company statement did not say exactly how many jobs would be slashed, and calls to its Birmingham headquarters went unanswered early Tuesday. But the company on its Web site said it has more than 50,000 employees nationwide. A 2 percent cut from that figure would represent 1,000 jobs. HealthSouth is the largest U.S. provider...

<p>A group of registered nurses packed an ambulance bound for Harrisburg yesterday with 10,000 post cards signed by their peers calling for mandatory minimum staffing levels in Pennsylvania's hospitals.</p> <p>The goal of the publicity stunt conducted at the Pittsburgh Hilton and Towers, Downtown, was to persuade state legislators to pass separate bills that would establish minimum hospital staffing levels and ban mandatory overtime for health-care workers except in declared emergencies.</p>