ActiCons

I can remember when the corporate world used to be scared of Us.

You know, Us. The slumbering majority in this country that doesn’t want to see salaciousness enshrined, moral relativity championed, marriage cheapened and redefined, and abortion paid for with our tax dollars. We went quietly about our business, went to church, shared a sense of pride in our community and country.

And they were afraid of Us. You know, the corporations who lived and died on our purchasing money. Whatever the people who ran these companies might have believed on a personal level, they did not dare to take our money and use it to collaborate with those who were fighting against everything we believed in.

But somewhere along the line, they stopped being scared. Read the rest of this entry »

Facing growing public skepticism and falling approval ratings as a result of his push for nationalized health care, President Obama told a group in Virginia last week that he didn’t want, “the folks who had created the [health care] mess to do a lot of talking, I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess.”  It was a remark meant to rally the base to Obama’s side, and shore up his flagging poll numbers on the issue.  Obama may have thought he was chiding Republicans in making the comment.  But even a cursory look at the “mess” in the American health care system shows that on the issue of who is responsible, the president’s remark is as wrong as it was arrogant.

Health care experts across the spectrum can agree that there are three main problems with the health insurance industry in America today:  community rating, which forbids insurance companies from charging premiums based on an individual consumer’s health status; the practice of defensive medicine, under which doctors order numerous costly and often unnecessary tests to cover themselves against the possibility of malpractice lawsuits; and employer-based coverage.  Each of these problems, which together contribute most to the “mess” in health care delivery, were all either brought into existence, or are perpetuated by Democrats.

Employer-based coverage came about during World War II as a consequence of the National War Labor Board’s decision to institute wage and price freezes in an attempt to prevent production shortages due to labor unrest or inflation.  The NWLB exempted fringe benefits like pension plans and health insurance from the freeze, meaning employers could compete for the dwindling pool of skilled workers by offering ever-increasing health insurance coverage.  Workers grew accustomed to receiving health benefits as a condition of their employment, and the system of employer-provided health benefits became an American institution.

Although the NWLB decision may have sprung from the best of intentions at a time of war, it grew from the progressive tendency toward control.  The consequence for today’s health care debate is that generations of Americans were separated from the cost of the medical care they received.  As costs grew, and businesses were forced to cut back on benefits while increasing the employee’s cost share, workers began to feel the increase in costs for the first time.  Two of the main drivers of those cost increases have been the practice of defensive medicine, and community rating.

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The “Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009″ imposes a “surtax,” or income tax increase, on all Americans making $280,000 a year or more.

Under the bill, those making $280,000 ($350,000 for couples) will have their taxes increased by 1 percentage point, those making $400,000 ($500,000 for couples) by 1.5 percentage points, and those making more than $800,000 ($1 million for couples) by 5.4 percentage points.

This would make the top marginal federal tax rate 40.4% – the highest it has been since the Clinton years. If President Obama keeps his promise to let the Bush tax cuts expire (which he reiterated at a Portsmouth, NH town hall on Tuesday) that top marginal rate will increase to 45% – the highest it has been since the Reagan tax cuts of 1986.

If a review in 2013 by the Congressional Budget Office determines the health care overhaul has failed to save at least $175 billion, the bill provides for an automatic doubling of the tax increases on the lower two of those three incomes.

Further, with state income taxes rising across the country, this surtax and automatic 2013 increase would put the top combined federal-state income tax rates in over half of all states at 50% or more.

Source: HR 3200 §59C

The introduction of a government-run competitor into the semi-private insurance market is a deliberate and irreversible first step toward a so-called “single-payer” health care system. You don’t have to take my word for it; just listen to Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), who have both voiced their support for a “public option,” which, as the “best way to reach single-payer” (Frank, 7/27/09), will “put private industry out of business” (Schakowsky, 4/18/09).

The term “single-payer” is, of course, just a fancy way of referring to a health care system in which each and every health care transaction goes through a middle man — and in which that middle man is the government. Yes, that’s the same government that runs the DMV, the Post Office (which President Obama himself said “is always having problems,” and which only remains afloat because of its monopoly on the mail-delivery business), the $33 trillion-in-debt Medicaid program, and myriad other offices and programs that you have come to despise dealing with over the years.

The creation of a “public option” makes America’s transition to a single-payer (government-run) health care system inevitable, due to three chief advantages this new marketplace “competitor” has over its private (but heavily regulated) opponents. These are: (1) the folks who run it – the federal government – make all of the rules in the marketplace; (2) the federal government has an unlimited supply of funds, being able to print and borrow as much money as it takes to fund its programs, and (3) the federal government is not constrained by the one Great Equalizer among private sector operations: the need to make a profit to survive.

A “public” entity can be “in the red” financially every year of its existence, and still be able to continue operating — something a private sector business simply cannot do, due to its absolute need to be able to make payroll, afford overhead, and pay its taxes.

Were Congressional Democrats (apart from Frank and Schakowsky) honest in their desire to simply make the “public option” a marketplace option, rather than trying to make it the market, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee would not have voted along party lines to kill an amendment preventing the “public option” from taking advantage of preferential tax treatment, favorable regulation, and the ability to borrow from other federal agencies’ budgets.

Yesterday, I presented my case for small donation support of online conservative activism. It’s my belief that we both require and can self-fund independent conservative activism and citizen journalism. The left has a massive machine for this, as we have seen in the health care debate. The right doesn’t have one George Soros, but we do have hundreds of Caleb Howes. I pointed out that if only half of my twitter followers donated 3 dollars each, I would hit my short-term fundraising goal of 2400 dollars.

This is the power of three dollars. In 24 hours, I’m now $1100 on the way. If I make my goal, I’ll be in Pittsburgh this weekend. Maybe I take a camera to a nutroots event? You never know.

This is the power of small donors. We produce the content, and we fund it ourselves. This is conservative activism, and it’s all possible thanks to YOU. So thank you!

We ARE the mob.

Under the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee’s “Affordable Health Choices Act,” local governments can apply for “community transformation” grants to build jungle gyms, sidewalks, bicycle paths, and grocery stores, to install streetlights, and to establish new farmers’ markets.

The dollar amount of these grants, and of the total “community transformation” earmark program, is left to the discretion of the Obama administration.

Cities can also apply for “community makeover” grants, which can provide them with up to $10 per resident in taxpayer dollars for “beautifying streets.”

Sen. Tom Coburn, MD (R-OK) sponsored an amendment to the HELP Committee bill that would have prevented any funds it made available from being used “to build, develop, or maintain sidewalks, parks, bike paths, or street lights.” The amendment was defeated by party-line vote.

The “Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009,” the House of Representatives’ health overhaul legislation, also contains an earmark for these grants. The House bill sets the amount available for their funding at $1.6 billion.

Sources: “Affordable Health Choices Act,” Title III, Subtitle C
HR 3200, § 3151

This week I had the inestimable pleasure of appearing on RFC Radio with the Right Doctor. Click on “Read the rest of this entry” to download the podcast. Melissa rules, and the show was a blast! And don’t miss me today on The Ed Morrissey Show, which airs at 3PM EST. I’ll be on at the half with Tommy Christopher.
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I’m a conservative activist. At least, I like to think of myself in this way. Most of you reading this know me from RedState. Part of my job as an activist is to advocate. Part of it is to participate. For example, I started the #iamthemob hashtag on Twitter, which as spawned facebook groups, t-shirts, enthusiasm … activism. Like you, I attend town halls, tea parties, even the conventions. I also advocate, obviously, through opinion blogging at Redstate, Acticons, Spectator, and previously at Political Machine.

But I also believe part of my job is to investigate.

Over the last year, I was able to break a number of stories that would not otherwise have been told. I caught Don Fowler, former head of the DNC, joking about a hurricane hitting New Orleans during the Republican convention. He had to issue an apology. He called me a right-wing nutjob. The video hit all the networks, and he, and Congressman Spratt of South Carolina, were duly embarrassed. Because of independent blogging, the MSM had to run the story. That’s what we do.

I also broke the story of the discarded flags at the Democratic convention. I went deep inside the protests in Denver and in St. Paul, even getting arrested with the protesters (see my youtube vids). I broke the national story of a Fox News crew being attacked by protesters BEFORE Fox News did. They used my video on air thanks to their cameraman being punched in the lens.

I also brought you the story of the anti-American history channel ads that actually provoked the CLIO Awards to rescind an award given to an anti-American ad campaign. At AOL, I broke the story of Hillary’s eligibility for Secretary of State. It was on a number of blogs, but only after we hit half a million views at AOL did the story hit the national media.

Just this week, I researched and delivered the astroturf story for Redstate. My story hit Hannity, Levin, and Beck, not to mention all across the web.

Investigation is something we need on the right. There’s very little of it. But it’s what I do.

For now.
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Dude. I’m so surprised the left would use Hitler imagery. Shocked, even.

What is there to add? Except to point out that this is what independent conservative activism and investigative blogging is all about. Well done, @collegepolitico!

Please check out this post from Right Wing Swag and this one from Moe Lane. Awesome.