Can we change the subject? Part II

continued....

$716 billion we were able to save from the Medicare program by no longer overpaying insurance companies by making sure that we weren't overpaying providers.(President Obama)

What is funny is that this has not happened yet.  It is a future hope.  I hope for a Ferrari but that does not mean I can add it to my column. How can we believe that just by asking people to charge less for the same amount of work that they will comply?  How many people out there are happy, willing and able to take a pay cut?

reply...

But on Medicare, for current retirees, he's cutting $716 billion from the program. Now, he says by not overpaying hospitals and providers. Actually just going to them and saying, "We're going to reduce the rates you get paid across the board, every body's going to get a lower rate." That's not just going after places where there's abuse. That's saying we're cutting the rates. Some 15 percent of hospitals and nursing homes say they won't take anymore Medicare patients under that scenario.

 

We also have 50 percent of doctors who say they won't take more Medicare patients.

 

This -- we have 4 million people on Medicare Advantage that will lose Medicare Advantage because of those $716 billion in cuts. I can't understand how you can cut Medicare $716 billion for current recipients of Medicare. (Governor Romney)

 

 

Again, how in the world do we think this will happen?  Please stop charging so much?  Please?

And how about that voucher proposal for the future?  Nothing else is viable, nothing else is liquid or even remotely able to contain the costs.  Our company has about 20 employees.  We have a high deductible HSA program, currently being phased out by the Affordable Care Act of the POTUS (he lied).  It is the only market based solution that will work.  But that is another blog.

 

 

Governor Romney said this has to be done on a bipartisan basis. This was a bipartisan idea. In fact, it was a Republican idea. And Governor Romney at the beginning of this debate wrote and said what we did in Massachusetts could be a model for the nation. (President Obama)

  

reply...

 

First of all, I like the way we did it in Massachusetts. I like the fact that in my state, we had Republicans and Democrats come together and work together. What you did instead was to push through a plan without a single Republican vote. As a matter of fact, when Massachusetts did something quite extraordinary -- elected a Republican senator to stop Obama care, you pushed it through anyway. (Governor Romney)

 

 

Is the POTUS kidding?  Does he really believe the Affordable Care Act was written in a bipartisan fashion?  Of course not.  That is why he phrases it "bipartisan idea" left over from the 90's.  The reason Nancy Pelosi needed to pass it was in fact because she too needed to see what was in it.  She did not write it.  Harry Reid did not write it.  It was written behind doors by lobbyists.

 

 

The federal government taking over health care for the entire nation and whisking aside the 10th Amendment, which gives states the rights for these kinds of things, is not the course for America to have a stronger, more vibrant economy. (Governor Romney)





And when it comes to education what I've said is we've got to reform schools that are not working. We use something called Race to the Top. Wasn't a top-down approach, Governor. What we've said is to states, we'll give you more money if you initiate reforms. And as a consequence, you had 46 states around the country who have made a real difference. (President Obama)

Interesting. He says, if you do what we want, we will give you your money back, at least some of it. States send their money to some large building in DC, the Department of Education, with the hope that they get some of it back. Once laundered and squandered, the Federal Government gives some back. Nice job if you can get it. There was a time in this country when there was no DOE. Really, and kids still learned. We survived some how without this far reaching board of people making demands.

 

The last part of the debate was the best, thoughts on the Government.  What is the purpose.

The first role of the federal government is to keep the American people safe. That's its most basic function.

But I also believe that government has the capacity, the federal government has the capacity to help open up opportunity and create ladders of opportunity and to create frameworks where the American people can succeed.

Look, the genius of America is the free enterprise system and freedom and the fact that people can go out there and start a business, work on an idea, make their own decisions. (President Obama)

vs.

The role of government: Look behind us. The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The role of government is to promote and protect the principles of those documents.

First, life and liberty. We have a responsibility to protect the lives and liberties of our people, and that means a military second to none. I do not believe in cutting our military. I believe in maintaining the strength of America's military.

Second, in that line that says we are endowed by our creator with our rights, I believe we must maintain our commitment to religious tolerance and freedom in this country. That statement also says that we are endowed by our creator with the right to pursue happiness as we choose. I interpret that as, one, making sure that those people who are less fortunate and can't care for themselves are cared by -- by one another.

 

We're a nation that believes that we're all children of the same god and we care for those that have difficulties, those that are elderly and have problems and challenges, those that are disabled. We care for them. And we -- we look for discovery and innovation, all these things desired out of the American heart to provide the pursuit of happiness for our citizens.

 

But we also believe in maintaining for individuals the right to pursue their dreams and not to have the government substitute itself for the rights of free individuals. And what we're seeing right now is, in my view, a -- a trickle-down government approach, which has government thinking it can do a better job than free people pursuing their dreams. And it's not working.

Look, the right course for America's government, we were talking about the role of government, is not to become the economic player, picking winners and losers, telling people what kind of health treatment they can receive, taking over the health care system that has existed in this country for a long, long time and has produced the best health records in the world.
(Governor Romney)


The President spoke in rambling terms about his ideas of Government.  Mr. Romney referenced the two greatest documents ever written for the benefit of mankind.  The two documents that have done more good in the world than any other device: they outlined a Government that is designed to do nothing more than protect the God given rights of a person from the infringement of another.  In so doing, this person has every chance to pursue their Life, Liberty and Happiness free from the slavery of another citizen's need, greed or entitlement.  There is nothing in those documents granting the Federal Government the power to grant happiness, to provide happiness, to promote success of one over the other.  Simply, it is meant to protect a person so that they might pursue and live the life that they are bast able to do.

The Government was not granted the power of Charity.

The Government was not granted the power of selection, of funding one over another.

The Government was not granted the ability to fund a business at the expense of another in order to pursue its own happiness; there is no Government's own objective, only a Government's protection of the citizen.  It is implied that the citizen should not need protection from the Government itself.

The President believes in the power of the Government.  Governor Romney believes in the power of the citizen.

The President believes in the ability of the Government to provide happiness.  Governor Romney believes in the duty of Government to protect the pursuit of happiness.

I believe one of them needs to change the subject.