ObamaCare - what could go wrong?

From a reader comment posted in our local newspaper:

ObamaCare was written mostly behind closed doors by a committee whose chairman didn't understand it and rammed through by a former Speaker of the House who said they had to pass the 2,000+ page bill so they would know what was in it.

Forced through the Senate at midnight on a weekend by lawmakers who hadn't read it, signed by a President who was a smoker, overseen by an obese Surgeon General, funded by a Secretary of the Treasury who hadn't paid his taxes when he got the job and financed by a country nearly broke.

What could possibly go wrong?

Ground beef recalled for possible E. coli

Another E. coli scare.

A California company has recalled more than 3,000 pounds of fresh ground beef patties and other packages of ground beef products that may be contaminated with the E. coli bacteria.

Some of the products may be frozen and in restaurant freezers.

E. coli can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration and in severe cases, kidney failure. Babies, seniors and people with weak immune systems are the most susceptible.

Hmm…maybe this is a good time to go vegan -- or at least meatless.

Link

Did Obama sink ObamaCare in 2008?

In the video below Obama is talking to Ellen DeGeneres comparing mandatory healthcare purchase to mandatory home buying.

Now the exact same thing is an integral part of his signature achievement - ObamaCare!

Judge used Obama's own words against him

The photo shows Obama signing ObamaCare into law in March, 2010 surrounded by many of the lawmakers who helped cram the 2,000+ page bill down Americans throats.

Federal Judge Roger Vinson struck down the entire health care law as unconstitutional on Monday.

In ruling against President Obama's health care law, federal Judge Roger Vinson used Mr. Obama's own position from the 2008 campaign against him, when the then-Illinois senator argued there were other ways to achieve reform short of requiring every American to purchase insurance.

The footnote was attached to the most critical part of Judge Vinson's ruling, in which he said the “principal dispute” in the case was not whether Congress has the power to tackle health care, but rather whether it has the power to compel individual citizens to purchase insurance.

The judge ruled that because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire Act must be declared void.

Link

Federal judge strikes down ObamaCare law

A federal judge in Florida struck down Obama's landmark healthcare overhaul as unconstitutional in the biggest legal challenge yet to the federal authority to enact the law.

U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson, appointed to the bench by Republican President Ronald Reagan, ruled that the reform law's so-called individual mandate went too far in requiring that Americans start buying health insurance in 2014 or pay a penalty.

The judge said "Because the individual mandate is unconstitutional and not severable, the entire act must be declared void. This has been a difficult decision to reach, and I am aware that it will have indeterminable implications."

Link

Paramedics rescue boy after tongue stuck to pole

In a scene straight from the movie "A Christmas Story," an 8-year-old Oklahoma boy got his tongue stuck to a metal pole after he licked it on a dare.

Officials said when rescue crews arrived the boy was standing on his tiptoes trying get his tongue off the pole.

Paramedics were able to help the boy by pouring water on his tongue. Once free, the boy told officials he got stuck after his brother dared him to lick the pole.

The photo shows Flick putting his tongue on a frozen flagpole as Ralphie Parker watches in the movie A Christmas Story. Flick just had to do it - after all, he was triple-dog dared.

The incident brought back a vivid childhood memory of a winter day when I was in the first grade.

I tried to lick frost from the metal steering bar of a sled while playing in a farmyard near Hurley, South Dakota.

It's something a kid never does more than once.

Link

Time to shed the Holiday pounds

Most voters think ObamaCare repeal likely

According to a Rasmussen survey most U.S. voters believe Republicans will make good on their efforts to repeal ObamaCare.

A telephone survey found that 52 percent of likely voters think it is “at least somewhat likely” the reform law will be repealed, while 33 percent believe it is unlikely.

The results include 16 percent who believe repeal is “very likely” and 5 percent who think it is “not at all likely.”

Voters increasingly believe that the law will be repealed, according to past survey results.

The number who think repeal is likely is up from 47 percent last month and up from 38 percent just weeks after President Obama signed reform into law.

ObamaCare was crammed down the throats of Republican congressmen.

Most of the bill was drafted behind closed doors by Democrats only. Then when Republicans objected they were called the "Party of No."

Look for Republicans to begin working to dismantle ObamaCare beginning in January.

Link

Support for ObamaCare at new low

What was intended to be the hallmark of Barack Obama's presidency is steadily but surely falling out of favor with Americans.

Coinciding with a federal judge’s ruling invalidating a key element of the health care reform law, an ABC News/Washington Post poll finds support for the landmark legislation at a new low.

More here

Judge in VA strikes down ObamaCare law

A federal judge in Virginia has declared the Obama administration's health care reform law unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson is the first judge to rule against the law, which has been upheld by two others in Virginia and Michigan.

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli filed the lawsuit challenging the law's requirement that citizens buy health insurance or pay a penalty starting in 2014.

The ObamaCare law not only mandates a fine for not buying insurance, it can also send Americans to jail for not buying the prescribed insurance in 2014.

The Virginia action may be just the beginning.

Link

If ObamaCare is so good why all the waivers?

The Obama Administration has quietly granted even more waivers to one provision of the new federal health reform law, doubling the number in just the last three weeks to a new total of 222.

A total list of waivers can be found at the US Department of Health and Human Services web sight (third link below).

From a report at the second link below:

Union bosses fought tooth and nail to nationalize America’s health care—even, in many cases, to the detriment of their own members. Now, instead of chewing on and swallowing what they bit off, unions are getting waivers to the very plan that they shoved down everyone else’s throat.

Below is a list of the known unions getting ObamaCare waivers:
1. Service Employees Benefit Fund
2. UFCW Allied Trade Health & WT
3. IBEW No.915
4. Asbestos Workers Local 53 WF
5. Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 123 WF
6. UFCW Local 227
7. UFCW Maximus Local 455
8. Local 25 SEIU
9. UFCW Local 1262
10. Local 802 Musicians Health Fund
11. Greater Metropolitan Hotel
12. Local 17 Hospitality Benefit Fund
13. I.U.P.A.T.
14. Transport Workers
15. UFT Welfare Fund
16. UABT

*Several other entities appear to be joint union-employer benefit plans, but it is unclear if this assumption is correct, so only the known union plans are listed above.

Link here, here and here.

Mary Poppins was right - a spoonful of sugar…

A spoonful of sugar can not only help the medicine go down, according to a report in the London Daily Mail:

High sugar levels can help control aggression and prevent loss of temper, researchers have found.

Their study compared the behavior of sugar-starved volunteers with those who had been given a sweet drink, and concluded the latter were less inclined to snap.

The simple sugar glucose is thought to stem aggressive behavior by providing more self-control.

More here.

Report: Andy Griffith misleading ads cost taxpayers $3Million

From a CNS News report:

The federal government spent $3.1 million on TV ads featuring actor Andy Griffith (pictured) touting the new health care law that a non-partisan watchdog group says are misleading.

The first ad, entitled “1965,” featured Griffith saying, “This year, as always, we’ll have our guaranteed benefits. And with the new health care law, more good things are coming.”

But the non-partisan FactCheck.org says some 10 million Medicare Advantage recipients will see their benefits cut by about $43 a month.

Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch said “Even Barney Fife would see that these ObamaCare ads are bogus,” referring to the bungling Mayberry deputy sheriff character in the Andy Griffith show.

The Obama administration spent a total of $3,184,000 on three ads, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Link

Report: Scottish scientists find diabetes drug can halt Alzheimer's

From a report at the link below:

A drug used to combat the effects of diabetes could hold the key to the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease, according to Scottish scientists.

Researchers at Dundee University and a team of international collaborators have discovered that metformin, a drug commonly used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes, can help treat Alzheimer's disease (AD) and prevent it in healthy was a critical factor in the development of Alzheimer's, and that patients with diabetes had a higher risk of contracting the disease than those who were non-diabetic.

More of the story here.

Haiti's second calamity - cholera

Ten months after the January 2010 earthquake, displaced Port-au-Prince residents make do on the grounds of an abandoned school.

As cholera cases are reported nearby, concerns grow for residents of camps without access to clean water.

Flooding from Hurricane Tomas could increase the cholera infection rate.

...photos from Time Magazine

Blaming Happy Meals

Just one of the many problems with ObamaCare

Did any of the lawmakers even read the bill?

The report linked to below details just one unintend consequence of the bill:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration estimates that it will take the food service industry 14 million additional hours each year to comply with a new regulation that mandates chain restaurants and vending machine operators label the products they sell with a calorie count in a place visible to the consumer.

Most of the burden of the regulation, which is buried in the 2,000+ page ObamaCare bill, will fall on the vending industry.

In the Nov. 5 edition of the Federal Register, the FDA estimates “a total of 14,068,808 recurring hours for third party disclosure” in conjunction with the regulation.

The liberal do-gooder's, who want to regulate everything, knew they couldn't outlaw certain foods so they buried this calorie count mandate somewhere within the 2000+ ObamaCare bill with little thought to the burden placed on the business community nor the non-effect it would have on consumers.

Does anyone actually think the calorie count mandate will make people healthier? How many people will read the fine-print?

Won't vending machines sell as many Twinkies as before and won't McDonald's sell as many Big Mac's as before?

This is just one small item in the monstrous bill that lawmakers didn't know was there.

As Nancy Pelosi said, "you will find out what's in it when it is passed."

It was votes for ObamaCare that nearly wiped out the Democrat caucus in the House and voters will not be satisfied until most of the monstrous ObamaCare bill, such as the provision outlined above, is revised or eliminated.

Lurking in the 2,000+ pages of the ObamaCare bill (shown below) are undoubtedly many problems few people know about.

More here.

Rx containing microchips at a pharmacy near you?

Look out, your medicine may soon be watching you.

Novartis AG, a Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company plans to seek regulatory approval for a new tablet containing an embedded microchip.

The initial program will use one of the Swiss firm's established drugs taken by transplant patients to avoid organ rejection. But Trevor Mundel, global head of development, believes the concept can be applied to many other pills.

The report at the link below says:

The chip is designed collect heart rate and temperature to body movement to check that drugs are working properly.

Because the tiny chips are added to existing drugs, Novartis does not expect to have to conduct full-scale clinical trials to prove the new products work. Instead, it aims to do so-called bioequivalence tests to show they are the same as the original.

A bigger issue may be what checks should be put in place to protect patients' personal medical data as it is transmitted from inside their bodies by wireless and Bluetooth.

More about these 'Big Brother' pills here.

Brits say they found cure for common cold

From a recent UK report:

A cure for the common cold may finally be achieved as a result of a remarkable discovery in a Cambridge laboratory.

In a dramatic breakthrough that could affect millions of lives, scientists have been able to show for the first time that the body's immune defenses can destroy the common cold virus after it has actually invaded the inner sanctum of a human cell, a feat that was believed until now to be impossible.

More here.

Few Democrats survive ObamaCare vote

Most Democrats fell on their swords when they voted for ObamaCare.

From Healthwatch, The Hill's healthcare blog:

Few Democrats survive healthcare vote.

The evening started pretty well for Democrats who voted for healthcare reform, with Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky handily winning reelection with 54.5 percent of the vote.

Things quickly went downhill from there.

Within hours, a dozen members had lost reelection, including four freshmen elected in the 2008 Democratic wave: Reps. Tom Perriello and Glenn Nye of Virgina and Suzanne Kosmas and Alan Grayson of Florida.

They weren't alone: Democratic Reps. Baron Hill (Ind.), Carol Shea-Porter (N.H.) and Allen Boyd (Fla.) quickly joined them. So did Pennsylvania Reps. Kathy Dahlkemper, Chris Carney and Paul Kanjorski, all of whom were main targets of the anti-abortion-rights group the Susan B. Anthony List.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), who voted for the bill when her vote was crucial but later voted no on reconciliation, was also defeated.

It even got worse as reported here.