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ObamaCare

March 23rd, 2010, was the day that ObamaCare was signed into law.  Although it would cost outrageous amounts of money, President Obama assured the American people that this would give every American citizen the right to healthcare insurance.  It was passed by a Democratic House and Senate.  Now, a year and a half later, this bill has done more harm than good.

The first thing that should be clear is that if our economy wasn't so low, and if the unemployment rate was lower, most people would have the money to pay for their own healthcare.  It should not be the government's job to produce that for them.  I think that instead of trying to give everyone insurance right away, President Obama and his advisors should have used that nearly $1 trillion to boost job-creation.  Apparently, President Obama hasn't learned how to do that yet. 

That money could have been of better use elsewhere.  With so many Americans out of work, we needed that to be spent creating jobs.  It was not.  Now let's look at the downside to ObamaCare. 

This law has already cost more than $1 trillion, and that number is sure to go up.  $5 billion of that is being spent to "protect" the "temporary high-risk pools"-- people with pre-existing conditions that cannot afford health insurance-- until the actual healthcare benefit kick in, in 2014.  By the way, not all of this money will even be spent for this, which I'll discuss later.  While everyone should be covered to a certain extent, healthcare is not one of the "inalienable rights" we as American citizens are given.  If someone is in the hospital and cannot afford the care that will save their life, they should not be deprived of it.  People do not need the government to pay for their health insurance.  Because, it is not really the government who is paying for it.  It will be the tax-paying, hard-working Americans who are doing all they can to continue to provide for their families in this tough time.  Their taxes will be raised in order to pay for healthcare for those who, in some cases, may just be too lazy to actually go and find a job.

One thing ObamaCare was supposed to do was to protect the elderly's health benefits.  Nearly $3 billion was spent on ObamaCare advertising in September and October of 2010 to "educate the public" on ObamaCare.  These ads included actor Andy Griffith.  In them, he tells his fellow senior citizens, "like always, we'll have our guaranteed [Medicare] benefits."  In reality, ObamaCare is going to result in benefit cuts for one group of Medicare beneficiaries: those who are in Medicare Advantage plans. 

Another thing President Obama promised about his healthcare law was that none of the money given to it would fund abortions.  This was also a lie.  The bill that was given to the House to pass along included restrictions on the money funding abortion through the Stupak-Pitts Amendment (designed to prevent federal abortion funding).  The one that got passed from them to the Senate did not include restrictions.  Here is why: Instead of choosing to place tremendous pressure on Senate Democrats to include this Amendment in their bill, the Obama Administration instead chose to place pressure on the House Democrats to remove it from their bill.  They wanted no restrictions whatsoever.  Nearly all House Democrats did as they were told, even the small amount of pro-life members among them.  This was never told to the public before the signing of ObamaCare.

All of that means, ObamaCare will be funding abortions, whether they say so or not.  Some of this money will go to "Community Health Centers", many of which will be run by Planned Parenthood.  Planned Parenthood is an organization that performs millions of abortions. 
Remember that $5 billion that will go to protecting those with pre-existing conditions?  Not all of that money is actually going toward that.  This money is going directly to the states and be administered by them.  This gives them the right to do whatever they choose with the money.  Without abortion restrictions, they will be free to use the money for abortions if they feel like it. 

President Obama said that this would be a job-creator.  How it could possibly be one, I don't know.  It has not created jobs.  It has even affected how private corporations do their business.  Many businesses do not want ObamaCare as their healthcare provider for employees.  Some of them have already filed for the right to keep their current insurance, and have been granted it.  The Virginia Attorney General has ruled that ObamaCare is unconstitutional.  Why is it still accepted as okay?

ObamaCare is a huge mistake.  It needs to be repealed immediately.  It has already cost us $1 trillion, and all of its benefits are not even in place yet!  Imagine what the costs will be in 2014 when everything is set.  The government does not need to provide healthcare for everyone.  That is not their responsibility.  It should be left up to the states.  The Tenth Amendment is there for a reason.  The states should be able to provide their citizens with health insurance if they need it.

Libyan War

Months ago, our United States troops entered Libya based on orders issued by President Obama.  We have now been there for several months.  Reportedly, Muammar Gaddafi and two of his sons were surrounded by Rebel forces and his forty-two year reign as leader of Libya is over.  The ousted leader is now, reportedly, on the run with his sons.  Rebel forces have taken over the capital of Libya, Tripoli, and say that there are no more Gaddafi-loyal forces inside it. 

Without question, the situation that has been going on in Libya for many months is a civil war.  Half of the country is fighting the other half.  Is there any reason that other countries should be jumping in to help?  I don't think so.  When the United States had a civil war no other countries came over and joined one side or the other.  Yes, they may have voiced support for one side or the other.  They never actually sent their military over to help us. 

Our military has been involved in many wars.  Many of them were wars that other countries were fighting before we ever joined them.  WWII is an example.  We got involved in that war because someone had attacked us first.  European countries were fighting before we even began.  Aside from those circumstances, I see no real reason to put our military in harm's way.  Unless our own security is in danger, our troops should be at home.  I think we have done all we can do in Afghanistan.  I think that, gradually, we need to begin pulling our troops out.  Not all right away.  The process needs to start, though.

Aside from all this, here is an interesting fact you may not know.  Aside from whether you or I agree with President Obama on anything, he could, legally, be impeached right now.  That is not based on my opinion.  That is based on the War Powers Act.  Passed in the 1970s, the War Powers Act requires the president to receive approval from Congress to engage our military in a war.  If he does not, but sends the troops anyway, he must notify them within 48 hours.  It also forbids them from remaining for more than 60 days, the adds a 30 day withdrawal period.  That gives a total of 90 days that U.S. troops can remain in a war that Congress did not approve before they must all be out. 

We have been in Libya for more than 90 days.  Our troops are not in a withdrawal period.  This involvement was not approved by Congress.  They are still fighting with the Rebel forces against Muammar Gaddafi.  Now that he has been "defeated", hopefully our troops will be coming home soon.  That is aside from the point, though.  The point is that there was no reason for them to be in Libya in the first place.  When President Obama handed control of the situation over to NATO on March 31st, he should not have then sent troops in.  He should have left it alone.

When will our president realize that the answer to everything is not spending even more money in the process of helping another country that-- truthfully-- did not need our help.

The media and the 2012 election

The 2012 Presidential election is going to be a huge turning point for our country.  We are in an economic recession.  Nearly 10% of the population is out of work.  Many, many new programs have been initiated and old ones discarded in hopes of changing things.  Nothing so far has worked; if anything, it has been made worse.

The thing that will determine our new direction or lack of one after that election is going to be the person who is elected– whether that person is our current president or the GOP candidate.  All of the current GOP candidates are claiming to have their own plans to restore and rebuild America.  They say that they know exactly what we need to do in order to return to our full potential.  In the end, only one of them can win the Republican Party’s nomination. That person will square off with President Obama in the general election.
I’m sure you already knew all that.  Here is something you might not know: There are people out there right now who want to brainwash your thinking concerning this election.  Brainwash you into voting for who they think should be our president in 2012.  These people are the media.  Not all of the media wants to do this; but a good number of them do.  Many news stations today are very biased to one political party over the other.  Some of them openly admit it, but more of them do not.  They present their opinions to you as fact.  Some examples of this biased attitude are CNN and MSNBC.  Both of these stations are known as liberal stations.  They try to say their positive opinions toward the Democratic candidate for president, which in this case will be President Obama, are the only true facts and therefore you should believe them.  FOX News is a more Conservative-leaning station.  In some cases I notice both of them trying to define the line between opinion and fact.  The daytime shows are, for the most part, straight facts with an opinion only thrown in here and there.  The nighttime shows are more opinion-based.

The biased attitude is not always a bad thing.  People are entitled to their own opinions, even news anchors.  The unacceptable thing is that they try to tell you that their opinions are the only things that are true.  People should be able to go to the media for accurate news that they can use to form their own opinions.  They should not be so influenced by biased opinions passed off as fact that they have no choice but to agree with it.  This goes right along with my previous post on freedom of the press.

News shows are not the only way that the media can try to shape peoples’ opinions.  In fact, they do not even have to be actual “media” to influence people.  Normal people such as bloggers or online journalists can have just as much impact, especially if they operate a frequently visited website.  There are many blogs out there that are giving positive coverage to some candidates and are giving too much negative coverage to others.  People are allowed to campaign for their favorite candidate, but if they want to call themselves a real “news” website and not mostly an opinion website, they need to remain unbiased in their writings.  It is simply not right to try to turn peoples’ minds against one candidate just because the candidate they support is threatened by that person.  While we should try to support who we feel is most qualified for the job of President, we should also be careful not to give lies as truth about these people just because they may take some of your candidate’s support.

The person we elect as President in 2012 should be the person who is best qualified for the job.  It should not be the person who can give the best speeches, or has the best fundraising abilities.  It may not even be the most well-liked person in the race.  It needs to be the person with the best track-record who will know how to lead America back to its full potential.  The media needs to give the American people the chance to figure their opinion on that out for themselves.  The American people will also need to have the common sense to be able to discern what is truth and what is a lie.

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