Archive for January, 2010

Posted by David Limbaugh, January 26, 2010

The more painful exposure we have to Barack Obama — and we’re talking hyper-exposure at this point — the more we realize how narcissistic he is. Indeed, we are treated to this overexposure precisely because of his narcissistic impulses. He can’t keep himself out of the spotlight.

So it was that on the heels of his crushing personal defeat in the Massachusetts senatorial election last week, Obama’s principal reaction was, “This isn’t about me.” Read the rest of this entry »

Postec by Dick Morris & Eileen McGann, Sunday, 24 Jan 2010

Highly informed sources on Capitol Hill have revealed to me details of the Democratic plan to sneak Obamacare through Congress, despite collapsing public approval for healthcare “reform” and disintegrating congressional support in the wake of Republican Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts.

President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid all have agreed to the basic framework of the plan. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Newt Gingrich, January 22, 2010

Scott Brown gave a great victory speech last night after a tremendous victory.

He is an attractive, articulate, courageous, hard working candidate.

He had the courage to serve for years in a small minority in the Massachusetts legislature.

He had the courage to serve for 20 years and become a lieutenant colonel in the Massachusetts Army Reserve. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by State Rep Kevin Petersen, Jan 19, 2010

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help’.” Those words from Ronald Reagan still ring true today. This time government is expanding entitlement programs, underpaying hospitals, and increasing taxes on health care to pay for them.

Currently, a proposal is being lobbied in the Wisconsin capitol to tax 59 rural critical access hospitals. This tax would be similar to the hospital tax passed in the budget repair bill of 2009. The 2009 hospital tax exempted rural critical access hospitals such as Riverside Medical Center in Waupaca and Family Medical Center in New London.

The new tax proposal would undo the exemption and levy roughly $10 million from rural hospitals. A portion of the new hospital tax would be skimmed and could be raided in the future. Governor Doyle has done this in the past with his veto authority. The rest would be used to garner federal matching funds through a formula using Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (FMAP).

Wisconsin’s Federal Medical Assistance Percentage is roughly a 40/60 state/federal split. Once the tax money is skimmed, $4.8 million will be left over. The remaining $4.8 million would be matched by an estimated $11.5 million from the federal government. In total $16.3 million would be reimbursed to rural critical access hospitals.

Rural critical access hospitals serving few Medical Assistance patients would receive a smaller reimbursement. Under the original hospital tax, out of 72 hospitals levied only 59 were expected to see a net increase through the hospital tax scheme.

The hospital tax was established because it created revenue to continue expanding entitlement programs and other bloated government spending. Furthermore, a hospital tax isn’t obvious in the manner of an income or sales tax increase. Therefore, it’s hard for consumers to pinpoint the tax or why their health care costs are going up.

Democrats passed the original hospital tax on a straight party line vote in early 2009. The tax has ballooned to nearly a billion dollars and is being collected from hospital patients in fiscal years 2009 and 2010. Over $300 million of the $1 billion was skimmed in the last biennial budget to close the budget deficit.

In the same biennial budget that increased the hospital tax, Democrats cut Wisconsin’s Medicaid program by over $625 million to balance the budget. Specifically, a cut of $15 million was imposed on rural critical access hospitals. The new rural hospital tax proposal is suppose to fill the hole that resulted from the original cut.

Supporters are trying to sell the idea that if the levy is not passed, your local hospital will incur a 10% cut in Medicaid reimbursement. But remember, the only reason this tax is being proposed is because the Doyle administration and legislative Democrat leaders cut Medicaid in the first place.

Wisconsin’s entitlement programs are running into fiscal insolvency. Who pays for government over promising and under delivering? Under this plan - you will - in increased health care costs.

Dick Morris

Posted by Dick Morris, January 14, 2010

 Pessimism is no more attractive in a party leader than it is in a high school cheerleader. And in the case of Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Steele, it is unwarranted as well. Despite his prediction, on Fox News, that GOP congressional control will not come “this year,” the Republican Party has a very, very good chance of taking both houses of Congress in 2010.

We are in the midst of a political tsunami. To judge that the water will only ascend a hundred feet or two hundred or three hundred is entirely speculative. Generally, once these things start, they go further than anyone would have thought likely. Only rarely do they fall short.

President Barack Obama’s determination to march ahead with his full socialist agenda, including the imposition of a healthcare system a majority doesn’t want, can only strengthen the winds and the tide that is approaching. The 60-vote Democratic Senate majority is empowering such arrogance and disdain for the democratic process that it is easy to see how it will trigger an equal and opposite reaction in the 2010 elections. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Ron Heuer, Jan 15, 2010

Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold once again shows how out of touch he is with the Wisconsin Electorate. He appeared in Pewaukee Wisconsin for a “listening session” and he got an earful. This is for me, this video is reminiscent of the same message Congressmen Steve Kagen heard this past summer at his “listening sessions”. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Thomas Sowell, January 12, 2009

The latest “screw-up” that let a man with explosives get on a plan on Christmas day is only part of a larger laxness and irresponsibility when it comes to national security. This administration pays lip service to national security and gives out with a lot of rhetorical notions that makes it notional security instead of national security.

The Muslim major who was arrested for the murders of American soldiers at Fort Hood had left so many clues to his hatred of this country that all you had to do was count the dots, without even connecting them, to see where he was coming from. But for a fellow officer to alert higher authorities to the danger would have meant risking damage to his own career moreso than to that of Major Nidal Hasan. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by State Representative Kevin Peterson, Jan 11, 2010

According to a report released by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, the generally accepted accounting principles state deficit for the 2008-09 fiscal year hit $2.71 billion.

The $2.71 billion figure was calculated using data from the 2008 – 2009 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report published in December by the Wisconsin Department of Administration. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by State Representative Garey Bies, Jan 8, 2010

Good afternoon to the people of the First Assembly District. It’s been a cold week in Madison, and the news from Washington added to the chill. The growing momentum behind our effort to prevent invasive Asian Carp from entering Lake Michigan got a cold shoulder from the Obama Administration this week when U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court opposing the lawsuit. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Ron Heuer, Jan 7, 2009

Ronald Reagan usually didn’t mince his words and wasn’t concerned about saying it like it was or is. Following are a series of quotes attributed to Ronald Reagan.

“Socialism only works in two places: Heaven where they don’t need it and hell where they already have it.” Read the rest of this entry »