Archive for the ‘Social Issues’ Category

Posted by Michael Barone, March 1, 2010

“More talk, no deal” was The Wall Street Journal’s headline on Thursday’s Blair House health care summit. “After summit flop, Democrats prepare to go it alone on Obamacare,” proclaimed the headline here at The Washington Examiner. These were appropriate verdicts if you viewed the summit as an attempt to reach bipartisan agreement or even a limited consensus.

But that of course was not why Barack Obama convened this unique colloquy. He did so as part of an attempt to pass some Democratic health care bill, somehow, through both houses of Congress — and to discredit the Republicans who opposed the bills passed by the House in November and the Senate in December. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Ron Heuer, Feb 26, 2010

Wisconsinites can be proud of Congressman Paul Ryan as he was chosen to represent the Republican side at the Obama Health Care summit yesterday. The following copy are excerpts from Congressman Ryan’s address. The entire address is posted below with a U-Tube video.

Ryan is the Budget Committee Ranking Member, and he walked through why the bill put forward by Democrats FAILS the Presidents deficit test. As according to Obama,

“I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits — either now or in the future.” (Remarks by President Obama to a Joint Session of Congress, September 9, 2009)

Excerpts from the address: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Bobby Eberle, February 26, 2010 at 9:09 am

Following the election victories in New Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts and Obama’s continuing slide in the polls, I thought it would be a waste of time for Republicans to participate in Obama’s healthcare dog and pony show — a.k.a. Health Care Summit. Let him continue on his free fall… pushing policies that run counter to the essence of what it means to be an American. That was my thought. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Bobby Eberle, February 23, 2010 at 9:04 am

After being rocked by election defeats in New Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts and the growing public disapproval of his health care takeover, Obama and congressional Democrats were reeling. The American people had spoken, and what they said was Obama was taking the country in the wrong direction with the wrong approach.

Obama and the Democrats paused for a bit. We started to wonder if they had seen the light. Was ObamaCare dead? Obama then stated he wanted to “reach out” to Republicans… get their input and suggestions on health care. He even proposed a health care “summit” for this Thursday. Then… he released his “updated” plan. He rejected conservative input and has put forward the same kind of scheme as before. We didn’t want more government before, and we certainly don’t want it now! Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by WISGOP Communications, Feb 6, 2010

“Even the Democrats who voted for the disastrous state budget are complaining about all of the hidden tax and fee increases…”

MADISON – E-mails obtained by Richard Moore, an investigative reporter for the Lakeland Times, revealed one state lawmaker’s candid thoughts on the 2009-11 state budget Democrats approved in June of 2009. State Senator Jim Holperin (D-Conover) told a constituent the budget Democrats voted for contained “enough little tax and fee hikes to sink a good sized battleship.” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by State Representative Kevin Petersen, Jan 29, 2009

Governor Doyle echoed the state’s gratitude to veterans in his State of the State speech on January 26th with these words: “On Memorial Day nearly four years ago, I was proud to sign a bill that ensures our veterans have the chance to get an education — tuition-free — at one of Wisconsin’s great universities or technical colleges.”

What the governor omitted from his speech was how he, Democrat leaders, and his Veterans Affairs Board are now weakening veterans’ education benefits. Principally flawed in their 2009 – 11 Wisconsin budget is a revision made to the Wisconsin GI bill. 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 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.

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 Dick Morris, December 23, 2009

Editor’s Note: - This column was written with Eileen McGann.

Obama’s health care bill, the poisoned Kool-Aid making its way through the Senate, will not confer any of its supposed benefits on Americans until 2013. But they will find themselves chafing at its restrictions and paying its taxes immediately after the law takes effect. Then, they will see no gain, but plenty of pain, for the next three years. Read the rest of this entry »