The “Health Care” Bill — Who Writes this Crap?
By T Blogger | August 6, 2009
The “Health Care” bill that is in the U.S. House of Representatives is, at present, 1,018 (8 1/2 x 11) pages. I have attempted to read it. While I will readily admit that I am not a lawyer, I am a reasonably intelligent person whose formal education consists of a BA in English, and an MA in linguistics. This bill is the most confusing collection of legal gobbledygook I have ever had the misfortune to try to decipher.
Probably the most disturbing aspect of this monstrosity is that a high percentage of the text consists of changes to other legislation (primarily the Social Security Act). What this means is that, if one wants to understand what the “Health Care” House bill actually mandates, one must have a copy of the Social Security Act, and all the other laws referred to in order know what is being changed in the existing U.S. Code. This is because all the references are like the following (copied and pasted verbatim from the official Government PDF document):
(a) GROUP HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE.—Title
XXVII of the Public Health Service Act is amended by
inserting after section 2713 the following new section:
or:
(1) IN GENERAL.—Part C of title XI of the So-
cial Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1320d et seq.) is
amended by inserting after section 1173 the fol-
lowing new section:
or:
(42 U.S.C. 1320d) is amended—
(A) in paragraph (7), by striking ‘‘with
reference to’’ and all that follows and inserting
‘‘with reference to a transaction or data ele-
ment of health information in section 1173
means implementation specifications, certifi-
cation criteria, operating rules, messaging for-
mats, codes, and code sets adopted or estab-
lished by the Secretary for the electronic ex-
change and use of information’’;
Got that?
Thanks to the magic of my PDF reader, I can say with certainty that there are 394 “insertions” into existing laws in this document.
As my Dad used to say, I was born at night — but not LAST night. This “legislation” is a monument to obfuscation. The reason almost none of the congressmen / congresswomen have read this bill is that it is almost unreadable! It is unconscionable that the U.S. congress is willing to vote on making binding law of a document that they can’t understand.
One has to ask oneself just how many of the laws that govern our country are filled with such inscrutable language. One also needs to ask an even more important question — since most of our legislators have admitted that they haven’t read this bill, and one can therefore assume they didn’t write it — JUST WHO DID WRITE IT?
© 2009, Tom Weeks
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NEWSPEAK AND OBAMACARE
By T Blogger | July 27, 2009
“Newspeak” — the systematic, government-driven butchering of the lexicon — does not just exist in the pages of Orwells’s 1984. It is in full force in the United States. It is in use by the media, politicians, pundits, entertainers, and increasingly by our citizenry.
Consider, if you will, the current “debate” about the push for socialized medicine. Almost everyone repeats the term “Health Care” as if it had some real meaning. It does not. Doctors, nurses and hospitals treat illness and trauma. “Health” requires no treatment. The more appropriate term is “Medical Care”, but even this is not the real subject of the current debate — that would be “Medical Insurance.” America has the best medical care in the world. That is why people from all over the world come here to receive treatment. Obamacare seeks to increase medical insurance coverage, but at the cost of further compromising medical care. It is a deal with the Devil, and it needs to be thwarted.
A few days ago, in a rare display of candor, the president revealed that he thinks doctors, nurses, hospitals and insurance companies are money-grubbing villains that need to be controlled. It is obvious to me that the reason we have so few American-born physicians in this country is the government’s involvement in medical care — primarily through medicare, medicaid, and financially unrealistic regulation of insurance companies. In order for the med student to become a licensed physician, a daunting array of educational hurdles must be surmounted, and many hundreds of thousands of dollars must be spent. He or she must spend countless sleepless hours learning the intricacies of the healing arts. The reward for all this work and study should include a substantial income. If anyone in this society deserves to get rich from his work it is the physician. But the government, in its infinite stupidity, seems to think there is something bad about making money for doing good work. Who wants to go through ten or twelve years of rigorous training with long hours and short money with no financial payoff in the offing? The answer is fewer and fewer Americans. The people smart enough to become doctors are smart enough to recognize a losing proposition when they see it.
The class warfare that Obama and his ilk continue to provoke has crossed one too many lines. We need more wealthy doctors and fewer wealthy community organizers. If you don’t agree with this, the next time you get sick, call ACORN.
©2009, Tom Weeks
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Coming Home Ain’t What it Used to Be
By T Blogger | July 21, 2009
In March of 1963 the USS Forrestal tied up in Norfolk after a seven month cruise to the Mediterranean. A young homesick sailor (who happened to be me), stumbled down the ladder with his sea bag, fell to his knees on the pier and kissed the greasy pavement. I was back in the U.S.A. and my God was I happy! The country I had come home to was ripe with promise for the future. My president was a war hero with a beautiful wife and cute kids. Things were looking good.
Much has changed in our country and the rest of the world since my glorious homecoming all those years ago, but I can still call up that feeling of being proud to have such a magnificent country to come home to. Sadly, my president is now a guy who earned his political chops trading Newports and Colt 45 forties for votes in Chicago. He is not a war hero. In fact, he goes around the world apologizing for the people who elected him. I can’t help but wonder what a homesick sailor coming back after a long cruise today feels like. It is certainly something to think about.
©2009, Tom Weeksикони
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1984, Anyone?
By T Blogger | June 1, 2009
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Coddle the Mass Murderers – Shoot the Pirates
By T Blogger | April 23, 2009
The left wing of the Democrat party are once again frothing at the mouth. They apparently want to make it a crime to be a Republican. Our apologist-in-chief, Prince Obama the Obsequious, in a rare attempt at rationality, said a few days ago that he thought it would be counter productive to try to prosecute officials of the previous administration for authorizing “torture” of al Quaeda bigwigs in our custody. He actually made some sense. It seemed too good to be true — and, of course it was. Perhaps our president’s backbone, which turned to spaghetti in front of the Saudi monarch, should be made of sterner stuff. Now he thinks he’ll leave the decision to prosecute members of the Bush administration up to his Attorney General. (Pontius Pilate washes his hands of it?)
Contrast, if you will, the following two situations:
1 – It is the aftermath of the deadliest attack ever carried out on American soil. In New York, two gleaming towers have collapsed into a smoldering pit, turning more than two thousand human beings into unrecognizable shards of protoplasm. We have managed to capture some of the people who helped plan this attack. Interrogators seek legal advice about what they can or can not do to extract information from these scumbags. Advice is given, and “harsh” methods are used. (They were mean to the poor mass murderers whose avowed goal was the killing of as many Americans as they could) These harsh methods were apparently successful, because there have been no more attacks.
2 – Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. Four teenagers armed to the teeth board a merchant vessel flying the American flag. They take the captain hostage. These pirates have not taken blood oaths to kill as many Americans as they can. They are armed robbers in pursuit of money. After a few days our bold president finally decides to let the military handle the problem. Three young men have their heads blown off.
Please do not think that I disagree with president Obama’s handling of the pirate situation. He did the right thing. In fact I think action should have been taken even sooner. However, I am stunned by the duplicitous irony. The rabid rabble of Democrats calling for the heads of the Bush administration are “shocked and disgusted” because CIA interrogators pretended to drown some terrorist thugs to loosen their tongues. They were not drowned. They were not beaten to death. And, it seems, they sang like little birdies, and American lives were saved. The current president, he of the “let’s talk with them” persuasion, authorized the military to be judge, jury, and executioner in the matter of the Somali pirates. He did not authorize them to pretend to drown the pirates. He did not authorize them to deprive the pirates of sleep or threaten them with dogs or insect larvae. He authorized the military to shoot them to death. And they did. Good for him and good for them. However…. if Patrick Leahy is disturbed about terrorist being waterboarded and slapped around, why is he not disturbed about the instantaneous snuffing out of the lives of three Somali teenagers? Could it be the party to which the president belongs?
The United States has prided itself over the years for the periodic peaceful transfer of executive and legislative power enabled by free elections. George Soros, Pat Leahy and the rest of the dingbat wing of the Democrat party seem to want to emulate dictatorships in which the previous administration spends its retirement in prison cells or coffins. Our founding Fathers must be squirming in their graves.
©2009, Tom Weeks
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