Why Be a Doctor Anymore?

Monday, USA Today reporters Laura Ungar and Jayne O'Donnell published an article dealing with just one of the broken paradigms that Obamacare assumes will solve America's healthcare crisis. The ACA's assumption was that if people had insurance, they would go to general practitioners (GP's), taking pressure off of hard-pressed ER's.

As it turns out, ER congestion is actually rising.

Who could have seen this coming?! As it turns out, everyone. America's lack of GP's is older than the ACA itself.

There are fewer GP's to assume the Obamacare's burden, because medical students would stay perpetually underwater on their virtually-necessary med school loans if they chose to be a GP. Further, the few GP's that are out there cannot dig their financial hole any deeper by opting into a Medicaid program that has a history of low reimbursement rates.

Essentially, Obamacare mandates doctors who don't exist to accept low and unreliable payment for services in the one profession least able to absorb the cost.

VA GOP Caucus

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The Anatomy of a Mistake

The ACA is a giver and taker system that depends on the young and healthy to form the backbone of the system. 

The glaring problems are that 15.9 percent of young people are out of work, and there is a nationwide "failure to launch" trend that places many in that demographic at home with their parents. The young aren't in nearly the position to carry Obama's legislation as they were to carry Barry O himself in 2012.

The projected increase in individual premiums here is one of the highest of all states at an average of 115 percent in the 24-34 demographic. That accounts for over one million Virginians, whose age and good  health make them the least of the beneficiaries. The young will then likely take the penalty, and opt out of the system rather than take a rate increase that they could never have afforded anyway.

That leaves the system with no money to digest, and grinds the giver-taker paradigm to a halt, leaving the young unprotected, companies without revenue to cover the program and reconcile the cost of joining the exchanges which was the whole premise of the thing in the first place. 

How many of those one million can afford to carry the system on their backs? Compared to the impending passing of the baby boomer generation, whatever that number turns out to be will not be enough to stifle the cost. The young can't pay it, the old can't survive it, and the system cannot abide it.

VA GOP Caucus

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Wouldn't You Know it...We Were Right

All across the nation, good little blue states are hanging their healthcare exchanges by the mantle with care, in the hopes that Saint Obamacare will soon be near. But in California, they recently discovered that Obamacare will do the exact opposite of its purpose. Premiums could go up as much as 150 percent there.

That is just the beginning, boys and girls. 

Last week a new state's prospective figures came to light. Ohio's compliance with the Affordable Care Act will push a bill on state taxpayers for another 88% on top of existing rates. Avik Roy of Forbes posted this little gem to YouTube a few months ago. Remember when? 

Virginia and the rest of the nation are attached to this proverbial runaway train, and this completely predictable predicament is the exact spot that ACA critics predicted that we would be in. What an absolute shocker coming from a President whose record on carrying out promises is practically non-existent. 

VA GOP Caucus

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Can't Throw A Rock These Days...

...Without hitting a Democrat guilty of electoral fraud.

Today's example comes to us from St. Joseph's County Indiana; where County Democratic Committee chairman Butch Morgan, Jr. has been convicted of felony conspiracy counts of forgery and petition fraud. Along with him goes Dustin Blythe who was a good little helper while Ole Butch was busy in 2008 forging names in Indiana's 2nd Congressional District to get Barack Obama on the Indiana ballot.

At this point, there is a distinct pattern emerging. Democrats will talk out of the other sides of their mouths nationwide to "protect" the already inalienable right to the ballot, all the while using dirty under-handed tactics to fake the system to win. I know it isn't right, you know it isn't right, deep down I would hope even they would know it isn't right.

But that knowledge did not seem to matter as Morgan faked page after page of signatures to get Obama, as well as Hillary Clinton on the Indiana ballot. Had his scheme been uncovered earlier, there's a chance that history would have played a very different tune. But Butch Morgan will face the consequences of his actions. Courageous Republican legislatures across the nation are enacting bills to combat this voter fraud epidemic and it makes all the sense in the world that the Dems would be tilting at strawmen to keep their back door to elections open.

Delegates Morrissey and McClellan, what say you now? After all of the documented cases nationwide, is there any response to this idea of fast-lane democracy where the will of the people is ignored, and partisan selfishness reigns supreme? Because the evidence is piling up.

VA GOP Caucus

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Don Obama: Is the Administration Shaking Down America

A recent report from MSNBC anchor Melissa Harris-Perry proudly draws out the comparison between President Obama and Francis Ford Coppola's Don Corleone when it comes to talks about the "Fiscal Cliff". President Obama is making no bones about his offer, concerning America's debt crisis, and he's making it one that Republicans ostensibly can't refuse. 

They could really be on to something here. As Obama shores up his partisan-overspending "family" of Democrats, Melissa Harris-Perry of MSNBC walks us through the similarities and contrasts of OUR PRESIDENT BEING A GANGSTER; and makes a pretty convincing case. 

Give that a second to sink in before continuing.

The similarities are astounding, though. “You just know that Leader Pelosi is letting the House Democrats know that they better not  pull a Fredo,” Harris-Perry said, referring to any House Dems who might be willing to negotiate with Republicans on a bi-partisan deal. 

She goes on to outline President Obama's idea of an offer of compromise; which is closer to  Michael Corleone's "My offer is nothing," statement in The Godfather Part II than actual conciliation. Is the President shoring up the support of his gang of Congressional thugs in an effort to muscle out Republican opposition to his plans? 

                            

can you see the resemblance?

Obama's plan going forward (now that the election is over) is not to compromise; it is to move his suicidal spending plan forward regardless of whether he promised to negotiate or not. Heck, or whether even people in his own party have doubts over it. This smells a lot like political strong-arm-ing to push through an unproven and concerning agenda. 

With the country rolling towards the cliff, with a dire need to rein in the abhorrent amount of spending that his administration is doing, Barack wants to INCREASE spending. He is proposing a 50 Billion dollar stimulus; and he is not looking like he wants to meet in the middle on this. 

                   

How about in this one?

In another appropriate analogy, Harris-Perry compares Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to Don Corleone's counselor Tom Hagen in the films. It is an apt metaphor; in the movies Hagen serves as a messenger, and as an advisor. Geithner has been sent to the Hill with his and the administration's plan to raise taxes AND spending. 

Though usually we would bash MSNBC here, this time they have brought some important issues to America's attention. It is too late to tell you, "Don't let Barack Obama fool you into thinking he will compromise when it comes to debt." Now I tell you, don't let President Obama act like Don Obama. Stop the shakedown of our financial future. 

VA GOP Caucus

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Richmond Business Gone

Since mid-September, Richmonders have been mourning one of the City's oldest and best-loved restaurants. Bill's Barbecue had been a staple of Richmond dining since 1931. Now the President of the company (who happens to be the Bill's niece) is speaking out about the circumstances that brought that about...

As one of thousands of Virginians who recalls eating Bill's Barbecue since I was a small child, the fact that they were forced out of business is a personal issue. Bill's was the kind of business pillar that brings character, smiles, and jobs to America's local communities. But this is more than just a sad occasion to mourn a great restaurant.

The fact that a business started in the wake of the Great Depression, that had stood for over 80 years could not keep its doors open facing the Obama Administration's costs and regulations is deplorable. For all of his support for small business, the President has not shown much success at supporting it.

There was, just this week, a Wall Street Journal op-ed joint published by editors. The article discussed the eleventh-hour Obama idea of creating a Secretary of Business. The editors have critiqued the idea, and found that the root of the problem was that businesses had no confidence in their ability to succeed. The article proposes that the actual change that needs to happen is not in the Cabinet; it's a bit higher.

 “They’ll [small businesses] invest more and hire more workers if Washington would impose fewer costs, reform the tax code, and stop trying to allocate capital for political reasons. Rebuilding business confidence doesn't require a Secretary of Business but a new President.”  

To someone, every small local business that closes is, in some way, as dear as Bill's Barbecue was to us. While based in economics, this issue affects ourselves and the people around us. Should every business still be smacked by this Administration's tax gauntlet then compacted by pressing regulations? Should the Obama Administration be allowed to sink hundreds of millions into government-backed energy companies that are failing?

The answer is, "Not while American small businesses are suffering." Those businesses are made up of people, and as the video says, we as the people cannot afford another four years of what we have been dealing with for the last four years. Bill's is just one example of the cost of this kind of hostile business climate. There are small businesses worrying over their ability to stay in the race everywhere, and those worries demand a change.

VA GOP Caucus

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New Epidemic in the Fourth Estate, Benghazi-phobia?

This morning's news ticker on many of the generic news-board homepages of America blink across a number of titles. Tebow could get traded to the Jaguars, Disney will be putting out new Star Wars films, and Octo-mom could go to rehab; all of these languish on yahoo.com's rotating spin-wheel of pop-pieces.

The real story is what is not listed. Several American lives were lost on foreign soil with no hope of aid. Is there nothing for anyone to explain? It has been weeks since September 11, when the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya was the subject of a deadly attack. Hardly a word of explanation has been uttered to the American people. The mainstream media has simply glossed it over and moved on. But this story is a sleeping giant; there are obvious inconsistencies in the narrative of the administration and their response.

If there was a US drone (or two) diverted to fly over the site of the riots, why would Secretary Panetta imply that he dealt with a lack of real-time information? If Ambassador Stephens had asked just weeks earlier to keep his 16-man security team for fears of just such an attack, why was security at its weakest? If emails and calls sent during the attack show that even the personnel inside the consulate knew this was no protest gone-astray, why would President Obama initially pin the blame to a YouTube video? 

If all of these facts don't add up (and they don't), why has the Fourth Estate not turned their hawk-eyes to the tragedy instead of NBC's Wednesday night line-up? How, when we have lost servants of our society on foreign soil who had no hope of aid, are we not eager to ask questions? How, in the face of a President who seems to be in no hurry to explain his blatant mis-handling of a foreign tragedy, do journalists nation-wide not cry for accountability? Why is no one handling this other than Fox News?


Why? Volume and bias.

According to Jonah Goldberg's story for the New York Post, "I don’t think there’s a conspiracy at work. Rather, I think journalists tend to act on their instincts. And, collectively, the mainstream media’s instincts run liberal."

The mainstream media is sitting in the journalistic equivalent of Willy Wonka's factory at the moment. They are reporting an election, an upheaval of a football season, a super-storm, and the list goes on. Maybe Benghazi got covered up, not by intent, but by intuitive bias.

But with so many questions surrounding the cause, the intent, the response, and the explanation of the Obama Administration, is this a story that the media's inherent bias should be allowed to sweep under the rug? Is such an inherent bias even acceptable in the world's supposed leading proponent of objective reporting?

VA GOP Caucus

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SNL's Obama: A Cute Illustration of an Acute Problem

This past Saturday, the popular skit show Saturday Night Live, long known for their comedy gold during Presidential elections, performed a mock-up rally for Barack Obama (played by Jay Pharoah) in Ohio. The skit was a riot, mainly covering "Barack" trying to defend his handling of the economy.

Confronted with an audience badly hit by the economy, the "President" just could not find a beneficiary of his administration anywhere. Heck, the only excited man at the rally seems to be a drug dealer (played by Bill Hader).

The video is embedded below. 

Without ruining some of the better lines, the writers did strike a chord and, while funny, many of the jabs ring close to the truth. While desperate to scan his "crowd" for someone, anyone, whose job was created during his term, "Barack" stumbles on actor Keenan Thompson playing an Ohioan. Thompson proudly offers that he now "chase[s] raccoons out of foreclosed houses."

Though the skit is funny, unfortunately the jokes pretty much write themselves looking around Obama's America today. Wading through months of the highest unemployment rate in decades, dragging a heavy healthcare bill that we haven't even begun to implement, Obama has a lot to answer to the American people for; and we are not laughing.

Judging by his dismal performance at clipping unemployment, viewers couldn't have been surprised to hear "Barack" share his economic secret... He runs the nation like the movie 6th Sense; "I see employed people"..."One day you'll all be Bruce Willis and realize you were employed the whole time".

Problem is, at the end of this real four year farce, there is no "Applause" button for the real Barack to press.

Have a look; the skit is hilarious.

VA GOP Caucus

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Small Business Suffocating from Obama Regulations

A new study of American small businesses brings us ominous, if predictable, news. American small business owners are reaching out to make their voices heard finally when it comes to Obama's strangling regulatory ambitions.

The Washington Examiner article detailing the study (commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers) reveals that 55% of small business owners say that they would not have started their business in the economic climate that this President is cultivating today. 

A full 69% of those polled say that the President is to blame for the woes that their businesses are weathering. Even more disconcerting is the 67% majority answer that these business owners gave when asked if they thought that today's economic situation was safe enough to expand or hire workers.

67% answered "no". When the scope of American small business is considered, the reality of that answer is outright frightening; especially to the millions of unemployed Americans that the President seems to think he does not have to answer to.

This poll is not as partisan as some would assume, either. Only 46% of the owners answering these questions identified themselves as Republicans. These are not just Republican worries, these are American realities; and they should concern any American; blue or red.

VA GOP Caucus

vagopcaucus.blogspot.com

New Study Shows Obama's Food Stamp Mistakes

In 2008, Barack Obama calmly, deliberately, and with full knowledge of his actions signed away the 1996 Welfare Reform rule stipulating that, after three months, recipients of food stamps who are able-bodied adults with no dependents can only continue to receive food stamps if they are in some way working. The provision was buried in his economic stimulus bill, and the signature met with booming applause...

...Fast forward to now. Social entitlements are limping, and the integrity of our welfare programs is waning. Since Obama signed the rule out, a Congressional Research Service study has found that people are flocking in unheard-of numbers to get onto food stamps.

The President has made a monster. The rolls of the food stamp program have swelled from 1.9 million people to 3.9 million. This is not normal growth under a recession economy. To double such a program's amount of beneficiaries so quickly is inundating, financially and socially.

Even though the suspension of this crucial rule has expired (in 2010), Obama does not care. Congress refused to back him on extending the suspensions in 2011 and 2012. But Barack has been side-stepping Congress. Even though food stamps are a useful safety net, the practice of abusing the privilege has become laughably easy and the cost could sink the program by sheer force of numbers.

VA GOP Caucus

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Obama Undercuts Clinton

A Richmond Times-Dispatch Op. Ed. about President Obama's real position on welfare came out today. President Obama has announced a program to waive "Mandatory Work Requirements" that have been part of Welfare since 1996.

To spell this out, Obama is planning on releasing waivers to states that want to try "alternative" methods when it comes to welfare. These alternative methods include interesting terms like "multi-year career paths"(read: you don't have to be employed and working to pay into the system that you are taking from) and "a comprehensive universal engagement system in lieu of certain [work] participation-rate requirements." 

The important words are "in lieu of". Those three words will allow your government to accept non-work where once work was required. This, by definition, is destroying the "Mandatory Work Requirement". 

Is the patent unfairness of this kind of accountability-free government money fountain apparent 
                                                                  to anyone else? 

A full 15% of Americans are on food-stamps. President Obama's lowest spending year for welfare is $70 Billion greater than George W. Bush's Administration's highest spending year. Obama's highest spending year is nearly twice the Bush White House's highest. 

Passed in 1996, those requirements were a huge bi-partisan accomplishment of then-President Bill Clinton. While Clinton is acting as one of the Obama campaign's most reliable and important salesmen, Barack Obama is tearing down one of his landmark bi-partisan achievements? 

So, the President is stepping on his friend Bill's toes to climb the ladder, forgetting about the accountability measures that made welfare viable to all voters in the first place. 

VA GOP Caucus

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DNC: ID Please?

Virginia Delegation, if you are headed to the DNC, don't forget your ID. The Virginia Delegation to the DNC has already been warned to be on their best behavior this week... Surprisingly, though, without a state-issued identification card, they won't be able to get in at all.

This week in Charlotte, attendees at the Democratic National Convention are going to be required to prove their identity to get in... There is a clear disconnect here. Why can't everyone just provide their name and be who they say they are?

Democrats have come out against voter identification across the board. Page 52, Democratic Platform, "we refuse to allow political pretexts to disenfranchise American citizens." And yet they see their convention as a more important venue to identify participants than voting for the national election. This seems very much political, and indeed is a pretext.

The facts bear that there is little difference between what the Democratic National Committee is doing, and what Virginia Democrats are on such a rampage over.

Have a look at the DNC's website sign-up. About one third of the way down the page is that oh-so-important sentence that puts the Democratic argument against voter identification on its head.

The message that is being sent is: a person needs an ID to simply WATCH President Obama SPEAK, but the need for an ID to vote, a far more important function than a party convention, is unreasonable...

VA GOP Caucus

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Obama's DOJ approves Virginia Voter ID LAWS.

Senator Don McEachin, Delegate Joe Morrissey, and Delegate Jennifer McClellan were proven wrong again today when they said Virginia's voter ID laws were discriminatory. Even the Obama administration agrees that these laws are appropriate.

The Department of Justice has now confirmed the legitimacy of Virginia's Voter Identification law. The official announcement came from Governor Bob McDonnell Monday night, and is a big stride in assuring Virginians that in November's election, and in the future Virginia electoral process, we keep fraud out of the Commonwealth.

Opponents of the plan have labeled it discriminatory. However, Virginia's reasonable, common-sense Voter ID law is a legitimate way to ensure Virginia's elections. This is a step in the right direction to making sure Virginians have a voice in their government through their vote.


To see the full article detailing Gov. McDonnell's announcement, click here

VA GOP Caucus

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