Monthly Email Update
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Happy New Year from the 60 Plus Association! We wish all our friends and supporters a happy, healthy and productive 2011.
So in that spirit, we promise to KEEP our New Year’s resolution to continue fighting to put government on a diet, demand cuts in reckless spending, defend the benefits that seniors have already paid for, and REPEAL Obamacare.
In this issue:
- 2011 New Year’s Resolutions – Cut Spending, Repeal Obamacare
- Death Tax Compromise
- Deficit Panel Targets Social Security
- 60 Plus Fights Rationing of Cancer Drugs
- The 12 Days of Obamacare
2011 Resolution – Repeal Obamacare
We all remember the outrageous statement of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi when she said of Obama’s health care legislation, “we have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it.”
Well, last year the Democrat Congress passed Obamacare, and every day we learn a little bit more about exactly what is in this bill. So far, it has turned out to be as welcome as a ticking box under the Christmas tree.
The best way to get an accurate picture of just what this bill entails is to take one of the many promises the Democrats made about the bill, then just assume the opposite.
For example, they said the bill was needed to lower U.S. health care costs, with President Obama saying, “if any bill arrives from Congress that is not controlling costs, that is not a bill I can support. It’s going to have to control costs.”
But costs are already skyrocketing from Obamacare, more than $300 billion over the next 10 years. And according to the Congressional Budget Office, the average premium for a family of four will increase $2,100 per year.
We were told that seniors could keep their doctor, but they are already losing coverage and personal physicians through a myriad of effects of Obamacare. For example, the popular Medicare Advantage program will lose seven million members who will be unable to continue in the program, with remaining members paying higher monthly premiums.
Add to this the thousands of doctors who will now hasten their exit from the profession — with 74% expressing a desire to do so by one survey — and you can see we are far from “wider access to health care for all.”
To be honest, we did not actually need to pass this bill to see what was in it, as a bill very similar to Obamacare was passed in Massachusettes a few years ago with similar promises to cut costs and increase coverage.
The result? Costs have surged over 50% and all problems from crowded emergency rooms to have grown progressively worse.
This abysmal record is why the new Republican Congressional majority has put repealing Obamacare at the top of their legislative priorities, even though there will be certain roadblocks to completely eliminate the legislation with Democrats controlling the Senate and White House.
Action Alert!
Vote in House of Representatives to repeal ObamaCare expected tomorrow, Wednesday (1/19) at 10am. Contact your Member of Congress and urge them to support H.R. 2.
‘Death Tax’ Compromise
Last month saw a compromise on the Bush tax cuts, with the Obama Administration regretfully extending them against their wishes for another two years, having lost all leverage to oppose extending them after the results of November’s election.
Unfortunately, Republicans gave way on the estate tax or “death tax,” agreeing to a 35% tax rate on large estates or family owned companies, an absolutely terrible development in an economic climate when more private investment is needed and tax accounting requires some certainty for investors.
“While this is better than the death tax rate of 55% that would have come back on January 1st, this is not the way to spur economic growth” said Jim Martin, Chairman of the 60 Plus Association. “What we need is permanent repeal of the death tax so that families and small business owners will have confidence that their assets will not be taxed for a second or third time when they die. This is the most burdensome, most confiscatory, and most unfair of all taxes.”
Typical Washington thinking; all agree that lower estate taxes are good for the economy and promote private investment, yet we only get a little help from Washington. It’s like saying vitamins are good, but you should only take them when you are healthy.
If Washington were truly serious about creating a vibrant economic environment, they would give the estate tax the death penalty once and for all, with no stay of execution.
Deficit Panel Targets Social Security
For decades the politicians from both parties have been spending money from Social Security about as soon as the money is collected to the Treasury, essentially turning the Social Security “trust fund” into a political “slush fund.”
It should come as no surprise then that appointing these same politicians to a panel charged with cooking up ideas on how to “solve” our nation’s debt problem would prove to be just as hazardous to the health of Social Security.
The Obama “Deficit Commission” led by Republican former Senators Alan Simpson and Judd Gregg, along with Democrats Erskine Bowles and Senator Kent Conrad all rallied to the cause of further cuts to social security, scapegoating the program as a contributor to our national debt issues when the facts are just the opposite.
As most Americans and every senior knows, Social Security has been running huge surpluses for the last 70 years, but now with fewer workers paying in and the funds all spent by the politicians, something has to give.
Further insulting the intelligence of seniors, said “leaders” said their plan would “make social security solvent” and are therefore in the best interests of the program.
60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin was quick to shoot back, “If the Deficit Commissioners want to see a true cause of debt creation they should look in the mirror. Year in and year out these folks, Democrats and Republicans alike, spend every dollar out of the Social Security Trust fund surpluses and now, as the well runs dry, they pledge to make the fund solvent?
Martin echoed the sentiments of former Senators John Heinz (R-PA) and Fritz Hollings (D-SC), who called the practice of pilfering social security revenues exactly what it is; embezzlement. Said Martin, “If businesses did this, they would be jailed. That’s why I call these Commission members ’embezzlers.'”
While the embezzlement continues, seniors should understand that the Deficit Commission is not their friend, so long as it seeks to solve chronic problems of political ineptitude on the backs of the elderly who have paid their entire lives into social security.
60 Plus Fights Rationing of Cancer Drugs
Everyone recalls the “death panels” controversy that invaded the debate over Obamacare last year, but few could have foreseen that the first victims of these panels would be life-saving drugs themselves.
In an effort to cut costs and essentially ration care to a class of people that disproportionately affects seniors, the President Obama’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chose to deep six the life-saving drug Avastin by “de-labeling” it, thus ensuring that insurance companies and Medicare drop coverage for patients.
Said 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, ” “The Food and Drug Administration’s decision to ‘de-label’ the drug Avastin will ration the drug from breast cancer patients and create a two-tiered system where the wealthy will have access to the life-extending drug and everyone else will be denied access. This is wrong.
“The FDA’s decision is based on cost, pure and simple, and when you deny treatment based on cost it’s called rationing. Do not be fooled by the rhetoric — this is a direct consequence of President Obama’s effort to ‘reduce the price of health care.”
60 Plus noted previously that a recent survey shows overwhelming opposition by Americans — 82% — who are opposed to drug availability being made on the basis of cost, or rationing.
Ironically, while the Obama FDA cuts drugs based on alleged “cost savings” we are seeing that health care spending in America is rising sharply, largely to pay for the administrative overhead to implement the legislation as well as by offering free health care as a new entitlement to millions.
60 Plus will continue to fight tooth and nail to keep life-saving drugs available, and blow the whistle on rationing whenever and wherever it shows its ugly face.
The 12 Days of Obamacare
From our friends at the Republican Policy Committee, a seasonal jingle that surely NO ONE would ever be caught singing.
Informative, enlightening, but certainly not festive, the “12 Days of Obamacare” gives the cold hard facts about this disastrous legislation as bluntly as a lump of coal. You know the tune, below are the “revised” lyrics from day 12 to day 1 – just try and keep from tapping your toes!
The 12 Days of Obamacare (Sung to “the 12 Day of Christmas”)
On the 12th day of Obamacare the government gave to me:
$2.6 trillion spending: According to the Republican staff of the Senate Budget Committee, the health care law and reconciliation measures include $2.6 trillion in new federal spending in their first 10 years of full implementation (i.e. 2014-2023).
On the 11th day of Obamacare the government gave to me:
$2,100 Premiums Raising: According to a Congressional Budget Office analysis, the health care legislation will raise individual health insurance premiums by an average of $2,100 per family. This increase for struggling American families comes despite candidate Obama’s frequent promises that his health care plan would LOWER premiums by $2,500 per year for an average family — meaning the gap between candidate Obama’s rhetoric and President Obama’s legislation stands at a whopping $4,600 per family.
On the 10th day of Obamacare the government gave to me:
$310,800,000,000 Costs A-Soaring: According to an analysis by the non-partisan Medicare actuary, the health care law will actually raise national health spending by more than $310 billion over its first ten years alone. The fact that the health law will raise and not lower health care costs comes despite an earlier pledge by President Obama that “if any bill arrives from Congress that is not controlling costs, that’s not a bill I can support. It’s going to have to control costs.”
On the 9th day of Obamacare the government gave to me:
35,000,000 Coverage Dropping: According to an analysis by former CBO Director Doug Holtz-Eakin, the health care law “provides strong incentives for employers — with the agreement of their employees — to drop employer-sponsored health insurance for as many as 35 million Americans.”
On the 8th day of Obamacare the government gave to me:
222 Rules A-Waiving: According to an Administration website, the Department of Health and Human Services has issued 222 waivers to health plans exempting them from some of the health care law’s more prominent new mandates. These waivers — many of them issued to labor unions — demonstrate the onerous nature of the mandates being imposed, and the inconsistent way in which the law is being applied.
On the 7th day of Obamacare the government gave to me:
40,000,000 Forms A-Filling: According to a report issued by the National Taxpayer Advocate, 40 million businesses will be affected by the health care law’s new 1099 paperwork mandate. This new information will force all businesses to file tax forms listing the amount of their annual transactions with vendors like their paper supplier, bottled water distributor, caterer, etc.
On the 6th day of Obamacare the government gave to me:
7,400,000 MA Benes Losing: According to the Medicare actuary, enrollment in Medicare Advantage (MA) will be cut in half as a result of the health care law, from a projected 14.8 million in 2017 all the way down to 7.4 million. One insurer has already dropped out of the MA program entirely due to the law, meaning seniors will face fewer choices of plans.
On the 5th day of Obamacare the government gave to me:
Zero Oversight Hearings: Since enactment of the health care law in March, the Democrat majority in both chambers has failed to conduct any substantive oversight of the sprawling 2,700 page measure.
On the 4th day of Obamacare the government gave to me:
159 Boards and Programs: A prior RPC analysis found that the health care law establishes 159 boards, bureaucracies, and programs. From entities like an institute to conduct comparative effectiveness research to the National Health Care Workforce Commission, these bureaucracies will serve to micro-manage the entire health care system, putting government bureaucrats between doctors and patients.
On the 3rd day of Obamacare the government gave to me:
16,500 IRS Agents: According to a report issued by the Republican staff of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Internal Revenue Service may need to hire as many as 16,500 new agents to police the various mandates imposed on the American people by the health care law.
On the 2nd day of Obamacare the government gave to me:
21 Federal Lawsuits: According to a website run by the Independent Women’s Forum, there are currently 21 separate lawsuits in federal court challenging some or all of the health care law. In one of the more prominent cases, Virginia Judge Henry Hudson struck down the law’s controversial individual mandate earlier this month.
On the 1st day of Obamacare the government gave to me: (BIG FINISH!)
A health insurance mandate “fee”: The health care law includes an unpopular mandate to purchase government-defined insurance — a mandate that candidate Obama opposed when he was running for President.
See everyone next month, and until then, KEEP THOSE NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS!
