The Health care debate - 47 million uninsured?:

One point at the very top. There is a difference between Health Care and Health Care Insurance. No one in the United States is denied health care. Hospitals are not allowed to turn people down in the case of an emergency. Now, I will admit that may not be the best way to treat health issues, but don't let anyone say that they cannot get health care.

Be that as is may, this is not an discussion about health care but rather health care insurance. The legislation currently being considered in Congress now provides, depending on the version you want to look at, nationalized health care or at the very least a "public" health care insurance option.

The rationale for this move toward government take-over or at least government involvement in health care insurance is the figure frequently being tossed around about 47 million uninsured Americans. Let's break that down just a bit.

First of all, there are somewhere between 10 and 12 million illegal aliens in the U. S. Is it the intention of Congress that we Americans subsidize insurance for 12 million people who are illegally living in the U. S.? If not, then the 47 million is really somewhere between 35 and 37 million.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), a nonpartisan body used to estimate impact of legislation has stated that thirty percent of the uninsured have been offered insurance by employers and have turned down that coverage. That is another 14.1 million who could have insurance but have, of their own free will, chosen not too. So combined with the illegal aliens our truly uninsured American population is somewhere in the vicinity of the low 20 millions.

The CBO has concluded that the House version of the bill now under consideration will cost 1.5 trillion dollars. If we conclude that the real number of uninsured is 21 million, that works out to $71,428 per uninsured. You mean to tell me there isn't a better solution than spending $71,000 per person to solve this problem?

And this whole discussion begs the question about individual responsibility. Are we really going to demand that everyone is required, by federal law, to have a health insurance policy? What about the young man or women in their twenties who has no health issues and is trying to build their wealth (or see the world, or go to grad school, or buy a car so they can get to a job, or anything number of other money necessary things), are we really going to make these people give up their dream so they can have health insurance policy they may not use for ten years? And what coverage will be required? Coverage up to $100 or up to $1,000,000. Must it pay for first dollar coverage, or can they have a $10,000 deductible? Wow, there is no limit to the questions that arise and the regulations that will be imposed to implement such a national policy!

These bills, like the stimulus bills and the Cap & Trade bill are thousands of pages long. The CBO when asked to testify before Congress admitted that even they have not been able to completely understand the bills contents nor it's ultimate impact. Why then, the rush to pass legislation that is not and cannot be completely understood?

I will offer a couple of alternative suggestions to solving some of these issues in my next blog.

Letter to my Senators

Here is a copy of my letters to my Senators regarding Cap & Trade

Dear Senator Levin & Stabenow,

Senator, I am writing to you about the Cap & Trade bill. As I am sure you are aware, the Cap & Trade bill is ostensibly designed to help reduce man-made global warming. I live in Mancelona, Senator, and yesterday, July 18th, 2009, the temperature at my home did not reach sixty degrees. Please show me the global warming!

I know there is an impression that “science” has concluded that CO2 is causing global warming. I have done my own research on the topic, and this so-called conclusion is based up supposition and computer models. And, Senator, these computer models have not been able to predict current climate, let alone climate over the next 50 to 100 years. More and more scientist are disputing the notion that climate temperatures are being primarily adversely affected by man-made CO2 emissions. In truth the earths temperature has been dropping since 1998, for eleven years while CO2 has continued to climb! The temperature has tracked more exactly with the Sun’s solar cycles. I don’t profess to understand how our climate works, but it is clear that current claims that man-made CO2 is the cause of climate change is a premature and inaccurate guess about man’s impact on climate.

This leads me to conclude that Cap & Trade is more about raising Federal Tax revenue than anything else. It doesn’t matter who collects the tax, it is the average energy user who is going to pay for this 800 plus billion dollar tax increase. This bill is on a fast track, and being crammed down our throats.

Please slow this legislation down and let’s have an honest and realistic discussion about this whole concept. Any attempt to pass this legislation now is an exercise of government tyranny under the guise of trying to protect the planet.

Please Senator, I am all in favor of debate, but this rush to jam this through is not good for Michigan and not good for America.

Sincerely,

Bob Baldwin

For those who really want to seriously look at the amount of information from scientist disputing man-made global warming, check out all the information here: http://www.heartland.org/policybot/results/23406/Scores_of_PeerReviewed_Studies_Contradict_Global_Warming_Alarmism.html

If you're not afraid to look, it will open your eyes.

Bob

The Ten Cannots

I got an email from a friend the other day. It contained some words of wisdom as follows:

1. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
2. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men.
3. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
4. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
5. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich.
6. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income.
7. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
8. You cannot establish security on borrowed money.
9. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence.
10 You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

These 10 Cannots were attributed by my friend and someone who had sent them to him as coming from President Lincoln. This looked too good to be true so I did a little research, and Abe Lincoln was not the author of these nor did he every speak them. According to a number of sources I checked these were written on a back of a pamphlet that did contain a quote of Lincoln's. However, on the back of the pamphlet, Rev. William J. H. Boetcker, Presbyterian Clergyman, penned these 10 Cannots. There is conflict about when the 10 Cannots were originally published. I found a couple of publication dates of 1916, but also found dates of 1942, and even 1873.

Well Lincoln didn't write or say them, but never-the-less, I think these 10 Cannots are true wisdom no matter who said them and I think our current President and Congress would do well to heed them.

Thoughts?

Oil Imports from the Middle East

This morning, on WLS radio out of Chicago, I heard Congressman Kirk, one of the eight Republican House members who voted for the CAP & TRADE bill, justify his vote. I don't remember his exact quote, however, he talked about the U.S. oil imports and implied that much of those came from Nations that are not friendly to the U.S. This sounded a little fishy to me since I knew that Canada and Mexico are some of our largest importers so I did a little looking.

According to an article at Suite1o1.com, quoting a Department of Energy report:

According to data from the US Department of Energy, of the top five
suppliers of crude oil to the US only one, Saudi Arabia, is a Middle East
exporter. In March 2008, the US imported 1.795 million barrels per day (b/d)
from Canada, 1.535 million b/d from Saudi Arabia, 1.214 million b/d from Mexico,
1.154 million b/d from Nigeria, and 858,000 b/d from Venezuela. These top five
suppliers accounted for 68 percent of total US crude oil imports for that
month.
When looking at the top ten foreign suppliers of crude oil to the US,
only two more Middle East exporters make the list: Iraq (sixth), which exported
773,000 b/d to the US in March 2008, and Kuwait (tenth), which exported 199,000
b/d. The top ten suppliers of crude oil to the US accounted for 87 percent of
total US imports for that month. Other importers that made up the top ten were
Angola (sixth, 368,000 b/d), Algeria (seventh, 247,000 b/d), and Ecuador
(eighth, 231,000 b/d).Read more: http://international-politics.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_us_and_middle_east_oil#ixzz0K6cXayOP&C

For the year 2007, here are the top ten nations that the U.S. imports oil from and their percentage of imported oil:

Canada … US$38 billion (17.8% of U.S. imports from top 20 oil-producing nations)
Saudi Arabia … $33.8 billion (15.8%) Mexico … $30.3 billion (14.2%) Nigeria …
$30.1 billion (14.1%) Venezuela … $30 billion (14%) Angola … $12.1 billion
(5.7%) Algeria … $11.5 billion (5.4%) Iraq … $10.9 billion (5.1%) Brazil … $3.8
billion (1.8%) Kuwait … $3.75 billion (1.8%).
Read more: http://import-export.suite101.com/article.cfm/usa_oil_imports_by_country_2007#ixzz0K6vY7gQt&C

While I am not happy about importing oil from anywhere in the middle east, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait are not high on my list of enemy states. Congressman Kirk's assertion doesn't hold up under scrutiny. If he favors reducing our dependence on foreign oil, as I do, then we should be doing more to expose and collect the vast oil reserves the U.S. has within our own national boundries, and near our shores.

Energy independence will not be acheived by doubling our sources of solar or wind, which currently generate about one percent of our nations energy.

Comments?