Gee, Surprise! Majority Favors Health Care Repeal

A whopping 58 percent of Americans favors repeal of the recent health care (so-called) reform package, but at the same time 59 percent of those favoring repeal thinks the public option is essential and 51 percent of the same repealees wants to see Congress continue to work on reform efforts.

Most opposed to the health reform measure signed March 23 are those in the oh-so-healthy group of 18- to 34-year-olds.

The results were obtained from a survey taken April 6-10 by the Indiana University's Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research in Indianapolis.

Overall, just 10 percent of Democrats favor repeal while 96 percent of Republicans and 56 percent of independents are in favor.

"Many have assumed that those advocating for repeal in polls wanted Congress to take no action on healthcare reform until the law was abolished. However, we find that 48 percent of Americans actually are supportive of Congress continuing to work on the healthcare system reforms as opposed to focusing on any other topic," notes Dr. Aaron Carroll, director of the center.

Translation: Most people still want Congress to come up with "free health care," courtesy of the deep pockets of Uncle Sam and of every voter other than themselves.

Tax Rates to Pay Off the National Debt

Here's what you and I would have to pay if the government decided to tax at the rates necessary to pay off the national debt:

Current Tax Rate (left)

New Rate Required (right)

10% 24.3%
15% 36.4%
25% 60.6%
28% 67.9%
33% 80.0%
35% 84.9%

Nuff said.

You Can't Kill It: EFCA Reintroduced in Congress

Despite the fact that there simply aren't enough votes in the Senate to end a filibuster on it, the Employee Forced Free Choice Act (EFCA) was reintroduced in both the House and the Senate on March 10.

The original corporate destroyers sponsors did the dirty work reintroductions: Representative George Miller of The People's Republic of California and Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa.

In case you've been in slumberland for a few years, the EFCA does away with organizing elections and forces unions on companies once more than 50 percent of their employees are forced to sign organizing cards. Then, it sics an arbitrator on the company to impose a collective bargaining agreement once the owners reject the outlandish demands of the union thugs bosses.

Might all be moot now anyway, what with Craig Becker on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Though he denied it during confirmation hearings, Becker believes the NLRB can simply impose EFCA-like provisions without congressional action.

One way or another, look for this monster to keep rearing its ugly head. (No, I wasn't referring to Becker, but....)

The Constitution Under Obama = Non-Existent

This graphic pretty much sums up how dictators rule as president:

Penalty? Obamacare Encourages Un-Insurance

Obamacare turns out to be a big "whoop-de-doo" for the nation's larger/largest employers, who are threatened with fines for not providing insurance for their employees, while small businesses are lured into providing insurance through subsidies.

In a nutshell, Obamacare offers up penalties for companies with 50 or more employees but subsidies for those with fewer.

However, if you examine the penalties, these larger employers could reap a windfall in profits by dropping insurance and throwing their employees on the mercy of government subsidies and their own pocketbooks to buy their own insurance.

First, off penalties don't kick in until a) one employee qualifies for a government subsidy to buy insurance and b) you toss out the first 30 employees, who are "penalty-free." Thus, say a company has 130 employees, the employer drops his health plan, and thereafter one or more employees qualify for a government subsidy. The employer will now be on the hook for a $750 fine for 100 employees (total workforce minus the 30-person threshold). Divided by 12 months, this comes out to $6,250 a month ($750 times 100 divided by 12).

Compare that to what he previously paid on insurance. Let's say the average employer portion of the health insurance tab each month was $250 (which seems low). That works out to $32,500 a month (130 employees times $250). This employer is now saving $26,250 a month by dropping his health plan. Even if he splits this with his employers in the form of a raise, he's still left with a tidy profit of $13,250 a month for complying with Obamacare mandates. That's a nice $159,000 a year he didn't have before.

Obamacare, don't you love it?

Let's face it--the whole point of the carrot-stick approach of Obamacare is to throw the nation's health insurance business into chaos, so the Obamacrats can come back and say: "See. We need Medicare for all."

By the dawn of the next decade, we can thus post signs, "Welcome to the Banana Republic of America." And then we can stand in line for health care we'll never get--but the politicians and fat cats will.

Even If You're Not Unionized, You Are Now

As if the health care takeover by the Obamacrats weren't enough to bankrupt the nation, the Department of Labor (DOL)--under Obamaic tutelage--is now forcing all companies vying for a government contract to treat their employees as if they were unionized--or not get the contract.

Which means, most likely, that only union companies will get contracts henceforth.

The DOL already dictates hourly pay for those under government contract using the principle of the "prevailing wage" in the industry and area where the work is being done. Of course, this is just shorthand for paying union wages.

On top of this, new criteria will now be applied to contract-seeking companies in the areas of paid days off, health care and other benefits.

The prevailing wage ploy already costs the nation about $10 billion a year extra that it wouldn't have to pay were true competitive bidding allowed.

Things on the labor front will now only get worse, even as health care gets scarcer and scarcer once the government realizes it can't pay its share (which it already knows from running Medicare, but the latest ruse is meant to cover that up until at least the end of Obama's hoped-for ((we hope not)) second term).

Welcome to the Endless Recession.

First GM and Chrysler (and California), Now USPS

First, our nation's glorious unions with their insatiable greed took down General Motors and Chrysler and forced them into becoming wards of the state (to say nothing of what they've done and continue to do to the State of California, which is essentially bankrupt), and now the United States Postal Service is about to go under as well.

Ending Saturday service is just a charade. Sure, it may save some operating costs, but the biggest problem with the USPS (and California and GM and Chrysler) is its unfunded, sky-high pension promises--all made to quell a restive union begging for ever-more handouts to justify collecting union dues and squandering them on political and personal power plays.

Here's a nice summary encapsualization of everything from the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

About half of the Postal Service’s 600,000 workers are eligible to retire in the next 10 years. They can’t be laid off, their growing salaries can’t be scaled back, and their pensions and health care subsidies are essentially a property right. Although new union contracts will be negotiated this year and next, Mr. Potter freely admits that next to nothing can be done to control Postal Service personnel costs.

Unions have hijacked the airline industry, sent automakers into a ditch and all but bankrupted states and local governments. Now they’re hastening the demise of this country’s mail service.