Pursue Conservative Health Care Reform: Fighting Predatory Federalism

November 16, 2012 in Ed Willing, Federal Taxation, Health Care, Restoring Country, Restoring Family

By Ed Willing Since the Supreme Court’s infamous 4-1-4 ruling on the Affordable Care Act in June, nearly two dozen states have grappled with whether or not to comply with the first of many forthcoming deadlines found in the rules written (and still being written) by the functionally unconstitutional entity known as the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). November 16th is the deadline, and a flurry of letters are finding their way to Kathleen Sebelius’ desk this afternoon telling her they will not comply with the requirement to set up an exchange. The great debate has been over the enticement written into the law: Either states create the exchanges, and the Feds will not only pay for the administrative costs but also the cost increases of expanding Medicare and Medicaid, or… The Federal government will set one up for them and not give states the authority to direct [...]

Follow the [European] Leader?

October 13, 2012 in Charitable Social Services, Contributors, Economic Policy, Health Care, Monica Frede, Restoring Family, Restoring God

By Monica Frede   Last week, many pundits commented on the New York Times op-ed that vindicated Sarah Palin’s infamous “death panels” that drew scrutiny from Democrats and moderate Republicans during the ObamaCare debates of 2009. See, Republicans boasted, she was right all along! Even the New York Times admits that there will be rationing. Yes, Steven Rattner did write in his op-ed that “unless we start allocating health care resources more prudently—rationing, by its proper name—the exploding cost of Medicare will swamp the federal budget.” Yes, Rattner did write that “elderly Americans are not entitled to every conceivable medical procedure or pharmaceutical.” And yes, he also stated that families that try every available treatment option to extend or improve the life of their elderly relatives are “an enormous societal cost that few other nations have been willing to bear.”

Shareholders of the U.S., Unite!

September 13, 2012 in Monica Frede

By Monica Frede Significant waste exists in the current US health care system. This should come as no surprise. An Associated Press article details a recent report conducted by the Institute of Medicine that found $750 billion in annual waste in the U.S. health care system, which means that for every dollar spent on health care, 30 cents is misused. The Institute found that waste existed in the following categories: unnecessary services ($210 billion annually), inefficient delivery of care ($130 billion), excess administrative costs ($190 billion), inflated prices ($105 billion), preventative failures ($55 billion) and fraud ($75 billion). Can you imagine if such a report was written about the ROI (return on investment) of Bain Capital? Or for that matter, if any publicly-traded company detailed similar annual financial results to its shareholders? In reality, we have President Obama promising to expand the government’s takeover of health care, making such bold [...]

Class (Civil) Warfare

August 20, 2012 in Monica Frede

By Monica Frede The only class the Elite Left despises is the wealthy elite they don’t control. The rich. The target of the left. The fat cats, Wall Street, greedy, old white men who laugh in the face of hungry children and scheme behind closed doors with Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell to split commissions on the next big tax break. The trust-fund babies who didn’t build that; the heartless no-gooders who refuse to give to charitable organizations that won’t benefit their own coffers. The CEOs who only care about making a profit rather than hire hard-working single mothers. Thank goodness for Democrats. For without their audacity and shining example of words, not deeds, we would be led off the cliff like a pack of possessed pigs. Because of the hard-working liberal media, professors and politicians, we know the truth. Money is not earned, it is taken; the 1% are [...]

A Woman’s War – Bring it On!

May 14, 2012 in Economic Policy, Health Care, Monica Frede, Restoring Family, Work Protections

By Monica Frede I’ve heard that there is a “war on women” sweeping across the plains, and the Republican Party is to blame. Conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker have taken it upon themselves to attack women, but in this election year, the liberals have conveniently brought this to the nation’s attention. President Obama loves women. He’s on our side. He understands us. I do agree that there is a war on women—but with an opaque enemy. The Paycheck Fairness Act, legislation reintroduced to both houses in April, addresses male-female income disparity in hopes of correcting erroneous discrimination against women in the workplace. The bill would provide easier options for women who are targets of wage discrimination, such as disclosing salary information with co-workers. The bill also requires employers to prove that any wage discrepancies are due to business requirements and job duties of those affected [...]

An Anniversary and A Funeral: ObamaCare

March 26, 2012 in Charitable Social Services, Contributors, Health Care, Monica Frede, Restoring Family, Restoring God

By Monica Frede House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) gave a celebratory speech to Congress on Wednesday, the same week as the two-year anniversary of the Affordable Health Care Act, evoking the core principles of the Declaration of Independence— life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. She could hardly contain her glee:   Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is exactly what the Affordable Health Care Act helps to guarantee. A healthier life, the liberty to pursue happiness, free of the constraints that a lack of health care might provide to a family. If you want to be a photographer, a writer, an artist, a musician, you can do so. If you want to start a business, if you want to change jobs, under the Affordable Care Act, you have that liberty to pursue your happiness. And that is why I am so pleased that this week we can [...]

Immigration, and the “Boomerang” of State’s Rights

March 21, 2012 in Contributors, Dr. Yomi Faparusi, Sr. Esq, Education Policy, Immigration Policy, Restoring Country, Restoring Family, Tenth Amendment

By Yomi Faparusi Sr., Esq., MD, PhD One of the most significant issues of our day, and a virtual fourth rail in politics is immigration reform. Immigration is regulated under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) created in 1952 by the McCarran-Walter bill, Public Law No. 82-414.[1] Hence, it suffices to say that immigration is a federal issue and as such it would appear that States have no authority – or, colloquially speaking – no business legislating in this domain. IMMIGRATION IS REGULATED BY FEDERAL LAW, BUT… The question arises: is the preceding statement wholly factual, especially when the Federal Government has chosen to take a lackadaisical posture in enforcing the immigration laws in the books? If that indeed was the case, that the states had no enforceable interest, you would not be reading an article on the tenth Amendment and immigration here. We DO have a problem. It is not [...]

The Immoral Government and Our Moral Opportunity

March 12, 2012 in Charitable Social Services, Contributors, Health Care, Monica Frede, Restoring Family, Restoring God, Separation of Church and Culture

By Monica Frede Earlier this week, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, penned a letter in response to recent visits by White House officials to the group of Catholic Bishops. In an effort to soothe the fiery debate ignited in recent weeks due to the Obama Administration’s mandate on private insurers providing its customers contraception coverage, the church leaders and White House staff discussed “the options.” Dolan’s letter, addressed to his Conference of Catholic Bishops, reaffirms the unapologetic position by the White House: How fortunate that we as a body have had opportunities during our past plenary assemblies to manifest our strong unity in defense of religious freedom. We rely on that unity now more than ever as HHS [Department of Health and Human Services] seeks to define what constitutes church ministry and how it can be exercised. The HHS seeks to constitute church ministry and [...]

Bullies and The Rest of Us

March 4, 2012 in Contributors, Economic Policy, Monica Frede, Restoring Family, Work Protections

By Monica Frede video platform video management video solutions video player The UAW protested Mitt Romney at the Daytona 500 this past Sunday. They flew a banner above the stadium that read “Mitt Romney: Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” This labor union, boasting nearly 400,000 active members and about 600,000 retired members, planned this response to a 2008 NY Times Op-Ed that Romney wrote titled “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” Well, they are creative. In Romney’s 2008 article, he addressed the slow death of America’s automobile industry by union hegemony.  He outlined his capitalistic solutions, including lowering the burden per auto of domestic manufacturers compared to their foreign competitors by reducing retiree benefits and hourly pay. Romney wrote that this burden costs averages $2,000 per auto for domestic makers such as Ford. That’s right– $2,000 for every car that comes off the assembly line. That number is staggering because of the sheer [...]

Five Problems Urban Schools Can’t Fix

February 21, 2012 in Bradley Harrington Flynn, MA History, Ed., Contributors, Education Policy, Restoring Family, Tenth Amendment

By Bradley Harrington Flynn, MA in History, Ed. I’ve spent the last seven years as teacher in a rough urban school district. Like many urban districts, we battle poverty and crime – which are not unrelated – and a number of other issues, too many to enumerate. I love my job and wouldn’t think of choosing a different profession. Recently, however, I’ve realized that my job is less and less teaching and interacting with students and more and more managing compliance to top-down initiatives purporting to be the silver bullet to the district’s educational woes. At a recent district-mandated professional development session, my colleagues and I recounted the numerous initiatives which have come and gone from education. Still, there we were, listening to well-meaning master educators explain to us why the last approach was wrong and why this approach will work. These frustrations have inspired me to compile a list [...]