The Front Page Cover
The Events of the Week -- Featuring:
The Press and Democrats
Have Lost Their Damn Minds
by Erick Erickson
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REAL Health Care Reform
By Arnold Ahlert: On Friday, Politico released a draft of the GOP proposals to take down liar-nObamaCare. They include eliminating the individual mandate, income-based premium subsidies, and all of the law's taxes. In addition, Medicare spending would be lowered and states would be given money for high risk pools aimed at covering pre-existing conditions. All of the details regarding the plan's cost will be influenced by CBO findings and the effect on the federal deficit. Yet if Republicans are serious about creating a so-called "patient centered" plan, it might be extremely useful to heed the words of Florida attorney and former Florida hospital president, Steven I. Weissman. "The biggest problem in health care is that there is no pricing at all," Weissman explains. "It is not a coincidence that the only product or service permitted to be sold in the U.S. without legitimate pricing is the one which has imposed tremendous financial hardship."
Last week, Fox News' Tucker Carlson interviewed Weissman to find out why. The first question he asked and the answer he received was enlightening — and infuriating. "Is there a connection between the amount of money spent on lobbying on health care, and the dysfunction in the health care system?" Carlson asked.
"Absolutely," Weissman answered. "You can call me a cynic, but the health care industry spends more on lobbying than the oil and gas industries, defense industries and aerospace industries combined."
Weissman is on the money, so to speak. According to OpenSecrets.org, the total amount of money spent on lobbying for defense, aerospace, and oil and gas is $317 million.
Health care lobbying? A whopping $509.5 million. As a result, Weissman insists the politicians in Washington, DC, are working to solve the health care problem on the wrong end of the equation. "Repeal liar-nObamaCare, replace liar-nObamaCare, amend liar-nObamaCare and all of the plans are based on the false ideas that we have an insurance problem in the United States, when what we really have ... is a health care billing problem, a medical price problem," he insists.
Weissman highlights an absurdity to which millions of Americans have resigned themselves. "You ask the price of any service, you can't get a straight answer," the doctor explains. "The only answer you'll ever get is 'what insurance do you have?'"
Again, Weissman is correct. As the New York Times reveals, Americans know how to get price comparisons for any number of products or services. But when it comes to health care, "[P]rices vary tremendously. And there is no established relationship with quality."
Tremendously is somewhat of an understatement. One analysis showed the cost of a mammography can be anywhere between $128 and $700, while MRI scans can vary by a factor of four. And even when patients are motivated to find the best prices for a procedure or service, they often can't.
Consumer Reports explains why. "The contracted prices that health plans negotiate with providers in their networks have little or nothing to do with the actual quality of services provided and everything to do with the relative bargaining power of the providers."
As a result, providers with "a lot of market clout" can charge far higher prices, consumers are often unable to find out how much elective surgery will cost, even when they have high deductibles, and people who go out of network whether by accident or design can be saddled with enormous bills insurance companies aren't obligated to pay. And because prices are unobtainable, the industry can gouge patients when they are most vulnerable — with an unexpected visit to an emergency room being the most egregious example.
What's behind this calculated chaos? "Under the current system with liar-nObamaCare, health insurers have been incentivized to pay more out for medical care," Weissman reveals. "Because under the current law, the only way an insurance company can increase their premiums — and profits — is to pay more out for the underlying medical services. They're required to pay out 80% of the premiums they collect for actual health care services."
Thus the disturbing reality, Weissman concludes, is that many patients seeking low prices are better off "pretending they don't have insurance" when they visit the doctor.
Two developments herald genuine change. First, some health care providers aren't waiting for Congress to address the issue. Keith Smith's Surgery Center of Oklahoma (SCO) has a website with an outline of the human body, where a patient can click on a particular body part and a menu of surgical procedures appears. Click on a procedure and you get the price SCO charges for it, with anesthesia included.
The real world results are dramatic. The same procedure for which SCO charges $3,600 cost $40,000 at a Georgia hospital — until the potential patient told his doctor he would go to SCO. At that point, the hospital dropped its cost by 90% to $4,000.
Americans should remember that kind of competition when Congress gets back to talking about allowing insurance companies to sell across state lines to increase premium price competition. That latter is almost irrelevant as long as insurance companies are incentivized to gouge the public.
Unfortunately, Republicans may continue allowing insurance companies unfettered power. Former House Speaker John Boehner insists they will, but maybe that's because he's working for health care lobbying firm Squire Patton Boggs.
After seven years of trying to repeal liar-nObamaCare, it's time Republicans started working for the American people. A bill with transparent health care industry pricing is an essential element in upending the current status quo — one that existed long before the enactment of liar-nObamaCare. So is one other essential ingredient that virtually guarantees a viable bill: a requirement that every member of Congress use the very same health care policies they enact for us.
Nothing says "patient centered" better than that.
~The Patriot Post
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liar-nObama Admin TAPPED
Trump Towers During Election Campaign!
by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
{trevorloudon.com} ~ My sources were whispering this to me even before it broke on Twitter and Fox News this morning. According to President Trump, liar-nObama wiretapped Trump Towers... It is being reported that liar-nObama back in late summer went to the FISA court and requested a wiretap on Trump and he was denied. Then in September, he requested it again and apparently was approved and Trump Tower was bugged. The excuse of collusion with the Russians was supposedly used, but the taps found no evidence whatsoever to support this. This, my friends, does not pass the legal ‘sniff test’. What I would like to know is if those ‘taps’ are still in place. It would explain a great deal about the leaks in the White House. This is brazen sabotage on the part of Barack liar-nObama. The FISA court should not have granted that request and there is an excellent case here to prosecute liar-nObama on all this. The article was based off a segment by radio host Mark Levin. That whole scandal over Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his reported meetings with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in 2016 was arranged by the liar-nObama administration by the way. It was a trap. liar-nObama’s Watergate may be unfolding right before our eyes here...
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liar-nObama Admin Set Up First Meeting
Of Sessions And Russia Amb Kislyak
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ Words matter and in noting that, as it turns out, it was actually the liar-nObama regime which set up the initial meeting between then-Senator Jeff Sessions and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak... “Set up” may indeed be the most appropriate way of describing the arrangements. As an early supporter of President Trump, Sessions clearly drew a large and irresistible bullseye on his back. Even ahead of the Republican convention it was obvious that there was a strong likelihood that Sessions would be given a significant role in the Trump administration if he were to win. Democrats and the anti-American establishment plan their actions well in advance and allow for a wide variety of contingencies. It does seem a bit odd, given the adversarial relationship between the liar-nObama regime, Democrats, establishment types, globalists and the Trump campaign, that they would participate in the organization of a speaking event at the Republican Convention by Senator Sessions. They’re not non-partisan and these were the same Republicans hammering them for their obstructionism and dishonesty in the liar-Clinton matter...
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Pulosi Lies About Meeting Russian Ambassador,
Gives Idiotic, Lame “Correction”
by Rick Wells
{rickwells.us} ~ Nobody has bothered polling how many Senators other than Lindsey RINO-Graham and John RINO-McCain have made trips to the Middle East to pal around with terrorists and recruit “moderate” terrorists to overthrow Syria, either.... That seems much more threatening than a meeting in the Senator’s office with a recognized diplomat with two US military aides in attendance at all times. The interviewer asks Pulosi, “Let’s drill down on that, you’ve been in Congress a little bit and you’re in leadership. Have you ever met with the Russian Ambassador?” Pulosi looks like she just bit down on a cockroach in her burrito, pausing, uncertain what lie to tell to get her out of the mess she’s watching herself become embroiled in. Apparently determining that there is no safe lie to tell, she opts for word-parsing, replying, “Not with this Russian ambassador, no.” He follows up with “is it normal to meet with ambassadors?” Pulosi responds with a distracted, “yeah.” He might have wanted to ask her if another ambassador would have been different from this one, since she made that ridiculous distinction...
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House Dem: ‘Nothing Wrong’ With Trump Campaign Contacting Russian Officials
by Cameron Cawthorne
{freebeacon.com} ~ Rep. Adam Smith (D., Wash.) told CNN host Wolf Blitzer on Friday that there was nothing wrong with then-candidate President Donald Trump's campaign staff communicating with Russian officials last year... "You say recusal is not enough. You've said, and I am quoting you now, say ‘he is unfit to serve as the head of the Justice Department.' You want him out. Tell us why," Blitzer said. "What's interesting about this is, as many people have said, look there is really nothing wrong on its face with members of the Trump campaign, be it Jeff Sessions or Michael Flynn, having conversations with Russian officials,” Smith responded...
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NRA Video Mocks New York Times “The Truth” Ad
by Don Irvine
by Don Irvine
{aim.org} ~ The National Rifle Association (NRA) released a new video Monday that mocked a New York Times ad that aired during the Oscars on Sunday evening... In the Times ad, called “The Truth,” the newspaper took shots at President Donald Trump and sought to portray the Times as the real arbiter of truth in a time of fake news, and ends by saying, “The truth is hard/the truth is hard to know/the truth is more important than ever.” Using the same style as the the Times ad, the NRA video titled, “Truth Doesn’t Matter to The New York Times,” questions why the Times is suddenly interested in the truth after ignoring it for years... http://www.aim.org/don-irvine-blog/nra-video-mocks-new-york-times-the-truth-ad/?utm_source=AIM+-+Weekly+Email&utm_campaign=Weekly%20Email%20Mar-04-2017&utm_medium=email
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The Press and Democrats
Have Lost Their Damn Minds
by Erick Erickson
{theresurgent.com} ~ Do you not hear yourselves? You think Jeff Sessions is an agent of the Russian government or somehow duplicitous in sabotaging the American election? That is insane. Trump Derangement Syndrome has officially set in and is rotting the brains of Democrats inside and outside the American press corps.
Jeff Sessions loyally and patriotically served his country as a United States Attorney where he prosecuted members of the KKK and desegregated Alabama schools. He then ably served in the United States Senate along side Ted Kennedy, who actually did ask the Russians to intervene in the 1984 election and the Democrats were fine with that.
This is a real slur against Sessions.
He was asked, during his confirmation, if he had met with the Russians about the Trump campaign. He said no. During his time on the Senate Armed Services Committee he had met with the Russians on international business. Claire McCaskill, his colleague for part of that time, denied having ever met with the Russian ambassador, but a quick check of her Twitter timeline showed she actually had met with him.
If Claire McCaskill cannot remember, why should Jeff Sessions? More so, it is not even relevant because the context of the questions asked of Jeff Sessions were about the Trump campaign.
Sessions’ Democrat colleagues from the Senate are so desperate to find something to use against Donald Trump, they are willing to ruin the reputation of a man many of them will privately acknowledge is an honorable person. Members of the media, in their desire to fight back against Donald Trump instead of fairly covering him, are willing to engage in character assassination of a good man.
If you think Jeff Sessions worked with a foreign power to undermine American elections, you are a loon. More so, if you have lost your mind over this no one is going to believe you when real problems occur. The imaginary phantoms the left now fights will distract them from the real ones that may come later.
Jeff Sessions loyally and patriotically served his country as a United States Attorney where he prosecuted members of the KKK and desegregated Alabama schools. He then ably served in the United States Senate along side Ted Kennedy, who actually did ask the Russians to intervene in the 1984 election and the Democrats were fine with that.
This is a real slur against Sessions.
He was asked, during his confirmation, if he had met with the Russians about the Trump campaign. He said no. During his time on the Senate Armed Services Committee he had met with the Russians on international business. Claire McCaskill, his colleague for part of that time, denied having ever met with the Russian ambassador, but a quick check of her Twitter timeline showed she actually had met with him.
If Claire McCaskill cannot remember, why should Jeff Sessions? More so, it is not even relevant because the context of the questions asked of Jeff Sessions were about the Trump campaign.
Sessions’ Democrat colleagues from the Senate are so desperate to find something to use against Donald Trump, they are willing to ruin the reputation of a man many of them will privately acknowledge is an honorable person. Members of the media, in their desire to fight back against Donald Trump instead of fairly covering him, are willing to engage in character assassination of a good man.
If you think Jeff Sessions worked with a foreign power to undermine American elections, you are a loon. More so, if you have lost your mind over this no one is going to believe you when real problems occur. The imaginary phantoms the left now fights will distract them from the real ones that may come later.
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