The New Mr. America: Bankrupt, Diseased and Running Out of Options

Friday, July 24, 2009 by: Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) With a military rifle in one hand and a bottle of prescription medications in the other, the new "Mr. America" is over-fed, under-nourished, over-medicated, over-spent and "over there" (waging war in the Middle East). And soon, with Obama's new disease care reform proposals, America will find itself destitute and diseased, unable to climb out of the medication dependence pit it has dug for itself.

See the political cartoon on this topic here:http://www.naturalnews.com/026686_debt_america_disease.html

To understand why this is true from a financial point of view, take a look at these numbers:

If you read the actual federal budget for 2009, it's an astonishing $3.1 trillion. The size of the number itself is mind-boggling, but it's even more disturbing when you realize just how much of the federal budget is spent on these three things:

WAR
DISEASE
DEBT

In fact, let me ask you this question right now: What percentage of the federal budget do you think is spent on these three things? War, Disease and Debt.

Is it 10 percent? Twenty-five percent? Fifty percent?

Keep going...

Of course, if you actually work in Washington, you won't even describe these as "War, Disease and Debt." Instead, you call them:

DEFENSE
HEALTH
THE ECONOMY

It all sounds much nicer when phrased that way. But these terms are intentionally deceptive. We're not really "defending" our way into Iraq, Afghanistan and seventy-five other countries where we have a military presence. Spending on "health care" doesn't have anything to do with health (it's all about disease). And people who say spending more debt money to "help the economy" are mathematical retards. You can't get yourself out of debt by spending more money (even though V.P. Joe Biden insists you can...).

So are you ready for the actual number?

It's an eye-opener. The actual percentage of the U.S. federal budget spent on WAR, DISEASE and DEBT is 87 percent.

Here's how it breaks down according to publicly-available numbers: (Source = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget,_2009 )

Total U.S. Federal Budget for 2009: $3.1 trillion

1) WAR: Department of Defense ($515.4 billion) + War on Terror ($145.2 billion) + Dept. of Veterans Affairs ($44.8 billion) + Dept. of Homeland Security ($37.6 billion) = $743 billion

2) DISEASE: Medicare ($408 billion) + Medicaid ($224 billion) + Dept. of Health and Human Services ($70 billion) =$702 billion

3) DEBT: Debt to the people: Social Security ($644 billion), Social Security Administration ($8.4 billion), Welfare ($360 billion) and Interest on National Debt ($260 billion) = $1,272 billion

(Note: This does not even include the financial cost of the War on Iraq or the War in Afghanistan, as those are budgeted separately as appropriations and are not included in the Dept. of Defense budget. So the actual numbers are far worse than what's shown here...)

Combined spending on War, Disease and Debt: $2,717 billion ($2.7 trillion), which is 87% of the total expenditures by the federal government ($3.1 trillion). 

How do you dig yourself out of this hole?For every tax dollar you send to Washington (and it's about to become a whole lot more of 'em), 87 cents gets spent on war, disease and debt. That leaves just 13 cents on the dollar for roads, schools, parks, technology, science, the environment, adult education and other programs.

If you spent 87% of your own household income on war, disease and debt, leaving only 13 cents on the dollar for food, clothing, transportation and entertainment, how long would your own finances stay solvent? Not very long...

It doesn't take a financial genius to realize that the United States of America has dug itself into a financial trench so deep and so infected with really bad planning that there is virtually no way it can get out. As a result, the American people are increasingly bankrupt, diseased and homeless. (I predict a new wave of tent cities springing up across the American landscape as increasing numbers of Americans lose their jobs and their homes.)

"Mr. America" is burned out, stressed out, tapped out and about to be rubbed out.

It is only a matter of time before economic reality sets in and the American people find their currency is phased out, too.

An economic prison to keep you trapped and pennilessIt's easy to see this from afar (from South America, in my case, where I live full time): America is living in a fantasy world, where the laws of economics have been (temporarily) suspended. There's no such thing as too much spending. No such thing as too many prescription drugs or vaccines. No such thing as too much war. It's all justifiable by the relentless fools in Washington who claim, "We saved the economy!"

Because, you see, we are past the point of dealing with reality in America. There will be no saving the nation from financial demise. There will be no meaningful health care reform. There will be no real changes that preserve your freedom or your bank account. Instead, one hundred percent of the efforts are now focused on preserving the illusionsthat keep America artificially propped up like a morbid human puppet.

The new Congressional bills, the financial bailouts, the empty talk of health care reform -- these are all designed to distract you from the sobering, unavoidable and simple truth: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born inside a prison that you cannot smell, taste, or touch. A prison for your mind. [Recognize it?]

That prison keeps you working 60-hour weeks. It keeps you paying your taxes. It keeps you medicated and indoctrinated like a slobbering idiot who buys brand-name products because the logos seem somehow emotionally familiar (TV programming). It keeps you slaving away your precious hours, shoveling the fruits of your labor into a mindless, heartless machine of Big Government that has already mortgaged your assets, sacrificed your health and stolen your future.

And there's always a seductive motivation beckoning you to sacrifice more. If you only work another job, you'll be able to afford that giant TV screen you've always wanted. Here's a credit card to make it easy, or you can just sign over your home. Here, take this vaccine shot for your own protection. Vote for me, and I'll give you free health care. I'll stabilize the economy by spending future generations into yet more debt. Don't worry about paying anything back... we'll let the next President deal with that.

The fraud continues, year after year, with new faces and names at the helm, but the same old failed thinking at the core. You cannot spend your way to prosperity, you must SAVE your way there. You cannot make a population healthy by drugging more people. You cannot make peace by waging war. And you cannot make a nation great by abandoning the real needs of the people and selling out to corporations and their lobbyists.

Sadly, while Mr. America was once a healthy, thriving, hard-working individual, he's now a jobless, indebted medicated heart patient with a caffeine habit and an upside-down mortgage on the home he's about to lose. And the worst part is that the lawmakers in Washington are doing everything in their power to make sure Mr. America stays that way.

About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guides, and books on topics like health and the environment, reaching millions of readers with information that is saving lives and improving personal health around the world. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2007, Adams launched EcoLEDs, a maker of energy efficient LED lights that greatly reduce CO2 emissions. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also the founder and CEO of a well known email mail merge software developer whose software, 'Email Marketing Director,' currently runs the NaturalNews email subscriptions. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and enjoys outdoor activities, nature photography, Pilates and adult gymnastics. 

http://www.naturalnews.com/026693_debt_America_disease.html

A Banana Republic by 2012? Obama's Budget

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

President Obama has presented the most irresponsible budget in US history.  His fiscal year 2010 budget projects federal spending of $3.5 trillion and a federal deficit of $1.75 trillion. In other words, 50 percent of the government’s budget consists of red ink.

And Americans are angry that sub-prime borrowers took mortgages they couldn’t afford.

The bald fact is that the US government is going to have to borrow -- or print -- half of the money it intends to spend in Obama’s first budget. This fact has fallen through the cracks as New York Times headlines proclaim “A Bold Plan Sweeps Away Reagan Ideas.”  It certainly does sweep away Reagan ideas.  No Reagan budget ever presumed that the federal government could borrow half of its annual expenditures. Indeed, Obama’s budget deficit for 2010 alone exceeds the totality of “Reagan Deficits” for Reagan’s two terms of office.

As presidential budgets are marketing devices rather than financial statements, they are imbued with optimistic assumptions.  Obama’s budget is based on optimistic assumptions about the extent of decline in GDP.  A more realistic projection of GDP decline would reveal that Obama’s budget is the first since World War II in which more than half of the government’s expenditures must be financed by red ink. I suspect that the red ink component of the FY 2010 budget will surpass World War II budgets.

To whom can the US government turn for $1.75 trillion for FY 2010, on top of $1.2 trillion for FY 2009?  

Not to taxpayers. Obama’s net tax increase comes to $170 billion over 10 years, or $17 billion a year, a drop in the bucket.  A supply-side economist could have told him that not even these paltry revenues will be realized.

Not to private savers. Americans are over their heads in debts.

Not to foreigners. Thanks to Clinton/Bush financial deregulation and Wall Street and bankster greed, the rest of the world is in financial turmoil and hasn’t $1.75 trillion in savings to lend.  Possibly, the stock market will collapse further, and whatever remaining wealth Americans have will flow into “safe” US Treasuries.  

The only other alternative is the printing press. Printing press finance would destroy the dollar as reserve currency and ignite high inflation. The US would be unable to pay for its imports, and Americans whose incomes do not rise with the rate of inflation would be plowed under.

This prospect is not a “war on terror” scare tactic like “anthrax,” “weapons of mass destruction,” “al Qaeda connections,” and “Iranian nukes.”  

The economic catastrophe that the US faces is very real.  But there is no awareness of this reality in Obama’s budget.  The crux of Obamanomics is the assumption that the economy can run forever on consumer loans, if we can just get the banks to lend, and the federal government can run forever on loans from China, Japan,and Saudi Arabia. 

Obama is requesting $130 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during 2010 plus a $75 billion supplemental  request for the wars during 2009. This $205 billion is on top of $534 billion for the Pentagon in 2010, for total military spending of $739 billion.  

The Chinese government’s budget shows China’s military spending at $59 billion in 2008.  (The Pentagon claims Chinese military spending is between $97 billion and $139 billion.)  Russia’s military spending in 2009 is projected to be about $50 billion.  

In the midst of the greatest economic crisis in US history when trillions of dollars are being added to US national debt, Obama’s budget spends more on two pointless wars  than the total military spending of China and Russia combined.  Obama’s wars serve only the profits of the military/security complex and the promotion rate of military officers. The longer the wars continue, the larger the number of officers who can retire at higher ranks, thus further swelling future annual deficits and the national debt.

Moreover, as is becoming apparent, the Bush/Obama war in Afghanistan cannot be fought without fighting a war in Pakistan.  

As if this isn’t enough war, Obama parrots Dick Cheney’s charge, totally unsupported by any evidence, that Iran is making nuclear weapons.  The chances are high that the new White House occupant will have us at war in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq.  As Obama’s wars expand, the $205 billion for war in Iraq and Afghanistan will become $400 billion annually and then $600  billion annually.  

Obama’s “troop withdrawal” from Iraq has proved to be just another con job.  Obama has announced that the withdrawal doesn’t include the 50,000 US soldiers who will remain in Iraq indefinitely--like the US troops that have been kept in Japan and Germany for 64 years and in Korea since the early 1950s.   

Meanwhile Medicare is on the ropes. The latest Medicare trustees report says that Medicare’s funds for hospital payments will be exhausted in 10 years.  To make ends meet, Obama proposes cutting payments to Medicare providers. 

Obama’s plan is to make doctors and patients pay for Medicare. One way to get National Health is to make it uneconomic for private health care to service Medicare patients. Already many doctors will not accept Medicare patients because of the low payments, endless paperwork, and risk of prosecution for “over-billing.”  Looking at one recent Medicare patient medical bill, Medicare and supplemental insurance paid 29 percent of the billed amount, requiring the doctor to eat 58.5 percent of his charges and the patient to pay 12.5 percent.  The doctor was paid  $93.16 on a $320.89 bill.  And Obama wants to reduce payments to providers?

What is Obama thinking? A country that can’t afford Medicare can’t afford National Health. Medicare provides only for the elderly, and it provides very little.  A person pays the Medicare tax as long as he earns and on the totality of earnings.  For the rich the Medicare tax can exceed the cost of a gold-plated private insurance policy.  

Basic Medicare leaves a person unprotected.  To provide better coverage, it is necessary to enroll in Medicare Part B for which the premium is $308.30 per month or $3,699.60 per year.  On top of this, a person needs a privately supplied supplemental policy to complete Medicare coverage.  AARP’s policy, which, after deductibles are met, covers half of drug costs, cost the “Medicare protected” elderly  $ 273.50 per month or $3,282 per year.  The drug prescription plan passed by Congress costs the individual yet more.

The two supplements to Medicare cost the Medicare patient $6,981.60 per year. In addition, if the Medicare patient has much retirement income besides Social Security, he pays income tax on 85 per cent  of the $3,699.60 Medicare Part B premium as it is part of taxable Social Security, which for someone in the 25 per cent bracket is another $925 dollars.

In the late 1970s, Democratic Senator Russell Long, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, told me that as Social Security was collected as a tax on wages and salaries, the US government had promised never to tax the benefits.  So much for any commitment that the US government makes to the American people.

A top Social Security income, net of Medicare Part B premium, is $23,220 per year. Deduct the AARP policy, and the elderly who have paid in maximum Social Security taxes, get $20,000 per year.  Of course, few Social Security retirees receive the maximum payment.  AARP’s Public Policy Institute reports that in 2006 the average annual Social Security benefit for a retired worker was $12,372.  Such a worker would have little left after paying the Medicare Part B premium and an additional premium for a supplement.

Offshoring and “free trade” have destroyed employer-provided health coverage for millions of employees.  Private health care coverage can cost as much as one-third and even one-half of a person’s earned income, and some people are not insurable.  National Health seems to be in the cards --only there is no money for it.  All the money is being spent in pointless wars and on bailouts of financial fraud.  The Obama budget puts bankster bailouts and pointless wars ahead of the health of the American people.

National Health advocates emphasize that a single-payer system is less expensive because it eliminates layers of profits.  It is also less expensive for a less promising reason.  Unless there is a parallel private health care system, National Health systems limit health spending to what is provided in the government budget.  Over time, health care has to compete with everything else in the budget. Every part of the budget has its partisans and special interests.  It is fantasy to assume that National Health will always be well funded.  Just look at the state of the National Health Service in the UK.

Obama’s plan to tax the rich is another con job.  Obama’s budget defines the rich as a person with a $250,000 before tax income.  But the  rich are the banksters, such as Hank Paulson with his $160 million annual bonus, and heads of hedge funds with their $1,000 million annual incomes.  Obama’s “tax the rich” scheme will devastate the upper middle class and leave the super rich undamaged.

Bush’s FY 2008 budget deficit was $450 billion.  The FY 2009 deficit is projected at $1.2 trillion. The budget deficit in Obama’s first budget is $1.75 trillion, a fourfold increase in two years.  

Obama’s projected budget deficits are an understatement. For example, Obama’s budget assumes a less steep economic decline than the economy is experiencing, and it projects that war costs will drop to $50 billion annually beginning in 2011--this despite Obama sending more troops to Afghanistan and recent congressional testimony of Lt. General David Barno, former head of US forces in Afghanistan, who said the war in Afghanistan could last until 2025.  

The “war on terror” will never end, because the moronic US government has defined everyone who resists US hegemony as a “terrorist.”  The great danger to American civil liberty is that the US government regards as terrorists American citizens who realize that the neoconservative dream of American hegemony is a fantasy.  As the Obama regime has not repealed the Bush regime rule -- “you are with us or against us” -- Americans who oppose hegemonic war are lumped into the “against us” category.

There seems little chance that civil liberties will be restored. Obama and his “liberal” Justice (sic) Department have sided with Bush/Cheney on every important civil liberties issue.  Yet, the ACLU sees “hope” in Obama’s rhetoric!

On February 21 Yahoo News reported: “President Barack Obama's administration has sided with predecessor George W. Bush on the rights of detainees at Bagram air base in Afghanistan, saying they cannot challenge their detention in US courts. In a two-sentence court filing Friday, the US Justice Department said "the government adheres to its previously articulated position" of denying habeas corpus rights to Bagram detainees, backing a similar decision by the Bush administration.”

“Earlier this month,” Yahoo News reports, “the Obama administration backed another Bush anti-terror policy when it urged a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing Boeing Company of helping fly suspects to secret CIA detention centers overseas. The Justice Department said the case should be thrown out to protect state secrets.”

Do you remember the illegal spying?  The US telecom industry succumbed to Bush regime pressure and broke the law together with President Bush.  The illegal act made the US telecom industry subject to lawsuits, but the Bush regime placed its co-conspirators above the law.  

Now Obama has sided with the Bush regime.  On February 26,therawstory.com reported: “The Obama Justice Department continues to stand behind a Bush era law meant to prevent lawsuits against telecommunications companies accused of illegally sharing private customer information with intelligence agencies. In a brief filed late Wednesday obtained by Raw Story, the Department of Justice provided its views to Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, after the San Francisco federal judge questioned the constitutionality of the wide-sweeping law and whether it gives the U.S. Attorney General too much power in deciding whether a company is immune from lawsuits after it has shared information with federal agents.”

On February 26 antiwar.comreported that the “new CIA director (Leon Panetta) declares nothing has changed, nothing will change.”  Panetta declared that the US policy of conducting war on Pakistan’s sovereign territory “would continue.”  The attacks, Panetta claimed,  “have been successful.”  For the CIA, claims of success equal legality.  Did the Bush regime ever express greater arrogance and hubris?

With Rahm Israel Emanuel, an Israeli dual citizen, in charge of the White House and Obama’s schedule, Obama will have an even less independent foreign policy in the Middle East than Bush.  Somehow someone among the Obamacons managed to put forward an appointment that could challenge the Israel Lobby’s stranglehold.  Charles Freeman, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, former top Pentagon official, and president of the Middle East Policy Council, was chosen by Admiral Denis Blair, Director of National Intelligence, to head the National Intelligence Council.  

The neocons went berserk.  Steve Rosen, formerly of AIPAC, currently indicted as an Israeli spy,  Gabriel Schoenfeld, who wants the New York Times indicted for allegedly violating the Espionage Act for reporting the Bush regime’s illegal spying, Daniel Pipes, who sees Muslim terrorists under every bed, Michael Rubin of the warmonger American Enterprise Institute, and Frank Gaffney, possibly the goofiest person in America,  damned Freeman’s appointment as “deeply troubling,” because Freeman has an open mind on the Middle East situation.  

In other words, if you are not on Israel’s side, you are disqualified.

There is no more certain indication of continuing war in the Middle East on Israel’s behalf than for Freeman’s appointment to be blocked.
  
Pay close attention to this one. If Obama succumbs to the Israel Lobby and nixes Blair’s appointment of Freeman,  the US will have to finance interminable wars on top of trillion dollar bailouts and massive unemployment.  

The US might not even make it to 2012 before it is a banana republic.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com

http://counterpunch.com/roberts03022009.html

EMERGENCY CALL TO ACTION! Obama Tries to Sneak Major Health Care Reform into the Stimulus Bill

Thursday, February 12, 2009
Byron Richards, CCN

Under the cover of emergency economic legislation the front wave of an entire new system of health care is being pushed on Americans.  The strategy for this ploy was once explained by Obama’s former appointee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, and now exposed tax cheat, Senator Tom Daschle.  Daschle spells out the plan on pages 196-197 of his book, Critical – What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis, “The next president should act immediately to capitalize on the goodwill that greets any incoming administration.  If that means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it.  This issue is too important to be stalled by Senate protocol.” In other words, public debate should be avoided, forget about democracy – so that Obama-care does not meet the same fate as Hillary-care.

In the last few days a debate on this issue has blown up on national TV, talk radio, and the internet.  It began with an article published on Bloomberg titled, “Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan” by Betsy McCaughey.  McCaughey says the plan could be used to ration care to the elderly, putting government, not doctors, in charge of what care will be delivered.  She has been interviewed on Lou Dobbs and Glenn Beck.  Fox News, the Drudge Report, and even Rush Limbaugh have spread the news.  Limbaugh warned his listening audience that their patient privacy was at stake and that “Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system.” The bottom line of their messages: quality of care and type of care will not be determined by the doctor, but rather by a new system of cost containment implemented by the federal government.

Democrats have found themselves on the defense.  While getting grilled on FOX news Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said, “There is nothing in this legislation that interferes with a doctor making a decision, with the patient, on what is appropriate care.  What is in this legislation is an effort to make sure we share information – generically, appropriately – so doctors and medical providers can have the best information, but there’s nothing in this bill that compromises the decision-making between the doctor and the patient.”

Democratic websites have attacked McCaughey, saying she is reading more into the bill than is actually there.  She has fired back, saying the health-care language in the bill has nothing whatsoever to do with new jobs and jump starting the economy.  She says, “Americans deserve an open and honest debate about creating a federal healthcare infrastructure of this magnitude. These health provisions should be removed from the stimulus bill and offered to Congress in separate legislation.”

We even have Scott Gottlieb getting into the discussion, the former second in command at the FDA, who during his time at the FDA advocated the industry-friendly position that Americans should be exposed to dangerous and expensive drug experiments and have no right to recourse if they are injured.  Now he says, “The bill will be used to create guidelines to direct doctors’ treatment of difficult, high-cost medical problems.” His statement means that Big Pharma and Big Biotech are really concerned that their future cash-cow experiments may not be covered by the new plan.

Indeed, Big Pharma was really upset about parts of the plan that called for spending government money to try and compare the effectiveness of drugs, one to another.  This provision has now been changed based on intense lobbying over the past few days.  Such a provision would have been really bad news for Big Pharma, as it would quickly be discovered that their drugs hardly work at all to produce positive health outcomes, especially in preventive medicine.  For a more comprehensive understanding of Big Pharma in relation to the health care handouts in this bill, read my article “Is Obama Bailing Out Big Pharma’s Bursting Bubble.”

The Hill website reported in early December that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) wanted health IT in the stimulus bill to help avoid a fight on healthcare early in 2009 when lawmakers were drafting broader healthcare legislation.  “There are going to be certain costs of healthcare reform — upfront costs.  If I can put some of those upfront costs in the so-called stimulus bill, I’d rather put them there….We’ve got to create a very significant upfront effort early on and keep the momentum going on healthcare,” said Baucus, who added he was in regular contact with the Obama team, Kennedy and other key lawmakers.

Several things are certain.  Health IT has nothing to do with meaningful stimulus for the economy.  It is in the stimulus bill to get its own financial stimulus, helping to jump start Obama-care without any public debate. 

The Scope of Obama’s Health IT

In the 680 page House version of the stimulus bill (H.R.1.E.H., pdf version), almost 200 pages are spent on Health IT (434-627).  Right away you can understand that this is a comprehensive piece of legislation, taking up almost 1/3 of the bill.  The legislation establishes within the Department of Health and Human Services an Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, which will be headed by a National Coordinator.  This is like creating a new FDA, meaning the size of this new branch of government will end up quite large.  It states various admirable purposes, such as ensuring electronic health information is secure and that it is used to better patient care.  An overall goal is to have an electronic health record for every American by 2014 (page 445).

This is not a passive IT system that is collecting data.  It is intended to be used as a tool to deploy a type of care it deems appropriate based on government employees making policy-related health decisions, with a stated purpose so the IT system “provides appropriate information to help guide medical decisions at the time and place of care.” (page 442)

Anybody reading this legislation quickly realizes that it is much more than a health IT system.  It is a new type of health care with a blank check on expanding its regulatory powers to accomplish anything it deems appropriate.  For example, on page 447 it reads, “REPORT ON ADDITIONAL FUNDING OR AUTHORITY NEEDED.—Not later than 12 months after the date of the enactment of this title, the National Coordinator shall submit to the appropriate committees of jurisdiction of the House of Representatives and the Senate a report on any additional funding or authority the Coordinator or the HIT Policy Committee or HIT Standards Committee requires to evaluate and develop standards, implementation specifications, and certification criteria, or to achieve full participation of stakeholders in the adoption of a nationwide health information technology infrastructure that allows for the electronic use and exchange of health information.”

A short version of this is “the National Coordinator shall report on any additional authority required to achieve full participation of stakeholders.” In other words, everyone will play ball and or else the National Coordinator must seek more power to be able to get everyone in line. 

The legislation makes it clear that this is not just about your personal health.  On page 455 it says, “the HIT Policy Committee may consider the following additional areas: The appropriate uses of a nation wide health information infrastructure, including for purposes of biosurveillance and public health.” This approves the use of your health information for military-related needs and other public health measures (meaning did you get all your vaccinations? etc.).  It is not at all a stretch of the imagination to interpret this to mean that your electronic health record will be used to ensure you are in compliance with public health initiatives.

The legislation specifically mandates compliance by the private sector, page 470: “SEC. 4112. APPLICATION TO PRIVATE ENTITIES.  Each agency (relating to promoting quality and efficient health care in Federal government administered or sponsored health care programs) shall require in contracts or agreements with health care providers, health plans, or health insurance issuers that as each provider, plan, or issuer implements, acquires, or upgrades health information technology systems, it shall utilize, where available, health information technology systems and products that meet standards and implementation specifications.”

In other words, all health professionals are required to abide by the standards of care that are determined in conjunction with the cost containment and “best practices” ideas of the federal government, whatever they may be.  This means that the government is directly telling doctors how to practice medicine, and even what kind of medicine is allowed, contrary to what Senator Cardin told FOX news.

The theme and importance of conforming to the government’s idea of medical care is further spelled out in the section on the MEDICARE PROGRAM - INCENTIVES FOR ELIGIBLE PROFESSIONALS.  This section introduces the term “meaningful user,” which is repeatedly used in the context of a health professional who is conforming to whatever the IT system tells them to do with their patients.  It offers them bonuses up to $15,000 per year to comply with the IT health guidelines. (page 513) This means your doctor’s bonus could be more important than the right decision for your health.

The goal is to get doctors in the loop and then force them to comply with guidelines of care: “The Secretary shall seek to improve the use of electronic health records and health care quality over time by requiring more stringent measures of meaningful use.” (page 518) This is an open-ended and vaguely defined approach that could mean almost anything.

Freedom and Choice are Being Sacrificed

The price of this legislation cannot be measured in dollars.  The price of this legislation should be measured in your loss of freedom, loss of privacy, and loss of choice relating to your own health.  The government will want your DNA in its database next.  It will want a chip in your arm to really keep track of you and your health.  One thing will lead to another.

This legislation represents a broad and sweeping change in the type of care you will be able to receive.  And that care will be set by the government, by unelected bureaucrats with who knows what agenda. 

If this is what Americans really want then it should be debated and discussed openly on its merits.  Freedom is not easily regained once it is lost.  Once upon a time the people of Germany had a truly advanced health care system called the “freedom to cure.” It encouraged alternative health practitioners to practice side by side with medical doctors, offering true freedom of choice, all in the best interests of the patient.  That was a long time ago.

In the name of public health, those freedoms were set aside for the rise of a socialist system.  It was recognized that health freedom fostered mental health and free thinking citizens, and those rights were not compatible with socialism.  Health freedom and general health choice were obliterated in the name of the greater good.  The government had control.  Even though Hitler was stopped, Germany has never regained its health freedom and today has one of the most repressive socialist health care systems on earth.

Certainly we want to do what we can to help Americans who are struggling with health problems, especially when those problems were not created by their own poor choices.  It is simply not right to sacrifice our identity as a free people to accomplish that objective.

###

Emergency Call to Action
The only chance to stop sweeping health care reform, which is being pushed through without any public debate, is to flood the Senate with objection to the Health Care IT portion of the bill – demanding its removal from the Stimulus bill. The Senate is expected to vote on Friday. In addition to calling and faxing your own Senators, also let the three Republican Senators who are supporting this legislation know that you are opposed to Health IT, which is really major health care reform, being included in the Stimulus bill. Simply say, “I adamantly object to the Health IT provision in the Stimulus bill, which are designed to drastically change health care and are not relevant to stimulus. Americans deserve an open and honest debate on this very important topic. These health IT provisions should be removed from the Stimulus bill and offered to Congress in separate legislation.”

Contact Your Senators

Capitol Switchboard – (202) 224-3121
Or find your Senator’s contact information online by clicking here

The Three Key Senators to Also Contact:

Collins, Susan M. - (R - ME)—Direct: (202) 224-2523, Fax: (202) 224-2693
Specter, Arlen - (R - PA)—Direct: (202) 224-4254, Fax: 202-228-1229
Snowe, Olympia J. - (R - ME)—Direct: (202) 224-5344, Fax: (202) 224-1946 

http://www.wellnessresources.com/content/articles/obama_tries_to_sneak_major_health_care_reform_into_the_stimulus_bill/

Economic Stimulus Bill Mandates $954 Million for Vaccinations, $545 Million for "Genomics Programs"

By Mike Adams, NaturalNews Editor
February 12 - While the Obama administration is attempting to pass the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 in a hurry, NaturalNews readers have begun actually reading the bill, and they're finding some worrying...

Obama Tries to Sneak Major Health Care Reform Into Economic Stimulus Bill

By Byron Richards, Health Freedom Editor
February 12 - Under the cover of emergency economic legislation the front wave of an entire new system of health care is being pushed on Americans. The strategy for this ploy was once explained by Obama's former appointee...