SOLDIERS DIE WHILE OBAMA CAN'T DECIDE!

More soldiers and civilians died this week and terrorist attacks have greatly increased in number and intensity in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. We have not seen this intensity of attacks since 2001. Terrorists have become emboldened by the weakness and indecision that they see in President Obama. They are NOT afraid of the USA as long as Obama is the Commander in Chief! He sent a general to Afghanistan to WIN the war for us and now Obama drags out the process of deciding whether to give the general the troops he needs. He is letting the bureaucrats and politics decide what he is going to do! Our soldiers deserve better than this. I'm afraid Obama is going to cause more deaths and we eventually will leave the Middle East in defeat! Is that what we elected him to do?

CONGRESS AND THE HEALTH CARE FIASCO!

Health care proponents in Congress are saying that the new federal health care plans are "deficit neutral" - that means they say it will not add to the deficit. They are making the deficit the financial issue and not the real cost of these government plans. What they are NOT saying is that the reason they claim it will be deficit neutral is that they plan to pay for it with fees, penalties and taxes in the bills and limitations and controls on medical treatments and rationing of care.

The health plan Congress wants would not go into effect for 3 to 5 years, but the taxes would start right away! These government health care bills will cost us dearly, even before any possible benefits would occur.

Those people who have private health insurance plans that Congress calls "Cadillac plans" will be charged a 40% tax on the premiums! Instead of making health insurance premiums easier to pay by making them "tax exempt", Congress wants to tax them! Which plans will be considered "Cadillac plans"? No one knows!

They are still arguing that they are magically going to end Medicare fraud, which apparently has not been accomplished in the 40 years that Medicare has been in existence! Doctors will be financially penalized if they don't follow federal guidelines for how certain illnesses should be treated! Medical supplies and equipment over $100 will be taxed! And much more!

The federal demands being placed on insurance companies are going to mean significantly increased health insurance premiums that will affect 85% of Americans, not to mention the taxation that will be added to the premium cost!

People over 65 will be hit especially hard. Medicare will be cut by $500 billion at a time when 30 million more baby boomers will turn 65! In addition, the Congressional Budget Office report says that, after the federal health care is in effect, there will still be about 29 million people left uninsured.

Many doctors have said that if more federal regulation on their practice of medicine comes into effect, that they will leave the medical profession in America. (They would probably be very welcome in many countries that are leaving national health care programs and moving back toward private care!)

No one knows what final bill will eventually come out of Congress, but you can be sure that it will contain rules and regulations that will eventually cause the destruction of private health care! Private health care will become so expensive that it will be prohibitive to even the wealthiest of Americans. Employers will be forced by higher costs to discontinue offering private health plans and employees will have no choice but to go to federal health care plans. We will end up with single pay government health care, like Canada and England!

Are these government plans going to take the health system regarded as the best in the world and make it better? NO! Will they extend coverage to all uninsured people in this country? NO! Will these plans make health insurance premiums any cheaper? NO! Are these plans going to cost the average person more money? YES!

SO WHY ARE THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS DOING THIS? It's not about our health. It's about government control over our money and our lives. It's about their desire to have us dependent on government for our basic life requirements. It's about the arrogrance of power in Congress and the Presidency. They know that the majority of the citizens are not in favor of federally controlled health care, and yet they are insistent on passing it. What's good for the American people matters little to these power hungry bureaucrats! It's all about them (and they will have their OWN health insurance--not ours)!

TELL YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES TO SCRAP THESE RIDICULOUS HEALTH CARE BILLS and pass legislation that will be economically sound and will not COST the American people an arm and a leg (literally!).

AFGHANISTAN WAR 8 YEARS OLD TODAY!

I've just been listening to the Pentagon spokesman doubletalk about the Afghanistan war! He is saying that General McChrystal's request for troops is still going through the "chain of command", which apparently is a very slow process! He couldn't say for sure where that request was! He says it comes down to what strategy the President is going to have for Afghanistan. Why doesn't the President have a strategy?

Then the President spokesman, Robert Gibbs, says that the President asked to see General McChrystals report last Thursday. I remember President Bush having a DAILY meeting with his Secretary of Defense about the workings of the wars. I find it hard to believe that the current Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, wouldn't have taken this request to the President before now! Unless, the President couldn't find time, what with all his other pressing public appearances. This is just a tactic to try to protect the President from the public's dissatisfaction of his handling of the Afghan war.

We've been in Afghanistan for 8 years! This was an issue in the campaign and it's been an issue during the last year since President Obama took office. So why doesn't the President have a strategy now? I seem to remember him saying in several speeches that we were there to win!

We're getting a lot of doubletalk and excuses, but it all comes down to indecision and an adverse attitude toward this war by the President and the liberals. All this just gives the Taliban and Al Qaeda more encouragement. The Taliban watches Fox News too!

"DON'T GIVE ME NO BAD NEWS!"

General McChrystal, the commanding officer in Afghanistan, made a public statement that if the US didn't send more troops to Afghanistan, then we risk losing. Now he is being attacked for saying this publicly. Of course, he had asked the President for the troops months before, and since then had not heard from the President once and no troops were promised. Generals speak publicly all the time. They have freedom of speech too!

President Obama is Commander in Chief of the military. He is also saying that General McChrystal should have gone through "chain of command"! Shouldn't the General in charge of the war be able to talk directly to the Commander in Chief who has ultimate responsibility for the war?

I'm of the opinion that the General probably did have an ulterior motive by making these public comments, and that was to light a fire under a complacent President! Our soldiers are fighting and dying in Afghanistan. This is not a tea party gone awry, its a war!

President Obama has been too busy promoting his own political agenda, that his interest in Afghanistan appears to have been nil! He has remained silent about what he is actually going to do about Afghanistan, except to say that we will not leave Afghanistan. Then, Mr President, are we going to stay until we are defeated? Eight soldiers were killed just this last weekend!

The President is now having a meeting with lawmakers. He is more interested in not losing his political support in Congress than he is with protecting our troops. The Afghanistan war has been undersourced for years and now there is a resurgence of the Taliban who are emboldened by the weakness and indecision of this President.

We have a President who apparently doesn't know what to do and doesn't want to listen to the general he appointed to oversee the war. Is he going to have Congressional bureaucrats tell him how to run the wars and not the military personnel on the ground in Afghanistan? In the meantime our young soldiers are fighting and dying.

The "kill granny" Bill

The Senate's health care bill, called the Baucus Bill, robs the elderly to cover the uninsured--like snatching purses from old ladies! The House bills already cut future spending for Medicare by $500 billion over the next decade. The Baucus bill would slash a similar amount, just when 30 percent more people enter the program as baby boomers turn 65!

Our own Senator Cantwell inserted a devastating amendment into the Baucus bill. It gives the Secretary of Health and Human Services the power to define quality, cost effective care for each medical condition and penalize doctors who spend more on their patients. The law establishing Medicare in 1965 barred the federal government from interfering in doctors' treatment decisions. Slowly, Medicare regulations have begun unraveling that protection. Now the Cantwell amendment finishes the job.

This is the most extreme change to Medicare ever. It will mean that the only doctors left in Medicare will be those willing to ration care and practice cookbook medicine. The Baucus bill completes the framework for tying doctors' hands when treating the elderly.

The health reformers' plan to cut spending on patients 65 and older won't simply reduce end-of-life care, it will also eliminate care for patients who are perfectly capable of surviving their illness and going on with life.

These health care reform bills put forth by Congress will put an end to Medicare that we now have and will be the beginning of health care that will be rationed or denied because of bureaucratic rules and regulations and lack of funding.

Don't let this happen. Tell your Congressional representatives that you DO NOT WANT these health care reforms. Do it now - before it's too late!