EXCLUSIVE: Freedom Works Co-Chair Dick Armey Discusses His Controversial Remarks On Health Care and Immigration

Former House Leader and current FreedomWorks Co-Chairman Dick Armey discusses his National Press Club interview: Is health care doomed to pass? Does he support Amnesty? Should citizens bother going to DC this Saturday for another push on The Hill? He also talks about Michelle Malkin’s perspective and why he feels that America is at a pivotal point in history.

Listen here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• What Is Freedom Works’ Problem? (riehlworldview.com)
• Dick Armey Takes Shots at Financial Regulation Plan (blogs.wsj.com)

Posted in America, Body, Corrupted Culture, Political Animals | 1 Comment »

Health Care Reform: About Doctors

My last post focused on jobs generally. Now, what about Doctors? Everyone wants to know about doctors because it’s already tough to get a doctor if you’re on Medicaid or Medicare.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, it’s going to get worse:

Physician Support of Health Reform in General
• 62.7% of physicians feel that health reform is needed but should be implemented in a more targeted, gradual way, as opposed to the sweeping overhaul that is in legislation. [NOTE: I think this reflects the American public, too. No one is saying to do nothing. This bill is just not the "something" that needs to be done.]
• 28.7% of physicians are in favor of a public option.
• 3.6% of physicians prefer the “status quo” and feel that the U.S. health care system is best “as is.

Health Reform and Primary Care Physicians
• 46.3% of primary care physicians (family medicine and internal medicine) feel that the passing of health reform will either force them out of medicine or make them want to leave medicine.

Health Reform, Public Option, and Practice Revenue/Physician Income
• 41% of physicians feel that income and practice revenue will “decline or worsen dramatically” with a public option.
• 30% feel income will “decline or worsen somewhat” with a public option.
• 9% feel income will “improve somewhat” with a public option, and 0.8% feel income will “improve dramatically” with a public option.

Health Reform, Public Option, and Physician Supply
• 72% of physicians feel that a public option would have a negative impact on physician supply, with 45% feeling it will “decline or worsen dramatically” and 27% predicting it will “decline or worsen somewhat. [NOTE: This is the part that is most concerning. What will then happen is that the United States will recruit less-qualified drones to fill the jobs. As the role of physician becomes commoditized, the person seeking that job will change.]
• 24% of physicians think they will try to retire early if a public option is implemented.
• 21% of physicians would try to leave medicine if a public option is implemented, even if not near retirement age at the time.

Health Reform and Recommending Medicine to Others as a Career
• 36% of physicians would not recommend medicine as a career, regardless of health reform.
• 27% would recommend medicine as a career but not if health reform passes.
• 25% of physicians would recommend medicine as a career regardless of health reform.
• 12% would not recommend medicine as a career now but feel that they would recommend it as a career if health reform passes

Source: The Medicus Firm “Physician Survey: Health Reform’s Impact on Physician Supply and Quality of Medical Care,”
The Medicus Firm, www.TheMedicusFirm.com

This does NOT bode well for the future of American medicine. More importantly, it harms the care Americans will receive.

By the way, Democrats know this. This bill is NOT about health care. It’s about transitioning costs away from the unions and the ballooning aging Boomer population to the younger, healthier people.

Health care reform is a tax plan.

Posted in Barack Obama, Body, Economy | No Comments »

Why Regulating Nutritional Supplements Is Stupid And Why Drugs Are Over-Regulated

Yesterday, my esteemed co-blogger John Hawkins wrote a post stating that he agrees with John McCain about regulating nutritional supplements. They’re both wrong.

First, it’s important to examine how effective the FDA is in protecting the people when it comes to regulating drugs. Not very. Deaths from prescription drugs are “soaring“. Check out this recall list. That means that these drugs were approved as safe.

Second, an FDA approval gives a false sense of safety. Any substance designed to manipulate physiological functions is inherently dangerous. An FDA approval does not change that.

Third, unregulated nutritional supplements cause a tiny percent of deaths. See table.

Now, all sorts of claims are made about supplements, but those are already regulated. People go through trends and often spend money on “worthless” supplements. Some nutritional supplements really help a person’s health. Some supplements offer only the placebo effect.

If a dude buys a supplement to enhance his “performance” and “size”, he’s stupid, but most of the time, that’s not fatal. Viagra, on the other hand, can be.

I would suggest that regulating this industry further is just an expansion of the nanny state and another way to infantilize the consumer. More than that, it’s a push by the medical industry because they’d like to put their competition out of business. They’d like to be the only ones to make nutritional recommendations and claims even though they have far less training than chiropractors and nutritionists. This is an economic argument and a desire for market share and nothing more.

So no. I don’t want the government pushing their nose into nutritional supplements. Mind their own damn business and cut the debt. I don’t want one stupid bureaucrat telling Americans one more thing about how they should live their lives.

Also, I think the FDA is pretty much bought and paid for by drug companies. Too much to get into now..but there are many experimental drugs that could help people. My opinion is to let people try them. It’s called choice.

Too often, people die while waiting for a drug to be approved when a drug has been used for years in another country safely. The FDA process also makes bring a drug to market so expensive that it creates a monopoly for huge pharmaceutical companies.

Free up the market. Tell people they’re on their own to research it. Let freedom ring when it comes to drugs and supplements. We should be opening this market, not giving the government more control.

Posted in Body | 3 Comments »

Megan McArdle On Health Care Through Reconciliation: Why They Still Try

Megan McArdle posits:

It’s far from clear that Democrats have the votes to pass anything close to this bill, even through reconciliation. Pro-life Democrats in the House may not go along with the Senate bill, which has more liberal language on abortion.

But even if they eventually go along, Speaker Pelosi could still be short of the votes she needs, thanks to attrition. To pass the Senate bill, she will probably need to flip a significant number of “no” voters into the “yes” column. Since most of the “no” voters come from relatively conservative districts, this is tantamount to asking them to commit political suicide.

I would submit that President Obama and the House and Senate leaders have been asking their members to commit political suicide from the beginning; for the cause. This is not a new development.

Yet here we are in late February watching the Democrats dance this insulting health care jig. Why? Because this is everything. They don’t care about losing their jobs. Passing this structure would be for the greater good.

This drum is one I keep on beating because I don’t think people on our side can fully comprehend the degree to which health care in the hands of the government matters to leftists.

Health care is the conduit with which to control every citizen’s life. It is core to a socialist’s world-view. It means survival for the unions.

This battle ain’t over ’til it’s over. And the Congress leaders on the left and President Obama know November will be a bloodbath anyway. They want something to show for it. Don’t underestimate their determination.

Posted in Body, Democrats | 1 Comment »

Choke-Proof Hotdogs: What’s Next? Outlawing Grapes?

Any mother worth her title knows that grapes are the number one choking hazard. At my kid’s pre-school, they actually make parents cut up grapes due to the risk. No warning on hotdogs, though. Until now:

Nutritionists have long warned of the perils of hot dogs: fat, sodium and preservatives to name a few.

Now, the American Academy of Pediatrics wants foods like hot dogs to come with a warning label — not because of their nutritional risks but because they pose a choking hazard to babies and children.

Better yet, the academy would like to see foods such as hot dogs “redesigned” so their size, shape and texture make them less likely to lodge in a youngster’s throat. More than 10,000 children under 14 go to the emergency room each year after choking on food, and up to 77 die, says the new policy statement, published online today in Pediatrics. About 17% of food-related asphyxiations are caused by hot dogs.

“If you were to take the best engineers in the world and try to design the perfect plug for a child’s airway, it would be a hot dog,” says statement author Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. “I’m a pediatric emergency doctor, and to try to get them out once they’re wedged in, it’s almost impossible.”

Full disclosure: I got yelled at a lot because I didn’t cut up the grapes, so you probably know where I’m going with this.

Could America get any less risk-averse? I mean really.

This is the country that conquered the West, sent a man to the moon and just beat Canada’s ass in hockey and we’re going to re-design a hotdog so kids don’t choke?

What kind of message do we send to our kids when we mitigate against every little risk? We send a message that Americans are WEENIES. Kid-sized weenies and big, overbearing, obsessive parenting weenies.

With all the problems in the world, hotdogs should be relegated to the category of awesome. I do not want to go out to the baseball park and eat a re-engineered hotdog. In the future, however, I shall praise my own courage in buying a foot-long at the park. I ate the whole thing without choking! I could have died!!

Posted in America, Body, Corrupted Culture | 4 Comments »

Health Care Reconciliation–AKA Jam The Legislation Through–While Using Republicans As Props

President Obama has a long history of saying one thing and sounding so reasonable and conciliatory while doing it while taking actions that completely contradict his words.

Enter health care reform.

The President wants to have a photo op with Republicans and an opportunity to lecture then about what bad people they are (you know, the kind of bad people that represent their constituents who HATE this legislation) while simultaneously using a Senate procedure reserved for budget bills to pass the loathsome legislation.

Thankfully, John Boehner is calling the President’s disingenuous actions out.

CATO, the libertarian Think Tank says:

If anything, those price controls make the president’s new plan even more bureaucratic and government-heavy. The Senate bill would take an ill-advised stab at cost-control by imposing a tax on the highest-cost health plans. That president proposes to pare back that excise tax and instead have a panel of federal bureaucrats cap the growth in health insurance premiums for all health plans. Those new government powers could make it even harder for people to obtain the coverage and care that they need.

Well, the Health Care stuff still stinks. The GOP has a great response. Read and sign the petition here. Some of the ideas:

We ask that President Obama and Congressional Democrats join with Republican leaders to start over on health insurance reform.

We ask that they help craft sensible reforms designed to lower costs and expand access without violating individual rights or the integrity of the market.

We ask that they enact medical liability reform and put an end to frivolous lawsuits that drive up the cost of medicine.

We ask that they allow individuals and small businesses to pool together to purchase high-quality affordable health care coverage.

We ask that they allow Americans to shop for health care coverage from coast to coast and purchase insurance policies across state lines.

We ask that they create new incentives to save for current and future health care needs by allowing people to use their health savings accounts funds to pay premiums for high deductible health plans.

We ask that they guarantee individuals with pre-existing conditions or past illnesses access to affordable coverage through the expansion of state-based, high-risk pools, and reinsurance programs.

We reject any attempt by the federal government to force any American to purchase an unwanted insurance plan.

We reject any attempt to implement a government-run insurance program.

We reject individual mandates, rationing, and special deals for any state.

We reject a separate set of rules for government and private sector health insurance purchases.

We oppose any plan that betrays our senior citizens by cutting Medicare coverage, or that allocates taxpayer funds to pay for abortion.

We reject any proposal that authorizes a government takeover of any portion of our health care system.

We ask that Congress and the President above all pledge to ensure the constitutionality of any health insurance reform legislation considered by the federal government.

We implore the President and his allies to listen to the will of the American people and start over on health insurance reform.

Again, go check it out and sign on to the petition. President Obama seems inclined to ram through his ideas, even though they directly contradict the will of the people.

Are the Democrats willing to follow him over the cliff? Seems so.

Posted in America, Barack Obama, Body | 1 Comment »

Abnormal Psychology Exists: You Are A Woman If You Give Birth. Period.

Woman who wants to be an ugly man will be giving birth. This time in Britain:

Congratulations, it’s a boy – who will give birth next month.

Two proud papas are expecting a baby boy in February, London’s Daily Mail reports, in what will be the world’s second known case of birth by a “pregnant man.”

“We know some people will criticize us, but we are blissfully happy and not ashamed,” Scott Moore told the newspaper.

Moore and his husband, Thomas, were both born female and have undergone surgery to change their sex. The transgender California couple is legally married, as Moore still has his female birth certificate.

Baby “Miles” has two brothers waiting for him, 10-year-old Logan and 12-year-old Greg, Thomas’ children from a previous relationship with a woman who has since passed away.

Moore, born Jessica, told the paper he first realized he wanted to be a man when he was 11.

“When I told my family, they thought I was crazy, but they gradually realized I was serious and allowed me to start taking male hormones when I was 16 years old,” he said.

His parents eventually paid for him to have his 36DDD breasts removed, the paper reports, but he could not afford the high cost of full sex reassignment surgery.

Moore still has female reproductive organs, and got pregnant using the sperm of a friend in June 2009, the Daily Mail reports.

You know, there is such thing as abnormal psychology. This is NOT NORMAL. It is one thing to move to Funky Town. It’s another thing to start a family there and bring children into this disordered environment.

Pretending that this is not so is akin to the government pretending that a dude with the name Mohammed who acts weird, says he wants to blow things up and then does it, isn’t a terrorist.

Society cannot function if we don’t have some agreement on what is acceptable social norms. Freaks do not tend to build society, they tend to be around the edges eating away at its success.

Now, I’m libertarian enough not to want to get in this lady’s business, but I also don’t equate tolerance with approval. I don’t approve. No one should. It’s not good for her body (it’s self-mutilation on a massive scale). It’s not good for her children. It’s not good for society.

Posted in Body, Corrupted Culture, Mind | 7 Comments »

Are U.S. Fat People At Maxed Capacity?

Fausta doesn’t know quite what to make of the research that obesity rates in America have leveled off.

I’m just wondering if it’s a function of aging. For example, people tend to lose bone density and weight as they age. The Baby Boomers, the largest generation, are aging and would be changing the statistics rather dramatically. Think about it. When you visit an old folks home, how many people are super overweight? Is it because the morbidly obese people have already died, or is it because they slim down because they eat less, absorb less, or whatever.

I don’t really think that awareness campaigns have anything to do with the dwindling numbers. Everyone knows, and has known, that being grossly overweight is unhealthy. When it comes to smoking, people didn’t realize the health risks for a very long time. The statistics and evidence demonstrated how bad it is and reversed the smoking trend.

People have always known that candy and fast food and excessive this or that is bad for you–they did, and do, it anyway.

So are people changing or are they just aging? I couldn’t tell from the research. It’s good news that people aren’t getting fatter, but I don’t know that the information says much about changed American behavior.

Posted in America, Body, Corrupted Culture | No Comments »

Republican Men, Gird Yer Loins

A woman’s hormonal cycle will start to mesh with other women when in proximity. A man’s hormones also seemed to be linked to other men. Via Allahpundit on Twitter comes this research gem from Scientific American:

With its winners and losers, politics is a lot like sports. Now biologists have the testosterone—or lack thereof—to prove it. Specifically, they have found that male voters who back a losing candidate experience a drop in the hormone.

Immediately before and after the 2008 U.S. presidential election result, neuroscientists from Duke University and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor collected the saliva of 163 college-age participants to determine the amount of testosterone in their systems. Male voters for winner Barack Obama had stable levels of testosterone, but the hormone rapidly declined in males who cast ballots for losers John McCain and Robert Barr. Female voters showed no significant testosterone changes after victory or defeat of their candidate.

Past research has shown that winning and losing in sports matches and other competitions affect testosterone levels in men. The new findings, published online October 21 by PLoS ONE, reveal that politics can influence testosterone in men “just as if they directly engaged head to head in a contest for dominance,” says Kevin LaBar of Duke, the study’s senior researcher.

So the solution, then, is to have winning GOP candidates. I expect Republican men to experience a testosterone surge in the coming year. Something to look forward to.

Posted in Body, Mind, Republicans | 3 Comments »

Why The Health Care Bill Is Scary

Senate Republicans have had health care plans. They also have the only two medical doctors in the Senate. The docs discuss why the health care bill is “scary”:

The bill is here.

Dr. Coburn says in his Wall Street Journal op-ed:

I recently suggested that seniors will die sooner if Congress actually implements the Medicare cuts in the health-care bill put forward by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. My colleagues who defend the bill—none of whom have practiced medicine—predictably dismissed my concern as a scare tactic. They are wrong. Every American, not just seniors, should know that the rationing provisions in the Reid bill will not only reduce their quality of life, but their life spans as well.

My 25 years as a practicing physician have shown me what happens when government attempts to practice medicine: Doctors respond to government coercion instead of patient cues, and patients die prematurely. Even if the public option is eliminated from the bill, these onerous rationing provisions will remain intact.

For instance, the Reid bill (in sections 3403 and 2021) explicitly empowers Medicare to deny treatment based on cost. An Independent Medicare Advisory Board created by the bill—composed of permanent, unelected and, therefore, unaccountable members—will greatly expand the rationing practices that already occur in the program. Medicare, for example, has limited cancer patients’ access to Epogen, a costly but vital drug that stimulates red blood cell production. It has limited the use of virtual, and safer, colonoscopies due to cost concerns. And Medicare refuses medical claims at twice the rate of the largest private insurers.

This isn’t too far off Sarah Palin’s much reviled Death Panels. It also has the added benefit of being true. Interestingly, Howard Dean, also a physician, is not happy with the bill, but for other reasons. He at least knows enough that the bill won’t benefit actual patients. That is the point of this bill, right?

And another thing, this op-ed by David Brooks is why moderates should never run anything. Mind you, this is the guy still in love with President Obama. [Yes, it's wretch-inducing. Sorry.] He says:

So what’s my verdict? I have to confess, I flip-flop week to week and day to day. It’s a guess. Does this put us on a path toward the real reform, or does it head us down a valley in which real reform will be less likely?

If I were a senator forced to vote today, I’d vote no. If you pass a health care bill without systemic incentives reform, you set up a political vortex in which the few good parts of the bill will get stripped out and the expensive and wasteful parts will be entrenched.

So today, he’d vote no. Tomorrow? If he were a Senator, he’d have been bought already. It takes amazingly little access to buy a reporter. Ugh. And earlier in his piece he says:

Fourth, you can’t centrally regulate 17 percent of the U.S. economy without a raft of unintended consequences.

Fifth, it will slow innovation. Government regulators don’t do well with disruptive new technologies.

And yet, he’d consider voting for this stinker? See, big government is by definition, scary government. That’s the principle.

Individuals do it better. They protect their own self interests better. The government always, always, always makes things worse–slower, less responsive, punitive, heartless. And health care needs to be quick, responsive, compassionate and kind. That’s why this bill is scary. It will hurt people when they need help most.

Posted in America, Body, Republicans | 3 Comments »