Thursday, August 10, 2017

States of Disrepair – Illinois, California,

Illinois has compiled $14.6 billion in unpaid bills. It’s running a deficit of $6 billion, and its pension liability has soared to $130 billion.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/06/10/illinois-debt-deficit-budget-election-239384

California government debt is $1.3 Trillion.


Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

List of Crimes by Illegals

BIG LIST OF 86 HORRIFIC ILLEGAL-ALIEN CRIMES, Latest nightmarish case leaves father of 3 killed in fiery crash, by Liam Clancy, 7/13/17,WND

WASHINGTON – It’s the latest in a long list of illegal-alien crimes committed against Americans in just the last few years: A Mexican illegal alien who was deported from the U.S. seven times was charged with motor vehicle homicide after driving drunk and crashing his van on a Nebraska interstate, killing one passenger, a 58-year-old father of three.
Nemias Garcia-Velasco, 32, told police he was intoxicated at the time of the July 5 incident, having consumed 12 beers previously to the crash.

After the crash, Garcia-Velasco’s blood-alcohol level measured .243, which is just more than three times the legal limit. Garcia-Velasco was speeding at more than 100 miles per hour before the fiery crash occurred, and he suffered severe burns to his face as a result of the accident.

Silvano Torres, the passenger who was killed, was riding unrestrained in the back of the van. Another passenger, Jesus Gonzales, 16, suffered minor injuries.
Garcia-Velasco had been removed from the U.S. a total of seven times prior to the crash: five “voluntary returns” in 2005 following two deportation hearings, once in 2009 and again 2011.

Garcia-Velasco had also been convicted of possessing false citizenship documents just days prior to the accident.

Crimes like this committed by previously deported illegal aliens are nothing new, but now President Trump’s administration is taking notice.

Last month, two pieces of immigration legislation passed through the U.S. House of Representatives, one that would deny federal funding to sanctuary cities, and the other, “Kate’s Law,” which would increase penalties for illegal aliens who return to the U.S. after deportation. Kate Steinle, 32, was killed while visiting the pier in San Francisco with her father and other family members. “Kate’s Law” is named after Kate Steinle, a 32-year-old woman murdered two years ago by an illegal alien who had both a criminal record and a history of deportations. Kate’s Law would increase penalties from two years to five years for illegal aliens who return to the U.S. after deportation, and it would also increase penalties for those with criminal records.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, has established a new department to serve victims of such criminals, the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office, or VOICE.

The mission statement of VOICE is, “With honor and integrity, we will support victims of crimes committed by criminal aliens through access to information and resources.”
VOICE works to promote “awareness of rights and services available to immigration crime victims,” as well as “provide quarterly reports studying the effects of the victimization by criminal aliens present in the United States.”

In a memo concerning VOICE, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kelly said, “Criminal aliens routinely victimize Americans. … Often, these victims are not provided adequate information about the offender, the offender’s immigration status, or any enforcement action taken by ICE.” Kelly continued, “Victims [feel] marginalized and without a voice.”

To understand the scope of illegal-alien crime, WND compiled the following list of the worst crimes committed by illegal aliens in recent years. The majority of crimes listed were initially logged by the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

July 2017 – Isabel Martinez, a 33-year-old mother from Mexico who is in the U.S. illegally, was charged with murder after she allegedly killed four of her children and their father in their Atlanta home.
June 2017 – A 22-year-old illegal alien from El Salvador brutally beat a 17-year-old Muslim girl in Virginia with a metal baseball bat, killing her and then dumping her body in a nearby pond.
May 2017 – An Uzbek refugee serving 25 years behind bars for a plot to kill U.S. military personnel or civilians has been charged with stabbing the warden at the California federal prison where he was serving his sentence, prosecutors said (Fox News, May 27, 2017).
May 2017 – Pasqual Mendez, 24, of Morganton, was given an active prison term of 12 to 19 years for felony human trafficking of a child, assault on a female, interfering with emergency communication and statutory rape of a child less than 15 years of age (News Herald, May 23, 2017).
May 2017 – Oscar De La Rosa-Mendoza, 31, of Mission – a Mexican citizen who wasn’t lawfully present in the U.S. – pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated, a Class B misdemeanor, on May 9 (CBS News, May 18, 2017).
May 2017 – Carlos Santiago-Alvarez, 41, of Holyoke, was sentenced Monday to six to eight years in state prison followed by five years probation in a child rape case (Mass Live, May 4, 2017).
May 2017 – Gang investigators in Nassau, County, New York, arrested three illegal aliens in connection with an attempted murder. One of the illegals, Fidel Hernandez, 23, has a criminal history that includes robbery and stalking.
April 2017 – Ignacio Luque-Verdugo, 32, was convicted in Adams County District Court of first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder charges (Denver Channel, April 18, 2017).
April 2017 – Four Charlotte-area members of the El Salvadoran gang MS-13 were convicted of federal racketeering charges (Charlotte Observer, April 18, 2017).
April 2017 – Pablo Gonzales Sanchez will spend at least 18 years in prison for molesting a young teenage girl an estimated 50 times. The girl’s mother, an illegal alien, has also been sentenced to prison for not reporting her daughter’s allegations of abuse. Both she and Sanchez also were ordered to be added to the sex-offender registry (Shelby Star, April 11, 2017).
April 2017 – Abdirahman P. Sahel was sentenced April 10 to 20 years in prison for sexually assaulting and terrorizing a young woman nearly four years ago (Jamestown Sun, April 11, 2017).
April 2017 – Gil Gaxiola was convicted of first-degree attempted murder of a National Park Service employee, as well as armed robbery, three counts of aggravated assault, kidnapping and theft of means of transportation, following an 11-day trial (Wilcox Range News, April 1, 2017).
March 2017 – Mexican national Miguel Rangel-Arce, 36, was convicted of trafficking methamphetamine in New Mexico and Navajo Nation land. He will serve 10 years in prison. He is one of eight others who were charged with trafficking drugs between November 2015 and March 2016. When they were apprehended, the police also found two-and-a-half pounds of meth and 10 firearms (Daily Times, March 8, 2017).
February 2017 – Ever Valles was charged in the death of a Colorado man only two months following his release from prison on other charges. Valles and an accomplice robbed and then shot a man outside a light rail station near Denver.
February 2017 – Ricardo Solis Garcia, 29, was sentenced to 20-29 years in prison after being convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl in Burke County, North Carolina, in March 2015. Garcia lured the girl into his car on the pretense of giving her a ride but instead took her to a motel room where he forced her to have sex with him. Garcia will be scheduled to be deported after he has served his prison sentence (WHKY, Feb. 2, 2017).
January 2017 – A Mexican illegally in the U.S., Leonard Pennelas-Escobar, was shot dead in Arizona as he assaulted a police officer by banging his head against cement. Pennelas shot and wounded the officer, who had stopped to render assistance after Pennelas, driving at a high speed, had rolled the car and killed the woman passenger.
January 2017 – Alexis De La Rosa Sosa, an illegal alien from Mexico, was sentenced in Texas to four concurrent terms of 12 years in prison for the deaths of two people as a result of his crashing into their vehicle while driving recklessly and then fleeing the scene of the crime (Breitbart News, Jan. 11, 2017).
August 2016 – Two Salvadoran illegal-alien gang members were convicted of murder in the Virginia suburbs. Jose Lopez Torres was convicted of a brutal stabbing death of another MS-13 gang member suspected of being an informer. He was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 20 years. According to the Washington Post, “His conviction was part of a sweeping federal case against Northern Virginia members of the El Salvador-based gang, in which six defendants pleaded guilty and six more were found guilty at trial.” The other just-convicted Salvadoran was Jesus Alejandro Chavez, who was sentenced to two life terms plus 10 years for two murders (Washington Post, Aug. 11, 2016).
July 2016 – Mauricio Morales-Caceres, an illegal alien from El Salvador, was sentenced in Montgomery County, Maryland, to life in prison without parole for the stabbing death of another Salvadoran. Morales identified himself as an MS-13 gang member, and testimony indicated he had no remorse for his crime (Washington Post July 15, 2016).
June 2016 – A Mexican illegal alien, Juan Carlos Sepulveda-Castro, was sentenced to two-and-one-half years in prison in Idaho for threatening people with an assault rifle. The news report notes that illegal aliens are prohibited from possessing a firearm (Pocatello TV channel 8).
June 2016 – Eleven illegal-alien members of the Salvadoran MS-13 gang were convicted of a series of crimes including murder. Jorge Enrique Moreno-Aguilar, Juan Alberto Ortiz-Orellana and Minor Perez, all from Maryland, were convicted in mid-May of murder and conspiracy in a racketeering enterprise (MRC-TV, May 24, 2016). New Jersey gang members Santos Reyes-Villatoro, Mario Oliva, Roberto Contreras, Julian Moz-Aguilar, Hugo Palencia, Jose Garcia, Cruz Flores and Esau Ramirez were convicted in late May in New Jersey of various murder, racketeering and firearms crimes (MRC-TV, June 2, 2016).
May 2016 – Illegal aliens Reinol Vergara and Edson Benitez pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the death of a 90-year-old Minnesota man they beat and tied up while they stole from his home, leaving him to bleed to death (Breitbart News, May 11, 2016).
April 2016 – A Salvadoran illegal alien, Mauricio Morales-Caceres, was convicted of first-degree murder in Maryland and sentenced to life imprisonment (Washington Post, April 30, 2016).
March 2016 – Juan Razo, a Mexican illegal alien living in Painesville, Ohio, agreed to plead guilty to a crime spree that included the shooting death of a 60-year-old woman, attempted rape of a 14-year-old girl, kidnapping and burglary. His plea was to avoid the death penalty and accept a life sentence (Cleveland.com, March 4, 2016).
January 2016 – An illegal alien from Mexico was sentenced to nearly six years in prison after having been convicted for transporting illegal aliens, which resulted in the death of two illegal aliens (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Jan. 20, 2016).
December 2015 – A 40-year-old illegal alien, Michael Rodriguez Garcia, was sentenced to four life terms for the rape and sodomy of two children in Alabama (Breitbart News, Dec. 2, 2015).
November 2015 – Humberto Erazo-Medrano and Ricardo Castaneda, two illegal aliens, were arrested and charged with second-degree promoting prostitution in Alabama (Gadsden Times, Nov. 2, 2015).
October 2015 – Marco Hernandez Ramirez, a 34-year-old illegal alien from Guatemala, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for killing a couple and their 5-year-old daughter in a car crash (Athens Banner-Herald, Oct. 14, 2015).
September 2015 – An illegal alien from Mexico, Martin Margarito-Casimiro, was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for kidnapping a man in Texas (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Sept. 24, 2015).
July 2015 – Ever Olivos-Gutierrez, an illegal visa over-stayer, was convicted of second-degree murder in Colorado for the death he caused while driving intoxicated. It was the fourth time since 2000 he had been arrested for DUI, but there was no record of immigration authorities ever being notified. He was sentenced to 40 years imprisonment (Denver Channel 7).
June 2015 – A Salvadoran, Mauricio Hernandez, convicted of rape and murder of the baby born to his victim, was sentenced to 50 years in prison in Texas and faces deportation when he has served his sentence (Dallas Morning News, June 5, 2015).
May 2015 – A Salvadoran, Julio C. Saravia, faces deportation following a prison sentence of 29 years for rape of a minor, to which he pleaded guilty in Virginia.
May 2015 – Zeng Liang Chen and Dong Biao Lin, illegal aliens from China, were convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in New Jersey (NJ.com, May 5, 2015).
May 2015 – Bernabe Flores, a Mexican illegal alien, pleaded guilty to first-degree rape in California and was sentenced to eight years in prison (Times-Herald Record, May 7, 2015).
April 2015 – Victor Garzon-Alvarez, a Mexican illegal alien pleaded guilty and was sentenced in New Jersey to 14 years in prison for murder (NJ.com, April 22, 2015).
April 2015 – Sergio Quezada Lopez, a Mexican illegal alien who had been deported four times, was sentenced in Oregon to 15 years in prison for a heroin overdose death. His brother, Gerardo Chalke Lopez, also a previously deported alien, was earlier sentenced to 18 years in prison on the same charges (Oregonian, April 29, 2015).
April 2015 – Three illegal aliens, Uriel Ramirez-Perez, Darwin Zuniga-Rocha and Eliseo Mateo Perez, pleaded guilty to first-degree rape in New York and were sentenced to time served in jail and will be deported (Daily News, April 29, 2015).
March 2015 – Javier Guerrero Molina, a Mexican illegal alien, was sentenced in federal court in Jacksonville, Florida, to 10 years imprisonment for attempting to transport a minor to engage in sexual activity. Guerrero said he had entered the United States illegally in 1999 or 2000 (Department of Justice, Middle District of Florida, March 30, 2015).
December 2014 – Roy Naim, an illegal alien who was featured by Time Magazine as a poster child for the amnesty movement, was convicted of child pornography and sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison (New York Daily News, December 2014).
December 2014 – Two illegal aliens were arrested by Border Patrol agents in Laredo, Texas, for illegally re-entering the United States. The illegal aliens were previously convicted of first-degree murder in Illinois, where they each served between six to 10 years in prison (Breitbart News, Dec. 2, 2014).
August 2014 – Merced Garcia, a 37-year-old illegal alien from Mexico, was sentenced to 180 days in jail for vehicular homicide and driving without a license (WLWT Cincinnati, Aug. 26, 2014).
May 2014 – Nicolas Dutan Guaman, an illegal Ecuadorean immigrant, was sentenced to 12 to 14 years in prison after hitting and killing a Massachusetts man with his truck.
May 2014 – Humberto Gonzalez, an illegal alien, was convicted in New Jersey of criminal assault and sentenced to 50 years in prison. The rape occurred in 2005, and Gonzalez was not identified until a DNA match was made following an arrest in Texas for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Gonzalez also had a criminal record in Louisiana and Arkansas (Times of Trenton, May 9, 2014).
February 2014 – Cinthya Garcia-Cisneros, an illegal alien from Mexico, was found guilty of two counts of a felony for failure to perform the duties of a driver and sentenced to three years of probation and 250 hours of community service. Garcia-Cisneros committed a hit-and-run that resulted in the death of two stepsisters, 6-year-old Anna Dieter-Eckerdt and 11-year-old Abigail Robinson (Associated Press, Feb. 4, 2013).
January 2014 – An illegal alien from El Salvador pleaded guilty to killing a 3-year-old boy and injuring nine other people while driving intoxicated. He was issued a driver’s license by the state of Utah, but he did not have car insurance. Manuel de Jesus Guinea will spend up to 15 years in prison (Salt Lake Tribune, Nov. 7, 2014).
January 2014 – Jasim Mohammed Hasin Ramadon, aka Jay Hendrix, an Iraqi immigrant, was found guilty in Colorado on multiple counts of sexual assault. He faces a possible sentence of life in prison. Sarmad Fadhi “Levi” Mohammed, another Iraqi, was earlier convicted for the same assault and sentenced to 16 years in prison. An additional three Iraqi immigrants involved in the assault have received misdemeanor convictions (Colorado Gazette, Jan. 21, 2014).
January 2014 – Modesto Osco, a Peruvian, pleaded guilty to indecent assault on a minor. He was sentenced in Pennsylvania to five months to two years in prison (The Morning Call, Jan. 6, 2014).
November 2010 – Drew Rosenberg, a 25-year-old student at Golden Gate University, was riding his motorcycle in San Francisco when Roberto Galo struck him on Nov. 16, 2010. In his frenzied effort to flee the scene, Galo ran over his victim twice, Fox News reported. The elder Rosenberg got the news no parent should hear from San Francisco General Hospital that night, but what he would learn over the next few years only compounded his bitterness.

http://www.wnd.com/2017/07/big-list-of-86-horrific-illegal-alien-crimes/


Delusional Cold Warriors

Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, retired, Fox News Contributor is a delusional Cold Warrior who misses the good old days when the Communists were in Russia.  But now we’ve had them in the Whitehouse and the Congress and they permeate the US federal government as the “Deep State”. They call themselves “Progressives” or “Liberals”, but they are Communists all the same.

 

Talk about the Russians soiling the sanctity of our elections sounds like General Jack Ripper from the movie “Dr. Strangelove”, who called for the nuking of Moscow. He could not allow the Communist conspiracy to “sap and adulterate all of our precious bodily fluids”.

 

Our Republican politicians remind me of the homesteaders who had a two-sided portrait above the fireplace mantle. On one side was a portrait of Abraham Lincoln and on the other side was Jefferson Davis.  The flipped it to the right President based on whose cavalry just rode up to the front door.

 

Not long ago, the Council on Foreign Relations was a sought-after honor to be named to.  I haven’t heard a thing about it since Trump was elected.  The media started to stop reporting on it after 1992, when Bush I announced the “new world order”.

 

I see Russia as a bear that would roam into our campsite to get food.  We try to shoo it away, but if it comes after us, we will shoot it.  I think they know that.  I also expect Russia to try to keep all of its trading partners.  They don’t have that many. I also think they regret giving away the Ukraine. I didn’t get that upset when they grabbed the Crimea, because their citizens voted 80% to be annexed by Russia. I know why Poland and Hungary and Slovenia are happy to be free of Russian influence, because they have been free to develop their private sector economies.  I think the other former USSR satellite countries in the economically stifled Baltic States who do copy Russia’s anti-free market policies.

They would like different politicians and a better economy. 



Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

Legislator Scorecards

Those voters who want less bureaucracy, waste and corruption in government need to understand the legislative scorecards posted in Conservative Review to see scores for members of the US Congress and electtherightcandidate.us for members of the Georgia Legislature.  A high score indicates votes against overregulation by the “nanny-state” and adherence to the US Constitution (as written). Those with scores under 70% are considered as failing to vote enough for small, less intrusive government.  There are Conservatives in the 60% to 70% range, whose scores have slipped because they voted to pass bloated budgets, just to get them done and avoid a government shut-down.

The US federal government began violating the US Constitution (as written) in the 1870s with the creation of national parks.  It got worse in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve and the Income Tax.  It went over the line in the 1930s with big government socialism. It went for broke in the 1960s with Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare and “protected groups”.

Congress could have remained in compliance with the US Constitution if they had written Amendments and submitted these to the States for ratification.  They didn’t do this because they knew that voters would prevent their States from allowing the federal government to add to their “enumerated powers”.

Liberals invented the notion that the US Constitution was a “living document” and could be amended by the Courts. This in itself was a violation of the Constitution.  Voters were asleep at the switch and politicians were the perpetrators trading votes for cash. The extent of the corruption in the US federal government reached the States when the bribery kicked in for States and their politicians.

Today, we find ourselves with very few Constitutional Conservatives in our legislatures. These are members who score 90% and above. 

We do have “conservatives” with scores that range from 70% to 90%.  The total percentage of members who score from 70% to 100% are as follows:
The US House has 15.4% with a score of 70% and above. The US Senate has 12% with a score of 70% and above.  The Georgia House has 20.1% with a score above 70% and the Georgia Senate has 17.9% with a score above 70%

Conservative Review –
US House: Dem 42.8%, RINO 40.3%, Rep 15.4%,
US Senate: Dem 48%, RINO 42%, Rep 12%

GA GOP
Isakson 38% Perdue 64%
Tom Graves 75%, Jody Hice 75% L. Westmoreland 73%
Austin Scott 71%, Barry Loudermilk 67%, Rob Woodall 60%,
Doug Collins 59%, Rick Allen 50%, Buddy Carter 50%,

GA Dems
John Lewis 22%, Hank Johnson 13%, Sanford Bishop 12%, David Scott 10%

electtherightcandidate.us
Georgia House - Dem 34.1%, RINO 45.8%, Republican 20.1%
Georgia Senate - Dem 30.4%, RINO 51.8%, Republican 17.9%

Candidates
Hunter Hill – GA Senate –SD-6 51% RINO, for GA Governor
Brad Raffensperger, Johns Creek HD 50, 74% grade C for GA Secretary of State


http://www.electtherightcandidate.us/

Big Government Lies

To get voters to go along with big government lies, it takes several strategies. Blitzkrieg worked for Germany, but the US was based on freedom and it can take a long time to enslave free people.

Hitler took office in 1933 and like Obama had written a book outlining exactly what he would do.  Hitler was a disappointed German soldier and when Germany lost World War I, he never recovered.  He became a political activist.  He had lots to be disgruntled about from 1918 to 1933.  The reparation payments required by Germany were oppressive and the Great Depression was world-wide. Germany self-inflicted a hyperinflation event in 1928 and limped through that.  But by 1933, Mickey Mouse could have been elected to run the German government and he should have run for Chancellor. The NAZI Party took over the German legislature in 1933 and the dumb government made Hitler the Chancellor. 

Hitler took from 1918 to 1933 to build a gang of thugs to act like Bolsheviks. He used terror tactics by targeting the Jews and visibly terrorizing them and that terrorized everyone else. It was telling the German people to be silent and not complain about his brutality. Hitler lost no time in taking over the children.  From 1933 to 1944, he had 11 years to brainwash the children.  His “world-domination” strategy worked better than expected in the beginning, but his overreach came back to bite him. In June 1941 Hitler invaded Russia. In December 1941, the US declared war on Germany. Germany surrenders in May 1945.

In the US, the first public high school was established in Boston in 1821. The Industrial Revolution brought citizens to the cities and elementary public education began with local tax funding from grades 1 through 8. Most of US citizens were still on the farm and some built one-room school houses and hired a teacher.  Many families just continued to home-school and hire tutors.   Land grant colleges were initiated in 1862.  In the US, Progressives started their takeover of US education in the early 1900s,

The original Department of Education was created in 1867 to collect information on schools and teaching that would help the States establish effective school systems.
In 1947, the US Supreme Court declared war on Christian education.

During the 1970s parish schools were still thriving, but would soon be crippled by the tax code.

In 1980, Congress established the Department of Education as a Cabinet level agency.

The American Communist Party Goals includes the takeover of public education and this has been accomplished. God has been replaced by the government.


Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader

Just Repeal Now

Senator Rand Paul is speaking our language - true conservatism -when it comes to repealing and replacing ObamaCare. His recent takedowns of Republicans pushing "ObamaCare Lite" in the Senate have been, quite frankly, legendary.

After writing and posting a scathing Breitbart op-ed on Wednesday, he had another stinging rebuke published yesterday by the Washington Examiner. In it, the junior senator from Kentucky attacks the revised Senate bill released yesterday and makes a direct hit on the sickening culture of the D.C. Swamp:

In order to advance their crony capitalism, the Senate Obamacare bill takes us beyond the long-running debate about "is healthcare a right" to a new debate: "Is health insurance a right?" In other words, is there somehow a right to healthcare that includes a taxpayer obligation to maintain insurance industry profits, which hit a record $15 billion last year?

As we forgot about what natural liberty means, so have we forgotten what made America great in the first place - freedom.

I am disappointed that my colleagues have insufficient confidence in the freedom of the healthcare marketplace, and I am greatly disappointed they've decided there now exists a federal right of insurance companies to have their $15 billion annual profit subsidized by taxpayers.

I really can't describe my level of disappointment. Crony capitalism is enshrined as a "right" by the new GOP Obamacare bill, while that bill does little to nothing to repeal Obamacare or fix our ailing healthcare sector.

Sen. Rand Paul has it EXACTLY right, and unless there's an UPRISING from patriotic citizens THIS MONTH, ObamaCare will NOT be repealed. Or worse... the GOP RINOs will pass an ObamaCare "Lite" bill that's even worse than ObamaCare. THE SENATE MUST HEAR FROM YOU.


Thanks, in advance, for taking action. The Grassfire Team

Don’t Mandate Coverage


A recent article in the Daily Signal, relating to the imminent demise of a 10 month old child in England at the hands of the British government very accurately points out the danger inherent in allowing government to place itself between a parent and their ability to control the welfare of their children. Abuse, neglect, or violence being the only justification for interference.

What came to mind as I read was the current controversy over our healthcare/insurance issues currently raging in Washington, and who should be making our health-related decisions.  If you are not immediately seeing the connections, let me explain several:

That having been said, why would we ever want our representatives to trap us in a nationalized healthcare system that ensures that the ultimate decisions regarding our children’s healthcare will be made by bureaucrats instead of medical doctors.  Make no mistake, the Affordable Care Act [ACA] and the new ones are still variations on this theme. We already have a world class healthcare delivery system the likes of which no other country can match?

Here’s another fact that you had best not overlook. We are only one step away from seeing the system in America look identical to that currently attempting to kill that 10-month-old child in England when there is at least one option left to save that child – the American system.

So, what do we do about it? There have been two market-based solutions to the ACA debacle debated over the past seven years, but it appears from what has been made public that neither of those good ideas have made it into either the House or Senate versions of the “repeal and replace” bills.

The worst part of the debate has been the fact that it is not about healthcare, it is about health insurance. This argument has clearly become nothing more than a bill to regulate two things – the insurance companies and Medicaid. Your health is, as the farmers used to say, “Left sucking the hind teat.”

Meanwhile the states are making the entire problem 50 times worse by setting different operating requirements and coverage requirements. This results in a serious reduction to the number of companies who choose to tailor their policies to 50 different regulations and coverages. Instead, the big companies wind up as the players and the smaller companies select a very few choice states in which to sell their policies. No meaningful competition results.

The Commerce Clause of our constitution was intended to prevent just such a situation. Instead, it has been used as a vehicle to interfere in private decisions that only have cursory relation to interstate commerce. Rightfully, with a minimal regulatory footprint, the law should only provide for a minimum requirement as to financial liquidity on the part of the company – the ability to pay claims timely. Otherwise, what business is it which conditions are a necessary part of a health insurance policy?

Mandating coverages when they are neither desired or needed equals higher premiums. Coverage should be determined based on the person and the insurance carrier. This change would open all states to all qualified companies. Maximum competition.

Pre-existing conditions appear to be one of two major hot buttons. If – and only if – you believe that an insurance company should assume all the risk regardless of circumstances, you are very likely a socialist.

Newsflash! Insurance companies offer a service to the public by offering to assume some of the risk to save the patient the cost of the entire bill. They gamble that enough healthy people will buy policies to off-set those who file claims at a higher than normal rate.

Pre-existing conditions were typically treated in the past by the insurance company requiring between six months and a year before paying any claim relating to a condition that was treated in the six months or a year prior to purchase of the policy.

After that restricted period, the condition would be covered just as if it had not existed before the policy purchase. This off-sets the extremely high risk to the company while setting a defined limit on how long they could have a ‘free ride” from coverage. To most rational minds, this would seem reasonable, and it has been the norm for decades past.


If, however, we want to err on the side of caution, we could include a provision in the law that limits the waiting period to a shorter period (90-180 days?) before coverage for the pre-existing condition starts being covered. You could also approach it by setting a higher premium for the first six months or one year and then the premium would revert to a lower rate offered to others who do not have a pre-existing condition.

With these two approaches – controlled protection for pre-existing conditions – and opening markets across state lines, the issue is solved by reducing regulations, while at the same time removing the government from the coverage issues but limiting it to setting a financial safeguard to prevent insolvent, fly-by-night companies from operating in the market.

Believe me, folks, the rest is nothing more than cronyism and socialistic government interference in a free-market problem on one side, and the failure of our education system to educate the average adult citizen on the purpose and reason for the existence of insurance. It is not meant to solve all your problems, just make life a little easier.

Note that these changes (after ACA’s actual repeal) do nothing to interfere with your healthcare at all. It would be a simple matter to completely repeal the ACA with an effective date 12 months into the future. During those 12 months, the changes outlined above could be refined and implemented giving the insurance companies a date certain at which point the market could be stabilized with premiums returning to rational levels based solely on risk and not politics.

I will only touch on the Medicaid portion of the problem by suggesting that the purpose of it was to take care of those below the arbitrarily produced “poverty line.” It should never have been expanded. Ask yourself how easy it is to remove a federal benefit once enacted and then ask yourself why it was done.


http://politichicks.com/2017/07/really-healthcare-want-simpler-solutions-available/