Obamacare: Higher taxes (except for unions), Medicare cuts, euthanasia for Baby Boomers

Barack Obama certainly has quite a plan to solve the nonexistent healthcare problem. Major features:

Massive tax increases and benefit cuts:

Health-care overhaul legislation being drafted by House Democrats will include $600 billion in tax increases and $400 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel said.

Democrats will work on the bill’s details next week as they struggle through “what kind of heartburn” it will cause to agree on how to pay for revamping the health-care system, Rangel, a New York Democrat, said today.

Even getting "Chuckles" Rangel to cough up all the taxes he has been evading isn't going to fill this black hole.

Asked whether the cost of a health-care overhaul would be more than $1 trillion over a decade, Rangel said, “the answer is yes.” Some Senate Republicans, including Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, say the costs will likely exceed $1.5 trillion.
...
Rangel said Democrats are still considering options for tax increases that might be in the bill, including a possible end to the income tax exclusion for employer-paid health benefits.

That's certainly a a bummer, but don't worry if you are a union member, Since your leadership has Barack Obama in their collective hip pocket, you won't be affected:

Mr. Baucus, the Finance Committee chairman who is helping lead the Obama health effort, is still deciding what to include in the bill. But his far bigger headache remains how to pay for this blowout. He and other Democrats have been inching toward the taboo benefits-tax, putting them on a collision course with liberal special interests like unions. Mr. Baucus's newest solution? A union payoff.
...
Mr. Baucus officially floated his plans for a tax this week, only with a surprising twist: His levy will not apply to union plans, at least for the duration of existing contracts. In other words, Mr. Baucus intends to tax the health-care benefits only of those who didn't spend a fortune electing Democrats to office.

And the second class citizens can pound sand, I guess. Still, we'll all be in the same manure pile when it comes to rationing of healthcare which Obama's flying monkey bloggers are already trying to turn into a benefit:

Democratic blogger Ezra Klein appears to be positioning Dem health care reforms as a way to cut costs, on the grounds that a reformed system will be able to make "hard choices" and "rational" coverage decisions, by which Klein seems to mean "not providing" treatments that are unproven or too expensive--when "a person's life, or health, is not worth the price." Matthew Yglesias' recent post seems to be saying the same thing, though clarity isn't its strong suit. (He must have left it on Journolist.)  

Isn't it an epic mistake to try to sell Democratic health care reform on this basis? Possible sales pitch: "Our plan will deny you unnecessary treatments!" Or maybe just "Republicans say 'yes.' Democrats say 'no'!" Is that really why the middle class will sign on to a revolutionary multi-trillion dollar shift in spending--so the government can decide their life or health "is not worth the price"?  I mean, how could it lose?

Even better, of course, is the observation that it's mostly old folks that need medical care and so what Obama and his pals are proposing is really, "Let the Boomers Die!"  Why not just give each one of the Baby Boomers an expiration date? That would sure solve the money problem.

Obama's health care swindle

Obama and his flying monkeys love to prattle on about the supposed hordes of Americans who lack health insurance, but the numbers just plain don't support that claim as any number of dispassionate observers have remarked although you won't see it in the MSM. I had been meaning to write about it, but Doug Ross provides a post by "Mister R" that does it better than I could - The '47 million' lie:

During her campaign for President, Hillary Clinton admitted in questioning that, of the 47 million, at least 25 percent could afford health insurance but choose not to purchase it (those with a household income of more than $75,000 a year). I believe the number to be slightly higher, closer to 30 percent, but let's use Clinton's number. That's 12 million.

Let's count illegal aliens. Believe it or not, illegals are counted in this number, however, statistical models vary and have ranged from 5 to 12 million. Let's take the middle. 8 million.

Then there are those who are already eligible for government programs but not participating. That number is estimated at 12 to 16 million. Let's take 12 million.

[snip - hit the link for the rest]

Add the numbers up and you get 38 million. That leaves 9 million without coverage (although they really do have coverage since the federal government, along with the states, administer Medicaid and charity care).

So the real number of [nominally] uninsured is 8-10 million. There are 300 million Americans.

So we want to break the system because 1 out of 30 people cannot afford coverage. That's absurd.

That it is patently absurd is proved by Team Obama belatedly trotting out claims that Obamacare is really about saving money for consumers. Since Barack has no plans to rein in his trial lawyer supporters who grotesquely inflate all aspects of US healthcare costs, adding a layer of government bureaucracy is only going to save money by rationing medical care just like they do in other countries with socialized medicine.

(posters from Michelle Malkin's Obamacare poster contest)

Marketers get into the spirit of the Obama presidency

Marketers flogging information on how to get government grants have been around for years, but now that the economy is in the tank since the Democrats made the banks give mortgages to illegal aliens and deadbeats and Barack Obama is on his way to the White House, they seem to be coming out of the woodwork. Consider (all links via tinyurl, visit at your own risk):

• Receive FREE government money that you will NEVER HAVE TO REPAY!
  
• CONGRATULATIONS! Did you know you were eligible to receive FREE MONEY from the government?
  
• Don't miss out on government grant money that may you need and deserve!
  

However, the prize for best encapsulation of the Obama spirit goes to "Chedda" of Chedda's Bling Blog (tinyurl again) whose pesky Google ads have been everywhere:

If you hop over to the "blog," you will find that Mr. Chedda's tale is a marvelously compelling one:

"Chedda's" Bling Blog

Written by Russel aka 'Chedda' | Date: October 7, 2008 4:15 pm

How I Hustled A $12,000 Check From The Government and got $5,000 a Month From the Man

Yo, my name is Chedda and I made this site to let my boys know how I went from being a broke-ass nigga to paying off all my debt and banking 5 gs a month by filling out some forms online.

My Quick Story:

In about 30 days I got a $12,000 check from the government which I never got to pay back, and started an banking a cool $5k a month with about 12 hours of work each week. No joke. All I did was fill out 2 forms online for free grants (government money):

Step 1: Free Grant Kit - Costs $1.99 for shipping.

Step 2: Government Grant Connect - Costs $3 for shipping.

It was pretty much a cakewalk. I got my grant money within 30 days and paid off all my debt, and between both of these sites I get like $5,000 a month from the government. The thing is, the government is all about giving away grant money to brothers and sisters, and most of them know nothing about it. All I did was sign up and pay for the shiping (like $5 bucks total for both of em) and they got back to me within a few days with their decision (this was the initial $12,000 check). It's like scholarships or something. Affirmative action, baby!

Indeed. If we can have an affirmative action President who never did an honest day's work in his life and whose supporters believe he is going to gas up their cars and pay their mortgages, I suppose anything is believable, even Chedda. There's much more of the marketer's art at the "Bling Blog," but here are a few more snips that I liked:

So over the past couple a years, I ended up running up a ton of debt (partying, girls, clothes, ya know) and didn't have a good job to pay this off. On top of that, I had my rent and car payment to worry about. I was working at Foot Locker making like $10 bucks an hour, so I needed to find a way to get some money.

I started to do some research and found out that a ton of government money is given to 'minorities' each year. The money can be pretty much used for whatever you want as long as you fill out all the info they need (your name and address, what you want to use the money for, any school you been to (i only finished high school)). I told them I wanted to start my own clothing line and needed to pay off my debts first and that was it. After a few weeks I got my first check and since then its been steady chedda for Chedda.
...
My Life Now:

Thanks to the cash I got from the government, Chedda be banging. I quit my job at Foot Locker and am working on setting up my clothing line with the $5 gees Im geting a month. I also, keep my girl pretty happy ;)

Sounds like a regular Horatio Alger to me. The Tiffany watch "Chedda" says he bought for his girl likely doesn't compare to the $30,000 ring Barack bought for Michelle , but it's the thought that counts. Of course, the frightening thing is that this stuff is so believable that it is apparently paying off based on the amount of advertising money spent on it.