Now that FreedomWorks has spewed out another e-mail load of lies about the Affordable Care Act, those Nevadans having a functional cerebrum should review the NRDC’s post on what the Affordable Care Act and Patients’ Bill of Rights has done and will do.
Famous Lost Words: “We’re at the half-way mark of the Congress,” he said. “We’re trying to finish the year strong.” Rep. Mark Amodei R-NV2) [EDFP] Representative Amodei, former President of the Nevada Mining Association, is concerned Nevada mines — operating with some of the most lenient taxation liabilities in the nation [PLAN pdf]– might be “over-taxed.” He’s also concerned that the Sage Grouse might be placed on the Endangered Species list.
Calm yourself, the Grouse isn’t at the top of the list for inclusion, as there are several species which are closer to extinction. However, the Fish and Wildlife Service analysis comes to an unfortunate conclusion — for the Grouse:
“Evidence suggests that habitat fragmentation and destruction across much of the species’ range has contributed to significant population declines over the past century. If current trends persist, many local populations may disappear in the next several decades, with the remaining fragmented population vulnerable to extinction.” [USFWS]
Cooking Hint: You can purchase an industrial farm chicken at far less expense which in my personal estimation tastes better than a mature Sage Grouse. That is, the amount of marinade necessary to make the bird palatable was far more expensive and time consuming than shoving a chicken butt first over a beer can on the grill.
Secondly, “We’re trying to finish strong this year…” in the 113th Congress with its 14.8% average approval rating? [RCP] One doesn’t need much more brain than the local Sage Grouse to calculate that 40 votes to “repeal Obamacare,” and an unfortunate assortment of votes to hamper women’s health care and abortion services, don’t exactly constitute “finishing strong.” Nor, does it bode well for the 113th Congress that it has proven incapable of much more than these ceremonial votes — there’s the unfortunately named THUD bill disaster, the failure to come to grips with Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation before heading to the hustings, and wherefore art the Infrastructure Bills? The JOBS bills?
Republicans in the 113th do have one ploy they’d like to use in the continuing debt ceiling dramatics — The Government Shutdown. If the GOP plan is to require the President to uproot his signature legislation in order to avoid a Republican inspired government shutdown will Amodei be on board?
There’s this from the Representative’s webpage:
“The Obama Health Care Reform Program must be repealed, because a program that increases health care costs while limiting access to care is not reform. While I agree that health care costs have become too burdensome for many Americans, I do not support a radical overhaul of America’s world class system of health care innovation and treatment.”
#1. The program doesn’t increase health care costs. If the Representative chooses not be believe this blog, there’s always the Wall Street Journal:
“The latest turn in consumers’ medical costs, in figures released Tuesday, follows decades of steady gains in health-care costs from technological advances and increased use of health services. The last time medical costs posted a monthly decline, the patent on the modern MRI machine was a year old and the first test-tube baby was three years from being born. That was 1975.”
#2. There has been NO limiting to access for health care. In fact, 3.1 million young adults now have access to health care via their parents’ insurance plans than before the signing of the Affordable Care Act. Insurance companies are banned from discriminating against the 17.6 million children with pre-existing medical conditions. You cannot be denied health insurance because you had measles in the fourth grade. [NRDC] 105 million Americans no longer have “lifetime dollar caps” on their health insurance coverage. [WH]
#3. There has been NO radical overhaul. In fact, the Obamacare plan is essentially a nationwide version of the Massachusetts Health Insurance plan — under Governor Mitt Romney.
“The concept of the individual health insurance mandate is considered to have originated in 1989 at the conservative Heritage Foundation. In 1993, Republicans twice introduced health care bills that contained an individual health insurance mandate. Advocates for those bills included prominent Republicans who today oppose the mandate including Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Charles Grassley (R-IA), Robert Bennett (R-UT), and Christopher Bond (R-MO). In 2007, Democrats and Republicans introduced a bi-partisan bill containing the mandate.” [HCR] (emphasis added)
Is Representative Amodei now contending that the Heritage Foundation was promoting a “radical overhaul” of the health care insurance system in the United States? Wow, that position would really have him out there in right field.
However, those who would offer these assertions set forth by Representative Amodei in the face of facts to the contrary may wish to rethink their positions on protecting bird brains.
Desert Beacon 