b) Medical Malpractice suits with outrageous rewards and huge rates for malpractice insurance cost us $200 billion / year
in health-care costs. Serious tort reform could help 300 mill. Americans. A Democrat-controlled congress resisted reforms...
Trial lawyers are BIG Dem.contributors ... :plime.com/l/133838-history/1/
c) The crime of Medicare (ONLY) fraud is BIGGER than the drug business in total volume!... Medicare and Medicaid
fraud takes aprx $90 bill. /yr from taxpayers with a billing scam that's Very Easy to execute. http://www.cbsnews.com/
stories/2009/10/23/60minutes/main5414390.shtml ... WHY WAS FRAUD IGNORED FOR SO LONG?!
Was our system sabotaged to create a crisis? -to bring in gov't-run health? & make us so mad, we'd hardly question any
"CHANGE" ? ...ALL the bills START with gov't-run health....What are Obama's SHOCKING plans? ...See
breitbart.tv/uncovered-video-obama-explains-how-his-health-care-plan-will-eliminate-private-insurance ...
Harry Reid said there WILL BE A PUBLIC OPTION ! ...60 in the House of Representatives (Progressives)
wrote Secretary K.Sebelius that they' REFUSE TO COMPROMISE on a bill without a PUBLIC OPTION!
:Marisa McNee, 7/30/09, campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/.../30/health-care-update-57-house-progressives
-won’t-vote-for- blue-dog-compromise/ & /campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/08/17/60-members-of-congress
-say-no-public-plan-no-conference/ ...& :tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/ 2009/09/... Jan Schakowsky etc, etc.
There'll be shenanigans to get a PUBLIC OPTION. Google: Rush & Susan (Glendale)
Reid can get a PUBLIC OPTION! It depends on the political environment outside Washington. If the bill is only
marginally unpopular (the current 40-55%), it'll probably pass. But if public opinion moves another 5 points or so
(to, say, 35-60 against), moderates will probably refuse to cave in. :REID'S BAIT & SWITCH, S FL CL, 10-29.
STOP NATIONALIZATION OF HEALTH, IRREVERSIBLE, HARDCORE SOCIALISM ! Tell your congressmen,
especially Blue Dog Dem's, to vote no or you'll support their opposition - & DON'T LET UP. It's our only chance!
:Mark Levin, Conservative Talk Radio host, lawyer & author of 'Liberty & Tyranny'...Email, write or POST!
CALL TOLL FREE: 1-877-851-6437... or 1-800-962-3524.. OR.... 1-202-225-3121 toll...If you don’t know their names,
give your zip code to the operator... A Guide to Calling Congress :dreamact.info/node/8463 ...See Betsy McCaughey,
Patients' Rights Advocate, for more info....The US is "asleep"? Or liberals control BIG media (not to mention schools &
universities)... SPREAD THE WORD! POST!...
WASHINGTON - During consideration of H.R. 3126, legislation to establish a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA), Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee voted to pass an amendment offered by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) that will make ACORN eligible to play a role in setting regulations for financial institutions.
The Waters amendment adds to the CFPA Oversight Board 5 representatives from the fields of "consumer protection, fair lending and civil rights, representatives of depository institutions that primarily serve underserved communities, or representatives of communities that have been significantly impacted by higher-priced mortgages" to join Federal banking regulators in advising the Director on the consistency of proposed regulations, and strategies and policies that the Director should undertake to enforce its rules.
By making representatives of ACORN and other consumer activist organizations eligible to serve on the Oversight Board, the amendment creates a potentially enormous government sanctioned conflict of interest. ACORN-type organizations will have an advisory role on regulating the very financial institutions from which they receive millions of dollars annually in direct corporate contributions and benefit from other financial partnerships and arrangements. These are the same organizations that pressured banks to make subprime mortgage loans and thus bear a major responsibility for the collapse of the housing market.
In light of recent evidence linking ACORN to possible criminal activity, Democrats took an unprecedented step today to give ACORN a potential role alongside bank regulators in overseeing financial institutions. This is contrary to recent actions taken by the Senate and House to block federal funds to ACORN.
A recent inquiry into bank funding of ACORN activities by three House Committees found that institutions that would be regulated by the CFPA have provided millions of dollars to the organization in the form of direct donations, lines of credit, cash, and other assets over the last 15 years.
Way to go Obummer and fellow chronies.
When will enough be enough? When the govt. gets your paychecks and doles it out how they see fit?
"It was very surreal," says Michael Braun, a 25-year-old bartender at the Continental, a restaurant near the state capitol. He recalls watching Nick Stahl in the HBO series "Carnivale" one day before work and then serving the actor dinner at the bar that night. "You don't expect that in Iowa," Mr. Braun says.
Now, Des Moines, population 200,000, is dealing with a nasty hangover. A lavish tax-incentive program that brought Hollywood to its doorstep has come to a halt amid allegations of faulty oversight, poor record-keeping and potentially criminal abuse.
One director bought himself a $61,000 Range Rover and a feather bed, as well as an iPod for his 15-year-old son. Another picked up a new Mercedes-Benz for $67,000. All the purchases were made with the help of a 50% tax credit, courtesy of the good people of Iowa.
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Joe Barrett/The Wall Street Journal
John Busbee, who worked on preproduction for "Blackbeard" until the tax program was suspended, in front of a half-finished ship for the movie.
Iowa's small but growing film industry is now in a state of suspended animation. Gov. Chet Culver temporarily halted the tax credits. The state film program's director was fired, and his bosses at the Iowa Department of Economic Development resigned. The state attorney general has launched a criminal investigation.
At least a dozen Hollywood projects that were to shoot in coming months are taking the action to other states, diverting millions of dollars from Iowa's economy. A half-built pirate ship sits in a city mall turned soundstage for a fantasy film called "Blackbeard" that may never be made. Many young Iowans who thought they had found a promising homegrown industry are considering leaving the state.
"Three months ago, everything was looking rosy," says Nicole Tiernan, 32, who was laid off as a paralegal in March last year but quickly shifted into a series of behind-the-scenes movie jobs. "Now, it's a big freakout."
Many states have chased silver-screen fantasies with generous incentives to lure filmmakers. Results have been mixed. Iowa went whole hog, taking a cue from the most famous film ever shot there, "Field of Dreams," the 1989 Kevin Costner vehicle that popularized the slogan: "If you build it, they will come."
In 2007, the state legislature passed the film incentive program, which granted filmmakers a 50% tax credit on their spending in the state. Since they couldn't use the credits themselves, the filmmakers sold them at a discount through brokers to businesses and individuals who owe Iowa taxes.
The program, billed as "Half Price Filmmaking," was slowly winning over Hollywood. By this past summer, 22 films had received tax credits totaling $32 million. And more than 100 projects were in various stages of applying for hundreds of millions more before the program was put on hold.
Thousands of Iowans have hammed it up as extras earning minimum wage on projects like the cable-TV remake of Stephen King's "Children of the Corn," shot near Davenport, and the theatrical do-over of George Romero's camp horror flick "The Crazies," shot in tiny Lenox.
Mary-Kate Gales
Mary-Kate Gales, a 31-year-old makeup artist in Des Moines, got a job giving actress Susan Sarandon manicures and pedicures during last year's shooting of the feature "Peacock."
Over the winter, Ms. Gales flew to California for training in special-effects makeup that helped her land a job doing the zombies in "The Crazies." Then, in September, she designed the hair for Abigail Breslin, Ms. Shue and others on the film "Janie Jones." She says, "It's really great to have this industry in your backyard."
Businesses benefited from out-of-towners' spending and Hollywood cachet. Angela Petraline, owner of a Des Moines vintage-clothing store called Dorothea's Closet, says Rose McGowan and Amy Smart, in town in the summer to shoot "Dylan's Wake," dropped by and bought bags of dresses.
Jeremy Alvarez, a 25-year-old guitar teacher, landed a gig tutoring Ms. Breslin and actor Alessandro Nivola after striking up a conversation with two guys playing pool at the Locust Tap, a grungy downtown bar.
"They asked me to do it, and I was like, 'Cool, yeah,'" says Mr. Alvarez of the pair, who turned out to be the producer and director of "Janie Jones."
The tax-credit controversy leapt onto the public stage Sept. 18, when Mike Tramontina, head of the Iowa Department of Economic Development, abruptly resigned. He had just received a briefing from an accounting firm he hired that found the film program had lax rules and weak oversight. Among the eye-opening details were the purchases by two filmmakers of cars for their personal use.
That same day, Gov. Culver, a Democrat, suspended the payment of any new tax credits under the program. The next Monday, Mr. Tramontina's deputy resigned, and the interim head of the department fired Tom Wheeler, head of the film office.
Mr. Wheeler was single-handedly negotiating contracts, reviewing paperwork and awarding credits for a program that proved more popular than expected. Mr. Wheeler's lawyer declined to comment.
Official Iowa was stunned. Gov. Culver said that "Iowans will not be taken for suckers" and vowed not to restart the program until proper controls are put in place.
The program granted filmmakers tax credits valued at 50% of the cost of production in Iowa, including payroll, lodging, food, entertainment and transportation. Rules allowed for the purchase of one car -- but didn't specify whether it had to be used behind the camera or in front of it. After shooting wrapped, filmmakers submitted budgets and received tax-credit certificates. They then sold the credits via brokers to Iowa taxpayers, who could apply them to their tax bills.
Filmmaker Bruce Isacson bought the Range Rover Sport, the feather bed with fitted sheets -- which cost a total of $1,600 -- and an iPod while shooting "South Dakota," a film that received some $1.7 million in tax credits.
The 60-year-old Californian says he has a bad back and was in Iowa for months, so he bought himself a mattress like the one he has at home. The Range Rover doubled as his office on the set. "I could have rented an RV," he says. His son, who wrote and performed music for the movie, needed the iPod to download music used in the film, Mr. Isacson says.
"Everything we did was for a purpose and was used in the film," he says. "We dotted every single line."
Director Donald Borchers left Iowa with a new Mercedes-Benz he bought with tax-credit help after shooting "Children of the Corn" last year. Mr. Borchers didn't respond to an interview request.
On Oct. 5, the accounting firm, Clifton Gunderson LLP of West Des Moines, submitted its full report, citing other potential abuses, including contracts that were altered after they had been signed and filmmakers who claimed millions of dollars in expenses for product-placement arrangements that cost the production nothing. Iowa's attorney general launched a criminal probe. No one has been accused of wrongdoing.
Despite calls from Iowans in the film business to get the program restarted quickly, many fear that Hollywood may be scared off permanently.
"I'm dead," says Bill Marinella, 40, a casting director who relocated his business from California to Des Moines in May. He plans to keep his Iowa residence because he likes the area, but says he'll have to travel to states like Michigan and Louisiana where films are moving.
"It's not that big of a scandal," he says. "How can it be a scandal if there's no women and sex involved?"
SPRINGFIELD, Va. (AP) - Standing at the site of a highway project funded by his economic stimulus plan, President Barack Obama said Wednesday he is committed to exploring all avenues to create jobs.
Obama said his administration is going to keep going until "every single American in this country who's looking for work is going to be able to get the kind of well-paying job that supports their families."
Obama spoke from the top of a large mound of dirt and gravel, the site of a highway construction project in the Virginia suburbs outside Washington. He chose the site of the Fairfax County Parkway Extension project to feature the progress of the stimulus package passed earlier this year.
The project is the state's largest stimulus-funded project. When completed, it will connect both ends of Fairfax County.
While some businesses have credited the stimulus bill with preventing layoffs, the national unemployment rate stands at 9.8 percent. Many economists have said unemployment could continue to rise.
The administration has stopped short of calling for a second economic stimulus package. But with the job picture slow to improve, Obama said his administration is moving forward on different fronts to boost the economy.
"We're going to continue to explore each and every avenue that I can think of that will lead to job creation and economic growth," he said while standing with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and four construction workers wearing hard hats.
Obama first visited the Fairfax County Parkway Extension project in February, when work was just beginning. He said the progress that's been made since then is just one example of the work that's being done to turn the economy around.
"We are moving in the right direction," he said.
The site is one of 8,000 road and bridge projects approved under the $787 billion economic stimulus bill Obama signed just after taking office. Construction is under way on nearly 5,000 of those projects. Obama said many are coming in 10 to 20 percent under budget, which will allow the government to invest in more projects.
Obama said the current phase of the Fairfax parkway project will create new private sector jobs. His goal, he said, is an economy "where our stock market isn't only rising again but our businesses are hiring again."
Critics question whether jobs created by the stimulus are worth the price tag and the debt the government has taken on to pay for it.
Heres an idea, cut the capital gains tax
Deport illegals
Get rid of NAfTA
Keep companies in the USA
Stop ramming shit down our throats
He knows exactly what to do but he has everyone bluffed into thinking there are no clear answers.
Bullshit....Omaha and the surrounding cities are the meth, hit-and-run and war shirker capitals of the world. Less than 5% of the 500,000 unpatriotic people in the Omaha area have served in the military, and you can buy meth on every street corner. Watch out in the crosswalks, Nebraska does not have a pedestrian right-of-way law. The non-serving, war shirking, meth-using wackos will run you over in the crosswalk.