Stupak tells all : Democrats want government paid abortions

Bart Stupak (D-MI) describing his exchange with Henry Waxman (D-CA) on abortion funding in the health care bill:

"I gave him the language. He came back a little while later and said, 'But we want to pay for abortions.' I said, 'Mr. Chairman, that's -- we disagree. We don't do it now, we're not going to start.'

"'But we think should,'" Stupak said Waxman told him.

"I said, 'Well, I'm sorry but the House has spoken. We had that debate. We won 240-190. You forced the vote, a vote we won fair and square and we're not gonna, this is what it is. If you want to move health care keep current law,'" Stupak continued.

Check out all these stories and more at Desk of Brian: http://www.DeskofBrian.com

Healthcare: The Infant Mortality Lie & Battling the LHS

It doesn't always take long to have a controversial response to a blog post. My recent post:
http://brandon7221.blogspot.com/2009/10/modest-cuts-of-medicare-advantage-just.html

My opinion is simply: we, as a society, have to do what's in our means to protect our weakest citizens, particularly the elderly and the children. In my opinion, there was a purposeful divergence by the Liberal Healthcare Supporter(LHS) to attack me and my stance AGAINST healthcare reform.

Many of my debates over the topic have revealed that most supporters have good intentions, but don't realize what's ACTUALLY in these bills. Utopian perspectives on fixing healthcare have shown me that most everything, including those "evil" Republicans, want the system improved, but only a few understand the magnitude of the changes that are proposed.

Anyway, back my battle with the LHS, who needs to cling to this idea: the US is the wealthiest country on the planet, but aren't #1 compared to countries with socialized medicine. So our conversation swung toward the point I made earlier and the LHS pounced: why is the infant mortality rate higher in the US than in Europe?

It's likely you could face this swing in a similar argument so let's peel back the onion to find the truth. This is from a piece by Dr. Halderman in 2008 that summarizes many of the falsehoods surrounding Infant Mortality Data¹:

• According to the way statistics are calculated in Canada, Germany, and Austria, a premature baby weighing <500g>
• Hong Kong or Japan is born alive but dies within the first 24 hours of birth, he or she is reported as a “miscarriage” and does not affect the country’s reported infant mortality rates.
• 37-41 weeks. In Belgium and France — in fact, in most European Union countries — any baby born before 26 weeks gestation is not considered alive and therefore does not “count” against reported infant mortality rates.
• Switzerland and other parts of Europe, a baby born who is less than 30 centimeters long is not counted as a live birth.
• Since 2000, 42 of the world’s 52 surviving babies weighing less than 400g (0.9 lbs.) were born in the United States.

These facts are not Dr. Halderman's data, just a great consolidation and presentation. She's one doctor speaking out repeatedly against the current reform bills, but be warned, speaking out gets you labelled, so she must be a "right-wing extremist" or in the tank for the big insurance companies.

How about if we look within our own country: Utah has a rate of 4.5%, here in Florida it's 7.2%, nearby Mississippi 11.4%, and DC ranks the worst at 14.1%². Do they have socialized medicine in Utah? We certainly don't here in Florida.

There are a lot of economic, race and education issues that drive this huge discrepancy between US states. So, how can we compare the US to other countries that don't count births based on weight, length, or gestational age?

Remember abortions are NOT part of any of these calculations. There are over a million abortions every year in the US alone and over 2.5 million in Russia. It's always hard for me to keep my cool discussing infant mortality with the LHS when over 5.5 million children are aborted every year.

5.5 million abortions.

Are we supposed to adopt the policies in Asia of NOT counting a new born who passes in the first 24 hours of his or hers life? Will a government run health insurance better serve to resolve this problem - if so, how?

My word of encouragement is this: be ready to face healthcare supporters that have their minds made up, especially those LHS. Whether healthcare is viewed as a right, better than the status quo or they are simply an Obama fanatic, little is known in these bills, but I vow to you the end game is this: one government socialized system.

One theme is all of the healthcare bills and that is the efforts to put pressure on private insurance, control aspects of their business or regulate them out of business.

From the President's letter to supporters:

"The heart of my plan is simple: bring stability and security to Americans who already have health insurance, guarantee affordable coverage for those who don't, and rein in the cost of health care."

Stability, security, guarantee and rein in: all translate to control, control, regulate and control.

After the control and government takeover of healthcare occurs, will the infant mortality be brought down?

I don't think so.

1. Dr. Linda Halderman: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-doctor-is-in-infant-mortality-comparisons-a-statistical-miscarriage/

2. http://www.census.gov/statab/ranks/rank17.html

New Contract for America?

I've never been a big fan of Laura Ingraham, but I'm not thoroughly familiar with her program. A recent "Google search" (can't I just use google as a verb?) revealed an interesting post on her website called the "Top for '10: Winning Washington by Empowering Americans"

From her site:

1) Taxpayers' Bill of Rights (TABOR). Limit federal spending growth to the percentage in population growth plus the rate of inflation; provide taxpayers the option of filing a post-card sized return using a low, flat tax rate of 15%

2) End Tax-funded abortions. Stop federal payments to Planned Parenthood and prohibit any taxpayer-subsidized health insurance plan from covering abortion

3) Defend American Borders. Complete America's border-protection initiatives using remaining funds from the so-called stimulus bill

4) King Dollar. Preserve a strong dollar so that Americans' savings aren't wiped out by inflation and the U.S. dollar remains the world's reserve currency

5) Empower American Business. Immediately slash corporate tax rates to 15% and scrap the capital-gains tax altogether

6) Defend America. Strengthen America to defend our homeland and fully fund an operational, layered missile-defense system

7) Statism Exit Plan. De-fund czars; immediately cease bailout payments to failed companies; ban future bailouts

8) End Generational Theft. As few believe America's entitlement programs will be able to pay benefits to future generations, provide younger workers the choice of diverting payroll/Social Security taxes into personal retirement accounts

9) Restore America's System of Justice. Introduce penalties for frivolous lawsuits, where those who launch unsuccessful lawsuits are liable for the defendants' legal bills

10) American Energy Independence. All-of-the-Above strategy that embraces alternatives, expands and accelerates exploration and production of oil and natural gas, and jumpstarts dramatic increases in nuclear power




Some interesting stakes are presented. I'd like comment and amend a few things:

1. Balance the budget: My apologies to the Congress and/or White House, but enough is enough. We really need to start running a surplus to pull ourselves out from under this national debt, but the first mandate would be: net budget of zero. No one borrowing, no more printing.

We cannot prolong the pain.

2. Federal Funded Abortions: Planned Parenthood is corrupted by individuals preventing prosecution of statutory rapists. There are WAY TOO MANY folks NOT in favor of abortions to even consider this program. This would be a major polarizing topic for the voting public. I'm the first to say that politically, abortion is way down the to-do list after a mountain of economic goals.

3. Shut the border down! Countries are defined by our language, culture and borders. In addition to national security issues, the economic impact of the 12-15 million illegal immigrants is too big to ignore.

4. Reversing the crashing dollar: I would need some help here, but let's start by supporting Ron Paul and ENDING THE FED and turning OFF the printing press.

5. Business Investment: Ms. Ingraham is spot on with this one. Can I add reducing or eliminating the death tax as well.

6. Defend America: Well, let's defund the UN, ship their headquarters overseas (I hear Switzerland is nice year round), reduce our senseless troop occupation all over the globe and then we can move forward.

7. Statism Exit Plan. Czars, bailouts, corporate takeovers, firing CEOs, government stock ownership in banks -- all comes to end IMMEDIATELY!

8. Entitlement Programs: Every program is bankrupt. Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, even the Post Office -- it's time to stop pretending all of this works.

9. Read Above -- all I'll say is YES! YES and YES!

10. Drill NOW! Go get the oil, go get the natural gas, go build nuclear power plants. Stop pretending the global warming is a state of emergency to reshape society.

This doesn't make me a Laura Ingraham reader or supporter, but I start to get the sense that more people are saying and thinking the right things. Keeping this honest, preventing corruption and pet projects -- well, that's an entirely different challenge.