Paul Hodes - Central Planner

Paul ‘the reaper' Hodes said he will fight, that’s right fight to remove a provision from the House Health Care reform plan that bans the use of federal funds to cover abortions.  (Did anyone tell him the Senate already gave Kathleen Sebelius that power?) We could weigh in on all his reasons but they are all pro-death boilerplate and completely irrelevant to the actual objection.   You see the problem isn’t whether people shoulda-coulda-woulda have access to abortion. (That’s a separate issue).  The problem here is that most Americans are not comfortable with paying for them.  And since there is no tenable formula by which the government can guarantee that your dollars will never be spent on aborting even one unborn baby—your moral objection, to which Mr. Hodes gives not one rats ass—is irrelevant.  Paul Hodes doesn’t give a damn how you feel about it.  Paul Hodes is more than happy to tell you where to shove your moral objections.  And now we know that Paul Hodes  will fight, that's right fight to make sure that the government pays for abortions with your money. 

That's Mr. Hodes idea of standing up for everyone's rights.   

Don’t like it?  Too frikkin bad.  Because Mr. Hodes is a partisan member of the political class.   That would be the elitests who know better than you what you need and want.  All that remains is the matter of whether these are in fact his own ideas, or the ones he has been told to espouse for political gain.  Of course either way, it's bad for New Hampshire, and bad for freedom.  And it's bad becasue while this is only one issue, it represents a willingness to choose central planning above all else.

And Central planning is never about what works for you, your friends, your family, your town, or your state.  It's about what the national government needs "from" you and "of" you.  Call that what you like but it's not freedom.  And It's not American.

A7

On page A7 of today's Union Leader, and I have to guess in other papers around the state, AARP took out a full paid ad thanking Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes for their votes on the health care bill.  Its 2000 pages of trouble, but the onlt thing that matters here is this.

AARP makes loads of cash selling insurance.  It's deal with the White House guarantees it a favorable outcome in a declining marketplace.  In short, AARP has signed on to corporate socialism regardless of the bills impact to its stated advocacy.

AARP sold out seniors for money, and Paul and Carol helped them.  That's certainly worth the cost of a full page ad.

Paul And Carol Screw Seniors

Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter we're cheering Saturday after the Pelosi-Care bill passed, but before they voted in favor of that abomination, they tossed seniors under the bus in exchange for future favors (and no doubt campaign contributions) from trial lawyers.

Prior to the final vote the minority party offered up the traditional motion to recommit with instructions, which provided an opportunity to make sure that seniors would not have to suffer plans to gut Medicare as part of what Paul and Carol and Nancy (and the rest) like to call reform.  This comes courtesy of RedState.

The Republican Motion to Recommit H.R. 3962, Speaker Pelosi’s Government Take-Over of Health Care, would amend the bill to add medical liability reform (savings of $54 billion) and use the savings achieved to create a “Seniors Protection and Medicare Regional Payment Equity Fund.”

The fund would require the Secretary to prioritize funding to protect those seniors hit hardest by the cuts to Medicare under Speaker Pelosi’s bill.  Specifically, the purpose of the fund would be to:

• Preserve seniors’ access to Medicare Advantage,
• Protect seniors’ access to medically-necessary care (including seeing doctors and hospitals without waiting in lines, and preventing coverage determinations based on cost), and
• Address payment inequities and geographic variations in Medicare that hurts seniors who live in areas with high-quality, low-cost services.

The Pelosi Government Take-Over of Health Care cuts more than $500 billion from Medicare, leaving seniors with reduced benefits and fewer choices.  While at the same time, the Pelosi bill protects trial lawyers by not addressing real medical liability reform, a critical reform that would reduce health care costs for all Americans.  The Republican motion to recommit offers Members a choice on who to protect: seniors or trial lawyers.

The vote to preserve care and choice for people who probably need it most went down in smoke.

The "Distinguished" Gentleman and Lady from New Hampshire, Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter got their instructions and marched, voting to kill the motion.  So Paul and Carol screwed seniors to protect trial lawyers.    And while the tyrannical abomination known as Pelosi-ObamaCare will probably never survive to see the light of day, the vote is very real, and votes last forever.

Carol And Punishment

From Big Government.com.  Apparently there are criminal penalties (not just taxes) for refusing to participate in Carol's Health Care swindle.

(Link to Original Article)

 

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail.  The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years. 

In response to the JCT letter, Camp said:  “This is the ultimate example of the Democrats’ command-and-control style of governing – buy what we tell you or go to jail.  It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately.” 

Key excerpts from the JCT letter appear below: 

“H.R. 3962 provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax.” [page 1]

- – - – - – - – - –

“If the government determines that the taxpayer’s unpaid tax liability results from willful behavior, the following penalties could apply…” [page 2]

- – - – - – - – - -

“Criminal penalties

Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses.  Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:

• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.

• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]

When confronted with this same issue during its consideration of a similar individual mandate tax, the Senate Finance Committee worked on a bipartisan basis to include language in its bill that shielded Americans from civil and criminal penalties.  The Pelosi bill, however, contains no similar language protecting American citizens from civil and criminal tax penalties that could include a $250,000 fine and five years in jail.

“The Senate Finance Committee had the good sense to eliminate the extreme penalty of incarceration.  Speaker Pelosi’s decision to leave in the jail time provision is a threat to every family who cannot afford the $15,000 premium her plan creates.  Fortunately, Republicans have an alternative that will lower health insurance costs without raising taxes or cutting Medicare,” said Camp.

Way to protect us from the government Carol.  You go Girl! 

Nothing Up His Sleeve

Mr. Hodes wrote a letter to Edolphus Towns the Chairman of the House oversight committee on which he sits, suggesting he open an investigation into the Countrywide loan scandal.   Hodes is looking for cover after being videotaped leading the herd of donkeys out the back door to avoid a recorded vote on the exact same scandal.  So recognize this letter for what it is.  It’s like his proposal to limit recipients of government money from donating to congressional candidates.  It's like when he announced his "oversight" provisions for TARP money without mentioning that he voted to release the money as well.  It’s all for show, designed to get him some press or a sound bite as cover for the business as usual politics he has wrapped himself in. 

Edolphus Towns received two loans from Countrywide.  Any documents released on the friends of Angelo program will reveal the details of his complicity and Hodes knows it.  So you write a letter, issue a press release, and hope the whole thing goes away like magic.

But that's not going to happen.