Freedom: an Earned Right

icon1 Posted by Michael DeNobile in Economy, Health Care, Political Commentary on Sep 4th, 2009 | 5 Comments
I come from a fourth and fifth generation Italian immigrant family.  Both of my parents grew up in the projects of the South Bronx during the late 1950s, early 60s from blue-collar families that earned the privilege of living in private housing in the northern Bronx in the mid to late 1960s and early 70s.  Growing up, I watched my dad work four jobs, albeit as an accountant, because my mom was diabetic (we were a one-income household), so that our family could earn the privilege of moving out of the Bronx and into a smaller town outside of the city.
 
If there was one thing my family taught me, it’s that while freedom is a right; it’s a right that’s earned through the sweat and tears of patient, hard work and responsibility, not handed out on a silver platter and fed with a silver spoon.  To be independent never meant getting a hand out but standing up on your own two feet, understanding that if or when you fell, your family was going to be there to support you.
 
I take this philosophy with me as a young teacher in the Bronx, but it’s hard to instill this into children who have already been indoctrinated by society to believe that the world owes them something, and because of that, the world better pay up sooner rather than later.  And this is not to say that it’s all Bronx kids or that it’s just in the city.  This self-centered view seems to be a disease that’s widespread in America today, even amongst adults.
 
When did America become the land of the me-me-me and the home of the brazen?  When did it become un-American to oppose measures from the government, such as government-run health care, amnesty of illegal immigrants, etc., that would foster fiscal irresponsibility and the moral obligation to stand on one’s own two feet?  Even if the government is seen as Big Brother, last time I checked, a big brother is meant to encourage the individual toward self-sufficient living, not to be living under mommy’s dress for the rest of one’s life.
 
I’m hoping that America will finally wake up and see that there are differences between rights and privileges, and even rights need to be earned.  Rights (and therefore power) come with a cost and responsibility.  As the old saying goes in business, nothing is ever free.

The Real Story On The Uninsured

icon1 Posted by Heritage Foundation in Health Care, Political Commentary on Aug 31st, 2009 | 1 Comment

You hear or read the number all the time. The New York Times breathlessly reports there are 46 million uninsured Americans and President Barack Obama routinely asserts the same number. The Census Bureau estimates, however, do not tell the entire story. The uninsured are a diverse and dynamic population, and the higher frequency of coverage loss is not only a function of the recession, but of the flaws inherent in the health insurance markets, namely the inability of individuals and families to secure and maintain personal and portable coverage. Data released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) enables taxpayers to drill deeper into the problem.

The AHRQ data reaffirms there are gaps in coverage. There is nothing new here; it is the problem that conservative health policy analysts have been trying to address for the last two decades. It is a structural problem in the insurance markets. While the millions who lose and gain coverage- the source of middle class anxiety- is not much different now than it was in the last ten years or more, it is well to remember that the number of Americans who are poor, sick, and uninsured for a lengthy period is a relatively small number, about 4 million individuals. This is problem is not hard to resolve.

What Congress should focus on, then, is how to make health insurance personal and portable; something moderates and conservatives in Congress, based on their own legislative proposals, know exactly how to do. Instead what we are getting is just an acceleration of the already fast tracked government control of health care.

Take the SCHIP data from AHRQ. There were 5.9 million uninsured children in 1999. In 2007, there were still 5.9 million uninsured children (Statistical Brief #259). Public coverage went up, and private coverage went down; but overall, coverage remained the same. Consider that the cumulative cost of SCHIP and increased Medicaid enrollment of children has exceeded $100 billion. The data suggests that much of this spending has simply substituted taxpayer dollars for private dollars. It’s called crowd out, and it is profoundly irresponsible public policy. For every two dollars of spending, you get a $1 worth of coverage. This is likely to be repeated if Congress enacts the same, tired, old formula: expansion of public programs. Neither the Administration nor Congress has yet to explain how much of the $1.2 trillion in new spending under the House legislation will go to simply replacing private spending with taxpayer dollars.

Sophia Elena Covers Protest Outside of Dianne Fienstein’s Office

icon1 Posted by RENEWtv in Health Care, Political Commentary, Videos & Clips on Aug 25th, 2009 | No Comments

Below, please see Part I of Sophia Elena’s coverage of the protest.  Below it, you’ll find Part II.  Interestingly, the ObamaCare supporters had signs made by Change.gov, while the “astroturf” (anti-ObamaCare supporters) were soccer moms, regular people and individiauls who — gasp — drove their own cars to the protest.  Yeah, that sounds corporately-driven to me!  Check out Sophia Elena’s site and watch the videos (below):

Top Tweets! Responses to Obama’s Assertion that Iran Can Go Nuclear if Proves “Peaceful Intentions”

icon1 Posted by RENEWtv in Conservative Renewal, Economy, Health Care, Media, Non-partisan, Political Commentary, Videos & Clips on Jun 3rd, 2009 | No Comments

For more RENEWtv Tweets, follow Billy Hallowell!



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