by Tom Sears
However, nothing happens until Obama and the radical leftist leadership in Congress decide to stop playing politics and start leading. Please do what is best for the country rather than what is best for your party, special interests, trial attorneys, who are presently pulling your strings.
What does Obama do? On one hand he gives tort reform a few lines in his reading to a joint session of Congress and, of all things, he wants this area to proceed slowly. On the other hand, he has demanded a speedy, successful conclusion to his monstrous, irresponsible, and expensive health care reform proposal he is presently trying to shove down our throats. His shallow rhetoric is starting to be recognized by people for what it really is: empty and untruthful.
And then, on top of everything, he announces he is going to appoint his Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to head the demonstration projects involving limited tort reform in certain states. Conveniently, Kathleen was, for many years, the director of the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association! Barack, Kathleen, you don’t need to run any trial tests. You have two states who have successfully implemented reform. Texas, who had a 30 percent drop in medical malpractice insurance premiums, and California, which had a 40 percent reduction. Both states, which were facing serious shortages in medical professionals, both primary care physicians and certain specialists, had doctors rushing back to these states.
The costs and consequences of doing nothing are huge! A study done in 2005 by the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress showed 80 percent of all medical liability claims filed aren’t associated with injuries as a result of physician negligence. Of all claims made 61 percent are dismissed, 32 percent are settled without a trial (both involving large costs), 6 percent of claims result in a verdict for the defense and only 1 percent result in a verdict for the plaintiff.
This settlement percentage sounds good except that physicians have to incur very large legal fees just to defend themselves. Their costs average $17,000 for dismissed cases, $40,000 for settled cases, and even $86,000, just to mount a successful defense. And these costs don’t reflect the costs of their lost revenues, significant time away from their practices, permanent damages to their reputation and the resulting adversarial relationships with their patients (understandably so).
Who pays for these malpractice premiums? Health care providers logically have to pass them on to insured individuals. How would you like to spend eight or more years after your undergraduate college experience and be burdened with probably well over $200,000 in college loans and facing annual malpractice premiums of between
$100,000 and $500,000 a year before even considering all the other extensive costs of starting and running your practice of medicine?
The committee estimated that costs of malpractice premiums passed on averaged about $87 per insured and $350 annually for a family of four. Reductions of these amounts to individuals’ insurance just might make a difference in being able to afford health insurance.
If that doesn’t impress you, add to that the costs of defensive medicine (additional tests and procedures called for to avoid litigation rather than being necessary for the patient), which are between three and six times greater than the above malpractice insurance costs being passed on. You certainly cannot blame a physician for protecting him/herself from such career ending risks.
Other consequences of doing nothing about tort reform? How about doctors retiring early, relocating to doctor friendly states or simply discontinuing their practices? How about individuals reconsidering their decision to even enter the medical field? There is already a serious shortage of qualified health professionals, and out of control malpractice costs along with defensive medicine practices will only aggravate the present situation. Research shows those hurt most by the skyrocketing costs of malpractice premiums are low income individuals, women, and those living in rural areas.
So Barack, be a leader for once and get out of your campaign mode. You wanted the medical profession to give you $300 billion in savings to put towards your plan over the next decade. Five to ten times this amount can be saved through responsible medical malpractice tort reform and all the related indirect costs associated with it.
Right Is Winning War of Ideas
Things are looking up for the conservative side of the Republican Party. No one could have predicted the overwhelming success of the two TEA parties held earlier this year. And then to top that success we had the overwhelming turnout for the March on Washington September 12.
The estimates from responsible sources numbered the crowd in Washington to be between 1.5 and 2 million people. As Bob Parks, a conservative Republican, said “It had to be around two million people because we never saw the end of the march. The Park Service likes it whenever conservatives gather at the Washington Mall because, unlike their ideological counterparts, they were orderly and there was no litter to be seen afterwards.”
It really doesn’t matter how the White house, Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid pooh- poohed the gatherings. They are becoming more and more insignificant by the day. But they are scared.
All you have to do is look at the wealth of facts on our side. Conservative TV is growing more dominant by the day. The latest survey had Fox News drawing a larger audience than MSNBC and CNN combined.
Conservative newspapers are also getting stronger and aren’t having the same
advertising dollar problems as their liberal, main stream competition.
The Pew Research Center found that 63 percent of those surveyed find the information in the main stream media is often inaccurate, only 29 percent agree that “the media usually get the facts right,” and only 26 percent agree that news sources, the main stream media, even make an attempt to keep their reporting politically unbiased.
Conservative radio talk show hosts are also dominating and growing stronger. Can anyone name a liberal talk show host that is economically viable? Check out the top ten hosts before you even try.
And how about conservative authors? Every new book written by a conservative shoots to the top of the best seller list. I bet the NY Times and its best seller list loves that.
Sarah Palin’s book has sold over 1.5 million copies and it hasn’t even been printed yet! Who do the liberals have? Michael Moore of course. Check out the success of his books and movies, in spite of all the awards Hollywood gives him.
We conservatives do have to be careful about the danger of letting our excitement and enthusiasm burn us out before the 2010 and 2012 election periods. These are watershed events that we, and our country, can’t afford to lose.
Actually we don’t have to do much at all. The liberal leftist leadership in Congress, along with the man-child in the White House just keep shooting themselves in the foot. It’s like watching a Keystone Kops episode, except the bumbling ineptness and incompetence are going to seriously harm this country. Let’s hope the damage isn’t permanent.
Just look at the cap and trade legislation that will add between $1,000 and
$2,000 to the average family in new energy costs (taxes).
Another failure is the $787 billion stimulus package that Barack said must be passed or else unemployment would exceed 8 percent. Since we are at an unemployment rate that will soon surpass 10 percent and seriously impede an economic recovery, maybe our representatives should have read the bill before voting for it. The only things stimulated were Democrat special interest groups and pork projects. It has failed miserably and now Obama wants a second stimulus package passed!
Cash for clunkers? It was supposed to save the environment by getting CO2 spewing vehicles off the highway. One estimate is that the program will save 0.04 percent of CO2 emissions. This is the equivalent of two days emissions over the next decade.
Also, 59 percent of the cars purchased through the program were foreign made. All this for a cost of “only” $1.4 billion to us taxpayers. And the list of failures goes on and on.
So we must start a list of the promises broken and failed programs and not let
the voters forget as election time nears. The liberals will once again talk like conservatives because they know that’s the only chance they have of getting re-elected. We have to hold them accountable for their previous actions. We must call them on their voting history, not their promises.
We simply have to calmly present the data to common sense thinking Americans and independent voters. We have the truth on our side. The only things the liberal leftist crowd have on their side (to their detriment), is their loudness and their emotional, frenzied, in-your-face outbursts.
They will only get louder as our momentum builds, and it is time for our side to not sit around and take it anymore. It is time for us to be heard also. We can’t let these ideologues get away with lying any longer.
Others More Deserving of Nobel Peace Prize
Albert Schweitzer, The Dalai Lama, Andrei Sakharov, Anwar Sadat, Menachim Begin, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Lech Walesa, and Eli Wiesel. These, along with many other deserving individuals, were the type of persons who used to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Now look what that selection committee has become. Even before this month, it had lost all credibility. Yassar Arafat, who won in 1993, was a signal of problems to come.
For years most of the Western world described him as the world’s No. 1 terrorist. He was also the corrupt leader of the political faction of Fatah right up to his death.
Laughingly, in 2002 they gave the award to Jimmy Carter simply for speaking out against George Bush. Mohamed ElBaradei followed in 2005.
Then the most ridiculously shallow and politically motivated selection (to that date) took place in 2007. Al Gore, another person rewarded for simply being a President Bush hater (and sore loser), won the prize. The Committee had to come up with some reason for their decision, so he was rewarded for making a very nice PowerPoint presentation about poor polar bears floating on icebergs and the global warming myth.
Just when I thought the Nobel Committee couldn’t make itself look more foolish and non-credible, it did just that. By selecting Obama as this year’s winner, it made itself look idiotic, and in turn Obama has made himself look the same for accepting it.
So many past winners have done so much more and have risked and even sacrificed their lives in their pursuit of a better and more peaceful world. What has Obama done? Absolutely nothing! He is full of rhetoric and empty of substance. His selection was a joke. You have to remember the nomination deadline was February first, a mere 11 days after he had taken office!
Columnist Kevin McCullough said it best. “Obama is getting used by the international elitists who have hatred in their heart for an America that is both strong and good. He is getting played like a puppy who is having a treat given to him for sitting still.”
The left was as harsh, if not more so, than the right. Michael Russnow, who even campaigned for Obama, wrote on the Huffington Post, “Whatever happened to awarding for deeds actually done?” The Washington Post: “It’s an odd Nobel Peace Prize that almost makes you embarrassed for the honoree.” Liberal bastions like the Huffington Post, The Daily Kos, the Washington Post and The Times of London pretty much said that “Obama has only hot air to show for his efforts at world peace.” NPR’s Juan Williams said it was utter foolishness. And on and on went the left’s comments.
Who was Irena Sendlerowa (1910-2008)? She has quite a story that I am copying verbatim from an Internet download, and yes, checked out for authenticity.
“During WWII, Irena received permission from the Nazis to work in the Warsaw ghetto as a plumbing/sewer specialist. She had an ulterior motive.
Being German, she knew the Nazis’ plans for the Jews and smuggled infants out in the bottom of the large tool box she carried. Larger children were placed in a burlap sack in the back of her truck. Also in the back was a dog that she had trained to bark each time the Nazi guards allowed her out of the ghetto and back in.
The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog, and its barking covered any noise made by the infants and small children. Irena managed to smuggle out approximately 2,500 children before she was finally caught. When she was captured, the Nazis beat her severely, breaking both her arms and her legs.
‘Irena kept a record of the names of all the children she smuggled out of that Warsaw ghetto and kept them in a glass jar buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents who may have survived so she might reunite the child with its family. Most, of course, did not survive the Holocaust, and the vast majority of the surviving children were placed in foster homes or adopted.”
I forgot to mention that Irena Sendlerowa was nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. She lost to Al Gore.
Check out the accomplishments of Denis Mukwege, Sima Samar, Ghazi bin Muhammad, Greg Mortenson, Piedad Cordoba, and Wei Jingsheng. These are just six of the 2009 nominees whom the Committee felt had a lesser impact on world peace than Barack.
My last question. Obama said he would give the entire amount to a charity.
Do you think that charity might be ACORN? Think we will ever know?
Be a true leader Barack. Give the award back to someone much more deserving.
Right-Wing Will Regain Advantage
It’s hard to believe that this column represents four years of writing for The Daily Star. That’s more than one hundred columns! I think I’ll try for one more year so that I can get through the 2010 elections and celebrate all the election victories that will put the conservatives back in power, hopefully in both houses.
All that conservatives have to do is just let Harry, Nancy and Barack continue to show how inept and incompetent they are in leading (?) this great country. Hopefully, we will be able to kick them out of office while we can still call our country great.
The public is starting to wise up to the fact that they made a terrible mistake these last two elections, and I have every confidence in this same electorate to see through the lies that will be spun once again this coming campaign season.
Finally, the voters are seeing what happens when the liberal left is in charge. We conservatives are going to have to take caution, not allowing the Republicans a second chance at controlling Congress unless they do a much better job than they did the last time. They drifted away from the conservative principles and made the federal government larger and more intrusive rather than smaller, and were very irresponsible fiscally.
We really are at the point where we don’t have to worry about the ideologically radical, left leaning liberals. They are becoming a smaller minority as time passes. They are simply loud, arrogant, emotional, and non-fact oriented, and the public is beginning to realize this.
Just look at a Gallup Poll taken the week of November 9. It is unbelievable how quickly people are running away from the left, especially the independents. As the Gallup Poll interpreter said: “Over the course of the year, independents’ preference for the Republican candidate in their districts has grown from a 1-point advantage in July to the current 22 point positive gap.”
At the beginning of the year, the country was still right of center. Forty percent called themselves conservatives, 40 percent called themselves independent and only 20 percent labeled themselves liberal. I would love to see what the percentages are now.
So, real Republicans just have to hang in there, and pretty soon our ideas will be listened to once again. You would have to be a liberal with your head stuck in the sand to have not heard the Republicans’ alternative ideas regarding, cap and trade, health care, and the economy. It’s too bad they are locked out of all the discussions going on behind closed doors.
And in addition to Obama failing miserably on the domestic front, he is making us the laughing stock of the world. He can’t stand up to countries like North Korea, Iran and Russia. He dithers and won’t make a decision regarding Afghanistan, thinking what about is best for him politically rather than taking the advice of our professional military leaders.
He is making us more and more depe
ndent on countries like China and those in the oil-rich Middle East, and no one takes him seriously anymore. He does have time, however, to travel around the world rather than focus on the very serious problems we have at home.
Let’s see. His major accomplishments to date have been to travel with Oprah to unsuccessfully beg for the Olympics to be held in Chicago, and I’m sure he’ll have time to tear himself away from all our pressing problems to humbly accept some fraudulent peace prize.
And then there is a Copenhagen conference coming up to discuss, what do they call it now? Let’s see, once it was man-made global cooling. then, when the facts proved them wrong they had to change it to man-made global warming, and once again, when they couldn’t sell that one, they now use the politically correct term of climate change.
There is so much more to talk about, but I guess it will have to wait until the next column. It should be about the Fort Hood terrorist murders, the Barack Obama/Eric Holder debacle regarding trying terrorists as mere criminals, the politically correct crowd and the ridiculous notion of Islamophobia. Now I said it should be about these topics, but with Barack at the helm, I never know for sure.
Off the subject, a friend recently sent me an article about a Texas A & M University contest calling for an appropriate definition of the term “Political Correctness.”
Here’s the winning definition: “Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to……..” (I can’t finish it.)
Lastly, I’ll leave you with this oxymoron: Islam; the religion of peace.
Global Warming Is A Hoax
