Free Health Care!!! Free Lunch?

Time and again, we have been told, “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.”

Sad, but true. To all you welfare recips who sold your vote to the Democrats expecting free medical care, free gas, and free housing; it’s time for you to wake up. Not gonna happen.

To all the naïve voters, including many nurses that I know personally, here is an urgent message. Your employer, (hospital, physician’s office, teaching institution) just took a major broadside hit in the form of significantly increased costs of providing you with health care benefits; important benefits you have come to know and love. Worse, your employer will now be required by law to provide more health care for more patients for less revenue than before! What happens to your annual raise, your job security, your ability to take care of your own family?

To all the bitter Republicans who intend to teach the incumbent Republicans a lesson by not voting or by voting for the opposition, be careful what you wish for; it just might come true.

To everyone else, vote these incumbents OUT!!!! All of them.

Let’s review the previous health care system that was so ‘bad’. In what other country could an indigent homeless person, living under a bridge, be discovered unconscious, taken to any major hospital, be diagnosed as having had a major heart attack, be taken to the cath lab for stent placement, or if stents are inadequate, be taken to surgery that same hour for open heart surgery? Can you name just one? No? That’s because there are none! That’s right, there are none.

Obama and his henchmen have repeatedly told the gullible news media that many folks are without insurance. Yes, that’s true, but does that mean that they will not receive prompt, superb medical care that is better than any other country in the world can provide? No. This is the big lie most uninformed supporters of this law have swallowed hook, line, and sinker.

It’s those damned greedy insurance companies, Obama reads to us off his teleprompter.

Yeah?

Let me see if I understand this. Follow along with me now as I noodle this out for myself. You might learn something. For decades the ‘greedy’ insurance companies have silently paid higher hospital bills for their clients. Because hospitals charge the same fees for insured as well as the uninsured, the responsible patients who have insurance are the only ones who actually pay the billsin full! In essence, insurance companies have been subsidizing health care. Where now is the incentive for them to continue with this largess?

Here’s more untruths. The rich will now have to pay their fair share of taxes to support this new health care program. Really? Whoa, I got a headline for you, Louise. I feel this is just the old class envy technique revisited. Those damned rich folks have it made; they owe us! Share the wealth! Call this what it is; income re-distribution!

But this will not work. Remember in the Carter Administration when a luxury tax of 38% was levied on yachts? Oh, yeah! Soak those rich SOB’s. They will have to pay more for their toys.

Except…the boating industry took an unexpected major broadside hit because rich folks moved out of the country, like they are doing now, and bought their toys on the world market. American jobs were lost.

More than 50% of Americans are now on welfare or some sort of socially assisted programs. Where is the money coming from for this new health care scheme? I’m glad you asked.

Get ready for higher taxes. Consider these novel approaches…15-20 cents per gallon gasoline tax, a sales tax on real estate, a new tax on sugar drinks, a national sales tax, and most deadly of all, the dreaded value added tax. (VAT)

Here’s how the VAT tax works. A Texas cattleman takes his herd to the railhead for shipping. There the stock buyer pays a sales tax of, let’s say, a mere 2%.

The stock buyer transports the cattle to the slaughter house and sells the stock to the processor who then pays a 2% value added tax.

The slaughter house processes, bundles,and freezes the steaks, chops, roasts, and hamburger. He then sells the finished product to a wholesaler.

The wholesaler then pays a 2% value added sales tax and sells the finished product to a retailer, your friendly neighborhood Piggly Wiggly, Safeway, or Winn Dixie grocer, who now pays a 2% value added tax.

Where does this end? With YOU!! You want steaks for supper? Pony up with your fair share of the added value tax. But wait just a minute. Are you going to pay a mere additional 2% tax for your steaks? Nope, you are going to get taken for all the 2% hikes along the way. Let's look at the tally sheet. The stock buyer, the processor, the wholesaler, and finally the retailer have all paid their 2% VAT. That totals 8% additional costs before you buy your steaks for supper. You can bet the farm that each entity that has been taxed will pass this cost along.

Now it's time for you to pay "your fair share". You are going to get hit for the whole damn 8% plus "your fair share". This is the Ponzi scheme you are participating in; the same scheme that has ruined the encomoy in Great Britain and indeed the entire European monetary system. You really should review the damage VAT has done to countries like England. More than 50% of national tax revenue in Europe comes from the VAT tax. Look it up, it’s on the Internet.

What’s next? How about amnesty for 13,000,000 undocumented aliens presently living in the USA? Right; here’s another grateful voting block of new Americans for the Democrats. They'll need these votes to replace the ones they lost by voting this asinine health care law in over the objections of nearly 80% of registered voters!! Then again, it may not replace the lost votes.

Then what? Probably more left leaning Supreme Court Justices, some form of gun control, more entitlement programs, more borrowing money from China till we are no longer a super power. Like the Romans, we will become weak and irrelevant; rotted and decayed from within. How do you like it so far?

I saw a bumper sticker last week with a picture of George Bush smiling at us. The caption asked, "Miss me yet?" Speaking just for me, I can respond with a resounding, "Hell, yes!"

OBAMA

O-one

B-big

A-assed

M-mistake

A-America

If we survive, it will only be because of a second American revolution, rising up and voting these Marxists out of office. Otherwise, all I can say is, “Damn”.

What will you say?

PB

Un Hombre Plastico

Due to countless requests for more information about Captain Elwell, here is yet another tidbit surrounding the exploits of this fearless brother officer of the law.

Another tidbit? You ask if there are more? Yes, there are many more; as numerous as the stars in the sky, but you must be patient. These will be sprinkled here and there in future columns to offset the dreary political hacks that I normally write about.

Captain Read Elwell, of the Finney County Sheriff’s Patrol, circa 1970 brought new meaning to club checks in the city, frequently elevating routine inspections to situations approaching a near riot!

The club checks served a multitude of good things; compliance with safety regulations, monitoring customers to ascertain that minors were not drinking with the big kids, and keeping unruly drunks from damaging the bar owner’s property or assaulting the more peaceful customers. These were usually friendly visits that fostered good public relations between customers, club owners, and the law enforcement community. No one was disturbed.

Ah yes, but...the Captain held that no one should ever resort to tact and diplomacy when a little violence would do. Within weeks, threats were made to visit evil upon his small round head. The High Sheriff began to fear for the Captain’s life so he was removed from routine bar checks.

Captain Elwell chafed at this politically correct molly coddling of ne'r do wells and lower life forms, but being a good soldier, he accepted this decision and looked around for other opportunities for mayhem. After all, felons are plentiful and who knows where they may be lurking?

He got this bad news just as he finished working a homicide where five undocumented alien agricultural workers, engaged in a dispute over a dark eyed club dancer, shot it out in a narrow hallway leading to a tiny bathroom. Even in this confined space leading to el bano, only one person was hit; the deceased. Amazing lack of accuracy. And the Captain was now supposed to leave high drama like this and happily return to writing parking tickets? How embarrassing.

Unfortunately, the Captain had been a victim of Senior Management’s infamous Seagull protocol. In the face of big problems, management flies in, like seagulls, making a big noise, crappin’ all over the place, and then flying away. This leaves the troops with the original problems yet to solve plus the new messes left by the departing seagulls!!

In due time he was able to arrest and offend numerous other perpetrators who probably needed to be arrested. These miscreants were collected under circumstances that were a trifle, shall we say, nebulous? This is as good a word as any, meaning a little foggy, unclear, iffy...

Then one day, a friend called and asked the Captain if he would please check up on one of his employees. She was a nice young lady who had missed three days work and had not called in. The friend was worried about her and asked the Captain to check this out for him.

How boring. Ah well, Captain Elwell, good man that he was, dutifully went to the address provided by her boss and knocked upon the door.

After several minutes, a weary looking young lady opened the door. Captain Elwell introduced himself and pushed past the girl and entered the living room. The place was a mess; with leftover pizza on the coffee table, empty beer cans, and dog poop on the floor.

The Captain would make short work of this and asked her if she was okay to which she nodded sleepily. He suggested she call her boss to advise him that she was indeed okay and would soon be back at work. As he took his leave, he espied an aluminum pie pan on the window sill just plumb full of little green plants.

Zounds! This experienced officer of the law turned ashen as he recognized the distinctive sprouts of leaves that identified this plant as...MARIJUANA!!!! Ah, ha! He now had a high misdemeanor, not actually a felony, but what the hell? Close enough.

Ever mindful of his delicate relationship with the Sheriff’s position, he elected to report back to him immediately and obtain a legal search warrant. The Captain would now lead a platoon of brave young officers on a real drug bust! Picture in the paper, promotion to major, a medal of valor, maybe even a book or a movie? Hey, it could happen!

Back they sped in force and reentered the dwelling. Gone was the friendly approach of the benevolent Sheriff Andy Griffin and in his place, stomped the caustic and cynical Detective Andy Sipowitz! All that was missing was a baseball bat, but a baton would serve just as well. One of his officers seized the marijuana plant and upon further review, slowly began to smile.

The evidence that justified this search warrant and this dramatic drug bust was a plastic marijuana plant!!! Plastic! Some inhabitants of the drug culture find this amusing. Captain Elwell was not amused.

Angry and embarrassed, he ordered a complete tossing of the apartment. Imagine, if you will, the thoughts racing through his small mind. He could hear the laughter of the bar owners and every suspect he had collared; not to mention the ribbing he would have to endure from his troops. How could this have happened to him?

But wait! In a chest of drawers, hidden under the girl’s lingerie, was a Polaroid picture of her and her boyfriend posing with a clear plastic trash bag full of marijuana! The Captain felt excitement clutch his little black heart. Was this to be his salvation? Please let it be so. Now if he could only find the stash...

Again he was cruising in great good fortune as another deputy soon found the huge bag of marijuana hidden in the suspended ceiling. Good! What a relief! A righteous bust. Anyone could mistake a plastic marijuana plant for the real thing so the warrant was legal. Probable cause was established; no humiliation for the Captain there; so life is good. He was saved.

But wait! No tan de prisa, amigo. Captain Elwell would not totally escape without losing at least a few tail feathers. He was known then, now, and forever more as...“Plastic Man!”

Rooster Cogburn would be proud!

PB