Earlier this week the Obama administration announced that health insurance plans must now be extended to include birth control without copay. These new guidelines for women’s health also include breast pumps, regular “well woman” visits, counseling about HIV and sexually transmitted infections, screening for gestational diabetes, domestic violence counseling and screening, in addition to several other services. For the most part, these new requirements will take effect Jan. 1, 2013.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said, “These historic guidelines are based on science and existing (medical) literature and will help ensure women get the preventive health benefits they need”.

However a recent Fox News article states “generic versions of the pill are available for as little as $9 a month. Still, about half of all pregnancies are unplanned. Many are among women using some form of contraception, and forgetting to take the pill is a major reason.” This shows that even if we offer them free birth control, we have no guarantee they will not get pregnant.

Who will pay to offset the cost of these new “free” services? We all know that nothing is truly free. The rest of us will be forced to pay for these services and premiums all over will be increased. In a Bloomberg editorial they admitted, “The average yearly cost to an insurer of providing full coverage for the entire range of contraceptive methods and counseling services (with no copays or deductibles) is about $40”.

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Obamacare Flow Chart/Heritage Foundation

They passed it, and now we are finding out what is in it.  For over a year now experts have been painstakingly poring through the 2500+ pages of legislation and mandates created in The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (HR 3590) and The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (HR 4872) and the debate continues on whether to repeal or fix it.  As the timeline rolls out for compliance over the next few years it will become increasingly clear that there are quite a few mandates thrown in that our representatives will deny having any knowledge of, since they did not read it! What we have seen so far from this disastrous monstrosity of legislation is that we and our physicians will be so tied up in bureaucracy; from mountains of paperwork, to bureaucrats getting in between our doctors and ourselves, to employers providing insurance that contains “minimum essential coverage” which has yet to be fully disclosed for their employees, to the policing of our coverage by the IRS to make sure we have purchased what the government deems to be acceptable health insurance coverage.  Physicians will also be subject to fines for not providing care to their patients as dictated by a panel of bureaucrats.

The individual mandate in this bill is unprecedented in our history.  The Cato Institute’s Michael D. Tanner has published a comprehensive analysis of this heath care reform bill in his much more readable 61 page Bad Medicine: A Guide to the Real Costs and Consequences of the New Health Care Law.  He states that “what we are finding increasingly looks like it will leave Americans less healthy, less prosperous and less free.”

In his analysis he breaks down the timeline of what provisions will go into effect and when.  Already implemented:

• A ten percent tax imposed on tanning salons.
• Seniors with prescription drug costs of at least $2700.00 will receive a check for $250.00
• $5 billion temporary insurance program for employers who provide health insurance for retirees over age 55 who are not yet eligible for Medicare. The program ends in 2014.
• Insurers are required to provide coverage for children regardless of preexisting conditions. The prohibition on excluding preexisting conditions does not apply to adults until 2014.
• High risk pools established to cover adults with pre-existing conditions, but will be eliminated after the ban on excluding preexisting conditions goes into effect in 2014.
• Parents may keep their children on their insurance plan until the child reaches age 26.
• Lifetime caps on insurance benefits are prohibited.
• Restaurants and vending machines are required to post calorie counts.

This week we discovered that, effective August 1, 2011, according to the U.S.Department of Health and Human Services “Under the Affordable Care Act, women’s preventive health care – such as mammograms, screenings for cervical cancer, prenatal care, and other services – is covered with no cost sharing for new health plans.”  The list of services that are to be covered with no co-payare; well-woman visits, screening for gestational diabetes, human papillomavirus testing, counseling for sexually transmitted infections, screening and counseling for human immune-deficiency virus, contraceptive methods and counseling, breastfeeding support, supplies and counseling, and screening and counseling for interpersonal and domestic violence.  This will surely drive up the cost of health insurance premiums and cause more employers to opt out of providing coverage for their employees and pay the fines instead.  The administration will vilify these corporations, calling them greedy, corporate jet-flying, profit-making millionaires and billionaires.  It has structured the laws in such a way that in the long run it will be cheaper and involve less bureaucracy for corporations to opt out.  Nationalized health care was the goal of this president and despite all of the opposition it is what we now have.  Most Americans do not realize this yet, because of the extended timeline for the rollout of the various aspects of this bill.

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Today, in 1964, Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, granting broad powers to President Johnson to escalate America’s involvement in Vietnam. (Back in a quaint time that Congress actually had to authorize overseas military involvement.)

America’s Second City is now first in traffic congestion.

Recently, the Texas Transportation Institute named Chicago the nation’s most congested city, booting perennial congestion king Los Angeles from the dreaded top slot.

And if you think gridlock is bad now, just wait. Turns out Chicago’s official 25-year transportation plan will spend billions, but traffic congestion will get even worse.

Everyone knows that gridlock leads to wasted time and increased stress, but the effects of degraded mobility are worse than most people realize. Traffic congestion deprives job-seekers of opportunities, robs businesses of customers, and hastens the exodus of residents from the central city to the suburbs.

And although mounting gridlock may seem like the unavoidable result of increased population and strained budgets, the experience of nations from France to Australia proves otherwise. Reason Foundation draws on what’s worked worldwide and recommends a three-part plan:

1. Expand roads with underground tunnels and elevated structures.
2. Use pricing to keep traffic flowing.
3. Pay for new projects with private-sector financing instead of taxes.

That plan can help Chicago or any other city bust congestion and boost economic growth.

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It is a sad truth that from coast to coast our departments of children and family service (DCFS) agencies are in disarray. All too often they ill serve the children they are supposed to be helping and they almost always step on the rights of parents without much bothering to give a good reading of the situation before action is taken. The travails of 13-year-old Chloe Faulkner is another such story. Taken from her parents, isolated in a world of faceless bureaucrats, used as a cash cow for state aide, abused, repeatedly raped, and eventually impregnated without her loving parents being given a chance to be heard, this tale is another DCFS/State intervention horror story.

In 2009 Chloe was a 13-year-old, home schooled, bright-eyed girl who had been diagnosed with the serious medical condition of Type 1 diabetes. Like many 13-year-olds she was in a rebellious stage, pushing back at a world of parental rules and the constrictions that her medical condition unfairly imposed upon her. And, like many rebelling teens, Chloe ran away one day, refusing to return home.

Her worried, loving parents involved the police because they feared that young Chloe’s medical condition would make her running away far more dangerous than it might for the average teen. The police found Chloe and brought her home with no incident.

But soon things began to go terribly awry. Because while the police were involved the DCFS came knocking at Chloe’s parent’s home. After some interaction between Chloe and the state, DCFS took Chloe away from her home and into state custody under the auspices of a law called MRAI, Minor Requiring Authoritative Intervention (In Illinois it is ILCS705, 405, 3-3-1(a)).

Part of the MRAI laws, give teenagers the right to decide if they want to go home to their parents. In her rebellion, Chloe decided that she didn’t. This gave the state the right to take Chloe away from her parents, exclude parents from the decisions about any treatment given their daughter, and to fully control the girl’s life.

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Candidate Obama said he would “transform the Untied States of America” and unfortunately this is the one promise he kept.  Two and one half years into his presidency, the National Debt has climbed to 100% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the first time since World War II; GDP growth for the first six months of this year has been a meager 0.8%; we continue to run a $1.5 trillion annual deficit, essentially growing the Debt by 10% versus the 0.8% GDP growth; 25 million Americans are unemployed, under-employed or have dropped out of the work force; 45 million Americans are on food stamps; and now Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has downgraded our country’s credit rating from AAA to AA+ for the first time in our history.  America has truly been transformed!

I could add to this list a number of foreign policy decisions that have elevated our enemies and trashed our long-time allies, but the economic failures of this president are more striking and more easily understood.  His $900 billion economic stimulus bill did little more than pay the salaries of state workers for one year and increased the Debt.  His re-distributive one-time programs of cash for clunkers and mortgage-restructuring failed and added to the Debt.  The overbearing healthcare legislation, that the Congressional Budget Office now says will increase the cost of healthcare, did nothing but create uncertainty for business.  Massive new and restrictive regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Congress, when under full Democratic control, has forced private capital to the sidelines and almost completely stalled economic growth.  These are only some examples of Mr. Obama’s transformation of our country.

S&P warned us several months ago that our credit rating was in danger of a downgrade and pointed to the lack of leadership in Washington, D.C. as the main problem.  Mr. Obama still does not get it.  His reaction to the weak GDP growth and recent slide in the equities markets was to blame the earthquake in Japan, the economic problems in Europe and the uprisings that formed the Arab Spring.  His supporters are already saying publicly that Obama inherited a situation that was “worse than we thought.” Translation – blame former President Bush.  Mr. Obama will not take responsibility for a failing economy that he has managed since January of 2009 and it is this clear lack of leadership that is at the root of S&P’s downgrade.

The truth is that Mr. Obama’s socialist experiment of hyper-spending has done nothing more than add $4.5 trillion, or 45%, to the Debt since taking office.  He has over regulated the economy into a private sector coma.  It is time for real leadership and a return to free market capitalism. S&P made that clear with its downgrade.

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At FreedomFest in July, Reason’s Matt Welch talked with political consultant and Fox News contributor Dick Morris about the school choice movement.

Morris argues that past reforms – such as increased spending, changes in curriculum, and standardized testing, have failed because they don’t create the sort of competition and innovation that would come with the implementation of robust school choice that is already happening around the country. The former adviser to Bill Clinton believes school choice is a “game-changer” regarding partisan voting patterns, with Democratic-leaning women voters increasingly interested in broadening the ways in which K-12 education is delivered. As important, he says that the once-immoveable object of the teacher’s union “ain’t so immoveable.”

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Even though I predicted it had to happen at some point because of the Bush-Obama spending binge and America’s giant long-run entitlement crisis, I confess that I’m somewhat surprised that the United States has suffered a debt downgrade for the first time.

That being said, I don’t think the downgrade will matter. Everyone knew the U.S. was heading in the wrong direction before the announcement by Standard & Poor. Moreover, big investors have very few attractive options for where to place their money – thanks to a weak global economy. As such, I suspect the federal government will still be able to borrow money at very low rates.

What does matter, however, is that the American economy is burdened with a bloated public sector that is sapping the nation’s economic vitality. And this problem will get worse every year because of a toxic combination of poorly designed entitlement programs and demographic change.

As the government gets bigger, this hinders growth by diverting resources from the productive sector of the economy. The damage  is then compounded by the fact that the two main ways of financing the public sector – taxes and borrowing – both have additional adverse economic consequences.

In other words, the United States has fiscal cancer. Yet rather than try to cure the disease, politicians are – at best – kicking the can down the road. Here is my dour assessment on Bloomberg.

The only glimmer of hope, as I wrote yesterday, is that House Republicans have made serious efforts to restrain the burden of federal spending.

There he goes again. Out on the campaign trail, President Obama is proposing more federal spending as his answer to sluggish growth and jobs. That won’t do it, Mr. President.

He wants more infrastructure spending, undoubtedly in the form of an infrastructure bank. That’s a terrible idea. It’s borrowed from Latin America, where bloated and corrupt bureaucratic construction agencies have helped bankrupt any number of countries in the past.

He wants to lengthen 99-week unemployment insurance, although numerous studies have shown that continuous unemployment benefits are associated with higher unemployment.

And he wants to extend the temporary payroll tax credit, which is not a permanent reduction in marginal tax rates, has no incentive effect, has not worked so far, and is really a form of federal spending — not real tax relief.

Earlier this week, when he signed the debt-ceiling bill, the president ranted on about the need to raise tax rates on successful earners, investors, and small businesses. He’s trying to bring back tax hikes as part of the phase-two special committee seeking additional deficit reduction, even though his own party rebuffed him on this in the late stages of the debt talks. All this is a prescription to grow government, not the economy.

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On July 30, 2011, about 8,000 unionists gathered in Washington, DC to protest education reform.

It featured the rapper Notorious PHD, who, rumor has it, moonlights as a teacher, claimed the problems are all manufactured.

As an authentic grass roots movement in which every Local Tea Party organization has different beliefs from the next we have a core value system aligning with all the others.  Some are libertarian, some are religious, some are the flat-out stock broker business types.

They all have one thing in common: They are responsible people.  Their word is their bond.  As much as the groups differ and may argue on issues they all understand that there is a greater good and focus on the tasks at hand.  They get over their personal differences and get to work on what they can contribute.

I heard comments from our own administration (Biden calling Tea Partiers Terrorists) and leaders calling ME, a veteran, a patriot and a true American, Satan. What is Nancy Pelosi thinking when making such comments? (Actually, if I wanted to have fun with this and play it out a little I’d say … it is a “Satan sandwich” with “Satan fries” on the side!)  Biden called the Tea Party terrorists!

I think you really don’t understand the gravity of these statements Mr. Biden and Mrs. Pelosi.  Luckily, I am aware you know not of service to MY Country and you are not aware of the words you have called me and the people of my ilk.  I AM the Tea Party as are the millions of citizens I call my countrymen.

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Today, in 1945, the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The nuclear age had begun.

From The Associated Press:

Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s on Friday downgraded the United States’ credit rating first time in the history of the ratings.

The credit rating agency said that it is cutting the country’s top AAA rating by one notch to AA-plus. The credit agency said that it is making the move because the deficit reduction plan passed by Congress on Tuesday did not go far enough to stabilize the country’s debt situation.

A source familiar with the discussions said that the Obama administration feels the S&P’s analysis contained “deep and fundamental flaws.”

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On July 30th, 2011, teachers, parents and advocates such as actor Matt Damon, author Jonathan Kozol, and historian Diane Ravitch gathered for the Save Our Schools Rally outside the White House.

The purpose of the event: “To put the public back in public schools.”

Reason.tv was on hand to talk tenure, the role of money in education, and whether parents should have the right to choose where their kids go to school.

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The controversy over reform in Texas higher education has confused the public. Which side is right?

Watching a charge from one side, then a counter-charge from the other side loses the reader in the weeds of detail. The charge and counter-charge often do not meet head-on but speak past one another, leaving the reader with what seem to be apples/oranges comparisons.

I propose a different way to approach the controversy. Having been a college or university professor for 27 years, an editor of an academic journal for many years, a college vice president, and director of the Fulbright Program for the U.S. government, I know how universities operate. Hard experience has taught me that fundamental reform in higher education is a must.

Consider the following prototype of Professor X.

He got a Ph.D. at age 29, then worked through the ranks for seven years to be given tenure at age 36. Tenure guarantees lifetime job security, so Professor X no longer needs to publish anything ever again. Even though former Harvard president Derek Bok reports that “fewer than half of all professors publish as much as one article per year,” Professor X still wants to publish that one article per year.

An academic journal publishes his article, but it is so esoteric that only very few scholars read it or cite it. The article has no value to students or to classroom pedagogy.

Professor X teaches two classes per semester – each class with an average of 16 students, translating to 32 per semester and 64 for the entire year. He has taught these two classes several times over the years, so he needs little preparation for each lecture – just some brief reviewing of old notes.

He posts three office-hours per week to meet with students. He needs to grade papers, but with only 32 students for the semester, such grading is not heavy lifting. He also serves on a few committees, but elects not to do much for them.

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If you remember well, a few months ago, Sodexo announced it was launching a trial against SEIU under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Sodexo accused the SEIU of using disreputable tactics in its campaign against the corporation such as blackmail, vandalism, trespass, harassment, etc.

While on our side we’ve been denouncing for more than a year the feeble arguments, low-blows and overall reckless tactics of the SEIU, our main motivation was to publicly unveil SEIU’s financial motivations in the campaign. Well now it seems we weren’t totally wrong in suspecting the union of using disreputable tactics, apparently the union itself advocates them.

As part of the public inquiry undergone with the lawsuit, the SEIU was forced to release , a “Contract Campaign Manual” destined for internal use. Machiaveli fans, this is your next read. The manual is a proper A, B, C of union campaigns and how to put pressure on corporations as well as generate and exploit media attention. It provides an unprecedented peek into the union’s own policy regarding corporate campaigns.

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We’ve begun a battle of enormous consequence to our entire nation here in the great state of Mississippi.  Abortion is on the November 8 ballot in Mississippi, in the form of an initiative to change the state constitution by defining “person” as any human from the moment of fertilization.  The amendment is based on statements made by the judges who voted in favor of abortion during the Roe v. Wade oral re-arguments.

Unlike some other states, it is very difficult to get a voter initiative on the ballot in Mississippi; this year, we have three initiatives that would amend our state constitution, a truly remarkable feat.  All three are key conservative issues in an overwhelmingly conservative state:  abortion, voter identification, and eminent domain abuse.Personally, I’m hoping for a triple play, and voting “YES!” on all three.  The issue that I am working on, however, is abortion.

When this battle is won in Mississippi, it doesn’t just set up a challenge to Roe v. Wade, it eviscerates that case and all of its unholy progeny.  It gives a method by which every state in the nation can extend the most basic civil rights to the most innocent and deserving members of the human race — our unborn children.

When is a person a “person”?

All humans deserve equal protection of the laws and the right to due process, but the law only extends these rights to every “person.”  Thanks to the outstanding work of Personhood Mississippi, we in Mississippi will have the chance to be the first state in the history of our union to define a “person” to include all unborn humans.  Initiative 26 will define the term person as follows:

SECTION 33.  Person defined.  As used in this Article III of the state constitution, “The term ‘person’ or ‘persons’ shall include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof.

If Mississippians vote Yes on Amendment 26, all human beings would be ensured equal rights in our state and protection under law, regardless of their size, location or developmental stage.  Calling abortion “murder” will no longer be merely a moral judgment, but an established legal determination.  In other words, abortion will be illegal.

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The agreement to force Congress to have an up or down vote on a Balanced Budget Amendment is the cornerstone of re-establishing America as the world leader in sound economic policy. For decades, America’s small government model was internationally respected as being supportive of higher levels of economic growth. But that image died after Republicans gained domination of the Presidency, Senate, and the House in 2002 and ramped up outlays in every direction – increasing spending by 90% and the national debt by 150% in just nine years.

This irresponsible action gave cover for politicians around the world to join in on the spending bash. But with the American public now favoring a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution by 74% according to the most recent CNN poll; Congress and the President will be forced to either approve an Amendment, or suffer the over-whelming wrath of voters in the next election. Following America’s re-born economic leadership; President Sarkozy of France just proclaimed he will run for re-election on a platform in support of a French Balance Budget Amendment.

America has long been the envy of the world. With 5% of the earth’s population, America still controls 25% of the entire world’s GDP. Since 1871, the U.S. has grown its economy rather consistently at about 3.47% per year compounded, compared to less than 2% for other developed nations. One of the keys to that victory has been the U.S. remaining in the bottom 10% of tax burdens percentages of developed nations – with 25% tax burden as a percentage of GDP. But according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) the explosion of deficit spending means either tax rates must rise to the French and German average of 38% or spending must be cut.

American businesses have been planning for the advent of higher corporate taxes by continuing to outsource production to lower tax platforms, such as Mexico with its 17.5% tax burden as a percentage of GDP. This explains why Mexico’s unemployment rate has fallen to 4.9 percent, while joblessness has risen to 9.4 in the U.S. Mexican Consul General Carlos González Gutiérrez responded to questions about why less Mexicans are now entering California illegally:

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You can imagine homeless man James Dirk Crudup’s confusion when he was detained by the Secret Service after innocently “jumping the fence at the White House” hoping to avail himself of the free perks Obama keeps touting for the poverty-stricken.

Mr. Crudup, carrying all his earthly possessions in his backpack, managed to scale the fence on the north side of the White House, whereupon he and his luggage were both promptly taken into custody.

A police dog “sniffed something suspicious in the man’s bag after he was spotted scaling the fence by agents.” As a precautionary measure, the seized belongings were closely examined by the Secret Service, DC Fire, and EMS.  Thankfully, “nothing hazardous was found,” although no one mentioned whether or not the knapsack contained an extra pair of the homeless man’s dirty socks.

Reporters were on site during the fracas and some  “saw agents …with weapons drawn…one agent could be seen on the roof of the [White House] peering through a pair of binoculars,” but it’s unclear as to whether he was routinely posted there to look out for rodents in the Rose Garden.

As a homeless man, Mr. Crudup epitomizes “the neediest amongst us,” and is a part of society that the President draws on to justify his ever-expanding entitlement system.

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