Page 2 goes into detail about saving, and if you’re young and start saving now (in one of them nice and shiny 401k’s), you’ll have plenty of money to retire. So, the bottom line is that the government is telling me not to rely on them, they will have spent all the pennies I have deposited on stupid green initiatives and politician’s pork and all other kinds of BS. But wait – I thought the government was supposed to take care of everything for me? Aren’t I entitled to be totally taken care of in my golden years? Guess not….

And I don’t know why their telling me about 2037 – I will still be under 60 and NOT of retirement age. So who knows how much I’ll get when I do retire – maybe $200 for every $1000?

I could easily take this in another direction and assume that the government wants me to be mad at old people for living longer and consuming all of my Social Security taxes. Maybe after reading this, they want me to think “pulling the plug on Grandma” is a good idea after all. I say this only because there’s a statement that basically says the funds will be depleted by 2037 because all the old people are using the money. It couldn’t be because our government doesn’t know how to manage money, right?

So if you are a “young worker”, I hope you’re saving money right now for retirement. Fund your 401k’s and don’t think, “Man, I have PLENTY of time to save.” If you rely on the government to take care of you, you will be greatly disappointed.

And people want the government to be in charge of health care – HA!

I cringed while listening to him try to act like a big boy and tell these dictators to play nice.  He stood up there with his “look at me, love me” pose telling the audience all the great things he has done to make up for the horrifying ones.  Putting an end to torture, closing Gitmo, ending the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, etc.  He thinks the world is a play ground and everyone should be fair and nice to each other.  Well, you know what?  The world doesn’t work that way.  It’s a big, bad, terrifying place and there are some scary, evil people out there who hate the United States regardless if our new president is the Messiah.  Our president is the dorky kid on the playground trying to play with the other kids and they turn around and give him a wedgie.

1. He constantly reminds us that if we don’t act now – TODAY!!- people are going to die without health insurance. As one gentleman I know so eloquently put it “I have health insurance and I’m going to die some day, too.” And if the liberals are sooooo worried about people dying without health insurance, then why the hell do these bills have the health care overhaul not taking effect until 2013?? Yeah, all of you people who think you’re going to get great health care the day after he signs a bill, think again! Four years from now, you will get the great public option that can’t compete with private insurers and will be run like the post office.

2. At an August town hall meeting, he claimed that surgeons are rolling in the dough for performing unnecessary surgeries just to get high dollar reimbursements from Medicare. Yeah, these surgeons are just stalking patients, looking to see who’s leg they can amputate. I don’t recall going to the doctor for a sore throat and him convincing me that I needed to have my appendix taken out; but then again, I’m not on Medicare – maybe that really does go on?? Well, the American College of Surgeons called the President out on this one. According to their press release on August 12: “He [the President] stated that a surgeon gets paid $50,000 for a leg amputation when, in fact, Medicare pays a surgeon between $740 and $1,140 for a leg amputation. This payment also includes the evaluation of the patient on the day of the operation plus patient follow-up care that is provided for 90 days after the operation.” Read their complete statement here: http://www.facs.org/news/obama081209.html

3. He claimed that AARP supported his health care reform plan (which he didn’t even really have a plan, and still doesn’t) when in fact they had not taken a stand on the issue. Now, most people believe they were supporting him behind closed doors, but at the time, they had not made an official statement on any one bill.

4. We have heard 46 million times that there are 46 million Americans without health insurance. Wow! That sounds pretty bad. But what’s the reality? That 46 million so-called Americans includes about 12-13 million ILLEGALS. It also includes those who choose NOT to purchase health insurance provided by their employer. And it also includes those who are eligible for Medicaid and CHIPS – programs that are already in place! So who’s exaggerating now?

And now, the White House has the nerve to stifle the First Amendment rights of businesses to inform their customers of their opinions, i.e. Humana being given a gag order after they sent letters to their customers telling them health care reform will cut Medicare benefits. Businesses and organizations solicit people all the time, informing them of their stance on a variety of legislation. I get frequent emails from the American Heart Association giving me their opinion on various topics and why they feel the way they do. They can do that because of the FIRST AMENDMENT!!

The bottom line is, if you disagree with the President, you’re spreading lies. If you agree with him, then you can say whatever you want.

If you are one of those people who has blind faith in the MSM, you have to get your head out of your ass and start questioning everything.  I watch Fox News, but you know what? I still check out everything they say.  If they present something that seems outrageous to me, I do my own research.  And you know what I find? THEY’RE RIGHT!  Now you might be saying, “I don’t have time to sit at the computer and look up all these things.”  My response to you is, you can’t afford not to.  We have come to a point in our country where things are very serious, very scary.  Our right to speak freely and disagree with people and question things is slipping through our fingers.  The internet is the last sanctuary we have to find the truth.  We can’t rely on the blabbermouths on T.V. who have hidden agendas and are trying to protect the unions, or big money, or whatever.

Question everything you hear.  Research it.  Form your own opinions.  Don’t just sit there and let your freedoms go down the drain because if you ARE one of those “I don’t care” people, then good riddance to you.

Hopefully you watched the President’s speech on Wednesday night so you can stay informed. If anything, you know some controversy is going to come out of it, such as his last speech where he stated that the Cambridge police department acted “stupidly.” Anyway, before the speech began, I thought I might play a drinking game and take a shot every time he was given a standing ovation. Good thing I decided against it because he received 26 standing ovations – I would have been drunk by the midway point had I even had enough Patron on hand.

So as I’m reviewing the notes I took during the speech (yes, I’m a nerd – I took notes) these several things jumped out at me.

- Of course he had to have his standard stab at Bush – I don’t think he’s capable of delivering a speech without reminding me that he inherited this mess.

- When dismissing the rumors, he reiterated that no one who is in this country illegally can receive free health care from the public option. They could pay for the premiums out of pocket, but we the taxpayer wouldn’t be paying for them. And in HR 3200, it does mention several times that anyone here illegally will not receive free health care. BUT no one asks the follow up question of “if an illegal tries to sign up for the free public option, is anyone going to check their status?” The answer is “no.” The democrats say it would deter legal residents from pursuing the public option if they had to provide proof of legal residency. So there’s one loophole. Hence the reason for boos and the outburst from Joe Wilson when the President made his statement on this touchy subject.

- He also reiterated that if you like your current health plan with your employer, you can keep it. As I’ve said before, the issue is, will your company “play or pay?” Will they stick with their current health insurance options for employees, regardless of the added expense, or will they pay the extra tax (HR 3200 proposes 8% of payroll) and dump their employees into the public option? It’s a win-win for a company to take the latter: you don’t have the added expense of paying for employee health benefits, and you don’t look like a total jerk because you didn’t dump your employees into nothing, you dumped them in the public option safety net. This is how people will be forced into the public option without the President looking like a total liar.

- Obama said there was no reason to worry about the public option, only about 5% of the population would actually sign up for it. Gee, then why do we even need the public option? Why create ANOTHER government program just for 5% of the population?

- When talking about how this was going to be paid for, he said the taxpayer would not subsidize the public option, it would run directly on the money it takes in from premiums. Excuse me? Did I hear that correctly? The program is going to be run so efficiently that it will rely only on premiums? Give me a break – show me a government program that can do that. Wait, maybe that’s why he previously compared the public option to the U.S. Postal Service because they have done an excellent job of running only on the money it takes in….

- He did mention tort reform, which most people believe is the biggest solution to this health care mess, but I think he just threw that in there to satisfy the proponents. If you go to www.opensecrets.org and look at who the biggest campaign contributors to Democrats are, you will find, wait for it, TRIAL LAWYERS. No way are the democrats going to bite the hand that feeds them! They will probably add some watered down little piece of legislation regarding tort reform to say, “See, it’s in there.”

Overall, the speech was nothing new and didn’t change my mind regarding a public option. And that’s the main issue. It’s not that we Conservatives don’t want reform, it’s that we want responsible reform, NOT done in a massive hurry, and WITHOUT a public option. I truly believe that a public option now will mean a single payer system down the road, at which point I will be calling all of you “Comrade.”

Since I love quotes, here’s my favorite one – “The hottest place in hell is reserved for those who remain neutral during times of great moral conflict.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Start making this personal and get involved.

So what do you think? Do you have kids? Are you letting them watch this if their school is showing it?  Just curious….

Unions have served their purpose, and I don’t see any reason to have them in this day and age. If you have ever read “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair (1905), you would definitely see a need for unions. The book is about the meat packing industry in none other than lovely Chicago – the epitome of corruption (Oh, my bad, is that wear Obama is from?) Now those workers did need unions – they were treated horribly and worked under terrible conditions. But I don’t know many people who work under terrible conditions these days. If you want to whine because you don’t have breaks at certain times, and your lunch is 45 minutes instead of an hour, read a book like “The Jungle” and see if you don’t think you have the best job in the world.

Am I grateful that there’s a 40 hour work week? Yes. Am I grateful for minimum wages? Yes. But I think unions have overstayed their welcome, and I don’t appreciate them strong-arming elected officials and businesses in the name of the working middle class. Get over yourselves.

Here’s a good place to start – just enter your address and voila! You know all of your major public servants.  I urge you to also learn who your city council and county commissioners are, too.

http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/