Black Leader Against Reconciliation
March 3, 2010
Washington, DC: Mychal Massie, chairman of the Project 21 black leadership network, is condemning President Barack Obama’s decision to urge Senate leaders to employ controversial reconciliation rules to force a government takeover of health care.
“The people have spoken, and they have said no to Obama’s radical brand of health care reform,” said Project 21’s Massie. “Putting his seal of approval on usurping regular Senate procedure showcases not just an extraordinary arrogance and a willingness to abuse legislative power, but it also unambiguously indicates his contempt and disregard for the will of the American people.” Read more
“Individual Mandate” at Core of ObamaCare is Unconstitutional, New Report Concludes
March 1, 2010
Washington, D.C.: Arguments by backers of President Obama’s health care proposals that the U.S. Congress has the constitutional authority to mandate that individual Americans purchase health insurance through the 16th Amendment to the Constitution, which permits the federal income tax, are incorrect.
So concludes a new “What Conservatives Think” publication, “Is a Health Insurance “Individual Mandate” Constitutional?” written by policy analyst Matt Patterson of the National Center For Public Policy Research.
Among the findings:
* Both the House and Senate versions of ObamaCare contain penalty taxes on Americans who do not have government-approved health insurance, the so-called “individual mandate.”
* Such a tax would function as a direct, or capitation, tax, as opposed to a tax on activity, such as excise or income taxes, and would therefore fall outside Congress’ authority to tax income granted by the 16th Amendment to the Constitution.
* The Constitution places strict restrictions on Congress’ power to lay capitation taxes under But Article I, Sec. 9, which reads “No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.”
* Exemptions for some people built into the Senate bill’s individual mandate tax would make it impossible for ObamaCare to meet this strict constitutional standard.
Says Patterson, “Some of the finest legal minds in the country have concluded that the enforcement provisions of ObamaCare’s individual mandate would violate the both spirit and the letter of the U.S. Constitution. Apparently, President Obama and members of Congress think they are smarter than these scholars – and smarter than the authors of the Constitution.”
“Is a Health Insurance “Individual Mandate” Constitutional?” is available online at http://www.nationalcenter.org/WCT.html.
Obama Health Plan Would Lead to Public Option
February 25, 2010
Washington, D.C.: President Obama’s new health care plan will all but guarantee the elimination of private insurance and lead to a single payer government-run health care system, says a new report, “White House Health Care Plan Contains Back Door to a Public Option” by policy analyst Matt Patterson of the National Center For Public Policy Research. Read more
Medicare is Cheating Seniors Out of Care, Says New Study
February 24, 2010
Washington, D.C.: Chronically low Medicare reimbursement rates to physicians and hospitals are forcing doctors to limit the number of Medicare patients they see – or opt out of the program altogether – with devastating results to seniors’ health care options, says a new study, “Medicare Doctor Shortage Endangers Seniors’ Access to Care,” by Matt Patterson of the National Center for Public Policy Research.
From the Southwest to Florida, from the Midwest to New York, primary care doctors and specialists at both hospitals and private practices are turning away Medicare patients because they cannot afford to treat them, the study concludes. Read more
Three Questions for the Congressional Leadership
January 8, 2010
The paper, “Bad Faith & Broken Promises: Accountability and Transparency Casualties of Health Care Debate,” by policy analyst Matt Patterson, asks House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid:
* Is it “honest” to hide the true cost of your legislation with budgetary gimmicks in which three years of new taxes precede the bulk of the spending, making your program seem more affordable than it really is in an artificial budgetary window? Read more
ABC Should Worry Less About Anchors; More About Integrity
December 18, 2009
Washington, DC: ABC News should focus less on the retirement of Charlie Gibson and his replacement by Diane Sawyer and more on integrity, says the National Center for Public Policy Research, which just completed an advertising review of ABC’s nightly World News. Read more
‘Tis The Season For Random Thoughts
December 11, 2009
The United States Congress has decided that there is nothing more urgent than to pass a law forcing college football to devise a playoff system and ditch the BCS bowl birth boondoggle that everyone hates this time of year because their team didn’t make it to the championship game. Go Prairie View!!
Can someone please explain to me why this is any of Congress’ biddnih? The same question that totally screwed up Nancy Pelosi’s head could be asked here; “Where specifically in the Constitution does it say that Congress is supposed to decide a national college football champion?” And before you Pelosi supporters ask, yes, I am serious. This is a serious question. (Hint: There is a Constitution) Read more
Reid Race Comments Condemned
December 8, 2009
Black Activists Condemn Senate Leader Harry Reid Playing the Race Card in Health Care Debate
Washington D.C.: Recent race-related comments made by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) are highly offensive and historically inaccurate, say members of the Project 21 black leadership group.
“Harry Reid has resorted to the most shopworn trick in the liberal playbook. He deployed the race card in the ugliest way while debating health care reform,” said Deroy Murdock, a Project 21 member and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University. “It is astonishing and outrageous to equate those who seek the defeat of Reid’s 2,074-page, $2.5 trillion legislative monstrosity with those who were happy to keep blacks in chains, unpaid for their back-breaking labor and traded back and forth like cattle. The fact that Reid would use such deplorable, insulting and insensitive rhetoric indicates that he is out of credible arguments to defend his own proposal.” Read more
Centenarian Told to Wait 18 Months to Get Hearing Aid
December 4, 2009
This is one of the 100 stories told in the new book, “Shattered Lives: 100 Victims of Government Health Care“, published by the National Center for Public Policy Research and written by Amy Ridenour and Ryan Balis. It is republished here with permission.
Longevity apparently does not count for much in Britain’s government-managed National Health Service.
Much of 108-year-old Olive Beal’s hearing was gone. The one-time suffragette and former piano teacher from Kent, England was unable to enjoy music or hear conversations clearly with her five-year-old analog hearing aid. A modern digital device would improve Beal’s hearing – and life – tremendously, but she was having difficulty receiving a replacement.
Beal’s granddaughter, Maria Scott, explained: “Her analog hearing aid does not filter out background noise so it makes it very difficult for her to hear clearly. But the digital one would allow her to hear people talking to her and to CDs. She loves music hall numbers.” Read more
Engineer Left Blind for Three Years Awaiting 20-Minute Operation
December 3, 2009
This is another story republished with permission from the book, “Shattered Lives: 100 Victims of Government Health Care” published by the National Center for Public Policy Research and written by Amy Ridenour and Ryan Balis.
According to Britain’s state-managed health service, cataract surgery is a “common” and “straightforward” operation that usually should last between 15 and 20 minutes. But such a quick turnaround would have been news to Richard Adams of London, who went blind in both eyes while waiting three years for cataract surgery.
The 85-year-old retired engineer and award-winning dancer began losing his vision in 2004. That year, doctors diagnosed Adams with cataracts, but an operation to remove them was not scheduled until March 2007. Read more
Cancer Patient Takes on Canadian Bureaucracy in Desperate Fight for Life
December 1, 2009
Republished by permission of the authors of “Shattered Lives” written by Amy Ridenour and Ryan Balis.
Suzanne Aucoin of St. Catharines, Ontario never imagined that dealing with the Canadian health care bureaucracy would be as tough as battling terminal cancer.
Aucoin had to go to the U.S. for treatment initially denied to her. While ill, she then engaged in a prolonged and complicated fight to get access to a life-extending anti-cancer drug and to recover the exorbitant amount she was forced to spend out of her own pocket on treatment. Read more
Project 21 Members Protest Jesse Jackson Linking Racial Identity to ObamaCare Vote
November 20, 2009
Washington D.C.: Members of the Project 21 black leadership network have risen to condemn Jesse Jackson for saying of Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL), “You can’t vote against health care and call yourself a black man,” calling Jackson’s statement divisive and likening it to the mental tactics of a antebellum slaveowner.
Declining to respond in kind, Rep. Davis told The Hill newspaper, “The best way to honor Reverend Jackson’s legacy is to decline to engage in an argument with him that begins and ends with race.”
Project 21 members were less retrained.
“Shame on Jesse Jackson for using the race card in an attempt to influence the views of another black politician,” said Project 21 Fellow Deneen Borelli. Read more
