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Monday, November 30, 2009

Political Whores Come in All Shapes and Sizes

It’s Monday and the Senate is preparing to take up discussion on the healthcare bill so it’s time, once again, to remind everyone about our new, favorite political prostitute, Mary Landrieu. I do have to issue a correction. Last week I said that Ms. Landrieu had whored her vote out for a measly $100 million dollars in Medicaid reimbursements. Mary Landrieu stood her ground on Capital Hill last week and announced the “bribe” was $300 million, not the $100 million previously reported as if that makes the sale of her vote suddenly honorable. Following that logic, the amount she received from Reid for her state was three times higher than initially reported so I suppose I am duty bound to call her an escort as opposed to a common whore. However, Ms. Landrieu, if you held out a little longer and squeezed your pimp for a cool half a billion, I might have been persuaded to refer to you as a Courtesan which is at least on par with the Senate seat you currently hold.

Of course Mary isn’t alone in the sale of support for Reid’s healthcare scam. The AARP announced support for the legislation only days before the vote, giving opponents little time to react to their betrayal of American seniors. If you recall, the President had claimed the support of the AARP prematurely and the AARP responded with an announcement that they had neither endorsed nor opposed the President’s healthcare plan; leaving me to wonder what caused the reversal last week. At first I thought that the AARP looked at this bill as an opportunity to expand their supplemental insurance market. After all, the AARP is the largest broker for Medicare supplement insurance, the insurance that fills the gap between what the insured is billed and the 80% that the government covers.

It was only recently that we found out that the AARP received over $18 million dollars in stimulus money that they claim was used for “training”. Silly me….I thought the stimulus money was earmarked for job creation. Training people might make them better employees but that is not a “job created”. Since this was training for existing employees, it can’t even be called a “job saved” as the White House loves to claim credit for these days. So why did the Government hand out stimulus money to an organozation that had no intention of using it to create jobs or to expand the economy? More importantly, why did the AARP announced their support for Reid’s plan even though hundreds of billions are to be cut from programs that their membership relies on? It looks to me like they had $18 million reasons.

The AARP, like Mary Landrieu, will suffer for their arrogance. The blood money they received is already causing a backlash resulting in a decline in membership. Seniors are finding that an advocacy group that does not act in the interest of its members is hardly worth belonging to. I resigned my membership to the AARP and have already contacted their insurance underwriters and business partners to inform them that I have no intention of doing business with any company that is associated with the AARP. There are already other senior advocacy groups that were created to fill the gap left vacant when the AARP became too big to care for its membership and those groups are on now on the rise. If they are smart, they will construct their board so that they can respond to the wishes of the members or invariably, they will suffer the same fate that is now befalling the AARP.

One more note: I do not want to lose sight of who is driving this train. Obama campaigned on healthcare reform and lied all through the debates over what it would and would not be. There are a myriad of films still circulating that show Obama giving one speech and interview after another where he states quite clearly that his ultimate goal is the collapse of the private insurance industry in favor of a government run, universal healthcare system. Pelosi, Baucus and Reid are nothing but mindless foot soldiers in his quest to nationalize healthcare. Obama has been curiously quiet on this front over the past few weeks as the nation is slowly coming to the realization that he has no plan for correcting the economy and that his foreign policy is weak and ineffectual. He would love nothing more than to lead the charge on healthcare but since the poll numbers do not support this plan, he would rather leave the “scarecrow”, the “tin man” and the “cowardly lion” to do his dirty work and fall on their swords, if need be, while he tries to convince the country that he cares about the things that they care about.

Americans are understandably annoyed that he has taken nearly four months to “think about” General McChrystal’s request for reinforcements while our brave soldiers are dying in the field. American’s are frightened over Obama’s handling of foreign policy; the images of him bowing to kings and emperors disgust those of us that still believe in the power of the Presidency. While the Nobel committee is obviously impressed by his demeanor, it does not mitigate the fact that Obama’s policies have placed our nation in jeopardy.

Despite months of meaningless “negotiations” with Iran, Ahmadinejad announced this past weekend that Iran will build ten new nuclear enrichment plants and will fund militant groups that oppose the west. The White House has not commented on this threat as of yet even though an immediate response is more than warranted. This is not a matter of the sovereignty of Iran. Does anyone truly believe that if Iran became the newest member of the nuclear armed family that this deadly power would not become the newest weapon in the terrorist’s arsenal? Does anyone not believe that cargo ships with a carefully concealed nuclear device buried in the hold would not arrive at “infidel” ports around the word? They are barbaric but they have also learned their lesson. They have one shot at this game and just like 9/11, the ships would probably detonate their deadly cargo simultaneously in New York, San Francisco, Haifa, Liverpool, etc, etc.

This is a game with deadly consequences and not to be played by a President that has no stomach for the brutality of the rules. While Obama has been fixated on fulfilling his socialist promises to his union and radical friends, the protection of the United States has been woefully ignored. The Healthcare bill and the Climate bill must be defeated because of what they really are and the United States must be allowed to return to a place and time where we have the financial ability and the iron clad resolve to insure the safety of our homeland against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That was your pledge Mr. President; just when do you intend to keep it?

Paul

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