Obama Health Care Mandate Upheld in Federal Court

A Michigan federal judge has ruled that Congress can make us buy his health insurance. Because we "pay" for the insurance, the judge says that action is "plainly economic."

Obama's Department of Justice argued that if the Commerce Clause does not allow the mandate, then the mandate is simply a tax, levied through the legal powers of Congress. Attorney Rob Muise of the Thomas More Center said the decision will be appealed.

“The trouble, if you think about it, is if Congress has authority to regulate nonactivity then it has the ability to regulate anything,” Muise said. Congress can “tell you to exercise three times a week, to take certain vitamins, to refrain from eating certain foods because, at some point, costs are going to be incurred to the health care market. I find that very troubling when we have a federal government that’s supposed to be of limited, enumerated powers,” he said. 

This is just one lawsuit, in just one state. It is far from over, but it deserves worrying about every step on the way to repeal.

Tom Coburn: Failure of Obama Care Brings Single Payer Video

Senator Tom Coburn's (R-OK) comments are no surprise. We had it figured out before the legislation passed. The failure of Obama Care will bring a Single Payer Government option. See the Video.

Coke Employees Sue Coke: Coca Cola Health Care Cancelled

Coca Cola cancelled health care for employees, now approximately 500 workers are on strike and some are suing the company. Among the complaints are "employee surveillance, intimidation and bad faith bargaining."

Coke Employees Sue over Health Care

Workers claim canceling health care violates a federal law known as ERISA, setting minimum standard for providing health care in private industry.

Attorneys representing 500 striking employees at Coke filed a class action lawsuit against the Company yesterday for violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) after Coke canceled the employees' health care. Five plaintiffs were named in the complaint.

"In my almost twenty years of representing workers and unions in labor disputes, it's hard to think of any past instance where I have seen an employer retaliate against its striking workers in a manner as egregious as what the Coca-Cola Bottling Company has done here," said Dmitri Iglitzin, an attorney at Schwerin Campbell Barnard Iglitzin & Lavitt, an employment law firm in based in Seattle.

"Cutting off the medical benefits to more than 500 workers, knowing that many of them rely on those benefits on a day-to-day basis and will be irreparably harmed if they lose those benefits is a brutal, full-scale attack by Coke on its own workers," Iglitzin said.

Cartoon by Robs Right and Ken Culotta 

Obamacare Gets Worse By the Minute

Our friend that's visiting from Pennsylvania is an insurance broker - life, health and disability. He told me that Blue Cross/Blue Shield stopped issuing association plans in Pennsylvania. Those are the plans that small businesses join. If you're a small business owner who wants to offer health insurance, the associations are the way to go. You join up with a whole bunch of other small businesses to get the group rates that are more affordable. I asked our friend if it happened after Obamacare passed, and he answered "of course!"

Now comes the news that those "free" plans for those of us with pre-existing conditions will cost as much as $12,000 a year. That's right. "Free" means $12K a year. That's a tough nut to swallow, especially in this economy. Not only that, you have to be without insurance for six months to even qualify. A lot can happen in six months!

The news comes from Stacy, who's a regular caller to the Rush Limbaugh show. She's the person Rush refers to as his "insurance expert" and she knows her stuff. Read the full transcript here. It's so inane, and it would be funny if the results of this terrible legislation weren't so dreadful.

(H/T Free Republic)

Cross posted from The Lonely Conservative

Avastin Meets Death Panel

Avastin is a drug therapy for "advanced" Stage IV breast cancer patients. Approximately 17,500 women in the U.S. are on Avastin.  Being brutally honest here, the FDA believes the drug is too expensive to be dispensed to women who will die anyway, and are considering rescinding it from their drug approval list. The medical community is divided on the effectiveness of the drug. Some believe the toxicity is not worth the results, others see good results in their patients. A look around the InterWeb shows that some insurance companies have already stopped the treatment, and I also see patients who have been on the drug for two years and are doing extremely well. Read a patient's statement below.

Avastin

Before getting to the story, let's revisit Obama's close friend and adviser, Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of Rahm Emanuel. Ezekiel is an advocate of discontinuing care to patients who will never make a full recovery:

Savings, Emanuel writes, will require changing how doctors think about their patients: Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath too seriously, "as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others" (Journal of the American Medical Association, June 18, 2008).

ObamaKare is gearing up. Where can the FDA and insurers find savings? By de-certifying drugs for patients considered to be on a terminal list, or soon to be. Who is making these decisions. Well, that's easy, people with "influence," of course, also know as a Death Panel:

The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing the recommendation of influential scientific advisers to revoke authorization of the drug to treat metastatic breast cancer. Contrary to initial research, new studies indicate that the benefits of the drug, which costs $8,000 a month, do not outweigh its risks, the advisory panel concluded.

Avastin is not only prescribed for treating breast cancer. It has proved to be effective for other cancers. Look at this odd statement:

Avastin is approved for use in treating several cancers, including those of the colon, lung, kidney and brain. So doctors could continue to write prescriptions for it for breast cancer, as an "off-label" use. 

But in addition to prompting insurers including Medicare to stop paying for Avastin, an FDA revocation of approval for its use in breast cancer treatment might mean that breast cancer patients would lose eligibility for a program in which Genentech caps the annual cost of the drug at $57,000 for women with annual incomes of less than $100,000.

Does this mean people suffering from of the other cancer can continue to receive Avastin, and only breast cancer patients would be denied? The answer is 'yes.' Apparently, the toxicity does not affect cancers other than breast cancer. Do we really believe that? This is a death panel issue. Mentioned above is the idea of making Avastin available for breast cancer treatment for "off-label use," meaning you can get have it you can pay for it.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal in July, "an FDA advisory panel voted 12-1 to remove the breast cancer indication from the drug's label. If the FDA follows the advice of its committee - as it often does - the drug could still be marketed to treat colon, lung and other cancers."

Medical sources are divided on the success rendered versus the harm caused. Some believe the drug should have never been approved. Here is one success story, and Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute stand behind the drug's good performance:

"I'm very upset," said Leslie Twohig, 48, of Lothian, Md., who has been taking Avastin for eight months and credits the drug with helping her survive. "How long will I be able to stay on Avastin? Are they going to take it away? I know it's working for me. Right now I am able to enjoy my life. Every morning I wake up and wonder how long it's going to go on."

"I am very concerned about people who are receiving the drug and may feel threatened that they may not be able to receive it," said the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's Winer, who is also chief scientific officer for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a breast cancer patient advocacy group. "This is not a worthless drug by any means. There is almost certainly a group of women who get a big benefit. "

Some members of Congress have written protest letters to the FDA and the Department of Health and Human Services. Senator David Vitter (R-LA) says he fears this is the beginning of "a slippery slope leading to more and more rationing under the government takeover of health care that is being forced on the American people."

Wealthier patients who can pay the $4000-$10,000 per month for the drug will probably live longer and have far less pain than the patient without an option for Avastin .

Harry Reid Missouri Voters Lack Healthcare Understanding

Missouri's Prop C measure to block the government mandate to purchase health care passed by a 71-29 margin. Missouri refuses to be told what to buy and what they cannot buy. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) believes Missourians only need to know more about the health care legislation to "like" it.

“It’s very obvious that people have a lack of understanding of our health care reform bill,” Reid said. “The more people learn about this bill, the more they like it.” He noted that the health insurance “exchanges,” or marketplaces, will take three years to kick in...

 "The trend is turning all over america today," Reid said. "Once you explain what's in the bill, the American people of course like it."

Note to Democrats: Remember November? Just keep calling us ignorant. We're going to slap the shizey out of you in November.

Pete Stark says Fed Can Do Most Anything in this Country Video

Another classic liberal moment caught on camera. Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark (D-CA) says there are" very few Constitutional limits that would prevent the federal government from rules that could affect your private life." The woman questioning Stark in this Townhall brings up an issue connected to healthcare seldom talked about - the issue of slavery. Stark, who never fails to shock, eventually says "The federal Government...yes, can do most anything in this country." See the video below.

Fortney "Pete" Stark Feds Can Do Almost Anything (video)

Scary Obamacare Chart!

This is the new and improved chart of the gross expansion of the federal government thanks to Obamacare. Looking at it makes me kind of sick.

Click on the image for the full PDF image, that is, if you can stomach it.

Senator Jim DeMint's recent blog post spells it out:

Developed by the Joint Economic Committee minority, led by U.S Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the detailed organization chart displays a bewildering array of new government agencies, regulations and mandates.

“For Americans, as well as Congressional Democrats who didn’t bother to read the bill, this first look at the final health care law confirms what many fear, that reform morphed into a monstrosity of new bureaucracies, mandates, taxes and rationing that will drive up health care costs, hurt seniors and force our most intimate health care choices into the hands of Washington bureaucrats,” said Brady, the committee’s senior House Republican. “If this is what passes for health care reform in America, then God help us all.”

Brownback, the committee’s ranking member, added, “This updated chart illustrates the overwhelming expansion of government control over health choices and the bewildering complexity facing everyone affected by this law. It doesn’t take long to see how the recently signed health care bill causes a hugely expensive and explosive expansion of federal control over health care. Personal choices that should be between a doctor and a patient will quickly be strangled in a never ending web of bureaucracy.”

Senate Steering Committee Chairman Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) called Obamacare “a bureaucratic nightmare. The Democrats’ takeover of health care creates a byzantine network of 159 new federal programs and bureaucracies to make decisions that should be between just the patient and their doctor. It should concern everyone that at the center of this regulatory web is the new CMS chief, Donald Berwick, who has championed rationing and European socialized medicine. Americans were rightly outraged that this big government bill was rushed through Congress before anyone read or fully understood the bill’s consequences. Republicans will fight to repeal this reckless takeover and to ensure health care freedom to American families.”

But it gets even worse. This chart only shows about a third of the new bureaucracy created by Obamacare. They couldn't fit everything in there. This is the stuff nightmares are made of!

H/T Dana Loesch

Britain Cuts Health Care Services: Behind Closed Doors UK Knee Hip Replacements Cut

Earlier today a report said Britain was turning control of a patient's health care back to local doctors. Another report just released says the Brits have "secret plans" to cut the most basic health care treatments, including knee and hip replacements.

Knee Replacement

Hospital beds will be reduced, including those for the mentally ill. Nursing homes are closing and thousands of jobs will be lost in NHS [National Health Service] hospitals:

Hundreds of thousands of pounds from budgets will be cut from the terminally ill, with dying cancer patients to b told to manage their own symptoms if their condition worsens at evenings or weekends....

The Sunday Telegraph found the details of hundreds of cuts buried in obscure appendices to lengthy policy and strategy documents published by trusts. In most cases, local communities appear to be unaware of the plans

Quality of life for those in need of hip and knee replacements will suffer. A spokesman for the Patients Association says the cuts are brutal. "We cannot return to the days of people waiting in pain for years for a hip operation or having to pay for operations privately." Looks like they will do exactly that. Why? Because the people bought into socialized medicine.

Their system is broken, yet this administration will emulate Britain's failure. We know what comes from backdoor deals. Without them, Obama's health care legislation would not have passed. He purchased the right to control our health. I won't forget.

Britain Puts Health Care in Hands of Local Doctors: Britain Centralized Health Care Didn't Work

Just as Donald Berwick is hired by the Administration to centralized Medicare and Medicaid, the UK announces their centralized health care has been a bad nightmare. Britain is putting the control of their health care back into the hands of the local doctor.

From The NYT:

Practical details of the plan are still sketchy. But its aim is clear: to shift control of England's $160 billion annual health budget from a centralized bureaucracy to doctors at the local level. Under the plan, $100 billion to $125 billion a year would be meted out to general practitioners, who would use the money to buy services from hospitals and other health care providers.

The plan would also shrink the bureaucratic apparatus, in keeping with the government's goal to effect $30 billion in "efficiency savings" in the health budget by 2014 and to reduce administrative costs by 45 percent. Tens of thousands of jobs would be lost because layers of bureaucracy would be abolished.

Donald Berwick, Obama's czar of Medicare and Medicaid, can't wait to begin his rationing. He told an audience in Britain he is "romantic about the NHS [system of rationing.] Berwick has private health care for life for he and his wife through his non-profit health care charity. I'll repeat that, his non-profit health care charity has provided private health care for life for Berwick and his wife - the man who will tell you, you cannot have that knee replacement. Berwick also received $2.3 million, excluding his health care benefit, from his "non-profit charity."

After bloating the UK health care system with a monstrous management and employee hiring, many will now lose their jobs. Remember the graphic above of Obama's planned many-layered government departments of health care?

The Obama plan for socialized health care has failed everywhere something similar has been adopted. Obviously, local doctors can take better care of their patients. It is also obvious that Obama cannot sufficiently control us, unless he also has control of our health. Any Republican or Conservative on Capitol Hill who will not agree to repeal ObamaCare, must be sent home to pick up their law practice.

Dr. Fred Shessel: Obama Lied about Rationing, Socialism

Dr. Fred Shessel says Obama lied about rationing, socialism, and socialized medicine. He is particularly upset about Dr. Donald Berwick heading the Medicare and Medicaid Divisons of Obama's health care plan, and the part Berwick will play in rationing. I wrote about this last week and quoted Berwick saying rationing is "romantic." Shessel says decisions will be made through a centralized government and using thousands of pages of regulations written by attorneys, not doctors. Stick with this long enough to read about the Doctor's Tea Party. See a video below.

Barack Obama

Dr. Shessel's website is Docs4PatientCare. You can read the legislation and a summary of the Bill. Remember the news this week that small businesses in the state of Massachusetts are dropping their insurance coverage for employees because their plans are unaffordable? Employees have to rely on the State health care plan, and take a look at this:

President Obama said earlier this year that the health-care bill that Congress passed three months ago is "essentially identical" to the Massachusetts universal coverage plan that then-Gov. Mitt Romney signed into law in 2006. No one but Mr. Romney disagrees.

As events are now unfolding, the Massachusetts plan couldn't be a more damning indictment of ObamaCare. The state's universal health-care prototype is growing more dysfunctional by the day, which is the inevitable result of a health system dominated by politics.

Read more about the Massachusetts Health Care Train Wreck. Docs4PatientCare has some interesting info that we need to know about.

One of the website banners promotes the National Doctors Tea Party Event and Rally, August 8th in San Diego, California.

This looks like quite an event, featuring Sharron Angle who is vying for the seat Harry Reid occupies in the Senate, radio host Roger Hedgecock, Betsy McCaughey, who is one of the best on the Obamanation health care plan, Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily, Nick Popaditch, a former Marine running for the House for California's 51st District, and hey, bloggers are represented by "Eric aka the Tygrrrr Express. Eric is a terrific blogger, author of 3 books and a comedian. Check it out at DoctorsTeaParty.com

Isn't this a great idea - a Doctors Tea Party? How about a Lawyers Tea Party,  a Restauranteur Tea Party, a Plumber's Tea Party, a Country Music Tea Party? A Home Contractors Tea Party? A Bloggers Tea Party?



Dr. Fred Shessel: Obama Lied about Rationing and Socialized Health Care (video)

Michelle Obama on Free Health Care, Doesn't Mention New Taxes

Michelle Obama is stumping for health care and throwing the word "free" around like a frisbee.

Michelle Obama

FLOTUS says these services will be free after September 23rd, as she obviously believes it, as only a Progressive Democrat can:

“Under this new law, all new private plans will provide basic preventive services — things like childhood immunizations and checkups, mammograms, colonoscopies, cervical screenings, and treatment for high blood pressure — absolutely free of charge. No copay. No deductible. No co-insurance needed,” she wrote.

Maybe we won't pay at the Doctor's office, but some of us will pay with the health care tax the administration is planning as a vehicle to spread our wealth, whether we have it or. If you're not on the tax hit list, don't take much comfort. They will undoubtedly come for you soon, unless you're poor.

Mrs. Obama says her life will be "easier" now that her husband's health care is taking effect.

The first thing I tell people who ask about the Affordable Care Act is that, for moms like me, it makes our lives easier. It gives families control over their own care. And it gives us the comfort of knowing that our insurance will be there when we need it most — especially if we get sick. Then I tell them that it gets better, but there’s a lot to know. To help, this administration has set up HealthCare.gov, where folks can see customized information about how care will improve for their families.

Can't wait for the blowback in October, and again in January when the new taxes hit. Get the White House spin here.

Massachusetts Employee Private Insurance Dropped: Massachusetts Penalty Cheaper than Premiums

 Small businesses in Massachusetts are dropping health care coverage for employees and relying on "publicly-funded insurance" for their workers. Paying the state penalties are cheaper than paying the premiums.

Since April 1, the date many insurance contracts are renewed for small businesses, the owners of about 90 small companies terminated their insurance plans with Braintree-based broker Jeff Rich...

In Sandwich, business consultant Bill Fields said he has been hired by small businesses to enroll about 400 workers in state-subsidized care since April, because the company owners said they could no longer afford to provide coverage.

“They are giving up out of frustration,’’ Fields said of the employers. “Most of them are very compassionate but they simply can’t afford health insurance any more.’’

Massachusetts is the proving ground for the national plan. Republican Mitch Romney (Mass) shuttled the plan through when he was governor and when you look it square in the face, you see the genetic similarities. The Romney plan is much like the Obama plan - unfortunately for Romney who wants another run for the presidency in 2010. Massachusetts has gone before the rest of us and when it comes to health care, it isn't pretty:

Additionally, company owners say, it has become far cheaper to pay the state penalty for not covering their workers -- roughly $295 annually per employee -- than to pay thousands more in premiums.

The administration's health care legislation is not in play yet, but we have an excellent window into the new law from the state of Massachusetts. 


Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) estimate almost 100,000 people will lose their employer-based insurance once the federal plan goes into effect. Do you want to venture a guess at what happens to the insurance companies?


Want to venture a guess about what happens after your employer chooses to change his company's health care plan? To make it better...make it worse? An employer cannot change a single thing about the health care provided for workers. The minute the plan is changed in anyway, it is no longer grandfathered into the national health care legislation and employees become a part of the governments health care plan. Eventually, and probably not a very long eventuality, the only insurance will be single-payer, meaning the U.S. government insures everyone - unless we stop them at the polls in November.

More Nationalized Health Care Failure and Bad News for Obamacare

 Cross Posted from The Lonely Conservative

Every time a Republican or conservative warned of the problems with nationalized health care, or the Obamacare plan, the elites and progressives simply scoffed. The evidence indicating we were right all along continues to pile up. Take, for example, the vast expansion of the IRS under Obamacare. The Democrats said that wasn't going to happen. So why is the Wall Street Journal reporting that the IRS has a new mission?

National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson, who operates inside the IRS, highlighted the agency's new mission in her annual report to Congress last week. Look out below. She notes that the IRS is already "greatly taxed"—pun intended?—"by the additional role it is playing in delivering social benefits and programs to the American public," like tax credits for first-time homebuyers or purchasing electric cars. Yet with ObamaCare, the agency is now responsible for "the most extensive social benefit program the IRS has been asked to implement in recent history." And without "sufficient funding" it won't be able to discharge these new duties.

That wouldn't be tragic, given that those new duties include audits to determine who has the insurance "as required by law" and collecting penalties from Americans who don't. Companies that don't sponsor health plans will also be punished. This crackdown will "involve nearly every division and function of the IRS," Ms. Olson reports.

Well, well. Republicans argued during the health debate that the IRS would have to hire hundreds of new agents and staff to enforce ObamaCare. They were brushed off by Democrats and the press corps as if they believed the President was born on the moon. The IRS says it hasn't figured out how much extra money and manpower it will need but admits that both numbers are greater than zero.

We all know it will be greater than zero. Much greater, I would say. Especially because in addition to the delivery of social benefits, there's also the provision requiring businesses great and small to report each and every product or good purchased from vendors. So we'll get hit twice - with the increased cost of the new IRS employees, and the cost of compliance with the new regulations. Hmm. Wouldn't that money be better used to fund our health care?

Speaking of health care funding, have you heard the latest horror stories out of Great Britain? If not, pay attention, this is our future under Obamacare.

The Telegraph reported the unfortunate news:

Women in labour have been forced to wait while epidural equipment was borrowed from other hospitals, while other patients have been denied chest drains and radiology supplies, according to doctors at South London Healthcare Trust.

Minutes of a meeting between medical staff and the trust’s chief executive say “cash flow” problems at the trust which has a £50 million deficit, mean vital equipment is regularly not ordered.

[...]

The document records: “The trust in different areas had run out of under water sealed chest drains, epidural packs, gynaecological disposables, radiological disposables, and the response to this was 'this was a cash flow issue’”.

Doctors told managers “again and again” that consultants were unable to know that equipment was missing until the last item had been used, when their patient was already lying on the table, according to the minutes of June 16 meeting.

The document states that Chris Streather, the trust’s chief executive said the situation had improved to the extent that the trust could now pay some of its bills, but that he could not promise that the problem would not recur.

It describes “significant risks” to patient safety because of shortages of beds, and “chaotic” failures dealing with such crises at the trust, which also runs Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup, in Kent, and Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, London, and NHS units in Orpington and Beckenham, in Kent. Patients affected include a woman who had undergone major cancer surgery who could not be found a bed. ...

Remember, the man Obama appointed without a hearing to head up Medicare, Donald Berwick, is a big fan of the British health care system. But President Obama doesn't want you to know that, at least not until it's too late.

Iowa Billboard Controversy: Conservatives Flogging Conservatives

The North Iowa Tea Party is now the albatross of the Tea Party movement.  Conservatives and Republicans need something to feel guilty about. This week it's the Hitler-Obama-Lenin billboard. You can feel the angst about this wayward group - we are not racist, that billboard should not have gone up! I ask why not?

And who among Democrats cared that Muslim Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MI) compared President G. W. Bush to Hitler and said the White House was involved in the 9/11 attacks? There are so many examples of Democrat rallies comparing Bush to Hitler that I'll just refer you to this blog which has many documented photos, links to others and says he/she had a front row seat to these rallies 2003-2008. This particular blog was written in August 2009 and isn't addressing the billboard, but other outcries from Liberals including Nancy Pelosi almost a year ago.

The argument is, just because the Left does it, doesn't make it right for the Right to do it. I agree, but that is not what this billboard did. I see it this way:

The billboard is not racist. It does not compare Barack Obama to Adolph Hitler or Vladimir Lenin, although it would be reasonable to do so now that we've seen the Obama agenda. It highlights three types of socialism and socialists, including Barack Obama, and points out the three are radicals and prey[ed] on the "fearful and naive."

Like, suing Arizonans who are fearful, but no longer naive about their government's failure to protect them from theft, murder, rape, kidnapping and human trafficking, and dirty needles on landowner's property.

Like Philadelphia voters who were threatened at the polls, some not voting because of it - and then slammed by Obama and Holder protecting the New Black Panthers rather than the voter - that protection ranging to simply not prosecuting Blacks who commit voter intimidation and/or fraud because they are Black. It makes me fearful. I fear for my country. It was reported yesterday that the NAACP was working with the DOJ on the dismissal of the Black Panthers case...and they call TEA parties racist!

Like New Yorkers strongly against holding the trial of one of highest-profile Islamic terrorists in the War on Terror in downtown New York. Holder and Obama were determined to do it. Now, the KSM trial just looms. No one knows where it will be. No one wants it in the U.S. If you live in the area of a trial of this magnitude, most might feel some intimidation. Who knows what kind of riff-raff that trial will bring to the neighborhood? Who knows who will prey on the people?

Like forcing all of America to purchased mandated health insurance, except for Congress and Unions, and Obama's new czar over medicaid and medicare, Donald Berwick. He worked his own deal with his own non-profit charity, paid himself $2.3 million, and then bestowed lifetime health care for him and his wife. He's the guy that believes rationing healthcare is "romantic," and he has assured us we will have rationing. But he scams a charity which obviously has significant tax benefits (at least until Obama's tax hikes arrive). I believe many Americans feel intimidated and anxious about their unwanted ObamaCare. I feel fearful about the Court's decision when the constitutionality of the law hits the bench. How could I not?

Just as Hitler and Lenin murdered, Obama is using taxpayer money to fund abortions. One of his first acts as a president was to overturn the Mexico City policy which denied U.S. taxpayer dollars for abortion outside our borders. Instantly you and I were funding abortion. When I think about it...that my money is used for taking the life of the unborn, it chills me. Yesterday we learned that the health care legislation will indeed allow taxpayers to fund abortions inside the U.S. In fact, $160 million is already designated for a Pennsylvania program to put an insurance program in place for abortions. I'm paying for murder.

I feel preyed upon by this predatory president.

We cannot grow our businesses because we know taxes and regulations will be leveled with a brutal hand. We cannot improve our properties, buy a nice car, take that wedding anniversary trip, buy a second home...until we know whats coming next. We think we know a VAT tax is descending. We do know that tax cuts are disappearing. Nothing looks good for our financial futures at this time.

I feel preyed upon by this predatory president.

We believe we are going to be forced to bailout dying liberal rags all over the country. A $10 billion bailout for teachers unions was hidden in a military funding bill, and the administration wants even more for "the teachers union." Today a gigantic financial "reform" bill was passed. The bill will be signed next week, but reform for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the root of the housing meltdown, were nowhere to be found. Jacob Lew, the new czar of Financial Reform said just last year that if the rest of the world didn't adhere to the same reforms, American business' would flee the country. It will be too expensive to stay here, and small business' and small banks will be the hardest hit. The Wall Street Journals says this bill "will hit small business' hard."

Don't you feel preyed upon by this predatory president?

Van Irion Wins Ten Buck Fridays Week 4: Ten Buck Friday Bloggers Send Their Bucks to Van Irion Week 4

RightKlik announced at midnight EDT Van Irion of Dandridge, Tennessee the winner of Ten Buck Friday donations with  42.3% of the vote for Week 4. Irion is running for the U.S. House seat in Tennessee's 3rd district vacated by Republican Zack Wamp who is running for governor. Irion is facing 10 Republicans in the August 5th primary - one the GOP favorite, and it's not Irion. See three excellent videos below. The first is Irion with Judge Andrew Napolitano, discussing a lawsuit against ObamaCare, and the second and third are Irion at the Bradley Country Court House addressing how he will adhere to the U.S. Constitution.

 Van Irion

Van Irion (pronounced ear-ee-on) is a conservative Republican, a Christian and a patent and constitutional attorney who owns his own law firm in Eastern Tennessee. He has been married to Dawn Erickson Irion for 14 years and has two young daughters, ages 11 and 8. He served 4 years in the U.S. Air Force as an Air Traffic Controller, and is a veteran of Operation Desert Shield.

He has a Biochemistry degree from the University of California and a Law Degree from McGeorge School of Law. He formerly founded a biotech company to research treatments for stroke and acute injury and served for many years as a volunteer fire fighter and EMT. 

Below you will find links to Irion on the issues, and endorsements. Ten Buck Fridays obviously believes he is conservative, so I want to talk about his principal opponent on the ticket for the August 5th primary, Robin Smith. Smith is a former Tennessee GOP chair. She is apparently endorsed by the GOP.  Smith received an endorsement from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and made the statement that this endorsement removes all doubt of which candidate has the support of conservatives - meaning she does.

Irion answered this by providing links to the U.S. Chamber's lobbying for the "$800 billion Federal Bank Bailout" and for "illegal alien amnesty."  Irion's complete statement is here, and includes more on illegal aliens.

Note the TEA Party endorsements for Irion, along with Congressman Ron Paul, two former Reagan staffers - Doug MacKinnon and Nancy Theis, the Republican Liberty Caucus, the National Fiscal Conservative PAC, Tennessee Valley Sportsman, Tennessee Republican Liberty Caucus, the Chattanooga Tea Party, the Bradley County Tea Party, the American Patriot Taxpayers (East Tennessee Tea Party), Anderson County TEA Party, Roane County Tea Party, Tennessee Tea Party Coalition, the Smokey Mountain Tea Party Patriots, Midsouth Tea Party, blogger melissa Couthier, The Tenth Amendment Center's Lesley Swann, Mari Robbins - member of the Greeneville, Northeast, and Tri-Cities Tea Parties and Campaign for Liberty, David Gidcumb - Board of Directors Chattanooga Pachyderm Club and Board of Directors Tennessee Repubican Liberty Caucus, Dana Cody - President and Ex. Director, Life Legal Defense Foundation, Barbara Meyer - former Executive Director, Pregnancy Crisis Center and Dr. Stephen Wilson - Candidate for US Senate, 1994 Tennessee Republican Party.

Correction: I received an email from Mark West, the President of the Chattanooga Tea Party. They do not endorse during primaries - nothing personal about Van Irion, it just a policy within their organization.

There are a couple of other interesting endorsements. A Republican who is running for the same seat in Congress on the Indpendent ticket, Mark DeVol, says he will drop from the race if Van wins the primary. Frank Cowan is a Republican who dropped from the race to endorse Irion.

He is far behind in fundraising and the GOP supports Robin Smith. Irion has supported Ten Buck Fridays on his website.  Visit him on Twitter and Facebook.

The Van Irion Family

On the issues:

Irion has signed a "death tax repeal" pledge.

Second Amendment: Is a strong supporter of second amendment rights. On June 26th he blogged about the case in front of the Supreme Court, and said they got it right, but just barely, and was disturbed they "did not outright rule in gun owners' favor." More on the Second Amendment here, where Irion asks "what part of 'shall not be infringed' is unclear?

Bailouts: Against all of them. There is no company too big to fail. Read the article - believes what many of us have believed all along.

Abortion: Is strongly pro-life. Irion does pro-bono work for Life Legal Defense Foundation. Read it here.

Taxes: Wants to abolish the IRS and adopt the FairTax. Read how the FairTax would "heal our economy."

Military and Peace through Strength: Wants the military to have clear 'military' goals. Believes the Federal government's duty is providing for the common defense of the U.S. Adequate funding of the military must be a priority.

Healthcare: "Any federal intrusion is unconstitutional. He acknowledges 80 years of "government interference." Wants to repeal ObamaCare, and asks you to be a plaintiff in a class action suit found at
Obama Class Action (OCA). He is litigating the case pro bono and covering all court costs personally. See this page for "Frequently Asked Questions" about the lawsuit. Find the page to join the lawsuit along with "over 32,000 other here. No monetary gains are expected from this suit. You are lending your voice to the effort to repeal ObamaCare.

Illegal Immigration: I am impressed that Irion uses the words "illegal Immigration," rather than an "immigration." I always use the words "illegal migrants," because they are not immigrants. Irion has some interesting statistics on this page and believes illegal immigration should not be tolerated.

10th Amendment: Irion says we have allowed our government to grow like a cancer, invading every aspect of our lives. We need to seize control and shrink the cancer.

Read more about jobs, the economy, the federal reserve, the national debt and liberty. Use the "issues" pulldown menu.

An interesting story is Van takes a pitchfork with him wherever he goes. According to his interview with The Daily Caller, "farmers use pitchforks to clean their manure of their stalls, and I tell people everywhere I go that I'm gonna take the pitchfork to the House foor and clean the manure out of the Capitol."

Both Smith and the other candidates in the primary have far out-raised him, he said, and since he can’t compete with them financially yet, he decided on the pitchfork to “help me stand out in the crowd.”

“It usually gets a standing ovation. So that gives you an idea of just how mad people are. And there’s a lot of mad people in this country.

Irion was interviewed by Greta van Susteren in April. Read that transcript here.

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