Barrett hearing all about affordable Care Act.

SO FAR, DEMOCRAT SENATORS RESTRAIN THEIR HOSTILITY

TED CRUZ SHINES

It is not clear as yet what the plan is by the democrat members of the Senate Judiciary committee. They have focused most of their time on preserving the "Affordable Care Act". They claim if this act is overturned at the supreme court it will wreak havoc on the lives of millions of Americans. 

They attempted to focus their emotional appeal on pictures and stories of people who are insured under the affordable care act. Not one word about the the Constitution and the law as a guide to this laws validity. Not one word about the chaos this law created for Small business, self employed and all those who had health insurance before the passing of the act. Not one word about all those who lost their health insurance coverage when this act made their policies null and void, raised their premiums to unaffordable numbers, forced them into ACA policies with poor coverage and high deductibles. Many small businesses and self employed had their policies cancelled several times since passing of the ACA. Many no longer have health insurance because they could no longer afford the new premiums. Young people had their premiums raised by over 300% and forced many to go without insurance. 

Since the passing of the ACA, healthcare has declined in this country. It has not gotten more affordable and has created confusion and a lack of service for all Americans. It has permanently created a decline in the quality of health care in this country. ACA was just an intentional plan to move this country into a National health care system by undermining the system we formally had. The problem with health care was not the quality of care, but the cost. Things are worse since the passing of ACA.

Ted Cruz went on to sum up the results of Democrat appointed members of the court. Their disregard for the constitution and the bill of rights.Their focusing on transforming America by decisions of the court rather than through the democratic process. Ted Cruz's monologue can be seen and heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFRIUwhKo7U   It is well worth the time spent.

The senators also voiced their concern concerning abortion, gun control, and gay marriage. These hearings will continue on Wednesday and Thursday. We will see if they will continue to be restrained in the treatment of this women. It seems they are somewhat wary of engaging in a despicable circus as they did in the Kavanaugh hearings. We will see if they can do it.

Biden's, "New green deal" energy plan.

EXPECT MILLIONS OF JOB LOSSES, EXPLOSION IN ENERGY PRICES AND POSSIBLE SHORTAGES

END OF ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

Like most of Biden's proposed policies there is either a lack of specifics or candor about what they would be and no analysis of the effects on American households and businesses. You can view his proposals here:

https://joebiden.com/9-key-elements-of-joe-bidens-plan-for-a-clean-energy-revolution/#

1. New tough regulations on oil and gas producers. Focusing on methane emissions.

2. Rigorous new Fuel economy standards on light and medium vehicles. With the goal of 100% of new vehicles having zero emissions. In effect eliminating access to vehicles to many parts of society due to increasing the cost of vehicles

3. Ban oil and gas production on all public lands.

4. Enact legislation to ban all fossil fuel use by 2050.

5. Rejoin Paris accords.

6. Target reducing carbon footprint by 50% by 2035, by re-fitting buildings and appliances on existing buildings.

7. Emphasis on environmental Justice because global warming effects minorities in a disproportional way.

8. Direst the EPA and Justice Department to increase accountability on fossil fuel producers for pollution.

9. Create 10 million Union jobs in retrofitting buildings and producing new clean energy jobs. Preference to be given to union workers.

These plans are the government take-over and control  of all energy production. This has been the goal of big government for years. While not exactly nationalization. In effect, it will be total control of all energy production and use. It will give the government the power to eliminate producers who are not favored. It will likely result in shortages, brown outs and a dramatic raising the cost of all energy. 

It will eliminate our ability to be energy self sufficient and we will likely be forced to buy energy from producers who are less likely to be clean producers. 

It will likely price out the lower income segments of society access to private transportation.

Methane emission regulations will likely also target meat producers and farmers, which could raise the cost of all food. Farming is very energy reliant. It will raise the cost of food dramatically.

This is a backwards plan. Instead of developing new clean sources of energy, this will never be able to replace fossil fuels with windmills and solar panels, It is eliminating fossil fuel without a viable replacement. It will raise the cost of electricity, as Obama predicted, by 200% or more. It will raise the cost of home heating. It will raise the cost of food. It will raise the cost of transportation dramatically.

In effect,it will make all  American's poorer and will force many into hunger and homelessness.It will allow government bureaucrats with little knowledge of energy production to become the overseers of the energy industry. It will be a disaster.

Corrupt contracts were signed during Susan Wild Tenure as solicitor

SUSAN WILD OK'D CEDAR BEACH POOL CONTRACT

CORRUPT DEAL COST ALLENTOWN MILLIONS

                             

Susan Wild has consistently claimed that the corrupt practices of the Pawlowski administration occurred before she was solicitor. This is far from the truth, several questionable deals were engaged in during her tenure. One was the restoration of the Cedar Beach Pool.

Susan Wild was confirmed as Allentown's solicitor in January 2015. the Cedar Beach pool was closed in 2015 due to leaks. A committee led by Christy Alvord, the city's recreation and events coordinator, was assigned to review the pool design proposals. The committee initially ranked MKSD architects first, followed by Integrated Aquatics and then Spillman Farmer Architects in that order.

Alvord while under oath testified that managing director Fran Dougherty, asked how the review was going and instructed her to take a closer look at Spillman Farmer.The committee had finally decided to go with Integrated Aquatics because of their experience with pools and excellent references. The references for Spillman Farmer were not positive.

Richard Holtzman, the city's parks superintendent testified that the committee had decided to go with Integrated Aquatics. He also testified that Dougherty had told the committee to take another look at Spillman Farmer. Holtzman also testified that Dougherty came up with better references for Spillman.

The FBI had tapes of converstions between the mayors office and Joe Biondo, head of Spillman Farmer instructing him to get new references, and telling him," I am looking out for you guys"

Joe Biondo testified that he had hired Fleck and Sam Ruchlewicz, Pawlowski's campaign advisers to help his firm make connections with developers in Allentown.

Eventually the contract for $1.8 million was awarded to Spillman Farmer Architects, in May 2015. This contract was approved by Susan Wild, the Solicitor for the city.

City Ordinance states,"All proposed Ordinances, Resolutions and contracts shall be submitted to the City solicitor for approval prior to adoption or execution by the City"

In July 2016, Allentown hired Keystone Consulting Engineers on an emergency basis to mediate ongoing issues with pool. It came to the conclusion that the pool shell was severely undersized.

In December 2016, Wild' s office approved a change order for $681,345.48 to repudiate structural issues with the pool.

In July 5, 2017, Wild's office approved another change order for $726,400 to correct mistakes made in the design of the pool. this was the sixth change order and drove the cost to $3.4 million.

The current engineer was questioned by a city resident, Don Ringer, if any provisions were made to  guarantee that the pool would not be flooded in the future. The engineer stated that that question was never part of the proposal to fix the pool and he could not guarantee it would not be flooded in high water.  note. the pool was closed in August 2018 due to flooding.

According to Assistant U.S. attorney Michelle Morgan, Spillman Farmer Architects and the disaster in renovating the Cedar Beach pool was connected to Pawlowski's pay-to play scheme.

So, Wild's assertion that no corruption occurred while she was solicitor is untrue. She was the Solicitor for the city and must have had knowledge of what was going on in these transactions, approved the contract, approved  six change orders that almost doubled the cost of the pool reconstruction to $3.4 million. The pool was closed for 2 years and still has more problems that will need to be addressed.

We may never know if she just looked the other way, or was she just incompetent. But to state that there was no corruption under her watch has been proven false.



Originally published 10/27/18

Biden's plans on immigration

 BASIC PLAN IS UNLIMITED IMMIGRATION

FAILING CITIES TO BE REPOPULATED WITH UNREGULATED IMMIGRATION

Like most policies of a future Biden administration, Immigration is hardly ever mentioned. If you want to look at his proposals they can be viewed here:   https://joebiden.com/immigration/#   To sum it up it is a recipe for unlimited open border policy, not only from the Americas but a lifting of all the bans on travel from unstable parts of the world put in place by the Trump administration.

The two public comments that I recall being made by Biden are:

 1. On the first day he stop all deportations out of the country.

 2. Both Biden and Harris have pledged to provide healthcare for all undocumented immigrants. This in itself will encourage a flood of people with health issues to pour into the country seeking healthcare.

He also has a plan to allow cities in the U.S. who are losing population, often due their mismanagement, to petition to allow as many refugees and immigrants to enter the country to maintain their population. This will qualify them for more government money based on population. It will also stress an already overwhelmed social services in those cities. It will likely turn these cities into enclaves of third world standards and conditions. This is not creating a melting pot of making more Americans, but an overwhelming of the existing culture for political purposes.

He plans on the legalization and full citizenship of all undocumented presently in the country.

The Biden plan is basically a reversal of all the initiatives of the Trump administration to control immigration. It will be truly an open border to anyone who wants to move to the United States. These plans will in a short time collapse the ability of our healthcare and social support services. 

We have seen no discussion or questions raised about Biden's plans for immigration. This is truly a stealth campaign with no issues, just hate Trump.

In the last election, Trump appealed to many by his willingness to take on controversial issues and offer a clear choice as to what he would do if elected. Biden is attempting to take no positions except to defeat Trump. It appears he realizes if Americans knew what he hopes to do to America he will be rejected.

Redistribution will not improve the lives of Americans

BIDEN ECONOMIC PLAN IS ABOUT REDISTRIBUTION NOT CREATING WEALTH

UNWILLING TO BE CANDID ABOUT POLICY

The parts of the Biden economic plan that he will admit to is really just another form of economic redistribution that will result in the decline of the American economy.

Increase the corporate tax from 21%, which is now in line with most other countries in the world, to 28% which will make it one of the highest and noncompetitive with our competitors. This is a way of appealing to peoples envy by labeling this tax as a giveaway to the rich. A competitive corporate tax, will encourage companies to stay in the United States and entice others to shift their facilities to this country.This will create more jobs and more jobs raises the standard of living for all. Redistribution is just eating the seed corn and leads to decline in economic activity.

Eliminating the rest of the tax cuts will take money out of the private sector and place into bureaucratic black hole that will lead to a declining economy.  

Also a proposal to place a corporate minimum tax, which sounds a lot like an actual asset tax that will slowly lead to a decline of these companies.

These corporate tax policies will likely see a decline in value of 401K and even another crisis in public pension funds. The solution will likely be more taxes.

The Biden plan also plans to eliminate the step-up provision in estate taxation. This provision presently values estate assets at the value they are when death occurs rather than valuing them at cost of purchase value. This means that if an asset has grown in value since it purchase, which could be many decades,an inheritance tax will be levied on the increase in value. This tax would be at regular income tax rates which would make the tax 39.6% on over 100,000 value. this would virtually eliminate the  passing of a business and most assets on to your family. This would also encourage the shifting of assets from paper assets to hard assets. Many of the New Democrat party believe that all people should start with nothing and discourage passing on of assets as a symptom of the privileged. A society that discourages savings and a view to the future is a society destined to collapse.

While not officially admitted to, it is also a proposal to lower the threshold on estate tax from 5 million to $1.2 million. Today anyone who owns a home and accumulated wealth could pass this threshold.

Biden's treatment of capital gains is to eliminate the 10% and 20% tax on capital gains and replace it by taxing gains at the regular income tax rate. This of course could be as high as 39.6%. Again the discouraging of paper assets and the shifting of assets to hard assets and likely a decline in economic activity.

Another proposal is 12.4 % tax on all income over $400,000, this is addition to the 39.6% income tax. This will result in taxes near 65% . While envy encourages this kind of taxation, it will lead to all kinds of creative tax schemes that will lead to decline in economic activity.

All these ideas believe in creating a more equal society by redistributing wealth from those who produce and work hard to those who do not. It will, as history has shown, result in a poorer country for everyone.

TV doctors outraged at Trump treatment

MOST HAVEN'T TENDED A PATIENT IN DECADES 

CRITICIZE WALTER REED'S REAL DOCTORS FOR NOT FOLLOWING GUIDELINES

It is really with some amusement that we watch CNN and MSNBC medical experts critique the doctors at Walter Reed Hospital. First they insinuated that Trump was a lot worse than anyone was telling the public. Then they criticized the treatment that was revealed by the doctors at Walter Reed as being inappropriate. Then Trump was actually in critical condition and the White House was engaging in a cover up. I believe that if under the care of these TV doctors he would have likely never left Walter Reed alive.

They also insisted that they should be allowed to see all the x-rays and scans so they could give their diagnosis of the situation. You could only imagine the shit show that would have resulted. 

They criticized Trump going for a ride in his limo to wave at fans and send a message to the country, that he was not yet dying. Such a ride was only necessary due to the media misinformation that needed to be corrected.

And now Trump went home to the White House, which is his residence, much better than sending him to a nursing home in New York, New Jersey or Pennsylvania. Again, Trump has escaped his imminent demise.

While Trump will need another week to be sure he will be in the clear, he seems to be recovering well.

The real doctors at Walter Reed, I would assume, are up on the latest therapies and the best practices in the continuing evolution of treatment for this virus.

The results speak for themselves, they did what they thought was the best treatment for the president and they should be applauded, not criticized, for not following the out of date guidelines.

Now you know why these TV doctors are not treating real patients.

Democrats know they cannot beat Trump on the issues.

THREE YEARS OF COORDINATED NEGATIVE CAMPAIGNING AND TRUMP IS STILL STANDING

WITH NO WINNING ISSUES, DEMOCRATS DOUBLE DOWN

The Democrats and the media have conducted the most intense and coordinated negative campaign in history. While it has had some effect on the image of President Trump, he is still standing and is still a viable formidable candidate to be re-elected. 

The biggest victim of this attack has been the country as a whole. With even some support from the media and the opposition we could have made serious reform to the immigration system. We could have finalized new trade deals that would have been good for the American workers and farmers. We could have possibly improved relations with our adversaries around the world. This opposition has given hope to our opponents that they might be better off holding off making any decisions until after the next election. The Democrats have adopted a policy of negativity that has not been in the best interest of the country. They realize that the issues they have adopted are not being accepted by the majority of the American people, yet they are willing to harm the country to increase their own political power.

They are on the wrong side of the illegal immigration issue, their open borders policy is a loser for the country.

Their tax proposals and asset taxes, will kill the sound economy we now have.

Their insistence on radical changes in our energy policy will raise costs for all and cripple business, but will have no effect on climate changes. We could likely cut energy costs and use by encouraging conservation by consumers, especially electric consumption.

Their continued attempt to run the health care industry by Washington bureaucrats has not lowered costs of either healthcare or insurance. There should be a bi-partisan approach to create an environment that lowers costs.

Fair trade will be in the best interest of all Americans, we need more job training by the private sector to raise the labor participation numbers and free many from dependency.

The media and some departments of the Federal Government have lost their credibility, this may take years to restore.

So, knowing that their policies are all losers, we can expect the socialists and their lackeys in the media to continue their negative attacks on the President and his supporters. It could be that the American electorate is now more sophisticated in recognizing this kind of misinformation and manipulation. That is one positive bi-product of this relentless negative campaign.

originally published 5/6/2019