When the artists turn on you...

This made my weekend. And it's only Friday.

I can't tell you how frustrating it is to see the art of the political dissent poster monopolized by Kool-aid drinking Marxist agitators armed with an iMac and a BFA from some elitist east coast art school. Graphic design annuals over the last 8 years have been clogged with hateful anti-Bush posters, often so questionable in design value it's clear they were selected for their political statement alone.

The conservative designer is a rare breed. I know of 3. So, in the "real news" vein of "man bites dog" — some artist out there isn't playing nice in the Marxist sandbox. This image from Tammy Bruce's website is making the rounds on Twitter. It's brilliant. Subversive. Hits at the heart of BHO's real problem. And I have no doubt this is the last time I'll see it in publication. The liberal-dominated AIGA crowd plays no favorites, except when it comes to liberal politics.

What the world needs is more of this. I'm inspired. Hand me my t-square.

Let's let the millionaires decide

Obama is trying to sell us a well-worn used car. Something beat up and retro-fashionable like a 1987 Cutlass. But instead of spray new-car smell, it smells more like class warfare. Obama wants us to believe that our wealthy can fully fund his socialized medicine scheme. Just raise their taxes enough, and it's all taken care of. Don't bet on it. Or maybe we should.

Maybe we should call his bluff. I propose a Millionaire Conventiontm. Let's get the country's wealthy together — a country club constitutional convention. Include anyone with over a million dollars in net assets and/or $350,000 in annual income. Let's give them a choice: vote to approve A) Obama's plan, and let the government tax you at whatever realistic rate will actually accomplish Obama's goal of funding health care reform — certainly more than Obama is telling them now, or B) give them the choice of donating money (with future pledges for ongoing funding) to establish a private, nonprofit health insurance company to solely provide market health insurance coverage to any client on a sliding scale. To sweeten the pot, let's toss in very generous tax deductions for their contribution, and a nice crystal wall plaque.

I understand there would have to be some rules. For instance, we'd have to allocate votes — say every individual in the wealthy family would get a vote. We'll give Bill Gates family a 4x multiplier just to be gracious. And we'd have to set up some laws governing the new nonprofit to ensure that the coverage it's providing is truly competitive, and that it is answerable to a board made up of its primary benefactors (sprinkle in a few politicians). The new nonprofit will be allowed to tap the public's largess through ongoing fundraising, and will be judged by future donors based on its effectiveness, efficiency and charity.

You'd never have to worry about competition. The for-profit insurance companies will compete at the margin for entry-level insured. And the increase in low-income patients with paying insurance will reduce costs across the board. It may even lighten the Medicaid roles.

It's a plan so crazy it just might work! At the very least, imagine getting a chance to see just how philanthropic George Soros really is when he's playing with his own money.

Waiting for Godot

The resignation of Sarah Palin leaves her potential for future office in question. Romney's prospects may have suffered a fatal wound due to the failure of his Massachusetts socialized medicine scheme. Jindal's first big national appearance went over like a lead balloon. Sanford self-destructed (bullet dodged there). Gingrich sold out to the "climate change" fascists. Where's that perfect ONE GREAT VOICE who will lead conservatives to victory — in 2012 to be sure — but more importantly in 2010?

The wait could be a long one. Much like the characters in Beckett's famous play, we may not have even met this great leader. And we may not even recognize him when we see him.

Conservatives struggle under a couple of competing priorities: 1) the need to win, and 2) the need to advance conservative ideology. In McCain, we thought we had #1, and were prepared to sell out #2 in order to get it. We ended up with zero. In Palin, Jindal, et al, we are pretty sure we have #2 covered, but #1 is highly suspect. To be sure, the recent tantalizing weakness of Obama is heartening, but then we thought the same thing about Clinton before he won his second election to Dole (the pre-McCain McCain).

And then there's that pesky problem bedeviling the GOP — a tendency to nominate the "next person in line." Democrats don't often do this. It's been said (by Will Rogers, most famously) that the Democratic Party is disorganized. And perhaps that's what protects it from that patrician instinct that gave us candidate Bob Dole.

But the Tea Party movement is unexpected. Something very untraditional for conservatives. The Tea Parties began as a true grass-roots movement and continues as same. Each city has a few organizers, but there is no single conservative version of NOW or ANSWER fanning the flames of the Tea Parties. They were seemingly formed from a loose group of outraged citizens tired of ceding the political discourse to politicians who ultimately let us down. And for the first time that I can remember, they are showing up in force to let politicians of both parties have a piece of their mind. At many of the early Tea Parties, organizers refused to allow politicians to even take the stage. Now that's CHANGE.

We are the ones we've been waiting for. Famous words. But unlike when Obama said it (he was being disingenuous. What he really meant was "I am the one you've been waiting for. Lucky you.") I mean it in its truest sense. If conservatism is to flourish, WE THE PEOPLE have to finally take the lead in voicing our ideology, deciding what issues we stand for, and really choosing who we allow to speak for us. The time of letting career politicians and political parties set our course has past. The search for the NEXT GREAT VOICE is over. We're not waiting any longer.

EPILOGUE: Here's Kevin Jackson's (theblacksphere.net) take on the Tea Parties, with credit due to St. Louis organizers Bill Hennessey and Dana Loesch, plus Americans for Prosperity, iheardthepeoplesay, and Americans for Fair Taxation.

So what if you don't have insurance?

At the Tea Party protest this week outside Senator Claire McCaskill's office, ACORN demonstrators were trying to give us the impression that a lack of health insurance equals a lack of health care. This didn't jive with what I know. So I decided to do a little investigation.

Missouri Baptist Hospital in St. Louis has an excellent maternity ward. My wife and I have delivered all three of our children there, all paid for (mostly) with insurance coverage. We could not have been happier with the care we received. So what kind of care would we have gotten if we didn't have insurance?

I talked with a postpartum nurse who works at MoBap. She told me that roughly 10% of her patients are "private-pay" - meaning they come to the hospital without insurance coverage. I asked if she had instructions to treat these patients any differently than her patients with insurance. "Absolutely not," she said, "they get the exact same care as everyone else."

MoBap is very good about working with the uninsured. An insured patient typically incurs about $8000 in charges for a c-section delivery with a 4 day in-hospital recovery. But they offer drastically discounted pricing for private-pay clients. The same c-section might cost an uninsured patient only about $2500 (prices are approximate - I couldn't reach a billing representative at MoBap to confirm.)

I realize that $2500 is still a lot of money for a low-income family. But that price is just their "package" deal for the uninsured. They also offer other financial assistance.

From MoBap's website:

Every year BJC HealthCare provides more than $100 million in free care for uninsured patients....

I have firsthand knowledge of their largesse. After our second daughter was born, among all the confusion and sleep deprivation, we overlooked adding our daughter to my wife's policy within time to get the postpartum care covered. And then my wife quit her job and switched to my policy. We were left holding a $900 bill for 3 days stay in the hospital - and with only one income earner, we were strapped to cover it. MoBap worked with us - reducing the bill and giving us plenty of time to pay it off. No threats, no collection warnings.

And MoBap isn't the only hospital that offers top notch care for people who fall into the crack between insurance and Medicare/Medicaid. Most hospitals fund or otherwise support free clinics in urban and rural poor areas. And of course, no hospital can turn away a patient for emergency care for lack of ability to pay. Maybe not a utopian system, but still, the best in the world. And yes, if you don't have insurance, healthcare providers often offer steep discounts.

During a time when my mother was without health insurance, her doctor wanted her to get an MRI for a knee problem. The imaging company provided her with an MRI for $350. If billed to an insurance company, that same MRI would have cost about $2000. All my mom needed to do was ask. The help was there. No government forms to fill out. No bureaucrat sticking his nose into her file to determine whether the MRI was necessary.

Now don't get me wrong, these stories of quality care being provided to people without insurance are in no way intended as an indictment of private health insurance. I relate them only to put lie to the ACORN rally chant that lack of insurance equals no access to care. Any reform to our health care system should include a plan to encourage people (not force them) to carry insurance. It should also allow doctors, health care providers and insurance companies to profit from the services they provide in a way that encourages competition as the primary mechanism to controlling costs. Our current health care system built largely on private health insurance isn't perfect, but it's the best in the world.

So what of these ACORN agitators chanting "HEALTHCARE NOW!" - trying to leave the impression that without government intervention the best medical treatment in the world is behind locked doors? Perhaps they are just misinformed. Or perhaps they have another - unspoken - agenda.

NEXT: I interview a Canadian living in the U.S. and get his opinions on the contrast between our free market system and socialized medicine.

McCaskill Hosts Liberal Racists

The St. Louis Tea Party organized a counter protest outside Claire McCaskill's office this week. ACORN was out in force - no doubt at some rate above minimum wage, with or without insurance benefits.

Unlike the previous week when the Tea Party held a protest outside the very same office (McCaskill's staff called the police forced the protestors across the street) the ACORN demonstrators were given full access to the front of the office and could be seen going in and out of the front door. I guess McCaskill "respects their right to free speech" more than the Tea Party's. ACORN's reception was so friendly, one was left to wonder if they were not invited by McCaskill to mitigate the damage from the previous week - and shore up her untenable position on the healthcare issue with which Missouri voters strongly disagree.

As I stood in the median with the Tea Party group, liberal protestors began yelling at a black man standing next to me for "being on the wrong side." Kevin Jackson, local author and conservative activist, was positively accosted by several women from ACORN, called an "Uncle Tom", and "token" (despite the fact that he's a leader in the local Tea Party). I was appalled. Not as much that they would have those feelings, but more so that they would feel comfortable shouting their racism out loud within ear-shot of the office of a U.S. Senator who supports them.

Mind you, there were many more white people protesting with ACORN than black - but it never occurred to me to think of them as traitors to their race. I recognize that white people have many different political views. Being a liberal is crazy no matter what color your skin is. So why can't a black man have a different political opinion than the prevailing black sentiment without being subjected to hate speech?

Read more about this on Kevin's blog: http://www.theblacksphere.net. And purchase his book The Big Black Lie

Carnahan Goes to Community College, Learns Nothing

Russ Carnahan got a schooling in representative democracy the other day at St. Louis Community College. Heckled and laughed at by spectators amused at his flat reading of Obama's talking points on how to destroy the world's finest health care system, Carnahan was ushered out of the room by his handlers, avoiding any inconvenient questions from Tea Party protesters.

A few days after his embarrassing performance, I called Carnahan's office to register my opinion on the so-called healthcare reform. My opinion was from the heart, and delivered politely to the staffer on the phone. I related how my kids have benefitted greatly from world-class care at St. Louis Children's Hospital. How we've had multiple EEGs and MRIs (our daughter has epilespy), always quickly and efficiently. We've had gotten quick relief for our son's chronic ear infections (he had ear tube surgery). And had first-class treatment at the CARES clinic after multiple trips to the ER for seizures - appreciative of not having to wait in line behind the non-emergency cases using the ER as primary care. But it's not free, and we don't expect it to be. We pay handsomely for health insurance for our three kids, and it is worth every penny. My wife and I work second jobs to help pay for it.

I related to the staffer that my brother-in-law, a Canadian, tells me stories of relatives and friends suffering under Canada's socialized medicine: a two-month wait to start radiation treatment after cancer diagnosis, 6 month wait for minor surgery, 8-month waits to see a specialist, and the generally deplorable morale of physicians and health care workers. "I don't want that for my kids", I told him. "They deserve better than lowest-common-denominator health care as long as I can afford it."

He thanked me for my opinion and hung up the phone.

And today I got this miserable form letter [emphasis mine]:

_____

Dear Mr. Roth:

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns about health care. I appreciate hearing from you, and I would like to take this opportunity to explain why I think reforming the health care system is so important.

[...]

As I was reminded once again at the St. Louis town hall meetings I held in April and this week, health care reform is one of the most pressing issues affecting Missouri families and the economy. The average Missourian spends nearly $5,500 a year on health care, and over 750,000 Missourians lack health insurance. We need to eradicate the shortfall of coverage while reducing costs and maintaining the quality of health care for those who can afford it now. If done properly, more Americans will be able to access better health care, and our economy will be more competitive.

[...]

I want to be very clear about what health care reform should and should not mean for your health care coverage. Most importantly, if you like the coverage you have now, you can keep it. I will not support measures that will force people to give up their private health insurance in favor of a government-run plan, and doctors and nurses will always make important medical decisions. In addition, I think that reforms should aim to make health insurance portable. This means that if you like the coverage you have and change jobs, you can keep your coverage. By making it easier for workers to change jobs, our economy will become more competitive. Finally, I believe that individuals with pre-existing medical conditions should be able to obtain health insurance. It is wrong to deny coverage to individuals on the basis of health conditions that they may have been unable to avoid.

[...]

Finally, I believe it is important to consider including a public health insurance option that could help jump start health care reforms to reduce costs, maintain fiscal sustainability and improve the quality of care. A self-sustaining public health insurance option will offer choice to individuals and businesses and will compete with private health insurers to drive down costs. Any proposed public health plan option will not replace the private insurance market, and you will not be required to choose it if you like the coverage you have now. Rather, it is intended to extend coverage and create better healthcare options for more Americans, especially the uninsured.

Reforming our broken health care system is essential to getting our economy back on track. Expanding access to affordable, quality health care coverage has long been an important goal, and we cannot afford to delay this effort any longer. Health care reform will strengthen the middle class, help businesses remain competitive and create 21st century jobs.

The president has asked for health care legislation to reach his desk by October. I am working with my colleagues in both parties to reach that goal. Recently, several leading members of the House introduced H.R. 3200, a comprehensive piece of health care legislation that expands health care coverage to 97% of Americans. There are also several draft bills currently being discussed in the Senate. I am thoroughly reviewing each of these proposals to determine if they meet the criteria outlined above. To read and to learn more about H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act, please visit the website of the House Energy and Commerce Committee

Once again, thank you for contacting my office. Please know that I will keep your views in mind as Congress continues this crucial debate, and please do not hesitate to contact me in the future on this or any other issue.

Russ Carnahan

_______

This letter was seemingly drafted in a vacuum, long before his embarrassing town hall meeting. Look, everyone knows that Carnahan's a pawn with little leverage to buck the party line. I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt that he'll "keep [my] views in mind as Congress continues this crucial debate." And that he is actually "thoroughly reviewing each of these proposals." But then I would have thought he'd have learned something during his brief stay at the Community College. I guess not.

Obama: The Grudge President?

It's not likely that Obama's stupid comment about the Cambridge Police acting "stupidly" was based in racial bias on his part. If there were anything racial about it, it was more probably racial blindness -- Obama being blinded to any perspective beyond the racial grievance politics he's milked on the street and absorbed from the pew.

But there's another theory. We all know that his friends live on a knife's edge, fodder to be thrown under the bus to cushion the bumps of his presidency. Would a man who treats his friends so shabbily hold even more contempt for his enemies? Could he be a serial grudge-holder? That would explain a lot about his Cambridge fiasco.

Of course, the two could be related. The racial grievance mindset is largely built on an inability or unwillingness to let go of the past -- holding on to injuries and perceived slights until every incident becomes a thread in a warped tapestry of hate and mistrust.

Could it be that the same syndrome bedeviling liberal pie-in-the-sky solutions to the Arab/Israeli conflict is alive and well in the White House over something as trivial as a parking ticket? Maybe so. After all, it took months for Obama to call on a reporter from Fox News.