Obama, HHS Covered Up True Health Care Costs Prior to Vote

Bob Robbins just forwarded an American Spectator article that begins:

>The economic report released last week by Health and Human Services, which indicated that President Barack Obama's health care "reform" law would actually increase the cost of health care and impose higher costs on consumers, had been submitted to the office of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius more than a week before the Congressional votes on the bill, according to career HHS sources, who added that Sebelius's staff refused to review the document before the vote was taken.

One might wonder whether the policy making process in the United States is broken.  The left-wing, Democratic media repeatedly claimed that adding 30 million uninsured to the welfare rolls would be free.  It now turns out that the Obama administration deliberately covered up the facts.

Chris Matthews Interviews Ron Paul

This is a decent interview. Matthews is surprisingly even handed. BUT, notice that he thinks that Hoover or Coolidge were free market libertarians.  This is ignorance of history.  The last libertarian president was Grover Cleveland, elected in 1892 and in 1884.  The fact that Matthews is broadcasting news to millions of Americans and the names of Coolidge and Hoover are meaningless to him, they are merely names, is telling. America is a nation where the blind lead the blind.  No wonder the left is so ignorant, yet considers itself well informed.

Letter to Alabama's Attorney General Requesting Investigation of Southern Poverty Law Center

PO Box 130
West Shokan, NY 12494
April 25, 2010

Mr. Troy King, Attorney General
Alabama State House
11 South Union Street, Third Floor
Montgomery, AL 36130

Dear Mr. King:

I am a former contributor to the Southern Poverty Law Center and would like to request that you investigate whether the SPLC has engaged in fraud. I contributed to the SPLC over a number of years in the 1980s and 1990s. The SPLC claimed to be an organization that fought extremist and hate groups, and based on those representations I contributed over $100 per year over at least five years, likely more.

I have noticed news reports about the SPLC’s taking partisan positions concerning the so-called Tea Parties, a partisan movement that is concerned with conservative views and opposes socialism. As well, the leaders of the SPLC have been vocal about their support for President Barack Obama.

I have written separately to the IRS enforcement division concerning the SPLC’s potentially fraudulent claim that it is exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. As you know, political activity, lobbying and support for candidates are not legally exempt activities. Yet, the leaders of the Southern Poverty Law Center have repeatedly engaged in such activities in connection with the Obama campaign and in connection with attacking individuals who disagree with Mr. Obama’s socialist views.

As well, I wonder if the SPLC may be violating various laws concerning charities in your state. In particular, the group bills itself as an anti-hate group organization, which roped me in, but this claim is only partly true. Rather, the SPLC has released a report attacking a wide range of opponents of President Obama who have absolutely nothing to do with hate activities. It seems possible that the SPLC is functioning as a political organization, using anti-hate activities as a pretext. I might add that in the 1980s when Morris Dees had several important successes, the Klan had seen some rise in importance. The Klan now is of much less consequence than it was then, and it may be that rather than limit their activities, the SPLC has simply spun off into activities unrelated to their earlier mission that are not tax exempt under federal law and possibly under Alabama law.

Please investigate whether the SPLC is defrauding contributors and taxpayers. After having donated hundreds of dollars to the scammers at the SPLC, I now fear that I was defrauded by hate-filled socialist extremists.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Langbert, Ph.D.

Letter to Olive Press

I just sent this letter to the editor of the Olive Press, Paul Smart.  Onteora High School is located in Boiceville, New York, a few miles from my home.  The name "Onteora" is a name for the Catskill Mountains, reportedly derived from Mahican Indians, although Onteora may have referred to an area further south, according to this site.

Dear Editor:

One of the many corrupt, big-government scams in New York State is the fruit of a son of Olivebridge, Arthur H. Wicks. Wicks ran a laundry company in Kingston before being elected to the New York State Senate, in which he served from 1927 to 1956. He later became Lieutenant Governor, but was forced to resign when he was discovered making frequent visits to convicted Machinist Union president Joseph S. Fay while Fay was vacationing in Sing Sing prison. Fay had been convicted of extortion on construction sites.

Arthur Wicks remains a legendary name today because the Wicks Law bears it. The Wicks Law was originally passed in 1912, but it was amended during Wicks's tenure as Senate Majority Leader. The Wicks Law prohibits any public entity in New York State from hiring a general contractor (GC). Four separate categories of contractors, (a) heating, ventilating and air conditiong, (b) plumbing, (c) electrical, and (d), all other, must be hired and supervised directly by the state or other public entity. At the state level, agencies like the Department of Transportation, the Office of General Services and the Dormitory Authority oversee construction. It is well known that they lack the competence to do so because GCs of the caliber needed to manage large-scale construction projects have out-sized salaries that do not fit civil service pay scales. But as Olive citizens who work in construction know, general contractors limit waste. The lack of a GC opens the door to abuse, crime and law suits. Studies have found that the Wicks Law increases construction costs in the state by 15-30%. No one except construction unions and public contractors supports the Wicks Law. In the 1980s, Mario Cuomo had appointed an anti-crime commission that found that the Wicks Law fosters organized crime.

The Wicks Law serves as a long lived example of why government does not work, and why political decision making on a large scale fails. At a point in time when the state needs to cut spending, a law like this would seem to be a logical place to start. Yet, at a recent meeting of the Tea Party here at the Shandaken Gun Club, a Republican candidate, who is aware of the Wicks Law and who owns a construction firm, did not mention it as a potential area for cutting. Instead, he advocated raising cigarette taxes. Of course, it goes without saying that loot-and-spend Democratic Party Assemblyman Kevin Cahill has no interest in touching the Wicks Law with a ten foot pole. Cahill roars with delight wherever massive government waste occurs.

Hence, low quality, mismanagement, waste and incompetence are part and parcel of big government New York. Add to which neither Democratic nor Republican candidates have the vocabulary to question any of it. The speaker at the Tea Party was so lacking in vocabulary that he could only speak in terms of a spending freeze. The vocabulary of freedom on which the nation was founded has been lost, and the Republicans appear to be as much in the dark as are the Democrats. Perhaps the nation should give its government a two year vacation and spend the two years re-learning what the now-forgotten anti-federalists like Sam Adams had to say. Given the low quality of today's public figures, Americans have every reason to fear for their childrens' future. The problem starts with the benighted public schools, which are purveyors of ignorance, ideology and suppression. The first place to look for anyone interested in change is Onteora High.

Sincerely,

Mitchell Langbert, Ph.D.