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February 10, 2012
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The Kosher Gourmet byDana Velden: Going to the bother of making soup? You know it better be good. This CREAM OF TOMATO SOUP certainly is! And it's a cinch to make, too (Includes techinques and serving secrets)
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Julie Deardorff : Researchers say antioxidants may not be that effective and could do more harm than good
Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
February 3, 2012
Edmund Sanders : Israeli official says Iran is creating missile that could reach East Coast of US
Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
Jim Carney: Wrong number call may have saved her life
Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
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Suzanne Bohan: Warning: Nap-deprived tots missing more than sleep, study finds
Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
January 27, 2012
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Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
Jordan Rau: In quest to grow, Catholic hospital system will announce this morning its break from church
Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
David Francis: Where to Invest in 2012: With stocks expected to rebound, opportunity abounds for investors
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Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz: Thriving through touch: Gentle massage helps older people with low mobility improve in mind and body
January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
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John Fauber : Statins found to raise diabetes risk in postmenopausal women
Katy Hopkins : Consider This Before You Pay for an Online Degree
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January 11, 2012
Shari Roan: Millions of atrial fibrillation sufferers at risk for devastating, but preventable, stroke
Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
Karen Kaplan: Study: Nicotine replacement products ineffective when used in real-life situations
January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
June 16, 2009
/ 24 Sivan 5769
Cut to spend: Obama on health care
By
Rich Lowry
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Where does Newt Gingrich go to get his apology? He proposed slowing the rate of growth of Medicare and Medicaid in the mid-1990s and was clobbered by Democrats and the press for waging war on the elderly and the indigent.
Now, almost every other day, Barack Obama finds another hundred billion dollars to cut out of Medicare and Medicaid. Over the weekend, he announced the discovery of another $313 billion in savings over 10 years, on top of $300 billion he had already proposed. Soon enough, he will make Gingrich -- who infamously sought $450 billion in savings over seven years in 1995 -- look like an extravagantly generous steward of the nation's health programs.
No liberal outcry greeted Obama's proposed budgetary savagery because everyone knows it's in the cause of more government spending. Obama must embrace a simulacrum of spending discipline to have any hope of passing a health-care program that will cost at least $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years. The game is simple: Pretend to cut so you can spend.
Medicare and Medicaid spending has steadily outpaced inflation through the decades, and accounts for 23 percent of the federal budget. Medicare's unfunded liability is an astonishing $89 trillion. As Obama put it in his speech to the American Medical Association, there's a risk the programs will "swamp our federal and state budgets, and impose a vicious choice of either unprecedented tax hikes, overwhelming deficits or drastic cuts in our federal and state budgets."
Sounds alarming. So why turn around and immediately spend the $600 billion in savings? Shouldn't it be used to shore up the rickety finances of these already-existing health programs rather than to create a dubiously financed, entirely new health program?
Obama's cost-savings gestures always reek of bad faith. He announced in his speech to a joint address of Congress in February that he had already identified $2 trillion in savings in the federal budget, when they were really far-off expenditures for the Iraq War that never would have taken place anyway and already-scheduled tax increases -- i.e., not new savings at all. He risibly hyped a $100 million spending cut as a meaningful reduction. He called last week for reinstituting "pay-go" rules in Congress, even though the rules exempt 40 percent of the budget.
Obama's Medicare and Medicaid savings will be sustainable over time only by beggaring doctors and hospitals. Compared with the private system, Medicare pays only 81 cents on the dollar for health expenses; Medicaid pays only 56 cents on the dollar. Obama relies on the tried-and-true practice of cutting the payments more. This means there will be fewer doctors willing to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients, and more cost-shifting to the private system to make up for deficient government payments.
When Obama himself says that the federal deficit is "unsustainable," and when the chairman of the Federal Reserve warns that spending cuts or tax increases are necessary "to stabilize the fiscal situation," it's obviously not the time for a new entitlement program and another $1.2 trillion in government expenditure. In his AMA speech, Obama sold his health program as a cost-saving measure, but the items he touted are his usual litany that would produce little or nothing in the way of savings: electronic medical records, preventive medicine, etc. In a document released over the weekend, Obama even invoked the hoary Beltway chestnut of cutting "waste, fraud and abuse."
If Obama thinks he can responsibly squeeze a couple of hundred billion out of Medicare and Medicaid, fine, he should do it and pocket the savings to improve the long-run fiscal picture. And we can adopt modest reforms to make it easier for people to get and keep health insurance, reforms with zero risk of tipping the country further toward fiscal ruin. Obama will then have more time and energy to devote to repairing the government's balance sheet. Newt Gingrich ought to have some ideas how to do it.
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© 2009 King Features Syndicate
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