Ryan Price's Soapbox

I am the kind of citizen who votes on the issues not party lines. I don’t vote based on the candidates good smile, or his excellent speaking ability, or if they are a specific faith. I vote based on where they stand on issues that will directly affect myself and my family. Would I have voted for Obama in 2008? Likely not, because the candidate I supported was actually Hillary Clinton based on her experience and her beliefs during the primaries were not as far left as Obama. Closing in on 2012, let’s see what Obama has done in his presidency and the problems we still face as a country, call it …transparency if you will.

Obama set the bar too high for himself, maybe  it’s an inflated ego but it has caused him to fail by his own standards. It’s the Obama administration, not the Republicans, that said if his stimulus package was passed unemployment would not exceed 8 percent. Obama joked there weren’t as many “shovel-ready” jobs as he thought. In such hard times, now isn’t the time to joke.

It’s Obama who promised to cut the deficit in half. It’s Obama who said if we passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care cost curve would go down rather than up. It’s Obama who promised us recovery and prosperity, hope and change. What we’ve gotten instead is the opposite.

• Under Obama’s stewardship, we have lost 2.2 million jobs (and 900,000 full-time jobs in the last four months alone). He is now on track to have the worst jobs record of any president in the modern era.
• The unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent v. 7.8 percent the month Obama took office.
• July marked the 30th consecutive month in which the unemployment rate was above the 8 percent level, the highest since the Great Depression.
• Since May 2009 — roughly 14 weeks into the Obama administration — the unemployment rate has been above 10 percent during three months, above 9 percent during 22 months, and above 8 percent during two months.
• Chronic unemployment is worse than during the Great Depression.
• The youth employment rate is at the lowest level since records were first kept in 1948.
• The share of the eligible population holding a job has declined to the lowest level since the early 1980s.
• The housing crisis is worse than in the Great Depression. (Home values are worth roughly one-third less than they were five years ago.)
• The rate of economic growth under Obama has been only slightly higher than the 1930s, the decade of the Great Depression. From the first quarter of 2010 through the first quarter of 2011, we experienced five consecutive quarters of slowing growth. America’s GDP for the second quarter of this year was a sickly 1.0 percent; in the first quarter, it was 0.4 percent.
• Fiscal year 2011 will mark the third straight year with deficits in excess of $1 trillion. Prior to the Obama presidency, we had never experienced a deficit in excess of $1 trillion.
• During the Obama presidency, America has increased its debt by $4 trillion. That is to say, Obama has achieved in two-and-a-half years what it took George W. Bush two full terms in office to achieve — and Obama, when he was running for president, slammed Bush’s record as being “unpatriotic.”
• America saw its credit rating downgraded for the first time in history under the Obama presidency.
• Consumer confidence has plunged to the lowest level since the Carter presidency.
• The number of people in the U.S. who are in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Obama’s watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty.
• A record number of Americans now rely on the federal government’s food stamps program. More than 44.5 million Americans received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, a 12 percent increase from one year ago.

So…based on these facts. I ask you this has Obama earned a 2nd term? In my eyes. No.

“The Powers not Delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the the people”

Such powerful words which seem to have been forgotten over the many years this country has stood since its birth. Right now we are on the breaking point of potentially passing one of the most critical laws that could reshape how our future plays out for this generation, my daughters generation and her children’s generation. Our 44th President, Barack Obama along with his Democrat controlled Senate and House are looking to forgo what appears to be a Congress that doesn’t represent their interests in the least.

State Legislators in over 37 states are looking to the nearly-forgotten American political tradition of nullification as a way to reject any potential national health care program that may be coming from Washington. It’s very clear that states do not want this and they see the potential problems that will surely arise of it does pass. The most important being:

1. 1/3 of doctors will quit practicing medicine because they will lose the freedom to treat their patients accordingly and instead have to listen to what the government thinks is best.
2. Public Option would have a negative impact because it basically allows the government to become an insurance company and therefore undercut private providers so much that it would literally bankrupt the entire private sector only leaving the government as the sole survivor.
3. 30 Million uninsured now will be in the pool – rationing will occur because there will not be enough money coming in to pay for those plus the existing ones who lost health care or are choosing the government plan.
4. Federal Funding Abortions – this is a huge no-no. I don’t think my hard earned money should go to abort someone elses baby because they decided they didn’t want it or they made a mistake. It’s ethically wrong and you should not pin that responsibility on any or all tax payers.

If this health care bill passes…contact your representative. Let them know you are unhappy and make sure to vote them out in Nov 2010 if you are against this. Reform is needed but this isn’t the kind we are wanting. It’s important you do this as a US Citizen because once your freedom is gone, you’ll never get it back.

Ryan Price –

Health Care Bill Passes Senate on Christmas Eve:

As most of you were out shopping for last minute Christmas gifts, our wonderful law makers in Congress were busy passing the Health Care Reform Bill by a margin of 60-39. Now It moves on to the House where they have to add their pieces and attempt to have it pass there as well as in the Senate in order for this to go into effect. Now trust me I don’t hate health care reform because there are honestly things i like in the bill. I think the denying of coverage for pre existing conditions is absolutely Un-American and should have been fixed years ago. Believe it or not there are people who keep their jobs and hate it for years simply because they need the health care to either pay for a child or spouse that might be sick.

Taking the super wealthy to pay for this is simply not an option. We need to find better ways besides taxing those who work their butts off in order to make 100k+ a year. The fact that it is going to save us 130 billion dollars and in a decade 1 trillion is simply not true. First off, that is under the assumption you push people off Medicare/Medicaid if not and both plans still exist them we have effectively added 1 more government run program to add to the debt.

Here’s a tip to Congress, instead of trying to BUY votes, try working together as a collective whole! Act as a congress of one not 60.

Attempted Terrorist Attack over Detroit:

When stuff like this happens, it tells you that our security still has numerous holes in it and that we are letting our guard down. This should be a big wake up call that we are by no means out of the woods by a long shot. The people on that flight should be counting their blessing that the guys leg got cooked and not the plane exploding in the sky over Detroit. Second of all, where was our wonderful intelligence on this, HIS OWN FATHER warned the Embassy about this in Yemen. Now granted this was not within our borders but we should expect our allies to have their security bumped up or at least at the gates with American destinations have tighter security getting on the flights. Our problem now is not solely directed at Afghanistan, its global and we best start paying attention because when we don’t and we take our eyes off the ball…that is when we’ll have another horrific attack on the scale of 9/11.

Protests erupt in Iran again:

Most of you remember the Iranian Elections earlier this year and the massive protests that erupted and subsequently claimed the lives of many young Iranians. While our president stood idle and turned a blind eye to it the rest of the world was standing behind them and urging them to claim the torch and bring them the freedom they have been denied for years. Well again, protests have broke out again and it seems more and more like we don’t care. Iran would not be a threat if the world pushed out the repressive rulers that abuse human rights and kill those who go against them. Iranians want the freedom and peace that the west enjoys…why is it so hard for us to give it to them!?

Ryan Price -

We knew it was about to get bad for Obama and the Democrats; we just didn’t know it would get *this* low *this* quickly.

Rasmussen Reports’ new poll out this morning shows Obama’s approval rating at an astonishingly low 44%. Moreover, his “strongly disapprove” numbers are at a record high of 46%.  The majority of independents now disapprove of Obama’s job performance.  Republicans are favored for the fourth straight month over Democrats on the generic congressional ballot.

With Obama’s numbers as low as they are and the Democrats passing his wildly unpopular health control initiative through Congress, one has to wonder if he’s a Republican plant.  Yes, I’m kidding.  But as a political strategy, it certainly makes more sense than his current actions do if he’s trying to maintain control of Congress in 2010 and get re-elected in 2012.  He’s looking more and more like Jimmy Carter every day.

Can we trade him in as part of a cash for clunkers deal?  With some cash we could work on paying down that burgeoning deficit.

All party lines aside i decided to post this important piece of work because it is currently the health care bill that recently passed 220-215 in the House of Representatives on Saturday 11/7/2009. Please have a look and feel free to point out any issues you see wrong with this.

http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf

Potential Concerns list:

1. Violates the 10th Amendment in the Constitution -  This is unconstitutional according to this:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

2. ‘Death Panel Clause survives in HR3962 – The provision allows Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling to help beneficiaries deal with the complex and painful decisions families face when a loved one is approaching death. Basically what this means is that the government has the right to tell you they will not provide health care to a loved one and to optionally provide counseling for end of life.
3. Over 500 Billion dollars will be cut from Medicare to help pay for the government take over of health care.
4. Weak Public Option: H.R. 3962 contains the negotiated rate version of Medicare Part E. It is both more expensive and more of a burden on the states than the Medicare +5% fixed rate version, as it moves 7 million uninsured (those making less than 150% of the poverty level) over to Medicaid, which is a joint federal/state program. That means the states have to pick up about 10% of the tab. It also means much of H.R. 3962’s cost is due to subsidies to help people afford insurance. Worse, CBO expects that this public option will cost consumers slightly more than private plans, so only 6 million are expected to enroll. How did the House allow this to happen?
5. Delayed Fair Coverage: Yes, the House thought it a great idea to delay fair access for those with pre-existing conditions until 2013. So they are spending big bucks on risk pools until then, which most people can’t afford anyway. John McCain’s really bad idea lives.
6. No Doc Fix: The $230 billion “doc fix” was stripped out of the bill. That means doctors treating Medicare patients are left in limbo regarding a 21% January fee cut until House members vote on a separate bill.

Please please america, consider what you are doing, it all sounds good when they wrap it in pretty wrapping paper but when you actually read the bill which your representatives refuse to do. Only then can we put the right people in congress who WILL listen to us.

Ryan Price

First off i’d like to welcome all readers to my corner of the web, i decided to make this site to express my political views to see if there were others out there like myself. I never thought of myself as a political person. I would watch the presidential elections every 4 years and vote as a good American would but it was something different this time around. 2008 came and we were give two Candidates to vote for Barack Obama, democrat, a young inexperienced Senator from Illinois or the Mavrick Senator from Arizona , Republican, John McCain. The campaign up until November 2008 was a tight one and looked to be a even match and a hard fought one for whoever win.

Needless to say, Barack Obama won the election in a landslide victory. As i have done since i was 18, I said ‘What the heck, i’ll give the man a chance’ – not long after he was elected i hear people saying ‘ hes gonna pay my mortgage’ ‘ hes gonna take care of me’ ….i took a step back and honestly couldnt believe that these people voted..with that in mind.

Fast Forward to November 8th 2009, we now have the House of Representatives passing the Health Care Bill which will now go on to the Senate. Now I might catch some flack here but lets examine the track record of the US Government when it comes to Social Programs:

Social Security – By 2016 we will have more money flowing out of SS than coming in….this will put this program in dangerous territory as the debt from this program rises to unspeakable levels. No Reform or private plan remotely in the works for it.

Medicare – Medicare is in even worse shape. The trustees said the program for hospital expenses will pay out more in benefits than it collects this year and will be insolvent by 2017, two years earlier than the date projected in last year’s report.

Welfare – the most abused system to date , not used for what it was designed to do….help people get back on their feet.

So Now that we look at the 3 major social programs what gives people the confidence that health care will be any better. If anything it will put the private sector out of business by putting the rates so low they can’t compete. This is against Capitalism in so many ways , this is not how free market works. In addition to this how do you supplement doctors for the additional 37 million people going into this pool. Doctors will be hammered with more people , meaning the quality of care will go down , wait times will go up, and when costs become out of control in 10 years after the 1.3 trillion has been spent…our country will be bankrupt. I think its time for the American people to wake up , ask for the private sector to have reform done and fix the problems in it not create an entire new entitlement program. This would benefit every American far more than whats about to get shoved down our throats forcefully. I Welcome your thoughts…

Ryan -