I’d like to emphasize a point made by Rochester’s Fran Bradley in his Medicare article.

He mentioned efforts to address Medicare fraud and abuse. The monster ObamaCare legislation includes such measures. The shenanigan, the disgusting political reality of it, is this…

Fraud and abuse in an existing system should be dealt with as quickly as it can possibly be identified and corrected. Right?

Not in ObamaCare’s Washington. Oh no. You see, reducing fraud and abuse reduces healthcare costs. Those reductions are needed in the ObamaCare legislation to help the CBO run the numbers in a way that show ObamaCare reducing the deficit. Take the fixes to fraud and abuse out of ObamaCare and it no longer reduces the deficit.

On the other hand, proposed Medicare changes actually related to ObamaCare were taken out and passed as separate legislation. Why? Because they added over $200 billion of cost to ObamaCare. Taking that expense out was an other way of fixing the CBO math.

So, fraud and abuse that should be fixed as quickly as possible and that have nothing to do with ObamaCare are in ObamaCare (waiting for a year to be passed) while costly bits related to ObamaCare are taken out and fast-tracked.

What a bunch of crap from a bunch of crappy people.

[H]ere’s a story of someone facing bankruptcy owing to medical costs. The twist is he’s Canadian. From the Toronto Sun:

Now, with the Mayo Clinic having done what the Alberta Cancer Board wouldn’t authorize or even explain, but with the tumour unable to be totally removed, the province will now not fund the expensive drug, Avastin, that the Mayo prescribed to keep him alive and keep the remaining tumour from increasing in size–despite the costs of the drug being totally funded by the province for other forms of cancer.

Had he lung cancer, breast cancer, or colon cancer, then the cost of the drug–$4,555 per treatment, two times a month–would be totally covered by Alberta’s version of OHIP [Ontario Health Insurance Plan].

Suffering from brain cancer, Kent Pankow was literally forced to go to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. for lifesaving surgery–at a cost to family and friends of $106,000–after the health-care system in Alberta left him hanging in bureaucratic limbo for 16 crucial days, his tumour meanwhile migrating to an unreachable part of the brain, while it dithered over his case file, ultimately deciding he was not surgery worthy.

And so he is not only a victim of brain cancer, he is also a victim of arbitrary discrimination.

But he doesn’t.

Kent Pankow, as it turns out, has the right disease but he has it in the wrong place.

The good news is that President Obama remains committed to bringing U.S. health care into line with Canadian standards. If he succeeds, sick Canadians will eventually be set free from the ruinous temptations of places like the Mayo Clinic.

For some reason, Tim Walz hasn’t shared Mr. Pankow’s story with us.

Some of them are mentioned in an article at the Olmsted GOP’s site.

Seeing politicians stumble around answers and hide behind special interest groups is not a new thing.  It’s the old political “two-step”, saying one thing back home and voting another in Washington. While we as constituents should have known first and face to face, the political reality is that Walz’s position comes at odds with the district.  When that happens, you do the Walz Waltz: let someone else be the messenger and hope the voters forget.

It should come as no surprise that Congressman Walz is once again voting against southern Minnesota.  His political cues are clear and his desire to increase government will not be tamed.  This desire was most recently highlighted when Walz proclaimed his openness to a “soda-pop tax” (Rochester Post-Bulletin, Oct. 8, 2009).  Congressman Walz can’t find a tax he doesn’t like.

This was most revealing in his support of the Cap and Trade bill, aptly named the “energy tax”.  Independent projections keep rising, most recently pricing cap and trade as a $2,000 annual tax hike for the average family.  [Walz has claimed the cost is $175 per family per year but that CBO number is for managing the program, not the economic costs of living with it.] But our farm families in the First District are not considered “average”.  Even though they produce green fields and green energy, farmers will be taxed more for the energy used to plant and grow the world’s food supply.

Farmers are not the only ones seeing greater working challenges with each of Tim Walz’s votes.  Walz’s support of the so called “card check” affords that union leverage efforts on employees when asked to vote on unionization.  In the card check scheme, union bosses have more rights in looking over the shoulders of employees, so how many votes will be cast out of intimidation?

The freedom to let your vote truly be your own at the work place is disappearing, and we see Washington taking more and more control.  Tim Walz’s pop tax is the first example of the negative effects from the public option.  It has not even become law and politicians are already talking about taxing our food in the interest of health care.

My question is: what won’t be done in the interest of health care?  While Walz’s office would never give us a straight answer, his voting record speaks for itself.

Support for the public option really means government run health care.  This is a position opposed by almost everyone in the First District.  The Mayo Clinic, highlighted by President Obama as an example of quality and cost efficiency, is opposed to government run health care.  Our Minnesota Hospitals oppose it.  Most doctors say no to socialized medicine.  Our farmers and small business people also agree, Walz should stop waltzing and quit doing the old political two-step.

Even though the election is still a year away, I am confident that southern Minnesota will remember Tim Walz’s voting against their interests.  Families will remember Walz when they are paying a $2,000 energy tax so they can drive to work and heat their homes.  Our neighbors will remember Walz when they go to work and a Chicago-style union boss is standing over them to make sure they vote “the right way” on a union issue.  And, when America goes broke on the public option, and the government is entitled to intervene in every aspect of our personal lives, we all will remember Tim Walz.

It may be wise for Congressman Walz to be open to a ginkgo biloba tax instead of a pop tax.

Steve Perkins
Luverne, MN
507.920.3532

Mr.Perkins is the former Mayor of Pipestone and the Chair of the First Congressional District Republican Party of Minnesota.