IT’S AMAZING WHAT YOU CAN BURY IN 2000 PAGES

By Stuart J. Moskovitz

Once again, there are rumblings of “death panels” in the Affordable Care Act. This happens when a bill is passed as massive as this one that not a single member of Congress read prior to approving it. We are slowly learning of the myriad of difficulties buried in this bill simply because it was jammed down our throats with the goal of not airing it carefully beforehand. But the death panels do not exist.

There are two provisions to which Sarah Palin, Mark Halperin and even Howard Dean have referred as “death panels.” The first, Section 1233, involves counselling (voluntary, not mandatory) of “end of life” provisions. These include Living Wills, Health Advisory Statements, etc., all of which are standard documents every trust and estates attorney prepares for his/her client. There is nothing sinister about these. The second provision involves the Independent Payment Advisory Board whose sole function is to make recommendations regarding ways of cutting Medicare costs in the future. Those recommendations are not self-implementing. They must be submitted to Congress and approved by the President. This means first, there is no review of any individual case. Second, whatever recommendations are made need to be passed as if they were a new law. Oddly, there are so many serious harmful provisions of this Act, it is curious that everyone is fixated on two provisions that are relatively benign.

There are provisions that are not benign that are harmful to this nation and not just to its health care. What is amazing is that while everyone is obsessed with something that is not in the Act, they are totally ignoring a provision of the Act that is as unconstitutional and unAmerican as any provision of any Act in our lifetime. The Act provides in section 3007 for a “value based payment modifier.” This means health professionals get reviewed by the Administration and a calculation is made measuring the average cost for treating a patient for the physician or “group” of doctors versus the “success” of the treatment. It would be difficult to dream of a more subjective measurement so subject to abuse. I stand awestruck by the teachers who support the ACA (having not read it, of course) while screaming that it is not fair to “measure” their performance by the success of their students. This calculation leads to a “mathematical” payment modifier that reduces the payments given by Medicare to each group of health practitioners. But that’s not the bad part.

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For the Jersey Democrats, happy days are here again

For the Jersey Democrats, happy days are here again (via NJ.com)

File photo Elvis had left the building. That was obvious at last week’s convention of the New Jersey League of Municipalities in Atlantic City. Traditionally, the winner of the governor’s race does a victory lap at the League luncheon. Last week…

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Historians Will Judge ObamaCare Harshly

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O’Scanlon Slams Rand Paul For Baseless Attack On Christie

By Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon

Yesterday Senator Rand Paul attacked NJ Governor Christie suggesting that the Governor’s landslide victory last week was the result of the federal aid package sent to NJ following superstorm Sandy.  

I occupy the unique combination of positions of Republican Assembly Budget Officer, long term fiscal conservative who has warned of New Jersey’s irresponsible spending polices for years, long-term advocate for reforms like pension benefit and collective bargaining reforms – and my District (13) covers the area of the bayshore hardest hit by the storm.

Unlike Senator Paul, I can state unequivocally – and based on first hand experience – that Governor Christie’s popularity wasn’t purchased with federal aid.  It was earned by tireless, extraordinary leadership on multiple crisis fronts from the moment Christie won election in 2009.  He inherited a state on the verge of insolvency, requiring reform solutions – pension and benefit, arbitration, property tax, budgetary – that no governor in the history of the state ever dreamed of tackling.  

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Thank you Veterans

By Art Gallagher

On Veterans’ Day, we honor all the men and women who have protected our country and fought for our way of life.

Photographer’s Mate 2nd class Joseph Sharp aboard the USS Forrestal in 1978

Today, I would like to especially thank the Vets of the post-Viet Nam era.

One of my most vivid memories from growing up in the 1960’s and 1970’s was watching Mr. Hayes, a tough man and a Vet in my neighborhood, bawling his eyes out as his eldest son went off to Viet Nam. His son came home two years later, but he was different.  There was no parade, as the war was still on and increasingly controversial.  The younger Hayes was angry and seemingly damaged.

With pictures of casualties on the evening news every night, news of William Calley’s My Lai Massacre trial, the Kent State shootings and protests throughout the country, and witnessing how veterans of Viet Nam had come home changed, military service and the draft was feared by many.  Young men went to college, got married and had children or fled to Canada to avoid being drafted into the war. Read the rest of this entry »

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Gay Marriage and The Church

By Bader George Qarmont

As New Jersey became the 14^th state in the Union to license gay marriage, I am left wondering why and what is next. Will this judicial activism have any impact on churches? Some may think I am over reacting, but I fear that the church is 15-25 years away from being forced to perform same sex marriage or risk losing tax exemption for discrimination. A Pastor threating to close his church doors before doing so, is no threat at all.

If a church wants to continue to practice the Biblical definition of marriage, it needs to protect itself.  I see a potential for litigation to force a church to marry same sex couples, as is already happening in England. Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, The gay plaintiff in the legal challenge in England said “The only way forward for us now is to make a challenge in the courts against the church.” It is a matter of time before American churches are also legally challenged.  

Currently most churches will marry non-members in a religious ceremony at the church, this practice must end immediately and new policy implemented as soon as possible.  I believe churches should have a policy to only marry members.  In order to be a member each person must sign a statement of faith that includes acceptance of the Biblical definition of marriage. Anyone can attend the church but only members can be married in the church.

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Asbury Park Press Editorial Board Needs A Fact Checker

No news. Empty newsstands stored in the Asbury Park Press’s empty parking lot in Neptune.

In their editorial posted last evening, the Asbury Park Press Editorial Board The Neptune Nudniks lecture New York City voters on character and morality.

As if they are an authority on character and morality and have readers from New York!  Maybe they are hoping some bennies here for the weekend will read their paper instead of Greg’s List.

The Nudnik’s homily bemoans the fact that former Congressman Anthony Weiner and former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer are doing very well in the polls in their campaigns for municipal office in New York.

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Fire The Asbury Park Press Editorial Board

For the last several years this site has derided the Asbury Park Press Editorial Board Neptune Nudniks for their ignorance of the facts and processes about which they opine, and for their religious bigotry.

The Nudniks’ editorial today about the controversy surrounding the emails exchanged between Middletown Library Director Susan O’Neal and Democratic candidate for Middletown Township Committee Linda Baum is a firing offense.  They apparently didn’t even read or comprehend their own reporter’s article about the issue, before publishing their ignorant opinion.

APP reporter Suzanne Cervenka reported the story accurately on July 4.  Middletown Township Committeeman Tony Fiore made an OPRA request for emails between O’Neal and Baum.  Baum took the issue to Court, arguing that the emails were private, had nothing to do with library operations and that she in no way acted as an agent of the library.  Judge Lawrence M. Lawson ruled that, as a matter of law, the emails were government documents subject to OPRA and ordered them released.

In their editorial, the Nudniks said that Fiore took the matter to Court when in fact Baum took the matter to Court.  They said Lawson should have refused to hear the matter.  If Lawson kept the Court out of it, the emails would have been released without Baum being heard on the matter.  The Nudniks said Fiore was being petty for following his instincts that O’Neal was undermining the public’s oversight of the $4.6 million dollar operation she directs.

Monmouth and Ocean County citizens deserve better from their largest newspaper/news site.  We’ve deserved better for a long time. We should demand better.

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The Gang of 8 are Wrong on Immigration Reform

By Bader George Qarmout

As Washington debates immigration reform and the bi-partisan gang of 8 push their latest plan, I find myself disagreeing with the plan’s failure to secure the border FIRST. It is imperative that we fix the mistakes of Ronald Reagan’s Congress that failed us forty years ago.  Securing our borders is not only a means to prevent illegal workers from entering America, but it is also an important tool for greater national security and to reduce the onslaught of drug, weapons, and human trafficking . I will not accept any arguments that stress that the cost of securing our borders is prohibitive. I argue that not securing our borders is unconscionable.

While we are securing the borders, we need to enforce our existing laws and make E-verify mandatory.  We also need to deport the criminal illegal aliens who are currently sitting in our jails and prisons.  It is cost effective to permanently remove the criminal elements from among us, as opposed to the current “catch and release” practice.

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