Political Digest for August 14 2009

Government Medicine Should Horrify Americans
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/08/07/government_medicine_should_horrify_americans_97810.html
Excerpt: Breast cancer kills 25 percent of its American victims. In Great Britain, the Vatican of single-payer medicine, breast cancer extinguishes 46 percent of its targets. Prostate cancer is fatal to 19 percent of its American patients. The National Center for Policy Analysis reports that it kills 57 percent of Britons it strikes. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data show that the U.K.'s 2005 heart-attack fatality rate was 19.5 percent higher than America's. This may correspond to angioplasties, which were only 21.3 percent as common there as here. (This guy doesn’t get it. When people die, they use less health care in the future, bringing the cost down!)

So You Want to Replace Profit-Driven Health Care with Politics-Driven Medicine?
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18319
Excerpt: A video explaining Oregon's heavily politicized Medicaid system is currently making the rounds and serving as a warning against further government involvement. Produced by Colorado's Independence Institute, the video shows how ailments with political constituencies are covered under the government medical system, while unchampioned conditions get short shrift. The video makes good points, but it misses the fact that politicized government decisions already play a role in driving up the cost of private medical coverage, says J.D. Tuccille, a contributor to the Washington Examiner.

Contractor With Ties To Murtha Charged By Feds
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/government-inc/2009/07/contractor_with_ties_to_murtha.html?wprss=government-inc
Excerpt: The company that allegedly paid the bribes, identified in court filings only as "K," closely resembles Kuchera Defense Systems, which is based in Murtha's congressional district outside Pittsburgh and was a subcontractor to Coherent. Kuchera Defense Systems and its sister company, Kuchera Industries, are under federal investigation for allegations of fraud and overbilling on Defense Department contracts. The probe focuses on companies that benefited from contracts orchestrated or approved by Murtha, the powerful chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee on military spending

If 10% is good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for Uncle Sam!
http://susie1114.com/10percentisgoodenough.html
Funny song

BUSTED!: "Obama As Hitler" Poster Was A Democrat/Union Plant At John Dingell Townhall! UPDATED with video interview!
http://theblogprof.blogspot.com/2009/08/busted-obama-as-hitler-poster-was.html
Surprise!

Muslims behead four ex-Muslim Christian orphanage workers in Somalia
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/027191.php
Excerpt: “All the four apostates were given an opportunity to return to Islam to be released but they all declined the generous offer." Yet in the wake of the Rifqa Bary case, Islamic apologists are actually claiming that Islam doesn't teach that apostates deserve death. This kind of story makes their smooth lies transparent. Is it any wonder that Rifqa Bary is in fear for her life?

The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html
Excerpt: While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment. Here are eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone:

Statement from the American College of Surgeons Regarding Recent Comments from President Obama
August 12, 2009CHICAGO--The American College of Surgeons is deeply disturbed over the uninformed public comments President Obama continues to make about the high-quality care provided by surgeons in the United States. When the President makes statements that are incorrect or not based in fact, we think he does a disservice to the American people at a time when they want clear, understandable facts about health care reform. We want to set the record straight.

• Yesterday during a town hall meeting, President Obama got his facts completely wrong. He stated that a surgeon gets paid $50,000 for a leg amputation when, in fact, Medicare pays a surgeon between $740 and $1,140 for a leg amputation. This payment also includes the evaluation of the patient on the day of the operation plus patient follow-up care that is provided for 90 days after the operation. Private insurers pay some variation of the Medicare reimbursement for this service.

• Three weeks ago, the President suggested that a surgeon’s decision to remove a child’s tonsils is based on the desire to make a lot of money. That remark was ill-informed and dangerous, and we were dismayed by this characterization of the work surgeons do. Surgeons make decisions about recommending operations based on what’s right for the patient. We agree with the President that the best thing for patients with diabetes is to manage the disease proactively to avoid the bad consequences that can occur, including blindness, stroke, and amputation. But as is the case for a person who has been treated for cancer and still needs to have a tumor removed, or a person who is in a terrible car crash and needs access to a trauma surgeon, there are times when even a perfectly managed diabetic patient needs a surgeon.

The President’s remarks are truly alarming and run the risk of damaging the all-important trust between surgeons and their patients. We assume that the President made these mistakes unintentionally, but we would urge him to have his facts correct before making another inflammatory and incorrect statement about surgeons and surgical care.

About the American College of Surgeons
The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and to improve the care of the surgical patient. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 76,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world.