Gary Polland's Texas Conservative Review
Current Issue TCR Back Issues What Other Say About TCR We Get Letters About Your Editor

Receive notice when a new issue is online (Enter email):

Volume XI Number 16 - July 10, 2012     RSS Feed   

A Periodic Newsletter for Committed Texas Conservatives

In This Issue

Christi Craddick Is Choice For Railroad Commissioner

Cruz Now Attacks Governor Perry And The Entire GOP Caucus In The State Senate!

Another Reason To Send Obama Home

Don't Just Repeal ObamaCare, We Need A Viable Option

Don't Blame Roberts, Blame Obama By Bruce Bialosky, Contributing Editor

Red, White and Blue
MyFoxHouston
conservative t shirts

TCR Ad

What's Ahead

Hard Hitting
Conservative Commentary
 
Contact TCR

Please feel free to forward this issue to your friends and associates.
Anyone can subscribe for free:
Subscribe

Gary Polland
2211 Norfolk St.,
Suite 920
Houston, TX 77098
(713) 621-6335
Email

 

 

 

 

 

 
Christi Craddick Is Choice
For Railroad Commissioner

In the runoff for Railroad Commissioner, TCR backs Christi Craddick. She bring experience in the oil and gas area, in how to get things done in Austin, in her enthusiasm for the conservative cause in Texas, and she will fight Washington's encroachment into the oil and gas business of Texas. With the expected low turnout your vote means a lot, so make sure you get to the polls and vote for Craddick.

Cruz Now Attacks Governor Perry And The Entire GOP Caucus In The State Senate!

If you are not paying attention to the U.S. Senate runoff between David Dewhurst and Ted Cruz, you are missing an emerging story line about Mr. Cruz. That is Cruz's propensity to attack anyone who gets in his way. So just last week he launched attacks on Governor Rick Perry, the entire GOP State Senate, and the week previously went after conservative icon Dan Patrick in a radio interview. Cruz is proving that he will say anything and insult anyone in his effort to win the runoff.

The most recent dustup with the GOP Senate Caucus caused them to release a letter setting the record straight from the Cruz distortions on such issues as: anti-sanctuary city, controlling & cutting state spending, the TSA Anti-Groping bill, and on opposition to a state income, wage or payroll tax. In each instance, Cruz has distorted the truth for political advantage.

In fact, Cruz is pandering to display an attitude as described by conservative Mike Huckabee, "...there is almost a hyper-orthodoxy that is gripping the party that you have to go out and prove you can be tougher, meaner, more hard-line than anybody on the stage..." Clearly, he is someone we can't trust in the U.S. Senate.

Another Reason To Send Obama Home

With thanks to anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist.

Massive tax hikes are coming in January 2013, just 56 days from the November election. With the Supreme Court upholding the ObamaCare tax increases, we can now add, starting January 1st, a 3.8% surtax on medical devices, among others!

If we want to stop these tax grabs, estimated at $500 billion, from being added to our tax burden in 2013, we have to elect a Republican House and Senate and elect Mitt Romney as President.

Don't Just Repeal ObamaCare,
We Need A Viable Option

Remember the old saying "You can't replace something with nothing" is true. It applies to medical reform too. So our refrain should be repeal and replace.

Peter Ferrara, Senior Fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis has done great work with Dr. John Goodman, Head of NCPA, in this area and we think his ideas deserve to be shared.

His theory is that the present system of 84% of health expenses paid by a third party like the government or insurance companies gives the consumer no real incentive to compare and control costs. The doctors and hospitals have little or no incentive to control costs either. Actually, the opposite is true. The more spent, the more they make!

Ferrara's idea is to "unite the decision over what health care services to purchase with the economic responsibility to pay for them so costs can be weighed against benefit."

His idea is a patient centered plan - Health Savings Account (which is high deductible catastrophic insurance) paired with the HSA funds accumulating tax-free so after one healthy year with few medical expenses the patient has sufficient funds in the HSA to cover all expenses below the deductible!

Ferrara transforms the incentives. As the patient is using their own money in the HSA, they should avoid unnecessary care and will shop for the prices for routine medical services. Of course, as part of this plan we need a better information system so patients can be informed consumers (like internet shopping for a big-screen TV or lasik surgery.) Competition breeds efficiency and cost saving.

As for other reforms, they suggest consumers be given a choice in who gets the tax credit, so individuals can choose a benefit similar to the employer provided health care. With the credit, workers can choose the coverage they prefer and could own their policy which allows them to move it from job to job. The poor, using a tax credit and Medicaid block grant voucher, would enable them in obtaining private insurance, if healthy. Those considered high-risk could use the Medicaid block grant to help pay for insurance via a high-risk pool.

Another reform allows you to buy health insurance across state lines and reduce state benefit mandates that drive costs up.

So there is an option to ObamaCare. Good ideas like this need to be shared, discussed, weighed and implemented.

Don't Blame Roberts, Blame Obama
By Bruce Bialosky, Contributing Editor

Feeling misled? You certainly should. Congress created a law so complex that it occupies between 2,400 and 2,800 pages depending on who says what, almost all of them unread by the people who voted for it. President Obama and his Democratic colleagues told you many things about the law - most of which were either mischaracterizations or outright lies. What Chief Justice John Roberts did was tell the truth, and now we can move forward.

This is all on Chief Justice Roberts. The four liberals who concurred with him don't believe that the individual mandate is a tax. They firmly believed that the government had the right under the commerce clause to expand the power of the federal government in a sweeping manner. They inherently believe in these matters that the government has few limitations. They were so convinced of that they appeared to be willing to emasculate the commerce clause to expand the federal government's grip over 18% of our economy. The four signed on to what Roberts wrote and sacrificed the future of their souls for achieving their goals today. But the question remains did they sacrifice anything?

Roberts did do two major things in his opinion. First, he stated the court has limited powers to control the legislative branch. In effect, he told Americans that "You elected these people, they are your representatives, and you have to live with their actions." Second, he put a stop to the damnable lies about taxes. Politicians lie all the time about the manner in which they extract increasing amounts from your pocket, usually calling them fees, dues, excise fees, duties, levies, or something else. Roberts just confirmed what we all know: if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck - it is a duck. Remember this penalty -- which is estimated to hit four million Americans -- is to be collected by the 20,000 new IRS agents. Roberts may have done it for contrived reasons, but elected officials can never again claim that additional money going to government is anything other than a tax.

Even the best and brightest are still duped by the verbiage. Charles Krauthammer said that he's open to fines, but not taxes. What he's missing is that fines are now much more than mere penalties; a parking ticket that used to cost $20 is now $50 – and is used to balance the city budget. A "fine" levied against a corporation by the SEC doesn't go to the aggrieved stockholders, but to the coffers of the federal government; what was once $500,000 has become $5,000,000. States love delinquent taxpayers because they rake in huge fines that get increased with every budget shortfall. Fines are nothing more than a duck not called a duck.

But now we can have an honest debate about the value of the Affordable Care Act, which, frankly, is a complete fraud. Its supporters tout that children up to 26 years old can remain on their parents' plans, but never mention that the parents must then pay for comprehensive insurance plans that cost substantially more than healthy young adults can obtain on their own. They applaud the elimination of lifetime caps on payments by insurance companies without pointing out the obvious consequence that premiums will increase significantly to cover these costs. And these are just two of many misleading claims.

Now we must convey how deceptive this law is at its core. If you don't believe me, believe Obama's Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration. He stated "The ACA represents the largest set of tax law changes in more than 20 years and presents a major challenge to the Internal Revenue Service." It includes 20 new taxes (now 21 after Roberts' ruling), few of which have gone into effect and most of which are deviously imposed on us by raising them on third parties. For example, there is a new tax on medical devices that will be passed through to insurance companies - and then, of course, to policyholders (you). Democrats have already imposed a new tax on pharmaceutical companies, which raises the cost of your prescriptions through higher premiums or larger out-of-pocket costs. Americans need to familiarize themselves with these 21 new taxes and realize that when our medical costs and insurance premiums costs soar, it is ultimately ObamaCare that is responsible. Furthermore, these tax rates will inevitably increase, with the overwhelming portion of the burden squarely on the shoulders of the middle class. That's because that's where the money is.

We have to inform the American people that there are 157 commissions and boards that will start going into effect in 2013. These will be filled with government wonk types convinced that they know how the health care system should operate. They will write thousands of pages of regulations and make decisions for every one of us. Your health care will no longer be determined by you or your doctor.

We now have a moment of clarity. The mandate is what everybody, except the lawyers for the President, was unwilling to call it. ObamaCare is a huge tax increase that will hit every working American - specifically the working class upon whom Obama promised not to raise taxes. The law will put a stranglehold around the neck of all Americans, and ultimately centralize every decision about health care in Washington.

Democrats have created their mantra - this is over, let's move on. Mr. Romney must, with the help of all of us, communicate to the electorate that ObamaCare is a disaster. Justice Roberts has given us that opportunity. If we cannot accomplish this goal, we deserve to lose the election - a loss that would put an end to the America we know.


Bruce Bialosky is the founder of the Republican Jewish Coalition of California and a former Presidential appointee.


TCR on the Air

Red, White & Blue featuring TCR Editor Gary Polland and liberal commentator David Jones is on break and will return better than ever during PBS Fall Premiere week in September.

For a fun feature go to www.houstonpbs.org and under Red White and Blue, you can see commentary about the show and its guests by Gary and David each week. The current show as well as past shows are also available on YouTube.

About Your Editor

Gary Polland is a long-time conservative and Republican spokesman, fund-raiser, and leader who completed three terms as the Harris County Republican Chairman. During his three terms, Gary was described as the most successful county Chairman in America by Human Events - The National Conservative Weekly. He is in his fourteenth year of editing a newsletter dealing with key conservative and Republican issues. The last eleven years he has edited Texas Conservative Review. As a public service for the last 8 years, Gary has published election guides for the GOP primary, general elections and city elections, all with the purpose of assisting conservative candidates. Gary is also in his ninth year of co-hosting Red, White and Blue on PBS Houston. Gary is a practicing attorney and strategic consultant. He can be reached at (713) 621-6335.

© 2012 Texas Conservative Review
The Texas Conservative Review is published as a public service by Gary Polland
Phone: (713) 621-6335 Fax: Fax: (713) 622-6334 E-mail: Gary@TexasConservativeReview.com
To subscribe, simply send an email to subscribe@TexasConservativeReview.com
Your thoughts and comments are welcome