The Breakdown of Morality in America - Have we Gone Too Far to Recover?

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Main Street America must be wondering what happened to the United States of America? There is nothing united about America anymore and nothing but more and more signs of the destruction of any hope for being united.

Political parties have led the way and both are at fault. It is almost impossible to find a politician no matter what party who is willing to tell the truth about our nation and there is no chance they will tell the truth about each other.



Once upon a time political opponents like Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill would go at each other in debate and then get together for a drink after. Gone are the days of civility in politics and gone are the days of truth. Both parties daily make exaggerated claims about their policies that are never fact checked by the media. Spinning the truth is far more prevalent than telling the truth.

The news media, supposedly the defenders of truth and protector of the people long ago became a tool for politicians and a whore for the corporate interests trying to take advantage of the public. We have, plain and simple, the best news money can buy and that is the truth. News is bought and sold and truth is a secondary issue.

As for the government, it no longer serves the public interest but the special interests. Congress and the president are owned by special interests and will be as long as billions of dollars are needed to feed the campaign appetites of our politicians. No one in Washington is talking about campaign reform and it is the only way to rid politics and government of special interest control. War is acceptable while helping the poor is a burden.



Greed dominates our culture from education to health care and career choices are based on what is in it for me, not how can I help people. Once upon a time non-profit organizations and churches were the primary force in helping people but they are rapidly disappearing from the social, health and human needs of our society. As they fade into the history books so does the mindset that people have a responsibility to help people whenever possible.

Churches are measured by their success in drawing crowds and generating donations rather than saving souls and fighting for the invisible Americans. Charity used to be freely given but now it comes with a price tag.



Sexual promiscuity used to be bad but now it dominates advertising in all media and has led the American public from a society of values to a society of need and greed. The disease of pedophiles has reached epidemic proportions with hundreds of thousands roaming the land and Internet. There is no cure yet our justice system continues to let them loose to prey on innocent children.

Sales of illegal child pornography rakes in an estimated $3 billion a year in the U.S. The industry enslaves an estimated 300,000 children. In America 1 in 4 females will be sexually assaulted before they reach the age of 18 and 1 in 6 males will be sexually assaulted before the age of 18.



As for the Internet, it represents the greatest advancement in the growth of pedophiles, pornography, sexual deviation and human slave trafficking in the history of mankind. The lack of regulation, the early success of pornography and the compromising of social sites by sex predators has resulted in an explosion of moral decay.

Some Startling Internet User Statistics:

20% of children are solicited for sex (by either adults or other children) each year

67 of those arrested for Internet crimes against children also possessed child pornography

25% of children who receive sexual solicitations online tell their parents

89% of online sexual solicitations are received in chat rooms or on Instant Messengers

13 million children use Instant Messaging

Yet the moral degradation is felt in many others ways as well. We promote the rape of the earth through the obsession with petroleum, coal, minerals, diamonds, uranium, water and countless other natural resources. We destroy our ecosystem by leveling rainforests and over fishing our oceans.

Achievement is measured in assets and excess with accumulation of wealth the goal, not the protection of natural resources. We buy and sell land that was never ours to begin with and absorb resources faster than they can be acquired.

As a civilization we have adopted goals and standards with no relationship to good or moral quality. Our technological advances have removed the parents from parenting and the teachers from teaching and now every forbidden secret is exposed on the Internet, cell phones, text messages and videos unedited and sexually explicit.



Our movies glamorize sexual deviation and a breakdown of morality while our television programs make deviant, even criminal behavior an acceptable lifestyle. The state of moral decay in America makes stories of decadent cities in the Bible seem almost innocent. Sodom and Gomorra are commonplace cities in today's world.

We are in serious trouble. We are far more advanced toward moral collapse than any civilization in previous history yet no one is shouting alarm. We have met all the requirements of all types of prophecy to be at the End Times, to be in the midst of the Quickening and fast approaching the Purification when the spiritual forces must come forward to alter the fatal course of humanity.



Our institutions and our leaders are so caught up in the game they cannot see the truth. Greed and need has so captured the psyche of America that those souls wanting to do good have difficulty finding like minded souls who share their dream. Are you prepared for a spiritual intervention of epic proportions like predicted? Maybe it is time you consider what is really important to your salvation.

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Obama's Chicago Thugs Keep Racism alive by Forcing the Firing of Black Appointee for Racism

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In what must go down as one of the most bizarre episodes of the Obama presidency the White House, the NAACP and the national and cable news industry all showed their true colors, and it was not the rainbow prism they like to talk about but the darkness of bigotry and prejudice they claim to abhor.



Yesterday morning a conservative web blog released a partial video of a USGA official talking about an incident that took place nearly 25 years ago. In it she appeared to be making racist remarks. There is nothing wrong with a conservative or liberal web site raising questions.

This story came on the heels of the NAACP, in a lust for national attention, starting a firestorm by accusing the Tea Party of being racist. Of course Tea Party and media people fired back and in the end the NAACP would have been much better off saying nothing.



With that backdrop, the conservative story appeared. While there is nothing wrong with the release of a story for political purposes, there is a lot wrong when the White House gang and news media react to the story with no fact checking and in a panic mode, and nothing else could explain the amateur reaction by the Obama gang.

Perhaps they were trying to shove the issue under the carpet so it would not distract from today's big Obama news splash when he signs the financial reform bill and proves he is going after Wall Street. Of course with the stock for Wall Street bad boy Goldman Sachs going up, and Goldman was the top Obama campaign supporter, in spite of the Obama bill and a paltry fine imposed by the SEC, one wonders if financial reform Obama style is not just a ruse.



Back to poor Shirley Sherrod at the Agriculture Department, she was driving back to her office and got three calls from the Deputy Undersecretary of Agriculture Sharon Cook and was finally told to pull off the road. She was told the White House wanted her resignation before the story broke on the Glenn Beck Show on Fox News later in the afternoon. She was forced to text her resignation.



No due diligence. No protections guaranteed under the rules and Constitution. No one even asked her side of the story. The Chicago thugs running the White House will throw any staff appointee under the wheels of the nearest bus on just the threat of Glenn Beck talking about it on his show.



Well shortly after his election the White House and Obama declared war on Fox News and tried to punish Fox News by cutting off White House contact with them. After two years of the war with Fox News Obama and his gang are getting the same result as in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Administration continues to spin their wheels while trying to suppress all opposition. That does not sit well with the American public who has proven they want media watchdogs like Roger Ailes and Fox News to keep an eye on Obama because Fox is burying everyone else in the Nielsen ratings.



Shirley was not being racist, all any responsible person in the news media, White House or Agricultural Department would have known that with a simple fact check. But none was done and they fired her first with the approval of the president. That is a reckless disregard for all laws and protections in this nation. In fact, the white farmer she was supposed to have discriminated against came to her defense saying she saved his family farm.



Ironically, it took a combination of a Black appointee by the president, Glenn Beck and Fox News to show the true colors of this Administration. Their words have no meaning. Truth is a matter of convenience. They will destroy the careers of their own people to protect their media image.

As for the news media, they were just as guilty in failing to fact check the story. The same was true in many incidents in the past. The forces trying to manufacture the news are in control and the American public beware. DO NOT TRUST THE NEWS MEDIA. DO NOT TRUST THE WHITE HOUSE THUGS.

We can only hope that Obama was being used and was not behind the sinister plot to destroy the career of Shirley Sherrod for political expediency. This case of White House manipulation must be investigated and it better be by an independent prosecutor since the Obama Justice Department has proven itself to be inept and far too political to investigate itself.



Civil rights are in question today, and not because of the bigotry of the people but the actions by our political and media institutions. In the process very good and loyal administrators like Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, former governor of Iowa, have been steamrolled into huge mistakes by the White House and will be compromised by taking the heat for the president.

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Democrats Can't Pass Budget - Republicans Can't Tell Budget Cuts - What to do?

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So we have a stalemate in Washington, what else is new? Since neither the majority nor minority party has demonstrated any leadership to date on controlling our budget maybe they would like to hear from the people about how to go about balancing the budget.

Here is my primer on how to get control of America, our budget deficit and national debt.

1. No Congressman (House or Senate) should be allowed to vote on any bill benefiting their campaign contributors. A very straight forward law to prevent conflicts of interest. It should be illegal to vote on bills where the congressman received campaign money from a special interest. Such a rule does not exist and is long overdue.

2. Consolidate half of the overseas military bases in the USA along the Mexican border bringing home - 20,000 - 25,000 troops and support staff to each of four new bases, one in Arizona, one in New Mexico, and two in Texas strategically located along the border to discourage illegal immigration.



Over 1 million American troops are stationed overseas and NOT in a war zone. By relocating a total of about 100,000 troops back to America we would save billions of lost dollars and substantially reduce the cost of keeping troops overseas. A second phase of this relocation would be to bring home an additional, 500,000 troops over the next five years.

3. Require pharmaceutical companies to provide prescription drugs for 25% less than currently charged for the Medicare and Medicaid programs the first year, and an additional 25% less the second year. If they resist get generic drugs.



4. Require health insurance companies to reduce premiums by25% through eliminating unnecessary testing and treatment and adopting tort reform.

5. Create a National Trust for National Parks as a private, profit making enterprise and require the selling of stock to purchase these national treasurers and make them more profitable. Make stock available to all citizens allowing the purchase of trust stock with tax refunds and other incentives. All National Parks should be highly profitable and services could be expanded with private capital available for expansion. This could save raise several billions in the purchase of the Park property by the private trust and the profits from the operation could earn stock holders significant annual dividends. Right now there is no way for the average citizen to earn a fair return on their money.



6. Reduce foreign aid by 50%.

7. Establish small business development initiative to encourage rapid expansion in small business and innovation. Among components would be free patent service for small business, free trademark service for small business, free laboratory testing of small business products and a senior corps of retired business executives to consult with small business owners. This would eliminate some of the prohibitive start up costs of small business encouraging more hiring and expansion. The cost to the government would be more than offset by the increase in taxes paid by the businesses.

7. Offer free medical insurance to anyone agreeing to work beyond the Social Security retirement age of 62 or 67. Raise the retirement age to 65.



8. Undertake a one year review of all government expenditures, waste, duplication and lack of legal authority for the existence of programs with a goal of reducing agency costs by 15%. This review would give the agencies a chance to offset losses with cost efficiencies and elimination of waste.

9. Expand charter schools to 50% of all public education students within three years establishing performance standards on the charter schools and requiring them to give first preference for teacher hiring on displaced public school teachers.



10. Require an economic impact statement on all new expenditures which documents the legislative right to fund the program, identifies a five year budget for the new initiative, identifies the permanent funding source for the program, and determines the cost analysis of hiring employees versus contracting out for the service.

This is part one of my program to balance the federal budget and begin to eliminate the national debt. I welcome all other ideas from readers to help our congress do the job we elected them to do.

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Liberals Demand GOP Ideas while Democrats Fail to Pass a Budget - Who is being honest?

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As summer drags on and we continue to be hit by record heat waves it seems as if the temperature in people has turned up as well. Here just south of our nation's capitol we have had 35 days over 90 degrees this year and this week we are forecast to get 4 more days over 90 degrees. Last summer we got a total of 22 days over 90 degrees.

It seems the hotter we get the more goofy the politicians and media get when it comes to reporting stories and telling the truth. Maybe it would do us well to review some of the more glaring untruths being bantered around by our "informed" media.



First there is the constant droning by NBC and MSNBC commentators and reporters along with other liberal media about the fact the Republicans are not offering any potential solutions to Obama legislation nor are they identifying ways to cut the budget.

This criticism has come from David Gregory, Chuck Todd, Rachael Maddox, Chris Matthews, even reporters like Norah O'Donnell and others who really should know better than to spout off such untruths. Since all of the NBC/MSNBC people are supposed to have extensive political experience their demand that the Republicans come forward with proposals for new legislation and budget cuts right now are silly.

I too have been involved in politics including over 30 political campaigns at the local, state and national levels including House, Senate and presidential races. No where in the political strategy handbooks is there a rule that says when journalists demand answers you have to give it to them. In fact a political campaign that caters to the whims of the media is probably doomed to failure in the first place.



Campaigns are complex undertakings guided by the principle they must peak on election day, not one day before. All work in the campaigns from the grassroots to the media buys must adhere to this principle. In America we already have campaigns that run far too long to maintain the public interest and enthusiasm.

Thus timing in every aspect of the campaign will dictate the success of any proposals to the public. The summer months between the primary and general elections is often referred to as the dead zone when people are tired of the politics and want a break before the fall elections. They deserve such a break.

Campaigns that release political positions and budget cuts during the summer months are stupid, unless the candidate is unknown and needs the media attention. Media people who go on the air during the summer blasting the campaigns for not giving them the answers they seek are equally stupid because they know better and are trying to mislead the public.



News must be slow right now because the NBC and MSNBC gang is on the air every day demanding answers from the Republicans. If a Republican were president right now there would be media favoring the GOP who would be demanding answers from the Democrats so both the liberal and conservative media are equally guilty of being stupid.

The fall election swings into high gear after Labor Day and if there are going to be new legislative proposals or recommended budget cuts they will be introduced after that time. In the meantime the media should give us a break and stop demanding something that is not forthcoming. It would be nice if the media were also honest and didn't act as if the Republicans were hiding something from the public. NBC and MSNBC are preoccupied with helping Obama and getting Democrats elected, plain and simple.



The real truth of the matter is this. The Democrats control congress and the presidency. The Democrat leadership has not even attempted to pass a budget this year. If the ruling party does not have the guts to pass a budget, then the media should demand answers from them first. Of course that won't happen since any budget by the Democrats would include record deficit spending and a record increase in the national, debt. The liberal media does not want to talk about that.

So let NBC and MSNBC continue with the Obama cover up and keep trying to hide from the public the fact the Democrats, who owe us the budget since they are in control, have failed to be honest with the public. People know those who are not honest and those who cover up for those who are not honest. The ratings for MSNBC are the clearest measure of the honesty of the people and MSNBC is mired deep in the ratings cellar where they belong.

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Obama Gets Financial Reform as Wall Street Giant Goldman gets off the Hook again!

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The same day President Obama got his watered down Financial Reform bill through Congress his Administration let the top Wall Street contributor to his campaign, bad boy Goldman Sachs, off the hook with a paltry settlement for financial misconduct to the surprise of Wall Street watchers.

While claiming victory with the financial regulations, it might prove bittersweet to the Administration since Goldman, whose reckless investing many believe nearly brought down the economy, was given a paltry fine of $550 million for stock fraud and lying to investors.



The total fine for Goldman, while not admitting guilt, was half of what the street expected and amounted to just 15 days profit at Wall Street's most profitable bad boy. Since the American public lost trillions of dollars because of this and other actions by Goldman and others it was sorry testament to the enforcement capability of the Administration as they failed to make Goldman an example of Wall Street excess.

To add insult to injury for the American public, the terms of the settlement which allowed Goldman to pay the fine but plea no contest, thus avoid pleading guilty, also allows Goldman to write off the entire cost of the fine, all $550 million, as a business expense thus gaining a huge tax windfall for defrauding investors. Some punishment.



The Obama administration already let Goldman recover 100% of their derivative exposure, which did bring down the economy, when Goldman received $12.9 billion, yes billion, from the federal money going to AIG. In addition Goldman was granted access to discounted Fed funds thus insuring they would make billions of dollars in profits, and spend billions of dollars on executive bonuses, even though their actions helped cause the world economic collapse.

It is clear the Democrats are incapable of launching any kind of reasonable investigation of Goldman with all the former Goldman employees working for the Obama administration, so maybe a Republican victory in the midterm elections could finally result in unveiling the deep, dark secrets of the relationship between Barack Obama and Goldman Sachs.



No answers have ever been offered to questions like the role Goldman played in Obama's 2006 Illinois Senate race when Obama was an underdog and his opponents in the democratic primary and the general election both withdrew from the campaign at the last minute. There are claims one sold his business to Goldman and the other worked for Goldman.

Goldman secretly met with Obama in Chicago before the presidential campaign and became his largest Wall Street contributor as well as bundler for many millions more in contributions. They also sponsored a secret debate in NYC for Obama with Tom Brokaw as moderator to prep him for debating Hillary Clinton in the primary.

Was there any coincidence that the Goldman settlement came the same day as the new financial regulations were approved to crack down on Wall Street? Of course the new regulations are not effective until Obama signs them and he won't do that until next week.



How did Goldman manage to do what they did and only get a slight slap on the wrist when it cost the taxpayers trillions of dollars in losses? Was there any discussion about Goldman between Obama and Warren Buffett, one of the largest stockholders in Goldman, when they met privately the day the settlement was announced.

If the Democrat leaders in Congress are going to ignore the suspicious activity between Goldman and Obama and his campaign, not to mention their influence on his staff which has benefitted Goldman to the tune of billions of dollars since Obama got elected, then what value is any financial reform?

When the truth about what transpired comes out it may indeed be a bittersweet victory for the administration for how can they claim they have cracked down on Wall Street when they just allowed their biggest Wall Street campaign contributor to raid the public treasury for billions of dollars while costing Main Street trillions of dollars in losses?

People should demand Congress rip the veil off of any misconduct that might have taken place between the Obama campaign and Goldman, the billion dollar beneficiary of the Obama Wall Street crackdown.

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Nation's Capitol Hit by Largest Earthquake Ever as Sarah Palin surges in Poll to tie Obama

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The largest earthquake ever recorded within 30 miles of Washington, D.C. rattled the capital early Friday just as a Public Policy Poll was released showing Sarah Palin has now tied Obama for the first time in a head to head match up for 2012 with each receiving 46% of the vote.

This poll by a Democrat leaning organization showed all major GOP candidates tied or ahead of Obama as storm clouds on the election horizon continue to overshadow any achievements touted by the White House. It is not a good omen for the 2010 midterm elections as the Democrats tied to Obama are in danger of losing heavily, perhaps even losing control of the House and Senate.



As for the Palin quake, it hit at 5:04 a.m. ET with a magnitude of 3.6, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was centered near Rockville, Md., the USGS National Earthquake Information Center said. NBC News reported that the quake was felt in the D.C.-area, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Amy Vaughn, a spokesperson for USGS, told WRC-TV that the quake was the largest recorded within 50 kilometers (31 miles) of Washington since a database was created in 1974.



In terms of the Public Policy Poll, the organization said every Republican candidate we polled this month saw a peak in favorability. In individual match ups the gap closed between Obama and his potential Republican competitors this month. This is the first month since we began polling on the 2012 election that Obama is behind or tied with a majority of the Republican candidates.

According to the poll, Obama "trails Mitt Romney 46-43, Mike Huckabee 47-45, Newt Gingrich 46-45, and is even tied with Sarah Palin at 46.



In yet another polling triumph Sarah Palin gave more reason for liberals to have a stress test as she was in first place among GOP candidates for President in her favorable rating at 76%, higher than those for Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, and Bobby Jindal. See the following Gallup Poll.

July 16, 2010

Palin's 76% Favorable Among Republicans Tops Others in GOP



PRINCETON, NJ -- Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the best known and most positively rated of five possible contenders for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Her 76% favorable rating among Republicans is higher than those for Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, and Bobby Jindal.

Even more bad news. Among all voters in the US Palin continues to lead all Republican candidates in favorable rating and is tied with the Obama favorable ratings.



Frank Newport of Gallup says Palin has the strongest name identification and positives among Republicans at this juncture. Only 4% say they don't know enough about her to have an opinion, and, by more than 3-to-1, those opinions are positive rather than negative.

While it is early, way too early to project election impact in 2012, her position at the top of the charts for both Republican voters and the public at large is quite amazing.

With the national media suddenly realizing she continues to be a thorn in the side of Obama in spite of the fact she has never run for president, is not a candidate for any office and is not even a public office holder gives credibility to the Tea Party movement and the Palin appeal.

Stay tuned for more intensive efforts to trash Pain by the old boys network and the liberal left. Maybe one day the left will report on just Palin and her policy instead of every bit of trivia trash about her and her family they can manufacture or find no matter what the cost. Then the people can judge her fairly.

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Why Can't Obama Talk about Successful American Companies? Hope Works Too!

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Today on MSNBC's Morning Joe Show they had a guest from CNBC, the NBC Financial Network. It seems the CNBC team is always more upbeat about the economy and recovery than MSNBC who find political nonsense and entertainment trivia more news worthy.

This morning Jim Cramer, the Host of Mad Money on CNBC and certainly one of the more entertaining financial analysts you will ever hear was a fill in guest commentator on MSNBC. It was during an interview with Michigan Governor Jennifer M. Granholm, an Obama admirer and apologist for the Administration on the Obama Stimulus program that Cramer got my attention.

You see Obama was scheduled to speak at the groundbreaking for a new plant in Michigan that is alleged to be a result of the Stimulus and the Governor was hosting him. To hear the Governor talk about Obama you would think she is a cheerleader for him like the Governor of Pennsylvania, Edward G. Rendell. I guess neither read the polls and know that only 40% of the people have a favorable view and over 60% say the Stimulus did nothing for them and want no more Stimulus if what we have got is the result.



But then neither is running for reelection and while Rendell also has a fading favorable rating, Granholm cannot run again and she will be history unless Obama hires her. After all, Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, has lost over 1.3 million jobs recently, and has over 1.8 million people receiving food assistance from the government. The GM and Chrysler bailouts by Obama have not been too good for the local economy.

At any rate while Granholm was droning on about the value of the Stimulus Cramer suddenly interrupted her and asked why she never talked about the successful companies in the US instead of just those who received money from Obama. It caught her cold. Cramer then got excited as only he can do and said the problem with the economy in America is that it is a political football and it should not be a political issue but an economic issue.



He asked her why she never talked about one of the greatest success stories in the world, the Ford Motor Company story, and the phenomenal job being done by the CEO Alan Mulally. Cramer said no one in the Obama Administration ever talks about successful companies unless they received government money and Ford survived without the government auto bailout and is now one of the strongest automakers in the world. Since they are headquartered in Michigan, he thought it was odd the Governor was talking about a company that would employ 400 people sometime in the future and never mentioned Ford who was now employing thousands of workers.

The Governor was speechless and tried to answer without mentioning Ford, a rather formidable task. It was clear Ford was not in the talking points the White House wanted mentioned but Cramer's point was clear. If politicians would talk about the successful American companies, especially the ones like Ford who are making it without a federal bailout, maybe people would have more confidence in the future. Right now Obama only talks about those receiving Stimulus money and since people do not believe the stimulus is working it only reinforces that the government doesn't know what to do about the economy.



If our politicians want to lead they can start by giving us a positive message, not the negative nitpicking we now get. We need to stop blaming people for what is wrong and start talking about those people who are doing things right. Hope is earned in America and the politicians in America seem to have forgotten the need for hope.



Let us all hope the politicians get the message and start giving us a reason to believe in the future, not look back in disgust. The people, not the politicians, have the knowledge, creativity and drive to get us out of the recession and economic downturn if the politicians would just shut up. If only political ads would be banned from TV there might be a way out of the morass we find ourselves in.

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How Greed Not Obama Controls the Health Care System - CVS Exorbitant Drug Profits

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For several years we have reported on different aspects of the health care industry and how the American public is being charged outrageous prices for prescriptions, examinations, and treatment far beyond what is reasonable and good for our health and economy.

Now Obama has passed his Health Care Reform and rather than attempting to clean out the greed and lies powering the profit of the industry, he has institutionalized it in a way that may make it impossible to fix. The system now works in a way that makes it harder and harder to get to the truth, and that assumes Congress and the president have any desire to investigate those throwing money into their campaign funds.



Let me give you a real life example of how the shell game works that makes you feel good about your health care while others make outrageous profits. In the end you are paying for these profits, all consumers are paying, because your health insurance just increases premiums to make up for it.

I needed an antibiotic for a treatment and I do not have health insurance. Most small businesses like mine cannot afford health insurance and in spite of that Obama intends to fine me for it. But that is another story about the loss of freedom and choice in America.



So my doctor calls in a prescription to CVS Pharmacy in Leonardtown, Maryland, a huge chain that advertises how they are taking care of the needs of their consumers. Since I live down on the Potomac River about 25 miles away I asked a friend to stop by and pick it up. Also I said to check whether it was generic or the brand drug.

I am always nervous about the brand versus generic drugs because as with most products, there is a reason generics are cheaper. In many product lines it may be that inferior materials or packaging are made in China where there is no effective quality control. It may be the size of package or weight of the product are smaller than the brand name they are meant to replace.



Whatever the reason I know when I get something cheaper at WalMart I have most likely given up something in terms of quality and quality control since most stuff is now made in China. However, when it comes to pharmaceutical drugs I am not inclined to take the cheaper route because the government and health care industry say brand names are better because quality control is better since it is made in America, not China.

When my friend stopped by CVS the Pharmacist said if I wanted the brand name I needed to have health insurance and since I didn't they recommended a cheaper generic alternative. The cheaper alternative still cost over $73 for 100 pills, far more than any recent prices I had seen for antibiotics. When he called me back with the information I did some research.



First I called CVS and said why did having health insurance dictate whether I would get brand or generic drugs? She advised me that without health insurance most people cannot afford brand names. If you have health insurance they will just process the insurance claim if that is what you want.

So I asked what the cost for the brand name medicine would be and she looked it up and replied it would be over $700 for the same prescription. Now I was not a math major but I was the Assistant Treasurer of the State of New Jersey, back when we had a state budget surplus, and I questioned how the brand name could cost ten times as much as the generic. She didn't know.



Then I pointed out that virtually all brand prescriptions for penicillin type antibiotics in America now have their major ingredients made in China to lower the cost so they could compete with generics. She was not aware of the recent FDA revelations of the manipulation of brand manufacturing and the use of Chinese components in them.

So I then got the actual cost of the generic medicine from my doctor, who was outraged by the cost of the generic drug, and absolutely astounded by the cost of the brand name. In one phone call he determined the generic drug cost CVS about $7.50 for 100 pills, in other words the pills cost CVS about 7½ cents each. They sold them to me for 73 cents each. But if I had health insurance and bought the brand name they cost $7 each, even though major ingredients were now made in China. That means CVS was marking up the generic drug to me almost ten times! CVS, the friendly neighborhood drug store, was taking me to the cleaners for 10 times their cost for the drug!



Not even the big bad oil companies have the guts to charge consumers ten times more than their cost to produce gasoline. In fact I know of no industry outside the health care industry where such outrageous profits are charged. This is what the Obama health care reforms have brought to us.

Just as important, if major pharmaceutical companies are now manufacturing some of their drug components in China, why is their price continuing to increase and why is it already ten times more expensive than the generic drug which is already marked up ten times more than the cost to CVS?



We Americans have been sold a bill of goods in health care. No one is looking for meaningful ways to reduce the cost of health care, just to make sure that the outrageous costs are covered by health insurance. Many billions of dollars in excessive profits are being charged by the pharmaceutical industry, and clearly the retail pharmacies like CVS, and no one in Washington seems to care.

Any responsible congressman should initiate a congressional investigation of the pricing structure for drugs by the pharmaceutical companies and their retail partners like CVS. It is not the health of Americans that is driving up health care costs it is the cost of the greed inherent in the industry and the protection the government has given to protect these excessive profits.

Ironically, my congressman is Steny Hoyer, the Majority leader of the House and the force behind the Obama Health Care Reform. Hoyer is the recipient of thousands of dollars from health care providers and has shown no indication of questioning the cost of health care that he is protecting. We citizens are being held hostage by politicians who place a higher value on special interests like health care providers than the value they place on American citizens.



Congress should investigate this matter. The Justice Department should investigate this matter. The Obama administration should investigate this matter and the people should investigate this matter. If we don't go after excessive profiteering, unfair business practices and price manipulation then we have no representation in Washington. No reform will work when the industry is trapped in a cycle of greed like we face.

Prescription drug prices in the United States are the highest in the world. "The prices Americans pay for prescription drugs, which are far higher than those paid by citizens of any other developed country, help explain why the pharmaceutical industry is — and has been for years — the most profitable of all businesses in the U.S. In the annual Fortune 500 survey, the pharmaceutical industry topped the list of the most profitable industries, with a return of 17% on revenue."



As an example of the extremely high U.S. drug prices, consider the cholesterol drug Lipitor, the best selling drug in the world. At CVS, a leading U.S. pharmacy, Lipitor (40 mg/90 tablets) costs $361.99. At Drugstore.com, another U.S. pharmacy, the same drug costs $335.97. While in Canada at CanadianOnlineRx.com pharmacy, the cost is $215.46, in The Netherlands $177, and in India at licensed pharmacy InternationalDrugMart.com, the identical generic drug costs $120.94 (Source: All costs in US$,19 May 2008, from the respective pharmacy websites).



The rise in costs of prescription medicines affects all sectors of the health care industry, including private insurers, public programs, and patients. Spending on prescription drugs continues to be an important health care concern, particularly in light of rising pharmaceutical costs, the aging population, and increased use of costly specialty drugs. In recent history, prescription drug costs have outpaced other categories of health care spending, rising rapidly throughout the latter half of the 1990s and early 2000s. While the rate of growth in spending has slowed somewhat, it is projected to exceed spending on hospital care and other professional services in 2010 and through 2019.

Come on Steny, show us how much you care about deficit spending and runaway costs of your constituents health care by checking this out. As for CVS, for shame. You are the poster boy for the greed that has crippled the health care industry in America.

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