The Way I See ItBy cj pollickWhere is Gov. Charlie Crist? - One report has Crist in New York attending a fundraiser for his US Senate campaign. Where is Crist's opponent Marco Rubio? Meeting with small groups of Floridians to discuss changes necessary in Washington. If raising money wins elections, Charlie Crist will beat Rubio in a landslide win. However, recent polls show Rubio gaining support from Republican voters all across the State of Florida. Charlie might win the GOP primary, but the margin of victory may not be a large as Crist would have expected. Is Obama Trying To Do Too Much? - History will remember Barack Obama for many things; perhaps nothing will surpass his winning the US Presidency as the first minority American president. However, Obama might be remembered for his efforts to change America during his first year in elected office to something less capitalistic and more socialistic. America is most assuredly becoming more socialistic under Obama's leadership. And, if he is able to pass (with support from the Democrat majority in Congress) federal (socialized) healthcare reform, the time-honored privatized American healthcare system will be irrevocably changed for many years. Government jobs will be created while private insurance company administrative jobs will be lost. Federal government will grow while private business will shrink. Taxes will increase for all workers while wealthy people will lower their taxable income. One thing is clear with the Obama agenda: wealth will be redistributed in America. People who earn over $250,000 will be heavily taxed, small and medium-sized businesses will pay more taxes, government will get larger, foreign business competition will increase, jobs will be lost overseas and American healthcare will resemble the Canadian Healthcare system. Our nation's debt will continue to rise to the point where we will be unable to meet interest-only debt payments. Social security could collapse due to unfunded government IOU's and expensive medical delivery expenses could depend upon the patient's age prior to medical treatment (as is the case in many other countries with socialized medicine). The face of America will change for many years. Why is President Obama trying to complete a huge overhaul of America in the first year of his presidency? Fear. Fear that independent voters will quickly learn of his actual intentions of socializing America. The year 2010 is a mid-term election year for Democrats in states where voters are more conservative than, say, California, New York, Massachusetts or Michigan. Democrats who won elected seats in more conservative states won those seats due to voter frustration with wasteful spending Republicans in Congress. Those Republicans were removed from elected office in 2008. If current wasteful spending continues, then voters might just kick out Democrats in favor of new, fresh, more independent candidates who are fiscal conservatives regardless of party affiliation. President Obama is factually losing voter support in every national poll. Wasteful spending in Washington has grown to epidemic proportions. Many supporters of Obama are now asking: why is he trying to do so much in the first year of his presidency? Israelis Are Left To Decide On Their Own - If Israel waits much longer to bomb certain nuclear weapon facilities in Iran, they could lose their last possible chance to destroy Iran's nuclear weapons. Iran, on the other hand, now states that their nuclear weapon development facilities can't be stopped, regardless of any Israeli bombing threat. Secretary Hillary Clinton has dutifully followed the agenda laid-down by Washington and has made verbal threats to Iran's leadership to stop the development of nuclear weapons. Iranian leaders, however, refuse to stop nuclear development. What if Israel bombs Iran's nuclear weapon facilities? Would Iran attack Israel? What role would the US play in the attack? Obama's Health Plan Much Like Massachusetts Health Plan - Thanks to former Gov. Mitt Romney and Democrat leaders in Massachusetts, Massachusetts health plan is similar to the health plan being proposed by President Obama and Democrat leaders in Washington. How has the Massachusetts health plan performed over the past decade? It reflects the highest cost small group health plan in the nation. Costs for the Massachusetts health plan continue to climb due to its flawed business structure. The plan desires to enroll everyone (universal coverage) and use community rating techniques (to level premium costs for all participants) but, in reality, the manner in which people abuse the Massachusetts plan is causing rate increases, so said Harvard-Pilgrim CEO Charlie Baker to the Wall Street Journal. People can enter and leave the Massachusetts plan as they have large claims, the plan is guaranteed issue, thus, it insures everyone who applies. Thus, some people pay premiums only for the time period of a claim then quit paying premiums. Individuals who are healthy, on the other hand, are expected to pay for the excess costs of unhealthy insureds. According to the Harvard-Pilgrim Community Plan, the "spreading of risk" concept works if you have everyone participating in the risk pool paying annual premiums. When people can abuse the community risk pool payment concept, such as paying premiums when one has a claim and then quit paying premiums, the plan ends-up with higher claim costs than budgeted. In Massachusetts, the state health plan is suffering annual financial deficits. Copy the Massachusetts plan? Not a good idea. Tom Watson At Age 59 Had A Chance - How good are senior golfers on the PGA Champions Tour? If you follow statistics from the senior golfing tour you might be surprised to find names other than Tom Watson on top of the leader-board. Yep, those senior (over age 50) golfers are good, just ask Tom Watson. Nevertheless, Tom Watson is one of those talented senior golfers who can, and still does, play golf at the highest professional level. Last weekend Tom Watson was the leader of the British Open until the eighteenth hole, when a younger Stuart Cink made a birdie and forced a four-hole playoff against crowd favorite Watson. Cink won and Watson, at age 59, will be remembered as narrowly missing the British Open Championship in a playoff. How good are the senior golfers? Pretty doggone good. Michael Vick Is Out And Back - Remember when former Atlanta quarterback Michael Vick made a bad decision and helped to support pit bull dog-fighting events? Yes, he was caught and paid a huge personal price as punishment for that terrible decision. Michael Vick was released from prison and recently released from wearing an ankle bracelet. He paid his punishment and may, if NFL commissioner approves, play again in the NFL. What Michael Vick did was clearly wrong, but so was many other things done by former NFL players who had a second chance to play NFL football. Michael Vick will play football again, it is only a matter of where. Oakland would love to take Vick, so would Cincinnati, Dallas, New England, Minnesota and a host of other NFL teams. Of course, some might ask if Vick is in physical shape to play top level football as a quarterback. The answer is, yes. Vick is an amazing athlete who could put on an NFL uniform and remain a threat to score every time he touches a football. Second chance for Michael Vick? It is up to the NFL commissioner to decide, but the outlook appears positive for Vick. Let's hope he has learned to avoid many of his "boyhood" friends.
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