Social security was a watershed moment in our history and we've been gravitating towards socialism ever since. It could be argued that socialism began here in 1917 when events in Russia began to influence events in America. But, what can't be argued is that each new social program we've invented since then has created more dependency on big government. It's also placed a growing burden on the most wealthy and most productive people in our society and these impositions have now filtered down the middle class.

The Democratic Party has exploited the division between the very rich and the very poor to garner votes and advance their left leaning agendas and the results have been both crippling and controlling. They've also exploited racial divisions too, but that part gets too complicated to explain in this short essay, so I'll stick with the economic side.

Somewhere in the late 1960's Democrats had figured out the best way to win elections and gain power was through a populist appeal (social programs coupled to wealth shifting). By the 1980's their agenda had become outright vote buying and there was a constant rising tide of socialist programs we call safety nets. To resist this movement, the Republicans could only appeal to citizens common sense and a plea to stay the course and keep the principles that founded this nation. It was not enough.

"The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money." - Alexis de Tocqueville

A majority of citizens were made to fear and loath McCarthy and his ilk, but they also feared zealotry on any side, and the communists/socialists were only too eager to exploit that fear. The socialist movement now moderated itself and gravitated to play the role of victim and a struggling defender of the downtrodden. They had nothing but good intentions to help the blue collar types.

Jumping ahead 50 plus years we've seen a huge change in our nation's demographics thanks mostly to unchecked illegal immigration and birth rates among the poor. Simultaneously, and not so coincidentally, we've seen an expansion of government, more wealth shifting and a plethora of safety nets won by a single political force....populism.

The Republic we had from decades back no longer exists today; instead it's something less free, more expensive and less productive.

Looking back at what happened it's only too obvious. Each move to the left was made with good intentions and this had widespread appeal to the people who wanted government to do something.... for them. Ironically the more burdens that were placed on the wealthy the less productive we seem to be. The poor were only slightly elevated, but more importantly they were more confined to staying poor.

What we see happening today was predicted centuries ago and we've seen examples throughout history what happens when populism gains absolute control and the end is always catastrophic.

The baby boomer generation may be the last point of friction in this transition phase. It's no wonder the Tea Party people are mostly over 50. So it's just a matter of time now, a decade or two and this "friction" will die out and the citizens who have acclimated to socialism will be far more accepting of it. At that point the transition will be complete and this Republic will be pronounced brain dead.

Have you been following the progress of the "Virtual Fence" on the US border? It seems we've spent a gazillion dollars on this high tech project and now it will never be finished.

It's been problem after problem, the engineers would solve one problem and two more would pop up and so it went, some 2800 major design flaws and problems that were completely unexpected. Homeland's Janet Napolitano said, "The system of sensors and cameras along the Southwest border . . . has been plagued with cost overruns and missed deadlines." Talk about an understatement! This high-tech system is years behind schedule and was far more expensive than predicted and it's been notoriously unreliable.

Of course there seems nobody to blame for wasting the taxpayers money again. In these kind of massive boondoggles nobody ever gets fired or held accountable, have you ever noticed that? Why, why is that, I really want to know? How could so much money be wasted before we finally called a halt to it and now there is nobody to blame?

The remaining $50 mil set aside for more fence building is going to be used in other ways for border security. But, what assurances do we have that won't be wasted too? We don't and it probably will.

What gets me is how could we have spent all those millions for a security fence only to find out at this late date... that it won't work? Wasn't there anyone who did their homework, some sort of feasibility studies, before we started throwing money at this massive project? This is just mind-blowing stupid and it started during the Bush administration in response to a flood of illegal immigrants and drug smugglers coming across the Rio Grande and other entry points.

Colleen LaRose, 46, of Pennsburg, appeared in federal court wearing a green jumpsuit and corn rows in her blond hair, smiling warmly at her public defenders when she entered the courtroom for her arraignment. The judge set a May 3 trial date on charges in the four-count indictment, unsealed last week.

LaRose was accused of conspiring with fighters overseas and pledging to commit murder in the name of a Muslim holy war, or jihad. She was arrested Oct. 15 returning to Philadelphia from Europe and remained in federal custody while authorities pursued the investigation.

For more on this story click here.

In Bangladesh, where the average wage is about $1 a day, girls as young as 13 make between $2 and $4 per sex transaction. 18 is the legal age for being a prostitute, but nobody seems to be checking. Most of the younger prostitutes are sold to Madams who then takes her cut until their purchase price is paid back plus interest. When they finally earn their freedom they are so stigmatized in this Hindu society they generally continue to work in the trade because they really don't know any other life and have no education.

A number of very advanced countries have legalized prostitution, but each with certain limitations, such as confined to brothels, confined to individuals, etc. Some of these countries are Singapore, Thailand, Denmark, Wales, Sweden, Canada, France, England and Israel. As you might have guessed its also legal in Mexico.

Back in the USA disease and violence runs pretty high, at least outside the brothels of Nevada. Hookers are frequently victims of rape or assault. Syphilis, gonorrhea, herpes, AIDS, Chlamydia, you name it, it's never far away. It's a highly dangerous trade.

The U.S. prostitutes range from street walkers doing tricks for a pimp or for drug money and variations thereof right up to the so-called high class prostitutes that prefer to be called escorts. These are the rteasonably attractive young women that are occasionally caught doing governors and senators among other high officials.

My two questions to you are do you think prostitution should be legalized and would you use the services of a prostitute if it was legal? The argument in favor of legalization can be found at http://www.liberator.net/articles/prostitution.html. This site makes a very strong and rational argument, backed up with a lot of statistical facts. The argument against legalization can be found at http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/laws/000022.html. Logical arguments and facts to be found on this side too.

UPDATED: (From the ER 18 Mar, 2010: A total of 58 people had been taken into custody as of 6 a.m. today. Chico police said students from Butte College and Chico State University accounted for 20 of the arrests, most for public drunkenness. One Butte student was arrested for an alleged assault on a police officer, and three for driving under the influence. Police responded to a handful of serious incidents, including a stabbing just after 3 a.m. outside Jack's Restaurant on Sixth Street.)

I'll be downtown today getting live action shots with my digital camera and relaying them to our Post Scripts staff for immediate publication.. check back and see if I found you!

And now for some of our early entries....I think this is from a party over on Ivy. See our big guy taking a big hit from a big "beer bong! Oh yeah, fun, fun, he's goin ta feel it tomorrow. And so begins amature drinking day in Chico.

As the morning wears on...

Check out this little hottie on the lower right. Gee, I wonder what she had for breakfast? Well, whatever it was it is on full display on the barroom floor now. Getting drunk and puking your guts out is so much fun and its great entertainment for all your friends, uh, wait, hold up there friends...oops, hey they're running out the front door, Ya better get up Lisa so you can go find them.

And then there was this really funny young guy over by the creek...nothing says fun like projectile vomit. Every year somebody at Chico State overdoses on alcohol or drugs, it never fails. First time drinkers have a real hard time knowing when to say when. Sometimes they have to fall down and passout.

And last we have young love, by the look on his face I think he is just looking for a safe place to drop her off so he can go home. St. Pat's didn't turn out to be as much fun as he had thought.

Most recent update 1530 hours 17 Mar 2010: 8 hours ago a 3.7 hits near Lake Almanor in Northern California.

Previous update at: 2105 hrs. 16 Mar 2010

Are you concerned about the recent number of earthquakes? Los Angeles reported a 4.4 shaker about 14 hours ago and 3 days earlier there was a 4.2 east of El Cahon, near LA. There was 6.7 offshore quake that rattled Chile again and yesterday we had 4.6 off the coast of Oregon. Alaska has been the epicenter of eight earthquakes in the last two days and all of them were over 3 on the Richter Scale - but they have went mostly unreported. But today near Rampart, Alaska they just had a 4. Yellowstone had 11 minor quakes in just the last 4 days. Yellowstone also has volcanic activity. On 3/10 and 3/15 same area had two 3.0 tremblers, the strongest in Northern California in the last 6 days.

Now it has been reported that less than 2 hours 19 minutes ago just off shore in Northern California we had a 4.2 and there were 11 smaller ones around .05 to 1 close to The Geysers about 23 miles from Santa Rose, Ca. The small shakes indicate we are in a state of geologic change and the earth is making adjustments and thats normal. What is not normal is increasing activity in California in cluster quakes. Something is happening, but does this mean the big SF quake is near? Who knows, we just don't have that kind of predicting ability, but we're getting better at guessing. The San Andreas fault is probably the best indicator for quakes in California. The fault 1100 kilometers long and it's been the site of many quakes over the last 150 years.

Basically the San Andreas is the boundary between the North American and Pacific lithospheric plates. Geologists divide it into several segments, each with distinct behavior. A research project has drilled a deep hole into the fault to study the rock there and listen for earthquake signals. This fault is on the move, but how much movement will it take before we have a snap and a major quake?

According to Seismologist Robert M. Nadeau and graduate student Aurélie Guilhem of UC Berkeley, "The tremor activity remains about twice as high today as before the San Simeon quake, while periodic peaks of activity have emerged that started to repeat about every 50 days and are now repeating about every 100-110 days.

What's surprising is that the activity has not gone down to its old level. The continued activity is worrisome because of the history of major quakes along this segment of the fault, and the long-ago Fort Tejon quake, which ruptured southward from Monarch Peak along 350 kilometers (220 miles) of the San Andreas Fault."

Haiti, Japan, China, Indonesia, Iran...a whole lotta of shaking going on. But, where's the big one going to hit next?

There really are no words that would adequately describe what is happening in Washington DC. The health care bill, the process, the tactics have all been called every despicable thing you can imagine. But the new scheme to deem legislation as passed and include things in the final bill that were never debated is unconstitutional...and that just cannot be allowed to stand. Tea Partiers in DC today agree:

We must do what we can to stop this monster! The President is under the impression that we want this bill passed. Polling tells us he is wrong. Contact the White House and let the President know you don't appreciate this unconstitutional maneuver:

Phone Numbers
Comments: 202-456-1111 or 202 224-3121 (toll call)
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461

Stories in the news today reveal that drug company lobbyists were called into secret meetings over the weekend to hammer out details that would satisfy drug companies. This meeting is, of course, in direct conflict with Obama's pledge for transparency and keeping lobbyists out of the process. Other reports indicate that something called a "Public Health Workforce Corps" is included in the reconciliation bill. God only knows what that means since we won't actually know until after its passed. As the Queen Bee herself stated last week she has to get the bill passed so the American people will know what's in it!

If that isn't enough to make you totally disgusted and angry try this from Investors Business Daily:

Frankenstein Rx - IBD

On top of the big increases in health care premiums that the Congressional Budget Office warns will come if this government power-grab passes into law, and on top of stepping on the gas toward fiscal disaster by in effect establishing a new government entitlement, Democratic leaders have now added, of all things, a student aid bill to win moderate Democratic votes. ** Bet you didn't think health reform had anything to do with the establishment of a new "Advisory Council on Green, High-Performing Public School Facilities," as Section 343 on Pages 2,227 to 2,230 of the bill provides for. The new multibillion-dollar bureaucracy "shall be composed of appropriate officials from the Department of Education; representatives of the academic, architectural, business, education, engineering, environmental, labor, and scientific communities; and such other representatives as the secretary (of Education) deems appropriate."

I wish I could say this is the beginning of the end of this nightmare...unfortunately for those of us who prefer limited government, responsible spending and regulation, and ethical behaviors by our leaders this is only the beginning of a long hard slog to put an end to BIG government intrusion, mismanagement and unconstitutional crap.

(Warning some spoilers) Here we go again, another Hollywood war movie that suggests a sinister plot within the U.S. government, how unoriginal.

The movie takes much of its story from many true events in the Iraq war and then adds their own revision of history which predictably makes us look worse than the people we were at war with.

Matt Damon's Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum involved a secret government/CIA program that was out of control and so have so many other movies over the last 30 years.

Enough already, we get it, you guys in Hollywood have a dislike for anything capitalist or our government. You could do so much better at the box office if it were not for your penchant for ragging on everything America does abroad. Universal and its financing partner, Relativity Media, spent about $100 million to produce "Green Zone" and tens of millions more to market the picture, meaning it will be a major money loser thanks to Hollywood's over done cynical obsession that mainstream Americans are tired of seeing.

I can't even see a sci-fi movie like Avatar without leftist propaganda woven into the plot. In Avatar the audience is supposed to moved to cheering on the ecologoically friendly indigenous people valiantly killing U.S Marines who are minions of the ruthless capitalist pigs exploiting someone else's natural resources. Good grief, give us a break, leave the propaganda out of our movies!

In the Green Zone our collective badness is underscored on a number of levels with allegations of sheer incompetence and ruthless indifference. There's this clip of "W" on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln giving his "Mission accomplished!" speech and the movie audience is supposed to laugh at his stupidity in the light of history, but if anyone was laughing I couldn't hear them.

(Spoiler) According to the Green Zone the only reason we invaded Iraq was to impose democracy and the WMD issue was just a big scam. This is somewhat believable in the light of what was said by the Bush Administration and what was not found and this is the mistake the movie exploits.

In the beginning we see the Americans busy looking in all the obviously wrong places for WMD's, yet another indication of how really dumb we are.

Meanwhile, the peace process is going poorly because the Iraqi people are growing frustrated and angry because of a lack of centralized control and a breakdown in basics, including Baghdad's water supply. We just can't do anything right.

Washington (under Bush) is portrayed as totally clueless about the needs and wants of the locals. Of course our bungling is not enough, we're also shown doing cruel things to Iraqi prisoners too, gotta get that malevolent American cruelty in there!

Chief Miller (Damon) is forced to go rogue. He violates his mission orders and single handedly solves the big conspriracy and in doing so he exposes the real reason we went to war. He begins working with a wise, but aging CIA agent who well understands the situation and the Iraq people, but he too is also obstructed at every turn by the evil side of our great (rightwing) conspiracy.

Damon's nemesis is U.S. Envoy Poundstone from the Pentagon (Greg Kinnear). Poundstone is using his virtually unlimited authority to keep Damon from discovering the truth. In the process we see Kinnear and others of his ilk mismanaging just about everything a Washington bureaucrat could mismanage.

What really irritated me was seeing a Special Forces ODA Team playing the role of Kinnear's robotic bad guys. I know a lot of those guys, most served in Iraq and this is just wrong, wrong, wrong.

I think it's no coincidence that Kinnear looks a whole lot like our original envoy, Paul Brenner. Kinnear calls for a press conference to thwart Damon and imprudently disbands the Iraqi Army just when they are needed most (dumb), and as you may recall this is what Brenner and Bush did too. This explains why all the insurgents rose up against us, implies the director, Paul Greengrass.

Let me sum it like this, Jarhead loser - Hurt Locker winner and the Green Zone falls somewhere in between. I give it a 4 out of 10 only because of the action scenes - the plot really sucks. No wonder Alice in Wonderland throughly trounced Damon in the Green Zone.

by One Vike

As you all know by now, I have been offered my own Blog with the Enterprise Record. I must admit that a year ago when I first started writing for Posts Scripts the idea of me having my own Blog was the farthest thing from my thoughts. Truth be told, I was more worried about whether or not the retirement center I pastor for was going to allow me to return.

That was something I never shared with anyone besides my close friends and relatives, was that last year on Good Friday I was told to tame down my description of the suffering Christ went to for our sins. Well, I refused and instead was asked to leave the premises by the director himself. A week later I was told that a mistake had been made and that they had fired the director. I was asked by the new director if I would consider returning as the pastor of the residents. I obviously accepted and have been going strong since.

I share that with you all now, so that you know I am a man of my convictions, and as such my opinions are so rooted in my soul that it will take God and God alone to change the way think. However, I must admit that being a mere sinner like all humans, I too error in the way I go about things from time to time. The difference is I look to Christ to forgive me and i am guaranteed He does, each and every time I stumble. I guess I would like to say to anyone I may have offended in the past, that my intentions are well meaning even if the tone and words I use do not exactly reflect the person I try to be.

As Jack appropriately pointed out, I will be just around the corner pontificating and challenging liberals, atheists, and false teachers with my unique sense of charm and antagonism that you all have grown to either love or hate. I do warn you however, I will be less constrained because of the freedom I will have with my own blog. So if you are up to the challenge and really want a knock down drag out fight that still stays within the limits set by Nor Cal blogs, then come on by and I promise you will not be disappointed.

I have informed the editor of Nor Cal Blogs that I will not start until May 1st however, so those who wish to get a pound of my flesh will have to wait a bit longer. It has been a very long and hectic year for me, and I find myself a bit burned out and and not very creative. Thus the reason I have noit been contributing to PS the last few weeks. Also I have Good Friday and Easter coming up that I need to give my full attention to at the retirement center where I pastor. I have loaded too much on my plate and in the process my personal life has begun to be ignored because of it. I have tried to actually step back and slow down, just to find my self being pulled back to do even more then I was before. Well, I truly believe that now is the time for me to take a hiatus from my writing. Sometimes we need to step back and slow down and that time has come for me. What better moment then before I step up and take on my own blog.

Also I would like to doing some fly fishing, something I was only able to do only twice last year. I have found it to be a great way to relax from the worries of this world. Nothing sets my mind at ease more then trouncing up and down the rivers with a fly rod in my hand and the Lords great outdoors all around me. The times when I can get out and go fishing have been some of my best moments spent in solitude with our Lord. My wife is also fond of fishing and she too missed our time away from the cares of the real world and the solitude of the river.

Well, before I sign off for a while I would like top personally thank K for the many times I was taken to the limit by your steadfastness and honesty for that of which you believe in. Quentin for the way you truly have a way of making me defend that which I believe. Snopes for the many times you supported me and the few times you became an adversary. Mark, although you and I seem to rub each other the wrong way, I thank God for men like you. That is because it make me try even harder to be accurate in the things I believe in, and in the end that is truly a good thing. (even if you are mostly wrong) Libby, you seem to always say the wrong thing at the wrong time, but I love you because you make me fell less extreme in the extreme world of blogging. Nancy, for your unending loyalty ever since we met at FR, give your son an attaboy for the way he has taken his troubles and turned them around to positives. Tom Hawks, what can I say, you have turned out to be quite the ally in many fights both here and elsewhere on the WWW, I look forward to many more battles with you covering my back. Fred, what happened to you guy, and where did you go? If you catch this, I invite you to write on my blog because I liked the way you think.

Finally I would like to thank Jack and Tina, what can I say? You two have allowed me to spread my wings and I will forever be grateful to you for that. It has been a wild ride and while I was already surfing blogs and commenting for over ten years, it was not until you two invited me to share your limelight that I truly experienced what it meant to be a blogger. I will always look back at the time I was here, with fond memories.

God bless you all and if I forgot to thank anyone like Robin, Dr. Beckner, Freepmanchew, Broken Feather, Amigaf, or anyone else I apologize. If anyone is looking for me, I'll be somewhere on the feather river or butte creek attempting to catch that California brown rainbow that got away from me last Spring.

God bless and take care.
OV

LEADVILLE, Colo. (AP) - Before her daughter disappeared last fall, Christina Mott recalls that the 31-year-old who had been held in connection with an alleged assassination plot announced she had converted to Islam and told them they'd go to hell if they didn't follow in her steps.

Jamie Paulin-Ramirez aka Jihad Jane, began talking about Jihad with her Muslim stepfather and spent most of her time online as she withdrew from her family, Mott said.

``We were enemies,'' Christine Mott, 59, said. ``We couldn't even speak to each other.''

Somehow this wacko turned up in Ireland a few days ago and the local authorities busted her and several of her Muslim companions on charges of terrorism. According to published reports this woman had been trying to stir up Muslim extremists using the internet to kill a cartoonist that she claimed defamed the Profit Mohamed.

Miss Paulin-Ramirez, a former trainee nurse from Leadville, Colorado, was one of seven people arrested in Ireland last week over an alleged conspiracy to murder Lars Vilks, a Swedish cartoonist who had depicted the prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog.

In a development that has caused alarm in the United States, she was the second American woman to be linked with the plot.

We're not sure where she is now, but we know Jihad Jane and at least two others have been released from custody, while 3 more associates remain in custody.. We had hoped our President would have issued a Fatwah by now calling for her immediate assassination, just like she's been doing for the cartoonist, but unfortunately no such decree has been forthcoming. I know his popularity would have gone up 20 points if he had! (I'm just kiddin about the fatwah part, a simple, terminate with extreme prejudice order would have worked just as well.)

The American public grows angry and impatient with the announcement of each new traitor who has thrown in with Al Qeada, such as this vile, evil, despicable woman and sooner or later homegrown terrorists like her will be taken out of circulation by old school justice. It's coming and they should be very aware the American public is not nearly as understanding and merciful as the U.S. court system with all their loop holes and delays. The American public is a thousand times more courageous and violent in defense of this nation than any politicians or any court. This is something the terrorists really haven't figured out yet.

Once angered, the American public is a massive and violent force that will not stand down until justice is done. We're extremely capable and well armed with over 250 million weapons and we're not afraid to use them. Traitors and terrorists beware: Consider yourself extremely lucky if law enforcement gets to you before we do. This is our home and we are everwhere, sooner or later we'll find you.
Colleen LaRose, who allegedly called herself Jihad Jane on the internet, was charged in the US last week over the plot to kill Mr Vilks.

Irish police have now released four of those arrested without charge and her parents confirmed Miss Paulin-Ramirez was one of them.

According to friends and family, both women had converted to Islam and became obsessed with radical Muslim internet sites, later agreeing to marry foreign men they had met online.

Her mother said the thrice-married Miss Paulin-Ramirez had even communicated online with a Pakistani who said he wanted to come to the US to learn to fly.

Mrs Mott said her daughter told her last Easter she had become a Muslim.

She began talking about jihad with George Mott, her stepfather and a longtime Muslim convert, telling him she would die for the cause, but became increasingly hostile to her family, said her mother.

Our esteemed colleague One Vike, a friend and co-writer of many excellent articles as well as the author of our Sunday Sermon has left Post Scripts for another job and he shall be missed. But, the good news is he will not be leaving the blogosphere here at the ER. OV is going get his own blog! Yes, we knew this day would come, and he deserves it.

Congratulations to you OV, we wish you the very best of luck.

Please let us know the title of your blog when you are ready and we'll post it here with a link.

Unworkable regulations and tangled bureaucracies are a universal problem; they can even be deadly. A woman in Scotland lost her chances for survival when safety regulations prevented firefighters from taking reasonable risks to rescue her:

"Firefighters have been ordered to use ''common sense'' during emergencies after health and safety rules prevented them rescuing a mother who lay dying in a mine shaft for six hours. Fire services will be told to follow new ''non-bureaucratic'' guidelines and take a ''sensible'' approach to hazardous incidents under a new policy unveiled by the Health and Safety Executive. HSE chiefs said the guidelines aimed to ensure firefighters could do their jobs properly without employers flouting safety legislation." - The Scotsman (Edinburgh)

"A study by Science Applications International Corp. at the request of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, the Gas Technology Institute and others shows that as a result of this administration's energy policy, the U.S. economy will suffer $2.3 trillion in lost opportunity costs over the next two decades, monies that would go a long way to reining in runaway deficits and creating economic growth." - Investors.com

Currently the state's are paying about 20% of their budget on Medicare and Medicaid. If we just add more people to this system under the dems new plan without correcting for the waste and fraud we are headed for a colossal failure. This is a no brainer, you can't keep doing the same dumb things and expect better results.

Medicare and Medicaid are broke, actually worse than broke - they owe, and now the government wants us to believe they can manage universal healthcare? Then government needs to show us they can manage Medicare and Medicaid effectively first. As it stands these programs represent hundreds of billions of dollars in unfunded mandates. A frequent complaint from the medical community is their payment schedule is so unrealistically low that most doctors won't accept their subscribers. If private medicine paid as poorly as Medicare we would soon have a doctor shortage.

According to the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud Medicare and Medicaid made an estimated $23.7 billion in improper payments in 2007. These included $10.8 billion for Medicare and $12.9 billion for Medicaid.

If the Obama Administration wants to show us they can lower the waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid first, that's a good start. Then he should come up with a real workable plan. This new plan must be crafted using a blue ribbon panel of experts in the field and of course include the insurance companies. If he would do all that, maybe we could get behind it. But, as it stands we're being sold a great unknown, on weak assurances. We're looking at unsustainable cost increases of about 8% per year and this is going to result in dramatically increased taxes to fund the new healthcare system - there is no way around it.

Look at what we're seeing in Medicare right now (8.8% per year increase), this is the government run plan! Obama's healthcare is too poorly thought out and too much is based on unrealistic data that has been discredited by the President's own GAO. Unfortunately, private insurance premiums have risen at an annual rate of 9.9% and that means reform to the private sector is needed, but Obama's plan isn't it.

Everything Obama and the democrats say about cost saving is simply not supported by any credible evidence. In fact its just the contrary. Democrats have a whole lot of explaining to do before they will get anywhere on a socialized medicine plan.

Fix Medicare and Medicaid first Mr. President - then maybe you will have enough credibility to be trusted with more:

Nearly one of three claims (29 percent) Medicare paid for durable medical equipment was erroneous in FY 2006. (Inspector General report, Department of Health and Human Services, August 2008)

Medicare and private health insurers pay up to $16 billion a year for needless imaging tests ordered by doctors. (American College of Radiology, 2004)

Every $1 the U.S. government invests in combating Medicare and Medicaid fraud saves $1.55. (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2009) Yet Medicare spends less than two tenths of a cent of every dollar of its $456 billion annual budget combating fraud, waste and abuse. (Miami Herald, August 11, 2008)