Blue Dog Democrats, Kudos to the Rational

Blue tick hounds are the feature of one of my favorite childhood stories, Where the Red Fern Grows. These hounds were faithful, loyal, and down right great hunters in the book.

Today we are witnessing a Blue Dog rebellion that proves that all Democrats have not fallen for the lust for power. I do not know how many will remain this way but until then - KUDOS to the Blue Dogs.

• They have proven that they are faithful to the people that they represent and not the party sing-a-long.

• They have proven that they are loyal and committed to the American ideal, an ideal that began with our forefathers: a republic for the people and by the people (not the ruling party)

• They have also proven to be great hunters as they are actually reading through the 1000 page nightmare being called "health care reform".

These great hunters have unearthed a $100 billion dollar fiasco that was written into the bill. Someone thought that they would be clever with the budget by putting in a provision for general health care (which would cover shots, wellness visits and such). This sounds great until you hear the next part.

The $100 Billion dollars will NOT be included as a budgeted item. In other words, the Democrats who are pushing this mess are hiding spending on health care! How else could they change the numbers and make the costs look better?

Let me put it in a better picture. Say I have a $2000 a month budget for my household. All the money has a category, and I do not have any extra income. But I decide to make a provision for $1000 more a month spending, without any way of covering the cost (not on credit or any other means of payment).

I can't do that. But the "fuzzy" math of our legislature allows them to print money whenever the feel like it. SO they fake the numbers and lie to us about the real costs!

Oh no, you say. Read Jamie Dupree's blog. Here is a snippet:

How about the title of Section 1705 for some good government language, "Expanded Outstationing."

This basically makes it easier for people to apply for help from the government at "DSH" hospitals - Disproportionate Share Hospitals, which get money from the feds and states to treat indigent patients.

Section 1712 would drop the "Tobacco Cessation Exclusion From Covered Outpatient Drugs."

That would make tobacco cessation counseling a covered benefit for pregnant women, according to one review of this bill.

Medicare began covering some of these type services in 2005.

Finally, let's talk about the government exempting some of its operations from certain laws, in this case the Paperwork Reduction Act, which has a self-explanatory title.

This bill has one specific exemption from that law, in Section 1221 on "Ensuring Effective Communication in Medicare."

I will let you come up with some quick one-liners on how an excessive amount of paperwork might not ensure effective communication.

Remember, you can download the bill yourself at http://bit.ly/nSL2A

As we work through the details of these bills, I keep getting complaints about my effort to see what's in these, in other words an accusation of media bias against the Democrats and President Obama.

One person was especially aggravated at my blog about Section 2002, which had a special budgetary exemption, so that certain costs were not counted on budget.

Don't believe the compost coming out of Washington! read it for yourself and see the disaster awaiting for us as our politicians seek to sink our nation into the mire of a greater depression.

It's time for the hippie revolution on Capital Hill to end.