Archive for the Category » nanny state «

WFW: Insured by the Nanny State or by God?

July 28th, 2010 | Author: akagaga

The Word for Wednesday is a meme for Christian bloggers to share what’s on their heart. If you’d like to participate, see the WFW tab above.

No matter what problem may befall an American, there’s a government insurance program for that. Here’s a sampling, although I’m sure I’ve missed dozens of others.

Has your bank failed? Never fear. If your bank is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, your deposit up to $250,000 will be covered by the government. “No depositor has ever lost a penny of insured deposits since the FDIC was created in 1933.”

Lost your job? The Senate has just passed a bill to extend unemployment benefits through November 30, retroactive to June 2.

Can’t afford groceries? “The SNAP food benefits (used to be called food stamps) helps people with low incomes and resources buy the food they need for good health.”

Can’t get credit for your small business? HR 5297, the Small Business Lending Fund Act of 2010, is now working its way through Congress. It “Establishes in the Treasury the Small Business Lending Fund, administered by the Secretary of the Treasury to cover purchases of preferred stock and other financial instruments from eligible institutions (Small Business Lending Fund Program). Limits the aggregate amount of purchases at $30 billion.”

Is your house subject to flooding? The National Flood Insurance Program will solve your problems.

Is your house subject to flooding and wind? HR 1264, The Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2009, is also going through various committees. It “Amends the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 to require the national flood insurance program to enable the purchase of multiperil coverage and optional separate windstorm coverage to protect against loss resulting from physical damage or loss of real or related personal property located in the United States. Defines windstorm as any hurricane, tornado, cyclone, typhoon, or other wind event.”

And, of course, there’s Obamacare, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act comprised of 2,000+ pages. I’d tell you what it does, but even it’s champion Nancy Pelosi doesn’t know:

Many Christians feel compassion for those who are suffering, and Jesus feels it most of all. Prior to the Nanny States of America, Christians would feel compelled to heed the words of our Lord:

Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. (Matthew 5:42)

In this day and age, though, we rely on the government to do our giving for us. I know of church ministries designed specifically to help the down and out find just the right government program to solve their problems. Is that a valid ministry of the Lord, or is it a cop-out that allows us to keep our own possessions and still feel good about ourselves? Is it how the early church operated? I think not.

For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need. (Acts 4:34-35)

Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints (2 Corinthians 8:1-4)

I firmly believe that forcing Christians and others, through taxation, to supply for the needs of all cannot be considered a Christian practice – nor does it spread the gospel of Jesus Christ, our one true task on this earth. In fact, I think forced redistribution of wealth teaches people to trust in government instead of God – which may be one of the reasons we are now considered a post-Christian culture.

Trust in the LORD and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. (Psalms 37:3)

It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD Than to trust in princes. (Psalms 118:8-9)

Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed. (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

Category: Word for Wednesday, abuse of power, nanny state | 2 Comments

Fat Police Take Aim at Our Kids

May 26th, 2010 | Author: akagaga

from CNSNews.com:

A bill introduced this month in Congress would put the federal and state governments in the business of tracking how fat, or skinny, American children are.

States receiving federal grants provided for in the bill would be required to annually track the Body Mass Index of all children ages 2 through 18. The grant-receiving states would be required to mandate that all health care providers in the state determine the Body Mass Index of all their patients in the 2-to-18 age bracket and then report that information to the state government. The state government, in turn, would be required to report the information to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for analysis.

The Healthy Choices Act–introduced by Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee–would establish and fund a wide range of programs and regulations aimed at reducing obesity rates by such means as putting nutritional labels on the front of food products, subsidizing businesses that provide fresh fruits and vegetables, and collecting BMI measurements of patients and counseling those that are overweight or obese.

Section 101 of the bill amends the Public Health Services Act by stating that health care providers must record the Body Mass Index of all children ages 2 through 18. “The provision relates to all children in states that accept grants under the bill,” a spokesperson for Rep. Kind told CNSNews.com. “However, it is important to note that no one is forced to come in for a doctor’s visit to get their BMI tested. BMI will be taken at times when the child makes an otherwise scheduled doctor’s visit.”

BMI is calculated by taking one’s weight in pounds and height in inches, multiplying that number by one’s height in inches and then multiplying that number by 703. Any number over 24 is considered overweight, with higher numbers resulting in a diagnosis of obese (BMI = [weight / (height x height)] x 703).

To pay for implementing BMI data gathering, Sec. 102 of the bill states that the federal government will give grants to states that meet certain criteria, including having “the capacity to store basic demographic information (including date of birth, gender and geographic area of residence), height, weight, and immunization data for each resident of the state.”

The grants also will pay for personnel and equipment necessary to measure patients’ BMI.

The grants also require that if a child’s BMI is greater than the 95th percentile for the child’s age and gender, the state will provide “information on how to lower BMI and information on state and local obesity prevention programs.”

Read the rest here if you can stand it. Me? I’m gonna raid the fridge.

Category: Big Brother, abuse of power, fat police, health care, nanny state, privacy | Leave a Comment

Govt: You knew it was a snake when you picked it up

March 24th, 2010 | Author: akagaga

Here are a couple snippets from an excellent article by Thomas L. Knapp:

A woman comes upon a snake in some kind of trouble (frozen, injured or being attacked). She rescues the snake, takes it home, and nurses it back to health. It becomes a trusted friend and pet. Then one day, she decides to go to town and picks up the snake to take it with her … and it bites her. As she dies, she asks the snake why. “Lady,” the snake says, “you knew I was a snake when you picked me up.”

Every new government outrage against all that is right and good elicits reactions of astonishment and outrage — and every time I hear those reactions, I think of The Fable of the Snake.

Folks, the guys I’m quoting here are the naive, feel-good, utopian, hippy dippy doo optimists of political history. If you want to a more level-headed, accurate assessment of the ends to which government means inevitably lead, read any well-written history of the Third Reich’s Holocaust, Pol Pot’s Killing Fields or Mao’s Great Leap Forward.

It’s time to stop kidding yourself.

It’s time to stop buying the “this time, it will be different — really!” line.

Category: abuse of power, government thinking, health care, liberty, nanny state, politics, welfare state | Leave a Comment

NYC’s Manic Depressive Bloomberg: Heroin Yes, Salt No

January 11th, 2010 | Author: akagaga

Is NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg merely the gullible avant-garde for the paternalistic nanny state – or more sinisterly (which coincidentally is defined as being related to the left) is he a herald of the coming fascist regime? Whatever his motivation, he’s a very conflicted man.

Within one week, I came across the following two stories. How could both ideas be generated by the same person? Unless, of course, that same person is really more than one person. It’s gotta stink being Bloomberg.

Heroin for dummies

Here’s the latest smack on taxpayers.

The city spent $32,000 on 70,000 fliers that tell you how to shoot heroin, complete with detailed tips on prepping the dope and injecting it into your arm.

The 16-page pamphlet features seven comics-like illustrations and offers dope fiends such useful advice as “Warm your body (jump up and down) to show your veins,” and “Find the vein before you try to inject.”

It even encourages addicts to keep jabbing if their needles miss the mark.

“If you don’t ‘register,’ pull out and try again,” it says.

Citing Hazard, New York Says Hold the Salt

First New York City required restaurants to cut out trans fat. Then it made restaurant chains post calorie counts on their menus. Now it wants to protect people from another health scourge: salt.

On Monday, the Bloomberg administration plans to unveil a broad new health initiative aimed at encouraging food manufacturers and restaurant chains across the country to curtail the amount of salt in their products.

The plan, for which the city claims support from health agencies in other cities and states, sets a goal of reducing the amount of salt in packaged and restaurant food by 25 percent over the next five years.

Category: Big Brother, abuse of power, nanny state | 4 Comments

Private Health Care Insurance will be History

December 10th, 2009 | Author: akagaga

Robert Tracinkski has written a nice one-page summary of the 2000-page health care bill that the Senate is “debating.” First, he says, ignore the abortion-funding issue because the left will accept restrictions on that to get moderate democrat votes for passage. And debating the “public option” is only a distraction, because they don’t have the votes to pass it.

The three real issues, he contends, are as follows:

1. guaranteed issue and community rating By requiring insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions, and regulating the rates they can charge for them, it will drive up the cost for everybody else.

But why spend years paying these inflated premiums for insurance you’re not using, when you can get exactly the same benefits by waiting until you actually fall ill? The obvious result is that million of people, especially healthy young people, will quickly realize that there is no reason to buy health insurance until they get sick.

Obviously, this will drive private insurers out of business and leave us to go crawling back to the government for health care – and you’re a dreamer if you think the democrats don’t know this.

2. individual mandate So that people can’t do this, everyone will be required to purchase insurance or pay an unconstitutional tax just to exist. Because this isn’t very popular, they’ve set it at $750 a year. But if insurance cost $3000 a year, and you have no incentive to buy it until you’re sick, which will you choose to pay?

3. Health “Choices” Czar

But the biggest power-grab in the bill is the government takeover of the entire market for health insurance. The bill requires all new policies to be sold on a government-controlled exchange run by a commissioner who is empowered to dictate what kinds of insurance policies can be offered, what they must cover, and what they can charge.

Right now, your best option for reducing the cost of your health insurance is to buy a policy with a high deductible, which leaves you to pay for routine checkups and minor injuries (preferably from savings held in a tax-free Health Savings Account) but which covers your needs in catastrophic circumstances-a bad car accident, say, or expensive treatment for cancer. This is the kind of coverage I have.

But the health-insurance exchange is intended to eliminate precisely this kind of low-cost catastrophic coverage. Its purpose is to force health-insurance companies to offer comprehensive coverage that pays for all of your routine bills-which in turn comes at a higher price. So under the guise of making health insurance more affordable, this bill will restrict your menu of choices to include only the most expensive options.

So there we have the real essence of this bill. It restricts our choice of which insurance to buy and pushes us into more expensive plans. At the same time, it destroys the economic incentive to purchase insurance in the first place and replaces insurance with a free-floating tax on one’s very existence.