Forbes has an interesting article on incentives and doctors in the age of ObamaCare.

We all know about the PR campaign in which supporters of the Patient Affordable Care Act were willing to accuse doctors of being no better than unscrupulous used car salesman or as confidence men in lab coats.  They were portrayed as ordering unnecessary surgery but Democrats were going to stop that.

(If you didn’t know lawyers are predominantly left wing, more government, greater complexity, Democrat supporting institutions.)

No Democrat ever admitted publicly, to my knowledge, that the fear of lawsuits promulgated by lawyers and supported by the left’s unwillingness to address tort reform, practically forced doctors to be overly cautious, while also driving up health care costs to allow physicians to compensate for higher rates on malpractice insurance (caused by the ease by which they could be sued and found guilty or forced to settle)–another requirement brought on by a lawsuit-happy ambulance chasing, legal culture.

Get hurt, hit it big – with lawsuit lotto (while your lawyer(s) get 30%.)

Well ObamaCare creates a different set of problems (in the form of government incentives) for doctors.

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We just got a care package from North Carolina.  Caitlin Ann Legacki, whose name (at least) cast a vote from 1200 Elm St, Manchester, in the New Hampshire general election in November 2012, has been simultaneously registered to vote from North Carolina since 2009.  She registered as a Democrat on 9/3/2009 from the address of 305 King St #2E Greensboro NC.

We suspect, and are still fishing, for additional registrations in Iowa, Missouri, Alaska and wherever else she’s set foot on her whirlwind campaign adventures.  And we are certain that she voted in Missouri in 2012 as well, which means that a former Jeanne Shaheen communications flack double voted in 2012, and probably for every Manchester Democrat, the Democrat for congress, against two State Constitutional amendments, and for Shaheen and Obama in the process.

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So many Bill’s so little time, and between the vote fraud and trying to sort through upcoming votes, we sometimes miss the follow up post on something we’ve been vocal about before the vote.  I am referring to License plate scanners per HB 675. The Bill went down in flames.

HB 675  came out of committee ought-to pass on a party-line vote (10-7 committee vote) but died with only 95 voting for and 250 voting against in the full House (55 excused or not voting.)

Police representatives, however, wouldn’t commit to permanently sticking to that (the amended 3 min maximum retention time for scanned plates) retention policy in the future. That didn’t sit well with some legislators, and Rep. Stephen Shurtleff, D-Penacook, HB 675’s sponsor, told Government Technology it was the sticking point that turned the tide against the bill.

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From the Washington Post (no conservative rag, that; emphasis mine):

Just 37 percent say they have either a good amount or a great deal of confidence in the president to make the right decisions for the country’s future, while 63 percent say they do not. Those numbers are the mirror image of what they were when he was sworn into office in 2009 and lower than at any other time the question was asked by The Washington Post and ABC News.

That’s not good at all – and I can’t figure out why his overall approval is at 46% other than it may be the “nice guy” meme he’s had since being elected.  This next part, I totally believe:

Confidence in Democrats and Republicans in Congress, however, is even lower than for President Obama. Twenty-seven percent say they have confidence in Democrats to make the right decisions for the country, while 72 percent do not, and just 19 percent have confidence in Republicans, while 80 percent do not. Almost half lack confidence in all three.

For the GOP, the lack of faith in their decision-making includes their own followers. Just 36 percent of self-identified Republicans say they believe their party’s lawmakers will make good decisions. 

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This morning, I was talking with a Conservative activist and it jogged my memory that I had missed putting up a post.  You see, on the way down to the AFP/NH new office Grand Opening this past Wednesday nite, I noticed this license plate that passed me on 93 South just after climbing the big hill coming out of Concord:

Yes, TMEW’s iPad didn’t get a great shot but it says “3-21” and marked as a NH House Legislator plate.  It didn’t come out well at all, but it is a dark colored (deep blue) Subaru swathed in stickers (of COURSE, the requisite Obama was on the back).  I am a “sticker reader” and was curious as to that the others said, but when I tried to inch closer to read them (cognizant of the 65 mph speed limit), it kept speeding away.  In fact, it was going well in excess of the “speed limit + 5” de facto limit.

Now 3-21 is short hand for the seat assigned to that particular legislator (Image H/T – Project Smart Vote):

Representative Ruth Heden (d)
Hillsborough- District 23
Seat #:3021 

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Glenn Reynold’s (of Instapundit)  USA Today’s column spoke of both individual and State level nullification telling the Federal Government “Screw you!” (emphasis mine):

Meanwhile, on the marijuana front, the people of states like Colorado are engaging in an odd, 21st century variety of nullification. Unlike the 19th century John Calhoun version, state laws legalizing marijuana don’t purport to neutralize the still-extant federal laws banning cannabis. But the state, and millions of Coloradans, are simply ignoring the federal law and, in essence, daring the feds to do something about it.

State laws, of course, can’t neutralize federal law, as the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause makes clear. But, bloated as it is, the federal law enforcement apparatus isn’t up to the task of prosecuting all the marijuana users in Colorado. And if it tried, it would have to bring them to trial before juries in Colorado, who would probably acquit most of them. There would also be massive political backlash, amplified in the coming 2014 and 2016 elections because Colorado is a swing state. And in response to Colorado’s example, other states look likely to follow suit, making the feds’ problem much bigger.

So, despite all the federal laws on the books, Colorado has de facto nullified them, and started a process that may very well snowball, all without directly attacking the federal laws, or the federal government, at all. Meanwhile, millions of Americans may be in the process of effectively killing Obamacare simply by staying home. 

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Over at the Anti-Planner is a continuation of the display of communitarianism that I’ve written about concerning the Hathaway House in Laconia (here and here).  His story is not about a building but a tree that his neighbors seem to believe that they should have more say about the disposition of that tree than the owner has (reformatted, emphasis mine)…and, oh yeah, the blogger he references merely rents and is not an owner in the neighborhood:

That’s right, trees. Specifically, I want to talk about the decision made by a Somerville neighbor of mine to fell an old, beautiful, and perfectly healthy tree because it was “in the way” of his backyard improvement project — in the process adversely affecting the quality of life for me and several of my neighbors. Is it crazy or un-American to suggest that, at a certain point, a tree is no longer one person’s private property per se, and belongs to the community? And at that point, should the property owner be restricted as to what he or she may do with said tree?

No, it is not crazy to suggest it – merely that you are trying to rationalize that, deep down, you have no problem in being a thief without admitting it. 

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Individual segments added!

This week we talk about Harrell Kirstein, the Free State Project, Vote Fraud, Jury Nullification, keeping the bacon here so you don’t need legislators to bring it home, Geoff Wetrosky, what words mean, illegal immigrants, absentee ballots, why laws might not matter (and a lot more), and we do that with Senator Bob Smith, Chairman Ed Naile,  New Hampshire’s Ian Underwood, along with Skip, Mike, and Steve.
Listen to GrokTALK! Now!

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Individual 30 minute segments are posted on the jump.

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Since we’re approaching the next push for raising the illusory Debt Limit, and the United States is currently over $17,000,000,000,000 in debt, I thought a post about a shining exemplar of Democrat management and debt might be illuminating.  Detroit, or Detroilet as it has come to be known since the Democrats placed their considerable seats in positions of authoritative execution.

The decadent disease Democrats indoctrinate can be seen by the refuse remaining in its path, it’s similar to that from a truck bumbling its way to the dump while carrying uncovered garbage cans that vomit soiled papers, moldy plastic bottles, and moist sacks of trash along on the side of the road with every bump and rut its tires meet. It’s as if the driver were leaving some sort of trail of rubbish to serve as a post-prosperity version of bread crumbs so that he can find his way back to his fetid origins. Speaking of fetid origins, back to Detroit. Detroit is a good example of Democrat rule and the effects of unadulterated leftism, i.e., Big Unions, Big Government, Big Debt, Big Corruption, Big Lies.

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“Screw you!”

In the aftermath of Newtown and the Sandy Hook Elementary school tragedy (and the tragedies before it), several states (all of them Democrat controlled)  immediately jumped to put new gun restriction laws into place.  The problem is that NONE of the passed laws would have stopped a single one of them from happening – not one.  The only thing that has happened is that each State has, in effect, declare its own law-abiding citizens to be “future felons”.

Take Connecticut for instance – citizens had to register their “assault weapons” as well as standard sized magazines (talk about a redefinition of language – STANDARD mags for AR-15s are 30.  But the Left can’t win using current language definition so they decided to call them “HIGH” capacity) by the end of last December or they would be considered to be felons.  Well, I guess a lot of the Ruling Class are seeing that the serfs are starting to ignore them (emphasis mine):

Governor Dannel Malloy and the government of the state of Connecticut are having their own “Oh, poop” moment, now that they’ve tallied the number of citizens who have registered their “assault weapons” and “high capacity magazines” required by the state’s unconstitutional gun laws, compared that to the estimated number of applicable weapons and magazines in the state, and realize they’ve been ignored.

Historically speaking, 90-percent or more of those required to comply with gun registration laws in the U.S. refuse to do so, and there is no reason to suspect that this registration attempt in Connecticut is any different. I’ve seen estimates of 1,000,000 firearm magazines that should have been registered under the law, but the state reports registering only 40,000… just 4 percent.

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There is much justified discussion going on in New Hampshire within the Expanded Medicaid debate.  For quite a while, the Democratic majority of the House has tried its best to bring Medicaid Expansion into the Granite State. After a long and heated debate, the NH House recently voted to support Medicaid Expansion.  The Senate will be next to take up this issue in 2014.

It is important to understand with Medicaid Expansion, you do not have to qualify by being disabled AND financially impoverished as with original Medicaid.  Having an approximate income under $35,000 for family of four will put you on the rolls.  The question to ask is this: if someone is able to work, would this change in Medicaid, discourage them from looking for employment?  It is a viable question – “free” is hard to beat.  Medicaid was originally intended as a safety net for those who were unable to work AND poor.  This new definition will be a huge challenge for healthcare in any state which joins the expansion.

However, there is another reason to be cautious with Medicaid Expansion.

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