Better late than never

This T-shirt design is a product of the Left, which is finally beginning to comprehend the implications of having placed a naked emperor on the throne. With the words, “Hope is Fading Fast,” they acknowledge what we have known all along.

An Obama omen: Arrowhead Mayo Clinic opts out as cuts to Medicare rise

Doug MacEachern’s quick hit in the daily about Obama’s Fed-Med, is titled When Grandma wakes up to it all . . .

It goes hand-n-glove with this news article in the same publication, in which it was reported that the Mayo Clinic’s Arrowhead Family Medicine practice will stop taking Medicare payments for primary-care services. The policy goes into effect Jan. 1, affecting about 3,000 seniors. Five doctors have practices at the clinic.

Arizona health-care experts say this may become a long-term trend in the industry.  For now, most Valley hospitals are still taking Medicare reimbursements.

For Mayo Clinic, the cost of providing services to Medicare patients exceeded the total amount paid on behalf of Medicare patients by $840 million in 2008, according to the hospital.

“Government payers, without question, are the worst payers in health care,” said John Rivers, president of the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association. “Medicare shortfalls in hospital payments represent nearly $1 billion in Arizona alone. And those costs ultimately get shifted onto the backs of privately insured individuals in the form of a hidden health-care tax.”

Rivers said Medicare payments can’t be kept below cost forever without extensively damaging hospitals’ ability to serve their communities. Opting out of Medicare may be the only choice for many to balance their books.

“Mayo Clinic was the first health-care system to go in this direction, and I don’t think they will be the last,” he said. “Everyone else is facing the same pressures as Mayo Clinic, and I won’t be surprised to see more of this in the future.”

For sure.

McCain: King of senate absenteeism gets a makeover

Dan Nowicki, the Republic reporter assigned to flatter Sen. John McCain during the 2008 presidential campaign, is now onboard as his chief image re-crafter and apologist.  McCain is up for reelection on the 2010 ballot and is just a bit worried about not connecting with his Republican constituency. A recent Rasmussen Reports survey showed that 61% of Arizona Republicans think McCain has lost touch with those in his own party. In political parlance, those are deadly numbers.

Today we are told that although McCain missed more votes than anyone else in the senate in 2007 and 2008, he is back in the saddle, so to speak, and conscientiously casting votes to show his home staters how busy he is working on their behalf. Instead, most remember his predicable aisle crossing on issues that are the antithesis of Republican principles and his service as the architect of amnesty legislation for the estimated 25 – 30 million illegal aliens in the U.S.

During his chronic absences from sessions of the 110th Congress, McCain missed 420 votes, or 63.9 percent, of a total 657.

Yet McCain has arrogantly opined he doesn’t think his missed votes mattered to Arizona voters, since they continue to reelect him.  Of course the fact that he has an enormous campaign war chest already bulging with over $5 million  and has never previously had a viable challenger, might just be a factor. Omitted from the article is the fact that he carried his home state in last year’s presidential election by an embarrassingly slim 10 percentage points.

The national media is smelling blood in the water. These are just a few of those covering the fact that an exceedingly popular former Arizona congressman is being encouraged to challenge the state’s senior senator.

If J.D. Hayworth gets in the race, brush up on your French. At least manage enough fluency to bid John McCain “au revoir.”

Fiscal irresponsibility: How stimulating!

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act better known in many quarters as the $787 billion “stimulus boondoggle” is showing how accurate that handle is.

The University of Arizona is spending $144,000 to study Hiaki, an “endangered” tribal language spoken by fewer than 80 aging people in the state. Apparently the tribe didn’t think it was important enough to preserve, but Obowma does — while digging his hand into your pockets to ensure its survival.

Arizona State University is spending more than $500,000 of the over $50 million in taxpayer funded stimulus grants it has received to study the genetic differences between queen and worker ants.

Would we kid you?

And no doubt with a straight face, Rick Shangraw, ASU vice president of research and economic affairs justified the ant study by saying it “furthers knowledge of evolution and societal behavior, which sheds light on understanding humans.” The project also preserves two jobs this fiscal quarter, he said.

The federal Administration for Children and Families is using stimulus money to grant $400,000 in pay raises for Phoenix’s Head Start staff and $203,000 for Chicanos Por La Causa, according to data from the White House. Luis Rosero of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the raises were appropriate because “if I give you a raise, it is going to save a portion of your job.”

Huh? And how much is this genius getting paid?

ASU received a $168,000 stimulus grant to study how friends of a school child impact that child’s academic performance or affect whether the child turns to drugs. Shangraw said results could contribute to findings about how to improve the way children are brought up.

We couldn’t make this stuff up.

Read more in the daily.

BREAKING NEWS: Sen. Chuck Gray will not seek reelection

Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Gray, (R-Dist.19) has made a Thanksgiving Day announcement that he will not seek re-election to the state Senate next year. In a written statement Gray said he’s made the decision in light of “business opportunities.”

“I am a husband and father who served his state and community and is now preparing to return to private life for a time,” he said. “I am not through with politics,” he added. “You will see me in the future.”

Read more in the East Valley Tribune report  here.

Thanksgiving wishes

  

We take a moment to reflect today on the many blessings we enjoy as citizens of this great land, and wish the abundant bounties of this uniquely American holiday to each and every one of our readers.

Obama shatters spending records of all other U.S. Presidents, now wants “war tax”

Want to see what just the interest on the U.S. debt would buy? Elizabeth MacDonald, prize-winning business authority with FOX Business News, has the startling report.

The federal government spent $3.5 trillion during Obowma’s first year in office — far exceeding the spending of any other first-year U.S. president in history.

It’s your money, folks, and he wants more.

The Democrat-controlled congress is now weighing imposition of a “war tax’ to finance the war in Afghanistan — clearly a device to bring economically frazzled Americans to their knees pleading for a disengagement of troops, while the military is begging for increases. Gen. McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander says the need for more troops is essential. “While the situation is serious, success is still achievable,” he said. But he has repeatedly warned that without more forces and the rapid implementation of a genuine counterinsurgency strategy, defeat is likely.

Master terrorist Osama bin Laden’s base of operations is located in Afghanistan, but that is of small consequence to Obama and his leftwing minions who are reminiscent of modern-day Benedict Arnolds.

The war tax or “Share the Sacrifice Act,” (HR 4130) exempts those who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as well as families who have lost an immediate relative in the fighting. But middle-class households earning between $30,000 and $150,000 would be asked to pay 1% on top of their current tax liability, POLITICO reports.

Thanks, J.D.

Our appreciation to those of you who have noticed and commented on the national attention Seeing Red AZ is garnering.  Between the hits we are getting from POLITICO, (Sheriff Joe fundraises for a potential McCain primary challenger), the liberal Huffington Poster Dawn Teo, the National Journal’s Hotline On Call, The Hill, and The Washington Independent, alone, our stats for the past two days are off the charts!  We couldn’t have gotten this national coverage without J.D. Hayworth’s powerful name attracting such prominent attention.

This is a clear indication that the nation is watching Arizona’s 2010 senate race and senses the vulnerability of John McCain, who won his home state by a mere 10 percentage points in the 2008 presidential match-up. Just two months ago, Rasmussen Reports headlined that a decisive 61% of Arizona Republicans say McCain is out of touch with the party base.

Although other candidates have entered the race to affect a challenge, they are clearly second-stringers. Former Congressman Hayworth is formidable.  If he declares for this seat, we believe it is his.

Phoenix City Manager wants YOU to help him with budget

The new Phoenix City Manger, David Cavazos, on the job for less than a month, is already admitting he is over his head, although he is a 22-year veteran of City Hall. The one-time deputy city manager is asking city residents to come up with novel ideas to help him deal with the budget shortfall.

“We can’t predict when we’ll get out of the recession,” Cavazos said. “Can anybody predict that? I’d love to know the answer,” he is quoted as saying in the daily.

He needs to get with the program. Obama has declared the recession is nearly over, thanks to his tax infused “stimulus programs.”  Cavazos might get an idea or two here.

The manager’s annual pay range is $163,592 to $257,670, although his specific salary is yet to be decided by the city council. Since few city residents are in that rarified pay stratosphere, it might occur to them that since they are paying his wages, he should do the job himself.

Other Phoenix residents can leave their money saving ideas by calling Cavazos’ office at (602) 262-6941.

Junk Science of global warming exposed

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) the ranking member on the Environment and Public Works committee has announced he will call for an investigation on “Climategate.”

During a floor speech, he said, “Today, I will discuss something else – scientific integrity and how to improve it. Specifically, I will discuss the systematic and documented abuse of the scientific process by an international body that claims it provides the most complete and objective scientific assessment in the world on the subject of climate change – the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC. I will conclude with a series of recommendations as to the minimum changes the IPCC must make if it is to restore its credibility.”  Listen to him speak on the topic here.

The Washington Times editorializes in Hiding evidence of global cooling. This telling opener speaks volumes: “Scientific progress depends on accurate and complete data. It also relies on replication. The past couple of days have uncovered some shocking revelations about the baloney practices that pass as sound science about climate change.”

And the UK’s Telegraph weighs in with this exposé, calling the global warming hoax “a scandal could well be the greatest in modern science.“

The global fear-mongering has made a bundle for scientific charlatan, Al Gore, but his celebrity status as a doom-and-gloomer may soon be coming to an end.

Seeing Red AZ wrote about this in No wonder the libs have stopped calling it “global warming.”