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Greetings!
If you played a trumpet or clarinet in your high school band then Independence Day was the big day to put on your uniform, your freshly polished shoes and join your friends for an impressive performance. Or maybe you played the drums or even twirled a baton and marched right up front.
 The color guard of local Legionnaires lead the parade and your high school band followed, a position of honor in your own home town. The Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, fire engines and antique cars mingled in the parade lineup behind you. The finale was the boys and girls riding their clean for the day, beloved, reliable bicycles with crepe paper, red white and blue, wound carefully through the spokes to make a whirling circle of color matching the streamers from the ends of the handlebars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHZmX5ApZeo
The day was so full of flags and picnics, hot dogs and firecrackers. You played tag with the younger cousins until the fireflies came out and it was time to watch the fireworks. The smell of damp grass and the firecrackers set off by the big boys lulled you into a secure and pleasantly tired end of day satisfaction. A safe and certain world wrapped around you.
Safe and certain because woven throughout that day were ever present reminders and assurances of the strength and greatness of America, your country, your homeland.
You saw on full display the patriotism of her citizens, your Mom and Dad, friends and neighbors...the Sousa marches, flags large and small and everywhere, red white and blue where you expected to see it and where it was a pleasant surprise. When the mayor read out the Declaration of Independence and all joined in the Pledge of Allegiance...when the owner of the local hardware store and your own mailman marched in uniform with the American Legion color guard, when your grandfather stood to salute the passing flag and grandma brought cupcakes with red, white and blue frosting, the certainty and totality of pride in America was enshrined firmly in your heart and
mind.
Can we offer any less to the generations who follow us? Can we assure our children and grandchildren that the rights to life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness are their inheritance in this America? Can we pass on to them a government deriving its just power from the consent of the Americans governed?
As we openly celebrate our love of country and our American pride with our family and friends, we know these rights are not to be taken for granted, that the power and control of government is growing at ominous speed and that millions of Americans do not give consent to the actions of our government.
We would do well to speak of the 4th of July as Independence Day and clearly display our respect for the courage, faith and intelligence of those who conceived, honed and signed our Declaration of Independence.
Celebrating our Independence Day can spur each of us to make a commitment to find ways to participate in strengthening our country's adherence to our founding documents. What an appropriate moment to rededicate ourselves to the values and principles which gave steadfast guidance to those who set America on a path to the greatest explosion of freedom and opportunity the world has ever seen.
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Medicare's Demise- Keeping Two Sets of Books
by James Soviero
About 16 months ago Democrat politicians were celebrating passage of the ironically titled Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). They tried to woo leery seniors by claiming twelve years had been added to Medicare's life expectancy. Lawmakers stated provisions in the new law extended the program's solvency from 2017 to 2029.
What a difference a year makes. It's not as if the Affordable Care Act didn't lay out exactly what was needed to add the dozen years. It's just that some mandates have proven rather other worldly. That shouldn't come as a surprise when you consider the 2,000 plus page bill had to be passed, "...so you could find out what is in it...".
This is what's been discovered. Implementing parts of the new law have had unintended consequences. Some of the effects were so ominous, over 1,300 businesses and unions needed to protect their employee's current health coverage by getting waivers from the federal government. While that has gotten some notice, a rather dramatic change in Medicare's shelf life flew under the radar. The twelve years supposedly added to the plan through Obamacare has been virtually cut in half. The new, but not improved expiration date is 2024. Five years melted away in a matter of months. So, why was there no senior inspired firestorm? The bad news was buried. It's like the feds are keeping two sets of Medicare books, and they only open one to the public. That set, we'll call the "If Only Set", they happily share with voters, while another, the "But Really Set", is the one you've got to find on your own.
"If Only" every mandate in the Affordable Care Act related to Medicare had been enforced the plan's longevity would have been extended as predicted. "But really", the added time would likely take an awful toll on both doctors and patients. You see the new law requires, by statute, that a percentage of the MD's reimbursement rates be cut every year. The unhappy consequences can be discovered by reading a 2010 actuarial report from the Department of Health and Human Services. It states, "By 2019...Medicare rates would be relatively lower than those currently paid for Medicaid...". Continuing along that path, "...Medicare beneficiaries would almost certainly face increasingly severe problems with access to care." "In practice, providers could not sustain continuing negative margins and, absent legislative changes, would have to withdraw from providing services to Medicare..." patients. "This gap could jeopardize Medicare beneficiaries' access to mainstream medical care." Did you get any of that from those self promoting politicians at their chest thumping press conferences?
"If Only" there could be the "legislative changes" mentioned above. That would save the day. In late 2010 Congress, voted to exempt doctors from a scheduled 23% cut in their payment rates. "But really", they just kicked the can down the road, dramatically cutting Medicare's future by those previously mentioned five years.
"If Only" the 2010 report was just old news. "But Really", the 2011 Annual Report of the Boards of Trustees on Medicare is more frightening still. The 23% cut that wasn't last year, now needs to be, "...a 29.4 reduction in physician fees that is scheduled for 2012." The effect of the rate drops are cumulative. If you miss the target one year it has to be made up. It's the law now. It was supposed to be 23% last year and around 6.5 % this year. Simple arithmetic really. Just not practical math.
That brings us to the how the latest report views Medicare's longevity. "If Only" "...the low-cost assumptions...." and ".... provisions of the current law were to continue unchanged" the 2024 estimate might be in the ballpark. "But Really, "Under the high-cost assumptions....asset depletion would occur in 2016." The 2016 bankruptcy date for Medicare is now one year sooner than the doomsday date given before Obamacare "fixed" the problem.
"If Only" we would fully comply with the Affordable Care Act, we could take Medicare off that respirator. Of course participants would be out begging for doctors to take a plan paying less than Medicaid, but it's a small price to pay for achieving the greater good. Besides, with so many fewer docs taking the plan, the fund could remain flush and exceed projected expectations. "But Really", Congress will continue to legislate against cutting physician's reimbursements to unsustainable levels and Medicare's solvency will be seriously threatened in a few short years.
So, honestly looking at either set of make believe books , the venerable Medicare Program is headed straight for a cliff. As a matter of fact, Obamacare may have pushed it considerably closer while the law's cheerleaders created a deliberate and cruel diversion. They should be ashamed. But, humility and shame are in awfully short supply around Washington, so don't be afraid to give the offenders a respectful, fully informed earful. Medicare needs to be fixed very soon and the longer we wait the tougher it's going to get. Really.
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So Long to Fox at 5:00 and Hello GBTV
Glenn Beck moving forward
This past Thursday Glenn took us on a last look around the Fox News studio where we have watched and learned for over two years. Glenn remembered with us some of the show highlights, the ever present chalk boards and his multitude of magnets.
Glenn Beck by Terry Sells
 When we first heard "Question with Boldness", "Hold to the Truth" and "Speak without Fear" it was obvious that Glenn took these axioms seriously. Soon viewers realized the questions were many and the answers often alarming. From Glenn's research to our own many of us have learned things we never suspected or imagined could be true.
Now Glenn has moved forward to the creation of GBTV and many of us will follow him there. See Glenn's last show on Fox and videos explaining GBTV and its roll out.
http://www.glennbeck.com/
Also stay in touch with Glenn weekdays from 9am to noon on your local radio or streaming audio offered without charge at
http://www.glennbeck.com/content/radio/
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Senior Pamphleteers
Keep up the good work
The healthcare pamphlet which can be printed here and at www.912SuperSeniors.org continues to spread important alerts about the effects of PPACA (Obamacare). We get emails and comments from Seniors about doctors who make extra copies of the pamphlet to put in their waiting rooms. The pamphlet is proving to be a conversation starter in clubs and even at dinner with friends.
After this Independence Day holiday, please make another effort to print out ten more, cut them in half and place the half page pamphlet wherever people are looking for something to read.
Also, see here, without the Washington spin, the effects of Obamacare.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGTMFP4He8U
Betsy McCaughey, former Lieutenant Governor of New York, provides clear and concise analysis of Obamacare at:
www.defendyourhealthcare.us |
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Senior Chat Topics
America's Oil Inflation Crisis Yet to Come
GBTV Help Needed
Ten Tips for Summer Heat Safety
 Let us know in Senior chat how you are staying in touch with Glenn. If you run into difficulties other Seniors can help you. Just ask for advice.
If you are participating in Restoring Courage to stand with Israel let others know what you are doing.
Add topics of your choice. If you have questions about posting here, use the "contact us" form on each page to email your question.
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Loss Of Parental Rights?
United Nations and Progressives in Hot Pursuit
by Carmen Reynolds, Editor-in-Chief, Boogai.net
Retired Air Force lieutenant colonel with a BS in Criminology and Law Enforcement, MA in Business Personnel Management and BA in Journalism.
Just try coming between a mother and her suckling infant. Or a mama grizzly.
Any predator must first posit the dire consequences of interfering with a parent while nurturing its offspring - until now.
As Orwellian as it may seem, powerful leaders, activist judges and the United Nations have been quietly working to remove parental rights.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Treaty aims to give "the state" new powers, usurping parental rights, establishing the child and the United Nations (Hillary's Village) as partners in determining what is best for the child.
This could prohibit children from being spanked or homeschooled, ban youngsters from facing the death penalty and forbid parents from deciding their families' religion.
Read more here:
http://www.boogai.net/top-story/loss-of-parental-rights-united-nations-and-progressives-in-hot-pursuit/
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912 Super Seniors on Facebook
Visit us the next time you are "Facebooking"
We were surprised to learn recently that Facebook's fastest growing user group is Seniors who are enjoying connecting with friends and family in this quick and easy format.
We have renewed our Facebook presence and invite you to visit our page by searching on Facebook for 912 Super Seniors. Please add your comments as posts there and "like" us so others visiting your page can see that you are a 912 Super Senior.
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I spent some unexpected hours yesterday entertaining two girls ages 5 and 7 as their Dad worked on a home improvement project with my husband.
They were sweet, polite and self sufficient but allowed me to chat with them and introduce them to our super-social cat, Spooky. They decided Spooky liked their petting and were willing to oblige.
We talked a little about their school and a lot about leaving tomorrow for their family vacation with relatives at their grandparents' house on a lake in Maine. They were beaming about seeing their grandparents and cousins and running out on the dock to jump into the lake.
How impressionable and precious are these young years. This is where it's at....where the learning and the understanding and the trusting are established. This is the time where the principles and values are absorbed and the habits of a lifetime developed.
What a privilege and a responsibility to have such influence on our children and grandchildren. What an opportunity for shaping ambitions and attitudes that will serve them well in the challenges we know are before them.
Experience teaches us there will be other influences in their lives,and some of those will come from an unwise source or an unjust agenda. Each moment we have now to model principled self responsibility, to reward high standards and reinforce strong values is precious and will not come again. This Independence Day is no exception.
It is an honor to join with you in this endeavor!
Barbara Samuells
Co-Founder
912 SUPER SENIORS |
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