Who’s in Bed with Goldman Sachs?

With all the hubbub about the too-big-to-fail Goldman Sachs and their evil ways, after all the late-night jokes about Sachs and Republicans (because of the Republican attempts to stop the poorly conceived Wall Street Take-Over Bill, aka. Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010), has anyone bothered to look at who Goldman Sachs is giving those evil Millions too?

The table below shows the Goldman Sachs political donations in 2008. Doesn’t look like a Republican/Sachs conspiracy does it?

Looks a little more like Sachs was in bed with a different political party, to me…..

(Dems are in BOLD)

(note: Susan Collins should also be considered a Democrat, not the Republican she is, since she typically sides with the Democrats over the Republicans, and also, Arlen Specter was supposedly a Republican in 2008 but has since switched to the Dem Party and, much like Susan, was a pretty solid Dem voter)

If you think that it was only 2008 when Dems were reaping the benefits of shady deals with Goldman Sachs, think again.

Here’s the 20 year history of donations:

From 1990 to 2010, Goldman Sachs gave $20,304,872 to Democrats and $11,204,413 to Republicans.

That equates to 64% to Democrats and 35% to Republicans.

All donations can be found here:

http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000085

So just who is in Bed with Goldman Sachs? and why the big story over a series of transactions that the SEC can’t even say are illegal?

They SEC guys couldn’t even AGREE to START the investigation, which was highly unusual.

Could it be because a certain President, who got more campaign contributions from Goldman Sachs employees than any other candidate in history, wants the average Joe to quit worrying about those pesky Healthcare costs and increases (now that the Bill is passed) and to focus on those “EVIL WALL STREET” guys? (play Arch-Villian music here)

Those same guys who are in his pocket (literally)? Doesn’t that seem just a little coincidental?

Why stop with Government regulation of Healthcare, why not add some rock-solid control over the banks and investment firms?

The SEC announced they were suing Goldman Sachs on April 16th. How fortuitous that the Democrat written and sponsored Bill supposedly designed to protect us from them was introduced to Congress THE DAY BEFORE on April 15th.

Tax Day.

A day when Tea Parties would be meeting all over the country and the Tea Party members would be out there shouting about how Obama and the Dems are the big spenders.

What better way to get the camera’s off tea parties then to put them on EVIL BANKS!!!!! (play Arch-Villian music here).

Then, right after that, the Dems and their lapdog media made a concerted effort to tie the Republicans to Goldman Sachs by their refusal to pass the Bank Control Bill.

(which they KNEW would happen, since Republicans are, hopefully, against more government intrusion into the Private Sector)

Just one more short note: Chris Dodd was the guy who sponsored this Bill. Chris Dodd is the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Chris Dodd is pretty high on that list of Goldman Sachs donations. Can you say: conflict of interest? The Dems apparently can’t.

BTW, this is the same Chris Dodd who was the #1 recipient of Fannie May/Freddie Mac donations before the Housing crash that led to the GREAT BAILOUT TRAIN OF 2008!!!

(just one more coincidence in a string of apparently unrelated events)

Doesn’t this scare anyone?!

Just my 2 cents.

Are they kidding me!?!

This is the same Mark Kirk who voted No (along with Nancy Pelosi) for the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, preventing parents from being notified if their children cross State lines to get abortions.

This is the same Mark Kirk who voted Yes (along with Nancy Pelosi) for S22, the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 that lets Big Gov. control more land under the auspices of making it ‘wilderness’, and, oh yeah, also makes Bill Clinton’s home a National Historic Site.

This is the same Mark Kirk who voted Yes (along with Maxine Waters and Melissa Bean, Pelosi didn’t vote) on S2739 Consolidated Natural Resourc Act of 2009, another Gov. land grab.

This is the same Mark Kirk who voted Yes (along with Nancy Pelosi) for the 2009-2010 Defense Appropriations Bill, AFTER the Democrats had inserted Hate Crime Legislation.

This is the same Mark Kirk who voted Yes (along with, guess who? Nancy Pelosi) for HR 2454, Cap and Tax. (even a bunch of Democrats knew enough to vote No on that one)

This is the same Mark Kirk who voted Yes (along with Nancy Pelosi) for H Amendment 1114, “Allowing the Use of Certain Terms in Within the Intelligence Community”, which would ban using the terms “jihadist”, “jihad”, Islamo-facism”, “caliphate,” “Islamist,” or “Islamic terrorist” within the intelligence community or federal government.
(Hint: If we stop calling them what they are, it doesn’t mean they’ll go away, any more than calling a bear a rabbit will make it a rabbit.)

This is the same Mark Kirk who voted Yes (along with Nancy Pelosi) on HR 1913, to expand (even further) the definition of “Hate Crimes”. (Thought police in action)

This is the same Mark Kirk who voted (along with Maxine Waters and Melissa Bean, Pelosi didn’t vote) to expand unemployment benefits AGAIN. (I believe it’s out around 90+ weeks now).

This is the same Mark Kirk, well, I could go on and on and on, but why bother….

How does this, in any way, change the direction of the state of Illinois?

Might as well add these…

Planned Parenthood gives him a score of 100.
National Right to Life gives him a Zero.
The National Education Association (think BIG UNION) gives him a 100.
The Sierra Club gives him an 88 in Environmental issues.
The conservative American Family Association gives him a ZERO.
The NRA and Gun Owners of America give him an F and F- respectively.

Doesn’t all this scare you? It scares me….

It took me about 30 minutes to find this information.

I hear people in the Republican Party constantly saying ‘support the candidates!’ and ‘it’s more important to get Republicans voted in than any individual message’

I say Bull.

What does electing a ‘Republican’ like this do for us? There are Democrats out there who vote less liberally than Kirk!

Did the Republican Party learn NOTHING from the mistake that was Democrat-Light John McCain?!

What’s sad is that this guy might actually get elected on the wind of Republican victories in this amazing year, bolstered by the Tea Parties (who I’m sure would NOT support Kirk).

To you supposedly ‘conservative’ Kirk supporters, just remember when he’s making those liberal votes that you reap what you sow.

Surprisingly though, very little has been heard from the Halvorson camp concerning her opponent. The average voter may assume she’s just running a ‘clean’ campaign and that may be the case, however it’s also possible that she just can’t find anything negative to say about her competition. 

Adam Kinzinger is not the entrenched Politician that is part of the problem in Congress today. He’s young, at age 31, but not too young (think JFK, not Doogie Howser). He is not, however, new to politics, having been a McLean County board member for 5 years as well as having a Bachelor’s Degree from Illinois State University in Political Science. 

He was a US Air Force fighter pilot and war veteran with combat experience. He flew refueling jets and surveillance planes during the Iraq war. 

He’s been a huge supporter of Tea Parties, attending dozens of local events while Rep. Halvorson wouldn’t even  show up to ease  the fears of her constituents or defend her voting record. 

He was the Wisconsin Red Cross’s ‘Hero of the Year’ in 2007 for wrestling a knife-wielding man to the ground and disarming him. (The man had just cut a woman’s throat outside of a bar across the street from where Kinzinger was walking with his girlfriend). He also received the US Air Force Airman’s Medal and the National Guard’s Valley Forge Cross for Heroism medal for that act. 

Kinzinger aside, the real question the voters need to ask is whether or not Rep. Halvorson is meeting the needs of her constituents. The answer to that question is in her voting record. 

Listed below are all the votes of importance (non-procedural types) that both she and Rep. Nancy Pelosi have voted on, as well as a short summary of the purpose of each Bill.

Birds of a Feather! (AP photo taken Jan. 6th, 2009)

We can’t know how Adam Kinzinger will vote. We only know how he says he will vote. As a decorated real American Hero, I’d like to take him at his word until he proves otherwise. 

On the other side of the aisle, as you can see from her voting record, it appears Rep. Halvorson is very in-tune with the voters in California. It’s too bad she’s not more ‘in-tune’ with the voters in District 11, but what can you expect from someone afraid to attend a town hall meeting or tea party in their own district.

For your perusal, I’ve taken a moment to list just one (1) tiny little section of the new HB3962 Healthcare Bill and it’s associated explaination (by me)….

SEC. 1173A. STANDARDIZE ELECTRONIC ADMINISTRATIVE TRANSACTIONS (This doesn’t mean just ATM payments, it means any computer based transaction, record keeping, billing, reporting, etc. Anything a clerk, nurse, doctor or janitor puts on the computer)

  (a) Standards for Financial and Administrative Transactions (this just lets you know it’s not just record keeping, but ‘financial’ too, and that doesn’t just mean bills, it also means payment plans, financing, treatment plans, etc.)

      (1) IN GENERAL- The Secretary shall adopt and regularly update standards consistent with the goals described in paragraph (2). (this isn’t set in stone, it means we’ll change it based on our goals listed below)

      (2) GOALS FOR FINANCIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE TRANSACTIONS- The goals for standards under paragraph (1) are that such standards shall, to the extent practicable– (meaning if it’s at all possible with technology, ie. If we can do it, we’re going to)

          (A) be unique with no conflicting or redundant standards; (this won’t be any standard we’ve used before, it means we’re going to make all new standards) 

          (B) be authoritative, permitting no additions or constraints for electronic transactions, including companion guides; (ie. this will be the final say, we have all the authority, NO CONTRAINTS for electronic transactions means basically we can do whatever we want, ie. no limitations)

          (C) be comprehensive, efficient and robust, requiring minimal augmentation by paper transactions or clarification by further communications; (comprehensive and robust means it will cover every facet of everything that is even vaguely related to healthcare. Minimal ‘augmentation’ by paper records means it will be all computer based, no pesky paper records to come back and bite us in the ass, and NO CLAIRIFICATION BY FURTHER COMMUNICATIONS means we don’t have to explain why we do anything)

          (D) enable the real-time (or near real-time) determination of an individual’s financial responsibility at the point of service and, to the extent possible, prior to service, including whether the individual is eligible for a specific service with a specific physician at a specific facility, on a specific date or range of dates, include utilization of a machine-readable health plan beneficiary identification card or similar mechanism; (this means we’re going to look at your bank accounts before we give you any healthcare, then, based on what we see in your accounts, we’re going to decide who WE think you need to see, at what hospital or doctor’s office, and on what date, ie. we decide how long you wait. The ‘machine-readable’ health plan is just that; a card that identifies you and will tell anyone and everyone what’s wrong with you, and what the Government thinks your treatment plan should be.)

          (E) enable, where feasible, near real-time adjudication of claims; (this means we’re going to bill you RIGHT NOW. It also means that they can draft your account on the day of treatment. This could lead to people no longer being able to pay by cash or check. You might be forced into having your healthcare drafted from your account without your approval)

          (F) provide for timely acknowledgment, response, and status reporting applicable to any electronic transaction deemed appropriate by the Secretary; (anything that you find out, we find out, duh, ‘status’ reporting!?! and ‘any transaction’ means health plans and private information and diagnosis too. BTW, have you seen ANY mention of privacy in this section?)

          (G) describe all data elements (such as reason and remark codes) in unambiguous terms, not permit optional fields, require that data elements be either required or conditioned upon set values in other fields, and prohibit additional conditions except where required by (or to implement) State or Federal law or to protect against fraud and abuse; and (this means you can’t hide your diagnosis in medical-speak, and it also means that we’re going to tell you in no uncertain terms what we expect from you, which is everything.. also, ignore the ‘protect against fraud and abuse’ portion, who do you think makes State or Federal Law?)

          (H) harmonize all common data elements across administrative and clinical transaction standards. (can someone explain to me just what ‘harmonize’ means in legalese? but pay very close attention to the word ‘clinical’ …that’s the ‘see, we told you we’re going to look at your medical records’ part)

This is my own interpretation of this particular Section of the Bill. I’m sure they will expand the definitions to cover even more than the little I’ve explained here. The gov. will come up with interpretations of interpretations until they use this Bill to control absolutely everything in your life (as related to healthcare, but what isn’t?)

If you want to read and interpret the Bill yourself, you can find it here:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c111:3:./temp/~c111hPmQ4v::

You can also choose a different section to analyze, since I counted about 683 Sections (but I might be off by one or two, I didn’t bother to count them twice to verify my count). There’s plenty of good sections left to choose from, like Sec. 2511 School Based Health Clinics (get ‘em while they’re young!) and Sec. 2512 Nurse Managed Health Centers (Doctors! We don’t need no Stinkin’ Doctors!!), and I personally like Sec. 59C Surcharge on High Income Individuals (pay close attention to the part about ‘Nonresident Aliens’..

Anyway, that’s about all I can stand for today, so good luck and have fun in your analysis.

One more thing….here’s a picture of the physical dimensions of the Bill.

"Pay no attention to that little book next to our plan for American Domination!!"

 Sitting next to it (on top of Stephen King) is a pocket U.S. Constitution…..

Democrats believe that by November, the people of this country will have forgotten that our rights and the Constitution were trampled on with the passage of the massive entitlement of Obamacare. I don’t intend to let anyone forget which party pushed this monstrosity through, around and under our Legislative process to get it passed.

I’m not going to let anyone forget that, until forced by the people to do otherwise, the Democrats made their shady deals behind closed doors in a completely partisan effort to keep the Republicans out of the debate.

The only items on the floor in those meetings were; who needs bribes to get this passed, and, who get’s what Pork in the Bill. We found out about Sen. Nelson’s special treatment as well as pork and favors for Tennessee, Florida and big Unions, among others. (think Andy Stern, SEIU thug and frequent visitor to the White House)

There would also be much less rancor from the American people if Congress was willing to live by their own rules. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case.

In an effort to block some of the more sickening portions of the Bill, Republicans put forth 29 Amendments, all of which were blocked and defeated by the Democrats. If you think the Republicans were asking for crazy, ridiculous things like price breaks for Unions (which Andy Stern recieved), your wrong. How about that Congress be forced to use the same healthcare they’re forcing us to use?

Posted on FOXNews this morning:

“Democrats also deflected GOP amendments rolling back the health law’s Medicare cuts; killing extra Medicaid funds for Tennessee and other state-specific spending; barring tax increases for families earning under $250,000; and requiring the president and other administration officials to purchase health care from exchanges the statute creates.”

Soooooooo…..President Obama said there would be NO TAX INCREASES FOR COUPLES MAKING UNDER $250,000/YR.  Yet his lapdog Congress refused to put that into the language of the Bill. Also, pay close attention to that last sentence that would require Congress to purchase healthcare from these great new ‘exchanges’. The Republicans would have been required to use those exchanges as well. So why try to get that in the Bill?  Probably because it would show those Dems who still care (if there are any left) how horrible this Healthcare boondoogle really is. It also shows Americans that what’s good enough for the people is NOT good enough for Democrats, who have their own taxpayer funded Cadillac healthcare program and aren’t about to give it up. Last, but not least, it shows that some Republicans are willing to go to great lengths to make a point. (How I wish the Democrats would have passed that Amendment, just to see the shocked faces on certain Republicans!)

The only thing I’m scared of is that people will come to think of the implementation of the Healthcare Bill as ‘inevitable’, when it’s not…..not if our elected Republicans stay the course and continue to oppose this unprecedented grab at, and shameless flaunting of American Liberty.

But don’t worry, with your help, we won’t let the People forget.  Expect to see this hammered all year long, well into the November elections and beyond.