From the office of Congressman Andy Harris:
Congressman Andy Harris was appointed by his Republican colleagues to the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Congressman Harris will be filling a vacancy created by the retirement by Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson. He is only member from Maryland and only physician serving on the committee.
“I appreciate the support of my colleagues to serve on this important committee,” said Congressman Harris. “I look forward to joining Chairman Rogers to control spending and put our nation back on a path toward fiscal responsibility. It’s time we deal with America’s fiscal challenges instead of continuing to pass them on to our kids and grandkids.”
Congressman Harris will be serving on the following subcommittees:
– Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies
– Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
– Legislative Branch
Snap these jokers back to reality and insist they stop the wasteful spending Congressman Harris!
Yup. Start by taking the Defense Department back to the pre-terror days of funding: 3.1%
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS?page=2
Stop Obama from taking $700 billion from Medicare to fund his Obamacare. The Republicans need to stop being such wusses and fight Obama since he is trying to marginalize them. Obama and his gang of Democrats are just like the gangs coming out of Chicago. You must fight fire with fire, and the House Republicans hold the purse strings. No free pre-school either which is not going to add ONE dime to the deficit.
Ah the voice of the limited information Faux News Viewer
On October 1st Obamacare began to provide bonus points for hospitals that spend the least on elder care…demerits for those spending the most which in essence means the less they spend on our elders the more money the government provides for other areas within the hospital. It’s an evil incentive designed to enforce the withholding of what has to be lifegiving care to our parents. Would you take your dog to the vet that received a bonus for providing the least care per pet admitted? I wouldn’t and I sure wouldn’t proudly or comfortably take my mom or day to any hospital that won such bonus points. There may be some provisions within Obamacare that lots of folks like but they rarely tout the way we end up paying for those things – right on the backs of our most vulnerable; the elderly. By the way this provision provides a bonus whether the care was paid for by private funds or some other public benefit so in essence not only does it incent lessor care for those on assistance but even those able to pay will be swept up in the horrible system. Seniors indeed have been duped.
Personally I’d when I go to the docs I like to have what ever sent me there, fixed ASAP…. meaning the least expensive route. Having to continually go back and being charged for every visit like I’m some sort of “money tree” is no fun at all…..
Yeah, there’s no magic answer here, but to imply that “less quantity” care is the same as “less quality” care, is not entirely honest or accurate.
It’s like when you take your car to get it fixed, you want it done right the first time, you don’t want to have to go back for the same problem 3 times– which is what a lot of people end up doing with healthcare, and what these rules were meant to discourage.
We have a health system that encourages profit by volume of care, rather than quality. I can’t say “Obamacare” is or isn’t going to fix that, but something has to be done.
Agreed there’s a problem – I think everyone acknowledges that. One of the primary reasons doctors require tests that might not be necessary or follow up visits that don’t do much good is the outrageous malpractice awards if and when anything is missed. One of the best ways to hold down costs and address unnecessary “care” would be to limit malpractice over what’s often triviality or even bad or unexpected outcomes. Obamacare does zilch to address this so obvious low hanging fruit. It seems in thier infinite wisdom our government has decided best to just give the old folks a pill; they’re no longer productive, gobble up too many health care dollars and therefore should rightfully be thought of as expendable.
Yes, the Democrats basically capitulated on the tort reform issue in the healthcare law, which is pretty disappointing, because as you said, it’s a major part of the problem.
we are undereducated here in Harford County. No fault of education, just Fox News. Que lame.
Actually, Linda, it is quite the fault of education. HCPS can’t get their act together and the students suffer. I know you are quite the Dem/Lib and that’s fine. Please spend your money but leave mine for me. I don’t really like it when you stick your hands in my wallet and try to get me to pay for stuff that you want. The problem with you and Fox News is that they use words that are too big for you to understand. Stick with PMSNBC and MadCow.
This is how it works people. When you’re a newbie in Congress you have to tow the line and be a good boy for a while so you can get a seat at the table. These are the inner workings of Congress, done with rules set by them internally, not with our laws.
Andy has been a VERY good boy to get a seat at the Appropriations table. All those cut and paste jobs from the RNC press office paid off, I suppose.
Just more proof Mr. Harris is being ground up by the system you sent him there to stop.
You want things to change in Washington DC? He’s not bringin it.
Noble, The question is who will bring the change you speak of? Some of us believe term limits is an answer. Not necessarily the best answer or even the only answer. I’m not saying I am for it or against it but I do know that what we have in place isn’t working now, hasn’t been working and is almost certainly not going to work in the future. So what is the answer? The present collection of bums need to go.
Who will bring the change? Us.
It’s not a fancy answer, or an easy one, but it’s the truth. Too much of the electorate is mentally fat, uninformed, apathetic, uneducated, or too busy with much less significant issues in life, or some combination of all these. We have to fix ourselves, that’s the only permanent fix.
Short of that, major campaign finance reform is a good start. Our system, which is populated by us, inherently corruptible people, is only as good or flawed as we are, and we have more or less peeled away any pretense of trading in the commodity of real public good and replaced it gradually with a straight up exchange of dollars.
Term limits might be the last resort, cutting off the hand to save the arm, type of thing. It’s stunting democracy, but if it’s all or nothing, I’d rather have my choices limited and than not have any at all.
I’m sorry, Noble, but I am tired waiting. Partly because I have children and some day soon grandchildren who will suffer more than we do because of the ills we are failing to fix. But also because we aren’t even moving in the right direction. Major campaign finance reform is like pleading with an addict to just stop taking drugs. Major reform to the lobbying mess likewise. The tax code is used as a way to punish and reward citizens using loopholes and deductions. Government largess is awarded to keep political factions in office thru legalized bribery. All we hear is that “it” is for the teachers, the policemen, the firefighters, the children, the poor, the elderly, the sick, etc. And if I even question it then I am rich, mean-spirited, homophobic, racist, elitist, and on and on. When I was in graduate school I had a prof originally from the London School of Economics who often started sentences with “Come the revolution . . . . . ” Of course she was speaking of the uprising of the worker class to form a socialist state. I guess the revolution came and I didn’t even notice.