The "Healthcare Reform" Railroad

The big question is, "Who won?" The clear answer is: The health insurance companies and the health fascists. The health insurance companies get tens of millions of involuntary new "customers," and the health fascists get to jam their cult ideology down everyone's throats, enforced by fines in both cases.

The Big Winners: Health insurance companies and "Big Charlatanism"

According to the Congressional Budget Office, private insurance companies would gain 25 million "customers" through "Exchanges." (Reid Letter, March 11, 2010, Table 3, p. 11.) "Exchange Premium Credits" would cost $106 billion. The average individual subsidy would be $5800. $39 billion in "fines" would be collected from employers and people who rejected the unconstitutional individual mandate to buy health insurance. (Reid Letter, Table 2, page 9.) $2 billion per year would be shoveled into a "Prevention and Public Health Fund," (Reid Letter, Title IV, Sec. 4002, page 22), which includes the promotion of fraud-based "healthy lifestyle" charlatanism (page 1141 in H.R. 3590, page 541 in Public Law 111-148).

Forcing people to buy private health insurance is unprecedented in every way. It is also completely unnecessary for its supposed purpose of providing health care for the uninsured, because this program could have been funded in numerous other ways which are not unconstitutional. The real question is, WHY DIDN'T THEY DO IT RIGHT IN THE FIRST PLACE? It's clear from reading the bill that the real reason is so that they can shove their Nazi pseudo-science of "wellness" down everyone's throat. The "wellness" garbage would be a required part of every approved health insurance plan (pages 45-46, PL 111-148). It includes government grants for employers to institute wellness programs, which rewards believers in health fascist pseudo-science with premium discounts of up to 50% (pages 155-158). These are a required part of every approved health insurance plan. (Essential Health Benefits Requirements, pp. 163-164.) Deployed under the phony pretext of "prohibiting discrimination," it financially coerces people to submit to charlatanism and discriminates against those who refuse!

The Surgeon General, a charlatan appointed by crooked politicians to dress up scientific fraud with a veneer of authority, would be chairman of the "National Prevention, Health Promotion and Public Health Council," composed of the political appointees heading other federal agencies. Its explicit purpose is to promote "the reduction of tobacco use, sedentary behavior, and poor nutrition," continuing the six decades of lifestyle questionnaire-based scientific fraud perpetrated from this office, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency, and others. "Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Chairperson, in consultation with the Council, shall develop and make public a national prevention, health promotion and public health strategy, and shall review and revise such strategy periodically," and make an annual report beginning July 1, 2010, which "contains specific science-based [SIC] initiatives to achieve the measurable goals of Healthy People 2010 regarding nutrition, exercise, and smoking cessation, and targeting the 5 leading disease killers in the United States." (Title IV - Prevention of Chronic Disease and Improving Public Health," pp. 538-546). (Public Law 111-148, aka H.R. 3590, aka the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act," Mar. 23, 2010 [pdf, 906 pp]).

Reid Letter, Mar. 18, 2010: By 2019, private insurance companies would gain 24 million "customers" through "Exchanges." Only 5 million of these would be unsubsidized. The average subsidy per subsidized enrollee would be $6,000. "Workers who would have to pay more than a specified share of their income (9.5 percent in 2014) for employment-based coverage could receive subsidies via an exchange." (Table 2. Preliminary Estimate of the Effects of the Insurance Coverage Provisions of the Reconciliation Legislation Combined with H.R. 3590 as Passed by the Senate, page 7.) Cost of exchange subsidies & related spending, $115 billion in 2019 (page 8).

"People uninsured for any part of 2008 spend about $30 billion out of pocket and receive approximately $56 billion in uncompensated care while uninsured. Government programs finance about 75 percent of uncompensated care. If all uninsured people were fully covered, their medical spending would increase by $122.6 billion. The increase represents 5 percent of current national health spending and 0.8 percent of gross domestic product." (Covering The Uninsured In 2008: Current Costs, Sources Of Payment, And Incremental Costs of Expanding Coverage. J Hadley, J Holahan, T Coughlin, D Miller. Health Affairs 2008;27(5):w399-w415.) Page 56, "Even if all private funding for uncompensated care were recouped from private insurance payments, this would still amount to only 1.7% of private insurance premiums." (Covering the Uninsured in 2008: A Detailed Examination of Current Costs and Sources of Payment, and Incremental Costs of Expanding Coverage. J Hadley, J Holahan, T Coughlin, D Miller. Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, Aug. 2008.) Also in this report, it says that full-year uninsured people on average received $1,686 in health care, compared with $3,915 for insured people, and paid for a larger proportion of it out of their own pockets, page 15. The Obama plan is to force them to buy health insurance, with an average subsidy of $6,000, for average expenses of less than $2,000! WHAT A BARGAIN - FOR THE INSURANCE COMPANIES!

And, in the passed law, the subsidy would kick in only if the cost of health insurance exceeded 9.5% of their income. This means that people who make as little as $17,747 would be expected to pay more for their health insurance than paying those average health expenses would have cost them.

The Insurance Industry's So-Called "Opposition" to the Obama Plan

The industry group America's Health Insurance Plans promoted "improving and expanding" SCHIP, which Obama and both the Democratic and Republican parties did with enthusiasm by looting smokers with higher cigarette taxes. They proposed new tax credits and exemptions, on top of those the industry already enjoys which cost the government $246 billion a year in lost tax revenues. They proposed Medicaid eligibility for adults under 100 percent of the federal poverty level. They proposed that "To receive a federal performance grant, states must establish evidence-based programs in their “state access plans” to encourage healthy behaviors and promote promising models for private-sector employers." (The key dogmas of "healthy lifestyles" are based on deliberate scientific fraud. But the only "evidence" their proponents are concerned about is evidence of their effectiveness in ramming them down peoples' throats. Both the Republican and the Democratic plans perpetrate this outrage.) And, they advocated "Requiring individuals with incomes over a certain percentage of the FPL either to provide evidence of health insurance coverage or demonstrate the financial ability to pay for health care for themselves and their children. Additionally, states may opt to impose a penalty on those individuals who fail to meet these requirements." (We Believe Every American Should Have Access to Affordable Health Care Coverage. America's Health Insurance Plans.) The AHIP Board of Directors' Statement of December 2008 demanded "Combine guarantee-issue coverage with no pre-existing condition exclusions with an enforceable individual mandate: For guarantee-issue to work, it is necessary for everyone to be brought into the system and participate in obtaining coverage. Achieving this objective will require specific attention to the mechanisms for making the mandate enforceable and may require coordinated action at multiple levels of government." (Now is the Time for Health Care Reform. AHIP.) This individual mandate is exactly what the Obama plan enacted! But without the option of demonstrating ability to pay.

Nevertheless, as part of a systematic campaign of disinformation to conceal Obama's real puppet-masters, the media lie-spewers accused AHIP of arguing against a public health plan. This was for merely saying that "77 percent of Americans are satisfied with their existing health insurance coverage," instead of hyping the 72 percent opinion supporting the public plan. Padded with drivel from selected talking heads to simulate controversy. (Health Insurance Industry Spins Data in Fight Against Public Plan. By David S. Hilzenrath. Washington Post, Jul. 22, 2009.) In the fall, the insurance industry began running ads against the plan. "But analysts say insurers' rhetoric doesn't match their actions. 'It doesn't look like they're in the fight of their lives," said Les Funtleyder, an analyst with financial firm Miller Tabak. "If you remember the Clinton days, there was a 'Harry and Louise' ad on every couple of minutes. We're not seeing that anymore.' And stocks of insurance companies are way up over the past year _ even beyond the gains in the broader market." (Health overhaul promises pain, gain for businesses. By Matthew Perrone. AP, Mar. 22, 2010.)

The premise of each of the supposedly different bills is, "How can we force everyone to have private health insurance," not "How can we fund health care for people who need it but can't afford it." This is called a clue! The insurance companies wrote the bill, and they're going to be "regulating" themselves. And, if their costs get too high, they can simply raise their rates and demand higher subsidies for more people to purchase their increasingly exorbitant policies. Plus, they hope to be padding their take with "fines" levied on people for not eating their magic fruits and vegatables and exercising, for failing to attend indoctrination sessions, for smoking, or whatever command the incompetent political hack heading the Department of Health and Human Services hands down from the health fascist charlatans at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Health fascist conspirators took over the tobacco industry, to make them surrender to the anti-smokers without a fight. Health fascist conspirators took over the fast food industry, to make them surrender to the food fascists without a fight. Health fascist conspirators may have created the health insurance companies in the first place, to use as vehicles to impose their tyranny.

The Senate bill was reportedly written by Elizabeth Fowler. (Health Insurance Monopolies Are Illegal. By Jerry Policoff. Dec. 28, 2009.) "Senator Max Baucus’s chief health adviser, Elizabeth Fowler, has been called the “chief operating officer” of the healthcare reform process by Politico — the staffer who sets legislative deadlines, coordinates with the White House on policy, and is understood to speak for Baucus on health policy issues. Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein has called her the most influential health staffer in the Senate. Fowler, as it turns out, is also fresh off a lucrative stint working for the insurance industry: from 2006 to 2008, she was VP of public policy for Wellpoint, the insurance giant.... Baucus’s chief health advisor prior to Fowler, Michelle Easton, currently lobbies for Wellpoint as a principal at Tarplin, Downs, & Young. (Chief health aide to Baucus is former Wellpoint executive. By Kevin Connor. Eyes on the Ties Blog, Sep. 1, 2009.)

Before she was at WellPoint, Fowler "served as the Chief Health and Entitlements Counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. In this capacity, she was responsible for overseeing health policy issues within the Committee's jurisdiction, including Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, health tax issues and initiatives to provide health coverage for the uninsured. She played a key role in the 2003 Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA). Liz was an attorney with the Washington law firm Hogan & Hartson, and she spent nearly five years as a health services researcher with HealthSystem Minnesota. Liz received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, a Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where her research focused on risk adjustment, and a law degree (J.D.) from the University of Minnesota. She is admitted to the bars of the District of Columbia and Maryland." (Elizabeth J. Fowler, PHD, JD. Healthcare Roundtable.) Hogan & Hartson is the law firm of former Rep. Paul G. Rogers, who was Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment from 1971-1978.

One of her early papers included this: Are health risks related to medical care charges in the short-term? Challenging traditional assumptions. PE Terry, EJ Fowler, JB Fowles. Am J Health Promot 1998 May-Jun;12(5):340-347. Among 3825 adults 18-64, and 1955 over 65 years old in a Minneapolis HMO, "traditional risk factors are weak and inconsistent predictors of short-term medical charges. Charging smokers and other high risk individuals a higher annual insurance premium than is offered for those at low risk raises questions about fairness when such risk factors are not necessarily good predictors of short-term resource use."

Wellpoint Inc.

Wellpoint (formerly WellPoint Health Networks Inc.) is the largest United States health insurer, and the company that operates Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans. It is based in Indianapolis. William H.T. "Bucky" Bush, Wolf's Head 1960, brother of former President George H.W. Bush, has been a director since 2004, and of its predecessor companies since 1989. Other directors include Sheila P. Burke, who was chief of staff to former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole from 1986 to 1996, who joined the board in 1997. She is on the board of trustees of the University of San Francisco and the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation and serves as a member of the board of the Kaiser Family Foundation, and a member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC); the Kaiser Commission on the Future of Medicaid and Uninsured; the National Advisory Council at the Center for State Health Policy; and the Institute of Medicine. Lenox D. Baker Jr., M.D., director since 2002, is a trustee of Johns Hopkins University and a member of the board of trustees of Johns Hopkins Medicine. Susan B. Bayh, director since 2001, is the wife of Sen. Evan Bayh, D-IN. Donald W. Riegle Jr., director since 2001, was a U.S. Representative from 1967-75 and Senator from 1976-94. The company has about $16 billion in revenue. Its profits rose 7% in the last quarter of 2006, while the benefit expense — or medical loss — ratio rose to 82.9 percent, from 81 percent a year before. (Earnings Rise 7% at Health Insurer. AP. Jan. 24, 2008.) WellPoint created the Missouri Foundation for Health in January 2000 to receive assets accumulated by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri (BCBSMo) prior to its conversion from nonprofit to for-profit status. Today, MFH is the largest health care foundation in the state and is among the largest of its kind in the country. In 2004, MFH launched a $40 million, nine-year Tobacco Prevention & Cessation Initiative.

Lenox D. Baker

Dr. Lenox D. Baker [Sr.] was an orthopedic surgeon at Duke University since 1937. In 1971, he was appointed to the North Carolina Human Resources Department, which combined Social Services, Mental Health, and the State Board of Health. He was originally from Texas. (New Human Relations Dept. Chief Trades His Security For Risks. Lumberton Robesonian, Nov. 1, 1971.) In 1941, he was a pallbearer at the funeral of William W. Flowers, chairman of Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company. (Wm. Flowers Dies; Tobacco Executive. New York Times, May 2, 1941.) Mrs. Baker was Virginia Flowers, daughter of Robert Lee Flowers, the former president of Duke [brother of William W. Flowers]. (Mrs. Baker Is Dead In Durham. Burlington Daily Times-News, Apr. 15, 1966.) He died in 1995. (Lenox Baker Hailed As Pioneer, Friend to Duke. Dialogue, Jun. 16, 1995.)

UnitedHealth Group

Director Robert J. Darretta was Chief Financial Officer and member of the Executive Committee of Johnson & Johnson from 1997 to 2007. He joined J&J in 1968. Kenneth I. Shine, M.D, was Dean and Provost of Medical Sciences at the University of California from 1971 to 1992; president of the American Heart Association 1985-1986; President of the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences from 1992 to 2002; and has been executive vice chancellor for health affairs of the University of Texas System since 2003. Gail R. Wilensky, PhD, an economist, was the Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (Medicare and Medicaid) from 1990-1992, Deputy Assistant to President George H. W. Bush for policy development 1992-1993, and a senior fellow at Project HOPE since 1993. She was also a commissioner on the World Health Organization's Commission on the Social Determinants of Health. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 1964. (Ford School and Department of Economics receive joint professorship in Applied Economics and Public Policy. Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, Jul. 1, 2008.)

Aetna Inc.

Aetna Life Insurance Company funded the "Feeling Good" health propaganda program of the Children's Television Workshop circa 1973. The company supports health fascist lobbyists such as the Partnership for Prevention. Aetna was a major source of funds for Kohlberg, Kravis Roberts (KKR) in the 1980s. Aetna Life & Casualty was a top institutional stockholder of Philip Morris in 1989-90, and former Aetna director William H. Donaldson was also a director of Philip Morris. Aetna director Earl G. Graves has been a director of Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company since 1971. He was a hireling of the Ford Foundation. Aetna's former chairman and CEO, John W. Rowe, is a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation. Director Jeffrey E. Garten was Managing Director of Shearson Lehman Brothers 1984-87, and Managing Director of The Blackstone Group 1990-1992.

Molly J. Coye, M.D.

Molly Joel Coye was a Medical Investigative Officer at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 1980-85; Special Advisor for Health and the Environment, State of New Jersey Office of the Governor from 1985 to 1986; Commissioner of Health of New Jersey, 1986-89; Head of the Division of Public Health, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health from 1990 to 1991; Director of the California Department of Health Services from 1991 to 1993; Senior Vice President, Clinical Operations, Good Samaritan Health Hospital from 1993 to 1996; Executive Vice President of HealthDesk Corp. 1996-97; Senior Vice President of the West Coast Office of The Lewin Group (consulting) from 1997 to December 2000; and CEO of the Health Technology Center since 2000.

Coye received a BS in BS Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley in 1968. She got an MD and an MPH at Johns Hopkins University in 1977. (Molly J. Coye. NNDB, accessed 1-3-10.)

"In 1986, New Jersey's then Commissioner of Health, Richard Goldstein, established the Commission on Smoking or Health to serve as an advisory board to the State Department of Health on matters concerning tobacco use and control." The Governor's wife, Mrs. Thomas H. Kean, was honorary chairman. Molly J. Coye was the leading leading instigator of this. New Jersey GASP Inc. bought two full-page ads in the journal. (NJ State Commission on Smoking or Health. By Lee B. Reichman. NJ Med 1988 Feb;85(2):75-178; pages 149-155.) Coye demanded more anti-smoking laws by claiming that secondhand smoke can increase the risks of cancer, cardiovascular and lung disease. (Tougher laws sought to limit indoor smokers. Asbury Park Press, Nov. 29, 1988.) This more than four years before the corrupt so-called EPA report on ETS was released.

In 1989, Coye was chairman of the Executive Board of the American Journal of Public Health, to serve until 1991. (Table of Contents. AJPH 1989 Sep;79(90:1203.)

Coye applauded the State of California's Nazi-like campaign of lies and defamations against smokers, funded by afflicting smokers with ourageous taxes under Proposition 99, and boasted that "California's comprehensive and aggressive fight against tobacco use has captured the attention of people all over the world. California is the leader in the fight against tobacco use." (California Department of Health Services Releases New Print Advertisement for Historic Tobacco Education Campaign. Business Wire, Jul. 30, 1991.) As Director of the California Department of Health Services, she initiated the state's fraudulent imitation of the corrupt US EPA report.

Coye was quoted as babbling that 'Today the tobacco industry money is more deadly than a contaminated syringe with the HIV virus in it. More deadly than a mosquito carrying malaria. (KABC-TV Eyewitness News, Los Angeles, Feb. 4, 1993.) In 1991, she got into a funding squabble with her equally vile and despicable fellow anti-smokers, who wanted more money for their camapign of defamations, and they commenced a campaign of smears against her which continued for at least the next five years. (Former state health spokeswoman denies tobacco fund misconduct. Sacramento Bee, Dec 25 1996.)

Since that time, Coye has not played a public role in the anti-smoking movement, but presumably holds the same opinions.

Barbara Hackman Franklin

Barbara Hackman Franklin is from Lancaster, Penn., and graduated from Pennsylvania State University and the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. She left her position as an assistant vice president of the First National City Bank of New York to take a post as White House staff assistant for executive manpower, under anti-smoker Frederic V. Malek. Her task was to recruit women for government positions. (Nixon aide to recruit women. Long Beach Press-Telegram, Apr. 28, 1971.) She held that position until 1973. She was an original Commissioner and Vice Chair of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission from 1973 to 1979, Senior Fellow of The Wharton School of Business from 1979 to 1988, President and CEO of her management consulting firm, Franklin Associates, 1984-92; U.S. Secretary of Commerce 1992-1993. She is now President and CEO of Barbara Franklin Enterprises, private investment and management consulting firm, a director of The Dow Chemical Company, and a director or trustee of three funds in the American Funds family of mutual funds and a director of J.P. Morgan Value Opportunities Fund. The American Public Health Association, Sen. Frank Moss, and the District of Columbia Lung Association petitioned the Consumer Products Safety Commission to regulate cigarettes in 1974. (APHA et al. vs CPSC, Civil Action No. 74-1222, Aug. 1974.) Merrell Dow Pharmaceutical, which marketed Nicorette gum in the U.S., is a subsidiary of Dow.

Joseph P. Newhouse, Harvard 1963, Ph.D. in Economics 1968

Joseph P. Newhouse spent the first twenty years of his career at the RAND Corporation, where he designed and directed the the RAND Health Insurance Experiment, which received $82 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He has been principal investigator on several other government and private grants and contracts of over $1 million. In 1988 he went to Harvard, where he is a member of the faculties of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, the Harvard Medical School, the Harvard School of Public Health, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He was a member of the National Advisory Committee of The Robert Wood Johnson Investigator Awards in Health Policy Research (selection committee), 1993-1995. (Joseph P. Newhouse CV. Kennedy School of Governement, Harvard University.) He has been a director of Aetna since 2001.

Newhouse was a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for the Study of Smoking Behavior at Harvard University, 1984-1990. Other members of the Advisory Board included Joseph A. Califano, Beatrix A. Hamburg, Newton N. Minow, former Surgeon General Julius B. Richmond, and former NCI director/AHF Trustee Arthur Upton. The Institute Staff included Thomas C. Schelling, the Director; and John Mercer Pinney (Skull & Bones 1965), Nancy A. Rigotti, and Michael A. Stoto. The Research Advisory Committee included David M. Burns, Ellen R. Gritz, Jeffrey E. Harris, Michael Pertschuk, and Kenneth Warner. Burns was a member of the Science Advisory Board of the EPA ETS report, and also testified against the tobacco industry in the US Department of Justice lawsuit.

He was one of the authors of the RAND Corporation study, The taxes of sin. Do smokers and drinkers pay their way? JAMA 1989 Mar 17;261(11):1604-1609. This study was evidently intended as a backup plan to shore up the anti-smokers' claim that smoking is an economic burden to society, in case the OTA's flagrant disregard of nonsmokers' old age costs was too publicly criticized. (Thanks to their media accomplices, it has not been.) It introduced the subterfuge of "discounting" nonsmokers' old age costs in order to minimize them. Before the results were fudged by discounting, the study found that smoking created net savings of 91 cents per pack. This was inflated to a net external "cost" of 26 cents per pack after discounting nonsmokers' costs.

In his latest despicable fraud, Newhouse et al. merely assess smokers with an arbitrary fine of between $100,000 and $200,000 (an arbitrarily chosen value of life) for each year of life lost (as determined by deliberately using defective studies to falsely blame smoking for diseases that are really caused by infection), and pretending that this is how much smoking costs society. Bottom line: the phony "health benefits ($65 billion through 2025 in 1999 dollars) from increased longevity" are entirely fictitious, as fraudulent as Bernie Madoff's "investment profits," and will NEVER be reflected in any savings to Medicaid. (The economic impacts of the tobacco settlement. DM Cutler, J Gruber, RS Hartman, MB Landrum, JP Newhouse, MB Rosenthal. J Policy Anal Manage 2002 Winter;21(1):1-19.) Gruber, his crony from the Harvard Department of Economics, testified at the Senate Healthcare hearings on June 11, 2009.

Joseph Paul Newhouse married Margaret Louise Locke, daughter of Francis P. Locke of Riverside, Cal. Her brother, Walter Locke, and Frank Sloan of Cambridge [Harvard] were among the ushers. He was to be employed by the RAND Corp. in Santa Monica, Cal. (Married. Waterloo Daily Courier, Jun. 23, 1968.) His father-in-law, Francis Philbrick Locke, Harvard 1933, "spent more than 30 years as a volunteer for Harvard, working to recruit high school students." He began his career as a journalist [sic] for the Miami Daily News in 1933, was at newspapers in St. Louis and Dayton, Ohio, and retired after ten years as an editorial page writer at The Press-Enterprise in 1972. (Phil Locke, Harvard Recruiter, Dies at 88. Riverside Press-Enterprise, Aug. 11, 2000.) Francis P. Locke's employer was James M. Cox, of Cox Newspapers. (Journey through my years. By James Middleton Cox. 2004, page 392.) The president of Cox Newspapers was Daniel J. Mahoney Sr., husband of Lasker Lobbyist Florence Mahoney.

Frank A. Sloan, Professor of Health Policy at Duke University, a former crony of Newhouse at the RAND Corporation, received his Ph.D. in Economics at Harvard in 1969. He is the author of a book which makes fraudulent claims about smoking costs, founded on the same specious pretenses as Newhouse's paper.

Humana Inc.

Humana's name was formerly Extendicare, no relation to the present company of this name. Its board of directors included David A. Jones, Chairman and CEO; Wendell Cherry, President; J. David Grissom, Executive Vice President of Operations; Michael E. Gellert, General Partner of Burnham & Co., New York; William T. Young, Chairman of Royal Crown Cola Company; and four other Kentucky businessmen. (Display Ad. The Baytown Sun, Feb. 4, 1972.)

David A. Jones is the father of the current chairman, David A. Jones Jr. Jones Sr. was also a director of Royal Crown Cola, and a member of Young's management group, Peachtree Holding Corporation, which held 18% of it. (Posner Bids For Royal Crown. By Leslie Wayne. New York Times, Jan. 17, 1984.) Jones and Michael E. Gellert were directors until April 26, 2005. David A. Jones Jr. geaduated from Yale 1980, and Yale Law School in 1988. (NNDB.) Gellert's son married a gg-granddaughter of Daniel G. Reid.

W. Ann Reynolds

W. Ann Reynolds, Ph.D., a director since 1991, was President of the University of Alabama at Birmingham from 1997 to 2002. She also was the Chancellor of the City University of New York from 1990 to 1997, Chancellor of the California State University system from 1982 to 1990, clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the UCLA School of Medicine. She is also a director of Abbott Laboratories. (Humana 2009 director bio.) She was Chairman of the Committee on Nutrition of the Mother and Preschool Child, a unit of the National Research Council's Food and Nutrition Board, which blamed smoking for perinatal illnesses that are actually caused by chorioamnionitis. (Panel Recommends Diets for Pregnant Women Tailored to Cultural Practices. Press Release, National Research Council, Nov. 3, 1982.) She was a trustee of the International Life Sciences Institute between 1989 and 1993. (Minutes, Joint Meeting of the ILSI & ILSI - Nutrition Foundation Board of Members, 1989-1991.)

She graduated from Kansas State Teachers College and the University of Iowa. She was a director of Owens Corning Fiberglas Corp. since 1993. (Director bio, Owens Corning Fiberglas Corp., 1994.)

CIGNA Corp.

Jane E. Henney, M.D.

Jane E. Henney worked at the National Cancer Institute from 1976 to 1985, as deputy director for five years. "Dr. Henney (pronounced HAY-nee) is the candidate favored by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who for more than two decades has taken a keen interest in F.D.A. operations.... Aides to Senator Kennedy said he had strongly recommended Dr. Henney for the F.D.A. job, having been impressed with her work at the food and drug agency and at the cancer institute. In addition, they noted, she is married to a former Kennedy aide, Dr. Robert Graham, who is now executive vice president of the American Academy of Family Physicians." (President Tentatively Settles On a Choice to Head F.D.A. By Robert Pear. New York Times, May 19, 1998.) She was vice president of health services at the University of New Mexico 1994-1998, FDA Commissioner 1998-2001, Association of Academic Health Centers Senior Scholar 2001-03, and is currently senior vice president and provost at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. She got her MD at Indiana University at Bloomington. (NNDB, accessed 1/17/10.) She has been a director of CIGNA since 1995, when former US Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan was also a director.

Henney accompanied Assistant Secretary for Health Edward N. Brandt at the hearings of the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment House of the Energy and Commerce Committee on the Comprehensive Smoking Prevention Education Act (H.B. 1824), on Mar. 9, 1983. Rep. Henry Waxman asked her, "Isn't the relationship between smoking and lung cancer irrefutable?" Henney replied that "The data with regard to lung cancer is a convergence of many studies of an epidemiological nature which are scientifically sound [sic] and support the fact that lung cancer is causally related to cigarette smoking." (pages 30-35.) Now she should be asked whether it is "scientifically sound" to ignore more than 50 studies which indicate that human papillomaviruses are involved in around a quarter of non-small cell lung cancers!

In 1984, she claimed that reducing fats, eliminating smoking and adding more fiber to the typical American diet could cut cancer deaths by a quarter. She claimed that colon cancer could be prevented by a change to fiber-rich foods, and breast cancer would be reduced by "by some 30 percent." (By AP. Cancer Expert Warns Against Fats, Smoking. Marysville Journal, Sep. 28, 1984.) "Breast cancer and colon cancer: The major message here is that we could affect the incidence of both these diseases by something that we control: what we eat. Strong epidemiological evidence and a growing amount of laboratory research evidence indicate that a low-fat, high-fiber diet can be effective in decreasing the incidence of these tumors," she claimed. "[T]he experts - the National Academy of Sciences, the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society - based on the remarkable convergence of scientific evidence, have already made similar recommendations: decrease the fat and increase the fiber content of our diet." (Women's Health: Cancer. Introductory Remarks. By Jane E. Henney, MD. Public Health Rep 1987 Jul;102(4 Suppl):91-92.) Here are the results of the government's $625 million randomized controlled dietary modification trial, the Women's Health Initiative, involving 165,000 women, which show no effects on cancer or heart disease after more than eight years.

An aide to Sen. Don Nickles (R-OK) said that "in conversations with the [FDA] nominee herself, she indicated her support for the FDA tobacco regulations." (A GOP Leader in Senate Blocks Nominee for FDA. By John Schwartz. Washington Post, Oct. 9, 1998.) Before 1994, she spent two years as deputy commissioner under David A. Kessler, the advocate of FDA regulation. (Senate Floor: FDA Director, Census Head and Judges Confirmed as Year Ends. By Richard Sammons. CQ, Oct. 22, 1998.) The FDA got $34 million in fiscal year 1998 to begin compliance checks of retail outlets. "By FY 2000, the Agency plans to contract with or have an enforcement presence in all 50 states and most territories," and launched a propaganda campaign. She wanted a $34 million increase in the budget. (Jane E. Henney, M.D. Commissioner Food and Drug Administration. Testimony Before U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, and Related Agencies, Apr. 27, 1999, pages 24-26.)

Her husband, Robert Graham M.D., has been Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine since 2005. He was Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA, 1981-1985), during which time he held the rank of Rear Admiral in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service and served as an Assistant Surgeon General. He also served in senior positions at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality 2001-2004, the Health Resources Administration (1976-1979), and the Health Services and Mental Health Administration (1970-1973). From 1979-1980, he served as a Professional Staff Member of the U.S. Senate Sub-committee on Health. He was Executive Vice President/CEO of the American Academy of Family Physicians 1985-2000, the head of the AAFP Foundation 1988-1997, and the Administrative Officer of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine 1973-1975. He graduated from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in 1970. (Robert Graham, MD. The Robert Graham Center.)

Anti-smoking demagogue Alan Blum, the founder of DOC (Doctors Ought to Care), was a member of the AAFP, which had a budget of $20 million circa 1992. "AAFP made headlines during a recent annual meeting because of an acrimonious debate among its members over the organization's divestiture of holdings in tobacco firms' parent companies, and over its acceptance of a grant from Fleischmann's (margarine) to be used to run public service ads on cholesterol. AAFP also launched a major smoking cessation program through its members earlier this year." (The Anti-Smoking Movement. By H.E. Osmon. Aug. 6, 1992, p. 45.)

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a Puppet of the Health Fascists

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce mindlessly rubberstamped the Partnership for Prevention's manifesto, "Healthy Workforce 2010 and Beyond." Its lie that "a significant percentage of deaths in the United States are associated primarily with modifiable, lifestyle-related behaviors" is founded on the deliberate scientific fraud of using lifestyle questionnaire studies that ignore the role of infection, as well as other important material evidence, in order to falsely blame smoking and lifestyle, and promote a political agenda of tyrannizing over peoples' lives. Randel Johnson, Vice President for Labor, Immigration, and Employee Benefits of the Chamber of Commerce, which endorsed this trash, was one of the participants in the Senate hearings of Jun. 11, 2009.

The Chamber's supposed objections to the Senate healthcare bill are nothing but nitpicking around the edges. (U.S. Chamber Denounces Passage of Irresponsible Health Care Bill. Press Release, Dec. 24, 2009.)

Jonathan Gruber, Harvard PhD in Economics 1992

"Gruber began negotiating a sole-source contract with the Department of Health and Human Services in February of 2009, for which he was ultimately paid $392,600. The contract called for Gruber to use his statistical model for evaluating alternatives 'derived from the President’s health reform proposal.' It was not a research grant, but rather a consulting contract to advise the White House Office of Health Reform, headed by Obama’s health care czar, Nancy-Ann DeParle, to 'develop proposals' for health care reform." (How the White House Used Jonathan Gruber’s Work to Orchestrate the Appearance of Broad Consensus. By Jane Hamsher. Firedoglake, Jan. 13, 2010.)

Jonathan Gruber was one of the creators of the Massachusetts healthcare plan, and in particular, its individual mandate to force people to have insurance who don't want it. The alternative State Senate plan didn't include this mandate. (New Senate Bill Would Cover Half of State Insured. By Scott Helman and Scott S. Greenberger. Boston Globe, Feb. 28, 2006.) The little clique who drafted the plan also included Charlie Baker, CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care; Baker's top deputy, Bruce Bullen, who once ran the state's Medicaid operations; and Bob Pozen, formerly Gov. Mitt Romney's top economic adviser. They were headed by Secretary of Health and Human Services Ron Preston. (Mission Impossible. By Steve Bailey. Boston Globe, Jan. 23, 2004.) Then, Gruber went on to advise the California plan. (Calif.'s Healthcare Plan Looks Familiar. By Jeffrey Krasner. Boston Globe, Jan. 11, 2007.) He has been on the Board of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority since 2006.

Gruber graduated from MIT, and got his PhD in economics from Harvard in 1992. He was a professor of economics at MIT until 1997, when he left to become Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy at the U.S. Treasury Department for a year. He has been Professor of Economics at MIT ever since. His main activities at the Treasury Department were health care policy, tobacco regulation, and environmental regulation. He hyped the proposed resolution as good for the stock market, and "worked with an inter-agency task force on legislation to comprehensively regulate youth smoking in the United States," namely the McCain bill (which failed to pass). His scheme was to fine the tobacco companies $3000 per youth if smoking rates fail to decline sufficiently. He has written numerous papers on the economics of smoking and health. (United States Written Direct Examination of Jonathan Gruber, Ph.D. United States of American v. Philip Morris USA Inc., et al. Civil No. 99-CV-02496 (GK) [Accepted May 10, 2005].)

"For years, economists would have said that actions speak louder than words. Whatever smokers say about quitting, they are rationally deciding that the pleasure they derive from cigarettes exceeds their cost. Jonathan Gruber was one of these economists when he worked in the Treasury Department in the Clinton administration. Mr. Gruber, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, remembers telling other policy makers that economic theory says they should not increase cigarette taxes. People should be allowed to decide for themselves whether they want to smoke, he told his colleagues. Those who smoke may hurt themselves, but they will not drain the country's resources because so many of them will die before running up large Medicare bills. Mr. Gruber called it his most embarrassing moment in government, and his discomfort with his own argument caused him to begin researching the issue when he returned to academia. The central question is whether smokers really do rationally weigh the pluses and minuses of smoking, as traditional economics would suggest." And the piece of filth who thus editorialized cited the CDC's flagrantly fraudulent SAMMEC as a proof that smokers are an economic burden. (How a Tax On Cigarettes Can Help The Taxed. By David Leonhardt. New York Times, Apr. 14, 2002.) The more realistic story is that Gruber was made to understand that he would not be permitted to have a career if he persisted in making Politically Incorrect statements, and that he would have to make amends by concocting dishonest abominations against the very concept of rational choice.

Gruber is a co-author of this paper: The economic impacts of the tobacco settlement. DM Cutler, J Gruber, RS Hartman, MB Landrum, JP Newhouse, MB Rosenthal. J Policy Anal Manage 2002 Winter;21(1):1-19. These frauds pretend that "the value of health benefits ($65 billion through 2025 in 1999 dollars) from increased longevity is an order of magnitude greater than any other impacts or payments." This phony "value" was pulled out of thin air by arbitrarily pretending that it "costs" between $100,000 and $200,000 (an arbitrarily chosen value of life) for each year of life lost (as determined by deliberately using defective studies to falsely blame smoking for diseases that are really caused by infection), and pretending that this is how much smoking costs society. If this was real money, people could simply pull it out of thin air just like the Harvard economists do, and use it to pay their medical bills! And, his co-author Newhouse, a crony from the Harvard Department of economics, is a director of heath insurer Aetna Inc.

After Gruber stepped out of line again by editorializing in favor of eliminating the gigantic federal tax subsidy for employer-paid health insurance, he was attacked in a PC smear campaign accusing him of wrongdoing by being a paid consultant to the Department of Health and Human Services at the time. (A Loophole Worth Closing. By Jonathan Gruber. New York Times, Jul. 12, 2009; and: Editors' Note: Jan. 9, 2010.) This proposal wasn't even proposed in any of the major plans!

Katherine Baicker, Yale 1993, Harvard PhD in Economics 1998

Baicker was appointed to President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisors in 2005. "She was an architect of President Bush's plan, announced in his 2007 State of the Union Address, to broaden health insurance coverage and reduce health care costs in the country." The Bush plan included the same major elements as the Obama plan, including promotion of private health insurance and faith in charlatanism. The Obama plan is even worse, due to its individual mandate, and its requirement for health fascism for insurance plans to be "qualified." (Promoting Prevention, Wellness, and Fitness. In: Reforming Health Care for the 21st Century. President George W. Bush, Feb. 15, 2006.)

At the Milken Institute (which is headed by junk bond king Michael Milken, the chief benefactor of KKR, and his brother, Lowell Milken): "Preventative medicine, said Baicker, generally pays for itself in the long run. But without proper transparency for costs, patients again may not be making the best-informed choices. If the cost of preventative medicine is negative, she even went on to say, health-insurance companies could do better paying for preventative health care." (Global Conference 2007, Milken Institute, Apr. 23, 2007.) She was an an associate professor in the Department of Public Policy at the School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angeles. Later that year, she was appointed professor of health economics in the HSPH Department of Health Policy and Management. (Former White House Economist Named to Faculty. Press Release, Harvard Public Health NOW, Aug. 31, 2007.)

Baicker is a member of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's "Commission to Build a Healthier America," which it formally launched on Feb. 28, 2008. The Commission includes other public and behind-the-scenes activists, including Sheila P. Burke, Sen. Bill Frist, Dennis Rivera of SEIU, and others representing the Brookings Institution, the Rockefeller Foundation, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ABC News and National Public Radio, and the U Mich-Henry Ford-RAND axis. The Commission released a report in April 2009, amidst fear-mongering about "a generation of children who may live sicker, shorter lives than their parents." They want to turn the country into a totalitarian dictatorship over peoples' lives, founded on deliberate fraud and charlatanism, designed to blame the victims (as exemplified by their misuse of the terms "personal responsibility" to mean obedience to impudent liars), and wage a war of cultural genocide on behalf of the wealthy and privileged (epitomized by their slogan, "We need to cultivate a national culture infused with health and wellness"). (Beyond Health Care: New Directions to a Healthier America. Commission to Build a Healthier America, Apr. 2009.)

Baicker is one of three project directors of a $2,498,915 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to the State of Oregon, "to study the causal impact of health insurance coverage on the physical and mental health of low-income adults" enrolled in the lottery for its Medicaid program, the Oregon Health Plan. The grant is to run from Nov 15, 2008 to Nov 14, 2011. (How does health insurance affect health care use and health outcomes for low-income adults? Evidence from Oregon's health insurance lottery. RWJF Grant number: 64964.)

She is also one of two project directors of a $100,963 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to Harvard University, "to develop evidence of the extent to which behavioral factors influence enrollment in health insurance and to identify new levers to increase use of health insurance products." The grant runs from May 1, 2009 to Apr 30, 2010. (Using behavioral economics to explain health insurance enrollment patterns. RWJF Grant number: 66014.)

Baicker is co-author of a fraudulent "workplace wellness" study: Workplace Wellness Programs Can Generate Savings. Katherine Baicker, David Cutler and Zirui Song. Health Aff (Millwood). 2010 Jan 14. [Epub ahead of print]. They claim that "medical costs fall by about $3.27 for every dollar spent on wellness programs and that absenteeism costs fall by about $2.73 for every dollar spent." It's methodological rubbish because it indiscriminately lumps together all types of interventions, from self-help educational materials (81%, the highest proportion) to incentives (31%, the lowest proportion): "Seventy-five percent of programs focused on more than one risk factor, including stress management, back care, nutrition, alcohol consumption, blood pressure, and preventive care, in addition to smoking and obesity." Preventive care might include genuine prevention, such as flu shots, for which the nonsense shares credit. There is no evaluation of any actual medical outcomes, nor of how the supposed "savings" were measured, or possibly, calculated on the basis of charlatan hype. Savings were claimed for reduced absenteeism, an effect which can be achieved merely by letting it be known that the bosses disapprove of taking a day off. And "savings" would be entirely fictitious in companies that don't pay for sick days in the first place. Also in the real world, employees use their sick days for vacation time, so these frequently don't even reflect actual illness. But the authors merely state that they "monetized absentee days using the average hourly wage rate in 2009 of $20.49" to arrive at their claim of $2.73 return on the dollar.

Big Charlatanism

A Republican Senator sponsored the fraud-based "wellness" provision in the "Obama" plan: "Weight gain and unhealthy lifestyles that focus on smoking and lack of exercise have sky-rocketed our healthcare costs," said the sponsor of the provision, Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), in a statement when the Finance Committee adopted his amendment in a bipartisan vote. (Advocacy Groups Protest Wellness Provision in Senate Healthcare Bill. By Emily P. Walker, Washington Correspondent, MedPage Today, Jan. 7, 2010.)

Blathers Ensign, "Rather than more government, I believe the free market is the answer." What a tower of dishonesty! Anyone who believed in the free market would want to take away the health insurance companies' special tax subsidy, that they hawk to their customers as "free money," which is the very root of their corrupt business plan! "Choice is fundamental, and choice can drive down the cost of your health care." He and his Congressional accomplices are the ones who want to take our choice away, by forcing us to buy private insurance!

"Part of this answer includes incentives to encourage healthy behavior and maintain preventive care. For example, the grocery company Safeway learned that about 70% of its healthcare costs are driven by behavior and four conditions drive those costs – obesity, smoking, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. By managing these conditions through incentives for employees, Safeway reduced its healthcare costs by nearly 40%."

In fact, Safeway didn't "learn" any such thing; it's merely a health fascist article of faith with no scientific support. "The Safeway employees involved are salaried management, who make upwards of $50,000, and the only division, Genuardi's in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, which is non-union. So out of over 200,000 employees, around 25,000 are affected. As for keeping costs contained - with penalties for non-compliance to Safeway voluntary 'health standards,' full-time Genuardi employees can easily pay over $170 per week for premium health coverage." (Gwen Charles, blog post re How Safeway Is Cutting Health-Care Costs. By Steven A. Burd. Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2009.) Those corporate elites are exactly the kind of people whose health costs routinely exceed those of workers in the first place. Furthermore, the company's insurance costs are set by negotiation, not itemization, and as primary beneficiaries of this outrage, health insurance companies have a special interest in rewarding Safeway for helping to manufacture political propaganda.

"Imagine saving nearly 40% on your healthcare expenses!" Ensign burbles. His scheme for these "savings" consists of unjustly fining anyone who doesn't participate in these charlatan programs, in order to reward the true believers in his fraudulent health cult. And make special note of how he rants that "The government-takeover plan comes with an enormous price tag, and it will put a bureaucrat between you and your doctor." Presumably he is referring to single-payer. Meanwhile, he and his ilk propose to jam their worthless hogwash down our throats, bolstered by government subsidies to the insurance companies! (How to Cut Healthcare Costs. By Sen. John Ensign. Accessed Jan. 8, 2010.)

Steve Burd Lied About Everything

"[A] review of Safeway documents and interviews with company officials show that the company did not keep health-care costs flat for four years. Those costs did drop in 2006 -- by 12.5 percent. That was when the company overhauled its benefits, according to Safeway Senior Vice President Ken Shachmut." Costs resumed their climb after 2006. "Even as Burd claimed last year to have held costs flat, Safeway was forecasting that per capita expenses for its employees would rise by 8.5 percent in 2009. According to a survey of 1,700 health plans by the benefits consultant Hewitt Associates, the average increase nationally was 6.1 percent." "Burd's assertions about the program's success made him a rock star on Capitol Hill. He pressed his case in briefings for Senate Democrats and Republicans and in a May meeting with President Obama." Other moronic true believers who fawned over Burd's lies include Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Thomas Carper (D-DE), and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). (Misleading claims about Safeway wellness incentives shape health-care bill. By David S. Hilzenrath. Washington Post, Jan. 17, 2010.)

At the June 11, 2009 Senate hearing, Burd parroted the Big Lie that "70% of health care costs are driven by behavior;" and goosed it up to 75% to please his adoring crowd; and also claimed that "78% of our employees absolutely love this plan," and that it would cost Safeway an extra $27 million to not have "financial incentives." Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) proclaimed his "great deal of admiration" for Burd, Sen. Barb Mikulski (D-MD) gushed over Safeway, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) expressed his support, and Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Thomas Dodd (D-CT) praised him. (Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Health Reform Hearing, Jun. 11, 2009, Panel 1.)

At the June 17, 2009 Senate morning hearing, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) said of Burd's baloney, "we know these strategies will lower costs," and Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) claimed that self-insured companies like Safeway "saved money... because it kept their employees well." In the afternoon session, Sen Kay Hagan (D-NC) claimed that prevention and wellness "will save us billions;" Sen. Tom Coburn MD (R-OK) claimed that government can't do "what a Steve Burd has done at Safeway;" blamed Medicaid for low birthweight babies; claimed states would save "at least a trillion dollars" from the Patient's Choice Act; and praised "Dr. Cooper in Texas."

Steven A. Burd was a management consultant with Arthur D. Little from 1982 to 1987, when he started his own firm. "Mr. Burd is a longtime management consultant to Safeway, who was deeply involved in developing and implementing strategy for the company during the period from 1986 to 1988, after its leveraged buyout by management and Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Company." He worked with other clients in the retail and food industries from 1988 to 1991. (A New President Is Chosen At Safeway Supermarkets. New York Times, Oct. 29, 1992.) Burd was the son of a railroad-yard superintendent, and "grew up in a variety of small Midwestern towns." He graduated from the University of Wisconsin and got a masters degree in economics there. He came to Fred Meyer's department stores, owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., as a "shadowy consultant" in 1991. (Dealmakers cast shadow over city's business scene. By Steven D. Jones. Portland Business Journal, Nov. 8, 1996.) He has been President of Safeway since 1992, CEO and a director since 1993, and Chairman since 1998. He has also been a director of Kohl’s Corporation since 2001. There does not appear to be any documentation of Burd's claims, just editorials, speeches and PowerPoints.

Burd's "Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform" claims to represent companies which employ 1.7 million workers. Besides KKR, Kohl’s Department Stores, and Safeway, and associated grocery suppliers (Bumble Bee Seafoods, Coca-Cola, Del Monte Foods, General Mills, H. J. Heinz Company, J.M. Smucker, Kraft Foods, Kroger, Land O’Lakes, Lund Food Holdings, PepsiCo, Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company) and retailers (Brookshire Grocery Company, C&S Wholesale Grocers, Giant Eagle, Publix Super Markets, Unified Western Grocers, United Supermarkets, Ltd., Wegmans Food Markets, Winco Foods), it includes the health insurance companies Aetna, Cigna, and Humana, PacifiCare A United Healthcare Company, Blue Shield of California, Hospital Corporation of America, Kaiser Permanente, and CVS/Caremark; big pharmas Eli Lilly and Company, GlaxoSmithKline, McKesson Corporation, Merck & Co, and Pfizer Inc.; a few other corporations: Illinois Tool Works, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Norfolk Southern Corporation, Rockwell Automation, Rockwell Collins; and a banker, Morgan Stanley.

Safeway Inc.

Safeway was taken over in 1987 by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, shortly before this group took over RJR Nabisco Holdings (R.J. Reynolds Tobacco), as part of an organized scheme to loot smokers. In 1994, KKR partners Henry R. Kravis, George R. Roberts, Michael T. Tokarz and James H. Greene Jr. were directors of both Safeway and RJR.

Paul Hazen

Paul Mandeville Hazen has been a director of Safeway since 1990. He was President of Wells Fargo & Co. from 1984 to 1995, and Chairman from 1995 until retiring in 2001. He is Chairman and a director of KKR Financial Corp. (Corporate bios, SEC.) He received his BS in Finance at the University of Arizona in 1963, and MBA at the University of California-Berkeley in 1964. (NNDB). His mother, Mrs. Linn Hazen, was a fundraiser and secretary of the American Cancer Society (Treasurer Makes First Contribution. Tucson Daily Citizen, Apr. 4, 1953; Re-Elected. Tucson Daily Citizen, Sep. 11, 1959), and a fundraiser for the Heart Fund. (Latest Word: Ball At Skyline. Tucson Daily Citizen, Feb. 11, 1968.) His uncle, Harold Locke Hazen, retired as Dean of the graduate school at MIT. He was also dean of foreign students at MIT, and was on the board of Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey, and of the College of Saudi Arabia. (Tucson Seen. By Betty Milburn. Tucson Daily Citizen, Apr. 17, 1968.)

Dr. Wayne B. Jonas, of the old Office of Alternative Medicine

Dr. Wayne B. Jonas was the second director of the former Office of Alternative Medicine, now the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, after its promoter, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) drove the first one out with accusations of being too scientific. Jonas peddled his "Wellness Initiative for the Nation (WIN) at the Samueli Institute. (Statement of Wayne B. Jonas, MD, President and CEO, The Samueli Institute. Hearing on "Health Care Reform Legislative Options," Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Jun. 11, 2009.)

These frauds claim that "Seventy percent of avoidable costs could be mitigated by behavior changes that involve healthy lifestyle development, wellness enhancement, and early detection and intervention for the conditions listed above. Two‐thirds of chronic illness is caused by lifestyle and behavioral factors that are influenced by our mental, social or physical
environments." The justification for this is an editorial by McGinnis et al. which in turn is based on his flagrantly obsolete 1993 "study" that virtually ignored the role of infection. (A Wellness Initiative for the Nation, Summary Document.)

The "Wellness Initiative for the Nation" in turn peddles a swarm of clone platforms, including "The Obama-Biden plan for health reform, specifically the goal to promote prevention and strengthen public health;" Healthy People 2010; a "Wellness Trust," peddled by the leftist Center for American Progress; Sen. Tom Daschle's "Federal Health Reserve;" based on his book; and other health fascist dreck.

"Under the proposed Trust, a new set of payment policies would be developed for preventive services. The national services provided by the Trust,—such as quit lines for smokers—would be delivered through competitive contracts with private entities. A large wellness “industry” would emerge as evidence of returns on investment increases" (page 13). Return on WHOSE so-called "investments"? For whose benefit? This so-called "wellness industry" would actually be created by tax subsidies, not "return on investment," and would be peddling worthless bunk in the first place! This is nothing but a scheme for robbing the taxpayers, for the profit of their cronies, for "services" the people don't want. Especially smokers, and other targets of their war of cultural genocide (page 15). (Promoting Prevention and Preempting Costs. A New Wellness Trust for the United States. By Jeanne M. Lambrew, PhD and John D. Podesta, JD. Center for American Progress, October 5, 2006.)

The Center for American Progress

The Center for American Progress was founded by several of President Clinton's old tobacco inquisitors. Former Sen. Tom Daschle "was among a small group who plotted with Podesta for more than a year to establish American Progress." Senior colleagues included Sarah Rosen Wartell, Melody Barnes, Mort Halperin, Laura Nichols, Neera Tanden and Bob Boorstin. It was funded with a $10 million budget, from big donors such as George Soros. (Notion Building. By Matt Bai. New York Times, Oct. 12, 2003.) "The Center for American Progress was begun in 2003 with funding from philanthropists Herbert M. Sandler and Marion O. Sandler. It is a Washington, DC-based liberal think tank created and led by President and Chief Executive Officer John D. Podesta, the head of Barack Obama's presidential transition team after the 2008 election and former Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton.... The institute receives approximately $25 million per year in funding from a variety of sources, including individuals, foundations, and corporations. From 2003 to 2007, the center received about $15 million in grants from 58 foundations. Major individual donors include George Soros, Peter Lewis, Steve Bing, and Herbert M. Sandler. The Center receives undisclosed sums from corporate donors." Wal-Mart has given them at least half a million dollars. (Center for American Progress. SourceWatch, accessed 3/14/2010.)

John Podesta

Podesta was White House chief of staff during the Clinton Administration. According to The Wall Street Journal, May 27, 1999, "When the Clinton administration began considering an anti-tobacco suit in 1997, the standard decision left top Justice Department officials extremely dubious. At a Senate hearing, Attorney General Janet Reno seemed unequivocal, 'The federal government does not have an independent cause of action,' she said. But the department came under heavy pressure to reconsider. The White House argued that the fight was more political than legal: 'just sue and the industry will settle.' The Justice Department countered that it doesn't pick fights that it doubts it can win on the legal merits. Ironically, one of the department's most ardent naysayers of the suit was Civil Division Chief Frank Hunger, widower of Vice President Al Gore's sister, who died from smoking-related lung cancer in 1984." Podesta under questioning by Thomas J. Frederick of Winston & Strawn, for Philip Morris USA Inc. and Altria Group Inc.: "Q. All right. And do you recall during those meetings anyone from the White House -- associated with the White House making the argument that the government should just sue because the industry would settle? MR. KLONTZ: Mr. Podesta, I instruct you not to answer that question unless the answer has been disclosed beyond the executive branch. I believe that the answer to that question is protected by executive privilege as well as attorney-client and work product privileges." (In: Deposition of John David Podesta, August 1, 2003, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. PHILIP MORRIS USA INC. 01 Aug 2003, pp. 40-43.) Podesta's primary concern in this questioning was to deny his involvement in tobacco policy. The tobacco industry settled the Minnesota tobacco lawsuit despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that they seemed to be winning, and for more money than the anti-smokers were demanding. And, the US Department of Justice has failed to show even a single example of scientific fraud by the tobacco industry, while overlooking mountains of it by the anti-smokers.

Podesta is also a co-author with Jeanne M. Lambrew and Terence L. Shaw, of "Change in challenging times: a plan for extending and improving health coverage" (Health Aff (Millwood) 2005 Jan-Jun;Suppl Web Exclusives W5-119-W5-132). They want a "dedicated value-added tax." According to them, "The first priority is to create a national focus on disease prevention and health promotion. The U.S. health insurance system now focuses on treating diseases instead of reducing their incidence in the first place. With no guarantee that enrollees will remain in their plans, insurers have little incentive to invest in keeping enrollees healthy over time." This is the battle cry of the charlatans. But their supposed "prevention" doesn't work. It's nothing but deluded and fanatical cult faith, founded on deliberate fraud sponsored by the corrupt politicians with our tax money. Furthermore, insurers already have an incentive to try to keep their enrollees healthy until they can be dumped on Social Security and Medicare. "Coverage for preventive serviceswould be carved out of private health insurance and financed through a new nationwide preventive benefit." The health fascists want to eliminate the disincentive for quack "prevention" by making it compulsory, and buying off the insurers with tax-funded reimbursements.

Former U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle (withdrawn HHS Secretary nominee)

Daschle withdrew from consideration over the petty and trifling issue of his personal taxes. Needless to say, his belief in Nazi pseudo-science was never criticized.

"After losing re-election to the Senate in 2004, Daschle became a public policy adviser and member of the legislative and public policy group at the law and lobbying firm Alston & Bird.... Daschle is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think-tank run by top Obama transition adviser and former Clinton White House chief of staff John Podesta. According to his biography for the think tank, Daschle serves on the advisory boards of Intermedia Partners and the BP America Inc. external advisory council, and on the boards of CB Richard Ellis, Mascoma Corp., Prime BioSolutions, The Freedom Forum, the Mayo Clinic, the Center for American Progress, the LBJ Foundation, and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations." (Daschle to Become Health and Human Services Secretary. FOXNews, Nov. 19, 2008.) "Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Democratic leader, threatened that Democrats would tie up the Senate so that no other issue could be voted on until a definitive vote was cast on the tobacco bill. He also said that if the Republicans blocked the anti-smoking measure, they would have to answer for it in the election campaigns this fall." (Lott Wants Tobacco Bill Withdrawn. By David E. Rosenbaum. New York Times, Jun. 9, 1998.) "Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the Democratic leader, received a letter dated Aug. 17 from the Department of Justice confirming that it was reviewing accusations that several companies violated Federal election law, his spokeswoman, Ranit Schmelzer, said today." (U.S. Studies Whether Big Tobacco Tried to Trade Ads for Votes. By Lizette Alvarez. New York Times, Aug. 31, 1998.) "Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids Applauds Senators Daschle and Johnson for Voting to Regulate Tobacco Products." (CTFK Press Release, Jul. 20, 2004.) "Former Rep. John Porter (R-Ill.), chair of Research! America, said of Daschle, "He'll do an outstanding job" (AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 11/19)." [Research!America is the tool of the Lasker Lobby that has controlled the health establishment for the last six decades.]

In Daschle's 2008 book on health care policy, "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis," these are the type of lies that Daschle believes in: "As well as covering high costs, a reformed health system should be aggressive in promoting prevention. Unfortunately, our system gives short shrift to prevention programs and low-tech methods that can be effective, or more effective, than high-tech interventions. In his book Your Money or Your Life: Strong Medicine for America's Health Care System, David Cutler cites the care of premature babies as an example. In the last several decades we've developed high-tech equipment and procedures that have dramatically improved the survival rate of babies with low birth rates. But this care comes with a high price tag, often costing more than $100,000. In contrast, we do relatively little to promote a strategy that would be just as effective and much cheaper: convincing expectant mothers to quit smoking. Smokers are twice as likely to have low-birth-weight babies. Giving them advice on how to quit, paying for cessation aids, and following up with them regularly would cost about $50 per woman" (page 150).

Except it DOESN'T WORK. Premature births in the US have increased for over two decades, from 9.4% of live births in 1981 to 12.5% in 2004, despite the persecution of pregnant smokers to make them quit, the workplace and public smoking bans, and smokers intimidated out of smoking in their own homes by the false and reckless accusations of the charlatan "health authorities." It was also despite increased rates of prenatal care, and a decrease in the number of births to teenagers, the establishment's other favorite nostrums. This is because chorioamnionitis is the real cause of most preterm births, and the anti-smokers deliberately use defective studies that ignore the role of this infection, in order to falsely blame smoking and manipulate their crooked puppets like Daschle to persecute us! Ther health fascist frauds have gotten away with this for 27 years, repeating their lies over and over again in their sealed mass media echo chamber.

Jailbird attorney Dickie Scruggs, of Mississippi tobacco lawsuit infamy, hosted a fundraiser for Daschle in 2004. Trial lawyers were Daschle's largest group of individual contributors at $1.5 million. (A Lot of Trial Lawyers Supporting Tom Daschle. By Walter Olson. Overlawyered, Aug. 19, 2004.)

Daschle's former legislative aide, Ellen-Marie Whelan, came to Congress as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow for the 2003-2004 academic year. She is now a Senior Health Policy Analyst and Associate Director of Health Policy at the Center for American Progress. (Accessed 1/13/10.)

Jonathan Tisch, CEO of Loews Corporation (Lorillard Tobacco), was one of Daschle's hard money campaign contributors. (Hypocrisy Convention, by David Horowitz. Salon Magazine, Aug. 21, 2000.)

The SEIU and its phony opponents

Despite their pretense of opposition, the "conservatives" helped them get away with it, every step of the way. Their rants about "free enterprise versus government healthcare" are nothing but a straw man. The health insurance companies are actually the biggest enemies of free enterprise. Since the 1940s, they have been the beneficiaries of tax exemptions for the cost of healthcare which cost the taxpayers $246 billion a year. Everyone who has ever been offered employer-paid health insurance knows that it's peddled as "free money." This is how they rigged the system to funnel customers to themselves.

The "conservatives" want us to blame the wrong culprits and attack the wrong enemy, every single time. Their cheap union-bashing of the Service Employees International Union is a perfect example. The only reason SEIU looks powerful is because it's a tool of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. All their supposed ideas and positions about health and healthcare come from RWJF, not the workers. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation vouches for them and opens the doors of corporate boardrooms for them. As a shill for the health fascists, they sell out workers' basic human dignity of running their own lives. Those are the reasons the health industry employers are eager to make deals with them.

SEIU's core organizing is in building services, the public sector and healthcare. "Internal memos--obtained by SF Weekly--show that two large SEIU locals had made a deal with a group of California nursing homes, in which SEIU agreed that workers would not speak out publicly against abuse of patients, or health code violations, and would lobby for limiting patients' right to sue. (SEIU later backed out of its commitment to tort reform.) In exchange, the union could organize a certain number of nursing homes without interference. The SF Weekly story was based in part on an internal report from one of the largest locals involved in the deal, United Healthcare Workers West (UHW-West)." Even their members admit their contracts are bad. That's why the CEO of Wal-Mart was happy to be part of "Better Health Care Together," a coalition of business, labor and political leaders, "formed by" SEIU's president, Andy Stern. (Andy Stern: Savior or Sellout? By Liza Featherstone. The Nation, Jul. 16, 2007.) Meanwhile, the "conservatives" help them polish their reputation and give them a cover story with stale clichés about "union goons."

Members of Dennis Rivera's original union, Local 1199 of the Drug, Hospital and Health Care Employees Union, were mainly "low-paid black and Hispanic women who mostly work in hospitals, clinics and other health-related operations." (Hospital Workers' Chief Loses in Power Struggle. By Douglas Martin. New York Times, Nov. 16, 1987.) The union was originally organized by three leftist professional organizers. (University Presses; Tough Red Union. By Joe Klein. New York Times, Sep. 24, 1989.)

Rivera is one of the notables of the Democratic Party of New York City. The media anointed him "the brightest new star in Hispanic politics." (A New Face for American Labor. By Sam Roberts. New York Times, May 10, 1992.) Rivera wanted to use New York's tobacco settlement money, the money stolen from smokers, to cover health costs of low-income people. (Albany Weighs Tobacco Funds For Health Care. By Jennifer Steinhauer. New York Times, Jan. 25, 1999.) Dennis Rivera "largely orchestrated" the negotiations to raise New York's cigarette tax to $1.11 a pack, the highest of any state. (New York Raising Tax on Cigarettes to Help Uninsured. By Raymond Hernandez. New York Times, Dec. 18, 1999.) "[A]sk any lawmaker or lobbyist who made this plan happen, and fingers point immediately to a behind-the-scenes player who is not even a state official: Dennis Rivera, president of 1199, New York State's largest health care union." Rivera bullied the politicians into submission by threatening to run ads attacking them. "Arguably the most unusual aspect of Mr. Rivera's lobbying campaign was that it was made possible by the Wall Street boom, which had put more than ample money in the union's pension plan through its investments. In its latest contract, the union allowed hospitals to forgo pension contributions for several months, and millions of dollars that would have gone to those contributions went instead into 1199's and the hospitals' Planning and Placement Fund." (Getting Tobacco to Fund Health Care for Have-Nots. By Steven Greenhouse. New York Times, Dec. 27, 1999.)

This phony boom, which ultimately crashed the economy and threw tens of millions of people into distress, was engineered by trustees of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation who were also officials of the infamous insurer AIG. In particular, Edward E. Matthews, senior vice chairman of investments and financial services at AIG, who should have automatically been a prime suspect in its financial misdeeds. Instead of an investigation, AIG got a bailout, because President Obama is nothing but a puppet of AIG and RWJF himself. So this is how those pretended Robin Hoods have helped the plight of the have-nots.

A New York Times writer rewarded him with praise: "Dennis Rivera, president of New York State's largest health care union: Trifecta award, for being the legislative, executive and lobbying force behind doubling the cigarette tax to provide health care for one million more uninsured New Yorkers." (Metro Matters; Small Tokens For the Movers And Shakers. By Joyce Purnick. New York Times, Dec. 30, 1999.) Rivera was a member of the Democratic National Committee for seven years. (Head of Health Workers' Union Leaves the Democratic Committee. By Steven Greenhouse. New York Times, Jan. 24, 2002.) New York Governor George Pataki's health bill squandered the opportunity to create a $1.1 billion trust fund from the conversion of Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, by rewarding union members for their political support with a pay raise. (Metro Matters. Flying Shoes, Health Care and Politics. By Joyce Purnick. New York Times, Apr. 4, 2002.) Theresa A. Bischoff, president of New York University Hospitals Center, resigned after it was revealed that she had a "personal relationship" with Rivera. (N.Y.U. Hospitals Center's President to Resign. By Alison Leigh Cowan. New York Times, Jan. 25, 2003.) Anti-smoker Mayor Michael Bloomberg hired Patrick Brennan, political field director from 1199/S.E.I.U. for his re-election campaign. (Bloomberg Hires Political Pros, One From a Labor Union. By Michael Slackman. New York Times, Jan. 15, 2005.) A writer for the New York Times made the ridiculous claim that "Washington insiders are impressed and surprised that it was a union leader — Mr. Rivera — who forged a coalition including giant drug makers, the health insurers, the American Hospital Association and the American Medical Association that helped secure their pledges to cut hundreds of billions of dollars in costs." Rivera advocated a single-payer system [thus his main role was to con the leftists into supporting the bill]. (Dennis Rivera Leads Labor Charge for Health Reform. By Steven Rittenhouse. New York Times, Aug. 26, 2009.) The outrageous lie is in pretending that Rivera is anything other than a front man for the same corrupt powers-behind-the-throne as ever. Nancy-Ann DeParle, head of the White House Office of Health Reform, is a former board member of RWJF.

As chairman of SEIU healthcare, he got his seat at the healthcare reform hearings courtesy of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He was groomed for his role, which largely consisted of parroting the RWJF slogan ("We need a new national culture of health"), since at least Feb. 2008. (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Launches Commission to Look Beyond Medical Care System to Improve the Health of All Americans. Feb. 28, 2008.) RWJF's "Commission to Build a Healthier America," includes representatives from Harvard University, the mothership of charlatanism; Wal-Mart; Sen. Bill Frist (in person); The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and a shill from ABC News. (Webinar: Creating Healthy Communities. RWJF Grants, Jul. 29, 2009.)

The Individual Mandate is an Outrage Against the Constitution

Its supposed justification under the Interstate Commerce clause is based on the outrageous claim that the financial well-being of the health insurance companies trumps every interest of the people!

The Constitutionality of the Individual Mandate for Health Insurance. By Jack M. Balkin, J.D., Ph.D. [of Yale Law School, speaking through the house organ of the Harvard charalatans, the New England Journal of Medicine]. N Engl J Med 2010 Jan 13. [Epub ahead of print]. He tells us that the individual mandate is designed to "coax [!!!!] uninsured persons into purchasing insurance," when it is naked compulsion. He pretends that a few approved exemptions that negate its compulsory aspects for the vast majority. He pretends that "it is not actually a mandate. It is a tax, which people would not have to pay if they purchased health insurance." This begs the point of why should they have to buy it in the first place.

He pretends that it's just like a "penalty tax" for not filing your tax return promptly. As if people have a civil obligation to purchase any other product of a private company! He pretends that "The constitutional test is whether Congress could reasonably conclude that its taxing and spending programs promote the general welfare of the country," and claims that "This test is easily satisfied." Namely, that if it's good for the insurance companies to force "younger and healthier" people into their pool, in the name of lowering their suckers' premiums, that is sufficient - while ignoring the fact that it is the taxpayers who foot most of the bill for the elderly, whose costs are the highest, and that the insurance companies' core business plan is to dump those costs on the taxpayers. He also ignores the fact that insured people are already the beneficiaries of a tax subsidy that costs the government $246 billion in lost revenue, from which the uninsured do not benefit and are forced to help replace.

He pretends that not buying insurance is an economic activity, and thus subject to regulation, under the pretext that the uninsured use other means to pay for their health care. "When uninsured people get sick, they rely on their families for financial support, go to emergency rooms (often passing costs on to others [which they would do anyhow if they have no money]), or purchase over-the-counter remedies. They substitute these activities for paying premiums to health insurance companies." So, this is the key to everything - that people must not be permitted to substitute anything for paying premiums to health insurance companies! He wants to demonize our basic human right to take care of ourselves as some kind of anti-social act, purely because it is not suborndinate to THEM. "All these activities are economic, and they have a cumulative effect on interstate commerce," he lazily rationalizes.

As a final demonstration of his power-mad hubris, he pretends that for the Supreme Court to uphold the rights of the American people and strike down this provision as unconstitutional would be a "constitutional revolution."

The Individual Mandate is an Unconstitutional "Tax": "Article I, section 8 of the U.S. Constitution delegates to Congress the power "To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States...." "From this enumerated taxation power, the courts have derived an implied power to spend tax revenues. Whether correct or not, current precedents do not limit this so-called "spending power" to expenditures that are necessary and proper to carry into execution an enumerated power. Therefore, the courts may well allow Congress to use its taxing and spending powers to craft a general income tax sufficient to pay for health care insurance for more Americans. They may also allow grants to states to encourage them to insure more Americans. Finally, they may allow Congress to create tax credits for individuals who pay for their own health insurance policies. But just because Congress may use its powers of taxation in these ways does not mean that anything it decides to call a "tax" is constitutional." (Why the Personal Mandate to Buy Health Insurance Is Unprecedented and Unconstitutional. By Randy Barnett, Nathaniel Stewart and Todd F. Gaziano. Heritage Foundation, Legal Memorandum #49, Dec. 9, 2009). Forcing people to buy private health insurance is unprecedented in every way. It is also completely unnecessary for its supposed purpose. There are several other ways to fund this program which are not unconstitutional. So, there is no reason that the Supreme Court shouldn't strike it down and make them do it again, by Constitutionally proper means.

The real question is, WHY DIDN'T THEY DO IT RIGHT IN THE FIRST PLACE? It's clear from reading the bill that the real reason is so that they can shove their Nazi pseudo-science of "wellness" down everyone's throat. The "wellness" garbage would be a required part of every approved health insurance plan.

Big-Shot Republicans Conspired With Big-Shot Democrats All Along

Crossing Our Lines - Working Together to Reform the U.S. Health System. By Howard Baker, Tom Daschle, and Bob Dole [and the lobbyists of former Sens. Dole (R-KS) and Daschle (D-SD) at Alston+Bird and Baker (R-TN) at Baker and Donelson, under the auspices of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Brookings Institution], June 2009. See "Pillar Three: Emphasizing and Supporting Personal Responsibility and Healthy Choices," page 46. "First, a key component of the Leaders’ comprehensive health care reform package is a requirement that all Americans should have, at a minimum, basic health insurance coverage." That means forcing people to buy health insurance. "Second, the Leaders strongly endorse efforts to increase the nation’s focus on clinical and population-based prevention and wellness as a means to improve Americans’ health. A large and growing proportion of our health spending is currently going toward chronic diseases, and the frequent occurrence of preventable and costly complications of these diseases creates an imperative to take major steps toward both clinical and population-based prevention. While many factors contribute to obesity and other chronic diseases, there are clear, changeable patient behaviors, like quitting smoking, following a nutritious diet, and exercising regularly, that can influence their occurrence and severity." That's a pile of health fascist BS, founded on pseudo-science and fraudulent cost claims, which were manufactured by the Centers for Disease Control on the command of those corrupt politicians themselves!

The Centers for Disease Control Commits Scientific Fraud for Political Purposes

The basis of their lies is the CDC's propaganda screed, "The Power of Prevention 2009." They lie that "More than 80% of lung cancers are due to smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke," page 3. They are guilty of flagrant scientific fraud for ignoring more than 50 studies, which show that human papillomaviruses are involved in at least a quarter of non-small cell lung cancers. The CDC lies that "Increased consumption of fruits and vegetables helps reduce the risk for heart disease and certain cancers as well," page 7. But a $625 million, taxpayer-funded, randomized controlled dietary modification trial on 165,000 women after eight years showed no benefits of dietary modification on breast cancer, colorectal cancer, cardiovascular disease, or bone fractures. The CDC lies that "Every year, an estimated 443,000 people die prematurely from smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke." They're guilty of deliberate fraud for ignoring the evidence that, since the 1970s, the death rates from heart disease have declined just as much among smokers as among non-smokers, and of purposely cherry-picking data to falsely blame secondhand smoke for heart disease. They lie that smoking cost $96 billion in direct medical expenditures in 2004, page 8. This lie is based on the CDC's deliberately fraudulent SAMMEC computer program, which on top of the preceding frauds deliberately falsely blames smoking for cancers which are known to be virtually entirely caused by infection, including cervical cancer and stomach cancer, as well as other cancers, perinatal illnesses, and other diseases known to be caused by infection, by using defective studies based on nothing but lifestyle questionnaires. Furthermore, those bogus "costs" are concocted by pretending that costs paid by smokers were paid by non-smokers, and that there are no offsetting costs arising from the fact that people die eventually anyhow!

Look at the Nazi plank of the 2008 Republican "Health Care Reform" platform: "Prevent Disease and End the 'Sick Care' System... Chronic diseases – in many cases, preventable conditions – are driving health care costs, consuming three of every four health care dollars. We can reduce demand for medical care by fostering personal responsibility within a culture of wellness, while increasing access to preventive services, including improved nutrition and breakthrough medications that keep people healthy and out of the hospital. To reduce the incidence of diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and stroke, we call for a national grassroots campaign [Sic! Jammed down our throats by government edict!] against obesity, especially among children. We call for continuation of efforts to decrease use of tobacco, especially among the young."

Once those scumbag Republicans have endorsed forced health insurance and health fascist charlatanism, there is nothing of any consequence that they can pretend to be opposed to in the current proposals. It proves that the only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Republicans pretend to be something they're not. This explains why the Republicans have let the health fascists get away with their lies and fraud for decade after decade, and why there hasn't been a peep of protest from them about these most outrageous abominations. The real game they're playing is called, "trying to trick the people into blaming the Democrats only."

cast 12-04-11