My next letter I am sending out today will address this new question and ask her one more time to answer the questions directly or to let me know that she won't answer because, as it appears, she doesn't care what I ask
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April 7, 2010
Dear Mr. Knytych:
Thank you for
contacting my office regarding health care reform.
On Sunday, March
21, 2010, I voted to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R.
3590) and the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act (H.R.
4872). These two bills together represent comprehensive health care reform.
Although this health care reform package, like any legislation, is not perfect,
I am confident that it helps middle class families, seniors, and small
business.
Some have claimed that this bill would cut Medicare benefits for seniors. I would not have supported this bill if that were true. The truth is that this bill strengthens Medicare. The AARP endorsed it because it will extend the solvency of the Medicare program, provide free preventive exams under Medicare, and provide relief to seniors who get stuck in the Medicare Part D donut hole. Starting this year, those seniors will get help with their prescription drug costs. Those in the donut hole will receive a $250 rebate this year and a 50% discount for brand name drugs until the donut hole is completely closed in 2020. Seniors will also receive free wellness and preventive exams (there will be no cost sharing for preventive services for anybody beginning in 2014). My 86-year-old mother depends on Medicare, and I worked hard to make it even better than it is now for seniors.
Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. They employ the majority of working people, support our local communities, and drive innovation and success. However, small businesses have been struggling to provide their employees with health care coverage. They have seen double-digit price increases year after year and have had to pass those costs onto their employees and their customers. These businesses will now have access to a state-based small business exchange, or health insurance pool. By allowing these businesses to purchase coverage in larger pools, they will have access to insurance prices normally enjoyed only by larger businesses and will be able to provide a greater choice of plans to their employees. In addition, beginning this year, small employers who purchase coverage for their employees will be eligible to receive tax credits covering up to 35% of the coverage costs. Additionally, these tax credits will increase to cover up to 50% of costs in 2014. Larger employers will have the option of providing affordable coverage to their workers or contributing if their workers cannot afford coverage and receive tax credits in the Exchange. Employers with 50 or fewer employees will be exempt from any employer responsibility to provide coverage or make payments to support coverage for their employees. Nationwide, 96% of businesses will not be impacted by the mandate to provide coverage.
Many people have also asserted that this bill will add to the national debt. This is untrue. In fact, the health care reform package is fully paid for. The independent, nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has determined that it will reduce the deficit by $143 billion over the first ten years, and by $1.2 trillion in the second ten years. These savings are found by rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in the health care system, eliminating overpayments to private Medicare Advantage providers, by imposing a small tax on investment earnings for individuals earning more than $200,000 and married couples with incomes over $250,000, and by implementing an excise tax on high cost health insurance plans. I had serious concerns about the excise tax in the Senate health care bill, so I worked with my colleagues to improve this language and protect the middle class. The excise tax will now not take effect until 2018 and only affect plans that cost $10,200 or more for an individual and $27,500 or more for family coverage.
Many people say this bill was crafted behind closed doors, without input from Republicans, and that it was rushed through Congress. However, over the past year, Congress has held nearly 200 bipartisan hearings and considered 674 amendments offered by Democrats and Republicans. In fact, this package contains nearly 150 Republican amendments. The original House bill was online for 30 days before the first Committee began their mark up and more than 100 days before the tri-committees formally introduced their merged bill. When the House considered the Senate bill, it had been online for three months.
Hundreds of groups have supported this legislation because they know it is a good bill. Here are just a few examples: the American Medical Association, the
As a member of the House Education and Labor Committee, which had partial jurisdiction over the health care reform bill, I was actively working to ensure that this package will positively impact
Thank you again for contacting my office. It is a pleasure serving you in Congress.
Sincerely,
Carol Shea-Porter
Member of Congress
]]>The following is a letter I sent to CSP with the
questions I wasn’t able to ask at her town hall event at the
RE: Questions and Comments from the April 1,
2010 Town Hall Meeting in
Please provide a response.
I would like to thank you for holding a town
hall meeting here, in
1) To start off you mentioned the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in your opening remarks and in response to a question posed during the event. I have looked through the bill and the CBO scoring that has been provided. I was wondering why you supported a bill that according to the CBO will cause the loss of an estimated 1.6 Million jobs in this country? It seems to me that there was a much better way to achieve the main goal of providing affordable coverage for insurance and eliminating the “pre-existing condition” practice with a more free-market approach that was offered and outright rejected on partisan lines as amendments at the beginning of this process. These approaches would not only have achieved the stated goal but also created jobs in the health care industry.
2) This bill does absolutely nothing in the area of torte reform and we both know that the skyrocketing costs of medical malpractice insurance, along with the practice of extra testing to eliminate potential litigation, are large drivers in the overall healthcare costs that grow faster than the rate of inflation. Why was nothing done to address this issue other than an advisory commission to explore the issue? We both know that there are a few different ways to kill a proposed legislation and among them are creating a commission that will only meet a few times and will provide a meaningless report that will just sit there with nothing done.
3) This bill will change the enrollment criteria for Medicaid, which will put additional expenses on the states to pay for the people newly qualified individuals. I am sure you are aware that the low Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements are another large driving force in the high medical inflation rate. I am also sure that you are aware that NH can’t afford the Medicare/Medicaid it currently has, as reflected in the lowest reimbursement rates in the nation. The state passes these costs onto the property taxpayers and hospitals to absorb the loss. Was this one of the “good” aspects of this healthcare legislation you voted for?
4) When asked at the event about why anyone would trust a government run program given the fact that Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security are near insolvency you responded about other government entities that run well. You spoke about the military and the highway system.
First off, the military is not an entitlement program but is required in the constitution. Secondly, do you expect me to believe that the federal highway system, which also is not an entitlement program, is an example of proper management? It was not so long ago that we were told that our highways are in serious disrepair with bridges failing and that we needed an extra $109 Million to help restore them. This doesn’t sound like it is properly run system to me.
I would like for you to answer the original question as it relates to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
5) The revelation that this healthcare bill will actually increase premiums on younger individuals by 17% sounds like this bill doesn’t even achieve the state goal of reducing healthcare costs. Why is this legislation better than one of the alternatives that would actually reduce the costs across the board?
6) The recent revelation that this bill could
single handedly kill the ski industry because of the extra expenses or fines
for seasonal employees extends well beyond the winter ski industry. As a City
Councilor I am especially worried about the summer tourist industry, which is
the largest economic factor in
I have many more questions concerning healthcare but I will just stick to these six for right now. I would like a complete response to each of these questions in writing and not one of your generic boilerplate letters you usually send out when you don’t want to answer questions. I would also like the answers to be on point and not the talking points that are so often used in answering the tough questions.
Sincerely,
Greg Knytych
Ward 1 City Councilor
There was a time when we were facing worse economic problems as a country than we were facing when Obama took office. We recovered quite quickly and had the fastest growing peacetime economy in the history of our nation.
Now I am beginning to believe that this economy will take many years to recover, if ever and it WILL get worse before it gets better.
So you may ask what the difference is. The cartoon below captures it completely.
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I sure hope the new Obamacare health plan covers hearing aids because it appears that our ELECTED REPRESENTATIVE needs some. How does Carol Shea-Porter not hear what we, her constituents, are saying? Let us review her record this session.
During the August congressional recess the
healthcare debate was going strong (one sided of course) and the elected
representatives left
She voted for the original House Bill that
included bribes to legislators. She apparently has no problem paying OUR tax
dollars as favors to other states. I am trying to remember who she represents,
since I thought it was
Now it turns out that these fixes have problems. It will increase the health insurance premium on younger individuals by 17% and children are not completely covered. I guess this is what happens when a bill is “deemed” to have passed without having an open and honest debate and actually reading the bill.
It is not unexpected for this bill to not even meet the Presidents expectations since all negotiations were done in back rooms away from the public view.
Now OUR representative has decided to “gloat” in the victory of passing this extremely partisan take over of healthcare and student loans. I wonder if she has even figured out that this bill, according to the Congressional Budget Office will cause 1.6 MILLION jobs in America to disappear, will increase the cost to the states in Medicaid payments (which we already know that Concord passes onto the Counties, Municipalities, Doctors and Hospitals by having the lowest reimbursement rates in the nation), and will increase taxes on almost every person in this nation. Just recently Howard Dean, the former DNC Chairman said that this healthcare bill “IS A REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH, which is needed” and continued on saying “unfortunately this bill doesn’t go far enough” since there is no single payer system.
I do believe that I learned in high school and college that redistribution of wealth is at the core of socialism. I wonder if Carol Shea-Porter will let us know why she voted for this bill. All I can surmise is that she either: 1) believes in socialism, 2) doesn’t understand what she voted for, or 3) did what the leadership told her to.
I also wonder she can tell us how much of OUR money was spent sending out thousands of invitations at taxpayer expense for a venue that can only hold 60 people (seats 45 people and 15 people standing). We could have saved money by her just calling her supporters. I do plan on being in attendance, even though she doesn’t want me there.
]]>The following is the Press Release
from Frank Guinta on the
At least
she seems to have picked the right day…..
Carol Shea-Porter’s Town Hall Strategy: Small
Venues, Limited Access and Few Questions
“Our city of 17,000 has
multiple venues that could accommodate what’s expected to be a much larger
crowd and really allow the citizens of this community to be heard; no matter
how they feel on health care reform. It is my view this city is being used as a
prop as the Congresswoman does her victory lap around the district,” said Greg
Knytych, City Councilor Ward One. He continues “Bad enough she is holding
it in a small limited space, but refusing to hold it in a venue that will
allow access to no more than simply 0.0035% of
“On the heels of passage of this
partisan healthcare reform bill, fraught with sweetheart backroom deals like
the, “Louisiana Purchase” and “Gatorade” Carol Shea-Porter owes it to the
citizens of her district to hold open and honest town halls not just create the
illusion of doing so,” said Congressional Candidate Frank Guinta. “Like so many
Mayor Guinta
has held eight open town halls since August. His original challenge and the
scheduling of his
The highly
partisan charged atmosphere has left most in the dark, including the national
press which will be banned from attending any of the currently scheduled town
halls.
This video was done on March 6th and according to Rep. Griffith: "In the next 10 days, Democrats in Washington will try and jam through a massive government takeover of health care. It would raise taxes, slash Medicare benefits and destroy American jobs. It would put federal bureaucrats in charge of medical decisions that should be made by patients and doctors. And it must be stopped."
Watch the video and you decide...
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I invite you to join me next Wednesday, March 10th for this
month's
This event will start at
The county meeting will feature Rich and the NH Senate District
4 candidates Jim Forsythe and George Hurt.
I encourage everyone to take advantage of the opportunity to
meet and ask questions of the three candidates so that you can learn their
positions on the critical issues of today; healthcare, economy and jobs; and
spending/debt.
The primary sponsor of NH Senate Bill 505, establishing
a commission to set rates at private hospitals in NH is State Senate Majority
Leader Maggie Hassan (D –
This commission has the ability to determine how large it becomes and is given its own authority to assess and collect a tax on hospital income, identified as “administrative assessment” on “net operating revenues.” Let me repeat that, this commission has the ability to determine it’s own size, how many employees it will have, how much money it needs to operate and to collect that money directly from the hospitals in without legislative oversight. This sounds dangerous to me.
Sen. Hassan, in her press release identifies “
One of the driving factors in the disparity charged patients is the fact that NH has one of the lowest reimbursement rates for Medicaid and Medicare in the nation. This disparity has to be made up elsewhere. Hospitals have negotiated reimbursement rates for different procedures from the insurance companies and Sen. Hassan’s point is that an uninsured person receives a bill for the full amount of the cost but misses the point that what the uninsured actually pays is reduced more than the discounted rates insurance companies pay.
Sen. Hassan, if you want to help to reduce the cost of hospital care then perhaps the hospitals should be paid more for services received under Medicaid and Medicare. Then the loss of revenues won’t have to be passed on to the public.
Why is it good to tax more and more to create a health care plan that increases the size of government? Why is it acceptable to use the socialistic Keynesian Economic approach instead of the Supply and Demand free market approach?
Dear Senator, if you are truly concerned with the rising cost of health care perhaps you should be looking at bringing more competition in the health insurance industry. Why is the only plan being offered include more bureaucracy and government involvement and has absolutely no cost reduction.
There are some simple things that can be done to fix the rising costs, if our legislature cared about creating competition, which will drastically reduce costs. Things like reducing the mandates on health insurance, which might get more insurance companies wanting to do business here. You could also open up the market so that people could purchase health insurance across state lines or allow small businesses to pool together into groups of more than 100 employees so greater discounted premiums are available. Don’t forget the opportunity to create some tort reform against frivolous lawsuits so that doctors don’t have to pay a small fortune for malpractice insurance. This will create savings by not paying for unnecessary tests and procedures on defensive medicine.
To quote Charlie Arlinghaus of the
Let’s not create a government take over of the hospitals and medical industry when all we need is common sense to reduce costs.
]]>To the Editor:
I read the article (Laconia Daily Sun, Tuesday, February 16th) about the local impact of the budget cuts being pursued by the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) with quite some interest and feel compelled to share my thoughts of this story.
I agree with Senator Sgambati calling these
reductions in payments to health care providers as “unacceptable”. I don’t know
why DHHS is always looked at to compensate the lion’s share of expenditure cuts
for the ridiculous spending our state legislators put into the state budget.
This policy only shifts costs from the state to private institutions, which
then have to pass that loss onto higher costs for services which we all pay
through higher health insurance premiums. This helps to create the call for
completely changing our health care system into what will ultimately be a
single payer system. I have a feeling that this cost shift is what we are to
expect with the current federal plan being negotiated behind closed doors in
The budget passed for this biennium includes 38 new or increased taxes and fees to cover the increase in spending, and this increase was everywhere but DHHS.
In fact our Senator voted to approve the senate version of the budget which changed the way taxes are collected from businesses. In NH businesses pay either the Business Enterprise Tax or the Business Profits Tax, whichever is higher, but the senate version would have hit businesses with BOTH taxes.
I know there is a general disconnect from the citizens of NH and the increasing expenses in the state budget. We have had the state expenditures increase at 4 – 5% greater than the rate of inflation for the past 2 biennium budgets. I know that most people don’t pay attention to this because not one penny of our property taxes goes to fund the state, with the exception of the State Wide Education Property Tax (SWEPT) that stays in the local school districts.
For those of you not making the connection, ask yourself these questions. 1) Do you eat at restaurants or have friends stay at hotels/motels? 2) Do you have friends stay at campgrounds? 3) Have you bought or sold real estate? 4) Do you have a license and drive a car? 5) Is your car inspected? 6) Do you have a boat? 7) Do you have family that are admitted to a hospital or nursing home and use a bed there? 8) Do you use tobacco or alcohol? 9) Do you either own a business or work for someone that owns a business? 10) The most important question is; Do you live in a NH city or town?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then the state spending is coming out of your wallet. It is sad that the State of NH is the largest employer in the state and now is the time for people to be concerned about the direction we are being taken.
We have many fine and fiscally conservative people that are taking on the challenge to correct the path we are on and I encourage everyone to become involved.
On Tuesday, February 23rd we will
have
On Thursday, February 25th Jim
Forsythe will be hosting a free event at the Margate Resort starting at
I think now is the time to begin educating
ourselves on the positions and plans that are being put forth by all the
candidates running for elected office. There are 4 candidates for the US Senate
seat being vacated by Judd Gregg. In addition to Frank Guinta we have Rich
Ashooh also running for the 1st Congressional District. Besides Jim
Forsythe, George Hurt is also ready to challenge Senator Sgambati for the NH
Senate. We have volunteers to run for the State Rep positions we have in
I have always felt that the right to vote is one
of the most important rights we have and I think that educating ourselves on
the candidates and issues is the best way to exercise that right. As the
Chairman of the Laconia Republican Committee I look forward to seeing everyone
come out, ask questions and learn what our candidates have to say. Our next
meeting will be Wednesday, March 10th at the Shang Hai restaurant on
Feel free to contact me by phone at 455-0114 or via e-mail at greg@knytych.net if you have any questions.
Greg Knytych, Chairman,
We spoke of how this is a special day in history that requires somber reflection on the events of the past and not a day to “volunteer” as this administration would like us to do. Remember it is this administration that let us know that the attack on this day was not an act of war by the Radical Muslims, but merely a “Man Caused Disaster” that cause some people to die. REALLY?!?!?!
In case you aren’t sure what you should do to “volunteer” a web site has been set up to help identify an organization that you can volunteer for, such as helping to sort “dropped-off” materials at a recycling center.
My friend gave me a copy of a letter he has
written to the editors of several local newspapers and said that they refused
to publish this letter. I think it is important to read so we can understand
what the individuals responsible for the “Man Caused Disaster”, excuse
me DECLARATION OF WAR! were thinking.
To: The Editor
From: Bill Tobin,
Lest We Forget: Attending a supper last weekend I was reminded by lapel pin (Never Forget 9/11) of a recent remark by Obama saying we are not at war with the Muslim world. This is true. We did not attack them. They declared war on all who do not profess their religion. It matters not whether you are a Christian, Jew, Buddhist or any other belief. It matters not whether you are good, loving and caring. They will do everything possible to exterminate you who do not praise Allah. You are the dirt under their feet. They are blowing up their children to get at you. Read the history books and remember these words:
I was ordered to fight all men until they say “There is no god but Allah”.
Prophet Muhammad’s farewell address, March 632
I shall cross the sea to their islands to pursue them until there remains no one on the face of the Earth that does not acknowledge Allah.
Saladin 1189
We eill export our revolution throughout the world… until the calls “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah are echoed all over the world”
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeni 1979
“I was ordered to fight the people until they say there is no god but Allah, and his prophet Muhammad”
Osama Bin Laden, November 2001
“That it is founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it is written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that is their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and make slaves of all they could take prisoners, and that every Mussel man who should be slain in battle are sure to go to Paradise”
Thomas Jefferson to the Continental Congress 1786
Lest we forget
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Do you also find it interesting that
Representative Wilson’s re-election war chest grew by over $7,000 yesterday? I
wonder if it is because he said what so many others were thinking.
Watch the video below, paying close attention to what they are saying about these protestors at Obama’s events.
]]> Did they just say that there are “racial overtones to this” because we have “a man of color in the Presidency and WHITE people showing up with guns…”??? Did I just hear that they “wouldn’t be surprised if someone gets a chance or takes a chance to really try to seriously hurt the President”??? Did you noticed in the video they never showed the man that was carrying the rifle but insinuated through editing that it was the white man being interviewed. The next video below is from CNN’s Rick Sanchez and I have to give him credit at trying to be fair in his coverage of the story.
I do have to say that Ed Henry is the only person I heard reporting that there were other people carrying firearms and assault weapons. This next video is from thescallion.worldpress.com and you can hear for yourself why Chris was carrying this rifle.
I do find it
interesting how short a memory the media has and where the reporting of what
was being said towards President Bush was overlooked.
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Mr. Obama seems to understand that we do need
allies in the war and it sounds like his plan is to talk to them and convince
them to help out. I’m not sure he fully understands the whole “foreign policy”
role of the President but Barrack Obama did say in a CNN interview on October 31,
2008 “The biggest threat to
The problem is what is the plan of action to
help our ally with their domestic problems? Do we talk to the militants in
I do hope Barrack Obama understands that ACTIONS do speak LOUDER than WORDS.
]]>Welcome from the Lakes Region of New Hampshire,
known as
I am originally from the
The people of
In the 2007/2008 session of the State Legislature that was all changed. Democratic Governor Lynch, who has tremendous approval ratings because he never takes a stand on anything, presented his proposed budget to the House and Senate showing a 14.5% increase in spending. He made it clear that that was the most the state could afford without new tax revenues (sales or income). The Democratic controlled House and Senate decided on increasing the spending to 17.5% and the Governor never said a word. What is worse is that nobody from the NHGOP spoke out either. This should have been making headlines but all was quiet, until the economy started to tank.
Of course there was a lot of spin put on the shortfalls of the budget. “We didn’t know the economy was going to fail” or “This is the impact on NH from
These budget issues were at the top of everyone’s list of issues during the 2008 campaign. There were also some social issues in there too. Our legislature passed laws that said you can’t drop out of high school until you are 18, because you aren’t old enough to make that decision. We became the first in the nation to repeal a parental notification law because; as my opponent in the campaign said “13 year old women are old enough to make this decision on their own”. We saw government chipping away at individual and property rights, new and increased fees (see taxes) and controlling more aspects of our daily lives.
This past election had some promising results. With 6 open seats in the senate we didn’t lose one. The NH Senate has the “status quo” that was in the previous session. We did gain 17 seats in the house, even though we didn’t take back the majority.
We now have former Governor John H. Sununu, Senator Sununu’s father, as the only candidate for the NHGOP Chair. He has already started attacking the Democrats on the fact that NH achieved another first. We are the first state in the nation to have a deficit greater than 15% when measured against the general fund. He is letting the people know that
NH has the lowest credit rating ever and explaining how the social agenda being followed is destroying NH.
In 2010 things will be much different. I see the party being unified, the message becoming clear and concise and the message actually getting to the people. Gov. Sununu is still very much loved in this state and that forces the media to report what he is saying.
We can’t leave the job to Gov. Sununu alone. It is up to all of us to work together behind the scenes getting everyone involved. Yes, 2010 will be much different because I believe we can win back the majority at all levels of government and put an end to this fiscal and social madness we are seeing.
Note: I originally posted this on the Flip4.org blog that I am a contributing member of.
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