Now imagine this mafia allowing the people of its district to submit votes, allowing them to choose who will be the main guy or party in charge of all its extortion runs.

Now imagine this mafia extending their extortion runs to every single working resident within its territory, demanding a percentage of incomes earned.

Now imagine this mafia demanding that the residents pro-actively send in the tribute “owed” and supply every detail about how much they earned and how and where in order to avoid having someone knock on their doors to collect.

Now imagine this mafia borrowing money from local and remote investors, against the collateral of future extortion proceeds which they then use, among other things, to expand their scope of intrusion into the lives of the residents.

Now imagine this mafia setting up learning camps that it funds with money from increased extortion threats. For generations moving forward the mafia would determine the curriculum used to educate the children of residents and shape their beliefs accordingly.

Now imagine this mafia establishing a bank where it prints its own currency the use of which it makes compulsory by demanding it in extortion payments, and by threatening aggression against anyone who doesn’t accept it in the settlement of debts and anyone who dares to compete in the production of currency.

Now imagine this mafia establishing its own permanent standing army, equipped with tanks, grenades, nukes, fighter jets, aircraft carriers, bases, helicopters, etc.

Now imagine this mafia establishing an institution where it approves or denies drug producers the right to sell drugs to its residents. Producers need to pay fees and wait for years before they’re granted this right.

Now imagine this mafia using its arms to attack other mafia gangs of other adjacent and remote territories, year by year killing millions of non-mafia residents in the process, all funded by money from increased tribute demanded in extortion threats and money borrowed against the promise of payment from yet more future extortion threats.

Now imagine this mafia setting up buildings with giant cages where it locks away people who don’t follow its orders, such as the prohibition against owning or selling certain pieces of harmless vegetation, or resistance against extortion payments.

Now imagine this mafia using extorted money or money borrowed against future extorted money to reward connected businessmen who made bad or economically harmful decisions with other people’s money.

Now imagine this mafia setting up thousands upon thousands of regulatory boards, institutions, departments, sub-departments, and agencies, equipped with rules, decrees, and the police force necessary to enforce them by shaking down businesses or individuals who are in violation of any of such rules or decrees.

Now imagine this mafia operating on a nationwide scale.

Imagine people having been brainwashed in those compulsory education camps over the decades, telling you with a straight face that it is this mafia that we need in order to protect us from people who may steal from or aggress against us!

Now imagine some of the residents in its territory supporting a group that proposes an increase in the mafia’s extortion proceeds and regulatory shake downs. This group of people is today commonly referred to as “Democrats”.

Now imagine some other residents supporting a group that proposes an increase in the mafia’s attacks on other mafias and murders of residents in other territories and an increase in the cagings of carriers and sellers of unwanted vegetation. This group of people is today commonly referred to as “Republicans”.

Now imagine a group of residents proposing that there be no extortion runs and wars at all. This group of people is today commonly referred to as “radicals”.

Imagine all these things and you get the largest and most dangerous mafia gang of all – the state.

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2. Texas Judge Beats Daughter; The Facts About “Spanking”; Child Abuse The Root of All Evil
3. State Pensions Owe $5.17 Trillion – Total US Debt at 700% of GDP

Fewer voters than ever feel the federal government has the consent of the governed.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 17% of Likely U.S. Voters think the federal government today has the consent of the governed. Sixty-nine percent (69%) believe the government does not have that consent. Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The number of voters who feel the government has the consent of the governed – a foundational principle, contained in the Declaration of Independence – is down from 23% in early May and has fallen to its lowest level measured yet.

This is excellent news. When a the supposedly moral foundation of a system erodes, and people begin to see that they’ve been lied to … that’s when true change is on the horizon.

In red see the part where Thomas Jefferson went wrong in 1776:

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,…

Government is aggression. Nothing good can come out of aggression. The evidence is in, once again. Let’s not make the same mistake. We do not need to “alter” this government, and we don’t need a “new”, shinier government.

We need to get this cancer of statism out of the minds of the people around us, once and for all. Then, and only then, will there be true change.

This may be a good time to recall what one of the great contemporary philosophers already said almost 3 years ago:

There are no stronger societal forces than moral attitudes in public opinion. This ball has gotten rolling and it’s not going to stop until the beast of statism has been buried once and for all.

Related posts:

1. Rasmussen: 75% Say Free Markets Better Than Government Management of Economy, Political Class (*Shockingly*) Disagrees
2. Government Constraints
3. Federal Government Revises Deficit Forecasts as Expected

Parks and Recreation – Ron on the government from Shoaib Akhtar on Vimeo.

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone! :)

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1. Please signup to the Email Newsletter!
2. Government
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The “Home”land where they feel welcome, safe, and protected; the powerful Father figure embodied in the stern and sublime persona of the President of the country; Lady Justice, the Supreme Court, reviewing and approving of his actions, or rebuking him and his helpers with a wag of the finger when they step out of line; the dinner table of Congress where the children get to voice their demands through altruistic public servants.

What a beautiful, clean, and rational separation of powers we have ourselves there!

Its reality, however, is a lot simpler and a lot less lofty than that: It’s people taking advantage of those deranged fantasies, slipping into the camouflage of all those perfect and imaginary projections, in order to legally extort others at the threat of imprisonment and murder.

Related posts:

1. States and Religions – Scar Tissues From Our Childhood
2. The Mafia vs. The State
3. The Sunset of the State

The 25,000-plus individuals currently enrolled in the Maine Public Employees Retirement System will received a combined $15,383,315,649—an amount equivalent to $11,834 for every man, woman and child in Maine. Of that nearly $15.4 billion total, retirees have paid in a combined $882,274,785—less than six percent of the total pension cost.

On average, for every $1.00 withheld for their paycheck while working, government retirees will get back $17.00 in lifetime pension benefits. For some government retirees, for every $1.00 paid into the retirement system, they will get back more than $300.00.

2,101 – number of government retirees set to receive lifetime pension benefits of $1 million or more

• 9,193 – number of government retirees set to receive lifetime pension benefit of $500,000 or more

• 50 percent – percent of current government retirees who worked for government 25 years or less

There are 25,000 people, 8% of which are about to be millionaires, 36% of which are going to retire with 500k+. There are about 1.3 million residents of Maine.

This is one of the core and insoluble problems of the concept of government, right before your eyes :)

I have explained it before:

A small number of people each individually have a huge marginal interest in the growth of specific programs, while the majority of people who fund this growth, each of them at a marginally small percentage, have very little vested interest in the elimination of particular individual programs. This creates a mismatch in incentives that brings about the inevitable.

When very few people have such asymptotically higher incentives in a single program than the majority, then every single one of them will be fighting tooth and nails and with ferocious tenacity for his money, while everyone out of those in the majority who is, at the threat of imprisonment or violent seizure of property, forced to pay for this particular program has little to no to even negative incentive (time, opportunity cost, etc.) to do something about it.

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2. Emergency Bill Prevented Government Shutdown
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A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 75% of Likely Voters prefer free markets over a government managed economy. Just 14% think a government managed economy is better while 11% are not sure. These figures have changed little since December.

Polling released earlier this week showed that Americans overwhelmingly believe that more competition and less regulation is better for the economy than more regulation and less competition.

Not surprisingly, America’s Political Class is far less enamored with the virtues of a free market. In fact, Political Class voters narrowly prefer a government managed economy over free markets by a 44% to 37% margin. However, among Mainstream voters, 90% prefer the free market.

Outside of the Political Class, free markets are preferred across all demographic and partisan lines. This gap may be one reason that 68% of voters believe the Political Class doesn’t care what most Americans think. Fifty-nine percent (59%) are embarrassed by the behavior of the Political Class.

Is this an indication for people waking up to the alternative of voluntaryism?

Probably not quite yet.

The notion that the free market is better at “managing the economy” is a pretty obvious fact, and one that at this point you would have to have been blindfolded in a darkroom with a feeding tube (or alternatively dragged into public school) for the past 10 years in order not to get it.

It’s also merely an argument from effect. Voluntaryism will only spread once enough people get the argument from morality. And that, as we all know, will be a multi-generational effort.

Related posts:

1. The Failures of Laissez Faire Libertarianism, Deregulation, and Free Markets
2. The Freest Economy Today – The Internet
3. Views on Markets, Deflation, Depression, and More – 1hr Interview with Bob Prechter

Of course they will expose a boatload of knowledge that the government kept hidden and lied about, etc. Nothing surprising or newsworthy as far as that part is concerned.

I myself have unfortunately not yet made it through all those 90,000 reports, but apparently someone else has:

The documents are “not particularly new or illuminating,” Morrell said. The most recent “is at least six months old” and doesn’t reflect the current U.S.-Pakistan “partnership that is so vital to our success in Afghanistan.” This relationship “has been trending in the right direction for months, if not a couple of years now,” he said.

(That’s the government’s honesty and curiosity in action right there.)

But what’s really quite amazing to me is the following statement:

Pentagon Probe

The U.S. military has opened “a very robust investigation” with a team working “round the clock” to find “who’s responsible for breaking the law here and leaking this classified information,” Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said today on the CBS “Early Morning” show.

You see, these people are so enormously concerned about transparency and about their screw ups and errors and the millions upon millions of people murdered in its futile wars, that what they are really passionate and motivated about is to work “round the clock” to find who’s responsible for handing over a some pieces of paper with reports that could potentially – can you believe it – have documented what’s actually going on in this thing called reality.

Note how the focus is on finding who’s responsible for “breaking the law here”. No attempt to an argument from morality, not even one from effect. Just a plain and bland invocation of the code of law. This is how you lose the battle of ideas.

There couldn’t be a better and more recent example for the moral bankruptcy of the concepts of statism, the belief that a government is a good and necessary institution.

As the idea of statism dies out and as voluntaryism captures the hearts and minds of the majority, we will see more and more such plain, boring, and uninspiring “arguments” advanced by the those trying to hold together the foundations of the crumbling structure of aggression, irrationality, and indoctrination, in short – the government.

Related posts:

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2. Less Than 1 in 5 Americans Believe that the Federal Government has the Consent of the Governed
3. Global Warming Hoax Exposed

It is very important to understand that when people say such things they do so because it’s what they’ve been told and what they want to be true. They have obviously not gone out and done their strenuous and deep research in order to test their theory. Nor are you going to find any curiosity in these people. They are not feverishly trying to analyze and question these things out of a natural drive for truth and discovering reality.

But this need hardly impress those who in fact do aspire to understand reality and truth.

One simple reason why I personally know such a notion is completely unfounded and pulled out of nowhere is that 99.99% of the people whom I introduce for the first time to the idea of a stateless society will shout out with an impressively quick and almost pre-trained reflexive reaction something like “But what about the poor?!”.

That is, in my opinion, a pretty decent ratio of people who do seem to care about the poor. But then, maybe there’s just something awesome about me personally that naturally draws in all the good, virtuous, and caring people in society, who knows?

Fortunately we have other more objective means to put to rest such glaring and unfounded nonsense.

How much are individuals currently willing to give to charity on a completely voluntary basis?

On Charity Navigator we can find charity statistics for 2008:

Few people realize how large charities have become, how many vital services they provide, and how much funding flows through them each year. Without charities and non-profits, America would simply not be able to operate. Their operations are so big that during 2008, in the midst of a recession, total giving was still more than $300 billion.

How big is the sector?

Total giving to charitable organizations was $307.65 billion in 2008 (about 2% of GDP). This is a decrease of 2% from 2007.

OK, so we know that private individuals and corporations were willing to give $307.65 billion to charitable organizations on a completely voluntary basis.

How much of this money actually ends up in the hands of the needy? According to reputable charitable auditing and rating websites, such as Razoo this number seems to be around 80-85% on average.

So around $246 billion ended up in the hands of poor people as a result of completely voluntary charity donations in the US.

What about our dear, benevolent,and ferociously poverty fighting heroes from the government?

According to official government budgets, approximately $486 billion tax dollars were budgeted in that same year.

Based on multiple sources about 70% of all government programs and grants goes toward administrative expenses, meaning bureaucrats’ salaries, to anybody who has ever worked in, with, or for the government, certainly a realistic estimate:

Mary Ruwart writes:

Of course, public welfare gives over 2/3 of every tax dollar we give them to overhead (e.g., salaries of the bureaucrats who administer the program). Private charities, however, give 2/3 of every dollar to those who need help. By switching to private distribution, we’d cut overhead in half. In other words, we’d double the dollars available to the needy once again. By switching from public to private charity, we’d quadruple our help to the disadvantaged–virtually overnight!

Cato writes:

Today, 70 cents of every dollar goes, not to poor people, but to government bureaucrats and others who serve the poor. Few private charities have the bureaucratic overhead and inefficiency of government programs.

So US federal, state, and local governments together in 2008 contributed about 146 billion dollars that ended up in the hands of the poor.

In total, this means that in 2008 US citizens voluntarily or involuntarily gave about $392 billion to the poor out of which 62% (!!) was contributed by the rugged, selfish, and evil private sector while around 38% was coughed up by the virtuous, heroic and selfless government bureaucrats.

So you tell me, is the government really needed to “fight poverty” … ?

Please keep in mind that I am focusing in the above solely on existing numbers. I am not even delving into the fact that the government is the very cause of poverty, simply due to things like wars, drug policies, import quotas, the granting of monopolies to corporations and unions, the funding of foreign dictatorships, unemployment due to minimum wages and taxes, inflation through money printing, credit expansions and business cycles, the direction of capital from useful to useless needs, deliberately limiting the supply of health care products and services, etc. etc.

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1. US Poverty Rate – How the Great Society Programs Reversed its Decline
2. Government Growth in the United States
3. US Poverty Rate Rises to 15.1 Percent

Walker states the simple fact that …

… “government is bigger, entitlement programs have expanded, spending has increased and taxes are higher” as a result of the law.

… those points should be listed in the default template header for any bill brought forth in Congress.

In addition to that, multiply any expense number presented by 10 and you’ll usually have a rough approximation of where a government program is headed.

Government always grows, it’s inevitable so long as people cling on to this mad fantasy.

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2. Geithner Preps Nation for Higher Taxes
3. US Taxes, Spending & Debts – Historical Charts

1. Grant program for consumer assistance offices (Section 1002, p. 37)
2. Grant program for states to monitor premium increases (Section 1003, p. 42)
3. Committee to review administrative simplification standards (Section 1104, p. 71)
4. Demonstration program for state wellness programs (Section 1201, p. 93)
5. Grant program to establish state Exchanges (Section 1311(a), p. 130)
6. State American Health Benefit Exchanges (Section 1311(b), p. 131)
7. Exchange grants to establish consumer navigator programs (Section 1311(i), p. 150)
8. Grant program for state cooperatives (Section 1322, p. 169)
9. Advisory board for state cooperatives (Section 1322(b)(3), p. 173)
10. Private purchasing council for state cooperatives (Section 1322(d), p. 177)
11. State basic health plan programs (Section 1331, p. 201)
12. State-based reinsurance program (Section 1341, p. 226)
13. Program of risk corridors for individual and small group markets (Section 1342, p. 233)
14. Program to determine eligibility for Exchange participation (Section 1411, p. 267)
15. Program for advance determination of tax credit eligibility (Section 1412, p. 288)
16. Grant program to implement health IT enrollment standards (Section 1561, p. 370)
17. Federal Coordinated Health Care Office for dual eligible beneficiaries (Section 2602, p. 512)
18. Medicaid quality measurement program (Section 2701, p. 518)
19. Medicaid health home program for people with chronic conditions, and grants for planning same (Section 2703, p. 524)
20. Medicaid demonstration project to evaluate bundled payments (Section 2704, p. 532)
21. Medicaid demonstration project for global payment system (Section 2705, p. 536)
22. Medicaid demonstration project for accountable care organizations (Section 2706, p. 538)
23. Medicaid demonstration project for emergency psychiatric care (Section 2707, p. 540)
24. Grant program for delivery of services to individuals with postpartum depression (Section 2952(b), p. 591)
25. State allotments for grants to promote personal responsibility education programs (Section 2953, p. 596)
26. Medicare value-based purchasing program (Section 3001(a), p. 613)
27. Medicare value-based purchasing demonstration program for critical access hospitals (Section 3001(b), p. 637)
28. Medicare value-based purchasing program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 3006(a), p. 666)
29. Medicare value-based purchasing program for home health agencies (Section 3006(b), p. 668)
30. Interagency Working Group on Health Care Quality (Section 3012, p. 688)
31. Grant program to develop health care quality measures (Section 3013, p. 693)
32. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Section 3021, p. 712)
33. Medicare shared savings program (Section 3022, p. 728)
34. Medicare pilot program on payment bundling (Section 3023, p. 739)
35. Independence at home medical practice demonstration program (Section 3024, p. 752)
36. Program for use of patient safety organizations to reduce hospital readmission rates (Section 3025(b), p. 775)
37. Community-based care transitions program (Section 3026, p. 776)
38. Demonstration project for payment of complex diagnostic laboratory tests (Section 3113, p. 800)
39. Medicare hospice concurrent care demonstration project (Section 3140, p. 850)
40. Independent Payment Advisory Board (Section 3403, p. 982)
41. Consumer Advisory Council for Independent Payment Advisory Board (Section 3403, p. 1027)
42. Grant program for technical assistance to providers implementing health quality practices (Section 3501, p. 1043)
43. Grant program to establish interdisciplinary health teams (Section 3502, p. 1048)
44. Grant program to implement medication therapy management (Section 3503, p. 1055)
45. Grant program to support emergency care pilot programs (Section 3504, p. 1061)
46. Grant program to promote universal access to trauma services (Section 3505(b), p. 1081)
47. Grant program to develop and promote shared decision-making aids (Section 3506, p. 1088)
48. Grant program to support implementation of shared decision-making (Section 3506, p. 1091)
49. Grant program to integrate quality improvement in clinical education (Section 3508, p. 1095)
50. Health and Human Services Coordinating Committee on Women’s Health (Section 3509(a), p. 1098)
51. Centers for Disease Control Office of Women’s Health (Section 3509(b), p. 1102)
52. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Office of Women’s Health (Section 3509(e), p. 1105)
53. Health Resources and Services Administration Office of Women’s Health (Section 3509(f), p. 1106)
54. Food and Drug Administration Office of Women’s Health (Section 3509(g), p. 1109)
55. National Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health Council (Section 4001, p. 1114)
56. Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health (Section 4001(f), p. 1117)
57. Prevention and Public Health Fund (Section 4002, p. 1121)
58. Community Preventive Services Task Force (Section 4003(b), p. 1126)
59. Grant program to support school-based health centers (Section 4101, p. 1135)
60. Grant program to promote research-based dental caries disease management (Section 4102, p. 1147)
61. Grant program for States to prevent chronic disease in Medicaid beneficiaries (Section 4108, p. 1174)
62. Community transformation grants (Section 4201, p. 1182)
63. Grant program to provide public health interventions (Section 4202, p. 1188)
64. Demonstration program of grants to improve child immunization rates (Section 4204(b), p. 1200)
65. Pilot program for risk-factor assessments provided through community health centers (Section 4206, p. 1215)
66. Grant program to increase epidemiology and laboratory capacity (Section 4304, p. 1233)
67. Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (Section 4305, p. 1238)
68. National Health Care Workforce Commission (Section 5101, p. 1256)
69. Grant program to plan health care workforce development activities (Section 5102(c), p. 1275)
70. Grant program to implement health care workforce development activities (Section 5102(d), p. 1279)
71. Pediatric specialty loan repayment program (Section 5203, p. 1295)
72. Public Health Workforce Loan Repayment Program (Section 5204, p. 1300)
73. Allied Health Loan Forgiveness Program (Section 5205, p. 1305)
74. Grant program to provide mid-career training for health professionals (Section 5206, p. 1307)
75. Grant program to fund nurse-managed health clinics (Section 5208, p. 1310)
76. Grant program to support primary care training programs (Section 5301, p. 1315)
77. Grant program to fund training for direct care workers (Section 5302, p. 1322)
78. Grant program to develop dental training programs (Section 5303, p. 1325)
79. Demonstration program to increase access to dental health care in underserved communities (Section 5304, p. 1331)
80. Grant program to promote geriatric education centers (Section 5305, p. 1334)
81. Grant program to promote health professionals entering geriatrics (Section 5305, p. 1339)
82. Grant program to promote training in mental and behavioral health (Section 5306, p. 1344)
83. Grant program to promote nurse retention programs (Section 5309, p. 1354)
84. Student loan forgiveness for nursing school faculty (Section 5311(b), p. 1360)
85. Grant program to promote positive health behaviors and outcomes (Section 5313, p. 1364)
86. Public Health Sciences Track for medical students (Section 5315, p. 1372)
87. Primary Care Extension Program to educate providers (Section 5405, p. 1404)
88. Grant program for demonstration projects to address health workforce shortage needs (Section 5507, p. 1442)
89. Grant program for demonstration projects to develop training programs for home health aides (Section 5507, p. 1447)
90. Grant program to establish new primary care residency programs (Section 5508(a), p. 1458)
91. Program of payments to teaching health centers that sponsor medical residency training (Section 5508(c), p. 1462)
92. Graduate nurse education demonstration program (Section 5509, p. 1472)
93. Grant program to establish demonstration projects for community-based mental health settings (Section 5604, p. 1486)
94. Commission on Key National Indicators (Section 5605, p. 1489)
95. Quality assurance and performance improvement program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 6102, p. 1554)
96. Special focus facility program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 6103(a)(3), p. 1561)
97. Special focus facility program for nursing facilities (Section 6103(b)(3), p. 1568)
98. National independent monitor pilot program for skilled nursing facilities and nursing facilities (Section 6112, p. 1589)
99. Demonstration projects for nursing facilities involved in the culture change movement (Section 6114, p. 1597)
100. Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (Section 6301, p. 1619)
101. Standing methodology committee for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (Section 6301, p. 1629)
102. Board of Governors for Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (Section 6301, p. 1638)
103. Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund (Section 6301(e), p. 1656)
104. Elder Justice Coordinating Council (Section 6703, p. 1773)
105. Advisory Board on Elder Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation (Section 6703, p. 1776)
106. Grant program to create elder abuse forensic centers (Section 6703, p. 1783)
107. Grant program to promote continuing education for long-term care staffers (Section 6703, p. 1787)
108. Grant program to improve management practices and training (Section 6703, p. 1788)
109. Grant program to subsidize costs of electronic health records (Section 6703, p. 1791)
110. Grant program to promote adult protective services (Section 6703, p. 1796)
111. Grant program to conduct elder abuse detection and prevention (Section 6703, p. 1798)
112. Grant program to support long-term care ombudsmen (Section 6703, p. 1800)
113. National Training Institute for long-term care surveyors (Section 6703, p. 1806)
114. Grant program to fund State surveys of long-term care residences (Section 6703, p. 1809)
115. CLASS Independence Fund (Section 8002, p. 1926)
116. CLASS Independence Fund Board of Trustees (Section 8002, p. 1927)
117. CLASS Independence Advisory Council (Section 8002, p. 1931)
118. Personal Care Attendants Workforce Advisory Panel (Section 8002(c), p. 1938)
119. Multi-state health plans offered by Office of Personnel Management (Section 10104(p), p. 2086)
120. Advisory board for multi-state health plans (Section 10104(p), p. 2094)
121. Pregnancy Assistance Fund (Section 10212, p. 2164)
122. Value-based purchasing program for ambulatory surgical centers (Section 10301, p. 2176)
123. Demonstration project for payment adjustments to home health services (Section 10315, p. 2200)
124. Pilot program for care of individuals in environmental emergency declaration areas (Section 10323, p. 2223)
125. Grant program to screen at-risk individuals for environmental health conditions (Section 10323(b), p. 2231)
126. Pilot programs to implement value-based purchasing (Section 10326, p. 2242)
127. Grant program to support community-based collaborative care networks (Section 10333, p. 2265)
128. Centers for Disease Control Office of Minority Health (Section 10334, p. 2272)
129. Health Resources and Services Administration Office of Minority Health (Section 10334, p. 2272)
130. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Office of Minority Health (Section 10334, p. 2272)
131. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Office of Minority Health (Section 10334, p. 2272)
132. Food and Drug Administration Office of Minority Health (Section 10334, p. 2272)
133. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Office of Minority Health (Section 10334, p. 2272)
134. Grant program to promote small business wellness programs (Section 10408, p. 2285)
135. Cures Acceleration Network (Section 10409, p. 2289)
136. Cures Acceleration Network Review Board (Section 10409, p. 2291)
137. Grant program for Cures Acceleration Network (Section 10409, p. 2297)
138. Grant program to promote centers of excellence for depression (Section 10410, p. 2304)
139. Advisory committee for young women’s breast health awareness education campaign (Section 10413, p. 2322)
140. Grant program to provide assistance to provide information to young women with breast cancer (Section 10413, p. 2326)
141. Interagency Access to Health Care in Alaska Task Force (Section 10501, p. 2329)
142. Grant program to train nurse practitioners as primary care providers (Section 10501(e), p. 2332)
143. Grant program for community-based diabetes prevention (Section 10501(g), p. 2337)
144. Grant program for providers who treat a high percentage of medically underserved populations (Section 10501(k), p. 2343)
145. Grant program to recruit students to practice in underserved communities (Section 10501(l), p. 2344)
146. Community Health Center Fund (Section 10503, p. 2355)
147. Demonstration project to provide access to health care for the uninsured at reduced fees (Section 10504, p. 2357)
148. Demonstration program to explore alternatives to tort litigation (Section 10607, p. 2369)
149. Indian Health demonstration program for chronic shortages of health professionals (S. 1790, Section 112, p. 24)*
150. Office of Indian Men’s Health (S. 1790, Section 136, p. 71)*
151. Indian Country modular component facilities demonstration program (S. 1790, Section 146, p. 108)*
152. Indian mobile health stations demonstration program (S. 1790, Section 147, p. 111)*
153. Office of Direct Service Tribes (S. 1790, Section 172, p. 151)*
154. Indian Health Service mental health technician training program (S. 1790, Section 181, p. 173)*
155. Indian Health Service program for treatment of child sexual abuse victims (S. 1790, Section 181, p. 192)*
156. Indian Health Service program for treatment of domestic violence and sexual abuse (S. 1790, Section 181, p. 194)*
157. Indian youth telemental health demonstration project (S. 1790, Section 181, p. 204)*
158. Indian youth life skills demonstration project (S. 1790, Section 181, p. 220)*
159. Indian Health Service Director of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment (S. 1790, Section 199B, p. 258)*

And of course the IRS will be given more powers of enforcement, because, you know, when you tack on government programs you kinda wanna get the guys with the guns involved, it’s completely inevitable:

A report on the New York Post website yesterday reports the IRS may hire as many as 16,000 new agents.This is estimated to add another $1 billion dollars to the federal budget. This is alleged by Republicans on The House Ways and Means committee. Under the Obama plan the IRS would be given new powers of enforcement. The IRS will be given the charge to see every American has “acceptable” health insurance. If your plan is not acceptable the IRS may be able to withhold your income tax return and or levy fines due to your non compliance. Everyone under the Obama plan will be required to purchase insurance. If you can’t pay for the insurance the subsidy to purchase will come through the IRS in the form of a tax credit. Under one version of the plan the money will come from a Health Choices Administration. Do we really want the IRS involved in assessing our health care and possibly releasing our tax information to other agencies?

He also aptly points us to this passage from this old and forgotten piece of paper:

“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.” – Declaration of Independence

This, me friends, is the shape of things to come …

Related posts:

1. Former CBO Head on Healthcare Reform – “government is bigger, entitlement programs have expanded, spending has increased and taxes are higher”
2. Healthcare – Monopoly, Cost, Sustainability, and the Final Convulsions of an Imploding Government
3. Healthcare Debate – Pseudo Solutions from Academia