• The Patients Choice Act of 2009
• The Improving Health Care for All Americans Act
• The Empower Patients First Act

While the above proposals differ, the basic premise is rooted in reforming the tax inequalities of the current system. For example, there are an unlimited number of tax breaks that exist if you were to purchase insurance through your employer. This is not the case should you purchase insurance on your own. The Republican alternatives seek to create universal tax credits rather than further the inequalities of the current system.

It is my belief that any proposal must be rooted in the sound principles of limited government and the private market. In so doing, we only enhance our choices and maximize our benefits from a multitude of options without the restrictions that government naturally imposes on its citizens. The merits of these principles are evident from President Lincoln’s domestic agenda and how it relates to three successful pieces of legislation; the Homestead Act, the Land-Grant Colleges Act, and the Pacific Railway Act. As William J. Stuntz writes in the April 2009 pages of the Weekly Standard, these laws worked as:

Their success did not depend on complex judgments made by members of Congress or government regulators. The statutes in question were meant to confer opportunities, not to solve problems—yet they offer a terrific model for problem-solving government. Notice who did the hard work: not members of Congress, not Lincoln’s omnicompetent cabinet, and not the president himself. Rather, the necessary elbow grease was supplied by the private citizens whose prospects Lincoln aimed to improve.

Therefore, under the proven principles of limited government and private enterprise, and for the cause of the environmentally conscious (2 pages vs. 2074), I wish to propose my guideline plans for health care reform, as outlined below.

The first aspect of my plan would abolish Medicare and Medicaid and replace it with a Direct Insurance Purchase Program (DIPP). The benefits of Medicare and Medicaid do not warrant the amount of tax payer money wasted to keep them afloat. A more cost effective approach would be for the Federal government to directly purchase insurance from the private market for those who truly cannot afford to pay for their own health insurance. As the bills recently passed by both the House and Senate place the costs of “reform” over $1.2 trillion, a DIPP will cost roughly $230 billion per year (assuming the average annual premium for an individual is $5,000 and the number of uninsured is 46 million). Given the governments penchant for cost underestimation, DIPP costs fall well below current proposals, including the OMB’s 2010 estimated spend of $735 billion on both Medicare and Medicaid. It will also ensure limited government involvement, and allow the private sector to provide the product mix that best maximizes the benefits in relation to their costs.

The second aspect has already been given much print and must be a necessary component of any proposal. The ability of individuals to purchase insurance across state lines opens up the market to competition, provides more insurance purchase options, enhances the flexibility to alter one’s choices based on need, and most surely leads to a reduction of costs.

The third component of my plan is a hybrid between a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) and an IRA. Today, our laws limit our tax exempt FSA contribution, by an individual, to $3,000 per year, to be spend on approved health related costs. Should we not exhaust all of the contributed amount, the Federal Government will take the balance for itself. My plan seeks to create a Health Spending Account (HSA) that (1) allows an annual tax exempt contribution of $10,000 per year for an individual, (2) allows year on year rollovers on any year end remaining balances, (3) allows for the investment of these funds in low risk instruments such as CD’s and money markets, (4) allows for supplemental retirement withdrawals above the age of 65 on a pre-defined amount, and (5) allows beneficiaries to rollover unused balances into their own HSA’s, tax exempt of course. This vehicle places the burden of health care on the individual, promotes freedom of choice, encourages savings for unexpected health bills, removes the current tax inequalities, and limits government intrusion.

It is expected that opposition to my plan will be planted in arguments of lost government revenue—lost revenue that can only ensure that the people’s money is less inclined to be used for wasteful spending, an unnecessary bureaucracy, bribes, and fraud. Further, it places ownership of the people’s money in the hands of the people. Who, other than the people, are best suited to manage their own private property?

Commissioner Kelly was first appointed in 1992 by Mayor Dinkins, where he served until 1994. Among his numerous accomplishments was the reduction of crime as well his leadership through the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 while Mayor Dinkins was in Asia. Reappointed in 2002, the Commissioner’s major accomplishment has been to remake the NYPD into a world class counter terrorism operation. The NYPD is the first police department in the world to hold a global view of public safety. With detectives stationed around the globe in cities such as London and Mumbai, the department is better suited to determine whether international activities are connected, or pose a treat, to the city. The NYPD continues to provide safety from foreign and domestic threats with the assistance of sophisticated cameras and radiation detectors positioned at all bridges and tunnels, and at major centers throughout the city.

One of the discussion points during the meeting related to the upcoming trials of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad and four other 9/11 conspirators in NYC. No public information has been disclosed as to when those trials will occur, however, law enforcement will be given a 45 day notice for final preparations. In response to a question, it was surprising to hear that the Justice Department’s decision for holding the trials was not made in consultation with the major stakeholders, such as Mayor Bloomberg and Commissioner Kelly, nor were any prior discussions held to mitigate possible concerns. Rather, city leaders were informed on the morning of November 14th, 2009, the day this decision was made public. Nevertheless, it is evident that the NYPD is preparing for security and is more than capable of addressing any possible threats.

We thank the NYPD and Commissioner Kelly for their service. We could not be better protected.

After the meeting, Mr. Forbes also signed copies of his books, “How Capitalism Will Save Us: Why Free People And Free Markets Are The Best Answer In Today’s Economy” and “Power Ambition Glory: The Stunning Parallels between Great Leaders of the Ancient World and Today…and the Lessons You Can Learn“ for a long line of those in attendance.  Mr. Forbes’ terrific sense of humor, graciousness and valuable insights made for a delightful evening.

Among the vivid memories I hold from my childhood, the French embassy bombing was one.   I was 8 year old.  I also recall the days surrounding the hijacking of Kuwait Airways Flight 422 in April 1988 where two bodies were dumped on the tarmac in Larnaca, Cyprus.   So was life living in the shadows of Iranian hostility during the Middle East of the 1980′s.

Since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the world watched the 1984 hijacking of Kuwait Airways Flight 221, the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847, the 1992 and 1994 bombings of the Israeli embassy and the Jewish community center in Buenos Aries, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, the lethal roadside attacks on the US military in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, the extensive meddling in Baghdad’s 2005 elections, the delivery of arms to Palestinian militants, and the ever growing link between Hezbollah and the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri, all of which have solidified Tehran’s resume of terrorism and foreign meddling in pursuit, no doubt, of “peace and lasting calm”.

As a candidate, Mr. Obama promised to stand for the human rights of the bloggers in Iran, to support those who marched and bled for democracy and for those who seek a secure and lasting peace.  Now as President, Mr. Obama has demonstrated that his view on human rights and democracy were mere words.  Rather than stand with freedom, Mr. Obama’s tepid statements on Iranian unrest in the aftermath the elections has only helped to quench the flame of freedom in favor of oppression.  He further seems to believe, as Leon Wieseltier stated, “that there is some force in the admonition that the world is watching; but history plentifully demonstrates that when the world is watching, all the world does is watch.”

Mr. Obama has secured a position of weakness for the United States and yielded the cause of liberty to our enemies.  While the French uphold the mantle of moral clarity, while Obama develops a naive foreign policy based solely on being un-Bush, and while the rest of the world watches, the Iranians grow closer to developing a nuclear weapon.  It is hard to imagine Iran, the Iran I’ve known since my childhood, who has fostered 30 years of global violence, who threatens its neighbors, and who denies basic unalienable rights to their citizens sitting down to negotiate their nuclear ambitions, or worse, their soon to be nuclear arsenal, with its regional neighbors or any other nation.  Mr. Obama is partially right, the world is watching; watching the United States no longer bear the burden of the downtrodden for the cause of liberty.

This is one crisis we cannot afford to waste.  If the United States does not stand firmly resolute with the Iranian people, as we did with the Lebanese in 2005 and with the Iraqi’s during past years, then who will?  If we become too concerned in walking on a diplomatic tight rope with an enemy, then what leadership do we provide?  Moments ripe for revolution come to so few throughout the corse of human history.  Iran has been blessed with such a moment and we must bear with it’s people.  Let us speak and so do as men and women that are to be judged by the liberty we have inherited.

As Iran has been the major recipient of North Korea’s missile technology, how they was first to succeed in space probably eludes them.

Although proponents claim that the plan does not reward irresponsibility but is rather an effort to stabalise the housing and financial markets, both you and I know better.

“Now it is a place where law and justice are respected and prisoners are rehabilitated” and is sure to be a model for the new Gitmo located in Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District.