American Eagle with Injured Left & Right Wings: A Parable w/ Russell Crowe

American Eagle with Injured Left & Right Wings by Dr. Joyce Starr. Show Date: October 28, 2010. “Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not get tired; they will walk and not become weary.” — Isaiah, 40:31

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Poor American Eagle. He flew over a US military base and was caught in a hail of friendly fire.

A farmer in Kansas found the Eagle in his barn, struggling with horrific wounds to his left wing. The right wing was in better shape, but growing weaker by the day from internal injuries.

Amazingly, it was the same Kansas farm – foreclosed, bought, then foreclosed again (and again) – where Superman grew up and where Dorothy flew off to the Land of Oz.

How the Eagle arrived in Kansas was a mystery. Most had long forgotten about Kansas, once the heartland of the nation.

Now the nation no longer required a heart. Wall Street Titans had the best hearts that money could buy, while the middle class and poor had lost heart – along with their homes, jobs and economic security.

The farmer was dirt poor, yet tenderly transported the injured bird to the Eagle emergency ward in his 1998 Ford Pick Up Truck – purchased long before cars became trucks and trucks morphed into tanks catering to teenage girls and young moms with cell phone earrings.

Unfortunately, the farmer’s insurance company had recently raised his rates by 38 percent, and he couldn’t afford to pay.

He would gladly have put the Eagle’s medical bill on his small business credit card – the one he never left home without – but American Express had jacked up interest rates on all small business owners across the board. When the farmer couldn’t handle the exorbitant increase, American Express froze his card.

Sadly, if American Express hadn’t clipped his credit wings and/or the government hadn’t turned a blind eye while US health insurance companies increased their rates, the Eagle might have flown again.

But the Eagle was left limping for the rest of his life – certainly no match for a Chinese Dragon.

The farmer returned home with the injured Eagle, built him a box in a corner of the barn and shared the morsels of food he could still afford to grow.

All the while, Russell Crowe, alias The Gladiator, was bent on saving everything he cared about in 3 days. If only the American President had been able to save the American people in 730 days – his first two years in office! (Where where was Russell when we needed him most?)

Truth be told, the President didn’t notice that the Eagle was missing. He was too busy rebuilding the Land of Oz in Washington, D.C., a triumph of human ingenuity if ever there was one, where the other crow – not the Eagle – would prevail. Washington crows were growing stronger and more aggressive every day. They’d taken over the skies, had their own rules and special laws for the neighborhoods they controlled – building their nests deep in the roofs of the nicest homes and condos in the city. Indeed, the crows were settling in, growing comfortable. They didn’t have to go far for food or water.

As for the Eagle, he was a very sad bird indeed. While he deeply appreciated the farmer’s kindness, now he had no job, no reputation to uphold, and would never soar again. Much as he prayed nightly, the Eagle knew that he was no longer who he was. A proud national bird that put the rest of the world in awe. Instead, he would be forever dependent on others for shelter, protection and food in his dark little corner of the barn.

Fleeting moments of joy would come from a rare glimpse of the sky, only to shatter his heart when an arrogant (crowing) crow flew by.

An Eagle that loses its past will never regain its future.

“I want to fly like an eagle til I’m free. Fly like an eagle, let my spirit carry me.” — Steve Miller Band, 1976

“And I will raise you up on eagle’s wings” — Old Hymn

Don’t let them clip your wings!

Dr. Joyce Starr

Obamacare: Amends Internal Revenue Code: Tax Penalty Without Qualifying Health Insurance

Obamacare legislation amends the Internal Revenue Code to apply a tax penalty for individuals who cannot prove that they are covered by qualifying health insurance.

It also establishes a Medical Advisory Council to determine the “amount, duration, and scope” of the items and services that must be included as “essential health care benefits” in a plan that qualifies for subsidies.

The costs was estimated at 1+ trillion dollars at the end of June 2009 and covered only about 30 million people.  But the plan was liberated over the July 4th holiday.

The costs are now 611 billion dollars with total coverage – whatever that means.

Critics say the revamped Kennedy Health Care “Reform” Plan  does not account for Medicaid coverage – which is crushing state budgets.

Additional provisions include:

• Expand Medicaid to 150 percent of the federal poverty level.
• Require health insurers to accept every employer and individual in the state for coverage.
• Require health insurance providers to report to the government how premiums are spent.
• Ban annual or lifetime limits on coverage.
• Establish committee boards, called Affordable Health Benefit Gateways, in each state to certify and inform residents about insurance plans.
• Extend dependent coverage so citizens may be covered on their parents’ insurance until they are 26 years old.

Follow the Obamacare Money Trail: The Other K Street

Michelle Malkin connected the Obamacare Follow the Money dots in a June 24 column:

If you believe the White House, there are 30 million Americans who support a government health care takeover. But if you look at the funding behind the Obamacare Astroturf campaign, it’s the same few Leftist billionaires, union bosses, and partisan community organizers pushing the socialized medicine agenda. Let’s connect the dots.

On Thursday, a national “grass-roots” coalition called “Health Care for America Now (HCAN)” will march on Capitol Hill to demand universal health care. The ground troops won’t have to march very far. HCAN, you see, is no heartland network. It is headquartered at 1825 K Street in Washington, D.C. – smack dab in the middle of Beltway lobby land.

In fact, 1825 K Street is Ground Zero for a plethora of “progressive” groups subsidized by anti-war, anti-Republican, Big Nanny special interests. Around Washington, the office complex is known as “The Other K Street.”

Why do they want Obamacare? An internal ACORN memo I obtained from August 2008 …  outlines the ACORN/HCAN partnership and strategy of opposing any programs that rely on “unregulated private insurance” – and then parlaying political victory on government-run health care “to move our ACORN agenda (or at least part of it) with key electeds that we might otherwise not be able to pull off.”

The objective, in other words, is to piggyback and exploit Obamacare to improve and protect their political health. The “grass-roots” movement is not about representing Main Street. It’s about peddling influence and power on 1825 K Street.

Michelle Malkin: Who’s funding the Obamacare Astroturf campaign?