Let there be no doubt, President Obama has lost the health care debate. Even if Obama and the Congressional Democrats are able to muster up the political strength to pass health care legislation, the costs will have been too high, and even in victory, the President will have lost. His presidency may very well never regain the sense of optimism and positivity that trailed his first months in office.

The central mistake of the health care debate, and the one the administration will look back on with regret, was the administration’s decision to outsource the actual writing of the bill to Congress. Without any clear direction beyond the President’s insistence that any bill include a “public option,” the debate shifted from the quiet dignified end of Washington to the madhouse known as the Capitol. Once there, the various factions and coalitions each worked to produce their very own fairytales. What emerged was a cacophony of decades-old wishlists, radical reforms and special-interest agendas that even supporters of health care reform couldn’t view seriously.

Lost in the noise on the capitol were a series of true reforms, such as tort reform, that were suppressed rather than ignored. Anyone who wants to reform health care without even talking about tort reform is not being serious. Congressmen like Henry Waxman don’t want to reform health care, they want to remake our system entirely, and they want the government firmly in control. In this way, they simply turn people into products.

Consider this report from Kimberly Strassel of the Wall Street Journal regarding Rep. Waxman’s (D-Van Nuys) tactics:

He ignored requests to wait to see if the Senate could produce, instead forcing a painful floor vote on legislation prior to the July Fourth recess. Members went home to be brutalized by constituents and local employers.

This high-handed treatment already had Blue Dogs loaded for bear, not that Mr. Waxman heeded warnings. When he again ducked into secret meetings to craft health-care legislation, a group of 45 members sent a letter complaining. “We don’t want a briefing on the bill after it’s written. We want to help write it,” declared Arkansas’s Mike Ross, chair of the Blue Dog health-care task force. Rebuffed, conservative Democrats delineated for Mr. Waxman what they saw as an acceptable bill. Rebuffed again, they asked Mr. Waxman to let the Senate go first. Rebuffed yet again, Mr. Ross took his case to the nation, with a revolt that has beat down the House bill for weeks.

Mr. Waxman’s subsequent negotiations with these members—in which he reportedly showed little concern for the political challenges of anyone outside of Los Angeles—made matters worse. Blue Dogs stormed out of one session, with Louisiana’s Charlie Melancon bellowing: “I’ve been lied to. We have not had legitimate negotiations.” Mr. Waxman, for his part, declared he was “not going to let [Blue Dogs] empower Republicans to control the committee.”

When this is the kind of behavior we get from our elected leaders we should not be surprised when congressional approval levels are so low. The most recent Gallup poll showed an approval rating of just over 30%, and more importantly a disapproval rating of 62%. After the automobile and finance industry bailouts, a highly partisan stimulus package that only 3 Republicans deigned to vote for, a massive budget, the health care reform package was simply the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was too much too soon, and the American people reacted. The town hall meetings, though fraught with their own imperfections, remain the only outlet the vast majority of American citizens have left to vent their frustrations.

The summer has seen countless images of congressmen being shouted down by their constituents. What is even more telling than the shouting is the shock and awe of the elected leaders. They simply do not understand why the people aren’t on board.

This is what they don’t get.

The American people are not on board because deep down they know that health care reform was never an attempt at reform, but instead a massive and risky overhaul, a land-grab by the federal government into one area of their lives that is supremely sacred, that of personal health.

No sane person defends our current health care system as a model of efficiency or fairness. It’s not and it needs to be fixed. But adding another giant entitlement program onto the obligations of our already beaten federal treasury is not a solution. Not at time when Social Security and Medicare are already threatening the country with insolvency.

The Democrats and, in particular, President Obama, failed to link their health care reform plans to the larger issues facing America. They simply seized a rare opportunity at almost-unchecked power to install a fairytale dream of theirs. American’s may never be so easily fooled again, at least not on Mr. Obama’s watch.

Google, Intel, General Electric and Hewlett-Packard may lose tax credits and be forced to pony up more in the form of tax dollars to Uncle Sam.

If you’re wondering what these companies have in common – they all have operations outside of the United States. Barack Obama reiterated in no uncertain terms that there will be no tax breaks for companies creating jobs outside US.

Recently, at a White House meeting that was meant to reveal the tax reforms to ensure American multinationals start paying corporate taxes and keep jobs within the US, President Obama spoke strongly about the existing US system, giving the example of India. He said, it encourages paying “lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, New York.”

Under the existing US tax code, American companies with subsidiaries in foreign countries, do not have to pay US taxes on the profits from their subsidiaries until the time when money is transferred back to the US. As long as the money earned is put back into the foreign subsidiaries, they can avoid paying taxes and US businesses take advantage of this “loophole” as many call it, in the tax code. This means creating more jobs in other countries where the subsidiaries exist.

The change in plan, revealed by Obama is to prevent US firms from enjoying foreign tax credits on income that is not subject to US taxes. Also the firms that are now able to shift income legally from one foreign subsidiary to another, to avoid taxes, cannot do so anymore.

According to Obama, the existing tax code acts as an incentive for US companies to invest overseas instead of providing jobs within the US. The government hopes to raise $210 billion in tax revenue in ten years, with the implementation of the new plan.

Under the new plan, US companies with foreign subsidiaries will lose all tax credits and will be have to cough up more tax.

Obama said during the White House announcement, “I want to see our companies remain the most competitive in the world. But the way to make sure that happens is not to reward our companies for moving jobs off our shores or transferring profits to overseas tax havens.”

Experts say that a wide-range of companies will be impacted by the changes, from banking institutions to hedge funds, from technology companies to pharmaceuticals.

Drew Lyon, a principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Washington office who is a tax policy advisor for Fortune 500 companies says, “It’s really hitting most Fortune 100 companies that depend to a great deal on growth of foreign markets for growing their total earnings. About half of multinationals companies’ income is earned abroad.”

Proponents of these tax changes say that they have also been expecting the top U.S. corporate tax rate to be reduced, since most other countries have lower corporate tax rates. They feel that foreign tax credit changes alone will most likely be a discouragement for companies to invest in the US. There also has to be a reduction in corporate rate, which would help create jobs in the United States because then there would not be a huge advantage for businesses to move to countries that are tax friendly.

Tax policy experts agree with this and say that these measures, unless accompanied by a reduction in the corporate tax rate, will only have the opposite effect of companies moving their operations, as well as jobs, overseas to more tax friendly countries.

Opponents within the Obama government and several business groups have already started lobbying against this to kill any attempts at increasing taxes on overseas profits. They say that such a move would only make American companies less competitive.

Foreign companies are not really worried with this stance taken by the President and heave a sigh of relief. This is because these tax proposals have nothing to do with off shoring or outsourcing. They say that the proposals appear to be aimed at addressing the tax rate differentials that exist across the world. It will impact only American headquartered companies with operations overseas.

Several analyst firms in the US are of the opinion that it is shortsighted to think that outsourcing is reversible and cutting tax breaks will help in the creation of jobs in the US. They feel that the consequences of such a move engulfing different countries can be larger than the current recessionary scenario.

With the Obama administration continuing its public relation efforts, the growing segment of the nation’s population – Seniors; which includes grandparents, retirees and the disabled have started receiving the $250 stimulus checks, beginning May 7, 2009. They have waited months for this, ever since they have been told that they would get some financial help.

The $787 billion stimulus plan is intended to make a difference to the economy and bring it out of recession, and is said to be the largest single stimulus payment ever made, with an estimated 55 million seniors, retirees and others are being benefited from $13 billion of the federal budget.

These checks will go out in a phased manner until June 4, 2009, mostly to Social Security and SSI recipients. The other beneficiaries include disabled veterans and railroad retirees, whose funds will be released separately by the respective agencies that serve them.

The stimulus bill passed in February in favor of this one-time boost for senior Americans to help them overcome this economic recession provides many exciting moments for all those people who will see their bank accounts swell by $250.

This stimulus money will be sent in a similar fashion to how each of them receives their regular Social Security or Supplemental Security Income money. If someone has opted to receive their SS check in mail, this $250 will also be sent to their mail. These days, since more and more people are using direct deposit, such people will see the money in their bank accounts immediately.

Even with the government trying to do its best to improve life for the Americans, there is an ongoing debate over how these stimulus payments will be spent by those people who are hard pressed for money. What affect will this money have on the overall economy?

Towards this end, all the seniors who receive the stimulus money have been asked to send an email detailing how they plan on using their $250. The email replies included, saving the money and paying off debts, but with the majority of them saying they would just spend it. The various things people wanted to buy were; paint, furniture, clothes or school supplies for the grandkids among other things.

While all those millions of people are being benefited with this stimulus money, there are some categories that do not fit the bill.

There is no chance of getting two $250 checks if the person is eligible for both Social Security and SSI. However, if a person is married, both spouses can get stimulus checks, if both are eligible.

Although, children below the age of 18 who receive Social Security benefits are not eligible for this stimulus money, adult children who receive disability benefits on their parent’s records are being sent this money. Similarly, disabled children who are receiving SSI will receive this money.

With lots of people being confused over who exactly is receiving these one-time recovery checks, here is a list of people who will not receive them, unless an exception is made by the government for some reason:

• People who are living outside the United States
• Those that are not lawfully present in the United States
• Individuals whose benefits are suspended by law for some reason
• Minor children who are Social Security beneficiaries
• SSI beneficiaries who will receive benefits at a reduced rate of $30, because they are currently living in a hospital or nursing home and Medicaid pays about 50% for their care
• People who can only get Medicare and not to SS or SSI benefits
• Prisoners, probation and parole violators and fugitive felons

This recovery payment is just one of the several benefits that American people will soon see flowing to individuals under the economic stimulus plan. There will be a boost by $25/week towards unemployment benefits. Then there is the $400 “Making Work Pay” tax credit that will add a good sum to the moderate paychecks. This means that every US tax payer with an annual income up to $75,000 would be eligible for a 6.2% tax credit up to $400, for married couples it will be $800. Food stamp allotments are expected to see a 13.6 percent increase. Workers who were laid off since September 2008 will be able to extend their health insurance provided by their employers through COBRA, with the federal government picking up 65% of the cost for nine months.

The Obama administration encourages this stimulus money to the seniors, to be spent rather than being saved in a bank account. Since many of the recipients live paycheck to paycheck, they hope that the cash is funneled back into the economy soon.