By Elaina George, M.D.

ObamaCare advocates are struggling to convince Americans that the takeover of health care is the best thing ever.
Even celebrities are helping the White House explain the benefits of being forced into a ethically and morally bankrupt system built on promises never intended to be kept.
One thing they aren’t willing to say is that it isn’t really about health care; ObamaCare is really about centralized government control.
It’s about control of one-sixth of the economy.
All working Americans must submit proof of insurance or enter an “exchange.”  Exchange participants must submit their tax return, Social Security number, employer’s tax ID, bank account information, address and telephone number. If one changes jobs and ends up pricing out of the government supplement, the government will want its money back. Either say goodbye to tax benefits or say hello to working as little as possible to remain eligible for assistance.
It’s about control of physicians.
Because of regulations, compliance costs and the rising cost of doing business — coupled with the dramatic drop in reimbursements — independent private physicians are largely being driven into retirement or into the arms of hospitals or large group practices increasingly part of large hospital systems.
A hospital’s cost structure is vastly different than that of a private physician, with overhead and a fiduciary responsibility to stockholders at the top of the list.  A patient’s cost doubles or triples in a hospital-owned practice as opposed to that of a private physician.
It’s about control of privacy.
Under the guise of efficiency and savings, physicians and patients are encouraged to get on the electronic medical record bandwagon. It creates a treasure trove of private medical information mined by government agencies that include the Department of Health and Human Services, IRS, and FBI. Can the NSA and CIA be far behind, if they aren’t in the loop already?
If someone was prescribed an antidepressant for something as benign as helping them stop smoking, for example, it could raise a flag and cause them to fail a background check for a gun permit.
It’s about control of your money.
The middle class was told ObamaCare would sock it to the rich and redistribute wealth as a doctrine of fairness.  In reality, wealthy people such as Warren Buffet can still pay a lower tax rate than their secretaries. Corporations such as Apple and GE are paying little or no taxes, and are exempt from paying for ObamaCare until 2015. But small business and the middle class are both currently on the hook right now — effectively responsible for paying the way of both the wealthy and the poor.
For anyone critically examining the costs of ObamaCare, it is obvious the middle class takes an enormous hit:

•  Employers will no longer be able to write off employee coverage as a business
expense, making them more likely to drop coverage altogether.
•  Employees cannot write off health insurance premiums.
•  The threshold for writing off personal health expenses jumped to almost $10,000
out of pocket.
•  Health savings account users cannot use their account funds to purchase cost-
effective over-the-counter medication or nutritional supplements; only more
expensive prescription medication is covered.
•   ObamaCare’s “silver” plan will have a monthly premium, but individuals must
also pay $2,000 out-of-pocket before the insurance kicks in. Imagine a minimum
wage worker or family having to pay into the system while also owing $2,000
dollars annually just to access it. It will decrease participation by posing the
difficult decision of seeing a doctor or paying bills.

It’s about control of your freedom.
New York City is the template. Big soda and popcorn bans are only the beginning.
Under the guise of “meaningful use,” health care personnel collect all sorts of information: height, weight, vaccination history, mental state and even gun ownership are some examples of patient data being collected.
Because ObamaCare is a socialized collectivist system, everyone is tied together. If a group is deemed to be taking more resources, they will be dealt with. For example, if someone’s body mass index is too high, they could be labeled a risk for heart disease or diabetes. Since obesity is now considered a disease, expect mandated behavior modification. In the future, for instance, don’t be surprised if buying soda or potato chips with an EBT card involves an analysis of health records — with those considered obese prohibited from such purchases. It’s basic social engineering.
Put simply — ObamaCare is a corrupt scheme that has fooled too many Americans into entering a system limiting their health care choices, encroaching upon their freedom, robbing them of their hard-earned money and destroying their privacy.

Dr. Elaina George is a member of the national advisory council of the Project 21 Black leadership network. Comments may be sent to Project21@nationalcenter.org.

Birmingham desperately needs more name brand service providers to help meet the escalating demand of truckers. I think Birmingham should be ground zero for immediate expansion. Unfortunately this market has been underserved at a time when heavy truck traffic, which was spurred by a sharp increase in economic activity, is on the rise. Truckers who serve this porous market chief complaint is lack of facilities for overnight parking which needs to change. Too many drivers have been harassed by law enforcement officers and forced to seek parking on the side of dangerous roads and underpasses instead of a secure full service plaza. Local government and business officials must submit applications and recruit Love’s, Wilco-Hess and Travel CEnters of America/Petro franchises to this depressed market. These award winning travel plazas are nationally known for providing a high level of customer service, quality products and amenities to truckers and the communities they serve.
Furthermore, these 24 hour service centers supply a myriad of goods and services that truckers and the motoring public have come to expect and depend on across America. Metro-Birmingham’s rapidly growing 1.2 million population, which produces over 30 percent of Alabama Gross Domestic Products, needs a minimum of three major franchises. They should be conveniently located to accommodate truckers in Center City on I 459 and future I-422 respectively.
Expansion into this emerging market will be mutually beneficial for all parties. First it will boost corporate profits, create more job opportunities and secure overnight parking for truckers. But more importantly it will generate a steady source of tax revenue that is urgently needed to help subsidize more long overdue public work projects and infrastructure repair.
Incrementally it would be very advantageous for the city to leverage more of the underused multi-billion dollar trucking industry into a large percentage of its economic portfolio. Birmingham has to look no farther than comparable pro-trucking towns like Jackson, Little Rock and Knoxville for people to clearly see and appreciate the high profile role trucking is playing to help bulk up and energize those towns’ robust economies.
Truckers are the number one movers of U.S. commerce and they demand nothing less than first class treatment in Birmingham. Birmingham must provide truckers with the same kind of spacious high-tech facilities they experience in big pro-trucking cities like Nashville, Memphis and Atlanta.
Therefore the Afro-American Truckers Association is appealing to the Mayor, City Council and the Birmingham Business Alliance, encouraging them to partner up for support of truckers and smart economic development. By working together to bring a complement of supersize state of the art Loves Wilco-Hess and travel centers of America/ Petro Travel Plazas to Birmingham. This proactive initiative will help make Birmingham more competitive and economically diverse, more attractive to international business investment and more truck friendly over the long haul.

Shakir Muhammad
Alexandria, VA 22314

Shakir Muhammad is an Alabama native and active member of the Afro-American Truckers Association who has been fighting for the interest of truckers since 2003.

By Steve Flowers

As we approach Labor Day, foremost on most Alabamians’ minds is the beginning of college football season. Traditionally, Labor Day has also marked the kickoff of the political campaign season.
As we head into the Labor Day weekend of 2013, my suspicion is that more of you are excited about this Saturday’s first games of the season than who is going to run for governor or more especially state auditor next year.
College football is king in Alabama. Make no mistake about it. We love college football. However, it appears the rest of the country is enamored as well. In a recent Forbes magazine article the vaunted financial periodical says, “The players might be amateurs but college football itself hauls in billions of dollars a year in television contracts, ticket sales, sponsorships and paraphernalia.”
Not surprisingly, Forbes discovered that the South and more specifically the Southeastern Conference is not only the most dominant on the field, it is by far the richest. Forbes’ study revealed that seven of the 10 most lucrative college football franchises are in the SEC.
The report lists these SEC schools and their team values if they were in the NFL. At number four was LSU with a team value of $102 million. Georgia was number five at $99 million. Alabama was number six at $96 million. Florida came in seventh at $93 million. Auburn was ninth at $85 million and Arkansas was 10th at $83 million. Therefore, the SEC held places four through 10 in the Forbes rankings of richest franchises. Seven out of 10 is not bad.
Texas was number one. Michigan was number two and Notre Dame was third.
For the most part there is a correlation to how well a team does on the field and their dollar value at the bank. That is not precise though. For example, in the last six years Alabama has emerged as the premier college football program in America, while Texas has suffered through some lackluster seasons. A lot of Texas’ financial success stems from its unique, exclusive television arrangement. Notre Dame also has a novel national television contract and following.
However, the SEC recently entered into a lucrative extensive television contract that will air our dominant teams nationwide and insure that our top teams remain in the top 10 financially for years to come.
By the way, according to Forbes the average salary of the 10 highest paid football coaches in the country is $4.2 million. Nine of the 10 are state employees. Alabama’s Nick Saban remains number one and deservingly so.
Labor Day generally marks the end of the summer vacation season with many of you slipping in a final trek to the beach. For those of you who like to frequent our own Alabama gulf coast, you will have a new luxury resort hotel to accommodate you soon and it will be owned partially by the state. Gov. Bentley made a convention center hotel on our own Alabama coast a lynchpin of his accomplishments during his first term in office. He repeatedly said, I am tired of going to conferences of Alabama associations that are being held at Sandestin on Florida’s gulf coast.
Bentley spearheaded the efforts to make our own Gulf State Park a luxury convention destination. Legislation was passed in this year’s Regular Session to make it a reality. Six governors prior to Bentley have floated the idea. The legislation allows the state to partner with a private developer to build a hotel and conference center at our Gulf State Park. The hotel will actually be built on the stretch of beach where the old Gulf State Park was located prior to it being decimated by Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
The state will use $80 million it received from the 2010 BP gulf oil spill to pay for the project. Therefore, the state will own the land and facility.
You could see Bentley’s pride when he signed the bill creating the new luxury state owned hotel. He had the bill signing on the site of the new venture. It was a beautiful clear May day on the Gulf of Mexico with blue skies and seagulls surrounding the Governor and Gulf Coast dignitaries. Bentley beamed as he set the project in motion.
It should be a crown jewel for our gulf coast that generations to come can enjoy and from which the state will reap the profits.
See you next week.

Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His column appears weekly in more than 70 Alabama newspapers. Steve served 16 years in the state legislature. He may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.