In a recent wide ranging Wall Street Journal interview with Texas Governor Rick Perry, in which Perry spoke of the need for solid fiscal conservatism in America, he talked about Alaska’s Governor Sarah Palin. Governor Perry slammed the "mushy, middle of the road" Republicans, what we here call squishes, and spoke of the need for solid conservative principles, like he and Sarah Palin possess, saying this:

"You may elect me if I am pro-life. You may elect me if I'm pro-family values. But you probably will not elect me if I'm not a proven fiscal conservative."

When it came to Sarah Palin, Governor Perry was very adamant about his admiration for the Arctic Fox:

"I love Sarah Palin, I love her positions, I think she was a good governor. . . . I want her to be engaged in this rebuilding of the Republican Party. . . . She is substantially more the face of this country than some other people who might want to be the face of the Republican Party. To me she's the face of America. I mean she's a hard worker, she didn't come from money, she didn't come from privilege, she just worked hard. . . . I have not seen another person who invigorated the Republican base [like she did] with the possible exception of Ronald Reagan in 1976—the speech he made at the Republican Convention. People were looking around and saying, 'we nominated the wrong dude.'"

Obviously, we agree with Governor Perry! Sarah Palin is the face of America. She is not part of the NYC/D.C. Beltway elite. Sarah is from a normal American family, with the all American story. She is a self made woman, no one gave her a thing. Sarah achieved everything she has set her sights on in office. Sarah has become a true force in American politics through her own hard work, and incredible skill. She has shown how much gravitas she brings to the national debate in the last few weeks doing no more than posting simple but effective commentary on her Facebook page. As you know, Rick Perry will be facing a re-election challenge in 2010 from D.C insider and retiring United States Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. With Perry’s solid record of Reagan conservatism vs Hutchison’s record of squishy RINOism, and her D.C insider mentality, this shouldn’t be much of a contest. As a Texan, I can say absolutely that Rick Perry has been good for Texas! Sarah Palin has endorsed Governor Perry in his re-election bid. You can read the full Wall Street Journal interview here

Sarah Palin has just hit on the one issue Obama and his death cult do not want to discuss, and that is tort reform. Out of control lawsuits, sky high malpractice insurance, and doctors running more tests than needed, just to cover their tails, is all part of the single largest expense in American health care that can easily be remedied.

Tort reform is key. To "fix" healthcare, without major tort reform, would be like going in to do open heart surgery on someone, but not actually working on the heart!

We all know the stories of the trial lawyers who have gotten rich with bogus lawsuits. One of the most egregious practitioners of these phony baloney lawsuits is newly minted baby daddy John Edwards. Edwards became a multi-millionaire ambulance chaser by specializing in suing on behalf of children with cerebral palsy.

Edwards, a shyster deluxe, even went so far to "channel" unborn babies during his courtroom antics. Thanks to this one unscrupulous attorney, malpractice insurance went through the roof, many doctors quit their specialties, or went bankrupt.

But even worse, cases of cesarean birth dramatically increased, as Edwards used his greed, and junk science to convince people that natural childbirth was the culprit and cause of all of these cases of cerebral palsy.

Now besides the extra costs involved, having a cesarean birth is dangerous for the mother, as infections can easily set in, and of course, recovery is longer. But who cares, John Edwards sure has a nice house, doesn’t he!

This is just one guy who cost hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies hundreds of millions of dollars during his career. There are lawyers like him all over the country just waiting for their next payday.

Turn on the television. If you watch for any length of time, you will see dozens of ads from big law firms actively seeking defendants for all sorts of cases. Not saying all of them are bogus, but when you see people resorting to advertising nationally for victims, you have to wonder just how big the problem truly is or isn’t, and conclude it’s all about the Benjamins!

Of course, another issue people overlook in this, is the fact that lawyers are so busy chasing high profile, big paydays, that many cases that are real get shoved aside because they won’t make the attorney a huge payday. Small cases don’t add a new wing to the family compound!

As a Texan, I can say that tort reform works. Texas passed major tort reform years ago, capping damages one could get for "pain and suffering." They also beefed the medical boards to investigate doctors suspected of having issues.

The result? As Sarah points out, thousands of doctors have moved to Texas. This has had a huge impact, especially in rural areas. Where there were once shortages of doctors, now there is coverage.

I live in a hospital town, we are home to a hospital that started out in a log cabin, which is still on the grounds, that has grown into a regional system of hospitals and clinics, and even has it’s own health care insurance plan.

Seeing a doctor here is an easy, very friendly process. Even though the complex is huge, the effort is to make sure every patient has their own regular doctor who is able to meet their needs. Very user friendly.

It is also a teaching hospital and is part of the Texas A&M system.

This is what happens when government is responsible, then gets out of the way.

I agree with Sarah Palin 100% on tort reform. For Barack Obama and the rest of his communist party to talk about "health care reform" without tort reform is beyond ridiculous, and it borders on criminal.

Of course, we all know that actually "reforming" health care is the last thing on these people’s minds. This is all a big power grab, and an attempt to completely usurp the Constitution of the United States. Anyone who has actually read HR 3200 knows that monstrosity is nothing more than a gateway to a complete communist state. It is a liberty and freedom stealing document that needs to be burned!

Lets get serious and get behind Sarah Palin. No tort reform, no health care bill.

Here is Sarah’s statement from Facebook:

No Health Care Reform Without Legal Reform:

President Obama's health care "reform" plan has met with significant criticism across the country. Many Americans want change and reform in our current health care system. We recognize that while we have the greatest medical care in the world, there are major problems that we must face, especially in terms of reining in costs and allowing care to be affordable for all. However, as we have seen, current plans being pushed by the Democratic leadership represent change that may not be what we had in mind -- change which poses serious ethical concerns over the government having control over our families’ health care decisions. In addition, the current plans greatly increase costs of health care, while doing lip service toward controlling costs.

We need to address a REAL bipartisan reform proposition that will have REAL impacts on costs, and quality of patient care.

As Governor of Alaska, I learned a little bit about being a target for frivolous suits and complaints (Please, do I really need to footnote that?). I went my whole life without needing a lawyer on speed-dial, but all that changes when you become a target for opportunists and people with no scruples. Our nation’s health care providers have been the targets of similar opportunists for years, and they too have found themselves subjected to false, frivolous, and baseless claims. To quote a former president, "I feel your pain."

So what can we do? First, we cannot have health care reform without tort reform. The two are intertwined. For example, one supposed justification for socialized medicine is the high cost of health care. As Dr. Scott Gottlieb recently noted, "If Mr. Obama is serious about lowering costs, he'll need to reform the economic structures in medicine—especially programs like Medicare." [1] Two examples of these "economic structures" are high malpractice insurance premiums foisted on physicians (and ultimately passed on to consumers as "high health care costs") and the billions wasted on defensive medicine.

Dr. Stuart Weinstein, with the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, recently explained the problem:

"The medical liability crisis has had many unintended consequences, most notably a decrease in access to care in a growing number of states and an increase in healthcare costs.

Access is affected as physicians move their practices to states with lower liability rates and change their practice patterns to reduce or eliminate high-risk services. When one considers that half of all neurosurgeons—as well as one third of all orthopedic surgeons, one third of all emergency physicians, and one third of all trauma surgeons—are sued each year, is it any wonder that 70 percent of emergency departments are at risk because they lack available on-call specialist coverage?" [2]

Dr. Weinstein makes good points, points completely ignored by President Obama. Dr. Weinstein details the costs that our out-of-control tort system are causing the health care industry and notes research that "found that liability reforms could reduce defensive medicine practices, leading to a 5 percent to 9 percent reduction in medical expenditures without any effect on mortality or medical complications." Dr. Weinstein writes:

"If the Kessler and McClellan estimates were applied to total U.S. healthcare spending in 2005, the defensive medicine costs would total between $100 billion and $178 billion per year. Add to this the cost of defending malpractice cases, paying compensation, and covering additional administrative costs (a total of $29.4 billion). Thus, the average American family pays an additional $1,700 to $2,000 per year in healthcare costs simply to cover the costs of defensive medicine.

Excessive litigation and waste in the nation’s current tort system imposes an estimated yearly tort tax of $9,827 for a family of four and increases healthcare spending in the United States by $124 billion. How does this translate to individuals? The average obstetrician-gynecologist (OB-GYN) delivers 100 babies per year. If that OB-GYN must pay a medical liability premium of $200,000 each year (which is the rate in Florida), $2,000 of the delivery cost for each baby goes to pay the cost of the medical liability premium." [3]

You would think that any effort to reform our health care system would include tort reform, especially if the stated purpose for Obama’s plan to nationalize our health care industry is the current high costs.

So I have new questions for the president: Why no legal reform? Why continue to encourage defensive medicine that wastes billions of dollars and does nothing for the patients? Do you want healthcare reform to benefit trial attorneys or patients?

Many states, including my own state of Alaska, have enacted caps on lawsuit awards against health care providers. Texas enacted caps and found that one county’s medical malpractice claims dropped 41 percent, and another study found a "55 percent decline" after reform measures were passed. [4] That’s one step in health care reform. Limiting lawyer contingency fees, as is done under the Federal Tort Claims Act, is another step.

The State of Alaska pioneered the "loser pays" rule in the United States, which deters frivolous civil law suits by making the loser partially pay the winner’s legal bills. Preventing quack doctors from giving "expert" testimony in court against real doctors is another reform.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry noted that, after his state enacted tort reform measures, the number of doctors applying to practice medicine in Texas "skyrocketed by 57 percent" and that the tort reforms "brought critical specialties to underserved areas." These are real reforms that actually improve access to health care. [5]

Dr. Weinstein’s research shows that around $200 billion per year could be saved with legal reform. That’s real savings. That’s money that could be used to build roads, schools, or hospitals.

If you want to save health care, let’s listen to our doctors too. There should be no health care reform without legal reform. There can be no true health care reform without legal reform.

- Sarah Palin

[1] See http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409904574350370729883030.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

[2] See http://www.aaos.org/news/aaosnow/nov08/managing7.asp

[3] Id.

[4] See http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/new_laws_and_med_mal_damage_caps_devastate_plaintiff_and_defense_firms_alik/print/

[5] See http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/OpEd-Contributor/Tort-reform-must-be-part-of-health-care-reform-8096175.html

If you are even partially politically aware in this country, or saw the pilot episode of The West Wing, you know that POTUS stands for President of the United States. Kind of insider speak, if you will.

Now with our current President, we have been introduced to TOTUS, the Teleprompter of the United States. Anyone who has seen President Barack Obama speak both with the aid of TOTUS, and without his trusted friend by his side, knows that the tails TOTUS weaves on his blog, which you can read here, are true! Without TOTUS, Barack Obama is mostly a rambling, barely intelligible speaker, as shown here and here.

There is a lot of pressure on TOTUS, as well. Twice this year TOTUS has attempted to end it all as can be seen here and here. Though Allahpundit over at Hot Air thinks it might be something more nefarious.

But as we have found out, the real power in America lies not in POTUS or TOTUS, but in LOTUS, the Laptop of the United States!

Now unlike TOTUS, LOTUS does not take credit for being her owner’s actual brain.

No way!

You see The Laptop of the United States belongs to Sarah Palin!

LOTUS fully realizes she is a mere tool for Sarah Palin to rule the world with!

Sarah Palin recently used LOTUS to completely set the health care debate on it’s ear!

As we talked about here, here, and here, Sarah and used her straight shooting style to put Barack Obama on the complete defensive over his incredibly sinister plan to destroy the American health care system and have the government take control of a huge segment of our economy.

As Ronald Reagan spoke of way back in 1961, socializing the health care in a nation is the first step to becoming a full on communist state. We know Barack Obama was born and raised a Saul Alinsky style communist, someone who thinks America is an evil country and must be changed. So trying to destroy the American health care system with a communist plan of "socialized medicine" is just par for the course for this guy.

As Sarah Palin has already said, Obamacare is pure evil!

Obamacare must be stopped.

Thankfully, armed with her powerful Laptop of the United States, Sarah Palin will keep a close watch on Barack Obama and continue to call him out every time he tries to destroy the greatest nation the world has ever know with one of his insane schemes!

Her latest effort was to employ LOTUS to talk about Obama’s plan to send billions of taxpayer dollars to Brazil so they can drill for oil offshore. Of course, Obama, his Chicago thugs, and the eviro-nuts, go insane if you talk about drilling for oil in our country.

You can read Sarah’s latest comments here.

We have also found that Barack Obama’s best buddy, and puppet master, George Soros has invested over $800 million dollars in the very company that Obama is sending billions of our tax dollars to!

We’ll have more on this in the days to come.

But if you would like to follow LOTUS, the Laptop of the United States, you can get the inside story by reading her blog here.