Massachusetts: The Cradle of Liberty!

Is this what it felt like for all my left leaning friends and family members back in November of 2008? This sudden feeling of hope, this feeling that the good guys actually won for a change? This confidence that our government might be on the right track? That I’m not the only one? This euphoria that the masses are with me, that the majority actually has views similar to mine? Is that what they felt just 14 months ago? I don’t know.

What I do know is this. The utter despair that some of my friends are feeling today, I did not have that 14 months ago. Sure I was disappointed with how the presidential race turned out, but then again I was disappointed prior to that at how the primaries turned out. I was not “excited” to cast a vote for John McCain back in ’08. How could I be excited when I knew hands down that there was no way he was winning in my state, and his voting record was almost as liberal as that of his opponent?

I think this thing may fall apart for the Democrats sooner rather than later on a national level. It seems voters flip-flop as bad as the men and women they elect. I think the Democrats misread their sweeping success of ’08 as either a mandate or a blank check to do whatever they felt like doing. What I find strange though is that they couldn’t see the writing on the wall last summer. If over half of those you believe you rule over don’t like what you are trying to do, maybe you should rethink what you are doing!

Now, I know Rome wasn’t built in a day, but nor did it crumble overnight. It did take 8 years of the Bush administrations ridiculous policy of CUTTING taxes while INCREASING spending, paired with Bawney Fwank’s INSASNE policies of guaranteeing loans made to people who had 0% chance of paying it back, and don’t forget the “Wall Street greed” that went along with all of it, to create this fiasco we currently sit in. That said, the populace is angry. A year into the new administration and the debt is skyrocketing, soldiers are still being blown apart overseas, unemployment is as high as it has ever been, homes are not retaining their value, and now you want more control?

We, the voters of Massachusetts just elected what appears to be a fine man to represent us in the U.S. senate. We, the independents, the republicans, and oh yes even the democrats of Massachusetts are telling you to STOP, rethink what you are doing, give us the transparency you said you would, because if we, the voters from Massachusetts have had enough of the B.S., well just think what our fellow countrymen and women are going to do to you come November.

R WE STUPIT?

Does taxing the pharmaceutical companies an extra $22 billion and medical device manufacturers’ an extra $19 billion really make healthcare more affordable? Do we think Pfizer just says “oh well, those profit margins were nice while had ‘em”? Or do they do what any company does when they are hit with new costs- Raise prices!

Companies need to make X% profit to stay in business. Look at gas, if the price of oil goes up the price of gas goes up, because oil costs the companies money to obtain, it is a “cost”. Taxes are “costs” too. If we hit up Exxon for more tax $$$ then they will be forced to raise the price at the pump to recoup that “cost”, and maintain a profit margin of X%. Tobacco is a perfect example- When the tobacco industry was sued and forced to pay out huge amounts of dough in settlements they were forced to either raise their prices drastically or close up shop (too bad they chose option a).

Why do nations impose tariffs on imported goods? The people exporting those goods to the nation have to tack that money onto the price paid by the consumer, thus creating an advantage in the price category for the domestic producers of similar goods. So is it really a stretch to assert that those in control of Washington now want to raise the cost of private healthcare in order to secure an advantage for the “public option”, eventually doing away with the private sector altogether?

You, the end user, the consumer, you pay. Not the big corporations, not the share-holders of the corporations, not the insurance companies, not the “rich”, but you. That is the way it has always been, the way it will always be. One way or another, the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” will cost you in the long run.

See the last line of the AP article- “Resolving these policy issues would be a historic accomplishment for Democrats. But the bill could still leave consumers feeling a little cheated.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_health_care_overhaul

Sleep Tight

You wake up in a cold sweat, your world crashing in around you. You turn on MSNBC and watch in horror as Olbermann breaks down the latest horror story coming out of Washington. You thought it was bad enough that in the 1^st 100 days of the new administration we had lost our funding for studying the migration habits of yellow perch, cracked down unfairly on companies that are kind enough to employ undocumented migrant workers, and our military is now actually killing people in Afghanistan. “How could it get any worse” you wonder aloud. How did all these idiots not see this coming? You knew all along what a mistake it was to have Sarah Palin just “a heartbeat away” from the Presidency. When that wack-job senator from Arizona had a heart attack during the inauguration, you were not surprised; you had warned people about this. How could America have been so stupid? Well now they will see for themselves just how crazy this bitch really is. The unthinkable is happening right before your eyes as tomorrow congress is going to vote on Palin’s latest far right-wing initiative: Drilling in Alaska’s wilderness…. The HORROR!!!!!!!

You wake up again, this time for real, and you realize it was all just a bad dream. THANK GOD! You breathe a sigh of relief as you realize things are as they should be. The government has a firm grasp on the banking, housing, and auto industries, the US Army is still using rubber bullets with kind interrogation methods, and the big legislation on the table is the much needed government takeover of our “broken” health care system. This is no nightmare, maybe to those out of touch evil conservatives it is, but not to you. You can sleep easy tonight, all is right in the world.

Bad Medicine

First things first:

As I read through these graphs (from PBS, hardly right wing) this is what becomes clear to me.

• The vast majority of people who are not insured in this country are not citizens of this country.
• The largest group of uninsured people do not work.
• There are 21 million making over $50k a year and obviously choosing not to be insured.
• The biggest group of uninsured are aged 18 to 34, also the least likely ages to need medical help I would think.
  

The first problem I have with the current health care reform initiatives is the haste at which they are being attempted. As with almost everything, I feel it is more important to get it right than to get it now. The second problem, and perhaps the biggest to me, is that I am being asked to believe that there is a serious problem that I simply can not see. I’m not saying a problem does not exist, I’m just saying I have no first hand knowledge of it. Again, I’m not in denial, I just haven’t seen the evidence. I don’t have to see something to believe in it, I mean I believe there are probably some open minded liberals out there somewhere, yet I have witnessed nothing to affirm that belief. But, for the sake of argument, lets say the Boogey Man exists;

Life is what you make of it. Some people work harder than others. Some people are born into better situations than others. But as our latest Supreme Court nominee shows us, upward mobility is very achievable in this country. I believe health care is like anything else. We can't all drive a Bentley, eat fillet Mignon, and ski in Aspen. Most of us can however get a Hyundai, a piece of chicken, and occasionally tube down Mt. Wachusett. It is the same with visiting the Doctor. If you don't put in what is needed to ensure that your family is taken care of, that is on you, not me. When I say "I don't want to pay" for everybody else, what I mean is this; For the health care of all these uninsured people to get better, the health care of my children MUST necessarily get worse. I find that about as un-American as it gets. The following Article spells out exactly how much the current bills stink.

Article from CNN