I’ve been watching the health care insurance reform circus going on in this country. I call it a circus because there just isn’t another word to describe it. And, the ringmaster is pretty much absent.
Why are we willing to spend millions to rescue a single American held hostage by pirates on the high seas, but we aren’t willing to save so many Americans here at home? Why aren’t we willing to try to make this work?
I wonder what these good senators and representatives are really thinking as they stand up and declare that they just can’t support a public option (a strong one) or reform at all. Is the money from the insurance companies so important? Is the job so important?
Is it more important than:
- the millions that do not have insurance?
- families that can’t afford a $50 antibiotic for a sick child until they are so ill that the only recourse for them is to go to an emergency room and spend thousands?
- a woman with breast cancer that is told her policy has been cancelled because she had allergies as a child or, heaven forbid, an abusive spouse broke her arm?
- A family forced into bankruptcy because the insurance decides treatment that has been accepted as standard for years is determined by their insurance company to be experimental?
- a small business owner has to discontinue health coverage for their employees because the cost of premiums over the last few years has quadrupled and eaten all profits?
- people are dying by the tens of thousands every year in this country because they just can’t afford or even get coverage?
Is any of that acceptable?
Is it acceptable to give the insurance companies and their shareholders more and more and more of this country’s wealth every year while telling millions we can’t afford for them to see a doctor? Isn’t it more cost effective to treat when it will cost only $100 instead of waiting until it will cost $3,000?
Is it acceptable that an American child, or any child, should be told that they need to die so that someone can have a Mercedes or a fat bonus? Apparently in this America, it is.
And now for something completely different…
There is an ad, actually two, about the proposed tax on juice drinks and soft drinks. This very severe looking woman is complaining about this tax on juice drinks (not juices) and soft drinks (you know, Pepsi, Coke, Dr. Pepper, etc.). She says that families are already having difficulties in the current economy, so the government shouldn’t be adding more taxes on such things.
Now, I might be wrong, but if people are having difficulties in this economy, why the hell is anyone buying any kind of drinks that are loaded with high fructose corn syrup, sugar, various artificial flavorings, colorings and preservatives? Give your family something real, like water, real juice or milk? What are they thinking other than hoping to make their families obese and/or diabetic?
Don’t they realize that they won’t be able to afford healthcare soon? It could quite possibly be that the consumption of juice drinks and sodas will be one of the new pre-existing conditions that will be used to deny healthcare coverage in the next couple of years. The questionnaire will include detailed questions about what you eat and drink and feed your kids. The big health insurance companies will file the information away and use it to deny coverage once you present with high blood sugar levels or your fat kids tip the scales at the 115 percentile.
Oops, too bad you didn’t want a public option. Too bad you shouted down health care reform. So sad.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Failure
Gotta love it. The Bush Administration had eight long years to totally trash this country, and the dismantling of regulations for the finance industries. But, it seems the Obama Administraion is a failure because it couldn't clean it all up and make everything wonderful again in nine months.
Small analogy. How long does it take to stop a mile long, fully loaded freight train going fifty miles an hour? Not fifty feet, I can gaurantee you. More like fifteen hundred. And, it's very, very tricky if you're going down hill.
Well, folks, we've been riding a fully loaded mile long freight train, going fifty miles an hour on a downhill slope. It takes a bit longer than nine months to stop this train. We can only back it up once it's stopped. We have to be patient. I know that's hard, even crushing for many. I'm frightened of losing my job every single day. But, unless we do it right, we're in even more danger of getting completely out of control and losing it all.
Why are so many so willing to listen to and believe the people screaming failure at the top of their voices and lie about what is really needed to be done? Why are so many people so willing to believe the people who got us into this mess to begin with?
Obama said in the beginning that this was going to take time - years - it was going to be painful - very. We nodded and said, "we know." How soon we forget. How impatient we are. it's like this country has turned into a mob of two year olds, all wanting everything right now.
There were no maps or instructions for how to get out of this easily and quickly. We have to be Americans, we have to remember we are the "Can Do" nation. Have we lost that ability? Have we lost that determination? Have we lost that courage? I hope not.
Small analogy. How long does it take to stop a mile long, fully loaded freight train going fifty miles an hour? Not fifty feet, I can gaurantee you. More like fifteen hundred. And, it's very, very tricky if you're going down hill.
Well, folks, we've been riding a fully loaded mile long freight train, going fifty miles an hour on a downhill slope. It takes a bit longer than nine months to stop this train. We can only back it up once it's stopped. We have to be patient. I know that's hard, even crushing for many. I'm frightened of losing my job every single day. But, unless we do it right, we're in even more danger of getting completely out of control and losing it all.
Why are so many so willing to listen to and believe the people screaming failure at the top of their voices and lie about what is really needed to be done? Why are so many people so willing to believe the people who got us into this mess to begin with?
Obama said in the beginning that this was going to take time - years - it was going to be painful - very. We nodded and said, "we know." How soon we forget. How impatient we are. it's like this country has turned into a mob of two year olds, all wanting everything right now.
There were no maps or instructions for how to get out of this easily and quickly. We have to be Americans, we have to remember we are the "Can Do" nation. Have we lost that ability? Have we lost that determination? Have we lost that courage? I hope not.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
We're dying out here, or don't you give a rat's ass?
I've been avoiding coming in here the last couple of weeks. It's for a good reason. I want to try to avoid swearing, even on my blog. I can swear like a sailor and it isn't for public consumption.
Anyway, I will try to refrain from the profanity. WTF is going on with the Democrats? Have they been beaten so often that they're like a dog that cowers in the corner even when the hand of a new, kind, gentle owner reaches out to feed or pet them? Have they decided that they want to share in the riches that can be had if they bend to the wishes of big business? Have they lost any shred of self respect? Have they just stopped caring about the people of this country? WHAT? Somebody, please tell me?
Folks, we're being sold into slavery. The financial industry got their bailout and are already back to bad business with nary a new regulation in site. Billions upon billions of more dollars are disappearing into deep, dark pockets and will never be seen again.
The big polluters are pouring so much money into lobbying, and the deep, dark pockets of their lackeys in Congress that it's unlikely any meaningful changes will be made. Hell, why pay now for something you can put off onto your children and grandchildren? Who cares if they won't be able to breath and that there won't be enough water to grow sufficient food for the still exploding population? As long as they can live like kings now, they're not going to worry about the next generation. They can buy clean water and fly to the little corners of the Earth that still have breathable air. They think. I wonder how much big bubbles and air scrubbers cost? And, a lot of those nice tropical paradises will be underwater. Literally.
The healthcare insurance companies have so many politicians in their pockets that even more of our wages will be sent their way. They've ordered the supersize abacuses to tally up the profits. But wait! With 47,000 plus people dying every year because of lack of health insurance, there are fewer people to provide profits. But wait! There is talk of a mandate that will mean everyone, except the slice of the population that are too poor to buy even food, will be forced to get insurance or face a big fine. And, the premiums are going to be huge. I wonder how much of that will be profits for the insurance companies? What public option? The public have the option of paying premiums or fines. Makes money for the insurance companies either way. That's healthcare reform!
The biggest corporations are gobbling up small companies and each other. Soon there will be little to no competiton, which means they can charge what they want. On top of that, the competiton sometimes agree to inflate prices in order to make even more profit.
We will be a country of the super rich and the poor. In between will be a small layer of the merely rich, trying like crazy to not be like the middle class that is no more. The rest of us will be working six and a half days a week, living in rentals and eating McDonalds morning, noon and night.
Until the Democrats stop being cowards and do what they were elected to do, I fear for our future. The one bright light is Representative Alan Grayson, a freshman in the House, who stood up and sais enough is enough! Out of the mouths of babes.
Anyway, I will try to refrain from the profanity. WTF is going on with the Democrats? Have they been beaten so often that they're like a dog that cowers in the corner even when the hand of a new, kind, gentle owner reaches out to feed or pet them? Have they decided that they want to share in the riches that can be had if they bend to the wishes of big business? Have they lost any shred of self respect? Have they just stopped caring about the people of this country? WHAT? Somebody, please tell me?
Folks, we're being sold into slavery. The financial industry got their bailout and are already back to bad business with nary a new regulation in site. Billions upon billions of more dollars are disappearing into deep, dark pockets and will never be seen again.
The big polluters are pouring so much money into lobbying, and the deep, dark pockets of their lackeys in Congress that it's unlikely any meaningful changes will be made. Hell, why pay now for something you can put off onto your children and grandchildren? Who cares if they won't be able to breath and that there won't be enough water to grow sufficient food for the still exploding population? As long as they can live like kings now, they're not going to worry about the next generation. They can buy clean water and fly to the little corners of the Earth that still have breathable air. They think. I wonder how much big bubbles and air scrubbers cost? And, a lot of those nice tropical paradises will be underwater. Literally.
The healthcare insurance companies have so many politicians in their pockets that even more of our wages will be sent their way. They've ordered the supersize abacuses to tally up the profits. But wait! With 47,000 plus people dying every year because of lack of health insurance, there are fewer people to provide profits. But wait! There is talk of a mandate that will mean everyone, except the slice of the population that are too poor to buy even food, will be forced to get insurance or face a big fine. And, the premiums are going to be huge. I wonder how much of that will be profits for the insurance companies? What public option? The public have the option of paying premiums or fines. Makes money for the insurance companies either way. That's healthcare reform!
The biggest corporations are gobbling up small companies and each other. Soon there will be little to no competiton, which means they can charge what they want. On top of that, the competiton sometimes agree to inflate prices in order to make even more profit.
We will be a country of the super rich and the poor. In between will be a small layer of the merely rich, trying like crazy to not be like the middle class that is no more. The rest of us will be working six and a half days a week, living in rentals and eating McDonalds morning, noon and night.
Until the Democrats stop being cowards and do what they were elected to do, I fear for our future. The one bright light is Representative Alan Grayson, a freshman in the House, who stood up and sais enough is enough! Out of the mouths of babes.
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