You know how your mother always said, "Be careful what you wish for. You might get it."? I think the "TEA Party" might just be one of those things. For most of my life I have been an independent voter. I have voted the issues or the person and not necessarily the party. I have railed against the inadequacies of the two party system and spouted rhetoric of my own regarding the need for a new "non-partisan" party, a misnomer, I know.
So I watched with interest as the TEA Party movement kicked off and began to get attention. I like the idea of more competition and different points of view. I very definitely think it is time for each of us to start thinking outside the boxes into which we have allowed ourselves to be placed.
I also explored the leanings of the Libertarians. Both have some really good ideas and some really good reasoning behind those beliefs. So, what's the problem, you ask? I suppose it is the same as with the other established parties, the fringe, the leadership and the future, the fact that so many people have chosen to limit their vision and their minds to a very narrow and personal focus. And of course the corruption, and the fact that I don't hear a lot of realistic solutions. I hear a lot of criticism, a lot of anger and a lot of fear, much of it justified.
I see and hear people refusing to really look at the facts. They will have a knee jerk reaction to something they hear that frightens them and stop looking for the rest of the story. By not going further with their questions they are unwittingly aligning themselves with corporate America because they are afraid of government. Believe me corporate America is playing a huge part in the problems we are having right now, both as the cause of these problems and the reasons they are continuing, not to mention the voices we are hearing.
Anger too has become a driving factor. There is much to be angry about for sure. We are fighting wars on several fronts. Our economy has been plundered. Many of our leaders have reverted to the behaviour of spoiled angry children. We want someone to blame, someone on whom to focus our anger. I just want to offer this word of caution. We never make our best decisions when we are acting out of anger or fear. It is important to take a step back and look closely at the facts, look closer still at how these facts are being presented and sometimes distorted. Especially in an environment as corrupted as ours has become, we can't afford to just believe what we are told.
A current theme seems to be down with government. I find this unsettling. Government is not the real enemy in and of itself. Corruption within the government definitely is. Without government we have no infrastructure. Without government we are on our own in disastrous situations and when traveling in other countries. We need the Armed Forces. We need regulations. We need law enforcement, fire departments and other protective agencies. We enjoy a way of life that would be lost without government, without the reasonable expectation of safety and liberty.
Do we need to reform our government? Absolutely! I sometimes wish we could wipe the slate clean and start it all over, but it's not going to happen. Let's do this. Let's pull in the reins on Corporate Greed andits hold on the government. Let's change our own philosophy and stop believing that big business cares a bit about our welfare. Let's pretend that we are as important to them as they are to us.
Because we are. "They" not only need us to do the work, "they" need us to use their product. "They need us to finance our homes with them, and buy their cars and use their credit cards. "They" need us to need them. We are really in a mutually supportive culture. Let's just quit letting "them" make all the decisions.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
I received an email the other day claiming that the Cap and Trade Bill will force us to "license" our houses and could possibly prevent our selling our house in the future. I read through the bill, which you can see in full at: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-2454 , and was unable to find anything which would prevent me from selling my. There were provisions to update the national building code with baseline standards for energy efficiency which relates to new construction and remodeling, and there was mention of a certification to prove the energty efficient measures which have been taken. This, I assume, would be used in the seller's disclosure process.
Did I miss something? Could someone refer me to the provision in the bill that was alluded to in the email? Right now I am leaning toward the belief that this is more of the misinformation that gets out on the web and makes people nervous. Let's just get it straight.
Did I miss something? Could someone refer me to the provision in the bill that was alluded to in the email? Right now I am leaning toward the belief that this is more of the misinformation that gets out on the web and makes people nervous. Let's just get it straight.
Friday, August 21, 2009
President Obama answers questions on health care
Okay, here is my latest list of thoughts and questions. In the past two days I have watched President Obama’s interview with conservative radio host Michael Smerconish, listened to Barney Frank’s defensive town hall meeting remarks and watched Betsy McCaughey debate the health care bill with Jon Stewart, a surprisingly enlightening debate. I am going to tell you what I liked, didn’t like, and I want to hear your opinion, even if it is different.
I liked the interview President Obama had with Michael Smerconish. Calls were taken from Smerconish’s listening audience and questions were answered. Some of the points were as follows:
Will this bill allow for free health care to illegal aliens? This is big issue for a lot of people who are against spending our tax money to support those who pay no taxes. None of the bills before congress at this time have any provision for providing free healthcare to illegal aliens. None of them disallow treatment for emergency situations as is the case now. The rational is that we do not deny emergency treatment to the ill because they can’t pay. There is also the issue that even illegals with contagious diseases can spread this to the rest of us if not treated. No one wins that game. I don’t believe I personally have seen any legislation that permits us to euthanize the offensive and undesirables. Perhaps that will be in another bill, but not the health care bill.
Will millions of unborn babies be murdered because abortions will be forced on us and paid for with government money? There is a provision that prevents insurance companies (either public or private) from refusing to pay for therapeutic abortions that endanger the life of the mother. I does not force anyone to perform and abortion if it against their beliefs and it does not force anyone to have an abortion regardless of the risk to her own health. It allows for support of her personal choice. There are no provisions for encouraging or discouraging abortion.
Will this bill legislate end of life procedures for senior citizens? This bill encourages doctors to council patients on the choices they face and to make their personal desires known in the form of a “living will” or “final directives”. There is NO provision for “Death Panels”. There is no government guideline for deciding who will receive heroic measures or not. Again, we are not being forced or encouraged to euthanize either the elderly or the illegal aliens, or for that matter the poor. They are already allowed to die a long suffering death in peace.
Will the government be administering health care? This bill does allow for government regulations on health care providers, but does not provide for the actual administration. It does provide for a public health care insurance option which will allow for choice, competition and affordability.
The President made the following points as to his requirements:
1. The health care plan must be deficit neutral. He was not specific about the method of paying for the health care option, but insists that whatever is provided be paid for without increasing the deficit. These need to be addressed by the bill and we do need to see them outlined. States would be encouraged to expand Medicaid and Medicare procedures would be audited to curtail waste.
2. The health care plan must bend the cost curve. It must contain a plan to reduce healthcare inflation.
3. The health care plan must include insurance reforms which will be in effect for both private and public health insurance. The purpose is to curtail unfair insuring practices such as refusing insurance to someone with pre-existing conditions, or canceling insurance when a job is lost.
4. He is proposing a public health care exchange. This differs from government administrated health care by creating a separate entity that will offer insurance (similar to Medicare) to individuals which will abide by the same guidelines as the existing private insurance companies. This should offer us a choice. It should stimulate competition. It must be affordable. And it will be supplemented for those with extremely low incomes. No one will be forced by the government to give up their existing insurance. Incentives, not penalties will be offered to businesses who offer health care assistance.
Now here is what sounds positive to me. We may actually get to the point where we work together with our insuring bodies instead of being controlled by them. Right now, where there is no government intervention, we are completely at their mercy. They say what procedures and tests we must have and what we cannot have. There actually is a panel (we won’t call them death panels) on each insurance company board that reviews our requests and allows or denies based on a written protocol. Very often these protocols do not include the personal information about the patient or the newest procedures for consideration.
Add to that the fact that the person making the decisions is often incentivized to deny based on a profit and loss statement. Even though I too am against having the government interfering in my business, I would welcome some sensible guidelines and the insurance industry has not seen fit to provide those for us, except, of course on internal memos.
I am not comfortable being told that we have a moral obligation to provide health care and this is confusing to me, because I personally believe that we do have a moral obligation, but I don’t like the idea of legislating that idea. The “Free Country” label comes to mind.
But I am less comfortable with all the out and out lies that are surrounding this issue. I respect an opponents’ right to disagree and I like to hear the reasoning behind differences of opinion. But these decisions should be made with true facts behind them and not made up stuff. I have to ask myself why one has to bolster their opinions with out and out lies if they really believe what they are saying. The truth is most of us are really trying to see the reality and it is really hard to do the right thing when we have all the right information. It is impossible if we are fed trash.
In the interest of not driving you away with too many words, I am going to end this now and publish again later. In the mean time, please honor me with your thoughts and opinions, even if they differ from mine. After all we all want the straight facts and we all have different perspectives and beliefs and we aren’t going to change one another’s core. Let’s just get it straight.
I liked the interview President Obama had with Michael Smerconish. Calls were taken from Smerconish’s listening audience and questions were answered. Some of the points were as follows:
Will this bill allow for free health care to illegal aliens? This is big issue for a lot of people who are against spending our tax money to support those who pay no taxes. None of the bills before congress at this time have any provision for providing free healthcare to illegal aliens. None of them disallow treatment for emergency situations as is the case now. The rational is that we do not deny emergency treatment to the ill because they can’t pay. There is also the issue that even illegals with contagious diseases can spread this to the rest of us if not treated. No one wins that game. I don’t believe I personally have seen any legislation that permits us to euthanize the offensive and undesirables. Perhaps that will be in another bill, but not the health care bill.
Will millions of unborn babies be murdered because abortions will be forced on us and paid for with government money? There is a provision that prevents insurance companies (either public or private) from refusing to pay for therapeutic abortions that endanger the life of the mother. I does not force anyone to perform and abortion if it against their beliefs and it does not force anyone to have an abortion regardless of the risk to her own health. It allows for support of her personal choice. There are no provisions for encouraging or discouraging abortion.
Will this bill legislate end of life procedures for senior citizens? This bill encourages doctors to council patients on the choices they face and to make their personal desires known in the form of a “living will” or “final directives”. There is NO provision for “Death Panels”. There is no government guideline for deciding who will receive heroic measures or not. Again, we are not being forced or encouraged to euthanize either the elderly or the illegal aliens, or for that matter the poor. They are already allowed to die a long suffering death in peace.
Will the government be administering health care? This bill does allow for government regulations on health care providers, but does not provide for the actual administration. It does provide for a public health care insurance option which will allow for choice, competition and affordability.
The President made the following points as to his requirements:
1. The health care plan must be deficit neutral. He was not specific about the method of paying for the health care option, but insists that whatever is provided be paid for without increasing the deficit. These need to be addressed by the bill and we do need to see them outlined. States would be encouraged to expand Medicaid and Medicare procedures would be audited to curtail waste.
2. The health care plan must bend the cost curve. It must contain a plan to reduce healthcare inflation.
3. The health care plan must include insurance reforms which will be in effect for both private and public health insurance. The purpose is to curtail unfair insuring practices such as refusing insurance to someone with pre-existing conditions, or canceling insurance when a job is lost.
4. He is proposing a public health care exchange. This differs from government administrated health care by creating a separate entity that will offer insurance (similar to Medicare) to individuals which will abide by the same guidelines as the existing private insurance companies. This should offer us a choice. It should stimulate competition. It must be affordable. And it will be supplemented for those with extremely low incomes. No one will be forced by the government to give up their existing insurance. Incentives, not penalties will be offered to businesses who offer health care assistance.
Now here is what sounds positive to me. We may actually get to the point where we work together with our insuring bodies instead of being controlled by them. Right now, where there is no government intervention, we are completely at their mercy. They say what procedures and tests we must have and what we cannot have. There actually is a panel (we won’t call them death panels) on each insurance company board that reviews our requests and allows or denies based on a written protocol. Very often these protocols do not include the personal information about the patient or the newest procedures for consideration.
Add to that the fact that the person making the decisions is often incentivized to deny based on a profit and loss statement. Even though I too am against having the government interfering in my business, I would welcome some sensible guidelines and the insurance industry has not seen fit to provide those for us, except, of course on internal memos.
I am not comfortable being told that we have a moral obligation to provide health care and this is confusing to me, because I personally believe that we do have a moral obligation, but I don’t like the idea of legislating that idea. The “Free Country” label comes to mind.
But I am less comfortable with all the out and out lies that are surrounding this issue. I respect an opponents’ right to disagree and I like to hear the reasoning behind differences of opinion. But these decisions should be made with true facts behind them and not made up stuff. I have to ask myself why one has to bolster their opinions with out and out lies if they really believe what they are saying. The truth is most of us are really trying to see the reality and it is really hard to do the right thing when we have all the right information. It is impossible if we are fed trash.
In the interest of not driving you away with too many words, I am going to end this now and publish again later. In the mean time, please honor me with your thoughts and opinions, even if they differ from mine. After all we all want the straight facts and we all have different perspectives and beliefs and we aren’t going to change one another’s core. Let’s just get it straight.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
To Publicize or not
As the healthcare debate comes down to the wire and a live wire at that, I want start this off by asking every reader to look at the issues and look out for the future of our country. The first fact to consider in the matter of healthcare reform is this:
What we have now is not working!
Too many people are without healthcare for a number of reasons. Our healthcare decisions are now being made by insurance companies and they are making decisions wholly on the profit factor, theirs not yours and mine. There is waste. There are oversights. There are denials that border on the criminal. I don't like Big Government, but I like Big Greedy Insurance Companies less.
If we are going to tighten up healthcare, I don't see how we can leave it to the insurance companies to make a difference. I think regulations are worth trying.
I also have to ask myself something else. Why are there so many ads and quotations floating around that are blatantly untrue? I respect your right to disagree with me, but I am very upset that people are being frightened into submission by lies. Think about it. Take the time to find out the truth. What is your opinion?
What we have now is not working!
Too many people are without healthcare for a number of reasons. Our healthcare decisions are now being made by insurance companies and they are making decisions wholly on the profit factor, theirs not yours and mine. There is waste. There are oversights. There are denials that border on the criminal. I don't like Big Government, but I like Big Greedy Insurance Companies less.
If we are going to tighten up healthcare, I don't see how we can leave it to the insurance companies to make a difference. I think regulations are worth trying.
I also have to ask myself something else. Why are there so many ads and quotations floating around that are blatantly untrue? I respect your right to disagree with me, but I am very upset that people are being frightened into submission by lies. Think about it. Take the time to find out the truth. What is your opinion?
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