Government shut down and Health Care

Well, it is time to set and get a few things straight. Now I know that everyone was worried about the Government shut down.  It does not look like there is going to be a government shutdown. Now, to make things clear, the government never really “shuts down”. Social Security checks still go out, and hospitals still get their Medicare and Medicaid payments, don’t let any talking heads fool you.

And the shutdown has nothing to do with the budget, not in a real sense. It is because the GOP upset that their voucher idea was turned down by the voters, are fighting the voters now to defund Obama’s new health care law. And during this mix, they have to raise the debt ceiling so we can make our payments, and not default on the bonds that we have sold to make money. By the way, the TSA employees aren’t going anywhere, because Federal Law will not let them, because they perform a job that is essential to national security.

Getting back to the point of the new health care laws, here’s a little food for thought. Have you ever wondered why every other single industrialized nation has a form of “Obama Care”? It’s simple. In America, we have an entire market system called health care insurance. Companies that sell these policies have shareholders and CEO’s to answer to if they don’t turn a profit. In the simplest of terms, there is an entire market out there dedicated to making sure people stay stick so that their they keep paying those premiums, and keep buying those pills, which funds big Pharma, which happens to be the second biggest lobbyist group next to Gun Rights activist (IE the NRA). Many of these companies fund campaign donations of conservative groups, which fight to make laws like having $5,000 vouchers for a person to spend in one year on health care. By the way, anything past that and the money comes out of the pocket of the policy holder.  Now, let’s take a quick look at pills. There are medicines that cost $5,000 alone before insurance kicks in, and pay a portion of the price. Ever wonder why a tiny little bottle cost more than some new cars? Because there is a profit to be made by these companies. Insurance, big Pharma are all for profit businesses. Relating back to what I said before: There is an entire market that needs to keep people sick in order to make a profit. Let’s repeat that, it seems very important: There is an entire industry that needs its customers to remain sick, and only get health care in nibbles and bites to be assured that it will continue to turn a profit.  There seems to be something wrong with that line of thinking.

And before you try and pull that “Well, if the government gets involved, they will tell you what doctor you can go to.” Well, that’s a crock. And not only is it a crock, the system we have now tells you what doctor you can see. There are coverage plans that a doctor may or not be a member of that particular network. Meaning that well, you’d like to see that doctor, but your insurance company will only allow you to see Doctor X. Oh, and if you need a better example of government types that want to control what medical assistance one gets, just take a look at the GOP and their drive to end abortions. They don’t care if a woman has been raped, cannot deliver due to health issues, they don’t care. They want that baby born. After the child is born, well, they lose all interest in him or her. They don’t care if their school is well funded, they really don’t care if the child gets educated enough to get a job, they just want the child educated enough to go to college, get a loan, pay high interest on the loan, which helps feed the Wall Street monster. And since there are no jobs out there (because the GOP refuses regulation that will keep companies from exporting jobs at their slightest whim), those new college graduates, many of them, take two jobs to pay off the loan they get out from under, and forget getting a job in the field they went to school for, because those jobs have already been taken.

There is nothing wrong with having a single payer system. I’m sure there are advantages to having a government funded health care system. However, what we have now, sucks, it’s shameful. Why the hell can’t we have a sound health care system that assures that everyone who is sick gets health care? Any system that allows several millions of people live without health care.  Don’t you think that if those people didn’t have to pay for health care and the crazy over the top prices they are charged, that they will have more money to grow the economy? I worked retail, which taught me a lot about the spending habits of people. Give them more free money, and they are going to spend it.

Want a nice stable economy? It’s simple, and can be done over-night! The more money the consumers have, the more they are going to spend.  This will lead to plenty of income for the counties and states in the form of sales taxes. The companies whose products are being purchased are going to make profits, which will allow them to hire more people, which will bring in a whole new slew of people who will become tax payers. You can tax these companies on their profits, which the government can spend on education, fix roads, pay of the national debt, etc.  Rich people have a smaller effect on the economy, than the right will have you think. It’s the middle class that always has, and always will drive the economy.

But that will never happen, because the system is broken, and people profit from it being broken, so it will stay that way.  That’s reality, people.

 

Syrian Food for Thought

There are people who want to bomb Syria because over 1,000 people, men, women, and children were gassed to death. And there are some who feel that it is not our business to get involved, and that it is simply a civil issue. I don’t get why we should even get involved, because hell, if we went after every nation that either gassed, or executed its citizens, well, then we’d be invading or bombing perhaps a dozen more countries that commit these acts. 

Now, if Bush was still in office, we’d already be in war. He and his cronies would have manufactured some excuse for the need to bomb Syria. Maybe Bush would have said that Syria was a new Al Qaeda stronghold. Maybe he would have said that Syria was behind 9-11 all along, and has WMDs. Who knows, but as sure as I’m sitting here, typing these words, if this had happened under Bush, we’d already have troops on the ground.

Let’s be blunt, any nation that would capriciously kill its own citizens  in that matter is run by heartless people. In some nations, they simply don’t put much value on human life. And before anyone says that America puts a high value on human life, you might want to check your facts at the door. If we really valued human life, we would not cut the legs off from the funding that goes to programs like food stamps, head start and free lunches in schools. We would not cut off funding to assist veterans returning home from war, nor would we cut off funding to help homeless people seek the help they need. Yeah, we don’t gas people, but many people sure as hell fall into the trap of class warfare in which they are forced fed the Ayn Rand philosophy of the poor being nothing more than leaches who don’t belong in society.

It feels that we’ve been down this road before. We entered Vietnam because we were told that the communist movement would spread and that we’d have another enemy.  It always seems that when something goes wrong in another country, the other nations all look at us and say “Do you job!” as if we are supposed to take the leader, do all of the dirty work, and let them come along for the ride and share the credit. We do we always have to do the dirty work? Can someone please explain why Great Britain or Russia can’t get involved and do something? But then again, the last time that Russia was involved with what was going on with a Middle East nation, President Reagan oversaw the funding and military training of a group of rebels, which included a man by the name of Osama Bin Laden. Because tensions with the Soviet Union were so high that we had to get ourselves involved in a boarder war.

I’ve heard how folks like Rush Limbaugh have been critical that Obama has surrendered the standing of the US as the number one nation to Russia, which makes no freaking sense. Listen, there is no BCS type poll that ranks every nation in the world. Every country’s citizens think their nation is better than everyone else. It’s called National pride. Anyone who says that the “US is surrendering its position as number one,” is a talking head looking to raise the ire of the people who don’t like that Obama is president.

So what, who cares if Putin talked the Syrian leaders into surrendering the chemical weapons that only 72 hours prior they claimed not to have? Shouldn’t it just matter that the task is getting done? Yeah, we have to hold our nose because the task is getting done by a man who invaded Georgia (the country, not the state) without UN approval, enacted hate laws, and imprisoned anyone who spoke against him and the country in general. We’re talking global politics, and very few of these cowboys wear white hats.  

Do I think we should get involved with what is going on in Syria, I have to say no. Right now, we have so many issues that have crippled us, that maybe it’s time we called time out, let someone else pitch hit, and use that time to get ourselves stronger. Of course, that is all going to be delayed because we have a political which has openly stated that their mission isn’t to govern, it is to stop the president from governing. And that could delay our recovery just a slight bit.

So, in closing, It’s time that we swallow a little bit of national pride, and let someone else take the credit for fixing one of the world’s ills, even if it ironically is a country led by a repressive leader looking to take the weapons out of the hands of another nation led by a repressive leader.