It is clear what we are not going to get is Universal health coverage or to expand Medicare to
include the millions of Americans who don’t have any health insurance. That suits the Republicans just fine, but they want to go further, they want to continue with the status quo motivated by the heavy donations they have been receiving all along from the Insurance and Pharmaceutical companies. But it is not so much Republicans at this time that are holding up the process. It is those so-called “Blue Dog” Democrats who in my view have betrayed the voters who elected them.We all know, with the exception of the “Tea baggers” that 77% of the American people want some kind of Public Option and in my opinion the best choice to at least counteract the stranglehold that Insurance Companies have on the Health Care of America. That too is doubtful at this point as President Obama has not passionately indicated his support.
The Republican alternatives: they tell you that eliminating state mandates, enabling individuals to purchase health insurance across state lines, make it more affordable to purchase health insurance by allowing tax incentives (SOCIALISM?) Furthermore, they abdicate to eliminate state regulations (CENTRALIZED GOVERNMENT?) That would make it possible to make health insurance portable that will allow the policy holder to have greater choices. Then lastly, they want to implement medical tort reform that would put a cap on lawsuit damages. All of this, the Republicans say, will cause the reductions that will make healthcare more affordable. And if you believe that, I have some land in the Everglades I can sell you; hell I can even sell you the Brooklyn Bridge.
Experts estimate that the Republican plan would do little to reduce the skyrocketing increases in premiums and the Republicans are not saying anything about the level of profits that the insurance companies are getting now (estimated to be at 30%) Not even mentioned is the obscene salaries and bonuses that these insurance executives get.
So, basically what you have is a group of people buying their way and influencing the Congress in order to maintain the status quo, so that they can continue to make these immoral and obscene profits out of people’s misery.
The divisions we have seen, particularly in the form of disruption and sabotage of the Town Hall meetings is not so much about Health Care than it is about an end to an era. Gone are the days of WASPH supremacy; and this bothers a lot of people as our nation enters into a phase of diversity and change. The White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, Heterosexual is seeing his/her world crumble all around and they don’t like it. Perhaps the fact that there is a black President is the signal that things are changing and not for the better according to where they stand.
Now, I am one of those individuals who have never taken any government help of any kind. It was my intention to work until age 65 in order to get full Social Security benefits. I had a pension and a 401K and because I was responsible and frugal, I never fritter my money away I was able to put away enough so that I would not find myself in the position I am in today. My company closed my department in August of 2006 and I got a generous severance package. I went on COBRA for my health insurance needs. My income was reduced but I was still getting close to $2,000 per month. I was only 61 then and when I became 62 I applied for Social Security benefits. Then came the Stock Market Crash of ’08. My pension was reduced from $1,077 a month to $5.92. My 401K was gone altogether thanks to the Bernie Madoffs of Wall Street. Now I am left with only my Social Security check and I am dipping into my dwindling savings to pay for medical expenses at the rate of $3,000 per month; which at the rate it is going, when I am eligible for Medicare in one year I will have zilch left of my savings.
Now I ask you, is this what the Republicans want? To have every individual who loses his/her job exhaust their life savings and if they get sick go into bankruptcy? Is this not a redistribution of the wealth? Is this not a welfare system for the very rich? I totally don’t understand these people. Some of the Tea baggers I met surely are not wealthy. These nuts carrying misspelled signs have to be on Medicare or they would not be there on a week day. What is it that motivates them to deny me and millions of Americans the same benefits they enjoy?
What about those who are employed and have health insurance through their employers?
Surely they must fear losing their jobs and losing their health insurance? Isn’t it dandy for employers, even if they have to pay a little more for the insurance offered to their employees, but they have the upper hand totally and abuse the position their employees find themselves. Fear is a great motivator and change is also fear. But we are now in the final lap and this thing is going to come to an end one way or the other. I hold little optimism for passage of anything significant and I am most disappointed at my fellow Americans for either caving in to the Insurance Companies or believing the lies the Republicans are telling them.PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.daylife.com/photo/0dyFfnEfPOf0b http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/President-Barack-Obama/ss/events/pl/020807obama;_ylt=AgOPcAlhksQrQyLBHD9GYygFO7gF
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Great Clock, it is incredible…go to: http://www.poodwaddle.com/clocks2.htm
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HERE IS THE LATEST RANT BY NEWSMAX
“1. Nobel Peace Prize Called 'Left-wing Charade'
The Nobel Peace Prize has become "worthless" and should be overshadowed by an award named for a man who truly did achieve peace — Ronald Reagan, according to former White House official Jeffrey Lord.
Writing in The American Spectator after Barack Obama became the latest recipient of the
Nobel, Lord observes: "The decision to give the award to Obama was made by a group of Norwegian parliamentarians dominated by socialists."The prize "has become essentially worthless, a charade for left-wing Norwegian politicians to award like-minded liberals and liberalism under the guise that the award in some objective fashion determines an individual's contributions to peace," writes Lord, who was a political director in the Reagan administration.
"It's easy to cite the current story. Obama today, Al Gore yesterday, Jimmy Carter the day before that. . . Reagan? Thatcher? Pope John Paul II? George W. Bush? Of course not.
"It's time for the Reagan Peace Prize. Actually, it's past time."
Lord cites a number of Nobel recipients whose efforts at promoting peace ultimately resulted in failure, beginning in 1919 with U.S. President Woodrow Wilson. He was honored for his work on the disastrous Treaty of Versailles ending World War I and the League of Nations, which Lord described as "an embarrassing failure."
"The hard cold facts of history illustrate that the peace through strength policies initiated by President Reagan were a success," says Lord, now a journalist and author whose works have appeared in publications including The Wall Street Journal and National Review.
"His belief in the importance of human freedom, in directly opposing tyranny and protecting liberty, combined with the maintenance and, when needed, projection of a strong military, ended the Cold War and the 'evil empire' that was the Soviet Union.
"Reagan's strategy freed millions of East Europeans enslaved since the end of the Second World War, which in turn was brought on by the inexcusably wrong-headed, naive if well-intentioned policies of one Nobel Peace Prize winner after another."
Recipients of the Reagan Prize would be chosen by a panel of conservative Americans drawn from the worlds of politics, journalism, entrepreneurship and entertainment. And it would be presented in Berlin, a "symbol of Reagan's successes: the destruction of the Berlin Wall, the fall of the Soviet Union that built it, and the Cold War that made that Wall and all it stood for possible," Lord writes.
As for who might win the award, Lord suggests likely candidates would be "the three Iranian dissidents known only by their initials in current news reports, all identified as being sentenced to death for protesting Iran's rigged elections."
Lord concludes: "It's time to award real prestige to those who achieve real peace. It's time for the Reagan Prize."
Worst of all, they think that Ronald Reagan should have gotten one or is more deserving than President Obama…right! You are talking about one of the worst Presidents we ever had, for me, he is right up there fighting it out with the likes of Hoover, Nixon, Bush 43 and Buchanan. You could not ask for a more divisive and a bigger demagogue. Reagan left the country with over three trillion dollars in debt. He is the one who proposed to cut taxes on the rich, defeated the equal rights amendment, said that government was the problem and encouraged Evangelicals to take over the government to turn America into a theocracy, and I think the division we have today is directly linked to his actions and deeds, there is no doubt in my mind that he should be put into the hall of shame instead of receiving any awards.
Now I am going to tell you, perhaps again, why I don’t think this idea of no government intervention in the marketplace or in some other aspects of our society do not work. I may have to generalize some but one way or another Republicans will fall into one or several of these categories:
The super rich: This is one who is so divorced from reality that lives life in a very isolated bubble complete with all the trappings of luxuries and excesses. The one characteristic in common is that of extravagance.
The super patriot: These are those who think of themselves as so patriotic that the United States could do no wrong. These people think that it is the rightful place of the US to be the biggest and best in everything and everyone else around the world is either wrong or socialist.
The selfish introvert: These are the people who are “me, me, me” and have absolutely no concern for anyone else but themselves. If they have a job, if they have insurance, if they have accumulated some wealth it is because of their efforts but they don’t care about anybody’s situation as long as they are on top.
The racist, xenophobe, homophobe: They are pretty much alike in their motivation. It is based on a wrong concept of being superior somehow. If they are white it is because of the white race being better or smarter, if it is a fear of foreigners because Americans are superior in everything. If it is about sexual orientation; their religion or traditions tell them that homosexuality is an abomination and therefore it is cool to discriminate and persecute.
The religious fanatic: These are the ones that have been exploited the most by Republicans. They will pander to their need for validation of their faith by telling them that it is ok for the government to promote faith-based initiatives and that eventually they should have a Christian theocracy in America because this is a Christian nation and the Founding Father’s intentions was for this to be a Christian nation.
With many combinations and even some I have left out, there is very little chance that the ideology of the Republican Party will ever work. There would be little government and what there would be is solely for the purpose of providing lofty and exceptional privileges to the very rich and promoting corporate abuses.
We have seen how the economy has almost collapsed to the brink of total chaos because of the systematic elimination of regulations. We have seen our country engaged in unnecessary wars because our elected officials lied to us to get us into these wars, we have seen the decline in the quality of education because Republicans don’t believe in public education. We have seen a total disengaging in the diplomatic and international relations aspect because they don’t believe in the United Nations or in diplomatic efforts. They would much rather do a lot of saber rattling and invade countries that have done nothing to us. We are also seeing a very acrimonious fight for maintaining the status quo in Health Care so that the Insurance Companies can continue to earn obscene profits.
When it comes to safety nets, those of us who have fallen on hard times due to their own incompetence and not our own, the Republicans believe that is just “tough sh
it” that we got ourselves in this pickle. The answer of course is for charity to take care of us, but in view of the fact that they are not very philanthropic where else do we get help?No, I do believe the Republicans have no social conscience, no sense of shame, no morals when it comes to serving special interests and not those of the common good. I also think that they are for the most part misinformed and the facts that they cling on to are either fabricated or simply false.
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