Monday, August 24, 2009

Health Insurance: Privilege or Right?

Another of the arguments by proponents[1] for a Federally subsidized health care “option” is that health insurance is a right. This position forces me to question what exactly what is a “privilege” and what is a “right”.

Without pulling out Miriam Websters, a right is a universally accepted morality which all citizens of a particular society are in agreement of being entitled too.

A privilege is anything that can be afforded which is not a necessity and which is considered beyond the income of those who make the median income of those within a given country.

I don’t think anyone would argue that providing health care is a moral virtue on the order of a right, which any society should practice and provide. And it just so happens that in America we do, in fact, provide health care-free of charge if necessary-to any who need it. But the idea that insurance, of any kind, is a right, I have to question.

This time quoting Websters, the definition which applies is “a protective or compensatory measure”.

Traditionally, insurances-whether they be for a car, a life, a home or a body- have been considered luxuries. When “health” insurance was popularized by the unionization of American workers in the early 20th century it was seen as another great accomplishment of American society reflective of America’s overall wealth relative to the rest of the world, in that jobs were so plentiful, and paid so well, that workers and employers could “afford” health insurance. And even though most, if not all, American workers had health insurance throughout most of the 20th century. The fact that Americans, as individuals, could afford the luxury of health insurance for most of the 20th century became lost out of a laissez faire attitude towards our collective health being insured because it was “guaranteed” via full time employment.

And so now we have a political movement afoot to provide a governmentally subsidized health care plan, through which all Americans will have health insurance, and one of the arguments used by supporters of this idea is that health insurance is a right.

If all American’s were to agree that health insurance is a right, then there would need to be a universal concurrence of opinion as to what that right should entail: how much coverage do we all deserve and what quality of basic services are we entitled too. But more so, if we were to all agree that health insurance is a right, and no longer a privilege, then we would be compelled to also agree on what level of “health” we should all strive for.

Knowing that those who are obese and whom smoke cigarettes and who drink too much alcohol have more health expenses-particularly when they get older-would have to be addressed as a nation. The costs of these behaviors being so high as it relates to our health, there would be a need to regulate them to some degree, if for no other reason than to control costs.

A further concern is that in America our rights are guaranteed by law within our Constitution. Therefore, if we were to deem it necessary for health insurance to be considered a right, to guarantee that right an amendment to our Constitution would be required for its maintenance.

Under these criteria, how could we as a nation ever expect to classify health insurance as a right?

The fact of the matter is, health insurance has never been, and never should be, a right. Health insurance has always been a privilege-a privilege traditionally reserved for the wealthy who could afford to “insure” things against loss or damage, for those who could afford to take risks with things-including their health. Our health has never been guaranteed-not from day one and certainly not when measured against the lifestyle decisions most make through out the course of their lives. Based on these realities it is a wonder how so many people can believe that they have a right to health insurance.



[1] I have been told that I should stop referring to those who support the current health care reform option as “lefties” or liberals for a multitude of reasons. Needless to say, based on journalistic integrity alone (I am a professional writer after all) I should not be so biased or derogatory towards proponents of a federally subsidized health care plan.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

On death panels and "exchanges"

It was with much self restraint that I had to take a break from putting in words my thoughts on H.R. 3200-the bill on health care currently in Congress commonly known as Obama-care.

My lack of words on the subject, however, didn’t keep me from paying attention to what specifics of the bill were being discussed in the media and at various town hall meetings nationwide. Particularly, I took note of Mr. Obama’s appearance on the Michael Smerconish radio show this past Thursday. Obama’s appearance was in an effort to “woo right wing” thinkers to his health care plan. Unfortunately, despite his party affiliation, Smerconish is an Obama supporter and therefore failed to press our President about specifics of the bill and screened callers-in so that most of the hard questions were filtered out before they could be posed.

Regardless, there were 2 aspects about Obama-care which dominated the press this last week: the idea of “death panels” being a part of the bill, and that H.R. 3200 will make the Health Insurance marketplace more competitive through the creation of its “exchange”.

Personally, I find it funny that so many people think that there are “death panels” in this bill. No where in the bill does it define such a thing as a “death panel”. The supposition is drawn from language in the bill which provides for “end of life counseling”. Much of the language for this so called counseling is vague, and can be easily misunderstood to mean that the Fed wants to “guide you into the after life”. Although I wouldn’t put it past the Liberals and Democrats to have the intentions of having actual death panels so has to dictate how and when we can die, I don’t think that, today at least, they are brazen enough to try so-perhaps in the future, but not today at least.

The “Exchange Commission” created by H.R. 3200 is another matter entirely.

I listened all week long as Obama tried to tell people that this aspect of the bill will not effect whether or not we will be able to keep our current doctors, insurance providers, etc and that it will provide “competition in the marketplace”. Mr. Obama sounded really good saying all this and, for about 2 seconds he even had me believing what he had to say was true, until I remembered what that portion of the bill says.

Sections 141-144 of the bill deal with the creation of this so called Exchange and the duties of its Commissioner, but it is within section 142 to which Mr. Obama’s belief that this bill will provide “competition in the marketplace” becomes an out right lie.

Section 142: Duties Authorities of the Commissioner; Part (b) titled Promoting Accountability, subpart (2) Compliance Explanation and Audits (a) says that “in general the commissioner shall, in coordination with States, conduct audits of qualified health benefits plan compliance with Federal requirements. Such audits may include random compliance audits and targeted audits in response to complaints or other suspected non-compliance.”

This can all be taken a couple of ways, but the inclusion of the words “qualified health benefits plan compliance with Federal reguirements”, at the very least, implies that some health insurance plans may not qualify. If this is so, then how does said exchange provide for more competition in the marketplace if it is going to exclude some of that competition?

Needless to say, Mr. Obama’s definition of “providing for a more competitive marketplace” as it relates to our health insurance options falls on shaky ground, which leads me to ask-why? Why, if it is Mr. Obama’s desire to make the health insurance marketplace more competitive, would he support a commission which would effect regulations (i.e. impose restrictions) into said exchange? Logically this makes no sense owing to the fact that any such bodies which impose regulations on their membership become exclusive, thereby leading to easy collusion, or actually limiting the competition-which I believe is exactly what Mr. Obama is after.

As we all know, Mr. Obama is vastly quoted as saying that he would not support any health care reform if it didn’t eventually lead to a single payer system-which is exactly what this exchange is designed to do.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

You gotta be kidding me-Favre returns for another year?!

When I first heard it yesterday, I couldn’t really believe what I was seeing and hearing: Brett Favre returning to play for, of all teams, the Minnesota Vi-queens?!!!!

But, yup, it’s true, Brett Favre is back…

ESPN must have thought many people wouldn’t believe it because they even had footage of him getting off the plane in Minnesota and being met by representatives of the Vi-queens at the airport.

This is a bad move-for all involved. Not only does this continue to tarnish Favre’s legacy and make him look greedy as all sin (he is getting $12 mill this year with an option for another $13 mill next year if he should resign), but it also makes the Vi-queens look desperate beyond all measures. Further, what sort of sign does this give not just the other 2 QB’s on this team who thought they were competing for the starting job, but to the rest of the team who had been fed a daily dose of “Favre coming” to their team “wasn’t going to happen”, and it’s “all about integrity and honesty”? After all of this, Favre coming to the Vi-queens just completely shoots down any credibility the coaching staff had built up with that team-regardless of whether they go far in the playoffs or not.

Of course, that is why the Vi-queens did this-they believed they were just one person away from getting too, and winning, the Superbowl-which is laughable in my opinion. There is a reason why in Football they say “Any given Sunday”, and that isn’t going to change just because the Vi-queens went out and got an over the hill quarterback who needs to stay retired…

Brett, what are you doing? Why won’t you stay retired? You are ruining a legacy which you spent 16 years building in Green Bay, and all for what? One more shot at glory? One more big pay day? As if you need either of those. You already had a ring plus another trip to the big dance and, until all this, you had one of the best reputations in all of professional sports. I’m not even a “packer backer”, in fact I’m a Detroit fan, and as such I’m supposed to hate you on principle, but how could I not at the very least respect you for all you have accomplished and the way in which you accomplished all that you did? But now, now you are just another washed up, over the hill, greedy athlete to me, who refuses to hang up the cleats and move on in life. How sad…

Monday, August 17, 2009

The imminent death of Obamacare leaves some questions to be answered

Apparently the message has gotten through loud and clear to the Obama administration that we, the average people of America, don’t want the Federal Government butting it’s Pinocchio like nose into our health care via a federally subsidized health insurance “option”. In case you missed it, it was first announced yesterday by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, and then reported as breaking news on all the cable news stations, that the “public option” of H.R. 3200 (commonly called Obamacare) was “not essential to health care reform”. This announcement (and his words that “the public option is just a sliver of the proposed health care reform”) was cheered by those of us who vociferously spoke against H.R. 3200, means that Mr. Obama finally gets it that most American’s want no part of federally subsidized health care. And is saying this, H.R. 3200 is all but dead and maybe Mr. Obama will give up on trying to force his version of health care upon us-for now anyways.

But this backing off of what was obviously bad legislation leads me to ask why?

Why propose this bill at all if the so called public option wasn’t “necessary to the importance of passing health care reform”?

If it wasn’t necessary to passing health care reform then why was it so prominently displayed in H.R. 3200 that it comprised most of the bill’s 1000 plus pages?

And if it was so irrelevant why were the various aspects of this “public option” the ones put forth to Americans as the evidence of what the Obama administration viewed as “reform” of the health care industry?...

We most likely will never get any answers to these questions because A) no matter how much Obama claims he wants “transparency” during his presidency we know better than to expect 100% of it and B) because those journalists who cover the White House and the Obama administration for the large news organizations are too big of pussies to ask the hard questions and really confront our Congressional leaders when they try to pass such blatantly subversive legislation on the American people.

I digress...Obamacare isn’t completely dead yet, but it sure looks to be headed that way quickly. My hope is that many of us learned a lesson out of this which I have known for most of my life: that it is up to us, the public, to keep watch over what our elected officials are doing because if we hadn’t of done so in this case, and then spoke out by the 100’s of thousands against it, just think what could have been?

Tiger Woods: Human after all.

There is a part in all of us which loves perfection, and it is that part of us which I believe draws everyone-golf fans or not-to watch Tiger Woods.

Of course it’s not just Tiger’s talent on the golf course which draws us to him but also the quiet way in which he goes about his life and manages to stay out of the public eye without things such as drunken nights at a strip club or shooting himself in the leg with an illegally registered gun drawing unnecessary, and negative, publicity to himself.

That all said, those who watched this weekends PGA Championship saw history as it relates to Tiger Woods. For the first time, we saw that Tiger is human.

14 times prior, in the professional golf tournaments known as majors, we witnessed Woods carry a 54 hole lead on to a win after 72 holes. This constant level of perfection and the countless amazing shots we have seen him make at the highest levels of competition in his chosen profession is what enabled us all to view Tiger as a godlike figure on the golf course-perfect and indestructible when in the lead. This past Sunday was the 15th time that Tiger was in such a situation, leading a major golf tournament after 54 holes, and it was the first time in which he failed to deliver on what we have all come to expect when he was in the lead-a victory.

In the coming days there will be much talk about the man who beat Woods this weekend, 37 year old Y.E. Yang of South Korea, and particularly about how Tiger failed for the first time in his career to deliver when leading a golf tournament after 54 holes. Some will say that Tiger is losing his touch (and may even try to diminish his greatness) because, if you watched him play Sunday, he wasn’t beaten by Yang, he beat himself. But those who are more understanding and knowledgeable of Golf will recognize that all this loss by Tiger proves is A) Just how hard Golf is-even for the best player in the world, and B) That Tiger Woods, just like all us, is not perfect, which means that even he will have to fail sometimes.

Tiger Woods, after all, is human.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Vick to the...Eagles?!!!

When I first heard that Michael Vick was signed by the Philadelphia Eagles last night I did a double take: the Eagles?! Nahhhhh, couldn’t be!

Why would they take him? There is no need. They have McNabb and a their QB of the future already set up, so why on earth would they take Vick?

Well, here we are 24 hours later, and it’s true-the Eagles signed Mike Vick to a 2 year deal with the 2nd year being optional. McNabb supposedly spearheaded this idea, helping to convince this Coach-Andy Reid-that they could use Vick. For what exactly I don’t know. But apparently they can see some need for him, but what need could that be?

All the writers and “pundits” have already stated the obvious about how all it will take is for McNabb to have one or 2 bad games and then those stupid Philly fans will be screaming for Vick to start at QB and that there is the obvious circus that is going to surround him with PETA watching his every move and the humane society making sure he keeps his word as it relates to his new found love of animals and hatred towards those who are cruel to them (snicker, cough, cough)…

If I’ve said it 100 times I haven’t said it enough: I just don’t get this signing. It makes no sense for the Eagles-of all teams!-to sign him. They don’t have the need at any position which he could fill: not at Wide Out nor at Running Back, and certainly not at the QB spot, so why pick him up? Ok, ok, so Vick is a supreme athlete and you are getting him at a steal of a price (just $1.6 mill for the first year), but he hasn’t played ball for over 2 years now so who knows what sort of football shape his body or his mind is in. Not to mention his reinstatement is “conditional”. The earliest he could play in a game for Philly is their 3rd exhibition game.

Heck I don’t even think the guy deserves another shot. He is a convicted felon, and in my opinion felons do not deserve to have jobs which put them in the public spotlight-it sends the wrong sort of message to young people. Besides that, he hadn’t accomplished anything on the field anyways. Oh sure, he was a dynamic QB and could do things with a football that we had never seen before from that position, but all that talent got him was a year ticket in prison.

But I digress…Oh well, I guess this is just another one of those head scratching idiotic things which can only take place in the world of pro sports.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Rock Star Obama shows up at Town Hall meeting in New Hampshire

It amazes me how much politicians can lie.

I just wasted an hour of my day watching the Obama Town Hall meeting in New Hampshire and what I saw and heard was the "Rock Star" in Mr. Obama come out and spew nothing but a bunch of lies. I watched as the Rock Star said that everything people speaking out against H.R. 3200 are saying a bunch of “lies and myths”. Does Mr. Obama take us to be ignorant, illiterate fools? Does he actually think this is a “conservative vs. liberal” issue? Is Mr. Obama unable to see that many-if not most-of these people, showing up at these Town Hall meetings are independents who do not like the direction in which our country is going or the ridiculous amount of intrusion this bill provides for into our daily lives?

I don't know if Mr. Obama believes in these things, but the Rock Star I saw on TV this afternoon apparently does.

The lies that Mr. Obama spread about made me sick. One of the bigger ones was his saying that he didn’t believe that anyone but ourselves “should be able to choose their own health care options”, but that is not what his bill says. In his words, he calls the government plan another health care “option”, but that is not what it is. H.R. 3200 rewrites-from top to bottom-what sort of coverage we are allowed to have and if you don't believe me then read it for yourself.

Mr. Obama says that it is his intention to provide a healthcare “option” to people that we citizens can afford, but to still have the freedom to choose which option we want. He says that all his bill does is to provide a low cost option-but that is not how H.R. 3200 is written.

H.R. 3200-what we commonly call Obamacare-establishes a health insurance exchange through which the Federal Government determines what health insurance plans meet their criteria for membership. The plan blatantly leaves out what will happen to those insurances which do not “qualify” for the exchange but goes on to say that those businesses which continue to carry non-qualifying plans will be taxed an additional two to six percent depending upon gross payrolls.

Mr. Obama further said that Medicare recipients and seniors have nothing to fear from Obamacare, but that is not what the bill says. The bill makes it very plain that coverage for seniors is going to be limited and that for H.R. 25 to work Medicare, at least in part, will have to be absorbed into the new government “option”.

As if all of these lies weren’t enough, Mr. Obama continues to claim that his plan will not increase our federal budget or deficit, to which I ask how? How is it possible that the Federal Government is going to provide a “government option” to healthcare which, apparently, will be provided (i.e. paid for) by the Fed without it increasing our deficit?

Even worse was the tone Mr. Obama seemed to take throughout his Town Hall address towards those who have vociferously spoken out against “his” plan. He talked about these people as if they either had no clue what they were talking about or had no business speaking. To make matters worse, Mr. Obama spoke of these people with an attitude that bespoke of an “us vs. them” mentality-i.e. Liberals vs. Conservatives.


Mr. Obama, don't you not get it? Do you not get that those who believe in the Constitution; that those who believe in the principles of which our great nation were founded; that those who believe in small government; that those who believe in taking responsibility for themselves do not want this plan? Do you not see that these people far out number those who do want or like your health insurance “option”? Further, Mr. Obama, do you not see that all of these people are not just conservatives or republicans, but are independents and individuals such as myself?

I digress…

One thing I believe that we can all agree on, however, is that we do need health insurance reform in our country, but that doesn’t mean that we need a “government provided option”-which is obviously what the Liberals and the democratic party take it to mean, and, unfortunately with our “rock star” president what we could end up with isn’t reform, but more government intrusion into our daily lives than we want.

Arlen Specters Town Hall meeting in Lebanon, PA

It would be nice if I knew what was going to be worth watching and what wasn’t as it relates to what is on TV regarding political issues, this is why I rarely watch channels like Fox News, HLN or CNN early in the morning because, to be frank, not only are they boring, but they lack any real substance to their reporting at those times (true, they lack any real substance 99.9% of the time, but its particularly noticeable to me early in the day). So it was to my great surprise when I stumbled upon a town hall meeting on CNN (and Fox News) for Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania.

Let me just say that I learned a lot.

I learned that our elected officials are NOT as smart or INFORMED as many of those who elected them to office.

I learned that, at least in the case of Mr. Specter, there should be an age limit as to how old are elected officials should be.

I learned that there is quite a lot of anger in our nation right now as to how the Obama administration is running things in our country and that that anger seems to cross all political ideologies, socio-economic and age groups.

I also learned Mr. Specter is a first rate politician-answering questions without really answering them and deflecting things which he didn’t understand without letting anyone know that he didn’t understand them-which is why, I’m sure, that Mr. Specter has been in Congress for as long as he has.

During this particular Town Hall meeting, Specter allowed only 30 people to ask questions of him. Of those 30 the best wasn’t a question per se, but more of a statement. This gentleman asked Mr. Specter if it were possible to make it public who writes these bills because, in the case of the current health care proposal before the house, they do not seem to be very American. This same gentleman also asked Mr. Specter to propose that, if American citizens really wanted Federally subsidized health care, that it be put on the ballot in 2010. Needless to say, Mr. Specter was unable to properly respond to this man, he did however say that he would take the idea of putting health care on the ballot referendum for people to vote on en mass in 2010. Personally, I’m not keeping my fingers crossed.

What surprised me more than anything else, while watching this meeting, was how uninformed Mr. Specter was. It was obvious from the first question that Mr. Specter had absolutely no idea what the language is which makes up what we call Obamacare. It was amazing to me that, as question after question was fired at Mr. Specter regarding this legislation, he had no real response to them-at least not one based on fact or policy. As a result he was left with no other recourse but to agree with these people-that they were right and that he wasn’t going to support any bill which apparently said the things which this bill does.

In sum, watching the Town Hall meeting in Lebanon, PA this morning was quite the realization for me as to how poorly informed our Congressional leaders are.

There is a larger Town Hall meeting scheduled for later today in Maine, this one involves Mr. Obama himself, and he is expected to address many of the same issues which were brought up at Mr. Specter’s meeting-particularly those on the health care bill. If I can, and if it is televised, I will be watching and will have my say later…

Monday, August 10, 2009

Saying goodbye to the Obama platform of "change we can believe in"

I don’t always catch everything which goes on in the news, and fortunately I have a good group of friends who are always willing to pass things along to me which I may have missed.

Such was the case earlier today when I received an email from a friend of mine pertaining to a yahoo news story which was published online yesterday detailing a “back door” deal that Mr. Obama made with lobbyists of the Pharmaceutical industry. The story details how Obama worked a deal out with “Big Pharma’s” chief lobbyist, a Billy Tauzin, in which the Fed would forgo Medicare drug price bargaining and allowing the importation of cheaper pharmaceutical drugs from Canada in exchange for $80 billion in cost savings (apparently on pharmaceuticals for Medicare) and financial backing of the “pro reform campaign”.

This deal between Obama and Tauzin apparently took place late last week but since then House Democrats have gotten a little peeved at Mr. Obama and forced him to back off on the deal-somewhat.

Regardless of whether or not this “deal” actually happened, I would like to know about that change which Mr. Obama promised us when he ran for president. Wasn’t one of the positions under his platform of “change” that he wouldn’t be bullied by the lobbyists in Washington? That he wouldn’t allow them to influence any of his policy making decisions? That he wouldn’t “play old school political games” (or something similar)?

It has been obvious to me, at least, from the beginning of Mr. Obama’s presidency that his version of “change” was not one that I agreed with. I am definitely no conservative, but I am no liberal socialist either-which is exactly what Mr. Obama is and which is why I refuse to call him “President” on principle. Our President is supposed to represent the majority of the opinion in our country, and as time has gone on Obama has proven time and time again that he does not represent the majority in our country. In fact, the more time that passes the more and more people I encounter who voted for Mr. Obama but who now regret their decision as they continue to see how socialist Mr. Obama really is. At least as his socialist policies were concerned, we could legitimately say that Obama was all about “change”. But now we can say that he is a liar too, because his form of change was supposed to be about not playing partisan politics and not pandering to special interests and lobbyists, but here we have Obama working a major deal with one of the most powerful lobbyists in Washington to secure support for his healthcare package commonly known as Obamacare…

So much for “change we can believe in”, particularly since it’s now obvious that Obama doesn’t even believe in that garbage himself.

Words of caution as the healthcare debate ramps up

Unless you have been living under a rock the last week or so then you have seen and heard many of the same things I have regarding the debate over what is commonly referred to as Obamacare-the current government subsidized healthcare proposal currently before our Congress…

I must say that I am disappointed by the people who are blatantly attacking their elected officials for trying to force this bill on us. Emotions are running very high all over the nation over this bill, but yelling and screaming and losing our heads over it will do nothing but make those of us who stand against this bill out to be villainous. However, the most ridiculous aspect to all of these debates is the things being said from supporters of Obamacare.

Supporters are claiming that Obamacare will not restrict what sort of benefits we can have under this plan; that this plan does not limit the benefits of “special needs” patients; that this bill will not destroy our health care system as we know it.

They are also sticking to their claims that this bill is intended to level the playing field on health care so that all have it and that it is affordable to all, and that it will, in the long term, make the industry better for all of us.

To those who make these claims I have a question for you: have you read this bill? Do you have any clue as to what this bill says? You obviously haven’t and since that appears to be blatantly true then I strongly recommend that you do. At the very least look down a couple of posts on my blog to my post of a few days ago in which I actually attempted to debunk 10 accusations made against Obamacare only to find that, yes, they were TRUE!! Every last one of them, in at least a small way, could be true. In fact, most of them were 100% true and those who are claiming otherwise are full of shit up to their eye balls (that’s right I swore, get over it):

They’ve never read where the bill says that it will establish an “exchange” through which all-that’s right all­-health care plans must conform too or be punished in some way.

They have obviously never read where the bill says that coverage is limited to $10,000 a year per family and $5000 per individual a year (to start).

They have obviously not read on page 50 of the bill where it says that, under this bill, providers cannot discriminate in providing coverage for any reason.

They have obviously not seen where providers of Obamacare will not be able to reinvest in their own businesses-this includes hospitals.

These few things are just the tip of the ice berg of this bill.

Even more ridiculous is Mr. Obama himself coming out saying that the accusations made against this bill-specifically that it will leave out health care for “special needs” citizens and ration it for everyone else-were false.

Is he deluded or what? Obviously Obama hasn’t read this bill either-otherwise I’d have a hard time believing that he could so ignorantly say such things…

Experts, on both sides of this issue are now coming out and stating quite plainly that implementing this bill will effective destroy the health care industry in our country. One such expert claimed that Obama care could result in nearly 85 million people becoming uninsured due to soaring costs or their own plan not “qualifying” under the exchange established by Obamacare.

For those who are trying their hardest to get it through the thick skulls of those Congressional members of the Democratic party who are determined to push this bill through, I ask you to please use more patience and be calm when addressing them.

If you cannot carry a copy of the bill with you, then have your facts straight; know them point for point and make our elected leaders address them directly-either debunking them or trying to excuse them away.

What we need right now are cooler heads to prevail.

All this screaming and yelling and making idiots of ourselves will get us no where in the long run.

Friday, August 7, 2009

The economic "recovery"??

So, tell me: do you think the recession is over? Do you think that our economy is beginning its recovery process? Further, do you think the so called “economic stimulus” package, which Barack Obama so highly touted in the first 100 days of his presidency, has anything to do with the positive economic signs we have seen lately?

Personally, I think the answers to these questions are all incomplete-as of right now that is.

The reason for the optimism is a result of several positive pieces of economic news to come out this week. Firstly, the DJIA had its best July ever (as a proportionate percentage of growth), going from just over 8000 points to over 9000 to start off August. Next came some better than expected news from the housing sector and losses, and earnings for that matter, which beat Wallstreet expectations. All this combined with a jobs report today which showed that, for the first time in a while now, the national unemployment rate went down-from 9.5 to 9.4%.

That whopping .1% may not seem like a whole lot to you (or me), but it is a huge improvement considering how many jobs that we, as a nation, have been shedding over the last 2 years or so. But, the real question here is, have we finally turned the corner on the recession? Are we finally working our way out of the worst economic crisis that our nation has faced since the great depression?

I happen to follow the global economy pretty closely, and what I see so far is promising, but not that promising and I surely wouldn’t go as far as the news media have been the last 2 days with it in saying that the recession is all but over with.

I think the best news that we have gotten out of the last week is that most of the world’s largest stock indexes are up for the year. Further is that the industrial economies of India and China continue to grow at healthy rates. These things, I think, are much more important than what is happening domestically as it relates to turning our economy around because our economy is tied too deeply into the global economy today to think that we, alone, could pull ourselves out of this recession.

That brings us to my 2nd question: has the Obama stimulus package had any effect? To this I have to give a resounding no.

Barely 10% of the $100’s of billions which Obama promised have made it into our economy, and even that which did went into state public works projects which only provide temporary employment at best. In fact, many municipalities are wondering where the money is that Mr. Obama promised them. The most successful part of his stimulus package-the Cash for Clunkers program-is basically tapped out, and, for me, raises some serious concerns as to the future value of certain cars which we currently are driving. Beyond these 2 things, most of this money is sitting there, waiting to be spent-which is where I’d rather see it.

If all this money manages to make it out into our economy, then these positive signs we have seen lately will be nothing more than a brief lapse; a proverbial calm before the storm of what is to come within our domestic economy, because where is that money coming from? Literally, it is coming from no where. It is being printed based on nothing by the Fed. Therefore, releasing it all into our economy would do nothing but cause massive inflationary pressures that would in turn cause further company closures and job losses.

No, I for one am going to hold some reservations about this supposed “economic turnaround”. What we have seen this week are good things, and hopefully they will provide some temporary peace of mind and hope to many of those out there looking for work or worried about losing their jobs. However, until I see more realistic signs of the economy improving (brisk new home and durable goods sales, moderate but steady gains on Wallstreet and the other major indexes, and a steady lowering of the unemployment rate) then I’m only willing to so far as to say that this is a sign that perhaps the recession as bottomed out, but, nothing more.

Super Bill (Clinton) to the rescue!!!!

It happened so fast you could have blinked and missed it. Even more surprising is how fast it was quickly worked over and then silenced on, leading me, at least, to wonder: what exactly did he do?

What I am referring too is the release of Journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee this past Wednesday after being held for nearly 5 months in North Korea, on suspicion of illegally entering the country, by President Kim Jong Il. Their release came at the hands of former President Bill Clinton, whose presence was requested by leaders in North Koreas capital Pyongyang, to help end the political standoff with Washington over the release of the 2 reporters.

No matter how you view the situation-e.g. whether Ling and Lee were guilty of the crimes they were accused of-I find it very interesting that of all the people Jong Il wanted in North Korea to mediate with was Bill Clinton. Further, I found it amazing how fast Clinton succeeded in obtaining the release of the 2 reporters-it seems as if he had gotten their release the minute he landed in North Korea for negotiations.

So what did he give them in return? Well, we have no idea and since the story died nearly as soon as the women returned home, and Clinton is quoted as saying he cannot talk about what was discussed or what the terms of their release were, one still has to ask, not only what that price was, but was it too high?

Whether or not these women were unfairly held by the North Korean government is beside the point, particularly if the price of their release was something along the lines of the technology needed to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile-which would be too high a price in my opinion.

In all likelihood, Clinton offered something he couldn’t guarantee, which makes me even more nervous seeing as how North Korea is an official nuclear power now and is actively-and defiantly-seeking the technology mentioned above to create a long distance delivery system for the nuclear devices the international community believes them to have, which would make North Korea a threat to nearly every major country on the planet and a bigger worry given their suspected covert support of international terrorists groups like Al Qaeda. Therefore, if Clinton did in fact offer something he couldn’t deliver on, then all this will do is provoke the North Koreans even further, which, if I haven’t said it enough, is more than a little scary.

Are you ready for some Football?!!!

The NFL’s Hall of Fame game is this Sunday…That’s right baby, the NFL season is upon us!!!

For some reason it didn’t feel as long to me this year. Of course seeing as how my home team was the worst EVER last year, I have nothing to really look forward too, so there hasn’t been any anticipation on my part-which perhaps helped me get through the summer without any football. Regardless, it is upon us now so it’s time to take a look at what is going on, and boy do we have a lot of it.

We have a convict quarterback-Michael Vick-out on parole, reinstated (?!!) by the commish and looking for work. How Vick got re-instated I have no clue. The man is a felon, and in my opinion, felons do not deserve ANY job which permits them a stance in the public spot light. It sends the wrong message to our young people and tells all athletes that you can perpetuate heinous crimes and still, in the long run, “get away with it”. Call me conservative (which I’m not), but to me, that’s just wrong. Hopefully no teams will express a real interest in Vick and he will stay where he belongs: on his couch watching the games like the rest of us “normal guys”…

We have a soon to be convict, and former Superbowl superstar in Plaxico Burress, indefinitely suspended and facing what looks to be a minimum 3 and a half years in prison for shooting himself in the leg (hahahahahahahaha) with an unregistered gun. For some reason Burress, whom I hold no sympathy for after such stupid ass actions, is being head-hunted by the New York state attorney (where this crime took place). You would think that being a New York Giant, Burress would get a free pass for such stupidity but apparently the state has been looking to make an example of someone under their tough gun laws for a while now, and now they have the perfect victim. It’s just lucky for the Giants that Burress’s contract was up so they won’t suffer at the hands of his stupidity…

We had more drama around “TO” this off season, as we witnessed what we all expected-the bitter split between Owens and the Cowboys. Talk about a head case. Terrell Owens is another of those players who doesn’t deserve the stage he gets to perform on every year for 7 months. The man has an ego the size of Jupiter and thinks the NFL world revolves around him. I’m not sure if I should feel sorry for the Buffalo Bills-who signed him to a contract-or chastise them for picking up someone who is going to be an obvious cancer in the locker room. Whatever the Bills are paying Owens, he isn’t worth it. Owens’ skills have fallen dramatically in the last 2 seasons and it’s obvious he is not the playmaker he once was. He, just like that idiot “ocho cinco”, hasn’t been one of the elite receivers since he helped the Eagles get to the Superbowl 5 or 6 years ago. In sum, he needs to fade away and let others have some time in the spotlight, instead of hogging in all to himself through his selfish and stupid actions, and pathetic play.

Draft drama continues with the idiocy of Michael Crabtree-the standout receiver from Texas Tech whom the 49ers drafted 10th this year. Apparently Crabtree is good friends with Terrell Owens and Ocho Cinco, because one of his “advisors” told the media this week that he, Crabtree, is willing to sit out the entire year and re-enter the draft next year, if the 49ers do not come up with a suitable contract offer for him. Are you kidding me?!! This kid is barely out of diapers and hasn’t proved shit to ANYONE at the pro level and his dumb ass advisors have the audacity to make a statement like this?!!! If I were the 49ers I’d let the dumb fuck sit on principle alone and for being stupid enough to hire such a moronic “advisor”. Give me a break. The guy is a great athlete, but he obviously is either prone to making bad choices as it relates to the people he surrounds himself with, or has an unjustifiably, over inflated opinion of himself…

2 time Superbowl champion QB Ben Roethlisberger showed he is not the clean cut perfect man every Pittsburgh native believes him to be when he was accused this off season of sexual assault in Las Vegas. Due to the time past, Roethlisberger won’t be charged criminally, but the woman is going after his money. This is another case of pro athletes making really, realllllllly bad decisions. I don’t know if “Big Ben” assaulted this women or not (though I doubt it, seeing as how she waited for, like, ever to come out with it) but he obviously put himself into some sort of sticky situation at some point which, in turn, created the environment for these accusations to be made against him. So far, he hasn’t been suspended, but it will be interesting to see if this plays out the way the Kobi Bryant case did a few years back or if there is really something there with this one…

Of course what would the off season have been without any Brett Favre drama. Will he retire? Where will he go? Who is interested in him? Good grief! It was enough to make my stomach turn. Worse, in my opinion, these stupid off season antics of his the last 2 years have tarnished his otherwise excellent perception in the public eye. Fortunately, Favre made the right decision finally, and decided to stay retired despite some obvious interest on the part of the (desparate?) Minnesota Viqueens (teehee)…

We heard residents all over New England sigh with relief at the return of an obviously healthy Tom Brady to the practice field a few weeks ago. This is a nice change to most of the idiot news we seem to get out of pro football these days. Not to build the guy up any more than he already is, but there is a reason why Brady is upheld as the beacon of all that is good and right about pro sports-the man doesn’t fuck it all off like so many others do. He always holds himself up with respect and pride, which carries over into his play both on and off the field. So sorry for the media though because this makes him rather boring to cover, but tough I say; the paparazzi need to get a life and stop hounding people just because they can. Needless to say, the American sports world needs more Tom Brady’s and A LOT fewer Plaxico Burress’s and Michael Vick’s…

And, last, but not least, we have my Let-Downs-the worst team in the history of the league last year (sorry, but I don’t think that point can be expressed enough). The pathetic Lions cannot be any worse can they? Actually, truth be told, they could be. Last year, they managed to win all of their pre season games, so, literally speaking, they won 4 times last season before going 0-fer in the regular season. As everyone by now knows, I never saw the problems with the Lions as stemming from Matt Millen, but from their owner-Moron Ford, Sr. That said, the Lions have made some good moves this year. I am not a fan of their draft picks-how they could draft 2 offensive players in the first round when they fielded the 2nd worst defense in league history last year I’ll never figure out-but, apparently, those they did draft look pretty good in camp so far. The new coaching staff I like a lot, but, at the risk of sounding like the proverbial broken record, none of it really matters!!!! The Lions will always be the pathetic “let downs” because of their owner-who has no clue to run a business of any kind! Needless to say, I’m not keeping my hopes up that the Lions will pull off what the Dolphins did last year-going from worst to first in their division.

But, I digress…Whew…I know I barely scratched the surface, but obviously, as always in the NFL, there is a lot to talk about and a lot too follow as the season wear’s on-which is why it’s the greatest sport on Earth. So, are you ready for some football?

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Analyzing "Obama-care"

In my previous post I picked 10 accusations made against what has come to be known as Obama-care and compared them to the exact verbiage within the bill that they are drawn from. After doing so, I have also had a chance to better look over this bill and analyze it for myself.

In a word, I am scared-particularly after hearing on a national news program today that Mr. Obama intends to push this bill through with or without the support of the Republican party.

What scares me is that, on close analysis there is both covert and overt intent on the part of our current congressional and presidential leaders to control us and our lives from birth to death. Not only does this bill have the feel of personal control over our daily lives, but it also explicitly looks to direct involve the Federal Government into both our Health Care system by telling us how much and what kinds of care we can have under this bill, and by attempting to reset the standard of health care both by what small and medium sized businesses will offer to their employees and the level of services and care provided under the plans which will be available outside of “Government Healthcare”.

Worse still is that the Fed looks to punish those businesses who do not take on the Government plan by taxing them between 2-6% of their gross payroll’s and further punishing those healthcare providers who do not adjust their plans to comply with the standard set by the Government or which do not join a so called “Health Insurance Exchange”, the purpose of which is, at best, hard to understand.

Regardless of how you feel about our Federal Government becoming even further involved in our Healthcare systems, one of 2 things are going to happen to businesses if this bill makes it through Congress and becomes law: Firstly, if businesses choose to keep their own health insurance, thereby taking on up to an additional 6% tax on their gross payrolls, their prices are going to have to increase to cover that new expense.

For businesses who choose to take the Government option, they can be assured of losing their best employees due to what will be, without question, a far inferior health care plan for themselves and their family. This could also result in many people simply avoiding being employed by companies whose healthcare is that of the federally provided variety because it won’t be too long before it’s known that “Obama-care” is barely care at all.

As far as the bill itself goes, it has many terrible aspects to it.

Healthcare under this bill is limited to only $10,000 per year per family or $5000 per year for one person. Considering that a fracture to just about any limb of the body could max this coverage out in just one visit to the hospital, it’s more than obvious that this plan is horribly inefficient. Compounding the issue of coverage is that under this plan, those doctors and hospitals which are deemed as “eligible” providers are not allowed to invest in or expand upon the places which they work; doctor’s wages are also set to some degree under this plan. These 2 things combined will force young, would-be doctors, into other fields due to the financial incentives being stripped of the profession-e.g. who is going to want to spend 10 years of additional schooling and not be able to be properly reward themselves once they are finished, all the while acquiring $10’s of thousands in debt. This scenario will eliminate the best and brightest among us from ever pursuing a career as a doctor, thereby dumbing down the profession and, in the long wrong, making our health care the worse for it.

Even the auspices under which this bill came into being were false: that our health care system is failing, too expensive, and that nearly 40 million Americans cannot afford health care. As always, the truth wills out in these situations and once the numbers were broken down, the reality of it is that only 10-12 million Americans cannot “afford” health care, and of those who do have health care, a recent study found that 80% of them were happy with the quality of the care they receive.

As for the cost of our health care, there is little question that there is a problem there, but that is more due to the fact that it is law that hospitals provide care to anyone who walks into an emergency room-which they have health insurance or the money to pay or not-and the chronic suer-suee problem we have in this country forcing idiotic lawsuits on people whose insurers end up paying the costs for and then passing that expense down to their policy holders. It’s needless to say that there are better ways to confront the cost of health care in our country than to have the Fed get more involved in “the game”, so to speak.

Then of course there is the cost-which is pointless to bring up because everyone knows that, as a nation, we simply cannot afford the mass providing of Federally subsidized health care.

In sum, “Obama-care” is a horrible idea. Fortunately, most people are aware of the horrors which await us if this bill some how passes and American’s all over the country are speaking out against. The problem right now is that our so call President seems hell bent on passing this bill. Just today it was reported that he will get this bill passed with or without the approval of Republicans. Not only does this speak to a man drunk with power, but also to one on the verge of dictatorial leanings, and if this turns out to be the case with Mr. Obama, then this health care bill is only the beginning of our problems.