A Political Interlude

Time Out for a political moment. Usually avoid these, which is strange as I was a Poly Sci major, but was listening to the news and hear where the GOP thinks the health care bill is too big and expensive and says they should start all over. Yea, sure, right. Where have they been for the past year? Maybe if they had seriously worked on getting a proper bill written from the beginning instead of spreading misinformation, trying to scare people and just generally being obstructionist something decent might be ready to go instead of this abomination that is out there. Actually I don’t think the Republicans seriously want to start over anyway. They are just anticipating on making big gains in the off year elections and figure if they can delay they will be able to kill any bill next year.

FYI for all you people who might read this who have bought into the scare tactics. Not being able to choose your own doctor? Most can’t do that anyway. Hell, that went out the window as soon as HMOs became widespread so what’s the difference between the government or an insurance company restricting your choices? Socialism and government run medicine? Does that mean you are willing to give up your Medicare benefits or VA care for those eligible for those in the name of capitalism? Get healthcare at work? What happens if/when you become unemployed? Or maybe if your employer decides he can’t afford the cost any more? How many of you know that not only does your employer have to pay the insurance premium but he also pays a broker to deal with the insurance companies for him and that his commission his based on the amount paid to the insurance companies? Not a lot of incentive to keep the insurance costs down now is there? Sure the big companies have the wherewithal to keep an eye on their broker and to switch if they feel he isn’t doing his job properly but how about the smaller ones? The ones who don’t know if that 10% increase they are being told is necessary is a hard or soft increase, one that can be negotiated down. Many small companies rely on their broker and in many cases their broker might be a friend or just someone they have grown comfortable with and they aren’t really ready to go shopping around for a new broker. Considering that small companies are the most likely to pass increases on through to their workers and, as we are constantly being told, small companies are the ones that employ the majority of workers in this country where is this going to leave a lot of people in the near future if something isn’t done about the current situation?

That’s all I’m going to say about the situation for the moment except for this reminder since there seems to be a lot of short memories out there. The current administration is under fire for not solving a lot of problems especially the economic situation. It’s like everyone expected Obama to take the Oath, bend over, pull a magic wand out of his ass and make everything better. The previous admin had 8 years to screw the situation up with all the dismantling of the regulations that kept companies from doing the things they did to cause this situation. This admin has been in office slightly over a year. They may not have turned things around just yet, don’t even know if the will, but they have stopped the hemorrhaging. Are we so ready to tear off the bandages and give power back to the group that caused this situation in the first place? I’m not enamored of this admin as of right now but I’m at least willing to give it some time. Problem is we’ve become a country of instant gratification and if something doesn’t work in 5 minutes were ready to jump to something else.

That’s all I have to say about the situation for now. Thanks for the listen