Tuesday, March 23, 2010

A Foreign Idea... Personal Responsibility

It appears to me that the agenda is to end the need to feel personal responsibility. Why plan for a rainy day? For life to throw us a curve? To gather our meat, nuts and berries for winter? Just look at all the agendas being passed by this Congress and by past Congresses of the Woodrow Wilson, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Jimmy Carter and now the Obama eras. All these programs went far beyond giving folks the ability and assistance to plan for retirements, to save for retirements, to build assets to live on or use if and when life dealt an unfair hand or a major illness disrupted life. They took over our lives. They provided for us, not gave us opportunity to provide for ourselves. And now we have the take over of the insurance industry. And yes, to a great extent, the insurance has only themselves to blame. I for one begged, pleaded, held meetings and argued my case to at least one insurance company to little result when it came to achieving affordable premiums. But I had shopped and paid those premiums "just in case" the day came we would need them. And we did. My wife contracted and died from cancer. Over her two year fight, our insurance company paid out about $400,000 in claims to the providers. I paid $13,000 in deductibles. I knew those deductibles could be that high. And I knew that was risk, yes risk, I could afford. With today's signing, no one below a certain income level has to even have insurance until after an incident or catastrophic diagnosis and an insurance company must carry you. But at what cost? No one has said. What if those premiums are $1200 per month? Can anyone afford that? Not many and those who can are either self insuring with high deductibles and no doubt already own insurance! So, will you get fined and taxed for refusing to get insurance that you sought but now also have the extra burden of bearing the costs of your medical care? Soon we will begin to get those answers.

And please answer me this - today at the signing of the Health care bill, he called it Health Insurance Reform. Democrat leaders started using this term within the last month. Until then, they denied this was the intent of the bill but that it was "comprehensive health care reform". ????! I am working to try and gather the text, quotes, video, audio of such claims and will share them when I get them together.

If this had been touted as health insurance reform, then the bill is even more deceiving with all that it affects. Even so, we could have done much more to rein in the insurance industry that has acted about as responsible as the financial industry of the last few years. We could open up opportunity for everyone, at any income level, to setup and contribute to pre-tax dollar Health Savings Accounts whose use was at the discretion of the owner of the account, free to audited by the tax folks to prove or insure use only for medical needs, and these accounts could be passed generation to generation tax free. This would be incentive for families to provide for the children's future healthcare, and if health was good throughout and healthy lifestyles maintained, their children's children could also be taken care of. Eventually this would lead to real competition for your insurance dollar from companies in business to supply you catastrophic insurance. Low risk is cheaper than a policy that pays for you to do anything you wish without cost. I know, too logical.

Perhaps allowing insurance companies, at their expense or to be counted against your deductible, to require you to obtain an annual or bi-annual physical and age appropriate preventive medicine and tests. My colonoscopy was not covered in my deductible from American Republic Insurance, even though having the insurance gave me a bit of a discount from the doctors and hospitals "listed" price on the procedure. But the $1600 out of pocket did not count toward my annual $5000 deductible. Therefore, other than myself and my doctor's dedication to preventive medicine, there is no financial incentive for me to do so.

Where is the cost controls and oversight of the outrageous charges and billing errors of healthcare providers? The stock market isn't seeing any as the health industry stocks are all up since passing of the bill. Hmm, makes one wonder what they've read in this bill and they must believe profits are going to go up. Translated: medical costs are going up!

The belief the nanny state is the agenda of Democrats and the left is evident in the immediate implementation that children can stay on their parents policies till age 26. This is simply just offensive. A proper answer to the concern of students obtaining health insurance should have been insurance companies developing and offering products with 20, 30, 50 year or lifetime contracts. Thus, the younger and presumably healthier you are, the more likely you are to pay for many years with fewer claims, seek preventive medicine to maintain your low rate and thus slow or delay the higher claims to a later age. It should be possible to have level payments over many years with the use of proper actuarial data and adaption of healthy lifestyles.

But, now our healthcare is the same ponzi scheme that Social Security is now. As well as Medicare and Medicaid is now. We are paying for our parents and current retirees on these programs. There is no trust fund to fund us in these programs. Congress should be held accountable to repay all borrowed funds from the Social Security and Medicare funds. Doing so, they would likely find that our Social Security and Medicare taxes could be cut due to all the surplus funds that would have been in these programs.

But of course they are insolvent. That is every elected official's fault at the Federal Government level who has served in the last 50 years or more. You know what to do. Do it. Vote. Just not for whose in office now. Throw out the good ones as well as the bad ones. Give to campaigns in other districts, other states to defeat those most responsible for our current state of affairs.

See, now you have something to work for, look forward to and make getting up in the morning worth it!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

The USA's turning left this morning....

Listening to the Sunday morning talk shows there is so much deception being touted and promised it should put us all in need of seeking healthcare.

On the larger picture, this week, the hispanic coalitions are marching on Washington to promote immigration reform, which, according to the head of the congressional hispanic caucus, has declared that Harry Reid, Senate Majority Leader, has promised that such reform legislation will be taken up in April and passed by May. This reform includes, mainly, no deportation of anyone here illegally. Immigration processes need reformed. No doubt. It takes too long for those legitimately applying to get approved. Folks here illegally know they have broken our laws and need dealt with in the form of being sent back and required to reenter legally. Amnesty and voting rights and entitlement benefits are not the answer for folks who have cheated to get here. Don't believe me? They marched this morning, March 21, 2010. Harry Reid and the Democrats won't stop till they have completely changed this country.

That is one turn to the left.

Union Card Check legislation is going to be taken up right after healthcare debate is put away. No more democratic procedure for employees to choose whether or not to unionize. They must sign, thus giving their identity, their intentions to be pro union or not. What's next? We each sign and address with phone numbers our ballots in the polling booth under threat of fine and imprisonment? Don't laugh. That is not that far fetched. Look at the Census. There are fines and jail term regulations for not answering all the questions on the Census form sent to you. Never mind the Constitution simply says the Congress shall conduct a count of the population every ten years, the caveat being as the law stipulates. Its the people you cannot trust, not the laws.

A further turn to the left. Knowing everything about everyone all the time.

Cap and trade legislation to destroy and takeover the energy industries and force each of us to use and pay exorbitantly for our energy use and limit or to outright ban any attempts by an individual to generate their own, self sustaining energy. It will also determine your "carbon impact" and thus tax you as long as you live for every breath you take.

Another left turn. But yet, the turns are not far enough to bring us completely around. Only just farther left.

Another major turn to the left takes place today with the vote of the Healthcare legislation. Congresswoman Wasserman-Schultz actually admitted, perhaps by slip of the tongue, on this morning's Fox Sunday Morning with Chris Wallace, when she said "healtcare Insurance reform needs and will be passed". And there you have it. There is no legislation to reform the cost and delivery of healthcare. It is simply yet another takeover and destruction of private insurance.

Another major step toward socialist reform of our democratic republic.

While all of us have ourselves or family benefitting from current Social Security and Medicare entitlements, these entitlements are going bankrupt. They are unsustainable and they are likely the chief reason how this country and its citizens are being seduced to believe and be apathetic to the leftist drumbeat that the government can and should be the provider and caretaker of its citizens.

The New Deal was the initial left turn dealt to this country. The Progressive movement cemented its place in society with that legislation. The Progressive movement is an oxymoron if I ever heard one. And I am also quite angry with the titles used by the left hiding their agendas while appearing to have Pro-American ideals. Be very wary of any group till you've checked them out. Be informed!

As healthcare legislation is passed, the line up of further left agendas is in a neat little list with a timeline to happen before the 2010 elections and drive the USA so far left and into socialism that unwinding it will be very difficult and be met with great resistance by our citizenry to "not change my benefits, but yes to reform other's benefits to bring solvency to the programs". This is impossible to achieve and will take real political courage to put through repeals and reforms that benefit our society as a whole, and not just the left or special interests.

Don't believe this? Read and listen. No real secrets being kept that the legislation is scheduled. The only secrets are the actual bills that confront these issues. The majority leadership is purposely invoking and using rules to keep legislation near secret as long as it can through the process. Even from its own members. Remember Nancy Pelosi's quote? "We must pass this bill so everyone knows what's in it." Perhaps she misstated. Perhaps not.

Capitalism is under attack and is today being mortally wounded. A very real effort to discourage entrepreneurship and personal achievement is the agenda of the left in this country and they have taken over the Democratic Party. Personal self sustainability is being deemed an extreme, right wing, bunker mentality, wacko idea. To be free to try and fail but to have equal ability to try and succeed is quickly being taxed and regulated out of the realm of possibility. The wealthy in this country will simply move to less hostile environs, thus leaving those of us not wealthy enough to fight the government nor able to pay the taxes to support the programs necessary to completely take care of all our citizens. We will then be able to say we are indentured servants of the Federal Government.

Now the Congressional Black Caucus is claiming Tea Partiers are being racist and violent. A few are misbehaving and are truly not a part of the Tea Party movement. We will extricate these idiots from the movement. But not surprisingly, I also expect to find they are plants by Acorn, Union organizations and the professional protesting left trying to stir up trouble in the usual fashion that the Left has since the 30s and again in the 60s. Destructive protests and riots has been their modus operandi. Acorn is going bankrupt according to a New York state report today. The left is beginning to panic. Their ideology is not the ideology of most citizens. And they know it. But at the end of the day, the loudest voices usually rule the day. Don't let it. VOTE! Attend a rally or protest. Work for a candidate who has the background and moral strength to fight against this leftist movement, no matter the party they sign on to. Look for and vote for folks that feel the way you do. And if they disappoint, vote them out the next election. That is, for the most part, the most we can do to make our voices heard. Civil disobedience is a tool we might choose to use. Folks will sacrifice. Rioting is not the answer. Bloodshed will not solve the problem. Getting active, being informed, being vigilant will cure our ills and bring us back to the freedoms this country was founded upon. And unashamedly, we were founded on Judeo-Christian beliefs with compassion that all may freely exercise the practice of their personal religions or atheism if they so choose. Not to ban religion or give favor to one religion.

Remember these points as we draw closer to the 2010 elections. Remember these points as you watch the looming legislative agenda come to light over the next few months. It is happening. One person can stop it if they courageously stand against those who wish to diminish our freedoms. You will not be alone. You will stand as one among millions. But you must choose to step out and be unique and fight for your freedoms.