No More Excuses!

News Flash!

Bush is no longer President!

Listen up, you Government Elitists. Do you really think the Independent voters of this country are still buying the "Blame Bush" mantra? If you think this tactic is going to continue to work, you are sadly mistaken. The Independent voters of this country put you, Mr. Obama, into office, because you told us that you were different. You told us that you were going to change the way politics is conducted in Washington. Well, I don't see any change; except for the labels on the Government Elitists wielding the power. Washington is just as corrupt as it was when you were elected; maybe even more so. Legislators are still making deals in order to pass legislation. So, what has changed? Our government representatives are too busy taking care of themselves; they are not acting on behalf of their constituents.

Instead of focusing on approaches that would generate jobs, this administration and the congress have been trying to pass some idealistic health care reform. Have you ever heard the anecdote "Can't see the forest for the trees"? Why aren't you (government elitists) doing things that will generate jobs? Or, why aren't you at least doing things that will not cost jobs? Perhaps, if you had focused on policies that would fix the economy, before you went on this idealist health care binge, more Americans might have jobs. And, for you (government elitists) to try to blame the Bush administration for the economy, when, you have had a year to address the issue, is ... despicable. Yes, despicable. You have been focusing on health care. You took your collective eyes off the ball. You are responsible for the economic mess we are in today. It's that simple.

Read the polls; the majority of Americans are convinced that
health care reform is not going to benefit them. And, they are
right. Every deal in this bill is hurting some American, somewhere. It is unethical, immoral, and, it should be criminal.

You Government Elitists believe that the American
people are not smart enough to know what will benefit them. So,
instead of focusing on jobs, you are blaming the Bush administration,
and working on idealistic health care reform. Well, if you wanted health care reform, why not listen to your constituents? Americans have been telling you what they need. But, instead of listening to the voices of Americans, you (government elitists) are listening to the lobbyists and the special interests. If you had listened to the American people, you would not have been forced to make a bunch of deals to get the legislation approved. And, you might have actually done something that would have benefited the American people.

We the people are not as dumb as you might think. We want Government representatives that will:

• Listen to their constituents
  
• Keep the real world interests of their constituents in mind during their decision processes
• Do their jobs, and, not just vote with their
  political party

We the people are sick of all the Government Elitist excuses, and, politics as usual.

Government Elitists

What is a Government Elitist?  Well, a Government Elitist is a member of our government, that thinks they are better than the people they were elected to represent. 

How do we know they are Elitist?  Let's take a look at some examples.

Does the average American get automatic pay raises?
Well, the members of Congress all get automatic raises.  In fact, they have to vote to stop a raise.  What's up with that?  Can anyone explain to me why that makes sense?  These Elitists have tried to distract the American people, by criticizing Wall Street.   What is ironic, is that these Elitists are the ones who are really taking advantage of the American people.  This needs to stop!  We need ethical government representation.  We need a law that ties compensation for members of Congress to the minimum wage.  They get a raise, when the average American gets a raise. 

Does the average American get a life-long pensions for just a couple of years work?
Well, the members of Congress all have specialized pension plans.  And, they get their pensions no matter what.  This, while they are voting in legislation to dilute and remove pension benefits for the men and women who have defended our country for decades.  Think about it: how much money could we save by not awarding all of these lavish benefits on our congressional representatives.?  Why can't these congressional representatives live with the pension benefits that all Americans are expected to live with?  We need to make sure our congressional representatives live with the laws (and consequences) they make.  I think that if all government workers (including members of congress) had to live with Social Security, then, they would make sure it worked well.  The problem is that Elitists like to make rules for the masses (us average Americans), and, then, they like to do what ever they want to do.  They believe they are ... special.  ;-)

Does the average American have a designer Health Care plan FOR LIFE?
Uh, no.  The average American is lucky if they have a health care plan through their employer.  Given the number of people we already have on the Medicare and Medicaid programs, it seems to me that we should be concentrating on improving the quality and efficiency of these programs.  Well, there is no better way to motivate Members of Congress to fix these programs, than to make them (the members of congress) to use these same programs.  

The bottom line is simple.  These people work for us.  So, how does it make since that they are able to determine their own compensation?  We need a constitutional amendment, that forces any changes to the compensation for elected members of government, to be put to a national referendum.  That is the one way to make sure there are no deals; it's the only way to ensure that we have ETHICAL behavior out of our elected officials.

Every average American has to live with the risk of losing their job.  It's time for these Government Elitists to be held accountable.  They should have to live with the same programs as the people that they are supposed to be representing.  It's time for average Americans to take back their country!

Vote the Government Elitists out of office!

My Congressional Representative

I just got a letter from my Congressman.

Imagine Snoopy dancing in front of his dog house as the Peanuts music is playing ...

I would like to point out (and discuss) a couple of things that were in this letter. Here we go.

"I pressed leadership in my party to slow down the rush to push a bill through Congress prior to the August recess, as I would prefer to get healthcare reform right rather than just get it done. "

Hmmm. Okay.

"I know that, at the end of the day, I work for you, and every two years you decide whether you would like to renew my employment contract. I do my best to work diligently and honestly to represent all 650,000 of my constituents, my employers, to the utmost best of my ability."

Okay, hold it right there. Mr. Congressman, you claim that you are representing all your constituents. Do you understand what this means? Let me help you. This does not mean that you make deals in order to get legislation done. It is not in the best interest of your constituents to spend tax money bribing other legislators to get a particular piece of legislation done. Consider this: if one representative gets some kind of incentive (BRIBE!) to vote a particular way, then all of the others are going to want some kind of incentive to vote a particular way. How is this in the best interest of your constituents? The best thing for your constituents is to govern in a way that will benefit them without having to spend hard earned tax money on earmarks (bribes)!

Let's be clear: it is not in the best interest of any constituent to have legislation passed by bribing some of the legislators.

Tell me something: why is it that we have to bribe legislators to vote for a particular piece of legislation? Isn't this the thing that most Americans wanted changed about Washington? Isn't this the real problem with government? Isn't this why most Americans think the government is corrupt? Well, why wouldn't they? Is there anyway to spin the deal making as something other than broken (if not corrupt) government? Doesn't the answer seem obvious? The change we really needed was not to change the names of the people in Washington that were making all of these deals. The change the American people really wanted was to stop making these kinds of deals.

And, to my Congressman, who I voted for in the last election: You are not representing me in the manner that I expected. I expected you to vote against any legislation, where some other legislator has made some kind of deal, that will end up with my taxes being higher because you voted with your party. I expect my representative to have the integrity to speak out against this form of government.

News Flash!

If you wanted to get healthcare reform right, you failed!

And, I am not even going to go into the amount of money "we the people" are paying for you to just vote with your party. If you truly are representing your constituents, you will not go along with the party and all the deals; you will do the right thing.

This is not change I can believe in ...

Heathcare Solutions

Tell me again why we are trying to reform health care?

Well, I do not want to sound like the talking heads (sorry guys). So, I am going to try something different. I am going to suggest what we should be doing to fix the health care system.

First, we need to make a list of the real needs for average Americans. I have already covered these in my other blogs, so, I will not repeat them here. Suffice to say, we can make a very simple checklist.

Next, we need to solve the cost issue. The secret here, is not really much of a secret. If the government really wants to reduce the cost of health care, they should be working to promote more competition in the market. I know they know how to do this; they've done it before. Remember the Information Technology bubble? This is where the government intervened in the free market by granting millions (yes millions) of visas for Information Technology workers. This resulted in the collapse of the Information Technology job market. But, it worked - it reduced the cost for Information Technology services. So, why not do something similar for the health care industry? Well, not that I would wish the kind of collapse that the Information Technology job market encountered. But, it would be nice to have more competition.

I believe that instead of spending money giving health care away, the government should find a way to increase the number of health care workers and the number of health care facilities. Why not make low interest government loans available for the following:
- Building new hospitals and other medical facilities
- Educational Loans for Health Care workers
- Research grants for medical research

Imagine what the health care market would look like if all this capital were put into the market? That said, these investments alone will not make the difference. But, if legislation were put in place to protect those individuals who are supposed to be serviced by the insurance companies (standard consumer protections), we might actually be able to do something good for the American People.

Go Figure ...

Heathcare Realities

Where to begin ...

Given where we are with the government health care takeover, I felt like I needed to share a real world experience; to provoke some thought.

Dedicated Service
An older man started to feel different early in 2009. So, he went to the doctor to find out what was going on. His doctor started to run tests. After a number of months, the man had a massive heart attack and died. He was on Medicare. And, after his death, his family started to investigate the medical treatment he was receiving; trying to understand how a seemingly healthy individual, who was going to the doctor regularly, could just up and die. This can be summed up by a text message from the man to his son, which reads "Have not heard anything on my tests. I am taking no news as good news." Two weeks later, he collapsed in his kitchen.

Here's the thing: this gentleman was a model citizen. He was active for more than 50 years in a number of service organizations. I dare say that this individual did more things for more people than the average Congressman or Senator; and, he did it for far less compensation. After all of this, his reward was the simple epitaph: "A Life of Dedicated Service". Actually, this is not completely true. He served as an International Director for the Lions. He was a very well respected Mason. This individual was extremely well known. And, he was very well liked. He was very much loved by his wife, children and grand children. But, he still had things that he wanted to do. He missed his grandson's wedding. He missed a long anticipated family trip to Hawaii. He did not have to die. He should not have died.

Imagine what would have happened if this gentleman's medical treatment had been more prompt. But, that is what you get with Medicare: you have to wait your turn. Essentially, there are so many people in the system, the care has to be rationed. And, sometimes people will die. These appear to be acceptable losses. Except, I don't think this gentleman's family considers this an acceptable loss. Would you? I thought the purpose of universal health care was to actually provide health care. What good is poor quality health care? Imagine what will happen when everyone is on this kind of system? Don't think that will happen? Read on ...

No Vacancy
A family is in Hawaii on vacation. No, they were not invited to have dinner with either Rush or Obama. I digress. One of the family members started to cough the day after arriving. After three days, the cough became more serious. So, being concerned about pneumonia, the family tired to make an appointment with a doctor. No such luck. All the doctors were "full" (not taking new patients).

Stop and think about this. In this case, the doctors have just decided that they are not going to treat anyone, that was not already a patient. Thus, forcing everyone else to go to the single emergency room, at the single hospital within miles. Can you imagine? Only a short time after losing his father, a man is now trying to get his wife's obvious respiratory illness treated. And, this man cannot find a doctor to treat his wife!

What now! In an already crowded health care system, doctors are choosing to limit the patients they will treat. Its a simple matter of supply and demand. If doctors are leaving the system, then there will be less doctors to treat more patients. And, as we have seen from the first real world experience, this kind of thing will have unhappy results.

Reality Check
While waiting in the emergency room, a man is lamenting the lack of medical treatment options for his wife. After pointing out the supply and demand issue regarding doctors, the man is accosted by a liberal family member; the liberal family member exclaiming "the system was broken, and we had to do something". Sound familiar?