Summer's trudging along. We have several days of heat and sun, broken up occasionally by rain, which we had some of yesterday, I think. At this point in the season, my sleep gets all messed up no matter I do. I usually just lay down whenever I feel like it and sleep as long as I can, then get up, then lay down. I have to really force myself to do the laying down part enough, in order to get enough sleep. I do this to be able to have some waking hours in daylight. Sometime next week, if I do what I usually do, I will just finally give into my biorhythm to sleep during the day and be awake at night. The heat in the hottest part of the year makes me sleepy, and it is just cooler enough at night to make me prefer to be awake then. I usually live that way until October when it finally begins to cool down a few degrees where you feel it.
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Now, onto politics, which is also a slowly turning world. But, recently, the turn has been away from Obama and the Dem Congressional leadership. Were I to feign anything but relief and a little pleasure, you know I'd be lying.
I hadn't posted much lately because I'd frankly been so upset at what Washington DC's been concocting that I finally just gave it to God. My thinking was, if I am wrong in my beliefs about all this, it will appear to me in time. And vice versa if I am right. Sometimes you just have to sit back and let things develop.
Part of why I was so upset was how Obama and the Dems were trying to smear people (like me) who had attended Tea Parties. And again when people began attending Town Halls around the country. I cannot begin to describe how upset this made me, because you see, I know without a doubt these people are REAL. The anger is REAL.
So, the last week or so has been quite a nice change for me to see as finally, the other side has to admit that there is grassroots opposition. And, I think it's opposition to more than just the Health Care bills being considered in Congress -- 600+pages in the Senate and 1000+ in the House.
I'm actually open to health care reform, but not what this Congress is proposing. And I think most of those who oppose it feel the same way. It's like, why not reform the current system, why completely replace it? People are beginning to realize that tort reform is not even being discussed or negotiated, and tort reform is a huge part of increased costs. Also, we need to re-teach American business to be regulated again, and there has been zero attempt to try that first. With proper laws and enforcement, the insurance companies can be made to treat us fairly and can be made to create pools that insure those who've been previously uninsurable as well as those who are currently uninsured. Those two things would be well worth trying first.
Why am I against the current proposals?
* I am against the universal computerized records. For one thing, it's been discovered that in the legislation is a provision that lets the government see into your bank account! Hello, why the hell is that there? And for another thing, every single example Obama cites for why this is needed leaves me unconvinced. Like, this is needed to be able to send your test results taken with one doctor to another doctor or specialist that you may need to go to next, in order to eradicate duplicates. Well, call me crazy, but what the heck is wrong with ME doing that, with ME owning my own damn records? Hello, again.
* Also buried in the legislation is a requirement that ERISA companies (those companies big enough to be required to be covered by the ERISA fairness rules, in other words, any large national or international company) must phase out their insurance covereage of employees, thereby forcing these employees to join the government option. Oh, yeah, that really supports Obama's assertion that if ya like the insurance you've got, you can keep it. My husband's employer is one of the world's largest and so this will affect us.
* During the campaign, Obama told us that if we wanted to know what he believes, to look at who advises him. Well, at least 3 of his health care advisors believe in a theory called Complete Lives. This is the basis for the Death Panel fears, because under Complete Lives, each person needing health care is scored by how valuable their remaining life is. One teenager is worth 14 senior citizens. And a teen is more valuable than a one-year-old because society has not invested schooling dollars on the baby but has on the teen. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to think how this could be applied to who gets what care and how much under socialized medicine. And even if it isn't done that way at first, what happens when we get in a financial bind worse than now and have to make hard decisions about money, and by that time everyone is in the single-payer government plan? I do not think it is silly or alarmist at all to worry about these things. In fact, I think it is naiive and foolish not to.
*There's no lead-in time to beef up the current inventory of doctors in this country, and that is a recipe for disaster if we were to implement an overhaul instead of reform. Just talk to any senior citizen on Medicare. They will tell you how hard it is to find a doctor who will treat them because Medicare pays less than private insurance (and because of the doctor shortage).
*I'm also generally opposed to a system replacement because we are the quality standard in the world as far as medical procedures. People in other countries with socialized care come to us if they can afford and pay to have their lives saved. My concern is, if we change, where do we go if we are in need of a faster option or another option if we can afford it?
* I do not believe the current proposal will save one cent. In fact, the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) confirmed this, basically stating that the costs under the current proposals will skyrocket. Okay, why change anything then and just continue to pay the inflation from year to year? Here's the reason they are insisting on this overhaul: to insure those 10 to 40 million (still no creditable evidence as to exactly how many). I'm not in favor of it. Sorry. Figure out some other way to insure these folks that is more direct. It can be done. Hell, I could come with something if I had to, I guarantee.
* I think if Congress thinks their legislation is good for the people, then they need to require that it applies to them, too. No loopholes. We all should demand this. They are not royalty. They are "the people", too.
* There is nothing in either house's bills that allow insurance companies to compete across state lines. To me, that is another tell-tale sign that Obama is not sincere in his assertion that we can keep our present insurance. When I watch the tape of an interview he did a while back where he explains that a move to single-payer would have to be done without eliminating private insurers...at first, right away, but would have to be done gradually, I believe him even less.
Anyway, put this all together and it sours the stomach. It makes a cumulative effect that reflects negatively on Obama, and we are seeing it in his falling approval ratings. People didn't like the bailouts, the stimuluses, and all of the dramas about CEO planes and bonuses, forgotten campaign promises about transparency that would have given citizens more power to be informed, and the fact that Obama is in constant campaign mode and has not switched to a governing mode. He still cannot communicate in specifics, only generalities. At some point, a mature grown-up statesman transitions, and I believe that many people are beginning to see these faults in him.
And then, as one woman at a Town Hall put it, "I'm sick of being lied to and lied about." I couldn't have put it any better.
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