Question for the tea party and everyone who voted for tea party Republicans in November: Did you enjoy your purely cosmetic vote to repeal the health care reform law? Personally, I would feel pandered to, and not particularly satisfied with all of that fiscally expensive congressional time being wasted on a vote that meant absolutely nothing. But that's me.
I mean, you and your peers are obsessively focused on budget deficits and the national debt. Perhaps all of that federal money, all of that federal time and all of those federal resources would have been more effectively spent on something that had a chance of actually happening. Instead, you mandated that your Republican members of the House spend countless dollars on a symbolic exercise in, well, hooey. Nonsense. The political equivalent of pissing into the wind.
Considering that many of us on the progressive side of the political divide supported the health care law in part because it actually reduces the deficit, and considering that many of us on the progressive side of the political divide supported the stimulus and, within it, the largest middle class tax cut in American history, I'm getting a strong idea as to who is more interested in fiscal discipline and who isn't.
With this meaningless vote, not only have the Republicans proved themselves to be entirely disinterested in reducing the deficit, but they've also reinforced their obsession with bumper sticker slogans, self-contradictions and utterly nonsensical political gestures.
Here are two more fantastic examples of how Republicans seriously dislike health care reform, socialized medicine and "government-run" healthcare -- that is, until they actually need it.
You may or may not recall a study conducted before the health care reform law was passed by the office of Rep. Anthony Weiner. At the time, 55 Republican members of Congress were enrolled in Medicare, including Senators McCain, McConnell, Kyl, Shelby, Lugar, Inhofe and Grassley. All of whom were opposed to the public option and health care reform.
On the House side, Rep. Weiner's list includes Peter King, Phil Gingrey, wingnut Virginia Foxx and the godfather of the tea party movement Ron Paul. Seriously, Ron Paul! All 55 members are accepting a form of the public option. Government-run health care. Socialized medicine. I wonder what Ayn Rand would say about Ron Paul accepting Medicare? A program that, more than anything else, will help to bump the national debt from 15 percent of GDP to 35 percent of GDP by 2082. And they claim to be worried about the debt? That's rich.
Where are the tea party budget hawks -- the tri-corned hat reenactors with their misspelled signs and racist voodoo portraits of the president -- screeching for Ron Paul to give up his share in American socialism?
Speaking of tri-corned hats, it's worth noting here that the founding fathers, with whom the tea party and the Republicans claim political kinship, actually passed a law in 1798 that included a health care mandate and a socialized medicine plan. According to Forbes reporter Richard Ungar, "Congress passed -- and President John Adams signed 'An Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen.' The law authorized the creation of a government operated marine hospital service and mandated that privately employed sailors be required to purchase health care insurance."
Why did the founding fathers hate America, with their government takeover of health care for seamen? The founding fathers clearly didn't understand what the founding fathers intended with the Constitution, what with that evil mandate. Perhaps the founders should have met with the founders to discuss the superior wisdom of Cleon Skousen and Ayn Rand. Maybe symbolically dangled some tea bags from their actual tri-cornered hats.
Fast forward back to 2011.
One reason former Vice President Dick Cheney is still alive is because of the ingenious left ventricular assist device (LVAD) heart pump -- a mechanical life-sustaining apparatus he described during this week's televised interview on NBC's Today show. The pump operates both internally using a motorized implant, and externally via a rechargeable battery power pack mounted to a Darth Vader style unit, electronically pumping sand through Cheney's heart. I made up the part about the sand.
Suffice to say, the tea party Republicans shouldn't approve of such technology because the LVAD device was developed by the National Institutes of Health using taxpayer money -- ostensibly redistributed from regular Americans and into Dick Cheney's chest cavity. Put another way: Dick Cheney is alive today because of wealth redistribution, socialized medicine and government-run health care.
Dr. Arthur Caplan, PhD, Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania informs us:
LVADs are the direct legacy of the program to build a total artificial heart that was instituted at NIH more than 50 years ago. While a total artificial heart proved difficult to create, partial artificial hearts were designed and actively used in government-financed research trials by the late 1990s.
Again, this technology helps keep Dick Cheney alive. And it's only made possible through government spending on health care. Now, I don't like Dick Cheney's politics and I hope that history remembers him as one of the supervillains of our time, but I'm grateful that he and other Americans are benefiting from an obviously wise usage of taxpayer money, even if I never see any return on my personal contribution towards such government endeavors (fingers crossed for good cardio health).
But the Republicans would rather end most attempts to build upon this invaluable pattern of American investment in the health of its citizens as both a moral and a fiscal imperative. I'm not sure why, exactly. Considering how much of the health care bill was initially based upon Republican ideas (the mandate, for example), they appear to be opposed to the law because the tea party says so. And the tea party says so because it's the opposite of what the Muslim in the White House wants.
The Republicans would rather symbolically tear down past advancements than to offer new ideas and improvements upon the current system. They do this out of some kind of twisted interpretation of American democracy, American economics and American history. They do this while many of them enjoy socialized medicine and a government-run health insurance program, and while their supporters brandish signs inexplicably demanding government to keep its hands away from their Medicare.
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If I may paraphrase a famous quote by Winston Churchill: Never before in the nation's history have so many been so fooled by so few.
1. If you are unfortunate enough to have your house/business broken into or otherwise have a crime committed against you, don't call the publicly funded local police to help.
2. If you are unfortunate enough to have your house on fire or flooded or otherwise impacted by some natural disaster, don't call the publicly funded fire brigade to help.
3. In a car accident or have a heart attack? Don't call any publicly funded ambulance service.
There are many more situations and publicly funded services. Based on what I have seen of many of the "Tea-Party" protesters, I trust all over 65 have refused their Medicare and SS Benefits and all under 65 who are out of work, their UI benefits.
Now that is leading by example and also practicing what you preach but I wonder how many really lead by example or practice what they preach! Their "leaders" most certainly don't - after all, the self appointed Queen of the Tea Party, Michelle Bachmann takes some $250,000 per annum of tax payer money in farm subsidies.
Where I come from, we call that hypocrisy, not leadership!!
I am still waiting for Boehner and Cantor to detail what they will put in place to replace anything they are determined to repeal. So far it is zilch - nada!!
I was being a bit tongue-in-cheek with the post. That being said, the medical plan I have for me and my employees pays 80% of whatever is allowed by the Insurance Company so it's not all bad.
A Fellow Scorpio Man!
Secondly,The British use the term" Brummagem -look it up_ for trash Again, I point out ,diffidently,even hesitantly.Fmr Gov Palin is considered the most prominent female in the so called tea party.if ,we accept the common estimate of her income (15 M ) and take 36 % tax rate , it is a little over 5.5 Million dollars last year.,putting the Tea Party up over 5 million in" gifts " to the federal govt. Sorry to bring logic to HP's pristine pages.But,it isn't really forbidden here.Just unusual.
PS.Why don't you suggest people get the choice to refuse paying taxes,and refuse tax supported services. It would probably cause a rush to gated communities ,and private schools.Two things which are accelerating as the gov't does so poorly
Nope! So you are wrong on that opening statement/thought.
"Secondly,TÂhe British use the term" Brummagem -look it up_ for trash."
Nope! I am originally from the UK and Brummagen (there are other variables) is an old English word that means Bromwich Ham and is, in fact, the basis for name for the 2nd largest city in England - Birmingham - and its' local dialect/accent.
One of the many Soccer (Football) teams from that region is West Bromwich Albion.
To use an American terminology, you went 3 and out with the Palin comment. I said that Michelle Bachmann is a SELF-APPOINTED Queen and I very much doubt that Palin paid 36% of her total income in taxes,
Your response is, unfortunately too typical in that it was personal and had no semblance of inviting a discussion.
Finally, I am a business-owner who pays taxes and, yes, as long as there is an Income Tax system in place, I know I will likely pay more than many and that is the case the world over. So, until someone comes up with a better system, I will just grin, bear it and hope my tax guy keeps pace with the ever increasing changes to the tax code.
As one of the original baby-boomers who has lived and worked here for more than 25-years, I doubt I will see much change.
So, the answer to your question about who gets rich, is the investor. An example of this is what many people use in their beds and see advertised on TV - Memory Foam. It was first developed by NASA at the Ames Research Center.
Apart from its use as Memory Foam for beds, it is used in Modern Aircraft, NASCAR, Amusement Park Rides and Sports Equipment - among others - to improve safety.
The house burned down completely and he lost his pets . . . but thankfully not his life.
Interpreting the Constitution is a bit like interpreting the Bible... and I think if either the founding fathers or God (respectively) showed up one day to tell us what they ACTUALLY intended, those who disagreed with them would STILL disagree.
The bible is quite different. A bunch of rigid rules designed to free the followers of real moral responsibility for their daily actions (as long as they followed the rules). Why would anyone care about mixing fibres in their cloth? Why can we not eat shrimp (we've got fridges)? It is a sobering thought that some species of locust are kosher, while others not.
Actually, those are the exact same facets that worry me about the "Christian Nation" mentality. Saves me a paragraph. :P
http://www.kvoa.com/news/hundreds-watch-as-giffords-leaves-for-houston/
After all, they are much better, much smarter, spend less, and aren't driving by Class Warfare right?
“Using unwanted procedures in terminal illness is a form of assault,” Dr. Donald Berwick (administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) has said. “In economic terms it is a waste.”
And we as a society and individuals need to grow up and accept the process of dying and allow dignified ways of doing so that don't involve frantically spending millions on ourselves in the hospital demanding extraordinary measures as we proceed to draw our final breath at 98 years old. If it's not Medicare getting that bill, it's your own family. And if there was no Medicare, if was just left to private insurance or nothing, there would be no mercy for those who couldn't pay those millions when they wanted a boatload of treatments in their last day on earth with terminal illness.