February 5, 2010 Just yesterday, February 4, 2010, both houses of Congress passed a bill designed to once again raise the ceiling on our national debt. This was hurriedly done just hours prior to the swearing in of the newly elected Senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown (R). I wonder why that was? Could it be that the bill would not have passed the Senate with a ‘possible’ 41st NO vote on the minority side? Couldn’t be, could it? (More)
January 21, 2010 Many have called for a ‘new bill or rights’ to be placed on the American people. You know who they are and what ideology they represent. They are the liberal and politically correct in our Congress and elsewhere. I suggest the original Bill of Rights in the Constitution is quite sufficient if they are truly adhered to for ALL the nation’s citizens. That also means our members of Congress, the Executive Branch, and the Judiciary. (More)
January 4, 2010 The words noted in the title of this blog are from the chorus of a country/folk song written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster in the late 1960’s. The song was titled “Me and Bobbie McGee”. The words just prior to those above were ‘freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose’. This was written at the end of our country’s ‘psychedelic decade’ when our young adults, and their parents alike, were trying to determine, once again, who we should be as a people. Drugs were rampant among the young and they became farther and farther removed from the traditional views of their parents. They were trying desperately to ‘find themselves’ and their place in society in what they determined was a new age. Out with the old and in with the new, so to speak. (More)
December 17, 2009 Most of us have heard the adage that “we sometimes get so deep in the forest we can no longer see the forest for the trees”. I believe this is where all the common citizens of the world are at present. We simply don’t know enough about the science behind global warming/climate change to stand off at a distance and see the entire forest. (More)
December 10, 2009 I think the answer to that question is quite obvious for almost half of our population today. And, it’s been building for quite a number of years. I believe the main reason for this can be found in several areas we have allowed to develop in our individual characters. One is our ability to lie to ourselves, and over a period of time, actually believe it. For those in this mindset it becomes a matter of victimization. “The whole world is out to get me and I’ve done nothing wrong”, or, “If those evil rich were just made to share their wealth with me and others our circumstances would be much better”. From this mindset most begin a process of seeking help for their self-inflicted situations without any thought of perhaps having to use the sweat of their own bodies or the resources of their own minds to break themselves free. There is only one place available to go and that’s both their federal and state governments. They are the living epitome of what Jefferson lamented when he warned us “A government big enough to give you anything you want is also powerful enough to take everything you have”. Jefferson was a staunch critic of a ‘necessary’ federal governance being permitted or urged, by the owners, to grow beyond its actual obligations to the people. But most of all, over time, he feared the people would, when under stress, unwittingly cede their personal lives to government control. That’s precisely why there are only five obligations and responsibilities of the federal government in the Constitution, all others being ceded as responsibilities of the individual states. (More)
November 10, 2009 As we all know, our House of Representatives passed their version of what they think is the real ‘fix’ to America’s rising healthcare costs. Upon announcing the bill’s passage, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, stated … “the bill will reduce drug costs for seniors, prevent insurance companies from charging women more than men for the same coverage, and allow young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance until their 27th birthdays”. She went on to emphatically ‘promise’… “the bill will add not one dime to the deficit”! The bill provides for low- and middle-income families to receive government subsidies to purchase insurance. These subsidies are to be paid for through tax increases on individuals making more than $500,000 per year, as well as new fees on medical providers. (More)
November 2, 2009 If you read my last blog titled “How and Why Tort Reform Specifically Affects You”, you could not possibly have gotten as confused as a couple of the responders got in their criticisms. One accused my writing as an urging for abolishing citizens’ rights to a civil jury trial as established in the seventh amendment of the Constitution. Another thought it was horrible that I seemed to be for “preemption” against law suits in two Congressional laws that I used as examples. Both couldn’t have been farther off subject or further from the truth. I am ‘for’ the rights established for all citizens as stated in the seventh amendment and wish them to be carried out with the intent with which our founders had written them. Secondly, ‘preemption’ of any citizen to address grievances through jury trial should never be a part of any Congressional law and is totally unconstitutional. Perhaps you should take time to read my last blog, if you haven’t already, and you’ll see what I reported. (More)
October 30, 2009 (Revised 10/31/09) First off, far too many of us seem to believe that this subject is a problem of lawyers coupled with ‘greedy’ overcharges by medical professionals and facilities. Others tend to believe that insurance companies are a main cause of rising insurance rates for healthcare insurance premiums. All these assumptions, for the most part, are far from the truth. Of course, just as in any capitalistic business, you have a bunch of scoundrels who will ignore moral and ethical principles for personal gains. They will throw their personal integrity right out of mind. So, let’s get the lawyer part out of the way. (More)
October 21, 2009 Ironically, the major item that needs to be addressed, honestly and once-and-for-all, is the extent to which both federal and state governments have ‘interfered’ with the free market system to operate at its best. Government programs and mandates are the biggest obstacles in permitting insurance companies, healthcare providers, and medical facilities to operate effectively under the very economic system that brought this nation to its prominence, world stature, and ‘envied’ affluence we enjoy today. I’m not saying there is no role for government, but not in the restrictive programs, mandates, and policies they insist on at present. For example, thousands of doctors are simply refusing to serve Medicare and Medicaid patients in their practices due to monetary losses in their businesses they can no longer suffer. They simply aren’t paid enough to manage those patients and remain in private practice without eventually having to possibly declare bankruptcy. Additionally, federal and state governments now control what insurance companies can charge for their policies then tell them what they must cover. That’s mostly the role of state insurance commissions and their departments for rate approval, ect. What is it we expect free enterprise insurance companies to do in order to stay in business? Right. They design their policies around the government programs and mandates, review all their actuarial studies, and determine what they can reasonable afford to cover under the rates currently established without jeopardizing the stock holders or the very survival of their companies as profitable enterprises in general. (More)
