Republican Legislators Have Set Deadline Imposed Upon Them In Order To Save Themselves From Suffering The Consequences Of Darwin’s Theory Of Natural Selection…
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again — healthcare reform is needed now more than ever before and the best place to start will be to MANDATE every publicly-held corporation who enjoys government benefits (in other words, ALL of them) stop playing the “Oh, you only work part-time for us” game and provide decent health insurance policies to everybody who punches one of their time clocks.
Oh, I know, such legislation would only raise the price of groceries and “The consumer will pay the price in the end — let capitalism WORK!“, screams the G.O.P. G.G.P. (“Gun-Grabbing Party“) Well, guess what? The consumer already foots the bill for these slimy corporations in the form of GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE, a.k.a., “corporate welfare”. What am I talking about here?
In case you’re a new reader, or simply a “passer-by”, allow me to break it down in college dropout terms since that is exactly what I, myself happen to be, so take it for what it’s worth. On the other hand, the draft-dodging Rush Limbaugh shares my own education level, so I’m not quite sure how relevant that is in the end. Now, back to the “corporate welfare” thing…
I don’t know about you but I’m sick and tired of financing the welfare of the lower-skilled, lower-paid, part-time employees and their families due to the fact they work for a “Wal-Mart” who is allowed to get away with playing the “We’re sorry, you don’t work enough hours to qualify for health benefits and oops — we don’t have the hours available for you to qualify” game. Guess who picks up the tab for these folks’ food stamps? Yep — you and I. Guess who picks up the tab for these folks’ welfare checks? Correct-a-moon-doe — you and I. Guess who has to pay higher health insurance premiums because these folks have to take their children with runny noses to the emergency rooms because of the lack of common decency on the behalf of their far-right, oligarchical, “100 G.O.P. politicians in my back pocket” PUBLICLY-HELD corporations? I think you already know the answer and if you don’t, I can’t help you.
So what’s this October 15th “bipartisan -slash- nonpartisan” solution deadline for healthcare (The New Republic) all about? Or, more accurately, the mandate from the Obama White House and the likes of Harry Reid to help stomp out the “Corporate Welfare Handout Appoved!” rubber stamp the Wally-Worlds and so many other corporate welfare recipients have become somehow “entitled” to over the last couple of administrations?
Look — I’d rather pay less in taxes and have more purchasing power for the higher priced strawberries and feel better about myself in the end for cutting the “free ride” for these publicly-held corporations who do absolutely NOTHING for We, The People other than place a huge tax burden upon us while offering nothing in return other than lower priced, cheap and deadly Chinese crappola. Even if it balances out monetarily for each of us individually, I’ll be a much happier camper just knowing my tax dollars are NOT going toward the eradication of privately-owned, mom and pop businesses to help finance this oligarchy (i.e., “A Government, Of The Corporations, By The Corporations And FOR The Corporations”) system of gub’mint we’ve all inherited due to our own apathy.
Oh, and I almost forgot about the “Darwin” thing — my bad. Allow me to direct you to my February, 2007 column on the topic — a quick slice of my opinion versus these oligarchs from the G.O.P.:
They’re all comfy with themselves; they’ve got their money in the bank, they know their family doctors by name; all is good; to the rest — let them eat cake. Meanwhile, FORTY SEVEN MILLION Americans are running around, catching disease, spreading disease around, and the most severe conditions are mostly being caught in the ER’s of our country.
Sooner or later though, the suicidal right is going to learn the hard way, while taking many of us innocent bystanders along with them, that both “God-duh” and Darwin meant them, TOO, when he was talking about the “fittest versus the weakest”. The truthfulness of this fact will become more glarlingly apparent when they themselves begin to fall victim to a deadly disease with no cure due to lack of prevention and an evolved version of it winding its way into their OWN homes one day in the not-so-far off future. SNUFF!!!
Let us take Hurricane Katrina as another OBVIOUS example to anybody with half a brain, which leaves out most neocons, of course, including those at the so-called “highest” levels of our society. They’ve turned their backs on the CRISIS in New Orleans (and it IS a MAJOR crisis STILL, folks — I see it every day), they’re attempting to walk away with the “booty” while stiffing the Citizens who are literally, PRAYING for God (versus “God-duh”) to help our greedy capitalist “leaders” to see the errors of their ways and force both the insurance companies and FEMA to stop playing the Peoples’ money in the money market and put it QUICKLY into the pockets of those who it belongs to. This represents yet ANOTHER suicidal death pact entered into by the greedy, wealthy right who truly believe Darwin’s going to be grinding to a halt once the “criminals” of New Orleans have died off and shut their traps. Again — BZZT!!
The way it REALLY works is, New Orleans is a FEMA trailer city… STILL. People are stacked on top of each other; ten, or fifteen to a three bedroom house. The air is often foul, and poisons are running into the soil and into our water table. Meanwhile, the greedy and wealthy right wing neoconservatives who have implemented the horrid, anti-Katrina policies believe they have this problem effectively “contained”, and it is safely tucked into a five hundred square mile area, far, far away from their homes and families. Here we go again — BZZTT!!!
For their love of money, they will pay, and pay DEARLY. Meanwhile, the so-called “weak”; the “victims” of this greed; are learning to survive the best they can with the crap they’ve been dealt. They’re growing more and more immune to the poisoned air and water; that same poisoned air and water that WILL make its way someday to Washington D.C., Washington State, and many points in between, and through the hallowed doors of the wealthy, greedy bastards who refused to take care of the “weakest” amongst us when they COULD have. — (Just a “snip“)
BeGONE with thee, corporate welfare — I’m tired of having to hold my nose as I’m being financially bled for your “prosperity” and bottom line. While I distinctly remember something about the promition of “the general welfare” being addressed by our Founding Fathers in the Constitution, I’m having a few problems with recalling any mention of “the corporate welfare”. Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
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Noteworthy Reads: Donlkephant; Hot Air (Right); The Mahablog
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9:03 am on April 25th, 2009 1
My friend came up with a plan. Lets pay everyone over 55 who works a job 1 million dollars to retire. 25 million of them. That woud free up 25 million jobs.
Problem solved. Just print up the 4 trillion bucks we need for this plan and were good to go. Just think of the stimulus that would provide.
6:53 pm on April 25th, 2009 2
This one is the Big One. It needs to be forced through, whiney assed republicans be damned. Healthcare reform has been debated since FDR’s 100 days, so 70-odd years later, it’s been debated to death, and it’s time to do the deed.
Huzzah!
11:40 am on April 26th, 2009 3
when it comes to the working poor, social programs are definitely just back-door coprorate welfare. heck Wally actually hands out public assistance apps to their new hires!
but making employers responsible for their employees’ health, aside from not being any of the employer’s affair beyond the responsibility to provide a reasonably safe workplace, could also place undue stress on small businesses and actually bolster the monopolies of the Wallys of the world. remember that some of the most onerous nuisance regulations posed by mega-corps themselves to eliminate their less-liquid competition and keep new upstarts to a minimum. which often exempt the offenders themselves, just as Dodd specifically coded AIG bonus protection into the “stimulus” bill.. think AIG wants other companies unable to pay bonuses but them be able to? you betcha. heck, they prolly *started* the whole “bonus outrage” – they were VERY public with that bonus announcement – knowing they were safe with their legislative easter-egg courtesy Mr Dodd (oh how sweet it will be to see Schiff oust him!).
so if we absolutely MUST view one another’s life energy and the money it produces as being ours to pillage when we’re down on our luck, i think a single-payer system might carry less moral hazard and also have less impact on the market. although single-payer will wreck the healthcare market and if we simply mandated employers pay it then they could negotiate with various insurance companies for rates and quality, preserving competition.
so: single payer better for the commercial markets because it’s easier for small businesses to start, but will take the profit motive out of medicine, which sounds very “moral” but could have unintended consequences. employer-paid keeps taxes down but could hurt small business.
i dread nationalised healthcare though, for the simple reason it’s gonna be used as an exuse to further collectivise our personal habits on the grounds that “since the way we’ve organised society suggests we all own a piece of each other equal to 1 over the total amount of people in the country, we therefore own only that same fragment of ourselves, and so the state, as our caretaker and collective owner, has the right to take charge of our health regimens and legally proscribe “unhealthy”
behaviours it feels might lead to an ‘undue burden on the system’”. it would give Drug Prohibition another false justification – this one economic, the one area we reformers have the tyrants on the run – but if the government pays our healthcare that means it has a “compelling interest” in our health and could forbid anything it deemed “detrimental”. and they’d actually – for the first time – have a leg to stand on. prostitution? sorry might lead to disease, the Health Czar says no dice.
Japan and Germany are already revving up the Fat police, smoking police, all of it, and the argument is elementary: if your neighbors (the government) are responsible for your health, then they have a corresponding amount of authority over it. and a little more freedom dies.
if it was just the money for the programs i wouldn’t sweat it so much. as a libertarian, forced transfers of wealth (in either direction, corporate welfare being far more odious than the comparatively modest cost of “safety net” programs) offend my sensibilities, but as such offenses go they’re not even on the same radar with things like the drug war and other civil liberties outrages, and the way the corporatists have intentionally rigged our society to be “interdependent” to make self-reliance (or even national sovereignty)
almost impossible (with it’s cherished forced-schooling system the secret weapon everyone hates to love), there could be said to be a justice aspect to it, or an accrued debt of some sort to the country they destroyed then remade in their own image, however appeals to “the milk of human kindness” have no place in law, methinks. but again there are other ways to view the issue which make a similar point without sicking Sally Struthers on us, ya know?
there’s a new book called Unjust Deserts that attempts to make the “social debt” argument without appealing to emotion,
and is definitely giving me food for thought. first i’ve had in years on that subject. kinda Proudhon-esque, nicely done, nicely-presented.
but then i think about those fines or other sanctions imposed on me at my compulsory 6-month doctor visit when i tip the scales, and get looked at as “unpatriotic” because my excess weight “has been statistically shown to increase health costs for your fellow citizens”.. and walk outta there with a diet restriction and a $100 ticket!
dunno, maybe the employer-forcing isn’t a bad idea afterall, hehe..
there is another nice thing about single-payer (or even multiple, subsidised payers) is that the insurance is portable and continues between jobs.
12:49 pm on April 27th, 2009 4
Very interesting comment Susan. Seems as if the Wal-Mart haters like GTL will gladly accept the Nanny State if he gets to see Wal-Mart punished. Fair trade GTL? Je parle francais, en peu.
I’ve heard the Swiss system for healthcare may be worth looking at (consumer driven), but I haven’t had the time. Maybe some other GTL followers, who aren’t busy “wallowing in GTL’s stupidity” heh heh heh have looked into it?
Steve
1:08 am on April 28th, 2009 5
and almost as if on cue to illustrate my point about Big Business being the main proponents of onerous regulations, here’s some disgusting info on the next round of tobacco regulations, which include a ban of cloves, my favourite kind which i enjoy occasionally but must now give up because “they are more appealing to children”:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/business/06smoke.html?fta=y
“Altria (P Morris parent) supports the F.D.A. regulation because “from a pure business standpoint, it will bring predictability to regulation over the tobacco industry,” said Mr. Sylvia, the company’s spokesman”
but here’s the REAL payload:
“But all the other major cigarette makers oppose the legislation, saying the marketing restrictions would help Philip Morris lock in its 50 percent share of the domestic market. The law would not allow the introduction of any new tobacco products unless they were ruled ‘appropriate for the protection of public health’.”
the following snip illustrates my fear of nationalised healthcare being used as a bludgeon for yet more unconstitutional “vice” laws – ones already being used by Drug Warriors, many who claim to be “conservative” but are as Red as the day is long with their cries of “lost productivity” and “social costs”:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/opinion/26sun3.html
“As the Senate prepares for a bruising battle on health care reform, there would be no more fitting prelude than to authorize F.D.A. regulation of tobacco products that kill 400,000 Americans each year and [b]impose huge costs on the health care system, corporations and the national economy[b]“.
to play Devil’s Advocate on this – and sorry i don’t have cites handy – i have seen at least one spreadsheet which shows that the slightly higher medical costs of smokers is more than offset by the fact that they *die* earlier, not only saving the healthcare system money in the long term, but also lessening the burden on entitlements like social security compared to their healtheir counterparts.
and finally, the “protect black people from their poor impulse control by removing the stumbling block of Menthol from their moral development” portion of our show, brought to you by – of all people – the Leaders of the Black Community:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/fashion/03smoke.html?fta=y
we couldn’t get their affordable handguns, but we’ll darn well get their Menthols and put what’s left out of their price range – THAT should do wonders for their domestic tranquility, eh?
finally: note that this article is from the FASHION section of the NYT, which pretty much says it all: we outlaw things we view as “unfashionable”.. cigarettes are so “yesterday”, and banning them is so “socially responsible” (social responsibility’s very “in” now, don’tcha know)..
this anti-cig “movement” is every bit a fashion movement as Prohibition back when “temperance” was in vogue, and just as Neo-Prohibition is today: “ewwwwww blacks and mexicans smoke pot, and that’s just not the National Identity we wanna convey to our children” (ie: “sending messages”). because if it was really limiting kids’ access to drugs we were after we’d re-legalise them. but no, we’re more concerned with “how it would look”.
yep, and corporate fatcats make cigs, and it’s not COOL when THEY make a drug that’s both dangerous and fun, cuz they’re oligarchs, but if a college kid cooks up some cool new poison, well that’s just people power.. let me fix that for you my-drug-is-better-than-your-drug types: ANYTHING that provides people with a wider variety of hedonistic pleasures and defends (not “gives”) their right to indulge them is people power, and anything that inhibits that is illegitimate law by the definition of our founders. legitimate law in a free country is that which prevents one person or group from imposing its will on another. the criteria is just that simple, and was made to be so. the Bill of Rights isn’t rocket science, and doesn’t care what percentage of Blacks smoke Menthols.
you know, i think if this passes imma start smoking just to spite them – just as i unbuckle to commemorate the yearly “click it or ticket” campaign even though i choose to wear seatbelts the rest of the year – or perhaps create a fund in my will to subsidise cig sales in poor neighborhoods to offset the cost of the new excise tax to poor smokers.
yes, and distribute complimentary vials of Menthol Oil to leave in baskets on the counters of grocery stores in black neighborhoods, not from Big Tobacco (that would prolly be “illegal promotion”) but from the “susan 28 Memorial Pursuit of Happiness Fund” (look for the menthol vials to be defined as “Menthol Cigarettes” by the ATF to close this “Cig Show Loophole”).
we’re also gonna need to line up some private funding for a shuttle service between Compton and the “Fast Food Zone” (ie: white areas) of LA since Los Angeles has apparently decided Burger King is also on the list of primal desires that minorities just can’t control, along with Menthol Cigarettes and Assault Weapons.
4:13 am on April 28th, 2009 6
“Susan28″-This country was founded on sleeze. Nothin new.
9:28 am on April 28th, 2009 7
actually it seems to have been founded upon an almost pathological *paranoia* about same. the Puritans left England because the state religion wasn’t STRICT enough for their austere sensibilities and they wanted to be “free” to be as anal as they wanted, especially as pertained to their neighbor’s affairs, to wit, one of their greatest complaints was the King restricting what sort of laws they could pass to codify their religious taboos.
that’s why imma born-again federalist: that way historically puritan/anal cultures and more libertine ones could retreat to their separate corners and be as oppressive or liberty-loving as they liked, the South could stone queers and burn abortionists and the West could have polygamy, gay marriage – heck, even female dj’s – and we come together as a Republic for one thing and one thing only: the common defense of our borders, as the Founders intended.
and why? it’s because they, in their great wisdom and HUMILITY, socially conservative as many of them may have been, realised even then we were too diverse a nation to be governed by a single social code, and devised a confederate Republic that combined the strength of unity with the vibrancy of diversity, with a thriving economy and – in the immortal words of Cyrus Riff – “nobody wastin’ nobody”.
Paraphrasing of Cyrus at the drafting of the Declaration:
“Look, we have the PURITANS next to the QUAKERS, the BAPTISTS next to the DEISTS, and Nobody Wastin Nobody..” (applause).. “ask yourself this, my Sistren and Brethren in Liberty: how many troops does King George have on our soil? and how many of us are there?.. individually we’re weak, and we do their work for them, fighting amongst ourselves over our little piece of turf as they pick us off one by one.. so here’s what we do: we ORGANISE, securing one colony at a time, until we’ve driven those Tory bastards into the sea” (applause).. AND IT IS OUR RIGHT TO DO SO BECAUSE IT’S ALLLLLLLLL OUR TURF!!” (wild applause).. “WE THRIVE INDIVIDUALLY BY STANDING TOGETHER AGAINST OUR COMMON FOE, and together we will TAKE THIS COUNTRY BACK!” (applause, only this time that pesky Tom Paine, whom nobody wanted around cuz he was an Atheist, was lurking below the bleachers and was able to prevent Cyrus’s murder by a Tory loyalist and the revolution went on as planned).
and now, like the original colonists who scrambled to pass protectionist tarriffs to monopolise markets (the impetus for the ill-conceived Commerce Clause that has been used to undermine so many of our Liberties) but only served to make themselves more manageable by a tyrannical ruler who played them against each other; now we too have allowed ourselves to be divided and conquered, too obsessed with one another’s lifestyles to be politically effective, and tyranny once again darkens our land.
so: conceived in sleaze? not in the conventional sense, but if you consider self-righteousness and hyper-authoritarianism in service of same to be a vice, then i’d say we need to follow our founders’ example and check ourselves before we wreck ourselves..
1:07 pm on April 28th, 2009 8
This country was founded in Sleeze. It used every “other culture” under the sun to help build it via killing and slavery via RELIGION and IGNORANCE and LAZINESS.
2:32 pm on April 28th, 2009 9
TIMP: Ah, you mean what we’re *really* about as opposed to what we *claim* to be about.. well that’s a horse of a different mama.. is it any wonder we’ve come to what we have, rooted in soil like that?
2:42 pm on April 28th, 2009 10
Karma is B*tch and it might take a LONG time for chickens to come home and roost; as in centuries. Spiritual cleansing. Batteries not included.