Riley™

Most everyone criticizes the healthcare proposals from Obama and Congress. Many believe the remedies are far worse than the ills they’re supposed to cure. So, Sidney and I have come up with a couple of thoughts about how to fix things. You know, some healthcare tires for folks to kick.

I’m going to write about the first part – the problems we could try solving and the approach we might use. Next week, Sidney will present some solutions.

The first thing to do is decide what we really want to accomplish in healthcare. Forget about the politicians and their syrupy, self-serving speeches. What’s important? Doing nothing? Doing something? How about this: solid, affordable healthcare that covers all Americans, including our pre-existing conditions.

Is this a good idea? If you’re right-brained like me, you’re in favor because it makes you feel good. And if you’re left-brained like Sidney, you want it, too, because it makes sense.

What’s so sensible about it? A healthy population goes a long way to keeping a country’s economy purring. Isn’t it better to have hale and hearty, productive citizens rather than a society of sick ones? And if preventative medicine is any good, healthcare for Americans will end up saving money in the long run. You know, an ounce of checkups is worth a ton of medical procedures.

The next thing we need is the right approach to meeting our goal. How do we get there? For starters, without the politicians. We’ve seen how they behave. Doling out pork to each other. Secret wheels and deals with industry leaders. Huge deficits that we’ll never pay off. Slow death by government. To be successful, we must separate self-interest from the solution process. That means no politicians.

There’s another reason to just say no to politicians. Congress is not qualified to develop a comprehensive healthcare plan.  Of the 535 voting members, over 450 have lived lives saturated in politics. They’ve been state legislators, governors and lieutenant governors, former congressional staffers, White House aides, cabinet secretaries and town mayors. A lot of political jobs. Not a lot of real-life experience.

Politicians don’t even try to fake the necessary expertise. How many bothered reading the thousands of pages in the House and Senate bills before voting along party lines? According to them, almost none.

If we have any doubt about how bad politicians are at creating healthcare systems just look at Medicare and Medicaid. According to the CBO, current federal spending for those two entitlements is the “biggest single threat” to budget stability. It will grow faster than the economy over the next 10 years. And politicians have zero inclination to do anything about it, except spend more.

But, eliminating the politicians is not the end. It’s the beginning. Who will develop a solution? A group with proper expertise and no financial stake in the outcome. A combination of medical scientists and business people with experience in the healthcare industry, but not beholden to it. Both are needed to develop a common sense, workable solution. And next week, we can read about one.

See you in the mirror.

Now that Obama has completed 12 months in office, it’s time for his annual review. Turns out, his job performance is like a song. Five of them, actually. The Obama hit parade of 2009.  So grab a boom box and let’s give a listen.

1.            Promises, Promises

Obama got elected because he wasn’t Bush and because he made several come-hither promises. Not being Bush was a no brainer since the real George is an old white guy living in Texas. So, score Obama an “A+” on that one. But what about those promises, like See-Through Government, A Better Buddy System, Death To Pork and Yes To Health? How did they play? Stay tuned.

2.            Dirty Little Secret

The See-Through Government thing turned out to be a total bust. Obama’s style is secrecy-as-usual. His private bribe sessions with leaders of industry and closed-door-democrat-only wheels and deals threw mud all over transparency. And when was the last time he held a press conference? July 22. Bye-bye commitment to monthly conferences. But, then, not having them is way better than letting the press lift the rhetorical rock you’re hiding under.

3.            My Way

How about that Better Buddy System? You know, renewed bipartisanship? Obama started out by crowning more Czars than three centuries of Romanoff rulers combined. Why? To consolidate unreviewable power in the White House. Then there was the $787 billion Bank Bailout.  Obama stood silent as Nancy Pelosi crowed, “We won the election. We wrote the bill.” Later, he slammed the door on Republicans in final healthcare negotiations. In fact, Obama didn’t orchestrate a single bipartisan piece last year. He didn’t even try.

4.            Been Caught Stealing

Deficit spending is spending what you haven’t got. It’s stealing from the future, from taxpayers who will do the time for today’s crime. And Obama is pulling a colossal caper. In just his first year, $1.675 trillion, or more than 15%, was added to the national debt. According to his Administration’s own estimates, he’ll run up almost as much debt in four years as the old Texan did in eight. Of course, he’s promising to take from the “rich” to break even. Trouble is, his heists are so huge that, within ten years, every American who earns a living will be one of the rich. Welcome to the land of opportunity.

5.            Roll Out The Barrel

Before the election, Obama pledged to review bills “line by line” to dump the pork.  He must have been kidding because he’s pushed so much pork on the Country that barrel makers are having difficulty keeping up. Just take the Bailout Bill and the 2010 Defense Appropriations Bill. They contain almost ten billion dollars, and over ten thousand pieces, of pork.

And how about Obama’s same-song-second-verse entitlements packages? Back in the day, welfare was a temporary measure to put folks back on their feet. But, it’s long since become a way of life, generating a fierce sense of entitlement and turning welfare into a public pork trough.  And just like the pork needed to pass bad bills, entitlements are the pork that keeps bad politicians in power – and eventually will send us to the poor house.

So, that’s Obama’s hit parade. A bunch of very sour notes. On the bright side, he couldn’t complete the discordant healthcare bill he wasted so much time orchestrating. But, he did leave the economy singing the blues. He has to be totally tone deaf. About his performance – score it in the key of “F Minor”.

See you in the mirror.

The House voted last week to immortalize the Death Tax by killing next year’s moratorium on the Grim Reaper’s boon to the Federal Government. So, estates in excess of $3.5 million will be taxed at a permanent 45% rate. Democrats, who passed the measure without Republican support, hailed their move. To them, it’s only fair for families to pay a debt to the nation that allowed them to create their wealth.

There are so many things wrong here, on so many different levels, that it’s hard to know where to begin. How about this? These families have already paid their debt in the form of income, and every other, tax the government levied for decades on their “wealth”. So, the Death Tax is a tax on what has already been taxed. You can dress that pig up anyway you want, but she’s still nothing more than a penalty for success.

Then there’s the fact that the Tax only hits an estimated 1% of all estates. So, the money it adds to the Federal coffers is miniscule, especially in these heady days of drunken deficit spending. The money means a lot more to the families than to the Government. Yet, like their loved ones, it is taken from them.

But, those aren’t the biggest problems. Not by far. There’s something very wrong about a Government profiting from the death of its citizens. Especially one that also wants to control end-of-life decisions under the guise of “managing” healthcare costs. It’s like they’ve spun themselves into a whole new breed of turkey vulture. One that can actually kill its prey. Wouldn’t it be better to skip that bit of evolution?

The other down and dirty problem is just as scary in its own way. Congress is grabbing economic control of the Country as fast as it can. To get it totally, they have to do two things: take your money and spend it the way they want. You can’t be left with the cash because money makes you independent while the absence of it makes you dependent. Also, they have to suck up every nickel and dime, like a giant vacuum cleaner, so they can feed the special interests that support them.

This taking and giving is key to control. It puts the Government in charge, of the economy, of your job, of the quality of your life, of you. That, coupled with one or two industry takeovers, like healthcare, makes you totally dependent on them. They say jump and you don’t even get to ask how high.

So, when the Democrats claim that the Death Tax only affects the “rich”, don’t you believe them. It’s part of a huge problem that affects everyone. The problem of the Government taking control of all of our lives right down to the bitter end.

What to do about it? We cannot sit idly by, thinking there’s nothing to be done or that someone else is doing it. We, you, have to take action. Get riled up. Contact your Congress people and give them a piece of your mind. Then vote them out of office if they ignore you. Or, we’ll all be dangling on the puppet strings of Federal control.

See you in the mirror.

Late last Saturday night, our House of Representatives passed, by three votes, the biggest power grab ever dared by our voracious Federal Government. Stunning in its breadth, the so-called healthcare bill, at a cost of $1.2 trillion, is loaded with taxes, regulations and pork. We can thank a simple majority, or in this case three representatives, for approving a measure that fundamentally changes the role of the Government.

What to do about it? Right now, there’s a lot of loud talk about turning these arrogant, power-hungry hounds out of office. And, a tsunami of rejection may be headed their way. After all, nothing beats the power of the ballot box for getting rid of the unwanted.

But, there is a problem with that remedy. It does nothing to prevent these bills from passing in the first place. The ballot box is an after-the-fact remedy. After the horse has left the barn. After the house has burned down. After the damage has been done. And, thanks to the power of pork, the ballot isn’t the remedy it once was.

So, is all lost? Are we prisoners of those who would remake our Country into their own image? Is there no before-the-fact preventative that can stop these wholesale changes in their tracks, before they get going?

Yes, there is a solution and it’s a simple one. Do not let bills that federalize entire business industries or that penalize inherently lawful behavior pass by a simple majority vote. Legislation that pervasive and invasive should not skate through using politics-as-usual tactics. Strong-arming and favor-swapping are way too easy when only a simple majority is needed.

Instead, passage of these bills should require a two-thirds majority of elected representatives. With a “supermajority”, we stand a chance of defending ourselves, of having bills win on the merits rather than through bald manipulation.

How can we tell when an industry is threatened with Government takeover? Well, for starters, when politicians brag about it, like they’re doing with healthcare. Then there’s the size of the bill and its price tag. Jamming us with a bill in excess of 1900 pages, weighing in at 20 lbs and costing over $1 trillion are all huge clues. If that weren’t enough, any bill containing the word “shall” 3,425 times is automatically, and very, suspect.

And what about penalizing inherently lawful behavior? The healthcare bill loses on that count, too. For the first time in our history, individuals just minding their own business are compelled to purchase insurance. Or face hefty fines. This is a giant step in the socialist direction from which we may never recover.

So, how about that two-thirds vote? Of course, it would take an act of Congress.

See you in the mirror.