Tag Archives: ObamaCare

Feb 1 2014

Gut Punch

 

 

Everyone has been there.  We all should empathize.  It’s that feeling when you’ve been betrayed, you are cornered with no recourse and there is no possible way to win.  At one time or another, we have all felt that way.

That’s why I am uncomfortable with the name-calling that has issued from the conservative side of the political divide as all the dire predictions concerning this President have come to fruition.  Frustration at those who voted for this experiment in socialized medicine has boiled over and, as the price tag hits the American main street, it’s easy to shout, “You voted for it, now how do you like it?!!!” or “You get what you deserve!!”  I have been as guilty as others of making snide, perhaps tasteless, but certainly sarcastic remarks at peoples’ unfortunate circumstances. Now, I have come to understand and be reminded – these are my fellow Americans.  No matter who or what they voted for, they now face a future of despair.  Hope and Change has decimated their own hope of a better future for themselves and those they love.

I recently saw a news report that documented the reaction of workers in an urban auto body shop.  The expression of despair on these blue-collar workers’ as they looked at their new premiums under Obamacare was heart wrenching to watch. There was no space to gloat.  No desire to say, “I told you so”.  Just the wish that I, a fellow American, could have some power to make everything right again and takes us back to when things seemed more sane.

Who knows what these workers’ political ideology is?  I don’t!  And I don’t care.  I have felt that same sick feeling of despair in the pit of my stomach.  That same feeling when it seems the perfect storm of calamity is upon you and it can’t possibly get worse.  Then, it does.

It feels like a gut punch, the feeling that the control of your future has been taken out of your hands.  It’s like watching every dream evaporate and you are bound and helpless to prevent it.  That’s what I saw in those, my fellow Americans, eyes.

Much has been said about the great divide within our Nation.  Perhaps the disaster that has been this Presidency can have one positive effect.  Maybe, it can unify us.

Let us remember that one size does not fit all Americans because we are so diverse.  Let us return to the standards that celebrated individuals and that our differences are what make up all the great pieces to this great engine of the United States.  But most of all, let’s show compassion to our fellow Americans who have been betrayed by this President.

Deepening the divide will not help us. It will destroy us.  This President has proven what a majority of us knew all along; the government cannot help us.  So, let’s do what Americans have always done.  We can stand together again. Together we can rise from the ashes of this disaster the same way we have risen from every other disaster.  But we must choose to stand.

Oct 26 2013

Republicans Should Thank Ted Cruz

 

 

It’s been a political whirlwind in Washington D.C. to be sure in the past few weeks.  While some Republicans have lamented and even railed against the stand taken by Mike Lee and Ted Cruz, a closer look should have the GOP shaking the Texas and Utah Senators’ hands in gratitude.  It’s really not that hard to see, even for a backwoods construction guy like me.

 

When Ted Cruz made his historic stand on the chamber floor in what was characterized as a flawed strategy, he showed a bright and glaring light on the horrible travesty of ObamaCare.  The media carrion swooped in, eagerly waiting to feed on what they expected would be the rotting corpse of the stalwart Senator.  As they incessantly circled, pecked and tore at Cruz, they unwittingly gave a constant opportunity for him to speak and educate Americans on the true nature of this healthcare law; something to this point the media had worked obediently with the President to conceal.  Now in their rabid thirst to feast on Cruz’s demise, they allowed the curtain to be pulled back.  The banner achievement for this administration was truly unfurled and all could see its ineptitude on full display.

 

All this took was courage, the courage to stand on principle.  This has been lacking in the Republican Party for some time.  Was the strategy flawed?  Perhaps, only time will tell.  Did the Republicans take the blame for the tactics?  Yes, which is precisely my point.

 

We have all seen the abject failure of the roll out.  I had a friend, who once rebuilt his own transmission in his car.  When he had the car ready to show off to his friends, he rolled it out to put on a show.  After revving the engine, he let out the clutch for the obligatory smoke show.  He immediately realized that he had put reverse in the wrong sequence as the car went straight backwards, firmly planting his chest and face in the steering wheel and dashboard of the car, much to the uproarious delight of all his friends gathered around for the “big reveal”.

 

But imagine if one of those knee slapping, finger pointing friends had mentioned several times while the young man was putting the car together, that perhaps he was putting it back together wrong.  Imagine if that friend had said it several times and even tried to block him from putting the transmission in.  I would suspect after all the knee slapping was done at the final “reveal”, they would turn to the lone dissenting voice and say, “I guess you were right”.

 

Ted Cruz was a lonely easy target for scorn during his “ill-advised” filibuster.  But there is no one that has even a nominal understanding of national news that can attach the failure of HealthCare.gov or ObamaCare to Ted Cruz.  He was made too much of a whipping boy by the media.  It was too public.

 

And the GOP can be thankful that there was an R at the end of his name.  Oh, I know there has been the strange almost comical behavior of John McCain once again making a very public mess in his already sagging soggy Depends.  Yes, and there’s Peter King’s drunken three-legged bull in a china shop approach, but the Republicans can stand tall and, no matter what they think of Ted Cruz’s tactics, thank him for his courage in his very public charge against ObamaCare.  Thanks to that, the media will be hard pressed to blame this latest White House debacle on the Republicans.  They need to move quickly to align with the courage of Cruz and Lee before the smelly, sorry sideshow of McCain and King once again bungles another shining opportunity for Republicans.

Aug 20 2012

Ploys, Tones and Sentiments

 

Liberals have added a new hurdle to the implementation and acceptance of truth.  One must use the right tone when expressing facts or those facts will be discarded as false.  The arrogance of this sentiment is stunning to be kind.   To exercise some sort of parental discretion over Maine residents by threatening to disallow an individual’s defined arguments in the platform of civil debate simply because their tone was not correct, is appalling at best.  This is the latest diversionary tactic by the media to cover for their President.

The Kennebec Journal recently posted an article “fact checking” Jason Savage, which quickly spiraled into a hit piece rather than the truth seeking they espoused.  The theme of the article centered on the issue of the billions of tax cuts that MediCare will endure as a result of ObamaCare, which is now law.  While they admitted the numbers and facts are true, they proposed that argument, presented by the Director of Maine People Before Politics, should be disregarded as false, or “mostly false”, on the basis of the poor tone that Mr. Savage used.  Mostly false, is this a bad sequel to The Princess Bride?

Anyway, the Journal went on to cite the AARP.  Yes, the same AARP that named a strong supporter of Hugo Chavez as “Person of the Year”.  They quoted a doctor, who rattled off the infamous “as long as there are no changes” line, ignoring that the costs of ObamaCare have been arcing upwards since its implementation.  But my favorite line of “defense” is this little jewel of wisdom by the author, “ Still nothing is really ‘robbed’, the way almost anyone uses the word, and that money is coming largely from reduced payment to hospitals, other health providers and insurers.”  So it’s really not robbery to not pay for services rendered as long as you “mostly pay”, or how about “hardly pay”, or, if ask Maine’s hospitals, “never pay”?  Really?  Miracle Max would be so proud.  Fact: Partial payment is not full payment.  Oh, did I just use the wrong tone?

In the heated East-West Highway debate, Senator Doug Thomas and the Governor have wisely called for a slowdown to the process to allow for all the facts to be presented amidst all the din and noise.  Thomas’ opponent has mocked this call for caution as a political ploy.  He neglects to acknowledge that he helped sponsor Doug Thomas’ bill, which was a call for a fact-finding investigation of the possibility of the Highway. So Mr. Hebert Clark of Millinocket (D) voted for the bill before he voted against it despite the fact that the bill he voted for but is now against has yet to reveal the information that he voted for and is now against.  But at least his tone was right.

But herein lies the biggest quandary.  How can one strike the right tone when those who stand in judgment of the tenor are tone-deaf to anything but their own sound?

Aug 14 2012

ClubMaine

 

Traveling southbound, headed towards Bangor from Dover-Foxcroft, if one looks close and is aware, there is a crude wooden sign, partially obscured by the undergrowth, which spells a surprising admonishment to those proponents of the East-West Highway.  It questions why anyone who supports the building of a highway should live in the State of Maine.  This columnist is admittedly paraphrasing the words on the sign, but the theme is accurate to be sure.  What is startling is how little effort the author of this placard exerted to conceal his or her disdain for those who hold a difference of opinion.  The hypocrisy flaunted between the waving blades of grass in the field is not unique to the liberal movement.  It is at its core and essential to its function.

These sentences painted on slabs of wood are prompting travelers to agree that any who view the great resources of Maine as anything other than a pretty painting or fine piece of china merely to be observed in admiration from afar, untouched by human hand, are not fit to live in Maine.  Those who view Maine’s working resources as a bounty of blessing to be handled and utilized to the benefit and prosperity of all those who reside within its shadow are surprisingly encouraged to leave the State.  This is a curious request indeed from those who have long clamored that the wilds of Maine should be here for all to enjoy.  It seems that is true only if you resign yourself to be shuttered, isolated and cut off from the rest of the Nation, who would pay handsomely for the riches and bounty of these resources.  So there is a litmus test, in some minds, for those who can be allowed to enjoy Maine’s beauty.

In the coming months, studies concerning the highway in question will be researched and information will come forward.  This will be presented to the people and the legislature.  We all will have an opportunity to make, hopefully, a reasoned and thoughtful decision.  But this writer takes great exception to those on either side of the issue who would state or otherwise imply that those that disagree with their opinion should leave the State.

But, sadly, hypocrisy seems to be the norm for my friends on the left.  The head of the new stealth-Democrats, Angus King, has told Maine people that the huge budget shortfall he left Maine was merely a “theoretical” one.  Those on the left decry the ownership of guns, unless they can use them to call for the murder of Olympian markswoman, Corey Cogdell and her family.  The left has already screamed many times that the Republican budget would destroy MediCare and MediCaid, when it is, in fact, a plan to save it.  The fact that the President has already, through ObamaCare, cut 700 billion dollars from MediCare is somehow kept quiet.  The President has accused Governor Romney of indirectly causing the death of a woman through a company the Governor was no longer was part of, while Mr. Obama takes no responsibility for the death of border agent Brian Terry and the thousands of innocent Mexicans, who have been murdered as a direct result of the guns his administration gave to Mexican drug cartels.

Those of us who believe in traditional marriage are often labeled as hateful, but standing for our beliefs is not hate. It is our right.  We work side by side throughout this Nation with those of alternate lifestyles without any threat of violence. Young Bristol Palin has been brutalized in the media for her Christian beliefs. When snidely asked by a reporter if she would dance with a man if he were gay, she calmly answered to the affirmative.  But then she asked in return, would the gay man dance with her even though she is Christian and will not compromise her beliefs?  That really is the question, isn’t it?  Is the left really comfortable with an open debate on the facts?  Or, does it prefer to establish an exclusive club only for those that parrot their teachings and all other voices that dissent are excluded, exiled or eliminated?  What is your view of freedom?  Is it the freedom that denies all other dissenting expression or is it the freedom that allows all expression on the platform of decent debate without repression for the majority to decide?  Where is freedom in Maine?