Follow the money

The Senate is currently on their third....or is it their fourth or fifth....iteration of a "Repeal and Replace ObamaCare" attempt, and this one is no better than the ones that came before it.  As bad as ObamaCare supposedly is, all their attempts to date have been giant steps BACKWARD.  The highlight of the current Republican bill is to give each state a "block grant", essentially a pot of cash, and then tell them to figure out what to do with health care.  "Not my circus, not my monkey" the Feds can then say.

Polls show less than 20% of Americans like this giant step backwards.  Neither does AARP, or the American Medical Association, or the various hospital associations, or the insurers, or the drug makers, or the American Cancer Society, The American Heart Association, the Diabetes Foundation, or any other group advocating on behalf of people with health issues.  So why are Republicans so hellbent on ramming this "reform" down our throats?  Who wins in this deal?

FOLLOW THE MONEY

The only logical explanation I can come up with is that, to Republicans, "Repeal and Replace ObamaCare" is simply a means to a greater goal.  They have told their ultra-wealthy mega-donors that they will deliver to them a giant tax cut, but before they can do that, they first have to come up with a pile of cash from somewhere.  That "somewhere", they have decreed, will be from the Federal healthcare kitty....cut a few hundred billion here, transfer it on to there.  But if they can't realize big savings via a repeal/replace bill, their promised wealth transfer, their REAL goal, is dead in the water.  

If you can think of another reason why congressional Republicans are pushing so hard to pass such a supremely unpopular bill, please let me know.

If they should ever succeed in achieving this goal, hold on!  Their next target will be Medicare and Social Security.  Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has already (correctly) labeled them as the two most expensive Federal programs that can be looted...er..."reformed" in order to realize great savings.  He just never tells us where those savings will go.

So, as is always the case, FOLLOW THE MONEY.  That will show you who is pulling the strings, and who the big winner will always be.

S

Beware the new snake oil salesmen....

Snake oil salesmen....you can find them walking around the halls of Congress hawking their Republican agenda.

Now don't get upset Republican friends.  I'm not saying YOU are a snake oil salesman.  I'm saying you're being SOLD snake oil by the Republican congressmen and Senators who you trusted.  You're being played.  Consider this:

Their #1 agenda item (they say) is to repeal and replace ObamaCare.  They say to you that by stripping out $800,000,000,000 it will bring down the cost of your health insurance, which is now sky-high and has deductibles so steep many of you can't even afford to use it.  Their version will be better they say.  What it will do that they conveniently play down is push up the price of insurance for those over about 55 years old who are now beginning to have some health issues.  Their premiums will go up dramatically after any new Republican plan now being considered is adapted.  

And if you or a family member have a disease or are otherwise handicapped and have effectively been pushed down into the Medicaid-eligible category, you're screwed.  Kids already living in poverty will see their healthcare cut back too, as will the 45% of all seniors (maybe one of your parents, or you one day?) living in nursing homes who depend on Medicaid to survive (and that's no exaggeration).

It isn't just liberal Democrats who believe this.  Read THIS to see why the American Medical Association, hardly a bunch of wild-eyed Bernie supporters, opposes The Republican plan(s).  The American Hospital Association, and not surprisingly the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), feels the same.  

My Republican friends, you're being sold snake oil.  If your guys in Congress prevail, what you will actually get is NOT what they're selling you.  Reform, definitely, but this isn't it.  This is just the first step towards what they really want, which is a tax cut overwhelmingly benefiting the wealthy.  And if they can't save $800 BILLION on healthcare, they can't get their tax cut.  "Healthcare" is just a pawn in their bigger game.

Tax reform....that's what the Republican leadership calls it.  They want you to believe tax rates will be simplified, loopholes will be closed, and when the dust settles your tax system will be more equitable.  It will still be progressive (the more you make, the more you pay), but the middle class will be better off.  That's all a smoke screen.  What the middle class might save will be negligible if anything.  A tax cut for the rich, the benefactors who fund their political careers, is what it really is.

The Republican leadership will tell you that, yes, their tax reform windfall will go primarily to the rich, but the rich will in turn invest it back into the economy and create jobs.  They'll say it over and over again...JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!  That's straight out of Economics 101.  It's a valid economic theory, but doesn't fit the economic reality we have today.

This is important to understand: 

As of July 24th (yesterday) the 10 year Treasury yield was a very low 2.30%.  A low yield means there is already lots of money out there chasing very little demand.

WE'RE SWIMMING IN MONEY RIGHT NOW, LOOKING FOR A PLACE TO INVEST IT!

American corporations alone (not including individuals) already have $1.9 TRILLION dollars just sitting around.  (Check THIS for more interesting info.)  Giving the wealthy another few hundred BILLION dollars, when they can't even find a place to invest what they already have, WON'T CREATE JOBS!  We'll still see monthly job increases due to the fact that our population/economy is slowly growing and maturing.  But a massive transfer of wealth to the already wealthy won't result in a massive explosion of new jobs.

My Republican friends, you're being sold snake oil.  Your leaders have an agenda they aren't being truthful with you about.  Please stop them, and think this through.

S

Playing both ends against the middle....and losing

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is today unveiling the new, improved version of the GOP's repeal / replace healthcare legislation.  Early reports are that its success is already hanging by a thread, with enough Republican Senators against or leaning against to likely doom it. What seems to be the problem?

The problem is Republicans are facing an existential (life or death) conundrum.  On the one hand, they want to keep their voters happy, because more than anything in the world they want to keep their jobs.  They, and in fairness this applies to both Democrats and Republicans, would throw their mama under the bus if need be to keep their privileged positions in Congress.

But on the other hand they want to keep their wealthy special interests happy, too, for it is they who fund their political careers.  Without their money they can't buy all those media ads and send out all those slick mailers.  It's their special interest's money that keeps their privileged world spinning smoothly.

Their conundrum is they can't do both when it comes to healthcare.  When the less affluent and steadily shrinking middle class heard "repeal and replace", they envisioned putting in place something BETTER than what they had.  When the wealthy special interests heard "repeal and replace", they envisioned GUTTING federal government involvement in healthcare, resulting in a huge one TRILLION dollar +/- savings which would then come back to them as a tax cut.  The American people don't care about a tax cut for the wealthy special interests, and the wealthy special interests don't care about healthcare for the American people.

The latest polls say only 12 - 17% of the American people approve of either the Republican's House or Senate healthcare plans.  The American Medical Association...the doctors...and the American Hospital Association OPPOSE either of the GOP's plans because they know with 20,000,000+ fewer people being insured, they won't get paid.  They'll ethically and morally still treat these people, but know they'll never get paid for their services, and will then have to charge those who are insured even more.  So much for lower premiums! 

Likewise AARP, the American Association of Retired Persons, is OPPOSED to the GOP plans because they know it will adversely affect many / most of their 38,000,000 members.  FACT:  Medicaid pays the costs for 45% of all elderly nursing home residents.  How are nursing homes going to provide care to these people if fewer and fewer can afford to pay?  They can't just give it away!  Can families bring their loved ones home and properly provide 24 / 7 care themselves?

If Congressional Republicans truly cared about healthcare for our citizens, they could vote the money needed to pay for it.  But that would mean cancelling many of the special sweetheart tax breaks and subsidies the wealthy now receive, and then kissing goodbye the future financial support of the very upper crust of our society.

They're screwed if they support their constituents, and screwed if they support their benefactors. All signs now suggest the odds-on favorites to win this tug-of-war are the wealthy.  Money talks.  How else can you explain why Republicans go home to town hall meetings every week and try to sell a plan they know is supported by only 12% of their constituents?

Gee, what's a spineless, two-faced Congressman to do?

S  

Another milestone

I can remember back when I turned 50 I received an application in the mail to join AARP.  I thought, "Hey, let's not rush this!"

Then when I turned 60 I began receiving literature from companies wanting to sell me handicap mobility scooters.  I thought, "Hold on there Kemo Sabe!  I can walk just fine."

I'll soon be turning 64 and a few days ago I received a catalog from the Duluth Trading Co.  I've received them before, but as they say their stuff is for loggers, carpenters, plumbers etc, I never paid them much attention.  

They're mainly work clothes....you know, the kind of pants that have reinforced knees and carpenter's pants with cargo pockets on cargo pockets.  I do my best to avoid activities that require me to need reinforced knees and pants with pockets to hide tools in.

But yesterday just by chance I actually looked at the Duluth catalog and discovered to my dismay that I'm solidly in their target demographic:

They have shirts that can cure my Dunlaps Disease.

And if I should ever fall down while holding a pipe wrench I won't feel any unwanted drafts, which is a huge relief!  (Oh, is that what those reinforced knees are for?  Hmm....clever.)

I don't think their "Ballroom Jeans" have anything to do with elegant, formal soirees, but they will enable me to "crouch without the ouch", something I constantly worry about.

 

Thank you crouch gusset!  They claim if I wear them I won't sing soprano.  'Course, those who have heard me sing say they don't want me singing baritone or bass, either.

Is this a common cause of death for....umm....mature men....being attacked by a moose?  Is this how it will end?  Well, not for this guy!  Not if I get me a Free Swingin' Flannel shirt.  Now I'll be able to pull out its tongue and "whack & hack like a limberjack".  And apparently chop firewood like a lumberjack too.  Sweet!  (There must already be a lot of Free Swingin' Flannel kinda guys around here, which is why there are no moose left in Frisco, TX.)

So please take note dear Mother-In-Law:  Please don't give me any more of those skinny, tapered button-popping Polo shirts for Christmas.  I no longer fit in skinny, tapered button-popping Polo clothes.  My new haberdasher is the Duluth Trading Co.  (I could use an axe, though.)

S