ProvokingThought's Xanga

Don't Insure Sick People !

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:27:28 GMT

That's right. Why should we insure sick people anyway? It is just not the right thing to do at all ! If you think insurance is what sick people need, you stay away from me when I am sick! If you are sick do you want me to take you to your insurance agent ? Of course not! Sick people need treatment, not insurance!

Health Insurance is not for everybody and certainly not for people with preexisting conditions. So why in the world would we be trying to force anyone to insure people who are uninsurable? The entire precept lacks any common sense.

Now the obvious question is what do we do with the people who have preexisting conditions and need care and do not have insurance? The government proposes we use the IRS to pressure people to buy health insurance under penalty of law.

Well after pondering the insanity of fining people up to $250,000 and /or 5 years in prison for tax evasion if they did not purchase your product, and were unable to pay the tax penalty , I came to the conclusion that solution didn't make sense .

The idea of Timothy Geithner having people arrested for not paying a tax penalty for failure to purchase insurance was too much irony for me.Yet my mind kept thinking , Geithner, health care, taxes and the IRS~how could that be a solution ?

Then it struck me ! As bizarre as it sounds, could you imagine the IRS actually giving incentives to solve the crisis? Instead of taxing tax payers for not buying insurance instead we give people tax incentives?

That's right. Give Doctors, Hospitals and Drug Companies dollar for dollar tax credits for treating people with pre-exisiting conditions.

My State Representative was recounting a mindset he brings to Harrisburg. Lets use small numbers to illustrate the issue. If we both recognize there is a problem that we have to address and you say it will cost $15 and I say it will cost $20, since we agree there is at least a $15 problem we fund the $15 and debate the balance later.

Everyone agrees there is a insurance gap that is complicated by pre-exisiting conditions. Everyone recognizes there is a care giver shortage. Everyone recognizes we are broke. Those are all things reasonable and honest people agree on. We should immediately start giving dollar for dollar tax breaks to doctors, clinics and hospitals for the care they give to people who have pre-exisitng conditions and for a window of time for the insurable uninsured. Of course there is a potential that this could be abused, yet our first concern should be that people who are ill receive treatment . End the emergency and claim your political victory for helping people truly in need already !

When I get sick I do not need to see my insurance agent. When I get sick I really don't need to see the government! When I am sick I need treatment. It is important that we keep focused on what solutions the government is offering and whether it addresses the causation or the symptom. Relieve the symptom and work on a long term solution for the causation; treatment for the uninsurable. In the meantime, let's make sure that treatment is available to those who are not able to get it while we work out a better plan.

Don't Insure Uninsurable Sick People, give doctors and hospitals tax incentives to treat them instead because health insurance is not for everybody.

Didn't download the video quick enough

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:52:56 GMT

Oops, I violated my own rule of not downloading videos that I wasnt to use in a post, and sure enough-gone. Guess Team Obama didn't like the reporting-"violations of terms of service".

It's Good to be King, if just for a while....

AP: Obama Rejects All Military Options for Afghanistan Given

November 12, 2009 at 12:36 am - MSNBC
Dateline: Washington DC

AP: President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

Update: found the video on xanga :

Consistently Inconsistent

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:58:39 GMT

Would it be expecting too much for the Commander-in-Chief to display a level of consistent behavior? Consistently Inconsistent is not an attribute that is acceptable for the Commander in Chief, yet it accurately describes Barack Obama recent actions.

On Friday the President said the entire nation is grieving for those slain at Fort Hood, and he urged people not to jump to conclusions while law enforcement officers investigate the shootings. (Well I will give him this much, at least he learned a lesson from the Cambridge incident.)

Then on Saturday during his weekly address the President gave the defense attorney major fodder by pronouncing "This past Thursday, on a clear Texas afternoon, an Army psychiatrist walked into the Soldier Readiness Processing Center, and began shooting his fellow soldiers." Excuse me? The President is a attorney at law. He knows better than to say this and the ramifications of potentially tainting a jury pool. What is he trying to do....beside jumping to a conclusion?

"Well, look, we -- we have seen, in the past, rampages of this sort. And in a country of 300 million people, there are going to be acts of violence that are inexplicable. Even within the extraordinary military that we have -- and I think everybody understands how outstanding the young men and women in uniform are under the most severe stress -- there are going to be instances in which an individual cracks. I think the questions that we're asking now and we don't have yet complete answers to is, is this an individual who's acting in this way or is it some larger set of actors? You know, what are the motivations? Those are all questions that I think we have to ask ourselves. Until we have these answers buttoned down, I'd rather not comment on it."

If I am Hasan's defense lawyer I am smiling ear to ear. Here is the Commander in Chief, Hasan's boss, openly commenting on his case and tainting the jury pool. Then potentially providing a alternative defense for him? As a lawyer and law professor there is no excuse for the President to be acting as foolishly as he is in a murder case on a military base.

President Obama needs to get a grip on his lip and realize that his actions are undermining the morale of the Armed Forces who look to their Commander to bring Justice and provide stability, not to play pundit on the subject of a murder on a military installation.. This is the ultimate disrespect to the victims of the shootings at Ft. Hood.

One can only wonder what he does for a encore! Offer to be the JAG ? Cede to the United Nations and try him under Sharia Law? Tune in to the next episode of Barack Obama, Commander in Chief.

Can you spot the real thing?

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:04:34 GMT

I am one of those odd balls who quit watching cable news and listening to talk radio when I realized how programmed people on both sides of the aisle have become. In fact, that is why I took to blogging, to go past the talking points and try to get inside peoples head and rattle some grey matter.

When I look back upon my changing routines and breaking the habit of turning to FOX and CNN or listening to talkers, it was actually very liberating. Why? I had to go back and rely on my own ability to think critically. I think that once you are able to do that, the scales come off the eyes of what is just merely a shadow and type of conservative thought. We had conservatives supporting big government solutions and expanding government that they would soundly reject if it was proposed by a Democrat. It reminded me of what Ronald Reagan said when he spoke about socialism, the country would outright reject socialism yet would accept each and every aspect of it packaged as liberalism.

In fact, in many ways that is exactly what has happened! But before you get on the bandwagon to rail liberals and curse FDR, Johnson, Carter and the current TOTUS that comes with a POTUS, remember people in glass houses should not throw stones. Richard Nixon super sized the Great Society, expanded government, took us off the gold standard, had wage and price control and was a corporate socialist (can you say Lockheed Martin?). Mises.org has a great article on Nixonian socialism.

George W. Bush was anything but a conservative. Karl Rove out-democrated the democrats in some of GW's policies. And I believe if you ask most pro-life people who followed his second term they can tell you he was no friend of the social conservative movement either; trading off the morning after pill for a Surgeon General. Where were conservatives in 2007 when he sent Chertoff and Snow out on a blitz to throw up their hands and say there is nothing we can do to stop illegal immigration? These are just a few points where as a conservative I can not support this at all. Yet my friends who listen to talk and FOX would tell me where I was wrong and again argue strong support for the two party system.

I also have a issue with "Chicken Little-ism" and "crying wolf" when the wolf may in fact be sleeping in our own henhouse. I swear a lot of conservative guys of tv are acting like a bunch of wimps. If you see a problem, sure identify it. But how about once you identify it that you start bringing solutions? How about start seeing if the perceived problem is the core or just a symptom? I challenge myself to be one to not only identify problems, but to start providing suggestions to solutions as well. When we see legislation that empowers community organizers do we say, Oh no ACORN, run for the hills? Or do we form our own conservative community organizations. To me, that is the natural extension of the tea party. Protest, identify and organize in your community and begin to be conservative community organizers. Being against something is short lived and falls apart. We have to be for something and start acting on taking part in our own government. We created the vacuum; it is our turn to fill it.

_______________________

I will leave you with a example where people saw a problem with media and instead of just crying BIAS have done something about it. Liz Stephans and Scott Baker started broadcasting the b-cast out of a studio in Pittsburgh, PA and broadcast live from 4-6 PM EST M-F. Their programs are also archived. Scott is a former news anchor and those of you following the ACORN scandal should recognize the name Breitbart. These are people who are a positive example of what you do once you identify a problem and people refuse to alter their behavior.

The B-Cast: Twenty Years of Lessons Since Fall of the Berlin Wall

Say What?

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:33:18 GMT

Un-freaking-believable.

Chumping 101-Professor Rob Andrews

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 23:47:23 GMT

Saturday evening while I was watching the House of Representatives Healthcare Hearings on C-Span several old expressions came to mind.:

I might have been born in the morning, but it sure wasn't this morning,
I didn't come in with the morning milk
I didn't just step off the boat

The old sayings came to mind after the baton was passed to Rob Andrews (link) by Charlie Rangel to delegate speech time and Rob starts shooting from the hip, ad libbing, making light of things people objected to.

The icing on the cake came in response to the bill exempting Congress from being enrolled in the plan that the public was being forced into. Rob stood up with the congressional health options book and replied, we have the health plan our employer, the federal government, offers us.

Say what ? Sorry Rob, your employer is not the federal government . You are employed by the people of the first district of New Jersey as their representative. You are their employee and are forcing this bill on your employers under the penalty of law, while exempting yourself. Nice gig if you can get it !

Rob knows better. He just gave his first lesson in Chumping 101. And did it with a straight face.

Political Gamesmanship

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:11:43 GMT

Last night was your classic political gamesmanship. We had your classic Catch-22 in progress and all the players were scoring their political points and padding their voting records.

According to lifenews.com, "Reps. Joe Pitts, a Pennsylvania republican, and Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat, combined for a bipartisan amendment to prevent mandated abortion coverage in the essential benefits package"

Talk about a game of strategy. The Stupak Amendment as it was called last night, forced everyone who has any concern about their pro-life voting record to vote for the amendment. But what does this amendment do? It provided cover for people to vote for the bill because they were not funding abortions, a hot button issue at the moment.

By bringing the Amendment to a vote and it passing, it provided the extra votes needed to pass HR 3962. So in effect, the trap was baited and despite knowing it was baited , the Congressman had no choice but to vote for the Amendment ensuring that extra votes needed to pass the bill onto the upper chamber.

Few believe that Senate version will mirror the House version and that what Mrs. Pelosi pushed through the House will pass in the Senate. If the bill comes back from committee without the Stupak Amendment in it, there will be additional votes lost in the House.

This bill allowed the House leaders to flip off the people who have sounded out about healthcare reform and they are hoping that it will ice their efforts , taking the wind out of their sails. It was some very good gamemanship. Mrs. Pelosi learned the art of Politics very well.

Now as we marvel at how good of a politician she is, let us reflect upon the economy when she took over the reins of the House in January 2007. And let us reflect on all the spending packages that have come through her house. Under her leadership the country has amassed debt like no other time in history.

The Congress and specifically the House of Representatives is the body that crafts our budgets and handles the economic aspect of the government. How were you in 2007? How are your today? Remember who has been in charge of the nations purse strings since January 2007.Nancy Pelosi-Master Politician-bringing California economics to Washington DC.. What a player!.

personal url advantages

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:11:42 GMT

I was glad to see that xanga has offered the personal url option to it's subscribers. First, it opens up new potential sources of revenue for Xanga, something I imagine is a ongoing issue for a blogging website.

Second, it is always preferable to have a web address that is a stand alone address, whether the blog is stand alone or not.

Third, I imagine this may be a gateway to increase the number of premium subscribers. Perhaps if url/premium packages were combined at a discounted package purchase. Or buy life and get a x % discounts for the number of years url you buy today.

Fourth, consider that your own url normally requires /blog or /wordpress where the xanga blog is just a direct (mask?) url. They also have it set up that your old address still is functional. My new address is http://provokingthought.net

John

"I think I could have done better"

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 02:42:29 GMT

Why doesn't someone like this win mother of the year?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Making stuff up

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:56:29 GMT

I was really surprised yesterday to read the comments section in the Washington Post yesterday by all the people who said they were there and it was all of a bunch of old people there who were on the public dole. What?

I am glad that partisans are starting to be honest and say they view social security forced retirement contributions being paid out to those who contributed as being on the public dole. The one nice things about taking a lot of random pictures is you have a record of the rally.(because you were actuallythere),

I found just the opposite to be true. I thought more older people should have been there , yet was surprised at the number of young people . The public is getting hip to the slant because what people who were not there do not realize is that the most common thing that people are carrying is video and camera equipment , not signs.