Country Thinking & Commentary
A series of commentaries on the state of this nation, its politics, people, places and things, family values...and all from a common sense viewpoint of just plain Americans. There will be some honest humor too. In the weeks and months to come, we'll be looking at some of the things that we've all thought about, but have been afraid to voice. If you're asking why we're departing from country music in this feature section, it's because just plain Americans are tired with the deterioration of this nation.
If you have a comment or commentary, send it to us at News@countrymusicreport.com.
SO, WHO WANTS THE PROPOSED HEALTH CARE CHANGES?
Opinion by Mark Riehle
3-18-2010
Just a question: why are the Democrats in Congress and the President so adamant in their support and insistence on the passage of the so-called tax increase, er health care reform proposal?
Judging from what I’ve been hearing from friends and neighbors and week after week of national polling, We The People do NOT want the President’s Health Care Plan to pass. They don’t want it. They don’t believe they need it. The KNOW they can’t afford it.
Yet, despite polls showing almost 80% of the American public are satisfied with health care as it currently exists, the Democrats in Congress and Mr. President continue to insist we MUST risk national bankruptcy in order to implement the stupid changes they see as necessary.
They have seen all the numbers and they KNOW the nation can NOT afford the additional billions per year the STILL-UNSEEN legislation will likely cost.
They have seen all the polls and KNOW that We The People are adamantly OPPOSED to the so-called President’s Health Care Plan.
Etc.
So ….WHO WANTS IT SO BAD IT MIGHT LEAD TO DECADES OF BLOOD-IN-THE-EYES ANGER ON THE PART OF THE PUBLIC?
WHO wants this thing so badly that they are willing to risk the likelihood more than half of House will lose their jobs in November or that the President’s popularity will plummet and he will NOT be re-elected to his near-guaranteed second term?
Etc.
(okay-okay, are you ready? My Dear Regular Reader is prepared and already knows at least ONE who I will name)
It’s the batch of NON-elected de facto leader-makers and string-pullers who stand in the shadows behind the likes of Clinton, Gore, Obama and others …probably including a few Republicans. The folks we seldom hear about or from who spread money like manure through the political ranks and play chess with our lives. Yeah-yeah …conspiracy crap.
However, I see Goldman-Sachs’ largest investors and others …who will be around long after Obama and his Democrat Congress is gone from our tangled hair.
Yeah. It includes the likes of Billionaire George Soros, who has ensured that Favored Formers such as the Clintons, the Idiot-Savant Weatherman Al Gore and others are covered in $100 bills for doing his bidding. I’m not certain of which Caribbean Island houses the ‘home base’ for Soros’ business interests, but it’s somewhere there. In other words, yet another Democrat big-wig who fudges on his taxes. The Clinton’s remember, built a $10 million mansion on the island of the Dominican Republic (right across the border with devastated Haiti. So, was THAT where she stayed while she was purring on about the poor, poor Haitians a few weeks ago?).
Soros isn’t the only of the Favored Few who would benefit from passage of the health care-big government funding infusion plan. The jerks who are leading the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) out of our borders and into South America and other locales in an effort to become the world’s largest and most powerful. Despite the fact it does little for it’s ‘workers’. This is the entity which admits paying the Obama campaign more than $60 million. It requires payback.
There are other unions …the UAW (United Auto Workers) for instance, which now is able to pull even heavier strings at General Motors and Chrysler Corporation (both of which may die during the coming decade to become Cadillac Motors, the Chevrolet Corporation, National Truck Corporation (NTC, rather than GMC) and MOPAR Corporation).
None of the above really care which politician is in office as long as they retain vast pull amongst those in office. So …risk is just part of the deal because it doesn’t really involve them.
So, let’s make certain in November that it’s several DECADES before those string-pullers have developed enough clout to attempt to do this to us again.
We The People…Just Don’t Understand!
Opinion by Mark Riehle
For those of you who listened/watched the President’s State of the Union address this week, did you notice it was We The People who are at fault for much of the current economic malaise (and of course, George Bush)? It’s apparently because we simply are too dumb to actually understand just what it is he and George (Soros) are trying to accomplish.
I hate to be negative (except when it comes to politics…heh-heh-heh…then it’s almost fun) but I noticed that my very own President of the United States of America actually …LIED to me during his speech. And, you, of course. It’s been a while since he was called a liar during a speech and no one called him out for it at the site of his speech, this time. But, I definitely take exception to his claim that he has ‘not raised the income tax on a single American …not a single dime’ he said.
Well, Mr. President…MY income tax ROSE on my very FIRST retirement check for 2010!! I don’t know the particulars other than the federal INCOME TAX on my measly, little $1700 retirement check rose $42.70 for the month of January. I think that was an increase as it reduced my take home pay. Now, that appears to be a $512 annual tax increase. Right when I begin suffering under the slings and arrows of MEDICARE.
Now, in 2008 I purchased my late parents home from my sisters by almost emptying my 401k account – boosting for one year, my income to a seemingly astronomical amount. An amount that the Medicare folks certainly noticed, as they are now intent on charging me almost $300/month for the privilege of cheating my doctor into accepting lower fees than he normally charges patients. Yeah. I guess that would be the federal method of reducing health care costs. They simply tell the doctors the fee they’ll pay is 20% of whatever the charge was and let it go at that. Forcing once independent doctors into joining or forming large corporations where numerous doctors treat ever larger numbers of patients. Economics of scale, so to speak.
President Obama received what was - I believe – the first ovation of the evening when he stated something like “I’ve never been more hopeful about America’s future than I am tonight.” And the attending members of Congress ROSE to a standing ovation. I’m still trying to figure out just what it was they were applauding. He’s falsely optimistic so …YIPPEE! ?
He also mentioned that he ‘hated’ the bank bailout. Gosh, I was completely taken aback by that one. After all, doesn’t he sign all such special deals? If he hated it as much as I did and do….why did he sign it? Oh, right. George Soros again. It also helped out his once-friend and supporter Warren Buffet. Maybe repayment. Now that the repayment is over …it’s okay for him to ‘hate’ the bailout.
And, for the union bosses who support him …like the SEIU folks (oh, there’s that ol, George Soros once again) he wants a new jobs bill. Gads. Or would that be …gass. If only the administration (and the Bush Administration) had simply left things alone …at least according to a number of actual economists, the economy likely would already be back to normal. But ….NOOOOooooo.
He wants to stop shipping jobs overseas. Okay, why? Most of the jobs sent abroad are likely being sent because the wages are VASTLY lower everywhere but here or the technology has changed and those jobs are no longer available here or some combination. Also, because of inadequate congressional action, big tech companies aren’t able to IMPORT enough tech-savvy job seekers to fulfill all the jobs they need done so they hire folks in their home countries, like India. Our top-rated universities don’t seem to educate an ample number of students studying things other than …PartEE.
Now, I am also aware that there are farmers-ranchers and likely other avocations in this country that could be legally filling jobs by hiring temporary residents from say, Mexico but DO NOT …because Congress has passed laws that make it far FAR easier and cheaper to simply hire illegal workers. Hence, Congress is much to blame for the huge influx of illegal workers (I blame Ted Kennedy for this as much as anyone, as he was highly influential in developing and then passing the very laws that caused the problems).
And, why would Congress do that? Because it brings in people who will eventually be voters and they need (I’m speaking of Kennedy’s party) to ensure re-election by stacking the deck on their side for future elections. Note how many of our Hispanic voters vote Republican. Not many, perhaps because the Rs have sometimes stridently called for tightening border access. Oh yeah, bringing in those many millions of illegals who eventually become naturalized also helps ensure Social Security will remain solvent just a little longer. And, it certainly causes folks like me to pay more for medical costs and other economic elements because the illegals ARENT paying. And, they force down the cost of labor so big employers often appreciate it.
While there are a number of other issues from the speech upon which I could comment, I will mention only one other: Energy.
Obama is pushing so-called green energy as though the old 1960’s and early 1970’s hippies who now operate many of the greenie companies (use solar panels to heat your hide-a-way greenhouse …and you can stay off the grid and still produce lots of pot) are being repaid for supporting him in 2008. Oh, and General Electric …which produced so many of those stupid and apparently dangerous as well as nearly useless pigtailed neon lights that they had to bribe the feds and Congress to FORCE the public to use them. Or risk bankruptcy.
I say, toss out the pig-tailed lights and let GE go lights-out.
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