Posts Tagged ‘Health Care Reform’

BLAME IT ON OBAMA

Friday, February 26th, 2010

If you had told me two years ago that I would ever be interested in the health care bill I would have said you were crazy. In the past, when the mail came with a big fat envelope containing car, house, or health insurance I would throw it in some kitchen drawer, never to look at it again. Those insurance contracts were totally boring and I wouldn’t waste a minute looking at them. On the other hand, there were times, when I would spend hours a week on the phone with insurance companies fighting for “injustices” and their unfair practices. But that was the extent of my interest.

 

So, how did it happen that I played hooky from work on Thursday, February 25th to watch the health care summit on TV, which was being broadcast from the Blair House in Washington, D.C.?  I anxiously waited for the 10 a.m. start, and except for occasionally getting up for some food, getting dinner prepared, etc., I was glued to the T.V.set until after 5 p.m. I became annoyed when a station stopped the debate to show a commercial and I found myself switching channels looking for a commercial-free cable station. I went back and forth from MSNBC to CNN to FOX

 

 

The feeling I have inside myself is that I am watching history being made. The lucky part for me is to have the time to experience it. Being present while history is being made is invigorating. The debates, and the difference of opinion going along with the process, are energizing.

 

The health care decisions being made in our Capital involve much more than what it looks like on the surface. The issue goes to the core of our being. Life or death, sickness or health, what do we want for ourselves and for others? On one side we see people able to understand and empathize with the dilemma who want to do whatever it takes to fix the health care system now. The other side says they understand the problem and want to reform the present system too, but they want to start the debate all over, throw out 13 months of work already done, and start from scratch with a “clean sheet of white paper”. The latter group talks about not raising taxes and letting the private sector fix the problem. It is said that the people in Congress have the best health care system in America and many of them don’t know what it’s like to have what 30,000,000 Americans don’t have. Nothing!

 

I am not alone participating in history being made.  For over a year now I have seen people all over the Country in heated debates about health care. Like others, I have written articles about what I have seen and gone to town hall meetings on the subject. I have been asking myself, “how come the entire country has gotten involved in such a boring subject?” Hot and boring just doesn’t seem to go together.

 

So, who is to blame for this nation-wide involvement?  How about blaming President Barack Hussein Obama? President Obama is taking the hit for everything going wrong in America anyway, so let’s just blame him. I think he can handle it. I believe he expects it. More debate, more resistance, more passion, more interest, more action, more change – exactly what he wants. How else could things possibly get done in America?

 

President Obama has said during his campaign for President and many times after, “I cannot do it alone!” I guess he meant it! He needs the American people to help him. Change needs emotion. Change needs energy. Change needs action. Change needs everyone interested and working. Everyone working toward a more perfect union.

 

Whatever finally happens to the health care bill, the President has succeeded in getting an entire country worked up over a subject that is intrinsically boring. All Presidents should have in their resumes “community organizer”. So, let’s give President Obama his due. Just blame him for it all.

 

 I guess I will have to start reading all those boring insurance policies now. Ugh!

 

LIEBERMAN, The Emperor With No Clothes On

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

by margierobben.

I sent my letter of criticism of Joe to be published by the Stamford Advocate on their “Letters to the Editor” page, but they chose not to publish it.  The people of Connecticut and the Advocate did not seem to be as angry at Joe as I was.  Things seem to be different now, two months later.

This morning, Gail Collins of the New York Times quite eloquently said of Joe Lieberman,  “He bounds around happily, doing the talk shows, confident that he’s the same independent-minded independent who believes in independence as always. Observers who have known him for a long time feel as though they’re living out a scene in a science-fiction movie when the guy who’s just been bitten by the vampire-moose comes home and sits down to dinner, unaware that he’s sprouting antlers.”

Joe Lieberman is all happy these days because he has succeeded in making the Health Care Reform Bill so weak that it looks like it is a gift to the Insurance Industry and not a gift to the American people.

Initially, Joe said that he will not let the Health Care Reform bill come to the Floor of the Senate if it had a public option for health care in it. To get Joe’s vote, the public option was removed.

The Senate thought that the Health Care Bill should include Medicare for people aged 55 to 64. The Senate thought Joe would go along with the idea because for many years Joe was passionate about getting the age of Medicare lowered. But Joe said “No” again. The attempt to lower the Medicare age was removed. Senate Democrats are so frustrated in getting Joe Lieberman’s vital 60th vote they are ready to “kill” the Bill.   They think the Bill as it stands now only fattens up the Insurance Companies and does little or nothing for the millions of people who have been thrown out of the Insurance system by previous illnesses or because they cannot afford to pay for it. 

It has been reported that Joe has taken millions of dollars from the Insurance Industry, and that his wife has lobbied for Insurance Companies. (Can someone fill me in on this?)  Does Joe represent the people of Connecticut or the insurance industry?

On November 15, 2009 there was an Interfaith Prayer Vigil for Joe, praying that Joe would stand up for national health care reform including a strong public option. The large diverse coalition of religious leaders from across the state were respectful and included pastors, rabbis, priests, imams and many people of faith. Guess what? All that praying must have failed!

Joe Lieberman continues to walk around like the Emperior who has no clothes on as his staff continues to shout at him that the clothing he is wearing is ”beautiful and glorious.”  And on top of his beautiful and glorious head his new sprouting moose antlers are growing bigger and bigger.

 
Written on October 15, 2009
Dear Senator Lieberman,
 
I have received your letter responding to my letter to you.  Your letter reminds me of the fairy tale about the “emperor who has no clothes” who thinks he looks gorgeous as he parades himself nude to his constituency.
 
I believe one of your staff read my letter, not you; one of your staff wrote the response, not you; and that you will never be given some of the harshest letters from the people who object to your judgement and conclusions. There is a word “out there” in the public that once Joe Lieberman comes out with a decision like he “won’t support the public option” he will never change his mind. This idea comes from people who know and analyze you much better than I do. Pretty rigid!
 
The majority of the people of Connecticut support the public option. This is a fact! You cannot then say, as you do, that you listen to your constituents. The majority of the people of Connecticut will soon get the information that you listen to the Insurance Industries of America and that you get your marching orders from them.
 
So, go inside – put on some real clothing. Stop hiding behind your belief in God, the Sabbath, what the people want, etc. No one that I know believes it.  Siding with the Insurance companies, getting their money, neglecting the needy people of Connecticut will only work toward your demise and legacy.
 
Margaret Robben