Health Care Just Got Even More Affrodable

In today’s Dallas Morning News, (Wednesday, July 25, 2012) the top lead story on the front page says that “Health law will shrink deficit, budget office says”.

Now wait a minute. After all the hoopla from Perry, Dewhurst and Cruz in Texas alone, and from Mitt on the national campaign trail, not to mention every billionaire’s Super PAC along with the so-called Tea Party that the first thing they want to do is kill Obamacare, because it is ruining America; the fact is the act is going to lower the deficit. That is something of a major story. (Even though the on-line version of the paper failed to carry it. Must be run by Young Republicans.)

So let’s get this all laid out nice and easy so my GOP friends, who can’t seem to follow logic can at least follow this. 

With fewer non-complying, indigent patients – uninsured people – (freeloaders in your terms) the Act will lower taxes needed to cover their care and that will cut federal cost by $84-billion. (Hell, that almost as much as Mitt has hidden off shore…sorry that was a cheap shot…we all know he has more than that hidden.)

This audit was run by the non-partisan budget office especially challenged by Congress (Controlled by the right wing of the GOP) to find the real cost of the Affordable health Care Act. (Obamacare.) By the way, the same office warned us in 2005 that carrying on two overseas wars with no taxes to support them would lead to dire consequences. They were right. Can you say recession?  Apparently the W could not, or if he could, the Dickster wouldn’t let him in public.

Why am I harping on this today? Because this election is about sound bites. Both sides taking cheap shots at one another. But an audit done by people who over and over find the skunk in the woodpile on our behalf, have said, “hey this thing is going to save us a butt-load of cash.”

It is time we listen to the auditors and not to Rush and Hannity and all the other right-wing pundits. After all, the real reason they are against the Act has nothing to do with the math behind it. They are against it because of the man behind it.

And that is very petty.

America in Black and White

I posted this on my Facebook wall but several friends said I should make it my Tuesday blog...a bit early, since many people aren't on Facebook and follow me here.
American...in black and white.

An actual encounter today at the lunch counter:

I was seated at Wild About Harry’s today in Dallas (If you don’t know it, it is the best ice cream in the solar system and the hot dogs are good, too.) when two men next to me got into a discussion about Obamacare. They both rather loudly proclaimed it was the government’s duty (The meant Congress) to wipe it away. It was about to ruin America. I decided to ask how?

They sat and looked at me like I had two heads.

How is Obamacare about to ruin America? I asked it again.

“Well, ah…hum…ah…”

“Once more. You said Obamacare is about to ruin America. How?”

The younger of the two (that made him about forty-five) said “It just is.”

“Because it is going to keep people from getting life-saving care?” I asked.

“Oh no. Not that.” The older man was about seventy. they could have been father and son.

“Because it is going to allow people who have pre-existing conditions to get insurance and can’t be turned away?”

The elder one said, “No. That’s a good thing.”

“Is it that prescription drug costs will come down?”

“No. I suppose that is okay as well. Yes. When you think about it that is good.”

“Well, maybe then it is going to ruin America because now you and I don’t have to pay so much in local tax to treat indigent users in local hospital ER rooms for things they could go to a regular doctor with?”

The younger one, “No. No that’s a good thing. A very good thing.”

"Is it the mandatory coverage?”

The older guy spoke up here. “Nope. I actually understand that. Everyone has to be covered for it to be fair. Supreme Court opened my eyes to that one. At first I thought it was kind of like communism, but now I see it is just like car insurance. Everyone has to be covered for it to be fair.

“So, guys, I’m not getting it. Less cost, more people covered, cheaper insurance for us all and even the dead beats have to get covered. And people who have been sick can’t be denied coverage and kids coming out of college can get coverage without going into the poor house. It all sounds good. So how is this ruining America?”

They looked at each other and said, “Obama is ruining America. That’s how.”

“If this were Romney’s insurance plan…say like the one in Massachusetts… would you be in favor of it?’

Older guy. “You bet.”

“You know this is almost his exact plan. And it was devised by the Heritage Foundation, which the Kock Brothers support. A very conservative think tank.”

Young guy. “It’s still Obama’s plan.”

“So, he is the problem?”

“Yeah.” The both said that together.

“Okay. Why? You just told me his healthcare plan was basically okay. You told me that if it were Romney’s, you’d support it in a heartbeat. But because it came from the Obama administration, you are against it. Right?”

The both nodded.

“Why?”

The older guy. “He’s ruining America.”

And so were back to the beginning. Only now we know that they really don’t dislike Obamacare. They just hate Obama’s guts. They were white and rich and live in Highland Park and they don’t want their nest egg taxed more than the 12-15% it is. (I pay close to 30% for the sake of being transparent–open and fair in this column).

I then looked at the two and asked, thinking I knew how they would weasel out of the questions –“If President Obama were white, would you like him?”

The younger one shocked me. “If he were white he’d be seen as a good leader. I’d say he would have done a very good job considering what he inherited from George.” (Note “George”…they probably know the W personally.) But he’s not. We don’t need one of his kind in the White House.”

America…there is your problem. There is your 2012 election.

The ice cream is good at Wild About Harry’s. The conversation was civil and open. It just made me see we really are still two societies split by race. In some ways it is still 1964. Only now, for a shot time, we have universal health insurance.

 

 

Maybe the Death penalty isn’t what Penn State deserves.

Michael Rosenberg makes a case in Sports Illustrated for Penn State not getting the death penalty over the child sex scandal on their campus. The first piece to his argument is that that the entire scandal was in the hands of a very few people.

Like SMU’s wasn’t?

At least the Pony’s didn’t rape anybody. No, what the did was show very poor institutional judgment in allowing Bobby Cox and his band of thugs to run a football program on a college campus with illegal players. All that happened at Penn State was Joe Pa allowed a sex scandal to go on for over a decade and turned his back along with the back of the institution away from his top assistant coach while he defiled young men time and time and time again. Yes Joe pa helped turn the attention of the administration away from the problem and told them it was no big deal. Look away, look away. Oh yeah, and give me a bigger contract. Look away.

I don’t know, but I’d rather see a few inner city kids paid to play a bit of football for the U than I would seeing the same U condone and allow child rape to happen continually on the campus for a decade.

Give Penn State the death penalty and do it now.  If the NCAA drags its feet on this it should be ashamed.

Or…

Let Penn State play football and every penny, every nickel every dollar the program takes in for the next thirty years goes to the victims and their families. Every last cent. And let them be audited ever year by the NCAA and if they are caught cheating, shut the whole damn school down, not just the athletic department.

If Americans aren’t morally outraged over this, then God save America. We turned our backs on the Catholic Church and their little sexual escapades with choir boys and alter boys and said, well, hell they are just priests.  The Pope paid a bunch of folks off and it was over. Let us pray…and please tithe we need the cash.

But Joe Pa and his gang…now that is true religion…and it went sour. Now that institution should pay and pay big.

Every cent made from football for the next 30 years goes to a trust fund for victims of sexual abuse and child sexual crimes. After thirty years, Penn State can be allowed to make a profit, if anyone cares by then. Its glory will be gone, along with its programs. And this way, we didn’t have to have the death penalty – just a huge tax for an institution harboring evil within its walls.

Rosenberg goes on to say that if we allow the NCAA to give Penn State the DP, then anytime an athlete fails a drug test and the coach looks away and that athlete kills someone in a car under the influence, they should step in. (Hey, if the U knows about it and does nothing about it, I agree with that. So, Michael, why have a governing body looking out for people who play the sports, if the governing body isn't going to stand up to rogue institutions like SMU was and Penn Sate was? What's good for the goose is also good for the gander.)

Penn State you are on paid probation for 30 years. Clock starts now.

Guns, guns, guns.

It took less than two hours after the breaking news awakened us on Friday morning about the massacre at a theater in Colorado, for one nut to send me a message that said to stop this kind of slaughter of human life, every American should pack heat. Should be forced by law to pack heat.

For full disclosure, I am a Second Amendment rights advocate. People should be allowed to own guns. No question. Period. But to carry them around like Jessie James is ridiculous, stupid and defies logic. I interviewed several of my buddies on the local police force and to the man (and one woman) they all said, “NO” to arming citizens on the street. One even went so far as to say that giving the general public open license to carry guns around would be tantamount of starting the next big war.

The “I’ve ben in office too long” governor of Texas, Rick Perry, had suggested after a student shooting, that all students should be required to carry handguns for protection on college campuses. He was serious, too. Can you image that?  I can. It would be a drunken blood bath. Carnage 101.

Look, the crime in Aurora, Colorado is horrible. Whether you are a gun owner or not, it is an insult to the civility which Americans try to prescribe for their daily lives. The peace and tranquility we so desperately want, the safety for our families and friends we try and envelope around us, will not be aided by crackpots calling for more guns on people and more guns on the streets.

The opposite will happen. It’s like saying to stop HIV we need more unprotected sex.

What this country does need is an awakening to the fact that serious sick people are getting their hands on guns. What can we do about that? I don’t have an answer this morning, but I promise you I will be thinking about it. And if you are a member of the NRA, I would suggest you get your organization thinking about it as well. Because every time there is one of these huge shootings, the Second Amendment gets weakened ever so slightly and soon, I fear, the legs beneath its support will come crashing down.

The best way to halt the erosion of support for gun ownership protection is to find a way to keep the nutcases from owning guns. It is going to take some real open and honest looking at the problem.

What it doesn’t need is loud-mouth crazies calling for everyone to arm themselves on America’s streets.

Stalemate in Washington

Two unrelated items that will let you see what is wrong with the GOP.

One, the Senate blocked a jobs/tax bill that would have given business a 20% tax break for bringing jobs back to U.S. soil. 20%! Voted it down. It wasn’t along party lines. Several GOP Senators voted for the President’s proposal and one even said afterwords "We’re going to pay hell for this." He’s right about that.

Second item. GOP-led House of Representatives voted for a $606 Billion military-spending bill. That’s $2 billion more than the White House asked for. That’s $2 Billion more than the Pentagon asked for. That covers defense programs Dick Chaney lobbied for. How many Americans could have used a $ 2Billion decrease in taxes, or coverage in healthcare or funds placed into the system to help support job growth?

Now you read these and you have to wonder whose side Washington is on?  Congress sure doesn’t get it. The Tea Party has raised all kinds of ruckus for lowering taxes and reducing spending. Here are two bills that, in their original states would have done both, and yet it was the Republican block of votes that stopped them.

Why?

It is a way to get at the President. Stop a jobs bill and no jobs can happen from it. When economic reporting shows a slow down in new jobs, you can take a punch or two at the President’s financial policies not working.

You wonder why we have a stalemate in Washington. We have idiots in Congress. And most of them (not all) sit on the right hand side of aisle.

If you had offered American businesses  a 20% Tax Credit under the Bush administration, on top of the tax cuts they already had received, the Chamber of Commerce would have paid to have a giant W carved on Mount Rushmore. But put a black, democrat in the White House and all hell breaks loose. “Do anything to slow down his policies from working. Discredit him at every turn.” That is the mantra in the Republican controlled Congress. But people are starting to see through this. In a recent Pew Poll, Americans survey said by a 67% majority that most of the blame in the faltering economy now belongs to Congress. Not Obama. Read that again. Over 6 in 10 Americans think congress is the culprit in not solving our economic woes and are standing in the way of the president and his policies. (The number is growing, by the way. The last survey had it at an even 50-50 split.)

I keep getting messages from my right-wing buddies saying, “Fear the government. Fear it.” They are absolutely correct. Fear the extreme right-wing Congress because it is going to ruin the American system.

The most dangerous movement against America is not from outside our shores, it is from the Tea Party. It is vindictive and ignorant. Two very bad traits to have in one political movement.

Africa may never be the same

Today my younger daughter departs for Africa. I am so proud of her. She is breaking out of her shell in ways I never dreamed I’d see.  But that is what parenting is about. Watching your children grow up to be who they truly are; and not who we insist they be.

Meredith is going on a mission trip to take care of orphans in Zambia. Most of these kids have been orphaned because of AIDS and HIV. Let me run over a little math for you. The country has a population of about 13,000,000. Half of those are under the age of 21 and half of those are orphaned. That comes out to be about 3,250,000 orphans. Or roughly one quarter of the country’s population with no parents. To say it is a massive problem is a gross understatement.

Meredith and her crew will not solve the problem in the ten days they are there. The next crew that follows them and the next and the next will not either. But they will help. And that is vitally important. From the mundane of sharing pencils and paper for schooling, to the ridiculously simple – delivering shoes for bare feet – the work goes on. Year round.

To me, I can think back to a few years ago when Meredith didn’t want to get off the sofa in the summer. Cartoons were on. Now she is traveling the world helping those far less fortunate than herself. But she does it at home, too. She works with inner city kids at an urban high school in central Texas. A school with a high number of unmarried mothers in their teens – a high number of students doing dangerous drugs. A school with a huge drop-out rate. A school that has seen more than its share of suicides. She works there to deliver something – hope. She works there to deliver a message, don’t give up on yourself. Life is vital. Live it. Even when it hurts, live it.

That is a message of love when it comes from one who is there with you week after week.  And she has been. In Africa, she will not get that. She will come in and then leave. But others will follow and the chain will, as the song says, be unbroken.

Yes, today my daughter travels halfway around the world to do what she has been doing in her own backyard. Caring for kids not her color or even her religion. Just caring.

I am proud of her. I wish her God’s speed. And I remind her, you are making a difference. And that is the most important thing a person can do with their life.

Right on, Meredith. Right on.

The good. The bad. And the winners.

(AP) TOULOUSE, France - Tour de France riders have already battled crashes, flares, and fans or dogs straying into their roads. Now, some ne'er-do-well dumped tacks on the road, and if the aim was to disrupt cycling's big race, it worked.
But as cyclists often do in the face of difficulty, they kept going.
Bradley Wiggins of Britain, the Queen Bee of the pack because he is wearing the yellow jersey, drew plaudits for at least slowing its pace and waiting for defending champ Cadel Evans in Sunday's Stage 14.
Tour officials estimated that around 30 competitors in the main pack blew flats near the day's steepest climb, the Mur de Peguere, as Luis Leon Sanchez led a breakaway far ahead of the trouble to win the stage. One rider crashed as a result of the tacks.

It is Tour de France time. And that always brings out the weird stories.

And what a story! Tacks in the road during the world’s most famous bike race. Tacks! Who would do such a thing?

But the real news buried in the story was that Bradley Wiggins held up the leaders in the peloton to wait on last year’s champion, Cadel Evans. That is true sportsmanship. Unlike Alberto Contador, who year before last, ran off and left his only challenger, Andy Schleck, with a broken chain on the side of a mountain. Contador was and is a sad case of super ego gone bad. Forget that he was a doper. Forget he had to give up the yellow jersey to Schleck for cheating. He was and is not a sportsman. Not when you compared his actions to the acts of Wiggins, who effectively kept a major competitor and rival in the hunt for the yellow jersey – as is the accepted custom of the cycling sport.  It was a most selfless act. You don’t witness that much any longer in professional sports. One of the last big time champions I saw do it was Lance Armstrong, who held back the entire race waiting for fallen competitors to have a chance to catch up.

Money – winning – and the money that comes with winning– as well as the sponsorship and the money it brings, have all but killed sportsmanship in sports. Sounds like money is the root of these evils.

There was a story of a girl in Ohio named Megan Vogel who helped a competitor across the finish line after the competitor collapsed from exhaustion in a long-distance race at a state finals track meet this past spring. Megan had already one the 1600-meter race and was trying for the 3200-meter win, as she saw the other runner fall. She stopped, helped her up and they crossed the line 14^th and 15^th; Megan, letting her fallen rival cross ahead of her. Nobody is interviewing the winner of the race. I am not writing about her. I am writing about somebody who did something right in sports.  For a change. No dancing in the end zone. No spiking the ball.  No backflips or burnouts. Just quietly doing what is right.

Just like Bradley Wiggins, who may well win the Tour de France – but again, he may not. But he is by far and away a better competitor than Contador of Spain will ever be with or without the yellow jersey. Because he did what was right. Alberto Contador and his handlers hid behind the excuse that the waiting on a competitor is not written down in the rules. No. And neither is being a gentleman. As Jim Clarke of Scotland said after losing the Indy 500 on a technicality he could have challenged, “Gentlemen do not protest.” Sportsman are supposed to do certain things. Like being big sports.

I wish there were more of these stories in sports. But the winner take all mentality has changed the soul of the games –all games. And I am not sure that soul is a very healthy one at that anymore.

As for the person who threw the tacks on the road’s surface, my you have one hundred punctures in your tires for the next ten years.