Title Doing what is right; is not always easy. I’ve been witnessing a great deal of hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth about the rollout of the ACA; and I must admit to some confusion. The GOP doesn’t want this law to work, right? The GOP seems to be very concerned about how this rollout has been administered, and how the ‘people’ are being affected by this travesty of a Law. The same ‘people’ who the Republican Party decided could stand a 5 billion dollar cut to the SNAP program (with the promise of more to follow) that helps the poor, disabled, children, and veterans; and the GOP also want to rid the Country of having affordable healthcare for all. Then a disaster like Typhoon Haiyan comes along; and the first people to answer the call is the USMC with tonnage of supplies, and millions in aid… within days… While victims of Hurricane Sandy waited for months for Congress to appropriate the funds for a disaster that happened to citizens in their own Country. Isn’t it amazing how fast the US can render aid and support to the people in dire need around the globe; and be so slow on the uptake when a disaster affects our own soil; our own people? Are we a benevolent Country? Is our benevolence the way we choose to show the power of our Democracy; the values and virtues it encompasses…? Or are we putting America’s best face forward; the face of care and compassion for the human condition in times of extreme hardship, the face we want the World to see when tragedy strikes? Is this a case of the cobbler’s children? Has the US become the cobbler? Have We the People become the cobbler’s children? Do you remember that story? The cobbler’s children went barefoot because the cobbler’s skill was put to use crafting footwear for the people of the village. The demand always seemed to outpace his production; so the cobbler struggled to provide shoes for the kingdom. He could not even spare the time to make shoes for his own children… In those times; your skill or trade was your commitment to your King, your proof of loyalty to the crown. The king would grant you land to operate your business (whatever it may be) and raise your family on; to which maybe you agreed (in the cobbler’s case) to provide footwear for the King’s army at no cost, and to barter your wares with the kingdom’s subjects- with a generous tax payment to the crown- of course. If the King were to become displeased with some aspect of your service to the crown; he could strip you of your land and business- taking the crops and livestock that had been planted and acquired to insure the provisions needed to survive like anyone would do, back then- and cast you and your family out of the kingdom… or worse; depending on the degree of transgression. Earnest service could be deemed insufficient and all you worked for could be gone in the blink of an eye… It was dependent on the character of the King… was he merciful; or greedy? Is he vengeful or benevolent? Did he rule with fairness or did he grind his subjects under his unbearable reign? Those subjects of the kingdom had a way of eventually extricating themselves from a cruel King; usually ending with the hated King’s head adorning a pike, displayed in a place of prominence in the courtyard. The next King will be better… Right…? We do not live in the time of Kings anymore; no matter how hard the GOP try to paint that picture with their colorful jargon. The GOP’s answer for the ACA fix is scrap the thing; and blow the 600+ million dollar price tag… Who cares; it’s only the taxpayer’s money… And if anyone knows about blowing taxpayers money; it’s the Republicans. The Government shut-down and near default cost the people 24 Billion dollars thus far; the full scale of damage has yet to reveal itself, unfortunately… the constant convening of Committees dealing with either the ACA, Benghazi, executive appointments, or the outrage of the moment serves a two-fold purpose. It slows Washington to a crawl; spending the taxpayer’s money re-fighting a battle over a Law; or re-trying to churn-up a conspiracy where there has been none… And it forces the people in the Administration who are trying to repair the website to halt their efforts; to stop their endeavors and come to answer questions from a Party who has no interest in the ACA’s success. Judging from the machinations they have implemented; it is safe to say they want it to fail. Until the Congress can explain their refusal to appropriate funds requested by the State Department for upgrades in the security of our Middle Eastern Embassies; the Congress should refrain from the future re-visiting of the Benghazi incident. The majority of culpability lies with them. You can’t refuse funds to upgrade the security of US interests abroad; and be filled with moral outrage when tragedy occurs at one of those interests. You want to have it both ways, don’t you? Why don’t you convene a Committee and look into the colossal gaffe of denying a request for security funding that left 4 people dead? Oh, right… that points straight to you tea-publicans, doesn’t it? Your party wants to hold accountable an Administration; for short-comings put forth by Congress. The GOP relished the President’s apology to the Nation for the less-than-ideal launch of Healthcare.gov; but we as a Nation should demand an apology from Congress about the monumentally stupid act of denying a request that resulted in the destruction of an American installation and loss of American lives… it didn’t have to happen… it should never have happened. The GOP has no plan of their own for providing affordable healthcare to the Nation; they are perfectly fine with status quo. Also, the rabid elephants in the party are incessant in their cry of “the President lied to the people” about his phrase ‘if you like your policy you can keep it’… As most people know; someone can make you out to be a liar, if they want to… Say your child has a recital or they are receiving an award at school and want you to attend. You may have to take off early from work to attend; but assure your child that you will be there. While at work; the supervisor or foreman denies your request for time off, stating that he or she can’t spare you because of a backlog or production deadlines… So, you lied to your child… right? There was a certain amount of good faith in taking the insurance industries pledge that they will work with the Administration in implementing this ground breaking Law. Keep in mind; the ACA’s success will take away customers that the insurance industry will insure while they are healthy; and drop when a catastrophic illness causes them to witness just how lacking their policy is… Pay us; the insurance companies for being in good health, and the moment when you really need your insurance… we the insurance companies; will drop you… That’s a win-win for us… Yeah, we should listen to the GOP and just give up on the ACA. That is the message the tea-publicans are sending… when the going gets tough; quit… Is that what America has become? A Nation who tries something once; and decides it is too costly, too troublesome to continue… then quits? If that were the case; we would have never flown a plane, built a car… Or even launched and landed a man on the moon. Americans do not quit… never have; never will… we do not take failure well. We look at failure as not trying hard enough, where there’s a will-there’s a way; pick your own cliché… Doing what is right; is not always easy… This whole ACA website has been constructed from an idea; that must interface with different Agencies( some of which have been around for decades) and also interface with the different States exchanges-of which only half of the States are participating in… And we wonder why the website is flawed. When the website was constructed; code was written assuming that the whole country would participate, by way of the State’s exchanges. Naturally, the red states did not participate… I wonder why. It’s akin to a NASCAR car owner demanding that his driver win the Daytona 500; and providing him with a car that only runs 55 MPH… The fact that this website is a brand new system; the first of its kind, cuts no slack with this unreasonable party. The knowledge of having to start from somewhere; because there is no measurable basis to start from, means nothing to the right. Someone has to be the pathfinder here…and this someone is trying to lead the way… Through all the rhetoric, personal attacks, repeated attempts to do away with the legislation he has worked soo hard to achieve; the fanning of fears involving rights that had been fought over and won long ago… and that sadly now have to be fought over again… this President is and should stay the course. Just because something has never been done before; there is no proof that it can’t be done… This argument over the website is just something for the elephants to hang their hat on. As we all know about squeaking wheels; they are the ones that get the attention. Why do they want it? If you are busy listening to them using their trusty talking points; you are too busy to equate what you are hearing, with what’s going on. This is what they say: “it will never work;” meaning the ACA Law… The principle is proven sound; regretfully the implementation has been beset with surprise technical faults, obstruction, an incomplete Nation-wide participation, while under political sniper-fire from the party actively rooting for the Law to fail… Stop and think about that for a moment… Have you ever seen an official run for a public office on a platform of destroying; and not building? The tea-publicans campaign on destroying laws. They offer no alternatives; no compromise… they are soo fervent in their opposition, that the simple act of doing the Nations daily business operations has become non-existent. They fixate on their target, and cannot be distracted by trivial things… things like GI Jobs bill, immigration, the budget, federal appointments, marriage equality, and the farm bill… It is easy to cite that this President hasn’t accomplished anything of value or importance… When you have made sure that he has had no support; or a willingness to see that some things are morally right to do… America was founded by people emigrating from places enforcing religious persecution; to be free to worship their beliefs, and to raise their children where the ideals are tolerance, acceptance, and fairness… and somehow managed to screw that up by way of the treatment of the Native Americans and the shameful act of slavery. To even invoke the word in any other intent lessens the evil, hatred, and misery it wrought… We were an untrustworthy lot in the past, eh? Is that what we are, now? With all the machinations with voter’s laws, gerrymandering, shortening of early voting, and last-minute purging of voter registration rolls; making the one-person-one-vote, a thing of the past… how else can you explain it? I’ve always heard if you don’t vote; you can’t complain… now your vote may not even count. The malingering performance of doing the work of Government; while making the rounds on talk shows lamenting on the economy, jobs, and how this healthcare law will kill both, serves only to confuse and distort facts you want forgotten. For the amount of work done in the best interests of America; that this Republican Congress has actually participated in, and not stalled, stopped, or outright refused to hear- the Nation would have been wiser to have hired rank strangers right off the street; and paid them minimum wage; (saving those huge salaries and applying it towards the debt…) actual average people; who have no idea what they are doing, in the ways of politics… The outcome could not be any worse. The tea-publicans chant about wanting small or no Government; perhaps unaware that one of the consequences of small or no Government… will be their jobs… No need for State Representatives; or Senators, or any official on a national level. The power will rest solely with the individual states… We will need to change the title of our Country; I’m guessing we will drop the “United,” and be called the “States of America…” got a nice ring to it, eh GOP? There will be no need for a President; it has been proven that they can be rendered powerless, no matter if the population supports his (or her) policies… Surely you didn’t think you could keep your job. Why? There would be no need for you… Besides; who would pay you, which is your concern, of course… No Government; right? Never mind the thought about who would be in charge of the military. Or who is the one to make sure that when a new natural disaster strikes somewhere else in the world; that supplies and monetary aid is rushed to those unfortunate souls, posthaste… because it is about how we are perceived around the world; not how we actually are abroad, or more importantly, here at home. Got to put our best face forward… no one knows what’s going on over here in the States, anyway… Implying that the world isn’t watching and witnessing the struggles between the parties within our own glorified Democracy… an ideal we tout as an example to the rest of the globe. While also making allies and business Nations uneasy about future dealings with the US; over concerns of defaults, and a loss of confidence and respect for our Nation. You may just get your dream of isolationism yet, GOP… because the global community is linked to our economy; and if we default, we are not the only ones going down. If the stupidity of our Congress affects other countries; it is safe to say, relations may become strained. The world has a vested interest in how America keeps its house in order. Looks like it’s time to do some house cleaning; our house is a mess… In over 200 years; our house has never been in this kind of shape before. We the People know what needs to be done. It won’t be easy to do; but necessary… As of this writing; tornadoes swept through the Midwestern US on 17th Nov. 2013, wreaking destruction and leaving our citizens homeless and dealing with the aftermath… Typhoon Haiyan survivors started receiving aid within a day or two after their environmental event… I wonder how long the good people of the Midwest will have to wait…. Bud Allen
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 17:40:19 +0000
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