Ask Why To Those Who Give You What

So I was surfing through some channels the other day, and there was one of those in depth commentaries on the “landmark healthcare bill” and why the public support is so lax. What floored me was when one reporter turned to the so called political expert and asks the two “most relevant questions”

“are the democrats just doing a bad job of selling the bill?” Or “are the people just fatigued from the process?” How about an alternate suggestion , what about; “maybe we the people know whats in the bill, and know the bill sucks for us the people”, and that's why we don't like it. Maybe; “we don't feel like supporting the insurance industry anymore”, or maybe “we as a majority want a public option, and maybe just maybe we want to see action BEFORE 2014?” I guess you didn't think of those questions did ya? Of course not.

Some 59% of the American people want a single payer or public option but it was quite literally the very first good idea that was killed in every version of the bill. The reason of course is that this option is the only, repeat ONLY portion of the healthcare bill that would actually force the insurance companies to lower their prices and therefore profits. Its the only model in witch any real change is possible. I challenge anyone to educate me where an industry for any reason has ever passed down cost savings to its customers. Why we somehow asked to believe that making the healthcare system more efficient and cheaper as a whole will trickle down to us makes my temporal lobe shudder. Did we already forget “Reaganomics”? And as my mother so eloquently put it to me the other night. “fuck trickle down”

“Oh its working in Massachusetts” bullshit. Nothing is working here. What we have here is a government mandate that if you cant afford insurance, then you will be fined until you get insurance. So just because you haven't got the money, they will take more money from you for not having the money to get the thing you would love to have if you had the money. And for those who qualify by not having enough money will be subsidized by the government so they can buy insurance. Brilliant isn't it? Well, guess what, now most people have had insurance for about 2 years now and surprise, premiums HAVE NOT GONE DOWN at all. Add to that the surprise that almost everyone they brought into the system with this new law, cant afford insurance on their own so their subsidized.

So the premiums haven't gone down, treatment is still expensive and reactive, and they didn't think that the people who didn't have insurance actually couldn't afford it. Maybe they thought people didnt get insurance because they like to live dangerously. Well way to think ahead assholes, the state is going bankrupt supporting this program and it doesn't have the money to carry all of these subsidies for all of these poor people, out of work people or otherwise broke people. Its borrowing money from the feds to keep the program going while we wait for the insurance companies to “trickle down” their pricing premiums which isn't going to happen because THEY DONT HAVE TOO. Not to mention, now instead of a 2 month wait to see your doctor its a 4 month wait. So people still go to the emergency room for preventive critical care, and people are still without insurance.

But guess what, the senate just passed the same fucking system for the rest of the country. The big difference between what we're running here in Assachusetts and the fed bill is that the feds are going to tax the shit out of us until 2014 to preload the coffers to finance the subsides when the time comes because they know they cant afford it as its not a self sustaining cost model. Good luck with that, how many of you assholes will be retired by then I wonder.

So those 30 million (out of 70 million who need it) Americans they brag about getting on the insurance plans will now be going to your doctor too. After all, before we started this shit there weren't enough doctors to treat us all, and now with the same supply and increased demand will be even worse. Which is genius to the insurance companies because they know; if you're making your premiums, and you cant get in to see a doctor, then you're not filing claims, and if you're not filing claims then they are not paying out. Which of course means; multimillion dollar bonuses, private jets and gold plated silverware. Who are the winners in healthcare reform again?

Around July of next year when the congressmen start up their campaigns for reelection they will sing and tote this bill as a huge victory for us common men, because they in their infinite wisdom and benevolent stewardship have managed to “contain healthcare inflation”, and “expand coverage” But it will be a lie. If Obama stands on his word that he wont sign anything without a public option then they will blame him for killing healthcare reform. But your smart right? You can see that this so called reform is just profiteering for the insurance lobbies who at date have 6 lobbyists for every 1 congressmen. You can see that there is no reform, and the so called bill is 1200 pages of weasel words and loopholes, spending programs for home states, and pork and fat and special interest crap that makes it just about worthless. The only positive note ive heard in this bill is the pre-existing condition clause. But with it not taking effect until 2014, fortunately only another 200 thousand or so people will die waiting.

And now their so tired of doing their jobs that they just want to get something, anything passed so they can move on and say they accomplished something. Because actually producing something thats good for the country is just too hard. Poor babies, fuck you. You know whats hard? Having to choose food over getting that thing that's growing out of the side of your neck looked at. And yes we're tired of hearing about this shit drone on too. After all we knew it was over and we had lost when you killed the public option. Liberman, good god what a failure of a human being. I myself am tired of hearing about it, but personally when I get tired of combat I give in and give people what they want, not give up.

So why do we keep reelecting these assholes? Pretty simple really; Come summer of 2010 we will either forget that they participated in fucking us over, believe their bullshit spin about why they fucked us over, or not believe that they fucked us over at all because we're simply to dumb/naive/ignorant to understand the real effect of the causes they propagate or get distracted like a 6 year old watching a clown magician at his shitty birthday party. “look swift boat captain....(dont notice Bush lied to you about why he invaded a country) evil boat captain! his medals are lies!.. (what happened to mission accomplished?) ehhh.. hurts my brain to even think about.

Im tired of hearing that the recession is over as well. Every time I hear “the recession is over” I think of Bush standing in front of that mission accomplished sign after we took Baghdad. The recession ain't fucking over, its just begun. The problem of course is the terminology. As far as economists define it, a “recession” is 2 consecutive quarters of economic contraction. (eg shrinking of the gross domestic product) But that's only one of many indicators of how the economy is actually doing. Sure wall street now is making money again, but whats that mean to us? Not a fucking thing. Layoffs are still happening every month and unemployment is still going up. Cost of living is still going up, propagated with states and local municipality's closing budget gaps by raising taxes on us people who cant afford to spend more for anything including xmass.

Price of food, still going up, utilities still going up, wages (if you're fortunate enough to even have a job) are either still flat, or going down. Interest rates on debt is going up like crazy and lenders are still not lending. But hey they have the cash to pay back the fed to free up those regulations on executive compensation. Foreclosures still going up, suicide going up, poverty going up, bankruptcy going up, crimes of desperation (like bank-robbery) going up and yet you turn on the news and you see a party on wall street and confetti about how the recession is over and we can start spending money on shit we dont need and cant afford.....again.

The reality is that this economic problem that we're living in is gonna stay with us for a while. Obama is right, it comes down to creating new jobs. In the last year companies have streamlined and stripped down so much, that they have realized that they can operate just as well on less fat. They will not be adding fat back onto their payrolls ever as they will of course choose to remain lean and profitable. New industry and new jobs will have to be invented and Joe-Sixpack-Union-Dude will have no place in this new economy. The new plants and factories will be in union-free states like Tennessee and South Dakota, where putting bolts on a car isn't worth 65$ an hour where the guy who actually has the skills to repair said car makes 12$. If the lenders were lending the cash would be available to build or expand factories, invest in research to develop those new products that would lead to those new jobs.

So just with this scratch in the surface, any hope that this quagmire will end in the next year or two is foolish to say the least. But hey, go spend! Buy more shit made by kids in other countries, give jobs to the guys who operate the cargo ships, the dock workers, the cashiers as wall-mart. Spend while interest rates are at record highs, while you're thinking of trading in that 3 bdrm home for a 2bd bedroom walkup before you get foreclosed on. Spend you'll get another unemployment check next month, and after all the recession is over! Whoo hoo!

We as a society are on the precipice of change that can end in only one of two ways. We've been on this edge for about 20 years now, and the lemmings have piled up behind us and now we're gonigt o have to push back or jump. Will it end in a revolution or total placation of society I wonder. There's really no middle. We're either going to get so fed up with the lies, the bullshit, the greed and the shitty magic show that we'll say fuck it and go to war against the leaders, vote them out of office, let the corrupt institutions fail, and withhold our precious dollars to pay off our debt and live within our means.

or will we bow down broken and whipped because that's what we're accustomed to. Chained to our debt and compounding interest as financial slaves that dictates the terms and conditions to every facet of our lives, distracted with shiny objects, banner ads and bite sized talking points tweeted to us 140 characters at a time until we dilute our rational thinking into something more obedient to those who wish to control us for profit. Bobble heads and forgiving to our incompetent representatives who's existence is hypocrisy. Afraid to speak up less have our tongues cut out or shouted down by the special interests and fear mongers who fight to maintain the status quoe.

I used to believe that the internet would bring upon the dawn of information and enlightenment, and that the availability of truth and information would over compensate for all the spin and lies that permeated the limited distribution channels of media at the time. Boy was I ever wrong. We as a society are so numbed by the static and pop ups, banner ads and flashy this and that, that most of the time we dont even pay attention to the cereal box as we eat our fruit loops anymore. We dont hear the message because it takes to long, or we were to distracted by multi tasking that what ever message there was is just another bleep in the background of the electronica.

Would my message be heard if it were tweeted to you? The world, life, politics, economics, and relationships are far to complicated to be understood with a sound bite. To think for yourself you must consume information, in depth and with contrast. You must question authority with practical skepticism and ask why to those who give you what.