If You Don't Stand for Something Then You Will Fall For Anything

 Allen J. Novosad of the great city of Edna reminds me of the wind -up kid toy where the child picks a farm animal and then pulls the string to hear the sound of his choice. The first paragraph of Allen's recent letter- to- the editor is devoted to heading of his letter " Obama will not say Affordable Care Act is faulty" and the rest of his letter is about our government's economic policies. 

I read Mr. Novosad's letter three times to make sure I understood his message because he left out the major cause of our current financial doldrums.. He conveniently left out the 2007-08 Wall Street monetary crash. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) did not have anything to do with the melt -down ,besides the reason for passing ACA was that the costs had been skyrocketing for a least a decade. Did Mr. Novosad ever mention jobs? The right has been wishing for inflation for 4 years but if they knew anything about economics ,they would understand why inflation is low.

I'm going to stick with health care,because it's people like Mr. Novosad  who keeps this issue widely misunderstood. Recent polls revealed that 42% of Americans don't know that ACA is the law of the land. I don't know what government study indicated that the program was going to cost trillions but CBO estimated that it would cost $5-$10 billion over ten years. I do know that the GOP has only funded a third off the cost it took  to fund their Medicare Part D prescription-drug bill. I also know that the  GOP leaders in both houses will not send a representative to the ACA Advisory Board.  Next week,the House  will again waste taxpayer money by voting to repeal the ACA for the 37th time. When a reporter asked John Boehner why he was allowing another repeal,he said " some freshman members of Congress have not been given the opportunity to vote for repeal." So it amounts to ritual.

On October 1st,30,0 million people will start applying to get health insurance for the first time  and there's no doubt it will be problematic because of  confusion,reluctance of GOP governors to participate and lack of congressional funding. Democrats lost 46 seats when they passed Medicare,and now it's a savior for many seniors. Republicans forgot all the problems that came with the Medicare Part D prescription drug bill they passed. I bet Allen Novosad doesn't know that Part D 

was put on the credit card.

It is a confusing piece of legislation because according to polls only 37% fully approve of the ACA;probably because it's known as Obamacare

Yet:

1. 88% approve of the small business credits

2. 80% approve of the health care exchanges

3. 76% approve of the subsides for private insurance

4. 71% approve of Medicaid expansion

 5. 66% approve of guarantee coverage

The Affordable Care Act will be culprit for everything that's wrong with our health care system because it's a big available target much like Social Security,Medicare Part D, and Medicare was. People forget that insurance companies have always raised their rates and people have always lost their jobs along with their health insurance. I'm willing to bet companies are using ACA for laying off people or not hiring new ones as an excuse. Some major companies have taken the heat for using ACA as their excuse for cutting employees or their hours.   

Unlike Mr. Novosad,who didn't offer any solutions,I will continue to try to separate myth from facts. The Affordable Care Act will need a lot of young healthy  people to participate in order to offset the costs of  new more sickly enrollees. The young people will probably opt to pay the $95 fine rather than get a bare bones catastrophe plan. We need the advisory board before we can start to reform Medicare because it's time  to let our seniors know that we can no longer pay for some procedures and as cruel as it may sound,we have to educate families about Hospice.

Paul Ryan Calls Out Progressives

 

 

A lot of my liberal/progressive friends will ask, "Why does anything Rep. Paul Ryan say matter?" It matters because he represents one of the directions the country will take to restore our economy. Representative Ryan is pretty much a one-trick pony (budgets), and he's quite content with that. Wednesday, he told the ultra -conservative American Enterprise Institute that progressivism is well-intentioned, but it is also in his humble opinion... arrogant and condescending. He admitted that the left keeps winning elections, but he will continue to think that it's because they give out free stuff from the government. He said it's a false sense of it security because the government can't keep all its promises.

Representative Paul Ryan is pushing fiscal austerity and progressives are saying we should take a balanced approach and not just slash safety- net programs. Paul Ryan is a student of Any Rand and his budget is based on a study by a couple Harvard economists which were recently repudiated. Rather than admit that the study was wrong, Ryan said" we have to stop spending money we don't have." That's the simple message that he wants his conservative friends to take to the inner cities, barrios, and rural farm areas. That may have worked in the past but try convincing the struggling poor that they can make it at minimum wage with no benefits. People like Paul Ryan mocks Senator Elizabeth Warren for suggesting that we let students have a .75% rate loan like the Wall Street has been taking advantage of. The poor are probably wondering why the stock market is above 15,000 but they are struggling to make ends meet. There's no doubt that corporate American is doing great, so all those people that say Obama hates capitalism have to admit that he's got a funny way of showing it.

This idea of fee stuff has caught on and you can see by the comments those on the right are making. That's a message they will cling to; rather than admit that the old conservative message of low taxes and smaller government is not resonating. The low taxes are going to the corporations while they cut back their workers benefits thus leaving the government to pick up the tab. I heard President Reagan's former budget director, David Stockman; say that we should increase the EITC rather than the minimum wage. That's the Ayn Rand/ Laissez Faire mentality “increase the bottom line for businesses and bleed the government dry" because in the long run it will lead the unfettered capitalism. Progressives are pushing a message that "government cannot solve all the problems but it's certainly part of the equation and certainly not the bogeyman the right makes it to be."

Paul Ryan is for comprehensive immigration reform but a majority of his party is not listening to him. We'll see how much credence the GOP gives to the recent study of the conservative think- tank Heritage Foundation. That study concluded the illegal immigrants will cost us $6.3 trillion ( and in fine print that's over 50 years making it $126 billion a year).The study was written in red ink because they concluded that the new immigrants would always stay below the poverty line and so would their offspring. The calculator they used didn’t  have a minus key but I don't have to tell you what I think of a projection 50 years out. Now that the senate bill is ready for presentation and mark up; a couple of senators are adding multiple amendments to make it harder to pass. The GOP should just go back to their default position and quit trying to pull the wool over the public's eyes. It was just eight months ago when Republican presidential candidates were getting loud applauses for suggesting self -deportation, multiple electrified fences, and hateful rhetoric. Can a political party change its position in eight months? They didn’t when it came to marriage equality.

The conservatives I have known have always been about money and not so much about human issues; excluding the social issues. If you didn't have the same contempt for welfare and other social programs then you were for them. If you didn't freak out about government spending then you were for big government. It was as if everyone had to have the same American dream of owning a business, attending a Christian church, and having intolerance for people who did not assimilate as they did. I never questioned my conservative friend’s patriotism or their beliefs but they were always quick to tell me I was wrong if I was not in lockstep with them. Democrats have won most of the national elections in the last 12 years but you wouldn't know it because we're playing on the GOP's home turf. In order for the comprehensive immigration bill to pass it will have to be approved by the hard right. President Obama felt he needed to make reducing payments to Social Security recipients in the future to get republicans to come to the table. We can't do anything meaningful about climate change, closing Guantanamo Bay or even stopping Wall Street from gambling with taxpayer money because of the 60 vote majority and the right-wing House of Representatives. What’s the use of winning the presidency when all you have do is win the gerrymandered districts?

I'm still optimistic because the demographics are changing and so are our attitudes. It's no longer about slogans but more about actions because the Internet is always a click or two away. No, Paul Ryan it’s not about the giveaways; it’s about your economics’ that has been rejected by leading economists and the 2012 election. It’s not about handouts; it’s about a hand out to those who are struggling through no fault of their own. You can demonize the poor all you want because their objections will never be heard because they don’t have a lobbyist. A new day is coming.