Well, it's been an interesting two weeks. I've taken some time off from writing this blog because it was becoming all-consuming and I don't want it to be that way. This is supposed to be a creative outlet for me and my expression of activism, not a daily obligation. Anyway, back to the subject at hand...
As you probably know by now, Republicans withdrew their AHCA bill before it could come to a vote. I think this is a good thing, but my fear is that they will try and accomplish the same objectives through a series of executive orders rather than through legislation. We should keep an eye on this. After the bill was withdrawn, Donald Trump immediately declared that it was withdrawn because of the Democrats and that Democrats are to blame for America's troubles.
I was thinking about this earlier today and saw a post on Facebook with some video clips of Donald Trump during the presidential campaign where he kept saying over and over again how he would repeal and replace Obamacare if elected. The final clip was from yesterday or today where he stated that he never said he would repeal and replace Obamacare.
Seriously? We all saw the videos where he said he would repeal and replace Obamacare and now we see a video clip where he claims that he never said any of that. How stupid does Donald Trump really think we are? We saw it with our own eyes and heard it with our own ears and now he's saying it never happened. We can bring up the actual video on the internet whenever we want and replay it over and over, but he's saying it didn't happen.
So here's where the cost of deception comes in. If you deceive people over and over, then eventually you lose all your credibility. I've deceived people before and I've paid a huge price for it, but I've never tried to deceive a whole country. So how does this relate to Donald Trump? Simply put, we just don't believe anything that comes out of his mouth anymore. If today is Tuesday and Donald Trump holds a press conference to tell everyone that today is Tuesday, we all suddenly wonder if it really is Tuesday. We have been conditioned to think that anything he says is false. And when I say that we have been conditioned, it hasn't been because of some "shadow government" or "deep state" or "political conspiracy." It's simply because he lies a lot and we know it.
So what's the real cost of Donald Trump's deception? Well, he has no credibility with most Americans. We just don't trust him. His approval rating among all Americans is only 38%. That is the lowest approval rating of any president. Ever. The reason is that he repeatedly lies to us and we know it. He shamelessly lies to us all the time. If we can't trust our president, then who will lead us? We need a leader, not a liar.
But there's another cost of Trump's deception. The rest of the world has realized that our president is a liar and can't be trusted. They can't rely on him to follow through with anything he says to them and they know he will just deny that he said it at all if he feels like it. This is damaging to all of us, not just to Donald Trump. Our allies are trying to put some distance between themselves and the United States. They know that they can't rely on us anymore when they need some help.
Another cost of Trump's deception is that people throughout the world are wondering how we could have elected a president like this. I regularly talk to people in several other countries and they just don't understand how we could ever have elected this president. They don't have confidence in the American people anymore. They are starting to wonder if, since we elected this man, we are all like him. I don't know about you, but that scares the crap out of me.
So what do we do? Well, I wish there was an easy answer to this problem but there just isn't. Donald Trump will most likely be a one term president, but the big question is whether the United States can survive four years of this nonsense. Can we simply wait for him to be indicted for using the presidency for personal gain? It's bound to happen as he gets bolder and bolder every day. It's just a matter of time before he crosses that line. If he somehow evades impeachment and we manage to make it through the next four years, what will be left of us and who will we be?
I don't know the answer to that, but I know that my own answer is to keep fighting this president every time I get the chance. I'm not powerful or influential, but I'm also not the only American who feels this way. We just need to speak up and tell everyone what we think every time he spews out another Twitter rant full of lies or he does something that hurts our country. That's what grass roots activism is all about. Do what you can, but please do something. It's the only way we're going to get through this.
Saturday, March 25, 2017
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Have We Let Our Guard Down?
Has anyone else noticed that there seem to be more incidents in the news lately involving racial and religious intolerance? Almost every day we hear about graffiti on a mosque, immigrants being told to go back to their country, or someone being beaten because their skin didn't happen to be white. Are these things new, or have they always been happening and we just haven't heard about them until now?
I'm lucky enough to work in a diverse workforce and we have many people from other cultures in our building. I decided to ask some of them what they thought about it. Their answers made my skin crawl.
I spoke to an Indian woman in another department and she told me that since Trump won the election she was strongly considering moving her family back to India. She said her children are now bullied at their school and her neighbors, who were previously welcoming and pleasant to the family, had become cold, distanced, and did not speak to them any more. They are now treated as outsiders instead of welcomed as neighbors. She and her husband are in the US on H1-B work visas.
I also spoke to an Iraqi who had moved his family to Omaha to escape the ravages of war in his country. He told me that they have never really felt welcome, but they had felt "tolerated" until the last couple of months. Recently they were dining at a popular restaurant in our Old Market district and a manager told them that they would need to finish up their dinner and leave because "American citizens are waiting for this table." He told me that they are worried about their safety and that they have been trying to keep a low profile in the community. They are all American citizens and they are Muslims.
The most perplexing conversation I had was with an African American computer engineer. He was an American citizen, as were his parents and their parents. I have no idea how his family came to be in America, but I suspect they came here against their will at some point. He told me that since Donald Trump's inauguration he has felt a distinctly different vibe than he felt before. He wouldn't go into specifics and during our conversation he even inferred that I was probing for information that I wouldn't have asked for before the election. I was dumbfounded.
The next person I talked to is openly gay. She said that, since the election, she and her partner have been treated differently. They have been treated unfairly with their housing, insurance, and finances. She said that she felt uneasy before, but now she and her partner fear for their safety every day. They are afraid some nut case, emboldened by a Donald Trump presidency that legitimizes discrimination based on sexual identity, will physically harm them. Holy shit.
So what's the deal with this stuff? Why are people in the United States feeling uncomfortable and what are we (white Americans) doing to make them feel that way, if anything? I think there's a certain "uneasiness" throughout America today. Things are uncertain and we don't know what's coming next. We really don't. Eight years ago we felt another uneasiness, but it was tempered with hope. This time the uneasiness is laced with doubt and distrust.
Just look at the news. When you think that Donald Trump has just done the most outrageous and illogical thing possible, all you have to do is wait until the next day and he tops it with something else. Personally, I'm at a loss as to how we got here and even more so at how we're going to get out of this mess. It just keeps getting more and more bizarre and no one really seems to care much about it. We just go along with it. Some of us just smile and say "It doesn't make sense" and then go along with it anyway. I can't understand that at all. Just a few years ago we wouldn't have allowed this to happen, but we let our guard down and here we are, right in the middle of it.
Maybe it's time for us all to just say to the world "We made a mistake" and then take whatever action is necessary to correct it. Going along with something we all know is wrong isn't the answer. You can decide for yourself, but I can't sit still and wait to see what everyone else does.
I have to do something. For now, my contribution is in my words because that's all I have to give. I can't donate a bunch of money to activist causes, but I can donate my skills to them. And I will continue to do so until some of Trump's thugs put me in jail or we figure this thing out.
I'm lucky enough to work in a diverse workforce and we have many people from other cultures in our building. I decided to ask some of them what they thought about it. Their answers made my skin crawl.
I spoke to an Indian woman in another department and she told me that since Trump won the election she was strongly considering moving her family back to India. She said her children are now bullied at their school and her neighbors, who were previously welcoming and pleasant to the family, had become cold, distanced, and did not speak to them any more. They are now treated as outsiders instead of welcomed as neighbors. She and her husband are in the US on H1-B work visas.
I also spoke to an Iraqi who had moved his family to Omaha to escape the ravages of war in his country. He told me that they have never really felt welcome, but they had felt "tolerated" until the last couple of months. Recently they were dining at a popular restaurant in our Old Market district and a manager told them that they would need to finish up their dinner and leave because "American citizens are waiting for this table." He told me that they are worried about their safety and that they have been trying to keep a low profile in the community. They are all American citizens and they are Muslims.
The most perplexing conversation I had was with an African American computer engineer. He was an American citizen, as were his parents and their parents. I have no idea how his family came to be in America, but I suspect they came here against their will at some point. He told me that since Donald Trump's inauguration he has felt a distinctly different vibe than he felt before. He wouldn't go into specifics and during our conversation he even inferred that I was probing for information that I wouldn't have asked for before the election. I was dumbfounded.
The next person I talked to is openly gay. She said that, since the election, she and her partner have been treated differently. They have been treated unfairly with their housing, insurance, and finances. She said that she felt uneasy before, but now she and her partner fear for their safety every day. They are afraid some nut case, emboldened by a Donald Trump presidency that legitimizes discrimination based on sexual identity, will physically harm them. Holy shit.
So what's the deal with this stuff? Why are people in the United States feeling uncomfortable and what are we (white Americans) doing to make them feel that way, if anything? I think there's a certain "uneasiness" throughout America today. Things are uncertain and we don't know what's coming next. We really don't. Eight years ago we felt another uneasiness, but it was tempered with hope. This time the uneasiness is laced with doubt and distrust.
Just look at the news. When you think that Donald Trump has just done the most outrageous and illogical thing possible, all you have to do is wait until the next day and he tops it with something else. Personally, I'm at a loss as to how we got here and even more so at how we're going to get out of this mess. It just keeps getting more and more bizarre and no one really seems to care much about it. We just go along with it. Some of us just smile and say "It doesn't make sense" and then go along with it anyway. I can't understand that at all. Just a few years ago we wouldn't have allowed this to happen, but we let our guard down and here we are, right in the middle of it.
Maybe it's time for us all to just say to the world "We made a mistake" and then take whatever action is necessary to correct it. Going along with something we all know is wrong isn't the answer. You can decide for yourself, but I can't sit still and wait to see what everyone else does.
I have to do something. For now, my contribution is in my words because that's all I have to give. I can't donate a bunch of money to activist causes, but I can donate my skills to them. And I will continue to do so until some of Trump's thugs put me in jail or we figure this thing out.
The CBO Report on the American Health Care Act
We've all been waiting for the Congressional Budget Office to weigh in on the AHCA and their report came out yesterday. I spent some time last night and again this morning reading through it and I can say that I didn't really find any surprises there. The conclusions contained it in are no different than what any reasonable person would have expected.
Basically, the report says that from 2017 through 2026 about 24 million people will lose their health insurance either involuntarily or by their own choice. It also says that the AHCA will reduce the federal deficit by $337 billion over the nine year period by reducing benefits paid through Medicaid and by reducing government subsidies people receive today to help pay for their health insurance. There were no surprises there, although I didn't realize that the number of people who will lose coverage was quite that high.
The report says that about 14 million people will lose insurance in 2018 and more will drop off each year after that. The initial reduction will be due to higher premiums and individuals electing to no longer purchase insurance because the mandate to do so will be eliminated. The report says that premiums will increase for the first 2 years and then begin to drop after that. I think that the premium increases will price many people out of the market. Unfortunately, there is a provision in the AHCA that says insurers can charge a 30% premium penalty for anyone who has been without insurance for over 63 days.
The 63 day provision means that, if you think you can cancel your current insurance and then reinstate it a couple of years from now when premiums decrease, you are dead wrong. The CBO estimates that after the initial two year period, insurance premiums will eventually go down by about 10%, which would either put them at about the same cost as we're seeing today or slightly lower. The 30% premium penalty would put your premium cost 20% higher than you pay today. The net effect is that this provision will price a number of people out of the insurance market and they won't be able to afford to get back in.
The report also doesn't discuss the cost of having a greater number of uninsured people in our population. When people can't afford healthcare but they really need it, they simply don't pay for the care they receive. This results in healthcare providers having to absorb those costs, which increases costs for the rest of us. This in turn increases insurance costs and raises premiums for those of us paying for insurance.
The report also says that part of the savings will be realized by reducing Medicaid benefits, capping Medicaid payments, and tightening Medicaid eligibility criteria. You don't have to be Albert Einstein to understand this part. It will be harder to qualify for Medicaid and, if you manage to qualify for it, then it won't pay as much. By capping payments, you can exhaust your benefits. If you're halfway through an expensive chemo regimen and you hit the cap, then you'll need to rethink your life strategy unless you can come up with a lot of cash.
AHCA is also particularly hard on seniors. It allows insurance companies to charge up to five times as much for insurance as young people will pay. You might think that seniors are in a good place when it comes to their finances. Some of them are, but most of us older Americans have come to the realization that retirement just isn't in the cards for us. Either we haven't been able to save at a rate that keeps up with inflation or we just haven't been able to save enough to support ourselves when we retire, period. Increased premium costs will undoubtedly price many of us out of the insurance market permanently.
There are other provisions of the Act that are very favorable to insurers, both in terms of tax breaks and in the ability to offer reduced coverage at higher prices. You'll have to read it if you want to learn about those. You can read the Act for yourself here.
I guess I can sum up my opinion of the AHCA by saying that it's going to be very hard on low income Americans and it will be beneficial to insurance companies and higher income Americans. It will certainly reduce the deficit, but if you consider this reduction in proportion to other possible avenues for budget reduction, it's a relatively small amount. Especially when you consider how many people will be negatively impacted. I'm angry about it, but I expected that and it's no surprise that Republican lawmakers would propose legislation that benefits the wealthy and big business and do it at the expense of low income Americans. They have a history of doing that while they're telling us that they're making our lives better.
What really makes me angry, however, is the way they're presenting it to the American people. Obamacare has been painted as the root of everything that's wrong with our country and, for the most part, people are believing that. Republicans are putting a positive spin on the CBO report by emphasizing the deficit reduction, but ignoring the fact that 24 million people will become uninsured. If you look at Paul Ryan's summary of the CBO report, then AHCA looks like a no-brainer. If you look past the sound bites designed to play on your emotions rather than your intellect, then the story is much different.
Take a minute and think this through. Look at Paul Ryan's pitch and then look at the actual CBO report and make a decision for yourself. You might discover that AHCA has a pretty high price after all.
Basically, the report says that from 2017 through 2026 about 24 million people will lose their health insurance either involuntarily or by their own choice. It also says that the AHCA will reduce the federal deficit by $337 billion over the nine year period by reducing benefits paid through Medicaid and by reducing government subsidies people receive today to help pay for their health insurance. There were no surprises there, although I didn't realize that the number of people who will lose coverage was quite that high.
The report says that about 14 million people will lose insurance in 2018 and more will drop off each year after that. The initial reduction will be due to higher premiums and individuals electing to no longer purchase insurance because the mandate to do so will be eliminated. The report says that premiums will increase for the first 2 years and then begin to drop after that. I think that the premium increases will price many people out of the market. Unfortunately, there is a provision in the AHCA that says insurers can charge a 30% premium penalty for anyone who has been without insurance for over 63 days.
The 63 day provision means that, if you think you can cancel your current insurance and then reinstate it a couple of years from now when premiums decrease, you are dead wrong. The CBO estimates that after the initial two year period, insurance premiums will eventually go down by about 10%, which would either put them at about the same cost as we're seeing today or slightly lower. The 30% premium penalty would put your premium cost 20% higher than you pay today. The net effect is that this provision will price a number of people out of the insurance market and they won't be able to afford to get back in.
The report also doesn't discuss the cost of having a greater number of uninsured people in our population. When people can't afford healthcare but they really need it, they simply don't pay for the care they receive. This results in healthcare providers having to absorb those costs, which increases costs for the rest of us. This in turn increases insurance costs and raises premiums for those of us paying for insurance.
The report also says that part of the savings will be realized by reducing Medicaid benefits, capping Medicaid payments, and tightening Medicaid eligibility criteria. You don't have to be Albert Einstein to understand this part. It will be harder to qualify for Medicaid and, if you manage to qualify for it, then it won't pay as much. By capping payments, you can exhaust your benefits. If you're halfway through an expensive chemo regimen and you hit the cap, then you'll need to rethink your life strategy unless you can come up with a lot of cash.
AHCA is also particularly hard on seniors. It allows insurance companies to charge up to five times as much for insurance as young people will pay. You might think that seniors are in a good place when it comes to their finances. Some of them are, but most of us older Americans have come to the realization that retirement just isn't in the cards for us. Either we haven't been able to save at a rate that keeps up with inflation or we just haven't been able to save enough to support ourselves when we retire, period. Increased premium costs will undoubtedly price many of us out of the insurance market permanently.
There are other provisions of the Act that are very favorable to insurers, both in terms of tax breaks and in the ability to offer reduced coverage at higher prices. You'll have to read it if you want to learn about those. You can read the Act for yourself here.
I guess I can sum up my opinion of the AHCA by saying that it's going to be very hard on low income Americans and it will be beneficial to insurance companies and higher income Americans. It will certainly reduce the deficit, but if you consider this reduction in proportion to other possible avenues for budget reduction, it's a relatively small amount. Especially when you consider how many people will be negatively impacted. I'm angry about it, but I expected that and it's no surprise that Republican lawmakers would propose legislation that benefits the wealthy and big business and do it at the expense of low income Americans. They have a history of doing that while they're telling us that they're making our lives better.
What really makes me angry, however, is the way they're presenting it to the American people. Obamacare has been painted as the root of everything that's wrong with our country and, for the most part, people are believing that. Republicans are putting a positive spin on the CBO report by emphasizing the deficit reduction, but ignoring the fact that 24 million people will become uninsured. If you look at Paul Ryan's summary of the CBO report, then AHCA looks like a no-brainer. If you look past the sound bites designed to play on your emotions rather than your intellect, then the story is much different.
Take a minute and think this through. Look at Paul Ryan's pitch and then look at the actual CBO report and make a decision for yourself. You might discover that AHCA has a pretty high price after all.
Saturday, March 11, 2017
Faces of Activism in Photographs
I came across an amazing web site after watching a documentary about a photographer named Platon Antoniou and I want to share it with you. As an amateur photographer, I was amazed by his work and decided to visit the web site of one of his projects called The People's Portfolio. If you want to see some beautiful photographs, then you should take a look. The link is here.
When I first went to the site I expected to see some of his beautiful portraits, but there's a lot more there. The People's Portfolio is about the issues facing us today and the people who are doing something about them. Very, very nice work and the photos are some of the best photography I have ever seen anywhere. His photographs not only capture what these activists look like, but also their emotions and what motivates them.
Platon is an amazing photographer. Tanya found the documentary in a series on design somewhere on Netflix and we watched it one night. This guy's portrait photography is simply stunning. It was amazing to see the creative process he goes through to produce it. It's not a bunch of crazy stuff. It's just the right stuff. If you get a chance to watch this documentary then you should do it. You'll recognize most of the photos from magazine covers and you'll also see a lot of new ones. I can honestly say that watching Platon's creative process and the photographs that resulted from it gave me a a totally new outlook on photography as an art.
When I first went to the site I expected to see some of his beautiful portraits, but there's a lot more there. The People's Portfolio is about the issues facing us today and the people who are doing something about them. Very, very nice work and the photos are some of the best photography I have ever seen anywhere. His photographs not only capture what these activists look like, but also their emotions and what motivates them.
Platon is an amazing photographer. Tanya found the documentary in a series on design somewhere on Netflix and we watched it one night. This guy's portrait photography is simply stunning. It was amazing to see the creative process he goes through to produce it. It's not a bunch of crazy stuff. It's just the right stuff. If you get a chance to watch this documentary then you should do it. You'll recognize most of the photos from magazine covers and you'll also see a lot of new ones. I can honestly say that watching Platon's creative process and the photographs that resulted from it gave me a a totally new outlook on photography as an art.
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Mean America
This is not the America I signed up for. When I was a kid we were told that America was the protector of all that is good. We were told that America would stand up for those who couldn't stand up for themselves. We would help others in need. We would welcome others who could no longer live in their own countries. We would fight for what is right, not only within our own borders, but everywhere in the the world. We would not be assholes.
But that has changed. Just watch the news. Now, we're stripping our own citizens of the benefits they need to survive. We're not allowing people in need to enter our country. We're telling our seniors that they can't have health care unless they're wealthy. We're telling people who can't afford to eat that it's their fault. We're cutting ties with our allies across the world. We are changing everything and we are changing it in a big way. We are becoming mean to our own citizens and to the rest of the world.
Until now, America has been both benefactor and policeman to the world. Now we can barely make it through a day without a major scandal. We can no longer be either benefactor or policeman. We can't handle our own business and we certainly can't handle anyone else's. We are at a crossroads and it's not pretty. We need to make some hard decisions.
Do we continue to look out for the world's best interests or do we just look out for ourselves? Are we a welfare state or should our own citizens be responsible for their own destinies? Should we all be responsible for making our lives livable or should we expect our government to help us?
Well, I'll tell you that I don't have the answer. It's a tough question. I will tell you, however, that we need to make informed decisions and we need reliable information to make those decisions. I don't think we're getting good information today. We're getting information that has been twisted by political parties in order to suit their needs, not ours. We're flooded with information and misinformation and it's up to us to determine what's true and what's just someone's attempt to force their bullshit on us to achieve their own ends.
This has made is unfeeling, unsympathetic, and downright mean. We're not mean because we're unsympathetic and unfeeling. We're mean because we don't care that we're that way. Who can honestly say that depriving healthcare to low income Americans is a good thing? Unfortunately, most Americans just listen to the party talking points instead of really looking into what's about to happen to us. We need to really dig into the healthcare situation in order to truly understand the implications of the American Healthcare Act. Most of us aren't willing to do that, but we really need to. The talking points offered by both parties don't tell the whole story. They tell just one side and neither side is telling the whole truth.
We aren't taking the time to really think through these things. They don't represent the real America and we should be worried about it. Seriously worried. The reason we're becoming a mean America is that we don't seem to care. We are willing to just swallow the party line and go along with it because it's the easiest path. If we just accept it, we are not honoring our commitments to our own citizens or the rest of the world. We are becoming a mean, self-centered America.
You can take action now by really thinking about where we're heading and acting accordingly. That means you'll have to read the bills that are before Congress, listen to our president and decide of you agree with him, and conduct your life in a manner that you know is right. Make the right choice and think for yourself instead of just accepting what you hear from others. Including what you are reading here. Form your own opinion and do what you think is right.
But that has changed. Just watch the news. Now, we're stripping our own citizens of the benefits they need to survive. We're not allowing people in need to enter our country. We're telling our seniors that they can't have health care unless they're wealthy. We're telling people who can't afford to eat that it's their fault. We're cutting ties with our allies across the world. We are changing everything and we are changing it in a big way. We are becoming mean to our own citizens and to the rest of the world.
Until now, America has been both benefactor and policeman to the world. Now we can barely make it through a day without a major scandal. We can no longer be either benefactor or policeman. We can't handle our own business and we certainly can't handle anyone else's. We are at a crossroads and it's not pretty. We need to make some hard decisions.
Do we continue to look out for the world's best interests or do we just look out for ourselves? Are we a welfare state or should our own citizens be responsible for their own destinies? Should we all be responsible for making our lives livable or should we expect our government to help us?
Well, I'll tell you that I don't have the answer. It's a tough question. I will tell you, however, that we need to make informed decisions and we need reliable information to make those decisions. I don't think we're getting good information today. We're getting information that has been twisted by political parties in order to suit their needs, not ours. We're flooded with information and misinformation and it's up to us to determine what's true and what's just someone's attempt to force their bullshit on us to achieve their own ends.
This has made is unfeeling, unsympathetic, and downright mean. We're not mean because we're unsympathetic and unfeeling. We're mean because we don't care that we're that way. Who can honestly say that depriving healthcare to low income Americans is a good thing? Unfortunately, most Americans just listen to the party talking points instead of really looking into what's about to happen to us. We need to really dig into the healthcare situation in order to truly understand the implications of the American Healthcare Act. Most of us aren't willing to do that, but we really need to. The talking points offered by both parties don't tell the whole story. They tell just one side and neither side is telling the whole truth.
We aren't taking the time to really think through these things. They don't represent the real America and we should be worried about it. Seriously worried. The reason we're becoming a mean America is that we don't seem to care. We are willing to just swallow the party line and go along with it because it's the easiest path. If we just accept it, we are not honoring our commitments to our own citizens or the rest of the world. We are becoming a mean, self-centered America.
You can take action now by really thinking about where we're heading and acting accordingly. That means you'll have to read the bills that are before Congress, listen to our president and decide of you agree with him, and conduct your life in a manner that you know is right. Make the right choice and think for yourself instead of just accepting what you hear from others. Including what you are reading here. Form your own opinion and do what you think is right.
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
First Read of the American Healthcare Act
Republicans released a draft or the American Healthcare Act (AHA) today. I knew I would probably be writing something about it, so I downloaded a copy. The document is essentially a list of edits to the Affordable Care Act and is not understandable without applying the edits to a copy of the Affordable Care Act.
The bill was not written this way as a matter of procedure. It was written this way so it would be difficult to understand and would take considerable effort for average Americans to truly understand what it will do when enacted. Paul Ryan's web site has a link for downloading the bill, but he has also posted a few talking points about it in a more understandable but tragically inaccurate form on the same web page. The hope is that most Americans will glance at the bill and decide that reading his summary is enough for them to understand it's details and implications.
I'll admit that I've just started going through the original ACA and applying the American Healthcare Act edits to that document, so I'm no expert. I did notice that it does strip all federal funding from "prohibited entities." Later in the same paragraph it references abortions, so it is apparent that one provision of the bill defunds Planned Parenthood by withholding federal funds either paid directly or through service provider contracts with the states. Yes, another underhanded trick that the Republicans hope you won't notice.
So, as I started to go through the American Healthcare Act, I followed the trail of edits back through the ACA and ended up in a bill called the 21st Century Cures Act. The section of that bill referenced is 4002 - Prevention and Public Health Fund. It established a fund "to provide for expanded and sustained national investment in prevention and public health programs to improve health and help restrain the rate of growth in private and public sector health care costs" and "for prevention, wellness, and public health activities including prevention research and health screenings, such as the Community Transformation grant program, the Education and Outreach Campaign for Preventive Benefits, and immunization programs."
This means $2 billion per year is designated for public health programs, immunizations, and wellness education. These are things that would make our quality of life better and reduce insurance costs across the board for everyone, not just people who use Obamacare. The AHA removes all funding for this after 2018. Who really cares if we are healthy, right? Why not take that $17 that is spent on immunizations for low income children and put it toward something more meaningful, like covering the $12 million salary of an insurance company executive or a subsidy to Exxon Mobil to drill for oil in the Gulf of Mexico??
It also appears that Republicans will bring back benefit caps. This means that there will now be a maximum benefit amount that insurance companies are obligated to pay out. While most Americans won't experience a catastrophic illness during their lifetime, it still affects all of us by increasing healthcare costs and in turn increase our insurance costs. If you have a catastrophic illness like lung cancer or heart failure, then you had better have a hefty Healthcare Savings Account account or be ready to sell your house to pay for some of your treatment. Of course you wouldn't be taxed on some of the $2 million you've been saving to pay for your catastrophic health care costs. To put things in perspective, If I put 100% of my income into a health savings account, then it would take me over 22 years to save enough money to pay for a major medical crisis.
And if you're a senior, be prepared to pay up to five times as much for your insurance as a 30 year old pays. That's just the Republican way of saying thanks for working hard all your life to make America great again.
The paragraphs above were written last night. Today, after the world has had a chance to take a look at the American Healthcare Act, an even more frightening scenario has emerged. Conservative Republicans are now saying that the cuts to benefits do not go far enough. Knowingly depriving low income Americans of healthcare is not enough? What exactly motivates these people and has the Trump presidency emboldened them? Washington is literally coming unglued over this issue.
Just two more things before I stop writing this post. The Republicans are saying that the American Healthcare Act will reduce insurance costs for everyone. This is simply not true. It will result in an increase in uninsured Americans, which in turn will result in medical providers having to write off more unpaid healthcare bills. The cost of these write-offs will be passed on to all of us in the form of higher healthcare costs and will result in insurers increasing premiums to cover these costs.
Prevention and healthcare education is also drastically cut in the American Healthcare Act. It is a proven fact that healthcare education and the promotion of healthy lifestyles lowers healthcare costs, thus reducing the cost to insurers and in turn lowering insurance premiums. The bill drastically cuts or eliminates expenditures on prevention, which will drive insurance premiums higher. History has already shown this to be true.
The next few months will certainly be interesting. If the American Healthcare Act is passed, then it will result in higher insurance and healthcare costs for all of us whether we are currently Obamacare consumers or not. This will price many people out of the insurance market and will only widen the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" in our country. This may be the most important legislative action we will see in our lifetime and it's time for all Americans to stand up and fight for what is right.
The bill was not written this way as a matter of procedure. It was written this way so it would be difficult to understand and would take considerable effort for average Americans to truly understand what it will do when enacted. Paul Ryan's web site has a link for downloading the bill, but he has also posted a few talking points about it in a more understandable but tragically inaccurate form on the same web page. The hope is that most Americans will glance at the bill and decide that reading his summary is enough for them to understand it's details and implications.
I'll admit that I've just started going through the original ACA and applying the American Healthcare Act edits to that document, so I'm no expert. I did notice that it does strip all federal funding from "prohibited entities." Later in the same paragraph it references abortions, so it is apparent that one provision of the bill defunds Planned Parenthood by withholding federal funds either paid directly or through service provider contracts with the states. Yes, another underhanded trick that the Republicans hope you won't notice.
So, as I started to go through the American Healthcare Act, I followed the trail of edits back through the ACA and ended up in a bill called the 21st Century Cures Act. The section of that bill referenced is 4002 - Prevention and Public Health Fund. It established a fund "to provide for expanded and sustained national investment in prevention and public health programs to improve health and help restrain the rate of growth in private and public sector health care costs" and "for prevention, wellness, and public health activities including prevention research and health screenings, such as the Community Transformation grant program, the Education and Outreach Campaign for Preventive Benefits, and immunization programs."
This means $2 billion per year is designated for public health programs, immunizations, and wellness education. These are things that would make our quality of life better and reduce insurance costs across the board for everyone, not just people who use Obamacare. The AHA removes all funding for this after 2018. Who really cares if we are healthy, right? Why not take that $17 that is spent on immunizations for low income children and put it toward something more meaningful, like covering the $12 million salary of an insurance company executive or a subsidy to Exxon Mobil to drill for oil in the Gulf of Mexico??
It also appears that Republicans will bring back benefit caps. This means that there will now be a maximum benefit amount that insurance companies are obligated to pay out. While most Americans won't experience a catastrophic illness during their lifetime, it still affects all of us by increasing healthcare costs and in turn increase our insurance costs. If you have a catastrophic illness like lung cancer or heart failure, then you had better have a hefty Healthcare Savings Account account or be ready to sell your house to pay for some of your treatment. Of course you wouldn't be taxed on some of the $2 million you've been saving to pay for your catastrophic health care costs. To put things in perspective, If I put 100% of my income into a health savings account, then it would take me over 22 years to save enough money to pay for a major medical crisis.
And if you're a senior, be prepared to pay up to five times as much for your insurance as a 30 year old pays. That's just the Republican way of saying thanks for working hard all your life to make America great again.
The paragraphs above were written last night. Today, after the world has had a chance to take a look at the American Healthcare Act, an even more frightening scenario has emerged. Conservative Republicans are now saying that the cuts to benefits do not go far enough. Knowingly depriving low income Americans of healthcare is not enough? What exactly motivates these people and has the Trump presidency emboldened them? Washington is literally coming unglued over this issue.
Just two more things before I stop writing this post. The Republicans are saying that the American Healthcare Act will reduce insurance costs for everyone. This is simply not true. It will result in an increase in uninsured Americans, which in turn will result in medical providers having to write off more unpaid healthcare bills. The cost of these write-offs will be passed on to all of us in the form of higher healthcare costs and will result in insurers increasing premiums to cover these costs.
Prevention and healthcare education is also drastically cut in the American Healthcare Act. It is a proven fact that healthcare education and the promotion of healthy lifestyles lowers healthcare costs, thus reducing the cost to insurers and in turn lowering insurance premiums. The bill drastically cuts or eliminates expenditures on prevention, which will drive insurance premiums higher. History has already shown this to be true.
The next few months will certainly be interesting. If the American Healthcare Act is passed, then it will result in higher insurance and healthcare costs for all of us whether we are currently Obamacare consumers or not. This will price many people out of the insurance market and will only widen the gap between the "haves" and the "have-nots" in our country. This may be the most important legislative action we will see in our lifetime and it's time for all Americans to stand up and fight for what is right.
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Did Obama Tap Donald Trump's Phones?
Well, I didn't see that one coming. I had promised myself a quiet weekend away from social media. No Facebook, Twitter, or blogging for a few days. I need some time to digest some of this stuff and the internet won't miss me for a few days. In fact, most of the internet would probably appreciate a break from me.
Saturday morning I skipped over the social media and looked at a few news sites just to get the headlines. I saw the story about Donald Trump's accusation that Barack Obama had tapped his phone lines at Trump Tower and had to find out more about it. After about an hour of going through more news sites, Facebook, and Twitter, I decided to write a post with my take on the whole situation, so here it is.
First, I think the idea that Barack Obama ordered phone tapping at Trump Tower is ridiculous. That type of surveillance requires a court order, not an order from the President. If a President ordered such a thing, it would not only be illegal, but would also assume that the President has control over more than just the Executive branch of government. He would also need to control the Judicial branch. That is our system of checks and balances. It protects us from one person from becoming a dictator. Barack Obama simply could not have ordered phone tapping under any circumstance. Donald Trump needs to go back to fifth grade and learn about checks and balances. It is a real thing and it also applies to him, although he would certainly argue otherwise.
That being said, it might surprise you that I believe the phone tapping Donald Trump is describing may well have happened, but not for the reasons he wants us to believe. You have probably heard all about the alleged connection between Trump and the Russian government and I'm not going to discuss that mess here. You can look it up for yourself. The more we learn about this, the more it sounds like it may have been going on for a long time. It sounds like the Judicial branch had already been examining Trump's Russian connections. A FISA court approved a warrant for this surveillance in October, which would have been too late in the election process to do Trump's political opponents any good.
So what did these allegations do for Donald Trump? I think the intention was to divert Americans' attention away from the Russian situation, but I think it will have the opposite effect. I think that if the FBI or NSA was interested enough to look into Trump's ties with the Russians and the wire tapping was done as part of that process, then it will lend credibility to the view that a Russian connection actually exists. If it doesn't indicate any Russian ties, then the information gathered by the wire tapping should not hurt Trump at all and he shouldn't be worried about it.
For now, though, I think it has refocused America's attention on getting to the truth and I think that's going to be a difficult and painful process, especially with the Trump administration's willingness to boldly and shamelessly lie to the American public and then act like they have done nothing wrong when they are caught doing it.
There, so much for a relaxing weekend.
Saturday morning I skipped over the social media and looked at a few news sites just to get the headlines. I saw the story about Donald Trump's accusation that Barack Obama had tapped his phone lines at Trump Tower and had to find out more about it. After about an hour of going through more news sites, Facebook, and Twitter, I decided to write a post with my take on the whole situation, so here it is.
First, I think the idea that Barack Obama ordered phone tapping at Trump Tower is ridiculous. That type of surveillance requires a court order, not an order from the President. If a President ordered such a thing, it would not only be illegal, but would also assume that the President has control over more than just the Executive branch of government. He would also need to control the Judicial branch. That is our system of checks and balances. It protects us from one person from becoming a dictator. Barack Obama simply could not have ordered phone tapping under any circumstance. Donald Trump needs to go back to fifth grade and learn about checks and balances. It is a real thing and it also applies to him, although he would certainly argue otherwise.
That being said, it might surprise you that I believe the phone tapping Donald Trump is describing may well have happened, but not for the reasons he wants us to believe. You have probably heard all about the alleged connection between Trump and the Russian government and I'm not going to discuss that mess here. You can look it up for yourself. The more we learn about this, the more it sounds like it may have been going on for a long time. It sounds like the Judicial branch had already been examining Trump's Russian connections. A FISA court approved a warrant for this surveillance in October, which would have been too late in the election process to do Trump's political opponents any good.
So what did these allegations do for Donald Trump? I think the intention was to divert Americans' attention away from the Russian situation, but I think it will have the opposite effect. I think that if the FBI or NSA was interested enough to look into Trump's ties with the Russians and the wire tapping was done as part of that process, then it will lend credibility to the view that a Russian connection actually exists. If it doesn't indicate any Russian ties, then the information gathered by the wire tapping should not hurt Trump at all and he shouldn't be worried about it.
For now, though, I think it has refocused America's attention on getting to the truth and I think that's going to be a difficult and painful process, especially with the Trump administration's willingness to boldly and shamelessly lie to the American public and then act like they have done nothing wrong when they are caught doing it.
There, so much for a relaxing weekend.