Bad Republicans

The Republican conspiracy

I read this article on the Huffington Post and I about fell out of my chair laughing. Why? Because the author’s premise is so silly.

First … the Republicans. TEA Party-nics and conservatives are not Democrats or progressives. They are the opposition. You know, people who oppose you. They should be expected to do what they can to make your policies and plans fail.

Now, it doesn’t take a savant to figure out that they don’t agree with policies like the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). So, if you are the elected representative of your particular area (and a majority of the people in the last election for your office voted for you) then it is pretty much a given that you represent at least some of their views and that should govern the way you vote. If your district doesn’t really like some law or policy, then it is your job to do what you can to overturn or change that policy.

The author of the article seems to think that Republicans are some terrible beasts because they don’t view the world through the same prism that he does. That is what is wrong with the world.

Reverse the shoe, say a war in Iraq. Is it not the right of the opponents of such a venture to do whatever they can to end it? It seems that was the progressives’ line just a few years ago.

Of course, they were chastised in much the same manner as the right is being assailed today. That is politics, folks.

I find it humorous to the absurd to watch various people and groups of people hammer their political opponents for their views in language that probably would have been reprehensible in my youth. However, the historian in me knows that the language of politics in the United States always has bordered on the rough and tumble.

I guess what I find most humorous is the view that everyone has to view the world through the same lens, the same philosophy, the same cultural view plate. I find it humorous, because it is so tragic and misguided that it really makes me want to despair, but I chose to laugh at my troubles rather than cry.

I wish, as Pappy used to say, I could knock some heads together in order to knock some sense into them.

People, we are all different. We all look at the world and see different visions. Depending on our experiences and cultural environment, we value different things. Some of these things we agree on the value of and others we profoundly disagree; however, the mere fact that we disagree doesn’t make us bad people.

Just because a person disagrees with you does not necessarily make that person evil … just different. Sometimes that person is evil, but it is not because they disagree with you.

The difference, as I see it, is a different view on how much responsibility the individual for his or her life. Are we, as individuals, supposed to be willing to accept the consequences of our choices? Are we supposed to be willing to accept that life is not fair and often sends adversity our way when we can ill afford it?

A lot of people say we are not. They say we are obligated to help all those less fortunate than we are. I would agree with part of that. I would say I have an personal obligation to make that choice, but that society, or the state, doesn’t not have the right to compel me to do it by force.

So to insist that anyone has a right to demand or compel another give them a good or service at a price less than they are willing to do it is, in my humble opinion, wrong. Even lifesaving medical care.

Another unfortunate aside: It seems to me that in our narcissism that seems to afflicted so many people, we seem to believe that we are supposed to live forever. Wrong answer, folks. We are mortal and every day here is a gift (that is why they call it “present”).

Sometimes, I think, in our quest for immortality, we forget that others have rights too. We forget it is not ours to demand that they forgo their rights just to our benefit. This is not to say that they can’t forgo those rights, but the choice is theirs and not ours.

Anyway, I love when progressives try to defend their demands, but it makes me want to laugh in their face when I hear them denigrate those who disagree with them. What was it Pappy used to tell me about the pot calling the kettle “black.”

Example of myopia

Battling the spread of anti-biotic resistant bugs

definition of Myopia - see #2

I laud the American Centers for Disease Control for all they do protecting us from the ravages of all the illnesses that tend to attack humans.

However, the news story on CNN illustrates what I mean by cultural myopia. All too often we tend to think that the cultural environment we live in is shared by all … bad news … it isn’t.

That is why all the wonderful things that the CDC tries sometimes doesn’t even make progress in the US. It would be nice if everybody would, as Pappy used to tell me when it was really important that I get his message, listen, hear and attend to what it is saying. Unfortunately, that is not happening and it is somewhat silly to think that it will happen.

Even worse, it leads to the “experts” trying to impose their vision on the less informed people so that they can be protected against themselves, their own follies and foibles.

We are seeing that in the US with the new health care financing regime popularly known as Obamacare (but really entitled the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act). All those silly people who didn’t have enough sense to get the health care insurance plan that these experts deemed adequate are now being forced to do so, whether they want to or not; or they will face a new tax (it is not a fine, the Supreme Court said it was a tax), because it is the right of every person within the US borders to get health care regardless if they want it or not.

Oh, and employers will face the new tax in a year or so, unless they get with the program.

Now, it seems that a lot of Americans were happy with their lot and pretty well understood the value they were getting for their premiums. Unfortunately for a lot of them (now numbering in the millions), their insurance carrier was forced by federal law to drop the policy that they had because they had changed some of its wording or the pricing schedules to reflect new realities.

I have no doubt that there will be winners and losers in this situation and the winners will be tickled pink at how much they will save. They ought to be … but at the same time, they need to acknowledge that someone else is picking up the tab for them.

I am not necessarily saying that is wrong, because that is how insurance works. Normally, however, it is a matter of choice for both the carrier and the insured. Removing the element of choice – and essentially that is what Obamacare does by setting its vision of what should be covered and what should not be covered – is what I disagree with.  But then, nobody asked me.

You see, I have a problem with the government/society protecting me from my own foibles. Granted, there are those who will argue that we have to be protected from vagaries of life that can inflict so much damage on us. I suppose they have a point, especially when they can’t get someone else to share the burden or risk with them. But then, I disagree. I see life as being basically unfair and our test is to see how we cope with reality. Getting others to carry our burdens without their consent is a little beyond me.

My fear, you see, is that when we do that, we surrender our freedoms and liberty to make choices. To me, that is more important … but then I have to admit I invested a lot in making sure I had health care insurance coverage as I got older.

I have paid and am paying a pretty penny for that coverage – in more than one currency – so, I don’t have to worry about the medical care that I or my wife have to pay for. It may not cost as much now as others, but then I made different choices … and one of those choices always kept one eye on the necessity of providing myself with health insurance at a certain age.

Unfortunately although I keep getting reassured that the federal government is not going to muck with it too much, I fear that the federal government in its good intent is going to change all the rules, negate all the planning and effort I put into setting up my coverage and basically mucking it all up.

You see the U.S. federal government has a long track record of mucking things up … and with me, going back on its word.

So, while I hope that the CDC folks can get their way, sort of, I look at the US and shake my head in doubt.

As for changing the habits in other places? Not a chance that is going to happen. That is what I mean by myopia. These experts can’t see past the borders and realize that things in other cultures and social environments just ain’t the same as they are down in Atlanta.

Anyway, I suspect that regardless of what happens, the human race will endure.

Obama still doesn’t get it.

I am not responsible. I am sorry, but it was not really my fault

 

President Barack Obama gave an televised interview this week where he said he was sorry that his actions led to thousands, if not millions, losing the health care insurance policies they liked after he had repeatedly promised they wouldn’t.

See, scream the liberals, progressives and his supporters, he apologized. Now everything is hunky dory. He didn’t mean for it to happen.

Folks, the road to hell is paved with good intentions and the intentions here, it would seem obvious, were not necessarily good.

First, according to the New York Times “Mr. Obama said he had not purposely misled anyone. He said it was always his intention that no one should lose a plan he wanted to keep.”

If that was true, then the caveats and codicils that got tucked away in the law and its resulting regulations would not have made policies that administration minions decided were not good enough for people to have had to be dropped if they changed one twit after a certain date would not have been written. But they were and that was with malice aforethought. It became a way to get the insurance companies to drop current “inadequate” policies and replace them with the politically acceptable policies mandated by the administration.

IF the president didn’t know this was going to happen, then folks, he is a dolt. Either that or his staff is about the most incompetent group of yahoos that have ever worked on Pennsylvania Avenue.  It is not like years ago, people in the various executive branch departments were not saying: “Oh, yeah, and large percentages of existing policies are going to go away when we put this new stuff into effect.”

Did he just turn a deaf ear to these reports, or did his staff shield him from them? I don’t know, but in either case, he screwed up as a leader and that is what we hired him for (well, at least some of voted to hire him).

That there are a whole lot of incompetent senior executive service people still holding their jobs is really telling. The president is saying, admitting, that there is no accountability in his administration (and we thought Dubya was bad).

I hope that management and leadership programs across the nation are taking copious notes on how NOT to be a leader. Unfortunately for the United States, our president is giving a lesson in how to do that.

Just how far?

Obama requests $60 billion for Sandy relief
The president has asked Congress to approve a special appropriation of $60 billion-plus to help the states hammered by Hurricane Sandy … and the governors are complaining it isn’t enough.
I am sorry (and I really am for those people impacted by the storm), but I am not sure why the federal government needs to go another $60 billion in the hole here. Yes, it would be nice, if the federal government had the money just laying around somewhere like so much pocket change, but it doesn’t.
The saddest thing to me is that the request and the complaints illustrate rather well how we have come to view the federal government as the source for all bailouts. It shouldn’t be. It wasn’t intended that it be. However, that is how the current crop of Americans views it.
It really is sad. I know that thousands upon thousands of people are affected by the devastation wrought by the hurricane. Just like what happened in Mississippi and Louisiana during Katrina. Guess what? Things like hurricanes happen when you live on the coastal regions of the eastern half of the United States. Yup, almost as regular as clockwork, one or more hurricanes is likely to hit somewhere along the coast every year.
It is not the result of climate change or global warming. It has been happening for millions, if not billions, of years. You really have to be a dope not to realize that sooner or later, no matter where you live along the coast, that sooner or later one of these bad storms is going to come along and do bad things. Granted, they do very bad things, but that is the thing about Mother Nature: She is stronger than anything man can build and we have to realize that.
Now, fortunately for human life, Americans have a pretty good warning system that pretty much helps them get out of the way of such storms, but the things that don’t move … well, they are going to take a major hit.
Of course, if you are smarter than the average cookie, and you have a place by the sea, then you have made preparations for the inevitable … but then again, maybe you haven’t.
In that case, I supposed that you always can call on the federal government with its bottomless pockets (remember, it prints the money) and it can come restore everything to status quo ante and even better (if you play your cards right). It really doesn’t matter anymore that the federal government basically is broke and living on its credit cards. That never hurt anybody.
But then again, maybe we haven’t learned anything from the near economic collapse four years ago.
I know I sound cruel and heartless, but I am not. I am only questioning why it is that Americans now always look to Washington to solve their problems. It didn’t used to be that way, but then communities were much stronger back then and you really knew your neighbors and families were closer. Future Shock’s nuclear family (or at least a shadow of it) now is the norm and with the telecommunications revolution making even international crises seem like local ones, it is a small wonder that even self-sufficient Americans turn to one source for all solutions.
It is not a good thing, in my humble estimation, but it is the way things are. Sad, because I fear there will be a really steep price that will have to be paid eventually. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I doubt very much (as old as I am) that I will be here when the piper comes demanding to be paid his due.

Those evil insurance companies are going to get it

Insurers prepare for Hurricane Sandy

If you are an insurance company, how do you prepare for the “Storm of Century” or whatever they are going to call what happens when Hurricane Sandy joins the cold front in the Ohio Valley?

Well, you can report on the superficial things, like getting teams of adjusters ready, etc., but the real impact is going to be at the end most people never think about: Their investments.

Hurricane Sandy/Frankenstorm is predicted to cost about $3 billion in insurance claims … and that is before it even hits. While a big chunk of that probably will be paid by federal flood insurance claims, still the insurance industry, coming off a really bad 2011 (remember all the tornadoes in the US and Hurricane Irene), is about to get hammered again.

Little exercise in insurance economics: Where do insurance companies come up with all that money after a “disaster” to pay for all those claims?Yes, they get a lot of their money from those premiums (fees, really) that people pay on the off chance that they might be damaged by something that is covered under the policy/contract.

However, a bigger chunk of those funds come from investments made by those insurance companies (called capital gains). Now, since we have been in a recession, those returns are not as high as they once were but, still, insurance companies have big reserves … they have too (usually, it is part of the laws that regulate them).

What you are going to see now is one of two things: A) Insurance companies are going to borrow whole heck of a lot of money against the collateral of their investments or B) insurance companies are going to have to sell a lot of those investments in order to generate the cash to pay out all those claims. (Don’t even think they are just going to crack open a piggy bank and come up with that much ready cash because there is no piggy bank)

This means, either the stock market is going to take a dip (from all that selling) or lending rates are going to go up. I may be wrong, but that is what economics tells me.

Oh, and premiums also will go up … have to restock the piggy bank, ya know.