December 25, 2011

The purpose of the government is to provide services for "We the people..."

The purpose of the government is to provide services for "We the people...". From the Federal level down to the local level. Services such as clean water, law enforcement/protection, Fire protection, public education, Building and maintaining public roads and streets (including snow removal), and in most countries Universal Health Care. And a whole host of other services most people never even think of, that make our lives healthier, safer and easier.
Taxes pay for these services. When everyone pays for their fair share, we all benefit from the services government provides.
When government is starved of operating funds because of excessive tax cuts, especially tax cuts for those most able to pay, as we have now, those most in need are hit disproportionally harder.

I can imagined Deb Kiel (R-MN) http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/224845/ is one of those fortunate people that are not wanting for material things. Unlike the people she is hurting by her myopic reduction of the services she does not use or need. Cuts that leave her with more at the expense of the rest of us that depend on those government services.

Local government have very few options for operating funds. The property tax in most cases is the only source of operating funds allowed by statute.
Up until the year of 2000 or so, the States received funds back from the Federal level, which redistributed them down to the county and local level. Under the Bush Administration that source pretty well dried up. The states and local levels had no choice but to raise the taxes that they could.
The real problem now is not that the government spends too much, the problem is that those most able to afford to, do not pay their fair share, so government can provide the statute mandated services in the first place!

Governments from the Federal level down to the local level are mandated by law to provide certain services. They have been starved for so long they cannot provide those services any longer. But cutting these services for the people is counter productive. It makes things worse. Those same Well-To-Do people that benefit the most from the tax cuts, are also acting to ship our Living-Wage-Jobs over seas, resulting in high unemployment, foreclosures, bankruptcies, lack of basic health care, etc., which in turn create more people that are in need of the services that government is mandated to provide for "We the people...", but now cannot because of the lack of proper operating funds.

The real answer it to RAISE taxes on those that can most afford it, not cut services even more for those that need those services the most. Get our Living-Wage-Jobs back into this country and reverse the last 12 years of the Republican orchestrated swan dive into 3rd world status for the United States.

Another large source of funds is going to funding our deadly aggression against other countries, under the guise of "Fighting Terrorism". We are the world worst terrorist country. Just ask the people in the Middle East.
That money could be better spend rebuilding the crumbling infrastructure in this country. Providing hundreds of thousands to Living-Wage-Jobs, that will get this country out of the Bush Administration caused recession.

Our Constitution mandates providing for the general welfare of the "We the people..."
It is time our government gets back to adhering to the wording and meaning behind those words in our Constitution. The alternative is the destruction of the United States as a country.

A alternative the Middle East would be grateful for, because we would have to get out of their countries and leave them alone, as we could no longer afford to make new terrorist to justify prolonging the war on terrorism.

And that would be the best Christmas present we could give them.
Merry Christmas.

December 12, 2011

Socialized Medicine and what Michele Bachmann really wants to eliminate, not in any way what she...

Socialized Medicine and what Michele Bachmann really wants to eliminate, not in any way what she thinks

The proper definition of socialized medicine, and it's only proper use, is to define a system where the governments OWNS the hospitals, and where physicians and staff are CIVIL SERVANTS ( I.E. the government tells them where to work and when they work and who their patients are).

When hospitals are not owned by the government and physicians are in private practice, this is not socialized medicine, whether hospital and physician bills are paid by the government or by an insurance company death panel.

When the government pays physician and hospitals bills while hospitals are not owned by that government and physicians are in private practice, this is a single payer system, NOT socialized medicine.

This means that:

Medicare is a single payer system and not socialized medicine. Physicians and patients make medical decisions. Patients choose their doctors.

Medicaid is a single payer system and not socialized medicine. Physicians and patients make medical decisions. Patients choose their doctors.

Canadian health care is a single payer system and not socialized medicine. Physicians and patients make medical decisions. Patients choose their doctors.

The Affordable Care Act is neither a single payer system nor socialized medicine, since insurance company bureaucrats are still wedged between Americans and American physicians. Insurance company bureaucrats still make the medical decisions for those Americans and still overrule the medical opinions of those American physicians. Insurance company bureaucrats still decide which few Americans can see a physician and which physician they can see, if any, and who gets treated and what treatment they get.

Insurance-run health care is a system where insurance company bureaucrats are wedged between Americans and American physicians. Insurance company bureaucrats make the medical decisions for those Americans and overrule the medical opinions of those American physicians. Insurance company bureaucrats decide which few Americans can see a physician, which, if any, physician they can see, insurance company bureaucrats decide which Americans get treated, and insurance company bureaucrats decide what treatment that Americans get.

The only socialized medicine in North America, and thus, the only thing that Michele Bachmann says she'll eliminate, is American military and DVA health care, leaving the military and Veterans to die or to go to Canada to get health care, as 2 million Americans already do, because insurance company bureaucrats say that they can't see a doctor in the United States or insurance company bureaucrats say that they can't get the health care they need in the United States.

It is a lie that any more than a handful of Canadians each year go to the United States for health care. It is the truth that over 2 million Americans a year stream across the border into Canada to get the health care that insurance company bureaucrats deny them in the United States.

Having American insurance company bureaucrats wedged between Americans and American physicians is the main, and almost only, reason why Canadians live 3 to 4 years longer than Americans.

Having American insurance company bureaucrats wedged between Americans and American physicians kills 45,000 Americans each year, who would be alive if they lived in Canada, where every single Canadian can see a doctor in Canada, and every single Canadian can, and does, get whatever health care they need in Canada.

Every Canadian, rich or poor, and regardless of age, get far better health care in Canada than the average middle class American gets in the United States, accounting for the fact that Canadians are healthier and live longer than Americans.

Notable: (source US Central Intelligence Agency Fact Book- 2010)
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From an E-mail I received this morning. Notice the source above.

I used to date a Canadian who lived in Winnipeg. Liz had a major bronchitis episode one night. She managed to get to a phone and call a friend who took her to the emergency room. From there, Liz spent 3 days in the hospital. Liz's cost? $10.00 co-pay for some antibiotics. No other co-pays. That was it. No charges for the emergency room. No charges for the Hospital stay, doctor visits. How much would that have cost someone down here, even with insurance?