Healthcare and Governance

Interesting civics lesson going on all around us. Several, actually. I wish to focus on the debacle in healthcare legislation, but certainly the diplomatic skirmish over North Korea, and the nonsensical public discourse over kneeling for the national anthem at football games, expands our view of what goes for civics today.

First of all, the trump/NFL struggle is nothing; it means nothing. If you are an ideologue you will make it into whatever you wish. But the truth is this: the anthem is not needed at all public sporting events; standing or kneeling is not a real issue, nor should it be. The issue of Black Lives Matter has been lost in all of this. And of course Black lives matter, but so do all of our lives matter. The question is whether police behavior nationwide is living up to the standards we set for them especially in instances of treating Black citizens the same as everyone else. I would prefer we deal with this important issue in a way that truly makes a difference. Kneeling or standing for the anthem doesn’t carry the day for me in this matter.

Besides, trump is using this issue ‘trumped up’ for his own purposes and it doesn’t have anything to do with patriotism or governance. Just nonsense politics pampering his base bloc of voters.

North Korea, however, is another issue that deserves 100% attention on a diplomatic basis. Childish school yard banter is not helpful. Its unhelpfulness is on full display and threatens the peace globally. Utterly ridiculous that this has played out in this fashion. Shame on trump for mismanaging diplomacy so badly. He is used to people doing as he has told them, but in government you also have to have the moral authority and logic to win support for your ideas. Well, without the moral authority or logic, trump has performed poorly for everyone to see.

Now to the main point of this posting: healthcare is a vital life issue for each and every one of us. At every age of our individual lives healthcare poses specific needs. As we age those needs become critical. Yes, we take care of ourselves as best we can through most of our life. But there comes a time when that is impossible. Doing nothing equals death and most likely a lot of suffering before the end.

We as a people have agreed over and over again that our nation will provide help and assistance for each of us throughout our healthcare lives. It is the right thing to do to minimize suffering. And yes it costs a lot of money. So we have answered that reality with Medicare taxes, which are actually premiums. We also have Medicaid assistance which is a social program paid for from our tax revenue pool. That is a standard of care and a life quality issue we settled long ago.

Similar arguments can and are made for Social Security. That is also funded by premium taxes; it is not paid for by general taxes at all; however, Congress has borrowed heavily from the Social Security Fund and wishes not to pay it all back, so they would like to cut benefits for that purpose. Sleight of hand, you see?

If the social security program and Medicare program have funding issues, those need to be addressed in the normal course of Congressional operations. They are not to be addressed in 11^th hour political shenanigans that we see today.

Congress: do your job appropriately and stop the political games. This is our nation you are tinkering with and you do not have the authority – moral or otherwise – to change the rules of the game in midstream. Period. Got it?

It is clear from all of the above that a very large part of our federal government does not know how to govern. They opine and attempt to pass a law on that opinion. That’s not how it is done; not in the books, rules, protocols or laws. And they, of all people, know it.

Trump I understand can’t govern. He doesn’t understand the concept of governance. Just his ego-driven thought pattern and what ‘seems right’ at the time. Only it is not ‘right’ with the rest of the nation or world. And that’s where he is found lacking.

Boy, is that an understatement.

We have a president without clothes. He’d prefer to think of himself as an emperor, but even still he is without clothes. And it is not pretty.

Time to remove him from office as soon as possible. Congress – Do Your Job!

I’d write this to Peter Roskam, my congressman, but he would not read the message or even understand it. He’s much too much playing to the republican leadership to do right by his own constituents. What a poor excuse for a representative.

We need statesmen in the government. We need people who plan and govern for the long term outcomes the nation will need. Where oh where will we find such statesmen? 

September 27, 2017