Indignity of Charity

Imagine my shock to surf to Fox News last night and witness Obama being interviewed by mild mannered Bret Baier. I mean, after Obama stated that Fox was an arm of the GOP it was unsettling to see the president sputtering and tap dancing around the questions and answer interruptus of Fox's boy next door Baier.

I did ask myself if past interviewers have been as dogged, bordering on rude, with past (white) presidents. But, to be honest, I would have appreciated and enjoyed the press pinning Bush. Did we not cheer when Helen Thomas managed a pointed question or two at GWB.

I don't remember any similar interviews in the recent past, i.e. Clinton or Bushes, but then they weren't publicly twisting arms and bribing to pass a huge package like healthcare. Clinton knew when to stop twisting, and Clinton's advisers/handlers were not the elitist mob from Chicago who believe they make offers you can't refuse.

If only ... if only Obama put as much effort into draining the swamp and letting in the sunlight ...

I expect this behemoth healthcare package to pass, to the regret of the public. Personally, I cannot see how anyone with a brain can believe any of it. The rhetoric and promises are the same as LBJ in 1965 signing the Independence of the Medicare Bill, which was to give dignity to the elderly and poor, because they were entitled.

Truman said at the signing: "Not one of these, our citizens, should ever be abandoned to the indignity of charity. Charity is indignity when you have to have it. But we don't want these people to have anything to do with charity ..."

Government charity is different - because you "earned" it. Never mind that millions the government is dignifying have paid little or none into the coffers they're drawing from. Never mind that the affluent and upper class rush to liquidate or hide everything ma and pa have so they're eligible for government provided dignity. Never mind that all this free (or lost cost) dignity helped produce a generation of crippled young folks with bad backs, bad knees, carpal tunnels, obesity, and/or bipolar and attention deficit disabilities. Never mind that most physicians are now nothing more than legal drug dealers and gallbladder and uterus removers. Never mind that folks consider it dignified to prolong the life by a decade of nursing home family throw-away, lucky semi-lucid granny dignified with bedsores and gangrene amputations and oxygen tanked. Is this the new quality of life. Does anyone know anything about quality of life versus quantity.

This from Johnson's Medicare speech struck a familiar chord: "The people of the United States love and voted for Harry Truman, not because he gave them hell--but because he gave them hope. I believe today that all America shares my joy that he is present now when the hope that he offered becomes a reality for millions of our fellow citizens."

Ahhh, hope (and change) recycled. Warm fuzzy, warm fuzzy.

Course, we all know that in 45 years Medicare fraud and corruption has created more millionaires and billionaires then you can shake a rubber glove at - pharmaceuticals, nursing homes, physicians, medical equipment companies, research foundations, or like the scandalous HCA, founded by the Frist family, former Senator Bill Frist, a physician. Ever wonder why the last few decades so many doctors enter congress? Illness is the latest lucrative frontier.

Do you really believe Obama's trillion dollar overhaul of health care is going to expand coverage and slash the deficit as supporters claim? Name me one government program that has ever benefited the majority and slashed the public debt. Just one. (Wha jest look Bubba at the dignity and hope that safety nets brought to black culture, yessuh.)

Expand coverage/slash deficit - an oxymoron, contains the prefix for air and moron. Airhead, lack of oxygen to the brain, hot air, mild mental retardation, moron, politicians.

"The 10-year plan would provide coverage to more than 30 million people now uninsured through a combination of tax credits for middle class households and an expansion of the Medicaid program for low income people.

---- Excuse me, but in 10 years the US population is projected to be 362 million, so will there be another 30+ million uninsured that will have to be insured? Is anyone factoring in population growth cost?

"It would restructure one-sixth of the U.S. economy in the biggest expansion of the social safety net since Medicare was created in 1965. It would also impose new obligations on individuals and businesses, requiring for the first time that most Americans carry health insurance and penalizing medium-sized and large companies that don't provide coverage for their workers.

Hospitals and doctors, drug companies and insurers would gain millions of new paying customers, but they would also have to adjust to major changes. Medicare cuts would force hospitals to operate more efficiently or risk going out of business. Insurance companies would face unprecedented federal regulation. Health care industries would be hit with new federal taxes. Upper-income households would face a new tax on investment earnings."

---- There it is folks, the truth parts in bold. Impose new obligations on individuals (you and me) and make it mandatory you carry health insurance. You'll be able to buy it from Uncle Scam at congressional approved rates. For those "upper-income households" don't worry - tax shelter lobbyists, along with "respectable" accounting firms and law firms will always be with us, turning those earnings into many ways to avoid taxes.

Do you really believe that Big Daddy government will "penalize" companies who don't cover their workers? Ooooh, slap on the wrist with a penalty and then a big tax break or bailout over there in another part of the tax code. Like Wal-mart, who offers health plans but only half their employees are willing or able to pay for it. Now Wal-mart can have Big Daddy hold the safety net or the government that "requires" you to carry insurance will force you to buy it from your employer, i.e. Wal-mart. And by the way - hypochondria and Munchausen will no longer be covered - you may be forced to get a job instead of getting a trendy "disease." You may even be forced to get well.

If you think you're SOL now with health care - just wait until your health care is walmartized. But on the bright side - maybe, when folks have to be the "new paying customers" bent over the exam table by quacks and false compassion, they will purposefully stay healthy.