The New Pledge

When the Pledge of Allegiance was written, it did not mention G_D.  It mentioned Liberty and Justice.
As it morphed over the years, it became this:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of American and to the Republic for which it stands; one nation, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all."

In the 50s, the term "Under G_D" was added.

It keeps morphing.  Now some people are saying "Justice for those who are on the correct side" or "justice for those who can afford it."

Today, the FBI should have leveled charges to be filed against Hillary Clinton, for abuse of the system, perjury, unauthrized Email system usage, corruption....

And what do we get?  "Extreme carelessness" in handling of Email.  No recommended charges.  THIS is the what the DFL Establishment gives... Freedom and a Free pass for crooks.  The vultures circle overhead, awaiting the moment when the final life vanishes from the body, awaiting the time to feast.  It appears that the time is almost here.

Today, if the current crop of idiots is not thrown out, it's a certain death.  And our "Pledge" will be thus:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the corpse of the once great nation of America
And to the sheeple for which they stand.

One nation, divided, under idiots, with Gun-free populace, Censorship, Obamacare, free stuff and Shariah Law for all."

Let us pray that our leaders are not so far gone...but I fear it is an exercise in futility.

"There are no 'death panels'" BHO LIED!

BHO Lied.  How unexpected, right?

A former classmate was beaten by her ex, years ago.  He broke both legs, injured her back.  The guy should be in jail-- Nope.

Today, this same classmate told us via FB that the system (health) doesn't care whether she lives or dies.
Cut off.  This is exactly what the GOP said was gonna happen.  The DFL didn't budge.  The Democrats didn't believe.  Today, the DEATH PANEL is confirmed.

Thanks a lot, Obama, DFL.  You LIED and the people believed you.  Now, one of my own classmates has fallen victim to your lies.  Thanks so f***ing much!

Obamacare...Right.  Dr. Joseph Mengele, Please report to the operating room!

Damn liars.  NOW DO YOU BELIEVE, DEMOCRATS?  No, you don't.  It's because you're DAMN STUPID.  Get your heads out of your asses and WAKE UP AND SMELL THE S***...which is still in your nose!

OBAMA LIED.  PEOPLE WILL DIE.  This is a fact.

VOTE GOP...  Don't let "KILLERY" do more damage!

ACA? UACA? Nut case? Or ?

Approaching the end of the year, debates rage about "Affordable Care Act"...or "Obamacare".

I've been dead set against it.  Let me tell you about a trip to the website...Just for comparing purposes.  I, myself, am ineligible, since my COPD and hearing loss put me on Medicare.  This doesn't mean, of course, that I can't get supplementary insurance, but it is beyond me.

My wife, however, has no proven disability (Although I suspect one.)  We cannot afford to get her medicines, cannot afford to get disability proven.  It's a catch-22, an unsolvable puzzle.  Can't afford insurance, required to have insurance, but have no jobs, no money to purchase.  How "Nice," Mr. O.

Why would a 60+ year-old, post menopausal women need Maternity insurance?  That's just one part of the law...And MEN get it too.  STUPID, STUPID, STUPID.

I went to the health care site... just for curiosity's sake.  I found it, surprisingly, functional.  Not down.

Wasn't going to give info.  Had been told there was no way for "anonymous" shopping.  Not exactly.  But you really can't get deep into it.  I just checked "Bronze" plans.  ONE PERSON, living in the county, in Florida, age...

CHEAPEST... 515/month.  DEDUCTIBLE/YEAR, 6250.  In essence, that is entirely worthless.  It won't cover prescriptions until the deductible is met, and her prescriptions run (for two types of Insulin) 350-500/month.  Price may be higher; do not know for sure what the costs are in these parts.  There is no "Generic" for this type of insulin, yet, so high price is assured.  But 6000/year... STILL OUT OF POCKET.
No extra help is available.

SUBSIDIES:  Possible, but undetermined.  Earning as little as we do, she may fall through the "hole" in the safety net.    We are on the LOW end of help.  15K, or lower, you are not eligible for help in this state.  So, if you earn 10K, you get nothing; she's not eligible for Medicaid; this state did NOT expand it.  You must be on SS, Disabled, be pregnant or have young children to be eligible for it.  NOPE.

This leads to questions.  The subsidy, IF AVAILABLE, would be in the form of a tax credit.  I gather this means a once a year refund IF* you have a tax liability.  It seems that SSDI is included in Calculating income, but of course it is untaxed unless you have other income.  Is qualifying STILL doable?

IF qualifying is accepted, we will have to come up with 515/month on a 1370/month stipend.  When the house payment is over 900, Electric and Phone run 250 and 80 .. how do you come up with 515 more?
It leaves nothing for food.  It leaves nothing for gas.  It leaves nothing for Cable/Satellite.  It leaves nothing for clothes...Yep, this is "AFFORDABLE" all right.

Too many questions.  Have to call, ask.  Is the subsidy a yearly thing?  If  yes; cannot do!  At least not until there is some type of  extra income...

IF the subsidy can be done... well... you get the idea.  Right now, any subsidy in not verified, the only way is to sign up.  Goofy.  Then you find you aren't eligible?

As of right now, it is totally unaffordable.

IF we can start in June, it "MAY" be doable.  That is, if the subsidy is available.  If not, it is not affordable.  And the costs of the medicine still needed render it prodigal.  Maybe we need to see if other plans, higher cost, can do the job?  Or is it better to take the fine for the first year, and pray for the best?

Current belief; NOT A GOOD LAW.  Maybe well-intentioned, but still sucks.

I cannot pass a full judgment until I get more information.  I need answers and I doubt that the Fed is going to be able to give them.

Until answers are obtained, we remain stuck on an endless roller-coaster...and the only way off of it is death -- AS I SEE IT!

An open letter to the President

I'm upset.  I admit it.  And I am one who has fought the "UNAFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE ACT" from the beginning.

Now, I'm disgusted.

So, I wrote to the man in the big white house, today.  And THIS is what I said.

SIR:  You have failed to explain how someone who has no job, no income, is supposed to be able to afford your ridiculous tax/insurance mandate!

My wife has been looking for a job for more than 2 years... and has NOT been able to get more than 2 or three interviews out of hundreds of applications.

I am disabled; I am on Medicare, my wife is approaching retirement, but we need everything we can get.

PLEASE EXPLAIN how we are supposed to be able to follow this rule?

I invite you to CALL, but I doubt that you will.

I request some insight as to how we manage without losing our house!

UPSET.
signed (name)

Short and to the point.  I am willing to BET that I get no intelligent response.  I bet that I get a "VOTE DFL, CONTRIBUTE TO OUR CANDIDATES" message.

And I bet that there will be no call, not that I would expect one.

IF...and that's a very big "IF"... I get a response, I'll post it here.  But I sure as hell don't expect one.  That's just a fact...not even in question-- AS I SEE IT!

OPEN letter to James Oberstar, my Congressman

I have sent a copy of this letter through Email. I suggest that all of you who are against this Government take-over do the same to your Reps who voted "YES." That would be all but 34 DFLers, but not a single Republican. The only DFLer in MN who did NOT vote Yes was 7th District Congressman Colin Peterson. THANK YOU SIR. You did correctly!

Dear Congressman Oberstar:

I find your vote on Health care to be wrong. VERY WRONG. You are (in essence) forcing someone to buy car insurance for a car when they don't own a car, or a radio for someone who cannot hear. The ECONOMY does NOT permit some people to be able to have jobs. They can't get one, they can't even make their house payments. I've lost my house to foreclosure because I am among those people! Granted, I am disabled. I have no money to pay bills, and I am being forced into bankruptcy. So, how am I supposed to make what could be $2000.00 a month for an insurance policy? What little my wife and I get goes for food. You have not guaranteed that ILLEGALS will not continue to abuse the system, from what I am able to determine. This is not a service to the people of Minnesota. This is disgraceful.

IF I am wrong -- I would appreciate knowing how people without jobs, without money, will be able to pay for this ridiculous mandate. I CERTAINLY would like to know what precautions are being taken to keep illegals from abusing the system.

I would also like to know why the Federal Government gave JUDICIAL POWER to the INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE to enforce what appears to be an Unconstitutional mandate! I await your reply. PERHAPS it may be enough to deter me from voting for your opponent.

Another problem with the healthcare bill

I mentioned cost of the premiums...and what happens if you don't have insurance. So, what's the schtick? Let's say you lose your job, and don't have enough for everything: Food, mortgage or rent, Insurance, misc. bills. Or worse, you have no money at all -- nothing for house payment, anything. You can't make your house payment (Like what's happened here), you get foreclosed. You can't make the insurance, you get FINED. What kind of BULLSHIT is this?

And now, they want to tax the benefits from insurance, too. We're paying from the wallet, and through the nose. It's enough to make you sick...oops, you can't GET sick without insurance.

It's time to throw the bums out. Pelosi, Obama, Frank, Reid...all the crooks who have voted for this are robbing you blind. Thing is, they are politicians -- it's called "TAXES".

Let's put these morons on a park bench -- no health care, and fine 'em for not having it. Take away their pensions, tax their investments 110%. Let's see how they like it!

It's REVENGE...And the election is coming up. We MUST do our duty...AS I SEE IT!

Obama Care, and the current fracas

Labor is up in arms over a 40% tax proposed in the Senate Health Care Bill. WE WARNED YOU! You didn't listen! You're getting what you deserve! Unfortunately, you're gonna drag EVERYONE down. WE WARNED YOU. SO, I say "SHUT THE F*** UP" or STOP THE BILL." Take your pick, morons! We WARNED you against Obama. We WARNED you against his proposed "Plan." And NOW, because you didn't listen, we're ALL gonna pay the price! That's what happens, folks, when you get greedy -- or think your gonna get something for nothing. You're gonna get a taste of your own medicine. I guess you ought to take your place in line, NOW. You're gonna die while waiting for treatment, folks. That's the facts of the matter. Oh, you think I'm being "Too blunt, too mean." Too bad, crybabies! I am right. And I, among others, warned you. Yep, folks. WE TOLD YOU SO! To sum up: "I say you get what you deserve. So walk DA plank, ya nasty scurves!" The FACTS of the matter: Blunt as ever...AS I SEE IT.

Genuinely frightening -- Blunders in the medical profession.

The tabloids read like a bad movie, a "Mad Scientist" flick about the villain who steals body parts. They grab an eye here, an arm there, a kidney somewhere else. They forget to administer anesthesia, administer paralyzing drugs without pain killers, perform unnecessary surgery, amputate body parts, steal brains.

Well, the medical profession isn't like that...is it? There are just too many errors made by surgeons, physicians, and nurses.

A recent blunder occurred in an emergency room. A woman is bleeding and is afraid she is miscarrying. There was another woman, same first name, who was in for abdominal pain, The doctor scheduled a CT for the person with the pain. But a blunder sends the pregnant woman through the CT. The baby wasn't miscarried. But the baby was exposed to radiation. The child has since been born, but there will be questions for many years to come.

Just isolated? Hardly. In the respectable part of the papers, there are reports like it almost daily. A child is in for an appendectomy. What happens? Tonsillectomy. This blunder could have cost the patient's life. A patient goes in for removal of a cancerous kidney. Ooops. Someone blunders, the wrong kidney is removed. A wrong limb is amputated.

If this is occurring at the rate it is NOW, when the government doesn't have its hands in the insurance business, what's going to happen when the patients are moved to an assembly line?

Let me tell you of two experiences I had. One was in 1973. I had just had some blood tests the day before. An intern comes in the next day, wants to draw blood. I asked WHY? You just got some yesterday! He says, "Well, you'll be going home tomorrow." That was news to me. I questioned more and discovered it wasn't me they wanted at all, but the guy in the next bed. They weren't going to get it from him, he had been discharged the day before! This blunder could have really messed me up, my family, his family. It was worth it to question.

LAST YEAR, in October, I need hernia surgery. No biggie, right? However, when they began to prepare for the surgery, they started to mark the wrong area. I said "Why are you marking there? The hernia is on my right side. " I tell you, if I hadn't asked, they may have been guilty of malpractice.

We don't need patients on the assembly line. What we need is more surgeons being checked before they operate. We need to speak up, be sure of the procedures that are being done, and where. We need to leave written instructions, have people with us who KNOW what's going on. You're likely not to see a specific surgeon again; you need to be alert.

If doctors and surgeons are so prone to this blunder-rama, we need to have more, thoroughly trained, doctors checking each other BEFORE we go into surgery. Doctors are overworked, on call 24 hours a day as it is. We have to eliminate the quacks, get the real McCoy into surgery. If we don't, we're asking for trouble.

But what happens now if the Government starts sticking its nose into insurance? The doctors who are already sorely overworked will be more so. Blunders will increase, and there will be no recourse for recompense. We simply MUST have regulation where it belongs, and that isn't in the insurance industry. We must get physicians into a better working environment. This means more surgeons, less stress for them, more available for back-up, better checking and double checking -- which will result in fewer errors.

It's not the insurance industry that will suffer most if the Government starts pushing. It's the patient. It's the Doctors. And THAT is the worry -- AS I SEE IT.