Health care a distant second to jobs

Republicans like to refer to the U.S. House of Representatives as the “people’s house.” Ever since the election in November, they have been on a mission to conduct what they say is the No. 1 priority of the people – repealing health insurance reform.

There is only one problem with that. It’s not true.

According to every legitimate poll, including the recent CBS News/New York Times survey, unemployment (still over 9 percent and much higher in some parts of the country) continues to be the top concern of the majority of Americans. Joblessness is causing cities, towns and local governments to decay. Buildings are still boarded up. Foreclosure signs continue to litter many neighborhoods. Yet, the new House of Representatives, led by John Boehner of Ohio, charged ahead last week and voted to repeal the recent health-care reform package, labeled “Obamacare” by radio talk show hosts, as well as Boehner himself, who should be above this sort of parochial nonsense.

It is appalling that the House has chosen to make this symbolic repeal vote its first major piece of business, particularly when millions of folks are still out of work. And to be fair, I have also stated in this blog that President Obama was wrong in highlighting health care while unemployment was seemingly on the back burner during his first several months in office. Only now has Obama, with his upcoming State of the Union address, seemed to have shifted his full attention to jobs.

Little has changed in American politics in recent months. Republicans won big in November for one reason and one reason only: They were not the party in power while unemployment hovered around 10 percent. Somehow they took what American voters told them (fix unemployment) and twisted it into some sort of mandate to attack everything Obama, including needed financial and health-care reforms.

Trying to tie unemployment rates to health care legislation, as Republicans are now doing, is not only contrary to every objective economic study, but it is also proven to be incorrect by recent history.

We didn’t have insurance reforms when we got into this economic mess three years ago. We didn’t even have the law for the first part of the Obama presidency. So repealing the act and expecting jobs to miraculously reappear is not only wrong, it’s ignoring the need for feasible economic solutions.

Where are the studies showing that repealing health reform will reduce unemployment? Probably in the same file that suggests the wealthy create jobs with the extra money they get back from Uncle Sam. Instead of making these broad and often outdated assumptions, Republicans (and GOP-slanted media outlets) should produce facts based on objective research. Show me sound data that says for every $50,000 a billionaire saves on taxes, that money is used to hire someone. Until then, I have a hard time accepting these trickle-down theories, particularly when the income gap between the wealthiest Americans and the middle class continues to widen.

Going back to a system that allows insurance companies to gouge customers, or worse, lets people needlessly die, is not going to put America back to work in jobs that pay livable wages. Losing one’s house because they got sick isn’t going to improve the real estate market. The mood of the country isn’t going to get better by funding unjust wars or continuing to ship jobs overseas.

Congress needs to do better, act with more dignity and intelligence, while attending to the real-life issues that continue to confront our nation. Getting sucked into a Palin/Limbaugh universe is a recipe for further economic and personal disaster. Jobs not only propel the economy, but they also fuel individual self esteem and tighten the moral fabric of this country.

It is time for politicians to turn off Fox News and pay attention to what real journalists and pollsters are reporting. The margin of error for most scientific polls is 5 percentage points or fewer. With health care well behind jobs in most polls in the last two years, there should be no excuses to not make the economy the No. 1 priority in Washington, state houses and the media. The people have spoken. Will Mr. Boehner and others listen, or will they continue to misinterpret the message from the 2010 elections?

Building wealth from the bottom up a good idea

Is there any question that the system is rigged to favor the rich getting richer? Is there any doubt that the middle class is falling off the cliff at a faster rate as a result of the fix being in?

When I learned that the top bosses in my former company got huge bonuses the year after cutting thousands of jobs (including mine), that was pretty much it for me. I don't need anymore convincing that the system needs to radically change.

The salary gap between employees and CEOs has been widening for decades. The trickle-down theory isn't working anymore. These same CEOs who are pulling in disproportionately large salaries are also driving regular folks right to the poor house with layoffs, furloughs and salary reductions. I don't condone a system that rewards the wealthiest people for eliminating the jobs of folks who are just trying to get by. Is that radical of me?

I don't understand the lack of character it must take to accept a million-dollar bonus only weeks or months after laying off thousands of employees, many who may never work in a good job again because of their age. Ronald Reagan's trickle-down principles only worked when there was a sense of fairness at the top -- a willingness to share the wealth. It doesn't work when one guy runs off with all the profits.

Even our tax system, with all the loopholes, favors the wealthy. I can't afford an accountant to find ways for me not to pay my fair share of taxes. But you can bet anyone of certain means isn't doing their tax returns with TurboTax software.

Is it time that the wealthy and powerful chip in a bit more? Certainly. They can do so in a number of ways, starting with hiring people in their businesses where existing employees are stretched thin. Getting people back to work increases the tax base and relieves some of the stress on the current workforce. If a company can afford to give out obscene bonuses, it can afford to hire a few people.

This brings me to the top article in The New York Times today. It talks about President Obama wanting to address wealth inequalities as part of the health-insurance reform bill. Instead of screaming about socialism, the more conservative-minded folks should understand that evening the playing field isn't a crime against capitalism. This country was built on a sense of equality and relative fairness. We've lost our way in recent years. What we have now isn't equal or fair. If the president wants to shift things back to a time where wealth was built from the bottom up, I don't see that as an act of socialism. I see that as a method of preserving and rebuilding the middle class.

Of course, I am speaking mostly to reasonable conservatives here, not people who think Sarah Palin is on an intellectual par with Stephen Hawking or that Rush Limbaugh isn't mostly motivated by protecting his own wealth and ego.

I am not a proponent of handouts. I don't want to see America turned into a welfare nation. But I do back efforts to stop the wealthiest 5 percent from walking all over 95 percent of fellow Americans. Just think how many jobs would have been saved in the last two years if there was more corporate oversight and less personal and institutionalized greed. Instead, the rich and powerful drove us right into a recession while they fattened their bank accounts and landed safely with their golden parachutes. They fired hard-working people in order to be rewarded by their boards of directors. The bankers, the CEOs and everyone who is unethically benefiting from this recession are the ones behaving in a very un-American way.

Health-care bill is a done deal, let's move on

Everyone knew there would be a lot of talk about the new health-care reform bill this morning. What's infuriating is that politicians still don't seem to understand that the economy is the No. 1 concern of most Americans. Our leaders in Washington are still focusing on health-care reform. Unbelievable. Republicans want to repeal it. Democrats want to enhance it. And the battle, which should have ended with last night's vote, continues on as job losses mount, roads crumble, wars rage on and the debt rises.

Generally, I support health-insurance reform, though I must admit that supporting anything that Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, backs is difficult for me. It was tough listening to her babble during her victory speech late last night. At times, she seemed downright incoherent.

We need to move on. Health-care reform is a done deal. A lot of what is in the bill will be good for most Americans whether they realize it or not. They should stop listening to "entertainers" like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh -- two guys who are trying to protect their vast wealth -- and start paying attention to what really led to last night's historic vote.

The health insurance companies dug their own graves by exploiting Americans for decades. Greed and arrogance eventually caught up with the big insurers. They probably never imagined the party would end. But it has. And they only have themselves to blame. There should be a lesson in this for all corporations that lose their way. Few people want socialism, but measured governmental regulations seem to be necessary more often than not.

Both political parties would serve America well to shake hands and get on with more important business. If bad feelings linger from the health-care debate, and if the media can't also move on to other subjects of critical importance, we will surely be in far more trouble in the not-so-distant future. It's time for our leaders to start acting like adults and true patriots. Let's put the same energy that went into health-care reform into rebuilding our economy.

Obama lights up the Patriot Center at GMU

President Obama just finished giving a speech about health-insurance reform at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., just 20 miles from where I live. Whether you agree with Obama or not on this or any issue, you have to admit the guy can deliver a speech.

What struck me about Obama's speech and broad support at GMU's Patriot Center today was that he was speaking to folks who, for the most part, have health-care insurance. Yet, these people nonetheless support efforts to help other citizens who are less fortunate. They don't take the position that just because they can afford insurance others shouldn't have access to medical care. They don't take self-reliance values so far that they are incapable of lending a hand.

While you might not agree with the health-care bill that is being politically debated like no other issue I've seen in my lifetime, you have to respect folks who could easily turn their backs on the needy but don't. I hear too many overly judgmental people in my daily life who think everyone who has fallen from grace somehow did something to deserve being without health care, a job or a home.

I am glad that we have a president who can passionately articulate his views about helping others as he did at GMU today. I rather his beliefs be debated than his basic intelligence or compassion be in doubt. I see some problems with this bill, but I don't see the sky falling if it passes. I refuse to get into the parochial argument of whether or not Obama is maliciously trying to ruin the country.

One way or another, the debate needs to come to an end soon. America is dangerously divided. Other serious problems need to be addressed. If the bill passes, I hope conservatives won't try to do some of the crazy things that have been suggested on talk radio -- like impeaching Congress. If it doesn't pass, I hope the left can move on to other matters and revisit health-care reform later on.

Maybe we need a new "ism"

As the health insurance reform debate comes to a climax this week, you've probably heard the word "socialism" used a lot by conservatives who want to kill the bill. This is meant to scare people into thinking that we are about to lose all of our freedoms and liberties.

Let's get real. Without a reasonable measure of government intervention, and some relinquishing of freedoms, we wouldn't have a country. We'd have no military. Planes would be crashing in our skies on a daily basis. Cars would be spewing deadly emissions into the air and drinking water would be polluted by companies dumping toxic waste into rivers. Highways wouldn't be built and the guy sitting in the cubicle next to you would be blowing cigarette smoke in your face all day long. There would be no space program because there would be no taxes to pay for it. Fewer kids would go to college and there would be no public schools. There would be no laws against murder, rape or stealing or any police to enforce whatever "wild-west" laws might exist. Street drugs would be pouring in from Mexico and folks would be screaming "fire" in crowded movie theaters just for kicks. White-collar crime would be off the charts. Discrimination would be the norm. If your bank failed, your money would not be insured. Get the picture?

Most "isms" don't provide the ultimate answer to a better society. And most "isms" aren't that radically different than others. It's really a matter of degree and who is getting screwed the most under whatever governmental system exists. Frankly, I would rather see the insurance companies taken to the woodshed than have Americans needlessly dying of curable diseases. I don't know what "ism" that belief falls under, but whatever it is, sign me up.

I understand the perception that the government (federal, state or local) doesn't run many things very well. Motor vehicle departments are a mess. The Internal Revenue Service is the poster child for inefficiency. Some cities can't even get the streets plowed after a snowstorm. But to deny millions of people affordable medical care is heartless in a society that as a whole is relatively generous. To watch premiums rise 30 percent annually while insurance companies rack in record profits is absurd even for a country that prides itself on capitalism.

I don't know if what conservatives call "Obama-care" is going to solve more than it damages, but I am reasonably certain that the spirit of the effort is just. I don't see what alternatives conservatives are offering that would prevent people from needlessly suffering and dying. Instead of screaming "socialism," it would be better if conservatives came up with a more understandable, feasible plan of their own -- one that is fiscally responsible but also helps return some sense of fairness to a health-care system that seems to shut out more people each year.

I am willing to let the government lean on greedy insurance companies and perhaps offer less expensive health-care alternatives. We don't have absolute freedom and self-reliance anyway. Never have and never will. Nor do we practice a pure form of capitalism. The government is involved in most things in our society, from checking our food to delivering our mail. Why so many folks are drawing the line in the sand over health care is somewhat surprising, particularly when you consider how many Americans have lost their jobs and insurance since the start of the recession.

Keeping it simple escapes us

Healthcare reform has been a noble fight. But it also underscores why this country is so divided and increasingly dysfunctional. It illustrates why whenever you get a large group of people together (in this case Congress) to try to fix something that's broken, you often end up with an even worse result. I saw this same phenomenon while working for a large company.

The longer the fight and the more revisions to the various proposals are dragged out, the more we are moving away from true reform and the closer we are getting to actually creating new financial hardships for millions of people.

In the world of design, simple is often considered best. If designed well, it's more elegant and functional to keep things clean rather than to create clutter. Some mental-health therapists advise folks with anxiety issues to reduce the clutter in their lives. Yet, in most large organizations, including the federal government, simple is never an option. Just look at the tax laws to see a prime example of what happens when the concept of simplicity is abandoned.

At the same time, there is a group of folks in America who would like to do nothing about reforming healthcare. They believe in every man, woman and child for themselves. If people fall through the cracks, so be it. And these hardliners call that liberty. They are usually the same folks who think people should be allowed to smoke in public places and drive at whatever speed they want.

With these opposing forces constantly clashing, it is difficult to create or revise laws to improve our country. Too little government intervention leads to corporate corruption and epic levels of greed. Too much poking around by the feds infringes on the constitution and the reason why this country was formed.

So what's the answer?

I honestly don't know anymore.

Dean says kill health-reform bill

I rarely agree with Howard Dean about anything, but his opinion piece in The Washington Post makes some sense. It's astonishing that the opinion is coming from a hardcore Democrat. The current health-care reform bill doesn't seem to accomplish what was originally intended and it might be best to start over, says Dean. Read Dean's column.

Sobering thoughts about aging

This chart from the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project shows what many of my closest friends and I have to look forward to in the next 5 to 25 years. Just think, in 5 years about 1 in 10 of those who graduated from college in 1979 will have trouble using the toilet. And 13.4 percent will have difficulty simply dressing. Daily living will not be what were told it would be. The golden years aren't looking so golden. I have no desire to fight my own feet in order to put on my socks.

Of course, few things in life remain constant or improve over time. Even wine reaches a point where it gets rancid. We have to accept that inevitable decline in all things, including ourselves. But who determines when the wine is turning bad? There is also the question of whether the wine is actually worsening or whether our tastes are changing.

It seems that life involves a series of reboots and dispelling of myths that can often get frustrating as one begins to have the advantage of a seasoned perspective.

Remember when we were told to drink several glasses of whole milk each day? Well, turns out that's a sure-fire way to die before you even begin having toilet issues. But I fully expect that sooner or later, drinking milk will be fashionable again.

Remember the American dream? Get an education. Buy a small house. Work your way up to a good job in a big company. Get a bigger house. Show loyalty and collect a pension after 30 years or so. Then retire to a warm-weather place and play catch with your grandchildren. Now, a bachelor's degree doesn't guarantee you anything. A small house won't necessarily appreciate enough to ever buy a bigger home and may, depending on the economy, lead you into foreclosure. Pensions are long gone at most companies, replaced by 401k plans. And employers show little loyalty, particularly to older workers, making it almost impossible now to work for just one or two companies in a lifetime. Oh, and those 401k and other savings plans ... turns out they aren't the retirement safety nets everyone said they would be when pensions were ditched.

Aging in America is not the rewarding, respectful or peaceful time we were told it would be or just assumed. Many people who should be at the height of their careers are finding themselves on unemployment lines. What's worse is that the future for these folks looks even more dismal because personal resources are being burned just to get through the here and now. If you are one of the 24.3 percent of the people who can't walk a block when you're 65, you won't even be able to be a respectable homeless person.

Whether one's problems are career, financial or health-related, "baby boomers" were not prepared for this. We adjusted and readjusted as boomers have done since grade school when we had to hide under our desks to protect ourselves from nuclear weapons, only to find out that that was one of the dumbest things we were ever told to do. We survived divorces which became fashionable, retooled our careers as technology took off and gave up drinking whole milk. We quit smoking and kept our hands on the 10 and 2 o'clock positions on the steering wheel. Unfortunately, someone mindlessly talking on their cellphone ran right into us and obliterated everything we worked for in our lives. Guess they didn't take driver's ed.

I am not a fan of aging if on top of having a 9.5 percent chance of having difficulty getting out of bed means that once I am out of bed I have nowhere to go. What good is there in medical science increasing our life expectancy if society and our culture casts us out in our 50s and 60s? I don't want to have difficulty walking across the room, assuming I have a room to walk across, only to find that once I am across it there really isn't anything there worthy of my attention.

Because we've eaten more veggies and get prostate exams regularly, the average life expectancy of men has increased to about 75. It was 10 years less when many of us boomers were born. That's the good news. However, I wonder who is going to take us to the pharmacy after the sun goes down when 30 percent of us won't be able to drive a car at night? I wonder how many of us will even be able to afford a car because no one will give us a job?

You would think everyone would be more supportive of the aging process -- from employers to the entertainment industry to Madison Avenue -- because we all get old if we're lucky enough to avoid premature illnesses or fatal accidents.

Maybe along with prolonging life, we better figure out a way to tweak our culture in a manner that allows mid-life and older folks to be contributing members of society. When we get out of bed in the morning, we want to go to meaningful jobs, see movies we can relate to, read books and publications with something substantial to say. Most of us are capable of working well into our 60s and 70s. If given the chance, some folks are still vibrant contributors in their 80s. But our culturally mindset has to change in order to have a more just and productive society. Just because 9.7 percent of us may walk across the room a little slowly doesn't mean we don't possess knowledge and skills that should be treasured.

I am not ready for the shuffleboard courts. I feel the pressure of time being preciously limited, but fortunately I don't have any of the problems listed in the chart above. At least not yet. And while I am blessed to be relatively healthy, it would be nice to feel like there is still a place on this planet for me that doesn't involve canasta and waxing poetic about the Ed McMahon. As many of my boomer friends would agree, we might not be able to play four quarters of full-court basketball or drink until the wee hours of the morning anymore, but we can think, feel, analyze and contribute in ways we couldn't in 1979.

Yes, daily life is bound to get progressively difficult after a certain age regardless of how many hours you spend on the treadmill. But it doesn't have to be made even more difficult by what seems to be a growing list of societal, economic and cultural shifts. Not being able to properly digest a slice of pepperoni pizza doesn't have to be made worse by losing one's sense of place in the world. Ideally, I would like to go back to an America where grandparents are respected, workers can retire comfortably and I can drink a glass of milk every now and then. Yet, I know that's not the way things are trending. And with the prospect of battling my underwear on the horizon, I have to wonder if Billy Joel was right in singing, "Only the good die young."

Another shattered American dream

ABC's Nightline aired a story titled "Families in Foreclosure" last night. Glad to see the mainstream media reporting more stories like this, but wish they wouldn't wait until 11:30 p.m. to do so. This stuff needs to be in prime time and on every front page of every newspaper, which maybe will force people, particularly government leaders, to wake up.

You can watch the video here: http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/

A Mason, Ohio couple and their young daughter, son and family dog are featured in the piece. They didn't lose their home because they bought too big of a house, drove new cars or were shopaholics drowning in credit card debt. This isn't a story about some slimy mortgage company that conned them into something they couldn't afford. They lost their home because of a perfect storm that is becoming all too common.

Neighbors were in tears watching the family pack their belongings. Apparently, these were modest, well-liked folks. No country clubbers or CEOs with golden parachutes in this humble neighborhood.

Tears flowed again when the parents walked the young girl to her bus stop for a final time. I don't know how parents explain these things to children.

The husband, a veteran, hurt his back badly while on the job at a warehouse. While on disability leave, his firm merged with another company. That created downsizing and layoffs. He lost his job. Meanwhile, his wife has Crohn's Disease, which has hospitalized her 19 times in 20 years. Her medical bills began piling up and the couple was evicted from their modest $115,000 townhouse. The show documents their last few days in their home.

Fortunately, the couple was able to move in with a family member. But you could tell that losing their home was nonetheless painful and tragic. Another of those life scars we all accumulate at sometime or another. Still, they did have shelter in the aftermath. Could have been worse.

One has to wonder where others, without family members to take them in, will go when they lose their jobs, savings and homes.

Once again, another American family, through no fault of their own, has fallen victim to corporate downsizing, unmanageable medical bills and just bad luck. These tales are increasing at an alarming rate, hitting closer and closer to home, and are eating away at the core values that made this country strong.

As a journalist and quasi blogger, I consider what is happening now as the biggest story of our generation, yet it still doesn't get the play it should. Judging from my own declining blog traffic, it appears people just want to stick their heads in the sand about the economy, unemployment and the domino effect of it all.

Meanwhile, the president is continuing his globetrotting ways and the deficit is getting bigger by the second, which potentially means if we ever get out of this recession, rampant inflation will follow. Most economists believe taxes are going to have to go sky high in future in order to pay for all the government spending going on now. Interest rates on mortgages and car loans could return to the upper teens, where they were in the late 1970s and early 80s.

There are growing reports that those who crossed the border to come here in recent years for work are going back to Mexico to find jobs. More astonishingly, those in Mexico are now sending what little money they have to help out relatives in America who have fallen upon hard times.

From Mason, Ohio to Southern California to the shores of Florida, the situation is the same. And when I see stories like the one last night, I wonder what the future holds for my own daughter. She is well educated and hard working, yet I don't know if that's enough anymore.

For folks my age in similar predicaments, time is our biggest enemy. I hear the clock ticking every minute of every day.

I think the American dream is being rewritten with each story like the one in Mason, Ohio. I don't know what the final chapter will read like, but I know the cast of characters is growing more than most people realize.

Jobs, war, meds and more

A recent article in the Fort Worth Star Telegram explained why being out of work now is tougher than it was in the early 1980s. While unemployment benefits are better in 2009, the chances of returning to work are worse, according to the article.

In another article in the Star Telegram, there are predictions that unemployment will remain high for several more years. Here's that story: http://www.star-telegram.com/461/story/1750451.html

So the stimulus money that was suppose to cap unemployment at around 8 percent hasn't worked. The wars that we were suppose to end and stop paying for once we got rid of President Bush are still raging on and may escalate in Afghanistan.

And all I hear President Obama and other Washington politicians talking about is health insurance.

I have lost a lot of faith in Obama. Smart guy who seems to be losing perspective rapidly. He's becoming a one-trick pony, which is not what we need right now. Personally, I don't want to see him on anymore golf courses or dates with Michelle on Broadway until he starts making progress to ease the unemployment problem and ends wars in two countries. If Bush was pulling this crap, everyone, including the media, would be screaming.

While medical insurance might eventually be reformed, is actual health care going to be improved? Are doctors going to start learning how to not shuttle patients through like they're on an assembly line? Are medical people going listen to patients and stop making diagnoses that are, in a word, wrong?

Mainstream doctors are far too quick to hand out antibiotics (which are actually far more dangerous than advertised) to the sick and Prozac to the emotionally troubled. My cat's vet spends more time with him than my doctors do with me, and offers more alternatives.

Many more folks might soon have insurance, but what kind of service and care are going to await all these new patients?

Pet peeve of the day. It would be a relief if media people stopped using the meaningless phrase, "on the ground." This started at the beginning of the Iraq war, when it was somewhat relevant in a military sense, but has now worked its way into almost every talking-head conversation that takes place about politics, Wall Street, real estate, sports, poker, baking...you name it. It's become filler. Needless drama. We don't need to hear that political advisers are "on the ground" in Iowa or students are "on the ground" at recess. Where else would they be?

Novacaine doesn't dull all pains

The dentist office called early this morning. Twice. There was some confusion on their behalf about my new insurance. The confusion stemmed from their not being aware that I am now on my wife's plan. For the first time in the 14 years that I have gone to this dentist, I do not have my own plan because I am not employed. I guess it was an easy mistake for them to assume that my new plan was connected to my employer.

OK, so you might be saying, what's the big deal?

Here's the problem. Almost every day there are the tiniest reminders of the "abnormality" of unemployment. Little things that chip away at one's spirit and sense of worth. I always provided for myself, before and after I was married. For 29 years, I was self-sufficient. Prided myself on being independent. Had my ups and downs, financially speaking, but always had a job. Always had my own medical and dental insurance. That ended when I was laid off by USA TODAY last December.

No matter how many people join the ranks of the unemployed, there is still a feeling in the air that being without a job is rare and even looked down upon a tad by society as a whole. After all, in the county where I live in Northern Virginia, over 90 percent of the people are working. So, at least statistically, I am an oddity. Sometimes I think I might feel better about myself if I lived in Detroit, where unemployment has skyrocketed. At least there, maybe the dentist office might be able to figure out why they can't match up my insurance with my employer without having to hit another nerve over the phone.

Everyone sees the dramatic stories on TV and in the newspapers about the foreclosures and the tent cities that have resulted from the loss of jobs during this recession. But no one, other than the unemployed, feels the little tragedies that occur each and every day. Would be nice if there was a novacaine for the soul.