A Blog a Day....

You know, I don't always have to write about the government and people dying and people destroying the world and the little-varying word choice of Rush Limbaugh. Sometimes I'm a normal 17-year-old kid and want to write about something non-Earth-shattering.

Today is not one of those times. Today is a day I'll write about something you've all heard about and probably don't have an opinion on anymore due to the ridiculous amount of mud-slinging and riff-raff that has interrupted any normal human from finishing a complete thought about it.

Healthcare.

You heard some craziness for months about how the government is going to kill people over this new bill and we'll all be paying for each others medical bills with increased taxes and you'll have to stand in line for the next 13 years of your life for a check-up and cancer treatment will cost 50% of your first born child if his name is Mark (or her name is Marcell) and you live in a zip code ending in 5, right?

Forget. What. You. Heard.

First - here's the actual basics, the real facts:

• The bill (now a law) will reform healthcare in a way that 32 million uninsured Americans will be offered healthcare.
• The law will cost $940 billion dollars over a course of 10 years.
• The law will reduce the national debt by a total of $143 billion dollars in the first ten years and 1.2 trillion from the tenth year to the twentieth year after its enactment.
• The insurance provided will be charged to all Americans, but subsidies will be made for those within an income bracket of 133 percent and 400 percent poverty level - the current poverty level for a family of four is a little over $22,000.
• The law will abolish Medicare, Medicaid, and employee health care for those who qualify for the aforementioned subsidies.
• Families making more than $250,000 a year and individuals making more than $200,000 a year will be charged a 3.8 percent Medicare Payroll Tax.
• The Medicare Part D "donut hole" or gap in coverage for seniors will be closed and replaced with a 50% discount on name-brand medications beginning this year.
• Nearly $500 billion dollars in Medicare cuts will be made by 2020
• The bill expands Medicaid to those in the 133 percent poverty level (those families making about $29,000 a year), childless adults beginning 2014, and the federal government covers 100 percent of Medicaid costs for newly eligible people through 2016.
• As of now, no medical insurance company may deny coverage to a child based on a "pre-existing condition" and starting in 2014, no insurance company may deny coverage to anyone based on pre-existing conditions, and insurance companies cannot deny children coverage under their parents' policy until age 26.
• (here's the tricky part)
• Abortions will be covered, indirectly, by taxpayers funding in subsidies on insurance premiums. You pay a premium for an abortion, taxpayers pick-up some of the tab on that premium. In addition, clinics that provide abortions as well as other services will be funded with federal funds which stem from taxpayer dollars. HOWEVER, here's the catch, the plans offered by the government will consist of one plan which offers abortion coverage and one plan that does not, per Obama's decision to modify the bill. (Tricky again--) No federal or taxpayer dollars will be used to cover abortions that do NOT involve rape, incest, or that are in the interest of the mother's health and livelihood.
• Every American MUST purchase insurance from the federal government or incur a yearly $695 fine.
• Illegal immigrants may NOT buy healthcare from the federal government even if they pay completely out-of-pocket.

Alright, still with me? Now you KNOW. You haven't just HEARD. You KNOW.

Healthcare reform looks to the future. But why would we want those sluts that can't keep their pants on digging in our pockets to kill the babies they illegitimately had, right? Why should we bust out hundreds of billions of dollars for those no good Democrats and Obama so we can become a socialist government? Why would we join the other thirty-two of thirty-three "developed nations" with Universal Health Care plans?

Let's see a few of those socialist scum, shall we?

• Norway - A country that has more reindeer than people
• Kuwait - Damn near third-world and still has healthy people
• Brunei - Ever heard of it?
• Bahrain - Seriously? These guys have it? Who are they?
• France - What a bunch of... Healthy people?
• Japan - They have the highest life expectancy in the world? Wow, I thought that was us, we're perfect, right?
• Spain - They run with bulls for crying out loud.

Now here's a few fun facts:

• America is now ranked twentieth in life expectancy for women, down from 1st in 1960
• The US is 67th in the world for immunized people. Botswana is 66th. Seriously? Batswana? Don't they wrestle like wild boar or something?
• Universal health care in the United States would cost 40% less than our current "system"

I'm not here to preach to you. I just want you to look at the facts. Do you think Obama and our federal government would create a system where the government is crippled, people are killed, and we pay for "optional abortions"? Seriously?

I'm sitting here writing this, doing research, and reading a blog/column by one Michael D. Tanner. He has outlined his "cons" to "Obamacare". (Oh what a clever insult)

(I'll paraphrase for you-- and then make a counterargument, of course)

1. Reform would raise the cost of hiring workers for employers due to the requirement of employer-offered medical care.
2. Every American would be required to buy medical insurance based on federal requirements
3. A government-run plan would be competition to private insurance and people would have to choose between the two. Subsidies would cause people to choose government plans even if they like their current insurance plan.
4. Private insurance would face a host of new regulations, including a requirement to insure ALL applicants and drop charges based on pre-existing conditions and risk factors.
5. Subsidies would be available to help middle-income families purchase insurance and Medicare and Medicaid would be extended to more citizens.
6. The government would manage, design, and develop an electronic system for medical records.

Alright, my turn

1. What would you prefer? That employees not be able to take their sick children to the hospital because their penny-pinching, money-grubbing, Porsche-driving CEO's can't afford the 5% drop in profit because they have to keep people healthy.
2. Okay, so you don't want "the man" telling you what to do? How dare the government tell you how to be healthy and live longer and see your grandchildren graduate from high school or college!
3. Wow. God forbid we have a little competition FINALLY for a close-to-monopoly over people's lives. How many of us like our insurer, anyway? We like our insurer as long as we can see and our teeth don't fall out and our broken leg is healed, but do you think if you gave them a call they would even know your name?
4. This is the biggest joke of a "con" I have ever had the displeasure to hear. Seriously? You are presenting, as a negative of healthcare reform, that EVERYONE be eligible for health insurance and that people not have to pay out the nose because of illnesses they can't control? Let's say you have a little boy named Michael and when he's born you call the health insurance company and ask for him to be added under your coverage, that's pretty simple, right? Wrong again. Michael can't be covered because heart disease is common in your family and insurance companies don't want to pay for that somewhere down the line, or let's say they give little Michael coverage but charge you twice of three times the normal insurance deductible based on his "pre-existing condition". You defend this process and cite it's correction and, by extension, saving the lives of thousands as a "con"? What a joke.
5. Another joke. Heaven forbid we give help to those that have to work like dogs 60-70 hours a week just to pay for a ride in the ambulance when someone falls off the roof or breaks their leg.
6. This nearly tops them all. ALL medical records are on PAPER. Paper. You know how long it takes to mail something from Dallas to New York? A long-ass time. Let's say those medical records contain information that could help you get a kidney while yours are failing. Do you want to wait?

That's all I'll say. The bottom line is this: people in the Northern states go to Canada for healthcare all the time. Why? It's cheap and it's the same care. Hell, Cuba has better healthcare than we do and do you remember Castro? Castro > Obama? Not even over my dead body.

A 3.8% tax a year for high-income families each year keeps the socialists away....

Why America Resembles Elmer Fudd

We've woken up.

Yeah, we've rolled out of bed on the right side finally and realized that all those RPG-carrying, Islam-yellin', non-English speakin' bastards have got to die. Every last one of 'em.

It's an infection. Kill one, two more grow up and replace him. Why not nuke 'em? Oh, that wouldn't look good on the evening news, I mean, think about Japan. We had to bully them into selling us Transformers and that damn Yugi-Oh! shit again after last time.

The Iraqi's are just a bunch of angry people that hate America and (as a friend said to me today) if we have to kill 'em to protect ourselves, our soldiers, and eventually - America, then I say kill those fuckin' Jihad assholes.

Yeah, sure we haven't found any WMD's yet, but we found something much better, a bunch of people that don't know a democracy from a dictatorship and act like clay for us to mold. We can just sit in our Apache helicopters sippin' on a cold one and right when the little bastards climb out of their hole, we'll blast 'em like a 6-year-old burning an ant with a magnifying glass.

After all, we're the United States of America. Who the hell do they think they are?! After over 200 years of war-free domestic soil they think they can just waltz in here and take out the World Trade Center. I mean, who would we be if we didn't rape their women and kill their children, burn their mosques and destroy their way of life? A bunch of pussies, that's what. We paid good money to build those buildings. Those were good people up there and down in the streets with wives and babies and mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers.

You want to know the best part though? We can all sit at the Starbucks on the corner and watch congresswomen get shot through the head in Arizona, US helicopters fire upon and kill Iraqi children and innocents, and Rush Limbaugh talk about how the Head Nigger in Charge is responsible for Armaggedon, the Holocaust, the National Debt, J.R. gettin' shot on Dallas, the Burning of Terra, 9/11, smallpox, the plague, and the dog from down the street taking a shit in my front yard all with three clicks of a mouse.

Of course, this is all the Al Qaeda's fault. All of it. I mean, Uncle Sam didn't foreclose on your house and neither did those nice people at the bank. It's that damn Al Qaeda. BP didn't spill that oil. Those Iraqis did. I mean even their name sounds like a suicide bomber or something, right?

"Praise Alla? Well how 'bout I put All-a my foot in your ass?" said America. Loudly. And it's a damn good thing too because we weren't about to let those two buildings be forgotten... Well, I mean there's some oil over there too that we need so we can drive our Ford Focuses down to the mall with our pretty little wives and pretty little kids and buy a couple of hundred dollars worth of shit that was made for about a nickel and a dead dog over in Bangladesh or some other country over there in Asia or something.

Congratulations America, you've finally awoken. Say hello to the world you and I have created, I really hope those bastards don't see us comin'.

Be vewy quiet, I'm hunting terrorists.

Unemployment

I've got a bone to pick with you.

Yes, you.

Or should I say us? Should I say We the People. Yeah, we all like to be referred to as a group when we're conquering evil or winning wars or fighting the "good fight".

But unemployment hit 9.3 percent today.

Are you sitting in an office? Look to your right. Look to your left. Count out ten people. You're the unemployed one. You're the one that has to work at a convenient store or a Wal-Mart stocking shelves to feed and cloth your child. You're the one that has to listen to a hungry baby cry at night because the only thing you can afford is the house to keep him sheltered.

Why? Why you? Why all of us?

Here's a better question: Why is it that you have to scroll halfway down the Google results for "unemployment" just to see the current employment rate? Why is it that the only reason I heard that nearly 1 in every 10 Americans is now unemployed is the fact that AP Mobile on my iPhone told me. 40 or 50 years ago, people would've taken to the streets if they knew that on their little cookie-cutter block of ten houses, one of their neighbors had just been laid-off and "the bank" was going to take their home.

It's not like nearly 10% of this nation simply sat on their ass and thought, "hmmmm... You know what'd be nice? A day off. Nah, a week off. How about a whole year?" It's not like we all just fell into a vegetative state and now everyone is too lazy to work.

I'll tell you what happened. Wal-Mart pays 9 to 20 cents an hour, 87 hours a week, for labor in Bangladesh. Global Horizons, a LA-based labor recruiter, gets their labor for free, violating human trafficking laws and enslaving more than 400 Thai citizens. Oil rigs in the Atlantic and elsewhere lack plans in case of a major disaster such as, oh I don't know, a nearly-$14 billion dollar oil spill. Or maybe it's the war we're fighting in Iraq where we kill innocents just for the hell of it and commit new, unimaginable war crimes everyday.

(But that's for another post, trust me. )

The next time you find yourself thinking, damn, I don't want to go to work today,

think of the millions (27 to be more precise) that would give up anything to take that job from you.

The next time you're driving down the street and see "foreclosure" lining the sides of it, pull over and pray.

Because it's me and you next. It's me and you that will join that long line of unemployed.

Please, sir, can I have some more?

Blood in the Water

Oil in the water – blood in the water. It’s seen in The Bible. The waters are said to turn red at the end of the world. BP? Are you listening? Read the Good Book lately?

The point is…

The world looks like it’s ending every single day. What are we doing about it? I’m not saying I believe any conspiracies about the so-called end being “nigh”. I’m not standing on the corner holding up a sign saying so. I just know we have to get things together or we will end our own lives. Our own world.

Iraq?

A joke.

Afghanistan?

Yeah. Ridiculous.

BP?

Possibly responsible for something that MY grandchildren won’t see cleaned up.

Obama?

Don’t get me started.

Oh, wait… I’m already started.

Barack Obama. If I could word a letter to you right now it would read a lot like this:

“

Dear President Obama,

How dare you. How dare you stand in control of a nation and not take charge of its waters and its people. Blood is spilled everyday overseas for oil and resources, while the very thing you are killing for leaks into our Gulf. Yes, I said YOU. YOU: The man I would have voted for two years ago if I was legally allowed. YOU: Who gave us all “hope” for a short time and dethroned the borderline evil actions of Bush/Cheney. YOU: Who has let me, personally, down in every possible way, not to mention the American people as a whole.

Sincerely and with hopes you will get your shit together,

An Angry American

“

Or for the lazy and illiterately ignorant President that I now see creating a trough out of the White House,

“

Dear Obama,

Fix it.

From,

An Angry American

“

It’s OUR country. Hell, it’s OUR world. Why can’t we treat it like we own it?!

Dear World, We Are Sorry

Dear World,
Where can I begin? We are all sorry for the way we have treated you. How selfish can one people be? We are sorry for suffocating you just so we can drive the kids back and forth to soccer games or drive to the bar for a drink with our friends. We are sorry for blaring through the ozone just so we can be a little more comfortable than your weather allows us to be. We are sorry for all the blood we have spilled on your virgin soil time and time again, we know you will never forget the tears our war has brought upon you and how some stains can never be removed. We are sorry for angering you with our bombs, bombs that black out the sky and end the lives of millions of your children. We are sorry for screaming at each other over the beautiful sounds of your creations. We are sorry for the blood in your pure waters and our failed attempts to clean it all up, the animals we have soiled and suffocated, dirtied and murdered. But most of all, we are sorry that you have to watch us destroy ourselves…

What I Think We Should Do

Listen, I’m only 17. But I know what a nation looks like. A free and prosperous nation.

And this isn’t it.
We say we’re working on it and we make excuses for why we havent cleaned up this mess we’ve created, but really it all boils down to the fact that no one really cares. We have to run our cars right? Yup. So why not use gas? It’s easy and whatever, we won’t have to deal with the world’s eminent doom. Wrong. Hell, even the Nazis had synthetic gasoline. Why can’t we discover a way to turn this around? We have a black president for God’s sake. WE, as a nation, as a people, as one breathing and living being, should be rioting in the streets right now for the want of a better life. For the want of SOMETHING to reach out to and hold, something like hope. The middle class — gone. The working class — gone. What are we to do? pray for rain? People, that same people written about 200 hundred years ago in a document that founds our great nation, need help. The people of the U.S. must become a WE, not a me.