Dems

Senate Leadership: A Lack Thereof

2009-01-08T10:20:07Z

The 110th Congress was perhaps the most polarized, do nothing Congress in recent history. Unfortunately for America, the same line-up of leadership is present in the 111th Congress. In my view, there is a more apparent lack of leadership in the Senate, than the House of representatives.

]]> First, you have to look at the length of time these Senators serve. Byrd has reached the half century mark, Kennedy is three years behind, and many more have been in office for decades. There is an old saying that " a fish stinks from the head down. The next opportunity to vote out incumbents is 2010. The mentality of "the Congress is broken, but it's not my representative or senator" somehow has got to be changed. The message that, your own representative and senator are a part of the problem and should be voted out, needs to be sounded throughout the country. Our country has reached a watershed moment in history and depending on the actions taken by our representatives may well define our future or a lack of a future at all.

In many cases legislation that passes the House gets lost in the Senate. Any Senator can place a "secret hold" on legislation. This is not democracy when a single Senator can hold the entire country hostage because his or her beliefs are not aligned with the interests of the American people, but rather some special or self interest.

It is also my view that Senators, on a regular basis, do not meet their constitutional obligations which they are sworn to uphold. In to many serious issues they have passed the baton to the executive branch, commerce, war powers, the very definition of defense, the secrecy surrounding their interactions with the intelligence community. The concept of checks and balances has gone out the window.

Another obvious truth is that Senators begin their next campaign, right after re-election. this necessitates hooking up with special interests for money. You give to me & I give to you. The "people" seldom cross their minds, unless they are back home touting the bacon/pork they have brought. Where to start to correct this situation, again in my view, is with the leadership in the Seanate, or lack thereof. Senator Harry Reid does not have much of a view beyond his homestate of Nevada. He is one of the most lackluster leaders, I have ever seen. He weilds no power and the Republican minority seem to easily bulldoze over him and get billions for their pet projects in return for their votes. The Democrats need to take a stand now. Remove Harry Reid as Majority leader and perhaps replace him with someone like a Senator Testor or A Senator Webb or anyone with some kind of guts and allegiance to the constitution and American people.

The Republican leader Senator McConnell also should go. He is more interested in playing partisan politics. Again, I question his motives. He did not get sent back to the Senate with resounding support of the people of Kentucky. He just squeaked by a loss. Yet he returns as if he has some kind of mandate, somehow annointed. What is clear, he would be much better suited to be the chair of the rnc, than a Senator. How do you replace the leadership at this point. Pressure the democratic and republican caucuses, use an email campaign, get the word out to various groups and get momentum going. It is worth a shot and I will be interested in reading comments on this article, to get a sense of how many others agree with this, as well as possible variations on the theme.

Bob Henry/Maine

Healthcare, Medicare, & the symptoms of a problem

2008-12-28T11:58:01Z

When The Medicare Part D prescription drug bill was formulated, it was
the big drug companies who essentially handed the Congress all of the
elements of the legislation. Who then, is the beneficiary of this little piece
of artwork? Certainly not us.

]]> This week a report that the federal budget now stands at 17% of our GNP, entitlements included. The report stated that 4.5% is social security, 4.5% is Medicare/Medicaid, and 4.5% is spent on Defense, the balance (not much runs everything else). The place to start is to rebuild the healthcare system. It is my belief that our health care system has morphed into a version of Wall Street, where the almighty dollar takes precedence over the actual health of Americans.
Healthcare premiums are killing our businesses and our budgets.

My wife recently had to go to the emergency room after a fall. We received bills from the Ambulance company, the laboratory, the x-ray outfit, the doctor who treated her...and finally a $3200 bill from a collection agency for the hospital. Who apparently lost our insurance info, never sent us a bill. When they realized it was over 90 days...went right to collection. I could
not figure out what the $3200 was for ...using their billing for an hour?

We got billed by all the people who did the work. It is simply put, another form of pillaging the people. President Elect Obama has made health care one of his priorities. Medicare and medicaid should be placed into a new health care system and placed under the Department of Health and Human services. I just don't see it as an effective stand alone agency.

If healthcare is to be legislated then lets get rid of part D and this time write it for the
people and not the drug companies. Use the buying power of the program to get deep discounts on prescription drugs. The people currently receiving Medicare/Medicaid can be placed under a new system where based on a sliding scale & reasonable premiums can be collected from those who are able to pay.

Another example of pillaging our government are all these little sweeteners that allow state governments to use Medicare to pay for resident placement and services for certain groups. It takes the burden off of the state. An example is the "Medicare based waiver" that pays for housing and staff to care for persons eligible to be placed in institutions, they have to be considered untreatable. As a result, you have a mini institution in a neighborhood near you
and you have no idea it is there ...but you are paying for it.

States need to step back up to the plate and stop relying on Federal funds to solve these problems. Get rid of the pork, I guess you would call it. States need to learn how to run
lean, mean government (so do the Feds), use cuts and not tax increases. A new health care system, needs to reign in separate billing by hospitals. Just like the grocery store you don't pay the butcher and the deli separate. You go to the register. So we have one bill, not 5 because they each have to pay for their Porsche that month.

Electronic records...as a veteran I can go to any Veterans facility in the country and my records are there. Create efficiencies in the system. As in the emrgency room...there appears to be 2 people treating patients and 40 people sitting at computers waiting to pounce on your insurance company. In many of our cities huge Medical facilities are taking over the skyline, gobbling
up block after block. It is a signature of the problem. If you analyzed the amount of space actually used to treat people. I would say is less than 25%. I would presume that most of the balance is for administration.

The cost of delivery is tied to the mortgages these facilities have. In the city of Portland Maine, which is nearby, the Medical facility is the most prominent landmark. It towers above and sprawls along the skyline. Gone are the shipbuilders, the fisherman, the foundries, the locomotive factory, the chandlers and all of the businesses that once marked a thriving vibrant city.

My great grandfather started a foundry in 1898. It went out of business in the 1980's. We could not compete with cheap foreign products. We had an efficient foundry. All our products were quality...not cheap. As we have gone over to a "service" economy health care has become
one of the largest economic sectors. The problem is ...it is not an industry...it is a symptom of our problem.

Some of Ray's Brief Dictionary of Political Buzz Words

2008-09-09T03:59:58Z

Bush (Bŭsh΄) Adjective. Democratic meanings: See Failure. 1.) Filthy four letter word, loosely translated as incompetent. 2.) Filthy four letter word, loosely translated as dishonest. 3.) Filthy four letter word, loosely translated as Nazi. 4.) Filthy four letter word, loosely translated as President. 5.) Filthy four letter word, loosely translated as stupid. 6.) Filthy four letter word, loosely translated as chicken hawk. 7.) Filthy four letter word, loosely translated as idiot, dry drunk, gun slingin, no account, failure. 8.) Filthy four letter word, loosely translated as King George the Incompetent. 9.) Filthy four letter word... period. Republican meanings: 1.) Simple, revered, bold, courageous - misunderstood, innocent, slandered, moral - wise, flawless, patriotic, straight forward, common sensical underdog. The Republicans are a naïve lot.

Estate Tax (Ĕstāt΄ Tăx) noun. 1.) The fair tax levied against the rich for the explicit purpose of leveling the playing field from one generation to the next and preventing the establishment of virtual Royalty in the United States of America. As in: America is the land of opportunity and someone who has the privilege of becoming rich should pay an estate tax, thereby donating much of their riches back to the public good when they die, and allow their children to become rich the old fashioned way - by working for it.

Ethics (Ĕth-ēēks΄) Adjective. 1.) An archaic term describing something that has not existed in the Whitehouse for over fifty years. 2.) A class that President George Bush the Second has ordered taught, in order to restore honor and dignity to the Royal Court... er... um... Whitehouse... 3.) Core traditional Republican values. 4.) Core traditional Democratic values. 5.) Doing "not just what is legal" but "doing what is right". 6.) The types of political processes used by President George Bush to advance the administration's agenda. As in: We got values - you see. 7.) The opposite of Karl Rove. 8.) The opposite of Dick Cheney. 9.) The opposite of... Oh... you get the point.

Extremist (Ĕx-trēm΄-ǐstss) noun. 1.) The other guy. 2.) Republican. 3.) Democrat. 4.) Pat Robertson. 5.) Dick Cheney. 6.) Donald Rumsfeld. 7.)Osama bin Laden 8.) Me.

Fag (Făg) See Karl Rove Adjective. 1.) A derogatory term used by homo-phobes (see Republican) to describe Godless hordes of homosexual men (see Democrat) that threaten to overwhelm the American way of life (see missionary position).

Faith (Fāth) noun. 1.) Belief in things unseen, but known in one's deepest core. As in: I have faith that the Bush Regime is lying to the American people. 2.) The idea that George Bush will not abuse the awesome power of warrantless wiretaps and the Unitary Executive to subvert The Constitution of the United States of America. 3.) The idea that some future President will not abuse the awesome power of warrantless wiretaps and the Unitary Executive to subvert The Constitution of the United States of America, if George the Second gets away with consolidating that much illegal, unbalanced, unchecked, unconstitutional power in the office of the Presidency. 4.) The belief by neo-cons that George the Incompetent is above the law. 5.) The blind belief that Dick Cheney will not shoot you, if you go hunting pet birds with him, after he has been drinking. 6.) The cute, naive, innocent quaint, and blind belief by neo-cons that creating a democracy in a country full of people that hate us will produce a country that loves us. 7.) A comforting belief to have when your life is passing before your eyes after Dick Cheney has shot you in the face and heart. 8.) The idea that electronic voting machines with no paper trails are actually posting your vote in the same way that you cast it. 9.) A comforting, uplifting, meaningful belief in God. 10.) A religion that turns its rigid fundamentalist dogma into a craven image of God. See Pat Robertson. See Osama bin Laden. 11.) The neo-con idea that you can force somebody to be free.

Faith Based (Fāth Bās-dŭ) noun. 1.) A belief that does not make any sense and therefore must be taken on faith. 2.) The antonym of fact based. 3.) The Republican agenda. 4.) A belief, program, or initiative based on religion.5.) Attempting to base one's life on one's understanding of God's will.

Fatwa (Făt΄-wă) noun. 1.) Osama's ravings. 2.) The opinion of an Islamic leader. 3.) A rational for killing innocent people. 4.) An order for warrantless wiretaps. 5.) An excuse to subvert The Constitition of the United States of America 6.) Republican, for the ravings of Godless hordes of non-Christians. 7.) Pat Robertson calling for the assassination of a democratically elected foreign leader while he has a mass murdering dictator as a business partner.