I have just a couple "wonders" for today. Both are sort of political.
First, President Obama declared the affordable health care plan, possibly better known as Obamacare, to be a success. "It's working," said he. He based that proclamation on what the government says has been at least eight million people enrolled in the plan. Somehow, that doesn't seem anywhere close to what is needed to fully fund the government's venture into health care.
We know how it works. Or at least how it's suppose to work. People are mandated to own health insurance, either government sponsored, employment sponsored, or through private ownership. The income and huge increases in taxation should pay for everyone's health care. Although I haven't actually read this, I think the cost of the insurance to the individual is based on that person's income. The "pay what you can; consume what you need" system. In my day we called that socialism or communism.
I'm digressing. Is the plan truly working? I've seen no indication it is or isn't, but shouldn't we wait until people begin filing claims or seeking permission for medical procedures and how long they have to wait and just how much co-pay they will have? In my many years walking this earth, I've joined things or accepted things thinking they will work. In the end, it seems there have been a lot more that haven't worked than have become successes.
Just because a paltry 8 million people have signed up for Obamacare doesn't even come close to showing the success or failure of the plan. How are we going to feel when we're told, as have people in other countries that have tried socialism, that we will have to wait for several months before we can get high enough on the list for treatment of some health issue. I know folks who have relatives in Canada, for example, that have had to come to the U.S. on their own dime to get heart care. The relatives had been told the wait in their place was at least 10 months. They would have died before then.
How many of the enrollees have now faced paying their co-pays and discovered that for the first time for many the fees are very high. How many people have yet to discover all the various tax increases put upon us to help pay for the plan. For example, when, if, you sell your home, you will now be taxed an additional five percent federal tax for health care. I'm not even going to try to mention more of these instances; I can only wait for the real reaction of the enrollees and the ultimate determination of success or failure of the plan which probably is a few years away.
I find it hard, though, to absorb 8 million enrollees as "success" right now.
The other issue sort of questions my claim to be a conservative, but I'm not too sure about that. Did you read or hear on TV about the teenager in Bangor who had been suspended from school for ten days because he brought a bright yellow toy water pistol to school? My first reaction was, "Oh, boy! Here's another case of school officials totally overreacting to a toy situation."
School systems all across the country have suspended children for "endangering" fellow students and/or faculty with some rather outrageous toys. One very young person was suspended because he pointed his finger at someone and said, "Bang!" There simply have been too many of these over reactions to mention them all, but I think most of us have thought that the ridiculous rules in this country have simply gotten too far our of control.
That was my first reaction to the plight of that northern Maine youngster. But then I heard another side of the story. I guess there's always another side. It seems the teens in his school play a game called "Assassination" where the group's members choose another student to be "assassinated." That does simply mean, by the rules of this game played there, that the marked person will be squirted with water with a squirt gun.
I'd hate to try to remember how often I'd been squirted as a youngster back in the 40s and early 50s and how many I've squirted. Shucks, I think in relatively recent years that the squirting game has been played at summer camp or visits to the lake. I know my own kids would take advantage whenever they thought they could get away with it and squirt me. There's a slight chance I've squirted them, too.
And it was all in fun.
Maybe its the name of the game in Bangor that caught my attention, and that could be a problem for many. I think even I would have objected to being "assassinated" even though it was just in a squirt gun stream.
"Assassination" sort of gives a totally different impression of the deed and perhaps even leads to a much deeper problem. That caused me to change my mind about the total absurdity of school officials' reactions to what in my day was just an innocent poor judgment of a youngster. In my youth, a squirt gun in my pocket would have been just an innocent deed. In today's society, I'm beginning to think the depth of the situation does need more exploration.
I hope your weekend is a super one.
Dave
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