SnakeRiverLib

Are you choosing to not be insured?  You are the reason that Ocare is failing.  Not Trump, not the GOP, not even the Democrats, and their crappy law.  Can we break down a few things? Medicaid .  Did you know that the majority of people who signed up for Ocare on the exchanges were enrolled in the Medicaid option?   Did you know that many of them previously qualified for Medicaid , if not an outright majority?  Why didn't they sign up for insurance before?  Hmmm Medicare is broke.  It is even more broke now than it was before Ocare .  Congress did their voodoo on numbers, and took non-existent funds from Medicare , and used them to make Ocare look budget friendly.  What happens when the time of reckoning comes for Medicare  and reimbursements to doctors are slashed?  Probably a lot of doctors will stop taking Medicare patients, (like they are with Medicaid )  I haven't even touched the approx. $100 billion a...

The question "Who is John Galt?" is familiar to those who have read Atlas Shrugged .  The subtitle to the book has become "Now non-fiction" .   What I mean is that even though we seem to be in some sort of pause in our progression, make no mistake, the People's State is proving that it will not go quietly.  It has been growing for over a century, and it's roots are deep.  All the promises made to us by the GOP are turning out to be typical political BS. Atlas Shrugged was broken into 3 parts, and made into movies a few years ago.  The movies are hard to follow, as each one the actors are different, and while there was a lot of good stuff in them, they were low budget.  Rumor is that there is a miniseries project in the works, to tell the whole story, in a format that will allow a much fuller version.  But as evidenced by the title of the post, I wanted to talk about another of Ayn Rand's works, The Fountainhead .  A much earlier novel, it is n...

Do you remember the ride of Paul Revere? "One if by land, two if by sea, and I on the opposite shore will be..." Okay, nostalgia, who doesn't love it? Senator McConnell has ditched any pretense at Ocare Redux .  He is now reviving the 2015 Repeal Bill.  Every GOP Senator (and House member, and President, for that matter) owes their job to some extent to their promise to repeal the Patient Affordable Care Act (Ocare 1.0)  They owe control of both Houses of Congress to the same. Even President Trump owes. to some extent, his success to that banner.  Now, after the failed attempts to repeal-not repeal, it is down to this. WRITE!  CALL!  VISIT!   (likely the voice mail boxes are full, so be patient, and be sure to email)  Your Senators need to know where you stand, and you need to know where they stand.  If you have GOP Senators, they need to know you support them.  If you have a Democrat Senator, they need to know that they will b...

Sorry, but had to post a quick one. I did a quick review for the passage in 2015 of HR 3762.  This was the GOP repeal attempt of the Patient Affordable Care Act.  It passed with only 7 GOP no votes in the House, and 1 GOP no vote in the Senate.  Why does that matter? Most of the GOP  House no votes were actually conservatives who didn't think the repeal went far enough.  In the Senate, it was Senator Collins (RINO-ME) that voted against it.  So, if my math serves, that would still leave plenty of votes, IN BOTH HOUSES , to repeat the vote, knowing that the President would sign it.  Except... The Establishment GOP doesn't want to expose their members to a politically explosive vote. COWARDS! They brag about how many times they had passed the repeal in the House. First, when it would die in the Senate, due to a Democrat majority there. Second, when they passed it in both Houses, knowing it was going to be vetoed by the President. But n...

It seems so logical.  By making the Civil Service non-political, it takes away the inherent problems of re-staffing the government after every change in Presidents, and provides for continuity.  Simple.  If only. What were the benefits of Federal Service that would entice someone to earn less money?  Well, defined pensions, even more important now, as more and more companies are eliminating them, they are so 1900s.  Job Security?  Absolutely.  Congress has been working on a special exemption for the VA, as they are responsible for the deaths of 100s of thousands of our Veterans due to their apathy, and ability to manipulate the system.  So, when they say it takes an act of Congress to fire a federal employee, they are not far off the mark.  Of course the benefits package, including sick leave, annual leave, holiday pay, Sunday differential, night differential, health insurance, and on and on.  Not to mention a 40 hour week.  What ...

I am getting ready to leave to camp in the morning, and as I don't need to worry about work emails anymore, am not taking a laptop.  I will have my Xoom (Neanderthal motorola tablet), just to keep in touch with the world, somewhat, but makes it more difficult to type blog posts. An ideal was expressed by the Founding Fathers.  That men were given, BY THEIR CREATOR, certain unalienable rights.  Specifically, Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, (originally property, specifically changed to not lock in the idea that slaves were guaranteed by the Declaration).  They pledged all they had.  Many paid an extremely high price for their "treason" against the crown. We are blessed, as there were far more Rand Pauls in the Continental Congress, than there are today.  Of course there were also your Mitch McConnells, and Paul Ryans, and probably even a few Chuck Schumers. When the Declaration had come was issued, we were already at war.  That war, by...