Happy Easter!!! Just got back from dinner and games with Friends and thought I should update the Blog. Last weekend we got a chance to go to the children's museum downtown. That Museum is cool, but is more like a kids toy area than and educational museum, but we had fun all the same.
James loves to find new towns.
The ball table that makes the balls hover in the air was a huge hit with the kids....and me.
Toothy smile anyone.
Here we are this morning. Both with ties and ready for Church.
When he work up this morning Brenda just had to put these ears on him.
Now it is time for a rant.
It is said that there are only two thing certain in life Death and Taxes, and the knuckleheads down at the Spokane county commissioners office are trying to make those of us who will reach the former vote about the latter after the former will occur. Let me make it clear, that I intend to live beyond 2033, but now government is just getting idiotic. We now had a special election that cost who knows how much, in which they ask if we would like to extend the increased sales tax that will end in 2033 and extend it to the year 2044...What are these morons thinking? Hmmm let me guess....you want to spend that"future revenue" now? This was the only item on the special ballot and I can't imagine why it could not wait till the November election except they are greedy goons, wanting the money now and waiting a few months would be out of the question. Do yourself a favor and don't even bother asking me what is wrong with America.
Small side note on what some are calling "Obama Care". The supreme court has been making some arguments recently that I find are pretty pathetic if these are the smartest people in the country. The whole question of making people buy and eat broccoli...WTH is that. Health care is nothing like food. Grocers are not required to give you food if you show up hungry, but hospitals have to care for you if you show up in the ER. I don't like making people have to purchase health care as much as the next guy, but because we have decided that everyone should get emergency care despite their ability to pay we are screwed if we don't require everyone to have some sort of insurance. You cannot have it both ways. If we would decide that if you do not have health insurance then the hospital can turn you away....people would be more inclined to buy insurance and then the problem would be solved. As it is, we have a rule that everyone should be "entitled" to health care so hospitals do not have a choice. If they can't make there own decisions in a "free market" system, then why do we think we should be able to? Something has got to give.
2 comments:
John, I suspect that we would hardly ever agree about politics if we tried to discuss them regularly, but your healthcare argument here is totally on point. You are exactly right. And I also think that the folks who are worried about protecting their "freedom" to not have insurance, are people who have money to spend in other ways. Truly poor people who need care would not make the "freedom" argument. Not having health care is a burden to them, not a freedom to be protected.
I'm glad to hear that you, Brenda, and James are doing well!
Once again, while we disagree on somethings in the political arena, I think that your comments about health insurance are dead on. If you have to treat someone - and lets face it, none of us can completely control our own needs for health care - then there needs to be someway for everyone to help pay for it. There is always room for improvement and arguments about the best way to implement it, but if hospitals need to provide universal health care, then perhaps universal health insurance of some sort makes sense. As a Canadian living in the US, I value the universal health insurance implemented in Canada - basically, part of your taxes based on income - but I also prefer the more privatized health deliver in the US. And for the record, having lived in both systems, I've found that faceless government bureaucrats tend to be less of a challenge to getting good health care than faceless, corporate bureaucrats who work for a company that also needs to make a profit. Oh, and funny enough, the overhead from a single payer system in Canada is a whole lot less than dealing with multiple insurance providers (.6 admins per doctor in Canada versus 1.6 admins per doctor in the US - although don't ask me where I read that number, so treat it as suspect). As much as it pains me to say it, sometimes, just perhaps, a government run solution may not be as inefficient as a wholly open-market solution.
Anyway... enough ranting for the day. As always, thanks for keeping us up to date on your adventures through life on your blog.
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