Monday

Lots of things buzzing thru my head today.  While I am generally a positive guy, it's been a rough week already.

First, my wife just informed me that our friend, Jill, passed away this morning.  While we knew this was coming, it is still difficult.  Jill was the light of every room.  Her smile could turn your day from bad to good.  She was always optimistic and cheery, even as cancer was destroying her body. 
Jill, we miss you and will love you forever.

Second, I am transitioning to a new project this week.  I have been fortunate to have been working near my house in Texas for the last 3 years.  Now I will be travelling to California to work.  To be honest, I have mixed emotions about this.  While I am blessed to have a job, travelling is no fun, especially since I have to fly on American Airlines, easily the worst airliue in the world.   This will also pull me away from my family and my community, both things I like to stay involved in.  But again, I am lucky to have a job.

Lastly, I have to comment on the Health Care bill that passed the House last night.  While I agree that HC is a mess, this bill is not the answer.  By my math, we are going to spend $940B to provide insurance, not actual care, for 32M Amercians. It's not universal coverage, as around 20M Americans will be left out.  If it was really the answer, some R's would have voted for it and so many people would not have had to have been bought off so blatantly (i.e. the Unions, Sen Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Sen Mary Landreau of Louisiana and Rep Bart Stupak of Michigan).  More than 100 R's supported the creation of Social Sec in 1935 and Medicare in 1965. 

This Stupak guy might be the worst.  For months, he has been against the bill because of the funding for abortion.  Then, on the last day, he switches his support to the bill after Obama says he will sign an Executive Order.  You would think that Stupak is smart enough to realize that an EO can be reversed as quickly as it is written.  It means nothing.  Then this morning, we find out that his area will be more than $700K in improvements to an airport.  Wow, Stupak, if you were going to sell your vote and abandon your priniples, you should have gotten far more than that.

It also centralizes control of Student College Loans with the Dept of Ed in DC.  What does this have to do with HC? 

I am also amazed that the AARP supported this.  They are taking half a trillion dollars away from Medicare, just as the Baby Boomers are coming of age for Medicare and Pelosi says that the bill extends the life of Mediare by a decade.  That makes no sense. 

I also hear that donzens of states are considering fighting this in court due to the shift in cost from the Fed Govt to the states in the form of increased Medicaid requirements.  I hope many states do this.  There will be Constitutional questions raised.  I bet it's been a while since you read the Constitution. If I am correct, you can read it here: http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html

Anyway, what do you think?