Ted Kennedy

This is going to be rather touchy, criticizing a man who has a terminal disease and lost his sister last week, in addition to being a member of American Royalty, but it must be done. Ted Kennedy apparently thinks the world revolves around him, and in some ways it always has. He was born to privilege, got away with murder (allegedly), and had a path to politics cleared for him. All of this is ancient history though, what I'm talking about is the here and now.

Kennedy made news recently by asking for a temporary gubernatorial appointment to fill his seat pending a special election if and when it becomes vacant as opposed to a five month seat vacancy for waiting for the special election. This sounds reasonable, except that he's the one that pushed for the law which doesn't allow this type of appointment, just five years ago! Why has his mind changed so radically? It's clearly a sense of self-entitlement, the laws should always work for him and never against him. If they do work against him then he'll push to have them changed. In this case, he really wants a democratic senator appointed if he should have to vacate his seat so that Obama will have the maximum number of votes available for the Obamacare bill as well as other liberal agenda items.

According to the Wall Street Journal, "What Mr. Kennedy doesn't volunteer is that he orchestrated the 2004 succession law revision that now requires a special election, and for similarly partisan reasons. John Kerry, the other Senator from the state, was running for President in 2004, and Mr. Kennedy wanted the law changed so the Republican Governor at the time, Mitt Romney, could not name Mr. Kerry's replacement." See here, for the original article. In Mr. Kennedy's World, the laws should always benefit the left. Annoying.

Wow...just, wow

I thought the rep. in front of his name stood for representative. Instead, he is treating the people of his district as children, and him as a well meaning guardian. I'm pretty sure that's not his role. Also, he doesn't have much in the way of manners. Yuck.

Video - Rep. Massa: I will vote against the interests of my district - Water Cooler - Washington Times

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Awesome

It looks like the vocal opposition of Obamacare is making a dent in the President's carefully laid plans. The biggest problem with Obama is that he thinks the Presidency is rather like a dictatorship in that he can simply list off his personal agenda and push though laws to further that end. He would like to make us into a socialist country, and fast! Unfortunately for him, the American System includes checks and balances. This system includes Congress, who are elected officials by the people, to represent the people. When they stop doing that people get upset, thus the increased attendance at the town halls. It does seem rather important that the people that are being represented be able to tell their representative their opinion on the matter. Otherwise, it's just a Congressperson representing themselves and not their consitutants. This is not a great way to go about being reelected.

Reading the Bill

H.R. 3200 Yesterday I began reading the Healthcare bill in it's entirety, which puts me one step ahead of congress. In my first scan I was overwhelmed by the amount of government intervention into the healthcare system, this thing is massive. One thing caught my eye though, premium pricing. The premiums for socialized medicine are of course covered by cost sharing, you make more, you pay more. Under section 243(b)(2) "PREMIUM PERCENTAGE LIMITS BASED ON TABLE- The Commissioner shall establish premium percentage limits so that for individuals whose family income is within an income tier specified in the table in subsection (d) such percentage limits shall increase, on a sliding scale in a linear manner, from the initial premium percentage to the final premium percentage specified in such table for such income tier."

If you make less you pay less. So, then, what is the incentive to make more? There is none. If everything is shared, people get lazy. Some people stop working all together and the high earners don't see the point of 60 hour weeks when they are not reaping the benefits and others are getting the exact same thing with little or no work. One of the problems with this is that this shrinks the amount of money in the pool and so cuts must be made. Cuts in things like hospital staff, equipment, and research. It also leads to a society that is undesirable.

The very idea of the American Dream is at stake. This was once a place where people could accomplish anything with some ingenuity and a lot of hard work, where millionaires were made. The incentives to do this have been slipping away for quite some time, but this program will destroy the American Dream. It's sad.

If you want to read the bill with me it's available at http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h3200/text?version=ih&nid=t0:ih:926