Archive for the ‘Structural Changes’ Category

HAPPY NEW YEAR, NOW LET’S GET REAL HEALTH CARE REFORM

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Folks, glad to be back posting after my extended hiatus.  I have been busy trying to make a living in the building business which is pretty tough these days.  Yet even tougher still, is the day to day struggles that many of us endure just to pay for our health insurance premiums or, worse yet, deal with your insurance carrier on the phone to get information or discuss a claim.  Even trying to find reasonably affordable health insurance or trying to understand the limited choices you have from an employer (unless you work for the Federal Government, non-Postal) is maddening.  Let’s face it, for the vast majority of us, health insurance and everything about is just sucks and we all feel like we are getting hosed big-time.

So what, right.  What are we all to do about it?  We’ve watched Congress and the President sell out.  Why? Why?, when we are all so angry about it; when we all need it so bad.  Why?, when so many other countries have single payer health care and their people don’t have to be burdened with the weight of worry and being ripped off.  When they are sick they just go to a doctor.  A doctor whose job is to fix people, not to run a business or be an entreprenuer.  Or if we go to the hospital we aren’t followed around by some person toting a computer cart whose job it is to find out how much you can pay and to get you to worry about how  you are going to pay for the visit even before you are being treated.

This next year, let’s focus on the elections coming up in November and make it a single issue campaign over real health care reform.  I think we all need a little motivation so I am going to post the link to the Federal Employee Health Care web site.

http://www.opm.gov/INSURE/HEALTH/INDEX.ASP

Please click on this link and prepare to see just what kind of goodies Federal employees get, including your Congressmen and Senators, the President, and all the staff.  Let me give you some facts to start you off with. (more…)

Stop the educational abuse!

Friday, March 6th, 2009

Its been a tough week in my battles with the Volusia County School System.  I hate to admit it, but our children are facing outright educational abuse.  Educational abuse you say, yes, that is what I say.  So what is educational abuse?  Its when we send a constant barrage of messages to our children that we as a state, and as a community, don’t care much about their education at all.  Not every one is at fault, but we are all responsible and some serious changes need to be made – on all sides, teachers union, teachers, administration, parents, and the state as a whole. (more…)

Florida, meet common sense

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

Sunday’s Meet the Press on NBC hosted by David Gregory had a couple of governors on it to talk about the stimulus plan.  Gov. Jindal of Louisiana and Gov. Crist of our sunny state of Florida.  Gov. Jindal was acting like a puppet of the tired old anti-tax right throwing out all kinds of reasons why he doesn’t want to accept any of the stimulus plan money for LA.  Gov. Crist was all tanned and smiley and only too happy to take all we could get, nearly $12 billion.  Why the divergence of method and style among two Republican Governors? (more…)

We must cure our “investment deficit disorder”

Sunday, February 1st, 2009

First of all, please check out the link to the New York Times Sunday Magazine article

This is a great piece that explains some of the economy’s troubles and offers some glimpse of the solutions we can employ. One quote that struck me was the phrase, “investment deficit disorder”. How apt a notion that we are currenlty suffering from a “disorder”. It gives hope that what we suffer from has a cure. Another quote about that subject compares investments to planting a fruit tree. Locally, we know that planting a citrus tree usually takes about 5 years before the fruits of the labor of planting and caring for the young tree are at all realized.

Public investments in education and transportation, two matters that are a priority in our locale, take some time to really bear fruit. That being the case, it is even more of an urgent matter to invest in them now. The news reported in the Orlando Sentinel on Thursday about students at DeLand High School being warehoused in the gymnasium at the clip of nearly 200 students for each of the seven periods because of the lack of teachers showing up to work and the lack of funding for substitutes was an outrage. Not only does this show a lack of investment in education, but it demonstrates a problem with the norms within which we make those investments and within which those investments work. (more…)