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January 30, 2006 * The Medicare Prescription Drug plan: Years in the planning, this benefit once estimated to cost $600 billion is off to a rocky start. Only a few weeks old, people who can die without their drugs are finding it difficult if not impossible to get what previously was supplied through Medicare Insurance and they receive it only if they or their pharmacies can get through to a human who knows what he or she is doing. Instead of using the network that was already in place, the government set it up through private insurance companies that, like the news media, all claim that they offer “the best,” just sign up with us. State agencies are running backwards in a forced effort to supply these drugs by working around this system and the entire plan merely reflects the federal government’s inability to regulate the pharmaceutical industry. As one New Orleans welfare worker put it; "helping Katrina victims was a walk in the park compared to this mess." It would have worked better if lobbyists had handed our representatives drugs under the table. * New Orleans: Blaming hurricane Katrina for the devastating floods in the Crescent City sidesteps the fact that the levees, the protection designed and operated by the federal government’s Army Corps of Engineers, gave way during a storm that was less than these dikes were supposed to withstand. A storm whose “soft side” hit New Orleans and, in that region, was reported by NOAA as barely a Category Two. After President Bush promised to rebuild the city “better than ever” reconstruction has centered on clearing the debris and merely returning these levees to their original condition in hopes that NOLA won’t experience another storm. * Lost Pensions: Washington has made it more difficult for the average citizen to declare bankruptcy, but they’ve done little if anything to stop big business from using this “start-over” protection. Airlines, along with the supposedly impregnable Auto Industry and its suppliers, and just about any sizable business can curtail or weasel out of its promises of retirement benefits – often dropping responsibility on the government’s Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC), an insurance program that is already $28 billion in the hole and never pays full benefits anyway. Whatever retirees eventually receive is left in the hands of taxpayers just as the government’s own lavish retirement and health care plans for federal employees have been fraudulently set up to be covered by taxpayers without reduction or revision. In other words, if you want retirement securities, go to work for the federal government, the largest employer in the country that keeps its promises with taxpayer dollars. * The National Debt: Currently holding at just under the self-imposed and childish limit of $8.184 trillion until Congress again goes through its theatrical machinations about “fiscal responsibility” before raising the ceiling another trillion or so. This irresponsibility already has us at the mercy of foreign nations that are our competitors and former enemies – those that politicians call “investors.” People who loan money to Washington so that our leaders can cover budgets planned a half trillion over expected income, conduct invasions, and buy the coalition of the willing. * Social Security Reform: The granddaddy of all slush funds. At least one insurance program that actually works so well it produces a cash surplus for the federal government to waste on wars and other nefarious activities like bridges to nowhere. Probably the only healthy program in the federal basket and one that has never needed anything other than for the government to stop stealing its money. Instead, the Beltway Bandits have used this insurance program to set up a system of double taxation plus interest with the tools of fraudulent “trust funds” and bogus “special” Treasury securities. Ironically, although the government’s idea of reform, based on false but believable fear stories, was just another overly complicated plan to get even more booty, but it was one of the few chances we had of bringing this scam out in the open. Now, even that has been set aside allowing the booty to continue. Last year resulted in $86.5 billion in “extra” cash for the pirates and the total now owed someday by the taxpaying public stands at more than $1.8 trillion. Future taxes that have already been paid once have been miraculously translated into more than 22 percent of the nation’s debt, partly through “interest” that’s been dumped into the account at no cost to the government. Just add more bogus bonds to the pile and increase future federal income. These are just some of the major messes that confront us today. Others include an open border policy that stands out as a fantastic oversight after nineteen foreigners entered our country legally, spent years training here, probably overstayed their visas, and then brought us the horrors of September 11, 2001 . Citizens are left to wonder what sort of sane leadership would have left our borders open, but have yet to entertain the possibility that only the complicit would know whether another attack was imminent. Neither have we adequately answered the question of why anyone would hate us so much, but we have generally accepted the government’s spin that these people simply despise our “way of life” instead of its possibly having anything to do with what we did to Muslims in Bosnia or the former Yugoslavia , the richest uranium mining area of the world. As you read this, your government is planning another invasion we can’t afford, either politically or economically. This time it’s our old enemy Iran. No doubt the war mongers had hopes Israel would launch the first attack allowing us to follow in support, but Ariel Sharon’s untimely illness seems to have thrown a wrench into that strategy and we may have to, again, go it alone. At a time when many in this country had hoped we would withdraw from Iraq , even if it turns out to be a gradual withdrawal, these same people fail to see the fantasy in such expectations. With plans for a multitude of military bases in that country, adding to the more than 725 bases we already have throughout the world protecting our “national interests,” the Empire intends to keep American troops in Iraq forever. This brings us to yet another mess – elections. Many are pinning their hopes on the fact that 2006 is an election year and the neocons wouldn’t dare start another war at this time. What these poor souls are missing is the fact that both parties are pretty much the same. In fact, I am of the opinion that the major reason we are currently dealing in such issues as spying on citizens is that it’s one of the only things our representatives are not specifically complicit in sponsoring or at least condoning. It’s one of the few crimes Congress can stand up and say “we didn’t do it.” Whether it's democrats or republicans in office, things are not going to change much. Iraq has a better system of voting than we do. At least, they have verifiable ballots that are counted by hand. We would be better off if we selected our leaders from the entire population by lotto. Imagine a “power-ball” lotto for President. Even then, our hard working representatives would have a hard time deciding how it’s to be financed and who’s going to spin the basket – Carol Merrill, Vanna White, or some multi million dollar salaried talking head. Send a message to your elected representatives. Click here to start. Be sure to send a copy to Ed Henry.
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Questions In The Age Of Distraction Cult differences In Truth & Financial Responsibility The Real Deficit - Without Crooking The Books The Job Market - Is It Really Getting Better? Going, Going, Gone - The Saga of Financial Responsibility Special Bonds In "Special" Trusts Too Late For Corrective Action Going Whole Hog In Just Four Days Snow Thinks Citizens Are Stupid Complete Archives for Ed Henry | ||||||||||||||
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