economics

In yet another obvious breach of anything that could be considered "transparency", Congress proceeded to push the health care bill/debate forward. The Republicans, at least, voted unanimously against moving forward on a debate and eventual vote, while the Democrats and Independents all voted to proceed. We have been repeatedly assured that the bill would die in the Senate, allaying fears after its surprising pass in the House, but such assurances seem more and more shaky.

Government health care will be the death of this already struggling economy. Most people in the real world understand this, as evidenced by national polls concerning the health care bill and the direction of the country. There is still a lot of support, but most  of it comes from those who are uneducated on the realities of the bill itself or its costs and the overall impact on the economy. Increasingly, as information becomes more and more known, the polls have been showing steadily declining support for nationalized health care.

It is in the interest of hope and change that I continue to read the news but alas, my hope has rapidly faded and the change I see is more like a repeat performance of a bad movie that has only gotten worse over time no matter how many efforts have been put forth to rewrite it, dress it up in a prettier package and make it look more appealing. Much the same as the mythical (?) holiday fruitcake that gets passed back and forth between family members as a multi-generational Christmas gift and family tradition, this story has played itself out time and again throughout our short history as a nation and around the world and has never once produced a happy ending.

It was with more than just a little interest that I noticed the direct conflicts between two “news” stories that came out the other day. In all fairness; one “news” story came from the associated press and one came from that other vast right-wing news organization owned by that radical righty from New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Now since I have been told by people who actually believe that it is true that both of these news sources are indeed part of the vast right-wing conspiracy, perhaps these stories should be taken with a grain of salt. Maybe both history and the news accounts are woefully inadequate to show us just how bad the current situation will become when the harsh reality rears its ugly head and demands payment.