A View Askew
(Or: Did the Dinosaurs See the Comet?)
Nov 22 2013
Issue 4
Short
Takes
Apologies in Advance
This issue runs a little long because, well,
because I’m a wordy guy. No, really. I didn’t want to go into the whole
Obamacare thing but after the tragicomedy of the past few weeks I just felt I
had to comment on it. Disclaimer: I
worked for a MN-based - and largest health insurer by revenue in the country
-for several years. I do not claim to be an expert but I do have
expertise.Unfortunately, or not, the healthcare debate is not only a difficult,
complex issue it is also an emotional one.
That said, I apologize in advance for perhaps
overworking your noggin and your patience with all the background stuff. I hope
you find it informative if not entertaining.
Upscale Revisited
Quick story. Dear Leader and Mrs. Dear Leader
celebrated an anniversary recently. Big decision: take a 5 day Caribbean cruise
or. . . go to Manny’s Steakhouse for dinner. (Anyone who has been to Manny’s
will know this is a fair comparison.) So always considerate of time we thought
we would just have dinner.
Meal? Two small filets, one potato side, One
small salad, 4 glasses of house wine. Damages? 210 bucks not counting
tip.
I can justify a lot of questionable behavior (and
have) but somehow I just can’t justify this; it just doesn’t seem right to
spend that kind of money on something as mundane as food - very good food but
food nonetheless. (Do you know how many rounds of golf at senior rates that
money would buy?!)
In any event, that’s my recent upscale adventure
and probably the last for a while.
Forget Christmas, the Solstice is
Coming!
Anyone that knows me knows that I hate winter – and
that hatred begins to build with the summer solstice (worst day of the year!).
However, as the winter solstice comes into to view I begin to have a different
demeanor; I start to get optimistic that I will indeed make it. However, as we
all know, since humans could first measure sunrise and sunset, the winter
solstice has been worshipped– and feared. I thought I would let you in on the
secret to assuring that the days will, indeed, start to get longer soon. You're
welcome.
Things That I Think About
Baby
Boomer Presidents – Pt. One
Well, we’re on our third baby boomer president and
I think enough time has passed to see how we boomers are doing in leading the
country. I say "we" because I am a baby boomer and so are most of my
friends and a large hunk of the American population. You know, this huge group
that, Ken Dychtwald so elegantly put it, is moving through our society like a
pig through a python (and many of us are staring at the tail!) We’ve had 21
years of baby boomer president leadership so surely we can draw some
preliminary conclusions.
So far, the indicators are mixed at best. We’ve had
oral sex in White House but we also had an unprecedented run of economic growth
and stock market gains. We survived a catastrophic attack on our country but
ventured into a costly and dubious war(s?). We’ve had a period of budget
surpluses but created a nightmare program in an attempt to address our most
pressing domestic problem, health care. We had some years of strong economic
growth but more recently some pitiful growth, high unemployment and
historically high income inequality . (And nearly
tripled the national debt.) Very mixed results. So who are these guys?
First, Bubba. If you advertised for the position of (baby boomer) president, William
Jefferson Clinton would probably be precisely the kind of person that you would
want. Highly educated, he fancied himself a visionary, new age thinker and was
a brilliant politician. He out-thought and out-flanked the Republicans at every
turn; he was able to defeat a sitting president (who had just won a war, no
less!) He did this because he understood how people think and what they want -
and made them THINK he could get it for them. He had a great education and vast
experience in government (albeit mostly in that hotbed of policy ideas,
Arkansas). ). He created economic policies that continued the powerful growth
started under Reagan but without the huge deficits. He was re-elected with an
opportunity to really propel the country into the next millennium on the proper
trajectory…but instead he will be remembered more for Monica Lewinsky than his
policy brilliance - a YALE-educated lawyer who quibbled over what the meaning
of “is”is. He was a man who was so morally shallow that he couldn’t manage to
keep his most basic urges under wraps until he at least got out of office. I
think this moral bankruptcy was indirectly responsible for a number of his
greatest policy failures as well. Just as Nixon’s Watergate consumed his last 2
years in office, the sex scandal caused Clinton to lose focus on the important
issues such as the growth of terrorism and looming difficulties with the
economy. Perhaps the worst legacy of his downfall is the damage done to the
mindset of the nation’s voters and from that mindset we got our second baby
boomer president. Bill Clinton ended up being an empty suit.
Next Up, W.
George W. Bush was a man made for the times. He carried the title of
“compassionate conservative” on his sleeve as clearly as his evangelical zest.
This, more than personal political acumen, seemed to be the right antidote to
Clinton’s misbehavior. It didn’t hurt that he was from a famous, political
family (as was his opponent, fellow baby boomer –and HARVARD grad - Al Gore)
and had access to unlimited funds from the Republican faithful who had been
wandering in the wasteland for 8 years. The historic election of 2000 just made
his rise that much more extraordinary. His response to 9/11 seemed to show a
depth of character that seemed unexpected. In addition, he used his newfound
popularity and power to achieve a number of political breakthroughs such as tax
cuts and new benefits for seniors (unfortunately, both unfunded.) In short,
George W Bush seemed to be the exact opposite - and much more desirable -
example of a baby boomer and then . . .
As more time passes, however, his Iraq adventure
seems more and more like the terrible mistake that many of us felt at the time.
It was wrong in all aspects: wrong decision, wrong strategy and wrong
execution. On the domestic front, the unfunded wars, unfunded tax cuts, massive
entitlement spending on unfunded MedicarePart D and mismanaged natural
disasters, were the beginning of such huge and growing deficits that it became
difficult to imagine how we would ever bring them under control. This from a
guy with an MBA from HARVARD! George was also responsible for tax policies that
just hastened enrichment of one class of Americans over another. He encouraged
the deregulation of the banks – which, of course, led to the worst credit
crisis and recession since the Great Depression. More troubling, however, was
Bush’s almost pathological inability to understand what’s really going on in
the country and the world and how his policies impact same. This may be a
function of his limited capabilities or the people he surrounded himself with -
neo-cons and reactionaries - but the results are the same; America’s future
became a lot less certain. And despite all that, George too was still able to
get re-elected. Proof of what? You guessed it - American voters are dopes. Bush
too was an empty suit.
Anyway, it all led to the latest baby boomer
president. We will take a look at him in next issue and see what we have
learned about baby boomer presidents so far.
Solstice Prayers
Several
years ago I undertook the job of assuring that the sun would indeed return. I
intend to do my part this year as well. To those of you who were unaware of my
past efforts, and as a taste of what is to come, I offer you this past “prayer”
that seemed to work. And I’ll be there for you again in December!
Solstice 2009
Finally, a glimmer of hope in this the darkest time
of the year! It is no wonder that the early Christian elders appropriated this
time of the year for their own use lo those many years ago; you need to give
the people what they want. And what they want is to get out of the freaking
frigid, dark, endless night of winter! Yes, those early heathens were on to
something when they prayed really, really hard to bring the sun back. But here
is something you probably didn’t know; like most good things in western
civilization it was actually the Greeks we need to thank for this wonderful
day, this solstice of 2009. Here’s the story:
In Greek mythology the sun god
Helios was responsible for assuring that the sun made its daily trip across the
sky. It was very good work indeed; as his chariot sped across the globe he was
to peer into every bedroom in the world and report back to the big gods (I’m not
kidding!) And then there was Phaeton. Ah, Phaeton. . .
Phaeton was Helios’ son and as all parents do
Helios loved him dearly. I won’t go into the whole sordid affair but suffice to
say that after much wheedling and whining, Helios gave in to Phaeton and gave
him the reins to his four magnificent horses and chariot pulling the sun,
allowing him to take a turn across the heavens. As you might guess, like a
teenager driving dad’s car for the first time, it didn’t end well. In fact, you
could say that setting the earth on fire was really pretty terrible. Yet
despite the importance of Helios’job and the tragedy that was Phaeton’s early
morning drive, there is, oddly, no word about something of even greater
importance (at least to me); what does this have to do with the solstice? Why
must the chariot (and sun) go so far to the south of us poor inhabitants of the
northern hemisphere? Why did he abandon us just as we need him most in the
darkness of December? Why do I drink so heavily this time of the year? Why is life
so full of stupid questions? The Greeks never said but lucky for you I have a
theory.
I think that after Phaeton’s rather disastrous –
and destructive - cross global trip, Apollo, Zeus, that old crab Poseidon (and
for all I know, Helios’ wife,) were really pissed. (Dionysus was probably the
only god who didn’t seem to care but that was mostly because he was always
gassed at this time of the year too.) In any event, I think Helios did the only
thing a guy, er, a god in his position could do; deny, deny, deny! Furthermore,
he knew the best defense is always a great offense - so he decided to take his
sun and leave.
Helios had always made his trip from west to east -
well no more Mr. Nice Guy! - he started going in the opposite direction. He
also had always gone around right at the equator but enough of that too; he
started heading further and further south on his way around the globe. Now this
really got the other gods’attention because as he got further away from the
equator it got darker and colder on Mt. Olympus. “Holy shit!” I imagine the
gods saying, “the dude is going to freeze us to death!” (or something like
that.) Just as Helios planned, the gods started begging him to come home (no
word on how his wife felt) and finally after many lamentations – and the
promise to get him a new chariot – he slowly brought his steeds around and
headed them back to the north. (Sadly, for us - okay, for me - the opposite
also holds true as he gets to the other side of the equator but that’s a
different lamentation.) So there you have it.
But the story isn’t over; oh no, my friends. To
this very day Helios is still exacting his revenge. Since, sadly, all the other
gods retired eons ago and moved to government jobs (or Goldman Sachs,) selfless
men - men, for example, like me- have had to fill in for the gods. That means
we must continue to call on him every winter to help us escape the endless
darkness and cold of a Minnesota December. We must humbly continue begging,
crying and rending our garments at this time of the year to urge Helios and his
pretentious, giant, CO2-spewing Infinity Q56 SUV-like chariot to bring
life-giving sun back to our northern climes - so pray with me now, brethren and
cistern!
No need to thank me, I’m a
martyr.
Your Solar Servant, Dougopolous the Elder
Obamacare or . . . What,
Me Worry?
Trust
Me, This is Going to Hurt Yo uMore Than it Does Me!
I really didn’t want to take this up but I guess I
have to. I didn’t want to because like everything related to healthcare in this
country, it’s a morass and almost impossible to discuss without coming to tears
(or to blows.) That said, it’s time to face the facts: this is a terrible bill.
It was terrible in concept, terrible in political pandering and now, sadly but
not surprisingly, terrible in implementation.
All that said, I amhad been a reluctant
supporter of the bill. Why? Because as I said, our health care system is a
basket case and the ACA was all we have. It didn’t have to be this way.
But let’s back up. (You didn’t think this was going
to be simple did you?! It ain’t!)
First, what do YOU think about health care?
I
mean other than you need it and it’s expensive. Do you think everyone is
entitled to it? Put another way, if you didn’t have it and had an appendicitis
attack how would you feel about it? Think deeply about this. A little
background would be good. If you’re interested, read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_health_care_reform_in_the_United_States
Cliff’s notes: Well, both parties have tried for
years to figure out some way of fixing this mess. (e.g. lest you forget, the
individual mandate was a Republican idea from years ago and is the foundation
for Romneycare in MA.) Every president of both parties since the 60’s has tried
to figure out how to make affordablehealthcare available to everyone –
with no success.
Now if you are of the opinion that healthcare is
NOT an entitlement you may be right but the federal government – both parties –
disagrees. They decided that healthcare IS an entitlement (under Pres. Reagan
no less) when Congress passed Emergency
Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). This act said that hospitals MUST treat anyone with an
emergency issue and being paid was not mandatory. Doesn’t sound like
much but this was when the barn door swung open – and the health care
industrial complex (health insurance companies, pharmaceutical industry,
doctors, hospitals and medical device companies) rushed out - to our great
detriment.
And it was the beginning of cost shifting and an
explosion in cost of insurance and services. Can you say unintended
consequences?
So why have these efforts to fix what is so
obviously broken failed? Because that same healthcare- industrial complex is
just too damn strong! They are bloated, over paid, greedy bastards who in are
control of 17% (more than twice any other civilized country) of the
country’s GDP! (Sorry, my critical thinking hat must have blown off in the
wind!) Anyway, do you think they want to give that up? Me neither.
I happen to think that health care (note I didn’t
say health insurance) is something everyone should have access to. I also do
NOT think that private for-profit insurance companies are the best way to
provide it. Nor should it be attached to your employment – why the hell should
employers want to be involved with health care? Like so many other things we do
in America today, it’s a relic of another time and really doesn’t belong in a
modern society. As an aside, medical bills are the No. 1 cause of bankruptcy in
the United States – and it’s mostly people WITH insurance. That’s something
that is unheard of in other modern countries and should be embarrassing. But
sadly, as we have learned, it takes a lot to embarrass us Americans. (And, as
we also all know whatever and however we do something is best, nobody else has
any good ideas.)
So, we know what to do we just don’t seem to have
the will to do it. And don’t let anyone tell you we have the greatest
healthcare system in the world. We mayhave the best health CARE but we
have the absolute worst healthcare SYSTEM. Want proof? Please read this Times
magazine article by Steven Brill – it is eye opening (and may make you cry
too.)
Maybe now you‘ll be able to explain why an MRI can
cost $3000 in the US and $300 in France. (How dare those damn frogs!)
Anyway, back to Obamacare. In contrast to all the
accusations of Obama being a wild eyed liberal I submit that he is just a
better spoken version of Geo. Bush and other mealy - mouthed politicians. With
the mandate he had when he came in and control of both houses of congress, this
is the best bill he could get? A complete sell out to the healthcare industrial
complex? Really? Yikes! Now I grant you the Republicans were intentionally MIA
and did their best to sabotage this (and pretty much everything else) and not
for any great moral principle, just simple political spite. Once they bailed,
though, he should have gotten a REAL bill through with REAL changes: single
payer option, remove monopolies, make all health costs and billing transparent,
let insurers compete across state lines (another Repub idea.) If you have to
have private health insurers, they should be NON-PROFIT (just as they are in MN
– and a key reason that we have much cheaper, better health care here.) These
and lots of other ideas are out there; we know what to do - but we just can’t
seem to git‘er done.
Ultimately, however, we also need to come to grips
with the fact that we just use too much health care in this country. From
people with chronic diseases to life style choices (drugs, smoking, etc.) to
obesity and especially end of life, we use too much health care. By the way,
one of the few good things about Obamacare –and there are a few - is the end of
life counseling which we did with my mom. Remember what Sarah Palin called that
counseling? Death panels! Death panels . . . and we wonder why we ended up with
the travesty that is Obamacare!?
On a positive note, it is important to remember that this bill was really about helping
some 20 million Americans who DON’T have insurance to get some; it was never
really about lowering costs. (Thank God since it clearly isn’t doing that!) It
appears, however, that part might be working and that’s a good thing. It is
also possible that in several years this will turn out to be a good law.
Possible but not likely.
Okay, Sorry this was so long – I told you I didn’t
want to go into this – but this is hard stuff and there are no sound bites from
talking heads that will help a person think about this. Obama and his ilk did
us no service with this crappy bill – and the more we find out the crappier it
gets. So let’s fix it. Even better, let’s repeal AND replace it. (Not
just repeal it, R-E-P-L-A-C-E it.)
Or start the violins like on the deck of the
Titantic cuz we’re goin’ down!
I really look forward to comments and other
suggested solutions about this. To quote our esteemed 43rd
President, who said (unfortunately, as it turns out) “Bring ‘em on!”
(By the way Obama will not escape his role in this
mess as you will see in the conclusion of Babyboomer Presidents in next issue.)
Another One Bites the Dust
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. Again,
please feel free to comment on anything you read here – just keep in mind our
two rules. (And remember: hit“Reply all” so we can all see how smart you are.)
By the way, if you have something bugging you and
you’d like me to do a little research for you and post for comments just let me
know – I have a lot of time on my hands now that there’s only a month or two of
golf left this year! Be curious, George.
Finally, If you like this, please feel free to
share with others.
Next up, Conclusion to grading our
babyboomer presidents- and other stuff.
In the meantime, “Be a good citizen of your world .
. .” and don’t be a dope!
Quote
Du Jour
“The real 1960s began on the afternoon of November 22,
1963. It came to seem that Kennedy's murder opened some malign trap door in
American culture, and the wild bats flapped out.” Lance
Morrow
A View Askew is the sole property of D Roger Pederson, Mpls MN. You
may forward without special permission but if you want to use anything here for
your own purposes please send me a request at dpeders2002@gmail.com.
A View Askew
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