Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Dear Senator


My name is Christopher Filby and I am a 50 year old citizen of Maryland. I was born in and live in Frederick, MD and my health care insurance premium each month is nearly $650.00 for HMO coverage through my employer. This is a fringe benefit so it is not an out of pocket expense. I have tried to shop for a less expensive policy to help save my employer money but I am not able to find insurance at a lower rate due to my weight and high blood pressure. If my employer goes out of business I will be faced with the COBRA option that will require me to pay the individual rate for my policy which I will likely not be able to afford.

I don’t know how much it cost to go to my doctor because I never see a bill other than the co-payment I give them when I receive service. I know approximately what the service cost because I’ve paid cash for it in the past, but I’ve have not seen an actual in years. If citizens do not know what they pay for health care services how are they supposed to judge whether there are real savings? Real savings are savings to real people, not savings in terms of relevance to the Gross Domestic Product. Average Americans cannot begin to imagine that kind of correlation. Any attempt to sell savings that way means nothing to Joe Six Pack.

It is obvious that health care reform is needed in the United States. However, the current plans being circulated through the Congress are not the answer. They fail to address important issues. They pander to special interest and fail to help citizens be able to afford quality health care and insurance premiums that are manageable. They are so complex that no one can understand them, and quite frankly no one has even read 100% of what has been written. If Congress does not read what it votes on and hurries bills through to the President to sign into law before he reads it how can the American people have any confidence whatever in the work that is being done on Capitol Hill. Health Care represents nearly 1/5th of the US economy. It deserves more than a rush job for political expediency. If you are not going to do it right, do not do it at all. It is not fair to the people who voted to send you to represent them, and even to those who did not.

Unless you address Medical Malpractice Insurance by capping punitive awards that cause doctors to have to pay premiums that are often more than their incomes in their first year out of medical school unless they work for a group that can spread the risk. Then the doctor can spend his or her income on the debt they have incurred in medical school that they often spend as much as five or more years to retire. Unless there is Tort reform that requires Courts to reject frivolous lawsuits that cause insurance premiums for clinics, doctors, and hospitals to have overhead cost that are so high it is nearly not worth staying in business. Unless you address these things and more there can be no real health care reform. Unless you provide a safe harbor for OBGYN doctors so they are not held responsible for deliveries of children until the child reaches the age of majority in the state in which they are born there can be no real health care reform. Unless you address the abuse, fraud, and waste in the Medicare and Medicaid systems there can be no real health care reform.

None of these things cost the American people a lot of money. None of these things make life harder for anyone except perhaps the Trial Attorneys and Mal Practice Insurers. All of these things will have a MAJOR SAVINGS IMPACT on the cost of health care and health care insurance premiums for everyone. The bottom line here is that you can make a difference in the Senate because in the Senate each member can use the rules to make sure attention is given to them, that their voice is heard; this is why it is known as the Greatest Deliberative Body in the World. You have the power to make sure that Health Care is done right. That real change can be made.

Americans do not want a single payer Canadian Style or European Style health care system. Americans are not going to pay high taxes for the benefit of government run insurance or government competing in the free market. Americans are not going to stand for the lies that Taxes on the Rich will not cost the Middle Class or the Poor. It all “trickles down” whether it is from an independent business person or a major corporation through higher prices for goods and services. People eventually will pay no matter how you want to package the lie. The American people are not stupid and they are quickly losing their ignorance. It is time to do the right thing, regardless of who is in the White House and regardless of who is in the majority in Congress. Health Care should not be a political football.


Sincerely,


Christopher Filby

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Taxing Sin


With more than a Trillion dollar deficit and with many states pondering over more red ink than they’ve ever seen, it is only a matter of time before our sins become taxed far beyond the use of alcohol certain amusements and entertainment venues, and tobacco. Yes our real vices, the ones no one will talk about in public much less in mixed company. The subject has been broached with guarded lightheartedness in California where everything, yes everything is on the table when it comes to raising revenue. However, even the consummate liberals there have decided not to go there, at least for now.


Nevada is the only state in the union that legalizes prostitution. It is a revenue stream for them, but falls far short of sales tax collections even on a bad day. Several states, notably Oregon have all but legalized Marijuana, but so far haven’t figured out a way to control it to the point that it can be successfully taxed. Prostitution and Illicit drugs however aren’t our biggest sins, even though every pulpit in every church would have you believe otherwise. No, our biggest sin is one we don’t think about even for a moment, and most of us have a brush with it every day. We use the internet for some personal reason not related to work, or our business, or our family life, or for any legitimate purpose other than to satisfy ourselves. Regardless of where we venture on the World Wide Web it is a gluttonous adventure to be sure and it is soon to become the biggest cash cow that Federal and State governments can put their hands on. We’re all addicted and they know it and we’re all sinners and they know it, and we’ll all pay for it and they know that too.


Your income tax may not raise a dime if you make less than $200,000 if you’re a single person or $250,000 if you’re a couple. The cost of cooling and heating your home, driving your automobile, purchasing alcohol and tobacco, and in the not too distant future your access to be able to access everything you know is going up and in a big way. Everything that is associated with these costs with respect to manufacturing and delivery of products and services will be going up as well. Your food and your clothing will cost more and so will your toilet paper. We have all of this to look forward to without factoring in inflation.


I have an idea here. How about we all try to sin a little less, spend more time with each other and our families, and pay a lot more attention to what is going on in Washington, DC. If you do not know what is going on there you need to learn about it from more than one source (yes that means hearing “both sides of the issues”) of information, rather than allow yourself to be manipulated by a national media that has done nothing but provide wrapping paper what they perceive are the gifts provided by the current administration and Congress. Make a choice to be your own person, to be an American first, not some hyphenated politically correct robot. We did not win the war that gave us the right to live under this constitutionally limited republic by sitting back and waiting for King George to send us an invitation. Get off your ass! Go fight for your rights! Make a difference for you and your family! Stop being a whipping boy for the man! Be mad as hell and not take it anymore! Don’t let them tax your sin!!!!

Thursday, July 09, 2009

It's Time to Contact the Senate!


Today the President is in Europe (specifically Italy) at the G-8 Summit trying to sell the leaders of the worlds most powerful economies (where's China by the way - they hold all of our debt) that Climate Change is an issue that can no longer be ignored and like the United States it is time for them to work out their own version of Cap and Trade (Cap & Tax) in order to reduce their green house gas (carbon dioxide) production. Further that money should be given to developing countries to insure they go the "Green" way as they join the rest of the industrial world. While all of this might seem like a wonderful idea to the politically correct environmentalist crowd, it reads like a recipe for disaster for the rest of us.

WE HAVE NO MONEY MR. PRESIDENT!!! You have admitted this fact yourself on several occasions at your own town meetings. We cannot sustain these kinds of deficits into the future or something to that effect came right out of your mouth right after you said We have no money. Now I don't know how it is that every idea you have will become revenue neutral, but as the unemployment numbers rise, and the tax base disappears, you have less and less money to work with than you did when you had NO MONEY. You have to stop. You cannot do everything for everyone. You especially cannot enter into agreements with foreign governments on issues like climate change when you know that the science itself is suspect if not completely flawed. Many scientists who only a decade ago talked of rising ocean levels now have a different opinion when faced with data that shows actual global temperatures remaining the same or falling slightly. Your own EPA issued a stinging report that refutes the science behind climate change altogether, and it was conveniently omitted so that no one in the congress could consider it before voting on the Cap and Trade legislation that passed by only 7 votes in the US House of Representatives.

With the swearing in of Al Franken (of all people) as the junior Senator from Minnesota this week the Democrat party now has 60 votes that will insure all of it's legislation will eventually make it to the floor of the Senate for a vote. Fortunately, it will not guarantee passage of any particular piece of legislation be cause Senators do want to be re-elected. This Cap and Trade mess has to be stopped in its tracks and the US Senate is our last best hope. Pressure from the people can make a difference. Senators do listen to telephone calls. They can track where calls come from and know if they are being bombarded by programmed callers or actual constituents. There is a good chance that Senators in coal producing states will hear a great deal from their voters, as should those in states with any kind of manufacturing base like Michigan where we are incidentally trying to save General Motors and Chrysler and through osmosis Ford. I dread the day when someone has to say their father's Cadillac or Lincoln was made in Beijing, China. It is time to pick up a telephone, buy a postcard and a stamp, do what you have to do to contact your two state senators to stop CAP & TRADE before it stops YOU. It's a bad bill and a worse way to screw your wallet. SAY NO to this one. We have to start somewhere, and if we take a stand here, it will make saying NO to Health Care much easier.