discount internets
I met some guys from Columbus, Ohio a few years back and one of the things that always stuck with me from that was they frequently put an extra "s" on some words. I use it from time to time when I'm trying to be funny. It makes me laugh, anyway.
I had to explain some technical glitches I've been experiencing for the last few days. My telephone was needed elsewhere and I found out I kinda enjoy having a cell phone, among the many other blessings of life.
I'm on staycation this week. I'm happy to have the time off. Lots going on, nothing I can do about it, and I'm just kinda keeping up with what I can and doing what I can do. A lot of that involves just making food. Sometimes food is the best thing you can do.
OK, so enough about me. I'm going to switch gears on y'all and if you're a conservative, you're the one I talking about.
The older I get, the more shameful I find things that I used to hold dear. And as I've watched the debate over the healthcare unfold and the uproar from the right to the Supreme court decision, I've come to one stellar conclusion: People in this country really don't like poor people.
I got hit with this: The problem is that 47% of the people in America don't pay income taxes. There's some common ground. Let's agree that this number is accurate. But it's how you view that fact that causes division and derision. The guy that quoted it is upset that these 47% of people don't pay taxes. I'm upset that almost half of the people in this country don't make enough income to have to pay taxes on it. Which is the bigger problem? Personally, I think the latter is, but I also do think that if you live here, you should at least pay $1 per person in your household in income taxes and you shouldn't get more back than you paid in. I understand why we do this, but I don't agree with the policy.
Taxes are a big issue right now. This same gentleman was all upset that the Court re-wrote the Constitution's language about Congress' ability to tax. His argument is that we've never taxed people for not doing something. I was trying to figure out how I was going to set up a ladder without a repeat of the infamous "Incident at Cherry Tree" from last month and didn't have this argument in my mind at the time, but we do tax the hell out of people for not doing things.
Ask your single friends what they pay in taxes. They'll tell you they get taxed for not being married. You're taxed for not buying a house and having a mortgage on it. We tax folks all the time for not doing stuff. Add not buying healthcare to the list.
I also got into a discussion with some guy on Facebook about the whole insurance thing. He was all mad that the big bad Government was telling him what to do. That happens every day and by the way, there are lots of things that the Government does very well. We have national parks and federal lands. Someone's putting out the fires. Our military can blow up anything, anywhere, then go in and rebuild it. That's something! We have air to breathe that would be lots worse than it is without the Government. We have clean water to drink.
And we have regulation. Mostly because at some point, someone did something to someone to cause them to be regulated. Is there too much? Yeah, probably. A fer-instance is that at work we have wing stands that keep the wing a safe distance above the platform. But because we went from the 10' fall rule to the 4' fall rule, we have this elaborate system to keep us from falling. It works, trust me, but it's dangerous to try and hook it up sometimes. It's not the best rule, and we could probably work safely without it. I'm sure there are lots of things like that and we should look at them and do away with that.
So what does that have to do with healthcare? The man I talked to reminded me what I knew already. Our employer-based healthcare system came about by accident. It was during the 40's and there was a shortage of workers and price controls, so companies used benefits and perks to lure employees to their companies. Hello, healthcare. It's stupid, it's antiquated, and it doesn't serve our needs anymore.
That was from the first guy. Facebook guy lit into me about how Government would ration care, I had to walk him through how my insurance company already does that. Damn pesky things, facts, but what became evident to me was that the guy was not against healthcare. He's against Government. Period. And against giving anything to someone who doesn't work for it.
So my hater righties, here's my challenge to you about the healthcare act. You look at your health insurance coverage benefits and what you can and can't do under that policy. Then ask yourself why we would want to pay a for profit insurance company to manage that care and take part of what we pay in premiums for themselves, when we could get the Government who becomes your primary insurance at 65 via Medicare to do it for us and eliminate the middle man. My people call that idea "single payer". I'm good with that.
But then, I'm not afraid of the Government. I told the second guy I wasn't and that the Government ought to be afraid of me because I vote. (No, I'm not a sedition guy!) I'm a vote guy and if I don't like what you're doing, I'm going to vote for the other candidate. Plain and simple. And right now, if you're a Republican, your chances with me aren't looking good.
Like taxes, I expect everyone to pay for healthcare. I'm not in love with the idea of expanding Medicaid but I recognize that right now jobs are tight and half the people don't make enough money to pay income taxes, so if we need to help out with healthcare right now, then so be it. Keep this in mind, too, that healthcare costs are job killers for small business and this bill contains provisions for employers to offer policies to workers, but you gotta employ 50 people before you have to do that. It's idiotic and we gotta get away from expecting employers to provide for our healthcare.
That's gotta be another issue we can agree on, isn't it?
I had to explain some technical glitches I've been experiencing for the last few days. My telephone was needed elsewhere and I found out I kinda enjoy having a cell phone, among the many other blessings of life.
I'm on staycation this week. I'm happy to have the time off. Lots going on, nothing I can do about it, and I'm just kinda keeping up with what I can and doing what I can do. A lot of that involves just making food. Sometimes food is the best thing you can do.
OK, so enough about me. I'm going to switch gears on y'all and if you're a conservative, you're the one I talking about.
The older I get, the more shameful I find things that I used to hold dear. And as I've watched the debate over the healthcare unfold and the uproar from the right to the Supreme court decision, I've come to one stellar conclusion: People in this country really don't like poor people.
I got hit with this: The problem is that 47% of the people in America don't pay income taxes. There's some common ground. Let's agree that this number is accurate. But it's how you view that fact that causes division and derision. The guy that quoted it is upset that these 47% of people don't pay taxes. I'm upset that almost half of the people in this country don't make enough income to have to pay taxes on it. Which is the bigger problem? Personally, I think the latter is, but I also do think that if you live here, you should at least pay $1 per person in your household in income taxes and you shouldn't get more back than you paid in. I understand why we do this, but I don't agree with the policy.
Taxes are a big issue right now. This same gentleman was all upset that the Court re-wrote the Constitution's language about Congress' ability to tax. His argument is that we've never taxed people for not doing something. I was trying to figure out how I was going to set up a ladder without a repeat of the infamous "Incident at Cherry Tree" from last month and didn't have this argument in my mind at the time, but we do tax the hell out of people for not doing things.
Ask your single friends what they pay in taxes. They'll tell you they get taxed for not being married. You're taxed for not buying a house and having a mortgage on it. We tax folks all the time for not doing stuff. Add not buying healthcare to the list.
I also got into a discussion with some guy on Facebook about the whole insurance thing. He was all mad that the big bad Government was telling him what to do. That happens every day and by the way, there are lots of things that the Government does very well. We have national parks and federal lands. Someone's putting out the fires. Our military can blow up anything, anywhere, then go in and rebuild it. That's something! We have air to breathe that would be lots worse than it is without the Government. We have clean water to drink.
And we have regulation. Mostly because at some point, someone did something to someone to cause them to be regulated. Is there too much? Yeah, probably. A fer-instance is that at work we have wing stands that keep the wing a safe distance above the platform. But because we went from the 10' fall rule to the 4' fall rule, we have this elaborate system to keep us from falling. It works, trust me, but it's dangerous to try and hook it up sometimes. It's not the best rule, and we could probably work safely without it. I'm sure there are lots of things like that and we should look at them and do away with that.
So what does that have to do with healthcare? The man I talked to reminded me what I knew already. Our employer-based healthcare system came about by accident. It was during the 40's and there was a shortage of workers and price controls, so companies used benefits and perks to lure employees to their companies. Hello, healthcare. It's stupid, it's antiquated, and it doesn't serve our needs anymore.
That was from the first guy. Facebook guy lit into me about how Government would ration care, I had to walk him through how my insurance company already does that. Damn pesky things, facts, but what became evident to me was that the guy was not against healthcare. He's against Government. Period. And against giving anything to someone who doesn't work for it.
So my hater righties, here's my challenge to you about the healthcare act. You look at your health insurance coverage benefits and what you can and can't do under that policy. Then ask yourself why we would want to pay a for profit insurance company to manage that care and take part of what we pay in premiums for themselves, when we could get the Government who becomes your primary insurance at 65 via Medicare to do it for us and eliminate the middle man. My people call that idea "single payer". I'm good with that.
But then, I'm not afraid of the Government. I told the second guy I wasn't and that the Government ought to be afraid of me because I vote. (No, I'm not a sedition guy!) I'm a vote guy and if I don't like what you're doing, I'm going to vote for the other candidate. Plain and simple. And right now, if you're a Republican, your chances with me aren't looking good.
Like taxes, I expect everyone to pay for healthcare. I'm not in love with the idea of expanding Medicaid but I recognize that right now jobs are tight and half the people don't make enough money to pay income taxes, so if we need to help out with healthcare right now, then so be it. Keep this in mind, too, that healthcare costs are job killers for small business and this bill contains provisions for employers to offer policies to workers, but you gotta employ 50 people before you have to do that. It's idiotic and we gotta get away from expecting employers to provide for our healthcare.
That's gotta be another issue we can agree on, isn't it?
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