The Congress of the U.S. Needs to Reform Itself and Find a Backbone

by Bill Seebeck

Every day it seems, the U.S. Senate fails to act on some measure because it needs 60 plus votes to pass anything. Like most citizens, I ask why? What happened to I have more than 50 votes and you win or lose?

In the U.S. Senate, the minority has the right to filibuster legislation. Ok, many of us saw Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". Yet the filibuster was generally viewed as an extreme measure that could be employed, to draw public attention to legislation and a point of view that the minority believed wasn't being presented.

Today, it seems that the Senate views the need of 60 plus votes as an every day occurrence, fearing possible filibuster.

Now, I don't know about the rest of the citizenry, but I have had it with the House and the Senate. Who are you working for ladies and gentlemen? Us or the special interests? You have to choose!

We elected a new president, a new Congress and where are we? Nowhere different it seems to me.

We are still at war and every day losing very brave young men and women and tens of thousands are in harms way right now.

We are still in dire financial straits with more crises to come including, and as lawyers always say, but not limited to: Collapse of the Commercial Real Estate Market, more foreclosures in the spring since the Banks have not been processing Government programs to rewrite mortgages, and the collapse of the credit card asset backed derivative marketplace, the other shoe yet to fall.

We still have no new health care despite millions and millions of American workers out of work with no insurance or so under insured that they are hanging by their thumbs.

Our cities, towns, villages and our states are fast going bankrupt and with it our schools, police protection and social support systems.

Who is running this country?

My message to the Congress is this: Take off your $1,000 suits and golden cufflinks, put on a pair of jeans if you can fit into them and start working day and night to take the burden of the corporations and government off the backs of the American people.

If you don't, I don't care what political party you belong to, We, the people will throw you out of office next November. If you don't have a spine Mr. or Ms. elected official, FIND ONE!

There is not a fellow American that I speak to who doesn't have serious problems, families are in trouble, the gap between haves and have nots is now so wide that neither group can see one another. It is truly a great divide that if left widening will forever change this nation of ours, this great experiment in democracy. As Mr. Franklin said after the Constitutional Convention, when asked what kind of government had been decided upon, "You have a Republic, if you can keep it!"

We are now at that place where we have to decide that question once and for all.

US Out of Recession? Don't Believe It!

by Bill Seebeck

The BBC just flashed a story that the US economy has come out of recession but warns that recovery will be slow.

I have written about this subject more than a few times over the last two years and very little has changed. People are out of work and are still out of work.

Do you think that because you want it to be over that it is over? Well, guess what? Think again. Look around you and just this morning there was another story of mounting new layoffs in the publishing industry.

I was in Walmart and Costco yesterday and what was clear to me was how many more people are buying their clothes there. Fashion for the general public is becoming more "dressed down" because it is cheaper. We can't afford to be "dressed up" anymore. Food prices are still high even though we have less money. Gas prices are near $3.00 per gallon on the east coast and we can't afford that either.

Is the general news media that stupid that they don't get it? We are in big trouble and it is NOT getting better. I hate to tell the TV & Cable NETWORKS, but there is NOTHING ENTERTAINING about how poor the American people are fast becoming. Wake Up!

The BBC story quotes Wells Fargo's chief economist John Silvia as saying that, "He sees disappointment ahead for US workers and consumers, with a long-term decline in living standards." He is right. It is so clear that living standards are already rapidly declining because they must. We don't have work and we don't have disposable income!

So then how do you build a new robust recovering economy on the backs of a general public who are on their knees?

Answer that question someone!

Health Care - What's the Story?

Part I – How To Think About It & The Economics and Politics of It

By Bill Seebeck

My son Matt taught me a few things in an essay he wrote this week, when he asked the question, “Why do so many people know so very little about subjects that are so important to them?” Now he asked that question not about health care but about the defense of the nation.

In the essay, he said that in his quest to answer that question, he thought, “What kind of preconceived notions did people have and where did they come from? What is the reason for their knowing a half-truth or a true falsehood and was it a result of their education?”

He continued, “After long periods of study and introspection, I deduced that there are two types of knowledge people acquire often without acknowledging the disparity between the two. First, ‘perceived knowledge’ is a veritable brain dump, something learned or heard of, studied for a test but never examined or understood.”

“The second type, ‘actual learned knowledge’ is the opposite, instructed or read in a detailed manner and expressed in such a way that it is appreciated,” he opined. “The beauty of actual learned knowledge is that it incorporates a whole spectrum of topics. For example, history inherently requires economics, politics, and sociology to be more fully explained. It is a way to wisdom,” he wrote.

Thanks Matt for helping to focus on and shape how we think about the subjects that are so important to us. Thank you also for serving all of us this day in the uniform of our country.

Health Care

So, as we think about health care, let us also think about the fact that we also need to consider economics, politics, history, sociology, medicine, science, technology and how we value life, our lives and others.

Economics

Health care is one of the most expensive items in our personal budgets, state budgets and in the budget of the United States.

The cost to those budgets continues to rise. We (the citizens, our state governments and federal government) cannot afford the basic cost of health care, nor its continuing increases.

Therefore, we must change the system.

Politics

There are lots of politics wrapped up in health care. Why? In part because there is so much MONEY wrapped up in health care.

Corporations run health care. They make the drugs we take, operate the pharmacies that dispense the drugs, make the machines (CT-Scan, X-Rays, etc.) used for performing tests, blood testing services, they own the insurance companies and the hospitals that determine how much everything costs and who is going to pay for what.

Then we have the doctors, nurses, technicians, etc., and the colleges and universities that train them. It costs thousands and thousands of dollars to train these people who not only choose this profession but they are the people to whom we entrust our lives. They have a need to protect the quality of their educations, but they also need to pay off the cost of their educations while practicing medicine, paying the high cost of insurance required to practice medicine and living life with some quality.

The next group is ourselves. We always want something better. We also don’t want to pay a high cost for it.

We have our seniors, who since the 1960’s have had a medical system of their own that in tandem with Social Security provides at the very least a basic style of life that recognizes their dignity and life’s effort as working people, who because of age and the challenges of health that come with aging generally cannot afford a system without support.

Finally, we have our elected officials. They are after all politicians. They are influenced by each of the groups noted above and many more. The lobbyists that represent such groups contribute millions to politicians at election time. Such influence can cause an elected official to move from the right thing to do, to the thing to do in order to get elected the next time they run for public office.

A sub-group of the elected officials are governors, state governments and their legislative bodies. Most states require an annual BALANCED budget and the cost of health care to a state can be punishing, especially if the federal government doesn’t help fund what the state is required by law to provide its citizens. Then, if the state has to cut costs to balance their budget, then local governments (your town) will also have less money from the state and generally will have to make cuts as well.

It is the role of the President of course to lead the country as its chief executive officer. He or she must offer programs to Congress that balance the cost of health care in relation to other needs of the nation with in this case, the health care needs of its citizens.

The President knows that the health care system has to change because as we noted in the economic section, it costs too much for everyone. In the economic mess we are in, it absolutely must be addressed. Not later, but now because it represents such a large and growing percentage of the federal budget, state governments and our own budgets at home.

What we change to as the NEW HEALTH CARE SYSTEM is a battle between all of the groups noted above, the debate we are experiencing today, with all sorts of half-truths and falsehoods flying about, all because it is first ABOUT MONEY and only a distant second about our health.

As a result, at the end of the day, it does not mean that we will have a new system that will truly serve our health care needs in the future nor be as inexpensive as it could possibly be. What we will have will be what the lobbyists and elected officials bang together. Unfortunately, not a happy thought.

More tomorrow!

Let me know what you think.

Post Script: Responses to the Michael Jackson Article

I have received a number of comments on the article I wrote about Michael Jackson last month. Unfortunately, only one of those scripts could be published. The others were written with words that were filled with hate and unpublishable language.

Everyone has the right to their opinion about any subject in this society, that's what free speech is all about. Yet, I am willing to say that not too many of us actually "knew" Michael Jackson. I know I didn't, never met the boy or the man. What I knew about him was his work, music and public performances as an entertainer. These are the only things that I can judge about him and yes, I believe that they were expressions of extraordinary gifts. He developed them and then shared them with us, the world around him.

It appeared to me also that he was a troubled person and had many conflicts in his life that only he and those actually in his life may ever truly understand. As a Christian, I give thanks for his shared gifts and pray for those things in his life that troubled him. I do not presume to be the judge of his soul. I believe that is the role of God.

And as for the peace of God, it is always present and offered to each of us, unconditionally.

-- Bill Seebeck