Beginning to clear out the augean stables of various note pads strewn throughout various pockets, desks, tables including dining room, shelves, and other points of interest:
* Old friend Bob K., Democrat leaning Socialist if not there already, quotes Scripture to his purpose of selling the then in ramming process now accompli Obama-scare, a.k.a.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act
(not kidding), while dwelling also on plight of poor. To him I say, as to old friend Joan, who buttonholed me on OP Avenue some months back and recommended my reading the Bible, your unimpeachable motivation should not be confused with strategy.
You assume Obama-scare is good for poor people, even as public school and other public budgets are slashed because of a dearth of public money. Tax more, you say, but there’s an end to that somewhere, as businesses cut back under tax burdens and the nation heads for big fiscal trouble.
Bob, Joan, all you good Christian and other kind-hearted people, consider what you want done to the common weal. Your commendable impulses are getting us all in big trouble, especially the poorest among us, as I told you, Bob, in our recent email exchange. I won’t say “repent” — I’m not one to offer or demand that alternative — but I do say rethink your position.
* More later from the stables . . . .
Blithe Spirit 
I don’t agree that their impulses are commendable. It’s dishonest and lazy to support solving a side-effect of poverty using money they’d confiscate from other, unwilling people, people who doubtless have their own problems, though not as severe. A commendable impulse would be to give their own money, their own time, and to convince others to join them in their charitable efforts.
LikeLike
Bob Nisbett is right; Joan and Bob K. want to “do charity” with other peoples’ money. Let them sell everything and give it to the poor. Let them lead by example. When we see them doing that, we might be willing to follow.
LikeLike
Bob K. may be doing the right thing personally. I know he’s worked to preserve a Catholic school, for instance, that is, he has promoted such in his e-blasts. Joan, I don’t know about in that regard, but neither do I relegate her to outer darkness.
It’s a mental problem with both of them, or epistemological. They see things in a certain way, being inclined that way from birth and nurtured that way throughout life. In any case, it’s a habit of apprehension and comprehension. They are dogs-with-bones who won’t let go. Their idea of the meaning of life is involved. Both are very Catholic, by the way, and the church has been very good at forming people over the centuries.
I say this about them. God knows what they say about me. I’m a mystery to Joan, I know. She and her husband, a retired RC college prof and administrator, think my change from lib to conservative is from my having got married and becoming a father. I am not the same guy they met as a fire-breathing young Jesuit priest, I know that. But I had my pre-Jesuit beginnings too . . . .
LikeLike
Gee, I had no idea my comments would be sent all over the kingdom of blog and then commented upon. Okay, so into the fray, I say.
First off, I know no one who refers to me as a socialist. my family all drive on roads, rails, and commuter trains; we drink water and use sewers, trash pick up and re-cycling etc provided by various levels of government. Should everyone who thinks he is not a socialist get off the roads, trains, commuter lines, stop using the ccurbs, sidewalks, sewers and water systems? No, of course not.
I do those things each day and never thought of myself nor my government for providing these services as socialist. These services make the society go. Is social security socialist now? Should we stop it tomorrow? Is medicare or medicade soccialist and should we stop it tomorrow?
So, why not have health care assisted by the government? In my view, health care in the USA while great for those of us who are privileged to afford it through our own personal eealth or a good job or the fortunate ability to have medicare and medicade should not be voting to stop the rest of the USA ciizens of having good care too. To add 32 million people is going to be tough, of course, but maybe to satisfy those who think this will be too expensive, maybe 32,000,000 of us on the care already will want to step off? I doubt it.
My point in saying that the bill should go through is that more people who are really poor in this country now will get regular care. This will benefit in many ways. 1. less cost and pressure on the hospitals’ emergency med facilities across the USA, as emergency care is twice to tentimes as expensive or more than regular scheduled care; 2. it will be less money to the insurance companies and their staff and officers who provide not one minute of actual medical care for any individual medicine seeking applicant; the insurance companies de facto run the care now and push the hospitals, nurses, other care people around plus they control the costs and the government intervention now. In short, our system is run by a bunch of statisticians who have pushed and maneuvered themselves into the center of the health provider systems of the USA. By now, we are so used to it, we actually think that is the only way to do it. it is not the only way.
I say, take them out or at least phase them out; save the money that goes into these folks’ pockets; 3. with scheduled care and full care for the poor with less anxiety among the poor, maybe other problesms within our rural poor and urban poor communities will be lessened; 4. I hope the lessening of abortions too will come about from families getting the regular care and closer doctor/provider-patient relationships built up over the years with their doctors and care-givers; This will enable the poor to ask for advise as they need it when they are faced with big life and death medical issues; they will be able to discuss these issues with their known, on-going doctors, (hopefully catholic doctors and others who oppose abortions) over time and not be forced into immediate, panicked, emergency back-alley abortions or, in the case of the working-insurance-covered and wealthy, who go to a practitioner and just casually signup for an abortion.
Finally, if everyone would stop screaming, calling each other names like socialist, tea baggers, etc and look at the bill, over the next few years as things roll out, amendments and other tweaks can be worked out to enable all to get the care needed. With a fairness plan for the health care of the American public, some real matters of health concern for those disenfranchised in health care up to now can see their matters taken care of.
That is the way I see it. If that makes me a socialist, who cares.
Call me anything you want, but let’s put an end to a system that systematically denies fair care to too many Americans–our neighbors.
I have a neighbor dying of cancer who gets one pill a day for his cancer treatment and that pill costs him $100 a day. Folks, that is outrageous.
bob keeley, Chicago citizen
P.S. Maybe, if we all do our part to help crack down on the Illinois ‘combine’ and their manipulated cronies, the ones who are slurping up all the cash for themselves, we in Illinois will have the money to pay for top roads, top health care and the best schools.
Maybe!
LikeLike