Back to Old News

Sixty-one Years ago.

Nineteen and Fifty must have been a pretty good year. I graduated from High School and ten days later enlisted in the United States Army for three years eventually ending up as a paratrooper. A few months before I entered into my military service our United States Senate was debating a Health Care Bill. A portion of that debate was posted in this blog on February 6, 2010 under the Title "Old News". A part of that portion is re-published below.

"According to an article in our newspaper dated January 27, 1950, United States Representative Tom Murry (D. Tenn.) said in a speech that; - I presume that President Truman again will recommend to Congress the enactment of compulsory health insurance, or socialized medicine. The more I think about the question, the more I am opposed to it. It is unthinkable to me that our country should follow in the footsteps of England and adopt socialized medicine. We have the finest medical system in the world and we should encourage voluntary health insurance programs such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield instead of talking about socialized medicine. The cost of free medical treatment to our people would run into billions of dollars.
In voting, members of congress must realize our government does not create or make a single dollar - but that all of the money for expendures must come from the taxpayers."

That, as stated above, is old news but could have just as easily been written today. It's not that there isn't anything wrong with our present system but the massive bill as written by this congress won't fix the problems. One of our biggest problems is that we no longer have independent thinkers like Representative Tom Murry. He was, at that time, my Representative and I was a Democrat. My, how times have changed.

It is still our belief, here on the hill, that any changes in our health care should start with, "Tort Reform", the limiting of medical liability so as to prevent frivolous lawsuits which forces the doctors to practic defensive medicine, "Insurance" sold across state lines which should increase competition and lower rates, "Abortion" no income tax money going to any entity which performs or advocates the performing of abortions and "Regulations", if needed, to force insurance companies to account for any rate increases. We can, and must, hold doctors accountable but with limits set on judgements and penalties on meritless suits we could save billions of dollars in healthcare cost. That might not cure all the ailments but it would be a good starting point.

Many years ago we wrote a letter, which was published in a Sunday edition of the Commercial Appeal, condemning the use of taxpayer money to fund abortions. At that time we were still working (since retired) and paying income taxes. We still support that position and in a previous posting stated that we didn't believe the President's "Executative Order" concerning abortion and public funds was worth the paper it was written on which appears to have been proven true in the last few weeks.

Is there still doubt in anyone's mind about the financial straits of Social Security and Medicare and the need for those two programs to be reformed? If Medicare is in so much trouble financially then how can you justify the taking of about 500 billion dollars from that program to be used to finance a Medicaid like program under "Obamacare" or the cutting of two percentage points off the FICA (payroll) tax which goes into the Social Security Trust Fund which in turn pays for Social Security and Medicare? That lost Trust Fund money has to be made up to pay current retiree benefits and the only way that can be done is by borrowing and adding more to the National Debt. That's just one of many wrong-headed ideas coming out of Washington during this administration, Democrats and Republicans alike. We have been accused of favoring only the Republican viewpoint but if you check back through these blog postings you will find that it simply isn't true. We are equal opportunity writers and have outlined in great detail our encounters with our elected Representative and both of our Senators. Check it out. We welcome your comments either here or by e-mail.

As for us, here on the hill, most things are going better than we have any right to expect. It is, like most places, still hot and dry which keeps us inside with the air conditioner most of the time but we're sure that too will pass. Thanks for your time and input. Stay tuned. - William