Ms Lib R. Tea Talks HR 3200
Let me start by saying that I understand the desire for affordable health care. We are a family of five living on one very modest income, and the burden of health care costs weigh heavily on us. Still, while I would certainly welcome financial relief (they can stop taxing us anytime they'd like), I cannot support this bill or any other that would put health care in the hands of the government.I cannot say enough how important it is to read legislation before making a stand for or against it. Without factual information, it's easy for people to write off anything you say as a big fat load of crazy. Reading legislation for yourself gives you the opportunity to draw your own conclusions, and support those conclusions with fact-which is essential if your argument is going to have any merit.
An example in this case are the so called "death panels". That's a big pot of crazy soup. No one is going to pull the plug on your grandma without her consent. This legislation simply would make Advanced Directives a priority for health care providers, as they usually are for patients. That's nothing to object to. There are, however, legitimate reasons to oppose this bill.
There are all sorts of juicy tidbits in this piece of unConstitutional legislation. My personal favorites are:
"Individual health insurance coverage that is not grandfathered health insurance coverage under subsection (a) may only be offered on or after the first day of Y1 as an Exchange-participating health benefits plan" (meaning that any private insurance company that wants to enroll a new client must participate in the government health care program)
and
"In the case of a child born in the United States who at the time of birth is not otherwise covered under acceptable coverage, for the period of time beginning on the date of birth and ending on the date the child otherwise is covered under acceptable coverage (or, if earlier, the end of the month in which the 60-day period, beginning on the date of birth, ends), the child shall be deemed–(i) to be a non-traditional Medicaid eligible individual (as defined in subsection (e)(5)) for purposes of this division and Medicaid; and(ii) to have elected to enroll in Medicaid through the application of paragraph (3)." (If all Americans must have health care coverage, who is being born without it? This is a clause for illegal immigrant health care coverage.)
Above those two examples there is still one portion that I am particularly concerned about-and that, of course, is Section 440. This section outlines a government home visitation program for families with children under school age including those expecting their first child. Under the guise of "preventative care" the government will be targeting low income families for data collection and monitoring. They can no longer wait until your child reaches the government school system to monitor you and force your compliance to their parenting model, they're attempting to extend their legal reach to your child while they are still in the womb. This agency will be partnering with existing "child services" agencies ensuring that any who do not comply with the government agency's established "parenting model" will be reported. I should not have to tell you how out of bounds that is.
Then of course there are the financial concerns. People throw around the $500 billion price tag like it's nothing because, any more, it pretty much is. The government is throwing millions, billions, and trillions of dollars down the tubes-but let's pause to see how much money that really is.
A dollar bill is .0043 inches thick, so if 500 billion dollar bills were stacked on top of each other it would be:
500000000000 x .0043=2,150,000,000 inches high
2150000000/12=179,166,667 ft tall
179166667/5280=33,933 MILES TALL
2150000000/12=179,166,667 ft tall
179166667/5280=33,933 MILES TALL
A stack of money that big would break through the Earth's atmosphere after roughly 500 miles, and would travel 14.2% of the distance to the moon. Can anyone say "astronomical debt"?
Let's look at it another way-say you put the bills long end to long end. A dollar bill is 6.14 inches long, so that would be:
To give you some idea of how unbelievably large that is, the circumference of the Earth at the equator is about 24,901.55 miles-so that chain of money stacked end to end would travel around the world 194.58 times.
Let's look at it from another perspective-let's talk man power. How long would it take someone working minimum wage to pay off $500 billion? Well, current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.
Of course, it's unrealistic to say one person would pay off a nation's debt, but let's continue this illustration just so we can try to wrap our heads around exactly how much money this is.
No one, no matter how many veggies they eat, will live 33 million years. The average life expectancy in the US is 78 years...how many people working minimum wage would have to give an entire LIFETIME of wages to the government to pay this off?
Let's look at it another way-say you put the bills long end to long end. A dollar bill is 6.14 inches long, so that would be:
500000000000 x 6.14=3,070,000,000,000 inches long
3070000000000/12=255,833,333,333ft long
255833333333/5280 ft=4,845,382 MILES LONG
3070000000000/12=255,833,333,333ft long
255833333333/5280 ft=4,845,382 MILES LONG
To give you some idea of how unbelievably large that is, the circumference of the Earth at the equator is about 24,901.55 miles-so that chain of money stacked end to end would travel around the world 194.58 times.
Let's look at it from another perspective-let's talk man power. How long would it take someone working minimum wage to pay off $500 billion? Well, current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.
$7.25 x 40hrs x 52 weeks= $15,080/year
$500,000,000,000/15,080=33,156,498.67 years
$500,000,000,000/15,080=33,156,498.67 years
Of course, it's unrealistic to say one person would pay off a nation's debt, but let's continue this illustration just so we can try to wrap our heads around exactly how much money this is.
No one, no matter how many veggies they eat, will live 33 million years. The average life expectancy in the US is 78 years...how many people working minimum wage would have to give an entire LIFETIME of wages to the government to pay this off?
33,156,498.67/78=425,084 people
The population of the US is a little over 300 million...so that means that more than a tenth of our country's population would be working, full time, their entire lives, for free (that's slavery, just in case you didn't notice).
Don't want to go off minimum wage (even though more than 12 percent of the US lives below the poverty line)? Let's talk median income. In 2007 that was $50,233 per year. Even at that rate it would still take 9,953,616.14 years (or take 127,611 people their entire lives) to pay off this debt.
Let's not forget-this is in addition to the already astronomical debt our nation has AND assuming that the government comes in on budget (let me know when that happens).
The bottom line is that we can't afford to do this....and even if we could, we shouldn't want to.
Don't want to go off minimum wage (even though more than 12 percent of the US lives below the poverty line)? Let's talk median income. In 2007 that was $50,233 per year. Even at that rate it would still take 9,953,616.14 years (or take 127,611 people their entire lives) to pay off this debt.
Let's not forget-this is in addition to the already astronomical debt our nation has AND assuming that the government comes in on budget (let me know when that happens).
The bottom line is that we can't afford to do this....and even if we could, we shouldn't want to.
September 9, 2009 at 12:11 AM
OMGOSH! LOVED this post! Boy, do I need to show this to some of my friends who can't seem to grasp the reality any other way i have put it :)
September 9, 2009 at 12:36 AM
I don't even know how you read it! The code got jumbled somehow and when I looked at it it was a mess! I fixed it though~sorry to anyone who was saw it and thought WHA?!
September 9, 2009 at 6:47 PM
I think people just don't get things, because they can't put it into perspective. Well, you certainly did!
I agree that no matter how much it would cost, it is a violation of people's rights to do these things.
September 15, 2009 at 8:05 AM
I loved the perspective you used on this post. People need to realize that these things cost money. Money which we don't have.