An Idea For Veterans

My roommate is a veteran.  He served six years in the Navy during the early 1990's and received an honorable discharge.  For over 20 years, he didn't need the services provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs, but when he did need the VA, they were there for him.  Only problem is, he has to travel to a run down part of Indianapolis every time he has an appointment or needs emergency medical care.

This is the case for many veterans.  They have to travel to hearts of cities around the nation to receive the services provided by the VA, unless they live more than 40 miles driving distance from the nearest VA hospital.  If they do live more than 40 miles away, veterans are able to avail themselves of their local doctors.  Since my roommate and I do not live over 40 miles away, he has to make the trek.

Of course, the VA doesn't offer just medical care to our veterans.  It also provides job hunting services, mental health counseling and many other services.  These services, no matter the distance, are only provided at the central VA centers.  Sadly, the VA does not provide for vision or dental.

My roommate would like to be able to see a doctor and/or psychiatrist that is closer to home, but due to the travel restriction (and not having any other health insurance), he can't.  He must travel to the VA hospital for those services.  This is not to say that my roommate is unhappy about the services he has received from the VA.  Quite the contrary.  He is very happy, but would like to not have to travel 45 minutes one way to get them.

In our discussions, we have come to agree that the VA needs the ability to offer all veterans the ability to see the doctor of their choice closer to home.  We both feel the need for a VA specific Medicare/Medicaid type program where all he needs to do is to provide a VA issued insurance card to a doctor and he gets the care he needs.

This would allow millions of veterans to see doctors in a timely manner while also I think saving time and money.  The VA hospitals will still be available but supplemented by tens of thousands of health care professionals around the nation.

Let me know in the comments below if you think this is a good idea and whether or not you are willing to contact your Senators and Representative to get this legislation moving.

State of the Union Address: Pandering To Moderates and Conservatives

Do any other liberals feel “blah” over last night’s State of the Union Address by President Obama?  The SOTUA was, to me, too Republican and too conservative.  No liberal agenda (not that I expected one, not from our milquetoast president), hell, not even a token liberal concept.  It was a pep talk for moderates and conservatives not for liberals.

Though he didn’t bash liberals, as he has done for three long years for not supporting him more, he didn’t even attempt to acknowledge us.  It is almost as if, for this election, the President and his advisors have decided that liberals aren’t needed to win.  That if the President panders entirely to moderates and conservatives, no Republican can beat him this November.  And that is the problem with his entire Presidency.

This isn’t a new strategy.  His entire presidency has been about pandering to the moderates and conservatives and saying a big “fuck you” to liberals.  And where has pandering to moderates and conservatives gotten President Obama and the rest of the nation?

We still don’t have universal single payer health care.  Hell, we don’t even have the option to purchase Medicare as our health insurance provider but we do have the mandate to purchase private health insurance.

The prison at Guantanamo Bay is still open and none of the detainees can be brought to the States to be tried in civilian courts.  The Patriot Act was renewed as were the Bush era tax cuts.  Our nation’s bridges, roadways and dams are still crumbling with no plan or funding to fix them.

We still aren’t building palaces of learning and the President is pushing for more “school choice”.  Homeowners are still sinking under the weight of their mortgages while it appears the banks are going to get a sweetheart deal regarding mortgage fraud from the Department of Justice and several states’ attorney generals.

Instead of comprehensive immigration reform we have record numbers of deportations and Sheriff Joe Arpaio is still performing his living while brown “crime suppression sweeps”.  The voters of state after state are approving medical marijuana yet the Department of Justice is raiding dispensaries allowed under the individual state’s laws.

So it comes as no real surprise that President Obama didn’t even offer us liberals a trinket in the speech.  Why should he have?  He seems very happy pandering to moderates and conservatives, which is too bad for our nation.

Republicans and Family Values or Lack Thereof

Since 1980, the Republicans have been hammering away that they and only they are the defenders of "family values".  Since 1980 all I have seen from Republicans is one attack after another on families, especially non-traditional families.  Yet, for some reason, the Republican Party is still able to say with a straight face that they are the only party of family values.

Mind you, this is the party that hates public education.  This is the party that hates Medicare and Medicaid.  This is the party that hates equal rights for gays and lesbians.  This is the party that attacks unions, both private and public sector.  This is the party that pushes for unbridled corporate welfare while pushing to cut government subsidies to the working poor.

This is the party that impeached a president for getting a blow job in the Oval Office from someone other than their spouse while the Speaker of the House, a member of the Republican Party, was having an extramarital affair on his second wife.   This is the party that wants to strip the EPA of their authority to regulate coal mining.

This is the party that endorses Arizona's SB1070 which has the stated goal of "enforcement of attrition".  This is the party that doesn't believe that those born on American soil are automatic citizens.  This is the party that believes that corporations are persons.

This is the party that wants to defund Headstart.  This is the party that wants to cut funding for Pell Grants.  This is the party that wants to remove all federal funding for Planned Parenthood.   This is the party that wants medical insurance companies to have the ability to rescind a policy that has been paid for.  This is the party that thinks unemployment benefits only make the unemployed lazy.

This is the party of family values?

The Unholy Union

I think we can all agree that certain members of the "elite" are well benefited by the policies of the modern Republican Party and the current manifestation of social conservatives, the "tea party" movement.  We can also agree that the elite would like nothing better than a permanent underclass in this nation that can be used for cheap if not slave labor.  We already see the start of it with high unemployment and the refusal of companies to hire those recently unemployed.

Now the Republicans have systematically been attacking organized labor, in particular those civil service employees represented by unions.  We have seen the attacks on public sector unions in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey and Florida.  The attempts to weaken if not destroy the public sector unions is mostly allow for the privatization of services provided by the various governments.  If there are no unions to represent the workers, they can't fight against privatization.

With the unions representing civil service workers gone, the next step will be to more or less criminalize private sector unions.  This has been the dream of American corporations for over a century.  If they can break the unions by criminalizing them, then they will have removed the last impetus to wholesale slashing of wages and benefits.

But getting rid of unions isn't enough.  You need people to be truly terrified of being out of work by getting rid of the social safety net.  If there is no social safety net workers won't want to demand higher wages for fear of losing their jobs.  We already see element of this with Michigan cutting the number of weeks someone can receive unemployment benefits and Arizona looking to remove up to 300,000 people from the state's Medicare rolls.

With permanent unemployment of 20% or more and no social safety net, those who will be lucky enough to be employed will be too scared to fight for better working conditions, higher wages and benefits.  It has been a long process in the making, requiring the right economic disaster to foment the right type of fear.  The Republicans are laying the legal groundwork for the elite to have their permanent underclass.

It is an unholy union that must be stopped.  The question is: Can we stop it?

A Son's Thoughts on Unions

This Thursday, my mom is going in for back surgery.  With her 12^th and 13^th vertebrae basically gone, it is her only option left to quell the excruciating pain she has suffered for years.  It is a daunting experience for anyone not to mention expensive.  With mom ineligible for disability and too young for Medicare, it could easily bankrupt her and dad.

Luckily, dad worked for John Deere for 31 years before retiring and belonged to UAW Local 838.  Because of smart union stewardship, dad was able to retire with a respectable pension and lifetime health benefits.  Without those benefits that he and the union worked so hard for, mom and dad would be looking at mountains of debt and the possibility of passing up the surgery.

Without the UAW, dad wouldn’t have his pension or the health benefits that will be used to help an incredible woman.  John Deere came very close to bankruptcy during the 1980s, lowering its workforce by 10,000 at the Waterloo sites alone.  But the union worked with the company while protecting the workers the union represented.

This is what unions provide: Peace of mind for when it is needed most.  I find it extremely troubling that there are those who choose to demonize unions, representative of both private and public employees, instead of acknowledging their benefits to all.

I thank the UAW for helping to make sure that mom and dad don’t have to worry about the medical bills and can instead focus on her long, comfortable health.

I Believe

I believe.

I believe that government is for the benefit of all the people no matter their birth status, the financial status, their political connections (or lack thereof) or their location.  I believe government should never be on the cheap and should be as big as needed.  I believe that taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society and yes, I believe that the rich should pay a higher percentage of their income than a person working at Burger King.

I believe in a strong public education system that isn’t forced to turn out automatons who only know what was the standardized test required to graduate.  I believe in open and honest sex education in our nation’s schools.  I believe that religion has no place in what our schools teach or how they are governed.  I believe that charter schools are anathema to strong public schools.  I believe that taxes should never be used for vouchers or tax credits or other incentives to send children to private and/or parochial schools.

I believe in strong regulation of business, making sure they provide safe products and/or services at reasonable prices.  I believe that businesses are not persons and should not be allowed to contribute to politicians or political parties.  I believe that businesses should actually pay taxes and not receive special tax breaks.  I believe that privatization of government services to be wrong.  I believe in strong private and public sector unions.

I believe in a strong social safety net.  I believe in Social Security and the financial security it provides our elderly.  I believe in single payer universal health care and short of that I believe in Medicare for all.  I believe in unemployment insurance and food assistance for the unemployed and the working poor.  I believe in public transportation and a high speed passenger rail network across the nation.  I believe it does take a village.

I believe in a strong, smart military.  I believe in marriage equality as well as equal rights for gays and lesbians.  I believe that my love for Michael is just as valid as the love my mom and dad hold for each other.  I believe those who enter our nation illegally in the hopes of a better life deserve our full protections and should not be demonized for political purposes.

I believe there is goodness in all, even Dick Cheney.

I believe.