What’s interesting in the news today?
First up, it’s finally time to panic. The Apocalypse has come. 🙄
From TheHill “The Department of Defense released a statement early Tuesday that shocked college sports fans. The department said that all athletic competitions at the Army, Navy and Air Force academies would be postponed for as long as the government remained closed.”
“The Air Force and Navy are scheduled to square off in a sold-out, nationally televised football game on Saturday, while the Army has a planned match-up against Boston College. If the government impasse isn’t resolved by Thursday, both games will be suspended.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a graduate of the Naval Academy, told reporters that the cancelation of the Air Force-Navy game would be the “defining moment” of the shutdown.
“The apocalypse is upon us,” McCain lamented.”
As an ARMY fan, I say big deal, it just delays the next loss. 🙂
Dems are throwing a hissy fit. The name calling, Taliban comparisons, and what not sure are predictable. And childish.
They’re also refusing to do stand alone funding for Veteran services and others affected. Despite their cries of “extremist Republicans” it’s they who refuse to compromise.
King, McCain, and the other surrender monkeys in the RINO faction are fretting and handwringing over the whole affair.
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Here’s an update on the story of the vets crashing the gates at the WWII memorial.
From TheDailyCaller “The White House and the Department of the Interior rejected a request from Rep. Steven Palazzo’s office to have World War II veterans visit the World War II memorial in Washington, the Mississippi Republican told The Daily Caller Tuesday.”
“Palazzo’s office was in touch with the heads of the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior and the Capitol Police. He says all these officials rejected his request to allow the veterans, many of whom are octogenarians and some of whom are in poor health, to attend.
Palazzo, a Gulf War Marine veteran who has participated in all five of the Honor Flights, blames the White House for making it harder on veterans and playing politics. “At first I thought it was a huge bureaucratic oversight,” Palazzo told The Daily Caller, “but having talked with the officials I can’t help but think this was politically motivated. Honor Flights, which bring WWII veterans to the nation’s memorials, are planned a year in advance and cost anywhere between $80,000 to $100,000. How low can you get with playing politics over our nation’s veterans?”
Much like the Sequester, people must be made to suffer. It’s the way these folks do business.
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They could agree to separately fund these things, yet they choose not to.
From Boehner, via USAToday “The president isn’t telling the whole story when it comes to the government shutdown. The fact is that Washington Democrats have slammed the door on reopening the government by refusing to engage in bipartisan talks. And, as stories across the country highlight the devastating impact of Obamacare on families and small businesses, they continue to reject our calls for fairness for all Americans.
This is part of a larger pattern: the president’s scorched-Earth policy of refusing to negotiate in bipartisan way on his health care law, current government funding, or the debt limit.”
“As of this morning, Senate Democrats, acting in concert with President Obama, have rejected four different proposals from the House of Representatives to keep the government running and fund basic services.”
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I see the new ObamaCare exchanges opened without a hitch yesterday. 😆
From NY/CBSLocal ” The online insurance marketplaces that are at the heart of President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul struggled to handle the wave of new consumers Tuesday, the first day of a six-month open enrollment period.
A combination of high demand and technical glitches seemed to overwhelm the online system early in the day. Federal and state officials were working to address the problems, which led to long waits on government websites and a federal call center.”
“Even employees at a help center on Southern Boulevard couldn’t get past the homepage.
“It’s too confusing. It’s not user friendly,” one employee said. “It’s confusing for us as well, so I can imagine what its like for customers.”
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Once again, Twitter and Twitchy provide a source of amusement for me. Today, the Twits who think the failures of the ObamaCare websites are the result of a GOP/Tea Party conspiracy. A vast right-wing one even. 🙄
From Twitchy “As Twitchy has reported, the much-heralded Obamacare signup sites are proving to be nothing less than a giant festival of fail. But surely that’s not due to the government’s unpreparedness or all-around incompetence, right? Surely more nefarious forces must be at play:”
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Meanwhile, McAfee is warning about actual hackers and attacks that may result from visiting the healthcare sites. But they didn’t mention Republicans or the Koch brothers.
From FoxBusiness “Security firm McAfee warned Tuesday that hackers are likely to take advantage of the rollout of ObamaCare exchanges this week by launching phishing attacks aimed at stealing personal information.
Phishing attacks are designed to dupe users into revealing credit-card numbers or other confidential data by delivering phony links or attachments in emails and messages on social media sites.
“I can say with a high degree of certainty that they will come. We live in a world where people look at compelling events and look to do something malicious. This is just the nature of the beast,” said Gary Davis, vice president of global consumer marketing at McAfee, which is owned by Intel (INTC).”
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Wandering Views 
Cancelling the service games is equivalent to closing the White House for sequester. The only purpose is for show, or to make a point.
Obama is a little man. Really small.
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I made the comment last night on Michelle’s FB that they are all acting like petulant children. If they really want to do something don’t shut down National Parks websites and other petty little annoyances. STOP paying ALL the politicians until they fix the mess they have made. I think Michelle said yesterday that if the military isn’t paid for 2 months they have the right to go home. Do you think if we refused to pay the politicians for 2 months THEY would go home?????? Oh that O’Dummer would, unfortunately that would leave us with Walter the Dummy
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I read in the sports page that it may be illegal to cancel the games. Lawyers are looking at it and will make an announcemnet by noon.
Football pays for itself and for other sports also, like women”s basketball, swimming and golf.
There is no logical reason to do this. There is no federal money involved and the players are essential workers. 😆
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My young friend (in her mid-20s) believes we should have free healthcare because “there are people dying of completely treatable conditions.”
As a conservative-libertarian or libertarian-conservative or whatever on earth I am, & like most of you here, I do not believe government-run healthcare/insurance is the answer. But I also know that many people cannot afford to buy their own insurance (like us, currently).
So what is the answer for those who have drastic health problems such as potentially-terminal diseases or chronic diseases, but can’t afford insurance?
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They are going after things that they think will anger conservatives. National monuments, Vets, college football. A Friend on Facebook posted that some people had gone all the way to the Grand Canyon to ride the rapids. It is a dream Vacation of these folks. Someone suggested they sneak in anyway and someone else said the rangers wouldn’t let them. So if the rangers are still working why is it closed?
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“So what is the answer for those who have drastic health problems such as potentially-terminal diseases or chronic diseases, but can’t afford insurance?”
Medicaid/Medicare, as it’s always been.
And hospitals still cannot refuse treatment on someone with a life-threatening illness, again, as always.
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Medical insurance has become increasingly more and more expensive for us for the plans (2) offered by our employer. Families where I work are now paying nearly $800 for their share of the premiums every month. In light of our pay cut/furloughs/no raises over the past 7-8 years, it’s become burdensome. And it’s sure to go up again for 2014.
But I also think having the government in charge is a bad idea. I don’t know what the answer is, to be honest.
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Karen,
A pre-question to yours is, “Who should pay for healthcare?” Any answer other than, “You, yourself” seems unreasonable to me. Who should pay for your food, your rent, your cable TV, your electric, your car? Same answer.
That concept lasted a very long time, with the only available health insurance being that which covered catastrophes and big incidents. That’s why it was called MAJOR medical, the concept being that if we all pitch in a little, when one of us has a major event, what we’ve pitched in will cover it. Other than that, YOU paid for your OWN health care.
As with all insurance, premiums for health insurance are the most “fair” when similar groups of people “pitch in.” That’s why automobile insurance is expensive for 18-year-old males. They are more prone to have an accident, so they all have to pitch in more to cover more accidents.
Over the last 30 years or so, health insurance has morphed into “coverage for all things medical.” I suspect that competition and marketing had a lot to do with why that happened. When insurance companies compete with one another they constantly have to come up with something a little better than the other guy to get your business. I’ve always thought that the advent of the HMO started the trend of covering everything.
So, tying these two points together is this – if you want health insurance that covers everything AND you are lumped together with folks in a similar physical condition as you, if you are elderly, overweight, have heart disease, have had cancer, or have a lengthy and extensive medical file in your doctor’s office, you are going to be grouped with other people who have the same background. That group is going to have a lot of expenses and high bills, so when you add them all up and divide them by the number of people in that group, each is going to have to pay a lot of money. It’s pure mathematics.
So the answer is, people like you (and my son, who’s in the same boat right now because insurance with his new employer doesn’t start for 90 days and he’s overweight) CAN get insurance, you just have to pay a lot for it. On the other hand, if you throw out all demographics and put everyone in the same pool, high-risk people will pay less, but everyone else will pay more.
Simply put, that’s what Obamacare and the ultimate socialized medicine toward which we’re headed, is all about. It is also why a critical component of it is forcing the young and healthy to participate. They must pay into it but will rarely ever use it so that their premiums can help pay for the old, overweight, and unhealthy. Some people think this is fair.
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Puh-lease! Why should the service acadamies (or any college) be in the business of running football programs in the first place.
I feel the same way as I do about cities spending hundreds of millions to billions to build a football stadium that is used perhaps a dozen weeks a year, while the team owner gets rich. If it’s such a great idea, then let the city own the team and reap those profits. Otherwise I don’t want Dollar One of my tax money going to built stadia.
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Roy, theoretically, you are correct. But football pays it’s own way and supports other sports, as I mentioned above.
As for cities building sports stadiums, I agree. If they can pay millions,to players,they can build their own stadiums.
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Linda – On one hand, I agree with the general concept of self-pay. But on the other hand, that can come down to people dying because they just can’t afford the exorbitant costs of hospitalization or long-term treatments.
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I think Roy is making the argument that service academies–and taxes used to fund them–should be about the business of national defense, not playing sports. If that’s his point, I agree, although I’ll still pay to go to Air Force sporting events, particularly hockey games, which are great fun and cheap.
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As I said, I would agree, only I doubt that any tax money goes into football. Possibly intramural sports, but tkhat’s all.
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I can’t believe the press is spending so much time on this government shutdown when there is an actual crisis at hand: Russell Westbrook had to undergo a second knee surgery and may miss the first six weeks of the NBA season.
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So, I asked my young friend why anyone would be dying of a treatable disease when these safety nets (Medicare & Medicaid) are available. She posted this article she’d recently seen (link below), about a twelve year old boy who died of an infected tooth because his parents Medicaid had lapsed. She said that given time, she could find “hundreds of other people who died needlessly because the safety nets aren’t good enough.”
More of her reply…”Medicaid and Medicare are imperfect. There is a lot of criteria based on income and family size. There are a lot of utterly ridiculous stipulations. If you have life insurance worth more than $1500 you are out of luck. If you have to apply for social security disability for illness or injury preventing you from working, you void your medicaid. If you earn too much (and the max number is ridiculously low) you cannot get medicaid.
“… A lot of people make too much for medicaid but not enough to afford decent health care. And while I am not 100 percent sure about Emergency room procedure I do know certain criteria must be met for the accepting of people who have no insurance or way to pay and the loopholes let a lot of people slip through the cracks. Also there are a lot of facilities that won’t accept medicaid anyway.”
That last sentence reminded me of a friend who was on Medicaid, & went to a dentist for a serious tooth problem. As she was leaving, she overheard the receptionist mention the Medicaid, & the dentist was angry, saying if he’d known she was on Medicaid, he would have only done a quick-fix, & sent her elsewhere.
There is just no good answer to this situation. Many healthcare costs these days make self-pay unfeasible.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…/03/02/AR2007030200827.html
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Let’s try that link again…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/02/AR2007030200827.html
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Before 1965, Americans paid for their healthcare, as well as their food, housing, drugs, etc. Those Americans were industrious. Too many modern Americans are lazy, immoral and greedy.
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Ricky – I think that’s too easy an answer. My husband works his butt off, about 70 hours a week, but if one of us had a serious illness, we’d be wiped out, & lose our home.
Things have changed a lot since 1965, especially with medical costs.
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Karen, so who do you think should pay your medical bills?
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Linda – I don’t have a solution. But I think there needs to be something more than merely expecting people to pay their own medical bills when those bills are astronomically high. I also don’t think Obamacare is the solution, either.
I have to go now. I’ll be back tomorrow.
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Karen O: I can’t speak for rickyweaver, but I agree with his sentiment and believe that it’s *part* of the answer. I think most people who oppose most or all govt intervention into medical care would propose gradually reducing the govt role to zero (or close to it) over time, grandfathering in those generations who’ve paid into the sham.
Those who claim sick people would be left for dead have the luxury of being right only because of the situation govt involvement has gotten us into. They don’t know what the alternative reality would be had we been allowed freedom to choose our own paths, take our own risks (and without a ‘safety net,’ a lot of folks would act differently), and pay for our own stuff…and prosper more. I think the real difficulties you mention are mostly *because* of govt involvement, and I don’t think the answer is more of it. They are hard questions, but we’re going broke.
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Karen, The reason medical costs are so high is that the government (through Medicare, Medicaid, and a hundred other federal, state and local programs) have paid for a huge chunk of healthcare costs for 48 years. If the government starting paying for cars for 50% of the population, don’t you think the cost of cars would go up.
Look at the huge percentage of healthcare costs that are caused by people failing to take care of themselves. People ruin their livers by drinking. The government pays for a liver transplant. People ruin their knees by staying grossly overweight. The government pays for new knees. As a nation, we are lazy, immoral and greedy.
SolarPancake, I agree that a gradual phaseout of federal spending on healthcare would be wise. However, most Americans don’t want to be responsible for themselves.
On the bright side, since the US is the biggest promoter of perversion in the world, it will probably be a good thing for the US to undergo an economic collapse, thus reducing our bad influence on the rest of the world.
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1. Teachers and school staff usually know of doctors and dentists who will help children most of the time for free when there is a need. I saw this happen at one of the schoold where I did an interim position.
2. I have had what I call a disaster policy. I have to pay out of pocket up to a certain amount and if I get hit by a Trailways (not Greyhound) bus on an alternate Thursday I will be covered. I have found with my General Practioner Doctor that if I pay cash my vist is $60 when I hit my copay it is $40. I got BG’s thyroid prescription filled and it was 25 dollars with insurance. I questioned the pharmacist. Last time it was only 10 dollars! Oh, that was the insurance price. I you are going to pay out of pocket I can let you have them for 10!!!!!!!!
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Kim, You made several good points. I know a number of wise families who up until now have bought relatively cheap policies with high deductibles and sizable copayments for small bills which provide great coverage for major medical problems. That is what insurance is supposed to do. I understand Obamacare is making those types of policies more expensive or unavailable. The liberals who run our government are like drug pushers. They promote dependency.
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Those who support Obamacare like make people think that without it, the uninsured would die in the street. They might go bankrupt but they probably wouldn’t be any more likely to die than an insured person. Bankruptcy isn’t good but it’s a chance you take when you don’t have insurance. You could also end up that way from a lawsuit, unemployment or a natural disaster. It is not the governments job to protect you from bad luck. I just wish they would stop causing the bad luck. In the old days friends, family and the church would help you out.
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Definitely agree, RickyWeaver. Most Americans don’t want to be responsible. Theoretically, the more the onus was put on them, the more they’d realize they’d have to take it–that’s part of the reason for graduating the change. But I know that’s all moot and pie in the sky, because this house of cards is goin’ down.
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The reason medical costs are so high is that the government (through Medicare, Medicaid, and a hundred other federal, state and local programs) have paid for a huge chunk of healthcare costs for 48 years. If the government starting paying for cars for 50% of the population, don’t you think the cost of cars would go up.
And that’s only one part of the equation. The money for those programs comes from where? It’s a LOT of money. Where did it come from?
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You are correct, SolarPancake. A wiser man that I am could figure out a good way to make a lot of money off of the coming collapse. I just have this bad feeling that the US is going to drag the rest of the world down with it. This makes it hard to select foreign stocks and currencies.
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Just a note on Kim’s story. I was recently shocked to find that my local Giant will sell me a 30 day supply of my Simvastatin for $3.99. The reason it was shocking to me was that I currently pay $20.00 per month for it thru our insurance. And they tell me that’s a deal and that they save me money on my prescriptions. What exactly am I paying extra for?
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