Brain Vomit

The following is going to be a bit long. I'm just going to type whatever comes out of my head.

I'll split it up with horizontal line breaks to make it easier for you to move from topic to topic.

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Vomit Particle #1 - Funny Guy

John Mulaney

This story had me weeping.

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Vomit particle #2 - Bench press

I've started using a program called "iFitness" on my iPod touch for when I go to the gym. I dig the program because I'm often overwhelmed and undereducated when it comes to gyms. It's no secret I've never been a big fan of gyms as they often smell bad and are too noisy for my taste. This application has preset workouts targeting what you'd like to target. You tap the workout list you want, tap the exercise, log your weight, reps, and sets and it has graphs and charts marking your improvement over time. It also tracks weight, BMI, allows you to create your own workouts, has a workout regimen for travelers which can be done with luggage in your hotel room (I really like this one) and it lets you enter your own exercises if you can't find it in their 110 stored catalog.

I dig it.

Well, today was mostly arms and chest which includes... dum, dum, dum, the bench press. Now it's been 17 years since I've been on the bench press (I know, it's hard to believe looking at my muscular figure :P) so I had no idea where to start with the weights. Too much? Too little? I didn't have a spotter (I know) so I figured I'd shoot low. I happened to luck out and get a comfortable weight (which I am not divulging here) on my first go at it and was able to get it over quickly enough to avoid any "Hey look at that guy straining to lift 12 lbs." comments. I remember now why it's been 17 years.

Oh how I hate you, bench press.

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Vomit particle #3 - We're talking about WHAT?

We're in an interesting time in history. We're currently involved in two wars. We're near depression levels. 42 states recently marked job losses. Banks are crumbling and the FDIC (those guys who insure your savings accounts) are looking to surviving banks to help them pay off on the failed banks. We've got two dictatorial nut-jobs working on nuclear weapons and trying to piss off the rest of the world. China is buying the US a piece at a time.

All of this is going on and more. (Hey, they promised us a historic Presidency, didn't they?)

With all this going on... ALL of this... we're talking health care.

Health care? Really? All I can figure is that this was supposed to be something that was slipped by while our attention was focused elsewhere and now they're caught in it.

So let's talk health care.

Lots of people don't have it. Okay. I get it. Those people fall into a few different categories:

1. People who don't want it
2. Illegal aliens (undocumented workers?)
3. People who "can't afford it"
4. People who have pre-existing conditions who can't find coverage

I'd say those are the big four. Let's address them one at a time (at least from my point of view.)

1. People who don't want it - The argument is that if they get hurt, then taxpayers foot the bill. This is easily solved by making these people fiscally responsible for their health care at the time of receipt. If they can't pay, garnish their pay, seize assets, do what you do when people can't pay for things. So they still can't pay or declare bankruptcy... okay, then the public at large is footed with the bill. Well, the new bill doesn't really change this. The people who normally fall into this category would qualify for the government option anyway which would leave, who? that's right, the public at large responsible for their bills. Where's the fix? Right?
2. Illegal aliens - Obama got called on this during his "big speech". He assures us illegals would not be covered. If this is true, then this is a mute point. If, however, the plan is to make them legal and then cover them, then we're talking about low wage earners who would fall under the public option and we're back in the same boat as the first category of the uninsured. We go from the public footing the bill to... the public footing the bill. No change here.
3. People who "can't afford" the coverage - I think I've already beat this horse. The public is paying for it now... the public would pay for it in the future.

Now, for these first three categories, they will be required to have coverage, right? Where does that coverage come from? One possibility is that their employers (if they've got one) will pay it. Where will the employers get the money for this? Wage decreases and layoffs. Another option is to make a mandatory deduction from their check to cover the cost (like Social Security). This means smaller paychecks for people who are already earning very little. The other option is the "free" government plan. The government will pay for this through taxation which puts us right back in the same boat we're in now with the taxpayer paying for the coverage... no change to the status quo.

Now, Obama says this plan won't cost a dime.

I say, "Show me you can properly run Medicare and Medicaid before adding yet another government health behemoth."

If I've got two cars (medicare and medicaid) which are getting more and more expensive every year and are not running properly, I cannot fix the problem by getting a larger third car which has horrible reviews from Consumer Reports (Canada, Britian, elsewhere with government health coverage plans are comparable to the aid and care you'd receive from a pile of poop... if you could only see a doctor.)

Okay, that leaves us with uninsured class #4 - The Pre-Existing Condition

Why are pre-existing conditions not currently covered by so many plans? Well, it's expensive and it hurts the bottom line. Look at it this way, if you are looking to insure a car which already has a broken windshield, you cannot expect the car insurance company to compensate you for that windshield. That crack is a "pre-existing condition". If you're insuring people you KNOW are going to claim against you, then you are going to lose money. This is not how businesses operate. So what is the plan then? A: Force insurance providers to drop pre-existing condition exclusions, or B: cover them under the government plan.

I've already answered B. Three times, actually. Trading public pay for public pay. This is no change. So let's talk about Option A: Forcing it on insurance companies.

When have we seen something like this option happen recently? Oh yeah! When we forced banks to allow low wage earners to buy houses they couldn't afford! If you force a bad business practice on a company, you get bad business.

So what can we do about these Pre-existing conditions people? For people who have pre-existing conditions through no fault of their own (not Sammy the smoker with lung cancer and emphysema or Dante the drinker who has swigged his liver into oblivion) could be covered through an expansion or re-configuring of existing public plans such as Medicare. What about Sammy and Dante? Pay for your own coverage. If you can afford smokes and drinks, afford your health care.

Okay, Tim, what's your answer if you're so smart?

1. Tort Reform - Reduce the cost at the doctor by revamping the circumstances under which they must operate.
2. Allow people to invest in tax free medical accounts to insure themselves
3. Revamp existing programs... show that the government can run things properly before taking on more. Maybe make it so it does not look like this:
4. Make it easier for people to purchase their own plans, take their plans with them when they change/lose jobs, pool together in a neighborhood to buy a group plan...
5. Allow individual states to offer comprehensive plans to their residents if they so choose (I think this is already in the constitution somewhere... Let's look for it somewhere around the 10th Amendment) but don't force it on the entire country when the power to do so does not reside in the constitution.

Okay.. I've been given a deadline by the wife to wrap this up and go to bed so I'll leave this topic with this:

The current plan under debate has one striking difference to the status quo. One thing changes while coverage essentially stays the same with the paying people covering the non-paying people.

Under the new plan... that money is funneled through the federal government. So what has the federal government shown an ability to do with money they can touch? Here's some insight from Congressman Tom Coburn:

"The Congress, with the consent of the Presidents over the last 20 years, have stolen $166 billion of that money. What they have done is they have put an IOU in there and said we will pay this back some day in the future, but they took that money and spent it on other programs. They did not say we need to raise taxes to do this good program. They did not say we are going to take the Medicare money and spend it on this program. They just very quietly took $166 billion out of that trust fund for a hospital trust fund and spent it on other programs."

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Vomit Particle #4 - Plugged in

I often get these emails asking me to list the first word that comes to my head then the name of my favorite grade school teacher then the age at which I got my first kiss... then asks me to forward it to ten friends.

Well if you're planning on sending those to me, know that I read your answers occasionally, but I've never sent any on to others.

Here's one I thought of today and you are not obligated to answer nor forward it to others, but I'm just curious:

How do you stay connected?

Phones?

I don't dial out. I'm a call receiver, not a call maker. I'll call my wife and kids when I'm away on work, but even then I have to remind myself to do so. I will ALWAYS answer a phone. ALWAYS. I've been known to talk to telemarketers for well over an hour because they called me. I love getting phone calls. I just never make them.

Mail?

I can't remember a time in my life that I used the US Postal Service for outgoing mail.

Email?

I'll email people. This is something I can manage. I check my email frequently and if what we're talking about is a conversation, then I'll reply to you... normally quickly... If I haven't heard from you in a while, You probably haven't heard from me in a while. I'm not going to lie, if you'd like to restore contact, there's a link at the top of this blog to email me. I can't make it any simpler.

RSS?

I've got a couple of RSS feeds I subscribe to. If your blog counter showed hits from Japan, and supports a feed, chances are I've got you coming to my inbox.

Skype?

It comes, it goes. I'll often skype if I see you online. Problem is I don't open skype until I'm ready to skype. I don't want it taking up bandwidth.

Blog?

You are reading it. It is sporadic. It depends on my schedule. When it rains, it often pours.

FacePage and MyBook?

I've got pages there... I'm out of the loop when it comes to those sites and most of the time wandering around wondering why the heck people use them. I just don't get it.

Twitter?

I often forget I have a twitter account. It just seems so superficial.

Other?

Face to face communication works. I can't STAND it when people in my office email me when they are sitting right next to me. Of course my office email and I have a MUCH different relationship than I have with my gmail. If I have a choice between emailing admin to get something fixed and going to admin to get it fixed... I'll go 4 out of 5 times. That 5th time I'll make a phone call. I will only email someone about work when A: I need a paper trail, or B: when they need a document I've got. There's no reason to email someone at work using only text. Call me or stop by and visit.

So... how do you stay in contact?

In my effort to actually get comments, or emails, copy the list down and answer it yourself but don't send it to someone else, send it to me. Heck, I might even reply!

Good night everyone.

The tim is going to bed.