Did you ever in your life think that you would see our government give away so much money the digits won’t even fit in your calculator? I mean, how many household calculating machines can reach the trillions? For that matter, how about just billions? My desk calculator only goes up to 10 digits or 99 million, which a one heck of a lot of anything and even more if you’re thinking tax dollars; but billions and trillions? Forget it.
When I saw the size of the stack of typewritten pages that just one copy of H.R. 1 {American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) constituted it nearly floored me. It was House Minority Leader John Boehner’s copy and he had great difficulty lifting it. Wisely, he let it drop to the floor and luckily it did not do any noticeable damage to anyone or anything. But what a pile of schnartzenfaddle; or as Mike Huckabee, called it, (something like) the Congressional Recovery Act Plan better known as CRAP.
But now at least, after one of the most expensive pieces of legislation ever to come out of our once illustrious Congress has been passed by both houses, copies of it are beginning to get circulated. Too late of course (by design) to be able to read what is in it and how much on the hook we taxpayers are as a result of it.
Just from some bits of information that have surfaced as to its contents, we are finding out that it is literally LOADED with CRAP, or in polite terms PORKOLA.
In my last column I reported on the horrifying possibility of socializing and downsizing medical treatment for senior citizens provisions that are contained in this “anything but stimulus “ bill just passed by Congress and on its way to Obama for signature, probably as you read this. Since then Richard Viguerie’s Conservative HQ website on February 16, 2008 stated that “conservatives are fuming about creeping nationalization in the health care sector” citing Obama’s plan “to create federal offices and programs related to health care.”
Well, there they go again, as Ron Reagan would be saying, taking a bad thing and making it worse. Anything, ANYTHING the government touches and tries to fix only worsens it to an unfixable degree. Can’t you just see it coming: Instead of going directly to your doctor, you will go to a federal office in your area (populated with MORE government employees, in government owned or leased space, with government furniture, and other heavy equipment like government owned vehicles and coffee makers.)
At that government office you will be told by a government bureaucrat if you are eligible for treatment for the problem that is causing your suffering. Another federal council will have set standards deeming what procedures are “cost –effective” for your treatment, according to Betsy McGaughey, health care advocate at the Hudson Institute, in an interview with CNS News.
Other opponents of the “anything but stimulus” bill health care provisions say such power will give the federal government a license to determine what health care procedures individuals will receive – meaning that some individuals, like senior citizens, may be denied treatment because of their age and the cost of the procedures.
Republican John Shadegg of Arizona told CNS News in an interview “They already control the procedures in Medicare and Medicaid, and they could just decide – ‘You know what, we’ve done this comparative effectiveness research and we think it’s OK for this procedure to be done on 55 year olds, but now you’re 65 years old, or 70? Sorry, we can’t afford to do this on you’.”
So you see my friends what dangers lurk in the shadows of liberal minds. They see no harm at all in loading up their political cronies and accomplices such as the under FBI investigation group called ACORN, that provided immeasurable aid and assistance to the Obama campaign over the past few years, while denying some senior citizens treatment for a problem that only just recently was acceptable for Medicare payment.
I’d bet that there are a lot of doctors who are getting ready to retire or change professions. They just don’t care to see their years of hard work and training being subjugated to the minds of bureaucrats who wouldn’t know which end of a stethoscope to stick up their, er, in their ear.
Gerald A. “Jerry” McConnell, 92, of Hampton, died Sunday, February 19, 2017, at the Merrimack Valley Hospice House in Haverhill, Mass., surrounded by his loved ones. He was born May 27, 1924 in Altoona, Pa., the fifth son of the late John E. and Grace (Fletcher) McConnell.
Jerry served ten years with the US Marine Corps and participated in the landing against Japanese Army on Guadalcanal and another ten years with the US Air Force. After moving to Hampton in 1957 he started his community activities serving in many capacities.
He shared 72 years of marriage with his wife Betty P. (Hamilton) McConnell. In addition to his wife, family members include nieces and nephews.
