Emperor's Rants and Observations

This is the kind of thing I would expect to see in some third world country. Or perhaps in America in the wake of a natural disaster.

This isn’t my vision of what America should be. Is it yours?

From July 24-26, I attended the RAM event at the Wise County Fairgrounds in Wise, Virginia. The area is in the Appalachian Mountain region bordering Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina.

People received numbers and started lining up to enter the health clinic around 4 a.m.

For those who did not receive the full range of health care they needed, they spent the night in their cars and returned the next day.

2. Campaign contributions restricted to individuals eligible to vote for the candidate. No cash or in kind contributions from ineligible to vote individuals or any entity including businesses, organizations, political action committees or political parties.

We live in a Constitutional republic.

A constitutional republic is a state where the head of state and other officials are elected as representatives of the people, and must govern according to existing constitutional law that limits the government’s power over citizens. In a constitutional republic, executive, legislative, and judicial powers are separated into distinct branches and the will of the majority of the population is tempered by protections for individual rights so that no individual or group has absolute power. The fact that a constitution exists that limits the government’s power makes the state constitutional. That the head(s) of state and other officials are chosen by election, rather than inheriting their positions, and that their decisions are subject to judicial review makes a state republican.

Nowhere in our Constitutions are there any mentions of political parties, special interest groups, political action committees or any other subset of individuals. It’s government and individuals. The rest is just BS that has evolved over time. Things like the two party system or primary elections, just happened in response to a vacuum left by the absence of enough individuals engaged in the system.

So it’s time for us to re-assert our proper place at the TOP of the organization chart, not the bottom. First thing first our representatives are, our individual representatives. My neighbors shouldn’t get to choose my dinner if they aren’t eating with me. My neighbors shouldn’t be able to influence the election of my representative if they can’t vote for my representative.

Anything that gets between the people and our government is an enemy of the people and our government. That includes, first and foremost, the Democratic and Republican parties. Simply because of their shear size and how intertwined they are throughout all levels of government. Oh, and no other party is any better or worse.

The cool thing, we don’t even need a law to make this happen. We just need enough of us to agree, and refuse to vote for anyone who is a member of any political party or has accepted/will accept donations of any kind from anyone/anything that can’t vote for them. Since independent voters outnumber both declared democrats or republicans this seems like a doable thing to me.

TAKE TWO ASPIRIN AND CALL ME WHEN YOUR CANCER IS STAGE 4
by Ann Coulter July 22, 2009

We already have near-universal health coverage in the form of Medicare, Medicaid, veterans’ hospitals, emergency rooms and tax-deductible employer-provided health care — all government creations.

Medicare for the elderly and disabled. Medicaid for the indigent. Veteran hospitals for service connected injuries and indigent veterans. Emergency rooms overloaded with non-emergencies by people who don’t have insurance, or who have insurance but won’t pay for doctor visits (which drives up the costs for all of us). Tax deductions that still don’t help small businesses, their employees and the self employed obtain affordable health insurance for themselves and their families. Even the most conservative estimates put the uninsured at over 30 million, yeah, that sounds like “near-universal health coverage”. That doesn’t even factor in the number of under-insured that have huge deductibles or only hospitalization coverage. As the economy worsens, the unemployment rises, and along with it the number of uninsured continues to grow.

Now the Democrats want to force us all into one gigantic national health insurance plan that will cover every real and mythical ailment that has a powerful lobby. But if you have a rare medical condition without a lobbying arm, you’ll be out of luck.

Nobody is being “forced” into anything. If you have insurance and you like it, then stay with it. What is it about “option” in the term “Public OPTION” that Ms. Coulter and others don’t understand? Who are two of the most powerful lobby’s in D.C.? The pharmaceutical and insurance industries. Who is spending hundreds of millions of ill gotten gains on stopping health care reform? You guessed it, those two very powerful industries. One has to wonder if Ms. Coulter has a speaking gig lined up with those groups at their next gathering. I hear the pay is significant.

Third-party payer schemes are always a disaster — less service for twice the price! If you want good service at a good price, be sure to be the one holding the credit card. Under “universal health care,” no one but government bureaucrats will be allowed to hold the credit card.

So it’s better to have private insurance companies make the decision for what doctor you can see, where, and when? It’s better to have private insurance companies dictate what procedures they will pay for, how much and to who? Insurance companies make money by not providing service. They make money by taking our money, investing it to make even larger profits while they delay or refuse to pay all together. They are betting we won’t get sick enough to need health care, and if we do need it they are betting we’ll die before they have to pay too much. Yeah free enterprise. The U.S. Government is the only entity large enough to provide competition to challenge the insurance industry to provide better service and protection for their clients. If the private insurance companies are so great, then only a small minority will select the public option.

From: Organizing for America

Last week, Republican Senator Jim DeMint made it pretty clear why the opponents of health care reform are fighting so hard. As he told a special interest attack group, “If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.” Here’s how the President responded:

Think about that. This isn’t about me. This isn’t about politics. This is about a health care system that is breaking America’s families, breaking America’s businesses and breaking America’s economy. And we can’t afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care. Not this time, not now. There are too many lives and livelihoods at stake.

With Congress only days away from finalizing their plans for reform, it’s time to stand with the President and fight back against this disastrous brand of old-style politics. So we need as many people as possible to publicly support the President’s principles for health care reform and call on Congress to act.

Before the first full votes in Congress, we’ll publish the signatures in newspaper ads across the nation, to make sure your voice is heard.

Watch President Obama’s full response, then add your name to support reform.

Or if you’ve already signed, please forward this message to all your friends and neighbors so they can join you.

Sign the declaration

The President is more dedicated than ever to passing health care reform that satisfies the three requirements he’s been talking about for months: Health care reform must reduce costs, guarantee choice — including the choice of a strong public insurance option — and ensure all Americans have quality, affordable health care.

If we do not reform our broken health care system this year, we will shackle future generations with spiraling costs and deteriorating care. The cost of inaction is simply more than this country can afford.

But the special interests who profit from the status quo won’t go down without a fight. The ads, the smears, and the attacks — targeting both President Obama and members of Congress who support reform — will only get worse. So it’s crucial that we show huge backing before Congress finalizes their plans this month.

Stand with President Obama on health care reform:

http://my.barackobama.com/hcdeclare

4. Make ballot access the same for every candidate for office. Nomination by petition with 1% of the registered voters in the election district the candidate is running for.

When a candidate files for office as a candidate representing a recognized political party, they just submit a form and financial disclosure and they are on the primary ballot. A recognized political party is based on the percentage of votes that they received in the previous election.

A candidate of a non-recognized party or NO PARTY affiliation must collect a number of signatures of registered voters in their election district. That will get them on the general election ballot but not the primary ballot

This gives candidates of recognized political parties a clear and unfair advantage over those candidates not allowed on the primary ballot. During the primary campaigns candidates are able to raise campaign contributions, gather supporters, appear in forums, participate in debates, and generally raise awareness of their candidacy.

Party affiliation should have no bearing on ballot access. Neither the US Constitution nor the Alaska Constitution (haven’t researched other states) mention political parties, or primary elections for that matter.

The “two party system” is only perpetuated by excluding others as much as possible from gaining equal access to ballot.

Resources:
Ballot Access News
Coalition For Free and Open Elections
Freedom Ballot Access

A couple of years ago 6/23/07 I wrote a post that included 10 Points of Change for campaign finance and election reform. A recent discussion at thealaskastandard.com reminded me of my post that included those “10 Points of Change”. So as Emperor I’ve decided that the 10 Points deserve a conversation of their own. So starting tomorrow, Wednesday July 15th for the next 10 weeks I’ll post a topic from one of the ten points. I won’t be doing them in numerical order. Follow me on twitter @Emperor_Bob to get which of the “Ten Points of Change” will be the newest 10 Points of Change topic.

Let’s start with this: "They’re not handicapped. They are able-bodied men and women who don’t work because the government takes care of them and so they don’t need to."  How do you know this?  Under the current rules it’s nearly impossible to get  public assistance if you are not over 65, disabled or have children under the age of 5 living in the home and then there are time limits.  So if you think someone is receiving benefits fraudulently report them.

http://www.hss.state.ak.us/dpa/programs/apa/

Adult Public Assistance Program was established 15 years ago with the mandate to furnish financial assistance to needy aged, blind, and disabled persons and to help them attain self-support or self-care. People who receive APA financial assistance are over 65 years old or have severe and long term disabilities that impose mental and physical limitations on their day-to-day functioning.

http://hss.state.ak.us/dpa/programs/gra/

Eligibility for General Relief Assistance is always determined on a month-to-month basis. Applicants must demonstrate and verify an unmet emergent need in the month of application that can be satisfied by GRA. GRA payments are always made to vendors who can provide the needed services.

http://hss.state.ak.us/dpa/programs/atap/

The Alaska Temporary Assistance Program (ATAP) provides cash assistance and work services to low-income families with children to help them with basic needs while they work toward becoming self-sufficient. This program is provided under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant.

ATAP changed the traditional focus of the state’s public assistance program for needy families to an employment-focused program from an entitlement under the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program. Temporary Assistance stresses family self-sufficiency through employment.

Then there is rental assistance available through Alaska Housing including public housing and other programs including the Family Self-Sufficiency program. (which I think should be the model for public assistance going forward).

My issue is that we have too many different programs, in different offices, with different requirements.  In addition to those above there are:

Child Care
Chronic and Acute Medical Assistance
Denali KidCare
Family Nutrition
Food Stamps
Heating Assistance
Medicaid
Senior Benefits

And the municipality has its programs and all of the programs ran by non-profit organizations as well which many recieve public funding of some of their programs.

So there is a lot of help out there from a many different sources, the problem I think is that our delivery system isn’t very effecient and too often ineffective in the long term.

Some thougts from my world view  related to ths topic.

6) I believe in “sufficient government”.  Large enough to handle it’s duties but not so large that it smothers us with laws, rules and regulation.  I believe that we, as a whole, have a moral obligation to care for those that are unable to or struggling to care for themselves.  I also believe that there should be “strings” attached to our help, namely to move them to as much self sufficiency as possible as quickly as possible.  I believe there is a tremendous waste in government due to redundancy and overlaps. There are some things that I believe government should not be involved with at any level.

12) Personal responsibility should be the standard in our culture. We should do everything possible to help people attain and maintain that standard.  Churches and other non-profits can be part of that, but our government has an obligation to “promote the general welfare”.  We need to revolutionize the welfare system, but that doesn’t mean that the government shouldn’t be a major part of that.  Nobody should be reduced to begging on the streets, to the church, their neighbors, or other organizations for assistance.  Those institutions are already overwhelmed and many of them receive government grants as well. I would rather my tax dollars go to helping people than 1% for the arts that usually produces the most hideous piece of crap imaginable.

13) Good health and a good education are the two most important factors of a good workforce and society.  It’s in all of our best interests to do what we can do to ensure good health and good education, because that is what drives our economy. The affordable availability of education and health insurance to every citizen should be a priority.

And just added:

31) We need to change how we view Child Support.  We need to encourage non-custodial parents to stay involved in the raising of their children.  Unless there is a history of abuse, the non-custodial parent is a vital part of raising children to be well adjusted and productive adults. [more]

If we were to treat public assistance as a project and "Begin with the end in mind" (Stephen Covey) what end are we looking for as a goal?   I think everyone would agree that the only goal should be a self sufficient family that no longer needs public assistance to enjoy "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness".

So we have to look at the reasons why somebody is in need of public assistance.  What got them here and what do they need to get where we want them to be.  There are many reasons why people turn to the public for help.  Is it substance abuse, health, child care, transportation, housing, education, job skills, lack of a mentor, or what.  Once that is determined, and we know where they are and how they got there, it’s a simple matter to help them draw a map to their independence.

I envision a system like the application for Federal Student Aid.  The application for public assistance would include resources from the government, private sector, non-profits as well as the applicants own resources.  Drawing on the available resources, a case manager would develop benchmarks to measure progress against goals, compliance with conditions set, and coordinate the various components required by the plan.  There would be a cap on the total amount of public assistance over a specific amount of time according to the plan. 

There are some that won’t ever be totally self sufficient and will always require "some" public assistance, but the goal in those cases to get them as close as we can based on their condition.  The other end is that there are some people that we simply can’t help.  Helping them just enables their self destructive acts.  It’s sad, but true.  In those cases we can only take away their children so that at least the next generation has a shot at self-sufficiency as an adult.

Originally posted at The Alaska Standard