The Affordable Care Act isn’t going away

Do you remember the saying “Too big to fail?” It was born during the bank and large investment firms meltdown several years ago.  AIG was one of the financial firms it aptly was applied to because that company was so large and financially intertwined throughout the world that its collapse would cause global financial disaster.  So it was bailed out.

It would appear that this term could be revived once again when it comes to the notorious Affordable Care Act, or more commonly called Obamacare.

 

The repeal of this act has become the centerpiece for all the Republican presidential candidate wanabees.  However, the reality is the Affordable Care Act has been quietly gaining steam and it’s probably too late to stop it because of the economic ramifications.

Over 9 million formerly uninsured persons are now insured, including those with preexisting conditions formerly unable to get health insurance.   Young people are permitted to continue coverage under their parents’ plan until age 26 giving them time to find employment and get their own coverage. Thirty-one (31) out of the 49 states have bought into the Medicaid expansion funding under Obamacare.  And last, but by far the most important, insurance companies throughout our nation have spent millions of dollars devising new plans to accommodate the changes and have adjusted their premiums accordingly.

Do you really believe all these changes would not create major economic problems and even louder public outcry if the Affordable Care Act were suddenly defunded as promised?  It would cause some serious economic problems not only for the insurance companies but for the 31 states already invested in the increased Medicaid funds.  Additionally, it would harm those presently involved in the system.  Do you really believe the insurance companies would roll back the premium increases they attributed to Obamacare if the plan were wiped out?  And what about all the Medicaid recipients who would no longer be eligible for medical services under the expanded funding?  Hospitals would again be forced to service these individuals in emergency room settings with NO compensation.

Talk is cheap and to state that if a Republican were elected Obamacare would be totally defunded is total deception on the part of the potential candidates.  It has a nice ring for a political buzz phrase, but that train left the station about three years ago.  It’s simply “Too big to fail,” and to advocate otherwise is blatant political hogwash.

Besides, contrary to what the candidates would prefer, though the precise numbers vary a bit from survey to survey, the majority of the public doesn’t support repealing the concept of the law.  Some people who are included in the disapproval category of the present Affordable Care Act, like the idea, but wish it went even further. Additionally, many reporting dissatisfaction don't even participate in it but simply want to jump on the fashionable anti-Obama train.

I hope all the potential presidential candidates will eventually get around to telling us how they will solve the major issues this country faces worldwide, and how they intend to end the politically created divisiveness that has polarized our citizenry and is destroying our nation.   But please remember not to be disappointed if a Republican takes over the reigns as President, and most of the Affordable Care Act remains.

‘Mum’ is the Louisiana residents’ code word

The 'silent majority' has lived up to its name, and remained silent.  Forty-three percent (43%) of the 1,150 legislative offices slated for election this year are going to be filled without opposition.  No one chose to run against the incumbents.

This figure includes two of our state senators heavily responsible for the budget bankruptcy our state faces today, John Alario, Senate President, from Westwego, and John Donohue, chairman of the Senate Finance committee, from Covington.  These individuals were the major players in ramming Jindal’s ‘voodoo’ budgets through the legislature.   Both supported his raiding of various dedicated trust funds coupled with draconian cuts to services for the disabled and disadvantage, and  record funding cuts for health care and education.

Senator John Alario has run unopposed since 2007 and has served for over 43 years in the legislature.  Voters must love him even though a year ago, local media reported that Alario spent $705,000 between 2009 and 2012 in campaign money to rent a suite at Tiger Stadium for LSU football games, to lease and repair cars, to buy tickets for Saints and Hornets games and to pay for meals at expensive restaurants.  Additionally in1992, while serving in the House, as House Speaker,  he won passage of the hotly contested land casino for New Orleans by secretly telling the House clerk beforehand to shut down the electronic voting procedure several seconds early, before some members had cast their final votes. The bill passed with no votes to spare. Opponents howled in protest. 

Sadly these two individuals are just the tip of the apathetic iceberg.  The indifference shown this year by Louisiana residents even caught the Secretary of State, Tom Schedler by surprise.  He can’t believe how many Louisiana officials have been elected automatically.  Even vacancies created by term limits drew no competition; with just a single person choosing to qualify to run and therefore automatically winning the position.

I guess Bobby Jindal’s national campaign message is correct after all when he touts Louisiana as an example of a well-run, fiscally solvent, success story.  So let’s stop the complaining because obviously most of us don’t wish to change the way things are.

Bobby Jindal’s Exclusive Club

As Jindal continues his delusional national quest to earn a spot as a presidential candidate it is important for voters to give him the recognition he deserves as a member of an exclusive GOP candidates club.  He is a proud member of what some refer to as the “Most Hated Governors Club.”  Other honorary members include Scott Walker, and Chris Christie.  Polls show all are rejected by their state residents.

Recent polls also show that Bobby is so despised by Louisianans that if the election were held today, and Hillary Clinton was the opposition, she would carry deep red Louisiana.   Bobby Jindal couldn’t ever deliver his home state for the Republicans.  Of course Bobby ‘s excuse for this catastrophic reality is that he had to make some unpopular decisions when he cut the fat at the state level reducing the state budget by over 26%, as he recently bragged on national news.

 

However, Bobby must be in need of some Common Core math because according to the Cato Institute which just published a report on state governors’ fiscal spending habits, that 26% number is substantially exaggerated.  Most of the money that Bobby claims as evidence of his reduction in the size of our state budget came from the drying up of Katrina federal funds which had little to do with Jindal’s frugality.

But let’s give credit where credit is due.  After the Katrina funds adjustment, the Cato Institute did give Jindal credit for an actual 7% reduction in state spending.  And he is the only GOP governor competing for a presidential nod that did this.  Of course these results mainly came about through draconian cuts to health care and education funding while at the same time increasing the costs for outside legal and consultants’ contracts.  This behavior was coupled with inaction with regard to reducing tax breaks for favored businesses and special interest entities.  Jindal deserves an ‘F’ for his failure to reduce any of these costs. 

Sadly, part of being a good politician is the ability to self-promote by distorting the facts and Bobby Jindal ranks right up there with the best of them; and he needs to, because he is running almost dead last. 

Covert agenda: Divert attention, hide the mess

History is too important to be denied.

You’ve got to give it to the mayor of New Orleans and the City Council; they know how to work the crowd.

Mitch Landrieu governs a city with dilapidated infrastructures that rival those of some third world countries, and has the distinction of having the 4^th highest murder rate in the U.S. for 2014.  His city is on course to break that record for this year.  What a pickle for a mayor.  To deflect the heat, in 2014, Landrieu and the City Council got the citizens of their fine city focused upon the dangers of second hand cigarette smoke on employees in casinos and bars, and began their health campaign to eliminate that evil.  The city council and Landrieu spent months debating this issue.
 

Finally, the issue was settled.  The ban was put into effect in early 2015 and the realities of the city; the crime rate, bad streets, the inadequate sewerage system, and the ever increasing homeless population took center stage once again. 

Landrieu and the Council needed another diversion fast, an even bigger one than the smoking ban.  Suddenly a horrendous racial-hate crime at a church occurred, giving Landrieu yet another opportunity for a reality-deflection. 

In response he proposed the removal of four prominent southern heritage monuments from the city that he claimed pays homage to a despicable time in our country’s history. 

Landrieu was successful, public outcry swelled and has progressed to an endorsement of his plan by the city’s Historic District Landmark Commission.

So far the proposal has served as quite a successful diversion tactic.  The crime rate and the other third world conditions in New Orleans have almost completely dropped off the radar; beneficial not only for Landrieu  but also for the New Orleans Convention and Business Bureau along with the state tourism bureau.

The reality is, in the past, there have been several southern racial-hate crimes involving confederate symbols in our country, some involving the same church as the latest one; yet no previous outcry in New Orleans to bury the statues.  Apparently their timing wasn’t quite right from Landrieu’s view point.

The really sad part about all this façade of political correctness is the fact that the mob mentality doesn’t even understand that the statue that received the most vocalization for its removal, Robert E. Lee, at Lee’s Circle, honors  a man who was quite an outstanding Southern general sympathetic to the abolishment of slavery.   Professor Milton Pressley enlightened my ignorance of this fact along with some other distinguished accomplishments of Lee.

In fact, Lee was opposed to slavery, and freed his inherited slaves.  After the war he stated, “I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished.”   He also served as president of the college later to become Washington and Lee University in Virginia.  He was nationally respected as evidenced by his appearances on two U.S. postage stamps and his selection for inclusion in the Hall of Fame for Great Americans.

Professor Pressley's most interesting fact included the notion that if this cleansing of all remnants of the confederacy is truly to be successful we’ll have to ditch the name ‘Tigers’ from LSU, for that was a nickname for many military troops from our state during the Civil War.

My suggestion for this newest Mitch Landrieu diversion tactic is to leave history alone and better educate the public by placing plaques on the monuments explaining why each is a part of it.  History is important, for those who do not remember the past will end up making the same mistakes in the future.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu needs to deal with his failed policies of the past and clean up the mess in New Orleans.

Who is presidential material?

We’re off to the races.  Two debates were held Thursday to familiarize the American people with how each of the Republican candidates would lead our country.  After this first round of debates, I was left with a rather scary feeling that we may be facing this next presidential election with no one suitable to lead this country.

On the left it is obvious that Hillary Clinton will emerge as one of the choices.  While Clinton possesses what President Obama has always been accused of lacking, namely, job related experience; she certainly raises questions of presidential material by her aloofness and untrustworthiness coupled with ties to the Bill Clinton baggage.

On the right we have a cadre of candidates who have decided to hang their presidential qualifications on the ‘undoing syndrome.’ In the debates, each vowed to undo the proposed nuclear agreement with Iran, the Common Core Standards, and the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.  Also they vowed to stop Mexican immigrants from crossing the border.  And let’s not forget the latest buzz topic, the defunding of the Planned Parenthood Program.

The solution to the Iran deal was to tear it up.  The solution for the Common Core Standards was to let the states develop their own (Louisiana royally failed at that), and the solution for the Affordable Care Act was to repeal all aspects.  However, while all these ideas pandered to the hot topics of today, I left the debates with emptiness because no viable alternatives were offered to these problems that our country faces. 

After the Iran deal is torn up, what is the alternative to preventing Iran from developing nuclear bomb capabilities?   Once Obamacare is repealed, it’s unclear if and how these candidates  would replace it.  The Republican Party has yet to formulate their own plan to rally behind 5 years after The Affordable Care Act was passed by Congress.

Where was the proposed alternative to Planned Parenthood which is the leading providers of high-quality, affordable health care for over 5 million women, men, and young people world–wide? Do we simply cut off these services?

Although the Mexicans were singled out in the debate as the source of the illegal immigration problem, it was obvious that only one candidate really understood it, for in fact, as he correctly pointed out, immigrants from other countries such as Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, comprise the largest number of undocumented immigrants crossing the border, not the Mexicans. 

Obviously, with so many candidates time did not allow them to explain their solutions to the pressing problems facing our country.  But no one even stated they had viable replacement solutions after all the ‘undoing.’

 

Hope more substance emerges from the next debate, because right now things aren’t looking very promising for either party’s candidates.