TEACH YOUR CHILDREN...WELL?

July 9. 2012

The historic or hysteric recent Supreme Court decision on June 28 emphasizing the mandate part of the opus and for good enough reason, I guess, as it was the Bite or Hook or Star, even, of the dismal show that the Affordable Care Act had become - a "conservative" Think tank's paean to the Insurance companies copied almost verbatim by a once Governor Romney  

The citizens of MA love their
RomneyCare

of MA, a singular achievement, where it has been in place and working for several years now to the overwhelming , as I read, Satisfaction of the citizens rich and poor of that lucky commonwealth and the very same plan just squeaking by the dubious imprimatur of the Supreme Court; that same health plan which that same governor now as Republican standard bearer says he will Repeal when elected president while he dodges and weaves any and all questions concerning the only worthwhile legislation of his governing years and in a less ( a whole lot less) hate-filled and disrespectful and blatantly disingenuous Amercia it probably would have been a great help to anyone seeking that high office to have such an accomplishment on his resume.

BUT.. it is the Medicaid Expansion part of the healthcare Bill that has taken the biggest hit even as the whole is pronounced "constitutional" (I'm sorry, but I can't help but get the willies whenever I read or hear the word Constitutional in tandem with this particular court). To borrow liberally from a recent The Economist:

         "The law sought to expand Medicaid to more of America's poor...before the bill, the federal government required states to cover only some impoverished groups including those with children and pregnant women, This law was supposed to extend insurance to 32 million more Americans by 2019; the Medicaid expansion would account for about half...Now the Supreme Court has said that Expansion must be OPTIONAL for the states. More than 11 million uninsured adults may (now) get no help at all."

This means that when Florida Governor Rick Scott, when he is not too busy Disenfranchising Black and minority voters, refuses any federal Medicaid money that would be paid to his state under the new expansion policy, about 1.3 million uninsured adults who would be Newly eligible won't be. There's this sliding scale formula worked out for these individual subsidies to help people buy insurance but because this reform presumes that the very poor will have access to at least Medicaid there will not be any funds forthcoming for them so without this expansion they're figuring 11.5 million uninsured poor adults will not qualify for this much needed assistance.

"IT IS PRECISELY THIS COLLISION OF IMMORAL POWER WITH POWERLESS MORALITY WHICH CONSTITUTES THE MAJOR CRISIS OF OUR TIME." - Rev.Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

When young and white (yes I know but its for a reason) Martha Roby rose to speak in Congress on behalf of her 2nd Congressional District in Alabama

Always smiling. Couldn't find a photo
with her dad.

expressing her "Deep" disappointment with the Supreme Court's recent ruling on the Affordable HealthCare Act you might have expected that a young woman with a Music Degree from NYU (!!) and a Law Degree from her father's alma mater would be more understanding and at least intellectually inquisitive as to the meaning of what had transpired- perhaps empathetic toward what the Law was at least trying to do-instead of twisting the ruling around to fit her uninformed notions about what is good for Amercia; instead she blurts out the usual scare bites heard from every Republican and Murdoch-paid stooge: "the American people have already weighed in and overwhelmingly rejected the law," (Overwhelmingly?) "It will result in as many as 20 Million Amercians losing their existing health coverage;" "it will Suffocate small businesses"; "overbearing regulations"; "hampering job creation"; "estimates indicate that the law will actually cost 800,000 Amercian jobs"; and she would replace it with some type of "free-market" reform.(The Republicans don't have a plan really ) I guess in Amercia in 2012 with all our freedoms (disassembling) its perfectly proper and fitting to stand up in the House of Representatives and Lie one's ass off for sake of political expediency. By the way the reference here is the Congressional Record of June 29, 2012.  It is not just Rep. Roby's remarks alone of course - there were and will be others just like hers but what I'm trying to get a handle on is how does someone that young - she's a bicentennial baby - and that-seemingly - educated (NYU for goshsakes!) can be so dismissive of facts. Is it because she's now a politician so what do you expect? Is it Republican trope to misrepresent the healthcare law? Why are they so dead set against it anyway? It was their "plan". Now its Obama's ? And therein lies a Mitch McConnell. "From their lips pure puffs of plain crap crowd out the atmosphere-until the mark of authenticity is murk and fetor". But to be that young and unquestioning in her own mendacity.  Raised in Reagan Amercia? Comes of age in the Bush-Clinton era; matures(?) in the Bush-Cheney years where she learns hate is a virtue? Born in Montgomery, Alabama, the First capital of the Confederacy, center of civil rights struggles, her parents' child like everyone else; her father,

Her Honorable Dad

lets see, is currently THE Chief Judge down in Alabama, a Reagan nominee and later Bush, who was recently quoted in the L.A. Times of all places, just before the Supreme Court decision,  as so concerned that "If we uphold this are there any limits on the powers of the federal government?" So worried is he that his freedom will be swept away like a bad margaret mitchell novel. This is the very same judge who sat on one of the appeals courts that denied a petition presented on behalf of Troy Davis seeking a new hearing. It was rejected 2-1 because according to the ruling it had already been rejected before. Such intellectual gravitas; such human understanding. And I wonder why the daughter turned out the way she has.(I can't help but think of a Tom Lehrer lyric - and yes I'm exposing my prejudice again but nevertheless-" I wanna talk with southern gentlemen and put my white sheet on again.")

Why should this country and its poor and indigent have a reasonable healthcare plan, its limitations aside, and why give a reasonable doubt to a condemned man who may have had a decent shot at freedom?

Executed Sept. 21, 2011
age 42

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Addendum (1):

Please read Stephen C. Webster's article, Perry Proudly Refuses Health Care to 1.2 Million Low-Income Texans, in the July 9 RawStory.Com  (there's always more)

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Don’t Always Blame Parents. Or Praise Them, Either.
September 10, 2012, 12:31 pm

By Laurie Fendrich

>http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2012/09/10/dont-always-blame-parents-or-praise-them-either/?cid=at&utm_source=