I
do realize it is probably best that I stay away from politics in this blog, the
same way as I try to avoid it in my daily life. Don’t get me wrong — I do not
miss a chance to vote and support the things I feel are very important. But to
say I am cynical about politics and politicians would be the understatement of
the new decade. (Maybe the new millennium.)
Thing
is, if you are not as cynical about politics and politicians as I am, I think you
are just not paying attention. Or maybe you get it. I sure as hell don’t. How
can this cast of goobers in Washington
calling themselves the United States Congress expect us to take them seriously?
Do they care?
The
health care system in the United
States, being among the best in the world,
is obviously in serious need of an overhaul. Huh? Well, I will plead guilty to
being one of the overwhelming majority of U.S. citizens who think it is OK
because me and my family are OK. I do understand, however, that our system is
not perfect and reform is needed to improve it. I will continue to say that (all)
systems should be improved until they pry my cold dead fingers off this
keyboard, so there is nothing earth-shattering there.
So
in order to impress us with their acumen in the spirit of good politics and
reform, the goobers have locked themselves behind closed doors to make all
kinds of irrational and arguably illegal deals to push through legislation that
most of us do not want and on which legions of future politicians will forge careers
working to repeal. I guess when they locked the doors common sense and the
citizens’ agenda were still waiting around outside.
So,
are we having fun yet? Not quite enough. The latest thing and the one that gets
me blogging about all this is the setting aside of the construction industry
for special punishment. I guess the goobers read in the paper that unemployment
in the construction industry is hovering around 25 percent, so here is a chance
to kick them while they are down. You have heard this in other places (
www.nrca.net/rp/news/stories/nrca-opposes-unfair-treatment-of-construction-industry-in-health-reform-bill.12-28-2009.2079.aspx),
so I will keep ranting without boring you with all the details here. Long story
short, the proposal added to the Senate/goober version of the bill singles out
construction employers and removes an exemption from them so that construction
firms with as few as five employees (not 50 like all other employers) will be
fined for not having health insurance.
This
would be OK if there were even the slightest, tiniest rational reason for it.
You may be thinking this is a “union-friendly” kind of play, but I think it
goes beyond that. I think the goobers smell victory in their takeover of the
health care industry and are setting the stage for a takeover of the entire
construction industry. Yeah, that’s it. They will force small contractors out
of business and as the surviving contractors grow bigger and bigger they will
have to be regulated. Then one regulation at a time they will become more and
more bureaucratic and bloated. The goobers will say they are a bunch of greedy
bastards and must be punished. They will pass more and more legislation until
the “single-payer” rule goes into place, effectively establishing the US
Government as the one big-ass construction company we must all report to in
order to acquire our built spaces.
Now
you may think this seems like a really far out rant, even considering the
blogger. Far out? Far off? You sure about that?
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