I had an ultrasound Friday to determine which benign condition I have, somewhat begging the question as to whether it was necessary at all. I asked for the breakdown on the payment. It was listed at $1,300, I paid $30, and my insurance paid $635. In short, since I had insurance, the total cost of the procedure was just over 50% of the cost someone without insurance would pay.
After coming down on the GOP in my last post, I thought I'd give it a break. May be even poke at some Obama's obvious weaknesses. It would be easier if the GOP hadn't continued on its morally vacuous and intellectually dishonest path. It is tough to pick a favorite that occurred even in the last few days:
- Darrell Issa is running a 1990s era witch hunt aimed at Eric Holder predicated on the Fast and Furious program. At most you can say Holder was incompetent for not knowing about it sooner and stopping if faster, but it was clearly a Bush team hold over. Massive amounts of information are known about the program, Holder has testified at least 6 times on it, and some of things that Issa demanded were illegal for Holder to provide. Bottom line: Issa is a political hack. It brings to mind impeaching Bill Clinton on the definition of the word "is," but it is even more embarrasing (though perhaps not a bigger abuse of power).
- Romney has yet to find many positions that he can articulate any details on: this week it was immigration. When asked three times in a row about whether he would reverse Obama's decision to not pursue deporting children who had been brought to this country as young children by their parents, Romney could not give a simple yes or no. Romney is the ultimate wuss.
- Hannity, twice in one show, presented partial clips of Obama and Lawrence O'Donnell so that it appeared as if they were saying exactly the opposite of what they said - had you not cut the very sentence they were in the middle of. Not so long ago they used Fox Friends to air they produced an obvious political ad attacking Obama and tried to pass it off as news.
- (Mostly the last couple of weeks) GOP voter suppression has been out in full force in Florida. This is a pet peeve, because it so goes against the very concept of a democracy. Once you win by removing the right to vote, you are not living in a democracy any more.
- (NC favorite from a couple of weeks ago) The NC GOP in control of the state government made it impossible to consider science when making decisions about shoreline development . . . why you may ask? Because estimates of rising water levels are linked to global warming, and science must be ignored when it involves global warming.
On the other hand, I am not convinced that Obama is up to addressing the problems facing us in terms of the debt and unemployment. A Romney return to Bush era policies will be bad, but that doesn't mean Obama seems to be able to come to term with just how much has changed relating to jobs and the economy. Bottom line, though, is that given the damage that ocurred from the banking crisis, world economic slowdown, burst of the US housing bubble, etc. No one has any magic to make a quick turnaround for the US economy and, very importantly, the jobless rate. There probably just are not short term solutions that support low employment rates. Unfortunately, we never really get a seroius an comprehensive discussion about the deep nature of the problems facing the US and world economy? Not really near enough. It is, however, obvious that the 30 year GOP approach to supply-side economics isn't going to do anything but further sever the lifeline's constructed to help the poorest Americans (yes the poor are still Americans).
