Tag: Barack Obama

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Mitt Romney: Fortunate Son

Since it’s the weekend I decided to talk about Willard Mitt Romney. He’s the most likely GOP nominee for President to run against Barack Obama, but he’s also someone that very few people can relate to. He’s a Mormon which make up about 1.5% of the US population [roughly the same as Muslims]. He’s a multimillionaire with a net worth between $190-$250 million along with blind trusts in the children’s names worth $70-$100 million. Mitt is definitely in the 1% if not .5% of the nation. Few of us can relate to having that much money and he can’t really relate to people who don’t [remember his response, I don’t know anyone in NASCAR, but I know a lot of the team owners.]

On the good side being a Mormon means he doesn’t drink or smoke which means he won’t be showing up for any meetings drunk unlike my distant relative former President Ulysses S. Grant. He also did give President Obama the idea for Obamacare when he instituted Romneycare in Massachusetts when he was Governor, but I still can’t get behind a guy who can’t relate to the average American. I’m a somewhat progressive Democrat living in San Francisco, but I can still sit down with some of my die-hard Republican friends and have a beer [though I do prefer a good single malt scotch or small batch bourbon, but can’t get into wine even though I live in California]. Usually because we both share the same problems like, not having enough money.

This caused me to make a movie about Mitt. If you’re reading about this on your mobile device you won’t be able to see the movie because for some reason youtube is cool with you using other people’s music even though it’s considered copyright infringement they feel you shouldn’t show it on a mobile device. I have been in the process of getting in contact with John Fogerty to get something that gives me permission to be using his song Fortunate Son for the video. It was originally written supposedly about David Eisenhower who was married to Julie Nixon and because of his political connections between the Eisenhower and Nixon families they were completely shielded by the Vietnam War.

To me the song is appropriate because Mitt Romney is shielded by his family connections [his father was the former Governor of Michigan and also a multi-millionaire] and his families money that he can’t relate to the average person in America. Yes, it was a politically strategic move on President Obama’s part to pull over in Chinatown and run in to pick up some take out [pulling over in Chinatown pretty much means you just stop your car], but at least he made the effort.

So here is the video. I hope you like it and share it and maybe I’ll get my 15 minutes of fame and it’ll go viral and someone will ask me to be on their show. Doubtful, but I can dream. Oh and because I’m the kind of guy I am you can even watch it in HD.

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Healthcare Reform

Today I’m going to step away from San Francisco a little bit. What I’m going to talk about concerns San Franciscans, as well as everyone else in America. Whether you think you do or not, we all need health care. It doesn’t matter how old you are health coverage is a must. My old employer referred to health insurance as a “crap shoot” you have it so that if you might need it you’ll have coverage.

Then I had a stroke a few months later at 37 years of age. Luckily, I had coverage. I was now given a host of pills to make sure everything was going to be fine with me and it turns out it is. Now most of the drugs are generic so I can get them cheaply without insurance, but there’s still one drug that’s not generic that will be costing me $200/month without insurance. If I go to my doctor I pay $30 for the visit with insurance, without it would cost me $75. What happens if I don’t have insurance and happen to have another stroke or I’m hit by a car [which happened to me when I was 16]. Where do we get the money to pay for it?

Yes, I agree Doctors and Hospitals and Big Pharma need to bring their costs down to the consumer who needs their services, but insurance also needs to come down and be available for everyone. I was paying $428/month for insurance for my family of 3 due to a COBRA subsidy by the government that ended December 31st, 2010. Now I am being told that in order to keep this insurance I would have to pay $1695/month. So I’ve had to look elsewhere for insurance coverage. Luckily I’ve found some and I’m hoping we’ll get accepted.

Now our good friends on Capitol Hill have drafted a Healthcare Reform Bill that went into effect as of March 31st of 2010. Since everyone likes numbers I’ll offer up a few from the analysis of the bill:

Cost: $940 billion over ten years.

Deficit: Would reduce the deficit by $143 billion over the first ten years. That is an updated CBO estimate. Their first preliminary estimate said it would reduce the deficit by $130 billion over ten years. Would reduce the deficit by $1.2 trillion dollars in the second ten years.

So while a lot of you will look at the cost first and see $940 billion dollars which is a scary amount, you have to look at the $143 billion we’ll also save over the first 10 years with another $1.2 trillion dollars saved over the next 10 years. OK, 20 years is a long time for the pay off and interest to come back, but it will also give healthcare to everyone in America. If you are on a low income you will be given subsidies and the “doughnut hole” for the fixed income Medicare patients would be removed.

Sounds pretty good right? Well apparently not according to John Boehner our new Speaker of the House who faster than a speeding bullet, announced that the House will vote on January 12th to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the health care reform bill. Apparently our new speaker doesn’t want us all to have access to health care. I would like to urge all of you to read up on this at healthcare.gov where you can find the truth about what’s going on with this bill.

IF you believe that John Boehner is incorrect in trying to get this repealed there is something you can do. There is a group called Mom’s Rising who have put together a petition via the web to send emails from people to government officials telling them you do not support the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. All you need to do is give them you name and email address.

Some of you may disagree with me on this, but if you or a family member have an “pre-existing condition” which has a lot of things included you wouldn’t believe [got migraines or are on any medication?], you could be denied insurance or forced to pay a higher rate even if the treatment is inexpensive. If you just want to get your child covered? Most insurance companies won’t take on a child alone. I have a friend who has had to leave the US to live in Costa Rica because he has diabetes and was having to pay $200/month for his medicine which costs him about $20 there. Just think about this for a little while and do some reading at the links I supplied.

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Save our JOBS NOW!

When people talk about the evils of the stimulus package by President Obama they here about the car company and bank bailouts and start pointing fingers and complaining about how Obama is killing America. What they don’t talk about is the employment stimulus that has given over 250,000 people jobs. These are jobs for unemployed parents [like me] whose wages are reimbursed by the government.

This wasn’t talked up too much and I found out about it quite by accident after reading a fairly well buried story on SF Gate. I got in and started making calls and got lots of interviews. I finally got a job in July from a very persistent employer who wanted me and kept in contact from March until the day I started my job.  The problem is that at the end of this month the program ends and I will be out of work again. The problem is two-fold here. The first is that I took the job and lost my unemployment benefits.  Unemployment is based on your earning of the last 18 months minus the current quarter. Since I’ve only worked in the current quarter I won’t be eligible for unemployment unless they make an exception for me. Second is that the our government is trying to extend it for a year, but while it passed the house, the republicans in congress have been filibustering against it.

Over a quarter of a million people will be unemployed once again because the Republicans hate Obama. The Republicans will be the cause of this unemployment because they believe that a cut in federal spending will help America. Unfortunately what it with do is put most of these people on unemployment which just moves the government spending from one room to another, so I ask you all to forward this piece to all your friends and neighbors and have them sign the online petition you’ll find here to ask the government to extend the program and keep the country from adding over a quarter of a million people to the unemployed list which will lead to an increase of the unemployment statistics, lower economic recovery because a quarter of a million people won’t have the money to spend and we’ll have more children going hungry…all because of a few Republicans, not Obama.

Think about this. A quarter of a million people unemployed, all of whom have families with kids who will have trouble living and making ends meet. I am only one, but it’s helping me provide for my wife and my daughter and we’re able to give back to our community by spending our money to purchase goods and services that in nine days will stop coming in. So we’re not talking about over a quarter of a million people being affected but closer to a million people being affected. Please, help do what is right so we can get America back on it’s feet.