Let's see....... Since Obama took office the credit card companies have been held at bay somewhat with regard to their wanton, greedy abilities to soak those those who already have balances. I know...I know.....those who choose to still play with the fire are getting burned more but those who had no choice and who had existing balances are getting a better shake. Healthcare..... Here is my one example of a better deal for average Americans and it means a helluva lot to me personally. We are on my wife's insurance at her work and my 22 year old son.....previously out of school full time since our relocation to Florida and therefore uninsured by the previous laws.... has gone back to school since early Jan. and subsequently my wife has been repeatedly asking about his enrollment in the family health care plan that we pay for. She was assured by HR that he would be added in the open enrollment period ending Jan. 31st and she felt it was all set. On a busy day....when she as an RN....was in some sort of crisis at work with a patient the dimwitted HR person in charge of the enrollment came up to her with the enrollment form to sign for my son and while it had him joining the dental and vision coverages it amazingly.....stupidly......did not have him enrolling for major medical. The girl shoved the form in front of my wife who was so distracted she didn't notice the error and signed the form anyway. When the new cards came for this year I noticed he was not on our major medical coverage....and the mistake was caught... but her HR people and the previous laws said that once you miss open enrollment you cannot make any changes.....you are screwed big time for one year. Their mistake........our penalty to pay. Today the HR girl came by to say that the new Obama health care act will give us a second chance to enroll our son for major medical if we do it by March 17th. Just some personal observations here that both affect me in very positive ways. Call it a interjecting some fairness in our everyday existence instead of the downright mean "gotcha" , "you are screwed" mentality that so many ( 50% anyway) strangely seem to embrace these days.
In the meantime, gas prices keep going up. Obviously it's Obama and his big oil buddies gouging us at the pump.
Obviously Gipper it's those Illinois oil tycoon buddies of Obama's who are pulling those oil price strings...... :wink:
re: price of gas 1. All imported oil is paid for in U.S. dollars. 2. Obama's policy is to keep borrowing dollars in record amounts. 3. Obama's policy is to repay the loans with newly printed dollars. 4. This makes each dollar worth less and less. 5. See #1. :roll:
Oil prices are a different animal than those two examples of positives that I have personally experienced. On oil......I would have to ask just who benefits when prices are high and the answer lies in the record profits always achieved it seems by big oil companies when the rest of us are gouged. I doubt Obama or his cronies have much to do with that.
Big oil remains unchanged from the Bush years......that much is evident. Big oil and the speculators/profiteers that drive the pricing. It's a big game and we're less than pawns in the deal. I do wonder what is the truth to the machinations of the price increases. Record profits seem to be an outrageous result of exorbitant pricing schemes and speculation.
Bush's buddies in the food business are also hiking prices http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/15/earlyshow/saturday/main7249451.shtml
And speaking of coverage for "children" the new law has resulted in some insurance companies not writing any children only health policies. The reason is simple. By doing away with the exclusion of pre existing conditions the incentive of getting a health care policy before an insured gets sick is destroyed. If you could buy fire insurance after your house caught fire, why would you buy a policy before that happened? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/20/AR2010092006665.html When you accept a risk already existing it no longer is insurance it is redistribution.
He has displayed a unique grasp of the three branches of the federal government acting and playing the role of the legislative, executive and judiciary in one fell swoop......as I understand it, as executive he refuses to defend the law of the land, as legislator he opposes the law and as justice he has deemed it unconstitutional! Seriously? Does he really get to pick and choose the laws that he will uphold and at his whim deem those that he doesn't unconstitutional? Gip? BobDa? Help me out here.....JO'Co, has there ever been another sitting president - not in time of war - that has pissed upon the separation of powers so blatantly? Wasn't that piece of legislation signed by Clinton? http://www.nypost.com/p/news/nation..._RYnhXoyUm3GmkIgjSsR8cJ?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=
Rhetorically and philosophically speaking Obama may be all you say he is. I only have the two very concrete examples in my own life by which to judge him and I like those two results of his actions very much. In a couple of years I'll have to weigh the real impact of Obama on my life and future rather than the political rhetoric. He's not out of my woods till then but in the interim strike up a couple of big ones for Obama.
Is this topic about health care or oil??? Both have been priced out of existence with health care taking the lead over oil lately but oil is coming on strong. I have no love for either party that represents our government so both the republican and democrat party's can dissolve and go away if it was up to me. We spend all of our time as Americans accusing the other party of this or that to the point where it is sickening. We have all observed as the political party's have put political ambitions above what is needed for everyday Americans because his or her party was not aligned with the current thought process. I can touch on both topics of oil and health care. - I have a child who was not walking two months ago, we found a great doctor that introduced a great product and now he is walking. It is very expensive, now the health care company has raised the rates my company is paying by 20% thirty days after we just renewed the policy. We tried going to a lower tier of the insurance but were told that we have been declined because of the higher cost the employees have cost the insurance company. This high cost is my son's weekly perscription that enables him to walk. We will probably have to change company's now but I have a son with with a pre-existing condition so who knows what my happen. I have been a business manager for 25 years I understand the health care company wanting to cover their cost, its business. Understanding something and being able to live with the decision sometimes are not possible. - I farm for a living as you know, during peak times we use 7,500 gallons of diesel every 13 days. My cost for a tanker of fuel will soon be $30,000. I have no way to pass this cost along to any one else. No matter what articles are printed most farming operations run in the red big or small. Our crops are not subsidized, its all free market. We get a price from the juice plants informing us what they will pay us every year according to what inventory they have and the estimated citrus crop in the world market. Every vendor who does business with us will soon have a fuel surcharge attached to their invoices. This includes harvesters, fruit haulers, water delivery, anything and everyone who burns fuel to move their business. I am the bottom feeder, we have no one else to pass this extra cost along as we ourselves pay higher prices for fuel. Instead of listening to another talking head give us another opinion or some suit in the oval office telling us what he wants us to hear we need to realize all this talk is just talk. We are looking at hard times that will only get more severe in America. We have a bloated defense budget that could sustain the economys of the top ten western nations. We spend recklessly and have been for 40 years. We are not going to improve as a nation anytime soon and its time we sucked up and realized this. It is time to pay the piper for the money we have been printing that is not based on anything but our past reputation as a country. Hard times are here and all the opinions and talking heads on the tube are not going to change it.
You have made a lot of very solid points Ralph. When your own son is involved it hits home pretty hard and you realize that all the B/S rhetoric is just that.....B/S.... and both parties and their followers are guilty as hell of it. Until our leaders and those who vote for them get off that kick of "we're the only choice" and everything anyone else says otherwise is horsecrap then we will go nowhere as a nation. Alas....with the proliferation of political entertainment media telling everyone how to think this becomes quite a large problem for all of us to overcome. It's like a football game where at the end one team wins the game because of a missed extra point but then the winner goes around proclaiming how they literally kicked the snot out of the other side and that loser didn't even belong on the field with them.... :roll: Pretty much like Rick Scott our new governor who has done everything in his power to cut jobs rather than create them. He personally decided that Florida does not need the 2.4 billion dollars for the Feds to help develop the high-speed rail project which would have created thousands of jobs to support it and which would have been a large tourism boost here in the Tampa/Clearwater area. I guess he has some other mysterious way to do it but we have yet to see a smidgeon of his strategy that will get job creation on the right path here in Florida.
T Suppose Obama loses in his reelection bid. The new president might just choose not to contest the ruling that his health care bill is constitutional. Boy would the goose start screaming about what the gander had done.
Well, I guess that depends on who you ask? If you ask the Founding Fathers, any constitutional scholar and Supreme Court justices, the answer would be no. If you ask the AG Holder and President Obama, the answer appears to be yes! Sounds pretty clear to me.....the decision for the executive branch to not defend the law of the land is because the chief executive believes it to be unconstitutional! Seriously? :shock:
So Dave, what you are saying, correct me if I'm wrong, is that as long as it is good for you, to heck with the rest of the country? Obama has spent and printed new money to the point that the American dollar is on the brink of being removed as the currency of choice for the purchase of oil. The devaluation of the dollar is a direct result for piling up debt. When your 401K is showing the same balance in about 5 years but actual buying power is about 10% of what it is now, come talk to me about what good Obama did for you.