Colorectal surgeon Song...maybe a theme for the Congress?

No COLA increase in Social Security for last two years. They say it was because the cost of living did not go up....of course not because they did not include the cost of energy and food...but did not tell you that. I truly believe the theme song of these politicians that voted against helping out the seniors on a fixed income  should be this song: ENJOY

National Debt & Generational Debts

Common sense, a commodity that the Founders of our democratic republic possessed was responsible for their attitude toward a national debt. With wisdom born of experience they knew that the debts of a nation are no different than the debts of an individual or family. For dire circumstances such as war or natural disasters Article 1 of the Constitution allows the nation to borrow monies needed. However it was a matter of utmost importance that the debt be paid as soon as possible so that the nation could prosper.

This is reflected in what Thomas Jefferson said:
I, however, place economy among the first and most important of republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.
(Bergh, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 15:47.)

Why is Mr. Obama pursuing a course 180 degrees opposite to what Thomas Jefferson recommended? Ask yourself that question; any rational answers?

Mr. Jefferson made a particular point about the immorality of passing on debt to ones children:

"That we are bound to defray (the wars) expenses within our own time, and unauthorized to burden posterity with them, I suppose to have been proved in my former letter... We shall all consider our-selves morally bound to pay them ourselves; and consequently within the life (expectancy) of the majority ... We must raise, then ourselves the money for this war, either by taxes within the year or by loans ; and if by loans, we must repay them ourselves, proscribing forever the English practice of perpetual funding. (Bergh, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, 13:357-358.)




Why does the administration and congress seem to have forgotten these words of wisdom?

Trust But Verify

I'm from the government and I'm here to help you. Somehow those words send chills up my spine and make the hair on the back of my neck stand up and make me instinctively reach to my left rear pants pocket to make sure it is buttoned tightly protecting my wallet. Like the late President Ronald Reagan said about the Soviet Union: "trust but verify" I say to you about your elected officials in Washington, D.C. ; that applies from the newest Representative all the way up to the top of the feeding chain. Listen not as much to what they say and promise but what they DO. They have speech writers to put the words together to make them sound righteous and filled with qualities of great leadership ability; but in the final analysis the way they ACT through their vote is what really counts. So listen to their rhetoric but even more important make sure what they say and promise is what they DO by their voting to insure that your vote for them was not wasted on a liar. Liars don't belong in government or for that matter in any position of trust.

Most important...DO NOT FORGET...when it comes to voting time if they betrayed you or if they kept their word. Those that cannot be trusted in little things cannot be trusted in big things or for that matter at all...do NOT FORGET!

House passes Healthcare Reform Bill

In the face of near-unanimous Republican opposition and a last-ditch effort to change the bill, the US House of Representatives late Saturday night voted 220 to 215 in favor of legislation to overhaul the nation's healthcare system. Thirty-nine of the body's 258 Democratic members — many from conservative districts in the South — joined their GOP House colleagues in opposing the measure, a $1.1 trillion compromise bill that has aroused deep passions on both sides of the aisle, as well as beyond the halls of Congress.

In a statement issued from Camp David shortly after the vote, President Barack Obama, who had visited House Democrats earlier in the day, said, "Tonight, in an historic vote, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would finally make real the promise of quality, affordable health care for the American people."

For her part, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said she was "proud" of House members who stood steadfast against overwhelming GOP opposition. "When we can't find common ground, we have to stand our ground," she said at a news briefing following passage of the legislation, which garnered just one Republican vote, that of Anh "Joseph" Cao (R-LA).

But House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-OH), whose GOP substitute plan went down to defeat shortly before the historic vote, vowed to continue the fight. "I came here to renew the American Dream, so my kids and their kids have the same opportunities I had. I came here to fight big-government monstrosities like this bill that dim the light of freedom and diminish opportunity for future generations. Our plan will lower premiums by up to 10%, making health care more affordable for families and small businesses. That's what the American people want, and that's what Republicans will continue to fight for."

Action now turns to the Senate, where leaders are working to merge bills from that body's Health Committee and Finance Committee. Like the House-passed bill, the Senate Health Committee's proposal includes a public-plan option, a new government insurance plan that would compete with private plans in the marketplace and be authorized to negotiate rates with physicians and hospitals. The Finance Committee proposal, in contrast, would create state-level private, nonprofit, consumer-run insurance cooperatives, which liberals in the Senate, including West Virginia Democrat Jay Rockefeller, say are fatally flawed.

But to overcome a 60-vote hurdle — the number of votes Democrats would need to cut off a GOP filibuster that some conservative Democrats have threatened to join — Senate Democrats who favor the public-plan option may have no choice but to compromise to get any sort of reform legislation through their chamber.

If that happens, and it's still a big if, the next battleground would be the conference committee, where negotiators of both chambers must forge a single piece of legislation acceptable to both sides — and, of course, to the President.

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Authors and Disclosures
Journalist
Wayne Guglielmo
Wayne Guglielmo is a freelance writer for Medscape.

Truth...a rare commodity out of Washington D.C.

The first sentence in Cal Thomas's Views column really was an epiphany for me this morning as I read the Northwest Herald. The rest of the article was interesting but the first sentence contained the message; if we can't trust the veracity of of our elected representatives on both sides of the aisle; if all that matters is PARTY and PARTY AGENDA and getting RE-ELECTED then we the constituents of both parties are truly not being represented. What we have in Washington, in Congress, is an oligarchy (the rule of an elite few to control the many). What I see developing is a true insurgency of the ruled to consider options offered by developing third and fourth parties. I believe that the evils of a two party system that our Founding Fathers warned us about over 230 years ago are truly becoming, if not already existing, in our government today. Only time and the American Peoples' vote will tell the future of the party system. These may be revolutionary times in the way the American Voter thinks and votes. God bless the United States of America.