More Curious Than Worried

My Response to Congressman Coffman on the Health Care Bill

Here is the reaction from my congressional representative on the passing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act…

“Our health care system is in desperate need of reform but this massive government takeover is not the answer. I cannot support a bill that burdens families and small businesses with half a trillion dollars in new job-killing taxes, strips half a trillion dollars from Medicare to fund a new entitlement program, drives up the deficit, and buries our nation in debt. The assumptions given to the Congressional Budget Office by Democrats are completely unrealistic and disingenuous – the real cost is more than $2.6 trillion dollars. Our nation simply cannot afford this bill and there are better, common sense solutions that Americans support.”

And here’s my response…

Maybe it’s a symptom of getting most of my news online, but when people start using terms like “government takeover” , “job-killing taxes”, “unrealistic and disingenuous”, I expect to be able to find the source of your information. So far, I haven’t found any resources to back up your claims.

The “government takeover” argument is “bogus” according to this article: http://www.slate.com/id/2247393. The government already pays for almost half of our health care expenses. Even if this hadn’t passed, government would already pay for over half of our medical expenses by 2019. The author uses information from the Center for Disease Control and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to back up his claims.

I skimmed through the Revenue Provisions section of the TECHNICAL EXPLANATION OF THE REVENUE PROVISIONS OF THE “RECONCILIATON ACT OF 2010,” AS AMENDED, IN COMBINATION WITH THE “PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT” report by the Joint Committee on Taxation (http://www.jct.gov/publications.html?func=startdown&id=3673). Granted, it was 63 pages of technical explanations so I may have missed something, but nothing popped out at me as “job-killing taxes”.

Your claim that the cost of this reform is $2.6 trillion and not $940 billion is serious. That’s a $1.66 trillion difference! I can’t find any resource to back up this claim. Now, I understand your problem with the 10 year estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that you voiced in your March 20 article in The Denver Post (http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_14712241). If anyone were to make money for 10 years, but only spend 6 years worth of that money or course they’d come out with a surplus (or in this case, a reduced deficit). However, asking the CBO to accurately estimate the national deficit in 10 years is a large undertaking. Asking them to estimate the deficit in 20, 30 or 40 years is asking for the impossible.

I’m not saying the reasons for your reaction are wrong. I just can’t find anything to say that they’re right.

-A Colorado 6th District Resident

Can I sit still for 30 minutes every week?

Is there something you really want to do, but never think of doing it until the wrong time?

For example, I really like blogging. There is almost always thoughts that are wandering in and out of my head that I want to share with people. Unfortunately, I always seem to come up with really good points when I’m not able to write them down. I’ll think of good points to make about politics while I’m cleaning my garage. I’ll come up with a witty view on parenting while driving to work. I’ll figure out my best way to express my thoughts on technology while taking a shower.

But it never seems like I think of these things when I’m in front of my computer. So here’s what I’m gonna do. Every week, I’m going to sit down for at least 30 minutes and focus on blogging. I may write a post, start a post or just come up with ideas for future posts. Giving myself that time will allow me to contribute more to my blogs and get more involved in conversations.

So I guess the question really is: Can I sit still for 30 minutes every week?

Over 1 Year of Blogging Teaches Me That I Need Purpose

I know as a blog author, I should write these sentimental, nostalgic posts in a more timely manner.  My first blog post was Nov 4, 2008. My website was started Feb 12, 2009. All this is archived in detail so I can write posts that say “Exactly a Year Ago…”, but if you’ve read this blog you know I’m not very good at deadlines, especially my own.

So what have I learned about blogging from this always present social experiment?

• I started blogging just to get my thoughts out to others who might want to read them. I guess in that regards, my blog is a success. Yay me!
• Aside from getting thoughts out of my head, my blog doesn’t really have any purpose so no one really follows it that much.
• My top 3 posts contain passion, knowledge or both. This is not surprising news, but it’s nice to have it backed up with data.
• If I’m going to write more, and get people to read more, I need to have a purpose to my blog.

Does that mean I’m going to find a purpose for this blog? Turn this site into a resource of useful knowledge for a specific subject? Nope. Not gonna happen. I tried that once when I said I’d use this blog to document my lessons in business. That, as you can tell, didn’t really happen.

What I did decide to do though, was start a new blog! That’s right! Since I have such a hard time keeping up with this blog, I’m gonna start another one. Why this makes sense to me, I have no idea.

But anyway, check out Slap Shots & Chip Shots. A new blog about all things in the Denver area pertaining to hockey and golf. I hope it works!

2010: The Year Of The Battered Incumbent

As much as I like arguing politics with people, I try to keep my political thoughts out of my blog. When it comes to arguing politics on the internet, I prefer to do it under a screen name because there are some people out there who just get scary when it comes to their politics and I don’t want them knowing my real name.

There is one thing I noticed that I have to talk about though: This has to be one of the worst times to hold any political office at any level. At every level of government, from city all the way to the federal government, there are too many needs and not enough budget. And it is painfully easy to campaign against those who currently hold office!

Here’s how: Right now citizens want 2 things from their governments..

1. Balanced Budgets – We’re reigning in our debt, so our governments should too, right?
2. Help! – There are tons of people without jobs. Businesses are struggling. Those of us who have jobs are performing more work for less money. The government should be helping us, right?

The problem though, is that governments can’t help all the unemployed, the struggling businesses and the debt-ridden consumers while working under a balanced budget. The 2 needs go in opposite directions! So challengers, here’s the painfully easy way to campaign against an incumbent….

• If the incumbent works towards balancing their budget, they don’t care about the struggles of the every day American. They are putting the needs of the government over the needs of the people.
• If they want to spend money to help people, then they’re fiscally irresponsible. They want to bankrupt America and spend all your hard earned money by taking it and giving it to everyone else.

There, I just wrote the campaign strategy for just about every challenger for political office at every level. If I was in office right now, I’d retire or refuse to run again, too! Does anyone else find this as ridiculous as I do?

Realtor Burglarizes Home For Sale, Leaves Dead Birds

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” – Albert Einstien

Before I tell you about this call I just dispatched, I want to warn you of a couple things….

1. This story is true. I wish I could make up stuff this good, but the world is far more crafty than I am.
2. Do NOT attempt to figure out the logic of this call. Just sit back and enjoy the ridiculous-ness of it. Attempting to put logic into the situation will only make your brain hurt in odd ways. It kinda feels like brain freeze without the comfort of the cold, stabby pain. I cannot stress this enough.

Just after 5:30 a.m. on Sunday morning a woman calls the police to talk about a burglary that occurred at the house next to her. After approximately 10 minutes of following a circular cycle of paranoia, stupidity and I-watch-too-much-crime-drama-ness, here is what we came up with:

• About 2 weeks ago, the vacant house next to her was burglarized. (This turns out to be true, a report was already taken by the realtor who is trying to sell the house.)
• Since then, she has found 2 dead birds and a dead squirrel in her yard.

This leads our caller to conclude one thing: The realtor burglarized the vacant house and is killing small animals and tossing them in the caller’s yard because they burglarized the house that they’re trying to sell.