About last night....

I bet you're not surprised that I have some thoughts on Obama's speech last night...

First, I gotta tell you about my adorable 2 year old son. He was crying in his room, didn't want to go to sleep. So I let him lay in bed with me to watch the speech. Now this kid LOVES Obama. I think he finds Obama's voice very soothing, he will often fall asleep in no time when listening to him. But, last night we were watching and he kept pointing at him... Then (and this just cracked me up)... he started clapping out of no where... I said "Why are you clapping, buddy?" and duh! He saw all the congresspeople clapping so he was just following along. He did it just about every time they did, usually with a delayed response.

So, to the speech. I love that he was very confident, forceful, yet optimistic and hopeful. I think he hit the right balance with the seriousness of the time, yet hopeful for our future. Now, tell me that I drank the koolaid, or that I'm a sap... I don't care, but I got teary eyed... thinking about how our country could be! I love that Obama is so over-achieving for us... All our politicians should be that way. It's frustrating to me because he will be fought on this stuff, every step of the way.

He's right though... the best way to fix the economy.. is to fix all the broken parts. I've been saying that by making healthcare affordable, it's like a tax cut, it puts money back into people's pockets to spend. If they have to spend their extra income on medical expenses... well that's money they won't be able to use to buy a car, or send their kid to college.

I was watching MSNBC and they had a group of Obama voters and McCain voters hooked up to the dial.. and to my surprise the McCain voters often had the dial up higher that the Obama ones! I think as a majority, the people of our country want this stuff done, and I think they would even pay a little more to have it.

......and then Jindal came on. I wasn't going to watch it... but I have to say that I felt like a friggin' teenager getting a lecture from one of my parents. He was so god damn condescending, that it drove me nuts. We are not fools. We know that he is pandering to the right... because everything he brought up, the republicans had made a mess of it. He was an amateur after the likes of Obama.

A few tidbits:

--There is no 8 billion dollars in the stimulus package for a high speed rail from Las Vegas to Disneyland. That is a blatent lie, that repubs have been called out on every time they bring it up. It reminds me of the "Bridge to Nowhere". Palin kept using that despite being proved wrong. It's so ridiculous.
--And even though Bush made an "investment" in the Medicare drug program... It's crap! It doesn't work well at all. I can attest to this. My patients have the Medicare Part D programs, and they STILL have to pay outrageous amounts of money for their drugs.. The only people that made out from that deal was the pharmaceutical companies.
--I can't stand to listen to the wealthy people and corporations cry and whine about Bush's stupid tax cuts expiring. Hello! You have money. You can pay the normal tax rate like everyone else. It's not like Obama is gonna take all your $$, despite you trying to make everyone think that way.
In fact, I am going to write to the White House and offer up my $65/month to them to help get things done. If any of you can afford, I encourage you to do the same.

Would this be a dealbreaker?

I got to thinking today about how Hillary is having dinner with Chinese diplomats tonight. If you are a picky eater, would that exclude you from being able to be Secretary of State?
I know that seems silly, but it could majorly offend governments if you won't eat what they serve you for dinner.

Change Change Change

I have so much to say this morning.
I feel like I might be a relic, a dinosaur... soon to be extinct. I rarely pat myself on the back, but...

I do okay, I am very lucky. My husband and I have decent jobs, a reasonable home, great family, wonderful son. We are able to pay our bills, feed our family and have a little extra for some fun things. I don't strive to make millions. I don't live my life to make money no matter what the cost. As far as the tax cut in the stimulus package, I'd rather them take mine and put it towards healthcare, education, infrastructure or give it to someone who needs it more than me.

My healthcare went up $100/mo this year. I AM concerned that at this rate, I will be unable to afford it. My yearly raise never amounts to anything because it mainly absorbs the hike in healthcare costs that I suffer. BUT I HAVE healthcare. Imagine families that don't have it.

It gets OLD hearing everyone panic about the debt. It seems so ridiculous. We've had debt before and turned it into a surplus. We can do that again. We can't when the economy is dire, and we have 2 wars going on. But, it's not the END OF THE WORLD.

I heard someone talk about how we are moving towards socialism. Like it's a dirty word. Are you happy with having police, firemen, and teachers? Hate to break it to you, but that's socialism. It's not all bad. I think we can find a free market world with a dash of socialism that can suit us all.

Now to my point about Change. I've heard how Obama "promised change"... "Where is the change we can believe in?". How can we expect things to change when everyone is so afraid and clinging onto the past. We have to be uncomfortable and allow things to BE changed. I know it's scary going into unchartered waters, but something needs to be done. We need to re-examine our entitlement programs and make them better, that requires change, we need to do something about healthcare but that will require things to change.... If our legislators keep up this standstill, there will be no way change can happen. The legislators need to feel uncomfortable too, go out on a limb against what we're used to and get the job done for the citizens of the US.

or else then we vote new people in.

Don't be fooled!

There is a bunch of nonsense going around about how the new stimulus bill will make it so that healthcare decisions about you can't be made by you and your doctor. It's nonsense.

Here is a good article by Howard Dean explaining the provision. Before entering politics, Gov Dean used to be a practicing doctor.

http://tinyurl.com/aobndr

The GOP is gearing up for the healthcare battle.
Again, I maintain that Healthcare should be a right, not a priviledge.

Government jobs

I want to take a moment to discuss this.
The GOP would have you believe that these are the worst jobs in the world. They always say that people don't want to "expand government".

However, anyone I've ever talked to that has actually worked for the government has never complained about their jobs at all. They get damn good benefits, good holidays, and usually good working hours. Job security is generally pretty good.

I worked for the WIC program that is run by our county government and it had one of the best compensation packages I've seen. Health insurance was very economical.

And I venture to say that anyone currently unemployed would give anything to have one of these jobs.

I mean, after all... the Congress is a government job.. and they seem to want to hang onto their jobs... they have great benefits and pay... so why wouldn't anyone want that gig?

You also hear how the American people don't want to spend taxpayer dollars on fixing the economy.... Ummm.... Is there any better thing TO spend it on? (except maybe healthcare :D) With the economy in the tanker, nothing else works.

At what point?

Does this GOP opposition seem absolutely absurd?
I would love to live in a world with bipartisanship. And I don't think the stimulus plan was a great way to try to get that started. I mean, after all... it goes to the core of the differences between the parties. Democrats believe in govt programs and the GOP believes in tax cuts. I don't think you can distinctly judge the future of bipartisanship based on this.

However... when you see all the comments like "It's a GOP victory!".. that this is their "comeback for 2010"... That infuriates me. This isn't a political game. This is all of our well beings, esp those of us that aren't wealthy. Every little decision matters. You can still stand by your beliefs and make concessions at the same time. This is what adults do in their every day life at their real jobs. I know for one, I don't always agree with my supervisors decisions, but alas I follow them. That doesn't mean that I give up my belief that there might be a better way.

We ALL deserve better.

Happy Birthday!

to my baby. He's 2 years old. I'll be up to my ears in family and party stuff today.
I can't remember what my life was like without him in it... and it simply keeps getting better every day.