Really, Who Has the Time to Read HR 3200?

As we’re all well aware, the health care reform bill has been getting quite a bit of attention while Congress is on their annual August recess.  We’ve all seen the protests and the heated debates on the news on the town hall meetings that are being conducted.  During this period of time, one would like to think that it would be easy to go and read the bill, so we can all become well-informed citizens on this important piece of legislation.

I, for one, truly believe in being an educated citizen, so I can at least know whether or not the media is telling the story straight.  So I finally decided to go to my congressman’s website and see if I could find an electronic copy of the bill.  Come to find out, the bill, H.R. 3200 is available for perusal on the Thomas website, a Library of Congress website.  My congressman’s website provided a link to H.R. 3200 which is here.

I must have been delusional to think that this exercise would be short and that I would be able to get through the bill and actually understand what it completely says.  Boy was I sorely mistaken!  The bill is 1000+ pages in length!  Now, I don’t know about anyone else, but I certainly don’t have the time, nor the inclination to read something as dry as a piece of legislation.  How many people actually do?  That’s why it was most curious to me that President Obama, and members of the do-nothing Congress, wanted to rush this bill through and get it passed by the August recess.  It made me actually wonder if these elected representatives actually know what’s in this particular piece of legislation.  I also wonder if the White House actually does.

Add to the difficulty that Congressional leaders and the White House haven’t done a very good job of selling this reform bill other than to simply state “it’s needed.”  What a terrible sales pitch.  My main question is, why do we need mammoth bills like this one is?  Can’t these things be put together in a fashion where we can all have the time to read them and be able to provide feedback to our elected leaders if we decide to do so?  With the way this bill is structured, no one will have the time to read it and provide any feedback.  Is that just me, or am I going crazy?

When I saw how long this bill was, I actually e-mailed my congressman and asked him if his office could put together a five page version pretty much summarizing everything in a manner that everyone can understand.  This method would also provide him the opportunity to put to bed some of the vicious rumors I’ve been hearing about this bill, such as “death panels” which I don’t think is actually in the bill, but other myths as well.  And, since this bill does include the public option that all liberals want, I want to see some of the nitty gritty details on how that would work, and what safeguards are in place to avoid a single payer system.  And how this public option would allow greater competition, before I can make an educated decision on whether to fully support the reform bill or not.  I don’t think that’s too much to ask, or I could be mistaken.

With something as important as this piece of legislation is, and with how it has become so polarized, I think our leaders owe it to us, to do a better job of explaining this bill in less than 1000 pages.  Perhaps I’m just expecting too much.

Finally! Something Coming from Congress Makes Sense!!

Holy cow!  Finally, something that is coming out of this do-nothing Democratic majority Congress, makes some sense.  After the President’s hour long presser last night dealing with health care, today you have the Senate’s Majority Leader, Harry Reid, saying that they won’t meet the President’s deadline of August 7th.  Let’s just say, I’m not overly disappointed.  You can see Senator Reid’s remarks here.  I will say one thing about this delay, finally they are taking their time in passing a bill, unlike the stimulus package.  I truly believe we need health care reform, but instead of rushing through it, with a partisan bill, like Nancy Pelosi wants, let’s get something that’s bipartisan, that may have a chance of the reform we need, while helping as many people as possible.  Kudos to Senator Reid, one whom I 99% of the time disagree with, for giving the Senate the time to come up with a bipartisan bill.

What Happened To The Concept of Personal Responsibility?

I’m a big fan of the concept of personal responsibility.  If I make poor decisions, I expect to be responsible enough to handle the consequences without the prospect of being insulated from them.  The recent string of government bailouts has convinced me that the government is not willing to allow anyone to fail or suffer from poor decisions, particularly in the business world.

But today, I’m not focusing on corporate responsibility, but that of personal responsibility, so I would like to concentrate on the home mortgage issue.  When the whole sub-prime mortgage mess blew up, I couldn’t help but ask myself the following questions:

1. Why would banks approve lending such risky loans to obviously risky individuals?
2. Why would people take out mortgages they clearly could not afford?

Banks share responsibility for this mess as much as those individuals who took out these mortgages.  I don’t understand why banks would even approve risky loans to risky people.  I also don’t understand why people would assume mortgage payments that they couldn’t afford.  And then, when a crisis emerges because of these terrible loans, banks and individuals expect to be bailed out for their poor decisions, and homeowners are encouraged to not leave their homes, even though they are delinquent on payments.

In this case, when individuals clearly have made poor financial decisions, why should the government be responsible for fixing their problems?  Why can’t they accept the consequences of making a poor decision?  Same thing with the banks, as they share equal blame here in my opinion.  Why, why, why, issue risky loans to risky borrowers?  It does not make sense to me.  And then to have the government provide the banks TARP money to avoid bank failures?  Now do I think that those who bank with these troubled institutions, that have met all their financial obligations, should lose their money because their bank didn’t make sound financial and business decisions, no!  However, I do feel that if banks make poor decisions that they should be allowed to fail.  As much as I think those who bought homes they couldn’t afford should not receive assistance from the government.

Plus, is it such a foreign concept to pay more for something than you can afford, especially when you’re talking about a large investment such as a home?  If I can only afford $1,000 a month for a mortgage, I’m not going to get a mortgage for $1,400 a month.  Why?  Because I won’t be living there for very long and I would expect to lose my home because I don’t make enough to satisfy the financial obligation.

But the government doesn’t believe in that.  They believe that people should not be held accountable for their poor decisions, that the government should serve as a safety net.  With that being said, my largest fear, going forward, is that everyone is going to feel entitled to government assistance no matter how much they fail.  Being responsible for one’s actions is what makes us adults.  I feel that with continued government bailouts, we are saying that the government won’t let you fail and learn from your mistakes, because you have a safety net, so let’s encourage poor decision making.

It frightens me so much that the government won’t allow people to be responsible for their actions and that it’s ok to be dependent on the government to bail out people.  It’s a scary precedent because the direction our country is moving is complete dependence on the government to solve all our problems, and that will result in big brother being involved in all our daily decisions because WE CAN’T BE TRUSTED TO MAKE THE RIGHT DECISIONS.

Caption This!

Secretaries Clinton & Gates, and the Prez

So I’m checking out Politico.com and come across their pictures of the week segment and the picture you see to your left was the first one.  Now, I’m unsure which event this picture was taken at, but I can’t help but notice Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s look during this event.

My goodness, I wonder what got her to be in such a sour mood during that particular event.  Whatever it was, she looks quite upset, or better yet, completely uninterested in what’s going on.  At least Secretary of Defense Robert Gates looks a little more interesting.

Or, could it be that she’s upset at herself for leaving the Senate?  She’s certainly had a lot on her plate since she’s left the Hill.  Between North Korea and their pending missile test launch, the Mexican drug cartel war going on, maybe the lack of experience is finally catching up to her.  On December 8, 2008, I wrote in this post my opinion on how I felt that Secretary Clinton was not qualified for the job in the first place.

Ultimately, I think it’s a combination of both, frustration with all the diplomatic problems she lacks the experience to tackle, and that she disinterested because she’s not the one responsible for making all the decisions.

Reconciliation…. Change You Can Believe In?

So, by now, everyone has heard of the possibility of Congressional democrats making use of reconciliation as  a method of getting President Obama’s budget passed in the Senate to avoid a Republican filibuster.  Fox news has an article about the possibility of reconciliation here.  Yesterday I received an email from the House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer, about reconciliation.  According to that email, below is a description of budget reconciliation:

• Budget reconciliation was first introduced in the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.
• Budget reconciliation is an optional procedure that can be included in the annual Congressional budget resolution process.
• Inclusion in the budget does not mean reconciliation will definitely be used; it merely leaves the option on the table.
• The main purpose of budget reconciliation is to provide Congress the ability to change current law in order to align revenue and spending levels with the policies of the budget resolution.
• Although reconciliation is an optional procedure, it has been used most years since its first use in 1980.

I have a major issue with this approach and it deals with our new president and his campaign rhetoric.  President Obama campaigned on a promise of bringing change to Washington, and how politics would not be the same as usual as it has been.  By encouraging reconciliation, the president is encouraging business as usual in the legislative process, specifically when we are talking about cap and trade environmental policies, health care reform, and ultimately the budget.  This process will effectively eliminate the opinion of the minority in order to quickly pass massive changes to the way we approach vital areas of interest.  Silencing the minority, that sounds like an encore presentation of what we went through from 2001 until 2006, where the democrats had very little say in how business was conducted in our nation’s capital.

The president needs to get on the ball here and persuade his democratic colleagues on the hill that we need to have the opportunity for full and open debate from all fronts.  In the Fox News article I cited above, I was surprised at what Senator Robert Byrd had to say about the reconciliation process:

Legislation so far-reaching should be fully vetted and given appropriate time for debate, something the budget reconciliation process does not allow. Using this procedure would circumvent normal Senate practice and would be inconsistent with the Obama administration’s stated goals of bipartisanship, cooperation, and openness.

I have found it very difficult to find anything I can agree with Senator Byrd on, but on this occassion I find myself agreeing with him 100% on this issue.

I would like to see the President practice what he preaches because I am sick and tired of seeing business as usual here in the nation’s capital and would like to actually see something constructive accomplished in a bi-partisan manner.

Congratulations to President Obama!

What a historic day!  Even though I do not agree with most of President Obama’s political leanings, I can definitely recognize the historic importance of today’s inauguration.  I will make an additional post about the President’s inaugural address, but overall, I felt it was very centrist in nature, which was definitely a good thing.  It was definitely good to see the throngs of people on television, places I typically pass on my daily commute into Washington.  I have not seen the National Mall that packed before ever, even during the first inauguration of President G.W. Bush, which I attended, in 2001.

Today should definitely serve as an example to the rest of the world, that here in the United States of America, we can peacefully elect, and transition power from one administration to another.

I hope the Obama family and administration enjoys the day, because tomorrow, I expect the new Administration to start working.

Beltwaybandit’s Top Moment of 2008

Since today is the last day of 2008, I believe it is fitting to post today my top moment of 2008.

May 19-26, 2008

Sandals Whitehouse, Jamaica.  On May 19th, my lovely bride and I made the trek down to Jamaica.  We arrived late on May 19th for our wedding/honeymoon.  It was a long day, the 19th; however, we finally made it to Sandals Whitehouse on the evening of the 19th.  The following day, we spent the entire day laying out on the beach.  May 21st was the big day, where we got married on the beach.  We spent the rest of the week just lounging about and enjoying the nice Jamaica weather.  This week in May 2008 was truly the best week of the year for me.  It’s a time I will always remember, and something my wife also will remember for the rest of our lives!

Beltwaybandit’s Top Five Moments of 2008 Part 4

Here we go, my fourth best moment of 2008.

November 4, 2008

Even though I definitely don’t agree with most of Barack Obama’s policies and politics, I can’t help but choose election day this year as one of my top five moments of 2008.  I couldn’t believe the turnout this election cycle.  Never before had I ever had to wait in line for more than an hour to cast my ballot. 

What was even more impressive to me was that for the first time in our history, we elected an African-American as president.  I knew we would eventually do so, it just didn’t dawn on me that it would happen this year.  As I mentioned previously, even though I don’t agree with Barack Obama’s politics, I definitely see and understand the historical significance of this momentous event.  This is an event that I will never forget.

Beltwaybandit’s Top Five Moments of 2008 Part II

Here we go, another top moment of 2008 for me.  Remember, they are in no particular order, aside from the last one I will post about, that’s the best moment of 2008.

May 18, 2008

Staunton, VA, Mary Baldwin’s Commencement.  I woke up early this Sunday, and made the trek with my brother to Staunton, VA, for Mary Baldwin’s commencement, as my sister graduated from that fine all-girl’s institution with her bachelor’s in history.  It was a beautiful day for a commencement even though it was drizzling slightly at the beginning of the ceremony.  I can’t think of a day where I was prouder of my sister.  She worked hard these past four years, and it was great to witness such a wonderful accomplishment for my little sister.

We made it through the commencement ceremony, helped move my sister’s stuff out of her dorm room, had lunch, and we made our way back home.  My sister is definitely going to have a bright future now that she’s completed her college degree.  This day was definitely one of the highlight days of the year, and of my life.  Good job, Munchkin!!!

Beltwaybandit’s Top Five Moments of 2008 Part One

Wow!  What a year 2008 has been!  I have had quite the year and for the end of the year, I would like to begin a series of posts, over the course of the next few days, to document what I think are the best moments of the calendar year.  These will be in no particular order, with the exception of the last one I will post, which will be the best moment of 2008.  So here goes…

May 10, 2008

Fredericksburg, VA, UMW’s Centennial Commencement.  It was a wet and rainy day on this morning, an important morning for me.  I woke up early to make the trek down to historic Fredericksburg, VA, to receive my Masters in Business Administration.  I began the program in May 2005, and completed my academic requirements in March 2008.  Such an important and happy day for me this year.  My whole family was present, along with my wife.

It was pretty much your standard commencement.  A lot of people were in attendance, and the obvious, fighting for a parking spot.  We got started on time; however, with the rain, it seemed to go on forever.  That, and Senator John Warner, our commencement speaker, spoke for what seemed like all morning.  Everyone was pretty wet by the time the ceremony concluded.  Fortunately, the weather cleared up in time to get some pictures of the event.

It definitely a huge honor to be a member of the centennial class of UMW, and it is something I will cherish and tell my kids and grandkids, in the future.  It is my hope that having earned an MBA, it will open many doors of opportunity for me in 2009 and beyond.