Lynn Petrovich: An Unpopular War, Stockpiling Ammunition

An Unpopular War
Stockpiling Ammunition
(Part 9 in the series on Universal Single Payer Health Care)

“I drove past a school with a sign that said
‘WE’RE DRUG-FREE AND GUN-FREE’.
Later that day I drove past another school that didn’t
have a sign like that. What am I supposed to
infer from this about the second school?”
George Carlin

I’m told that a chicken can easily be led to slaughter if you place its head under one of the wings and twirl it around in circular motions several times. When the bird is placed back on the ground, it is so disoriented that it virtually collapses with its neck lying directly across the chopping block.
The point being: Kill it before it knows what’s happening.
After witnessing the responses to the various health care proposals being bantered about in Congress, it is obvious America’s loudest and most vulgar citizens have experience in chicken farming. I couldn’t believe the nonsense that was being discharged on the airwaves, in newspapers and magazines, and more importantly at so-called citizen forums.
The totally unfounded warnings of impending doom which include (but are not limited to) rationing health care, Marxism, death panels, references to socialism, Nazi philosophy (and don’t forget Hitler!) are nothing more than scare tactics whose only goal is to further disorient citizens on the subject of health care by leading us around in vicious circles until we are ultimately back to where the privately-run insurance conglomerates want us to be: So frightened of change that we’ll continue to be stuck with a broken, stupid, crass, and immoral system that feeds the insatiable appetite of The Beast (Blue Cross/Empire/Aetna/Cigna/Kaiser, to name a few) at the expense of us chickens.
One hundred and sixty years ago Karl Marx was fascinated by the theory that a thing or thought could not be separated from its opposite; for example a slave could not exist without the master, and visa versa. Unity, he said, could only be achieved by equalizing the opposites through a logical, progressive dialect.
Of course there’s no profit in harmony, and that is why we are besieged with the venom from the likes of Limbaugh, FOX, National Review, Glenn Beck, too many to name.
Who stands a better chance of survival, the snake or the chicken?
Therefore, in an effort to promote something called “facts”, I present the following data to my fellow American chickadees. You’d better hold on to your peckers:
First: If you loathe socialized medicine, immediately run to your nearest Representative’s office and demand a change in the benefits we give to our men and women in uniform: The Veteran’s Administration is socialized medicine. It is government-run health care that has attended to the wounds of all of our soldiers (regardless of class, age, race, ability to pay, or gender) for over 60 years.
Second: Medicare is a 44 year old successful public-private partnership (not socialized medicine) between the federal government (at an annual overhead cost that runs 20 to 35% less than The Beast) and the private sector that delivers services (doctors, nurses, hospitals, labs, all independently owned and operated). It is universal coverage (without denial for pre-existing conditions) that is available to any citizen over age 65 who wants to pay as little as $94 per month. Nothing currently being considered by Congress would change Medicare.
Third: If you presently collect health benefits under a government plan (35 million Americans including children, teachers, municipal workers, USPO, state and federal employees), nothing will change. And that’s too bad. Because every taxpaying citizen hands over approximately $400 billion to private health conglomerates to administer these government plans. Why are we wasting as much as 35% of our taxpaying dollars in this manner?
Fourth: Since universal coverage is cheep – sorry, cheap - the savings under a plan like John Conyers’ H.R. 676 – Universal Single Payer Health Care – which would extend Medicare to all citizens, are enormous. There would not be a $1.3 trillion price tag to taxpayers. To the contrary, 95% of taxpayers would actually pay less in both premiums and property taxes.
As an example, under H.R. 676, the County of Gloucester, which in 2008 paid $20,294,026 in health insurance premiums for its 1,343 employees (average cost $15,111), would see a savings of over $16 million (7% reduction in the county portion alone of property taxes). In Monmouth County, Ocean Twp would save $9 million (12.5% reduction in property taxes), Brick Township, located in Ocean County, would see a savings of $32 million (almost 20% reduction in property taxes). The list is endless. The extrapolated savings per year for the State of NJ would exceed $2 billion – and here’s the best part: All without killing grandma.
Now that’s no chicken feed!
Lynn Petrovich, CPA, Copyright 2009