verum planto vos solvo

Absent a plan Democrats employ "MEDISCARE"








Senior citizens have been, as a whole, a reliable voting block for the Democratic party. I have to wonder why, considering how little regard they have for them. Rep. Paul Ryan's proposed Medicare plan doesn't affect seniors currently on Medicare at all. In fact it wouldn't affect anyone over the age of 55. But that hasn't stopped the Dems from frightening seniors with horror stories of how the GOP wants to change their Medicare health coverage. You've seen the Dems TV ad showing grandma being pushed off a cliff by a not-to-dissimilar Paul Ryan character. Classy ad. It's one thing to have a passionate debate - it's quite another to deliberately distort facts in an effort to scare your constituents. That serves no one.

Medicare is in serious trouble. By comparison, Social Security is a cash fountain. Independent sources have Medicare going flat broke on 10 years. That ain't that far off kiddies. Tinkering around the edges wont cure what ails this program. It's way past time for a serious discussion as to what Medicare will evolve into within the next decade and beyond. Paul Ryan's plan calls for what essentially is a voucher program. The government issues seniors a check and allows them to purchase coverage by whatever insurance company they like. Unlike Medicare, you will have "choice". Most seniors currently have a secondary insurance plan. Medicare covers 80% of their costs while the secondary picks up the balance. The current cost of Medicare to a senior is about $100.00 a month. A bargain when you consider the secondary insurance can charge $175.00 or more just to pick up the remaining 20%. For a $100.00 a month premium, the bulk of your healthcare needs are met at a time when you are most likely to use it and with great frequency. Is it any wonder why the program is in such trouble?

Currently, the Medicare program has unfunded liabilities near 30 trillion dollars. The program is unsustainable. That's a fact no matter what your party affiliation. Future senior healthcare recipients will have two choices. A higher cost for good benefits. Or lower costs for virtually no benefits - witness Medicaid. These are the choices that 40 years of unsustainable promises has left us. I work in healthcare. 20 years ago an Ophthalmologist would collect about $1200.00 for a cataract surgery. Today Medicare pays nearly half that amount. Yet the doctor's staffing, malpractice insurance, etc. have not gone down 50%. Cataract surgery is the number one surgery performed in America today. As baby boomers age, it will still be the number one surgery but by a far greater percentage. Based upon past history - a doctor can expect to be paid about $250.00 by the time I'm ready. I pay more than that for a brake job. Many Ophthalmologists have decided to give up performing cataract surgery and who can blame them. Some doctors are refusing to participate with Medicare. It's just not financially feasible. So much for the benefits of government run healthcare. And make no mistake - that's what Medicare is.

To keep costs contained, medical surgeries and procedures will be denied. But not by the evil insurance companies - but by the new government Affordable Healthcare program. For all the scare tactics used such as how insurance companies will deny you a procedure - government insurance, Medicare denies benefits at a higher ratio. That's something you'll never hear on the 6:00 news.

In the end, Paul Ryan's plan wont pass the Senate. And if it did, The President wouldn't sign it so you can forget about it. But eventually some plan will have to be designed, accepted and implemented to save the program. It wont look the same as our parent's Medicare. It will have to evolve or cease to exist at all. Medicare as it was enacted in 1965 was always unsustainable. But politicians can do the math and many figured they'd be long gone by the time this impending disaster arrived - leaving someone else to clean up the mess.


Till now, Democrats have been getting away with calling any Republican Medicare restructuring efforts, "barbaric" and "draconian". But eventually, people will demand to see the Democratic plan. And trashing your opponent without producing a plan of your own is no plan at all. I'm certain there's a compromise out there that will provide for future seniors (me) and do it in a financially solvent way. I just don't know it it will actually happen soon enough before the wheels come off the whole damn thing. And if it does, remember - it happened in part because we put so much trust in elected officials who told us what we wanted to hear - not what we needed to hear.

Memorial Day 2011




I hesitate to tell this story because it might sound as though I'm attempting to flatter myself. But as you plow forward, you'll see that's not what this is about. A while back, my wife & I were having dinner at a local restaurant when we noticed a solitary uniformed soldier having dinner as well. As he was nearing the end of his meal, I called our waitress over and told her that I wanted to pay for his dinner. I was about halfway through explaining this when she smiled and nodded her head. She must have been through this before. Judging by what I saw him eat, I showed the waitress an amount of money, asked her if it would be enough, including a tip. She assured me it was more then enough. I asked her not to tell him who had paid for the meal but simply to say that it had been taken care of. Michele and I left before he was ever told the meal was paid for, which is exactly as I wanted it. The absolute last thing I wanted was for him to come over to our table and thank me. This was about thanking him - even with so small a gesture.




I have a soft spot for military personnel. I have never been asked to pick up a weapon, stand a post and defend it at any cost. Yet there are those who do exactly that. And they do it voluntarily without great fanfare and compensation. As I write this, there are American soldiers and Marines baking in the 110 degree heat of Afghanistan and Iraq. It matters not if you personally believe we belong in those theaters. It matters that there are those who will answer such a call. I don't know where America finds such men and women but there seems to be no shortage of them and I thank God for that. A few years ago, I saw an Army Lieutenant in Afghanistan being interviewed by an ABC News reporter. The reported noted that the Lieutenant graduated from Princeton University and could easily be living a more profitable and comfortable existence outside of the military. She asked him why was he in the military at all? His response was simple. He answered; "There will be time for that later. Right now, I'm here because I want to serve my country". That remark made the reporter look like a total doof. She couldn't imagine someone who would sacrifice their money making ability and personal safety like that. Thankfully, the Lieutenant had no problem with his decision. Where I come from, we call men like that "heroes".


Throughout our nation's history, we have been endowed by individuals who realize they are part of something bigger than themselves. The US military cemeterys around the world are a testement to this. In todays world, it's easy to become distracted by people and things of little or no consequence. We are saddened when a Hollywood icon dies - as though they were part of our family. But we can't remember many or any of our fallen American heroes. The most recent is Army Spc. Brandon M. Kirton, 25 of Centennial, Colorado. He was a member of the 101st Airborne and killed by insurgents in Afghanistan. I don't know much about him. He may have been married with a child - or he may have been single. Republican or Democrat? I have no idea. Straight or Gay - I don't care. All I know is that he was prepared to give the ultimate sacrifice if called upon. And sadly, that's the way it played out for Brandon. There are no words I can think of that would sufficiently comfort a Mother like Brandon's. But I think of the words of Abraham Lincoln in a letter he sent to a mother who lost 5 sons in the Civil War. In part he wrote:

"I feel how weak and fruitless any word of mine which should attempt to beguille you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your berevement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom."

A. Lincoln, 1864

Mrs. Kirton has herself laid that "costly sacrifice" upon the altar of freedom as well, but she is not alone. As in the past, many a good man and woman has paid the ultimate price. This coming weekend many of us will attend picnics and backyard gatherings. We'll enjoy the food and the company. We'll enjoy the long holiday weekend. And sadly, little of our time will actually involve making a conscious effort to thank those who over the past 235 years have died to keep us free. No one is asking you to pick up a weapon and storm a beach. You're not required to spend the night huddled up against a cold wall defending your position. Or kick open a door without knowing what's behind it. But we can honor those still here who serve by proudly flying our flag and making a simple donation to organizations who support our military. I choose to donate to Disabled American Veterans and the USO. You can do as you see fit. But I urge you to do something that honors our heroes that have fallen and remind our current service personnel that you have not forgotten their sacrifice. That's not a lot to ask between bites of your hotdog, is it? We truly are the land of the free, because of the brave.

Want to see my "inflammatory photos"?



The President has decided not to release photos of a dead bin Laden. Apparently he fears the world wide release of such photos would be "inflammatory" and suggested that the photos might be used as a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda. (Where have I heard this before.) That's the same argument he's made for closing Gitmo and yet Gitmo remains open. Convenient hypocrisy. Can we finally put to rest the illusion that actions taken by the U.S. are "recruiting tools"? Those sympathetic to Islamic extremism need no prompting from any U.S. actions to join the twisted ideology that embodies Al Qaeda. They're already sold on the idea. No further sales pitches are needed.


The President says that the photos would be inflammatory. Well, let me show you a photo that I always found particularly inflammatory. I've posted it here for your viewing. The photo has been called falling man for obvious reasons. The man in the photo jumped from a window high in the World Trade Center to avoid burning to death. Imagine the choice that he had to make. Imagine choosing to plummet a thousand feet to your demise as a viable alternative to some harsher mode of death. This man was not alone in making that choice. Dozens of others made the same choice that day. I can't begin to imagine being placed in such a situation. And earlier in that bright September morning, I doubt any of them thought such a choice would ever be required. We were all exposed to graphic violence that day. We saw the planes - loaded with passengers some as young as 2 years old, crash into the WTC again and again. We saw tons of steel and concrete cave in on emergency personnel. We saw a city devastated. A nation wounded. And we saw the people jump from those windows.



How can you incite an ideology that videotapes an American citizen, Nick Berg being beheaded then distributes the video? Or blows up innocent people gathered at a wedding? How do you get into the mind of the animals who would contemplate then execute such inhumane and evil acts? And then how can you believe that posting a photo of their dead leader could possibly incite them to do even worse? If Al Qaeda had an operable nuclear device at their disposal, do you have any doubts at all that they would use it?


I've seen evil and so have you. I've seen how far evil will go and now I need to see the mortal face of evil defeated - if only to assert to the world that we will not allow such acts to go unpunished. Mr. President, we are made of tougher stuff than you think. We've endured the loss and pain of September 11, 2001 and the personal loss that so many military families have endured in the aftermath of that day. After 10 years and 3000 lost lives later, we deserve to see the result of the retribution that was leveled. If the rest of the world has no stomach for it, then they can turn away. If those who sympathize with the terrorists are incited to fight us - we can assume they would have been urged to do so with or without any photos in the equation. Perhaps I am not as good a Christian as I hope to be. Maybe I shouldn't rejoice in the death of another human being. But I do. It's been said that only God can pass judgement on another human being. Well, now that were done with Bin Laden... God can have him.