Health Co-ops Meet With Trouble

The article from the Washington Post can be found here.

With the Affordable Care Act coming into the scene in the recent weeks, there was a push that the government made trying to set up non-profit insurance companies. They wanted to create some competition in the market against insurance companies that many feel are taking advantage of their clients. This proposition was a hopeful success, originating from the Senate and being reviewed and changed some by Congress, but it looks like it may not work. There has been a lot of trouble getting funding for them, and a couple have already closed down. This would leave a lot of people who had opted into those programs with medical bills to pay, and the funding for them would have gone to waste.

I think that this was a daring move by the government. I would love to see some competition against insurance companies of all kinds, lowering the prices but allowing for us to also be insured. Just recently there was a flood in my house and it has been disturbing to see the amount of dishonesty, from the insurance companies, and the reviewer (who was going to have to lie to get us any money). It is sad to me that there has to be so much deceit and corruption in a program that is designed for the benefit of others. The same is true for medical insurance companies. They will find any loophole that they can to cover as little as possible. I think that while these programs may be failing, they present a good point. We need competition. That is how a free market works. If we do not get some sort of opposition to the already present and very powerful insurance companies, then we will just have insurance rates increase, while corruption causes our coverage to decrease.

GOP Reassess After Shutdown

The link to the article on the Washington Post is here.

The message of the article is simple, and clear: The republicans are recognizing a need to push back against the extremists in their party. The government shutdown was a shocking event. One that perhaps changed the dynamics of politics for forever. Never in the history of political polls has the approval rating for Republicans been this low. If they do not act quickly then they will be in big trouble, and it could cause somewhat of "political chaos" due to their falling apart.

So what do I think? I'll be honest, I am a conservative Republican. But I do agree with this article. There is a division in the Republican party. There was once a story told about a wedge, that was rested by a young farmer in a young tree, at the base of one of the "Y's" that branches come together at. He decided he would pick it up later that day, but got busy, forgot, and left it there. Years passed, and the tree grew around the wedge, swallowing it up. But then a storm hit. The wedge was in the center of the tree, and because it had weakened the tree, the tree fell apart. It was split in half and fell, all due to a small wedge. This is the position that the Republican party is in. There is a division, a wedge, in their ranks. If they do not take the time now, when it is exposed and easy to remove, then it will become so deeply rooted in the system that it will be nearly impossible to remove. And then, when the storms hit, they will fall apart. Now is the time to act. Now is the time to make the necessary changes, and restore relative balance to the two-party system.

Same-sex Marriage Lawsuit in Michigan

The article is here. My apologies that it is so brief and on ksl.com

In this article it states that there was a federal judge, Bernard Friedman, is going to hold a trial before deciding whether or not to overturn the ban in Michigan on same-sex marriage. The reason this came up is that a lesbian couple in Michigan was in the process of trying to adopt each other's children, and the judge suggested that they actually go up and challenge the ban on same-sex marriage. Judge Friedman says that he needs to see research and statistics, numbers and facts, about the benefits and drawbacks of same-sex marriage in order to determine the outcome of their challenge.

I don't want to get into an ideological battle. It's a fight that no one will be able to win, since we are so firmly set in our ideas. What I do want to evaluate is the fact that it is within Michigan's rights to ban same-sex marriage. According to DOMA the Defense of Marriage Act the following definition was put forth: "The word marriage means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife . . ." You can find that here. The definition of marriage is between one man and one woman. The ruling in Michigan that same-sex marriage is banned is constitutional under that definition. 

Nobel Prizes in America

You can find the article here.

This article is about three people who won the Nobel Prize in America for their work in economics. I don't think that I'm the only one to find this slightly ironic, given the circumstances our country is in right now. These three men had devoted a lot of time to their work, and we are obviously seeing the fruits of their labor.

The reason that I chose this for one of the issues is because the economic conflict in America. People are losing trust for the government. We are at a new low. There are so many people, with so many differing opinions that all hope is squandered until we have none, because we can't hear those hopeful voices rise out of all of the despair. But that is the biggest threat to our country. A people without hope can not function. But these three men stand as a beacon of hope. They show that all is not lost. Three men, not just one, were awarded the Nobel Prize for economy. There are people who know a lot about economy in our country. We need to keep our hopes high and encourage those who know how to manage money to come forward and help our country. We must not lose hope.

The New $100 Bill

The article I got this from is here.

In this article it is explained that we have printed a new one hundred dollar bill. It has the highest security measures, including a 3-D blue strip, a hard to copy bell and inkwell, along with original counterfeit deterrents, such as watermarks. This has been decades in the working, and the highest security measures are being applied.

What I am questioning is why? Why do we need better one hundred dollar bills? Is counterfeiting really that big of an issue? I tend to believe that it is not. I am not saying that counterfeiting is good in any way, but I am not sure that our research is best spent in pursuit of a better one hundred dollar bill. Was the money spent on the new bill worth what it will "save" us from forging money? According the the Secret Service, the amount of forged money in circulation in the United States economy is . . . 0.01%. Is this really where we should be spending our money? We are trillions of dollars in debt, and we are worried about a hundredth of a percent of forged money? I think that one of the biggest issues with out government spending is money priority management. If we don't spend money on just the essentials first, and use what is left over for wants, then we will fail. We should not be spending our money researching and developing for such a minor statistic.