Does the Federal Government Treat Americans Equally?
While politicians referred to each other as jihadists, terrorists, hostage holders, and a few other niceties, Obama and liberals came out in force against the nickname for the Washington Redskins. If "redskin" is a slur, then why have I heard Obama and Bob Costas use the term in the past? If they really believe this is a slur then they would refuse to say it, right? In any event, I am going to go all out and try to get name of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish changed – as an Irish American I am offended by this slur (of course I am kidding). It is just odd that Obama can talk about a slur at the same time he is demonizing and name calling others.
Over 90% of Americans were not affected at all by the shutdown. And the number would have been higher if Obama did not go out of his way (and spend taxpayer money) to inconvenience Americans by shutting down monuments that were in open space. Even worse, the shutdown did not include the death benefit for fallen soldiers families. Obama went out of his way to purposely inconvenience veterans and their families and use them as political pawns.
While the public mostly blamed Republicans for the shutdown, the President and liberal politicians also saw their approval numbers drop.
While Republicans caved to the Democrats, in the long run this will be better for the conservatives. Since ObamaCare is not delayed and no improvements were made to the law, chances are most Americans will feel the pain of this law. Not only is it hard to sign up for the law, but most families will see massive premium hikes. If that is not bad enough, many hospitals and medical facilities are laying off workers meaning less people will be available to care for a larger patient pool. Does anyone find it the least bit odd that Obama can use technology and metadata analysis to win elections by profiling all Americans, but the administration cannot even put together a website to enroll people into healthcare insurance plans? The bottom line is that ObamaCare will hurt Americans and this will be the one talking point Republicans can use to win in the midterm election and the next Presidential election. This is one example of how big government intrusion leads to more pain and suffering, fraud, waste, and bureaucracy that families will be able to relate to. Democrats may have won the shutdown fight, but ObamaCare will doom them as Americans will ultimately be the losers in this deal.
While most Americans saw the government shutdown as a bad thing with each side of the political spectrum blaming each other as obstructionists - I see it a different way. I see it as checks and balances to prevent either side from garnering too much power – that is it.
I would have died when I was 10 if our general practitioner did not find out I had a gamma globulin deficiency (called the silent killer because it symptoms are hard to detect). He solved the problem, there were no specialists. Today, our doctor crams 30 patients into a daily schedule (15 minutes per patient). He only works 3 days a week, but does not seem to have any time to do any research on patients in his care that are struggling. And our doctor also made it a point to blame our insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Colorado, for the reason referrals and appointments were moving slowly. All of the specialists my wife saw said a person's health insurance coverage has no bearing on appointment availability. Interestingly, Blue Cross Blue Shield regularly adjusts our doctor's claims by as much as 50% for an office visit. This is why he does not like Blue Cross Blue Shield - because they do not think it is acceptable to charge over 100 dollars for a 15 minute appointment (we live in the middle of nowhere, so doctors are far and few between). This is especially true for a doctor who sets up appointments to merely say "I do not know what is wrong with you". This information could have been conveyed in a simple phone conversation. He told us it takes up to 3 months to see a Rheumatologist, especially a patient like my wife who he continued to assume had nothing wrong with her, other than depression (Yes, my wife became depressed. She didn't start out depressed, but after being sick for 6 months, anyone would become depressed. More than depressed, she was frustrated with the medical industry. She is a fighter and was her own best advocate.). My wife set up an appointment with one of the best hospitals in the country and only had to wait 1 week to see a top rated Rheumatologist. Why? Simply because my wife advocated for herself and called the hospital directly. She went over her records with a nurse who reported the information to a Rheumatologist who expedited her appointment. It took our doctor's office 2 weeks to fax my wife's records to this hospital and even lied about getting it done sooner. Yes, my wife's waiting time for an appointment was less than the time it took to set up the referral. Interesting how our doctor would not take 15 minutes to advocate for his patient to expedite an appointment because he saw no urgency, but a Rheumatologist who had yet to see my wife thought differently. This is quite a contrast in urgency. In other words, it is sad to say, but we are convinced our doctor cares more about money than my wife's well-being. If he cared about her health he would have called a few times to check in on her. The doctor who saved my life as a youth visited me at home on his own free will and dime. The bottom line; advocate for your own health and if your doctor is not listening go elsewhere – even if you have to drive hours for an appointment.
We think my wife's condition was intensified by the fact we live at 8000 feet (mycoplasma thrive at low pressure). What is interesting about this story is that at times my wife had several BFS symptoms similar to mine including muscle twitching. As it turns out, I suffer from many symptoms of a mycoplasma infection including arthritis (but blood work says I do not have arthritis but I have bone growths on my knuckles), low body temperature, hair loss (more so than others in my family), skin rashes, Raynaud like symptoms, allergies, sore throat, muscle pain and fatigue, and so on. It turns out, I too am positive for mycoplasma. Unfortunately, in my case, the organisms have not only been present for a long time but probably active for a long time doing irreversible damage. The sooner mycoplasma infections can be identified the quicker they can be corrected and the better chance of making a 100% recovery.
Just like BFS, mycoplasma symptoms are unique for each person. Mycoplasma symptoms can be complicated when a person has an infection due to multiple forms of mycoplasma. Mycoplasma infections can also be complicated by the number of internal organs the infection infiltrates. The same can happen if a person with BFS has multiple triggers or causes – they can get very complicated symptoms. If some BFS cases are caused by mycoplasma infections, then this gives credence to the argument that BFS is an autoimmune disorder. Is it feasibile mycoplasma infections can lead to BFS symptoms? Absolutely, in fact it is the most sensible argument of a catalyst working inside our bodies to transform a traumatic experience into actual symptoms. We know very little about mycoplasma and as more research comes forth, it may become more obvious of its role in BFS. If mycoplasma is shown to commonly coexist with ALS, MS, and fibromyalgia patients, then how hard can it be to accept that mycoplasma coexists with a high percentage of BFS sufferers. What's worse mycoplasma can be masking chronic conditions that can be cured in BFS sufferers.
My wife had a mycoplasma infection that literally had her sick for months. Our doctor's response was slow and he showed little urgency even though I thought she was dying. He took his time with referrals and took constant badgering to get referrals done and appointments set. Our doctor says he believes my wife when she says there is something wrong, but he said there is nothing he can do to expedite matters because most of her tests were normal. He showed no urgency even though she had lost 15% of her body mass over a four week period of time. Gradually my wife saw one specialist after another - gynecologist, gastroenterologist, rheumatologist, and so on over a 6 month period of time. She had numerous blood tests, but everything came back negative except the mycoplasma test. It was my wife's own advocacy for her own health that pointed our reluctant doctor in the right direction. Her research led her to ask the physician to check for a mycoplasma bacteria and it was positive. Once she was put on an antibiotic she slowly began to improve. The doctor was also reluctant to give her an antibiotic prescription and was even more reluctant to give her a cycline based antibiotic – which works best for mycoplasma. Our doctor called the request a "Hail Mary" and seemed dumbfounded when she reported feeling better.
If a patient has no history of "crying wolf" then a doctor should show more urgency to help the patient. It is not acceptable to throw your arms up in the air and give up. Our doctor admitted his job was merely to treat symptoms and refer patients to specialists. That is a shame. Doctors seem to be reactive instead of proactive. Our doctor never consulted with his colleagues over my wife's case.
I need to open with the disclaimer that I am NOT a medical professional. I am merely a person who suffers from Benign Fasciculation Syndrome (BFS) and have been analytically evaluating the disorder. So my writings are generally based on personal experience and a mathematical analysis of the disorder. The information in this writing was obtained from Dr. Greg Emerson, the U.S. National Library of Medicine, and the National Institute of Health.
Many people with BFS can point to a trigger that initiated the start of their symptoms. Some of these triggers were an illness (virus), prescription drugs, vaccination, spine injury, exposure to toxins, stress, trauma, exercise, or some other cause. But something has to happen within the body to act as a catalyst to convert these triggers into symptoms. Mycoplasma may be one such catalyst. I am not saying that mycoplasma is the catalyst for all BFS sufferers, but I do believe it is the reason for some including in my case.
Mycoplasma is the smallest free living organism and is cross between a virus and bacteria. What differentiates mycoplasma is that they lack a cell wall and that makes them hard to treat because they are resistant to most antibiotics and penicillin. Mycoplasma can lie dormant in the body until another bacteria, virus, stress, or toxin activates the symptomatic phase. Once this occurs mycoplasma multiplies within the cells of our bodies and destroys the cell. Once the host cell is destroyed, symptoms are created by the release of three types of toxins into the bloodstream – Ednocytokines which cause inflammation and pain; Neurocytokines which produce symptoms found in MS, Depression, and anxiety; and Allergens causing allergies.
Most immune systems can fight these organisms; however people with compromised immune systems may develop chronic diseases and infections. Chronic infections implicated with mycoplasma are Rheumatoid arthritis, reactive arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, pneumonia, flu, allergies, fibromyalgia, Gulf War Syndrome, lupus, scleroderma, vasculitis, multiple sclerosis, Sjogren's syndrome (dry eyes and throat), Crohn's disease, irritated bowl syndrome, heart disease, depression, AIDS, ALS, appendicitis, Grave's Disease, thyroiditis, Lyme's Disease, asthma, Alzheimer's, and a plethora of other autoimmune disorders.
There are four main types of mycoplasma found in humans: mycoplasma pneumonia, mycoplasma hominis, mycoplasma genitalium, and ureaplasma urealyticum. Some people are born with some or all of these forms of mycoplasma. They thrive during times of low pressure and live off body cholesterol. They are commonly found in animals and insects and can be transported by the dust in the wind. Mycoplasma can also be passed between humans similar to how the flu is transported. And some mycoplasma can be transported sexually. Needless to say, most people have mycoplasma.
Mycoplasma symptoms include chills, cough, fever, shortness of breath, chest pain, headaches, fatigue, muscle pain and stiffness, joint pain and stiffness, sweating and clammy skin, diarrhea, ear and eye pain, skin rashes, sore throat, allergies, phloem, sleep disturbances, visual disturbances, memory and concentration impairment, arthritis, kidney stones, gall stones, testicular pain, asthma, heart attacks, stroke, burning while urinating, the sensation of a full bladder, Raynaud's Syndrome like symptoms, low body temperature, hair loss, spine paralysis, weight loss, and dozens of other symptoms making mycoplasma infections hard to identify and treat.
The good news is that people with chronic conditions caused by mycoplasmas can be corrected if not 100% to some degree. The common treatment is a certain type of antibiotics – tetracycline and minocycline work well. Unfortunately, it could take several months or even years of antibiotic treatment to rid the body of these toxic organisms. If a prolonged antibiotic treatment is required then they should be rotated to avoid the development of resistance. During the first few days or weeks of the treatment, symptoms can initially get worse before they improve – this is known as a Herxheimer reaction.
Obama may be the only President who purposely tries to needlessly incite fear into the public and global markets. This past week Obama tried to spook the markets into a sell off saying Wall Street should be very worried and concerned with the shutdown and looming debt ceiling. Obviously, Obama has political motive for these unnecessary words – if he can get the markets to unravel then Republicans will give him what he wants – A clean federal budget bill.
Obama also tried to intimidate citizens by using a barricade to block Washington DC monuments that are in the open. He also placed guards outside of monuments to prevent people from entering. This is ridiculous and the only reason to do this is to make a political statement and catch the ire of the public.
Obama has done this in the past – remember how he preached that the U.S. economy was going to collapse if sequestration was instated. Well, it has been nearly year and the sky has not fallen. The sequestration only cut 85 billion of spending on a nearly 3 trillion dollar budget (less than 3%). Interestingly, the government shutdown has furloughed about 40% of all federal employees (800,000 workers out of about 2.1 million nationally). Of course this is bad news for these workers and their families. But Obama and Democrats do not want the government shutdown to last very long for one important reason. The American public might find out that the government operates just fine with only 60% of its employees on the job.
NASA has kept only 3% of its workforce (NASA, incidentally, is the most innovative government entity), Obama's beloved EPA has decided only 6.5% of its workforce is essential for government operation, only 9.3% of the IRS was deemed essential, 10% of the Education Department, 18% of the Treasury Department, 20% of the Department of the Interior, and 22% of the Labor Department. On the other hand, 86% of all Department of Homeland Security employees were retained, 95% of Veterans Affairs employees remained on the job as did 100% of the State Department. If Americans become informed of this information and the government shutdown lasted a prolonged amount of time – then Americans may demand these cuts be made permanent.
Obama has been screaming for a "clean" budget bill. A clean bill means there are no amendments attached to it. But there is really no such thing as a clean bill anymore. ObamaCare and the Recovery Act for instance, which passed on a partisan basis, had several dozen amendments attached to the bill. Hence, even bills agreed to by one Party cannot even get through the bureaucracy of congress without an amendment. Obama has signed hundreds of bills riddled with earmarks, pork barrel spending, and carve outs. And now he expects something as large as a federal budget bill to get through congress without an amendment? Oh the drama portrayed by this hypocrite.
Obama has even claimed he is open to ideas to improve ObamaCare. He has claimed he has bent over backwards to work with Republicans. This is not true, and if Republican input was allowed on ObamaCare we would not be in this mess. There is bipartisan agreement amongst Congress to fix things in ObamaCare such as removing the medical device tax. This would be a middle ground compromise on the budget shutdown fiasco. But Obama and his fear mongering drama will not let his ego ever admit he made any mistakes. Instead, Obama is pushing forward with a very flawed law while at the same time he is warning the public and Wall Street the sky is falling (Yes, once again).
Obama would rather negotiate with the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Syrian government, Russia, and Iran than negotiate with Republicans over the budget. Yes, that is right, Obama will negotiate with terrorists, genocidal leaders, and rogue nations before dealing with Republicans.
Obama would rather campaign than negotiate with Republicans over a budget.
Obama would rather praise our enemies and chastise Republicans as being extremists.
Obama would rather use federal monies to implement ObamaCare at the expense of government workers losing their jobs.
Obama would rather go on overseas trips than negotiate with Republicans over the budget.
Obama would rather play basketball and golf than negotiate with Republicans over the budget.
There are many reasons Obama would opt for a government shutdown than negotiate with Republicans. First, history is on his side, the public general blames Republicans in these instances because they believe in a smaller federal government. Secondly, there is no better way to change the narrative from administration scandals: Fast and Furious, DOJ targeting, EPA targeting, IRS targeting, Syria, and Benghazi. Thirdly, with Obama's approval numbers tanking, he has little to lose by going this route.
Ted Cruz may be portrayed as the villain by the media and public in this budget fight, but at least he is donating his salary to charity during this time. Every other politician, including the President, is getting paid.
Obama and liberals claim his 100 billion dollar "green" energy project that was embedded in the Recovery Act (Stimulus) is investment in innovation. This is far from the truth. I have written several blogs about how the government is providing very little innovation compared to the private sector. Here are some reasons and statistics as to why this is true.
First, 98% of all patents in 2010 were filed by the private sector, 1% were filed by the government, and 1% were filed jointly between the government and private sector. Hence, we can conclude the government is involved in about 1.5% of all U.S. patents. Government discretionary spending for the fiscal year 2013 is expected to be about 8% of our GDP. Hence, the government should produce over 5 times as many patents as they created. This statistic shows the government's inefficiency in spending compared to the private sector. And I am giving the government the benefit of the doubt here because about 12% to 13% of GDP this year will be for welfare and entitlement spending, which we can conclude has nothing to do with investment in innovation (although Democrats would disagree). Hence, the private sector generated 98.5% of the innovation despite being less than 80% of the nation's GDP.
Secondly, more than half the government patents come from the Department of Defense including NASA. However, Obama has made massive cuts to NASA and progressives alike would like nothing more than to cut military spending by 4 or 5 times. Hence, we can expect government patents and innovation to decline in the future based on cuts to innovative science organizations such as NASA.
Thirdly, money from Obama's 100 billion dollar "green" stimulus is not funding research and development to create innovative ways to improve costs and performance of renewable energies, instead the money is going to companies whose technologies are already established. In other words, these companies are not generating any new technology which essentially means they are making products that have no advantages over global competition. Since companies in China have huge advantages over U.S. companies in manufacturing costs, most U.S. companies without any technological edge are destined to fail despite being subsidized by the government.
Fourthly, anyone can invest in a company, there is nothing innovative about buying a stock or handing out a loan. However, very few people have the capability of being innovative or investing in innovative start up companies.
What's worse, government investment in corporations is hypocritical and bad for many reasons. First, as pointed out above, this is not investment in innovation. Secondly, it provides the government the opportunity to pick winners and losers in any given industry. And the winners are generally those with financial ties to the administration (campaign contributions). This creates a vicious cycle of tainted money based on quid pro quo deals and legislation filled with carve outs and earmarks. The only people this type of investment benefits besides the CEOs and politicians are the lobbyists. If you believe in separation of Church and State than you should believe the government has no business investing in companies because this cannot be done fairly without the involvement of bias. Secondly, if you think investment firms like Bain Capital are vulture capitalists than you should not expect the government to conduct similar business ventures. However, there are stark differences between Bain and Government investment. People have a choice to invest in Bain Capital. Taxpayers do not have a choice in how the government spends their hard earned money. Bain Capital has to be transparent by informing investors of their future business plans and goals whereas the government does not have to be transparent with their investments. And if Bain Capital fails the company goes belly up whereas if government investments fail they attempt to collect more revenues to squander. So who are the real "vulture capitalists"? The federal government! And who are the real innovators? The private sector! So it makes sense to keep the money in the hands of the private sector and out of the hands of the bureaucratic government.