Protect Jobs in China or in the U.S.? Take a Stand!

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 2

Why does our economy continue to decline as more Americans are reduced to government-dependency every day? Please take two minutes to watch our vice-president Joe Biden try to defend the US free-trade policies of recent years (including the Trans-Pacific Partnership which is currently being fast-tracked through Congress) and see Pat Buchanan destroy them:

Biden, his boss President Obama, and Harry Reid claim to be motivated by the dream of a “New World Order”, a “level playing field”, and “the success of those with whom we compete”. Sadly, many Republicans including house speaker John Boehner are rolling over as well.

Could it be that these Washington, DC elites are owned by the incredibly wealthy business tycoons and their lobbyists who have profited greatly by shipping 55% of our manufacturing jobs overseas?

In his upcoming state of the union speech President Obama is expected to decry income inequality, while out of the other side of his mouth he promotes free trade. The two are incompatible. Free trade clearly creates income inequality by creating enormous corporate profits without domestic employment.

Isn’t it about time our leaders take a stand for American jobs and families?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Now stand in the place where you work.
Now face west. [toward China!]
Think about the place where you live,
Wonder why you haven’t before!

STAND – R.E.M.

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Side note for Montanans: Rep. Steve Daines (R) and Sen. Max Baucus (D) have supported the Trans-Pacific Partnership; Sen. Jon Tester (D) appears to support the treaty, but has demanded protections for the US timber industry.

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Sign Up Now for ObamaCar – Subsidized Car Insurance!

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 3

Cheech and Chong - Up In Smoke Why fight it? You know, when he’s right, he’s right.

This ObamaCare deal is sweet. My friend Barack (he still calls me “friend” and asks for $5 every day) says we can all have better health care, it will cost little or nothing, and we can keep our favorite doctors.

Isn’t it great? Instead of buying my own health insurance, he says I can get a subsidized policy for a lot less money that covers a lot more stuff – even stuff I don’t need, like birth control and drug counseling! And nobody has to pay for it! I think the money just comes out of his “stash”.

Most people have quit working now that unemployment checks keep coming indefinitely and disability is so easy to get. A family of four can get $632 per month in free food — and heck, now they are all on the ObamaCare website getting free health care too through Medicaid! My friends in Colorado are so happy, because they have more money to spend on those awesome brownies.

It’s great that I don’t have to face the risk of health problems any more. In fact, ObamaCare is so cool, I’m going to call my friend Barack on my ObamaPhone and ask him for another new program.

What if somebody smashes my car? I can’t afford a new one. And my friends in Colorado might hit a light pole on the way home from work now that everybody is smoking weed on coffee breaks. We shouldn’t have to pay for our own car insurance. We need ObamaCar! Free or subsidized Car Insurance!

You know, now that I won’t have to buy health insurance or car insurance any more, I’m going to move to Colorado, get on disability and food stamps, hang out with my friends, hire me a driver, and just cruise around all day smoking weed in the back seat of the low rider! ObamaCar! Woo hoo!

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Baby you can drive my car
Yes I’m gonna be a star!
Baby you can drive my car
And maybe I’ll love you.
Beep beep, m’ beep beep, yeah!

Baby You Can Drive My Car – Paul McCartney

Rubio Threatens ObamaCare Bailouts – Health Insurers Freak Out

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 2

photo courtesy of Gaebler.com Have you wondered why the big health insurance companies have not put up a fight against the federal government takeover of their industry? By outward appearance it would seem that Obama, Reid and Pelosi are hell-bent on putting the health insurance guys out of business. Shouldn’t they be screaming bloody murder?

The ObamaCare concept is, at best, a house of cards. I contend it is a predictable “train wreck,” certain to happen. It is based on the premise that healthy young people will suddenly trip over themselves running to buy insurance plans that they don’t want, don’t need, don’t understand, and can’t afford, in order to subsidize coverage for the sick and elderly. The further assumption is that fear of a tiny tax penalty some time in the distant future will scare the youngsters into compliance today – kids who, if they report taxes at all, just hand their W2s to H&R Block once a year, and then turn right back to their Facebook pages.

Early indications are that the young are staying away from ObamaCare in droves. Many older citizens who had individual insurance have lost or dropped their policies. Most transactions on the ObamaCare exchanges are actually signups for free Medicaid, not affordable insurance. And since it didn’t occur to the ObamaCare planners to release hospitals from the requirement to provide emergency care to anybody who shows up at the door, guess what? The “poor” are still going to the ER, largely because they don’t know any better.

The demographic assumptions that established the viability of ObamaCare have already been blown to smithereens.

It would appear ObamaCare is pushing the insurance companies (and self-insured employers) toward financial armageddon. They are now loaded with mandates and reporting requirements, forced to assume high-risk clients and pre-existing conditions, faced with the loss of profitable group insurance policies and struggling to react to minute-by-minute rule changes well after the game started. Why haven’t the insurance guys complained?

Now we know. The whole thing was a setup.

ObamaCare stack The CBO had already projected that the federal government will pass $1 trillion of taxpayer funds through to the insurance companies. But Wait! Now we learn that buried deep in the 20,000+ pages of the ObamaCare regulations are two little gems that the administration didn’t want to see the light of day: Section 1341, the “reinsurance fund” and Section 1342, the “risk-corridor provision”.

The reinsurance fund provides the insurance companies a stop-loss at $45,000 on big claims. 80% of any claims above that amount are covered by (you guessed it) the taxpayers. The risk-corridor provision even further insulates the insurance companies from losses (up to 80%) due to changes in the demographics of ObamaCare enrollees (see above).

Thanks to Charles Krauthamer and Senator Marco Rubio these boondoggles have been revealed (don’t wait for an expose’ on MSNBC) and a push to repeal the provisions is gathering steam.

Krauthamer: First order of business for the returning Congress: The No Bailout for Insurance Companies Act of 2014. Make it one line long: “Sections 1341 and 1342 of the Affordable Care Act are hereby repealed.” End of bill. End of bailout. End of story.

Not surprisingly, the health insurance executives are freaking out.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

All that pressure got you down
Has your head been spinning all around?
Ah, freak out! (Le freak, c’est chic)
Freak out! (Le freak, c’est chic)
Freak out!

Le Freak – Chic – 1977

The gals are still lookin’ mighty freakin’ good in this 2004 Chic concert footage:

The Government Can’t Force Equal Outcomes

Posted on December 26, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

I am NOT an old fuddy-duddy.

I like new ideas and am always on the lookout for something bigger, better, or faster. But I have to admit I can’t understand why we keep trying to fix things that aren’t broken. When something is working, why can’t we just let it work?

Back in the “good old days”, a typical family would at some point want to participate in the American Dream. Mom and Dad would build their savings at a local bank or “savings and loan” for a few years until they could afford a down payment on a home. Then they would go to the bank and apply for a mortgage.

The bank would judge whether this family was a good “risk”. After all, they wanted to protect the assets of the bank’s owners and other depositors. When a family put down a significant amount of its own money, usually 20%, they could be counted on to make the payments to protect their own assets.

This simple little arrangement worked beautifully. It was a system of checks and balances – free market capitalism at its finest. Americans were encouraged to work and save, and were rewarded for that good behavior. Banks were stable, secure, and well, boring. New home construction and the manufacture of home products ensured full employment and drove our GDP to make our nation prosperous and strong. Real capital multiplied and our standard of living improved predictably, year after year. And it was eminently fair.

But then somebody decided maybe it is not so equitable for one family to own a home when another did not.

And look at us now. The government holds or guarantees over half of all home mortgages, and a good portion of those loans exceed the value of the homes or are in default. The taxpayers bailed out the banks, allowing them to maintain their exhorbitant executive salaries and bonuses while the bank tellers are on public assistance. Banks no longer make their living by holding savings (for which they paid interest) and loaning that money (for which they charged interest). They now bathe in profits by holding cash balances generated by the Federal Reserve, which buys government bonds with artificial cash. Those profits are invested in the same mortgage derivatives that caused the banking crash and bailouts in the first place. Savers get zero interest from the banks while the purchasing power of their dollars continues to dwindle. Unemployment is epidemic as government benefits now exceed entry-level wages. And the standard of living for everyone (except the bankers and those connected to the government) continues to tumble. What a disaster – all caused by the government messing up the banking business in the name of “equality”.

Now we are told that it is unfair for some to have health insurance while others don’t – a federal takeover of the medical care delivery system is required. And we are told it is unfair that some earn less money than others, so federal laws must force employers to increase their payroll expense.

When will we admit that government can not force equal outcomes for any sustained period? Every time the government tries to bend and shape the time-tested rules of the free market, the result is butt-ugly. I know it. You know it. Everybody knows it.

Kind of makes you question their motives, doesn’t it?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Bend me, shape me
Anyway you want me,
Long as you love me, it’s all right
Bend me, shape me
Anyway you want me,
You got the power to turn on the light.

Bend Me, Shape Me – the American Breed

I’m Crossing Geico Off My Christmas Card List

Posted on December 16, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard 12

Geico gecko I just about fell off the couch.

While enjoying a TV football game this weekend, I was subjected to a Geico Insurance commercial featuring that cute little British (or Aussie, or Newzie, or some other “smarter than American”) gecko. To my surprise, the commercial was not about insurance.

It was a snarky little victory dance celebrating what the gecko proclaimed to be the end of the Tea Party.

In the commercial, the gecko has ordered a cup of tea at a ritzy Boston dockside restaurant, but the wind blows his tea bag into the Boston Harbor. “Oh deah . . . ” the aristocratic little amphibian laments. “I’ve dropped my tea into Boston Hah-bah. Huh, I guess this pahty’s ovah!”

For me, this was a first. I don’t recall ever seeing an American business buy expensive nationwide advertising time to make a left-handed, snarky bitch-slap at a large group of American citizens – many of whom are its own customers. What the hell? Does this company have more revenue than it wants or needs?

Apparently it does. Turns out Geico is owned by Berkshire Hathaway – aka Warren Buffett, the uber-wealthy Obama-defender who bravely “supports Obama 100%”. Buffett also strongly believes that we should all pay more taxes, while he employs an army of accountants to avoid paying his. A 2012 report in the Huffington Post said Berkshire Hathaway, the eighth-largest public company in the world at the time, admitted owing taxes all the way back to 2002.

The ownership and management of Geico has no qualms about showing its disdain for conservative Americans and, apparently, for free speech. You might recall Geico’s 2012 commercials featuring the hilarious drill-sergeant “Gunny”, portrayed by R Lee Ermey, an accomplished actor and Vietnam vet. Ermey made the mistake of speaking out against Obama’s policies and was abruptly and loudly fired by Geico.

You know, I had enough of Warren Buffett quite a while ago. And I’m getting pretty tired of that stupid little gecko too. I think it’s time to cross Buffett and Geico off my Christmas card list.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Rockin' On the Right Side Now you can save your lip, And pack your grip,
And leave a trail of smoke behind ya,
Who needs ya? Think about it, baby.
Who needs you!

Who Needs Ya – Steppenwolf

Canadian rocker John Kay and his band Steppenwolf had some huge hits in the late sixties. Everybody remembers “Born To Be Wild” and “Magic Carpet Ride”. But I think this song is Steppenwolf’s best. Here’s a live look at an aging but still rockin’ John Kay in 2009.

Boehner Splits The Sheets

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard 8

AP Photo - J Scott Applewhite Last week the big-government agenda of the liberal Democrats was on the ropes. The American public had finally come to realize that they had been lied to, used, abused and kicked to the curb by the arrogant ruling class. The ObamaCare power grab was exposed as an impossible and unworkable idea, poorly planned and executed, one which can only result in an epic fiscal disaster and do serious harm to American citizens. Conservatives who warned for years of the perils of big government were finally vindicated in the public eye. After all the hard work, the snarky ridicule at the hands of brainless media mouthpieces, and the worry that the American public might never hear or understand the truth, we conservatives were able to catch our collective breath. For a brief moment.

Now, just one week later, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, the liberal news media, and our fearless leader himself are dancing a jig, clinking their champagne glasses, and singing with glee “the wicked witch (Tea Party) is dead”.

What happened?

In a cynical leftward lurch, Congressman Paul Ryan, at the direction of House Speaker John Boehner and Republican leadership, caved in to a Democrat budget plan that increases spending and debt and pushes any potential reductions in spending increases (no spending cuts) into the far distant future.

Boehner showed his true colors – he and his circle of entrenched insiders are more concerned about re-election than they are about the well-being of the nation and its citizens. By relinquishing ground already won – the budget sequestration of 2011 – they not only gave aid and comfort to the enemy, they waved the white flag to the big-spenders. They endorsed the Democrat fairy tale that our $17 trillion and growing debt is not a threat to our economy or the future of our kids (we can always print and borrow more money!). They crossed over to the dark side to join those who believe big government trumps private enterprise and personal freedom. Boehner has already set his liberal friends up for gun control and amnesty, coming soon to a theater near you.

They showed that they would rather maintain their personally-lucrative positions of minor influence than stand on principle against the destruction of our economy.

Boehner said of us conservatives, “they’re using our members and they’re using the American people for their own goals.”

The response by the Tea Party Patriots was powerful and succinct: “The last time we checked, we are the American people. The Tea Party Patriots all across this country are the last hope for reining in this out-of-control government and protecting our Constitution.”

OUR members? THEIR goals? The single-minded goal of the Tea Party is to make our nation stronger, safer, and more prosperous for the benefit of all.

Mr. Boehner, if any of YOUR members are opposed to OUR goal, you can all go to hell. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.

Mr. Boehner may have finally sealed the fate of the Republican party once and for all. While conservatives have almost universally supported Republicans with votes, campaign work, and financial resources, it appears that the GOP prefers to go on without us.

At your peril, Mr. Speaker.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Feeling better now that we’re through
Feeling better ’cause I’m over you
I learned my lesson, it left a scar
Now I see how you really are!
You’re no good, you’re no good
You’re no good, baby you’re no good.

You’re No Good – Linda Ronstadt

I Need ObamaCare – My Head is Exploding!

Posted on December 5, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard 1

Exploding head I think I am going to need ObamaCare. Or some kind of care. Every time I read the local newspaper, my head wants to explode.

Here’s what I read in the Charlotte Observer today (and what I am thinking in parentheses):

HEADLINE: MATTHEWS EXPLORES CAR-CHARGING STATIONS (Oh, my God, aren’t the Solyndra-type paybacks ever going to end? Are we ever going to admit that electric cars are a stupid idea in a country with more oil than we could ever use?)

The town of Matthews is exploring a partnership with an Asheville-based company to bring electric-vehicle charging stations to the community. (Partnership. That means both sides benefit, right? Let’s follow the money, I have a feeling it will be going in one direction only).

Brightfield Transportation Solutions is offering to install charging stations for free in towns. (Didn’t your dad ever tell you there’s no such thing as a free lunch?) “We’ve been looking at wanting to do this for the last couple of years, but it’s been cost prohibitive,” said Matthews spokeswoman Annette Privette Keller. (Ding! Ding! Ding! Maybe there’s a reason why it’s Cost Prohibitive! Could it be because NOBODY WANTS IT? Oh, and anybody who uses three names, one of which is “Privette”, has never ever ever cleaned her own bathroom.)

Brightfield is working with Nissan, the US Dept. of Energy, Advanced Energy, and Centralina Council of Governments. (Hmm, let’s see – the money for most of those guys comes exclusively from THE TAXPAYERS. And I’d be interested to know if Brightfield is an Obama contribution bundler. If this was a viable deal, wouldn’t they have investors chomping at the bit to get in on the ground floor?).

Matthews has been selected as one of the preferred sites because of its population demographics. (Let me guess . . . gullible, low-information, high income Obama-Zombies who have no problem taxing the hard-working people and blowing their money on something that nobody wants just because it makes them feel like they are doing something nice for Mother Earth.)

“Matthews has always worked to be PROGRESSIVE . . . and this would be another opportunity for us to be part of a MOVEMENT that we think is going to be SUSTAINABLE in the future,” said Keller. (There’s three Agenda 21 buzzwords in one sentence. Let’s just give our credit card info to the United Nations to spend on caviar, blended whiskey and dancing girls for the benevolent dictator of Outer Bendovia.)

The town has two options. In the first, the town accepts a $50,000 grant (Grant? Hey, that’s free money! It just falls out of the sky! Nobody has to pay for a grant!) and would be responsible for constructing, operating, maintaining and upgrading the station. (Ummm, wait a minute . . . ) The second option is for the town to enter a 10-year licensing agreement with Brightfield at no cost to the town. (Kinda sounds like a free lunch again . . .) The company would collect a fee, expected to be $8 for people to charge their vehicles. (Boy, my new $40,000 electric car sure is great! I can drive it for 90 miles, then I just have to take it downtown, plug it in, wait for three hours and pay eight bucks, and then it will run for another 90 miles. Sounds like fun!)

During the presentation, Keller said that staff recommended the second option. Once they’ve decided on a location, town staff will complete a GRANT APPLICATION with Brightfield. (Isn’t it swell of Brightfield to do this wonderful thing for the 262 owners of electric vehicles in Mecklenburg County, population 1 million, maybe two of whom live in Matthews. And for FREE! Well, there’s that GRANT thing . . . )

I sure hope they get that ObamaCare website working soon. My head could explode any minute.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Well, I think I’m going out of my head.
Yes, I think I’m going out of my head.
Over you.
Over you!

Going Out Of My Head – Sergio Mendez and Brazil 66

Okay, there’s no explaining taste. I have always been a sucker for Sergio Mendez and his corny Brazilian/American samba/bossa/pop music. Maybe it’s the mini-skirts! If you get past the schmaltz, there’s some pretty good music in there somewhere – I think . . .

The Poor Don’t Need More Food

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard 5

Every day, especially during the holiday season, we are buried in news reports about low-income Americans who don’t have enough to eat. There are food drives, community food banks, charity events, and fundraisers galore collecting food and money for food, all based on the premise that the poor just aren’t getting fed.

Contributors to these food charities get a temporary, warm fuzzy feeling. But the whole “starving children” thing is a big sham, and food charity does little or nothing to actually help the poor improve their lives.

Our citizens, through government welfare programs, provide generous food subsidies for the poor. As I reported recently, the SNAP program grants up to $632 per month on EBT debit cards for a qualifying family of four. There are deductions based on income, but cash from most welfare programs is excluded. The monthly SNAP dollar allowance is considerably greater than most non-welfare families spend on food, resulting in high incidence of obesity among SNAP participants. In addition, 68% of students get one or two free or heavily-subsidized meals at school every day.

I’m not saying it’s fun to be on welfare, or that we should abolish all food subsidies. I am saying that lack of food is NOT the main problem for the poor, and providing more food via charities is NOT helping them. The few scarce hungry Americans are victims of neglect, abuse, and mental illness – problems that must be addressed, but in a completely different way.

So why are we so obsessed with providing EVEN MORE FREE FOOD for the poor? Wouldn’t it make more sense to direct this huge pool of charity funds to something that actually does some good?

We could provide economic education, job skills and actual employment opportunities so poor families might escape the sad trap of welfare dependency. We could monitor and counsel poor adults and children, helping develop good decision-making, parenting, and life skills. We could actually get involved at the personal level, helping with individual needs – a car repair so one can get to work; a plane ticket so another can help an ailing relative; a home-cooked meal for a senior who can get food but can’t cook.

This sounds like charity as it once was in this country. Charity that was most often organized by churches. Charity given in the form of time, personal involvement, and caring, in addition to money. Sadly, today’s secular liberal culture discourages faith. Forced charity funded through taxation and administered through soul-less government computers has dried up the river of personal, church-sponsored work that used to actually help people. Now, the extent of our caring for others is reduced to buying them more and more food, making them even fatter, while leaving them dependent on the government and making the same bad choices as their parents and grandparents did. We don’t want to get involved, so let’s throw them another can of food. We can wear ribbons, join a publicized walk to promote “awareness”, and then leave our neighbors behind.

The poor don’t need more food. Frankly, they don’t need that carload of junk from WalMart that many have come to expect from charities every Christmas. They need jobs, and they need guidance from good people – caring and constructive shepherds who can show them the way to a better life.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Who can I believe in? I’m kneeling on the floor.
There has to be a force, who do I phone?
The stars are out and shining,
But all I really want to know –
Oh, won’t you show me the way?
I want you to show me the way.

Show Me the Way – Pete Frampton

Big-Government Fails – What Did You Expect?

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard 3

Duh Is anybody surprised?

We now know, irrefutably, that ObamaCare really IS a train wreck. The Affordable Care Act has instantly made health care unaffordable for millions of previously happily-insured Americans. Many have lost coverage altogether – experts now predict that another 50 to 100 million cancellations are on the way. It has ballooned the Medicaid rolls to the point where states don’t know how they will be able to manage the cost. Using CBO data, the total cost of ObamaCare has been calculated at up to $3 Trillion over ten years. And after three and a half years and $1 billion of IT work, the still-dysfunctional ObamaCare website is 40% short of completion (including the part which is supposed to deliver our subsidy payments to the insurance companies) and the personal data collected by it is not secure.

Well, what did you expect? You glassy-eyed Obama zombies, you liberal/progressive elitists, you arrogant academics, you shameless, thrill-up-the-leg media hucksters, you blind-ambition Democrat politicians, you weak-kneed RINOs who value re-election over the will and well-being of your constituents, you crocodile-tear bleeding hearts who never contribute your own money to anything – what do you say now? Did you really believe the bungling bloated bureaucracy you created and enabled, and Obama’s corrupt campaign-contributing cronies could actually pull off an undertaking of this scope?

Really? The same big-government people who gave away $4 billion dollars in tax refunds to identity thieves, including 655 refunds to one address in Lithuania? The same big-government people who left an ambassador and three brave defenders to die at the hands of radical Muslim thugs and then blamed it on a Hollywood video? The same big-government people who waste billions of dollars humiliating grandmothers in airports, but fail to follow up on Russian warnings about known terrorists?

There was a time when the U.S. government could get things done. World War II comes to mind. The Hoover Dam. The Interstate Highway System. Astronauts on the moon. Those days are gone. We have allowed our government to become corrupt, fat, lazy, and mired in irrelevant politically correct nonsense. Rudderless. Incompetent. Pathetic.

While they did little to address the impending health care problem for decades, I give credit to the 100% of DC Republicans (and a smattering of responsible Democrats) who at least voted against ObamaCare. Ted Cruz and a few brave conservatives went to the wall to try to stop it. The Tea Party took the point on patrol, battling every assault on personal freedoms, free-market capitalism, and the values that built our nation’s success. But they couldn’t stop this latest, potentially fatal attack on Lady Liberty.

If the liberal progressives do not finally admit and capitulate to the total failure of big-government socialism now, in the face of irrefutable evidence, their motives are clear.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

You’ve been talking in circles
Since I’ve been able to cry
There’s never been any reason
for ever telling me why
Save my life, I’m going down for the last time!

Never Been Any Reason – Head East

They Will Still Be Going To the Emergency Room

Posted on November 16, 2013 by Tom Balek Standard 4

Emergency-Room Our favorite young waitress was bringing us more sweet tea. As she approached, my wife noticed a little “limp” and asked her about it.

“I got a rash on my leg yesterday and it’s worse today,” she said. “It bothers me when it rubs on my pants.”

Assuming our customary Mom and Pop roles, we chatted about what the cause of the rash might be, considering possible medical solutions. The young lady’s next line was a stunner.

“I guess I will go to the emergency room after my shift,” she said.

We gasped simultaneously – “the EMERGENCY ROOM?! Why would you go there?”

Her response: “Well, I don’t have insurance so whenever I need medical care I just go to the emergency room. They don’t make me pay the bill right away.”

My wife and I exchanged baffled looks and started asking questions. We wondered how, on a server’s wage, she could afford to make payments on what must be an outrageously expensive emergency room visit. Maybe she doesn’t pay at all.

“Why don’t you go to an ‘urgent care’ clinic?” we asked. “There’s one across the street and it probably charges one-tenth of what the emergency room will charge you.” She gave us a curious look.

We also suggested she could stop in at one of the many nearby drug stores who offer affordable minor-medical care and even free advice from the pharmacist. She didn’t know there was such a thing.

Then we pointed out that our county provides a list of free and low-cost medical clinics. But it occurred to me that it would probably cost her a day of work to even get in the door of a government clinic.

The young lady seemed grateful for the Mom and Pop advice, and hopefully she will seek out one of the alternatives we proposed.

Our short conversation with a hard-working young waitress reminds me how badly screwed up so many things are these days: the ridiculous cost of medical care, the failures of our education system, inadequate parenting, bumbling government, our crazy tax system, the challenges of employment, and more. How does a young woman get to the age of 25 without knowing how to get appropriate minor medical care? Where were her parents? Her teachers? Will she still be a low-wage worker ten years from now, or will she have moved up and out? Why is even minor medical care so expensive it is out of reach for many workers? Should restaurant owners pay higher wages or benefits? Would that squash one of the few remaining industries (and employers) left in our teetering economy?

Our waitress will get a W2 from her employer at the end of the year and will probably take it to H&R Block because, like most Americans, she is afraid and ill-equipped to tackle even the simplest short-form tax return on her own. And her tax preparer will tell her that because of the new Affordable Care Act she will have to pay a fine next year if she does not obtain a health insurance policy on her own. I doubt she has ever heard of the ACA — it isn’t listed on I-Tunes. She doesn’t really know what health insurance is, how it works, or how to get it. If she did learn and understand the ACA requirements, would she choose to pay the fine or to buy the insurance? Or would she just continue to use the emergency room?

Lost in the discussion of the ObamaCare mess is the fact that hospitals are still required to provide medical care to anyone who comes in the door, regardless of ability to pay. And a large percentage of the people within our borders have no more knowledge or sophistication than to go, when sick, to the building where the sick people are. The ACA personal “mandate” is a joke.

If there is one good thing about the ObamaCare fiasco, it might be that Americans will finally stop and think about the economics of health care in our country. We only got to this point of helplessness and chaos because for generations we have been dependent on employers and/or the government for our health care. The concept of shared risk for shared cost – insurance, by definition – is still very valid. Sadly, that can only work in a prosperous free market economy, which may now be little more than a distant memory in the age of big government. Every time a government bureaucracy replaces a segment of the free market, disaster results. A train wreck, even.

The bad thing about the Affordable Health Care Act is that it makes health care more Un-Affordable. It is clearly about control, politics, and big government, not cost.

The failure of our elected leaders to deal with the festering health-care issue a long time ago led us to the calamity we face now. They, and we, had better get serious, because, contrary to the campaign speeches, we know there is no such thing as a free lunch.

Oh, speaking of lunch, the gyros were great.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

All over the country, I’ve seen it the same
Nobody’s winnin’ at this kind of game
We gotta do better, it’s time to begin
You know all the answers must come from within

Free Ride – Edgar Winter Group