2014 - Biting the Bullet

As much as many of us had hoped that what will begin at midnight with sweeping realities and implementations of policies which will shake the fiber of our nation, it would appear it will be hailed not by celebration, but by the death of a young woman who cannot be transferred because she is medically dead.

Once years ago, my car was stolen and I stood by the spot unable to believe it was gone.  Throughout the day, I kept going back and standing there looking and said to myself...

"This cannot be."

So over the years as I have written many things, I have hoped that they would not ever come to pass. A lifetime friend used to constantly fight the system and tell me of how things should be. I finally told him that it is no good to say that and the only way to deal with life, is to realize how things are.

It is unlikely that Scrooge will appear laden with a turkey and  likely the crutches of Tiny Tim will be against the wall with no child left to use them because of a healthcare plan that is destined to failure.

http://plays.about.com/od/monologues/a/Scrooge.htm

Will any Americans take the attitude of of the main character in the movie  Network?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074958/quotes

Howard Beale: I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.'

Comment: The events which will begin at the stroke of midnight, hail the coming of a year that many have declined to state will be Happy.

Will tearing away people's unemployment force them to go back to work in a nation where the number of jobs available for a wage that can sustain their families  are simply not enough?  A woman or man in their 40s, 50s, and 60s who are second choice as compared to the youth, are unlikely to find work unless they choose a job that is so meager that it cannot support them.

The holidays will be over and as the Flu sweeps through America and food stamps, unemployment benefits, and pensions will be hit hard and the stock market will continue to spiral out of control despite the grim realities.

Conclusion: Despair or giving up is not an option.  Those who give up have failed already.  Courage, resolve, preparation, and for some who still hold to a faith in God and believe, there will be paths of deliverance and survival in the midst of hard times.

We are in this together.  Perhaps those at the top have lost compassion and concern for the future of the poor, the disabled, the isolated, the hungry, and those with small children who will struggle to get health care as a sea of new people with  cards demand help from an overwhelmed medical system.

The ballot boxes are not open today.  The elections coming are a moot point on December 31, 2013.  Even Medclnician2013 will have to get a new name.  (hint Albert - my old one back)

So, what do you think? Not so much about the problems... we know those.  What about ... the solutions?


Happy New Year

Prepare for the worst and pray for the best.  Trust is something that must be earned.  Respect and faith in those in positions of power, much be built once again by actions that will show something new- spoken by those who would earn the consent of the governed -- Truth.

Medclinician

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/30/politics/new-year-laws/index.html?hpt=hp_bn3

The biggest and most politically charged change comes at the federal level with the imposition of a new fee for those adults without health insurance.

For 2014, the penalty is either $95 per adult or 1% of family income, whichever results in a larger fine.

That would be $380 from a family of four a month which will be mandatory.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/13poverty.cfm

The poverty level as set by the government for 2013 for a family of four  is $23,550 a year.  If there will be an exemption for the poor, I am not aware of it.  Their monthly fine for not signing up for Obamacare will be $235.50 or 1% of their yearly income /12.