Have you seen the Health Care Bills coming out of the Senate and House over the past few days? The proposed bill from the House is 1,990 pages long and the Senate bill isn't much better at around 1,700 pages. To put this into perspective...the Bible contains approximately 1,200 pages. So, Congress has more to say about our health care than Jesus had to say about, well, everything.
Social Security - Not So Secure
Social Security was sold to Americans in 1935 under FDR's "New Deal." It was sold as a social insurance program and Congress believed that the American people needed it for the well being of their own futures. They believed in the program so much, that they left themselves out of it. That's right, Congress didn't have to pay the "contributions" (also referred to as taxes) and they didn't reap the benefits. Instead they saved and took care of their retirement themselves. They didn't want the government taking their money and investing it on their behalf. See, politicians are smarter than we think. But that all changed in 1983, nearly 50 years after the program began; members of congress, the president, and the vice president all had to pay taxes like the rest of us now.
Gay Rights
Last night at an annual dinner for the Human Rights Campaign, which is a gay civil rights group, Obama promised to repeal the military policy, don't ask, don't tell. The crowd stood and gave him a standing ovation, but many wanted (and still want) to know when. The President has been getting a lot of criticism from groups like these about the lack of attention he is showing towards gay rights. Cleve Jones, a gay rights activist, said, "He repeated his promises that he's made to us before, but he did not indicate when he would accomplish these goals and we've been waiting a while now."
Promoting Failure
I was talking with a friend the other day and she was contemplating quitting her job so that she would be eligible for food stamps. She and her husband are raising three children and she is going to school desperately trying to get into a nursing program. She was told that they make approximately $50 too much to receive any type of aid. I am not saying that I would agree if she decided to quit and I understand that there has to be a limit to how much a family can make, but it seems to me like our government promotes failure. If she chose not to work even though she was perfectly capable of doing so, the government would help her. I just don't follow the reasoning.
Gun Control
Along with health care, there is debate in Washington about the banning of guns in the U.S. This has been a heated topic for many years and rightfully so. Crimes and deaths in this country continue to increase with each passing year. Many want to blame such an increase on the accessibility of guns while many others argue that, "guns don't kill people, people kill people." Either side can justifiably be argued.
Cowards in Congress
As of now I have not written about the much talked about health care reform. That has been intentional for one main reason: I want people to learn and understand more about politics than just the issues currently at hand. But, today I learned that two crucial parts of the bill were voted on and I realized that we are stuck with cowards in congress.
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