1.  “End of life counseling”

2.  “9 trillion dollar deficit”

3.  “Age-based rationing”

4.  “The average unemployment will be 9.3 percent in 2009 and 9.8 percent in 2010″

5.  “Unsolicited political emails”

6.  “Elite team of interrogators”

Is it just me, or do you get the feeling the administration is trying so hard to make it seem like they are doing things that they aren’t really getting anything useful done and are making things worse instead of better?

To be fair, I’ve tried to read and/or watch as many of the many appearances and speeches by Obama and Pelosi and others on the health care thing.  Befor I do my list, I thought I’d point out that they can pass and sign whatever the hell they want to…they have the votes….but those votes are eroding day by day.  It seems even their own party members don’t agree with direction the bills are headed.  Having said that, here are my thoughts:

1.  If you pay for 2/3 of universal care (because let’s be honest if there is a public option that’s what it will become) by cutting services/care/tests-whatever for Medicare patients….how will this impact our elderly?  What procedures will be seen as “waste” for older patients?  Think about it.  It’s scary.

2.  Why not fix what we have first?  They keep talking about how the current programs need to be fixed.  How about we fix those first, stop allowing fraud, pay providers what the services are worth – and on time, make sure those that actually can’t afford insurance (vs. those that choose not to buy it because they want a new car or whatever) are on Medicaid, put tort reform in place, mandate that those who can afford insurance purchase it, and then see what we have?

3.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the idea of some bureaucrat  (doctor or no) deciding (for example) what type of allergy meds I’m allowed to have (whether they work for me or not) without ever having met me.  But I DO like the idea of making sure you can buy insurance, regardless of pre-existing conditions and putting caps on premiums.

4.  I think a person should have to provide proof of citizenship to access either current or future health care programs.  And I think this should include emergency rooms and clinics.  I know I’m a hard-ass on this..but if we can’t afford to care for our own citizens, why should we put illegals at the head of the line in our ERs?

5.  I think we should have local medicaid clinics in the inner cities to provide needed primary care for poor families vs. them not having access to a family doctor and clogging up our emergency rooms because they have no place else to go.  In the long run, I think providing preventative and non-emergency care in this manner will save tax payer dollars.

6.  I think a public option will lead to the destruction of our health care system.  We will become Canada, France, Britain and Germany.  Last time I checked….I didn’t see any U.S. Citizens going up to Canada to be enrolled in their system for “better care”.  Rather, I think we should give every family a set tax credit and let them go to the free market for insurance; if everyone has the same amount to pay, then insurance companies and health care providers will compete for those dollars and this will lead to better coverage and care for everyone…not just those that can afford to go outside a public system and pay for everything themselves like they do in France.

You know summer has arrived in Texas if:

1.  The calendar says it is (that’s from Tommy).

2.  The pool is 94 degrees before noon.

3.  On weekends, while in the pool…you can smell various combos of beef, pork and chicken cooking outside in some form of smoking or grilling.

4.  If you have a teenager, it’s not unusual for them to sleep until noon (okay, this applies to anywhere I know…but most days The Boy isn’t even up before I go to the gym).

5.  Most days, the max dolling up you do is waterproof eyeliner and lip gloss…anything else would slide down your face with the sweat.

6.  You have WAY more hair up days than hair down days.

P.S.  God, it’s hot.

That is all.

1.  Geithner is getting the bonus money back from AIG.  Good call…finally.  Read about it here.

2.  Yard work sucks.

3.  Spring Break rocks.  Not getting up at seven to take The Boy to school is always good in my book.

4.  I wish more ex-presidents handled things the way 43 does.

Bush said he wants Obama to succeed and said it’s important that he has that support.

Read more here.

5.  Tommy’s been gone for 10 days at training.  It’s been a lonely St. Patrick’s Day.

6.  A quote I received via email today:

The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money. – Margaret Thatcher

True dat.  Peaches out.

1.  Tommy is at training for a month.  I have trouble sleeping when he’s on trips.  I have even more trouble when he’s away at training.

2.  North Korea, China, and Iran.

3.  The lack of focus in this new administration on the economy and the fact they don’t seem to be too worried about hiring people to fill the Department of the Treasury.  I guess funding stem cell research with money we don’t have is more important?

4.  That former guest of Gitmo (circa 2007) that is now an operational leader for the Taliban.

5.  Our new people at the State Department and how they are treating Great Britain and downplaying human rights issues.

6.  The fact that it is getting really windy outside and our neighbor’s fence is falling apart with many sections and boards currently hitting each other, back and forth, that sound ready to fly through the windows on one side of our house at any moment.

How about y’all?  Sleeping well lately?  Without the aid of alcohol or other substances to calm the nerves our current situations on amany fronts cause?  If so, I applaud you.  I am not that worry-free these days….

1.  I’m not a big fan of the fact the budget projects spending 1.75 trillion dollars above the rosy-scenario tax dollars expected.

2.  Technically, 5% growth is an indication of inflation…the new budget counts on this number as a “positive” result of the massive program spending involved.  What?  Really?

3.  Everyone should plan on their gas and home heating and cooling bills to increase with this new budget, as energy producers will be taxed heavily. What happens when cost goes up for energy producers?  That cost gets passed on to us.  This is the middle class tax increase Obama does not talk about when he ’s promoting his plan.

4.  If we’re all supposed to begin showing responsiblity for our own fiscal health and not borrow money we can’t repay or buy  houses we can’t afford, why is the government exempt from participating in this new era of fiscal responsibility?  Didn’t massive government spending contribute to the mess we are now in?  Where is the change?

5.  This might not apply to the new budget…but a general comment…is there anyone out there who likes the idea of having to pay for their mortgage plus the mortgage of somebody else who borrowed irresponsibly?  Besides the people who will benefit from the hard work of others to pay for their own mistakes?  Because let’s face it…there will be many who intentionally made the wrong choices who will now be rewarded with a bailut from the rest of us.

6.  If you knew your taxes would increase substantially in 18 months, would you begin to cut back on spending, downsize, and do everything in your power to NOT be in that top bracket?  Probably.  Is that what a lot of businesses are doing right now?  More than likely.  Where will the growth come when people are downsizing their businesses and employing fewer people?  Not of it makes sense.

Yes, I’m frustrated.  No, I do not think any of this will work.  Yet…have you noticed…..I have not made any personal attacks on the President or his very young budget team which does not seem to recall the lessons of the Carter years.  There is a way to disagree without name-calling.  I’m a big fan of doing it this way vs. the hate speech we’ve heard for the past eight years.

P.S.  I’m preparing a lock-box for my wallet and expecting retroactive tax increases down the road if the makeup of Congress does not change in 2010.  It’s gonna be a very rough ride as our country increasingly becomes a debtor nation beholden to some countries that don’t necessarily have our best interest at heart.

As the administration, Congress and the media on all sides have successfully kept us focused on our supposedly collapsing economy (Read:  Retail sales were up 1% last month), there have been some things developing on the global front that to me could turn out to be WAY bigger deals:

1.  Russia cutting off our supply routes to Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, Russian news sources quoted Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev as saying that he had decided to cancel U.S. access to the Manas Air Base, one of two regional air hubs for resupplying U.S. troops in Afghanistan used since the war began in 2001.

2.  The administration is soft-peddling Poland on our commitment via NATO to provide them with missile defenses.

Obama has not said how he intends to proceed. So far, he has stressed that the system has to be cost-effective and proven and should not divert resources from other national security priorities. Leading defense and foreign policy experts are already taking Obama’s constant repetition of those caveats as hints he is not eager to plow ahead.

3.  As many who are skeptical of Iran’s intentions predicted, the administration’s talk of a change in how we deal with the rogue nation has resulted in public pronouncements by that nation’s representatives of our newly weakend position.

“This request means Western ideology has become passive, that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed,” Gholam Hossein Elham was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.

4.  With our new administration, Korea is back to its old habit of flexing its nuclear muscles to get free stuff from the new President and the world.

Observers claim secretive regime is looking to appear on new US administration’s radar and unsettle South Korea.

5.  The democratic chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committe recently outed intel on a U.S. operation in Pakistan.  This is troubling to say the least.  Can she be trusted?  One has to wonder.

At a hearing, Feinstein expressed surprise at Pakistani opposition to the ongoing campaign of Predator-launched CIA missile strikes against Al Qaeda targets along Pakistan’s northwest border.

“As I understand it, these are flown out of a Pakistani base,” she said of the planes.

Yes….it was on C-Span for all to see.

6. It appears the President is making good on his promise to decrease our defenses.  He has entered talks with Russia on significantly downsizing our nuclear capability (which to me does not make sense considering N. Korea and Iran are working so hard to develop their own weaponized nukes).

Barack Obama will convene the most ambitions arms reductions talks with Russia for a generation, aiming to slash each country’s stockpile of nuclear weapons by 80 percent.

Can someone please explain to me how this strengthens our defenses?

All six of these developments concern be greatly.  How about you?  Anything here we should be worried about?  Or is it all good?  Thoughts?