Redneck Healthcare: A Buelah-Poll

How do you feel about healthcare and your personal health insurance (even if provided through work or the government)? I know how I feel and could (will) write about my family’s ongoing horror story in the near future.

Of course, if you visit here, you know that I bitch about it. And perhaps, if you are a ReTHUGlican redneck, you may blame me for my problems and suggest I desire “welfare queen” status, requiring the government to take care of me and my family. I would also bet that if you think that, you pay little or nothing for your insurance or you are the rare breed of “rich redneck”.

Wanna bet?

At the first of this year, the AFL-CIO and Working America sponsored an online survey of over 26,000 people that had various opinions and horror stories to tell. You can download or read the findings in a pdf report here. Most participants were currently insured and employed college graduates.

Most are concerned with health care costs:

One-third of respondents to the online survey, sponsored by the AFL-CIO and Working America, report skipping medical care because of cost, and a quarter had serious problems paying for the care they needed.

Ninety-five percent say they are somewhat or very concerned about being able to afford health insurance in the coming years.

Almost half overall (48 percent) and 60 percent of Latinos say they or a family member has stayed in a job to keep health care benefits when they would have preferred changing jobs.

Ninety-five percent of respondents say America’s health care system needs fundamental change or to be completely rebuilt.

Seventy-nine percent say health care is a very important voting issue, and 97 percent say they plan to vote in the November elections.

Simply having coverage is not enough and the future is looking bleak:

Ninety-six percent of people with insurance say they are somewhat or very concerned about affording coverage in the next few years.

Seventy-one percent of the insured worry about losing coverage because they may lose or change jobs.

Almost two-thirds (61 percent) who have employer-provided coverage say their costs have gotten worse.

Ninety-five percent of people with insurance are dissatisfied with health care costs, and 62 percent of them are dissatisfied with health care quality.

Ninety-four percent of the insured say the health care system needs fundamental change or to be rebuilt.

Not having insurance is devastating and getting scarier for Americans:

In the past year, 76 percent of people who lack insurance themselves and 71 percent of people with uninsured children say someone in their family did not visit a doctor when sick because of cost.

Sixty-seven percent of the uninsured and 66 percent of those whose children are uninsured report skipping medical treatment or follow-up care recommended by a doctor.

Fifty-seven percent of the uninsured and 61 percent of people with uninsured children had to choose between paying for medical care or prescriptions and other essential needs (such as the rent or mortgage and utilities).

Those of us who buy our own insurance are more likely than those whose employers pay for their health care report that critical needs are not covered or affordable.

Fifty-two percent of people who buy private coverage say prescription drugs are not covered or are unaffordable, compared with 44 percent who have employer-provided coverage.

Forty-one percent who buy private insurance say preventive care and checkups are not covered or affordable, versus 36 percent overall.

It doesn’t matter who you are, either:

A third of college graduates say they or a family member skipped recommended medical care because of cost.

Half of people in insured families say their coverage does not cover all the care they need at a price they can afford.

People of color, including 75 percent of African Americans and 76 percent of Latinos, are especially likely to voice dissatisfaction with health care quality.

Large majorities in all age groups—from 74 percent among 18- to 29-year-olds to 80 percent among 50- to 64-year-olds—consider health care a very important voting issue for the 2008 elections.

70% are employed and 20% are retired. 77% are in insured families. 51% have completed college or postgraduate school, and another 29% have attended some college.

Even so, most of them say they are barely getting by or are actually falling behind. 84% believe that the next generation will face a worse standard of living than we have today.

So, rednecks, how is your healthcare? Is it like Cheney-care? Or more like Buelah-care? For those are the very two extremes.

Al Qaeda’s Navy

Yep. The people who hide out in caves in the mountains apparently have a navy… perhaps one of those new fangled sand-navies.

Our government (in the sand-navy case, led by that beloved CT IndependentDemocraticReTHUGlican Senator LIEberman) wants to spend $81 BILLION on a submarine intent on fighting Al Qaeda’s Navy. You haven’t heard about that from the MSM because I suspect even they know it is absurd. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t true or that Sen LIEberman isn’t pushing for the absurd.

The GAO (Government Accountability Office) issued a report last week that mimics the previous 5 annual reports in that it points out huge waste in each and every major advanced weapon systems program it has ongoing. They take OUR money and waste it while WE could be using it for our own needs.

But even worse is the unchecked military spending on systems originally designed for the Cold War, all in the guise of protecting us from terrorists that have no real forces. Just like that sub, which may have been needed for the Cold War, now is not needed, but does that stop them from appropriating money for it? Nah. Just change the reason to something insane and the American public will buy it.

We continue to build and fund major technologically advanced systems, spending untold TRILLIONS of dollars, to attack cave dwelling navies who attack us using box cutters and our own airplanes.

Rednecks, while you watch your job go to China, the Military Industrial Complex is thriving and making huge profits. Rivaling even the oil companies. Do you consider it just a coincidence that the neocon cabal are all deeply connected to oil and military manufacturers and contractors?

Look at this quote from the audit:

“Since 2000, the Department of Defense (DOD) has roughly doubled its planned investment in new systems from $790 billion to $1.6 trillion in 2007, but acquisition outcomes in terms of cost and schedule have not improved.”

In lieu of the fact that Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 or bin Laden, we are having this radical spending justified anyway. We are being lied to at every turn, trying to perpetuate the Iraq and Afghan wars, and apparently chomping at the bit to start another one.

To me, whether or not these fools believe what they are doing is good for this country, the evidence is that it is the worst thing that ever happened to this country. We do not need to wait till next year to change this. We need someone to step up and stop this now.

But look at this:

“Of the 72 programs GAO assessed this year, none of them had proceeded through system development meeting the best-practice standards for mature technologies, stable design, or mature production processes by critical junctures of the program, each of which are essential for achieving planned cost, schedule, and performance outcomes.”

They aren’t even concerned if these projects work or are completed on time. One doesn’t necessarily have to be dropping bombs 100% of the time. They can just waste money on bogus shit and get more whenever they ask for it. All the while, every other thing that we should be spending money on is being cut or ignored (health care, education, general economy, veteran care, alternative fuels, the environment, etc).

Think of that. of 72 programs, they all are behind schedule, which means over cost. High tech advanced weapons programs intent on killing cave dwellers and Iraqis/Iranians. They can’t even get protective equipment to our troops. Seems like 81 BILLION could buy a lot of gear.

This nation’s priorities are 100% reversed and we just go along, as if nothing matters…

Why Aren’t You Pissed Off Like I Am?

I have been accused of being angry and “rageful” (and addressed that in this post last week). I have been thinking alot about anger and what instills anger.

Anger, in and of itself, is not a bad thing, but a good thing. Even Jesus said to be angry, but sin not (and maybe that is where people have a problem with me). Whatever.

What I cannot fathom is why people aren’t angry about what is happening to this country… especially rednecks in the southeast. This redneck is angry and has damn good reaso to be.

Let B’Man explain in his own words:

Richard Noggin Saturday: Lindsey Graham

What a blatant attempt at securing some cabinet post (or trying to woo McCain into the bedroom, you figure it out). To make this claim is the absolute pinnacle of sycophantic ass-sucking… worthy of its own Nobel Prize for Lunacy and most certainly qualified as BuelahMan’s distinguished “Richard Noggin of the Week”:

‘Not Going to Run Away From President Bush’

The Democratic senators argued that the presumptive Republican nominee, their longtime Senate colleague John McCain, R-Ariz, is a candidate they can beat.

“John is a good guy but he has sort of embraced the Iraq policies of George Bush and the economic policies of Dick Cheney and that is not really a winning combination for the fall campaign,” Bayh said.

But McCain supporter Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., argued against that notion. “To say John McCain is Dick Cheney is a bit of a stretch,” Graham said.

“He’s not going to run away from President Bush but at the end of the day, John McCain has earned a reputation, and has the scars to show it, of doing things that put the country ahead of party,” Graham said, noting McCain has differed with the party on immigration, his desire to close Guantanamo Bay, and enacting robust climate change policies.

“Climate change is the road less traveled but he’s traveled it even more than Al Gore,” Graham said. “Al Gore has talked about it and deserves great recognition but he was around here a long time and never introduced a bill.”

Ben at Think Progress thoroughly debunks the lie by pointing out:

Gore held the first congressional hearings on climate change in the late 1970s, well before McCain was even elected to Congress.

In 1997, Gore helped broker the Kyoto Protocol which called for nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Despite the passing of a Senate resolution stating that the U.S should not join Kyoto, Gore symbolically signed the protocol in November, 1998. While McCain voted for the resolution, he claims today that “we have an obligation” to cut greenhouse gases but still thinks the U.S. “did the right thing by not joining the Kyoto treaty.” 

Then concluded the piece, saying so very well:

While Gore was starring in the Oscar winning global warming documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” and being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change, McCain has been trying to build an environmental record that is just strong enough to anger conservatives and fool the media into continuing to call him a “maverick.” But the reality is that McCain’s record falls well short of the leadership Gore has shown on the issue.

McCain’s record falls short on virtually every level. He missed more votes than anyone next to a brain dead guy. McCain is a fraud and, thankfully for our country, the best the fool ReTHUGlicans have to offer.

I would be remiss to point out, as a virile southern redneck proud of his manhood, this Lindsey Graham guy is a pussy.

But, another ReTHUGlican who intends to not be outdone for Dick Head status, Rep McHenry (are all the Mc’s insane, clueless bastards?) pushes his way close to the top with this diatribe against an American soldier he considers to be “a two-bit security guard”:

We spent the night in the Green Zone, in the poolhouse of one of Saddam’s palaces. A little weird, I got to be honest with you. But I felt safe. And so in the morning, I got up early — not that I make this a great habit — but I went to the gym because I just couldn’t sleep and everything else. Well, sure enough, the guard wouldn’t let me in. Said I didn’t have the correct credentials.

It’s 5:00 in the morning. I haven’t had sleep. I was not very happy with this two-bit security guard. So you know, I said, “I want to see your supervisor.” Thirty minutes later, the supervisor wasn’t happy with me, they escort me back to my room. It happens. I guess I didn’t need to work out anyway.

I am quickly coming to the conclusion that every republican is a dickhead (alas, so are most democrats).