How we got here?

I was listening to my favorite podcast earlier this week, Citizen Radio, and they were discussing the government shutdown. Allison stated the government shutdown isn’t really about healthcare it is about ideologues who want to abolish the government and those who want to have government.

This is what we have. We have a government run by an elite few who can afford to run for office, which is exceedingly expensive, and then these representatives are puppets for money, which translates largely to corporations and their fanatical base. These representatives are the most privileged amongst us, and continue to represent privilege as they cling to power like dying men to breath. As a result they buy into and prop up the American mythos of the self-made-man, women’s work is housework and motherhood, people of color are burdens on the system, LGBTQ individuals are deviant, and Christianity supersedes all other faiths among many other examples. Thus trying to prevent any power shift to those they believe to be a threat.

The Government shutdown (2013) is entirely the GOP’s fault. Dems aren’t obligated to debate with them over something that is already law and was upheld by the Supreme Court. That’s not how government works, and if our elected officials don’t know that then they need to fund schools ASAP. But they do know that, which is why we’re shutdown because that was the end goal here. Now, why would they want the government to shut down? I’m not entirely sure. I know their base are a bunch of fundamentalists who think end times is approaching, but this isn’t going to reinforce the belief that government isn’t needed. Instead it is going to demonstrate just how much a federal government is needed.

In a GOP wet dream, everyone will realize that government isn’t needed because nothing changed during the shutdown, or maybe because this is a wet dream, all social welfare programs and Obamacare ended immediately. You know a throw back to the days of the Confederacy. I don't agree with something my government does, better quit. Regardless, everyone will rejoice because capitalism will be straight up the law of the land, not entirely different than life now except we have the federal government with its regulations to protect us a bit.

However, what we’re going to see is more like this: the immediate shutdowns of parks, etc. This will be mocked by the right wing without any thought given to the workers out of work. Then in a week or so, underfunded social welfare programs are going to feel the burn. This might not impact the Right’s whole base, but some of them are going to be. How do we know? Because red states disproportionally use social welfare programs…might have something to do with capitalism run amok without regulation. But sure, enough of the wealth GOP backers are fine with this as with the shutdown of OSHA. However, they might start singing a different tune when we get to the federal agencies in charge of our food. Sure private companies can take a lot of the workload except the federal inspections. Hey meat eaters, you may want to cut back next month, right in time for Thanksgiving. So how many people need to get sick before the government can reopen?

I’m a labor person. To me, then I heard shutdown I knew Congress members were still going to collect paycheck. And probably continued to be piss drunk on the floor, but I thought about the low-wage workers who are getting screwed.

I’m not absolving the Democrats. They have a lot of problems too, but in this specific instance, it isn’t us. I will say that the left has contributed to the system where this is possible. We don’t hostage take like the right, but we gerrymander too, which is what enabled this. There are Tea Party reps on the House floor because state GOP redistricted to accommodate. The Dems did too in Maryland, and lefty places, but we didn’t elect as many left wing reformers.  I’m not advocating answering the GOP with leftists, though I would support leftist candidates.

So yes, the GOP shutdown the government because they are having a tantrum that they think will yield more votes for them in the future, and because they can go home and say they stood up to big government by shutting it down for a day, a week, a month, whatever. But every US citizen is to blame for letting our political leaders do this. We didn’t hold the Dems responsible when they started giving into the GOP’s hostage taking, and we didn’t take them to task for it. This all conditioned the GOP to think this was a perfectly good way to get their agenda across.

On yesterday’s Capitol Hill chase, Miriam Carey, 34-years-old, was a mom with a history of mental illness including postpartum depression. She tried to drive through White House barriers and then set off the chase that ended by the Capitol building. Finally, when she got out of her car, she was shot by several police officers. A law enforcement official says she was unarmed, and it is not known whether she posed immediate danger. Carey was traveling with her one-year-old daughter, and the girl was unharmed but is now in protective custody. Carey was also a black woman, which adds to the controversy around this. We can obviously talk about how the police protecting everyone on the Hill yesterday are working without pay, but I think we need to address that Carey was unarmed when she exited her vehicle. Also, maybe now we come back to that conversation post-Newtown about mental illness in this country and the lack of available resources?

I’m rarely good at tragedies immediately after they occur. I’m better a few days later when everyone is ready to be rational. I have emotional responses like everyone else, but I’m not the type of person to be lost to them, so my initial responses can be off-putting to those who expect similar emotional views. So when everyone is ready to have a conversation about postpartum depression and women’s healthcare let me know. Until then, I’ll be over here.

On Objectivity

I’m picking on JJ again. Sorry, but not sorry at all. I’m also thinking of a conversation I had with my sister, J, years ago. JJ and I were talking through my current favorite medium, Twitter about the Caps because hockey. JJ was angry, though that is a strong word, over the NHL and Mibury. Milbury said a lot of stupid things about Ovechkin last year. The whole time I couldn’t help but think I’m not exactly objective because I like the Caps, and I hate when people talk shit about my teams even when they deserve it (I'm looking at you Cleveland Indians). For me it is comes out clearest when talking LeBron James. He may be the best basketball player of our generation, but I do not care. Because I can’t even pretend to be objective about it; he was a tool when he left Cleveland so I’m guess he’s probably still a tool. Damn fine ball handler though.

The conversation with my sister centered on an ideological split. She and I don’t always agree, or most of the time, or ever. That last one that might be the right answer. I’m pretty sure J thinks I’ve wasted my life. I’ve studied English, History, Catholic Studies, Women’s Studies, and now Social Work, but none of these are hard sciences. She studies math. Now, it doesn’t matter than I spend my days with SPSS, and this conversation took place before this job, because math and science are “real”, her word, because they are objective. I will also note that I was pretty damn offended the first time she said what she studies is real and by extension what I study is fake, not real, I’m still not sure. However, I don’t believe hard sciences are objective. There are math problems that can’t be solved, and some that have been solved only to discover the answer was wrong. I’ve seen math problems with more letters than some bad poetry I’ve written. However, society puts a value on math and hard sciences.

J believes things like the scientific method yields objective results, and that is why math and science are worth more than literature and the soft sciences. I argued that there is no such thing as objectivity, and math and sciences are prioritized by society because they are prioritized by the patriarchy, and like most things in the patriarchy are defined in relationship to femininity. So math is important and women are bad at math, while literature is not important because feelings, which is girly. *sarcasm* We had this argument several times, once in front of a good friend of mine who decided she liked to watch us fight. [Aside, we weren’t fighting.] I’m not even going to bring in Rand’s Objectivism, which anyone reading this blog would know exactly where I fall on that…rational self-interest *for white men amiright?*

I don’t believe we can ever be truly objective because everything is influenced by something. Every thought we have has been influenced by something we have learned or experienced, and anything gained through these processes can’t be objective. The scientific method for example isn’t objective because it was shaped by those would created it, men. For the longest time experiments focused on men with the exclusion of women. So if a study found X cures X disease in white men, and then marketed X as a drug to cure X isn’t entirely accurate even if the results can be replicated. Because the results were reached through a process that thought white men can represent everyone when they can’t. Or the Tuskegee Study as a good and awful example. It was done in a “scientific and objective way”, but Black men were selected because they were devalued by our government and by extension the scientific community. However, if we were morally bankrupt and still pushing openly racist policies (we prefer covert racism now) then we could replicate this study.

However, not only to I think objectivity can’t be obtained; I don’t think it should be the goal, ok maybe a little Rand. Rational self-interest implies that everyone starts out on the same level and can look out for their own rational self-interest. I hate libertarianism because this isn’t possible. Additionally, objectivity can't be obtained, and I'm not sure the results found through "objectivity" would be ideal anyway because they would lack human perspective or just present the perspective of the person running things. That is all. I like good research as much as the next person, but when I study welfare, I want to know welfare recipients’ points of view. I don’t care about the views of people who oppose welfare, and I know that my subjects are going to be bias. That doesn’t make their point of view invalid. It just means it isn’t generalizable.

JJ and I, and probably everyone else, don’t like Milbury. Part of our dislike is probably based in the stupid shit he says about the Caps. That doesn’t mean we can’t tell he’s an idiot because he is an idiot.

Who needs healthcare?

I saw this article on Al Jazeera America on millennials and healthcare reform. Specifically, that without the millennials, healthcare reform will fail, but because of the economic situation, millennials don’t want health insurance. Jonathan Betz wrote the article entitled, “’I don’t need health care’: Millennials threaten success of reform.” It should also be noted that so many people tried to sign up for health insurance through the exchange that it took some states' exchanges offline. Good thing the House GOP us protecting all these people...oh wait.

Betz profiles a young woman who is disgusted by the mandate requiring everyone to purchase healthcare. This young woman, Stacie Smeal, lives a healthy lifestyle. She makes a valid point about the costs, “I just can’t comprehend working 35 hours a week, where I’m bringing in, after taxes, $200, $250 a week, just so I can have health insurance that I might use once that year. Who wants to work just for your health insurance?”

However, if we had universal healthcare that wouldn't be an issue. Dodged a bullet there, right guys. The insurance exchange opened Tuesday. The article states that the exchange hopes to attract 2.7 million of the 17 million uninsured 18 to 34 year old. This is the group least likely to be insured. Without young people, the cost of Obamacare increases.

A lot of people who are supporters or critics of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) say the bill unfairly targets young people. If you don’t sign up there is a fine of $95 or up to a 2.5 percent of their household income, whichever is greater.

There is debate over the actual costs of the program. The government estimates the cost of health insurance will be between $129 and $240 per month for young people. Although, if they don’t have the money to buy the insurance then they probably won’t have the funds to pay the fine. Many young people are managing the occasional visit for less than the cost of insurance, and only worry if they get in an accident.

So this is when I’m going to be the nag, we should have universal healthcare. We have this shitty option because our elected leaders are pretty fucking stupid, see the faux crisis resulting in a governmental shutdown. However, insurance is hella important. Come close, let me tell you a story…

I have an uncle who served in the military, he’s your second amendment loving, kind of racist (or as I like to put it Midwest racist) uncle we all have. While in the service he hurt his knee, both of them I think. It healed and he went home. However, he then worked a blue collar job for the next 40 years, and his knee started giving him trouble again, obviously. His insurance refused to pay for the knee replacement he needed because he was uninsured for a while as a young man, during his childhood. Fortunately, the VA eventually paid for it after fighting tooth and nail.The argument was that the injury occurred during the time he was uninsured. There is some true to that, manual labor didn't help it, but it was originally injured during the war.

See insurance companies are the enemy. They will deny claims for any reason they can find, which means any time you are uninsured, they will try to say long term problems originated then. It is their job to make money off of you so they don’t want to pay out claims. So even if it is tight, I highly recommend you pay for insurance.

I also, have one more thing to say about those interviewed in the article. These are obviously people with some privileges. I don’t mean that they can’t have an opinion, but I think it is important to note. After all growing up in poverty leave people with health issues like asthma, diabetes, etc. Issues that require long-term medical care if not indefinite. They also aren’t living in food deserts and suffering from poor nutrition. One of the things that struck me in the article was the assertion that young people were being punished for striking out on their own, welp, yeah. That’s kind of how adulthood works for those not in the most privileged class.

And we have shutdown

Ok, so I’m actually writing this before the shutdown has happened or been averted. But I am publishing this the morning the shutdown would go into effect. Once we had a government capable of performing the tasks laid out for it. This is no longer the case.

As usual, the House of Representatives is hostage taking with their threat to shutdown the government. This time it is contraception, specifically, that Obamacare requires employers to use insurance that covers birth control pills without a copay. Naturally, RHRealityCheck had a piece by Adele M. Stan on it. USA! USA!

So as of Monday morning, the most recent threat is that the GOP wants Obamacare delayed for one year, but specifically on the implementation of the mandate that says employer provided healthcare plans have to offer birth control pills without a co-pay. They are calling this a “conscience clause.” Just a reminder, Republicans believe that by controlling the reproduction in society they can control society, and they aren’t wrong. If there are questions about my theoretical bases for this or examples let me know, and I’ll write one up.

So why the shutdown? Senate Majority Leader and useless individual Harry Reid (D-NV) said he won’t send any spending measures that include cuts to Obamacare to the Senate floor before the government runs out of funding. However, the actions by House Republicans almost ensure a government shutdown. A reminder of what the shutdown will do: furlough close to a million federal workers and cut off services for millions. I'm not sure how this will impact DC because Mayor Gray has promised the city will be open tomorrow. Also, is the US defaults on its debt the global economy would take a hard hit. So I guess I should have moved the USA chat here?

The article includes a quote from a statement from the Pro-Choice Caucus, Led by Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Dinana DeGette (D-CO):

“While the American people need Congress to focus on passing a continuing budget resolution funding all services and resources for the American people, House Republicans are more intent on focusing their efforts—and now our precious time—on limiting a woman’s access to contraception. This egregious attack on women’s health could result in potentially taking away health services for millions of women and families. House Republicans’ pursuit of an extreme crusade against women’s health is bringing the federal government to the brink of a shutdown.”

 It is worth noting that the specific targeting of women’s health care services should be a seen as a civil rights issue because women are people being denied health care services because they are women. The measure the GOP is targeting also appears to delay the demand for insurers to cover the co-pay for preventative care such as mammograms and cancer screenings for women. Yep, someone tell me again that they care about women’s health. The Democrats are refusing to negotiate over a program that is already law, and was reinforced with President Obama’s reelection.

So we’re exactly where we have been, and I’m still left with a need for the Senate to protect us from zealots. The article concluded with a letter from the anti-choice nut-jobs that think Obamacare is pro-abortion. One day, one day I hope these people read what they are bitching about. It will make conversations go faster because I won’t have to explain the required reading beforehand.

So for the fun-times. ThinkProgress’ Judd Legum pulled together a list of 21 things the Republicans have demanded in exchange for not shutting down the government and/or tanking the global economy.

1. A balanced budget amendment [Link]

2. Approving Keystone XL [Link]

3. Eliminating funding for Planned Parenthood [Link]

4. Medicare privatization [Link]

5. Tax reform, as outlined by Paul Ryan [Link]

6. The REINS Act, which would require Congress to approval significant federal regulations [Link]

7. Means-testing Social Security [Link]

8. Defunding Obamacare [Link]

9. Allowing employers to eliminate insurance coverage for birth control [Link]

10. An expansion of off-shore drilling [Link]

11. Preserving all the Bush tax cuts [Link]

12. “Trillions” in budget cuts [Link]

13. Slashing funding for food stamps [Link]

14. Protecting mountaintop strip mining [Link]

15. Stripping the EPA of authority to regulate greenhouse gases [Link]

16. Loosening regulation on coal ash [Link]

17. Delaying Obamacare implementation by one year [Link]

18. Repealing a tax on medical devices [Link]

19. Eliminating Social Service Block Grants [Link]

20. Expanding drilling on federal lands [Link]

21. Restricting the child tax credit [Link]

Twelve of these directly impact the poor and/or women, they are those that are in bold. Six are anti-environment. Three focus on shrinking government. I’d like to shrink the government right now, by tossing these people out of office. There was also rumors going around over the weekend that members were drunk. I hate when people go to work intoxicated. Where is the conscious clause over that?