Impeachment Trial Summary... fixed it for you.

I don't write in this blog nearly enough, especially with everything that is happening in our country today. I'm an oilfield truck driver and really just don't have enough time. It might also be because no one actually reads my blog.

But my Republican friends and family are circulating a post on social media called Impeachment Trial Summary. It's full of errors, so I thought I'd fix it! My corrections are in red.

Before I begin I just want to remind you regardless of the Senate Outcome - Trump will always have IMPEACHED on his presidential record!

Impeachment trial summary:

Dems: We have an airtight case against the President

Reps: Ok, go ahead

Dems: Trump and his staff came up with a plot to withhold funding to Ukraine contingent on the announcement of investigations into Joe Biden's son. AN ABUSE OF POWER, then he obstructed our investigation!

(We know this because Guilliani sent a letter to Ukraine also asking for the investigations in which he made it clear this was for private citizen Trump not president Trump)

Reps: Oh gee that sounds bad.

Dems: It gets worse, he also withheld a meeting with the new President of Ukraine unless he complied.

Reps: WOW. That poor man, when will they get the money?

Dems: Oh, they already got the money. A few weeks before the deadline
(because TRUMP found out about the whistleblower)

Reps: Wait, he got the money? Are they going to withdraw the investigations?

Dems: He never announced the investigations, but Trump asked them to investigate in their meeting.
(We have Les Parnas’ note now pushing the investigations, or at least for them to claim they had started investigations, at Rudy’s behest)

Reps: Wait, THEY HAD THE MEETING?

Dems: Well yeah, they had a meeting

Reps: So let me make sure I have this right, Trump gave them the money before the deadline (Because he was found out about the whistleblower), they didn't announce any investigations and they got the meeting.

Dems: Yes

Reps: And you investigated this?

Dems: Of course we did, we had to, the president clearly has bad motives.

Reps: and you found proof of this?

Dems: Absolutely, one guy overheard someone else on the phone talking to Trump about the whole scheme. (We also have Guilliani’s admissions on not just CNN but on Fox News)

Reps: Like on speaker phone?

Dems: Not exactly, more like across the table in a crowded restaurant, not on speakerphone.

Reps: I see, I suppose he destroyed all the evidence, thus the obstruction.

Dems: Well no, first he declassified the meeting transcripts, BUT then he said he had executive privilege or some nonsense. (Not actual Transcripts, the way Trump “remembers” them)

Reps: What did the court say?

Dems: What court?

Reps: Didn't you take him to court to get the records?

Dems: There was no time, we can't have a president extorting foreign countries. LOL MAN, are you crazy?

Reps: Just a second, let me catch my breath.

Dems: Shocking isn't it.

Reps: To recap, Trump gave Ukraine a meeting, the funding, no investigations were launched, declassified the meeting, and offered to go to let the courts decide on executive privilege, and you impeached based on an overheard phone call and the fact that you were in a hurry?

Dems: Well... when you say it like that it makes us sound silly. But you'll see when we call new witnesses during the Senate phase.

Reps: YOU HAVEN'T EVEN INTERVIEWED ALL THE WITNESSES YET? (Because all of Trumps allies who claim he is innocent refused to show up and defend him)

Dems: Well, no but we did interview a few low level staffers. (Wait, the Ambassador to the European Union is a low level staffer? The Ukraine Envoy Kurt Volger was a low level staffer?)

Reps: *looks around*

Dems: *grins confidently*

Reps: You're *** crazy. (Puts head in sand, refuses to hear or look at evidence and literally hides from facts)

90 Days Until I Can Get Insurance - A Personal Case For Medicare For All

In 2018 Americans spent $3.65 trillion on medical expenses. That’s an increase of 4.4 % over 2017 according to a report by Axios. Also, from the report under private health insurance, spending per person rose 4.5% between 2017 and 2018, even though the same number of people were enrolled. That’s for one year and it is expected to keep going up (In 2016 it was $3.4 trillion)

In contrast, conservative estimates put the cost of Medicare for all at $3.3 trillion per year… or as they like to exclaim $33 trillion over 10 years!

I don’t know, that looks like a savings of $3.5 trillion a year based on their numbers and it covers everyone. That seems like a deal to me, but it won’t to them… because uh’m socialism, and as we all know socialism is bad. Always bad. Even where it works.

You know what’s not working for me though? The current for-profit medical system we live under in the United States of America. It’s not working for me, or for you, or even for most of these blue-collar Trump-loving guys who think it’s working for them.

Some of the most common complaints I hear about socialized medicine are that the Government will decide what test can be done, what doctors you can go to and what treatments you can receive. All these things are already controlled by the big insurance companies. They outright decide when and what tests they pay for, they make you pay extra for a doctor out of network and god forbid you want a medication that isn’t on their approved list. Somehow this doesn’t occur to them. Somehow, they think they would be giving up their perceived freedoms by having a government take the place of big insurance.

I have always believed we would be better off with a system that covered everyone all the time. I believed this from a distance though. I had an employer who gave us the best insurance and healthcare possible. I could see a doctor free of charge for the littlest boo boo you could imagine and it was awesome. Unlike many of my colleagues, I felt like everyone should have treatment available like this. This is how you should take care of a society. This is what the greatest country on earth should do for its people. But, as they say, all good things must come to an end and right now my family and I are at the opposite end of the spectrum. No insurance and no options. 

Let me start with some background until the end of December in 2018 I worked for an employer with what has to be one of the most generous medical benefits packages anywhere in America. They paid 100% of the cost of not just the employee, but of the employee’s entire family. Pretty mind-boggling. It was basically a $21k raise for everyone from the lowest-paid to the highest. It didn’t stop there though; they had their own fully staffed free clinic in the parking lot of the downtown branch. Once again, 100% free to employees and family. Tell me that was not an amazing thing to have access to?

Unfortunately, at the end of 2018 the company decided to sell the division I worked for another company. They would still pay the employee portion of the insurance, but now we were responsible for our family (I have three kids and a wife, I need my insurance) which came out to about $800 a month. The free clinic, gone! It was a huge and unexpected pay cut even though my salary was technically the same, and it didn’t cover as much but hey, at least we still had some insurance. We adjusted.

My wife sees a doctor for chronic pain, I see one for an inherited condition. We both have maintenance prescriptions as do a couple of our kids. It was a hardship but, as you can imagine, we were glad to have any insurance at all.

Then the layoffs came. I was laid off.

Very suddenly we have no insurance.

I’m a CDL driver. I figure in this economy I’ll find a job really quick. For three months I can’t find anything that can even cover my mortgage payment. I have to borrow to make ends meet, so much so that when I get my severance from the old job (which was nice) it is eaten up pretty quickly. We pretty much all have to stop taking our medications. It feels like we are getting close to the end of our rope here and then suddenly I finally get a job.

I accept a freight delivery job that is only about 10k less a year then what I was making. I need a job and I need to keep a roof over my head. So, I accepted the position. I’ll be eligible for their insurance in three months, and this employer gives no sick days. If you miss a day you have to get a doctor note or be written up and forget being paid a cent for that day.

And this brings us to the entire point of this article. The real reason that Medicare for All (or single-payer system, or socialized medicine or whatever you call it) would really benefit everyone. Something is wrong with my left eye. It’s gotten very blurry recently and nothing I have found over the counter has helped. I get no sick days and I can’t afford a doctor even if I had them. I am a CDL driver out on the roads of this country daily. A CDL driver who can’t see out of his left eye. Think about that.

I'm driving one of these and I can't see in my left eye!

All over this country we let people go to work sick or in dangerous states. Many times they literally have zero options. Go to work sick or don’t get paid. Don’t see a doctor because you can’t afford it. These people are a danger to everyone, not just themselves. 90 days until I can get insurance, and only then if I can afford it.

The Cost of Universal healthcare... it's not what you think.

I'm not a math whiz. Not be a long shot.... feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

Universal healthcare. $3.2 trillion a year. Big ass scary sounding number. Even scarier when they call it $32 Trillion over 10 years.

A trillion has 12 zeroes, so...written out as a big scary number $3.2 Trillion is $3,200,000,000,000

Mind officially boggled.

Okay... pack it in... that's a shit ton of money, no frickin' way we can afford that kind of cash grab.

You know what, just for shits and giggles, lets run some numbers. Big numbers... Im'a use a calculator.

There are approximately 170 million taxpayers... but about 76 million of them wont pay any federal income tax so that leaves about 94 million actually paying taxes.

That looks like this $94,000,000.

Should be a simple matter of dividing $3.2 Trillion by $94 million... but you know what, I feel like adding another .1 trillion, just in case... and I'll subtract 4 million, once again... just in case.

So $3,300,000,000,000/90,000,000 = $36.6K

Jebus! Holy shit, they are right. That is a literal shit ton of money. DAMN! I do hate when conservatives are right. I gotta be missing something here...

Hmmm, my employer paid $24K in premiums for me and my family last year. (I had a great employer by the way, almost no one pays for the employee and the family.) I paid an additional $8k in prescriptions, co-pays and things that were not covered (but I'd assume most have a forth of that), then I also paid about $1500 into Medicare.

Nope... anyway I look at it this shit is more expensive. It would be nice to cover everyone and all but I'll be in the hole about $8k-$10k more. That would seriously suck ass (actually I wouldn't care if I paid more and it covered everyone - righteous indignation and cussing is for illustrative purposes only).

If only we had a progressive tax system in this country.

Wait... we do have a progressive tax system. Awesome, almost forgot.

Okay... so this is going to be hard to explain. The top 10% of earners pay 71% of the taxes collected in this country. This does not mean that that pay 71% income tax, it means they make so much money that even paying a lower tax rate then the rest of us they account for a bigger share of the revenue collected. So don't stress about their burden. They can afford it, I promise.

It would be pretty safe to assume like most of our taxes this would be a progressive tax. It would actually cost most of us a lot less. Even if the middle class portion was 30% of that cost we'd all be seeing savings and everyone would be covered. 

Think about what that means. Right now people without insurance can't afford to get preventative treatment. Some will wait until a problem can't be ignored anymore. Then the go to an emergency room for care. Something that could have been treated or prevented now costs thousands of dollars. That money will never be paid back and that cost gets spread out to the rest of us.

By the way, in 2016 we spent $3.4 Trillion on medical expenses in this country. It was slated to increase in both 2017 and 2018, but I can't find newer figures. If the conservative's number of $3.2 trillion a year hold true that's a saving of $2 trillion per decade. Just sayin'.

We are paying more and getting less right now. It's time for a change. 

Another Healthcare Rant - This time it's personal!

My employer recently sold my part of the company to someone else. I blogged about it back in December but I want to do so again with some fresh thoughts.

This is real to me now. Before the Healthcare problems of this country, while extremely important to me, did not affect me directly. 

Now it is personal to me. Before I rant, let me say I'm not blaming my new employer, I'm blaming a broken for-profit health care system.

My old employer, Pioneer Natural Resources, paid $21k a year and covered my family at no cost to me. None!!! We even had our own clinic. Most American's probably don't even realize how much their employer contributes. I'm going to make a total guess here, but I believe when most people hear about the cost of a single-payer system they are not thinking about the money their employers are already putting into the system.

My new employer only pays for my insurance. I will have to pay in $11,900 a year to make sure my wife and kids have insurance. I'm actually going to be okay, I can handle it... it's not going to be easy, but it is doable.

My coworkers can not. Their compensation is based on a 40hr work week even though they put in 96 hrs a week. Mine is based on salary, I put in 84 a week, but it would be the same no matter what. In 2018 their wife and kids were covered. Every sickness, every broken bone, they had insurance.

In any other industrialized country in the world, this wouldn't happen. The amount paid would be the same (But in America we use healthcare as leverage to tie people to a job). Most middle class and poor people in this country live to their means (in other words their spending comes close to their paycheck), most cant absorb the sudden loss of almost $1000 in income a month.

Some of these guys will have to choose now between bills and coverage. 

Now.... we spent $3.4 Trillion on healthcare as a country in 2016. It went up about 4% 2017 and is expected to be up 5.3% after the final numbers for 2018 (Edit - I have the numbers now, $3.6 Trillion).

Conservatives estimate the cost of universal healthcare at 32 trillion over 10 years. Democrats estimate $2.8 trillion. That's $3.2 trillion a year by the con estimate and covers everyone. 

By any measure that's a savings of 2 trillion over 10 years. 

EDIT: Things have changed since this blog. I have been on Obamacare since May 2020. Read about that experience here.

Here's the short reason why trickle down economics just doesn't work... not ever.

Economic growth is based on demand for products and services. When you take money from the poor and middle class to feed the rich you give them less ability to buy what the rich are selling. In the long run, trickle-down economics is bad for everyone, even the rich.

Give a man who has everything $100 what does he do with it? He already has everything (stagnation). Give that $100 to a man who is poor and he has no choice but to reinvest (growth created by demand). Take away all his money and he has no choice but to try and take it back (crime).

In the long run it the tax breaks to the rich stop mattering. If we can't buy their products the money eventually dries up. A tax break without the revenue to back it up does no good. If they actually did use it to create jobs that would be one thing, but they don't, or at least they don't create them here. They don't feed the economy, they hoard it.

In fact, time and time again they somehow convince half of America the poor are the problem.

But for the rich it works for a while... even though time after time it has been proven to be unsustainable in the long run. And the politicians they own will help them make you believe it works because from the rich man's hand to the politician's pocket is the only time it does.

People have no right to fire protection - Let's bring back Fire Gangs

A conservative friend just told me that in order to get better healthcare we have to be willing to give up something. We have to cut money from other so called "entitlements" to pay for it. It's a tired argument really. In long run access to healthcare benefits everyone. Healthy workers save money and even if that was the only benefit it would be enough.

But, I really don't get the point here.... it's 2 Trillion LESS over 10 years then what we paid as a country in 2016. By the Conservative estimate.... by the 2.8 trillion Liberal estimate it saves even more, and the reality is probably somewhere in between the two. 

So why would we give anything up for something that already costs less?

Do you know most fast food and restaurant workers in this country go to work sick? When I was a pizza delivery guy I worked sick all the time. Think that was a great idea? Had no choice. Had no money for Doctors and couldn't afford to stay home. Turned around and made other people sick. 

This was right after the oil field lay offs in 2010 with a pregnant wife at home. So I'm not talking as a young guy, or ancient history. This was to make ends meet quite recently. 

The temp employees here at my current job have the same issue. They can't afford a doctor, they work sick. That spreads sickness. That decreases efficiency at work. Healthcare doesn't just help the sick person, it makes society function better, much like police and fire departments.

In fact, that's what I'll give up. Fire Departments. Lets go back to the early 1600s or so when Fire Departments were all volunteer and expected payment to put out Fires. When roving fire gangs actually set as many fires as they put out. We can modernize this idea! They can roll up, check your fire insurance and if your covered only then will they put out the fire (just like health insurance). When it spreads to other buildings? Same thing, show you are insured or pull out the check book. Otherwise they will roast marshmallows on what used to be your home.

~After all - No one has a right to Fire Protection, that's an entitlement!~ 

By virtue of simple dumb luck I'm not getting screwed while others are.

I really don't know if this belongs in my blog.

It's the first personal real world situation I've blogged about and it is something that just feels seriously wrong, but I can't do anything about it. I can't even blame a political party, excepting the fact that Republican's have made it impossible to collective bargain in Texas.

The company I work for just got sold. 

My old employer covered my entire family on their medical insurance free of charge.

My new employer only covers the employee adding the family is over $800 a month.

My old employer provided an absolutely free medical clinic.

My new employer does not.

Here is the deal, by a stroke of luck... a simple twist of fate... my family will be okay.

~A lucky roll of the dice~

I started as an hourly field hand.

About six months ago I became a salaried employee.

Yes, salaried employees still have to pay. I'm lucky, but not that lucky.

However the people purchasing us made a deal. If we stay four months and let them know a month in advance that we are leaving. We get to take our full severance. If we stay we get a big bonus worth about twice that. That is pretty generous. I'm not going to lie, and I'm not accusing those buying us of being a bad company but....

It's based on 40 hours a week for hourly employees. We work in the oil field. These guys put in about 96 hours a week on a 14 day on 7 day off schedule. This is backbreaking work that many of them (myself included until recently) have been doing for many years. Mine is based on my salary (I put in 84 hours a week on the same schedule.

Anyway the severance for these guys is going to come out to a few months pay. It's not going to go very far. If they stay and have a family they will suddenly be paying $800 a month unless they find something cheaper on their own. That's a sudden, unexpected $800 a month bill. The bonuses these guys get won't even cover it. That is a direct hit of $11,900 a year to guys who will work the same long hours and do the same hard jobs. Could you absorb that?

Big side note: In almost any other industrial country the amount they pay would not depend on the the whims of the employer. 

Because of my dumb luck and becoming salaried at the right time my new bonus will cover the insurance and leave me $30k richer a year.

Of course, Texas is a "so called" right to work state. We have no power to bargain. These guys have no ability to fight for a better deal.

It will be the first year of my life I don't have to struggle to make ends meet. I feel very lucky. Last year this would have ruined me. My medical bills were enough that I met my family deductible several months ago. Right now, I'm paying for nothing. No Co-Pays, no prescriptions, nada.

But I can't help thinking about these guys and that someone should realize overtime wages (which make up more then 50% of their pay) are wages. They have to pay on every dime at tax time but don't get recognition otherwise. Most people end up with a set of bills in life that is representative of what they make (not the best word usage, but I hope you understand what I'm saying). These are real people and families that in many cases already have medical issues. They can't afford to lose insurance and now will have to struggle to keep it. They will be doing the same work for what amounts to less money, does that seem right?

I also can't help thinking that in almost any other industrialized country they would have universal healthcare that would cost them the same no matter where they worked. None of them asked for this but they will all be paying for it.