Consider this note I received today from a friend:
"Thought you'd like to know that i received a check in the mail today from Uncle Sam's new Affordable Care Act to help cover the cost of my Medicare drugs in the amount of $250. Mind you, this one-time gift arrived just eleven days prior to election and, to me, an obvious bribe to receive my endorsement of their plan. Hope this backfires on them as I am immediately turning this check back to Joel Pollak in the form of my contribution in the same amount. Hope it helps the last few days of his successful campaign." [Emphasis added.]
The Affordable Care Act is Dem-sponsored legislation designed to ameliorate the "donut hole" that Seniors experience in drug coverage under Medicare. I am sure this is a real problem. That said, the arrival of this check magically two weeks before the election is just one more bit of evidence of the privilege taken by Congress and the White House to award themselves gifts in even-numbered years to ensure reelection. The real question is "how dumb are we?"
Please note that the CPSIA was just such a gift. Passed almost unanimously on August 14, 2008 right ahead of the 2008 election season, the CPSIA allowed every member of Congress to blunt accusations that they were "soft" on Chinese toys. Not unlike so many other pieces of complex legislation passed by Nancy Pelosi's Congress, our esteemed members of Congress apparently never read the bill which covered soup-to-nuts in Children's Products, not just toys. Even today, you can find Congressmen expressing surprise and alarm that the law covered anything other than toys.
Duping members of Congress must seem like child's play to devious staffers. After all, they know the members can't or won't read their handiwork. We call that the "political process".
Some people ask me why I cut the Republicans such a "break" by attacking only Democrats on this law. Didn't all the Republicans vote for the law, too? By and large, that's true. However, since passage of the CPSIA, many Republicans have stood up and tried to help us. They have allied with my efforts and have gone to considerable effort, not to mention taken political risk, to address a Congressional screw-up that imperils Small Business without any corresponding safety benefit for consumers. Has every Republican member of Congress helped us? No. However, ZERO Democrats have lifted a finger to help us and most have scorned us publicly and privately. The Democrats who were put in charge of the CPSC are perhaps the MOST insensitive and the most strident in their political posturing.
Until the Democrats DEMONSTRATE that they can be trusted, which for me will take quite a bit of work on their part, I have NO interest in giving them a pass. The Republicans have EARNED my support. I hope you are not susceptible to bribes or other trickery by the party in control. Your business and your markets hang in the balance. Assess the situation clearly and pick sides. It's now or never!
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The Democrats who were put in charge of the CPSC are perhaps the MOST insensitive and the most strident in their political posturing.
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So true. I think this will be remembered in the future as an embarrassing episode for the CPSC. Flush with the CPSIA and additional funding, they are in full kid-in-the-candy-store mode now.
It is interesting that they sent the checks out now, however my dad is a "senior" and a few weeks before this he received a notice that his insurance would go up 50% in 2011 and 50% again in 2012 and he was losing coverage on certain medications. $250 certainly isn't going to cover this type of increase. I saw the form and couldn't believe my eyes.
As you get through each layer of any of this legislation the truth seems to be revealing itself. They aren't fooling everyone as hard as they try.
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