Passing Medical Liability Reforms, after almost six years of pushing this bill through congress it continues to fail. Therefore, I guess I do not need to discuss this one as an accomplishment of the current administration!
Expanding Health IT (Electronic Health Record), although I cannot understand how this will make health care affordable, nothing really was accomplished their either.
Expanding Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Is available but does not work for the very simple reason the Association Health Plan did not. The cost of health insurance is expensive. Please see the attached testimony to the congress for more information http://www.cmwf.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=379042
As I wrap-up the health coverage portion of this article, we need to remember couple of things.
Number of uninsured is at the highest level since 1998. The health insurance premium is rising at double-digit annual rate, and three times the rate of inflation. The only real accomplishment for this government has been the establishment of a drug benefit program for seniors. There are several shortcomings of the new program but the most striking one is the fact that it prohibits the government from negotiating prescription drug discount for consumers. I wonder who wrote this clause! Some more details about other problems with the program is detailed in this web site http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/core_health_care/000664.html
Now let us move to the topic of Homeland security.
Security is our contract with this government. The single issue dominating the American psyche since September 2001. We learned since then that without security, we would not enjoy life let alone education or health care.
Regardless if the previous administration, the current one or many decades of bad foreign policy created September 11. On that day, we swore we would never find ourselves in that place again.
We were willing to turn a blind eye on our privacy rights with the Patriot act, accept broken promises on education, and health. Pay more at the gas pump. Even see our sons and daughters come back in bags for one simple reason, not to see another day like September 11.
The single entity responsible for this promise is our government, and the plan to achieve our goal is Homeland security-- a mega bureaucracy created with over twenty-two government agencies, 170,000 employees and a budget of 37.4 billion.
Under the title "Protecting the Homeland", I was hoping to find a mission statement. Instead, there was the following text:
President Bush's Top Priority Is The Safety And Security Of The American People.
• The Administration Has Worked With Congress To Implement The 9/11 Commission's Recommendations..
• Administration Officials Repeatedly Have Testified On The Implementation Of The Recommendations.
• The President Supported The Work Of The Commission.
These few points indicate the fact that the core mission of this department is the security and safety of us the American people. The method used to achieve this goal is through the 9/11 commission's recommendation.
Simple is beautiful, at least I always think along these lines. My mission is to discover the progress of the government (Homeland Security Department) on the implementation of the one and only plan it has.
I am an Egyptian American born in Alexandria. I immigrated to the US in the late eighties, during this time lived in many places in US and Europe. I work as an IT manager and love it. I love to travel, it makes me feel young, and it awakes in me sense of adventure and curiosity. I love knowing people from different cultures; it never fails to amaze me how we all live in our little worlds that never meet. History is my second amazement, it always differ depending on who is winning, that leads me to my third hobby, politics is it history or human nature that is the culprit?
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