Blue's Views - The Upcoming Election

So you think you might vote Republican in November?

Salem-News.com

(SAN FRANCISCO) - When I was young, party affiliation was of minor importance compared to love of God, country and family. Today a person's party affiliation seems like the most important thing in their life. I know there are good Republicans and bad Republicans, just like there are good Democrats and bad Democrats. However, before you cast that ballot think about the possible outcomes of this election.

The Democrats, the largest party, has a wide variety of goals and values, and they are not all shared by all Democrats. Among the Democrats you will find those who champion civil rights, human rights, gay rights, the right to choose, labor unions, who oppose the death penalty, who favor gun control, and the list goes on forever.

The Republicans, the second largest party, are much more united in their values. All of their values center around one thing and one thing only - accumulating more money, which can equal more power.

No, you argue, how can supporting the right to life produce more money for the Republicans? It does so by collecting more votes, which results in more elected officials, who in turn pass laws that enable to wealthy to become even richer. That is why the Republicans gather together to oppose gay marriage? Do you think the rich Republican leaders care in the least about gay rights? No, but they see that subject as a tool to gain more votes. Why do you think 10 states had anti gay marriage initiatives on the ballot when George W. Bush ran for re-election? So that anti gay voters would come to the polls, and while voting against gay marriage, they could cast a vote for Bush at the same time. It worked, didn't it?

Speaking of the second Bush administration, the President had 3 special interests he had to pay back for his election: The medical/pharmaceutical interests, the oil and gas interests, and the banking interests.

He got the Congress to pass Medicare Part D, prescription drugs. I know, I signed up both of my parents. Before this passed we paid about $600 a month for drugs. After Medicare Part D was passed, we only paid about $450 for drugs, but we paid another $150 for the Medicare insurance. We saved nothing, but this has proven to be a gold mine for the medical/pharmaceutical business.

He repaid the big oil with 2 wars. Even though they are not getting as much oil from Iraq as they had wanted, they made untold fortunes from government contracts. Even today we cannot account for huge sums that were spent on "Bush's Wars".

However, his plan to privatize Social Security and thus give the financial industry access to our pensions and savings fell on its face, so he was in trouble. How did he solve this? He had Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson create what became the TARP fund, a seven hundred billion dollar give away to the very bankers that caused the recession. The original proposal from Paulson was only 4 pages long, and had no restrictions on what the bankers could do with the money. No requirements that they had to loan it out, no limit on executive bonuses, and no repayment requirements. It was not until after President Obama was elected did we put some controls on TARP.

Keep in mind the TARP money was given to the bankers who caused the problems to begin with. However, we were told it was necessary, so it got bi partisan support, including both Senators McCain and Obama.

When President Obama took over, he wanted a seven hundred and fifty billion dollar stimulus package that would help the people of America. That is you and me! Not one Republican in the House of Representatives voted for the money for the people of America, after having voted to give so much to the banking industry that caused the recession. Does that not tell you where the Republican values and loyalties lay?

Our health care system is broken. It is the number 1 cause of personal bankruptcies, even though the majority of American who file for bankruptcy for medical reasons had health insurance. Buy a policy, get sick, and the insurance company may well "rescind" the policy, that is give your premium back and make like the policy never existed. What would our world be like if car and homeowner insurance companies did that just because you have a claim?

In auto insurance we have the "assigned risk", where anyone who is licensed can get care insurance. We have the "fair plans", so anyone can get fire insurance. We have nothing like that for health insurance. Instead, we have the opposite. Get diabetes, you will not be able to but your own policy that covers diabetes. Get cancer or have a heart condition, and you cannot get an individual policy that will cover those diseases. I have two personal friends that may well die, both young parents, because of our awful health care plan. The irony is so many people oppose the President's health care plan. I never hear anyone give him credit for fulfilling that campaign promise. All they can do is complain about it, until they or a loved one gets sick. then they seem to magically change their minds and joint our side. Surprise, surprise, surprise!!

Please ask any Republican in the House of Representatives if he or she supported the health care reform, and they will all say no - because not one Republican cared enough to take care of the American people. Instead they took care of the evil, rich fat cats that make so much money running health insurance companies through the blood and death of Americans like you and me.

Now look at financial reform. The recession came because of deregulation or lack of following regulations in our banking industry. However, remember that thousands of bankers got rich through this process. They would sell financial instruments that they knew were bad, then bet against them, and make a killing. How do we reward these crooked snakes in the grass? With a $700,000,000,000 bailout! By the way, most of the bankers, and most of Wall Street executives, are Republicans!

But we have to vote Republican to create jobs, you say. Not so. It was not the leftist hippies who owned all of America's industry, and who shipped millions of jobs overseas to make a little extra profit. It is not the liberal nurses, teacher, police and firemen who buy Chinese products to sell here, rather than buying American, so they can make a little extra profit. Now, most of these businesses are run by Republicans.

And why do you think the economy has not picked up in 2010? Because if it did, the Republicans might never get control of Congress again. Buy by not lending, and by not investing and creating jobs before the election, the Republican leaders have proven that they are willing to sacrifice the good of our country for a little extra profit. Just think about it before you vote, for we will all have to live with the consequences of this election. Lucas Blue