Armchair Ponderings: Reaching for the past

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Reaching for the past

March 17th is the day that some will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Now that President Obama’s roots were traced to 1850 and an Irish great, great, great grandfather; I am perfectly comfortable in calling upon one of the patron saints of Ireland. If only St. Patrick could reprise his legend of the third century, when he was credited with banishing snakes from Ireland we could purge both houses of government in Washington and perhaps start all over again with citizen representatives instead of professional hangers-on many of whom have never had to manage a business, much less a state or country. But alas, we have a bunch of sheep who have aligned themselves with the current day Nero’s who will fiddle while Rome burns around all of them and us.

For the purists among us, I am aware that the violin (fiddle) was not invented for well after one thousand years after the famous fire of Rome. Perhaps the instrument was a lyre but in any case legend attributes that event during Nero’s reign as emperor in the first century AD.

So much emphasis is being placed on the president’s obsession with healthcare, probably to prove that he can do what then president Clinton was unable to accomplish. Our country now is lagging so far behind on more important topics that we will “owe our souls to the Chinese Company Store,” ( Tennessee Ernie Ford) before we realize that we can’t get out from under that burden.

I don’t want to minimize the importance of first class, affordable healthcare; it is a challenge and will continue to be. However with the President’s apparent fixation, his administration insists on ignoring the importance of numerous other topics such as tort reform, jobs generation other than government jobs by creating new commissions to oversee the commissions structured to oversee other government bodies. Returning General Motors to free enterprise might be a good thing too. The government has no need to be in the automobile business and certainly not in the real-estate and banking business.

I write this early on the morning of the President’s latest anticipated announcement concerning healthcare reform. Option have been touted that as of this writing cannot be verified. Such are the limitations of weekly publications. By this afternoon however we should have the next installment of this year long debate.

As an aside, I am pleased to see that Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) has taken a leave of absence from his chairmanship of the powerful Ways and Means committee until his questioned actions can be verified as legal.

Back to healthcare for a moment! I see little children and I cringe as I wonder what the future holds for them financially and health wise. If our rate of debt continues, their ability to enjoy life as they should will come in serious question.