The September. 12, 2009, TEA party was a grassroots non-partisan movement in which experts estimate up to 1.7 million Americans marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol Building sending Washington D.C. a message: We the people…want to be heard…want a reduction in out-of-control spending...want responsible health care reform…and are Taxed Enough Already (TEA).
We were there.
It breaks our hearts to see patients with major medical illnesses who have no insurance, inadequate insurance, or have been denied insurance because of a preexisting condition. We need health care system reform to help them. Almost all Americans agree with this.
Unfortunately, nothing is free. The estimated cost of President Obama’s health care plan is approximately $900 billion…and possibly more. The Obama health care plan may potentially make the situation worse. Why? The country is already on financial life-support:
- Our country’s national debt is $11.8 trillion and increasing at a record rate each day. The current national debt per citizen is $38,441. It’s important to note that this does not include US unfunded liabilities.
- U.S. unfunded liabilities not included in the National Debt figure are a whopping $59 trillion (OR) $192,138 per citizen. Unfunded liabilities include liabilities from Medicare/Medicaid $39.7 trillion, Social Security $10.7 trillion, and Prescription Drug Liability $8.6 trillion.
- The Medicare Hospital Trust fund is on track to be insolvent by 2019.
- Foreclosures plague our cities.
- The average income is declining.
- The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment level is at an astonishing 9.7%.
- The Labor Departments U-6 unemployment figure which includes the official unemployment rate as well as those without jobs who have given up looking for work or are part-time and looking for full time work is at 16.8%.
These statistics bring up a crucial point. The concerns of Americans are not just about health care. It’s about cost. If you and your family are $50,000 in debt, what do you do? Do you buy more? Do you dig a deeper hole and incur more expenses? Spending your way out of debt isn’t the answer.
Most Americans do not believe President Obama can deliver a health care plan that would include covering 30 Million uninsured Americans costing $900 billion without it costing American tax payers one dime. Most Americans do not believe that their strained Medicare system benefits will not be limited or cut. If $900 billion can be saved from within the present system by cutting Medicare/Medicaid waste and fraud, then why isn’t it being done now to help save the present Medicare system, which is on course towards bankruptcy?
Any public option must be self-sustaining and taxpayers are tired and outraged over vague oratorical non-specific rhetoric. “Show us the proof!” taxpayers are demanding. Show us evidence-based data where the almost $1 trillion is going to come from. Give us substantiated confirmation that the funding to pay for 30 million uninsured will not someday come from our tax dollars.
Compounding the health care cost dilemma is the increasing number of Medicare recipients. Currently 12.8 percent of the population is older than the age of 65. Beginning in 2011 a tidal wave of post-war baby boomers will begin entering the Medicare system. By 2020 retiring baby boomers will increase the numbers of recipients to 17.5% of the population, and 20% of the population by 2030. The influx of so many post-war baby boomers will put a significant strain on the Medicare system.
The Medicare system is not a fully funded system. It started out as a fully funded system in the 1960’s, however, it evolved into a system in which funding comes from what the current workers put in. A simple equation: Less money put in by workers=less money to pay out to retirees. And do not forget that Medicare retirees are living longer. Life expectancy is now longer than it was in Medicare’s infancy. The average life expectancy at birth of a male is 75.65 years and a female 80.69 years.
As Alan Greenspan eloquently explains in The Age of Turbulence "As we have seen, today's relative fiscal quiescence masks a pending tsunami. It will hit as a significant proportion of the nation's highly productive population retires to become recipients of our federal pay-as-you-go health and retirement system, rather than contributors to it. Over time, unless this is addressed, it could add massively to the demand for economic resources and heighten inflationary pressures." (AGreenspan. The Age of Turbulence. p.482-505)
To be efficient and cost effective health care reform needs to address:
- Litigation and Tort reform
- The denial of insurance due to a preexisting medical condition
- Cancellation of insurance once a serious diagnosis is discovered
- Lifetime capping of benefits one can receive for a condition i.e. cancer.
- Assisting the unemployed who are financially strapped and cannot afford COBRA.
- The increasing cost of health insurance
- Large yearly deductibles i.e. $2000-$10,000 causing families to forego preventive health care
- Rising hospitalization costs, medical supplies, medications, testing, etc.
- More choices of insurance across state lines
- Eliminating waste, fraud, abuse and increasing efficiency
- Assisting small businesses to pay for health care costs
- Medicare prescription drug "donut hole"
- Improved technology to improve efficiency and avoid duplication of testing
- Streamlining payment
- Payment for Preventive care
- Shortage of Family Physicians, as fewer medical school graduates are choosing to enter this comparatively low-paying field of medicine
- Research and development (R&D) into chronic disease such as dementia/Alzheimers, cancer, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease
Almost every American believes the present health care system needs reform. The fear however, is that the public option carries the seeds to destroy the world’s finest quality health care, and the various healthcare reform plans will exacerbate our tremendous national debt.
Americans were ill at ease during the bailout and government take-over of banks, GM and other financial institutions. Many were confounded. For others, it was this guy’s or that guy’s problem. However, when it comes to healthcare it’s different… it affects each and every one of us. This was the catalyst for the August town hall meetings and “fueled” the TEA party march on Washington.
The Deeper Message: During the march down Pennsylvania Avenue and rally at the Capitol, we both experienced a realization. While the passionate words of the marchers were about health care, taxation, and out-of-control spending, on a deeper heartfelt level they were expressions of something much greater…the Future Ideology of America!
We feel we are at a crossroad in America’s history. Oh, where to begin to put these feelings into words?
There is a deep feeling resonating in Americans. At the town hall meetings, rallies, and marches across the country Americans have voiced concerns. But the common thread in all these voices is the expression of the American Spirit. A Spirit fostered by a sense of freedom and self-reliance. The Sept. 12, 2009, Washington D.C. Tea party supporters were fighting to keep America the land of the free; free to have a free-market system, freedom of speech, religion, and the right to bear arms.
That Spirit is the freedom to have a dream and manifest that dream. It is an entrepreneurial spirit, a “can do” mentality. A Spirit in which people set their minds on their dreams, roll-up their sleeves, and go to work.
Many of us can trace our heritage to immigrants who came to America, the land of the free, to make something of themselves, to build a better life. Personally, our grandparents immigrated to this country at the turn of the century. They fed their families through hard manual labor. Our fathers were middle-class American workers, one a truck driver, the other a maintenance man. Our mothers were homemakers. We are the American dream! Our parents worked and saved so we could go to college and have the opportunity to experience the life of our dreams. That’s the spirit upon which America was founded…the spirit that makes America great. That’s the spirit of our founding forefathers.
The government’s role in the American Dream is crucial. Its’ role is to keep us free from threats outside and inside the country and to regulate with wisdom. Its’ role is to keep Americans free and keep opportunity available to all Americans. America attracts the best and the brightest because America allows its’ citizens to fulfill their potential. But this Spirit, this Dream is in danger! Why?
The overwhelming debt precipitated by unregulated out-of-control governmental spending is encumbering our country’s capability to support the dreams of Americans. Our overwhelming debt even threatens our ability to secure our national safety and quality of life. The safety and well being of all citizens is in jeopardy, especially our most vulnerable, the disabled, the young and elderly, and the handicapped.
As a country we have made huge financial mistakes. How do we get ourselves out of this financial hole? This is the greatest question we face: To what degree are we going to rely on the government and to what degree are we going to rely on the American people to deal with our country’s problems.
The passionate controversy echoing across America is not really just about health care or TEA. It is a demand for a Free America versus big government. Are we going to limit the Free Spirit of America? Thomas Jefferson said, “The course of history shows that as government grows, liberty decreases.” The future direction of America is at stake.
It is our feeling that our greatest challenge is to maintain our American Spirit and entrepreneurial drive, to learn from the lessons of our triumphs and failures, and to have the wisdom to apply these lessons to our country’s future.
Educate yourself to the consequences of overwhelming government debt. It is your responsibility as an American to keep informed and make educated decisions on pertinent issues coming before Congress such as health care reform, taxes, government spending, etc.
Whatever your opinions may be you must act now or you will find yourself wondering: What hit us? What happened? Exercise your freedom of speech. Let your opinions be known. Write your congressmen, representatives, send a letter to your newspaper editor, sign a petition, go to town hall meetings, voice your opinion in whatever means is appropriate, and by all means exercise your right to choose in the voting booth. For the sake of our future, the future of our children and grandchildren…we must choose wisely.