Opinion

The fix is in

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

In case you missed it, McCook's very own Ben Nelson was on TV this past Sunday. I'm sorry, The Honorable former Sen. Ben Nelson, (D) Nebraska, now CEO of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, to more properly use his new $1 Mil a year job title.

CEO Ben's words were much more measured than when he stepped up to the microphones and proudly told us that he cast the crucial 60th vote to push Obamacare over the finish line a few years past. Ben told Chris Wallace on Fox News (enemy of the progressive wing of the Democrat Party) Sunday that President Obama's latest so-called fix for those who have seen their health insurance policies canceled is far from a done deal. Sen. Ben reiterated that the president's suggestion of a fix is just a suggestion, not law and that the healthcare insurance interests he now represents are concerned about their financial health--they don't want to go bankrupt!

Actually for this old non-believer in the Obama magic it was rather fun to watch our own special politician twisting in the wind along with our socialistic leaning President. Ben was only looking out for the best interests of his constituents, that is us, when he cast that crucial vote for Obamacare. In exchange for his vote Senator Ben made a political deal, later called the "Cornhusker Kickback", which I don't remember the details and probably like a lot of political promises never happened anyway. Now he has to protect that new $1 Mil a year job even if it means appearing in the lion's arena of Fox News Sunday. It is as my mom used to say "He made that bed now let him lie in it."

Poor President Obama seems to be having a personal crisis as he watches his favorability poll numbers move into the tank. It seems that the declining numbers are everybody else's responsibility, certainly not his. After all back in campaign mode he had to tell us that "If you like your healthcare plan you can keep it. Period!" or he wouldn't have been reelected. Unfortunately voters have good memories, aided by video tapes that roll over and over, so his declarative statement didn't stand the test of time. To be charitable he may not have understood the insurance business when he made that statement as he has had zero experience in running any type of business. The Affordable Care Act was off the shelf work put together by that stalwart of liberal thinking Teddy Kennedy and most likely President Obama never read or understood it in the first place. Why did we elect someone with absolutely no experience to the highest office in our beloved land anyhow?

Thankfully I am not among the 5 million or so healthcare policy owners who received the recent notices of cancellation. My fellow military retirees and I were just waiting for the second shoe to drop. We knew that our present good deal would evaporate and there would be an astronomical increase in healthcare related expense. It can and probably still will happen unless the Affordable Care Act, "Obamacare" is massively overhauled or better yet completely repealed.

Still I recently was treated to a rant about how expensive the new healthcare insurance policies, mandatory, are going to be. This from one of my flight students, a local professional businessman. He had received one of the famed cancellation notices and definitely was not happy. An $1,100-a-month increase just for his family comes to mind all with less coverage due to higher annual deductible than the plan that he had and liked before. At the time, he had no clue that our president's non-constitutional fix was on the way and I suspect that he will find any relief from that "suggestion" anyway.

Meanwhile our U.S. foreign policy is a disaster with Lurch running around over the world making our friends, for example Germany, unhappy and then being saved from disaster with Iran by no less than France. China and Russia are celebrating our huge decrease in worldwide influence as they build their military as fast as they can. The president could spend a little more time tending to that important part of his job.

Sadly our own U.S. Air Force is going through financial pain that will significantly degrade our capability due to sequester and budgeting by continuing resolution. It is a little hard to be optimistic about this country's next three years under this, to use a Korean War military term, "fubared" administration.

That is the way I saw it.

Dick Trail

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  • There's no doubt about it. If Clinton gets elected, there are at least 7 more years to work a fix to it all. If she gets reelected after that, then there are 11 years to work with. The Clintons are huge fans of public health care. One of the things that is so interesting is that the 47% - Romney's spoken of group - who don't pay taxes , are not adversely affected by the health program at all. It's not something that will impact the next election in any meaning full way. Here's a prediction --- one of the things the democrats will run on is the position that they - not the republicans - are the ones who are better able to fix the healthcare problem. They will make big of it. They will also be successful in that argument -- because the republicans will simply want to get rid of it. The republican position - despite all the press to the contrary - is , in the opinion of the majority of voters, the lesser liked of the two options.

    -- Posted by bob s on Tue, Nov 19, 2013, at 2:24 PM
  • My, my Dick, you're a little green around the gills. Green with envy of McCook's Ben Nelson. What exactly did former Senator Nelson do to you? Your jealousy seems to be very strong. Are you jealous that he pulls down a million a year? Are you jealous of the fact that he was a 2 term governor, and Senator, while you were a voted out of office county commissioner, and city councilman? Perhaps the statue on Norris Ave? Oh my it has to be the naming of the airport, right Dick? Sure seems like you are, because you seem to never pass up a chance to slam him every chance you get. Many times over the years you misstated his positions and votes. All we ever saw from him were rebuttals of your misstatements. (and I'm trying to be nice when I call them misstatements)

    Come on Dick, you often remind us of your grand officership in the Air Force, what was it they used to describe and officer in the military?? An Officer and a Gentleman if I remember correctly, Dick a gentleman doesn't go around slamming another person every chance he gets, while the other person lives hundreds of miles away. Come on show some class and bury the jealously and envy, especially in your column.

    Went down Norris today, past that grand statue, poke, poke.

    -- Posted by fit2btied on Tue, Nov 19, 2013, at 10:51 PM
  • Do all the Republicans forget about Romneycare? The State of Massachusetts has had public healthcare reform since 2006 when Romney introduced it. And, it seems to have be working quite well for them for 7 years. Oh, Romney is a Republican if you didn't know.

    -- Posted by FNLYHOME on Wed, Nov 20, 2013, at 12:22 PM
  • *

    MY My!! The Liberals really get excited if anyone criticizes one of their own. One good thing about being a Liberal is that you feel no remorse for slandering someone that does not agree with you.

    Like it or not, Ben Nelson will be remembered for the Corn Husker kickback and the 60th vote for Obamacare!

    -- Posted by ksfarmer on Wed, Nov 20, 2013, at 5:43 PM
  • Why can't Republicans look at the positive story of the fact that a small town boy made it big? Instead of all the negative? So many young people are discouraged by all the negativity from growing up in a small town that it's no wonder they don't care to return. We as a whole should be proud of ANY individual from our town at their success regardless of their political beliefs.

    -- Posted by FNLYHOME on Thu, Nov 21, 2013, at 9:53 AM
  • Rural Citizen:

    The majority of the expense related to Romneycare was largely subsidized by federal grants. It was also taken to a vote of the people of the state, that I believe was approved to the tune of 85%. Perhaps if Obamacare was voter approved and received subsidizes from the United Nations, your apples to oranges comparison might be more relevant.

    -- Posted by Bruce Baker on Thu, Nov 21, 2013, at 10:00 AM
  • Ben Nelson promoted himself as a conservative centrist. He proved he wasn't by this and other votes. He also committed the cardinal sin of voting against the will of his constituents. He decided not to run for re-election when it was determined that he would have been defeated in the next election. He knew he was wrong, but cannot admit it. His decision to cast the deciding vote for cloture so ObamaCare could pass will be what he is remembered for in history. The flap over the government health care web site is just the tip of the ObamaCare ice burg. As more of this unfolds in the next few years it will be known as the greatest disaster this country has ever had....and it will have a life of its own. By the next president election, I believe that there will be a ground swell of support for repealing the Affordable Health Care Act, but will it be too late after it destroys free market insurance? Most of all he is exempted from the Affordable Health Care Act. How dispicable!

    -- Posted by niechiro on Thu, Nov 21, 2013, at 9:42 PM
  • niechiro, and I'm sure you've lived your life 100% perfect to make everyone in your life and others around you 100% happy all the time and made every decision 100% perfect also. Yeah, right that's what I figured!

    -- Posted by FNLYHOME on Fri, Nov 22, 2013, at 2:08 PM
  • Trail's green eyed envy of Nelson is getting very old. Besides dealing with his stories of how wrong the liberal's are after his liberal spending when he was a commissioner.

    KSFarmer come on. What have the Republicans done

    for this country? We are where we are because of

    the Republican's. Where did Bush get his money

    for his wars??? Seems to me we had a lot of debt when he left office that was covered up.

    The Republicans give a lot of lip service but are

    the "do nothing party" when it comes to the working people.

    They support big business. Did anyone every notice during the Reagan years how the CEO's wages

    went up into the millions of dollars and still are

    plus all the good benefits, stock, etc. they received and still are? What has happened to the middle class? By the way Insurance is a big business.

    -- Posted by S&P1958 on Fri, Nov 22, 2013, at 6:44 PM
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