Pledge service to Obama

[Rich Stern]

The message itself is fine. Whether or not it was changed in reaction to the political fallout, I guess we'll never know.



What I object to, and it's not entirely the administration's fault, but more a function of the modern, 24x7x365 news cycle, is the constant bearing of government and politics as the central topic for our society. Life should be about individuals, families, and communities, rather than a constant debate about how government alters the lives or existence of these things.



TJR, I believe you are wrong about the everyday intrusiveness of government. For some people who would prefer it be otherwise, government is an all day, every day, intrusive entity. Federal, state, and local taxes. Regulatory bodies (EPA, OSHA, et. al.). Last week, I went to a meeting regarding the launch of an online shopping site. There were a ton of business issues to discuss. The topic that took the longest? The difficulty of accurately collecting the correct amount of local sales tax based on the extremely silly way one local government entity (Atlanta) had enacted it's sales tax rates.



There are all kinds of business opportunities I choose to forego, simply because of the work I would have to do to comply with government rules.



Look at the way healthcare organizations behave in regard to Medicare and

Medicaid. I don't know a single practitioner who doesn't think it's a paperwork nightmare and, in some cases, it's enough to drive providers out of the business of providing care.



And government wants to expand that type of reach to cover more people and more health issues.



That, in my opinion, is intrusive.

 

[JerryW Gilliland]

In my pharmacy business, I'm affected every day by government intrusion.



Private insurers pay me within 14 days. Government programs (Medicaid/Medicare) take 30 to 60 days to send me a check...for considerably less than my CONTRACT price, which then involves phone calls and filing addendems to get the money they promised me in the contract I signed. This isn't petty change either. Every time I do this, we're talking about an amount over 10 thousand dollars. And this is constant.



HIPPA (Health Insurance Privacy and Portability Act) places handcuffs on myself and doctor's offices in aquiring information about a patient without a release. This takes time while a patient is waiting for care.



Private insurance and my state require me to keep all records of every prescription for 5 years, which is bad enough. Now that I deal with the Feds, Medicare Part D records have to be kept for TEN YEARS! I had to rent the second story of my building JUST TO STORE ALL THE REQUIRED PAPER WORK, which is not only a lot of extra work but it is also an expensive fire hazard.



Our house was destroyed by a tornado in 2003. After we rebuilt and moved back into our house in 2004, the county tax people came out and tripled our property tax because we had a new house! Like it was an elective act on our part. Same house, same footprint, same floorplan, but the taxes went from $1500 dollars yearly to over $4500 per year. I live in the country with no fire department, no bus service, no sewer access and precious little road improvements. And good luck getting the sheriff to come out quickly.



To me, that's intrusion by the government. I could give more examples, but it would just belabor the subject. But I will add that I expect MUCH more intrusion in the future with the current administration.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Rich Stern said:

TJR, I believe you are wrong about the everyday intrusiveness of government. For some people who would prefer it be otherwise, government is an all day, every day, intrusive entity. Federal, state, and local taxes. Regulatory bodies (EPA, OSHA, et. al.). Last week, I went to a meeting regarding the launch of an online shopping site. There were a ton of business issues to discuss. The topic that took the longest? The difficulty of accurately collecting the correct amount of local sales tax based on the extremely silly way one local government entity (Atlanta) had enacted it's sales tax rates.

I would think I was wrong too if I said that I didnt' find the things you just described as intrusive. Obviously, they are. Obviously I never challenged that they were not.



The original point was that: "...the constant intrusion by the current administration into everyone's personal lives has reached it's limits..."



When stated that way it implies that the current administration is intruding in new ways, ways that were worse than administrations in the past and are therefore somehow reaching new heights...new limits.



I asked what exactly the "current administration" was doing that was intruding into people's personal lives.



You described set of ongoing, historical measures by local, state and federal government that have been going on long before the current administration, and outside of the scope of the current administration.



You talked about stuff of the past and as government as a general thing. That's clearly not what the original objector was talking about...or so was clear to me.



TJR