Politics as usual

So I've sort of been avoiding talking about politics because I don't want things to be too heavy, but so many things are going on right now that are fundamentally changing life in America as we know it. We've strayed so far from the principles that our country was founded on and I don't know if we'll ever be able to return.

The biggest thing going on right now is the "Stimulus" package. It's being rushed through Congress with barely a debate and our president is scarring everyone into voting for it with language like "we may never recover" and "global catastrophe". It's amazing the junk that is in this bill. I've heard estimates as high as 35% of it will actually go to creating jobs. That's the highest estimate! The rest is favors to special interest groups.

Unfortunately there's also some policy changes that are in the bill that will put in place the tools necessary to change us into a Socialist country. This is the reason I have decided to post this today. I've decided to post about political happenings as I read them that I think you should know about.

The one that struck me today as really scary is an item in the "stimulus" that puts more government control over our healthcare. This item puts in place a National Coordinator of Health Information Technology that will “monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective.” I don't know about you but that scares me. They can decide whether or not you get treatment based on cost and whether or not they think it will work. What if I have a terminal illness and they decide I'm a burden on the state?

Maybe it will never go that far but with Obama as president it won't be for lack of trying on his part. I'd like to encourage everyone who is reading this to become politically active. We need to know what is going on in our government. The Founding Fathers knew that our success as a nation depended on an informed public. We need to elect officials that we can trust and who know that they work for us, not the other way around. If we are complacent then we deserve what we get.

Update: Most of you have asked where you can go to read it. I don't know why it didn't occur to me to post a link, so here you go: http://readthestimulus.org It's not an easy read. It's over 1,000 pages long and very few people in both houses of Congress have even read it. But that didn't stop them from voting for it!

Update: Let me clarify. A few members of Congress read the original draft of the stimulus. The House and Senate each had their own versions of the bill that they voted on. Then they write up another version that they each vote on and then the president signs. NO ONE read that version.