Cap & trade? Health care reform?

I try to avoid watching the news lately. I surf through the channels and stop when something besides endless murmuring about health care reform is droning on and on. You'd think a retired Registered Nurse would be hanging on every word, but the writing is on the wall as far as I'm concerned. And those blurry heiroglyphics don't translate to "health care reform."

Why so skeptical? you ask. Well, first of all, I don't believe there will be any sort of meaningful health care reform. Our politicians are too busy feuding along party lines to reform anything except new perks to benefit themselves and bankers. I know that's harsh, but it's what I think so why not say it. Second, unless the insurance companies are held on a short leash, reform will be difficult. No more denying of claims due to pre-existing conditions. No more telling doctors what tests they can and cannot do. No more huge profits taken from people who paid their dues and got no service in return from their insurance company of choice. Our politicians will not be delivering ultimatums or wrist slaps to insurance companies in my lifetime. Nor will they be controlling the lawyers who file law suits that drive up malpractice insurance and health care costs.

I'd like to know more about cap and trade -- and odd name that disguises what our politicians are ramming through behind our backs while we're being fed "health care reform" 24/7. What I've learned about cap and trade comes mainly in the form of education through our local electric co op and a few small town paper op eds. Anyone with low income or fixed income is already struggling to pay for gasoline and groceries. (Even that famous store that will not be undersold has raised prices so high I can't afford to shop there.) So what's gonna happen when the politicians cap and trade utility bills into the stratosphere? Will we have to choose between buying food and paying our utility bills? I fully expect that to be the case.

My suggestion to the media and politicians is to stop droning on and on about health care reform unless you truly intend to work towards that goal. Stop creating smoke screens of all kinds and tell us what legislation you have planned that will drive our utility bills up. I'd like to know what my options are before winter sets in.

One final word to our politicians: We can't continue to be a world power when you allow businesses and jobs to go overseas or when your tax paying citizens can't find work, afford food, or pay utility bills. A true world power sees to its own country's strength and stability first.