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In Regard to the Upcoming Election, in Only 24 Days:
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| Representative Bennie Thompson, Select Committee Chairman |
More significant than the House
Select Committee Investigating the January 6 Insurrection authorizing that a
subpoena be served on the Defeated Former President to clarify his role in what happened that day, is the
fact that some in law enforcement, specifically the FBI and the Secret Service,
supported the insurrectionists sufficiently to stand idly by, or delay their
response to that occurrence.
Recall the recent disappearance
of the Secret Services’ texting history when a ‘routine maintenance’ instruction
ordered the ‘wiping off’ of all earlier messages from employees’ mobile phones
right after the January 6 insurrection. The House Select Committee managed to gather the content of some of these messages by diligent searching elsewhere and it was frightening. The Secret Service was
aware of the coming insurrection! Was this ‘routine maintenance’ intentionally ordered
to eliminate the messages sent during and preceding the January 6 insurrection?
I believe this is currently under
investigation by the Select Committee. If
the ‘routine maintenance’ was a ploy to protect Secret Service personnel who
supported the insurrection, those responsible should be investigated along with
the DFP. There is a stink about this which suggests
that perhaps the Secret Service needs a thorough housecleaning. I would suggest that former Assistant FBI
Director for Counter-intelligence Frank Figliuzzi be put in charge of that
agency. He would show great respect for
Secret Service personnel as well as for the rule of law.
As for the subpoena, my guess is that the DFP will ignore it, continue to lie, and continue to delay facing charges for his responsibility for the insurrection.
If he were to testify under oath and exercise
his Fifth Amendment right not to respond to avoid possible self-incrimination,
his doing so can be taken to infer his guilt and be used against him, because
it is a civil matter. That is why he
will ignore the subpoena. Were it a
criminal matter, however, pleading the Fifth Amendment could not be used against
him. Of course, being charged with a
crime is the last situation the DFP wants to
be in, despite it appearing that is precisely what will eventually happen.
What exactly does someone have to do and how
many laws does one have to violate in order for the Department of Justice to
take action against them? In my opinion,
the DFP has violated a sufficient number of
laws to justify his indictment. Those
who physically violated those laws by attacking the Capitol have been charged,
but those who inspired them have not. Will the evidence gathered by the Select
Committee for the purpose of recommending legislation, when all of it is provided to the
Department of Justice, bring about the indictment of those who did not
physically attack the Capitol, but without whose incitement and cooperation,
the attack would never have occurred?
Back in 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr,
with British assistance, planned an insurrection that would attempt to break
off the western parts of the country.
His ‘troops,’ ready to go into action were quartered on an island in the
Ohio River. Caught red-handed, they were
arrested and charged with treason. Burr
also was charged with treason, but since he was not on the spot but at least a
hundred miles from the island, he was acquitted. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall, acting
as the chief judge of Virginia, wrote the opinion. Burr (who also killed Alexander Hamilton in an illegal duel) moved to England but ultimately came
back to the United States.
The ambiguity of the language that the DFP consistently uses would seem to enable him to
avoid being closely identified with the insurrectionists currently accused of
sedition, that is, if Marshall’s reasoning would hold true today. But I doubt that will happen.
The work of the Select Committee, however, has
documented clearly that the DFP did not have
to be there to personally oversee the dirty work he convinced, or pressured,
others, to carry out. This includes other
government officials who were convinced that the desires of the DFP superseded the rule of law. They put loyalty to him ahead of loyalty to the country. This is even worse than the usual Republican position of putting 'party' ahead of 'country.'
Regardless of the results of the November
elections, I expect to see the Department of Justice proceed with a grand jury
indictment and trial of the DFP, shortly
thereafter. No one is above the law. (And if for some reason, the indictment is not based on the January 6 insurrection, it can always be based on his theft of government documents where his fingerprints are figuratively, and probably literally as well, all over the place.)
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How We are Privatizing Universal Health Care
Unlike many Western industrialized countries, we are still a long way from having Universal Health Care in this country. Our government's health insurance programs remain based largely on private insurance companies. The two primary programs, of course, are the Affordable Care Act, and for senior citizens, Medicare.
While coverage provided under the
ACA (often pejoratively called Obamacare by those who were against
it in the first place) may be significantly subsidized by the government, the
providers of access to doctors and hospitals remain private, profit-making insurance companies. Even the ACA’s subsidies for Medicaid, a program for
those with limited income, and which are not accepted by all States (like
Floriduh), go to purchase coverage from such private insurers.
When it comes to Medicare (health insurance for
seniors), the government is the insurer under Part A (hospital coverage) and
under Part B (doctors and other outpatient provider
coverages).
Part A is paid for by tax-derived government resources. Part B is paid for to a limited
extent by the insured beneficiaries, usually through a deduction from their monthly
Social Security checks, varying by income, with the government paying for the
rest just as they pay for Part A in its entirety. The
insurers under Part C (Medicare Advantage Plans) and under Part D (Prescriptions) are individual insurance companies or other private organizations.
Usually, individual beneficiaries pay for Part D, unless they are bundled with Part C.
Right now, almost 50% of those on
Medicare are in Part C plans, which ostensibly provide them with the benefits that Parts A and B cover but instead,
provide them privately rather than from the government.
For each subscriber to their
plans, Part
C insurers receive a fixed annual amount from the government, developed
through a rather complicated formula, adjusted by county claim experience (!!) and fueled
in part by the government no longer having to come up with (1) the entire cost
of Part A benefits
and (2) that portion (most of it) of the cost of Part B benefits that the
beneficiary’s required payment for Part B doesn’t cover by itself.
In addition, the beneficiaries pay a fee, sometimes ‘zero,’ to join a Part C plan.
The government still collects that Part B premium from those in Part C plans, which aids it in coming up with that per person fixed annual amount, but sometimes, the ‘county experience’ portion of the formula determining that fixed amount allows its deduction from Social Security payments to be reduced or even eliminated. (That’s why the TV ads for Part C usually ask for a zip code. These ads, with red, white, and blue trim mimic the government's official Medicare membership ID card and fail to distinguish between Medicare Parts A, B, C, and D by name, just babbling on about 'your Medicare.' when all they are peddling is Part C. At a minimum, they are misleading.)
Most Part C plans cover the gaps and many of the deductibles and co-payments
which Part A and B contain, making them very appealing to Medicare recipients. They often include Part D benefits in their packages as well.
This appeal is made possible by the control of Part C Medicare Advantage Plans being given to the private companies offering them, not remaining with the government. The companies which provide Part C plans are in business to earn a profit. Therefore, to be successful, Part C plans, which may be Health Maintenance Organization (HMOs) or the somewhat costlier Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs), limit the doctors and hospitals that their subscribers may use, and restrict the use of specialists. That’s the key to their success.
This
is not true of the original Parts A and B, where any physician or hospital in the country that accepts Medicare payment may be used. One negative aspect of this for those still dependent
on Parts A and B for health care is the need to purchase expensive private
Medicare Supplement policies to cover some, or all, the gaps, deductibles, and
co-payments in Parts A and B.
The growing number of people selecting Part C for cost reasons seems to suggest that traditional Medicare, government-managed Parts A and B, may not be around forever, and eventually, be totally replaced by Part C. If they should disappear, that would leave us with a fully privatized health insurance system, since all the other parts of Medicare and the ACA are already privately managed by companies with a profit motive, with the government’s involvement limited to heavily subsidizing and monitoring these profit-oriented companies; even that latter function as well is often privatized.
This would be a far cry from the concept of a ‘single payor,’ which would be the United States government, for all health benefits. That is what inspired both Medicare and the Affordable Care Act but was never made a part of either of them. This is because going that route would require higher taxes on businesses and those in the upper-income brackets in order to pay for the programs.
Guess whose fault that is.
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