Repeal?

Well, what is it? Will the Republicans in the Senate find some backbone and do what they've promised and even symbolically done for the past 7 years?  Will they repeal Obamacare and send that to the House?  (I don't know if this is all part of an appropriations bill.  If it is, then the repeal must start in the House.  Still......)

What took so long?  Promise after promise was broken.  I'd really like to know Mitch McConnell's motivation.  He and the Establishment Republicans had the opportunity to end Obamacare months ago, after years of promises to do so.  All those courageous (Yes, I'm being very facetious!) Republicans who voted to repeal Obamacare fully knowing the repeal was dead on arrival (veto) suddenly got cold feet.

I'm not a fan of Obamacare, for many reasons.  I know a lot of folks like it.  If people still want to believe that it has "saved lives," that's fine.  If they still want to believe that it has allowed more people to have better health insurance, that's fine.  I don't believe those, not for an instant.  I've written about that many times, how the middle class families, the "forgotten Americans," have been hurt financially and medically, forced to pay far higher premiums with far higher deductibles and co-pays that, in reality, have made health insurance impossible to use. But if people want to believe otherwise, that's fine.

That's not what this is about.  This is about promises, not slinking away when the rubber hits the road.  How many times have the Republicans promised to repeal Obamacare since 2011 or thereabouts?  How many times have they voted to repeal it, fully knowing it was merely a gesture because Obama would veto the repeal?  Now, with control of Congress, both the House and Senate, and a President who would sign the repeal bill, too many of them are balking, making a repeal highly unlikely.

I find this repulsive.  It's not just the financial costs that have burdened individuals, families, and, esp, small businesses.  It's antithetical to the centuries-old principle of limited government, one of the foundations on which this nation was built.  How much more intrusion of the federal government into our lives will we allow?  When will we stop the federal (and some state and local) government(s) from pitting citizen against citizen, having some people pay to give things to other people?  ("Why should I have to forgo trips to Florida several times a year to purchase, with my own money, quality health insurance when the government forces others to pay for my insurance?"  And on and on......

But now that the Republicans are in the position to fulfill their promise(s), too many of them are balking.  They include the Establishment Republicans.  Were these people lying to us?  Nah, a politician lying to his constituents, to everybody.  If you voted to repeal many times before, why not now?

(This reminds me of teaching.  How many times did I speak out against yet another foolish policy, program, etc., being handed down and have teachers sit quietly, letting me carry the ball?  Then, surreptitiously, always very surreptitiously, I'd get support, with small handwritten notes, with e-mails to my private address, with mumbled encouragement in the hallways or lunchroom (but never within earshot of an administrator), or even with phone calls to my home.  "Way to go, Ron!  We're with you!  You tell it like it is."  And the next time, when looking for some support among my colleagues (a term I hesitate to use), they'd sit on their thumbs and spin yet again.)

Have the courage of your convictions!!!!!!  Either vote no on the purely symbolic vote or vote yes when the vote really means something.  I'm no fan of cowards.  It's one reason I rarely identify myself as a teacher.

Speaking, at least tangentially, of schools, Karen has retired!  Not quite 43 years of working in the schools.  I really don't know how she worked for some of the people she did; I'm not sure I could have.  Well, I did, but not as directly.  I wonder if people know how much more, how much beyond the ordinary, she did for families and kids.  I'll bet not many.  I would say a conservative, a very conservative, estimate of the money she gave to needy families in her building (30 years in the same school) would be $30,000.  I'm not kidding and I wouldn't be at all surprised, if we really got the receipts from all of those years, if the amount was double that.  A kid came in a couple of winter days without boots, off to Meijers to buy some for him.  A kid didn't have a coat in the middle of January, off to Kohls to buy her one.  At Thanksgiving and Christmas, esp when the economy tanked and the local churches weren't able to provide as much help, she stepped in, getting food and gift cards for families that might have been left out that year.  I remember she told me one year her principal asked her, with some incredulity, "Does Ron know how much money you spend" on these families?  I did and she knew I didn't mind a bit.  I wonder, now that she's retired, if anyone will step in and spend what she did each year, each month, each week.  BTW, if you read this, you are now one of the very few people who know she did this.

"Do you believe in miracles?"  I think that came from the US gold medal in hockey in the '80 Olympics.  I don't remember the sportscaster's name.  But I think it applies to our (Michael's) Colt League (ages 15 and 16) team this summer.  With one game and playoffs remaining, our record is 9-4.  I know that's our record--I coach.  Who'd a thunk it?  A week before the season, we had 7 players; that's all. We were told we needed 11 to have team and we recruited a few more--12 now, with one who rarely shows and always one or two with other things to do.  Of the recruits, a couple never played organized ball before, not even in the Dairy Queen League!  Mostly, I think, it's not really us, but that the pitching in the league is not nearly as good as last year, when we only won three or four games.  Teams usually have one really good pitcher now, whereas last year they'd have one great pitcher and another one or two really good ones.  But our kids are doing pretty well. They play hard and listen.  Oh, catching a fly ball or pop-up is still an adventure for about half of the team and running bases remains a mystery for many of the players.  But they never quit and they are some pretty nice kids.  I'm glad for them.  It's been fun to coach them.