{"id":767,"date":"2009-08-04T23:23:02","date_gmt":"2009-08-05T06:23:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/?p=767"},"modified":"2009-08-04T23:23:02","modified_gmt":"2009-08-05T06:23:02","slug":"semi-universal-healthcare-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/?p=767","title":{"rendered":"Semi-Universal Healthcare Plan?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>First, do no harm.<br \/>\nSecond, if you have to harm somebody, stick it to those who tried to screw you.  <\/p>\n<p>Notice how we haven&#8217;t heard too much comment from government workers about this issue?  How many press releases have you read from the American Federation of Government Employees extolling the virtues of HR3200?   Did you see all those talking heads from the National Federation of Federal Employees on the Sunday news shows raving about the benefits of single-payer versus public-option plans?  And how about all the PAC money from the National Treasury Employees Union that&#8217;s being spent on PSAs explaining how universal healthcare is being eagerly anticipated by the 14.6 million government employees?  <a href=\"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Picture-11.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Picture-11-292x300.png\" alt=\"Picture 1\" title=\"Picture 1\" width=\"292\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-771\" srcset=\"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Picture-11-292x300.png 292w, http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Picture-11.png 444w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 292px) 100vw, 292px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>What&#8217;s that you say, Bunky?  You haven&#8217;t read, heard, or seen any of those things?  Hmmm&#8230;..  The silence is deafening, isn&#8217;t it?<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s because all these bills will have little to no effect on government employees.  They get to &#8220;keep their existing plan&#8221;.  When Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, on July 17 urged the committee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chairman, Rep. Edolphus Towns, to hold a hearing to examine what impact reform would have on federal employees&#8217; healthcare, Towns declined, saying that any impact would be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153limited.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d  Talk about a loophole!  So good little union soldiers that they are, their little government lips are sealed.  Not a peep out of them.  Word gets out about the fix on this one and all hell will break loose.<\/p>\n<p>Word&#8217;s out now, guys.  You&#8217;re busted.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s where I come down on the whole bloomin&#8217; healthcare issue:  Nothin&#8217; gets passed unless there&#8217;s a provision that all Federal employees, including elected and appointed officials and staff in all branches and agencies are full participants in the plan.  From day one.  Exact same provisions, terms, conditions, from the President and First Family all the way down to the cleaning crew at the federal prisons.  <\/p>\n<p>If it&#8217;s good enough for us &#8211; it is damn well good enough for those who work for us.  Period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First, do no harm. Second, if you have to harm somebody, stick it to those who tried to screw you. Notice how we haven&#8217;t heard too much comment from government workers about this issue? How many press releases have you &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/?p=767\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Xq4i-cn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=767"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":773,"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767\/revisions\/773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/2helenahandbaskets.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}