Health Care

I have a major problem with the new SCHIP program that congress is trying to ram down our throats. I don't want the government paying for my children's health care. I will say that for a very brief period of time (approx 3 months), we were on state health care. However, we were way below the poverty line for income at that point.

Now, we make well over the poverty line. We are a single income family. If we did not have military health care, we could still afford to pay for health insurance. Yes, we would have to reduce our standard of living. Maybe we would have bought a smaller home, lived in a neighborhood that was not so prestigious, only had one car, not had high speed Internet, not had a cell phone. Perhaps, we might not have cable or eaten out as much. The point is, we could have done it.

Now, congress is trying to provide "free" health care for children up to age 25 (since when are 25 yos children?) in families that make up to $80,000 a year. Why couldn't someone who makes $80,000 a year afford health insurance?

No, I don't live in a high cost of living area. But, I did. And on the same amount of money we make now, I was able to afford to put my children in private schools. If I could do that, I could have homeschooled them or put them in public schools and purchased private health insurance.

If you have ever lived in a country that has socialized healthcare, you understand why I don't want it. I lived in Greece for a short while when I was in the Navy. It was not a good thing to have to go to the public hospital. After having access to American hospitals, going to a hospital where the emergency room is just one big open room and they don't always give you pain killers before setting your bones is just not fun. The people there who could afford private hospitals went to them.

I am tired of liberals (Republican liberals included) telling me that I have to pay for everyone to do this and that. Our schools are awful and they just keep throwing money at them.

Money and government over site are not the answer to everything. This country needs freedom. I am willing to fight for it--are you? Let your congressmen and senators and the president know that we don't want to pay for "free" health care with increases to our taxes. The idea that taxes on tobacco will be enough to pay for this program is laughable. We are trying to do away with tobacco use. At some point, the cost will be so prohibitive that not enough people will purchase tobacco products, then where will they get their money from? Not ME!

Gary "with" Hair

Okay, so, here is a picture of Gary "with" hair before he cut it off. He came back from a month at school with more hair than he'd had in 7 years. You really can't see it in this picture because I'm shorter than he is and, apparently, his hair line is far enough back...

Children in Rehab

So, my children started rehab 4 days ago. All 3 of them, ages 10, 6, and 4. The detoxing process is the worst part. They scream, throw fits, lose sleep, and generally are in bad moods. Then, they start relearning how to play. They start sleeping better and longer. Slowly, their attitudes improve.

What are they detoxing from? Video mediums. They are officially unplugged for at least a month. I will drag it out as long as possible.

While they have access to video games, TV, etc, they are little monsters. All they can think of to do is play a video game. When I tell them no, they throw fits. So, we are detoxing. The results are evident almost immediately. Dominic, 4, goes to bed at night easier. Yesterday and today, he spent hours playing with his toys. Toys that just Monday, I threatened to get rid of because they were never played with. Xavier, 6, goes to sleep faster because he spends his days running and playing instead of sitting gaming. Gabriel, 10, doesn't snap at people near as often.

Gabriel's detox is harder, because he will just replace the games and TV with books. Now, I know what you're thinking, Why don't you want him reading? The answer is this. When he reads for long, uninterrupted time spans, he is a bear. He loves to read and will do so for 4 hours straight, longer if you let him forget to eat. But, then, he is in a horrible mood. So, we have to force him to do other things. The hard part of that is that I love to read, too. So, I am having to force him to give up something that I love. It's harder than telling them they can't play video games when video games make me sick (motion sickness--isn't that funny?).

So, today was really good. For 2 days, Gabriel has been a worker bee knocking out his schoolwork by 1:30, which is amazing because he puts out a ton of work! Xavier has played outside almost non-stop when he wasn't do schoolwork (again, without much complaining). Dominic, as I said before, is playing with his toys like a mad man.

We're one happy family-until one of them starts begging to use the video games. Maybe I should sue Nintendo for marketing this addictive toy to my children and John for giving it to them. The only problem with that is that I take total responsibility for letting them play it!

The Problem with the Minimum Wage

The minimum wage has been in the media and in discussion a lot recently. This probably has something to do with the fact that the House recently approved the first increase in the federal minimum wage in nearly a decade. The raise will be from $5.15/hr to $7.25/hr when all is said and done.

I have so many problems with the minimum wage, I am having a hard time deciding where to start ranting.

First, I really believe that the fact that the Senate passed the minimum wage increase as part of the Iraq spending bill is wrong. If the Senate wanted to pass a minimum wage increase, they should have done so on its own merit, not because the military needed that Iraq spending bill.

Second, Wages should be controlled by demand, not the federal government. Many people have complained that the congressional salaries have gone up every year while minimum wage has stayed the same for many years. The problem with this comparison is that they are not comparing apples to apples. Congress is paid by the taxpayers. If you want your congressman to be paid less, then you should let him know instead of complaining to people who have no control over it. Minimum wage employees are not paid by the taxpayer (I'm talking about corporations, small businesses, etc. here). If you want to start paying the minimum wage to these people, then, please, send the government more money and tell them to send it to the people who work for minimum wage.

Third, for many of the adults on minimum wage, this is a second job. Perhaps they want to make more money because they overextended themselves when they took on that adjustable rate mortgage (not the government's or their employer's fault). Perhaps they just want some extra money to support a hobby.

Fourth, raising minimum wage can be hard if not detrimental to small businesses. In case you haven't noticed, there are a lot of small business out there. They employ a lot of people. With a minimum wage increase, some of those business will have to raise prices or lay people off. Then, those people who were making minimum wage before won't be making anything at all. You'll pay the price increase that will pay for the new minimum wage. Do you also understand that the minimum wage earners will also have to pay that increased cost?

So, you say, you must be one of those rich, elite snobs who doesn't understand being poor. Well, you're wrong. I can't say that I understand the idea of being poor. I've never thought of myself as poor. However, I can tell you that during the 10 years of my marriage, I have worked perhaps a total of 2 years part-time. The rest of the time, I have been a stay-at-home mom exclusively. So, obviously, my husband must make gobs of money, right? Wrong again! During our 10 year marriage, our family has qualified for food stamps, WIC, state health care, and more. We are considered by some to be the "working poor" but I can't see it. We own 2 cars, a 3400 sq ft house (picture above!) with very little debt. My husband is in the military. While we lived in Washington DC, we paid to send our oldest and middle sons to go to private schools. Many other military members asked how we managed to do it without me working. The answer is quite simply this: we live simply and don't spend our money frivolously. So, no, we're not rich (we rarely pay income taxes--we just don't make enough), and we may never be. However, I do want it known that we do make quite a bit more than minimum wage. I also believe that we do not get paid too bad a wage, although I certainly would not mind getting paid more, as most people would agree.

I know that there is opportunity out there for all those people who want to take advantage of it, because we have. The government raising minimum wage is not the answer. All that does is encourage people to keep making minimum wage. It creates a culture of people that relies on the government to support them. Quite similar to welfare, state run health care, and social security. But, those are different posts.

Disclosure

Occasionally, I write posts for pay. These posts are always tagged as an ad. They will NEVER be part of my Review Tuesdays. They will ALWAYS be things I want to blog about.