Have you contacted your Congressman to express your view?

We've been very busy with sights lately and somewhat limited on internet access, so our blog is due a catch-up. But today, I (Linda), am going to deviate from news of our travels to encourage those reading this blog to contact your Congressman today.

We'll not back away from our devout belief that government involvement in health care is not a good idea on any level. The track record with Medicare/Medicaid is not a good one. The program is going broke. We've known that for years but the government has faithfully extracted money from our incomes to feed these programs for years. We've felt for years that we would never benefit from the dollars that we contribute, but took a little comfort that our aging parents would at least gain something from those programs. Well...they have...a little, but not as much as they nor we have contributed into these monstrous bureaucracies. So, our tax dollars have gone into a giant hole in the US coffers and those dollars have been doled out to goodness knows what. Year after year, politicians gather in Washington and make mention of how broke this program is and 'something must be done'. They don't get anything done except increase the financial requirements from the population and authorize more and more wasteful uses of the money. We, typically, say nothing, grumble at times and go about our daily lives without much more thought about it, but remaining very disgusted.

Now, and for at least the last 20 years, politicians have been talking about increasing government involvement in health care. Their concern is touching. They have horror story after horror story of individuals in serious health circumstances and wave an accusing finger toward wealthy doctors and greedy insurance companies as being hard hearted, money grubbing monsters. However, for at least 20 years, their concern does not extend toward an effective program that provides any genuine relief for those in need. Now, in their deep compassion, they propose a very extensive role for government into all of our lives in our health care programs. Their deep compassion is only exceeded by the depth of their probe into our pockets to fund this valiant cause. Oh, they say that it's actually going to save money over time, but then again, none of them will likely remain in office when the benefits are made available in 2014. But, the increased taxation will begin immediately. What is this...lay-a-way health care? We continue to pay for our own insurance programs AND contribute more toward the government for their involvement in future health care now and possibly at some point after 2014, this tremendous savings will kick in, we'll never have a worry again with respect to availability of health care at a decreased cost. Hmm...have these folks told us big fat lies before? Really....what credibility do any of these folks have with you? Has your tax burden ever been lightened? Ever?

What in the world is written on these 2700 pages of legislation? How much of it produces anything of help to anyone? How much of it produces harm to at least someone? Does it resolve any problems of greediness on anyone's part? In the meantime, the legislators lead lives paid for on our dime, fly around the country making speeches professing their deep concerns for the American people and expounding on their tremendous wisdom and abilities to solve these problems.

I obviously could drone on about this and provide no further enlightenment for anyone. It's just cathartic to voice some of my complete and total disgust over the waste of time and money that has already been spent on this issue - not just this year, but the years past.

We have deep concerns that THIS proposal and all of the deep secrets within the 2700 pages that no one has read hold damaging impacts for us, our kids and our grandkids.

We may not sway your thinking or inspire any action on your part. If you are not concerned about the current (this week) actions in Congress, no action is necessary. If you are concerned, a phone call or email may not really make any difference. The deal making amongst the real deep pockets is surely going fast and furious. But, what if your phone call or email along with many, many others can make a difference and stop this mess? Are you willing to take 5 minutes to make one phone call (even if you only get a busy signal)? Are you willing to take 15 minutes to make a handful of calls? Are you willing to take an hour to make a dozen calls?

For the past two days, we've taken an hour and used our phones and email to express our views. We intend to do the same today, tomorrow and the next day if this thing has not gone to vote yet. The determination to ram this thing through indicates to us an urgency that belies a genuine concern for the American people. We do listen to Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin with some regularity. They are all singing a chorus this week that what is at work is damaging to our country. Thirty-seven states are considering or pursuing action to block the federal government's venture into this area. All of this together causes us deep concern and spurs us into more than our normal grumbling response to the news.

Are you grumbling? Consider taking your grumble to your legislator or go to the sources mentioned above for contacts of those legislators that are supposedly 'on the fence' and do not know which way to vote on the bill. Why not help them make up their mind?

OK - thanks for reading. We'll return tomorrow to the more cheery posts of our travels and life on the road...and likely more grumbling to ourselves about disgusting goings on in Washington.