Relationship Saving Time

Short Fiction for Guests of the WordFeeder
Sunday, November 9, 2009

2:10 AM, Sunday, November 1, 2009

Ralph had fallen asleep on his living room couch, some late night movie playing on the TV across from him, his right arm lying in a pile of popcorn from the bowl he’d knocked over when he passed out. In retrospect, he should have never put his feet up on the coffee table. At the end of a long, stressful day, nothing put him to sleep faster. The sound of a gentle rain falling on the fire escape outside his apartment window hadn’t made staying awake any easier.

“TV report on breast self-exam bares all.”* The shame of using breast cancer to improve ratings.

Friday, October 30, 2009

*Headline to the Washington Post article by Paul Farhi, Thursday, October 29, 2009.

According to the article in yesterday’s Washington Post which led me to write this piece, 1 in 8 American women will have invasive breast cancer at some time in her life, 1 in 35 American women will die from it. I have a wife, a daughter, a sister and women who are friends. Breast cancer is very, very serious business, an horrific disease which is attacking half our population in epidemic numbers. Nothing I say in this piece should be construed as diminishing the critical nature of this disease or the need to do absolutely everything we can to fight it.

One dollar, one vote? It’s time we put an end to Congressional lobbying.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Our Constitution defines a Congress in which the people are represented as individuals in the House of Representatives, and as states in the Senate. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that money gets to vote.  

Allowing the states to opt out of the public option: Yet another reason to do away with the Senate.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

There’s disagreement among Senators about whether or not healthcare reform legislation should have a “public option.” Rather than take the time and make the effort to develop the concept to the point where it either makes sense or doesn’t for all Americans, the Senate Democratic leadership and the Obama

Congratulations!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

You see those feet in the picture across the top of my home page? The ones on the right are my son’s, taken on the day he graduated from law school.

Well, he made partner today at his law firm. Very impressive.

His mother and I are very proud and, while we were proud of him anyway, this is a particularly wonderful moment for which he deserves extra special credit.

Way to go, Son!

We love you.

-wf (aka “Daddy”)

Punch Line of the Day: Did you hear the one about Medicare and the Public Option?

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Proponents of the Public Option are fond of pointing to Medicare as an example of how effectively the government can provide healthcare insurance. For the sake of argument, let’s assume that Medicare is, in fact, the perfect government program with no funding or administrative issues – God’s gift to healthcare for Americans over 65. So it would seem, given that almost all of our countrymen in that age group are covered by Medicare – and that’s precisely why it’s not an argument for the Public Option.

If there was ever proof positive that a Public Option will put private sector healthcare insurance out of business, it’s Medicare.  

What to do when monetary and fiscal policy aren’t enough: The third tool for economic recovery and growth.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Economists are worried that the jobs we’ve lost in this recession are not going to be coming back when the economy recovers. Unfortunately, the economy is not going to recover until the people who have lost their jobs find new ones, and that’s the rub. How are we going to get all these people back to work if the jobs they had are gone for good?

Traditional monetary and fiscal policy aren’t going to help here, nor will our government’s fixation on the stock market and solving large company problems.

Deficit neutrality, my tush!

Friday, October 16, 2009

It’s fashionable nowadays, particularly in the Oval Office and halls of Congress, to talk about healthcare reform legislation that is “deficit neutral.” The President has promised never to sign a bill that increases the budget deficit. The idea is that any legislation he approves will somehow be self-financing by virtue of the savings it makes possible and/or new tax revenues it generates. It’s an extraordinary promise from a President who, at least so far, his already increased our budget deficit, with reckless abandon, to levels that make the Bush Administration’s accomplishments seem thrifty by comparison.

The problem here is that the concept of “budget neutrality” is off point. Way off point.  

The Eulogy

Short Fiction for Guests of the WordFeeder
Sunday, October 18, 2009

Herbert never did like his first name and had labored his entire life, from elementary school until today, his 24th birthday, to have people, especially his closest friends if he’d had any, to call him anything but. To be precise, he detested “Herb” and especially “Herbie,” too. “Bert” reminded him of “Ernie.” …“Jake.” That’s what he wanted people to call him, thinking it was cool, manly and cool, a name that the ladies would find compelling. …”Jake,” because he needed all the help he could get.

Lying there in his hospital bed, the expression on his face was somber. His eyes closed, arms by his side, he was surrounded by a handful of his coworkers from The Acme Inventions Company wondering what took the life of their colleague. Herbert was dead.  

Maybe it’s time for a new Democratic Party mascot?

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

That scared little rodent in the picture is a Lemming.

Yesterday’s 14 to 9 vote by the Senate Finance Committee is being touted by the White House and Senate leadership as a “bipartisan” endorsement of the Committee’s proposed healthcare reform legislation. Of the 10 Republicans on the Committee, only Olympia Snowe of Maine voted for it. Good news for The Red Team: Notwithstanding Senator Snowe’s reservations and caveats, the Republicans are no longer officially the party of “No.” One of them has said “Yes.” In fact 10% of Republicans on the Committee, if you like using percentages for small numbers, support the Baucus plan.

What everyone seems to missing is that Snowe’s affirmative vote is not what’s striking here. What’s notable is the complete lack of dissenting votes among the 13 Democrats on the Committee. It’s frankly unbelievable that not one Democrat on the Committee – although there are a few elsewhere in the Senate –found enough wrong with Chairman Baucus’ legislation and had the balls to say so by casting a “No” vote.

No mistake about it, there are significant concerns being voiced by Democrats in both houses, but those concerns will be resolved soon enough by a combination of compromise that produces junk legislation and old fashion political pressure from Congressional leadership and The White House.

This is historic alright, but not in the same league as, for example, civil rights legislation. There’s no huge social principle at stake, although the President and Congress would like us to think so. This is about fixing a malfunctioning market for medical services. This is technical and “technical” isn’t something our government does well.

Only nincompoops – not a term I get to use frequently, but entirely appropriate in this instance – would try to resolve the myriad of issues that are involved in correcting this market in a single comprehensive piece of legislation to the satisfaction of 535 legislators and their various constituencies. This has been a botched effort from the beginning, initiated by an inexperienced President in cooperation with a Democrat controlled Congress with a herd mentality and leadership, particularly in the House, that is woefully inept. (Can you imagine Nancy Pelosi as President of the United States?)

Whew. Quite the rant. Sorry. Can’t help myself. (I’m not a Republican, in case you’re wondering, but a registered independent in a heavily Democratic state.) In any case, getting back to the unanimity among Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, I ask you: Should the Democrats stay with the Donkey which they’ve had since opponents of President Jackson called him a “Jack Ass” in 1828, or update their image to something more cuddly like the cute, but cowardly Lemming pictured above? Hmm? Pretty much a toss-up, now that I think about it.

-wf