Month: March 2017

Repeal the Health Care Tax, Already!

The recent debacle in Congress with regard to health care is so dysfunctional I can’t believe it. First of all, every Republican agreed that the health care tax, affectionately known as Obama care should be repealed. Why it needs to be replaced at the same time seems to be a self-induced paranoia based on the Republican Party’s level of intimidation by the Democrats in the narrative that they have no “alternate plan”. The fact of the matter is they don’t need one.

The entire premise of the A.C.A. is simply a government guarantee of payment to the insurance industry for carrying coverage to those who “can’t afford” health insurance. If the Congress and Senate repealed the A.C.A. right now, those who are currently covered under these insurers would still be insured for at least a year, because of their annual contracts. 

The healthcare industry would not fall flat on its face, as some would have you believe. The federal government gave billions to the insurance industry in the 2008 bailout. It’s time that the federal government stops being held hostage by the insurance industry.

Simply put, the A.C.A. could be repealed right now, with unanimous majority, and President Trump could execute the necessary mandates like tort reform, to reign in the insurance industry through executive action.

The Republican Party needs to man-up, and stop being intimidated by Democrats, after all, the Democrats have no apparent problem ignoring the wishes of the Republicans. That’s exactly how the A.C.A. got thrown in our faces. Remember? The entire bill was not read until AFTER it was passed!

Infrastructure Reform for USA Energy

Infrastructure reform for the USA energy supply begins with government prioritizing projects around the country, usually determined by some engineering study, performed by either a contracted official, or government personnel. One of the main concerns of late, is domestic or imported terrorism to the vital electrical grid. Just like rats, terrorists are attracted to some kind of bait. The more appealing the bait, the more they want to destroy it. We have to change the way we produce electricity. Nuclear power plants are too vulnerable, with all kinds of intricate systems to avoid catastrophic faults, by both man and nature.

Hydrogen is the energy source of the future. Ionization splits the hydrogen atom from the oxygen atom from water molecules. The process is already being applied in industry. As much as it pains me to say, the federal government can play a critical role in expanding both the availability and the use of hydrogen as a modern fuel. It starts small with federal regulation of, believe it or not, the fossil fuel industry. If federal regulation required all gas and diesel suppliers along the interstate system to provide a hydrogen fueling station, automakers, who already have developed vehicles powered by hydrogen, would begin to produce more as availability of the fuel grew. Even more importantly, these hydrogen vehicles are much cheaper to build than electric ones.

The energy footprint of these vehicles is comparable to an electric vehicle, but only because the technology for the ionization process has not yet become economical. As the technical achievement of this process becomes more feasible, the application of the hydrogen atom will become mainstay. Hydrogen can then be used on much greater scales, to produce electricity, hopefully eliminating the need for obsolete nuclear energy, and the catastrophic dangers that go along with it.

The next step to make the grid safer, is to bury the obtrusive electrical lines that run along almost every roadside in America. The primitive technology of cutting trees, and hanging the vulnerable lines on them desperately needs a modern solution. This overhead system has become a cash cow for the utility industry, keeping utility rates high needlessly. The expense to maintain these overhead lines far exceeds the expense to simply bury them.

The retroactive savings to our economy would be astronomical, as there would no longer be weather related outages. The timber used for power poles could then be used for home building or other construction, lowering the cost of these materials to consumers. Many modern housing developments offer underground utilities to attract buyers, however, the service to these developments still runs on wooden poles, suspended and vulnerable to the weather.

If we are to make America great again we should at least be smart about it.