The Modern Conservative

James Madison once claimed that American government is based upon the principles "compromise, compromise, compromise" to ensure the continued existence of the American people. The modern conservative has aligned himself in diametric opposition to the modern liberal, undercutting reforms that had once been passionately supported by the conservative base. For example: 20 years ago Ronald Reagan suggested similar regulation of insurance companies in the interest of economic expansion. He suggested that gross mismanagement of health care premiums limited the spending capacity of middle class americans. Today conservatives appose a program of the same nature, aimed at economic development, underneath the auspices that such a program is socialist and therefor anti-democratic. Beyond that modern congressional Republicans have outlined provisions that they feel are necessary for a healthy american future; these provisions include: premium decreases over the long-term, insurance coverage for high risk patients, cross-state operation and regulatory commissions, TORT reform, and malpractice reform. These provisions and more, verbally supported by congressional Republicans are provided for in the house healthcare legislation. Attached is a comprehensive outline of conservative demands and legislative compliance thereafter...

1. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – DEFICIT NEUTRAL BILL: “Do the American people believe that this almost 2,000 page bill won’t add to the deficit?” [Rep. Eric Cantor, 10/29/2009]

HOUSE BILL – DEFICIT NEUTRAL BILL: According to the Congressional Budget Office, the House bill costs $894 billion over 10 years and actually reduces the deficit by $30 billion and continues to reduce the deficit over the second 10 years.

2. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – REDUCE COSTS OVER LONG TERM: “Nevertheless, House Republicans recognize the need to lower health care costs.” [Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), 9/9/09]

HOUSE BILL – REDUCES COSTS OVER LONG TERM: Encourages payment reforms that can help lower costs. Requires the Department of Health and Human Services to establish specific benchmarks for expansion of the Accountable Care Organization, Payment Bundling, and Medical Home pilot programs. The bill will also slow the rate of growth of the Medicare program from 6.6% annually to 5.3%.

3. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – POLICIES ACROSS STATE LINES: “Interstate competition allowing people to buy insurance across state lines.” [Sen. John Thune (R-SD), 9/8/2009]

HOUSE BILL – POLICIES ACROSS STATE LINES: Allows for the creation of State Health Insurance Compacts – permits states to enter into agreements to allow for the sale of insurance across state lines.

4. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – MEDICAL MALPRACTICE REFORM: “Why not bring about reasonable restrictions and limits on medical malpractice claims to end the era of defensive medicine?” [Rep. Mike Pence (R-IA), 9/9/2009]

HOUSE BILL – ENCOURAGES MALPRACTICE REFORM: The bill establishes a voluntary state incentives grant program to encourage states to implement “certificate of merit” and “early offer” alternatives to traditional medical malpractice litigation.

5. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – HIGH RISK POOLS: “Senator McCain has a proposal sometimes called high-risk pools at the state level…These are efforts I think we can have bipartisan agreement on and deal with the question of pre-existing conditions.” [Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), 9/10/2009]

HOUSE BILL – HIGH RISK POOLS: To fill the gap before the Exchange becomes available in 2013, the bill creates an insurance program with financial assistance for those uninsured for several months or denied policy due to preexisting conditions.

6. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – ALLOW YOUNG PEOPLE TO STAY ON PARENTS’ POLICIES:“Recognizes that not all high school and college graduates are able to find a job that offers health care coverage after graduation. By allowing dependents to remain on their parents’ health policies up to the age of 25, the number of uninsured Americans could be reduced by up to 7 million.” [Republican Health Solutions Group]

HOUSE BILL – ALLOW YOUNG PEOPLE TO STAY ON PARENTS’ POLICIES: The bill requires health plans to allow young people to remain on their parents’ insurance policy until they turn 27.

7. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – NO PUBLIC MONEY FOR ABORTION: “The American people will not stand for government-run insurance that uses taxpayer money to fund abortions in this country.” [Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN), 10/16/2009]

HOUSE BILL – NO PUBLIC MONEY FOR ABORTION: The bill prohibits abortion services from being made part of essential benefits package and prohibits federal funds from being used to pay for abortion (except in cases of rape, incest, and to save life of the woman).

8. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – PROTECT SMALL BUSINESSES: “Helps employers offer health care coverage to their workers by reducing their administrative costs through a new small business tax credit.” [Republican Health Solutions Group]

HOUSE BILL – PROTECTS SMALL BUSINESSES: The bill exempts 86% of businesses from the requirement to provide coverage. Businesses with payrolls below $500,000 are exempt while firms with payrolls between $500,000 and $750,000 would pay a graduated penalty. Small businesses would also receive a tax credit that helps cover 50% of their health care expenses.

9. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – PROMOTE JOB WELLNESS PROGRAMS: “Promotes prevention and wellness by giving employers and insurers greater flexibility to financially reward employees who seek to achieve or maintain a healthy weight, quit smoking, and manage chronic illnesses like diabetes.” [Republican Health Solutions Group]

HOUSE BILL – PROMOTE JOB WELLNESS PROGRAMS: The bill establishes a grant program to help small employers create or strengthen workplace wellness programs.

10. REPUBLICANS ASKED FOR – DELIVERY SYSTEM REFORM: “Uses new and innovative treatment programs to better coordinate care between health
care providers, ensuring that those with chronic disease receive the care they need and do not continue to fall through the cracks.” [Republican Health Solutions Group]

The modern conservative coalition has adopted a paradigm of opposition, opposition to change and progressive thought, that undermines the effectiveness of the American government. This unreasonable party polarization is a political ploy to undermine the current administration and decrease the democratic majority in the legislature, but politics and the pursuit of superficial authority should never come at the cost of American prosperity. Our future and the future of democratic government relies on congressional cooperation and administrative effectiveness in confronting the "big picture" issues. A recent study by Freedom House, an organization dedicated to the proliferation of democracy and freedom throughout developing society, indicates that the number of transitional democracies has dramatically decreased over the last year. Expert analysts contribute this decrease in the proliferation of democracy to the multidimensional failure of the American system of government. Not only has our government failed to resolve domestic tribulations, but because of dramatic cleavages amongst government officials has also failed to effectively engage the international community on the issues of the day. Despite an impressive demonstration of diplomatic skill and social attentiveness at the Copenhagen conference late last year, President Obama failed to make exemplary commitments due to the legislatures failure to take comprehensive action on Alternative energy incentives in the United States. Instead developing nations had a close-minded, but diplomatically efficacious China to look up to. As the United States has struggled to remain afloat during the last year, China has excelled, spurring other countries to adopt authoritarian systems of government, governments not encumbered by due process.

It is time for the modern conservatives to stop screaming liberal as if its some venomous insult, and get to the business of compromise. Compromise on both sides of the aisle is the only sure fire means of achieving success not only here, but abroad. If America truly is the global hegemony, it is time to catalyze positive progressive change through that position.

The Journey-Episode 2

(coming soon)

Mongolia

There are experiences in life that could never be explained to someone that did not share that, or some derivative therein, of that experience. At the beginning of the month, each-and-every HKIS student began an epic journey. For some, this journey led to an increased understanding of not only those around them (the interim group as it stands) but a deeper understanding of themselves and the role they could play in the HKIS community. For several people, their journey spurred the development of cross clique friendship, or the consolidation of an old connection. For a couple-of lucky dogs, it provided the opportunity for romance and seduction. Unfortunately, for several close-minded people, the experience rendered little more than a break from the endless march that is school. For me, interim meant a complete rediscovery of all those things that once defined me, all those things that I had lost sight of amidst the hell of culture shock and depression.

I miss so many elements of the interim experience, but I miss most the openness that our group elected to embrace from the first five minutes in Hong Kong Airports to the potential end of our closeness. The pervasive close-minded troubles of a high school so consumed by gossip and bullshit, melted on the freezing mongolian tundra as the group huddled together for heat. That togetherness transcended every clique, from the "drama geeks" to the popular jocks, as everyone realized that any difference amongst us could never over come the mutual experience of being human. The human condition is such that unity is inevitable in the absence of negative, pervasive, social influences. Our shared humanity brought us closer-and-closer as the days moved into infinity.

I ran into someone from my interim today. In fact, I have spent the last 2 saturdays hanging around my interim and have planned to spend the coming Saturday maintaining that trend, but I cannot help but perceive even the slightest of changes in our dynamic. Underneath the judgmental eyes of a student body that did not share those moments amongst the orphans of the VCC, that did not come to the same realization of mutual experience and understanding that Mongolia 2010 did, I can feel society pulling us apart as the behemoth that is social acceptance pulls us back to our predesignated social groups. A group that, honestly, I could not feel much less comfortable as a part of. I cling onto those cold moments, hoping to huddle for some protection from the ice-cold social scene.

Sometimes I cannot help but feel a little hopeless.

Stupid Baby

The door of the old blue house creaked open-and-closed as I strolled outside. I stared around me, taking in my surroundings, appreciating the beauty of a hot Connecticut summer day. A breeze descended upon the trees, ruffling the branches and tossing about the dead leaves that formed a distinct barrier around the green, healthy, grass of our backyard. I found myself trapped in the eye of the storm, trapped in that summer day. Excitement coursed through every tiny vein in my body as I anticipated the arrival of my best friend Michael. *vroom, vroom*

My small, damn-near emaciated, form exploded into activity and I sprinted to the gate, hoping to catch a glimpse of Jane (his older sister) before she drove-off, but instead I met crippling disappointment. “Just the mail lady” I thought. I smiled and took the mail. “Thank you see you soon”. Politeness and etiquette run deep in my family.

I collapsed in the middle-of the yard and looked up at the clouds, counting them, shaping them, remaking them, for a moment the sky became my canvas to paint upon. My eyes fell from the endless blue and landed upon a single clover, nothing special, no extra leaf to base my hopes and dreams upon, but, suddenly, the thought ran through my curious little head. “Do clovers smell? I should smell it and see.” I jumped up and balanced myself on the balls of my feet. The unimaginably green grass poked through the gaps in my toes. They tickled. I reached deep into the grass and violently yanked at the clover, ripping it from its base and roots and lifting it to eye level. Suddenly, I felt something smash into the side of my head. Hard and fast, my baby brother had come screaming and tumbling out of the house, emboldened by the driver clasped firmly in his pudgy fists, and smacked me right in the head. I tumbled to the ground and gasped for air, tears came cascading from my eyes as I began to scream. “Mommy! Mommy! Peter hit me with the antique golf club! Mommy!” I screamed, as I bolted up the stairs and into the house. I could feel a bruise already forming as my eyes continued to sting. Stars floated in front of my eyes, floated just beyond my reach, elusive and beautiful, but I ignored them in my quest for justice. Peter had to be punished, justice had to be served. I could not find my mom on the main level, so I continued my search upstairs, but I could not find her. She had disappeared completely! I needed my mommy badly and she had disappeared! “Mooooooom!!!” I screamed. No response. “Mooooooooooooooooom!!!” My high pitched 7 year-old squeal reverberated throughout the old house. “Yes Jack!?!” came the muffled reply. I ran to find her sitting in the sunroom relaxed and sipping her daily Sauvignon. “Mom! Peter took that driver from the umbrella stand and hit me right in the head!” I moaned. “I’m sure Peter did not mean to hit you in the head honey. Michael is going to be here soon for you sleepover. Go outside and play.” She replied smiling calmly.

I could not stand this incredible injustice. That stupid, pudgy, baby had beat me and I intended to receive reparations for my suffering, but my mom could not easily be convinced that Peter had meant to hit me, I accepted that truth and resolved to punish him myself. I marched outside and tackled Peter, forcing him to the ground and pushing leaves and dirt into his pudgy little face. I made sure he cried. I did not feel bad, because I perceived it as justice, due punishment for suffering imposed on others. Suddenly, I heard a car-door slam behind me and felt the strong hands of my dad pulling me off of Peter, kicking and screaming. He sat Peter and I in the sunroom, in front of omnipotent mommy, and made us talk through the incident. The result angers me to this very moment.

Peter had seen me pulling out the clover and moving it up to my face. He had, allegedly, immediately assumed that I planned on eating the clover, something he simply could not let happen. “If he eated the clover he could have dieded mommy” he claimed. He believed me to be in immediate and mortal danger so he acted, bravely, to save me from my theoretical incompetence. Thus, as is true in many criminal trials, the accused escaped from justice because of a technicality, a shoddy defence bred in the fires of stupidity.

Kids do the darndest things!