Soon there will be hundreds (some say thousands) of new agencies and boards and panels staffed by tens of thousands of new bureaucrats and government employees, all to implement our new ObamaCare World. That’s so when we want a doctor, or a pill, or hospital treatment, or operation, or consultation we can go to them and let them take care of everything.
Right now, you know, we have to get such things by phoning the doctor (we like or trust most) ourselves. Then we have to wait in the Dr.’s office (our choice, of course, is usually – selfishly enough - the one most convenient to us), by going to a pharmacy (selfishly picked to be near home or on the way home from the doctor), then waiting maybe even 15 minutes to get the thing filled. If the doctor thinks we need a specialist or surgeon or whatever, we probably let our doctor (!) arrange for the hospital he likes best, or we like best (for whatever dumb reason), and make all the arrangements and referrals to specialists or surgeons he has most confidence in! Well, soon we won’t have to put up with all that. Instead we can go into the “Health Services” offices, take a number and be served in proper order by a clerk who … well, you know … it’ll be just like going to the DMV! Now that’s fun, and efficient, right?
Some of my fondest memories come from the DMV. Or the county Building Permit office. Those places are always a trip (delight, fun): wondering where the clerks go when they keep disappearing from the front desk; wondering what’s on their minds as they drift away from our voice; what momentous decisions they’re making, serving everyone (elses’ needs); enjoying the special kindness and care they show – like I still remember that DMV clerk who was so sweet and patient helping the old guy in his slippers, leaning on his grandaughter, trying to sign the paper to renew his Driver’s License. He couldn’t see it, you see, and even when both the DMV clerk and grandaughter were pointing out the exact space for his signature he couldn’t see it, so the DMV clerk drew a red felt-tip box around it so he could scrawl a signature (I couldn’t make it out, but they were all satisfied) and walk (well, shuffle) out with his new license. It made me feel real warm and fuzzy. I just kinda appreciated waiting another half hour for my turn, because I was sure he’d be off the street by the time I went home.
I’m being sarcastic, of course. But that event, and many other “memories” of dealing with “bureaucrats” and clerks in the government, are real. That DMV really happened.
In addition to all the new agencies and bureaucrats, they say they are already working on writing literally hundreds of thousands of new rules and regulations that will mak the ObamaCare system work - fairly and rationally. I hope they will be a little more fair and rational than the rule that made me wait two years to get Medicare after I was put on Social Security Disability with a heart problem so debilitating I could only walk about 15 feet before needing rest). I survived the two years, only God knows why. I never understood, but surmised they wanted to make sure (1) I wasn’t cheating, and (2) good Medicare funds weren’t wasted on a lost cause. Like your grandma, I guess.
I really want to hope the new ObamaCare system will work well. But what I just read about the bureaucracy of the Energy Star program, which is run by the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (which Obama is now directing to take over regulation of all the CO2 – you know, your exhaled breath, car exhaust, trains and planes and household heating and lighting and stuff – he obviously trusts in those bureaucrats!). The Energy Star program is in charge of identifying energy-efficient products so we know to use them to save money and the earth.
Well, some government investigators, to test them, recently gave them some fake products to evaluate to see if they would get the gold star (rated as super efficient, even warranting rebates and tax credits). Well, they (our EPA) approved, among other fakes, a “gasoline-powered alarm clock” 18 inches tall and 15 inches wide, named Black Gold. And approved another said to be an “air room cleaner”, that was in fact a space heater with a feather duster and fly strips attached! It took only 30 minutes to award the star to that one, far less than any trip to the DMV I’ve ever made! So I must admit bureaucrats can move fast if they want to (like, lunch time or a triste in the closet?), but I’m not so sure I want the EPA deciding everything in regards my exhalions, American energy policy, or the design of our next generation trains, planes, and automobiles. Or my health care.
This entry was posted
on Saturday, March 27th, 2010 at 8:30 pm and is filed under Uncategorized, Life & Death, Simply Politics, Just My Opinion.
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