today's hearing

[Carolyn Branagan]

There will be a public hearing at the statehouse today on the recent suggestions from the Governor for cutting the fiscal 2010 budget. The hearing will be held in room 11 starting at 12:30pm. If you are unable to attend the hearing and have input regarding the recission plan,
e-mail me at cbranagan@leg.state.vt.us and I'll make sure the committee gets your comments.

Rep. Carolyn Branagan
Franklin-1, Fairfax/Georgia
Vermont House of Representatives

[special ED]

tell them November is coming

[Mummy]

I agree with you.  Infact, in November I'm voting for specialED. 

After hearing the Whitehouse would like to provide Healthcare for all illegal immigrants, I am voting against everyone who is in office UNLESS they go public stating that they are not for this change.

[cedarman]

I'll be clear and up front by first off saying I am NOT in favor of a universal health care plan.   I am in favor of health care reform pertaining to the following:  restricting insurance companies from droping people after they are diagnosed with a serious and long term health problem, giving insurance companies less power to decide what treatments patients can receive (if it is FDA approved, an insurance company should NOT be able to tell a patient they cannot receive it), and restrict the size of increases to individual policy premiums.

I do not recall seeing any substantiated claims of the healthcare reform policy advocating payment for illegal immigrants.  We are already doing that. Illegals tend to only seek medical assistance in cased of emergency, in which case they land in an emergency room where people cannot be refused treatment.  It is not like they are going to a regular Dr. office every week to get every little thing looked at.

To help solve that problem, we need politicians and US LAW ENFORCEMENT personel with enough backbone to make stricter immigration policies and to ENFORCE immigration policies - send them back to their native lands if they didn't come through the front door (through the legal naturalization process).

[mary]

Curious: Are concerns regarding universal health care reopening the debate about Medicare?  Current debate includes parallels surrounding Medicare's passage in 1965 and Americans wariness of socialized medicine.  Ronald Reagan: “f you don’t [stop Medicare] and I don’t do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.” [1961] Barry Goldwater: “Having given our pensioners their medical care in kind, why not food baskets, why not public housing accommodations, why not vacation resorts, why not a ration of cigarettes for those who smoke and of beer for those who drink.” [1964] (That beer thing might be interesting.)

Social Security?  On January 31, 1940, the first monthly retirement check was issued to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow, Vermont, in the amount of $22.54. Miss Fuller, a Legal Secretary, retired in November 1939. She started collecting benefits in January 1940 at age 65 and lived to be 100 years old, dying in 1975.   Ida May Fuller worked for three years under the Social Security program. The accumulated taxes on her salary during those three years was a total of $24.75. Her initial monthly check was $22.54. During her lifetime she collected a total of $22,888.92 in Social Security benefits.

[Henry]

Interesting information Mary.  I started paying into Social Security back in 1951 and did so until 1992 when I stopped work.  I started collecting on it in 1995 and have been collecting on it ever since.  I am one of the fortunate ones as I know a number of my friends either never got to collect their Social Security or only drew it for a few years.

My parents always considered themselves very fortunate.  They only paid into it for about 3 years and it was a small amount as Dad was a self employed farmer on the little 8 cow farm when he started paying into it.  Because of that, they both received a Social Security Check for the rest of their lives.

[cedarman]

I'm sure I'll be one of these individuals who pays in, and never collects anything in return.  Not because I expect to check out before I'm old enough to collect a SS check, but I honestly believe the program will no longer exist by the time I'm old enough to collect anything (in about 40 yrs).

In the mean time, I'll continue to contribute to gov't pensions for those who worked hard to help build this country, and work on building my own retirement security net (401K, IRA, and other long term investments). I just hope the market drops and inflation don't take too big of a bite out of what I put away over the coming decades.

[mary]

I have a similar attitude towards social security and paying into the system, cederman - contributions are more of a payback rather than an investment. We certainly have more financial tools to plan for retirement without social security or the once-common private pension.  Health care remains more problematic. Care and insurance costs have risen so much more quickly than inflation and choices remain limited - buy into a private plan or join a group to get slightly better rates. I'm leaning towards a universal plan and not just because of empathy for the individual. Lack of coverage or care has negative consequences for society, not just the individual who does not have access to primary treatment. Recall the TB outbreak in NYC in the early 90's, the various influenza pandemics, or even the resurgence of salmonella; consider the much higher costs of ER care versus regular primary care or the cost of treating a Stage 1 versus a Stage 3 cancer. Society will pay the price one way or the other. 
No matter what people conclude, I'm pleased that we are finally addressing such a difficult and vital problem and hope that an intelligent and civil debate will bring progress.