Under the Category of: Things I Already Knew and/or Suspected

I did not watch the SOTU show the other night. I knew that it would just piss me off. I figured that I would hear enough about it in the following days and if I was so inclined I could even read the entire text anywhere online. So, instead I went to bed. Now, days later, after the smoke has all died down and the "cat is out of the bag", so to speak, I have had enough time to do a slow burn and found the time to post about said burn.

I knew that this address was going to be allot of smoke and mirrors. Much yadda, yadda, yadda about nothing. No health care for those without, no real standards set for fuel emissions and the list goes on. The "Decider" and "Decision-Maker" hath spoken. Well, as I was following my daily news reading, this AM, I found a nice little piece over at Mother Jones and it provided many interesting figures.

We all know that those who lobby give much dinero to the political world and this is a HUGE reason why many in various office do not like to rock the boat when it comes to the changes that most of us want to see. Like in health care. The struggles are famous. When the Clintons wanted to make changes in the system you would have thought the world was coming to an end! There are so many, in this country, that are without and due to the risings costs more and more yearly. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Prioities in 2005 we hit the record high with 46.6 million uninsured. Of these numbers 360,000 were children. My own family is STILL uninsured because I have not yet hit the required hours to qualify and SO's company has something that they "call" insurance, but it really is just a "you pay as you go and when you hit $2200.00 we'll chip in" plan.

When you see how much money comes from the health care lobby you can see why the Republicans are hesitant to make any waves. Accident & Health Insurance gave $ 7,320,915 and 68% went to the Republicans. Health Professionals $49,717,325 and 63% to Republicans. Pharmaceuticals gave $17,865,648 with 68% going to the team. So you can see that the health care people are most concerned with maintaining the status quo. They like things the way they are and defy anyone to try and make changes.

Then you get in to the environment and clean air etc. and you see the kind of money that is given by the oil groups, coal etc. The only group that mightily to the Democrats were the Environmental groups. They gave $889,748 with 83% going to Dems.

It is a short, but intersting read if you care to trot over to Mother Jones and take a look. There is also much other good news to be found in those pages. One that I will be adding to my links list.

So, in the category of Things I Might Rather be Doing While President is on Air Speaking About Things Nothing will be Done About, I think I will watch a TiVo'd Daily Show and get some real news.