Let Us Recap a Few Things to Start 2012

I should be organizing piles that got created over the holiday, but I always put that off as long as possible.

This blog has become consistently partisan and I am truly a man of the middle so I thought I would recount the evidence that I am a man of the middle.  My voting Record:

Presidents:  McGovern, Carter, Reagan, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Clinton, Gore, Kerry, Obama.

Governors:  Rockefeller, Carey, moved to Illinois  Jim Thompson (R) a couple of times moved back to NY Cuomo, Pataki, Pataki  (I regret the 2nd one) moved to VT Jim Douglas (R) (every two years) Shumlin

Senators:  Javits (R), I don't recall Illinois but I think there was one D and one R, back to NY I never voted for D'Amato but I like my senators to be in the middle, VT Jeffords, Levy and sadly Bernie because by then I couldn't trust any republican to vote their conscience.

So, you see I grew up in the era when the middle supported balanced budgets, providing services to people that were paid for and a strong sense of law & order and national defense.  Add to that the belief that the individual has primary responsibility for their own well being but the government has a role to play in keeping the playing field fair.

So the partisanship that comes through here is because the Republicans are no longer willing to pay for a balanced budget and a fair playing field with sufficient revenues.  We have to pay for the War on Terror which we have borrowed over the last decade.  The only way to do that without reducing the fairness of the playing field is to raise revenues either through closing loopholes & deductions or increasing tax rates.  But you can only raise revenues so far and the Bowles-Simpson Commission demonstrated that you can only get about 1/3 of the deficit from revenues and 2/3 has to come from costs.  We also need sound regulation so you don't get flim flam artists ruining the economy with products that create an economic bust.

Health care costs are in the critical path to controlling costs.  But the market forces that have generated out of control health care costs are at the center of Republican Health Care Policy (individuals getting whatever services they want because employer paid health insurance pays for it and the insurance companies are in control of the rules).  The market forces are also a key part of the fairness issue.  Tying your access to Group Insurance to your employer creates an unfairness to anyone who for whatever reason loses or leaves their job.  Unless you are lucky enough to live in a state that promotes all non-group people as a group, your health care insurance will cost you roughly twice what it would cost a member of any employment group.  That is not fair and that is one thing the Affordable Health Care Act is trying to fix.  It is also trying to control the cost of health care delivery but that is a long term process.  I believe Health Care is a right (32 of 33 developed countries have universal health care as do Russia, China, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Cuba).  Not having to pay for health care insurance is one of the big reasons US Companies move jobs off shore and we need to separate this if we are to restore our economic competitiveness as soon as possible.  If the Republicans really believed in government helping the private sector create jobs by getting something out of the way, they would figure out how to separate employment and health insurance.

I am a man of the middle and hope you will continue to follow my thoughts as we move through the campaign this year.