I am sure that I am not the only American citizen that thinks our government is completely out of control and out of touch with the reality with what is going on in our country. Now my use of “the government” is a broad generalisation of a whole lot of people, and I truly believe there are some good people working for the people, but for the most part I am finding government agencies to be completely nuts.
Consider the following.
1. Driving home from Albany yesterday on Interstate 90 was a bit of a challenge. The Capital District had quite a bit of snow falling and blowing due to the Nor’easter wannabe that was blowing up the coast. Traffic was moving slowly as I progressed west. The roadway was clogged up with a combination of slush and snow. Just beyond the first Schenectady interchange was an accident. No one appeared hurt but there was no emergency response to the incident. The drivers of the vehicles had enough time to get out of their cars and appeared to be exchanging credentials. About 3 km later there was a state policeman sitting in one of the median crossovers. Was he responding to the accident? He was not. He was sitting in his cop car with the radar gun aimed at the eastbound traffic.
Traffic was moving at around 35-40 MPH. The roads were clogged with cars, accidents, snow and slush. The posted speed limit is 65. I really don’t think we need to be looking for speeders in this type of weather, unless they are looking to grab someone that is moving too fast in this type of weather. But no one was doing that. I’m sure there were more accidents in progress that needed tending to.
2. I believe it was last Thursday afternoon that it was raining. The grass et. al. is still snow covered for the most part. There are no hints of leaves making an appearance yet. Why is it that the city feels it is necessary to have their parks department crew sit in their trucks and water the trees in the median along a prominent boulevard? There they were, with a tank of water in the back of a pickup truck, watering trees on the snow covered ground. Come on. I don’t know why I’m surprised, I have seen them do the same thing in the middle of a thunderstorm.
3. The local city government (of which we are not represented by, thank god) is considering raising the sales tax to 9% to cover increasing governmental costs. Such costs include raises for elected officials. There are many, many people losing their jobs or at the very least not receiving cost of living raises this year. I think these elected officials should suck it up like the rest of us and learn to cut back a little bit.
4. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has mandatory health insurance. All citizens of the commonwealth are required to have health insurance of some sort else they pay a yearly $900 fine. I have a big problem with this. Whilst I think that it is important that everyone that needs health care has access to health care, I don’t believe that forcing a person to have health insurance is the answer to the equation. Now, I will admit that I am not well versed on this law, but from what I heard this morning on NPR, this requirement sounds a little crazy to me. I guess it’s been around since 2007.
I think the founding fathers had a grand idea when it came to forming these United States. Unfortunately, I believe that over time their good intentions have been perverted and slowly destroyed in the name of greed and power.
J.P.- the Massachusetts health insurance plan is actually a good idea. Uninsured people do not go to the doctor, do not get preventative care, and when they get sick they go to the emergency room. Taxpayers end up paying for those emergency room visits. Requiring everyone to have health insurance results in a reduction in health care costs and saves money.