Grandma's House

Have you taken your blood pressure medicine yet today? Ok, then, here's the latest from the sewers running through the nation's capitol:

If that health care bill gets through Congress and gets signed, this is what you can expect:

Americans who refuse to buy affordable medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a health care overhaul bill unveiled Thursday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the fines will raise around $36 billion over 10 years. Senate aides said the penalties would be modeled on the approach taken by Massachusetts, which now imposes a fine of about $1,000 a year on individuals who refuse to get coverage. Under the federal legislation, families would pay higher penalties than individuals.

Isn't that glorious? If you have kids, it's gonna cost you even more. And don't think for one minute that you can just get the insurance through your job. How long do you think they will still offer coverage if the government competes with them? About as long as you can hold your breath, I'll bet.

Then there's this little gem that nobody in Congress read about before they voted in favor of the cap and trade monstrosity:

The 1,400-page cap-and-trade legislation pushed through by House Democrats contains a new federal policy that residential, commercial, and government buildings be retrofitted to increase energy efficiency, leaving it up to the states to figure out exactly how to do that.

This means that homeowners, for example, could be required to retrofit their homes to meet federal “green” guidelines in order to sell their homes, if the cap-and-trade bill becomes law.

I owe about $7,000 on my house right now. My daughter wants to buy it and remodel it. If this thing passes, and I want to sell her the house, I'd have to put at least another $7,000, maybe more, into it to pass whatever the EPA decides will be the green standards. I can't do that. It's not worth that much. I'd be better off to take the 7 grand, then burn the place down and start over.

Those are the two big stories, but there are some smaller ones that you should know about. In New Jersey, a Superior Court judge has decided that bloggers can be sued for defamation. Nice to know, not that they'd get anything from me. Blood, turnips...you know the routine. Our pathetic excuses for lawmakers spent $13 million dollars on trips to other countries last year. Nice thing to do in a recession. And on a regional note, the Republican congresscritter from St. Charles County, Missouri, Cynthia Davis, has got to go. When asked about the summer lunch program, which really does help a lot of kids who wouldn't otherwise have lunch when they're not in school, she replied that they should get a job, because "hunger is a positive motivator". What a nut. Her district averages about 70 grand a year in income, being a suburban area of St. Louis. I daresay the kids living in St. Louis aren't doing that well.

The capper happened after Bambi's latest "townhall" meeting, where everyone who asked a question was connected to his campaign in some way. Helen Thomas, the White House press corps. member with the most hours in the room (and the most wrinkles), jumped on Robert Gibbs (not literally) because of the "transparency" of the Bambi White House. It's gotta be bad if it woke her out of her stupor and made her angry. Chip Reid joined in on the Gibbs pummelling. It was a joy to see the press actually sometimes do their job.