July 1, 2012 – A View From The Middle (Class)

So, let me get this straight — Mitt Romney is for health care in his state with an individual mandate as governor of Massachusetts but he’s against it on a national level as a Presidential candidate, Republican House Speaker John Boehner says getting rid of health care coverage that penalizes pre-existing conditions and allowing people up to age 26 to be on their parents’ coverage is all fine and good but the law that does those things needs to be gutted, and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says having 30 million Americans going without health coverage is not an issue?

Yes, those are just more reasons for me to scratch my head over the things that Republican lawmakers say … and much of this is all a result of things that were said on the Sunday morning news shows.

It’s amazing how Boehner can sit on CBS’ “Face The Nation” and say that Republicans are open to the “popular — many of them sound” provisions in the Affordable Care Act such as pre-existing conditions and coverage up to age 26 on parents’ plans, but that repealing the entire bill is preferable to working within it. It’s amazing to see and hear him say it, with such extreme prejudice.

“No, this has to be, this has to be ripped out by its roots. This is government taking over the entire health insurance industry. The American people do not want to go down this path,” Boehner said. “They do not want the government telling them what kind of insurance policy they have to buy, and how much they have to pay for it, and if you don’t like it, we’re going to tax you. It has to be ripped out and we need to start over. One step at a time.”

So, the man is willing to take any good parts he sees in the law and rip them out “by the roots” and starting over from scratch, not even using the good parts that he does see to build upon? That’s supposed to make sense? And people wonder why so little gets done in the halls of Congress?

Then there’s the head-scratching material McConnell provided on “Fox News Sunday,” talking about the ACA, and when he was asked how Republicans would provide health care coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans his answer was, “That is not the issue. The question is how to go step by step to improve the American health care system. It is already the finest health care system in the world.”

In other words, it would appear, they would do nothing. They’ve got nothing.

As for the matter of pre-existing conditions and how to cover them, McConnell said, “Over half of the states have high-risk pools that deal with that issue,” not adding that those policies often come with high premiums, waiting periods, and coverage exclusions for certain conditions.

Common sense is getting thrown out the window, again, for the sake of political argument.

All the more reasons to scratch my head.

Boehner defends Romney over health care ruling (cbsnews.com)
Boehner pushes repeal, wants health law ‘ripped out by its roots’ (thehill.com)
McConnell: Uninsured people are ‘not the issue’ (rawstory.com)
McConnell Can’t Answer How GOP Will Insure Americans After Repealing ObamaCare: ‘That Is Not The Issue’ (thinkprogress.org)
Republican Congressman Admits GOP Has ‘No’ Plan To Replace Obamacare (thinkprogress.org)
Affordable Care Act survives … for now (viewfrommiddleclass.wordpress.com)

Bebop is such a cool-sounding word. And it’s such an integral part of jazz, there’s no way to get around it. It’s about tempo, making it fast. It’s about improvisation. It’s about playing an instrument like no other has or possibly will.

Art Blakey!!!!! Jazz Messengers!!!!! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Drummer Art Blakey was a vital part of modern bebop. He launched The Jazz Messengers in the late 1940s, and they remained a prominent voice in jazz music for the next 30 years. Along the way, Blakey kept infusing more youth into the message to keep it rolling.

Through the philosophy of infusing youth on a constant basis, The Jazz Messengers became a launching pad for some of the most prominent players in jazz, such as Keith Jarrett, Branford Marsalis, Wayne Shorter, Stanley Clarke, and Kevin Eubanks, just to name a few.

But that was what Blakey brought out in others. Blakey himself was aggressive, all about keeping the groove. He played with the giants — Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gilllespie, and Bud Powell. That’s part of what made him a giant himself, and he stayed there into the late 1980s.