112th Congress convenes with Boehner as Speaker

As the 112th United States Congress resumed today, Republican lawmakers cheered as Ohio Congressman John Boehner filled the post as the new Speaker of the House, replacing Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who proved herself worthy as perhaps the worst House Speaker this country has ever had. Under her reign over two years of the Bush Administration and two years of the Obama Administration, Congress has for the most part achieved nothing, except for play rubber stamps and continue to spend money into oblivion, thus moving this country to the brink of near bankruptcy.

So with Mr. Boehner as Speaker, Americans are trying to appear optimistic and hope for a sense of real change that Congress can finally move forward and actually get work done.

But it appears that a blood bath is already lying ahead. Republican leaders are already vowing to repeal Obama's controversial Health Care Law and are wanting to investigate the Obama Administration's rather unethical efforts in the last two years. Of course, I sincerely doubt that Republicans will be successful in repealing the Health Care Law, because the Senate is still controlled by the Democrats and President Obama can always veto the bill and they don't have the necessary 2/3rds majority to override a veto by the President.

Nonetheless, I would give Republican lawmakers a great deal of credit if they do move forward on attempting to repeal the law. The bill is largely unfavorable among most Americans and they simply cannot afford it. Personally, I would have supported a public option but not a mandate that every American has to buy health insurance. It is obvious that there are some provisions in the bill that are good and some that are clearly bad.

But Americans are hoping the top priority of the new 112th Congress will be fixing the economy and many of them are not looking forward to more of the same political bickering among Democrats and Republicans. They want wasteful government spending cut and more transparency in their government, something that both now-former Speaker Pelosi and President Obama failed to fulfill in the last two years.

There will be some new changes in the Congress when it does come to transparency in government. For example, Congressman Ron Paul will be chairing the House Monetary Policy Committee and will most likely have stronger oversight and a chance to audit the Federal Reserve, which is something people have been waiting far too long for.

Here's to a new year in American politics.

Hopefully this year, work will be done for once.

Will baby boomers get Medicare?

As the baby boomer generation gets closer to the age where they can qualify for the Medicare program, it looks like there will not be enough life support to keep the program running.

According to an Associate Press GfK poll, the study found that 43% of baby boomers can't expect to depend on Medicare for the remainder of their lives, while 20% actually think Medicare is entirely satisfactory. The remaining 37% have mixed feelings about Medicare in their futures.

Congress has already discussed this notion of changing the retirement age as well as what age one should apply for Social Security, which like Medicare, is dwindling. The age to qualify for Medicare was fixed at 65 and now the Federal Government is thinking about raising that to 67 years of age.

Part of the reasoning and logic the Government is wanting to do this is because when this last portion of the baby boomer generation reaches the age of 65 which will be over the next two decades, Medicare at that point will be providing coverage to some 80 million people. However, only 3/5 of every worker will actually be paying taxes into the Medicare program at that point.

You would have thought by now that the Federal Government would have started to take close note on all of this a long time ago. Obviously, programs like Medicare and Social Security would not be around forever.

So now, Congress is thinking about phasing the Medicare program out, switching to supporting a new reform plan of helping retired people receive a fixed payment or even a voucher program to assist them in buying a medical insurance plan of their choice.

I thought the new Health Care Law required everyone to have a health insurance plan anyway? If that is the case, then what is the point of the voucher program?

The unfortunate scenario is that by the time I get to the age of 67, granted that the world is still around, I will not be able to qualify for Medicare, as it will be entirely whipped out by that time.