ONE OF MY SONS JUST ASKED ME: "WHERE DO YOU STAND ON THE SENATE'S HEALTH CARE BILL?"

MY ANSWER: 

This remains an ill-conceived, cruel piece of legislation. 

It should be rejected. 

The reduction in coverage (20MM plus) makes it inconceivable that we would put this in place.

It fails to deal with the cost issues that have to be addressed at the root cause level (e.g. cost of drugs; multiple profit centers picking up $$; lack of consumer visibility into true costs, etc. ). It fails to study other health care systems which are affording close to universal health care at a cost  40%  BELOW ours. 

The process followed to do this, after 7 years of seeing the flaws of Obamacare, is tragic.

There are two premises which will ultimately have to be and will be accepted:

1. Everyone should have health insurance. Everyone. We don't allow people to opt in or out of Social Security. Or having automobile insurance. It is an issue of the national interest, not just the individual. 

2. Providing quality health care is a Right, just like education is and safety is. For everyone and it is the government's responsibility to provide it. Like Social Security. For the National Interest. 

PUTTING MY P&G HAT ON: A FACT BASED PATH TO A SUSTAINABLE HEALTH CARE PLAN

If I put my Procter & Gamble hat on and assess this challenging subject, there are two things that we aren’t doing which P&G would be doing:

 

1.     We would examine what the outcomes are today in the United States compared to other countries which we know are achieving lower costs, broader coverage and strong health outcomes.  

 

It is striking and hopefully instructive to look around the world and see so many developing countries, including Canada to our north, providing close to universal coverage, with costs much lower than our own (10% vs. 17% of GDP), and health outcomes, in terms of duration and quality of life, equal or better than our own.

 

Within our own country, I would benchmark Massachusetts, which I understand is providing 97% coverage.  I don’t know what the costs are, but I would be looking at that and any other states which can be benchmarks for learning.

 

2.     I would break down with great specificity what the differences are in cost between the United States and those countries (Canada, Europe, Japan, etc.) which have significantly lower costs.  What explains the difference? I am sure a big part but by no means all are higher drug costs. There are also the profits being made by companies in the distribution chain. 

 

 

The type of benchmark comparisons I’ve referred to above would yield important learning. We are failing to do the obvious. 

 

GIVING PROPER RESPECT TO OUR DEDICATED PUBLIC SERVANTS--SHAME ON THE PRESIDENT

I am re-posting my blog of 3/7/17 which called out President Trump for the disrespectful, and demeaning actions and remarks he was making about our public servants in the FBI, CIA, etc.

He has done it again.

Quite apart from the rightness of the decision (with which I disagree), the manner in which he fired Comey was unforgivable and denigrating.  It reflected disrespect on him and the entire Bureau.
This is a man who dedicated his life to our country.

No personal contact. No heads-up. Decision reaching Comey by the media while he is addressing this organization.

I have never seen an uglier, more thoughtless dismissal of a top leader in any organization.

Then Trump adds to that by alleging that Comey was not supported by his own people, a charge flatly denied by the #2 person at the FBI and numerous agents.

Have you no shame, Mr. President.

Sessions shares in this shame.

HERE WAS MY EARLIER BLOG:

I have been living with a growing and deepening concern.

President Trump  should be ashamed of himself for the disrespect he is showing to the women and men dedicating their lives to public service in the:

-FBI
-Judiciary
-CIA
-State Department
-Environmental Protection Agency
-and more.

It is all too easy to paint an organization with a broad brush, serving it up as an impersonal entity, leveling attacks on it for a mistake of  the past (e.g. weapons of mass destruction in Iraq) and fail to recognize that it is made up of thousand of individuals, imperfect as we all are, but almost without exception dedicated to the welfare of our nation and working tirelessly and in some cases at significant personal risk to achieve it.

These men and women deserve our respect and that of the President.

For Trump to tweet the accusation that former President Obama engaged in tapping his phone without even consulting with one of his own team on the likelihood of this being true, is the height of disrespect and irresponsibility.

Can you imagine what it would be like as a new recruit to the CIA or FBI today? How you would feel about your career being one that was properly honored and recognized? How you would feel in coming to work, perhaps even risking your life,  with the President of the United States saying what he is?

This has to stop. The newly installed leaders of these organizations have to lead and not allow the President or anyone else destroy the morale and moral fibre of the men and women of these professional organizations.

"PURSUE TRUTH--FOCUS--ACT ON WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT"

Have we ever seen  a tornado of swirling news like this?

The President of the United States contradicting himself and leading his surrogates to do the same.

The President continuing to make unsubstantiated claims such as Obama having wiretapped him without any evidence whatsoever.

The President firing the FBI director in the most disrespectful way imaginable disrupting the investigation of Russia's ties to the election-- justifying the action because, as the President said, Comey was a "showboat" and was not supported by the members of the FBI--both assertions categorically denied by the Acting Director the FBI.

It is all too easy to get caught up in it minute to minute, to the point of having it overwhelm our daily lives and lose focus on what we can and must do to make a difference.

We cannot be complacent. The policy issues are too large. Even larger are the issues of the character and values we live by. We cannot accept lying as the new norm and pass it off as akin to a vaudeville act we have to put up with. Common decency has to be upheld.

Increasingly I say to myself:

Pursue truth at all costs.

Focus.

Speak out and act on what I believe are the most important issues which I can try to influence such as health care, early childhood development; overcoming poverty; and tax reform which drives economic growth and achieves greater fairness across incomes.

"A PROFESSOR OF THE JUNGLE"

 I love the story that Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, tells in his wonderful memoir " Shoe Dog". 

 The year was 1997.  Still haunted by the Vietnam War, Knight had vowed that someday Nike would have a factory in or near Saigon.  By 1997, he had four.  He was in Saigon.  The company was to be honored and celebrated by the Vietnamese government as one of the nation’s top five generators of foreign currency.  At one point, his hosts graciously asked what they could do for him, what would make the trip special and memorable.  

 

“I’d like to meet the 86-year-old General Võ Nguyen Giáp, the man who singlehandedly defeated the Japanese, the French, the Americans and the Chinese", Knight replied. 

 

General Giáp joined the group the next day.  The first thing Knight noticed was his size.  He was maybe 5’4”.  And humble.  Knight remembered that he smiled as he did, “Shyly, uncertainly.  But there was an intensity about him…a kind of glittery confidence,” the kind he had seen in great coaches and great business leaders.  

 

Giáp waited for Knight to ask a question.

 

It was simple:   “How did you do it?”  The corners of Giáp’s mouth flickered.  A smile?  Maybe?, Knight recalled.   Giáp thought and thought.  “I was,” he said, “a professor of the jungle.”

 

“A professor of the jungle.”  

For me, it says it all: being close to your work, close to your environment, close to your consumers, close to your competition, close to your people.  That kind of closeness--I refer to it as "intimacy"-- grows out of love, a passionate commitment to a purpose.  That kind of closeness, that kind of intimacy leads to great accomplishments, to winning, to a maniacal commitment to excellence and, ultimately, to the satisfaction of a job well done.

 

CONFIDENCE CRUMBLES-THE CENTER CRATERS--REPOSTING FROM TEN MONTHS AGO

CONFIDENCE CRUMBLES-THE CENTER CRATERS-GOVERNMENT BY PARALYSIS

JUNE 25, 2016

I  just encountered this statistic documenting the stunning and dangerous shift in opinion in the book "Fractured Republic" by Levin. 

"When a team from the University of Michigan studying national elections asked Americans in 1964 how much of the time they thought the federal government could be trusted to do the right thing, 76 percent said either “just about always” or “most of the time.”  (When Gallup asked exactly the same question in 2010, those two options garnered a combined 19 percent of the responses.)"

The utter and frustrating inability of Congress to come together to take rational and necessary steps on responsible gun regulations and immigration reform are just two of the recent issues that explain this. 

We must do better, a lot better, and soon. This is government by paralysis and venom.

***********************************************************************

Unfortunately, we are NOT doing better. The urgency to do so is increasing daily. 

WANTED: PEACE FOR THE PEOPLE OF SYRIA

WANTED:  PEACE FOR THE PEOPLE OF SYRIA

President Trump’s decision to launch the tomahawk missile attack on the air base in Syria three days ago, entirely appropriate in my opinion under the circumstances, poses major questions, of course.

What is our end objective in Syria, and Iraq and Afghanistan, for that matter?  How do we get there?  To what degree is our objective to overthrow the Assad government?  To wipe out ISIS?  To contain Russia?  To show Iran that they have no business sticking their nose into the Syrian business?

Stepping back, it seems to me the objective is clear:  We need to do what is necessary to restore peace to the people of Syria.  Four hundred thousand killed over the past several years.  Five million refugees, many of them still on the run or in camps.  What will it take to achieve this objective?

In my opinion, the following:

• We (and I mean it “collectively”) have to eliminate the threat of ISIS.

• We (and again I mean it in a “collective way,” which I’ll come back to) have to achieve a diplomatic and political settlement in Syria.

We, the United States, cannot impose this settlement.  Any thought that we can without the participation of Russia and Iran, among others, is fatuous.  We have to involve the Syrian government in some form, though I agree that Assad cannot and will not be a continuing part of that government.  

• We have to provide humanitarian support right now for the Syrian people and refugees.  It will only be through political settlement that refugees will be able to return to their homes.  We have to provide a “safe zone” for these refugees and we have to reach agreement with Russia in doing it.

It is inexcusable that the world has not coalesced around a united humanitarian effort for these refugees.  We have done far better before, including post-World War II.  There are countless non-profits doing their best, but there is not the coordinated effort, nor the investment by governments, including our own, to provide this support.  We owe it to ourselves, having seen the impact of gas on 90 civilians, including children.  It was a murderous, heinous act.  But countless more men, women and children are dying every day because of the absence of our support.

*****

There will be those that say, understandably, that we have been trying to reach a negotiated settlement, including with Russia and Iran, for years without achieving a positive outcome.  That’s true.  However, it cannot lead us to stop trying.  We have to do it.  It’s the only path to success.  

I don’t believe Russia has any interest in continuing the quagmire and devastating violence in Syria.  I don’t believe for a minute they respect Assad.  What they are against is unilateral regime change by the United States or anyone else.  They haven’t forgotten Serbia, or Libya, or Iraq either.

While this brings me far outside my sphere of knowledge, I personally believe that a political settlement is going to require a geographic division of Syria, much like as I understand it, Joe Biden recommended years ago.  It’s no different than what occurred in Yugoslavia.   The antagonisms are so deeply rooted between the Shias and Sunnis and Kurds and Alawites, too, that bringing them together into a united government is impossible.

These are my thoughts.