Corruption.

I was reading recently about the corruption that exists in some countries. I was horrified to read that elected officials will take bribes. They can be bought with money, having been bought they will then do the bidding of their owners, passing laws in favor of the people who paid them!!

Wait, isn't that what happens here?

In some of these 'other countries' this bribery is done in secret. In others they are quite open about it, everyone knows 'how it is done'.

Here we do it both ways. In Congress and the Senate for example people called lobbyists meet openly with our politicians and regularly hand them money. The Health Insurance Industry for example spends one million dollars A DAY bribing them. (What else would you call it?). Why do they willingly hand over this princely sum of money every day? Is it because they like our honest, upstanding officials? No, I don't think so either. It is because they want OUR Congressmen to vote for THEIR industry. And they do. What would you do? The Health Insurance Industry is just one business that conducts business in this way. So too do the Oil Industry, Farming, and dozens, maybe hundreds of other big, and small, companies. It is accepted. Unbelievably it is accepted by us!!!! We sit by while the people that we voted into office to run the country for us, in the way we wanted them to run it, and in the way they promised to run it, do nothing that they told us they would do. They can't, they are too busy lapping up all this money. Who can find time to work, especially for the lousy $200,000 a year that they are being paid when there are lobbyists lined up at their doors BEGGING them to take money!

Hard to make ends meet on $200,000 a year, and a virtually unlimited expense account, not to mention free health care (That is real health care - not the bullshit health care that they voted in for us poor schmucks, and which they will doubtless soon be taking away from us so that their friends in the health care INDUSTRY can rip us for 2 to 4 times as much as we pay now. Oh and don't forget the letters that say "Sorry that is not covered", or the letter that says "You are sick, we can't afford to cover you any more." Those kind of letters will be back soon.) No that kind of health care is not good enough for the likes of them. Instead they voted themselves a REAL health insurance - that they do not pay for of course. We pay for it for them. While I am at it, the health insurance continues for them, and their families for the rest of their lives, paid for by us. Oh, and don't forget the pension scheme - wouldn't you love to have this pension - 100% of pay for LIFE. For your whole family, health insurance for life, and at no cost to them. (We get the bill) - and don't forget most of them can more than afford to pay for it, most are wealthier than you or I could even dream of. Did I forget to mention that their children get to go to the best schools for free. Well not for free, we get the privilege of paying for that too.

All this for a bunch of, mostly, scumbags who do nothing all day except take money from lobbyists, raise money from other rich people, people who they can help, for their re-election. Oh yes, you bet they want to get back in. And there will not be any time at all left over to do the work that we put them in there to do. They have to fly all over the place, stay in fancy hotels, eat expensive meals and entertain "important" people, all at our expense, in order to get reelected. Yes the next 4 years is spent getting re-elected. Well any time that they have left over after the main business of collecting money.

Yep, there is no doubt in my mind that the good old USA is the number one most corrupt country in the world.

THEY are in charge, THEY get to vote the laws, and there is no way THEY are going to change any of the laws - unless it is to make it even easier for them to steal from us.

Unfortunately, they will never make it illegal for Congressmen and Senators to take bribes from special interests. They will never vote in a law making, say, a 6 year term for Congressmen and Senators, so they can get on and do their jobs, instead of spending all their time (and all our money) working on getting re-elected. Have the same health insurance for them that we have, and pay for it themselves.

No, as an old saying goes - "We have the best politicians that money can buy."

I am going to advise my grandchildren to somehow or other get elected to Congress, for just one term. That is all you need, then you are set for life. You don't even need to take money from Big Business etc. Just do your job for 4 years and retire with an indexed pension and health insurance for life.

Well back to the fight. I got a new health insurance and prescription insurance on Jan 1st this year, making sure that it covered the one prescription that I take - it did. Here we are 5 months into the year and I am still fighting to get them to pay for the first months supply! They assure me that it is covered. I just have to go through special channels to get it. Five months! Once I get the first months supply, do you suppose it will take me another 5 months to get the next months? And this is before we get Medicare ripped out from under us - I'm sure it is coming - how long will it take to get it then?

I get more depressed with the system every day. And it looks like it is going to rain today! I was going to plant some seeds, so that we can get "Free" food from the garden.