A Silver Lining

A great thing has happened in America! Although I did not stay awake last night long enough to see the results of the Massachusetts Senatorial Election, what I woke up to this morning was pure excitement! To find out that Scott Brown has become the Senator-elect, and more so that the Democrats in Congress will now have a much harder time passing their health care agenda that covers special interests and taxes the American People without giving them adequate coverage, while still adding billions to the National Debt and increasing  our financial commitments to other countries, is very comforting.

The election of Scott Brown is a referendum on the current legislators that are running our country, and his election should send a statement to everyone in “Our House – The People’s House”, and that statement should say “Congress, you either need to shape up and get things done that the American People want you to do, the way that the American People want you to do it, or be prepared to be voted out!”

As I have stated in previous posts, I am fully in support of health care reform. I am fully in support of abolishing pre-existing conditions, allowing insurance companies to sell insurance across state lines, allowing states to establish exchanges and band together to purchase insurance as a larger group so that small businesses may be able to lower their insurance costs by being part of a larger purchasing group (which would effectively lower expenditures and allow small businesses to have more capital to invest in their business, giving more people jobs), and providing subsidies to only the poorest of people to ensure adequate coverage for most Americans.

Scott Brown’s election is a silver lining to the dark cloud that has come over Washington D.C., and will hopefully be the beginning something even larger, where the people of the United States of America have woken up, and have spoke that “The status quo in Washington is not working, and the people are not doing the job that they have been elected to do”. We must speak up and elect new people to our governing houses, new people who will work for us as Americans, and not work for special interest groups and unions and lobbyists while sacrificing our very core values and principles as a Republic, a great Republic that is governed by the people, for the people!

Technorati Tags: Scott Brown,Senate,Senatorial Race,Health Care,Special Interests,Unions

The Fall of America

While I have not blogged here again for a while, I hope to have more regular posts now that I have finished school and will hopefully have more free time to be able to devote to the readers of this site.

I feel compelled to blog today about not just one topic, but an array of several topics that have come up over the past several weeks. From Health care to "backdoor deals" being made in Washington D.C., to increased taxes on just about everyone in the country but those with special interests in Washington, I feel that our country is going down a very dark road, one that could lead to our status as the greatest nation in the world to be jeopardized.

As recent as last night, the President and other leaders of our country have made "backdoor" deals with Union Workers to delay taxing their "Cadillac" health insurance plans until 2018. When the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) priced the current health care plan, they may have estimated that it would cost less than a trillion dollars (That's 1 + 12 ZEROS my friends), it will actually cost much more than that after 2019, to the tune of over TWO TRILLION dollars. Our country simply cannot afford this most massive conversion of private industry to government bureaucracy. And now, with the White House and Congressional leaders making special deals for Congressional Members and Unions alike, the first portion becomes even more expensive, and is quickly approaching the trillion dollar threshold that the president himself promised wouldn't happen after taking office just last year.

I am a BIG supporter of common sense health care reform, including health care reform that makes it easier for people in the United States to have better health care, and more access to health care. I am also a big supporter of allowing health insurance companies to sell policies across state lines and removing the state-by-state requirements that are not common sense (such as certain states requiring insurers to cover massage therapy as a covered medical expense). This will make insurers compete for members, which will not only decrease the so-called risk pool, and allow monthly premiums to be significantly decreased. While I have not been able to read the entire 2000 page health care bill (which can be another blog post in itself!), I have not heard that this is a provision in the current legislation before Congress.

As a soon-to-be registered nurse, I know that all people should have access to health care, but all people should also have equal access to health care. While I understand that people on welfare cannot afford paying certain fees and co-payments for services and medications, I feel that alot of the current budgetary crunches in the states could be solved by increasing co-payments for patients on the state Medicaid programs. As I have just moved from one state to another, I have begun to realize that people on Medicaid get free health insurance (which I knew), and pretty much free prescription insurance with almost no co-payments. In Kentucky, people on the Medicaid program only paid $1.00 per prescription, and here in Georgia, they only pay between $0.50 to $1.00 per prescription. When even our nations heroes, our men and women in the armed forces who are fighting for our freedom and liberty have to pay more than that (generally a minimum of at least $3.00), while still making just a little bit above the poverty line themselves, I strongly feel that people on welfare should also have to pay at least a little more than nothing. We must all do our share to make health care reform a reality, including the poor and the rich alike.

While that was my discussion of health care, I cannot close this post without discussing the coming taxation that we will all be experiencing in this President and Congress get their way. We must understand what will happen when the President and Congressional leaders (Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid) get their way, and start to tax the citizens of our great country. Taxation will not only affect those that the taxes are aimed at (such as the newly announced tax on Wall Street banks), raising the corporate tax rates, etc, but it will also affect people who these taxes are not aimed at. Apparently our leaders in Washington D.C. have not even taken a simple basic economics class, because if they had, they would understand that by taxing people at the top, you also inadvertently tax people at the bottom as well. What this means is that regular normally people like you and I will pay more for those goods and services that are necessary to our survival and livelihood. When this happens, people will not be able to afford basic goods and services (vehicles, groceries, fuel), more people will end up on welfare, and more taxes will need to be levied on those that are not on welfare to pay for those are. This is a very dangerous road, because this system of redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor, these "Robin Hood Politics" if you will, will lead our country down a very dark path; a path that will lead to the destruction our lives as we know it.

My final message in this blog post to all who read this is this the following:

1. Be Informed! As citizens of this great country, we must be informed about what our elected representatives in Washington D.C. are doing to us, and to our country. We must understand how our government is currently corrupt, and how it needs fundamental change. Our government no longer represents the people of the United States, they only represent themselves and the special interest groups who lobby them (which should also be done away with!)
2. Write Letters and Make Phone Calls! We must make our elected individuals hear us, and we must make them understand that they answer to us, the people of the United States. Our elected individuals need to know that they are just that, OUR elected individuals, and that they work for us, and are paid by us, the American Taxpayers.
3. Finally, Demand Transparency! We must know what our Congress and White House is doing at all times. They are not elected by us to perform "backdoor" deals on health care and other EXTREMELY IMPORTANT issues facing our country. These important issues should also not be decided solely by our elected representatives, as they do not know how their big ideas will affect the "real world" until it is too late. We must be able to see what our leaders in Washington are doing at all times, because they do not have our best interests at heart, even though that is what they are elected and paid to do.

As a final thought, we are no longer the Republic that we were founded on. We no longer have the freedoms and liberties that our founders fought for and that our armed services members continue to fight for every day. While we are free to do many of the things that we want to do, our daily lives are also dictated by what happens in Washington D.C. While we technically still are a republic by governance, we are quickly becoming an oligarchy, where the rule of a few (our President and Congress) dictate the lives of the many.

Govenors Video

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to take a minute to share with all that read this blog, this video that I was made aware of from Youtube.

I am so glad to have watched this video, and I urge you to watch it too. While it is of Republican Govenors (which as you know I totally support), it is more than that. It is of people talking about our nation, our freedom, and our way of life.

Whats going on in Washington is rediculous, and will bankrupt this country and demoralize its people if it continues to happen. I will discuss more on that later.

Until then, watch the video. Feel inspired.....

A Letter To The President and Congress on Healthcare Reform

Hello!

I would like to share with you a letter that I have sent to my representatives in Congress, both in the House and Senate. I have also sent this letter to the President via US Mail. While I do not expect that the corruption in Washington will be changed with my letter, I hope that it will reach some members of Congress and the White House.

Healthcare Coverage for all is a necessity, but it must be done in a way that does not have astronomical costs to the American People, and does not infringe into the personal rights and freedoms that Americans are granted because of our freedom as a country. We must find free market solutions to this problem, and not have government infringement into the choices that individuals and their doctors make about the best course of actions regarding medical decisions.

Here is my letter to our representatives in Washington. I strongly urge anyone reading this blog and letter to write one of your own, and share your opinions and ideas with those who are being paid to make decisions for us.

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Honorable President Barak Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington DC 20500

Ryan Kuyers
7315 Saint Andrews Woods Circle, Unit #202
Louisville KY 40214

May 22, 2009

RE: A Letter on Healthcare Reform

Dear Honorable President Obama:

I am writing to you today regarding the current healthcare debate that is being waged between Republicans and Democrats in our nation’s capital. As it stands right now, our current healthcare system is at a difficult impasse, with new solutions and new ideas being brought forward to solve the crisis that we face, both now and in the future. While there is significant disparity between citizens in our country, a comprehensive solution can be found, with benefits being gained by all Americans.

I have reviewed some of the solutions by members of Congress on various websites that serve as a way to provide comparisons and contrasts between these suggestions. We simply cannot mandate coverage for all citizens, because of evidence provided by countries that have done just that. By mandating coverage, we will effectively cause our citizens to be put on waiting lists for needed services and be denied access to necessary medical care. I strongly urge you to consider and approve legislation that was recently introduced by Senators Coburn and Burr, and Representatives Ryan and Nunes. After reviewing the summary of the “Patients’ Choice Act”, I strongly feel that this legislation will create a free market solution that will ensure solvency in our healthcare system for decades.

As a citizen of the state of Kentucky who has previously worked for a major health insurance company, and who now works as a pharmacy technician while completing schooling to become a Registered Nurse, I feel that I have knowledge about how various components of our healthcare system operate. While I agree that every American should have some sort of health coverage, the way to achieving that goal requires comprehensive reform of many aspects of healthcare. The Patients’ Choice Act achieves many of these comprehensive reforms, but there are certain items that this legislation does not cover that should be included. These items include:

· Parity for mental health treatment for patients with acute and/or chronic mental health conditions. This should be included in legislation to ensure that health insurance carriers provide coverage for mental health disorders that is equal to the coverage for medical disorders. In patients with mental health disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder that is poorly treated or left untreated, these patients have much lower outcomes and experience more frequent hospitalization than those who are adequately treated

· Review and revise the requirements for Medicare and Medicaid. As an example, currently in Louisville, Kentucky, a Federally Funded Medicaid HMO called the Passport Health Plan provides care to low income individuals, families, and disabled citizens. While I feel that this program is very beneficial to the people who participate in it, it has gone too far in providing low cost services for its enrollees. While I am a strong advocate for low income individuals and families to receive the care and medications that they need to maintain adequate health, I feel that these individuals also need to have personal responsibility while receiving this care. Currently, patients who have prescriptions on this medical plan pay only $1 per prescription for adults, and nothing for prescriptions for children. In contrast, our currently enlisted military service members who have Tricare coverage are required to pay $3 per prescription, three times that of those on the Passport Program. There must be increased parity between all citizens, with low income citizens being required to maintain a certain level of personal responsibility and financial commitment. We must make all Americans responsible for healthcare, and not allow certain citizens to feel that they are entitled to receive care at a cost below that of the servicemember men and women who keep our country free. Also, patients who shield their income in certain ways to appear that they are income eligible for Medicaid should not be allowed to participate in the federally funded program and instead should be allowed the option of private healthcare coverage.

· Decrease the costs that lead to increased healthcare costs. While it is understandable that many dollars go into the research and development of cutting-edge medical equipment and medications, the current costs of these items directly lead to increased costs incurred by patients who seek healthcare services. Machines that costs millions of dollars to hospitals, such as CT scan and MRI machines, most likely do not cost that same amount to build. We must rein in costs in every aspect of our healthcare system, and reducing those costs is a first step that we must employ immediately. We also must reduce the costs of prescription drugs, and require the use of lower-cost generic alternatives when available. The Passport Health Plan mentioned above requires pharmacies to fill certain brand-name medications even when generic alternatives are available. The recent proposal by the healthcare community to reduce costs by 1.5% each year over 10 years, estimated to save approximately $2 trillion, must be considered in any legislation brought before congress. We also much review medical malpractice litigation, and propose placing caps on this type of litigation to reduce costs of services provided by doctors and nurse practitioners. In a current climate where courts award hundreds of millions of dollars to individuals and groups, it is unsustainable for providers to provide quality care and worry about having to pay extremely high malpractice premiums. Maximum award caps should be considered on medical malpractice lawsuits.

I strongly urge you to consider the Patients’ Choice Act with the above additions as the best solution to America’s Healthcare problems. The Patients’ Choice Act provides the most comprehensive fix to our healthcare dilemma, provides for incentives for health promotion and disease prevention, and allows our citizens to be personally responsible for their health. By providing for all Americans to have access to quality and affordable healthcare, we can insure that future generations have a healthcare system that works for them, each and every time.

I thank you for your time and considerations regarding this very serious and important matter facing our great country. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,


Ryan Kuyers
Louisville, Kentucky 40214

My Letter to President Obama Regarding Making Veteran's Pay For Their Benefits

While I do not post very often on this blog (due to school and work taking most of my time), I am still trying to post important things here so people will know my thoughts and feelings, as promised by the purpose of this blog. I hope to post more when I graduate from school in December, as I am sure that there will be much to post about over the next several years.

I would like to share with you a letter that I sent via internet posting on Whitehouse.gov addressed to the President. While I do not know if I will receive a personal response, I hope that it reaches the President, and causes him and his administration to think more about their actions, and to help our veterans as we should be helping them, giving them the best possible medical and psychiatric care that we can.

Below is my letter to the President of the United States:

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Dear Mr. President,

I am writing to you today regarding a potential policy that was announced recently that would make veterans of our armed services pay for their medical services at the Veterans Administration Hospitals when they return with service connected injuries. As you well know, our military heroes, both current and past, deserve our compassion and respect. They also deserve all that we can give them for sacrificing their lives every day to ensure that we remain a free and democratic nation, without threats to our people.

We as a people often forget all that has happened to our nation over the past nine years, but in one day almost 3,500 people were killed by extremist people who hate our country and way of life. We must not forget those Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force men and women who have given their lives for our nation. Because of this, it is extremely wrong for us to even think about charging these heroes for the injuries that they receive while defending our country.

Mr. President, we must explore other options to pay for our veteran population. It is absolutely un-American for the government of the United States of America to propose charging our veterans. We must find other ways for veterans to receive the care that they need without charging them for this care. Many of our veterans come back from Iraq and Afghanistan with both physical and psychiatric disorders, and it is our responsibility as Americans to take care of these veterans and the injuries that they receive because of their defense of our nation.

Mr. President, I strongly urge you and your administration to rethink this policy, and to explore other options regarding the care of our veterans who return with service connected injuries. I thank you for your time and consideration regarding this matter.

Sincerely,

Ryan Kuyers

What are we going to do?

Ok, so its been about a year since I last posted on this blog. Time has just gotten away from me, as I have been so busy with school, work, and all the other things that life throws at you! I know that I do not have many readers thus far, but I would like to post something for the few readers that I do have, and hope that more will read soon. I will continue to try to post at regular intervals my thoughts, and hope that you will comment on them, as long as they are constructive and positive.

It is mid-June 2008, and we are posed with a very difficult situation - its an election year, and with election years come a whole host of things that are nasty and ugly and detrimental to the American People. We see party lines get split even more than they already are, and attacks against political parties become even more heated and slanderish. As Republicans, in order for us to win back the hearts and minds of the American people, we must show them that we are able to work across the aisles of Congress and the Presidency, and that we can come together as ONE nation, not a nation of millions of people with no representation in congress and the presidency that works for them.

I would like to point out one such person - our current congressman here in Louisville, Kentucky - John Yarmuth. Since being elected in 2006 to the House of Representatives, he has done absolutely nothing for Louisville. When Anne Northup was congresswoman, her representation meant that our Federal Government was working for us, and this is evident in the many things that she was able to bring to the city, such as new bridges, infrastructure, new building, etc. That is why we again need to vote for Anne Northup on November 4th, 2008, and let her get her work done for the people of Louisville, as well as the people of this great state and nation.

On to another note - GAS PRICES ARE KILLING AMERICANS.... No, not litterally, but definately in their pocket books and wallets. $4.00+ gallons of gasoline will not be able to be sustained, and high gas prices will fuel inflation more quickly than we can understand. We must do something now to stave off problems with the economy that are yet to come, because Democrats want to raise our taxes, on top of making us pay for extremely high fuel prices, which will make for a double whammy on the earnings of the American people, and will fuel a recession, the likes of which my generation has not yet seen.

While I support John McCain in his bid for the presidency, and sincerely hope that he is elected this coming fall, there are several things that I do not agree with him on - mainly drilling for oil, and gay rights.

John McCain does not believe in opening up ANWAR for drilling, even though there are enough oil reserves under the wildlife refuge to sustain our country for many years. He says that we need to become energy independent, but will not even use our own natural resources to do so. What we need to do is use our own resources, and match barrel for barrel of oil that we import with our own product, so that we not only drive down the price of oil for our own country, we will also drive down the price of oil around the world. We must use our strong status as the greatest country in the world, combined with our amazing natural resources here at home, to show the world that we do not need their resources to sustain ourselves. Once that is done, then we can truly make the move to becoming energy independent.

As a gay man, I do not believe that gay rights should be left up to the states, because this is not something that the states will decide. States did not decide womens rights, or civil rights, or anything of the sort - this was all decided on the federal level. Gays and lesbians should be afforded the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexual individuals, and should be allowed all the same priviledges as heterosexual people when it comes to taxes, inheritance, civil unions, etc. We must be open-minded and let people live their lives how they want to live them. As Gay Americans, we must band together, and demand the same level of equality and acceptance that is afforded to everyone else in this great nation, as only then will we be able to truly live as equals among our fellow American citizens.

Bane of the Gay Community

If there is one person who is the bane of the gay community, I would have to say that Rosie O'Donnell would be that person. I can not imagine anyone who is as stupid, idiotic, or misled as her. Earlier this week, she said some very troubling things about a whole host of issues, and I wish that she would just get out of the spotlight that she thinks that she is in, stop saying vicious and untrue things, and just shut the hell up in general. Anyone with a simple high school education knows that FIRE DOES MELT STEEL, and that there does not need to be a hidden explosive in a building to cause steel to melt. Hello, Rosie, lets remember simple alchemy here: Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water. Everything that exists on this planet is or was forged from these 4 primordial elements in some form or fashion. To state that the government conspired against the American people and caused 9/11/2001 is to slap 300+ million Americans in the face, and even more so, tells the victims and families of that horrendous day that their lives were not precious. September 11th was caused by TERRORISTS. Terrorists who still to this day threaten to bring down our great country.

Rosie Crazy Conspiracy Theory #2, and I quote this directly from her blog (www.rosie.com):

"the British did it on purpose into Iranian waters as US MILITARY BUILD UP ON THE IRANIAN BORDER we will be in Iran before summer as planned".

I simply will never understand how stupid and wrong someone like her could ever be. The British soldiers were inspecting a commercial cargo ship, as every news account and every British and American governmental reports states, when they were taken hostage by the Iranian government. Rosie's implications that the British soldiers wanted to get caught because the U.S. and British governments want to get into war with Iran is completely unbased, and she should immediately rescind everything that she has said.

Rosie O'Donnell is such a bad picture of everything homosexual, and it is conspiracy theories like what I have stated above that paint such a picture darker and darker every day. I seriously think that that she is so psychologically unstable that she has no place being in any sort of public light. When one hangs upside down like a bat on stage on national T.V. to show how she helps with her depression, anyone who sees that has to question her credibility as T.V. icon and national personality.

Who and What Our Country Needs

Rudy Giuliani. That is who our country needs. We need a new president that has the ability to bring this country together and move it forward, instead of allowing it to be divided among party lines. We need a moderate Republican president like Rudy, who has the fiscal determination and responsibility that this country needs, but who also is compassionate to the needs of all people in this country. Rudy Giuliani has the some of the views that this country needs in the coming years. Gay couples should have the ability to form civil unions and have that union recognized by the federal government. It is completely immoral and unexceptable for gay people and gay couples to be discriminated against, and Rudy understands that fact.

The current status of this country is not great, as it seems that everyone is divided along their party lines: Democrats hate Republicans, and Republicans are not fond of Democrats. This is completely unexceptable, and it causes the citizens of this country great strife. The democrats say that we as citizens have voted for change, and that is why they were voted as the majority in November. Among the many flaws of the democrats in Congress, one of their largest flaws are their lies. The democrats stated that they would control pork spending, yet they attached over $20 billion dollars in pork spending projects to a military spending bill, a spending bill in which they also tacked on a timeline for troop withdrawl in Iraq. The democrats say that Iraq is in a civil war... Well, I have news for them: Iraq is not in a civil war right now, but if we tack on a timeline for troop withdrawal, we will invite civil war into that country, and it will be blood on their hands. I was always told when I was younger that you can not have everything that you want when you want it, and that is what they democrats are trying to do, have everything they want. For our great country to move forward, the democrats need to stop acting like children, and start acting like the elected representatives that they truly are. We must stop playing along party lines, and start acting like the members of this great country that we are, both republicans and democrats. Only when we can come together and work toward common goals can we truly make this country as great as it once was.

First Time

Good Morning! Its March 30, 2007, and this is my first time ever creating a blog. I decided to create this blank slate as a way to express my thoughts, ideas, and opinions on various aspects of life to anyone who wants to read them.

A little about me: I am a 27yo gay guy going to school here in Kentucky to get a Bachelor's of Science in Nursing degree. I want to help people live healthier, fuller, and happier lives. In my very small amount of free time, I like to watch reality shows such as Bravo's Top Design, Top Chef, WorkOut, and drama shows like Fox's Prison Break and Sci-Fi's BattleStar Galactica. I am a moderate gay republican, and as such I typically do not agree with alot of what is going on in politics today. Thats all for now!