OMB: Owner-Managed Business

This article indirectly describes Mr. Obama's biggest problem. As President of the United States, his job isn't to represent the interests of liberals and Democrats. It isn't to represent the interests of conservatives and Republicans. It isn't to represent the interests of the banking and insurance industries.

Mr. President, your job is to represent the combined interests of every individual in the country: adult and child, male and female, urban and rural. Certainly, it isn't possible to satisfy everyone in such a large and diverse group, and you shouldn't try to do so. Instead, you should be trying to figure out what we need, rather than just what people want.

With the new decision by the Supreme Court, it should finally be clear to you that the primary threat to our nation is the corporations. Not just for-profit corporations, either. Non-profit groups, political advocacy groups, unions, and "community organizations" all, together with their for-profit cousins, place their own goals ahead of the overall welfare of the American people. Now is the time to galvanize America to free ourselves from the rod of the oppressor.

How? Propose an amendment to the Constitution that specifically excludes corporate-style organizations from having many of the rights that individual citizens have, specifically the right to lobby and otherwise participate in the political life of the nation. A secondary limitation should be the recognition that creative processes only occur within natural persons, and that therefore corporations should have no right to own copyrights or patents at all. (Indeed, the reason the Constitution allows copyrights and patents is to encourage creative individuals to produce things for the good of society; if or when the creator dies, how is a copyright going to motivate him anymore? So there is no constitutional justification for copyrights or patents being sold to others, nor for them to be inheritable property, nor even for them to continue beyond the original creator's death.)

Health Care

Requiring individuals to purchase the products of a company or industry is a step toward Fascism. This is not the American way. Please take the insurance industry out of any national health care plan.

Here is a better way to provide the health care coverage that so many Americans lack:

• Rather than a federal program, authorize the fifty states, plus the territories, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico to form a joint-powers authority for the purpose of providing a single-payer for basic medical care.


• Provide a list of medical coverages that will be considered "BasiCare". No private insurer would be allowed to charge for or to cover those tests and procedures, save for preventive care (things like weight management programs, programs for recovering from substance abuse or other addictions, psychological counseling, and regular care for progressive / chronic illnesses), where they would be allowed to offer supplemental programs that go along with the JPA's program. (I would urge you to leave abortion out of that picture. If states / territories want to cover it, let them do so apart from BasiCare.)


• BasiCare should come with a co-payment, to lessen the overconsumption of care. However, the basic premium for BasiCare should be paid through tax revenues. That is, whatever the total cost is in California should be paid for by a separate payroll deduction on all California workers. This will have two effects: first, it will ensure that everyone is aware of the cost of medical coverage, and second, it will (hopefully) encourage people to be judicious in their consumption of care.


• Let the private insurers cover supplemental and elective procedures, with purchase of their coverage being optional and voluntary. There should be no private insurer directly competing with BasiCare.


• Universal coverage: we have foreign workers that are here because our corporations wish to pay less than what US citizens would expect to receive for the tasks at hand.  Since they are here, and are an important part of corporate profits, they and their families should be fully-entitled to the same medical / dental / vision / hearing / preventive care as anyone else.


• No reward for short-sightedness. Because coverage should be universal, illnesses that come about due to self-abuse, or refusal to cooperate with preventive care, should be paid out of the patient's (family's) pocket, not the taxpayers' pockets.

Mandatory disclaimer: This is the personal opinion of an individual, and does not imply endorsement by any other individual, company, government agency, or other organization.