I miss "politics as usual"

I see a disturbing trend in America these days, my friends. Political jockeying, lies, deception, back stabbing, closed door negotiations, name calling, smear campaigning, general distrust, and just an overall hatred of those across the aisle. This is occurring on both sides and coming even from the middle. General differences in ideology have lead to complete disillusion. The Great Decider, George W. Bush, often referred to as the Great Divider for the ill will that his administration created among Democrats, never seemed to be able to control the spin, but it never got this out of hand. And now we have a president who came in believing he would heal the wounds and close the divide…where has that gotten us? Democratic wrangling of a health care bill that, dare I say it, may be the greatest legislation in history (or the biggest blunder in politics) has left a bad taste in the mouths of Republicans. But worse, they didn’t control the outflow of information to the masses. Republican pundits had the upper hand from day one because “universal health care” are buzz words that fundamentalist Republicans gasp at. So as soon as they even started thinking about writing a bill, the Republican talking heads were on the warpath to shoot it down. They didn’t control the spin, they didn’t control the rhetoric, and they didn’t deliver on the President’s promise of open health care negotiations on CSPAN until it was too late. Now almost a full half of the people in American claiming allegiance to the Republican Party is foaming at the mouth over the new health care law. I read today that there have even been death threats against Democratic members of Congress because of this bill passing. If George Bush was the Great Divider, then President Obama is the Super Mega Ultimate Divider (like the Voltron of dividers).

This is not meant to be a jab at President Obama. Though I don’t agree with what he has done or tried to do since coming to office, he is the President of the United States and deserves respect. I just wish there was somebody in his ear whispering this one piece of advice, “Stop reading your own press clippings.” Coaches tell their players that when they get too cocky and I believe that President Obama may have always been just a little too cocky. That’s something fundamentalist right-wingers don’t take too kindly to, especially from a Democrat. The bigger issue seems to be that the cockiness doesn’t stop at the President’s desk. Ever since the Democratic Party gained control of the administration, it feels as if they have gotten more and more cocky. And this cock-sure attitude extends down through the party to the common man on the street, who feels because he is a Democrat he is essentially smarter than any Republican and knows exactly what every American needs. I read comments on news articles on the web and you can tell who is who. The Republicans are the ones continually spouting hate filled pundit rhetoric. The Democrats are the ones calling the Republicans idiots, cheering on Obama, and criticizing others with a dubious air of superiority.

An inflated sense of self-importance is not just a Democratic disposition. The Republican Party is guilty of their own brand of cockiness. Most Republicans (I am often guilty of this myself) believe that if they don’t believe it is a good idea, then it definitely isn’t. You could see this all through the health care debates. The Democrats were coming up with some excellent fixes (and some incredibly stupid ones) for rising health care costs in America, but because they weren’t Republican ideas, they were no good. So, we (Republicans) complained that there were none of our good ideas in the legislation, so the whole thing must be ridiculous and useless. I’ve seen the error of that kind of thinking, and have tried to be of my own mind about what has happened, along with many other Republicans who are not swayed by the pundit’s propaganda, but our own intelligence and personal beliefs. I loathe the fact that there are people out there who claim affiliation with the Tea Party, which is nothing more than a good joke gone horribly wrong. I fear for my political party’s credibility when I read news of death threats against Democrats. When is the madness going to end and good ol’ fashion know-how and political maneuvering going to come into play?

These are desperate times for both Democrats and Republicans. The country is a mess…not as bad as Greece or Spain, but bad enough that people are feeling it on almost all levels in one way or another. So I am asking, when will the ludicrous posturing end and people get back to healthy forms of discussion and debate? Put down your Tea Party banners and your silly “GObama” signs and come sit down and discuss what we need to work on next. If you don’t, this rampant partisan behavior will soon cripple all levels of government. Everyone, registered voters of America, mid-term elections are coming in November and I think it is time to stand up and say you don’t want this type of government anymore. Two years of back and forth punching and bullying is more than enough. Vote out everyone, Republican and Democrat, who allowed what should have been the most important and involved debate of the last fifty years, health care reform, turn into a school yard brawl for superiority. If the President really believed in change, and this is the change he’s creating, maybe he needs to think about stopping the change. But this doesn’t fall solely on him. The Republican Party needs to get its act together and back to basics: smaller government, state’s rights, and “status quo”. The Democrats need to get back to their basics too: big government, regulation, and “reform”. That is why we have two parties, because they conflict and complement each other. When you go off the grid and become Tea Party or Progressive, then you lose sight of the vast majority of America, the moderate left to the moderate right.

There are probably some of you out there who will say that George W. Bush is responsible for where we are. The divides he created lead to the even greater divides we see now. George Bush didn’t divide anything when he was the Governor of Texas, and I fail to see how he would create a divide in Washington either. It’s usually the ones who are causing the divide that blame someone else for the division. It would be like the division sign saying it is one’s fault for two dividing it. Two wouldn’t divide one if the damn division sign wasn’t there. That’s neither here nor there. The point I’m trying to make is that if you are on the right or the left and are feeding the ill will or popular misinformation of this debate or any feel you may do so in the future, you should think twice about how much you love America, because you are the ones changing it, distorting it…not the elected officials in Washington.

Has it really been 10 years?

It’s happening. This is the year. Almost everyone has to go through it. Some people think it’s so much fun. Some people find it immensely exciting. A few find it terrifying and awkward. There are some people who avoid it altogether. Great deals of people do whatever they can to prepare for it. A select few try like hell before it happens to change themselves. Even more act like they’ve changed when they really haven’t. It’s a time to reconnect with old friends and make new ones you thought you would never be able to. It’s a time to remember your former glory and take it on again as a means to define yourself. Depending on how old you are, you may have been through this ordeal before. Depending on your education level, you may not have to experience this. For me, it is this year. Let the tribulation begin! It’s my ten year high school reunion, and it is coming quicker than I would like. I’m in a damn facebook group for it. They’re having some sort of planning meeting this weekend. Though I made my mind up long ago about the whole reunion thing, I am still curious as to how it would be. What are we going to do? Who will be there? Would anyone recognize me or even remember me? Those are the questions. But, beyond vague curiosity, I have no desire to put myself through that obvious trial by fire.

Why? Because I have changed since high school. I’m not the same guy I was in high school. I have no want or need to get back together with all those people who knew the old me. The ones that liked the old me possibly won’t like the new me. And those that I never liked may have a different opinion of me now. Those people are the past, and I am trying really hard to get on to the future. They know a guy who wanted to be a psychologist. That idea is long gone. They know a guy who tries to be trendy. I haven’t followed a trend since by freshman year of college. They know a guy who planned to be married in his early twenties. I know now that if I am married it won’t be until my early or mid thirties. They know a dork that played the trombone and was on the swim team. I haven’t picked up my horn since our last concert senior year and my 50 freestyle time is about 3 seconds off my high school pace. They know a guy with a flashy light (Smurf) blue Tahoe with a hula dancer on the dash. That truck is in some junkyard somewhere and my ride has become much more understated (monochromatic). They know a straight edge guy who hadn’t smoked, experimented with drugs, or had a drop of alcohol. I’ve passed the smoking and drinking milestones and have stuck with drinking. Still no drugs…not for a lack of opportunities. They know a guy who spent time doing his hair up perfectly each morning. I shaved my head. I’m not that guy anymore.

Who am I now? Not any of those things I thought I’d be. I graduated SMU with my bachelor in economics and now I’m working on an MBA at UTD. That’s far from my psychology dream of high school, but it makes me happy. I’m a business man like my father. I can’t get around that. I’ll always think like a business man. I wear boots and jeans every day. I have for years now. Sometimes the Texas heat is just too oppressive for jeans and I’ll wear shorts, but that’s it. No Affliction shirts, no girl jeans, and none of that other crap that the stars, celebs, and reality actors where. It’s just who I am…that simple. I am relaxed and comfortable with the relationships I have in my life. I got close to being married once, but that went another direction and I realized I was going another direction, as well. There’s no rush, no pressure, and frankly I wouldn’t put myself or someone I loved through that without being completely stable (emotionally and financially). I have new hobbies that don’t involve band instruments. I started fishing a few years ago and really enjoy it. I bought a kayak last year so I could go kayak fishing with my brother. I write a blog, or at least have off and on, and find that writing is sometimes the only way for me to express myself without censoring myself. I’m an avid reader and researcher of history and religion. I’ve studied all world religions, read texts of histories of the United States as well as medieval Europe, and spent two semesters researching ancient Native American peoples of Central and South America. My goal in life is to go to Peru and climb the Urubamba Valley up to the Incan city of Machu Picchu. Oh, and I still swim, not as much as I used to, but I could still beat just about anyone I’ve come across. When the wreck of a truck that used to be Papa Smurf died, I got a nice black pickup to replace it. I haven’t done much to that truck, at least not as much as I did to the ol’ Tahoe. I’m an uncle now. It’s been four months and I think I’ve gotten the hang of it. I’ve been many things over the years since graduating high school, but nothing I’m terribly proud of. Nothing I want to share with the random people I once went to school with.

I just don’t see why these people that haven’t bothered to stay in contact with me and who didn’t inspire me to stay in contact with them desire my presence. Sure, they may have changed too and the new changed collective “we” may get along better than the high school “us”, but why? We needed to change in order to get along? Sounds like an excuse to spend a weekend getting dressed up, pretending our lives are better than they are, and drinking. I can do that without my old classmates. In fact I have already a couple times. What else would make me go? I don’t hold grudges with any of those people so there is no one there to try to confront. I don’t have “one that got away” so there is no need to go try to find her and confess my misplaced love. I don’t have any huge regrets that I haven’t resolved which would require me to show up and apologize to one of them. I have nothing to draw me there except for that curiosity I mentioned earlier.

Admittedly, my lack of aplomb for trying to get back to my reunion stems partly from the fact I haven’t really left. I’ve been in Dallas since I graduated, so it’s not like I’m going home to see all the old faces. I’m also not stoked about going because, honestly, I don’t have someone to go with. I might be a little more excited if I wasn’t going to fly into that thing solo. The one person I graduated with that I stay in touch with doesn’t want to go at all. To tell you the truth, she wants to not go more than I do. Her take, which I agree with, is this…you end up running into all these people who wouldn’t have given you a second thought when you were in high school and they act as if you are long lost friends. It is just so fake, so put on, that it is hard to get past. She is really unlucky because she runs into people from our class all the time and they do that all the time, it just made her jaded. I don’t deal with fake people that well, so I don’t know if I could endure a who weekend of running into people who could care less about me but want to have someone to talk to for a few minutes while the look for someone more interesting to latch on to. Not my idea of fun.

I’ll leave you with one of the many lessons I have learned from having an older brother. He went to his reunion two years ago, not because he wanted to but because his wife forced him (she didn’t even graduate with him, she just wanted to go out of curiosity). So he picked a couple of the events to go to from the weekend and attended those, had a good time, and caught up with some people he hadn’t talked to in years. Then, once the weekend was over, he never heard from those people again. They had a good time, for the weekend, and then they left it all behind and went back to their lives. His take on it was along the lines of, why even go in the first place? If you are going to just catch up for a few hours on a weekend then forget about it, why even go at all? Why not just forget it about it in the first place and do whatever you want to do on that weekend? Seems valid enough to me.

The Fall of Man (in the truest sense)

What the hell has happened to the men? While having lunch with my mother the other day (yes, I take time out of my life to have lunch with my mom on occasion) we got on the topic of what is happening to the image of manly men. It started when I mentioned that I watched Twilight: New Moon the other night. I know that casts a shadow on what I am about to write about, but I’m not afraid to say I’ll try anything once (especially when there is nothing else on TV). I made some comments along my usual stance concerning the whole Twilight thing, which is, “What the hell are we teaching girls/women with these kinds of books/movies?” The female lead, whatever her name is, was left by her vampire love (since when are vampires sexy, something to be desired) and she went through months of depression. So if your man leaves you, you should lie around and be depressed, ignoring your friends and lying to your parents? Awesome. When she realizes she can see visions of him when she puts herself in danger, she goes off the deep end (figuratively and literally) trying to get these visions of him. What does this say? Try to kill yourself and maybe your man will come back? Disturbing. But, these things lend to the drama of the movie, so I am willing to let them slide. What bothers me the most is these supposedly sexy, desirable vampire guys are all pasty, hair produce laden, effeminate metro-sexuals. This is what girls and women find attractive these days? What a girl wants is a man who spends more time on their appearance than they do? Well, at least the Indian werewolf guys were kind of badass.

I used the example of James Bond. Bond has perhaps been the icon of male virility for almost five decades. You know this because some of the manliest men in show business have played the role. Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Sean Connery, and even Pierce Brosnan (we named our lab after him because he was James Bond when we got our dog) all had that dashing machismo that worked for James Bond. These were au natural dudes. Chest hair, scars, boxy frames and that sort of swagger that let you know they could get any woman they wanted. This was the prototype for man up until the recent few years. Who’s the new James Bond? Daniel Craig…a chest waxing, frosted tips, emotional basket case. I walk the streets, I look at magazines, and I see the feminizing of men. Ads tell me that my hair should be perfect and my skin should be clear. Soft hands lotions and moisturizing creams are now in the men’s grooming aisle next to the traditional bottles of Old Spice aftershave (which I use). What is this world coming to? What are men coming to?

I shudder to think that this is what women really want these days. If they do, then I’d going to have a hard time finding a woman. I am not, and probably never will be, some wafer thin polished up metro-sexual guy. I don’t have hair to but product in. I don’t exfoliate (at least not intentionally) and I have never used a moisturizer ever. I’ve never attempted man-scaping and probably never will. I’m all natural, ladies, and I’m proud of my mane of chest hair. If I wanted to have that polished look I’d have to shave twice a day because I grow actual facial hair. I don’t believe in vintage fit, slim fit, or girl jeans on a man. We are not a developing country and there is enough fabric to go around so that your shirt and your pants don’t have to look like they are painted on. Besides, if you’re a real man, then you know that tight clothes look way better on women than they do on men, it’s just a fact. I don’t need different cologne for every day of the week. I can smell the same from one day to the next. I buy a bottle of cologne and use it till it’s gone, and then I buy a new one. My dad has used the same cologne for as long as I’ve known. Go with what works. I only have five pairs of shoes, which is probably one too many. Everyday boots, nice boots, sneakers, sandals, and slippers…that’s it. I can’t fathom having more shoes than a woman and yet I know some guys that have shoes to coordinate with almost every outfit. Ridiculous.

Is this just a trend, like bell bottoms or Starter jackets? Will one day soon bring about the end of this scandalous fad of men dolling themselves up? Someone like me can only hope. Otherwise, I may very well become part of an endangered species…manly men. Sure, I’m not all grit and grime, cussing and spitting, but I don’t spend all day checking myself out in the mirror or lotioning my hands. The longest part of my regiment in the morning is shaving and that’s because I shave my head. Otherwise, from entering the shower to getting dressed is usually less than ten minutes. Show me a metro-sexual that can finish plucking his eyebrows in ten minutes, let alone be ready to go anywhere. So, if you are a man reading this, then I am calling you out. Quit trying to appease the hair product manufacturers and fashion magazines with this overindulgent grooming. Quit wearing clothes that are supposedly showing off your “muscles” or making a statement about your emotional volatility (yeah, you emo kids, I’m talking to you). Get yourself an easy fitting pair of jeans and a shirt that allows you to breath. Let your skin be oily or dry and your hands get chapped and worn. Be a man, for crying out loud! And ladies, please consider this yourselves. Do you want a man, or do you want another girlfriend just with different equipment? Once you realize you want a real man, give me a call…I’m available.

I should have enlisted...

After watching the series of Afghan and Iraq war movies that have come about the past few years, I have realized something…I should have enlisted. It is not like I haven’t thought about it before. I’ve thought about it several times, in fact. After reviewing my life over the past several years, I realize that my time and talents may have better been suited for something greater, something more important that slinging tires or answering cell phone troubleshooting questions. It would have been nice to do something proud and noble, something in service to others (I know I was a youth minister, but I’m talking about something else). I’m the only man in my immediate family that hasn’t done something like this. My father, my father is a great man. Everything I needed to know about being a man I learned from watching my father be the man (and my brother taught me the rest). Some of you may have heard me say this before and others may not know, but my father served in Vietnam. And my brother, my brother is a hero. He puts his life on the line to protect people who are sometimes too stupid (or drunk) to protect themselves. He’s a firefighter. Not for the paycheck or the cool toys, but because he believes in being able to help others. These are the measurements I place myself against.

My father enlisted in the Army after he completed his undergraduate degree. Enlisting is a pretty noble thing to do when there’s a war going on, which there certainly was. But, when you throw in the draft, he was kind of just making it happen on his own terms. He went in, graduated basic training, and though he was a candidate for officer training, he decided to move on to specialized training instead. He served in Vietnam as part of an artillery unit. Up until a couple years ago, that’s all I knew about his time in the Army. He never really talked about it in front of us. I don’t know why, but he just never did. Josh said that he would here Dad telling war stories with the other dads on Boy Scout campouts, but Josh never recalled any of them. A couple years ago, my father started telling us stories. I guess he decided we were old enough to hear them, and too old to be drafted or enlist. The one that sticks out in my mind is more funny than scary or gruesome, well, it is kind of gruesome. They used to use plastic explosive to make fires to heat up their MREs. Not the intended purpose of plastic explosive, but Dad said it worked really well during the rainy season. One day they were heating up their lunches and a call for fire support came in. Well, they had to pack up their shit and get to work quickly, so they jumped up and kicked dirt on their little fires to put them out. Well, one of the guys wasn’t thinking and tried stomping his fire out. Plastic explosive is tricky, especially when it has be lit on fire, and the shock from stomping it set if off. The guy blew his own leg off. Funny, a little gruesome, but they all learned a valuable lesson that day. My father came back from the war, got a job, went back to school, got a better job, married my mother, had a family, and has lived a successful life. He’ll tell you, some of the discipline he learned while enlisted got him where he is today.

The first time I thought of enlisting was a few days after 9/11. My brother and I were talking on the phone and some of the guys he knew from the fire department he was working at were going up to New York to help in the recovery effort. He knew some of the skills he learned during training would be needed in a war effort. He asked if I would consider joining and I told him I had already thought about it. But, his desires fizzled with the realization that if he left then, he’d just have to complete the rest of his training when he got home. And I, well, I was a sophomore in college. I was right in the middle of the biggest undertaking in my life to that date. I promised myself if they ever asked blatantly for men to enlist, I would. They never did. But, I almost enlisted again after I graduated college. The promise of a job for every degree holder that was rampant when I entered college had turned into record unemployment. I couldn’t find a job to save my life, at least not a job that would pay me what I thought a college graduate deserved. At the time, the girl I was dating freaked out when I mentioned it. Since we were talking about getting married, I figured the last thing I needed to do was run off to war. Responsible, but foolish. If I was going to do it, then would have been the best time. I was still in relatively good shape, I had no real responsibilities, and my degree would have afforded me better opportunities once I was in. I toyed with the idea on and off for four years before getting beyond draft age and enrolling in grad school. I missed my chance.

I look back on it now as a regret. The same as any other kind of regret you may have in your life. It’s nothing that nags me or keeps me up at night, but I feel like I might have missed something that could have been really important to me. Discipline, honor, respect, loyalty…these all qualities I think I possess and all qualities I think the military looks for. Being smarter than the average person doesn’t hurt your chances enlisting, either. I think about it now more than ever as I approach the end of my graduate work. I realize that the job market may not be any better than it was when I completed undergrad. I fear I may not be able to find a job or a place in this world. I’m too damn old and run down to think about enlisting now. With every passing day my shoulder hurts more. And I can always tell when it’s about to rain because my knee swells up. I’m an old man. These have been ever present since high school and even before. Plus, I have low arches and what is often called knock-knees (K-legs in some countries; technically genu valgum). Pretty sure these might have precluded me from service, but who knows. If you asked me tomorrow what I’ve regretted thus far in my life, aside from that long relationship I had and not slowing down that day I ruined my old truck, I’d say “I should have enlisted”.

Health care? Shmealth care...(part 2)

It’s has been such a beautiful day today, I hate to ruin it with more talk about health care. But, I have too, because I am a man of the people and there are some of you out there who just don’t read the news or try to be involved. Thus, I bring the news to you with my point of view, which is the correct one (yes, it is). If you followed my blog then you know my comeback to the blogosphere was with a health care analysis on Sunday prior to the vote in Congress. Well, since then the bill was approved and the President already signed it, so my efforts to change the course of this were in vain. If you read my blog on Sunday you know that I am not opposed to some sort of health care reform, just to this bill that was created behind closed doors in a very partisan sort of way. One or two Republicans had substantial input in the thing, but by far there was not true bipartisanship, which was promised by the President during his campaign. I know he can’t make Congress stop “actin’ a fool”, but he could admonish them for not taking his promises and goals to heart. By this time, though, there was nothing he could do but save face and sign something before the right completely tore him a new one. I shared the same dismal view of President Obama as other Conservatives when he was elected (buy a gun quick before he outlaws them) but I promised myself to be optimistic and give him the benefit of a doubt (something more Liberals would not consider for the previous president). Optimism only goes so far, though, and after he blow 800 million dollars on an economic stimulus (remember that) which has done little more than line the pockets of some government agencies, my optimism turned quickly to skepticism. Any student in any college in the United States who payed attention maybe half the time in their macroeconomics class would know throwing money at the situation we were in would not help. But, that is neither here nor there.

Back to the health care bill…it is done. In a grand ceremony that he said he would never do, President Obama signed the health care bill into law today at the White House. To quote the AP:

A beaming President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed a historic $938 billion health care overhaul that guarantees coverage for 32 million uninsured Americans and will touch nearly every citizen's life, presiding over the biggest shift in U.S. domestic policy since the 1960s and capping a divisive, yearlong debate that could define the November elections.

He should be beaming, as should everyone in the government who had a hand in moving this bill through to completion. To quote the Vice President, “This is a big fuckin’ deal.” They have achieved something that no other Democratic controlled government has done in fifty years (created a new welfare class). But, seriously, this is historic and it will be written in books and told by parents for generations. The question is…will history tell this moment to be victorious and a strong move toward a new America, or will it be said that this was the move that crippled the Democrats for another fifty years? Let’s face it, this legislation is unprecedented and no one knows for sure how the effects will be. This is among major social legislation like the creation of social security, Medicare, and the civil rights laws (all Democratic incarnations). So let’s take a bold look at those institutions, shall we? They are predicting that social security will run dry before my generation is able to partake of it. A major debating point in this bill was how to handle Medicare/Medicaid, both of which are struggling to be feasible and sapping the federal budget. Civil rights law, which I personally belief was the most noble and important legislation in American history, has granted freedom of choice and proactive involvement for African Americans in the United States. But, civil rights law has not crushed prejudice that still holds African Americans and indeed all non-Caucasian citizens in the United States back. The law is good, so I’ll give them that one. The point I am making is that the Democrats are one for three in legislation like this. These are great odds in Vegas, but with my tax dollars and my health on the table, I’d be looking for something better. I realize this is an unfair assessment of the situation, but considering we are standing at the end of a long, dark highway at night, I’d just like a little more assurance than the figures the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) gave me.

Since this is going to happen, regardless of how much I might think it is a bad idea, I decided to look into what I might have to look forward to (if Texas doesn’t come up with some ruling that this health care bill is unconstitutional, which along with 30 other states they are trying to do). For those of you who were salivating at the idea of running to the doctor in the next few months for free health care, I hate to burst your bubble. According to CNN:

Within the first year

• Young adults will be able stay on their parents' insurance until their 27th birthday.

• Seniors will get a $250 rebate to help fill the "doughnut hole" in Medicare prescription drug coverage, which falls between the $2,700 initial limit and when catastrophic coverage kicks in at $6,154.

• Insurers will be barred from imposing exclusions on children with pre-existing conditions. Pools will cover those with pre-existing health conditions until health care coverage exchanges are operational.

• Insurers will not be able to rescind policies to avoid paying medical bills when a person becomes ill.

• Lifetime limits on benefits and restrictive annual limits will be prohibited.

• New plans must provide coverage for preventive services without co-pays. All plans must comply by 2018.

• A temporary reinsurance program will help offset costs of coverage for companies that provide early retiree health benefits for those ages 55 to 64.

• New plans will be required to implement an appeals process for coverage determinations and claims.

• Adoption tax credit and assistance exclusion will increase by $1,000. The bill makes the credit refundable and extends it through 2011.

• A 10 percent tax will be imposed on amounts paid for indoor tanning services on or after July 1.

I don’t see my free health care anywhere in there. I don’t qualify to be on my parents’ plan, I’m too old and they are retired (paying their own insurance out of pocket). I’m not a senior or an insurer or an adoptive parent, so no luck there either. I will be in the market for a new plan in the next few years, but new coverage standards don’t have to be in place for eight years. When does the meat of this topic, health insurance for all, happened…2014. Four years before the huddled masses needing government aided insurance can benefit. A lot can happen in four years (like the tenure of a one-term president)…