Thoughts on a Female President of the US
First, lets establish the one thing she will probably get done in her tenure. She will work out a Government takeover of health insurance, or at minimum, get a universal health plan out there that will be so price competitive every business and individual in the United States will likely switch to it. This is not by a long stretch of the imagination; in her tenure as First Lady, she just about got the job done and was shut down by the GOP (paradoxically enough). Health Insurance and in general, the markets for healthcare in America are really, really effed up - with procedures and billing going through the roof in terms of costs, driving up premiums and bringing us to the point where many people don't have coverage.
What she won't do is change the Washington DC meme of lobbyists and corporations having unprecedented power over American institutions of Government. We will likely get a Clinton era presidency, which bode well for its time despite sex scandal. Her rhetoric fails to appease anti-war factions, and she is conspicuously absent on the issue lobbyists attaching anonymous riders onto legislation, running their dog and pony show on the sideline that has essentially replaced American representative government with a form of corporatism. Therefore in all likelihood, the presidency of Hillary Clinton will replace war corporatism with just plain, straightforward corporatism. Some of us can even translate this into great gift ideas for the holidays.
The impact of Healthcare being administered by the Government will be a vast net positive. We are in an era where advances in biology have really opened up amazing new horizones in society - the concept of women past their reproductive age, to give birth - longevity hence unforeseen - the mapping of the human genome. New studies of epigenomic influences. The recent discovery of ways to bring new lines of stem cells - all are straightforward j-curve dramatic social upheaval in the making. Social Security recipients, living past their anticipated lifespan - get a huge , multiyear paycheck - the entire plan is really for all practical purposes untenable at that level and everyone knows it. I know there are solutions, like privatization, or cap, or raising taxes, but I am making a point as an indie that the real driver there is longer lifespan.
So how would Healthcare , administered by the government make a difference? More bureaucracy, you would say? No. It will have a real impact on three sectors - the food industries, cosmetics and consumer goods, and small business.
And to a certain social class, preventative medicine - will see improvements to the health and care of many people who are just waiting until things get critical before they check into the E/R and tap medicare. This will make thingse much cheaper in the long run.
Ff the federal government has to look at long term healthcare cost in their regulatory planning, then the regulatory agencies that currently allow toxic chemicals and awful flavorings and junk to be pumped into our children - will be forced to pick up the tab, the FDA will be strengthened and that entire partially hydrogenated ripoff will shut down quickly. You would be surprised how fast these food companies will change their formulas. And the drug companies that currently charge everyone an arm and a leg for anything? Watch how quickly their prices fall into line. Similiar to medical procedures. There will be a ripple effect.
They (meaning the GAO and also the constituent agencies number crunch department) will easily calculate the tens of billions of dollars in cost of a particular environmental effect (be it air pollution, water pollution, or chemicals in the soil or other substances) , a non pro-active approach to a certain chemical in food or drugs. And since they will now have to pay for that cost, things will be much different.
As an independent , I want smaller, more efficient government in many areas. For example, I don't see why we need to have vastly expensive federal reserve banks within train ride of each other, when we are transferring money electronically. I think we could bank 100 million dollars back into the federal govt. just by shutting some of them down. I don't see the reason why we have an IRS- we should just add on a fair tax, or sales tax to ea. thing you purchase and do away with the whole thing. All taxes will be collected electronically. We use credit cards. Its the 21st century. And I sure as heck don't want stuff like NebuAd and other scumware or spyware installed on my desktop - I want the internet free, open and relatively anonymous. (I am into a kind of second life privacy model where you build an alternate identity then disconnect it from your realife identity)
But. I also recognize that Government, esp. under the Bush republicans, has grown so huge (!) that you quite honestly have to give them something to do because you're already paying for it. And if we put things to work in the way that Hillary proposes with this healthcare initiative I really think we will win as a society.
Hillary Clinton will be the first in a long time to revolutionize America with a domestic agenda. She will bring the nurturing views of the fair sex -a moderate sort of president in other areas - and likely a real upgrade to American foreign policy. Although the GOP is readying up massive propaganda against her, they have become the party of big spending - more than any other administration in American history - and their ideas about "liberal" vs. "conservative" are fairly hollow. I would offer that Hillary, if she is to make it to the presidency, would likely change America in an extremely positive way. A bit like taking a batchelor pad and turning it into a home - its a quiet upgrade that can change more than you would guess. I think thats what she would do. I could be wrong.
What do you think?
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