ObamaCare, as viewed by a New Orleans Hood

In New Orleans in the middle fifties there were three divisions of white boys in my neighborhood: Frats, pits, and hoods. I was a hood who turned frat, and so I know both sides of that coin. Let’s just say that we laughed at Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli. He would not have lasted long, but of course Fonzie never used his fists, but relied on feigning. Feigning would not work but one time where I came from.

When I was in high school, New Orleans inner city, it was called a Jap-Slap. It described the throwing of the first punch. It was thought that if you could land the first blow, retaliation, most likely, would be nil. Getting your ears un-expectantly boxed left you in a state of shock, with your head ringing like a bell. A sucker punch insured a win.

That same feeling washed over me when I heard that Congress is to receive ObamaCare Exemption. What? While we look at ObamaCare to sucker punch this nation into socialistic oblivion, those who are pushing the reform are actually exempt. It is hard to imagine an America that would put up with that, but that is exactly what we have become. We are sucker punched from so many directions that most are just holding their ringing heads, with eyes closed.

Not only are these Congressional lawmakers going to save thousands by allowing the federal government to continue subsidizing their health plans, but some are even vying to retire early out of fear that their health insurance premiums would drastically increase under the new law, the Grassley Amendment. Looks like a few are actually reading it now, and afraid of what they see. Amazing isn’t it, where big bucks pull the strings, and I guess that old New Orleans saying, “What is good for the goose is good for the gander.” doesn’t apply in the beltway.

Right now, both aids and lawmakers have a generous health insurance package where the taxpayer flips 75% or the premium, but by 2014 that was supposed to change. You remember, change for the sake of change? They now see that their insurance costs will escalate to the clouds, where their minds are. But lo and behold, even from Martha’s Vineyard, their magnanimous Progressive leader has come to the rescue, and given them a congressional exemption from ObamaCare.

Are your ears ringing? What a profound cold slap in the face for us taxpayers, well, at least 45 percent of Americans anyway. They are not only above the law, but even flaunt it. It is like the laughter of a bully on the playground standing over you, your eyes glazed and knocked senseless. I have been there, and I don’t like it.

Market Watch is quoted, “The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) now plans to rule that the government can continue to make a contribution to healthcare premiums of the lawmakers and staff, according to unnamed congressional sources and a White House official.” Fear in the Whitehouse? Fear?

When we are dealing with reeling unemployment, an unsustainable debt over 17 trillion and rising, an NDAA and Patriot Act suspending our Constitution and Bill of Rights, spying and covert actions on American citizens, and on, and on , and… now this? What I can’t say out loud, even with first amendment rights, is what is echoing in the minds of patriots. Enough is enough, and this is the last straw! It would seem so, …but no sir, not really.

Few care, it seems, as most are just trying to etch a living in the midst of part time jobs, a welfare state sucking the rest dry, a military industrial complex nation building and paid for by the Federal Reserve bankers who profit for both destruction and reconstruction with money printed out of thin air and put on the backs of our children, and double digit inflation, all denied by the administration. You see, I’m a New Orleans Hood who has learned to cook, and so domesticated I do all of the grocery shopping too. I see the packages change from 16 oz to 12 oz, and the price of food up 20 percent. Seems only when the United States actually defaults, will we finally stand up to the bully… but for most, Americans are only capable of focusing on one thing at a time, like football season.

In my neck of the woods that bully would be toast. You see, tomorrow is a new day. Hoods go home, put ice and band aids on their lumps and bumps, and come back swinging. It isn’t over yet, not by a long shot. The other day I talked to 12 Louisiana State Troopers as they were getting their cars washed, and they were all Oath Keepers. When I found this out I got a bit choked up, and one put his hand on my shoulder. I still feel it there, and in my heart too, and I know that all is not lost. I could see it in their eyes. And what did I see? I saw hope.

“Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.” -Thomas Jefferson