THE DOG FIGHT

What are the chances that on our farm, we would have the two most worthless dogs in America. Don't get me wrong, they like being dogs. They love being petted, playing, running, barking and they'll sneak a quick lick to your hands right when you least want it.
The problem is that they love to spar with each other. I just finished harvest which included a lot of time watching our auger here at the home place. All of the days I spent watching my grain bins fill, the dogs spent fighting with each other. When one would take off on the run toward a cat, the other dog would take the first dog down from behind and then they would growl and roll in the dirt, take turns getting each other by the neck and then the process would reverse.
They would trade places taking the dominate roll and the other one would end up on top with her mouth on the throat of the one, now on her back on the ground. They would sometimes stand on their back legs and face each other and fight standing up like they might be practicing for Dancing With The Stars.
Very seldom did they get serious enough to actually mean what they were doing. The funny thing is that while they fought, the cats were eating their food and any wild animal that cared to, could have strolled on to the property unnoticed.
The two really don't do a very good job of protecting the farm. But then again, it's our fault. We took them in and failed in any attempt to make them accountable. We got what we deserved.
As you've probably already guessed, I'm talking about our politicians. They seem to love to wrestle and fight and snarl and take turns grabbing their opponents by the throat when they should be talking out the problems related to the latest in legislation.
Just a little bit of give and take would have made the current health care bill palatable to 75 or 80 of our senators and this could have been over with.
Instead, they all want to be the top dog and have it their way. I personally don't think we want our federal government with more involvement in the medical profession. Governments of any size seem to be good at helping citizens with police protection, educating the next generation, and building and maintaining roads.
They go astray when they delve into any social program that requires taking money from one citizen to give to another. The money always seems to disappear before it gets to its target.
I'm guessing Congress could get everybody covered with a bill 50 pages long instead of one that is more than 2,000 pages long. The long version adds more and more layers of bureaucracy. It adds layers upon layers of folks who aren't accountable to anyone, or at least anyone you could find if you needed to.
I think the insurance companies, although partially at fault, shouldn't shoulder all of the blame. The best way for me to explain it is if you traded cars every year since 1950. Ignoring the effect of inflation, you would still need to add more money each of those 60 years because the product got better each year. Then add in inflation and that's how we got there.
Likewise, I don't care to return to a time when aspirin and penicillin are the two things doctors had to offer. I appreciated not being able to remember my operation for cancer because we now have anesthesia. I also am thankful for my insurance company who paid for the $100,000 worth of chemo drugs my doctor tried to kill me with. (At least I thought that at the time.) It all saved my life some 15 years ago.
We're not that far off of our mark. Let's regulate insurance a bit to make it competitive, get serious about tort reform, help those who need help with insurance coverage and then get out. There'll always be time later for rolling around in the dirt and grabbing each other by the throat.