Wouldn't it be cool if you could get a job where you could take off an entire month? Even if you had not been on the job for an entire year? Regardless of how dire the situation, regardless of how many issues remain to be addressed and resolved, regardless of how many people are depending on you to show leadership, competence, compassion, courage and ethics - you get to take a month off. Wouldn't that be cool? And wouldn't it be even cooler if you got health care subsidized by the government? Yeah? Well bummer dude, unless you can get elected to Congress or the Senate and join one of the federal plans made immediately available to them. Otherwise you are just out-of-luck.

According to: the website "Health Care for U.S. Congress", here is what your Senators and Congressmen get:

"Not only does Congress get to choose from a wide range of plans, but there’s no waiting period. Unlike many Americans who must struggle against precondition clauses or are even denied coverage because of those preconditions, Senators and Representatives are covered no matter what - effective immediately.

And here’s the best part. The government pays up to 75 percent of the premium. That government, of course, is funded by taxpayers, the same taxpayers who often cannot afford health care themselves.

And the Congressional perks don’t stop with the FEHBP. According to the article “Health care as good as Congress gets,” by John Barry, a staff writer for the St. Petersburg Times, “Members of Congress have their own pharmacy, right in the Capitol. They also have a team of doctors, technicians and nurses standing by in case something busts in a filibuster. They can get a physical exam, an X-ray or an electrocardiogram, without leaving work.

Although members pay extra for these services - Representatives pay about $300 per month, and Senators about $600 - taxpayers end up kicking in another $2 million. That’s $2 million not being spent on those who need it."

And what do you pay for health insurance - assuming you have it? More than $ 300/month? More than $ 600/month?

So, during August - between the time you are working - or looking for work, taking care of the kids, doing back-to-school shopping, taking care of aging or ill parents, and your normal daily activities of life, let your elected officials know that:

1. You don't like them to have coverage that is simply too good for the average citizen. If it is too good for you, it is too good for your elected official. If we can't have the same system they have, let them deal with the same one we have. After all, don't they believe in competition? Let them be refused coverage for pre-existing conditions. Let them have caps on what can be spent. Let them, for crying out loud, have to spend time on the phone arguing with a health-insurance company bureaucrat about coverage of some test or other charge. . . just like you get to do.

2. You don't like Congress needing to write a 1,000+ page bill to solve this. It is as simple as saying the American people get to sign up on the same plan a Congressman or Senator signs up for. Not 1,000 pages, not 100 pages, not 10 pages. One line. All citizens in this United States receive the option to have EXACTLY THE SAME COVERAGE that we are subsidizing for our Congress and Senate. If they feel subsidized coverage is appropriate for the Congress, the Senate, and other federal employees, surely it is good enough for the average American citizen. Eliminate the posturing, the hyperbole, the hypocrisy and the foolish, wasteful partisan bickering.

3. You don't like Congress taking a 1 month break from addressing this other key issues facing our country - like two wars, the huge deficit, the outsourcing of American jobs and technology, the structural instability of the financial system, the ongoing bankrupting of the country by entitlement programs, social security, medicaid . . . the list is endless. And these so-called leaders simply sweep it down the road for the next Congress, the next Senate.

4. You want Congress to stay in session - isolated from lobbyists, special interests, and all media - T.V., Cable, Radio, Cell phones, twitter, et. al. - and get the job done and done right. Achieve consensus, come out with a joint announcement - made by a joint press conference of the leadership of both parties.

5. Let Congress know that you don't care what party they are from. If they don't perform, if they can't or won't do the job they were sent to do, if they are more interested in special interests than doing what is right for America - that you will vote them out of office and give someone else a chance. Then do it.

Until next time,

A pissed-off citizen.

What happened to the simple, yet powerful concept of allowing all citizens to receive the same health care and health coverage President Obama, Senator McCain, and other elected officials receive? Why does it take 1,000 pages to do what is right? And why are the Republicans so adamantly opposed? Are they simply following the bidding of their "constituents," that is, their corporate overlords? How did we allow ourselves to become a nation ruled by corporations? No longer a representative republic or a democracy, we he become a Corpocracy.

And how often have each of us heard some CEO say "our people are our biggest asset"? Yet everything associated with the employees is carried as an expense and a liability - nowhere are the employees an asset. So are the CEO's stupid? No, they think we are. And since we let this continue ad infinitum, perhaps they're right.