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Title: Obion County Fire Tragedy Symbolizes Tea-Party-Republican Vision of Government
Source:
HUFFINGTON POST
URL Source: [None]
Published: Oct 7, 2010
Author: Robert Creamer
Post Date: 2010-10-07 18:49:22 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 27505
Comments: 53
This week, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann reported the story of the Cranick family's house fire. When the family's Obion County, Tennessee house caught fire on the night of October 5th, the fire department from the nearby town failed to respond since the Cranick's had forgotten to pay a $75 fee. Firefighters finally responded to a call by Cranick's neighbor, who had paid his fee. They sprayed the property line to protect the home of the neighbor and watched at the Cranick's home burned to the ground. The firefighters had been ordered not to intervene to save the Cranick's house -- even though they were already at the scene -- because, apparently, it would have encouraged others not to pay the $75. The Obion County fire incident is symbolic of the moral and economic bankruptcy of the Tea-Party-Republican vision of government and the economy. And it poses the stark choice facing American voters in the Mid-Term elections. The Tea-Party-Republicans -- including the Republican Congressional leadership - talk incessantly about how government services should be slashed. They believe that society should maximize the extent to which each individual is responsible to fend for themselves. They claim that is more "efficient". The Obion County fire illustrates clearly why that assertion is simply wrong. Competitive markets are extremely efficient at encouraging innovation, increasing productivity and distributing goods and services in many arenas. But there are other arenas where history and experience have demonstrated that it is both more efficient and more humane to provide goods and services through government -- which, as Congressman Barney Frank likes to say, is the name we give to the things we have chosen to do together. The core difference in values between the right wing and progressives is whether we create a society where we're all in this together, or all in this alone. Mainstream Americans understand that there are a number of areas where it makes much more economic and moral sense to guarantee goods and services to everyone in the society and ask our citizens to finance them by paying their fair share of taxes rather than paying for them "ala carte". We came to the conclusion decades ago that government should provide every child with an education, and our public schools have provided the foundation of American economic prosperity. We use government to provide infrastructure necessary to support our economy -- roads, bridges, harbors, airports, sewer and water systems, and street lights. We provide common parks and recreation facilities that are open to public use. Government provides for our common defense and our domestic security. We don't require each person to hire a private army or security firm to defend his or her home. That would be stupid, wasteful and lead to anarchy. Government is particularly efficient when it comes to providing social insurance -- like Social Security and Medicare. The overhead for these programs is tiny compared with other insurance programs (including private health insurance plans) run by the private sector. They have covered everyone reliably and effectively for generations. That's why they have virtually unanimous public support. At long last, with the health care reform bill, America joined the company of every other industrial nation, in understanding that it is more efficient and more humane for government to assure that everyone in society has access to health care. Of course one of the signals that prompted this change was the sheer fact that private market health insurance caused our health care cost to skyrocket to 50% more per person than any other nation -- with worse outcomes. Almost certainly, the Affordable Care Act is just the first step in reform, since a public option will certainly be needed to ultimately bring our spending in line with other nations. But it was a critical first step. Of course, most everywhere in America, we provide fire protection through the government. We all pay -- through our taxes -- to assure that if the time ever comes when we need to call 911 because of a fire, no one will have to check to see if we have paid a fee, a clerical error on payment records will not cost us our homes, and firefighters will not stand by and watch our homes and lives go up in smoke. And of course we also support common protection because fire doesn't necessarily stop at the property line -- just ask Ms O'Leary of the legendary Chicago Fire. The Obion county story demonstrates what happens when we forget that government - financed by common taxes -- is the most efficient provider of so many goods and services. It makes no economic sense to allow what is likely a multi-hundred thousand dollar home to be consumed by flames because a failure to pay a $75 fee. Now, either the insurance company or the Cranick's will have to build a brand new home in its place. Their former home was wasted because of the absurdity of the system that had been set up to protect it. That same absurdity is implicit in so many of the other Republican economic positions. Its ultimate expression is the Republican desire to repeal health care reform and return us to an out of control system run by private health insurance companies that has cost us 50% more than any other country. That system is wasting trillions of dollars that come out of the pockets of middle class Americans -- just to allow private insurance companies and their top executives to make obscene amounts of money. And with fire protection and health care, the moral consequences are also clear. Bad enough that someone's home was allowed to be destroyed because of the failure to pay a $75 fee. Would the firefighters have been allowed to intervene if the family pets were inside the house -- what about a child? The Republicans want to return us to a health care system that allowed for-profit health insurance companies to brazenly make those same choices everyday. They made life and death decisions that determined whether people were treated or not -- and often whether they lived or not -- using their own bottom line as their only real guide. They wouldn't cover you because you have a "pre-existing condition". They would cut you off when you got sick. They hired armies of bureaucrats who do nothing but deny claims. Some of the worst of these abuses are now history because of health insurance reform. If the Republicans have their way, those new protections will be repealed. But let's be clear. The people behind the "drown government in the bath tub" politics are not the kind of folks who run around in three corner hats and George Washington wigs. The Tea Party rank and file is not the principal engine of anti-government fervor. The money for the ads and the buses and the radio shows are provided by big corporations -- by people like Rupert Murdoch of Fox and David and Charles Koch. The Koch brothers own virtually all of Koch Industries, a conglomerate whose annual revenues exceed a hundred billion dollars and is the second largest privately owed company in the country. The Koch's combined fortune of thirty five billion dollars is exceeded only by those of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. They may be libertarian true believers. But the Kochs would also benefit mightily by making government small and toothless. They would benefit more than most anyone from lowering tax rates for the wealthy. They have a massive stake in lowering the standards for environmental regulation since their oil companies and other holdings have made them one of the top ten air polluters in the United States. The same goes for the many funders of these ultra-right causes. The money comes from very wealthy families and massive corporations. For them the right wing ideology is nothing more than a vindication for their own wealth -- and a justification for their own economic self interest. And the fact is that their economic self interests conflict with those of the vast majority of their fellow citizens. Progressives cannot be cowed by the anti-government propaganda that spews forth from these giant economic interests even when it's dressed up in the clothing of the small number of ordinary Americans who have become Tea Party activists. In fact the Cranicks of Obion County Tennessee are truly emblematic of the victims of the Koch brother's vision of America. The Cranicks are victims, as are the eight million Americans who lost their jobs because of the greed and recklessness of the big Wall Street banks -- because of the traders and CEO's that ride around in corporate jets and demand that smaller and smaller quantities of their billions be taxed to pay for our common welfare. The choice we face on November 2nd is between the interests of the Cranicks and the interests of the Kochs. Hopefully the fire in Obion County, Tennessee will provide the light necessary to illuminate the true consequences of the Tea Party Republican agenda. And it may help provide the spark that is needed to help mobilize millions of Americans to vote November 2nd and reject that agenda at the polls.
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#10. To: Brian S (#6)
LOL..my passion does run away with me. Anyway, I humbly apologize for lumping you in with calcon, I should have realized you were being sarcastic...Thanks!
"I really wanna care. I wanna feel somethin'. Let me dig a little deeper:. No, My give-a-damn's busted"~ Messina Jo Dee
Well, now you know better, at least with one poster here.
Have you heard Glenn Becks's take on this? If not, I'll skip it and spare you the rise in blood pressure.
I apologized to Brian for misunderstanding his post, was this not good enough for you. In the future, after this uncalled for attack, don't expect any replies from me if you post to me, I'm sure you'll remember why, you don't deserve one If all you want to do is stoke the flames of hate among members.
"I really wanna care. I wanna feel somethin'. Let me dig a little deeper:. No, My give-a-damn's busted"~ Messina Jo Dee
Sorry, I didn't see your response before I posted mine. It happens sometimes.
No, you're an idiot.
I work hard to prevent them from brainwashing me ... and stay with hard science and SciFi as much as possible .... Goldi-Lox
If you are truely a muslim, and you pray five times a day, facing Mecca, then you are a BIGGER IDIOT than I am. The world is NOT FLAT. it is ROUND, so therefore, you are bowing down to EMPTY SPACE...5 times a day....LMAOAY... Billions of prayers....lost in space....
"I really wanna care. I wanna feel somethin'. Let me dig a little deeper:. No, My give-a-damn's busted"~ Messina Jo Dee
Not true at all. I actually tilt a bit so I'm aiming right through the earth, that way I'm not shooting prayers into space. Sometimes when I pray I'm actually making a grocery list, or figuring out a problem at work.
I work hard to prevent them from brainwashing me ... and stay with hard science and SciFi as much as possible .... Goldi-Lox
i've been bozo'd by a crazed granny who's drunk on cough syrup, how can i survive.
Why does capitalist erica have such a fixation on me? I'm straight, have a job, not homeless and can go within 500 yds of a school. I therefore have nothing in common with erica
Your life is SO over dude... Oh...and good morining...
oh please you loon, your passion is fueled by cough syrup and stupidity. I'd never bozo you cause i'd miss laughing at your crazed posts.
Why does capitalist erica have such a fixation on me? I'm straight, have a job, not homeless and can go within 500 yds of a school. I therefore have nothing in common with erica
Oh...and good morining... thanks, it's hard for me to type through the tears i'm shedding
Why does capitalist erica have such a fixation on me? I'm straight, have a job, not homeless and can go within 500 yds of a school. I therefore have nothing in common with erica
typical libs expecting everyone else to pay for your services then cry like little girls when someone pulls the taxpayer's tit out of your mouth. this DEADBEAT gambled and lost, why should anyone shed a tear.
So the crybaby deadbeat files an insurance claim and gets a brand new house built for him. What's the problem?
UNFAIR UNFAIR, you're go trying to use logic on a liberal. Do you honestly think that deadbeat would have home owner's insurance, he would if someone else was paying for it, of course
Well, anyway, you're username does not fit you, you are a phoney who has given himself away manytimes in your writing style. Back on topic, I just don't think any man, or family, should lose their home over $75, so I suppose some of us will never agree on this. I don't like deadbeats, free handouts and libtards either, but this could have been avoided.
"I really wanna care. I wanna feel somethin'. Let me dig a little deeper:. No, My give-a-damn's busted"~ Messina Jo Dee
by him paying his fair share, perhaps.
if this deadbeat actually has home owner's insurance, I'm sure the insurance company will not honor his claim since he didn't pay for fire protection
Well...that's the conundrum is it not? She agrees that something shouldn't be given away or "hand[ed] out" - until the time comes to give it away. She may have me on bozo...not sure which way the wind is blowing today...
Where does the money paid out in an insurance claim come from?
Wouldn't that depend on how the policy was written?
chugging a case of Vick's formula 44, will put a damper on rational thought.
Most contracts, which is all an insurance policy is, are voidable due to the negligence of one of the parties.
It turns out the guy's "house" was a mobile home.
Let me qualify the following by first stating that I love black licorice and annisette. There is NOTHING that tastes as vile as Vicks Formula 44. For my money, they should have shot for 45.
You have to be a very sick fuck to use a tragedy in this manner.
Obama's first all-by-his-lonesome budget, btw, calls for a $1.17 trillion deficit.
It appears they did have some kind of insurance: Paulette Cranik and her husband are now living in their year-old camper and Lance is living with his mother. The family says it's received offers of help but that the aid isn't needed. "We have insurance and are happy everyone is alive," she said. http://www.canadaeast.com/news/article/1251972
I'm sorry ngt, that's not good enough, local gossips here at LF still think they are "deadbeats", and deserved what happened, and I'm sure they know the whole story...
"I really wanna care. I wanna feel somethin'. Let me dig a little deeper:. No, My give-a-damn's busted"~ Messina Jo Dee
Yer's neither. It's spelled wrong.
I work hard to prevent them from brainwashing me ... and stay with hard science and SciFi as much as possible .... Goldi-Lox
Liar. Where has anyone stated that these people deserved this tragedy?
Frankly even if the firemen had acted to put out the fire, it's doubtful a trailer would have been livable anyway after catching fire.
had they put out the fire, it wouldn't have spread to the neighbor's trailer.
Yer's?? "I really wanna care. I wanna feel somethin'. Let me dig a little deeper:. No, My give-a-damn's busted"~ Messina Jo Dee
Ask Muddbutt...he uses it in most of his posts. He speaks your language quite fluently. Whatever the hell it is.
That's all too true...but no man I know who served with our fire departement would just stand around and deliberatly let a persons home burn, trailer or house, for the measely price of $75!
"I really wanna care. I wanna feel somethin'. Let me dig a little deeper:. No, My give-a-damn's busted"~ Messina Jo Dee
Not a problem. Thanks for the followup.
Never swear "allegiance" to anything other than the 'right to change your mind'!
The firemen stated they would gladly have put out the fire but were ordered not to by their superiors.
I mean no disrespect to you, but these were not men who took those orders...
"I really wanna care. I wanna feel somethin'. Let me dig a little deeper:. No, My give-a-damn's busted"~ Messina Jo Dee
Sometimes when I pray I'm actually making a grocery list, or figuring out a problem at work. HILARIOUS...
Thanks Brian, at least you understood, and accepted, that's all that mattered to me. Anyway, while doing some research, I just ran across a question on net by a poster, and I don't think it's been addressed, or responded to by anyone who would know the answer. "Just curious, has the FD ever rec'd a govt. grant? If so, would the Cranick's be covered as taxpayers of the grant? What about Duty to Act" #8654 - krussell94 - 7:57 am EDT on Fri Oct 8, 2010
"I really wanna care. I wanna feel somethin'. Let me dig a little deeper:. No, My give-a-damn's busted"~ Messina Jo Dee
What about Duty to Pay Your Bills
Comments (51 - 53) not displayed.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestThank you Stone. Indeed I was but thought it so obvious I didn't need to include a 'sarcasism disclaimer'.
#11. To: Brian S (#6)
Thank you Stone. Indeed I was but thought it so obvious I didn't need to include a 'sarcasism disclaimer'.
#12. To: Murron (#7)
ANYONE who would put a persons life, home and/or family in danger because of $75, should be SHOT...publically, and his body buried in a PIG STY!...
#13. To: Skip Intro, Brian S (#11)
Well, now you know better, at least with one poster here.
#14. To: Murron (#13)
I apologized to Brian for misunderstanding his post, was this not good enough for you.
#15. To: Murron (#10)
my passion does run away with me
#16. To: Abu el Banat (#15)
No, you're an idiot.
#17. To: Murron (#16)
#18. To: Murron (#3)
#19. To: calcon (#18)
(Edited)
i've been bozo'd by a crazed granny who's drunk on cough syrup, how can i survive.
#20. To: Murron (#10)
LOL..my passion does run away with me. Anyway, I humbly apologize for lumping you in with calcon
#21. To: war (#19)
Your life is SO over dude...
#22. To: Skip Intro, brian s (#11)
#23. To: Brian S (#0)
#24. To: no gnu taxes (#23)
So the crybaby deadbeat files an insurance claim and gets a brand new house built for him. What's the problem?
#25. To: Abu el Banat (#17)
#26. To: Murron (#25)
Back on topic, I just don't think any man, or family, should lose their home over $75, so I suppose some of us will never agree on this. I don't like deadbeats, free handouts and libtards either, but this could have been avoided.
#27. To: no gnu taxes (#23)
So the crybaby deadbeat files an insurance claim and gets a brand new house built for him. What's the problem?
#28. To: calcon, Murron (#26)
#29. To: no gnu taxes (#23)
So the crybaby deadbeat files an insurance claim and gets a brand new house built for him. What's the problem?
#30. To: calcon (#27)
I'm sure the insurance company will not honor his claim since he didn't pay for fire protection
#31. To: war (#28)
She agrees that something shouldn't be given away or "hand[ed] out" - until the time comes to give it away.
#32. To: lucysmom (#30)
Wouldn't that depend on how the policy was written?
#33. To: calcon (#27)
#34. To: calcon (#31)
(Edited)
chugging a case of Vick's formula 44
#35. To: Brian S (#0)
The Obion County fire incident is symbolic of the moral and economic bankruptcy of the Tea-Party-Republican vision of government and the economy.
#36. To: calcon (#27)
#37. To: no gnu taxes (#36)
"We have insurance and are happy everyone is alive," she said.
#38. To: Murron (#25)
Well, anyway, you're username does not fit you,
#39. To: Murron (#37)
#40. To: Murron (#37)
#41. To: no gnu taxes (#40)
Frankly even if the firemen had acted to put out the fire, it's doubtful a trailer would have been livable anyway after catching fire.
Reality check - Government spending is down, the deficit is down, government employment is down, and private hiring is up.
#42. To: Abu el Banat (#38)
Yer's neither. It's spelled wrong.
#43. To: Murron, Mudboy Slim, Abu el Banat (#42)
Yer's??
#44. To: no gnu taxes (#40)
Frankly even if the firemen had acted to put out the fire, it's doubtful a trailer would have been livable anyway after catching fire.
#45. To: Murron (#10)
#46. To: Murron (#44)
but no man I know who served with our fire departement
#47. To: no gnu taxes (#46)
The firemen stated they would gladly have put out the fire but were ordered not to by their superiors.
#48. To: Abu el Banat (#17)
Not true at all. I actually tilt a bit so I'm aiming right through the earth, that way I'm not shooting prayers into space.
#49. To: Brian S (#45)
#50. To: Murron (#49)
What about Duty to Act"
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