Welcome to the new JohnMcCain.com!

POSTED BY Luke M Abrams ON Feb 04, 2010:

Good luck in your re-election effort.  As an independent who opposed your immigration reform bill in 2006 (was it?) and supported your campaign last year, I hope to be able to vote for you this year.  I am a registered Independent.
Last year, I was impressed with your honesty about our economic problems during the campaign when you noted that we have an economy that is basically strong and that the campaign should be suspended for a short time so we could get to the bottom of the current problem(s).  It is my view, though I am not an economics Nobel lauriat, that the beginnings of the recovery we see now is based on that fundamental strength of our economy which has weathered the storm resulting from the malfeasance of the large financial institutions. 
In any case, thank you for your fine efforts in representing the people of Arizona in the Senate.
BTW, why are comments on this blog not shared with others who visit it?

POSTED BY Gary Cox ON Feb 04, 2010:

The Real Reason for Out of Control Health Care Costs

by Gary L. Cox

There can be no doubt in the mind of any rational person that costs for health care have spun out of control over the years.  It is imperative that comprehensive in depth evaluation of the cause for this crisis is considered, and, that real and lasting solutions are developed that makes the cost of health care more manageable and palatable.  Government controlled, or government run health care is definitely NOT the solution, and I will attempt to make my case with a sound argument that considers a government solution.
To consider what a government controlled health care system would look like, we need only look at what the current government run and controlled system looks like, and what it is about that system that makes it completely dysfunctional.  Medicare, or more specifically, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS),  is the perfect model for what a dysfunctional government controlled healthcare system on a much grander scale would look like.  Why? Because Medicare is bureaucracy at it’s worst. It is a system run amok, out of control, inefficient at controlling health care costs, and needlessly habitually overspending and over-regulating.  I’ll give some examples of this further on.  The concept and purpose of Medicare is a good one on it’s surface.  Medicare serves a purpose to be sure, and thank God for it or many of our senior citizens would not have the means nor ability to acquire needed health care services.
What then is the problem with Medicare?  It’s fraught with inefficiency, fraud, mismanagement and red tape just to name a few things.  The government controlled Medicare system itself has contributed to and continues to contribute to the ever-rising costs of health care.  In fact, I’ll be so bold as to state that government managed healthcare is the primary contributing factor to the out of control costs for healthcare services.  Bureaucracy does this; we see it happen all the time.  When government is involved, the inevitable bureaucratic process that goes along with a government run system is like termites eating at the foundation of a house, sooner or later it’s going to topple.  The termites of Medicare that have driven costs out of control are the overreaching, burdensome, layer upon layer, difficult to comply with, ridiculous, and often times, redundant documentation processes that CMS has put in place that force health care providers costs of compliance through the roof.  Let me give an analogy of how this is true. Let’s look at a make believe scenario that emphasizes a government controlled bureaucratic process.  In reality, it’s an analogy of what is really happening in health care today.  Perhaps not everyone understands the complexities of healthcare so the analogy is presented in an everyday easy to understand context. 
Pretend you went to the grocery store to buy a loaf of bread.  There’s something a little different about this purchase process though.  The government actually is going to pay for your loaf of bread under your bread insurance benefit.  After all, you pay a few cents every month for this benefit.  You want the loaf of bread and you desperately need it in order to prepare a sandwich for your child’s lunch; because the school that your child attends, wants all the children to bring lunch to school tomorrow.  They are all taking a field trip and need to bring their own lunch.  Now, let’s just pretend that, along with paying for the bread,  the federal government has created a system that manages the acquisition,  distribution process, and reimbursement of that loaf of bread that you need.

You also notice that the loaf of bread that you bought for $3.00 before you had this benefit is now going to cost the government $75.00. You’re amazed that the cost of bread has literally skyrocketed since the government started buying it and your very puzzled by that but you’ll soon find out why.
You’re at the store ready buy the bread but before you can get it, the government requires the store to have a certificate from the teacher at the school detailing specifically why you need the bread.  Okay, you’re thinking,  perhaps a reasonable requirement since the store really can’t dispense the bread without some sort of justifiable reason as required by the government, after all, they are paying for the bread.  The store clerk tells you the certificate needed has twenty government requirements that must be met before the bread can be dispensed to you.
You leave the store and patiently wait while   the Clerk contacts the school about completing the document. The clerk is informed by the teacher that it can’t be done today because the school already has 500 forms to complete for other parents. The school also informs you that there is no one available to actually begin to work on the forms and that it is going to be necessary to hire an extra staff person, in addition to the 4 other staff people they’ve had to hire already, just to complete the forms for bread purchases.  Both you and the Clerk are advised that the field trip has been re-scheduled because it is not expected that the forms will be able to be completed for at least two weeks.  The Clerk is also told that when the form is completed it will be mailed or faxed back to them when it is ready You wait three weeks but still no form. The Clerk calls to tell you what’s going on and you make a phone call to the school; the school let’s you know they’ve received an additional 200 forms and have been very busy trying to catch up on bread form certificates but you are assured your form will be completed as soon as possible. Finally, after another week, the store clerk calls to advise you that they called the school again today and they were informed the certificate was finally mailed yesterday and they expect to receive it today.  You’re especially excited because you’ve needed bread for the family for several weeks now. 
You hurriedly go to the grocery store to buy your extremely overpriced loaf of bread but upon attempting to check out, you learn from the store clerk that you cannot complete your purchase because the staff person at the school responsible for completing the form forgot to answer one of the twenty questions. In order for you to get that loaf of bread you are going to have to wait until the form is corrected and bring it back.  Frustrated but desperately needing the bread, you decide that you are personally going to hand carry the form to the school and get it completed.  You have to do this because you were also told at the bread store that even though both the store and you know the answer to the one question out of twenty that was missed;  it is illegal for either you or the store to provide the answer.  The school employee who has direct responsibility for completing the form is the only person who can legally do it. 
You decide to go to the school yourself to meet with the ‘Official Bread Form Manager’ to get the form corrected so you can hurry back to the store before it closes to get your coveted loaf of bread, only to be informed that the bread form person working on your form is out of the office and will not be returning for 2 days.  Frustrated again, but being compliant with the process, you return in two days and are told the form was completed and faxed to the store this morning.  Finally, you think, I’m going to get my bread. You quickly return to the store to buy your bread but soon learn the frustration is barely getting started.  The store now advises you that you still can’t get your bread because there is other supporting documentation required before the store can actually sell you the bread.  You now learn that the school was also supposed to supply the store with hand written notes from your child’s file written by the teacher, substantiating the need for bread and validating proof that the form was completed in accordance with what was already documented in your child’s file.  Any variance in this and you will not be able to get your loaf of bread, or at the very least, you’re not going to get it anytime in the near future.
With your frustration increasing exponentially, you return to the school to discuss this oversight by the bread document manager and, to your good fortune, you are actually able to get the additional documentation needed faxed to the store.  You excitedly return to the store, convinced you’re getting bread today.  Your hopes are soon dashed when the store Clerk looks at your documents, and with sadness, tells you there will be no bread purchase today.  You’re crushed, ‘what’s wrong’ you ask?  The Clerk tells you she has looked at your documents and she sees that your child was provided a biscuit 6 months ago and since biscuits are actually a form of bread, you will not be getting your loaf of bread unless you can go back to the school and get them to document why you need the government to pay for a different type of bread than the biscuit that was provided 6 months ago.
Finally, after much hard work and effort on both your part and the store’s, all documentation needed by the government in order for them to pay for your bread is acquired. You return to the store for your bread, “sorry” you’re told by the equally frustrated store clerk. The dates on your bread form and the dates on your child’s hand written notes don’t match and that will need to be corrected by the school before you can be provided that much anticipated and now, extremely desperately needed loaf of bread.  It’s at that moment that you realize you also need some peanut butter and jelly in order to make sandwiches for your child and that you’d like to purchase that as well.  The P B & J is a benefit of your government bread plan as well since it’s needed in order to complete the sandwich. The store clerk tells you it may take awhile before you’ll be able to get the P B & J because there are two more forms that are going to be needed for that component of the sandwich.  You do however; eventually get your loaf of bread.
Exasperated about this entire ordeal, you question the store clerk about why they are charging the government so much for bread.  She patiently explains to you that the ordeal you’ve been through to get the documentation for your bread is only the tip of the iceberg.  You learn that the store is required to comply with all sorts of other government regulations to even be a distributor of bread.  You’re also surprised to learn that these additional requirements have cost the store so much money in order to be a bread distributor that it has forced the store to raise it’s bread prices for bread it sells to the government to the now unbelievable price of $75.00 per loaf. The store clerk tells you that the paperwork mess you have had to deal with is nothing compared to the total amount of documentation and regulations the store has to comply with. You won’t believe it she says, we’ve had to hire several more employees and our overhead has gone up so high just to comply with the governments regulations that it has caused the amount that we have to charge them for bread to go to $ 75.00 and the truth is, they keep adding regulations that’s going to cause us to have to charge even more.
You’re now beginning to get a clear picture of why the store has been forced to raise the price of government purchased bread from $3.00 to $75.00 a loaf.  It’s not money out of your pocket you think, because your not actually paying for the bread directly, the government is.  You know you pay a few pennies every month so you can have this benefit but you’ve also noticed lately that your taxes keep going up and up.  It’s really crazy too because the government has been complaining lately about how the costs of bread have gotten so out of control and the only way they can control costs is if they take over the purchase of all food products.  It’s a little ironic too because you have a friend that does not have the government provided bread benefit that you have and you just found out that your friend walked into the same store yesterday using cash and bought the same bread for only $3.00,  just like you used to do.  Something’s wrong here you’re thinking.  You even saw a report on TV yesterday about this very thing, how a TV reporter could actually walk into a store and buy the same loaf of bread for $3.00 that costs the government $ 75.00.  The TV reporter’s hit piece attempted to portray the bread store as a greedy provider of bread, overcharging the government for the same thing that could be purchased by anyone any day of the week for only $3.00.  “A huge rip-off of the government no doubt”,  the reporter declares.  You, knowing the real truth behind why the government is paying so much for bread,  are amazed that the TV reporter is so grossly uninformed.  Or, if in fact, he really does know the truth, why is he not telling the whole story.  Could it be that he’s just looking for headlines?  Does he really want the government to have complete control?  You give a huge sigh at this point and realize it’s all beginning to make sense, maybe government control of all food purchases is not a good idea after all.  Guess what?  And neither is government-controlled health care.
The above make believe scenario is just a small illustration of the bureaucratic entanglement created by anything controlled by government.  It’s especially illustrative of the Medicare reimbursement process.  Healthcare providers have been coping with the ever increasing documentation burden that Medicare continues to add to the already complex and difficult to comply with system government has created. But not everyone is covered by Medicare and fees private insurers pay for healthcare are equally as cost prohibitive.  Want to know why?  because most insurers follow governmental established eligibility guidelines and documentation requirements. The government Pied Piper of healthcare reimbursement procedures has set the standard that most insurers now follow.  The result, higher and higher costs for medical care. Physicians, Hospitals, Home Health Providers, Medical Equipment Providers and all other Healthcare Providers dealing with Medicare encounter governmental red tape on a daily basis.  Red tape that has literally caused the price of health care to reach unsustainable levels.  Since Medicare’s inception, and over the years since, Healthcare Providers from every sector of healthcare have had to add staff and unbelievably enormous overhead just to comply with the often ridiculous entanglement of regulations that must be met in order to service the Medicare patient.  All required in an effort to substantiate the medical need of the patient;  as though a Physician doesn’t really know what his patient needs. 
Do you remember in times past when a Physician could truly be a Physician and treat his or her patient in a manner that the Physician deemed appropriate? And for a lot less expense!  No longer is that true. Everything regarding healthcare and treatment of a Medicare beneficiary is rigidly regulated by the government, a government that has driven medical costs out of sight.  Something definitely has to change and for sure it is Not More Government Control!.

POSTED BY margaret watson ON Feb 04, 2010:

I love the photos of John on the site.He will always be admired and respected. Austen Watson was my husband and we were so proud to know John.

POSTED BY Norm Long ON Feb 04, 2010:

Senator: Our fears from your last national campaign have now come true. Obama and the Democrates elected on his coattail had no plan for America, only partisan payback.  The elections in MA, VA and NJ shows the honeymoon is over.  You have an opportunity to step up to the plate and provide leadership.  We need you to speak out even if it is unpopular. 

One area that needs reform is removing both the reality and the impression of elite’ism among elected officials. Propose in the Senate a bill that removes the elite status for elected officials on retirement pay, medical care and exemption from social security.  You can’t make laws for the rest of us that don’t affect elected officials.  This is just one credibility issue on which you can and must take a lead role.

Harry Truman once said, “Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb…that’s where the fruit is.”    -NL

POSTED BY Arthur ON Feb 04, 2010:

Greetings, friends.
My name is Arthur Sanchez and I would like to share my thoughts with you all. I hope they are well received.

What does one expect of our great Constitution when one follows it in the spirit of worldliness, including many of our leaders? Unfortunately, the truth is is that the vast majority of all Americans follow in this blind spirit. And unfortunately, this does not make one a “true” American.

For example, what are “gay rights”? This is similar to having “drug rights” for the drug addict. That is to say, that drug addicts should have the right by “law” to use drugs. The thought is ludicrous. Is it not? In the same sense, in no way should homosexuality be condoned, much less made legal. To do so is to slap morality in the face and to degrade civilization. But try to get a secular (worldly) mind to understand that.

Also, if the military is to hold a high standard of morality amongst our enlisted, then all homosexual behavior must be suppressed. “Homosexuals should be allowed to openly enlist, yes, but only with the ‘intent’ of overcoming their immoral dispositions. To say that homosexuality is not a serious illness is to speak a great lie. If Mr. Powell does not have this intention in mind when openly seeking to enlist homosexuals into the military, then he is greatly mistaken, is very blind to the truth. Do you know what the old proverb says, “Blind sheep following blind shepherds both fall into the ditch”.

Finally, stay strong and lovable, Mr. McCain, and always strive to keep it real. You may not always win great admirers or votes for doing what is truly right for our great nation, but you will always please God. May these words bring comfort to your heart.

Your Friend In The Great War,
Arthur

POSTED BY Lynn Lincoln-Reed ON Feb 09, 2010:

I am a 48 year old Independent whom voted for John McCain. He is a humble man through his life experiences, he has great respect for this country, never asking for a dime for his state. I met him during the 2008 campaign with my McCain-Lieberman Autism Awareness sign during his campaign which created 162 Million towards autism. He has the good will to work with people from all walks of life, which is what we needed.

POSTED BY James Thomas ON Feb 10, 2010:

Did the Senator make this comment???
“I take exception to folks saying that Bernanke, Obama, Reid and Pelosi are spending like drunken sailors.  When I was a drunken sailor, I quit spending when I ran out of money.”