Page 4 - Reedley Exponent 2-21-19 E-edition

The Reedley Exponent A4 Thursday, February 21, 2019 Editorial & Opinions
Serving “The World’s Fruit Basket” since 1891
A Mid Valley Publishing Newspaper
Founded March 26, 1891, in a two-story building on the corner of 11th and F streets, by A.S. Jones
Fred Hall — Publisher
In my OPINION
Jon Earnest — Editor / Sports Juanita Adame — Panorama Editor Budd Brockett — Editor Emeritus
QUOTE
“I don’t know half
of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.”
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973)
“The Fellowship of the Ring”
There is a quote which has stuck with me for a long, long time, but it seems even more apropos as time passes. The passage is com- monly attributed to Nikita Khrushchev in an address at a meeting with Western Ambassa- dors at the Polish embassy in Moscow on Nov. 18,1956. The words are chilling and, in light of today’s situation in America, seem extremely prescient. I’ve used it before, but today it re- ally fits the political climate.
Newsom appearance marks a rare visit by governor to Reedley area
Fred Hall
Making such a proclamation even more frightening, there are some who say Khruschev made mention of our educational system as part of that re-educating process which would make their form of government even more palatable for young people. They felt they could grow a revolution in this country from our very own. Since many of today’s leaders matriculated after 1970 and espouse some really strange thoughts, one is left to wonder.
We’ve all heard the old adage about “The road to hell being paved with good intentions.” The paving of that road is continuing to be extended every time a member of our ruling class dreams up a wondrous new “entitlement.” The very first stone was put in place almost 90 years ago during the Great Depression. Even the instigator of many early programs, Franklin D. Roosevelt, often said that he feared they could be a narcotic. We believe that time has shown that the president was frighteningly correct. The real culprit behind much of this appeared when Congress voted the government power to confiscate wealth derived from personal income from all Americans.
One area where the president got it terribly wrong was his authorization for public employees to organize. When public em- ployee unions go to negotiations over salaries and benefits it’s al- ways with people who are using taxpayer money and not their own. The result of that fiasco is obvious when government employees pay and benefits far exceed that which is paid to employees in the private sector. The tail is indeed wagging the dog! Thanks to the handiwork in negotiations by some bureaucrat the guy or gal who makes less is forced to pay the salary of someone who makes about 150 percent of what private sector makes. But, that’s a discussion for another day.
The 16th amendment was passed on July 3, 1909 by Congress and ratified on Feb. 3, 1913. Prior to that, in 1812 and 1816, there were short-lived collections of taxes but they had been to pay for wars. The action of Congress in the early 1900s, in our opinion, gave the government access to the fruit of the labor of everyone in America. If one ever had any doubt about that, simply chart the growth of the size of our government from that date forward. Trust me, it has grown exponentially.
We are currently enjoying the best economy in America in years. That doesn’t mean one should not be wary of those who ad- vocate every day to roll back everything President Donald Trump has done. Chief among the items on their wish list is the tax cut. Government types want their money back!
Leading bogeymen on the “most wanted” list of today’s crop of progressive Democrats are millionaires and billionaires. We have to be honest with ourselves and realize that even if government took every dime they had it would not improve our personal lives a whit. To the contrary, it would cost jobs for working Americans with the reallocation of capital.
AskMarioCuomo,thegovernorofNewYork. Theyhavetaxed the wealthy to such an extreme that they are exiting the state, leaving Mr. Cuomo and his liberal buddies at City Hall with a $3 billion deficit in the state’s budget. Where the hell has common sense gone? Gavin Newsom, are you listening?
Anyway, you should think this one over. After government takes all their money it would only leave a small percentage of the taxpaying universe to pay for your wasteful budgets. Those millionaires and billionaires have been the cash cows for years and government will have effectively eliminated them. Liberals will be satisfied but nothing will be gained.
Implementation of the “Green New Deal” hardly deserves mention once the cost analysis has been completed on the price tag. We simply don’t have enough money in our gross domestic product to pay for free medical care, free schooling all the way through college, a guaranteed job and a guaranteed salary if one chooses not to work. All of that is supposed to be accomplished within a decade while erasing our carbon footprint. The elimi- nation of all fossil fuel-powered vehicles including cars, trucks, airplanes and ships is all that will be required! Not to worry, they will be replaced by electrical vehicles, whether you like it or not!
Although we’ve co-mingled a lot of different thoughts in today’s column, the one thing they share in common is that they are in- dicative of our country’s liberal slouch to the left. Everything we have talked about shows that our liberal political class continues an expedited shift toward the basic elements of socialism. Cooler minds and clearer thoughts are going to have to prevail which can help return this national toward more traditional Americanism.
Contrary to what mainstream media and the Democrat party will tell you, that statement is not racist, xenophobic, sexist or any of the slurs they thrown at us, calling conservatives various forms of “isms” It’s just plain old common sense, which is completely foreign to their agenda for the country.
Monday, Feb.
25 will feature two
notable events:
the annual flag-
lowering remem-
brance ceremony
for fallen Reedley Police Officer Ja- vier Bejar and an evening Town Hall on economic development in the city. The 8:30 a.m. remembrance in front of the police department pays tribute to Bejar, tragically killed by gunfire in a 2010 search warrant standoff in Minkler. He is the only RPD officer to die in the line of duty in the history of the department.
The 6 p.m. Town Hall, titled “Why Don’t We Have a Target Yet?,” an- swers questions about Reedley’s busi- ness climate.
•••
If it wasn’t harrowing enough to re-
alize I recently turned 60, I also learned on Feb. 19 that I’m (barely) older than Clyde, Reedley College’s familiar Tiger statue at the east side of the campus next to the administration offices. The campus held a celebration at 11:20 a.m. on the 19th, the very moment when in 1959 the then-$2,000 statue was un- veiled. Cake, refreshments, and re- membrances were shared by those in attendance this time.
Happy birthday, Clyde!
It came suddenly and swiftly. Less than 16 hours after receiving word last week, the Kings Canyon Unified School District — in particu- lar, Riverview K-8 School in Parlier — was welcoming the sitting gover- nor of California.
Gavin Newsom, not even two months in office, walked into the fifth grade classroom at Riverview and greeted young students and faculty who 24 hours earlier never expected to be talking and listening to the most powerful political figure in the state. But there was Newsom, signing his first bill as governor in- to law providing emergency money and priority to take steps toward safe drinking water. Riverview was “ground zero” in this political ac- tion, having gone more than a year without adequately safe drinking water.
It was a strange bit of irony, see- ing a Democratic governor visiting a region that tends to lean conser- vative in an ever-shading blue state. But Newsom’s appearance and sign- ing the bill reflected the importance of taking on the issue of unsafe drinking water. Of greater impor- tance is that Newsom doesn’t seem to be taking the San Joaquin Valley for granted.
Here’s hoping the Valley, and Fresno County in particular, con- tinues to catch the attention of the governor on important issues for the next four years.
•••
There won’t be any gubernatorial
visits to the area this week but there will be plenty going on the remain- der of February. On Feb. 20, city and business leaders participated in the groundbreaking for the new United Health Center medical facility at the northeast corner of Manning and But- tonwillow avenues. The building will anchor a business and commercial area in the first of likely several eco- nomic developments in the area in the coming year.
On Saturday, Feb. 23, the Greater Reedley Chamber of Commerce will hold its annual Awards Gala at Reed- ley College and honor multiple peo- ple and businesses including Danny Jimenez as Citizen of the Year and the late Pam Melville as 20190 Hall of Fame inductee. Hopefully you have your tickets; if not check with the chamber (638-3548) to see if any still are available. The event figures to be another hit, with plenty of good music and a “Reedley Beach Party” theme.
A good segment of the communi- ty — the Immanuel Schools commu- nity—maybeinFresnoat4p.m.on Saturday, Feb. 23, for what’s become an annual late-winter tradition — the Central Section boys basketball fi- nals. The Eagles already have pulled out two thrilling playoff victories, and were only a home victory over North Bakersfield on Feb. 20 from a spot in the Division 3 championship game. That would mark the sixth straight
finals appearance (fourth in Division 3) for Immanuel, which has captured the past five titles.
“We will take the United States without
firing a shot. We will bury you! We can’t expect the American people to jump from capitalism to communism, but we can assist the elected leaders in giving them small does of socialism, until they awaken one day to find that they have communism. We do not have to invade the United States, we will destroy you from within.”
Jon Earnest
But, as always, that’s only one man’s opinion.
Free app shows what Medicare covers
By Greg Dill
Guest columnist
Let’s say you go for your annual physical and your doctor recommends that you get a hearing and bal- ance test. Or an electrocar- diogram (EKG). Or a Hepa- titis B screening.
Does your Original Medicare cover these ser- vices? Now there’s a quick way to find out, using your smartphone or tablet.
It’s Medicare’s new “What’s Covered” app and it’s free. You can use the app right there in the doc- tor’s office, hospital, or anywhere else you use your phone or tablet.
The app displays gen- eral cost, coverage and eli- gibility details for medical items and services covered by Medicare Part A and Part B. You can search or browse to learn what’s cov- ered and not covered; how and when to get covered benefits; and basic cost in- formation.
You can also get a list of Medicare-covered preven- tive health services, like flu shots and cancer and diabe- tes screenings.
“What’s Covered” is available through the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Search for “What’s covered” or “Medicare” and down- load the app to your phone. Once “What’s Covered” is installed, you can use it to get reliable Medicare in- formation even when you don’t have access to your computer.
“What’s Covered” is Medicare’s first app. It was created to meet the needs of the growing population of people with Medicare. That population is projected to increase from nearly 56 million beneficiaries in 2016 to more than 80 million ben- eficiaries in 2030 – almost 50 percent.
About two-thirds of Medicare beneficiaries use the Internet daily or almost daily, and questions about what Medicare covers are some of the most frequent inquiries that my agency, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, re- ceives.
There are about 15 mil- lion page views annually for coverage-related content on Medicare.gov and 1-800 MEDICARE receives more than 3 million coverage-re- lated calls each year.
If you’re reading this on your mobile device, you can get the app directly from the Apple App Store or
Other Opinions
Google Play buttons below: Google Play: https:// play.google.com/store/apps/ details?id=gov.medicare.
coverage,
Apple App Store:
https://itunes.apple.com/ us/app/whats-covered/ id1444143600?mt=8.
Easy access to accurate, reliable Medicare coverage information is just one new feature of the eMedicare initiative, launched in 2018 to empower beneficiaries with cost and quality infor- mation. Other tools in the eMedicare suite include:
• Enhanced interac- tive online decision sup- port to help people better understand and evaluate their Medicare coverage options and costs between Medicare and Medicare Advantage (https://www. medicare.gov/medicarecov- erageoptions/).
• A new online service that lets people quickly see how different coverage choices will affect their es- timated out-of-pocket costs (https://www.medicare.gov/ oopc/).
• New price transparen- cy tools that let consumers compare the national aver- age costs of certain surgi-
cal procedures between settings, so people can see what they’ll pay for pro- cedures done in a hospital outpatient department ver- sus an ambulatory surgical center (https://www.medi- care.gov/procedure-price- lookup/).
• A new webchat option in the Medicare Plan Finder (https://www.medicare.gov/ find-a-plan/questions/home. aspx).
• New easy-to-use sur- veys across Medicare.gov so consumers can continue to tell us what they want.
The eMedicare initia- tive expands and improves on current consumer ser- vice options. People with Medicare will continue to have access to paper copies of the “Medicare & You” handbook and Medicare Summary Notices.
And by the way, Medi- care does indeed cover hearing and balance tests, EKGs, and Hepatitis B screenings.
Greg Dill is Medicare’s regional administrator for Arizona, California, Nevada, Hawaii, and the Pacific Ter- ritories. You can always get answers to your Medi- care questions by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800- 633-4227).
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