CIA / IHS (Intelligence and Indians)

I'm thinking that someone ought to call the Obama/Holder bluff (it either is or it isn't but at least then we'd know for sure) by writing and submitting a bill which would call for the dissolution of the CIA. Since the President and Attorney General are hell bent on destroying the CIA why not make it a clean break? Why go through all the agony of trials and letting terrorists pick off agents one by one? If they are going to do it, just do it.

More on this later, but equally important this evening is:

The Indian Health Service. If ever there were a perfect example of government vs private health services this is it. American Indians have received federally funded care via treaties, court cases and acts passed by Congress for decades. Interestingly enough they fall into two categories. The first is federally provided hospitals, doctors, etc. while the second gives the money and the tribes provide their own systems and the differences are just what you would expect.

The IHS spends about $2100 per person about on a par with many of the top 20 industrialized nations (but less than the average of $6000 in the U.S.) and Obama points to them with pride. However their incidence of shortfall indicates that infant mortality is 1.4 times higher, hiv/aids 30% higher, heart disease 1.2 times higher, liver and bowel diseases twice as high and diabetes 4 times as high as the second with life expectancy 4 years less than the U.S. average.

Rural Indians are even worse with 20% more diabetes,heart disease 12% higher and lung cancer 67% higher. The above figures are from Montana and Wyoming while a recent Harvard study showed a South Dakota reservation with life expectancy of 58 years vs U.S. at 77 years.

Personal horror stories are just that with a 5 year old dying of cancer when diagnosed with depression causing stomachaches and "don't get sick after June" because that's when the money runs out. Sen. Baucus (D.Mont) declared a "health state of emergency" for one Montana reservation.

In the second instance it is enough better with the Chippewa Cree Band opting to provide their own health care with funding from the IHS. There are still problems, but they run their own hospital with health education programs and the Indian communities are convinced that the new health care plan would indeed eliminate any services for the "nation's first people."

And, as we all know, it wouldn't be the first time a treaty with the American Indian has been broken by the American government. This time they are far ahead of us in being able to demonstrate how inept the government is at running businesses. Why open up 1/7 of the economy to more of the same?

Have a good Sunday--
God bless..............